Ep 24 Grammy-nominated artist, Valerie June, bestselling author of "Light Beams"

"When you can live in the outer world, but also marry that with the inner world, than you're a new space, a new world."

These are the wise words of Grammy-nominated artist, Valerie June, hailed by the New York Times as one of America's "most intriguing, fully formed new talents".

Hailing from Tennessee, Valerie is a musician, songwriter, poet, illustrator, and author, who honourably served as a "Turnaround Artist" working with students for the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities, and continues serving through The Kennedy Center. She has recorded three critically claimed best selling solo albums and has also written songs for legendary artists such as Mavis Staples and The Blind Boys of Alabama. She just published "Light Beams" an interactive workbook that builds upon themes of mindfulness and authentic connection presented in her debut poetry collection, Maps of the Modern World. Be inspired to choose a path of kindness and love in every moment, every dark day, on every page.

In this episode of The Human Challenge, an Amazon Music x ACAST "Indie Podcast Amplifier" 2023, Valerie offers invaluable insights around "radical imagination" and its power to create a new humanity. Touching on her new book, "Light Beams: A Workbook For Being Your Badass Self", she shares how we can harness both softness and hardness in our light, the light of the spirit that we embody, and the lightness to just being a human, and standing and speaking in your truth, in your power. Lastly, we learn how the practice of staying grounded contributes to what she calls "Joy Activism", bringing people together to have constructive spaces for disagreement, with R-E-S-P-E-C-T (like Aretha Franklin says!), and to do so mindfully.

"We have to be alchemists," she says. "We have that power."

Be invited to stay in touch with Vanessa on Instagram @vanessaferlaino or vanessaferlaino.com, and Valerie June @thevaleriejune on Instagram or https://www.valeriejune.com/.

Watch this full episode on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/@vanessaferlaino/featured

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