Take Notice: Amplifying Black Stories

Shea Rose

January 19, 2021 Shea Rose Episode 6
Take Notice: Amplifying Black Stories
Shea Rose
Show Notes Transcript

Shea Rose
www.shearose.com

Allison had the pleasure of speaking and reconnecting with immense talent, Shea Rose - singer, songwriter, music curator, and style icon. They discuss Shea's career origins, the experience of listening to your own instincts, and her experience growing up in Boston, MA.

Shea Rose has possessed numerous titles throughout her career: singer, songwriter, style icon, and music curator are just a few. Her music, influenced by soul, hip-hop, and rock, speaks to personal and societal transformation. She has received numerous honors for her musical talents, including multiple Boston Music Awards, a SESAC National Performance Activity Award, and she is a recipient of the prestigious Abe Olman Scholarship from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Rose is an Assistant Professor at her alma mater, Berklee College of Music, teaching in the Contemporary Writing and Production Department. She holds a B.A. in English and a B.A. in Communication from Pine Manor College. Rose is a student of yoga and meditation; she writes one poem a day and offers coaching and holistic practices to help women come into a healthy and embodied voice.

Mentioned in this episode:
NAACP
African Healing Dance
Nina Hayes Yoga
Uniqua Hardy

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Music by Version Big-Fi featuring Darius Heggins
Produced, Hosted & Edited by Allison Preisinger-Heggins

Thank you for Taking Notice!

Take Notice w Shea Rose 



[00:01 – 05:03]

Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Welcome to 'Take Notice: Amplifying Black Stories. Thank you for listening. I am your host Allison Preisinger-Heggins. Let us begin by taking a moment to recognize to Take Notice of the voices that are so often unheard. Land acknowledgement statements are an important part of honoring those whose land we now live and work on. I have chosen to begin each episode this way to spark ideas and keep these conversations in the front of our minds, so that we may learn how to do better. I would like to acknowledge the land on which I created this recording and the recording of the interview in this episode. I would like to show gratitude to the traditional ancestral land of the Tulalip, Snohomish, Stillaguamish, Sauk-Suiattle, Shoalwater Bay and Chinook tribes, recognizing that these names are not the original names of the people of these areas, as I continue to learn how to better acknowledge native people of these lands I will adjust the wording at the beginning of each episode. 

I encourage listeners to research the land on which you live and are listening right now, recognizing this is just the beginning. The mission of this project is to Take Notice, to listen, to hold space by amplifying Black stories experiences and voices; conversations on family life, finding joy and interests of folks in our country who encounter racism on a daily basis. A portion of these discussions will be dedicated to holding space for guests who are comfortable sharing their personal experiences with racism. Stories help us all learn and connect; we are here to listen, to Take Notice. I hope this episode finds you all taking care of yourselves out there. We are in a time of heightened awareness but also heightened entitlement by those who feel threatened by change, by losing power, by being called out for what they have been proven to be, in turn these people are acting out in threatening in violent ways like what we saw at our capital a couple weeks ago. 

If you are in the Seattle area, please take the time to reach out or stop by Black Coffee Northwest in Shoreline. They were recently vandalized once again and their employees have been receiving racist threats and intimidation. Let us show up for them and do what we can to help create a safe space, so they can continue to show up for our community. They were one of our very first interviews that we shared in December. Darnish Aware is one of the co-owners of that space. So, please reach out to them if you have the opportunity, and reach out to those that are in your community that you feel like may need some extra support in these next couple of weeks. I feel like we are each other's strength and support in these difficult times, and we can help each other get through it, and stay safe. I am beyond grateful for this project and hope that Take Notice and projects like it continue to grow and reach more listeners, ears, hearts, and minds. 

I really feel that through telling stories we can connect, and come to a better understanding of what other human’s experience, in order to foster a better environment for all of us. My guest on this episode is Shea Rose. Shea has possessed numerous titles throughout her career; singer, songwriter, style icon, and music curator are just a few. Her music influenced by soul hip hop and rock, speaks to personal and societal transformation. She has received numerous honors for her musical talents, including multiple Boston music awards, a CSAC national performance activity award, and she is the recipient of a prestigious AbeOlman scholarship from the songwriter’s hall of fame. Rose is an assistant professor at her Alma Mater, Berkeley College of music, teaching in the contemporary writing and production department. She holds a BA in English and a BA in communication from Pine Manor College. 

Rose is a student of yoga and meditation; she writes one poem a day and offers coaching and holistic practices to help women come into a healthy and embodied voice. Shea and I attended music school together in Boston, which we talked about a little bit in the episode. It was a joy to reconnect with Shea and I am so happy to share our conversation with you all. Please enjoy my conversation with Shea Rose. Take Notice would like to take the time to acknowledge Black owned businesses, organizations and artists. If you have a suggestion of, who we should highlight during our episodes, please find us on social media or visit our website. Founded in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people around the country, the NAACP is the largest and most preeminent civil rights organization in the nation, with over 2200 units and branches across the nation along with well over 2 million activists, their mission is to secure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons. 

To find ways to get involved or donate, visit naacp.org. Welcome Shea, thank you so much for joining me on Take Notice, I am so excited to chat with you today and how are you today? 


[05:04 – 10:15]

Shea Rose 

Oh, all is well. I am actually enjoying a beautifully warm day, here in Boston. We have been getting this extended warm summer weather. So, I am taking advantage of it as much as I can with long walk and hikes and things like that. So, yeah, all as well, thank you. Thank you for having me. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Absolutely, that sounds beautiful! We have definitely hit the rain season here in the Seattle area, so I am envious, though it is sunny right now. Awesome! Well, it is been a number of years, we met back in music school in Boston, and we did not spend a whole ton of time together but we definitely connected, and I am just really excited to chat with you, and kind of catch up on how things have been since then. But, since I know you but maybe other people do not. How about we get into your background and where you grew up and who you were surrounded by growing up? 


Shea Rose 

Sure. So, I was born here in Boston Massachusetts and my formative years, I grew up in a hybrid of like urban inner city Boston, and then transitioned when I was 12 years old, about sixth grade to the suburbs, about 25 minutes outside of Boston a suburb called Braintree and I grew up with my mom and dad and my two brothers. My mother is a southern woman, she grew up in Alabama. So, there is a lot of rich history there and my father grew up here in Boston, and that side of the family, I have a little more information about what their journey was coming here to the United States. So, my father is a second generation, his father was born in Barbados, actually my father was first generation, actually that is… 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Yeah. Okay.


Shea Rose 

Yeah. So, I have like this hybrid of island Caribbean culture, mixed with southern hospitality and warmth and so in that respect a household with a lot of love, and culture, and music, and food, and laughter. Yeah. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

That sounds sweet! Growing up, what did your parents do in Boston? 


Shea Rose 

Yeah. So, both my parents are blue collar workers; they are now both retired, so they were blue collar workers. My father worked for the Massachusetts Bay transportation authority, it is called the MBTA, and so that is our public transit system and my mother worked for general motors. So, as I am actually speaking this out to you for the first time, I am like they both were in transportation, literally that just like connected at this moment in the stream. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Oh, that is amazing! 


Shea Rose 

Oh, my god! So, like they are hard-working, blue-collar family, both put in their over 20 years of time, and are now retired. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

That is awesome! Oh, that is so funny. Yeah. Is not it funny the things that you do not recognize when you are a kid and you are just like well this is just what it is, and then you are like wait a second. 


Shea Rose 

Right. You kind of start to see the connections, and even in the season right now, you know, pulled back an older adult, I am able to see now my parents outside of the context of them being, you know, daughter, mother, father daughter to me, and kind of understand their relationship more. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Yeah. 


Shea Rose 

So that was just the light bulb moment. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Yeah. That is awesome! Oh, wonderful! What do your brothers do? 


Shea Rose 

My brother Hillary followed in the footsteps of my dad, and he works for the MBTA, he works in the kind of administration executive offices, he is a first responder. So, if there is something going on the buses or an emergency, he is the one that is watching all of the stations and everything that goes on and then my brother Daniel is also on the front lines as a first responder, he is a police officer. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Oh, okay. Very cool, in Boston or…? 


Shea Rose 

Yeah, in Boston, both in Boston. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Yeah. Okay, great! Wow! So, growing up moving from… you said you moved from Boston inner city is that what you said and then you moved to the suburbs. How old were you when you moved? 


Shea Rose 

So, I was 12 years old, and we were living actually in a three family that my dad grew up in, when he was young, very small space, and at that time in America, not just in Boston, the inner cities were becoming flooded with a lot of gang activity, you know, at that time the crack pandemic, crack, is not even the right crisis. I am like we are in a pandemic now, but yeah, it could be… 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

They might have called it that at the time.


[10:16 – 15:16]

Shea Rose  

They might have called it that at the time. Yeah. That was growing in all urban and inner city neighborhoods and there was just a lot of unrest. So, my mom having grown up in the south, very rural, she was clear that she did not want her children to be raised in that environment, and so it was really with her lead that my parents decided to move out to the suburbs, she was thinking about our education, she is thinking about our well-being and we were kind of in a neighborhood that there were there were families that have been there for many years, but it was starting to transition and the fabric of the community was kind of being torn away by these other crises that were happening in the city and so, we transitioned to Braintree when I was 12, and that was its own set of challenges, and felt like a crisis too in some ways. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

So, I am familiar a little bit with the area around where all the colleges are like, oh man! It is been so long for me now. Mass Avon, Boylston Avon, and all that area, and pretty, at least for that time, 10 years ago I was familiar with that area and to me like coming as a transplant to college, like I was just in an entirely different world than I imagined a 12 year old you was, you probably were much more embedded in that world and I imagine it was different at that time too than in 2010. What was it kind of like for you in that area? And what area were you in when you were in Boston? 


Shea Rose 

Sure. That is a great question. So, we were in Dorchester, and where Berkeley is located, there is been a lot of gentrification, so if you are thinking about for those of you who do not know Boston, Mass Ave is a street that just runs from the beginning of what you would call like inner city Boston, and it goes straight through Cambridge and Arlington and all of these kind of suburbs and more affluent neighborhoods and a lot of Boston is sectioned that way. Dorchester though at the time, again there were a lot of families who were hard-working and had successful careers but the neighborhood, by whatever means was being changed to… I do not know if it was like the white people were moving out and then they were creating low-income homes and so, when my father grew up there, he was actually one of the only Black families on the street, and his mother was white, and my grandfather was from Barbados invasion, even that transition from my father growing up in that same neighborhood to us growing up in Dorchester in that neighborhood was so drastic. 

So, my recollection was that it definitely felt dangerous, it did not feel safe. Again there was a lot of just pain that Black families and Black folks were dealing with, through lack of education, lack of resources, lack of jobs, like I could feel that tension, I could not quite name what it was at the time, but I could feel that as a child and I could feel why my mother wanted us to leave and when we moved to Braintree, there was a relief that we had made this transition, but quickly that pivoted because we were up against a different kind of challenge, which was a great deal of racism and bias with us being now the first Black family on the street that we moved to. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Right. Did you feel that within the neighborhood and within your school or was it in certain places more than others? 


Shea Rose 

Oh, it was everywhere in Braintree. I mean it was so to share with you demographically, Braintree is, it is a suburb, and it is mainly Irish catholic. There is also a lot of Italians, so that like the wealthy families are affluent from my understanding are like more of the Italian roots, and folks who have built their family legacy from Italy to America and in Boston but, it was bad. I mean, we, one of the first weeks or months, we were there, my mom and two brothers; we were walking to this little bakery, down the street, called what is cooking and it is my mother with her three children, and driving past the car, somebody shouts out inward, and kept driving, so that was a definitely, I did not feel threatened by it, because I still did not quite understand the potency of that word. But, I knew… I felt the shift in my mom, you know. 


[15:17 – 20:16]

Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Right. 


Shea Rose 

And also at that time when we moved, there was this very famous, unfortunately horrific story about a pregnant woman, who had been murdered outside of Brigham and women's hospital, one of the top hospitals in Boston and her husband called in and said that it was a Black man. So, the city basically shut down, and there was a… like a bounty on the heads of all Black men. If you fit the description or not in Boston, and we had moved in Braintree like right at this time, it was like all happening within a month and so, they found a Black man, they basically convicted by public opinion and then within weeks, there was some investigation that revealed that the husband actually killed his wife. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Oh my god! 


Shea Rose 

And it was for an insurance policy, and that his brother, his brother like corroborated the whole thing, and his name is Charles Stewart, it is a really famous story. But, circling back to my experience in our first month or so in Braintree, my mom was scared for us to leave the house, so we did not, we did not. We stayed home during that time because it was just all over the news and we were scared, we were definitely scared. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

I can imagine. Yeah. What else can you do in the face of the entire city, just not thinking straight? Wow! So, you all stayed home from school I imagine, from all kinds of things work, and… 


Shea Rose 

Yeah. I mean we just kind of stayed conscious of like taking those walks down to the store and it is the same awareness that I think most Black and Brown people walk around with even today, just kind of cognizant of where you are, and how you might be perceived, and depending on where you are in the country. There are some places that you have to step into cautiously. Recently I had that experience; I traveled back to Alabama with my mom and the soil is very different there, like you can, I could feel the shift from definitely north to south. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Yeah. 


Shea Rose 

But also that so much of the Jim Crow and the lynching’s and all of that blood that was filled with on that soil, so there is still that feeling to me of like very divided lines or just be careful, you know, where you walk and just how you are. I felt that. That was my personal experience. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Sure. 


Shea Rose 

So, it definitely relates back to that feeling as a child, when with both the Charles Stewart incident and then someone screaming the N-word to my mom and my brothers, and I about having to kind of be really aware of my surroundings that there was a freedom that was kind of taken away in a sense. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Right. Yeah, you cannot just walk out your door, and go play with somebody down the street or if you had to have that always in the backyard mind, especially as a child, I can imagine, what that must have felt like but also still feel like to think back at that, at that time and I imagine just from what I have learned that that has not so much changed in much of the country. That feeling that you always have to kind of watch your back, wherever you are. Is that how you feel still or has it shifted or…? 


Shea Rose 

It is shifted because I think as we are all learning about the language around, some of this behavior, you know, racism, and implicit bias, and micro aggressions, and all this. So, it shifted where I can kind of name a behavior now, you know, whereas before it was the only term that we had was the racist, right? 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Sure. Yeah. 


Shea Rose 

And people start still may very well be racist, unknowingly or unconsciously, but there is a more… I think I have more of a psychological understanding of how it works, and who might just be very ignorant versus I need to be watching my back because I feel like I am in danger or I could be harmed. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Right. 


Shea Rose 

Yeah. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

I imagine that makes a difference when you are able to name things. I was talking about that kind of a thing with another guest of mine, when you are younger; it is like you just feel all these things. But then it makes such a huge difference, when you can look at it, and name it, and point at it. Like that is what that is and kind of recognize what you are dealing with, whether it is something within you or something with somebody else. So, I imagine that that makes a big difference. 


[20:17 – 25:05]

Shea Rose 

Yeah. To be able to name it, and then have tools and skills and practices to not internalize it one, because that was a big part of that behavior and that kind of potent racism or bias, that you internalize that, you know. But then to have approaches, right? There are ways that we can, if you have it in you and I am not saying that anyone should, people have a right I believe to react in, and whatever way they are reacting when that kind of energy is coming toward them and I know it took a long time for me to be skillful and I know that in being skillful that sometimes, especially if it is in the moment type of exchange, that I am putting certain emotions on the side to process for another time, in order to directly engage in what was said or what was done. But then there are moments when I do not have that skill. You know what I mean? 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Right. 


Shea Rose 

And that is okay too. There are moments where I feel like I do not want to be in a teaching moment. You know that I want to be in my feelings and be like, you got to feel how you were feeling and say what you wanted to say are your actions and I want to, I get to do that too. I think less and less though as I come to terms with this, this is racism, racism is an illness. It is a mental illness that we all are dealing with in our different ways, both Black people and white people, particularly speaking to this country because we do talk about it in Black and white. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Right. Thanks for sharing that. I realize as we are talking, I do not think, I asked you specifically, what you do? Can you describe a little bit of your work and what you do? 


Shea Rose 

I would, I guess now, like since graduating from Berkeley, it is evolved so much. I would say that my instrument and my practice are in voice, and that manifests in several ways, and has grown over the years. So of course! Through the music and singing songs and writing songs and performing but it is also evolved into a practice that I call embodied voice and what that is, kind of marrying, movement, journaling, drawing, anything that helps you to bring authentic voice into your life, so that you are speaking from a place of centeredness, truth, grounded ness and I believe that energy is can be great and flowing and enriching, and energy can also get stuck and I feel like, especially Black woman, woman, Black woman and all the other ways that I might be identified by other people, a lot of times my voice, the energy was stuck, you know and that energy not having a place to go or tools available to me to reach into to release that, took a huge toll on my body, and my singing voice. 

So, the work that I do now is centered in voice and helping, you know, first myself continuing to evolve my practices, and really understand what the vocal instrument can do, both on the entertainment level but also on the spiritual level, and then helping others to go through that process, to help them unleash their voice. So singing embodied voice and then I do community work, so my community work kind of centered around the same idea of like releasing voice, spoken words, singing, helping people, bring forth who they are and the most genuine way that they can be through this amazing instrument and voice. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

That is wonderful! That is such beautiful work. You mentioned an experience that you had, also with your partner more recently that I do not want to ignore. So, I would love to hear if you want to share that story. You said that you had an experience recently in a store in Boston, I imagine with your partner. 


Shea Rose 

So, it was actually in Belmont, which is a city. I do not know if, I think Belmont might be west of Boston, but… so it was my birthday and he found this amazing vegan restaurant, which was like in another city adjacent to Belmont, cannot think of the name of that city right now. So, we were like, well let us bop around, he wanted to bring me to the street that had all of these little shops in Belmont before going to dinner and so, we start walking through all of these stores, and every store we walked into people stopped and looked at us, like we were aliens from another planet. 

[25:06 – 30:02]

Shea Rose 

And growing up in this culture and being as in tune as I am, you know, empathetically speaking and spiritually speaking, I feel like I have a good gauge of what is that energy that I can hearken back to when I was a kid. Like oh, I need to watch my back, I do not feel wanted, I do not feel accepted, and I do not feel like I belong and so that came flooding to my mind, into my body, and it was the first time that my partner, who is European from Rome Italy, it was the first time that he actually witnessed that ever happened. So, for him too, it was astounding for him to be a witness to that but to also be part of it because he was with me.


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Right. 


Shea Rose 

And it was every store, so by the time, except one, there was one jewelry store where they were sweet, so I do not want to like implicate the street…


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Sure. 


Shea Rose 

But pretty much the whole street, and the last place that we went to was this little, kind of like bakery ice cream shop, and I walked in, and the same kind of thing, like what are you doing here and finally by that point, I think that was like the fourth place we walked into. I was like I guess you do not have Black people here. I just said something like that was the moment where I was like there is no skill, the skill is gone. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Right. 


Shea Rose

Skills gone, teacher moments gone, I am going to just say what is on my mind since you get to react or how you want to react, I am going to actually just say and yeah, I am in behind the counter, of course! She was embarrassed and that is not, that I do not believe in humiliation and public humiliation and embarrassment. But, I just had to name it, I was like what is going on, and this is the fourth place that we have been to. So, I took action, and I went home, and I never have used social media this way, or ever have done it since then. I wrote a post about it and I named the businesses. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Okay. 


Shea Rose 

I said you all have work to do. I had a lot of people who were like super supportive, and so sorry that I had gone through that and like I said I have never done that prior to then, and I have not done it after but it just felt like that was… I do not know it just felt like the thing to do, so that is the thing. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Yeah. 


Shea Rose 

Yeah. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Good! Calling it out is, yeah, if you are moved to do that, definitely that is the thing to do, you know, help other people be aware that may someone like me be able to walk through there and have no idea that that is how they would react to a Black person coming through. So I think that is the thing. Yeah. Now, I am trying to be really aware of not just to be really open. I am trying to be very aware of not centering myself in any of these stories. 


Shea Rose 

Sure. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

So, just tell me if I do or I will try to be even more aware, it is not on you to tell me. But what you said about you and your partner reminds me of, you know, I can relate to that in my experience with my husband, he is a Black man and my stepdaughter is a Black 18 year old young lady. So, when we all walk around in the Seattle area or wherever we go, there are moments where we run into that as well and I am still… we have been together for seven years, and it took me probably… well, I do not know how long, a couple years probably for me to really realize that is what is going on, maybe not that long but as it is definitely deepened as we have been together in my realization and in my reaction and my awareness of how I should react or not react because it does happen everywhere, I mean we have had experiences trying to cross the Canadian border that were unpleasant, we have had experiences where we and sometimes it is just a look, like a longer look from a policeman in the Seattle area than I ever would have gotten just walking by myself. 


Shea Rose 

Right. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Things like that, you know, or in the rural areas around here, where I would just be able to walk through and nobody would care, but all of a sudden there is all these people looking at us. So, it just deepened my understanding of what he has gone through, and what people of color have gone through since… like you are saying since they were kids and probably not realizing when they were kids what it was until they got older and could name it. But, yeah, if there is more pointing it out and more stories about it and more like, well this business needs work or this organization or this teacher or whoever it is. I do not know, I think that is one of the only ways that we are going to really open people's eyes to the fact that people do not deserve to be treated this way, and that it is still happening. 


[30:03 – 35:25]

Shea Rose 

It is so happening. Yeah and what is so unique about both of our experiences is that I know that, for me it is like, it is our love, it is our connection that we have these like tentacles now, you know of energy that has intertwined us on all of these different levels and at the beginning my relationship, we argued and I talked a lot, like I was trying to convince him because he is also not coming from the United States and… 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Right. 


Shea Rose 

His understanding of like the racial trauma of this country is just so far removed, from his upbringing, his schooling, Italy. So, when we first got together, like he just did not see it, but I feel like it takes this intimacy and connection with a person. Although, he could never step in my shoes but for him to kind of be able to pick up on the subtleties of that now, whereas before there was just no, there were no antennas, right? There was no vibration; it was just like tuned into a different channel because that is how he could walk in the world. So, I think what is so unique about being in a relationship that is like multicultural or biracial or is that we get to fill in those gaps for each other, right? And there is things that he is told me about how like white people are, I do not laugh but there are some things that he tells me and I was like, really? I knew this is the training or this is really, you know, what is really like surprising but the validation was like huh! That is what I thought. 

Right! I knew I was not making sense, like I could not actually in a tangible way but have it like in my hands holding it but I knew it was there. So, he has filled in the gaps for me in so many ways about like how this bias and racism works and white families like oh, you can play with so and so, but not so and so. These kind of subtleties that are just everyday conversation but they are leaning towards racist or biased behavior. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Right. Yeah that struggle of communication and understanding from different countries too, that would be an interesting challenge. Like a not interesting I guess but like a different kind of challenge as far as like if you had grew up in the states and already knew but then you still have that challenge. Because I feel bad that I initially was like, wait what when he would, when my husband would tell me stories about this or that and I would be asking questions like really, like wait what happened, because I just was so unaware of the fact that these things still happen, and especially in Seattle, my eyes were so blind to the fact of what Seattle was and what our country was is, I should say. So, yeah that is interesting. 


Shea Rose 

Yeah. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Thanks for sharing that. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you sharing all of your thoughts, and I could talk with you forever, all kinds of things. But there are these questions that I ask every guest and so I would love to hear your answers on these two questions. The first one is what brings joy or fun into your life? 


Shea Rose 

Oh, it is so many things. I just think, but okay I will pinpoint it. I will say as in generally creativity in all forms; like through dance, through music, through visual art, movement, so all of those are kind of like my… I guess like my palette that I cherry pick out of each day to kind of help me stay healthy mentally and spiritually and emotionally. As of late though, what really brings me so much joy is cooking and that is my new creative endeavor. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Wonderful! 


Shea Rose 

Yeah. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Was that spurred on COVID or did you cook before too? 


Shea Rose 

Yeah. So, we had slowly… so my partner and I have also been together for seven years. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Oh, okay. 


Shea Rose 

So, it is funny to hear you say that. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Yeah, it is funny. 


Shea Rose 

We started out like it was really bad because you are in love and you are just like oh we are out, I just want to be with you, I do not want to do anything. But, before COVID, we had a pretty strong eating at home practice, and of course! Like we had our occasional meals out by Berkeley, where all the great food is. But then COVID happened and these stretches of time to really like shop, we go to the farm and to allow food to marinate, and to allow food to juice itself, and savor itself, you know, how medicinally that works when you are doing it, but also when you are eating it has just become such a love of mine, and a passion, and like bringing it to my mom, whatever I make soup, or to my father. 

[35:26 – 40:01]

Shea Rose 

And going to the farm and sharing too much of what I bought with my neighbors, it is just been such a joy during this time, and one of the highlights of having this this strange time off. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Right. Oh, I love that. That is great! Alright, the next question that I have for you, and it is kind of a… it is a lofty one, so whatever comes to mind. What would you feel genuinely equal? 


Shea Rose 

Gosh! I think, I am aware, like we are all aware that we are in form, right? We are in form for a very short amount of time on this earth and the form allows us to express some of these things I was talking about, like it is an instrument that allows us to be creative, and of course because of how I grew up and the color of my skin and my ancestry and my origin story, there are things that have been like imprinted, and how I express, and how those things come out in the middle of that. For all of us, no matter where our stories are coming from is this essence of divinity, and it is not in form, right? It is untouchable, and it is magical, and it is psychic, and it is all of these things, it is the universe, it is looking up into the stars and seeing infinity and infinity and infinity and knowing that we are somehow a part of that that is what I wish for all of us, to be seen in that way. 

Obviously be respected for the form that you are in and the story and all of those beautiful people who have deposited into, you know, Shea or Allison being here today. But then take all of that away, how Shea and Allison really connects, that to me is how I wish for the whole world to be seen and to feel that. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

That is a beautiful answer. Thank you. 


Shea Rose 

You are welcome. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

I love that you made me tear up a little bit. Oh, thank you so much Shea for joining me and chatting with me. 


Shea Rose 

Oh my god! Thank you, I am enjoying hear your voice. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Yours too, oh man, I was so glad to see you perform, even though like, well I could because of COVID but a few weeks ago on that performance and I of course cannot think of the name of it right now. But, yeah, I am just so glad to connect with you again and hear your stories and I really appreciate you spending the time to share for this project. 


Shea Rose 

Well, thank you for inviting me. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Do you have any businesses or organizations that you want to kind of amplify or highlight before we are all done? 


Shea Rose 

So, yes absolutely, I am in the process of taking this calling around voice, and materializing it into a website, which is not easy…


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Sure. 


Shea Rose 

Because how do we put ourselves into these little square things on a screen but that is what we are doing. So, all of what I have been talking about is there and evolving and so happy to speak with anyone who is interested in just going on that for that personal journey inward, and finding out how to get in touch with their voice. One of my teachers I would like to amplify because she helped jumpstart this journey for me, when I decided to step away from music and social media about 2016, which seems like the appropriate time to have done that. Glad I did that. Her name is Wioma, she has a practice called the African healing dance, and you can find her website, it is called africanhealingdance.com, her name is Wioma, ‘w-i-o-m-a’ and she also works remotely but she is based here in Boston, she is an incredible resource. I have a friend; her name is Nina, Nina Hayes yoga, incredible yoga instructor, vegan chef all around healer. 

And then lastly Uniqua Hardy, she does this thing called like spiritual business alignment, which I did a one-on-one session with her, and basically it is aligning your spiritual walk and path with your business goals and visions and it is a beautiful process. Uniqua Hardy is her name and again all of these people that I am naming, they are working remotely, if you are not in Boston and they are not in Boston actually, only Wioma is. 


[40:02 – 41:02]

Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Okay. Oh, wonderful! They all sound like folks that I would love to connect with. So, I will definitely put their information on our website also, so people can find that and then people can find you through your website, shaerose.com, S-h-e-arose.com. Wonderful! Thank you Shea so much for being here. 


Shea Rose 

Thank you, Allison. 


Allison Preisinger-Heggins 

Thank you for joining us for 'Take Notice: Amplifying Black Stories. Please subscribe and follow us on social media, we are at Take Notice podcast; it would really help us out if you could take a couple of minutes to review our podcast. Thank you for your support. Take Notice amplifying Black stories is produced, hosted and edited by Allison Preisinger-Heggins, co-produced by Amanda Rae, music by Version Big Fi featuring Darius Heggins. Thank you for being with us and thank you for taking notice.