Mental health, truth & how to rope-a-dope racism.

Host Spirit Tawfiq talks with Jocelyn Boreta, the co-founder of a bilingual mobile herb clinic by and for Latinx and Indigenous people. The Botanical Bus is helping people in her community through the power of plants and a connection to ancestors, helping cultivate health equity and the feeling of belonging. 

Community health workers called promotoras are providing culturally-centered health services. The promotoras meet people where they are, literally and figuratively, by taking the bus out to worksites and family service center hubs.

Author Connor Towne O’Neill explores the history of white supremacy in his book Down Along with That Devil’s Bones. On a special bonus episode of Roots of the Spirit, we’ll hear about his journey to fight against racism by examining the uncomfortable truths of our nation’s past.

Buy the Book: https://www.workman.com/products/down-along-with-that-devils-bones/paperback

Host Spirit Tawfiq talks with Dr. Kimber Shelton about the recent release of her Handbook on Counseling African American Women, which details the mental health needs and treatment interventions for black women.

Handbook on Counseling African American Women:

https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Counseling-African-American-Women/dp/1440875952

Dr. Kimber Shelton:

https://www.kls-counseling.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/CounselingBlackWomen

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/counselingblackwomen/

Host Spirit Tawfiq talks to noted meditation practitioner Shamair Courage of LoveWorks365, who will be leading a meditation session at a fundraiser on May 22, 2022 at The Studio at Athleta Flatiron to provide scholarships for women to attend the Roots of the Spirit Healing and Joy Retreat.

GoFundMe donations: https://gofund.me/18016786

Sign up for Roots of the Spirit Healing and Joy Retreat: https://www.rootsofthespirit.com/healing-joy-retreat

Host Spirit Tawfiq kicks off Season 2 with Dr. Thema Bryant, who will become President of the American Psychological Association in 2023.

Roots of the Spirit is launching the And Wellness For All initiative, which promotes honest discussion about the wellness of people of color in the U.S.

4:20 Announcing the inaugural Roots of the Spirit Healing & Joy Retreat for black, indiginous, and women of color

6:00 Sign up for retreat and retreat details

6:15 Retreat will feature fresh farm foods, yoga, meditation, herbal farm, cacao ceremony

7:50 Scholarship fundraiser for access to retreat

10:55 Welcome Dr. Thema Bryant 

13:30 Dr. Thema’s interest in psychology

19:00 Psychological homelessness

25:00 Racism lies 

26:40 Psychological damage of oppression

33:30 Empowering ourselves to influence policy and promote change

36:20 Resistance strategies

41:30 Being the descendents of the oppressor

51:10 American Psychological Association’s apology for promoting systemic rascism

Sign up for Roots of the Spirit Healing and Joy Retreat: https://www.rootsofthespirit.com/healing-joy-retreat

Healing and Joy Retreat Fundraiser:

https://gofund.me/18016786

Dr. Thema Bryant’s website: https://drthema.com/

Buy Dr. Thema Bryant’s book, Homecoming: Overcome Fear and Trauma to Reclaim Your Whole, Authentic Self. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/059341831X?tag=randohouseinc46150-20

Treat yourself to a conversation with Civil Rights Icon, New York Times Bestselling Author, and Speaker Ruby Bridges who at the age of six was the first Black student to integrate an all-white elementary school in New Orleans in 1960.

Her walk through the front doors of William Frantz Elementary School on Nov. 14, 1960, was immortalized in Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With in Robert Coles’ book The Story of Ruby Bridges, and in the Disney movie Ruby Bridges.

Published in November 2020, This is Your Time is her first book in over twenty years following the publication of her award-winning autobiography, Through My Eyes. She established the Ruby Bridges Foundation to provide leadership training programs that inspire youth and community leaders to embrace and value the richness of diversity.

Bridges is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NAACP Martin Luther King Award, the Presidential Citizens Medal, and honorary doctorate degrees from Connecticut College, College of New Rochelle, Columbia University Teachers College, and Tulane University. She recently named one of 100 iconic Women of the Century by USA Today.

**Please note that the N-word is used once in this episode in a historical context**

Ruby Bridges Foundation: www.RubyBridges.com

Purchase Ruby Bridges’ New York Times bestselling book This Is Your Time: https://bit.ly/3wM97c5

Disney's Ruby Bridges (movie): https://bit.ly/3a5Pn9U

Instagram: rubybridgesofficial

Join special guest, Dr. Todd Mealy for a powerful conversation about his new book Race Conscious Pedagogy: Disrupting Racism at Majority White Schools, and how to be a powerful antiracism co-conspirator. Dr. Mealy is a 20-year educator at both the secondary level and in higher education. For two decades, Mealy has advocated for race consciousness in schools. He has written extensively on the topic, including the publication of seven books. He also works as the Director of Equity and Instruction at The Bond Educational Group, and serves as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion trainer.

Connect with Dr. Mealy:

Website: www.toddmealy.com

Twitter + Facebook: @ToddMealy

Equity Institute for Race Conscious Pedagogy: www.raceconsciouspedagogy.org

Buy the book Race Conscious Pedagogy: Disrupting Racism at Majority White Schools
www.raceconsciouspedagogy.org/the-book 

Join Roots of the Spirit podcast host, Spirit Tawfiq as she answers a few questions from listeners - topics such as Trump banning antiracism work across the federal government, strategies to maintain sanity in these tumultuous times, and how to speak to students about the election. 

Links I mention in the podcast:

Roots of the Spirit website:
www.RootsoftheSpirit.com 

Roots of the Spirit Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/RootsoftheSpirit

Roots of the Spirit Facebook Community:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1994495373986013

WomensActivism.NYC: www.WomensActivism.NYC 

Outdoor Afro: www.OutdoorAfro.com

Sojourn to the Past: www.SojournProject.org

Smithsonian National Museum of American History "Girlhood: It's Complicated" exhibition featuring Minnijean Brown Trickey's (Little Rock Nine) personal collection, including her high custom-designed school graduation dress. https://americanhistory.si.edu/girlhood 

Spirit and Hisham Tawfiq talk the raw truth about the mental health impacts of racism + the rage, sadness, and frustrations of everyday racism. Hisham introduces a fresh new concept, "how to rope-a-dope racism" ...and they discuss the power of resistance, radical self-care, and love as liberation. 

In today's episode, we hear from Dr. Christiana Best-Giacomini, a remarkable woman who captivates us with her mother's story infused with unwavering courage, strength, and sacrifice as she left Grenada at the tender age of 28 to immigrate to the U.S. 

Here's a link to Dr. Best's moving story about her mother, Pearl Mavis Munro. https://www.womensactivism.nyc/stories/5331

Dr. Christiana Best-Giacomini is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work and Equitable Community Practice at the University of Saint Joseph.  She holds a Ph.D. in Social Welfare and is a licensed social worker.  Dr. Best is the host and creator of the podcast Inside Out/Outside In, which engages in conversations between academia and its communities and is framed by the themes of diversity, inclusion and equity.