Equity Rising

“I want people to know that they can be the spark to make change happen…” says Olushola Bolonduro, “...wherever they’re at.” Co-Founder of Pink Umbrella Society and active participant in many other local organizations, Shola chats with Trae about what it’s like to be a fresh protester and activist on the streets in a county that does not host a diverse population.

As someone with a few intersecting identities themself, Shola was born of two Nigerian immigrant parents who eventually made their way to Washington state. Now living in Everett as a queer 20-something, Shola was activated by the summer protests of 2020 and quickly saw a gap in social activism in Snohomish County. Starting with their own community, Shola took it upon themself to make change.

You can follow Shola on their Instagram and reach out to them at SnoPoCANN’s website to get engaged in their work. Give Pink Umbrella a follow and engage with their work on Instagram and Facebook.

Thanks to Shola’s friend, Nicoli Dominn, for the comprehensive and stunning Chime-In to our final episode of Equity Rising Season 2.

From YMCA to United Way, from his own life to the lives of today's youth in Spokane, WA, Charles Williams builds and maintains youth programs and youth community with the intent of creating access to opportunities, access to success, and access to full, rich lives. His current role as a Youth Gang Intervention Project Coordinator is with NorthEast Washington Educational Service District 101.

In this very intimate and raw conversation, Charles shares with Trae his own road and his own vulnerability as a Black man in this space, and we learn how true it is that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution.

You can reach out to Charles at his email [email protected] or through his program's website.

Charles's longtime friend Janice Medlock—from his local church community—gives us an intro for this episode, touching on how he shows up musically, as a mentor, and more.

After losing both his parents to the crack cocaine epidemic, Tacoma-native Faraji Blakeney grew up inside a foster care system that did not care for him. After three incarcerations, he was fortunate to find yoga and mindfulness inside the prison system, and it changed his life.

Faraji and Trae talk about the equity work he's doing with Black Prisoners Caucus and also with Yoga is for Everyone, an organization working to bring the benefits of yoga and mindfulness to elementary aged kids in Pierce County.

You can find Faraji on Instagram at @aumthegod; you may also reach out to him at [email protected].

Yoga Behind Bars instructor Christine List—an early influence on Faraji's yoga and mindfulness path—gives us this week's Chime In introduction, highlighting Faraji's dedication to yoga, and to himself.

We urge everyone to learn more about Yoga Behind Bars and support their truly transformative work.

As a diversity, equity, and inclusive professional and IT analyst at one of Seattle's largest retailers, Heru Tchaas Amen is actively working to create, expand, and sustain high-level director and C-suite opportunities for Black people and other people of color.

With a full beard, long locks, and an Afrocentric wardrobe, Heru doesn't show up as your typical IT guy—and that's by design. "That became an asset," he tells Trae as he describes how looking differently, thinking differently, acting differently, and advocating for solutions and activations that go against the white, male norm has been a hallmark of his success.

This week's Chime In comes from Heru's collaborator Samut Abata and gives us more insight into the work that they do separately and together in the realm of spiritual and physical wellness. Visit Heru's coaching, teaching, wellness site for more on that aspect of his equity work.

Union organizer and cannabis researcher, columnist, and consultant Cody Funderburk works to leverage the strength of many to push back on the few: the white- and male-owned structures of the cannabis industry.

Cody can talk terpenes, cannabinoids, and deep cannabis research with the best of them, but this important conversation centers on current and very important movements happening in Seattle around cannabis workers.

We urge all those who partake in cannabis and/or those who are watching as issues arise and become more known to visit Cody's site and learn more about their work.

You should also check out Ponder, where Cody works with Black and BIPOC people as well as queer, trans, and non-binary people to create an equitable and expansive cannabis marketplace.

In lieu of a Chime-In today, we're asking YOU to chime in and use your voice for change, for equity, and for workers.

Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben ... Black Americans have long been used to market products, but until recently they've almost always been missing from positive and engaging storylines in movies and on TV. Delbert Richardson tracked this as a young man in the 1960s and 70s and as he used those ideas to guide his studies at the University of Washington, he also began collecting artifacts of Blackness from popular culture and other pockets of society.

His collections have been rolled into a traveling museum called The Unspoken Truths that he uses to connect with kids, corporations, community groups, and others around the underrepresented and hidden stories of America. In today's episode, Trae and Delbert get into an engaging conversation around where we're going and where we've been—and how we can be ever more mindful about the narratives, and who gets to own and control them.

Learn more about Delbert and his Unspoken Truths work.

Donald Felder, a much-respected former Seattle teacher and principal who now facilitates race-related trainings and works in education reform, gave us this week's beautiful and inspiring Chime-In. You can read more about Dr. Felder in this King 5 report.

Rainier Valley Leadership Academy is a public, tuition-free, anti-racist collaborative community school in South Seattle where sixth to twelfth grade students—here they're called "scholars"—are supported on their path to college, leadership, and life.

RVLA CEO, president, mother, and lifelong Central District resident Baionne Coleman talks to Trae about building big systems, regenerative fundraising, keeping that money in the community, and, truly, the future.

Find out more about Rainier Valley Leadership Academy.

In this week's Chime In, Dr. Maxine Mimms, a former teacher and national consultant in curriculum design and instructional methods, says Baionne's biggest strength is listening—because from there she can do anything. Learn more about Maxine Mimms Academies.

“I’m a Langston baby. I grew up coming in and out of that space,” says Jazmyn Scott, referring to Seattle’s historic Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. Now, as the director of programs and partnerships for Langston, the non-profit arts org that leads programming for the larger organization, Jazmyn is continuing a life embedded in Black arts and culture and ensuring that others have that same access.

Trae and Jazmyn talk about coming up in a family of radio-makers, creatives, and movement organizers and what it takes to program and produce a Black arts institute in such a way that pays that lineage back, and forward.

You can find out more about Langston and their offerings and check out their offshoot, the Black Film Festival.

This week’s Chime In is especially personal; Jazmyn’s mom, Vivian Phillips (herself a venerated arts, culture, and media leader), introduces her daughter by way of an idea she sees so clearly in her: “serve your people first.” Vivian co-hosts a podcast called DoubleXposure and runs an arts platform called Art Noir. 

In the 2020 elections, six Black women were elected to the Washington State Legislature—tripling the Black female voice in this sector. Rep KHT (as she is known) was elected by the 37th District, which encompasses many Black communities inside Renton, Skyway, and SE Seattle.

In kicking off her legislative career during the pandemic, this lifelong organizer and activist worked smartly alongside her constituents to turn quarantine restrictions into a tool they could use. In EPISODE FOUR, Rep KHT tells Trae how the state's virtual sessions allowed her be more directly in communication with those she serves—and to leave lobbyists out cold.

This episode is a celebration of Harris-Talley's personal strapline: "working to take action with neighbors."

Learn more on Rep KHT's site, and follow along with her on Instagram and Facebook.

King County Equity Now chief of staff and mother, grandmother, and community pillar Emijah Smith provides our Chime In introduction this week. You can watch Emijah in a video conversation with the Seattle Community Police Commission about the future of public safety in Seattle.

“It just so happens that the family business is Black liberation,” photographer and filmmaker Inye Wokoma tells Trae in EPISODE THREE of EQUITY RISING. Inye and three other Seattle artists founded Wa Na Wari in 2019, inside a Central District neighborhood home that once belonged to his grandparents. The location, and the generational history, is key to understanding what this important and imaginative arts organization is all about: “reclaiming Black cultural spaces and making a statement about the importance of Black land ownership in gentrified communities.” 

Trae and Inye talk about arts as an engine of change, the specific goals and gifts of Wa Na Wari, and the land reclamation movement through an “open source” lens.  

Learn more about Wa Na Wari and their events and current exhibits. You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram. 

Visit Inye’s personal art website. 

Seattle musician Bubba Jones provides a beautiful Chime-In this week, reflecting on his lifelong friend’s ability to put an idea into the world, and then actually bring that idea into action.