Essah's Way

Episode 097. Cindy Park Jun reveals the importance of meaningful education and how travel has encouraged her to evolve her tutoring company.

Cindy Park Jun is a traveling teacherpreneur planning for her next big adventure. In 2019, she founded C & C Education, a private tutoring service for individual or group of students.

Episode 096. Lenis Mariana discute sobre su evolución en la maternidad y cómo las mujeres de su tribu la han inspirado para ser una trabajadora comunitaria.

Lenis Mariana, es una mujer afrotaína que vive en Nueva York. Nació en Carolina, Puerto Rico y creció en Loíza. Es trabajadora comunitaria, tejedora y artesana. Ha colaborado con varios proyectos y organizaciones en Puerto Rico, incluyendo el #TurbanteoConsciente. Actualmente trabaja con el componente de enlace comunitario en un programa llamado “Power of Two”, donde se brinda apoyo a las familias con niñxs de 6-24 meses que residen en los lugares más empobrecidos de la ciudad de Nueva York. También es “parent coach” con especialidad en “toddlers” para continuar trabajando en el mismo programa. Es una madre joven y soñadora a quien le encanta danzar sus alegrías y penas; así deja la vida volar.

Episode 095. Anana Johari Harris enlightens us about the revolutionary benefits of strategic self-care.

Anana Johari Harris is the founder and CEO of the Self Care Agency, LLC where she operates as the lead Strategic Business & Self Care Consultant Program Designer as well as the founder of the SisterCARE Alliance. She is also the founder of non-profit initiatives like the AfriSalsa Cultural Organization and the Self Care Day Campaign.  

https://www.selfcareagency.com

Episode 094. Opal Palmer Adisa illuminates the experiences that allow her to find her voice, embrace her gifts, and raise awareness about gender and development.

Opal Palmer Adisa is an award-winning poet and prose writer with over sixteen titles to her credit, including the novel, It Begins With Tears (1997), which Rick Ayers proclaimed as one of the most motivational works for young adults. Following in the tradition of the African “griot” Opal Palmer Adisa, an accomplished storyteller, commands the mastery and extraordinary talent of storytelling, exemplary of her predecessors. Through her imaginative characterizations of people, places and things, she is able to transport her listeners to the very wonderlands she creates.

www.opalpalmeradisa.com

Episode 093. Essah Cozett celebrates her recent accomplishments, reflects on her journey, and reads a poem by Aracelis Girmay.

Episode 092. Robert Gibbons opens up about his journey from a small town in Florida to life in New York where he has evolved into an amazing poet, educator, and creative.

Robert Gibbons, a native Floridian, came to New York City in 2007 in search of his muse Langston Hughes and found a vibrant contemporary poetry community at the Cornelia Street Cafe, the Green Pavilion, Nomad's Choir, Brownstone Poets, Hydrogen Juke Box, Saturn Series, and Phoenix among other venues. His first book, Close to the Tree, was published by the New York-based Three Rooms Press in 2012. Robert currently worked as a Literature Professor at the City College of New York. He is a Cave Canem Fellow (2019-2021) and has received residencies from the Norman Mailer Foundation (2017) and the DISQUIET International Literary Program (2018). In 2018 he completed his MFA at City College. Robert has been published in over thirty literary magazines and in several notable anthologies. Recent publication credits include Expound, Promethean, Turtle Island Quarterly, Killer Whale, and Suisun Valley Review, and the forthcoming Bronx Memoir Project: Vol. 2 published by the Bronx Council of the Arts. Robert lives in Brooklyn and continues to be active in the New York poetry scene. Flight is his second poetry collection.

Episode 091. Aaron El Sabrout acknowledges his diverse upbringing which has enlightened him to be an outstanding poet, illustrator, and activist.

Aaron El Sabrout is a transgender alien living on unceded Stz'uminus territory. He is a writer, artist, activist, and permaculture gardener. He is an Obsidian Fellow, and his work has been published or is forthcoming in Mud Season Review, Texas Poetry Review, and the Malahat Review, among others. His work has also appeared in the We Want It All: A Radical Anthology of Trans Poetics and BreakBeat Poets vol. 3: Halal If you Hear Me.

Check out his socials below:

https://aaronelsabrout.myportfolio.com

https://instagram.com/toreachpoise

https://mastodon.art/@toreachpoise

https://eldritch.cafe/@sayyid_qishta

https://bit.ly/lunar-phase

Episode 090. Len Lawson discusses the value of Afrofuturism, community, and finding your voice as a poet.

Len Lawson is the author of Chime (Get Fresh Books, 2019) and the chapbook Before the Night Wakes You (Finishing Line Press, 2017). He is also co-editor of Hand in Hand: Poets Respond to Race (Muddy Ford Press, 2017) and The Future of Black: Afrofuturism and Black Comics Poetry (Blair Press, 2021). His poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He has received fellowships from Callaloo, Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Obsidian Foundation, and others. His poetry appears in African American Review, Callaloo, Mississippi Review, Ninth Letter, Verse Daily, Yemassee, and elsewhere. Len is also a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature and Criticism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, earning the 2020 IUP Outstanding Doctoral Student Award. He has taught English in South Carolina higher education for over ten years.

http://www.lenlawson.co

Episode 089. Essah Cozett reveals the importance of embracing her journey and not the final destination.

Essah Cozett is a Liberian-American poet from Georgia. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. Her poems have been published in several print and online publications, including Obsidian Lit, Jalada Africa, Penumbra Online, BIM, Peepal Tree Press, PREE Lit, Moko Magazine, and Odradek.

Episode 088. Isabelle Baafi reveals poetic echoes and how intricate experiences allow her to explore expression in various ways.

Isabelle Baafi is a writer and poet from London. She was the winner of the 2019 Vincent Cooper Literary Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2020 Bridport Prize and the 2019 Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition. Her work has been published in Poetry Review, Magma, Anthropocene, Finished Creatures, Lammergeier, petrichor, Tentacular, harana poetry, and elsewhere. She is an Editor at Magma. Her debut pamphlet Ripe (2020) was recently published by ignitionpress.