Florinda is an interdisciplinary artist, activist and educator that I’ve been art-family with since 1998. Here she talks about tending not only to her art, and her communities, but to her own mental, physical, spiritual health. A Texas gurl who calls Austin home, Florinda has worked with Salvage Vanguard Theater, the Rude Mechs, the Vortex, Paper Chairs, Theater en Bloc and Teatro Vivo in Austin, TX and the Ensemble Theater in Houston.

Who Yo People Is

Bonus Track - Florinda Bryant

Influenced by nature, the earth, Spirit and early experiences with Douglas R. Ewart and Laurie Carlos. Mankwe says she found herself in Fred Anderson’s Velvet Lounge, which was filled with Black folk from all over the world. There she grew herself as a creative musician and composer - working to hear an expanded audio palette of color.  https://www.whoyopeopleis.com/season-3

Episode 36 - Mankwe Ndosi

In this conversation Renita speaks about being from Terry Mississippi/feeling the Angels, Ancestors, animal Life and Trees playing “all up in my head.” Renita talks about learning how to navigate Spirit, and growing towards her mission of advancing social and economic development in our communities through the creation and promotion of world-class art. More at: whoyopeopleis.com/season-3

Episode 35 - Renita Martin

Aimee speaks of being from Detroit, raised southerners that migrated there. A founding company member of Congo Square Theatre Company in Chicago, Aimee encourages emerging artists to build a Life and career centered in being kind, empathic, compassionate and Loving. She says, “Take a leap of faith, move towards what you want, what feels good - even if it is scary.” https://www.whoyopeopleis.com/season-3

Episode 34 - Aimee K. Bryant

Sonja Parks has stayed true to her spirit by staying free, curious and expansively true to who she is professionally and in Life. After being an outsider - as a Black person in prominently White spaces - Sonja is dedicating her work to decolonizing artistic spaces. She wants to make certain that the “entire artist” is taken care of and respected. https://www.whoyopeopleis.com/season-3

Episode 33 - Sonja Parks

Stacey Karen Robinson shares that her work is “about the emotional and Spirit-Life of Black FOLX.” She speaks about walking with the Ancestors - being an improvisor, stewarding what is coming through - while creating time, space and containers for listening, vesseling, and allowing during the creative process. At the end of our conversation you will hear Stacey’s performance of the excerpt from “bull-jean & dem dey back/Dreaming”. Visit: whoyopeopleis.com

Episode 32 - Stacey Karen Robinson

Season 3 will drop soonsoon! Stay tuned for more...

Announcing Season 3

Today we honor anthologized writer, regional theatre director, and Off-Broadway Obie Award winning performer Diane Rodriguez. Diane transitioned April 10, 2020 from cancer. May God Bless her Soul in Flight. May all the Love Beauty and Divine Blessings that she so Brilliantly and generously gave the world/carry her in Light with Love. I am SO grateful to have received Diane's support/encouragement and generosity, and that she made time for a conversation with me. You can Listen to episode 18 and receive her wisdom/and Glory.  More about Diane at: https://www.americantheatre.org/2020/04/10/diane-rodriguez-a-light-and-a-fire Season 2 of "Who Yo People Is" has come to a close. THANK YOU TO/YOU - TO ALL who worked/supported/are a part of this podcast series. How PERFECT that/in closing - our very own Marine Mammal Apprentice/Alexis Pauline Gumbs reminds us, "We are powerful in what we say yes to and hold close." Now is a Divine Time to hold each other close/with Love, in Light, in Seeing, in Heart, in Virtual space, in Memories, in Prayer, with Intention. Alexis says, "one foot in the water one foot in the sand is where I hear the best." May we each find the space to Listen . . . and Receive. As I Dream and Listen/I want to thank Season 3 donors!  See the list of donors and join in/if you can in helping$ to bring Season 3 to Life  HERE Stay tuned at http://whoyopeopleis.com Wishing you/yours/and ALL safety-wellness-resource-Blessings-Beauty-and Love. Till soonsoon!!

Episode 31 - End of Season 2/Honoring Diane Rodriguez

An academic guided by intellectual practices inspired by Black liberation and Love, Alexis is a 2020-21 National Humanities Center Fellow. She says she is a Marine Mammal Apprentice...one who is carrying on blood line traditions of listening to whales. Alexis says, "one foot in the water one foot in the sand is where I hear the best." Alexis speaks of coming from mental health and spiritual workers...shoreline people, oyster workers, church founders, freedom practicing people/and a grandmother who designed the revolutionary flag for Anguilla, and is founder of the Caribbean Mental Health Association. Always thinking about birthing, Alexis became a doula because her Mom (who is a therapist) is a doula - and she wanted to do mother-daughter doulaing. Early on in her academic career Alexis asked herself, "what is the best way for me to do my intellectual work in community...what is a way that I can understand how this work has been happening...and how can I make those histories more visible". When I ask her what her Soul's mission Work is, she says she is here to help us know that "we are Loved, infinity Loved. That we have access to all the Love". Alexis Pauline Gumbs is the author of Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity, M Archive: After the End of the World, Dub: Finding Ceremony and the co-editor of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines. She was dramaturg for the world premiere of dat Black Mermaid Man Lady by Sharon Bridgforth, is the literary advisor for the Ntozake Shange Estate and the creative writing editor for Feminist Studies. Alexis, along with partner Sangodare, is in the midst of building the Mobile Homecoming Living Library and Archive in Durham, NC which sustains the lives and legacies of Black Feminist elders their legacy bearers and caregivers. whoyopeopleis.com Alexis's website Mobile Homecoming Project Brillance Remastered  

Episode 30 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Sangodare speaks of learning how to sermonize, study, have critical analysis, deep thinking about sacred texts/and how to have integrity as a spiritual leader - from her preacher father, and other preachers in her family. Creating energy and vibrational fields to open space for people to be more of who they are, Sangodare makes connections between the vocality of Black preaching styles, and Ifa oriki traditions and tonalities. Sangodare and her partner, Alexis Pauline Gumbs are actively visioning building an intergenerational assisted living, residential space. In addition to investigating sustainable models for collective economic practices and re-imagining collective wealth and investing - they are asking: what are the cultural practices, the sacred texts, the strategic plans, the songs, the welcomes and goodbyes - and how do we build trust. Sangodare creates media and art for healing and transformation. Sangodare is an artist, filmmaker, composer and preacher. Along with primary collaborator, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Sangodare co-created Mobile Homecoming (a national intergenerational experiential archive project that amplifies generations of Black LGBTQ brilliance) and Black Feminist Film School (which facilitates access to and discourse about Black Feminist films and provides film production opportunities to those most under-represented in film and media fields). As artist in residence at UMN (2017-19) and visiting faculty in Film Studies at Lawrence University (2017-18), Sangodare shared Black Feminist Film School approaches through teaching, events and exhibition. More about Sangodare and all dem Guests at: https://www.whoyopeopleis.com/season-2 Sangodare's website https://www.sangodare.com Black Feminist Film School https://blackfeministfilmschool.wordpress.com Mobile Homecoming https://www.mobilehomecoming.org    

Episode 29 - Sangodare

Amara speaks of having family members who were Seers/that didn't talk about it - and how she learned to navigate her own Seeing. She names that we are living in present day traumatic stress syndrome as she talks about her walk with depression, learning to hold both grief and sorrow, and valuing what she has come to view as an opportunity to be bought into a space of darkness - darkness that holds possibility. Orisha traditions gave Amara a feeling of coming home and helped her move towards becoming more herself. Amara says that all her work is about healing. She says, "I am a death doula for patriarchy. Every piece is I make is really in service of helping patriarchy die." Amara Tabor-Smith is a dancer, choreographer, and the artistic director of Deep Waters Dance Theater.  Tabor-Smith’s work, as described by the artist, is Afro Futurist Conjure Art. Her dance making practice utilizes Yoruba spiritual ritual to address issues of social and environmental justice, race, gender identity, and belonging.  Tabor-Smith is a recipient of the 2018 USA Artists Award, the 2016 Creative Work Fund grant, the 2017 MAP Fund grant, and the 2017 Kenneth Rainin Foundation grant, and a co-recipient of the 2016 Creative Capital Grant with longtime collaborator, Ellen Sebastian Chang. In 2017, she received the UBW Choreographic Center Fellowship. Her work has been performed in Brazil, the Republic of the Congo, New York, and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area where her company is based. Tabor-Smith is an Artist in Residence at Stanford University and faculty at UC Berkeley. More about Who Yo People Is: http://whoyopeopleis.com Amara's Ed Mock Tribute: He Moved Swiftly but Gently Down the Not Too Crowded Street | Ed Mock and Other True Tales in a City that Once Was: http://www.deepwatersdance.com/portfolio/hemovedswiftly Support Amara and her collaborator Ellen Sebastian Chang's "New ChitlinCircuitry: Reparations Vaudeville": https://www.gofundme.com/f/ReparationsVaudeville Check out Amara's website: http://www.deepwatersdance.com   

Episode 28 - Amara Tabor-Smith

gina talks about the grief work that she currently does as being rooted in her people's histories of keening and wailing/as a way to move grief...grief being sometimes distant, sometimes intimate,  and sometimes lineages old. gina says sound has helped her turn, dive into and surrender to the waves of grief - feeling it - as a way to release it. gina says, "I am deeply and profoundly interested in your freedom." With that in mind, she asks herself what is the sound that will set you free, what is the sound that will bring you back to yourself, your body and the absolute miracle of the cells in your blood/and what runs through that. gina says that all the work that she does is ritual. If you have ever experienced gina's Work, you know the truth of that. Medicine woman gina Breedlove is a sound healing vocalist, composer, actor, & abolitionist from Brooklyn, NY. gina began her walk with spirit and music when she was 15 yrs old, singing behind the incomparable Phyllis Hyman, and then went on to tour with legendary artist and activist, Harry Belafonte. She created the role of "Sarabi", in The Lion King on B'way, and has appeared in 2 Spike Lee Joints; "Livin Da Dream", & "Chi-Raq", as an actor, and working on set as a Healer. gina tours the world with her music that she calls "folksoul", holding sound healing circles in every city she visits.  She shares, "sound is the medicine that you walk with, and can bring you to presence in an instant" In Goddess culture gina Breedlove is a vocal priestess, think Dianne Reeves & Minnie Riperton having a prayer circle, you will leave lifted.  More about gina and all dem Guests at: https://www.whoyopeopleis.com/season-2 Check out gina's websites at: http://ginaBreedlove.com http://vibrationofGrace.com

Episode 27 - gina Breedlove

Ron shares some of his Journey growing up in Perry, Georgia being from story telling historians who primed him to be a critical thinker with things like post school pre-homework sermon sessions with his grandfather - centered on questions like "what does it mean to be a man and how can you grow into that all areas of your life?" Growing up singing as part of congregational choirs, Ron speaks about time traveling through song/Shape Shifting imposed assumptions. Ron is co-shaper - with Rebecca Mwase - of Vessels - a seven-woman harmonic meditation on the transcendental possibilities of song during the Middle Passage…that asks, “What does freedom sound like in a space of confinement?” Junebug Productions is presenting Vessels, March 26-29. Ron says, "I write, sing, compose, and make interdisciplinary performance work that integrates sound, text, and movement. My creative practice incorporates music of the African Diaspora, embodied ancestral memory, improvisational creative processes, liberation aesthetics, and the development and maintenance of spiritual technologies. My artistic work centers around the role of sound, and the un-amplified human voice in particular, in transforming our environment, our selves, and each other. I grew up in Perry, Georgia and received my earliest musical training at the Saint James Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. I live in New Orleans, make a mean red velvet cake, and can throw down on some biscuits." More about Ron and all dem Guests at: https://www.whoyopeopleis.com/season-2 Ron's website: https://ronragin.com Vessels http://www.vesselsperformance.com Junebug Productions https://www.junebugproductions.org/2020      

Episode 26 - Ron Ragin

Rebecca speaks about: coming from deep connection to Spirit; growing up African in rural Arkansas; navigating belonging; finding fortitude through literature and the arts; and the work of crafting ritual in performance. Rebecca is Creator of "Vessels" a seven-woman harmonic meditation on the transcendental possibilities of song during the Middle Passage - that asks, “What does freedom sound like in a space of confinement?” Junebug Productions production of Vessels, co-shaped by Ron Ragin, opens  March 26, 2020. Rebecca is a Zimbabwean-American theater and performance artist, consultant, and cultural organizer working at the intersection of art and social justice. They craft performance, processes, workshops and curriculum that investigate possibilities for embodied revolution. Rebecca's work creates spaces to reckon with and release the impacts of oppression while deepening connection, healing and belonging. More about Rebecca and all dem Guests: https://www.whoyopeopleis.com/season-2 More about Vessels: http://www.vesselsperformance.com

Episode 25 - Rebecca Mwase

Stephanie speaks about: being from singers and medicine people; growing through self-doubt imposed by the public school system;  creating life-long friendships in art making spaces; her determination to make and hold space for Black creatives; and being part of a second generation of connection and partnerships between Junebug Productions and Urban Bush Women. Stephanie is a performer, choreographer, educator, facilitator and cultural organizer based in New Orleans, LA. She is the Artistic Director for Junebug Productions Inc., the organizational successor to the Free Southern Theater (FST), which was formed in 1963 to be a cultural arm of the Civil Rights Movement and was a major influence in the Black Theater Movement. Stephanie is a member of Alternate ROOTS, a New Voices emerging leaders alumnus and has been a faculty member and facilitator for the Urban Bush Women Summer Leadership Institute for over 10 years. As an artist, Stephanie believes art is for everyone and is deeply committed to creating art that substantively reflects disparate conditions, and leveraging that art as a powerful tool for change. More about Stephanie and all dem Guests: https://www.whoyopeopleis.com/season-2 Junebug Productions: https://www.junebugproductions.org

Episode 24 - Stephanie McKee

Hosted by Sharon Bridgforth, this series features intimate conversations with artists whose work and artistic practices are rooted in serving our communities through healing/creative/Spiritual and cultural traditions - centered in Love.

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Who Yo People Is

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