Episode 120, Siri Carr and Kirsti Carr, Discussion On White Privilege
Release Date: 06/15/2020
Episode 128 Stormy White Guilt
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
This past week, the strong winds and heavy rains of Hurricane Isaias moved up through the east coast, uprooting thousands of trees. Mother Nature is reflecting what many of us are experiencing personally and collectively, the aftermath of not just the physical storm, but of the pandemic and racial injustices that continue to challenge and shake us. The force of the storm captured in the verbs: uprooting, toppling, crushing, crashing, knocking out, blocking, snapped, dangling and scattered are not so foreign to our own state of mental health these days. In this episode I focus on the concept...
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Episode 127 Guided Meditation
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
I lead a 20-30 minute meditation with a small group of friends every Friday morning and this past week, one of my friends asked if I could record the meditation. I was moved that she would like to hear my meditation again, that she found my free-form guidance helpful in giving her a centering peace. So here it is for my friends and all my podcast listeners: a 20 minute spontaneous, organic guided meditation. May it help ground you in the midst of all the uncertainty, heartache, racial oppression and political turmoil going on in our country right now. I know my daily spiritual practices...
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Episode 126 Kitty Hatcher, astrologer
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
My guest today is Kitty Hatcher. Kitty is a gifted astrologist and tarot reader, who reads astrological charts and teaches beginning, intermediate and advanced classes on astrology. I first met Kitty in 1993 and every reading from her since has helped me distinguish and live more confidently into, what Kitty describes as, who I truly am, as opposed to who I am programmed to be. With what has been exposed and unleashed with the pandemic and racial oppression, we also have the opportunity to think about who we truly are as a country, as opposed to who we’ve been programmed to be. I'm...
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Episode 125 Honoring John Lewis
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
Instead of a guest today, I’d like to humbly do my part in honoring the life and legacy of John Lewis. Representative John Lewis died on Friday July 17 at the age of 80 from pancreatic cancer. You will find beautiful tributes to Mr. Lewis, in the recent New York Times article, on a NPR special and throughout social media platforms. Please take the time to learn more about this courageous, devoted man of integrity. I look forward to watching the documentary “John Lewis: Good Trouble”. In addition to John Lewis’ life, which embodied his values and steadfast fight for equality and...
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Episode 124 Horace Turnbull, Community Builder & Residential Treatment Center COO
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
My guest today is Horace Turnbull. Horace has spent his life devoted to positively shaping kids lives and uplifting community, through the value and power of the arts. Horace grew up in segregated Greenville, MS, in high school he helped farm families find housing, formed recreational activity program for young people, majored in sociology and psychology at Tougaloo College, before moving to New York. He began his career in a child welfare agency as a child care worker, and for the last 3 years of his career, before retiring 4 years ago, was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for St....
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Episode 123 Frances Pratt, President NAACP Nyack
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
My guest today is Frances Pratt. In my Nyack, NY community, Frances, at age 86, is a beloved, living legend. Frances is a registered nurse, who had a 53 year career at Nyack Hospital, which included being head nurse of ER and later a health administrator. The hospital named a waiting room after Frances, a scholarship in her name, as well as a positive-image rose garden. Frances is also a “licensed family care” provider and for 48 years housed up to 6 mentally challenged women in her home, at a time. The National Association for the Advanced of Colored People (NAACP) was formed in 1909 and...
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Episode 122 Julia Adamy Pederson, musician/equal justice advocate
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
My guest today is Julia Adamy Pederson. Although Julia is an outstanding professional bass player, today’s conversation is not about what a marvelous bass player she is, or her vibrant music career. Julia, my wholehearted, yet humble daughter, is uncomfortable talking about herself. True to the instrument she plays, her personality matches the function of the bass player: to be a supportive role, or as she describes it “I’d rather be felt, than heard”. She agreed to be my guest, stretching herself beyond her comfort zone, only because she feels compelled to speak about what she is...
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Episode 121 Kimberly Jones, author, filmmaker, activist
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
My guest today is Kimberly Latrice Jones. Kimberly is an activist, writer, and director. It was Kimberly’s recent impassioned video that powerfully moved me and inspired me to reach out to her. Both Trevor Noah and John Oliver highlighted Kim’s video, where she provides a poignant history lesson, outlines the broken social contracts between whites and blacks in this country, and pleads for people to not superficially focus on the WHAT (looting and rioting), but dig into the WHY.
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Episode 120, Siri Carr and Kirsti Carr, Discussion On White Privilege
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
My guests today are 2 of my nieces, Siri Carr and Kirsti Carr. Siri is a teacher of 8th grade writing in a Boston charter school. She cares deeply about making the world a better place, trusting that with love, we are capable of so much more. Kirsti is an environmental biologist, who has studied raptors in California and Nevada and is currently working on a red-headed woodpecker project in Minnesota. Siri and Kirsti help challenge me to think about how we can openly practice anti-racism in our lives.
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Episode 119 Jamie Surya, yoga studio owner and teacher
Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire
My guest today is Jamie Surya. Jamie is a yoga instructor, owner of her own yoga studio and a revered community builder. Jamie was drawn to yoga at a very vulnerable time in her life, when she was struggling with anxiety and depression. Yoga shifted and profoundly transformed Jamie’s life so she is devoted to sharing the practice with others. Rooted in a reverence for the ancient philosophy and practice of yoga, Jamie adds her modern twist.
info_outline I want to acknowledge and address the traumatic, heartbreaking reality of our country’s anti-black socialization, systemic racism and the internalized racist worldview that is ingrained in being white. I am reaching out, retreating, asking others, asking myself, learning, unlearning, doing, undoing, reflecting, listening, making mistakes, and striving for growth. I truly want to be as present to the discomfort, awkwardness and pain as I can be, of the racial inequality of our shared American history. I’ve been so moved by the younger generation, particularly my adult children, nieces and nephews as they continue to challenge, stimulate and expand my understanding of racial injustice and what it means to be white.
My guests today are 2 of my nieces, Siri Carr and Kirsti Carr. Siri is a teacher of 8th grade writing in a Boston charter school. She cares deeply about making the world a better place, trusting that with love, we are capable of so much more. Kirsti is an environmental biologist, who has studied raptors in California and Nevada and is currently working on a red-headed woodpecker project in Minnesota. She is uplifted by the collective action that is happening across the country and around the world, hundreds of thousands of people standing together, demanding equal justice.
Both Siri and Kirsti invited our extended family into a family Zoom meeting to discuss white privilege. So even though the family Zoom hasn’t yet occurred, I wanted to highlight the initiative they took. As I hear so many white people ask what can I do, I hope Siri and Kirsti’s efforts might be a tangible thing you could try with your own families.
Siri and Kirsti help challenge me to think about how we can openly practice anti-racism in our lives. I know there is a lot of individual and collective work before us and I hope we can inspire each other on the journey. Check out the show notes for links to resources we discuss. Enjoy the podcast!
Programming Note:
Next Monday, June 22, my guest will be author, director & activist Kimberly Jones. You may have seen her viral video that Joel Cross, Trevor Noah, and others have shared. I'm eager to shine light on Kimberly and the truth she speaks.
Links:
Teens In Print
Storyteller Carolyn Finney
"Black Faces in White Places" by Randal Pinkett
"America, This is Your Chance" by Michelle Alexander, NY Times