Ep.62: On Humanity w/ Philosopher & Historian Professor Lewis R. Gordon; Poet & Writer Fariha Róisín; Music w/Soul Singer-songwriter Danielle Ponder

Professor Lewis R. Gordon is a philosopher, historian, and musician. As professor of Philosophy and Global Affairs and Head of the Philosophy Department at University of Connecticut, some of his key focus areas include social and political theory, existentialism, philosophies of liberation, theories of race, and the philosophy of religion.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, to a Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish mother and a Chinese and African father, Lewis moved to NYC as a child.

As an academic, he founded the Centre for Afro Jewish Studies at Temple University, which is a research centre focusing on providing reliable sources of information on African and African Diasporic Jewish or Hebrew-descended populations. Lewis created the Africana Studies Department at Brown University, is the visiting Professor of Philosophy at the University of Johannesburg, and a scholar at The J Patterson Centre for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy at The University of the West Indies.

He co-edits the journal Philosophy and Global Affairs, and is author of books including Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization, Fear of Black Consciousness, and Black Existentialism and Decolonizing Knowledge: Writings of Lewis R. Gordon.

In conversation with Chrystal, Lewis examines our relationships with humanity, power and compassion in the midst of crisis and turmoil.

Freedom, Justice and Decolonisation Book Cover

Multidisciplinary artist Fariha Róisín is a writer and poet whose works initiate conversations on wellness, contemporary Islam, queer identities, and the nature of being.

A Bangladeshi Muslim, born in Canada, raised in Australia and now living in California, Fariha’s writings are often self-informed, personal reflections on margins, liminality and current situations.

She is the author of How To Cure A Ghost, Like A Bird, and Who Is Wellness For? An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who it Leaves Behind, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and Vice.

Fariha’s new collection of poetry, Survival Takes A Wild Imagination is a declaration of selfhood and a journey of her own survival, broken into three sections—“The beginning, the body, the wound,” “Liberation, pleasure, joy,” and “Finding Earth, god”.

On Stance, Fariha shares excerpts of her poetry and reflects on understanding reality, abundance, and a future towards collective humanity.

Survival Takes A Wild Imagination Book Cover

Singer songwriter Danielle Ponder hails from Rochester, New York, and trained and worked as a lawyer before she took up music full time.

Danielle has always been musical, touring as a child with her siblings in their family’s band. While she balanced her career in law as a public defender, as well as a diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, she played in bands and wrote songs, first between classes, then between cases.

Danielle’s soulful sound is a mix of R&B, blues, rock, and trip-hop, citing Nina Simone to Pink Floyd as influences. Her compelling debut album, Some Of Us Are Brave features elements of all these genres.

The eight song record is an ode to black women, and inspired by the book All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men: But Some of Us Are Brave. The album is an anthem of resilience, and having faith in being brave against the odds.

While in London for a performance at the Jazz Cafe in Camden, Danielle speaks with Chrystal about her artistic approach to creating her debut album, Some Of Us Are Brave.

Danielle Ponder Tracks Used In This Podcast, With Thanks To Future Classic Label:

Front Page Image: Danielle Ponder by Grace Rivera