Busy Being Black with Joshua Rivers

W!ZARD Studios

The award-winning podcast that centres and celebrates queer Black liveliness.

  1. The Paradise of Our Intimacy — Dean Atta

    5 DAYS AGO

    The Paradise of Our Intimacy — Dean Atta

    Poet and author Dean Atta returns to Busy Being Black to share how therapy, memoir-writing and entering into his "big man stage" have transformed his relationship with his mental health, creativity and self-acceptance. The episode opens with a joint reading of Dean's poem "Two Black Boys in Paradise"—the poem that inspired the BAFTA-winning animation of the same name—and closes with Dean reading "On Days When" from his poetry collection There Is Still Love Here. Busy Being Black is the award-winning podcast for queer Black creative, cultural and spiritual vitality. If the show moves you, consider ⁠buying me a coffee or a book⁠. Dean Atta is an award-winning Black British writer from London known for his heartfelt storytelling rooted in his Greek Cypriot and Jamaican heritage. He writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction for all ages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    45 min
  2. How to Love Yourself — Dean Atta

    21 MAR ·  BONUS

    How to Love Yourself — Dean Atta

    Busy Being Black returns on Tuesday 24 March 2026 with a new conversation between me Dean Atta, who recently won a BAFTA for Two Black Boys in Paradise. Today, in honour of World Poetry Day, I’m resurfacing our 2018 conversation in which we explore recovery and intimacy, desire and vulnerability and the role of poetry in bringing us closer to ourselves, to each other and to people who are no longer with us. This episode includes two poems by Dean: Black Flamingo and How to Love Yourself. Support the show. About Dean ✷ Dean Atta is an award-winning Black British writer from London known for his heartfelt storytelling rooted in his Greek Cypriot and Jamaican heritage. He writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction for all ages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    37 min
  3. The Alchemy of Black Joy — Rosel Jackson Stern

    10 MAR

    The Alchemy of Black Joy — Rosel Jackson Stern

    Art is a vital mechanism through which we process grief and sustain life. In times of intense discord, denying our impulse to create often results in destructive behaviours. Artist and writer Rosel Jackson Stern offers a gentle provocation to anyone feeling paralysed by the current geopolitical climate: find and nurture even the tiniest moments of joy. By anchoring life in joy, Rosel has built an artistic and spiritual practice that moves them closer—with every prayer, sweep of the brush and stroke of the pen—to a world where queer Black people experience an abundance of peace, community and creative vitality. It is in and through our joy we find our freedom, and this episode is a reminder that liberation is rooted in the timeless intimacy of the present moment. Watch this conversation. About Rosel ✷ Rosel Jackson Stern (they/them) is an artist, journalist and writer whose creativity spans several mediums and modalities. The purpose of their work is to carve out space for the unknown, and is a testament to what happens when we take leaps of faith. Busy Being Black is the award-winning podcast for Black LGBTQ+ creative, cultural & spiritual inquiry. If the podcast moves you, buy me a book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    55 min
  4. All My Poems Are Sad N*gga Poems — Ben Ellis

    21/10/2025

    All My Poems Are Sad N*gga Poems — Ben Ellis

    Today marks eight years since Busy Being Black first came to life: on 21 October 2017, I produced and hosted an event called Forbidden Fruits, anchored by a conversation about love, intimacy and belonging among queer Black men. I couldn't have known in that moment how much I would need this space. Ben Ellis is a poet—and a poet in the way James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and René Ménil meant it: one ordained to dive into the unconscious and awaken the rest of us with their marvels. I am stunned and struck by the energy of Ben's poetry, his vulnerability, his rage. I am enlivened by his sensitivity, his heartache and his desire for peace of mind. I am grateful to honour my own thresholds by bearing witness at the gates of his. If you enjoyed this conversation, you'll enjoy the ⁠Black Marvellous⁠: a growing collection of conversations that adventure into Black imaginative vigour—in art, attitude and life. — Chapters 00:26 Are you avoiding your own emergence? 02:04 The ordination of the bard: 8 years of Busy Being Black 12:43 Ben recites Pansies 16:32 All my poems are sad n*gga poems 24:19 There is no word for depression in my native tongue 29:25 Who is served by the performance of our grief? 33:16 Ben recites Milkshake 37:09 Can we reclaim any spirituality from within the religions that have harmed us? 47:23 I am Black first and Black also 51:00 Ben recites To Orlando 53:37 Peace of mind 55:55 Every gesture is a prayer when you know who you are — Thank you: This episode includes wisdom from ⁠Candice D'Meza⁠, ⁠Rev. Jide Macaulay⁠ and ⁠Bayyinah Bello⁠. If this conversation resonates with you, there are three ways you can show your love: leave a comment, rating, or review; share this conversation on social media; or ⁠buy me a book⁠. The songs 'Busy Being Black' and 'Baptism' were created for Busy Being Black and in collaboration with Lazarus Lynch and Joshua Pleeter, and Dylan Halverson, respectively. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    59 min
  5. Our Miraculous Hearts — Phoebe Boswell

    21/09/2025

    Our Miraculous Hearts — Phoebe Boswell

    A tender meditation on grief, healing and courage with multidisciplinary artist Phoebe Boswell, who creates portals that return us to our miraculous hearts. You can surrender to Phoebe's paintings at Ben Hunter Gallery in London until 12 December. For more on how this conversation and Phoebe's art have landed in my life, head to @busybeingblacktube. The heart-rending composition in this episode is by bassist Gregg August, commissioned by Phoebe Boswell, and is included with Phoebe's permission. If you enjoyed this conversation, you'll enjoy the ⁠⁠Black Marvellous⁠⁠: a growing collection of conversations that adventure into Black imaginative vigour—in art, attitude and life. — Thank you: If this conversation resonates with you, there are three ways you can show your love: leave a comment, rating, or review; share this conversation on social media; or buy me a book. The song 'Busy Being Black' was created for the show and in collaboration with Lazarus Lynch and Joshua Pleeter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    58 min
  6. Black Duende — Mojisola Adebayo

    25/06/2025

    Black Duende — Mojisola Adebayo

    Inspired by Afrosurrealism, surrealist philosophy and the archetypal imagination, the Black Marvellous is a growing collection of conversations that adventure into Black imaginative vigour—in art, attitude and life. Who better than Mojisola Adebayo to remind us of the adventure and irreverence of Black artistry, during and beyond times of crisis? In this conversation, which originally aired in February 2023, Mojisola takes us on a journey from Goldsmiths University to Antarctica, to space and back again, to explore how we utilise performance to challenge the sanctity of whiteness, what an orgasm-seeking space odyssey tells us about the world-changing potential of queer Black pleasure, and how the reanimation of the life and story of Henrietta Lacks prompts us to consider our own genealogical and cosmic immortality. — Thank you: If this conversation resonates with you, here are three ways you can show your love: leave a comment, rating, or review; share this conversation on social media; or ⁠buy me a book. The song 'Busy Being Black' was created for the show and in collaboration with Lazarus Lynch and Joshua Pleeter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    59 min

  7. 31/12/2024

    A Life Worth Writing About — Kuchenga Shenjé

    You’ll no doubt have heard of and read Kuchenga Shenjé's debut novel, The Library Thief, which brings together her passions for history, mystery and rebels; and you’re likely to have felt the warmth and humour of her writing in publications like British Vogue and Stylist. In our conversation, we explore how she came to the transformative decision to pursue sobriety, her hodgepodge approach to her spirituality and spiritual practice, how the deferred dreams of her mother and grandmother have shaped how she enjoys her life and what she’s learned from the characters in her novel and daring women across history about what it means to live a life worth writing about. You can find out more about Kuchenga here. Thank you If this conversation resonates with you, here are three ways you can show your love: leave a comment, rating, or review; share this conversation on social media; or ⁠contribute towards production costs⁠. The song 'Busy Being Black' was created for the show and in collaboration with Lazarus Lynch and Joshua Pleeter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    47 min

  8. 10/12/2024

    Rehumanising the Black Meme — Legacy Russell

    I’ve been invigorated by Legacy Russell’s ongoing inquiries into how we come alive together. Whether she’s encouraging us to think expansively about the connection between marine life and Black agency under duress, or pointing us towards the liberatory possibilities at the intersection of our bodies, genders and technologies, her work is evidence of her desire and drive to live in a world in which Black folks thrive. We explore how an investigation into visual culture helps us appreciate and reckon with the role Black people have played in shaping the modern world, our responsibility as global and digital citizens to harness the internet to collectively push forward what our shared future looks like, and what we learn from what it means to really live—or to not live—from the ancestors who refused to survive the Middle Passage.  Legacy's first book, Glitch Feminism, explores how we find liberation in the glitch between body, gender and technology; her second book, Black Meme, shows us how images of Blackness have always been central to our understanding of the modern world. Both are available from Verso Books. Thank you If this conversation resonates with you, here are three ways you can show your love: leave a comment, rating, or review; share this conversation on social media; or ⁠contribute towards production costs⁠. The song 'Busy Being Black' was created for the show and in collaboration with Lazarus Lynch and Joshua Pleeter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    56 min
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