Her Story Speaks

Chandra Crane is an author, speaker and multi-multi-ethnic specialist who is passionate about diversity and family. Growing up in a multi-ethnic home, she has too often felt the otherness of never quite fitting in. Her own mixed multiethnic and multicultural background includes a Thai birth father, a European American mother, and an African American father who adopted her when she was five. In her newest book, Mixed Blessing, Chandra explores what scripture and history teach us about ethnicity and how we can bring all of ourselves to our sense of identity and calling.

By integrating theology, sociology, and psychology, Gigi Khanyezi has devoted her life to healing, equipping, and mobilizing people to seek racial justice. She is the Founder/Director of Jesus and Justice, where she is a writer, artist, activist, and speaker and where she facilitates the groundbreaking Jesus and Justice Course with an emphasis on healing racial trauma.

 After growing up in E. Oakland, 30 years in the US as a Latina woman of color activist, Gigi relocated to Soweto, South Africa for ten years.  Living in a beautiful, entirely African community of five million in the most racially polarized country in the world, she was considered WHITE. It was the greatest identity crisis of her life and became the most important training ground. While in South Africa she fostered and adopted two precious little boys whom she named Jericho and Judah.

Michelle Reyes (PhD) is the Vice President of the Asian American Christian Collaborative and the Editorial Director at Pax. She is also the Scholar-in-Residence at Hope Community Church, a minority-led multicultural church in East Austin, Texas, where her husband, Aaron, serves as lead pastor. In this conversation Michelle shares her story of growing up as a 2nd generation Indian-American in predominantly white spaces. She shares how her experiences shaped her narrative and her own cultural identity that led to her passion for building lasting connections across cultures. We also talk about the importance of making space for multiculturalism as we celebrate the birth of Christ.

Diana Oestreich heard God’s call to love her enemies in the most unlikely place: on the battlefield of Iraq. She’s now a soldier turned peacemaker and author of  “WAGING PEACE”. Diana is also an activist who shares her story and passion with others.  Speaking across the country she empowers us to identify our own rural, urban, political and religious divides to cross our own “enemy lines”  to remake the world and heal all that’s tearing us apart.

Marlena is a writer, pastor, deep thinker, and speaker who is passionate about the eternal implications of our life in God. She is a lover of beauty and a seeker of justice seeker. Marlena deeply believes that spiritual formation and justice should never be separated. She is most concerned with those who profess to follow Jesus but speak and behave so unlike him. As a Puerto-Rican influenced by many streams of the faith, she feels as if she dwells on the borderlands of Evangelicalism.

Patricia Taylor is the woman behind the blog, "Some Thoughts From Your Black Friend” where she seeks to cultivate a space in which difficult yet necessary topics can be shared and discussed with grace, truth and love. She is  a thirty-something wife, mom and California native turned Georgia peach who believes in Jesus, loving all of our neighbors, and having critical conversations around racial justice.  As a passionate advocate and anti-racism educator, she wants her heart to break for what breaks the Lord’s.

Beth Silvers co-hosts Pantsuit Politics, a bipartisan podcast focused on nuanced and grace-filled dialogue about the toughest issues we face as a nation. In our conversation, Beth shares her story that led her to the role she now has of talking politics and the passion she has for grace-filled political conversations. She shares how the last 4 years have shifted her political leaning and the role stories have played in her evolution. We talk about how to move forward with friends and family in this time of such political division and if it is possible to still have grace filled political conversations with folks who may have voted differently than you in this election.

Jamie Grace is a two-time Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and actress. Diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, OCD, ADHD, and anxiety at a young age. At 19 years old, Jamie was nominated for a Grammy for a song she wrote in college, and her career skyrocketed in a matter of months. Among several other nominations, Jamie won the Dove Awards New Artist of the Year, a lot happened, fast. While these are dream scenarios for any aspiring musician, they collided with the symptoms of Jamie’s diagnosed illnesses – a tendency to overanalyze decisions, ongoing social worry, fear, periods of reclusiveness, a never-ending cycle of ruminating on choices and situations, anxious thoughts which turn into anxious feelings which turn into panic.

Gabes Torres is an anti-oppressive researcher, decolonized psychotherapist, artist, speaker, and seer. Gabes was born and raised in the Philippines, and is a descendant of the Aeta Indigenous tribes of the Luzon and Mindanao islands. She comes from an ancestral lineage of nomadic healers, musicians & poets, theologians, educators, and revolutionists. Gabes has been active in the work of antiracism and decolonization, particularly in the fields of mental health, education, spirituality, music, and community organizing. She is a racial and migration trauma-informed psychotherapist, and intends to decolonize the therapeutic space by politicizing it — especially since the world of mental health is not excluded from having origins and cultures of white supremacy and racism. Gabes created and facilitates the Heritage Workshop, a BIPOC only space that explores what it is like to connect with our ancestors through our individual and collective stories, our bodies, and in community with kin and the Earth. She also offers clinical support and care at recovery centers that house survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence.

Marcie Walker joins me again for another honest chats about racism, faith and current events Marcie is a Christian, African-American writer and creator of the blog and Instagram feed, Black Coffee with White Friends, where she chronicles her experiences as a black woman navigating white-dominant spaces. Marcie is also the creator of  “Mocking Bird History Lessons” where she researches, writes and shares the missing narratives of our country’s history. In this episode Marcie shares why “she’s not ok and you shouldn’t be either” with all that is going on in this country. We talk about the Breonna Taylor ruling, Black Lives Matter and the church’s complacency in all of it.