Sugar Nutmeg

Miko talks to us about how the vast forests and wide, empty roads of Suriname give rise to ghost stories, the reasons the ghosts in his paintings take classical Greek poses or animalistic positions, the fantasy of prosperity and whitewashing of historical paintings, how cultural signifiers in his paintings carry double meanings, and feeling alienated from art as a child. Plus, we ponder the prevalence of white clothing on ghosts and discuss the specific locations of ghosts in Indonesian folklore. To be enjoyed with a bowl of steaming hot saoto soup! -- Miko Veldkamp is a Suriname-born Dutch-Indonesian painter based in NYC. Combining elements of his personal life with folklore and ancestral themes, his works range from surreal landscapes to pseudo self-portraits. His paintings offer brightly layered narratives on identity, memory, space, and the multiplicity of perspectives rooted in his fluid identity and cross-cultural experiences. Miko has a BFA in video and sculpture from the Willem de Kooning Academie in Rotterdam and an MFA from Hunter College in New York. He was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and was awarded the Hodder Fellowship of Princeton University. His work has been exhibited around the world in group and solo exhibitions in Seoul, London, and New York. www.mikoveldkamp.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Nasrikah and Okui Lala talk to us about their collaboration project, Rasa and Asa, a short film, shot during the height of pandemic via online video platform, capturing the activities and daily meetings of the PERTIMIG members. -- Okui Lala (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) is an artist and cultural worker. Her practice spans from video and performance to community engagement. Okui’s work explores themes of identities, diaspora and belonging through the performances of domestic acts or vocational labor. She also facilitates visual workshops with nonprofit organizations and social groups that work with various communities. Past presentations include Seoul Mediacity Biennale (2023), Singapore Biennale (2019), Festival/ Tokyo (Japan, 2019), Para Site (Hong Kong, 2018) and National Art Gallery (Malaysia, 2017). Nasrikah is an Indonesian migrant worker who has been living in Malaysia since 1997. She is the founding member and coordinator for PERTIMIG Malaysia (Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers Association). Her advocacy focused on campaigning for migrant domestic workers to be treated with the same respect, status and access to justice as workers. Nasrikah is also a poet and coordinator for arts and cultural events. PERTIMIG is an independent organization fighting for the rights of migrant domestic workers. PERTIMIG’s vision is to advocate for decent work and welfare for the domestic workers and their families in Malaysia. At this moment, PERTIMIG has more than 200 members and is an affiliate of International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF). Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34_S8CT7FbQ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Nasrikah and Okui Lala talk to us about their collaboration project, Rasa and Asa, a short film, shot during the height of pandemic via online video platform, capturing the activities and daily meetings of the PERTIMIG members. -- Okui Lala (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) is an artist and cultural worker. Her practice spans from video and performance to community engagement. Okui’s work explores themes of identities, diaspora and belonging through the performances of domestic acts or vocational labor. She also facilitates visual workshops with nonprofit organizations and social groups that work with various communities. Past presentations include Seoul Mediacity Biennale (2023), Singapore Biennale (2019), Festival/ Tokyo (Japan, 2019), Para Site (Hong Kong, 2018) and National Art Gallery (Malaysia, 2017). Nasrikah is an Indonesian migrant worker who has been living in Malaysia since 1997. She is the founding member and coordinator for PERTIMIG Malaysia (Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers Association). Her advocacy focused on campaigning for migrant domestic workers to be treated with the same respect, status and access to justice as workers. Nasrikah is also a poet and coordinator for arts and cultural events. PERTIMIG is an independent organization fighting for the rights of migrant domestic workers. PERTIMIG’s vision is to advocate for decent work and welfare for the domestic workers and their families in Malaysia. At this moment, PERTIMIG has more than 200 members and is an affiliate of International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF). Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34_S8CT7FbQ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Tao talks to us about urban geography and morphology in Southeast Asia. We discuss historic preservation and patterns of heritage-making in Southeast Asia, touristification, image-making and nationalist architecture, the evolution of neighborhoods and their communities as cities get reinvented, and whether Chinatowns in Southeast Asia are "disappearing and dying" as they are in Western countries. To be enjoyed with extra spicy Indonesian food or super sour Thai food with lots & lots of lime! -- Napong Tao Rugkhapan is a geographer of urban planning interested in the geographic implications of planning intervention. In particular, he focuses on the technopolitics of urban design and planning, which he defines as the political contestations over knowledge-laden, spatial instruments – maps, zoning, building codes, architectural guidelines. The goal of is work is to expose their ideological, political underpinnings that legitimate planning intervention. Tao's other research interests include comparative urban theory; cross-context circulation of planning ideas; gentrification and inner-city revitalization; and urban architectural heritage, specifically in historic cities in urban Southeast Asia. NTRS --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Tao talks to us about urban geography and morphology in Southeast Asia. We discuss historic preservation and patterns of heritage-making in Southeast Asia, touristification, image-making and nationalist architecture, the evolution of neighborhoods and their communities as cities get reinvented, and whether Chinatowns in Southeast Asia are "disappearing and dying" as they are in Western countries. To be enjoyed with extra spicy Indonesian food or super sour Thai food with lots & lots of lime! -- Napong Tao Rugkhapan is a geographer of urban planning interested in the geographic implications of planning intervention. In particular, he focuses on the technopolitics of urban design and planning, which he defines as the political contestations over knowledge-laden, spatial instruments – maps, zoning, building codes, architectural guidelines. The goal of is work is to expose their ideological, political underpinnings that legitimate planning intervention. Tao's other research interests include comparative urban theory; cross-context circulation of planning ideas; gentrification and inner-city revitalization; and urban architectural heritage, specifically in historic cities in urban Southeast Asia. NTRS --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Inspired by her grandfather, who followed the stars to navigate the seas and landscape of Bangka, Janette shares the colorful journey of her astrophysics career. She talks to us about black holes, massive stars, supernova explosions, and how reverse culture shock can almost derail you from your career. Optional: episode to be enjoyed with a plate of pempek. -- Janette Suherli is a PhD student at the University of Manitoba, Canada, working with Dr. Samar Safi-Harb in the eXtreme Astrophysics Group. Her doctoral research focuses on utilizing integral field spectroscopy for supernova remnants research in optical wavelength, particularly on Central Compact Objects (CCOs) and Intermediate-Mass Black Holes. Aside from doing research, she writes for Astrobites and volunteers at the Lockhart Planetarium, Winnipeg. She is a co-organizer for the Open Cultural Astronomy Forum and currently serves as the chair of the Graduate Student Committee at the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA). Janette completed her Bachelor in Astronomy at Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia and her Master’s in Astronomy at Wesleyan University, U.S.A., where she was also a Fulbright Fellow. She has also conducted research internships at the European Southern Observatory in Chile and the Australian Astronomical Observatory in Australia, in addition to her former position as Assistant Astronomer at the Bosscha Observatory in Indonesia. www.jsuherli.github.io --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Damar talks to us about his research on supernatural phenomena. We discuss different elements and even marketing methods used by dukun in Indonesia. Plus, paranormal sensitivities, indigo people, and Ruth's untapped powers. Everything is magic is Southeast Asia. -- Andamar Pradipta obtained his bachelor’s degree in Social Anthropology from Universitas Indonesia. He then continued his studies at Central European University in Hungary, and graduated with an M.A. in Sociology and Social Anthropology in 2016. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan. His research interests include psychology, marketing, corporate culture, and supernatural phenomena. Due to his anthropological background, he has a strong fascination with qualitative research which he actively works on and develops at the Indonesia International Institute for Life-Sciences, where he also teaches. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Elliott talks to us about the Rohingya political situation amidst dislocation and mass violence, especially after the coup in Myanmar, and how R-Coin is a new initiative helping stateless Rohingya diaspora in Malaysia. --- Elliott Prasse-Freeman is a political anthropologist studying social movements, violence, and symbolic culture in Burma. As part of a related ongoing project on the Rohingya genocide, he is exploring novel forms of personhood and conceptions of the political as they are mediated by and generated through new technologies such as blockchain, biometric scanners, and AI. He received his PhD from the Department of Anthropology at Yale University and his Bachelors and Masters from Harvard University. He has conducted long-term fieldwork in Myanmar, and currently teaches sociology and anthropology at the National University of Singapore. He has a book, titled Rights Refused: Grassroots Activism and State Violence in Myanmar (Stanford University Press) on Burmese subaltern political thought as adduced from an extended ethnography of activism and contentious politics in the country's semi-authoritarian setting. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Emy talks to us about disinformation challenges in Southeast Asia and its evolving relationship with democracy, civil society participation, and digital maturity. To be enjoyed with a hearty bowl of Sinigang! Emy Ruth Gianan is a full-time professor teaching classes on public policy, governance, and development economics at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila. Alongside teaching, she work as Chief of Internal Relations Services of the university’s Communication Management Office to harmonize policies and processes centered on digital communications. She also undertakes research endeavors focused on disinformation trends across Southeast Asia and its impact on democratization; civil society participation; digital communication processes; and the nexus of decentralization and regionalism efforts. Her current research endeavor is focused on comparative disinformation challenges in Southeast Asia and its evolving relationship with democracy and digital transformation. She is also host of the Taglish podcast Extra Notes. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Ernst and Veronika talk to us about their process of composing Expedition Content, the augmented sound piece composed from 37 hours of recordings which document the encounter between members of the Harvard Peabody Expedition, particularly Michael Rockefeller of the Rockefeller family, and the Hubula people of West Papua, at the time Nederlands New Guinea. The piece reflects on visual anthropology, the lives of the Hubula and of Michael, and the ongoing history of colonialism and occupation in West Papua. “Expedition Content” premiered at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival and has been screened at Cinéma du Réel at the Centre Pompidou Paris, the Art of the Real, Lincoln Center New York, and Camden international Film Festival. Veronika Kusumaryati is a social anthropologist and artist working on the issues of Indigenous politics, conflict and violence, race/racism, and digital media. The geographic focus of her research is Indonesia, primarily West Papua, a self-identifying term referring to Indonesia’s easternmost provinces of Papua and West Papua, where she has conducted extensive fieldwork since 2012. She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology with a secondary field in film and visual studies from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Asian Studies Program at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University during the 2020-2021 academic year. Her writings have been published in journals, such as Comparative Studies in Society and History and Critical Asian Studies. She is an incoming assistant professor in anthropology and international studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison starting in the spring of 2023. www.veronikakusumaryati.wordpress.com Ernst Karel works with sound, including electroacoustic music, experimental nonfiction sound works for multichannel installation and performance, image-sound collaboration, and postproduction sound for nonfiction vilm, with an emphasis on observational cinema. Lately he works around the practice of actuality/location recording (or 'fields [plural] recording') and composing with those recordings, with recent projects also taking up archival location recordings. Sound projections have been presented at Sonic Acts, Amsterdam; Oboro, Montreal; EMPAC, Troy NY; Arsenal, Berlin; and the 2014 Whitney Biennial. Sound installations in collaboration with Helen Mirra have been exhibited at the Gardner Museum, Boston; Culturgest, Lisbon; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Audiorama, Stockholm; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; and in the 2012 Sao Paulo Bienal. Audio-video collaborations include Expedition Content (2020, with Veronika Kusumaryati), Ah humanity! (2015, with Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel) and Single Stream (2014, with Toby Lee and Pawel Wojtasik). CDs of his often collaborative work, including with the electroacoustic duo EKG, have been released on and/OAR, Another Timbre, Cathnor, Gruenrekorder, Locust, Sedimental, and Sshpuma record labels, and a duo with Bhob Rainey is forthcoming on Erstwhile. From 2006 until 2017 he managed the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard University, doing postproduction sound for vilms including Sweetgrass, The Iron Ministry, Manakamana, and Leviathan. He has taught audio recording and composition through the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard (through 2021), the Center for Experimental Ethnography at Penn (2019), and the Department of Film & Media at UC Berkeley (2022). www.ek.klingt.org --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Ruth and Alexandra often find themselves furious about foreigners coming to the "exotic" islands of Indonesia and using the archipelago as a pretty background for their Instagram photos or YouTube vlogs. With Fred Clapp, they share stories of treading responsibly on foreign lands, deromanticizing distant locales, and finding a home halfway across the world. Plus, feline hierarchies, protesting babi guling, practical forms of censorship in Vietnam, exporting culture, and the constant cycle of imperialism. Maybe make yourself some Mexican food to accompany this episode! Frederic Clapp is a Vietnam-based game designer and cat enthusiast originally from Mexico City. He is passionate about interactive narratives and how game systems provide a good model for understanding the systems governing our world. His passion for designing games and interactive narratives took him to Ho Chi Minh City, where he has been living for the last 5 years. There, he spends his time trying new food and writing about cats he meets in his travels around Vietnam and Southeast Asia. IG: @CatsofSEA --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Alexandra is in CDMX shooting a film and Ruth is off to Bali to reunite with her boyfriend. We recorded this episode last month to reflect on borders, passports, visas, Indonesian cartels, “forbidden areas” and the Forbidden Fruit. Is this the episode in which we get cancelled? As always, let’s feast and find out. Don't forget to tip: https://anchor.fm/sugar-nutmeg/support And leave us a review: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sugar-nutmeg/id1534635329 www.sugarnutmeg.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Pailin Wedel talks to us about her Emmy-winning, Netflix-acquired film, Hope Frozen, and her work with Al Jazeera across Southeast Asia. We discuss death, the afterlife, the ecosystem of documentary filmmaking and journalistic work in Southeast Asia, and the power of radical hope. -- Pailin Wedel is a journalist and filmmaker best known for directing and producing the documentary Hope Frozen, which started streaming on Netflix in 2020, and is first Thai film to win an International Emmy. It screened at more than twenty festivals worldwide and won Best International Feature at HotDocs in Toronto and Best Documentary Feature at the San Antonio Independent Film Festival, among many other awards. Other than her documentary work, she regularly reports/directs reportage films for Al Jazeera English’s current affairs program 101 East, including a documentary series on Thailand's medical tourism industry and the drug trade that passes through Myanmar. Pailin grew up in Asia and began her career in 2004 as a photojournalist for an American newspaper. She quickly fell in love with video narratives and taught herself how to film video. In her spare time, Pailin teaches short courses on video and mobile journalism. Previously, she worked for multiple publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, and Associated Press. With her husband, she also founded 2050 Productions, a Bangkok-based documentary team, in 2016. www.pailinwedel.com 2050 Productions IG: @pailiner --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Thi My Lien Nguyen talks to us about Viet-Lao identity, the Vietnamese diaspora in Switzerland versus France, Germany, and the U.S., the types of dishes she cooks to honor the dead, working with folklore and foodways, and starting Mili's Supper Club. Plus, Swiss cheese, chocolate cake, the different funeral processions in Indonesia, and more! Thi My Lien Nguyen is a Swiss-Vietnamese lens-based artist, supper club host, and food artist working and located in Winterthur, Switzerland. Her image-making practice, often using ethnographic methods, are focused on issues of identity, migration, diasporas and the communities. She questions mechanisms dynamics and processes within families and trans-cultural communities. Her interest lies between the fine line of documentary and photographic art. She focused her work on issues of identity, migration, diasporas, and the communities. Her projects include 'Mời, mời,' in which she interprets the diverse experiences of secondas and secondos, and 'Hiếu thảo – With love and respect,' in which she connects the past & present of navigating and negotiating Vietnamese heritage and Swiss culture with the maternal lineage of her family. www.myliennguyen.ch IG: @myliennguyen Twitter: @myliennguyen www.milissupperclub.ch IG: @milissupperclub --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Sim Chi Yin walks us through her ongoing project "One Day We'll Remember": uncovering family secrets, visiting ancestral villages, collecting artefacts and archival materials, and making counter archives with family members and locals from her grandfather's neighborhood in Gaoshang after he was deported from British Malaya for his anti-colonial resistance against the British occupying forces. She raises major topics such as what are the things we choose to remember and things we choose to forget in relation to trauma and malu, and the different ways wars have been documented in Southeast Asia. She also talks to us about her artistic drive and artistic direction. *In our first in-person episode, Alexandra had a chance to visit and interview Chiyin at her studio in Brooklyn, New York. Sim Chi Yin is an artist from Singapore, currently based between Brooklyn and Berlin. For the first decade of her multi-faceted career, she was a print journalist, foreign correspondent, and photographer. She was commissioned as the Nobel Peace Prize photographer in 2017 to make work about its winner, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. After quitting her job as foreign correspondent, she became an independent visual practitioner. She combines rigorous research with intimate storytelling, she pursues self-directed projects in Asia. Her work explores history, memory, and migration and its consequences. In particular, she dove into a lesser-known part of her own family history in "One Day We'll Understand," a project that revolves around her grandfather, Shen Huansheng, who was a left-wing journalist involved in the anti-colonial resistance movement in British Malaya. Through her careful documentation, in both film and photography, Sim considers the processes of remembrance and forgetting as well as the fragility of the notion of truth. Her work has been exhibited in the Istanbul Biennale (2017), at the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, the Annenberg Space For Photography in Los Angeles, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art in South Korea, and other galleries and institutions in Europe, the United States and Asia. Her film and multimedia work have also been screened at Les rencontres d’Arles and Visa pour l'Image festivals in France, and the Singapore International Film Festival. She has worked on assignments for global publications, such as The New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, National Geographic, The New Yorker and Harper's Bazaar. Chi Yin won the Chris Hondros Fund award in 2018. A finalist for the 2013 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography, she was an inaugural Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice fellow in 2010 in New York. She is now a tutor and mentor on the fellowship. In 2014, she was Her World Magazine's "Young Woman Achiever of the Year". Chi Yin read history at the London School of Economics and Political Science for her first two degrees, and was a staff journalist and foreign correspondent for a decade before quitting to become an independent visual practitioner in 2011. www.chiyinsim.com IG: @chiyin_sim --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

We talk about protest-dressing, dopamine-dressing, performance-dressing, all the subtle and unsubtle ways of sales associates, and more! Xingyun is a freelance researcher and writer who advocates for a more humane fashion system through her work. She studied Fashion Sustainability and Digital Fashion Management at the London College of Fashion and is now the country coordinator for Fashion Revolution Singapore. Seeking to address the importance of intersectionality when analysing fashion sustainability, she runs @noordinaryprotest as a platform to call for a shift in mindset. Her favourite time of the day is 5pm, and her go-to fashion activity is swapping. IG: @noordinaryprotest Fashion Revolution Singapore --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

We talk to Juliette Yu-Ming Lizeray about her adventures with the Cariocas of Brazil, making films with tsunami survivors in Aceh, working with repatriated migrants in Buenos Aires, syncretism between Afro-Cuban religions and Taoism & Buddhism in Cuba, and interviewing the Southeast Asian restauranteurs of New York City. Plus, surprising similarities that Juliette found between Rio de Janeiro and Singapore, Ruth’s take on “food wars” in Southeast Asia, and a little story about the time Barack Obama’s mother first came to Indonesia, as told by Hadipurnomo to Alexandra! What is “carne de rã” codeword for? Why is a cake that has no carrots called “carrot cake”? What does it mean to be a multipotentialite in today’s world? In classic Sugar Nutmeg style, let’s feast and find out! Juliette Yu-Ming Lizeray is an anthropologist, writer, filmmaker, and visual artist based in Singapore and New York City. She obtained an MSc in Anthropology and Development from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University. She conducted anthropological field research among tsunami survivors in Aceh, Central American communities in Boston, the Chinese diaspora in Cuba, indigenous communities in Brazil, and South American migrants in the informal settlements of Buenos Aires. More recently, she has carried out research on music and intercultural theatre in Singapore. Juliette also works as a freelance writer and has published exclusive stories about Singapore’s doomsday preppers, furries, buskers and sneakerheads, as well as on ghost-hunting, sustainable urban farming, and the oldest Teochew opera troupe in Singapore. Her first book, The Human Spirit Can Overcome Tragedy, is about Acehnese tsunami survivors. Her ethnography of the Central American Solidarity Movement and grassroots organising was published by the Tufts University Anthropology department. As a visual artist, she has received several international awards for her documentary and experimental films. Her work has screened at festivals in over 45 countries, including États Généraux du Film Documentaire (France), the Anthology Film Archives (USA), Cine Esquema Novo (Brazil), and Women in Film and TV International Showcase (USA), among others. Juliette’s video art and installations have shown at galleries in Rio de Janeiro and New York City. Bringing together her love of anthropology, storytelling and the moving image, she worked as a filmmaking instructor at the Fluminense Federal University in Rio de Janeiro, traveling across Brazil to empower members of indigenous communities to tell their stories through documentary films. The program of films she curated, “Dialogues with the Unseen: Short Films from Southeast Asia” is currently playing at the Museum of Moving Image: www.movingimage.us/event/dialogues-with-the-unseen-short-films-from-southeast-asia www.movingimage.us/feature/dialogues-with-the-unseen www.julietteyuming.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Special Holiday Episode! Coinciding with the release of "Happy Stories, Mostly", we talk to Norman Erikson Pasaribu and Tiffany Tsao about their work as translators of each others work and as individual writers themselves. Between Sydney, Bekasi, Bogor and New York, we discuss cultural untranslatability, creating new languages, building new memories through language, and why it’s difficult for readers to appreciate Indonesian literature. Plus, K-Dramas, fanfics, sinetron, past-less and futureless characters, and whether Dia, Ia, and Nya will be extinct in the future. Whether it's turkey, sate, noodles, nastar, or roll cake, may this Two-Hour Holiday Special accompany your holiday cooking, prep and feast! Norman Erikson Pasaribu is a writer, translator, and editor. His first short story collection Hanya Kamu yang Tahu Berapa Lama Lagi Aku Harus Menunggu (Only You Know How Much Longer I Should Wait) was shortlisted for the 2014 Khatulistiwa Literary Award for Prose. His debut poetry collection Sergius Mencari Bacchus (Sergius Seeks Bacchus) won the 2015 Jakarta Arts Council Poetry Competition, was shortlisted for the 2016 Khatulistiwa Literary Award for Poetry, and was one of the best poetry collections of that year by Tempo Magazine. He was also awarded the Young Author Award from the Southeast Asia Literary Council and was chosen as Writer in Residence in Vietnam by the Indonesian National Book Committee and Ministry of Education and Culture. He draws on his experiences queer writer of Batak descent and Christian background. In his work, he plays with alternative gospel, speculative fiction, loneliness, and happiness…mostly. Tiffany Tsao is a writer and literary translator. She is the author of The Oddfits trilogy and The Majesties (originally published in Australia as Under Your Wings). Her translations from Indonesian to English include Dee Lestari’s novel Paper Boats, Laksmi Pamuntjak’s The Birdwoman’s Palate, and Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s poetry collections Sergius Seeks Bacchus and Happy Stories Mostly. Her translations of Norman’s poetry have won the English PEN Presents and English PEN Translates awards. Born in the United States and of Chinese-Indonesian descent, she spent her formative years in Singapore (8 years) and Indonesia (6 years). She has a B.A. in English literature from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in English literature from UC-Berkeley. She now lives in Sydney, Australia with her spouse and two children. www.tiltedaxispress.com/happy-stories-mostly www.tiffanytsao.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Nay Saysourinho talks to us about heterotopia, folktales and fairy tales, passive resistance and "passive" choices, motherhood, domesticity, and how she learned to find her voice as a writer from listening to her aunties gossip at home. Plus, the impact of the French language, the bond of la Francophonie, the nonchalance of Laotians, and all the things that get lost in translation.... Nay Saysourinho is a writer, literary critic and visual artist. She was the first recipient of the Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship from One Story Magazine, and has received fellowships and scholarships from Kundiman, The Writers Grotto, The Mendocino Coast Writers Conference and Tin House. She was a Rona Jaffe Fellow at MacDowell in 2020 and is a Berkeley Fellow at Yale. Her writing was a recent prize winner at the Tucson Literary Awards, and has been published or is forthcoming in Kenyon Review, Ploughshares Blog, Khôra, Fairy Tale Review, and elsewhere. She also reads for Pank Magazine. The eldest daughter of Lao refugees, she was born and raised in Québec and spent several years in Saskatchewan. Influenced by the folklore of her home province, the oral history of her diaspora, and the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, her multidisciplinary work explores ways by which narratives are gathered, transmitted, and deciphered. She is currently completing her first novel, a modern fairy tale set in Southeast Asia, a short story collection about extinct species, and a series of fables using Lao weaving symbology. In June 2021, she joined an art research circle through the Nordic Summer University. www.saysourinho.com Minor Crimes of Translation --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support

Nurdiyansah tells us about his trips across Indonesia to explore how spices from the region hold a multitude of stories that transcend the epochal eras: Dutch colonization, Japanese occupation, the national revolution era, New Order era, Reformasi, and the new digital age. The aroma and flavor of traditional dishes and culinary delights offered him personal and political reflections on the hybridity of identity and the convoluted meaning of "home." What does it really mean to be "Indonesian"? What are all the influences that shaped "Indonesian" cuisine? Is there really a pure "Indonesian" dish? How was pempek related to a nationwide massacre? Plus, a peek into "problems" in Alexandra's life, digital nomads, traditional textiles, and queer culture in Indonesia. Nurdiyansah Dalidjo is an interdisciplinary writer, researcher, and activist who seeks to memorialize the role of spices as the ingredients that fueled the revolution in Indonesia. He started his career as a journalist at Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan and has a master’s degree in tourism through Program Beasiswa Unggulan, a scholarship program from the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture. Since graduating, he has gained over 10 years of experience in Development issues with a focus on ethical and sustainable tourism, indigenous issues, and social justice. Nurdiyansah is the founder of the tourism portal JejakWisata.com and co-initiator of the Kain Kita project, a collective independent movement that shares cultural information and stories of traditional fabrics and indigenous textiles known as kain in Indonesia. Previously, he was the research and publications manager at Perkumpulan SKALA, a non-profit organisation with a journalist membership base and a focus on environmental sustainability. He led SKALA’s research teams in investigating reports on Indonesia’s forest fires and haze disasters in 2015; on local wisdom held by indigenous peoples and related to disaster risk reduction in Indonesia; and about wildlife trafficking in Indonesia. His writings have been published on The Jakarta Post, Overland, mata jendala, Magdalene.co, Jurnal Perempuan, Tourism Watch Indonesia, Jurnal Wastra, Maximillian, Women’s Media Center (WMC) FBOMB , and many others. In 2015, Nurdiyansah released his first travel writing book, Porn(O) Tour (Metagraf, 2015) in which he campaigns for the ethical and responsible tourism issues in a popular way. He is currently based in Jakarta and spends his time exploring colonial histories through food and textile in Indonesia. www.penjelajahrempah.com www.nurdiyansahdalidjo.medium.com IG: @penjelajah_rempah www.twitter.com/nurdiyansah --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sugar-nutmeg/support