Glocal Citizens - Episodes Tagged with “Lawyer”

Episode 292: Encore Episode | Soul Food and Black Smoke Storytelling with Adrian Miller

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week’s encore episode is a timely flashbackconnection with my guest, the Soul Food Scholar, Adrian Miller. Adrian and I went to primary and secondary school in the same school district—Denver Public Schools, and we also both attended Stanford University. I selected this episode to revisit this week because it represents two locals that have been integral to my global self. I’ve just arrived in Colorado from my undergraduate homecoming reunion weekend in California at Stanford University. What a time was had! And more on that later!

Adrian, known as the Soul Food Scholar, is an award-winning food writer, attorney, and certified barbecue judge. His latest book, Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History: Cooking to the President’s Taste, is the first-ever history of the many chefs of Asian heritage who have prepared meals for the president. Two of his books, his first in 2014 Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time and his 2022 Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue are the James Beard Foundation Award for Reference, History, and Scholarship winners. His second book, The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, From the Washingtons to the Obamas was a finalist for a 2018 NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction.” He is also featured in the Netflix hit docus-eries, High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America. In addition to his writing and speaking engagements, he is the executive director of the Colorado Councitl of Churches and, as such, is the first African American, and the first layperson, to hold that position.

Along with fascinating anecdotes about foods common on three sides of the Atlantic Ocean, you'll get a sense of how this lawyer by training found himself on a career path in service not only to his dreams, but to the uncovering, elevation and preservation of narratives about culture defining foods and food practices.

Where to find Adrian?
adrianemiller.com
EP135 on Glocal Citizens

Special Guest: Adrian Miller.

Episode 247: From the Clap to the Dance with Aduke Gomez

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

Next up in our Writing as Activism series, this week’s episode, recorded at the 2024 Pa Gya! festival (in case you are wondering, this is the session taking place during our interview, features Nigerian poet and children’s book author, Aduke Gomez. Aduke embraced writing in the past decade after a career in law and finance. She now utilises her legal and advisory skills to assist in business and creative development. Commencing her career in legal practice with the law firm of Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, she later worked for many years in various leadership roles within Ecobank Nigeria Ltd and Leadway Pensure PFA. She is regularly called to speak and moderate on topics related to her interest in history and culture and these have included sessions at Cornell University; The Institute of Africa and Diaspora Studies at the University of Lagos; the Lagos State Record and Archive Bureau; the annual conference of the Lagos Studies Association; the Ake Festival; and the Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF) amongst others.

Her published collection of poems have featured as festival books for both the LABAF and the Ake Festival. And her children's books have also featured at previous editions of LABAF and Akada Children's Book Festival.
She is currently the Chair of the Steering Committee of Art4Life - an initiative of the Lagos State Ministry of Health established to introduce art and the practice of art into the entire healthcare process. She is a member of the Advisory Board of Open House Lagos as well as the Advisory Board of Lagos Biennial. She volunteers on the Board of Child Life Line - an NGO established for the welfare of street children.

In this conversation we not only get to know how Aduke pivoted into arts and public service, we also get to know more about her local in the context of her paternal ancestor's return from Brazil to Lagos. This speaks volume to the idea of activism as a way of being.

Where to find Aduke?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
OnX

Who is on Aduke’s essential Pan-African reading list?
Mariama Bâ, in The Paris Review and more
Ama Atta Aidoo
Buchi Emecheta
Florence “Flora” Nwapa

Other topic of interest:
Return migration: Brazilians in Nigeria
The Nigerian Brazillian Project
About the Emanicapados of Brazil
Who are Tabom peoples?
Biola Alabi Media

Special Guest: Aduke Gomez.

Episode 135: Soul Food and Black Smoke Storytelling with Adrian Miller

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week's conversation is a great complement to a favorite summer past-time and what many consider delicacy--Barbecue. My guest is fellow Coloradan and Stanford Alum, Adrian Miller - The Soul Food Scholar. He is an award winning food writer, attorney, and certified barbecue judge. Two of his books, his first in 2014, Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time and most recent in 2022, Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue are the James Beard Foundation Award for Reference, History, and Scholarship winners. His second book, The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, From the Washingtons to the Obamas was a finalist for a 2018 NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction.” He is also featured in the Netflix hit docu-series, "High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America." He is currently the executive director of the Colorado Council of Churches and, as such, is the first African American, and the first layperson, to hold that position. As well, he is the co-project director and lead curator for the forthcoming “Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History” exhibit at the Museum of Boulder.

In addition to fascinating anecdotes about foods common on three sides of the Atlantic Ocean, you'll get a sense of how this lawyer by training found himself on a career path in service not only to his dreams, but to the uncovering, elevation and preservation of narratives about culture defining foods and food practices.

Where to find Adrian?
www.adrianemiller.com
On LinkedIn
On Twitter
On Instagram
On Facebook

What's Adrian watching?
Star Trek
Law and Order

Other topics of interest:
One America Initiative
John Egerton's Soul Food Cookbook
Southern Foodways Alliance
Red Drinks in Black Culture
Edna Lewis
Ultimate Braai Master
Kebab, Suya, Shawarma, Yakatori, Asada

Special Guest: Adrian Miller.

Episode 129: The Art of the Return with Bara Diokhané

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens! This week the podcast is coming to you from my recent trip to the Dakar Biennale where I met my guest, Bara Diokhané, thanks to Muhammida El Muhajir from EP27 (https://glocalcitizens.fireside.fm/27). Bara was born and raised in Dakar, Senegal. In 2018 he returned after an interesting career journey in New York. A lawyer by training, Bara Diokhané, started creating works of art at the start of the the 21st century, while living in Harlem, New York as an immigrant. In 2002 he was a participating artist to the MagnetDiaspora exhibit hosted during the 2002 Dakar Biennale by Yassine Arts Gallery. His first exhibition in New York City was hosted in 2003 by Steve Cannon's Tribes Gallery in Manhattan's Lower East Side. In 2004 he designed the backdrop for the scene of the Afropop music festival at Virginia University. In 2005 he was selected at the Diversity Project, curated by Danny Simmons and Rush Arts, which was an event showcasing the works of 200 New York artists in 16 different galleries. In 2006, I showed 10 paintings at the Dakar Off Biennale where most of the show was sold out. He has also showed at the State Black Archives Museum, in Huntsville, Alabama; Kiaca Gallery, in Columbus, Ohio; Columbia University; and the Schomburg Center for research in black culture. In 2007, he was selected for the Black Madonna Millenium exhibit hosted at the Museum for Contemporary African and Diaspora Art (MOCADA) in Brooklyn. That year, he also showed at Princeton University's Rockefeller Art Gallery. In 2010 Bara was invited to select one artwork from the collection of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and couple it with one of his own works to make a pair during the "African Rythms, American Echoes" exhibit.
Bara is presently writing a script about an African human experience of 50 years of arts, politics and academics.

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

What's Bara reading?
The African Origin of Civilization by Cheikh Anta Diop

Other topics of interest:
Mor Faye
KoToa Coffee in Dakar
Doudou N'Diaye Rose
On Senegal's BDS party
First World Festival of Negro Arts
Spike Lee's 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks

Special Guest: Bara Diokhané .

Episode 117: The Call of the Justice Warrior with Ayisha Osori

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week on the program, I had the opportunity to chat with Nigerian writer and activist, Ayisha Osori. Ayisha, also a lawyer, consultant and communication strategist has 18 years experience in the public and private sectors. Her clients include the World Bank, United Nations Development Fund, UNICEF, the Department for International Development, the Royal Institute of International Affairs and the National Democratic Institute, to name a few. She is the former CEO of the Nigerian Women Trust Fund and is currently a Director at the Open Society Foundations.

A published author with a series of children's textbooks on social studies used in primary schools and a children's reference book on Nigeria, her first book, Love Does Not Win Elections chronicles her experiences in the electoral process and Nigerian Politics as a whole.

She kept a weekly column for five years, first as the Pedestrian Lawyer in Thisday newspaper [https://www.thisdaylive.com] and most recently, as the Nigerian Citizen for The Leadership newspaper. A regular commentator on radio and television, she has been involved in numerous campaigns to improve social justice for women and girls, governance in Nigeria and is an experienced advocate on gender and social justice issues.

It was truly a pleasure to meet and find such accord with Ayisha. Many thanks to Episode 97 guest, Kehinde Togun for making the connection, contributing to our March Herstory mission.

Where to find Ayisha?
On LinkeIn
On Twitter
On Instagram
On YouTube

What's Ayisha reading?
The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton

What's Ayisha watching?
King Richard
The Tragedy of Macbeth
CODA
Modern Family
Frasier
Meet the Press

What's Ayisha Listening to?
BBC's Focus on Africa

Other topics of interest:
Africa Continental Free Trade Area
Rock the Vote
Eisenhower Fellowship
Map of Abuja
Oyo Empire

Special Guest: Ayisha Osori.