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The Personal is Political - Interview with Christina Springer
In this episode, Amy speaks with Christina Springer, the founder of Mmm, Yes! which normalizes new Black aesthetics by manifesting diaspora designs, and a uniquely Black womanist voice in our homes, home furnishings and on the go.
They talk about feminism, racism and what led Christina on the path to where she is today.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The phrase the personal is political, has so much more depth of meaning to it than many people first realise. What is implied in this phrase is that the choices you make expand and move outwards and affect the world around you. The personal is an extensions of the self.
When we are talking about the start of the feminist movement we are actually talking about middle to upper class women. Women who already had some privilege. Poor white women have always had to work, they have always had to balance work and the home.
The need of the owning class was to be the sole lifeline, the sole support for a family. Which is why they would own all the land and stores in one town. It was also one of the reasons education became compulsory for children, it was somewhere for them to go and to be trained to be good workers.
If you don’t care about someone, it means that they don’t enter your mind. That they then aren’t part of your inner world, this is a large part of racism, this is why Black people have to push so hard to be seen by white people.
Black children are not treated tenderly by the white world. They have to learn from an early age how to deal with this, they don’t feel entitled to be seen or to be seen lovingly. Christina noticed in her store that if she smiled at white children they always smiled back, black children she smiled at always seemed confused.
Christina identifies as being Alt-Black. This encompasses so many things but simply, it is a way for her to identify with all of her ancestors and history as well as her own lived experience, including often being on the fringes of what is accepted and relishing those on the edges of society. Alt-Black is a way of being black in a world that is not confined by respectability politics, that is extremely focused on liberation and shows up for itself and what it is interested in rather than what it should be doing.
BEST MOMENTS
“Mood connect is just made to connect people together to heal”
“It’s not just you in the equation it’s everybody”
“I’m so over simplifying everything”
“A lot of people don’t feel like they need any revision”
"I have never been a real traditional artist...I have always loved those artists on the edges"
"We have to be more than those who colonised us"
VALUABLE RESOURCES
Follow Amy on Instagram
Get out of Sleep debt and feel great!
Sign up with Rise Energy and Sleep app and get your first 30-days free, also get 40% off your first year after the trial with this link! https://rise-sleep.app.link/moodconnect
ABOUT THE GUEST
Christina Springer is the founder of Mmmm, Yes! which normalizes new Black aesthetics by manifesting diaspora designs, and a uniquely Black womanist voice in our homes, home furnishings and on the go.
Mmmm, Yes! Is the result of Springer’s 30 year practice as a multidisciplinary artist. Her visual art has been exhibited in galleries nationally. Her realization that fine art is often inaccessible
to many led her to founding her company. She is the author of four collections of poetry, the most recent of which was published by Frayed Edge Press in 2018. She resides in Pittsburgh, PA., where she home educates her child (also an entrepreneur.)
ABOUT THE HOST
Amy Ouzoonian is the host of WeConnect podcast. She is also CEO and Founder of MoodConnect, mood media app to be released Summer of 2021, and Maitri Wellness, a health and wellness discount directory. She is a yoga teacher, performance artist and author of several books of poetry, fiction and plays. Amy is originally from New York City, but has spent the past 10 years living and creating with her daughter in Phoenix, Arizona.
CONTACT METHOD
Follow Amy on Instagram
Email Amy
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
View all episodes
By Amy OuzoonianIn this episode, Amy speaks with Christina Springer, the founder of Mmm, Yes! which normalizes new Black aesthetics by manifesting diaspora designs, and a uniquely Black womanist voice in our homes, home furnishings and on the go.
They talk about feminism, racism and what led Christina on the path to where she is today.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The phrase the personal is political, has so much more depth of meaning to it than many people first realise. What is implied in this phrase is that the choices you make expand and move outwards and affect the world around you. The personal is an extensions of the self.
When we are talking about the start of the feminist movement we are actually talking about middle to upper class women. Women who already had some privilege. Poor white women have always had to work, they have always had to balance work and the home.
The need of the owning class was to be the sole lifeline, the sole support for a family. Which is why they would own all the land and stores in one town. It was also one of the reasons education became compulsory for children, it was somewhere for them to go and to be trained to be good workers.
If you don’t care about someone, it means that they don’t enter your mind. That they then aren’t part of your inner world, this is a large part of racism, this is why Black people have to push so hard to be seen by white people.
Black children are not treated tenderly by the white world. They have to learn from an early age how to deal with this, they don’t feel entitled to be seen or to be seen lovingly. Christina noticed in her store that if she smiled at white children they always smiled back, black children she smiled at always seemed confused.
Christina identifies as being Alt-Black. This encompasses so many things but simply, it is a way for her to identify with all of her ancestors and history as well as her own lived experience, including often being on the fringes of what is accepted and relishing those on the edges of society. Alt-Black is a way of being black in a world that is not confined by respectability politics, that is extremely focused on liberation and shows up for itself and what it is interested in rather than what it should be doing.
BEST MOMENTS
“Mood connect is just made to connect people together to heal”
“It’s not just you in the equation it’s everybody”
“I’m so over simplifying everything”
“A lot of people don’t feel like they need any revision”
"I have never been a real traditional artist...I have always loved those artists on the edges"
"We have to be more than those who colonised us"
VALUABLE RESOURCES
Follow Amy on Instagram
Get out of Sleep debt and feel great!
Sign up with Rise Energy and Sleep app and get your first 30-days free, also get 40% off your first year after the trial with this link! https://rise-sleep.app.link/moodconnect
ABOUT THE GUEST
Christina Springer is the founder of Mmmm, Yes! which normalizes new Black aesthetics by manifesting diaspora designs, and a uniquely Black womanist voice in our homes, home furnishings and on the go.
Mmmm, Yes! Is the result of Springer’s 30 year practice as a multidisciplinary artist. Her visual art has been exhibited in galleries nationally. Her realization that fine art is often inaccessible
to many led her to founding her company. She is the author of four collections of poetry, the most recent of which was published by Frayed Edge Press in 2018. She resides in Pittsburgh, PA., where she home educates her child (also an entrepreneur.)
ABOUT THE HOST
Amy Ouzoonian is the host of WeConnect podcast. She is also CEO and Founder of MoodConnect, mood media app to be released Summer of 2021, and Maitri Wellness, a health and wellness discount directory. She is a yoga teacher, performance artist and author of several books of poetry, fiction and plays. Amy is originally from New York City, but has spent the past 10 years living and creating with her daughter in Phoenix, Arizona.
CONTACT METHOD
Follow Amy on Instagram
Email Amy
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.