MESSAGE ME HERE!

Dr. Shawna Gann travels from Washington, DC to UCLA for the 2026 Critical Mixed Race Studies Association (CMRSA) Conference, themed Critical Healing. Before the first keynote, a grounding experience at the Fowler Museum’s Fire and Kinship exhibit reframes the weekend through an unexpected through line: fire as renewal, not destruction.

Across two workshops (Resonant Voices and Fault Lines and Bridges) and hallway conversations with scholars, artists, organizers, and first-time attendees, Shawna explores how mixed race experiences illuminate both personal inheritance and institutional architecture. From stories of ancestry, assimilation, and microaggressions to insights on systems, belonging, and community as oxygen, this episode asks what it means to heal without denying heat, and to steward the burn instead of fearing it.

In This Episode
• Traveling to UCLA for CMRSA 2026 (Critical Healing)
• Jackie Robinson’s legacy at UCLA and the pressure of integration
• Fowler Museum: Fire and Kinship as a frame for healing and renewal
• Resonant Voices: four interviews on lineage, identity, and lived experience
• Fault Lines and Bridges: a World Café on conditional belonging and structural shifts
• “Healing within inherited systems of power” and the turn toward institutions
• Hallway energy: why CMRSA feels different, and why community matters
• Closing reflections from LAX: carrying the fire without burning down

Featured Voices (as heard in this episode)
• Hedy Tripp (Resonant Voices)
• Galia Recinos (Resonant Voices)
• Jessica LeCap (Resonant Voices)
• Alicia del Prado (Resonant Voices)
• Steve Castro (session excerpt)
• Aeriel Ashley (session excerpt)
• Dakota Duffy
• Chandra Waring
• Deja Goodwin
• Wendy Ashley and Nolan
• Jordan Adams
• Joy DuVivre

Organizations and Places Mentioned
• Critical Mixed Race Studies Association (CMRSA)
• Fowler Museum at UCLA
• Multiracial Americans of Southern California (MASC)
• Resonant Voices & Fault Lines and Bridges (True Culture Coaching & Consulting)

If this is your first time with OTC, check out EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!

Interested in being a guest? Head to this link to share your story with us!

Our True Colors is powered by True Culture Coaching & Consulting. Head to our website to find out how True Culture Coaching and Consulting can support you and your organization, and subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter, The Culture Clinic, for more great content.

MESSAGE ME HERE!

What would people assume about you if they could only hear your voice? In this expansive and thought provoking episode, Dr. Shawna Gann and Marcel sit down with global cultural commentator Joy DuVivre to explore identity across borders, histories and lived experience.

Born in Romania to a Romanian Romani mother and an Angolan father, and raised primarily in Angola, Joy brings a deeply layered perspective shaped by colonial history, colorism, migration and disability. From the legacy of Romani enslavement in Europe to the impact of colonial borders in Africa, this conversation moves across continents while staying grounded in one powerful truth: identity is fluid, contextual and constantly evolving.

Joy shares reflections on colorism using the framework coined by Alice Walker, the historical reality of Romani persecution including during the Holocaust, the parallels between Romani experiences in Europe and Black experiences in the United States, and what it means to become disabled after building a career rooted in physical expression. She also introduces her playful yet powerful identity markers like "West Coastian" and "Sunsetter", reminding us that belonging can be self-defined.

In this episode, we explore:

• How perception and voice shape racial assumptions
• The global roots of colorism and colonial hierarchy
• Romani history, enslavement and ongoing discrimination
• Afro Romani communities in the American South
• Assimilation, survival and generational silence
• Disability as identity
• Why mixedness is not a box but a lived experience

Joy mentions her excitement about attending the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association Conference taking place February 19 through 21 at UCLA in Los Angeles. Click here to learn more about the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association. Consider becoming a member!

If this is your first time with OTC, check out EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!

Interested in being a guest? Head to this link to share your story with us!

Our True Colors is powered by True Culture Coaching & Consulting. Head to our website to find out how True Culture Coaching and Consulting can support you and your organization, and subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter, The Culture Clinic, for more great content.

MESSAGE ME HERE!

No guest today, no polished lesson, no neat ending. Just Dr. Shawna Gann and Rachel, one of last year’s co-hosts, sitting down for an unfiltered, unscripted conversation about what it feels like to be alive in this moment. They jump from media to power, faith to language, survival to community, and the constant mental whiplash of trying to stay grounded while everything feels loud. The through line is voice, not the perfect kind, but the kind that helps you name what you’re noticing, process out loud, and remember you are not the only one holding this tension in your body.

Together they talk about how we got here, how information gets curated, how language gets manipulated, and why proximity to wealth and authority has never been proof of intelligence or morality. They reflect on growing up in church, the ways religion and politics get tangled, and how systems shape what we believe about gender, race, and who is seen as human. It’s funny in places, heavy in others, and above all honest. A reminder to protect your voice, protect your energy, stay connected, and stay engaged where it counts, especially locally.

Content note: adult language and discussion of politics and current events. This is not a news report or definitive analysis, it’s two people thinking out loud in real time.

If this is your first time with OTC, check out EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!

Interested in being a guest? Head to this link to share your story with us!

Our True Colors is powered by True Culture Coaching & Consulting. Head to our website to find out how True Culture Coaching and Consulting can support you and your organization, and subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter, The Culture Clinic, for more great content.