Takema Robinson-Llewellyn: Dreaming of a Self-Love Revolution

Dreaming in Color

Welcome to Dreaming in Color, a show hosted by Darren Isom, a partner with The Bridgespan Group, that provides a space for social change leaders of color to reflect on how their life experiences, personal and professional, have prepared them to lead and drive the impact we all seek.

Takema Robinson is a mother, entrepreneur, social justice strategist, and avid advocate for Black women and radical self-care. With more than two decades of experience in strategic philanthropy, policy, advocacy, and fundraising, she is the CEO and co-founder of Converge, a social justice consulting firm whose purpose is to accelerate the creation of a radically just new world where communities of color thrive. In addition, after the near-death experience of delivering a son at just 24 weeks, she also helped to form the National Birth Equity Collaborative, which works to decrease birth inequity for Black women across the US by raising awareness of Black infant prematurity and mortality and the growing Black maternal mortality crisis.

Join this conversation as Takema explores her family’s distinguished legacy and talks about how that, coupled with her experiences at Howard and The Hill, has shaped her and the work she does through Converge. Listen as she discusses leadership, radical-self care as an act of revolution, and dreams of what a radically just new world looks like.

Jump straight into:

(0:28) Introducing Takema Robinson, CEO and Founder of Converge.

(1:40) Takema offers up words from Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters.

(3:36) Takema and Darren reminisce about their time together at Howard and how her experiences there paved the way to building Converge.

(5:09) Takema dives into her family’s legacy of activism and how the footsteps they’ve left behind have guided her activism.

(10:18) Radical self-care as a revolutionary act.

(13:01) How taking a sabbatical and moving out of the states were necessary in Takema’s self-care journey.

(19:14) Lessons in leadership.

(21:44) Motherhood, legacy, and maintaining optimism for the future.

(25:14) Dreaming of a radically just new world.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Takema through LinkedIn
• Explore Takema’s work and background though her website
• Learn more about Takema’s work with Converge for Change
• Check out Takema’s article for Inside Philanthropy on the Greater New Orleans Funders Network “Radically Reimaging Philanthropy Through a Restorative Justice Lens”
• Read Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters