My name is Leo Shanti Hegde, I use he and they pronouns, and I am excited to share that I’m APIENC’s newest community organizer! I’m a second-generation Indian American who grew up in Edison, New Jersey. I attended college on the ancestral lands of the Cherokee and Shawnee people in Nashville, Tennessee, and since 2019
Dear APIENC community, This year, our community has faced crisis after crisis. We’ve been targeted by white supremacist attacks, denied access to gender-affirming healthcare, isolated through the COVID-19 pandemic and so much more. So many trans and queer APIs have been made to feel helpless. While many of us may be feeling low on charge,
“What would you do in a world where compassion, hope, or liberation doesn’t exist?How would you teach someone about it?” This prompt was etched into my memories from a creative writing opportunity in 2018. Looking back, I would have explained the work and community of APIENC. From the past six years of being in the
MAY 2021 | DOROTHY TANG Dorothy Tang (they/them) joined APIENC last year and is on the Dragon Fruit Podcast production and dissemination teams and is a member of the Trans Justice Committee. Dorothy, who identifies as 2nd generation Teochew/Chinese-Vietnamese and non-binary, first found APIENC last summer when they were seeking out a community of other
Dear Community, At one of my first supervisions as a Summer Intern in 2013, Monna turned to me and asked, “why does it feel so difficult for you to ask for help?” I stared at her blankly, the grey partitions of the cubicle closing in on me. Why does it feel difficult?! How could asking
MAR 2021 | SANGEETA SARKAR Sangeeta (they/them) identifies as a queer non binary South Asian femme. They were part of the 2020 LEX (Queer Leadership Exchange) cohort and are currently leading an Asking for Help workshop series for Trans and Queer South Asian folks. They are a part of APIENC because they feel like they
Dear APIENC Community, Since 2017, APIENC has been guided by a set of priorities and directions crafted by APIENC staff in order to help the organization make decisions about where to focus our power and grow our work. In the time after the 2016 election, this framework felt critical—there were so many issues to focus
