- 22 hours ago
A conversation exploring the growing wellness movement of Black women finding healing through travel across the African Diaspora. Drawing from her experience leading international retreats in, AJax shares how reconnecting with culture, community, ancestry, and place can become a powerful tool for restoration and self-discovery. Attendees will explore the difference between a vacation and a wellness pilgrimage, what makes these experiences transformative, and practical ways to incorporate healing-centered travel into their own lives.
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00:00Hi. Hello. Hi, everyone. Hello. Hello. Come on in. Have a seat. So, uh, quick.
00:15Back on my head. Okay. Quick. Can you hear me? Yeah. Quick show of hands. Who was here
00:23for the last talk? You can just put your hand up. Okay, cool. I want to just know,
00:28because every time I'm going to introduce, I'm like, how much do I need to reset the room? Where's
00:34the room? No me. So, thank you for being here. Ah, hi. Hello. Okay. So, thank you for being here.
00:42Welcome to the Talking Circle. Talking Circle is, I'd like to say it's the IRL experience of
00:50Unbothered. Anyone here know about Unbothered on social? Okay. So, Unbothered is a platform
00:58for black women. And we have been known for many years for celebrating us, for seeing us,
01:04speaking mostly to millennials and Gen Z. But we are in the process right now of transitioning
01:10and evolving the brand to be more about well-being and culture, which is a big part of why you're
01:17inside of this circle. My background, my name, actually. I need to get good at actually introducing
01:22myself. I'm Erica Chitty. I'm the Senior Vice President of Brand and Editorial Content for
01:27Unbothered. And I've spent the past, I don't know, 15, 20 years in women's health. I was a full-spectrum
01:34doula for well over a decade. And I like to say I've been at the bedside with women. I've been
01:40in the
01:40classroom with women. And kind of my main thing is I really love helping women tell the stories of
01:45their bodies to themselves, to each other. Because if we can't do that, we can't take care of ourselves
01:51and we can't take care of each other. Especially as black women, we need to understand what's going
01:55on inside. Our last conversation was about cardiac health. And the conversation we're about to go into
02:01is about healing. But it's about why we need to leave sometimes to heal. So before we drop all the
02:08way into the conversation, what we're going to do is what we call a clearing. And the clearing basically
02:13helps to set and clear the energy in the space and get us ready to go into this next conversation.
02:20I want to just express there's a lot of stages at festival, right? This is not a stage. This is
02:27a
02:27circle. Collective wisdom. Everybody here has something to offer, something to bring, something
02:31to say. So know that this is your time as well. And our wonderful, beautiful woman who's going to be
02:39taking us through this conversation. She is not just a speaker. In the circle, we have different
02:45language. I'm your keeper. So I'm going to keep things flowing, keep things moving. And then we
02:49have your anchor. And your anchor is where all of that wisdom is going to be flowing from. That
02:54expertise is going to be flowing from. Sound good? Okay. So we're going to do the clearing. So I need
02:59everyone to rub their hands together. Like really just start rubbing. Feel the heat. Building in your
03:05hands, right? Okay. Now we're going to rub a little bit faster, fast as you can. I'm going to count
03:10to
03:10three. And when I get to three, we're going to clap just one time. Simple clap, right? Okay. One, two,
03:19three. Beautiful. All right. I'm going to pass it over to Ajax. And if you wouldn't mind introducing
03:29yourself before going into your share. Can you hear me? Yes? Check, check. One, two, three, four,
03:38check. Hello? Hello? Okay. Let me have them turn it up in one second. Yeah. I feel like I need
03:43to
03:43have it a little turned up. Welcome everyone. Can you turn it up, babe? Like almost maxed. I'm really happy
03:47to be here.
03:48This new music vibe is very loud. And I'm going to lean in already so that we can connect, get
03:55to know each
03:56other and have a candid conversation about travel and healing. First of all, I just found out that
04:02Erica and I have a very special friend in common, Samantha Goodman. Shout out to her. And my name
04:09is Ajax. That's short for Adrian Jackson. And my number one job has been running the first black-owned
04:15yoga studio in Louisiana called Magnolia Yoga Studio. Yes. We'll be 10 years old this September and we're
04:22just on the other side of the downtown. And so, um, yoga and travel go together. Yoga and travel go
04:30together for me a lot. I started traveling way before I did yoga. And I spent my 20s traveling the
04:38world. Peace Corps work. I have a background in anthropology. And then I spent my 30s traveling within,
04:45doing yoga. I didn't go anywhere physically. But I went all kinds of places within. Healing, creating,
04:56reaffirming, setting up foundations. So that in my 40s, I can do a nice blend of both. Where I do
05:04a lot
05:05of yoga, a lot of meditation. I lead those things. We're open seven days a week. But I also travel
05:11the
05:11world. I just got back from Los Angeles today at 5 a.m. And so, I really believe in balance.
05:18I really
05:19believe in both, yes, yoga and meditation and community, by the way. And we have Magnolia
05:24community in the house. Thank you for being here. And, um, and I believe in travel. You know,
05:31since COVID in particular, I really felt so proud to be a black woman traveling the world.
05:37I can't tell you how important of a representation that is for the world to see. And, and for our
05:45own
05:45healing. You know, I'd love for us to start by naming whether you traveled outside of the country
05:52or not. Part of what I want you to get is we don't just travel to LA or to New
05:58York. I love those places,
05:59too. We travel out of the country. And it's very intentional. And so, one of my first kind of
06:04questions, one of my first juicy kind of sassy ways to introduce traveling and healing as it relates
06:12to people of color, black men, black women in particular, is I want us to name whether you
06:17have the actual experience or not. Think about it because you're probably going to be right. Let's name
06:25what different, what differences we get when we travel as black folks outside of the U.S. Okay? From the
06:34racial context,
06:36what physical, mental relief of being elsewhere do we get to experience? What languages might we pick
06:46up even just a little bit and make us proud and excited to use it? What international work or international
06:52lifestyles might we tap into and be curious about? You know, what international love might you be
07:01inspired to enjoy? And so, I want us to really think about, well, why Brazil? Why Kenya? Why these
07:12motherlands, specifically, why going to those places will help you heal? For me, I can tell you,
07:21when you fly 8,000 miles away from your home by yourself, you become so much more empowered. You
07:30believe in yourself in levels that doing it here distract you or try to stop you. But when you're out
07:38in the
07:38world, what I've experienced is the world is very open to us, very curious about us, and has messages
07:43and magic for us sprinkled all over the world. But we got to get organized and we got to get
07:49out there. So,
07:50those of you that, you know, have traveled some or would like to travel out of the country, I'd love
07:55for
07:55us to kind of name what is it that we get that heals us because we're not in the United
08:00States of America.
08:01Also, if you want to share, I will bring you a mic.
08:12Is it on? Can we have the other mic on, please?
08:17Is it on?
08:21Hello? Hello? All right, I reset it. Okay. So, everybody calls me Fluid, Ms. Fluid.
08:28I actually live in Costa Rica now. I'm here because someone that I'm hosting a retreat with,
08:34Soul Life Travel, she is called to speak here at Essence Fest, so I'm here with her. And my mom.
08:40Hello, mom.
08:42But just to speak to the question that you had about cultures and everything, I joined the military and
08:48that was when I first left the country, was being in the military. But my first trip outside of being
08:54in the military just by myself was to Peru for a yoga retreat. Yes, yes.
08:59Peru blew my mind. It blew my mind. It's one of my favorite places in the world. It's so beautiful
09:07and spiritual and just the air that you feel. And they are very proud of their culture. They don't
09:12hide what happened when, you know, the colonizers came to try to take over. They tell you how they
09:19resisted. They teach you all these things. And then when you actually get in and you talk to the
09:23people, you learn like, all right, these are the things that we let be popularized. This is what
09:28we let people see. But you have to be here. You have to speak to the people. And the people
09:32have
09:32to allow you to know certain knowledges. You know, a lot of the knowledge that they give us here in
09:40the States is given to you for a reason. Right. Because they want you to, they want to mold your
09:46mind.
09:47Yeah. Other places, knowledge is earned. You have to show that you are worthy of the knowledge.
09:52And so, you know, just stepping off that plane and feeling the energy is like a breath of fresh air,
09:58like all that stress and everything just seems to just like melt. Yes. And the food. Right.
10:05Man, like the way that I cook and everything has been expanded so much.
10:10I love that. Yes. Like, and then you talked about love too. My boyfriend is from Trinidad and Tobago.
10:16Yeah. Okay. We met in Costa Rica. International love. It's a lot of fun in Costa Rica too, y'all.
10:23If y'all trying to go to Costa Rica, hit me up. I got you. But it's just, it really
10:28has expanded my
10:29mind. And even having a partner that is from a Caribbean island and learning so much about herbs
10:35and plants and just a whole nother mindset that he grew up with growing up in an independent
10:42Caribbean island, not even like one that's still colonized. Like it's an independent Caribbean
10:48island. So just to speak to what you really can learn in the feeling, like it's a lot of black
10:55people in Costa Rica. I'm on the Caribbean coast. So like there are black people everywhere.
11:00Yes. First of all, they try to make it seem like we're not everywhere. We are everywhere.
11:04Yes. Even in Europe, you know, even all these places. I've been to Ghana and Ghana was absolutely
11:10beautiful. Ghana is really what changed my life. So I encourage everybody to get up out of here.
11:18I host retreats too, to get people out of the States. People are like, have a retreat here in
11:22the States. No, y'all need to leave. Yeah. Can I ask really quickly, how old are you, if you
11:27don't
11:27mind me asking? I'm 32. Awesome. And when you first started doing this international traveling,
11:32how old were you? Um, so I joined the military at 18. 18. So, but, um, and then I got
11:38out of the
11:38military at 23. Yeah. So, um, I, and I've been traveling out of the country ever since I could.
11:46Yeah. I actually have to once a year for that deep. Well, I live out the country now, but before
11:51I moved,
11:52before I found my place, I always left. Well, and the thing is, is that when you're traveling,
11:56you gain a lot of skills because we can romanticize it and you can't, you can find love. You can,
12:02you know, be on the beach, you can, but you also get skills because you have to plan,
12:07you have to save, you have to organize, you have to coordinate, you have to risk. It takes a lot
12:15of
12:15risk and bull. And sometimes the United States of America is very good at making us scared of other
12:20countries. And, um, and then you might have your own doubts, your own fears. And so all of a sudden,
12:28you got the media feeding you messages around Mexico, around Brazil, around all kinds of places
12:35around the world, around Africa, and they're not real. And then you have your own restrictions. Maybe
12:42your family didn't travel. A lot of, a lot of traveling. My mother forbid me to go to some of
12:47these
12:47places. She did not want me to go. I went in spite of, and over time she realized, well, she's
12:54really
12:55growing up. She's really learning. She's coming back. People are now listening to her about her
13:00travels and she started to find value in it. But initially there wasn't support around it. So I'm,
13:09I'm sharing some of that because I want you to know that you do gain a lot of skills that
13:13are applicable
13:13to work because now I own a business. Let me tell you the work I do at 301 Basin Street
13:19here at Magnolia Yoga Studio here in New Orleans is directly connected to the work I did in Kenya
13:25and Lake Naivasha and Peace Corps when I was 23 years old. Directly connected. If I had not done that,
13:32I would not be able to run Magnolia Yoga. New Orleans and Kenya have actually tons in common and I
13:40was able
13:40to use those skills. So there are skills that you can use. There's also new patterns you're creating.
13:46Sometimes your family has not traveled as far as wide as you would like, but you're creating a new
13:51opportunity, new lineage, new possibilities, you know, inspiration for sure. So thank you for sharing
13:59that story because it's similar to how I started. It's changed my life and I don't know that any university
14:07could have given me that. I don't know that any book, maybe the book would have inspired me,
14:12but like Maya Angelou is someone who lived in Ghana, married a Ghanaian, I think professor,
14:19and that stayed with me at 16. And then I thought, you know, maybe one day I'll go to
14:25Ghana and I'll retrace the steps of the great late Maya Angelou.
14:32So, and I have a question too, just a show of hands off of what Ajax is saying. Who here
14:38has,
14:39who's, who here is thinking about going overseas or traveling, experiencing something outside of the
14:45States? Where would you like to travel? Bali? Yes. You want to go to Bali? Very good. I support that.
14:55Anything more you want to say? Yeah. Yeah. My name is Sherry. I'm from Chicago. Hi, Sherry.
15:00Hi, Sherry. I've had my passport since 2020. Nice. There's no stamps on it. Oh yeah, we gotta
15:07change that. I heard that they don't even stamp them anymore. That's how like, not, that's not like,
15:12I'm not traveled at all. However, I got the tools I need to be successful. Okay. Yes. I do want
15:18to go to
15:18Bali. Um, it's along the lines of the wellness. Uh huh. And I mean, I know Russell out there,
15:25you know, due to scandal, but allegedly not due to scandal. However, there's so many good things
15:32that I hear coming from those visits. So, um, I think that is one of the first places I want
15:38to go.
15:39And Ghana is, is on that list too. Fantastic. So when you go to Bali,
15:45Yes. Or Ghana. Yes. Can you take me with you? Let's go. And then we're going to Costa Rica. Let's
15:50go.
15:51I got a brochure for you. Hi, I'm Katrina from Florida. Hey Katrina. Um, so about your stamps. Um,
16:00if you do go to Africa, a lot of places in Africa, they do stamp your passport. Um, so I,
16:07um, at the age
16:08of, well, right before I turned 50, I decided I wanted to go to Africa and I've been traveling
16:14internationally. That's not it, but I wanted to go to Africa. I wanted to wake up in the morning
16:18on my birthday. Um, we had been looking, talking about playing. I was in, um, in St. Kitts. Okay.
16:25I've been there for a couple of weeks the year before on my 49th birthday. And we were talking about,
16:29there's all these things that we should, I should do for my birthday. And I'm sitting
16:31there and I'm looking in the mountains. I'm looking at the work and I went, I want to do
16:35this. I don't want to host anybody. I don't want to work for my birthday. So I decided that
16:41I wanted to put my feet down on the ground in Africa. I wanted to wake up and pray for
16:47myself
16:48in Africa. I love this. And it changed my life so much. So I was in South Africa and I
16:55went to, um,
16:58to Zimbabwe. And as I had my own tour guide, we're going there. And, um, I kept turning to him
17:04and
17:04saying, this is wonderful. You, you wake up to this. And he just, you know, he let, we walked
17:09and we talked to life and, you know, he's like, I don't meet people who do what you do. And
17:13he has
17:13all these little girls. And he was like, I wish I could have my daughter. Like she was here because
17:18she was out of, out of the area. Cause I was like, if she was, I'm like ready because then
17:22we get
17:22taught and trained that we shouldn't go to Africa and we shouldn't go places. And the truth is,
17:28is when I went there, I went by myself, my sisters couldn't come with me. And, um, I went by
17:33myself
17:33and amazing. And I decided I was not going to be afraid of my own people. That's right.
17:39They look like me. That's right. They walk like me. And I felt so sad so many times in South
17:44Africa,
17:45because I felt like they forgot about us. They only stay, they see, you know, this, what they
17:50think of as a success, but we miss each other. There's, they're missing a part and we're missing
17:55a part and we need to, you know, put it back together. So in it, so at one point I'm
17:59at the
17:59falls and I kept turning, like I said to him and saying, this is wonderful. This is what you wake
18:05up to.
18:05And there I am. And the fall is happening and I'm getting sprayed with water. And I realized
18:13that for every Butler and every coward and every Williams and every Thomas, somebody stood at that
18:20coast thinking, I'll probably never see them again. Somebody was in the boat, nervous and upset,
18:25thinking I'll never see home again. But for the cowards and the butlers and the Williams and the
18:30Thomases, I made it back. Yeah. And so there I was crying and tears and whatever. And he
18:35turned to me and he said, welcome to Africa. Love it. So my plan is to retire and live in
18:42Ghana.
18:43Yes. Amen. Amen. Yes. Do it. Just do it. There's something very healing, a loop that closes. And I
18:50have a retreat about this. It's Senegal that we go to. The, the beautiful piece I'm wearing right now
18:57is from Senegal. And what I want to kind of just add to what you're sharing. When we go back
19:03the, to the door of no return, when we go back to that, there is a loop that closes. There
19:10is a healing
19:10that happens that again, you can't have it at your local church necessarily. This is something you have
19:17to get up and face all the fears and costs and all the things that, that go along with traveling,
19:25having families, you know, help you out, take you to the airport, all of that. But the healing you get,
19:31right? You talked about putting your feet on the ground, praying for yourself in Africa,
19:36and then having that waterfall. Waterfalls are very spiritually cleansing and having these revelations,
19:42these moments, these moments. This is what I'm talking about. This is what's available for you
19:46in all kinds of different places in the world. I want to share really quickly a way to consider
19:54where you want to go. Things that you can ask yourself that might help you get to the answer.
20:01Because the world, let me tell you, the world is beautiful. And it is to be seen, especially I
20:05believe by black women in particular. We need to see the world. Ajax? Yeah. Go ahead. Oh, sure. Go ahead.
20:12Hi, everyone. My name is Ochuko. I'm Nigerian, but I live here. I actually live in Portland. I have
20:19for the last five years. I moved away from home when I was 16 to Canada, and then to England,
20:27and then to the US, and then to Germany, and now I'm back. And so I've done a lot of
20:31traveling,
20:32lived a lot of places, done a lot of traveling. But I think one thing I'd say, I'm assuming like
20:36most
20:37people in the audience are American, is that the traveling really gives is anonymity. Sometimes
20:44when you go to these places where there isn't like a really big black population, like the places I've
20:49lived, Portland, Germany, whatever, you know, a little bit vanilla, not necessarily like the,
20:55yeah, has a very different culture. But I think what I've found that has been really freeing
21:00in those places that people don't necessarily have an idea of what you're supposed to be like.
21:05They haven't met a lot of people like you. And so you go in and you get to be someone
21:11that is just
21:11you. They ask a lot of questions. People ask me a lot of questions about my hair, a lot of
21:17questions
21:17about my accent, a lot of questions about my name. And I think the attitude I go into it with
21:21is like
21:21one of curiosity. They're curious I'm going to answer. And then I can just tell them the things
21:26about myself that I want them to know. And it's like I'm introducing people to my culture in a
21:31different way, but also to myself, as opposed to when I go to places, you know, even me as a
21:37non-American go to places in the U.S. with a lot of black populations. People aren't that curious
21:42because they think that they know you or they know what you're about. And so I would say that
21:46something that, you know, even going to Europe, going to all these places, yes, people might ask
21:50you word questions or start eating longer. I was in Japan for about two weeks, a month ago.
21:58And yeah, just being yourself, being one of one, the only one of you that you're going to get to
22:03see
22:04for a while. I don't know. It's kind of cool. So that's a different angle I wanted to share.
22:08That's really beautiful. Yeah. And it's important, you know, that international travel,
22:15how you conduct yourself, how you're showing up for people. You really are creating a narrative,
22:20which I think is important. You get to define it. So elements. I want you to think about travel
22:27and where you want to go based on, let's say, the element fire. So if you want passion in your
22:33life,
22:34whether it's your job, you're trying to have passion projects in your life to keep you motivated,
22:39you're writing a book, you're building a home. If you want passion in your marriage,
22:45think about where there might be fire from volcanoes to fire practices.
22:53Fire, the element fire is also good for purging. So places that are hot, places where you're going to
22:58sweat and purifying. So if those are elements, characteristics, traits, needs that you have,
23:04desires that you have, I want you to think of places that are hot and that have volcanoes,
23:10have warm weather where you're going to sweat. Those are places that are good for if you need
23:14passion in your life, purifying and purging, cleaning. Water is good for, of course, restoration,
23:25rinsing, floating. Maybe you've been caring a lot and you want to release. You want to be light,
23:30light hearted again. Lights in your, light in your thought process, light in your mood.
23:37Water is a great place. If you want to immerse yourself, you feel like you've been surrounded
23:41by a lot of challenges, toxicity, negative, negative, negativity, then rinsing yourself in water
23:49can help with that. Air, think of places that are high up, visiting places, a lot of rooftops,
23:56skyscrapers, or climbing, skydiving, things of that sort. You want to do things around air that are
24:04going to help you with your inspiration. They're going to help you expand your thinking, help you
24:11get clear. You know, maybe you want to change jobs, move cities. Maybe you're contemplating a divorce.
24:18Maybe you're contemplating taking your, your relationship to another level, but you need clarity.
24:22If you're not ready, then I want to recommend going to places where you can be inundated with air.
24:29Okay. And then the last one, of course, is earth. All right. Where if you've been through a lot,
24:35there's a lot of thoughts, a lot of things going on, whether they're good things or dramatic things.
24:40But if you're like been feeling like you've been swirling, then you want to go get, go to earth.
24:45And you want to get grounded. You want to put your feet into the sand or to the earth and
24:49to the grass.
24:50Um, this is going to give you confidence. This is going to ground you and it's going to give you
24:55inner strength. So the world is big and it's beautiful. And all the elements have offerings
25:02for you. And if you can reflect for a moment and think about, well, what is it that I need?
25:07I do this with food a lot. What is it that I'm, my body's really hungry for instead of just
25:13eating,
25:14regard, whatever. Same thing when I go out of town, what do I really want and need at this moment?
25:19And based on that energy, then I try and research a place that'll give it to me.
25:26Well, there's so much more that we could talk about here and deepen into, but I'm,
25:32I'm so glad that we've been able to take the time to just really think about travel,
25:39think about leaving. Cause I feel like for black women, for black people, we always,
25:44we have such amazing imaginations, right? But we have to spend so much of our time thinking about,
25:50you know, bills or work or all of those things. And so the hope when we're in this circle together
25:55is
25:55that you can use that creativity and that imagination to think about what you need for yourself,
25:59what you need to do next. So thank you so much Ajax. Ajax will be here. If you would like
26:07to talk to her,
26:08we have a little bit of time between now and our next session, but before, oh, we have a question.
26:24I actually went on a wellness trip with Ajax in April. So she is phenomenal in the planning,
26:32the orchestrating, knowing where to go, what will fill your soul and, you know, will nourish your
26:39body. Um, and we're taking a trip next month to Brazil. So if anyone wants to come to Brazil with
26:46her, there you go. She has some pamphlets, but I say that because she is well traveled and she knew
26:52the things and we were just able together. We went together, the media that we just were able to show
26:59up and it was all taken care of. I love it. Yeah. So it was very refreshing. It was the
27:05most,
27:06it was wonderful because we were able to fill our cup and she kept pouring into it. I love it.
27:13Thank
27:13you for sharing that. And also I just want to say too, we have an app it's called E360. That
27:19app has
27:20information about Ajax. So if you open the app and you go to experiences under festival, click on
27:26Unbothered and Well, you can find this session and find more information about her just so if you
27:30don't get a chance to talk to her today. Okay. So now we're going to close the circle. Same thing
27:35again. We always open with a clearing and we close with the clearing. All right. So if you were not
27:40here
27:40earlier, what that looks like is we're going to rub our hands together. Okay. We're going to rub,
27:43rub, rub, rub, rub. Take a deep breath. Just feel your hands, feel the heat between your hands,
27:49drop your shoulders, feel the seat beneath you before you get up and move on to whatever you're going to
27:53do.
27:53We're going to go really fast and I'm going to count to three and we're going to clap. One, two,
27:59three.
28:01Thank you for being here.
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