Bonus Babies

Send us a text

Jayne Amelia talks with therapist Dr. Mimi Savage.
In this episode Mimi describes her upbringing: "My parents are not who I am. My mother's a white woman, my father's a black man. I am born of the two of them, a melange, a mixture. But I had to find my way. And it's not just about race. As I say this to your listeners, everyone needs to find their way. And it's foster care, it's psychiatric units, it's the world, it's the women on skid row whom I've become very close to, many of those women. It's all of us finding our way. We have to have empathy, but we have to be careful about owning other people's stories. So that's what I mean about I have my biases and to check myself to do my own work around that. I usually do it through some sort of art practice. And how is it that I can be of assistance to others? There was a point in my life, it was a difficult point in my life where things just were all falling apart. And I remember I made a promise to the gods that if I could get through this and I've never really shared this with anyone publicly that I really, please help me get through this. And my goal is to just be of service. And also trauma. Trauma from foster care, trauma from wherever the trauma comes from. When I was on skid row, everyone there had trauma. And I thought at first that I wasn't as connected to homeless folks, but it turns out I found out I had a lot in common with them. Really? Again, I wasn't conscious. So I think part of this is also becoming conscious. Becoming conscious and being authentic to oneself and how all of that is part of healing. Yeah, that's what I discovered on skid row that I was very much akin to all the women that I was working with there."

Myriam Savage, Ph.D., RDT/BCT is a registered drama therapist and board-certified trainer. Her alma maters include Lesley University, Cal State University LA, Princeton University and The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, NYC. She has developed drama and expressive therapy programs in acute inpatient units for children and adults for several years and facilitated neuro-diverse populations, homeless women, adolescents in residential rehabilitation and children in educational settings. Dr. Savage is a core faculty member of Counseling & EXA and founding faculty of UCLArts and Healing Social Emotional Arts (SEA), a manualized professional development program that instructs on therapeutic uses of the expressive arts. She is founder/director of SoCal Drama Therapy Center, mentoring an international student body of professionals earning RDT credentials.
Serving as Education Chair for the North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA) (2019-2021), she devised the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Initiative, coordinating NADTA outreach to HBCU’s in order to positively affect Black diaspora inclusion and education within drama/expressive therapies fields.
A recipient of a Drama Therapy Fund Professional Research Grant, her published work and conference presentations focus on adoption from foster care and intersections of identity using narrative inquiry and novel narrative arts-based digital media interventions. http://www.SoCalDramatherapycenter.com

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mimi-savage-phd-rdt-bct-b0179931/

Credly:

See bonusbabies.org to learn more about what we are doing and please donate to support us by making a 100% tax-deductible contribution. EVERY PENNY OF YOUR CONTRIBUTION GOES TO RECORDING AND PLATFORMING THESE STORIES. Yeah!
IG@bonusbabiespodcast
TW@BonusBabiesPod
FB@BonusBabiesPodcast

Send us a text

Jayne Amelia talks with Nia Garcia. The smart and lovely Nia Garcia is a former foster youth who was abused by her drug addicted mother and stepfather who then threw out of her family home when she was only 13... she ended up living in shelters after several foster homes, then on the streets. She self-harmed for many years and then got addicted to meth to try to numb her pain, but with a lot of hard work and determination she’s now recovered and has made herself a new and happy life. She’s learned how to protect herself and really take care of herself, and now she takes care of her brothers too.
iFoster: Helping Kids In Foster Care Reach Their Full Potential
Child Protective Services
Child Welfare Information Gateway to report abuse
Nia Garcia: Is today the day? And if not today-when? "It's my experience that people are a lot more sympathetic if they can see you hurting, and for the millionth time in life I wish for measles or smallpox or some other easily understood disease just to make it easier on me and also on them. Sometimes there’s beauty in the tough words- it's all how you read them. We are all alone, trapped in these bodies and our own minds, and whatever company we have in this life is only fleeting and superficial. I know myself well enough to know that no one else can keep you awake or keep you from sleeping. I do my best thinking at night when everyone else is sleeping. No interruptions. No noise. I like the feeling of being awake when no one else is. Stars in the sky, stars on the ground. It's hard to tell where the sky ends and the earth begins. I feel the need to say something grand and poetic, but the only thing I come up with is “it's lovely.” Sorry is a waste time. You have to live your life like you’ll never be sorry. It’s easier just to do the right thing from the start so there’s nothing to apologize for. You deserve better. I can’t promise you I’ll stay around, not because I don’t want to. It’s hard to explain. I’m a fuckup. I’m broken, no one can fix it. I’ve tried. I’m still trying. I can’t love anyone because it’s not fair to anyone who loves me back. I’ll never hurt you, not like I want to hurt her. But I can’t promise you I won’t pick you apart, piece by piece, until you’re in a thousand pieces, just like me. You should know what you’re getting into before getting involved. Listen, I’m a freak. I’m a weirdo. I’m the troublemaker. I start fights. I let people down. Don’t make Nia mad, whatever you do. Oh, there she goes again, in one of her moods. Moody Nia. Angry Nia. Unpredictable Nia. Crazy Nia. But I’m not a complication of symptoms. Not a casualty of shitty parents and an even shittier chemical makeup. Not a problem. Not a diagnosis. Not an illness. Not something to be rescued. I’m a person. But I bring it up to let you know that this is the way I feel right now. Like Pluto and Jupiter are aligned with the earth and I’m floating. The future is uncertain, but that can be a good thing. I have this feeling, like I’m waiting for something. But I have no idea what. The thing is, there are good days and bad days. I feel most guilty saying they aren’t all bad. It’s okay to laugh, you know. The earth’s not going to split open. You’re not going to hell. Believe me. If there is a hell, I’ll be ther

See bonusbabies.org to learn more about what we are doing and please donate to support us by making a 100% tax-deductible contribution. EVERY PENNY OF YOUR CONTRIBUTION GOES TO RECORDING AND PLATFORMING THESE STORIES. Yeah!
IG@bonusbabiespodcast
TW@BonusBabiesPod
FB@BonusBabiesPodcast

Send us a text

Jayne Amelia speaks with Emi Nietfeld. Emi is the author of the memoir Acceptance, published by Penguin Press. A former foster youth, she graduated from Harvard in 2015 and worked as a software engineer at Google and Facebook. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Vice, and Slate, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and noted in The Best American Essays. She lives in New York City with her family. Emi is now a full-time writer and speaker.

https://linktr.ee/eminietfeld

Book link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/692775/acceptance-by-emi-nietfeld/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/eminietfeld

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eminietfeld/

Website: https://eminietfeld.com/

Newsletter sign up: bit.ly/eminewsletter

See bonusbabies.org to learn more about what we are doing and please donate to support us by making a 100% tax-deductible contribution. EVERY PENNY OF YOUR CONTRIBUTION GOES TO RECORDING AND PLATFORMING THESE STORIES. Yeah!
IG@bonusbabiespodcast
TW@BonusBabiesPod
FB@BonusBabiesPodcast

Send us a text

Jayne Amelia speaks with former foster youth Jeremiah McWright. Jeremiah is from Sacramento, California. At 15, his four siblings and he were removed from their family and put into the system. After two years and 15 placements, Jeremiah was shipped to a low-level group home in San Francisco. He started his career at 17 in San Francisco as a cinematographer for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. He's since spent over 2000 hours behind the camera in situations of every kind; find his work here. Soon after moving, he joined the San Francisco chapter of California Youth Connection, a rather large (30 chapters in CA) non-for-profit responsible for the top foster care legislation in California. After graduating from San Diego State University, he moved to Los Angeles to work out of the Wolf of Wall Street's mansion. Now a recruiter for Amazon Prime Video, he's managed - at the ripe age of 24 - proven himself to be a successful statistic. To connect with Jeremiah regarding interviews, business, or general questions, reach him at [email protected].

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremiahmcwright/

See bonusbabies.org to learn more about what we are doing and please donate to support us by making a 100% tax-deductible contribution. EVERY PENNY OF YOUR CONTRIBUTION GOES TO RECORDING AND PLATFORMING THESE STORIES. Yeah!
IG@bonusbabiespodcast
TW@BonusBabiesPod
FB@BonusBabiesPodcast

Send us a text

Jayne Amelia speaks with foster and adoptive mom, Jennifer Stern. Jennifer and her husband decided to become a foster family after realizing their dinner table was too quiet and knowing they had space in their home and hearts to welcome more children. They wanted to foster after learning how great the need is for foster families who can provide a safe and loving home for children in the system. They are grateful every day for their non-traditional path toward expanding their family. Jennifer is a mom to two daughters; when she isn’t being a mom, wife, daughter, sister and friend, she enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, and watching reality tv.

​​Jennifer has spent almost 20 years working in roles to address the educational inequities in our K-12 education system. She is currently the CEO of a non-profit organization working to ensure all students have access to a great school.

See bonusbabies.org to learn more about what we are doing and please donate to support us by making a 100% tax-deductible contribution. EVERY PENNY OF YOUR CONTRIBUTION GOES TO RECORDING AND PLATFORMING THESE STORIES. Yeah!
IG@bonusbabiespodcast
TW@BonusBabiesPod
FB@BonusBabiesPodcast