Welcome to our 6th iteration of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause podcast: the Season of Orisii.
Building on our international diasporic tour from last year, this season's theme is Orisii, or 'pairs' in the Afric language of Yoruba. We've invited different types of pairs to explore the through-line between menarche and menopause. You will hear parent/child, partner/lovers and siblings to offer their reflections and observations about this journey as individuals and as Orisii. We, as people capable of menstruation, understand that each experience is unique and impacts both ourselves and the connections we have with our loved ones.
For our final interview for this Season of Orisii, our producer and BGG2SM Creative Director, Mariah M., interviews our Lead Menopause Cartographer and Founder of BGG2SM, known to us as Omisade but known by their sister, Georgette, and close family as Wilhelmina aka Billie. Together, they are affectionately known as “The Burney Girls”.
Two fiery daughters were born to a Cancer mother and a Scorpio father who has passed away. They were raised by a Cancer stepfather who adopted them when he married their mother. They spent their time growing up between North Carolina and Maryland, and they spent summers in New York.
Now, both mothers of boys and grandmother (Georgette) of boys, we discuss motherhood and auntieship and the tenderness of Scorpio Season. Autumn invites us to slow down and embrace letting go. Scorpio is the sign of transformation, death, and rebirth, and this season holds a special place for The Burney Girls as November holds both their mother’s day of ascension as well as their father’s birthday, now passed. Within this mourning of what was, a new relationship and way of connection to their parents was birthed. Wilhelmina and Georgette, each named after their late father, have used their grief as a path to deeper connection as sisters in adulthood.
Produced by Mariah M., Managing Editor of Hippolyta’s Journal by BGG2SM | hippolytasjournal.substack.com
Interview conducted by Mariah M.
Mixed by Kim Blocker of TDS Radio
Theme by Taj Cullen Scott
Season 6 Artwork by Assata Goff, in-house Iconographer of BGG2SM
Season 6 of the BGG2SM podcast is sponsored by The Honey Pot Co.
More about the Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Menopause at www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
Welcome to our 6th iteration of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause podcast: the Season of Orisii. Building on our international diasporic tour from last year, this season's theme is Orisii, or 'pairs' in the Afric language of Yoruba. We've invited different types of pairs to explore the through-line between menarche and menopause. You will hear parent/child, partner/lovers and siblings to offer their reflections and observations about this journey as individual and as Orisii. We, as people capable of menstruation, understand that each experience is unique and impacts both ourselves and the connections we have with our loved ones.
For this fourth episode of our Season of Orisii, we have life partners, Jasiatic and Elsworth Usher.
In this episode, we time-traveled, grounded in the here and now, dipping back to the past and stretching towards the future, where taking risks lands us in infinite possibilities and love grows. In numerology, the number 4 represents practicality, loyalty, knowledge, and dependability. It seems very fortunate for us to explore the journey from menarche to menopause through the lens of the intergenerational love partnership between Jasiatic and Elworth.
Many astrologers agree that Virgo and Capricorn are one of the most auspicious pairings, platonically, romantically--creatively.
Mercury and Saturn
Pragmatism and Vigour
Earth and Earth
They seem to get each other...
Jasiatic and Elsworth also share a love connection between the American South and the Global South, with Jasiatic heralding from Charlotte, North Carolina, and Elsworth a first-generation American from Belize. In this episode, we explore:
Meet Jasiatic and Elsworth:
Jasiatic Anderson Usher, @jasiatic, resides at the cultural and philosophical crossroads of world travel, radical taste making, “artist as art”, and foodie meets chef.
She is the creator of the Liberation Dinners and has hands in plant based pop ups, food history classes, transitional plant based coaching, along with food writing.
Elswoth Usher, @iamelz, is a creative writer, digital content creator, sous chef, photographer, thinker, lover, partner, and Capricorn stelium.
Together, they co-host "Su Casa," Charlotte’s longest-running dance party for the culturally starved, which Jasiatic manifested over 10 years ago.
*No menstrual blood was used to coerce Brother Elsworth. This is a deep soul love. Pure and unabiding.
To learn more, check out https://jasiatic.com/
Show Notes:
Produced by Mariah M., Creative Director at BGG2SM
Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott, Founder & Chief Curatorial Officer at BGG2SM
Edited by Kim Blocker of TDS Radio
Theme music by Taj Scott
Season 6 Artwork by Assata Goff, artist & in-house Iconographer of BGG2SM
Season 6 of is sponsored by The Honey Pot Company
Learn more about Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause at www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
Welcome to our 6th iteration of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause podcast: the Season of Orisii. Building on our international diasporic tour from last year, this season's theme is Orisii, or 'pairs' in the Afric language of Yoruba. We've invited different types of pairs to explore the through-line between menarche and menopause. You will hear parent/child, partner/lovers and siblings to offer their reflections and observations about this journey as individual and as Orisii. We, as people capable of menstruation, understand that each experience is unique and impacts both ourselves and the connections we have with our loved ones.
For this third episode of our Season of Orisii, we have sisters adrienne maree brown and Autumn Brown.
Opening portals, multiverse traveling companions, and life beyond the end of the world: How can we stay grounded in the present moment, in this reality of constant change, decay, death, and rebirth, without feeling completely overwhelmed? And then what?
Surviving the various challenges within ourselves and in the world while navigating the transition between our changing identities of past, present, and future selves, all while supporting each other and remembering our individual needs. What if we redefined "self-centered" to mean the preservation of all aspects of ourselves, young, older, fragile, strong for iterative healing?
These are some of the themes and questions we explored with the Sisters Brown, adrienne, and Autumn on this episode and we can't think of a better way to kick off Black August during our Season of Orisii.
Black August is a time of year to honor our Black freedom fighters, political prisoners, and resistance against oppression via study, fasting, training and fighting. It is the antithesis of “celebration” and empty “homage.” Black August commemoration and practice place our collective struggle and sacrifice on center stage. More on the why of Black August here, detailed by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.
Meet adrienne and Autumn:
adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public through her multi-genre writing, her collaborations and her podcasts. Informed by 25 years of movement facilitation, somatics, Octavia E. Butler scholarship and her work as a doula, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas and practices for transformation. She is the author/editor of several published texts, co-generator of a tarot deck and a developing musical ritual. adrienne's forthcoming book Loving Corrections will be released on August 20 from AK Press.
Autumn Brown is a musician, facilitator, and author of speculative fiction and creative non-fiction. As the front woman of the eponymous band, AUTUMN, she has created two EPs, The Animal in You and The Way Your Blood Beats. Her writing has been featured in Revolutionary Mothering, Parenting 4 Social Justice, Octavia’s Brood, and Lightspeed Magazine. She co-hosts the podcast How to Survive the End of the World, and facilitates political education and movement strategy through the Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance.
To learn more about the Sisters Brown, check out the following links:
How to Survive the End of the World
There she is—- neither
Super hero nor villain
Something in between
Inside the between
A life lived so many times
Familiar echoes
Between truth and dare
Lies all of the answers still…
YOU are your best thing
Black August Haiku, Omisade Burney-Scott
Show Notes:
Produced by Mariah M., Creative Director at BGG2SM
Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott, Founder & Chief Curatorial Officer at BGG2SM
Edited by Kim Blocker of TDS Radio
Theme music by Taj Scott
Season 6 Artwork by Assata Goff, artist & in-house Iconographer of BGG2SM
Season 6 of is sponsored by The Honey Pot Company
Learn more about Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause at www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
Welcome to our 6th iteration of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause podcast: the Season of Orisii. Building on our international diasporic tour from last year, this season's theme is Orisii, or 'pairs' in the Afric language of Yoruba. We've invited different types of pairs to explore the through-line between menarche and menopause. You will hear parent/child, partner/lovers, and siblings offer their reflections and observations about this journey as individuals and as Orisii. We, as people capable of menstruation, understand that each experience is unique and impacts both ourselves and the connections we have with our loved ones.
For this second episode of our Season of Orisii, we have couple, Michelle Graham-Freeman and Sterling E. Freeman.
MICHELLE GRAHAM-FREEMAN has taught Spanish at Durham Academy for 30 years. The first 17 years were in middle school with grades 6-8. The remaining years have been in pre and lower schools with grades preK-1. This 31st year is her last as she and her daughter, Joia, become franchisees of Season 2 Consign--RDU. Season 2 is dedicated to providing the highest quality, pre-owned designer brand and luxury handbags to clients around the world.
STERLING E. FREEMAN, is a co-facilitator of UnLearning Sexism Accountability Circles, and co-host of a podcast in process, Beyond Being A Good One podcast. Sterling is a Co-Founder and Principal with CounterPart Consulting, Co-Founder of BREATHE: A Whole Black Experience, and the creator and host of The Wisdom & The Work podcast. All his efforts contribute to the work of dismantling oppressive systems, and imagining and building spaces that enable liberation and thriving for all. At this point in his journey, he is an aspiring womanist. Sterling lives in Durham, NC with his wife, Michelle. They have an adult daughter, Joia.
Show Notes:
Produced by Mariah M., Creative Director at BGG2SM
Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott, Founder & Chief Curatorial Officer at BGG2SM
Edited by Kim Blocker of TDS Radio
Theme music by Taj Cullen Scott
Season 6 Artwork by Assata Goff, artist & in-house Iconographer of BGG2SM
Season 6 of the podcast is sponsored by The Honey Pot Company
Learn more about Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause at www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
Welcome to our 6th iteration of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause podcast: the Season of Orisii. Building on our international diasporic tour from last year, this season's theme is Orisii, or 'pairs' in the Afric language of Yoruba. We've invited different types of pairs to explore the through-line between menarche and menopause. You will hear parent/child, partner/lovers and siblings to offer their reflections and observations about this journey as individual and as orisii. We as people capable of menstruation understand that each experience is unique and impacts both our selves and connections we have to our loved ones.
On this first episode, we have gina Breedlove and Ash-lee Woodard Henderson: partnered orisii
gina Breedlove is a grief doula, sound healer, vocalist, mother, grandmother, author, and oracle of grace. (website | IG)
Ash-lee Woodard Henderson is an organizer, strategist, soon-to-be author and the first Black woman co-Executive Director at the Highlander Center for Research and Education. (Ash-Lee's IG | Highland's IG)
Produced by BGG2SM Creative Director, Mariah M.
Hosted by BGG2SM Founder & Chief Curatorial Officer, Omisade Burney-Scott
Edited by Kim Blocker of TDS Radio
Theme music by Taj Cullen Scott
Season 6 Artwork by Assata Goff, artist & in-house Iconographer of BGG2SM
Season 6 of the podcast is sponsored by The Honey Pot Company
Learn more about Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause at www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
During 2023, the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause continued to bushwack a maroon path for those menopause stories left at the margins by launching a diasporic tour that took our team to the UK, Harlem, Toronto, and Puerto Rico.
Our intergenerational team has learned to hold the “both/and” dynamic tension of curating storytelling spaces more deeply. We are infinitely grateful for the lessons we have learned from our travels together, community conversations, and partnerships that include:
In this last episode of this very special season of the podcast, you will hear stories from our time in Toronto and team reflections from Puerto Rico. As you soak up this offering, we will leave you with these questions as 2023 comes to a close:
See you in 2024!
Episode Notes
Voices heard in this episode:
Feature Orisii interviewees:
Season 5 Host and Producer:
Score credits (all music free to use under Creative Commons Licensing):
This season and the diasporic tour were made possible by our partners and sponsors at The Honey Pot Company, Kindra, Elektra Health and the Groundswell Fund.
For the past four years, the Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause has been a multi-media platform with Reproductive Justice, Black Feminism, and Healing Justice as our north star. At its core, this means we fundamentally believe that none of us are free until all of us are free, and when the most vulnerable of us are taken care of, all of society stands to benefit. BGG2SM unapologetically stands in solidarity with all marginalized people and their struggle for freedom, and their demand of their innate human rights.
Happy World Menopause Month!
This year, the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause has been deepening our intergenerational narrative shift work by co-creating peer learning exchanges to normalize the menopause experience of Black people in the UK, New York, Toronto, and Puerto Rico. We are also co-hosting intergenerational menopause storytelling events called "Orisii" ( "pairs" in Yoruba).
The peer learning and the Orisii dinner are being offered in partnership with community-based women-led organizations. We identified each of these locations because of their strong Black diasporic communities. We have local partners on the ground, or we are seeking to connect with more partners on the ground. In addition to the events we co-host, BGG2SM is documenting our learning during our travels, introducing how each partnering organization works to normalize menopause for Black and Queer communities and sharing stories from participants about their experiences with their bodies, identities, and relationships.
So.... our podcasts in Season 5 will sound a little different. Think if "This American Life" was centering on Black intergenerational menopausal stories.... LET'S GO!
This summer, the BGG2SM team traveled to Harlem, New York, and was blessed to partner with long-time friend and sister of the heart, Ebony Noelle Golden, Founder and CEO of Betty's Daugther Arts Collaborative.
Ebony is a performance artist, scholar, and culture strategist whose work consists of site-specific performance rituals and live art installations that explore relationships between creativity and liberation.
For the last decade, she has collaboratively created site-specific public art performances grounded in authentic community storytelling. Each time, she has felt that those folks who joined herself and her collaborators on their creative journey had been enveloped into the project itself—no longer audience members, but co-conspirators or co-performers.
We had a great time hosting three amazing gatherings for people Global Majority who are living and thriving in New York. These included the Menopausal Multiverse Cocktail Hour, Peer Learning Dinner, and Orisii Intergenerational Dinner using the Say More deck. We were also honored to interview singer, composer, creative, performer, and our Beloved, YahZarah, and her mother Beverly about their memories of their first menstrual cycle, bodily autonomy, agency, and sovereignty.
Themes explored in this episode include:
Voices heard in this episode:
Ebony Noelle Golden, Harlem Community Partner & Founder of Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative
Omisade Burney-Scott, Creator & CCO at the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause
Mona Eltahawy, global feminist & guest at Orisii dinner | featured on Season 2, Episode 5 of the BGG2SM Podcast
Feature Orisii interviewees:
YahZarah, singer, daughter & mother of 1
Ms. Beverly, children's author, former educator & forever mother
Host: Mariah M., Creative Director at the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause
Score credits:
Sunflower by Soyb
Lude Illa by Joe Bagale
Sweet as Honey by Topher Mohr and Alex Elena
All music free to use under Creative Commons Licensing via AudioLibrary
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0
Thank you to our partnering sponsors, The Honey Pot Company, Kindra, and Elektra Health for making this leg of the BGG2SM Hits the Road possible!
Next Stop Puerto Rico! Stay Tuned!
www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
This year, the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause plans to deepen our intergenerational narrative shift work by co-creating peer learning exchanges to normalize the menopause experience of Black people in the UK, New York, Toronto, and Puerto Rico. We are also co-hosting intergenerational menopause storytelling events called "Orisii" ( "pairs" in Yoruba). The peer learning and the Orisii dinner are being offered in partnership with community-based women-led organizations. We identified each of these locations because of their strong Black diasporic communities, we have local partners on the ground, or we are seeking to connect with more partners on the ground. In addition to the events we co-host, BGG2SM is documenting our learning during our travels, introducing how each partnering organization works to normalize menopause for Black and Queer communities and sharing stories from participants about their experiences with their bodies, identities, and relationships. So.... our podcasts in Season 5 will sound a little different. Think if "This American Life" was centering on Black intergenerational menopausal stories.... LET'S GO!
This spring, we traveled to the UK to partner with Karen Arthur, fashion creative, model, menopause advocate, and creator of the UK-based podcast Menopause Whilst Black centering the menopause stories of Black women in the UK. We hosted two intergenerational gatherings, a peer learning dinner with other Black women, femmes, and gender-expansive people engaged in work in the UK focused on women's wellness, gender equity, mental health, menopause, and aging. We also co-hosted our first Orisii (Pairs) intergenerational dinner in St. Leonards-on-Sea (Sussex). Each guest attended a delicious dinner with a special "plus one" guest and was guided through conversations about bodily autonomy, body sovereignty, pleasure, identity, and mental health using the Say More deck.
In this episode, you will hear the beautiful soundscape of....
UK Peer Dinner Guests:
Fay Reid
Anita Powell
Dr. Nneka Nkwokolo
Marcia Jones
Kenya Fairly
Maureen Anderson
Eileen Bellot
Orisii Intergenerational Dinner Participants:
Teresa Adjorlolo
Dorcas Magbadelo
Claudine Eccleston
Kareem Arthur
Maheni Arthur
Our Community Partner:
Karen Arthur
BGG2SM Team Members:
Leigh Reid
Mariah Monsanto
Omisade Burney-Scott
Check out the video on Patreon!
Score Credits:
All music licensed by artlist.io
Ido Maimon - NYC - Instrumental Version
Sémø - Better - Instrumental Version
Yulee - Gotta Love - Instrumental Version
Big Thanks to our sponsors and collaborating partners who made this stop possible, The Honey Pot Company and Kindra!
This year, the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause plans to deepen our intergenerational narrative shift work by co-creating peer learning exchanges to normalize the menopause experience of Black people in the UK, New York, Toronto, and Puerto Rico. We want to take you all along with us on our Magical Menopausal Multiverse School Bus tour!
In each location, we will also co-host curated intergenerational menopause storytelling events called "Orisii" ( "pairs" in Yoruba). The peer learning and the Orisii dinners are being done in partnership with community-based organizations fulfilling a pre-COVID commitment to center the menopausal lived experiences across the African diaspora.
We will be in the UK this spring, working in partnership with Karen Arthur, fashion creative, model, menopause advocate, and creator of the UK-based podcast Menopause Whilst Black centering the menopause stories of Black women in the UK. New York is scheduled for this summer, partnering with Ebony Noelle Golden of Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative, and Luquillo, Puerto Rico is scheduled for this fall, and we will be partnering with Molly Jones of Love, Soul, Beautiful. We are finalizing our partnership with Toronto native Michelle Osborne and are looking at September to come to Canada!
Meet our new team member Madylin Nixon-Taplet, founder of Love Önwa Photography, Associate Director of Artist Training for The Beautiful Project and BGG2SM Documentary Creative Advisor:
Madylin started Love Önwa Photography in 2020 in response to losing her job of 13 years, wanting to spend more time indulging in her photography as a love, wanting to advance her artistry, and wanting to develop & grow as an entrepreneur. Their mission is “I Capture Souls and the Magic of Life”. Madylin truly believes that every human on this planet has something beautiful about them, even if they can’t always see that within or for themselves. She shares, "my goal is to show people themselves! Exactly and as beautifully as she sees them".
The name Önwa means moon in Igbo, as Madylin is a child of the moon (Cancer ♋️ Energy). When she photographs, what she presents to the client resonates as a letter that she is writing to their soul. To their experiences. To the beauty, she sees that she wants to be reflected back to them. And so she ends with ~Love Önwa.
STAY TUNED!!
Season 5 and BGG2SM Hits The Road Sponsors Include:
We also want to thank our GENEROUS donors:
The Groundswell Fund
Common Counsel Foundation Honeybee Fund
Jeanette Stokes
Episode Details:
Host: Omisade Burney-Scott
Producer: Mariah M.
Podcast Theme Music: Taj Cullen Scott
Send your thoughts, suggestions, questions and more to decolonizingthecrone@gmail.com!
Welcome to the O. Estelle Butler Intragalactic Train Station, where all of our Milky Way is always within your reach. Please follow the illuminated paths to the ticket kiosk, your train line, and other needs you may have about the station.
This is Omisade Burney-Scott and welcome to ‘Black Technologies of the Menopausal Multiverse.’ The voices and stories featured in this exhibition include our guests from Season 4 of the Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Menopause and myself. But what exactly are Black Technologies? These are methods, strategies, and formulas those born with uteri have learned and adopted in their lifetime in order to survive, thrive, and move in the fullness of themselves as they navigate the liminal journey of menopause. Some technologies picked up on the way include but are not limited to spiritual practices & embodiment, tarot and other forms of divination, community as praxis, intentional intergenerationally, and the dispelling and exploration of gender and gender roles. Throughout this exhibit, you will hear varying perspectives on womanhood and queerness.
Recap Episode Notes
We want to thank our Season 4 guests:
We also want to thank our team that made this episode possible:
**JJMA featured in this episode is named after Joshua Johnson, the son of an enslaved woman and Baltimore native, who was the first documented Black painter to be paid for their work in the United States. More on Joshua Johnson and his legacy here: http://americanartgallery.org/artist/readmore/id/235
**O. Estelle Butler Intergalactic Train Station is named for our beloved Afrofuturist and speculative fiction oracle Octavia E. Butler
All sounds used in this episode are free to use under the Creative Commons license
Original Theme Music: Taj Cullen Scott
Host: Omisade Burney-Scott
Producer: Mariah M.
Season 4 of the Black Girl's Guide was sponsored by our local NPR station, WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio, and Kindra with whom we created the Say More midlife and menopause discussion deck.
We'll see you again on the dark side of the moon in 2023! www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause measures our impact by the continuation of expanding and normalizing the conversations and understanding around menopause to be inclusive and centering all Black people---all gender identities, sexual expression, and ages. There is a growing ecosystem of Black people talking about menopause and aging. Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause has played a vital leadership role in ushering in this landscape and movement. We are menopausal alchemists, doulas, cartographers, and advocates. We have created a space that hasn't existed on this scale before this platform for Black women, women-identified and gender-expansive people navigating menopause no matter their age, and those who are curious about menopause and want to be prepared for the experience.
For example, in our most recent episodes of season 4 of the podcast, we interviewed Austen Smith. Austen is a Black genderqueer transmasculine writer, creative, and activist who experienced menopause two years ago as a result of their gender-affirming surgery. While Austen is not the first genderqueer, gender-expansive, or trans-masculine person we have interviewed for the podcast --we have interviewed Mo George and Ignacio Rivera in season 2, the late Chass Grissom in season 3 and Syd Yang in our first episode of season 4, he is the youngest at 30. Austen's interview is an exemplar of menopausal truths that typically are not addressed, affirmed, or elevated in the traditional white cishet menopause landscape. These truths include:
*Menopause doesn't always happen in your 40s and 50s
*Menopause happens to people who don’t identify as women
*Menopause happens to people who aren’t heterosexual
*Individual menopause experiences are impacted by white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny
In this episode, our producer, Mariah M. and I talk about our work as a team and our ethos around intergenerational work. We explore our relationship, what we have learned about working intergenerational and what we hope for the podcast.
ENJOY!
REGISTER TODAY!!
Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause Podcast and Embodied WUNC @embodiedwunc presents “Say More: From Menarche to Menopause” on November 2nd at 7:00 pm EST.
Join me and Embodied WUNC host Anita Rao for an intergenerational exchange about the changes our bodies experience and how we can normalize conversations about menstruation, menopause and aging through storytelling.
This event is VIRTUAL and space is LIMITED so register today! https://bit.ly/SayMoreWUNC
Check out our open source toolkit http://bit.ly/saymoretoolkit
Learn more! www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
Produced by Mariah M.
Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott
Theme Music by Taj Cullen Scott
Season 4 of the podcast is sponsored by our local NPR station, WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio! www.wunc.org
There is a growing ecosystem of people talking about menopause and aging. The Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause sees ourselves as menopausal alchemists, doulas, cartographers, and advocates and has taken up an intentional role in ushering in intergenerational Black voices and narratives into the menopausal landscape.
We see our intergenerational work, healing, and storytelling as an ethos.
An ethos is "an element of argument and persuasion through which a speaker establishes their credibility and knowledge, as well as their good moral character".
Ethos elements include:
BGG2SM ethos around intergenerational healing and storytelling is grounded in the belief that there is knowledge, wisdom, and expertise from the menopausal multiverse at every age, and if we create spaces for this energetic exchange through our stories and full-throated truths, we are transformed as individuals and healing across generations is possible. During this episode of the BGG2SM, we explore our relationship with our bodies across three decades and multiple identities as Black people with uteruses with Amber J. Phillips, Sonja Renee Taylor, and our host Omisade Burney-Scott.
Enjoy!
Episode Notes:
Amber J. Phillips, @amberabundance
Amber J. Phillips is a storyteller, filmmaker, and creative director. She creates world-building narratives using warm visuals and vulnerable performances through her lens of being a fat Black queer femme auntie from the Midwest. Amber recently released her first short film, “Abundance” about the limitations and radical possibilities of identity.
Amber is the producer, writer, and performer of “Abundance” which was most recently a 2021 BlackStar Film Festival @blackstarfest selection and won the audience award for Best Short Narrative. Amber’s written and visual work imagines a world where Black womanhood is an abundant overwhelming experience of safety, pleasure, and joy. She is devoted to using radical Black imagination to create stories, art, culture, and community. You can experience more of Amber's work on Instagram and Twitter @AmberAbundance and at AmberAbundance.com
Sonya Renee Taylor, @sonyareneetaylor
New York Times Best Selling author, award-winning performance poet, activist, and educator, Sonya Renee Taylor, is the Founder and Radical Executive Officer of The Body is Not An Apology, a digital media, and education company committed to radical self-love and body empowerment as the foundational tool for social justice. Sonya has worked in numerous countries and on major media outlets around the world, reaching hundreds of thousands of people with her commitment to radical self-love and transformation.
Visit her at www.sonyareneetaylor.com or www.thebodyisnotanapology.com
References:
Learn more! www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
Season 4 of the podcast is sponsored by our local NPR station, WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio! www.wunc.org
"Above all else, Our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else’s may because of our need as human persons for autonomy...
We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work.
This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else’s oppression."
The Combahee River Collective Statement, 1977
Talking about our bodies and the changes that happen as people with uteruses age carried (and still carries) a different level of taboo or shame amplified by race and generation. Black women’s bodies have been problematized and pathologized throughout our existence in the country. The impact of racism, patriarchy and misogyny on Black women, women-identified and gender-expansive people and our understanding/ownership of our bodies is profound. From the moment of our arrival in this country to modern times, these forces have shaped the way many of us see ourselves, understand our inherent value and have often muted our voices.
This is why BGG2SM holds space for the conversation that disrupts the system and centers the most marginalized.
In our latest episode of Season 4, we interviewed Social Justice doula and Black feminist Lutze Segu. We talked about:
*Anti-racist feminist frameworks and who controls the narrative about menopause and aging
*Why it’s important to engage in narrative and culture shift work with Black people that disrupts white supremacy, patriarchy, misogyny, and heteronormativity related to menopause
*How people can better advocate for themselves related to menopause and/or its onset with their health provider, employers, family members, etc.
Enjoy!
Episode Notes:
Lutze Segu @lutzesegu
Lutze Segu is a first-generation Haitian-American queer Black feminist who is a citizen of Miami, the home of the Seminole, Miccosukee, and Tequesta First Nations. She is a social justice doula, content creator, anti-racist educator, social worker, and your favorite Black feminist thinker. Lutze is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of British Columbia studying Race, Gender, Sexuality, & Social Justice.
References:
Black Feminism Resources:
Combahee River Collective, https://combaheerivercollective.weebly.com/
Black Feminist Future, http://blackfeministfuture.org/
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, https://www.alexispauline.com/, https://www.akpress.org/undrowned.html
"Say More" about Menopause!
BGG2SM, in partnership with Kindra, co-designed “Say More,” a collection of conversation and journaling prompt cards filled with thought-provoking questions, personal storytelling prompts, and creative ‘wild cards’ that empower people to support themselves and loved ones through menopause and aging. BGG2SM listeners can use the code "OMI20" to get 20% off their "Say More" purchase at https://ourkindra.com/.
Check out our open source toolkit http://bit.ly/saymoretoolkit
Learn more! www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
Produced by Mariah M.
Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott
Theme Music by Taj Cullen Scott
Season 4 of the podcast is sponsored by our local NPR station, WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio! www.wunc.org
There is much we can learn-- or maybe unlearn about menopause and aging if we apply a Speculative Fiction lens. Our current understanding of Speculative Fiction is tethered to science fiction and fantasy, and the way this genre broadens the story or narratives begging shared to include the potent age-old question of “what if.” This question that has been posed by poets, folklorists, writers, and philosophers invites us to reimagine our present reality, and it offers us multiple diverse opportunities to understand “who” is speaking and what is happening from their vantage point.
Black Speculative Fiction is often grounded in Black feminism, radical Black liberation praxis, and gender liberation ethics. Because notions of a multiverse live inside of string theory science, science fiction, and fantasy, there may be some juicy “what if” unlearning around menopause for Black women, women-identified, and gender-expansive people that are actually based on truth…like:
*Menopause doesn't always happen in your 40s and 50s
*Menopause happens to people who don’t identify as women
*Menopause happens to people who aren’t heterosexual
*Individual menopause experiences are impacted by white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny
In episode 4 of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause, we explore some of these "what ifs" and truisms with Austen Smith. We explore:
*Disenfranchised Grief
*Austen’s journey to gender-affirming surgery, barriers in existence via the medical industrial complex, sociocultural norms, etc.
*The importance of intergenerational spiritual communal work and liberation as a "time-bending" somatic experience
Come with us on this journey and conversation through the infinite possibilities of what menopause is and how it is a portal to the next iteration of you.
Episode Notes:
Austen Smith IG: @transtheory
Austen (they/them) is a masculine-of-center, non-binary wordsmith, editor, community facilitator, and radical imagination doula.
Their work explores healing spiritual impacts of oppression, postactivism, gender proliferation and play, black queerness, and co-imagining liberation as a somatic experience in addition to an environmental reality.
References:
Trans and Menopausal article by Austen Smith: https://www.taunt.me/trans-menopausal
Grandmother Hypothesis: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/06/07/617097908/why-grandmothers-may-hold-the-key-to-human-evolution
Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, https://www.akpress.org/undrowned.html
Whale Whispering, Michaela Harrison, https://www.michaelaharrison.org/whale-whispering
Post Activism, Bayo Akomolafe, https://www.bayoakomolafe.net/post/the-times-are-urgent-lets-slow-down
"Say More" about Menopause!
The Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Menopause, in partnership with Kindra, co-designed “Say More,” a collection of conversation and journaling prompt cards filled with thought-provoking questions, personal storytelling prompts, and creative ‘wild cards’ that empower people to support themselves and loved ones through menopause and aging. BGG2SM listeners can use the code "OMI20" to get 20% off their "Say More" purchase at https://ourkindra.com/
Learn more! www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
Produced by Mariah M.
Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott
Theme Music by Taj Cullen Scott
Season 4 of the podcast is sponsored by our local NPR station, WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio! www.wunc.org
Since we launched the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause, I have learned quite a bit about how Murphy's Law plays a role in what we produce. We are all familiar with Murphy's first law; if anything can go wrong, it will. However, I don't think many of us know that there are two other laws; nothing is as easy as it looks, and everything takes longer than you think it will. If I were to offer a podcaster's version of Murphy's law, I would posit: There's no such thing as stable Wi-fi. If your computer/tablet/cellphone battery can go dead mid-interview, it will. Sometimes what you think you've recorded vanishes into thin air. As much as there is a craft to the audio storytelling podcasting, there is also a realization that you control nothing but the good intentions you enter the conversation with.
A moment of honesty for our listeners... We entered into our conversation with our Season 4, Episode 3 guest, Satana Deberry, with excitement and a plan. Satana is not only one of the most progressive district attorneys in the country, but she is also a dear friend. Murphy, whomever Murphy is, decided to make a guest appearance on this episode and dematerialize the first 8 minutes of our conversation. Eight minutes of introduction and witty banter went like "puff"! Lucky for us and our fantastic listening audience, we pressed forward, editing the remaining parts that were in no way diminished by the podcast fates. Satana and I were able to discuss:
Our mothering journeys.
Unlearning old parenting models.
Sexual expression and intimacy.
Being special just because you are you.
Enjoy!
Episode Notes: Satana Deberry IG: @satanadeberry
Born and raised in rural NC and educated in the Ivy League, Satana has spent her career trying to dismantle the systems of power that keep us from being free. Whether that’s the threat of ongoing economic inequality or black respectability. As the parent of young women, she is also trying to be her whole self with them rather than creating a myth of motherhood for them to dismantle later. Her current day job is as the elected DA of Durham, but her long-time passion has been being in community and sisterhood.
"Say More"!
The Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Menopause, in partnership with Kindra, co-designed “Say More,” a collection of conversation and journaling prompt cards filled with thought-provoking questions, personal storytelling prompts, and creative ‘wild cards’ that empower people to support themselves and loved ones through menopause and aging. The goal of Black Girls Guide and Kindra in creating these cards is to ignite a supportive community that can surround people going through this crucial stage in life with resources and love. “Say More” is a beautifully-curated deck of discussion cards broken down into elemental categories—earth, wind, fire, and air. Each card explores themes like pleasure, grief, rage, play, creativity, identity, sexual expression, and healing for people on a menopausal midlife journey. BGG2SM listeners can use the code "OMI20" to get 20% off their "Say More" purchase at https://ourkindra.com/
https://www.patreon.com/blackgirlsguidetomenopause
Produced by Mariah M.
Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott
Theme Music by Taj Cullen Scott
We are excited to have our local NPR station, WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio, as a sponsor for Season 4 of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause https://www.wunc.org/
“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
-- Toni Morrison
When I was a kid in the 1970s, School House Rock, short educational cartoon vignettes put to music, were ubiquitous on Saturday mornings. We learned about grammar, math and how the government work (kind of) all with a catchy tune. There was a particular School House Rock titled Mother Necessity" and it extolled "with Mother Necessity and where would we be without the inventions of your progeny"? Where would we be indeed! The Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause was born out of both a desire and need to create a safe and sacred space for conversation around menopause, midlife and aging for Black women women-identified and gender expansive people. We knew there was a conversation, a story and some good wisdom waiting to be found, illuminated and shared. Jamyla Bennu, of Oyin Handmade, knew the same thing about the products available to Black people on their natural hair journey in a society that told us our hair is a problem that needs to be solved. She saw the need and got into her lab (also known initially as her kitchen) to create products that are all natural and made for us, by us. In this episode of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause, we explore:
We also did a deep dive into her menopausal journey at the intersection of her multiple identities, roles and paths. Enjoy this walk down memory lane and future building between an Aries and an Aquarius!
Episode Notes:
Jamyla Bennu https://www.instagram.com/heyjamyla/
https://oyinhandmade.com/about-us/
Jamyla Bennu is the creator of Oyin Handmade, a line of natural, unisex personal care products formulated for the moisture needs of highly textured hair and dry skin. She is a maker, a mixtress, a lover of laughter & dance, a voracious reader, a gregarious introvert, and a self-described nerd. She is an advocate for independent small business, work-life balance, and making things.
Her interests include nutritional density in both food and hair products, joy and delight as a facet of intergenerational justice, neurological diversity as a key to human potential, and the power of creativity as a form of self care and world shaping.
She lives and builds in Baltimore with her partner, artist Pierre Bennu, and their two sons. To access a 20% discount on Oyin Handmade products, use, "BGG2SM"
References:
The Crown Act, https://www.thecrownact.com/
Our Bodies, Ourselves, https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/
Daughters of the Moon Tarot Deck, https://www.abebooks.com/Daughters-Moon-Tarot-Book-Morgan-Ffiona/31060777668/bd?cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_Shopp_Trade_20to50-_-product_id=COM9781880130018USED-_-keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjwu_mSBhAYEiwA5BBmf2G7uCyCjulU3E_B08xcG4eTe4eqpc7v3QDV3cKGUA7BWNI0bTpDUxoCBRQQAvD_BwE
----
www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
https://www.patreon.com/blackgirlsguidetomenopause
Produced by Mariah M.
Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott
Theme Music by Taj Cullen Scott
We are excited to have our local NPR station, WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio, as a sponsor for Season 4 of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause
https://www.wunc.org/
"This body does not bare destruction well.
This body likes warm drops of rain and bare feet. Toes grounding in rich soil, and having my scalp greased. To move and to stretch just a little beyond reach, There is glory over there, a hallelujah in my feet.
This body likes hot sun on bare shoulders, summer rain and not running inside. This body likes first morning light in her arms, new day sun streaming through open windows.
This body likes warm fingers on the dip of my back. Lips brushing the hollow between collar and neck. This body clings to warm embraces, wishing and praying, praying and wishing that I never have to let go.
This body likes mango juice dripping down onto my flesh. This body likes letting the current guide my steps and the moment of release."
Collective Sun Reshape the Mo(u)rning, SpiritHouse, Inc.
Menopause, if anything, is an opportunity to listen to your body. It is a time when your body is recalibrating it's navigational system and will send you new messages around what it needs to be healthy, vibrant, safe and satisfied. It is also an invitation to more deeply understand who you are as you are evolving (again) and what that might mean for your relationship to your body and to the people in your life. In this first episode of SEASON 4 of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause, we had the great fortune to interview Syd Yang and M'kali-Hashiki (see bios below). We were able to explore "what flows and what fits' in this menopausal journey which is deeply connected to who you are in all your intersectional identities. We unearthed the notions of menopause that were formed or informed by our race, ethnicity, gender identify, sexual expression and lived experiences. We also talked about the connective tissue between menopause and internalized agism. Such a rich conversation unfolded around wanting to genuinely love and know our bodies better that allowed us to explore...
Enjoy this journeying together.
Episode Notes:
Syd Yang, IG: @bluejaguarlove
www.bluejaguarhealingarts.com
Syd Yang (they/them) is a mixed race/Taiwanese American queer trans/non-binary healer, intuitive counselor and writer who weaves together magic, possibility and intention as an energy healer and spiritual coach in the world through their practice, Blue Jaguar Healing Arts. Syd's work finds its resonance in the stories we each hold at the intersection of memory, body, sexuality and mental health. Syd works primarily with queer and trans BIPOC as well as regularly leads workshops, community healing circles and has been a group facilitator for over two decades, with a specific focus on grief, healing ancestral trauma, sexuality + spirituality, body liberation and eating disorder recovery
M'kali-Hashiki, IG: @fierce_passions
www.FiercePassions.com
M'kali-Hashiki is a Somatic Sacred Storyteller & Erotic Ritualist. Her Divine Purpose is helping folx heal their erotic wounds, deepen their erotic relationship with their body & The Divine, and move further along in their path to individual & collective erotic liberation. She offers group intensives, rituals, individual sessions, instructional videos, guided visualizations; as well as private events for companies & organizations. Her lived experiences as a fat, Black, queer, femme, trauma-survivor inform every aspect of her work.
-----
www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
https://www.patreon.com/blackgirlsguidetomenopause
Produced by Mariah M.
Hosted by Omisade Burney-Scott
Theme Music by Taj Cullen Scott
At the end of each podcast episode, I close by saying, "we will see you again on the dark side of the moon". I chose this language because of the way moon phases have been divinely associated with menstruation throughout antiquity. The dark side of the moon is under the dominion of the crone, the wise one, the astrological sign of Scorpio, the goddess Hecate, and Orisa Oya. It is a place of power, ancient magic, healing, ancestral connection and transformation. The idea of the dark side of the moon may also illicit an image of place that is cold, barren, volatile and inhabitable. If I'm honest, the latter imagery has also come to mind for me more than I wanted to acknowledge and I felt conflicted about wanting to intentionally explore a space that felt like a distant dark outpost---uninviting, isolating and possibly dangerous. How would I reconcile these feelings and step more fully into this unknown?
It sounds simplistic, but I decided to trust my gut because my wisdom and the ancient wisdom of the people who have come before me lives there. I had a hunch that there had to be more to the dark side of the moon. I had a hunch that in the place ripe for the deep shadow work of unlearning the hard wiring we have received around the evolving and aging bodies of women, women identified and gender expansive people, there would be evidence of life flourishing in a new form.
Much like the deeper depths of the ocean, the dark side of the moon, menopause and aging has been woefully unexplored leading to cultural and societal assumptions and norms that problematize and pathologizes this transformation. I decided to focus on the dark side of the moon, for people navigating menopause and aging, as a potent place of liminality and rites of passage. An in betweenness and a pathway of exploration in need of illumination. A place where we could re-write the story menopause and aging together honoring ALL our voices.
Welcome to our first recap! In this dispatch from our basecamp on the dark side of the moon, you will hear some of the voices, narratives, questions and wisdom offered to our podcast during Season 3. As we prepare to launch Season 4 of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause, the entire team wants to thank you for joining us on this journey. We also hope to continue to carve a wide and well lit path for other folks finding their way and we are eager to learn more about the rich experiences of people navigating menopause at the intersections of their personhood, truths, hopes and dreams.
See you soon!
PS
THANK YOU Season 3 guest: Cherizar Crippen, Aja Taylor, Makani Themba, Paris Hatcher, Chass Grissom, Shannon Houston, Aunjanue Ellis, Dr. Sunyatta Amen, Goody Howard, Dr. Cindy Duke, Dr. Arianna Sholes-Douglas, Luenell, Stacy London and Dr. Jennifer Mullan!!
To LEARN MORE about the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause, click www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com
FOLLOW US on IG @blackgirlsguidetomenopause and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BlackgirlsguidetoMenopause
Become a PATRON https://www.patreon.com/blackgirlsguidetomenopause
Credits:
Produced by Mariah M.
Narration by Omisade Burney-Scott and Mariah M.
New Opening Theme Music by Taj Scott
Youtube (opensource) sounds effects provided by:
- Q Suay's channel | UI Sound Design by Erik
- z3n pnk's channel
- Universe (Serge)'s channel
"Often, when people talk about going through “the change”, it brings up all the images of a tearful, rageful, sweaty and emotional woman. This journey is not seen or held up as a positive transformation with a spectrum of stages and manifestations, but an ending to be cloaked in fear. Another, more potent way to frame the menopausal experience is to see it as actually another powerful representation of a rite of passage that is present to the liminality of the experience. In anthropology, liminality is “the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of rituals, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the ritual is complete.” It is believed that during these liminal periods of transformation, social hierarchies may be reversed or even temporarily dissolved. The constancy of cultural traditions can become uncertain, and future outcomes once taken for granted may be thrown into doubt. The dissolution of order during liminality creates a fluid, malleable situation that enables new institutions and customs to become established. It is a transformation to a new iteration of you."
Becoming (Again), Omisade Burney-Scott, WUNC's Souther Witness
Well here we are! Our last episode of Season 3! We cannot think of a better way to round this dynamic season than to have a frank conversation with Dr. Jennifer Mullan of Decolonizing Therapy ™. Dr. Mullan and I explore her psychoanalyst practice grounded in understanding systems of oppression, generational and cultural trauma as well as her deep commitment to helping people develop tools and rituals to not address grief and rage, but rather to foster right relationships with these two potent emotions. Affectionately nicknamed “the Rage Doctor” by peers and clients, Dr. Jennifer Mullan (she/her) is trained as a Clinical Psychologist, is a published author and is the founder of Decolonizing Therapy, LLC. She currently serves communities as a Consultant, Therapeutic Coach, Ancestral wound worker who seeks to unpack the oppressive legacy of modern mental health practices, particularly for Queer Indigenous Black Brown People of Color (QIBPOC).
Through her Collective Group Healing work and Decolonizing Therapy practice, she creates safe spaces for people and organizations to heal, and guides people from all walks of life to unpack the oppression that has been unconsciously passed down—intrapsychically and socially—and continues to live on in our bodies today. Dr. Mullan helps people return Home to themselves. To learn more about Dr. Mullan mental health and healing practices, check out her website, https://www.drjennifermullan.com/ or follower her on social media at https://www.instagram.com/decolonizingtherapy/
This episode was produced by Mariah M.
Episode Sponsor WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
Link to Great Grief Podcast: https://www.wunc.org/podcast/great-grief
Episode Notes
Links to previous episodes mentioned in this episode:
"Nonlinear" (when menopause happens early), https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ZO1G6U72HuhO1fNsN5iqu?si=Ci4hUAw-QJ-DV9aIL3Fxcg
Lovecraft Country interview with Aunjanue Ellis and Shannon Houston, https://open.spotify.com/episode/6jOVfqpictV14oiX6myh9R?si=q02vwJcxTb2Q4I3LflyRrQ
Check out our website to learn more and/or to become a patron via our Patreon, https://blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com/
One time love donations accepted via Cashapp, $Omitutu or Venmo, @omisade5
Please send LISTENER LETTERS to decolonizingthecrone@gmail.com
Last year, in the middle of the pandemic, I was perusing through social media when something caught my eye. It was a post of the Original Bad Girl of Comedy, Luenell, modeling Savage x Fenty lingerie. BE STILL MY BEATING HEART! When I tell you our big sis/auntie Luenell was giving us something we could feel, that is an understatement! Right then and there I knew I had to interview her for the podcast. I reposted her pictures on my feed and made a proclamation to the universe as well as folks checking out the post that I would, indeed, interview Luenell for Season 3 and here we are!
Thank you Universe!
We have a very special treat for our listeners with this episode. This conversation felt like a Saturday morning kitchen conversation with family. It is funny, candid, raw and authentic. Just like Luenell herself. Luenell is the self-proclaimed “Original Bad Girl of Comedy.” She may be small in stature, but she more than makes up for it with her big personality, booming voice and infectious laughter. Easily recognizable for her signature look – that is, her platinum blonde Caesar haircut, beautifully manicured long nails and a blinged-out pimp cup in hand – Luenell, has been thrilling audiences with her brand of comedy for more than 30 years. With the touch of a remote control, her body of work in television and film can be found on network and cable television as well as popular streaming services. Plus, fans can also tune into her popular YouTube show -- that is, Hey Luenell -- for comedic thoughts on her mind.
Luenell was raised in the Oakland area, and got her start in showbiz, hosting a local cable show, called “Soul Beat,” run by Chuck Johnson. The show ran from 1978 to 2003, and discovered all the major Oaktown artists like Digital Underground, MC Hammer and Too Short. She credits that experience and the connections she made to that show, back in the late 1990s, to making her a “hood star” before landing in Los Angeles.
For more about Luenell, visit www.HeyLuenell.com Check her out on Instagram at: @Luenell on Instagram
This episode of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause is sponsored by WUNC North Carolina Public Radio. https://www.wunc.org/
If you want to make a donation to support the work of BGG2SM, consider becoming a patron via our Patreon. Link available via our website, www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com.
You can also make a one time donation at:
Cashapp: $omitutu
Venmo: @omisade5
