Sticky Note Conversations

Time is flying — Erika Washington can't believe we're already halfway through the year. In this special roundup episode, host Erika Washington revisits the most powerful conversations from Season 3 of Sticky Note Conversations, a season that explored what it takes to build stronger, more resilient communities while defining and demanding democracy.

From organizers to writers, historians to community leaders, this season's guests proved that real change begins with honest conversations and the courage to fight for more. Relive the throwbacks:

• Alvin Hill – Boys Don't Cry: A raw conversation on masculinity, grief, and parenting, challenging the idea that strength means hiding emotion — especially for Black men.
• Gwen Frisbie-Fulton – Coal: A firsthand account of living next door to neo-Nazi recruiters, unpacking how economic hardship fuels extremism and how communities can fight back.
• Tomás Garduño – We Built This City: 25 years of grassroots organizing wisdom, distilled into hard-won lessons on humility, timing, and courage.
• Claytee White – Fight the Power: A tribute to the late Dr. Ruby Duncan, tracing her legacy of welfare rights organizing and the Black women who powered the movement behind the scenes.
• Dawn Blagrove – This Woman's Work: An unflinching take on electoral strategy, accountability, and building lasting community institutions beyond crisis response.
• Cecia Alvarado – Pura Vida: An honest look at immigration, identity, and why authentic outreach matters in reaching Latino voters.

Erika closes with a personal reflection on what it means to stay engaged — and why she refuses to just watch from the sidelines.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and wherever you stream audio.

• (00:00) - Intro

In this episode of Sticky Note Conversations, host Erika Washington sits down with actress, director, theater educator, and MFA artist Vanecia Boone for a wide-ranging conversation about building a creative, fulfilling life on her own terms.

Vanecia opens up about raising her eight-year-old son as a single Black mother — from navigating hypermasculinity and code-switching to the tough decision to pull him out of traditional school for homeschooling. She shares how motherhood transformed her from a free-spirited "couch surfer" into someone deeply intentional about safety, routine, and presence.

The conversation moves through Vanecia's lifelong love of theater, her upcoming role in Purlie Victorious at the International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, and the plays that changed her life. She and Erika dig into AI's growing role in the classroom and in playwriting, the acting techniques she teaches her students (and her son) for "taking off the mask," and her path to becoming an herbalist after her own mother's death.

They close with a candid discussion of reproductive justice, birth stories, legacy, and what the American dream really looks like for a 38-year-old single Black woman building community, land, and freedom for the next generation.

Topics covered:

• Becoming a mother and redefining herself
• Raising a Black son with self-awareness and freedom
• Homeschooling and navigating judgment as a parent
• Her journey into theater and upcoming performance in Purlie Victorious
• AI's impact on education, playwriting, and authenticity in art
• Mental health, acting technique, and "weathering"
• Herbalism, reproductive justice, and her birth story
• Legacy, identity, and reclaiming her name after loss

Learn more about the International Black Theatre Festival at NCBlackRep.org.

• (00:00) - Introduction

This week on Sticky Note Conversations, host Erika Washington sits down with Athar Haseebullah, Executive Director of the ACLU of Nevada, for a deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation. Athar shares his journey as the son of Pakistani immigrants growing up Muslim in Las Vegas, the loss of his father as a teenager, and how his faith and community shaped his commitment to justice work — leading him to Howard University for both undergrad and law school.

The conversation turns to Athar's work leading Nevada's largest civil rights organization, breaking down what the ACLU actually does, how it's funded, and why it takes on the government exclusively through litigation, policy advocacy, and community education.

Erika and Athar dig into some of the biggest legal battles of the year, including the Supreme Court's rulings on birthright citizenship, temporary protected status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants, and trans athletes' rights — and what these decisions mean for equal protection going forward. They also explore bigger questions: what democracy really means in America today, the generational shift happening in politics, and Athar's own vision of the American dream.

In this episode:

• Athar's upbringing as a first-generation Pakistani American Muslim in Las Vegas
• Choosing Howard University over Harvard and Yale
• What the ACLU does and how it's funded
• Major Supreme Court decisions on immigration and civil rights
• The Supreme Court ruling on trans athletes and equal protection
• Is America a democracy — and can it become a stronger one?
• Athar's vision of the American dream

Follow Athar Haseebullah on TikTok and Instagram @AtharEsq, and learn more about the ACLU of Nevada at ACLU-NV.

Sticky Note Conversations airs Saturdays at 9:00 AM on KUNV 91.5, and is available everywhere you stream podcasts.

• (00:00) - Introduction

What starts as a lighthearted catch-up between host Erika Washington and the shows editor, Wil Black quickly turns into one of the most honest conversations yet. Erika recounts an unsettling encounter she witnessed at a Las Vegas hotel — a young hostess being harassed by an older male guest — and unpacks the discomfort, complicity, and responsibility that come with bystanding. From there, the two dive deep into the messy, tender work of parenting adult children: Wil reflects on his daughter's wedding and the complicated feelings it stirred up about fatherhood and forgiveness, while Erika opens up about the push-and-pull of trying to build friendships with kids who are becoming their own people. The conversation winds through dating apps, communication styles, and the different ways love gets shown and received — landing, as always, on real talk about growth, grace, and showing up for the people we love.

Host Erika Washington revisits powerful moments from past guests to tackle one big question: What is democracy, and do we really have it?

From a mother teaching her toddlers about voting through dance-party elections, to a candid late-night conversation with her friend Derek about Trump, free speech, and why Black voters need to show up decisively — this episode weaves together perspectives on equity, representation, and the gap between democracy's ideals and its reality in America.

Guests reflect on gerrymandering, voter suppression, the power of local elections, and why "vote for the lesser of two evils" misses the point of what democracy should be. It's an unfiltered, funny, and deeply honest look at democracy from the people living it every day.

In this episode of Sticky Note Conversations, host Erika Washington sits down with Cecia Alvarado, an independent political consultant who has spent years organizing within Nevada's Latino community. Cecia arrived in the United States from Costa Rica at 16 — alone, with limited English, and quickly placed in ninth grade despite her age — and has been navigating broken systems ever since.

Erika and Cecia cover a lot of ground: why Latino voters supported Donald Trump not once but twice, the "mariachi politics" that Democrats rely on every October, and why waiting your turn is advice women of color simply can't afford to take. Cecia also opens up about her own 20-year journey toward U.S. citizenship — still in progress — and what it's like to be "too American" in Costa Rica and "not American enough" at home.

This is a candid, honest conversation about identity, immigration, political power, and what the American dream actually looks like when you've had to fight for every piece of it.

Topics covered: Latino voter trends, the 2022 primary, immigrant experiences, political consulting, civic engagement, and the ongoing work of building community in Nevada.

• (00:00) - SNC S3 Cecia Alvarado - "Pura Vida" Alvarado FULLFINAL

What is the price of a Black child's life? Host Erika Washington sits down with returning guest Alvin Hill — entrepreneur, formerly incarcerated father, and constraint navigation researcher — to unpack two cases that shook the internet: the not-guilty verdict in South Carolina v. Rick Chow, where 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton was shot and killed over a suspected dollar water bottle, and the 35-year sentence handed to 18-year-old Karmelo Anthony in Texas.

Erika and Alvin go deep on the layers beneath both cases — from the complexity of young Black boys carrying guns in dangerous neighborhoods, to how a defense attorney can strip a child of their innocence in a courtroom. They wrestle with hard questions: Was justice served? Can you judge anyone's reaction? And what do we tell our kids about a system that was never designed for them?

Alvin gets raw about his own past, fathering a son in Southwest Detroit, drill music, and what it really means to teach Black children to maneuver a world that's stacked against them — without snuffing out their light. The conversation also touches on the calls to boycott Asian-owned businesses and what it truly means to support Black businesses with intention.

This one is layered, honest, and necessary.

• (00:00) - SNC S3 Alvin Hill - "Murder Was The Case"

In this  episode of Sticky Note Conversations, host Erika Washington and Derek Washington record from the new West Las Vegas Library podcast room, discuss Dr. Ruby Duncan’s legacy and her emphasis on voting, and review Nevada’s recent primary election. They criticize campaign misinformation and union political tactics—particularly around efforts to unseat incumbents over opposition to the film tax credit bill—arguing these moves fueled racialized dynamics and community backlash. They highlight low turnout (about 21% of active registered voters), discuss close and notable races (including Jovan Jackson’s decisive win and Howard Watts’ tight contest), and note strong performances by several progressive candidates. They also address concerns about closed primaries for nonpartisan voters and discuss issues shaping future elections, including organizing outreach to independents and the impact of Israel politics on young voters ahead of 2028.

• (00:00) - Intro & West Las Vegas Library

Host Erika Washington interviews Washoe County Commission Chair and gubernatorial candidate Alexis Hill during Nevada’s midterm primary season. Hill shares her background as a mother and career public servant and explains why she decided to run for office. She highlights county efforts to address homelessness by shifting to a coordinated regional model focused on housing outcomes, reporting reductions in street homelessness and housing about 68 people per month, while emphasizing the need for more permanent supportive housing and opposing criminalization of homelessness. Hill also discusses mental health initiatives, including reopening an inpatient youth behavioral health facility with 92 beds, and local zoning reforms to encourage “missing middle” housing such as ADUs and fourplexes. She supports temporary rent caps, campaign finance reform, and modernizing Nevada’s tax system by taxing wealth, billionaires, and corporations, criticizes corporate incentives, questions the sustainability of film tax credits, and defines democracy as participation that requires stronger state engagement and county oversight.

• (00:00) - Intro

This revisiting episode of American Dreams: Reproductive Justice continues examining how the carceral system affects families and communities through the story of Jovan Jackson, a 32-year-old Las Vegas entrepreneur and community advocate who became a convicted felon after methamphetamine use, mental health crisis, and a robbery tied to suicidal desperation. His parents describe his compassionate childhood, the family trauma after his brother Matthew was killed, and the lack of long-term adult treatment options in Nevada. Jovan says incarceration helped him sober, receive medication, and find purpose in a Nevada firefighting work camp, while criticizing prison labor pay as slavery under constitutional exception clauses; Nevada Assemblyman Howard Watts III discusses a ballot amendment to remove that language. The episode also covers barriers to employment after release, the importance of family support, AB431 restoring voting rights in Nevada, and Jovan’s decision to register to vote, run for office, and campaign on housing, criminal justice reform, and free mental health services while recovering from testicular cancer.