The Institute of Black Imagination Podcast

This special edition of the podcast is our final episode of 2022.

Today we are revisiting our conversations with thirteen of our guests from this year as they illustrate what happens when you lead with love. Our guests not only talk about romantic love but also highlight what it means to be madly in love with your work, what it can teach us about ourselves, and how important it is to fall head over heels for the process. We will close today’s episode with the kind of love they imagine for the future.

Today’s conversation is with food enthusiast, storyteller, and creative strategist Jon Gray. Jon is the co-founder and self-proclaimed dishwasher of Ghetto Gastro— a collective that uses food as a medium to ignite conversations about race, inequity, and inclusivity. Jon’s love affair with the Bronx, usage of mixed media, and desire to build new narratives that empower black and brown people teach us the importance of having pride in your roots and staying true to yourself.

In this episode, we explore David’s multicultural upbringing growing up in Toronto, Canada, along with topics that range from connecting fermentation to everyday life, how photography allows him to tether his curiosity for science and fermentation, and ultimately how he’s been able to bloom in the midst of chaos. David’s story is one filled with invaluable gems and speaks to the power of leaning into curiosity.

In this episode, he shares the importance of food origins as a space for reclamation and what it means to examine who and what’s being left out of the story. We explore Stephen’s own origin story–growing up in Atlanta in the ’80s–along with topics that range from his start as a young sommelier, the implications of citizens being divorced from food culture, and ultimately how being crushed by a series of life events propelled his career forward; leading him from self-doubt to conviction.

In today’s episode, we explore themes of identity, justice, ancestry, family, and well, of course, food. Zoe’s story will inspire anyone whose path feels non-linear or circuitous. Remember, you are right where you are supposed to be…always..in all the ways. As Zoe reminds us, those whispers of the universe are always speaking to us.