Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week on the podcast returning guest, Baze Mpinja takes us nearly five years to the datte on a flashback forward journey to her new now as a podcaster and Phoenician. Her new podcast, Reflections with Baze Mpinja comes at a time when she’s now caling one of her childhood hometowns home again and she’s finding a new sense of home in the work of translating an transcribing a career in beauty into a new platform. She describes Adaptability as her superpower. She’s navigated startup-style multicultural magazines, national media powerhouses, and the creative side of theatrical advertising. Along the way, She’s honed the ability to dive into unfamiliar topics, collaborate cross-functionally, deliver clean, accurate work on tight deadlines, and tailor my writing to resonate with diverse audiences.

As a project-based writer and strategist, brands trust her to shape their voice, develop storytelling strategies, create compelling branded content , and craft executive communications. Her latest project, Reflections with Baze Mpinja is a sharp, witty podcast that holds up a mirror to beauty and society—exploring what’s beautiful, complex, and everything in between. The show goes beyond trends and product talk to unpack how beauty shows up in pop culture, sports, media, and everyday life. Listen and learn more about how we’re both navigating the wide world of podcasting!

Where to find Baze and Reflections?

What’s Baze reading, watching and listening to?

Other topics of interest:

Special Guest: Baze Mpinja.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

As part of my thought gathering and as five years of storytelling with dynamic diasporans becomes six, this week's compilation is a reflection on visionary entrepreneurs doing essential work improving food systems, as stewards of earth’s abundant resources, and by building and delivering value to communities. Each of these guests - Luther Lawoyin, founder and CEO of Pricepally in Nigeria; Nana Opoku Ageyman-Prempeh, CEO of Grow For Me in Ghana; Wellington Baiden, CEO of Portal Forest Estates also in Ghana; and Asmeret Berhe-Lumax, founder of the One Love Community Fridge Project in the US, engages daily with the realities of the global challenges we are all facing - the availability and access to affordable, quality food; improving the livelihoods of those that deliver that food; and planning the land for the long haul.

The great thing about each of their entgerprises is that they are all growing and going strong with mission critical works, AND you can help ensure their continued success with your time, investment and/or donations.

Revist the full episodes with links to how to engage with each guest here:

Special Guests: Asmeret Berhe-Lumax, Luther Lawoyin, Nana Opuku Agyeman-Prempeh, and Wellington Baiden.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

Last week, Ghana lost another living legend, the first lady of the 4th Republic, Madam Nana Konadu Ageyman Rawlings. As we mourn this loss, I can’t help but to take note of how 2025 has been a year punctuated with transitions of many of Ghana’s cultural icons as well as civic leaders--all passionate about not only their crafts, but forward movement, Ghana’s progress. I invited my guest this week to join me in conversation particularly because of how her craft, her passion and her lineage converge in a story that is and will continue to make an impact on arts, culture and economic development in Ghana and beyond.

Ghanaian-American, Aretha Amma Sarfo-Kantanka is an accomplished global branding professional who has been instrumental in driving retail sales via innovative retail marketing and branding campaigns juxtaposing the fashion and music industry.

In 1998, Aretha launched VISIONS Entertainment & Publicity in New York City with a client roster inclusive of: fashion brands, designers, actors, artists, publications and more. She has created and managed numerous cross-promotional marketing and branding campaigns, from concept to execution, for record labels such as: Interscope, DreamWorks, Sony/Columbia, Island/Def Jam, Arista and Atlantic Records.

Aretha also served as coordinator and panelist for the launch of Fashion Forum Africa’s talk series on the business of fashion in Africa. Aretha has written for publications such as: New York based Applause Africa, MIA Magazine and Berlin, Germany based - POP Magazine covering global pop music and culture.

In 2023, Aretha curated Culture Curators: Hip Hop 50 at the National Museum of Ghana, the first of its kind exhibition at the museum that celebrated Ghana’s Diaspora connection thru music in a series of talks, films and one of a kind memorabilia items and commissioned art, along with bringing A/R technology to the museum for the first time in collaboration with The San Diego African-American Museum of Fine Art. 2024 sets the stage to honor and tell the story of Ghana’s unique modern music of Hip Life in celebrating its 30th anniversary so there is much, much more to come for this dynamic diasporan!

Where to find Aretha?

What’s Aretha cooking?

Other topics of interest:

Special Guest: Aretha Amma Sarfo-Kantanka.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week’s encore episode is a timely flashbackconnection with my guest, the Soul Food Scholar, Adrian Miller. Adrian and I went to primary and secondary school in the same school district—Denver Public Schools, and we also both attended Stanford University. I selected this episode to revisit this week because it represents two locals that have been integral to my global self. I’ve just arrived in Colorado from my undergraduate homecoming reunion weekend in California at Stanford University. What a time was had! And more on that later!

Adrian, known as the Soul Food Scholar, is an award-winning food writer, attorney, and certified barbecue judge. His latest book, Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History: Cooking to the President’s Taste, is the first-ever history of the many chefs of Asian heritage who have prepared meals for the president. Two of his books, his first in 2014 Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time and his 2022 Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue are the James Beard Foundation Award for Reference, History, and Scholarship winners. His second book, The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, From the Washingtons to the Obamas was a finalist for a 2018 NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction.” He is also featured in the Netflix hit docus-eries, High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America. In addition to his writing and speaking engagements, he is the executive director of the Colorado Councitl of Churches and, as such, is the first African American, and the first layperson, to hold that position.

Along with fascinating anecdotes about foods common on three sides of the Atlantic Ocean, you'll get a sense of how this lawyer by training found himself on a career path in service not only to his dreams, but to the uncovering, elevation and preservation of narratives about culture defining foods and food practices.

Where to find Adrian?

Special Guest: Adrian Miller.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week’s conversation dovetails themes that have become very present in my perspectives in the past year. Our conversation takes place in one of my locals, which happens to be a new-ish local for my guest--Brooklyn, New York. My guest, Ambassador Martin Kimani is a native of a soon-to-be local for me--Kenya. And we are both decidedly on a #PanAfricaProgress mission. Getting to this point, Ambassabor Kimani has spent his career operating at the intersection of diplomacy, security, and political legitimacy, working across national, regional, and multilateral systems to resolve conflict, build institutions, and negotiate power.

As Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN, he served as president of the Security Council and the Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS. His Security Council address of February 2022, delivered on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and viewed by millions, affirmed a core element of his leadership: the ability to bring moral clarity and strategic grounding to moments of international rupture. Earlier, in his career, he directed Kenya’s National Counter Terrorism Centre and served as the President’s Special Envoy for Countering Violent Extremism advising three presidents through national and regional crises, from emergency evacuations to constitutional brinkmanship.

This year he stepped into a new role as President and CEO of The Africa Center in New York marking a new phase in his work where diplomacy, strategy, and narrative converge. At the same time his Pan-African portfolio, alongside his continued engagement with the United Nations, positions him as the current President of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.

Where to find Martin?

What’s Martin reading?

Other topics of interest:

Special Guest: Martin Kimani.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

We’re talking about the business of teaching and learning from a design thinking perspective with my guest, fellow Stanford University alum, visionary educational leader and the founder and CEO of Roundtrip Ticket Home, an organization dedicated to helping educators reimagine school systems through design thinking, Kalimah Fergus Ayele. With almost 30 years of experience in education, her journey began as a Peace Corps Volunteer, teaching Chemistry in East Africa. Her career has spanned five countries, enriching her global perspective on learning, and bringing a deep understanding of urban educational landscapes to her transformative work.

Most recently, she served as the Head of NYC Campus for The Winchendon School where she led an innovative educational oasis in Manhattan, guiding high school students through real-world learning and a unique city-wide field study program designed to connect them with their passions. In this conversation we truly experience the roundtrip journey of a little girl growing up in Brooklyn and St. Croix, building on Pan-African rooting from an early age, who manifested her new and now as a global citizen ready for her next adventure.

Where to find Kalimah?

What’s Kalimah reading?

What’s Kalimah watching?

Other topics of Interest:

Special Guest: Kalimah Fergus Ayele.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

In case you missed us last week there’s good reason. My glocal speak for the week was #UNGA80. The streets and sounds of NYC all pointed to the United Nations General Assembly and myriad sideline events. My week was about all thing #PanAfricanProgress and I look forward to sharing stories from the ground in the coming months. One thing is for sure, the giant that is Africa is awake with millions of youth and experienced diasporans ready to keep all of our eyes wide open.

Much of that story is alive and well in my guest this week. Myra Dunoyer Vahighene is a storyteller, creative entrepreneur, and founder of Eleza Masolo, a cultural platform born on YouTube in 2020 and officially launched in 2022 to amplify African voices through storytelling, fashion, and visual arts. She authored Nyuma, the Thirsty Fish, a children's book tackling water justice in Africa, and regularly speaks across the continent — from Abidjan to Nairobi — about youth empowerment, branding, and narrative sovereignty. A Harvard-trained cultural leader, Myra blends Afro fashion, social storytelling, and entrepreneurship to inspire the new generation of African creators across borders.

We meet in Nairobi at the New Cities Summit in June of this year where our common passion for elevating storytelling targeting African children forged our connection. Her most recent literary work Ceux qu’on ne sauvera pas (The Ones We Couldn’t Save), published on August 10, 2025 is a powerful book blending real-life testimonies, allegory, and prophetic narrative to recount thirty years of war and suffering in her homeland, the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Through this work is a moving tribute and a lasting call to remember the forgotten victims of ongoing conflict.

Where to find Myra?

Who is Myra listening to?

Other topics of interest:

Special Guest: Myra Dunoyer Vahighene .

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week we continue to reflect on GlocalCitizens@5 and we’re flashing back to our Womens' Herstory series in March 202. Ghana-based, London-born international award-winning journalist, playwright, global public speaker and entrepreneur, Esther Armah – a self-described ‘global black chick’ – has lived, worked, loved, and created across three cities in three countries on three continents – London, New York, and Accra. She is the Executive Director of the Esther Armah Institute of Emotional Justice and she leads a global team in Ghana, Chicago and London. Her most applauded work, which she describes as “more of a purpose than a profession” is centred on the concept of EMOTIONAL JUSTICE.

Pubilshed in 2022, her groundbreaking book Emotional Justice: A Roadmap for Racial Healing argues that the crucial missing piece to racial healing and sustainable equity is emotional justice—a new racial healing language to help us do our emotional work. She continues to build on this apparatus with complementary storytelling expressed via her breadth of creative media expertise. As part of EAIEJ’s third annual September event HEALING HARM | HEEDING HISTORY, themed WELLNESS in the face of WARFARE she’ll be hosting a screening and dialogue for her short film '...goodbye to the EMOTIONAL MAMMY' later this week.

Where to find Esther?

Other topics of interest:

Special Guest: Esther Armah.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

As the season of academic studies begins in many institutions across parts of the world, including New York City where I have spent many years working with charter schools to open their doors to children and families, it’s a flashback moment for my guest and me to the days when she was first granted a charter to begin her social enterpreneurship journey as a school leader and founder. Dr. Elaine Ruiz Lopez is the Founder and the Chief Executive Officer of the International Leadership Charter High School, a rigorous college prep charter high school in the Bronx, New York where over 95% of its scholars graduate within four years enrolling in the college of their choice. In 2024, she expanded her vision opening a middle school in 2024.

Having worked in the field of education since 1980, over ths course of her career she has held various leadership positions in public schools and universities. In 2017, she was one of the recipients of the Distinguished Women Award (Mujeres Destacadas) presented by El Diario, the largest Spanish daily newspaper organization in the country. In 2022 as one of 100 Bronx Power Women. In 2023 she received the Educator of Excellence Award from the Black Latinx Asian Charter Coalition (BLACC). She is a founding member of the Latino Charter Leaders Roundtable and its current Chair.

Where to find Dr. Ruiz Lopez and the International Leadership Charter High School?

What’s Elaine reading, watching and listening to?

Other topics of interest:

Special Guest: Elaine Ruiz Lopez.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week’s interview was recorded while my guest and I were on the same time zone in Western Europe--she in Portugal and the UK for me. My guest, Serene Lewis Lyles spent most of her 30-year career making complex things simple. She was on the forefront of launching technologies that, today, are foundational to our lives including digital video recording (the predecessor to streaming content), the Internet of Things (now known as “Smart tech”), and high-design vape tech (much to her embarrassment).

Fun fact, our paths crossed while we were both based in New York City in the aughts, and we share Colorado and Northern California as places we’ve also called home. After living and working in the States and the UK, she finished her career in San Francisco, as a Senior Director at Meta, leading the content design team behind Facebook and Instagram’s billion-dollar ads business. At Meta, she was also a leader of the employee resource group Black@ Design and founder of the Black@ Content Design Leads group.

Since retiring last year, She has now turned her experience of leading people in solving hard problems into a career coaching people through the challenging process of planning for retirement. Her super powers as a coach are being comfortable talking about money, being excited about other people’s dreams, and creating systems that drive action.

Where to find Serene?

What’s Serene reading and listening to?

Other topics of interest:

Special Guest: Serene Lewis Lyles.