Inner States
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On our last episode, we talked about welcoming refugees in the U.S. And it got me thinking about what it’s like to live away from the place where you’re from, especially if it’s in another part of the world. Say your mother is Lebanese and, I don’t know, your father’s…American but also grew up in Beirut, and their circumstances meant that you grew up in Cyprus and Pakistan and spent your later childhood and adolescence in Baltimore and they taught you English rather than Arabic so your mother’s family’s language lives in your brain but in a kind of ethereal way, not one you can just converse in. How do you relate to your roots in Lebanon? To Arabic? Where’s your home? What’s your mother tongue?
You’ve probably been wondering about that scenario, and of course you want to listen to this episode for the answers. So it saddens me to tell you that, while those questions are at the heart of this episode, we can’t just give you the answers. But I found a poet to help us think through the dynamics of that scenario. A scenario that is, coincidentally, quite similar to her own life, and which she explores in her first book of poems, which came out on April 28th. The poet is janan alexandra, and her book is COME FROM.
Listen to "Borders Part II: Where is Home" now on your favorite podcast platform!
Special thanks to L. Boyd Carithers, whose upcoming album Doom Town lent additional music to this episode and to this reel ("Dinnertime for the Cats")!
04/17/2025
As you may know (I didn’t), the president has a lot of control over how many refugees enter the United States. Every year, the president decides how many refugees the country will accept. In Obama’s last year in office, about 85 thousand refugees resettled here. In the last year of Trump’s first term, it was about 12 thousand. Biden brought it up to a hundred thousand. And then, as soon as he got back into office, Trump completely suspended the program, meaning zero refugees would be admitted to the United States.
A few years ago, Exodus Refugee, an Indianapolis-based organization that helps refugees resettle, opened an office here in Bloomington. I wanted to understand how Trump’s suspension of refugee resettlement has affected the office here, and the people they help, and to understand that, I thought it would be good to hear the story of how the office got started.
Erin Aquino is the founding director of the Bloomington office. Exodus has been around as an organization since 1981, but Erin got called in to start the Bloomington office at the beginning of 2022. When she took the job, she’s imagined having a few months to get things set up. But she ended up moving a lot faster than anyone expected. Which was good, because she you can’t meet with clients in a hotel room, and the post office was getting tired of all the carseats.
On this episode, Erin Aquino tells us how to set up a refugee resettlement office when the refugees have already started arriving. And what’s happened since January 20th.
Listen to "Borders Part I: Resettling Refugees Before 2025" now on your favorite podcast platform!
Inner States Inner States is a weekly podcast and public radio show about art, culture, and how it all feels, in Southern Indiana and beyond.
04/08/2025
Did you know you can listen to the full How to Preserve an Orange experience on our podcast feed? In addition to our main feed conversation with the artist, clay scofield, we have a full recording of the Feb. 25th performance that you can follow along with at home! Let us know if you do! Email us at [email protected].
Listen to "Oranges, Play, and the Pursuit of Play" and "How to Preserve an Orange (Inner States Bonus)" now on your favorite podcast platform!
02/19/2025
Nathan Dillon is the director of Everybody Rocks. It’s a music education company, and these days, it’s focused on bringing live music to old folks. Another way to describe Nathan’s work is that he drives around and sings at senior centers.
He’s been running Everybody Rocks for a couple decades now, and all that time has given him insight into music and memory, the invisibility of old people in most of our society – and what it’s like to live in the gig economy.
On the latest Inner States, we visit with Nathan Dillon and a few of his fans after his latest visit to the Richland Bean-Blossom Health Care Center.
Listen to "Nathan Dillon: Troubadour for Seniors" now on your favorite podcast platform!
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