The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast
Angela Denise Davis
Subscribe
The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast is a sound source for Black Lesbians 40 and older. Our show topics include current events, LGBT affairs, Black Lesbian Herstory & Health and Wellness. Angela Denise Davis is the show's Creator, Producer, and Host.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
Nov 28, 2022
M Shelly Conner: A Queer, Renaissance Woman Creating Connections in Literature and on Land
M Shelly Conner, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing
at the University of Central Arkansas. Her multi-genre writings
examine culture through a dapperqueer womanist lens and include
publications in Crisis Magazine, the A.V. Club, NBC News, and the
Grio. Her debut novel "everyman", is currently available in hard cover,
paperback, ebook, and audiobook.
Shelly is repped by Beth Marshea at
Ladderbird Agency.
Her website:
http://mshellyconner.com/m
Buy the book:
https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/everyman-dat0.html#541=94
playlist_add
Sep 6, 2022
The ZNP Celebrates 4 Years of Black Lesbian Herstory
The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast celebrated four years of serving as a sound source for Black lesbian herstory in August 2022. This episodes celebrates that achievement with excerpts from various episodes. Links to each episode can be found below.
Kamilah Aisha Moon Talks about the Human Business of Poetry
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/kamilah-aisha-moon-talks-about-the-human-business-of-poetry
Cynthia Mckinney Takes on Heart Atttack Hill & Loses 52 Pounds
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/cynthia-mckinney-takes-on-heart-atttack-hill-loses-52-pounds
Cheryl Clarke Takes us to School
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/cheryl-clarke-takes-us-to-school
Deidre McCalla is no 9 to 5 Singer Songwriter
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/deidre-mccalla-is-no-9-to-5-singer-songwriter
Jillian Ford Talks Shop on Education, Innovation, and DeColonized Classrooms
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/jillian-ford-talks-shop-on-education-innovation-and-decolonized-classrooms
Joi and Jane Mitchell Talk about Work and Residency Abroad
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/joi-and-jane-mitchell-talk-about-work-and-residency-abroad
Jowanna Tillman and Edonna Koon Talk about Living the RV Life
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/jowanna-tillman-and-edonna-koon-talk-about-living-the-rv-life
Rev. Maressa Pendermon Speaks on Normalizing Grief and Creating a Toolbox for Emotional Well-being
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/rev-maressa-pendermon-speaks-on-normalizing-grief-and-creating-a-toolbox-for-emotional-well-being
Black Lesbian Comic Karen Williams Gets Serious About the Business of Being Funny
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/black-lesbian-comic-karen-williams-gets-serious-about-the-business-of-being-funny
Ericka Huggins on Mothers, Mindfulness, and Meditation
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/ericka-huggins-on-mothers-mindfulness-and-meditation
Trey Anthony Shines her Limelight on Love, Living Out Loud, and Vulnerability
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/ep-002-trey-anthony-shines-her-limelight-on-love-living-out-loud-and-vulnerability
Dr. Tonia Poteat on, "Deserving Research that Reflects Your Real Life Lived Experience
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/dr-tonia-poteat-on-deserving-research-that-reflects-your-real-life-lived-experience
Michelle Elizabeth Brown Talks about Podcasting, Poetry, and Pride
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/michelle-elizabeth-brown-talks-about-podcasting-poetry-and-pride
Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins On Black LGBT Health, Yoruba Spirituality, and Therapy
https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/dr-lourdes-dolores-follins-on-black-lbgbt-health-yoruba-spirituality-and-therapy
playlist_add
Aug 30, 2022
Dr. Moya Bailey Talks on Misogynoir, The Combahee River Collective Statement, and Brittney Griner
Dr. Moya Bailey is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. Her work focuses on marginalized groups' use of digital media to promote social justice and she is interested in how race, gender, and sexuality are represented in media and medicine. She is the digital alchemist for the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network and the Board President of Allied Media Projects, a Detroit-based movement media organization that supports an ever growing network of activists and organizers. She is a co-author of #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice (MIT Press, 2020) and is the author of Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance (New York University Press, 2021).
Visit her website:
https://www.moyabailey.com/
playlist_add
Jan 1, 2022
Gaye Adegbalola Centers Blues Herstory and Music as a Griot and Activist
This interview was recorded via video conference on October 29, 2021 by Angela Denise Davis. Gaye Adegbalola talked about her early years in Virginia, college life in Boston, and her career as a Blues musician, griot, and activist.
Gaye Adegbalola’s website:
https://adegbalola.com/
Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/GayeAdegbalolaMusician/
Gaye Todd Adegbalola, a Blues Music Award winner, is best known musically as a founding member of Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women (1984 – 2009). The group recorded exclusively with Alligator Records. Additionally, she has 6 recordings on her own label, Hot Toddy Music (Todd is her family name).
Gaye was born and raised in Fredericksburg, Virginia where she sat-in, picketed and protested its racism. She graduated as valedictorian of the then-segregated Walker-Grant High School, went “ up North” to Boston University to finish with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry. Prior to becoming a teacher, she worked as a technical writer for TRW Systems, a biochemical researcher at Rockefeller University, and a bacteriologist at Harlem Hospital. She has a Master’s degree in Educational Media (with a concentration in photography) from Virginia State University.
playlist_add
Dec 31, 2021
Dr. Emilie M. Townes Champions a Robust Hope in the Midst of a Matrix
Angela interviewed Dr. Emilie M. Townes on October 12, 2021, via video conference. Townes talked about growing up in Durham, North Carolina, her formative years in theological education and parachurch work, and the necessity of having a robust hope.
Emilie M. Townes, an American Baptist clergywoman, is a native of Durham, NC. She holds a DMin from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a PhD in Religion in Society and Personality from Northwestern University. Townes is the Dean and Distinguished Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, becoming the first African American to serve as its dean in 2013. She is the former Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology at Yale University Divinity School where she was the first African American and first woman to serve as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. In 2008, she was the first African American woman to serve as president of the American Academy of Religion and recently served as President of the Society for the Study of Black Religion from 2012-2016. She taught on the faculties of Union Theological Seminary, NY and Saint Paul School of Theology. She is the editor of two collection of essays, author of four books including her groundbreaking book, Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil. She is a co-editor of two books. Townes was elected a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.
playlist_add
Dec 29, 2021
Sharon Bridgforth Creates Spaces for Healing and Remembrance on Stage and in Life
Angela sat down with Sharon Bridgforth on October 8, 2021, to record this interview via video conference. Bridgforth talked about her formative years, her pathway to healing, intergenerational mentoring, and her life as a touring artist in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sharon Bridgforth's website
https://www.sharonbridgforth.com/
Twin Cities PBS did a special on Pillsbury House Theatre - who GRACIOUSLY chose to feature "dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/The Show!!!" The special premiered on 7/10/21.
https://www.datblackmermaidmanlady.com/the-show
A Doris Duke Performing Artist, Sharon Bridgforth is a writer that creates ritual/jazz theatre. A 2020-2023 Playwrights’ Center Core Member, Sharon has received support from Creative Capital, MAP Fund, the National Performance Network and is a New Dramatists alumnae. Sharon served as a dramaturg for the Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Initiative’s Choreographic Fellowship program and has been in residence with: Brown University’s MFA Playwriting Program; University of Iowa’s MFA Playwrights Program; The Theatre School at DePaul University; allgo, A Texas Statewide QPOC Organization; and The Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University. Widely published, Sharon author of the Lambda Literary award winning, the bull-jean stories, and her performance piece, delta dandi, is published in solo/black/woman: scripts, interviews and essays. Sharon is grateful to say that she has been supported by the Zami community since 1998 - when she and RedBone Press Founder and Editor, Lisa C. Moore were first out on the road with the bull-jean stories.
playlist_add
Dec 28, 2021
Deidre McCalla is no 9 to 5 Singer Songwriter
This interview was recorded by Angela Denise Davis on October 14, 2021, via video conference. Deidre McCalla sat down with Angela to talk about McCalla’s early life in New York, her start in music, the herstory of her place in the women’s music movement, and the way the COVID-19 pandemic changed her life.
The music heard in the interview was used courtesy of Deidre McCalla. You can enjoy the full tracks on YouTube at the following links:
Walk Me Down to the River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZEY7idOCAc
I Do Not Walk This Path Alone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhNnJx6Cd58
Deidre’s website: https://deidremccalla.com/
Photo used in episode art: Irene Young
Playing For Keeps is an apt title for the latest cd from singer/songwriter Deidre McCalla. From the moment Deidre takes the stage, her engaging presence and irresistible blend of folk, country, rock, and pop seize the listeners by the heart and won't let go.
Deidre McCalla came of age in the fiery blaze of NYC's folk heyday - a time when Greenwich Village clubs were filled with the likes of Dylan, Baez, and Ochs; a time when Motown ruled the top of the charts and the streets of America screamed with anger and civil unrest. Her first album, Fur Coats and Blue Jeans, was released when Deidre was 19 and a student at Vassar College. With a theater degree tucked under her belt and an acoustic guitar tossed in the back of a battered Buick station wagon, Deidre McCalla hit the proverbial road and never looked back. Deidre later majored in jazz guitar at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and released three albums with the pioneering women's music label Olivia Records.
The Miami Herald affectionately dubs her a "dreadlocked troubadour." From Maui to Maine, college coffeehouses to Carnegie Hall, Deidre McCalla is a much beloved performer in both folk and women's music circles and has shared the stage with a long list of notables that includes Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman, Holly Near, Odetta, Cris Williamson, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. With five critically acclaimed albums to her credit, Deidre McCalla remains the ever seeking road warrior, her words and music chronicling our strengths and weaknesses and celebrating the power and diversity of the human spirit.
A single parent residing in Georgia with her son, Deidre has taught Performance at Warren Wilson College's Swannanoa Gathering. Deidre's work has been published in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, The Original Coming Out Stories, and Chrysalis: A Feminist Quarterly, and she is featured in The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader.
Deidre is a proud member of AFM Local 1000 and the North American Folk Alliance.
playlist_add
Oct 30, 2021
Sherri Jackson Tells Her COVID-19 Pandemic Story as a Healthcare Professional
On August 19, 2021, Angela sat down with Sherri Jackson to record her story about living in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic as a healthcare professional.
Jackson is a healthcare provider,minister and activist. She has a wide range of LBGTQ.and AIDS organizational involvement. She has been a volunteer with the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club-Health Committee,and the Chicago Department of Public Health.She has been a board member of Horizon Community Services (1996-2000) was a Human Rights Campaign Congressional Action Coordinator (1997-1998) was with Chicago Black Lesbian and Gays(1996-2000} as Corresponding Secretary and program chair. Was on the board of the Lesbian Community Cancer Project, among many group involvements. Jackson also volunteered as a Chaplain for the Night Ministry in Chicago. As well help organize various events at places of worship centered around women and LBGTQ individuals.
playlist_add
Sep 27, 2021
Melodie J Rodgers Celebrates Southern Literature and our 3rd Anniversary
Melodie J. Rodgers is the Founding Editor of SOREN LIT. Her creative writing and photography has appeared in Johns Hopkins University's Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review, G.R.I.T.S. - Girls Raised In the South: An Anthology of Southern Queer Womyns' Voices and Their Allies, Future is Fiction, Underground, CIEE Brazil Poetry OnFilm project, and many others. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte. Melodie is a Black and Southern writer who lives with her hubby and warrior child beneath the sleepy magnolia trees of Stone Mountain, Georgia.
Check out: SOREN LIT website: www.sorenlit.com
Follow Melodie J. Rodgers on Clubhouse,
Twitter: MelodieJRodgers, and Instagram: themelodiouslife
playlist_add
Jul 13, 2021
Cheryl Clarke Takes us to School
Our guest today is the Black lesbian feminist writer, Cheryl Clarke. She is the author of Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women (1982), Living as a Lesbian (1986, reprinted in 2015), Humid Pitch (1989), Experimental Love (1993), and By My Precise Haircut (2016). Since 1979, she has written for and edited numerous publications, including the iconic feminist anthologies, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color (Moraga and Anzaldua, eds., 1980), and Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (Smith, ed., 1982). Most recently her work appears in Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought (Jones, ed., 2021)
Since 2013, she has been a co-organizer of the annual Hobart N. Y. Festival of Women Writers.
She received her Ph.D. in English from Rutgers University. And after 41 years of service there, on the New Brunswick (N.J.) campus, she retired in 2013.
This interview was recorded by Angela Denise Davis via a ZOOM online video on June 23, 2021. You can view a short clip of Dr. Clarke reading the poem she recited at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbgJhSTbR9E
Visit ZAMI NOBLA online at https://www.zaminobla.org/.
playlist_add
Mar 13, 2021
Joyce Penalver Captures East and West in Recounting a Life of Intersections
Joyce Penalver is a retired therapist in Vallejo, California. She was instrumental in forming social clubs and newsletters serving Black lesbians in the Greater Bay Area. We recorded this interview with her in February 2020 before the nationwide lockdowns prompted by COVID-19.
playlist_add
Mar 3, 2021
The Art and Spirit of Verlena L. Johnson
In August 2020, Verlena L. Johnson was featured in ZAMI NOBLA’s virtual art show, Cocktails, Tea, and Art. This interview was recorded remotely a few days before the show.
Verlena L. Johnson was born and raised in the Midwest (Wisconsin and Illinois), but also briefly lived in New York City, Ealing England, Oakland, Long Beach and most recently Los Angeles. She earned a Master's Degree in Afro-American Studies (emphasis: Art History, 1996) from the University of Wisconsin — Madison and a Master’s of Fine Arts Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Sculpture, 2001). She has also studied wood carving with master Ghanaian woodcarvers and at both Penland School of Craft and Haystack Mountain School of Craft.
Her M.A. thesis, “The Image Text Composite in the Art of Faith Ringgold: Form and Narrative” explores Ringgold's art using WJT Mitchell's Picture Theory to examine the meaning created by Ringgold combining images and text. It also examines Ringgold's "Picas…
playlist_add
Feb 1, 2021
Janyce Jackson Jones on the Fluid Nature of Art and Life
Reverend Elder Janyce Jackson Jones was one of the artists showcased in August 2020 at ZAMI NOBLA’s visual art exhibit, Cocktails, Tea, and Art. She discovered her passion for art upon retiring to coastal North Carolina after 21 years of dedicated service to her church and social justice causes in Newark, New Jersey. She since has experimented with and been inspired by several techniques and styles, finding what she calls “Creative Happiness” in the process of pouring paint onto canvas to create abstract, vibrantly colored, soul-stirring works of Fluid Art. Online galleries of her art can be found at the following links:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/janycejacksonjones/?ref=page_internal
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/artbyjanyce/
Prior to retirement, Reverend Janyce served as the Co-Pastor of Newark’s Unity Fellowship Church (UFC), an inclusive, nondenominational, social justice-oriented ministry. Prior to that, she helped to found Liberation in Truth UFC, also…
playlist_add
Jan 24, 2021
Lorraine Lane Gets in the Spirit about Cocktails and Operating a Restaurant in the Time of COVID-19
Lorraine Lane was a guest artist for our virtual art show, “Cocktails, Tea, & Art,” in August 2020. In this episode, she talks about how to make a great cocktail, how she came to love bourbon, and the challenges of operating a restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lorraine came into the Food Industry on the pathway of love for Deborah VanTrece. Lorraine is Deborah’s business partner and wife. She serves as the Bar Director for Twisted Soul. The libations at Twisted Soul have been recognized in local papers and social media outlet. Lorraine has reintroduced moonshine to the local base and her infused cocktails are changing the way people view moonshine.
Lorraine has been a leader in the Job Corps program for over 20 years. She is an Executive Director for Adams and Associates and oversees the operations of four Job Corps facilities across the US. She has been acknowledge for her ability to turn under performing facilities into top performers resulting in thousands of young ad…
playlist_add
Dec 31, 2020
Black LGBTQ Health Forum 2019
This is a file from our archives.
On August 31, 2020, ZAMI NOBLA in Partnership with the Southern Unity Movement sponsored
Working Cross Differences:
The Black LGBTQIA Health/Wellness Public Forum as part of Atlanta Black Gay Pride. This audio clip is from a conversation with Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins and Dr. Jonathan Mathias Lassiter, moderated by Dr. Kofi Adoma.
The first voice you hear after the musical selection is Dr. Adoma followed by Dr. Follins.
For more information on the speakers please visit their respective websites:
Dr. Kofi Adoma
https://radicalwellbeingcenter.com/staff-members/amorie-robinson
Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins
https://lourdesdfollins.com/publications-and-videos/
Dr. Jonathan Mathias Lassiter
http://www.jonathanmlassiter.com/
playlist_add
Aug 16, 2020
Mary Watkins Composes and Arranges a Life of Music and Movement
In February 2020, Angela Denise Davis interviewed Mary D. Watkins at her home in Oakland, California. Watkins was gracious in her recounting of major life events and her work as a composer and musician.
Trained in classical music at Howard University, Watkins has composed three operas and has written for symphony orchestras, chamber and jazz ensembles, film, theatre, dance, and choral groups, in addition to being a popular recording artist for Olivia records in the 1970s.
Watkins’ recent recordings include Prayer for Peace, a meditational CD, and Recorded Music of the African Diaspora (Albany Records, 2010: Center For Black Music Research; department of Columbia College in Chicago, IL).
Visit her website for more information:
https://marydwatkins.com/
As promised, here is a link to the sublime performance of Melanie DeMore and Mary Watkins performing the composer’s arrangement of "We Shall Overcome" at the Sister Comrade gathering in Oakland, CA.
“We Shall Overcome”
Mary…
playlist_add
Jul 20, 2020
Dr. Wilhelmina Perry Reflects on Lesbian Love, Radical Activism, and COVID-19
Dr. Wilhelmina Perry (85) was interviewed by Angela Denise Davis from her home in June 2020. She talked about growing up in Harlem, her 30-year partnership with Antonia Pantoja, radical activism, and life during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a community activist, social work educator, spiritual leader, homeless youth and marriage equality advocate, author, and the co-founder of LGBT Faith Leaders of African Descent.
Dr. Perry holds a masters in social work and a doctorate in human behavior and leadership. She has been a social work professor, administrator of not- for- profit institutions, and community educator.
In 2002, she became a member of The Riverside Church and shortly thereafter would become the convener of Marantha, the LGBT ministry. Dr. Perry was a co-founder and Vice President of the Interfaith Task Force for Homeless LGBT Youth. Under the work of the Task Force, three shelters were opened in local churches.
Dr. Perry has been an advocate for LGBT same-gender loving peo…
playlist_add
Jul 3, 2020
Brenda Joyce Crawford Talks About Cannabis, Community Organizing, and Change
Brenda Joyce Crawford has been in the thick of social justice work for over five decades. She’s an unapologetic butch woman who comes from a blue collar working class background in the U.S. South. A great deal of her career has been spent promoting values-based leadership in order to create safe and welcoming environments where the richness of the information that resides within all communities can emerge and be appreciated and included in the planning or change processes. She has worked with such group
Brenda Joyce Crawford has been in the thick of social justice work for over five decades. She’s an unapologetic butch woman who comes from a blue collar working class background in the U.S. South. A great deal of her career has been spent promoting values-based leadership in order to create safe and welcoming environments where the richness of the information that resides within all communities can emerge and be appreciated and included in the planning or change processes. She has…
playlist_add
Jun 10, 2020
Lisbet Tellefsen Recounts Her Life as a Memory Keeper
Lisbet Tellefsen is an activist, publisher, producer and archivist that has served the Bay Area’s LGBT community for over 3 decades.
In 1989 she co-founded Aché: a Black Lesbian Journal —which served as an cultural, political and social nexus for LGBT communities of color both nationally and internationally. As a producer her production credits include over 50 events ranging from drag king shows to the landmark 2006 production “Sister Comrade” celebrating the lives of Black lesbian icons Audre Lorde and poet Pat Parker. She was a co-founding committee member of the Sistahs Steppin’ in Pride Festival & Dyke March which ran for 10 years in Oakland, CA. A former board member of the GLBT Historical Society, during her tenure helped oversee the opening of the GLBT History Museum in San Francisco's Castro district where she co-curated the exhibitions: “From Feminists to Feministas” (2017), and “Angela Davis OUTspoken” (2018). In 2012 the Lisbet Tellefsen Papers—includin…
playlist_add
May 27, 2020
Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins On Black LGBT Health, Yoruba Spirituality, and Therapy
Lourdes Dolores Follins’s Biography
Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins is a Black, queer femme psychotherapist and writer. As a therapist, researcher, and organizational consultant, she has worked with adolescents and adults of color who are marginalized because of their ethnoracial background and gender and/or sexual identities for over 25 years. Her clinical and research interests are the resilience and resistance of LGBTQI people in the African diaspora; using EMDR to emotionally liberate people of color; and health disparities faced by LGBTQI people of color in the U.S. She has published several academic articles and book chapters and spoken internationally about the factors that impact the health of LGBTQI people of color. Lourdes Dolores’s co-edited, award-winning book, Black LGBT Health in the United States: The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation was published in 2017. She is working on a memoir about her relationship with her deceased mother. Lourdes Dolores can…
playlist_add
May 9, 2020
Ericka Huggins on Mothers, Mindfulness, and Meditation
Angela interviewed Ericka Huggins at her home in Oakland, California in February 2020. Huggins, an educator, Black Panther Party member, former political prisoner, human rights advocate and poet, generously shared poignant parts of her life.
For 40 years Ericka has lectured in the United States, and internationally, on Restorative Practices and, the role of spiritual practice in creating social change.
Ericka speaks on campuses, and in community, about the importance of inclusive grassroots movements.
Ericka was professor of Sociology and African American Studies from 2011 through 2015 in the Peralta Community College District. At Merritt College, home of the Black Panther Party, she co-created and taught a course titled, “The Black Panther Party-Strategies for Organizing The People”.
Currently Ericka is a facilitator with WORLD TRUST leading conversations about Race and Gender Equity. In addition, she also facilitates workshops for Women on Radical Self Care.
playlist_add
May 3, 2020
Michelle Elizabeth Brown Talks about Podcasting, Poetry, and Pride
This episode is a conversation with sister podcaster, Michelle Elizabeth Brown, who lives in Detroit, Michigan. In addition to being a podcaster, Michelle is a public speaker, poet, author, and activist. She is a force for change!
She was born and raised in Detroit graduating from Cass Technical High School then went on to attend Wayne State University.
Through her career, creative endeavors, and volunteer work, she has used her strength to assist, inspire, and move people and organizations to be the best they can be. Mixed with her desire to help others she also finds her dedication to uplifting those often left on the fringe of society: especially women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community.
Michelle has worked as a consultant to small businesses, non-profit organizations, and individuals in the areas of accounting, business management, and marketing.
The force within Michelle is her voice, and as a public speaker and activist, she has used her voice to educate, inform, and u…
playlist_add
Apr 25, 2020
Nikki Young and Benae Beamon Talk about Love, Work, and Ethics
Benae Beamon is from North Carolina, where she started dancing and joined the acclaimed North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble under the direction of Gene Medler. She went on to earn a BA from Colgate University and an MA from Yale University and is currently completing her PhD at Boston University in Religious Studies. Her scholarship and art focus on black queer and trans populations and the ethical value of black artistic expression. She continues to create artistic work, through dance, both as a solo artist and with Subject:Matter, a Boston based tap dance company, under the direction of choreographer, Ian Berg.
Nikki Young is a black queer ethicist who uses scholarship and teaching to generate, cultivate, and feature liberative ways of being. A graduate of UNC-Asheville (BA), Candler School of Theology (MDiv and ThM), and Emory University (PhD), Nikki focuses her work on race, gender, sexuality, family, and ethics and is particularly interested in the impact of black queerness on mora…
playlist_add
Mar 24, 2020
Dr. Tonia Poteat Addresses COVID-19 Questions
During these uncertain times, it is important to have accurate information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Our guest, Dr. Tonia Poteat, fielded questions for a webinar sponsored by ZAMI NOBLA on March 22, 2020. This is a recording of that event.
Tonia Poteat, PhD, PA-C, MPH, is Assistant Professor of Social Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as core faculty in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. After completing her PhD at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Poteat served for two years in the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator as the Senior Advisor for Key Populations. Since returning to academia in 2014, Dr. Poteat’s research, teaching, and practice have focused on HIV and LGBT health disparities with particular attention to the health and well-being of transgender communities. Her current work attends to the health consequences of stigma based on multiple marginalized identities. Dr. Poteat is a certified HIV Specialist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine and has devoted her…
playlist_add
Feb 8, 2020
Jowanna Tillman and Edonna Koon Talk about Living the RV Life
We interviewed Jowanna Tillman and Edonna Koon in the summer of 2019. They shared how they came to the RV life and what sustains them as they travel and work across the United States.
This travel loving couple started full time RVing in early 2018. They are always up for an adventure. Edonna is a retired Marine who has a passion for science. Jowanna, who used to work in higher education, has a passion for healthy living. I hope that you follow them on their journey into nomad living.
Check out their blog and FB page below:
Blog
http://www.jodochasingrainbows.com
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/jodochasingrainbows
playlist_add
Jan 31, 2020
Joi and Jane Mitchell Talk about Work and Residency Abroad
What is it like to live and work outside the United States? In this episode, Joi and Jane Mitchell tell us about their experiences living abroad in Korea and the UK. We also talk about shifts in careers, national identity, and culture.
Dr. Joi Mitchell is Originally from Detroit, Michigan. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degree from the AUC center. She also holds a Ph.D. from Capella University. Her first career was a psychotherapist specializing in LGBTQ issues. In 2015, she transitioned to work full time as a school counselor for the Department of Defense, where she worked 3 years in South Korea. She currently works at Lakenheath Middle School in the UK.
Jane Mitchell is originally from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She is an Army veteran where she was a behavior science specialist. Upon leaving the military, she worked for the United States Postal Service for 18 years. Currently, she is a certified personal trainer in the UK doing in person and online training. You can fin…
playlist_add
Jan 4, 2020
Sheila Alexander-Reid Shares Herstory of “Women in the Life” and Talks about Black Lesbian Herstory Preservation
In August 2019, we interviewed Sheila Alexander-Reid at her home in Washington, D.C. Reid is the Director, Mayor's Office of LGBTQ Affairs, and Founding Member, Women in the Life Association. She talks about the origins of Women in the Life, her work in the Mayor’s Office, and the preservation of black lesbian herstory.
Sheila Alexander-Reid has been a vital part of the LGBT community for well over 20 years. She started as a party promoter back in the late 80’s/early 90’s with two other friends and called themselves VTR. In 1993, Sheila ventured out on her own and starting throwing Black lesbian parties under the Women in the Life brand. Filling up local party venues such as Tracks and Hung Jury to capacity, the popularity of her parties quickly gained momentum in the community. A stickler for quality and details, Sheila developed a strong following that’s still present to this day.
Moved by the death of her close friend and LGBT activist, Wanda Alston in 2002, she started a…
playlist_add
Nov 8, 2019
Angela Denise Davis Reflects on One Year of Podcasting
We are back with our latest, a reflection from our host and producer, Angela Denise Davis. This episode is a recording of a talk she gave at The First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta this past summer. We also share a meaningful out-take from a previous interview with one of our guests.
playlist_add
Jun 1, 2019
Deepali Gokhale and Tishana Trainor Reflect on Creating a Loving Space as Lesbians from Different Ethnic and Social Backgrounds
This is the third in a four episode series on lesbian couples. Today, we talk about the process of creating physical emotional, and familial space in our lives. Creating space in a lesbian relationship can be especially challenging when a couple has different ethnic backgrounds as do our guests today.
Deepali Gokhale is a queer South Asian daughter, sister, friend, co-pilot, parent, mechanical engineer, custom software developer, solar real estate investor, and former community organizer for a plethora of social justice causes. Her life’s mission is to live each day with joyful self-care, as an authentic loving presence, an adventurous amateur, and an accountable leader in order to responsibly participate in creative resolutions with competent confidence.
Tishana Trainor is a queer Black mama that loves anything analog, including self-care, crochet, and journaling. She firmly believes in including rest in planning hard work, and refuses to pour from an empty cup. She works as a sof…
playlist_add
May 12, 2019
Grace Queen Tribling Talks About Mothering, Becoming a Lesbian, and Living in Rural Georgia
Grace Queen Tribling, a native of DC, talks candidly about her becoming a lesbian in her late 30s. She also share some highlights on her relationship with her mother and life in rural Georgia.
playlist_add
Apr 26, 2019
Kamilah Aisha Moon Talks about the Human Business of Poetry
The author of Starshine & Clay (2017), featured on NPR's "All Things Considered" as a collection that captures America in poetry, and She Has a Name (2013), a finalist for both the Audre Lorde and Lambda Literary Awards, Kamilah Aisha Moon's work has been published widely, including in Best American Poetry, Harvard Review, Poem-A-Day, PBS Newshour, Buzzfeed and elsewhere. A 2015 New American Poet who has received fellowships to Vermont Studio Center, Hedgebrook and Cave Canem, she has featured nationally at conferences, festivals and universities including the Library of Congress and Princeton University. She holds an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Agnes Scott College.
playlist_add
Apr 12, 2019
Black Lesbian Comic Karen Williams Gets Serious About the Business of Being Funny
KAREN WILLIAMS, COMIC, EMCEE, HOST, DIVERSITY TRAINER, MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER AND HUMOR EDUCATOR
Karen Williams has the unique distinction of being the nation's first openly lesbian black comic to include specifically lesbian material in her act. Her solo comedy special "I Need a Snack" filmed live in Hollywood ~ and produced by Andrea Meyerson of AllOut Films ~ is a LOGO TV favorite and available on DVD.
Karen Williams is a featured comic performer with Olivia Travel cruises and resorts for lesbians since 1990, logging over 200 cruises and resorts.
Karen's been a ghostwriter at Columbia Pictures, and her humor writings appear in numerous anthologies, including Joke Stew (Andrews McMeel Publishing), Revolutionary Laughter (Crossing Press), Out in All Directions (Warner Brothers), and Out, Loud & Laughing (Random House).
For comedy bookings, humor workshops, diversity trainings, celebrity wedding officiant requests, college, university and Artist-in-Residence inquiries:
Karen William…
playlist_add
Mar 7, 2019
Annise Mabry and Benae“Benny” Ingram Offer Real Talk about Parenting, Passion, and Physical Health, Part 2
Dr. Annise Mabry has been a homeschooling mom for over eight years. She founded an alternative diploma program, Tiers Free Academy, and she empowers parents to understand their legal rights within the homeschool laws of their states. She is the President of The Dr. Annise Mabry Foundation and continues to serve on the leadership board of the Newton County Homeschool Cooperative. Dr. Mabry was the youngest serving and first African-American female Dean of Graduate Studies for DeVry University. She has been focused on assisting parents in navigating the final years of high school and transitioning teens out of the public school system into homeschool.
Benae“Benny” Ingram is a clinical instructor of radiology at Emory Decatur Hospital. After more than 30 years in the radiology field, she continues to be very passionate about her work. She brings compassionate patient care skills to any clinical setting and has worked in various healthcare organizations in Texas, Massachusetts, and Ge…
playlist_add
Mar 7, 2019
Annise Mabry and Benae“Benny” Ingram Offer Real Talk about Parenting, Passion, and Physical Health, Part 1
Dr. Annise Mabry has been a homeschooling mom for over eight years. She founded an alternative diploma program, Tiers Free Academy, and she empowers parents to understand their legal rights within the homeschool laws of their states. She is the President of The Dr. Annise Mabry Foundation and continues to serve on the leadership board of the Newton County Homeschool Cooperative. Dr. Mabry was the youngest serving and first African-American female Dean of Graduate Studies for DeVry University. She has been focused on assisting parents in navigating the final years of high school and transitioning teens out of the public school system into homeschool.
Benae“Benny” Ingram is a clinical instructor of radiology at Emory Decatur Hospital. After more than 30 years in the radiology field, she continues to be very passionate about her work. She brings compassionate patient care skills to any clinical setting and has worked in various healthcare organizations in Texas, Massachusetts, and Ge…
playlist_add
Feb 18, 2019
Martina Downey and Tawanna Sullivan Talk about Artistic Ventures & Creating KUMA, the First Black Lesbian Erotica Website During a Traffic Jam.
Martina Downey is an executive with more than 35 years of experience in the college publishing industry. She is a singer/songwriter/recording artist who enjoys singing, writing, speaking, theater, opera, and fine dining. She has served her community through active leadership. Martina is a healer at Harriet’s Apothecary and has been a member of Kitchen Table Giving Circle, African Asian Latina Lesbians United, Unity Fellowship Church, and Lavender Light Gospel Choir.
Tawanna Sullivan is a publishing professional with over twenty years' experience licensing international and domestic rights. She was raised in Baltimore with a solid foundation in the Baptist church and 80s horror movies. Her collection of previously published short stories, The Next Girl & Other Lesbian Tales, features work across various genres. She is one of the founders of Kuma2.net, a website that encouraged black lesbians to write erotica. Currently, Tawanna is working on her first mystery novel and finding new wa…
playlist_add
Jan 31, 2019
Tracey (Trey) Williams Sullivan shines a light on vision loss and intersectionality
The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast explores vision loss and intersectionality with Tracey Williams Sullivan, J.D.
Tracey, better known as Trey is a retired law professional with a specialty in the area of commercial insurance technology risks. She was raised and educated in a Chicago suburb, but she practiced most of her career and advocacy involvement while living throughout the United States. She has settled into the Atlanta area where she spends her time traveling, learning new skills and hobbies as an aging, visually impaired person, and advocating for equality at every opportunity. Trey also enjoys mentoring fellow blind/visually impaired people in guide dog handling as well as state and federal rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
playlist_add
Jan 17, 2019
Pat Hussain Sings Her SONG of Social Justice Advocacy
Pat Hussain recounts her childhood in segregated Atlanta and her involvement in various social justice groups, especially her role in the creation of SONG (Southerners On New Ground).
Hussain (b. 1950) was born and raised in Atlanta, where she attended segregated schools until high school. She came from a middle class family and was a debutante, but then joined the Marines when her brother came back from Vietnam psychologically damaged and feeling a failure. She married men twice before coming out as a lesbian in the early 1980s. She helped organize the first GLAAD chapter in Atlanta (when GLAAD was just forming), and had just been working for the Gay and Lesbian Task Force organizing the first March on Washington when she attended the Creating Change 1993 conference that led to the founding of SONG, of which she was the first co-director (with Pam McMichael).
Biography taken from an interview of Pat Hussain by Lorraine Fontana for Sinister Wisdom.
http://www.sinisterwisdom.org/SW93…
playlist_add
Jan 3, 2019
Jillian Ford Talks Shop on Education, Innovation, and DeColonized Classrooms
Jillian Ford is an associate professor of social studies education in the Secondary and Middle Grades Education department at Kennesaw State University. Ford earned her Ph.D. in educational studies from Emory University in 2011, her dissertation was titled Political Socialization and Citizenship Education for Queer Youth. Her community engagements, pedagogies, and research projects center the intellectual and pedagogical possibilities inherent in creating a more just world. Theoretically and pragmatically, Ford draws heavily on womanist frameworks. A firm believer in embodied learning, she is currently exploring yoga as a way to enhance critical thinking, imagination, and wonder in her students and herself. Her published work has appeared in the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Journal of Lesbian Studies, Multicultural Education, and several edited volumes.
Ford can be reached at teachliberation@gmail.com
playlist_add
Dec 19, 2018
Cynthia Mckinney Takes on Heart Atttack Hill & Loses 52 Pounds
Cynthia McKinney, 54, is a native of Arkansas. She is the youngest of five children. After growing up in Arkansas she relocated to Indiana and lived and worked there for six years before moving to Atlanta. She went back to school and completed her bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in African American Literature in 2009. She also completed coursework for a graduate program at Georgia State University in African American Studies. She has been employed by the Federal Reserve Bank as a Business Analyst for 19 years. Her interests include live theatre performances, reading, and traveling.
playlist_add
Dec 5, 2018
Dr. Tonia Poteat on, "Deserving Research that Reflects Your Real Life Lived Experience
Tonia Poteat, PhD, PA-C, MPH
Tonia Poteat, PhD, MPH, PA-C is an Assistant Professor of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in the Center for Health Equity Research. During her 22 years as a Physician Assistant, she has devoted her clinical practice to providing medically appropriate and culturally competent care to members of the LGBTQ community as well as people living with HIV. Her research and teaching attend to the health consequences of stigma and discrimination based on multiple marginalized identities.
She has partnered with ZAMI NOBLA on research with Black lesbian communities for many years, including a ground-breaking study assessing the health needs of aging Black lesbians. She is currently working in partnership with ZAMI NOBLA and Johns Hopkins University on a study to understand barriers and facilitators to engagement in care for Black sexual minority women with breast cancer and/or abnormal mammograms.
Are you a black woman identifying as…
playlist_add
Nov 23, 2018
Phyllis Robinson Speaks about Purposeful Passion and Living Her Life as a Barber & Artist
Show notes:
Phyllis Adair Robinson, a visual artist, barber/beauty, poet and community activist was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Presently, she lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She owns her own business, PAR Art LLC - a multi-medium company, and works as a Master Barber incorporating her art in designer haircuts @ SheCuts Barber Studio in Midtown Atlanta. In her spare time, she mentors youth and advises them to pursue their dreams.
(Episode cover art is a self-portrait by Phyllis Robinson.)
Facebook: Phyllis Robinson
Facebook: AdairsEdgeDesigner Kutz
Facebook: PAR Art LLC
Instagram: adairsedge
Instagram: adairsart
Twitter: adairsedge
Twitter: adairsart
Email: par.art.llc@gmail.com
Phone: 678.851.2947
playlist_add
Nov 7, 2018
Dr. Ashley Coleman Taylor Talks about Atlanta as Black Queer Place
Dr. Ashley Coleman Taylor talks about her work collecting black queer oral histories that will preserve an important part of Atlanta's past. We also talk about the impact of storytelling on creating/sustaining social justice movements and how Audre Lorde's concept of the "erotic" is an asset to harnessing one's personal power.
Ashley Coleman Taylor, Ph.D. is an Instructor of Women’s Studies at Agnes Scott College and formerly a Lecturer in the Institute for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Georgia State University. As an interdisciplinary ethnographer, she specializes in the intersecting lived experiences of black embodiment, black genders and sexualities, and African diaspora religious experience.
She was a 2016-2017 Visiting Fellow at the James Weldon Johnson Institute at Emory University. Her book project, Majestad (MA-hey-stod) Negra: Race, Class, Gender and Religious Experience in the Puerto Rican Imaginary is an intersectional black feminist approach to race, class…
playlist_add
Oct 25, 2018
Rev. Maressa Pendermon Speaks on Normalizing Grief and Creating a Toolbox for Emotional Well-being
In a world of inauthentic voices, it is refreshing to hear someone talk openly about grief and the journey forward after losing a loved one. Rev. Maressa Pendermon is such a voice as she shares her story on this episode of the podcast. This is a frank and generous conversation that also contains her thoughts on how losing her son has affected her work as a parish minister and hospice chaplain.
Reverend Maressa Pendermon is an ordained reverend in the Unity Fellowship Church Movement (UFCM) currently serving as senior pastor of Unity Fellowship of Christ Church, Greater Atlanta. She also works as a hospice chaplain, providing spiritual care for individuals living with a terminal diagnosis and their families. In addition, Reverend Pendermon is a community strategist as well as trained facilitator. She is passionate about social justice issues and does her work in community with traditionally marginalized and low wealth individuals and communities from a human rights perspective; and th…
playlist_add
Oct 10, 2018
Petrina Bloodworth and Emma Foulkes First Couple to say "I Do" after Same-Sex Marriage Equality
On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States, in a 5-4 decision declared same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. In our episode today, we talk with the first couple to marry after the court's decision, Petrina Bloodworth and Emma Foulkes, a same-sex couple living in Atlanta, GA. They talk about how Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, A LGBT advocacy organization helped them initiate the process, describe what it was like to wait until the passing of the law, and what married life looks like today.
Georgia Equality Calls Supreme Court Ruling On Gay Marriage "National Victory"
http://www.gpb.org/news/2015/06/26/georgia-equality-calls-supreme-court-ruling-on-gay-marriage-national-victory
Gay Marriage Comes to Georgia
http://specials.myajc.com/gay-marriage/
Same-Sex Couples Begin Marriages In Fulton County Courthouse
https://www.wabe.org/same-sex-couples-begin-marriages-fulton-county-courthouse/
playlist_add
Sep 27, 2018
Midgett Speaks on Satisfying Work and Passionate Sex at Age 82
Show notes:
Midgett, an 82 year-old Black Lesbian writer of erotica living in San Francisco, talks about the importance of having meaningful work and a passionate sex life at every age. She has written two books, “New York Flavor with a San Francisco Beat” and “Brown on Brown: Black Lesbian Erotica.” Her email address is midgettsf@aol.com
You can find her on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNK8wZkVnLo
She has also written a monthly inspirational column, Midgett's Corner, for the Western Edition, a newspaper that caters to San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood.
http://www.thewesternedition.com/?c=125&a=2880
playlist_add
Sep 13, 2018
EP 005: "The Best She Knows," Sheree L. Greer on Intersectionality, Creative Writing and Perspective
A Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, Sheree L. Greer is a writer and educator living in Tampa, Florida. She founded The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase and support the work of Black women and women writers of color and is the author of two novels, Let the Lover Be and A Return to Arms, a short story collection, Once and Future Lovers, and a student writing guide, Stop Writing Wack Essays. Sheree is a VONA/VOICES alum, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice grantee, Ragdale Artist House Rubin Fellow, and YADDO fellow.
She has completed Creative Capital Core Skills workshops and was awarded an NEA artist grant to support her current work in creative nonfiction. Sheree teaches composition, creative writing, fiction workshop, and African American literature at St. Petersburg College in Florida.
playlist_add
Aug 30, 2018
EP 004: Mary Anne Adams Shares Her Story and the Herstory of ZAMI NOBLA
Mary Anne Adams, Founder and Executive Director of ZAMI NOBLA: National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging talks about why she gives back to her community and details the genesis of ZAMI NOBLA.
playlist_add
Aug 15, 2018
EP 003: Dr. Dionne Bates Speaks on the Power of Words, Emotional Health, and Freedom
Dr. Dionne Bates, Atlanta area therapist shares wisdom on how using the right language can make a big difference, and so much more.
playlist_add
Aug 15, 2018
EP 002: Trey Anthony Shines her Limelight on Love, Living Out Loud, and Vulnerability
Trey Anthony, an acclaimed writer, producer, and actor shares insights from her life and her plays, How Black Mothers Say I Love You, and Da Kink in My Hair.
playlist_add
Aug 15, 2018
EP 001: Angela Denise Davis on Origins and Opportunities
Angela Denise Davis, host of the ZAMI NOBLA Podcast talks about her journey creating and implementing the podcast.
playlist_add
Jul 26, 2018
Trailer
This podcast is for black lesbians over 40 who have always wanted a sound source that gets them. This show centers their lives with conversations about health and wellness, love and relationships, and current events.
playlist_add