This week, as the summer heat inches up across the northern hemishphere, we’re hosting our youngest guest yet on the podcast. Augusta Barlow is a 14-year old change agent. Born and raised in Maryland in the United States, with family roots in Cape Verde, she believes in assistance through advocacy and service through sharing. She recently completed her freshman year at Northwestern High School, a public comprehensive and magnet school in Hyattsville, Maryland known for its rigorous Center for the Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) program. This year, in addition to starting high school she took on another new challenge as one of 12 participants globally in The Kuda Vana Partnership International’s, Youth Advocacy Voice Amplifiers-YAVA group which kicked off it’s inaugural cohort in October of 2025. YAVA is KVPI's youth program, where students learn to advocate for the mission and amplify it responsibly online. This cohort is running a capstone project driven by a set of interviews plus a coordinated push to grow the organization's reach the right way. In a why the where teaser, when her mother, friend to the podcast and colleague of our guest in Episode 93, Sef Ashiagbor, suggested she join YAVA so she could use her new Instagram account to help people, she agreed wholeheartedly. When not in school or doing work for YAVA, Augusta enjoys theater, movies, cooking and baking.

Where to find YAVA?
@ KVPI
On Instagram
On TikTok
On YouTube
On GoFundMe

What’s Augusta reading?
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

…watching?
The Knives Out Trilogy

…listening to?
Lyn Lapid Music

Other topics of interest:
What is KVPI? Kuda Vana Partnership International is a US nonprofit supporting family-based care for vulnerable children in Zimbabwe, working to strengthen families and communities so fewer children become vulnerable in the first place. Full picture and the Theory of Change: kudavana.org.
Take a culinary tour of Cape Verdean Cuisine

As you'll hear in the beginning of the episode, with the recent devastating floods that happened across Accra on June 28th-29th, conversations like this with young people challenging themselves to action and understanding around issues outside of themselves and their comfort zones, give us hope that the future is in good hands. For information on how you can assist those in need here in Accra visit the following:

Joy FM
Direct Aid

Special Guest: Augusta Barlow.

I met this week’s guest Patricia Lokwa Servant last November in Accra at a Forge: Harnessing Creative Arts for Reparatory Justice. The convening turned out to be a mini Glocal Citizens summit for us Accra-based peeps lead by Makmid Kamara in his new role leading Reform Initiatives, with Esther Armah and Nyamal Tutdeal participating as facilitators and storytellers Emmanual Etim and Brigitte Perenyi also took part. The program was designed to strengthen the reparations movement by fostering solidarity among artists, cultural workers, civil society, and government leaders across the African diaspora and I can say that as a group we gained much and continue to make progress amongst ourselves. This is indeed indicative of this conversation with Patricia, a program strategist, storyteller, and cultural organizer born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is the Founder of http://CongoLove.org , Co-Founder of the Andrée Blouin Cultural Center in Kinshasa, and a Development Consultant with Friends of the Congo. Her work centers African knowledge, community resilience, and youth leadership across the continent and the global diaspora.

For more than a decade, she has designed and led multi-country initiatives strengthening institutions, expanding equity, and building pathways for collective empowerment. She has supported regional movements with Africans Rising, helped shape global narrative and education ecosystems with Farafina: The Black Link, and advanced gender-responsive learning programs with the African Women Development Fund.

Patricia currently serves as Fundraising and Partnerships Lead for SOS-Hermann Gmeiner International College in Ghana, where she strengthens donor systems and cultivates cross-border collaborations with aims of supporting young African students. She is also the former host of the radio show Congo Live, where she amplified stories of Congolese culture, history, and global engagement.

Patricia’s work bridges generations and geographies. She remains committed to building systems that honor African memory, uplift community wisdom, and support young people to lead with purpose and dignity. With Pan-Africanism at the heart of her life’s work, Patricia is making her mark as an architect of our collective #panafricanprogress mission!

Where to find Patricia?
CongoLove.org
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook

What’s Patricia listening to?
Lucky Dube

Other topics of interest:
About the Civil War in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1993
About Congolese Activist Kambale Musuvili
Maurice Carney, Executive Director of Friends of Congo in his own words
On (Pan)-African Feminism
Kongo: Power and Majesty at the MET and thoughts from curator, Alisa LaGamma
About Dossier No. 77
About Ernest Wamba dia Wamba
USA for Africa + Marcia Thomas
About Emira Woods
About Coumba Toure
About Hakima Abbas and the Black Feminist Fund
About Filmmaker Thalia Mavros

Special Guest: Patricia Lokwa Servant.

I met this week’s guest Patricia Lokwa Servant last November in Accra at a Forge: Harnessing Creative Arts for Reparatory Justice. The convening turned out to be a mini Glocal Citizens summit for us Accra-based peeps lead by Makmid Kamara in his new role leading Reform Initiatives, with Esther Armah and Nyamal Tutdeal participating as facilitators and storytellers Emmanual Etim and Brigitte Perenyi also took part. The program was designed to strengthen the reparations movement by fostering solidarity among artists, cultural workers, civil society, and government leaders across the African diaspora and I can say that as a group we gained much and continue to make progress amongst ourselves. This is indeed indicative of this conversation with Patricia, a program strategist, storyteller, and cultural organizer born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is the Founder of http://CongoLove.org , Co-Founder of the Andrée Blouin Cultural Center in Kinshasa, and a Development Consultant with Friends of the Congo. Her work centers African knowledge, community resilience, and youth leadership across the continent and the global diaspora.

For more than a decade, she has designed and led multi-country initiatives strengthening institutions, expanding equity, and building pathways for collective empowerment. She has supported regional movements with Africans Rising, helped shape global narrative and education ecosystems with Farafina: The Black Link, and advanced gender-responsive learning programs with the African Women Development Fund.

Patricia currently serves as Fundraising and Partnerships Lead for SOS-Hermann Gmeiner International College in Ghana, where she strengthens donor systems and cultivates cross-border collaborations with aims of supporting young African students. She is also the former host of the radio show Congo Live, where she amplified stories of Congolese culture, history, and global engagement.

Patricia’s work bridges generations and geographies. She remains committed to building systems that honor African memory, uplift community wisdom, and support young people to lead with purpose and dignity. With Pan-Africanism at the heart of her life’s work, Patricia is making her mark as an architect of our collective #panafricanprogress mission!

Where to find Patricia?
CongoLove.org
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook

What’s Patricia listening to?
Lucky Dube

Other topics of interest:
About the Civil War in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1993
About Congolese Activist Kambale Musuvili
Maurice Carney, Executive Director of Friends of Congo in his own words
On (Pan)-African Feminism
Kongo: Power and Majesty at the MET and thoughts from curator, Alisa LaGamma
About Dossier No. 77
About Ernest Wamba dia Wamba
USA for Africa + Marcia Thomas
About Emira Woods
About Coumba Toure
About Hakima Abbas and the Black Feminist Fund
About Filmmaker Thalia Mavros

Special Guest: Patricia Lokwa Servant.

Check out some of Shartriya’s works:
EnCouraged Women Leaders: A 30-Day Journal to Reclaim Your Peace and Life Purpose
Let's Go With Aya and Taj: Costa Rica

Where to find Shartriya?
[drtriya.com](About — Dr. Triya)
[DJ Lotuspetal on MixCloud](Live Free)
On LinkedIn
On [instagram](Instagram (@drtriya))
On Facebook

What’s Shartriya reading?
Purpose: Find Your Truth and Embrace Your Calling by Jessica Huie

Other topics of interest:
[Is it Nevada or Nevada?](Wait, Is It Nevada, or Nevada? (Published 2020))
NSC’s Sankofa Program
National Association for Bilingual Education
On Transcultural Multilingual Education
On nurturing emergent bilingual learners
Positive Intelligence, take the test
Association of Black Women in Higher Education
On Claudine Gay’s Resignation from Harvard University
What is an HSI?
What is a Microschool?
What is a DBA?
About Dr. Cynthia B. Dillard

Special Guest: Shartriya Collier.

It’s happy hearts day and this week's episode is especially close to my heart because we’re talking learning and language, culture and heritage in multigenerational diaspora communities across the globe. Dr. Taiye Ayoola-Adedeji, a Nigerian-American Pharmacist and recently the CEO of her publishing company, Taikun Publishing, is the author of the innovative, educational and interactive Yoruba-English bilingual book titled, The Yoruba Sound Book for Children, which was successfully launched in April 2022.

Currently based in Maryland, Dr. Taiye earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Maryland, School of Pharmacy, a top institution in the U.S. Although she migrated to the US at a relatively young age, she is fortunate to have spent her early formative years in Nigeria where she was truly able to gain appreciation for the Yoruba culture and language. As a mother wanting her own children to also value their cultural heritage, she is even more resolute about finding innovative ways to pass on the rich culture and instilling in them a sense of pride about their great ancestry, cultural heritage and identity.

Dr. Taiye is passionate about preserving and promoting the Yoruba language and culture, particularly in the diaspora where comprehensive resources to teach or learn the tonal Yoruba language are limited. We say cheers to continued success with works in Yoruba and other African languages!

Special thanks to GC 83, Ivonne Cameron for making the connection.

Where to find Taiye?
www.yortones.com
On Instagram
On Facebook
On Twitter
On Youtube

What's Taiye reading?
Principles and Power of Vision by Dr. Myles Monroe
History of the Yoruba People by S. Adebanji Akintoye
Yoruba Proverbs by Oyekan Owomoyela
I’m Judging You by Luvvie Ajayi
Will by Will Smith

Other Books On Bookshelf:
Just as I Am by Cicely Tyson
Finding Me by Viola Davis
Don’t Drop the Mic by TD Jakes

Other topics of interest:
About Prince George’s County, Maryland
Omoluwabi
About Oriki and more
King Sunny Adé

Special Guest: Taiye Ayoola-Adedeji.