Ep 5: 'When the Elephants Dance' & 'Martyr!' with Lisa Ang

In today's episode, Colin sits down with his dear colleague, comrade, friend, and Pedagogical Sibling, Professor Lisa Ang, to discuss two groundbreaking novels in the realm of Asian American and post-colonial literature. Tess Uriza Holthe's novel, When the Elephants Dance (2002) is a powerful encounter with the forces ofJapanese and U.S. imperialism--and resistance to them--in the Philippines during WWII, expressed via the lenses of multiple dynamic narrators. Martyr! (2024) by poet and writer, Kaveh Akbar, follows the journey of a queer, Muslim, Iranian American artist, searching for meaning and possibility in the paths of living and/or dying. Colin and Lisa met last summer when he taught multiple 'Intro to Ethnic Studies' Courses at Diablo Valley College, and this veteran Community College Educator played a powerful role in having his back as he stumbled into making a tough transition from secondary/HS, into post-secondary and higher education. As someone who taught high school English for a decade, Colin is excited to welcome his first guest who is an Instructor of English Composition and Literature to The Paper Plane: a podcast that centers the act of reading, studying others’ writing, and making meaning in community, as we do so. 

Lisa Ang (she/her/siya) is a Pilipinx-American writer, scholar, and professor from the East Bay. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in English, she worked at the Mayor’s Office of San Francisco for eight years, first as liaison to the APA community, then as Deputy Communications Director. She earned her M.A. in English Literature from SF State and taught writing there, as well as at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg. Since 2017, she has taught Asian American Literature, African American Literature, The Graphic Novel as Literature, Poetry Writing, Critical Thinking, and other writing and literature classes at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill. Professor Ang is currently on sabbatical to conduct research on Asian American literature and media and to write her first formal poetry collection.

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Colin Masashi Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, and asks them about a book(s) that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to operate as a counter-narrative.

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...