Curated Questions: Conversations Celebrating the Power of Questions! A Benediction For Black Womanhood And Softness! | EbonyJanice Moore #20
EbonyJanice Moore is the founder and CEO of The Free People Project and The EbonyJanice Project. She has authored several books, and her most recent release is “All The Black Girls Are Activists: A Fourth Wave Womanist Pursuit Of Dreams As Radical Resistance.” Her Spiritual Mentorship Program, entitled “Dream Yourself Free,” is designed to support Black Women in healing intergenerational wounds and prioritizing pleasure.
Her talks embody a Hip Hop Womanist perspective. She is the visionary and creator of Black Girl Mixtape, a platform and safe think space that elevates the intellectual authority of Black Women.
She founded the All The Black Girls Are Bestsellers Campaign, raising over a million dollars to mass-purchase Black femme books to achieve the coveted status of New York Times Bestseller. This project endeavored to spend most of these funds in small Black and Indie-owned bookstores, giving thousands of books to individuals and organizations nationwide.
EbonyJanice earned her Bachelor's in cultural anthropology and Political Science and a Master's of Arts in Social Change with a concentration in Spiritual Leadership, Womanist Theology, and Racial Justice.
I have followed EbonyJanice on social media for several years, learned from her worldview, and wanted to create a space for a deeper discussion about how questions have been a companion in her multi-faceted journey.
EbonyJanice recounts how her grandmother taught her to question texts early on. She shares insights from her spiritual mentorship program, 'Dream Yourself Free', and discusses her book 'All the Black Girls Are Activists' which delves into Black women's pursuit of dreams as resistance. EbonyJanice elaborates on the power of dreaming from a place of safety rather than resistance and the impact of nurturing Black women in her community. The discussion touches on societal pressures, systemic inequities, and the potential for transformative change when Black women are listened to and supported.
This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.
Keep questioning!
Episode Notes
[02:33] The Power of Questions
[04:50] Dreaming Beyond Resistance
[12:44] Exploring Love and Relationships
[20:39] Patriarchy and Society
[24:18] Honoring Latresha Gowdy
[31:03] The Journey of Self-Discovery
[38:12] Faith and Imagination
[40:19] Imagination and Faith: Childhood Reflections
[44:05] Expansive View of God and the Universe
[45:47] Softness and Vulnerability of Black Women
[51:09] Listening to Black Women: A Call to Action
[01:07:40] Personal Journey: Embracing African Spirituality
[01:15:48] Final Thoughts and Encouragement
Resources Mentioned
All The Black Girls Are Activists: A Fourth Wave Womanist Pursuit Of Dreams As Radical Resistance by EbonyJanice Moore
Crush on You video by Lil' Kim
Something's Got to Give with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson
Teaching Community a Pedagogy of Hope by Bell Hooks
Sister Citizen by Melissa Harris-Perry
Questions Asked
When did you first understand the power of questions?
What other questions do you have?
Who would I get to be if I got to create my life from a place of dreaming and not always resistance?
Can you unpack that a little bit more or talk around what you're seeking to get at with that question?
What is the difference between me and my friend?
What would it look like if we could all just exist and not be carrying the weight of, a capitalist anti-black white supremacist society on our shoulders at the age of six?
What kind of questions currently fuel your imagination?
Is there an equivalent in male form of my girlfriends?
What would it look like if I radically love myself?
Who would I be if I really radically loved myself?
What are you going to do for freedom today?
Can you please say some more about how she lived this question?
How do you even know that?
How do you know that you can say that?
What happened to spark this?
What happened to inspire this for you to even try this for you to even walk in that direction?
You know, what about me?
What areas of my life have I not given myself the permission to be more EbonyJanice?
What areas of my life have I not explored?
How the heck did you know this?
Where the heck did you get that from?
Was I not paying attention during that sermon?
Where was that one chapter of the Bible you didn't read?
What is God doing on Saturn right now?
Why did he name them?
What was God thinking to organize the Big Dipper?
What does the Big Dipper mean?
What does God look like?
What does God sound like?
What is God doing?
What's God doing here?
What is God doing over there?
What does God do?
Why isn't God doing what would be helpful?
What questions must we wrestle with to achieve a world in which soft black women thrive?
What would it look like for Black women to get to live from that place, to create from that place, to imagine from that place, to build new ethic and curriculum and language, and push culture forward from that place?
What is your right now question?
what does it mean to be a priest?
Do you have any other thoughts or encouragements about questions that we haven't necessarily explored?
Is that true?
Is that my voice?
Do I really believe this?
What is my own evidence that causes me to believe this?
Is there possible that there are more than one truth?
More than one path to this thing, if so, what is the other path?
Where's the best place for folks to engage with you, reach out, find out what you're excited about and learn more about you?