The ZAMI NOBLA Podcast

This interview was recorded by Angela Denise Davis on October 14, 2021, via video conference. Deidre McCalla sat down with Angela to talk about McCalla's early life in New York, her start in music, the herstory of her place in the women's music movement, and the way the COVID-19 pandemic changed her life. The music heard in the interview was used courtesy of Deidre McCalla. You can enjoy the full...

On August 19, 2021, Angela sat down with Sherri Jackson to record her story about living in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic as a healthcare professional. Jackson is a healthcare provider,minister and activist. She has a wide range of LBGTQ.and AIDS organizational involvement. She has been a volunteer with the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Club-Health Committee,an...

Melodie J. Rodgers is the Founding Editor of SOREN LIT. Her creative writing and photography has appeared in Johns Hopkins University's Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review, G.R.I.T.S. - Girls Raised In the South: An Anthology of Southern Queer Womyns' Voices and Their Allies, Future is Fiction, Underground, CIEE Brazil Poetry OnFilm project, and many others. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from...

Our guest today is the Black lesbian feminist writer, Cheryl Clarke. She is the author of Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women (1982), Living as a Lesbian (1986, reprinted in 2015) , Humid Pitch (1989), Experimental Love (1993), and By My Precise Haircut (2016).  Since 1979, she has written for and edited numerous publications, including the iconic feminist anthologies, This Bridge Ca...

Joyce Penalver is a retired therapist in Vallejo, California. She was instrumental in forming social clubs and newsletters serving Black lesbians in the Greater Bay Area. We recorded this interview with her in February 2020 before the nationwide lockdowns prompted by COVID-19.

In August 2020, Verlena L. Johnson was featured in ZAMI NOBLA's virtual art show, Cocktails, Tea, and Art. This interview was recorded remotely a few days before the show. Verlena L. Johnson was born and raised in the Midwest (Wisconsin and Illinois), but also briefly lived in New York City, Ealing England, Oakland, Long Beach and most recently Los Angeles.  She earned a Master's Degree in Afro-Am...

Reverend Elder Janyce Jackson Jones was one of the artists showcased in August 2020 at ZAMI NOBLA's visual art exhibit, Cocktails, Tea, and Art. She discovered her passion for art upon retiring to coastal North Carolina after 21 years of dedicated service to her church and social justice causes in Newark, New Jersey. She since has experimented with and been inspired by several techniques and style...

Lorraine Lane was a guest artist for our virtual art show, "Cocktails, Tea, & Art," in August 2020. In this episode, she talks about how to make a great cocktail, how she came to love bourbon, and the challenges of operating a restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lorraine came into the Food Industry on the pathway of love for Deborah VanTrece. Lorraine is Deborah's business partner and wife. S...

This is a file from our archives. On August 31, 2020, ZAMI NOBLA in Partnership with the Southern Unity Movement sponsored Working Cross Differences: The Black LGBTQIA Health/Wellness Public Forum as part of Atlanta Black Gay Pride. This audio clip is from a conversation with Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins and Dr. Jonathan Mathias Lassiter, moderated by Dr. Kofi Adoma. The first voice you hear after...

In February 2020, Angela Denise Davis interviewed Mary D. Watkins at her home in Oakland, California. Watkins was gracious in her recounting of major life events and her work as a composer and musician. Trained in classical music at Howard University, Watkins has composed three operas and has written for symphony orchestras, chamber and jazz ensembles, film, theatre, dance, and choral groups, in a...

Dr. Wilhelmina Perry (85) was interviewed by Angela Denise Davis from her home in June 2020. She talked about growing up in Harlem, her 30-year partnership with Antonia Pantoja, radical activism, and life during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a community activist, social work educator, spiritual leader, homeless youth and marriage equality advocate, author, and the co-founder of LGBT Faith Leaders...

Brenda Joyce Crawford has been in the thick of social justice work for over five decades. She's an unapologetic butch woman who comes from a blue collar working class background in the U.S. South. A great deal of her career has been spent promoting values-based leadership in order to create safe and welcoming environments where the richness of the information that resides within all communities ca...

Lisbet Tellefsen is an activist, publisher, producer and archivist that has served the Bay Area's LGBT community for over 3 decades. In 1989 she co-founded Aché: a Black Lesbian Journal —which served as an cultural, political and social nexus for LGBT communities of color both nationally and internationally. As a producer her production credits include over 50 events ranging from drag king shows t...

Lourdes Dolores Follins's Biography Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins is a Black, queer femme psychotherapist and writer. As a therapist, researcher, and organizational consultant, she has worked with adolescents and adults of color who are marginalized because of their ethnoracial background and gender and/or sexual identities for over 25 years. Her clinical and research interests are the resilience an...

Angela interviewed Ericka Huggins at her home in Oakland, California in  February 2020. Huggins, an educator, Black Panther Party member, former political prisoner, human rights advocate and poet, generously shared poignant parts of her life. For 40 years Ericka has lectured in the United States, and internationally, on Restorative Practices and, the role of spiritual practice in creating social c...

This episode is a conversation with sister podcaster, Michelle Elizabeth Brown, who lives in Detroit, Michigan. In addition to being a podcaster, Michelle is a public speaker, poet, author, and activist. She is a force for change! She was born and raised in Detroit graduating from Cass Technical High School then went on to attend Wayne State University.  Through her career, creative endeavors, and...

Benae Beamon is from North Carolina, where she started dancing and joined the acclaimed North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble under the direction of Gene Medler. She went on to earn a BA from Colgate University and an MA from Yale University and is currently completing her PhD at Boston University in Religious Studies. Her scholarship and art focus on black queer and trans populations and the ethical...

During these uncertain times, it is important to have accurate information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Our guest, Dr. Tonia Poteat, fielded questions for a webinar sponsored by ZAMI NOBLA on March 22, 2020. This is a recording of that event.   Tonia Poteat, PhD, PA-C, MPH, is Assistant Professor of Social Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as core faculty in the UNC Center for Health Equity...

We interviewed Jowanna Tillman and Edonna Koon in the summer of 2019. They shared how they came to the RV life and what sustains them as they travel and work across the United States. This travel loving couple started full time RVing in early 2018. They are always up for an adventure.  Edonna is a retired Marine who has a passion for science.  Jowanna, who used to work in higher education, has a p...

What is it like to live and work outside the United States? In this episode, Joi and Jane Mitchell tell us about their experiences living abroad in Korea and the UK. We also talk about shifts in careers, national identity, and culture. Dr. Joi Mitchell is Originally from Detroit, Michigan. She received her bachelor's and master's degree from the AUC center. She also holds a Ph. D. from Capella Uni...

In August 2019, we interviewed Sheila Alexander-Reid at her home in Washington, D.C. Reid is the Director, Mayor's Office of LGBTQ Affairs, and Founding Member, Women in the Life Association. She talks about the origins of Women in the Life, her work in the Mayor's Office, and the preservation of black lesbian herstory.   Sheila Alexander-Reid has been a vital part of the LGBT community for well o...

We are back with our latest, a reflection from our host and producer, Angela Denise Davis. This episode is a recording of a talk she gave at The First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta this past summer. We also share a meaningful out-take from a previous interview with one of our guests.

This is the third in a four episode series on lesbian couples. Today, we talk about the process of creating physical emotional, and familial space in our lives. Creating space in a lesbian relationship can be especially challenging when a couple has different ethnic backgrounds as do our guests today.   Deepali Gokhale is a queer South Asian daughter, sister, friend, co-pilot, parent, mechanical e...

Grace Queen Tribling, a native of DC, talks candidly about her becoming a lesbian in her late 30s. She also share some highlights on her relationship with her mother and life in rural Georgia.

The author of Starshine & Clay (2017), featured on NPR's "All Things Considered" as a collection that captures America in poetry, and She Has a Name (2013), a finalist for both the Audre Lorde and Lambda Literary Awards, Kamilah Aisha Moon's work has been published widely, including in Best American Poetry, Harvard Review, Poem-A-Day, PBS Newshour, Buzzfeed and elsewhere. A 2015 New American Poet...