Baby hair and dookie braids. Family reunions and fish fry's. The Black Out is here to remind y'all that we stunt for ourselves and the community. Who gone take us off?!?! We been about that life.

The Black Out crew is reclaiming our time (and our energy, effort, and focus)! Emotional labor is the draining practice of suppressing one's own feelings and exerting energy for the purpose of addressing other people's feelings, making other people comfortable, or living up to social expectations. That's gonna be a 'nah' for us. This week we're talking about ways to focus on our own emotional needs, set boundaries, and prioritize consent and reciprocity in our relationships and interactions. It all starts with self-love, self-worth, and acknowledging your own power. https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/08/women-femmes-emotional-labor/ https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/eve7xk/nikki-giovanni-apollo-black-women-emotional-labor-trump

Happy Black Futures Month y'all!!! After a whole year the Black Out is officially back and starting 2019 with some big questions. This week we sit with the fact that as Black womxn we are varied and complex with many different and intersecting identities, values, and ways of being. Inspired by the City Girls & Cardi B Twerk video, we're wondering if it's possible for Black womxn to experience liberation in all of our complexity? Calling in the spirits of abundance, solitude, gangsta, and desire, the Black Out is tryna figure out how to be our whole, full selves in these 2019 streets. Follow us on IG to join the conversation @dismantleddiaspora

It wouldn’t be an official wrap up with out a word to hold onto. Catch us outside in 2019! Black Future’s Month we will be BAAAAAAAAACK!!!

Lifting moments of victory and moments of joy is key to our survival. Victory and Joy offer us a counter narrative to all the trauma talk, negative energy, and counterforces about BLACK peoples and our lives.

MIA? Nah, The Black Out crew been out here living that authentic life. Trying to get right and stay right!

Who are our listeners? Who do we center and uplift, and what we hope y'all get from tuning in.

So Dismantled started off as one thing and then the Black Out came stuntin' thru. Here are our words as we try to capture where we started from and what we’ve grown to become!

The Call In is more than how we start. The Call In is to center and align ourselves with the energies and guides that we want to honor and invite into our experiences. The Black Out crew uses THIS call in to set intentions on where we want to go as we get ready to embrace another year of vibing with our listeners…

Deep East Oakland documentarian Brittsense joins us for a conversation about love, healing, and her first self-published book "The Power of Melanin." She shares her inspiration for documenting the beautifully vast expressions of melanated people and reminds us to get back to the root of who we are. Follow Brittsense @brittsense and check out her book brittsense.com