The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast

Charlene A. Carruthers, PhD (she/her) is a writer, filmmaker, community organizer, and Black Studies scholar. A practitioner of telling more complete stories, her work interrogates historical conjunctures of Black freedom-making post-emancipation and decolonial revolution, Black/Native/Indigenous relationalities, Black governance, and Black feminist abolitionist geographies. She is a 2020 Margueri...

Frances E. Wood is a scholar and educator; her work reflects a profound commitment to justice and the transformative power of ideas. A feminist and womanist thinker with both depth and breadth of knowledge, she brings together intellectual rigor, lived experience, and spiritual insight in ways that shape institutions, communities, and individual lives. Frances has taught at the University of Washi...

Jennifer M-F Horn, LCSW, NMCFIT, is a licensed clinical social worker, researcher, educator, and U.S. Navy veteran whose scholarship and practice center Black same-gender-loving women and historically marginalized communities across aging, caregiving, and long-term services and supports.   She received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Colorado State University–Pueblo, graduating Magna Cu...

You may register for ZAMI NOBLA's Plant Play Food Series at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/SFkOB_AvSaixs6Yr2QkrDg PLANT PLAY, a virtual feast with Carla Rabb DeRosa Turn your Kitchen into a Wellness Playground! ZAMI NOBLA invites you to join PLANT PLAY, a joyful, monthly virtual feast with Carla Rabb DeRosa—recipe book author, plant-based educator, and founder of The...

This interview was recorded in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 18, 2025. Cara Page is a Black Queer Feminist cultural memory worker & organizer. For the past 30+ years, she has organized with LGBTQI+, Black, Indigenous & People of Color liberation movements in the US & Global South at the intersections of racial, gender & economic justice, healing justice and transformative justice. She is founder of Ch...

This interview was recorded on May 20, 2025 via online video conferencing.   Part 1 is an oral herstory of Deneen's life in Ohio and part 2 is a detailed look at her family's journey with dementia along with Deneen's work in the area.   Deneen Day retired after a distinguished 30-year career as a Financial Crimes Investigator for the State of Ohio. Her journey as a dementia caregiver began in the...

This interview was recorded on May 20, 2025 via online video conferencing.   Part 1 is an oral herstory of Deneen's life in Ohio and part 2 is a detailed look at her family's journey with dementia along with Deneen's work in the area.   Deneen Day retired after a distinguished 30-year career as a Financial Crimes Investigator for the State of Ohio. Her journey as a dementia caregiver began in the...

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Arlene is a community psychologist who recently retired from the CDC.   While there she worked as a behavioral scientist focusing on capacity building as it relates to HIV prevention.   She received her BA in Psychology from the University of Tampa, MA in Counseling and Human Development from Clark Atlanta University and PhD in Community Psychology from Georgia...

Kaila Adia Story, PhD is an associate professor in the Departments of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Pan-African Studies, as well as the Audre Lorde Endowed Chair at the University of Louisville. She is the author of The Rainbow Ain't Never Been Enuf: On The Myth of LGBTQ+ Solidarity, which comes out this May. She is also the co-creator, co-producer, and cohost of Louisville Public Med...

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all sentient beings.   Her work in this lifetime is to facilitate infinite, unstoppable ancestral love in practice.   Her poetic work in response to the needs of her cherished communities has held space for multitudes in mourning and movement. Her poetry and fiction appears in many c...

This book party was hosted on May 27, 2023, at Charis Books & More in Decatur, Georgia. It featured esteemed writer Sharon Bridgforth in conversation with ZAMI NOBLA creative director Angela Denise Davis in celebration of bull-jean & dem/dey back.   You can view the YouTube video of this event at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6EcaVl7dxo   The ZNP previous interview of Sharon Bridgforth: https:...

Together We Heal: COVID-19's Mental Health Effects on Older Black Same Gender Loving Women Thursday, December 14, 2023 (ZOOM webinar)   Findings from a COVID-19 Community Research Study led by Dr. Tonia Poteat, and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and Mary Anne Adams, MSW, and ZAMI NOBLA: National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging   The panelist discussed the mental healt...

This interview was recorded in February 2024. Sangodare (Julia Roxanne Wallace) is a sweet space for transformation. Sangodare comes from a thick legacy of Black Baptist preachers and church leaders and currently activates Black Feminist sermonics at a weekly Sunday Service held by Mobile Homecoming Trust. As co-founder of Black Feminist Film School (2012), Visiting Artist in Film at Lawrence Univ...

In February 2024, The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast sat down to talk with Kendra Bryant Aya and Cyndi Ixchele Aya about their internet creation, "This is US: Unscripted Sundays with Kindy." The couple shared the joys and challenges of maintaining a digital presence and the sacredness of storytelling.     Kendra N. Bryant (s/hers) is a Black lesbian womanist, a fraternal twin, who enjoys reading, writing, sin...

Lana Williams is the Board Chair of ZAMI NOBLA (National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging). She is a Financial Coach, with over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. Her experience includes banking, mergers and acquisitions, investment advising, and bank industry consulting with some of the largest Fortune 500 companies.   Positions she's held include Regional Sales Man...

Lynnette White and Sabrina Francis-White sat down with Angela to share how a Blind date turned into a Fairy Tale Come True. And to discuss what it takes to sustain 32 years of love, understanding and marriage. As they continue to plan their next adventure in life.

Mary Hooks is a 42yr old, Black, lesbian, feminist, abolitionist, pan-Africanist, mother, wife and a member of Southerners On New Ground and part of the leadership of the Movement 4 Black Lives.   Mary joined SONG as a member in 2009 and began organizing with SONG in 2010.   Mary's commitment to Black liberation, which encompasses the liberation of LGBTQ folks, is rooted in her experiences growing...

The ZAMI NOBLA North Carolina State Chapter holds a monthly potluck. I took a road trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, to experience one of these gatherings and had the pleasure of interviewing one of their members, Marilyn McClain. Marilyn McClain's Bio: I Am a body Alchemist. One who is patient, grounded, wise, modest and who enjoys learning and teaching. My mind and soul are open. Love is my gre...

Stephanie Anne Johnson is a second-generation theater practitioner. Her mother Virginia Johnson (Green) worked with The American Negro Theatre In N.Y. ​Johnson has been a lighting designer for over forty years. Nationally she has done designs for La Mama Theatre (N.Y.), Telluride Repertory Theatre (Colorado), The Arizona Repertory Theatre, The National Black Theater, and The Apollo (N.Y.). Locally...

M Shelly Conner, Ph. D.,  is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Central Arkansas. Her multi-genre writings examine culture through a dapperqueer womanist lens and include publications in Crisis Magazine, the A.V. Club, NBC News, and the Grio. Her debut novel "everyman", is currently available in hard cover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.  Shelly is repped by Beth Mar...

The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast celebrated four years of serving as a sound source for Black lesbian herstory in August 2022. This episodes celebrates that achievement with excerpts from various episodes. Links to each episode can be found below. Kamilah Aisha Moon Talks about the Human Business of Poetry https://zaminobla.libsyn.com/kamilah-aisha-moon-talks-about-the-human-business-of-poetry   Cynthia Mck...

Dr. Moya Bailey is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. Her work focuses on marginalized groups' use of digital media to promote social justice and she is interested in how race, gender, and sexuality are represented in media and medicine. She is the digital alchemist for the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network and the Board President of Allied Media Proje...

This interview was recorded via video conference on  October 29, 2021 by Angela Denise Davis. Gaye Adegbalola talked about her early years in Virginia, college life in Boston, and her career as a Blues musician, griot, and activist. Gaye Adegbalola's website: https://adegbalola.com/ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GayeAdegbalolaMusician/ Gaye Todd Adegbalola, a Blues Music Award winner, is...

Angela interviewed Dr. Emilie M. Townes on October 12, 2021, via video conference. Townes talked about growing up in Durham, North Carolina, her formative years in theological education and parachurch work, and the necessity of having a robust hope. Emilie M. Townes, an American Baptist clergywoman, is a native of Durham, NC.  She holds a DMin from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a P...

Angela sat down with Sharon Bridgforth on October 8, 2021, to record this interview via video conference. Bridgforth talked about her formative years, her pathway to healing, intergenerational mentoring, and her life as a touring artist in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sharon Bridgforth's website https://www.sharonbridgforth.com/ Twin Cities PBS did a special on Pillsbury House Theatre - who...