The Layers of Community Organizing w/ Brandon Lee

For this week's Season 1, Episode 10,  Brandon Lee, Japanese-American and community activist from the Chicago Uptown neighborhood, joined me for "The Banh Mi Chronicles" podcast back in late October to discuss his experience over the years with Asians American Advancing Justice (AAAJC) in Chicago.  Brandon recently left AAAJC for a brief hiatus at that time. He looks back on the challenges of mobilzing the Asian-Pacific Islander (API) community here locally when factoring the difficult history that each community has with one another.  Recently, AAAJC-Los Angeles affiliate laid off a number of staff members in a controversial move that was due to "budget windfall."  This move has sparked concerns within the API community organizing movements, and he discussed the impact that it will have for the API communities in a critical 2020 election and census year.   

Bio:  Brandon Lee is a born-and-raised Chicagoan who has lived in the Uptown neighborhood his whole life. He has spent some of that life working in Chicago organizing and nonprofit spaces, with a focus on the Asian American community, most recently with Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago. He got his start organizing while a student at University of Illinois-Chicago in the Asian American Coalition Committee. In his current quasi-sabbatical he’s doing his best to rest a little bit while also diving deep into the wider Star Wars universe and lamenting the Cubs’ September collapse

Audio / Sound Credit: Chanho Kim (www.chanho.kim)