Kelcey Anyá — Working Without a Net

Yusef Seevers — Pleasure, Grief, and Intimacy of the Human Experience

Yusef Seevers is back for a second time on the Collaborative Alchemy Podcast! Yusef is an actor, musician, dancer, choreographer, and creative entrepreneur. Our first conversation in December of 2020 was about radical self-love, Black joy, and the healing power of meditation. In this episode, we talk about the importance of foregrounding pleasure as a means of befriending our more difficult emotions. We talk about the why and how of creative process as a way to develop a personal vocabulary our experience of grief. Yusef also asks some big questions about how to normalize emotional intelligence training and somatic practice for kids. Join us for this enlivening conversation as we discuss grief, parental loss, and what happens when our sense of balance is rocked.

Our conversation happened in August of 2022.

Dom Magwili — Superheroes, Sci-Fi, and Self-Expression

In this episode, I talk with actor, writer, and producer Dom Magwili. An early childhood love of comics and swashbucklers led Dom towards a career as an actor and playwright. Even today, comics continue to inform Dom’s work. He has just published a sprawling epic sci-fi fantasy novel called Legends from the First Hemisphere: The Infernal Promise. In this wide-ranging conversation we discuss Asian-American representation on stage and screen, Dom’s disciplined writing process, and why it’s important for Asian-American youth to know their history.

Thelma Virata de Castro — Legacy, Language, and Laughter

In this wide-ranging conversation, I talk with playwright Thelma Virata de Castro about drawing on the wisdom of her ancestors as part of her creative practice. We also touch on the dynamic evolution of language, what blessings (or curses) we’re passing on to our children, and what we’re collectively forgetting. Thelma shares her thoughts about losing (and learning) our native languages and the quiet power of the Southern California Filipinx community. Join us as we discuss what it means for artists to be legitimized by institutional approval and what it might look like when we embody our own definitions of worthiness.

Kelcey Anyá — Working Without a Net

In this episode, I talk with multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and professional disruptor, Kelcey Anyá about what it means to be a catalyst for change within dominant cultural structures. We also discuss how our capacity for creative risk seems to grow in equal measure to our self-knowledge. Listen in as Kelcey shares her thoughts on representation in arts-education, womanism, the power of telling your own story, and why it’s a revolutionary act to show up, get loud, and sing your own praises in a society that has historically rendered you silent.

Marla Teyolia — Your Ancestors Are Calling For You

In this episode, I talk with leadership coach and facilitator Marla Teyolia about spiritual mentorship, reclaiming our power, and why liberation is an inside job. We also talk about bridging indigenous practices with modern leadership development by centering ancestral wisdom. Marla shares about her transformational experiences with a curandera and using embodied traditional folk healing modalities to address the needs of her clients. Her question: How do we discover what needs healing within us? (Hint: The medicine is in your story.)