It’s summertime and many of us are ready to hit the road for vacations with family and friends. But more and more folks are thinking about trips to faraway places all yar around. 
Joining us again is Mike Henderson founder of Black Gay Travelers and CEO of B. A.G. Travel. 
An adventurer since childhood, Mike has extended his travels beyond his favorite place, Yosemite National Park, to exotic sites around the globe.
Henderson believes representation and visibility matter, so his mission is to introduce members of the African American LGBTQ community and allies to people and places in places as close as the National Parks and as far away as Antarctica.
Joining us from the 2023 Black Travel Expo in Atlanta he shares his experience from past trips and previews plans for future adventures for Black Gay Travelers.

Mike Henderson: World Traveler/Global Citizen

It’s time for the annual Esteem Awards taking place Saturday July 1st at the Sidetrack Video Bar in Chicago at 3349 N. Halstead Street!
The FREE, yes free, event recognizes individuals, organizations and institutions doing great work in the African American LGBTQIA community that often go unrecognized. Honorees come from the Chicago area as well as nationally.
The 16th annual celebration takes place during Chicago’s Black Gay Pride weekend. Besides celebrating the honorees, guests will be entertained by local entertainers, have great refreshments and the opportunity to participate in raffles with beautiful, handcrafted gift baskets. And it is all free!!!!
It's a grand celebration planned, prepared and presented with love by our guest today – the one and only Mr. Phil Esteem!!

2023 Esteem Awards in Chicago

The One Pulse Foundation’s mission is to create and support a memorial that opens hearts, a museum that opens minds. Its educational programs will open eyes and legacy scholarships will open doors. By establishing a sanctuary of healing and a beacon of hope the Foundation will memorialize the lives taken, the lives saved and all the lives affected by the Pulse nightclub tragedy of June 12, 2016 – ensuring Pulse’s legacy of love lives on forever.
Our guest Andres Arcosta Ardila is Education Program Specialist at One Pulse Foundation.

One Pulse Foundation-Remembering the 49

Wyatt O'Brian Evans is  a Journalist. Author. Radio Personality. Intimate Partner Violence & Abuse (IPV/A) Subject Matter Expert (SME), Advocate and Speaker. Voice-over (V/O) Instructor and Talent is currently celebrating the release of his latest novel “Shattered!” The latest installment in the Nothing Can Tear Us Apart series.
Wyatt is the quintessential Renaissance man. His work has been featured in various print and online media outlets.  Wyatt founded and is editor-in-chief of and a writer for Wyattevans.com, a leading online news, features, commentary, and entertainment media outlet for the LGBTQ+ Community and its Allies.

You can learn more about Wyatt his books, podcast, events and all about this renaissance man at his website wyattevans.com

Wyatt O'Brian Evans - A Renaissance Man & Author Interview

Dion Alexander McNeal received the 2023 Next Generation Leader Esteem award for their work as an HIV Advocate. 
On their site Hopeful in Victory they discuss dismantling HIV stigma one conversation at a time.
This Black queer nonbinary, Artist/Activist &amp; Author will be a
panelist at Artists in the Afternoon 3: The Write Passion and
Purpose in Atlanta this Labor Day weekend on September 2nd
They will also be speaking at the Rainbow Café LGBTQ Center
Annual Gala in Illinois Garden Grove Center on November 4th. It will
be an evening of community, advocacy and gratitude.
We met at the Esteem Awards this year in Chicago and the
connection was immediate and deep. 
Originally from Chicago, they now live and work in Atlanta where they are  the Communications Manager at Morehouse College.

Esteem Awardee: Dion Alexander McNeal

Lambda Sigma Sigma Lupus Sorority, Inc. is an HISTORIC and TRAILBLAZING organization! Being THE FIRST non-collegiate Greek lettered sorority, for women with Lupus. 
It was an idea that came to fruition, by LaCasha Lee who founded the organization August 13, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. Lee was diagnosed with Lupus. She is a Diamond Life Member for 20+ years of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, and felt that having a Greek lettered organization, would stand out in the Lupus community.
is a support system and advocate, for all people with Lupus. By promoting Lupus awareness, volunteering and raising funds for Lupus advocacy organizations And a sisterhood for women 18 years of age and older, who have been diagnosed with Lupus.
The sorority participated in the Lupus Detroit Walk for Warriors in September and is hosting a fundraiser for the organization September 30.

Lambda Sigma SigmaLupus Sorority

It's been a tough couple of years. COVID, some health issues and life caused us to take a break, go on hiatus, stop the conversations. But Collections by Michelle Brown - Blog Radio is back and ready to bring you the stories of individuals living between the lines, standing boldly in the crosshairs of their intersectionality and creating change, What better way to kick things off than to go back to how it  all begin. 
This is the episode where we spill the tea on Collections by Michelle Brown-Blog Radio. With the help of two listeners and friends we are going to tell it all, well almost all of the history, back stories about the show and yours truly its host. 
New music, new partnerships, new shows. SO sit back and enjoy the ride!!!!!

Spilling the Tea on Collections by Michelle Brown Blog Radio

Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga during the aftermath of the Watts riots as a non-Christian, specifically African-American, holiday.  The goal was to "give black people an alternative to the existing holiday traditions and give black people an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history. Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the seven principles.
Expanding on the history of Kwanzaa and Adoma a leader in Detroit’s LGBTQ+ community and nationally recognized lecturer and activist.
Kwanzaa 2023 begins on Tuesday, December 26, and lasts through Monday, January 1, 2024. The planning for the annual Kwanzaa celebration has begun. This year's Planning Committee has gone NATIONAL thanks to the historic virtual gatherings of the past three years.

Dr. Kofi Adoma Breaks Down Kwanzaa 2023

Carrie Sinclair Vine is the Executive Director of the Rainbow Cafe LGBTQ Center in Carbondale, Illinois. Founded in 2000 the Center's mission is to “provide a safe and welcoming environment for youth who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, or questioning their orientation, and their friends, by creating a space in which they are affirmed and offered non-judgmental support and access to personal, community, and spiritual resources.”
It offers programs and services for members of the LGBTQIA+ community and allies from throughout southern Illinois, including some who traveled an hour each way to attend.
They recently moved in to a larger space allowing the Rainbow Cafe to provide assistance to individuals of all ages .
Carrie Sinclair Vine is not just the Executive Director, she is co-Founder/ Board Member at GRIS- Golden Rainbows of Illinois South. She is deeply passionate not just about the Rainbow Cafe but the well-being of Carbondale as a safe haven for all.

Rainbow Cafe LGBTQ Center: A Safe Space in Southern Illinois

Naoml Washington Leaphart is the Strategic Partnerships Director at Political Research Associates, Government Fellow at Religion & Public Life at Harvard Divinity School and Minister at The Fellowship Of Affirming Ministries.
Her career has also included serving as Government Fellow at Religion & Public Life at Harvard Divinity School, Adjunct Faculty at Villanova University,  Director for Faith-Based and Interfaith Affairs in Philadelphia’s Mayor's Office of Public Engagement, and  Faith Work Director at National LGBTQ Task Force, which is where we first met,  among other stops along the way as a faith leader.
Although women in the past fulfilled primarily were limited to supportive roles in serving the church, today in most denominations you will find women leading the way as leaders not only in the pulpit but, but like our guest, in government, academia and other areas fighting for social justice.  
In these culturally polarized days why do we need women, particularly in the clergy, to lead?

Leapheart 2024: Still Strong Smart Bold in Faith

Ken Mejia-Beal's focus has always been on giving a voice to the disenfranchised and addressing systemic inequality. He is the former Membership Chair at Howard Brown Health (Vernita Gray Council), an Equality Illinois Community Advisory Member, and as a WCPT Radio Personality/Published Columnist. In 2018, Mejia-Beal co-founded SNATCHED Radio, a podcast oriented toward LGBTQ+ Black and Brown communities to inform listeners about the latest news in policy, politics, and current affairs and to help people access resources and influence change. He was inducted into Chicago's LGBTQ Hall of Fame in 2024.
Ken made history in 2021 when he became the first openly LGBTQ+ political chair in the state of Illinois. He nearly flipped Illinois' 42nd district by a margin of less than 2,000 votes in the 2020 State Legislature elections, and he has continued planting the seeds of progressive change since. Ken has acted as a Campaign Board Member for Victory Fund (the largest LGBTQ+ political organization in the US).
In the wake of the 2024 elections. he has a lot to say about politics in Illinois, Nationally and within the Democratic party.

Ken Mejia Beal: Democracy's Next Chapter

Author, Public Speaker, Radio Host of Collections by Michelle Brown Blog Radio

Ken Mejia Beal: Democracy's Next Chapter

Conversations: A Collection by Michelle Brown

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