Griotte's Beat

On growing in justice with Camara Aaron

It's the last episode of our first season. To celebrate, we're ending with a conversation between host Kaytura Felix and producer Camara Aaron, who outside this podcast are mother and daughter. In this episode, we explore how our relationship has evolved over time from parent and child to collaborators and how we navigate injustice when it appears. We end with a look to our second season - stay tuned!

On friendship and redefining leadership with Trish Adobea Tchume & Ericka Stallings

As we approach the end of our first season, we’re bringing you two special guests, Trish Adobea Tchume and Ericka Stallings. In this episode, host Kaytura Felix explores how the bond between these real-life friends elevates their lives and their work and how they redefine leadership to put justice at its center. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @Griottesbeat and like us on Facebook to hear about new episodes as they drop. More about Trish Adobea Tchume Trish Adobea Tchume is a first generation Ghanaian-American and serves as Senior Director of Leadership Research and Practice for the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. In this role, Trish collaborates with other organizations to explore, define, and support leadership and organizational approaches that prefigure a world where all of us can thrive. She is a Brooklynite, a proud auntie, a beach stan, and devotes her volunteer time to cool organizations like the Central Brooklyn Food Coop and to the boards of Change Elemental and the New York Foundation. More about Ericka Stallings Ericka Stallings is the Co-Executive Director of the Leadership Learning Community (LLC). LLC is a national organization and network of changemakers, bringing to the center leaders of color and those from historically excluded communities. At LLC she holds spaces for innovations, practices, and systems that are grounded in collective liberation.

On justice in research and shedding colonial thinking with Zinzi Bailey

On this episode of Griotte's Beat, we explore why empathy is important in research and science with social epidiemologist Zinzi Bailey. We also get into how she sustains her focus on justice and how immigrant identity shapes her anti-colonial spirit. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @Griottesbeat and like us on Facebook to hear about new episodes as they drop. More about Zinzi Bailey Zinzi Bailey, ScD, MSPH is a researcher who is passionate about achieving health equity through the elimination of structural, organizational, and social inequities guided by community mobilization. She sees data and research as tools for achieving systemic change – not just for scientists, but also for community members, organizations, and movements. Being born in Jamaica and growing up in Miami, FL has contributed to her transnational, anti-colonial spirit.

On Black history and Black futures with Safiyah Cheatam

Griotte’s Beat continues exploring Black histories, this week with artist Safiyah Cheatam. Safiyah and host Kaytura discuss how her work draws Black Muslim histories and Afrofuturism to address contemporary injustice. Follow us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/griottesbeat/] and Twitter [https://twitter.com/Griottesbeat/] and like us on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/GriottesBeat] to hear about new episodes as they drop. More about Safiyah Cheateam Baltimore-based conceptual and social practice artist, Safiyah Cheatam [https://safiyahcheatam.com/] is best known for her interactive photo installations portraying the duality of Black Muslim experiences using augmented reality and her co-produced, awards-nominated Afrofuturist narrative podcast OBSIDIAN featured in The Washington Post. Inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois’ data visualizations and resonating with Martine Syms’ The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto (2013), Safiyah has sought to illuminate real-life stories of Black uplift in the U.S. to show Afrofuturism’s presence in daily life. She has exhibited artworks nationally and has sustained relationships with several local institutions where she’s served as a teaching artist, collaborator, researcher, and advisor.

On Black love and Black history with Beverly Jenkins

We continue our celebration of dark-skinned women with this week’s guest, Beverly Jenkins, whose historical romance novels honor Black women of all hues. Kaytura and Beverly explore how Beverly uses romance to fill gaps in the telling of Black history and how she showcases dark-skinned women throughout her work. Follow us onInstagram [https://www.instagram.com/griottesbeat/] and Twitter [https://twitter.com/Griottesbeat/] and like us on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/GriottesBeat] to hear about new episodes as they drop. More about Beverly Jenkins Beverly Jenkins is an American author, who writes historical and contemporary romance novels that focus on 19th century African-American life. Her historical romances are set during a period of African-American history that she believes is often overlooked. She received the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award in Romance Fiction and she has been nominated for the NAACP Image Award in Fiction. She lives in southeast Michigan.