Collaborative Alchemy

Yusef Seevers is back for a second time on the Collaborative Alchemy Podcast! Yusef is an actor, musician, dancer, choreographer, and creative entrepreneur. Our first conversation in December of 2020 was about radical self-love, Black joy, and the healing power of meditation. In this episode, we talk about the importance of foregrounding pleasure as a means of befriending our more difficult emotions. We talk about the why and how of creative process as a way to develop a personal vocabulary our experience of grief. Yusef also asks some big questions about how to normalize emotional intelligence training and somatic practice for kids. Join us for this enlivening conversation as we discuss grief, parental loss, and what happens when our sense of balance is rocked.

Our conversation happened in August of 2022.

In this wide-ranging conversation, I talk with playwright Thelma Virata de Castro about drawing on the wisdom of her ancestors as part of her creative practice. We also touch on the dynamic evolution of language, what blessings (or curses) we’re passing on to our children, and what we’re collectively forgetting. Thelma shares her thoughts about losing (and learning) our native languages and the quiet power of the Southern California Filipinx community. Join us as we discuss what it means for artists to be legitimized by institutional approval and what it might look like when we embody our own definitions of worthiness.

In this episode, I talk with multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and professional disruptor, Kelcey Anyá about what it means to be a catalyst for change within dominant cultural structures. We also discuss how our capacity for creative risk seems to grow in equal measure to our self-knowledge. Listen in as Kelcey shares her thoughts on representation in arts-education, womanism, the power of telling your own story, and why it’s a revolutionary act to show up, get loud, and sing your own praises in a society that has historically rendered you silent.

In this episode, I talk with leadership coach and facilitator Marla Teyolia about spiritual mentorship, reclaiming our power, and why liberation is an inside job. We also talk about bridging indigenous practices with modern leadership development by centering ancestral wisdom. Marla shares about her transformational experiences with a curandera and using embodied traditional folk healing modalities to address the needs of her clients. Her question: How do we discover what needs healing within us? (Hint: The medicine is in your story.)

In this episode, I talk with collage artist and muralist Evangeline Stott about her creative process, collaboration, the inherent intelligence of the body, and the call of the open road. We also touch on maternal loss, the importance of rest, and how robust creative inquiry can lead to a profound sense of belonging. Listen in as we discuss what it means to live at the intersections of grief, joy, disability, and true freedom.

In this episode, I talk with facilitator and coach Myriam Loeschen about releasing perfectionism, the beauty in the cracks, and the healing power of silence. We also talk about how Myriam weaves her creative passion for cooking and nourishing food into a powerful framework for working with clients and groups. Listen in as we discuss what it means to be wounded, worthy and honoring a life in process.

In this episode, I talk with playwright and educator Jacqueline Goldfinger about the how and why of effective storytelling, adapting works for the stage, and the beauty of how the arts influence culture. We share our excitement and hope for the new and emergent generation of storytellers, who are offering nuanced and elegant solutions to some of our most pressing social justice issues. This is a wide-ranging conversation that addresses the intricacies of our mutual use of the she/they pronoun, the work of Madeleine L'Engle, tips for writing great characters, and how parenting has shaped our creative work.

“It's the hearts and mind stage that I'm interested in with storytelling, because I think that if we could just see each other as people with needs and concerns, that's when you can most effectively change someone's mind or even change yourself to be better.” — Jacqueline Goldfinger

In this episode, I talk with honey beekeeper, bee colony preservationist, horticulturalist, and jewelry designer Sue Hulsmann about the magic of bees, the dynamics of living in creative community, and what it really means to be Queen.

In this episode, I’m talking to artist and activist B Merikle. In their “day job” they work as a non-profit executive director, challenging anti-Blackness everywhere that they hold space and lead groups. B’s heart-centered work is profoundly informed by the women that came before them. B intentionally seeds liberation in all that they do, with eyes focused on the coming harvest. B says that they believe deeply in the power of stark contrast — trauma and pleasure — to create new Black futures that free us all.

“Pardon my language, but it’s a literal goddamned miracle that most Black people in this country who are descendants of the Middle Passage actually even exist. And I wanted to show people [through my work] what that miracle meant, embodied, in real time.” —B. Merikle

Our conversation happened during Lughnasa (harvest season) in 2021.

In this episode, I talk with activist, bridge builder, and the founder of The Be Seen Project, Mindy Tsonas Choi. Our conversation focuses on identity-led creative work, the somatic experience of real belonging, and what happens to potency of our work when we step outide of capitalistic structures. Mindy says, “Now that I’m heading into 50, right in the mid-point of my life, I’m looking at and thinking about belonging in new ways. If you had asked me at the beginning of my creative journey about belonging, I would have described it as being accepted and being welcomed by a community. And now, especially as an activist, as an edge dweller, as someone who has skin in the game, belonging is really about self-reclamation and claiming spaces and naming them for ourselves.”

In this episode I talk with facilitator, leadership mentor, and creative catalyst Anya Hankin. In this wide-ranging conversation we talk about creating purpose-driven work, showing up in our imperfect fullness, and what it means to truly practice reciprocity. Anya says, “Bearing witness is at the core of my work. We all deserve to be seen, to be heard, to be celebrated. So much of it is knowing that we get to be our flawed, real, human selves and be seen in that. My story touches something in your story. My experience touches something in your experience. I think that is the heart of witnessing. There is something so healing in recognizing that we’re not alone in it.”

In this episode, I talk with actor, voice coach, and educator Jack Greenman. Jack also happens to be my life partner. Jack left a tenured faculty position, mid-career, at Southern Methodist University to live rurally with his family and homeschool his children. Join us as we discuss creativity inside and outside of institutions, zazen meditation, homeschooling, and bringing your whole self (even the icky parts) to the creative act. We also reveal a family secret. (Shhh… don’t tell our parents!)

My guest is actor, musician, dancer, choreographer, and entrepreneur Yusef Seevers. In this episode, we talk about the importance of radical self love, Black joy, and the healing power of meditation. Yusef says, "Self care is about returning to a place of infinite love. And I think that the resistance people have to it is that is seems too simple. Nothing we ever do in this new world is as simple as love. So in all things that I do, in all things that I teach, in all things that I am living, I am pointing to that LOVE that is in oneself... I am pointing to YOU... as the one who is LOVE."