Feeling braced or on edge today? Join Ama-Robin in Umoja Café for a gentle Espresso Talk about pockets of safety—those small moments where the body can exhale and the nervous system can settle. Through a short folktale and real-life reflections as a Black woman living in predominantly white spaces, this episode explores how safety is felt, why it matters, and how noticing it becomes the first step toward imagining a way of living with dignity.

About YAIT (You Ain't Imagining This!)

YAIT is a Black-centered reflection and storytelling space exploring what it means to live with dignity, care, and imagination in predominantly white spaces. Alongside Village Stories, the show includes:

• Espresso Talks — grounded conversations about navigating life in predominantly white spaces

• Believe Black People episodes — direct, unapologetic truth-telling that names anti-Black racism, gaslighting, and erasure without softening, disclaimers, or debate.

• Comforting Moments — short, calming audio offerings for rest and regulation

• Sounds of Safety — a soothing audio series designed to help the nervous system settle after stress or overwhelm

YAIT also supports We Ain't Imagining This! (WAIT!): the collective and activist arm of the project—focused on imagination, care, and counter-world building beyond the podcast. Comforting, restorative merch is also coming soon!

The YAIT Town community is growing on SKOOL, offering a shared space for reflection, conversation, and practicing these ideas together. Join here!

The YAIT website hosts additional experiences, including written reflections, rituals, story extensions, and resources designed to deepen rest, imagination, and connection.

Black History Month Special! Join us for a special YAIT Town story releasing Thursday, February 5th—an immersive, sensory-rich story. on Black history and Black futures. Guaranteed: Conflict-free. Stress-free. Drama-free.

Listen while walking, resting, or taking a pause between everything else.

YAIT Town is here for you.

Come as you are. Take what you need.

And remember—you ain't imagining this!

Do you feel safe? This Comforting Moment focuses on safety as the foundation for everything else. Through gentle guidance and quiet presence, this episode invites listeners to slow down, release urgency, and begin from a place where the body does not have to brace. You don't need answers or a plan—just a safe place to begin.

Sistah-host Ama-Robin guides you through this Comforting Moment and invites you to begin gently.

Comforting Moments are short, intentional audio pauses designed to help the body settle and the nervous system soften. They matter because when we're constantly rushed, braced, or overstimulated, it becomes hard to imagine anything new—let alone build it. These moments offer regulation before reflection, calm before clarity.

This is not a sleep story, though you may drift off.

It's an offering of calm, restoration, and permission to begin gently.

You ain't imagining this!

The World We Practice Here is a calm, immersive YAIT Village Story created for listeners who need relief from constant urgency, tension, and emotional noise.

This is a drama-free and conflict-free story—not because nothing matters, but because not everything needs to escalate to hold meaning. There's no violence, no confrontation, and no manufactured suspense. Instead, the story invites you into ordinary moments of Black life where safety is assumed, dignity is intact, and the nervous system can finally soften.

You'll follow a gentle walk through YAIT Town—past familiar places, everyday encounters, and small pockets of ease that show what's possible when harm is not centered. The experience is designed to be grounding, comforting, and restorative, especially if your body feels tired, overstimulated, or on edge.

This isn't a sleep story—though you may drift.
It's not boring—it's intentional.
It's a reminder that another way of living is possible, and that practicing calm, even briefly, can change what we're willing to accept when we return to the world.

About YAIT (You Ain't Imagining This!)

YAIT is a Black-centered storytelling and reflection space exploring what it means to live with dignity, care, and imagination in a world that often denies those things. Alongside Village Stories like this one, the show includes:

• Espresso Talks — grounded conversations about navigating life in predominantly white spaces

• Believe Black People episodes — direct, unapologetic truth-telling that names anti-Black racism, gaslighting, and erasure without softening, disclaimers, or debate.

• Comforting Moments — short, calming audio offerings for rest and regulation

• Sounds of Safety — a soothing audio series designed to help the nervous system settle after stress or overwhelm

YAIT also includes We Ain't Imagining This! (WAIT!): the collective and activist arm of the project—focused on imagination, care, and counter-world building beyond the podcast. Comforting, restorative merch is also coming soon!

The YAIT Town community is growing on SKOOL, offering a shared space for reflection, conversation, and practicing these ideas together.

The YAIT website hosts additional experiences, including written reflections, rituals, story extensions, and resources designed to deepen rest, imagination, and connection.

Listen while walking, resting, or taking a pause between everything else.

YAIT Town is here for you.

Come as you are. Take what you need.

And remember—you ain't imagining this!

This Comforting Moment marks the first day of Kwanzaa — Umoja, the principle of Unity.

In this gentle gathering in the Umoja Cafe in YAIT Town, we pause to remember that we were never meant to carry life alone.

YAIT Town is a living sanctuary built through story, reflection, and shared breath — a place you can return to for rest, truth, and connection.

Alongside Comforting Moments like this one, You Ain't Imagining This! offers:

• Immersive and Sensory Stories that invite you into Black spaces, memories, and moments.
• Believe Black People episodes that name and challenge racism and the experience of living Black in predominantly white spaces.
• Espresso Talks that explore everyday Black life with care and clarity.

You're also invited to deepen this work through the YAIT newsletter, where reflections, rituals, and community offerings continue beyond the podcast.

YAIT Town is always open — and the porch light is always on.

On the longest nights of the year, we gather on the Front Porch in YAIT Town to remember that we don't face the darkness alone. We Carry the Light is a gentle, Comforting Moment centered on Black joy, ancestral presence, shared hope, and the quiet warmth we give one another — even when the world goes dim.

Comforting Moments are short, restful episodes meant to be used however you need them: while resting, walking, sitting in the dark, or simply breathing.

These are pauses, not lessons — places to land, soften, and be held.

You're always welcome here — come join us on the Front Porch.

The porch light is always on.

In this YAIT Town Story, we step inside Nommo Books and discover the mysterious Wintering Room — a sanctuary that appears only in December.

This fictional tale carries real and relevant truths about rest, darkness, and cultural wisdom. Ama-Robin, a Black empowerment storyteller, guides us through a mystical yet grounded journey that reminds us: winter isn't a season to push through; it's an invitation to soften, breathe, and reclaim the pace nature intended.

Come on into YAIT Town for a celebration unlike anything you've ever heard!

This is not Thanksgiving.

This is The Day of Gratitude — a reimagined gathering rooted in Black joy, ancestral presence, and the flavors of the Diaspora. One long table stretches from the Front Porch to the Community Garden, covered in jollof rice, mac and cheese, plantains, root vegetables, and stories carried across oceans.

In this special episode, you'll walk with Ama-Robin between the chairs, greeting neighbors of all ages — the elders with their laughter and wisdom, the children asking brilliant questions, Mr. Isaiah with his bird stories, Ms. Geneva with her books, Malik with his handmade art, the Robinsons with their abundant plates.

There's an empty chair at the head of the table for the ancestors.

There is joy.

There is reverence.

There is warmth.

There is belonging.

And there is you — invited, welcomed, held.

If you've ever wished for a holiday that honors our people, our history, our culture, and our resilience… this is it.

Pull up a chair at the Gratitude Table.

You have a place here.

You always did.

And you ain't imagining this!

Join me on the Front Porch! Today, we slow down together and learn a simple, powerful practice for rewiring the mind toward what nourishes us. Using four steps — seeing the good, naming the good, staying with the good, and claiming the good — we explore how neuroplasticity becomes a tool of healing, resilience, and liberation for Black folks living in predominantly white spaces.

With Auntie Octavia by our side and sweet tea in hand, we talk about why our brains have been trained to scan for danger, why that's not a flaw but a survival skill, and how learning to gather the good can shift our health, our joy, our relationships, and even our generational inheritance.

This episode is soft, honest, and deeply ancestral — a moment to breathe, reset, and remember that joy is our birthright.

You ain't imagining this.

Ama-Robin's Book Selection:

Every Day Spirit: A Daybook of Wisdom, Joy, and Peace by Mary Davis

Affirmations: