Episode 0: Are You Ready to be Well?
"Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well? Just so’s you’re sure, sweetheart, and ready to be healed, cause wholeness is no trifling matter. A lot of weight when you’re well.” - Toni Cade Bambara, The Salt Eaters
Welcome to black. loved. free., a podcast dedicated to Black spirituality, healing, and Black liberation! Join the host Brendane biweekly as we affirm ourselves and our ancestral traditions. Together we will explore what it means to be black, loved, and free through Black feminist theory and collective wisdom.
Follow us on Instagram @blacklovedandfree. Subscribe on your favorite platform.
Title theme: Mayyadda, On My Way.
Transcript
Hi! I’m Brendane. As a tropical Gemini, I wear many hats: I am an anthropologist, certified energy healer, dedicated student of Black and Indigenous spirituality and the host of BLF, a spiritual-political podcast where we dive into all things Black spirituality, healing, and Black liberation.
As an interpersonal violence survivor, former organizer, and scholar, I noticed that our liberation movements often do not include the healing wisdom of our ancestral spiritual practices. In our political struggles to get free, healing is seen as separate from liberation work (or liberation is mistakenly seen as healing in and of itself). We are used to doing movement work with our wounds gaping open while we try to build a new world. But I ask you, if our blood is poured into the foundations of the new world we’re building, how different is it from the world built with the blood of our ancestors?
This question pushed me to create black. loved. free. Here we recognize that healing the world begins with healing the self to paraphrase Toni Cade Bambara. We do this by reading Black feminist and womanist political theory, learning about Black resistance and revolution, and reconnecting with ancestral forms of spirituality. Each episode we’ll explore what it means to be black, loved, and free through the teachings of ancestors like Zora Neale Hurston, Octavia Butler, and Pauli Murray. We’ll also gather stories, texts, collective readings and collective wisdom to discuss a pressing political topic and to learn how to live in alignment.
I hope that this podcast will be an empowering space where we gather the political and spiritual tools to heal ourselves and our communities. Together, we’ll rehearse liberation, not as gurus but as accomplices. So go ahead and follow us on Instagram at blacklovedandfree or find us at our website blacklovedandfreepodcast.com. Our first episode drops on podcast platforms on February 24, 2024.
As you listen, I hope you find a soft, sacred place to explore the yearnings of your own spiritbodymind.
Here, I hope you feel empowered to be Black, loved, and free.
