The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast
The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast is a sound source for Black Lesbians 40 and older. Our show topics include current events, LGBT affairs, Black Lesbian Herstory & Health and Wellness. Angela Denise Davis is the show's Creator, Producer, and Host.
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Lana Williams Puts Her Money Where Her Mind Is
05/03/2024
Lana Williams Puts Her Money Where Her Mind Is
Lana Williams is the Board Chair of ZAMI NOBLA (National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging). She is a Financial Coach, with over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. Her experience includes banking, mergers and acquisitions, investment advising, and bank industry consulting with some of the largest Fortune 500 companies. Positions she’s held include Regional Sales Manager, Senior Sales Consultant, and Project Manager. As a Financial Coach, Lana helps clients develop healthy money habits. She educates and works one-on-one with them to create a financial plan that reflects their goals. Together, they structure budgets, implement debt payoff strategies, and create savings plans. She also serves as an accountability partner, cheerleader, and supporter. Lana is a graduate of Florida A&M University and holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics. She has been an active volunteer most of her adult life. In addition to her current role as Chair of the Board of Directors, Lana has previously served on boards including Fourth Tuesday, and In the Life Atlanta, both in the LGBTQ+ community in Atlanta, GA. She also served on the United Way Allocations Committee. Lana is an avid traveler, and lover of music, theater, photography, and most recently, camping. [email protected] 404.490.1872 Ebook: The Financial Detox Website IG TikTok YouTube Facebook
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Sabrina Francis-White and Lynnette White Speak on 34 Years of Love and One Unbreakable Bond
04/12/2024
Sabrina Francis-White and Lynnette White Speak on 34 Years of Love and One Unbreakable Bond
Lynnette White and Sabrina Francis-White sat down with Angela to share how a Blind date turned into a Fairy Tale Come True. And to discuss what it takes to sustain 32 years of love, understanding and marriage. As they continue to plan their next adventure in life.
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Mary Hooks Keeps Her Eyes on the Prize
04/06/2024
Mary Hooks Keeps Her Eyes on the Prize
Mary Hooks is a 42yr old, Black, lesbian, feminist, abolitionist, pan-Africanist, mother, wife and a member of Southerners On New Ground and part of the leadership of the Movement 4 Black Lives. Mary joined SONG as a member in 2009 and began organizing with SONG in 2010. Mary’s commitment to Black liberation, which encompasses the liberation of LGBTQ folks, is rooted in her experiences growing up under the impacts of the War on Drugs. Her people are migrants of the Great Migration, factory workers, church folks, Black women, hustlers and addicts, dykes, studs, femmes, queens and all people fighting for the liberation of oppressed people. Mary Hooks believes that in order to reach a world that is free from fear and the safety and dignity of all people can be honored, Black people, oppressed people, and all those who are impacted by white supremacy must vision a new world, build our collective power, both locally and globally and take action. She has been passionate about transformative organizing work that changes hearts and minds and has been at the forefront of combating racism, by taking on fights that impact the lives of Black and brown queer and trans people in the South, such as the work to abolish money bail, defunding police, re-imagining public safety and developing new organizers. When she is not ripping the eyebrows off of white supremacy and injustice, you can find Hooks plotting, scheming, and dreaming, but most of all loving on her people. “The mandate; to avenge the suffering of our ancestors, to earn the respect of future generations, and to be transformed in the service of the work. Let’s get free ya’ll!” - Mary Hooks
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Marilyn McClain in North Carolina Reflects on Her Enduring Legacy of Love
02/29/2024
Marilyn McClain in North Carolina Reflects on Her Enduring Legacy of Love
The ZAMI NOBLA North Carolina State Chapter holds a monthly potluck. I took a road trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, to experience one of these gatherings and had the pleasure of interviewing one of their members, Marilyn McClain. Marilyn McClain’s Bio: I Am a body Alchemist. One who is patient, grounded, wise, modest and who enjoys learning and teaching. My mind and soul are open. Love is my greatest tool. I use my inner strength and spirit to transform the lives of others through movement and visioning. I am a licensed physical therapist in the state of North Carolina. I have been practicing for 20 years. I am certified as an instructor for Tai Chi for Immunity and Tai Chi for Arthritis and Fall Prevention. There are many forms of exercise and I assist clients in discovering what resonates with their whole being. ZAMI NOBLA North Carolina Chapter info: ZAMI NOBLA North Carolina Chapter Facebook page: Janyce Jackson Jones (President- ZAMI NOBLA North Carolina State Chapter) interview:
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Stephanie Anne Johnson Shines Her Light on Life, Work, and the Ancestors
12/16/2023
Stephanie Anne Johnson Shines Her Light on Life, Work, and the Ancestors
Stephanie Anne Johnson is a second-generation theater practitioner. Her mother Virginia Johnson (Green) worked with The American Negro Theatre In N.Y. Johnson has been a lighting designer for over forty years. Nationally she has done designs for La Mama Theatre (N.Y.), Telluride Repertory Theatre (Colorado), The Arizona Repertory Theatre, The National Black Theater, and The Apollo (N.Y.). Locally, she has worked with Cultural Odyssey, Rhodessa Jones, Afro Solo, Ubuntu Theatre, African American Shakespeare Company, The Aurora Theater, Shotgun Players, The Marin Theatre Company, and many other groups. Her design work has also been seen in India, The Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Canada and France. She was awarded a Gerbode Design Fellowship in partnership with Cultural Odyssey of San Francisco in 1998. Photographs of Ms. Johnson's designs were included in the show Onstage: A Century of African American Stage Design which was presented at The N.Y. Public Library For The Performing Arts in 1995. Stephanie also has written, directed and performed in theater presentations. Stephanie’s One-Woman Show: "Every 21 Days Cancer & Yoga & Me " July 21, 2014 Stephanie’s Website: Light Essence Design
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M Shelly Conner: A Queer, Renaissance Woman Creating Connections in Literature and on Land
11/28/2022
M Shelly Conner: A Queer, Renaissance Woman Creating Connections in Literature and on Land
M Shelly Conner, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Central Arkansas. Her multi-genre writings examine culture through a dapperqueer womanist lens and include publications in Crisis Magazine, the A.V. Club, NBC News, and the Grio. Her debut novel "everyman", is currently available in hard cover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. Shelly is repped by Beth Marshea at Ladderbird Agency. Her website: http://mshellyconner.com/m Buy the book: https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/everyman-dat0.html#541=94
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The ZNP Celebrates 4 Years of Black Lesbian Herstory
09/06/2022
The ZNP Celebrates 4 Years of Black Lesbian Herstory
The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast celebrated four years of serving as a sound source for Black lesbian herstory in August 2022. This episodes celebrates that achievement with excerpts from various episodes. Links to each episode can be found below. Kamilah Aisha Moon Talks about the Human Business of Poetry https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/kamilah-aisha-moon-talks-about-the-human-business-of-poetry Cynthia Mckinney Takes on Heart Atttack Hill & Loses 52 Pounds https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/cynthia-mckinney-takes-on-heart-atttack-hill-loses-52-pounds Cheryl Clarke Takes us to School https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/cheryl-clarke-takes-us-to-school Deidre McCalla is no 9 to 5 Singer Songwriter https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/deidre-mccalla-is-no-9-to-5-singer-songwriter Jillian Ford Talks Shop on Education, Innovation, and DeColonized Classrooms https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/jillian-ford-talks-shop-on-education-innovation-and-decolonized-classrooms Joi and Jane Mitchell Talk about Work and Residency Abroad https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/joi-and-jane-mitchell-talk-about-work-and-residency-abroad Jowanna Tillman and Edonna Koon Talk about Living the RV Life https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/jowanna-tillman-and-edonna-koon-talk-about-living-the-rv-life Rev. Maressa Pendermon Speaks on Normalizing Grief and Creating a Toolbox for Emotional Well-being https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/rev-maressa-pendermon-speaks-on-normalizing-grief-and-creating-a-toolbox-for-emotional-well-being Black Lesbian Comic Karen Williams Gets Serious About the Business of Being Funny https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/black-lesbian-comic-karen-williams-gets-serious-about-the-business-of-being-funny Ericka Huggins on Mothers, Mindfulness, and Meditation https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/ericka-huggins-on-mothers-mindfulness-and-meditation Trey Anthony Shines her Limelight on Love, Living Out Loud, and Vulnerability https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/ep-002-trey-anthony-shines-her-limelight-on-love-living-out-loud-and-vulnerability Dr. Tonia Poteat on, "Deserving Research that Reflects Your Real Life Lived Experience https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/dr-tonia-poteat-on-deserving-research-that-reflects-your-real-life-lived-experience Michelle Elizabeth Brown Talks about Podcasting, Poetry, and Pride https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/michelle-elizabeth-brown-talks-about-podcasting-poetry-and-pride Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins On Black LGBT Health, Yoruba Spirituality, and Therapy https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/dr-lourdes-dolores-follins-on-black-lbgbt-health-yoruba-spirituality-and-therapy
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Dr. Moya Bailey Talks on Misogynoir, The Combahee River Collective Statement, and Brittney Griner
08/30/2022
Dr. Moya Bailey Talks on Misogynoir, The Combahee River Collective Statement, and Brittney Griner
Dr. Moya Bailey is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. Her work focuses on marginalized groups' use of digital media to promote social justice and she is interested in how race, gender, and sexuality are represented in media and medicine. She is the digital alchemist for the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network and the Board President of Allied Media Projects, a Detroit-based movement media organization that supports an ever growing network of activists and organizers. She is a co-author of #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice (MIT Press, 2020) and is the author of Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance (New York University Press, 2021). Visit her website: https://www.moyabailey.com/
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Gaye Adegbalola Centers Blues Herstory and Music as a Griot and Activist
01/01/2022
Gaye Adegbalola Centers Blues Herstory and Music as a Griot and Activist
This interview was recorded via video conference on October 29, 2021 by Angela Denise Davis. Gaye Adegbalola talked about her early years in Virginia, college life in Boston, and her career as a Blues musician, griot, and activist. Gaye Adegbalola’s website: Facebook page: Gaye Todd Adegbalola, a Blues Music Award winner, is best known musically as a founding member of Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women (1984 – 2009). The group recorded exclusively with Alligator Records. Additionally, she has 6 recordings on her own label, Hot Toddy Music (Todd is her family name). Gaye was born and raised in Fredericksburg, Virginia where she sat-in, picketed and protested its racism. She graduated as valedictorian of the then-segregated Walker-Grant High School, went “ up North” to Boston University to finish with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry. Prior to becoming a teacher, she worked as a technical writer for TRW Systems, a biochemical researcher at Rockefeller University, and a bacteriologist at Harlem Hospital. She has a Master’s degree in Educational Media (with a concentration in photography) from Virginia State University.
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Dr. Emilie M. Townes Champions a Robust Hope in the Midst of a Matrix
12/31/2021
Dr. Emilie M. Townes Champions a Robust Hope in the Midst of a Matrix
Angela interviewed Dr. Emilie M. Townes on October 12, 2021, via video conference. Townes talked about growing up in Durham, North Carolina, her formative years in theological education and parachurch work, and the necessity of having a robust hope. Emilie M. Townes, an American Baptist clergywoman, is a native of Durham, NC. She holds a DMin from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a PhD in Religion in Society and Personality from Northwestern University. Townes is the Dean and Distinguished Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, becoming the first African American to serve as its dean in 2013. She is the former Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology at Yale University Divinity School where she was the first African American and first woman to serve as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. In 2008, she was the first African American woman to serve as president of the American Academy of Religion and recently served as President of the Society for the Study of Black Religion from 2012-2016. She taught on the faculties of Union Theological Seminary, NY and Saint Paul School of Theology. She is the editor of two collection of essays, author of four books including her groundbreaking book, Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil. She is a co-editor of two books. Townes was elected a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.
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Sharon Bridgforth Creates Spaces for Healing and Remembrance on Stage and in Life
12/30/2021
Sharon Bridgforth Creates Spaces for Healing and Remembrance on Stage and in Life
Angela sat down with Sharon Bridgforth on October 8, 2021, to record this interview via video conference. Bridgforth talked about her formative years, her pathway to healing, intergenerational mentoring, and her life as a touring artist in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sharon Bridgforth's website https://www.sharonbridgforth.com/ Twin Cities PBS did a special on Pillsbury House Theatre - who GRACIOUSLY chose to feature "dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/The Show!!!" The special premiered on 7/10/21. https://www.datblackmermaidmanlady.com/the-show A Doris Duke Performing Artist, Sharon Bridgforth is a writer that creates ritual/jazz theatre. A 2020-2023 Playwrights’ Center Core Member, Sharon has received support from Creative Capital, MAP Fund, the National Performance Network and is a New Dramatists alumnae. Sharon served as a dramaturg for the Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Initiative’s Choreographic Fellowship program and has been in residence with: Brown University’s MFA Playwriting Program; University of Iowa’s MFA Playwrights Program; The Theatre School at DePaul University; allgo, A Texas Statewide QPOC Organization; and The Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University. Widely published, Sharon author of the Lambda Literary award winning, the bull-jean stories, and her performance piece, delta dandi, is published in solo/black/woman: scripts, interviews and essays. Sharon is grateful to say that she has been supported by the Zami community since 1998 - when she and RedBone Press Founder and Editor, Lisa C. Moore were first out on the road with the bull-jean stories.
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Deidre McCalla is no 9 to 5 Singer Songwriter
12/28/2021
Deidre McCalla is no 9 to 5 Singer Songwriter
This interview was recorded by Angela Denise Davis on October 14, 2021, via video conference. Deidre McCalla sat down with Angela to talk about McCalla’s early life in New York, her start in music, the herstory of her place in the women’s music movement, and the way the COVID-19 pandemic changed her life. The music heard in the interview was used courtesy of Deidre McCalla. You can enjoy the full tracks on YouTube at the following links: Walk Me Down to the River I Do Not Walk This Path Alone Deidre’s website: Photo used in episode art: Irene Young Playing For Keeps is an apt title for the latest cd from singer/songwriter Deidre McCalla. From the moment Deidre takes the stage, her engaging presence and irresistible blend of folk, country, rock, and pop seize the listeners by the heart and won't let go. Deidre McCalla came of age in the fiery blaze of NYC's folk heyday - a time when Greenwich Village clubs were filled with the likes of Dylan, Baez, and Ochs; a time when Motown ruled the top of the charts and the streets of America screamed with anger and civil unrest. Her first album, Fur Coats and Blue Jeans, was released when Deidre was 19 and a student at Vassar College. With a theater degree tucked under her belt and an acoustic guitar tossed in the back of a battered Buick station wagon, Deidre McCalla hit the proverbial road and never looked back. Deidre later majored in jazz guitar at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and released three albums with the pioneering women's music label Olivia Records. The Miami Herald affectionately dubs her a "dreadlocked troubadour." From Maui to Maine, college coffeehouses to Carnegie Hall, Deidre McCalla is a much beloved performer in both folk and women's music circles and has shared the stage with a long list of notables that includes Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman, Holly Near, Odetta, Cris Williamson, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. With five critically acclaimed albums to her credit, Deidre McCalla remains the ever seeking road warrior, her words and music chronicling our strengths and weaknesses and celebrating the power and diversity of the human spirit. A single parent residing in Georgia with her son, Deidre has taught Performance at Warren Wilson College's Swannanoa Gathering. Deidre's work has been published in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, The Original Coming Out Stories, and Chrysalis: A Feminist Quarterly, and she is featured in The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader. Deidre is a proud member of AFM Local 1000 and the North American Folk Alliance.
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Sherri Jackson Tells Her COVID-19 Pandemic Story as a Healthcare Professional
10/30/2021
Sherri Jackson Tells Her COVID-19 Pandemic Story as a Healthcare Professional
On August 19, 2021, Angela sat down with Sherri Jackson to record her story about living in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic as a healthcare professional. Jackson is a healthcare provider,minister and activist. She has a wide range of LBGTQ.and AIDS organizational involvement. She has been a volunteer with the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club-Health Committee,and the Chicago Department of Public Health.She has been a board member of Horizon Community Services (1996-2000) was a Human Rights Campaign Congressional Action Coordinator (1997-1998) was with Chicago Black Lesbian and Gays(1996-2000} as Corresponding Secretary and program chair. Was on the board of the Lesbian Community Cancer Project, among many group involvements. Jackson also volunteered as a Chaplain for the Night Ministry in Chicago. As well help organize various events at places of worship centered around women and LBGTQ individuals.
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Melodie J Rodgers Celebrates Southern Literature and our 3rd Anniversary
09/27/2021
Melodie J Rodgers Celebrates Southern Literature and our 3rd Anniversary
Melodie J. Rodgers is the Founding Editor of SOREN LIT. Her creative writing and photography has appeared in Johns Hopkins University's Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review, G.R.I.T.S. - Girls Raised In the South: An Anthology of Southern Queer Womyns' Voices and Their Allies, Future is Fiction, Underground, CIEE Brazil Poetry OnFilm project, and many others. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte. Melodie is a Black and Southern writer who lives with her hubby and warrior child beneath the sleepy magnolia trees of Stone Mountain, Georgia. Check out: SOREN LIT website: www.sorenlit.com Follow Melodie J. Rodgers on Clubhouse, Twitter: MelodieJRodgers, and Instagram: themelodiouslife
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Cheryl Clarke Takes us to School
07/14/2021
Cheryl Clarke Takes us to School
Our guest today is the Black lesbian feminist writer, Cheryl Clarke. She is the author of Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women (1982), Living as a Lesbian (1986, reprinted in 2015), Humid Pitch (1989), Experimental Love (1993), and By My Precise Haircut (2016). Since 1979, she has written for and edited numerous publications, including the iconic feminist anthologies, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color (Moraga and Anzaldua, eds., 1980), and Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (Smith, ed., 1982). Most recently her work appears in Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought (Jones, ed., 2021) Since 2013, she has been a co-organizer of the annual Hobart N. Y. Festival of Women Writers. She received her Ph.D. in English from Rutgers University. And after 41 years of service there, on the New Brunswick (N.J.) campus, she retired in 2013. This interview was recorded by Angela Denise Davis via a ZOOM online video on June 23, 2021. You can view a short clip of Dr. Clarke reading the poem she recited at the following link: Visit ZAMI NOBLA online at https://www.zaminobla.org/.
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Joyce Penalver Captures East and West in Recounting a Life of Intersections
03/13/2021
Joyce Penalver Captures East and West in Recounting a Life of Intersections
Joyce Penalver is a retired therapist in Vallejo, California. She was instrumental in forming social clubs and newsletters serving Black lesbians in the Greater Bay Area. We recorded this interview with her in February 2020 before the nationwide lockdowns prompted by COVID-19.
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The Art and Spirit of Verlena L. Johnson
03/03/2021
The Art and Spirit of Verlena L. Johnson
In August 2020, Verlena L. Johnson was featured in ZAMI NOBLA’s virtual art show, Cocktails, Tea, and Art. This interview was recorded remotely a few days before the show. Verlena L. Johnson was born and raised in the Midwest (Wisconsin and Illinois), but also briefly lived in New York City, Ealing England, Oakland, Long Beach and most recently Los Angeles. She earned a Master's Degree in Afro-American Studies (emphasis: Art History, 1996) from the University of Wisconsin — Madison and a Master’s of Fine Arts Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Sculpture, 2001). She has also studied wood carving with master Ghanaian woodcarvers and at both Penland School of Craft and Haystack Mountain School of Craft. Her M.A. thesis, “The Image Text Composite in the Art of Faith Ringgold: Form and Narrative” explores Ringgold's art using WJT Mitchell's Picture Theory to examine the meaning created by Ringgold combining images and text. It also examines Ringgold's "Picasso's Studio," as a meta-picture or a picture about pictures, specifically focusing on Black female subjectivity. Thesis Advisor: Freida High Tesfagiorgis. She has exhibited her work in Chicago (IL), Madison (WI), New York (NY), Oakland and Los Angeles (CA), amongst other places.
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Janyce Jackson Jones on the Fluid Nature of Art and Life
02/01/2021
Janyce Jackson Jones on the Fluid Nature of Art and Life
Reverend Elder Janyce Jackson Jones was one of the artists showcased in August 2020 at ZAMI NOBLA’s visual art exhibit, Cocktails, Tea, and Art. She discovered her passion for art upon retiring to coastal North Carolina after 21 years of dedicated service to her church and social justice causes in Newark, New Jersey. She since has experimented with and been inspired by several techniques and styles, finding what she calls “” in the process of pouring paint onto canvas to create abstract, vibrantly colored, soul-stirring works of Fluid Art. Online galleries of her art can be found at the following links: Facebook: Instagram Prior to retirement, Reverend Janyce served as the Co-Pastor of Newark’s Unity Fellowship Church (UFC), an inclusive, nondenominational, social justice-oriented ministry. Prior to that, she helped to found Liberation in Truth UFC, also in Newark, serving for eight years as its Pastor and Executive Director of that church’s Liberation in Truth Social Justice Center. Under her leadership, that Center provided spiritual, social, and mental health programs and services, classes, support groups, meals, and HIV/AIDS education and prevention services to the greater Newark area including the LGBTIQ community. Reverend Janyce currently lives in the Wilmington, North Carolina, area with her spouse, Valerie Jones, and their dog Buster. Ever the activist, she continues to volunteer and support her intersecting communities of affiliation, working at the local senior center and serving on the boards of the Frank Harr Foundation, SAGE Wilmington, and the local branch of the NAACP.
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Lorraine Lane Gets in the Spirit about Cocktails and Operating a Restaurant in the Time of COVID-19
01/25/2021
Lorraine Lane Gets in the Spirit about Cocktails and Operating a Restaurant in the Time of COVID-19
Lorraine Lane was a guest artist for our virtual art show, “Cocktails, Tea, & Art,” in August 2020. In this episode, she talks about how to make a great cocktail, how she came to love bourbon, and the challenges of operating a restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lorraine came into the Food Industry on the pathway of love for Deborah VanTrece. Lorraine is Deborah’s business partner and wife. She serves as the Bar Director for Twisted Soul. The libations at Twisted Soul have been recognized in local papers and social media outlet. Lorraine has reintroduced moonshine to the local base and her infused cocktails are changing the way people view moonshine. Lorraine has been a leader in the Job Corps program for over 20 years. She is an Executive Director for Adams and Associates and oversees the operations of four Job Corps facilities across the US. She has been acknowledge for her ability to turn under performing facilities into top performers resulting in thousands of young adults graduating and making significant improvements in their lives.
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Black LGBTQ Health Forum 2019
12/31/2020
Black LGBTQ Health Forum 2019
This is a file from our archives. On August 31, 2020, ZAMI NOBLA in Partnership with the Southern Unity Movement sponsored Working Cross Differences: The Black LGBTQIA Health/Wellness Public Forum as part of Atlanta Black Gay Pride. This audio clip is from a conversation with Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins and Dr. Jonathan Mathias Lassiter, moderated by Dr. Kofi Adoma. The first voice you hear after the musical selection is Dr. Adoma followed by Dr. Follins. For more information on the speakers please visit their respective websites: Dr. Kofi Adoma Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins Dr. Jonathan Mathias Lassiter
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Mary Watkins Composes and Arranges a Life of Music and Movement
08/17/2020
Mary Watkins Composes and Arranges a Life of Music and Movement
In February 2020, Angela Denise Davis interviewed Mary D. Watkins at her home in Oakland, California. Watkins was gracious in her recounting of major life events and her work as a composer and musician. Trained in classical music at Howard University, Watkins has composed three operas and has written for symphony orchestras, chamber and jazz ensembles, film, theatre, dance, and choral groups, in addition to being a popular recording artist for Olivia records in the 1970s. Watkins’ recent recordings include Prayer for Peace, a meditational CD, and Recorded Music of the African Diaspora (Albany Records, 2010: Center For Black Music Research; department of Columbia College in Chicago, IL). Visit her website for more information: As promised, here is a link to the sublime performance of Melanie DeMore and Mary Watkins performing the composer’s arrangement of "We Shall Overcome" at the Sister Comrade gathering in Oakland, CA. “We Shall Overcome” Mary Watkins and Melanie DeMore Music clips in this episode are courtesy of Mary Watkins.
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Dr. Wilhelmina Perry Reflects on Lesbian Love, Radical Activism, and COVID-19
07/21/2020
Dr. Wilhelmina Perry Reflects on Lesbian Love, Radical Activism, and COVID-19
Dr. Wilhelmina Perry (85) was interviewed by Angela Denise Davis from her home in June 2020. She talked about growing up in Harlem, her 30-year partnership with Antonia Pantoja, radical activism, and life during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a community activist, social work educator, spiritual leader, homeless youth and marriage equality advocate, author, and the co-founder of LGBT Faith Leaders of African Descent. Dr. Perry holds a masters in social work and a doctorate in human behavior and leadership. She has been a social work professor, administrator of not- for- profit institutions, and community educator. In 2002, she became a member of The Riverside Church and shortly thereafter would become the convener of Marantha, the LGBT ministry. Dr. Perry was a co-founder and Vice President of the Interfaith Task Force for Homeless LGBT Youth. Under the work of the Task Force, three shelters were opened in local churches. Dr. Perry has been an advocate for LGBT same-gender loving people as well as for marriage equality. She held the position of convener of the Round table People of Color under Empire State Pride Agenda. In 2010, this group reformed itself as an independent organization and would become the LGBT Faith Leaders of African Descent. Dr. Perry served as Administrative Coordinator until 2018 when she was voted the Founder Emeritus. Dr. Perry was honored in 2013 with an award from Harlem Pride. She became a Purpose Prize Fellow in 2014. In 2014, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from LGBT Kwanzaa Community of NYC, Inc. In 2016 she received the Regina Shavers Legacy Award from Griot Circle, Inc. the oldest organization for LGBT seniors. In 2019, she received the Parity Award. She has received numerous awards and recognitions. Dr. Perry has contributed many articles on LGBT youth, same-gender families, “coming out”, clergy and attitudes towards LGBT people and President Obama’s support of marriage equality. These articles have appeared in Caribbean Life, The Daily News, The Amsterdam News, Huffington Post and The Positive Community. Collections by Michelle Brown interview with Dr. Wilhelmina Perry February 22, 2018 https://podbay.fm/podcast/1209679697/e/1519344000
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Brenda Joyce Crawford Talks About Cannabis, Community Organizing, and Change
07/04/2020
Brenda Joyce Crawford Talks About Cannabis, Community Organizing, and Change
Brenda Joyce Crawford has been in the thick of social justice work for over five decades. She’s an unapologetic butch woman who comes from a blue collar working class background in the U.S. South. A great deal of her career has been spent promoting values-based leadership in order to create safe and welcoming environments where the richness of the information that resides within all communities can emerge and be appreciated and included in the planning or change processes. She has worked with such group Brenda Joyce Crawford has been in the thick of social justice work for over five decades. She’s an unapologetic butch woman who comes from a blue collar working class background in the U.S. South. A great deal of her career has been spent promoting values-based leadership in order to create safe and welcoming environments where the richness of the information that resides within all communities can emerge and be appreciated and included in the planning or change processes. She has worked with such groups as Mental Health Consumer Concerns and Progressive Research & Planning for Action, and has won numerous awards for her community work and her work supporting those with experiences of alcohol and substance abuse, including the California Legislature Assembly Certificate of Recognition for Front Line Work, and Certificates of Recognition and Appreciation from Congresswoman Barbara Lee and U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer. Crawford now lives in Vallejo, California and does work focusing on cannabis justice via the organization Senior-Cann, a cannabis education and healthy living membership for seniors that seeks to break the stigma associated with medical cannabis and aging. s as Mental Health Consumer Concerns and Progressive Research & Planning for Action, and has won numerous awards for her community work and her work supporting those with experiences of alcohol and substance abuse, including the California Legislature Assembly Certificate of Recognition for Front Line Work, and Certificates of Recognition and Appreciation from Congresswoman Barbara Lee and U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.
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Lisbet Tellefsen Recounts Her Life as a Memory Keeper
06/11/2020
Lisbet Tellefsen Recounts Her Life as a Memory Keeper
Lisbet Tellefsen is an activist, publisher, producer and archivist that has served the Bay Area’s LGBT community for over 3 decades. In 1989 she co-founded Aché: a Black Lesbian Journal —which served as an cultural, political and social nexus for LGBT communities of color both nationally and internationally. As a producer her production credits include over 50 events ranging from drag king shows to the landmark 2006 production “Sister Comrade” celebrating the lives of Black lesbian icons Audre Lorde and poet Pat Parker. She was a co-founding committee member of the Sistahs Steppin’ in Pride Festival & Dyke March which ran for 10 years in Oakland, CA. A former board member of the GLBT Historical Society, during her tenure helped oversee the opening of the GLBT History Museum in San Francisco's Castro district where she co-curated the exhibitions: “From Feminists to Feministas” (2017), and “Angela Davis OUTspoken” (2018). In 2012 the Lisbet Tellefsen Papers—including the Aché journal archives, were acquired by Yale University and in 2018 were featured in “The Art of Collaboration” exhibit at Yale's Beinecke Library. These days her primary work is as an archivist and collector. As an archival consultant she has worked on numerous projects including the documentary films “Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” and “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners”. Her collections have been exhibited most recently in “Get With the Action: Political Posters from the 1960s to Present” at SFMOMA (2017-18); “All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50” at the Oakland Museum of CA (2016); and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) where a dozen pieces from the Tellefsen collection were included in their inaugural 2016 exhibit. Over 100 objects from her collection now reside in the permanent collections of SFMOMA, the Oakland Museum of CA, and the Smithsonian NMAAHC. Currently she is working on an Angela Davis retrospective opening in the Fall of 2020 at the Zimmerli Gallery at Rutgers then traveling to the Oakland Museum of CA in 2021.
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Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins On Black LGBT Health, Yoruba Spirituality, and Therapy
05/28/2020
Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins On Black LGBT Health, Yoruba Spirituality, and Therapy
Lourdes Dolores Follins’s Biography Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins is a Black, queer femme psychotherapist and writer. As a therapist, researcher, and organizational consultant, she has worked with adolescents and adults of color who are marginalized because of their ethnoracial background and gender and/or sexual identities for over 25 years. Her clinical and research interests are the resilience and resistance of LGBTQI people in the African diaspora; using EMDR to emotionally liberate people of color; and health disparities faced by LGBTQI people of color in the U.S. She has published several academic articles and book chapters and spoken internationally about the factors that impact the health of LGBTQI people of color. Lourdes Dolores’s co-edited, award-winning book, Black LGBT Health in the United States: The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation was published in 2017. She is working on a memoir about her relationship with her deceased mother. Lourdes Dolores can be reached at
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Ericka Huggins on Mothers, Mindfulness, and Meditation
05/09/2020
Ericka Huggins on Mothers, Mindfulness, and Meditation
Angela interviewed Ericka Huggins at her home in Oakland, California in February 2020. Huggins, an educator, Black Panther Party member, former political prisoner, human rights advocate and poet, generously shared poignant parts of her life. For 40 years Ericka has lectured in the United States, and internationally, on Restorative Practices and, the role of spiritual practice in creating social change. Ericka speaks on campuses, and in community, about the importance of inclusive grassroots movements. Ericka was professor of Sociology and African American Studies from 2011 through 2015 in the Peralta Community College District. At Merritt College, home of the Black Panther Party, she co-created and taught a course titled, “The Black Panther Party-Strategies for Organizing The People”. Currently Ericka is a facilitator with WORLD TRUST leading conversations about Race and Gender Equity. In addition, she also facilitates workshops for Women on Radical Self Care.
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Michelle Elizabeth Brown Talks about Podcasting, Poetry, and Pride
05/03/2020
Michelle Elizabeth Brown Talks about Podcasting, Poetry, and Pride
This episode is a conversation with sister podcaster, Michelle Elizabeth Brown, who lives in Detroit, Michigan. In addition to being a podcaster, Michelle is a public speaker, poet, author, and activist. She is a force for change! She was born and raised in Detroit graduating from Cass Technical High School then went on to attend Wayne State University. Through her career, creative endeavors, and volunteer work, she has used her strength to assist, inspire, and move people and organizations to be the best they can be. Mixed with her desire to help others she also finds her dedication to uplifting those often left on the fringe of society: especially women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. Michelle has worked as a consultant to small businesses, non-profit organizations, and individuals in the areas of accounting, business management, and marketing. The force within Michelle is her voice, and as a public speaker and activist, she has used her voice to educate, inform, and uplift diverse groups of people in a variety of areas. You can find Michelle’s podcast, Collections by Michelle Brown at the following links: Official website Facebook Soundcloud Collections by Michelle Brown Interview with Mary Anne Adams Collections by Michelle Brown Interview with Angela Denise Davis
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Nikki Young and Benae Beamon Talk about Love, Work, and Ethics
04/25/2020
Nikki Young and Benae Beamon Talk about Love, Work, and Ethics
Benae Beamon is from North Carolina, where she started dancing and joined the acclaimed North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble under the direction of Gene Medler. She went on to earn a BA from Colgate University and an MA from Yale University and is currently completing her PhD at Boston University in Religious Studies. Her scholarship and art focus on black queer and trans populations and the ethical value of black artistic expression. She continues to create artistic work, through dance, both as a solo artist and with Subject:Matter, a Boston based tap dance company, under the direction of choreographer, Ian Berg. Nikki Young is a black queer ethicist who uses scholarship and teaching to generate, cultivate, and feature liberative ways of being. A graduate of UNC-Asheville (BA), Candler School of Theology (MDiv and ThM), and Emory University (PhD), Nikki focuses her work on race, gender, sexuality, family, and ethics and is particularly interested in the impact of black queerness on moral reasoning. She currently contributes her time and skills to Bucknell University's departments of Women's and Gender Studies and Religious Studies and has published two books, Black Queer Ethics, Family, and Philosophical Imagination (2016) and In Tongues of Mortals and Angels: A De-Constructive Theology of God-Talk in Acts and Paul (2018). Nikki is now working on a new manuscript tentatively titled We Plead the Blood of Freedom: A Transnational Ethics of Black Queer Fugitivity.
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Dr. Tonia Poteat Addresses COVID-19 Questions
03/24/2020
Dr. Tonia Poteat Addresses COVID-19 Questions
During these uncertain times, it is important to have accurate information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Our guest, Dr. Tonia Poteat, fielded questions for a webinar sponsored by ZAMI NOBLA on March 22, 2020. This is a recording of that event. Tonia Poteat, PhD, PA-C, MPH, is Assistant Professor of Social Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as core faculty in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. After completing her PhD at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Poteat served for two years in the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator as the Senior Advisor for Key Populations. Since returning to academia in 2014, Dr. Poteat’s research, teaching, and practice have focused on HIV and LGBT health disparities with particular attention to the health and well-being of transgender communities. Her current work attends to the health consequences of stigma based on multiple marginalized identities. Dr. Poteat is a certified HIV Specialist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine and has devoted her clinical practice to providing medically appropriate and culturally competent care to members of the LGBTQ community as well as people living with HIV. In 2018, she was selected for the Simmons Scholars Program which provides support for underrepresented faculty in medicine. Dr. Poteat was featured in an earlier ZAMI NOBLA podcast episode which you can find at this link,
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Jowanna Tillman and Edonna Koon Talk about Living the RV Life
02/09/2020
Jowanna Tillman and Edonna Koon Talk about Living the RV Life
We interviewed Jowanna Tillman and Edonna Koon in the summer of 2019. They shared how they came to the RV life and what sustains them as they travel and work across the United States. This travel loving couple started full time RVing in early 2018. They are always up for an adventure. Edonna is a retired Marine who has a passion for science. Jowanna, who used to work in higher education, has a passion for healthy living. I hope that you follow them on their journey into nomad living. Check out their blog and FB page below: Blog Facebook
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