The Lovely Afro

06/23/2024

Would love to have you “like” or follow my music page. It’s where I’ll try to consolidate all my music performance info, but more than that, it’s what venues will see when looking for acts to book. This spring I communicated with 3 different venues about summer patio gigs and none of them hired me because I didn’t have a designated band page or someplace where they could see videos and an audience presence. I guess I don’t blame them. It doesn’t seem like I know what I’m doing if I don’t even have a band page, right?

Well - I’m just busy juggling a lot of things and creating a whole new fb page to maintain was not on my agenda. 🤷🏾‍♀️ But the reality is, having a music page where I can easily send people to check out the band offerings makes sense and will save time down the road. I’ve loaded photos and will add videos over the the summer, but what I really need now is YOU! What good is a band page if you hardly have any followers? 😅 Anyway- please go like my page. 💗 🤞🏽 🎶

Leta Harris Neustaedter MUSIC
👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽

02/22/2024

I had a great chat with George Prentice about my play reading coming up THIS SUNDAY! It's only 8 minutes - give it a listen. Link to tickets in the comments.

Intimate Apparel, penned by Lynn Nottage, the first and only woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice, has been a critical and audience favorite in productions around the United States.

12/12/2023

Big announcement: The Lovely Afro podcasts are completed and ready for you to enjoy! They are all housed on my website as well as a national internet archive https://archive.org/details/the-lovely-afro. My website includes a paypal button for those wanting to contribute to the 3 year labor of love that resulted in 69 podcasts capturing a rich variety of experiences, truths and histories from primarily Black and Brown community members from the Treasure Valley. I was struck by the timeless importance of these underrepresented perspectives as I listened to all the conversations again while I re-edited them and added underscore. I'm honored that my guests shared themselves so authentically and that I was able to get these into a format to better amplify and share their voices and their wisdom.

Thank you to KRBX, Radio Boise - 89.9/93.5 FM for being the incubator and original radio show platform, and to Alexa Rose Foundation for your belief in the podcast project. ❤
https://letaharrisneustaedter.com/

09/18/2023

Podcast question: I am trying to figure out the best way to make my Lovely Afro podcasts available. Do not give suggestions unless you read this entire post. The issue I'm bumping up against is that I have a backlog of 60 podcasts that I need to get uploaded. The goal is to have all 60 podcasts available indefinitely. HOWEVER, I am bumping up against two issues: 1) podcast distribution services like Lipsyn only allow uploads of a couple hours of data per month, AND 2) they have a minimum of how much you can store each month. So I would only be able to load about 4 podcasts per month (problem) AND I would not be able to keep them all available (problem).
My website builder Tyler James Bush and I are trying to problem-solve by having me buy the storage needed to just host the podcasts myself and have the website link to my google drive or whereever they are hosted. HOWEVER, Tyler's understanding is that I need to load them through Google Cloud, not just my google drive. I purchased extra storage for Google Drive - but the Google CLOUD seems to be a separate pricing system and it does not do long term storage - the longest option it has for "archival data" is one year.
I'm looking at one of my favorite podcasts "Finding Your Way" by Prentice Hemphill and their website has 30 podcasts on it dating back to 2020, I also see them avaiable in Apple etc. I'm trying to figure out what the system is to do that - to have all the podcasts still be available 2 or 3 years from now. Each Lovely Afro podcast is about 52 MB which means a total of 3100 MB. With Lipsyn, in order to have 3000 MB monthly storage it would cost $150/month. No can do.
Thoughts?

07/10/2023

Cats out of the bag! Sooooo excited to partner with Story Story Night to bring back some of my former guests on the The Lovely Afro for a night of music and storytelling!

ANNOUNCING: Upcoming Community Programs

We are thrilled to announce that, after an open call, Ardilla Fusion, the Boise Public Library, the Office of Community Engagement, the Idaho Office for Refugees, and Story Story Night have been selected to host community programs and events at the between July and December 2023.

🔹Ardilla Fusion will present a three-part series of events centered around art, disability, and community. By embracing creativity and personal narratives, these events aim to foster understanding and bridge differences through art, humor, and connection.

🔹Boise Public Library will facilitate a panel discussion focused on the importance of representation, diversity within comic arts, and how to create publishing outlets for diverse communities during their annual Boise Comic Arts Festival.

🔹The Office of Community Engagement will host the “Engaging Everyone: Highlighting Boise Voices” neighborhood mixer to bring together neighborhood leaders to celebrate the efforts of these communities to create safe and unique neighborhoods.

🔹Idaho Office for Refugees will host a community dinner event featuring resident chef, Safiullah Meherzai, to share connection and culture through the flavors of Afghan food.

🔹Story Story Night, in partnership with Leta Harris Neustaedter of The Lovely Afro, will invite storytellers to share and highlight their experiences in Idaho's multi-faceted and diverse Black and Brown communities.

All events are open to the public. Additional details, dates, and times for each program are forthcoming.

Learn more at ermahaymanhouse.org



Photo by Visionkit Studio

09/17/2022

Great news y’all!!! ❤️✊🏽

06/22/2022

This week's guest on The Lovely Afro 89.9fm KRBX Radio Boise is Dynisha Smith.She is a counselor and works at Boys and Girls Club. We talk about her family history and experiences growing up in Idaho, mental health, toxic "loyalty" and more,. Plus great music. Wed 3-4pm 89.9fm/93.5fm or streaming at www.radioboise.org

02/16/2022

Today (Wed 3-4pm). This weeks show focuses on 3 women: two women who were done wrong by our music industry and our society in general in various ways: Betty Davis and Whitney Houston, and an update from Kristin Onne Merren on her journey as a surrogate/gestational carrier. Lots of music including a bootleg cover of my own Whitney Houston song! 🤗 3-4pm The Lovely Afro 89.9fm KRBX Radio Boise and streaming at www.RadioBoise.org

02/04/2022

Hey hey! Here’s the link for the last 2 shows. The Ubuntu music show and my interview with Candis from Honey’s Holistics!

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/3jhaQBb4kXzgz7io9

Radio Boise is a community radio station. Our volunteer programmers strive to provide quality local programming for the wide range of people and communities in our listening area who are not satisfied