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Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds
Welcome to the Cultural Curriculum Chat Podcast—an inclusive space for educators, DEI practitioners, and all individuals eager to foster diversity and understanding! If you're seeking a vibrant, authentic podcast to guide you in implementing Multicultural Education, look no further. Are you yearning for inspiration to cultivate a truly inclusive classroom community? Join us on a journey filled with insightful resources, practical tips, and a touch of humor, all led by the knowledgeable educator, Jebeh Edmunds.
Our podcast is designed to uplift and empower you, offering a blend of expertise and laughter to spark creativity and engagement in your educational endeavors. Tune in to discover a wealth of valuable insights and strategies that will ignite your passion for inclusive teaching practices and multicultural learning.
Embark on this enriching experience with us, and together we'll champion diversity, inspire change, and create welcoming spaces for all. Subscribe now to stay connected, join the conversation, and access more empowering content. Let's make a difference, one episode at a time! Thank you for being a part of our mission.
Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds
Season 7 Episode #3 Continuing a Family Legacy: How Tiana Ferrell Honors Ida B. Wells Through Creativity and Advocacy
Tiana Ferrell doesn't just carry the blood of a civil rights icon in her veins – she actively extends that legacy through her own unique blend of art, activism, and advocacy. As the great-great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells, Tiana shares how family stories about her pioneering ancestor shaped her path toward becoming a social changemaker.
The conversation takes us to the campus of Rust College, where Tiana felt her ancestor's spiritual presence guiding her toward her purpose. It was there she began reading Wells' works and understanding how to channel that pioneering spirit into her own authentic voice. Though admittedly shy by nature, Tiana discovered that courage isn't about fearlessness – it's about moving forward despite fear.
When Tiana uncovered the little-known story of Ida B. Wells' refusal to give up her seat on a train – and her subsequent legal victory – seventy years before Rosa Parks' famous stand, she transformed this buried history into "The Lady's Car," a play that educates, entertains, and empowers. Even a 90-year-old resident of Ida's hometown confessed she'd never known this story, validating Tiana's mission to make history accessible through artistic expression.
As someone born with symbrachydactyly (a limb difference affecting her left hand), Tiana also discusses becoming the representation she never saw growing up. Her disability advocacy extends from personal interactions in grocery stores to creating films featuring characters with limb differences, always seeking to normalize and educate with authenticity and compassion.
Throughout our conversation, Tiana emphasizes that meaningful social change requires "the courage to be disliked." Drawing from her family's legacy of speaking truth to power, she reminds us that "we're not put on this earth to be liked – we all have an assignment," and fulfilling that assignment often means proceeding through discomfort toward greatness.
Whether you're an educator, artist, activist, or someone seeking to make an impact, Tiana's approach to blending creativity with social consciousness offers a powerful template for creating work that resonates across generations.
Learn More about Tiana Ferrell here: www.tianaferrell.com
Tiana's MLK Keynote address: https://youtu.be/xWenHkK3cFA?si=EO2e7H4zh9WZGRNz
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All right, good afternoon listeners. Welcome back to the Cultural Curriculum Chat Podcast. I'm your host, jebba Edmonds, and in the guest chair today we have Tiana Farrell, and I am so excited to have her in the guest chair with us listeners. This podcast is geared towards educators and DEI advocates who want to create positive change, and Tiana is the epitome of positive change. I met Tiana working on a project of my own TED Talk and she was my speechwriter and we got to vibing and I learned so much about her.
Speaker 1:And just to give you a couple new things about Tiana before we start the interview she is a writer and PR specialist. She attended a well-known performing arts high school. She has her master's degree in entertainment business. She has published works so Emotional A Book of Poetry in the Lady's Car, which performed in the Southeast, including the HBCU Rust College. She has multiple works in publicity and for films such as Shark Night and Limitless, and she provides PR public relations for artists, celebrities, influencers, law firms and politicians. So, tiana, I am so excited that you're here. You're going to share with us what drives you in being that social changemaker, and I'm just so honored to have you on our show today. Welcome.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. I am honored to be here and, as you mentioned, you know, when we first met, we definitely, you know, there was an authentic, very genuine vibe between us, and so I'm just grateful to be on your podcast and to share another space with you today.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. So, tiana, I did the. You know timeline of your. You know your biography. Tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself.
Speaker 2:About me. So I am a descendant of Ida B Wells Barnett and the reason that I leave with that is because it explains the trajectory of my life and you know what I do. And so, being the great, great granddaughter of Ida B Wells Ida B Wells was my grandmother's grandmother Wells Ida B Wells was my grandmother's grandmother. So my grandmother, alfreda, would tell me these wonderful stories about her grandmother, ida B Wells, when I was a young child, and she would tell me that she saw that greatness in me and I have, you know, their sister. She would say you have it, tiana, it's you, you're the one to continue the legacy, because every generation after Ida made sure that they continued her legacy. In a way, ida's youngest daughter, alfreda, which is my grandmother's mom her name was Alfreda as well. She published Ida's work. She published her autobiography because she was reading her diary, reading her work, and she knew like, wow, my mother was incredible and she saw these names that her mom kind of rolled with, like Frederick Douglass, susan B Anthony, but she's like when you read their works you don't see my mother anywhere in there. But she was in history right alongside these people. So my grandmother's mom published her biography, which is why we are talking about Ida today. You know she did that work and then thereafter, my grandmother and her brothers created the Ida B Wells Memorial Foundation and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:And so, like you know, well, tiada, what are you going to do? And so my grandmother convinced me to go to Rust College, which was Ida's alma mater. You know it's in Holly Springs, mississippi, a beautiful, wonderful small town that's about 30 minutes from Memphis, tennessee, and so I wear that as a badge of honor that no one else besides Ida B Wells went to that college. And it was more than me just going, just attending this wonderful HBCU. I felt my ancestor on the campus of that college. It wasn't everywhere. There was a particular space on the yard by a tree that I would feel her presence, that I could sit there, eat lunch, and I felt her put her hands on my shoulders and kind of just pull me in, like hey, you got this. And so I'm like, hmm, maybe I do have something.
Speaker 2:So then I started doing the work, reading her works, learning more about Ida B Will. Now I'm very, very shy, so it still took me years after that to be able to channel the things that she was doing. But, you know, once I had that confidence and the understanding that she wasn't fearless, but she did it anyway. I knew that I could do the same, but I also knew that I would never be Ida B Wells. So how do I continue her legacy and support my community in a way that was meant for me, and that's how my art and my activism met. Activism met because I've always been fascinated with entertainment and always wanted to create content. But I also knew I had this responsibility to my community. And so, you know, as I was a board member for the Atlanta NACP in my early 20s, you know I'm doing these things. I worked at the Urban League, I interned there when I was in college.
Speaker 2:Like, how do I again make this intersection? And so I started creating stories, such as the Lady's Car, which was about Ida B Wells' spat with the Chesapeake Ohio Railroad in Memphis, and it's a story that most people don't know about, where, 70 years before Rosa Parks decided to refuse to give up her seat on the bus, ida B Wells refused to give up her seat on the train and she actually, you know, sued in the court of law in the late 1800s and she won. You know a Negro woman in this time, when African Americans could not read, could not work, had zero rights. She won, and there's a reason that we don't know about that story. You know this happened in Memphis, tennessee, and it's in the in the history books that you can go pull this information. But they didn't want us to know this information because they don't want Negroes to know that you have. So we made sure that you know, they made sure that they buried it and so, again, that was sort of my responsibility.
Speaker 2:I said, hey, I'm going to write this play, and I kind of got an idea I think it was about Ida like, hey, write about me, because I'm like I'm going to write a stage play, had no idea what I wanted to write about. And Ida said me I'm like, well, how do I do your life justice on stage, your entire life? Yes, yeah. Then I'm like I'm going to focus on this one story that I find incredible that no one talks about, because she's credited with founding the NAACP, with being a suffrage, with being a journalist, but we don't talk about what happened on that ladies' car train that she got kicked off of. And so doing that, my goal is always to entertain, to educate and to empower. Because how do I reach people in this day and age, where we're distracted by our phones, that our attention spans are shorter than it has ever been?
Speaker 2:I want to reach people who will not go do the research and go look in Shelby County, tennessee, to see what Ida did, people who may not like to read, people who may not read. Well, how do I can reach them? By entertaining them, and then you know when they leave Holly Springs, mississippi, ida's hometown. One of the residents was 90 years old and she said Tiana, I've lived here my entire life. We have a museum in Ida B Wells Museum here. She said, but I did not know that story. Okay, and so you?
Speaker 2:know, I knew that my work was purpose yes, wow, tiana, I mean chills.
Speaker 1:And when we first met, you told me about that that you are the, you know, descendant of Ida B Wells and I was like oh my gosh, I studied her like journalists and activists and I like I'm talking to her great granddaughter doing this project and just how you shared going to her alma mater, which is your alma mater, and feeling her presence, you know, and I just had chills when you were sharing that about your story and then writing that play about her in a moment in time where our history books suppress that, you know, and you unearthed it again to show all of us, you know that these stories have been here and to look at it and I loved how you talked about we're here to educate and entertain, and also you know and entertain. And also you know what was the P again Empower, empower, sorry, educate, entertain and empower. And I think those three E's are just so inspiring and important in this day and age. Like you said, people are quick on their phones, easily distracted and I also, as a teacher, former teacher kids and adults, if they don't feel like they are at their reading level, they shy away, they tend to not want to, you know, read some particular text because of the shame of not being able to read and comprehend what they just read.
Speaker 1:So I love how you touched on no matter what your reading level is, no matter your school, and you can still learn something important and viable, you know, to this work. So kudos to you, tiana. That is amazing. So you talked about, which was really great. You know, your great-grandmother, you know helped inspire and spark that activism in yourself. Can you talk a little bit more about your livelihood, on the disability advocacy piece of it?
Speaker 2:Yes. So, again, being related to Ida B Wells learned how to advocate, learned how to be a champion of change, learn how to be a champion of change. And my wonderful grandmother, alfreda, again, was someone who inspired me to take a forefront of being a disability advocate, as well as my father, my father Stephen. They would always let me know like hey, you are different. So I was born with a limb difference on sembradactyly, so I don't have any digits on my left hand here. So for some reason the digits just did not grow. And so, you know, because of that, I was, you know, ridiculed, bullied in school, bullied in school. Even to this day I'm sometimes bullied in spaces by adults. If I go to the grocery store, I may scare the clerk, you know, when they see my hand. So, you know, for years when I was younger, I like to kind of just fade into the background because I just didn't want people to notice me, because then it becomes a spectacle and I've always been shy. I never wanted to be the center of attention. But one day, early adulthood, I just kind of thought about what would that six-year-old Tiana need? I never saw anybody that looked like me until I was about 33. And you know what my life had been had. I had seen someone who looked like me and so I decided to become a disability advocate.
Speaker 2:I'm like the same way that I do for, you know, humans' rights, women's rights. I said, hey, I'm going to, you know, put myself out there and again just be that person that I needed when I was a child and just to take away the stigma of it, just to normalize it. You know, sometimes I leave the house and I'm my natural self. Other times I wear a prosthetic hand, you know, depending on what I need. And you know, like, the prosthetic hand I wear is because I overuse my right hand and so you started getting, you know, carpal tunnel syndrome and things like that. So last year I decided I'm not like, oh, I'm going to get a prosthetic hand, and even with that, I try to take the stigma out of that. You know, if I see a child kind of looking in the store, I'll say, hey, do you want to come touch it? You want to give me a half-buck? You know you want to talk about it.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that is how I get to be a disability.
Speaker 1:you know when people see you in community spaces and they don't want, they don't know how to react or what You're you know, just turning that, that into your power, and that's just amazing. Oh, tiana, this is amazing, incredible work that you've done. So how do you see the intersection of arts and activism in creating social change? You gave us a wonderful example of the play that you wrote the Lady's Car and your disability advocacy. You know how does art play into that? Can you give us another example or what you've noticed on other artist scales?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, I would say it normalizes it and again, it makes it more accessible, because how many people can say they've seen somebody that looks like me? You know you may not see it or you may not notice it if I'm out in a store because my hand is so small. But another product that I worked on on some of my short films, like Blind Date and Neighborhood Heist, that I did for the Easter Seals Disability Film Festival, we made sure that we wrote it around my disability. So you know, in Blind Date there is a gentleman who is he is interested in another woman but then in the end he chooses the woman with the limb difference. You know, where else do you ever see that? And so you know, and people even introducing them to the language, people never heard of the term limb difference. You know, they just maybe want to call you disabled or you don't have a hand or things of that nature. So you know we are again, we are educating about that, you know, with arts and activism.
Speaker 1:Love that, love that, and again, with that vocabulary term, limb difference you know that when you're learning about people of the limb difference, community, that is the appropriate way to address them Correct, correct, yes, yes, yes. And also just gives that dignity and respect to that. You know. Community, that's amazing. What advice would you give to aspiring creators? You are creative I mean everything you touch is creative with your work in PR and entertainment but what advice would you give aspiring creators aiming to produce socially impactful content?
Speaker 2:The number one thing I would say is to be authentic, because it shows we can all tell when someone or something is not authentic. You know, pick a project and or cause that you genuinely care about, that you have the knowledge you know about. If limb difference isn't your jam, then maybe you shouldn't write about limb differences you know about. If limb difference isn't your jam, then maybe you shouldn't write about limb differences you know something that's authentic and it's going to show and then your passion for that project.
Speaker 2:It's going to be easier for you to sell and to get other people on board because you are passionate about that project. So, you know, be authentic. Also, know who you're talking to, your target audience. For instance, like when I wrote the Lady's Car, I wanted my audience to be zero to age 99. So I wanted to be family friendly. So because of that, you know, this happened. This story happened in the late 1800s, early 1900s. I could have very well used the N-word, you know, in that piece, but I strategically did not. I wanted children to be able to watch that production, which they did. So because, thinking about that audience in mind, which is how I approach the script, and I made sure that it was family friendly and I was able to get the message across with my unique spin on the language that I used, so you know be authentic and know your audience.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so powerful. Yeah, be authentic and know your audience. That's so powerful. Yeah, be authentic, know your audience, because we can see fake a mile away and if you're not passionate about a certain topic, it's like they didn't do their homework. They don't know what they're doing. It's just we're just putting it out there to put out their sake. And thank you so much for reiterating that, because there is something that says you want to amplify and shine a light on things, especially when it comes to social consciousness and things that people should know about. But I love how you talked about if it's not your authentic lived experience. You know, partner with somebody that it is and give them that voice, the amplify it instead of you, you know, putting a spotlight on something you don't know, the context of Right, and so, yeah, that's a really very, very good advice. What initiatives or causes are you currently focused on? You know when your activism efforts finish focus on, you know, in your activism effort Currently.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm getting ready to go march on Bloody Sunday, you know, coming up in March. So you know, in Alabama. So that's something I'm looking forward to. Other initiatives I serve on the board of organization that assist those who have been affected with or by HIV and or AIDS. And of course, you know the Easter Seals Disability Film Festival is coming up, so we'll be working on that this year as well, in April.
Speaker 1:So you know just things still coming up, so you're busy. Yes.
Speaker 2:I am. I have a couple of leases about to come to an end for Ida B Wells' China. Her China is in a couple of museums so trying to determine you know where else would be a good space for her, a good fit, so that she can be seen on different parts of the world. So those are just some things that we're working on. And, speaking of the china, I have been blessed to have that passed down to me. So it was Ida's china that she used to entertain, you know dignitaries, you know politicians and all these other freedom fighters with, and she gave it to her daughter, alfreda, who gave it to her daughter Alfreda, which is my grandmother, and my grandmother gave it to me.
Speaker 1:Wow, I mean just hearing you speak in your joy, in your energy. I just I know I'm a very spiritual person that your great-grandmother and your grandmother, all of those women, are like, yes, she is here, she. And when your grandmother, alfreda, told you it's you, you know you took that assignment and you took it to heart and you went with it. You know there's so many things with our elders when they tell you something, you move in direction you know I'm a proud.
Speaker 1:Liberian girl and I remember my grandma was like no, I even when I graduated in undergrad, my grandma Agnes, see, alfreda, agnes, there's something about those A names you know, and she told me she, I got my communication degree and she goes you're supposed to move with the children and I ended up teaching elementary school for 18 years after.
Speaker 1:And she goes you're supposed to move with the children and I ended up teaching elementary school for 18 years after and it was like she knew the assignment. She knew that there's, you know things. So when you share that about yourself it just reiterated of when the elders tell you there's something great, you're going to do something great, they speak that life into you, tiana, and you just said I understand that assignment, you don't need to repeat it, you don't need to say it a different way. It's like they lock in and they go no, this is what you are meant to do and go for it, and I am just so proud of you. Listeners, I'm going to put in the show notes all of Tiana's works that you can find her. But Tiana shared with me this beautiful speech that she did.
Speaker 1:She was a keynote speaker at the hometown of your great grandmother, you know, in Mississippi, and you were the keynote speaker for Martin Luther King Jr Day for the event, and I loved how you talked about being courageous when others aren't around you.
Speaker 1:That was your overall theme and standing up and speaking out for injustices. And I feel like, in this time that we're living in, so many of us are in that, clutching the pearls and what do we do? And still moving, still being courageous. You don't have to wait for others to find that courage, you know, and your great-grand showed you that, your grandmother showed you that and in how you're just even sharing about the story about the lady's car I didn't know about that about Ida B Wells. You know, growing up we had little, I don't want to say like a highlight reel, but it felt like that little tidbits of Black history that were only given to us and fed to us. And to really be critical thinkers, as educators and as students, to find those firsthand articles that you just shared and what gave you that work to create that play shared, and what gave you that work to create that play. You know, it's just amazing how we, you know, continue to do that courageous, critical thinking. Courageous, you know, movement, you know.
Speaker 2:Is there anything else you want to add about that? Yeah, you're going to have to have the courage. No, I love it, thank you. I, as you, mentioned being an educator, so I currently am a special educator for fourth and fifth grade, and so I you know during my history that grade level was my jam.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I loved teaching fifth grade.
Speaker 2:Yes, I share as much as I can with the staff and the students. You know about IW Wells because, like you said, it's a little highlight reel and I gave them some bookmarks and the educators came to me and they said I am embarrassed, I'm an educator and you know, I did not know about this and I didn't know about the ladies car and all of that, and I said they don't want you to know. I said you don't be embarrassed, they don't want you to know. And a little bit of stuff that you do know is because of my family, is because, you know, we took that oral history and we make sure that we put it out there so that everybody knows.
Speaker 2:But you know, it's by design, which is why you have to have the courage, you know, to be this like to go against the norm, because the right thing is not always the popular thing, you know. And so now, as you talk about that speech, I sent that to a lot of coworkers and so we'd walk around the hallway and they're, like you know, to have the courage. You know, and that's the state that's going on with our nation right now, like you said, flinching pearls, and we got to have the courage to speak up.
Speaker 2:Yes, we got to have the courage to advocate for ourselves, for our neighbors, for our nation. You know, because if we don't, you know what's the alternative. That's it, so you know so what if someone doesn't like you?
Speaker 1:You know so what and?
Speaker 2:you know. So you know you're not for everybody, because even if you cater to their every need, there's still somebody who's going to turn around and say I don't like you.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, yeah. So it's okay if you give them a reason, because you know, and everybody's not for you and we're not put on this earth to be liked, we all have an assignment and when we are afraid of that assignment, that assignment, that project does not get done and we are not helping. You know, we're not helping our nation, we're not helping our people. So we got to have the courage to be disliked.
Speaker 1:We got to have the courage To be disliked.
Speaker 2:yes, we got to have the courage because, you know, again doing the right thing, you're usually going to upset somebody.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't mean be a difficult person and to terrorize people. I just mean when you are advocating for what's right, you know. When you are advocating for your student, you know, for your school, for your community, you keep going. It's okay if people are looking at you like you know, here they come, here comes the troublemaker. Hey, I'll wear that as a badge of honor Because as long again as you are walking in your purpose, you are purposeful. Your heart, your authentic promise, it will work out.
Speaker 1:And when people see that, then people will follow you and they will support you, they will support you, and my mom used to always tell us growing up the only thing you have to fear is if you're doing something wrong. And if you're not doing anything wrong, just keep it moving, Keep going, Keep sharing and educating love. This platform that I created, you know, is to have change makers that are being, you know, courageous in their own right and in that assignment keeper. You know. I love how you said when you're afraid of that assignment, the project doesn't get done, you know, and I needed that inspiration today because, you know, there's like a project that got up my sleeve but I'm a little scared. So thank you, Tiana, for reminding me. Like, if you're scared, it's not going to get done. So, Jeb, get to work. That's right, you got to proceed through the discomfort.
Speaker 2:you know, yeah, greatness is on the other side of that fear.
Speaker 1:Yes, so, so true. Oh, I needed that today. So where else, tiana, I'm going to have your information in our show notes, but where else can our listeners find your great work that you have?
Speaker 2:My website, tianafarrellcom, or you can find me on social media. Just my handle is tianafarrell Love that Love that.
Speaker 1:Oh, Tiana, thank you so much for being a guest on our show. Thank you, listeners. This was an awesome, awesome interview with Ms Tiana Farrell. Thanks again and, like I said, folks, please share this episode with an educator, a changemaker in your community that really wants to understand, especially our community members with limb difference. Another wonderful representation of advocate for this cause. Thanks again for watching. We'll see you next time. Bye.