Toni Blackman | Raw and Radical Women in the Arts Podcast

Hip hop artist and writer Toni Blackman talks about living without regrets, overcoming fear, and connecting with others through music, meditation, and rhyme.

Today’s podcast features Toni Blackman, who shares some highlights from her career, lessons she’s learned, and how fear, self-confidence, and living without regrets has shaped her life choices and artistic path. She jumps right in by talking about fear, a major obstacle to overcome for any artist, and how it has shown up in her life and music. “This whole belief that you're supposed to be fearless, that stops a lot of people. But there’s a lot that we can get done and complete while fear is still here,” she says. Overcoming that fear, and living her life without regret, is one of Toni’s strongest motivators. As a freshman in college she heard a speaker talking about how no one wants turn 50 years old, and wonder what would be different had they taken “what if” chances throughout their lives. “It resonated with me so deeply that so much of what I do comes from, ‘I’m going to do this ‘cause part of me wants to do it, and instead of overthinking myself out of doing it, I’m just going to do it,’” she says.

About our guest:  Toni Blackman, a highly respected artist and social entrepreneur, is the first Hip Hop artist selected to work as a Cultural Ambassador with the US Department of State. This visionary artist leads freestyle masterclasses, rap cyphers, has developed innovative approaches to using the cypher as a concept for community building, leadership development, and healing, and is on the working committee for Harry Belafonte’s Sankofa.org. She is also the creator of Freestyle Union Cypher Workshop and Rhyme Like A Girl, for which she was awarded a prestigious Open Society Institute fellowship.

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