We sit down with fellow dancers Darian Patterson and Divine Maharaj for a difficult yet necessary discussion on the Black Lives Matter movement. We have a casual yet candid discussion on the recent tragedy of George Floyd, growing up Black, and experiencing racism in 2020.  Our guests share insight on setting intentions, resources for educating yourself, and taking action to help propel the Black Lives Matter movement. Despite the dire situation propelled by current events, we discuss the positivity in the community and share hopes for a better future. 

In this episode, we explore: 

00:37 Introduction

02:34 Life interrupted: How this has affected Darian & Divine

06:30 Momentum in the Black Lives Movement: It’s Time for Change 

07:51 Experiencing racism in 2020

13:22 Organizations, petitions, and other actionable recommendations from Darian & Divine (links included below)

23:07 Unlearning and Relearning: Resources to educate ourselves.  Recommendations from Darian & Divine (links below)

25:20 Taking action and starting the discussion

34:33 Call to Action for our listeners! Check your intentions

36:14 What’s the right way to support the BLM movement?

44:07 Don’t just talk about it… be about it

45:16 Highlighting positivity in our communities and hope for a better future. 

49:34 Dancing in quarantine

51:38 Closing Remarks

The conversation continues on all of our social platforms…

• Follow Darian Patterson on Instagram @dairyyawn
• Follow Divine Maharaj on Instagram @divinefaithh
• Follow us on Instagram @colabpodcast 
• Subscribe to our channel on YouTube Co-Lab Podcast
• Visit our website www.co-labpodcast.com 
• Follow us on TikTok @colabpodcast

Special thanks to Jane Banares for creating our "Co-Lab" Podcast Artwork

Search for and sign the petitions discussed in this episode. Change.org has created a section specifically for Black Lives Matter petitions:

https://www.change.org/t/black-lives-matter-en-us?source_location=discover_feed

Learn more about: 

• National Police Accountability Project https://www.nlg-npap.org/
• Black Visions Collective https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/
• Campaign Zero https://www.joincampaignzero.org/
• The Innocence Project https://www.innocenceproject.org/about/

Support local Black owned Businesses: 

• San Diego, CA: https://localemagazine.com/san-diego-black-owned-businesses/
• Washington,DC: https://washington.org/visit-dc/black-chefs-restaurants

Darian’s Google Doc of resources can be found here: 

https://www.instagram.com/dairyyawn/ 

Book recommendations: 

• “White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo
• “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America” by Richard Rothstein

Documentary recommendations: 

• “13th” available on Netflix
• “When They See Us” available on Netflix
• “12 Years a Slave” available on Amazon Prime and iTunes
• “Just Mercy” available on Amazon Prime