When life under domination is all you've known, how do you resist?

In the last episode of our first season, Brendane discusses surrendering to change. We are in a collective, global transition that promises to leave us different than how we began. Change and transition can be scary. In these times, we can choose to live in denial and refuse to acknowledge change, or we can surrender to change with power and righteous certainty. 

To help us understand how to resist even in times of total domination, we turn to June Jordan’s wisdom in "Notes Toward a Model of Resistance" (1996). Content warning: There are mentions of rape at 19:28-21:25 and 38:30-40:04. Note that there are no descriptions of rape in the episode. Please take care while listening.

We end with questions for compassionate reflection that help us embrace the change necessary for our survival.

Share this episode with someone who needs some encouragement during these moments of transition.

We’ll be back for season 2 in the fall! Keep up with us on our Substack: black. loved. free. - behind the mic. There Brendane will share weekly updates on the research and writing for season 2 along with other exclusive content.

You can support the podcast by donating or giving us a 5-star rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Follow us on Instagram at blacklovedandfree.  

Got an idea for a future episode of the podcast? Want to give us feedback? Send an email to [email protected]

Happy Juneteenth!

We wouldn't be a podcast dedicated to Black liberation if we didn't have a Juneteenth episode. This week we are asserting that abolition is the only way. First, Brendane defines abolition and talks about the spiritual side of freedom work. She talks about her own radical Black feminist abolitionist practice She also talks a little bit about how some of these Black queer feminists don't be about community but claim to be abolitionists. (TLDR: if your abolitionist politics prioritize those with race, gender, and class privilege, then you probably are doing carceral politics by another name). Finally, we end with some questions to reflect on our own abolitionist practices.

Follow us on Instagram at @/blacklovedandfree. Visit our website blacklovedandfreepodcast.com to learn more about the podcast & the team.

“She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them.” 

-Zora Neale Hurston

There can be no liberation without a commitment to living. 

It’s Gemini season, and life (with all of its chaos and beauty) abounds! In today’s episode, We begin with a recognition that this tropical Gemini new moon brought some clarity with its heaviness. Then Brendane sits with Amber Starks, aka Melanin Mvskoke, to discuss a Black feminist spiritual-political commitment to living. This commitment includes celebration–Brendane turned 31 on Monday–and dedication to honoring oneself and one’s ancestral inheritances. As you listen, may you remember that your life is an ancestral inheritance. You were brought here for this moment, as you are, to live well. Self-compassion and self-forgiveness are essential to surrendering to life, as they allow us to find self-love in moments of imperfection. A recognition of one’s "inside and outside" is necessary to persist in times of chaos, famine, drought, and abundance. Who and what will you hold close as you fight, love, and rest for your life? Tune in now to hear more!

Amber Starks (aka Melanin Mvskoke) is an Afro Indigenous (African-American and Native American) advocate, organizer, cultural critic, decolonial theorist, and budding abolitionist. She is an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and is also of Shawnee, Yuchi, Quapaw, and Cherokee descent. Her passion is the intersection of Black and Native American identity. Her activism seeks to normalize, affirm, and uplift the multidimensional identities of Black and Native peoples through discourse and advocacy around anti-Blackness, abolishing blood quantum, Black liberation, and Indigenous sovereignty. She hopes to encourage Black and Indigenous peoples to prioritize one another and divest from compartmentalizing struggles. She ultimately believes the partnerships between Black and Indigenous peoples (and all POC) will aid in the dismantling of anti-blackness, white supremacy, and settler colonialism, globally. She earned a Bachelor’s of Science in General Science (emphasis in Biology and Anthropology) from the University of Oregon.Her pronouns are she/her.

You can find Amber on Instagram and Twitter @MelaninMvskoke ! Find out more information about the podcast at blacklovedandfreepodcast.com. Donate to the podcast here.

There can be no revolution without love.

After an unintended break, we are back with the second episode on love. This week, Brendane discusses the role of sacrifice in revolutionary love by way of Joy James's In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love: Precarity, Power, and Communities. We then move to defining a Black feminist self-love through June Jordan's essay "Where is the Love?" This self-love is a mandatory prerequisite for revolutionary love and a major component of any Black liberation work. Finally, Brendane pulls some cards and gives a collective reading. She asks: "What are we willing to give to bring about the world we wish to see?"

Listen now and tell us what you think!  Follow us on Instagram at @blacklovedandfree or write to us at [email protected].

You can find more information about this episode and links to donate on blacklovedandfreepodcast.com.

There can be no freedom without love. 

Blame the lateness of this episode on Mx Merc and her extra-tight microbraids! 

This week’s episode is a little different. In part 1 of Surrendering to Love, we begin with an interlude where Brendane shares about her experience recently discovering an ex’s betrayal and how that moment signaled some spiritual growth. TLDR: Being ghosted was a blessing, not a curse. (If you are not interested in the tea, skip to 26:32.)

Then we listen to Brendane and her guest/friend/kin Jonathan discuss the power of loving friendships and navigating life & (self) love as Black queer neuroexpansive people with the support of bell hooks’s All About Love. This episode is full of laughter, jokes, and truth, so be sure to tune in!

Brendane and Jonathan also created a playlist on Apple Music for this episode. Give it a listen and let us know what song you would add! 

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/black-loved-free-podcast/pl.u-Ymb09Kmfg18xd3

Jonathan Hill-Rorie (he/him/his) is a Black queer, neuro expansive, Southerner from North Carolina. He grew up as the eldest child to teen parents in a large, multigenerational family initially from various parts of the state. He has lived in Boston (hell) and currently resides in Philadelphia with his partner and dog-son. His passions are music, dancing, superheroes, pets, and his friends. 

He is committed to the end of this world and to building community to carry us through to the next one. This commitment is rooted in the love of his people and the desire to see them boundless and free.  

You can find Jonathan on IG at @mileswhorales.

Visit our website blacklovedandfreepodcast.com for exclusive content related to the episode.

If you'd like to submit a question for a reading on the podcast, please email us at [email protected].

There is no freedom without power.

We are back with a special guest/cousin/kin, Tenisha, to discuss surrendering to spirit. We talk about our exploring our spiritual power & purpose, our spiritual paths & gifts, loving ourselves, realigning to the truth that we are already free, and more! Through their spiritual practice and vulnerability, Tenisha poignantly teaches us that the pursuit of liberation is not the pursuit of a new thing, but rather a realignment to the truth. Listen now to learn more!

You can find Tenisha on Instagram at @itsjusttenisha or @theenglishway_doc.

Support the podcast by leaving a 5-star rating and review. You can also support by donating to the podcast at blacklovedandfreepodcast.com.

This week Brendane is byke to talk about death. In this long-awaited episode, we wade through European and non-European schools of thought to create a Black feminist spiritual-political definition of Death/death and Life/life. (Death ain’t the end, y’all. It’s a new beginning.) We explore the testimony of Sharon P. Holland's Raising the Dead: Readings of Death and (Black) Subjectivity and Audre Lorde's The Cancer Journals. In our Living in Alignment segment, we have our first listener reading for C. Thank you for being willing and vulnerable. Finally, we end with some questions for compassionate self-reflection. 

Share this episode with a friend who’s been through a tough winter. Encourage them that death always leads to a new beginning. 

Follow the podcast on Instagram @blacklovedandfree. Visit our website blacklovedandfreepodcast.com to donate.

We must be deliberate and unafraid.

Brendane is back this week to talk about the Black feminist practice of surrendering fear. We start by offering a colonial definition of fear as a colonial practice rooted in oppression that lives in our bodies. Then, we listen to the testimony of Audre Lorde, aka Gamba Adisa, to learn how to transform fear--and the silence produced by fear--into language and action. In the last segment, Brendane discusses internalized white supremacy in our movements and why simply calling for a "ceasefire" or "Free [insert nation-state here]" will never be enough to bring about the world we wish to see.

There is no freedom without healing and truth.

In our first episode of the season, we learn about this season’s theme of surrender. We start by offering a spiritual-political definition of Black feminist surrender, a move of power that allows us to choose what we surrender to. We apply the wisdom of bell hooks's sisters of the yam: black women and self-recovery to unpack what we must surrender to—the truth. Brendane shares the truth of what brought her to this podcast. In the last segment, we discuss Megan thee Stallion’s Cobra and Hiss as examples of Black feminist surrender and empowered vulnerability.

Content Warning [26:16- 32:25]: This episode contains references of interpersonal violence. Please listen with care.

We would like to thank Mayyadda, The People’s Psalmist, for allowing us to use On My Way for our title theme.

"Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well?Just so’s you’re sure, sweetheart, and ready to be healed, cause wholeness is no trifling matter. A lot of weight when you’re well.” - Toni Cade Bambara, The Salt Eaters

Welcome to black. loved. free., a podcast dedicated to Black spirituality, healing, and Black liberation! Join the host Brendane biweekly as we affirm ourselves and our ancestral traditions. Together we will explore what it means to be black, loved, and free through Black feminist theory and collective wisdom.

Follow us on Instagram @blacklovedandfree.

Title theme: Mayyadda, On My Way.