May 13, 2025 • 9 mins
Today we're celebrating the works of artist, an educator and a community leader Terisa Siagatonu.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha imot the stuff we
never told you protection by her radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to another Activists around the world and happy
continued AAPI history months and today we're returning to our
love of poetry with an activist and leader, Teresa Sia
Gatano so On her website Teresaciagatano dot com, Teresa describes
herself like this, The important stuff that you must know
(00:39):
off top is that I was born, raised, and repped
the Bay Area all day. I come from a big,
beautiful Samoan family, even though I'm an only child, and
I'm deeply devoted to my Pacific Islander community across the diaspora.
And when I'm not on stage, in a classroom or
behind a microphone, you can catch me facetiming with my nephews,
which I thought was very sweet. Family is important, and
(01:01):
she often introduces herself as an artist, an educator, and
a community leader, and her work has been celebrated throughout
the country and the world, including at the White House
during President Obama's administration. She has been a speaker of
the UN Climate Change Conference and was even awarded the
Champion of Change Award in twenty twelve by President Obama.
(01:26):
What do I think of those days? I just think
the good old day. There was a lot of problems,
but not these problems. Yeah. Anyway, So she uses her
work and talent to advocate the needs of protecting the
land and nature, as well as using her words to
speak for her community and people. She writes this for
culturalpower dot org in the wake of a brand new
(01:46):
year with the same climate crisis anxiety we carry. Is
poetry that helps me reckon with my indigenous Samoan roots
as a ground not only my desire to now language
climate crisis in my writing, but also my responsibility to
take action on it in my life, both on and
off stage, both in the poem and with my people,
both when I create and when I organize. And this
(02:10):
piece is an amazing piece. She writes a lot in there.
It's like three or four pages, so if you have time,
go and look her up. And this piece we're going
to reference it again. But obviously is a huge chunk
and is beautiful, Like the way she lays it out
is obvious that she's a poet, like you know those
types of people that like this is all gorgeous and beautiful,
but this is just an essay, what not just then?
(02:32):
But you know it's not an actual poetry piece, which
you were like, this is a four page poetry piece
in an essay, But anyway, you should take time to
go look at it. So in this piece she talks
about the growth and use of poetry and artistry. She
explains that though she was fearful of failing as an artist,
and even though her parents had plans that involved other professions,
(02:52):
you know, being a doctor, lawyer, we got those things,
poetry was always something important to her and a part
of her So again from that article, she writes, fear
of failing my parents, my community, myself always pulled me
away from the choir desire of going full time with
my writing and instead kept me on the academic route
to someone else's dreams. It took three career changes to
(03:14):
college degrees, leaving my life in clients as a therapist,
and thousands of dollars in student loan debt for me
to realize that I will never stop being afraid of
failing at being an artist, that I may always question
whether or not I made the right decision to leave academia,
and finally choose myself that I would rather feel free
and afraid of what I may fell at than secure
myself to a life that asks me to exist but
(03:36):
doesn't demand for me to live to dream, even if
it means doing it scared. Such is the duty of
the artist anyways, to reflect the times and to tell
the truth about us, as both Nina Simone and James
Baldwin have instructed so many of us to do. I
love that again, this is just like a small excerpt
of what she wrote, Like the entire thing is just poetry.
(03:58):
It's obvious, and it is through her art that she
pushes for change and fights for her land. For the
land from the Justice dot Org, they say Sia Gatano
emphasize the role of artists in making social change cultural
changes faster than policy. She said, so artists have enormous
power through things like social media and trends to shift
(04:20):
narratives surrounding societal issues. Artists can also will the power
of imagination, and according to Cia Gatano quote we're in
the dire need of a radical reimagination of a world
different and better than this one, and it continues as
part of her role as an artist. Sia Gatano uses
language to quote shift narratives to focus on marginalized people,
(04:44):
especially when it comes to climate change, is indigenous, black
and brown folks who are affected first and foremost. Cia
Gatano said Indigenous ways of knowing or ways of thinking
about relationships, learning, and the world informed by indigenous cultures
can also provide important perspective on climate change, according to Siagatanu,
such as the understanding that one does not own the earth,
(05:06):
but instead is a part of it. Cia Gatana referred
to the Native Hawaiian notion of kulieyana or responsibility to
the land, as an example of an indigenous perspective on
climate justice. And it seems again that the power of
her words and poetry is something that she has used
to share her heart and her intentions and of her advocacy.
(05:27):
So from kqed dot org, she says, I think the
poet is responsible for making what is typically taboo or
typically off limits to talk about, make it, to make
it possible to talk about, and make it accessible, especially
right now in regards to climate change. I see poetry.
I see it literally as medicine, and it is we
(05:48):
know the healing power of art like poetry. We need
more of it. And she uses her work to tell
the story of our people and community as well. As
we've obviously mentioned from utterish dot com quote. Her work
combines activism and storytelling to mesh the personal and political,
and her poem at List she writes, I tell them
(06:10):
that home is a machete, and that I belong to
the places that don't belong in themselves anymore, broken and butchered,
places that have made me a hyphen of a woman,
a Samoan American that carries the weight of both colonizer
and colonized, both blade and blood. She writes about the
experience of belonging to the Pacific islanderdiaspora and the harm
(06:31):
of being constantly decentered and marginalized in the US approach
to historytelling. Her poetry looks at intersections of marginalization, constantly
pressuring for a new point of view that is more expansive.
So she made sure to give credit to our community
when it comes to her passion and her talent, and
she often talks about how important the arts are to
her people and how they communicated. Again back to that
(06:55):
culturalpower dot Org again, that beautiful piece. Many things make
up who we are as a community, but I do
believe that art is the soul of who we are.
Our dances, our music, our drawings, our films, our photographs,
our paintings, our poems, our books, our oral traditions, our instruments,
our storytelling, our writing. All of it is how we've
(07:17):
been able to pass down our histories and the truth
of us for centuries. There is a resilience in our
memory that art never lets us forget the reason why
we're able to dream in the first place. And I
can't think of anything else that we need to do
now more than that. We've tried many things, some for decades,
that are just not working, that are just not in
the service of our collective liberation and justice. The time
(07:39):
has come to finally trust the artists to allow us
to help us to dream again. Chills just from pig
chills again. Her poetry speaks for itself and the work
she does and what she is doing, but she also
does advocacy work and is heavily involved in facilitating and
creating workshops, mentors and creating mentorships for other artists and professionals.
(08:03):
And it also has the background in counseling and often does
a lot of work and mental health support a just rehabilitation.
So she does a lot obviously, so you take definitely
if you can look her up, look up her poetry.
It is powerful work.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yes, absolutely, and as always, listeners, if you have any
suggestions for this segment, please let us know. You can
email us at Hello at stuff Wehenever Told You dot com.
You can find us on Blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast,
or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff we Never Told
You more lst on YouTube. We have a teapoop a
store and we have a book you can get wherever
we get your books. Thanks as always too, our super
producer Christina, our executive producer and contruder Joey. Thank you
(08:43):
and thanks to you for listening. Stuff I've Never Told
You is production by Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, you can check out the heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha imot the stuff we
never told you protection by her radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to another Activists around the world and happy
continued AAPI history months and today we're returning to our
love of poetry with an activist and leader, Teresa Sia
Gatano so On her website Teresaciagatano dot com, Teresa describes
herself like this, The important stuff that you must know
(00:39):
off top is that I was born, raised, and repped
the Bay Area all day. I come from a big,
beautiful Samoan family, even though I'm an only child, and
I'm deeply devoted to my Pacific Islander community across the diaspora.
And when I'm not on stage, in a classroom or
behind a microphone, you can catch me facetiming with my nephews,
which I thought was very sweet. Family is important, and
(01:01):
she often introduces herself as an artist, an educator, and
a community leader, and her work has been celebrated throughout
the country and the world, including at the White House
during President Obama's administration. She has been a speaker of
the UN Climate Change Conference and was even awarded the
Champion of Change Award in twenty twelve by President Obama.
(01:26):
What do I think of those days? I just think
the good old day. There was a lot of problems,
but not these problems. Yeah. Anyway, So she uses her
work and talent to advocate the needs of protecting the
land and nature, as well as using her words to
speak for her community and people. She writes this for
culturalpower dot org in the wake of a brand new
(01:46):
year with the same climate crisis anxiety we carry. Is
poetry that helps me reckon with my indigenous Samoan roots
as a ground not only my desire to now language
climate crisis in my writing, but also my responsibility to
take action on it in my life, both on and
off stage, both in the poem and with my people,
both when I create and when I organize. And this
(02:10):
piece is an amazing piece. She writes a lot in there.
It's like three or four pages, so if you have time,
go and look her up. And this piece we're going
to reference it again. But obviously is a huge chunk
and is beautiful, Like the way she lays it out
is obvious that she's a poet, like you know those
types of people that like this is all gorgeous and beautiful,
but this is just an essay, what not just then?
(02:32):
But you know it's not an actual poetry piece, which
you were like, this is a four page poetry piece
in an essay, But anyway, you should take time to
go look at it. So in this piece she talks
about the growth and use of poetry and artistry. She
explains that though she was fearful of failing as an artist,
and even though her parents had plans that involved other professions,
(02:52):
you know, being a doctor, lawyer, we got those things,
poetry was always something important to her and a part
of her So again from that article, she writes, fear
of failing my parents, my community, myself always pulled me
away from the choir desire of going full time with
my writing and instead kept me on the academic route
to someone else's dreams. It took three career changes to
(03:14):
college degrees, leaving my life in clients as a therapist,
and thousands of dollars in student loan debt for me
to realize that I will never stop being afraid of
failing at being an artist, that I may always question
whether or not I made the right decision to leave academia,
and finally choose myself that I would rather feel free
and afraid of what I may fell at than secure
myself to a life that asks me to exist but
(03:36):
doesn't demand for me to live to dream, even if
it means doing it scared. Such is the duty of
the artist anyways, to reflect the times and to tell
the truth about us, as both Nina Simone and James
Baldwin have instructed so many of us to do. I
love that again, this is just like a small excerpt
of what she wrote, Like the entire thing is just poetry.
(03:58):
It's obvious, and it is through her art that she
pushes for change and fights for her land. For the
land from the Justice dot Org, they say Sia Gatano
emphasize the role of artists in making social change cultural
changes faster than policy. She said, so artists have enormous
power through things like social media and trends to shift
(04:20):
narratives surrounding societal issues. Artists can also will the power
of imagination, and according to Cia Gatano quote we're in
the dire need of a radical reimagination of a world
different and better than this one, and it continues as
part of her role as an artist. Sia Gatano uses
language to quote shift narratives to focus on marginalized people,
(04:44):
especially when it comes to climate change, is indigenous, black
and brown folks who are affected first and foremost. Cia
Gatano said Indigenous ways of knowing or ways of thinking
about relationships, learning, and the world informed by indigenous cultures
can also provide important perspective on climate change, according to Siagatanu,
such as the understanding that one does not own the earth,
(05:06):
but instead is a part of it. Cia Gatana referred
to the Native Hawaiian notion of kulieyana or responsibility to
the land, as an example of an indigenous perspective on
climate justice. And it seems again that the power of
her words and poetry is something that she has used
to share her heart and her intentions and of her advocacy.
(05:27):
So from kqed dot org, she says, I think the
poet is responsible for making what is typically taboo or
typically off limits to talk about, make it, to make
it possible to talk about, and make it accessible, especially
right now in regards to climate change. I see poetry.
I see it literally as medicine, and it is we
(05:48):
know the healing power of art like poetry. We need
more of it. And she uses her work to tell
the story of our people and community as well. As
we've obviously mentioned from utterish dot com quote. Her work
combines activism and storytelling to mesh the personal and political,
and her poem at List she writes, I tell them
(06:10):
that home is a machete, and that I belong to
the places that don't belong in themselves anymore, broken and butchered,
places that have made me a hyphen of a woman,
a Samoan American that carries the weight of both colonizer
and colonized, both blade and blood. She writes about the
experience of belonging to the Pacific islanderdiaspora and the harm
(06:31):
of being constantly decentered and marginalized in the US approach
to historytelling. Her poetry looks at intersections of marginalization, constantly
pressuring for a new point of view that is more expansive.
So she made sure to give credit to our community
when it comes to her passion and her talent, and
she often talks about how important the arts are to
her people and how they communicated. Again back to that
(06:55):
culturalpower dot Org again, that beautiful piece. Many things make
up who we are as a community, but I do
believe that art is the soul of who we are.
Our dances, our music, our drawings, our films, our photographs,
our paintings, our poems, our books, our oral traditions, our instruments,
our storytelling, our writing. All of it is how we've
(07:17):
been able to pass down our histories and the truth
of us for centuries. There is a resilience in our
memory that art never lets us forget the reason why
we're able to dream in the first place. And I
can't think of anything else that we need to do
now more than that. We've tried many things, some for decades,
that are just not working, that are just not in
the service of our collective liberation and justice. The time
(07:39):
has come to finally trust the artists to allow us
to help us to dream again. Chills just from pig
chills again. Her poetry speaks for itself and the work
she does and what she is doing, but she also
does advocacy work and is heavily involved in facilitating and
creating workshops, mentors and creating mentorships for other artists and professionals.
(08:03):
And it also has the background in counseling and often does
a lot of work and mental health support a just rehabilitation.
So she does a lot obviously, so you take definitely
if you can look her up, look up her poetry.
It is powerful work.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yes, absolutely, and as always, listeners, if you have any
suggestions for this segment, please let us know. You can
email us at Hello at stuff Wehenever Told You dot com.
You can find us on Blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast,
or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff we Never Told
You more lst on YouTube. We have a teapoop a
store and we have a book you can get wherever
we get your books. Thanks as always too, our super
producer Christina, our executive producer and contruder Joey. Thank you
(08:43):
and thanks to you for listening. Stuff I've Never Told
You is production by Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, you can check out the heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.