This week on the podcast returning guest, Baze Mpinja takes us nearly five years to the date on a flashback forward journey to her new now as a podcaster and Phoenician. Her new podcast, Reflections with Baze Mpinja comes at a time when she’s now calling one of her childhood hometowns home again and she’s finding a new sense of home in the work of translating and transcribing a career in beauty onto a new platform.
true to form, she describes adaptability as her superpower. She’s navigated startup-style multicultural magazines, national media powerhouses, and the creative side of theatrical advertising. Along the way, she’s honed the ability to dive into unfamiliar topics, collaborate cross-functionally, deliver clean, accurate work on tight deadlines, and tailor her writing to resonate with diverse audiences.

As a project-based writer and strategist, brands trust her to shape their voice, develop storytelling strategies, create compelling branded content, and craft executive communications. Her latest project, Reflections with Baze Mpinja is a sharp, witty podcast that holds up a mirror to beauty and society—exploring what’s beautiful, complex, and everything in between. The show goes beyond trends and product talk to unpack how beauty shows up in pop culture, sports, media, and everyday life. Listen and learn about how we’re both navigating the wide world of podcasting and more!

Where to find Baze and Reflections?
bazempinja.com
On Apple Podcasts
On Glocal Citizens

What’s Baze reading, watching and listening to?
Loneliness & Company by Charlee Dyroff
The Diplomat on Netflix
The Pitt on HBOMax
The Agency: Central Intelligence on Showtime
In the Dark, a New Yorker podcast

Other topics of interest:
The Phoenician Resort
About Paradise Valley
About Tempe
Who is Curtis Flowers?
Revisit our conversation on AI in healthcare with David Hutchful

Special Guest: Baze Mpinja.

Last week, Ghana lost another living legend, the first lady of the 4th Republic, Madam Nana Konadu Ageyman Rawlings. As we mourn this loss, I can’t help but to take note of how 2025 has been a year punctuated with transitions of many of Ghana’s cultural icons as well as civic leaders--all passionate about not only their crafts, but forward movement, Ghana’s progress. I invited my guest this week to join me in conversation particularly because of how her craft, her passion and her lineage converge in a story that is and will continue to make an impact on arts, culture and economic development in Ghana and beyond.

Ghanaian-American, Aretha Amma Sarfo-Kantanka is an accomplished global branding professional who has been instrumental in driving retail sales via innovative retail marketing and branding campaigns juxtaposing the fashion and music industry.

In 1998, Aretha launched VISIONS Entertainment & Publicity in New York City with a client roster inclusive of: fashion brands, designers, actors, artists, publications and more. She has created and managed numerous cross-promotional marketing and branding campaigns, from concept to execution, for record labels such as: Interscope, DreamWorks, Sony/Columbia, Island/Def Jam, Arista and Atlantic Records.
A decade later in 2008 she founded Global Fusion Productions Inc. promoting African culture, tourism, entertainment and news. Aretha has served as the liaison and connector for local and global businesses looking to target the vast and underserved global African market with events and projects including being a member of the team who brought Ghanaian icon, living legend and Glocal Citizen, James Barnor’s photography for exhibition in Ghana for the first time in 2012.

Aretha also served as coordinator and panelist for the launch of Fashion Forum Africa’s talk series on the business of fashion in Africa. Aretha has written for publications such as: New York based Applause Africa, MIA Magazine and Berlin, Germany based - POP Magazine covering global pop music and culture.

In 2023, Aretha curated Culture Curators: Hip Hop 50 at the National Museum of Ghana, the first of its kind exhibition at the museum that celebrated Ghana’s Diaspora connection thru music in a series of talks, films and one of a kind memorabilia items and commissioned art, along with bringing A/R technology to the museum for the first time in collaboration with The San Diego African-American Museum of Fine Art. 2024 sets the stage to honor and tell the story of Ghana’s unique modern music of Hip Life in celebrating its 30th anniversary so there is much, much more to come for this dynamic diasporan!

Where to find Aretha?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Aretha cooking?
Kontomire 101

Other topics of interest:
About Okomfo Anokye
Guan People of Ghana
About Apostle Kwadwo Safo Kantanka
About KTA Mobile
About H.E. Nana Konadu Ageyman Rawlings
Capricorn Astrology
DollHouse Jeans
About the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre in Accra

Special Guest: Aretha Amma Sarfo-Kantanka.

This week on the podcast we have another gift from the Glocal Citizens community. In this two part conversation we meet Dr. Osei Alleyne. A joint PhD in Anthropology and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and former inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Experimental Ethnography at Penn, Dr. Osei also holds an MA in Communications from Temple University. A still active internationally touring professional Canadian Hip hop artist and Spoken word poet of Trinidad & Tobago extract, his field research employs a multi-modal ethnography of Reggae, Rastafari, Afrobeat and Hip-hop performance communities and related social justice movements across the African diaspora, with an emphasis on the black Atlantic nexus between Jamaica and Ghana. We recently met while he was in Ghana working on his forthcoming book, Dancehall Diaspora: Rastafari and Rudeness in the African Postcolony, thanks to consumate connector, Muhammida el Muhajir. As Assistant Professor of Media Studies and Production at Temple University, his writing repertoire spans African diasporic art and philosophy movements such as afrofuturism, afropolitanism and afropessimism. In this conversation, Dr. Osei offers an insightful glimpse into the spaces he has navigated in honing this and his other crafts.

Where to find Osei?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On YouTube

What’s Osei watching?
First Peoples Documentary

Other topics of interest:
About Trinidad and Tobago
History about Carnivals in the Black Diaspora
The Book of African Names
On Africana Studies
About Liberia’s Edward Wilmot Blyden
About The Black Star Line,
Garveyism, and The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
About Ethiopianism
Alex Haley’s Roots
Association of Black Anthropologists
Zora Neale Hurston, Novelist and Anthropologist
About Cheik Anta Diop
About what was to be Akon City
Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Debate 1967
About Cultural Theorist Stuart Hall
About Author and Scholar, Paul Gilroy
Martin Bernal and Black Athena
Reggie Rockston and HipLife
About Shatta Wale
What is the Theory of Mind
Black Holes and the Macro Universe

Special Guest: Osei Alleyne.

This week on the podcast we have another gift from the Glocal Citizens community. In this two part conversation we meet Dr. Osei Alleyne. A joint PhD in Anthropology and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and former inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Experimental Ethnography at Penn, Dr. Osei also holds an MA in Communications from Temple University. A still active internationally touring professional Canadian Hip hop artist and Spoken word poet of Trinidad & Tobago extract, his field research employs a multi-modal ethnography of Reggae, Rastafari, Afrobeat and Hip-hop performance communities and related social justice movements across the African diaspora, with an emphasis on the black Atlantic nexus between Jamaica and Ghana. We recently met while he was in Ghana working on his forthcoming book, Dancehall Diaspora: Rastafari and Rudeness in the African Postcolony, thanks to consumate connector, Muhammida el Muhajir. As Assistant Professor of Media Studies and Production at Temple University, his writing repertoire spans African diasporic art and philosophy movements such as afrofuturism, afropolitanism and afropessimism. In this conversation, Dr. Osei offers an insightful glimpse into the spaces he has navigated in honing this and his other crafts.

Where to find Osei?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On YouTube

What’s Osei watching?
First Peoples Documentary

Other topics of interest:
About Trinidad and Tobago
History about Carnivals in the Black Diaspora
The Book of African Names
On Africana Studies
About Liberia’s Edward Wilmot Blyden
About The Black Star Line,
Garveyism, and The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
About Ethiopianism
Alex Haley’s Roots
Association of Black Anthropologists
Zora Neale Hurston, Novelist and Anthropologist
About Cheik Anta Diop
About what was to be Akon City
Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Debate 1967
About Cultural Theorist Stuart Hall
About Author and Scholar, Paul Gilroy
Martin Bernal and Black Athena
Reggie Rockston and HipLife
About Shatta Wale
What is the Theory of Mind
Black Holes and the Macro Universe

Special Guest: Osei Alleyne.

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.

As we hit the halfway mark on 2025 our treat this week is a thought-provoking conversation with Wana Udobang, a multifaceted writer, poet, performer, curator, and storyteller based in Lagos, Nigeria. I met Wana last year during the Pa Gya! Literary Festival in Accra where she faciliated her own unique writing workshop - “Comfort Food” a storytelling and poetry workshop that uses food as a conduit to explore memories, history, joy, and healing which was born out of her culinary quality time during the pandemic. In this lively conversation we cover Wana's extensive body of work which encompasses her journey of becoming a creative professional in Nigeria, her spoken word albums and how she has honed her craft building a framework for entrepreneurship using various storytelling platforms.

00:00:23 Introduction and Opening Remarks
00:04:02 A Short Story About ECG
00:07:56 Introduction and Background
00:11:53 Wana's Creative Journey and Achievements
00:16:00 Life in Lagos and Cultural Insights
00:19:42 The Art of Storytelling and Poetry
00:23:38 Why the Where: Career Path and Returning to Nigeria
00:27:32 Comfort Food Workshops and Creative Collaborations
00:31:43 Glocal Speak
00:35:31 Organizing for Success: Tools and Techniques
00:39:27 Balancing Creativity and Economics
00:43:22 Mindset Hacks as an Ethos
00:47:30 The Role of Fellowships in Professional Growth
00:51:20 What's New and Next?
00:55:15 Reader, Watcher, Listener?
00:59:25 Final Thoughts

Where to find Wana?
wanaudobang.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On YouTube

What’s Wana reading?
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Lipado Manyika
All Fours by Miranda July
The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

What’s Wana watching?
Conclave
The Substance

What’s Wana listening to?
Florence and the Machine

Other topics of interest:
About the Ibibio people of Nigeria
Def Poetry Jam
About Nnedi Okorafor and Akata Warrior as seen in the new Forever series on Netflix

Special Guest: Wana Udobang.

Where to find Ivy?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On YouTube
On Facebook
On Pintrest

Listen to Ivy on Farm Radio International’s Nature Answers
Get your copy of Ivy’s book Your Essential Guide to Moving to Ghana

Other topics of interest:
Tema at the Center of the Earth
Maternal Health Channel Founder Kwesi Owusu
About St. Catharine’s and the Underground Railroad
About Sambra City
About Gated Housing Estates in Ghana

Special Guest: Ivy Prosper.

This week we meet Aimée Wallin, co-director at the non-profit Ghana Food Movement. Born of Swedish and Malian heritage, since completing her studies in Ghana, she calls Ghana home and finds herself a political foodie advocating for local eating, sustainable production methods and preservation of black food cultures. Ghana Food Movement is a network for food actors in Ghana with the vision of a resilient local food system that provides jobs and nutritious food for all Ghanaians. At the end of December, they celebrated the opening of their food education hub in Accra, check out the festivities here. The kitchen is open!

Where to find Aimée?
Ghana Food Movement
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook

What’s Aimée reading?
Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
Jollof and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi

Other topics of interest:
About Mali
[Sweden through the Ages](linkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden)
Agricology
On Food Insecurity
Malian Cuisine
Try Fonio Flakes
The Blue Skies Story
Perspectives on Sankofa
Food Sovereignty Ghana

Special Guest: Aimée Wallin.

This week is the finale of our writing as activism series at the 2024 Pa Gya! Literary Festival. It has been such a pleasure bringing the works and words of these writers to a wider audience. It has been a wonderful multi-generational compilation of wisdom across genres. Joining us this week is Ivana Akotowaa Ofori, a Ghanaian storyteller known also by the alias, “The Spider Kid.” She is a weaver of words in many forms, including fiction, non-fiction and spoken-word poetry. Akotowaa has been nominated for various awards for her prose writing. Her work is included in the Flash Fiction Ghana anthology, Kenkey for Ewes and Other Very Short Stories, and the Writivism anthology, And Morning Will Come.

She is also included in the Africa Risen Anthology 2022 with her short story, “Exiles of Witchery”. Akotowaa’s debut novella, The Year of Return (2023) has been published in the US with Android Press and in West Africa with Smartline Publishers.

Writing aside, Akotowaa spends much of her time looking for excuses to make everything purple and this imaginative, playful spirit definitely shines through our conversation.

Where to find Akotowaa?
On the Ceiling
On Akotowaa’s Blog
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On X
On Facebook

What’s Akotowaa watching?
Dr. Who
Sherlock

What’s Akotowaa reading?
The Color Purple by Alica Walker
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
Saltwater Slavery by Stephanie E. Smallwood
Manchester Happened by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie

Other topics of interest:
Black Girls Glow and the KOSHKA Sound Residency
Burma Camp, Accra
About Roald Dahl
Ananasesem
About Kente Cloth

Special Guest: Ivana Akotowaa Ofori.

The first Tuesday in November represents the official US election day. As polling evolves for higher participation and greater inclusion, most states offer early voting so millions have already cast thier votes. Throughout this year of elections across the globe, the build up to the two where I have a say, the United States and Ghana, has played a critical role in inspiring my most activist self to move the dial in different ways toward manifesting a new world. Coincidentally, this week on the podcast kicks off our Writing as Activism series in coordination with the Pa Gya! Literary Festival in Accra. Recorded live at the eighth installment of the festivaland in the days that followed, starting the panel, Writing as Activism: Ghanaian Voices and Pan-African Perspectives Across Genres, the conversation starts with a distinguished voices covering works of poetry, screenwriting, and nonfiction scholarship with:

Nicole Amarteifio is an acclaimed Ghanaian-American TV/film writer, director, and producer. She successfully launched the hit web series 'An African City’ - dubbed by CNN and the BBC as Africa’s answer to ‘Sex and the City’.

Returning Glocal Citizen, Nydia A. Swaby is a Black feminist artist, researcher and curator. Her practice engages archives, autoethnography, photography, the moving image, and the imagination to explore the gendered, diasporic and affective dimensions of Black being and becoming. In addition to curating artistic programmes, she creates visual narratives, research and performance texts. Nydia's first book, Amy Ashwood Garvey and the Future of Black Feminist Archives, was published by Lawrence Wishart in October 2024 as part of LW's Radical Black Women book series. She is also developing an artist film, Amy and Me in the Archive, which will be screened at the forthcoming Singapore International Photography Festival 2024.

And Poet Laureate of Jamaica, Kwame Dawes, author of numerous books of poetry and other books of fiction, criticism, and essays. His most recent collection is Sturge Town (Peepal Tree Press, UK 2023). Dawes is Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University. He teaches in the Pacific MFA Program and is the Series Editor of the African Poetry Book Series, Director of the African Poetry Book Fund, and Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. He is a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Kwame Dawes is the winner of the prestigious Windham/Campbell Award for Poetry and was a finalist for the 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In 2022 Dawes was awarded the Order of Distinction Commander class by the Government of Jamaica. He is the Poet Laureate of Jamaica (2024-2027).

Click through to find out more about the Pa Gya! Literary Festival and the Writer’s Project Ghana and watch this and other festival panels at WPGTV.

Where to find Nicole?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On YouTube
On X

Where to find Kwame?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On X
On Facebook

Where to find Nydia?
On Glocal Citizens
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On X

Other topics of interest and the Essential Pan-African Activism reading list coming soon!

*This audio recording has been edited for clarity from the original video recording.

Special Guests: Kwame Dawes, Nicole Amarteifio, and Nydia Swaby.

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.

This week on we’re moving into the new year with some wise words and insights in Part 2 of my conversation with Ghanaian investor and developer of new businesses, Eric Osiakwan. With 25 years of experience spanning 32 countries in Africa gained through a number of successful tech start-ups, Eric is a leading pioneer of internet in Africa. Having worked in multiple countries building internet service providers (“ISP”) and ICT businesses, some of his successful exits include iBurst in South Africa, One2Net in Uganda, and BusyInternet in Ghana, to name a few. Eric also founded and ran the Africa ISP Association for eight years, during which the ISP industry grew by almost 120 percent. He then moved on to leading efforts to build submarine cables on the continent. Eric was part of a public-private partnership in Kenya that built and launched the TEAMS submarine fibre cable, the first to connect East Africa to the rest of the world. He subsequently contributed to the building of terrestrial fibre networks in Ghana and Nigeria. As we learned in Part 1 of the conversation, he Co-Founded Angel Africa List, Angel Fair Africa and currently heads Chanzo Capital, a venture and growth capital firm, investing capital, capacity and community in high-tech startups and scaleups in Kenya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa.

Where to find Eric?
ericosiakwan.com
On LinkedIn
On [Facebook](Eric Osiakwan)
On [Instagram](Instagram (@eosiakwan))
On X

What’s Eric reading?
Works by Cheikh Anta Diop

Other topics of interest:
How Greater Accra (Tema) is the geographical center of the Earth
About Panafest and Kojo Yankah
On Ghana’s Joseph Project
Year of Return
Full Circle Africa Economic Conference
Stripe Payments Platform
Safaricom and the roots of Mobile Money
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa: African Information Society Initiative(AISI)
UNDP Internet Initiative for Africa
What are Internet Exchange Points?
The African Internet Service Providers Association
ICANN and Esther Dyson
About TEAMS
Bongo Hive
About the BenBen App
On Eric’s book KINGS of Africa’s Digital Economy

Special Guest: Eric Osiakwan.

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.

This week I have the pleasure getting to know a longtime friend even better from insights into his professional world. An internationally recognized recording artist, vocal coach, songwriter/writer, style influencer, and entrepreneur, Ghanaian-Cuban-American, Jeremiah Abiah inspires artists around the world to learn, love, and live their voice. His creative talents and expertise have made him a sought-after coach for national and international singers, actors, rappers, and public speakers. His influence and involvement have launched the careers of many musicians currently on the charts. As a singer, producer and writer, his recording contributions have been nominated for Grammy Awards, the Latin Grammys, the NAACP Image Awards and the 2020 Oscar Awards with Cynthia Erivo. He works with an array of celebrated artists such as Common, Brandy, Robert Glasper, Ro James and others.

He launched TheABIAHway, an artist development platform, to enlighten, inspire, and empower music artists globally and expanding his influence in the music industry. His work has launched the careers of many current music artists on the charts and on Broadway. Clients include Sony, RCA, Atlantic, Columbia Records as well as numerous Broadway and Opera Stars. This former Professor of Voice at Berklee College of Music can be seen on the stage at music festivals, concert halls and teaching Masterclasses worldwide.

In 2020, he debuted his popular new Facebook Live talk show, Inside the Singer’s Voice where each episode is an intimate conversation between great singers about great singing. As you’ll hear, there’s much, much more to Jeremiah’s own voice and story.

Where to find Jeremiah?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On X
On YouTube

Topics of interest:
About George Michael
Opera Greats William Warfield and Leontyne Price
Rochester School of the Arts
About Patricia Seymour Alexander
About the Art Song Repertoire
NAACP ACT-SO Acheivement Program
Eastman School of Music
New England Conservatory
About The Chi’s Ntare Mwine
Otter.ai
Ain’t Too Proud, The Musical
About Michael Swanson
Ron Simon’s SimonSays Entertainment
About Pamela Cooper’s, The Cooper Company
About Shanice
What is the “Whistle Tone?”
About Gospel Great, Yolanda Adams
Laylah Hathaway
Mint Condition’s Stokley Williams
Claude Kelly
R&B and Soul Legends Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross and Barry White
About Bill T. Jones

Special Guest: Jeremiah Abiah.

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.

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.

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.

This week I have the first of a “spirited” two-part conversation with the authors of Black Mixcellence--Cuban-Jamaican-American writer, Tamika Hall and another fellow countryman, Ghanaian mixologist, Colin Asare-Appiah. First up is Tamika who is is a mom, freelance writer & content strategy manager. She has created editorial content and marketing strategies for The Vitamin Shoppe, Mass Appeal, The Examiner, Mommynoire/MadameNoire, stupidDOPE.com, ICONIX, and Yellowbrick.co. She’s written branded content for a variety of brands including Bacardi, Maker’s Mark, PepsiCo, Anheusur-Busch, and Viniq. in addition to her commercial portfolio, she co-created the curriculum for the Hospitality and Tourism Industry Essentials online course with NYU’s Jonathan Tisch Center of Hospitality and was the winner of the 2021 Budweiser Hashtag Sports Award for Black Storytelling honoring her work on the pilot program for The Sneaker Essentials K-12 initiative.

I had a wonderful time getting to know more about Tamika and her explorations of black culture plus some of her inspirations. I look forward to sharing more insights on the global impact of the spirit industry on cultures across diasporas in Part 2 with Colin.

Where to find Tamika?
Buy Black Mixcellence!
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook

What’s Tamika reading?
Will by Will Smith
The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz
Sometimes I Trip on How Happy we Could Be by Nichole Perkins
Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis
All About Love by Bell Hooks

What's Tamika watching?
Sex and the City
New York Undercover
Works by Spike Lee

What’s Tamika listening to?
Deep Purple
Teddy Pendergrass
Prince

Other topics of interest:
Sylvia’s Soul Food Restaurant
Women’s Day Magazine
Nkiru Books
Black Wall Street
Tom Bullock

Special Guest: Tamika Hall.

This week on the podcast, it’s another gem of a conversation that started at the Pa Gya! Literary Festival in Accra. My guest, Nigerian geologist turned journalist, Pelu Awofeso and I met in passing between his moderating sessions and communing with fellow writers. Pelu has made it his mission to promote local and international awareness of Nigerian arts, culture and traditional architecture, among other national assets, especially as they relate to or impact on domestic tourism. His writings have appeared in the Sunday Mirror, Lonely Planet,_ Kinfolk_,_ World Policy Journal_,_ Africa Today_,_ Africa in Words_, LOJEL, 234Next and The Sowetan, among many others. He has published five travel books all focused on his experiences traveling in Nigeria (and Africa).

A winner of the CNN/Multichoice African Journalists Awards in tourism reporting, in late 2019, Pelu was also named the Best Travel Journalist in Nigeria by Nigeria Travel Week. He is currently at work on a documentary on one of Africa's pioneer indigenous missionaries and first Black bishop of the Anglican Church, Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1809-91). When he is not traveling or writing, he divides his time between attending creative arts events in Lagos or working as a city guide to tourists.

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

What’s Pelu reading?
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Thing Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon
Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi

Other topics of interest:
Nigeria’s National Youth Services Corps
About Jos, Nigeria
Yoruba History Resource
On Pelu’s forthcoming project about Samuel Ajayi Crowther

Special Guest: Pelu Awofeso.

Eghosa’s second novel, Fine Boys, a coming-of-age novel, received wide acclaim in 2012 and was published in America by the Ohio University Press’ Modern African Writers Series in 2021. When he’s not writing or publishing, Eghosa teaches creative writing at the annual Chimamanda Adichie Creative Writing Workshop. Prior to launching into his literary career, he graduated with a medical degree from the University of Benin.

In this feel good and insightful conversation, Dr. Eghosa shares tips on how to work with publishers and about the how business of bringing books to the people promises to change the narrative on literacy, lifestyle and literary careers all over Africa.

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

What’s Eghosa reading?
Truth is a Flightless Bird by Akbar Hussain
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

What’s Eghosa watching?
Andor

Other topics of interest:
About Benin City
About the Benin Massacre
About Warri, Nigeria
Purple Hibiscus
David Hymar
Masobe Books
Nearly all the Men in Lagos are Mad
The Black Axe
Wole Soyinka
By Nike Campbell

Special Guest: Eghosa Imasuen.

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.

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.

Where to find Hasira?
www.righteousrageinstitute.org
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook

What's Hasira reading?
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The 5 Principles: A Revolutionary Path to Health, Inner Wealth, and Knowledge of Self by Khnum "Stic" Ibomu
You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience by Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown

What's Hasira watching?
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

Other topics of interest:
About Denver Black Panther Party Founder Lauren Watson
The meaning of Oborɔnyi
YFM Ghana
About Reggie Rockstone
One Africa Health Resort
About Blue Zones
About the Sloth and Pura Vida in Costa Rica
About Buckminster Fuller

On African Stateswomen
On Marcus Aurelius
On Freedom Schools

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

Special Guest: Hasira Soul Ashemu.

Where to find Adama?
www.lilithastrology.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Twitter
On Facebook
On YouTube
On TikTok

What's Adama reading?
Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas
African Goddess Rising Oracle: A 44-Card Deck and Guidebook by Abiola Abrams
Books by Kim Krans

What's Adama watching?
The Handmaid's Tale
Ozark

What's Adama listening to?
Ancient Wisdom Today With Shaman Durek
Dr. Deepak Chopra
Dr. Joe Dispenza

Other topics of interest:
Tropical vs. Vedic Astrology
Babylonian Astrology
National Council for Geocosmic Research
Haus of Hoodoo
Pluto Return
A Modern Textbook of Astrology
Saturn Return

Special Guest: Adama Sesay.

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.

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.

I hope you enjoy this journey with T.J. across continents and through a world history often obscured!

Where to find T.J.?
Selected research
On YouTube

What's T.J. reading?
The Way of a Pilgrim

Other topics of interest:
Filipino Kali
Robert Farris Thompson
Beni Hasan Tomb
Nsibidi script of Nigeria
N'Golo
Holocene Climactic Optimum
Jan Vansina
Christopher Ehret
La Violencia
Phillip Zarrilli
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass

Special Guest: T.J. Desch-Obi.

I hope you enjoy this journey with T.J. across continents and through a world history often obscured!

Where to find T.J.?
Selected research
On YouTube

What's T.J. reading?
The Way of a Pilgrim

Other topics of interest:
Filipino Kali
Robert Farris Thompson
Beni Hasan Tomb
Nsibidi script of Nigeria
N'Golo
Holocene Climactic Optimum
Jan Vansina
Christopher Ehret
La Violencia
Phillip Zarrilli
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass

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

Special Guest: T.J. Desch-Obi.

Where to find Dr. Moyo?
www.bhekinkosimoyo.com
On Twitter

On Facebook

What's Dr. Moyo reading?
In My Father's House by Kwame Anthony Appiah
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
The Beautiful Ones are not yet Born Ayi Kwei Armah
Chinua Achebe
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi
I did not come to you by Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

Other topics of interest:
Giving to Help, Helping to Give: The Context and Politics of African Philanthropy by Tade Akin Aina, Bhekinkosi Moyo, et. al.
Akwasi Aidoo
African Philanthropy Network
Allen Fowler
International Society for Third Sector Research
Kathleen McCarthy
On Karate
Chinua Achebe
CAPSI Journal

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

Special Guest: Bhekinkosi Moyo.

Nana is also a founder of the made-in-Ghana lifestyle line EXIT 14 which offers a new generation of style lovers and collectors fashion and home goods made of batakari, a luxury cotton textile woven by Ghanaian artisans in a generations' old tradition.

Where to find Nana:
www.nanabrewhammond.com
Shop Exit 14
On LinkedIn
On Twitter
On Instagram
On Facebook

What's Nana watching?
Closure on Amazon Prime

Other topics of interest:
Akashic Books
Cassava Republic
Nana-Ama Danquah
Book Nook Store
Writers Project of Ghana
Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA)
Library of African and the African Diaspora

Special Guest: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond.

We're starting 2021 on a "write" note. This week my guest is Sala Elise Patterson, a communication, content and brand strategist, and writer. Sala began her career as an editor at Conde Nast Traveler Magazine in New York before leaving to work in international cooperation in the wake of 9-11. That work took her to Rome and Dar es Salaam with the United Nations; to Paris with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; and to Tunis with the African Development Bank.

In 2012, she founded her own communication advisory firm, Songhai Group, which serves international organizations, cultural institutions and mission-driven companies. Clients have included World Bank, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, McKinsey & Company, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Galerie Number 8 and National Urban League, among others.

Throughout her career, Sala has written on art, culture and lifestyle. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Style Magazine, Harvard Design Magazine, The Atlantic’s CityLab, KINFOLK, Ford Foundation Report, TRUE Africa, the Musée D’Orsay exhibition catalogue for The Black Model: From Géricault to Matisse and in the short, experimental documentary film, Protect, for which she was the screenwriter.

Sala is a native Washingtonian and product of DC Public Schools. She holds a BA in African-American Literature from Columbia University (cum laude), an MSc in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies and speaks Italian, French, Portuguese and a bit of Japanese. She lives with her husband and 12-year old son in Rome, where she is currently on assignment with the World Bank.

Where to find Sala?
www.salapatterson.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Sala reading and writing?
•The Sun Magazine
•Rita Dove
•James Baldwin
•Toni Morrison
•Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones
•Siddharta Mitter
• On Teju Cole
• On Adrienne "Ady" Fidelin

What’s Sala listening to?
FIP Radio

Other topics of interest-
• Ady in Works
• Man Ray
• Niama Safia Sandy
• School of African and Oriental Studies University

Special Guest: Sala Elise Patterson .

This week "B" stands for "beauty" and Baze Mpinja, a Congolese-American writer, editor and consultant based in Brooklyn, New York.

Born in New Hampshire after her parents emigrated to the US and raised mostly in Arizona, Baze considers herself the most unlikely beauty writer ever. She’s the first woman in her family to graduate from a university and her grandmothers never learned to read—when they were growing up, girls didn't go to school. While her career as a writer at times seems unfathomable, Baze is no doubt the real thing when it comes to telling stories for leading brands and beauty publications.
She's gone from working at multicultural, niche magazines with startup environments (Suede and Vibe Vixen) to becoming a staffer at one of the most widely read women’s magazines in the country (Glamour), to working as a writer at the world's leading theatrical advertising and branding agency (SpotCo). Be sure to check out her cover article for the November 2020 issue of Allure Magazine!

Where to find Baze?
www.beautybybaze.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Baze watching?
Homeland
The Undoing

Other topics of interest—
• Glocally Speaking: Mzungu
• The Whistling Thorn
• Uoma Beauty
• Salwa Petersen

Special Guest: Baze Mpinja.

Frankie's career has spanned broadcast journalism working with BET and ABC to the New York Post for 15 years as its City Hall Reporter and lead writer on legislative affairs from 1999-2008. His coverage of major news stories including the aftermath of the shooting death of Amadou Diallo, HIV/AIDS and healthcare disparities in communities around the Big Apple was critically acclaimed. In 2008 he exposed a decades long secretive slush fund scheme that resulted in reforming the way the City Council doled out taxpayer funds and a federal investigation that saw several lawmakers jailed. He covered crime, courts, labor issues and human services public health and politics, reporting from around the country and abroad for the paper.

Prof Edozien has also been keeping busy during the season of lockdowns as a participant in the Afrolit Sans Frontieres Festival which is a virtual literary festival founded by South African author and curator Zukiswa Wanner as a response to the curfews and lockdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic within the African continent. The fifth season will be live from 27 July - 3 August with live sessions twice daily at 12PM GMT and 6PM GMT @ Afrolit Sans Frontieres

I hope you enjoy this very illuminating discussion about the frameworks of a career as a writer and taking a book from concept to conception.

Where to find Frankie?
www.edozien.net
On Instagram
On LinkedIn
On Facebook
On Twitter

What’s on Frankie's must read list:
Ghana Must Go
Home Going by Yaa Gyasi
The Profit of Zongo Street by Mohammed Naseehu
Of Women and Frogs by Bisi Agjapon
The writings of Ayesha Harruna Attah
The writings of Ama Ata Aidoo
The writings of Wangari Maathai

What's Frankie listening to:
Master KG (feat. Burna Boy & Nomcebo Zikode) - Jerusalema
All things Burna Boy

Other talking points:
Afrolit Sans Frontiers
NYU Accra
The High Table by Tema Wilkey
Vidya Bookstore Ghana
Book Nook Bookstore

Special Guest: Chiké Frankie Edozien.

Frankie's career has spanned broadcast journalism working with BET and ABC to the New York Post for 15 years as its City Hall Reporter and lead writer on legislative affairs from 1999-2008. His coverage of major news stories including the aftermath of the shooting death of Amadou Diallo, HIV/AIDS and healthcare disparities in communities around the Big Apple was critically acclaimed. In 2008 he exposed a decades long secretive slush fund scheme that resulted in reforming the way the City Council doled out taxpayer funds and a federal investigation that saw several lawmakers jailed. He covered crime, courts, labor issues and human services public health and politics, reporting from around the country and abroad for the paper.

Prof Edozien has also been keeping busy during the season of lockdowns as a participant in the Afrolit Sans Frontieres Festival which is a virtual literary festival founded by South African author and curator Zukiswa Wanner as a response to the curfews and lockdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic within the African continent. The fifth season will be live from 27 July - 3 August with live sessions twice daily at 12PM GMT and 6PM GMT @ Afrolit Sans Frontieres

I hope you enjoy this very illuminating discussion about the frameworks of a career as a writer and taking a book from concept to conception.

Where to find Frankie?
www.edozien.net
On Instagram
On LinkedIn
On Facebook
On Twitter

What’s on Frankie's must read list:
Ghana Must Go
Home Going by Yaa Gyasi
The Profit of Zongo Street by Mohammed Naseehu
Of Women and Frogs by Bisi Agjapon
The writings of Ayesha Harruna Attah
The writings of Ama Ata Aidoo
The writings of Wangari Maathai

What's Frankie listening to:
Master KG (feat. Burna Boy & Nomcebo Zikode) - Jerusalema
All things Burna Boy

Other talking points:
Afrolit Sans Frontiers
NYU Accra
The High Table by Tema Wilkey
Vidya Bookstore Ghana
Book Nook Bookstore

Special Guest: Chiké Frankie Edozien.