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For the first episode of this season we have partnered with  Melanin and Medicine, who are doing important work helping Black, LatinX, and Indigenous women in the medical field build, fund, and grow their own businesses.

Our guest is CEO and founder, Dr. Omolara Thomas Uwemedimo. In our conversation she discusses how a health crisis forced her to take a pause and reflect on her 15-year career as a pediatrician, professor and healthcare advocate. During her recovery, she took time to connect with her colleagues in the sector and found that she was not alone in her quest for an integrated and balanced life, and so she created Melanin and Medicine.

She also took the chance to use the program she offers through Melanin and Medicine, to co-found and launch her own social enterprise, Strong Children Wellness, where she continues her passion for bringing quality healthcare to children in black and brown and other marginalized communities.

In our candid chat, she gets in to the details of what she does on a day to day, being raised by a nurse, growing up in a Nigerian household and all the other factors that came together to influence her career trajectory and passion for social justice and advocacy.

I hope our conversation will inspire you to find the intersection of all the things that make you thrive in life and work.

LINKS & MENTIONS

If Dr. Omolara's mission resonates with you, feel free to reach out to her and the team for FREE and get a review of your ideas and answers to your relevant questions.

Strong Children Wellness - Co-founded by Dr. Omolara Thomas Uwemedimo , this is one of the companies that have been through the Melanin and Medicine incubator, a case of the doctor taking her own medicine if you will. 
NPR  - https://www.npr.org/ 
ESSENCE Magazine - https://www.essence.com/
Politico - https://www.politico.com/

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Today’s episode takes us to Atlanta Georgia, where we meet Stacie A Sanders Martin, the founder and designer at the bridal and formal wear fashion house, Sparkle and Sass. 

When Stacie was pushed into entrepreneurship five years ago, she took all her experience of participating in beauty pageants, styling friends and family for ten years, as well as her dream of owning her own retail space and turned it into what has become her growing fashion house. 

Hers is a story of ambition and resilience. Therefore, this conversation includes discussions on how loss can shape you as a person and the value of letting things grow at their own pace, in their own time. We also discuss working across time zones, how the conflict in Ukraine affected her business and all of this while she’s holding down a full-time job. 

One more thing you will learn about Stacie is her obsession with customer service and attention to detail. 

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Today’s guest is South African visionary creative, founder and uber curator of experiences, Nandi Dlepu aka, Mamakashaka. 

 She’s a self-confessed romantic and I hope you will be inspired by her approach to life. 

 After graduating from film school, she worked for many years in television and advertising, establishing herself as a top tier creative. And in 2017, seeing new opportunities for expressing her talents and serving her community, she gathered the courage to jump into entrepreneurship and created her very own marketing agency, Mamakashaka. 

  Today she designs curated events for clients, she’s a sought-after speaker, Interviewer and gives talks on various aspects of creative entrepreneurship. She’s the founder of the music-driven events Feel Good Series (@feelgoodseries), the fashion-centered Pantone Sundays (@pantonesundays), as well as co-founder of the women’s gathering Women In Bloom (@womeninbloom_johannesburg). 

 In our conversation, we get into the details and greater purpose of each brand. To Nandi and her team, it’s not worth doing if it does not entertain, empower or inspire. 

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This week, Shades and Layers is proud to present the story of Digital Collage Artist, Puleng Mongale.

Puleng grew up in the cultural melting pot of Soweto township. Her young years there are filled with joy, but they have also been a source of pain and a feeling of displacement. While Soweto is a cultural melting pot, it is also a place where South Africa's cultural and language groups compete for superiority on an imaginary cultural totem.

In our conversation we discuss dealing with displacement, radical self-acceptance, using art as a tool for healing.

Puleng has always had a passion for the arts (especially writing and fashion) and started out as a copy writer at an advertising agency. During this period, she was also sharpening her skills as a creative director and exploring photography.  After being laid off at the start of the Covid pandemic, she bought herself a camera, learned to use it and never looked back. In our conversation, we discuss her various projects, putting a monetary value on her work and also how to approach life with curiosity.

I hope you'll enjoy this amazing conversation and will be inspired to follow your own authentic journey into the things that you're passionate about.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Latitudes - Online Art platform that represents Puleng and many other cutting edge contemporary artists from the African continent.

Seshoeshoe (Seshweshwe) - Cotton fabric named after the Basotho King Moshoeshoe and originally bearing designs inspired by traditional murals in Lesotho. Today it is a fashion staple at traditional weddings across South Africa and can be seen at other formal occasions as well as everyday fashion. 

Jake - Famous and iconic public swimming pool in Orlando West area of Soweto. The link goes to a photograph captured by South African photographer Jodi Beiber. 

Badimo - A SeSotho word meaning ancestors or spirits. 

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Shades and Layers returns for the New Year and wishes you all the good things you desire in 2022.

This is episode 7 of Season 3 of Shades and Layers: On Creative Entrepreneurship…

Today my guest is Candice Lawrence, Founder and Design Maker at the Cape Town-based furniture and interiors company, Modern Gesture.

 So, the picture of successful entrepreneurship that we are often sold is that of fast paced growth - you know, the famous hockey stick sales and growth projection, millions of dollars in venture capital investments and a superstar celebrity CEO. Nothing wrong with that, if that’s your vibe, but there’s a lot  to be said for a different approach.

 Candice and her team of four have been plugging away at their designs for the past six years and they are growing steadily and sustainably while achieving international success. I love the story of how Modern Gesture started out as a hobby. Most importantly, the impact that this team is having, not only aesthetically, but within their community, is truly meaningful and visible. 

 After completing her Bachelor’s degree in Surface Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, she soon won a prize for her now famous Woven Necklace Lampshade. That win catapulted her into full-time entrepreneurship, and the rest as they say, is history. 

 Starting with an in-depth description of her work, Candice shares her story generously in this conversation and I hope you will walk away wiser and as inspired as I was after listening. 

Thank you Candice, it was an absolute pleasure chatting with you.


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Nando's
Woven Necklace Lampshade
 

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Welcome to Episode 6 of Season 3

So, you’ve read and heard a lot about the change in the future of work and of course, all the excitement centers the so-called "Great Resignation". Many professionals and business owners have either pivoted or left their jobs to pursue something new.
 
That is the case with my guest today, Melodee Ndigaye, a Danish creative professional who left her corporate job to start her social media strategy consultancy, Cre8tive Social. She also has a personal blog (melodeendigaye.com) where she posts about mental health and her life journey. Definitely read her essays on there! 

 Our conversation was recorded during the summer of 2021 and we got to reflect on the one year plus duration of the Covid-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter, self-reliance, the security of a job versus the reward of being your own boss, and of course navigating race and identity as an immigrant, in a place where open conversation on the topic is brand new and maybe public discourse is not yet nuanced.

But mainly, I wanted to speak to Melodee because she took the brave step of breaking out during the most uncertain period of our generation....You will enjoy her easy manner, open heart and joyous nature.

Thanks for sharing your story @melodeendigaye It was a great pleasure talking to you 😊

Link in profile to hear the episode.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

A Seat At The Table Podcast by Naima Yasin and Ingrid Baraka
Mary Consolata Namagambe - https://maryconsolatanamagambe.com/
Lucia Odoom Vesterlund
Lesley Ann Brown - Author of Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman  to Her European Son and the platform that was my lifeline during my stay in Denmark Black Girl on Mars

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In this episode, the guest is Thabisa Mjo, the vivacious and talented founder of the Johannesburg-based design company, Mash T Design Studio. Famous for the Tutu Light and Mjojo Cabinet, the studio has been rising from strength to strength since it was founded five years ago.  These two designs are part of the Louvre's collection at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs 

In this conversation we not only talk the ins and outs of running a creative company, but also the passion behind the work, the nature of collaboration, having a seat at the table, the meaning of accolades and the importance of being validate by your family. 

There are many legends and famous names mentioned and her are some of them: 

• Scott Billy and Bon Esperance Gallery : https://bonne-esperance-gallery.com/
• Qaqambile Bead Studio : https://www.instagram.com/qaqambilebeadstudio/
• Bambizulu Studio: http://www.bambizulu.com/?v=fb1c5b0d2f97
• Beauty Ngxongo : https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/318684
• Alfred Ntuli : http://www.bambizulu.com/product/orange-alfred-ntuli-collection-ukhamba/?v=fb1c5b0d2f97 

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Welcome to Episode 4 of Season 3!

I am super excited to share with you, the story of Alicia Goodwin, founder of the jewelry brand, Lingua Nigra.  

 It was a great sit-down during which we talked about her career trajectory, the name of her brand, her inspiration, the revived interest in handmade goods, sustainability and plenty of other personal insights. We also got into the George Floyd murder and how the resulting spotlight on black-owned brands has played out for her own businesses since 2020. 

 Alicia Goodwin is from Chicago and has been making jewelry since she was a child. She has moved on from beads and wire to brass, silver and gold. Making memorable, everyday wearable pieces. 

 She started her career out in New York city after graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She has worked with small and large jewerly brands and got to ride the first e-commerce wave when e-bay was taking off in the early 2000s. She now has her own e-shop and distributes her jewelry to stockists throughout the USA , as well as local and international customers.


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

 Candace Owens- (in)famous black conservative. Easy to find through a search… 

 Arkansas Diamond Mine – Fun fact: the only live diamond mine in the USA where you can

 Soweto – infamously built “close” to the gold mines where an innumerable number of migrant men died underground. It is surrounded by mine dumps whose dust can blind you during the windy months of the winter. A link here to the effects on the health of those living near these dumps.  

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This week, Shades and Layers is all about being Ghetto Fabulous with one of my favorite South African illustrators, Rendani Nemakavhani, better known as PRSDNT Honey! 

To say that I love her work would be an understatement. It’s not only the images that she creates that I find striking, but the way in which they are presented. And, also, her why not spirit is infectious. She approaches life and work with curiosity and she’s truly not afraid to try new forms of expression for her work.  

In her latest work, she ventures into the world of fashion and if you are lucky enough to live in Johannesburg, you can now buy some of her illustrations printed on stretch satin to wear, frame or do whatever with. 

Our conversation centers around the accessibility of art, affordability when there are bread and butter issues, making art that is a conversation starter, the kinds of conversations she wants to be having about her own work and how black people are introduced to art. 

We also discuss what I believe is our common areas of interest: women and blackness, being an outsider and relationships with the women in our lives. She talks extensively, deeply and fondly about her relationship with her late grandmother.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Gerard Sekoto - South African artist an musician
South African Protest Art - Posters created (mostly) anonymously under apartheid to protest the repressive regime that ruled between 1948 and the early 1990s. 

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In today’s episode, we head to the magical kingdom of Lesotho, where we meet Moliehi Mafantiri, the co-founder of the fast-growing sustainable homeware brand, Barali. 

Moliehi co-founded the company with her high school friend, Mookho Ntho, with the aim of sharing Basotho culture through storytelling, preserving local traditions and contributing to the Lesotho textile industry in a sustainable way.  

The two women also run a design studio, which funds their homeware brand, while amplifying their fellow Basotho’s voices, and they have started a digital story archive called Bonesa, which means to illuminate … 

In between all of this Moliehi is pursuing her Masters in Environment and Society at the University of Pretoria.  

We had this conversation just as she finished her mid-years, and we had the chance to explore topics like the challenges of finding local interest in sustainable design, the joys of reflecting traditions they treasure in their work with Barali and paying homage to other trailblazers who are choosing the road less traveled. 

Mentions and Links in this episode

Fair Trade - this links to an article that cites the pros and cons of Fair Trade. In the context of this episode of Shades and Layers this topic is discussed with Barali's working environment in mind. They source directly from mohair producers in rural Lesotho and South Africa,  with the intention of bringing fair, equitable and sustainable manufacturing practices to the Lesotho Textile industry.  Could the Fair Trade model be one to copy?

Dianamarena (pl.)/Seanamarena (sing.) - Lesotho traditional blanket
Here is more about Mookho's art:
Mokorotlo Hat - Traditional Basotho hat made from grass.
Bonesa - A Sesotho word meaning 'to shine a light on or illuminate'. Follow the link to read the story 'Mapei' by author Moso Sematlane
Mohair Industry - for a deep dive. A good read if you're interested in some facts an figures about this fine textile. 

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