The WonderMama Coffee Chat with Jaki Shelton Green - The Power of Our Stories. (Ep 19)

What would change if you finally gave yourself permission?

In this Mother's Day week episode of The WonderMama Coffee Chat, Leonne sits down with someone who is both a legend in her field and deeply personal to her story. Jaki Shelton Green — North Carolina's first African American Poet Laureate, author of nine poetry collections, recording artist, and founder of SistaWRITE — is also Leonne's stepmother. And this conversation is everything that relationship makes it.

They talk about what it costs a woman to keep defining herself through everyone else. The roles we hold so tightly we forget who we are underneath them. The secrets that hold us hostage. The permissions we never think to give ourselves. And what it means to show up — not as a performance of who you are supposed to be — but as the fullness of who you actually are.

Jaki shares the story of a woman who wrote three novels in secret while her husband destroyed every manuscript she left within reach. She talks about crone-hood as a crown, not a concession. About bonding in wholeness instead of trauma. About inner fitness being the work that actually changes everything. And about what it means to be a conduit for other women — not bringing magic, but creating the space for them to find their own.

Leonne and Jaki also go somewhere rarely discussed — the real difference between coaching and therapy, and why knowing that distinction matters more than most people realize.

This one is rich. Give yourself the 42 mins.

Topics covered:

*Defining yourself beyond the roles you hold

*The power of permission and what happens when you finally grant it to yourself

*Crone-hood, aging unapologetically, and what it means to still be building at 73

*Bonding in wholeness instead of trauma

*Inner fitness as the work that changes everything

*The real difference between coaching and therapy

*Building community and finding your tribe as a mother

Connect with Jaki Shelton Green:

jakisheltongreen.com | SistaWRITE

Connect with Leonne:

TheWonderMama.com | @thewondermamaplace | The WonderMama Place on Skool

#WonderMamaCoffeeChat #Motherhood #JakiSheltonGreen