Adversity Alchemy: A Multi-Racial, Multi-Spiritual Playlist for Collective Liberation
"This is more than music—it’s a living, breathing incantation for navigating complex times with power, clarity, and joy."
Read More(Re)dedicating to our Life Rules: A Resolution Alternative
In a recent conversation on the podcast, we talked about the power of framing our new year’s changes as rededication rather than resolutions. As a part of that conversation, I was reminded of the 10 Life Rules I was inspired to develop in late 2021 based on a practice that Gretchen Rubin calls her Commandments for Happiness.
Read MoreJews Talk Racial Justice - Ep. 83: Beyond the Brisket: Creating a Liberatory Passover Practice
As we approach Passover 5782, we’re thinking about the tension inherent in commemorating a moment of acute urgency with practices that require a lot of time, intention, and planning. The Passover story contains multiple moments when our ancestors and predecessors displayed both faith and radical imagination, but when ritual becomes rigid, it can limit beliefs and imagination. April and Tracie investigate how we can use the Passover holiday, ritual, and greater awareness, to nurture and apply our own radical imagination toward liberation.
Tune into this episode and read the full shownotes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Read MoreJews Talk Racial Justice - Ep. 82: Showing up for justice when life gets hard (LIVE)
This week, we’re bringing you our conversation from our live event on March 23. If we’re being real here (which we ALWAYS are), we know that many of us (especially in the Jewish community) are feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and hurt by the state of the world. April and Tracie (and a couple of amazing community members!) give us some helpful framings and tips for processing and moving through our hurt, process our emotions, and get through to the other side. And spoiler alert: you don’t have to suffer in order to powerfully show up for justice!
Tune into this episode and read the full shownotes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Read MoreJews Talk Racial Justice - Ep. 81: Middle Agent Status, Alternatives to Whiteness, and Radical Imagination
We cover a LOT of ground in today’s conversation, where we get curious about what prevents some folks and groups from accessing joy. We talk about Black joy, the whiteness of white Jews and what often makes embracing joy difficult (and the impact of the historical middle agent role), individual and collective safety, and imagining our liberated selves and living into that. What would it look like for white Jews choose the side of liberation over whiteness?
Tune into this episode and read the full shownotes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Read MoreJews Talk Racial Justice - Ep. 80: Cookies, Impact, and False Competition
Inspired by the holiday of Purim, April and Tracie use the practice of giving mishloach manot or Purim baskets, to unpack the difference between intention and impact. (Who knew you could learn so much from fruit-filled cookies?) They also interrogate the relationship between Vashti and Esther, and use them as a metaphor for differently-positioned Jewish Leaders of Color today. The megillah (Scroll of Esther) positions them as competitors, but we imagine what it would look like if they recognized they have more to gain by working together and rejecting the externally-imposed division between them.
Tune into this episode and read the full shownotes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Read MoreJews Talk Racial Justice - Ep. 79: On Purim, Joy, and Liberation
April and Tracie think about some of the lessons of Purim: hidden identities, the power of 'no,' the power of being in the right place, the importance of joy, and the links between joy and liberation.
Tune into this episode and read the full shownotes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Read MoreJews Talk Racial Justice - Ep 78: Feeling Rage, Finding Joy: Managing Emotions in Justice Work
With all that’s going on in the world right now (and since we’re in the middle of two (2!) months of Adar, we thought it would be good to reprise Episode 10 from the conclusion of election season. Tracie asks April for advice on working through the negative emotions that sometimes accompany justice work. They unpack the ways we've been taught to associate anger or rage with justice work (and anxiety with intelligence), and April shares suggestions for achieving the positive effects of BOTH feeling your feelings AND cultivating joy and presence.
Tune into this episode and read the full shownotes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Read MoreI Welcome You to Join Me on #TEAMJOY!
“Because I’ve (or really I, in partnership and with guidance from Spirit) have taken years and many quiet, as well as active(!), moments to integrate my multicultural & multiracial spirituality & co-creation with the Divine practices with my rigorous and deeply committed social justice and liberatory consciousness and trauma healing, into a harmonious internal ecosystem that is balanced and aligned.
It’s not for everyone, but I have a feeling there are many who would love to learn about how I’ve established this internal ecosystem that I’m finally willing and ready to share with humble clarity and confidence with those are who interested.”
Read MoreJews Talk Racial Justice - S2E13: Recovering from Mistakes, Recovering Trust
April and Tracie unpack the idea that "publicly addressing an organization's mistakes does more harm than good." Though there are some who would advise against drawing attention to past mistakes, April and Tracie argue that accountability and honesty are the only way to create and maintain trust.
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