This week we continue to reflect on GlocalCitizens@5 and we’re flashing back to our Womens' Herstory series in March 202. Ghana-based, London-born international award-winning journalist, playwright, global public speaker and entrepreneur, Esther Armah – a self-described ‘global black chick’ – has lived, worked, loved, and created across three cities in three countries on three continents – London, New York, and Accra. She is the Executive Director of the Esther Armah Institute of Emotional Justice and she leads a global team in Ghana, Chicago and London. Her most applauded work, which she describes as “more of a purpose than a profession” is centred on the concept of EMOTIONAL JUSTICE.

Pubilshed in 2022, her groundbreaking book Emotional Justice: A Roadmap for Racial Healing argues that the crucial missing piece to racial healing and sustainable equity is emotional justice—a new racial healing language to help us do our emotional work. She continues to build on this apparatus with complementary storytelling expressed via her breadth of creative media expertise. As part of EAIEJ’s third annual September event HEALING HARM | HEEDING HISTORY, themed WELLNESS in the face of WARFARE she’ll be hosting a screening and dialogue for her short film '...goodbye to the EMOTIONAL MAMMY' later this week.
Saturday, 20th September @ 6pm
African Film Society
East Legon, ACCRA
Tickets are SOLD OUT but be sure to follow and sign up for a screening near you!

Where to find Esther?
www.theaiej.com
On LinkedIn
On Facebook
On Instagram
On YouTube

Other topics of interest:
Million Women March
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
Steve Beko
Oliver Tambo
Women in the ANC
Truth and Reconciliation Commission South Africa
New Heritage Theatre Group
Danceworks London
www.iamadinkra.com
ICYMI - Nana Amoako-Anin's episodes - Part 1 and Part 2

Special Guest: Esther Armah.

This week writing as activism is taking us to a land with a long history of activist thought ans action - Ireland. Born and raised in Nigeria, Dagogo Hart migrated to Ireland at an early age to complete his studies and now calls it home along with his young family. He is a poet, playwright, and spoken word artist whose words have wowed audiences from bar basements to electric picnic stages. He started performing in Dublin in 2016 in open mics and poetry slams, which saw him win the Slam Sunday grand slam and become an All Ireland poetry slam finalist. Since then he has performed for festivals like Electric Picnic, St. Patricks, Dublin Fringe, Drogheda literary festival, Cuirt International Poetry Festival, and First fortnight. He is one-third of the collective WeAreGriot - a poetry collective that curates art events around poetry. His personal works include, The Home Project (a series of poetry films), RedBeard Paddy (a poetry short film), Mmanwu (a play in the 2023 Dublin Fringe Festival), See True (a spoken word variety show) and Boy Child (a spoken-word play), the last two co-written with FeliSpeaks, Talkatives; a hip-hop and poetry slam as part of WeAreGriot. As you’ll learn in our conversation and glean from his works, his poetry is inspired by his hometown in Lagos, Nigeria, and his experience since moving to Ireland.
See Dagogo on stage at Pa Gya! 2024 performing his words here and in discussion about his works here.

Where else to find Dagogo?
WeAreGriot
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On X

What’s Dagogo watching?
Fences (film)
Shōgun (series)

What’s Dagogo listenining to?
Alice Smith sings “I Put a Spell on You”

Other topics of interest:
Surulere, Nigeria
Tralee, Ireland
Cork, Ireland
Visit Dublin, Ireland and the Clondalkin Tower
The Abbey Theatre and The Gate Theatre
Port Harcourt Tourist Beach
More on Chucky Ar la Inshallah
Where are the Irish language speaking towns in Ireland?

Special Guest: Dagogo Hart.

Esther, a Ghanaian Brit also has acclaimed experience as a multi media journalist, documentary maker and playwright with productions appearing on stages in New York, Chicago and Accra. She's a radio show host, a fellow podcaster as creator of 'THE SPIN', and has beed a television political commentator on MSNBC, CNN, GRITtv, BET and MSNBC. As a writer, her work has been published in The Guardian, West Africa magazine, Gawker, AlterNet.org, Salon.com, and The Huffington Post. Esther is truly a women on a change maker's mission addressing the systematic challenges that are pervasive throughout ALL cultures, and hers is a story you'll not want to miss.

She is currently living, working and playing mostly in Ghana; Esther still calls NYC and London "home" too.

Where to find Esther?
www.theaiej.com
On LinkedIn
On Twitter
On Facebook
On Instagram
On YouTube

Other topics of interest:
Million Women March
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
Steve Beko
Oliver Tambo
Women in the ANC
Truth and Reconciliation Commission South Africa
New Heritage Theatre Group
Danceworks London
www.iamadinkra.com

ICYMI - Nana Amoako-Anin's episodes - Part 1 and Part 2

Special Guest: Esther Armah.

Recently venturing into theater, Somi was named a 2019 Sundance Theater Fellow for her original musical, Dreaming Zenzile about the great South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba. The premiere production was shut down days before opening due to COVID-19.

Somi is a Soros Equality Fellow, a USA Doris Duke Fellow, a TED Senior Fellow, an inaugural Association of Performing Arts Presenters Fellow, a former Artist-in-Residence at Park Avenue Armory, UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Baryshnikov Arts Center. She is also the founder of Salon Africana, a boutique arts agency and record label that celebrates the very best of contemporary African artists working in the music and literary arts. Also celebrated for her activism, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon asked Somi to perform at the United Nations’ General Assembly in commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. She was also invited to perform at Carnegie Hall alongside Hugh Masekela, Dave Matthews, and Vusi Mahlesela in celebration of South African democracy.

Somi and her band continue to perform at international venues and stages around the world. In her heart of hearts, she is an East African Midwestern girl who loves family, poetry, and freedom.

Where to find Somi?
www.somimusic.com
On Facebook
On Instagram
On YouTube
On Twitter
Salon Africana

Who is Somi reading?
Edwidge Danticat
Chimamanda Adichie
Toni Morrison
Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T Kiyosaki

What’s Somi listening to?
Hervé Samb
Zoë Modiga
Nduduzo Makhathini
Julia Sarr

Other topics of interest-
• On Color Energy

Special Guest: Somi Kakoma.