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
Wes: Tattoo Artist
Wes is a tattoo artist living in New Orleans, Louisiana, working at Hell or High Water Tattoo. Growing up in Kansas he relied heavily on the library and a mentor to learn about painting, often bringing home stacks of books he’d study instead of his schoolwork. He decided to devote his life to “low-brow” art after realizing how accessible, practical and human it felt. Once getting written up for drawing on schoolmates in sharpie, he now gets to meet people from all over the world and help them tell their stories. Like many American Roma he learned about his heritage in parcels of tales passed down from family members, grasping at what shreds of culture were left after a couple generations of assimilation. Tattooing can be a method of memory storage and often be a gender or body-affirming practice. As a trans man he feels privileged to provide this service to people around him.
You can follow him on Instagram at @wesdoestattoos
Our Romani crush this week is Gonzo Phoenix! You can follow them at @gonzo_phoenix.makeup and @shuvanicandleco.
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
We started a Ko-fi fundraiser to help us expand. Our goal is to release 2 episodes a month, create video content, like an advice column and other treats, and we would also like to register as a nonprofit 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 Jess on Instagram @jezmina.vonthiele, and you can find Jess’ 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 Corona Del Mar, CA, on Instagram @romaniholistic
Romanistan is hosted by Jessica Reidy and Paulina Verminski
Conceived of by Paulina Verminski
Edited by Cherub
With Music by Viktor Pachas
And Artwork by Elijah Vardo