Express Session Featuring SuperB

Original Air Date:

On this week’s episode, I interview one of my favorite poets, the genius SuperB!

We really went deep on this one.  We even took a pause and just soaked in the beauty of where the interview went.  

SuperB’s talked about his origin story, creativity, connection, how he almost became a Catholic priest, and on pursuing one's dreams. 

I highly recommend you take listen!  Enjoy! 

SuperB will be the featured poet for this month’s Live and Online: Expression Session.  Taking place on Sunday, October 15th, the LO:ES is an online writing workshop that culminates a performance by our feature SuperB.

tomearl.me/sb

Listen to "Express Session Featuring SuperB" on Spreaker.

Drag THINGING!, Belonging, and Honoring Your Anger With CYRO

Original Air Date: November 9, 2020

Honor your anger. Honor your pain.

CYRO’s words resonated deeply with me – like a bell used to awaken your spirit.

This isn’t just an interview.

It’s an awakening. It’s a residence. It’s a healing.

I am so grateful that CYRO took the time to sit down and share their passionate and powerful wisdom with all of us.

Leah Kirby, also known as CYRO, creates theatre that incites change and incorporates non-western techniques in order to explore social, economic, and political issues through a non-traditional format. 

They are an activist, theatre maker, actor, writer, and drag thing named CYRO. 

CYRO is a Queer, Non-Binary, DRAG THING! 

They bring strength, beauty, and awareness to the stage with acts like 'Run Rabbit', exploring the struggles of gang induction and violence within black communities, and 'I am not your', a piece that delves into black masculinity within a non-binary body and shows the beauty it can exude by stripping back the facade. 

They use spoken word, movement, composition, Lip syncing, and storytelling within their work to incite change through artistic calls to action.

I am telling you: this interview is everything you have been looking for in a THE Celebration episode.

Do yourself a favor. 

Hit play.

You can learn more about Cyro through their website, or you can follow them on Instagram.

tomearl.me/cy

Listen to "Drag THINGING!, Belonging, and Honoring Your Anger With CYRO" on Spreaker.

Personal Growth, Comedy, and Religion with Ameerah Sanders

Original Air Date: May 4, 2019

We’re joined today by the talented Ameerah Sanders, who spoke with me about her own struggle with depression, self-acceptance, and her journey to becoming a professional comedian. 

I appreciate how Ameerah spoke openly and from the heart. While we did share a lot of laughs (especially since Ameerah is a hilarious comedian), we also took the conversation to some very deep and very real places. You’ll appreciate the insights and truths that Ameerah shares. 

Ameerah Sanders is a standup comic, writer, and filmmaker based in Kansas City, MO. Her comedy comes from her post-9/11 Black Muslim background and her current post-college life. She hopes to connect with other people of color and serve as an example that the life of a Black woman is not inherently political.

She's performed at the Hollywood and Kansas City Improv. She'll be at the Cream City comedy fest in Milwaukee, WI May 9-12th, and Art of Female Comedy Fest June 12th-13th.

tomearl.me/pgcr

Listen to "Personal Growth, Comedy, and Religion with Ameerah Sanders" on Spreaker.

Staying On The Path An Interview With Warrior Poets Jamie Dawson and Sam(ira) Obeid

For all of us striving to stay on the path - this one is for you. 

This week’s episode is truly special. 

I felt so honored and grateful just for getting the chance to be in the same room as these two warrior poets. 

My guests this week, Jamie Dawson and Sam(ira) Obeid, are two of the most creative and brilliant people I have had the privilege of knowing. 

We wove through many important and timely conversations all while striving to remain open, honest, and vulnerable. 

Accountability and introspection were two themes that tied together the thoughts expressed. 

Jamie and Sam both shared their deep insights on heavy conversations such as:

-How do we process the grief, the trauma, and the roller coaster that these past 12+ months have been? 

-What does true allyship look like? 

-What role do creativity, art, and poetry play in processing? 

-What lies at the intersection of art and activism? 

Jamie and Sam both provided true gifts on this one. 

Please do yourself the favor of listening in. 

For all of us striving to stay on the path - this one is for you. 

You rock. 

Jamie Dawson is a professional writer, performer, and black arts scholar whose talents range from spoken word, theatre, and commissioned works on the topics such as black life, multiculturalism, women’s rights, healing, and connection to each other through Earth.

You can follow Jamie on Instagram here

Sam Sam(ira) Obeid is an Indian. Scholar. Warrior. Poet. Queer. Sam has been placed 5th at the Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2015. Sam has been featured on Button Poetry and an international anthology, The World That Belongs to Us: An Anthology of Queer Poetry from South Asia by Harper Collins India. 

You can follow Sam on Instagram here

Listen to "Staying On The Path An Interview With Warrior Poets Jamie Dawson and Sam(ira) Obeid" on Spreaker.

If you'd like to learn more about T.H.E. Celebration Academy.  Here's 30 days of Free Membership.

Black Love & Plugging Into Your Spiritual Power Source With Wally B and C-Main Jennings

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how would you give voice to those words? 

This is the mission of Mouth of the Mural. 

Mouth of the Mural is an ekphrastic (i.e. visual art into words) event that unites visual, literary and performance artists with business owners in an effort to celebrate community, connection, and conversation. 

The initiative is founded by power couple Walter “Wally B.” Jennings and Charmaine "C-Maine" Jennings. 

During our interview, we explored how to cultivate a loving, supportive, and long-lasting relationship. 

There were so many special moments where Wally and C-Maine shared honest and vulnerable moments from their 20+ year marriage. 

Walter “Wally B.” Jennings is an ordained minister, published poet, spoken word artist, MC/Host, instructor and strawberry Fruit Roll-Up enthusiast!  A native of Tampa, FL, his poetical talents has allowed him to conduct over 1000 performances, workshops and mentorship sessions in the national spoken word community during his 20-year career.  

Charmaine "C-Maine" Jennings is a 20+year leader in education.  She is a writer, artist and champion for equity, culture, diversity and inclusion.  She has designed and facilitated professional development and workshops for private organizations and K-12 public schools across county and state lines.

At the core of this episode, we discuss the importance of finding the spiritual power source that will sustain you. 

I hope you will do yourself this favor, and dive into this week’s episode. 

Enjoy. 

You can learn more about Mouth of the Mural here and here.

Listen to "Black Love & Plugging Into Your Spiritual Power Source With Wally B and C-Main Jennings" on Spreaker.

If you'd like to learn more about T.H.E. Celebration Academy.  Here's 30 days of Free Membership.

Drag THINGING!, Belonging, and Honoring Your Anger With CYRO

Honor your anger. Honor your pain.

CYRO’s words resonated deeply with me – like a bell used to awaken your spirit.

This isn’t just an interview.

It’s an awakening. It’s a residence. It’s a healing.

I am so grateful that CYRO took the time to sit down and share their passionate and powerful wisdom with all of us.

Leah Kirby, also known as CYRO, creates theatre that incites change and incorporates non-western techniques in order to explore social, economic, and political issues through a non-traditional format. 

They are an activist, theatre maker, actor, writer and drag thing named CYRO. 

CYRO is a Queer, Non-Binary, DRAG THING! 

They bring strength, beauty and awareness to the stage with acts like 'Run Rabbit', exploring the struggles of gang induction and violence within black communities, and 'I am not your', a piece that delves into black masculinity within a non-binary body and shows the beauty it can exude by stripping back the facade. 

They use spoken word, movement, composition, Lip syncing and storytelling within their work to incite change through artistic calls to action.

I am telling you: this interview is everything you have been looking for in a THE Celebration episode.

Do yourself a favor. 

Hit play.

You can learn more about Cyro through their website, or you can follow them on Instagram @cyrodragthing

Listen to "Drag THINGING!, Belonging, and Honoring Your Anger With CYRO" on Spreaker.

If you'd like to learn more about T.H.E. Celebration Academy.  Here's 30 days of Free Membership.

Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride With Ramy El-Etreby

I am so excited to share this week’s episode with you! I had the honor of interviewing my good friend and phenomenal applied theater artist, educator storyteller, and writer, Ramy El-Etreby.

Ramy and I had a deep conversation on creativity, the power of storytelling, and the way narratives shape our perspectives. We also talked about Ramy’s solo play, THE RIDE, which is currently running at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

THE RIDE, which is written and performed by Ramy, is a tale about struggling to reconcile seemingly conflicting identities: Gay, Arab, and Muslim. After being outed publicly in the LA Times, Ramy’s world is turned upside down. THE RIDE takes Ramy down a dark hole where he loses touch with the most precious parts of himself.

Ramy’s writings have appeared online on PopSugar, Medium, The Huffington Post, Queerty, KCET, Love Inshallah, as well as in print in the anthology Salaam, Love: American Muslim Men on Love, Sex, and Intimacy and the forthcoming journal POC United: Graffiti to be published Fall 2019 by Aunt Lute Books.

To purchase tickets to Ramy’s THE RIDE, please visit https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/5760

You can learn more about Ramy El-Etreby by visiting his website or his Twitter/Instagram: @dramarams.

Listen to "Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride With Ramy El-Etreby" on Spreaker.

If you'd like to learn more about T.H.E. Celebration Academy.  Here's 30 days of Free Membership.

Politically Divided: Healing for Families, Friends, and Couples

This week, I talk to a guest from past times: writer Mitch del Monico! We talk about communicating, especially with people we disagree with. This is especially important in divisive times, in which disagreements can lead to relationship rupture. Mitch recently wrote a book addressing this phenomenon, called Politically Divided, which we also talk about.

You may recognize Mitch from a previous episode, when I interviewed him and co-creator Shaan Dasani about Agent of Change. He’s a writer who has also worked as a film and music video director and digital media assistant on a ship that sailed the Atlantic Ocean. His feature film, Alto, stars Annabella Sciorra, Natalie Knepp, and Diana DeGarmo.

Mitch has also written for HuffPo and has researched TV shows for the History Channel, Discovery, and the American Heroes Channel, among others, including nearly a hundred episodes of Modern Marvels. Mitch has spoken on panels at Comic-Con, Wonder-Con, the LA Film Festival, and CreatorUp! and has served as a juror for the Don Thompson LGBT Film Festival for the past three years in a row.

Listen to "Politically Divided: Healing for Families, Friends, and Couples" on Spreaker.

If you'd like to learn more about T.H.E. Celebration Academy.  Here's 30 days of Free Membership.

Personal Growth, Comedy, and Religion

We’re joined today by the talented Ameerah Sanders, who spoke with me about her own struggle with depression, self-acceptance, and her journey to becoming a professional comedian.

I appreciate how Ameerah spoke openly and from the heart. While we did share a lot of laughs (especially since Ameerah is a hilarious comedian), we also took the conversation to some very deep and very real places. You’ll appreciate the insights and truths that Ameerah shares.

Ameerah Sanders is a standup comic, writer, and filmmaker based in Kansas City, MO. Her comedy comes from her post-9/11 Black Muslim background and her current post-college life. She hopes to connect with other people of color and serve as an example that the life of a Black woman is not inherently political. She's performed at the Hollywood and Kansas City Improv. She'll be at the Cream City comedy fest in Milwaukee, WI May 9-12th and Art of Female Comedy Fest June 12th-13th.

Follow her on twitter @AmeerahSanders.

Listen to "Personal Growth, Comedy, and Religion" on Spreaker.

If you'd like to learn more about T.H.E. Celebration Academy.  Here's 30 days of Free Membership.

Poetry, Expression and Energy

This week’s episode is a special compilation of poetry from the past Live and Online: Expression Sessions. It brings together the free writes that participants created and shared during our time together.

If you are looking for your poetry and spoken word fix, this episode is for you.

The Live and Online: Expression Session is a monthly writing workshop that brings together writers, creatives, and poets from around the world. The experience culminates with a performance by a featured artist.

If you’re interested in connecting with a diverse community of writers, creatives, and poets, join us for our next session. Dates and details can be found at tomearl.com/events.

Listen to "Poetry, Expression and Energy" on Spreaker.

If you'd like to learn more about T.H.E. Celebration Academy.  Here's 30 days of Free Membership.