A Joyful June Drop
talent that inspires, new skincare favorites, thoughts on showing up, and more.
This post will be part of my monthly sensory roundup series, where I share everything I loved reading, hearing, watching, and experiencing in the past month that made me feel something.
Hi Guys!
Happy New Month! It feels like forever since I’ve sat down to write one of these monthly recaps, which it has been since I missed May. I hinted that May was going to be an absolute madness of a month for me, and honestly that was an understatement. I traveled back to back pretty much every 3 days, and I know the Dallas Love Field Airport staff were so sick of seeing me. By the time May was wrapping up I was in London on a fun family trip and gave myself the grace to skip the month.
But writing these monthly recaps brings me so much joy and are the ones I honestly go back to read the most, to see what I was up to, and the things that have sparked my interest over the year so far.
So here we are with June’s edition and I’m so excited to get into all the things I loved this month. For me, June was a quiet month of reset after all the traveling I did in May. I spent most of it at home, watching Love Island, reading books, slowly getting back into my routines, and reconnecting with my city.
But in the midst of all of that there were some things that pulled my attention, so let’s get into it:
Talent that Inspires:
Cynthia Erivo hosting the 2025 Tony Awards:
It’s no secret how much I LOVE Cynthia Erivo. She is my dream person to interview one day for AfroKlash (manifesting). She is truly a once in a lifetime generational talent and my Capricorn sister. She’s been on such a trajectory this past year especially after the release of Wicked. This year she hosted the 2025 Tony’s and absolutely KILLED IT. The people are asking that she host it every year. She had about 8 outfit changes and made no small display of her vocal talent. The thing that has been playing rent free in my head is her opening performance. Absolutely brilliant:
A Film by Nneka Julia - Passing Through: The Highlands
It’s also no secret how much I love Nneka Julia, as I truly believe she is one of the best storytellers of our time. Having her as the keynote speaker for AfroKlash 2023 is still one of the highlights of my life. It doesn’t hurt that she is also one of the kindest, most thoughtful people. She recently released her film Passing Through: The Highlands, which is a visual project that builds on her Passing Through Podcast from 2018 (iykyk). I was able to join her virtual screening this past weekend where she had a showing and Q&A. It was absolutely brilliant to see the audio version of the podcast come to life and just see all the combination of her talents in one body of work. I loved the Q&A she held after, where she vulnerably shared her process of self-funding the project because of her deep belief that the work should be out in the world.
It was a needed reminder for me to stop waiting for permission from the unseeable “powers that be” to validate my work before I put it out into the world. Someone also asked her a question about being okay to be vulnerable for public consumption and getting over the fear of being seen, and what she said will stay with me for a long time:
“When you only share your wins or highlights you build a gulf, but when you share your truth and vulnerability, you build a bridge.”
Unfortunately, beyond the premier last week the film won’t be publicly accessible (I asked!) as they are now taking it to be shown for future funding/festivals. However, you can watch an excerpt here and follow her page for future updates. We’ve asked her to promise a Part 2!
Rose Style Studio for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders:
Earlier in the month, I was so excited to see that the second season of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders documentary was coming out. I loved the first season, and binged it all pretty much in a day. I barely know anything about sports and have never even considered becoming a cheerleader (who can smile that much, please?), but just seeing the stories behind how women make the team, the drama bts, and that Thunderstruck dance got me hooked! So much so that I took my dad to go tour the facilities last year.
Anyway, as I was watching the new season my girl Rosemary Osondu (founder of RoseStyleStudio) popped up on my screen for an entire segment talking about her experience working with the Black cheerleaders on the team, and helping them feel more confident. I screamed and was so excited for her. She was a speaker at last year’s AfroKlash Dallas event, and it was so amazing to see how she’s used her talents to uplift the confidence of the Black women on the team. If you haven’t yet, you can stream both seasons on Netflix now and if you’re in Dallas hit up her salon.
Conversations that made me feel something:
Sterling K Brown and Natasha Rothwell | Variety’s Actors on Actors:
I love Variety’s Actors on Actors series, especially when they have two people I absolutely love in one conversation. When I saw the promo and that they were going to have these two hilarious BLACK (sparse for them tbh) talents together I knew I was going to absolutely love it.
The thing I think we all love most about Sterling K Brown, is the level of vulnerability he brings to every setting he’s in for himself, and also anyone he shares a screen with. This conversation was such a beautiful display of true curiosity and openness from both Actors as they shared their experiences coming up through Hollywood. Definitely recommend giving it a watch.
Lower the Bar - Myleik Teele:
I feel like I talk about Myleik in every piece at this point lol, but she truly drops so many gems that I feel I need to share with y’all. One of her recent podcast episodes has been racking up numbers, 45.999% of those plays might be me.
For my hardcore perfectionists, who love to strategize and plot and plan this one is for you. It really dives into letting go of the finished product vision you have in mind that’s preventing you from simply starting and taking the first step. If you need a quick drag, this one’s for you.
Idris Elba on Chicken Shop Date:
This past week I was in the depths of my luteal phase and everything and everyone was pissing me off, so I was looking for something lighthearted to watch. I went to scroll on YouTube and saw that Idris Elba was the latest guest on Chicken Shop Date.
I recently only got into the series this year. It’s a series of short interview videos where the host Amelia Dimoldenberg interviews celebrities in chicken shops across London with her signature sarcastic, deadpan, dry humor style.
I absolutely love it. Each video is less than 10 minutes but always hilarious. Some of my past favorites are Keke Palmers’, Ghetts 10 year anniversary, and the legendary one with Andrew Garfield.
If you love dry, sarcastic humor you’ll love this. I also love how she started something so unique over 10 years ago, and has built that into a highly successful media brand.
Reads that resonated:
Matriarch by Tina Knowles:
Memoirs have easily become my favorite genre of book to read, especially ones by amazing Black women. I love reading how people who we see as iconic or legendary today, started out their lives, their journeys in between, and all the things they went through to become the people they are today. I think I’ll do a whole post of my favorite memoirs sometime.
I finished reading Tina Knowles’ Matriarch right at the start of June, and I am still thinking about it. She hides nothing, and pulls back the curtains on her childhood growing up in the racist South, her tumultuous marriage to Matthew Knowles, her experience raising Beyonce and Solange (especially as Beyonce’s star started to rise), navigating divorce, finding love again in her later years, and her hopes for the future.
It’s such a beautiful and vulnerable read that I know I’ll pick up again in a few years. Highly recommend!
As Seen on Substack:
The thing I’ve come to love most about Substack, is that by some strange magic every time I open the app to the home page, I immediately see an article that directly resonates with something I am going through, was just thinking about, or need to see right at that moment.
Two articles that deeply resonated this month, were Anna Mack’s How to build a personal brand when you do lots of things and DonYe Taylor’s Stand In Your Light.
This year one thing that has been on my mind a lot is thinking about how I want to show up online to not only grow my personal brand but document my life and grow community.
As an overthinker, that has been so hard to navigate these first couple of months with all the advice and tools and tips out there. It’s been uncomfortable, and I’ve found myself convincing myself I don’t want to or need to do it. But these two articles were great resets about how to just truly BE yourself.
I’ve set a simple goal for myself to simply SHOW UP on TikTok (I’m liking the more unfiltered, less curated feel compared to Instagram), and not tie any numerical goals to it. Just keep documenting my life till it feels comfortable, fun, and easy. So far, so good!
Also, my favorite Ava DuVernay is now on Substack! Loved her recent interview with Colman Domingo.
Brooke DeVard for Refinery29:
Speaking of just being yourself online, one of my favorite people that does that well is Brooke DeVard, host of the Naked Beauty Podcast. This past week she announced that she has been appointed the role of Chief Content Officer at Refinery29. Reading her journey and all the steps that seemed random but all truly added up to her being the perfect for this role was a great read. Love love seeing the girls in media shine and the paths they took to get there.
And the simple things that sparked joy:
Make reading easy again: I got a library card this month, which has gotten me to read even more than I already did (crazy, I know!). But I was finding that I would only read something new when I bought a new book and that was beginning to cost me a pretty penny. So I went and got a library card, and now I have access to thousands of books for free. I haven’t had a library card since high school, and it was so fun to sign up for one again. I immediately checked out about 5 books just for the joy of it.
Love Island: Love Island is my annual summer guilty pleasure. The ridiculousness of it, and the ability to simply turn off my brain and engage in TV brings me so much joy. I must say this season has been a hard watch for many reasons, and I constantly find myself comparing it to the supreme S6 but we’ll take what we get. #NicOlandria
New Skincare favorites: I’ve always been someone that took pride in the fact that I never really had to do much to my skin for it to look good (thanks mom). But this year, I’ve begun adding a few more products into my routine to boost hydration. I love this Youth to the People cleanser, my skin eats up this moisturizer, all the girlies LOVE this sunscreen, and this eye cream keeps my undereye glowing.
Aunty Bossy’s Summer camp: Shoutout to moms everywhere, all the time, forever. I volunteered to watch my nephews for one day this past week and I needed to nap the whole day after lol. But it was such a fun day basking in the simple joys of being a kid.
Community Partners of Dallas: This month I also got to volunteer with some coworkers at this amazing organization that provides school and life supplies to abused and impoverished kids in Dallas. It was such a great day hearing about their mission and being able to pack back-to-school backpacks for the kids. If you’re in Dallas I highly recommend heading to their website and donating or going in to volunteer.
Hippie High School Songs: If you’re looking for a quick spark of joy, go listen to one of your old playlists you made when you were in high school/college. As I’m writing this, I came across an old Spotify playlist I called Hippie Love, which was all of my favorite white people music, and I haven’t stopped smiling. Just remembering how I felt listening to those songs and rediscovering artists and songs I forgot I loved; so much joy!
Two favorites I rediscovered:
Ritual Union by Little Dragon
Everybody But Me by Lykke Li
This year is moving at warp speed, but writing these recaps truly allows me to sit and reflect on my highlights of the month which I’ve been absolutely loving.
What sparked joy for you this past month? Write it down to come back to later, or share below!
As we head into Q3 (insane!) I hope we all continue to find little pockets of joy despite all the craziness happening.
Keep Klashing,
Bosola.