Belonging to Blackness, A Podcast: Episodes
Spotify Podcast Playlist (Player)
Apple Podcast Playlist (Player)
Directory of Featured Guests (By Season/Episode)
Season 6
Episode 057: with Devin McCourty, 3x Super Bowl Champion and TV sports commentator, on being a champion and advocate for our communities
Episode 056: with Shadan Deleveaux, Google global recruiter and TechFIN co-founder, on representation of Blackness in tech: bridging the divide
Episode 055: with Mitchell Jackson, Pulitzer Prize winning author, on Re-visioning Black life through stories
Episode 054: with Tawny Chatmon, photographic artist, on the art and regal reflection of Black life
Episode 053: with Wendy Eley Jackson, award-winning screenwriter, producer and CEO of Auburn Avenue Films, on Black storytelling and producing for T.V. and Film
Episode 052: with Charla Jones, founder/CEO of the award-winning skincare brand Eu2Be, on Black beauty as more than skin deep
Episode 051: with Talib Jasir, founder of Afros and Audio Podcast Festival on the significance of Black podcast communities and why they are important
Episode 050: with Joy-Ann Reid and Goldie Taylor on The Right to be Loved (Live Show) x Give Black Alliance
Episode 049: with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) on the power of Black womanhood in 2024 U.S. politics
Season 5
Episode 048: with First Black woman Hotelier Dr. Mati Nyazema of the 5-Star Luxury Hotel “MBano Manor” in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. (Season 5 finale)
Episode 047: with M’Hudi Wines, South Africa’s first and oldest Black-owned wine farm and brand, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Episode 046: with Yusef Larney, co-owner and restaurateur of the famous “Kombius” on being Coloured in Bo-Kaap, South Africa, establishing the restaurant, and its legacy today
Episode 045: with Tessa Dooms, South African political analyst and author, Coloured: How Classification became Culture with journalist Lynsey Chutel
Episode 044: with Antoinette Sithole & the Legacy of the Hector Pieterson Museum, SOWETO South Africa
Episode 043: with Hannah Drake and Josh Miller of (Un)Known Project, on using art to unearth the names of enslaved African descendants
Episode 042: with Terysa Ridgeway, computer scientist and children’s book author, “Terysa Solves It”
Episode 041: with Nadege Green, award-winning journalist, historian and founder of Black Miami Dade digital platform
Episode 040: with Rob Marriott, award-winning Hip Hop journalist, producer and artist about the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop and the state of the Culture
Episode 039: with Sheena Collier, CEO of Boston While Black, on the importance of Black spaces
Season 4
Special Topic- Episode 038: “Summertime Rest, Refresh & Reimagining” (Season 4 finale)
Episode 037: with Tiffani Johnson, physician scientist and President of Academic Pediatric Association on dismantling racism through clinical practice
Episode 036: with Malik Yoba, Hollywood veteran actor, entrepreneur and founder of Yoba Development on increasing health and wealth equity in Black diasporic communities
Episode 035: with Colette Phillips, award-winning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) pioneer, on “The Includers,” antiracists and allies
Episode 034: with Bernard Harris, retired NASA Astronaut Trailblazer on being the first African American to walk in space and the importance of Black children in STEAM
Episode 033: with Jasmine Nichole Cobb, Professor of African American Studies and Visual Studies, and author of New Growth: The Art and Texture of Black Hair
Episode 032: with Javaka Steptoe, artist and nationally-renowned children’s book illustrator for Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall about Black storytelling through art
Episode 031: with Ruth E. Carter, 2x Academy Award-winning costume designer for Black Panther/Wakanda Forever franchise about Black futurism (Afro-Futurism) and working with Oprah, Spike Lee and Chadwick Boseman
Episode 030: with Charity C. Elder, award-winning journalist, producer and author of Power: The Rise of Black Women in America
Episode 029: with Natasha Gordon-Chipembere, renowned scholar and founder of the Tengo Sed Writers Retreats (Costa Rica) and historical fiction author of Finding La Negrita on the legacy of African descended storytelling in Latin America and the Caribbean
Season 3
Episode 028: with Desiree Gordon, social justice investment and cultural strategist, and musician on art as tools for social justice, wellness and equity
Special Topic- Episode 027: “Trusting the Process” (Commemorating the month of May as National Mental Health Awareness)
Episode 026: with Regine Jean-Charles, Professor of English and Africana studies on the significance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Trumpet of Conscience
Episode 025: with Yvonne Blake, legacy owner of Hakim’s Bookstore, the oldest operating Black-owned bookstore in the US
Episode 024: with Kevin Adonis Browne, photographer, archivist and winner of the Bocas Literary Prize on visual arts discussing the new book, High Mas: Carnival and the Poetics of Caribbean Culture
Episode 023: with Shameek Cook, actor, producer and professional screenwriter on scaling the “invisible Hollywood wall”
Episode 022: with Amanda Bates, podcaster, blogger and founder of The Black Expat on traveling while Black and being a “third culture kid”
Episode 021: with The Black Farmers Collective, food systems activists Ray C. Williams and James King, Jr. on the historical legacy of Black farming, sustainable food systems and food justice
Episode 020: with Janell Hobson, educator and cultural critic for Ms. Magazine and author of When God Lost Her Tongue discussing the Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Series
Episode 019: with Mahogany L. Browne, internationally-recognized performance poet, activist and inaugural Lincoln Center Poet-in-Residence about Black freedom and Black girlhood
Season 2
Episode 018: with Anton Nimblett, acclaimed writer, poet and author of Sections of an Orange and Now/After
Episode 017: with Moya Z. Bailey, critical race and feminist scholar, and author of #HashtagActivism and Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance
Episode 016: with Kinitra D. Brooks, scholar and cultural critic as co-editor of the Lemonade Reader, blogger on the Root.com’s for HBO’s Lovecraft Country, and author of Searching for Sycorax
Episode 015: with Tonya Hegamin, artist, disabilities activist, and award-winning author of Willow, Most Loved In All the World, M + O 4Ever, and Pemba’s Song discussing play as a way to amplify Black joy and healing
Episode 014: with Chef Keesha O’Galdez, Gourmet Diva and the Food Network’s Chopped (finalist)
Episode 013: with Vilna Bashi Treitler, sociologist and visual artist, on being named to the Zora Canon in 2020 for one of the best 100 books ever written by an African American
Episode 012: with Natalie LeBlanc, research scientist and public health practitioner in HIV Prevention Science globally on promotion of health for African descended communities
Episode 011: with Christen Smith, scholar-activist, author and founder of #CiteBlackWomen about citational practices and Black women’s brilliance
Episode 010: with Glory Edim, author, convener and founder of #Well-Read Black Girl about the power of books and community
Season 1
Episode 009: with Victorious DeCosta, film producer and documentarian for Storm Over Brooklyn: The Yusuf Hawkins Story and Digging for Weldon Irvine
Special Episode: #UPRISINGS2020 Part 2, Global Perspectives: with Masauko Chipembere (Malawi/ South Africa), Desiree Gordon (Antigua), Natasha Gordon-Chipembere (Costa Rica) and Javier Wallace (Panama) (YouTube Video Release)
Special Episode: #UPRISINGS2020 Part 1: with Vilna Bashi Treitler, Lorenzo Boyd and Courtney Desiree Morris (YouTube Video Release)
Episode 008: with Courtney Desiree Morris, renowned visual/conceptual artist and writer for “exploring Passages Within the Black Diaspora” and “Adjust Yo’ Eyes For This Darkness”
Episode 007: with Chef Michael Poole, owner of Hot Chocolat Artisan Chocolates about the art of Black food
Episode 006: with Kathryn Sophia Belle, author, philosopher and founder of La Belle Vie Coaching on Black self-empowerment, being a high achiever, happily unmarried and erotic empowerment
Episode 005: with Alicia Anabel Santos, La Santera, on ancestral veneration and what it means to “stand in the fullness of one’s Blackness” (Part 2)
Episode 004: with Alicia Anabel Santos, La Santera on ancestral veneration and what it means to “stand in the fullness of one’s Blackness” (Part 1)
Episode 003: with Michele Simms-Burton, short-story author, editor and photographer on Black life and her colleague Toni Morrison
Episode 002: with Masauko Chipembere, Malawian-American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist producer and engineer on BLK Sonshine and the legacy of Malawian Freedom Fighters Henry Masauko and Catherine Chipembere (Part 2)
Episode 001: with Masauko Chipembere, Malawian-American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist producer and engineer on BLK Sonshine and the legacy of Malawian Freedom Fighters Henry Masauko and Catherine Chipembere (Part 1)