Perpetual Blackness

This is the opening episode of Season II: The Case for Prince George's County. Every episode in this season will look at this unique space in the African Diaspora: P.G. County. This first episode sets the stage as to why Prince George's County is a rare place in the American landscape.  Joining us is an intro to the season's first guest: Angie Martinez.  Also, is a trailer to the podcast, Rebuilding Peace by the Washington Office on Latin America -which focuses on the stories of Afro-Colombian leaders fighting for peace and equality. Sources: Smithsonian Anacostia Museum; Maryland Archives; Atlanta Black Star, and National Park Service.Music By:Missed U by CospeWeyVee by _91NovaHeartStrings by Madison YorkTrapCloud by _91NovaSweet Talk by Tyra Chantey

Atlanta-based, millenial antique dealer and appraiser, Tanzy Ward comes through and puts a whole lot of light on our great-great-grandmothers and grandfathers in this episode of Perpetual Blackness. She also gives us inspiration with taking the anguish of  2020 to pursue the past. Guest: Tanzy WardMusic by:  The French Library by Franz Gordon; They Don't Know by Damma Beatz;  Sweet Talk by Tyra Chantey.  

U.S.A is the last installment in a 3-part series where I look at my own experience walking through the "Diaspora."  In the last episode, I reflect on the conflicted experience I had living in Miami, Florida for 12 years; the white supremacist rhetoric that influenced my day-to-day and my eventual decision to really go back and get academic understandings of the Black experience in Latin America.  This episode contains a call-to-action to support part of a Afro-Colombian collective in Buenaventura, Colombia.  It also contains racially sensitive material and views.Guest Host: Jonathan GloverMusic by:  Theme Music for Show - Power by Kudo NYC; Careless Conditon by Norman Sann;  La Coqueteria by Dylan Joseph; Hidden Hills by Damma Beetz; They Don't Know by Damma Beetz; Agua y Llama by Cuba Quartet.

In this episode, I continue with my personal reflections on the inception of my love affair with Diasporic Blackness.  I channel the spirit of Zora Neale Hurston and sit firmly in the passenger seat as I am interviewed as a continuation of a 3-part series. Guest Co-Host: Jonathan GloverMusic: Theme Song, Power by Kudo NYC; The Lustful Ones by the Chalalatas; Mandeville Banton by Calisto Young;  Wrong Love by Cleo Kelly.Archive Sound: The Late Prime Minister of Grenada, Maurice Bishop via the Freedom Archives. 

Ancestral stories start somewhere, but the most definitive starting place is you.  In this episode, my good friend Jonathan Glover reverses the mic and interviews me on what brought me to Blackness. We discuss colorism, family deities, Roots and one of my favorite places in the Diaspora, the Black DC and Maryland area.Special Guest Host: Jonathan Glover Music: Unlucky Woman by Helen Fumes and Leonard Feather; Power by Kudo NYC; Talk to Me, Talk to Me by Little Willie John; Stranger by Yung Kartz; Addicted by Makaih Beats; Picture Perfect by Yung Kartz and Ara Lee Live. 

This episode continues my genealogical journey while exploring what recognition and representation means on a personal, familial and Diasporic level. Interviews with Linda White of the Smoot Family and Zann Nelson, a Culpeper Historian discuss and highlight the untold stories of Black horsemen via my ancestor, Charles Smoot.  Special guest, poet, author and educator Darius V. Daughtry of the Art Prevails Project helps us with the language to understand the grief we feel in the aftermath of losing Chadwick Boseman while hailing the resilience of the human spirit and Blackness. Special Guests: Zann Nelson, Linda White, Darius V. DaughtryMusic: Show Intro, Power by Kudo NYC;  Levels by Yung Kartz; Streets by Yung Kartz; Love Chances by Makaih Beats; Show Outro by Kevin Wheeler

A Revolutionary Summer joins me to say the lives of the Black women and children taken by white supremacist violence, state-sponsored and otherwise. We place them on the altar to remember and pay homage.  

Breathing those lost to white supremacy back into the land of the living, so justice can prevail. 

From Rappahannock County, the Lawsons and Smoots grow new roots and begin to intertwine. Special Guests: Culpeper Historian, Zann Nelson and Mary RandallMusic: Show Intro and Outro by Kevin Wheeler

Our roots are in the land and the rivers. Following my family up the Rappahannock River and through the generations. 

To the mothers who give birth to freer.  Following my family over 9 generations down the Rappahannock River to its roots 50 miles south of Washington, DC while paralleling contemporary stories of Black motherhood from Brazil to Severn, Maryland. 

Looking for home abroad when all the while it was 90 miles away. This episode introduces my journey into the past and love of a diverse Black present. Music by:Makaiah Beats, AddictedKudo NYC, Power 

Trailer for the Perpetual Blackness Podcast.  A podcast that tells Black stories from here, there, then and now while telling my own family story over 9 generations in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area.