Black Oxygen
Angela Russell is a Black woman who loves Wisconsin. That said, with so few Black folks in the state, sometimes she needs a little extra dose of Black oxygen. A place where she can breathe, connect, restore by hearing and listening deeply to Black folks in this shared journey of life. This podcast will feature and highlight the Black voices in Wisconsin and a little beyond. We hope that these conversations will lift your spirits and give you a few moments to breathe. Get your candles lit and your incense burning. It's time for Black Oxygen.
Episodes
This season of Black Oxygen is about care and collective care — and this conversation is a candid look at what it actually costs, and takes, to lead as a Black person in a city like Madison. Angela sits down with Reverend Dr. Alex Gee, who has raised roughly $70 million over 30 years, built multiple organizations, and is still, in his words, only ever invited onto the "Community Relations" committee — never Finance, nev...
Content note: police violence, domestic violence, incarceration, and substance use.
In the days after Corey Ruiz was killed by Madison police on Williamson Street, Angela sits down with Carmella Glenn, Alder for District 18. Carmella traces her path into criminal justice reform — a family cycled through the correctional system, years spent working inside the walls herself — and makes the case f...
This episode of Black Oxygen is a recording of Black Oxygen Live featuring Milwaukee-based artist Kierston Ghaznavi. Born in Arkansas raised in Milwaukee, Kierston has been doing art most of her life. In conversation with Angela, Kierston talks about her history of making paper dolls, going to school for graphic design but realizing she doesn't want to design for other people, and AI and art. Of AI and art Kierston state...
Content note: This episode includes discussion of domestic violence and abuse. Please listen with care. If you or someone you know needs support, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233 or thehotline.org.
When Keena Atkinson joined Black Oxygen last year, she knew the c...
Mandela Barnes returns to Black Oxygen for a wide-ranging conversation about his Wisconsin roots, his run for governor, and what it actually takes to rebuild trust across a divided state. Angela and Mandela talk about the Milwaukee factory jobs that built his family's foundation, the corporate greed driving both the opioid crisis and the urban-rural divide, why social media profits from division, and what it means to lead from a pl...
T.R. Williams, Wisconsin Women's Network Policy Institute lead facilitator, Senior Director of Development at United Way, business owner, and newly initiated member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated — returns to Black Oxygen for an in-depth conversation about the importance of community.
TR traces her family's Great Migration story from Mississippi to Milwaukee, and her own winding path from New York City to Madison...
A quick update from Black Oxygen host Angela Russell about what's coming up next on Black Oxygen.
In this episode of Black Oxygen, Angela sits down with Tyrone Creech, Executive Director of GSafe Wisconsin for a wide-ranging, deeply honest conversation about what it means to serve LGBTQ+ youth in this political moment.
Tyrone shares the realities on the ground: the stripping of trans he...
Marcus Allen of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Madison, Wisconsin sits down with Angela for a wide-ranging conversation about faith, service, combat, and community. What unfolds is a portrait of a man shaped by rejection, forged in war, and called to build something lasting.
Marcus traces his journey from Clarksdale, Mississippi through Milwaukee's Great Migration chapter, three combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a d...
Shalicia Johnson is a Madison-born photographer and the owner of ArrowStar Photography, where she specializes in community photography, business portraits, and family portraiture. Before picking up a professional camera, she spent 28 years in early childhood education, primarily with infants and toddlers in a continuity of care model. That work, and the deep observational practice it required, shapes everything about how she photog...
Angela welcomes back the very first Black Oxygen guest, Opal Tomashevska — a Madison native, credit union leader, poet, and newly elected board president of the Lussier Community Education Center — for a rich conversation on community care as resistance. Rooted in Opal's story of growing up in Wexford Ridge and coming of age through community institutions, they explore how the cooperative model of credit unions, Black p...
What if the story you've been afraid to tell is the exact story someone else needs to hear?
New episode of Black Oxygen is live, and this conversation with Danielle Hairston-Green hit different.
Danielle is a Moth Story Slam winner, host, storyteller, and director at UW-Madison Extension. She came to Wisconsin from Philadelphia by way of Texas. Eight years later, she's still here, and she has things to say.
We talked about ...
In this episode of Black Oxygen, host Angela Russell is joined by former Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle for a wide-ranging conversation about diversity, race, leadership, and democracy.
Governor Doyle reflects on the formative experiences that shaped his values. We dig into the mechanics of building diverse teams without tokenism, the current fragility of American democracy, Wisconsin's outsized role as a swing state, and why t...
The Hon. Rev. Everett Mitchell opens this Black Oxygen conversation with a sobering analysis of our current constitutional crisis, where unchecked executive power and Christian nationalism intersect to manipulate communities. But the heart of this conversation centers on what it means to truly care for our neighbors.
Drawing from Dr. Howard Thurman's question, "What does the Bible have to say to people whose backs are against the w...
This season is all about community care. And, quite frankly, how community and collective care is a part of the resistance. Community care is not a charity model—it's a model of solidarity. This season will be amplifying people and organizations that are examples of community care. I have a broad definition of community care—my personal definition includes systems work, democracy, policies, mutual aid, neighborhoo...
In this Beyond Wisconsin episode, Angela sits down with Ayris Scales, a tri-sector executive who has navigated government, nonprofit, and corporate worlds with intention and wisdom. Ayris currently serves as SVP of Social Responsibility and Global Initiatives at NAREIT, where she works to expand access to real estate investment opportunities, and runs Able Vision Enterprises, her highly selective consulting practice.
This conve...
This week, I'm rebroadcasting a conversation with my dear friend Ali Muldrow. This conversation is all about beauty, joy, and friendship. As we start off 2026, the world continues to feel so heavy and overwhelming. This conversation is all about reclaiming the good in life despite the overwhelm, the noise, the comparison, and the seduction of numbness. It's an invitation to each of us to pause, slow down, to notice and to savor. No...
Dr. Curtis shares her complicated relationship with Wisconsin—a "love and hate" dynamic shaped by leaving Milwaukee at 17, experiencing HBCUs and the East Coast, and returning multiple times before finally seeing the opportunity hidden in her home state. She now runs Taylor Nicole Wine and Cupcakes in Madison's Black Business Hub, creating the cultural space she couldn't find as a young woman in the city.
Research on Black Wo...
This week on Black Oxygen, host Angela Russell sits down with the extraordinary Lachrisa Grandberry—singer, actor, writer, speaker, and Milwaukee native whose journey from fifth-grade teacher to professional theater artist is nothing short of inspiring.
Lachrisa shares the powerful story of how a fifth-grader named Daniel changed her life by challenging her to chase her own dreams. What started as a promise to audition for on...
Tracy Anderson returns to Black Oxygen to discuss her unexpected 11-year journey in Madison and a recent career transition. She shares her winding path from theater in Chicago to hotel sales, radio hosting on 93.1 Jams, and community outreach at Big Brothers Big Sisters—where she finally found work she truly loved through service.
Tracy opens up about learning to set boundaries, overcoming people-pleasing tendencies, and ...
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