Black Tea Speaks is a Radical "Lifestyle" Podcast, Blog and Organization about Feminist Epistemologies Healing Practices and Justice. We are a community of practice that is rooted in and guided by those whose voices are often forgotten or refuted. It aims to transform and recognize that our black, indigenous, disabled, queer and trans voices are sources of expertise. We are healers, spiritual leaders and cultural workers. We aim to delve into intersections where other life style, spirituality, self help and wellness content often glide over or do not have the capacity to engage, and offer tangible tools to build cross movement solidarity, radical activism, healing and well being. We are committed to breaking intergenerational curses of trauma, white supremacy, and colonization, to become fully embodied people and to regain agency in our lives and communities. We are critical but also so much more than our criticisms, we are expansive full of light and darkness and most importantly We. Will. Speak. Come support the work, and join the community that is dedicated to offering free resources and make substantial radical change.
TW: Mentions of Childhood sexual abuse and rapeIn today's episode I've invited Amita Swadhin to join into this conversation about transformative justice, abolition accountability and harm.Amita Swadhin is an educator, storyteller, activist and consultant dedicated to fighting interpersonal and institutional violence against young people. Their commitments and approach to this work stem from their experiences as a genderqueer, femme queer woman of color, daughter of immigrants, and years of abuse by their parents, including eight years of rape by their father.They are a frequent speaker at colleges, conferences and community organizations nationwide, and a consultant with over fifteen years of experience in nonprofits serving low-income, immigrant and LGBTQ youth of color in Los Angeles and New York City. Amita has been publicly out as a survivor of child sexual abuse since they interned at the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women in 1997.In 2016, Amita received a two-year Just Beginnings Collaborative Fellowship, allowing them to work full-time to end child sexual abuse and to help survivors heal.With this fellowship they have been working on The Mirror Memoirs project, an oral history project centering the narratives, healing and leadership of LGBTQ survivors of color in the movement to end child sexual abuse.Audio clips in this episode are from videos that are part of the Building Accountable Communities series created by Project NIA and the Barnard Center for Research on Women, which can be found here:
In this episode we discuss the role of Shame and Guilt as it intersects with other marginalizes and survivorship in movement spaces, and how to transform shame and leverage guilt into anti-racist work, with aspiring mental health clinician, activist, survivor and ally Seren. This episode aims to dive into understanding the process of white shame and illuminate some tools for how to navigate that process.Show LinksTranscriptSign Up to become a Patreon MemberResources:Indigenous SolidarityMap of Indigenous territories across the globeNative Arts and Cultures Foundation Resource PageIndigenous Environmental NetworkFirst People's FundAdditional Readinghttps://www.inverse.com/mind-body/white-shame-anti-racism-efforts?fbclid=IwAR2otFZYUZ7_Wmv2in2-dtJu0XKOM0MBNiomOvpO6agxvxs_vK4RXuQmu5wWhite Supremacy Culture Zine PDF versionMentioned in the EpisodeBrené Brown: Listening to ShameThe Anti-Racism Education Project
In this Episode, we discuss and dive into and begin to reimagine how we conceptualize activist work that is so incredibly important within the contemporary moment. Drawing from Healing and Disability Justice activists Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and adrienne maree brown, to reimagine what activism would look like and mean to center healing as a primary mode of activism. Diving into the work and unique forms of crip knowledge we ask the question what does care look like and why do we need a healing justice and disability justice framework if we want to create lasting change in black, brown queer and indigenous movements. Audio clip credits go to Leah Lakshmi Peipzna Samarasina and the Asian American Writers Workshop for their talk on Care Work Dreaming Disability Justice, accessed here: https://youtu.be/8UpQVlT2wCQAnd adrienne maree brown and Kate Werning on Irresistible podcast accessed here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2yEnrX4lZzVvCyHFD3ymcZ?si=mGAuycvjQx6Md4in3KOmoA