Author: Parlay House

Most of us have had “a-ha” moments when we realize that the parents and institutions that shaped us are far from perfect.

Our speaker Cara Jones is no exception. In fact, after being raised as part of the Unification Church (the “Moonies Cult”) and participating in a mass marriage within that community at the age of 20, Cara has had to ask harder questions of her parents and institutions than most.

Cara captured her experience in a compelling documentary entitled Blessed Child, and she speaks about her journey to break free from the movement at the risk of losing her family and the challenges of walking a separate path from the people we love.

See ALL Parlay From Away conversations here.

You see Emily, but do you SEE Emily?

We were thrilled to welcome our youngest ever speaker to the Parlay House stage. Her name is Emily Amador and at 15 years old, and she is blazing a trail of resistance and confidence for young people growing up in South Central LA.

Emily discusses the importance of exposure in disenfranchised communities. She shares her first-hand perspective on immigration and education. And, in Parlay House fashion, she speaks from the heart about her experience with culture shock while navigating the two.

Emily has meaningful insights about the potential to create meaningful change for underprivileged children today and she explains why she advocates that we all should encourage cognizance and understanding of distinctive assets to our personal identities.

See ALL Parlay From Away conversations here.

Let’s say you come into a ton of money. Sounds great right?

Not always so great. The minute it hits your bank account, it hits your relationships, it hits family dynamics, and hits in many other unexpected ways. Money can change everything, and yet it’s something we never talk about.

So let’s go there. We welcomed Jennifer Risher to share her money story, talk about the challenges she has faced with family and friends, and inspire conversations to help us all connect and learn from each other.

Whether you have tons of money or none of it, you can probably relate to feeling shame around your finances because when it comes to money, it’s never just a number.

Let’s explore together.

See ALL Parlay From Away conversations here.

Cindy Gallop is the founder and CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn – ‘Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference.’

She’s coming to talk with Parlay House about how dating younger men led her to start the world’s first and only user-generated, human-curated social sex video sharing platform, with the mission of ending rape culture; the gender-biased challenges that female founders of sextech ventures face; the impact this stifling of the female lens on sex and sexuality is having on the future of humanity; and how every one of us can do something to change that.

As Cindy likes to say, “MakeLoveNotPorn operates in the biggest market of them all – not sex; not porn; the market of human happiness.”

See ALL Parlay From Away conversations here.

How do we best change our perspective of the experiences of those who are different?

Tune in for an all-important conversation with two members of the Parlay House community, Adimika Arthur and Carla Vernón. They will talk about their personal journeys through life, Adimika as a Black woman and Carla as an Afro-Latina woman, and share what it feels like to be mothers to young sons and wives of Black men.

As with all Parlay House events, this is intended to be a conversation to help us better learn, listen, love, and lift the women around us. We want to learn to live with our differences in the best way possible.

Out of respect for our speakers and to limit their burden of educating others during this traumatic time, we ask that you please consider preparing for this conversation by reading the following article: For Our White Friends Desiring to Be Allies written by Courtney Ariel.

As we continue working on expanding our perspective and learning about how we can do better ourselves, please consider visiting our evolving list of anti-racism resources. We welcome all suggestions.

See ALL Parlay From Away conversations here.

You asked, and we listened. Tune in for round two of exploring financial wellness – this time with the CEO of HerMoney, New York Times & Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author, Jean Chatzky.

The much-needed waves of change have arrived in many forms. With them comes an uncertain future looming for all of us so Parlay House wants to make sure that our members are as well-equipped as possible to make it through the transition. No matter where you are in your life’s journey, there are steps that you can take to assert more control over your financial life.

Tune in for an informative conversation with Jean Chatzky who will share her story (and teachings) about realizing that when it comes to money, women are different, which inspired her to build an online community committed to:

• Providing women with quality, curated, lingo-free financial information and guidance
• Keeping women updated about the goings-on in the world that affect our wallets
• Leveling the playing field for financial security, confidence and power
• Being inspiring, welcoming, stress-reducing, thought-provoking, bold (and more than occasionally sassy), cool, ahead of the trends and smart, smart, smart

See ALL Parlay From Away conversations here.

Unstoppable. Many of us try to power through the obstacles life throws our way. But our guest speaker Jessica Oliveira-Haddad, takes unstoppability to a whole new level.

Born to undocumented immigrants in NYC, Jessica had to grapple with her parents’ challenging status at an early age, and find her own path as a first-generation woman of color living in the US.

Her family’s experience led her to a life of service that is positively impacting thousands of lives. Doing vital work as VP of an organization that helps undocumented minors unify with their family members as quickly and as safely as possible, her career picks up where her own family’s experience began.

Even more recently, when COVID-19 began affecting her community, she personally founded a new organization called the Undocumented Family Fund which to date has sponsored over 400 undocumented families who were left completely helpless and resourceless when they lost their jobs as the economy closed. Her work today is personal because in so many ways, she’s been there too.

She is young, candid, resilient and exceptionally inspirational. This Parlay from Away talk helps us all walk in the shoes of someone whose life experience and contributions to communities are so exceptionally meaningful.

See ALL Parlay From Away conversations here.

“Mom, everyone thinks I’m a girl and I’m not. I’m a boy. I don’t feel like a boy, I am a boy, mama.”

These are the words Jodie Patterson’s two-year-old child spoke to her one day following a streak of anger and frustration. She initially thought she was losing her daughter who seemed to be pulling away, but quickly realized she was actually gaining a son.

Tune in for an incredibly important conversation about identity, transformation, and love through the lens of motherhood with Jodie Patterson: Transmother, Author, Advocate, Beauty Entrepreneur, and Board Director of the Human Rights Campaign.

Jodie will walk us through her journey raising a young transgender child, learning to both parent and advocate for her son along the way.

See ALL Parlay From Away conversations here.

Being a strong, successful Black woman and working mother means you break through a lot of barriers to get to where you are.

Doing it in the Deep South where gender roles and racial barriers are still ever-present requires a whole other level of persistence and resilience.

Tune in as Shwanda Shallow, Chief Instigator for Parlay House Birmingham gives us a window into her life and an understanding of the twists and turns that brought her to success and significance.

We welcome you to join us and do hope you’ll invite a friend to help us continue amplifying more voices of women of color.

See ALL Parlay From Away conversations here.