Conversations on Kujichagulia: Practicing Self-Determination in Community and Creation
Episode Highlights
What is Kujichagulia?
Self-determination is not individualism. It is the active practice of naming, defining, and claiming your identity, rooted in community. It is sovereignty and solidarity, not separation.
Ancestors Who Embody This Principle
Toni Morrison, for community-rooted storytelling
James Baldwin, whose truths reignite mission and meaning
Malcolm X, whose words remind us that history and rootedness are non-negotiable
Cultural Resistance in Action
Reflections on the 2025 Met Gala and its curated blackness. What serves community, and what serves white gaze?
Ryan Coogler’s radical moves with Sinners: owning IP, demanding first-dollar gross, reclaiming narrative power
Black Dandyism and fashion as political storytelling
Food + Music as Self-Determination
Auntie Diana Ross and Ms. Lauryn Hill: soundtracks of sovereignty
Catfish, cornmeal crusts, watermelon, and southern joy as ancestral reclamation
Saturday Magic’s Orange + Watermelon Salad: a recipe for remembering
Living Kujichagulia Daily
Kujichagulia isn’t only grand gestures. It’s quiet choices. It’s protest. It’s also book sharing, Ancestral Veneration, and community protection. It’s refusing capitalist crumbs and protecting your IP. It’s deciding what and who you divest from. It’s choosing joy as resistance.
We ask ourselves and you:
What is your role in the revolution and how might it change over time?
🎧 Listen
🎶 Kujichagulia Playlist on Spotify | YouTube
Use the playlist as a portal to journal, reflect, move your body, let it guide your knowing.
📣 Add Your Voice to The Fruit Bowl
We want to hear from you.
Leave us a voice note on SpeakPipe:
What does Kujichagulia mean to you?
What does self-determination look like in your mirror, your movement, your mornings?
Your reflections may be featured in the Kujichagulia Fruit Bowl episode.
📚 Support the Work
Pre-order our illustrated book Once Upon a Kwanzaa, out this September.
Request the book at your local library. That support goes a long way in uplifting Black creators and stories.
Stay Connected
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Let Kwanzaa be your entry point, not your only point. It’s never too late to begin again.
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