Active Allyship...it's more than a #hashtag!"

Sunni and Lisa are joined by Maya Washington who talks about her book THROUGH THE BANKSOF THE RED CEDAR:My Father and the Team that Changed the Game.

Maya Washington is the award-winning Writer/Director and Producer of Through the Banks of the Red Cedar and author of the memoir by the same name. Maya’s multi-media work has garnered fellowships and/or awards from Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Minnesota Film and Television, and others. She is a 2019 Commercial Directors Diversity Program finalist and workshop participant, and a 2019 McKnight Fellow in Media Arts. In 2021 she teamed up with Committee Films as a guest director for the Heidnik episode of the Fox series The Killer Next Door, and two upcoming episodes of History Channel’s new show, I Was There, which will debut in 2022. Her award winning film CLEAR, about a woman connecting with her teenage daughter after a 16-year prison sentence for a crime she didn’t commit, is streaming on Argo and KweliTV. Her award-winning narrative film, White Space (starring ABC Family Switched at Birth’s Ryan Lane) aired on network television as a selection of African American Short Films and is streaming on KweliTV. Maya began her creative career as a dancer turned musical theatre actor in the Twin Cities vibrant theatre community as a child performer. While at USC, she studied acting, directing, film and dramatic writing, which allowed her to explore her passion for storytelling in a variety of mediums, later pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at Hamline University. Her background on stage/camera and behind the scenes has given her the opportunity to work on everything from live theatre, commercials and print ads, to web series, films and television, and regularly publishes creative writing in esteemed literary journals and reviews. She gives back to the next generation as a speaker and workshop presenter, focusing on the development of youth, arts, and education. As the Creative Director of Running Water Entertainment, LLC, Maya is dedicated to projects that have a sense of “purpose” in the world, selecting stories that illuminate some aspect of the human experience that is untold, rarely seen, or might benefit from new approaches to issues of Diversity & Inclusion, primarily in America. Her projects have had a global reach, including Toronto, Budapest, Hong Kong, Berlin, and Rome.


Book Description

A warm and invigorating memoir about a daughter’s love for her father and her appreciation for how he and others changed the game of football forever.

Gene Washington’s football career ended long before his daughter Maya was born. She never saw the legendary powerhouse as anything but her dad. She didn’t yet grasp the impact he’d had on the sport—and on America. To understand his historic role in the integration of college football, witness his influence on generations that followed, and fully appreciate his legacy, Maya had a lot of catching up to do.

Maya retraces her father’s journey from the segregated south to Michigan State during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement and his journey as an NFL pioneer after the 1967 draft. She reflects on how her father’s childhood—and the racism he faced—shaped her upbringing and influenced his expectations of her. She also discovers how unbreakable the emotional bond between teammates can be. But above all, Maya and her father get to know each other. As their own bond deepens, so does Maya’s connection to the sport that changed the trajectory of her father’s life…and hers.

Sunni and Lisa are joined by Majora Carter who talks about her book, Reclaiming Your Community: You Don’t Have to Move out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One.

Majora Carter is a real estate developer, urban revitalization strategy consultant, MacArthur Fellow and Peabody Award winning broadcaster. She is responsible for the creation and successful implementation of numerous economic developments, technology & green-infrastructure projects, policies and job training & placement systems.

Carter applies her corporate consulting practice focused on talent-retention to reducing Brain Drain in American low-status communities. She has firsthand experience pioneering sustainable economic development in one of America's most storied low-status communities: the South Bronx. 

She and her teams develop vision, strategies and the type of development that transforms low-status communities into thriving mixed-use local economies. Her approach harnesses capital flows resulting from American re-urbanization to help increase wealth building opportunities across demographics left out of all historic financial tide changes. Majora's work produces long term fiscal benefits for governments, residents, and private real estate developments throughout North America. 

In 2017, she launched the Boogie Down Grind, a Hip Hop themed speciality coffee & craft beer spot, and the first commercial “3rd Space” in the Hunts Point section

of the South Bronx since the mid-1980s. This venture also provides a rare opportunity for local families to invest through SEC approved online investment platforms. 

Majora is quoted on the walls of the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture in DC:

"Nobody should have to move out of their neighborhood to live in a better one”.

Her ability to shepherd projects through seemingly conflicted socio-economic currents has garnered her 8 honorary PhD's and awards such as: 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs, Silicon Alley 100 by Business Insider, Liberty Medal for Lifetime Achievement by News Corp, and other honors from the National Building Museum, International Interior Design Association, Center for American Progress, as well as her TEDtalk (one of six to launch that site in 2006).

She has served on the boards of the US Green Building Council, Ceres, The Wilderness Society, and the Andrew Goodman Foundation. 

Majora was born, raised and continues to live in the South Bronx. She is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science (1984), Wesleyan University (1988 BA, Distinguished Alum) and New York University (MFA). After establishing Sustainable South Bronx (2001) and Green For All (2007), among other organizations, she opened this private consulting firm (2008) - which was named Best for the World by B-Corp in 2014.

While at Sustainable South Bronx, Carter deployed MIT’s first ever Mobile Fab-Lab (digital fabrication laboratory) to the South Bronx - where it served as an early iteration of the “Maker-Spaces” found elsewhere today. The project drew residents and visitors together for guided and creative collaborations. 

In addition, Majora Carter launched StartUp Box, a ground-breaking tech social enterprise that provided entry-level tech jobs in the South Bronx, operating it from 2014-2018. Majora Carter has helped connect tech industry pioneers such as Etsy, Gust, FreshDirect, Google, and Cisco to diverse communities at all levels.

BOOK DESCRIPTION: Reclaiming Your Community: You Don’t Have to Move out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One

How can we solve the problem of persistent poverty in low-status communities? Majora Carter argues that these areas need a talent-retention strategy, just like the ones companies have. Retaining homegrown talent is a critical part of creating a strong local economy that can resist gentrification. But too

Sunni and Lisa weight in on the Holocaust controversy with Whoopi Goldberg. 

Lisa is hosting solo today and is joined by James Kilgore,  an educator, writer and activist based in Urbana, Illinois to talk about his book, Understanding E-Carceration: Electronic Monitoring, the Surveillance State, and the Future of Mass Incarceration.

James Kilgore is an educator, writer and activist based in Urbana, Illinois. He writes widely on issues of mass incarceration and the politics and history of southern Africa. He has written four novels, all of which he drafted during his six and a half years in prison.

He is also the author of a primer on the prison-industrial-complex: Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time. When he is not writing, he works in his community to fight against jail building and to open door of opportunity for people with felony convictions.

Book Description: 

A riveting primer on the growing trend of surveillance, monitoring, and control that is extending our prison system beyond physical walls and into a dark future—by the prize-winning author of Understanding Mass Incarceration

“James Kilgore is one of my favorite commentators regarding the phenomenon of mass incarceration and the necessity of pursuing truly transformative change.” —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

In the last decade, as the critique of mass incarceration has grown more powerful, many reformers have embraced changes that release people from prisons and jails. As educator, author, and activist James Kilgore brilliantly shows, these rapidly spreading reforms largely fall under the heading of “e-carceration”—a range of punitive technological interventions, from ankle monitors to facial recognition apps, that deprive people of their liberty, all in the name of ending mass incarceration.

E-carceration can block people’s access to employment, housing, healthcare, and even the chance to spend time with loved ones. Many of these technologies gather data that lands in corporate and government databases and may lead to further punishment or the marketing of their data to Big Tech.

This riveting primer on the world of techno-punishment comes from the author of award–winning Understanding Mass Incarceration. Himself a survivor of prison and e-carceration, Kilgore captures the breadth and complexity of these technologies and offers inspiring ideas on how to resist.

Sunni and Lisa are joined by Celeste Headlee who talks about her latest book, Speaking of Race: Why Everybody Needs to Talk About Racism - and How to Do It.

Celeste Headlee is an award-winning journalist who has appeared on NPR, PBS World, PRI, CNN, BBC and other international networks.  She was formerly a host at National Public Radio, anchoring shows including Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. For many years, Celeste has been a mentor and managing editor for NPR’s Next Generation Radio Project, training young reporters and editors in broadcasting.

Celeste is co-host to the Scene on Radio podcast—MEN with the podcast’s producer, Duke University’s CDS audio director, John Biewen. John describes the season: “Co-host Celeste Headlee and I will take a similar approach to the Seeing White series, which explored the history and meaning of whiteness. With MEN, we’ll be asking questions like, What’s up with this male-dominated world? Is male supremacy inevitable? How did we get sexism/patriarchy/misogyny, and what can we do about it?”

Celeste will co-host new episodes of The Retro Report with Masud Olufani. Retro Report is a non-profit news organization that produces mini documentaries looking at today’s news stories through the lens of history and context.

Until February, 2017 Celeste was the Executive Producer and host of the daily talk show called “On Second Thought” for Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta. You can listen live to On Second Thought, weekdays from 9 – 10 a.m. EST on the GPB News website. Click here for archives from past shows.

In 2014, Celeste narrated the documentary “Packard: The Last Shift” for the Detroit Free Press. She has won numerous awards for reporting from the Associated Press and SPJ. She was selected twice to be a Getty/Annenberg Journalism Fellow and was selected as a fellow with the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. She was also among the first fellows in Reporting on Native Stories for National Native News.

Until September of 2012, Celeste was the co-host of the national morning news show, The Takeaway, from PRI and WNYC and anchored presidential coverage in 2012 for PBS World Channel.

BOOK DESCRIPTION  - Speaking of Race: Why Everybody Needs to Talk About Racism - and How to Do It.

In this urgently needed guide, the PBS host, award-winning journalist, and author of We Need to Talk teaches us how to have productive conversations about race, offering insights, advice, and support.

A self-described “light-skinned Black Jew”, Celeste Headlee has been forced to speak about race - including having to defend or define her own - since childhood. In her career as a journalist for public media, she’s made it a priority to talk about race proactively. She’s discovered, however, that those exchanges have rarely been productive. While many people say they want to talk about race, the reality is, they want to talk about race with people who agree with them. The subject makes us uncomfortable; it’s often not considered polite or appropriate. To avoid these painful discussions, we stay in our bubbles, reinforcing our own sense of righteousness as well as our division.

Yet we gain nothing by not engaging with those we disagree with; empathy does not develop in a vacuum and racism won’t just fade away. If we are to effect meaningful change as a society, Headlee argues, we have to be able to talk about wha

Lisa is hosting solo today and is joined by Howard French to talk about his latest book, Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War.  Howard French is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Prior to joining the Columbia faculty, in 2008, he was a reporter and senior writer for The New York Times, where he worked as a foreign correspondent for more than two decades. During this time, French served as the paper's bureau chief in Shanghai, Tokyo, Abidjan and Miami (covering Central America and the Caribbean).

French's documentary photography has featured in solo and group exhibitions on four continents, and collected by the Mildred Lane Kemper Museum in St. Louis.

For more information about his work, please visit his website: howardwfrench.com or follow him on twitter: @hofrench.

Book Description:

Revealing the central yet intentionally obliterated role of Africa in the creation of modernity, Born in Blackness vitally reframes our understanding of world history.

Traditional accounts of the making of the modern world afford a place of primacy to European history. Some credit the fifteenth-century Age of Discovery and the maritime connection it established between West and East; others the accidental unearthing of the “New World.” Still others point to the development of the scientific method, or the spread of Judeo-Christian beliefs; and so on, ad infinitum. The history of Africa, by contrast, has long been relegated to the remote outskirts of our global story. What if, instead, we put Africa and Africans at the very center of our thinking about the origins of modernity?

In a sweeping narrative spanning more than six centuries, Howard W. French does just that, for Born in Blackness vitally reframes the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in the West, and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe’s dehumanizing engagement with the “dark” continent. In fact, French reveals, the first impetus for the Age of Discovery was not―as we are so often told, even today―Europe’s yearning for ties with Asia, but rather its centuries-old desire to forge a trade in gold with legendarily rich Black societies sequestered away in the heart of West Africa.

Creating a historical narrative that begins with the commencement of commercial relations between Portugal and Africa in the fifteenth century and ends with the onset of World War II, Born in Blackness interweaves precise historical detail with poignant, personal reportage. In so doing, it dramatically retrieves the lives of major African historical figures, from the unimaginably rich medieval emperors who traded with the Near East and beyond, to the Kongo sovereigns who heroically battled seventeenth-century European powers, to the ex-slaves who liberated Haitians from bondage and profoundly altered the course of American history.

While French cogently demonstrates the centrality of Africa to the rise of the modern world, Born in Blackness becomes, at the same time, a far more significant narrative, one that reveals a long-concealed history of trivialization and, more often, elision in depictions of African history throughout the last five hundred years. As French shows, the achievements of sovereign African nations and their now-far-flung peoples have time and again been etiolated and deliberately erased from modern history. As the West ascended, their stories―siloed and piecemeal―were swept into secluded corners, thus setting the stage for the hagiographic “rise of the West” theories that have endured to this day.

Sunni and are chat about the article, What Made Black History in 2021? "After the tumult and triumphs of 2020, here are the achievements that shaped the first year following the country’s racial reckoning." By Dodai Stewart 12/17/2021 

Here is the article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/17/us/black-history-2021.amp.html

Listen to here the highlights! 

Sunni and Lisa are joined once again by Amy Bauer, the creator of www.karensdaughter.com

She is back to update us on her journey and much more!

This is from her website - Hi, my name is Amy and I’m a Karen. My truth is rooting in growing up in a white, patriarchal society that taught me the white male is.

If you’re reading this and do not think this is true, then I encourage you to ask yourself how have you benefited from a white patriarchal society. When I was 15, I was offered a job filing papers in the Accounting Department at the local Glass Bottling Manufacturing Plant. I had this job through high school and partially through college. This meant that I didn’t have to work fast food, retail, or in a bar/restaurant 
because I had office experience. 

Amy’s career has been eclectic. Starting in her teens working at a glass bottling manufacturing plant, to post college corporate public relations, to a decade building community in the music industry, to finally landing in the Bay Area start-up world.  During the time of President Trump and a global pandemic, the world watched George Floyd murdered. Amy realized that in order to help others, she would first need to get her own house in order. With the help of a coaching program, a complete catatonic meltdown, having difficult conversations with her family about political, racial, and social issues, and working through the book, The Artist’s Way, the idea of Karen’s Daughter arose. 

 As a daughter of Republican parents (and ironically someone named Karen) Amy asked herself whether there are others out there like her: progressive white women with Republican families?  Did they want to show up better in this world for those in marginalized communities 
but lack the knowledge, resources, and skills to make an impact?

As a way to process her own journey as Karen’s daughter, Amy created KarensDaughter.com, to help remove the layers of unconscious bias and to show up as the person she was born as, not the person her family taught her to be.  Amy’s hope is to build a supportive community of sacred spaces for white womxn who are willing to have these difficult conversations with family and continue to show up for marginalized 
communities and work toward equality for all. 

Are you Karen’s Daughter?

If your parents have different values than the modern world you want to live in, then you, too, are Karen’s Daughter. My intention in starting this journey is to show up and put in the hard work as a white woman to make a better world for the generations that follow.  I hope that by telling my story, I’ll encourage more people like myself to have these hard conversations and build a community that comes together to support each other.

Who is “Karen”?

We all associate “Karen” with a privileged “Speak to the Manager” white woman but Karen can come in many different varieties. There is not a “one size fits all” Karen. Throughout this journey we’ll expand on Karen, as a person and a concept.

In the case of Karen’s Daughter, she represents my humble mother who would be too embarrassed to ask for the manager but may still have strong opinions about how things should be. She’s an honest woman who loves her family, but may have some fears and prefers the comforts of home. 

My father is similar in a lot of ways. He is Karen’s Husband who we will call “Kevin”** on this journey.  I also have an older sister, who we’ll call Jennifer,** the most popular girl’s name from 1970 - 1984.  And that leaves me, the youngest in a family of 4. You can call me Katie**. Bonus points for those who figured out why I chose that name. 

This is the story of Karen, Kevin, Jennifer and Katie. Welcome to our white middle-class family. 

Sunni and Lisa are joined by Ash Beckham.  Known for her viral Tedx Talk Coming Out of Your Closet, the “accidental advocate” for equality does not shy away from hard conversations. Her book Step Up: How to Live with Courage and Become an Everyday Leader (Sounds True, March 2020) is an empowering call-to-action to help mobilize all to embrace a different vision of leadership to create change in our workplaces, schools, places of worship, communities, and homes cultivated from both Beckham's personal and professional experiences.   

Book Description:
 
 A New Vision of Inclusive Leadership

What makes someone a leader? Someone you vote for, work for, or listen to for their expertise? With Step Up, equality advocate Ash Beckham challenges us to embrace a different vision of leadership―to stop focusing on external authorities and start reclaiming our own ability to create change. “What we need most are everyday leaders,” she writes. “We need people to step up and be the change they wish to see in the world. Anyone can do it. You can do it.”

Whether your path involves activism, political engagement, or simply being a positive voice in your workplace, home, and community, Beckham’s Step Up provides essential guidance on cultivating the eight pillars of everyday leadership:

- Empathy―the art of relating to others with compassion for our shared humanity, regardless of whether we agree
- Responsibility―how we can raise our awareness and consciously choose to behave in ways that heal instead of harm
- Courage―understanding the nature of fear so we can move beyond our comfort zone one step at a time
- Grace―how keeping our higher purpose always in sight helps us stop reacting with fear or anger
- Individuality―learning to value and celebrate our uniqueness, including the parts of ourselves we often reject
- Humility―ways to keep the ego in check and open the door to honest, collaborative relationships
- Patience―guidance for disarming our tendency to rush ahead so we can act with greater deliberation and forethought
- Authenticity―how we can embody our deepest truths and lead by example in any situation

For each pillar, Beckham shares engaging stories of her own journey from isolation and anger to a place of greater openness and connection―supported by scientific research and everyday practices to mindfully change the way you relate to yourself and the people in your life. Step Up is a powerful call to action―to speak when it feels easier to be silent, to do good without being self-righteous, and to create a world of inclusion where everyone has a voice and everyone belongs.

Sunni and Lisa are joined by  Dr. MarkAlain Déry who talks about structural racism in healthcare and his latest venture into health education via animation. 

Dr. MarkAlain Déry, who is a nationally recognized HIV/AIDS advocate and Medical Director of Infectious Diseases and Chief Innovation Officer for Access Health Louisiana – the largest Medicaid-providing clinic system in Louisiana.

 Throughout his career Dr. Déry has been dedicated to raising awareness about HIV/AIDS and the social justice issues tied to it.  His most current efforts include releasing a series of free, innovative animated videos aimed at conveying crucial health messaging surrounding HIV medications designed to destigmatize HIV and people of trans experience.

 A truly exemplary infectious disease physician, even being named Internist of the Year by the American College of Osteopathic Internists, Dr. Déry remains steadfastly committed to working for human rights and social justice. 

NoiseFilter — an educational platform that addresses health and wellness topics through creative storytelling — in conjunction with Access Health Louisiana (AHL) and theAIDS Education Training Center, is pleased to announce a new animation trilogy aimed at conveying crucial health messaging around HIV and HIV medications.

NoiseFilter is hosted by Dr. MarkAlain Déry, an infectious disease physician, and Dr. Eric Griggs (Doc Griggs), a community health specialist both of AHL. Through daily podcasts, engaging live streams and whimsical animations, the doctors explain complex health topics simply and creatively. Dr. Déry is also the Medical Director of Infectious Diseases and Chief Innovation Officer for Access Health Louisiana where he specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS at the Pythian clinic in New Orleans.

Alongside Dr. Déry and Doc Griggs, the new innovative animations — designed to destigmatize HIV while also amplifying the voice of people of trans experience — will also feature Milan Nicole Sherry, a trans rights activist and educator.

“Our goal is to change the stigma that still remains around HIV,” said Dr. Déry. “The colorful and compelling videos use creative exploration into the human body to explain HIV medications and how they protect individuals from transmission.”

In the first animation, Undetectable, Untransmittable and Undeniably Fierce! Déry and Doc Griggs journey inside Milan’s body to explain that people living with HIV, who are taking their medications, can have the same quality and quantity of life as individuals living without HIV, also known as U=U.  The human immune system is depicted as an orchestra and illustrates how, when introduced, HIV causes chaos for the musical conductors.

Get in Step with PrEP, the second animation, also features Milan as she joins Dr. Déry and Doc Griggs inside of Dr. Déry’s body to explain how PrEp, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, prevents HIV transmission. In the video, PrEP is seen as a force field, targeting HIV once it enters Dr. Déry’s body. One of the key takeaways is that people living without HIV can take PrEP as a defense as the autoimmune disease.

The third animation, Little Miss Muffuletta (a reference to the popular New Orleans food staple), uses the classic nursery rhyme of Little Miss Muffet to explain nPEP or non-occupational post exposure prophylaxis. In this clever animation an HIV exposure has occurred and nPEP is needed to prevent HIV from replicating. When nPEP is us