For this podcast, I get into...

Cracks: I have been FEELING Janelle Monáe's new album, "The Age of Pleasure"-- it has it all... summer vibes, the absence of the male/white gaze, juicy queerness, sovereign sexiness, joy, pleasure (of course!), and crushing on oneself with ZERO apologies~~!!! When's the last time you had a crush on yourself, for yourself and nobody else? What were you wearing? How was your hair? Do more of that!

Cement: How legit oppression that has occurred to a white-bodied occupier who has been conditioned as a girl/woman can be dangerous as hell in this white supremacy system.

While attending a recent environmental law conference, I noticed the importance of Accountability among occupier white folks. Take a listen!

white ppl, we need to:

feel,

acknowledge,

grieve,

apologize, and

let go of

W.S. culture

again and

again and

again and

again...

For  this new Cracks episode, I share my journey of stepping into my embodied, empowered self as nonbinary, transmasculine-leaning (feel free to imagine me singing a made-up joy tune “it feels so good to be Me~~  yeah yeah yeah~~!"). If you have kids in your life, I hope you listen to  this episode. <3

When we squish the magic of our and other's sacred masculine/feminine balance, we nearly halt the evolution of humankind. That isn't hyperbole, folks. 

For this episode, I reflect on how white guilt (and regret and shame) is a healthy reaction when a white person first learns the ways in which they have caused harm and contributed to a super f-ed up system 

+ what might be some reasons white guilt can get stuck and amass 

+ how that potentially blocks progress on the path towards dismantling white supremacy

Thank you so much for listening!

You can share your thoughts with me here: https://forms.gle/R6mjUFDWquAmHduP7

For this podcast episode, I noodle on how ideas of self-empowerment can show up as individualism (separation from others), as compared to sovereign beingness (connection with others), and the importance of noticing when my anger at white supremacy and the male gaze is actually anger at myself for assimilating and contorting to the male gaze for financial security. I realize a major aspect of sovereign beingness is taking responsibility for one's self. This is super big stuff! 

Relatedly, I am cutting most of my hair off this Thursday! Does the idea of that scare the poopy out of you, in a mirror neuron sort of way? If so, why do you think that is? 

As an antidote to white supremacy, let's ride the waves of what the dark season has to offer us. What does it feel like in your body to imagine settling and surrendering into the dark, rich, liminal void of self-reflection with the intention of letting go of white supremacy? In the dark shadows of You, what aspects of your Self no longer serve you, and what parts of you that got squashed by dominant culture wants to come out into the light? As we reflect on these things this fall/winter season, I invite you to hone your "north star," that which guides you every step of the way as we imagine new culture and ways of Being!  

Erin Bruce: https://www.theseasonalsoul.com/author/erin/

Aspects of white culture -- go here: https://www.riseup-rooted.com/cracks-in-the-cement-episode-1-resource/

Share your thoughts with me here: https://forms.gle/3MKJnH7vacBs7mFt5

This Cracks in the Cement episode explores the ways in which white colonizer settler culture insists we ignore context (relationships, multi-dimensionality, who we are, how are our day is going, the weather, the place we sit/stand, what happened on our walk over, how well we slept last night, our astrological tendencies, ... and on and on) and pretend we are individuals, and that aspects of Earth and Life can be looked at as if they exist outside of the web of life. And there's some stuff about how that way of being was invented by a scared man seeking safety and predictability, Thomas Hobbes. And also some stuff about taking responsibility for following social rules that enable Hobbes's system of separation, oppression, and control. Punchline: Sloooow down and get high on context.......... WOOHOO!

Books referenced (two of my favs)

Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, by Tyson Yunkaporta

America's Unholy Ghosts: The Racist Roots of Our Faith and Politics, by Joel Edward Goza

Join the convo: https://forms.gle/moEEcgvWZqgJnDsj7

For episode 6 of Cracks, we'll talk about how colonizer/settler/white supremacy culture seeks to contain and control our minds, bodies, and souls. We'll get energized about our relationship to color and gender and how they intersect and offer endless opportunities to sprout our soul selves from the cracks in the cement. Woohoo~!!!

Queerness in this context, for me, is my dwelling outside of the binary boxes created to control me. It's feeling into who I truly am without subscribing to fear-based societal containments. It's stepping out of the absurd obsession with putting rules on how we're supposed to be and present in the world. Feeling into the spectrums are where the magic and beautiful power lie~~!!! Remember as a kid we'd say "Let's go outside to play!" Well, I'm saying that now-- get out of those boxes and come out and play!!!!! 

Books mentioned: 

The Invention of Women, by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí (I heard about it from Alok Vaid-Menon- https://www.alokvmenon.com/)

Chromophobia, by David Batchelor

If you want to join the conversation (please do!): https://forms.gle/fXjuNfAms9VVUpM49

For episode 5, I talk about a truly magical alternative to individualistic I-am-an-island way of being: flow pairs-- getting into a state of creative explosions and growth with another human. So fricking awesome! 

Book referenced: "Sand Talk," by Tyson Yunkaporta

You can share your thoughts here. Thank you!

In this episode, I share a bit about how I ended up focusing on colonizer/white supremacy culture, and how that work brought me to a place of developing awareness of multidimensional and plant/tree beings. I had no idea that would happen! So literally AWESOME!!!