Rewriting the Rules®

In Part 3 of our “LIVE” Event Recording! Series, guests who joined us to hear from youth author & illustrator Miles Asberry-Wallace asked him questions about his creative journey. In this episode, you’ll hear insights from Miles about his process and plans for the future.  

The launch of Miles’ first published comic book, Kings of Quests: A Tale of Bros, Book #1 took place on Wednesday, February 7th. The youth-led event explored...

In Part 2 of our “LIVE” Event Recording! Series, Youth Host Connor Walford conducts “man on the street” interviews with guests joining us to hear from Youth Author & Illustrator Miles Asberry-Wallace and share their favorite books, authors, and reasons why reading is important to critically and creatively make sense of and navigate our world, our lives and specific circumstances that come our way.  All of this takes places duri...

For our second episode of Rewriting the Rules® Season 3, we’re launching a three-episode series resulting from SPYS’ Podcast “LIVE” Event Recording held on Wednesday, February 7th. The youth-led event explored the power of dreams, the power of our stories, and the power of a beloved community that wraps its arms around one inspiring Black young man named Miles.  

For this first episode, Guest Host Connor Walford interviews youth au...

For Season 3, Ep. 1, of Rewriting the Rules®, we are talking about L.O.V.E.— With everything going on in the world.  

And all the things that we’re focused on locally and nationally, we rarely see or hear about the opportunities we, as adults, create to engage our young people in conversations about love. For this episode, we take time to speak with our youth leaders from our YouthPowerMN℠ Leadership Institute about the ways that lo...

For our seventh episode of Rewriting the Rules℠ Season 2, we’re shining a light on Georgina Lorencz, whose work builds on power and genius fundamental to Black communities. Our host, Dr. Tracine Asberry, talks with Georgina about her work helping people to connect to their roots and identity. Our aim with the conversation is to tell the truth. We do this to respect those before us, those among us, and to conserve and preserve those...

For our sixth episode of Rewriting the Rules℠ Season 2, we’re continuing our focus on being the adult we wished we had as a child and teen from the perspectives of our business leaders. This is how we continue Creating a Community That Wraps Its Arms Around Our Youth. For today’s episode, we welcome Frederick Bw’Ombongi, a leader in the health care field who is committed to ensuring health care access around the globe. Fred talks w...

For our fifth episode of Rewriting the Rules℠ Season 2, we’re continuing our focus on being the adult we wished we had as a child and teen, from the perspectives of our mothers and grandmothers. For this episode, host Dr. Tracine Asberry, Executive Director of St. Paul Youth Services, has a Sunday Dinner Conversation with two of our loving experts from our last season, Chakita “Kita” Lewis and Eboun Wilbourn. Tracine talks with Kit...

For our fourth episode of Rewriting the Rules℠ Season 2, we’re continuing our focus on being the adult we wished we had as a child and teen, from the perspectives of our mothers and grandmothers. This is how we continue to create a community that wraps its arms around our youth.   

For today’s episode, we welcome back two of our mothers and loving experts from our last season, Michelle Dennard and Nyia Harris.   

About Michelle:   

Mi...

For our third episode of Rewriting the Rules℠ Season 2, we’re continuing our focus on being the adult we wished we had as a child and teen, from the perspectives of our mothers.   For this episode, we’re taking a panel approach, mirroring a Sunday Dinner conversation. Through this conversation, we listen, learn, and build in community and see that we’re more connected, stronger, and powerful together. This is how we continue Creati...

For our second episode of Rewriting the Rules℠ Season 2, we focused on Creating a Community That Wraps Its Arms Around Our Youth. Our host, Dr. Tracine Asberry, Executive Director of St. Paul Youth Services (SPYS), spoke with one of her former SPYS’ Behavior Intervention Program Specialists, longtime community leader, and current licensed social worker, Jamil Stamschror-Lott. This episode is for everyone who remembers their middle ...

We're back for a new season at Rewriting the Rules℠ with Dr. Lee-Ann Stephens, Minnesota Teacher of Year (2006). Lee-Ann joins the podcast to kick off Season 2 by welcoming students back into the classrooms across the globe, detailing evidence on what makes a GREAT teacher in the classroom, AND offering recommendations to decision-makers locally, nationally, and globally on how to do best (READ: not better) for education. At S...

Thank you for joining us on Season One of the Rewriting the Rules podcast!! This season, we explored the legacies of strength, creativity, and innovation in Black communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color. It’s been a joy and a labor of love to get to sit in conversation with all of our amazing guests and to share their wisdom with you. Stay tuned for Season Two in Fall 2023 and don’t forget to follow us on soci...

Kyra Bester-Hughes is a remarkable youth leader and a friend of St. Paul Youth Services. She joins the podcast for a fearless conversation that explores some of the mistakes adults have made when working with her through challenging times; as well as what they’ve gotten right. Tracine and Kyra also talk about SPYS’ youth-centric approach, where Kyra has been active in the YouthPowerMN℠ Leadership Institute for the past five years. ...

What does it mean to live fully and free? In this episode, Tracine invites longtime friend, Jason Jackson, a Human Resources Diversity and Inclusion consultant for HealthPartners (a US-based Medical Insurance Company) into our ongoing discussion on how the practice of love shows up in our work and in our lives.

For this episode, they explore the concept of intersectional racial equity, which is one of St. Paul Youth Servi...

Emerging fiction, picture book, and comic book writer,  Crown Shepherd (aka Crown the Writer) joins the podcast to explore the journey of discovering and harnessing her own superpower and genius. Crown's writing is deeply rooted in her upbringing and surroundings and she draws on her experiences to create Black characters who are a representation of real children in her life. In this episode, Crown explores how staying true to...

Chaun Webster, Graphic Designer, Publisher and Poet, is back on the podcast to talk about and read from his newly published poetry collection, Wail Song. Chaun describes Wail Song as an “attempt at care,”  which also “lays bare how the construction of the human and the animal both rely on Black abjection.” In this episode, Chaun discusses this long poem with host, Tracine. Together, they weave conversation, meditations, alternative...

‘Black People Don’t Use Measuring Spoons’ is the third installment of our Women’s History Month series. In this episode, Tracine talks to Leah Penniman, a Black Kreyol farmer, mother, soil nerd, author and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York. Together, they explore the connections that Black communities, Indigenous Communities, and Communities of color have to land and the land has to us. Leah is the auth...

Respecting Mothers as Loving Experts - Part 3 of 3 is part of our Women’s History Month series. In this special three-part episode, we are honored to share the wisdom, discernment, and intuition of eight mothers who are experts at living. In Part 3, we speak with Ajibike “BiKé” Ojomo, Michelle Dennard and Portia Jackson. In their own words, we hear from these Black mothers as they explore their hopes for their children (and grandc...