Resilience, Energy, & Staying True to Yourself With Antoinette Chanel

This week, I am joined by Antoinette Chanel, a powerful storyteller, educator, and podcaster. With a unique background that includes over a decade of work in higher education, marketing, and public relations, Antoinette is can translate, map out, and put in motion tangible plans to help you and your organization reach its goals. 

She is the founder of the podcast, the Midday Reset (@themiddayreset), which she created to offer something uplifting and relatable to people with mental illness, specifically anxiety. She is also an educator and public speaker and is currently developing a workshop series to empower dark-skinned women and girls to redefine beauty for themselves.

On this episode, Antoinette shares where she found confidence in herself, and how they has led her to empowering other dark-skinned women and girls through her latest children’s book, A Book for Black Girls and her upcoming workshop series. We also discuss some tangible advice both inside and outside of the doctor’s office for people facing anxiety and depression. 

You can get in touch with her a on IG @msantoinettechanel or themdrpodcast@gmail.com, and purchase her book here.

Listen to "Resilience, Energy, & Staying True to Yourself With Antoinette Chanel" on Spreaker.

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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.

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Racism, Whiteness, and Evolving

Today, our guest is Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni, who works in film and entertainment as both a creative and a gamechanger in the world of representational diversity. We talk about whiteness and white supremacy, race and racism, forgiving ourselves and others, call-out culture, and the importance of emotional stamina.

This was a deep and vulnerable conversation where Fanshen and I dialogued and worked through important conversations. I really appreciate where we went with this interview

Fanshen is an award-winning playwright, actor, producer and educator, as well as Head of Strategic Outreach at Pearl Street Films. In this role, she advises Pearl Street’s owners, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, on taking specific steps towards inclusive representation in the entertainment industry. One of her first initiatives on the job was to co-author the Inclusion Rider, and she was recently named one of 12 ‘Hollywood Disruptors’ by The Wrap. She frequently performs her one-woman show, One Drop of Love, across the country.

She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cape Verde, West Africa, and has designed curricula for and taught English as a Second Language to students from all over the world.

Listen to "Racism, Whiteness, and Evolving" on Spreaker.

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

The Real Talk Project and Gender Justice With Amreen Karmali

Today, I talk to educator Amreen Karmali about the power of education and founding The Real Talk Project. Amreen and I mostly discuss gender justice, allyship, intersectionality, and approaching difficulty with creativity and love. We also ponder ideas of shame and guilt and how they play into both approaching patriarchy and patriarchy itself.

Amreen Karmali has been an educator and organizer for over 15 years. She spent 10 years as a middle school science teacher and holds a Masters in Science Education from CSULA. She has also facilitated a Young Empowered Women's class and a Student Organizing class, which melded her passions for all things justice-oriented with her love for teaching.  

This past year, Amreen left the traditional classroom to start The Real Talk Project, where she combines her understanding of contemporary schooling with critical lens to provide educators and community members with spaces where they can tackle ways in which patriarchy, white supremacy, and other forms of injustice manifest themselves in schools and relationships while working towards creating new ways of teaching and being together. She is also a founding member of The People’s Education Movement - Los Angeles, and is passionate about spreading health, healing, and joy to both her students and the community around her.

Learn more about the Real Talk Project by visiting its webpage.

Listen to "The Real Talk Project and Gender Justice With Amreen Karmali" on Spreaker.

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

Waiting on the Bus with Dennis Amadeus

Dennis Amadeus is a writer, educator, performance artist and community organizer. With his passion to teach and inspire young people, Dennis has travelled across the nation performing and conducting art-based workshops.

Led by his activism, Dennis has also organized community fundraisers and book drives to support many causes, including  sending 1000 Books to Swaziland, Africa to build a community library.

In this episode we talked about about feminism, activism and growth, and Dennis told the story of how he connected with his purpose and Faith. Dennis also performed two new poems and the title track from his new poetry album ‘Waiting on the Bus’ - which is out now.

Listen with faith and purpose to Dennis’ latest feature performance in THE Celebration.

You can also follow Dennis through his site, and  on Instagram and Facebook.

Listen to "Waiting on The Bus with Dennis Amadeus" on Spreaker.

Dennis Amadeus will be our feature on this week's edition of the Live and Online: Expression Session.  Register below! 

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