In this episode, Kelli and Kendra close out the year with a wide-ranging, grounded conversation about celebration, grief, creativity, and stepping into the next season with intention.

Kendra reflects on turning 50 and hosting a party that became a collective experience of joy, freedom, and Black community. The conversation moves into how the holidays can activate grief and mental health challenges, especially as family roles shift and elders become ancestors.

They talk about vision boards as a serious practice, not a trend, and how intentions show up even when you are not consciously tracking them. The episode also names the tension between rest and ambition, visibility and humility, and why letting your work be seen is not the same as bragging.

As always, Kelli and Kendra reflect on friendship, creativity, and what it means to protect what is sacred while still showing up fully in the world.

Related Links:

1. Kendra’s Birthday party as referenced by Kelli King-Jackson
2. Black Girls Heal Podcast Episode You Don’t Have to Be the Family Savioras referenced by Kelli King-Jackson
3. Annual Clarity Retreat with Dr. Kerry Ann Rockquemore as referenced by Kelli King-Jackson
4. Pattern Beauty as referenced by Kendra Ross
5. Cécred as referenced by Kendra Ross
6. Raphael Saadiq as referenced by Kendra Ross
7. Support the Podcast as referenced by Kendra Ross

Hit our group chat to ask us a question or send us feedback on what you're enjoying about the show!

Kelli King-Jackson is a certified professional coach to Black women leading in white spaces. In addition to coaching, she works with organizations truly committed to justice for Black women by providing philanthropic advising, facilitation, and speaking services. Learn more about Kelli's work here: https://www.iamkelli.com/

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Kelli and Kendra welcome Dr. Tahirah Walker back into the group chat for a conversation about lineage, scholarship, and the ways Black women continue to speak ourselves into a future our foremothers dreamed for us. Together, they explore rhetorical intersectionality— Dr. Walker’s framework for naming the erasure of Black women’s voices and the insistence to reclaim our place in public discourse. They also dig into:

• Education as inheritance
How mothers and grandmothers stretched what they had so their children could study, travel, and imagine bigger lives.

• Work, faith, and belonging
The tension of leading in white institutions while staying rooted in community, calling, and spiritual practice.

• Claiming space in public life
From Phyllis Wheatley to “reclaiming my time,” the episode traces a long history of Black women refusing silence.

• Creative and political life in Pittsburgh
Why so many Black women consider leaving—and what it means to build artistic, academic, and community-rooted lives right where we are.

• The legacy of the Community Engagement doctoral program
How Black women helped shape the program’s character from the very first cohort and how Dr. Walker is carrying that work forward.

The episode closes with gratitude for the thinkers, elders, and artists who shaped our understanding of womanism, Black feminism, and freedom work.

Books & Thinkers Mentioned

• Alice Walker — In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens
• Patricia Hill Collins — Black Feminist Thought
• bell hooks — All About Love
• Assata Shakur — Assata: An Autobiography
• Fannie Lou Hamer — Biography & collected works
• Ella Baker — Biography
• Septima Clark — Ready from Within
• Beverly Guy-Sheftall — Words of Fire
• Brittney Cooper — Eloquent Rage and The Crunk Feminist Collection
• Cole Arthur Riley — Black Liturgies
• EbonyJanice Moore — The Fourth Wave Womanist Manifesto
• Disha Philyaw — The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
• Tressie McMillan Cottom — Thick
• Octavia Butler scholarship (various) — Suggested starting text

Hit our group chat to ask us a question or send us feedback on what you're enjoying about the show!

Kelli King-Jackson is a certified professional coach to Black women leading in white spaces. In addition to coaching, she works with organizations truly committed to justice for Black women by providing philanthropic advising, facilitation, and speaking services. Learn more about Kelli's work here: https://www.iamkelli.com/

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This week, Kelli King-Jackson and Kendra Ross return to the group chat to talk about the everyday things keeping us grounded as the world keeps shifting. From celebrity parties and “eat the rich” threads to flu and COVID shots, we name how uncertain this season still feels for many of us.

Kendra shares why she’s recommitting to reading after hearing Percival Everett call books—and book clubs—radical practices. We talk about how reading habits changed during the pandemic and how book clubs, even the informal ones, offer community and joy.

Hair care brings a “back to basics” moment with flexi rods, rollers, silk presses, and the simple routines that help us feel like ourselves. We also sit with aging, partnership, solitude, and the ache some women feel when life doesn’t follow old expectations. Across it all, friendship shows up as its own kind of wealth.

Money surfaces throughout the episode—rising costs, budgeting stress, the so-called “Black tax,” and caring for loved ones while managing our own responsibilities. We name the tenderness needed this holiday season as many families make hard choices.

We close with political education: rural suffering, misinformation, and why accessible, community-centered learning still matters. From Books & Breakfast to loving accountability, we explore what “back to basics” might mean for the world we’re trying to build.

1. Percival Everett interview on reading as subversion — referenced by Kendra
2. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai — referenced by Kendra
3. Bell Hooks quote on solitude & love — referenced by Kendra
4. Black Panther Party’s Breakfast Program — referenced by Kendra
5. Working Families Party — referenced by Kelli
6. Jamaica disaster recovery resource — referenced by Kelli
7. Domestic violence after a weather event — referenced by Kelli
8. Dominican blowout/roller-set traditions — referenced by Kendra
9. Pittsburgh Black Feminist Reading Group — referenced by Kendra
10. COVID & flu vaccine info — referenced by both hosts
11. Dr. Greg Carr’s “different ways of knowing and being” - referenced by Kendra

Hit our group chat to ask us a question or send us feedback on what you're enjoying about the show!

Kelli King-Jackson is a certified professional coach to Black women leading in white spaces. In addition to coaching, she works with organizations truly committed to justice for Black women by providing philanthropic advising, facilitation, and speaking services. Learn more about Kelli's work here: https://www.iamkelli.com/

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This week, hosts Kelli King-Jackson and Dr. Kendra Janelle Ross welcome writer-scholar Dr. Tahirah J. Walker for Part 1 of a rich, generous conversation about womanism, faith, academia, and radical honesty at midlife.

Dr. Walker traces her journey from Newark to Haiti to Pittsburgh— and how living, learning, working, and even giving birth in community shaped her conviction that “you don’t do anything truly liberating without it being communal.” She talks about being the only Black woman who can chair a dissertation, teaching in the era of the two-minute reel, and holding rigor with care as a standard.

Together, they unpack spirituality across traditions (Nation of Islam → Sunni Islam → “recovering church girls”), intergenerational truth-telling (“on today”), and why rhetorical intersectionality matters— especially when institutions adopt the language but not the labor.

Next up (Part 2): a deeper dive into Dr. Walker’s new book, Rhetoric, Intersectionality, and Black Women in Pittsburgh: Living Enough for the City—how Black women reclaim rhetorical space, and what joy and reclamation look like as praxis.

Related Links & References

• Alice Walker — entry point to womanism; The Color Purple lineage
• Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw — intersectionality (and the need to reclaim it)
• Deesha Philyaw, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
• D. Danyelle Thomas, The Day God Saw Me as Black (title referenced by Dr. Walker)
• Dr. Tahirah J. Walker, Rhetoric, Intersectionality, and Black Women in Pittsburgh: Living Enough for the City — (featured in Part 2, but can be ordered here)

Stay Connected
Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook @thiswomanistworkpod to keep the group chat going!

This episode was produced and edited by Centering Equity Productions, with the original theme song written and performed by Kendra Ross.

Learn more:

• Kelli King-Jackson — iamkelli.com
• Dr. Kendra Janelle Ross — kendraross.com
• This Womanist’s Work — thiswomanistworkpodcast.com

Hit our group chat to ask us a question or send us feedback on what you're enjoying about the show!

Kelli King-Jackson is a certified professional coach to Black women leading in white spaces. In addition to coaching, she works with organizations truly committed to justice for Black women by providing philanthropic advising, facilitation, and speaking services. Learn more about Kelli's work here: https://www.iamkelli.com/

Support the show

This week, co-hosts Kelli King-Jackson and Dr. Kendra Janelle Ross are back in the group chat: no guests, just real talk. We kick off with beauty faves (hi, Lip Bar!) and hair-care trials (when allergies and menopause enter the chat!), then move into media diets and why we’re reinvesting in Black-owned outlets. The episode winds down with reading lists as resistance, coalition-building, and a simple ask for this season: give peace a chance.

Related Links & References

Beauty & Hair

• The Lip Bar (shades mentioned: Boss Lady, Curl Friend, Ring Leader; liner: Straight Boss; also Prima Donna)
• Cécred (travel kit)
• Pattern Beauty (curl cream)
• Mielle Organics (rosemary oil)

Media, Platforms & Press

• Ezra Klein x Ta-Nehisi Coates interview (re: “both sides,” dehumanization)
• Native Land Podcast (Angela Rye, Andrew Gillum, Tiffany Cross; rebrand adds Bakari Sellers)
• Ashley Allison w/ Michel Martin on NPR (discussing her company Watering Hole Media’s acquisition of The Root, returning it to Black ownership)
• Knubia / Knarrative (Africana community led by Dr. Greg Carr & Karen Hunter) / “In Class with Carr,” on YouTube
• Spill (Black-owned social app)
• Rev. Cody Deese on The Roland Martin Show / Rev. Deese’s website (White pastor in Georgia fighting against white nationalism in the church)

Faith, Culture & Public Life

• Perfect Neighbor on Netflix (documentary on A.J. Owens with content advisory)
• Eddie Glaude Jr. on Substack (referenced for prompt: “Where is the art for this moment?”)
• Texas State Rep. James Talarico (referenced for courageous public theology)

Songs

• “Give Peace a Chance” by John Lennon
• “My Mic Sounds Nice” by Salt n Pepa

For the books Kendra and Kelli recommended in this episode, visit our book list here.

Hit our group chat to ask us a question or send us feedback on what you're enjoying about the show!

Kelli King-Jackson is a certified professional coach to Black women leading in white spaces. In addition to coaching, she works with organizations truly committed to justice for Black women by providing philanthropic advising, facilitation, and speaking services. Learn more about Kelli's work here: https://www.iamkelli.com/

Support the show

In this episode, Kendra and Kelli are deep in the group chat, unpacking what it means to get free—spiritually, politically, and personally. From unlearning rapture theology to building a pocket altar with tips from both Catholic and Wiccan Reddit communities (yes, that Reddit), this conversation is a love letter to the Black women doing the work to define divinity on their own terms in a season that is calling for our sacred no.

They talk about the beauty of sister circles, the challenge of staying connected to family when life is full, and the intentionality it takes to nurture what matters. The convo flows from spiritual transitions and progressive faith spaces to the soft rebellion of choosing joy, rest, and pleasure without apology.

Come for the pop culture—Cardi B’s Bronx brilliance, the return of Mariah Carey’s curls—and stay for the spiritual reckoning.

Related Links

1. "I Surrender All" - referenced by Kelli King-Jackson
2. How to Make New Friends as an Adult - referenced by Kelli King-Jackson
3. Hit Like a Girl Podcast - referenced by Kendra Ross
4. Awakenings - referenced by Kelli King-Jackson
5. NorthStar Church of the Arts (Durham, NC) - referenced by Kendra Ross
6. Left Behind – Film Series (re: Rapture) - referenced by Kendra Ross
7. Rapture IG Reel by Rev. Lizzie - referenced by Kelli King-Jackson
8. Heather McGhee – referenced by Kendra Ross
9. The Sum of Us (book) - referenced by Kendra Ross
10. "I Know A Man" - Mentioned by Kendra Ross
11. Pocket Altars - referenced by Kelli King-Jackson
12. The Realist Oracle Deck - referenced by Kendra Ross
13. Free - referenced by Kendra Ross

Dr. Kendra Janelle Ross is a tour de force in the worlds of music, education, community engagement, and technology, blending her passions to create inclusive spaces, equitable communities, and innovative cultural ecosystems. Dr. Ross's creative prowess culminated in her upcoming project, This Womanist’s Work, highlighting her commitment to amplifying female voices in the industry. Le

Hit our group chat to ask us a question or send us feedback on what you're enjoying about the show!

Kelli King-Jackson is a certified professional coach to Black women leading in white spaces. In addition to coaching, she works with organizations truly committed to justice for Black women by providing philanthropic advising, facilitation, and speaking services. Learn more about Kelli's work here: https://www.iamkelli.com/

Support the show

This week, Kelli, Kendra, and our honorary third host (and original podcast co-founder) Dr. Chiyah A. Lawrence bring the group chat back to life. What starts as catching up turns into a deep dive on everything from pop culture dust-ups to church politics to the state of our digital lives.

We talk Tabitha Brown and the backlash against her recent comments, the controversy around Beyoncé’s Cécred beauty line, and the rise of “nice-nasty” as a cultural critique. From there, the conversation widens: moral injury in the Black church, the impact of algorithms on our rage, Eve redefining “soft life,” and what it means to feel both inside and outside of community spaces.

As always, the group chat keeps it real — funny, sharp, and vulnerable. Whether you came for hair product reviews or reflections on capitalism and faith, you’ll leave with a lot to think about.

Related Links:

1. Tabitha Brown’s Instagram Post - referenced by Dr. Chiyah and throughout the episode
2. Link to Lizzo NY Mag Instagram Post - referenced by Dr. Chiyah
3. Sinead Bovell on Angie Martinez IRL Podcast – referenced by Kelli
4. Eve on Angie Martinez IRL Podcast – referenced by Kelli
5. Draw Me Close/Thy Will Be Done - Marvin Winans Live at Times Square Church - song referenced by Kendra

Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook @thiswomanistworkpod to keep the group chat going!

This episode was produced and edited by Centering Equity Productions with the original theme song written and performed by Kendra Ross.

Dr. Kendra Janelle Ross is a tour de force in the worlds of music, education, community engagement, and technology, blending her passions to create inclusive spaces, equitable communities, and innovative cultural ecosystems. Dr. Ross's creative prowess culminated in her upcoming project, This Womanist’s Work, highlighting her commitment to amplifying female voices in the industry. Learn more about Kendra’s work here: https://www.kendraross.com

Hit our group chat to ask us a question or send us feedback on what you're enjoying about the show!

Kelli King-Jackson is a certified professional coach to Black women leading in white spaces. In addition to coaching, she works with organizations truly committed to justice for Black women by providing philanthropic advising, facilitation, and speaking services. Learn more about Kelli's work here: https://www.iamkelli.com/

Support the show

This week, Kelli and Kendra sit down with the brilliant EbonyJanice—author, hip hop womanist, and all-around force of nature. From the very start, EbonyJanice brings her full self to the conversation, sharing how her journey through faith, womanism, and self-discovery has shaped her life and work.

We get real about what it means to be a “free woman on a love journey,” and how womanism can actually save and transform us—especially when we’re questioning everything we thought we knew about faith and spirituality. EbonyJanice opens up about her own spiritual shifts, the power of naming ourselves, and the deep ancestral connections that guide her work.

Related Links:

• Learn more about EbonyJanice here
• I Know It Was the Blood as sung on the episode
• Thuggish Ruggish Bone song referenced by EbonyJanice
• Rev. Dr. Eddy N. Henry EbonyJanice’s childhood pastor
• Dr. Melanie C. Jones-Quarles womanist scholar mentioned
• Aduni Idowu wife of Fela Kuti
• Dr. Monica A. Coleman womanist scholar mentioned
• Rev. Dr. Renita J. Weems womanist scholar mentioned
• Delores Williams author of the book Sisters in the Wilderness

Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook @thiswomanistworkpod to keep the group chat conversations going!

This episode was produced and edited by Centering Equity Productions with original theme song written and performed by Kendra Ross.

Dr. Kendra Janelle Ross is a tour de force in the worlds of music, education, community engagement, and technology, blending her passions to create inclusive spaces, equitable communities, and innovative cultural ecosystems. Dr. Ross's creative prowess culminated in her upcoming project, This Womanist’s Work, highlighting her commitment to amplifying female voices in the industry. Learn more about Kendra’s work here: https://www.kendraross.com

Hit our group chat to ask us a question or send us feedback on what you're enjoying about the show!

Kelli King-Jackson is a certified professional coach to Black women leading in white spaces. In addition to coaching, she works with organizations truly committed to justice for Black women by providing philanthropic advising, facilitation, and speaking services. Learn more about Kelli's work here: https://www.iamkelli.com/

Support the show