An Oral History Project Conducted by John Robert Lewis Fellow Vaidehi Persad
Project Description
In this oral history interview with Vyanti Joseph we unpack aspects of her life as an Indo-Caribbean immigrant. Vyanti was born in Trinidad and immigrated to the US in Georgia as a young girl. While moving to the deep south in the US as a teenager, especially with a working class family, Vyanti experienced the obvious barriers to accessing education and socio-economic mobility, but also frequently engaged in giving back to those facing these same barriers during that time. She received her BBA degree in economics from Georgia State University, with a special focus in program and project management as well as data and analytics. Vyanti continues to live in suburban Georgia where she is active in the metropolitan Atlanta community, working on a range of things over the years, from social advocacy to policy analysis.
As an Indian American immigrant in the Indo-Caribbean diaspora, Vyanti has leveraged her position across different communities to especially organize South Asians from all diasporas into action, standing up to defend civil rights and demand social justice in times of crisis. This includes organizing community protests such as in support of the Black Lives Matter movement or speaking out against ICE detention activity in the area. While Vyanti has extensive experience organizing the South Asian community that she belongs to, her work has and continues to connect with the lives of others from various communities lying outside of her own.
Vyanti has a long list of experiences working in social and political spheres, organizing and initiating change one step at a time. She began early in her career organizing suburban liberal moms for donations to title 1 schools and refugees. During this same initiative, she worked to create snack pantries for these same low-income schools. These initiatives became what is now the Argyle Scholars program active in Georgia today, continuing the important work that Vyanti once facilitated and continues to support. Education equity and advocacy is where Vyanti connected with multiracial communities to advance a common cause.
In terms of political and policy-driven work, Vyanti has stemmed from work on the ground organizing, into inciting systemic change via uplifting progressive political and governmental entities. She was a volunteer coordinator with Jon Ossoff for the CD 6 campaign in 2017. Two years later in 2019, she volunteered as coordinator for Lucy Mcbath in the CD 6 campaign again. Not only has Vyanti worked on political campaigns, but she has taken strides in her own Asian American community as Cobb County AAPI volunteer coordinator in support of Stacy Abrams run for Governor in 2018. She continued this work bridging cultural and racial communities with solidarity in progressive issues while serving on the Georgia AAPI Advisory Council for the Biden Harris campaign in 2020. Vyanti similarly served as the AAPI Constituency Director during the Warnock for Senate campaign that same year.
Taking this community-driven energy one step further, Vyanti served as the political director of an Asian American advocacy organization from 2021 to 2023. In this position, she advocated for progressive policies that supported the needs of all communities of color, and that are sensitive to the needs especially of AAPI community members. She was also a co-founder of They See Blue, Georgia in 2019. This organization motivates South Asian Americans to go out and vote in support of progressive issues.
Oral History Interview with Vyanti Joseph - 06/21/2023
Presentation Slides
Presentation Recording