Being Beloved Podcast features formerly incarcerated women’s stories

“Taking three years to complete—from inception to launch—the Being Beloved podcast opens [its] audience to an often ignored population: formerly incarcerated women. The full series, recorded from 2023 to 2024, launched in the form of a live podcast at Cherry Street Pier No. 9 in Philadelphia [in September]. While the center of the evening was to learn about the experiences of women who returned home after years of incarceration, it became a night to activate a community.

“Curated by Sunkissed Media Group and 5 Shorts Project, the nexus of the night was a panel discussion with Blak Rapp Madusa, Michele Wood and Rashida Ricketts as discussants. Moderated by Kaia Shivers, who is also editor-in-chief of Ark Republic, the conversation brought to the fore stories about the U.S. prison system, and the struggles from the experiences of women who served years.

If anything, it showed the need for more platforms and media like this.

“Madusa explained that everyone who has spent time in jail or prison will leave traumatized. Whether detained for ‘20 minutes or 20 years,’ Madusa, who self-describes as an ‘artivist,’ explained that when you are locked up, ‘you realize you have no rights,’ and ‘no one to advocate for you.’

“While women who are incarcerated are significantly lower than their male counterparts, The Sentencing Project showed a 50% faster increase than men from 1984 to 2015. Another study reported that from 1978 to 2015 the female population in jails went up by 834%. Philadelphia is one of 10 major cities seeing an increase in women incarcerated, and the need for reentry programs is critical. …

“While there is an over-representation of Black and Latino female prisoners, Madusa highlighted that there are ‘a lot of poor white women’ who are incarcerated and face the same issues when they reintegrate back to their communities.

“‘What can we do to bring more healing,’ asked Jack, an audience member. The panel stressed that there needs to be more conversation and more resources to a population, along with advocacy that changes sentencing and incarceration.

“‘This podcast and the live show that we had was possible because a collective of people wanted to push these types of honest projects through,’ said Kaia Shivers, who created the podcast and later brought on a colleague, Rolanda Spencer, who left the production in 2023. ‘It has been one of my most challenging projects, but absolutely rewarding. If anything, it showed the need for more platforms and media like this.’”

Read the full story at ArkRepublic.com.