Griotte’s Beat continues exploring Black histories, this week with artist Safiyah Cheatam. Safiyah and host Kaytura discuss how her work draws Black Muslim histories and Afrofuturism to address contemporary injustice. 

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More about Safiyah Cheateam 

Baltimore-based conceptual and social practice artist, Safiyah Cheatam is best known for her interactive photo installations portraying the duality of Black Muslim experiences using augmented reality and her co-produced, awards-nominated Afrofuturist narrative podcast OBSIDIAN featured in The Washington Post. Inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois’ data visualizations and resonating with Martine Syms’ The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto (2013), Safiyah has sought to illuminate real-life stories of Black uplift in the U.S. to show Afrofuturism’s presence in daily life. She has exhibited artworks nationally and has sustained relationships with several local institutions where she’s served as a teaching artist, collaborator, researcher, and advisor.

On Black history and Black futures with Safiyah Cheatam

On this episode of Griotte's Beat, we explore why empathy is important in research and science with social epidemiologist Zinzi Bailey. We also get into how she sustains her focus on justice and how immigrant identity shapes her anti-colonial spirit. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @Griottesbeat and like us on Facebook to hear about new episodes as they drop.

More about Zinzi Bailey 
Zinzi Bailey, ScD, MSPH is a researcher who is passionate about achieving health equity through the elimination of structural, organizational, and social inequities guided by community mobilization. She sees data and research as tools for achieving systemic change – not just for scientists, but also for community members, organizations, and movements. Being born in Jamaica and growing up in Miami, FL has contributed to her transnational, anti-colonial spirit.

On justice in research and shedding colonial thinking with Zinzi Bailey

As we approach the end of our first season, we’re bringing you two special guests, Trish Adobea Tchume and Ericka Stallings. In this episode, host Kaytura Felix explores how the bond between these real-life friends elevates their lives and their work and how they redefine leadership to put justice at its center. 

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More about Trish Adobea Tchume 

Trish Adobea Tchume is a first generation Ghanaian-American and serves as Senior Director of Leadership Research and Practice for the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. In this role, Trish collaborates with other organizations to explore, define, and support leadership and organizational approaches that prefigure a world where all of us can thrive. She is a Brooklynite, a proud auntie, a beach stan, and devotes her volunteer time to cool organizations like the Central Brooklyn Food Coop and to the boards of Change Elemental and the New York Foundation. 

More about Ericka Stallings 

Ericka Stallings is the Co-Executive Director of the Leadership Learning Community (LLC). LLC is a national organization and network of changemakers, bringing to the center leaders of color and those from historically excluded communities. At LLC she holds spaces for innovations, practices, and systems that are grounded in collective liberation.

On friendship and redefining leadership with Trish Adobea Tchume & Ericka Stallings

It's the last episode of our first season. To celebrate, we're ending with a conversation between host Kaytura Felix and producer Camara Aaron, who outside this podcast are mother and daughter. In this episode, we explore how our relationship has evolved over time from parent and child to collaborators and how we navigate injustice when it appears. We end with a look to our second season - stay tuned!

On growing in justice with Camara Aaron

On this podcast, we center the perspective of Black women. Our host, Kaytura Felix, will be talking to Black women from all walks of life, and many corners of the African diaspora to learn how we tackle injustice in our everyday lives.