Black women's visibility is not a simple gift — it's a question. Who benefits when we are seen, and who benefits when we are not? In this episode of the Knowledge Gumbo Podcast, host Alicia Thomas opens with a striking quote from writer, critic, and cultural thinker Margo Jefferson: "The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say."

Jefferson's insight becomes the lens for an honest, personal reflection on images — the ones we absorb, the ones we create, the ones we share, and the ones quietly discarded. Alicia explores what it means to be a curator in a visual age, and why the question of who holds the camera matters more than we realize.

This episode will stay with you. It's the kind of quiet episode that catches something true.

Key Takeaways

Margo Jefferson's work challenges us to pay attention not just to what is centered and lit, but to what lives in the margins and shadows — because meaning is often held there. Engaging with Black women's stories and images requires reading what's just outside the frame.

Being seen and being understood are not the same thing. Visibility for Black women can be empowering in one context and diminishing in another, and recognizing that difference is a form of wisdom worth practicing.

Every image we post, share, like, or scroll past makes us participants in a visual economy that shapes how communities and individuals will be remembered. That is not a neutral act — it carries obligation.

Family photo albums and digital feeds are both acts of curation. Decisions about what to preserve and what to discard quietly shape memory, identity, and what future generations will know about us.

In This Episode

[00:00] Welcome to Knowledge Gumbo

[00:32] The Quote: "The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say." — Margo Jefferson

[00:58] Context: Who is Margo Jefferson and why her work on attention matters

[01:30] Reflection: Shadows as information, not absence

[02:11] What images have been teaching us about worth and complexity

[03:06] The tension between being seen and being understood

[04:10] Family photo albums as curated memory — and what got thrown away

[04:16] We are all curators now: every post, every share, every like

[04:47] The obligation we carry with the images we share

[06:07] Closing question: When you close your eyes, what image comes to mind — and who's holding the camera?

📱 CONNECT:

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Black women's representation in visual culture has never been just an art world conversation. It has always been a matter of power. In this episode of Knowledge Gumbo, we center a quote from Carrie Mae Weems, the photographer and video artist who spent decades insisting that images of Black women carry complexity, nuance, and power on our own terms. Host Alicia Thomas connects Weems' groundbreaking work to the ongoing struggle for authentic representation in a digital age where algorithms still decide what gets seen and whose image gets monetized without consent. This episode is an invitation to examine every image you create or share, and to choose fullness, even when it's inconvenient.

Carrie Mae Weems is best known for her Kitchen Table series from the 1990s, which became iconic for capturing Black domesticity, intimacy, and power in a single frame. Her work refuses simple answers and uses photography, text, and installation to explore identity, history, and representation in ways that still resonate today.

Key Takeaways

Reclaiming representation is not just about visibility; it is about being seen accurately, with all our contradictions, tenderness, strength, and brilliance present at once. Carrie Mae Weems modeled this standard through decades of work in Black visual culture and cultural storytelling through art.

The narrow tropes assigned to Black women, from the mammy to the Jezebel to the angry woman, are not relics of the past. They persist in the visual economy of the digital age, where platforms and algorithms continue to privilege certain bodies and narratives over others.

Image-making with intentionality is an act of resistance. Creating and archiving images that reflect Black women fully, on our own terms, is a form of cultural preservation that outlasts the platforms we use to share them.

The question Weems posed through her art remains urgent for every Black woman who creates, posts, or shares an image today: are you choosing to show the fullness, even when it is inconvenient?

In This Episode

[00:00] Welcome & show introduction

[00:29] Quote from Carrie Mae Weems

[00:40] Who is Carrie Mae Weems?

[01:01] Her work: photography, text, and installation

[01:25] The Kitchen Table Series

[01:41] Reflection: what it means to see ourselves with complexity

[02:26] Representation in the digital age

[03:07] Reclaiming representation vs. simply being visible

[03:44] Intentional image-making as resistance

[04:44] Closing question to carry with you

[05:00] Outro

📱 CONNECT:

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aliciatsays/

Merch: https://aliciatsays.shop/

Norma Merrick Sklarek believed that architecture should reflect the dignity of the people it serves. In this episode of the Knowledge Gumbo Podcast, we explore the extraordinary legacy of Norma Merrick Sklarek, the first Black woman licensed as an architect in the United States and the first Black woman elected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. She entered the profession in 1950, at a time when neither her race nor her gender was welcomed, and she used her power to insist that the spaces we build should honor the people who live, work, and move through them.

This is a story about creative courage, intentional design, and what it means to claim your place in spaces that were not built with you in mind.

Key Takeaways

Norma Merrick Sklarek made history not once but twice, becoming the first Black woman licensed as an architect in the United States and the first Black woman elected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, carving space in a profession that wasn't built to welcome her. Her philosophy of dignified design reminds us that the built environment is never neutral; spaces either hold us or dismiss us, and that distinction is always a choice made by the people with power to design. Because she entered architecture without mentors who looked like her, Norma made mentorship a cornerstone of her legacy, actively creating pathways for the Black women architects and designers who came after her. Her story is an invitation to ask ourselves what it means to build, create, or lead with intention, centering the dignity of the people our work is meant to serve.

In This Episode

[00:00] Welcome and show introduction

[00:31] Today's quote from Norma Merrick Sklarek

[00:57] Norma's historic role in American architecture

[01:33] Reflection: What does it feel like to be welcomed or forgotten by a space?

[02:26] Personal reflection on designing for belonging

[02:43] Norma's philosophy: architecture should serve people, not the architect's ego

[03:06] Mentorship and making a way for others

[03:26] Architecture as power and what it means to reclaim it

[04:09] Closing thought and question to carry with you

📱 CONNECT:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aliciatsays

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aliciatsays/

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Doris Derby civil rights photographer picked up her camera in Mississippi in the 1960s — when witnessing what was happening to Black people was dangerous, and documenting it was even more so. As an activist and SNCC field secretary, Derby understood something essential: whoever controls the image controls the memory. She wasn't willing to let someone else decide how Black people would be remembered.

This episode of the Knowledge Gumbo Podcast centers Derby's courage and conviction. She showed up with her camera even when it wasn't safe, even when the work wasn't celebrated, and even when her photographs sat in boxes for decades before the world caught up to them. Her story is an invitation to think about documentation as an act of love and resistance.

Key Takeaways

Doris Derby's work as a SNCC field secretary and civil rights photographer was rooted in a clear belief: the image could become evidence, memory, and testimony, and that responsibility was hers to carry.

For far too long, someone else controlled the narrative of Black life — deciding which angle mattered, which expression would be printed, and which story would be told. Derby's decision to pick up the camera was a direct act of reclaiming that power.

Photography, in Derby's hands, was never just about aesthetics. It was about creating a visual archive that didn't erase, didn't soften, and didn't skew the perspective of Black people living through the civil rights movement.

The question this episode leaves us with is one worth carrying: when you look at a photograph, who is holding the camera, and what are they asking you to see?

In This Episode

[00:00] Welcome and show introduction

[00:28] Episode quote from Doris Derby

[00:44] Who was Doris Derby — activist, photographer, SNCC field secretary

[01:10] The camera as evidence, memory, and testimony

[01:37] Reflection: what it means to stand behind the lens

[02:05] Who controlled the narrative before we picked up the camera

[02:37] Documentation as an act of love and resistance

[03:09] The question we assume someone else is answering

[03:55] Photography as visual archive — what gets to be seen

[04:28] The closing question you can carry with you

[04:40] Outro and closing encouragement

📱 CONNECT:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aliciatsays

Newsletter: https://tremendous-painter-642.kit.com/305737ceb5

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aliciatsays/

Merch: https://aliciatsays.shop/

Faith Ringgold believed art was not what you see, but what you make others see — and she spent a lifetime proving it. Born in Harlem in 1930, Ringgold became one of the most important visual storytellers in American history, weaving narrative quilts and paintings that held the full weight of Black life: grief and joy, resistance and beauty, memory and dream.

In this episode of the Knowledge Gumbo Podcast, host Alicia Thomas unpacks that one fierce, clarifying quote and asks what it demands of us today. What does it mean to make others see? Not to beg for recognition, but to layer truth in color and thread until the world cannot look away.

This is a short, rich episode built for reflection. It will stay with you.

Key Takeaways

Faith Ringgold used narrative quilts and paintings as archives, insisting that Black life in all its complexity belonged in the gallery and in the historical memory. Her work is a model of what it looks like to document a people on your own terms.

Visual art is a form of literacy that Black women have practiced across generations. From Ringgold's canvases to the coded quilt patterns of our grandmothers, the knowledge was always there, held in color, form, and symbol.

Many of us have been taught that our stories don't count unless they're told in sanctioned languages or housed in institutional spaces. Ringgold's life and work push back on that directly. The gallery can be a living room. The archive can be a quilt.

The episode closes with a question to carry: What does it mean to use color and form to tell a truth that hasn't been heard or experienced yet? That question is an invitation to examine what you are making others see with your own life and work.

In This Episode

[00:00] Welcome and show introduction

[00:32] Faith Ringgold quote: "Art is not what you see, but what you make others see"

[00:43] Who was Faith Ringgold? Context and legacy

[01:27] Reflection: What does it mean to make others see?

[02:09] On whose stories deserve to be documented and archived

[02:44] Visual art as a different kind of literacy

[03:24] Faith Ringgold's women: power, defiance, and making space

[03:46] Closing question for reflection

[04:00] Outro and closing blessing

Resources and Links

[Faith Ringgold Official Website] — https://faithringgold.com/

[Faith Ringgold at the Smithsonian] — https://americanart.si.edu/artist/faith-ringgold-7236

[The Studio Museum in Harlem] — https://www.studiomuseum.org/artists/faith-ringgold

📱 CONNECT:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aliciatsays

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Black women across the diaspora shaped theology worldwide. In this episode, a June Jordan quote opens a reflection on spiritual inheritance, self-love, and the refusal to be severed from our roots.

Episode 37 opens with a striking quote from poet, essayist, and activist June Jordan, born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrants. Her declaration that being both a feminist and a Black woman demands the same thing -- radical self-love and self-respect as though life depends on it -- anchors a meditation on how Black women across the African diaspora have shaped, challenged, and reimagined theology on a global scale.

IN THIS EPISODE:

- Explore how June Jordan connected Caribbean heritage, African American experience, and global liberation movements

- Reflect on how spirituality travels across oceans and through the people who were stolen

- Examine how Christian nationalism tried to sever Black communities from African spiritual roots

- Discover how Black women created new theological frameworks that challenged Western Christianity's dominance

- Carry a closing question about what spiritual practices have traveled with you across generations

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Introduction and Welcome

00:32 - June Jordan Quote on Feminism and Blackness

01:03 - About June Jordan

01:27 - Reflection: How Spirituality Travels

02:03 - Christian Nationalism and Severing from Roots

02:44 - How Black Women Shaped Diaspora Theology

03:48 - Closing Reflection Question

04:02 - Outro

ABOUT JUNE JORDAN:

June Jordan (1936-2002) was a poet, essayist, and activist born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrants. Her work explored Black identity, spirituality, and liberation across borders, weaving Caribbean heritage with African American experience and global solidarity movements.

Episode 36: The Spiritual Roots of Black Women's Activism - Fannie Lou Hamer on Faith & Justice

Fannie Lou Hamer's powerful quote reminds us that faith and justice are inseparable forces in the fight for liberation. In this episode, we explore how spirituality fueled the civil rights movement and ask: How does your faith call you toward justice?

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Who Fannie Lou Hamer was and why her legacy matters today

• How faith sustained activists when the work was dangerous and progress was slow

• The spiritual foundations of the civil rights movement in Black churches

• Hamer's challenge to the 1964 Democratic National Convention

• The tradition of Black women activists who integrated faith and justice work

• Why prayers became protests and hymns became battle cries

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Introduction and today's quote

00:34 - Who was Fannie Lou Hamer

01:03 - What sustains you when the work is dangerous

01:56 - Justice has a spiritual component

02:44 - The civil rights movement and Black churches

03:04 - Fannie Lou Hamer's political courage

03:34 - The tradition: Ella Baker, Septima Clark, Diane Nash

04:08 - Faith without works is dead

04:31 - Reflection question for listeners

04:42 - Closing thoughts

ABOUT FANNIE LOU HAMER:

Fannie Lou Hamer was a sharecropper in Mississippi who became one of the most powerful voices in the civil rights movement. She co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and challenged the all-white delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention while quoting scripture and testifying about being beaten in a Winona jail.

KEY QUOTE:

"Nobody's free until everybody's free." - Fannie Lou Hamer

REFLECTION QUESTION:

How does your faith, however you define it, call you toward justice?

ABOUT THE KNOWLEDGE GUMBO PODCAST:

The Knowledge Gumbo Podcast shares the stories and wisdom of Black women who shaped the world and on whose shoulders we stand. Each week features one quote, a little context, an honest reflection, and a question you can carry with you. Hosted by Alicia Thomas.

Rebecca Cox Jackson was born into slavery, became free, and then became a powerful preacher who founded an all-Black women's Shaker community when the AME church refused to let her lead. Her story asks: What will you walk away from to remain faithful to yourself?

When the institution said no, Rebecca Cox Jackson found another way. Born in 1795, she felt a divine calling to preach that she could not ignore. After the African Methodist Episcopal church denied her the right to lead worship because of her gender, she made a radical choice: she left and founded her own Shaker community in Philadelphia, led entirely by Black women.

IN THIS EPISODE:

The story of Rebecca Cox Jackson, formerly enslaved woman turned revolutionary preacher

Why obedience to truth sometimes costs you belonging in spaces you once called home

The history of Black women preachers as spiritual resistance fighters

How to navigate leaving institutions without falling into bitterness

Building new spaces when existing systems refuse to make room

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Introduction to Knowledge Gumbo Podcast

00:31 - Quote: "I felt a great moving in my soul"

00:43 - Who was Rebecca Cox Jackson?

01:17 - The cost of obedience and walking away

02:28 - Black women preachers as history of resistance

03:24 - Building radical spaces outside broken systems

04:03 - Reflection question: What have you walked away from?

ABOUT REBECCA COX JACKSON:

Born into slavery in 1795, Rebecca Cox Jackson became a Shaker elder and powerful preacher in Philadelphia. She left the AME church when they denied her the right to preach and founded her own community led totally by Black women, creating a radical spiritual space that didn't fit neatly into anyone's categories.

EPISODE 34: Jarena Lee on Building Sacred Space

"If it is wrong for man to hold property in man, it is wrong for woman to hold property in woman." — Jarena Lee

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In 1819, Jarena Lee became the first woman authorized to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Born free in New Jersey in 1783, she traveled thousands of miles on foot, building communities of faith wherever Black people gathered.

This episode explores what it means to build a home—a spiritual dwelling place—when you've been denied one. We reflect on the radical act of creating space without waiting for institutional permission, and how Black women have consistently filled the gaps where traditional structures failed.

KEY INSIGHTS

1. Jarena Lee didn't wait for the church to catch up to what she knew about herself and God
2. The AME Church was founded after Black worshippers were pulled from their knees during prayer at a white Methodist church in Philadelphia
3. Black women created sacred spaces—Sunday schools, missionary societies, kitchen table Bible studies—while still fighting to stand behind the pulpit
4. Building your own table requires trusting the value of what you have to share
5. The goal isn't just personal liberation—it's creating rooms where others can be whole

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Welcome & Introduction

00:37 – Quote: Jarena Lee

00:51 – Who Was Jarena Lee?

01:20 – Building Home When Denied One

01:50 – Not Waiting for Permission

02:31 – The Founding of the AME Church

03:07 – Black Women Creating Sacred Spaces

03:49 – Reflection Question

04:05 – Closing

REFLECTION QUESTION

Where have you built a spiritual or communal space when doors were closed to you?

FEATURED FIGURE

Jarena Lee (1783-1864) – First woman authorized to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal Church

CONNECT WITH KNOWLEDGE GUMBO

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SHARE THE WISDOM

If this quote stirs something for you, like great gumbo, let it simmer and choose to share it with love to another Black woman.

Until next time, take great care of your mind, your body, and your soul.

This short episode introduces the current tone and direction of The Knowledge Gumbo Podcast.

Knowledge Gumbo is a reflective podcast centered on the stories and wisdom of Black women who shaped the world we’re still trying to build. Each episode begins with a quote, followed by brief context, an honest reflection, and one question to carry.

This is not a podcast about advice or instruction. It is a thinking space for listeners who value history, culture, and lived experience, and who don’t need to be told what to think.

Episodes are intentionally short and released weekly.

If you’re new here, this episode will help you understand what to expect. If you’ve been listening for a while, it marks a quieter, more reflective chapter of the show.