Davia Antonia

This episode was recorded in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica with relocation specialist Davia Antonia. You can find her at https://lifeaholiccostarica.com/ . 

This episode was recorded in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica with relocation specialist Davia Antonia. You can find her at <a href="https://lifeaholiccostarica.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://lifeaholiccostarica.com/</a> .

Season 4 Episode 7: Davia Antonia

Leilani Raglin

Leilani Mañulu

Leilani is a shaman and leadership visionary, interpreting messages from the unseen to bring more joy, balance, and hope to our world. She is the author of “Paradox of the Water Bearer” and the host of The Intuitive Catalyst podcast. Leilani is a leadership expert and executive coach, supporting and guiding intuitive leaders in reconnecting with their spiritual truth in service of guiding their organizations to be more intuitive, imaginative, and heart-centered.

Leilani is a shaman and leadership visionary, interpreting messages from the unseen to bring more joy, balance, and hope to our world. She is the author of “Paradox of the Water Bearer” and the host of The Intuitive Catalyst podcast. Leilani is a leadership expert and executive coach, supporting and guiding intuitive leaders in reconnecting with their spiritual truth in service of guiding their organizations to be more intuitive, imaginative, and heart-centered.

Season 4 Episode 6: Leilani Mañulu

Sonora Jha

Sonora Jha is the author of the memoir How to Raise a Feminist Son (2021) and the novel Foreign (2013). After a career as a journalist covering crime, politics, and culture in India and Singapore, she moved to the United States to earn a Ph.D. in media and public affairs. Sonora’s OpEds, essays, and public appearances have featured in the New York Times, on BBC, and elsewhere. She is a professor of journalism and lives in Seattle. Her new novel, The Laughter, is forthcoming from Harper Via in early 2023.

Sonora Jha is the author of the memoir How to Raise a Feminist Son (2021) and the novel Foreign (2013). After a career as a journalist covering crime, politics, and culture in India and Singapore, she moved to the United States to earn a Ph.D. in media and public affairs. Sonora’s OpEds, essays, and public appearances have featured in the New York Times, on BBC, and elsewhere. She is a professor of journalism and lives in Seattle. Her new novel, The Laughter, is forthcoming from Harper Via in early 2023.

Season 4 Episode 5: Sonora Jha

Howie Echo-Hawk has a lot of names and does a lot of things. They are one of the human beings, as (hopefully) are you. Music, words, jokes, laughter, joy, dancing, being hot are among her many activities. Howie produces events and art with Indigenize Productions, makes music and art under the name “there’s more,” and has so many instagrams that at this point it’s become a little unwieldy. After years and years of being a cynic, they now believe firmly that there’s more to life, there’s more to us, there’s just more. But mostly, they want to go be trans and native in the woods.

Howie Echo-Hawk has a lot of names and does a lot of things. They are one of the human beings, as (hopefully) are you. Music, words, jokes, laughter, joy, dancing, being hot are among her many activities. Howie produces events and art with Indigenize Productions, makes music and art under the name “there’s more,” and has so many instagrams that at this point it’s become a little unwieldy. After years and years of being a cynic, they now believe firmly that there’s more to life, there’s more to us, there’s just more. But mostly, they want to go be trans and native in the woods.

Season 4 Episode 4: Howie Echo-Hawk

Mari Shibuya

Mari Shibuya (they/she) (Duwamish / Coast Salish territory) is a Visual and Social Artist specializing in murals, community visioning through the arts, and scribing. Their work focuses on the intersection of public art activation, visual thinking and creative empowerment while inviting in the spirit of collaboration and connection. 

Mari Shibuya (they/she) (Duwamish / Coast Salish territory) is a Visual and Social Artist specializing in murals, community visioning through the arts, and scribing. Their work focuses on the intersection of public art activation, visual thinking and creative empowerment while inviting in the spirit of collaboration and connection.

Season 4 Episode 3: Mari Shibuya

Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Shake a tambourine for Black Feminism! Sista Docta 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. She leads retreats and has published several books. Find out more here: https://www.alexispauline.com/about

Shake a tambourine for Black Feminism! Sista Docta 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. She leads retreats and has published several books. Find out more here: <a href="https://www.alexispauline.com/about" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.alexispauline.com/about</a>

Season 4 Episode 2: Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs

After a two year gap we are back. We've missed you. Check in on what Anastacia and Reagan have been up to during the pandemic and how we're framing our 4th and final season. 

After a two year gap we are back. We've missed you. Check in on what Anastacia and Reagan have been up to during the pandemic and how we're framing our 4th and final season.

Season 4 Episode 1: We're Back! Now what? What now?

On Sept 6, 2020 The Deep End hosted it's Season 3 Finale livestreaming through Seattle Town Hall. The theme was Black healing and we interviewed Mary Williams, Victoria Santos, Rocky Lester, and Taqueet$. Mary Williams is an anthropology student at the University of Washington who is studying coping strategies for viral Black death. She is the co-founder of Blackout Healing and co-organized the Blackout of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest on Juneteenth, re-center the protest on Black healing and Black lives from Black death.  Victoria Santos is the Co-director of Young Women Empowered. She is a healer and teacher of meditation and yoga. She has led many grief rituals and is constantly studying new modalities for self and community healing. Rocky Lester is a gifted mystic and healer, a spiritual leader and founder of One Race One Humanity. His passion for enriching the lives of others and empowering individuals, families, and communities derives from a firm belief; that we are the ones they will call change makers. Born and raised in Seattle, TAQUEET$! Is a movement artist with a style all her own. Her tagline “The Physical Representation Of Sound” .

On Sept 6, 2020 The Deep End hosted it's Season 3 Finale livestreaming through Seattle Town Hall. The theme was Black healing and we interviewed Mary Williams, Victoria Santos, Rocky Lester, and Taqueet$. Mary Williams is an anthropology student at the University of Washington who is studying coping strategies for viral Black death. She is the co-founder of Blackout Healing and co-organized the Blackout of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest on Juneteenth, re-center the protest on Black healing and Black lives from Black death.  Victoria Santos is the Co-director of Young Women Empowered. She is a healer and teacher of meditation and yoga. She has led many grief rituals and is constantly studying new modalities for self and community healing. Rocky Lester is a gifted mystic and healer, a spiritual leader and founder of One Race One Humanity. His passion for enriching the lives of others and empowering individuals, families, and communities derives from a firm belief; that we are the ones they will call change makers. Born and raised in Seattle, TAQUEET$! Is a movement artist with a style all her own. Her tagline “The Physical Representation Of Sound” .

Episode 19: Black Healing live from Town Hall PT2- Rocky Lester and TAQUEET$

Mary Williams

Victoria Santos

Episode 18: Black Healing live from Town Hall PT 1 with Mary Williams and Victoria Santos

BJ STAR (they/them) is an experience designer, facilitator, and consultant invested in transformational learning, building powerful teams, and transitioning to a life-affirming society. BJ began as a trainer with Generation Waking Up and The Work That Reconnects, and has grown several organizations that strengthen Black, POC, womxn, and youth leadership throughout the country. Today they are an independent facilitator at BJSTAR Consulting and a member of the Wildfire Project. BJ currently supports organizations such as Young Women’s Leadership, Healing Justice Podcast, Color of Change,  350.org, SustainUS, National Bail Out, OPAL Environmental Justice, and Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.  10 years of facilitation, 18 years of praxis, and 35 years inside a queer/trans black body have elicited keen sight, grounded presence, and a tendency toward blessed unrest.

BJ STAR (they/them) is an experience designer, facilitator, and consultant invested in transformational learning, building powerful teams, and transitioning to a life-affirming society. BJ began as a trainer with Generation Waking Up and The Work That Reconnects, and has grown several organizations that strengthen Black, POC, womxn, and youth leadership throughout the country. Today they are an independent facilitator at BJSTAR Consulting and a member of the Wildfire Project. BJ currently supports organizations such as Young Women’s Leadership, Healing Justice Podcast, Color of Change, <a href="http://350.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"> 350.org</a>, SustainUS, National Bail Out, OPAL Environmental Justice, and Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.  10 years of facilitation, 18 years of praxis, and 35 years inside a queer/trans black body have elicited keen sight, grounded presence, and a tendency toward blessed unrest.

Episode 17: B.J. Star

The Deep End is an exploration of liberation, healing, hope, joy, and wholeness. What does it mean to be free? What are people of color doing to heal themselves and the world? Join co-hosts Reagan Jackson and Anastacia Renee for a series of in-depth interviews. Hear from incredible people from all walks of life about their journeys, what they are doing to thrive and how they are contribution to broader movements of empowerment and liberation. About Us:Reagan Jackson is a writer, artist, international educator, prayer practitioner, and seeker of truth. She is currently a Program Manager for Young Women Empowered and a columnist for the Seattle Globalist. Anastacia Renee is Seattle’s Civic Poet. She is a queer writer, performance artist and creative writing workshop facilitator.

What a gift to Seattle, women and people of color everywhere.  Thank you.  
This is not exactly the appropriate way to send you this info, but I wanted to connect you both to my friend, Tracy Deonn Walker, who is visiting Seattle next month.  She is an author releasing a fantasy fiction novel next month and is finally living her dream writing.  I hope you can check her out and her essay in our stories, our voices.  I think it is called Black Girl Becoming.  I’m a bad publicist for her, we are soccer buddies way back from NC.  I love her and I love your podcast.  Thanks y’all for the message you share.

Thank you

The Deep End is an exploration of liberation, healing, hope, joy, and wholeness. What does it mean to be free? What are people of color doing to heal themselves and the world? Join co-hosts Reagan Jackson and Anastacia Renee for a series of in-depth interviews. Hear from incredible people from all walks of life about their journeys, what they are doing to thrive and how they are contribution to broader movements of empowerment and liberation. About Us: Reagan Jackson is a writer, artist, international educator, prayer practitioner, and seeker of truth. She is currently a Program Manager for Young Women Empowered and a columnist for the Seattle Globalist. Anastacia Renee is Seattle’s Civic Poet. She is a queer writer, performance artist and creative writing workshop facilitator.

The Deep End Friends Podcast

Bettina Judd

Born in Baltimore and raised in Southern California, Bettina Judd is an interdisciplinary writer, artist and performer. She is an alumna of Spelman College and the University of Maryland and is currently Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at the University of Washington. Most recently, her collection of poems titled Patient. won the Black Lawrence Press Hudson Book Prize and was published in November of 2014.

Born in Baltimore and raised in Southern California, Bettina Judd is an interdisciplinary writer, artist and performer. She is an alumna of Spelman College and the University of Maryland and is currently Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at the University of Washington. Most recently, her collection of poems titled Patient. won the Black Lawrence Press Hudson Book Prize and was published in November of 2014.

Episode 8: Bettina Judd

Quenton Baker

Quenton Baker is a poet and educator from Seattle. His current focus is anti-blackness and the afterlife of slavery. His work has appeared in Jubilat, Vinyl, Apogee, Pinwheel, The James Franco Review, and Cura. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the recipient of the 2016 James W. Ray Venture Project award and the 2018 Arts Innovator Award from Artist Trust. He is the author of This Glittering Republic (Willow Books, 2016).

Quenton Baker is a poet and educator from Seattle. His current focus is anti-blackness and the afterlife of slavery. His work has appeared in Jubilat, Vinyl, Apogee, Pinwheel, The James Franco Review, and Cura. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the recipient of the 2016 James W. Ray Venture Project award and the 2018 Arts Innovator Award from Artist Trust. He is the author of This Glittering Republic (Willow Books, 2016).

Episode 2: Quenton Baker

Naa Akua, Citizen University, Poet-in-Residence, is a queer poet, emcee, and actor. They are, poetry teacher at The Northwest School and WITS writer-in-residence at Franklin High School. Intentionality, love, and encouragement is the focus of Akua’s work that can be found in tracks like “The Elements” or “Till It All Goes Away” from their mixtape Odd(s) Balance (on SoundCloud.com). Recently, Naa Akua was a cast member of Book-it Repertory Theater’s adaptation of T. Geronimo Johnson’s “Welcome to Braggsville”. Naa is currently a cast member for Theater Schmeater’s production of “Welcome to Arroyo’s” and in a original boilesque ballet called “Tailfeathers”. Naa Akua’s one person show, Akwaba ran at part of Gay City’s Mosaic program and Earth Pearl Collectives, Sovereign Queer Black Womyn Festival. When Akua is not writing and performing they are facilitating Sound Healing sessions which focus on breathing, being in the body and meditation.

Naa Akua, Citizen University, Poet-in-Residence, is a queer poet, emcee, and actor. They are, poetry teacher at The Northwest School and WITS writer-in-residence at Franklin High School. Intentionality, love, and encouragement is the focus of Akua’s work that can be found in tracks like “The Elements” or “Till It All Goes Away” from their mixtape Odd(s) Balance (on <a href="http://soundcloud.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SoundCloud.com</a>). Recently, Naa Akua was a cast member of Book-it Repertory Theater’s adaptation of T. Geronimo Johnson’s “Welcome to Braggsville”. Naa is currently a cast member for Theater Schmeater’s production of “Welcome to Arroyo’s” and in a original boilesque ballet called “Tailfeathers”. Naa Akua’s one person show, Akwaba ran at part of Gay City’s Mosaic program and Earth Pearl Collectives, Sovereign Queer Black Womyn Festival. When Akua is not writing and performing they are facilitating Sound Healing sessions which focus on breathing, being in the body and meditation.

Episode 6: Naa Akua

Join the Deep End for a magical mystery tour with Haji Basim. Haji is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who created a new genre of positive acoustic music titled Urban Folk. He is also the founder and guide instructor of Holistic Method Music. 

Join the Deep End for a magical mystery tour with Haji Basim. Haji is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who created a new genre of positive acoustic music titled Urban Folk. He is also the founder and guide instructor of Holistic Method Music.

Episode 2: Haji Basim

Ijeoma Oluo

Ijeoma Oluo is a Seattle-based writer, speaker, and Internet Yeller.  She’s the author of the New York Times Best-Seller So You Want to Talk about Race, published in January by Seal Press. Named one of the The Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans in 2017, one of the Most Influential People in Seattle by Seattle Magazine, one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle by Seattle Met, and winner of the of the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award by the American Humanist Society, Oluo’s work focuses primarily on issues of race and identity, feminism, social and mental health, social justice, the arts, and personal essay. Her writing has been featured in The Washington Post, NBC News, Elle Magazine, TIME, The Stranger, and the Guardian, among other outlets. 

Ijeoma Oluo is a Seattle-based writer, speaker, and Internet Yeller.  She’s the author of the New York Times Best-Seller So You Want to Talk about Race, published in January by Seal Press. Named one of the The Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans in 2017, one of the Most Influential People in Seattle by Seattle Magazine, one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle by Seattle Met, and winner of the of the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award by the American Humanist Society, Oluo’s work focuses primarily on issues of race and identity, feminism, social and mental health, social justice, the arts, and personal essay. Her writing has been featured in The Washington Post, NBC News, Elle Magazine, TIME, The Stranger, and the Guardian, among other outlets.

Episode 17: Ijeoma Oluo

Dr. Ersula J. Ore is the Lincoln Professor of Ethics in The School of Social Transformation and Assistant Professor of African &amp; African American Studies, and Rhetoric at Arizona State University. Her work as a race critical rhetorician maps the suasive strategies of aggrieved communities as they operate within a post-emancipation historical context. In Lynching: Violence, Rhetoric &amp; American Identity (University Press of Mississippi, 2019), Ore examines lynching as a rhetorical strategy and material practice interwoven with the formation of America’s national identity and with the nation’s need to continually renew that identity. Specifically, the book draws connections between the rhetorics and material practices of lynching in the past and the forms these rhetorics and practices assume in the present with the hope of helping readers understand, interpret, and even critique present-day situations involving racial violence. Dr. Ore’s most recent publications broadly explore the correlations between race, power and academic space and give particular attention to the rhetorical strategies Black and non-Black rhetors of color use when navigating social space. Publications exploring these issues include “‘PushBack’: A Pedagogy of Care,” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture (2017), “Whiteness as Racialized Space: Obama and the Rhetorical Constraints of Phenotypical Blackness” in Kris Ratcliffe’s Rhetorics of Whiteness: Postracial Hauntings in Popular Culture, Social Media, and Education (2017), and “They Call Me ‘Dr. Ore’,” Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Society Special Issue: Race, Rhetoric and the State (2015). Dr. Ore is a 2013 Institute for Humanities Research Fellow at Arizona State University and a 2011 Penn State Alumni Association Dissertation Award Recipient. Later this month she will receive ASU’s College of Global Health Graduate Mentorship Award from for her work and investment in graduate students.

Dr. Ersula J. Ore is the Lincoln Professor of Ethics in The School of Social Transformation and Assistant Professor of African &amp; African American Studies, and Rhetoric at Arizona State University. Her work as a race critical rhetorician maps the suasive strategies of aggrieved communities as they operate within a post-emancipation historical context. In Lynching: Violence, Rhetoric &amp; American Identity (University Press of Mississippi, 2019), Ore examines lynching as a rhetorical strategy and material practice interwoven with the formation of America’s national identity and with the nation’s need to continually renew that identity. Specifically, the book draws connections between the rhetorics and material practices of lynching in the past and the forms these rhetorics and practices assume in the present with the hope of helping readers understand, interpret, and even critique present-day situations involving racial violence. Dr. Ore’s most recent publications broadly explore the correlations between race, power and academic space and give particular attention to the rhetorical strategies Black and non-Black rhetors of color use when navigating social space. Publications exploring these issues include “‘PushBack’: A Pedagogy of Care,” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture (2017), “Whiteness as Racialized Space: Obama and the Rhetorical Constraints of Phenotypical Blackness” in Kris Ratcliffe’s Rhetorics of Whiteness: Postracial Hauntings in Popular Culture, Social Media, and Education (2017), and “They Call Me ‘Dr. Ore’,” Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Society Special Issue: Race, Rhetoric and the State (2015). Dr. Ore is a 2013 Institute for Humanities Research Fellow at Arizona State University and a 2011 Penn State Alumni Association Dissertation Award Recipient. Later this month she will receive ASU’s College of Global Health Graduate Mentorship Award from for her work and investment in graduate students.

Episode 8: Ersula Ore

Stanlie James

Eric Darnell

Born and raised in Queens, NY, Eric Darnell Pritchard is an award-winning writer, cultural critic, and an Associate Professor of English at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. A self-described "Black queer feminist alchemist," he writes and teaches about literacy and rhetoric and their intersections with fashion, beauty, popular culture, identity, and power. He is author of Fashioning Lives: Black Queers and the Politics of Literacy (Southern Illinois University Press, 2016), winner of three book awards, and editor of “Sartorial Politics, Intersectionality, and Queer Worldmaking,” a special issue of QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking (Michigan State University Press, 2017).His writings have been published in multiple venues including the International Journal of Fashion Studies, Harvard Educational Review, Visual Anthropology, Literacy in Composition Studies, Public Books, Ebony.com, ARTFORUM, and The Funambulist: Clothing Politics Issue 1 and Issue 2. Eric’s work and service within the communities he loves and is sustained by has also been honored. Most recently, he received the 2018 Esteem Award for National Service to the LGBTQ Community at the 11th Annual Esteem Awards in Chicago, Illinois. 

Born and raised in Queens, NY, Eric Darnell Pritchard is an award-winning writer, cultural critic, and an Associate Professor of English at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. A self-described "Black queer feminist alchemist," he writes and teaches about literacy and rhetoric and their intersections with fashion, beauty, popular culture, identity, and power. He is author of Fashioning Lives: Black Queers and the Politics of Literacy (Southern Illinois University Press, 2016), winner of three book awards, and editor of “Sartorial Politics, Intersectionality, and Queer Worldmaking,” a special issue of QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking (Michigan State University Press, 2017).His writings have been published in multiple venues including the International Journal of Fashion Studies, Harvard Educational Review, Visual Anthropology, Literacy in Composition Studies, Public Books, <a href="http://Ebony.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ebony.com</a>, ARTFORUM, and The Funambulist: Clothing Politics Issue 1 and Issue 2. Eric’s work and service within the communities he loves and is sustained by has also been honored. Most recently, he received the 2018 Esteem Award for National Service to the LGBTQ Community at the 11th Annual Esteem Awards in Chicago, Illinois.

Episode 21: Dr. Eric Darnell Pritchard (cameo of Dr. Stanlie James)

Jessica Rycheal

Jessica Rycheal is a Multi-disciplinary Storyteller, Photographer, and Creative Director from Macon, Georgia. Her work embraces vulnerability as an act of resistance, as she weaves themes of healing, resilience, and self-preservation across a loom of visual arts and spoken word. She has been featured in the Northwest African American Museum, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, NPR, Seattle Times, and City Arts Magazine.

Jessica Rycheal is a Multi-disciplinary Storyteller, Photographer, and Creative Director from Macon, Georgia. Her work embraces vulnerability as an act of resistance, as she weaves themes of healing, resilience, and self-preservation across a loom of visual arts and spoken word. She has been featured in the Northwest African American Museum, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, NPR, Seattle Times, and City Arts Magazine.

Episode 3: Jessica Rycheal

Nikkita Oliver

Nikkita is a Seattle-based writer, teaching artist, attorney, and organizer. Her writing has been published in the South Seattle Emerald, Crosscut, the Establishment, Last Real Indians, The Seattle Weekly, and the Stranger. Oliver holds a J.D. and Masters of Education from the University of Washington. She is also the case manager for Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration, and has worked for arts organizations such as Writers in the Schools and Arts Corp. Nikkita is one of the Seattle Mets 2018 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle, and the recipient of the 2018 UW Women’s Center Woman of Courage Award, 2018 UW Evan’s School of Public Policy NOW (Network of Womxn) Award, 2017 City Arts Artists of the Year, Gender Justice Power Award (2017), Seattle King County NAACP President’s Leadership Award (2017), Columbia Legal Services Imagine Justice Visionary of the Year (2017), the University of Washington Women’s Law Caucus Outstanding Achievement as a Young Lawyer Award (2017), the Seattle Office of Civil Rights Artist Human Rights Leader Award (2015), and the 2014 Seattle Poetry Slam Grand Champion. She has opened for Cornel West and Chuck D of Public Enemy and performed on The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert. She is also the first political candidate of the Seattle Peoples Party; running for Mayor of Seattle in 2017 where she finished in 3rd (of 21 of candidates).

Nikkita is a Seattle-based writer, teaching artist, attorney, and organizer. Her writing has been published in the South Seattle Emerald, Crosscut, the Establishment, Last Real Indians, The Seattle Weekly, and the Stranger. Oliver holds a J.D. and Masters of Education from the University of Washington. She is also the case manager for Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration, and has worked for arts organizations such as Writers in the Schools and Arts Corp. Nikkita is one of the Seattle Mets 2018 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle, and the recipient of the 2018 UW Women’s Center Woman of Courage Award, 2018 UW Evan’s School of Public Policy NOW (Network of Womxn) Award, 2017 City Arts Artists of the Year, Gender Justice Power Award (2017), Seattle King County NAACP President’s Leadership Award (2017), Columbia Legal Services Imagine Justice Visionary of the Year (2017), the University of Washington Women’s Law Caucus Outstanding Achievement as a Young Lawyer Award (2017), the Seattle Office of Civil Rights Artist Human Rights Leader Award (2015), and the 2014 Seattle Poetry Slam Grand Champion. She has opened for Cornel West and Chuck D of Public Enemy and performed on The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert. She is also the first political candidate of the Seattle Peoples Party; running for Mayor of Seattle in 2017 where she finished in 3rd (of 21 of candidates).

Episode 13: Nikkita Oliver

Jade Solomon

Jade Solomon Curtis,  born in Texas, is a choreographer, dance artist and founder of Solo Magic, a non-profit arts initiative collaborating with innovative artists to create socially relevant multi-disciplined performances highlighting dance; “Activism is the Muse". A celebrated soloist of Donald Byrd’s Spectrum Dance Theater for four seasons, Curtis is also the subject of an Emmy Award winning short film, Jade Solomon Curtis directed by, Ralph Bevins. 2017 began with Curtis being awarded SeattleDance’s first “Dance Crush Award” for Performance/Choreography in the riveting workshop of “Black Like Me”.   Curtis received her BFA in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University and is the recipient of fellowships and grants from the University of South Carolina, Seattle Office of Arts &amp; Culture, Artist Trust and 4Culture. Curtis is currently the Director of the Arts Program for the Pan African Center for Empowerment (PACE) and is an artist-in-residence at Velocity Dance Center.

Jade Solomon Curtis,  born in Texas, is a choreographer, dance artist and founder of <a href="http://www.solomagic.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Solo Magic</a>, a non-profit arts initiative collaborating with innovative artists to create socially relevant multi-disciplined performances highlighting dance; “Activism is the Muse". A celebrated soloist of Donald Byrd’s Spectrum Dance Theater for four seasons, Curtis is also the subject of an <a href="http://www.seattlechannel.org/ArtZone/segments?videoid=x21538" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Emmy Award</a> winning short film, Jade Solomon Curtis directed by, Ralph Bevins. 2017 began with Curtis being awarded SeattleDance’s first “Dance Crush Award” for Performance/Choreography in the riveting workshop of “Black Like Me”.   Curtis received her BFA in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University and is the recipient of fellowships and grants from the University of South Carolina, Seattle Office of Arts &amp; Culture, Artist Trust and 4Culture. Curtis is currently the Director of the Arts Program for the Pan African Center for Empowerment (PACE) and is an artist-in-residence at Velocity Dance Center.

Episode 3: Jade Solomon Curtis

David Glisch-Sanchez

David Luis Glisch-Sánchez is an award winning teacher and Assistant Professor of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Buffalo, in Buffalo, New York. His work as a scholar and teacher focuses broadly in the areas of the sociology of emotions, Latinx studies, women of color feminisms, queer of color critique, and public policy and the law. He is also founder of Soul Support Life Coaching, which is a coaching practice he created to help individuals, groups, and organizations live and operate more intentionally on the principles of Love, Courage, Equity, Fairness, and Balance. Lastly, he is a proud Latinx geek who stans Guinan from Star Trek: TNG, Miles Morales as Spider-Man, Storm from the X-men, and anything that deals with witches and the supernatural!

David Luis Glisch-Sánchez is an award winning teacher and Assistant Professor of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Buffalo, in Buffalo, New York. His work as a scholar and teacher focuses broadly in the areas of the sociology of emotions, Latinx studies, women of color feminisms, queer of color critique, and public policy and the law. He is also founder of Soul Support Life Coaching, which is a coaching practice he created to help individuals, groups, and organizations live and operate more intentionally on the principles of Love, Courage, Equity, Fairness, and Balance. Lastly, he is a proud Latinx geek who stans Guinan from Star Trek: TNG, Miles Morales as Spider-Man, Storm from the X-men, and anything that deals with witches and the supernatural!

Episode 20: Dr. David Glisch-Sanchez

Deniece Dortch

Dr. Deniece Dortch is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Higher Education Administration at George Washington University in Washington DC.Her research and teaching grapples with systemic oppression across multiple axes. She is especially interested in how psychological violence and fear is experienced, manifested and reproduced in the academy. Her most recent projects explore intra-racial relationships, racial agency and their effects on persistence in higher education. Dr. Dortch was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Utah where she created the African American Doctoral Scholar’s Initiative, a comprehensive mentoring program focused on graduate student socialization into the academy. 

Dr. Deniece Dortch is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Higher Education Administration at George Washington University in Washington DC.Her research and teaching grapples with systemic oppression across multiple axes. She is especially interested in how psychological violence and fear is experienced, manifested and reproduced in the academy. Her most recent projects explore intra-racial relationships, racial agency and their effects on persistence in higher education. Dr. Dortch was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Utah where she created the African American Doctoral Scholar’s Initiative, a comprehensive mentoring program focused on graduate student socialization into the academy.

Episode 11: Dr. Deniece Dortch

Maxine Mimms

Maxine Mimms was born on March 4, 1928, in Newport News, Virginia, to Isabella DeBerry Buie and Benson Ebenezer Buie. Influenced by her grandparents' love for Marcus Garvey and educational lectures by Howard Thurman and other black leaders at nearby Hampton University, Mimms attended Booker T. Washington School and graduated from Huntington High School with highest honors in 1946. She earned her B.A. degree from Virginia Union University in 1950. In the early 1950s, Mimms served as a social worker in Detroit, Michigan. There, she was married and would eventually earn her Ph.D. in educational administration from Union Graduate School. Accompanying her husband to Seattle, Washington, in 1953, Mimms taught at Leschi Elementary School, where Jimi Hendrix was a student. In 1961, Mimms taught in Washington’s Kirkland Public Schools until working for the Seattle Public School Administration in 1964. In 1969, Mimms served as the assistant to the director of the Women’s Bureau in the United States Department of Labor. In 1972, Mimms returned to the education field, working as a faculty member at Evergreen State College. At Evergreen State College, Mimms focused on developing an educational program that would serve place-bound working adult students. Her focus on serving the educational needs of urban, African American adult learners combined with an interest in teaching inner-city adults, led to the founding principles of the Tacoma Campus. Mimms eventually became the first Director of the Tacoma Campus, where she used her position to help satisfy the African American community’s demand for adult education programs. In our season Finale, Dr. Mimms talks about her live, love, work, and perspective on freedom at the age of 89 years young. 

Maxine Mimms was born on March 4, 1928, in Newport News, Virginia, to Isabella DeBerry Buie and Benson Ebenezer Buie. Influenced by her grandparents' love for Marcus Garvey and educational lectures by Howard Thurman and other black leaders at nearby Hampton University, Mimms attended Booker T. Washington School and graduated from Huntington High School with highest honors in 1946. She earned her B.A. degree from Virginia Union University in 1950. In the early 1950s, Mimms served as a social worker in Detroit, Michigan. There, she was married and would eventually earn her Ph.D. in educational administration from Union Graduate School. Accompanying her husband to Seattle, Washington, in 1953, Mimms taught at Leschi Elementary School, where Jimi Hendrix was a student. In 1961, Mimms taught in Washington’s Kirkland Public Schools until working for the Seattle Public School Administration in 1964. In 1969, Mimms served as the assistant to the director of the Women’s Bureau in the United States Department of Labor. In 1972, Mimms returned to the education field, working as a faculty member at Evergreen State College. At Evergreen State College, Mimms focused on developing an educational program that would serve place-bound working adult students. Her focus on serving the educational needs of urban, African American adult learners combined with an interest in teaching inner-city adults, led to the founding principles of the Tacoma Campus. Mimms eventually became the first Director of the Tacoma Campus, where she used her position to help satisfy the African American community’s demand for adult education programs. In our season Finale, Dr. Mimms talks about her live, love, work, and perspective on freedom at the age of 89 years young.

Episode 21: Dr. Maxine Mimms

Nacala Ayele is the creator and owner of “FLY! Culinary Tours” where she has traveled to Ghana, Kenya, Guatemala, Jamaica, Trinidad, and The Bahamas to gather recipes, meet culinary historians, and gather stories of Black people of the African diaspora through food.  She is enamored with the richness of Black foodways; from the creativity of African pre-colonial dishes enjoyed and dishes created in slavery, to the ingenuity used to craft meals using cultural food products brought from Europe. The history of Black folks can be found in the cultural, social, and economic practices relating to the production and consumption of food.  She sees how the African diaspora combined indigenous foods from the lands where Africans departed and where they arrived while crossing and surviving the middle passage. Her work is a collection of these food ways woven into interactive experiences. She has catered Y-WE catering lunches to teach youth about history and food preparation; collaborated with Afrodisiac Erotic Poetry with the “Agabayun ( or miracle) Berry Experience;” helped test recipes for Festal 20th Anniversary Commemorative Cookbook; assisted with food-pop-up fundraisers for Music Never Sleeps

Nacala Ayele is the creator and owner of “FLY! Culinary Tours” where she has traveled to Ghana, Kenya, Guatemala, Jamaica, Trinidad, and The Bahamas to gather recipes, meet culinary historians, and gather stories of Black people of the African diaspora through food.  She is enamored with the richness of Black foodways; from the creativity of African pre-colonial dishes enjoyed and dishes created in slavery, to the ingenuity used to craft meals using cultural food products brought from Europe. The history of Black folks can be found in the cultural, social, and economic practices relating to the production and consumption of food.  She sees how the African diaspora combined indigenous foods from the lands where Africans departed and where they arrived while crossing and surviving the middle passage. Her work is a collection of these food ways woven into interactive experiences. She has catered Y-WE catering lunches to teach youth about history and food preparation; collaborated with Afrodisiac Erotic Poetry with the “Agabayun ( or miracle) Berry Experience;” helped test recipes for Festal 20th Anniversary Commemorative Cookbook; assisted with food-pop-up fundraisers for Music Never Sleeps

Episode 1: Nacala Ayele

Esmy Jimenez

Esmy Jimenez. Born in Mexico but raised in rural Washington, Esmy Jimenez is a multimedia journalist and writer. After attending USC in Los Angeles, she moved to Seattle where she was a 2016 apprentice for The Seattle Globalist. Esmy’s work has appeared in High Country News, the Washington Post’s The Lily, National Native News, and NPR. She is additionally a Maynard Fellow and Next Gen Radio alum. When she’s not running around, you can usually find her talking about eating or eating while talking.

Esmy Jimenez. Born in Mexico but raised in rural Washington, Esmy Jimenez is a multimedia journalist and writer. After attending USC in Los Angeles, she moved to Seattle where she was a 2016 apprentice for The Seattle Globalist. Esmy’s work has appeared in High Country News, the Washington Post’s The Lily, National Native News, and NPR. She is additionally a Maynard Fellow and Next Gen Radio alum. When she’s not running around, you can usually find her talking about eating or eating while talking.

Episode 16: Esmy Jimenez

Sharon Chang

S H A R O N  H. C H A N G is an award-winning Author Photographer Activist with a lens on racism, social justice and the Asian American diaspora. She is author of the critically acclaimed academic book Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children In a Post-Racial World and her newly released memoir,  Hapa Tales and Other Lies: A Mixed Race Memoir About the Hawai’i I Never Knew. Her writing has also appeared in BuzzFeed, ThinkProgress, Racism Review, Hyphen Magazine, ParentMap Magazine, South Seattle Emerald, The Seattle Globalist, AAPI Voices and International Examiner. Sharon was named 2015 Social Justice Commentator of the Year by The Seattle Globalist and 2016 Favorite Local API Author / Writer by International Examiner readers. She is currently working her third book looking at Asian American women, gender, and race, to be co-authored with preeminent sociologist Joe R. Feagin.

S H A R O N  H. C H A N G is an award-winning Author Photographer Activist with a lens on racism, social justice and the Asian American diaspora. She is author of the critically acclaimed academic book <a href="https://sharonhchang.com/raising-mixed-race/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children In a Post-Racial World</a> and her newly released memoir, <a href="https://sharonhchang.com/hapa-tales-and-other-lies/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Hapa Tales and Other Lies: A Mixed Race Memoir About the Hawai’i I Never Knew</a>. Her writing has also appeared in BuzzFeed, ThinkProgress, Racism Review, Hyphen Magazine, ParentMap Magazine, South Seattle Emerald, The Seattle Globalist, AAPI Voices and International Examiner. Sharon was named 2015 Social Justice Commentator of the Year by The Seattle Globalist and 2016 Favorite Local API Author / Writer by International Examiner readers. She is currently working her third book looking at Asian American women, gender, and race, to be co-authored with preeminent sociologist Joe R. Feagin.

Episode 10: Sharon Chang

Virgie Tovar

Virgie Tovar is an author, activist and started the hashtag campaign #LoseHateNotWeight. In 2018 she was named one of the 50 most influential feminists by Bitch Magazine. She is the founder of Babecamp, a 4-week online course designed to help women who are ready to break up with diet culture. In 2012, Tovar edited the anthology Hot &amp; Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion and in 2018 The Feminist Press published her manifesto, You Have the Right to Remain Fat, which was placed on the American Library Association's Amelia Bloomer List. Her new book, FLAWLESS: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color, comes out in Spring 2020 from New Harbinger. She holds a Master's degree in Sexuality Studies with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. She is a contributor for Forbes and was awarded the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism at Yale. Virgie has been featured by the New York Times, Tech Insider, BBC, MTV, Al Jazeera and NPR. She lives in San Francisco.

Virgie Tovar is an author, activist and started the hashtag campaign #LoseHateNotWeight. In 2018 she was named one of the 50 most influential feminists by Bitch Magazine. She is the founder of Babecamp, a 4-week online course designed to help women who are ready to break up with diet culture. In 2012, Tovar edited the anthology Hot &amp; Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion and in 2018 The Feminist Press published her manifesto, You Have the Right to Remain Fat, which was placed on the American Library Association's Amelia Bloomer List. Her new book, FLAWLESS: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color, comes out in Spring 2020 from New Harbinger. She holds a Master's degree in Sexuality Studies with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. She is a contributor for Forbes and was awarded the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism at Yale. Virgie has been featured by the New York Times, Tech Insider, BBC, MTV, Al Jazeera and NPR. She lives in San Francisco.

Season 2 Finale! Episode 22: Virgie Tovar live from Seattle Town Hall

Natasha Ria El-Scari is a writer, Cave Canem fellow, and educator for over a decade. Her poetry, academic papers, and personal essays have been published in anthologies, literary, online journals and even as decor in a restaurant in London. She has opened for and introduced many great writers, singers and activists, and has been featured at a host of universities and venues nationwide. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Natasha has a BA from Jackson State University and a MA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Natasha’s Black Feminist approach is reflected in her writing, poetry and performance pieces. She is the author of  Screaming Times (Spartan Press), The Only Other (Main Street Rag) and Mama Sutra: Love and Lovemaking Advice to My Son! She has 3 spoken word CDs, and one DVD. Natasha brings the fire! She is a mother of two awesome children And when she isn’t ghostwriting or managing social media for small businesses she owns and runs the El-Scari Harvey Art Gallery, Black Space Black Art and her Airbnb. Once asked in an interview what makes her unique she replied, “…most people lie to themselves, but I like to reveal myself.” For details and booking:  www.natasharia.com 

Natasha Ria El-Scari is a writer, Cave Canem fellow, and educator for over a decade. Her poetry, academic papers, and personal essays have been published in anthologies, literary, online journals and even as decor in a restaurant in London. She has opened for and introduced many great writers, singers and activists, and has been featured at a host of universities and venues nationwide. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Natasha has a BA from Jackson State University and a MA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Natasha’s Black Feminist approach is reflected in her writing, poetry and performance pieces. She is the author of  Screaming Times (Spartan Press), The Only Other (Main Street Rag) and Mama Sutra: Love and Lovemaking Advice to My Son! She has 3 spoken word CDs, and one DVD. Natasha brings the fire! She is a mother of two awesome children And when she isn’t ghostwriting or managing social media for small businesses she owns and runs the El-Scari Harvey Art Gallery, Black Space Black Art and her Airbnb. Once asked in an interview what makes her unique she replied, “…most people lie to themselves, but I like to reveal myself.” For details and booking: <a href="http://www.natasharia.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"> www.natasharia.com</a>

Episode 8: Natasha Ria El-Scari

AZURE SAVAGE is a black trans man in his senior year of high school. He wrote You Failed Us as a response to the racial injustice within the education system. After releasing the book, Savage has started to pursue speaking opportunities, workshops, and meeting directly with people working in Seattle Public Schools. He is working towards creating more understanding of the harm caused to students of color in order to inform actions taken by the district. Aside from book-related opportunities, Savage also has a strong voice at his high school around sexual assault education. All of his interests come from personal experience which creates an endless source of fuel.

AZURE SAVAGE is a black trans man in his senior year of high school. He wrote You Failed Us as a response to the racial injustice within the education system. After releasing the book, Savage has started to pursue speaking opportunities, workshops, and meeting directly with people working in Seattle Public Schools. He is working towards creating more understanding of the harm caused to students of color in order to inform actions taken by the district. Aside from book-related opportunities, Savage also has a strong voice at his high school around sexual assault education. All of his interests come from personal experience which creates an endless source of fuel.

Season 3 Premier: Azure Savage

Tommy Pico

Tommy “Teebs” Pico is author of the books IRL, Nature Poem, Junk, Feed, and myriad keen tweets including “sittin on the cock of the gay.” Originally from the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he now splits his time between Los Angeles and Brooklyn. He co-curates the reading series Poets with Attitude, co-hosts the podcasts Food 4 Thot and Scream, Queen! and is a contributing editor at Literary Hub.

Tommy “Teebs” Pico is author of the books IRL, Nature Poem, Junk, Feed, and myriad keen tweets including “sittin on the cock of the gay.” Originally from the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he now splits his time between Los Angeles and Brooklyn. He co-curates the reading series Poets with Attitude, co-hosts the podcasts Food 4 Thot and Scream, Queen! and is a contributing editor at Literary Hub.

Episode 4: Tommy Pico

The best podcast episodes about true crime. For any thrill seeking podcast listeners who just can't get enough of the captivating stories of murderers and criminals. This topic has all the best episodes from many different true crime podcasts.  Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!

Best True Crime Podcasts

The Best Multi-Part Documentaries, with documentaries on Obama, Federer vs Nadal, the making of Star Wars, Netflix vs Blockbuster and more. Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!