Glocal Citizens - Episodes Tagged with “Uk”

Episode 317: Impact-Driven Fintech Solutions with Jemima Lewis

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week’s conversation with Adedayo Jemima Lewis, Senior VP Commercial & Growth at Fincra, offers great insights into process and realities of realizing your passion in a new local. From applying and receiving a Global Talent Visa to sharpening her impact-driven career lens, Jemima is one to watch, particularly in the African Fintech space. As a commercial and growth leader with a foundation in marketing, brand, and communications, her expertise lies in a unique combination of strategic positioning and operational discipline, which she uses to successfully build and scale businesses.

Across the leadership roles she has held at Fincra, she has consistently focused on the intersection of commercial growth, brand, and communications, enhancing Fincra's go-to-market strategies, refining its value proposition, and ensuring scalable systems support business goals.

Today, in her commercial and growth leadership role, she combines that narrative craft with revenue-minded discipline, helping align teams, messaging, and market motion to support sustainable growth. She oversees the management of commercial revenue strategy, strategic partnerships, and market expansion, converting Fincra’s technical capabilities and vision into commercial success.

Her portfolio of experience includes work for organisations such as microfinance fintech Aella, Wild Fusion—Africa's leading integrated marketing communications agencies, The Republic Agency, Oando PLC, Lafarge Africa, UBA, Chivita 100%, and more, with responsibilities spanning digital strategy, content development, campaign execution, community management, growth and PR.

When she’s not wearing the commercial or growth hat, Jemima dedicates her time to podcasting.

Where to find Jemima?
@The Shrine Podcast
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Jemima reading?
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

What’s Jemima watching?
The Mentalist

Other topics of interest:
Ekiti State, Nigeria
City of Leeds, UK
Discover Halifax, UK
#EndSARS
About the UK’s Global Talent Visa Programme
What is an API?
Central Bank of Nigeria - CBN Special Guest: Jemima Lewis.

Episode 309: Creating Spaces for Black Women in Real Estate with Hanna Afolabi

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 05:00:00 -0500

Women’s Herstory Month Greetings Glocal Citizens!

If it’s March then it’s that time again for a month of conversations centering women’s stories and experiences. This week, we’re also kicking off the series with the launch of our Glocal Citizens x Black Women in Real Estate collaboration--Borderless Building. Founded in 2019, Black Women in Real Estate (BWRE) is an organization that aims to bring together black women in property, creating opportunities for upcoming talent and organizing workshops for those already in the industry. Througout the year, we’re teaming up with BWRE to showcase the personal and professional journeys of Black women in the real estate industry; highlight how Black women in the industry invest and structure value in/around land/property across global markets; and offer valuable insight into the business/operational functions in the real estate industry to inspire a spirit of land stewardship. All ideas you’ll hear in this week's conversation.

Kicking off the series is BWRE Founder, Hanna Afolabi. A few years after founding BWRE, Hanna found herself furthering her entrepreneurial journey with Mood and Space (MAS), a development company supporting clients in embedding social value in their development vision and strategy as well as efficiently managing processes delivering community focused building and urban neighborhoods.

Prior to setting up MAS, Hanna was a Development Director for Balfour Beatty Investments seconded into East Wick and Sweetwater Ltd a joint venture with Places for People. She lead on the feasibility, business planning, budget, design, programming and planning of the mixed-use regeneration project of approx. 1,900 homes on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Her other notable projects in London, include Hallsville Quarter in Canning Town and Borough Triangle in Elephant and Castle.

Additionally, she is Vice Chair of the University of Greenwich’s Construction, Property and Surveying Practices Industry Advisory Board and is on Estates Gazette's Diversity & Inclusion Content Advisory Panel, advocating for diverse representation in property.

Where to find Hanna?
Black Women in Real Estate (BWRE) and get your tix to their International Women’s Day Gala
@ Mood and Space
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Hanna watching?
All her Fault
Bridgerton on Netflix
His & Hers on Netflix

Other topics of interest:
Oke-Ila in Osun State, Nigeria
About Hackney
Estates Gazette Special Guest: Hanna Afolabi.

Episode 307: Around the Globe and Back Home Again with Nana Asomani-Poku

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

I met this week’s guest, Nana Asomani-Poku in Jamestown, Accra during a walking tour through featuring stories told in images by Glocal Citizen, James Barnor. It was during the James Barnor @‌95 celebration in 2024. Nana, a UK-born Ghanaian legal professional, filmmaker, and community engagement specialist based in Australia was back in Ghana for a family celebration of his own. As we chatted along the route, he mentioned his work centering social impact in Australia and my curiosity was peaked. What you’ll learn in this conversation spans how he began his career as a legal advocate for asylum seekers and refugees with the UK’s largest not-for-profit immigration law firm to community and stakeholder engagement, building bridges between public sector organisations and marginalised communities in Australia. Alongside his human rights work, he pursued his passion for filmmaking, training at the New York Film Academy and going on to make his first feature film, Drawn.

Let’s travel with Nana, to get to know more about his land down under and other stops across the globe.

Where to find Nana?
On IMDB
On Instagram

What’s Nana listening to?
Whitney Houston, Al Green, The Jacksons, to name a few.

Other topics of interest:
Visit Porkyto's in Osu, Accra
Correction about the Aquarius sun sign, an air sign not a water sign
About Leytonstone and The Bow Bells
Lifestyle in Perth vs Melbourne
Sokoto, Nigeria
Ombudsman Services in Australia
About the film, The Dish
Yoga Nidra + Sankalpa
How many countries are there across the planet? Special Guest: Nana Asomani-Poku.

Episode 306: Digital Asset Evolution in Africa with Mimi Kufuor

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

My guest this week is building the financial infrastructure that Africa deserves. As Chief Operating Officer of KoinKoin and CEO + Country Manager of KoinKoin Ghana Ltd, a leading African digital asset exchange, Mimi Kufuor is creating digital assets solutions that work for real people. She comes to this work after spending 15 years navigating the most complex corners of institutional finance - from regulatory programmes at Bank of America and Barclays to compliance frameworks at Meta, working alongside the European Central Bank and managing initiatives worth £10m+. In that span, she learned how money actually moves, how regulators operate, and how to build systems that can scale with integrity. She continues working with companies navigating African markets, building compliant exchange operations, or trying to understand how digital assets can solve actual problems.

Recognized as one of Africa’s “Top Fintech Voices,” she has shaped policy discourse at UK Parliamentary Summits, Financial Times Live events, and African Fintech Summits. Mimi champions financial inclusion, women’s leadership in fintech, and regulatory frameworks that position Africa as a pioneer in the global digital economy, building infrastructure that empowers individuals and businesses to access decentralized finance.

As another certified Glocal Citizen, Mimi and I first connected as housemates in Morocco courtesy of mutual friend that you’ll hear about in our conversation Afua Dabanka, the inspired experience curator behind A Beautiful Life Travel. Last year on our trip to Kenya, I got to know about her work with KoinKoin and it is a pleasure to be able to share her progress a year later. #Listenandlearn more!

Where to find Mimi?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Mimi reading?
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Other topics of interest:
About Old Street in London
About East Legon, Accra
Recognizing Bullying in the Workplace
About INSEAD Executive Programs
Kwaku Yaro at Gallery 1957
In conversation with Edward Larbi
What is Binance?
About the evolution of African currencies
Digital Assets 101
CitiFM Breakfast Show, 26 January 2026 Special Guest: Mimi Kufuor.

Episode 275: Telling Omitted Truths with Lavinya Stennett

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

We’re picking up more momentum toward African progress sharing the stories of dynamic diasporans making impact in the reparatory justice space. On the eve of Africa Day, I attended the premier screening of Omitted, a short film exploring reparatory justice and the legacies of colonialism by Lavinya Stennett, founder of The Black Curriculum. Raised in the UK with Jamaican roots, she founded The Black Curriculum in 2019 at age 22 shortly after finishing her studies at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) which included a study abroad program in New Zealand. Her learning and experience with indigenous communities in New Zealand joined with her activism as a student at SOAS are the framework for the craft of truthtelling that is at the core of The Black Curriculum.

Believing in the power of education, social impact and youth social entrepreneurship, her work has been recognised globally from Vogue and GQ to the historic Freedom of the City of London Award in 2024. She also has written on social and cultural themes throughout the African diaspora for outlets including the Guardian, Black Ballad, Quartz Africa.

Expanding her entrpreneurship journey, in 2024 Lavinya co-founded the Racial Impact Collective, an initiative supporting social entrepreneurs and seeking equity in the grant making world. The future is brighter with knowing that there is a generation fo social innovators with creative talents like Lavinya committed to justice for marginalized peoples.

Where to find Lavinya?
https://www.lavinyastennett.co.uk
TheBlackCurriculum.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On YouTube

What’s Lavinya reading?
Material World by Ed Conway
Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi

Other topics of interest:
Portland and Saint Thomas, Jamaica
Barbados and the Welcome Stamp Visa - Note: the capital is Bridgetown, not Christ Church
The SOAS Walter Rodney Prize
Dream New Scholarship
Univrsity of Waikato
About the Treaty of Waitangi and the latest on the [protest haka in the New Zealand’s Parliament seen around the globe](linkhttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/5/new-zealand-parliament-suspends-maori-mps-who-performed-protest-haka)
About Omitted production partner, Transmission
About Peace First Special Guest: Lavinya Stennett.

Episode 263: Diaspora-led Humanitarian Solutions with Elvina Quaison

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

Over the week/weekend just passed, the world recognized International Women’s Day as well as Ghana’s 68th Independence Day. Both happenings inspire thoughts, reflections, and movement in my heart and mind especially as I, we sit in constant review of the world we are making, remaking and re-imagining for our now. My conversation this week, in our continued March Herstories Month series is with British-Ghanaian, Elvina Quaison, is with a diasporan working intently with and within communities engaged in this re-imagining. She's now based back in the London after relocating to Brussels since our last conversation. In her time in the EU hub, she supported diaspora and government representatives as Diaspora Engagement Specialist for the EU Global Diaspora Facility (EUDiF), a pilot project funded by the European Commission and implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). Elvina recently took on the role of CEO with Shabaka, a values-driven consulting and research organization focused on diaspora and migrants' humanitarian preparedness, response and recovery. She has worked in the international development field, with a focus on African diaspora, for over 20 years; her experience spans diaspora engagement in humanitarianism, development, private and public sector as well as within civil society. She specializes in diaspora and private sector investment with a focus on the utilization of diaspora investment to enhance economic growth in countries of heritage and residence. Our conversation is a wonderful flash forward offering a hopeful persective on how #dynamicdiasporans are engaging with the concept and a #borderlessmindset, and #manifestinganewworld.

Where to find Elvina?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Elvina reading?
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Other topics of interest:
Notes on serving on boards
On Belgium’s Human Zoo
Brussel’s AfricaMuseum
On the brutality of Belgium’s King Leopold
On Onyekachi Wambu
A conversation with Sophia Stewart, creator of The Terminator and The Matrix
Shifters Play UK
About Supacell Special Guest: Elivina Quaison.

Episode 259: Creating New Paths to Plant Medicine with Akua Ofosuhene Part 2

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

It’s the eve of the Lunar New Year - the year of the Wood Snake, which in combination represent growth, flexibility, tolerance, wisdom, intuition, mystery, and cunningness with hints of furtiveness. These themes are a fitting context for this two-part conversation with Ghanaian-Brit, Akua Ofosuhene. Akua is an active and vocal plant medicine advocate and a psychedelic guide specializing in Psyliosibin (magic mushrooms) and Ayahuasca. Advising on intentions and integration she helps her clients get the most out of the psychedelic experience by teaching them other supporting healing modalities furthering healing and growth. She has spoken at the UK's largest psychedelic conference, Breaking Convention where she is also on the management board, Oxford University, UCL, Drug Science, Psychedelic Society UK, and at many other events and podcasts. As the founder of African Spiritual Practices Events and Retreats she will be facilitating her first Ayahuasca retreat in Ghana, with plants grown locally in Ghana, February 16-22, 2025. The podcast is no stranger to this sector, listen and learn more from mental health futurist, Sara Reed and stay tuned for an upcoming conversation with writer and professor, Dr. Nicholas Powers about his newest work, Black Psychedelic Revolution.

Where to find Akua and register for the upcoming retreat?
https://www.akuao.com/
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On TikTok
On X
On YouTube

What’s Akue reading?
Addiction Expert, Gabor Maté and his book Hold on to Your Kids
Diane Benscoter and Shoes of A Servant

What’s Akua watching?
The Real Housewives

Other topics of interest:
Who was Okomfa Anokye?
About Mampong
Gyetiase Village
Yaa Asantewaa War
A brief history of Denim Styles in the 1970s
About Camden Lock Market
About Carnaby Street
A Punk Perspective
Kirikou and the Sorceress Animated Film
Social-economic Impacts of Ebola in West Africa
EMDR - Rapid Eye Movement Therapy
EFT Tapping
African Perspectives on Igoba
Creator of eutaptics® FasterEFT™, Robert Gene Smith
Byron Katie and The Work
Ayahuasca Plant Science
The Ayahuasca Manifesto Special Guest: Akua Ofosuhene.

Episode 258: Creating New Paths to Plant Medicine with Akua Ofosuhene Part 1

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

Where to find Akua and register for the upcoming retreat?
https://www.akuao.com/
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On TikTok
On X
On YouTube

What’s Akue reading?
Addiction Expert, Gabor Maté and his book Hold on to Your Kids
Diane Benscoter and Shoes of A Servant

What’s Akua watching?
The Real Housewives

Episode 257: The Making of a LUXPreneur with Elizabeth Solaru

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

I had the pleasure of hosting this conversation late last year and it’s now right on time as my guest, Elizabeth Solaru and her team hosted their 2025 Diversity in Luxury Awards last week in London. Born and raised between the UK And Nigeria, Elizabeth is an author, international keynote speaker and award-winning entrepreneur. Formerly a scientist and headhunter, she honed her expertise in understanding luxury clients having successfully founded the world-renowned and multi-award-winning atelier Elizabeth’s Cake Emporium and the Luxury Business Emporium.
Author of the best-selling book, OPULENCIA, Elizabeth is the co-host of the Luxury Business Podcast and Luxury News Weekly Podcast, a humorous and informative news commentary podcast focusing on luxury news and the business of luxury. Creator of the first million-dollar cake NFT, she is considered to be a leading expert in the world of luxury selling.
As an international speaker, she has spoken in 30 cities around the world and her latest book, The LUXpreneur: How to start and build a successful luxury brand extends that global reach changing the narrative on how to build a luxury business by providing an in-depth analysis of luxury entrepreneurship and client psychology.

Where to find Elizabeth?
www.luxurybusinessemporium.com
On LinkedIn
On Facebook
On YouTube
On Instagram
On TikTok

What’s Elizabeth reading?
Clarity and books by James Clear

Other topics of interest:
About Pimlico, London
About Barnet, UK
Lady Elizabeth Anson
Bain’s Luxury in Transition Report
NFT 101
Chanakya School of Craft
Tea at The Dorchester
Tea at the Ritz
About Tea at sketch
Tea at the Shard
Tea at the Taj
Cedric Grolet at The Berkeley
Special Guest: Elizabeth Solaru.

Episode 256: Fact and Science Fiction in the Art of Acting with Agbeko “Bex” Mortty

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

After spending the new year chasing [Aurora Borealis aka the Northern Lights](linkhttps://www.space.com/15139-northern-lights-auroras-earth-facts-sdcmp.html) in the North of Ireland and communing with friends and family there and in the UK, I’m back in NYC grounding and self-caring for a bit. The not so great news is that I just missed seeing the Northern Lights live, but now I’m that much more prepared for the next time. The great news is that I was able to catch up with this week’s guest, Ghanaian actor, producer and casting director, Agbeko “Bex” Mortty before he heads to the Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival representing Ghana with The B.A.T.U. Project: ADAM THE FIRST, Ghana’s first feature length science fiction film. He has stared in films and series like the Tribeca Film Festival award winning film Children of the Mountain, Shampaign, Men Don’t Cry, The Cursed Ones, and the world No. 1 Netflix Original Sci-Fi TV series AWAY, staring Hilary Swank and Josh Charles. His production titles include Children of the Mountain, Amerikafuo and The B.A.T.U Project: ADAM THE FIRST. As casting director his projects include FREETOWN, PARADISE and Children of the Mountain.
In addition, he is also an IT consultant and an enstooled chief in Ghana’s Volta Region, which Bex tells us all about in this in depth tour of his experiences as a returnee.

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

What’s Bex reading?
Producing Independent Feature Films That Make Money by Rick Jenkins

Other topics of Interest?
About Tamale, the Dagomba People and Dagbani language
The Yaa Centre in London
About Gbledi, in Hohoe, Volta Region Ghana
Ghana Inaugurates, John Dramani Mahama as President
Africa Cinema Summit
About Filmmaker M. Sayibu
About Silver Star Tower, Accra and their Corporate Run Ghana Initiative
Where did my Aurora chasing take me in Ireland?
Special Guest: Agbeko “Bex” Mortty.

Episode 250: Why Joyful Matters with Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

We are nearing the end of our Writing As Activism series @ the 2024 Pa Gya! Literary Festival in Accra. This week, Ghanaian writer and editor winning acclaim as a children's author, poet, broadcaster and novelist, Nii Ayikwei Parkes joins the conversation. Winner of multiple international awards including the ACRAG (Arts Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana) award, his novel Tail of the Blue Bird won France's two major prizes for translated fiction – Prix Baudelaire and Prix Laure Bataillon – in 2014. Nii Ayikwei is the founder of flipped eye publishing, a leading small press; serves on the boards of World Literature Today and the AKO Caine Prize; and was chair of judges for the 2020 Commonwealth Prize. Translated in multiple languages, he has also written for National Geographic, Financial Times, the Guardian and Lonely Planet. His most recent books are The Ga Picture Alphabet and Azúcar, a novel. Currently Producer of Literature and Talks at Brighton Festival, he is also author of two collections of poetry The Makings of You (2010) and The Geez (2020), both published by Peepal Tree Press.

In this conversation, we journey with Nii Ayikwei through his works, his entreprenuership, his love for food and rum, and much more!
See Nii in converation at Pa Gya! here.

Where to find Nii Ayikwei?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On X
On YouTube
On Tik Tok
On BlueSky

What’s Nii Ayikwei listening to?
Gene Noble
Blues Man Robert Cray
The Roots
Cody Chesnutt + The Roots
and Headphone Masterpiece

Nii’s Pan-African Activism essential reading list:
Howard W. French, Born In Blackness
Mongo Beti’s, The Poor Christ of Bomba
Ama Atta Aidoo’s, No Sweetness Here
Franz Fanon, Black Skin, White Mask
You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town, Zoë Wicomb
Kofi Awoonor, This Earth My Brother

Other topics of interest:
Historic Jamestown, Accra
Oto Blohum, Old Accra
North Kaneshie
Thornton Heath, UK
About Courttia Newland
Learn more about Nii’s uncle Frank Kobina Parkes
Nkyinkyim in the Adinkra
On Ghana’s Chop Bars
About Spanish-Caribbean Rum
About Rhum Agricole
Special Guest: Nii Ayikwei Parkes.

Episode 214: Deep Dialogues and Enabling the Possibility of Change with Yaliwe Clarke

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week, we’re flashing back to my trip to Cape Town last November. I met my guest, Yaliwe Clarke through sister-to-sister connection, literally. Her sister and mine are friends and as we (my sister and I) were in SA together our meeting was inevitable. Yaliwe, who is of Zambian and British parentage found her way to South African nearly two decades ago from Zambia, where she spent most of her life. She is the immediate past Director of the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Prior to this, since 2000, she worked with civil society organizations and interacted with a wide range of social justice activists, peace-builders/conflict resolution practitioners, diplomats, and peace and security personnel in over 11 countries in Africa. She is a skilled conflict resolution practitioner, trainer, and facilitator who has experience in assisting nonprofit organisations, and government officials across the African continent, particularly during her time as a Senior Trainer at the Centre for Conflict Resolution, based in Cape Town. Alongside this work, Yaliwe has taught and written on African Feminism, peace, security, and development at the University of Cape Town since 2008. She has a Ph.D. in Social Development that investigated the micro-politics of women’s ‘peace activism’ in northern Uganda. She is also interested in post-conflict reconstruction processes; social change processes in times of crisis; and notions of respectable femininity, marriage, pleasure, and (hetero)sexuality in Africa. In entrepreneurship, she is co-founder of Maliya Tours & Transfers which focuses on travelers seeking out sites and histories in South Africa that are distinct from those in other countries and based on hers and her co-founder's experiences living in the Western Cape. If you’re ever in the Western Cape, definitely book your tours with Maliya. We did and they did not disappoint!

Where to find Yaliwe?
Maliya Transfers & Tours
On LinkedIn

What’s Yaliwe reading?
Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown

Other topics of interest:
Sara Longwe and her Women’s Empowerment Framework
About Roy Clarke
Nigeria’s Women’s War
On Uganda’s Long Civil War
Klein Goederust Winery
Pregs Govender’s Podcast - Love and Insubordination
Mont Rochelle
About Table Mountain
Xhosa Expressions
About the Lotus Sutra
About the Ōbaku School of Zen Buddhism Special Guest: Yaliwe Clarke.

Episode 211: Everyday Activism with Hakeem Oluseyi, Juleen Christopher, Kobby Graham, Samba Yonga, Eric Collins

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week on the podcast it’s flashback February. Inspired by last year’s Black History Month compilation episode, for this week, also dedicated to Black History Month, I’ve selected glocally speaking, mindset hacking and solution-scaping excerpts from conversations over the past year. Starting with the Science Mercenary, Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi on how reconceptualizing our ideas on time and how the evolutionary continuum of human intelligence need not be as complicated as we think. Cognitive-Behavioral Research Scientist, Dr. Juleen Christopher reinforces his thoughts by introducing us to her mindset hack, a technique called positive intelligence and how a commitment to telling ourselves and living a story contrary to those embedded in social injustice are at the bedrock of her activism. Cultural practitioner, Kobby Graham furthers the story as he elaborates on his mindset hack - collaboration and how its revival in the African psyche is critical to progress. Communication specialist and cultural curator, Samba Yonga then illustrates how our African histories reinforce this collaborative ethic and is using her museum as the narrative activism necessary to reinform a new now. Finally, glocally speaking, the Money Maker, Eric Collins, puts his money where his mouth is investing in the change that he and his partners at Impact X Capital intend to see in black communities across Europe.

The common thread in my selections is activism which is the why of Black History Month. Waking each morning in parts of the world rife with injustice is itself an act of courageous resistance. We must challenge ourselves to uplift untold stories and unheard voices, so that by valuing global Black histories, we can collectively build, simply put, a better today. That is the definition of Glocal Citizenship.

Visit the links above for full episodes and extended show notes.
Special Guests: Eric Collins, Hakeem Oluseyi , Juleen Christopher, Kobina Ankomah Graham, and Samba Yonga.

Episode 202: Creating New Ecologies of Knowledge with Nana Oforiatta Ayim

Florence Amerley Adu — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week’s guest is fast becoming a cultural icon across her chosen disciplines. Ghanaian by ancestry and born in German and spending a formative part of her life in England, Nana Oforiatta Ayim is a writer, filmmaker, and art historian. She is Founder of the ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge, through which she has pioneered a Pan-African Cultural Encyclopaedia, a Mobile Museums Project, and curated Ghana’s first pavilion at the Venice Biennale. She published her first novel The God Child in 2019, and in German in 2021. She has made award-winning films for museums such as Tate Modern, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The New Museum. She is the recipient of various awards and honours, having been named one of the Apollo ’40 under 40’; one of 50 African Trailblazers by The Africa Report; a Quartz Africa Innovator in 2017; one of 12 African women making history in 2016 and one of 100 women of 2020 by Okayafrica. In 2020, she was appointed to the Advisory Council of Oxford University’s Cultural Programme and was a Principal Investigator on the Action for Restitution to Africa programme. She received the Ghana Woman of the Year Award in 2021. And in 2022 she was awarded the world’s biggest history prize from the Dan David Foundation for outstanding early and mid-career scholars and practitioners in the historical disciplines. Over the years it has been a treat to watch Nana’s vision come into being and even better was the chance to sit with her in one of her places of peace in Osu, Accra.

Where to find Nana?
https://www.nanaoforiattaayim.com/
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On X

What’s Nana watching?
Past Lives

Other topics of interest:
About [Akyem, Ghana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akyem ]
Aburi, Ghana
About Piet Mondrian
Gus Casely-Hayford
John Picton
About the Liverpool Biennial
Ousmane Sembène
Mooji
The Renoir Cinema Special Guest: Nana Oforiatta Ayim.

Episode 199: Intelligence as a Way of Business with Suki Fuller Part 2

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

In some circles, my guest for this two-part episode could be thought of as a spy by a different name. With roots in Jamaica, and raised between the Middle East, Europe and the United States, Suki Fuller, an intelligence advisor, author, acclaimed international keynote speaker and Fellow of The Council of Competitive Intelligence Fellows is a women that is usually intent on not being watched. She is the Founder of Miribure, Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of DC Analytics and Storyteller for Group of Humans. She is a contributing author to A Practical Guide to Competitive Intelligence.

Suki is a fierce supporter of intelligence, ethical tech, #SafetyTech, Security, Privacy and Surveillance. Her eclectic 20-year career within strategic intelligence and technology has taken her from the US Department of Defense to teaching business students in China.

She currently resides in London, where she is an intrinsic part of the tech community as a Board Advisor for Tech London Advocates / Global Tech Advocates, which includes key positions as Co-Lead TLA Women in Tech, and Vice-Chair for GTA Black Women in Tech. Suki was recently named by the Most Influential Woman in UK Tech by Computer Weekly 2023. There’s so much more to this #dynamicdiasporan, I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Where to find Suki?
On LinkedIn
On X
On Instagram

What’s Suki reading?
Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life by Arnold Schwarzeneger
Cobalt Red: How the Boll of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara
The Mircostress Effect: How Little Things Pile Up and Create Big Problems--and What to Do About It by Rob Cross and Karen Dillon
Decentering Whiteness in the Workplace: A Guide for Equity and Inclusion by Janice Gassam Asare
Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup’s Quest to End Privacy as We Know It by Kashmir HIll

What’s Suki watching?
Beckham on Netflix
The Power on Amazon Prime

Other topics of interest:
Balham, London
Surrey, United Kingdom
Some Jamaican Patios to practice
About Rastafarianism
Pismo Beach, California
Royal Air Force Lakenheath, an American Air Force Base in the UK
Penn State’s Behrend College
About Chi Chi’s Restaurant
Mercyhurst University - Intelligence Studies
Agatha Christie’s Poirot
Twitter and SXSW
About Robert Baker
Innit?
IA Safety Bill
The Pod Generation Film
Special Guest: Suki Fuller.

Episode 198: Intelligence as a Way of Business with Suki Fuller Part 1

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

Where to find Suki?
On LinkedIn
On X
On Instagram

What’s Suki watching?
Beckham on Netflix
The Power on Amazon Prime

Episode 193: On Catalytic Capital with The Money Maker, Eric Collins

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

For this week’s episode I found myself in a hidden gem of a community in East London with a not so hidden gem in the European investment space, Eric Collins. Eric, born an raised in the southern United States, has called London home for the nearly 10 years. He is a serial entrepreneur, investor, technology executive and host of Channel 4 business show, The Money Maker, which is based on the highly successful US show The Profit on CNBC.

Eric has spent much of his career building the value of digital companies through innovative strategies at public and private companies including AOL, TimeWarner, Tegic/Nuance Communications, MobilePosse, SwiftKey/Microsoft and most recently, Touch Surgery, where he was COO. He sits on the boards of companies in San Francisco and London, including Tech Nation.

In 2011, President Obama, a fellow Harvard Law School classmate, appointed him to the Small Business Administration’s Council on Underserved Communities.

Eric is also a brand ambassador for luxury car manufacturer, Audi, and the youth charity The Prince’s Trust.

In 2018, The Financial Times named him among the UK’s top 100 BAME leaders in technology. Since 2019, he has been voted one of the most influential Black people in Britain on The Powerlist.

In his award-winning book, We Don’t Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change Our World (Penguin), Eric argues investing in Black and underrepresented entrepreneurs is the surest, fastest socio-economic game changer there is. And with his work as a Founder and CEO of Impact X Capital we believe him!

Where to find Eric?
www.impactxcapital.com
On LinkedIn
On X
On Instagram

What’s Eric reading?
J. Califoria Cooper

What’s Eric watching?
Purlie Victorious
The Lehman Trilogy

Other topics of interest:
Revisit fellow Glocal Citizen Natasha Moore
Greensboro, North Carolina
Tuskegee University
Bennett College
North Carolina A&T State University
On Charles Blow’s The Devil You Know
Roger Fisher’s Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving
On the Black Power Movement
About the inaugural SBA Council on Underserved Communities and Chair, Cathy Hughes
Audra McDonald & Brian Stokes Mitchell Perform 'Wheels of a Dream' From RAGTIME
First Black Mayor of Charlotte Harvey Gantt
Former Governor of Virgina Douglas Wilder
GiveBLACK
About Ric Lewis
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
About Marshmallow Special Guest: Eric Collins.

Episode 181: Pictures Worth Thousands of Words with James Barnor Part 3

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Summer Solstice Greetings Glocal Citizens!

I’m fresh off of a couple of weeks of ramping up the summer in Europe where the sun was truly a superstar right alongside my guest for the next few episodes. James Barnor is a Ghanaian photographer who has been based in London since the 1990s. His career spans six decades, and although for much of that period his work was not widely known, it has latterly been discovered by new audiences. In his street and studio photography, Barnor represents societies in transition in the 1950s and 1960s: Ghana moving toward independence, and London becoming a multicultural metropolis. He has said: "I was lucky to be alive when things were happening...when Ghana was going to be independent and Ghana became independent, and when I came to England the Beatles were around. Things were happening in the 60s, so I call myself Lucky Jim." He was Ghana's first full-time newspaper photographer in the 1950s, and he is credited with introducing color processing to Ghana in the 1970s. It has been said: "James Barnor is to Ghana and photojournalism what Ousmane Sembène was to Senegal and African cinema."

Barnor has spoken of how his work was rediscovered in 2007 during the "Ghana at 50" jubilee season by curator Nana Oforiatta-Ayim, who organized the first exhibition of his photographs at Black Cultural Archives (BCA). Appreciation of his work as a studio portraitist, photojournalist and Black lifestyle photographer has been further heightened since 2010 when a major solo retrospective exhibition of his photographs, Ever Young: James Barnor, was mounted at Rivington Place, London, followed by a series of exhibitions including in the United States and South Africa. His photographs were collated by the non-profit agency Autograph ABP during a four-year project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and in 2011 became part of the new Archive and Research Centre for Culturally Diverse Photography.

Barnor's photographs have also in recent years had showings in Ghana, South Africa, France - (Paris Photo 2011, Galerie Baudoin Lebon; Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière), The Netherlands, the UK and the US. The first monograph of his work, entitled James Barnor: Ever Young, was published in 2015, including an extensive conversation between Barnor and Margaret Busby with Francis Hodgson.

I’m honored to be able to share his story--the history, the craft, the artistry and the humor of Uncle Jim.

Where to find James?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
In the New York Times

What’s Uncle Jim watching?
America’s Got Talent
Britain’s Got Talent

Other topics of interest:
About Two Coronations
Accra earthquake 1939
A brief history of housing in Ghana
1942 Shipwreck
What is Akpeteshie?
On Kodak’s Baby Brownie Camera
Other Kodak cameras
Ghana’s Daily Graphic
Letterpress vs the Next-generation Press
Ghana's Prized Boxer Roy Ankrah
About British Accra and the Seaview Hotel
Krobo Edusei
World University Service - Canada
Drum Magazine
Achimota School
Medway College of Arts - Kent
Oko Kolamashie Special Guest: James Barnor.

Episode 180: Pictures Worth Thousands of Words with James Barnor Part 2

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Summer Solstice Greetings Glocal Citizens!

I’m honored to be able to share his story--the history, the craft, the artistry and the humor of Uncle Jim.

Where to find James?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
In the New York Times

What’s Uncle Jim watching?
America’s Got Talent
Britain’s Got Talent

Episode 179: Pictures Worth Thousands of Words with James Barnor Part 1

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Summer Solstice Greetings Glocal Citizens!

I’m honored to be able to share his story--the history, the craft, the artistry and the humor of Uncle Jim.

Where to find James?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
In the New York Times

What’s Uncle Jim watching?
America’s Got Talent
Britain’s Got Talent

Episode 176: The Generative Artist's Way with Kai Turner

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 30 May 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Greeting Glocal Citizens!

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 .

Episode 175: Innovation in Acculturation with Kobina Ankomah Graham Part 2

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 23 May 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

My guest this week is Ghanaian-Briton, DJ, lecturer, cultural writer and researcher Kobina “Kobby” Ankomah Graham. Raised between the alternate realities of Ghana and Britain, he is passionately curious about music, African culture, and counterculture. Through almost two decades of lecturing, researching, public speaking, developing creative projects, curating music and freelance writing, he has championed arts and culture.

He has explored this idea in settings ranging from classrooms to international conferences, and in numerous workshops, panels, podcasts, publications, and dance floors. Along the way, he has been profiled by platforms like the BBC, written for others like The Guardian, received a Miles Morland African Writers Scholarship and DANIDA funding for Ph.D. research on Ghana’s alternative music scene. In doing these things, he is creating pathways for young African creatives, cultural practitioners and journalists to follow. These sentiments come through poetically in this two-part conversation offering wonder-filled insight into a life lived in Accra in view of an evolving arts and culture scene impacting both the local and global creative landscapes.

Where to find Kobby?
kobbygraham.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Kobby reading?
A Quick Ting on Afrobeats by Christian Adofo
The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time by Arianna Huffington
Harmattan Rain

What’s Kobby watching?
The Power
Citadel
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
African Queens on Netflix
Cleopatra on Netflix

What’s Kobby listening to?
TedEd
Big Think
Soulection Radio
Oroko Radio

Other topics of interest:
Koforidua, Ghana
Mmofra Channel
JDilla
Kweku Ananse
Ovation Magazine
About Dust Magazine
PinkPanthress
Ashesi University
Webster University
JoyFM
What happened to Damilola Taylor?
About the murder of Stephen Lawrence
Buduburam Refugee Camp
Professor John Anarfi
University of Ghana’s Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER)
Kasapreko Company, Ltd Ghana
Some notes on Pidgin English
What is Detty December
Ebo Taylor
Asakaa Boys
Black Sherif
Amaarae
Efua Sutherland
Esi Sutherland-Abby
KiDi’s latest release, I lied
Worlasi
Gabriel Myers Hanson
Pigeons & Planes Special Guest: Kobina Ankomah Graham.

Episode 174: Innovation in Acculturation with Kobina Ankomah Graham Part 1

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 16 May 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

Where to find Kobby?
kobbygraham.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Kobby reading?
A Quick Ting on Afrobeats by Christian Adofo
The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time by Arianna Huffington
Harmattan Rain

What’s Kobby watching?
The Power
Citadel
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
African Queens on Netflix
Cleopatra on Netflix

What’s Kobby listening to?
TedEd
Big Think
Soulection Radio
Oroko Radio

Episode 171: Destination Africa with Abena and Ekow Richardson

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week on the podcast we’re back on the trailblazing path and once again, it is all about Destination Africa! Our guides are my guests, the Ghanaian-Briton duo Abena and Ekow Richardson, the co-founders of Destination Africa, which, through programs, workshops, dvds, channels, live streams and other merchandise offers a wealth of knowledge in African languages, culture, heritage and lifestyle. With backgrounds in software engineering, the hair and fashion industries, and professional basketball the Destination Africa journey began for Ekow once he became a father with the decision to apply his passions to inspiring and empowering the next generation of young leaders. As a homeschooling mum, Abena is also the main facilitator for Destination Africa. She uses her energetic, coordinated, innovative, loving, exciting, and disciplined teaching style to deliver results while her partner uses his IT skills as the technological mind behind all things Destination Africa. Together this family affair is one to watch as a primer on planning a relocating a family and a business in uncertain times.

Where to find the Richardsons?
www.destinationafrica.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On Twitter
On Youtube
On Whatsapp

Other topics of interest:
Exotic Park, West Legon
Winneba, Ghana
San kofa a yenkyiri
About Fante people in Ghana
A survey of Ghana’s Parliament
About civics education in Africa
Kumapim Royals International Band’s Time Changes Special Guests: Abena Richardson and Ekow Richardson.

Episode 167: Herstories 2023: What is your Craft?

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week on the podcast, rather than one last guest rounding out our March 2023 herstories series, I went into our archives with a specific goal of putting together a salon of sorts about craft. I think of craft as how vocation, location, persistence and passion fulfill us. According to Merriam-Webster, it is skill in planning, making, or executing.

I always ask this question because I feel it allows my guest to share more than what they do on a day-to-day basis for economic returns i.e. work, and gets closer to the heart of who they are and how they go about manifesting a new world. So, this week we’re re-visiting with:

Jamaican-American, Nydia Swaby a Black feminist researcher, writer, and curator based in London about Archives, Art and Freedom Dreams;
Filipino-Jamaican-American, Zee Clarke an author, mindfulness practitioner and racial healing professional about Healing in Breathing;
Ghanaian-Afro-German, Ekua Yankah a thought leader in international development on being a Polyglot, Professor, Policy Advisor and Art Patron;
Ghanaian-Brit, Esther Armah an author, journalist and entrepreneur on storytelling for structural change;
Nigerian, Sarah Adeyinka a humanitarian researcher and author on Humanitarian CoCreating; and
and Detroit Native, Dereca Blackmon an inclusion innovator, speaker and spiritual activist about Uncommon Conversations.

Be sure to check out full episodes using the links above, there’s a wealth of valuable, craft-inspired insights from each of these audacious women! Special Guests: Dereca Blackmon, Ekua Yankah, Esther Armah, Nydia Swaby, Sarah Adeyinka, and Zhalisa "Zee" Clarke.

Episode 160: Black Mixcellence Part 2 with Colin Asare-Appiah

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week we have Part 2 of the Black Mixcellence duet. Ghanaian-Brit Colin Asare-Appiah joins me to talk the history of the term “mixology,” his journey from bar hand to head of Trade Director of Multi-Cultural and LGBTQ+ Advocacy at one of the world’s leading spirit bands--Bacardi, and the importance of getting involved. Colin has worked with numerous spirit brands, celebrity chefs, cocktail bars and industry experts across the globe. He starred in the “The Cocktail Kings” on the DISCOVERY Channel where he travelled around the world creating bespoke cocktails to reflect their destinations. In his current role, Colin oversees fostering brand advocacy for the Bacardi USA Brand Portfolio. His expertise and spirits knowledge have been featured in Imbibe, Complex, WSJ, TIME and Cocktail Lovers Magazine to name a few.

If you haven’t bought the book yet, what are you waiting for? #GetInvolvedBruv! Get yours here.

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

What’s Colin reading?
The Real Pepsi Challenge: The Inspirational Story of Breaking the Color Barrier in American Business by Stephanie Capparell
The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America by Nikesh Shukl
[Natives](http://%22%E2%80%8C%22) by Akala
Afro-Vegan Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remixed by Bryant Terry
The cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty

Other topics of interest:
About celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver
Douglas Ankrah and the Porn Star Martini
The LAB
About sobolo
Cocktail Kings
About the BAFTA Awards
Tales of the Cocktail
Tom Bullock
Caperitif
High on the Hog
Cocktails: Shaken & Stirred
Ariel Contreras-Fox
The Howard Theatre
Ian Burrell
Front/Back in Accra
Lagos Cocktail Week
50th Anniversary of Hip Hop
About Julep Cocktails
About Ashtin Berry Special Guest: Colin Asare-Appiah.

Episode 156: On Soft Landings and Star Gazing with Robertson Ahomka-Lindsay Part 2

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 07:00:00 -0500

Holiday greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week on the podcast is the first of a two part conversations with architect, artist and multi-faceted creative, Robertson Ahomka-Lindsay. Until returning back to Ghana in 2020, Robertson spent the majority of his life in the UK where he practiced architecture and explored his many other talents. He is the CEO and founder of Vivarco Studio, a multimedia and architectural design studio specializing in Tropical Modernism embracing eco and sustainable technologies. His interest in tropical modernism embraces the concept of using traditional Ghanaian creative heritage and materials to influence one’s creative approach and execution of design.

After years in the making, in 2019 Ghana emerge as the official return destination, not only for African Diasporans, also for Ghanaians as well. This conversation is a reality check of sorts spotlighting how to manage the start-up and sustaining a life lived in Africa. As 2023 starts, surely this week and next are a great resource for introspection and exploration of what could be for a life abroad.

Where to find Robertson:
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Twitter

What's Robertson reading?
Dear Nana: A Letter to My Ancestor by Peter Sarpong
Fear No Man: Living Without Compromise in an Intimidating World by George Reed and David Hunt

Other topics of interest:
Paradigm Network
Clifton College, Bristol UK
Ignatius Acheampong
Nkrumahism
Royal Institute of British Architects
Ghana's National Cathedral Project
About Kwesi Kwarteng

Episode 155: On Soft Landings and Star Gazing with Robertson Ahomka-Lindsay Part 1

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 05:30:00 -0500

After years in the making, in 2019 Ghana emerge as the official return destination, not only for African Diasporans, also for Ghanaians as well. This conversation is a reality check of sorts spotlighting how to manage the start-up and sustaining a life lived in Africa. As 2023 approaches, surely this week and next are a great resource for introspection and exploration of what could be for a life abroad.

Where to find Robertson:
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Twitter

What's Robertson reading?
Dear Nana: A Letter to My Ancestor by Peter Sarpong
Fear No Man: Living Without Compromise in an Intimidating World by George Reed and David Hunt

Other topics of interest:
Paradigm Network
Clifton College, Bristol UK
Ignatius Acheampong
Nkrumahism
Royal Institute of British Architects
Ghana's National Cathedral Project
About Kwesi Kwarteng

Episode 153: Writing Life's Realities with Michelle Chikaonda Part 2

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Greeting Glocal Citizens!

As we ease into the last month of 2022, we're adding another country to our Glocal Citizens tour with a trip to Malawi. My guest this week is Malawian-American, Michelle Alipao Chikaonda. Michelle and I crossed paths in Accra at the sixth edition of the Pa Gya! Literary Festival. She is an award winning nonfiction writer, teacher and avid traveller. A graduate student at the University of East Anglia School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing studying biography and creative nonfiction, Michelle is currently based in the United Kingdom, and at the same time keeping an eye toward the next place she'll call "home."

Michelle has won the Literary Award for Narrative Nonfiction of the Tucson Festival of Books, the Stephen J. Meringoff Award for Nonfiction of the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics and Writers, and the Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker Scholarship for writers of color from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. In 2015 she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by the Oracle Fine Arts Review, and in 2020 she was longlisted for the inaugural Toyin Falola Prize for emerging African writers, and was published in the prize’s anthology, “In the Sands of Time” (2022). In addition to being a 2019 resident at The Seventh Wave’s Rhinebeck Residency, she is a Voices of Our Nations [VONA] Workshop fellow, a Tin House Summer Workshop alumna, and has presented at several Association of Writing and Writing Programs [AWP] conferences.

A contributing editor for nonfiction at Electric Literature, she is also currently published at Al Jazeera, The Globe and Mail, Catapult, the Broad Street Review, Business Insider, and Africa is A Country, among others.

Be sure to check out Michelle's website links so you can catch up on Michelle's works across platforms.

Where to find Michelle?
michellechikaonda.work
On Twitter
On Facebook
On Instagram

What's Michelle reading?
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté MD with Daniel Maté
When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection by Gabor Maté MD
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté MD

What's Michelle watching?
The Crown
From Scratch

Other topics of interest:
About Dedza, Malawi
About Zomba, Malawi
About the Lobolo System
Ngoni People
United World College
International Baccalaureate
Kusesa, sweeping
US Family Medical Leave Act
Song of Songs Special Guest: Michelle Alipao Chikaonda.

Episode 152: Writing Life's Realities with Michelle Chikaonda Part 1

Florence Amerley Adu — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Greeting Glocal Citizens!

Be sure to check out Michelle's website links so you can catch up on Michelle's works across platforms.

Where to find Michelle?
michellechikaonda.work
On Twitter
On Facebook
On Instagram

What's Michelle watching?
The Crown
From Scratch

Episode 149: Leveling up Leadership with Michelle Awuku-Tatum Part 2

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 05:15:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

My guest this week is another long-time friend with a transformational vocation--helping leaders meet the challenges of high impact leadership. A British-Ghanaian, Michelle Awuku-Tatum has been based in the US for the majority of her professional career, particular in New York City. From her early school days managing fitting in when her family moved to Ghana from the UK and then back again, Michelle has always been fascinated by mysteries. She loves decoding situations and analyzing people. As a Professionally Certified, Executive Coach, every day she finds herself conversing with amazing leaders and executives, as they gather clues to help reshape their leadership approach and improve their skills. During her corporate career, she honed her detective skills; creating innovative processes, customer experiences, business strategies and models for global companies in Biotechnology (@lonza), Energy ( @bp Oil & Gas) and Financial Services (@Citigroup). Working with different personalities and cultures in companies that were sometimes slow to embrace change or undergoing rapid transformation, enables her to share lessons learned and relate to what her clients may be experiencing. As founder of myfactor Coaching & Consulting which she founded in 2007 her firm is contributing to a world where high-achieving leaders can show up as their best selves and create workspaces that inspire, motivate, include, develop and show care for the teams they lead.

I'm certain that you'll enjoy this two part conversation filled with tangible leadership insights and lots of laughs too!

Where to find Michelle?
www.myfactorcoach.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What's Michelle reading?
The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, Kaley Klemp
The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters by Peter Block
Radical Responsibility: How to Move Beyond Blame, Fearlessly Live Your Highest Purpose, and Become an Unstoppable Force for Good by leet Maull Ph.D. and Daniel Siegel M.D.

What's Michelle watching?
Grey's Anatomy
Transplant

Other topics of interest:
About High Wycombe
About the Mitchell-Lama Program in NYC
About Robert C. Weaver
Kellog Business School @ Northwestern University

Check out these resources from myfactor Coaching:
[Crafting Your Personal Leadership Vision]((https://www.myfactorcoach.com/visionguide) - you can download our free step-by-step guide to crafting your leadership vision today.
Click here to learn more about pact: a high impact, experiential leadership development program specifically for high-achieving mid-level Black women.
Special Guest: MIchelle Awuku-Tatum.

Episode 148: Leveling up Leadership with Michelle Awuku-Tatum Part 1

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

I'm certain that you'll enjoy this two part conversation filled with tangible leadership insights and lots of laughs too!

Where to find Michelle?
www.myfactorcoach.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What's Michelle watching?
Grey's Anatomy
Transplant

Other topics of interest:
About High Wycombe
About the Mitchell-Lama Program in NYC
About Robert C. Weaver
Kellog Business School @ Northwestern University

Episode 130: Glocally Speaking with Ronda Železný-Green, Salim Rollins and Nyamal Tutdeal

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 05:00:00 -0400

Summer Solstice Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This year, we're saying so long to spring with a bit of a bang as here in the US--yes, I'm back in Brooklyn for the summer, the Juneteenth holiday and Father's Day start the week. In observation or tribute to these events, for this week's episode I've curated a "Glocally Speaking" conversation as an expression of thoughts, sentiments and realities around citizenship, education, fatherhood, activism, history and culture. Ronda Železný-Green from EP 92 kicks off the conversation with ideas on the necessary framework for the most global citizenship of all - digital citizenship. Next is father, yogi and capoeirista, Salim Rollins from EP 37. He guides us in experience and in language from Kenya, back to the US and finally settling in Kenya with his family. Closing out this spring remix is Nyamal Tutdeal from EP 102 with a glocally speaking potpourri from communications during times of conflict to a lesson in what is probably Africa's most common lingua franka - food.

No passport required! Grab a snack, relax and let the sound be your transport.

Where to find Ronda?
Where to find Salim?
Where to find Nyamal?

Other topics of interest:
Seyi Akiwowo and Glitch
On Intersectionality
Glocal Citizen Asare Adjei
Barbados, the newest republic
Anatomy of the Conflict in Ethiopia
Asida
Genfo
Banku
Special Guests: Nyamal Tutdeal, Ronda Zelezny-Green, and Salim Rollins.

Episode 118: Archives, Art and Freedom Dreams with Nydia Swaby

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week in our final #herstory in our 2022 March series, I'm happy to welcome Black feminist researcher, writer, and curator Nydia Swaby. Nydia is a Jamaican-American and have called London home for the past decade. She has a PhD in Gender Studies (SOAS), an MA in Women’s History [Sarah Lawrence College], and a BA in Anthropology and African American Studies [Rollins College]. Her practice builds on theories of racial, gendered, diasporic, and queer formation, Black feminism, Black studies, and my previous experience working at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

In her creative approach to knowledge production, she uses archives, ethnography, photography, film, and the imagination to curate programs and visual narratives, write essays and performance pieces exploring the gendered and diasporic dimensions of Black being and becoming. She also creates ancestral altars using family pictures and memorabilia, found photographs and archival images, West African textiles and wood carvings, crystals, fossils, stones, shells, and other curios. These practices converge in her forthcoming monograph, Amy Ashwood Garvey and the Future of Back Feminist Archives (Lawrence Wishart, Summer 2022) and Caird Research Fellowship at The National Maritime Museum, ‘Curating Archives of Affect: Black Feminist Pasts, Presents, and Futures’ (December 2021 - September 2020), and my ongoing visual series, ‘Becoming with Archive: Blackness, Gender, Diaspora’ (2010 - Present).

Alongside her practice-based research, Nydia work as the Curator of Learning at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, where she collaborates with academics, curators, artists, and writers to develop a multi-disciplinary, practice-based research and learning program. She is also a member of Feminist Review’s Editorial Collective and the Curator of Programmes, and co-edited a recent issue on queer, feminist, diasporic, and decolonial archives.

Please read on and explore the topics of interest below for a thoughtfully curated account of the many individuals discussed in the episode.

Where to find Nydia?
www.nydiaswaby.com
On LinkedIn

What's Nydia reading?
The Sex Lives of African Women by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
Dear Science and Other Stories by Katherine McKittrick

What's Nydia watching?
Master
Daughters of the Dust

Other topics of interest:
Amy Ashwood Garvey
Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)
Pan African Movement
Garveyism
Jamaica Kincaid
On Code Switching
Double Consciousness
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Ifeanyi Awachie
Imani Perry
Lorraine Hansberry
Barby Asante
S. Pearl Sharp
Akosua Adoma Owusu
Rita Gayle
Joan Morgan
Brittney Cooper
The Politics of Pleasure
Special Guest: Nydia Swaby.

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.

Episode 92: Pathways to Digital Citizenship with Ronda Železný-Green

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

My guest this week has travelled to more than 60 countries and worked on five continents. Currently based in southern Spain, Dr. Ronda Železný-Green is a digital changemaker creating social learning systems to empower Black people, women, people with disabilities, and other marginalized populations in the technology and education sectors. Serving as a mobile technologist, trainer, and researcher, Ronda’s 16+ years of professional experience spans five continents and the public, private, and civil society sectors. A Black and Native American cis woman excelling with ADHD, Ronda also has extensive experience delivering action-oriented training that integrates the themes of racial equity and justice and gender with global perspectives. Hallmarks of her career include learning/educating with tech; championing, coaching, and mentoring women in tech; and empowering people to use technology as transformative tools to live their best lives. She is currently the Global Head of Training and eLearning at the Internet Society where she is leading the end-to-end rebuild and relaunch of our training programs, including the digital transformation of existing training activities due to COVID-19. She also serves in advisory and director roles at the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) at the United Nations Foundation, InnovateHer - where she is the board chair, and Noise Solution. At the same time she's a tech-prenuer as co-founder and director of Panoply Digital Ltd is a socially conscious organization using their expertise in ICT, education, and gender to create solutions to development challenges. Ronda is a whirlwind of digital dynamism!

Where to find Ronda?
www.rondazg.com
On Linkedin
On Twitter
On Instagram

What's Ronda watching?
Flight 93
Love is Blind
La Granja de Zenón

Other topics of interest:
What happened in 2009 in Madagascar?
About the Peace Corps
About Bell Hooks
About Paulo Freire
Seyi Akiwowo and Glitch
On Intersectionality

Special Guest: Ronda Zelezny-Green.

Episode 76: Making Space for Transformation with Elvina Quaison

Florence Amerley Adu — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 05:00:00 -0400

June greetings Glocal Citizens! We're nearly halfway through "the year after" and in the spirit of reimagining spaces and places for our new next, my guest this week is all about personal development. Elvina Quaison, a British-Ghanaian is the founder of SESA, a global personal development organization. SESA is a space, a resource to assist others find answers, guidance and advice to make the life game more enjoyable. She has also served as Business Club Manager at AFFORD straddling continents to add value for businesses in the UK and Africa. Elvina's work in Ghana included a role as Marketing Manager at Beaufort Properties and the Director of Silk Solutions a company that made moving into Ghana easier and opened the market to the small business wanting to expand into a new exciting sphere. Reaching this point followed a path of working with and in African countries for over 11 years in various capacities including include facilitating workshops, trainings and one to ones as well as presenting at events from intimate talks to large international conferences.

Fun fact about Elvina, she is also known as "Auntie Vina" and she hosts a story telling channel. She started the channel to share her love for children's books and the amazing journeys the imagination can take little people. She chooses books that focus on black children or are written by black authors. She also includes books that show a diversity of race, culture, religion, gender roles, health and life experiences and so much more, because our little people deserve so much more than just one way of looking at this big wide world. Check it out, her YouTube link is below!

Where to find Elvina?
On LinkedIn
On Twitter
On Instagram
On Facebook
On YouTube
sesa4life@gmail.com

What's Elvina reading?
Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
What I Know for Sure by Oprah Winfrey
Books by Brené Brown

What's Elvina watching?
The Matrix

Other topics of interest:
Adinkra Symbols
Fante People of Ghana
Akina Mama Wa Afrika
African Women's Development Fund
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the Syndrome

Special Guest: Elivina Quaison.