A Team Talk Show Event: POV WIth Stasi Relaunch - Breaking SocialNorms:Being Seen and Not Heard

  By: Ayana Bryant-Weekes

The relaunch of POV with Stasi is the result of ensuing fearlessness that comes from trust in God coupled with the tenacity and determination of an entrepreneur. Nastassia Rena describes herself as a bold and candid woman of God and as I listened to her passionately describe plans for her upcoming POV with Stasi relaunch with audacity and confidence, I could clearly see the boldness and transparency she described. Only a bold woman makes it her mission to create a space for other powerful, Godly women to share their point of view on social issues that stereotype women.


Nastassia Rena is the creative director and founder of POV with Stasi, a panel driven networking social event for women in the Detroit area who are committed to breaking down barriers and defying social norms. A Team Talk Show host and Advance Magazine CEO Ambrea Curry will sit on this month's panel alongside two other amazing panelists. 

 LaToya Early is the founder of Chase Great Enterprises™ LLC a company that provides vision development strategies to aspiring and rising entrepreneurs. LaToya is also a wife, woman of God, mother and purpose enthusiast who has devoted her life to helping others gain authentic success through strategic planning and vision development. She utilizes her ability to help innovators express their entrepreneurial desires to its greatest potential. She maximizes her coaching gift by offering creative coaching techniques that will edify, exhort and empower both men and women who are ready to live in purpose full-time.

 


Silver "Danielle" Moore defines herself as a church girl, prayer warrior, indigenous Detroiter, Black Hip-Hop Feminist of Faith, curator of fly fashions, a naturalista, thrifting expert, social justice educator, a writer, and thinker. Her love for fashion and love for the Lord collided in 2015 and she created the blog HerRoyalDopeness.com. She believes that because God created for us to be "peculiar people" (1 Peter 2:9) one's style should be bold, unique, and stand out in a crowd. Silver Danielle believes that every church girl can be fly and ever saved girl can have swag!
  
  



These influential business women will discuss and share their point of view on "Breaking Social Norms: Being Seen and Not Heard". This dynamic panel offers a unique point of view on the silent power of a woman's presence. This month's POV with Stasi is geared towards women who shatter society's stereotypes of African American women and embody the vastly dynamic characteristics of women in the Bible, which is the foundation of Nastassia's business model as a woman. The event will be held June 18, 2016 at  Detroit Public Safety Academy in Detroit from 4pm to 7pm. Click here to register for the POV with Stasi Relaunch!

Nastasia is also a mother, a wife, the creator and founder of Roses upon Thorns, a licensed cosmetologist and soon to be evangelist. Through God's word Nastassia aims to educate, empower, and encourage women to accomplish their goals and live their lives to its fullest potential.  Keep up with Nastassia and 'POV With Stassi' on Facebook: Nastassia Rena, Twitter: Nastassia Rena and IG: nastassiarena

Guest Bloggers: Nicole Ballantine of Latitude and Avenue

My Island Heart, A Story of Travel and Identity

By: Nicole Ballentine 

Counter Person: “What do you want?”

Me: “Can I get an oxtail with rice and peas?”

Counter Person: “You want cabbage?”

Me: “Yes and plantain thanks!”

That brief exchange is a typical encounter in a Jamaican restaurant in NYC. Growing up in the United States but being of Jamaican descent, these and other interactions, like speaking with my grandmother and understanding her Patwah, are all reminders that there’s another place on Earth that I consider home.

Jamaica, the homeland of both my mother and father, may not see very me often but has always been with me in spirit. On holidays when my cousins get together and play Ludo, the Jamaican version of the popular board game, when I hear Beres Hammond, a popular old school reggae artist, or watch a Majah Hype video and can relate, I realize the tropical island is still very close at heart although I'm displaced thousand of miles of away.

Even with these experiences I’ve been able to have, I worry whether or not I carry enough of my culture and fear not being able to pass down the same recipes and traditions I grew up with to my own  offspring; especially now since I will be heading to the West Coast in a few weeks to begin the next chapter of my life and will be far away from my family and my Jamaican American community. It won't be as easy to grab a (good) beef patty with coco bread in Los Angeles as it is in Crown Heights BK but I will be able to now tell others of what one is and learn how to create Jamaican dishes and make a Jamaican Ludo board to play with my new found California friends.

When you think about it, that is truly the beauty of travel, being able to share your traditions and beliefs and to create and pass down a culture of your own as you move throughout the Earth. So I’m really not losing my heritage but adding to it as I continue on my journey around the  world.

Nicole Ballantine

Creator, Latitude + Avenue
"for the wanderlust"

Nicole Ballantine is a freelance Lifestyle Editorial Assistant currently living in NYC with sights on California in the upcoming months. After losing her Product development job in August 2014, Nicole was inspired to create the life she always wanted to live and dreamed up Latitude and Avenue, a lifestyle travel website geared towards the millennial woman. As a 25 year old female who travels frequently, she knows what it’s like to want to hear and curate real travel stories and not just the typical “perfect vacations’ we read about but the trips that forever change our lives! Her goal in creating Latitude + Avenue was to further connect, young women to relatable travel stories and provide products for wear while exploring the world. Follow @latitudeandavenue on Instagram and subscribe to the website.

Guest Bloggers: Nastassia Rena of POV With Stassi

Suited but Settled 

Who are you? Who do you claim to be? When you wake up every morning are you excited or miserable about the job that you’re heading to? Maybe the better question is what’s your profession and who are you professing to be? 

Webster defines profession as a paid occupation that involves prolonged training and formal qualification, and professing as making an open claim or declaration. Is the profession that you’re in now your calling? Is it lined up with what God had planned for you? These are questions that I started asking myself. I realized that I fell into three categories: 

You’re currently in a profession that you know is not your calling. 

Your profession is your calling but you don’t really care for the job. 

You don’t know what your calling is. 

This caused me to change my major 4 times in college, then I eventually dropped out of college, I became a mother at the age of 21, and I had over 15 jobs in 10 years. I know right! All this because I wasn’t listening to what God was saying. I felt that I knew what I should be doing and I was tired of waiting on God. I knew, or so I thought, exactly what and how my life should be. In my mind, I should have had 2 degrees at the age of 25, married by the age of 27 and had three kids, two dogs and a six figure income. I am 33 years old, a newlywed, a mother to an amazing 11 year old son who has a great calling on his life, no college degree (yet), making about thirty thousand a year and I am just now walking in my calling.

I can honestly say that I have always known what my calling was, I was just afraid to pursue it. I have always had the right equipment but was so afraid to use it. I was so busy listening to foolishness and worried about what people might think or say. (I was told that a woman couldn’t and shouldn’t preach or prophesy. I was also told that as a woman I was to be seen and not heard.) I resigned before I even started.  

Let’s pretend that you are in Jamaica getting ready to go swimming in the ocean with the dolphins. You get to the beach and the equipment is all ready for you to go. You are so excited that you waste no time. You suit up! But instead of swimming in the ocean with the dolphins, you end up in a swimming pool with a blow up dolphin. Instead of “fighting” for what you know you are supposed to be doing; you settle. You are fully suited and equipped to be in the ocean, but instead you swim in the pool with that blow up dolphin. This is what I was talking about when I listed the three categories we can fall into. Your “calling” was to be in the ocean with dolphins. You were properly equipped and suited to be in the ocean, but because of you falling into those categories you just settled! How foolish of us! 

God gives us all special abilities or talents. Moses had everything he needed to get the job done. Clearly God knew him and had a plan for him before he was born. We know this because Moses’ mother had a baby boy and kept him for about 3 months during the time  when the Egyptians were killing all the hebrew boys. We also know His Word to be true when Moses was saved by Pharaoh's daughter, raised in Pharaoh's house, trained in the Egyptians ways and taught their language. When God was ready for Moses to fulfill His plan Moses argued that he was the wrong man for the job. Moses was equipped with great things and didn’t know it or believe it. But when he trusted in Him and stepped out on faith… Moses did some great things! Things he didn’t and couldn’t even imagine! 

You have to walk confidently in your calling whatever it may be. Just like in our pretend story and in Moses’ story, you have all the equipment needed to fulfill your calling, you just have to trust God and jump. If you don’t know what you’re calling is ask God to reveal it to you and then walk in that calling. If you’re currently in a position and you know that it’s not what God had planned for you, get in line with HIs word! Ask God to reveal yourself to you so that you can align yourself with Him and the calling that He placed on your life. If you’re in a position and you know that that is what God has for you then be patient and trust in Him. Sometimes the process doesn’t make sense or feel good, but it's all working together for your good. 

Don’t get suited and then settle! 

**Nastassia Renà is the creative director and founder of POV with Stasi which is a panel style talk show and social event for the women who want more out of life than just living life. Nastassia is a bold diverse and outspoken woman of God who's goal is to uplift and network with other powerful Godly women. She is also a mother, a wife, the creator and founder of Roses upon Thorns, a licensed cosmetologist and soon to be evangelist. Keep up with Nastassia and 'POV With Stassi' on Facebook: Nastassia Rena, Twitter: Nastassia Rena and IG: nastassiarena