#178 Sonita Alizadeh “Afghan Rapper and Activist”

Sonita Alizadeh was born in Herat, Afghanistan under the reign of the Taliban regime. Her family walked hundreds of miles to Iran in the rain and snow to escape. She grew up an impoverished, undocumented, refugee street child in Tehran. Without official papers, she could not attend school until a local non-governmental organization offered assistance; they provided a basic education to undocumented, refugee Afghan children.

At the age of ten, she was sold into forced marriage, but the contract fell through. Six years later, her family again wanted to sell her as a bride. With the help of a documentary filmmaker who had been following her story, they bought her some time.

Witnessing the injustices of the world, her friends swiftly disappearing as they were forced to marry, and fearing her own future, she wrote the song “Daughters for Sale.” With the aid of the Iranian filmmaker, a music video was recorded, and she was soon offered an opportunity to attend school in the US, so she fled.

Her story can be viewed in the award-winning documentary by Rohksareh Ghaemmaghemi which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016, titled Sonita. (Sign up for a library card if you don’t already have one and then you can view it!)

She has been privileged to be named as one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s Global Thinkers of 2015, BBC’s 100 Women of 2015, an Asia Societies Game Changer of 2017, a 2018 MTV Generation Change Award recipient, Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2019 and featured by CNN, NPR, BBC, Buzzfeed News and over 150 publications in 20 countries.

More than 12 million girls are forced to marry as children every year, she hopes to aid in finding a solution to the problem—to help save the lives of the next generation.

Today we talk about her life, her music and her dreams.

Sonita’s Instagram Account

Sonita’s YouTube Channel

We heard the songs “Daughters for Sale,” “Moaref,” “Run Boy,” and “Brave and Bold” by Sonita.

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda of Radio Kingston, with a little assist from Manuel on some file editing.

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

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#177 DeShannon Barnes-Bowens “Ifa-Orisa Priestess, Psychotherapist, Educator, Spiritual Counselor”

Iya Rev. DeShannon Barnes-Bowens, M.S. (Iyanifa Iwalewa Ifasalewa Fasina), is the founder of ILERA Counseling & Education Services, and works as a psychotherapist, professional development trainer, and spiritual counselor. Through ILERA, she offers workshops and programs focusing on: sexuality and spirituality, sexual abuse, vicarious trauma and wellness. Iya DeShannon received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Missouri – St. Louis, and a Master’s degree in Counseling from Pace University. She has practiced the Ifa-Orisa spiritual tradition since 2001 and is an initiated priestess. Iya DeShannon was ordained as an Interfaith Minister through One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in 2010 where she now serves as Co-Director.

Today DeShannon shares about her work, what it is, and how she got into it. She educates us about vicarious trauma, how to look out for signs of it, and how to take care of yourself. Part of our self care conversation takes us into thinking about what we value, and then making the choices to support what it is we want to value. DeShannon closes the conversation talking about the Ifa-Orisa tradition and how it found her.

Here’s the Charles Eisenstein podcast on “Burnout and Renewal.

I read from an article from the Baltimore Sun about the Ifa tradition, and we hear the songs “Ifa” and “Egunegun” by Asabioje Afenapa.

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda of Radio Kingston.

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

http://iwantwhatshehas.org/podcast

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#176 Mariaelena Ferrer “Spirituality and Politics”

Back at it for another round of deep thoughts and wild talks with Mariaelena.

The second Monday of the month is inspired by the book, Espiritualidad y Politica, which was published 10 years ago, of which Mariaelena was a contributor. She is also the Executive Director of Humanamente — a diversity and inclusion consulting organization, Chair of the Athena Network New York — a psychosocial support network in the area of social services, health, and specifically in mental health, for immigrants experiencing psychological challenges related to the migratory process, a board member of the Family of Woodstock, a member of the Arts Mid-Hudson Advisory Board, and Kingston’s City Arts Commission.

Today, we veer ever so slightly away from the book and into the realm of taxes and billionaires, inspired by the recent Propublica Article revealing how little they pay in proportion to their wealth. In addition to the article, our conversation is also inspired by the documentary film Saving Capitalism based on the book by Robert Reich.

Send us any and all thoughts, we love to hear them. Thank you to Anthony for sharing his thoughts from our May conversation!

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda of Radio Kingston.

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

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#175 Shalini Pahwa “Neurodiversity in the Workplace”

Shalini Pahwa has 20+ years of leadership experience and is currently the QA & Test Competency Leader for the US Client Innovation Centers at IBM. She manages a team ranging from test managers and automation SMEs (subject matter experts) to brand new associates, delivering full testing services to clients across industries. Shalini Pahwa is passionate about diversity and inclusion initiatives at workplaces and led IBM’s first Neurodiversity program and continues to support it as it expands globally. Shalini has a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Loyola University at Chicago. She also holds a degree in Science and Indian Law from the University of Delhi, India.  Prior to joining IBM, Shalini worked in Quality assurance field for the Plastics and Financial Industries. She also worked for Sports Authority of India as an Assistant Director for Sports Planning and Coordination. Shalini enjoys outdoors, photography and has been a state Volleyball player in India. Shalini also volunteers her time to support special education programs and whenever possible likes to sing her heart out and have some Karaoke fun. She is happily married to her husband, a Critical Care Physician and has two children, a son who is a copy editor and a writer in New York and a daughter who is at MSU in their Music – voice program.

Today we talk about all the positives about this program and how to overcome the perceived barriers. I’ve spoken to a few folks about this episode and learned that neurodiversity is a new term for many people. According to an online dictionary, here’s the formal def: the range of differences in individual brain function and behavioral traits, regarded as part of normal variation in the human population (used especially in the context of autistic spectrum disorders).

Here’s the IBM video celebrating their neurodivergent team.

And here’s the article on Cultivating Curiosity!

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda of Radio Kingston.

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: she@iwantwhatshehas.org

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

http://iwantwhatshehas.org/podcast

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