Loam Listen

How might we collapse a world rooted in extraction and nurture one built on reciprocity? What can decomposition teach us about seeding sustainable futures? Join us as queer Hoodoo, earth tender, and living ancestor Jordan Alexander Williams contemplates the liberation of land, ourselves, and our communities from “radical individualism” in this soul-stirring conversation with Amirio Freeman. From meditating on a week spent at the revolutionary Soul Fire Farm to exploring the beauty of mycelial networks, Williams walks us through possibilities for planting world(s) worth growing into.

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In 2016, Jordan graduated from the University of Illinois (a land-grab university) with a degree in environmental science and a concentration in human dimensions of the environment. They have since collaborated with human and more-than-human beings across Turtle Island to:

Jordan trusts that the liberation and regeneration of people and planet will come by dancing in the moon and sunlight, getting our hands in the soil, caring for each other, and reclaiming and evolving the earth-sourced wisdom(s) of our ancestors.

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Hoodoo

Nested Wholes & Fractals

In the face of compounding crises, the work of multidisciplinary, multidimensional folk healer Richael Faithful is a call back into healing justice. Tune in as host Amirio Freeman and Faithful explore community organizing, connection to ancestral healing traditions, care work, and the birthing of new selves in this heart-filled episode. As Richael reminds us, there are many ways to heal, love, connect, and care. How can we make space for our multitudes? How can we nurture new possibilities for worldbuilding into being?

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With Earth in Color, sustainability scientist and designer Darel Scott is reclaiming the relationship between Blackness and Greeness through vibrant, community-oriented media. In the face of a mainstream environmental movement rooted in the erasure of the lived experiences of Black folx, Earth in Color is a call to reimagine, reclaim, and regenerate. Tune in as host Amirio Freeman connects with Darel to talk about creating spaces that center and celebrate Black connections to Earth, holding histories of harm, and activating meaningful allyship in Black-led spaces.

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Darel Scott is a designer, sustainability scientist, and the founder of Earth in Color, an emerging media platform and creative studio focused on Black culture, community healing, and the natural world. Through creative storytelling and nature experiences, Earth in Color celebrates Black culture connections to nature and helps us heal with the Earth. Darel is on a personal mission to cultivate collective healing, spark Earth curiosity, and nurture deep joy in the Black community. She is a tea fanatic and loves developing plant-forward recipes. You can check out those recipes and so much more @earthincolor.co!

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During an era when our bodily autonomy is under increasing threat, doulas — for birth, for death, for abortion, and more — are essential to supporting our collective capacity to meet change. In this vital episode, host Amirio Freeman talks with abortion doula Michelle Loo about their experiences with full-spectrum carework. Through situating the work of abortion doulas within a long history of communities innovating systems of care, Amirio and Michelle unpack the link between abortion access and diverse movements for liberation.

GUEST: Raised by Chinese-Malaysian immigrants in New York City and Philadelphia, and now residing in DC, Michelle Loo is an East Coast baby who is grounded by eating good food and building expansive networks of care. They are a queer and leftist trainer, educator, and doula. They like to ask good questions, listen, and make art.

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As we explore (and expand) our understanding of matriarchy at Loam this year, this conversation with activist, healer, and creator extraordinaire Twiggy Pucci Garçon offers insight into how the Ballroom community redefines and reimagines nurturing relationship through creating unique spaces of care, support, and expression. From reflecting on queerness to excavating the link between spirituality and self, Loam Listen host Amirio Freeman and Twiggy dive deep in this world-building conversation.

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Praising literary greats like James Baldwin to the women in their family, Twiggy is quick to credit their ancestral warriors and pathmakers for the elevation of their own voice in a way that ultimately leads to progress. Since finding support in the Ballroom community at a very crucial moment in their life, Twiggy leverages every opportunity to generate conversations around equity for LGBTQ+ young people and create quality spaces for them to be centered in making decisions and solutions around the issue of homelessness.

With over 15 years of experience, both personally and professionally, Twiggy has collaborated with artists, filmmakers, academics and policymakers to increase visibility of both creative and sociopolitical agendas.

How can shaping new narratives on sex, climate, and community rewire our worldview? Tune in as educator Melissa Pintor Carnagey of Sex Positive Families reflects on the role of pleasure-centric, narrative-weaving strategies to practice with our young people at home and elsewhere in conversation Loam Listen Host Amirio Freeman.

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In our Season 3 inaugural episode, Loam Listen host Amirio Freeman connects with embodiment counselor tayla shanaye for an immersive conversation on somatics, semantics, and creation. This episode is an invitation into experience and so we suggest you tune into it when you have the time to truly ground (and get messy)!

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Nourishing the Nervous System by tayla shanaye

The last episode in our Homespace listening series is a deep dive between Amirio Freeman and Farah Jesani of One Stripe Chai into chai, authenticity, origin, and identity. This episode has everything—reflections on history and homespace from Farah, a sublime recipe for One Stripe Chai goodness from Amirio—and we can't think of a better conversation to curl up to during these colder days.

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This illuminating conversation between Loam Listen host Amirio Freeman and forager Alexis Nikole Nelson is affirmation that you have a right to earthly joy and connection—wherever, however, and whoever you are. From reflecting on the boundary between "carefree" and "careful" that Black folx have to walk (Garnette Cadogan) to meditating on the meaning of play, Alexis Nikole Nelson's brilliant and bighearted spirit will inspire you to truly bloom where you're planted.

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What shapes can community organizing take as we navigate this era of pandemic and protest? Community organizer E.N. West shares reflections on relationship building in times of crisis in this expansive and engaging conversation with Loam Listen host Amirio Freeman. Brimming with heart and inspiring lessons, E offers us all a blueprint for how to take care of each other when the world surrounding us is shifting.

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E feels called to community organizing as both a vocation and way of life. They are also deeply committed to lifelong leadership formation. To those ends, they’re currently:

In their moments of play and rest, E enjoys reading social justice literature, listening to podcasts of all kinds (especially those featuring QTPOC) & being the queer jock of their own dreams (boxing, capoeira, biking & training for a 10k).

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