Rooted Resilience

Rooted Resilience | Ep 11: Season Finale

This episode brings together excerpts from several of the creatives we interviewed throughout 2025. You’ll hear poetry, music, and spoken word woven into short segments—offerings that invite you to pause and consider how you find warmth and light in times of uncertainty, and the power we each carry to create it.  💌 Episode extras & transcripts: rootedresilience.substack.com [https://www.interlinkbooks.com/] 🌱 Support the Rooted Resilience project: givebutter.com/rooted-resilience [https://www.interlinkbooks.com/]

Rooted Resilience | Ep 10 | Pamela Means

In this episode of Rooted Resilience, we talk with Pamela Means, a bi-racial and queer singer-songwriter, jazz musician, activist, and educator. A native of Wisconsin, Pamela arrived in Boston in her 20’s, toured nationally and internationally in her 30’s, and is now an anchor to the western Massachusetts music scene. Pamela has been compared to both Tracy Chapman and Ani DiFranco and has also been described as a cross between Suzanne Vega and Jimi Hendrix, and an heir to the legacy of Nina Simone. In Pamela’s own words, “really, I'm just me." Pamela shares generously in our interview, opening up a window to her experiences and reflecting on musical inspirations, foundational moments (the good and the bad), and core beliefs, starting with her childhood and teenage years growing up in Wisconsin that shaped her and the music that comes through her. 💌 Episode extras & transcripts: rootedresilience.substack.com [https://www.interlinkbooks.com/] 🌱 Support the Rooted Resilience project: givebutter.com/rooted-resilience [https://www.interlinkbooks.com/]

Rooted Resilience | Ep 9: Translate Gender

Today, we bring you a conversation with three of the co-directors of Translate Gender [https://www.translategender.org/], a trans-led, consensus-run non-profit organization based in the Northampton area supporting trans, nonbinary, and gender expansive community members to find our power and autonomy. With support programming for youth and caregivers, community gatherings and events like the Trans Day of Visibility Resource & Art Fair, QTBIPOC affinity spaces, trainings and consulting, and more —Translate Gender is an organization that’s become a beacon of hope and a model of community convening for TNGDI individuals, families, and our allies in the region. From re-parenting themselves to building more possibility for trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive youth, listen to this episode to hear Shai, James, and Mr J. of Translate Gender speak about their experiences in care, co-leadership, and co-creation as members of the group guiding this innovative organization. 💌 Episode extras & transcripts: rootedresilience.substack.com [https://www.interlinkbooks.com/] 🌱 Support the Rooted Resilience project: givebutter.com/rooted-resilience [https://www.interlinkbooks.com/]

Rooted Resilience | Ep 8 | Cassandra Holden of BOMBYX Center for Arts & Equity

In this special episode of Rooted Resilience, we sit down with Cassandra Holden, Executive Director of BOMBYX Center for Arts & Equity in Florence, Massachusetts. As an organizer, producer, and creative visionary, Cassandra has played a central role in reimagining what community-centered arts spaces can be. BOMBYX has served as Rooted Resilience’s fiscal sponsor from the very beginning—helping launch the project, offering guidance and resources, and hosting our first live event in its historic sanctuary. Together, we talk about what it means to hold space for creativity in times of scarcity, how fiscal sponsorship works, and how artists can build more sustainable futures through collaboration, care, and abundance thinking.  💌 Episode extras & transcripts: rootedresilience.substack.com [https://www.interlinkbooks.com/] 🌱 Support the Rooted Resilience project: givebutter.com/rooted-resilience [https://www.interlinkbooks.com/]

Rooted Resilience | Ep 7 | Rainbow Exodus with Karol Matuszak

How do you transform grief, politics, and identity into a living, breathing work of art? In this episode of Rooted Resilience, we sit down with Karol Matuszak, a Polish-born actor and performer now based in Ashfield, MA, and a company member of Double Edge Theatre. Karol opens up about his journey across borders—from Catholic school in a small Polish town, to experimental stages in Scandinavia, to outdoor spectacles in rural New England, and how each step fueled his artistry and activism. At the heart of our conversation is Rainbow Exodus, Karol’s first solo performance, which weaves together personal memory, queer histories, and protest. Through stories of migration, love, faith, and resilience, Karol shares what it means to create art that is both deeply personal and urgently political. 💌 Episode extras & transcripts: rootedresilience.substack.com [https://www.interlinkbooks.com/] 🌱 Support the Rooted Resilience project: givebutter.com/rooted-resilience [https://www.interlinkbooks.com/]