#47 Building Queer Asian Spaces & Community with Tai

Yellow Glitter

In this episode, we're joined by Tai, who is a freelance creative director. His hunger for building community ultimately led to the creation of Naarak in August of 2022, and he is now an event organizer in the gay API NYC nightlife scene.

In this episode, we chat about:

• Community resilience and fostering an environment where gay API have an accepting night-life space
• Coming into queer identity and finding a way to navigate that
• Intersectionality of queer-ness and Asian-ness as an adoptee
• The origins of Naarak initially starting with small gatherings and eventually expanding to larger events
• The difficulties of having open conversations and really listening to one another
• Challenging API stereotypes and demonstrating the community's willingness to engage and contribute to the city

You can find our guest at:

• Tai Nakladda: naaraknyc.com
• Instagram: @nakalakalaka

You can follow me at:

• Instagram: @stevenwakabayashi
• YouTube: @stevenwakabayashi
• Subscribe to my weekly newsletter: mindfulmoments.substack.com
• Visit our website yellowglitterpodcast.com