We have Chirelle LeTrese as our guest for the first full episode of the first season of Zina's Buqalah.

And what a gift this first episode has been. We speak of collective story-making, connecting the physical to the spiritual, inner child healing, soul journeys, intersectionality, and how dominant culture has tried to erase our ancient memories while keeping us confined to single stories. 

She drops so many gems in this one. It's both a healing session and a call to WORK. Get cozy with your favorite notebook and get ready to take notes, because this one goes deeeep.

Chirelle is a mystic creative oracle and a soul liberator. She offers spiritual advising as well as energy healing sessions. Keep an eye out for her Patreon dropping soon (Soul Mystic Circle). And she makes beautiful adornments and jewelry that you can find at @ocean.and.see.

Follow her on Instagram @love.chirelle.letrese and check her out at linktr.ee/chirelle.letrese

Pronounced "Zeena's Boo-kaa-laa". A buqalah is a clay water pitcher used to tell the future, and the poem that is recited during the ritual. It's an ancient tradition held down by aunties, grandmas, and elders across Algeria today. The poems were recited in darija, an Algerian Arabic vernacular that remains a mystery to most foreigners. This has allowed my people to protect themselves against foreign occupation and colonization. Tune in to hear more about why I chose this name for a podcast, follow on IG @zinas.buqalah, and keep an eye out for upcoming episodes.

I launched the Instagram page for this podcast on October 17th because I wanted to share a piece of our history that has been intentionally silenced and hidden from view.

October 17th, 2021 marked the 60-year anniversary of a massacre committed by the French state. Although it happened in plain sight, the story of this day is rarely portrayed in mainstream news, films, books, or even included in our public school curriculum. It it etched in our hearts and carved in our people’s memory, as a reminder that France’s hands are still dripping with the blood of Algerians (and that of many other African nations). This is our duty to memory.

Salaams y'all, and welcome! This podcast is for the stories you never heard about in school, the ones that were systematically buried, erased, manipulated, silenced, or stolen. It's a call to our collective memory, an invitation and a homecoming to the stories we carry in our veins. Every story we tell and every truth we speak helps us understand how we got here. Come build community with us. Let us hear and witness each other. Let us speak ourselves, our future and our liberation into existence.