Lorraine Spencer Archives - The Swirl World

Travel Adventures In Alaska, Anyone?

August 11, 2016 By Michelle Matthews-Calloway Leave a Comment

It’s Travel Thursday!

We have places to go and people to see.

Let’s have a travel adventure to Alaska, anyone?

Click here to listen to a podcast with Interracial Dating Coach Lorraine Spencer, who at one point in her life packed up and moved – to Alaska!

We’d love to FEATURE YOU in one of our posts! If you’d like to be featured, please send a nice, clear photo to InspirationDaily@TheSwirlWorld.com.

Copyright ©2016 Michelle Matthews Calloway, ASwirlGirl™, The Swirl World™ LLC, The Swirl World Podcast™, The Swirl World Inspiration Daily™, Swirl Nation™, All rights reserved. Photo of John Jontez Montes on a trip to Alaska used with permission.

#225| A Traveling State Of Mind

August 13, 2015 By Michelle Matthews-Calloway Leave a Comment

When we began the practice of daily uploading blog posts during 2015, the concept of “Travel Thursdays” was instituted fairly quickly.

Travel Thursdays was inspired by an impromptu conversation I had with Interracial Dating Coach Lorraine Spencer, who at one point in her life packed up and moved to Alaska.

We were conversing prior to her guest appearance on the podcast, and she gave me my entire “Travel Thursday” life when making the declaration, “Black women need to travel!”

(If you want to listen to that episode, click here)

Most of us want to travel, yet for many, budgetary constraints pose a significant obstacle.

If you won’t be able travel abroad – or stateside – this year, don’t despair.

We can all still travel – even if we only travel across town, to a local park or lake.

Remember, “There is sanctuary in being alone with nature.”

If traveling isn’t possible as a state of being, make it a state of mind.

Join in the Fray: What are the best local places in your city you can visit on a day trip?

The Swirl World Team is committed to sharing 365 days of inspiration in 2015. Our goal is to help you stay motivated and inspired by bringing you positive, uplifting images and corresponding thoughts.

We’d love to FEATURE YOU in one of our Inspiration Daily posts! If you’d like to be featured, please send a nice, clear photo to InspirationDaily@TheSwirlWorld.com.

Copyright ©2015 Michelle Matthews Calloway, ASwirlGirl™, The Swirl World™, The Swirl World Podcast™, The Swirl World Inspiration Daily™, Swirl Nation™, All rights reserved. Quotation photo property of The Swirl World™.

#141| Places To Go

May 21, 2015 By Michelle Matthews-Calloway Leave a Comment

It’s Travel Thursday!

We have places to go – Alaska, anyone?

Click here to listen to a podcast with Interracial Dating Coach Lorraine Spencer, who at one point in her life packed up and moved – to Alaska!

We’d love to FEATURE YOU in one of our Inspiration Daily posts! If you’d like to be featured, please send a nice, clear photo to InspirationDaily@TheSwirlWorld.com.

A Match Made In Sierra Leone And Beijing!

May 13, 2015 By Michelle Matthews-Calloway Leave a Comment

Sierra Leone native Neneh Ada Yang met her husband, renowned Chinese artist Yang Yan of Beijing, when he came to her country specifically looking for a BLACK woman to marry.

Within one week of meeting, they were married!

Yes.

Within. One. Week!

Note: This can happen when both persons:

Know themselves
Know what they want/don’t want in a mate.

Neneh has been featured in news articles too numerous to count. She was profiled by Lorraine Spencer on the Interracial Marriage and Family website in an article entitled, “China’s Black First Lady.”

Lorraine writes, “Neneh and her husband Yan are celebrities in China and of course she is loved in her home of Sierra Leone. Neneh’s foundation provided thousands of Ebola resistant, protective wear for healthcare workers and citizens.

Neneh has become fluent in Chinese since she lives in China. Her husband taught her art and now she has her own exhibitions as does her husband in various countries. Neneh also plays a rare instrument; a guqin, one of only a few in the world who mastered it in China.

She is a philanthropist and most importantly wife and mommy.”

To read the full article Lorraine wrote about Neneh (and to see more stunning photographs and a video), click here.

If you can’t see the podcast player, click here for the direct download or here for the show’s permanent link.

You can also listen to this and other episodes on Sound Cloud.

If you can’t see the Sound Cloud player, click here. You can also head over and listen to the show on iTunes, Stitcher Radio or PlayerFM.

To read national news articles about Neneh and her husband, click here, here, here, here and here.

The Shout Out! for this episode goes to cousins Lavinia Shebeshonuf and Boughetto Rising of the Just Thinkin’ Out Loud Podcast.

To visit the Just Thinkin’ Out Loud website, click here. To visit The Nerdy Black Chicks Talk Radio Show on Facebook, click here. To visit the Just Thinkin’ Out Loud Facebook page, click here.

To listen to their podcast on Stitcher, click here, and on Spreaker, click here. You can also listen to the show on PodBean and Podomatic.

Want to be a guest on The Swirl World Podcast, or know someone who should?

Send an email to Podcast@TheSwirlWorld.com.

Be sure to “Like” The Swirl World on Facebook and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

You can also follow us on Sound Cloud and listen to the show on Stitcher Radio. You can also hear us on PlayerFM!

Copyright © 2015 Michelle Matthews Calloway, ASwirlGirl™, The Swirl World™, The Swirl World Podcast™, Swirl Nation™, All rights reserved. Photos of Neneh and her husband Yang obtained with permission from the Interracial Marriage and Family website. JTOL logo used with permission.

They Don’t Always Have To Be White!

May 6, 2015 By Michelle Matthews-Calloway Leave a Comment

Fourteen year-old Charlotte Spencer is a self-taught anime artist whose future aspirations include producing animated movies and cartoons.

Charlotte Spencer’s logo

She has some very definite ideas about the types of characters she wants to see in her movies – and she’s not shy about sharing her viewpoint.

“Main characters don’t always have to be white!” Charlotte exclaims.

She has her own website and has already begun putting in the work and time necessary to make her dreams come true.

Charlotte is the biracial daughter of Interracial Marriage and Family Dating Coach Lorraine Spencer. Charlotte has done the research and has some very definite ideas about the types of characters she wants to see in her movies.

She’s determined to ensure her characters – well, listen to the podcast and find out!

One thing we have to say about Charlotte and fact that she’s Lorraine’s daughter: the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

If you can’t see the podcast player, click here for the direct download or here for the show’s permanent link.

You can also listen to this and other episodes on Sound Cloud.

If you can’t see the Sound Cloud player, click here. You can also head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio and FMPlayer.

To visit Charlotte’s website, click here.

Want to be a guest on the podcast, or know someone who should?

Send an email to Podcast@TheSwirlWorld.com.

Be sure to “Like” The Swirl World on Facebook and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

You can also follow us on Sound Cloud and listen to the show on Stitcher Radio. You can also hear us on PlayerFM!

#65| Where You Need To Be

March 6, 2015 By Michelle Matthews-Calloway Leave a Comment

So, what progress have you made with your “I’m traveling this year” plans?

Did you know after today, there are only 300 days left in 2015?

In regards to your plans, are you where you need to be?

If you need ~~a good push~~ additional inspiration, listen to this podcast, Black Women Need to Travel, recorded with Interracial Dating Coach Lorraine Spencer of Interracial Marriage and Family. You can listen on iTunes or Sound Cloud.

This year, be determined to get where you need to be – traveling!

—

Hey, we’d love to feature YOU in one of our Inspiration Daily posts!

If you’d like to be featured, please send a nice, clear photo to InspirationDaily@TheSwirlWorld.com.

Unscripted: Beware The Iron Snowflake!

January 5, 2015 By Michelle Matthews-Calloway 1 Comment

Sometimes you just have things on your mind and heart.

You encounter people, circumstances, and issues, and you wind up pondering on those subjects and mulling them over in your mind.

Oftentimes the “mulling things over” spills out and you just have to say something.

In our first podcast of 2015, Co-Host Adrienne London Leach goes totally unscripted and discusses The Iron Snowflake. Adrienne gives a shout out to swirling pioneer Lorraine Spencer, aka “Swirl Queen, of the popular blog Interracial Marriage and Family.

(Lorraine wrote an outstanding blog post on the subject. To read Lorraine’s take on the phenomenon of The Iron Snowflake, click here.)

Do you have an Iron Snowflake in your life?

In the podcast, Adrienne tells you how to recognize – and melt – the Iron Snowflake.

If you can’t see the podcast player, click here.

If you’d like to listen on Sound Cloud and can’t see the Sound Cloud player, click here.

To listen on Stitcher Radio, click here.

Co-Host Adrienne London Leach

Want to be a guest on the podcast, or know someone who should? Send an email to INeedMySay@gmail.com.

Be sure to “Like” The Swirl World on Facebook and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

You can also follow us on Sound Cloud and listen to the show on Stitcher Radio!

A Black Woman In Russia And Belize

August 4, 2014 By Michelle Matthews-Calloway 2 Comments

Our good friend and mentor Lorraine Spencer knows the most interesting people. Not only is she extremely well-connected, she is what I call a Master Connector.

Lorraine is the bees knees when it comes to introducing and connecting people, and we have her to thank for introducing us to today’s guest: a Black woman who lived in Russia and now lives in Belize.

Men’s Podcast Editor Mark Custard and I had the pleasure of chatting up Alida Wright Sharp.

Alida, her husband Tom and their two boys formerly lived in Russia. She and Tom now live in Belize as missionaries and volunteers for CDF Belize, an organization focused on assisting sexually exploited women and children.

We conversed with Alida via Google Hangouts and had a blast. She describes what living in Russia was like and schooled us on life in Belize.

We were surprised to learn that Alida’s encounters with racism and disdain for her interracial marriage never happened overseas; instead, she and Tom experienced racism . . . . . in the States.

Alida extolls the virtues of Black women traveling and living abroad, talks about how she and her husband met (Oreo cookie, anyone?) and tells us about her new CD project.

I believe you’ll find her account extremely eye-opening.

Enjoy!

You can also listen to the podcast on Sound Cloud.

To find Alida on the web, you can contact her via her record company by clicking here. Send her a friend request on Facebook by clicking here. Follow her on Twitter @AlidasTurn, on Tumbler at MsAlida and on Instagram at Ms.Alida.

Tom and Alida’s mission agency:

DBR Ministries for Tom and Alida Sharp

P.O. Box 279 Sanford, NC, 27330

919-478-6237 Phone 919-718-0350 FAX

Email: dbrministries@yahoo.com

Donations of any size are greatly appreciated!

If you would like to give a simple gift directly to Alida and Tom you may do so through PayPal. Just use the email address alidasmail@gmail.com.

Want to be a guest on the podcast, or know someone who should? Send an email to Podcast@TheSwirlWorld.com. Be sure to “Like” The Swirl World on Facebook and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. You can also follow us on Sound Cloud and listen to the show on Stitcher Radio!

Black Women Need To Travel!

July 30, 2014 By Michelle Matthews-Calloway Leave a Comment

One of the delightful things about doing a podcast is that we often have the opportunity to engage in impromptu conversations on a wide variety of subjects.

In our previous podcast Lorraine Spencer, Interracial Blogging Pioneer, Dating Coach and self-described “Information Broker,” rejoined Adrienne and me to discuss her new book, When Family Does You Wrong.

I was asking Lorraine about her background, and during the course of her response this gem of a conversation came up.

Want to travel – or simply experience an adventure? Listen to Lorraine’s comments about the choices she made as a young woman (one of which was to pack everything up and move to Alaska), and why Black women need to travel.

I’m so happy my passport is current . . . .

Lorraine is the publisher of the blog Interracial Marriage and Family and posts articles on Beyond Black & White under the name “Swirl Queen.”

In addition to listening in iTunes, you can also listen to this episode on Sound Cloud.

Want to be a guest on the podcast, or know someone who should? Send an email to Podcast@TheSwirlWorld.com. Be sure to “Like” The Swirl World on Facebook and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to the show on Sound Cloud and Stitcher Radio.

When Family Does You Wrong

July 28, 2014 By Michelle Matthews-Calloway Leave a Comment

Has a member of your family ever done you wrong?

I’m talking about wrong.

When the incident occurred, did other family members try to act like YOU were the problem?

Lorraine Spencer, Interracial Blogging Pioneer, Dating Coach and self-described “Information Broker,” rejoins Adrienne and me to discuss her new book, When Family Does You Wrong.

Lorraine shares the riveting story of how she and her family lost their home and possessions, and were forced to start over – all as the result of being deceived by a family member.

Lorraine is the publisher of the Swirling and Marriage blog and posts articles on Beyond Black & White under the name “Swirl Queen.”

We appreciate Lorraine’s willingness to be so transparent. Adrienne and I have both read the book and we highly recommend it.

In addition to listening in iTunes, you can also listen to this episode on Sound Cloud.

Want to be a guest on the podcast, or know someone who should? Send an email to Podcast@TheSwirlWorld.com. Be sure to “Like” The Swirl World on Facebook and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to the show on Sound Cloud and Stitcher Radio.

Travel Adventures In Alaska, Anyone?

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#225| A Traveling State Of Mind

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#141| Places To Go

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A Match Made In Sierra Leone And Beijing!

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They Don’t Always Have To Be White!

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#65| Where You Need To Be

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Unscripted: Beware The Iron Snowflake!

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A Black Woman In Russia And Belize

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Black Women Need To Travel!

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When Family Does You Wrong

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