Welcome home, cojourners. I'm glad you're here for another episode. I'm Dr. Tama, licensed

psychologist, ordained minister and sacred artists, here to help facilitate your journey back

home to yourself. And I am so excited and honored to introduce to you our guest on today,

a dear sister friend poet healer, Ravina. And Ravina is a South Asian bestselling author,

spoken word artists, and licensed therapists based in Long Beach, California.

Her specialization and passion lies in trauma treatment of individuals of marginalized identities and communities of color facing trauma caused by oppression and systemic violence.

Ravina was born and raised in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Yellow, which is phenomenal, you are.

I was gifted this book, and you will bless your life with these words. They are truly medicine, healing words.

Yellow is her collection of poetry published by World Stage Press and recipient of the Long Beach Best

Poetry Collection of 2021.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Ravina is a Pushcart Prize nominee and has performed poetry on nationally and internationally

acclaimed stages, including the United Nations. Come on, come on, and the House of Blues.

Ravina is a performing spoken word artist with a collective Long Beach Never Speak.

She is the founding director of writing as Healing Los Angeles, an award-winning workshop and series that honors the intersection

of creative writing, expression, and mental health. Welcome!

Thank you, thank you. Oh, I am so, so delighted that you are here, and we usually start

with a poem, and since we have a poet in the

midst, we're going to share a poem from her book, Yellow. I'll read this one and later she'll

treat us with her own reading. Yes. Right. So this piece is called sacred, with or without you, in your presence or not.

I am still the most sacred version of myself there is, still magnificently whole.

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