Who Yo People Is

In this episode Ni'Ja talks about forgiveness, Love and healing…finding home on a cellular level…the functions of nomadism….and the work of exploring Ancestral stories - centralizing dark matter, dark energy and Blackness as everything.

An interdisciplinary artist and writer - Ni'Ja is and Creative Capital, MAP Fund, Bessie-Award winning artist currently teaching experimental choreography at the University of California, Riverside.

http://www.nijawhitson.com https://vimeo.com/nijawhitson

#whoyopeopleis #nijawhitson #crossroadsleadershiplab

In this episode, D'Lo and I are joined by Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones (my wife). The three of us talk about shining light on queer narratives and the work of growing into our rolls as elders too soon. We revisit some of my back in the day craycray that D'Lo witnessed me grow through, and we speak on the power of staying in it with each other/finding our messy way forward with patience and kindness and Love.

D'Lo is an actor/writer/comic who in addition to touring his own solo works, has been in many films and series including: TRANSPARENT (Amazon), SENSE 8 (Netflix), Mr. ROBOT (CW) \ BRUISING FOR BESOS, DYKE CENTRAL and his own web series PRIVATE DICK.

Omi is an artist/scholar whose work focuses on performance ethnography, theatrical jazz, Yoruba-based aesthetics, Black Feminisms, and activist theatre.

More about D'Lo and all dem Guests at https://www.whoyopeopleis.com/guest-artists

D'Lo's website: https://www.dlocokid.com More about Omi at: https://www.theatricaljazzbookparty.com

Originally from San Antonio, Tejas, Adelina is the eldest daughter of eight. She grounds her work in Indigenous tenets, especially the practice of story as medicine. Adelina is an award-winning and critically acclaimed artist working primarily in the areas of acting, writing, producing and directing in theater/television and film.

In this raw, open conversation Adelina talks about Breaking cycles, healing trauma, and reclaiming medicine…by looking at the roots of wickedness and sacredness. She considers the realities of help from the other side in her Journey of being an artist/carrying her Mama's medicine.

More about Adelina and all our guests at: http://whoyopeopleis.com

More about Adelina at:

http://www.adelinaanthony.comhttp://www.aderisaproductions.com

Samia Abou-Samra creates music as Wailing - the cry, the longing prayer to inspire the deepest love. Samia os founder of Whale Wonder: a playspace that incubates incubators for the elevation of consciousness. Samia and is co-founder of Turtle Tank: an incubator for Radical Love and Freedom that supports radical creators, entrepreneurs and leaders in creating wealth and well-being.

In this conversation Samia talks about civil unrest, Arabic Jazz, the evolution of consciousness, land and stories of land, and music that comes from revolution, political satire and longing. At the end of our conversation Samia Wails for us.

More about Samia HERE.

GABRIELLE CIVIL is a black feminist performance artist, originally from Detroit, MI. She has premiered fifty original performance art works around the world tackling race, body, politics, grief, and desire. She is the author of the performance memoirs Swallow the Fish and Experiments in Joy. She teaches Creative Writing & Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts.

The child of Haitian and African American parents – in this episode Gabrielle speaks on education, revolutionary heroes, family legends and Black experimental fem women art makers. More about Gabrielle HERE.

Maria Bauman-Morales is a NY-based "Bessie" award winning multi-disciplinary artist and community organizer. With her company, MBDance, Maria presents work that centers the non-linear and linear stories and bodies of queer people of color. She is a 2018 Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Fellow and is currently Artist in Residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange.

In this episode Maria speaks of Florida Water people, and Works that tether...giving witness participants the opportunity to embody knowing that we are not alone, that we don't have to do it alone. We talk about openness, vulnerability, Joy in making work and hard working Black woman fiery empathy and Love.

More about Maria at: http://www.mbdance.net

In this episode, Sharon introduces the series and talks about how it came to be.

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This podcast is supported by The Crossroads Leadership Lab at The University of Vermont's Leadership for Sustainability Masters Program in the Rubinstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

More deets at: http://whoyopeopleis.com