Coming together just before the end of 2021, this episode looks to reconcile the New Normal of our daily and creative lives.  Many things have changed for us individually, as we look to continue this podcast and our own Creative Journey, and the realities of why we create are challenged at every point.  This episode in particular cuts deep to find out why we do what we do, and as all else changes around us, how can we adapt to what is sure to be a long road ahead.  Given extended time to share our stories, the realness of this episode is absolutely a must-listen.

The NEW WAKANDA Podcast comes back to reflect on the halfway mark of 2021, with all the surprises, uncertainty, and curiosity that has defined The Black Creative Journey during the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Coming back from a brief hiatus, we reconnect again to discuss how we can our direction when so much around you seems adrift.

Good day New Wakanda!

It's been a minute for sure, but we are back and still creating.  The struggles and shifts of 2021 were historic in nature, and like so many people, the pivot into the new normal wasn't always a smooth one.  As we've done over our show, creatives TaLynn Kel and Dedren Snead speak candidly about how the first few months of 2021 have gone, where they are in their creative lives, and the outlook of being creative in the months to come.

Yeah, 2020.

Everyone's had so much to go through in this calendar year, that itemizing the change, pivots falls, and fails in one show is simply impossible.  What we lost was more than time, and we've come to the realization that it may not ever go back to normal ever again.  But as creatives, where we've always found a way to push forward at all costs, what happens when the costs to keep on is too much?  

Join our creative co-hosts TaLynn Kel and Dedren Snead as they reflect on the cost of surviving 2020 and what that means as they look to reclaim the narrative for 2021.   The #BlackCreative podcast New Wakanda closes out the year with this emotional and cathartic conclusion.  

As we close the year, NEW WAKANDA looks at their creative climate and how the winds of change have directed them and their works.

September 2020.  Ugh.

There is a dense fog around everything, though our vision seems normal.  An invisible weight burdens our moves, unable to be unshackled.  

This is the New Normal.

We are past quarantine, we are in quandary.  Beset by the loss of Chadwick Boseman,  yet another tragic loss of Black Life and a bewildering Presidential Debate, our reality seems to be splitting at the seams.   

And when the call to create beckons, the energy to move forward seems more laborious than ever.  

In the emptiness, the question echos,  "It is just me?"

We invite you to listen and engage with us as we build NEW WAKANDA where we stand.

NEW WAKANDA Podcast is hosted by creatives Talynn Kel and Dedren Snead.  Music provided by composer Otis Galloway (UK).

July 2020 was a coarse time to be in Atlanta.  Between the ongoing outcry for justice for Rayshard Brooks and Ahmad Ahrbrey, along with the continued extremist gatherings in adjacent Stone Mountain, GA and the pressures to resume normal life from government and state leadership, it seemed like it was all set to burn down at any moment.

But the need to create was still there.  We knew we had to get our stories out.  How do we pivot in a world that is coming at us from all sides?

This episode was an open dialogue to openly asking ourselves what was next for us. For Us.  Creatively, personally, and socially. Without much setup, it ended up being about as authentic a conversation between our hosts that either can recall.  

We invite you to listen and engage with us as we build NEW WAKANDA where we stand.

NEW WAKANDA Podcast is hosted by creative Talynn Kel and Dedren Snead.  Music provided by composer Otis Galloway (UK).

Welcome to NEW WAKANDA!   Where we talk Black Creativity and Life from The ATL

From May 2020, we recorded this episode while Atlanta was under curfew, and the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmad Aubrey still fresh in the news.  Little could we realize that the protests of Atlanta would reach the CNN building and the subsequent death of Rayshard Brooks would put our town yet again into the center of racial unrest and be a focal point of the global movement Black Lives Matter.

We lament how hard it is to concentrate not just on our art, but on our existence.  And how now, more than ever, the world needs our art.

So how do we make this work for us?  We hear that these are injustices, but justice seems far away from the conversations we hear.

This may be our best episode yet, as we gave ourselves license to express our frustrations, and what we want to see change in the laws and politics that govern us all.   

Atlanta creatives TALYNN KEL and DEDREN SNEAD are alive.  And thankful.  But it is hard to stay creative in these quarantine conditions!  So just how can we make things work when we're not working?  Share our work when we're more cut off than ever before?  A month plus into COVID-19 conditions, we had our first video podcast to check in on each other, and to gameplan how we can survive this mentally and creatively.   Join us for this bonus episode as we reintroduce our series to an expanded world.

This episode is our first foray of expanding our podcast after a couple of years on SOUNDCLOUD to other avenues.  We will renew our social updates soon. Facebook at NEW WAKANDA for now at https://www.facebook.com/newwakanda/

Welcome to New Wakanda, AKA, Atlanta, GA.

This Black Creative podcast is born from an inclusive community of creators and collaborators that resist and excel through art and the Creative Journey.

Hosted by Dedren Snead and TaLynn Kel.

We share encompassing views of Blerdom in Speculative Fictional, Writing, Comics, Cosplay, Culture, and Popular Entertainment are the intersections of our fandoms, harnessed through a diverse perspective from the African Diaspora.

"See New Wakanda and Live"