Black Oxygen

T.R. Williams: On having a perspective beyond your own

T.R. Williams, Wisconsin Women's Network Policy Institute lead facilitator, Senior Director of Development at United Way, business owner, and newly initiated member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated — returns to Black Oxygen for an in-depth conversation about the importance of community. TR traces her family's Great Migration story from Mississippi to Milwaukee, and her own winding path from New York City to Madison, where she's been longer than she planned. She and Angela reflect on the particular texture of Black life in Madison — the hidden neighborhoods, east side vs west side life, and the community you have to know to find. TR offers a sharp, grounded critique of meritocracy — how it sells Black people on individualism and severs us from the very thing that has kept us alive: community care. She talks about what the 2024 election clarified for her, why she chose to stay engaged rather than divest, and what radical rest actually looks like as a political act. In this episode: Community care as resistance, the myth of meritocracy, epigenetics and survival, the Divine Nine in Madison, self-care beyond the spa day, Audre Lorde's radical self-preservation, and how to start building community without going 0 to 100.

What's coming from Black Oxygen

A quick update from Black Oxygen host Angela Russell about what's coming up next on Black Oxygen.

Tyrone Creech: Chosen Family, Consent Culture, and the Fight for LGBTQ Youth in Wisconsin

In this episode of Black Oxygen, Angela sits down with Tyrone Creech, Executive Director of GSafe Wisconsin for a wide-ranging, deeply honest conversation about what it means to serve LGBTQ+ youth in this political moment. Tyrone shares the realities on the ground: the stripping of trans healthcare, the collapse of corporate and philanthropic support, the impossible moral calculus nonprofits face when funding comes with compromises, and the extraordinary courage of young people who are doing activism when they should just be kids. But this episode isn't just about what's being taken away. Tyrone talks about what's holding communities together — chosen family, consent culture, the joy and power of GSafe's Celebration of Leadership (now in its 30th year!), and the Leadership Training Institute (LTI), a transformative camp that gives LGBTQ youth a rare space to just exist, breathe, and be fully themselves. He also offers a direct call to adults everywhere: listen to your kids. Actually listen. In this episode: * The current landscape for trans youth in Wisconsin and what survival looks like right now * The moral weight of accepting grants from institutions that have abandoned the community * What consent culture is, why it matters, and why it needs to start young * G-Safe's Celebration of Leadership (COL) — May 30th at the Monona Terrace — and why Angela, a self-proclaimed gala-hater, loves this one * The Leadership Training Institute: what happens when you give LGBTQ youth a space described as "paradise" * What gives Tyrone hope — and why his team of 10 serving 200+ GSAs across Wisconsin is one of the most powerful things he knows #BlackOxygenPodcast #BlackPodcasts #Wisconsin #BlackInWisconsin #MadisonWisconsin #LGBTQ+Youth #GSafe

Pastor Marcus Allen: Recovery from Rejection

Marcus Allen of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Madison, Wisconsin sits down with Angela for a wide-ranging conversation about faith, service, combat, and community. What unfolds is a portrait of a man shaped by rejection, forged in war, and called to build something lasting. Marcus traces his journey from Clarksdale, Mississippi through Milwaukee's Great Migration chapter, three combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a divine detour that landed him in Madison in 2016. Now celebrating 10 years at Mount Zion — which itself turns 115 this year — he talks candidly about what it takes to lead a congregation that refuses to be just a church. They get into the real: PTSD and the military's broken reintegration systems. The Black church's complicated relationship with mental health. The hypocrisy of using Christianity to justify policy that abandons the least of these. The fundraising gauntlet facing faith-based nonprofits. And the sermon Marcus preached just the day before — about Jephthah, the son rejected by his own father — and why it hit so close to home. Mount Zion runs a free drop-in behavioral health clinic (licensed therapist, crisis stabilizer, substance abuse counselor — no appointment needed), after-school programs, foster care aging-out support, juvenile detention programming, a food pantry, older adult transportation, and is now eyeing housing. They serve 300 unduplicated individuals a year across 15–18 Dane County zip codes. Eighty percent of the people they serve have no church connection.

Shalicia Johnson: You're a part of something bigger

Shalicia Johnson is a Madison-born photographer and the owner of ArrowStar Photography, where she specializes in community photography, business portraits, and family portraiture. Before picking up a professional camera, she spent 28 years in early childhood education, primarily with infants and toddlers in a continuity of care model. That work, and the deep observational practice it required, shapes everything about how she photographs people today. In this episode, Angela and Shalicia cover a wide range of topics including: Growing up in Madison and the forces that nearly redirected her path; What 28 years with babies teaches you about the world; Feeling a photograph versus seeing one; Community photography as documentation and history-keeping and much more. Connect with Shalicia: ArrowStar Photography is on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky, and Google. #BlackOxygenPodcast #BlackPodcasts #Wisconsin #BlackInWisconsin #BlackPhotographers #ArrowStarPhotography #BlackPodcasters #MadisonWisconsin #WisconsinPhotographer