Aseloka Smith

Aseloka Smith is the creator of The Colored Girl Beautiful, which was selected among thousands of applications for the Google Podcasts creators program. Follow The Colored Girl Beautiful on Twitter here, on IG here.

Kindly introduce yourself and tell us what you do!
My name is Aseloka Smith and I'm the creator and host of The Colored Girl Beautiful podcast. It a narrative podcast that explores Black womanhood.

How did you stumble across the book The Colored Girl Beautiful, and what made you come up with this fascinating idea for the show?
I learned about the book The Colored Girl Beautiful back in grad school. A classmate used it in one of her projects and when she shared about what the book was I intrigued. It's the first etiqutte book ever written for Black women and it was published in 1916. I looked it up that same day and have pretty much been obsessed with it ever since. I didn't realize how many thoughts I had about Black womanhood until I started reading the author, Emma Azalia Hackley's thoughts about it. It's been a journey for me just in creating the show. I'm learning more and more about myself and womanhood and Blackness every day. 

What has making the show taught you about other people?
This show has reminded me over and over that we are all complex and layered beings. No one's story is simple or easy or cut and dry. I believe deeply that we must keep that in mind order to allow both ourselves and one another grace.

Can you tease us with anything exciting coming up in the next season? 
I'm super excited about season 2! We've got some amazing stories lined up from some phenomenal Black women including a New York Times Best selling author that I've been officially geeking out over. No spoilers but, it's going to be pretty amazing for sure!

What do you hope the show does for people?
One of the really frustrating and beautiful things about the original book is that it's a set of instructions. There are so many things in it that are beautiful and encouraging and so many others that are oppressive and sexist. It's both of and ahead of its time. But what I hope through the discussion in the podcast, that we as Black women can take what is good about the book and apply that to our lives. There's a quote in the book that says that our lives are what we make it. I want us to live up to that. I want us as Black women to have the courage to be our whole selves flaws, independent of the external expectations that are often placed on us. I believe we can all use a little nudge in that direction.

Thanks, Aseloka!