Streaming December 1, 2026Weekly Episodes · Seasonal FrameworkRooted & Rising
A weekly podcast that brings the COVERED prayers to life in dialogue, testimony and reflection — where the books are intimate, the podcast is communal.
Aya · Adinkra symbol of resilience
The fern that bends and rises again
Adinkra for resilience. The fern that endures, bends and rises again.
Aya is the voice of Rooted & Rising. Created through ElevenLabs with a custom voice built for the COVERED ecosystem, she sounds like the wisest aunt in the room — the one who studied in Ghana and went to seminary, who quotes Audre Lorde and the Book of Job in the same breath.
Each episode follows the same deliberate structure. The ritual builds across all five parts.
60 Seconds
Aya opens with a spoken prayer from COVERED, corresponding to the current week, season and chakra focus.
3–5 Minutes
Aya connects the prayer to a current moment in Black life — never sensationalized, always framed through spiritual protection and Black futurism.
12–15 Minutes
The panel engages a central question bridging the prayer with a real-world theme, each voice speaking from their positionality.
3–4 Minutes
Aya guides listeners through the week's micro-ritual with ambient sound: drumming, running water, birdsong, wind, aligned to the season.
2 Minutes
A quote from Black poetry, history or spirituality sourced from COVERED. Aya's benediction and episode preview.
Each episode moves through the seasonal chakra framework and a different doorway into Black male spiritual sovereignty.
Episode 001 · Pilot · December 1, 2026
Winter · December
Root & Crown · Muladhara & Sahasrara
Black male mental health and the weight of January. What the Root chakra holds and what the Crown reminds him he already is.
Mama Vivienne · Jabari · Dr. Kofi
Runtime · 25 min · Lo-fi Piano + West African Djembe
Episode 002
Winter · January
Crown · Sahasrara
Fatherhood, divine purpose and the ancestral legacy carried in every Black man's body.
Theologian · Community Grandmother
Episode 003
Spring · March
Sacral · Svadhisthana
Creativity, Black artists, economic sovereignty and joy as a spiritual practice.
Visual Artist · Black Male Educator
Episode 004
Spring · April
Heart · Anahata
Community, chosen family and the theology of Black brotherhood without losing yourself.
Community Advocate · Young Black Man
Episode 005
Summer · June
Solar Plexus · Manipura
Excellence in sports, STEM and the arts. What it sounds like when a Black male refuses to shrink.
Coach · Black Male Scholar
Episode 006
Summer · July
Throat · Vishuddha
Silencing, speaking out and the reclaiming of Black male narrative as sacred technology.
Journalist · Spoken Word Artist
Episode 007
Fall · October
Third Eye · Ajna
Intuition, education and spiritual discernment — the ancestral intelligence that precedes all data.
Elder Grandfather · School Principal
Episode 008 · Season Finale
Full Cycle · November
All Seven Chakras · Full Integration
A full cycle completed. The multi-voice reunion looking back across the full season arc.
Mama Vivienne · Jabari · Dr. Kofi
Each episode assembles three perspectives that honor the complexity of Black male experience across generations, geographies and roles. The panel is not a debate. It is a gathering.
40+
Rotating Voices
Rooted & Rising draws from a developed roster of more than forty distinct Black voices, each built with full biographical depth: grandmothers and grandfathers, Black fathers and young men, re-entry advocates, clinical psychologists, artists, educators and coaches. Three appear in any given episode. All are rooted in the same ancestral soil as the books.
The Nurturer
Sunday morning before church. She prays because she has to.
Maternal, knowing, occasionally emotional. She carries the generational memory: what her mother prayed over her sons and what her grandmother knew about protecting Black boys. Age feel: 60s. Measured pacing, with natural sighs and breaths.
The Black Male Voice
He speaks like a man who has learned to think before he talks.
Reflective, measured, occasionally vulnerable. One episode he is twenty-two, navigating a college campus. The next he is fifty-five, reflecting on what he wishes someone had told him at fifteen. Age feel: 30s. Thoughtful pauses mid-sentence.
The Community Witness
He carries Ghana in his name and the community in his work.
Scholar-practitioner. His name is Akan, meaning "born on Friday," and he holds clinical credentials and community roots simultaneously, never choosing between them. Age feel: 40s. Deliberate, precise, unexpectedly warm.
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