When the Quarantine began I had the idea for The Collective Reset. We’ve all been asked to sit down, re-evaluate, and unlearn. This Revolution is forcing us to start with the very basics of human dignity and build from there. My hope is that we’re all using this time to #dobetter . SO I created a space to introduce you to some really dope people! People who are part of MY tribe. Meet some new friends! Hear about the racial temperature in their city. Learn from new voices doing some pretty cool things. Let’s share how we’re taking care of ourselves right now and what our hopes are for our future selves.
#1. Charl Brown is a Tony Award Nominee, for Best Featured Actor in a musical, for his portrayal of Smokey Robinson in Motown: The Musical. A few of his other Broadway appearances include Jersey Boys and the original cast of Sister Act. He is also 1/6 of the phenomenal touring group, The DooWop Project comprised of Broadway legends.
Harlem, NY https://youtu.be/mjQGB2FB130
#2. Jozie Furchgott Sourdiffe is an Activist, and Artist working in printmaking, painting, textile design, and fine art tattooing. She has always been interested in the power of art as a voice and vehicle for social change. Her recent work has focused on the complexity of illness and disease and the cycle of life and death. Another body of her recent work focuses on the intricacies of gender and sexuality and how that influences how we each move through this world. Jozie recently launched “Feisty Ink Threads, which is a wearable art line designed by Jozie herself.
Miami, FL https://youtu.be/sSRTRyNB7hk
#3. Shari Vilchez-Blatt is the founder and creator of Karma Kids Yoga, once NYC’s only yoga studio dedicated just to children and families, has been sharing yoga with kids of all abilities since 2003. Shari also trains educators, OTs/PTs, social workers, counselors and adults working with kids, around the world teaching them how to share yoga with their communities. She has acted as consultant to numerous wellness and parenting resources included Nickelodeon, Working Woman, Parents, Target, Lincoln and others. She has been a presenter YJ Live and the National Kids Yoga Conference, as well as a regular contributor to NY Yoga + Life magazine. Shari has been featured on Sesame Street, sharing yoga with the muppets. Currently, she is working with Sesame Street as a writer for Monster Yoga.
New York, New York https://youtu.be/uuJWldBmTdI
#4 Carla Fernandez and Lennon Flowers
Carla is an experienced designer & community weaver focused on stitching us together at our most vulnerable & isolating intersections. She is the co-founder of The Dinner Party, a community of people turning grief & loss from an isolating experience into a source of deep friendship and forward motion – now active in 100 cities and featured in NYTimes, NPR, and OnBeing. More info: carlafernandez.co.
Oakland, CA
Lennon is hell-bent on creating spaces where humans can be human, out of a belief that nothing is done in isolation, and that self-help only works in community. She’s the co-founder & ED of The Dinner Party, a community of 4,000+ (mostly) 20- and 30-somethings working to turn loss from a conversation-stopper to a conversation-starter, in order to transform our most isolating experiences into sources of meaningful connection and forward movement. She is a co-founder of The People’s Supper, which uses shared meals to build trust and connection among people of different identities and perspectives. Since January 20, 2017, The People’s Supper has powered more than 1,400 suppers across the country, with partners including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Righteous Persons Foundation, USC Center EDGE, the Mayor’s Office in Erie, PA, the Obama Foundation, and more. Our work is born of the popular adage that change moves at the speed of trust, and a simple question: What needs healing here? She is an Ashoka Fellow, and her work has been featured on OnBeing with Krista Tippett, NPR’s Morning Edition, CNN, CBS This Morning, New York Times, The Washington Post, and dozens of other publications.
Los Angeles, CA
#5 Muthoni Wambu Kraal is the National Political and Organizing Director of the Democratic National Committee in the USA. Most recently, Muthoni Wambu Kraal served as Vice President of National Outreach and Training at EMILY’s List. She previously served as the organization’s Senior Director for State Engagement and Development. Muthoni Wambu Kraal has been steeped in progressive politics for two decades and has worked for many campaigns – including as Deputy Political Director for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in 2007.
Washington DC https://youtu.be/jowEqvBKBIY
#6 Annie Sanchez is an impact and process-obsessed goal strategist and clarity coach on a mission to decrease overwhelm in the lives of people of color.
She has a diverse professional background in nonprofit management, hospitality, event production, project and volunteer management, among many side hustles too numerous to mention. She is also a certified professional fundraiser, virtual coach and small business adviser.
Annie founded Mariposa Strategies in 2018, a strategic planning and coaching firm that helps BIPOC folx take big ideas to the next level. She is also the creator of Clarity Pages, a journal designed to manage the day-to-day while moving goals forward.
Albuquerque, NM https://youtu.be/aSVOQlpDUwI
#7 Kimberly Holmes-Iverson is a morning news anchor on WBOC in the DMV. Her journalism career began behind the scenes. She worked as an associate producer in Miami and as a field producer at Bloomberg TV in Washington, D.C. Kimberly graduated from Duke University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and the National Association of Black Journalists. In 2016, she joined a club she never imagined herself a member: Widowhood. Her late husband, Rasheed Wiggins, was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Florida. Turning her pain into passion, she’s had the honor of working with a talented group of women for their groundbreaking book, Widowed, But Not Wounded: The Hustle & Flow of 13 Resilient Black Widowed Women. She also published the Graceful Guide to Helping a Grieving Friend. In addition, Kimberly launched a faith-based, retail and grief outreach organization called Still His®.She strives to help widows navigate the waters of significant loss and grief. She remarried in 2020 to an incredible man. Darian Iverson.
Eastern Shore Maryland https://youtu.be/K7zVfadi8o8
#8 Robert Sturman A dedicated yoga practitioner, photographer Robert Sturman has increasingly focused on capturing the timeless grace and embodied mindfulness of Asana in his work. His portraits, whether set in the lively streets of Manhattan, the expansive beaches and canyons of the California coast, the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, the timeless elegance of Walden’s New England, or the bleakness of San Quentin Prison, remind us that there is beauty everywhere. His stunning repertoire runs the gamut from yogis perched on rocks surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, to African orphans practicing yoga in Kenya, to breast cancer survivors, bare-chested and scarred. In addition, Sturman has worked extensively photographing war veterans who have embraced the practice of yoga to heal PTSD, in an effort to help change the heartbreaking statistics of veteran suicides each day.
California, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCPSW1itmp0
#9 Cole Monroe (he/him) A Transgender activist, a native New Yorker and MY COUSIN! who majored in Music Business, gaining experience in the A&R department of Columbia Records, recording studios, live music venues on Long Island… and that helped him realize that he wanted no part of that industry! Nowadays, you can find Cole in North Carolina living a quieter life with his spouse and pets. He’s an 80’s kid who deep down just wants to spread more love and do good deeds. Cole recently ended his tenure as Board President of Transcend Charlotte (supporting transgender/gender non-conforming individuals) but hasn’t ended his work with charitable organizations. He is currently operating a web design business and t-shirt line both dedicated to giving back to the LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities
Charlotte, NC https://youtu.be/KjEo5dlLrqE
#10 Katia Beeden is the founder and creator of Angelovehub, a hub for soul-level healing. Her passion is teaching people how to love themselves, especially after narcissistic abuse. As an Intuitive Life Coach and Soul Realignment™ Practitioner, she specializes in reading the Akashic Records. Katia is also a professional Tarot Reader and Energy Healer. She believes that alchemizing ‘The Science’ together with ‘The Woo’, creates a powerful pathway toward healing. When she’s not hiking on the mountain, she’s leading her clients through her #SelfLoveJourney Coaching Program. Book a private reading on her website angelovehub.com or follow her on Instagram @katiabeeden to enjoy FREE daily Tarot and Oracle Card Readings.
Cape Town, South Africa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCKTLGC9gSE&t=49s
#11 Rooster and Hen Rooster is a former United States Marine, who found passion and a career in tattoo artistry and photography. Hen is a natural soap maker with a long professional history in retail management, marketing, and merchandising. They are located in Richmond, VA, parents to two boys and two bulldogs, and have been married for 4 years. Their mission is to take their love of travel, community, and networking, and share that with others nationwide through their mobile market. The market puts great emphasis on black economics and culture. It supports small, up and coming, BIPOC businesses with unique products and services in art, apparel, literature, health, wellness, and beauty.
Richmond, VA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjQqhWPs_9U
#12 Pixie Lighthorse writes as Lighthorse to honor the unheard voices of her Choctaw, Creek and Chickasaw ancestors. She is the writer of the Prayers of Honoring series, written to restore bonds between people and nature while healing interior and spiritual/religious trauma. She recently wrote Goldmining the Shadows: Honoring the Medicine of Wounds, the companion to her 2017 book, Boundaries & Protection: Honoring Self, Honoring Others. She’s also created over fifty original online educational courses applying integrative transformative practice, animal and plant studies, and the Medicine Circle into self-healing soul work.
Oregon https://youtu.be/OpioQ4nbDm4
#13 Lisa Parato is a wife, a mother of three young children, and a high school English Language Arts educator. Currently on leave from her 17th year of teaching, Lisa is navigating what it means to be one of more than 800,000 U.S. women who have had to leave the workforce this September due to childcare needs during COVID. She is balancing supporting her pre-schooler, second, and fourth graders, with their remote learning, with their physical, emotional, and social well-being, and with their understanding of and participation in our current Civil Rights Movement.
Boxborough, MA https://youtu.be/yAeSuxnYmkM
NAMASTE USA 