Ria and Kevol Graham join Chrystal Genesis for cocktails and conversation at Kokomo, their family-run, acclaimed Caribbean restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Partners in life and work, the couple talk about opening Kokomo just before the Covid pandemic and building a hospitality business while raising three children in New York City.

They discuss Caribbean food as layered and plural rather than singular, their approach to hospitality as an extension of family, and how community, multicultural identity, care, and creativity shape the Kokomo experience.

Ria and Kevol reflect on blending Caribbean heritage with New York life, developing a menu connected to memory and experimentation, creating a space that brings people together, and how hospitality can function as a form of cultural storytelling.

They also speak about the Kokomo Foundation and their fundraising efforts in support of Jamaica following Hurricane Melissa.

This is a lively conversation about food, family, partnership, heritage, creativity and what comes next for Kokomo.

If you like what you heard, please leave a review, subscribe, and explore more at stancepodcast.com and on socials @stancepodcast.

Stance is Hosted by Chrystal Genesis and Produced by Etay Zwick.

Referenced In This Podcast & Show Notes:

Kokomo website

Kokomo Foundation

Kokomo IG

Artist Brittney Leanne Williams joins Chrystal Genesis to talk about her evocative figurative work, where architecture, landscape, and color blur together, and the body opens into a space of transcendence, memory, revelation, suffering and the mystical. Based in Los Angeles and born in Pasadena, Brittney has steadily built a reputation as one of today's most exciting, thoughtful figurative painters. In this wide-ranging conversation, they discuss how Brittney explores spirituality and how she uses the color red as a signal for the Black experience. They trace the evolution of her practice, from portals and prayer to layered storytelling that engages with presence, absence and witnessing. Along the way, they reflect on her early years in Pasadena, her formative time in Chicago, and how nature, along with her personal and cultural history, informs her work. Together, they dig into the creative process, the role of mystery in painting and the questions Brittney is currently asking herself in the studio. This episode is an engaging and intimate look into the mind of an artist shaping contemporary figurative painting with spiritual depth, color and narrative complexity.

If you like what you heard, please leave a review, subscribe, and explore more at stancepodcast.com and on socials @stancepodcast.

Stance is Hosted by Chrystal Genesis and Produced by Etay Zwick.

Referenced In This Podcast & Show Notes:

Brittney Leeanne Williams website

Brittney Leeanne Williams IG

Alexander Berggruen gallery

Writer, DJ, lecturer and creative provocateur Elijah joins Chrystal Genesis to talk about his new book Close The App, Make The Ting: Transformative Prompts For The Modern Artist. In this wide-ranging conversation, they chat about how his Yellow Squares project has grown from Instagram prompts into a global project of installations, lectures, billboards, and collaborations.

They dig into his early story in London's independent music and art scenes, co-founding influential grime label Butterz, his thoughts on his Jamaican heritage, and the complex beauty of Black British identity.

Together, they chat about creative sustainability, echo chambers, and how embracing friction and feedback can power visionary work. This episode is a fabulous dive into ideas built to push culture forward.

If you like what you heard, please leave a review, subscribe, and explore more at stancepodcast.com and on socials @stancepodcast.

Stance is Hosted by Chrystal Genesis and Produced by Etay Zwick.

Referenced In This Podcast & Show Notes:

Butterz Linktree

Elijah IG

Make The Ting by Elijah & Jammz

Singer, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Emma-Jean Thackray joins Chrystal Genesis to talk about her new album, Weirdo, an ambitious, deeply personal project written, performed, produced, mixed, and arranged entirely by Emma-Jean in her South London flat.

In this episode, they discuss how grief, neurodivergence, and resilience shaped the record, which blends elements of jazz, funk, soul, grunge, and pop. They explore her early path into musicianship, how isolation and creativity came together in the making of Weirdo, and why embracing your weirdness can create a powerful sense of self.

The conversation touches on vulnerability, community, and finding your home in music, with tracks from Weirdo, out now via Brownswood Recordings and Parlophone Records, featured throughout.

If you like what you heard, please leave a review, subscribe, and explore more at stancepodcast.com and on socials @stancepodcast.

Stance is Hosted by Chrystal Genesis and Produced by Etay Zwick.

Referenced In This Podcast & Show Notes:

Wanna Die by Emma-Jean Thackray

It's Okay by Emma-Jean Thackray feat. Kassa Overall

Black Hole by Emma-Jean Thackray feat. Reggie Watts

Maybe Nowhere by Emma-Jean Thackray

Musician and artist Goya Gumbani joins Chrystal Genesis in New York's East Village ahead of his live show to talk sound, style, Miles Davis, and his new album, Warlord of the Weejuns. In this episode, the Brooklyn-born, South London-based artist reflects on the cultural influences behind his dreamy, laid-back record, where the storytelling of New York hip-hop meets London's jazz edge.

Recorded just after soundcheck, their conversation glides through fashion, food trucks, friendship, and family, with Warlord of the Weejuns, out via Ghostly International, threaded throughout. The album features contributions from Fatima, Yaya Bey, Joe Armon-Jones, and more, and is a meditation on self-expression, Black cultural lineage, and the quiet power of doing things your way.

If you like what you heard, please write us a review, subscribe and check out more of our work at stancepodcast.com and all podcasting apps & socials @stancepodcast

This podcast was hosted by Chrystal Genesis and produced by Lauren Davies & Etay Zwick.

Referenced In This Podcast & Show Notes

Goya Gambani IG

Buy Goya Gumbani's Music Here

Music Used In This Podcast:

Driftin' Interlude feat. Pearl De Luna by Goya Gumbani.

Beautiful BLACK by Goya Gumbani.

Chase the Sunrise feat. Yaya Bey & lojii & Fatima by Goya Gumbani.

Manuva(s) feat. Joe Armon-Jones by Goya Gumbani.

FireFly feat. Fatima by Goya Gumbani.

Nothin' to Say by Goya Gumbani.

Marie Mitchell joins Chrystal Genesis at home in Harlem for a cooking lesson and conversation, drawn from her debut cookbook, KIN: Caribbean Recipes for the Modern Kitchen. In this episode, Marie teaches Chrystal how to finally master a classic Caribbean staple while sharing the stories, memories and legacy behind the food. As the daughter of Jamaican-born parents, Marie's approach to cooking is about bringing people together through flavor, history and conversation. Her debut book KIN goes far beyond the usual jerk chicken with rice and peas, weaving together more than 80 recipes from saltfish fritters and aubergine curry to dumplings, pineapple punch and provisions, alongside essays and reflections that trace cultural connections across histories, geographies and generations. Over the stove and around the table, Chrystal and Marie explore the many layers of Caribbean cuisine, from the role of intuitive cooking to the importance of honoring the past while making space for the future. KIN marks the beginning of a longer journey, spotlighting the dishes, subtleties and often-overlooked stories that shape Caribbean food.

If you like what you heard, please write us a review, subscribe and check out more of our work at stancepodcast.com and all podcasting apps @stancepodcast

This podcast was produced by Etay Zwick. Presented by Chrystal Genesis.

Referenced In This Podcast & Show Notes

KIN Cookbook

Marie Mitchell Website

Stance is back with singer and dancer Moonchild Sanelley as we approach our 8th year on air! In Season 4, Chrystal Genesis explores the people, places, stories, and ideas shaping our creative world.

And with that, we head to South Africa to hear about Full Moon, the upcoming album from Port Elizabeth-born, Jo'burg-based singer, dancer and businesswoman Moonchild Sanelly.

Born Sanelisiwe Twisha, she was raised on dance routines and church choirs and has since created a sound that's entirely her own, which she calls Future Ghetto Funk—an eclectic fusion of hip hop, punk rock, house, and dance-pop with South African gqom and kwaito.

She has also collaborated with artists like Beyoncé, Self Esteem, Nile Rodgers, Ezra Collective, and Gorillaz.

Chrystal sat down with her to discuss her third studio album, Full Moon, her patented teal Moonmop hairstyle, and the inspiration behind her new record's themes of sexuality, reclaiming power, motherhood, vulnerability and forgiveness.

If you like what you heard, please write us a review and check out more of our work at stancepodcast.com and all podcasting apps @stancepodcast

This podcast was produced by Etay Zwick with additional support from Zara Martin.

Music used in this podcast:

Scrambled Eggs by Moonchild Sanelly with thanks to Transgressive Records

Do My Dance by Moonchild Sanelly with thanks to Transgressive Records

Big Booty by Moonchild Sanelly with thanks to Transgressive Records

Gwara Gwara by Moonchild Sanelly with thanks to Transgressive Records

Demon by Moonchild Sanelly & Sad Night Dynamite with thanks to Transgressive Records

With Love To An Ex by Gorillaz featuring Moonchild Sanelly with thanks to Parlophone Records

Big Man by Moonchild Sanelly and Self Esteem with thanks to Polydor Records