The CARMA Chronicles

In this episode, host Chris Nguon has the honor to be in community with Kisai Henriquez, one of the dopest community healers that Flourish Agenda has had the pleasure to meet and learn from. Kisai, who has worked out of San Francisco for more than a decade, brings into the conversation space authentic love and grace for healing work and the communal connection that evokes the essence of holding space for colleagues, families, and young people. Kisai is the founder of CommUNITY and the most incredible educator, creator, and community builder. Our conversation, next.

This episode features Dr. Shawn Ginwright, Dr. Lee Porscha Moore and is hosted by Flourish Agenda’s Lead Content and Training Manager, Jane Lee. Our team went to The BOOST Conference in Palm Springs, California. This out-of-school time conference attracts thousands of youth development professionals from all over the world.

This was recorded in front of a live audience and our team share stories and advice on how Healing Centered Engagement can transform the lives of youth along with the professionals who serve them. 

Please excuse the audio quality as our normal recording setup was not available. 

In this episode, host Chris Nguon talks implementation and the power of culture with the wonderful Cynthia Nambo, an amazing person and mother who holds space as an equity-centered facilitator, former principal, educator, and professional learning developer with more than 28 years in education.  Using systems thinking approaches, she has designed solutions for complex systems in education, race, gender, and economic equity through cross-cultural collaborations, coalition building, innovative and healing centered practices. 

In this episode, we hold space in community with the joyful Evin Glaude, a dope community healer and the amazing coordinator of this year’s Family Camp. Sista Evin takes us on her exploration of identity, gives insight on how freedom and liberation are directly connected to choice, and the power that Akili programs have on community. One of the biggest rising stars in the healing profession, Evin is only at the tip of the vast impact she will have through the vehicle of the HCE world. 

In this episode, host Chris Nguon explores the world of art, creation, and healing through painting with renown local artist Dariane Beamon. Dariane, better known as Dari B the Artist, offers insight into her healing journey and how her love work – painting – is used as a vehicle for the healing and restoration of herself and the young people she has worked with in various school settings. Dari B also talks about the path towards finding her healing space and the many stops along the way before recognizing that her passion was her way, both professionally and personally.

In this episode, host Chris Nguon has the absolute honor to chat with Judith M. Hill, a dynamic program director with YouTurn, a brilliant violence prevention organization based out of Omaha, Nebraska. Judith takes us through her own healing journey over the years, including her pivot in how she views and integrates healing work as a leader in her organization and in her community. Judith also gives tremendous and in-depth context on the process of healing for young people in 2021, the uniqueness of how the work has shifted over the years and breaks down the many ways that practitioners can show up for young people – and themselves. 

In this episode, host Chris Nguon taps in with United Playaz founder and executive director Rudy Corpuz Jr., who takes listeners on a journey two decades long in violence prevention and youth development work. Rudy is as transparent and honest as they come, lifting up his journey, trials and tribulations along the way stretching from his time growing up in San Francisco, his incarceration, and his eventual path towards building one of the most successful youth and violence prevention organizations that has roots and chapters not only across the country, but now around the world.

Rudy explains how important authenticity is to successful and sustainable work, while centering love and self-healing as pillars towards creating and building strong partnerships not only with youth, but with the institutions that are all part of the community ecosystem. Never one to show intimidation in expressing what needs to be said, this conversation with Brotha Rudy is rich in honest complexity that paints a beautifully pure portrayal of grassroots community work and how healing plays a big part in making it go.

In this episode, host Chris Nguon dives into the foundational elements of CARMA. Why is this podcast called the CARMA Chronicles? Where did the title originate? What does it stand for? And why is CARMA (C.A.R.M.A.) significant in healing work? We’ll also share two clips from Dr. Shawn Ginwright, including a poignant story about his experience working in a prison that encapsulates how Healing Centered Engagement can show up in the most unexpected of places.

In this episode, host Chris Nguon speaks to the multi-talented and proud Oakland native Aman Sebahtu. Aman comes into our conversation with a wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and personal experience in both the justice reform, violence prevention, and healing centered fields. An attorney by trade by way of the University of San Francisco School of Law, Aman also works heavily with the City of Oakland violence prevention initiative, various grassroots organizing in many forms, and is currently the Network Coordinator for the National Offices of Violence Prevention Network.

Aman talks about his journey through the various sectors of violence prevention work, how healing centered engagement has not only aided but built a foundation in community radical healing work, and the beautiful essence that is the Broccoli City festival in Washington D.C. Aman also offers a poignant look at how he uses healing centered engagement and the CARMA model as a pivot to how practitioners could shift their view of how mental health shows up in communities of color.

In this episode, host Chris Nguon speaks to the dynamic Ree Botts-Ward. Ree is a renowned poet, artist, and educator, who is also a doctoral candidate at the University of California-Berkeley in the department of African American and African Diaspora studies. Ree's first book, mourning my inner[blackgirl] child, dives into Ree's personal healing journey as a young Black girl growing up on the East Coast.

Ree talks about the process of her own healing and how she aimed to heal others while not really understanding what that meant for herself. Ree's reflection of her healing journey, which has been filled with brilliant moments of joy and heart-wrenching trauma, allows the listener into the life of one of the most dynamic young healing-centered practitioners in the world. From her young black girl life growing up in Philadelphia to her community love work now in Oakland, Ree's personal story is one that displays the very real reality of growing up as a Black girl turned woman in America.