The systems we have built don’t always work for the people they were built for. The problem is that we too often have systems being built by people, not for people. In this episode, Stephanie Diaz and Dana Lloyd speak on the failure of society to build a system that works well for people with disabilities and their work in the Georgia Advocacy Office (GAO) to address this trend. From individual advocacy, individual legal advocacy, to systematic litigation, on any given day they might touch all three levels of advocacy in order to help make change for the disabled. In the process, their advocacy work helps listeners rethink value, visibility, and voice for the disabled in this podcast episode.

See their latest court case:
GAO Files Lawsuit Seeking to End Institutionalization and Confinement of Children in Georgia

https://thegao.org/gao-files-lawsuit-seeking-to-end-institutionalization-and-confinement-of-children-in-georgia/

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Emile YX? is a Hip Hop activist who reclaims the power of Hip Hop to help the next generation rethink their identity, purpose, and place in their respective communities. A pioneer of beat breaking in his South African cultural context, an educator through his Heal the Hood project, and a survivor of apartheid, Emile YX? channels his experiences to rewrite narratives for the marginalized and recenter Africa for uplift. In the process, he helps us rethink Hip Hop culture as a tool of power through this podcast.

Follow us on Twitter @intersectsouth or visit our website at https://sites.gsu.edu/intersectsouth/

Emile YX? is a Hip Hop activist who reclaims the power of Hip Hop to help the next generation rethink their identity, purpose, and place in their respective communities. A pioneer of beat breaking in his South African cultural context, an educator through his Heal the Hood project, and a survivor of apartheid, Emile YX? channels his experiences to rewrite narratives for the marginalized and recenter Africa for uplift. In the process, he helps us rethink Hip Hop culture as a tool of power through this podcast.

Support Heal the Hood Project's new initiative through Emile YX? Gofund me page: www.gofundme.com/f/preorder-my-book-reconnect-the-string

Follow us on Twitter @intersectsouth or visit our website at https://sites.gsu.edu/intersectsouth/

Akua Naru's love for the African diaspora drives her to disrupt and intervene for good through the channel of her Hip Hop music and archival work of The Keeper’s Project. More specifically, the pantheon of black women writers like Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Zora Neal Hurston have provided Naru with a critical black feminist lens and language by which to read the world and retake spaces that push the contributions of black women to Hip Hop to the margins to the center. Living with the words of black feminists, Naru tells her story, helping us rethink the centrality of blackness for identity construction and the potentialities of love within Hip Hop through this podcast.

Listen to Akua Naru's music here.
Find out where she is performing next here.

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The Gullah-Geechee people are the descendants of enslaved West and Central Africans brought in the seventeenth and eighteenth-century to the United States to work on the rice plantations of the Low Country regions on the Southern Atlantic coastline. The term “Gullah” comes from the Central African connection to Angola and comes to represent people of all African descent particularly from South Carolina. In contrast, the term “Geechee” is derived from the Ogeechee River where the first Georgia plantations were formed. Eventually, these terms are fused by Queen Quet, the first elected chieftess and Head of State for the Gullah-Geechee nation, to speak of a unified identity among these communities as they seek to preserve their land and memory in the face of modern developers and coastal shoreline erosion. Ultimately, the Gullah-Geechee communities have a strong sense of identity, a preserved African heritage, and are rooted to the Atlantic coastlines. This episode features three guests: Dr. Ras Michael Brown who is an Associate Professor in the History department at Georgia State University, Dr. Tiffany Player who is Assistant Professor of History at Georgia State University and their student Ms. Natasha Washington. Dr. Brown and Dr. Player have created on-the-ground learning opportunities for students to visit historical landmarks in South Carolina . They have joined in collaboration with Gullah-Geechee partners in the effort of preserving memory and Gullah-Geechee historical landmarks.

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On this episode of Intersectionality in the American South, Dr. Katie Acosta interviews Dr. Ashlyn Strozier about the challenges faced by Black folks who are trying to conceive, birthing, or experiencing unwanted pregnancy. Listen as we unpack the health risks this population faces and that structural barriers that impede upon our reproductive rights.

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Imagine being incarcerated during the height of the pandemic and having limited access to information about the virus. Imagine being unable to socially isolated or visit with your loved ones. On this episode, Dr. Katie Acosta interviews civil rights attorney Whitney Knox Lee about her advocacy work with people who are incarcerated in the state of Georgia.

Listen to Whitney Knox Lee's new podcast Impostrix here.

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The options for formerly incarcerated individuals to live productive lives after serving their time are complicated by the many obstacles they face finding gainful employment. On this episode of Intersectionality in the American South, we hear about a prison education program at Georgia State University and the amazing story of its Executive Director, Mr. Patrick Rodriguez.

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