The Deep End Friends Podcast: Recent Episodes
Reagan Jackson and Anastacia Renee: Black Women Writers
The Deep End is an exploration of liberation, healing, hope, joy, and wholeness. What does it mean to be free? What are people of color doing to heal themselves and the world? Join co-hosts Reagan Jackson and Anastacia Renee for a series of in-depth interviews. Hear from incredible people from all walks of life about their journeys, what they are doing to thrive and how they are contribution to broader movements of empowerment and liberation.
About Us: Reagan Jackson is a writer, artist, international educator, prayer practitioner, and seeker of truth. She is currently a Program Manager for Young Women Empowered and a columnist for the Seattle Globalist.
Anastacia Renee is Seattle’s Civic Poet. She is a queer writer, performance artist and creative writing workshop facilitator.
Nacala Ayele is a joy coach for Black, Indigenous and People of Color. You can find out more at: https://www.joyfulpractices.info/ . She is also a massage therapist and has served as a teaching artist for Young Women Empowered sharing her talents as a culinary historian and a joy pracititioner. She has traveled to Ghana, Kenya, Guatemala, Jamaica, Trinidad, and The Bahamas to gather recipes, meet culinary historians, and gather stories of Black people of the African diaspora through food.
Jackie Amatucci is a retired high-school teacher, artist, who has worked as a Creative Consultant for over twenty-five years. She began working as an “art-barn facilitator” the year after Charlie Murphy and Peggy Taylor started the Power of Hope. She has facilitated and mentored other adults to hold space, create and imagine in setting up Art Space for youth in Young Women Empowered, and Partners for Youth Empowerment. Her artistic passions are ceramics, mixed media, artist-trading cards, watercolor, embroidery, basket-making, jewelry-making and sewing. Jackie sews and designs many of her own clothes and loves to share her skills in teaching others to discover their own creativity. “Everyone is creative”, is Jackie’s core belief.
This episode was recorded in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica with relocation specialist Davia Antonia. You can find her at https://lifeaholiccostarica.com/ .
Leilani is a shaman and leadership visionary, interpreting messages from the unseen to bring more joy, balance, and hope to our world. She is the author of “Paradox of the Water Bearer” and the host of The Intuitive Catalyst podcast. Leilani is a leadership expert and executive coach, supporting and guiding intuitive leaders in reconnecting with their spiritual truth in service of guiding their organizations to be more intuitive, imaginative, and heart-centered.
Sonora Jha is the author of the memoir How to Raise a Feminist Son(2021) and the novel Foreign(2013). After a career as a journalist covering crime, politics, and culture in India and Singapore, she moved to the United States to earn a Ph.D. in media and public affairs. Sonora’s OpEds, essays, and public appearances have featured in the New York Times, on BBC, and elsewhere. She is a professor of journalism and lives in Seattle. Her new novel, The Laughter, is forthcoming from Harper Via in early 2023.
Howie Echo-Hawk has a lot of names and does a lot of things. They are one of the human beings, as (hopefully) are you. Music, words, jokes, laughter, joy, dancing, being hot are among her many activities. Howie produces events and art with Indigenize Productions, makes music and art under the name “there’s more,” and has so many instagrams that at this point it’s become a little unwieldy. After years and years of being a cynic, they now believe firmly that there’s more to life, there’s more to us, there’s just more. But mostly, they want to go be trans and native in the woods.
Mari Shibuya (they/she) (Duwamish / Coast Salish territory) is a Visual and Social Artist specializing in murals, community visioning through the arts, and scribing. Their work focuses on the intersection of public art activation, visual thinking and creative empowerment while inviting in the spirit of collaboration and connection.
Shake a tambourine for Black Feminism! Sista Docta Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all sentient beings. Her work in this lifetime is to facilitate infinite, unstoppable ancestral love in practice. She leads retreats and has published several books. Find out more here: https://www.alexispauline.com/about
After a two year gap we are back. We've missed you. Check in on what Anastacia and Reagan have been up to during the pandemic and how we're framing our 4th and final season.
On Sept 6, 2020 The Deep End hosted it's Season 3 Finale livestreaming through Seattle Town Hall. The theme was Black healing and we interviewed Mary Williams, Victoria Santos, Rocky Lester, and Taqueet$.
Mary Williams is an anthropology student at the University of Washington who is studying coping strategies for viral Black death. She is the co-founder of Blackout Healing and co-organized the Blackout of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest on Juneteenth, re-center the protest on Black healing and Black lives from Black death.
Victoria Santos is the Co-director of Young Women Empowered. She is a healer and teacher of meditation and yoga. She has led many grief rituals and is constantly studying new modalities for self and community healing.
Rocky Lester is a gifted mystic and healer, a spiritual leader and founder of One Race One Humanity. His passion for enriching the lives of others and empowering individuals, families, and communities derives from a firm belief; that we are the ones they will call change makers.
Born and raised in Seattle, TAQUEET$! Is a movement artist with a style all her own. Her tagline “The Physical Representation Of Sound” .
On Sept 6, 2020 The Deep End hosted it's Season 3 Finale livestreaming through Seattle Town Hall. The theme was Black healing and we interviewed Mary Williams, Victoria Santos, Rocky Lester, and Taqueet$.
Mary Williams is an anthropology student at the University of Washington who is studying coping strategies for viral Black death. She is the co-founder of Blackout Healing and co-organized the Blackout of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest on Juneteenth, re-center the protest on Black healing and Black lives from Black death.
Victoria Santos is the Co-director of Young Women Empowered. She is a healer and teacher of meditation and yoga. She has led many grief rituals and is constantly studying new modalities for self and community healing.
Rocky Lester is a gifted mystic and healer, a spiritual leader and founder of One Race One Humanity. His passion for enriching the lives of others and empowering individuals, families, and communities derives from a firm belief; that we are the ones they will call change makers.
Born and raised in Seattle, TAQUEET$! Is a movement artist with a style all her own. Her tagline “The Physical Representation Of Sound” .
BJ STAR (they/them) is an experience designer, facilitator, and consultant invested in transformational learning, building powerful teams, and transitioning to a life-affirming society. BJ began as a trainer with Generation Waking Up and The Work That Reconnects, and has grown several organizations that strengthen Black, POC, womxn, and youth leadership throughout the country.
Today they are an independent facilitator at BJSTAR Consulting and a member of the Wildfire Project. BJ currently supports organizations such as Young Women’s Leadership, Healing Justice Podcast, Color of Change, 350.org, SustainUS, National Bail Out, OPAL Environmental Justice, and Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.
10 years of facilitation, 18 years of praxis, and 35 years inside a queer/trans black body have elicited keen sight, grounded presence, and a tendency toward blessed unrest.
Originally from Ecuador, Paulina has made Seattle her home over the past 15 years and has been with DRCC/TAG for eight years. Paulina has over 25 years of experience working with issues of civil rights, social justice, equity, education, and diversity. She has and continues to demonstrate commitment and engagement in the community through the advocacy of multiple important civic policies including access to a safe, clean environment for families in the area.
Paulina created and co-led our Duwamish Valley Youth Corps Program and worked as a Community Engagement Director, advocating for community members to participate in the complex cleanup process and to have a voice. She has served as an expert on the City of Seattle’s Equity and Environment Agenda, Port of Seattle’s Near Port EJ Project, Equity Cabinet of the King County Land Conservation, and on Public Health Seattle and King County’s Health Impact Assessment, among others. Paulina is passionate about community engagement and advocacy for human rights issues especially for underrepresented communities and the issues that affect them.
Susan Balbas is the co-founder and executive director of Na’ah Illahee Fund (Mother Earth in the Chinook language), a Seattle-based nonprofit organization with a mission to support and promote the leadership of Indigenous womxn in the ongoing regeneration of Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Science in Teaching. Her career has been within nonprofit and business management, and she has served on multiple boards and committees locally and nationally. Susan is active within climate, environmental and social justice movements as well as in philanthropy.
Brenetta Ward is a Seattle-based fiber artist and third generation quilter. Her work has been exhibited at the National Afro-American Museum; Textile Center: A National Center for Fiber Art; Ethnic Heritage Art Gallery; Tacoma Art Museum; Northwest African American Museum and Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. Selected pieces have been published in Spirits of the Cloth and included in public and private collections. As a fiber artist, she believes quilts have the power to nurture our spiritual needs for creativity, beauty and comfort.
Dre Say is really beyond their ancestor’s wildest dreams. They are a member of the CID [Chinatown/International District] Coalition and also a member of Got Green. Dre’s primary interests are engaging people disconnected from politics and organizing, and fighting against displacement in South Seattle.
Jacqueline Wu is a second-generation Chinese-Filipino American, who was born and raised in Los Angeles. She moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington for undergraduate where she majored in American Ethnic Studies and History (Honors). During undergraduate, Jacqueline interned with OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocate Greater Seattle Chapter (formerly known as Organization of Chinese Americans) and now serves as a board member. Jacqueline returned to UW and received a Master of Public of Administration. Jacqueline works for the City of Seattle and is a member of the Chinatown-International District.
Loretta J. Ross is a Visiting Professor of Practice in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University teaching "Reproductive Justice Theory and Practice" and "Race and Culture in the U.S." for the 2018-2019 academic year. Previously, she was a Visiting Professor at Hampshire College in Women's Studies for the 2017-2018 academic year teaching "White Supremacy in the Age of Trump." She was a co-founder and the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective from 2005-2012, a network founded in 1997 of women of color and allied organizations that organize women of color in the reproductive justice movement. She is one of the creators of the term "Reproductive Justice" coined by African American women in 1994 that has transformed reproductive politics in the U.S. She is a nationally-recognized trainer on using the transformative power of Reproductive Justice to build a Human Rights movement that includes everyone. Ms. Ross is an expert on women’s issues, hate groups, racism and intolerance, human rights, and violence against women. Her work focuses on the intersectionality of social justice issues and how this affects social change and service delivery in all movements. Ross has appeared on CNN, BET, "Lead Story," "Good Morning America," "The Donahue Show," "Democracy Now," "Oprah Winfrey Radio Network," and "The Charlie Rose Show. She is a member of the Women's Media Center's Progressive Women's Voices. More information is available on the Makers: Women Who Make America video at http://www.makers.com/loretta-ross. Ms. Ross was National Co-Director of the April 25, 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C., the largest protest march in U.S. history with more than one million participants. As part of a nearly five-decade history in social justice activism, between 1996-2004, she was the Founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE) in Atlanta, Georgia. Before that, she was the Program Research Director at the Center for Democratic Renewal/National Anti-Klan Network where she led projects researching hate groups, and working against all forms of bigotry with universities, schools, and community groups. She launched the Women of Color Program for the National Organization for Women (NOW) in the 1980s, and led delegations of women of color to many international conferences on women's issues and human rights. She was one of the first African American women to direct a rape crisis center in the 1970s, launching her career by pioneering work on violence against women. She is a co-author of Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice, written with Jael Silliman, Marlene Gerber Fried, and Elena Gutiérrez, and published by South End Press in 2004 (awarded the Myers Outstanding Book Award by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights), and author of “The Color of Choice” chapter in Incite! Women of Color Against Violence published in 2006. She has also written extensively on the history of African American women and reproductive justice activism. Among her latest books are Reproductive Justice: An Introduction co-authored with Rickie Solinger and published by the University of California Press in 2017. She was the lead editor of Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice and Critique, co-edited by Lynn Roberts, Erika Derkas, Whitney Peoples, and Pamela Bridgewater-Toure published by Feminist Press also in 2017. Her forthcoming book is entitled Calling In the Calling Out Culture to be published in 2019. Loretta is a rape survivor, was forced to raise a child born of incest, and she is also a survivor of sterilization abuse. She is a model of how to survive and thrive despite the traumas that disproportionately affect low-income women of color. She serves as a consultant for Smith College, collecting oral histories of feminists of color for the Sophia Smith Collection which also contains her personal archives (see https://www.smith.edu/library/libs/ssc/pwv/pwv-ross.html). She is a mother, grandmother and a great-grandmother. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College and holds an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law degree awarded in 2003 from Arcadia University and a second honorary doctorate degree awarded from Smith College in 2013. AWARDS (partial) American Humanist Association, Humanist Heroine Award, 1998 DePaul University Cultural Center Diversity Award, 2001 Georgia Committee on Family Violence, Gender Justice Award, 2002 SisterLove Women’s HIV/AIDS Resource Project Award, South Africa, 2002 National Center for Human Rights Education, First Mother of Human Rights Education Award, 2004 Feminist Women’s Health Center, Stand Up for Choice Award, 2005 NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia, Blazing Arrow Award, 2006 Federation of Haitian Women, Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami, Marie Claire Heureuse Leadership Award, 2007 Family Planning Associates, Champion of Reproductive Justice Award, 2007 United States Social Forum, Building Movements Award, 2007 Women’s Medical Fund of Philadelphia, Rosie Jimenez Award, 2007 Sisters of Color United for Education, Denver, CO, 2008 Women of Color Resource Center, Sister Fire Award, 2008 Black Women’s Health Imperative, Community Health Activist Award, 2008 Delta Sigma Theta, Pinnacle Leadership Award, 2008 International Black Women’s Congress, Oni Award, 2010 Women Helping Women, Revolutionary Award, 2011, Foundation for Black Women's Wellness Legacy Award 2015, National Women's Health Network Barbara Seaman Award for Activism in Women's Health 2015. Woodhull Sexual Freedom Network, Vicky Award 2017.
Carl Livingston is the lead professor in the Political Science Department at Seattle Central College (SCC). A graduate of Notre Dame Law School, he has been an adjunct Business Law professor at Seattle Pacific University’s School of Business and at South Seattle College. He was chair of the panel appointed by the Seattle City Council that reported on the inadequate preparations of the 1999 WTO Ministerial Conference in Seattle. Carl is the author of a scholarly article entitled “Affirmative Action on Trial: The Retraction of Affirmative Action and the Case for its Retention” published by the Howard Law Journal published, and spoke against the passage of I-200 throughout western Washington. He wrote Shoestrings & Bootstraps: A Development Plan for Black America and held development conferences even at SCC. He is working on the manuscript, Outing the Southern Strategy. He pastors Kingdom Christian Center. Carl has delivered the Martin Luther King keynote speeches for the cities of Moses Lake, Federal Way, and for the Seattle Colleges.
Maritess Zurbano is the only Filipino-American magician in history. She performs and lectures on magic around the world. Her prose has won awards and grants including a Hedgebrook Residency. Her performances, plays, and prose details how she became a Las Vegas magician in a male-dominated field. These works have been produced in NYC theater festivals and across the country. Her books are currently being shopped to publishers, and opinion pieces at Ms. Magazine and The Seattle Times. Her play, "Make Maritess Zurbano Disappear" runs March 8-10 in Seattle. She's also working on a YA novel and her second memoir
Patricia Valentine Jones was born and raised in Chowchilla, California. She moved to Sacramento in 1960, married and had two daughters. As a young person she sang in a 125 voice community choir. The Voices of Inspiration traveled to Seattle to sing at the worlds fair in 1962. Little did she know she would move to Seattle in 1982 to marry and live. She began her work career as a Cosmetologist in California and continued her profession in Seattle at a couple salons around town. Patricia worked as a house cleaner with “Extra Hands” to learn her way around Seattle. She then returned to Beauty college to become an Instructor of Cosmetology. Patricia taught at two private Beauty schools before being hired at Seattle Central Community College, where she retired from in 2010.
Since retirement she developed a Self Love Connection program, she is now a Grief Recovery Specialist, a Reiki Master and sings with “The Sound of the NorthWest”.
After being single for 29 years she is now happily married and does Airbnb two rooms in her home.
Natasha Ria El-Scari is a writer, Cave Canem fellow, and educator for over a decade. Her poetry, academic papers, and personal essays have been published in anthologies, literary, online journals and even as decor in a restaurant in London. She has opened for and introduced many great writers, singers and activists, and has been featured at a host of universities and venues nationwide. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Natasha has a BA from Jackson State University and a MA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Natasha’s Black Feminist approach is reflected in her writing, poetry and performance pieces. She is the author of Screaming Times (Spartan Press), The Only Other (Main Street Rag) and Mama Sutra: Love and Lovemaking Advice to My Son! She has 3 spoken word CDs, and one DVD. Natasha brings the fire! She is a mother of two awesome children And when she isn’t ghostwriting or managing social media for small businesses she owns and runs the El-Scari Harvey Art Gallery, Black Space Black Art and her Airbnb. Once asked in an interview what makes her unique she replied, “…most people lie to themselves, but I like to reveal myself.” For details and booking: www.natasharia.com
Lashanna (she/her) is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Washington’s own Northwest Academy for the Healing Arts. During a massage, her goal is always a flowing conversation between her hands and your tissue. "My touch is not a pointed deep touch, yet we access deep tissues without you leaving in pain. Causing pain is counter-intuitive to how I want to walk this life. "
Lashanna practices from an in home studio that creates an environment that bathes you with light energy. The grounds are lush with herb and vegetable gardens, chickens and love. Access to healthcare and deathcare are lens at which she engages in when caring for humans.
As Board President of A Sacred Passing, Lashanna joins in community collaboration, creating engaging and productive death and dying educational opportunities for community and professionals. While instructing massage students or doulas, she is able to impress the importance of trust and honoring autonomy.
There are times when just one healing practice or modality won’t achieve the balance and healing that some need. Omitosin, The Spiritual Curator, brings many gifts, spiritual tools and workshops to help her clients with their personal transformation…Her collection of healing tools is vast and she supports clients on their path with loving kindness and non judgement. Using intuitive Ifa readings, reiki, chakra balancing, ritual, coaching, as well as crystals, and other tools, Omi assists clients in getting an understanding of their own energy and healing.
Her intuitive and mediumship gifts help them “see the unseen”, as well as gain confidence and confirmation of their own gifts.
Omitosin is a graduate of the Innervisions Institute for Spiritual Development (IVISD), where she studied Spiritual Life Development and is also an initiated senior priest in the West African indigenous tradition of Ifa (Meaning the wisdom of nature). She practices and is in leadership through the Obafemi Institute for the Divine Study of Ifa (OIDSI), based in Houston Texas. She was initiated into the priesthood in Ode Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria in 2010.
Omi’s diverse background allows her to provide clients with a wealth of wide-ranging resources. Her compassionate, full-hearted love of people, love of self and love of LOVE creates an atmosphere in which her clients can truly flourish. Her down to earth, practical, solution-driven nature and deeply intuitive insights combine to support people in loving themselves, embracing their visions and bringing them to life! Ase!
writer and dj riz rollins (just 'riz' to his friends) has been a presence in the seattle music landscape where he hosts a variety and electronica show on 90.3 fm for almost thirty years. a stalwart in both the club and event scene, he has played alongside a diverse roster of artists that includes nirvana and james brown, die antwoord and funkadelic, amon tobin and osunlade. proficient with a plethora of styles that include disco, hip hop, house, world, r&b,ambient, jazz and gospel he regrets that he won't be slugging his vinyl on this trip, but maybe he'll invite you over for tea and rekkid playing hopefully soon.
Tommy “Teebs” Pico is author of the books IRL, Nature Poem, Junk, Feed, and myriad keen tweets including “sittin on the cock of the gay.” Originally from the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he now splits his time between Los Angeles and Brooklyn. He co-curates the reading series Poets with Attitude, co-hosts the podcasts Food 4 Thot and Scream, Queen! and is a contributing editor at Literary Hub.
Jessica Rycheal is a Multi-disciplinary Storyteller, Photographer, and Creative Director from Macon, Georgia. Her work embraces vulnerability as an act of resistance, as she weaves themes of healing, resilience, and self-preservation across a loom of visual arts and spoken word. She has been featured in the Northwest African American Museum, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, NPR, Seattle Times, and City Arts Magazine.
C. Davida Ingram is an award-winning artist and civic leader born in Chicago and based in Seattle, Washington. Her artwork, curatorial projects, and writing all discuss race and gender via lens-based media, social practice, performance art, lyrical essay and installation art. Ingram has exhibited at the Frye Art Museum, Northwest African American Museum, Bridge Productions, Intiman Theater, Town Hall in Seattle, Evergreen College and more. Her writing has appeared in Arcade, Ms. Magazine blog, The James Franco Review, and The Stranger.
AZURE SAVAGE is a black trans man in his senior year of high school. He wrote You Failed Us as a response to the racial injustice within the education system. After releasing the book, Savage has started to pursue speaking opportunities, workshops, and meeting directly with people working in Seattle Public Schools. He is working towards creating more understanding of the harm caused to students of color in order to inform actions taken by the district. Aside from book-related opportunities, Savage also has a strong voice at his high school around sexual assault education. All of his interests come from personal experience which creates an endless source of fuel.
Virgie Tovar is an author, activist and started the hashtag campaign #LoseHateNotWeight. In 2018 she was named one of the 50 most influential feminists by Bitch Magazine. She is the founder of Babecamp, a 4-week online course designed to help women who are ready to break up with diet culture. In 2012, Tovar edited the anthology Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion and in 2018 The Feminist Press published her manifesto, You Have the Right to Remain Fat, which was placed on the American Library Association's Amelia Bloomer List. Her new book, FLAWLESS: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color, comes out in Spring 2020 from New Harbinger. She holds a Master's degree in Sexuality Studies with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. She is a contributor for Forbes and was awarded the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism at Yale. Virgie has been featured by the New York Times, Tech Insider, BBC, MTV, Al Jazeera and NPR. She lives in San Francisco.
Born and raised in Queens, NY, Eric Darnell Pritchard is an award-winning writer, cultural critic, and an Associate Professor of English at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. A self-described "Black queer feminist alchemist," he writes and teaches about literacy and rhetoric and their intersections with fashion, beauty, popular culture, identity, and power. He is author of Fashioning Lives: Black Queers and the Politics of Literacy(Southern Illinois University Press, 2016), winner of three book awards, and editor of “Sartorial Politics, Intersectionality, and Queer Worldmaking,” a special issue of QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking(Michigan State University Press, 2017).His writings have been published in multiple venues including the International Journal of Fashion Studies, Harvard Educational Review, Visual Anthropology, Literacy in Composition Studies, Public Books, Ebony.com, ARTFORUM, and The Funambulist: Clothing Politics Issue 1 and Issue 2. Eric’s work and service within the communities he loves and is sustained by has also been honored. Most recently, he received the 2018 Esteem Award for National Service to the LGBTQ Community at the 11th Annual Esteem Awards in Chicago, Illinois.
David Luis Glisch-Sánchez is an award winning teacher and Assistant Professor of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Buffalo, in Buffalo, New York. His work as a scholar and teacher focuses broadly in the areas of the sociology of emotions, Latinx studies, women of color feminisms, queer of color critique, and public policy and the law. He is also founder of Soul Support Life Coaching, which is a coaching practice he created to help individuals, groups, and organizations live and operate more intentionally on the principles of Love, Courage, Equity, Fairness, and Balance. Lastly, he is a proud Latinx geek who stans Guinan from Star Trek: TNG, Miles Morales as Spider-Man, Storm from the X-men, and anything that deals with witches and the supernatural!
Kwame Morrow is a husband, father of three, son, and brother. He is an active member of his community, and an urn in which his ancestors reside. He describes himself primarily as a soul having a human experience. Kwame earned his BA in Business Administration Finance from The Evergreen State College with a focus on international trade. He graduated from Goddard college with his Master's of Education with an emphasis in early childhood and community leadership. Kwame is an administrator at his family's business, Kidus Montessori, which has been in existence for over 30 years. Kidus Montessori serves children ages 1 to 5 and their families.
This Episode was recorded live at Langston Hughes from We Out Here, a festival of black excellence curated by Michael B. Maine.
Nyema Clark is farm boss at Nurturing Roots on Beacon Ave & S Graham St. in Beacon Hill. A native to south Seattle, Nyema’s entrepreneurial chops shine in her efforts as a beginning urban farmer. Proprietor of Avenue South, a line of natural health and beauty products, Nyema is deeply dedicated to the wellness and healing of her community. Come say hey at a Thursday farm stand, be embraced by her radiating love, and get a tour of the farm — there are chickens!
Live from We Out Here Part 1, a festival of black excellence curated by Michael B. Maine. The Deep End interviewed Inye Wokoma.
Inye Wokoma’s family has lived in the Central District since the 1940s. As a journalist, filmmaker and visual artist, he explores themes of identity, community, history, land, politics and power through the lens of personal and visual narratives. His work is informed by a deep social practice that prioritizes the utility of his art to the collective welfare of his community. Three of his most recent projects, A Central Vision, An Elegant Utility, and This Is Who We Are, represent prismatic exploration of the history, current experience and future of Seattle’s African American Community. In addition to these projects Inye has been working in collaboration with Seattle Public Library and colleague Jill Friedberg to create a catalog of oral histories of Seattleites reflecting on community history and current changes.
Inye completed a degree in journalism and filmmaking from Clark Atlanta University before establishing Ijo Arts Media Group in Seattle. His work as a photojournalist has appeared in USA Today, ColorsNW, Washington Law and Politics, and Chicago Wilderness, among others. In 2004 and 2006 respectively, he received two awards for editorial photography from the Society of Professional Journalists Western Washington Chapter for coverage of the communities of color in the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. His collaboration with journalist Silja Talvi on Washington State’s three strikes law won a 2004 National Council on Crime and Delinquency PASS Award for criminal justice reportage. These journalism awards were earned while shooting for ColorsNW Magazine under the editorial guidance of Naomi Ishisaka. His film ‘Lost & (Puget) Sound, received a 2012 Telly Award and won best film for youth at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival. In 2017 he participated in the visual arts group show ‘Borderlands’ which went on to receive an Americans for the Arts 2018 Public Art Network Year in Review Award for its collective exploration of national identity, immigration, and belonging.
Inye continues to live serve his community from his home in Seattle’s Central District where he currently serves as board president for LANGSTON. He was a founding board member and former board president for Got Green and also served on the board of Nature Consortium.
Introductions by Michael B. Maine and Angie Bryant.
Esmy Jimenez. Born in Mexico but raised in rural Washington, Esmy Jimenez is a multimedia journalist and writer. After attending USC in Los Angeles, she moved to Seattle where she was a 2016 apprentice for The Seattle Globalist. Esmy’s work has appeared in High Country News, the Washington Post’s The Lily, National Native News, and NPR. She is additionally a Maynard Fellow and Next Gen Radio alum. When she’s not running around, you can usually find her talking about eating or eating while talking.
Join us for a conversation about motherhood with two amazing black doulas and activists literally bringing us life!
Rokea Jones is a Seattle Native and a mother to her brilliant two year old daughter. Rokea is currently a Community Based Outreach Doula serving the African-American community at Open Arms Perinatal Services. She is also a certified PALS doula serving the Seattle area. Rokea is a certified lactation educator and is a local leader in the current cohort of Health Connect One’s Birth equity leadership Academy. Rokea is a staunch advocate for reproductive justice and birth equity since 2006. Rokea started in the birth work field as a volunteer doula, it didn’t take long for her to see the gaps in care for families of color in comparison to other birthing families, her experiences have influenced her today. She strives to create more access to labor and parenting support for African- American families because she understands the unique barriers and cultural needs. As a commissioner for the Seattle Women’s commission, Rokea uses that platform to continue to advocate for policies that support the wellbeing of all mothers and their families. Rokea believes strongly that when you take care of a mother, you take care of the whole community.
Kristin Travis has been an advocate for vulnerable communities for the past decade and she has entered into birthwork in 2016. She is a Community-Based Outreach Doula serving the African-American Community at Open Arms Perinatal Services. She is the owner of BEarthmate Doula Services a full-spectrum birth services, placenta encapsulation and umbilical art business (www.BEarthmate.com). To date, she has supported 95 families during the birth of their newborn – it has been the passion and joy of her life! She is a Chicagoan, who enjoys hiking Washington’s beautiful old-growth forests with her six-year-old Min-Pin Chihuahua Moxxie.
Lama Rod Owens was officially recognized by the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism after receiving his teaching authorization from his root teacher the Venerable Lama Norlha Rinpoche when he completed the traditional 3-year silent retreat program at Kagyu Thubten Chöling Monastery (KTC) outside of New York City. It was during this time that he dealt with years of past pain and trauma and found forgiveness and compassion for himself, what he views as a critical step before truly being able to help others.
Since coming out of retreat he has completed his Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School. Lama Rod also practices, studies, and teaches secular mindfulness and is a teacher with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) where he is also a faculty member for the organization's teacher training program. He is also heavily engaged in social change activism and has just released a book with Rev. angel Kyodo williams and Jasmine Syedullah entitled, Radical Dharma, Talking Race, Love and Liberation.
K. Wyking Garrett is the President & CEO of Africatown Community Land Trust and chief strategist for the Africatown community development initiative in Seattle, WA. A third generation community builder and recognized change agent, Wyking designs programs and initiatives that catalyze, mobilize and activate communities for policy change and social impact.
He has been a co-catalyst for several Seattle based initiatives including precedent-setting real estate development projects Liberty Bank Building and Africatown Plaza, Umoja PEACE Center, Hack The CD, Black Dot business incubator and Africatown Center for Education Innovation. He was a founding director of the African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center in Seattle, WA and for fifteen years he served in various leadership capacities including chair and managing director of the Umoja Fest Africatown Heritage Festival & Parade, the Pacific Northwest's longest running Pan African festival.
Wyking has been the recipient of several awards including 2014 Center for Ethical Leadership Legacy Leadership Award and the Tabor 100 2016 Crystal Eagle Award. He is also an inaugural member of the City of Seattle Music Commission and Alumni Fellow with Green For All, a leading U.S. environmental advocacy organization.
Chef Tarik Abdullah is a chef, artist, innovator, and community activist. His culinary creations honor traditions using spices spanning from North Africa, South East Asia and the Mediterranean; and inspired by the tastes and flavors of his childhood. Growing up in a Muslim family and broader community where ethnic foods were the norm, his artistry comes through not only in his food, but in his everyday interactions with people - sharing his passion for cooking with the younger generation by teaching week-long summer camps called “In the Kitchen with Chef T”, or the current Project Midnight Mecca. Abdullah also appeared on ABC’s “The Taste,” a competitive cooking show on which he spent six episodes winning Anthony Bourdain’s favor, shortly after, “The MUNCHIES Guest to Washington State” on VICE, and more recently, a Visit Seattle and REVOLT TV co-production called Turning Tables, a new primetime series that connects music with food. Last year he also received the 2018 Mayor’s Arts Awards for building community through food.
Grammy-winning Seattle double bass player (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis), composer and vocalist, Evan Flory-Barnes, is a sorcerer. Able to concoct large, swelling scores with symphonies following his precise baton or manifest nuanced, delicately woven narratives on his solo upright bass, the Emerald City virtuoso offers elegant, honest, approachable and magical music. With deep influences in hip-hop’s boom-bap, classical music’s delicacies and rock ‘n’ roll’s power, Flory-Barnes is a fire, centralized and for any to be made warm. Known for his bass versatility, Flory-Barnes recently began stepping out center stage – singing “Move On Up” to an audience of thousands during this summer’s Timber Fest! and leading an orchestral performance of his Acknowledgement of a Celebration at Seattle’s Neptune Theatre. The composer also showcased his latest symphonic work, On Loving the Muse and Family, at Seattle’s On The Boards to four consecutive sold-out shows.
S H A R O N H. C H A N G is an award-winning Author Photographer Activist with a lens on racism, social justice and the Asian American diaspora. She is author of the critically acclaimed academic book Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children In a Post-Racial World and her newly released memoir, Hapa Tales and Other Lies: A Mixed Race Memoir About the Hawai’i I Never Knew. Her writing has also appeared in BuzzFeed, ThinkProgress, Racism Review, Hyphen Magazine, ParentMap Magazine, South Seattle Emerald, The Seattle Globalist, AAPI Voices and International Examiner. Sharon was named 2015 Social Justice Commentator of the Year by The Seattle Globalist and 2016 Favorite Local API Author / Writer by International Examiner readers. She is currently working her third book looking at Asian American women, gender, and race, to be co-authored with preeminent sociologist Joe R. Feagin.
Georgia Stewart McDade, a Louisiana native who has lived in Seattle more than half her life, loves reading and writing. As a youngster she wrote and produced plays for her siblings and neighbors and collaborated with church youth to write plays for special occasions. Earning a Bachelor of Arts from Southern University, Master of Arts from Atlanta University, and Ph. D. from University of Washington, the English major spent more than thirty years teaching at Tacoma Community College but also found time to teach at Seattle University, the University of Washington, Lakeside School, Renton Technical College, and Zion Preparatory Academy. As a charter member of the African-American Writers’ Alliance (AAWA), McDade began reading her stories in public in 1991. She credits AAWA with making her regularly write poetry. For a number of years she has written poems inspired by art at such sites as Gallery 110, Seattle Art Museum, and Columbia City Gallery. She wrote for Pacific Newspapers, especially the South District Journal. Convinced all of us can learn to write well, McDade conducts and participates in a variety of writing workshops. “Good writing can force us to think and think critically; we can theorize, organize, analyze, and synthesize better,” says she. A prolific writer, she has works in AAWA anthologies I Wonder as I Wander, Gifted Voices, Words? Words! Words, and Threads. Her works include Travel Tips for Dream Trips, questions and answers about her six-month, solo trip around the world; Outside the Cave, a collection of poetry; and numerous essays, stories, and poems. This year a second collection of poems and a collection of stories and essays will be published. She volunteers at community radio station KBCS (91.3 FM) and Boys and Girls Club. Among her several writing projects are the biography of her high school principal and journals kept during her travels.
Dr. Ersula J. Ore is the Lincoln Professor of Ethics in The School of Social Transformation and Assistant Professor of African & African American Studies, and Rhetoric at Arizona State University. Her work as a race critical rhetorician maps the suasive strategies of aggrieved communities as they operate within a post-emancipation historical context. In Lynching: Violence, Rhetoric & American Identity (University Press of Mississippi, 2019), Ore examines lynching as a rhetorical strategy and material practice interwoven with the formation of America’s national identity and with the nation’s need to continually renew that identity. Specifically, the book draws connections between the rhetorics and material practices of lynching in the past and the forms these rhetorics and practices assume in the present with the hope of helping readers understand, interpret, and even critique present-day situations involving racial violence.
Dr. Ore’s most recent publications broadly explore the correlations between race, power and academic space and give particular attention to the rhetorical strategies Black and non-Black rhetors of color use when navigating social space. Publications exploring these issues include “‘PushBack’: A Pedagogy of Care,” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture (2017), “Whiteness as Racialized Space: Obama and the Rhetorical Constraints of Phenotypical Blackness” in Kris Ratcliffe’s Rhetorics of Whiteness: Postracial Hauntings in Popular Culture, Social Media, and Education (2017), and “They Call Me ‘Dr. Ore’,” Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Society Special Issue: Race, Rhetoric and the State (2015).
Dr. Ore is a 2013 Institute for Humanities Research Fellow at Arizona State University and a 2011 Penn State Alumni Association Dissertation Award Recipient. Later this month she will receive ASU’s College of Global Health Graduate Mentorship Award from for her work and investment in graduate students.
Ebo Barton is a Black and Filipino, Transgender and Non-Binary, poet and educator. As a representative of Seattle, they've been on 4 National Slam Teams and participated at 3 Individual World Poetry Slams. Their most notable poetry slam accolade is placing 5th in the world in 2016. Ebo curated and directed, How to Love THIS Queer Body of Color: An Unapology and wrote and directed the award-winning play, Rising Up. You may have seen Ebo's work in Adrienne: A Poetry Journal by Sibling Rivalry Press, SlamFind, Write About Now, Button Poetry and All Def Poetry. They and their work have been featured in Seattle Weekly, Seattle Gay News, Seattle Review of Books, and Crosscut. Their work touches on political issues from a personal point of view and often is birthed from the struggles of living in the identities that they are. Ebo believes in the power of language and art as a tool for revolution.
Naa Akua, Citizen University, Poet-in-Residence, is a queer poet, emcee, and actor. They are, poetry teacher at The Northwest School and WITS writer-in-residence at Franklin High School. Intentionality, love, and encouragement is the focus of Akua’s work that can be found in tracks like “The Elements” or “Till It All Goes Away” from their mixtape Odd(s) Balance (on SoundCloud.com). Recently, Naa Akua was a cast member of Book-it Repertory Theater’s adaptation of T. Geronimo Johnson’s “Welcome to Braggsville”. Naa is currently a cast member for Theater Schmeater’s production of “Welcome to Arroyo’s” and in a original boilesque ballet called “Tailfeathers”. Naa Akua’s one person show, Akwaba ran at part of Gay City’s Mosaic program and Earth Pearl Collectives, Sovereign Queer Black Womyn Festival. When Akua is not writing and performing they are facilitating Sound Healing sessions which focus on breathing, being in the body and meditation.
Gerry Ebalaroza-Tunnell is the founder of Co3 Consulting: Co-Creating Cohesive Communities. She is a Doctoral candidate in the department of Transformative Studies and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies and identifies as a Pacific Islander born and raised on the island of O’ahu, Hawaii.
Gerry is a dynamic educator who co-mingles humor and philosophy, making her teachings easy to apply. She is a fantastic facilitator who demonstrates that the best gift we can give ourselves and others is the practice of resilience; our ability to promote positive emotional perceptions, manage our stress-induced reactions and adapt to the daily challenges that life often throws our way.
Amanda Johnston earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, and the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter (Argus House Press). Her poetry and interviews have appeared in numerous online and print publications, among them, Callaloo, Poetry, Kinfolks Quarterly, Puerto del Sol, Muzzle, Pluck!, No, Dear and the anthologies, Small Batch, Full, di-ver-city, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, and Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism. The recipient of multiple Artist Enrichment grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Christina Sergeyevna Award from the Austin International Poetry Festival, she is a member of the Affrilachian Poets and a Cave Canem graduate fellow. Johnston is a Stonecoast MFA faculty member, a cofounder of Black Poets Speak Out, and founding executive director of Torch Literary Arts. She serves on the Cave Canem Foundation board of directors and currently lives in Texas. Web: amandajohnston.com / Twitter: amejohnston / Instagram: poetamandajohnston
Michael B. Maine. Seattle-based photographer and creative director. He combines an understanding of business, art, and social systems to bring about awareness and action around issues such as homelessness, media literacy, and human trafficking. Committed to volunteer service in the community, Michael is currently the board president of both Reel Grrls, a youth media program that teaches young people how to express themselves through film and B.E.S.T (Business Ending Slavery and Trafficking), a collaborative non-profit that's working to reduce sex trafficking by establishing best practices, alliances, and policies with and through business.
Michael holds a BA in business from Southwestern University and an MBA in sustainable systems from Pinchot University. In terms of photography, he is working hard to bring to light people and groups that are underrepresented in the media. In projects such as Homogeneity is a Myth, Michael explores how we perceive things differently when a person's most defining physical features are covered. His professional work ranges from events to editorial to fashion-all through a lens of social equity.
The Deep End is committed to youth empowerment. Our interns have been with us from day 1, running tech, developing our social media, and lending their voices to our content. Special shout out to Emma Reid and Aisha Al Amin who have been the primary hosts of our youth segment The Caring Corner with features from Zaria Ali, Eyerusalem Mesele, Nasra Ali, and Layla Mohumad. Emma and Aisha have decided to transition into more behind the scenes roles, so in Season 2 we will be welcoming some new voices. Fresh on the mic are Zion Thomas and Ha'aheo Auwae-Dekker. Ha'a has been our sound engineer since the end of Season 1 and continues to do their job impeccably. Together they will be curating Young Table Talks. Enjoy.
Quenton Baker is a poet and educator from Seattle. His current focus is anti-blackness and the afterlife of slavery. His work has appeared in Jubilat, Vinyl, Apogee, Pinwheel, The James Franco Review, and Cura. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the recipient of the 2016 James W. Ray Venture Project award and the 2018 Arts Innovator Award from Artist Trust. He is the author of This Glittering Republic (Willow Books, 2016).
Nacala Ayele is the creator and owner of “FLY! Culinary Tours” where she has traveled to Ghana, Kenya, Guatemala, Jamaica, Trinidad, and The Bahamas to gather recipes, meet culinary historians, and gather stories of Black people of the African diaspora through food. She is enamored with the richness of Black foodways; from the creativity of African pre-colonial dishes enjoyed and dishes created in slavery, to the ingenuity used to craft meals using cultural food products brought from Europe. The history of Black folks can be found in the cultural, social, and economic practices relating to the production and consumption of food. She sees how the African diaspora combined indigenous foods from the lands where Africans departed and where they arrived while crossing and surviving the middle passage. Her work is a collection of these food ways woven into interactive experiences. She has catered Y-WE catering lunches to teach youth about history and food preparation; collaborated with Afrodisiac Erotic Poetry with the “Agabayun ( or miracle) Berry Experience;” helped test recipes for Festal 20th Anniversary Commemorative Cookbook; assisted with food-pop-up fundraisers for Music Never Sleeps
Maxine Mimms was born on March 4, 1928, in Newport News, Virginia, to Isabella DeBerry Buie and Benson Ebenezer Buie. Influenced by her grandparents' love for Marcus Garvey and educational lectures by Howard Thurman and other black leaders at nearby Hampton University, Mimms attended Booker T. Washington School and graduated from Huntington High School with highest honors in 1946. She earned her B.A. degree from Virginia Union University in 1950. In the early 1950s, Mimms served as a social worker in Detroit, Michigan. There, she was married and would eventually earn her Ph.D. in educational administration from Union Graduate School.
Accompanying her husband to Seattle, Washington, in 1953, Mimms taught at Leschi Elementary School, where Jimi Hendrix was a student. In 1961, Mimms taught in Washington’s Kirkland Public Schools until working for the Seattle Public School Administration in 1964. In 1969, Mimms served as the assistant to the director of the Women’s Bureau in the United States Department of Labor. In 1972, Mimms returned to the education field, working as a faculty member at Evergreen State College. At Evergreen State College, Mimms focused on developing an educational program that would serve place-bound working adult students. Her focus on serving the educational needs of urban, African American adult learners combined with an interest in teaching inner-city adults, led to the founding principles of the Tacoma Campus. Mimms eventually became the first Director of the Tacoma Campus, where she used her position to help satisfy the African American community’s demand for adult education programs.
In our season Finale, Dr. Mimms talks about her live, love, work, and perspective on freedom at the age of 89 years young.
Gabriel Teodros is a musician and writer from South Seattle who first made a mark with the group Abyssinian Creole, and reached an international audience with his critically-acclaimed solo debut Lovework. Over the ten years since he has set stages on fire all across the US, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Ethiopia and South Africa; often in combination with workshops on creative writing, music, history, science fiction and media literacy.
This mini-deep end was produced by our intern Aisha Al Amin. Aisha, Eyerusalem, and Damme took a field trip into the Black Imagination of Natasha Marin, Imani Sims, Rachel Ferguson, and Amber Flame. This experiential art exhibit debuted on January 27, 2018 in Core Gallery. https://www.seattleglobalist.com/2018/01/12/why-core-gallerys-black-imagination-is-so-necessary/71383
Jordan Chaney is a spoken word poet, author, public speaker, teacher, mentor, and all-around creative residing in Eastern Washington’s wine country.
Awarded the 2017 Commitment to Diversity award by AACCES, Jordan also guest speaks at colleges on race, politics, and social justice.
He is the author of WOLF seven poems – a book on race, politics, and social justice, Art of the Spoken Word – a workbook for enhancing communication skills, creativity, and confidence, Rocket Fuel for Dreamers, a poetry book about love and manifesting one’s dreams, and Double-Barreled Bible, a collection of urban poems that blend Eastern and Western philosophies. He has also written a children's book, M.C. Seuss: Once Upon a Rhyme.
He created Urban Poets Society, a youth-leadership program that promotes arts, literacy, and leadership in his community. He most recently started a series of events called Poet Jordan Presents. His guests so far have included Ijeoma Olu and T.J. Martin. He currently teaches a performance poetry and communications class at a local Juvenile Detention Center, where he helps youth find their voice through the power of poetry.
Join us for a chat with comedian Howie Echo-Hawk. Howie is an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation (Kitkehaki band), and a member of the Mentasta Athabaskan Upper Ahtna people. The youngest of 8 siblings (5 sisters and 2 brothers), he comes from the Echo-Hawk family on his dad's side, and the Kelly family on his mother's. He writes, talks, sings, laughs and confronts in various mediums, but mostly he just wants Native people to have their voices heard. Other interests include equity and true decolonization. We also have two special guests from the You Got This Podcast, Laila and Nasra.
Ijeoma Oluo is a Seattle-based writer, speaker, and Internet Yeller. She’s the author of the New York Times Best-Seller So You Want to Talk about Race, published in January by Seal Press. Named one of the The Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans in 2017, one of the Most Influential People in Seattle by Seattle Magazine, one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle by Seattle Met, and winner of the of the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award by the American Humanist Society, Oluo’s work focuses primarily on issues of race and identity, feminism, social and mental health, social justice, the arts, and personal essay. Her writing has been featured in The Washington Post, NBC News, Elle Magazine, TIME, The Stranger, and the Guardian, among other outlets.
Anastacia and Reagan unpack some of the magic from the Deep End, talk about their goals for 2018, take questions from listeners and as always ask the deep ish.
Joshunda is a Bronx native obsessed with moving stories about black women from the margins to the center of everything. She writes fiction, journalism, poetry and essays. She was the receipt of a 2017 Hedgebrook Writing Residency and selected as one of four Young Women Empowered Teaching Artists. She has presented and lectured on college campuses across the country including at Old Dominion, Princeton, Bard, Iona and Pittsburg State University. Her work has appeared in the DAME Magazine, Bellevue Literary Review, Buzzfeed, Salon, Publishers Weekly, The Week, Bitch Magazine, Gawker, Kirkus Reviews and many other outlets. Her books include: Single & Happy: The Party of Ones, How Racism and Sexism Killed Traditional Media: Why the Future of Journalism Depends on Women and People of Color, the novella All City, and The Beautiful Darkness: A Handbook for Orphans. She served as Principal Deputy Press Secretary at the Department of Energy during the Obama Administration. She currently works as Director of Communications in North America at Change.org. She lives in her hometown, New York City. She tweets at @JoshundaSanders & blogs at joshundasanders.com.
Eze-Basil is an accountant, a teacher, a public speaker, a public relations and community engagement specialist. He is a socio-economic and political rights crusader and a wealth creation and distribution strategist. He was a founding Administrator of PROUD TO BE ETCHE- a 10,000+ member community based organization redesigning social constructs and economic & political inclusivity in Nigeria.He is currently the elected Secretary General of Rivers State Foundation USA. He has worked with Governments, Corporations, Nonprofits and a host of community based organizations.
Nikkita is a Seattle-based writer, teaching artist, attorney, and organizer. Her writing has been published in the South Seattle Emerald, Crosscut, the Establishment, Last Real Indians, The Seattle Weekly, and the Stranger. Oliver holds a J.D. and Masters of Education from the University of Washington. She is also the case manager for Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration, and has worked for arts organizations such as Writers in the Schools and Arts Corp.
Nikkita is one of the Seattle Mets 2018 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle, and the recipient of the 2018 UW Women’s Center Woman of Courage Award, 2018 UW Evan’s School of Public Policy NOW (Network of Womxn) Award, 2017 City Arts Artists of the Year, Gender Justice Power Award (2017), Seattle King County NAACP President’s Leadership Award (2017), Columbia Legal Services Imagine Justice Visionary of the Year (2017), the University of Washington Women’s Law Caucus Outstanding Achievement as a Young Lawyer Award (2017), the Seattle Office of Civil Rights Artist Human Rights Leader Award (2015), and the 2014 Seattle Poetry Slam Grand Champion. She has opened for Cornel West and Chuck D of Public Enemy and performed on The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert. She is also the first political candidate of the Seattle Peoples Party; running for Mayor of Seattle in 2017 where she finished in 3rd (of 21 of candidates).
Dåkot-ta was born in Snohomish Territory and raised in Tscha-kole-chy (within a predominantly diasporic Chamorro community. Their lineage comes from Låguas yan Gåni [Law-gwas zan Gaw-knee) (the archipelago known as the Mariånas Islands, and specifically the largest island known as Guåhan - incorrectly pronounced as Guam by the Western world). Dåkot-ta grew up in the Seattle hip hop underground and social justice movement excercising a life long passion and skill for rap. Attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a First Wave Hip Hop Scholar, Dåkot-ta graduated with a degree in Gender and Women's Studies while a concentration in Chamoru Studies meant a year long study abroad at the University of Guåhan. Reconnecting to their ancestral community was a pivotal life change as was beginning participation with I Fanlalai'an Oral History Project, a traditional-styled Chant group specializing in Fino' Håya (a little spoken indigenous form of the language). This opened many pathways for creative potential as a Matao identifying indigenous person, realized in the creation of indigenous contemporary hip hop theatre shows, Buried Beneath: Bombs & Låtte and Guåhu Guåhan. Upon completing a Masters of Performance Studies at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and joining I Fanalalai'an's Core Research Group Dåkot-ta founded The Matao New Performance Project and premiered FANHASSO at the Festival of the Pacific Arts 2016. Dåkot-ta has also been the primary composer, graphic & web designer, video editor and technician for I Moving Lab - an international, indigenous, intercultural, & interdisciplinary arts collective. Last year, Dåkot-ta released their first full-length album, Nå'lå'la - meaning "give life" - a sonic artistic mission statement - to give life to ancestral knowing to give life to the world.
Dr. Deniece Dortch is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Higher Education Administration at George Washington University in Washington DC.Her research and teaching grapples with systemic oppression across multiple axes. She is especially interested in how psychological violence and fear is experienced, manifested and reproduced in the academy. Her most recent projects explore intra-racial relationships, racial agency and their effects on persistence in higher education.
Dr. Dortch was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Utah where she created the African American Doctoral Scholar’s Initiative, a comprehensive mentoring program focused on graduate student socialization into the academy.
Stacy Torres is a somatic healer, a health justice organizer and a facilitator. Stacy created her practice Everyday Medicine to offer culturally relevant healing in Queer,Trans, Disabled, People of Color communities(QTDPoC) in Seattle. Her practice centers developing a liberated legacy of changemakers, caregivers, activists/organizers, healers, artists, spiritual and thought leaders. She is a founding member of The Well on Beacon, a POC centered Health Justice Collaboration Project in Seattle, WA.
Jerrell G. Davis aka RELL BE FREE is a proud product of the South End who brings creative artistry and radical activism together thru music, education, and community. Rell is a founding member of Washington Building Leaders of Change (WA-BLOC), which serves out of Rainier Beach HS working with scholars, teachers, and administration in a number of transformative capacities; coordinates an innovative community and youth led crime reduction project with the Rainier Beach Action Coalition called the "Corner Greeters"; Rell is also one of the founding core members of the groundbreaking Seattle Peoples Party. On top of all that, he is also an MC and musician that has two new releases: The Super Predator EP and Power Inverse.
Born in Baltimore and raised in Southern California, Bettina Judd is an interdisciplinary writer, artist and performer. She is an alumna of Spelman College and the University of Maryland and is currently Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at the University of Washington. Most recently, her collection of poems titled Patient. won the Black Lawrence Press Hudson Book Prize and was published in November of 2014.
Our guest for the day is Afam Ayika. Afam is a father, martial artist, and the co-founder of Rainier Beach Restorative Justice Project and restorative justice coordinator. Deep End Interns Emma and Aisha pilot their new segment Caring Corner.
The Deep End goes to the Black Zone for a special live episode with Shontina Vernon. Shontina is an artist and social justice activist most noted for her genre bending storytelling and performance style. Working across forms, using live music, choreography, multimedia, and poetic narrative, she tells the stories of marginalized communities, unapologetically privileging the lens of people of color and women.
Amber Flame is a writer, composer and performer, whose work has garnered artistic merit residencies with Hedgebrook, The Watering Hole, Vermont Studio Center, and Yefe Nof. Flame’s original work has been published in diverse arenas, including Winter Tangerine, The Dialogist, Split This Rock, Black Heart Magazine, Sundress Publications, FreezeRay, Redivider Journal and more. A 2016 Pushcart Prize nominee, Jack Straw Writer and recipient of the CityArtist grant from Seattle's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Amber Flame's first full-length poetry collection, Ordinary Cruelty, was recently published through Write Bloody Press. Flame joins the Hugo House in Seattle as the 2017 poetry Writer-in-Residence, and is a queer Black single mama just one magic trick away from growing her unicorn horn.
Dani Tirrell is a dance artist, performer, choreographer and dance educator. Dani has danced with Jazz and Spirit Dance Theater of Detroit, Monroe Ballet Company, Full Circle Dance Company, Natural Locz Dance Company and Dani Tirrell Dance Theater which he founded and serves as Artistic Director. Dani also created Color Lines Dance Ensemble for youth dance artist ages 12 to 18.
Currently his work focuses on the queer, gender non-conforming and black experience. Dani also incorporates House, Vogue, Whacking and Contemporary movement in his artist practice and work. Dani teaches throughout the Seattle area with Northwest Tap Connection and Massive Monkees Studio: The Beacon.
Dani joins to Deep End to talk about Black Joy.
Jade Solomon Curtis, born in Texas, is a choreographer, dance artist and founder of Solo Magic, a non-profit arts initiative collaborating with innovative artists to create socially relevant multi-disciplined performances highlighting dance; “Activism is the Muse".
A celebrated soloist of Donald Byrd’s Spectrum Dance Theater for four seasons, Curtis is also the subject of an Emmy Award winning short film, Jade Solomon Curtis directed by, Ralph Bevins. 2017 began with Curtis being awarded SeattleDance’s first “Dance Crush Award” for Performance/Choreography in the riveting workshop of “Black Like Me”.
Curtis received her BFA in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University and is the recipient of fellowships and grants from the University of South Carolina, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Artist Trust and 4Culture. Curtis is currently the Director of the Arts Program for the Pan African Center for Empowerment (PACE) and is an artist-in-residence at Velocity Dance Center.
Join the Deep End for a magical mystery tour with Haji Basim. Haji is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who created a new genre of positive acoustic music titled Urban Folk. He is also the founder and guide instructor of Holistic Method Music.
Join the Deep End for an interview with musician and plant whisperer Cristina Orbe. Drawing from her experience stewarding FEEST from an idea into a nationally recognized food justice and youth leadership development organization, Cristina offers workshops and talks on a variety of topics including, Collaborating Across Difference, Power and Influence, Equitable Hiring Practices, Financial Healing, Feminine Leadership, Cultivating Imagination and Vision, Values Driven Leadership and more. In this episode she talks about her ancestry and the healing she has received from plants.
The Deep End is an exploration of liberation, healing, hope, joy, and wholeness. What does it mean to be free? What are people of color doing to heal themselves and the world? Join co-hosts Reagan Jackson and Anastacia Renee for a series of in-depth interviews. Hear from incredible people from all walks of life about their journeys, what they are doing to thrive and how they are contribution to broader movements of empowerment and liberation.
About Us:
Reagan Jackson is a writer, artist, international educator, prayer practitioner, and seeker of truth. She is a Program Manager for Young Women Empowered and a columnist for the Seattle Globalist.
Anastacia Renee is Seattle’s Civic Poet, a queer super shero writer, performance artist and creative writing workshop facilitator.