Episode 6: The Secret to Superhuman Strength, featuring discussion with Tarfia Faizullah, Amber Flame, Dr. Nisha Gupta, Raychelle Heath & Miden Wood.
Our hosts Seema & Amelia, along with the special guest panel of Tarfia Faizullah, Amber Flame, Dr. Nisha Gupta, Raychelle Heath, & Miden Wood, cover topics including what it means to be in a body, Buddhism, and the secret to superhuman strength.
Don't forget: We want to hear from you! Read the book and send in your thoughts to [email protected] or share them on social media using the #CBAWLOVES hashtag. We will read or play your comments on a future episode!
About Our GuestsTarfia Faizullah is the author of two poetry collections, REGISTERS OF ILLUMINATED VILLAGES (Graywolf, 2018) and SEAM (SIU, 2014). The recipient of a Fulbright fellowship, three Pushcart prizes, and other honors, Tarfia presents work at institutions and organizations worldwide, and has been featured at the the Liberation War Museum of Bangladesh, the Library of Congress, the Fulbright Conference, the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, the Radcliffe Seminars, NYU, Barnard, UC Berkeley, the Poetry Foundation, the Clinton School of Public Service, Brac University, and elsewhere.
Amber Flame is an interdisciplinary creative, activist and educator whose work has garnered residencies with Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, and more. A former church kid from the Southwest, Flame’s work is published widely and explores spirituality and sexuality, cross-woven with themes of grief and loss, motherhood and magic, and interstitial joy. Recently named Program Director for Hedgebrook, she continues to work as a writing instructor while working on a third collection of poetry, remounting her full-length play, developing a few nonfiction anthologies, and raising her daughter. Amber Flame is a queer Black mama just one magic trick away from growing her unicorn horn.
Dr. Nisha Gupta is an associate professor of psychology at the University of West Georgia, where she works as an arts-based phenomenological researcher, creativity scholar, and liberation psychologist.Her work as a researcher, artist, and educator seeks to embrace the creative process as a vehicle for building solidarity across difference, evoking empathy and compassion, and fostering joy and empowerment. Nisha was also trained clinically as a psychotherapist for eight years, with a focus on trauma therapy as well as liberation psychotherapy with queer people of color. She received her education at New York University (M.A.) and Duquesne University (Ph.D.), and has a background in the advertising industry prior to her career in psychology.
She also host workshops for community organizations to teach arts-based phenomenology to the public as a therapeutic method.
Raychelle Heath is a poet, artist, teacher, yoga and meditation instructor, podcaster, and digital nomad. She holds a BA in languages from Winthrop University and an MFA in poetry from the University of South Carolina. While she primarily writes poetry, she considers herself a storyteller. She uses her poetry and her podcast to tell the multifaceted stories of black women in the world. She currently works as curriculum director, sanctuary coach, and facilitator for the Unicorn Authors Club. She also regularly facilitates workshops for BIPOC Writing Party and The World We Want workshops.
Miden Wood is a writer and illustrator based out of Brooklyn, New York. Her stories and artwork have given her the opportunity to develop a short with Sesame Studios, to illustrate/animate a short film that was awarded a student BAFTA, and to make her friends laugh. You can follow Miden on Instagram.