April 2, 2026 • 11 mins
Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati joins us for her monthly feature on Insight—VLS Journeys. This month, she speaks with author and pastor Michael Eric Dyson, joined by Rev. Royal S. Todd, Assistant to the Pastor at First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill, who share an inspiring Easter Sunday message.
For her feature, “What’s Philadelphia Reading?” Vanesse also speaks with Nyisha Chapman, Manager of Community Partnerships at Philadelphia Gas Works and President of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., Pennsylvania Chapter, highlighting community engagement and literary connections across the city.
For her feature, “What’s Philadelphia Reading?” Vanesse also speaks with Nyisha Chapman, Manager of Community Partnerships at Philadelphia Gas Works and President of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., Pennsylvania Chapter, highlighting community engagement and literary connections across the city.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Balladmorrow, and as she does once
a month every month, we have the fantabulous Vanessa Lloyd's Gumbadi,
the founder of the African American Children's Book Fair. She
is the publicist for some of the best and brightest
Black authors and illustrators, and she's here with our segment
(00:21):
called VLS Journeys.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey van Us, good morning and happy Easter. We are
in the second quarter of the year and flowers are
starting the bloom, and you know I love that. What
are you doing for Easter Sunday?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm gonna have some Easter dinner.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well, I'm going to New York Saint Patrick's Cathedral, got
a VIP invitation, going to parade on Fifth Avenue, walk
a little show off my head. Then I'm going to
Tiffany's the Blue Box restaurant, and then I'm coming home
and being with the real foods, because you know, we
gotta have some fried chickens, some hams, some Cala greens,
all that stuff. Baked chicken on Easter Sunday because the
(00:58):
Lloyd clan really know how to turn it out and
a shout out to my niece Taylor Lucas, who had
a milestone birthday. But people, I got a guess, it's
Easter Sunday, and I wanted to bring something spiritual, something
enriching in lightning and all that. And I went through
my Rolodex and I kept going back and forth, and
(01:19):
then I said, you know what, let me be called
Reverend doctor Michael Eric Dyson, who is a professor, a
distinguished professor at Vanderbilt University.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
And let me just let the people know.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I worked on five of Michael's books and they all
became New York Times bestsellers.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
But here's the thing that was really deep.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
And I always remember this because on nine to eleven,
I had decided the week before Michael was a couple
of weeks before.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Michael was supposed to.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Be in New York on nine to eleven at the
borders at the World Trade Center. But me Bing's office,
I said, no, let's flip the script. He went to
Boston and then he came back to he was going
to be in New York on nine to eleven, and
things were going crazy. But I said, Michael, I got
an idea. He's like, give it to me, I said,
(02:10):
let's continue.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
This book tour.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
We took three days and we got back on the road,
and he was so inspiring to so many people because
people wanted to congregate, they were coming out.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
He had a book about Tupac.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
It became a New York Times bestseller's because Michael Eric
Dyson took a situation like that and he was able
to round people up and make them understand, make some
sense of where they were, where they were going. And
this morning, that's what I want you to do, because
we got craziness going on here. So Reverend doctor Michael
Eric Diison, what you got to say on Easter Sunday to.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
The fabulous, incredible Vanessa Lloyd's Comebody, the world Maker, Waymaker,
the truth Teller, and your beautiful and brilliant co host there. Look,
I'm just honored to be here because resurrection is a
theme of not only Black culture, but American democracy at
its best. No matter what the impediments imposed are, no
(03:07):
matter the arbitrary obstacles that place themselves in the face
of what we do, we can reduce our situation to
what we confront. The great prophetic mystic Howard Urnamann said,
do resist the temptation to scale down your dreams and
your hopes to the event, which is your immediate experience.
(03:30):
This particular experience will not exhaust the infinite capacity of
hope or God.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
He said, you got a choice.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
You can be a prisoner of the event, or you
can be a prisoner of hope.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
I choose to be a prisoner of hope.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
So, no matter how dark it is, no matter how
dreary it is, no matter how complicated, and no matter
how devastating the odds are, no matter the fact that
we have a sitting US President for the first time,
sitting in the Supreme Court trying to block birthright citizens
in a fundamentally aggressive and antagonistic fashion.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
He is not God.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
He will be out of office, But the God I
worship never retires. So we have to continue to look
forward to a transformative future by making choices now that
commit ourselves to the basic fundamental premise of justice, freedom,
truth and democracy.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
And on this Easter Sunday, to.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
The resurrection of hope in the midst of the devastating
losses and deaths that we confront.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Wow, you know what does a T shirt a prisoner
of who I love?
Speaker 5 (04:38):
That there it is.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And look you have someone.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
No, Lord, I'm sorry, you.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Have someone sitting behind side you. I want to give
him a little minute, a minute.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
I just listen.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Here, you got the real preacher. This is the Reverend
Royal Toide, a PhD. Student at Vanderbilt University Divinity School,
my right hand man, my you know, great compatriot in
this struggle, executive pastor at the First Baptist Church of
Capitol Hill.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
But he's got a word for you right here. Let
me turn it over to him. Reverend time, Good morning
and happy Easter to all.
Speaker 6 (05:12):
Than to you brilliant and wonderful hosts for having me
being able to have an opportunity to easdrop on a
conversation that you all are having brilliantly. But I think fundamentally,
as we celebrate, commemorate this moment of Easter and resurrection,
I think it is all the more timely because we
are in a moment where we are seeing people and
(05:36):
our democracy crucified. That those liberties that make America the
great place that it is, that beacon of freedom being
crucified before our very eyes, citizens and immigrants alike, crucified
in the name of sidewalk justice. We are somewhere between
Friday's crucifixion and the gloominess of Saturday. However, that's what
(06:00):
Gardner Taylor says. This Easter sermon, this Easter Sunday should
be the rhetorical device of every Christian because resurrection is
our hope that those things that may be stagnant for
a little while will not always be, and that the
mendacity and the supremacy and the hatred that we are
seeing can only be combated by a tenacious commitment to
(06:22):
Christian love. And let that love lead us to resurrection.
Let that love do for us what we cannot do
for ourselves. Let the divine guide us to Sunday morning.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Well, amen, somebody has some fun chicken and some collar
green so I could kick back and get ready for
my day.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
Okay, that's it, Reverend time. Mate. He's absolutely right. And
look at the brilliant metaphor there.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
The crucifixion of our hope, the cruisifixion of our aspiration,
the crucifixion of our bodies by an illegitimate administration, not
a government. The government is legitimate. The administration leaves a
lot to be desired. And as he said, we look
toward this moment of resurrection of hope that continually blooms
(07:10):
in our breast, in our mind, in our hearts, and
in our souls. So the Reverend Todde and I wish
all of you a happy resurrection Sunday, and that the
truth of the universe, whatever God you believe in, whatever
deity you claim, whatever good notion in the universe that
you attach yourself to, that you continue to be blessed
(07:31):
by the great fortune of a universe that smiles upon
you and a God who blesses you.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Well.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Amen, When are you coming out with your next book?
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Michael, I'm trying to work on it now so that
you can leave me on tour.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
I'll be late this year early next year.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Well you know I never said not to a check
from you.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
On that note, Amen, Trait, We're gonna say hallelujah and
thank you so much because I know you always on
the run, but we appreciate you. I'm trying to get
you you up here for the Roots picnic, but we'll
see what happens.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Okay, all right, Ben Love, all right, thank you, love
you both.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
We've come to one of my favorite parts of this segment.
What is Philadelphia Reading and my guest this morning is
Nisha Chapman. She's president of the Coalition of one Hundred
Black Women Pennsylvania and she is responsible for constituents and
community affairs at PGW.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
How are you this morning, I'm wonderful.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
You know, I always remember this time of the year
for being selected by the Coalition of one hundred Black
Women as a Madam C. J.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Walker Winner. It was an amazing It was an.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Amazing day, and it rates right up there with the
top ten things that have happened to me in my life.
I was pleased to be honored, because, you know, to
be honored for my work in literacy, but to be
honored as a businesswoman was right there on the top
of my list. But this morning, you are the president
of the organization, and you guys have a big event
coming up.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
Yes we do so.
Speaker 7 (09:16):
I am the president of the National Coalition of Bunch
of Black Women, and we have our fortieth annual Madame CJ.
Walker Awards Luncheon happening on Saturday, April the twenty fifth
at the Philadelphia Downtown Marriott, located at twelve oh one
Philbert Street. So I have tickets available there one hundred
and seventy five dollars and we'll have over seven hundred
attendees that day.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
You've got some great vendors also, and I understand Blondell
Reynolds Round is going to be there, so people, if
you haven't picked up her book, that's a great place
to pick it up. But we are here to talk
about your reading habits, So let's get started. What is
Philadelphia reading? What book are you reading? Let them theory?
First book you red, the Coldest Winter Ever? Best book
you read the year of Yes? Worst book you red
(09:58):
fifty chas of gray Ooh? Your go to author? Eric
Jerome Dickie buyer or borrower buyer? What books should everyone
have in their library? Who moved your cheese? Fiction or
non fiction fiction? You have a literary dinner named three
people from the literary community.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
You must have.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Terry McMillan.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
If you wrote a book about your life, it would
be the title.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
Leading while Living a Black Women's Journey through Power, pressure
and Purpose.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
What a title. Time to get writing, girl. Thank you
for taking time out of your busy day, folks. As always,
continued to read, buy a book and on Easter Sunday
have a blessed day.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
That was Vaness Lloyd's gumbody with VLS Journeys. We'll have
more insight after these messages. I'm Lorraine Balachmorrow,
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Balladmorrow, and as she does once
a month every month, we have the fantabulous Vanessa Lloyd's Gumbadi,
the founder of the African American Children's Book Fair. She
is the publicist for some of the best and brightest
Black authors and illustrators, and she's here with our segment
(00:21):
called VLS Journeys.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey van Us, good morning and happy Easter. We are
in the second quarter of the year and flowers are
starting the bloom, and you know I love that. What
are you doing for Easter Sunday?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm gonna have some Easter dinner.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well, I'm going to New York Saint Patrick's Cathedral, got
a VIP invitation, going to parade on Fifth Avenue, walk
a little show off my head. Then I'm going to
Tiffany's the Blue Box restaurant, and then I'm coming home
and being with the real foods, because you know, we
gotta have some fried chickens, some hams, some Cala greens,
all that stuff. Baked chicken on Easter Sunday because the
(00:58):
Lloyd clan really know how to turn it out and
a shout out to my niece Taylor Lucas, who had
a milestone birthday. But people, I got a guess, it's
Easter Sunday, and I wanted to bring something spiritual, something
enriching in lightning and all that. And I went through
my Rolodex and I kept going back and forth, and
(01:19):
then I said, you know what, let me be called
Reverend doctor Michael Eric Dyson, who is a professor, a
distinguished professor at Vanderbilt University.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
And let me just let the people know.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I worked on five of Michael's books and they all
became New York Times bestsellers.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
But here's the thing that was really deep.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
And I always remember this because on nine to eleven,
I had decided the week before Michael was a couple
of weeks before.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Michael was supposed to.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Be in New York on nine to eleven at the
borders at the World Trade Center. But me Bing's office,
I said, no, let's flip the script. He went to
Boston and then he came back to he was going
to be in New York on nine to eleven, and
things were going crazy. But I said, Michael, I got
an idea. He's like, give it to me, I said,
(02:10):
let's continue.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
This book tour.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
We took three days and we got back on the road,
and he was so inspiring to so many people because
people wanted to congregate, they were coming out.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
He had a book about Tupac.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
It became a New York Times bestseller's because Michael Eric
Dyson took a situation like that and he was able
to round people up and make them understand, make some
sense of where they were, where they were going. And
this morning, that's what I want you to do, because
we got craziness going on here. So Reverend doctor Michael
Eric Diison, what you got to say on Easter Sunday to.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
The fabulous, incredible Vanessa Lloyd's Comebody, the world Maker, Waymaker,
the truth Teller, and your beautiful and brilliant co host there. Look,
I'm just honored to be here because resurrection is a
theme of not only Black culture, but American democracy at
its best. No matter what the impediments imposed are, no
(03:07):
matter the arbitrary obstacles that place themselves in the face
of what we do, we can reduce our situation to
what we confront. The great prophetic mystic Howard Urnamann said,
do resist the temptation to scale down your dreams and
your hopes to the event, which is your immediate experience.
(03:30):
This particular experience will not exhaust the infinite capacity of
hope or God.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
He said, you got a choice.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
You can be a prisoner of the event, or you
can be a prisoner of hope.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
I choose to be a prisoner of hope.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
So, no matter how dark it is, no matter how
dreary it is, no matter how complicated, and no matter
how devastating the odds are, no matter the fact that
we have a sitting US President for the first time,
sitting in the Supreme Court trying to block birthright citizens
in a fundamentally aggressive and antagonistic fashion.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
He is not God.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
He will be out of office, But the God I
worship never retires. So we have to continue to look
forward to a transformative future by making choices now that
commit ourselves to the basic fundamental premise of justice, freedom,
truth and democracy.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
And on this Easter Sunday, to.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
The resurrection of hope in the midst of the devastating
losses and deaths that we confront.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Wow, you know what does a T shirt a prisoner
of who I love?
Speaker 5 (04:38):
That there it is.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And look you have someone.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
No, Lord, I'm sorry, you.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Have someone sitting behind side you. I want to give
him a little minute, a minute.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
I just listen.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Here, you got the real preacher. This is the Reverend
Royal Toide, a PhD. Student at Vanderbilt University Divinity School,
my right hand man, my you know, great compatriot in
this struggle, executive pastor at the First Baptist Church of
Capitol Hill.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
But he's got a word for you right here. Let
me turn it over to him. Reverend time, Good morning
and happy Easter to all.
Speaker 6 (05:12):
Than to you brilliant and wonderful hosts for having me
being able to have an opportunity to easdrop on a
conversation that you all are having brilliantly. But I think fundamentally,
as we celebrate, commemorate this moment of Easter and resurrection,
I think it is all the more timely because we
are in a moment where we are seeing people and
(05:36):
our democracy crucified. That those liberties that make America the
great place that it is, that beacon of freedom being
crucified before our very eyes, citizens and immigrants alike, crucified
in the name of sidewalk justice. We are somewhere between
Friday's crucifixion and the gloominess of Saturday. However, that's what
(06:00):
Gardner Taylor says. This Easter sermon, this Easter Sunday should
be the rhetorical device of every Christian because resurrection is
our hope that those things that may be stagnant for
a little while will not always be, and that the
mendacity and the supremacy and the hatred that we are
seeing can only be combated by a tenacious commitment to
(06:22):
Christian love. And let that love lead us to resurrection.
Let that love do for us what we cannot do
for ourselves. Let the divine guide us to Sunday morning.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Well, amen, somebody has some fun chicken and some collar
green so I could kick back and get ready for
my day.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
Okay, that's it, Reverend time. Mate. He's absolutely right. And
look at the brilliant metaphor there.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
The crucifixion of our hope, the cruisifixion of our aspiration,
the crucifixion of our bodies by an illegitimate administration, not
a government. The government is legitimate. The administration leaves a
lot to be desired. And as he said, we look
toward this moment of resurrection of hope that continually blooms
(07:10):
in our breast, in our mind, in our hearts, and
in our souls. So the Reverend Todde and I wish
all of you a happy resurrection Sunday, and that the
truth of the universe, whatever God you believe in, whatever
deity you claim, whatever good notion in the universe that
you attach yourself to, that you continue to be blessed
(07:31):
by the great fortune of a universe that smiles upon
you and a God who blesses you.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Well.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Amen, When are you coming out with your next book?
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Michael, I'm trying to work on it now so that
you can leave me on tour.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
I'll be late this year early next year.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Well you know I never said not to a check
from you.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
On that note, Amen, Trait, We're gonna say hallelujah and
thank you so much because I know you always on
the run, but we appreciate you. I'm trying to get
you you up here for the Roots picnic, but we'll
see what happens.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Okay, all right, Ben Love, all right, thank you, love
you both.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
We've come to one of my favorite parts of this segment.
What is Philadelphia Reading and my guest this morning is
Nisha Chapman. She's president of the Coalition of one Hundred
Black Women Pennsylvania and she is responsible for constituents and
community affairs at PGW.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
How are you this morning, I'm wonderful.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
You know, I always remember this time of the year
for being selected by the Coalition of one hundred Black
Women as a Madam C. J.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Walker Winner. It was an amazing It was an.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Amazing day, and it rates right up there with the
top ten things that have happened to me in my life.
I was pleased to be honored, because, you know, to
be honored for my work in literacy, but to be
honored as a businesswoman was right there on the top
of my list. But this morning, you are the president
of the organization, and you guys have a big event
coming up.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
Yes we do so.
Speaker 7 (09:16):
I am the president of the National Coalition of Bunch
of Black Women, and we have our fortieth annual Madame CJ.
Walker Awards Luncheon happening on Saturday, April the twenty fifth
at the Philadelphia Downtown Marriott, located at twelve oh one
Philbert Street. So I have tickets available there one hundred
and seventy five dollars and we'll have over seven hundred
attendees that day.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
You've got some great vendors also, and I understand Blondell
Reynolds Round is going to be there, so people, if
you haven't picked up her book, that's a great place
to pick it up. But we are here to talk
about your reading habits, So let's get started. What is
Philadelphia reading? What book are you reading? Let them theory?
First book you red, the Coldest Winter Ever? Best book
you read the year of Yes? Worst book you red
(09:58):
fifty chas of gray Ooh? Your go to author? Eric
Jerome Dickie buyer or borrower buyer? What books should everyone
have in their library? Who moved your cheese? Fiction or
non fiction fiction? You have a literary dinner named three
people from the literary community.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
You must have.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Terry McMillan.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
If you wrote a book about your life, it would
be the title.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
Leading while Living a Black Women's Journey through Power, pressure
and Purpose.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
What a title. Time to get writing, girl. Thank you
for taking time out of your busy day, folks. As always,
continued to read, buy a book and on Easter Sunday
have a blessed day.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
That was Vaness Lloyd's gumbody with VLS Journeys. We'll have
more insight after these messages. I'm Lorraine Balachmorrow,
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