As a summer baby and fashionista, I enjoy all aspects of the fall season, especially the month of October. Viewing beautiful color changes of fall foliage while donning the latest “sweater weather” fashions make spending time outdoors still pleasurable. Yet, I recently spent time admiring the varieties of perennials in my garden become dormant as they prepare for the cooler temperatures that await and could not help feeling nostalgia for the summer past.
You will recall this past August, the Belonging to Blackness podcast team had the pleasure and wonderful opportunity to be invited by our sponsor, Give Black Alliance, to record a LIVE show for its signature speaker series, #CouchConversations! The event took place on August 18, 2024 at Martha’s Vineyard’s historical Overton House, also nicknamed “The Black White House” and “The Summer White House of the Civil Rights Movement” because of its notable past guests—Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, A. Phillip Randolph, Harry Belafonte, Jackie Robinson and others.
The theme for the event, The Right to Be Loved, intended to inspire audiences’ thinking and actions for supporting Black Love and what that looks like across African descended communities nationally. Prior to the event, however, I had a lovely conversation with Bithiah Carter, President and CEO of Give Black Alliance (GBA) about my forthcoming book, Belonging to Blackness (September 2025), and how the theme of Black Love was prominent throughout my interviews with African descendants across the globe about what it means to be Black, to embody Blackness, and to be in community—locally and globally. We agreed with sentiments poet Nikki Giovanni expressed in the poem “Nikki-Rosa” when she said, “Black love/ is Black wealth,” and reveled in the fact that African descended communities are indeed wealthy: in our love for each other as well as in our talent, treasure, time, ties and testimonies.
For me, too, Black Love is the wealth of knowing the expansiveness of life: its beauty, of survival, thriving and freedom in the face of joy and pain. This knowing also comes through the stories we tell and the radical actions we take. With that, to record and facilitate a live conversation with two storytellers and featured guests: journalists, political analysts, NYT bestselling authors and longtime sister-friends, Joy-Ann Reid and Goldie Taylor at the Overton House in front of 100+ live audience members were apropos!
The conversation from the live show and post-show discussion was fantastic! If you missed the live event or want to join in the conversation—LISTEN to the rebroadcast! Belonging to Blackness Podcast, Episode #50, with Joy-Ann Reid and Goldie Taylor available TUESDAY OCTOBER 15, 2024, across all podcast platforms.
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Peace and blessings,
Dr. Yndia & the Belonging to Blackness, LLC team
