The Acceptance Speeches from the 2018 Third Coast Awards Ceremony, with a Transcript of Phoebe Wang’s Speech & Community Reactions

For several reasons, the 2018 Third Coast Awards Ceremony was historic. First and foremost, the award-winning producers redefined awards speeches when they took the stage at Chicago’s Alhambra Palace, utilizing their platform to demand structural, political, and creative reform in the audio industry.

The momentum these remarks are giving to meaningful and continuing conversations that a chorus of voices has already initiated over the past several years excites us greatly (a few examples here, here, and here). Our organization aims to collect and promote the world’s top storytelling. But to advance storytelling’s limits, the best stories require varied perspectives. One of the most crucial concerns is: Who is getting invited to the table; Phoebe Wang, the winner of the 2018 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, emphasized this in her acceptance speech.

We can’t wait to share the moving remarks that each Third Coast Award winner made during their speeches. The whole audio and transcript of every discourse given at the Third Coast Awards Ceremony, courtesy of Descript.

But first, Phoebe Wang’s entire acceptance speech for Best New Artist for her work God & the Gays, along with a call to action from the [email protected] account’s creators.
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Wang, Phoebe: We are a queer/trans/woman/POC forward organization and are specifically looking to hire someone who is part of the communities the show was founded to represent. This was stated at the end of a job listing for Assistant Producer at The Heart that I came across two years and twelve days ago. Therefore, if you are a member of these communities, please consider applying even if you don’t believe you possess some of the listed skills. final quote

I chose to apply for the position despite my lack of audio experience. I was hired for the post by Kaitlin Prest from The Heart, even though it was a risk [Applause]. She trained me, and although it took me three hours to finish cutting my first 30-second ad, she was unbelievably patient.

Given that I believe I was hired specifically because I am a person of color, I feel it is essential to convey this information. We also need many more individuals of color in this sector, as we all know — it’s no secret. [Applause and jubilation]

I can still clearly recall when I first learned about the Nancy podcast. Oh my god, Tobin and Kathy, please don’t screw this up for every Asian-American present! [laughter].

Host of the awards ceremony Kathy Tu: We tried,

Because I could have counted the number of Asian podcast hosts at the time, on the one hand, says Phoebe Wang. Therefore, even if I didn’t want them to, they unavoidably did depict my experience. [Turns to the hosts of the Awards Ceremony, Tobin Low and Kathy Tu, who are on stage.] I believe you’re doing fantastic.

But even so, I constantly hear people claim that they did their best to fill a position with a person of color but were unsuccessful because they didn’t have enough people of paint applied or didn’t meet the requirements. And I’m afraid I have to disagree with you on that. [Applause and cheers.]

We opted to spend our time and money on something we deemed more essential than hiring a person of color; that’s what I hear when people claim they tried their best. [Applause.]

What I also hear is that “we’re alright with having big blind spots when we tell tales about people of colour, and we’re happy with alienating a massive chunk of listeners who don’t have any room or emotional energy to hear from another straight white male yelling at them.”

If I may therefore make a few recommendations: Don’t wait for people to come to you. Go online and find potential candidates, invite them to join your applicant pool, and ask them to apply for your position.