Podcasts about Audre Lorde

In this special episode of Pray with our Feet podcast, Mom and I chat with Yaa Abbensetts-Dobson, Michele Evans and Dr. Shameka Poetry Thomas, about the latest issue of Spoken Black Girl Magazine (which focuses on the Black motherhood experience) while also uplifting Black Maternal Health Week (April 11-17) founded by Black Mamas Matter Alliance.  We dive into the urgent need for community care, creating safe spaces for Black mothers and their children, resisting the suffocation of our wombs by oppressive systems, and the vital need for rest, mindfulness and radical self care in the tradition of Audre Lorde and June Jordan; each of these practices is a sacred form of resistance, sustaining us in the ongoing work of collective liberation.  We call our joy back to us, and remain rooted in our faith, despite the challenges.  Purchase your copy of Spoken Black Girl (Motherhood issue), where you can read "Swan Song," by Michele Evans, "Our Wombs Cannot Breathe: Wellness Power for Facing the Harsh Reality of Black Maternal-Child Health Disparities in the United States, by Dr. Shameka Poetry Thomas PhD & Dr. Kyrah K. Brown PhD, "Mothering at the Intersection of Blackness and Neurodiversity" by Emelda De Coteau alongside an array of talented writers and artists.  Stay Connected with the Writers: Yaa Abbensetts-Dobson, founder of Spoken Black Girl and author of Departure Story  Michele Evans, author of Purl (a collection of poetry)  Dr. Shameka Poetry Thomas, author of the forthcoming book entitled THE UGLY CRY: Essays and Meditations on Honesty, Anger, Grief, and Freedom. To be released Summer 2025.  >>> Head over to our webiste to see full show notes (includes the authors bios & additonal links to their work)   Help Us Spread the Word! If you enjoy the Pray with our Feet podcast, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, where you can subscribe to the show. You can also listen on Spotify, and on all major streaming platforms. BE in Community with Us:  Find devotionals, blog posts, and shop in our  online store.  Head over to Instagram and Threads where the conversation continues between episodes.   Enjoy our @PrayWithOurFeet IG Live series, Move it Forward Monday, uplifting conversations that spark change with activists, community leaders, artists and more.   Special thank you to my husband Keston De Coteau, for podcast production; he is an award-winning videographer and photographer.

Send us a textHost Mighty Fine talks with guest Jessica Ritter about the despair and hope many working in public health are feeling following the April 2025 cuts to the CDC and HHS workforce. Jessica references different resources she has found helpful:"Learning from the 60's" in Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde"Feminist Survival Project" podcast by Emily Nagoski, especially the episode "An Alternative to Hope"Big Bear Bald Eagle Nest Cam: https://www.friendsofbigbearvalley.org/eagles/

She's Anita, a zombie raising hate crime enthusiast! He's Jean Claude, a vampire who's in the Chamber of Commerce and shops exclusively at International Male! They do not do it until the fifth book! It's Guilty Pleasures, the first Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter book by Laurell K. Hamilton! This was a serious thing for Sara back in college, who is currently having an existential crisis about the trashbag fakeass non-intersectional feminism of the all of it. It was new to Courtney, who hated it. It's halfway to Halloween, so we pulled this one out of a musty old crypt where we honestly kinda forgot about how we recorded it! I mentioned a quote and I mentioned the author but there were, like, twenty minutes between the two in the episode, so let me clarify that when I talked about how "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house" I was referring to an essay of the same title by Audre Lorde, from her collection Sister Outsider which is a) a quick read, go read it right now, it won't take you but a minute, and b) about being constantly asked to be the only Black woman, or the only lesbian, or the only Black lesbian, at every conference and on every panel. "As women, we have been taught either to ignore our differences, or to view them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than as forces for change. Without community there is no liberation, only the most vulnerable and temporary armistice between an individual and her oppression. But community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist." Audre Lorde would eat Anita Blake alive. There's actually quite a bit of content-warning stuff in here - obviously there's vampire-typical violence and lack of consent and all that, but there's also a ton coming from ol' Anita - you got some fat shaming, some kink shaming, she's really got it in for sex workers, she can't stand it when other people have any kind of good time, she's Not Like Other Girls... I bet there's even a bit in here where she talks about how unfashionably big her boobs are and how unfashionably beautiful her skin is and how unfashionably thick and lustrous her mane of hair is.

In this juicy, heartfelt episode, we're talking about the orgasm—yes, your orgasm. Whether you're self-partnered or dancing with a new lover, this episode is your reminder that pleasure is not a luxury—it's your birthright.We'll explore:Why orgasm is one of the most effective ways to calm your nervous systemThe difference between how men and women respond to porn and masturbationWhat science says about the health benefits of regular climactic releaseHow sexual shame, bad sex ed, and religious messaging have kept women in the darkThe truth about your body's ability to bloom, with or without a partnerTools, resources, and rituals to reconnect with your pleasure—todayWe're talking Dr. Emily Nagoski, Audre Lorde, Dr. Natasha Janina Valdez, personal stories, client breakthroughs, and some real talk about being fingered by a Mormon boy.

Valerie Granberg vertelt over zelfzorg. Voor sommigen heeft die term een negatieve bijklank. Maar de zorg voor zichzelf kent een lange filosofische traditie die een ander perspectief kan bieden. Audre Lorde ziet zelfzorg als politieke daad, volgens Hannah Proctor is zelfzorg noodzakelijk bij verzet tegen maatschappelijk onrecht, en Michel Foucault noemt zelfzorg het beheren van jezelf zodat je geen slaaf bent van je verlangens.  Leer meer over zelfzorg in de filosofieweek op 23 - 27 april 2025, die Valerie modereert. Met bijdragen van Marian Donner, Michel Dijkstra, Marli Huijer, Harriët Bergman, Dennis de Gruijter, Annette Nobuntu Mul, Lieke Knijnenburg, Marthe Kerkwijk, Dianne Sommers, Pablo Lamberti en Frank Meester.

In this episode, we celebrate Women's History Month with words of wisdom from many powerful, brilliant, and inspiring women. Their poignant quotes provide lasting insight and inspiration for all women as we continue to work towards gender equity for all. These quotes and the resulting discussion come from a variety of women including women of color, women from the LGBTQ community, and women from countries across the globe. The quotes go as far back as the 1700s through current day. This is about the voice and inspiration of ALL women. From Abigail Adams, Susan B. Anthony and Lucrecia Mott to Gloria Steinem, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde, to Doria Shafik, Raicho Hiratsuka, and Simone de Beauvoir to Maya Angelou and Emma Watson – you won't want to miss this inspiration and insight FROM warrior women, FOR warrior women. #womenshistorymonth For more information on Dr. Kimberly DeSimone or the Advancing Women Podcast:   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/advancingwomenpodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/advancingwomenpodcast Advancing Women Podcast Website: https://advancingwomenpodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-desimone-phd-mba-ba00b88/

Saruna angļu valodā!Kristīne sarunājas ar grāmatu pārdevēju, rakstnieci, publicisti un grāmatu apskatnieci Nikolu Brinkliju no Ņujorkas štata Amerikā.Šī ir saruna par Amerikas neatkarīgo grāmatnīcu pasauli, par mums mazāk zināmām niansēm pasaules grāmatu tirgū, kā top ietekmīgais The New York Times dižpārdokļu tops. Pieskārāmies arī daudznozīmīgajai šodienas Amerikas politiskajai pusei un cik liela ietekme uz publisko domu ir grāmatu pieejamībai.Saruna angļu valodā.Nikolas atsauksmēm un daiļradei vari sekot līdzi šeit:- Misshelved newsletter: misshelved.nebrinkley.com- Instagram: instagram.com/nebrinkley- Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/nebrinkley.bsky.social- Website: nebrinkley.com- Bookstore: oblongbooks.comNikolas pieminētie grāmatu ieteikumi:- anything by Audre Lorde (but particularly Sister Outsider)- anything by Ashley Poston- The Mars House by Natasha Pulley

The contemporary era of black intellectual thought 1975 to the present is characterized by a growth in black feminist thought, an expansion of rainbow coalitions by prominent black leaders, an explosion of the black middle class and a black bourgeoisie, and an extension of black political, social, and cultural ideas by influential scholars and academics. In opposition to the New Left Movement, there was a significant rise in conservatism not just in America but throughout the globe. This led to a drastic decrease in liberal welfare programs as well as a decrease in the practical reliance on socialism: Booker T. Washington's ideology specifically concerning education became the norm in the contemporary era. This period also witnessed the rise of the New Jim Crow: a system of mass incarceration and control of millions of primarily poor black and brown people as evidenced by millions of dollars governmental investment in for-profit prisons throughout America. The eventual election of President Barack Obama was not only a call to transcend the partisan bickering of Washington, but his presidency stood as a symbol of black excellence against traditional social hierarchies of white supremacy. The feminist Barbara Smith at the 1980 Combahee River Collective argues that world changing revolution don't have to just redistribute resources, but they also must be pro-feminist and antiracist to be comprehensive enough to include the most historically marginalized people in the modern era, black women. Many feminist and male freedom fighters such as the black panthers, were political prisoners who have garnered immense support for freedom in the modern era. Furthermore, the seminal first black mayor of Chicago Harold Washington through his reform of the segregated city revealed its racist structure and sought to undermine it. Intellectual feminists such as Audre Lorde indicated the necessity of identifying the elements of the oppressor in the oppressed, while Dr. Bell Hooks sought to illustrate the hierarchies of race, class, and gender and how we can overcome them. This era also saw massive opposition to the South African Apartheid state that lasted for four decades by such black icons such as Randall Robinson and Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jesse Jackson's rainbow coalition from his run for presidency in the mid 1980s would foreshadow the rise of Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008, 20 years later. However, education perspectives would transform more than politics. Academic scholars would shift the consciousness of minority student towards a greater appreciation of education by moving away from Eurocentric models of learning. What scholars like Dr. West and politicians like President Obama would recognize is that political advancement is more seated in understanding the need for hope, meaning, and purpose rather than identifying elements of subjugation against black America. These ideas would be drawn from many black figures of the past such as academics like W.E.B. Du Bois and social reformers like Dr. King and President Abraham Lincoln.

Nikki Giovanni was one of the greatest poets of her generation and it was an honour to sit with her for a special episode of The Last Bohemians, recorded in Spring 2024 in London, while she was promoting what would become her final anthology, Poems: 1968-2020 (Penguin Classics). When we saw she was in town, we jumped at the chance to speak with her and we're very grateful to have been granted an audience.A poet, author and activist, Nikki was considered a key figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s, which ran parallel to the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in America. It included notable writers and artists like Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou and another of our Last Bohemians, Betye Saar, many of whom she counted as friends. Just imagine that dinner party!Nikki was born in 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee, grew up in Ohio, and self-published her first two books in 1968. In the 70s, she was selling out huge concert venues and started blending gospel music with spoken word, on albums like Truth is On The Way, foreshadowing the birth of hip-hop. Her poems spoke boldly of justice and liberation but had love and joy at their centre, and she released over 30 books of them.It's strange and sad to speak about Nikki Giovanni in the past tense: she passed away on 9 December 2024, aged 81, of complications from lung cancer, just before this edit was finished.We've sat on this episode for a while, unsure what to do with it and when to release it to the world. But we think you should have it in time for International Women's Day 2025. Since 2019, we've either launched a series or a one-off around this time and felt that, with everything going on in the world at the moment, it's the moment to send this special conversation out there.And wow, does Nikki have some things to say, as she discusses becoming a success, her famous friendships with Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone, the power of anger, her self-care routine and why poetry is a serious business indeed.////CREDITS////This episode is hosted and exec-produced by Kate Hutchinson, with audio production and editing by Kit Callin. It was recorded at Spiritland Studios, London.The poem you hear is 'Serious Poems' by Nikki Giovanni, part of the anthology book Poems: 1968-2020, out now on Penguin Classics.The music used is 'Only Instrumental' by Broke For Free.A huge thank you to Juliette Morrison at Penguin and Virginia Fowler for helping to make this interview happen. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelastbohemians.substack.com/subscribe

Programmes spéciaux à l'occasion du 8 mars, Journée Internationale des droits des femmes Création à plusieurs voix et mains, issue d'un atelier d'écriture en non mixité. « Celle qui a tourné dix mille fois sept fois sa langue dans sa bouche avant de ne pas parler, ou elle en est morte, ou elle connaît sa langue et sa bouche mieux que tous » (Hélène Cixous, Le Rire de la Méduse) Une création sonore tissée par Lila Lakehal et nourrie des textes écrits et dits par Cassandra, Amel, Nina, Elie, Claudine, Wiebke et Michèle, réunies en atelier d'écriture aux Machines (Grenoble) en février 2025 pour transformer le silence en paroles et en actes (Audre Lorde), ainsi que de chants de la marche contre les violences sexistes et sexuelles du 25 novembre 2024. "J'écris pour..." "J'ai cris car..." Et toi ? Rires, larmes, paroles, révélations, oracles et revendications pour une libération féministe totale - ici et maintenant. Textes, chants : tous droits réservés à leurs autrices Production : Radio Campus Grenoble

This scholar and author's latest book, Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in August 2024. As a queer Black feminist love evangelist, […]

In the fifth episode of our Earthly Reads series, we dive into a conversation with the renowned Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde. This episode offers a preview of the live Earthly Reads Book Study, now available for purchase at forthewild.world/bookstudy.Throughout the conversation, Gumbs threads together her thoroughly-researched and deeply-felt knowledge of Audre Lorde with her own personal wit, observation, and openness. She also speaks to her understanding of Lorde's work as “geological,” following the connection Lorde draws between Blackness and our existence at every layer of Earth's interior. Reminding us of the value of the collective, Gumbs shares lessons for reciprocity, earthly embodiment, and the poetry of living. Earthly Reads is a podcast series and online book study featuring conversations with some of our favorite authors including adrienne maree brown, Marcia Bjornerud, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Prentis Hemphill, Tricia Hersey, and Céline Semaan.This episode is just a small glimpse into some of the incredible live conversations that will take place throughout the book study. For more details about the series and how to purchase access to the full study, visit forthewild.world/bookstudy.  Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all sentient beings. Her work in this lifetime is to facilitate infinite, unstoppable ancestral love in practice. Her poetic work in response to the needs of her cherished communities has held space for multitudes in mourning and movement. Alexis's co-edited volume Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines (PM Press, 2016) has shifted the conversation on mothering, parenting and queer transformation. Alexis has transformed the scope of intellectual, creative and oracular writing with her triptych of experimental works published by Duke University Press (Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity in 2016, M Archive: After the End of the World  in 2018 and Dub: Finding Ceremony, 2020.) Unlike most academic texts, Alexis's work has inspired artists across form to create dance works, installation work, paintings, processionals, divination practices, operas, quilts and more.  ♫  The music featured in this series is by Cool Maritime, Matt Baldwin, and Sharada Shashidhar and Caleb Buchanan from the compilation Staying: Leaving Records Aid to Artists Impacted by the Los Angeles Wildfires courtesy of our partner Leaving Records. Compilation proceeds are directed back into the community of artists and families impacted by the fires. Learn more at staying.bandcamp.com.Support the show

Notes and Links to Lamya H's Work        Lamya H (she/they) is a queer Muslim writer and organizer living in New York City. Their memoir HIJAB BUTCH BLUES (February, 2023 from Dial Press/Penguin Randomhouse) won the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize and a Stonewall Non-fiction Book Award, and was a finalist for Lambda Literary and Publishing Triangle Awards. Lamya's work has appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon, Autostraddle, Vice, and others. She has received fellowships from Lambda Literary and Queer|Arts.      Lamya's organizing work centers around creating spaces for LGBTQ+ Muslims, fighting Islamophobia, Palestine and prison abolition. In her free time, she eats lots of desserts baked by her partner, plays board games with whoever she can corral, and works on her goal of traveling to every subway stop in the city. She has never run a marathon.    Find her on Twitter and IG: @lamyaisangry Buy Hijab Butch Blues   Lamya H's Website   Book Review for Hijab Butch Blues from NPR   At about 2:20: Lamya shouts out Dominion as a top-tier board game and talks about flickering hopes of running a marathon  At about 5:35, Lamya talks about reading and writing and speaking in multiple languages growing up, as well as reading a lot of colonial texts from the British Empire At about 7:30, Lamya talks about beijing “flabbergasted” by the great White Teeth at age 15  At about 9:30, Lamya uses the evocative image of “fish not understanding that they're in water” in responding to Pete's questions about how she recognized representation and colonial tropes in lit At about 11:10, Lamya cites formative and transformative texts and authors in her adolescent year  At about 13:55, Lamya discusses early sparks for activism through a friend's introduction of Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, and more At about 15:15, Lamya responds to Pete's questions about her current reading, including her love for Huda F's work At about 18:45, Lamya responds to Pete's questions about her usage of “queer” and the titular “butch” At about 22:30, The two discuss a meaningful Quranic verse that starts off the book-Lamya explains ideas of “faith in flux” At about 25:00, Lamya gives background on surahs and a significant part of her book discussing Maryam's life and trials At about 26:45, Lamya discusses boredom in the high school years and how she felt connections to Maryam At about 29:45, Lamya responds to Pete's questions about feeling like life “is out of your control” as a teenager/high schooler At about 30:45, Lamya explains feelings of internalizing queerness upon experiencing a crush at age 14 At about 34:50, Lamya describes the importance of Quranic verses involving Maryam and “intentionality” and taqwa At about 38:00, Lamya responds to Pete's questions about the “Arab hierarchy” that she experienced as a kid, and the ways in which she and her family were targets of racism At about 41:40, Lamya details many meanings of “jinn” and describes its usage in her memoir At about 43:40, Lamya describes a friend “jumpstarting” a repudiation of internalized racism  At about 45:15, Lamya gives background on Allah and ideas of “transcending” gender  At about 49:00, The two discuss “rigid gender roles” as featured in the memoir, as well as connections to the Biblical Adam At about 50:00, Lamya outlines a offbeat “outing” experience  At about 51:30, Pete describe Musa's connections to Lamya's “coming out slowly process” and asks Lamya to comment-she talks about “reframing the negative” At about 53:45, Lamya cites “inviting in” as a way of reframing the “coming out” trope At about 55:35, Pete shouts out Christina Cooke's quote of queerness as “divine” At about 56:25, The two discuss empathetic and sensitive friends  At about 57:10, The Prophet Muhammed and connections to fealty and openness of fath and individuality are discussed At about 59:50, The two discuss “being “comfortable” in one's own skin and finding community At about 1:00:45, Lamya responds to Pete's questions about Asiya and those who encourage and perpetuate victimizers, including about ideas of citizenship in a country that has so often victimized  At about 1:03:40, Pete shouts out great “plot” in the book and a dizzying scene painted so well by Lamya At about 1:05:30: Lamya talks about hopes that her book and story can be universal while it is quite specific   At about 1:07:00, Lamya encourages people to “buy local”          You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.       I am very excited to have one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. This week, my conversation with Episode 265 guest Carvell Wallace is up on the website. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review.     Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl      Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!    This month's Patreon bonus episode will feature an exploration of the wonderful poetry of Khalil Gibran.    I have added a $1 a month tier for “Well-Wishers” and Cheerleaders of the Show.    This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.    The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.     Please tune in for Episode 273 with Raúl Perez. He is an Associate Professor of Sociology at University of La Verne and the author of The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy. His work has been published in American Behavioral Scientist, Discourse and Society, Ethnicities, and Sociological Perspectives, and featured in Time, The Grio, Latino Rebels, and Zócalo Public Square.    The episode airs on February 25.

Philip welcomes poet/writer Alexis Pauline Gumbs to the show to discuss her book Survival Is A Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, a biography of poet, writer, educatpr Audre Lorde. In their conversation, they explore Audre Lorde's like, work and legacy and the incredible resonance she continues to have to generations of thinkers and explorers. The Drop – The segment of the show where Philip and his guest share tasty morsels of intellectual goodness and creative musings. Philip's Drop: Line of Duty (Prime) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2303687/) Alexis's Drop: Blink Twice (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14858658/) Special Guest: Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

Send us a textThis week we have a special episode with Haylie honoring the late and great Audre Lorde and the brilliant Donika Kelly. This is not a discussion on these great poets, simply an opportunity taken to let these two black queer writers' words speak for themselves. Audre's biography read in this episode is from The Poetry Foundation, and Donika's is from her website.In this episode, Haylie read the poems "Coal," "A Litany for Survival," and "Power" by Audre Lorde, and "What is the Measure" and "The moon rose over the bay. I had a lot of feelings," by Donika Kelly.If you would like to support us, please download and leave us a review. We appreciate your support and love! You can reach out to us through Instagram, TikTok, or email. Insta/TikTok: @LesbianBookClubPodEmail: lesbianbookclubpod@gmail.com

Happy Love Day, Relatives! While Valentine's Day may be wrapped in candy hearts and Hallmark sentiments, its origins are far from sweet. As NPR's Arnie Seipel reminds us, its history is "dark, bloody, and a bit muddled." In ancient Rome, Lupercalia—a violent fertility festival—was held from February 13th to 15th, perhaps explaining why red became the color of love.But today, we shift the focus away from romantic love and toward something deeper: self-love, communal love, and intergenerational healing.In this episode, we are joined by the incredible Vina Brown, the creative force behind Copper Canoe Woman. Vina, from the Heiltsuk and Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations, is not only an acclaimed jewelry artist but also a scholar, currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she studies Indigenous food sovereignty and wellness. She is also the co-founder of Rooted Resiliency, a nonprofit dedicated to reclaiming Indigenous wellness practices.Together, we dive into the messy, powerful, and transformative aspects of love. "Real love is messy," Vina reminds us. "It's not pretty, it's not perfect, but that's what makes it so beautiful." We explore self-care beyond consumerism, moving away from the capitalist version of “self-care”—think retail therapy and spa days—toward a decolonized perspective. Audre Lorde's words guide us: "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."Vina shares the story of her grandmother Elsie, a residential school survivor who embarked on her healing journey later in life, breaking generational cycles by learning to love openly. We discuss the power of community healing, the necessity of platonic love, and the strength in vulnerability. "We don't heal in silos," Vina says. "We heal in community."As part of this journey, we're also hosting Reclaiming Wellness, a community event featuring Indigenous women leaders focusing on movement, meditation, and reconnecting with ancestral knowledge.Join us as we recommit to self-love, embrace relationality over individualism, and recognize that healing is a lifelong journey. As Vina reminds us, "Our ancestors knew we were interconnected. The land, the wind, the water—they all hold us."Let's reclaim love—love for ourselves, our communities, and our lands. Share this conversation, connect with us, and be part of this movement. ❤️Send us your thoughts!Support the showFollow us on Instagam @amrpodcast, or support our work on Patreon. Show notes are published on our website, Allmyrelationspodcast.com. Matika's book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America is available now! T'igwicid and Hyshqe for being on this journey with us.

February is Black History Month, an annual celebration to honor the remarkable achievements of African Americans and acknowledge their pivotal contributions to U.S. history. Throughout this journey, African American women have often been overlooked, despite playing a central role in the ongoing fight for gender equity. This episode celebrates and highlights the powerful voices of courageous Black women, past and present, who have dedicated their lives to creating a more just and equitable world. Tune in for a profound conversation filled with the wisdom and inspiration of these incredible women, whose words continue to carry immense power and make a lasting impact! #tunein to the #advancingwomenpodcast to celebrate Black History Month and honor the invaluable insights of brilliant Black women, including Sojourner Truth, Shirley Chisholm, Bell Hooks, Pauli Murray, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, Dr. Maya Angelou, and many more!  References: Hooks, B. (1981). Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Chicago Hooks, B. Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. Cambridge, MA: South End Press About Kimberlé Crenshaw https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination Sojourner Truth's Ain't I a Woman Speech (read by Dr. Maya Angelou) https://youtu.be/mM4JjuQeqDA Truth, S. (Original Speech, 1851) https://thehermitage.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Sojourner-Truth_Aint-I-a-Woman_1851.pdf For more information on Dr. DeSimone or the Advancing Women Podcast: Advancing Women Podcast https://advancingwomenpodcast.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/advancingwomenpodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/advancingwomenpodcast/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-desimone-phd-mba-ba00b88/

Our journey on the fear of being seen continues! Today we discuss stepping out of your protective shell and embracing your fullest expression. Delve into "overcoming" fears of visibility, childhood wounds, and societal pressures that lead us to hide and dim our light — the same light that is our only hope for healing and transforming the world.

You deserve the ease you've been unconsciously rejecting or denying as possible. In this Soul Session, we explore how social conditioning often overshadows our natural gifts and the possibility of finding joy and ease in creation. From childhood passions to adult aspirations, we discuss the importance of feeling worthy of ease and support in our daily lives and creative pursuits. Join us in reprogramming paradigms for a life rooted in love, community, liberation, and EASE.

Back in October, Sofia González, teacher, thinker, writer, speaker and activist and Gerardo finally found time for this interview. This was prior to the 2024 election and all that followed. What ensued was a great conversation--provocative, humorous, and energetic. As we brace ourselves to face another four years of anxiety, frustration, fear, and state-encouraged violence, this conversation remains a reminder that the struggle is truly beautiful, and full of opportunities for all of us to engage differently, as the people we are. To quote the great poet Audre Lorde, “We are the ones we have been waiting for,” exemplified by Ms. G. Sofia is 2019 teacher of the year with the National Society of High School Scholars, nonprofit leader for organization Project 214, and education activist from the Chicagoland area. She is a sought-after public speaker regarding the state of education who is known for her cutting-edge presentations and dynamic illustrations with a passion that's infectious. A High School teacher, 15-year veteran, teacher leader, and alum in a variety of spaces like Fulbright, Latinos for Education, Latinx Education Collaborative-Storytellers for Change, and Urban Leaders Fellowship, Sofia's passion and energy towards education equity remains a leading voice for the 21st-century classroom and beyond. 

What do a braided whip, property damage, and divine anger have in common? Co-pastor Tonetta weaves together Audre Lorde's philosophy, personal reflections on queerness and race, and a radically different take on Jesus clearing the temple. This episode dives into what authentic resistance looks like, why being "well-mannered" isn't always virtuous, and how disruption can be an act of love. Perfect for anyone looking to bridge their spiritual life with their commitment to justice, or who's ever wished they could channel their inner "that girl" energy for good.

What do Audre Lorde, Pamela Anderson and Florence Nightingale all have in common? They all began writing diaries as young girls and remained seasoned diarists later in life. But what purpose does keeping a diary as a teenager serve? And what can reflecting on the intimate accounts our younger selves wrote, tell us about who we are today and the changing world around us?Ifedayo Agoro is a Nigerian entrepreneur who began writing a diary at the age of eleven. The habit began after she got into trouble at school, and wrote her mother a letter to explain what had happened. As punishment, her mother asked Ifedayo to pen a letter every week in a diary, and Ifedayo documented life as a young girl in the Shogunle neighbourhood of Lagos. This punishment soon became a joy and in 2015 Ifedayo wrote an anonymous online diary called Diary Of A Naija Girl. Five years later, she put her name to the diary and it now has 740,000 followers on Instagram.Sophie Duker is a British comedian and writer. She is currently touring Europe with her stand-up show, But Daddy I Love Her, inspired by the concept of delusion. Sophie began writing an online diary at the age of 14, capturing matters of emotional significance such as her parent's divorce, her father moving from the UK and her first encounter with grief. These profound milestones are interwoven with the everyday highs and lows of being a British teenager: crushes on the Harry Potter cast and encounters with school bullies.Produced by Elena Angelides and Jane Thurlow

When considering what to offer for her ODA practice, Lisa considered chanting or reading from a more traditional Buddhist text such as the Heart Sutra. She found, instead, that reading the words of Audre Lorde resonated more deeply in her body at this time. And co-host Dana Takagi offers some context on Lorde from Lisa before she reads.  Please enjoy, Lisa Nakamura reading an excerpt from "Learning from the 60s", a talk given by Audre Lorde as part of the February 1982 celebration of Malcolm X Weekend at Harvard University. LISA NAKAMURA (she/her) is the Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor of American Culture and Digital Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is also a core faculty member of the Asian American Studies Program, the Film, Television and Media department, and the English department at Michigan. Lisa is the author of four books on racism, sexism, and the Internet and her book “The Inattention Economy: Women of Color and the Internet” is forthcoming in Fall 2025 from University of Minnesota Press. She has published research on Asian stereotypes in massively multiplayer online games, the connections between virtual reality, empathy, and racial and disability justice, the overlooked role of indigenous women in postwar electronics manufacture, and on cross-racial and cross-gender role play in anonymous digital environments like chatrooms and games. lisanakamura.net

In the final episode of Human Conditions, Brent and Adam turn to Audre Lorde's Sister Outsider, a collection of prose with exceptional relevance to contemporary grassroots politics. Like Du Bois, Césaire and Baraka, Lorde's work defies genre: as she argues in this collection, ‘poetry is not a luxury' but an essential tool for liberation. Throughout her work, Lorde sought to find and articulate new ways of living that encompassed her whole self – as a Black woman, poet, essayist, novelist, mother and lesbian. Brent and Adam discuss Lorde's radical poetics and politics, and the case for poetry, anger, vulnerability, love and desire as the arsenal of revolution.This podcast was recorded on 21 August 2024.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsBrent Hayes Edwards is a scholar of African American and Francophone literature and of jazz studies at Columbia University.Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.ukFurther reading and listening in the LRB:Reni Eddo-Lodge & Sarah Shin: On Audre Lordehttps://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/at-the-bookshop/reni-eddo-lodge-and-sarah-shin-on-audre-lorde-your-silence-will-not-protect-youJesse McCarthy & Adam Shatz: Blind Spotshttps://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/blind-spotsSean Jacobs: Chop-Chop Spirithttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n09/sean-jacobs/chop-chop-spiritAnge Mlinko: Waiting for the Poetryhttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n14/ange-mlinko/waiting-for-the-poetry Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Dreaming in Color, a show hosted by Darren Isom, a partner with The Bridgespan Group, that provides a space for social change leaders of color to reflect on how their life experiences, personal and professional, have prepared them to lead and drive the impact we all seek. In this bonus episode, Darren is joined by a dynamic panel of philanthropic leaders: Don Chen (President of Surdna Foundation) Flozell Daniels, Jr. (CEO of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation), Mayra Peters-Quintero (Executive Director of Abundant Futures Fund), and Vanessa Mason (Principal at Omidyar Network), and . Recorded live at the Surdna Foundation offices in New York City, the group dives into an in-depth discussion about building a more equitable world through racial justice, cross-racial solidarity, and community-driven solutions.Join the conversation as the panelists explore the role of relationships in movement building, the power of joy and imagination in sustaining hope, and the importance of investing in intergenerational leadership. They discuss the challenges of systemic change, the need for incremental wins, and how to create space for collective healing and repair.Jump Straight Into:(00:22) Darren introduces the panel and sets the stage with a poem by Audre Lorde.(01:45) Flozell Daniels, Jr. reflects on his family history, his racial equity work, and what brings him sunshine.(07:28) Mayra Peters-Quintero shares her journey in immigrant rights advocacy and her hopes for creating a culture of belonging.(15:12) Don Chen discusses the critical role of cross-racial solidarity in achieving systemic change.(21:30) Vanessa Mason highlights the importance of joy and care in equity work and the necessity of dreaming together.(29:15) The panel reflects on the generational shift in leadership and creating space for younger leaders to thrive.(42:03) A forward-looking conversation about building a shared future and fostering collective imagination.Episode Resources:Connect with Flozell Daniels, Jr., Don Chen, Mayra Peters-Quintero, and Vanessa Mason on LinkedIn.Learn more about the organizations they represent: Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Abundant Futures Fund, and Omidyar Network.Listen to past Dreaming in Color episodes here.

Hank Willis Thomas talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Thomas, born in 1976 in Plainfield, New Jersey, is a conceptual artist whose works in various media address identity, collectivity and subjectivity, particularly in relation to race, and how these subjects shape—and are shaped by—broad phenomena, from sports, advertising and brands to art history. Thomas trained as a photographer and a search for a singular powerful image underpins much of his work. But however impactful it might be at first sight, that instant appeal is always a gateway to greater cultural and historical complexity. He discusses his latest exhibition, Kinship of the Soul and its fusion of the paintings of Romare Bearden, Aaron Douglas and Henri Matisse, the early influence of Roy DeCarava's photographs, the importance of the Gee's Bend quilters, the writing of Audre Lorde and James Baldwin, and his surprising response to the Dukes of Hazzard television show. Plus, he answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Hank Willis Thomas: Kinship of the Soul, Pace, London, unil 21 December; Irving Penn: Kinship, Curated by Hank Willis Thomas, Pace, New York, until 21 December. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What can we learn from marine mammals in their practices of echolocation? What is the difference between identification as a colonial tool of control and separation, versus identifying with as an invitation to expand and blur boundaries? And how do Audre Lorde's poetic dreams of survival continue to reverberate during our times — helping us to reorient the ways that we show up for ourselves, for our communities and our planet?In this episode, we are honored to welcome Alexis Pauline Gumbs, a Queer Black Feminist Love Evangelist, an aspirational cousin to all life, and the author of Undrowned and Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde.Join us in this heartwarming conversation as we explore lessons from marine mammals, teachings from the artful life of Audre Lorde, the significance of what it means to survive, and more.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to Kamea's newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Rimbaud disait que « le Poète se fait voyant par un long, immense et raisonné dérèglement de tous les sens ». De son côté, Audre Lorde affirmait que « le silence ne nous protègera pas ». À bien des égards, à travers son travail, Khady Sylla s'est elle aussi faite voyante, brisant le silence pour nous plonger dans la poésie du quotidien dakarois, à la rencontre des marges et des invisibles, comme Amy dans Le Monologue de la muette ou les passagers de Colobane Express. Johanna Makabi Khady Sylla a filmé les gens avec tendresse et sensibilité, s'immergeant à tel point qu'elle est devenue elle-même sujet de son propre film, Une fenêtre ouverte. Elle a transformé la caméra en un outil de clairvoyance, révélant ceux que la société ignore, ce que nous ne voyons plus. Elle nous a rappelé que le va-et-vient des vagues, tout comme le battement de nos cœurs, est à la fois banal et extraordinaire. À travers son œuvre, Khady Sylla montre que chaque instant de la vie est un miracle qui mérite d'être raconté. Elle a pris le risque ultime : celui d'incarner son amour pour les mots et les images en parlant depuis un lieu et à une époque où son regard était marginalisé. Onze ans après sa mort, cet hommage rappelle, comme il est nécessaire de le faire pour tant de femmes cinéastes, que Khady Sylla ne doit pas être « découverte » ou « redécouverte » ; le cinéma de Khady Sylla doit simplement être, et continuer à circuler. Pour en parler :- Marie-France Aubert, directrice artistique du FIFAM- Johanna Makabi, cinéaste et plasticienne- Rodolphe Respaud, monteur.

Self-care is more than a buzzword - it's a revolutionary act. In episode 15 of Queer Story Time we discuss how healing ourselves individually not only transforms our own lives but also strengthens the collective fight for change and transformation globally. Whether you're a healer, teacher, or advocate, you'll find practical tools to sustain your activism and nourish your well-being. We explore the deep connection between self-care, activism, and community building for queer and trans equity, liberation, and justice. Inspired by leaders like Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, Bell Hooks, and Grace Lee Boggs.In this episode, we cover:Why self-care is vital for sustaining activism.The wisdom of Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, Bell Hooks, and Grace Lee Boggs.Practices to process emotions, release pain, and connect inwardly, including yoga, meditation, forest bathing, and the Dutch art of "Niksen" (doing nothing).Foundational health habits to feel happier, healthier, and more whole.Takeaway Message:Caring for yourself is integral to showing up fully in the fight for justice. By healing yourself, you contribute to the healing of our entire community and world at large.Work with Me:Feeling stuck in your healing journey? As a yoga & ayurvedic therapist, Buddhist teacher, and soon-to-be naturopathic physician, I offer holistic health coaching to help you thrive.

Now that we've had a week to digest, it's time to focus on the task at hand. We need to remember our training. (Do I sound like Yoda? Haha) So many of us have signed up for trainings and workshops and classes centered around healing ourselves, from yoga to meditation to sound healing. A lot of folks have even learned about astrology and human design and herbalism. This is a sign of us returning to I wear Roots, to returning to our relationship with ourselves and with the Earth. Now is the time for those practices to be applied to the greater whole, to the collective. This is what we have been training for. What does that even mean? Tune into this week's episode to learn more!   =============== Today's poems/ Books mentioned: Oracle Card: The King of Cups “Power” by Audre Lorde from the book “The Black Unicorn” ===============  Courses / Exclusive Content / Book Mentioned: Subscribe to mailing list + community: suryagian.com/subscribe and get the 7-day meditation challenge, “Spark Joy in Chaos” Subscribe to “Adventures in Midlife” newsletter: leslieann.substack.com Instagram: @leslieannhobayan  Email: leslieann@suryagian.com Creative Writing Camp: https://www.suryagian.com/creative-writing-camp

In this episode of the Teach Different Podcast, hosts Dan and Steve Fouts are joined by Thandeka Malaza, a mathematician and fellow podcaster from Swaziland, explore a quote by civil rights activist Audre Lorde: “To suppress any truth is to give it power beyond endurance.” The conversation explores various interpretations of truth, personal stories, and the philosophical and ethical implications of lying. They also discuss some historical examples and the role of intention in determining when it might be morally right to suppress the truth. Guest Bio:  Having graduated with a Mathematics major, Thandeka enjoys solving problems in her environments and hopes to continuously contribute towards creating better systems. She finds freedom in her pen and expresses most of her ideas on paper and loves to challenge them in conversation with others. She is the host of the socio-cultural podcast, Tea With Tee and the co-founder of a Pan-African book club - It's In The Binding. She finds joy in taking walks, making playlists and community centric activity. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Audre_lorde.jpg Elsa Dorfman, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Self-described “Black Feminist Love Evangelist,” Alexis Pauline Gumbs has been widely praised for her incisive thought and inspired prose. The author recently released her new book Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde. Alexis is the first researcher to explore the full depths of Lorde's manuscript archives, and the book illuminates Lorde's understanding of survival on a changing planet. Isa Nakazawa sits down with Alexis to discuss her and Lorde's relationship to their fathers, what it means to mother and how her chart reflects the same breadth and depth as her writing.

Send us a textMegan and Michelle bring you their 200th episode about self-care, starting projects, paywalls, crystals, values, Noxema, mani pedis, and looking on the bright side.Sources:The Radical History of Self-CareOrigins of self-care and why activists and advocates need to practice itReal self-care takes real systemic changeThe Connection Between Self-Care and Mental HealthWhat's Wrong With Self-Care Culture?"This Has Come Too Far": People Are Sharing Self-Care Trends That Are Actually Toxic****************Want to support Prosecco Theory?Become a Patreon subscriber and earn swag!Check out our merch, available on teepublic.com!Follow/Subscribe wherever you listen!Rate, review, and tell your friends!Follow us on Instagram!****************Ever thought about starting your own podcast? From day one, Buzzsprout gave us all the tools we needed get Prosecco Theory off the ground. What are you waiting for? Follow this link to get started. Cheers!!

Kate Wolf speaks with filmmakers Brett Story and Stephen Maing about their new documentary Union, which is out in theaters now. It follows, in real time, the forming of the first ever Amazon union in the country, the ALU, at the JKF8 plant in Staten Island. Later in the conversation Chris Smalls, the president of ALU, joins as well. Chris began to petition for the Amazon union after he was fired by the company in March of 2020 for walking off the job in protest of the lack of Covid safety precautions at the plant. The film picks up about a year later as Chris and his fellow organizers are gathering signatures to ratify their petition to formalize the union process. It captures the ensuing months of grueling work by Chris and other ALU members as they try to convince the 8,000 plus workers at the JFK8 plant that a union is in their best interest. The film is an object lesson in the many tactics needed for political organizing, and the inevitable discord that comes with it, both from the outside—in this case, one of the biggest companies in the world—and from within as well. Also, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Survival Is A Promise: the Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, returns to recommend Audre Lorde's The Black Unicorn.

Kate Wolf speaks with filmmakers Brett Story and Stephen Maing about their new documentary Union, which is out in theaters now. It follows, in real time, the forming of the first ever Amazon union in the country, the ALU, at the JKF8 plant in Staten Island. Later in the conversation Chris Smalls, the president of ALU, joins as well. Chris began to petition for the Amazon union after he was fired by the company in March of 2020 for walking off the job in protest of the lack of Covid safety precautions at the plant. The film picks up about a year later as Chris and his fellow organizers are gathering signatures to ratify their petition to formalize the union process. It captures the ensuing months of grueling work by Chris and other ALU members as they try to convince the 8,000 plus workers at the JFK8 plant that a union is in their best interest. The film is an object lesson in the many tactics needed for political organizing, and the inevitable discord that comes with it, both from the outside—in this case, one of the biggest companies in the world—and from within as well. Also, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Survival Is A Promise: the Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, returns to recommend Audre Lorde's The Black Unicorn.

To say Dr. Sean Fitzpatrick helped The Rose navigate the pandemic would be an understatement. As the Executive Director of The Jung Center, he's not only given our community hope in the darkest of times, but he's also done so for countless others in the Houston area. During this conversation, Dorothy and Dr. Fitzpatrick talk about the past four years and how they've impacted the breast cancer community. He'll talk about the need for caregivers to embrace self-care and encourages breast cancer patients to engage in self-acceptance. But back to self-care. We get a brief history lesson when Dr. Fitzpatrick discusses Audre Lorde. He said, “She was faced with this decision early 80s. She was a black woman, single mother, uninsured, trying to make the difficult decision of whether she was going to just live out what life she had left serving her values, which really was serving the needs of black women, or if she was going to take the step back to seek treatment.” Learn more about Sean's work and The Jung Center at www.junghouston.com. Help us share the mission of The Rose by subscribing to Let's Talk About Your Breasts on your favorite podcast platform, and by sharing with your family and friends.  Please consider supporting us at therose.org. Your donation could help save the life of an uninsured woman. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kate Wolf and Eric Newman speak with Alexis Pauline Gumbs about Survival Is A Promise: the Eternal Life of Audre Lorde. A deeply researched and impressionistic biography of one of the most iconic figures of 20th century Black, queer, and feminist thought, Survival Is A Promise is a love letter to Lorde, pushing past her broad circulation in social media memes, inspirational quotes, and other forms of contemporary iconography. Gumbs' book locates the tectonic forces Lorde at once brought into view and moved through herself. Also, Rumaan Alam, author of Entitlement, returns to recommend Visitors by Anita Brookner.

Kate Wolf and Eric Newman speak with Alexis Pauline Gumbs about Survival Is A Promise: the Eternal Life of Audre Lorde. A deeply researched and impressionistic biography of one of the most iconic figures of 20th century Black, queer, and feminist thought, Survival Is A Promise is a love letter to Lorde, pushing past her broad circulation in social media memes, inspirational quotes, and other forms of contemporary iconography. Gumbs' book locates the tectonic forces Lorde at once brought into view and moved through herself. Also, Rumaan Alam, author of Entitlement, returns to recommend Visitors by Anita Brookner.

Episode 12 Want a personalized Black Moon Lilith reading? Download the ⁠CHANI app⁠ and use code LILITH30 for a 30-day, all-access pass to all our premium content, including Black Moon Lilith birth chart readings, guided meditations, and more.  Terms and conditions apply. In this podcast, professional astrologers Chani Nicholas, Thea Anderson, and Eliza Robertson look to the sky to make sense of what's happening here on Earth. This special episode is dedicated entirely to Lilith — the exiled goddess, the feral femme, the cosmic wild one. Starting with the myth of Lilith and the ways she is characterized in ancient texts, we parse the role Lilith has taken up in lore. Then we break down the astro — the origin of Black Moon Lilith as an astrological point and everything it can tell us about embodying the power of the archetypal outcast. We also take a look at the birth charts of prominent cultural icons with notable Black Moon Lilith natal placements — from Audre Lorde to Marilyn Monroe — and discuss how each of these figures has embodied the spirit of the original outsider. So open your CHANI app, and get ready for untamable Lilith to enter the chat. Content warning: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Timestamps: (00:00) - Welcome to Down to Astro episode 12 (00:00) - The myth of Lilith: an introduction (19:55) - Lilith in ancient texts and traditions (29:55) - The duality of Lilith: wild vs. cultivated (39:56) - Lilith's transformation in patriarchal narratives (49:59) - Astrological significations of Black Moon Lilith (01:00:12) - Black Moon Lilith in personal astrology: chart interpretations (01:16:43) - Josephine Baker: the shadow and the spotlight (01:24:34) - Audre Lorde: the power of the erotic (01:39:10) - Amy Winehouse: the wild spirit (01:51:31) - Janis Joplin: the outsider's voice (02:03:05) - Marilyn Monroe: the misunderstood seductress This episode was recorded on 9/12/2024. For more astrological insights, download the ⁠CHANI app⁠ or follow CHANI on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠Twitter⁠. The song “Midas,” featured in the podcast, was created by ⁠NISHA⁠ and is available wherever you listen to music. This episode also mentioned the following creative works: “Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth” translated by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer “The Book of Lilith” by Barbara Black Koltuv “Sister Outsider” by Audre Lorde “The Black Unicorn: Poems” by Audre Lorde “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” by Audre Lorde “The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House” by Audre Lorde P.S. The transcript for this episode is available ⁠here⁠.

In this episode of Parents Who Think, host Danusia Malina-Derben explores Stoicism and its relevance to parenting. Drawing on her experience as a mother to 10 children, she reflects on how Stoic principles like control, patience, and detachment have shaped her approach to raising kids. But it's not just about personal resilience ~ Danusia also gets into the limits of Stoicism, especially when it comes to addressing the broader systemic challenges that families face.   Through thoughtful reflections, she balances Stoic ideas with insights from feminist and care ethicists like bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and Carol Gilligan, showing that emotional engagement and systemic awareness are essential in parenting.   This episode challenges listeners to consider how they can raise resilient children while also recognising and addressing the societal pressures their children face.   Tune in for a thought-provoking exploration of Stoicism, love, and the complexities of modern parenting.   Head over to comment on this episode on the “Parents Who Think” on Substack.    Discover more from us: • Follow PWT on Substack • Follow us on Instagram • Connect with Danusia • Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts • Advertising Inquiries here   Credits: • Hosted by Danusia Malina-Derben • Edited, Mixed + Mastered by Marie Kruz • Cover art by Anthony Oram

Episode 17 features poet Nadia Colburn (03:47), who joins Ann Wallace from Massachusetts to speak about her new collection, I Say the Sky, published this year by University of Kentucky Press. Nadia's collection is a work of meditative healing, moving from silence into power. She invites us to see ourselves reflected in nature, and that poetry, in the words of Audre Lorde, indeed is not a luxury.    Next up, Kim Correro speaks with Sarah F. Jayne (0:37:29)about her new book Nature's Action Guide: How to Support Biodiversity and Your Local Ecosystem. Sarah's book, a companion to Doug Tallamy's Nature's Best Hope, outlines fifteen actions we can and must take for creating healthy, functioning ecosystems where we live, work, and play. Each action includes a checklist, step-by-step instructions, recommended resources, and informative tips.   And in our final segment, Kim and Ann talk with Doug Tallamy, (057:39)bestselling author and co-founder of Homegrown National Park, about his new book, How Can I Help: Saving the World with Your Yard, forthcoming from Timber Press on April 8, 2025. In the new book, Doug shares compelling and actionable answers to questions he most often receives from gardeners and homeowners. Topics range from ecology and biodiversity, conservation and restoration, native plants and invasive species, to pest control and support of wildlife at home. Doug offers important advice on what we can do as individuals to support biodiversity. He also stresses the importance of voting and making our values known to public officials.  Thank you for joining us on The WildStory. Follow us on Instagram @Thewildstory_podcast

On today's episode, we discuss the ways our faith has changed as we've grown in discipleship and justice work. Our spiritual practices, as well as our relationships with church, God, and the non-Christian world have all transformed over time, sometimes in surprising ways that would have made us uncomfortable in our earlier years as followers of Jesus. It's a personal and instructive conversation on how to grow up with Jesus that we know will be helpful for a lot of people. Plus, after that conversation we get into the war in Sudan and why it's an important topic for us to learn about and engage with.Mentioned in the episode:-            The episode of the Movement Memos podcast about the war in Sudan-            The link to donate to the Sudan Solidarity Collective via PayPalCredits-            Follow KTF Press on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Subscribe to get our bonus episodes and other benefits at KTFPress.com.-        Follow host Jonathan Walton on Facebook Instagram, and Threads.-        Follow host Sy Hoekstra on Mastodon.-        Our theme song is “Citizens” by Jon Guerra – listen to the whole song on Spotify.-        Our podcast art is by Robyn Burgess – follow her and see her other work on Instagram.-        Editing by Multitude Productions-        Transcripts by Joyce Ambale and Sy Hoekstra.-        Production by Sy Hoekstra and our incredible subscribersTranscript[An acoustic guitar softly plays six notes in a major scale, the first three ascending and the last three descending, with a keyboard pad playing the tonic in the background. Both fade out as Jonathan Walton says “This is a KTF Press podcast.”]Jonathan Walton: I'm trying to live in the reality that God actually loves me and he actually loves other people, and that's just true. And to live in that quote- unquote, belovedness is really, really, really difficult in a extractivist, culturally colonized, post-plantation, capitalistic society.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs].Jonathan Walton: It's really, really hard when every single thing that I was raised to do goes against, just receiving anything.[The song “Citizens” by Jon Guerra fades in. Lyrics: “I need to know there is justice/ That it will roll in abundance/ And that you're building a city/ Where we arrive as immigrants/ And you call us citizens/ And you welcome us as children home.” The song fades out.]Sy Hoekstra: Welcome to Shake the Dust, seeking Jesus, confronting injustice. I'm Sy Hoekstra.Jonathan Walton: And I'm Jonathan Walton.Sy Hoekstra: This week we have a great conversation. There's no guest this week, it's just Jonathan and I. And we are actually going to be talking about something that we originally were gonna talk to Lisa about in the last episode, but we ran out of time [laughter]. And we thought it would be, actually it was worth taking the time to talk about this in a full episode format. And the topic is basically this, as people grow not just normally in their faith, but also in the kind of work that we're doing, resisting the idols of America and confronting injustice and that sort of thing in their faith, your personal spiritual life tends to change [laughter], to put it mildly. And we wanted to talk about that.It's something that we don't necessarily hear a lot of people talking about as much and I think it's something that people are kind of concerned about. Like it's in the back of people's heads when they start to dive into these justice issues. It's something that I think conservative Christianity has put in the back of your heads [laughs], like your personal walk with Jesus, or your something like that is going to falter if you stray down this road. And so we wanna talk about how things have changed with us, and be as open and honest about that as possible, with our spiritual practices, with our relationship with God, with our relationship with church and kind of the world outside.And then we're gonna get into our segment Which Tab Is Still Open, where we dive a little bit deeper into one of the recommendations from our newsletter. This week, we will be talking about a really fascinating and informative podcast on the war that is currently happening in Sudan that has been going on for about a year and a half. If you don't know a lot about that war, or if you just want some more insight into what's going on there, please stay tuned for that. It'll be an interesting conversation, for sure. So we're going to get into all of that in a minute. I think this is gonna be a really fruitful and helpful conversation for a lot of people. Before we jump in though, Jonathan,Jonathan Walton: Hey friends, remember to go to KTFPress.com and become a paid subscriber to support this show and everything we do at KTF Press. We're creating media that centers personal and informed discussions on faith, politics and culture and help you seek Jesus and confront injustice, that's so desperately needed today. We're resisting the idols of the American church by elevating marginalized voices and taking the entirety of Jesus' gospel more seriously than those who might narrow it to sin and salvation or some other small, little box. Jesus' gospel is bigger than that. The two of us have a lot of experience [laughs] doing this in community and individually.We've been friends for a good long time, and so I hope that you can come to us and trust us for good conversation, dialogue and prayerful, deliberate action. So become a paid subscriber, and get all the bonus episodes to this show, access to our monthly subscriber Zoom chats. You can comment on posts and a lot more. So again, go to KTFPress.com, join us and become a paid subscriber. And if you really wanna double down, become a founding member. Thanks, y'all.Sy Hoekstra: You get a free book if you're a founding member. So that's…Jonathan Walton: You do get a free book.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. Because we publish books too. I guess we didn't… we have to tell people that.Jonathan Walton: That's true.Sy Hoekstra: If you're listening, if this is your first episode, you didn't know that. We've published a couple of books.Jonathan Walton: [laughs].Sy Hoekstra: Alright Jonathan, let's dive in. Let's talk about, as you have grown over the past however many years since you've been doing this kind of work, which for you is what now, 15? No, almost 15.Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: More than 15. It's more than 15 years.Jonathan Walton: It's more than 15. It'd probably be like… I was trying to reflect on this. I think I seriously stepped into this stuff in 2005 when I wrote that first poem about child soldiers and sex trafficking victims and was like, “I wanna do this, because Jesus loves me, and Jesus loves all people.” And so yeah, almost 20 years.Sy Hoekstra: Was that “Decisions?” Is that the poem?Jonathan Walton: I think it was actually “Invisible Children.” That poem.Sy Hoekstra: Okay. Literally because of the documentary Invisible Children.Jonathan Walton: Yes. That was the first advocacy poem that I wrote.Sy Hoekstra: So since then, how have your individual spiritual practices changed your scripture reading, that sort of thing? The kind of thing that at one point we might have called our quiet time, or our daily whatever. Where are you at?Jonathan Walton: [laughs] Absolutely. So I do not have daily quiet times. How do I explain this? When the Psalms say, “write the words of God on your hearts that you might not sin against him,” I think with all of us, it's kind of like building a habit. So I read a lot of scripture when I was a kid. I read a lot of scripture when I was a college student. And I think it was because I literally needed flesh and bones on just the air of my faith. And I think literally sitting there and listening to sermons for hours as I go about my day in my room and not study in college, or me and my brother would do [laughs] these weird things because we lived in the South and had nothing to do on this 30-acre farm, is we memorized the entire Charlton Heston film, The Ten Commandments.So me and my brother literally memorized the entire six hour epic that is The Ten Commandments. And so I just had this desire, and I think habit of just like memorizing and learning about God because the context that you're in. And so I think that there was a season in my life where sitting in the word of God was just a regular practice. And now I would say, just to overtake scripture, scripture is for me a process of recall and reflection. Like I have to give a talk next week on racism and racial reconciliation and justice. And if you had said to me, “Jonathan, what passage are you gonna speak from?” Like, because I've studied Genesis 1, because I've studied Isaiah 61, because I've studied Isaiah 58, because I've leaned into John 4, because I'm leaning in to Luke 4, I can grab from any of these places because it's almost like riding a bike in that way. I don't have to ride a bike every day to know how to ride a bike.And so I think if you're sitting there thinking to yourself, “I don't do a daily quiet time,” I don't know that you are negatively impacted. I know that you may be shaped differently, but we don't lose God, just like we don't lose the knowledge of something in that way. So I think Scripture for me has become more of a remembering and reflective process, rather than an active like, “Oh man, I need to know more.” And I think if we do scripture prayer, so let's talk about prayer, liturgy has taken on a more significant part of my life.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: Partially because I've stepped out of the, “let's prioritize this as better” box. So when I grew up in the South, I was like, oh, I go to a Black southern Baptist church, not a Southern Baptist Church. Let's be clear about that.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Spontaneous worship was quote- unquote, the best in my mind. Then I come to InterVarsity and more quote- unquote, evangelical spaces, and then it's like, well, popcorn prayer. Every single person goes individually and we all listen and try not to fall asleep.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs].Jonathan Walton: And then I go to another place and it's like the quote- unquote, warrior prayer. Like this lion's war prayer. Everybody's praying at once. And that was amazing.Sy Hoekstra: Charismatic.Jonathan Walton: Yeah. And it was amazing, but overwhelming. And I would go to these places and say, oh, one is better than the other, when in reality, these are just expressions of God's faithfulness to different parts of his body. And so I think the season I'm in now, I've leaned into the prayer without ceasing, where it's like I am in conversation with God. I can be in prayer just going about my every day, similar to scripture with the riding the bike thing. These are things that I've marinated in, and so I'm riding the bike all day. I might get on the bike in the morning, I might not, but God is an active part of my day. And so I think the last thing just about church and preaching. This is hard [laughter].And some people might get upset with this, but church has taken, the institution; going to, sitting in. That's probably the last thing that I'm still processing. My children don't want to go to church some days, and I have a high value for that. And I have to ask myself, why do I have that high of a value? And Maia asked me, because she was crying, she didn't wanna go to church. She said, “Why do you wanna go?” And I told her, I said, “Maia, sometimes I have a really hard week, and I go to hang out with other believers because they encourage me that God is faithful and I can make it through.” And I said, “Some weeks are good for me, and then I go to church, and someone may be having a poor week, and then I'm able to encourage them to make it through and center ourselves on Jesus.”And I said, “In that way…” I didn't say this this way, but we bear one another's burdens with love. We are able to come alongside each other. And she didn't get it, and that's fine, she's eight.Sy Hoekstra: [laughter].Jonathan Walton: But I recognize that that's actually what I'm looking for when I go to church. And so if that's what I'm looking for, how can I have that in other spaces that my family also feels closer to God as well, so that we can grow together in that way? So I've stopped expecting the pastor to serve me a platter of spiritual goodies every week. [laughter] I've stop expecting this community in some way to be the buffet from which I gather my spiritual authority and intimacy with God. And that didn't used to be the case. It was like, “I got to go to church or I'm wrong. I got to be in the building, or something's messed up with my faith. I might be falling away.” And that's just not true, because I don't forget how to ride a bike. Like it's just not a thing.So, yeah, I would say those big three things of prayer, scripture and going to church have changed. And later we could talk about justice stuff, but those things around just our relationship with God have changed for me.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. It's funny you said the thing that was a big deal to you, the second one was about like the spontaneous worship is the best, or this kind of prayer is the best or whatever. And that it's just so cultural and stuff because I never had any of those.Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: I was like it's whatever. Nobody taught me that one… maybe somebody tried to, but it never got really inculcated in me that one kind of prayer or something was better than the other. But the daily scripture reading thing was so… Like you saying, “I don't read scripture every day,” there's still some little part of me that feels like, “Ooh, should he say that?” [laughter]Jonathan Walton: Right. Right, right, right.Sy Hoekstra: And it really just depends on where you grow up. Because a funny thing, like part of the scripture thing for me is, at some point I realized, I was like, “Hey, wait a minute [laughs], for the overwhelming majority of Christians who have ever lived, they A, could not read…”Jonathan Walton: [laughter] Right.Sy Hoekstra: “…and B, did not have access to the printed word.” The only time they were getting scripture was at mass on Sunday. And it's just one of those things where it's an enormous privilege, and we should, I'm not saying take it for granted, but it's something that has not only been not necessary for discipleship, but literally impossible for [laughter] most Christians who have ever lived. It's just an enormous privilege that we treat like a necessity or we treat like an imperative. And the distinction between those two things can be subtle, but it's real. They're not the same thing [laughter].Jonathan Walton: True.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, so for me, I've talked about this in one of the bonus episodes we did, but I'll make a slightly different point about it, which is, I used to, like you sort of alluded to, I used to come at daily scripture reading and prayer and everything from a place of deep anxiety. Constantly trying to stay up on whatever I had decided was the requirement for the day, and then falling behind and becoming anxious about it, and just getting on this treadmill of trying to catch up and then being anxious again. And a funny thing happened when I got into, as we were talking about on our recent subscriber call, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality [laughs] and learned about that anxiety and where it was coming from, and tried to change my relationship to it, and it decreased a lot, I realized when the anxiety went away I started to feel like my love for or even just my care for God, was going away.Jonathan Walton: Huh.Sy Hoekstra: Like if I wasn't anxious that I was reading scripture every day, it's kind of like what I just said, like there's still some part of me that feels like ugh [laughter]. If I wasn't anxious, then I didn't love God, which is kind of dark.Jonathan Walton: It is. Yes.Sy Hoekstra: You know what I mean? It's like putting yourself in a sort of abusive relationship with God and saying, “If you don't keep up with me, then I'm gonna punish you in some way,” or something negative is gonna happen. It was never entirely clear what negative thing was gonna happen to me.Jonathan Walton: Just a threat. Just a threat.Sy Hoekstra: That something was bad. I was gonna backslide in some way. So, yeah, but the amount of time, like on a daily basis, that I spend praying or reading scripture has also decreased, and then anxiety went away. And then I had to get used to the anxiety not being there and being like, “Hey, that's okay. This is actually a reflection of the fact that I now on a much more embodied level, understand that God loves and accepts me.” [laughter] That's a good thing.Jonathan Walton: That is a great thing. Yes, for sure.Sy Hoekstra: Another big thing for me was, this is my change with regard to scripture, is letting the Bible be what the Bible says that it is, as opposed to what the spiritual authorities in my life told me that it was supposed to be. And so that's things like, I had a really interesting experience where I went through this thing called the Academy of Christian Thought. There was this three-year read-through-the-Bible program. It was run by this scholar named Ron Choong, a Malaysian guy who's really incredible. But one of the things he talked about was the idea that every word of the Bible is literally true. And he would go through it and he would say, “Okay, so there are these stories that Jesus tells, that when he tells them, like the parables.Like say, The Good Samaritan or whatever. We understand that Jesus is telling a story here, and whether or not the story itself is true doesn't matter. He's making a point.” It's a sermon illustration, effectively. And Jesus never claims that the stories are true. We're all fine with that. We're not saying if the guy didn't actually get beat up on the road to Jericho, then the Bible's integrity is in question. And he was like, “Okay, so how about the book of Jonah?” He's like, Take the whole thing with the fish and the spending three days in the belly of a fish, which seems scientifically impossible, and then you get… like without dying, whatever. It could be a miracle. But does the Bible ever actually say, does the book of Jonah ever actually say, “The following is a true story?” The answer is, no, it doesn't [laughter].And can you still learn all the same lessons about faith and everything from the book of Jonah if it's not true, like the parable of The Good Samaritan or any other parables Jesus tells? Yes, you can.Jonathan Walton: Right. Right, right.Sy Hoekstra: So does it really matter [laughs] whether the story in the book of Jonah is true? No, it does not. It affects nothing [laughter]. And by acknowledging that, you're just letting the Bible be what it is, which is, it's here's a story. It just told you a story, and whether or not it was true or not is not a point that the Bible makes, and therefore is not a point that matters.Jonathan Walton: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs] And so there were a lot of just simple things like that. He was like, The book of Revelation, you do not have to have a perfect understanding of what every twist and turn in that bizarre apocalyptic dream meant. You don't. You don't you don't have to have it. Because the Bible never tells you that you had to have it [laughter]. It just says, “Here's a dream from John,” and then it tells you a bunch of stuff that happened [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yeah. It's true.Sy Hoekstra: And so it's like there was a lot of that that I thought was extremely helpful and allowed me to then use my mind. And then people would come back with the verse in 2 Timothy, “All scripture is God breathed,” and et cetera, et cetera. And [laughs] Ron would just be like, “That was literally written at a time when the New Testament was not canonized, and half of it was not even written yet.” [laughs] So it's like, what scripture is God breathed, you know what I mean? [laughter And also, does God breathed or trustworthy for instruction, does that mean the book of Jonah's literally true? No. [laughter] Like letting the Bible be what the Bible is was important to me, and understanding…We talked in that episode with Mako Nagasawa about how sometimes translations of the Bible differ from each other in significant ways, and we picked which one we followed, and that's just a reality [laughs]. And you can still have a very high view of the authority of Scripture, it can still guide your life, it can still be an authority, it can be all those things, and you can acknowledge realities, and your faith doesn't fall apart. That was a big one for me [laughs]. A lot of that also has to do with letting go of the need to have everything under control in a perfect little box.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: Which is a very… was just a real White way of thinking about it to be frank [laughs]. We must have our systematic theology, and everything must be clear and tied up neatly. So the last thing for me, I think, is just knowing that the way that God speaks to people changes over time. And so like I know there are ways that I could be going back and trying to find the things about my early faith that were really exciting and new and gave me these big spiritual highs, and a lot of those things just don't happen anymore. And I see that as I get older, there are so many people I know like that. And there are so many, there's such a range of reactions to that from people who are like, some people are totally comfortable with the fact that God changes how he talks to people over time.And that even happens in the Bible. People hear from God in different ways, in new ways. And there are some people who are like, can lose their faith over that. They can panic, and it's like, “I'm not hearing God the way that I heard got at one point,” and I guess the possibility of change is not there [laughs]. And so it's like, if I'm not getting that same experience, then something has gone terribly wrong or whatever, and I need to get back there. I would just really encourage people to drop that way of thinking [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yes, absolutely.Sy Hoekstra: It is okay if your relationship with God changes, the way that you communicate with God changes.Jonathan Walton: There's nothing healthy about a plant that stays the same size over year's time.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, exactly.Jonathan Walton: Man.Sy Hoekstra: Alright, Jonathan, you talked about this one a little bit already, but I wanted to talk about our relationships with churches and the institutions of churches. Did you have more to say on that, or was…?Jonathan Walton: Well, yeah. I think something that is intriguing to me, and I dabble in thread and Facebook debates sometimes just to ask questions.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs].Jonathan Walton: And just as an example, and friends, I again, in the just modeling the growth and change and willingness to ponder in a way that doesn't shake my salvation, I'm gonna try to model that. And so a question that came up for me yesterday while I was on threads, there's a man named Eugene Kim, who I've just followed for a little while.Sy Hoekstra: He's a pastor, right?Jonathan Walton: He was a pastor, and he is a pastor now, but they just launched this thing called the Wild Fig organization. And so essentially, they're trying to decentralize the church and say, there are lots of people who follow Jesus and wanna organize in ways that are transformative and help for them in their walks with God. And we just need to figure out a different way of credentialing people than getting folks organized around this man who we believe is God named Jesus.” And there's another thing like this out in Seattle called Dinner Church, where a church sold their building, and they have 25 dinner churches where people come to church to have dinner, and they just eat and talk about God, almost like they did in Acts. Whoopitty.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs].Jonathan Walton: And so that's what they're doing, and they're actually putting pastors in these house churches just to be present at these dinner churches. And so there are people who would say, “No, we cannot do that.” Like, I remember sitting down with a pastor in New York City who was just like, “Jonathan, I don't think that you should do campus ministry, because it should be done in the church.” And I was like, “Oh, well, I think this meeting is over.”Sy Hoekstra: [laughs].Jonathan Walton: “And I hope you pay for this food.” But all that to say it's like, that was one conversation. Another conversation was like, “If you do that, what about the traditions of the church?” All of these things. And I'm like, I hear you on the tradition, but why are we choosing to model some things from Acts and then saying other things we can't do anymore? Seems like the Great Commission commissioned all people to baptize. Seems like the Great Commission commissioned all people to… like 2 Corinthians and the model about how to take communion. I don't see where that says I can't do that at home, because they were done in homes. So all of this. Some people say that's great, some people say you can't do that.But when I was specifically looking at the Wild Fig network yesterday in this threads conversation, someone said, “You're doing a heretical thing, you're breaking off. And if you wanna join anything, just go back to the Catholic Church, because that is where it all began.” And I thought to myself, and this is a genuine question, and I haven't seen his response yet, but I said, “Did Jesus come to build the Catholic Church?” There may be, very well be an argument for that that I'm not aware of because I'm not Catholic. Right?Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, there definitely is [laughs].Jonathan Walton: There definitely is [laughter]. And so I am wondering what that means, as someone downstream of colonization, abuse, violence and oppression, coupled with the Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church, and every other Western faith, political faction that decided to join themselves on the colonialist project, I wonder if Jesus came to build the Catholic Church. And there's 1500 years of arguing about that and making that case to be true. At the same time, I'm like, 1 Corinthians one, when Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, he says, “Some might be for Paul, some might be for Cephas, which is Peter. Some might be for Apollos, but the reality is, we all need to be for Jesus.”So if this person is making an argument against pastor Eugene Kim, I'm like, “Why are you saying he can't go do that? What's the goal?” Because if Eugene goes and baptizes a thousand people, and all these people come to faith and it's an amazing thing, what is the loss for the kingdom? You know what I mean?Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. Well, so here's the loss. I still don't think this is correct, but the loss from the Catholic perspective is you only can experience the fullness of the revelation of the Spirit of God within the Catholic Church. That is where it happens, and it happens nowhere else, and it cannot happen anywhere else.Jonathan Walton: Now see, okay, this is where I would push back ridiculously hard.Sy Hoekstra: I mean, me too, but yeah [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yeah, and using Peter, Peter in Acts chapter 10 has a very specific way that he thinks the Spirit of God is being revealed. And God blows that wide open first with a vision for him. The sheet comes down, look at this three times, three times, three times. Then the same thing for Cornelius. And so if we try to limit the spirit or movement of God, we will fail. So why do that [laughs]? There's so many points in scripture where God is breaking through in ways that we cannot fathom or recognize.Sy Hoekstra: Amen to that.Jonathan Walton: And so, I think the thing about the church, I'm like, it's evolving for me, not in the Darwin way, but just like a development. Because to be like, “Oh, evolution,” because we have these wrong conflations in our brain. But my faith is evolving, but I'm not moving farther away from Jesus, and that includes the church. Because similar to you, I would say I am closer to Jesus than I was when I was 17 years old… 16 when I got thrown across the parking lot on a motorcycle, or 19 years old when Ashley told me to follow… Ashley Byrd, me and Sy's staff worker for InterVarsity, invited me to follow Jesus. I'm still close, I'm closer to Jesus than I was then, and I've been a part of very different churches and all those things.So my relationship with God is predicated on my adoption into the capital “C” Church, not the specific church on my block in my neighborhood, or where I gather with folks. And so I'm grateful that the rapture catches all of us and not just insert your denomination here.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. So for me, I am less engaged than I used to be, but that's because what I used to do was let Christian community and Christian programming activity take up the vast majority of my free time, because I thought we had something to prove as a community. You know what I mean? Like, I thought you had to be, it's a little bit vague what I thought I think, or a little bit blurry to me now. But it was something along the lines of, some interpretation of the idea that we're the hands and feet of Jesus, or we are here to testify to him and his goodness as a community. That meant that you had to be super involved in your community. You had to be something to prove the worthiness of God, basically.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: Which is completely the opposite of what I now think, which is that no matter what your community is, the fact that God loves you is the proof of the worthiness of God [laughter].Jonathan Walton: Amen.Sy Hoekstra: You don't have to prove nothing. Similar to my quiet times and everything, it took a lot of the pressure off of my need to be involved in religious activity, and therefore it decreased, but not in like a I'm leaving the church way, just in what I think is a healthy way [laughs]. I am now very suspicious if I go to a church and the consistent thing that they are telling people to do in terms of discipleship is just get more involved in that church's programming. As opposed to being something in their neighborhood, or trying to turn outwards in some significant way. That, to me, is a big ol' red flag. I'm constantly now thinking about what is reasonable to expect of a church, versus what I would have want a church to ideally be.I think this happens to everyone as they grow up a little bit, is you start to see the inner workings of a church and how just very ordinary and sometimes petty and gross, it can be.Jonathan Walton: [laughter] Ordinary, petty and gross.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. It's just another fallen institution [laughs]. And people have all their own little individual problems, and some of those problems are big and some of them are small. And it's just not that different than any other organization. And that is disappointing if you think it's supposed to be this shining beacon on a hill, which is actually a metaphor for the kingdom of God, and not your individual neighborhood's church [laughter].Jonathan Walton: Yes, yes, yes.Sy Hoekstra: Scripturally speaking. I think about that balance more, like what can I reasonably expect versus what would I ideally want this institution to be? And from what I've talked to, like Christians who are much older than me, that never changes. That's the mature way to go about [laughter] looking at a church. You just, you have to do it that way, and not just think of the church as this thing that needs to be something that is like this shining example to the entire world of how to do or be something. And this is especially true in a context where we have the idols of empire built in. I have to go to my church in New York City in 2024 and I have to recognize this is a culture that is filled with greed and self-interest.And so odds are, this church is also going to be filled with greed and self-interest. So what can I reasonably expect from this church [laughter]? That's part of it. And again, it's just reality. It's sad. It's a thing that I had to work through emotionally. But it is also a reality that you have to come to terms with.Jonathan Walton: Amen.Sy Hoekstra: I'm much more ready to walk out of a church when I hear nonsense than I used to be [laughter].Jonathan Walton: I'm just willing to go. Thanks.Sy Hoekstra: Which I don't necessarily… that doesn't even mean like leave the community and turn my back on everyone. I just mean if I hear some nonsense from the pastor, I can go home, and that's okay [laughter]. And I've done that a few times. I had this one pastor a while back who just got on a streak. I don't know what happened, man, but it was this one month where at maybe two or three of the sermons he just said some stuff that was super ableist. I don't know what happened. He never even talked about people with disabilities before, and all of a sudden it's like, got to bring disabled people up all the time. You got to say really nonsense, insensitive, ridiculous stuff.And there was one time I just left. I was like, “I'm gonna go to the bathroom.” And then I came out of the bathroom and I was like, “Actually, I'm not going back in there.”Jonathan Walton: [laughter] Right. Yes.Sy Hoekstra: I just remember looking at the door back into the service and the door to leave the building, and the choice could not have been clearer [laughter]. It was like a hundred percent of me wants to go this way, zero percent of me wants to go that way.Jonathan Walton: Brunch with Jesus. I'm gonna leave now. Yeah, that makes sense.Sy Hoekstra: Alright, Jonathan. Last question. How have things changed between you and the rest of the world [laughs]? The people outside of the church? How are you thinking differently? I'm sure there's a lot to say here, but…Jonathan Walton: Lord have mercy. Okay, so I can be friends with non-Christians…Sy Hoekstra: [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Not every woman in the world, their primary relationship to me is I shouldn't sleep with them.Sy Hoekstra: Oh, I see.Jonathan Walton: So either this woman is my wife or a temptation. Like that…Sy Hoekstra: Oh, I got you.Jonathan Walton: This is a human being made in the image of God that I am incomplete without on this side of heaven [laughs]. Like God desires shalom between me and her or them. It's a group. Also, it's very possible to be generous to people, and if it doesn't go against my taxes, it's still a great thing to give to. Friends, there's so much crap in that, and I wanted to say the other word.Sy Hoekstra: Churches make a big deal out of that your gift here will be tax deductible or whatever [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: And institutional giving or whatever, and you're just like, “No, actually, I can tithe to the guy on the corner who needs a sandwich.”Jonathan Walton: Yes, absolutely. I also think that, along with the every, I can be friends with non-Christians, and this is still actually hard for me, is I can learn from people that don't believe in Jesus the same way I do.Sy Hoekstra: Is it hard for you? Because I think sometimes, like we were talking about Valarie Kaur the other day, the seek prophet who says amazing things and you were…Jonathan Walton: Yes, yes, yes. So here's what I mean by that. And I think my wife is the one who challenges me on this.Sy Hoekstra: Okay.Jonathan Walton: It's very different to learn from someone online and through their books, but she said, “Jonathan, when you have relationships with people, intimate relationships with them,” she said, “It doesn't register for me as you're talking with them, Jonathan, that you want to learn from them.” And I'll also be really honest, my pastor told me this. When I first met him, he invited one of his friends over, and we wanted to have this conversation. And I asked him, I said, “What was that like for you?” And he said, “Well, it seemed like you were not interested in getting to know us. You just wanted to know what we thought about these things.” And that to me, is something that I'm like, oh.I believed, past tense, and I'm still working through that, I think my relationship with God is based upon my utility to people around me, and if I'm not useful, then I'm not valuable. And if I believe it about myself, I'm gonna reflect that outwards.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: And so, something that bothers me that I'm still working through is, how can I be in relationships with people and learn from them, and not require them to change or grow in some way or become or believe like me, those things would probably be the biggest, but that last one is probably… I mean, all of those I'm still working through, but that last one is the most potent right now as I try to make friends and be in community with people. What about you? Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, the friends with non-Christians thing is funny to me. The specific thing for me is that I'm not trying to, it's similar, I'm not trying to convert and change everybody. There was a while when I was young kind of late teens or early 20s, where I literally thought just every interaction I had with a non-Christian had to be toward the end of making them a Christian at some point.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: And I now realize that ensuring the salvation of anyone, including myself, not my job [laughs]. No one ever said that was my job in the Bible, at least. And my job is to talk about the truth, like talk about what has happened in my life, but that's all I got to do. Just talk about it [laughs]. I got to testify to the truth, and that does not mean that I need any individual person ever changes as a result [laughter]. That is not part of my job. I want people to know Jesus, but that's different than thinking that everything I do must be toward some end of like, honestly kind of manipulating people into [laughs] that, which is the constant evangelical tendency, hell being the biggest manipulator. “Do this or you will be tortured forever,” and framing it that way.We're constantly framing things in terms of manipulating people to just be one of us. I don't do that anymore. Thank goodness [laughs]. And stuff like that that makes me, I look back and I'm always like, I don't think that anything I was involved in actually meets the definition of a cult. But there was some cult-y aspects of it, for sure [laughs]. There was some stuff in there that was [laughs]9 weird in terms of how you related to other people. I'm much less suspicious to the rest of the world. I don't think the rest of the world, kind of like you said about women, just anybody in general, isn't trying to tempt me out of something or send me down a wrong road, which then allows me to enjoy, not just learning from people like you said, but also just beauty and joy in places that I couldn't, I wasn't allowed to find it before.A result of all that is people are no longer projects to me. This is all very similar to what you said, actually. So I think those are my main ones. And I said the last thing was the last question, but I actually did have one more question written down here. Do you wanna [laughter] go through that one too, or no?Jonathan Walton: I mean, I think we've talked about this a lot where it's like, your last question being, how has my relationship and view of God changed?Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: And what I would say is… and you said this way back in the podcast already. I'm trying to live in the reality that God actually loves me and he actually loves other people, and that's just true. And that can be my posture bent orientation to the world at all times. And to live in that quote- unquote, belovedness is really, really, really difficult in a extractivist, culturally colonized, post-plantation, capitalistic society.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs].Jonathan Walton: It's really, really hard when every single thing that I was raised to do goes against just receiving anything.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: [laughs] I mean, that's why the grace of God is confounding. But all that to say, I think I'm trying to live in that. And I think teaching my children that has taught me that more than anything.Sy Hoekstra: Early on in my faith, one of the seeds that I think God planted really early on was, and I've talked about this before. I had a lot of trouble with the idea of hell when I was considering following Jesus. And the way that that got resolved for me was to stop, I stopped asking questions about the unfairness of the idea of hell, because I came to trust Jesus as a person and say, “Whatever thing is going on there with these problems, with the unfairness of hell that I have, Jesus did something to himself. God did something to himself in the form of the cross that was also extremely unfair [laughs], actively harmed himself in order to get us to trust him.” You know what I mean?Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: Actively harmed himself, is maybe a weird way to put it. Like, lived in such solidarity with us as humans, and especially as oppressed and vulnerable humans, that he died and had some terrible spiritual fate that people characterize in different ways, depending on what denomination you're from or whatever, happened to him [laughs]. And that then makes me trust him and ask questions about, why would God do this to God's self?Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: Why would God do this to himself, as opposed to, why would God do this to us? And I decided to follow and trust Jesus before I really had answers, or had passed through all the different theologies of hell or any of that stuff. And so the seed there is talking about truth and talking about faith as trust in a person, and not as belief in specific doctrines or trust in specific doctrines. And I've leaned way into that. That's the thing that has grown over time and has replaced a lot of the anxiety and trust that I was putting in other things that were either of my own effort, or what other people told me I had to believe or whatever, is trust in God the being, like the spiritual entity with which I have actually interacted and I know and I love.And that part of my faith has just grown, I think, exponentially, and has allowed me to be okay with things I don't understand. And I have long term things that I don't understand, that I do not have answers to that make me uncomfortable. And still be okay with that [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yes, because it's about a relationship, not perfect understanding at all times.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: And if you trust God, you don't have to understand all things, just like we trust people, even though we don't understand every single thing about them.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, which is different than trusting God as a replacement for understanding [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yeah. So let's get into our segment Which Tab Is Still Open, where we dive a little deeper into one of the recommendations from our newsletters. And remember, you can get our newsletter for free just by going to KTFPress.com, and signing up for our mailing list. You'll get recommendations on articles, podcasts and other media from both of us on things that will help you in your political education and discipleship. Plus you'll get reflections to keep you grounded and hopeful as we engage in this challenging work together, news about what's going on with KTF and a lot more. So go get that free subscription, and if you want to, you should become a paid subscriber at KTFPress.com.So this week, Sy, we're gonna be talking about the war in Sudan. Can you summarize the main points for us?Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, sure. And I know there are some people who know nothing about this war, so I will give kind of all the basics here. Basically, Sudan has been at war for about a year and a half, since April of 2023. And it's between two state-armed factions, one is the regular military, and the other is kind of a paramilitary force that was set up at one point that were supposed to kind of integrate into each other, and instead they were fighting over power. But what they had done previously together was to suppress the popular uprising that began in 2018 and it was to oust the longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir, and it had started as these organizations called neighborhood resistance committees all over the country.It's a little bit tough to document how many of them there are, but they're these highly localized, very fluid groups that don't have a single leader who are doing all kinds of political organizing at a local level all around the country, coordinating with each other incredibly well, and also providing mutual aid and humanitarian aid as this war goes on. They basically organized these sit ins where they had, I mean, I don't remember the numbers, a ton of people in Khartoum trying to get rid of, Khartoum is the capital, trying to get rid of al-Bashir, and they successfully did it. And then they had a whole plan to transition to an actually civilian-led democratic government, but they were sort of beaten back by military and this other paramilitary group in a coup in 2021.So there was an attempt for a couple of years to really transition Sudan to a democracy government accountable to the people, and it did not work because of this counter revolutionary coup. And so the resource that I had was this podcast from Truthout that's called Movement Memos, and they were talking to two members of the Sudanese diaspora in Canada who, one of the main points they were trying to make was that this is a counter revolutionary war. A lot of the media will portray it as a civil war, and really it is forces fighting over who gets power after basically pushing people down. Racism is a big part of the context of this too, because a lot of the elites, the military and the paramilitary elites, and everybody who's in charge of the country are Arabic. Like ethnically or racially Arabic. And a lot of the people from the South and from the resistance committees who are part of the revolutionary groups are Black.So I think a lot of the reason that we haven't talked about this is the US is not directly involved. There are things that the US does that create some problems, like the sanctions that we still have on Sudan. But the reason everyone needs to care about this is, first of all, about fifteen or sixteen thousand people have died, which is not on the same scale of death as Palestine exactly or whatever, not to minimize those deaths or anything, but they have created the largest displacement crisis anywhere in the world. There are more than eight million people who have been displaced by this war. There's famine and starvation happening. Surrounding countries are refusing refugees. In some cases, Egypt has been doing this for some time.The guests of the podcast are really saying that these neighborhood committees are the people who need outside support the most, because there's, a lot of the NGOs and everybody have fled. So amidst this humanitarian crisis, these people on the ground doing this mutual aid are the only people keeping people alive. And they actually gave a link, which I will provide, to an organization called the Sudan Solidarity Committee I believe. I can't remember the last word. Sudan Solidarity something, where you can just donate money directly to these resistance committees. They're getting it to them via PayPal, and people are just dispersing it as needed. And it's direct giving. It's nothing paternalistic.You're just giving them money, and they're doing with it what they need. And apparently a lot of the Sudanese diaspora is trying to support this group, but they can't do it on their own, and a lot of them are struggling with their own, all the financial issues that come around immigrating to other parts of the world. So yeah, we'll have the link for that in the show notes. Jonathan, that's a lot of information I just gave. I just kind of wanna know what it is that you think about this whole situation, your reaction to it, anything about the podcast that you thought was interesting.Jonathan Walton: So one thing that's really important to me is history. And fortunately, whether we're talking about Gaza, whether we're talking about Haiti, whether we're talking about Hawaii, whether we're talking about any of these places, really anywhere that colonization has touched, there's a history.Sy Hoekstra: Yes. They get into that in the podcast too.Jonathan Walton: They do. They get into it in the podcast, because history, we need to understand how we got here to be able to make something different. And what I thought was normal and revolutionary is what the scholars who are participating and being interviewed and things like that, have done with their education. So the folks they're interviewing got their education here in the West with a mind for liberation of their own people, but not their own people, understanding how this racially assigned group downstream of colonialism called Black is basically undergirding the entire economy in the world for the last 350 years. We have to engage with that as a reality, that Africa as a continent can hold the United States, China, Russia and Europe in it with room to spare. The second largest rainforest in the world is in the Congo.We've got these huge, massive amounts of resources in Africa, not just but also including its people who have been enslaved in various ways by various groups for the last 400 years. So it's helpful just that background that was provided, and then how that trickles down into then conflict in Sudan.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. Can I just note one interesting fact that they've mentioned?Jonathan Walton: Absolutely.Sy Hoekstra: That I don't think we think about a lot, is when the colonial government left Sudan, they just vacated 800 government administrative positions or something. I can't remember what the exact number was. It was hundreds. They just vacated them. They did nothing to transition them. They didn't find people to fill them. They just left them empty [laughs]. And what do you think is gonna happen when you just create a massive power vacuum like that, with no transitional plan? You get a dictator, shocking. You know what I mean [laughs]? You get a dictator doing the exact same thing that the colonialist government that came before it did, which was effectively be a dictator.Jonathan Walton: Absolutely. Because whoever had access to power post the colony is the people that colonizers empowered the majority of the time. Those educated folks, those are the people with power and resources. And so what do they do? We do what's been taught to us because we're hundreds of years removed from our own ways of leadership, our own matrilineal, patrilineal, or communal ways of governing and dividing ourselves and working together. And so all we have is the master's tools, as Audre Lorde would say. And so I think that connection to history, the connection to globalized blackness, and then just the ridiculous amount of coordination that I think, in the United States and in more resource places gets minimized, but in order, and this is where I might, “Oh, Jonathan, you're a Marxist,” and da da da.But let's lean on the reality that something Ta-Nehisi Coates said, and something will come up in the newsletter is, the way that we organize ourselves and the way that we exist together in the world is not inherent. We need to have nations that do X, Y and Z. That's a young system. Sharing is as old as we are, and so could we as followers of Jesus, as people who want to see beauty, love, justice and all these things flow in the world, just connect with our neighbors in ways that are transformative and helpful to say, “You are going through something, let me leverage my creative capacity and imagination to create ways that you can get what you need?” And I shared a video on Instagram today of a young woman named Taylor was sharing from North Carolina.She said, “If we can precision bomb people in a building a world away, we can precision guide food to people who need it.” We can do that. And so what I am empowered by, Munther Isaac said this similarly with what's happening in Gaza, when you are forced to be creative, that is where Jesus is, and that's where we can learn. And I think followers of Jesus like me in Bayside, I'm like, “Oh it's so hard for me to buy nothing and figure out this free thing and do this and do that.” And it's because I could just go to Target. I could just order on Amazon, but we don't have to do that. And I was emboldened and encouraged and empowered by the creativity, because I wonder what would happen if we learned from these people.Instead of creating a new way to do things when there's a crisis, we could actually create new ways to do things before the world is just destitute. And so I'm praying for the folks of Sudan. I wanna share [laughs] the ways to give. I'll probably sign up to give myself and then just would God move in us the way he has moved in them to mutually help and care for one another amid such destitution.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. One of the things that the guests said about the neighborhood resistance committees, that I thought was really interesting was, they were like, these committees are running services. Like they're providing food. In a couple cases, they actually took over abandoned hospitals and reopened them, found doctors and staffed them and get supplies there, whatever. They are running the country in a way that these paramilitary organizations are not. And they are out there actively proving we don't need these people [laughs]. We don't need these people, we can run the garment ourselves[laughs]. We can run the country ourselves. We have the energy to do it. We need the resources to do it. We could do so much more if there wasn't so much violence and displacement and poverty and famine.But yeah, that kind of imagination, that kind of, you're right. That kind of necessity has created in them just an incredible capacity to share and to love each other, frankly. And I also hope that we learn from that. But at the same time, that's why they've seen so much violence and repression, is because they are threatening the power structure. And not only that, but when they were doing the sit ins a few years ago, and they ousted Al-Bashir, there were other countries starting to look to them for similar resistance. There are people in, like they mentioned specifically in the podcast, there're people in Lebanon looking at Hezbollah and going, “Could we do something about this?” [laughs]People in other countries are actually looking to these Sudanese organizations. And so the ruling power structures have to shut that down. And it means that there are other countries involved in helping them shut it down. So it's like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and Egypt and other countries that are not interested in seeing revolutions like this [laughs] are involved, are providing weapons, are doing all kinds of things and just interfering in a regional way, in the way that we as the US are used to doing globally all the time.Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: This particular conflict, the US doesn't see as being as closely aligned with its interests as say, defending Israel, or now empowering Israel to go invade other countries.Jonathan Walton: Yes [laughs].Sy Hoekstra: Which is what has just started as we are recording this. I'm sure we'll have more to say about that.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: So go listen to this podcast. Go read more about this conflict in the media. The reason we wanted to bring it up is, I didn't wanna become the thing I'm critiquing and not talk about Sudan just because it doesn't affect the US. But man, the media is not talking about Sudan when we should be. So please go listen to this podcast. The link will be in the show notes, please just go learn more. Give if you can. They're asking for 10 Canadian dollars a month, which is like 7.50 US [laughs]. So please, if you have some money to spare, there are people in desperate need of it who are doing very good things with it. Alright, I'm gonna wrap us up there. Thank you so much for listening today. Jonathan, thank you for a great conversation, as always.Jonathan Walton: Absolutely.Sy Hoekstra: Our theme song is “Citizens” by Jon Guerra. Our podcast art is by Robyn Burgess. Transcripts by Joyce Ambale. Editing by Multitude Productions. And the producers of this show are the lovely paid subscribers. Again, please consider becoming a paid subscriber at KTFPress.com, get all the bonus episodes of this show, join our monthly Zoom calls, comment on our blog, on our Substack, and more. Thank you so much for listening, and we will see you in a couple of weeks for what I think will be the… yeah, will be the last show that we do before the election. So we'll be talking more about some current affairs then, and doing a great interview. So we will see you in two weeks.Jonathan Walton: Stay blessed y'all.[The song “Citizens” by Jon Guerra fades in. Lyrics: “I need to know there is justice/ That it will roll in abundance/ And that you're building a city/ Where we arrive as immigrants/ And you call us citizens/ And you welcome us as children home.” The song fades out.] Jonathan Walton: That was the first advo—like [sound of something repeatedly hitting the mic hard]whoa, hit the mic [laughter]. My first quote- unquote, advocacy poem that I wrote, for sure.Sy Hoekstra: But can you say that again, just without laughing or hitting the mic [laughs]?Jonathan Walton: Yeah, and slapping the mic? Yeah. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ktfpress.com/subscribe

In the third episode of “Notes on a Native Son,” host Razia Iqbal sits down with the celebrated writer of novels and essays, Siri Hustvedt. When Hustvedt was invited to record a conversation for the podcast about her favorite passage from the work of James Baldwin, the timing in so many ways couldn't have been worse — it turned out to be the last few weeks of life for her husband, writer Paul Auster. However, a few weeks after his passing, Hustvedt reached out to say that she was ready.She felt that re-reading and talking about Baldwin would somehow be a balm for her grief. Hustvedt describes how Baldwin's novels “possessed” her as a young reader and discusses his intricate ability to recognize the oppressor within, even as he gave a voice to the oppressed.Notes from America is a 2024 Signal Awards finalist! Community voting is now open for the show to earn a Listener's Choice honor for Best Live Podcast Recording, and we would be honored for you to take a minute to cast a vote our way. Click here to vote through October 17, and thank you for listening and supporting Notes from America! Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

This week, we're having a herstory moment! Professor and Chair of the Africana Studies Department at Wellesley College Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson joins the show this week to talk Black abolitionists and resistance. We get to know civil rights leader Mabel Williams, spouse and partner of Robert F. Williams, and how she and her husband mobilized Black folks to take up arms and defend themselves in the face of extreme racism in the sixties. We start off with a moment for the cover of Professor Carter Jackson's forthcoming book We Refuse. It features Soldier of Love, not Sade's chart topper, but the beautiful and poignant painting by Brooklyn-based artist Taha Clayton.Disclaimer: While we're happy that gun violence has overall decreased in the United States, it continues to be troubling. We're conscious of how intense gun debates can get and want to stress that this conversation explores how communities took up arms in self-defense against lethal racism. We are not advocating for general gun violence.Remoy introduces Mabel and Robert Williams via their infamous black and white Bonnie and Clyde photo.Prof Carter Jackson breaks down the Williams' approach to self-defense. Robert F. Williams slept with a gun under his pillow to be ready to defend himself for the KKK's night rides: violent runs where Klan member went into Black communities, attacked folks and raided homes.Our guest stresses that though someone likeDr. Martin Luther King preached nonviolence and preferred it, he kept an arsenal of weapons in his home to be ready for self-defense against racist assailants. He'd previously been attacked and firebombed and became ready.The Kissing Case in Monroe, NC is a turning point for the Williamses.In 1958, James Thompson and David Simpson are respectively 9 and 7 years of age. They are playing in the neighborhood when one of the white girls kisses each of them on this cheek. This instance erupts into these young Black boys being accused of rape and arrested. They are beaten and isolated from their parents.Carter Jackson lends context for how terrifying this situation was for these young boys in a warzone-like environment and especially at that age.Remoy shares a few clips from an Oprah WInfrey Show interview in which James Thompson and David Simpson, now adults, recount the horrifying experience.Mabel and Robert make plans to defend their community by mobilizing their community into a rifle club including 60 members of all genders. They became NRA members.Mabel even protected her home from police officers coming into their home without a warrant.Carter Jackson stressed the importance of people knowing the law and arming themselves with that knowledge.Swimming pools were the sight of a lot of child drownings.Remoy shares a clip of Mabel recounting how she and Robert advocated for Black children to use pools safely.While Robert still erred on the side of nonviolent resistance, Mabel was adamant that not using guns for defense was akin to suicide. She even let her sons participate in the resistance, which highlights an important point about how violence and protection aren't as strictly masculine as we sometimes think of them as.Carter Jackson emphasizes Black women's role in community protection. The lack of protection they've historically received has made rise to the occasion of being their own protectors and protectors of the community.[Black women] have never been allowed to occupy the space of the damsel in distress. They've always been seen as undeserving of protection.Mabel knew how the presence of guns was enough to deter potential violence. And she was right. Violence severely deescalated.Carter Jackson stresses the importance of Mabel and Robert's partnership because Robert tends to get all the credit for these efforts.Remoy shares a clip of Mabel describing how she didn't necessarily want the credit but just wanted to do the work.Carter Jackson and Samantha have a moment about the importance of highlighting all the people in the resistance and give credit where it's due. Black women have always been soldiers in the resistance and that should be common knowledge.Racism is not the only thing folks were fighting. Violent sexism must also be challenged and that calls for women's leadership.Carter Jackson brings up Rosa Parks's home being a fortress of guns. Fannie Lou Hammer was also ready to use violent force to defend herself.Black woman in general were aware of how powerful guns were even if they didn't shout it from the rooftops. The gun was enough to make their position known.In our Five Questions segment, Professor Kellie Carter Jackson distills women's anger and they can use it as a driving force. Our guest shares how anger is a big driving force for a lot of her work.She stresses the importance of reparations, not just monetarily, but how do we repair the hurt and destabilization Black communities have endured?Carter Jackson breaks down how she arrived at the title of her forthcoming book, We Refuse.Refusal is the why of resistance.bell hooks has a famous quote about Black men and white women being one stage away from the ultimate social power: white men's power.Samantha asks how Black men and masculine people can champion partnership and women's leadership in the resistance. Carter Jackson delivers a textbook-worthy answer. (48:02)We close out with a great note on how to get to liberation. Dr. Carter Jackson stresses how binaries and individualism pigeon-hole us away from collective freedom. She envisions how to move past that. Thanks for listening!

Guest: Alexis Pauline Gumbs is the author of several works of poetry and of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Animals, which won a Whiting Writers' Award in 2022. In 2023, she won a Windham Campbell Prize for her poetry. Her latest book is Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde. The post KPFA Special – The Life, Times, & Influence of Audre Lorde appeared first on KPFA.

The Cancer Journals by Audre LordeFull text of this episode is up on http://www.MissingWitches.com About Missing WitchesAmy Torok and Risa Dickens produce the Missing Witches Podcast. We do every aspect from research to recording, it is a DIY labour of love and craft. Missing Witches is entirely member-supported, and getting to know the members of our Coven has been the most fun, electrifying, unexpectedly radical part of the project. These days the Missing Witches Coven gathers in our private, online coven circle to offer each other collaborative courses in ritual, weaving, divination, and more; we organize writing groups and witchy book clubs; and we gather on the Full and New Moon from all over the world. Our coven includes solitary practitioners, community leaders, techno pagans, crones, baby witches, neuroqueers, and folks who hug trees and have just been looking for their people. Our coven is trans-inclusive, anti-racist, feminist, pro-science, anti-ableist, and full of love. If that sounds like your people, come find out more. Please know that we've been missing YOU. https://www.missingwitches.com/join-the-coven/

Problem-solving the crises of the modern world is often characterized by an economy and architecture of exploitation and instrumentalization, viewing relationships as transactional, efficient, and calculative. But this sort of thinking leaves a remainder of emptiness.Finding hope in a time of crises requires a more human work of covenant and commitment. Based in agrarian principles of stability, place, connection, dependence, interwoven relatedness, and a rooted economy, we can find hope in “Love's Braided Dance” of telling the truth, keeping our promises, showing mercy, and bearing with one another.In this episode, Evan Rosa welcomes Norman Wirzba, the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology at Duke Divinity School, to discuss his recent book Love's Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis.Together they discuss love and hope through the agrarian principles that acknowledge our physiology and materiality; how the crises of the moment boil down to one factor: whether young people want to have kids of their own; God's love as erotic and how that impacts our sense of self-worth; the “sympathetic attunement” that comes from being loved by a community, a place, and a land; transactional versus covenantal relationships; the meaning of giving and receiving forgiveness in an economy of mercy; and finally the difficult truth that transformation or moral perfection can never replace reconciliation.About Norman WirzbaNorman Wirzba is the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology at Duke Divinity School, as well as director of research at Duke University's Office of Climate and Sustainability. His books include Love's Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis, Agrarian Spirit: Cultivating Faith, Community, and the Land;This Sacred Life: Humanity's Place in a Wounded World; and Food & Faith.Listen to Norman Wirzba on Food & Faith in Episode 49: "God's Love Made Delicious"Show NotesNorman Wirzba, Love's Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of CrisisHow the crises of the moment boil down to one expression: whether young people want to have kids of their own.How Norman Wirzba became friends with Wendell BerryWendell Berry, The Unsettling of America“Love's Braided Dance” from “In Rain”, a poem by Wendell Berry“You shouldn't forget the land, and you shouldn't forget your grandfather.”Return to agricultural practicesSacred gifts“An agricultural life can afford doesn't guarantee, I think, but it affords the opportunity for you to really handle the fundamentals of life, air, water, soil, plant, tactile  connection that has to, at the same time, be  a practical connection, which means you have to to bring into your handling of things the attempt to understand what you're handling.”AnonymityNorman Wirzba reads Wendell Berry's “In Rain”Hyperconnectivity and the meaning of being “braided together”Love as Erotic Hope—”the first of God's love is an erotic love, which is an outbound love that wants  something other than God to be and to  flourish. And that outbound movement is generated by God's desire for For others to be beautiful, to be good, and I think that's the basis of our lives, right?”Audre Lorde and patriarchyAffirming the goodness of ourselves and the world as created and loved by GodHow the pornographic gaze distorts the meaning of erotic loveDancing as a metaphor for God's erotic loveDeep sympathy and anticipation, and the improvisational movement of danceWoodworking: taking time and negotiation“Sympathetic attunement” and improvisationManaging the unpredictable nature of our worldRevelation of who you are and who the other is—it's hard to reveal ourselves to each otherHonesty and depth that is missing from relationshipsLearning the skill of self-revealingBelonging and Robin Wall Kimmerer's sense that a people could be “loved by the land”Physiological, material reality of our dependence on each other, from womb to tomb“The illusion that we could ever be alone or stand alone or survive alone is so dishonest about our living.”Denying our needs, acknowledging our needs, and inhabiting trust to work through struggle together“It's not about solutions.”“Some of the needs  are profound and deep and they take time and they are  never fully resolved. But it's this experience of knowing that you're not alone, that you're in a context where you are going to be cared for, you'll be nurtured, and you'll be forgiven when you make mistakes means that you can carry on together. And that's often enough.”Transactional vs covenantal approach to relationshipsGranting forgiveness and receiving forgivenessTransformation is not a replacement for reconciliationRather than denying wrongdoing or seeking to eliminate it, focusing on a renewed effort to be merciful with each other.Economy and architecture“So how is the land supposed to love you back if it has in fact been turned into a toxic dumping zone?”“Think about how much fear is in our architecture.”Building was vernacular—people were involved in the development of physical structuresJ. R. R. Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers: Ents vs Saruman, natural agrarianism vs technological dominationJoy Clarkson, You Are a TreeRooted economy“Is anything worthy of our care?”When a parent chooses a phone and loses a moment of presence with children“Go to some one and tell them, ‘I want to try to be better at being in the presence of those around me.'”Be deliberateProduction NotesThis podcast featured Norman WirzbaEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Alexa Rollow, Kacie Barrett, Emily Brookfield, and Zoë HalabanA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

We remember Audre Lorde as an iconic writer, a quotable teacher whose words and face grace T-shirts, nonprofit annual reports, and campus diversity-center walls. But even those who are inspired by Lorde's teachings on "the creative power of difference" may be missing something fundamental about her life and work, and what they can mean for us today. Lorde's understanding of survival was not simply about getting through to the other side of oppression or being resilient in the face of cancer. It was about the total stakes of what it means to be in relationship with a planet in transformation. Possibly the focus on Lorde's quotable essays, to the neglect of her complex poems, has led us to ignore her deep engagement with the natural world, the planetary dynamics of geology, meteorology, and biology. For her, ecological images are not simply metaphors but rather literal guides to how to be of earth on earth, and how to survive--to live the ethics that a Black feminist lesbian warrior poetics demands. In Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde (FSG, 2024), Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the first researcher to explore the full depths of Lorde's manuscript archives, illuminates the eternal life of Lorde. Her life and work become more than a sound bite; they become a cosmic force, teaching us the grand contingency of life together on earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Born in Harlem in 1934 to a family of Caribbean immigrants, Audre Lorde grew up to become a Black feminist icon and celebrated American poet, writer, and activist. Best known for her works exploring her own multifaceted identity, Lorde both struggled with and embraced the differences that made her unique—and the ones that drew her to others. A poet and self-described “warrior,” Lorde created a space for herself in America by writing about her personal experiences and advocating for freedom for people of color, the LGBTQ community, women, and oppressed communities around the globe. [This episode originally aired in August, 2021.] About the Narrator Camille Stennis is an audio editor, music composer and sound designer based out of Los Angeles, CA. She has a BFA in Music Production & Sound Design for Visual Media from the Academy of Art University, and has also interned at companies such as Jingle Punks, Unified Films, and was previously the Head of Production at Jam Street Media supporting various creative productions in podcasting, music publishing and audio visuals. She worked as an Audio Producer and Sound Designer for Rebel Girls. Camille is also a member of the LGBTQ+ community, living happily with her wife and dogs. Credits This podcast is a production of Rebel Girls and is based on the book series Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls. This episode was produced by Camille Stennis. Sound design and mixing by Mumble Media. This episode was written by Alexis Stratton and fact checked by Joe Rhatigan. Executive Producer was Katie Sprenger. Haley Dapkus was our production manager. Original theme music was composed and performed by Elettra Bargiacchi.   A big thanks to the whole Rebel Girls team who make this show possible! For more, visit rebelgirls.com. And if you like what you heard, don't forget to rate and review this episode, and share it with your friends! Until next time, stay REBEL!