creative:impact
Credit Carla Dirlikov Canales
Meet Carla Dirlikov Canales, Ypsilanti native, renowned opera singer and arts advocate. She is also founder of the Canales Project, an organization that uses the arts to bridge cultural divides. She joined Creative Washtenaw s Deb Polich and WEMU s David Fair to talk about how she uses her voice to advocate for the arts and creativity in the halls of Congress and across the world.
Listen
Deb Polich, President and CEO of The Arts Alliance
Creative industries in Washtenaw County add hundreds of millions of dollars to the local economy. In the weeks and months to come, 89.1 WEMU s David Fair and co-host Deb Polich, the President and CEO of The Arts Alliance, explore the myriad of contributors that make up the creative sector in Washtenaw County.
Listen to the full interview.
Dr. Borja studies Asian American history, refugee policy, and religion and has spent the past year researching anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said this is something she has personally experienced since she was born. She said she grew up in an era when there was a lot of anti-Asian sentiment and says her family was sometimes concerned about their safety. But she said that situation helped her learn about the importance of standing up for justice and calling for change and organizing.
Dr. Borja says referring to the coronavirus as the China virus can cause racist backlash and stigmatisation of those communities. She said research has found that anti-Asian bias has increased significantly because of the use of that term and reversed a decade-long, downward trend. She says her own research has shown a direct connection of Asian American people being blamed for the Coronavirus. She says many Asian Americans have become m
Listen to the full story.
Only two months remain until the contract expires between the University of Michigan and its lecturers. Negotiations began in January, and, last week, the Lecturers Employee Organization members submitted a petition to reinforce their position.
Ian Robinson is a lecturer and President of the Organization.
“We hope that we can wrap up bargaining, and I believe this is the goal of the administration as well, by the end of April. We’ve always gone past April in the past, so it’ll be a great new thing if we’re actually able to resolve this by the end of April this time around.”
Dr. Payal Patel
Credit Michigan Medicine / uofmhealth.org
Dr. Payal Patel says there have been a lot of lessons learned over the year-long pandemic. She says it has shown it is never good to underestimate how importance of public health or to underfund the system. She says infectious disease medical professionals think this could happen again, that it s inevitable, and we need to be better prepared for the next time.
Dr. Patel says it would be naive to think the end of the pandemic is here but adds she was encouraged by the relatively fast rollout of three vaccines and says, We are making headway to getting more and more people vaccinated, which will help bring an end to the pandemic.