Episode 6 :: Aisha Nyandoro

Minisode – Be the vessel

Back to: The Green Room Podcast

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to the Green Room. I’m Courtney Martin. Today I’m thinking about all the nuanced ideas that were surfaced during my conversation with guest Aisha Nand Doro. I really appreciated the discomfort she expressed with the term thought leader. To be honest, we’ve never really loved it at fresh. I personally don’t love it at all, but it’s felt so hard to figure out an alternative. Aisha said this,

Speaker 2 (00:34):
No, I don’t think of myself as someone who needs to be out in a world spreading a message. I think of myself as someone who is very rooted in community, someone who is very grounded in the issues at hand, and I am just humble that for whatever reason, I am the vessel in which I get to say the things that need to be heard in some capacity. But I’ve never thought of myself as someone who needs to be out in the world saying those things, and actually, that still feels icky to me. Yeah. Say, which I’m working through and all those things.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Will you say more about the vessel? When did you know you were a vessel? Because that’s an important moment too.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Oh gosh. I think I’ve always, huh? These are such good, deep questions for women to get myself centered. You know?

Speaker 1 (01:34):
You know how I roll Aisha? You know how I roll.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Okay. So when did I know I was a vessel? I’ve always known that. Let me take that back. I have always been someone who I felt to be very blessed to have a desire to work in purpose, and that comes directly from how I was brought up. I am from Jackson, Mississippi. I am homegrown goodness. I have a love, love, love, love, love relationship with this place. I’m the granddaughter of a civil rights veteran. I am the daughter of a social worker and also a daughter of a pastor. So all of this upbringing of how you are supposed to situate yourself in community and how we are blessed to be a blessing was a part of my upbringing. So I have always known that the work that I would do would be community-based work, because I’ve always known that when you are blessed as my family was blessed and has been blessed, that you give back. And so that being a vessel and having an opportunity to give back is what I’ve always known.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
I don’t think vessel is necessarily the catchiest of terms, trying to imagine it like going viral on TikTok, but I do think it’s worth exploring. A vessel is a hollow container, especially used to hold liquid such as a bowl or cask. Let’s think about that. So if we think about this version of a thought leader, she’s a person walking around in the world and her job, or really her calling, is to hold the stories and moral truths of a movement and pour them out. I love that it sounds like a sacred oath instead of a strategic plan, if I’m thinking of myself as a thought leader, I’m thinking, who is the audience and how do I get their no doubt, limited attention? If I’m thinking like a vessel, I’m thinking, who is the audience and how can I nourish them with what I contain? The truth, the possibility, the connection.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
That also fits with Aisha’s insight, that whereas she used to debate people when bias and bullshit came up these days, she responds with a toolbox of stories at Fresh. We’re always encouraging folks to build up a toolbox of stories that they can have at the ready when the opportunity arises. This is good, not just for avoiding getting sucked into pointless debate and wasting all of your precious energy, but also for protecting yourself. Sometimes you walk into a setting thinking you’ll give one kind of talk, but the audience vibe is not right. You don’t want to get vulnerable. It’s no problem. You notice, adapt and tell a different story than you planned that day. It’s a way of building up trust with yourself. You got you. And if navigating a world still full of racism, sexism, classism, and all kinds of other iss that can leave you feeling like poverty porn instead of a person that contains multitudes.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Thanks for all of the lessons, Aisha. We can’t wait to see what you pour out. Next, what did you learn from Aisha’s episode? Do you think of yourself as a thought leader and or a vessel something else? Send us an email at greenroom@freshspeakers.com, and if you like what you heard today, please give us a rating and review and tell a friend. The Green Room is an independent production of fresh speakers produced by me, Courtney Martin, along with Vanessa Valenti, Casey Molina and Allison Cook. Ali Bowman is our editor. The Green Room is possible. Thanks to the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, I’m Courtney Martin. Thanks for listening.