Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

In this more intimate episode, April shares reflections from her living room and unveils exciting updates about the evolution of the Joyous Justice Podcast. From the recent and upcoming introduction of guest speakers to new series focused on social justice leaderships and diverse healing modalities, among other topics, April offers a glimpse into the expansive vision guiding the podcast forward.

She also shares some key insights regarding the power of self-love and self-acceptance, inviting you to consider this specific and important element of your own self-care journey.

Emphasizing the beauty of collaboration and community, April encourages active listener engagement—through questions, feedback, and connection—as an essential part of the show’s future and her relationship and connection to you.

Tune in to hear what’s emerging, what’s evolving, and how you can be part of a growing movement rooted in healing, justice, and joy.

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Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?

Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

In this episode, Kohenet April N. Baskin and poet, archivist, and visionary jesi "rocki" taylor dive into a rich and layered conversation about disposability and extraction of black and global majority leaders, power, and the complexities of identity, as inspired by the limited, but potent lore surrounding Vashti.

Together they explore the ways harm is named and weaponized, the nature of joy as a liberatory force, and the systemic patterns of extractive labor in justice work.

This is a conversation that holds nuance, challenge, and depth—an invitation to examine the spaces we navigate and the truths we carry.

To learn more about jesi and connect with faer work, you can find them on Instagram and here's access to the links for their newsletter, website, and so much more!

Support the show

Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?

Send us a message via text message! Link accessible at joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com. ✅

What happens when those who were once celebrated as respected and promising leaders become seen as threats? What happens when institutions benefit from the labor of Black women and and other leaders with marginalized identities, only to discard them once they begin to achieve what they were hired to do?

In this revelatory episode, April N. Baskin explores Vashti’s erasure—not just as a biblical anecdote, but as a recurring pattern in movements, organizations, and professional spaces today, especially for Black women.

With honesty and scholarly depth, April shares her own journey of being embraced, then excluded, from spaces she once poured herself into. She unpacks how the concept of neo-plantationism, a concept April originally coined, can help us better understand how historic domination and control patterns at still at play within contemporary professional and social spaces, and why so many courageous leaders experience systemic and harmful pushback when they are successful at advocating for real change they were hired/asked to advance.

This episode is an offering of truth (including a painful and alarming story not previously shared), solidarity, and hopeful conviction—a declaration that we are not disposable. That we will not be erased. That our labor, wisdom, love, and voices matter and aren't going anywhere, despite efforts to the contrary.

Show Notes

• More information and context on Vashti and Purim - access here
  
  
• When Black Women Go From Office Pet to Office Threat, First your boss loves you, then they dislike you. Here’s how Black women can manage the icy transition, by Erika Stallings - access article here

Support the show

Discussion and reflection questions:

1. What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
2. What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
3. What, if anything feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
4. If relevant. what feelings and sensations are arising as you reflect on themes from this episode, and where in your body do you feel them?
5. What key insights or strategies are you carrying forward and how do you want to weave them into your living and/or leadership?