Mar 1, 2021
Vanessa Rochelle
Lewis is the Founding Director of Reclaim UGLY.
She is a healer with a satchel full
of medicine words,
A conjuror with desire to nurture
other artists as they create magic and save lives,
A faery princess mermaid gangsta for
the revolution,
A lush-bodied, Black femme Goddess
motivated by sensuality and freedom,
An educator and performer with a
passionate exuberance for silliness, laughter, and the
stage,
A starlet who doesn’t want to be in
the spotlight alone,
A lover of all things collective,
emergent, and interdependent,
A wild-seed born and blossomed in
South-Central Los Angeles,
A fighter with fists born of
circumstance and a heart that refused to harden,
A warrior committed to freedom, brow
dripping with resilience, wings crusted with diamonds that grew
from trauma healed,
And so much more.
Episode Highlights
- Vanessa and Nick discuss the way culture has used the label of “ugliness” to oppress, dehumanize and disconnect us.
- Vanessa talks about her journey with her organization, Reclaim Ugly.
- She shares how we can turn ugly on its head to uplift, glorify and love ourselves.
- We explore where we find “uglification” in our country’s history as well as in today’s world.
- Vanessa talks about the importance of taking care of ourselves without perpetuating the harm done to us.
- We discuss the insidious uglification we experienced in recent events such as the January 6th Insurrection of the US Capitol.
Web links
- Find Vanessa at ReclaimUGLY.org
- Connect with her on Instagram and Facebook
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