Our guest this episode, Grace B Freedom (all pronouns combined with they/them pronouns) is a Black Genderfluid Queer creator of the Black Love and Care (BLaC) Ethic. They are supported by a grant from the Effing Foundation to write the My Black (Gr)Ace series. They have been described as a penetrative and inescapable force, but mostly they want to be in deep conversations that are guided by mutual tenderness and curiosity that center a BLaC (Black Love & Care) ethic. You can find them asking a lot of questions and sharing their freedom practices on Instagram @madquestionasker and you can follow their writing on patreon @madquestionasker.

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Hey everyone!

Podcast Update: Thanks to YOU, in just 9 episodes, we've made it to 1,000+ plays, so we want to thank you so much for your support! It hasn't even been a year yet, so I'm curious to observe the growth of this podcast in the future.

Conversation w/ Grace starts @ 7:42. Just a PSA, I know that the intros/ending comments can be a bit long sometimes, but either way, they're meant to be a primer about what's going on in the conversation so that you can understand fully what you're about to hear and the space that the conversation lives in. So thanks for actively listening to these intros.

Recommended Resource: Columbus and Other Cannibals, by Indigenous author Jack D. Forbes

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Grace and I talked about the limiting ways that "wholeness" is depicted in the media not being conducive to the decolonized mind -- which can become more creative and empathetic because it's able to hold and honor all perceptions of reality. Interpreting dreams that help you understand your life better, letting animals teach you, seeing our co-creation with anything as a sexual experience, whether that be a co-creation with life itself or even in deep relationship with your own pain. This is what I mean by relational dynamics, they're not always between people, they could be between aspects of self, nature, and much much more.

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I was reading a writing piece online and the title really captured my attention: the title was "Rejecting Fetishization and Lack: Claiming the Fullness of My Black Demisexuality", and just that title brought so many words to what I was doing unconsciously when I talked in Episode 7 about rejecting what I called "unconscious sex work". The whole article is a must-read. So I reached out to Grace and they graciously offered their time to record a conversation.

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To me, this episode really feels so much like the sequel to Decolonizing Reality episode, our October episode with Ben Mattson.

There were some unexpected tech difficulties that we decided to roll with this time, so the audio might be iffy at different parts, but it should be audible.

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Enjoy :)

Atlas