Soul Salon with Ayandastood

The podcast delves into the struggle of finding and accepting one's voice, drawing inspiration from Audre Lorde's essay. It explores the importance of matching inner and outer worlds, the condition of truth allowing suffering to speak, and the concept of Ubuntu. The host shares personal journal entries on finding and accepting their voice, and discusses authenticity vs. attachment in human development. The episode encourages embracing vulnerability and authentic communication for meaningful connections.

Join me for a fun and energetic convo with journalist, storyteller, and podcast host  Zanele Mji as we discuss connected conflict, friendship, relationships, and growth. Zanale is a South African award-winning investigative journalist based in Joburg whose work marries narrative non-fiction, hard news, and analysis. She is the host of the Golden City Podcast which you can find on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts. In this episode, we talk, learn, reflect, and vibe together. I hope you enjoy it! <3  ADVICE COLUMN: ☎️ seeking advice and want to PHONE IN with a question? ⁠⁠⁠⁠submit a voicemail here⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📩 OR WRITE IN an advice question anonymously at the ⁠⁠ASK Ayanda form⁠ here⁠. Highlights: (02:02 ) Intro to Zanele (04:30) Multiple Versions of Conflict (09:19) The Inner Family System (15:48) Our experiences with conflict  (29:27) How we journal (49:40) Redefining Kinship (1:00:10) Thoughts on Friendship Links:Website: https://www.zanelemji.com/ Podcast: Golden City on Spotify and on Apple PodcastsTiktok: a.mji.thangInstagram: Zanele Mji (@zananigans) • Instagram photos and videosTwitter: Zanele (@ZaneleMji) Youtube: Zanele Mji @zanelemji Links Mentioned:The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der KolkNonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships by Marshall B Rosenberg Access Is Love - Disability & Intersectionality by Mia MingusThe Artist's Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self by Julia CameronGhost of a Podcast: Astrology & Advice with Jessica LanyadooMy links: Substack: ayandastood.substack.com | Subscribe to my newsletter!!! Tiktok: @ayandastoodPodcast Instagram: @reimaginingwithayandastoodMy Instagram: @ayandastood

Today I am delighted to be in conversation with Rafia Zakaria, an American Muslim author, attorney, and political philosopher, to discuss her powerful book, Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption. In this book, Rafia challenges white feminism’s global, long-standing affinity with colonial, patriarchal, and white supremacist ideals.  Covering such ground as the legacy of the British feminist imperialist savior complex and "the colonial thesis that all reform comes from the West" to the condescension of the white feminist-led "aid industrial complex" and the conflation of sexual liberation as the "sum total of empowerment," Zakaria follows in the tradition of intersectional feminist forebears Kimberlé Crenshaw, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde. Zakaria ultimately refutes and reimagines the apolitical aspirations of white feminist empowerment in this radical critique, with Black and Brown feminist thought at the forefront. Rafia is a writer at the Baffler and Dawn magazine and a Fellow at the African American Policy Forum, an innovative think tank Co-Founded by Kimberle Crenshaw that connects academics, activists and policy-makers to promote efforts to dismantle structural inequality.  ADVICE COLUMN: ☎️ seeking advice and want to PHONE IN with a question? ⁠⁠⁠⁠submit a voicemail here⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📩 OR WRITE IN an advice question anonymously at the ⁠⁠ASK Ayanda form⁠ here⁠. Highlights: (03:09) Rafia’s journey to publishing this book (12:34) What is white feminism?  (22:03) Moving away from individualism towards collective action (29:02) A Perspective Empowerment History and Collectivism Solidarity (46:21) Technology & white supremacy (52:20) Engineering our future: How feminists  inform politics (56:36) Rahia’s dream for the feminist movement Rafia Zakaria's Links: Twitter:Rafia Zakaria @rafiazakaria Instagram:@rafiazakariafeminist LinkedIn:Rafia Zakaria Links Mentioned: Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption by Rafia Zakaria Unfocused Feminism: The battle lines go beyond the bedroom and the boardroom by Rafia ZakariaMy links: Substack: ayandastood.substack.com | Subscribe to my newsletter!!! Tiktok: @ayandastoodPodcast Instagram: @reimaginingwithayandastoodMy Instagram: @ayandastood

I am so thrilled and honored to be in conversation with Ruha Benjamin, a Professor of African American studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells JUST Data Lab and author of three books, Viral Justice (2022), Race After Technology (2019), and People’s Science (2013), and editor of Captivating Technology (2019). Today, we discuss her incredible latest book, Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want. I am completely obsessed with this book. I feel it is an urgent read for all of us who want to integrate the structural and the individual, the academic and the poetic, the political and the personal, knowing that each of these things are necessarily interlinked and interdependent: just like us. Ruha writes, teaches, and speaks widely about the relationship between innovation and inequity, knowledge and power, race and citizenship, health and justice. Long before the pandemic, she was doing groundbreaking research on race, technology, and justice, focusing on big, structural changes. But the twin plagues of COVID-19 and anti-Black police violence inspired her to rethink the importance of small, individual actions.  “Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within." — Ruha BenjaminI hope you enjoy our conversation! ADVICE COLUMN: ☎️ seeking advice and want to PHONE IN with a question? ⁠⁠⁠⁠submit a voicemail here⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📩 OR WRITE IN an advice question anonymously at the ⁠⁠ASK Ayanda form⁠ here⁠. Highlights: (01:20) Get to Know Ruha Benjamin (02:51 ) What is viral justice? (04:45) The three types of plotting (09:44) Ruha's journey shaping this work (22:40) How can we be vulnerable but not exposed? (27:38) The power of poetry (36:16) Mutual aid and other life forms  (41:20) The Doula Effect and how we can bring it to our daily lives Ruha's Links: Website:https://www.ruhabenjamin.com/ Instagram:Ruha Benjamin (@ruha9)Twitter:Ruha Benjamin (@ruha9)LinkTree to all her work: https://linktr.ee/ruhabenjamin Links Mentioned:Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want by Ruha Benjamin Toni Cade BambaraMia Mingus blog & Twitter @miamingusErik Olin WrightMy links: Substack: ayandastood.substack.com | Subscribe to my newsletter!!! Book club launching soon! Tiktok: @ayandastoodPodcast Instagram: @reimaginingwithayandastoodMy Instagram: @ayandastood

In this episode, I am joined by Kalpana Mohanty, writer, Ph.D. Candidate and Trudeau Scholar at Harvard University. She works on disability, colonialism, and gender in South Asia. Kalpana grew up in Portugal, Canada and India. Her proposed PhD topic focuses on the history of disability in India, particularly during high colonialism.  Inspired by her own lived experience as someone with chronic illness who lives with a disability, Kalpana is passionate about accessibility in all forms, whether that be making academic spaces accessible for all students or making scholarly work engaging and interesting for a non-academic audience. She is committed to using the rigorous framework and theory of academia to address wider cultural issues ranging from the serious to the trivial as a cultural commentator. Kalpana reads and we discuss her incredible article, Beautiful Lies, where she asks why public discourse on beauty remains so shallow.  ADVICE COLUMN: ☎️ seeking advice and want to PHONE IN with a question? ⁠⁠⁠⁠submit a voicemail here⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📩 OR WRITE IN an advice question anonymously at the ⁠⁠ASK Ayanda form⁠ here⁠. Kalpana's Links:Twitter:  @kalpanamohantyWebsite: https://kalpanamohanty.squarespace.com/ Audio clips included: Now This News: Sabrina Strings Explains How 'Fatphobia' is Rooted in RacismIntersections of Disability Justice and Transformative Justice Ft. Elliott Fukui and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha by Barnard Center for Research on WomenVenmo: Elliot Fukui @elliottseiji Buy Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's books here Links Mentioned:Beautiful Lies | Kalpana Mohanty Mobeen Hussain is the Cambridge scholar who studies skin lightening in India. Jaclyn WongAfghan Girl Portrait by Steve McCurryConstant Cravings by Alice WongBook and other recommendations included:Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia  by Sabrina Strings | Thick: and other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom | Alok V Menon | The Age of Instagram Face by Jia Tolentino| Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da'Shaun L. Harrison | Maybe Baby | Haley Nahman| The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan | What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon| Maintenance Phase Podcast  | Perfect Me by Heather Widdows

Welcome to another episode of Reimagining with Ayandastood. I am so thrilled to introduce our guest for today: an incredible human being, creator, singer, songwriter and activist– Black, Trans, Queer, Nigerian, UK-based creator Asherah, aka @therealasherah. Asherah is passionate about liberation for all the oppressed and uses her content to educate her audience on feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, desirability politics, Black liberation, and so much more! She regularly amplifies marginalized voices on her TikTok and interacts with other creators in her distinct greenscreen video stitching style, creating the feeling of direct engagement with tons of perspectives and voices. She amplifies mutual aid efforts supporting the needs of Black trans and queer individuals on her TikTok above and LinkTree below. If you have the means please PayPal Asherah @angelsaxis and donate to her mutual aid efforts here: @asherahlovelydae Don’t miss out on this insightful episode as we talk about her experience with dating, desirability, beauty and much more! If this is your first time tuning in, subscribe to avoid misssing out on upcoming episodes! ADVICE COLUMN: ☎️ seeking advice and want to PHONE IN with a question? ⁠⁠⁠⁠submit a voicemail here⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📩 OR WRITE IN an advice question anonymously at the ⁠⁠ASK Ayanda form⁠ here⁠. Highlights: (06:18) What do you need to say? (070:6) Perception of self vs. Others' perception of you (07:58) Who is Asherah? (15:38) Love, dating, trust, and fetishization  (24:03) The dark side of Desirability (28:01) Asherah’s creative use of her Desirability in content creation (37:00) What role does Beauty play in the world? (1:01:35) Solidarity among Black women  Asherah’s Links: TikTok: @therealasherahLinkTree: @asherahlovelydae | Find mutual aid efforts to support! PayPal: @angelsaxis Ayanda's Links: Substack: www.ayandastood.substack.com - Subscribe if you can!Instagram: @reimaginingwithayandastood  Tiktok: Watch Ayandastood's Newest TikTok Videos Instagram: @ayandastood • Instagram photos and videos Audre Lorde Essay: The Transformation of Language into Silence and Action

We continue our grand tour of the Ugliness of Beauty. This will be an ongoing series. Don't forget to listen to Part 1 first! In this episode we dive deeper into the paradoxes and ironies underlying Beauty and the role Beauty plays in upholding and normalizing systems of oppression. Once again, I invite you to interrogate Beauty as a normalized social heirarchy, and move towards reimagining what Beauty (or something much better!) could be. I hope you enjoy this episode and if you do,  leave a review and share it with someone special! I love you. ADVICE COLUMN: ☎️ seeking advice and want to PHONE IN with a question? ⁠⁠⁠⁠submit a voicemail here⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📩 OR WRITE IN an advice question anonymously at the ⁠⁠ASK Ayanda form⁠ here⁠.Sources:Variety: Viola Davis - Kering Women in Motion Talk - Cannes Film Festival 2022 LinkBBC Stories: Skin Lightening: What I didn't know about it LinkAsian Boss: How Obsessed Are Indians With Fair Skin? LinkAllure: Girls Ages 6-18 Talk About Body Image LinkWhite Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch | Official Trailer | Netflix LinkBe Naya Films Skin Documentary Trailer LinkReclaim Ugly organization. Donate here My links: Substack: ayandastood.substack.com Tiktok: @ayandastoodPodcast Instagram: @reimaginingwithayandastoodMy Instagram: @ayandastood

The response to eurocentric Beauty standards has been to diversify and include more people of marginalized identities. But this vital response alone is not enough. Our society regards Beauty as something inherently aspirational, noble, and good.  Is it?  Full transcripts to all episodes are available here.Even as more people are included, the terms and conditions of inclusion are exclusive and rooted in the same toxic beauty standards. At the same time, Beauty still functions in harmful ways to exclude and ostracize the most marginalized. What, exactly, are we fighting to be included within? What are the ugly ways that Beauty functions in our society? What is the Ugliness of Beauty? In this series, I invite you to reconsider Beauty as a social heirarchy, and move towards reimagining what Beauty (or something much better!) could be. I hope you enjoy this episode and if you do,  leave a review and share it with a bestie!ADVICE COLUMN: ☎️ seeking advice and want to PHONE IN with a question? ⁠⁠⁠⁠submit a voicemail here⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📩 OR WRITE IN an advice question anonymously at the ⁠⁠ASK Ayanda form⁠ here⁠. Highlights:  (03:28) Reframing capital B Beauty (04:10) What could beauty be? More on this in later episodes… (05:25) What is the paradox of Beauty? (12:54) Why is Beauty ugly + what does Beauty do? (17:51) Roles within the supply chain (26:25) How our obsession with beauty reinforces our obsession with whiteness (34:50) The allure of Beauty & how it justifies racism, oppression  and exploitation (45:27) The ugliness of beauty as a political concept Sources: Audre Lorde Essay: The Transformation of Language into Silence and Action“Moving Toward the Ugly: A Politic Beyond Desirability” by Mia MingusBelly of the Beast: The Politics of Ant-fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da'Shaun L. Harrison is a fantastic book and resource! Follow them on Twitter here @DaShaunLH On the Politics of Ugliness book edited by Sara Rodrigues and Ela Przybylo My links: Substack: ayandastood.substack.com Tiktok: @ayandastoodPodcast Instagram: @reimaginingwithayandastoodMy Instagram: @ayandastood

Hello Sunshine! Welcome to another episode of Reimagining with Ayandastood. Today, we are joined by the one and only Mia Mingus.  In this episode, we explore Beauty, Desirability, Ugliness and Magnificence. Full transcripts to all episodes are available here. Mia Mingus is a writer, educator and trainer for transformative justice and disability justice. She is a queer, physically disabled, Korean-American transnational adoptee raised in the Caribbean. She works for community, interdependence and home for all of us, not just some of us, and longs for a world where disabled children can live free of violence, with dignity and love. As her work for liberation evolves and deepens, her roots remain firmly planted in ending sexual violence. Find Mia at @MiaMingus on Twitter and suppert her on Venmo @Mia-Mingus if you can! I hope you enjoy today’s episode. Don’t forget to subscribe and share it with a friend!  ADVICE COLUMN: ☎️ seeking advice and want to PHONE IN with a question? ⁠⁠⁠⁠submit a voicemail here⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📩 OR WRITE IN an advice question anonymously at the ⁠⁠ASK Ayanda form⁠ here⁠. Highlights: (03:22) Intro to Mia Mingus (07:42) What brings Mia joy (11:28) What does it mean to Move Towards Ugliness? (16:07) Experiences that led Mia into this work (27:15) What does it mean to embrace each other’s Magnificence? (33:19) How desirability has been used to commit violence (46:36) How the need to feel beautiful is rooted in harm (1:06:25) How can we find ways to Move Toward Ugliness? (1:13:13) What is the antidote to shame? (1:18:49) Why is the burden of Beauty so high? Links: Mia Mingus:Venmo: @Mia-Mingus Writing: About | Leaving Evidence Twitter: @miamingus IG: @mia.mingus Reading: “Moving Toward the Ugly: A Politic Beyond Desirability” by Mia Mingus Mentions: Sip & Politic is an incredible podcast by my mutuals Joy Malonza & Carla Marie Davis. Find it on Apple here and Spotify here Support my amazing mutual Ismatu on Substack here and on TikTok @ismatu.gwendolynAudre Lorde Essay: The Transformation of Language into Silence and ActionBelly of the Beast: The Politics of Ant-fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da'Shaun L. Harrison is a fantastic book and resource! Follow them on Twitter here @DaShaunLH Ayanda:Substack: ayandastood.substack.comTiktok: @ayandastoodPodcast Instagram: @reimaginingwithayandastoodMy Instagram: @ayandastood 

Hello sunshines! Welcome to the first episode of Reimagining with @ayandastood– a podcast where we reframe, rethink, and reimagine everything standing in the way of love and liberation. I am so excited to be on this journey with you! Don’t forget to tune in, share it with a friend if you like it, and don’t miss out on my next episode– The Ugliness of Beauty.  Full transcripts to all episodes are available here. ADVICE COLUMN: ☎️ seeking advice and want to PHONE IN with a question? ⁠⁠⁠⁠submit a voicemail here⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📩 OR WRITE IN an advice question anonymously at the ⁠⁠ASK Ayanda form⁠ here⁠. Highlights: (01:00) My journey to starting this podcast (03:52) Don’t try to do things alone if you can avoid it! (05:52) Audre Lorde Quotes on silence, language, and action (11:21) Community values and moving for, with, and through love Links: Instagram: @reimaginingwithayandastood  Substack: https://ayandastood.substack.com/ - Subscribe if you can! Tiktok: Watch Ayandastood's Newest TikTok Videos Instagram: @ayandastood • Instagram photos and videos Audre Lorde Essay: The Transformation of Language into Silence and Action