How do you lose yourself in art, work, music, love? This episode is inspired by Neptune, the planet that represents dissolving into the collective. This year will have three Jupiter squares to Neptune, and I made this episode in the wake of the first one. Music by Layle Omeran. Instagram: @diasporababes

Diaspora Babes

How Do You Lose Yourself?

You have unlikely allies. Have you found them? During quarantine, we’re forging systems of mutual aid with unlikely allies: birds, plants, cats, and trees in our immediate vicinity.  Emergent Strategy and adrienne maree brown. Baby hummingbirds. Unexpected roosters. Ecosystems of care. Ancestor trees.  Featuring contributions from  Isabel Peña she/they @botanicabrava Alina Perez she/her @alina.perezz Alex Mendez she/her Nasseem they/he @dendrophile666 Thank you! Tell us what excited you, frustrated you, challenged you, or touched you by voice note or at diasporababes@gmail.com Follow on Instagram @diasporababes @youcandoithabibi Music by Layle Omeran @layleomer AlmanaK Bandcamp IG @almanak_ab

Unlikely Allies: Plant Comrades, Creativity, and Care

Welcome to season 2 of Diaspora Babes! Continuing the theme of making home, I read some selections from #myqueerramadan series I have been writing for Ramadan 2020. Read the full series and get regular updates here. Tell us what excited you, frustrated you, challenged you, or touched you by voicenote or at diasporababes@gmail.com Follow on Instagram @diasporababes @youcandoithabibi Music by Layle Omeran @layleomer AlmanaK Bandcamp IG @almanak_ab

My Queer Ramadan

Welcome to season 2 of Diaspora Babes! Today I offer an exploration of the center, the home inside you, the gathering that takes you from it, and brings you home. Tell us what excited you, frustrated you, challenged you, or touched you by voicenote or at diasporababes@gmail.com Follow on Instagram @diasporababes @youcandoithabibi Music by  Layle Omeran @layleomer AlmanaK Bandcamp IG @almanak_ab

Gathering and Coming Home

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the sweet sounds of the first Diaspora Babes Radio Waves installment. Enjoy recently released tracks by queer artists of color. Their songs are accompanied by their thoughts on ecstatic experiences reached with music and how they use music to connect to others. The artists, their included tracks, and the time stamps: AlmanaK, Belly of the Beast 0:00 Yummy Online, Playstation 2:50 月曜日 6:03 Sukha, Euphoria 9:33 Idrys, Joyaux 13:56 Layle Omeran/ 7afsa قالولي  20:04 Mia Listte, Bella 27:32 Contact info: AlmanaK https://soundcloud.com/almanakspeaks Instagram @almanakmusic_ https://www.dardishi.com/events Performing March 10 in Glasgow and in Paris May 9th and May 14th Yummy Online https://soundcloud.com/onlineyummy Instagram @terrorist.us Remsta23@gmail.com Sukha  Instagram @Susankhan https://soundcloud.com/susankhan-sukha Idrys https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCndCfl1PEkw5PYr9_Q81vYQ  https://idrys.bandcamp.com/ Instagram @idrysrhodes Layle Omeran/ 7afsa Instagram @laylomer Mia Lisette Instagram @missmialisette 

Diaspora Babes Radio Waves

A message on love for Valentine’s Day. I talk about posts by @virginalvigilante @bunnymichael and @jessica_lanyadoo and read from adrienne marie brown’s Emergent Strategy. Revolutionary, queer love. Trauma. Do you worship fear? Do you let others sacrifice you to their fears? I also use tarot and talk about the Ace of Cups and our internal fountain of love. This episode is more improvised than usual, so let me know your thoughts on IG at @diasporababes, by email at diasporababes@gmail.com, or send me a voice message on WhatsApp or Anchor. I love you, babes.

You Are Love

Ja’Tovia shares the quotation from Toni Cade Bambara, “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.” She also shares her thoughts on cyclical time, looking back to move forward, Afro-surrealism, her relationship with Orishas Yemaya and Oshun, centering Black women in her work, and much more. From her website: Ja’Tovia M. Gary (b. Dallas, TX. 1984) is an artist and filmmaker currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Gary’s work seeks to liberate the distorted histories through which Black life is often viewed while fleshing out a nuanced and multivalent Black interiority. Through documentary film and experimental video art, Gary charts the ways structures of power shape our perceptions around representation, race, gender, sexuality, and violence. The artist earned her MFA in Social Documentary Filmmaking from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Www.jatovia.com IG @j_______g_______ Twitter @jatovia Follow the podcast on Instagram @diasporababes Music by Layle Omeran

The Role of the Artist is to make the Revolution Irresistible: Ja’Tovia Gary

Why is it easier to be radical in our idea and yet stick to traditional media? I explore hegemony of form, self worth, colonial media, and giving art and yourself permission to come as you are. With guest contributions from Chloe and Fatem. Thank you for rating and reviewing. Look out for a new episode this coming weekend. Music by Layle Omeran @laylomer

Give Your Art Permission To Be Itself: Form and Content

I have a conversation with queer POC astrologer Alice Sparkly Kat on art as a social relation, fan fiction universes, and navigating community and branding as an artist surviving under late capitalism. What is our dreaming space in 2019? IG: @alicesparklykat http://www.alicesparklykat.com/ http://gomag.com/article/what-each-zodiac-sign-can-teach-us-about-surviving-in-the-gig-economy/ Music by Layle Omeran @layleomer @diasporababes

Art as a Social Relation: Alice Sparkly Kat

What about when you’re not making art? Follow us on Instagram @diasporababes Music by Layle Omeran.

Your Art Is All Of It

What might it look like to decolonize your art practice? Here I offer a variety of perspectives from myself and others on decolonizing your creative practice. I include Frantz Fanon, quotes from Rocío aka @d0glover69, and adrienne marie brown and her book Emergent Strategy. Included are voices from Bushra, Fatem, Alex, Akhir, Rephael, and Clover. Music by Layle Omeran.

Decolonize Your Practice

“The art you love” part of our tagline is here! Today I talk about friends—real and imaginary—fascism, critical connection, and......... Harry Potter. Instagram @diasporababes Music by Layle Omeran

Your Friends Are How We Will Win

Episode 1! Do you doubt yourself and your creative practice? I’m here to remind you that you and your art are important. Music by Layle Omeran @layleomer

Your Art is Important

Hi babes! This is a really chilled out preview of what’s to come. Listen and do a little grounding and sunning with me. Love,

Teaser: The Beach in Winter

Diaspora Babes is a podcast for queers of color on maintaining your creative practice and engaging art, community, and liberation.