Global Citizenship & Equity

SHOW LESSAn interview with Naomi Raquel Enright author of 'Strength of Soul' that advances ideas about how to confront societal notions of an inherent difference between the lived experiences of white people and everyone else, notions which result in the widely held belief that there is an inevitable “us” and “them.” Enright suggests that embracing one’s total identity can allow people to challenge systemic racism as well as the language and ideology that created it and upholds it.  Naomi Raquel Enright is a writer, educator and equity practitioner based in Brooklyn, NY. She is also a National SEED Facilitator and New York Appleseed Board Member. She was born in La Paz, Bolivia to an Ecuadorian mother and a Jewish-American father, and raised in New York City.  She holds a BA in Anthropology from Kenyon College and studied at the Universidad de Sevilla in Spain. She writes about identity, loss, and parenting, and her essays have appeared in several publications including Hold The Line Magazine, Family Story, Role Reboot, and in the anthologies, The Beiging of America (2017) and Sharing Gratitude (2019). Her first book, Strength of Soul (2Leaf Press; University of Chicago Press), was published in April 2019.

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In a global system where so many countries around the world continue to criminalize and subject LGBTQIA+ folks to levels of oppression and violence that are unspeakable I want to say that there are globally sanctioned suicides. On June 14, 2020 the international LGBTQIA+ community lost a significant Egyptian activist. Her name was Sarah Hegazi. In 2017 Sarah Hegazi attended a concert in Egypt. We can see a beautiful picture of her flying a rainbow flag. The consequences for her were horrific she was arrested, tortured in prison for three months and then exiled to Canada where she eventually took her own life. Four brave advocates who recently put out an open letter break down the numerous social factors that led up to Sarah’s globally sanctioned suicide. For the sake of their safety, this episode's guests have chosen to be more private about their identities. We discuss the transnational issues that were involved in Sarah Hegazi's legacy and death. I hope this episode brings to light some of the invisibility that so many LGBTQIA+ asylum-seekers face in the West. To sign the open letter in support of Sarah Hegazi's letter click here.

Guests: 

Mariam (TBA)

Alaa Al Soufi  "I am a Syrian activist and community advocate that currently lives in so called Toronto in Turtle Island. I met Sarah Hegazi at a protest in March 2019 after which we became very close friends and considered her to be a sister and chosen family and we were often at rallies/protests together."

Kholoud is a theatre artist, drama therapist and psychotherapist based in the US. They have a 20+ years of experience in theatre arts including writing, acting, directing, and producing. The populations they offer psychotherapy services for the most are immigrants, Arab LGBTQ+ people, and domestic violence survivors. Recently, in response to Sarah's death, they broadened their focus to include community healing with a social justice approach dedicated to support Arab / SWANA queer populations. Instagram: @swana_queer_diaspora

Bassam is an Arab American immigrant to the US. He met Kholoud during a memorial that was help following Sarah's death in Oakland California and joined the group that was formed for healing and social justice.

This is a social impact project by Leading With Consciousness. To support this please make a donation via paypal or VENMO @Cherylleong 

Roifield Brown is a British-Jamaican who lives between the U.K. and California. He is a cultural commenter and host of the highly acclaimed podcast 'How Jamaica Conquered The World', as well as, several other geopolitical podcasts.

In this episode, we compare notes on our post-colonial heritage and point out some key differences between the two countries. We break down some murky subjects like cultural appropriation, the legacy of British colonialism, the economic privilege/access of being English speakers and question the Western conservative-liberal dichotomy as a way forward.

This is a social impact project by Leading With Consciousness. To support this please make a donation to VENMO @Cherylleong

"COMING OUT TWICE" is a conversation with Shannon Wong Lerner, Ph.D. (She/Her) is a Chinese-Jewish American Queer leader. She is a speech and communications coach/specialist who talks about her working philosophy and how she came out of the closet twice. In the context of global citizenship, there are so many young lgbtqia+ folks who face pressures, stigma, physical threats and invisibility around the world. This episode acknowledges America's very recent history and reminds us that PRIDE is very much a revolt against shame, internalized oppression and survival based hiding. In countering the invisibility of anti-Chinese American sentiment, racism and xenophobia as well as the added struggles of trans/homophobia, this is the 2nd episode in a row to feature a Queer-Asian identified leader. #diversityequityinclusion #lgbtqiaplus #pride2021 #stopasianhate #standwithasians

This is a social impact project by Leading With Consciousness. To support this please make a donation to VENMO @Cherylleong

This episode features MADELEINE LIM, Director of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project; She is an award-winning filmmaker and activist. She is the recent recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Community Building Award by The Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco.

I dive into an honest conversation with Madeleine Lim about her film 'Sambal Belacan in San Francisco' that was banned by the Singapore government in the mid-90s and only recently, over two decades later, was screened in Singapore under strict perimeters. This interview also journeys through the dark '80s in Singapore and what it was like to be a lesbian teenager. She describes her early activism with the Singaporean feminist organization AWARE, her struggles with the Singapore government, and her eventual decision to move to the United States, where she would carve significant milestones in queer, women of color film history.

A social impact project by Leading With Consciousness  , Donate to fund this podcast with VENMO: @Cherylleong , To sign Dr Lee's petition: Click here . When I first discovered Dr Bandy X Lee’s work, I was intrigued. I was moved to see a forensic psychiatrist making such bold moves to speak up about the dangers of Donald Trump. She is a violence expert, editor of the "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President” and 'Trump's Mind, America's Soul. She predicted the violence that would be incited by the former president and also the violence that Asian Americans would experience through the pandemic. She went on a 4-year journey to warn the public. This fight was at the expense of coming up against the American Psychiatric Association's gag rule and more recently losing her position at Yale. She has become a significant part of Asian American leadership history but her story is rarely told. This interview took place a week after the violence took place at Capitol Hill. 

A social impact project by Leading With Consciousness 

From the storming of Capitol Hill to the Declaration of Independence, the legacy of Christopher Columbus to the ghost of the American Dream and to social responsibility we covered a lot of ground in this conversation. This is an interview with Dr. Ipek Burnett. She is the author of  'A Jungian Inquiry Into the American Psyche: The Violence of Innocence'.  From an immigrant perspective we will be exploring the inequities and multiple humanitarian crises that plague everyday American life.  

Dr. Ipek Burnett: "Ipek S. Burnett, PhD, is a depth psychologist and Turkish novelist living in San Francisco.   Born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Burnett came to the United States to get a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in Modern Culture & Media and International Relations. She received her master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies. She got a second masters and doctorate degree in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Though her academic work remains rooted in the field of psychology, Burnett’s writing has always had a cultural and critical edge, expanding on a range of topics—xenophobia to racism, militarism to materialism. Burnett’s novels, written in her native language, pay tribute to her first love—twentieth century Turkish literature and poetry."