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Book cover of Our Time Is Now by Stacey Abrams left at Amina's restaurant on Germantown Avenue Philadelphia

I Left This Book and Question at Amina’s on Germantown Avenue

Sunday, June 7th. Around 4 o'clock. I walked into Amina's restaurant on Germantown Avenue and left Book #7 behind — Our Time Is Now by Stacey Abrams. If you find it, it's ...
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Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender — book drop Philadelphia — Stonewall and Lambda Award-winning YA novel left at the Cheesecake Factory in Center City

I Left a Book at the Cheesecake Factory in Philadelphia — Here’s Why I Want to Know Where It Goes

Embed: Start at: Felix - Book Giveaway Friday, June 5th. It's 6:45 in the evening and I'm standing outside the Cheesecake Factory on Walnut Street in Center City, Philadelphia. Book #6 just ...
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Book Drop #5: Rittenhouse Square and the Question of What You Do When Something Finds You

Embed: Start at: Book Drop 5 Book Drop #5 is officially out in the world. On Friday, June 5th, I left Better Daily Self-Care Habits in Rittenhouse Square — either on a ...
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How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, held up before being left behind — book #4 in the book drop social experiment in Cherry Hill, NJ.

I Left a Book at the Post Office — And I Was Lowkey Nervous About It

You found it. I'm so glad it landed with you — and honestly, I'm a little relieved it made it out of the post office at all. Here's what happened. I drove ...
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Cover of American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang — the focus book in Mylena Sutton's American Born Chinese book drop Cherry Hill NJ experiment.

I Left American Born Chinese at a Cherry Hill Post Office (And I May Have Accidentally Broken a Law)

I left this book at Dick's Sporting Goods in Cherry HIll. Embed: Start at: Dicks Book Drop   On June 1st, sometime between 2:45 and 3:15 PM, I left a copy of ...
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Cover of Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn — book #3 in the book drop social experiment, left at Port Marina & Restaurant in Cape May, NJ.

Book Drop Cape May: Do The People Here Read?

I Left "Wherever You Go, There You Are" in Cape May — Did You Find It?You found book #3 — Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn. I'm so glad ...
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Cover of Women Empowered by Phil Borges, featuring a portrait of a woman — part of a book drop social experiment leaving books for strangers to find.

Did you Find Women Empowered? Book #1

Embed: Start at: TLD Book giveaway - @mylenasutton IG (2) My Book Drop Social Experiment - PATCO Edition — Here's Why (And What I Want If You Found It) You found it. ...
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Why isn’t a Virtual Address an Address?

Your Address Is Not Your Identity. But the Government Thinks Otherwise. I've been doing some planning for my life on the road, and I fell down a rabbit hole that I can't ...
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Image of tree-lined entry to the Mcleod Cotton Plantation near Charleston, SC. Personal Impact of Visiting Plantations

My Juneteenth Was May 10th

One of the things that I never share with people who aren’t family (and I don’t share this with all of them) is that it bothers me that my family has always ...
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Michelle and Kenya – My VERY FIRST Podcast Guests

Is it hard for everybody to hear their own voice, or is it just me? I’m digging in the crates and listening to old episodes of The Leadership Drives podcast. This episode ...
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Black woman standing in a hallway in a museum.

My Dad is Tracking Me

Yesterday, I discovered a need that I didn't know that I had. As I chatted with the many people who were kind to me while I was in Mississippi, I felt the ...
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Roxane’s Hunger

There reason I often say, "All leadership is personal; we just happen to do it in professional settings sometimes," is simple. I actually believe it! Roxane Gay's memoir, Hunger, proves me right! ...
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Traci Mathena, Principal, Charter School Leadership

On a beautiful winter afternoon in March, I drove to Baltimore, Maryland, to interview Traci Mathena. I was excited to hear the story of what drove her to education. More accurately, I ...
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Ben Saulsberry

We had a great #quickchat with Ben! He's a native son the Delta with strong, but warm presence. He framed the necessity of studying the past quite provocatively when he said studying ...
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Richard Pryor, “Pryor Convictions” – He never grew out of what he grew up in.

Some time ago, I heard a guy say (or something similar to this), "Most business problems that entrepreneurs have are really unresolved personal problems." In my own journey as an entrepreneur, I ...
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When Leadership is Emotionally Demanding

As I reflect on two previous podcast interviews, with Dr. Pam Chatman and Keith "The Prince of the Delta Blues" Johnson, I saw a connection. On one hand, Pam’s work focuses on ...
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Kinchen “Bubba” Okeefe

My conversation with "Bubba" was impromptu! I was exploring Clarksdale on foot and stopped by the tourism office, where he works. We chatted right up until I needed to head to Cleveland, ...
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Meaningful Conversations in the Delta

A few months ago, I got in my car and headed south to eventually go west so that I could hike in Utah. As I headed south, I planned a two-night stay ...
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Ethics and Integrity in podcasting

In my travels for my podcast, I'm often surprised when I explore neighborhoods. More specifically, I am often surprised when I explore neighborhoods where poverty "looks" to be higher than what was ...
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Why Do You Stay?

“Why do you stay here?” is perhaps one of the most offensive questions you can ask someone about their hometown. This is especially true if their hometown has a complicated reputation. On ...
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Why Maine?

Black people don't do that! The "that" can be anything from swimming to hiking to skiing! As quiet as it's kept, Black folks often think this, too. Once, I was hiking in ...
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Our December 2023 Leadership Drive and a MAJOR Change in Plans

When I set out on the Winter/December leadership drive, I had a plan! I was supposed to leave New Jersey heading toward California. Specifically, I was heading south to avoid snow, which ...
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Woman wearing a dress and walking

Happy New Year!!!

This is probably the best NY's Eve and Day that I've had in a very long time. I love having no agenda other than to enjoy where I am and the people ...
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