This week’s guest is another Glocal Citizens connection. In spring 2024, Amma Gyampo reached out to me me about connecting me with a like mind in education. That was the beginning of ongoing conversations with Laureen “Laury” Adams. With over 20 years of experience spanning both international and U.S. contexts as a classroom teacher, school leader, coach, designer, and professor, Dr. Laury possesses a unique skill set. This includes shaping innovative curricula, effectively supporting learning communities of all sizes, and coaching leaders to drive impactful change. Her design background informs her expertise in project-based learning approaches, performance assessment, and liberatory praxis. She collaborates with schools and education organizations to design critical, responsive, and loving curricula, assessments, and professional learning opportunities. Laureen is the founder and Executive Director of the Tutu Institute of Education for Liberation. As well as Senior Director of Professional Learning at ASCD Ghana.

Among her other roles on boards and consulting she is a Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor at Claremont Graduate University. She recently co-authored This Teachable Moment: Engaging Our Kids in the Joy of Learning to support parents and caregivers with providing project-based learning experiences at home. Download your free copy and #listenandlearn more about Laury’s work in session at SXSW EDU 2025.

Today, July 1st, Ghana marks its 65th Republic Day. Our conversation speaks to many of the themes we continue to work to realize as the country sheds its colonial character as a sovereign, free republic with Ghanaians leading and steering our social and economic destiny.

Where to find Laury?
https://www.liberatorylove.com/
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook

What’s Laury reading?
One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
Finding Your Leadership Soul by Carlos R. Moreno

What’s Laury watching?
Forever, a new series

Other topics of interest:
About Long Beach, California
NYC Teaching Fellows Program
Envsion Academy Charter School
Teach for America
Sponsors for Educational Opportunities
'Love” in Twi

Special Guest: Laureen Adams.

This week’s conversation comes in two parts. Like it’s geographical spread, northern hemisphere to southern hemisphere, think of this two part discussion as a way of engaging both hemispheres of your brain--the creative and the analytic. My guest is fellow Stanford alum and founder of The Jazz & Democracy Project® (J&D), Wesley “Dr. Wes” J. Watkins. After several years working in the education sector, Dr. Wes launched the program in November 2009 at Rosa Parks Elementary School, located in San Francisco's historic Fillmore District. J&D is a music integrated curriculum that utilizes jazz as a metaphor to bring democracy to life, enrich the study and teaching of history, government, civics and culture, and inspire youth to become active, positive contributors to their communities. He first proposed the curriculum as part of his undergraduate honors program at Stanford’s School of Education and later conducted research for his undergraduate honors thesis at Oxford University where he engaged and learned from music educators at both local elementary schools and world renowned secondary institutions. Now based in Sydney, Australia, J&D has traveled to countries all over the world and, in these times of global social transition, Dr. Wes anticipates continued opportunities to feature and further innovate using tools that will leave lasting impact on the ways that youth and educators approach building and living in their communities and beyond.

Where to find Wesley?
On LinkedIn
On Facebook
On Instagram
On YouTube

Who’s Wesley listening to?
Joseph Solomon

Other topics of interest:
Activist Oakland, CA
Northern Beaches, Sydney Lifestyle
United States Studies Center
Crikey! or Kriky!
Flat White vs Latte
Geechi Taylor
Find Rachelle Farrell, Meshell N’Degeocello, on J&D
Ledisi
Christian McBride
Betty Carter + Ray Charles
Episode 47 featuring Wynton Marsalis
Jazz for Young People @ Lincoln Center
Check out the Chris Botti SF Show
About Robert, Bobby and Madison McFerrin

Special Guest: Wesley J. Watkins.

This week’s conversation comes in two parts. Like it’s geographical spread, northern hemisphere to southern hemisphere, think of this two part discussion as a way of engaging both hemispheres of your brain--the creative and the analytic. My guest is fellow Stanford alum and founder of The Jazz & Democracy Project® (J&D), Wesley “Dr. Wes” J. Watkins. After several years working in the education sector, Dr. Wes launched the program in November 2009 at Rosa Parks Elementary School, located in San Francisco's historic Fillmore District. J&D is a music integrated curriculum that utilizes jazz as a metaphor to bring democracy to life, enrich the study and teaching of history, government, civics and culture, and inspire youth to become active, positive contributors to their communities. He first proposed the curriculum as part of his undergraduate honors program at Stanford’s School of Education and later conducted research for his undergraduate honors thesis at Oxford University where he engaged and learned from music educators at both local elementary schools and world renowned secondary institutions. Now based in Sydney, Australia, J&D has traveled to countries all over the world and, in these times of global social transition, Dr. Wes anticipates continued opportunities to feature and further innovate using tools that will leave lasting impact on the ways that youth and educators approach building and living in their communities and beyond.

Where to find Wesley?
On LinkedIn
On Facebook
On Instagram
On YouTube

Who’s Wesley listening to?
Joseph Solomon

Other topics of interest:
Activist Oakland, CA
Northern Beaches, Sydney Lifestyle
United States Studies Center
Crikey! or Kriky!
Flat White vs Latte
Geechi Taylor
Find Rachelle Farrell, Meshell N’Degeocello, on J&D
Ledisi
Christian McBride
Betty Carter + Ray Charles
Episode 47 featuring Wynton Marsalis
Jazz for Young People @ Lincoln Center
Check out the Chris Botti SF Show
About Robert, Bobby and Madison McFerrin

Special Guest: Wesley J. Watkins.

This week on the podcast I have the pleasure of hosting the gentleman who opened the invitation to what is now Glocal Citizens. As you listen to the episode, you’ll understand more about how my guest’s investment ethic and a particular investment in a start-up podcasting network four years ago are at the intersection of our collective coming to being on this page.

Born into multiracial family in Trinidad & Tobago, now based in Southern California, my guest is investor, influencer and friend, Garnet Heraman. With over 25 years experience at the intersection of innovation, diversity and technology, Garnet is a frequent speaker at events around the world; his portfolio has been featured in Time Magazine, BuzzFeed, Forbes, Bloomberg, HuffPost, Thrillist, WSJ, Institutional Investor, Inc., Entrepreneur, GMA, Travel+ Leisure + O, Oprah Magazine.

He is co-founder and managing partner of Aperture VC, the US’s largest fintech fund backed by multiple Fortune 500 companies. He is also co-founder of FUEL OZ.Capital, an opportunity zone sponsor of innovation hubs to drive inclusive development. Previously, he was co-founder of Aegis Investment Partners, a private equity boutique specializing in growth capital for corpvc backed companies.

He is an investor or board member at numerous ventures and is co-owner of the sustainable apparel brand, Karina Dresses.

Garnet’s non-profit work includes the Brookings Institute (advisor); the Columbia Venture Community; TiE New York, where he was a founding board member; The CORO Foundation, which named him to their prestigious Leadership New York Program in the 2000-1 cohort and; Rhizome.org, the world's first digital art space on the web.

Where to find Garnet?
ApertureVC.com
On LinkedIn

What’s Garnet reading?
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Other topics of interest:
About the Woolworth Building
About Aperture’s William Crowder
Carla Harris
Fred Wilson
Joanne Solomon Wilson
Union Square Ventures
Digitial NYC: Wired to the World Program
Philip McKenzie
Comcast Catalyst Fund

Special Guest: Garnet Heraman.

This week we’re visiting the US’s Golden State in a back-to-the-future kind of moment. A New York native, my guest, Kaigani Turner and I both honed our “tech cred” during our years on the Stanford University campus somehow laying the foundation, plotting, programming and piecing together a present in the media space. Now a digital media innovator with over 25 years of experience most of which was spent living and working in London, Kai has been active in the NFT space since 2017 and is a thought leader in defining #Media3 as the intersection between web3 and media and entertainment. He is an Executive Producer of I'm New Here – a documentary film chronicling over 90 key artists and personalities in the NFT space. While at Sony Pictures Entertainment, he filed three patents related to blockchain and NFT technologies, after which he worked in Emerging Experiences and Product Content Innovation at Netflix where his projects included Love, Death and Robots and Martin Scorsese's The Irishman as well as the new Netflix Games Platform initiative, all while maintaining a focus on how to discover and promote Franchise IP on the service.

In 2021 he left Netflix to join the Web3 space full-time and is an advisor to multiple web3 companies including Doodles, National Lampoon and NFT42 (Avastars, VeeFriends, Sotheby's). He created MeebitsDAO and helped to launch a number of successful NFT projects (like Savage Droids, Boss Beauties, Super Geisha, and Lobby3).

Also a generative artist with multiple art ‘drops' and collaborations on Art Blocks--his first Art Blocks collection went for auction at Sotheby's, Kai’s latest entrepreneurial endeavor is as founder at the artist incubator, mxtter.art. Mxtter (pronounced “matter”) helps accelerate the careers of artists around the world, showcasing up and coming artists from diverse communities and is host to collaborative, experimental and generative art collection.

Where to find Kai?
On LinkedIn
On Twitter
On Instagram
On Facebook

What’s Kai reading?
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

What’s Kai watching?
Babble Bop!

Other topics of interest:
Lake Arrowhead, California
Sapient today
About Moo
Words on Bespoke
Art Blocks
CryptoKitties Decoded

Special Guest: Kaigani Turner .

For this two-part conversation, I catch up with Oakland-based serial cultural entrepreneur, Isis Asare. Born in Harlem, New York to Ghanaian parents Isis, a fellow Stanford University alum, has called New York, Houston, Ghana (as a Peace Corps volunteer), Seattle, and now Oakland, California home at various times in her life. She once described herself as using her over-priced education, love of technology, and acumen for experimentation to hack Hollywood. And this is where her first entrepreneurial enterprise—Sistah Sinema emerged. With Sistah Sinema her goal was to be a part of a movement to create a global market for independent film fostering deep, engaging discussions about the difficult issues of gender, sexuality, race, and class. In 2015 she successfully exited by selling the platform to community investors.

With over a decade of finance and business development experience at Fortune 500 companies such as T-Mobile, Microsoft, Shutterfly, and Amazon, in 2019 she went on to launch Sistah Scifi, the first Black-owned bookstore focused on Afrofuturism, Indigenous Futurism, Science Fiction, and Fantasy in the United States. Between 2019 and 2020, Sistah Scifi sales increased tenfold through expanding physical book selection; launching private label shirts, sweatshirts, and bags; and offering audiobooks and ebooks. Sistah Scifi has been featured in The New York Times, Oprah  Magazine, BookRiot, Buzzfeed,  VentureBeat, and Facebook's Boost My Business. Sistah Scifi has also hosted author interviews with John Jennings, NK Jemisin, LL McKinney, Jewelle Gomez, and Nisi Shawl to name a few. Sistah Scifi has developed strong collaborations with major international publishers such as Hachette/Orbit, Akashic, Abrams, Macmillan/Tor.com, and Simon and Schuster.

Tune in to hear even more exciting now and nexts for Isis and the Sistah Scifi brand!

Where to find Isis?
www.sistahscifi.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On Twitter
On TikTok
On YouTube

What’s Isis reading?
Skin Folk: Stories by Nalo Hopkinson
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

What’s Isis watching?
Good Trouble
The Last of Us

What’s Isis listening to?
Therapy for Black Girls Podcast
Float by Janelle Monáe

Other topics of interest:
Keta, Ghana
Lovers and Friends Show
Ujamaa and the theme House \@ Stanford University
Bronze Restaurant - Washington, D.C.
African Folktales Reimagined
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and on Television
Logan’s Run
Octavia E. Butler
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
Beauty in Truth Documentary
Pariah Film
Uhura on Star Trek
Marcus Books, Oakland
American Writers Museum
Northwest African American Museum

Special Guest: Isis Asare.

For this two-part conversation, I catch up with Oakland-based serial cultural entrepreneur, Isis Asare. Born in Harlem, New York to Ghanaian parents Isis, a fellow Stanford University alum, has called New York, Houston, Ghana (as a Peace Corps volunteer), Seattle, and now Oakland, California home at various times in her life. She once described herself as using her over-priced education, love of technology, and acumen for experimentation to hack Hollywood. And this is where her first entrepreneurial enterprise—Sistah Sinema emerged. With Sistah Sinema her goal was to be a part of a movement to create a global market for independent film fostering deep, engaging discussions about the difficult issues of gender, sexuality, race, and class. In 2015 she successfully exited by selling the platform to community investors.

With over a decade of finance and business development experience at Fortune 500 companies such as T-Mobile, Microsoft, Shutterfly, and Amazon, in 2019 she went on to launch Sistah Scifi, the first Black-owned bookstore focused on Afrofuturism, Indigenous Futurism, Science Fiction, and Fantasy in the United States. Between 2019 and 2020, Sistah Scifi sales increased tenfold through expanding physical book selection; launching private label shirts, sweatshirts, and bags; and offering audiobooks and ebooks. Sistah Scifi has been featured in The New York Times, Oprah  Magazine, BookRiot, Buzzfeed,  VentureBeat, and Facebook's Boost My Business. Sistah Scifi has also hosted author interviews with John Jennings, NK Jemisin, LL McKinney, Jewelle Gomez, and Nisi Shawl to name a few. Sistah Scifi has developed strong collaborations with major international publishers such as Hachette/Orbit, Akashic, Abrams, Macmillan/Tor.com, and Simon and Schuster.

Tune in to hear even more exciting now and nexts for Isis and the Sistah Scifi brand!

Where to find Isis?
www.sistahscifi.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On Twitter
On TikTok
On YouTube

What’s Isis reading?
Skin Folk: Stories by Nalo Hopkinson
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

What’s Isis watching?
Good Trouble
The Last of Us

What’s Isis listening to?
Therapy for Black Girls Podcast
Float by Janelle Monáe

Other topics of interest:
Keta, Ghana
Lovers and Friends Show
Ujamaa and the theme House \@ Stanford University
Bronze Restaurant - Washington, D.C.
African Folktales Reimagined
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and on Television
Logan’s Run
Octavia E. Butler
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
Beauty in Truth Documentary
Pariah Film
Uhura on Star Trek
Marcus Books, Oakland
American Writers Museum
Northwest African American Museum

Special Guest: Isis Asare.

ICMYI it's Women’s History Month! As is our tradition here on the podcast, all month we’re featuring herstories of women moving and shaking around the world. This week, my guest is a Global Ghanaian based in Los Angeles, California. Alua Arthur is a death doula, recovering attorney, and the founder of Going with Grace, a death doula training and end-of-life planning organization that exists to support people as they answer the question, “What must I do to be at peace with myself so that I may live presently and die gracefully?” Going with Grace works to improve and redefine the end-of-life experience for people rooted in every community using the individual lived experience as the foundation. Alua was a keynote speaker at EndWell 2019 and featured in the LA Times, Vogue, Refinery29, The Doctors, and InStyle. She is inspired by the gift of LIFE itself and is always on the quest for the best donuts and fried plantains!

This conversation offers so much in terms of not only insight into the work that is Alua’s professional calling, but it is also an opportunity for listeners to consider what is often a difficult topic as a truly expansive experience.

Where to find Alua?
www.goingwithgrace.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On Twitter
On YouTube

What’s Alua reading?
Grit and Grace: Uncommon Wisdom for Inspiring Leaders Designed to Make You Think

What’s Alua watching?
Love after Lock-up
90 Day Fiancé

Other topics of interest:
Hilla Limann
Leimert Park
National End-of-Life Doula Alliance
The Art of Death Midwifery Training
Burkitt’s Lymphoma
Everyday People and DJ Moma
Limitless with Chris Hemsworth

Special Guest: Alua Arthur.

As February comes to a close, and with it the annual call to attention, remembrance, and action that is Black History Month in North America, I decided to curate a Black Progress episode drawing on the research of Dr. T.J Desch-Obi in the historical ethnography of pre-colonial Africa and the African Diaspora and Dr. Bhekinkosi Moyo in African Philanthropy, snapshots of pre- and post-colonial Senegal with Bara Diokhane, evolving systems and training leaders with Mustapha Njie and the lived experience of Elizabeth Rollins-Moskowitz, as a creative, as a woman, as Black American navigating career, marriage, and self-discovery in parallel with the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

Each week here on the podcast we’re doing our part to share stories of Black presence that are indeed manifesting a new world so I hope this compilation of Dynamic Diasporans making local and global impact will inspire you, your presence, your progress, and your passion.

Where to find this week's guests?
Dr. T.J Desch-Obi
Bara Diokhane
Dr. Bhekinkosi Moyo
Mustapha Njie
Elizabeth Rollins-Moskowitz

Cover art:
https://akoncity.com/

Special Guests: Bara Diokhané , Bhekinkosi Moyo, Elizabeth Rollins-Moskowitz, Mustapha Njie, and T.J. Desch-Obi.

Liz currently lives in Mill Valley, California where she continues to paint and is happily grandmothering, book clubbing, and meditating.

Where to find Liz?
On Facebook

What's Liz reading?
Under the River into the Sea by Walter Mosley
The Melody Lingers On by Mary Higgins Clark
The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jhumpa_Lahiri]

Other topics of interest:
About Liz's father, E. Simms Campbell
About Gordon Parks
The Learning Tree
Ebony Fashion Fair
Freda DeKnight's Date with a Dish
Harlem's Hotel Theresa
Cab Calloway
Duke Ellington
Count Basie
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
On Education Reform in School Books
Samuel P. Taylor Park
Kokrobitey Institute

*When you click and purchase books using the links above, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your support!

Special Guest: Elizabeth Rollins-Moskowitz.