On this final episode of Spirit & Liberation, host Jeanette Charles-Márquez is joined by Belia Mayeno Saavedra (she/her)—a Xicana, Japanese, and Ashkenazi Transformative Coach and Somatic Practitioner based in Lisjan Ohlone lands. Belia works with BIPOC organizers and movement leaders to grow their sense of choice and power in body and spirit, grounding her practice in the truth that lies beneath the surface, in both earth and body.

On this week’s episode of Spirit & Liberation, host Jeanette Charles-Márquez is joined by Zulayka Santiago, MPA—a daughter of the ocean, quenepa trees, island breezes, and wild spaces. She describes herself as a straddler of worlds and a bridge between cultures, generations, and species.

*English Below* En el episodio de esta semana de Spirit & Liberation, la conductora Francisca Porchas-Coronado conversa con José Manuel Cepeda Martínez, historiador cultural, bailarín, músico y portador del legado de la Bomba puertorriqueña. Nacido en una familia afropuertorriqueña de artesanos, compositores, cantantes y bailarines, José es hijo de “El Tambor Mayor” Jesús Cepeda Brenes y Sonia Martínez, y nieto de “El Roble Mayor” Don Rafael Cepeda Atiles y Doña Caridad Brenes de Cepeda. Su linaje encarna más de un siglo de tradición ininterrumpida, manteniendo vivos los ritmos, historias y la memoria ancestral de la Bomba en Puerto Rico y su diáspora. 🪘La vida y el trabajo de José honran esta herencia. Desde impartir talleres de Bomba para niños puertorriqueños y dominicanos en St. Thomas, hasta participar en intercambios culturales como la gira Dos Alas junto a AfroCuba de Matanzas, y actualmente en su papel como historiador e investigador con la Sociedad Histórica de Villa Palmeras, José sigue elevando la historia de San Mateo de Cangrejos (Santurce) y su importancia para la identidad negra puertorriqueña. _______________________________________________ In this week’s episode of Spirit & Liberation, host Francisca Porchas-Coronado is joined by José Manuel Cepeda Martínez, a cultural historian, dancer, musician, and bearer of Puerto Rico’s Bomba legacy. Born into an Afro–Puerto Rican family of artisans, composers, singers, and dancers, José is the son of “El Tambor Mayor” Jesús Cepeda Brenes and Sonia Martínez, and the grandson of “El Roble Mayor” Don Rafael Cepeda Atiles and Doña Caridad Brenes de Cepeda. His lineage embodies more than a century of uninterrupted tradition, keeping alive the rhythms, stories, and ancestral memory of Bomba across Puerto Rico and the diaspora. 🪘José’s life work honors this inheritance. From teaching Bomba workshops for Puerto Rican and Dominican children in St. Thomas, to participating in cultural exchanges like the Dos Alas tour alongside AfroCuba de Matanzas, to his role as historian and researcher with the Villa Palmeras Historical Society, José continues to uplift the history of San Mateo de Cangrejos (Santurce) and its enduring significance for Black Puerto Rican identity.

This week on Spirit & Liberation, host Jeanette Charles-Márquez welcomes Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm to discuss African spirituality and Black land stewardship. Leah’s work in farming is sacred and ceremonial. It’s rooted in ancestral practice. A devoted student of Ifa and Vodun, Leah shares how tending the land is a spiritual responsibility—and a revolutionary act. Leah is the co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, a working farm and activist-training center in Grafton, NY, committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system. As Co-ED and Farm Director, Leah is part of a team that facilitates powerful food sovereignty programs - including farmer training for Black & Brown people, a subsidized farm food distribution program for communities surviving food apartheid, and domestic and international organizing toward equity in the food system. Leah has been farming since 1996, holds an MA in Science Education and a BA in Environmental Science and International Development from Clark University, and is a member of clergy in West African Indigenous Orisa tradition. Leah trained at Many Hands Organic Farm, Farm School MA, and internationally with farmers in Ghana, Haiti, and Mexico. The work of Leah and Soul Fire Farm has been recognized by the Heinz Award, Soros Racial Justice Fellowship, Fulbright Program, Pritzker Environmental Genius Award, Grist 50, and James Beard Leadership Award, among others. Leah is also the author of two books, Farming While Black and Black Earth Wisdom. In this episode: We talk about the intersection of land, liberation, and ceremony. We revisit the Haitian Revolution as a blueprint for spiritual struggle and collective liberation, And, we reflect on what it means to activate ancestral technologies alongside our strategic assessments of material conditions. Spirit & Liberation is a limited series podcast, brought to you by the Latinx Therapists Action Network, exploring the intersection of political struggle and sacred traditions. Each episode brings you into conversation with organizers, spiritual practitioners, and healers committed to weaving ancestral wisdom into the fight for our collective liberation. This series explores how spirit moves through our movements—offering tools, stories, and truths for these times.

In this week’s episode of Spirit & Liberation, host Jeanette Charles-Márquez is joined by Caroline Mair-Toby—lawyer and founding director of the Institute for Small Islands. With more than a decade of experience in public international environmental law, Caroline has advised small island states and developing nations in UN climate negotiations, served as a legal consultant to governments and international organizations, and published widely on the environment, human rights, and conservation. In addition to her legal work, Caroline walks with deep spiritual clarity, drawing strength from her African, Asian, and Indigenous lineages. She bridges law and ancestral practice, exploring how each of these traditions offers insight into resistance and healing. For Caroline, the fight for justice is not only political or legal; it is profoundly spiritual. In this episode, Caroline reflects on: How small island states and Indigenous communities are shaping global climate justice, The role of spirituality and ancestral wisdom in legal and political struggles, And, how her own lineage guides her work at the intersection of law, sovereignty, and liberation. This conversation is an offering for those committed to reimagining justice in ways that honor both our ancestors and our collective future. Listen now on all streaming platforms. Spirit & Liberation is a limited series podcast, brought to you by the Latinx Therapists Action Network, exploring the intersection of political struggle and sacred traditions. Each episode brings you into conversation with organizers, spiritual practitioners, and healers committed to weaving ancestral wisdom into the fight for our collective liberation. This series explores how spirit moves through our movements—offering tools, stories, and truths for these times. This episode was recorded in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in Songhai Studio operated and owned by songwriter/producer Konata Alleyne.

On this week’s episode of Spirit & Liberation, host Francisca Porchas Coronado welcomes Janet Arelis Quezada, a queer, Black daughter of Dominican migrants, spiritual elder, poet, and cultural worker whose life bridges movement spaces, sacred practice, and creative expression. Crowned to Oyá in 2004 in the Cuban-style Lukumí tradition, Janet brings decades of spiritual practice and political organizing to this conversation. She’s worked in communities across the U.S. from the Bronx to the Bay, from L.A. to Miami building collective strategies to end sexual violence, support LGBTQ visibility, and cultivate healing spaces rooted in justice. In this episode, Francisca and Janet explore: 🌀 The meaning and legacy of Regla de Ocha, and how it relates to and differs from other Afro-diasporic spiritual traditions like Ifá, 📣 What it means to be politically conscious in spiritual communities and what happens when that awareness is missing, 📝 How poetry and writing become tools of remembrance, connection, and processing for Black queer spiritual practitioners, Janet closes the episode with a heartfelt offering from her own poetry collection for listeners to hold close in the days ahead. Spirit & Liberation is a limited series podcast, brought to you by the Latinx Therapists Action Network, exploring the intersection of sacred traditions and political struggle. Each episode invites you into conversation with organizers, spiritual practitioners, and healers committed to weaving ancestral wisdom into the fight for our collective liberation. This series explores how spirit moves through our movements—offering tools, stories, and truths for these times.

On this week’s episode of Spirit & Liberation, host Jeanette Charles-Márquez is joined by Manuela Arciniegas, a mother, drummer, healer, and spiritual leader across multiple Afro-Diasporic traditions. Manuela is a priestess of Shango in the Lukumi tradition, a Nyoka Yaya in Palo Mayombe, and an omo awo of Ifa. A cultural organizer and somatic healing coach, she supports women of color in the social justice movement while also working at the intersection of philanthropy, education justice, and ancestral reclamation. In this episode, Jeanette and Manuela speak about: 🌪️ How traditions like Ifa, Lukumi, and Palo Mayombe offer essential wisdom in the face of racial capitalism and spiritual crisis, 🕯️ The weight of living in these times and how spirit offers a map for survival, 🥁 The role of ritual, drumming, and ancestral lineage in building liberatory movements, 💫 And why, as Manuela reminds us, “we don’t organize alone.” Before the conversation begins, the episode includes a brief orientation to three Afro-Diasporic traditions referenced throughout: Lukumi – rooted in Yoruba spiritual systems and shaped in Cuba, centered around honoring the Orisha (spiritual forces of nature), Palo Mayombe – a Congo-rooted spiritual tradition of working with ancestral and elemental forces through sacred ngangas, Ifa – the Yoruba system of divination, ethics, and cosmological teachings, passed down through sacred verses known as Odu. Spirit & Liberation is a limited series podcast, brought to you by the Latinx Therapists Action Network, exploring the intersection of sacred traditions and political struggle. Each episode invites you into conversation with organizers, spiritual practitioners, and healers committed to weaving ancestral wisdom into the fight for our collective liberation. This series explores how spirit moves through our movements—offering tools, stories, and truths for these times.

In this week’s episode of Spirit & Liberation, host Jeanette Charles-Márquez is joined by Iya Akilah Jaramogi—Paramount Chief of the Merikin Maroons of Trinidad & Tobago, cultural activist, reforestation pioneer, fire-fighter, and longtime Ifá practitioner. The Merikin Maroons are descendants of formerly enslaved Africans who gained freedom by serving alongside the British during the War of 1812 against the United States in the South. After their service, the Merikin Maroons were resettled in southern Trinidad between 1815 and 1816, where they established self-governing communities known as the “Company Villages.” Ever since, their maroon villages have become centers of over two centuries’ long spiritual practice and land stewardship. Building upon her ancestors’ journey, for over four decades, Iya Akilah has led visionary work at the intersection of environmental justice, ancestral memory, and spiritual practice. As founder and CEO of the Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project, she has cultivated a globally recognized model of community forestry grounded in balance, reciprocity, and the intersection of ancestral veneration and land sovereignty. This episode Iya Akilah elaborates on: Reforestation as a spiritual and ancestral practice, The legacy of Merikin Maroon resistance in Trinidad, And, how community-based land forestry challenges climate change, colonialism, and capitalism. This episode is an offering for everyone working to restore what colonization tried to erase—land and legacy.

*Engish Below* En el episodio de esta semana de Espíritu y Liberación, nuestra host Jeanette Charles-Márquez conversa con Rosa Miranda—trabajadora cultural, poderosa organizadora comunitaria y devota de la Orisha Osun. Originaria de Hidalgo, México, Rosa comenzó a organizar desde su adolescencia. Desde que emigró a Estados Unidos en 1999, se ha convertido en un pilar de los movimientos de base en Los Ángeles, luchando por la despenalización de la venta ambulante y promoviendo alternativas de seguridad pública y control comunitario. Miembra fundadora del Colectivo de Poder Comunitario (CPC), el trabajo organizativo de Rosa está profundamente guiado por su camino espiritual dentro de la tradición Orisha. En este episodio, comparte: 🌼 Su recorrido como hija de Osun y cómo llegó a la tradición Orisha,🌻 Su lucha constante por proteger los alimentos tradicionales, organizar junto a vendedores ambulantes y defender la dignidad de la clase trabajadora,💛 Y el poder sanador de las enseñanzas espirituales en momentos de desafíos políticos. _______________________________________________ On this week’s episode of Spirit and Liberation, host Jeanette Charles-Márquez welcomes Rosa Miranda—cultural worker, fierce community organizer, and devotee of the Orisha Osun. This is our first episode in Spanish for this series! Originally from Hidalgo, México, Rosa began organizing as a teen. Since immigrating to the U.S. in 1999, she has become a pillar in Los Angeles’ grassroots movements, from fighting for the decriminalization of street vending to uplifting community control and public safety alternatives. A founding member of Colectivo de Poder Comunitario (CPC), Rosa’s organizing is deeply guided by her spiritual path in the Orisha tradition. In this episode, she shares: 🌼 Her journey as daughter of Osun and how she came into the Orisha tradition,🌻 Her long-standing struggle to protect traditional foods, to organize alongside street vendors, and fight for working-class dignity,💛 And the healing power of spiritual teachings in moments of political challenges.

In this episode of Spirit & Liberation, host Jeanette Charles-Márquez is joined by Ifagbenusola Owomide Popoola—a Nigerian-born traditional singer, filmmaker, author, and founder of World of Ifá. Through storytelling, scholarship, and artistic expression, Ifagbenusola bridges Yoruba history, culture, and ancestral wisdom to illuminate the power of African spirituality in our times. He is one of the lead voices behind the global #EsuIsNotSatan campaign, a bold movement challenging colonial and religious distortions of Esu—a revered Orisha in the Yoruba tradition known as the divine messenger, guardian of the crossroads, and embodiment of choice, transformation, and communication between the human and spiritual realms. Together, this conversation also explores the core teachings of the Ifá spiritual system, its relevance to our current global moment, and how this ancient tradition offers tools for grounding, healing, and liberation. In this episode, Ifagbenusola shares: 🔥 How storytelling, music, and film shape spiritual consciousness 🌍 Pathways for reconnecting with Ifá across the Diaspora 🗣️ A closing Ifá prayer and blessing to carry with you This conversation is an offering for anyone seeking to live more spiritually rooted, intentionally aligned, and ancestrally connected. Spirit & Liberation, brought to you by the Latinx Therapists Action Network, is a limited series podcast exploring the intersection of political struggle and sacred traditions. Each episode features movement leaders, spiritual practitioners, and healers who are weaving ancestral wisdom into today’s collective liberation work.

In this episode of Spirit & Liberation, host Francisca Porchas-Coronado speaks with Melanie Maldonado—a Boricua bombera, artivist, independent scholar, and cultural preservationist whose work spans performance, history, and genealogy. Melanie is the founder of the Puerto Rican Organization for the Performing Arts (PROPA) in Chicago and the longtime organizer of the Bomba Research Conference. She has contributed to the Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Program, conducted research for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and published extensively on Afro-Puerto Rican music and dance. Since 2011, Melanie has led the Lugares Históricos project, highlighting Black historical sites in Puerto Rico—including those tied to the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Her work includes community tours, historical marker placements, and ongoing efforts to preserve sacred ancestral spaces. She is also a genealogist and member of the United Confederation of Taíno People, working to help Afrodescendant families reconnect with their roots through projects like Mis Ancestres en la Bomba, África Habla en Mí, and Mapping Africa in Puerto Rico. In this episode, we explore: Her journey as a bombera and cultural worker, The importance of Black historical sites in Puerto Rico, Her genealogical work connecting Afrodescendants to ancestral memory, The mapping of African legacy across Borikén and why reclaiming physical spaces matters for spiritual and political liberation. This conversation is an offering for all those committed to remembering, honoring, and preserving our roots. Spirit & Liberation is a limited series podcast, brought to you by the Latinx Therapists Action Network, exploring the intersection of political struggle and sacred traditions. Each episode brings you into conversation with organizers, spiritual practitioners, and healers committed to weaving ancestral wisdom into the fight for our collective liberation. This series explores how spirit moves through our movements—offering tools, stories, and truths for these times.

On this week’s episode of Spirit & Liberation, host Francisca Porchas Coronado welcomes Wakumi Douglas, creator, mother, and spiritual strategist. Rooted in Jamaican lineage shaped by the Maafa and marronage. Wakumi is the visionary behind The Givers Revival, a centralized, scalable wellness infrastructure designed specifically for those managing high-stakes funding, social movements, and community-based change. . In this episode, Wakumi speaks on: 🌀 Her journey through organizing, healing justice, and sacred practice, 🔥 How The Givers Revival is creating embodied spaces of spiritual and political liberation, 🌻 The role of joy, rest, and ritual in sustaining our movements, 🌍 The transformative power of healing as a strategy for resilience and collective power. Spirit & Liberation is a limited series podcast, brought to you by the Latinx Therapists Action Network, exploring the intersection of political struggle and sacred traditions. Each episode brings you into conversation with organizers, spiritual practitioners, and healers committed to weaving ancestral wisdom into the fight for our collective liberation. This series explores how spirit moves through our movements—offering tools, stories, and truths for these times.

Welcome to Spirit & Liberation, the podcast where we bridge the sacred and the political, where ancestral wisdom meets the frontlines of organized movement. Our ancestors taught us how to resist and reimagine the world. Today, as the stakes of our collective freedom grow higher, we are called to reawaken and re-embody those lessons. Spirit & Liberation traces those links between ancestral spiritual practice and contemporary liberation movements. Join hosts Francisca Porchas Coronado and Jeanette Charles-Marquez, two organizers and IFA practitioners who are deeply committed to liberation. With our special guests, we will discuss ancestral practices, community-based care systems, and the often unseen spiritual frameworks that nurture our movements.