GirlTREK

I need you to take a posture of total victory. On July 9, 2016, a balmy morning in Baton Rouge, a 35-year-old nurse inspired the world.  Ieshia Evans had watched Alton Sterling’s murder on the news from her home in Philadelphia.  She’d never attended a protest before.  It didn’t matter.  Alton Sterling’s death came on the heels of the brutal murder of Philando Castille in front of his family.  She couldn’t sit by.  She packed her bags and traveled to Louisiana for a march for Black lives.  With shoulders back, heart open, eyes to the horizon – she stood in her fullness as an armed force in riot gear advanced to suppress the peaceful calls for life.  She stood her ground. Fearless.  With total equanimity.  And was arrested.  But before this powerful woman was arrested, photographer Jonathan Bachman captured a moment of pure equanimity, of fearlessness, and today, we celebrate Ieshia Evans as a spiritual muse.  We name her as first in a line of 21 spiritual warriors whose actions will guide our strategy for complete liberation. “This is the work of God.  I am a vessel.” Ieshia saidIt reminds me so much of David when Saul asked who will go and fight Goliath, the giant Philistine. Young David said, here am I, send me.  He said, I can take him. “I have a history with God.”  Listen... I’m here to tell every Black woman reading this today that YOU have a history with God.  Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:I Shall Not be Moved - Mississippi John Hurt:https://open.spotify.com/track/2Vxj13uC6lBOUqsebW73eJ?si=AgVOhGzJQruStYj3DoMf4gBarley - Lizz Wright:https://open.spotify.com/track/6sKKaLDc0SGoFSesS1WWD3?si=G3L4hXsdQF63xugSBkdugACBS This Morning Interview - Gayle King interviews Ieshia Evans:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFC6l0DjDF0

We need a ram in the bush. We need you.For 21-days we will tell the stories of women who, out of the necessity of living in a world where Black women matter least, found ways to conjure up joy, shape lives full of purpose, and resist the forces of oppression.These are the Black women leaders that the world needs to know about. These are the stories that will give hope and light the way in these dark times. These are the stories that need to be sowed into the memory banks of our baby girls and taught in classrooms in every school in America. These are the stories that will remind us that we were built for a time such as this. And this is the moment. The moment where we can, through the prayers of a million Black women, transform our communities. If only...If only we could reach the masses. And Sisters, when I tell you we have tried.The entire GirlTrek team has laid it all on the line in order to reach our goal of inspiring 200,000 people to commit to joining us on a walk each day for the next 21 days. As of today, family, the numbers say we have failed. The numbers say we’re nearly 60,000 women away from our goal. The numbers say this situation is dead. BUT OUR FAITH!Baby, our faith tells us that there can be a ram in the bush. Our faith tells us God always supplies when he calls, and he called us to lead Black women on a journey towards healing. Our faith tells us that when it appears that the calling is above our ability, when it seems that the vision just wasn’t clear, to go ahead and lift our eyes and look for the ram.Well! We’re looking to you!Today, we’re calling every foot soldier in the army of the Lord and asking you to report to duty because you’re our ram and we need you. Today’s walk is for our sisters, the ones who are still waiting on the sidelines. The ones who you know need this the most. We’re about to set a plan for mass healing today and we’re going to pray a prayer of possibility together as we walk.  Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:For Every Mountain LIVE - Kurt Carr & the Kurt Carr Singers:https://open.spotify.com/track/65EZDZlR31JQZihfpBHADq?si=F8s8_exLRryPhGvVcDtpvAA Great Work - Brian Courtney Wilson:https://open.spotify.com/track/54PHTV8sTaZqYDLsLAmLDG?si=9xPVhJDtSTSd2Tt-3tOsaw

Welcome to Bootcamp 3.0. The remix. The Prayer Edition. The "we will win." The "way out of no way."  The blessed oil. The Amen and the Ashe. The Black girls' guide to spiritual jujitsu.  The stress protest and all-out street revival to heal our bodies and take back our territory. My soul says yes!Listen...My mama, your mama, her mama, their mamas.  Somebody prayed for you. Somebody rebuked the enemy that came to kill, steal and destroy.  Somebody established a shield, laid a fence.  Somebody hummed hope into your nights of despair. Somebody danced through the fire and did not get burned. I know because you are here.  We are here,  Saying thank you to the men and women who sacrificed so that we can be free. So mount up.  It's time for the saints to fight for Black lives.This month, we pray to get our spirits right.  Then, we vote for justice. Then we heal -  a million of us - and unleash the energy, the genius, muscle, and miracle of absolute transformation across not only Black families and communities, but across the entire planet.  We will shift the atmosphere.There is power here.  Right now.  Breathe in.  Are you ready? Breathe out. Let's do this.Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:Ella's Song - Sweet Honey in the Rock:https://open.spotify.com/track/0MTTqcQmbLW94gMLYMl95k?si=KMX4bzgtSlWK8c9pF6GpwwYou Will Win - Jekalyn Carr:https://open.spotify.com/track/62gD4WCIMv2GxGnyIM7WWi?si=nFl-6zbaRbuczC34i_0QSQ

Something powerful. Energetic. A seismic shift in consciousness. While the world unraveled around us, we walked and trained like an army. Studying the 21 most powerful acts of Black resistance. And in that discipline, something was fortified inside each and every one of us. In the words the great Chadwick Boseman, who transitioned to be with the ancestors this weekend: “When God has something for you, it doesn’t matter who stands against it. God will move someone that’s holding you back away from the door and put someone there who will open it for you, if it’s meant for you. I don’t know what your future is, but if you are willing to take the harder way, the more complicated one, the one with more failures at first than successes, the one that has ultimately proven to have more meaning, more victory, more glory then you will not regret it. Now, this is your time. The light of new realizations shines on you today.” Today, as our final story and act of resistance, we will walk together and talk about the story and future of GirlTrek. We will welcome our newest vanguard of 100,000+ Black women who just completed training and tell them what’s next. We will celebrate our sisters and brothers who are in the struggle now and talk about how our movement can support their work directly. We will walk together in silence, as a moment of silence for all of our fallen heroes including our brother Chadwick. And on this powerful walk together, we will visualize the potential in our own lives and assess what is required of our bodies, our minds, and our spirits as we make manifest a real Wakanda.if you haven't completed your bootcamp journey yet, it’s okay —it’s not too late! You can join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at any time. Sign up at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:Beyonce - Welcome Homecoming Live:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zya5a3xBcA0Richie Havens - Here Comes The Sun:https://open.spotify.com/track/0hhzJEusz6r7f0eL1Uc8kw?si=divTDZ44QMa4DPeBWMIdmABeyonce - Before I Let Go:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8305npLmIbE

The artist's role is to raise the consciousness of the people. To make them understand life, the world and themselves more completely. That's how I see it. Otherwise, I don't know why you do it. - Amiri BarakaOne month after Malcolm X's assassination in February 1965, the highly respected writer LeRoi Jones, who would later become known as Amiri Baraka – a man often described as polarizing and controversial - moved from Manhattan's Lower East Side where he had been living and working as a celebrated poet amongst an integrated crowd of artist and innovators, to Harlem. In Harlem, he intended to create a movement that would produce more politically engaged art that would awaken the Black consciousness and help secure Black liberation.This movement, known as the Black Arts Movement, quickly spread to cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Oakland. It galvanized a group of young Black artists who would rise up to challenge the power structures in this country, armed with nothing more than a pen, paper, paint, ideas, and enough words to start a revolution.Often referred to as the spiritual sister of the Black Power Movement, this was art by artists who saw Black people as beautiful, whole, and powerful. These cultural nationalists called for the creation of poetry, books, visual art, and theater that was rooted in Black pride.They gave us language when we didn’t have any and told the truth when we couldn’t.“You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt but still like dust I’ll rise.”  - Maya AngelouWhen our hearts were breaking. They spoke for us.“I gather up / each sound / you left behind / and stretch them / on our bed. / each night / I breathe you / and become high.” - Sonia SanchezTheir words are like lamp posts, guiding us back to shore.“Then I awoke and dug, that if I dreamed natural dreams of being a natural woman doing what a woman does when she’s natural, I would have a revolution.”  - Nikki GiovanniToday’s call will be a celebration of our heroes, Maya, Sonia, Nikki, Gwendolyn, and June. It will be a tribute to Brother Amiri Baraka, for he had the vision and the courage to say the hard things, the real things, the unpopular things and to do it all for the love of his people.Lace-up. Tune in. You don’t want to miss this.Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the poems and music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:Def Poetry - Amiri Baraka - Why is We Americans:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ziRjhAgTO8&t=3sMaya Angelou - Still I Rise:https://open.spotify.com/track/2bWsGK2sfee5PAJUHbf6YK?si=p3T71SJ2ThWSs-JOQHejfg

"Oh Captain, My Captain."Remember The Dead Poets Society?  The movie with Robin Williams?  He took his students into the hallway to study vintage photos of long-gone students.  "Can you hear them talking to you?", he asked. "If you lean in real close, and listen, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you.  Seize the day! Make your lives extraordinary."  Well, that movie was awesome, but it was white as hell and this is Black History Bootcamp so this is what we want you to do. Look at the faces of The Harlem Hellfighters.  Study them. Know that these Black men are the reason Germany surrendered. They earned their name, The Harlem Hellfighters, by spending an unthinkable 191 days in all-out trench warfare.  On the frontlines longer than any other American unit of World War I.   They toured for over six months, the longest deployment of any and they - the 369th Regiment of Black men - made up less than 1% of the soldiers deployed yet they protected 20% of the territory assigned to the United States. And they lost more of their brothers - 1,500 lives - more than any other American regiment.  And America used them as human decoys to defeat the Germans.  When they came home, America treated them with disdain, disrespect, like second-class citizens.  Didn't want them too proud.  They might disrupt Jim Crow.  And America refused to honor the greatest hero of the entire war, Henry Johnson (although the French gave him their highest medal of honor).  So America, we won't ask for your respect.  No.  Not then, not now. We gave these heroes our own parade in Harlem on February 17, 1919. ...Welcome, home heroes.Please think of them. And think of all who fought with valor - Crispus Attucks, The 54th Regiment, The Buffalo Soldiers, The Tuskegee Airmen, Vietnam Veterans -  all of the men and women who in the armed forces today.  Think about the frontline soldiers in our communities.  The mail carriers and sanitation workers, essential Black people whose labor is the spine of American democracy.  Think of Jacob Blake, a man who had to show up for his community this week to settle a dispute because the police are not safe to call. And to all the men and women who fought to protect it, we make these solemn promises. We will never develop an appetite for war - because war is hell. Instead, we will thirst for PEACE, build moments to LOVE, and light fires of JUSTICE.  We will honor the flag you defended by taking a knee anytime this country forgets the value of Black lives.Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:The Dramatics - Get Up and Get Down:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZfMpbcI1NQBrian Courtney Wilson - Worth Fighting For (Live):https://open.spotify.com/track/51fegUPIH02heRh9fkkLwE?si=2Eow_7TTQyeuFC4z2JBv4Q

Walking has always been used as a tool for social change. In early June of 1966 James Meredith, who had become the first Black man to attend the University of Mississippi, set out to walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, a distance of more than 200 miles, to promote Black voter registration and protest ongoing discrimination in the south. But James Meredith would never reach his destination.On the second day of his journey, a white man tracked him down on a dirt road in Mississippi and shot him several times.What that white terrorist didn’t know is that you can try and kill the revolutionary, but you can not kill the revolution.Not only would James Meredith’s March Against Fear continue without him, but it would enrage and embolden a young, brilliant activist by the name of Stokely Carmichael, who after being arrested following the march, left the jailhouse and let out what would become an iconic cry for BLACK POWER.Stokely Carmichael saw the writing on the wall. A young, brilliant organizer, who had worked closely alongside Dr. King and who was leading the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) shifted his focus from appealing to the moral center of a country that he said demonstrated it had “no conscious” to a radical liberation agenda for Black people. And we’re talking an agenda so radical that even the Black Panthers eventually couldn’t hang.Stokely Carmichael was the living, breathing example of speaking truth to power. He was an organizer who was involved in almost every major demonstration and event that occurred in the US in the early ’60s. His legacy can be seen today in the faces of marchers who chant with fire in their bellies “defund the police,” and across the diaspora in the movement for Pan-Africanism.This man, who would eventually be reborn as Kwame Toure, and who Rosa Parks once said could, ''stroll through Dixie in broad daylight using the Confederate flag for a handkerchief," PUT ON for his people.And for this sacrifice, we celebrate this freedom fighter with a major Black Power salute and a conversation that will breakdown his illustrious life.Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:Brand Nubian - Wake Up (Reprise in the Sunrise):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJeDHYsNkHIWhat's in a Name? ft. Kwame Ture (1989):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGcl359SMxE&t=2s

...one little sentence tells us all we need to know about this man.  In a letter, his sister said this..."If they had not killed Cris, Cris would have killed them."Don't you ever get it twisted.  Crispus Attucks started The American Revolution. And today's conversation is about his murder.  This convo could not be more relevant.  The Boston massacre was a hot-sticky mess of 10,000 soldiers patrolling the colonies with impunity.  When the British tried to tax the people to pay for those soldiers, all-hell broke loose.  An over-armed police force against civilians. People like Paul Revere, Sam Adams, John Hancock, and every powdered wig we now celebrate as patriots were against the British armed forces.  They called themselves 'The Sons of Liberty" ...and yet, the first man to die in the name of said liberty was a Black man named Cris Attucks. He was not a casualty.  He was the leader of the rebellion.  This, my friends, was the start of your America. (In my Rasta voice, "Bullet, buullet!")Here's how it all happened.  One day at the barbershop...I kid you not, this is how the Boston Massacre starts... Let’s get into it.Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:2pac - Ambitionz Az A Ridah (Clean):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWLljMr20MI&feature=youtu.beYoung Bleed, Master P, C-Loc,  Steady Mobb'n, King George, Gangsta T, Silkk The Shocker - How Ya Do Dat:https://open.spotify.com/track/1KLhUURHRl72xGO5A94lme?si=hqc2QOSER06fDNVMVcBDpA

Today’s walk is dedicated to a political organizer, military strategist, and master of guerrilla warfare, the one and only Queen Nanny of Jamaica. A woman who guided her people through an intense period of fighting against the British.From Queen Nanny, we learn the art of resistance. Get ready to take notes.Queen Nanny was the military vision keeper and spiritual and cultural leader of the Windward Maroons. A community of resistors, who had escaped the brutality of enslavement on the British owned sugarcane plantations in Jamaica. Thought to be descendant from the Ashanti Tribe in Ghana, Queen Nanny was a fierce leader who helped the Maroons fight two guerrilla wars. These wars forced the British to recognize Jamaica's autonomy, establishing their freedom.Queen Nanny baffled and infuriated her enemies. They couldn’t understand that the source of courage and fire came directly from her African ancestry, which she strategically kept alive through stories, music and customs within Nannytown, a village she established high in the Blue Mountains as a refuge for her people.There’s so much to learn from Queen Nanny’s story. It doesn’t matter if your battle is happening in the valleys or the hills. If it’s personal or professional. It doesn’t matter if you’ve already been served a defeat. There is still a path to victory. Just let the ancient wisdom of Queen Nanny guide you to where you need to be.It’s about to be a revolution in these streets on today’s walk.Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:Burning Spear - Queen of the Mountain Live:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeTKvSf3Sa0Spice - So Mi Like It:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8305npLmIbE

We are the #daughtersof Cécile Fatiman a Haitian Voodoo Priestess who literally conjured a revolution. Her warrior blood runs through our veins. Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers -  themselves root-workers and prayer warriors - were women who learned the art of spiritual warfare from women like Cécile. That’s why we are so excited to introduce her to you on day 14 of Black History Bootcamp.On today’s walk, we’ll be talking about the Haitian Revolution and the gathering at Bois Caïman. This gathering, which took place on a hot summer night in August, was the site of the first major meeting of enslaved Blacks. During which, the first major slave insurrection of the Haitian Revolution was planned. And you know who presided over that meeting? That’s, right. Cécile.The gathering at Bois Caïman was part religious ritual and part strategic planning meeting and it set in motion the events that would lead to Haiti becoming the world’s first independent Black Republic. A nation which, to this today, is being punished for daring to rise up and free themselves by force. We’re going to talk about this and about the powerful community of leaders and activists on the ground now continuing the good fight.Join the second edition of GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:Toto Bissainthe - Dey:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1DcPdMZs9s