Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause

Welcome to our 6th iteration of the ⁠Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause⁠ podcast: the Season of Orisii.

Building on our international diasporic tour from last year, this season's theme is Orisii, or 'pairs' in the Afric language of Yoruba. We've invited different types of pairs to explore the through-line between menarche and menopause. You will hear parent/child, partner/lovers and siblings to offer their reflections and observations about this journey as individuals and as Orisii. We, as people capable of menstruation, understand that each experience is unique and impacts both ourselves and the connections we have with our loved ones.

For our final interview for this Season of Orisii, our producer and BGG2SM Creative Director, Mariah M., interviews our Lead Menopause Cartographer and Founder of BGG2SM, known to us as Omisade but known by their sister, Georgette, and close family as Wilhelmina aka Billie. Together, they are affectionately known as “The Burney Girls”.  

Two fiery daughters were born to a Cancer mother and a Scorpio father who has passed away. They were raised by a Cancer stepfather who adopted them when he married their mother. They spent their time growing up between North Carolina and Maryland, and they spent summers in New York.

Now, both mothers of boys and grandmother (Georgette) of boys, we discuss motherhood and auntieship and the tenderness of Scorpio Season. Autumn invites us to slow down and embrace letting go. Scorpio is the sign of transformation, death, and rebirth, and this season holds a special place for The Burney Girls as November holds both their mother’s day of ascension as well as their father’s birthday, now passed. Within this mourning of what was, a new relationship and way of connection to their parents was birthed. Wilhelmina and Georgette, each named after their late father, have used their grief as a path to deeper connection as sisters in adulthood. 

Produced by Mariah M., Managing Editor of Hippolyta’s Journal by BGG2SM | hippolytasjournal.substack.com

Interview conducted by Mariah M.

Mixed by Kim Blocker of TDS Radio

Theme by Taj Cullen Scott

Season 6 Artwork by Assata Goff, in-house Iconographer of BGG2SM

Season 6 of the BGG2SM podcast is sponsored by The Honey Pot Co. 

More about the Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Menopause at www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com 

Welcome to our 6th iteration of the ⁠Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause⁠ podcast: the Season of Orisii. Building on our international diasporic tour from last year, this season's theme is Orisii, or 'pairs' in the Afric language of Yoruba. We've invited different types of pairs to explore the through-line between menarche and menopause. You will hear parent/child, partner/lovers and siblings to offer their reflections and observations about this journey as individual and as Orisii. We, as people capable of menstruation, understand that each experience is unique and impacts both ourselves and the connections we have with our loved ones.

For this fourth episode of our Season of Orisii, we have life partners, Jasiatic and Elsworth Usher.

In this episode, we time-traveled, grounded in the here and now, dipping back to the past and stretching towards the future, where taking risks lands us in infinite possibilities and love grows. In numerology, the number 4 represents practicality, loyalty, knowledge, and dependability. It seems very fortunate for us to explore the journey from menarche to menopause through the lens of the intergenerational love partnership between Jasiatic and Elworth.

Many astrologers agree that Virgo and Capricorn are one of the most auspicious pairings, platonically, romantically--creatively.

Mercury and Saturn

Pragmatism and Vigour

Earth and Earth

They seem to get each other...

Jasiatic and Elsworth also share a love connection between the American South and the Global South, with Jasiatic heralding from Charlotte, North Carolina, and Elsworth a first-generation American from Belize. In this episode, we explore:

Meet Jasiatic and Elsworth:

Jasiatic Anderson Usher, @jasiatic, resides at the cultural and philosophical crossroads of world travel, radical taste making, “artist as art”, and foodie meets chef.

She is the creator of the Liberation Dinners and has hands in plant based pop ups, food history classes, transitional plant based coaching, along with food writing.

Elswoth Usher, @iamelz, is a creative writer, digital content creator, sous chef, photographer, thinker, lover, partner, and Capricorn stelium.

Together, they co-host "Su Casa," Charlotte’s longest-running dance party for the culturally starved, which Jasiatic manifested over 10 years ago.

*No menstrual blood was used to coerce Brother Elsworth. This is a deep soul love. Pure and unabiding.

To learn more, check out https://jasiatic.com/

Show Notes:

Produced by Mariah M., Creative Director at BGG2SM

Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott, Founder & Chief Curatorial Officer at BGG2SM

Edited by Kim Blocker of ⁠⁠TDS Radio⁠⁠

Theme music by Taj Scott

Season 6 Artwork by Assata Goff, artist & in-house Iconographer of BGG2SM

Season 6 of is sponsored by ⁠⁠The Honey Pot Company⁠⁠

Learn more about Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause at ⁠www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com⁠

Welcome to our 6th iteration of the ⁠Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause⁠ podcast: the Season of Orisii. Building on our international diasporic tour from last year, this season's theme is Orisii, or 'pairs' in the Afric language of Yoruba. We've invited different types of pairs to explore the through-line between menarche and menopause. You will hear parent/child, partner/lovers and siblings to offer their reflections and observations about this journey as individual and as Orisii. We, as people capable of menstruation, understand that each experience is unique and impacts both ourselves and the connections we have with our loved ones.

For this third episode of our Season of Orisii, we have sisters adrienne maree brown and Autumn Brown.

Opening portals, multiverse traveling companions, and life beyond the end of the world: How can we stay grounded in the present moment, in this reality of constant change, decay, death, and rebirth, without feeling completely overwhelmed? And then what?

Surviving the various challenges within ourselves and in the world while navigating the transition between our changing identities of past, present, and future selves, all while supporting each other and remembering our individual needs. What if we redefined "self-centered" to mean the preservation of all aspects of ourselves, young, older, fragile, strong for iterative healing?

These are some of the themes and questions we explored with the Sisters Brown, adrienne, and Autumn on this episode and we can't think of a better way to kick off Black August during our Season of Orisii.

Black August is a time of year to honor our Black freedom fighters, political prisoners, and resistance against oppression via study, fasting, training and fighting. It is the antithesis of “celebration” and empty “homage.” Black August commemoration and practice place our collective struggle and sacrifice on center stage. More on the why of Black August here, detailed by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. 

Meet adrienne and Autumn:

adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public through her multi-genre writing, her collaborations and her podcasts. Informed by 25 years of movement facilitation, somatics, Octavia E. Butler scholarship and her work as a doula, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas and practices for transformation. She is the author/editor of several published texts, co-generator of a tarot deck and a developing musical ritual. adrienne's forthcoming book ⁠Loving Corrections⁠ will be released on August 20 from AK Press.

Autumn Brown is a musician, facilitator, and author of speculative fiction and creative non-fiction. As the front woman of the eponymous band, AUTUMN, she has created two EPs, ⁠The Animal in You and The Way Your Blood Beats⁠. Her writing has been featured in Revolutionary Mothering, Parenting 4 Social Justice, Octavia’s Brood, and Lightspeed Magazine. She co-hosts the podcast How to Survive the End of the World, and facilitates political education and movement strategy through the Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance.

To learn more about the Sisters Brown, check out the following links:

⁠adrienne maree brown⁠

⁠Autumn Brown⁠

⁠How to Survive the End of the World⁠

There she is—- neither

Super hero nor villain

Something in between

Inside the between

A life lived so many times

Familiar echoes

Between truth and dare

Lies all of the answers still…

YOU are your best thing

Black August Haiku, Omisade Burney-Scott

Show Notes:

Produced by Mariah M., Creative Director at BGG2SM

Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott, Founder & Chief Curatorial Officer at BGG2SM

Edited by Kim Blocker of ⁠TDS Radio⁠

Theme music by Taj Scott

Season 6 Artwork by Assata Goff, artist & in-house Iconographer of BGG2SM

Season 6 of is sponsored by ⁠The Honey Pot Company⁠

Learn more about Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause at www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com

Welcome to our 6th iteration of the ⁠Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause⁠ podcast: the Season of Orisii. Building on our international diasporic tour from last year, this season's theme is Orisii, or 'pairs' in the Afric language of Yoruba. We've invited different types of pairs to explore the through-line between menarche and menopause. You will hear parent/child, partner/lovers, and siblings offer their reflections and observations about this journey as individuals and as Orisii. We, as people capable of menstruation, understand that each experience is unique and impacts both ourselves and the connections we have with our loved ones.

For this second episode of our Season of Orisii, we have couple, Michelle Graham-Freeman and Sterling E. Freeman.

MICHELLE GRAHAM-FREEMAN has taught Spanish at Durham Academy for 30 years. The first 17 years were in middle school with grades 6-8. The remaining years have been in pre and lower schools with grades preK-1. This 31st year is her last as she and her daughter, Joia, become franchisees of Season 2 Consign--RDU. Season 2 is dedicated to providing the highest quality, pre-owned designer brand and luxury handbags to clients around the world.

STERLING E. FREEMAN, is a co-facilitator of UnLearning Sexism Accountability Circles, and co-host of a podcast in process, Beyond Being A Good One podcast. Sterling is a Co-Founder and Principal with CounterPart Consulting, Co-Founder of BREATHE: A Whole Black Experience, and the creator and host of The Wisdom & The Work podcast. All his efforts contribute to the work of dismantling oppressive systems, and imagining and building spaces that enable liberation and thriving for all. At this point in his journey, he is an aspiring womanist. Sterling lives in Durham, NC with his wife, Michelle. They have an adult daughter, Joia.

Show Notes:

Produced by Mariah M., Creative Director at BGG2SM

Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott, Founder & Chief Curatorial Officer at BGG2SM

Edited by Kim Blocker of TDS Radio

Theme music by Taj Cullen Scott

Season 6 Artwork by Assata Goff, artist & in-house Iconographer of BGG2SM

Season 6 of the podcast is sponsored by The Honey Pot Company

Learn more about Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause at www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com

Welcome to our 6th iteration of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause podcast: the Season of Orisii. Building on our international diasporic tour from last year, this season's theme is Orisii, or 'pairs' in the Afric language of Yoruba. We've invited different types of pairs to explore the through-line between menarche and menopause. You will hear parent/child, partner/lovers and siblings to offer their reflections and observations about this journey as individual and as orisii. We as people capable of menstruation understand that each experience is unique and impacts both our selves and connections we have to our loved ones.

On this first episode, we have gina Breedlove and Ash-lee Woodard Henderson: partnered orisii

gina Breedlove is a grief doula, sound healer, vocalist, mother, grandmother, author, and oracle of grace. (website | IG)

Ash-lee Woodard Henderson is an organizer, strategist, soon-to-be author and the first Black woman co-Executive Director at the Highlander Center for Research and Education. (Ash-Lee's IG | Highland's IG)

Produced by BGG2SM Creative Director, Mariah M.

Hosted by BGG2SM Founder & Chief Curatorial Officer, Omisade Burney-Scott

Edited by Kim Blocker of TDS Radio

Theme music by Taj Cullen Scott

Season 6 Artwork by Assata Goff, artist & in-house Iconographer of BGG2SM

Season 6 of the podcast is sponsored by The Honey Pot Company

Learn more about Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause at www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com

During 2023, the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause continued to bushwack a maroon path for those menopause stories left at the margins by launching a diasporic tour that took our team to the UK, Harlem, Toronto, and Puerto Rico.

Our intergenerational team has learned to hold the “both/and” dynamic tension of curating storytelling spaces more deeply. We are infinitely grateful for the lessons we have learned from our travels together, community conversations, and partnerships that include:

In this last episode of this very special season of the podcast, you will hear stories from our time in Toronto and team reflections from Puerto Rico. As you soak up this offering, we will leave you with these questions as 2023 comes to a close:

See you in 2024!

Episode Notes

Voices heard in this episode:

Feature Orisii interviewees:

Season 5 Host and Producer:

Score credits (all music free to use under Creative Commons Licensing):

This season and the diasporic tour were made possible by our partners and sponsors at The Honey Pot Company, Kindra, Elektra Health and the Groundswell Fund.

For the past four years, the Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause has been a multi-media platform with Reproductive Justice, Black Feminism, and Healing Justice as our north star. At its core, this means we fundamentally believe that none of us are free until all of us are free, and when the most vulnerable of us are taken care of, all of society stands to benefit. BGG2SM unapologetically stands in solidarity with all marginalized people and their struggle for freedom, and their demand of their innate human rights.

Happy World Menopause Month!

This year, the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause has been deepening our intergenerational narrative shift work by co-creating peer learning exchanges to normalize the menopause experience of Black people in the UK, New York, Toronto, and Puerto Rico. We are also co-hosting intergenerational menopause storytelling events called "Orisii" ( "pairs" in Yoruba).

The peer learning and the Orisii dinner are being offered in partnership with community-based women-led organizations. We identified each of these locations because of their strong Black diasporic communities. We have local partners on the ground, or we are seeking to connect with more partners on the ground. In addition to the events we co-host, BGG2SM is documenting our learning during our travels, introducing how each partnering organization works to normalize menopause for Black and Queer communities and sharing stories from participants about their experiences with their bodies, identities, and relationships.

So.... our podcasts in Season 5 will sound a little different. Think if "This American Life" was centering on Black intergenerational menopausal stories.... LET'S GO!

This summer, the BGG2SM team traveled to Harlem, New York, and was blessed to partner with long-time friend and sister of the heart, Ebony Noelle Golden, Founder and CEO of Betty's Daugther Arts Collaborative.

Ebony is a performance artist, scholar, and culture strategist whose work consists of site-specific performance rituals and live art installations that explore relationships between creativity and liberation.

For the last decade, she has collaboratively created site-specific public art performances grounded in authentic community storytelling. Each time, she has felt that those folks who joined herself and her collaborators on their creative journey had been enveloped into the project itself—no longer audience members, but co-conspirators or co-performers.

We had a great time hosting three amazing gatherings for people Global Majority who are living and thriving in New York. These included the Menopausal Multiverse Cocktail Hour, Peer Learning Dinner, and Orisii Intergenerational Dinner using the Say More deck. We were also honored to interview singer, composer, creative, performer, and our Beloved, YahZarah, and her mother Beverly about their memories of their first menstrual cycle, bodily autonomy, agency, and sovereignty.

Themes explored in this episode include:

Voices heard in this episode:

Ebony Noelle Golden, Harlem Community Partner & Founder of Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative

Omisade Burney-Scott, Creator & CCO at the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause

Mona Eltahawy, global feminist & guest at Orisii dinner | featured on Season 2, Episode 5 of the BGG2SM Podcast

Feature Orisii interviewees:

YahZarah, singer, daughter & mother of 1

Ms. Beverly, children's author, former educator & forever mother

Host: Mariah M., Creative Director at the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause

Score credits:

Sunflower by Soyb

Lude Illa by Joe Bagale

Sweet as Honey by Topher Mohr and Alex Elena

All music free to use under Creative Commons Licensing via AudioLibrary

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

Thank you to our partnering sponsors, The Honey Pot Company, Kindra, and Elektra Health for making this leg of the BGG2SM Hits the Road possible!

Next Stop Puerto Rico! Stay Tuned!

www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com

This year, the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause plans to deepen our intergenerational narrative shift work by co-creating peer learning exchanges to normalize the menopause experience of Black people in the UK, New York, Toronto, and Puerto Rico. We are also co-hosting intergenerational menopause storytelling events called "Orisii" ( "pairs" in Yoruba). The peer learning and the Orisii dinner are being offered in partnership with community-based women-led organizations. We identified each of these locations because of their strong Black diasporic communities, we have local partners on the ground, or we are seeking to connect with more partners on the ground. In addition to the events we co-host, BGG2SM is documenting our learning during our travels, introducing how each partnering organization works to normalize menopause for Black and Queer communities and sharing stories from participants about their experiences with their bodies, identities, and relationships. So.... our podcasts in Season 5 will sound a little different. Think if "This American Life" was centering on Black intergenerational menopausal stories.... LET'S GO!

This spring, we traveled to the UK to partner with Karen Arthur, fashion creative, model, menopause advocate, and creator of the UK-based podcast Menopause Whilst Black centering the menopause stories of Black women in the UK. We hosted two intergenerational gatherings, a peer learning dinner with other Black women, femmes, and gender-expansive people engaged in work in the UK focused on women's wellness, gender equity, mental health, menopause, and aging. We also co-hosted our first Orisii (Pairs) intergenerational dinner in St. Leonards-on-Sea (Sussex). Each guest attended a delicious dinner with a special "plus one" guest and was guided through conversations about bodily autonomy, body sovereignty, pleasure, identity, and mental health using the Say More deck.

In this episode, you will hear the beautiful soundscape of....

UK Peer Dinner Guests:

Fay Reid

Anita Powell

Dr. Nneka Nkwokolo

Marcia Jones

Kenya Fairly

Maureen Anderson

Eileen Bellot

Orisii Intergenerational Dinner Participants:

Teresa Adjorlolo

Dorcas Magbadelo

Claudine Eccleston

Kareem Arthur

Maheni Arthur

Our Community Partner:

Karen Arthur

BGG2SM Team Members:

Leigh Reid

Mariah Monsanto

Omisade Burney-Scott

Check out the video on Patreon!

Score Credits:

All music licensed by artlist.io

Ido Maimon - NYC - Instrumental Version

Sémø - Better - Instrumental Version

Yulee - Gotta Love - Instrumental Version

Big Thanks to our sponsors and collaborating partners who made this stop possible, The Honey Pot Company and Kindra!

This year, the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause plans to deepen our intergenerational narrative shift work by co-creating peer learning exchanges to normalize the menopause experience of Black people in the UK, New York, Toronto, and Puerto Rico.  We want to take you all along with us on our Magical Menopausal Multiverse School Bus tour!

In each location, we will also co-host curated intergenerational menopause storytelling events called "Orisii" ( "pairs" in Yoruba). The peer learning and the Orisii dinners are being done in partnership with community-based organizations fulfilling a pre-COVID commitment to center the menopausal lived experiences across the African diaspora.

We will be in the UK this spring, working in partnership with Karen Arthur, fashion creative, model, menopause advocate, and creator of the UK-based podcast Menopause Whilst Black centering the menopause stories of Black women in the UK.  New York is scheduled for this summer, partnering with Ebony Noelle Golden of  Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative, and Luquillo, Puerto Rico is scheduled for this fall, and we will be partnering with Molly Jones of  Love, Soul, Beautiful. We are finalizing our partnership with Toronto native  Michelle Osborne and are looking at September to come to Canada!

Meet our new team member Madylin Nixon-Taplet, founder of Love Önwa Photography, Associate Director of Artist Training for The Beautiful Project and BGG2SM Documentary Creative Advisor:

Madylin started Love Önwa Photography in 2020 in response to losing her job of 13 years, wanting to spend more time indulging in her photography as a love, wanting to advance her artistry, and wanting to develop & grow as an entrepreneur. Their mission is “I Capture Souls and the Magic of Life”. Madylin truly believes that every human on this planet has something beautiful about them, even if they can’t always see that within or for themselves. She shares, "my goal is to show people themselves! Exactly and as beautifully as she sees them".

The name Önwa means moon in Igbo, as Madylin is a child of the moon (Cancer ♋️ Energy). When she photographs, what she presents to the client resonates as a letter that she is writing to their soul. To their experiences. To the beauty, she sees that she wants to be reflected back to them. And so she ends with ~Love Önwa.

STAY TUNED!!

Season 5 and BGG2SM Hits The Road Sponsors Include:

The Honey Pot Company 

Kindra

Elektra Health

We also want to thank our GENEROUS donors:

The Groundswell Fund

Common Counsel Foundation Honeybee Fund

Jeanette Stokes

Episode Details:

Host: Omisade Burney-Scott

Producer: Mariah M.

Podcast Theme Music: Taj Cullen Scott

Send your thoughts, suggestions, questions and more to [email protected]!

Welcome to the O. Estelle Butler Intragalactic Train Station, where all of our Milky Way is always within your reach. Please follow the illuminated paths to the ticket kiosk, your train line, and other needs you may have about the station.

This is Omisade Burney-Scott and welcome to ‘Black Technologies of the Menopausal Multiverse.’ The voices and stories featured in this exhibition include our guests from Season 4 of the Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Menopause and myself. But what exactly are Black Technologies? These are methods, strategies, and formulas those born with uteri have learned and adopted in their lifetime in order to survive, thrive, and move in the fullness of themselves as they navigate the liminal journey of menopause. Some technologies picked up on the way include but are not limited to spiritual practices & embodiment, tarot and other forms of divination, community as praxis, intentional intergenerationally, and the dispelling and exploration of gender and gender roles. Throughout this exhibit, you will hear varying perspectives on womanhood and queerness.

Recap Episode Notes

We want to thank our Season 4 guests:

We also want to thank our team that made this episode possible:

**JJMA featured in this episode is named after Joshua Johnson, the son of an enslaved woman and Baltimore native, who was the first documented Black painter to be paid for their work in the United States. More on Joshua Johnson and his legacy here: http://americanartgallery.org/artist/readmore/id/235

**O. Estelle Butler Intergalactic Train Station is named for our beloved Afrofuturist and speculative fiction oracle Octavia E. Butler

All sounds used in this episode are free to use under the Creative Commons license

Original Theme Music: Taj Cullen Scott

Host: Omisade Burney-Scott

Producer: Mariah M.

Season 4 of the Black Girl's Guide was sponsored by our local NPR station, WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio, and Kindra with whom we created the Say More midlife and menopause discussion deck. 

We'll see you again on the dark side of the moon in 2023! www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com