Adiba Nelson—Why Inclusion and Representation Matters

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of In the Dream House and Her Body and Other Parties, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize. She lives in Philadelphia with her wife.

Jillian Bessett: The voice in the intro and outro belong to songwriter Jillian Bessett. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station.

Mentioned in the Episode:

Machado's essay in Guernica: "The Trash Heap Has Spoken"

Keven Brockmeier's The Human Soul As A Rube Goldberg Device

Toni Morrison: "“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”

Machado's essay on Medium ; "Gaslight Nation"

Gaslight, 1944 film featuring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer

Machado's story "Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order SVU"

"Voices Carry" song and video by 'Til Tuesday

The Grand Guignol

Writers:

Yōko Ogawa

Toni Morrison (The Pieces I Am, phenomenal documentary on her life now on Netflix)

Karen Russell

Kelly Link

Shirley Jackson

Patricia Highsmith

Angela Carter

adrienne maree brown is the author of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, and is the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements. She is a writer, social justice facilitator, pleasure activist, healer and doula living in Detroit. brown has been facilitating professionally for over fifteen years, and has worked with hundreds of organizations at all levels of scale including informal collectives, foundations, national networks and more. She is the cohost of the How to Survive the End of the World podcast.

Jillian Bessett: The voice in the intro and outro belong to songwriter Jillian Bessett. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station.

Mentioned in the Episode:

Beyoncé

Lizzo

A Little Juju Podcast: “OK, So Beyonce is a Witch."

Audre Lorde, “Uses of the Erotic”

Sonya Passi is the founder and CEO of FreeFrom, a national organization on a mission to create pathways to financial security and long-term safety for survivors of gender-based violence. Sonya has been a domestic violence activist since she was 16 years old. Before founding FreeFrom, she launched the Family Violence Appellate Project while earning her law degree at UC Berkeley. For her work with in the field, Sonya was listed in** Forbes' 30 Under 30 Class of 2017 For Law and Policy, and she is an Ashoka, Roddenberry**, and New America CA Fellow.

Jillian Bessett: The voice in the intro and outro belong to songwriter Jillian Bessett. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station.

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Survivor Wealth Summit (to be held July 24-25, 2019) is a groundbreaking two-day summit to explore the concept of survivor wealth and develop a deeper understanding of financial trauma and healing. Attendees will build new skills and tools to support your own financial security as well as that of your clients and the gender-based violence movement as a whole.

Amnesty International works both at home and abroad to tackle the most pressing human rights violations.

Edgar Villanueva is the author of Decolonizing Wealth: Indigineous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance. He is a nationally recognized expert on social justice philanthropy. He has consulted with numerous philanthropies on advancing racial equity. He is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe and resides in New York City.

Saundra Davis is a financial coach, educator, consultant and motivational speaker who is nationally recognized for her work with community-based organizations that focus on asset building for the working poor. She is the executive director and founder of Sage Financial Solutions, an organization dedicated to helping communities develop comprehensive financial education programs.

Chani Nicholas is a writer and astrologer. She has been a student of astrology for the past 30 years and a counseling astrologer for over 20 years. She aims to make astrology practical, approachable, and useful. She believes the personal is political, art is magic, and that all should have access to the healing practices that we need. Writing horoscopes is her way of creating a free, communal, online space where healing can occur.

Family Violence Appellate Project is the only nonprofit in California dedicated to helping domestic violence survivors and their children by appealing dangerous trial court decisions on their behalf, for free. We help survivors of abuse get the safety and justice they deserve.

Julie Schwietert Collazo is the co-founder and director of Immigrant Families Together (IFT), an organization founded in response to the zero tolerance immigration policy initiated in 2018 that has resulted in the separation of thousands of immigrant parents and their children at the U.S./Mexico border. She brings her background as a bilingual journalist and former social worker to bear on her work with IFT, which raised more than a million dollars in just over six months, posting bond for more than 73 detained parents, grandparents, and older siblings who were separated from children. The ongoing work of IFT involves providing support to these families— housing, legal counsel, medical/dental/mental health care, and other necessities— as they proceed with their immigration cases. She is currently writing a book with one of the mothers affected by the zero tolerance policy. The book will be published in English and Spanish editions by HarperOne.

Mentioned in the episode:

The first mom bonded out Yeni González.

Art installations of bronzed baby shoes in Oregon and of audio projected from chainlink cages in **New York City (#nokidsincages) **in response to family separation and kids held in detention camps.

Julie Schwietert Collazo: Woman of Distinction and honor for Women’s History Month.

“Why Are Separated Families Told They Must Use a Tiny Georgia Travel Agency to Reunite?” in the Texas Monthly by Katy Vine

**“‘An Angel From God,’ and Border Agents Took Her: Trump’s cruel separation of immigrant families continued after he declared he was ending the practice.” **in The New York Times by Nicholas Kristof

TIffany Cabán, expected winner of the primary for District Attorney in Queens, NY

Kristen Bell

Amy Irvin is the executive director of the New Orleans Abortion Fund and served as the first intake coordinator. She has worked at abortion clinics in New Orleans and Atlanta, and was recognized as the Volunteer of the Year by Planned Parenthood of Kentucky in 2006. She earned her Master of Science in Social Work at the University of Louisville where she researched the impact of parental consent laws for minors at the ACLU of Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Project, and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Agnes Scott College. After undergraduate school she taught English as a Second Language, coordinated World Refugee Day activities, and developed a refugee childcare program at the International Rescue Committee. She's also a former union organizer with the United Food and Commercial Workers, organizing grocery store workers in Arizona and Indiana.

The New Orleans Abortion Fund challenges the inequalities of class, gender, race, and immigrant status by providing financial help to people who cannot afford the full cost of an abortion. NOAF affirms a person's right to control their body and work to ensure that everyone has access to quality medical care.

Jessie Nieblas, co-founder of the New Orleans Abortion Fund, received her Master of Public Health from Tulane University in the Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Science and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Santa Barbara in Women's Studies. In her 10 years of work on sexual violence prevention and intervention, reproductive health and rights, and health care access, Jessie has designed, implemented, and evaluated programs; conducted outreach and engagement efforts with diverse communities; and raised funds through direct appeals, grants, and events. She has served as co-chair of Take Back the Night at UCSB, volunteered on RAINN's Online Hotline, and currently works at an anti-sexual violence organization.

The mission of Women With A Vision is to improve the lives of marginalized women, their families, and communities by addressing the social conditions that hinder their health and well-being. We accomplish this through relentless advocacy, health education, supportive services, and community-based participatory research.

The People's Assembly

Protesters stage a 'die-in' over proposed abortion bill in Louisiana

Maternal Mortality in Louisiana

Sex Education in Louisiana

Shout Your Abortion is a decentralized network of individuals talking about abortion on our own terms and encouraging others to do the same. Following the U.S. Congress’s attempts to defund Planned Parenthood in 2015, the hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion became a viral conduit for abortion storytelling, receiving extensive media coverage and positioning real human experiences at the center of America’s abortion debate for the very first time. SYA quickly evolved into a grassroots movement, which has inspired countless individuals to share their abortion stories through art, media, and community events all over the country.

Lindy West is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman (2016, Hachette Books) as well as the upcoming essay collection The Witches Are Coming (2019, Hachette Books). In 2018 she adapted Shrill as a half-hour comedy for Hulu, set to air in 2019. Her work has also appeared in This American Life, The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, GQ, Vulture, Jezebel, The Stranger, and others. She is the founder of I Believe You, It's Not Your Fault, an advice blog for teens, as well as the co-founder of the reproductive rights destigmatization campaign #ShoutYourAbortion.

Open Access is a bi-weekly web series produced by the New Orleans Abortion Fund, aims to engage advocates from local and statewide organizations about their work through casual conversation. Exploring the role of women in leadership, the possibility of collaboration between issue groups, and how reproductive rights fits into a larger framework, Open Access explores activism and advocacy in our community, and invites community members to become involved.

ProFrequency on WHIV

The New Orleans Abortion Fund's OutLoud is a new initiative that seeks to amplify experiences with abortion. From patients who have undergone the procedure to clinic escorts on the frontlines of anti-choice propaganda, abortion stories are everywhere.NOAF OutLoud aims to bring these narratives to the surface and ignite discussion about abortion by sharing stories at small house parties of friends. These informal gatherings utilize video, writing and conversation to explore our personal and professional experiences with abortion, and enlighten our understanding of reproductive health, rights and justice.

Louisiana Abortion Stories Project: In conjunction with NOAF OutLoud, the Louisiana Abortion Stories Project seeks to address abortion stigma at the individual and community levels through recording first-person narratives. The project explores decision-making about abortion care; experiences with sex education; and the impact of community values and religious perspectives on reproductive health, education, and public policy, as well as a deeper examination of the social, logistical, and financial barriers in accessing abortion care.

“1 in 4 U.S. woman will have an abortion by age 45.”

Shrill is an American comedy web television series, based on the book Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West and starring Aidy Bryant, that premiered on March 15, 2019, on Hulu.

Our Bodies, Our Doctors “tells the story of a rebellion in the field of medicine as a cohort of physicians faces abortion stigma within their own profession and confronts religious control over health care decisions. Their fight takes them into a larger struggle over the heart and soul of American medicine.”

Dr. Yaba Blay is the Dan Blue Endowed Chair in Political Science at North Carolina Central University. An ethnographer, scholar, and content creator, her scholarship centers on global Black identities and the politics of embodiment, with particular attention given to hair and skin color politics. In 2012, Dr. Blay partnered with CNN to produce Black in America: Who is Black in America? – a television documentary inspired by her book, (1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race. In it, she explores the interconnected nuances of skin color politics and Black racial identity, and challenges narrow perceptions of Blackness as both an identity and a lived reality. Named to The Root 100 (2014), an annual list of top Black influencers, she is one of today’s leading voices on colorism and global skin color politics and, to date, her commentary has been featured across some of today’s leading media outlets including: CNN, BET, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times, Ebony Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Root, Huffington Post Live, Colorlines, Al Jazeera America. Applauded by O, The Oprah Magazine for her social media activism, Dr. Blay is the creator and producer of a number of online campaigns including #PrettyPeriod - a visual celebration of dark-skinned Black beauty - and #ProfessionalBlackGirl - a webseries and multi-platform digital community dedicated to celebrating Black Girl culture.

Professional Black Girl is a multi-platform digital community that celebrates the everyday magic of Black women and girls! By announcing ourselves “Professional Black Girls,” we assert an unapologetic identity in a world that too often tries to tell us how we “ought to” act. We know that “acting” like anything other than ourselves robs us of our freedom, so instead, we choose, embrace, and celebrate who we are. We are professional code-switchers. We hold Ph.Ds and listen to trap music. We twerk and we work. We are Professional Black Girls.

Jillian Bessett: The voice in the intro and outro belong to songwriter Jillian Bessett. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station.

**Referenced in the interview: **

Sonya Renee Taylor is the Founder and Radical Executive Officer of The Body is Not An Apology, a digital media and education company promoting radical self-love and body empowerment as the foundational tool for social justice and global transformation. Sonya’s work as a highly sought-after award-winning Performance Poet, activist, and transformational leader continues to have global reach. Sonya is a former National and International poetry slam champion and author of two books, including The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love. She is an educator and thought leader who has enlightened and inspired organizations, audiences and individuals from board rooms to prisons, universities to homeless shelters, elementary schools to some of the biggest stages in the world.

Tarana Burke 's passion for community organizing began in the late 1980s, when she joined a youth development organization called 21st Century and led campaigns around issues like racial discrimination, housing inequality and economic justice. Her career took a turn toward supporting survivors of sexual violence upon moving to Selma, Alabama, to work for 21st Century. She encountered dozens of black girls who were sharing stories of sexual violence and abuse, stories she identified with very well. She realized too many girls were suffering through abuse without access to resources, safe spaces and support, so in 2007 she created Justbe Inc., an organization committed to the empowerment and wellness of black girls. The impacts of Justbe Inc. are widespread, as the program, which was adopted by every public school in Selma, has hundreds of alumni who have gone on to thrive and succeed in various ways. Burke's role as the senior director at Girls for Gender Equity in Brooklyn, NY, an intergenerational nonprofit dedicated to strengthening local communities by creating opportunities for young women and girls to live self-determined lives, is a continuation of what she considers her life's work. Since #MeToo, the movement she created more than ten years ago, became a viral hashtag, she has emerged as a global leader in the evolving conversation around sexual violence and the need for survivor-centered solutions. Her theory of using empathy to empower survivors is changing the way the nation and the world think about and engage with survivors. Her belief that healing isn't a destination but a journey has touched and inspired millions of survivors who previously lived with the pain, shame and trauma of their assaults in isolation.

Tarriona "Tank" Ball. Poet. Singer. Actress. Artist. Vocalist. Michelle's Baby Girl. New Orleans' Baby Girl. Front Woman of Tank & the Bangas. Professional Black Girl.

Chef Linda Green. Chef. Keeper of Culinary Traditions. Winner of Food Network’s Chopped - Pride of New Orleans. 'The Yakamein Lady.' Professional Black Girl.

Queen Tahj Williams. College Student. Track Coach. Mardi Gras Indian. Big Queen of the Golden Eagles. aka "Queen Pocahantas." Professional Black Girl.

Bozoma “Boz” St. John is an Ghanian-American businesswoman and marketing executive who is the current chief marketing officer at William Morris Endeavor. Previously, she served as chief brand officer at Uber until June 2018.

Raynell Steward, AKA Wuzzam Supa/Supa Cent. Entrepreneur. Social Media Personality. Influencer. Makeup Mogul. CEO of Crayon Case Cosmetics. Professional Black Girl.

NISHTA J. MEHRA is the proud first-generation daughter of Indian immigrants and the author of two essay collections: The Pomegranate King, self-published in 2013, and Brown White Black, published by Picador in February 2019. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Mehra now lives with her wife, Jill, and their six-year-old, Shiv, in Phoenix. She spends her days working as a high-school English teacher, cooking for friends & family, reading as voraciously as possible, and hiking on South Mountain whenever she gets the chance. Connect with her via her website, nishtajmehra.com and on Twitter & Instagram @nishtajmehra

Jillian Bessett: The voice in the intro and outro belong to songwriter Jillian Bessett. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station.

Referenced in the interview:

The Blue Jean Gourmet: Nishta's food blog.

**Nishta's essay "Black is the Color Of My True Love’s Hair,"** published in Guernica.

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

From his interview for On Being with Krista Tippett, Jon Kabat-Zinn: "And one of the things that we say in there is of all the spiritual practices, you know, no matter how severe the monastery and how arduous the particular practices associated with it, living with children is probably the most powerful spiritual practice that anybody could ever be engaged in if you open yourself to it that way. I like to look at them as when they’re little as little living Zen masters that are sort of parachuted into our lives to push all our buttons and see how we’re going to work with the challenges they throw at us in addition to, of course, having to put food on the table, pay the rent, build a career, have a loving relationship, you know …"

Adiba Nelson: Adiba Nelson is a writer, author, performer, mom, wife, and occasional rabble-rouser. According to Jes Baker, Adiba is the wittiest, sassiest, most survivingest broad you'll ever meet. Adiba Nelson is the girl that maybe you shouldn't take everywhere, but you do anyway. She's that laugh you hear from two blocks away. The girl who tells it like it is, with a wink and a smile, because her mama raised her right. And she has zero qualms about solving heated arguments with a dance battle—she is particularly skilled in the art of 90's dance culture, and will running man you into oblivion. Seriously. She is also a contributing writer to various online sources—everything from HuffPo to My Brown Baby, children's book author, public speaker, size acceptance activist and disability rights/inclusion advocate.

Jillian Bessett: The voice in the intro and outro belong to songwriter Jillian Bessett. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station.

Referenced in the interview:

Meet Clarebelle Blue: Meet ClaraBelle Blue is the debut children's picture book by Adiba Nelson, and the first book of The ClaraBelle Series. Loosley based on Nelson's own daughter, Meet ClaraBelle Blue is told through the voice of ClaraBelle's mom, Viola. In this funny, sweet, beautifully illustrated book we get to see how like the other kids ClaraBelle truly is, regardless of having special needs. Children reading it will come to find that what ClaraBelle's mom says in the book is true - "she's ClaraBelle Blue, and she's just like YOU!"

Sesame Street: Sesame Street is an American educational children's television series that combines live action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry.

Daniel Tiger: Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood is an animated program for preschoolers ages 2 to 4 which builds on the pioneering PBS series, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Won't You Be My Neighbor?: An exploration of the life, lessons, and legacy of iconic children's television host, Fred Rogers.

Macro: is a media brand representing the voice and perspective
 of persons of color (“POC”): "We create and finance film, television, digital content, technologies and brands which are driven by people of color that encompass universal themes to which all people can connect and relate."

The Full Nelson: Emmy Award-winning documentary about Adiba Nelson.

Articles/Essays by Adiba Nelson:

Three Ways Burlesque Has Made Me a Better Mom

From Period to Post Partum: How my Hysterectomy Changed Me

The End Of Black History Month: You Do You, I'm Doing Me

My Name is Adiba Nelson and I Am a Food Addict

Jade Beall is a proud mother and a Tucson, AZ based world-renowned photographer specializing in truthful images of women to inspire feeling irreplaceably beautiful as a counter-balance to the airbrushed photoshopped imagery that dominates main stream media. Her recent work "A Beautiful Body Project" has touched 100,000's of women's lives and garnered global attention from media outlets including the BBC, The Huffington Post & beyond. Jade's book series and media platform feature untouched photos of women alongside their stories of their journeys to build self-esteem in a world that thrives off women feeling insecure. Jade's dream is to inspire future generations of women to be free from painful suffering from years of feeling not enough and embrace their sacred beauty just as they are in this precious moment.

Jillian Bessett: The voice in the intro and outro belong to songwriter Jillian Bessett. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station.

Referenced in the interview:

In The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf wrote: "“A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.”

Jes Baker is an author, international speaker and blogger with a background in mental health where she's worked as a BHT, Psychosocial Rehabilitation Specialist, Arizona state credentialed Peer Support Specialist and Educator. Her two books are Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls, a bestselling handbook created for those who are beginning their body acceptance journey and Landwhale, a memoir-esque exploration of the complex conversations that arise while navigating the world as a fat woman.

Sonya Renee Taylor is the Founder and Radical Executive Officer of The Body is Not An Apology, a digital media and education company promoting radical self-love and body empowerment as the foundational tool for social justice and global transformation. Sonya’s work as a highly sought-after award-winning Performance Poet, activist, and transformational leader continues to have global reach. Sonya is a former National and International poetry slam champion and author of two books, including The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love. She is an educator and thought leader who has enlightened and inspired organizations, audiences and individuals from board rooms to prisons, universities to homeless shelters, elementary schools to some of the biggest stages in the world.