Romanistan
The authors of Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling present: Romanistan! Do you love rebels? Do you want to live in a place where outcasts shine their brightest? Welcome to Romanistan! We're your friendly neighborhood Gypsies, celebrating Romani identity and outcast culture, and practicing good diplomatic relations with other marginalized communities.
We love the rebels who are living their truth, even if it clashes with tradition. We also love tradition and honoring our roots. This podcast is for everyone who loves and supports Roma & related groups, and anyone who feels like a misfit and wants to uplift others to create a beautiful community.
We feature pioneers in culture, fashion, art, literature, music, activism, cuisine, and everything good. We adore the intersections of gender, sexuality, spirituality, ability, and identity. We cover all topics, from the difficult to the glorious. Let's sit crooked and talk straight.
Hosted by Paulina Stevens and Jezmina Von Thiele. We reclaim the slur Gypsy, but if you aren’t Romani, we prefer you don't use it. xoxo.
P.S. The Romani people are a diasporic ethnic group originally from northwest India, circa the 10th century. Now, Roma live all over the globe, and due to centuries of oppression, slavery, genocide, and other atrocities, Roma are still fighting for basic human rights. We seek to raise awareness of who Roma are, and highlight Romani resilience, creativity, & culture.
Romanistan
Romani Language with Erik Decker
It’s time to talk chib! We spoke with Erik Decker, our Romani language teacher, about all things language.
Erik Decker is a Romani language teacher of Roma and Sinti origin and Director of the Branislava “Papùsha” Weiss Romani Language Online School, a project of the World Roma Federation (WRF) Heritage and Cultural Institute. He taught International Baccalaureate language courses in Spanish and French, as well as English as a New Language, in Indianapolis Public Schools from 2019 through 2023 and taught English Language Communication, Human Rights, and Cultural Studies at George Coșbuc [Jòr-jay Koh’sh-bewk] National Bilingual College in Bucharest, Romania from 2013 through 2019. Recently he accepted a position as a teacher at an international school in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, French, and Spanish and a Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Hamline University in 2013 and a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Indianapolis in 2022. His interests include heritage language learner education, heritage language preservation and revitalization, translanguaging, plurilingualism, teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling (TPRS), and language attitudes and language ideologies.
The Romani crushes this episode are professor Roxana Marin and our beloved poet, grandmother of Romani literature, Papusza (Papùśa).
If you want to join Erik’s class through The World Roma Federation, go to wrf-gov.org/learn-romani .
Thank you for listening to Romanistan podcast.
You can find us on Instagram @romanistanpodcast, and on Facebook under the same name, and on Twitter @romanistanpod. Join our Patreon for extra content.
We started a Ko-fi fundraiser to help us grow. Our goal is to release more episodes more often, and we would eventually like to expand so we can produce content by other Romani & Sinti creators. We are hoping to cover production costs, like paying for our hosting site, website, editing and producing, and all the rest. We would love it if you could contribute and spread the word. The link, Ko-fi.com/romanistan, is in our bio on Instagram, and will be in the show notes
Please rate, review, and subscribe. It helps us so much.
If you would like to advertise with us, email us at romanistanpodcast@gmail.com. We offer sliding-scale for Romani, Sinti & related businesses, so reach out!
You can find Jez on Instagram @jezmina.vonthiele, and on Twitter, TikTok, and Patreon, and you can find Jez’s vintage and curiosities shop Evil Eye Edit on Instagram @evileyeedit & Etsy.
You can find Paulina Verminski on Instagram @_paulina_v_ and at https://romaniholistic.com/. Follow Paulina’s store, Romani Holistic, in Newport Beach, CA, on Instagram @romaniholistic
Romanistan is hosted by Jessica Reidy/Jezmina Von Thiele and Paulina Verminski
Conceived of by Paulina Verminski
Edited by Cherub
With Music by Viktor Pachas
And Artwork by Elijah Vardo