The International Struggle for Reparations: Remaking the Exceptional Podcast Launch Celebration

La Tanya Jenifor-Sublett (she/her), is a Mental Health Worker, Social Justice Advocate, Public Speaker, Community Organizer, and now Chicago Torture Justice Center’s Peer Reentry Program Director. She experienced abuse and torture at the hands of Chicago Police at the age of 19. Sentenced to 42 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for a crime she did not commit, she did her very best to reinvent herself. During her 21-year incarceration she studied law, business, and social justice. She is currently working on her Masters of Arts Degree with a specialization in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Social Justice.

Mansoor Adayfi was just 19 when he taken to Guantanamo Bay, where he spent over 14 years detained without being charged with a crime. He now lives in Belgrade, Serbia where he writes, creates artwork, and advocates for prisoner and detainee rights. His memoir of his time at Guantánamo, Don’t Forget Us Here, was published in 2021 by Hachette Books.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi is a Mauritanian citizen who was imprisoned at the US military base at Guantánamo Bay without charge from 2002 until his release on October 17, 2016. Slahi wrote a memoir in 2005 while imprisoned which was published in 2017 as Guantanamo Diary (Little Brown). His story was the inspiration for the 2021 film The Mauritanian.

Aaron Hughes and Amber Ginsburg collaborate to uncover moments of beauty, poetics, and shared humanity within little-known military histories. The Tea Project developed after Aaron, an Iraq War veteran, returned to Iraq as a civilian and antiwar activist in 2009. During his trip he accepted tea prepared in the Iraqi tradition for the first time. The experience reminded him of all the times he had been offered tea while deployed and the continued generosity of the Iraqi people despite his involvement in the illegal and dehumanizing US occupation of their country.

Upon returning home, Aaron began hosting Tea Performances to share this generosity despite, to draw out stories of living during the ongoing Global War on Terror. In 2013 Aaron invited Amber to join the Tea Project. Together they cast 780 porcelain Styrofoam teacups, one for each individual held in Guantánamo since 2001. They have worked to expand the project through the development of multi-faceted installations and programs that engage with individuals’ daily habits and relationships to war.

Aaron and Amber, who both live and work in Chicago, are also close friends.

Remaking the Exceptional podcast is a part of the ongoing Tea Project and produced by Amber Ginsburg, Nate Sandberg, and Aaron Hughes.

Special thanks to Anthony Holmes, Moazzam Begg, Kilroy Watkins, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Ronnie Kitchen, Sabri al-Qurashi, La Tanya Jenifor-Sublett, and Mansoor Adayfi for sharing their stories.

Featured Cello music was contributed by Maestro Karim Wasfi from his 2019 Poetry Despite/Music Despite (Eternal War Requiem) recordings. For more information on those recordings and to listen visit poetrydespite.online.

Additional music, audio editing, and audio design by Nate Sandberg.

The Remaking the Exceptional podcast is supported by an Illinois Humanities, Envisioning Justice, 2021 Humanist Grant.

Research and support for Remaking the Exceptional by Maira Khwaja from the Invisible Institute and Valli Perrera, Margaret Kates, Kelly Milan, Alex Shur and Marie Mendoza from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Amazon.

Additional thanks to Alice Kim, Sarah Ross, and Joey Mogul for support and mentorship.