2.6: "I'm Judging You" with Kovie Biakolo

Meet Kovie, a writer, cultural critic and Deputy Entertainment Editor at @buzzfeednews. Full disclosure - we luv Luvvie Ajayi’s amazing NYT bestseller (!!) “I’m Judging You: The Do Better Manual.” In this episode, Kovie and I spread some Luvvie luv and our fave takeaways.

I discovered Luvvie and her brilliant blog on Twitter when I was in college and started watching “Scandal.” With me being the “New Media” thing I am, I’d live tweet the show. It didn’t take long for @Luvvie, with her spot-on reactions, insights and hilarious recaps, to become queen of my feed. 

Vintage live-tweeting, circa 2013

Fastforward a couple of years, and the queen of my lowkey shady but always hopeful heart has released a NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER book: "I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual." Needless to say, Kovie and I lapped up each paragraph and page. Luvvie’s humor in her writing writing slips seamlessly from Scandal recaps, to calling out (and combating) sexism, racism, and all of the other -isms that go bump in the night.  She’s THAT good. But the laugher is never hollow. “I don’t think society gives black women the complexity to always be serious. I love luvvie because she’s funny and substantive in a way a lot of people aren’t,” Kovie said in the episode. Luvvie’s humor, with its unique Nigerian roots, resonate with Nigerian-born Kovie, “When she talks about yansh...it’s strictly Nigeria, and unless you’re a nigerian, it doesn’t translate as funny,” Kovie said.

Luvving Luvvie: Do The Work.

On the incredible Side Hustle Pro podcast featuring Luvvie, she brilliantly put it:  “Your work will stand by its own even if brands aren’t checking for you, because when you have an audience, you have built-in social currency that you can cash in.” Kovie couldn’t agree more--as an author, she focuses her social media energy on building quality relationships that celebrate her work and the work of others, not the perfect brunch flat lays and Twitter quips. According to Kovie, “the emphasis isn’t on my brand, it’s on my work." 

Do-Better 2017: Discipline As Practice

In honor of Luvvie’s “Do Better Manual,” Kovie and I vow to “do better” when it comes to discipline. Kovie, inspired by Luvvie’s consistency and discipline as a writer, routinely challenges herself to develop discipline. "I train my life to be a disciplined person. I think writing is such a messy messy thing. Once i have all those other things organized,  i can deal with the mess of writing, my mind and society. But when i'm taking my life and rolling with the punches flying by the seat of my pants, it makes the work much more difficult. I think if you can just get it right with your eating, friends, health practices, the other parts of life, the creative work can be done.”

This week's #OtherPeoplesPodcasts: Meet "Tea with Queen and J.!" . Listening to these two have conversations about being womanists and owning the space they occupy in the world is super inspiring.

Oh. And one time Kovie wrote an essay about how "Queen Sugar"'s Nova Bordelon is one of the best characters on TV in 2016, and then Ava DuVernay wrote Kovie a note. Casual. 

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