Underneath the Sunbeams

This week, we're celebrating our selves, and with support from two of the most influential writers in my life these days.  Hi! I think I’m sometimes guilty of taking myself for granted. Do you know what I mean? When you’re with this being that you’re so used to 24/7, it can be easy to overlook the things that might be seen as valuable to others. My attempt, with this week’s episode is to see...

What can be found within the depths of stillness, and why doesn't it seem like an accessible pursuit (sometimes)? Join me as I recollect the reimbursements stillness has given me at the least expected times.  Do you find it easy, difficult, or somewhere in between, to snatch moments of stillness for yourself? How do you recollect the pieces that make you who and what you are, as maybe a worki...

This episode of Underneath the Sunbeams is an exploration and honoring of vulnerability. Have you ever heard the song 'Heartstrings' by Leighton Meester? A Fall season's classic. As I listened to the pop beat this time in my life, I felt something deeply resonant in the lyrics of the song. It made me think of what it really means to tie ones own heartstrings.  This week, I comb thro...

Let’s clear the air with a loved film. This week, I’m joined by two people I adore, music industry professionals/artists Shadiyah Jai and Morgan Moxie as we return to the world of Disney and  This musical adventure through Barcelona does not fail to ignite the inner flame and spark a smile on our faces, and I’m sure you can relate. It’s a reminder that representation is vital, and that the impossi...

Children's book creators have a way of reshaping, and reframing our worlds with the best of intentions, and I have found that my love for children's books has not died, at all. If anything, it has grown. This week, I'd love to share with you five of my favorite children's books, what they each mean to me, and what they each provide me with/how these stories and images help resh...

What are side effects and symptoms of Codependency? This Week on UTSB, we're combing through my history with Codependency (to a point) as I identify, openly, some of its roots, with the help of memory and scenarios that have served as lessons learned. If you're someone who is in process of redeveloping your own voice and may be trying to prevent yourself from getting lost in dynamics and...

Music, nature, fashion, reading, dancing, and adventure are all vital pieces of my identity. How do you connect with yourself apart from your assumed relationship to the world based off of your appearance? I've been needing to return to this place, and funny enough, I recently found a 'Self care Recipe Card' I'd once written three years ago, and felt led into an inner experienc...

This week’s episode of UTSB is an entryway into Spring, its complexities, and how it invites change. While appreciating the vibrant blooms, we’re also looking at the turmoil that had to take place in order for Spring to arrive—this equates to change within the body, life changes, and how change impacts personality and identity.  Walk, sit back, grab a snack. There’s poetry, old memories of Spring,...

NOTE: This episode of UTSB was filmed three months ago and serves as a chance to reconcile with times in life where things do not go as you imagine, but as it should. At the time, I was reading "Gather Together in My Name" by Maya Angelou, and felt so connected to her relationship to her dreams, and how the happenings in her life had brought her discouragement. I was in awe of the way sh...

This week's episode is a "cross-over" with my web series, A little for the World, which is a series of virtual conversations between myself and fellow bipoc artists. This week, I got to speak to Shadiyah Jai, a music pedagogy, vocal coach, singer-songwriter, and vocalist of Letters from the Basement, a band based in Georgia that exceeds the containers of genres.  This hour of moment...

How does age, roles, and diflecting prevent us from connecting to our older relatives on a deeper level? Recently, I re-watched "Seventeen Again" starring Tia Mowry and Tamera Mowry-Housley, and I was surprised to have such a sentimental reaction to specific scenes.  Having not seen the film in years, I remembered it as fun and simply a Disney classic. However, as a more experienced pers...

This week, I've had the pleasure to sit down with my friend, Jessica Hariprasad (She/her), an incredible visual artist, teacher, reader, and lover of the arts, to discuss our times spent with a really special book. Sit with us as we dive into our experiences reading "Into The light" by Mark Oshiro (This is NOT a spoiler free experience!), and reflect on the central theme of queernes...

This week, I'm exploring/recalling my times spent with five special books that have served as "lanterns" in my life so far this year;  Feelings by Manjit Thapp, Speak by Tunde Oyeneyin, Finding Me by Viola Davis, I Did a New Thing by Tabitha Brown, & You Matter -a poetry book by Instagram writer Dhiman. These books have held me and encouraged me to stretch from feelings, and tow...

Fictional stories! Since childhood, I have had a special close relationship with reading and fiction stories. Within the last three years, I have collected an amazing amount of books written by authors who have touched my heart with their stories indefinitely. In so many of these stories, I find my own. In this poetic fictional journey, I invite you to join me for a creative writing session, where...

What do we do when the world feels like a heavy weight, larger than life, and intrusive? Where do we go to hear our thoughts? Where do we go to quiet them? If you are in a season of your life that feels hard, lonely, or you can feel change tugging at your chest by an invisible string, so is Darrell (all of these things). There is an album titled  "Love Walks Through Rain" by pianist Ann...

Have you ever felt like you've been put in a box, put yourself in boxes to be understood, or find yourself constantly trying to dismantle other people's ideas of you? If so, sit down with Darrell as he expresses his journey, so far, in not only stepping out of the box, but doing the work to STAY OUT of the box. After all, this is a podcast about identity. Let's also get into the arc...

Underneath the Sunbeams returns for its second Season!!  Slow down and feel the cleansing breeze on your skin. Better does not always mean more. Moving too quickly may hurt you more than the silence that you despise; quicker than the familiar you have seemingly grown out of. There is no way to win, truly, when you cannot recognize the simplicities of the minuscule things surrounding you as miracle...

Since the beginning of quarantine, Darrell's been writing, enveloping, and sending letters to himself in the mail. It did feel weird, and perhaps the mail man was confused, but it’s done a great deal for him and his inner artist child screaming to be heard.  Sit in with him as the two of you reread letters sent and examine what this cathartic process is like, and what senses of freedom, safet...

In 2003, a cultural phenomenon had been introduced to the Disney world, inspiring kids everywhere to let our their inner performer (or rather inner Cheetah), and Darrell happened to be one of them. Join Darrell, Shadiyah, and Morgan on this cheetahlicious journey as they recall ways in which this Disney Channel original movie impacted each of their lives, reuniting with Galleria, Chanel, Aqua, and...

Open up the box with Darrell, as he reads to you a decade's worth of an evolution of his deepest writing, beginning with an essay written at eleven years old, and ending with a poem from just three nights ago about the sound of music traveling through an apartment full of relatives. 

What’s the mental & spiritual cost of giving too much of ourselves to work environments? This week, Darrell, Shadiyah Jai, and Morgan Moxie are discussing their experiences as young black creative people going into work environments before knowing what they know now about self-honoring, as they share their stories with each other, and ways to honor themselves now to favor their creative powers...

The pace is picking up again, but please don't forget about you. Let's take a reflective moment to release.

Who could I be if I stepped out of my own way? What lives on the other side of the door that I've avoided my entire life, assuming that I couldn't possibly be good enough, just waiting for me to say yes? This week is all about Identity and self-perception, and ways that perfectionism and negative self-beliefs blind us from our own senses of potency and possibility that lives beyond our c...

Each of us has a 'jar of hope,' a list of personal items, and/or creative pieces of work that grant us senses of safety. Transitioning into adulthood can often be a confusing, frightening, and weird experience for many of us, and in some of the darkest points in our lives, we are lucky enough to have found some fabulous gems that impact us and will be with us forever. What are some of yo...

Hey, take a breather. Your dreams are going to come true. Are there any fears behind your constant need to produce, work, be super productive, or neglect proper rest? What even is rest for each of us as individuals, and why does it save us from becoming self-destructive? Are we self-destructively equating our self-worth to our to-do lists, and how do we find a healthy balance between pushing ourse...