Rewriting the Rules®

Send us Fan Mail For our second episode of Rewriting the Rules℠ Season 2, we focused on Creating a Community That Wraps Its Arms Around Our Youth. Our host, Dr. Tracine Asberry, Executive Director of St. Paul Youth Services (SPYS), spoke with one of her former SPYS’ Behavior Intervention Program Specialists, longtime community leader, and current licensed social worker, Jamil Stamschror-Lott. This...

Send us Fan Mail We're back for a new season at Rewriting the Rules℠ with Dr. Lee-Ann Stephens, Minnesota Teacher of Year (2006). Lee-Ann joins the podcast to kick off Season 2 by welcoming students back into the classrooms across the globe, detailing evidence on what makes a GREAT teacher in the classroom, AND offering recommendations to decision-makers locally, nationally, and globally on h...

Send us Fan Mail Thank you for joining us on Season One of the Rewriting the Rules podcast!! This season, we explored the legacies of strength, creativity, and innovation in Black communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color. It’s been a joy and a labor of love to get to sit in conversation with all of our amazing guests and to share their wisdom with you. Stay tuned for Season Tw...

Send us Fan Mail Kyra Bester-Hughes is a remarkable youth leader and a friend of St. Paul Youth Services. She joins the podcast for a fearless conversation that explores some of the mistakes adults have made when working with her through challenging times; as well as what they’ve gotten right. Tracine and Kyra also talk about SPYS’ youth-centric approach, where Kyra has been active in the YouthPow...

Send us Fan Mail What does it mean to live fully and free? In this episode, Tracine invites longtime friend, Jason Jackson, a Human Resources Diversity and Inclusion consultant for HealthPartners (a US-based Medical Insurance Company) into our ongoing discussion on how the practice of love shows up in our work and in our lives. For this episode, they explore the concept of intersectional racial eq...

Send us Fan Mail Emerging fiction, picture book, and comic book writer,  Crown Shepherd (aka Crown the Writer) joins the podcast to explore the journey of discovering and harnessing her own superpower and genius. Crown's writing is deeply rooted in her upbringing and surroundings and she draws on her experiences to create Black characters who are a representation of real children in her life....

Send us Fan Mail Chaun Webster, Graphic Designer, Publisher and Poet, is back on the podcast to talk about and read from his newly published poetry collection, Wail Song . Chaun describes Wail Song as an “attempt at care,”  which also “lays bare how the construction of the human and the animal both rely on Black abjection.” In this episode, Chaun discusses this long poem with host, Tracine. Togeth...

Send us Fan Mail ‘Black People Don’t Use Measuring Spoons’ is the third installment of our Women’s History Month series. In this episode, Tracine talks to Leah Penniman, a Black Kreyol farmer, mother, soil nerd, author and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York. Together, they explore the connections that Black communities, Indigenous Communities, and Communities of color h...

Send us Fan Mail Respecting Mothers as Loving Experts - Part 3 of 3 is part of our Women’s History Month series. In this special three-part episode, we are honored to share the wisdom, discernment, and intuition of eight mothers who are experts at living. In Part 3, we speak with Ajibike “BiKé” Ojomo, Michelle Dennard and Portia Jackson. In their own words, we hear from these Black mothers as they...

Send us Fan Mail Respecting Mothers as Loving Experts - Part 2 of 3 is part of our Women’s History Month series. In this special three-part episode, we are honored to share the wisdom, discernment, and intuition of eight mothers who are experts at living. In Part 2, we speak with Jill Greendeer, an Indigenous mother and Eboun Wilbourn, a Laotian mother. In their own words, we hear from them as the...

Send us Fan Mail Respecting Mothers as Loving Experts - Part 1 of 3 is part of our Women’s History Month series. In this special three-part episode, we are honored to share the wisdom, discernment, and intuition of eight mothers who are experts at living. In Part 1, we speak with with Julia Freeman, Nyia Harris, and Chakita “Kita” Lewis. In their own words, we hear from these Black mothers as they...

Send us Fan Mail ‘Forward Figures: Untold Stories of Black Girls and Women’ is part of our Women’s History Month series. In this episode, Tracine talks to Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, a Ghanaian feminist, writer and author of The Sex Lives of African Women , which Publishers Weekly described as “an astonishing report on the quest for sexual liberation.” We talk with Nana Darkoa about writing her book, w...

Send us Fan Mail Our first episode takes inspiration from feminist writer and thinker, bell hooks. All About Love is an intimate discussion with Chaun Webster , a Minneapolis Graphic Designer, Publisher and Poet, that explores love as a practice for rewriting the rules of society. In conversation with host Tracine, Chaun explores how love informs his artistic practice, what Black boys and men are...

Send us Fan Mail We are Rewriting the Rules℠ A new bi-weekly podcast series brought to you by St. Paul Youth Services, a Minnesota US based non-profit that is a leader in reimagining how our community engages with and holds itself accountable for Black youth. Episodes begin on Thursday, February 16th . Learn more at www. SPYS.org/podcast