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Melania’s Hat, Plantation Weddings, and Indochic. Why do people long for a time period they’ve never experienced? Over the course of five episodes, IDE Impolite Conversation will explore romanticizing colonialism in popular culture. Lezli kicks off this theme with a conversation with Caitlin Faulkes, British-based psychologist specializing in nostalgia. She conducted one of the first pieces of empirical research on historical nostalgia and developed the first index to measure personality traits associated with historical nostalgia.

Relevant and Recommended Reads:

• It Was Cultural Anxiety That Drove White, Working-Class Voters to Trump

• When Was America Great? The Answer Depends On Your Age

• Lindsey Graham, references ‘the good old days of segregation’

Podcast Team = Lezli Levene Harvell (Host & Executive Producer) / Justin Bates (Sound Engineer)

Lezli and her ON THE YARD co-host Zuri Levene Harvell; Spelman College ‘21, chat with two Afro-Latina students, Maya Machado; Spelman College ‘21 and Zula Oliveira; Clark Atlanta University ‘23. They explore being held to a mestiza and European beauty esthetic, people not assuming they are not Latina because they are Black, being affirmed by Amara La Negra, the lightening and whitening of Reggaeton and the people forgetting it’s Afro-Panamanian roots

Relevant and Recommended Reads

• Inside Reggaeton’s Unsung Black History

• Hispanics with darker skin are more likely to experience discrimination than those with lighter skin

• ‘We exist. We’re here’: Afro-Mexicans make the census after long struggle for recognition

Podcast Team = Lezli Levene Harvell (Host & Executive Producer) /Zuri Levene Harvell (Co-Host) / Justin Bates (Sound Engineer)

Lezli chats with Tanya Katerí Hernández, internationally recognized comparative race law expert and Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law. The two explore the mythology of national identity over racial identity in Latin America, anti-Black customs that make anti-Black laws unnecessary, “boa aparência/good looking” as a job qualification, and how Hurricane Maria “outed” folks with 4A, B, and C hair.

Relevant and Recommended Reads:

• Racial Apartheid Persists in Latin America

• Race and Poverty in Latin America: Addressing the Development Needs of African Descendants

• Latinos Back Black Lives Matter Protests. They Want Change for Themselves, Too.

Podcast Team = Lezli Levene Harvell (Host & Executive Producer) / Rez Nemorin (Producer) Justin Bates (Sound Engineer)

Impolite Conversation Curated by The Iconoclast Dinner Experience – Episode 18: “ON THE YARD”: Anti-Blackness in Latinidad with Afro-Latinx HBCU Students

It’s National Hispanic Heritage Month. Lezli and her ON THE YARD co-host Nava Levene Harvell; Spelman College ‘23, chat with two Afro-Latinx students, Leonard McClinton; Morehouse College ‘23 and Liana Viaga; Florida A&M University ‘22. They explore the importance of people understanding the difference between ethnicity and race, that they aren’t Spanish, if they feel included in Latinidad, mestizo privilege, and why the use of the word Black needs to be more inclusive.

Relevant and Recommended Reads

• Details of Brutal First Slave Voyages Discovered

• When it Comes to Latinidad, Who Is Included and Who Isn’t?

• The Dominican Republic Erased Birthright Citizenship

Podcast Team = Lezli Levene Harvell (Host & Executive Producer) /Nava Levene Harvell (Co-Host) / Justin Bates (Sound Engineer)

Latinidad: The Darker Other, Anti-Blackness, and Mejorar La Raza

It’s National Hispanic Heritage Month! We’re kicking it off with some Impolite Conversation! Lezli chats with Dr. Katie L. Acosta, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Georgia State University. They explore historical periods of whitening in Latin America (mejorar la raza/”improve the race”), who isn’t included in Latinidad, Zoe Saldana, the policing of Blackness, and what gets lost in translation.

Relevant and Recommended Reads:

• Details of Brutal First Slave Voyages Discovered

• When it Comes to Latinidad, Who Is Included and Who Isn’t?

• The Dominican Republic Erased Birthright Citizenship

Impolite Conversation Curated by The Iconoclast Dinner Experience – Episode 16: “ON THE YARD” HBCU VOTE 2020

For this live-streamed event, Lezli and her ON THE YARD co-host Zuri Levene Harvell; Spelman College ‘21, chat with two SGA Presidents students, Alanna Gaskin; Prairie View A&M University ‘21 and Xavier McClinton; Florida A&M University ‘21, as well as Andrea Hailey CEO of Vote.org about some of the unprecedented voting-related obstacles facing college students this election season, digital voter suppression, the national poll worker shortage crisis, data from the 2020 mid-terms regarding the percentage of rejected mail-in/absentee ballots of college students, and exact solutions on how to ensure your vote is counted this election season.

Relevant and Recommended Reads

• The New Voter Suppression

• Prairie View A&M students sue Texas county, allege voter suppression of Black citizens

• Empty US college campuses are making it harder for students to vote

• Where the youth vote could matter most in 2020

CALL TO ACTION

VISIT VOTE.ORG

• Check if you are registered to vote

• Request a mail in ballot

• Get assistance with voting by mail

• Volunteer to be a Poll Worker

In the first part of this two-part episode, Lezli chats with Joanne Hyppolite, Ph.D., a Museum Curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). They explore how and why food and restaurants served as indispensable tools in the fight for democracy during the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. During Part two, Lezli chats with Louisville based James Beard Award-winning Chef Edward Lee. Lee talks about the Community Kitchen he opened in Louisville during BLM’s wake and named in honor of David McAtee. McAtee was a beloved chef, community pillar, and owner of YaYa’s BBQ in the West End of Louisville. A member of the National Guard fatally shot him in the early hours of June 1st. Lee shares what his goals for the kitchen are and what measurable progress looks like to him.

Relevant and Recommended Reads:

• 7 Restaurants that Fueled the Civil Rights Movement

• How the Black Panthers’ Breakfast Program Both Inspired and Threatened the Government

• Who is David McAtee: Louisville Barbecue store owner killed by police

• In Memory of David McAtee And Breonna Taylor, Healing Through Cooking And Community

Lezli and her ON THE YARD co-host Nava Levene Harvell; Spelman College ‘23, chat with two boarding school alumni; Zuri Levene Harvell, Spelman College ‘21 and Jimmy Stancil, Morehouse College ‘22. They chat about Amazon Prime’s Selah and the Spades as well as parallels between HBCU and New England boarding school culture.

Relevant and Recommended Reads

• ‘Selah and the Spades’ Review: This Isn’t Your Average Teen Drama

• See Inside the Unique Traditions of Spelman and Morehouse College

• 14 Facts About Boarding School

Lezli closes out the topic that explores Ethnic As A Descriptive, Other Coded Language, and who gets to be American with a two-part conversation. First, she chats with Tyler Phillips, Director of Culture & Lifestyle Partnerships at Bacardi USA. The two explore coded language in marketing and how brands should move forward in a post-George Floyd/Breonna Taylor world with their storytelling. Part two of this episode, Lezli chats with emerging filmmaker Ekwa Msangi about her film Farewell Amor which was the belle of the ball at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and is an Official Selection at the 2020 Urbanworld Film Festival. Msangi’s directorial debut shifts the paradigm of what an American love story looks like. Farewell Amor tells the story of an Angolan immigrant joined in the U.S. by his wife and daughter after 17 yrs of being separated due to visa challenges. Now, strangers, they discover a shared love of dance that may help them overcome their distance.

Relevant and Recommended Reads:

• 2020 Urbanworld Film Festival Takes Place Virtually 9/23-9/27 Get Your Passes Here

• Bacardi and The Long Fight for Cuba

• Grammy Awards to rename controversial ‘urban’ category

• What Is Kizomba

Can White Lesbians Use The “D” Word and Who Can Use the “F” word? Lezli and her ON THE YARD co-host Nava Levene Harvell; Spelman College ‘23, chat with two LGBTQ students, Janelle Edge; Florida A&M University ‘21, and Zion Gates Norris; Florida Memorial University ‘21; about reclaiming terms that were once used to harm the LGBTQ community and who can use them.

Relevant and Recommended Reads

• A Brief History of Voguing

• Dear White Lesbians: You Are Not Studs

• How Black Queers Made ‘Sis’ a Gender Neutral Term of Endearment

• Why I’m Reclaiming the Homophobic Slur I Used to Fear