Ep 09 - Part I | Using music and art to call attention to anti-racism, restorative justice and reparations The Soul Pod

Part 1 of this 2 part episode, opens up with an introduction to Charm Taylor - an African-American activist, educator, musician, artist from what Charm likes to call the "future South", New Orleans, Louisiana. Gary and Charm discuss how they met at ETH Denver, one of the most well known blockchain events in the world. Charm was at ETH Denver performing a fully immersive healing art installation, along with her team of artist collaborators known as the MetaMatriarchs. Gary discusses how struck he was by the power of the installation, particularly in the setting where it was performed - at a bustling technology conference. Gary realized quickly in speaking with Charm that she had a unique story to share with the world.
Charm shares her perspective of what it means to be a changemaker. Charm discusses being influenced by the incarceration of her mother in fueling her passion to take action in her community in order to bring awareness to the injustices of the American criminal justice system. Charm views music as her loudspeaker for the causes dear to her, capturing the attention of others in a significant way, with harmonies and lyrics that move the soul. Charm and Gary discuss the problematic American justice system and what restorative justice actually looks like. They discuss the reciprocal trauma of colonization on both the colonizer and the colonized. They touch on institutionalized racism and the impact it has had on society at large and the criminal justice system in particular. Charm shares her perspective that reparation is necessary, the damage of the past, beginning with the colonial system needs to be restored in order for their to be true equanimity realized in America.
Charm is a skilled orator, a conscious creator and someone who knows well her own power and worth. Tune in to this episode and be prepared to be "called in" to action, as Charm likes to say.