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S2, E32: Chineka Found Her Tribe in China

A native of Chicago, Chineka Nikko is at her happiest when she is inspiring others to be their best self and shining her positive light on the accomplishments of women who do the same. A poet, inspirational speaker and all around giving human being, she has seen her work and platform as an artist grow since moving to China. In this episode, she shares how her first experience living overseas was through military service and her current experience came after having no other choice but to leave Chicago. A sudden job loss along with an invitation from an old friend to move to Asia were the perfect combination for Chineka to start a new life. She has no regrets and feels it is the best decision she’s ever made. She has had no trouble finding work and has seen what was once a glorified hobby turn into a platform as a speaker and poet. She explains how quickly things happen in China and how many times what she thought of as a small, community event at which she had been asked to speak turned out to be a “big deal with news crews and cameras and more people asking me to write other stuff for them.” Chineka also addresses what is a recurring question by family and friends back home: “But, are there Black people in China, though?” She laughs as she cites all the Black people she has met from all across the diaspora since moving to China. She tries to be humble as she says she has about a hundred friends who, at any given moment, would offer her their bed, food, money and even a job if she needed it. She quickly confesses she low balled the number and has more like two hundred members of her tribe; the vast majority of them are Black. Though she had (and still has) a supportive network of people in Chicago, something about her network in China has resulted in Chineka being free to explore a much fuller version of herself. “It’s almost like I am living in a dream. It’s hard to explain, but I have accomplished and grown so much in my three years here. I have had to force myself to slow down.”

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Ep 14: Princess Shaw is Working on Being Free

When she was approached about participating in a documentary about You Tube performers, Princess Shaw thought nothing of it. She had been singing on You Tube for years and had built up a respectable following. The documentary, Introducing Princess Shaw, found its way to Netflix. In this episode, Shaw opens up about how excited she was when her You Tube videos were noticed by an Israeli music producer and then his filmmaker friend. She admits that she was going through a deep depression during the taping of the documentary, but still recorded because she saw it as important to her career. She also trusted the filmmaker and music producer to present her story in a way that would inspire others. Shaw is unabashed when she talks about revealing on film that she was a survivor of sexual abuse. She tells the truth about her mother’s involvement in the abuse and denial of how she allowed Shaw and her siblings to suffer under the hands of her boyfriend. She says music and her other creative expressions were not what helped her work through her trauma. Speaking out as she did with family and then on camera released some of the silence and secrecy that surrounded the abuse. When she was not talking about it, she was giving it more power. “I am free sometimes,” Shaw reports. “There are times when I sing on stage and I feel like nothing can stop me, like I have let everything go. Then sometimes I get off the stage and that feeling leaves. It’s a process. It’s work I have to do.”

Listen below and then subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts.