Fare Of The Free Child

This week on Fare Of The Free Child Podcast we’ll have a mix of resources and liberation talk!Ieishah Clelland-Lange, writer, nomad and mother of Freeda (7 years old) and Toni (4 years old), will be talking with us about how to redefine power in our parent-child relationships. Thea @theamonyee of Shaping the Shift Podcast talks to us about The Blacker the Brain, the Free Joy Experience, and more opportunities to decolonize, reimagine, and heal. And we close out with a reminder to come see and share with us at  RaisingFreePeople.com/book.WHAT WE DISCUSSAkilah and Ieishah chat about movement, location independence and community. Ieishah shares her traveling experience and how she sees it as a vehicle to learn how to be more engaged with earth and places in a different way. She also talks about how this dynamic changed in our current context and became an opportunity for her to settle into more fluid and meditative ways.Then they shift the conversation into partnership skills, observation and learning. Ieishah s

Another Mad Question Askin’ episode! Episode 189 addresses this question from our Make-it-Happen family:“Hi Akilah and community! Episode 182 with Genesis Ripley (Partnering with Our Pain) was so amazing! I need to listen again so I can absorb all the thought provoking things you both brought up. Akilah, you and Genesis mentioned Colonized Unschooling. I had this idea that if you do Unschooling with your family, especially Radical Unschooling you are automatically on the path to Decolonization. I definitely don’t want to do Colonized Unschooling! What does that mean? I think you and Genesis said something about how Colonized Unschooling is letting your kids do whatever they want and then supporting them. And this is related to the Colonial idea that white people think they own the world and can rape and pillage and dominate without caring how they are harming and impacting the community. So is Colonized Unschooling basically narcissism? What does Decolonized Unschooling look like? We give our kids a lot of fr

Today’s episode features consent educator, sexual literacy advocate, speaker, founder of Consent Parenting, host of the About Consent Podcast and change agent, Rosalia Rivera. Rosalia works with parents who are survivors of sexual abuse to help them learn and teach proper abuse prevention and consent to their children.“I'm a mom of 3 little lovely consent-empowered humans between the ages of 4 and 8. It wasn't always like this. They didn't know about consent, boundaries or body safety. They were little chicks and I was the hen that hid them under my wings.⁠ I'm proud of how far they've come and how much more confident I am in their ability to speak up for themselves.⁠”  Rosalia Rivera.WHAT WE DISCUSS:Akilah and Rosalia chat about the implications that a lack of bodily autonomy can lead to, as well as the importance of strong foundations in children in terms of mental and body boundaries. Rosalia speaks to the immense value of acknowledging children’s rights to speak up in situations t

Here is Part 2 of an insightful, intergenerational conversation between Kris @iandidea and Romain (Rom) @pharo___ on the topic of capitalism and community. Both are college graduates with Marketing degrees, so their perspectives on capitalism in particular are nuanced as they work both as people affected by and carrying out some of the notions of capitalism. And they are not alone, as it is virtually impossible to untether from capitalism altogether. Still, we can critique it and we can imagine and build and practice beyond it, and this part of the conversation wants to usher in that type of energy.This week, they touch on some of the ways capitalism conflicts with our commitment to being in community with each other, and how we can shift and deschool by being more aware of the differences and implications between transactional vs human-centered relationships.Core question for you: How is capitalism showing up and influencing your relationships with young folks in your life?WHAT WE DISCUSS:Kris and Rom talk a

Welcome to another episode of Fare Of The Free Child Podcast.  This week, our intention is to expand our understandings of deschooling and self-directedness beyond children and education. So, let’s listen to Part 1 of a conversation between a 20-something freelance marketing and social media consultant and a 40-something year old creative branding entrepreneur about discerning between capitalism and community.What Kris Richards and Roman Sinclair began to explore in this conversation is that if we go deep and question further, we can begin the level of liberation and healing to redefine and revitalize our relationship dynamics across generations.WHAT WE DISCUSSWe are so hyped because Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work book is finally here! Please support independent publishing and order Akilah’s book from PM Press.If you’re hosting a book club around this or you’re hosting a convo around it, Akilah will love to be part of it, so reach out to our Operations Manager, Fatima Mookadam

Today’s episode is a deschooling conversation with the amazing Domari Dickinson. Domari chats with Akilah about how she became more aware of what it took for her to begin, moving away from a controlling approach and towards more positive and purposeful parenting.WHAT WE DISCUSSDomari speaks from her own experience as a Black woman on how the resources and theory about homeschooling lacked diversity. She didn’t see herself or her family represented, in homeschooling communities online and in books and podcasts. Domari homeschooled her children for two years before sending them to public school.  Her children immediately had conflicts because of the way that their teachers were managing their learning processes, so they asked to go back to homeschooling.Domari and Akilah also talk about what positive parenting means and how moving from a schoolish setting to a more partner centered way of being allows trust to happen, supporting practices can create an environment where children can feel safe reaching out to th

Today's episode features Shawna Murray-Browne, a community healer and the founder of Kindred Community Healing, licensed clinical social worker. Akilah and Shawna go deep and talk about the skill sets that allow a professional to see the whole person and how the quality of care is not taking into account the whole spectrum, the collective experience, because true healing happens in community. They also talk about collective trauma and what liberation looks like when we decolonize practices that have been rooted from a settler-colonial framework.Shawna points out the importance of relationship skills and collective healing by remembering our roots, how do we heal collective trauma? It's about thriving, taking therapy out of these containers, these concepts that have been naturalized as an only truth. She started a virtual space for mental health professionals who are looking to liberate themselves and their practices. You can find it on her webinar replay, 6 Crucial Steps to Decolonize Your Therapy P

Today's episode is full of liberation and healing talk with life learner Dominique of DommiesBlessed. She shares some insights on natural learning, which we’re hoping will usher in changes around learning and relationship-building. Check out Dommie’s blog on natural learning.WHAT WE DISCUSSBefore we talk to Dommie, Akilah gives a shout out to entrepreneurs, Kim and Jamal Hester, creators and developers of Life Strength & Health holistic center. Listen to their podcast for more healing work!Also, as we are raising free people and nurturing self-care habits, check out the latest episode of the She Said We Shed Podcast, hosted by Aja Marie. Click here to subscribe to all five podcasts on Raising Free People Network.Today, as we deschool with Dominique on the topic of natural learning, we are mad question askin’ about how learning looks and feels. The intention inside this episode is discover, or perhaps explore, a more intuitive and self-directed way of imagining and practicing self-care. Self-care is a

Episode 182 is a mix of communal spaces, tools, resources and of course liberation talk. Genesis Ripley will be joining us to chat about shadow work and the importance of being more aware of our unconscious as we are moving into a more self-directed way of being. Genesis is an LA-based mother, natural learning advocate, decolonizer by design and unschooler momma. We’ll also be sharing some great resources and invitations to continue through this healing and self awareness process, and you’ll hear from Kelly Limes-Taylor and Chemay Morales-James about ways to do that work.WHAT WE DISCUSSKelly Limes-Taylor, is a former college professor and unschooler mother of five. Kelly speaks about the relevance in naming our failed structures and how these structures, built on a settler-colonial framework, are reinforced through conventional schooling. Kelly points out the importance of trusting our intuition and brings us a valuable resource: she is offering a course series called The Ours First Series in order to help ad

Welcome back, homies (and new homies, too)! Y’all ready for season 5? In today’s episode Akilah shares ideas and invitations for what’s to come in the new season of Fare Of The Free Child.WHAT WE DISCUSSAkilah talks about deschooling and unschooling, not as something we learn from a curriculum nor a thing we perform, but as a way of being. It’s through the experiences and different points of view that we get to understand the otherness, question our own truths as part of a liberation work, and work at understanding more than being understood. She touches on the naming and shrinking the ways that we've been forced to separate things in a schoolish way, and how that needs to be decolonized, not only in our learning process but in our relationships overall. We have the capacity and resources to thrive and heal through these embodiment practices, so this season will be all about the ways we have done that, and can do it more, and in community.We’ve also got more goodness in store through Raising Free People

We are so ready for some indoor plant tips from Plant It Up Podcast. As a close-out for the fourth season we decided to do one more episode with @valandourplants - you’re welcome :) And remember, Akilah will be back on August 12th with Season 5! In the meantime, listen as Val (Akilah’s resident plant lady who also happens to be her Mama!) talks about the importance of having plants at home and shares some of her favorites, along with the many benefits of each one. There’s a special appearance by Marley Richards too, ‘cause we ‘bout that intergenerational life! Enjoy!LIST OF PLANTS MENTIONED:Peace Lily, Rubber Tree Plant, Bamboo Plant: purify the air in the home and remove toxins from paintLavender: improves sleep qualityMint (Spearmint and peppermint): great for teas and drinksRosemary: great scent and helps with memorySpider Plant, English Ivy, Philodendrons: remove formaldehyde from the air at homeAloe Vera, Pothos Plant: maintain the quality of the air in the homeSnake Plant: absorbs carbon dioxide inside

Welcome to the fourth season finale of Fare of the Free Child! Today’s episode features Kris Richards, he and Akilah will be talking about some upcoming surprises and topics for the fifth season.We also shout out the members of our Make It Happen Family; thank you all for your comments and support! Akilah just saw more than a hundred comments on her  Youtube Channel, particularly from the How Good Morning America Got Unschooling Wrong video, some of them from you, dear family! Thanks for that, and be sure to subscribe for more information and conversations about love and liberation work.WHAT WE DISCUSS:Akilah will be taking a little break but the podcast will be back on August 12th with more amazing content.We wanted to thank all the listeners for the messages and support we got for our zeroversary. We are excited to have new people coming in for season 5 as well as some of our previous guests like Moji Yai, Maleka Diggs, and Kelly Henderson.Kris and Akilah give us a sneak peak of some of the topics that will

We are so hyped about today's episode because the day of publishing, July 10th, marks our zeroversary, the 4-year anniversary of Episode 0! It's been quite a journey since Akilah started Fare of the Free Child podcast back in the summer of 2016. Even though it started from a painful place, we feel so very thankful to the community that has come from this podcast—our listeners and members of our Make it Happen Family—for the support and love through all these years. Here you can listen to Episode 0, Welcome and Why This Show, where it all began. Today, in the middle of some painful realities, we hold on to ways to move outside these injustices. We stay resilient through happiness, not afraid to speak up, from a space of awareness and love. We invite you to celebrate that with us today, doing whatever feels good for you.WHAT WE DISCUSSAkilah recently launched From Schoolish to Self-directed, an audio course in support of the transition that many are experiencing as this pandemic ushers in a swift shif

Episode 177 features podcaster Howard Cosmonaut Palmer. His podcast explores inner universes through mindful guided meditation. Today Cosmo gives us some tools to center both harmony and joy, important aspects of our liberation work. Find his podcast: Only Black CosmonautWHAT WE DISCUSSOur lives are under a constant saturation of feelings and thoughts as a result of a subconscious conditioning from a schollish framework and due to the exhaustion in our daily context. Cosmo talks about learning how to be in control has been the biggest part of our conditioning, it’s in the acceptance and letting go that we can find peace within ourselves.The hardest part of this conditioning are the expectations that we put on people and situations in life. Cosmo uses the juggler as an analogy in life, we are the jugglers that happen to be managing multiple realities and pains at the same time. In order to handle this, we can learn to trust our inner selves, relying on intuition and letting go the fear of not being able to han

Last episode Akilah talked about the importance of our capacity of resistance and the relevance of trusting our dynamic selves in order to find balance to center our joy. Today’s episode is about Black Joy, and how happiness can be understood as a way of liberation and activism. Can joy be a radical way of resistance?WHAT WE DISCUSSMarley, Akilah’s daughter, shares some thoughts on Black Joy and how she perceives happiness as a way of resistance. The way Black people live their lives doesn’t have to be a constant struggle, people are capable of having multiple feelings. Joy and happiness can be a conduit through liberation.We then listen to the first episode from Plant It Up, a podcast hosted by Val Sinclair, Akilah’s mom, where she celebrates the power and pleasure of plants. Beyond the health benefits and plant-care advice, these stories are related to self-care and liberation work practices that lead us towards a better understanding of human relationships and our connection with nature. In this episode, A

Ways we’re sharing our feelings and experiencesLast week we took a pause in our Deschooling Release Party to address everything that was happening with the protests and related feelings. That same week another life, that of Rayshard Brooks, was taken by violent police officers. It feels necessary to take some space and talk about it, and we’re gonna take however long we feel is needed. As we talked about in the last episode, these disruptive times make us more reflective, but also can fill us with emotions that can turn/become overwhelming. In order to provide more communal spaces and healing resources, Akilah is offering more invitations and tools that can help with breaking the patterns of oppression, in resistance, from a space of love, education and self-care. The main message in this episode is this: discussing and sharing is important, but action is vital to our capacity to thrive.Find the complete show notes page with useful resources at https://www.raisingfreepeople.com/175/LIBERATION WALKOrganization

In today's episode we are making a pause from our Deschooling Release Party Vol. 2. Akilah addresses anti-blackness and its consequences. These disruptive times are making us more aware and reflective, and we have so many reminders and invitations to be more present.WHAT WE DISCUSSIn the summer of 2016 Akilah was starting Fare Of The Free Child, a podcast with the purpose of amplifying the underrepresented voices and unique concerns of Black people and other people of color, looking for viable alternatives to oppressive systems, ways to practice more self-directed ways. This was also a result of the communications that were happening when Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were lynched by the police.Akilah shares her story about the first direct physical encounter with a violent police officer in her early teen years. This shows as a continuous pattern, Philando and Alton back in 2016, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in 2020, history repeats itself. Akilah talks about how this gets her tired.It’s in the

Message from Akilah“I felt compelled to bring the sounds of my current city into this episode. I literally missed my deadline to submit the raw audio, because Spirit said Don’t record that intro in the corner of your closet, Sis. Instead, open your window, let the city sound off while you try to speak to some of what you’re feeling. I obeyed. And later that evening, the voices and emotions of the people of Atlanta sounded off too, in the form of peaceful protest. I was able to see some of it from our apartment, and I watched with Kris, Marley, and Sage, swaying in between a stream of emotions ranging from anger to exhaustion. I didn’t know that the audio I was called to document, to hold, would be the calm before yet another storm here in the American South. Peaceful protests were interrupted by police; humans raged; the government retaliated; helicopters and curfews circled the city; more rage, more fear, more resistance.Anti-Black racism and the myth of white supremacy are present and prevalent now, as has

Welcome to the fourth Deschooling Release Party (DRP) session, a celebration of our commitment to unlearning oppression in our relationships with children and Self. Volume I was about self-care and this one (Volume II) is about pivoting from fear and panic over into what we're being guided to do. Melinda Alexander will be joining us to talk about the role in ritual in her mothering. More recently, she and her son Raider, started transitioning from schoolishness to unschooling.“If you travel down a long ass road and find the intersection— of art, feminism, fashion, Buddhism, social justice and motherhood— you’ll find me standing there in a MuMu, having a yard sale, raising money for Black Lives Matter.” - Melinda AlexanderMelinda is an LA-based mother, activist, and entrepreneur. Influenced by her parents work as longtime anti-racist, civil rights organizers, both art and social justice kept at her center. After having her baby in a tumultuous transition/divorce, her life changed. The work she does now, w

If you enjoy this podcast, this is your kind of reading! Pre-order Akilah’s book, Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work!We are back with our Deschooling Release Party sessions, Volume II. In today’s episode Akilah talks with Natalie Pipkin, founder of Black World Schoolers and Pulse Project Indy, a drumming community that promotes social, cultural and emotional development in vulnerable spaces. Her project seeks to disrupt dominant oppressive narratives, providing an environment of psychological empowerment through cultural awareness.WHAT WE DISCUSS:Natalie, like Kelly did in episode 169, tells us very early on what she’s noticing is actually stuff she has always felt, but feels uniquely compelled during this time, to pivot away from just noticing, over to acting upon. Natalie talks about problematic elements of the focus on Black Excellence and the dynamics that are involved when that excellence is rooted in white supremacy. Akilah and Natalie then go further and chat about the real