Dem Black Mamas Podcast

Dear Mamas & Magic Makers What if I told you a campaign was a story?  And if Black women are the heroes of elections, how come we're never the main characters in the movie?  It's Black Healing/History Month here at Dem Black Mamas, and today we're holding space for a conversation that feels both urgent and ancestral: electoral politics and Black motherhood. Black motherhood has never been separate...

Dear Mamas & Magic Makers We're celebrating a significant milestone: 10 YEARS of podcasting. In this episode, we reflect on our journey, share personal stories, and bid a loving farewell to our co-host, Thea Monyee. We delve into our experiences and growth over the past decade, shedding light on the transformations in our personal lives, spiritual journeys, motherhood, and creative ventures. From...

Dear Mama, I'm a simple girl from South Carolina whose mother was a union leader in an anti-union state, so politics was a part of the day-to-day conversations in my home.  I am a Black artist, interrogating, reflecting, and expressing new possibilities in the world. I'm a Black mama who desires a free country for her Black children.  I'm a Black birth worker who wants Black women to go into birth...

Dear Mama & Magic Makers,  What if we told you there is an elder alive today who has the blueprint for this moment? Mamas & Magic Makers, if you don't do nothing else before the end of the year, sit at the feet of an elder and LISTEN.  Keyword LISTEN.  Find an elder or make yourself available to one who is willing not only to share their wisdom but also to be vulnerable, sharing their mistakes, re...

Dear Mamas & Magic Makers What if I told you your child was born a sexual being?  What if I told you that when it comes to sex and our children, we should focus on preparation instead of prevention? What if I told you intimacy and pleasure for your child were on the other side of your fear of them making a mistake?  What if I told you resting in that fear erases a part of your child's humanity and...

Dear Mamas & Magic Makers What if I told you the collision of declining birth rates in the U.S., the rise of anti-intellectualism, and the rollback of reproductive rights are having a profound impact on your child's potential college experience?  How do we help prepare our children for the future when the world we know is crumbling before our eyes?  In this episode, we talk with one of our favorit...

Dear Mama,  What if I told you much of the growth our children may need to show up in the ways we're nurturing them to show up comes through falling in love? When we tell our children not to focus on love, are we parenting out of fear?  What message does that send to our children about the priority to place on intimate relationships, and what generational impact does that have on our culture?  How...

Dear Mama, What if I told you the saying,  "real gs move in silence is killing your dream?  What if I told you to tell everyone and anyone you know what you want to do?  What if I told you your notes app and Evernote are the keys to the manifestation of your dreams?  What if I told you every time we tell our stories, we reclaim what was stolen? Every time we create, we declare: We are still here. ...

Dear Mama, What if I told you your mess tells a story, and your clutter can block your clarity?  What if I told you to reframe cleaning as a way to express gratitude, practice self-care, and create a sacred space where your spirit can operate effortlessly and creativity flows freely?  What have you put down that you need to put away?  What items are you holding onto that no longer serve you?  Thes...

Dear Mamas & Magic Makers, Lissen yall Sinners was all about Annie for us!  We ain't gon hold you with our normal intro. In this episode we dive into: Annie, power, and Black motherhood Loss, longing, and sex Black humanity, spirituality, and grief in Ryan Coogler's films Black migration & the resurgence of Southern Roots PLUS - we have social proof that a Black mama would have made a COMPLETELY d...

Dear Mama,  What if I told you Black mamas aren't superheroes, that the cape is choking us, and our backs are brittle?  What if I told you motherhood ain't killing us, though, but the narratives we buy into hook, line, and sinker are? What if you had the option not to be the primary custodial parent?  Would you decline out of obligation to the belief that a good Black mama would never choose to le...

Dear Mama, How do we resist the urge to rescue when we've been taught our whole lives to be saviors?  How do we set boundaries when the world is burning? What do we do when we've been deemed the backbone of the community, but our backbones are brittle and breaking? Since the election, these are the questions and conversations black women have been having online and, especially, in group chats.  So...

Dear Mama, What do Telvin Osborne, Black marriage, generational wealth, Altadena, data as currency, the TV show Paradise, and white women in Idaho have in common?  We cover them all in this episode.  Yup, it's hot topics, and we got hot takes well, not hot takes.  We got Black Mama takes on all the above.  In this episode, we talk: ✨How Telvin Osborne is relevant to Black women resting ✨The real...

Dear Mama, What does it mean to make it home, to create a place of rest and reprieve, joy and sanctuary, an archive of your children's treasures?  What happens when you can't make it home, return to your place of rest and reprieve, joy and sanctuary, a reflection of your taste and intention? What happens when the archive of your children's treasure, what they left behind to be kept safe, is incine...

Dear Mama, What if I told you I didn't start a business because I wanted to be a boss? I started my business because I wanted to be free, because I saw no other path to fully realizing my dreams, and according to a 2022 article, I'm not alone in finding entrepreneurship on my liberation journey.  In the article entitled Why Black Women Are the Fastest-Growing Group of Entrepreneurs , Erica Thompso...

Dear Mama, What if I told you to offer grief a seat at the table?  What if I told you grief has no other duties except to be with you?  It has nowhere to be and is not bound by time.  Grief is patient.  Grief is relentless, and as Akilah S. Richards, our guest for this episode and a DBM fave, says, "Grief is not something to be fixed but something for you to learn to be more skilled at processing....

Dear Mama, What if I told you I didn't think I had the words for the intro of this episode because we recorded it before the election, and after November 5th, joy was THE LAST THING I wanted to talk about?  I wish I could say thinking of our ancestors pulled me through, but the truth is reaching forward in time helped me more than reaching back, and now more than ever, we are going to need joy not...

Dear Mama, There's no deep intro for this episode.  In this episode, we talk: ✨Which version of "All Cried Out" is best, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam or Allure & 112 ✨Election 2024 ✨How God blessed us with Morris Chesnut's rise from Ricky to Cory Cash WE HAVE RANGE! The way we move from levity to depth, Thea breaking down Joe Biden's scorpio tendencies to NeKisha connecting COVID to Zoom organizing to...

Dear Mama, What if I told you there's no such thing as snapping back after giving birth, only expanding into?  What if I asked you to imagine Black motherhood without suffering?  Could you do it?  Have we made suffering a rite of passage in Black motherhood? Have we shrouded Black motherhood in self-sacrifice as opposed to sacred sacrifice?  These are the questions we explore in this episode about...

Dear Mama, Who is the girl the woman who survived in the belly of the boat that brought you here? Where did she come from?  How do we find our way back to that place?  Why should we find our way back to that place?  In this episode, WE JOURNEY & Dr. Gina Paige, co-founder of African Ancestry is ridin with us! Along the way: ✨Thea shares the profound impact of tracing African roots through DNA had...

Dear Mama You are worthy to rise each day and dance in your dreams with your children by your side. You are worthy of serenity in birth. You are worthy of joy while holding your children. Join Midwife Jamarah Amani of Southern Birth Justice in partnership with the WNBA for a meditation experience to remind you:  You are complete. You are not alone.  You are magic. Meditations by Mamas are led by B...

Dear Mama, What if I told you understanding menopause was a matter of life and death? In her 2022 book You Got Anything Stronger, Gabrielle Union went into deep detail about how in her words, "the surge and retreat of hormones" during perimenopause and menopause caused her to have passive suicidal ideations and pointed out that science has focused on hiding symptoms or treating the symptoms of men...

Dear Mama, Our hope for you today is: ✨ For you to honor the truth of your motherhood journey ✨ Space to heal from harm, disappointment & trauma ✨ Rest in your being  to release yourself from attaching your worthiness to doing In this special mother's day episode we celebrate Black Motherhood through poetry, imagination and meditation with a poem by me Crystal Tennille Irby, Image a new world w...

Dear Mama, Dream with me.  Can you imagine a world with a Black midwife in every family, in every community, easily accessible, at our fingertips, a world in which birth choices aren't controlled by capitalism, a world in which the birth practices that Black women used to literally birth this country are honored, a world in which they are revered, a world in which Black midwives could practice the...

Dear Mama, There are two things that happen to everyone in this life that we don't talk about - birth and death -  both can challenge and transform everything we believe in. They can be messy and uncomfortable roads to travel and sometimes art can help us through.  In Black Panther Ryan Coogler proved he is a master at guiding us through uncomfortable conversations & in this episode we are joined...