Hello lady listeners, how are you? Busy? We are! We still find the time tho to keep up with women in politics. In keeping with supporting the #metoo movement, we talk about the need to keep supporting women who are coming forth with their stories of sexual harassment and abuse. The COURAGE it takes to come forward!!! Please believe the women!
Shout out Hillary Harvey's "The Voice" show here at Radio Kingston, she interviewed two local women who were arrested at the Brett Kavanaugh supreme court confirmation hearings.
Our first guest, Beth Bengtson founded "Working for Women" in early 2018. W4W's mission is to support other nonprofits who help women enter or stay in the workforce. Beth's work to support women really began years earlier when she and her former business partner incorporated a 1% give back of their company's revenue to women's needs. Beth saw the bigger need of supporting women focused non-profits on a bigger scale and shares how she had to overcome her own self doubts about herself being the one to lead those efforts. She talks about dissecting the barriers that we put on ourselves and moving through the discomfort of becoming who you need to be in order to do the thing. One of the local organizations they partner with is Raising Hope here in Kingston, a mentoring program for women supporting women, but there are so many check out their website which is re-launching early October with a way for you to get engaged.
Theresa includes a favorite quote of Beth's from Glennon Doyle which pretty much sums up how she came to founding W4W. Leadership is: Someone looks at the world and notices a hole in it. She thinks to herself, 'This thing, this idea, this service, this kind of person should exist to fill that hole.' She waits for a little while, thinking about that. And then she stops waiting and starts creating the thing herself. She becomes the person she was waiting for. She creates the thing she needed."
Our second guest is the adorable Jem Violet. She is a trans singer-songwriter / performer here in the Hudson Valley. A quote from Jem's instagram: "Choosing to allow myself to be seen as trans - to be seen as who I am - has been the most difficult, meaningful, and joyful thing I have ever done. To all of those who are unable to be seen as they want right now: I believe in you and you have my solidarity and support." Jem shares about how being bullied as a child affected her and how it shapes her perception of herself and the world. When asked about the transition from boy to girl, she explains how her experience is bigger than being a female in a male body. Jem volunteers at the LGBTQ Center by facilitating a group for gender non-conforming and queer teens and guides them to understand that they are the absolute authority on their own person and that no one can take away their truth. Jem shares tenderly about who inspires her musically and about the realignment tingles when what she hears is that good. Plus so much more!
For self-care we get two special guests, Beetle and Freedom Walker, co-hosts of The Black Meta on Radio Kingston. They share the ways in which they meditate and take care of themselves, sometimes with their pirate voice. Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day! Beetles dream come true.
As always we included clips from the documentary "She's Beautiful When She's Angry"
Next week we welcome Ariana Gonzales, teacher, artist, mother and host of the Common Good on Radio Kingston and Stephanie Monseu, Co-found of Bindlestiff Family Cirkus.