Reclaiming UGLY as an Act of Queer Pleasure with Vanessa Rochelle Lewis

Vanessa Rochelle Lewis is the Founding Director of Reclaim UGLY. She is a healer with a satchel full of medicine words, A conjuror with desire to nurture other artists as they create magic and save lives, A faery princess mermaid gangsta for the revolution, A lush-bodied, Black femme Goddess motivated by sensuality and freedom, An educator and performer with a passionate exuberance for silliness, laughter, and the stage, A starlet who doesn't want to be in the spotlight alone, A lover of all things collective, emergent, and interdependent, A wild-seed born and blossomed in South-Central Los Angeles, A fighter with fists born of circumstance and a heart that refused to harden, A warrior committed to freedom, brow dripping with resilience, wings crusted with diamonds that grew from trauma healed, And so much more. Episode Highlights Vanessa and Nick discuss the way culture has used the label of "ugliness" to oppress, dehumanize and disconnect us.  Vanessa talks about her journey with her organization, Reclaim Ugly. She shares how we can turn ugly on its head to uplift, glorify and love ourselves. We explore where we find "uglification" in our country's history as well as in today's world. Vanessa talks about the importance of taking care of ourselves without perpetuating the harm done to us. We discuss the insidious uglification we experienced in recent events such as the January 6th Insurrection of the US Capitol. Web links Find Vanessa at ReclaimUGLY.org Connect with her on Instagram and Facebook Help us support the queer community & keep the podcast going - Support us on Patreon. Grab your FREE Guide: The Self-Confident Queer - Download it  here. Join the Queer Spirit Community Facebook group to continue the conversation and stay up to date on new episodes.  And follow us on Instagram!  Join our mailing list  to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.