The original. Before Nikki, before Cardi, before Kim. Long before Young M.A. was seducing women out of their Fashion Nova, and Meg made that congressman clutch his pearls over WAP, there was Gladys Bentley. An open lesbian, a cross-dressing performer whose raunchy act and lewd lyrics were both the talk of the town and the hottest ticket around. A darling of the Harlem Renaissance, Gladys Bentley was once the richest Black woman in America. A blues singer who got her start singing at rent parties, she was a woman brave enough to love and live as she wanted - until the politics of the time and a brutal system of oppression, that has denied so many of us the opportunity to live in our truth, forced her back into the margins.

Our stories are complex. Difficult. Not always redeemable to those who live in the black and white. Not always deemed worthy to be told if not pristine or above reproach. But not in this space. Here, amongst a tribe of women who come bearing our own scars, we make space for every story. And today we tell the story of Gladys, because it is spectacular and because it serves as inspiration for those who will come after her to plant their own flags in planets yet discovered. Can?t wait to walk with you today. Tune in live. This one will be worth it. 

Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music  played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Worried Blues | Gladys Bentley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptIBk2PZK74

Back to the Streets | Saweetie
https://open.spotify.com/track/3MEruRteiUZXkStfTlZqRn?si=Qrepmax0TcuH4odrXBeeRw

Her mother told her that she was singing before she could hold her head up. Calling at birth. An air bender. And on any given Sunday, if you walk through the right neighborhood at precisely the right time, you?ll hear it. ...just behind the smell of fresh laundry and the sizzle of Sazón, you feel it coming. "¡Azúuucar!" Every sound system must bow. The clap of her voice is more ancient than the rivers of Benin. Celia Cruz gave us pathways home. She was our clave, the pulse of our diaspora, our mother's lullaby, and Oya?s cry. ?The Queen of Salsa'' stoked our collective imaginations and taught us to fly. And for that, we dedicate today?s walk to this cultural cosmonaut.
 

Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech except played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Quimbara - Zaire, Africa 1974 | Celia Cruz & The Fania All Stars:
https://bit.ly/3sSUz7T

Bemba Colora Live | Celia Cruz:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4fn2fJjnuu5vxR2sRw5D5t?si=fcVlBk4HTsSGBm6C40vLSA

This is the story that you need today. A royal story. A queen story. A story about taking up space, owning your gifts, and using your voice. A story about overcoming the worst to become the best to ever do it.  A history lesson on courage. A demonstration on Blackness. A journey through the life of the greatest singer of all time. This is the story of Aretha Franklin. Ain?t no way (ha!) you'll listen without getting your whole life. There is so much to be said and so much to learn from this woman who came holding a gift from God and used it to transform the world.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech except played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

RESPECT | Aretha Franklin:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7s25THrKz86DM225dOYwnr?si=x8NB7U_tTQSs5R2MN_83xA

Day Dreaming | Aretha Franklin:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7L4G39PVgMfaeHRyi1ML7y?si=eq6zDjvwRJKXAySCyPeavw

She was mesmerizing. The very embodiment of liberation. Sexual...Political. Financial. Free... Josephine Baker taught desire to a colonized world. Her face, a masterclass. And her body - a disruption. At the dawn of silent films, her success rang in a renaissance, the jazz age - modernity itself. 

French women literally hurt themselves trying to achieve the Josephine Baker look. Shellacked hair. Copper skin. She was the most photographed woman in the world. And the most highly paid. A global superstar, yet - when she came home -Time Magazine called her a ?buck-toothed negro wench.?  Never tolerate less than you deserve - she never did. 

Josephine Baker renounced her citizenship from America at the height of Jim Crow, refused to sing in front of segregated audiences, and once made a citizen's arrest of a white man in a dinner who was uncomfortable with her Blackness. Never settle. Be bigger, wilder, funnier, fuller, smarter, and more you. 

So today, we go beyond her banana skirt to understand exactly how Josephine Baker lived bravely. So bravely that Hitler?s Gestapo raided her home. So bravely that she earned the highest military honor in France. Josephine Baker was a war hero, an icon, a fearless Black woman. Truly free.  And for that, her name should be written in the stars. We dedicate today?s walk to her.

Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Desperado | Rihanna:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4mCf3vQf7z0Yseo0RxAi3V?si=HLya96QwTqarM4EhTsmjUw

Savage Remix | Megan Thee Stallion Ft. Beyonce
https://open.spotify.com/track/5v4GgrXPMghOnBBLmveLac?si=Tp07x_ihTkm--JVpPpSifQ

Cicely Tyson was a Cosmonaut. A woman before her time. Her work was exquisite. It broke down barriers and opened up doors. The pioneer of "Black is Beautiful."  A woman whose ebony skin and complex braid patterns disarmed the world and made space for the rest of us to show up in our unique boldness. A woman who knew how to use her voice and often used it to remind all of us to adjust our crowns. In her, we saw the best version of ourselves and the elegance and grace our own mothers and grandmothers reflected back to us. She gave everything she had for 96 years and today we honor her legacy with our first walk of this series. Come to the pavement for the celebration and the inspiration. Leave with the lessons that Cicely Tyson left for all of us.

Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - 21 Cosmonauts at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 women who were ahead of their time.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Grown Woman | Beyonce:
https://youtu.be/y3MjxWn5W9M

Blessed Assurance | CeCe Winans
https://youtu.be/HNpUm2wlVrg

?Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.? -- Matthew 18:19-20

Dear Family,

You walked with us, you prayed with us, you learned with us and last night (we could not make this up y?all. #divinetiming #Godswork) you helped our Black History Bootcamp walking podcast reach one million downloads!!!!

Now, this is what you call spiritual warriorship!

You made this happen! Your prayers. Your walking. And, today, on the last day of this 21-day spiritual journey, we celebrate YOU as our Spiritual Warriors! With each person you invited to join you on this journey, for every tweet that you sent, IG tag, or FB post that you made ? you helped us inspire more people to start walking towards their healing. Imagine the power of that. This is God?s work and you are His servants. Thank you.

Today?s walk is a celebration. The story will be your story. A story of victory and triumph against all odds. Lace-up your sneakers and join us live TODAY at 12 PM, ET.

?The Bible says, 'For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' There is power in our ranks. We believe in that same God that spoke to Sojourner, protected Ida, and animated Angela - lives in us. We believe that there is something divinely beautiful and powerful in every Black woman. We believe in holding up the light ? celebrating sisters, amplifying what?s working and lifting up champions.? ? Excerpt GirlTrek Manifesto, 2014


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Keep Ya Head Up - 2Pac:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4Tttv4p2xuAq1LpQ7LI95E?si=Ocl2PzJrSY2neqtwWXXcQQ

Catch the Fire and LIVE. [Poem by Sonia Sanchez Read by GirlTrek Volunteers]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvipO-4k4e0&feature=youtu.be

We watched him forgive, for all of us.

Today, Bishop Tutu is 89 years old and is still changing the moral climate of the world. 

In 1996, this spiritual titan - who is a survivor of Apartheid -  proceeded over the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.  Together, we listened to gruesome stories of torture and unthinkable confessions of death squads.  The entire concept was radical - truth for freedom.  Let go of retribution to restore justice. Bring mass healing for all.It was a master class.

Bishop Tutu received a Nobel Peace Prize.  Yes.  But more than his achievements,  I am struck by his laugher.  It's brilliant.  And after a lifetime of resistance to the repression and violence of Apartheid, his laughter proves that there is a God.  Some of the most beautiful moments in the last decade are between Bishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama.  The two men charged with smiling eyes, praying hands, and foot-stomping laughter, show us the bounty of spiritual enlightenment.

We are humbled to honor this living legend.  His daughter, Rev. Naomi Tutu will join us today live.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrica - Gospel Train:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5HiC1rsHmXbrh5zy7cG5LS?si=sJpd8UeIQr6v1Mop6BAp5A

Forgiveness: "What do you do to forgive someone?" - Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo2LGGqtjqM&feature=youtu.be

Bo Noo Ni - Joe Mettle:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7eirw5Zy1bUWOka5g2HWrb?si=847jZABmSrmkRP1NNzuxBQ

? A tree was chopped down
and the fruit was scattered

I cried
because I had lost a family
the trunk, my father
the branches, his support
so much

the fruit, the wife and children
who meant so much to him
tasty
loving as they should be
all on the ground
some out of his reach

in the ground
the roots, happiness
cut off from him.
        - Zindzi Mandela

This is an ode to Black love. The love that survived and the love that didn?t.

This is an honoring of the sacrifice of Black men who could have loved more tenderly and Black women who could have received more softly if only the world wasn?t content on destroying them.

This is an honoring of the lovers who sought refuge in each other and found it, if only for a moment. 

This is a space where we honor the gray area of relationships. A space that knows no blame. A space that honors that there is no manual for how to love during wartime. 

This is a conversation and an exploration of the life and love of Winnie and Nelson Mandela.

Our heroes were humans and they gave at great sacrifice. Today we honor that sacrifice and look for the lessons by diving deep into the Mandelas' powerful legacy.



Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Soweto Blues - Miriam Makeba:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7qb0KJZ0iXtS8LMSXCH353?si=t5ZnQGQjRiydvR4uzTBY_w

Let's Stay Together - Al Green:
https://open.spotify.com/track/63xdwScd1Ai1GigAwQxE8y?si=79Zk_xL5Ss6hoNLeUOipMw

Many of us know the story of Bob Marley. 

He was born in St. Ann, Jamaica to a Syrian Jewish man and an African woman.  He struggled to find his place in the world.  Through that struggle, he found a voice that would help liberate millions around the world.  Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Max Romeo, and scores of other musicians would serve as spiritual vessels for a powerful message of liberation and love for African people across the diaspora.  We also know that Bob Marley was shot by his own people (classic hero's journey - see Jesus, Malcolm X, Nipsey Hussle) but he miraculously did not die. He went on to perform the most powerful, politically unifying, spiritually-pure concert the planet has ever seen. We lost our hero too young.  His cause of transition was the sun - you don't get more poetic.

But what did he believe? 

That's what we will explore today.

On today's call, we will crank up classic anthems and dive into the Rastafari Movement of the 1930s. This was Christian synchronicity in a cloak of African reverence with a powerful agenda for social reform.  Don't miss this conversation and pavement party.  Rastafari positions the Bible as liberation theology, and I'm here for it.



Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Black History Bootcamp - Bob Marley Episode Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0tluC8Zgccjenw8xe6SR9m?si=EYf6Z8LiTdKZ34h4aBUFjQ

?I say this to you, as I say to myself: If Malcolm and his message, so strong, so bright and so pure, was too good for those of us who have already reached manhood, there is a generation who is not yet spoiled, not yet degutted, not yet de-bold, not yet emasculated, who when they come into the light of this truth will rise up and redeem him and us and all the rest of the world. That is the meaning of Malcolm X.? - Ossie Davis

We are that generation.

We are ready to rise up.

Join us live on today?s walk for a historic conversation about the life and legacy of Malcolm X and the Shabazz family.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Pharoah Sanders - Hum Allah Hum Allah Hum Allah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWghTVdDGDM&feature=emb_logo

Malcolm X?s Fiery Speech Addressing Police Brutality:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_uYWDyYNUg&feature=youtu.be

Ossie Davis's eulogy for Malcolm X (The ending of the Malcolm X movie):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2PQ3XY_j2E&feature=emb_logo

21 million of us may lose healthcare.  21 million.  Rather than folding into rage, arguing perspectives, or waxing philosophical, let's get in the streets. Join us today, for a special edition of Black History Bootcamp to listen to the words of one of the most brilliant political organizers in history. Dr. King called us to love one another AND demand "a radical redistribution of political and economic power."  He said, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.?  In this pivotal moment, as we strengthen our bodies for the days ahead, we'll share the part of his final speech that they do NOT want you to hear.  It's a blueprint for labor organizing, economic withdrawal, direct action, and radical love.

"There is a certain kind of fire that no water can put out."


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Oh Freedom! - The Golden Gospel Singers:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3O9lB0cF1EC2cA6RwkO2NF?si=g42phSemTO6zpk3Sg8-tsg

The Anthology 1957-1968 - Mountaintop Speech - Martin Luther King Jr.:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6VmSiL5dAz0iui79svT1XE?si=HfSCtWfRRWSfmcCwkHZu0g

?Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit? says the Lord. - Zechariah 4:6

Many of you are lacking strength right now. Many of you are in a place of weariness and feeling battered by the battle, but don?t give up!  We?re coming on today?s walk to remind you of where your power and strength come from. It?s time to worship. It?s time to laugh. It?s to celebrate that we have made it through the week! It?s time to have your vision renewed and the weariness break off. You are walking into a new season of your life. Trust that feeling and keep moving.
 
Spiritual Warrior of the Day:

Turn on your favorite Stevie Wonder song because it?s time to shift the atmosphere! This man has given us a lifetime of hits. He?s created a soundtrack to the Black experience that is so lush and full of funk and dripping with pride that it will never go out of style. And he did it all while proving to us that vision ? the ability to really see ? comes from God.

And, boy does Stevie really see us.

His music is a reflection of our beauty and pain, pushing us to believe in new possibilities. His songs are a conduit for joy, healing, and love. Just playing one of his songs can transform the energy of any person, room, or experience. That?s how much of a spiritual warrior Stevie is.

On today?s walk, we will dive into the magical story of his life and the making of his masterpieces. We will learn how God talked to him and guided him each step of the way. We will learn how he was willing to walk away from it all, at the height of his career, to serve the higher calling that God placed in him. And we walk down memory lane, remembering all the ways in which Stevie?s music has personally influenced our lives.

This is going to a be pavement party like no other. Put your good headphones on. Turn the volume all the way up. It?s going to the livest walk and talk, yet!


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

As - Stevie Wonder:
https://open.spotify.com/track/13toFl1UwJPsRxDiD9jgtn?si=ibDE4drsTzSsZ13oPGlg_w

Stevie Wonder - "Falling in Love with Jesus" Gospel at church 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6k-02RUP-c

Isn't She Lovely - Stevie Wonder:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6RANU8AS5ICU5PEHh8BYtH?si=17PzvFbTRkSaqk7MnlTNXA

Our lives are boundless. I know it.

I pray that we break free of the bondage of limiting thoughts.  And dream of all possibilities ...of our highest callings.  Divine assignments.  Wildest, most audacious dreams.

"I'm calling you higher.  There is more that I require of thee. Will your heart and soul say yes?  I'm calling you out of your dry places. Come on up a little higher. I predestined you before the world began.  Will your heart and soul say yes?"

(Such a powerful song and 14-minute morning meditation by Shekinah Glory.)


Spiritual Warrior of the Day:

Richard Allen said yes.

?The bands of bondage were so strong that no way appeared for my release: yet at times a hope arose in my heart that a way would open for it.?

Even as an enslaved man, he said yes.

He worked tirelessly, paid the price for his own freedom, bought land for his dream, and in 1794, built the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). It would become the first independent black denomination in the United States. He didn't stop there.  He founded The Free Africa Society, protested the use of slave labor, radically organized Black dollars, taught literacy, and organized politically. He is our "Founding Father" and today we honor his life.

About the calling on his life, Richard Allen said this.

"I didn't accept it. I received it."

It's time to say yes y'all.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

It Has Been Established - Jekalyn Carr:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3Om76ekpJXUUbGLBB1Sj5F?si=HmwpaGq5TwaDKbYFhUpVGQ

Draw Me Close/Thy Will Be Done - Marvin Winans:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6nwCQqMyCjeYVtByOtkZq1?si=91jS4bDCSvy2a5rnRep50w

Prophecy
I sing of a new American
Separate from all others,
Yet enlarged and diminished by all others.
I am the child of kings and serfs, freemen and slaves,
Having neither superiors nor inferiors,
Progeny of all colors, all cultures, all systems, all beliefs.
I have been enslaved, yet my spirit is unbound.
I have been cast aside, but I sparkle in the darkness.
I have been slain but live on in the river of history.
I seek no conquest, no wealth, no power, no revenge:
I seek only discovery
Of the illimitable heights and depths of my own being.
- The Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray
 
Spiritual Warrior of the Day:

This is the story of Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray, she was the #daughterof Cornelia, who was the #daughterof Harriet, an enslaved woman who was forced to bear children with her owner. This is the story of what would not die and what could not be stolen ? our mother?s hopes and dreams for our lives. This is the story of the Black woman in America.

The Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray lived one of the most remarkable lives of the twentieth century. She was a civil rights activist, a pioneering feminist, a labor organizer, a lawyer, and an Episcopal priest. Her legal arguments and interpretation of the Constitution helped to dramatically change the laws of this country Her steadfast and fearless pursuit of justice led her to break down gender and racial barriers across the land. We are indebted to Pauli Murray for her unwavering devotion to her people, for her bravery, and for the personal sacrifices that she had to make along the way. It is our privilege to talk about her life story on today's walk and to honor her legacy through a walking worship.

We do it today in honor of Cornelia and Harriet because they endured so Pauli could live. And in honor of our grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers who did the same.

Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

The Best In Me - Marvin Sappr:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1B5NWdLAt8GC4WKTPUCrLM?si=207hYhMRS6ePEjbIfOIrbg

Up Where We Belong - Bebe & Cece Winans:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6hjuzceBTUL1kv5H6Uw2Th?si=4LCL92eHTtG5JC1b9HLviA

I listened to John Coltrane all night ...and woke up singing the old gospel song, "I Hasten to His Throne."  I didn't fully understand the connection until now. Isn't that what this is all about?  Hastening to what is greater?

Spiritual Warriors of the Day:

For John Coltrane, it was at his lowest moment, in a cold fight against heroin, on his bedroom floor, he experienced God's Love.  From that moment, he dedicated his life to a fervent practice of spiritual awakening.  And because God is good, this awakening came with a spiritual guide from Detroit, a woman named Alice.  Together, they created A Love Supreme.  More than a ground-breaking album, it was an ethos.  A dissertation on love.  They improvised connecting with God day after day.  She once meditated continually for weeks. It was this devotion and discipline that gave the world one of the purest languages of love imaginable. 

Love, for them, was not a falling.  No.  It was a practice.  A habit.  A discipline. A lifestyle.  Maybe even a religion.  It was a love note on the kitchen table kind of love.  A harp for Christmas kind of love.  Four babies in four years kind of love. Be still and hear God speak kind of love.  And when John was in deep, delivering his 4-part musical masterpiece, Alice was meditating, raising the boys and beaming with anticipation.  She said, "Before I even met John, there was something in me that knew there was a divine connection - there were things that he said to me, they weren?t spoken with the human voice."

The Coltranes lived with edgelessness. They were expensive. Their music, healing.  In one of the most beautiful articles I've ever read, Carvell Wallace said that John gave the soul a place to sing. He writes, "There is something about a saint that makes it safe for all of us to get lost in the swell of being human."  And in a brilliant story for NPR, Sydnee Monday called Alice's music "spiritual preservation." She became the matriarch of Black meditation. Her transcendental music helped millions of us find enlightenment.  And he is arguably the greatest musician to ever live.  Together, they transformed the world.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

I Love The Lord - Whitney Houston ft. Georgia Mass Choir:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2xrXUa8o1JJtz8nobY2UsY?si=xodi35yOSgyQubts4kqSOA

A Love Supreme, Pt. I Acknowledgement - John Coltrane:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0CLbmkYmQIWiEwnsbOkLpd?si=Ur4Bfxm8RR2ruZKT2Dk0ug

Precious Lord, take my hand. Be with me this week as I walk in my purpose. Show me where I?ve lost expectancy. Deal with the places in my life where I?ve settled, gotten off track, or completely lost my way. Help me to trust your promises. Teach me to walk with wisdom and discernment. I am an heir. Teach me to act like one, pray like one, and believe like one. Give me holy gumption. Give me the presence of mind to be a witness through all of my words and actions. Let me never be blinded by the limitations of my physical circumstances. Help me to see beyond. Put a song in my heart as I walk through the day, welcoming and receiving with open arms the goodness that I know you have in store for me.
 
Spiritual Warrior of the Day:

?There is no music like that music, no drama like the drama of the saints rejoicing, the sinners moaning, the tambourines racing, and all those voices coming together and crying holy unto the Lord. I have never seen anything to equal the fire and excitement that sometimes without warning, fills a church, causing the church ? to rock. ? James Baldwin

This is a story about the father of gospel music. This is a story about a man who carried the rhythm and blues of southern pain all the way north to Chicago and combined it with the scripture of God to create a new sound that would express the joys and sorrows, hopes and despairs, and most of all - the collective faith -  of Black people.

This is a celebration of the spiritual warrior, Thomas Dorsey.

Thomas Dorsey introduced the world to a new genre of music that would forever play as the soundtrack to the worship experience of Black people. His legendary life included authoring one of the most celebrated songs in the history of music, Precious Lord, written after losing both his wife and newborn son during childbirth. In that dark moment, this man called out to God in anger and God answered back, pouring into him a love song that would forever soothe the world.

That?s how powerfully God can transform your pain into purpose. Today?s walk will be a timely reminder for anyone who had forgotten. You might be in your darkest hour right now, but Thomas Dorsey?s story teaches us to keep holding on. There is life after death and in each day, always, a possibility of goodness.

Come get everything that you need today. We will be on the virtual sidewalk ready to walk and talk it all out.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

He Brought Us - Delois Barrett Campbell and the Barrett Sisters:
https://open.spotify.com/track/03xqTwXIQ8l1dhFK9GmbUQ?si=KJ-g77Y0R12H1L915ExerQ

Precious Lord - Thomas A Dorsey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlmCflPD2s8

Precious Lord - Aretha Franklin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpFq9gxBxhk

You have to see yourself winning.

Everybody's got that cousin... a cousin who is funnier than Eddie Murphy, one who can jump higher than Michael Jordan or that one who - with just a little coaching and education - could be the next Obama. Let?s agree to agree, we're blessed. Genius abounds at Black family reunions.

So, when I look at Jesse Owens, it cracks me up because he looks like everybody?s cousin who can run fast. Jesse Owens was ours.  He was familiar. He was our chance to prove it. Settle the score. Win. He was the punchline to the joke of injustice. He was our graceful entrance.  And our ?Hi Haters!? Jesse-Owens-was-redemption. 

And, like so many of us who fight poverty, generational trauma, and thick-thick racism, Hitler didn't have anything for Jesse Owens - because he could already see victory before the race even began.  Call it survival.  Call it evolution.  What the enemy planned for his downfall became the greatest victory of his life.  Cue Koryn Hawthorne.  Won't He Do it!

Spiritual Warrior of the Day

In 1939, Jesse Owens was the most famous man on the planet.  He "single-handedly crushed Hitler's myth of Aryan superiority" by pushing the limits of human capability and smashing world records. 

But today, we won't talk about gold medals.  No. Instead, we will explore three very-real moral dilemmas in Owens' life that just may help us out in 2020.  His life was complex. Rich with irony.  Hard fought and often misguided. Scrappy. Not always honorable. 

And yet, we celebrate him - as a spiritual warrior - because he stayed in the race until the day he died.  Through decades of shifting definitions of Blackness, he kept his eyes on doing his personal best.  And for that, we draw a gritty brand of inspiration.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Won't He Do It - Koryn Hawthorne:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5Vr9WTLcbpKRkQGvVen13W?si=0sJUEo3uQlm7brR-628xlw

Soldiers In The Army - Rev. James Cleveland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnudHcR_34M&feature=youtu.be

We're Blessed - Fred Hammond:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0ZD5LFsk2PMHicGH8MWRN8?si=ZKc8cUMiS6WesytoRpTo6Q

On the night that Gwendolyn Brooks learned that she would become the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, she was sitting in her living room on the Southside of Chicago with her nine-year-old son in the dark because the light bill hadn't been paid. By morning word had spread. A 32-year-old Black girl genius had secured the highest literary award in the land. Reporters descended on Gwendolyn's home and as they came, she sat petrified, not wanting to reveal to the journalist and cameramen that they would have no place to plug in their equipment.
 
But God!
 
When one of them came into the house and flipped on the switch without her knowing. The lights came on. Someone had gone down to the light company and paid the bill.
 
Somebody out there today needs this exact story.
 
Somebody needs to be reminded that its darkest right before dawn.
 
Somebody needs to be reminded that there is still hope all around us.
 
?We are each other's harvest;
we are each other's business;
we are each other's magnitude and bond.?

Today?s walk is a story of celebration. Of what survived. A reminder that we are the #daughtersof praying Black women and that their prayers are what keeps the lights on.

Through Gwendolyn?s story we will discover the stories of our great-great-grandmothers, women who fled the terrors of the Jim Crow South, with nothing but the traditions, faiths, and beliefs of their mamas, packed in their suitcases.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

God's Got a Blessing (with My Name on It!) - Norman Hutchins:
https://open.spotify.com/track/208coS3K4leplVIBvrY6Pu?si=l1DCCZP-QLyYpHAV0LhpQg

Prayer Will Fix It For You - LaShun Pace:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5Li3n4gKfeQ5KKWggmUpom?si=bf-p4MmZRdSwuMFO8FUN3A

"When I try to describe myself to God I say, 'Lord, remember me? Black? Female? Six-foot tall? The writer?' And I almost always get God's attention."

God gave Maya Angelou more than attention. God gave her a voice - a voice to break the silence, to sing calypso, to demand justice, to define excellence, to announce our peoples' rising up -- as a phenom.  Her voice blanketed an entire generation of Black girls with love.  ...and her boundlessness whispered into every girl's imagination. And for that, we thank God.

Spiritual Warrior of the Day:

Dr. Angelou's story is brilliantly blazed in the psyche of every Black woman.  Trust-you-me, we know about Stamps, Arkansas.  We know about her mother and her Momma.   We know the intimate truths of her darkest days.  And we watched her phoenix rise.  Her love affairs and protests created a rhythm for all of us to strut. And her lilts of "sister" gave us a daily doctrine for spiritual warriorship.  Maya Angelou is everyone's foremother and she commands us all to embody 1 Corinthians 16:14.  ?Do everything in love." 

Today, we honor The People's Poet.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Optimistic - Sounds of Blackness:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7Mb7jOst43wPQELas93ARE?si=9jnGA_5STCG2An2Q7ZpMtg

Maya Angelou "Love Liberates" Courtesy of OWN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Gv7PwyeCk&feature=youtu.be

Dr. Maya Angelou on the Power of Words | Oprah's Master Class | OWN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKv65MdlV-c

Dr. Maya Angelou Recites Her Poem "Phenomenal Woman" | SuperSoul Sunday | OWN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeFfhH83_RE&feature=youtu.be

Maya Angelou on the Noble Story of Black Womanhood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4MucoOQz0c&feature=youtu.be

I Hope You Dance - LeeAnn Womack:
https://open.spotify.com/track/65B1tEOv5W294uCKbmEcFV?si=6TMqL9WWQ6SJYy2RHNKFmg

?I was missing something
something so important
something promised
a laying on of hands
fingers near my forehead
strong
cool
moving
making me whole
sense pure
all the gods coming into me
laying me open to myself
I was missing something
something promised
something free
a laying on of hands
I know bout/laying on bodies/laying outta man
bringing him all of my fleshy self & some of my pleasure
being taken full eager wet like I get sometimes
I was missing something
a laying on of hands
not a man
laying on
not my mama/holding me tight/saying
I?m always gonna be her girl
not a laying on of bosom and womb
a laying on of hands
the holiness of myself released

I sat up one nite walking a boarding house
screaming/crying/the ghost of another woman
who was missing what I was missing
I wanted to jump up outta my bones
& be done with myself
leave me alone
& go on in the wind
it was too much
I fell into a numbness
til the only tree I could see
took me up in her branches
held me in the breeze
made me dawn dew
that chill at daybreak
the sun wrapped me up swinging rose light everywhere
the sky laid over me like a million men
I was cold/I was burning up/a child
& endlessly weaving garments for the moon
with my tears
I found god in myself
& I loved her/I loved her fiercely?
 
 
Spiritual Warrior

Ntozake Shange.

She invited us to find God in ourselves. She ushered entire generations of Black women into liberation. She wrote for those of us who didn?t yet exist. ?So, we could have something here when we arrived.? That something was a vision for our lives that was bigger than our trauma. A vision that stitched together the words that had been snatched from our grandmothers? tongues. She brought them back to life with vivid colorful detail and pain searing truth that forced the world to look our humanity in the face. Through her words, she said all the things that needed to be said. She wrote a Pslam and sang a Black girl blues. She resurrected the weary souls of Black women by breathing holy life into them, one stanza at a time and for this, we celebrate Ntozake Shange as the Patron Saint of Black Girl Healing. Thank you for serving us with such fierceness, dear sister. Today we tell your story. Let each step on today?s walk bring forth more of your powerful works into this world.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

I Am Light - India Arie:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6XgtZdXJN7R9Myu80BGebR?si=PGjMQ99pRXarW-70Gc_8SA

A Laying On Of Hands (I Found God In Myself):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0ksLhou1mg&feature=youtu.be

What if you stopped performing?  What would that look like?  What would it feel like? ...to live your creed, to walk your walk, to sing your song - not for others, not for their applause or approval. Not to avoid pain or earn love - but because you were following your bliss.  What if you stopped performing and started living?  On deep purpose? With integrity.  Joy.  Who would stop loving you? What exactly would change?

The greatest privilege of this lifetime is being exactly who you are. 

So inhale... say "I am here."  Exhale...."Joy is here."

Spiritual Warrior of the Day:

Tina Turner's life defines the hero's journey and we will talk all about it on today's call. But the most heart-wrenching scene in What's Love Got to Do with It had nothing to do with Ike. No. The single, most heart-wrenching scene happened just after Tina Turner chose to die.  She took a lethal dose of pills. Then it happened.  Something too familiar.  Even in her darkest moment, she rallied herself to perform.  It was at that moment.  When she was tracing a heavy eyeliner and lost control - that we saw ourselves.  Even as we are dying inside, we are showing up, putting on face. We are standing at the ready to serve, give, earn, rally, stoke, protect, soothe, nurture, build, and love.  For so many of us, our attachment to needing to feel loved is the source of our suffering.  For Tina Turner, it nearly took her life.

And then it happened. "Namu My?h? Renge Ky? ...Namu My?h? Renge Ky? ....Namu My?h? Renge Ky?ooo." She decided to rally for herself.  For her life!  This is the Lotus Sutra.  Perfect because like the lotus flower, born out of the darkest scum of a pond, we have the power to transform our own lives into pure brilliance - every single moment.  What a privilege.  It is the greatest journey - and it starts with a single step toward what satisfies your soul.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Tina Turner - Proud Mary - Live Wembley:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2T5_seDNZE

Thich Nhat Hanh - Walking Meditation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdO1vZJgUu0

Tina Turner: Interview with Gayle King:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWHaONa1mWI

What's Love Got to Do with It - Tina Turner:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4kOfxxnW1ukZdsNbCKY9br?si=9VLaxChhRVWX_KQawC8X0A

 God give us a boldness that allows us to risk it all for the things we believe in. Let us walk with a spirit of courage. Let your love cast out the fear that has held us hostage for too long. Build our confidence so that in this season of reckoning, we can show up and do the good work that you have called us to do. Mighty is your name and mighty is the spirit that lives within us.

Spiritual Warrior of the Day:

Colin Kaepernick?s tattoos are a roadmap to his faith. On his right shoulder, Psalm 18:39, ?You armed me with strength for battle; you made my adversaries bow at my feet.?  On his left bicep, Psalm 27:3, ?Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.?  On his left upper arm, ?God will guide me.? And above his elbow, praying hands clasped with the proclamation, ?To God Be the Glory.?
 
In case you didn?t know, this is a man of faith. And a man with this much faith is someone who is willing to risk it all. For that, we celebrate and uplift our dear brother Colin Kaepernick. Fist in the air. Knee to the ground. The story that we?re going to tell you is far beyond anything you?ve heard about this man, his work, or the Black men he represents.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Shackles (Praise You) - Mary Mary:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7JKEA8xYDoFp4q0QBW2PGg?si=xGieY0edQW2Vt-f7gYLO8w

Zion (Zion is Calling) - Stephen Hurd:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0VrI2SmESlXMVlxdGk1Ver?si=umV5TDXQSkmfgAKs7FQ6Jw

Let Your Power Fall - James Fortune, Zacardi Cortez:
https://open.spotify.com/track/065WC0FgiI4zX3VkpqCpDF?si=S2_X8yAVRzS-nCBpRZW9OQ

?For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.? - 2 Timothy 1:7

I saw a beautiful photo story about Diamond. The artist said that cinema has to do a better job showing the tenderness of Black lives. I thought about it and remembered the single best moment in cinematic history is when Denzel Washington looked wickedness in the face, flexed his back, and braced his heart for an act of terrorism. You remember.  His "ally", Matthew Broderick, ordered the use of violence to inject fear into the heart of this free Black man. Denzel resisted. And with a single tear of defiance, he became fearless. Fear is the greatest tool of white supremacy. So today, we honor a real spiritual warrior. A woman named Diamond Reynolds, who refused to be paralyzed by fear and found a way to speak.

Spiritual Warrior of the Day:

On July 6, 2016, Diamond Reynolds watched the murder of her boyfriend Philando Castille. The officer's gun was still drawn. Pointing in the car at her and her 4-year-old daughter. At that moment, Diamond got snatched up by a spirit of love and became fearless. She pressed record to tell the world what was happening to her family. It was an act of raw and radical love.

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear." - 1 John 4:18

Once it was over, Diamond folded into soft tears.  Unafraid, once again to show us a Black woman. Vulnerable. Real. Soft.

That is spiritual warriorship.

Do not give them your humanity. Don't stop crying. Don't stop loving. In fact, love harder.  ...your children, your neighbors, your soul mates, your self, your God. Your love is perfect. Black women, don't fold into darkness. Your love is our light. Rock with it. Roll with it. Wail if you have to. Tell the world what is happening to us. Shout it out. Don't hold it in. 

That's what Diamond taught us. 

It's no wonder she calls herself Lavish Reynolds. She IS lavish. Thick with humanity. Thick with loving-kindness. Thick with inextinguishable joy. With radical vulnerability. With supreme love and light. And at point-blank range, fear could not win over her love.

Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Speak to My Heart - Donnie McClurkin:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3nAwU0F5Tb3wdeSa2mAMe5?si=DOFURVDgQIer2L35tkbJVg

Everlasting God - William Murphy:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3ypSY1hp9s6k1xzZ6OSCTH?si=Wk1Q72-uR0-O6zz0PiEilA

Diamond Reynolds | Iyanla: Fix My Life | OWN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INZ5VdRQ10s

"Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit."  - Proverbs 18: 21
 
Let today?s walk give you the courage that you need to say the hard things that need to be said. To whoever it needs to be said to. Even if it?s not popular. Even if no one believes you. Your truth is your truth. No more muted tongue. Let it be what it will be. No more pleading through pursed lips. Stand firm sisters. We have for generations kept secrets, swallowed lies, tolerated the intolerable for fear of what would come should we simply speak. Well, let the words come. Let them flow like the Jordan River. Spit fire with each syllable. Let the phrases burn down the walls that have caged you. Be free. Be healed. And then promise to never betray yourself with silence again.
 
Spiritual Warrior of the Day

Anita Faye Hill. Black woman genius. Law Professor. Born to a family of farmers in Oklahoma. The youngest of 13 children. What had she already endured before she decided, enough is enough? More than 30 years before the #MeToo movement broke through to the conscience of America, Anita Hill stood before an all-white, all-male Senate Judiciary Committee and the blaring lights of the world and spoke in graphic detail about the harassment that she had experienced in the workplace from Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas. The attacks against her character were scathing. The campaign mounted to discredit her used tactics from a playbook that has long been used to demean and diminish the experiences of Black women. But Anita Hill refused to whither. She stood tall and remained steadfast. She exhibited a level of conviction that could only come from a woman who grew up in Antioch Baptist Church, and who showed up on the first day of the trail with a personal bible in her hand that she brought from home. Oh, they thought it was going to be a game. They thought they would break her. But her calling was bigger than that moment and Anita Hill?s courage to speak her truth has inspired generations of new women to do the same.

Join us on today?s walk as we lean into the lessons that come from Anita?s story while praying to find our collective and individual voices.

#TrustBlackWomen
#BelieveBlackWomen


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Wade in the Water - Mavis Staples:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5xFHuLeUPXee8YEn1r8FDM?si=qtETHIa0TMGwXop0lN9N5g

Wholy Holy - Aretha Franklin:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3hwbKoXWK5eAdHsaCXpJhq?si=a-k8zWpgSqaZ2LNzD0XkQA

?And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.?  - Galatians 6:9

Someone right now is thinking about giving up. Don?t. Today?s walk is for you. A reminder that you may suffer many defeats, but you are not defeated. It?s time to trust that what is for you is already making its way to you. Walk in expectation. You have sowed, prayed, and waited and we?re here to tell you that victory is in sight. The type of victory that will have folks scratching their heads because they just couldn?t have imagined that it would be you who was chosen. But it will be. Your harvest season is here. Let?s get aggressive about collecting your bounty!

Spiritual Warrior of the Day:

Two unsuccessful campaigns. Two defeats. One in 2016 and one in 2018. A woman who lacked faith might have given up. But not Cori Bush. Her calling was too big. Her work - to bring justice to the streets of St. Louis in the wake of Michael Brown?s murder - too important for her to give up. So she didn?t! Instead, she rallied 2,000 volunteers, they went and knocked on 25,000 doors and made more than half a million phone calls, and this summer she did what no other Black woman in the state of Missouri has done, defeated the incumbent in a historic race for congress.

Today?s walk is for every Black girl who was ever counted out. This is history in the making. The story of Cori Bush, an activist from St. Louis who battled back from homelessness, domestic violence, and sexual abuse to become one of the rising stars of the political arena. From Cori, we learn about the art of tenacity, about the divine timing of God's blessings, and about the spirit of fearlessness that comes from walking in faith. Lace-up and lean in. This is going to be a beautiful conversation.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

I've Got the Victory LIVE - Ricky Dillard:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0UwI6BXZVlJRjqrZKMmLtk?si=2yLt0ce4SbSi1e5GhGtbpw

Draw Me Close/Thy Will Be Done - Marvin L. Winans:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6nwCQqMyCjeYVtByOtkZq1?si=l91DVlVqSGKQl22GfqoNlg

I need you to take a posture of total victory.
 
On July 9, 2016, a balmy morning in Baton Rouge, a 35-year-old nurse inspired the world.  Ieshia Evans had watched Alton Sterling?s murder on the news from her home in Philadelphia.  She?d never attended a protest before.  It didn?t matter.  Alton Sterling?s death came on the heels of the brutal murder of Philando Castille in front of his family.  She couldn?t sit by.  She packed her bags and traveled to Louisiana for a march for Black lives. 

With shoulders back, heart open, eyes to the horizon ? she stood in her fullness as an armed force in riot gear advanced to suppress the peaceful calls for life.  She stood her ground. Fearless.  With total equanimity.  And was arrested.  But before this powerful woman was arrested, photographer Jonathan Bachman captured a moment of pure equanimity, of fearlessness, and today, we celebrate Ieshia Evans as a spiritual muse.  We name her as first in a line of 21 spiritual warriors whose actions will guide our strategy for complete liberation.

 ?This is the work of God.  I am a vessel.? Ieshia said

It reminds me so much of David when Saul asked who will go and fight Goliath, the giant Philistine. Young David said, here am I, send me.  He said, I can take him. ?I have a history with God.?  Listen... I?m here to tell every Black woman reading this today that YOU have a history with God. 


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

I Shall Not be Moved - Mississippi John Hurt:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2Vxj13uC6lBOUqsebW73eJ?si=AgVOhGzJQruStYj3DoMf4g

Barley - Lizz Wright:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6sKKaLDc0SGoFSesS1WWD3?si=G3L4hXsdQF63xugSBkdugA

CBS This Morning Interview - Gayle King interviews Ieshia Evans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFC6l0DjDF0

We need a ram in the bush. We need you.

For 21-days we will tell the stories of women who, out of the necessity of living in a world where Black women matter least, found ways to conjure up joy, shape lives full of purpose, and resist the forces of oppression.

These are the Black women leaders that the world needs to know about. These are the stories that will give hope and light the way in these dark times. These are the stories that need to be sowed into the memory banks of our baby girls and taught in classrooms in every school in America. These are the stories that will remind us that we were built for a time such as this. And this is the moment. The moment where we can, through the prayers of a million Black women, transform our communities. If only...

If only we could reach the masses. And Sisters, when I tell you we have tried.

The entire GirlTrek team has laid it all on the line in order to reach our goal of inspiring 200,000 people to commit to joining us on a walk each day for the next 21 days. As of today, family, the numbers say we have failed. The numbers say we?re nearly 60,000 women away from our goal. The numbers say this situation is dead. BUT OUR FAITH!

Baby, our faith tells us that there can be a ram in the bush. Our faith tells us God always supplies when he calls, and he called us to lead Black women on a journey towards healing. Our faith tells us that when it appears that the calling is above our ability, when it seems that the vision just wasn?t clear, to go ahead and lift our eyes and look for the ram.

Well! We?re looking to you!

Today, we?re calling every foot soldier in the army of the Lord and asking you to report to duty because you?re our ram and we need you. Today?s walk is for our sisters, the ones who are still waiting on the sidelines. The ones who you know need this the most. We?re about to set a plan for mass healing today and we?re going to pray a prayer of possibility together as we walk. 


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

For Every Mountain LIVE - Kurt Carr & the Kurt Carr Singers:
https://open.spotify.com/track/65EZDZlR31JQZihfpBHADq?si=F8s8_exLRryPhGvVcDtpvA

A Great Work - Brian Courtney Wilson:
https://open.spotify.com/track/54PHTV8sTaZqYDLsLAmLDG?si=9xPVhJDtSTSd2Tt-3tOsaw

Welcome to Bootcamp 3.0. The remix. The Prayer Edition. The "we will win." The "way out of no way."  The blessed oil. The Amen and the Ashe. The Black girls' guide to spiritual jujitsu.  The stress protest and all-out street revival to heal our bodies and take back our territory. My soul says yes!

Listen...

My mama, your mama, her mama, their mamas.  Somebody prayed for you. Somebody rebuked the enemy that came to kill, steal and destroy.  Somebody established a shield, laid a fence.  Somebody hummed hope into your nights of despair. Somebody danced through the fire and did not get burned. I know because you are here.  We are here,  Saying thank you to the men and women who sacrificed so that we can be free.

So mount up.  It's time for the saints to fight for Black lives.

This month, we pray to get our spirits right.  Then, we vote for justice. Then we heal -  a million of us - and unleash the energy, the genius, muscle, and miracle of absolute transformation across not only Black families and communities, but across the entire planet.  We will shift the atmosphere.

There is power here. 

Right now. 

Breathe in.  Are you ready?

Breathe out. Let's do this.


Join GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.


Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Ella's Song - Sweet Honey in the Rock:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0MTTqcQmbLW94gMLYMl95k?si=KMX4bzgtSlWK8c9pF6Gpww

You Will Win - Jekalyn Carr:
https://open.spotify.com/track/62gD4WCIMv2GxGnyIM7WWi?si=nFl-6zbaRbuczC34i_0QSQ

Something powerful. Energetic. A seismic shift in consciousness. While the world unraveled around us, we walked and trained like an army. Studying the 21 most powerful acts of Black resistance. And in that discipline, something was fortified inside each and every one of us. In the words the great Chadwick Boseman, who transitioned to be with the ancestors this weekend: ?When God has something for you, it doesn?t matter who stands against it. God will move someone that?s holding you back away from the door and put someone there who will open it for you, if it?s meant for you. I don?t know what your future is, but if you are willing to take the harder way, the more complicated one, the one with more failures at first than successes, the one that has ultimately proven to have more meaning, more victory, more glory then you will not regret it. Now, this is your time. The light of new realizations shines on you today.?
 
Today, as our final story and act of resistance, we will walk together and talk about the story and future of GirlTrek. We will welcome our newest vanguard of 100,000+ Black women who just completed training and tell them what?s next. We will celebrate our sisters and brothers who are in the struggle now and talk about how our movement can support their work directly. We will walk together in silence, as a moment of silence for all of our fallen heroes including our brother Chadwick. And on this powerful walk together, we will visualize the potential in our own lives and assess what is required of our bodies, our minds, and our spirits as we make manifest a real Wakanda.


if you haven't completed your bootcamp journey yet, it?s okay ?it?s not too late! You can join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at any time. Sign up at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Beyonce - Welcome Homecoming Live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zya5a3xBcA0

Richie Havens - Here Comes The Sun:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0hhzJEusz6r7f0eL1Uc8kw?si=divTDZ44QMa4DPeBWMIdmA

Beyonce - Before I Let Go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8305npLmIbE

August 28, 1833: Slavery was abolished in the UK.
 
August 28, 1955: 14-year-old Emmitt Till was murdered.
 
August 28, 1963: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his iconic I Have a Dream Speech.

August 28, 2005: Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana.

August 28, 2008: Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president, becoming the first black man to ever win the nomination and bid for the presidency.

There?s something in the air. Can you feel it? There is a strong current of resilient resolve that has taken up residence in the hearts and minds of Black folks who understand, we?re not going backward from here. It?s revolution or bust. That feeling has become especially strong this August and we?re here to tell you, it?s not a coincidence. No, our ancestors are intentional people and they are calling us to examine the alchemy of this month in order to learn what is still possible. Which, in a month that brought us the Haitian Revolution, Nat Turner?s Rebellion, the March on Washington, the Watts Uprising and the births of Marcus Garvey and Fred Hampton, must be a lot.

Today?s conversation will be a celebration of this phenomenon called Black August. We will start with the story of fallen freedom fighter George Jackson and will come full circle to the moment of now.

Whether you are looking to join the rebellion in the streets, or have your own personal revolution, this is a conversation that you don?t want to miss.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Public Enemy - Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM5_6js19eM

Beanie Sigel - Feel it in the Air:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4rICUbwZZuqUOcgQgtux2k?si=4hmtbDraTyGhfL_BOBYl-A

Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker The Berry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdPtVZDspIY

The artist's role is to raise the consciousness of the people. To make them understand life, the world and themselves more completely. That's how I see it. Otherwise, I don't know why you do it. - Amiri Baraka

One month after Malcolm X's assassination in February 1965, the highly respected writer LeRoi Jones, who would later become known as Amiri Baraka ? a man often described as polarizing and controversial - moved from Manhattan's Lower East Side where he had been living and working as a celebrated poet amongst an integrated crowd of artist and innovators, to Harlem. In Harlem, he intended to create a movement that would produce more politically engaged art that would awaken the Black consciousness and help secure Black liberation.

This movement, known as the Black Arts Movement, quickly spread to cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Oakland. It galvanized a group of young Black artists who would rise up to challenge the power structures in this country, armed with nothing more than a pen, paper, paint, ideas, and enough words to start a revolution.

Often referred to as the spiritual sister of the Black Power Movement, this was art by artists who saw Black people as beautiful, whole, and powerful. These cultural nationalists called for the creation of poetry, books, visual art, and theater that was rooted in Black pride.

They gave us language when we didn?t have any and told the truth when we couldn?t.

?You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt but still like dust I?ll rise.?  - Maya Angelou

When our hearts were breaking. They spoke for us.

?I gather up / each sound / you left behind / and stretch them / on our bed. / each night / I breathe you / and become high.? - Sonia Sanchez

Their words are like lamp posts, guiding us back to shore.

?Then I awoke and dug, that if I dreamed natural dreams of being a natural woman doing what a woman does when she?s natural, I would have a revolution.?  - Nikki Giovanni

Today?s call will be a celebration of our heroes, Maya, Sonia, Nikki, Gwendolyn, and June. It will be a tribute to Brother Amiri Baraka, for he had the vision and the courage to say the hard things, the real things, the unpopular things and to do it all for the love of his people.

Lace-up. Tune in. You don?t want to miss this.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the poems and music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Def Poetry - Amiri Baraka - Why is We Americans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ziRjhAgTO8&t=3s

Maya Angelou - Still I Rise:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2bWsGK2sfee5PAJUHbf6YK?si=p3T71SJ2ThWSs-JOQHejfg

"Oh Captain, My Captain."

Remember The Dead Poets Society?  The movie with Robin Williams?  He took his students into the hallway to study vintage photos of long-gone students.  "Can you hear them talking to you?", he asked. "If you lean in real close, and listen, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you.  Seize the day! Make your lives extraordinary."  Well, that movie was awesome, but it was white as hell and this is Black History Bootcamp so this is what we want you to do. Look at the faces of The Harlem Hellfighters.  Study them. Know that these Black men are the reason Germany surrendered.

They earned their name, The Harlem Hellfighters, by spending an unthinkable 191 days in all-out trench warfare.  On the frontlines longer than any other American unit of World War I.   They toured for over six months, the longest deployment of any and they - the 369th Regiment of Black men - made up less than 1% of the soldiers deployed yet they protected 20% of the territory assigned to the United States. And they lost more of their brothers - 1,500 lives - more than any other American regiment.  And America used them as human decoys to defeat the Germans. 

When they came home, America treated them with disdain, disrespect, like second-class citizens.  Didn't want them too proud.  They might disrupt Jim Crow.  And America refused to honor the greatest hero of the entire war, Henry Johnson (although the French gave him their highest medal of honor).  So America, we won't ask for your respect.  No.  Not then, not now. We gave these heroes our own parade in Harlem on February 17, 1919. ...Welcome, home heroes.

Please think of them. And think of all who fought with valor - Crispus Attucks, The 54th Regiment, The Buffalo Soldiers, The Tuskegee Airmen, Vietnam Veterans -  all of the men and women who in the armed forces today.  Think about the frontline soldiers in our communities.  The mail carriers and sanitation workers, essential Black people whose labor is the spine of American democracy.  Think of Jacob Blake, a man who had to show up for his community this week to settle a dispute because the police are not safe to call.

And to all the men and women who fought to protect it, we make these solemn promises. We will never develop an appetite for war - because war is hell. Instead, we will thirst for PEACE, build moments to LOVE, and light fires of JUSTICE.  We will honor the flag you defended by taking a knee anytime this country forgets the value of Black lives.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

The Dramatics - Get Up and Get Down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZfMpbcI1NQ

Brian Courtney Wilson - Worth Fighting For (Live):
https://open.spotify.com/track/51fegUPIH02heRh9fkkLwE?si=2Eow_7TTQyeuFC4z2JBv4Q

Walking has always been used as a tool for social change. In early June of 1966 James Meredith, who had become the first Black man to attend the University of Mississippi, set out to walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, a distance of more than 200 miles, to promote Black voter registration and protest ongoing discrimination in the south. But James Meredith would never reach his destination.

On the second day of his journey, a white man tracked him down on a dirt road in Mississippi and shot him several times.

What that white terrorist didn?t know is that you can try and kill the revolutionary, but you can not kill the revolution.

Not only would James Meredith?s March Against Fear continue without him, but it would enrage and embolden a young, brilliant activist by the name of Stokely Carmichael, who after being arrested following the march, left the jailhouse and let out what would become an iconic cry for BLACK POWER.

Stokely Carmichael saw the writing on the wall. A young, brilliant organizer, who had worked closely alongside Dr. King and who was leading the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) shifted his focus from appealing to the moral center of a country that he said demonstrated it had ?no conscious? to a radical liberation agenda for Black people. And we?re talking an agenda so radical that even the Black Panthers eventually couldn?t hang.

Stokely Carmichael was the living, breathing example of speaking truth to power. He was an organizer who was involved in almost every major demonstration and event that occurred in the US in the early ?60s. His legacy can be seen today in the faces of marchers who chant with fire in their bellies ?defund the police,? and across the diaspora in the movement for Pan-Africanism.

This man, who would eventually be reborn as Kwame Toure, and who Rosa Parks once said could, ''stroll through Dixie in broad daylight using the Confederate flag for a handkerchief," PUT ON for his people.
And for this sacrifice, we celebrate this freedom fighter with a major Black Power salute and a conversation that will breakdown his illustrious life.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Brand Nubian - Wake Up (Reprise in the Sunrise):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJeDHYsNkHI

What's in a Name? ft. Kwame Ture (1989):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGcl359SMxE&t=2s

...one little sentence tells us all we need to know about this man.  In a letter, his sister said this..."If they had not killed Cris, Cris would have killed them."

Don't you ever get it twisted.  Crispus Attucks started The American Revolution. And today's conversation is about his murder. 

This convo could not be more relevant.  The Boston massacre was a hot-sticky mess of 10,000 soldiers patrolling the colonies with impunity.  When the British tried to tax the people to pay for those soldiers, all-hell broke loose.  An over-armed police force against civilians. People like Paul Revere, Sam Adams, John Hancock, and every powdered wig we now celebrate as patriots were against the British armed forces.  They called themselves 'The Sons of Liberty" ...and yet, the first man to die in the name of said liberty was a Black man named Cris Attucks. He was not a casualty.  He was the leader of the rebellion.  This, my friends, was the start of your America. (In my Rasta voice, "Bullet, buullet!")

Here's how it all happened.  One day at the barbershop...I kid you not, this is how the Boston Massacre starts... Let?s get into it.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

2pac - Ambitionz Az A Ridah (Clean):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWLljMr20MI&feature=youtu.be

Young Bleed, Master P, C-Loc,  Steady Mobb'n, King George, Gangsta T, Silkk The Shocker - How Ya Do Dat:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1KLhUURHRl72xGO5A94lme?si=hqc2QOSER06fDNVMVcBDpA

Today?s walk is dedicated to a political organizer, military strategist, and master of guerrilla warfare, the one and only Queen Nanny of Jamaica. A woman who guided her people through an intense period of fighting against the British.

From Queen Nanny, we learn the art of resistance. Get ready to take notes.

Queen Nanny was the military vision keeper and spiritual and cultural leader of the Windward Maroons. A community of resistors, who had escaped the brutality of enslavement on the British owned sugarcane plantations in Jamaica. Thought to be descendant from the Ashanti Tribe in Ghana, Queen Nanny was a fierce leader who helped the Maroons fight two guerrilla wars. These wars forced the British to recognize Jamaica's autonomy, establishing their freedom.

Queen Nanny baffled and infuriated her enemies. They couldn?t understand that the source of courage and fire came directly from her African ancestry, which she strategically kept alive through stories, music and customs within Nannytown, a village she established high in the Blue Mountains as a refuge for her people.

There?s so much to learn from Queen Nanny?s story. It doesn?t matter if your battle is happening in the valleys or the hills. If it?s personal or professional. It doesn?t matter if you?ve already been served a defeat. There is still a path to victory. Just let the ancient wisdom of Queen Nanny guide you to where you need to be.

It?s about to be a revolution in these streets on today?s walk.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Burning Spear - Queen of the Mountain Live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeTKvSf3Sa0

Spice - So Mi Like It:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8305npLmIbE

We are the #daughtersof Cécile Fatiman a Haitian Voodoo Priestess who literally conjured a revolution. Her warrior blood runs through our veins. Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers -  themselves root-workers and prayer warriors - were women who learned the art of spiritual warfare from women like Cécile. That?s why we are so excited to introduce her to you on day 14 of Black History Bootcamp.

On today?s walk, we?ll be talking about the Haitian Revolution and the gathering at Bois Caïman. This gathering, which took place on a hot summer night in August, was the site of the first major meeting of enslaved Blacks. During which, the first major slave insurrection of the Haitian Revolution was planned. And you know who presided over that meeting? That?s, right. Cécile.

The gathering at Bois Caïman was part religious ritual and part strategic planning meeting and it set in motion the events that would lead to Haiti becoming the world?s first independent Black Republic. A nation which, to this today, is being punished for daring to rise up and free themselves by force. We?re going to talk about this and about the powerful community of leaders and activists on the ground now continuing the good fight.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Toto Bissainthe - Dey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1DcPdMZs9s

Once upon a time, Wangari Maathai saved Planet Earth.
 
When people say they want to ?diversify? the environmental movement, I cough on the arrogance.  Black women, indigenous women, and women of color around the globe are saving the planet.  Like, right now.  Like this actual second.  Planting, cultivating, harvesting, carrying, selling, cooking, composting, turning over soil, and doing it again.  And no disrespect to the card-carrying climate change activists ? the Paris Agreement is essential ? but please understand that while you are carrying protest signs, millions of African women are carrying seeds and meticulously tied bundles of the harvest to markets (with no carbon footprint) where they will sell locally.  Those same women will cook into the night, and compost what?s left, to grow what is needed the next day to save their nations.

Today?s walk is dedicated to the legacy of Wangari Maathai for organizing women to plant 50 MILLION TREES to save Kenya from the brink of environmental devastation.  Her ?Green Belt Movement? changed the very air, the earth,  and the water of the continent of Africa forever. We are proud of that.  But we are prouder of how she did it. How she showed up in the quiet moments when no one was watching.  How she survived the Mau Mau Uprising.  How she protested to free political prisoners. How she summoned the courage to stand in the front of bulldozers and speak on camera with a bloodied face. Oh, and she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

But I guess she should?ve been at the climate march.

Join today?s conversation so that I can fix my attitude. Let?s breathe some fresh air, sing at the top of our lungs, and rally ourselves to all be a little more like Wangari.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music and speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Queen Latifah - U.N.I.T.Y.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8cHxydDb7o

Taking Root The Vision of Wangari Maathai:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5GX6JktJZg&feature=youtu.be

They killed him.  The official death report said natural causes but in a recent exhumation, his young body was riddled with bullet holes.
 
Thomas Sankara was a folk hero.  He championed the people over the powerful.  He encouraged newspapers to tell the truth and - in an act of solidarity during his presidency - sold off the government's fleet of Mercedes and made all ministers ride in the Renault 5, the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time.  They called him the African Che Guevara.
 
At 33-years-old, Sankara became the President of the Republic of Upper Volta. As a powerful first action, he changed the country?s colonial name ? which was The Republic of Upper Volta ? to an indigenous name - - Burkina Faso which means "Land of Incorruptible People".
 
And incorruptible was his goal.  He refused foreign aid.  ?He who feeds you, controls you.? He pushed African nations to collectively reject illegitimate debt from their colonizers.  He nationalized land and mineral wealth (which made the IMF and World Bank go bananas). And led a national campaign for self-sufficiency which included a literacy crusade, vaccinations of 2.5 million children, reforestation of the Sahal by planting 10 million trees, redistribution of land from feudal and tribal chiefs, community-built hospitals and schools, and women?s rights (outlawing female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy).  The country thrived.  (Burkina Faso is the 4th richest gold producer in Africa). 
 
When he was asked why he didn?t want his presidential portrait posted across Burkina Faso like other African leaders.  He said.  "There are seven million Thomas Sankaras."
 
Let?s walk, talk, and learn more about Sankara, an icon of revolution, as we meditate on our own blueprint for liberation and social justice.  What do we really need? What?s on our agenda in 2020.  And what can we learn from Burkina Faso today?  30 years later, they are in a state of crisis.  100,000 people are internally displaced by extreme poverty, climate change, and terrorism. How did that happen? Is there a way to organize without centering a charismatic leader? 


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music excepts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Fela Kuti - Zombie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj5x6pbJMyU

Bob Marley and the Wailers - War / No More Trouble
https://open.spotify.com/track/7esv0HaNOrjRWJgyxqJ4c1?si=D0LPou-fSlmvpg0gO4kPbg

?Go back to Africa?
 
They meant it as an insult. He meant it as a rallying cry.
 
Today?s walk and history lesson is dedicated to the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
 
Some might call him the original African giant. Black, proud, and preaching the gospel of self-determination, Marcus Garvey hailed from St. Ann?s Bay Jamaica. The youngest of 11 children, Garvey was a political activist and entrepreneur, who spent his life helping to define the Black Nationalist and Pan African Movements. His vision -  big and scary to those invested in the oppression of marginalized people throughout the world - was to unite African, and people of African descent, across the diaspora and allow us to develop our own cultural, political, and economic systems free from foreign domination and outside influence.
 
Now you know a vision this radical had to be met with opposition. Can we say FBI?
 
These are the stories they don?t want us to tell. They don?t want us to realize that there is already a blueprint for this work. That blueprint includes a vision laid out by Marcus Garvey at a gathering in Harlem in 1921 that included thousands of delegates from more than 22 countries. On today?s call, we?re going to talk about what went down that at this international convention and how Marcus Garvey?s work and legacy live on today.
 
Today marks 133 years since the birth of Marcus Garvey. Throw on some red, black, and green on top of that superhero blue and get ready to walk and talk with us as we celebrate and discuss his legacy. You KNOW this is going to be a good one.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music and speech excepts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Nas ft. Lauryn Hill - If I Ruled the World:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlp-IIG9ApU

Marcus Garvey, A Virtual Forum: 100th Anniversary of Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvBPLY9xJD0

A. Philip Randolph was arrested in the streets for treason.  He was a young man demanding rights for Black workers - or else.  W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington agreed on one thing.  They could not stand the "new radical negroes" like A. Philip Randolph!  He was a socialist.  A rabble-rouser.  A labor man.  They called him every name in the book.  Today, we call him the single, most impactful social, political, and economic activist in Black history.  Receipts you ask? 

You've got to listen to today's episode. 

But here's a little teaser. He unionized Black workers. Done. Leveraged that power to walk into the Oval Office and force President Roosevelt - by threat of mass demonstration - to desegregate the federal government and hire Black people, effective immediately!  Done.  Fair Employment Act.  Randolph won a million new jobs for Black people. The middle class was created. Done. Then, Randolph stood toe-to-toe with Truman and audaciously told him that Black people would NOT fight in his war unless he desegregated the military.  Truman hated Randolph.  Didn't matter.  Executive Order 9981 abolished segregation in the armed forces.  Done. Power ya'll.  (Press play on Nina Simone right here.) Then it happened.  The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  It was the largest political demonstration in American history.  A. Philip Randolph was the originator, strategist and chief spokesperson. The demonstration was intent on two demands from Kennedy, then Johnson. The Civil Rights Act of 1964.  The Voting Rights Act of 1965. He won both.

There would be no Martin Luther King without A. Philip Randolph.  While King raised the moral consciousness of a nation, Randolph secured the bag - a decisive political and economic defeat against American injustice.  It's no wonder a U.S. Attorney General called him "the most dangerous negro in America."  We'll be that.

This is gonna be a good conversation.  Before you dial in, look hard at these 5 photographs that only exist because A. Philip Randolph was born.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music and speech excerpts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

The Impressions - Keep On Pushing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU-mEsCk3D8

PBS Documentary Film about Randolph:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umQy6PRVVzQ&feature=youtu.be

An educator, writer, political campaigner, and activist. Today?s walk is dedicated to the bravery of Mary Church Terrell, a woman who played a central role in every major movement to advance the rights of Black people in this country, including suffrage, anti-lynching, and desegregation.
 
Coining the term, ?lifting while we climb?, Mary Church Terrell was one of the first Black women in the U.S. to earn a college degree and later went on to help found the NAACP and the National Association of Colored Women. Her resume alone would make her worthy of celebration, but it is her courageous defiance, put on display in two pivotal incidents ? including one where she faced-off with one of history?s favorite heroes, Susan B. Anthony, that will be the central focus of today?s conversation.

This is for every Black woman who has given up on intersectional feminism (because #tired), and for the ones who keep pushing to find common ground. We?ve got some stuff to talk about and a lot to learn from our foremother. A woman who was always willing to say the hard stuff, Mary Church Terrell.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Donna Summer - She Works Hard For The Money:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ZSKE38lTU

Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToE26b2JyNc

Can we talk about radical praise? Can we talk about transcendent faith?  A Spirit that stretched from Africa to a tiny street in Los Angelos, California. Do. Not. Miss. Today!  Take a praise break! I?m about to shout right now.  God, I thank you for your grace. Today's walk is dedicated to the unsung heroes of the Pentecostal Movement. 

...to actual spiritual warriors.

At the turn of the 20th century, America was at the height of lynching. Terror gripped Black homes. But they didn't run.  They grounded down - took to the woods - and prepared for spiritual battle.  Tent revivals, tarrying, drums, call and response. Hand clapping. Foot stomping. A revival of heart, mind, and body - night after night. A conjuring of justice. Gratitude for God?s Grace. Bigger. More connected. We chanted 2 Timothy 1:7. More power, more love.  You won't take our minds. It?s how we survived.  The fire reigned down. Healing. Protection. Insight. Divine peace. Ultimate resilience.  Harriet was born of that fire.  Fannie was born of that fire. King was born of that fire.  We are that fire.

Here?s what you need to know. The biggest religious movement in American history was started by Black people. It happened in 1906 in Los Angeles. On a tiny street named Azusa. The Pentecostal movement was born. Newspapers came out, took photographs, and debated publicly about people speaking in tongues and being overcome with spiritual fervor. What they didn?t know then but we understand now is this -  that fire wasn?t born on Azusa Street. It was born in Africa. God covered our babies when men with guns came to destroy.  We are only here today because of the prayers of our foremothers in the bellies of slave ships. Our dance was perfected in Congo Square. But it was on Azusa Street that Black people made public the spiritual inheritance of Africa that lit a fire across America.  We've always been directly connected to God. They called it Pentecostalism.

The Holy Ghost rained over this country in the fastest-growing religious movement in history.  A few important pioneers who believed that full sanctification or a supreme union with God on this earth was possible - being baptized in the Holy Ghost and filled with tongues - they believed that we ourselves could be Saints. In the beginning, it was intently and plainly called the Church of God to purposely shed all trappings of past religious distinction.  We are just God's church - that's it.  All are welcome. It evolved into what is now many beautiful denominations from COGIC to Apostolic.

Today?s walk is dedicated to all of the unsung heroes who rallied an army of spiritual warriors to intercede at the height of American terror.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Charles G Hayes & Warriors - Jesus Can Work It Out Remix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRoe3iExVjU

Kirk Franklin - Stomp (Remix):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JqBBpZvF4k

Today?s walk is dedicated to Nat Turner, the leader of the most famous slave uprising in the history of the United States.

Nat Turner believed in signs and heard divine voices. On a summer night in August 1831, following a solar eclipse, Nat Turner, a Black man who had been sold three times in his young life, decided to take his destiny into his own hands by leading one of the bloodiest insurrections the country has ever seen.
 
Some called him a villain, many others called him a hero. Today, we call him an ancestor and we honor his fight for freedom and seek true understanding from his story. We ask ourselves the hard question ? how far would we go in the fight for our own liberation?
 
Today?s conversation is for every person who has ever had a vision that you just could not shake. For every person who has ever stepped out on faith, despite fear crawling up your back. For those of us who believe that our steps are ordered and who are prepared to march into battle if called.
 
Everything that you think you know about this story will be challenged. There is so much to discuss and learn!


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Mali Music - I Believe :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onNPKbOn8uU

Sunday Service Choir - Ultralight Beam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTgzYv7LLmc

?Mr. Chairman... my name is Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, and I live at 626 East Lafayette Street, Ruleville, Mississippi, Sunflower County, the home of Senator James O. Eastland, and Senator Stennis. It was the 31st of August in 1962...?

And that?s how it began.

The most harrowing account of our hero being beaten in a jail cell by officers. Arrested for trying to vote. Her words so powerful, her eyes so honest and spirit so bright that the president of the United States of America, Lyndon B. Johnson, was terrified that she would so deeply move the nation in her national broadcast at the Democratic National Convention that he interrupted her testimony with a fake press conference.

But he couldn?t stop her. Listen, when God is for you, who can be against you. We already knew that Fannie came to play zero games when she brought her white purse to the front of the convention and sat it on the table. Black People: bring your full selves to this movement and you will be unstoppable.

No matter how you look, where you are, how you feel, you can do this. Join us today as we listen to the actual testimony together of one of the greatest in the game.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Casey J - If God / Nothing But The Blood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaS59ddVkao

Audio of Fannie Lou Hamer's Testimony:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML3WaEsCB98

Today?s walk is dedicated to Claudette Colvin and every Black woman who has ever felt invisible or who has ever been asked to labor on behalf of a movement that did not welcome or celebrate you. Thank you for your service and the way you show up for your people. Today you are seen and appreciated.
 
On March 2, 1955, Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old student, boarded a bus home from school and on that ride changed the course of history by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white woman. Her actions set in motion a critical legal battle. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his political debut fighting her arrest and Claudette became one of five plaintiffs in the first federal court case to challenge bus segregation in the city of Montgomery.
 
But this isn?t the story that history has told. It would be Rosa Parks whose name would ultimately go on record as the woman whose single act of courage inspired the most effective political and social protest campaign of the civil rights movement, The Montgomery Bus Boycotts. 
 
So why wasn?t 15-year-old Claudette Colvin given her proper due? The reasons will outrage you, but the story is necessary to tell. The lessons to be learned are critical if we ever want to build a world that truly makes space for Black girls and women to show up as we are. This is going to be a conversation that you don't want to miss! We will be serving up truth, a whole lotta love, and a little bit of justice. All in the name of our good and faithful sister, Claudette.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Chantay Savage - I Will Survive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMyCXqM8AKM

2005 Claudette Colvin and Dr. Marion Woods at the San Francisco Public Library:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNoCdzYpDgE&mc_cid=b79cda97c8&mc_eid=b187d8127e

ROOTS CHANGED EVERYTHING, PERIOD.

Today?s 30-minute walk is dedicated to the exact moment that millions of Black people held their breath, waiting...  "Your name is Toby! Now, what's your name boy?"  Beaten, drenched, but unbroken, he threw his head back and inhaled. We inhaled with him. "KUNTA.  KUNTA KENTE"

Roots changed everything. 

A generation of Black babies protested in their mama?s bellies refusing to be called a slave name.  If your name starts with a K or ends in -isha, -anya or -yonce, you're welcome. Cicely Tyson became the patron saint of the natural hair movement with her epic braid pattern. Maya Angelou became everybody?s griot grandmother. Lavar Burton went straight to teaching a nation to read. John Amos became my baby's daddy (and Florida Evan's baby daddy on Good Times).  Black was in. Swoon.

SO MANY juicy behind-the-scenes FACTS about this cultural phenomenon!  Did you know ABC tried to bury this movie!?

Roots became the most successful film franchise in television history. The mini-series was watched by 130 million viewers - more than half of the U.S population of 221 million in 1977. ?It was the largest viewership ever attracted by any type of television series in US history as tallied by Nielsen Media Research.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Arrested Development - People Everyday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGusP7aCCYc

The story behind the filming of "Roots" - TelevisionAcademy.com/Interviews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQw4qf2aG-Q&feature=youtu.be

Today?s 30-minute walk is dedicated to a living legend, the fearless Bree Newsome Bass.

On June 27, 2015, Bree Newsome committed one of the greatest acts of civil disobedience seen in our lifetime when she scaled the 30-foot flag pole on the grounds of the South Carolina State House and removed the confederate flag. Carried literally by the faith of her ancestors, who?d been enslaved in South Carolina. Bree, a woman of just 30 with no training, made the ascent of a lifetime.  She climbed up the flagpole in a defiant act of bravery and snatched down a flag that was raised as a symbol of protest against the civil rights movement and the fight for Black liberation.
 
The saying goes, ?If not us, who? If not now, when?? After nine Black members of Emanuel AME Church were massacred during bible study by a white supremacist, Bree Newsome said she realized that now was the time for courage and she never looked back.

There is so much to learn from this young Black warrior queen, who upon reaching the top of the flag pole yelled down to the police below saying,  ?You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today.?  That was some Miss Celie level, "until you do right by me," energy that unleashed a wave of justice that five years later is still reverberating across this country as monuments to the confederacy continue to fall.

Bree Newsome is about that life and we're going to get into it on today?s call! And by the end, you?ll be walking away with some strategies and ideas to not only help the revolution but to also start toppling the personal monuments in your own life. The monuments you have built to things and people that never served you and should no longer be allowed to take up space in your life.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpts played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Sheri Jones-Moffett - Encourage Yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAt2L7aeH1I

Bree Newsome: Charlottesville is Latest Chapter in Long U.S. History of White Supremacist Terror:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPSotUPQRsc

It happened on a Thursday.

February 18, 1965.  

The exact moment we fell in love with James Baldwin.

It wasn?t because he was a boy genius who spent every day at the library. It wasn't event his fiery church sermons as a teen or loving debates with Malcolm X as a young man. It was on this day, that he was propelled onto the world stage.  He was raw, nervous, authentic.  A Black man with vocabulary as arsenal, able to tag a full picture of our pain.  This was his opus.  His coming out as our Jimmy, our defender against bullies on the schoolyard.  Baldwin stood toe-to-toe with ?the father of conservatism,? segregationist William Buckley in the hallowed halls of Oxford under the glare of entitled white boys. By himself. With a cloak of our peoples' sorrow and swag flying from his tiny frame. He said, not today.  At that moment, he became our tragic hero - an outcast, small, gay, committed, way too smart for any neighborhood.  It was swoon-worthy.  And from there he went on a world tour of verbal lashing and protest speeches, articles, and books to demand the total liberation of Black people. 

Let?s go on a victory lap for this man?s life.


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Janelle Monáe - Tightrope:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnefUaKCbc

James Baldwin and Paul Weiss Debate Discrimination In America | The Dick Cavett Show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzH5IDnLaBA&feature=youtu.be

On the night of June 1, 1863, Harriet Tubman arrived on a ship in South Carolina with 150 men ready for battle. She was the first woman to led an armed military operation in the United States, and what happened in South Carolina that night would solidify Harriet Tubman as one of the greatest military strategists the world has ever seen. Known as the Combahee River Raid, what happened that evening changed the course of history and gives us a powerful example of what liberation can look like. Are you ready to dive in? The walk and talk is going to be fire! We will do Mama Harriet proud. You already know! #Weareharriet


Join the second edition of GirlTrek?s Black History Bootcamp at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories and explore the pivotal moments from some of the most powerful movements in Black history.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Mavis Staples - Wade In The Water:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmxGqqZf8gc

Erykah Badu - Soldier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4925nvQ3XfE

We did it! We just wrapped up #BlackHistoryBootcamp. It's been 21-days of life transforming lessons and walks courtesy of our foremothers. Over 100,000+ Black women and allies made a real change this month. 

Congratulations! Right now, all of the ancestors are standing together - cosmically cheering for you. So, let's celebrate. It's time to take a victory lap. Join us for a conversation full of our reflections and favorite moments.

And if you haven't completed your bootcamp journey yet, it?s okay ?it?s not too late! You can join the 21 Day Black History Bootcamp at any time. Sign up at  https://bit.ly/blackhistorybootcamp to receive specially curated emails with inspiring words, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each featured legendary Black woman.

Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:

Beyoncé BLACK PARADE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJT1m1ele00