Episode 12: Ink & Identity

🎙️ Hey my lilies 🌺
In this soul-stirring episode of Ink & Impact, we honor Zora Neale Hurston — a woman who wrote the truth even when the world wasn’t listening. We explore what it means to become, to write without applause, and to trust that silent seeds still bloom.

From navigating identity to writing through uncertainty, this episode is a call to every woman who’s still figuring it out — and still showing up anyway.

✨ Featuring a “Dear Me” letter challenge, a tribute to Zora’s legacy, and a reminder that your voice matters — even when it’s whispered.

🌿 Let’s talk roots, writing, and the impact that outlives us.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, my lilies, Welcome back to incy Impact, the podcast
for purpose driven pedals finding their voice in a world
that doesn't always listen. Today's episode is one of honor.
It's for every woman who's still becoming, for every girl
who wrote in her journal and prayed God would make

(00:23):
something out of her words. And it's for Zora Zora
Neil Hurston, a woman who wrote the truth even when
the world wasn't ready to hear it, a woman who
didn't live to see her harvest, but sowed seeds anyway.

(00:43):
So today I'm offering a dear me challenge, a word
of reflection. Let's talk about identity impact and the kind
of legacy that grows even in silence. Who are you becoming?

(01:10):
I think we're all trying to figure out who we are,
not just once, but every day. We're living this life
while navigating our passions, our families, our friendships, our careers,
all while asking the same question, quiet question at that

(01:34):
am I becoming who I'm meant to be? The choices
we make, the way we network, the way we spend
our time, the people we align ourselves with, those decisionship
who we're becoming, and sometimes those environments especially in our careers,

(01:58):
can make or break us. But here's what I've learned.
God uses every version of you, even the confused one,
even the uncertain one, even the tired one. Zora's Silent Harvest.

(02:26):
Zora Neil Harston was a brilliant anthropologist, an author, a
Black Southern, a woman who gave voice to stories that
would have otherwise been erased. Most of us know her
from their eyes were watching God. She wrote unapologetically, using

(02:50):
dialect and real life experiences to reflect black culture, especially
especially from the South. But even with her brilliance, she
wasn't acknowledged the way you should have been, especially not
during her lifetime. Her friend Langston Hughes, they celebrated mail

(03:14):
writer and more likely know who he is, got more
recognition than she ever did, and in the ends, or
died in poverty, in dead, buried in an unmarked grave.
She didn't get to see her work blown. But now
her name lives on forever, her voice immortal. And that

(03:39):
reminds me of something I said in episode seven about
silent roots. So the strongest women in history weren't recognized
in their time, but their impact still shaped the generations
that followed. It's that culture to be dynamic, to have

(04:00):
a voice in modernity. The research that Zora Milhurston did
in Viueford, South Carolina represents someone who understands that for
people to trust you, you have to be in it.
And that's what she does. She joins them with them,
she's playing a drum. At the time, this seemed scandalous

(04:24):
that you weren't standing off to one side with your
white lab coat and your plipmore noting down what others
were doing. Zora studied her own people, which is not
something that is supported in anthropology. At that moment, anthropology
understood itself to be a science. An aspect of scientific

(04:45):
inquiry that's really important is to be detached and objective.
She didn't play by those rules. Why your words still matter?
I want to tell you this today. Your journals matter,

(05:11):
Your voice matters, even if no one collapsed right now.
The entries you wrote at sixteen, the ones you wrote
after heartbreak, the ones you wrote in a whisper. God

(05:31):
saw all of it. Zora may not have seen her legacy,
but we're here because of her roots. And just like that,
someone might bloom from your words, your story, your life.

(06:04):
So here's your dear Me challenge. I want you to
write a letter, either to your younger self or your
future self. Now. In that letter, I want you to
speak truth and grace to the girl you used to be,

(06:31):
thank her for surviving, to the woman you're becoming, Encourage
her to keep going, and to both let them know
you're still committed. And I want you to end it

(06:56):
like this. I claim this in the holy name of
Jesus Christ, and I promise to pursue this path with
faith and integrity. I won't give up on you. This

(07:23):
one is for Zura and for every lily who's ever
bloomed in silence. If this message or episode moved you,

(07:45):
if it reminded you of your worth, your journey, your gift,
share it with someone you know, share with someone you love.
Tag me on Instagram. You can now tack the page

(08:07):
for ink and Impact, or you can tag my personal
page to Carria Jay. I want you to tag me
with your dear me letters or a quote that spoke
to you. Also, I'm just gonna drop it in there.

(08:32):
Visit I reallyinc dot com to explore more ways to
bloom creatively and spiritually and always remember you guys, your
voice might not get applause today, but your roots are

(08:54):
still reaching. Stay soft, stay rooted, stay writing. I love y'all,
See you next time on Econ Impact