TW// Mentions of suicide. 

On today's episode of BTWN The Lines with Ogo J. we are sitting down with Akunna Okere, MSW, LSW, founder of A-OK Consulting & Brokering and author of the e-book Maneuvering What Remains After Suicide. After the tragic loss of her friend last summer, Akunna decided to use writing as an outlet for her grief. Using the 7 Stages of Grief, theorized by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, Akunna writes about her experience through each stage and how she was able to move through this loss. In the episode we discuss her experience writing about such a painful tragedy, mental health in a covid-era and different ways that we can cope.

You can shop this book and learn more about the author and the work she does on Instagram @a.okconsulting and the links down below! 

Enjoy

WE’RE BACK with Season 2 of BTWN The Lines with Ogo J.! I am so excited for everything I have in store for you all this season; bigger book discussions, more meet the author interviews and more ways to interact and engage!

For the first episode of the season, I wanted to do kind of an in-depth meet the host, using StrengthsFinder 2.0 from Gallup and Tom Rath to talk about the importance of skills/strengths assessments. StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a strengths assessment popularized first in 2001 after Gallup’s study on employee engagement. The study found that if we focused on developing our strengths rather than improving on our weaknesses we can find extraordinary room for personal and professional growth. The StrengthsFinder 2.0 book comes with a code to take an online assessment that will identify your top 5 strengths, which you can then refer to in the book to learn more about the strength, how you can best use it, and how to work with others who may have that specific strength. This book, along with the Myers-Briggs personality indicator which categorizes your way of perceiving and making decisions into a 4 letter code that indicates your personality, have been huge in my understanding of self and in my professional development. 

In this episode I discuss the importance of strength and skill assessments and I talk to through my top 5 strengths and my Myers-Briggs! Check out the links in the show notes to take your own assessments and let me know some of your strengths and your Myers-Briggs! Enjoy

Happy New Month! On this episode of BTWN The Lines with Ogo J., I am exploring the themes of disenfranchisement and gentrification in The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom. This is Sarah M. Brooms’s highly anticipated debut memoir that follows the story of her family in New Orleans East over the past 100 years. In this book we explore this family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities. Additionally, I used How to Kill a City by P.E. Moskowitz to reference the theme of gentrification and expand on some of the details of policies enacted after Hurricane Katrina. “The Yellow House is a brilliant memoir of place, class, race, the sleeping rot of inequality, and the internalized shame that often follows.”

Shop these books at bookshop.org! 

In this episode of BTWN THE LINES with Ogo J., I explore the fine line between forced monogamy and infidelity using the second half of All My Mother's Lovers by Ilana Masad. Make sure you check out Part 1 wherever you listen to podcasts (link in bio for Spotify and Apple Podcasts!) (103: All My Mother's What??)

Also special shout out to my big sister, this long overdue episode will be dropping on her birthday 9/17! My sister Chidere is a PR and Social Media Marketing Consultant and she was so pivotal in the creation of my podcast page, I am blessed to have a sister that is so talented. She was able get my ideas together and make them look beautiful! Happy Birthday Chidere! Check out her IG at chai_raytv and her youtube page (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFGF98yELXZqV8X4Vu2b3NA) where she posts more great content! 

Make sure to get your copy of All My Mothers Lovers by Ilana Masad from your local bookstore through bookshop.org! 

Like, comment, subscribe and if you've read the book let's hop on live to discuss! 

On this episode of Between the Lines with Ogo J. it’s just me as I talk through my thoughts on the first half of All My Mother’s Lovers ! All My Mother’s Lover’s is the highly anticipated debut novel by writer, essayist and book critic Ilana Masad. This novel tells the story of 27 year-old Maggie Krause who, after the sudden death of her mother, returns home to find letter from her mother addressed to five men. Maggie goes on a journey to hand deliver these letters and uncover a side of her mother she never expected to see. This was an amazingly written and thought-provoking piece of work that speaks to family and love, and gives a narrative to the real and confusing side of our relationships and ourselves.

This episode discusses the first half (pages 1 to 148) of Ilana Masad’s All My Mother’s Lovers. Head to bookshop.org to pick up your copy today! Subscribe and rate Between the Lines with Ogo J. on Apple Podcasts - also check out Between the Lines with Ogo J. on Spotify! Slide into my DMs @btwnthelinespodcast or email me at [email protected] and let me know what you thought of this section!

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Ilana Masad is a queer Israeli-American writer of fiction, nonfiction, and criticism! Check out ilanamasad.com for more information and updates from the author!

#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #blackbookstagrammer #bookclub #blackbookclub #lbtqbook #lgbtqstories #podcast #podcaster #blackpodcaster #allmymotherslovers

On this episode of Between the Lines with Ogo J. it’s just me as I talk through my thoughts on the first half of All My Mother’s Lovers ! All My Mother’s Lover’s is the highly anticipated debut novel by writer, essayist and book critic Ilana Masad. This novel tells the story of 27 year-old Maggie Krause who, after the sudden death of her mother, returns home to find letter from her mother addressed to five men. Maggie goes on a journey to hand deliver these letters and uncover a side of her mother she never expected to see. This was an amazingly written and thought-provoking piece of work that speaks to family and love, and gives a narrative to the real and confusing side of our relationships and ourselves.

This episode discusses the first half (pages 1 to 148) of Ilana Masad’s All My Mother’s Lovers. Head to bookshop.org to pick up your copy today! Subscribe and rate Between the Lines with Ogo J. on Apple Podcasts - also check out Between the Lines with Ogo J. on Spotify! Slide into my DMs @btwnthelinespodcast or email me at [email protected] and let me know what you thought of this section!

--

Ilana Masad is a queer Israeli-American writer of fiction, nonfiction, and criticism! Check out ilanamasad.com for more information and updates from the author! 

#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #blackbookstagrammer #bookclub #blackbookclub #lbtqbook #lgbtqstories #podcast #podcaster #blackpodcaster #allmymotherslovers

In the spirit of sustaining black relationships through times of intense conflict, I thought it would be a good idea to talk through some of the ideas in Chapter 8 of bell hooks' We Real Cool entitled "Doing the Work of Love." This chapter reminds us that combating racism by itself is not the key to sustaining black relationships (all kinds of relationships), we should also focus on combating patriarchal operating models that insist that males are inherently dominating. This chapter breaks down what hinders the vulnerability needed to cultivate positive and fulfilling relationships and ways that black men and black women can better support each other. 

We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity by bell hooks pdf: https://theindigenist.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/we-real-cool_black-men-masculinity-by-bell-hooks.pdf