YOU Better!

In this episode, we talk about what it looks like to go on a healing journey towards self-love.  Kiesha is joined by a dear friend who has made her life’s work about helping others understand and get to “the work.” Her name is Tira Feierstein, and she is a writer, artist and spiritual thought leader who is passionate about helping other woman feel less alone on their journey. Through her artful expression and storytelling, it is her mission to help illuminate a path of authenticity and healing for feminine empowerment. Her work focuses on women, but fellas, rest assured that this episode has lots of goodness for you too.  In this interview, Tira takes us through her insight about the important steps in a self-love journey with some of her personal reflections along the way.

Find Tira Online:

• Tira on Instagram @her_story_project

Shop book recommendations from this episode:

• All about Love: New Visions a book by Bell Hooks (bookshop.org)
• Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life a book by Susan Forward (bookshop.org)
• Clarity & Connection a book by Yung Pueblo (bookshop.org)
• You can check out more recommendations in the YOU Better Bookshop

Book Kiesha at https://kieshagarrison.co

Directly support the podcast financially:

• Cash App
• Venmo
• PayPal.Me

To connect with host Kiesha B. Free, visit kiesha.org

So many people have the experience of feeling like they are in the wrong profession. But they stick it out for years even when that work environment is so bad it feels like it’s going to break them. We have gotten so used to sacrificing our selves in the name of survival, that it is hard to even imagine what another kind of existence could look like.

This episode's guest, Sukie Jefferson, is someone who allowed herself to pursue another way. Sukie and I share the experience of both being young Black women who left corporate jobs to launch our own businesses.  Her company is called Suki’s candle company and she’s a new kind of leader.  I call her the soulful CEO.  In this interview conversation Suki takes us inside the experience of how her life changed when -in an act of self-love- she made space for and listened to the messages from inside herself and allowed them to guide her decisions. And let me tell you this…Suki is not continuing on with business as usual. 

Find Sukie Online:

• Sukie's Candle Co. Website
• Sukies Candle Co. on Instagram (@sukiescandleco) 

Shop book recommendations from this episode:

• Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
• The Alchemist
• Caste: The Origins of our Discontents
• You can support the podcast by checking out more books in my Bookshop store. YOU Better Bookshop

Book Kiesha at https://kieshagarrison.co

To connect with host Kiesha B. Free, visit kiesha.org

Detroit native and Morehouse Man, Mark Hatcher, sits down with Kiesha to share his life story.  He talks through his journey from his premature birth to his mother's guidance which provided inspiration for how he moves with purpose and how he fathers his elementary school aged daughter Maris Mays.  He also celebrates the goodness that was poured into him on the campus of historic Morehouse College.  Take in this story of a Black man whose model of manhood highlights community care, service-based leadership and honoring black femininity.  There are lessons here about being open to new ideas and perspectives and about letting go of the quest for perfection

Resources from this episode:

Mindfulness Resources

• Oprah and Deepak 21-Day Meditation Experience; Great for beginners
• Sleep Cove Guided Medications: Large variety of options and scenarios
• 12-Minute Meditation: A resource for specified mindfulness

Books Recommendations 

• The Alchemist: Great book for personal centering and finding all that you are looking for within yourself.
• Four Agreements: Simple book for redefining what's important and refocusing
• Before I Forget ; A novel loosely based on a true story helped me with understanding parenting and lineage.
• Tuesday's with Morrie: Great book based upon a true story, highlighting the importance of connectivity with other humans
• God's Debris: Considers a subjective look at God's Omnipotence.
• The Professional Troublemaker – by Luvvie Ajayi Jones - Learn how to cause some good trouble.
• The Quotations of Mayor Coleman A. Young

Contact Info

• Send booking inquiries for Kiesha to (info at kieshagarrison.co)
• Kiesha on IG: @kiesha_garrison

Directly support the podcast financially:

• Cash App
• Venmo
• PayPal.Me

To connect with host Kiesha B. Free, visit kiesha.org

What happens when you feel like your environment does not properly reflect love back to you?  On this episode of YOU Better! Charles E. Sims Jr. reflects on his melancholy filled childhood and his journey to seeing himself as a “60-year-old late bloomer.” This self-proclaimed prisoner of hope also shares his learnings about self now that he is experiencing the ultimate safe space with his boyfriend. 

Shop book recommendations from this episode:

• The Bluest Eye a book by Toni Morrison (bookshop.org)
• Song of Solomon a book by Toni Morrison (bookshop.org)
• You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience a book by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown (bookshop.org)
• The Mother of Black Hollywood: A Memoir a book by Jenifer Lewis (bookshop.org)
• You can check out more recommendations in the YOU Better Bookshop

Book Kiesha at https://kieshagarrison.co

Directly support the podcast financially:

• Cash App
• Venmo
• PayPal.Me

To connect with host Kiesha B. Free, visit kiesha.org

In this last episode in the YOU Better! Take Action Series, Kiesha highlights the work of storyteller Ava DuVernay whose aunt sparked her interest in the arts when she was a little girl.  Kiesha reflects on how she has learned from and taken action based on Ava's work, chiefly the documentary 13th. She also discusses how shining a light on issues and opportunities for learning is a critical action to take as we work for a more humane society.

Episode Resources:

• Watch 13th in full for free
• The Uncounted Workforce - NPR Interview
• Example of a documentary engagement guide: (this one is for True Justice, Bryan Stevenson's doc)
• Article: How the US Got its First Police Force
• Books: Coming Soon

Contact Info

• Send booking inquiries for Kiesha to (info at kieshagarrison.co)
• Kiesha on IG: @kiesha_garrison

Directly support the podcast financially:

• Cash App
• Venmo
• PayPal.Me

To connect with host Kiesha B. Free, visit kiesha.org

Most Black people, despite our ingenuity, still have to push through a wall of distrust, opposition and financial impediment that was built at the base of our family trees from the beginning. In this episode from the Take Action Series, Kiesha focuses on learning from work of Kerry Coddett, an activist and multi-hyphenate creative in NYC, who is doing her part to chip away at that wall.  Kerry and her sister have showed moxie and creativity in designing and running a pub crawl with an aim to demonstrate black buying power, support the local black economy, and honor the seven principles of Kwanzaa.

Episode Resources:

• Learn more about Kerry Coddett
  • kerrycoddett.com
  • Kwanzaa Crawl
  • Interview with Alex Babbitt on Behind the Mic Stand

Contact Info

• Send booking inquiries for Kiesha to (info at kieshagarrison.co)
• Kiesha on IG: @kiesha_garrison

Directly support the podcast financially:

• Cash App
• Venmo
• PayPal.Me

To connect with host Kiesha B. Free, visit kiesha.org

In this episode from the Take Action Series, Kiesha focuses on learning from the life of women's health advocate and activist Byllye Avery.  She shares some stories from the early parts of Byllye's  life and how she ended up beginning her work as an activist supporting women who were seeking abortions in the 70's.

Episode Resources:

• Learn more about Byllye Avery
  • VIDEO: 2018 UCSF Medals - Byllye Avery
  • VIDEO: Byllye Avery: Warming Up the Clinic
  • INTERVIEW: Voices of Feminism Oral History Project: Avery, Byllye (smith.edu)
• Books:
  • The Feminine Mystique (Anniversary)
  • Liberating Masturbation a Meditation On Self Love Paperback 

Contact Info

• Send booking inquiries for Kiesha to (info at kieshagarrison.co)
• Kiesha on IG: @kiesha_garrison

Directly support the podcast financially:

• Cash App
• Venmo
• PayPal.Me

To connect with host Kiesha B. Free, visit kiesha.org

In this special summer series about taking action to care for community, Kiesha is taking a pause from interviews to share what she is learning about people who have led important movements in their communities along with the actions they are inspiring her to take.  

This episode features the writing of activist Dean Spade, who authored the book Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) and has inspired Kiesha's current focus.  Mutual aid projects are a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions not just through symbolic acts or putting pressure on gov't representatives, but by actually building new social relations that are more survivable. 

Episode Resources:

• Buy the Book: Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade
• Learn about Dean Spade
• Video: We're All We've Got, We're All We Need: A Mutual Aid Explainer
• Organizations mentioned in this episode: 
  • Oakland Power Projects
  • SRLP (Sylvia Rivera Law Project)
  • About the BLACK PANTHER PARTY COMMUNITY SURVIVAL PROGRAMS @ BPPALN.org 

Contact Info

• Send booking inquiries for Kiesha to speak or conduct interviews to (info at kieshagarrison.co)
• Kiesha on IG: @kiesha_garrison

Directly support the podcast financially:

• Cash App
• Venmo
• PayPal.Me

To connect with host Kiesha B. Free, visit kiesha.org

Bobby Morgan is a man committed to education.  He is also a husband, father, and founder of Liberation Lab, an educational consulting firm that builds pathways of internal and external accountability.  In this interview with Kiesha Garrison, Bobby talks about how he freed himself from the toxicity of chasing acceptance in places he was taught to value that did not value him back.  The two also discussed the mixed feelings of both Father's Day and Juneteenth.

Episode Resources:

• Liberation Lab
• Books:
  • Ratchetdemic: Reimagining Academic Success
  • Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools
• Inside the quiet rooms - nj.com
• Type Descriptions — The Enneagram Institute

Contact Info

• Send booking inquiries for Kiesha to (info at kieshagarrison.co)
• Kiesha on IG: @kiesha_garrison

Directly support the podcast financially:

• Cash App
• Venmo
• PayPal.Me

To connect with host Kiesha B. Free, visit kiesha.org