PJ Samuels: Black She

11/04/19 • 60 min

PJ Samuels is a poet, educator and LGBTQ human rights activist whose work interrogates issues of race, gender, patriarchy, identity and belonging. I first encountered her searing, moving and beautiful poetry in the Sista! Anthology, a collection of essays and poetry from women-loving-women of African and Caribbean descent. She is an emotional and intellectual force. Today, we discuss her relationship to God and with Christianity and the way both religion and Blackness have historically been weaponised against Black people. She elaborates on her refusal to make her life and her Blackness performative, and how she does this through a tenacious yet gentle pursuit of joy. She takes us back to her origins in rural Jamaica, how her experience as a refugee made her reevaluate all of her relationships, how she remembers to engage her wonder and her curiosity, and her thoughts on roots, freedom and love.This conversation is big and it is beautiful. There are some long pauses throughout this conversation because PJ literally rendered me speechless with her thoughts, passion, intellect, and her absolute commitment to Black women.

https://pjsamuels.wordpress.com/

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@_busybeingblack is the podcast exploring how we live in the fullness of our queer Black lives. If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe; doing so lets others like us hear the voices amplified here. #busybeingblack

Thank you to our partners, UK Black Pride and BlackOut UK.

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https://pjsamuels.wordpress.com/

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Thank you to our partners, UK Black Pride and BlackOut UK.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Previous Episode

Jeffrey Williams: Pilgrimage

Few people have touched my soul as tenderly as Jeffrey Williams. From late-night cross-continental FaceTimes to voice notes full of support and encouragement, the friendship Jeffrey and I have cultivated is a testament to the very real connections that can form across cyberspace. Jeffrey Williams is a designer, stylist and creative director whose visions of beauty are made manifest most regularly on the bodies of musical duo Lion Babe. We begin our conversation with Jeffrey’s memories of childhood and late mother — a person Jeffrey describes as a beautiful, kind woman who helped Jeffrey understand how to listen and love. We discuss Jeffrey’s life-changing years in Italy, embracing our fears, the mantras Jeffrey uses to survive and, of course, spirituality, creativity and finding beauty within ourselves and in the world. Jeffrey is a spiritual and beautiful wonder in a world in desperate need of more people like Jeffrey.

This conversation was recorded in New York City during World Pride 2019. Thank you to the team at Acast NYC for all your help.

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Jeffrey Williams is a designer, stylist and creative director. Follow Jeffrey on Instagram to be dazzled and enchanted.

http://www.jeffreycwilliams.com/

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Thank you to our partners, UK Black Pride and BlackOut UK.

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New York’s LGBTQ Film Festival, New Fest, is coming up from October 23-29. The festival features over 160 films from more than 30 countries and promises to be a week of queer cinematic excellence. Busy Being Black listeners get discounted tickets on all screenings. Head to newest.org/festival and use the code NFCP19.

Author Marcellas Reynolds has released his new book, SUPREME MODELS: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionised Fashion. It's the first-ever book celebrating black top models, and is filled with revealing essays, interviews, and stunning photographs. https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/supreme-models_9781419736148/#

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Next Episode

Rav Bansal: Encountering My Divine

Today’s conversation with Rav Bansal is a beautiful exploration of the private and public considerations we make on our journeys of self-acceptance and self-love, and what it can mean for ourselves and the communities we represent if we decide to come out. Rav is a baker and broadcaster who rose to fame as a contestant on Great British Bake Off in 2016. In June of this year, he came out publicly, after years of questioning and exploring who he is, what he believes and what he wants to achieve in the world. Rav discusses his parents’ reaction to his coming out, the incredible emotional support he received from his sister, and why he decided to share himself with the world. We explore the role Sikhism has played in his life and his outlook, his work with the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group and why he’s embarked on his newest broadcasting venture, Do You Wear That in the Shower?, a podcast where he and his guests challenge some of the widely held myths and misconceptions about Sikhs and Sikhism. Importantly, Rav shares with us the steps he took for himself to move closer to himself so that he could live in service of others.

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Thank you to our partners, UK Black Pride and BlackOut UK.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices