Stories with Bri

Trigger Warning: This episode contains book spoilers and conversations on race, slavery, and assault.

Guess what y'all?? Ashley's back! Ashley from Melanated Pages invited me to do a buddy read on Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson and I thought it would be a good idea to share our collective thoughts about the story here on the show. Anyway, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. By the way, this was my first buddy read and I'm open to another. 

Follow Ashley on Instagram: @melanated_pages

Follow me on Instagram: @storieswithbri

This week I had the esteemed privilege of talking to a library veteran. At the time of our conversation, Mrs. Tracie Randolph was an Assistant Library Director in Upland California. She recently accepted a new position in Del City, Oklahoma, becoming a Library Manager in the Metropolitan Library System. With over 25 years of experience working in libraries, she talks about her journey to become a librarian, expanding library programming, and her thoughts on how the profession could change their recruitment strategy to attract more diverse candidates. It truly was a pleasure!

Follow her on Instagram and Tik Tok: @trayday1908

 Follow me on Instagram: @storieswithbri

This week I got the opportunity to have an amazing conversation with Ashley and Kristina the bookstagram duo and founders of Melanated Pages a "community to engage Black readers and celebrate Black authors." Talking to these ladies was such a therapeutic experience. In this episode we talked about why they started their book club and the second book in Jayne Allen's Black Girls series, "Black Girls Must Be Magic." If you haven't read the book, I recommend coming back to this episode later. 

Follow them on Instagram @melanated_pages

Follow me on Instagram: @storieswithbri 

Welcome to the Season 2 Finale!

This week I had the pleasure of talking with award winning author Nonku Adumetey about her amazing strides in creating independently published, diverse children's books for the world to enjoy. She was dropping major pearls of wisdom throughout our conversation. We talked about how she gets inspired to write, her process, and upcoming releases.

Follow her on Instagram @nonkuscorner for the latest updates.

Thank you for hanging out with us here at Stories With Bri. Season 3 of the podcast will drop later this summer. Stay tuned.

Follow me @storieswithbri on Instagram

It was such an honor this week to talk to former Black Caucus of the American Library Association president Richard E Ashby, Jr. He is currently the Director of the Sharon Hill Public Library in Sharon Hill, PA and the co-founder of Literacy Nation whose mission is to encourage and promote youth and adults, as well as those whose native language is not English, to develop basic skills in reading, speaking, and writing English; thereby, empowering them to participate in their communities. We shared quite a few laughs as he took me on his journey to becoming a degreed librarian at the young age of 50. 

Follow him on Instagram @sidewalklibrarian

This week I had the opportunity to talk with another fellow Black Librarian and it was a lively conversation. John Light Jr. is a librarian, storyteller, genealogist, and author. He currently works as a Youth Librarian for the Live Oak Public library system in Savannah, GA. We talked about his journey to become a librarian, his work in youth services, his many children's book publications, and much more...

Follow him on Instagram @misterjohn_tlhea

Bookstagram bestie and future librarian Jasmine Washington stopped by to have a conversation about her journey to get her Master of Library Science, navigating life as a MLS student, working in library programming, and what her ideal library would look like. It was a great time. 

Follow her on Instagram @_tripthroughthepages_

You can follow me on Instagram @storieswithbri

This week I had the honor to interview a friend and fellow author Kiarra Charles. Kiarra is a mental health counselor by profession, but she is also the independent author of this amazing poetry book entitled "Loud Whispers: A Book of Poems and Pictures." This is a dynamic book of poetry that focuses on themes of sexuality, family, Black culture, and more...

Click here to purchase a copy of her book https://www.amazon.com/Loud-Whispers-Book-Poems-Pictures/dp/B08QBVMHBL

Follow her on Instagram: @loudwhispers8, on Facebook @loudwhisperspoetry

You can follow me on Instagram @storieswithbri

This week I had the lovely opportunity to talk with author Tangela Williams-Spann. We discussed her first book "Sad, Black, and Fat: Musings From the Intersection" and its many themes on body positivity, self love, mental health and more....

Welcome back for Season 2 of the Stories With Bri podcast! I'm kicking this season off with a very powerful discussion between myself and fellow Bookstagrammer Zakiya Jones. Zakiya is a social worker, cat mom, and fiction fanatic according to her Bookstagram bio. She brings a ball of energy to the podcast conversation and I truly enjoyed talking to her. We talk about her love for literature, why she created her bookstagram page and have a very engaging heart-to-heart discussion about Ashley C. Ford's "Somebody's Daughter."

If you haven't read the book yet, this is your warning because there are plenty of spoilers here. This is also your trigger warning conversation includes discussion on sexual assault, family trauma, and eating disorders. 

Follow Kiya on her Instagram page @reader.bae

You can follow me on Instagram @storieswithbri

Welcome to the Season 1 Finale! This week I had the opportunity to talk with Makayla "KayKay" Walker who is currently a Master of Library and Information Science student at the University of Denver. I really enjoyed getting to know a fellow soon to be Black librarian who also happens to be a fellow Bookerstagrammer. KayKay dropped some good perspective on the current state of librarianship as a profession and how she is doing her part to advocate for more people of color in the field.  

You can follow KayKay on Instagram @ablacklibrarian  

You can follow me on Instagram @storieswithbri  

Recently, I joined a very niche community on Instagram affectionately title "Bookstagram." I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people over the last few months and I wanted to highlight them and their stories while talking about books we have read and enjoyed together. First up, is Jasmine "Jas" Buck. Jas is a mom, educator, and avid book reader and book content creator. I had a fun conversation with her as we discussed Issa Rae's "Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl," and her own journey growing up as an awkward Black girl and developing a love for reading. She is a lot of fun! Follow her on Instagram @jas_reads24.

You can follow me on Instagram @storieswithbri

This week I had the opportunity to talk with Jessica Pryde, Book Riot columnist, librarian, and editor of "Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever Afters" (from Amazon description) an incisive, intersectional essay anthology that celebrates and examines romance and romantic media through the lens of Black readers, writers, and cultural commentators. This hour was so good!

You can follow Jessica on all major social media platforms, her Instagram is @jess_is_reading.

You can follow me on Instagram @storieswithbri

This week I had a very wonderful and informative conversation with Dr. Pamela Richardson Moore who is an Assistant Professor for Educational Media and Educational Technology at the University of South Alabama. We discuss her journey in the field of Library Science and long career in technology. I'm so grateful for the knowledge I gained from this conversation.

You can follow her on Twitter @pammooretech

In this episode I have a fun, heart-to-heart conversation with Nikigotagun, author of "29 Lessons: Diary Of A Black Girl." We talk about her journey of becoming a published author, grieve recovery, and life. 

Welcome to Stories With Bri! This is a place where we make connections and have conversations about library issues, literature, and life. I will be having one-on-one conversations each week with authors, librarians, creatives, and everyday lovers of poetry and prose across the world. We will be having a grand time. This episode is to kick us off. Please be sure to rate and subscribe. I'm happy to have you here.