GirlTrek's Black History Bootcamp: Recent Episodes
Morgan Dixon + Vanessa Garrison
GirlTrek's epic 21-day walking meditation series to remember where we came from and to gather strength for the road ahead. We celebrate Black stories and the lessons of our ancestors to help guide us through these uncertain times. Each episode, is a conversation on learning, living and elevating to our highest self with guidance from lessons of the past. Hosted by GirlTrek Co-founders Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison. Produced by: Ebony Andrews
On our walk on Saturday, women from across the country who are in committed and supportive relationships sharedtheir advice on love, in the wake of the trauma that many of us are experiencing because we watched Diddy’s violent attack on Cassie.
Take a walk and listen.
Chelsea Johnson, the CEO of Commonsense Childbirth, is walking and talking with Morgan and Vanessa and women from around the world on a special Mother's Day edition of Sisterhood Saturday. Chelsea is the Founder ofCommonsense Childbirth and she and her community are rallying with GirlTREK this Mother’s Day weekend as we honor Black mothers and Black motherhood by takingwalks dedicated to the women whose footsteps we follow in.
The great spiritual leader, Iyanla Vanzant joins the co-founders of GirlTREK in a powerful conversation about generational healing and walking forward in faith. A must listen for anyone looking for inspiration during uncertain times.
Together we will reflect on our journey together, reinforce and uplift what is important to us, and honor the work of the people who power this movement.
Let this be a personal moment of pause and praise for all that you have have personally mastered, learned, and walked through this year.
REFLECTION:
Think about control. We control the smells in our homes with incense and plugins. We control bacteria with Lysol. We try to control viruses with vitamin C. We control our babies. We'll burp, we'll reprimand with pinches. When you're at church you get pinched or you get the side-eye from the choir stand. We are good at controlling because we know the past and we’re responsibly fearful of the future. When we thought about self-control and knowing that control has been our superpower, from binding our bellies up to our hair to everything we know, controlling our femininity so that people don’t attack us. We know how to control. When we are trying to control the world around us, it's like a mightiness. It is a tightness, and when you do it for long enough, it is exhausting.
Self-control is knowing now that you have everything in your power because you are divinely connected.
Because all you have is right now. It is not the fear of the past. It is not the anticipation or fear of the future, but it is the power of right now that you can choose every moment of your life to get more and more awake or to fall deeper and deeper asleep. We are here. God has not given us the spirit of fear. Self-control is fearlessness. It is knowing that I have a constant choice every morning. Self-control is the mechanism by which we employ all of the other Fruits of the Spirit.
PRAYER:
Eternal, all-wise, all-knowing, loving, matchless, creator, God Lord almighty, you are wonderful. You are loving. You are the beginning, the end, the Alpha, the Omega. You are our everything, Lord God and we love you. We love you Lord, and we lift up our hands to worship you, oh Lord, for our heart longs to be closer and closer to you.
You ask us to bring our prayers and petitions to you so we can tell you right now to give us the power that we need, to give us the love that we need, and to give us the self-control and self-discipline that we need to move and do the work that you have called for us to do.
We ask, oh Lord, that you continue to hide this work within our hearts so that we can continue to be strengthened to move closer to you, so that in those moments where we lack control of our minds, of our bodies, of our thoughts, we can automatically be brought closer to you so that the control we seek you take over for us. Lord God, it's all about your power, your power that gives us courage to do all that you called us to do.
Amen.
"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
You have to know that the calling placed on your life will mean you will have to navigate many rocky terrains, many dark places, facing many attacks, because we wrestle not against flesh and blood. The enemy only targets those who are doing good works. When you face these trials and tribulations, you will feel the urge to quit, to give in, or to act out of your character. That's when faith comes in. Faith is the idea of going beyond your fears and acting on what God has instilled in you. It’s about taking the first two steps and God taking on the rest. It’s about continuing to move forward, because you know that victory is on the other side.
Remember, as adversity comes, know that in the end you will be able to tell your testimony and encourage others to stay faithful.
God, we thank you for protecting us, for answering our prayers. God, we thank you for our faithfulness to you because without that, we can't commit to anything. God, we love you, we honor you, we praise you. We are all making sacrifices, God, and we hope that you see that. It can be daunting to think about even getting out of the bed and doing other things, being a mom, a wife, a sister, a friend. We work every day and try to carve time out in our lives to be healthy, God, but we know that everything that is great is because of you, God. We ask you to give us strength and courage.
Most of all, give us courage to know that we were made for this, we are made to be great, we were made to worship you, we were made to be just in the image of you, God.
We are always going to be careful to give you the praise and the glory, and the honor belongs to you, Jesus. In your name we pray, Amen.
REFLECTION:
You know the saying. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. But what does it mean for us to be good? Is it simply obeying the rules or being nice, or is there something else? We think it means actively choosing the kindest, most loving response in any situation, and doing it without expectation of recognition or praise. We are good, because God is good to us, and God offers goodness through grace and mercy. Think back on the times where it could have been, should have been you, but you were spared.
Right now, in our living and breathing selves, we believe in God's goodness. Goodness that we haven't earned—goodness that we cannot earn—but this goodness, once we receive it, we can, through our actions of love, give away to other people.
Now imagine sparing someone in your life through your own goodness. Our faith walk should bring us in union with God so that we can be living, breathing examples of His goodness on earth.
PRAYER:
God, you are so good. Let that goodness run through me like a river and overflow into every area of my life. Let me actively choose to offer goodness in place of judgment, scorn, or ridicule. Let me be selfless in my offerings, not looking for praise or credit, but knowing that it is pleasing to you when I walk in accordance with your will. May goodness find me and follow me all the days of my life.
Amen.
REFLECTION:
Kindness begins with having self-compassion. Because you can't extend what you don't give to yourself. Being compassionate to yourself and understanding, I'm not perfect and I have to be able to forgive myself for things so that I can then extend that to other people. This is important, especially as women and Black women, for sure, because we give, give, give, but who gives to us?
Who gives the superhero the voice, and when does the superhero get a chance to recharge?
There's a connection between not being kind when we feel tired and depleted, and being very kind when feeling abundant and taking care of ourselves. The kindest gift we can give to ourselves is to intentionally pull away, take the time to replenish and fuel back up. Whether it is taking a nap on a Sunday afternoon, or forgiving yourself and knowing that it's okay that you don't have it all together. It may not always be the easiest thing to do, but it is always the kindest.
PRAYER:
God, we thank you for today. We thank you for a time of coming together and gathering in your name to intentionally seek you, to know that without you we can do nothing and with you we can do all things, including taking care of ourselves. Right now, God, we commit to renew our devotion to ourselves. We thank you for loving us with the gifts of our bodies. We ask that you would help us to be kinder to ourselves that we might radiate that kindness and love to everyone that we come into contact with.
We thank you, God, for loving us, and for demonstrating kindness to us even in your acts while you're here with us on the earth. We thank you, God, for this opportunity to gather as women, strong women, women committed to do something bigger and better than we already have. We know that you have great purpose for us and that great movements have happened through women simply moving their feet. We love you, God. We magnify your Holy and majestic name, and it's in your name that we pray and ask all of these blessings.
Amen.
Opening Song
Closing Song
REFLECTION:
Today's topic is about long-suffering and when we tell you that Black women know long-suffering, we ain’t lied. We have turned a kind of slow burn of pain into muscle, into magic. Every Black woman we know has made long-suffering and patience an art. The ability to practice patience in the face of hate is a virtue of God. It’s one of the Fruits of the Spirit. It's hard and it's why Black women are ready to lead. Patience or forbearance or long-suffering is not passive. It is staying the course of your most amazing life every single day, and that requires muscle. It requires discipline for loving yourself.
We know what it's like when you have the kind of fire that threatens to burn you down. You can let it burn you down or you can stoke it and let it live in your belly and let it fire you and propel you through your suffering.
In practice, this means creating a muscle of being mindful and grateful for every single moment and garnering the strength of generations which has brought you here today. We have fire from the long-suffering of our foremothers. It is time for us to stay in lockstep until we are ready to activate. That is what long-suffering is. It is the muscle of magic.
PRAYER:
We thank you, Lord God, that regardless of the situation and circumstance, in trial or tribulation, that you give us the ability to stand. We thank you for this character trait from you, Lord God. We thank you for the ability to dance in the rain and stand in the storm and rejoice in our sufferings. Right now we ask that you equip us with your armor, with the whole armor of God. The armor, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the belt of truth, and the sword of your spirit. We ask that you give us peace that passes all understanding, in the name of Jesus. We ask you right now to come into the mess of every woman and child who is standing at your feet. To the only wise God, our savior and glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forevermore.
Amen.
Music Credits:
Opening Song
Walking Meditation Songs:
I'll Keep Running to You
Do Not Pass Me By
Water
REFLECTION:
Peace is about wholeness. It is about completeness. It is a state of being. Sometimes we think it's affected by what's external and what's happening all around us. The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom. Sometimes it can be a state of affairs, sometimes it means being concerned about the well-being of your fellow human, your neighbor. Peace or shalom signifies value. As you look at everything that's happening in our country, it's easy to be distracted and it's easy to lose heart and it's easy to lose joy and love and peace and not focus on the Fruit of the Spirit. It's easy to cry out for peace when there is no peace. There's a disconnect between what we're saying with our lips and what is actually happening internally and around us and in our hearts. One of the ways we can keep peace in the midst of all this chaos is to look to our ancestors through Sister Harriet and Sister Fannie Lou and Sister Parks and all of those who have gone on before us.
Be reminded that wherever we are today, this is not the first time we've been at the crossroads and this time will not kill us. It will not break us. It will not be the end of us.
Encourage yourself that you can continue, you can go on, you can be at peace and we will find rest for our souls that are sometimes weary.
PRAYER:
Lord, I thank you that you are the God of peace. That you've told us that in your Word that you can give us a peace that transcends all understanding even when we don't understand or we don't know. You know all things. You know how to guard our heart. You know how to condition and discipline us so that we can maintain a state of peace. That of wholeness, that of completeness within our own self because we are connected to you who is the source of our peace. We thank you, God, that you are faithful to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we can ask or think. So I ask, Lord, that you will guard our heart, our minds, our bodies, our actions into the way of peace. Help us to know the ancient path, Lord. Help us to walk in it, for your glory.
Amen.
REFLECTION:
Joy is like a tickle on the inside. It's not on the outside. Joy doesn't have to be social, because lasting joy is the kind that comes from within. Sometimes you just have to fight for that joy, but know that it is always there. There are seasons when you mourn and when you grieve, but that season does not last forever.
As you reflect on yesterday’s word of love, remember God loves you.
When Scripture says weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning, sometimes those nights seem like forever. But you have to hold on. Hold on to your faith and know that God loves you. It's your faith that will take you through that. When you're in the midst of grieving, the thought that you'll be laughing and joking again is hard to imagine, but it comes. It's there. That tickle is there.
Take a moment to think. How many times did you feel thankful yesterday? Try to count. Three times? 30 times? 300 times?
Is it possible to worship without ceasing–-with every breath? Unspeakable joy?
What fills you up?
We are satisfied when we are full. We are full when we are steadfast in the stories we tell ourselves. Do you feast on stories of problems or possibilities? Pain or praise? Brokenness or blessings? Grief or gladness?
Joy is a net asset. It is the conversion of test to testimony.
PRAYER:
Lord God, my heavenly Father, we praise your Holy name. We thank you so much for the gift of laughter. You knew we would need it. Thank you, Lord God, for your 100 scriptures about joy because you knew we would need it. Thank you, Lord God, for just offering your gift of joy, and today, this day, we're going to take it.
We're going to take that joy. Lord, we know weeping may endure for the night, but your joy comes in the morning. So right now, Lord God, as we speak your Word, we pray for any woman who is in a night stage, who's in a season of depression or grief, Lord God, or mourning, Lord God, we pray that your presence shows up in a mighty way to let her know that joy comes in the morning, Lord God, for her to cry out, for her to take off that mask and say, "Lord God, I need your help. Jesus, help me, Lord God."
Amen.
REFLECTION:
When we think of love, and especially love as it relates to the Fruit of the Spirit in the Bible, we always think that we ourselves are taught how to love others. We're taught how to be nice to other people. We are taught how to be compassionate, to be compassionate friends, to be dedicated partners, to be great sisters and mothers. We're taught to respect other people, to be great stewards of our land and our world, but nowhere are we taught on a daily basis the practical ways in which we can love ourselves. That must be the foundation for all the love that we give to other people. It reminds us of this quote:
"If I asked you to name all the things that you love, how long would it take for you to name yourself?"
Because you cannot say I love you without the implied foundation of, "But I love myself first." If you don't love yourself first, every time you have ever said I love you, part of that love was a lie.
If our soul is fully aware that we are fearfully and wonderfully made in God's image, that He did not make a mistake, that every single thing about us is divinely ordered, then we can have love for ourselves. If we don't have love for ourselves, that means we are doubting the scripture, that we are doubting God's love for us, that we are doubting the way that He made us. Our hope is that every single woman reading this today is aware of this Truth and never doubts it.
PRAYER:
Today is a renewal or new beginning. Lord, you are a God of comfort, and we send comfort right now in the name of Jesus. God, we send peace and we send hope. We pray right now especially for our mothers that are raising daughters. We pray that you will bless them to teach their daughters to have self-worth, God. You would teach them, Lord God, to have self-esteem. We would teach our daughters to know that they are beautiful and they don't have to look for validation from anyone. We want to raise strong, powerful daughters, in the name of Jesus. We pray for those of us who came from a background where we weren't loved and we weren't nurtured. Lord, we pray today a healing would go forth. We pray that women would no longer suffer in silence. God, we pray that you will go down and heal the hurt, God. Bind up the wounds. But we must uncover our wounds and we must uncover our hurt in order to be healed. As we pray today we say:
“Today, I will change. Today, I will start. Today, I will begin. Today, I'm walking in a new season. It's a new me."
Amen.
Our Sisterhood Saturday calls are a time for all of us to celebrate and support one another. Listen in as we open up the lines to hear what's on the hearts and minds of Black women nationwide.
Join Morgan and Vanessa in a first-ever #daugthersof Walk and Talk. Morgan and Vanessa talked with Michelle Coltrane about the wisdom and self-care secrets her iconic mother Alice passed down to her and what her mother's spiritual journey taught her about being her authentic self.
Our Sisterhood Saturday calls are a time for all of us to celebrate and support one another. Listen in as we open up the lines to hear what's on the hearts and minds of Black women nationwide.
“Everybody say Blessed."
We did it y’all!
We walked for 21 days, journeying through 21 Pleasure Principles. We pray that over the past 21 episodes, you have learned the liberation stories of our people and that you have been transformed in ways that make you feel more alive.
Now it’s time to Claim the Victory. What better way to do that than to hear from you, our GirlTrek sisterhood, on the first day of Sisterhood Saturday this summer. Hear from women across the country sharing brave testimonies, powerful shifts, and healing moments that have occurred on this season of Black History Bootcamp. This is not the end. It’s just the beginning. Keep walking, sister.
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Zilpha Elaw
Tantalizing Trivia
- One of 22 children, she was born in 1790 in Pennsylvania to free Black parents.
- Her mother passed away when Zilpha was just 12 years old. Her father passed away two years later. She was sent to live in the home of a Quaker family.
- Soon after she would attend a camp meeting held by the Methodist society. She embraced the teachings and became an active member of the Methodist church.
- On her sister's deathbed, she had a prophecy that Zilpha would be a preacher. She rejected this message, until years later, when she fell deathly ill and in her sickness had her own prophecy of the same vision.
- She was 29 years old when she preached her first sermon.
- At the age of 56 she published “Memoirs of the Life, Religious Experience, Ministerial Travels and Labours of Mrs. Elaw.” The book documented her personal travels from around the world preaching.
- In Britain, where she lived for more than a decade, she entered into one of the first interracial marriages with a her second husband, a white man. While living in England she had a chapel built in London to further her ministry.
- She was considered to be one of the most “outspoken” women of her time.
Mirror Work:
Assume a posture of prayer. Whatever feels most natural to you. You can kneel, lay, or fold yourself over in a child pose and let all of the weight you are carrying drip down onto the floor. Take three deep breaths from this place, with each exhale, repeat quietly to yourself, “I am listening.” Now take three more deep breaths. What do you hear? Take a few minutes to write. Don’t overthink or censure yourself. Just write.
Affirmation:
- My words have power. I use them to speak life.
- I am walking into the greatest vision I have for myself.
- I see a future that is expansive and bright.
Prophesy Over Your Life: A Playlist
Alchemy Assignment:
Create or update your vision board with 2-3 images that speak to you about the life that you dream of living.
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Gloria Richardson
Tantalizing Trivia
- She was a Civil Rights activist who led The Cambridge Movement in the 1960s.
- Honored for her leadership, she sat on stage at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
- She grew up in Baltimore but was from a prominent family - of landowners, lawyers, and politicians - from the eastern shore of Maryland, who were free before the Civil War.
- Gloria's father, John Hayes, died of a heart attack due to segregation which required him to drive further for medical attention - this was a turning point in her life.
- She attended Howard University and started social activism against segregation. During her early activism, Richardson was arrested three times.
- In 1961, SNCC and The Freedom Rides came to her hometown of Cambridge, Maryland. She and her two daughters got involved in the movement.
- In 1962, Richardson was asked to help organize the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC), the first adult-led affiliate of SNCC.
- She was a passionate and fiery spokesperson who never minced words and always spoke truth to power as one of the only female leaders of a civil rights organization.
- She was brave: rather than asking for civil rights, she asked for economic rights, and she publicly questioned nonviolence as a tactic.
- The students – including her daughter – were committed to nonviolence and were attacked by mobs of armed white people. Subsequent freedom walks and sit-ins included armed black men who surrounded the students for protection; clashes escalated.
- During protests in 1963, Richardson was photographed pushing aside the bayonet and rifle of a National Guardsman; the picture went viral in the media, and she became an icon of the movement
- She signed a peace treaty with Robert F. Kennedy and local officials after an uprising in Maryland for civil rights.
Mirror Work:
Look at yourself and repeat 2 Timothy 1:7: “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Affirmations:
- I have the power to change my life.
- This will pass. It won’t last.
- I’m worthy of love and happiness.
Fear Not: A Playlist
Self-Care Shopping List:
Sign up for a self-defense class; if you have a daughter, sign her up too.
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Rosa Parks
Tantalizing Trivia
- Her future husband took her on a first date to a rally for the “Scottsboro Boys”, nine Black men who were wrongly accused of rape. From that rally she became compelled to activism.
- She was educated on civil disobedience during her days at the famed Highlander School in Tennessee under the guidance of the legendary Septima Clark. Later she attended a leadership training run by the famed Ella Baker.
- She was a staunch supporter of the labor movement and managed the office of E. D. Nixon the director of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and President of the NAACP. Rosa Parks became the secretary of the NAACP in Alabama in 1948.
- She functioned as an investigator for the NAACP and helped for the Committee for Equal Justice. She was also the youth advisor.
- She learned “daily stretching” from her mother as a child and would later in her 50’s develop a daily yoga practice that she shared with her nieces and nephews.
- In the mid 90’s she was attacked by an assailant in her home. When the media began reporting this as a failing of the Black community, she pushed back hard by offering that the attack was endemic of the systematic problems she spent her life working on and not that of Black people.
- She lived to be 92 years old. Flags across the country flew at half-staff on the day of Park’s funeral.
Mirror Work:
Find a quiet place to sit. Get comfortable. Let the chair do the work of holding you. Plan to be here for 10 minutes. In that time observe your breath without judgment. Is it shallow? Is it deep? What areas of your body does it flow too? Where could you use more breath? Breathe deeply into those spaces. Luxuriate in the fact that you do not have to stand, do not have to move. You have been given this moment to sit still and just be. Thank God for that.
Affirmation:
- I can sit and rest. No need to rush.
- I am where God wants to be. I am open to where God wants to take me.
- I give grace freely. I receive grace daily.
Give Grace: A Playlist
In Her Own Words:
- “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”
- “Each person must live their life as a model for others.”
- “I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free…so other people would also be free.”
- “I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move.”
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Myrlie Evers-Williams
Tantalizing Trivia
- Raised by her grandmother, and an aunt, two respected school teachers in Vicksburg, MS.
- They encouraged education so in 1950 she attended Alcorn A&M where she pledged Delta Sigma Theta sorority and on her first day of school met and fell in love with Medgar Evers - they got married a year later on Christmas Eve.
- The young couple became prominent leaders in the civil rights movement in Mississippi, Medgar, serving as the NAACP’s first Field Secretary in Mississippi; together they fought for voting rights, equal justice and the end of segregation.
- The Evers Family became a target of the Ku Klux Klan and White Citizens Council.
- She said “Medgar was the love of my life.” and “the fear of losing one another was real.”
- In 1962, their home in Jackson, Mississippi, was firebombed; in 1963 her husband was brutally murdered in their driveway; and the murderer was exonerated and walked free, because of an all white jury in Mississippi; Protests, vigils and calls for freedom were widespread.
- The world mourned with Myrlie Evers and her three beautiful children; The world watched her lay to rest an American hero, martyr and civil rights activists - who also served as a sergeant in World War II - in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
- A photo of her and her son grieving became the cover of Life Magazine; millions watched her tears flow; the image was later distributed by the NAACP to provoke the moral consciousness of a nation.
- As a widow, she moved her children to Claremont, California, went back to college, she made two bids for U.S. Congress and wrote a book called For Us, the Living, telling her family’s story in Mississippi and wrote an autobiography called Watch Me Fly.
- She became chairperson of the NAACP’s board of directors, was named Woman of the Year by Ms Magazine, The National Freedom Award and in 2013 delivered the invocation at the inauguration of the first Black president of the US, Barack Obama.
- She went on to marry Walter Williams, a union organizer and moved to Oregon and committed herself to living a good life.
- She never gave up the fight for justice for her family, and 30 years later in 1993, under a new judge, she pressed for conviction of the murderer - requiring her to exhume Medgar’s body for new evidence - and won the case, sending the murderer to jail for the last 8 years of his life.
- Her legendary life was played by Whoopi Goldberg in the movie Ghosts of Mississippi and was featured in several other films, including the 2022 film Till.
- She said she’s never lived a day of her 90 years without love, and has bravely battled hate.
Mirror Work:
Say goodbye to someone you lost.
Affirmations:
- I feel my feelings.
- I am grateful for true love.
- Grief is a part of healing.
- I turn my grief into goodwill
- I rest when I am hurting.
- I seek help.
- I'm grateful for each day.
- I honor the fallen with daily fulfillment and joy.
Grieve as Gratitude : A Playlist
Self-Care Shopping List:
Buy and deliver flowers for someone alive for you. Love very much.
“I come to you tonight with a broken heart. I am left without my husband, and my children without a father, but I am left with the strong determination to try to take up where he left off.” - Myrlie Evers-Williams, 24 hours after the murder of her husband.
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: WIlma Rudoplh
Tantalizing Trivia
- She was the 20th of 22 children and weighed 4.5 pounds at birth. Her early health challenges included pneumonia, scarlet fever and polio.
- As an Olympic champion, and the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics,, she was among the most highly visible black women in America and abroad.
- Her welcome home parade became one of the first integrated events in the state of Tennessee.
- She was an active participant in the civil rights movement, participating in lunch counter protests that led to the desegregation of public facilities in Tennessee.
- Her post-track and field career included graduating from Tennessee State University, becoming a teacher, a national broadcaster, a nonprofit leader, a Goodwill Ambassador in West Africa, and a coach.
- She once dated boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
- Her death, at the age of 54, was early and untimely, from brain and throat cancer.
Mirror Work
Find a scar on your body that reminds you that it’s possible to heal. Maybe it’s not visible to the naked eye. Run your fingers over the spot. Recall the site of injury. Remember the pain or discomfort that you experience in the moment of harm. Now, run your fingers over the spot again. Marvel at the miracle of your body putting itself back together again. Thank the scar for the work that your body did at the site to heal.
Affirmation:
- My scars are scared spots of healing. They remind me that this too shall pass.
- I am worthy of my time. I spend it taking care of myself.
- I don’t settle for the care in front of me. I seek what I need and don’t stop until I find it.
Chase the Care You Need: A Playlist
Alchemy Assignment:
Set aside an hour of time next week. Plan to sit down with a good meal and your favorite cup of tea or coffee. Put on some comfy clothes and settle into your favorite spot. Ready now? Good. Pull out your calendar and your phone and take the time to make any doctor's appointments that you have been putting off. Research naturopaths. Find a good masseuse or acupuncturist. Call your insurance and check your health coverage (yeah, we know, but that’s why we said, sit down with a good meal. This might take some of your time, but don’t worry you're worth it.) Make sure you understand what benefits you have and what care is available to you.
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Oshun
Tantalizing Trivia
- Oshun is a goddess deity, or orisha, of the Yoruba religion of West Africa. There are equivalent goddess figures in multiple cultures including as Oxum in Brazil and Ochun in Cuba.
- Tradition holds that Oshun comes from Osogbo, Nigeria. That city is considered sacred, and it is believed to be fiercely protected by the water goddess. The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, a forest that contains several shrines and artwork in honor of Oshun; it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.
- Every year Oshun devotees and other people of the Yoruba religious tradition go to the Oshun River to pay homage at the Oshun festival.
- One of the youngest Orisha’s and one of the most adored in the Yoruba religion. She is the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. She exudes sensuality and all the qualities associated with fresh, flowing river water.
- She is a teacher of both magic and mysticism. She is the granter of wishes and all of your heart’s desires.
Mirror Work:
- Drop into a Goddess squat and allow your hips, chest and heart to open to your divine power.. Instructions:
- From a standing position with the feet 3 feet apart, bend the elbows at shoulder height and turn the palms facing each other. Turn the feet out 45 degrees facing the corners of the room, and as you exhale bend the knees over the toes squatting down.
- Press the hips forward, press the knees back. Drop the shoulders down and back and press the chest toward the front of the room. Keep the arms active, as if they were holding a big ball over your head. Look straight ahead with the chin parallel to the floor.
- Breathe and hold 3-6 breaths
- While breathing repeat the affirmations below.
Affirmation:
- I am at the center of creation, the river of life flows through me.
- I give birth to new ideas each day, I nurture them with care.
- I am divine.
Activate the Divine: A Playlist
Alchemy Assignment:
Before bed pamper yourself with this 30-minute divine feminine flow to reconnect to the goddess energy inside of you.
Self-Care Shopping List:
Create an ancestor altar. Everything that you need is detailed here in this simple article.
“The divine feminine is a spiritual concept that there exists a feminine counterpart to the patriarchal and masculine worship structures that have long dominated organized religions. The divine feminine extends well beyond one belief system, and instead can be used as a spiritual lens to balance our perspective.” - Emily Torres
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Bessie Springfield
Tantalizing Trivia
- First Black woman to ride across the United States solo.
- At 16, taught herself to ride her first motorcycle, a 1928 Indian Scout.
- At 19, started her adventure across the American South at the height of the Jim Crow Era - on a Harley-Davidson.
- One of the few civilian motorcycle dispatch riders during World War II.
- Married six times.
- Over the course of her life, drove all 48 continental states and long-distance rides in Europe, Brazil and Haiti
- Inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
- Lived to be 81 years old
Mirror Work:
Your life is abundant, where will you go? What will you do? Let’s plan it. Your next adventure. Relax your face. Close your eyes. Imagine yourself in an inspiring place. Is it on a sailboat? A crystal blue sea? The Great Wall of China? A dirt road at sunset? A silent retreat at an ashram? Imagine yourself there. See the surroundings in your minds eye. Here the sounds. Feel and taste the air. You are there. Now open your eyes, look at yourself, and make a silent promise to go.
Affirmation:
- I deserve to enjoy life.
- I embrace living in the moment.
- I'm packed and ready to go.
- I am free and open to adventure.
Adrenaline is Alchemy: A Playlist
Self-Care Shopping List:
- Download the AirBnB app.
- Rather than searching “Stays” select “Experiences”.
- Type in your state, and voila!
- Pick a local adventure.
- Don’t wait, book it before you close the app.
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Emma Dupree
Tantalizing Trivia:
- She was an herbalist and traditional healer who grew up on the Tar River in North Carolina. Her pioneering work serves as the basis for much of today’s herbal medicine movement.
- She was known for her “garden grown pharmacy” and grew everything from sassafras, white mint, double tansy, rabbit tobacco, maypop, mullein, catnip, horseradish, silkweed and other plants from which she made tonics, teas, salves and dried preparations.
- She believed her gifts and understanding of herbs to be a gift directly from God and used the bible to guide her decision making.
- She lived to be 99 years old and received the North Carolina lifetime achievement award, heritage award and the North Carolina Folklore Society for her significant contributions to her community.
Mirror Work:
Imagine that your ancestors stored the secrets of their survival in your DNA. Imagine the secrets pulsating through your body. Now quietly ask them, what do you have to tell me? Say to them, “It’s ok to share now. I am listening. I am paying attention. I hear you.” What was said? Spend five minutes journaling
Affirmation:
The intelligent wisdom that guarantees that the sun rises everyday, also lives in me. Each day I rise into its warm embrace and with that rising I am healed.
Pull at the Roots: A Playlist
Alchemy Assignment:
In her own words. Watch Emma Dupree share the wisdom of her work with us in an archival interview that is sure to inspire.
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Lil Kim
Tantalizing Trivia:
- She is the original “Queen Bee”, also known as the Queen of Rap and The First Lady of Rap.
- At 14, because of a tumultuous relationship with her father, she left home and started living on the streets; later she would drop out of high school for a short time, before enrolling in the same school where fellow rappers, Nas and Foxy Brown were attending.
- By 19 she was a starring member in the rap group, Junior Mafia, the next year she went solo, with the highest debut of any female rap artist at the time.
- In 2005, she was convicted on perjury charges regarding a 2001 shooting outside a New York radio station. She eventually served one year in prison.
- Her entire career has been steeped in controversy. Some say her highly sexualized image and lyrics are seen as manifestations of the sexist, misogynistic ideologies embedded in rap culture. Others consider her a feminist, sec-positive icon who has empowered women to step into their sexual power and own a new image for themselves.
Mirror Work:
Make yourself the object of your own desire. Enjoy a post-shower love-fest of your body. Standing in the mirror, admire all of your dips, dimples and curves. See the sexiness in your survival, in your suppleness, in your self-love and adoration.
Affirmation:
I am proud to be a sexual being. I safely explore and embrace my sexual desires without guilt or shame.
Banish Shame: A Playlist
Self-Care Shopping List:
Good books to get you started on your journey to banishing shame.
- Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy, By Tricia Rose
- Stolen Women: Reclaiming our Sexuality, Taking Back Our Lives, By Dr. Gail Wyatt
- When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost, By Joan Morgan
“The streets made me. They stay at me. There's nothing that's gonna take away from my legacy. I'm sorry. It is what it is. I'm dying this way. With the crown on my head, nobody can take nothing away from me. It is what it is. I am who I am. Bottom line.” - Lil Kim
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Naomi Sims
Tantalizing Trivia:
- Naomi Sims is the first Black supermodel in history - certainly, the first Black cover girl to land the featured cover photo in major magazines like Life and Cosmo in the 1960s and 1970s
- With a dark complexion, a thin body, and standing 5’ 10 she says she was not considered beautiful to others as a teenager. She thought otherwise.
- She created a master plan to break into the racist modeling industry. When no agency would sign her, she represented herself and booked an advertising job and then - with that success - helped launch a brand new agency, Wilhelmina. It became the most prestigious agency in America.
- At the height of the Black Power Movement, Naomi Sims became the very face of the “Black is Beautiful” ethos.
- Sims went from modeling to mogul when she earned a cool 5 million in the 80s through a cosmetic and wig line developed expressly for Black women.
Mirror Work:
Without changing, notice your posture. What is it saying? Now turn on the playlist and dance to the pro-Black anthems. Notice your posture now.
Affirmation:
[Say it loud.]
I’m Black and I’m proud.
Stand Tall: A Playlist
Self-Care Shopping List:
- Book a deep tissue massage to release any knots or tension.
- Invest in a standing desk so that you don’t have to hunch at work.
- Treat yourself to a new pair of heels so you can stunt on 'em like Naomi.
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Sharon Schaffer
Tantalizing Trivia
- She is the first Black woman to become a professional surfer and some of her work was featured in the opening of the Smithsonian African-American History Museum.
- She was a pioneer as a stunt double in Hollywood. As an actress she toured the country playing Harriet Tubman.
- She is an activist who has used her platform to organize other surfers into paddle-out protests to bring awareness to social justice issues.
Mirror Work:
It’s time for you to claim what’s yours. Stand tall in the mirror and call-out, “I got it!” Look yourself in the eyes. Are you convinced? Now say it with more authority, whatever wave is washing up next, whatever emotions are washing into your body, trust yourself. Look back into the mirror, into your eyes, and say louder, “I got it!” Repeat three times or as many times as you need until you believe it’s true.
Affirmation: I am prepared for whatever comes my way. I got it!
Wade in the Water: A Playlist
Alchemy Assignment:
- Watch - Wade in the Water: A Journey into Black Surfing and Aquatic Culture.
- Read: Black Surfers Reclaim Their Place on the Wave
Self-Care Shopping List:
Do you dream of learning to swim? GirlTrek will support the first 10 women who email marketing@girltrek.org with the subject title “Swim Lessons” with two months of swim classes in your area to help you get started.
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Mary McLeod Bethune
Tantalizing Trivia
- Mary McLeod Bethune was not satisfied until Black girls were educated and free.
- Born in South Carolina to parents of enslaved Africans, she was the 15th of 17 children. She worked the cotton fields with her mother and each afternoon, walked 5 miles to school to learn to read. Even then, she said she knew there was a calling on her life, a divine mission. She said, “For I am my mother's daughter, and the drums of Africa still beat in my heart.”
- She started early. She went to Bible school in Chicago, served in a Christian mission and started outreach to prisoners. Of her mento there, she said, ““I was so impressed with her fearlessness, her amazing touch in every respect, an energy that seemed inexhaustible and her mighty power to command respect and admiration from her students and all who knew her. She handled her domain with the art of a master.”
- She moved to Florida to start a school. She raised money by making sweet potato pies, ice cream and fried fish and the students made ink for pens from elderberry juice and pencils from burned wood. That one room school house turned into Bethune-Cookman University, but she served as president for 20 years. She said, “I considered cash money as the smallest part of my resources. I had faith in a loving God, faith in myself, and a desire to serve."
- She rode that wave of victory to global prominence as “The First Lady” of the Black Planet; founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935, established the “Black Cabinet” as national advisor to president Franklin D. Roosevelt and the only Black woman to help charter the United Nations
- Unveiled in 1974, today, there is a 17 ft bronze statue of Bethune in a public park in Washington, D.C. It is the first monument to honor an African-American or a woman on the national mall.
Affirmations
- Inhale, satisfaction smells sweet; Exhale, everything is working for my good
- I speak words that result in satisfactory experiences.
- I rest satisfied with what I can do now to make the world better.
- I live a life that is steeped in satisfying moments.
- I will follow my bliss and surf my satisfaction. I will notice when I feel the charge of alignment in my soul and I will say yes! More of this.
- Gratitude satisfies the soul.
Mirror Work:
See yourself as a surfer. …waiting on your board for the next big wave. Your feet can’t touch the ground and you’re far from the shore. Relax. Play. Smile. Dangle your feet in the living water. Your wave is coming. Your purpose today is to catch it. …a surge of satisfaction. This is soul work. Who or what is inspiring you to pop up? Which wave is calling you today? Wait for it. Not that one. Not that one. Connect and feel. Not that one. Wait for it. That one! Ride your own wave. The one that feels good and holds you steady. The wave of a good job, a rich experience, a nurturing relationship, a communal service. Your wave is coming today. Ride it and feel the rapture of being fully alive and satisfied.
Prayer for Pleasure
Dear God,
Call me. Make it clear which wave I should ride. I want to be satisfied with this one precious life. I want the exhilaration of being snatched up in satisfaction. Help me to see me as you see me. Give me the faith of my foremothers that life is good. Light my feet with the fire of purpose so that I can experience the rapture of being alive. Let me surrender to divine destiny and awesome alignment.
Amen.
Surf your satisfaction: A playlist
Self-Care Shopping List:
Buy a beautiful journal and pen. Put it by your bedside Save the first page to write a Satisfaction List
“For I am my mother's daughter, and the drums of Africa still beat in my heart.” - Mary McLeod Bethune
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Toni Cade Bambara
Tantalizing Trivia:
- Born Miltona Mirkin Cade, this author, activist, and professor, changed her name at the age of 6, to Toni. She then added Bambara to honor the West African ethnic group, Bambara.
- Her anthology, “Black Woman”, was the first feminist collection to focus on Black women. It included works from her friends Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde and Alice Walker.
- After the success of her two fiction books, Gorilla My Love and The Salt Eaters, she became a filmmaker, covering topics like the Philadelphia MOVE Bombing and the disappearance of over 40 children in Atlanta.
- She believed strongly in clairvoyance, dream analysis, telepathy, and ancestral healing, and wrote about those themes in most of her work.
- She died at 56 from colon cancer. Toni Morrison posthumously edited and published her last book, Deep Sightings and Rescue Missions.
Mirror Work:
Do a two minute free write, completing the sentence, “The truth is, I…” There’s not right or wrong. Just let your truth, about whatever comes from your spirit, flow onto the paper. Now look at yourself in the mirror as you read it out loud. “The Truth is I…” Repeat three times. Look at yourself while you speak and honor the courage that it takes to face our truths head on.
Speak Your Truth: A Playlist
Self-Care Shopping List:
Pick up The Salt Eaters for yourself and Gorilla My Love for your pre-teen or teen to read this Summer.
“The dream is real my friend, it’s the failure to realize it that’s the unreality.” - Toni Cade Bambara
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Queen Afua
Tantalizing Trivia
- Born Helen Odel Robinson changed her name to Queen Afua
- She was raised in Harlem at the height of the Black Nationalist Movement and was a community organizer.
- As a child, she suffered from asthma, allergies, eczema and debilitating cramps and at 15 years old, started a lifelong investigation, and practice of healing herself - she started daily exercise, learning more about herbs and she changed her diet.
- She experienced dramatic healing which led her on a spiritual quest, hearing directly from God, on several occasions, instructing her which plants and herbs to use for different ailments.
- She tapped into ancient African traditions and combined those with her “impeccable listening” and intuition to launch her “Womb Healing Movement” that has helped over 1 million women.
- She has become a wellness guru to generations of Black women including cultural leaders like Erykah Badu, India Arie, Jada Pinkett Smith, Iyanla Vanzant, Lauren London and Beverly Bond.
- Queen Afua has written seven best-selling books that Center, African healing traditions and designed and led hundreds of workshops and retreats to heal Black women.
Mirror Work:
Look at yourself naked in the mirror. Relax. Smile. Say thank you to your body. Put your hands on your womb with loving kindness and imagine the inheritance of Divine Femininity that flows through you from your mother’s womb and her mother’s womb. Say I am the daughter of ____ who is the daughter of ____. Commit to listening to your womb. What is she telling you? What does she want you to shift in your life? How does she want you to heal yourself?
Awaken your womb: A Playlist
Self-Care Shopping List:
Buy the book Heal Thyself or Sacred Woman by Queen Afua on Amazon. Visit www.queenafua.com for womb retreats and juice plans. Go to a local tea shop and learn about herbal healing. Invest in a quality tea blend.
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Dr. John Francis
Tantalizing Trivia
- He gave up using motorized transportation and took a vow of silence that was intended to last one day. It lasted for 17 years.
- He completed three college degrees, including a Phd while silent.
- He walked across the United States and is referred to as the “Planet Walker”.
- He was a pioneer of Black conservatism and environmentalism.
Mirror Work:
While out on a walk find a patch of natural earth and take your shoes off. Look at your feet planted firmly on the ground. Imagine the healing powers of the universe shooting up through the arches of your feet. Feel stronger with each breath you take.
Watch: John in his own words, explain his journey in his TED talk,
Find Stillness: A Playlist
“You have to let go of the wanting to understand, you have to let go of wanting to possess the understanding and just be in that place.” - Dr. John Francis
Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.
Opening Song
Closing Song
Pleasure Muse: Alice Coachman
Tantalizing Trivia
- Alice Coachman was the first Black woman from any country to win an Olympic gold medal.
- She was born in segregated Georgia and as a child picked cotton and sold peaches, pecans and plums to help support her family
- She rejected the patriarchy and segregationists, both telling her Black girls should not be athletes; Shout out to two women who encouraged her to become a runner - her fifth-grade teacher Cora Bailey, and her aunt, Carrie Spry.
- She ran barefoot on dirt roads to practice; Her stumbling block became her stepping stone and this kind of “no excuses” training made her the best athlete in Georgia in high school.
- She was recruited by Tuskegee and won national championships for track and field and in 1948, dazzled the world in the Olympic Games! King George VI of England put some respect on her name and the gold medal around her neck.
Mirror Work:
Flex in the mirror. Yell “Game Time!” Start clapping. And run out of the bathroom like you believe in yourself. LOL
Affirmation:
I can do whatever I set my mind to.
Play Hard: A Playlist
Self Care Shopping List:
Splurge on a good pair of sneakers for yourself. The brighter color the better.
Activity for Alchemy:
Challenge a family member or neighbor to an old-school footrace. Ready? Set. Dust them fools.
Pleasure Muse: Alice Coltrane
Tantalizing Trivia
- At 29 she became a widow with four children after her husband, famed jazz musician, John Coltran, passed away.
- She founded an Ashram in the mountains of California and was an active healer, practicing energy work and laying of the hands.
- She entered a two year mourning period after his death where she withdrew from friends, family and food. She referred to it as a necessary spiritual journey.
- She professed to have divine revelations.
Mirror Work
Sit or stand with your eyes closed. See yourself from within. See your image as God would see it, and honor what you see, by silently telling yourself, “I see the God in me.”
Affirmation
I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Bend Don’t Break: A Playlist
Self-Care Shopping List
A sound bowl or chimes to add to your home collection of healing tools.
Women have been held back and limited throughout the centuries. Creation could not have been rendered, not even considered, let alone be brought into manifestation without woman. She is principal, a powerful energy. She is first. - Alice Coltrane
Pleasure Muse: Donna Summer
Tantalizing Trivia
- Born to a working class family in Boston - her father was a butcher and her mother was a schoolteacher - her voice soared when she started singing solos in the AME church at 11 years old.
- She dropped out of high school to move to New York City to join a blues rock band.
- She landed a career-altering role in the musical Hair which debuted in Germany, where she lived and learned to speak fluent German.
- She married an Austrian man and they had a daughter name Mimi.
- She became known as the "Queen of Disco" with 32 chart singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 and forever changed the face of music and her upbeat music ushered in a new dance called disco.
Mirror Work
Look at yourself today and play “Love to Love You Baby” or “Hot Stuff” Make deep eye-contact with your finest self. Dance the entire song and try and break a sweat.
Affirmation
With every step, I sway and play.
Dance Daily: APlaylist
Self-Care Shopping List
Roller Skates: vintage roller skates are a great way to dance and exercise - and let’s face it, everyone likes a little wind in her hair.
If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.” -Emma Goldman
Pleasure Muse: Dr. Sebi
Tantalizing Trivia
- He grew up in Honduras and got his foundation in herbalism from his grandmother.
- He was arrested several times for practicing medicine without a license, but attracted a zealot following of believers who followed his lifestyle and diet advice.
- Nipsey Hustle called him an underdog hero and champion of the truth.
- He worked with Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy, and Kendrick Lamar, just to name a few.
- He pioneered a lot of the current popular health trends, including plant-based, fasting, knowing the PH balance of foods, and the healing benefits of sea moss.
Mirror Work: Gently massage your skin. Imagine that it is reflecting back to you everything that is inside. Notice where it is supple. Notice where it might be dehydrated. Notice your melanin. Give thanks that your body has the ability to process toxins and foods properly.
Affirmation: I tend to my body because it is a temple. I feed it food that is nourishing.
Release the Toxins: A Playlist
Self-Care Shopping List:
The next time you go grocery shopping. 2-3 Fruits or vegetables that you have never tried or rarely consume.
Pleasure Muse: bell hooks
Tantalizing Trivia
- She was born Gloria Jean Johnson, but like a longline of Black women who refused to be defined by the narrowness of this world, when she was ready to step on the scene with her talent, she changed her pen name to bell hooks after her great-grandmother.
- She published more than 30 books. Her first, “Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism” was inspired by Sojourner Truth.
- She identified as queer, but defined it as far more complex than who she was sleeping with. She said it was about “the self that is at odds with everything around it and it has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live."
- She was celibate for 17 years.
- She practiced Buddhism and counted the monk Thich Nhat Hnah as her teacher.
Mirror Work: Gaze lovingly at yourself with slow admiration for each feature on your face. Imagine that you are meeting yourself for the first time and wrap both arms around your body in a loving embrace. Send the love that you have given out back to yourself with three deep breaths.
Affirmation: “I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else’s whim or to someone else’s ignorance.” bell hooks
Make Love: A Playlist
Self-Care Shopping List: Something to sleep in at night that makes you feel sexy. We love Amazon for their affordable options that can be ripped, torn, and used with abandon. :-)
GirlTrek Nation!
Are you ready?
The GirlTrek walking season has officially started!Join GirlTrek Co-Founders, Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison, as they chat about the road ahead on a special season kickoff episode. This season we are getting in the best shape of our lives by putting one foot in front of the other. You don’t want to miss this inspiring conversation with our cofounders as they layout the blueprint for walking in the direction of your healthiest, most fulfilled life this year.
Lace up your sneakers, put in your earbuds and let’s walk!
Join Co-founders Morgan and Vanessa on a Special Edition episode in honor of Harriet Tubman, broadcasting live from the streets of Auburn, NY.
This year we set a goal to take over 1,000 of the Blackest neighborhoods. And we did that! With the help of our entire team. With the help of you! You made the decision to lead women in your neighborhood. You helped them start their own crew. And we want to celebrate every single one of you.
Nominations for the Victory Awards are in!
Come celebrate with us as we announce our Victory Awards, LIVE!
Day 21
The Address: The Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma
The Story: "You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim or diminish your light.
Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates.
Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge.
Release all bitterness.
Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won.
Choose confrontation wisely, but when it is your time don't be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice. And if you follow your truth down the road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself. "
Today we step onto hallowed ground. Today we walk in the footsteps of the 600 Black men and women who set out from Brown Chapel AME to march the 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery. Today we tell the story of what happened when they stepped onto the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Day 20
The Address: 16th Street Baptist Church
The Story: Their names were Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins. They were on their way to a basement assembly hall for closing prayers on a Sunday morning.
The explosion occurred around 10:20 a.m. It destroyed the rear end of the building. It injured 20 people, and it killed the four little girls.
The attack was meant to disrupt Black community activists who had been demonstrating for weeks for an end to segregation in the city.
The public funeral for three of the girls attracted over eight thousand people, but not one city or state official attended.
The Birmingham Post-Herald reported a month later that in the aftermath of the bombing, no one had been arrested for the incident itself, but 23 Black people had been arrested for charges ranging from disorderly conduct to "being drunk and loitering," mostly in the vicinity of the church. One black youth was gunned down by police after he threw rocks at passing cars with white passengers.
The four men responsible for the murders were not charged until 45 years later.
But as Dr. King said during the eulogy, "They did not die in vain."
They did not die in vain. The hate that took their lives did not triumph.
Today we tell the story of 16th Street Baptist Church and the faithfulness of the Birmingham community.
Day 19
“The first time I met the blues
The Address: 229 Highway 8, Cleveland, Mississippi.
The Story: It’s called Dockery Farms.
“Farms” is a rebrand.
It was a back-breaking plantation in a small town in Mississippi. It’s walking distance from where Fannie Lou Hamer picked cotton. It's a stone’s throw from “the crossroads,” where a young Robert Johnson was rumored to have sold his soul for an unearthly cool.
There, as the sun kissed the dusty sky goodbye, guitars played, feet stomped, and hips swayed. The long days of work were made magic by the masters of a new American art form called the Blues.
Just one generation after Dockery Farms, hundreds of blues men and women amplified the stories of our people and became the soundtrack of struggle. That real pain was carried in the Great Migration to the blighted streets of the industrial north.
Today, let’s shine a light on the founders of the Blues. Many of them met on this very plantation: Charley Patton, Howlin’ Wolf, and even “Pops” Staples of The Staple Singers worked there.
But this is Black history, and it didn’t just start on this farm. The truth is that the Blues was born in the hearts of the people of Africa. The Blues is their story and rhythms as they were brought to Mississippi. The Blues was therapy for their children on Beale Street in Memphis, and it brought laughter and reprieve to the hike joints of Kansas City, St. Louis, and Chicago. The Blues brought truth to the world.
This episode will be electrifying as we walk and talk about the function of Blues music for Black people.
Day 18
The Address: Congo Square, New Orleans
Come to Congo Square with us.
Come catch the fire.
Come learn of the drums that reverberated through the square, calling for protection from the ancestors and the one’s left back home.
Come learn of the worship that took place here.
Come learn about this place so full of magic - not at all dark.
Come hear about the celebrations, the dance, the music, the food that united Africans from across the continent in this new place called New Orleans.
Day 17:
Address: 90.0000° N, 135.0000° W
The Story: A Black man was the first American adventurer to reach the North Pole!?
Say what!?
Call Patagonia, North Face, and Columbia Sportswear and tell them we've BEEN making their clothes look good!
We don’t need a long story today.
Facts are facts.
So pull up.
Because at your next dinner party, when someone brings up the state of such-and-such and the downturn of dis-and-dat, just dazzle them with this Arctic adventure.
…so what about that Matthew Henson?
Real American hero eh?
Let’s move…
Day 16
The Address: 110 Calhoun Street, Charleston, South Carolina
The Story: Mother Emanuel AME Church is one of the oldest Black churches in the United States, and for 200 years, it functioned as the center for organizing for civil rights.
Its name says it all.
Emanuel
"God with us."
And God has been constant.
Because there’s never been a church that has withstood the reign of terrorism so bravely.
Today, we will explore The Why.
Why was this church targeted?
Why was it necessary?
What kind of spiritual courage was being borne there?
Well, that courage has a name: Denmark Vesey
Today, we learn his story.
The true story of Mother Emanuel’s bravest son.
Don’t miss this ah-ha of history.
Day 15
The Address: 2648 W Grand Blvd, Detroit, Michigan, Hitsville,USA
The Story: We dare you to try and make a top 10 Motown favorites list. We dare you.
You’d have to narrow down Stevie Wonder’s entire catalog.
You’d have to choose between solo Michael or The Jackson Five.
You’d have to debate who was better: Lionel Richie, Marvin Gay, or Smokie Robinson.
You’d have to make some seriously tough choices. There are just too many hits!
We’re talking iconic, era-defining, hits.
What started on Grand Boulevard in Motor City is a legacy that has transformed the world, defined music as we know it today, and given us a list of classics so long that it’s safe to say there will never be another influence as powerful as that of Hitsville, USA.
Leave everything you think you know about this story behind. We’re going deep into the crates for some trivia and shocking facts!
Day 14
The Address: 2027 Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA
The Story:
The year is 1969.
You and your girlfriends are walking down the street in the Hill District of Pittsburgh.
It’s late.
The house party is over.
Your crew is laughing and darting through familiar streets to your sister’s house.
Someone drives by blasting Aretha Franklin, “Cause I ain’t never, no, no never, loved a man the way that I, I love you!” You clap to the beat.
It’s summertime, and the heat is rising from the concrete streets long after the sun has set.
Just as you turn the corner to your house, you notice a car driving too fast through a red light. It swerves to avoid a crash, hops the curb, and hits your best friend.
The car speeds off.
You have a choice.
Call 911 for the police or run home and get your sister's car.
You override your fear of the all-white police force. You call them for help. A crime has been committed and you must get your friend the fastest transportation to the hospital or she will die.
You dial 911.
The wait is agonizing, your girl is bleeding out, the streets are sweltering.
Moments later, you hear the faint but familiar sound of the paddy wagon at the bottom of the hill.
Then you hear a second siren. It’s closer, stronger, and unfamiliar.
Just as you look up to pray to the dizzying streetlights, a van you’ve never seen before comes careening around the corner.
It wasn't the police!
Like a dream, the doors open and tall, beautiful, strong Black men, wearing crisp white uniforms and perfectly picked afros, jump out. Like Marvel heroes, they sprint through the summer night.
The one up front nods to you with so much confidence that you step aside. Gently, they stabilize your friend’s neck. They stop the bleeding, then proceed with compressions to her chest. Her brother runs over to stop them, but two of the uniformed men hold him back. You hear the crackle of a police walkie-talkie saying the officers are close.
The men on the scene don’t hesitate. Your friend is breathing again. They insert an IV, strap her onto a strait board, and carry her swiftly to the van. They disappear into the night just as the white police officers pull up.
“What’s going on here?,” the cop says.
“A medical miracle.” You reply
Tune in today to hear the full story of Freedom House Ambulance Service, the first ever paramedics in the world - Black men from Pittsburgh.
Emergency medicine has never been the same! They changed the game and saved lives worldwide.
We’ll tell you how...
Day 13
“We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond.”
- Gwendolyn Brooks
The Address: Rosenwald Apartments, 4648 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL, Bronzeville
The Story: They came fleeing the terrors of Jim Crow. They came in search of freedom. Still tethered to their southern roots and values, they brought an electrifying energy that would give rise to Black Arts movements, create gospel, and establish a Black mecca known as Bronzeville, the only neighborhood in the country that could rival Harlem as the cultural center of African America.
Home to the greats - Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Wright, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Coleman, Ida B. Wells, and many more.
We will start today’s exploration of Bronzeville on S. Michigan Ave at the storied Rosenwald Apartments, once managed by Quincy Jones' mother.
From here, we will take a stroll down “The Stroll”, a section of State Street that was the place to see and be seen, and the heartbeat of Black Chicago.
Along the way we will talk about how the people in this community influenced and changed the world, from politics to social activism.
Day 12
The Address: 16 Penn Circle, St Helena Island, SC 29920
The Story: At this moment, it stands.
The very first school established in America for freed African children...
It was founded before the dust of the Civil War settled.
... beneath the sway of Spanish moss on great oak trees,
... on a 47-acre campus on the island of Saint Helena, off the coast of South Carolina.
This is the land of the great Gullah people. Africans who, through centuries of oppression, have held strong to their culture, language, and beautiful customs.
Today, walk with us through the dirt roads of time on a voyage to the Penn School, a bold institution founded by Quakers and led by a Free Black Woman.
This story will leave your heart filled with hope and your mind ignited with a new blueprint for liberation.
Day 11
Before T.I., before Jeezy, and before Lil Baby…
For a city that thrives on “started from the bottom now I’m here” storylines, it makes sense that Atlanta’s first Black millionaire was a barber named Alonzo.
He didn’t have a Morehouse degree, or an Alpha Phi Alpha pedigree like Sweet Auburn Avenue's favorite son, Martin Luther King Jr. What Alonzo lacked in formality, he made up for with a hustler’s spirit.
This is the story you didn’t know.
The story of the real A. The Story of Auburn Ave. The story of Alonzo who left his small town in Georgia on foot with $11 of savings and about a year of schooling. He emerged to help make Sweet Auburn Avenue “the richest Negro Street in the world.”
Day 10
Of all the Black towns started in the West during Reconstruction, only one still exists…
Do you know where it is?
Y’all I tried to Google it.
… an address for you.
But ain’t no addresses.
It’s just…
Nicodemus, Kansas 67625
NicoDEMus!!!
I first saw the name in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
It was a beautiful way sign pointing to the famous township. Somehow, this sign was miraculously recovered through post-Reconstruction terror, the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, AND the Great Depression. There it was - a beautiful relic of Black history (so grateful for archeologists).
You see, I was born in Kansas, plus “Nicodemus” sounded Black as H, so I was pumped to learn more.
I googled the population today.
14 people.
Wait...14?
In 2020, it was 54.
One chart says 5.
Who are these people holding down our history?
What are their names? What are their mama’s names? How many generations have their families lived there? Do they have a post office?
I can’t wait to tell you the story and circumstances of this beautiful town. The history will give you a deeper understanding of the founding of all Black towns in the West.
Day 9
The Address: Edgecombe Avenue, Harlem, NY
The Story:There should be a sign as you drive up Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem that reads, “Black excellence started here.” A place of royalty. The home of Black Kings and Queens.
Known as “Harlem’s House of Celebrities,” residents of Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem’s Sugar Hill neighborhood included W.E.B DuBois, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, poet James Weldon Johnson, boxer Joe Louis, and musicians, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Lena Horne, just to name a few.
Their apartments were a place of aspirations. A place of respite in a world that was hostile to Black folks who were audacious enough to expect more from life than struggle and sacrifice.
Their community was a place where an artist's dreams could come to life and where a revolutionary could come to incubate ideas.
Edgecombe Avenue housed the hopes of so many Black people who changed the world that it should be an essential stop on anyone’s visit to NY.
Today we take you there, into the homes and into the stories of this special place.
Day 8
“I am a revolutionary. I am a proletariat; I am the people.”
- Fred Hampton
The Address: 804 S.17th Ave, Maywood, IL 60153
The Story: He was the rising star.
The youngest “Chairman”
The greatest hope of The Black Panther Party.
He was Tupac before Tupac.
Young, charismatic, and powerfully Influential.
His name was Fred Hampton.
Brilliant organizer. He fed thousands. Housed the poor. Educated a new generation. Brokered peace.
He understood the source of true power.
“Power to the People!”
…and that kind of power terrified the authorities.
Before dawn, on December 4,1969, an army of police officers raided the home of 21-year-old Fred Hampton, while he was sleeping. In a storm of 90+ government-issued bullets, they rained down terror on Fred and the love of his life Akua. She was in her nightgown, asleep and pregnant. She and their child survived. Fred Hampton and his friend Mark did not.
This was the single greatest tragedy of The Black Power Movement.
But rather than talking about the tragedy, we want to spend our time talking about the miracle of a man, Fred Hampton.
Who raised him?
What was his childhood like?
What was the source of his booming voice and resounding hope? Who gave him that dimpled smile? His mama? What about the glint of sincerity in his eyes?
Most importantly, how can we love and nurture an army of powerful Black men like him?
Let’s go back to his childhood home to investigate…
Day 7
The Address: The Corner of Normandie and Florence
The Story:Some call it a riot, recalling when plumes of smoke filled the sky and an anarchist disorder took over the streets.
Many others call it an uprising, pointing to the deep sense of injustice that had been left to boil over onto the streets of South Central, LA.
What’s for sure is that the rebellion that jumped off on the corner of Normandie and Florence, didn’t start with the beating of Rodney King. It didn’t start with the killing of young Latasha Harlins a few weeks later. It didn’t start with the assault of Reginald Denny in response to the acquittal of the corrupt LA police officers.
What started there was the results of decades of divestment, neglect, broken infrastructure, and racist policing tactics.
Day 6
The Address: 312 Azusa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90011
The Story: Have you ever heard someone speak in tongues? If you don’t know exactly what I mean, tune in today.
If you know…you know.
Goosebumps.
This emoji 👀.
The organists and choir stop.
Vrrooop.
God takes center stage.
Skeptics look away.
Believers take note.
During a revival on Azusa Street it happened in a public venue on American soil, journalists came.
“Weird Babel of Tongues”
…was the headline.
On April 18, 1906, The Los Angeles Times printed:
“Breathing strange utterances and mouthing a creed which it would seem no sane mortal could understand, the newest religious sect has started in Los Angeles. Meetings are held in a tumbledown shack on Azusa Street near San Pedro Street, and the devotees of the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories and work themselves into a state of mad excitement in their peculiar zeal. Colored people and a sprinkling of whites compose the congregation, and night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howling of the worshipers swaying back and forth in an attitude of prayer and supplication.”
This was The Azusa Street Revival.
It lasted three years.
How could those journalists, with their poorly veiled racism, possibly understand.
It was a spiritual breakthrough.
A rallying call for the newly freed.
The reclaiming of African know-how
…on American soil.
312 Azusa Street, Los Angelos, California was the official birthplace of the Black Pentecostal Movement, the fastest growing religious movement in American history.
For every Black girl who played the tambourine and knows the response to lyrics “This joy that I have…”
…this is your history.
Our history.
Black history.
And if you KNOW God has brought us through!!!
You better shout!
Somebody ought to dance.
Day 5
“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
- Micah 6:8
The Address: 5466 Gregg Street
The Story: This is not a story about high-falutin Black folks who earned enough money and privilege to vacation on exclusive fancy beaches. This is not a story about segregation or what access Black folks were denied. This is not a story about fun in the sun.
It’s a story about faith. About a deeply faithful man named Abraham Lincoln Lewis. A man with an elementary school education. A “race man”, as his granddaughter, the illustrious Dr. Johnetta Betsch Cole called him. A man who was centered in his Blackness. A man who was committed to the ongoing struggle of justice for Black folks.
That commitment not only led him to become Florida’s first Black millionaire, but it led him to found and establish American Beach on Amelia Island as a safe haven and place of respite for Black families.
Today we tell the story of A.L. Lewis and his dream for “relaxation and recreation without humiliation”. It’s a story that includes the sorrow of the enslaved people who were dumped onto the white sand shores of this beach, discarded as contraband and cargo. And it’s a story of the Black families who have claimed this space as theirs for generations, triumphantly building Black wealth and Black love.
Day 4
“You can pray until you faint, but unless you get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap.”
- Fannie Lou Hamer
The Address: 40 Acres, Ruleville, Mississippi
The Story: Raise your hand if you knew that Fannie Lou Hamer started a 600- Acre Farm to feed The People!!
Shut the front door!!! What!
For real? For real.
Fannie was trying to save actual lives up in here. Today, we finna learn y’all.
But before we travel back in history to Ruleville, Mississippi, let’s start here…
What did you eat for breakfast this morning? Where did the food come from? Is it organic or GMO? Was it grown on US soil? Did a Black farmers hands touch it? Let’s talk about it. For Fannie.
We already know that YOU know that Fannie Lou Hamer sang This Little Light of Mine. You can see in your head the Fannie Lou who put her purse on the table at the DNC as she talked about being beaten for registering Black voters across Mississippi.
But Farmer Fannie!?
Let’s turnip (you see what i did there??)!
Ha.
I can’t wait to tell you about her radical work that never gets discussed. Fannie Lou Hamer understood that the most intractable problem facing people in the American South was poverty. She said “I know what the pain of hunger is all about.”
So, with a $10,000 grant, she bought 40 acres of land and created Freedom Farm Cooperative. When it succeeded, she bought an additional 640 acres.
Somebody make me a T-shirt that says “Fannie Fed the People!”
Today, her farm is no longer there.
Let’s talk about why…
In her honor, we pledge to eat better and do better. (Shoot, someone may quit their job, buy some overalls, and move to Ruleville. Hope so.)
Day 3: Africatown
The Address: 1959 Bay Bridge Rd, Mobile, Alabama
The Story: This story has it all. Dahomey warriors, a landmark legal case, the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade, a brief appearance by Zora Neale Hurston, a re-discovered shipwreck, and a resilient community that, despite struggling with environmental racism for most of its existence, continues to persevere.
Located three miles south of downtown Mobile on the banks of the Mobile River lies historic Africatown, a community formed by a group of 32 West Africans who arrived in the U.S in 1860. Today, their descendants continue the fight to keep their legacy and culture alive.
Africatown is more than a story about the past, on today’s walk we will learn about the modern-day Africatown movement and the neighborhoods around the country that are using the Africatown model to build vibrant communities for the future.
Day 2
“I’m kicking new flava in ya ear!” - Craig Mack
The Address: Do you know what happened at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in The Bronx, New York?
The Story: Somebody’s uncle, with a good government job, signed the purchase order to put electrical outlets in light posts in Black neighborhoods across America.
He’s a hero.
Some say, that tiny detail, the ability to plug in amps and turntables outside on the corner is responsible for the birth of Hip Hop!
It’s a cute idea.
…and maybe there’s an ounce of credence there but here’s the TRUTH.
There is no hip hop without Cindy Campell and her big brother Clive who lived at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, New York.
Their basement apartment is known around the world as the birthplace of Hip Hop!!!
The rest is history: I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie, to the hip hip hop-a you don't stop the rock It to the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat. Now what you hear is not a test….
Day 1
“A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.” - Malcolm X
The Address: 3448 PINKNEY STREET OMAHA, NEBRASKA
The Story: The historical marker is behind the building. You cannot see it from the parking lot. Near the historical marker lies a small structure that is supposed to resemble the original house. The original house was the brick-and-mortar dreams of Reverend Earl and Louise Little.
The current building houses the Malcolm X Foundation. There are five sets of stairs inside to represent the five pillars of Islam. Outside the historical marker reads “El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was born Malcolm Little at University Hospital Omaha,” although neighborhood historian Bertha Calloway says he was actually born at home, right there at 3448 Pinkney Ave, attended to by doctor W.D. Lear and assisted by doctor A.S. Pinto. It was common practice back then for official birth certificates to conceal home births by listing a hospital name.
Malcolm would live in this house on the north side of Omaha for less than a year before the Nebraska KKK, which at the time had a membership of more than 45,000, including a women’s branch, a kids club, an annual state convention, ran them out of town.
Unfortunately, the family couldn’t run far enough, and on the corner of E. Michigan Ave and Detroit St. in Lansing, Michigan the terror caught up to them, killing Earl Little.
A quick google image search reveals that there is a Chevy car dealership sitting at the corner now. No one there to tell the story of how that intersection helped birth the great Malcolm X.
But during this episode we will tell that story, a story that starts at 3448 Pinkney Street.
The story of Malcolm’s birth home is a story set amidst a red summer and a mob rising. It includes the story Louise Norton Langdon Little who was born in Saint Andrew Parish, Grenada to Ella Langdon who was the daughter of Jupiter and Mary Jane.
We don’t know if their names were printed in a family bible, or if Earl would have had a chance to grab that bible before taking his family and fleeing.
What we do know is that the story didn’t end there on that street and that that street birthed one of the greatest revolutionaries of anytime.
Our neighborhood stories are too important to be lost to creditors and big banks who take away our grandmother’s houses. Our neighborhood stories are too valuable to be left buried under the foundations of condo buildings that our families can’t afford to live in.
Our neighborhood stories are our treasure troves.
That's why we want EVERYONE to join us for our newest season of Black History Bootcamp, where not only will we tell the real stories of our neighborhoods - but we will raise up an army of foot soldiers to support them.
This is our mission - and if you’re down to join us - then we want you to play tag like we did in the neighborhoods that we grew up in and tag in five friends to join you for Bootcamp.
This one’s for the homies, for the hoods that birthed us, for the soldiers still on the block holding our communities down.
May we rise with each step we take.
Join the 21-Day Bootcamp at https://blackhistorybootcamp.com/#register
We did it! Today marks the end of our first official month of walking and organizing for the 2022 GirlTrek season. We hope you are inspired as we head into the weekend. If so, plan to join us live tomorrow for the last day of Black History Bootcamp, The Crew Edition! Tomorrow will be a celebration of the ultimate crew - YOU!
Be Alive | Beyonce:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1RI4YQVFh7onQD07QuL8ND?si=586000c4d45948bc
Celebration | Kool & The Gang:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3K7Q9PHUWPTaknlbFPThn2?si=30bde051635a4e07
It began in 1983 as a small picnic in a public park near the Atlanta University Center. It grew to become a cultural phenomenon, and the signature defining event for a generation of college students who were embracing freedom and challenging the status quo.
Freaknik. The notorious street party. The ultimate spring break. A meeting ground for Black people around the nation looking to turn up and turnout.
More than a festival, Freakink was a mass demonstration of Black culture and joy. An annual event that made the church ladies clutch their pearls. It had as many detractors as it had supporters, with the mayor of Atlanta calling the issue of Freaknik the most divisive issue he’d faced in public life.
So, how did a crew of young Black college students organize the most epic event in the country, and why was this event so polarizing? Find out on today’s walk as we take a stroll through the freak storm that was Freaknik while discussing race, class, youth, image, and the lasting legacy of this ultimate street party.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Tootsee Roll | 69 Boyz:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0TZiZV8pQ6RBlo3Fmd5LX1?si=XoocAbhlSSyJRoAo68Eluw
My Boo | Ghost Town DJs:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1kfg4YF0vJPpuKV3KsBbvU?si=jYsyXh8kTH-v5vTEpiPPcQ
Sylvia Landry is adopted by Black sharecroppers. She is mixed-race. Her new parents love her as their own. Despite the rigors of sharecropping, they raise her well. Sylvia becomes a schoolteacher. She travels to Boston to raise money for a new school and on her trip, she is hit by a car. The white woman driving is overcome with guilt and writes a $50,000 check to support Sylvia’s school. Her father is wary of the charity and tired of the struggle. One day he has enough and confronts their white landlord over money. A fight ensues. The landlord is shot by another white man, but Sylvia's adoptive father is accused and lynched with her adoptive mother. In her despair, Sylvia is cornered and narrowly escapes attempted raped by the landowner's brother. She discovers that the attacker is her biological father.
This is the plot of a silent film by Oscar Micheaux in 1920.
It was a smash hit.
A brilliant Black family. Self-sufficient. Serving their community. Rejecting handouts. Fighting back. Loving hard. And suffering under the terror of white supremacy.
It was a brave answer to The Birth of a Nation, the first Hollywood blockbuster, which served as Klan propaganda and stoked fear of Black liberation.
Oscar Micheaux was unafraid.
He made race films at the height of lynching in America.
He was an author…
Director…
Producer…
…of 44 films.
The most successful Black filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century.
Join us as we learn how he rallied the resources and crew to do it.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Maple Leaf Rag | Scott Joplin:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4AE032Y0x1WPOi5CsmggnU?si=229d579a80b443d0
Believe in Yourself | Diana Ross:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1FPU4odGeC4Yi8VbeVJA6N?si=c85dfed7e8074550
The manifesto for the Sojourners for Truth and Justice starts with: “A Call To Negro Women! Negro women of every town and state arise, come to Washington DC September 29 - October 1, and demand of the President, the Justice Department, the State Department, and the Congress absolute, unconditional redress of grievances.”
The year was 1951, post World War II. A group of 132 Black women responded to the call and traveled from across the US to the nation's capital. Among them were some of the most progressive and inspired Black women activists, artists, and thinkers of the time, including
Alice Childress, Shirley DuBois, Esther Cooper Jackson, Charlotta Bass, Louise Thompson Patterson, and Mary Church Terrell. Women whose stories we will discuss as part of today’s walk.
These women gathered, first at the home of Frederick Douglass, where 21-year old playwright Lorraine Hansberry, addressed the crowd and read from the manifesto, “We can not, must not, and will no longer in sight of God or man sit by and watch our lives destroyed by an unreasonable and unreasoning hate that meets out to us every kind of death it is possible for a human being to die.”
With a clear agenda and unshakeable courage, the Sojourners for Truth and Justice took their fight directly to the White House, unapologetically focusing their message on the needs of Black women. Their work continued the legacy of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth and was a precursor to the March on Washington, and every Women’s March of the present day.
Lace-up and learn with us today! These are the heroes that our community needs to know about.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Stand By Me - Live | Tracy Chapman:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2gs8HVC6KXOQe76XggzZH5?si=3f47498ce0aa48c7
Beah Richards Speaks!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJnpWUgOLHk
You Gotta Believe | Rose Royce and the Pointer Sisters:
https://open.spotify.com/track/50mQ8Vef5jQDLmwytu4f6m?si=be9042240a984774
The Emancipation Proclamation freed 4 million people from human bondage.
Southern whites would illegally hold hostage our family members for two more years.
Once defeated in the most un-Civil War, free Black men, women, and children would become their biggest threat.
With the 15th Amendment, our forefathers were guaranteed the vote, equal representation in government, and 40 acres and a mule.
Black “freedmen” were in a position to live and provide for their families.
That freedom was met with vicious violence and terrorism.
The Freedmen’s Bureau was established by Abraham Lincoln as The Bureau for Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Its complex name hints at its complex history.
The Freedmen's Bureau issued land grants, negotiated labor contracts, reunited families, held legal hearings, collected historic records, provided healthcare, and built schools.
1000+ schools and universities became the Bureau's most powerful legacy.
Confronting that progress was Lincoln‘s assassination, Andrew Johnson’s painstaking racism, the birth of the Ku Klux Klan, Ulysses S. Grant’s liquor-soaked graft, and the malicious Black Codes that became Jim Crow.
…and on the front lines of these orchestrated attacks was a band of Black teachers.
Today, we honor them.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Wake Up Everybody | Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5kQ2ZEav7TgUoLSLrm7h8S?si=ed605844f01a4873
Move On Up | Curtis Mayfield:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0MHXrqn909p0LRTPsNsGEi?si=93aa405681b24b7b
It does not escape me that I am standing on the shoulders of giants, including the cooks and janitors and others who look like me and were first to enter corporate America. They created the space for me to have this opportunity. My hope is that corporate America realizes that talent is created equally but opportunity is not, and we all acknowledge that there's still more work to be done." - Thasunda Brown Duckett
Last year two Black women, Rosalind Brewer the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance and Thasunda Brown Duckett, the CEO of TIAA made history as the first two Black women to make an appearance on the annual Fortune 500 CEO list.
The annual list ranks 500 of America’s largest companies, and despite the progress that’s been made in the business space, women still only make up 8.2% of Fortune 500 CEOs, with women of color making up just 1.2%.
So who are these trailblazing Black women who shattered the glass ceiling and are blazing the way for our daughters?
Today we discover the backstory of Rosalind and Thasunda, and break down the long history of Black boss women who paved the way for them to sit at the head of the table at two of the world's most successful companies. From Madam CJ Walker to Oprah Winfrey, to the names of women who we all should know but don’t. Let's get into it.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Woman of the Ghetto | Marlena Shaw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_BeN75XgfQ
Diva | Beyonce:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNM5HW13_O8
You know what I’m talking about.
You’re at a birthday party.
You’re almost finished singing.
And on the very last line, for effect, your sister breaks into soprano and your mama hits that tenor - for something undeniable…
Family Harmony
“Haaaappy birthday to youuuu!”
Poof. In a 3-part harmony, you are transported to childhood on a vocal carpet ride. It is the ohm in your bloodline - a vibration and evolutionary fine tuning.
There is nothing…
And I mean nothing, more beautiful to the human ear as families singing together.
“It was the most mysterious thing I'd ever heard... I'd think about them even at my school desk...Mavis Staples looked to be about the same age as me in her picture on the cover.”
Bob Dylan knew it. He used it. Black family spirit. He went on to be called the greatest songwriter in history. If only they gave royalties for magic.
Which brings us to today’s show.
The Royal Families of Gospel…
We’ll focus on The Clark Sisters and The Winans, but we will celebrate so many others with fun name games, Twitter trivia, and praise dance choreography for the streets.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Is My Living in Vain/You Brought the Sunshine | The Clark Sisters:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1D4IYk4ajd9ipJb8AccYy8?si=074ae8faa5ac43bc
Hold Up the Light | Bebe and Cece Winans, Whitney Houston:
https://open.spotify.com/track/27M15Ml0kCvPLGQkWUN5w3?si=5575cc72b31b435c
Yeah! Today’s walk is dedicated to all the teachers that told us we’d never amount to nothin'. To all the people that lived above the buildings that we were hustlin' in front of. Called the police on us when we was just tryin' to make some money to feed our daughter. And all the n*** in the struggle. You know what we sayin'? It's all good, baby baby!
If you read that in your BIGGIE voice then you already know what it is!
Today’s call is a celebration of Black excellence, and a look into the hustle and heart of a man that defined the sound, look, and experience of a generation.
What Sean Combs has built is masterful. An empire that includes the best dranks (shout out to Ciroc Watermelon), the most classic music, and one of the most successful business empires run by a Black man.
He’s endured many defeats but continues to triumph, and today we break it all down. The record deals, the beefs, the love affairs and more.
It’s going to be a festival on foot, and we can’t think of anything better than having the King himself join us for today’s call. That’s why we’re putting you all on assignment!
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Juicy | Notorious BIG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y8VPQcPHhY
Fix Your Energy | Diddy aka "Love":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVFdReyDv5w
I Wanna Be Your Lover | Diddy aka "Love":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVFdReyDv5w&t=1083s
Summer Rain | Carl Thomas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvMkhX3FnZU
People will tell you she doesn’t make the cut.
She wasn’t a true supermodel. Too androgynous. Too loud. Not pretty enough. Her own boyfriend said she had a grotesque beauty. Boy bye.
Yet, Grace Jones somehow made it from the pews of a holiness church in Jamaica to bearing her gorgeous body on the cover of magazines and being a muse to musicians, painters, and culture makers for decades.
So, when we found a picture of Grace Jones laughing with Iman and Beverly Johnson, we knew we had to celebrate their crew of Black models.
Join us for the juice.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Pull Up To The Bumper| Grace Jones:
https://open.spotify.com/track/653Fi3bqMxQQQmjw72ur6G?si=e5a260c64b4142a8
I Wanna Be Your Lover | Prince:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2XLAzm8bMDSI7MhbRW8nVj?si=ddee1f97710d4ea2
“In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky — her grand old woods — her fertile fields — her beautiful rivers — her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal actions of slaveholding, robbery and wrong, — when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing.” - Frederick Douglas
Miriam Webster defines a patriot as a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors.
But what happens when the country you serve doesn’t serve you back?
And what if the enemy isn’t an enemy at all?
This is the history of America’s expansion west. And of the soldiers who led the way.
It is a complicated story. But the relationship that Black people have had to the government and the military has always been so.
There are no victors or villains in this retelling. Just great feats that were achieved by proud men, and profound defeats that were suffered by our Indigenous brothers and sisters.
This is the story of The Buffalo Soldiers.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Buffalo Soldier | Bob Marley & The Wailers:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7BfW1eoDh27W69nxsmRicb?si=4596f6853e7442ac
Kiss an Angel Good Mornin' | Charley Pride:
https://open.spotify.com/track/37GWhu8R61gTStMvVQfDuE?si=143088b5f54d4760
The year is 1971.
You are standing outside of the New Afrika Shrine in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.
Waiting.
The line is long. The air is thick with a tenor of brassy soul and a gut-churning rhythm that makes you drop into your own hips.
The jolt of the familiar.
You are here.
There.
The birth of AfroBeat.
This was no brightly colored music video.
No.
This was a vivid spiritual and socio-political war. A people’s rebellion underscored with white tribal paint under beautiful women’s eyes. An ancient inquisition dotting their foreheads. Fela Kuti, his crew of wives, his commune, and his continent of followers challenged the state and disrupted the status quo. Their courage was met with violence that resulted in the funeral procession of the matriarch of the movement.
Let’s pay our respects.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Kere Kay | FELA! Original Broadway Cast, Sahr Ngaujah:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1gHgbEBIznkYzS5rd3gbfy?si=6ae1c642d8c14532
Zombie | Fela Kuti, Afrika 70:
https://open.spotify.com/track/11GDQVqIEKAB4QKOcIVOvG?si=2c139a4fda614af6
Coffin for Head of State | Fela Kuti:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7d8PADmEkMERzZ3b1EEnzO?si=b7e9fd1244764996
Water No Get Enemy | Fela Kuti:
https://open.spotify.com/track/43ile6cBzr9uaC4bJf6J3N?si=7b57a7583c1b4aad
“I'm no longer accepting the things I cannot change...I'm changing the things I cannot accept.”
- Angela Davis
In a memo to her boss at Random House Publishing, where Toni Morrison worked as an Editor, she wrote of Angela Davis, “she is the fiercest woman I know. And I come from a long line of fierce women.”
This memo was in defense of the young activist, whom Toni herself had contacted and persuaded to write an autobiography at 26.
Toni’s boss had complained that Angela did not show any “humanness,” and seemed too disciplined to be real.
Toni wrote to him with a clap-back for the ages. “Angela is not here to meet your needs.” Angela is not here to perform your fantasy. “Your cry for more humanness,” she wrote, “is constant but I am suspicious of the word. It’s the word white people use when they want to alter a “fearless” or “uppity nigger.”
This memo sits in the archives of Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Toni’s boss’s response is not included, but the record reflects that Toni won the battle and remained editor of the book, and that Angela crafted the story she wanted for herself and the movement.
This...our dear friends, is what it looks like to have your crews back. To take a risk for the people you love and believe in, and to be willing to go the distance for what you know is right.
This is a Black girl love story involving two of the most influential Black women of any generation. It’s a story full of lessons on how to make moves on behalf of those that matter to us.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Womanifesto | Jill Scott:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3AzkEYjNuaOUpyqvoWErmz?si=f98a7ec4b2524ba4
GirlTrek's #DaughtersOf Conversation with Angela Davis and Nikki Giovanni:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esPHDvx_aZc
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am - Exclusive Clip | Angela Davis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHbjbwNuu-Q
Count on Me | Whitney Houston:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7mVV7fepIMUAE4FDyihupV?si=83de7ebc80514656
A different kind of click.
More powerful than a gun.
He pointed and shot.
In his crosshairs - the lies told by the American media about Black men, women, and children. Lies that we were savage, dangerous, ugly.
Photographer Gordon Parks bodied that plot with a portfolio for the people. Thousands of crystal clear images of perfect Blackness.
Telling the truth.
Shining a light on humanity.
From his iconic camera came cover photos. He documented a broken-hearted city after Dr. King’s assassination. He attended the funeral of Medgar Evers and showed the world the stoicism of his beautiful wife.
Gordon Parks and his editorial crew placed these powerful images on the cover of Life magazine.
He set out to offer perspective and clarity on historic moments AND the ordinary lives of extraordinary people.
Like Red Jackson, the benevolent drug dealer in Harlem. Or the Fontonelle family, who could not survive the destitution of urban poverty. Or the women in Malcolm X’s mosque.
Our collective image of Black history was rendered in his dark room.
Today, we shine a light and raise a glass to truth in journalism. And to all the storytellers of the movement.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Across 110th Street | Bobby Womack:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2zyTP97uGsIc1C4KNNEkyn?si=363cc85ec8c34670
The Ghetto | Donny Hathaway:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1yeIxOEFmpQ3qlOb2R3g2m?si=656073f483e14536
We’re in a mission to serve the “1000 Blackest neighborhoods in America.” And this mission is led by you!
See it and claim it with us. 1000 Black neighbors rising!
Here’s the plan:
We are asking the brave, the hopeful and the committed to walk out on faith and text a sister to walk with you. Start a crew. Listen to this podcast and read our field guide at girltrek.org. It’s everything you need to know to become a crew leader.
Can you see it? Crews in every Black neighborhood in America - strike that, around the world! We can see it!
A crew? You plus on or two is a crew! A crew walks together at least once a week to encourage each other to stay committed to the daily journey of living our healthiest, most fulfilled lives.
At least 1,000 of you will succeed in walking with your crews at least 10 Saturdays this year. See it with us.
Hit play and learn how you can get your crew rolling today.
There is a rumor that the Lone Ranger was a Black man.
His name was Bass Reeves.
One legend says he won a card game.
…against his slave “master.”
…during the Civil War.
And when the white man got mad (we BEEN knowing how to play Spades!) and started an altercation, Bass opened a can of beat-down and escaped to Indian Territory where he lived among the Cherokee, Creeks and Seminoles. He learned their languages, studied their ways, earned their loyalty and - at the emancipation of a nation - Bass Reeves rose like a Phoenix to become the greatest American hero of the West.
Meet the real ranger: Bass Reeves. Deputy. Gunslinger. Law man. Free. Protector of Black towns. Apple of every woman’s eye. Cheered by children. Outlaws beware.
Bass Reeves has been featured in more movies than we can count and yet most people don’t even know his name.
So today we say it.
And he wasn’t some fictional solo actor - that’s a Hollywood lie.
He had a crew - a network of Indigenous Americans, Black townspeople, trusted informants and U.S Deputies, so he could nab THOUSANDS of bad guys and ride into the sunset.
Get on your horses ladies, and let’s take a ride through time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Bedstuy Parade and Funeral March | Jay-Z:
https://open.spotify.com/track/01da6Nb55VXzvS14CzbLjY?si=cf81686b82654d14
The Harder They Fall | Koffee:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6AxSYAHq0U6fKykB7uScPl?si=89af4fb441b04f22
"There is one thing you have got to learn about our movement. Three people are better than no people."
- Fannie Lou Hamer
By November of 1963, activists in Mississippi were exhausted and discouraged. Their efforts and strategies had inspired a movement, but not increased the number of Black voters.
Refusing to back down from their fight for liberation, organizers went back to the drawing board in search of inspiration. And, in the Summer of 1964, they emerged with a new plan that not only galvanized the movement but changed the course of history.
They called it the Mississippi Summer Project, also known as Freedom Summer. This student-led movement was a powerful demonstration of organizing, and it centered the leadership of two women; Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer.
Today we bring that summer back to life. Examining the strategies at the center of this pivotal moment in history.
More than a telling of a story, this is a celebration of brave, bold Black women who aren’t afraid to say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done. We walk in their footsteps.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free | Nina Simone:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5CKHhg31HcYYhwUeeGqvhq?si=a36d36b0659d4b8e
This Joy | Resistance Revival Chorus:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4CJFOJoOVLWeWqwnoCd8wk?si=7a0e19cd5d0942de
This is the story of the most famous crew in the rap game.
This is the story of a dynasty.
Of hood legends.
The story of Black men who knew their worth and were willing to go to battle in any arena, from the block to the boardroom.
This is the story of money, power, and respect.
The story of America. Of making it. Of manifesting.
The story of putting your crew on. Cause where I go, you go. Ya heard?
This is the story of the culture creators who transformed their pain into testimony on wax and influenced a generation, and the world.
There is no story of the crew that does not include Hip-Hop, and today we tell the story of Roc Nation. Of a family sometimes divided but always on top and making moves for the masses.
Throw up your Roc sign because they are in the building today!
A walk and talk that’s sure to teach and inspire. Beyond the headlines we will talk about the holiness of their craft and how it has blessed and transformed our world.
Not just a Jay-Z story. This is a legacy story. A Kanye story. A Dame Dash story. A story that is still being written that we are happy to tell.
Lace up and tune in!
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
U Don't Know | Jay-Z:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4O7oKy8YADaBrbehcPl0kE?si=b96e5a6229da4642
Jay Z Life Advice Will Leave You Speechless:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMF-pDTEhb0
Legacy | Jay-Z:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3p2O5DDqlWdaR1l4wsHn9R?si=8f00f9e458fc49d4
Listen, the P is for parliament and Funk for Funkadelic. Two bands united.
Under a groove.
Getting down
(for what?)
…just fooooor the funk of it.
We ready.
Today’s conversation will explore the father of Black futurism as he convened a crew of bands (with a dash of Bootsy Collins), to inspire a new generation’s imagination of what was possible for children of the motherland - rejecting definitions of tragic fleets of ships of stolen progeny and setting off on a new zeitgeist of earthy soul and galactic freedom.
The Mothership is waiting. Snoop, Tupac, Erykah Badu, definitely Prince, and all of Omega Psi Phi have been dazzled by the star-shaped glimmer of this crew.
They are already onboard.
Step inside.
Join us today for a walk and talk.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker) | Parliament:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4XRkQloZFcRrCONN7ZQ49Y?si=335ef44445ed4e8e
Atomic Dog | George Clinton:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4cgodXjv4TfrooNQxvlO4O?si=f9f9b688fb3d4d23
The most powerful Black men in America. Then and now.
Did you know that Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Duke Ellington, Medgar Evers, Paul Robeson, Nelson Mandela, Louis Farrakhan, and both Martin Luther King Jr.’s father and grandfather were all Prince Hall Freemasons?
And these are just the names that are on record.
Academics believe that everything we know today about Black American history has been influenced by the Black Freemasonry organization. Many people call them the unseen hand of Black America. The backbone of our progress.
There wouldn’t be a civil rights movement without Freemasonry. They have been behind nearly every pivotal move we’ve made as a people and yet, most of us know nothing about them. Until today!
This promises to be one of those blow your mind episodes where we connect so many dots in history that your head will spin. Then you’ll be calling everyone you know to let them know what you’ve learned.
Now grab your sneakers and hit the road cause we’ve got a story to tell. Don’t miss it.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
A Solider in the Army of the Lord | James Cleveland:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7rRFiSgNG9FRzT4rZLFbIQ?si=a6edfc281ddf42db
You've Been Good to Me | Jonathan DesVerney Gospel Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQYKs9DKTn8
Brick-by-brick, crop-by-crop, farm-by-farm, today’s crew of Black men did the unglamorous work to build an economic future for our people. They built an institution, an infrastructure and an entire new economy to revive the American South.
They called him The Black President. He didn’t ask for dignity and equal rights. He assumed them. Booker T. Washington convinced the Carnegies and Rockefellers to invest in the economic and political come-up of his people. And while we love W.E.B DuBois, young Dubois applied for a teaching job at Tuskegee. Don’t get it twisted. Booker T. Washington was the most influential Black man of the turn of the century.
And the smartest thing he did was invite a quiet-spoken genius to join his crew.
At the turn of the century. Before cars were invented, Henry Ford was asking a black man named George Washington Carver for advice. Ford said Carver was “the greatest scientist in the world.” Time Magazine called him “The Black Aristotle.” And Mahatma Gandhi praised Carter for feeding a nation. (And y’all talking’bout some peanuts.) Thomas Edison offered Carver $100,000 to quit working with Washington and work in his lab. He said no. He was devoted to serving his people.
They built Tuskegee. 700 acres of farmland, livestock, 27 vocations in industrial trades: farming, printing, wagon making, tailoring, brick laying. The students themselves built the 50-building campus - by hand. And the school has an endowment bigger than Harvard’s at the time.
True progress raging across the South until Washington raised his fist at The Atlanta Esposition - his full power on display - bringing the full backlash of Jim Crow terror, lynching and distraction.
These men are the most misunderstood crew in Black history - and it may be intentional because when we get economic, industrial and agricultural power.
Listen.
Today we try to understand. Both men were born into slavery. How did they rise to such power?
Let’s talk about it.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
The Rubberband Man| The Spinners:
https://open.spotify.com/track/13Mzsb8VzRSZ5w3pM48cn6?si=9584cLZQTm-56OcUToKeDw
Will the Circle Be Unbroken | The Staple Singers:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2XQlZQGMQKIElKRYSf5NWx?si=q4Nwb5yyTWOzZ5QYtkxhxQ
Visions of Sunset | Boyz II Men:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6lQREztig1UKUHeyQhw7As?si=GtlyZfuHT2SH82aiFGTiAA
"The Black Panther Party may indeed be history, but the forces that gave rise to it are not.
“They wait, for the proper season, to arise again." - Mumia Abu-Jamal
Throw your fist in the air and get ready to march, because Day 2 of Black History Bootcamp kicks off with an exposé into one of the most influential crews of our time, The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.
Perhaps no other crew in history had so much cultural influence, or impact on our politics, or instilled so much fear in our government, as the youngsters from West Oakland. J Edgar Hoover called them the “greatest threat” to the internal security of the country, and their 10 point plan and 35 survival programs, became the blueprint for every Black liberation movement that was to follow.
You think you know, but on today’s walk we will dig deep into the origin story of founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. We will break down the strategy of the movement. Explore the relationships that are central to the story, and talk about the enduring legacy of their work from fashion to the Free Breakfast Program.
Bigger than superheroes, this is the real story of The Black Panther Party.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:
Say It Loud | James Brown:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5h8ve1B7Gr3k4W0WXAgLxE?si=e3c1490edefa4aa1
The Ghetto | Too $hort:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3B6WDceNe6lUQnczntRIuf?si=aae685242edb4d31
They called themselves the Niggerati and named their newspaper FIRE.
The Origin Story:
It was the height of the Harlem Renaissance.
Zora Neale Hurston was one of the most popular writers and one of THE founders of the very field of anthropology at Columbia University. A brilliant mind.
She sat in the middle of her glamorous Harlem neighborhood with her Florida overalls on. Like a farmer. She loathed the burn of White gaze on Black genius. She refused to perform respectability. She hated what it did to her spirit, her people, her freedom. People were drawn to her bravery. The way she laughed from her belly and cut with her eyes. The certainty of her critiques, the quickness of her wit and daring of her dreams.
She was attractive. Magnetic. And people were drawn to that porch, to her crew. The crew was big and loud and included:
Countee Cullen: a famous writer whose words inspired the creation of jazz music according to Duke Ellington. He, in his cufflink excellence, hated the crew name - for the record lol.
Wallace Thurman: Who wrote The Blacker the Berry is credited with advancing the very idea of colorism.
Dorothy West: Famed writer of The Living is Easy which chronicled the upper-class Black experience in Boston.
And of course, perhaps the most famous, Langston Hughes was there looking like Al B. Sure and spitting lyrics.
Together, their ideas were foundational to the Harlem Renaissance.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Countee Cullen Poem:
https://youtu.be/lBPdHtdntOM
Year-after-year, we have called the name of Harriet and asked her to guide our steps and this movement. We have prayed to the same God. We have taught the lessons of her liberation. We have remained faithful to our vision.
Now in 2022, on March 10th, Tubman Day, we honor Harriet with a global walk and celebration. Walk 2.22 miles for Harriet as we take you on a journey from the Ashanti Kingdom, the home of Harriet’s Great grandmother, to Auburn NY, where she walked to her freedom.
It’s an experience rooted in the history, culture, revolution and evolution of Black women’s liberation. Featuring special guest from Harriet's family:
Pauline Copes Johnson, Harriet Tubman’s 3x Great Grandniece
Michele Jones Gavin, Harriet Tubman’s 3x Great Grandniece
WeAreHarriet
“Freedom, by definition, is people realizing that they are their own leaders.”
- Diane Nash
On this special episode, we're walking and talking with Diane Nash, one of the most influential activists of any generation - co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and organizer of the Freedom Rides.
This historic conversation commences on the Blackest day of the year - Saturday, August 28th. This day marks the anniversary of the abolishment of slavery in the UK, the murder of Emmitt Till, the March on Washington, the Presidential nomination of Barack Obama, and the day that our beloved Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman departed this earth.
We mark this day because we do not believe in coincidences or happenstance, but in sacred forces and synchronicity, in supreme math and divine signs, and as a movement we join arm in arm with revolutionaries from around the world who stop each year in August to pay homage to the countless organizers and activists who sacrificed their freedom and lives in the struggle for Black liberation.
This is an opportunity for the whole family to gather and experience living history, to walk real-time in the footsteps of a Civil Rights legacy, and to celebrate the Black women who paved the way and continue to do the work.
We who believe in freedom cannot rest.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Booker T and the MGs | Green Onions:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4fQMGlCawbTkH9yPPZ49kP?si=A2YEDouTQaaLp_WVtIv1mw&dl_branch=1
James Brown | Get Up Offa That: Thinghttps://open.spotify.com/track/0nyrltZrQGAJMBZc1bYvuQ?si=mrM0uXPBSSyB9UPfmnFqGw&dl_branch=1
Monday, May 31st will make the 100th anniversary of one of the worst incidents of mass racial violence in the history of this country, the Tulsa Race Massacre. Over the course of two days, more than 100 residents of one of the most thriving and prosperous Black neighborhoods in the country were massacred by a violent white mob. They came seeking to destroy what these proud men and women had built – a community organized around shared values and cultural pride with deep economic roots and political power.
This Monday, as a tribute, a rallying cry, and a call-to-action we invite you, your loved ones, and your community to take a walk with us in this special edition of our viral walking podcast. Together we will spend 60 minutes calling in the ancestors, honoring what was lost in Tulsa, and discussing how this movement plans to lead the rebirth of 1,000 Black neighborhoods starting this summer.
This virtual walk can be experienced from wherever you are and will be led by GirlTrek Co-Founders, Vanessa and Morgan along with a special guest, Tamika Mallory.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Ella's Song| Sweet Honey in The Rock:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0MTTqcQmbLW94gMLYMl95k?si=d4c79d0411914eee
A Meditation for Black Women | Monet Marshall and Nia Wilson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgf2COTsFUA
Valarie Kaurs' Prayer:
https://www.today.com/video/what-if-this-is-not-the-darkness-of-the-tomb-but-the-darkness-of-the-womb-watch-valarie-kaur-s-speech-917892675740
“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion." - bell hooks
If you are like us, you are sitting with a deep ache in your heart. Just as we’d begun to shake off some of the weariness that we’ve held while watching the verdict come down in the murder of George Floyd, we see Ma’Khia Bryant’s video pass through our timelines and read the news that a 16-year-old Black girl has been shot four times by police.
Sisters, we know this feels relentless. It is relentless. And that’s their strategy. The pressure is on to keep us in an exhaustive state of grief that robs us of our joy, our will to organize, and our collective faith. We must resist. And we must reject the urge to hold the rage. And we must keep moving forward with our collective healing as a people because on the other side of healing is liberation.
In that spirit, and in honoring GirlTrek’s legacy of healing Black women through the ancestral tradition of walking, you are invited to join us for a National Walk and Talk. Together we will spend 60 minutes moving through grief, honoring our dead, discussing the path forward, and connecting with the divine power that guides us all.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Stand by Me | Karen Gibson and The Kingdom Choir:
https://youtu.be/AyFlLjdNqk8
Amazing Grace | Lizz Wright:
https://youtu.be/bBrucMaLNBQ
On September 12, 1992, Mae Jemison, became the first Black woman to fly into space. This Black woman genius, who can trace her family roots back to the plantations of Talladega County, Alabama, flew 190 hours, 30 minutes, 23 seconds, and orbited the earth 127 times. Listed among the items that she carried with her was a poster of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, a West African statue, a picture of pilot Bessie Coleman, and a banner reppin’ Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Mae Jemison is truly her ancestor’s wildest dreams. Her life is a masterclass in excellence, sprinkled with Black stardust. Come to this walk with anticipation. There is much to learn from this pioneer!
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Alvin Ailey "Cry" with Yolanda Adams "Right on Be Free" | Black Girls Rock 2018:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIAbeGLbXlc
Saturn | Stevie Wonder:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5RgWdJs6H52nMyZFQspQWH?si=ad8c70fbe3a84a20
On the very spot where the transatlantic slave trade began, in modern-day Angola, the most epic fight for liberation in our history was waged between the entire Portuguese Empire and one Black woman. Standing toe-to-toe. Them and her. Queen Nzinga.
Say her name.
We are the #daughters of Queen Nzinga Mbande. Queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of the ruling family of Ndongo and great sovereign power of Matamba. Ohhh that’s delicious.
Let it roll off your tongues: Nzzzzinga, Nzingha, Njinga. Her name alone defies the English alphabet, spelled differently across history. No matter how you spell her name, one thing is certain, trained in military precision and political warfare, young Nzinga defeated the colonizers, protected her people for 37 years, and set into motion a liberation movement that would ultimately defeat the colonizers.
We will not be your slaves.
Adjust your crowns queens, we’re going in. This is the greatest story never told.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Summertime | Angelique Kidjo:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6ZoY4JuMpnTkQTLE8tYP5k?si=9f4aa8cf123f439d
Try Me | Tems:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2DYp6Gfu2JguZra6xL8IAV?si=9b3d681841e04baf
Today we tell the story of The United Order of Tents. A secret society of Black women that has operated for more than 100 years, providing shelter and services to people who were unable to care for themselves. It’s the story of Black women’s survival and resilience throughout time. When we look back to our grandmothers and ask, how did they make it? This is how. By relying on each other. By lifting as they climbed. Through mutual aid and support. This is the truth of who we are. Kind. Generous. God-fearing. Steadfast. Join us today to celebrate this legacy of sisterhood.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Completely Yes | Sandra Crouch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1L3k9_q1S8
Déjà vu | Teena Marie:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7ecCOdHyhkWrQWbzDnHm6m?si=bIt-uAhVQdWAF_eB4SX6Vg&utm_source=copy-link
In 1965, Harry Belafonte said that Mahalia Jackson was "the single most powerful Black woman in the United States.” She could channel God’s power, transform a room, soften the hardest hearts, move the masses, and light fire to the faithful. That’s power.
We are the #daughtersof Mahalia Jackson
...and her voice rang louder than bullets and billy clubs. Crystal clear. Equal parts lullaby and lightsaber. Mahalia Jackson was our moral high ground - a spiritual portal. A “beam me up” before Star Trek had a name. She mastered the ability to take us to a Rock that was higher. She rode a praise - in primordial tongues - through halls of injustice, and confused our cross-burning enemies. Singing “I'm gonna lay down my burden, down by the riverside.” Singing, “I ain't a-gonna study war no more.” Singing, “Soon it will be done. Trouble of the world.” Singing “Elijah Rock, shout, shout, shout. Elijah Rock comin' up, Lord.” Singing, "How I made it over,” and “You must be born again.” Bearing the very souls of Black folks. Teaching us. Healing us. Actual pain medicine. Soothing the saints and the sinners alike. Reminding us all of our divine connection and of a transformational power that is bigger than fear.
“I think fear is a sin,” she said. “And I can’t live in fear.”
If you are wavering today. Walk with us. If the evidence of your life - your job, your health, your mind, your money, your man - is overwhelming your faith, walk with us. Listen to the clarion voice that mobilized our mothers and resolved our father’s fears. Black people have practices. We have methods, potions, and powers that connect us to Light in the darkest of times. We need those now. Keep the faith. Grab your sneakers. And come sing with us…
Today, we walk in total agreement - as our foremothers walked before us in the Montgomery Bus Boycotts - for the total liberation of Black people everywhere.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Coming In Hot | Andy Mineo, Lacrae:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1kVYXfxTWSftIZtmYr6yH8?si=7asQJMgISNmsZYJu66ADaQ
Elijah Rock - Live | Mahalia Jackson:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4zYchkXbGeXtJ3T7Tq1elD?si=SY48AZn9QP6p7uVRcxgZwg
Never Seen Before Footage of Mahalia Jackson and her Funeral:
https://youtu.be/53A6DPWZ_i8
How I Got Over | Mahalia Jackson:
https://youtu.be/l49N8U3d0Bw
Alice Walker reached all the way back to bring forward the story that would forever change us in her seminal novel, The Color Purple. With her words, she gave voice and texture to the pain of Black women, tenderly explored the depths of it at every level, and then proudly walked us through a field of purple to show us our own strength and resilience. For every woman who ever uttered the words, “I’m poor, Black, I may even be ugly, but Dear God, I’m here! I’m here!” Today’s walk is for you. Beyond a book discussion, we will journey through the life of Alice Walker, her loves, her losses, her triumphs, and her defeats. Just the conversation we all need right now.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Maybe God Is Tryin' Tell You Somethin' | Quincy Jones:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4JXiNTDq6OGkyp5aZ7X7cn?si=Ckbi4i4NQvqHXviG4uVD5Q
Freedom Time - Live | Lauren Hill:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0kQ2DTgR9iAkIKoeoIHfn9?si=Lj9a6KFYTP2iZtF9kIMDVg
Dunham. The single word conjures connection. Katherine Dunham revolutionized dance in America. Her life was an undulating umbilical cord back to our Motherland. With a Ph.D. in anthropology, she studied sacred traditional dance techniques and offered Black people a technical way to exercise the trauma of separation from our spiritual inheritance. She was ancient and modern and we are her daughters. She taught us to love our bodies, our Blackness, our culture. And she dedicated her entire life - 96 years on the planet - to freeing Black people, starting with her own community in East St. Louis.
Dunham’s impact on the world was deeply therapeutic. Boldly connective. A cultural revolution. There is no American modern dance movement without Katherine Dunham. She is the matriarch of Alvin Ailey AND The Dance Theater of Harlem. Because of her work, I fully understand the power of my own mother’s Holy Ghost dance. I understand that there is such a thing as full-body worship....that the African diaspora has to remember - or learn again - the art of riding Spirit to transform circumstance. And that healing and unifying our own bodies is a prerequisite to unifying our body politic.
(Today’s episode is dedicated to Dr. Linda Goodrich, the Dunham-trained teacher in Sacrament who taught my 22-year-old, God-fearing body to root into the earth, roll with the wind, and rise with the sun. To emote, undulate, AND to perform the rites of our foremothers. Rites of generosity, gratitude, sensuality, fearlessness. There is a dance for them all.)
Today, we invite you to experience the full-bodied legacy of Mrs. Katherine Dunham as we walk together in the community.
Ashé.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Hot Boy | Bobby Shmurda:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0rFke7eNFHbGuGJUdRgjB2?si=nAVuZ8IHTb2RyXqEICzjbA
Halifu's Dunham Class Progression:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_s2P-Bxl3EEICzjbA
Ye | Burna Boy:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3FskQrDXcY24ur2fCvz35O?si=uh9M-Y-iR_u8B1Lj6sB-Lw
When you’ve got it. You’ve got it. And Dianna Ross has always had it, has always known she’s had it and has always known how to use it. The literal definition of Icon. A Black woman who has dared to ask the universe for what she wants and clearly stands in expectation of receiving it. Grace personified. Elegance embodied. She rose like a Phoenix from the ashes of one of Detroit’s toughest neighborhoods to create a career and a life that has inspired millions around the world. The glamour. The movies. The romances. The clothes. The hair. The legacy of her family! Diana Ross is our royalty, and today we honor and celebrate her. Lace-up and walk with us. We’re going to do her proud.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Be a Lion | Diana Ross:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPYAim8fGvM&list=PLKJzywEPMiCRUpFVLMGZdTZ3hAIxAK7XO&index=2
Ain't No Mountain High Enough (Uncut) | Diana Ross:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6yNlSyiBLE
This is the greatest spy story never told. The story of Mary Bowser, a formerly enslaved woman turned Union spy, who helped take down the confederacy before teaching at a school for free Black children. Then she disappeared off into the sunset. James Bond who?
While made-up stories of white male valor and heroism dominate box offices and take up space on every channel, real stories of real heroes, like Mary Bowser, go untold. Until today!
Today’s walk is dedicated to a woman whose name everyone should know. A woman so savvy and effective at her job as a spy that Confederate President Jefferson Davis complained that his mental state was collapsing under the strain of not being able to find the leak in his network. The story runs deep and serves as a testament to the bravery and courage of Black women. Women, who for centuries, have risked it all for the freedom of their people. Come to the Walk and Talk with anticipation. We’re spilling all the goods on this wartime hero.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Dreams | Solange:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0deHsjyrgcKGMZzIuvawq3?si=PN6sVJlwR0GIfN_QzIObtg
Déjà vu | Teena Marie:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7p37jbu5FjiHlkXV4wEQei?si=rD44Y4DnQemvrodnlfgkIg
“She made it rain on grassroots integrationists in the South while giving the Kennedy brothers a tongue-lashing for their failure to protect the region’s African-Americans. She inspired a Nina Simone song. She was clocked by the Feds. She wore pearl earrings. She gave a generation of Black actors the roles that would define their careers. She bedded white people years before miscegenation was legalized. She pissed off American theater. She pissed off American theater critics. She named her home in upstate New York Chitterling Heights. Years before Stonewall, she penned letters of solidarity to the early lesbian publication The Ladder. She had a mean sense of humor that continues to defy the “serious activist” stereotype. She didn’t stop until her body made her stop.” - Excerpt by Fonesca. Review of Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart.
Every aspect of Lorraine Hansberry’s life was fascinating, full of intrigue, and worthy of exploration. There is so much to talk about on today’s walk. Get ready to laugh, gasp, shout, and more as we honor the women who told the world there is nothing better than being young, gifted, and Black.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
To Be Young, Gifted and Black | Nina Simone:
https://open.spotify.com/track/67RKpDruBXMJgAmhJAivXr?si=X6I9XdANRFi_b7B-bU_xkw
Wake Up | Ledisi (ft. Sa-Roc):
https://open.spotify.com/track/2YjUR0XRhaLa080fcd5r5t?si=FtX72MazTO2OqkGQrPw6EQ
Moms Mabley was brilliant at disrupting the status quo with perfectly portioned bits of truth. It is the recipe of so many Black mothers, aunties, and grandmothers. Closeted geniuses, with disarming side glances, glints of spiritual insight, and easy laughs filled with ancient discernment. We have a wealth of funny in our families and Moms Mabley showed it to the world. Dressed as a toothless grandmother - using the force and bravery of her own grandmother as inspiration - she disarmed the world with edgy comedic perfection. One-liners distilled in hard times. Loaded. Waiting for just a minute of airtime to kill. Quick wit is survival. Moms Mabley survived the unsurvivable by becoming the funniest woman on the planet.
Let’s learn her magic.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to comedy except played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
My First Psychotic Break | Tiffany Haddish:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3ol1RDEHaxfmdQ0UnA0wq3?si=oQREg_2ZTjaFbDhSpjIs8Q
Dear Mamas. Dear Black mothers. Dear Black women who are raising Black children in this hostile world. You are appreciated. You are on the frontlines doing the most critical work, raising up an army of Black boys and girls whose heads will not be bowed, whose names command respect, whose legacy will be one of resistance and joy. Thank you.
Today we tell the story of Afeni Shakur. Known to the world as the mother of the late great Tupac Shakur. She was a revolutionary doing revolutionary work long before she blessed the world with the birth of one of our great kings. Afeni’s story is one that deserves to be celebrated. The story of Black women who stay ten toes down for the cause, who love hard, who fight smart, who fall but get back up, adjust their crowns and keep moving towards their destiny. Let’s go beyond the headlines to learn something today about faith, about second chances, about what was lost in the struggle, and what was gained.
“I want to reach people who have big problems. People that look like they won’t get through. I want to talk about how you get through garbage… just putting one foot in front of the other. I want to talk about how you can survive without destroying yourself in the process and that when you do survive there is something left. Some spirit left for the next day.” - Afeni Shakur
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Dear Mama | Tupac:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7GtJfdmWvlX1ZlKVrOFcFB?si=RyT2xU5qQfGpQLJkYWXJMQ
White Man'z World | Tupac:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3rNx3qPSxwkZGrSeJJ611c?si=zNoYiMUqTEObr6-yh7Ocbw
She was born free on October 26, 1775. Kidnapped at 7. Stuffed in the bowels of a ship named The Phillis and enslaved by a Bostonian family named the Wheatley's. So that is what they called her, Phillis Wheatley. They stole her body and her name, but they could not steal her mind. She mastered the English language in mere months. Then Greek and Latin too. A genius. She went on to become the first Black woman or man in America to publish a book. It was a book of poetry. But do not reduce her to that.
“Sir, I have taken the freedom to address your Excellency...Your generosity, therefore, I presume, will pardon the attempt.” She was cold with it. In a letter to George Washington in 1775, this stolen daughter of Africa immediately took up the fight for liberty at the dawn of The American Revolution. Washington wrote her back, “Madame, Please come. Your humble servant, General Washington.” He needed her. The peoples’ support. She had it. She was only 19. Thomas Jefferson hated her because - well - he was a white supremacist. Plus, she was smarter than them all.
Let’s talk about it...
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech except played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Lost One | Jay-Z:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0okle8WwEB3BIcmUPYxnFg?si=_2CZhP13TT63Nw85cGwaFA
Audio Reading - On Imagination | Phillis Wheatley:
https://youtu.be/fdrckHU52T0
Talking about a revolution | Tracy Chapman:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1yo16b3u0lptm6Cs7lx4AD?si=uv-9WqdlTraI9FG1QSBb6Q
Today we call the names of the women who do the work. The women who sit on committees, who write papers, edit publications, build coalitions, canvass neighborhoods, attend city council meetings, read and reread all the books. The women who study, learn, and then pass on the knowledge to the rest of us – so that there is a record of what has been and a strategy for a way forward. You too are dreamers and weavers. You are the idea makers. You are the bullhorns and today’s walk is for you. Tune in today as we discuss the Combahee River Collective. We are here because of them.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
River | Leon Bridges:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3hhbDnFUb2bicI2df6VurK?si=c2a98337c6de4418
I'll Take You There | The Staples Singers:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5YLnfy7R2kueN0BRPkjiEG?si=93dda173da204287
Hold the presses doggonit. Ain’t no way. Ain’t no waaaay! It’s Harriet Tubman Day! Congress designated today, March 10th which is the day our foremother died in 1915, as a commemorative holiday. (Should we start a petition to make it a federal holiday? Like Veterans’ Day?...to honor the sacrifices and labor of Black women? I ain’t playing. Think about it. Let's start by supporting this petition to accelerate the printing of Harriet Tubman’s portrait on the $20 bill!). Tune in today for a lively conversation and a special edition of Black History Bootcamp. We will break down 10 little-known facts about Harriet Tubman and will issue a very special call to action on how you can become the Harriet of your neighborhood this summer with GirlTrek. I promise you won’t want to miss this.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Stand up (From Harriet) | Cynthia Erivo
https://open.spotify.com/track/3wNNbf63xkxw9rIVWtFy7a?si=VF3436vDQ0OfdghxZ63Eyw
Crown | Chika:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7yewACUEo8jX7oLhSaNzBs?si=XVsV6HY7Sv2wg88d5ih17A
They tried to intimidate her. Tried to demonize her. Tried to silence her voice. They tried to do the same thing that they try and do with most young Black girl geniuses in this world – extinguish our fire. But, Sister Souljah could not be stopped. She spoke truth to power. Gave voice to generations of young Black youth, and continues to organize against systems of power and oppression. Today’s walk is a celebration. A virtual parade down the main street of every hood in America to honor the brilliance that comes from within. If you don’t know the story of Sister Souljah, if you don’t understand her impact, then you must learn with us today. In real-time let’s write the history that we want our daughters to know.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech except played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
The Hate The Hate Produced | Sister Soulja:
https://youtu.be/neNboHZ3paQ
That one time when Sister Souljah schooled Cornel West:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JokCT0CAkE8
Fight the Power | Public Enemy:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1yo16b3u0lptm6Cs7lx4AD?si=uv-9WqdlTraI9FG1QSBb6Q
Let’s face it. Any time anyone mentions the name Nefertiti, we all picture the beautiful Iman in theRemember the Time video - or maybe you immediately go to the gold-plated knocker earrings that celebrate her glorious profile. ...but what do we reeeeally know about the Queen? Tune in today to learn exactly why there was a Nefertiti revival in every Black neighborhood in America circa 1991, precisely 3,000 years after her dramatic death in ancient Egypt. Roll your shoulders back and adjust your crown queens, this tribute Walk & Talk is going to be gooood.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech except played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat) | Digable Planets:
https://bit.ly/3sSUz7T
How Many Mics | The Fugees:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2lOnbK3gm1N6keYkUD3mis?si=cuTVy2QVRm6HcPfLjUT0LA
The original. Before Nikki, before Cardi, before Kim. Long before Young M.A. was seducing women out of their Fashion Nova, and Meg made that congressman clutch his pearls over WAP, there was Gladys Bentley. An open lesbian, a cross-dressing performer whose raunchy act and lewd lyrics were both the talk of the town and the hottest ticket around. A darling of the Harlem Renaissance, Gladys Bentley was once the richest Black woman in America. A blues singer who got her start singing at rent parties, she was a woman brave enough to love and live as she wanted - until the politics of the time and a brutal system of oppression, that has denied so many of us the opportunity to live in our truth, forced her back into the margins.
Our stories are complex. Difficult. Not always redeemable to those who live in the black and white. Not always deemed worthy to be told if not pristine or above reproach. But not in this space. Here, amongst a tribe of women who come bearing our own scars, we make space for every story. And today we tell the story of Gladys, because it is spectacular and because it serves as inspiration for those who will come after her to plant their own flags in planets yet discovered. Can’t wait to walk with you today. Tune in live. This one will be worth it.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Worried Blues | Gladys Bentley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptIBk2PZK74
Back to the Streets | Saweetie
https://open.spotify.com/track/3MEruRteiUZXkStfTlZqRn?si=Qrepmax0TcuH4odrXBeeRw
Her mother told her that she was singing before she could hold her head up. Calling at birth. An air bender. And on any given Sunday, if you walk through the right neighborhood at precisely the right time, you’ll hear it. ...just behind the smell of fresh laundry and the sizzle of Sazón, you feel it coming. "¡Azúuucar!" Every sound system must bow. The clap of her voice is more ancient than the rivers of Benin. Celia Cruz gave us pathways home. She was our clave, the pulse of our diaspora, our mother's lullaby, and Oya’s cry. “The Queen of Salsa'' stoked our collective imaginations and taught us to fly. And for that, we dedicate today’s walk to this cultural cosmonaut.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech except played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Quimbara - Zaire, Africa 1974 | Celia Cruz & The Fania All Stars:
https://bit.ly/3sSUz7T
Bemba Colora Live | Celia Cruz:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4fn2fJjnuu5vxR2sRw5D5t?si=fcVlBk4HTsSGBm6C40vLSA
This is the story that you need today. A royal story. A queen story. A story about taking up space, owning your gifts, and using your voice. A story about overcoming the worst to become the best to ever do it. A history lesson on courage. A demonstration on Blackness. A journey through the life of the greatest singer of all time. This is the story of Aretha Franklin. Ain’t no way (ha!) you'll listen without getting your whole life. There is so much to be said and so much to learn from this woman who came holding a gift from God and used it to transform the world.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech except played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
RESPECT | Aretha Franklin:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7s25THrKz86DM225dOYwnr?si=x8NB7U_tTQSs5R2MN_83xA
Day Dreaming | Aretha Franklin:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7L4G39PVgMfaeHRyi1ML7y?si=eq6zDjvwRJKXAySCyPeavw
She was mesmerizing. The very embodiment of liberation. Sexual...Political. Financial. Free... Josephine Baker taught desire to a colonized world. Her face, a masterclass. And her body - a disruption. At the dawn of silent films, her success rang in a renaissance, the jazz age - modernity itself.
French women literally hurt themselves trying to achieve the Josephine Baker look. Shellacked hair. Copper skin. She was the most photographed woman in the world. And the most highly paid. A global superstar, yet - when she came home -Time Magazine called her a “buck-toothed negro wench.” Never tolerate less than you deserve - she never did.
Josephine Baker renounced her citizenship from America at the height of Jim Crow, refused to sing in front of segregated audiences, and once made a citizen's arrest of a white man in a dinner who was uncomfortable with her Blackness. Never settle. Be bigger, wilder, funnier, fuller, smarter, and more you.
So today, we go beyond her banana skirt to understand exactly how Josephine Baker lived bravely. So bravely that Hitler’s Gestapo raided her home. So bravely that she earned the highest military honor in France. Josephine Baker was a war hero, an icon, a fearless Black woman. Truly free. And for that, her name should be written in the stars. We dedicate today’s walk to her.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Desperado | Rihanna:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4mCf3vQf7z0Yseo0RxAi3V?si=HLya96QwTqarM4EhTsmjUw
Savage Remix | Megan Thee Stallion Ft. Beyonce
https://open.spotify.com/track/5v4GgrXPMghOnBBLmveLac?si=Tp07x_ihTkm--JVpPpSifQ
Cicely Tyson was a Cosmonaut. A woman before her time. Her work was exquisite. It broke down barriers and opened up doors. The pioneer of "Black is Beautiful." A woman whose ebony skin and complex braid patterns disarmed the world and made space for the rest of us to show up in our unique boldness. A woman who knew how to use her voice and often used it to remind all of us to adjust our crowns. In her, we saw the best version of ourselves and the elegance and grace our own mothers and grandmothers reflected back to us. She gave everything she had for 96 years and today we honor her legacy with our first walk of this series. Come to the pavement for the celebration and the inspiration. Leave with the lessons that Cicely Tyson left for all of us.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Grown Woman | Beyonce:
https://youtu.be/y3MjxWn5W9M
Blessed Assurance | CeCe Winans
https://youtu.be/HNpUm2wlVrg
“Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.” -- Matthew 18:19-20
Dear Family,
You walked with us, you prayed with us, you learned with us and last night (we could not make this up y’all. #divinetiming #Godswork) you helped our Black History Bootcamp walking podcast reach one million downloads!!!!
Now, this is what you call spiritual warriorship!
You made this happen! Your prayers. Your walking. And, today, on the last day of this 21-day spiritual journey, we celebrate YOU as our Spiritual Warriors! With each person you invited to join you on this journey, for every tweet that you sent, IG tag, or FB post that you made – you helped us inspire more people to start walking towards their healing. Imagine the power of that. This is God’s work and you are His servants. Thank you.
Today’s walk is a celebration. The story will be your story. A story of victory and triumph against all odds. Lace-up your sneakers and join us live TODAY at 12 PM, ET.
“The Bible says, 'For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' There is power in our ranks. We believe in that same God that spoke to Sojourner, protected Ida, and animated Angela - lives in us. We believe that there is something divinely beautiful and powerful in every Black woman. We believe in holding up the light – celebrating sisters, amplifying what’s working and lifting up champions.” – Excerpt GirlTrek Manifesto, 2014
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Keep Ya Head Up - 2Pac:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4Tttv4p2xuAq1LpQ7LI95E?si=Ocl2PzJrSY2neqtwWXXcQQ
Catch the Fire and LIVE. [Poem by Sonia Sanchez Read by GirlTrek Volunteers]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvipO-4k4e0&feature=youtu.be
We watched him forgive, for all of us.
Today, Bishop Tutu is 89 years old and is still changing the moral climate of the world.
In 1996, this spiritual titan - who is a survivor of Apartheid - proceeded over the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. Together, we listened to gruesome stories of torture and unthinkable confessions of death squads. The entire concept was radical - truth for freedom. Let go of retribution to restore justice. Bring mass healing for all.It was a master class.
Bishop Tutu received a Nobel Peace Prize. Yes. But more than his achievements, I am struck by his laugher. It's brilliant. And after a lifetime of resistance to the repression and violence of Apartheid, his laughter proves that there is a God. Some of the most beautiful moments in the last decade are between Bishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama. The two men charged with smiling eyes, praying hands, and foot-stomping laughter, show us the bounty of spiritual enlightenment.
We are humbled to honor this living legend. His daughter, Rev. Naomi Tutu will join us today live.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrica - Gospel Train:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5HiC1rsHmXbrh5zy7cG5LS?si=sJpd8UeIQr6v1Mop6BAp5A
Forgiveness: "What do you do to forgive someone?" - Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo2LGGqtjqM&feature=youtu.be
Bo Noo Ni - Joe Mettle:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7eirw5Zy1bUWOka5g2HWrb?si=847jZABmSrmkRP1NNzuxBQ
… A tree was chopped down
and the fruit was scattered
I cried
because I had lost a family
the trunk, my father
the branches, his support
so much
the fruit, the wife and children
who meant so much to him
tasty
loving as they should be
all on the ground
some out of his reach
in the ground
the roots, happiness
cut off from him.
- Zindzi Mandela
This is an ode to Black love. The love that survived and the love that didn’t.
This is an honoring of the sacrifice of Black men who could have loved more tenderly and Black women who could have received more softly if only the world wasn’t content on destroying them.
This is an honoring of the lovers who sought refuge in each other and found it, if only for a moment.
This is a space where we honor the gray area of relationships. A space that knows no blame. A space that honors that there is no manual for how to love during wartime.
This is a conversation and an exploration of the life and love of Winnie and Nelson Mandela.
Our heroes were humans and they gave at great sacrifice. Today we honor that sacrifice and look for the lessons by diving deep into the Mandelas' powerful legacy.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Soweto Blues - Miriam Makeba:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7qb0KJZ0iXtS8LMSXCH353?si=t5ZnQGQjRiydvR4uzTBY_w
Let's Stay Together - Al Green:
https://open.spotify.com/track/63xdwScd1Ai1GigAwQxE8y?si=79Zk_xL5Ss6hoNLeUOipMw
Many of us know the story of Bob Marley.
He was born in St. Ann, Jamaica to a Syrian Jewish man and an African woman. He struggled to find his place in the world. Through that struggle, he found a voice that would help liberate millions around the world. Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Max Romeo, and scores of other musicians would serve as spiritual vessels for a powerful message of liberation and love for African people across the diaspora. We also know that Bob Marley was shot by his own people (classic hero's journey - see Jesus, Malcolm X, Nipsey Hussle) but he miraculously did not die. He went on to perform the most powerful, politically unifying, spiritually-pure concert the planet has ever seen. We lost our hero too young. His cause of transition was the sun - you don't get more poetic.
But what did he believe?
That's what we will explore today.
On today's call, we will crank up classic anthems and dive into the Rastafari Movement of the 1930s. This was Christian synchronicity in a cloak of African reverence with a powerful agenda for social reform. Don't miss this conversation and pavement party. Rastafari positions the Bible as liberation theology, and I'm here for it.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Black History Bootcamp - Bob Marley Episode Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0tluC8Zgccjenw8xe6SR9m?si=EYf6Z8LiTdKZ34h4aBUFjQ
“I say this to you, as I say to myself: If Malcolm and his message, so strong, so bright and so pure, was too good for those of us who have already reached manhood, there is a generation who is not yet spoiled, not yet degutted, not yet de-bold, not yet emasculated, who when they come into the light of this truth will rise up and redeem him and us and all the rest of the world. That is the meaning of Malcolm X.” - Ossie Davis
We are that generation.
We are ready to rise up.
Join us live on today’s walk for a historic conversation about the life and legacy of Malcolm X and the Shabazz family.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Pharoah Sanders - Hum Allah Hum Allah Hum Allah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWghTVdDGDM&feature=emb_logo
Malcolm X’s Fiery Speech Addressing Police Brutality:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_uYWDyYNUg&feature=youtu.be
Ossie Davis's eulogy for Malcolm X (The ending of the Malcolm X movie):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2PQ3XY_j2E&feature=emb_logo
21 million of us may lose healthcare. 21 million. Rather than folding into rage, arguing perspectives, or waxing philosophical, let's get in the streets. Join us today, for a special edition of Black History Bootcamp to listen to the words of one of the most brilliant political organizers in history. Dr. King called us to love one another AND demand "a radical redistribution of political and economic power." He said, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.” In this pivotal moment, as we strengthen our bodies for the days ahead, we'll share the part of his final speech that they do NOT want you to hear. It's a blueprint for labor organizing, economic withdrawal, direct action, and radical love.
"There is a certain kind of fire that no water can put out."
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Oh Freedom! - The Golden Gospel Singers:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3O9lB0cF1EC2cA6RwkO2NF?si=g42phSemTO6zpk3Sg8-tsg
The Anthology 1957-1968 - Mountaintop Speech - Martin Luther King Jr.:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6VmSiL5dAz0iui79svT1XE?si=HfSCtWfRRWSfmcCwkHZu0g
“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit” says the Lord. - Zechariah 4:6
Many of you are lacking strength right now. Many of you are in a place of weariness and feeling battered by the battle, but don’t give up! We’re coming on today’s walk to remind you of where your power and strength come from. It’s time to worship. It’s time to laugh. It’s to celebrate that we have made it through the week! It’s time to have your vision renewed and the weariness break off. You are walking into a new season of your life. Trust that feeling and keep moving.
Spiritual Warrior of the Day:
Turn on your favorite Stevie Wonder song because it’s time to shift the atmosphere! This man has given us a lifetime of hits. He’s created a soundtrack to the Black experience that is so lush and full of funk and dripping with pride that it will never go out of style. And he did it all while proving to us that vision – the ability to really see – comes from God.
And, boy does Stevie really see us.
His music is a reflection of our beauty and pain, pushing us to believe in new possibilities. His songs are a conduit for joy, healing, and love. Just playing one of his songs can transform the energy of any person, room, or experience. That’s how much of a spiritual warrior Stevie is.
On today’s walk, we will dive into the magical story of his life and the making of his masterpieces. We will learn how God talked to him and guided him each step of the way. We will learn how he was willing to walk away from it all, at the height of his career, to serve the higher calling that God placed in him. And we walk down memory lane, remembering all the ways in which Stevie’s music has personally influenced our lives.
This is going to a be pavement party like no other. Put your good headphones on. Turn the volume all the way up. It’s going to the livest walk and talk, yet!
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
As - Stevie Wonder:
https://open.spotify.com/track/13toFl1UwJPsRxDiD9jgtn?si=ibDE4drsTzSsZ13oPGlg_w
Stevie Wonder - "Falling in Love with Jesus" Gospel at church 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6k-02RUP-c
Isn't She Lovely - Stevie Wonder:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6RANU8AS5ICU5PEHh8BYtH?si=17PzvFbTRkSaqk7MnlTNXA
Our lives are boundless. I know it.
I pray that we break free of the bondage of limiting thoughts. And dream of all possibilities ...of our highest callings. Divine assignments. Wildest, most audacious dreams.
"I'm calling you higher. There is more that I require of thee. Will your heart and soul say yes? I'm calling you out of your dry places. Come on up a little higher. I predestined you before the world began. Will your heart and soul say yes?"
(Such a powerful song and 14-minute morning meditation by Shekinah Glory.)
Spiritual Warrior of the Day:
Richard Allen said yes.
“The bands of bondage were so strong that no way appeared for my release: yet at times a hope arose in my heart that a way would open for it.”
Even as an enslaved man, he said yes.
He worked tirelessly, paid the price for his own freedom, bought land for his dream, and in 1794, built the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). It would become the first independent black denomination in the United States. He didn't stop there. He founded The Free Africa Society, protested the use of slave labor, radically organized Black dollars, taught literacy, and organized politically. He is our "Founding Father" and today we honor his life.
About the calling on his life, Richard Allen said this.
"I didn't accept it. I received it."
It's time to say yes y'all.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
It Has Been Established - Jekalyn Carr:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3Om76ekpJXUUbGLBB1Sj5F?si=HmwpaGq5TwaDKbYFhUpVGQ
Draw Me Close/Thy Will Be Done - Marvin Winans:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6nwCQqMyCjeYVtByOtkZq1?si=91jS4bDCSvy2a5rnRep50w
Prophecy
I sing of a new American
Separate from all others,
Yet enlarged and diminished by all others.
I am the child of kings and serfs, freemen and slaves,
Having neither superiors nor inferiors,
Progeny of all colors, all cultures, all systems, all beliefs.
I have been enslaved, yet my spirit is unbound.
I have been cast aside, but I sparkle in the darkness.
I have been slain but live on in the river of history.
I seek no conquest, no wealth, no power, no revenge:
I seek only discovery
Of the illimitable heights and depths of my own being.
- The Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray
Spiritual Warrior of the Day:
This is the story of Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray, she was the #daughterof Cornelia, who was the #daughterof Harriet, an enslaved woman who was forced to bear children with her owner. This is the story of what would not die and what could not be stolen – our mother’s hopes and dreams for our lives. This is the story of the Black woman in America.
The Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray lived one of the most remarkable lives of the twentieth century. She was a civil rights activist, a pioneering feminist, a labor organizer, a lawyer, and an Episcopal priest. Her legal arguments and interpretation of the Constitution helped to dramatically change the laws of this country Her steadfast and fearless pursuit of justice led her to break down gender and racial barriers across the land. We are indebted to Pauli Murray for her unwavering devotion to her people, for her bravery, and for the personal sacrifices that she had to make along the way. It is our privilege to talk about her life story on today's walk and to honor her legacy through a walking worship.
We do it today in honor of Cornelia and Harriet because they endured so Pauli could live. And in honor of our grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers who did the same.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
The Best In Me - Marvin Sappr:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1B5NWdLAt8GC4WKTPUCrLM?si=207hYhMRS6ePEjbIfOIrbg
Up Where We Belong - Bebe & Cece Winans:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6hjuzceBTUL1kv5H6Uw2Th?si=4LCL92eHTtG5JC1b9HLviA
I listened to John Coltrane all night ...and woke up singing the old gospel song, "I Hasten to His Throne." I didn't fully understand the connection until now. Isn't that what this is all about? Hastening to what is greater?
Spiritual Warriors of the Day:
For John Coltrane, it was at his lowest moment, in a cold fight against heroin, on his bedroom floor, he experienced God's Love. From that moment, he dedicated his life to a fervent practice of spiritual awakening. And because God is good, this awakening came with a spiritual guide from Detroit, a woman named Alice. Together, they created A Love Supreme. More than a ground-breaking album, it was an ethos. A dissertation on love. They improvised connecting with God day after day. She once meditated continually for weeks. It was this devotion and discipline that gave the world one of the purest languages of love imaginable.
Love, for them, was not a falling. No. It was a practice. A habit. A discipline. A lifestyle. Maybe even a religion. It was a love note on the kitchen table kind of love. A harp for Christmas kind of love. Four babies in four years kind of love. Be still and hear God speak kind of love. And when John was in deep, delivering his 4-part musical masterpiece, Alice was meditating, raising the boys and beaming with anticipation. She said, "Before I even met John, there was something in me that knew there was a divine connection - there were things that he said to me, they weren’t spoken with the human voice."
The Coltranes lived with edgelessness. They were expensive. Their music, healing. In one of the most beautiful articles I've ever read, Carvell Wallace said that John gave the soul a place to sing. He writes, "There is something about a saint that makes it safe for all of us to get lost in the swell of being human." And in a brilliant story for NPR, Sydnee Monday called Alice's music "spiritual preservation." She became the matriarch of Black meditation. Her transcendental music helped millions of us find enlightenment. And he is arguably the greatest musician to ever live. Together, they transformed the world.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
I Love The Lord - Whitney Houston ft. Georgia Mass Choir:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2xrXUa8o1JJtz8nobY2UsY?si=xodi35yOSgyQubts4kqSOA
A Love Supreme, Pt. I Acknowledgement - John Coltrane:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0CLbmkYmQIWiEwnsbOkLpd?si=Ur4Bfxm8RR2ruZKT2Dk0ug
Precious Lord, take my hand. Be with me this week as I walk in my purpose. Show me where I’ve lost expectancy. Deal with the places in my life where I’ve settled, gotten off track, or completely lost my way. Help me to trust your promises. Teach me to walk with wisdom and discernment. I am an heir. Teach me to act like one, pray like one, and believe like one. Give me holy gumption. Give me the presence of mind to be a witness through all of my words and actions. Let me never be blinded by the limitations of my physical circumstances. Help me to see beyond. Put a song in my heart as I walk through the day, welcoming and receiving with open arms the goodness that I know you have in store for me.
Spiritual Warrior of the Day:
“There is no music like that music, no drama like the drama of the saints rejoicing, the sinners moaning, the tambourines racing, and all those voices coming together and crying holy unto the Lord. I have never seen anything to equal the fire and excitement that sometimes without warning, fills a church, causing the church … to rock. – James Baldwin
This is a story about the father of gospel music. This is a story about a man who carried the rhythm and blues of southern pain all the way north to Chicago and combined it with the scripture of God to create a new sound that would express the joys and sorrows, hopes and despairs, and most of all - the collective faith - of Black people.
This is a celebration of the spiritual warrior, Thomas Dorsey.
Thomas Dorsey introduced the world to a new genre of music that would forever play as the soundtrack to the worship experience of Black people. His legendary life included authoring one of the most celebrated songs in the history of music, Precious Lord, written after losing both his wife and newborn son during childbirth. In that dark moment, this man called out to God in anger and God answered back, pouring into him a love song that would forever soothe the world.
That’s how powerfully God can transform your pain into purpose. Today’s walk will be a timely reminder for anyone who had forgotten. You might be in your darkest hour right now, but Thomas Dorsey’s story teaches us to keep holding on. There is life after death and in each day, always, a possibility of goodness.
Come get everything that you need today. We will be on the virtual sidewalk ready to walk and talk it all out.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
He Brought Us - Delois Barrett Campbell and the Barrett Sisters:
https://open.spotify.com/track/03xqTwXIQ8l1dhFK9GmbUQ?si=KJ-g77Y0R12H1L915ExerQ
Precious Lord - Thomas A Dorsey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlmCflPD2s8
Precious Lord - Aretha Franklin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpFq9gxBxhk
You have to see yourself winning.
Everybody's got that cousin... a cousin who is funnier than Eddie Murphy, one who can jump higher than Michael Jordan or that one who - with just a little coaching and education - could be the next Obama. Let’s agree to agree, we're blessed. Genius abounds at Black family reunions.
So, when I look at Jesse Owens, it cracks me up because he looks like everybody’s cousin who can run fast. Jesse Owens was ours. He was familiar. He was our chance to prove it. Settle the score. Win. He was the punchline to the joke of injustice. He was our graceful entrance. And our “Hi Haters!” Jesse-Owens-was-redemption.
And, like so many of us who fight poverty, generational trauma, and thick-thick racism, Hitler didn't have anything for Jesse Owens - because he could already see victory before the race even began. Call it survival. Call it evolution. What the enemy planned for his downfall became the greatest victory of his life. Cue Koryn Hawthorne. Won't He Do it!
Spiritual Warrior of the Day
In 1939, Jesse Owens was the most famous man on the planet. He "single-handedly crushed Hitler's myth of Aryan superiority" by pushing the limits of human capability and smashing world records.
But today, we won't talk about gold medals. No. Instead, we will explore three very-real moral dilemmas in Owens' life that just may help us out in 2020. His life was complex. Rich with irony. Hard fought and often misguided. Scrappy. Not always honorable.
And yet, we celebrate him - as a spiritual warrior - because he stayed in the race until the day he died. Through decades of shifting definitions of Blackness, he kept his eyes on doing his personal best. And for that, we draw a gritty brand of inspiration.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Won't He Do It - Koryn Hawthorne:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5Vr9WTLcbpKRkQGvVen13W?si=0sJUEo3uQlm7brR-628xlw
Soldiers In The Army - Rev. James Cleveland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnudHcR_34M&feature=youtu.be
We're Blessed - Fred Hammond:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0ZD5LFsk2PMHicGH8MWRN8?si=ZKc8cUMiS6WesytoRpTo6Q
On the night that Gwendolyn Brooks learned that she would become the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, she was sitting in her living room on the Southside of Chicago with her nine-year-old son in the dark because the light bill hadn't been paid. By morning word had spread. A 32-year-old Black girl genius had secured the highest literary award in the land. Reporters descended on Gwendolyn's home and as they came, she sat petrified, not wanting to reveal to the journalist and cameramen that they would have no place to plug in their equipment.
But God!
When one of them came into the house and flipped on the switch without her knowing. The lights came on. Someone had gone down to the light company and paid the bill.
Somebody out there today needs this exact story.
Somebody needs to be reminded that its darkest right before dawn.
Somebody needs to be reminded that there is still hope all around us.
“We are each other's harvest;
we are each other's business;
we are each other's magnitude and bond.”
Today’s walk is a story of celebration. Of what survived. A reminder that we are the #daughtersof praying Black women and that their prayers are what keeps the lights on.
Through Gwendolyn’s story we will discover the stories of our great-great-grandmothers, women who fled the terrors of the Jim Crow South, with nothing but the traditions, faiths, and beliefs of their mamas, packed in their suitcases.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
God's Got a Blessing (with My Name on It!) - Norman Hutchins:
https://open.spotify.com/track/208coS3K4leplVIBvrY6Pu?si=l1DCCZP-QLyYpHAV0LhpQg
Prayer Will Fix It For You - LaShun Pace:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5Li3n4gKfeQ5KKWggmUpom?si=bf-p4MmZRdSwuMFO8FUN3A
"When I try to describe myself to God I say, 'Lord, remember me? Black? Female? Six-foot tall? The writer?' And I almost always get God's attention."
God gave Maya Angelou more than attention. God gave her a voice - a voice to break the silence, to sing calypso, to demand justice, to define excellence, to announce our peoples' rising up -- as a phenom. Her voice blanketed an entire generation of Black girls with love. ...and her boundlessness whispered into every girl's imagination. And for that, we thank God.
Spiritual Warrior of the Day:
Dr. Angelou's story is brilliantly blazed in the psyche of every Black woman. Trust-you-me, we know about Stamps, Arkansas. We know about her mother and her Momma. We know the intimate truths of her darkest days. And we watched her phoenix rise. Her love affairs and protests created a rhythm for all of us to strut. And her lilts of "sister" gave us a daily doctrine for spiritual warriorship. Maya Angelou is everyone's foremother and she commands us all to embody 1 Corinthians 16:14. “Do everything in love."
Today, we honor The People's Poet.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Optimistic - Sounds of Blackness:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7Mb7jOst43wPQELas93ARE?si=9jnGA_5STCG2An2Q7ZpMtg
Maya Angelou "Love Liberates" Courtesy of OWN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Gv7PwyeCk&feature=youtu.be
Dr. Maya Angelou on the Power of Words | Oprah's Master Class | OWN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKv65MdlV-c
Dr. Maya Angelou Recites Her Poem "Phenomenal Woman" | SuperSoul Sunday | OWN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeFfhH83_RE&feature=youtu.be
Maya Angelou on the Noble Story of Black Womanhood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4MucoOQz0c&feature=youtu.be
I Hope You Dance - LeeAnn Womack:
https://open.spotify.com/track/65B1tEOv5W294uCKbmEcFV?si=6TMqL9WWQ6SJYy2RHNKFmg
“I was missing something
something so important
something promised
a laying on of hands
fingers near my forehead
strong
cool
moving
making me whole
sense pure
all the gods coming into me
laying me open to myself
I was missing something
something promised
something free
a laying on of hands
I know bout/laying on bodies/laying outta man
bringing him all of my fleshy self & some of my pleasure
being taken full eager wet like I get sometimes
I was missing something
a laying on of hands
not a man
laying on
not my mama/holding me tight/saying
I’m always gonna be her girl
not a laying on of bosom and womb
a laying on of hands
the holiness of myself released
I sat up one nite walking a boarding house
screaming/crying/the ghost of another woman
who was missing what I was missing
I wanted to jump up outta my bones
& be done with myself
leave me alone
& go on in the wind
it was too much
I fell into a numbness
til the only tree I could see
took me up in her branches
held me in the breeze
made me dawn dew
that chill at daybreak
the sun wrapped me up swinging rose light everywhere
the sky laid over me like a million men
I was cold/I was burning up/a child
& endlessly weaving garments for the moon
with my tears
I found god in myself
& I loved her/I loved her fiercely”
Spiritual Warrior
Ntozake Shange.
She invited us to find God in ourselves. She ushered entire generations of Black women into liberation. She wrote for those of us who didn’t yet exist. “So, we could have something here when we arrived.” That something was a vision for our lives that was bigger than our trauma. A vision that stitched together the words that had been snatched from our grandmothers’ tongues. She brought them back to life with vivid colorful detail and pain searing truth that forced the world to look our humanity in the face. Through her words, she said all the things that needed to be said. She wrote a Pslam and sang a Black girl blues. She resurrected the weary souls of Black women by breathing holy life into them, one stanza at a time and for this, we celebrate Ntozake Shange as the Patron Saint of Black Girl Healing. Thank you for serving us with such fierceness, dear sister. Today we tell your story. Let each step on today’s walk bring forth more of your powerful works into this world.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
I Am Light - India Arie:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6XgtZdXJN7R9Myu80BGebR?si=PGjMQ99pRXarW-70Gc_8SA
A Laying On Of Hands (I Found God In Myself):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0ksLhou1mg&feature=youtu.be
What if you stopped performing? What would that look like? What would it feel like? ...to live your creed, to walk your walk, to sing your song - not for others, not for their applause or approval. Not to avoid pain or earn love - but because you were following your bliss. What if you stopped performing and started living? On deep purpose? With integrity. Joy. Who would stop loving you? What exactly would change?
The greatest privilege of this lifetime is being exactly who you are.
So inhale... say "I am here." Exhale...."Joy is here."
Spiritual Warrior of the Day:
Tina Turner's life defines the hero's journey and we will talk all about it on today's call. But the most heart-wrenching scene in What's Love Got to Do with It had nothing to do with Ike. No. The single, most heart-wrenching scene happened just after Tina Turner chose to die. She took a lethal dose of pills. Then it happened. Something too familiar. Even in her darkest moment, she rallied herself to perform. It was at that moment. When she was tracing a heavy eyeliner and lost control - that we saw ourselves. Even as we are dying inside, we are showing up, putting on face. We are standing at the ready to serve, give, earn, rally, stoke, protect, soothe, nurture, build, and love. For so many of us, our attachment to needing to feel loved is the source of our suffering. For Tina Turner, it nearly took her life.
And then it happened. "Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō ...Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō ....Namu Myōhō Renge Kyōooo." She decided to rally for herself. For her life! This is the Lotus Sutra. Perfect because like the lotus flower, born out of the darkest scum of a pond, we have the power to transform our own lives into pure brilliance - every single moment. What a privilege. It is the greatest journey - and it starts with a single step toward what satisfies your soul.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Tina Turner - Proud Mary - Live Wembley:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2T5_seDNZE
Thich Nhat Hanh - Walking Meditation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdO1vZJgUu0
Tina Turner: Interview with Gayle King:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWHaONa1mWI
What's Love Got to Do with It - Tina Turner:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4kOfxxnW1ukZdsNbCKY9br?si=9VLaxChhRVWX_KQawC8X0A
God give us a boldness that allows us to risk it all for the things we believe in. Let us walk with a spirit of courage. Let your love cast out the fear that has held us hostage for too long. Build our confidence so that in this season of reckoning, we can show up and do the good work that you have called us to do. Mighty is your name and mighty is the spirit that lives within us.
Spiritual Warrior of the Day:
Colin Kaepernick’s tattoos are a roadmap to his faith. On his right shoulder, Psalm 18:39, “You armed me with strength for battle; you made my adversaries bow at my feet.” On his left bicep, Psalm 27:3, “Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.” On his left upper arm, “God will guide me.” And above his elbow, praying hands clasped with the proclamation, “To God Be the Glory.”
In case you didn’t know, this is a man of faith. And a man with this much faith is someone who is willing to risk it all. For that, we celebrate and uplift our dear brother Colin Kaepernick. Fist in the air. Knee to the ground. The story that we’re going to tell you is far beyond anything you’ve heard about this man, his work, or the Black men he represents.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Shackles (Praise You) - Mary Mary:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7JKEA8xYDoFp4q0QBW2PGg?si=xGieY0edQW2Vt-f7gYLO8w
Zion (Zion is Calling) - Stephen Hurd:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0VrI2SmESlXMVlxdGk1Ver?si=umV5TDXQSkmfgAKs7FQ6Jw
Let Your Power Fall - James Fortune, Zacardi Cortez:
https://open.spotify.com/track/065WC0FgiI4zX3VkpqCpDF?si=S2_X8yAVRzS-nCBpRZW9OQ
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” - 2 Timothy 1:7
I saw a beautiful photo story about Diamond. The artist said that cinema has to do a better job showing the tenderness of Black lives. I thought about it and remembered the single best moment in cinematic history is when Denzel Washington looked wickedness in the face, flexed his back, and braced his heart for an act of terrorism. You remember. His "ally", Matthew Broderick, ordered the use of violence to inject fear into the heart of this free Black man. Denzel resisted. And with a single tear of defiance, he became fearless. Fear is the greatest tool of white supremacy. So today, we honor a real spiritual warrior. A woman named Diamond Reynolds, who refused to be paralyzed by fear and found a way to speak.
Spiritual Warrior of the Day:
On July 6, 2016, Diamond Reynolds watched the murder of her boyfriend Philando Castille. The officer's gun was still drawn. Pointing in the car at her and her 4-year-old daughter. At that moment, Diamond got snatched up by a spirit of love and became fearless. She pressed record to tell the world what was happening to her family. It was an act of raw and radical love.
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear." - 1 John 4:18
Once it was over, Diamond folded into soft tears. Unafraid, once again to show us a Black woman. Vulnerable. Real. Soft.
That is spiritual warriorship.
Do not give them your humanity. Don't stop crying. Don't stop loving. In fact, love harder. ...your children, your neighbors, your soul mates, your self, your God. Your love is perfect. Black women, don't fold into darkness. Your love is our light. Rock with it. Roll with it. Wail if you have to. Tell the world what is happening to us. Shout it out. Don't hold it in.
That's what Diamond taught us.
It's no wonder she calls herself Lavish Reynolds. She IS lavish. Thick with humanity. Thick with loving-kindness. Thick with inextinguishable joy. With radical vulnerability. With supreme love and light. And at point-blank range, fear could not win over her love.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Speak to My Heart - Donnie McClurkin:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3nAwU0F5Tb3wdeSa2mAMe5?si=DOFURVDgQIer2L35tkbJVg
Everlasting God - William Murphy:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3ypSY1hp9s6k1xzZ6OSCTH?si=Wk1Q72-uR0-O6zz0PiEilA
Diamond Reynolds | Iyanla: Fix My Life | OWN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INZ5VdRQ10s
"Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit." - Proverbs 18: 21
Let today’s walk give you the courage that you need to say the hard things that need to be said. To whoever it needs to be said to. Even if it’s not popular. Even if no one believes you. Your truth is your truth. No more muted tongue. Let it be what it will be. No more pleading through pursed lips. Stand firm sisters. We have for generations kept secrets, swallowed lies, tolerated the intolerable for fear of what would come should we simply speak. Well, let the words come. Let them flow like the Jordan River. Spit fire with each syllable. Let the phrases burn down the walls that have caged you. Be free. Be healed. And then promise to never betray yourself with silence again.
Spiritual Warrior of the Day
Anita Faye Hill. Black woman genius. Law Professor. Born to a family of farmers in Oklahoma. The youngest of 13 children. What had she already endured before she decided, enough is enough? More than 30 years before the #MeToo movement broke through to the conscience of America, Anita Hill stood before an all-white, all-male Senate Judiciary Committee and the blaring lights of the world and spoke in graphic detail about the harassment that she had experienced in the workplace from Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas. The attacks against her character were scathing. The campaign mounted to discredit her used tactics from a playbook that has long been used to demean and diminish the experiences of Black women. But Anita Hill refused to whither. She stood tall and remained steadfast. She exhibited a level of conviction that could only come from a woman who grew up in Antioch Baptist Church, and who showed up on the first day of the trail with a personal bible in her hand that she brought from home. Oh, they thought it was going to be a game. They thought they would break her. But her calling was bigger than that moment and Anita Hill’s courage to speak her truth has inspired generations of new women to do the same.
Join us on today’s walk as we lean into the lessons that come from Anita’s story while praying to find our collective and individual voices.
TrustBlackWomen
BelieveBlackWomen
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Wade in the Water - Mavis Staples:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5xFHuLeUPXee8YEn1r8FDM?si=qtETHIa0TMGwXop0lN9N5g
Wholy Holy - Aretha Franklin:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3hwbKoXWK5eAdHsaCXpJhq?si=a-k8zWpgSqaZ2LNzD0XkQA
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” - Galatians 6:9
Someone right now is thinking about giving up. Don’t. Today’s walk is for you. A reminder that you may suffer many defeats, but you are not defeated. It’s time to trust that what is for you is already making its way to you. Walk in expectation. You have sowed, prayed, and waited and we’re here to tell you that victory is in sight. The type of victory that will have folks scratching their heads because they just couldn’t have imagined that it would be you who was chosen. But it will be. Your harvest season is here. Let’s get aggressive about collecting your bounty!
Spiritual Warrior of the Day:
Two unsuccessful campaigns. Two defeats. One in 2016 and one in 2018. A woman who lacked faith might have given up. But not Cori Bush. Her calling was too big. Her work - to bring justice to the streets of St. Louis in the wake of Michael Brown’s murder - too important for her to give up. So she didn’t! Instead, she rallied 2,000 volunteers, they went and knocked on 25,000 doors and made more than half a million phone calls, and this summer she did what no other Black woman in the state of Missouri has done, defeated the incumbent in a historic race for congress.
Today’s walk is for every Black girl who was ever counted out. This is history in the making. The story of Cori Bush, an activist from St. Louis who battled back from homelessness, domestic violence, and sexual abuse to become one of the rising stars of the political arena. From Cori, we learn about the art of tenacity, about the divine timing of God's blessings, and about the spirit of fearlessness that comes from walking in faith. Lace-up and lean in. This is going to be a beautiful conversation.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
I've Got the Victory LIVE - Ricky Dillard:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0UwI6BXZVlJRjqrZKMmLtk?si=2yLt0ce4SbSi1e5GhGtbpw
Draw Me Close/Thy Will Be Done - Marvin L. Winans:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6nwCQqMyCjeYVtByOtkZq1?si=l91DVlVqSGKQl22GfqoNlg
I need you to take a posture of total victory.
On July 9, 2016, a balmy morning in Baton Rouge, a 35-year-old nurse inspired the world. Ieshia Evans had watched Alton Sterling’s murder on the news from her home in Philadelphia. She’d never attended a protest before. It didn’t matter. Alton Sterling’s death came on the heels of the brutal murder of Philando Castille in front of his family. She couldn’t sit by. She packed her bags and traveled to Louisiana for a march for Black lives.
With shoulders back, heart open, eyes to the horizon – she stood in her fullness as an armed force in riot gear advanced to suppress the peaceful calls for life. She stood her ground. Fearless. With total equanimity. And was arrested. But before this powerful woman was arrested, photographer Jonathan Bachman captured a moment of pure equanimity, of fearlessness, and today, we celebrate Ieshia Evans as a spiritual muse. We name her as first in a line of 21 spiritual warriors whose actions will guide our strategy for complete liberation.
“This is the work of God. I am a vessel.” Ieshia said
It reminds me so much of David when Saul asked who will go and fight Goliath, the giant Philistine. Young David said, here am I, send me. He said, I can take him. “I have a history with God.” Listen... I’m here to tell every Black woman reading this today that YOU have a history with God.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
I Shall Not be Moved - Mississippi John Hurt:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2Vxj13uC6lBOUqsebW73eJ?si=AgVOhGzJQruStYj3DoMf4g
Barley - Lizz Wright:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6sKKaLDc0SGoFSesS1WWD3?si=G3L4hXsdQF63xugSBkdugA
CBS This Morning Interview - Gayle King interviews Ieshia Evans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFC6l0DjDF0
We need a ram in the bush. We need you.
For 21-days we will tell the stories of women who, out of the necessity of living in a world where Black women matter least, found ways to conjure up joy, shape lives full of purpose, and resist the forces of oppression.
These are the Black women leaders that the world needs to know about. These are the stories that will give hope and light the way in these dark times. These are the stories that need to be sowed into the memory banks of our baby girls and taught in classrooms in every school in America. These are the stories that will remind us that we were built for a time such as this. And this is the moment. The moment where we can, through the prayers of a million Black women, transform our communities. If only...
If only we could reach the masses. And Sisters, when I tell you we have tried.
The entire GirlTrek team has laid it all on the line in order to reach our goal of inspiring 200,000 people to commit to joining us on a walk each day for the next 21 days. As of today, family, the numbers say we have failed. The numbers say we’re nearly 60,000 women away from our goal. The numbers say this situation is dead. BUT OUR FAITH!
Baby, our faith tells us that there can be a ram in the bush. Our faith tells us God always supplies when he calls, and he called us to lead Black women on a journey towards healing. Our faith tells us that when it appears that the calling is above our ability, when it seems that the vision just wasn’t clear, to go ahead and lift our eyes and look for the ram.
Well! We’re looking to you!
Today, we’re calling every foot soldier in the army of the Lord and asking you to report to duty because you’re our ram and we need you. Today’s walk is for our sisters, the ones who are still waiting on the sidelines. The ones who you know need this the most. We’re about to set a plan for mass healing today and we’re going to pray a prayer of possibility together as we walk.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
For Every Mountain LIVE - Kurt Carr & the Kurt Carr Singers:
https://open.spotify.com/track/65EZDZlR31JQZihfpBHADq?si=F8s8_exLRryPhGvVcDtpvA
A Great Work - Brian Courtney Wilson:
https://open.spotify.com/track/54PHTV8sTaZqYDLsLAmLDG?si=9xPVhJDtSTSd2Tt-3tOsaw
Welcome to Bootcamp 3.0.The remix. The Prayer Edition. The "we will win." The "way out of no way." The blessed oil. The Amen and the Ashe. The Black girls' guide to spiritual jujitsu. The stress protest and all-out street revival to heal our bodies and take back our territory. My soul says yes!
Listen...
My mama, your mama, her mama, their mamas. Somebody prayed for you. Somebody rebuked the enemy that came to kill, steal and destroy. Somebody established a shield, laid a fence. Somebody hummed hope into your nights of despair. Somebody danced through the fire and did not get burned. I know because you are here. We are here, Saying thank you to the men and women who sacrificed so that we can be free.
So mount up. It's time for the saints to fight for Black lives.
This month, we pray to get our spirits right. Then, we vote for justice. Then we heal - a million of us - and unleash the energy, the genius, muscle, and miracle of absolute transformation across not only Black families and communities, but across the entire planet. We will shift the atmosphere.
There is power here.
Right now.
Breathe in. Are you ready?
Breathe out. Let's do this.
Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Ella's Song - Sweet Honey in the Rock:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0MTTqcQmbLW94gMLYMl95k?si=KMX4bzgtSlWK8c9pF6Gpww
You Will Win - Jekalyn Carr:
https://open.spotify.com/track/62gD4WCIMv2GxGnyIM7WWi?si=nFl-6zbaRbuczC34i_0QSQ
Something powerful. Energetic. A seismic shift in consciousness. While the world unraveled around us, we walked and trained like an army. Studying the 21 most powerful acts of Black resistance. And in that discipline, something was fortified inside each and every one of us. In the words the great Chadwick Boseman, who transitioned to be with the ancestors this weekend: “When God has something for you, it doesn’t matter who stands against it. God will move someone that’s holding you back away from the door and put someone there who will open it for you, if it’s meant for you. I don’t know what your future is, but if you are willing to take the harder way, the more complicated one, the one with more failures at first than successes, the one that has ultimately proven to have more meaning, more victory, more glory then you will not regret it. Now, this is your time. The light of new realizations shines on you today.”
Today, as our final story and act of resistance, we will walk together and talk about the story and future of GirlTrek. We will welcome our newest vanguard of 100,000+ Black women who just completed training and tell them what’s next. We will celebrate our sisters and brothers who are in the struggle now and talk about how our movement can support their work directly. We will walk together in silence, as a moment of silence for all of our fallen heroes including our brother Chadwick. And on this powerful walk together, we will visualize the potential in our own lives and assess what is required of our bodies, our minds, and our spirits as we make manifest a real Wakanda.
if you haven't completed your bootcamp journey yet, it’s okay —it’s not too late! You can join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at any time. Sign up at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Beyonce - Welcome Homecoming Live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zya5a3xBcA0
Richie Havens - Here Comes The Sun:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0hhzJEusz6r7f0eL1Uc8kw?si=divTDZ44QMa4DPeBWMIdmA
Beyonce - Before I Let Go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8305npLmIbE
The artist's role is to raise the consciousness of the people. To make them understand life, the world and themselves more completely. That's how I see it. Otherwise, I don't know why you do it. - Amiri Baraka
One month after Malcolm X's assassination in February 1965, the highly respected writer LeRoi Jones, who would later become known as Amiri Baraka – a man often described as polarizing and controversial - moved from Manhattan's Lower East Side where he had been living and working as a celebrated poet amongst an integrated crowd of artist and innovators, to Harlem. In Harlem, he intended to create a movement that would produce more politically engaged art that would awaken the Black consciousness and help secure Black liberation.
This movement, known as the Black Arts Movement, quickly spread to cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Oakland. It galvanized a group of young Black artists who would rise up to challenge the power structures in this country, armed with nothing more than a pen, paper, paint, ideas, and enough words to start a revolution.
Often referred to as the spiritual sister of the Black Power Movement, this was art by artists who saw Black people as beautiful, whole, and powerful. These cultural nationalists called for the creation of poetry, books, visual art, and theater that was rooted in Black pride.
They gave us language when we didn’t have any and told the truth when we couldn’t.
“You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt but still like dust I’ll rise.” - Maya Angelou
When our hearts were breaking. They spoke for us.
“I gather up / each sound / you left behind / and stretch them / on our bed. / each night / I breathe you / and become high.” - Sonia Sanchez
Their words are like lamp posts, guiding us back to shore.
“Then I awoke and dug, that if I dreamed natural dreams of being a natural woman doing what a woman does when she’s natural, I would have a revolution.” - Nikki Giovanni
Today’s call will be a celebration of our heroes, Maya, Sonia, Nikki, Gwendolyn, and June. It will be a tribute to Brother Amiri Baraka, for he had the vision and the courage to say the hard things, the real things, the unpopular things and to do it all for the love of his people.
Lace-up. Tune in. You don’t want to miss this.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the poems and music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Def Poetry - Amiri Baraka - Why is We Americans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ziRjhAgTO8&t=3s
Maya Angelou - Still I Rise:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2bWsGK2sfee5PAJUHbf6YK?si=p3T71SJ2ThWSs-JOQHejfg
"Oh Captain, My Captain."
Remember The Dead Poets Society? The movie with Robin Williams? He took his students into the hallway to study vintage photos of long-gone students. "Can you hear them talking to you?", he asked. "If you lean in real close, and listen, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Seize the day! Make your lives extraordinary." Well, that movie was awesome, but it was white as hell and this is Black History Bootcamp so this is what we want you to do. Look at the faces of The Harlem Hellfighters. Study them. Know that these Black men are the reason Germany surrendered.
They earned their name, The Harlem Hellfighters, by spending an unthinkable 191 days in all-out trench warfare. On the frontlines longer than any other American unit of World War I. They toured for over six months, the longest deployment of any and they - the 369th Regiment of Black men - made up less than 1% of the soldiers deployed yet they protected 20% of the territory assigned to the United States. And they lost more of their brothers - 1,500 lives - more than any other American regiment. And America used them as human decoys to defeat the Germans.
When they came home, America treated them with disdain, disrespect, like second-class citizens. Didn't want them too proud. They might disrupt Jim Crow. And America refused to honor the greatest hero of the entire war, Henry Johnson (although the French gave him their highest medal of honor). So America, we won't ask for your respect. No. Not then, not now. We gave these heroes our own parade in Harlem on February 17, 1919. ...Welcome, home heroes.
Please think of them. And think of all who fought with valor - Crispus Attucks, The 54th Regiment, The Buffalo Soldiers, The Tuskegee Airmen, Vietnam Veterans - all of the men and women who in the armed forces today. Think about the frontline soldiers in our communities. The mail carriers and sanitation workers, essential Black people whose labor is the spine of American democracy. Think of Jacob Blake, a man who had to show up for his community this week to settle a dispute because the police are not safe to call.
And to all the men and women who fought to protect it, we make these solemn promises. We will never develop an appetite for war - because war is hell. Instead, we will thirst for PEACE, build moments to LOVE, and light fires of JUSTICE. We will honor the flag you defended by taking a knee anytime this country forgets the value of Black lives.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
The Dramatics - Get Up and Get Down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZfMpbcI1NQ
Brian Courtney Wilson - Worth Fighting For (Live):
https://open.spotify.com/track/51fegUPIH02heRh9fkkLwE?si=2Eow_7TTQyeuFC4z2JBv4Q
Walking has always been used as a tool for social change. In early June of 1966 James Meredith, who had become the first Black man to attend the University of Mississippi, set out to walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, a distance of more than 200 miles, to promote Black voter registration and protest ongoing discrimination in the south. But James Meredith would never reach his destination.
On the second day of his journey, a white man tracked him down on a dirt road in Mississippi and shot him several times.
What that white terrorist didn’t know is that you can try and kill the revolutionary, but you can not kill the revolution.
Not only would James Meredith’s March Against Fear continue without him, but it would enrage and embolden a young, brilliant activist by the name of Stokely Carmichael, who after being arrested following the march, left the jailhouse and let out what would become an iconic cry for BLACK POWER.
Stokely Carmichael saw the writing on the wall. A young, brilliant organizer, who had worked closely alongside Dr. King and who was leading the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) shifted his focus from appealing to the moral center of a country that he said demonstrated it had “no conscious” to a radical liberation agenda for Black people. And we’re talking an agenda so radical that even the Black Panthers eventually couldn’t hang.
Stokely Carmichael was the living, breathing example of speaking truth to power. He was an organizer who was involved in almost every major demonstration and event that occurred in the US in the early ’60s. His legacy can be seen today in the faces of marchers who chant with fire in their bellies “defund the police,” and across the diaspora in the movement for Pan-Africanism.
This man, who would eventually be reborn as Kwame Toure, and who Rosa Parks once said could, ''stroll through Dixie in broad daylight using the Confederate flag for a handkerchief," PUT ON for his people.
And for this sacrifice, we celebrate this freedom fighter with a major Black Power salute and a conversation that will breakdown his illustrious life.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Brand Nubian - Wake Up (Reprise in the Sunrise):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJeDHYsNkHI
What's in a Name? ft. Kwame Ture (1989):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGcl359SMxE&t=2s
...one little sentence tells us all we need to know about this man. In a letter, his sister said this..."If they had not killed Cris, Cris would have killed them."
Don't you ever get it twisted. Crispus Attucks started The American Revolution. And today's conversation is about his murder.
This convo could not be more relevant. The Boston massacre was a hot-sticky mess of 10,000 soldiers patrolling the colonies with impunity. When the British tried to tax the people to pay for those soldiers, all-hell broke loose. An over-armed police force against civilians. People like Paul Revere, Sam Adams, John Hancock, and every powdered wig we now celebrate as patriots were against the British armed forces. They called themselves 'The Sons of Liberty" ...and yet, the first man to die in the name of said liberty was a Black man named Cris Attucks. He was not a casualty. He was the leader of the rebellion. This, my friends, was the start of your America. (In my Rasta voice, "Bullet, buullet!")
Here's how it all happened. One day at the barbershop...I kid you not, this is how the Boston Massacre starts... Let’s get into it.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
2pac - Ambitionz Az A Ridah (Clean):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWLljMr20MI&feature=youtu.be
Young Bleed, Master P, C-Loc, Steady Mobb'n, King George, Gangsta T, Silkk The Shocker - How Ya Do Dat:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1KLhUURHRl72xGO5A94lme?si=hqc2QOSER06fDNVMVcBDpA
Today’s walk is dedicated to a political organizer, military strategist, and master of guerrilla warfare, the one and only Queen Nanny of Jamaica. A woman who guided her people through an intense period of fighting against the British.
From Queen Nanny, we learn the art of resistance. Get ready to take notes.
Queen Nanny was the military vision keeper and spiritual and cultural leader of the Windward Maroons. A community of resistors, who had escaped the brutality of enslavement on the British owned sugarcane plantations in Jamaica. Thought to be descendant from the Ashanti Tribe in Ghana, Queen Nanny was a fierce leader who helped the Maroons fight two guerrilla wars. These wars forced the British to recognize Jamaica's autonomy, establishing their freedom.
Queen Nanny baffled and infuriated her enemies. They couldn’t understand that the source of courage and fire came directly from her African ancestry, which she strategically kept alive through stories, music and customs within Nannytown, a village she established high in the Blue Mountains as a refuge for her people.
There’s so much to learn from Queen Nanny’s story. It doesn’t matter if your battle is happening in the valleys or the hills. If it’s personal or professional. It doesn’t matter if you’ve already been served a defeat. There is still a path to victory. Just let the ancient wisdom of Queen Nanny guide you to where you need to be.
It’s about to be a revolution in these streets on today’s walk.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Burning Spear - Queen of the Mountain Live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeTKvSf3Sa0
Spice - So Mi Like It:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8305npLmIbE
We are the #daughtersof Cécile Fatiman a Haitian Voodoo Priestess who literally conjured a revolution. Her warrior blood runs through our veins. Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers - themselves root-workers and prayer warriors - were women who learned the art of spiritual warfare from women like Cécile. That’s why we are so excited to introduce her to you on day 14 of Black History Bootcamp.
On today’s walk, we’ll be talking about the Haitian Revolution and the gathering at Bois Caïman. This gathering, which took place on a hot summer night in August, was the site of the first major meeting of enslaved Blacks. During which, the first major slave insurrection of the Haitian Revolution was planned. And you know who presided over that meeting? That’s, right. Cécile.
The gathering at Bois Caïman was part religious ritual and part strategic planning meeting and it set in motion the events that would lead to Haiti becoming the world’s first independent Black Republic. A nation which, to this today, is being punished for daring to rise up and free themselves by force. We’re going to talk about this and about the powerful community of leaders and activists on the ground now continuing the good fight.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Toto Bissainthe - Dey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1DcPdMZs9s
Once upon a time, Wangari Maathai saved Planet Earth.
When people say they want to “diversify” the environmental movement, I cough on the arrogance. Black women, indigenous women, and women of color around the globe are saving the planet. Like, right now. Like this actual second. Planting, cultivating, harvesting, carrying, selling, cooking, composting, turning over soil, and doing it again. And no disrespect to the card-carrying climate change activists – the Paris Agreement is essential – but please understand that while you are carrying protest signs, millions of African women are carrying seeds and meticulously tied bundles of the harvest to markets (with no carbon footprint) where they will sell locally. Those same women will cook into the night, and compost what’s left, to grow what is needed the next day to save their nations.
Today’s walk is dedicated to the legacy of Wangari Maathai for organizing women to plant 50 MILLION TREES to save Kenya from the brink of environmental devastation. Her “Green Belt Movement” changed the very air, the earth, and the water of the continent of Africa forever. We are proud of that. But we are prouder of how she did it. How she showed up in the quiet moments when no one was watching. How she survived the Mau Mau Uprising. How she protested to free political prisoners. How she summoned the courage to stand in the front of bulldozers and speak on camera with a bloodied face. Oh, and she won the Nobel Peace Prize.
But I guess she should’ve been at the climate march.
Join today’s conversation so that I can fix my attitude. Let’s breathe some fresh air, sing at the top of our lungs, and rally ourselves to all be a little more like Wangari.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music and speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Queen Latifah - U.N.I.T.Y.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8cHxydDb7o
Taking Root The Vision of Wangari Maathai:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5GX6JktJZg&feature=youtu.be
They killed him. The official death report said natural causes but in a recent exhumation, his young body was riddled with bullet holes.
Thomas Sankara was a folk hero. He championed the people over the powerful. He encouraged newspapers to tell the truth and - in an act of solidarity during his presidency - sold off the government's fleet of Mercedes and made all ministers ride in the Renault 5, the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time. They called him the African Che Guevara.
At 33-years-old, Sankara became the President of the Republic of Upper Volta. As a powerful first action, he changed the country’s colonial name – which was The Republic of Upper Volta – to an indigenous name - - Burkina Faso which means "Land of Incorruptible People".
And incorruptible was his goal. He refused foreign aid. “He who feeds you, controls you.” He pushed African nations to collectively reject illegitimate debt from their colonizers. He nationalized land and mineral wealth (which made the IMF and World Bank go bananas). And led a national campaign for self-sufficiency which included a literacy crusade, vaccinations of 2.5 million children, reforestation of the Sahal by planting 10 million trees, redistribution of land from feudal and tribal chiefs, community-built hospitals and schools, and women’s rights (outlawing female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy). The country thrived. (Burkina Faso is the 4th richest gold producer in Africa).
When he was asked why he didn’t want his presidential portrait posted across Burkina Faso like other African leaders. He said. "There are seven million Thomas Sankaras."
Let’s walk, talk, and learn more about Sankara, an icon of revolution, as we meditate on our own blueprint for liberation and social justice. What do we really need? What’s on our agenda in 2020. And what can we learn from Burkina Faso today? 30 years later, they are in a state of crisis. 100,000 people are internally displaced by extreme poverty, climate change, and terrorism. How did that happen? Is there a way to organize without centering a charismatic leader?
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music excepts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Fela Kuti - Zombie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj5x6pbJMyU
Bob Marley and the Wailers - War / No More Trouble
https://open.spotify.com/track/7esv0HaNOrjRWJgyxqJ4c1?si=D0LPou-fSlmvpg0gO4kPbg
“Go back to Africa”
They meant it as an insult. He meant it as a rallying cry.
Today’s walk and history lesson is dedicated to the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
Some might call him the original African giant. Black, proud, and preaching the gospel of self-determination, Marcus Garvey hailed from St. Ann’s Bay Jamaica. The youngest of 11 children, Garvey was a political activist and entrepreneur, who spent his life helping to define the Black Nationalist and Pan African Movements. His vision - big and scary to those invested in the oppression of marginalized people throughout the world - was to unite African, and people of African descent, across the diaspora and allow us to develop our own cultural, political, and economic systems free from foreign domination and outside influence.
Now you know a vision this radical had to be met with opposition. Can we say FBI?
These are the stories they don’t want us to tell. They don’t want us to realize that there is already a blueprint for this work. That blueprint includes a vision laid out by Marcus Garvey at a gathering in Harlem in 1921 that included thousands of delegates from more than 22 countries. On today’s call, we’re going to talk about what went down that at this international convention and how Marcus Garvey’s work and legacy live on today.
Today marks 133 years since the birth of Marcus Garvey. Throw on some red, black, and green on top of that superhero blue and get ready to walk and talk with us as we celebrate and discuss his legacy. You KNOW this is going to be a good one.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music and speech excepts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Nas ft. Lauryn Hill - If I Ruled the World:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlp-IIG9ApU
Marcus Garvey, A Virtual Forum: 100th Anniversary of Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvBPLY9xJD0
A. Philip Randolph was arrested in the streets for treason. He was a young man demanding rights for Black workers - or else. W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington agreed on one thing. They could not stand the "new radical negroes" like A. Philip Randolph! He was a socialist. A rabble-rouser. A labor man. They called him every name in the book. Today, we call him the single, most impactful social, political, and economic activist in Black history. Receipts you ask?
You've got to listen to today's episode.
But here's a little teaser. He unionized Black workers. Done. Leveraged that power to walk into the Oval Office and force President Roosevelt - by threat of mass demonstration - to desegregate the federal government and hire Black people, effective immediately! Done. Fair Employment Act. Randolph won a million new jobs for Black people. The middle class was created. Done. Then, Randolph stood toe-to-toe with Truman and audaciously told him that Black people would NOT fight in his war unless he desegregated the military. Truman hated Randolph. Didn't matter. Executive Order 9981 abolished segregation in the armed forces. Done. Power ya'll. (Press play on Nina Simone right here.) Then it happened. The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was the largest political demonstration in American history. A. Philip Randolph was the originator, strategist and chief spokesperson. The demonstration was intent on two demands from Kennedy, then Johnson. The Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Voting Rights Act of 1965. He won both.
There would be no Martin Luther King without A. Philip Randolph. While King raised the moral consciousness of a nation, Randolph secured the bag - a decisive political and economic defeat against American injustice. It's no wonder a U.S. Attorney General called him "the most dangerous negro in America." We'll be that.
This is gonna be a good conversation. Before you dial in, look hard at these 5 photographs that only exist because A. Philip Randolph was born.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music and speech excerpts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
The Impressions - Keep On Pushing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU-mEsCk3D8
PBS Documentary Film about Randolph:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umQy6PRVVzQ&feature=youtu.be
An educator, writer, political campaigner, and activist. Today’s walk is dedicated to the bravery of Mary Church Terrell, a woman who played a central role in every major movement to advance the rights of Black people in this country, including suffrage, anti-lynching, and desegregation.
Coining the term, “lifting while we climb”, Mary Church Terrell was one of the first Black women in the U.S. to earn a college degree and later went on to help found the NAACP and the National Association of Colored Women. Her resume alone would make her worthy of celebration, but it is her courageous defiance, put on display in two pivotal incidents – including one where she faced-off with one of history’s favorite heroes, Susan B. Anthony, that will be the central focus of today’s conversation.
This is for every Black woman who has given up on intersectional feminism (because #tired), and for the ones who keep pushing to find common ground. We’ve got some stuff to talk about and a lot to learn from our foremother. A woman who was always willing to say the hard stuff, Mary Church Terrell.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Donna Summer - She Works Hard For The Money:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ZSKE38lTU
Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToE26b2JyNc
Can we talk about radical praise? Can we talk about transcendent faith? A Spirit that stretched from Africa to a tiny street in Los Angelos, California. Do. Not. Miss. Today! Take a praise break! I’m about to shout right now. God, I thank you for your grace. Today's walk is dedicated to the unsung heroes of the Pentecostal Movement.
...to actual spiritual warriors.
At the turn of the 20th century, America was at the height of lynching. Terror gripped Black homes. But they didn't run. They grounded down - took to the woods - and prepared for spiritual battle. Tent revivals, tarrying, drums, call and response. Hand clapping. Foot stomping. A revival of heart, mind, and body - night after night. A conjuring of justice. Gratitude for God’s Grace. Bigger. More connected. We chanted 2 Timothy 1:7. More power, more love. You won't take our minds. It’s how we survived. The fire reigned down. Healing. Protection. Insight. Divine peace. Ultimate resilience. Harriet was born of that fire. Fannie was born of that fire. King was born of that fire. We are that fire.
Here’s what you need to know. The biggest religious movement in American history was started by Black people. It happened in 1906 in Los Angeles. On a tiny street named Azusa. The Pentecostal movement was born. Newspapers came out, took photographs, and debated publicly about people speaking in tongues and being overcome with spiritual fervor. What they didn’t know then but we understand now is this - that fire wasn’t born on Azusa Street. It was born in Africa. God covered our babies when men with guns came to destroy. We are only here today because of the prayers of our foremothers in the bellies of slave ships. Our dance was perfected in Congo Square. But it was on Azusa Street that Black people made public the spiritual inheritance of Africa that lit a fire across America. We've always been directly connected to God. They called it Pentecostalism.
The Holy Ghost rained over this country in the fastest-growing religious movement in history. A few important pioneers who believed that full sanctification or a supreme union with God on this earth was possible - being baptized in the Holy Ghost and filled with tongues - they believed that we ourselves could be Saints. In the beginning, it was intently and plainly called the Church of God to purposely shed all trappings of past religious distinction. We are just God's church - that's it. All are welcome. It evolved into what is now many beautiful denominations from COGIC to Apostolic.
Today’s walk is dedicated to all of the unsung heroes who rallied an army of spiritual warriors to intercede at the height of American terror.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Charles G Hayes & Warriors - Jesus Can Work It Out Remix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRoe3iExVjU
Kirk Franklin - Stomp (Remix):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JqBBpZvF4k
Today’s walk is dedicated to Nat Turner, the leader of the most famous slave uprising in the history of the United States.
Nat Turner believed in signs and heard divine voices. On a summer night in August 1831, following a solar eclipse, Nat Turner, a Black man who had been sold three times in his young life, decided to take his destiny into his own hands by leading one of the bloodiest insurrections the country has ever seen.
Some called him a villain, many others called him a hero. Today, we call him an ancestor and we honor his fight for freedom and seek true understanding from his story. We ask ourselves the hard question – how far would we go in the fight for our own liberation?
Today’s conversation is for every person who has ever had a vision that you just could not shake. For every person who has ever stepped out on faith, despite fear crawling up your back. For those of us who believe that our steps are ordered and who are prepared to march into battle if called.
Everything that you think you know about this story will be challenged. There is so much to discuss and learn!
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Mali Music - I Believe :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onNPKbOn8uU
Sunday Service Choir - Ultralight Beam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTgzYv7LLmc
“Mr. Chairman... my name is Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, and I live at 626 East Lafayette Street, Ruleville, Mississippi, Sunflower County, the home of Senator James O. Eastland, and Senator Stennis. It was the 31st of August in 1962...”
And that’s how it began.
The most harrowing account of our hero being beaten in a jail cell by officers. Arrested for trying to vote. Her words so powerful, her eyes so honest and spirit so bright that the president of the United States of America, Lyndon B. Johnson, was terrified that she would so deeply move the nation in her national broadcast at the Democratic National Convention that he interrupted her testimony with a fake press conference.
But he couldn’t stop her. Listen, when God is for you, who can be against you. We already knew that Fannie came to play zero games when she brought her white purse to the front of the convention and sat it on the table. Black People: bring your full selves to this movement and you will be unstoppable.
No matter how you look, where you are, how you feel, you can do this. Join us today as we listen to the actual testimony together of one of the greatest in the game.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Casey J - If God / Nothing But The Blood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaS59ddVkao
Audio of Fannie Lou Hamer's Testimony:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML3WaEsCB98
Today’s walk is dedicated to Claudette Colvin and every Black woman who has ever felt invisible or who has ever been asked to labor on behalf of a movement that did not welcome or celebrate you. Thank you for your service and the way you show up for your people. Today you are seen and appreciated.
On March 2, 1955, Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old student, boarded a bus home from school and on that ride changed the course of history by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white woman. Her actions set in motion a critical legal battle. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his political debut fighting her arrest and Claudette became one of five plaintiffs in the first federal court case to challenge bus segregation in the city of Montgomery.
But this isn’t the story that history has told. It would be Rosa Parks whose name would ultimately go on record as the woman whose single act of courage inspired the most effective political and social protest campaign of the civil rights movement, The Montgomery Bus Boycotts.
So why wasn’t 15-year-old Claudette Colvin given her proper due? The reasons will outrage you, but the story is necessary to tell. The lessons to be learned are critical if we ever want to build a world that truly makes space for Black girls and women to show up as we are. This is going to be a conversation that you don't want to miss! We will be serving up truth, a whole lotta love, and a little bit of justice. All in the name of our good and faithful sister, Claudette.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Chantay Savage - I Will Survive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMyCXqM8AKM
2005 Claudette Colvin and Dr. Marion Woods at the San Francisco Public Library:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNoCdzYpDgE&mc_cid=b79cda97c8&mc_eid=b187d8127e
ROOTS CHANGED EVERYTHING, PERIOD.
Today’s 30-minute walk is dedicated to the exact moment that millions of Black people held their breath, waiting... "Your name is Toby! Now, what's your name boy?" Beaten, drenched, but unbroken, he threw his head back and inhaled. We inhaled with him. "KUNTA. KUNTA KENTE"
Roots changed everything.
A generation of Black babies protested in their mama’s bellies refusing to be called a slave name. If your name starts with a K or ends in -isha, -anya or -yonce, you're welcome. Cicely Tyson became the patron saint of the natural hair movement with her epic braid pattern. Maya Angelou became everybody’s griot grandmother. Lavar Burton went straight to teaching a nation to read. John Amos became my baby's daddy (and Florida Evan's baby daddy on Good Times). Black was in. Swoon.
SO MANY juicy behind-the-scenes FACTS about this cultural phenomenon! Did you know ABC tried to bury this movie!?
Roots became the most successful film franchise in television history. The mini-series was watched by 130 million viewers - more than half of the U.S population of 221 million in 1977. “It was the largest viewership ever attracted by any type of television series in US history as tallied by Nielsen Media Research.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Arrested Development - People Everyday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGusP7aCCYc
The story behind the filming of "Roots" - TelevisionAcademy.com/Interviews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQw4qf2aG-Q&feature=youtu.be
Today’s 30-minute walk is dedicated to a living legend, the fearless Bree Newsome Bass.
On June 27, 2015, Bree Newsome committed one of the greatest acts of civil disobedience seen in our lifetime when she scaled the 30-foot flag pole on the grounds of the South Carolina State House and removed the confederate flag. Carried literally by the faith of her ancestors, who’d been enslaved in South Carolina. Bree, a woman of just 30 with no training, made the ascent of a lifetime. She climbed up the flagpole in a defiant act of bravery and snatched down a flag that was raised as a symbol of protest against the civil rights movement and the fight for Black liberation.
The saying goes, “If not us, who? If not now, when?” After nine Black members of Emanuel AME Church were massacred during bible study by a white supremacist, Bree Newsome said she realized that now was the time for courage and she never looked back.
There is so much to learn from this young Black warrior queen, who upon reaching the top of the flag pole yelled down to the police below saying, “You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today.” That was some Miss Celie level, "until you do right by me," energy that unleashed a wave of justice that five years later is still reverberating across this country as monuments to the confederacy continue to fall.
Bree Newsome is about that life and we're going to get into it on today’s call! And by the end, you’ll be walking away with some strategies and ideas to not only help the revolution but to also start toppling the personal monuments in your own life. The monuments you have built to things and people that never served you and should no longer be allowed to take up space in your life.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Sheri Jones-Moffett - Encourage Yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAt2L7aeH1I
Bree Newsome: Charlottesville is Latest Chapter in Long U.S. History of White Supremacist Terror:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPSotUPQRsc
It happened on a Thursday.
February 18, 1965.
The exact moment we fell in love with James Baldwin.
It wasn’t because he was a boy genius who spent every day at the library. It wasn't event his fiery church sermons as a teen or loving debates with Malcolm X as a young man. It was on this day, that he was propelled onto the world stage. He was raw, nervous, authentic. A Black man with vocabulary as arsenal, able to tag a full picture of our pain. This was his opus. His coming out as our Jimmy, our defender against bullies on the schoolyard. Baldwin stood toe-to-toe with “the father of conservatism,” segregationist William Buckley in the hallowed halls of Oxford under the glare of entitled white boys. By himself. With a cloak of our peoples' sorrow and swag flying from his tiny frame. He said, not today. At that moment, he became our tragic hero - an outcast, small, gay, committed, way too smart for any neighborhood. It was swoon-worthy. And from there he went on a world tour of verbal lashing and protest speeches, articles, and books to demand the total liberation of Black people.
Let’s go on a victory lap for this man’s life.
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Janelle Monáe - Tightrope:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnefUaKCbc
James Baldwin and Paul Weiss Debate Discrimination In America | The Dick Cavett Show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzH5IDnLaBA&feature=youtu.be
On the night of June 1, 1863, Harriet Tubman arrived on a ship in South Carolina with 150 men ready for battle. She was the first woman to led an armed military operation in the United States, and what happened in South Carolina that night would solidify Harriet Tubman as one of the greatest military strategists the world has ever seen. Known as the Combahee River Raid, what happened that evening changed the course of history and gives us a powerful example of what liberation can look like. Are you ready to dive in? The walk and talk is going to be fire! We will do Mama Harriet proud. You already know! #Weareharriet
Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Mavis Staples - Wade In The Water:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmxGqqZf8gc
Erykah Badu - Soldier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4925nvQ3XfE
We did it! We just wrapped up #BlackHistoryBootcamp. It's been 21-days of life transforming lessons and walks courtesy of our foremothers. Over 100,000+ Black women and allies made a real change this month.
Congratulations! Right now, all of the ancestors are standing together - cosmically cheering for you. So, let's celebrate. It's time to take a victory lap. Join us for a conversation full of our reflections and favorite moments.
And if you haven't completed your bootcamp journey yet, it’s okay —it’s not too late! You can join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at any time. Sign up at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Beyoncé BLACK PARADE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJT1m1ele00
As we close out this 21-day series, and prepare for the next (yes, there is more of this goodness to come) we end not by looking back, but by looking forward as we examine the life and legacy of the extraordinary writer, Octavia Butler, a Black woman who dared to imagine a future that centered Blackness and the voices and experiences of Black women. The invitation into her sci-fi world was an invitation for all of us to think beyond the drab expectations of a cruel reality that does not see our magic or power, to create a future that makes space for all of our glorious gifts to be on full display.
The godmother of Afrofuturism. Octavia Butler was a pioneer who traveled from the future to warn us and prepare us for a time such as this. She knew what would happen if power went unchecked, if the earth continued to be neglected, and if the wealthy were allowed to cannibalize the poor. She knew. And throughout her illustrious career as a science fiction writer, which included her winning every major award in her field, she tried to warn us. Today we listen. Today we acknowledge that an awkward Black girl with an almost paralyzing shyness was given the gift to foretell the future and that she wrote it all down in a series of masterpieces that literally read like a blueprint for survival.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Janelle Monáe - Q.U.E.E.N. feat. Erykah Badu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEddixS-UoU
Octavia Butler on Charlie Rose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1W9CNwl2e8
Ruby Dee was the zeitgeist of Black womanhood. She was our Ruth in Raisin in the Sun, our Queen in Roots, our Mother-Sister in Do the Right Thing, our Mama Lucas in American Gangster. Ruby Dee's face, her soulful voice, her spirited laughter is the very epitome of Black cinema.
Her Hollywood career was phenomenal but life painted an even more brilliant story. She was an activist. A forceful member of CORE, SNCC, NAACP, Urban League, AND Delta Sigma Theta. Harlem through and through, Ruby was for us, by us.
And can we talk about Black Love?
You can’t utter the sound of her name, Ruby Dee, without your tongue clicking praise to her lover, Ossis Davis. Their love was definitive. Instructional. Swoon-worthy. ...an aperitif for our collective imagination. They gave us a master class on Black Love as Legacy. Eye contact. Hand holding. Passionate embraces. Side-by-sideness. It was, well, satisfying. They made us remember.
It is no wonder that upon their deaths, they were cremated and their ashes put in the same urn, with the inscription, "In this thing together."
Today is a celebration of Black Love, starring Ruby Dee.
...and Ossie Davis.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Stevie Wonder - If You Really Love Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmR4y4slhmo
Ruby Dee - Men Who Have Loved Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVRzeTWP9Fk&feature=youtu.be
“Let the people see what I have seen.” Mamie Till-Mobley launched a movement with those words, insisting on an open casket funeral for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who was brutally murdered by two white men in Mississippi. That strategic decision, and the decision to publish graphic photos from the funeral in Jet magazine, galvanized the country and forced the world to finally make eye contact with the horrors being inflicted on Black people, especially throughout the American South.
Mamie Till-Mobley was an ordinary Black woman who used her darkest hour to shine a light on injustice and mobilize the masses, and for that, we celebrate her legacy on day 19 of Black History Bootcamp.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Summertime / Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child by Mahalia Jackson: https://youtu.be/gfYlzSeSFu4
Mamie Till Speaks of Forgiveness: https://youtu.be/6Q3ZOCjkEwY
No Black women were in the military? She changed that. No Black women were in law school at Howard? Bam. Now there are. Black women everywhere were forced to give up their seats on buses? Before the Freedom Rides or RFK could call a press conference, it was her landmark case that waged the first blow against “separate but equal”. She was the first Black woman admitted to the all-white DC Bar Association. ...one of the first women to be ordained as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. And as she did all of this justice work, and ran her DC law firm on “greens and leftover pound cake” as payment, she moonlighted at the post office to pay the bills. We gone celebrate her today.
If Black excellence had a name, it would be Dovey Johnson Roundtree.
Just two days ago, June 22, 2020, Netflix made a historic investment of $40 million to Spelman College. Spelman named this unprecedented scholarship after one woman: Dovey Johnson Roundtree. “The Fixer” of The People. A one-woman crusade. Today we salute this unsung hero.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Betty Everett - Shoop Shoop Song (it´s in his kiss): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4KN6TFhy2I
Dovey Roundtree: Howard Law School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7ng_My7jtU&mc_cid=9d55451262&mc_eid=b187d8127e
It makes sense to us that God would plant the blueprint of rock 'n' roll into the soul of a little Black girl born in a town called Cotton Plant. Sister Rosetta Tharpe sang music that was infused with the melodies of Black folks who understood loss and survival. A child prodigy who was touring with her preacher mother and a troupe of evangelical musicians by the age of 6, Rosetta Tharpe dared to combine the sacred with the secular, mixing gospel music with rhythm and blues to create a rock 'n' roll sound that would change the world. But it is her life, not just her music that we will gather to talk about on today’s call. From this woman – queer, Black, bold, and brave – we learn about living authentically, taking risks, and understanding your value. Join us for the live discussion or download the recap. Either way, tune in to this history!
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Hallelujah (1979) - COGIC International Mass Choir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4bzWtOLEzAI
"Up Above My Head" - Sister Rosetta Tharpe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeaBNAXfHfQ
If John Henry has a folk song this woman needs one too!
Introducing Stagecoach Mary a.k.a. Mary Fields a.k.a. Black Mary.
At 60-years old she was the fastest person - man or woman - in the state of Montana to hitch a team of six horses to a coach. She was the first Black woman to earn a US Postal Service contract. She drove that team of horses for eight years, through rough and wild territories of the West. In the winter, the snow was so deep that she’d leave the horses behind and carry-on with the mail on her back. She never missed a day. Not a single day. She carried a shotgun to demand respect. She once got kicked out of a Catholic convent for using it. When the law banned women from drinking in saloons, she got an exception from the mayor.
“I fight through rainstorms...snowstorms ...risk hurricanes and tornadoes. I like to be rough. I like to be rowdy. I also like to be loving ...caring." We are the daughters of hard and soft. ...that edge hitting a soft breeze. We are electric. The storm of posibility. Like the clap of Juneteenth in the middle of global meltdown. Like the swirl and swagger of Mary Fields.
"I do bold and exciting things." she confessed.
Cheers foremother. Cheers!
(She needs her own folk song.)
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
More Bounce To The Ounce - Zapp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1ijvN7ADt4
Our Vision Is Our Voice - Sonia Sanchez: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckFKVT2fzJk&feature=youtu.be
Born to enslaved parents, one year before the Emancipation Proclamation, Ida B. Wells was once considered the most famous Black woman in the United States. As a journalist, she spent her entire life tirelessly fighting to tell the truth and shame the devil – to their face. She wasn’t afraid to pick a fight and she always seemed to show up prepared for battle, with the truth on her side. We think her life is a lesson for all of us and on today’s call we will honor her by speaking truth to power. We promise it’s a conversation you don’t want to miss.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Lost Ones - Lauryn Hill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HhfKArW3BY
Beautiful Black Men - Nikki Giovanni: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DX6i_4WSXQ
Why hasn’t someone made this into a movie!?
Angola is the huge country below the equator on the west coast of Africa. That’s where it all started. ...ground zero for the transatlantic slave trade. White missionaries, greed, exploitative trade, tech advances that made exploration by sea possible, a massive need for labor and yes, tribal wars. It was the perfect storm for the greatest crime in human history, the capture, sale, and violent exportation of our ancestors.
Yes, and we know that the first enslaved Africans arrived in America 400 years ago, in 1619. The next part is not as well known.
20 or so Africans were the first to walk on American soil. They were survivors. They survived wars on the continent. They survived a 70-mile walk down the Kwanza River. They survived the humiliation of baptism and branding by Catholic traders of enslaved people. They survived the dungeons, the canoe ride to the ships, the months at sea, the sickness, filth, violence, and murder. They survived the day that their Portuguese ship was jacked by British pirates in little-ass boats. They sailed to America and were sold on the shores of Hampton, Virginia.
They survived.
And one of those survivors was a woman named Angela.
...In Virginia, Angela X lived with Captain Whoever and his wife and two other indentured servants from England. Slavery wasn’t legally codified yet. We know this because, in 2017, something amazing happened. Buried beneath her home in Jamestown, archeologists found four cowrie shells. Evidence of her journey - the most exciting archeological find in decades – or ever – if you ask us.
Today, we honor Angela and every African woman whose names we will never know.
Join us in a conversation about survival and the systematic destruction of Black women that began on the coast of Africa and was fortified through The Virginia Code just 50 years after Angela arrived.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Celie Shaves Mr./Scarification Ceremony (From "The Color Purple" Soundtrack): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFTvbp-Fjkk
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qviM_GnJbOM&feature=youtu.be
Lucille Clifton was the GOAT. The fact that we are not all walking around quoting her like we do Jay-Z or Drake is beyond understanding. She could have stepped into a booth with either of them, holding a cup of chamomile tea, and whispered two bars (because she liked to get to the point), drop the mic and walk out. It would have been over. Her words are so stunning. So precise. So full of celebration for Black people. You could quote only Lucille Clifton poems for the rest of your Instagram life and you would never run out of profound things to say. And this masterful body of work came from a woman who wrote for 30 years before being published. A woman who had six children and buried two, but still kept on living and producing beautiful art. There is so much to learn from this legendary writer. Don't miss the conversations.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
“Won't You Celebrate With Me” | Lucille Clifton: https://vimeo.com/197834578
Lucille Clifton & Sonia Sanchez: Mirrors & Windows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8aCnU9oArI
Orson Welles called her “the most exciting woman in the world.” And she was. Eartha Kitt sang in 11 languages. Danced with Katherine Dunham. Broke boundaries for Black women in Hollywood when she played Catwoman. She was nominated for Tony Awards, Grammy Awards, and Emmys. And still, she felt unwanted, unloved. At the end, she was asked to summarize her life in six words. She said, “Rejected, ejected, dejected, used, accused, abused.”
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Eartha Kitt - Live 1968: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdsHKw6939k
Eartha Kitt Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpPq8vlld_E&mc_cid=6605522284&mc_eid=b187d8127e
Look, Marsha said she ain’t do it!
Although legend has it that it was Marsha P. Johnson who threw a shot glass at police inside of the Stonewall Inn in NYC in 1969, as an act of resistance against the police who were there harassing patrons, Marsha later said, she didn’t start the riot - she said she came running as fast as she could though once she knew it was happening, because baaaby, she was a fighter and was tired of the BS.
What happened that day at Stonewall (“The Stonewall Uprising”) is considered by many to be the catalyst that launched the modern L.G.B.T. civil rights movement and it was Marsha who would lead the fight in the streets. She, along with co-founder Sylvia Rivera, established one of the country's first safe spaces for transgender and homeless youth, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR). She also tirelessly advocated on behalf of sex workers, prisoners, and people with HIV/AIDS. Marsha’s work was powerful, but it didn’t keep her from a fate that far too many Black women have met. Marsha died in 1992. Her body was recovered in a river in New York and her death was ruled a suicide. Authorities later reclassified the cause, ruling it drowning from undetermined causes. The case remains open, and the mystery of her death reminds us of the ongoing violence black and transgender people face all too often in this country.
Tune in live today. You don’t want to miss it.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
En Vogue - Free Your Mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7iQbBbMAFE
Jamila Woods - Holy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3MhH2WekcY
"Baby Esther" was a phenomenal scat singer, and one of the most charismatic performers of her time. She was a trained dancer and acrobat. At 4-years-old, Russian-American theatrical manager Lou Bolton saw her performance and was blown away. "She's a young Florence Mills," the newspapers said. Like Josephine Baker and many performers of her day, Baby Esther was not accepted in America because she was Black. Instead, her manager arranged a European tour in 1929 and she was described as the highest-paid child artist in the world. She sold out the Moulin Rouge and performed for royals.
At GirlTrek, we say "never ask permission to save your own life." We say it WHILE we work together to topple oppressive systems because we believe that we have what it takes to thrive. But this story reminds us of the many things that have been stolen from us - resources, culture, reputation, royalties, and childhoods. Let's take stock on today's call.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Black Beauty - Duke Ellington: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4fP4cGo6sc
Fingertips (Pts. I & II) - Little Stevie Wonder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3ubgVjp3CY
If “I said what I said” was a person, it would be literary great Zora Neale Hurston. A writer. An anthropologist. The belle of the Harlem Renaissance. Unapologetically Black. A woman wholly committed to being herself. Today we talk about her life and the lessons she has to teach us about worth, value, speaking truth to power, and jumping at the sun.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Zora Neale Hurston '28 Sings "Halihmuhfack": https://youtu.be/Ut0xmfgcK3w
Ruby Dee on the Humanity in Zora Neale Hurston's Work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__d8NS1IiWE&feature=youtu.be
Forget what your 8th-grade teacher taught you.
Sojourner Truth's life was so juicy, so "say what!?," that you cannot miss this live discussion. She is everyone's favorite spiritual leader, yes. But did you know that Sojourner Truth bore the child of a slave owner, then - when she escaped his bondage - she sued his ass for custody and won! Sojourner Truth was the first Black woman to go to court against a white man in America and win. Bring your tambourines as we hit the streets for a Truth Revival! We honor her hope and fervent calling today.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Sweet Honey in the Rock - Sojourner's Battle Hymn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwSZgLLqPy8
Cicely Tyson performs Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a woman?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0YR1eiG0us
From London, by way of Jamaica, Olive Morris lived 27 years and she made every one of them count. She was Gangster with a capital G, organizing with the Black Panther Party Youth Collective, occupying empty and abandoned buildings to demand fair housing rights, and setting up the first networks for women of color in Britain. Despite her powerful work, Olive Morris, like countless other Black women, has been left out of the telling of our history, until now! Join us live to talk about her legacy, and how Black women today can start to unite with our sisters abroad to get this liberation party really poppin’ off.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Judy Mowatt - Black Woman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHUQg5rvBEg
Did you know Nina's government name was Eunice Kathleen Waymon!? Us either. Here's the story. She was at a nightclub singing, trying to protect her family's good name. She started calling herself Nina and the rest is history. She became the voice of a generation - brave, uncompromising, raw. She taught us to practice fearlessness and – in her very public battle with mental illness – she reminds us that genius is delicate and must be protected at all costs. Join us as we honor this classical musician who wrote the book on soul.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Nina Simone - How It Feels to be Free:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dlrXCYrNYI
Nina Simone - Freedom Interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySYRI4wXUpo
Welcome to day 5 of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp. As we celebrate the life of Breonna, we look to the words of literary giant Toni Morrison for comfort and direction. Toni Morrison refused to let Black women be invisible. Without apology she centered us in her work, writing about the Black experience with precision and beauty that was unmatched. She gave voice to our pain, our love, our loss, and our joys, and today we explore her life and look to the lessons she taught us.
Let today’s walk be a celebration of life. Come with your sadness and your rage and lay it down at the altar for just 30 minutes. Walk through the tightness and let the energy and the footsteps of the thousands of other Black women who will be walking with us, transform you.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Happy Birthday · Stevie Wonder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcVZfJO01NI
White People Have a Very Very Serious Problem - Toni Morrison on Charlie Rose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2txzMkT5Pc
She was rowdy, fun, and made the best pork chops in town. Oh - and she single-handedly funded the Montgomery Bus Boycotts! Let's get into it. Today's walk is dedicated to the great Georgia Gilmore, a midwife, and mother of six. After hearing of Rosa Parks' arrest, she started cooking, feeding our people, and raising record amounts of money for the movement. With her new business, she hired Black drivers to carpool people to work during historic boycotts of the racist bus system. We can't WAIT to celebrate this giant in self-determination on today's walk.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
Georgia Gilmore interview: http://repository.wustl.edu/concern/file_sets/p5547t15w
Look. We have learned a thing or two from our mamas about turning pain into purpose. That's why as primary elections kicked off across the country yesterday, we decided to dig into the crates and pull out everything we know about the woman who dared to be the first Black woman in Congress and the first Black women to seek the nomination for President of the United States from a major party ticket, Ms. Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm. Today's Bootcamp is dedicated to her memory and everything that she taught us about being "Unbought and Unbossed."
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
- Shirley Chisholm's Message About The Importance Of Activism: https://youtu.be/Im_V-5yMEjY
Listen ya'll: We need this resistance training now! Last night, the military was deployed on peaceful protestors. So today, we are bringing out the GOAT...
ELLA JO BAKER, the greatest organizer in Black History. There would be no March on Washington, no Freedom Rides, no Selma without Ella Baker. Today’s playlist is dedicated to her. It includes a "stop playing with us" speech she gave in 1974 and 10 songs to hit the streets and remember where you came from.
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.
Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
- Ella Baker: Making the Struggle Every Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t96fnyLMihA
- Sweet Honey in The Rock - Wade in the Water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRpzEnq14Hs
Today's 30-minute walk is dedicated to the brave and brilliant Audre Lorde. She argued that our very survival is political - that we were never meant to survive. As you walk, meditate on her idea of "radical self-care." What would it look like if you were radical about caring for yourself? How would it even feel? What does it require? Today, you can walk in silent meditation, join our phone conversation, or cue up the playlist to let Audre Lorde's inspiring words guide you. This is your 21-day journey. The only thing we ask is that you walk at least 30 minutes and reflect each day. This habit will transform your life. We'll be cheering! #daughtersof #girltrek
Join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.