The TMI Project Story Hour

This is Episode 9, Season 2 of The TMI Project Podcast: Black Stories Matter featuring TMI Project storytellers, mother-son duo Twinkle Burke and Ezra Hubbard. This episode was produced by Hayley Downs and mixed by Marlan Barry. It was co-produced by Radio Kingston. Special thanks to Ida Hakkila, Nate Brogan, Kale Kaposhilin, Jimmy Buff, and North Guild Productions. 

Twinkle isn't a teacher or a nurse, but sometimes she plays one on TV. Because in the acting world, producers and writers like to cast women of color as nurturers: teachers and nurses being the most popular forms.

11-year-old Ezra was playing in the street with his two friends when the cops were called for a "disturbance." During his questioning, Ezra began to worry about how he's perceived. He realized that he has a small panic attack every time he sees a police car.

Twinkle and Ezra’s stories were presented as part of TMI Project's Black Stories Matter true storytelling performance Truth to Power, which was presented at Pointe of Praise Church in Kingston, NY on June 21, 2019.

Useful Links: 

TMI Project: www.tmiproject.org

This is Episode 8, Season 2 of The TMI Project Podcast: Black Stories Matter featuring TMI Project storyteller Callie Jayne. This episode was produced by Hayley Downs and mixed by Marlan Barry. It was co-produced by Radio Kingston. Special thanks to Ida Hakkila, Nate Brogan, Kale Kaposhilin, Jimmy Buff, and North Guild Productions. 

Callie Jayne grew up in a white world. Faced with mental illness and addiction, Callie had to learn how to overcome all of the pressures of a white-driven, racist world, but those struggles, piece by piece, brought them to a different perception of their own expectations.

This story was presented as part of TMI Project's Black Stories Matter true storytelling performance Truth to Power, which was presented at Pointe of Praise Church in Kingston, NY on June 21, 2019.

Callie Jayne is the Founder & Executive Director of Rise Up Kingston.

Useful Links: 

• TMI Project: www.tmiproject.org
• Rise Up Kingston: https://riseupkingston.org

This is Episode 7, Season 2 of The TMI Project Podcast: Black Stories Matter featuring TMI Project storyteller Erica Brown. This episode was produced by Hayley Downs and mixed by Marlan Barry. It was co-produced by Radio Kingston. Special thanks to Ida Hakkila, Nate Brogan, Kale Kaposhilin, Jimmy Buff, and North Guild Productions. 

After years of enduring intimate partner violence, working mother Erica Brown reaches a tipping point in her lengthy, toxic, and abusive relationship, all thanks to a corned beef sandwich. Here she is reading her story at TMI Project’s first Black Stories Matter performance in 2017.

Useful Links: 

• TMI Project: www.tmiproject.org
• National Domestic Violence Hotline: https://www.thehotline.org/

This is Episode 6, Season 2 of The TMI Project Podcast: Black Stories Matter featuring TMI Project storyteller Kesai Reddick. This episode was produced by Hayley Downs and mixed by Marlan Barry. It was co-produced by Radio Kingston. Special thanks to Ida Hakkila, Nate Brogan, Kale Kaposhilin, Jimmy Buff, and North Guild Productions. 

Useful Links: 

TMI Project: www.tmiproject.org

This is Episode 5, Season 2 of The TMI Project Podcast: Black Stories Matter featuring TMI Project storyteller Shawaine Davis. This episode was produced by Hayley Downs and mixed by Marlan Barry. It was co-produced by Radio Kingston. Special thanks to Ida Hakkila, Nate Brogan, Kale Kaposhilin, Jimmy Buff, and North Guild Productions. 

Shawaine Davis was born in Jamaica where she was in the majority but at 7 she moved to Kingston, NY, where she quickly learned that racism, ignorance, and fear are synonymous words. Shawaine wrote and performed her story during TMI Project's first-ever all-teen production of Black Stories Matter. 

Useful Links: 

• TMI Project: www.tmiproject.org
• Kingston High School: https://www.kingstoncityschools.org/khs

This is Episode 4, Season 2 of The TMI Project Podcast: Black Stories Matter featuring TMI Project storyteller Freedom Walker. This episode was produced by Hayley Downs and mixed by Marlan Barry. It was co-produced by Radio Kingston. Special thanks to Ida Hakkila, Nate Brogan, Kale Kaposhilin, Jimmy Buff, and North Guild Productions. 

There are two sides to the gentrification coin: creation and destruction. Freedom Walker saw both during her exile from Harlem to Kingston, NY. Freedom Walker was one of our first Black Stories Matter workshop participants, and her story is from TMI Project's first Black Stories Matter performance at Point of Praise Family Center in Kingston, NY in 2017. 

Useful Links: 

TMI Project: www.tmiproject.org

This is Episode 3, Season 2 of The TMI Project Podcast: Black Stories Matter featuring TMI Project storyteller and Co-director of its Black Stories Matter program Micah. This episode was produced by Hayley Downs and mixed by Marlan Barry. It was co-produced by Radio Kingston. Special thanks to Ida Hakkila, Nate Brogan, Kale Kaposhilin, Jimmy Buff, and North Guild Productions. 

In addition to leading TMI Project storytelling workshops, Micah serves as the manager at GWI’s (Good Works Institute) Greenhouse Kingston, a yoga teacher at Mudita, and creator of DAY 1 (a New Year’s Day community event). He is on the board of Wild Earth (a non-profit Wilderness School), Radio Kingston, The Center for Creative Education, and O+ (a nonprofit health and wellness festival for artists and creators). He also serves as City of Kingston’s Art Commissioner at the Kingston Farmers Market.

Useful Links: 

• MTV: https://www.mtv.com/
• BET: https://www.bet.com/

This is Episode 2, Season 2 of The TMI Project Podcast: Black Stories Matter featuring TMI Project storyteller and Co-director of Black Stories Matter, Dara Lurie. This episode was produced by Hayley Downs and mixed by Marlan Barry. It was co-produced by Radio Kingston. Special thanks to Ida Hakkila, Nate Brogan, Kale Kaposhilin, Jimmy Buff, and North Guild Productions. 

In addition to leading TMI Project’s Black Stories Matter program, Dara is an author and manuscript coach. She received a B.A. in Film & Theater from Vassar College and M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Hunter College. Dara grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and migrated in the early 1980s to West Berlin, Germany, where she tended bar, wrote, and performed in the theater while living in different communities of squatters, Green Party activists, journalists, teachers, and social workers. Her first book, Great Space of Desire; Writing for Personal Evolution, is a memoir and creative guide for writers wishing to tell their own stories.

Useful Links: 

• “Great Space of Desire: Writing for Personal Evolution” https://www.amazon.com/Great-Space-Desire-Personal-Evolution-ebook/dp/B006IGCJLI
• https://darajoycelurie.com/

This is Episode 1, Season 2 of The TMI Project Podcast: Black Stories Matter featuring Jessieca McNabb. In this premiere episode we take a deep dive into activist, stand-up comedian, and radio personality Jessieca McNabb’s life story.

This episode was written, edited, and produced by Hayley Downs and mixed by Marlan Barry. It was co-produced by Radio Kingston. Special thanks to Ida Hakkila, Nate Brogan, Kale Kaposhilin, Jimmy Buff, and North Guild Productions. 

Useful Links: 

• Stewart’s Shops: https://www.stewartsshops.com/
• TMI Project: https://www.tmiproject.org/
• "Don't Step on Jessieca's Nikes" on Medium: https://medium.com/black-stories-matter/dont-step-on-jessieca-s-nikes-79f4874e86c6

The TMI Project Podcast is a free quarterly podcast featuring radically candid true stories from historically underrepresented populations often overlooked by mainstream media. 

In alignment with the Black Lives Matter movement, Season two of The TMI Project Podcast: Black Stories Matter amplifies the voices of Black storytellers who got on stage and shared their stories of joy, pain and resilience.

TMI Project will launch Season 2 of The TMI Project Podcast: Black Stories Matter, on October 28th, 2020.

About TMI Project

TMI Project is a nonprofit transmedia organization that believes in the power of changing the world one radically true story at a time. Since 2010, TMI Project has led approximately 90 true storytelling workshops and staged live storytelling performances by more than 1,750 storytellers, which have been presented to audiences of nearly 50,000 people in schools, colleges, prisons, mental health clinics, theaters, community centers and the United Nations. The culminating content – written stories, live storytelling performances, videos, and podcasts – is accessible to an all-inclusive audience. 

In response to Trayvon Martin’s and so many other Black people's murders at the hand of police, TMI Project launched Black Stories Matter – Black-led true storytelling programming where Black folks can write about, share, and reflect upon their experiences without having to justify, explain, or defend the truth of their lived experiences.

The Voices of Season 2: Black Stories Matter

Dara Lurie
STORYTELLER AND WORKSHOP LEADER

“Writing and then sharing my story in my first TMI Project performance in 2017 allowed me to affirm and claim an important part of my life experience. Performing with and now mentoring other groups of TMI Project workshop writers, I’ve found the family I always wanted: a family based on telling stories with truth, courage and compassion.”

Freedom Walker
STORYTELLER

“Reading the story was my gift to my family members who have passed on and to my ancestors. I was able to acknowledge them. I never had that opportunity to do that publicly before. I was able to challenge what society labelled as one of the many terrible situations to go through. In society’s term, my life was basically over.”

Twinkle Burke
STORYTELLER

“I felt and feel empowered to speak up about racism that I encounter daily. It has helped me be stronger in sighting and correcting the ‘pedestrian’ racism in the world.

Jessieca McNabb
STORYTELLER

“TMI Project has definitely changed my life. It has taught me how to express myself in a way that is healing. I am able to articulate situations without the shame that normally would have been attached.”

Shawaine Davis
STORYTELLER

“Writing my story with TMI Project was like a light coming through a dark door. My story brought out elements in myself I did not previously think I had. It also helped me gain confidence, and most importantly, it helped me find the strength to speak up. I felt free to share my story, I felt like now I had a voice and people would hear it.”

This show would not be possible without:

Hayley Downs, Podcast Producer
Writer, storyteller, documentary filmmaker and TMI Project workshop leader.
 

Radio Kingston, Podcast Partner 
Radio Kingston is a non-commercial platform dedicated to a vibrant, just, and healthy Kingston centered around community storytelling, artistic and musical expression, conversation and connection.

Black Stories Matter will be of particular interest to the growing Black Lives Matter movement to end systemic racism as activists and allies continue the work of amplifying Black voices.

In conversation with shows like The 1619 Project and Into America, Black Stories Matter serves as a resource for authentic, intersectional and nuanced stories about the Black experience that inspires introspection and accountability.

Visit tmiproject.org/podcastseason2 for more information, and subscribe to The TMI Project Podcast everywhere you listen to podcasts.