The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast

Martina Downey is an executive with more than 35 years of experience in the college publishing industry. She is a singer/songwriter/recording artist who enjoys singing, writing, speaking, theater, opera, and fine dining. She has served her community through active leadership. Martina is a healer at Harriet's Apothecary and has been a member of Kitchen Table Giving Circle, African Asian Latina Lesbians United, Unity Fellowship Church, and Lavender Light Gospel Choir. Tawanna Sullivan is a publishing professional with over twenty years' experience licensing international and domestic rights. She was raised in Baltimore with a solid foundation in the Baptist church and 80s horror movies. Her collection of previously published short stories, The Next Girl & Other Lesbian Tales, features work across various genres. She is one of the founders of Kuma2.net, a website that encouraged black lesbians to write erotica. Currently, Tawanna is working on her first mystery novel and finding new ways to make her wife laugh. To catch up with Tawanna's writing and other projects, please visit her at: http://www.tawannasullivan.com KUMA is no longer actively maintained, but you can still read content at http://www.kuma2.net. Martina's music can be purchased on iTunes or visit her website for more information at http://www.martinadowney.com. Closing song, "Catch the News" courtesy of Martina Downey Episode cover art by Odera Igbokwe

The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast explores vision loss and intersectionality with Tracey Williams Sullivan, J.D. Tracey, better known as Trey is a retired law professional with a specialty in the area of commercial insurance technology risks. She was raised and educated in a Chicago suburb, but she practiced most of her career and advocacy involvement while living throughout the United States. She has settled into the Atlanta area where she spends her time traveling, learning new skills and hobbies as an aging, visually impaired person, and advocating for equality at every opportunity. Trey also enjoys mentoring fellow blind/visually impaired people in guide dog handling as well as state and federal rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Pat Hussain recounts her childhood in segregated Atlanta and her involvement in various social justice groups, especially her role in the creation of SONG (Southerners On New Ground). Hussain (b. 1950) was born and raised in Atlanta, where she attended segregated schools until high school. She came from a middle class family and was a debutante, but then joined the Marines when her brother came back from Vietnam psychologically damaged and feeling a failure. She married men twice before coming out as a lesbian in the early 1980s. She helped organize the first GLAAD chapter in Atlanta (when GLAAD was just forming), and had just been working for the Gay and Lesbian Task Force organizing the first March on Washington when she attended the Creating Change 1993 conference that led to the founding of SONG, of which she was the first co-director (with Pam McMichael). Biography taken from an interview of Pat Hussain by Lorraine Fontana for Sinister Wisdom. http://www.sinisterwisdom.org/SW93Supplement/Hussain

Jillian Ford is an associate professor of social studies education in the Secondary and Middle Grades Education department at Kennesaw State University. Ford earned her Ph.D. in educational studies from Emory University in 2011, her dissertation was titled Political Socialization and Citizenship Education for Queer Youth. Her community engagements, pedagogies, and research projects center the intellectual and pedagogical possibilities inherent in creating a more just world. Theoretically and pragmatically, Ford draws heavily on womanist frameworks. A firm believer in embodied learning, she is currently exploring yoga as a way to enhance critical thinking, imagination, and wonder in her students and herself. Her published work has appeared in the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Journal of Lesbian Studies, Multicultural Education, and several edited volumes. Ford can be reached at [email protected]

Cynthia McKinney, 54, is a native of Arkansas. She is the youngest of five children. After growing up in Arkansas she relocated to Indiana and lived and worked there for six years before moving to Atlanta. She went back to school and completed her bachelor's degree in English with a minor in African American Literature in 2009. She also completed coursework for a graduate program at Georgia State University in African American Studies. She has been employed by the Federal Reserve Bank as a Business Analyst for 19 years. Her interests include live theatre performances, reading, and traveling.

Tonia Poteat, PhD, PA-C, MPH Tonia Poteat, PhD, MPH, PA-C is an Assistant Professor of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in the Center for Health Equity Research. During her 22 years as a Physician Assistant, she has devoted her clinical practice to providing medically appropriate and culturally competent care to members of the LGBTQ community as well as people living with HIV. Her research and teaching attend to the health consequences of stigma and discrimination based on multiple marginalized identities. She has partnered with ZAMI NOBLA on research with Black lesbian communities for many years, including a ground-breaking study assessing the health needs of aging Black lesbians. She is currently working in partnership with ZAMI NOBLA and Johns Hopkins University on a study to understand barriers and facilitators to engagement in care for Black sexual minority women with breast cancer and/or abnormal mammograms. Are you a black woman identifying as same-gender loving, lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer, over 35, living anywhere in the country and has had an abnormal mammogram or breast cancer diagnosis, please take this confidential 25-minute survey: https://tinyurl.com/ourbreasthealth You will receive a $25.00 Visa Gift Card for your time. More information about the study can be found at https://www.facebook.com/OurBreastHealth/ Dr. Poteat can be reached at [email protected]. Photo by Connie Cross.

Show notes: Phyllis Adair Robinson, a visual artist, barber/beauty, poet and community activist was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Presently, she lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She owns her own business, PAR Art LLC - a multi-medium company, and works as a Master Barber incorporating her art in designer haircuts @ SheCuts Barber Studio in Midtown Atlanta. In her spare time, she mentors youth and advises them to pursue their dreams. (Episode cover art is a self-portrait by Phyllis Robinson.) Facebook: Phyllis Robinson Facebook: AdairsEdgeDesigner Kutz Facebook: PAR Art LLC Instagram: adairsedge Instagram: adairsart Twitter: adairsedge Twitter: adairsart Email: [email protected] Phone: 678.851.2947

Dr. Ashley Coleman Taylor talks about her work collecting black queer oral histories that will preserve an important part of Atlanta's past. We also talk about the impact of storytelling on creating/sustaining social justice movements and how Audre Lorde's concept of the "erotic" is an asset to harnessing one's personal power. Ashley Coleman Taylor, Ph.D. is an Instructor of Women's Studies at Agnes Scott College and formerly a Lecturer in the Institute for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Georgia State University. As an interdisciplinary ethnographer, she specializes in the intersecting lived experiences of black embodiment, black genders and sexualities, and African diaspora religious experience. She was a 2016-2017 Visiting Fellow at the James Weldon Johnson Institute at Emory University. Her book project, Majestad (MA-hey-stod) Negra: Race, Class, Gender and Religious Experience in the Puerto Rican Imaginary is an intersectional black feminist approach to race, class, gender, and activism in Puerto Rico. The manuscript is a finalist for the National Women's Studies Association/University of Illinois Press First Book Prize. Her current project, Atlanta as Black Queer Place, is an archival oral history project that centers the lived experiences of Atlanta-based LGBT activists and features qualitative geospatial methodologies. She can be contacted via email at [email protected]

In a world of inauthentic voices, it is refreshing to hear someone talk openly about grief and the journey forward after losing a loved one. Rev. Maressa Pendermon is such a voice as she shares her story on this episode of the podcast. This is a frank and generous conversation that also contains her thoughts on how losing her son has affected her work as a parish minister and hospice chaplain. Reverend Maressa Pendermon is an ordained reverend in the Unity Fellowship Church Movement (UFCM) currently serving as senior pastor of Unity Fellowship of Christ Church, Greater Atlanta. She also works as a hospice chaplain, providing spiritual care for individuals living with a terminal diagnosis and their families. In addition, Reverend Pendermon is a community strategist as well as trained facilitator. She is passionate about social justice issues and does her work in community with traditionally marginalized and low wealth individuals and communities from a human rights perspective; and through a womanist theological lens. A native of Boston, Massachusetts where she was raised in public housing, Maressa has been involved in advocacy, organizing and coalition building since the early 80"s. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Albany State University; a Juris Doctor from the University of Florida, College of Law; and a Masters of Divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory University. She also holds facilitation and organizational development certifications from the Interaction Institute for Social Change in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States, in a 5-4 decision declared same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. In our episode today, we talk with the first couple to marry after the court's decision, Petrina Bloodworth and Emma Foulkes, a same-sex couple living in Atlanta, GA. They talk about how Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, A LGBT advocacy organization helped them initiate the process, describe what it was like to wait until the passing of the law, and what married life looks like today. Georgia Equality Calls Supreme Court Ruling On Gay Marriage "National Victory" http://www.gpb.org/news/2015/06/26/georgia-equality-calls-supreme-court-ruling-on-gay-marriage-national-victory Gay Marriage Comes to Georgia http://specials.myajc.com/gay-marriage/ Same-Sex Couples Begin Marriages In Fulton County Courthouse https://www.wabe.org/same-sex-couples-begin-marriages-fulton-county-courthouse/

Show notes: Mary Midgett, an 82 year-old Black Lesbian writer of erotica living in San Francisco, talks about the importance of having meaningful work and a passionate sex life at every age. She has written two books, "New York Flavor with a San Francisco Beat" and "Brown on Brown: Black Lesbian Erotica." Her email address is [email protected] You can find her on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNK8wZkVnLo She has also written a monthly inspirational column, Midgett's Corner, for the Western Edition, a newspaper that caters to San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood. http://www.thewesternedition.com/?c=125&a=2880

A Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, Sheree L. Greer is a writer and educator living in Tampa, Florida. She founded The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase and support the work of Black women and women writers of color and is the author of two novels, Let the Lover Be and A Return to Arms, a short story collection, Once and Future Lovers, and a student writing guide, Stop Writing Wack Essays. Sheree is a VONA/VOICES alum, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice grantee, Ragdale Artist House Rubin Fellow, and YADDO fellow. She has completed Creative Capital Core Skills workshops and was awarded an NEA artist grant to support her current work in creative nonfiction. Sheree teaches composition, creative writing, fiction workshop, and African American literature at St. Petersburg College in Florida.

Mary Anne Adams, Founder and Executive Director of ZAMI NOBLA: National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging talks about why she gives back to her community and details the genesis of ZAMI NOBLA.

Dr. Dionne Bates, L.P.C., C.P.C.S., is a licensed professional counselor who holds a B.A. in sociology (with an emphasis in deviant behavior), an M.A. in counseling psychology, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. She is the author of the Self-SOULstice self-affirmation model. She is a member of the Licensed Professional Counselors Association of Georgia and is a Certified Professional Counselor Supervisor. From 2010-2015 Dr. Bates was an educational psychologist at Georgia Southern University's Counseling Center, where she had responsibility for students' mental health needs and provided education and support to faculty and staff. During her time at GSU, she also served as SAFE SPACE coordinator and represented the counseling center on the university's Professional Development Council. Dr. Bates also taught graduate studies, serving as an adjunct professor in GSU's College of Education and Alabama A&M University's Department of Psychology and Counseling. In 2015, Dr. Bates started her own practice, which she moved to Marietta, GA, in 2017. She's been serving the mental-health needs of clients in the metro Atlanta area ever since. As a Licensed Professional Counselor, Dr. Bates provides a range of psychotherapeutic, supervision, and consultative services. She is also an accomplished author, having published an e-guide, "Six Steps to an Emerging Authentic, Affirmed Self," and numerous articles with the Atlanta Tribune, VoyageATL, Blavity, Your Tango, and several national and international academic journals. Dr. Bates works with her clients to help them reach optimal mental health by teaching them to affirm themselves, affirm others, and live authentically.

Trey Anthony is a professional speaker, lifestyle coach, producer, author, and award-winning playwright. She uses the unique blend of comedy, theater, motivational talk, and her own life experiences to inspire and lift up others. Her sold-out hit play, 'da Kink in My Hair, grossed millions and broke box office records across Canada, the United States, and England after it premiered in 2001. It was named one of the top ten plays in Canadian theatrical history and received 4 NAACP Theatre awards, including Best Playwright. It continues to be produced on stages throughout North America. In 2007, Trey adapted 'da Kink in My Hair for the small screen, making her the first African Canadian woman to create, write, and produce a primetime television show on a major Canadian network. Since then she has written for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), Lionsgate, Will Packer Media, The Comedy Network, and CTV. Trey's daring and thought-provoking play, How Black Mothers Say I Love You, premiered in 2017. It was the first play to be featured on The Globe and Mail's Bestsellers list. It has now been optioned as a feature film by Conquering Lion Productions with critically acclaimed director, Clement Virgo (Empire, The Book of Negroes, The Wire) attached to direct. The screenplay was also shortlisted for the Sundance Institute's Screenwriters Lab and is in development with CBC to be adapted into a television series.

Angela Denise Davis, host of the ZAMI NOBLA Podcast talks about her journey creating and implementing the podcast.

This podcast is for black lesbians over 40 who have always wanted a sound source that gets them. This show centers their lives with conversations about health and wellness, love and relationships, and current events.