Khadi Oluwatoyin

Back from Broken

Colorado Public Radio

Society & Culture

5 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Khadi Oluwatoyin was always a high achiever. She excelled in law school and got her dream job, as a lawyer in New York City, in her early twenties. Racial and gender barriers didn’t stop her. Nothing stood in the way of her career, except alcohol. But when Khadi sought help for her drinking, she often found she was the only Black woman in the room. So she created her own recovery group for Black women and nonbinary folks to help others — and herself — through recovery.

Back From Broken is a show about how we are all broken sometimes, and how we need help from time to time. If you’re struggling, you can find a list of resources at BackFromBroken.org.

Host: Vic Vela
Lead producer: Emily Williams
Editor: Jo Erickson
Mixed by: Kibwe Cooper
Additional editorial support: Erin Jones, Rebekah Romberg, Andrew Villegas
Music: Daniel Mescher and Brad Turner with additional music from Universal Production Music
Executive producers: Brad Turner, Kevin Dale
Thanks also to Rachel Estabrook, Hart van Denburg, Jodi Gersh, Clara Shelton, Arielle Wilson, Kim Nguyen.

BackFromBroken.org
On Twitter: @VicVela1

Transcript

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0:00.0	When Katie Oloatoyan first tried going to 12-step meetings on Staten Island, where she'd grown up,
0:07.2	she hoped to find a community there. Instead, she fell out of place.
0:12.5	There was this rule where you couldn't speak about outside issues, or basically outside issues.
0:16.2	Generally, you couldn't talk about race. How many black folks were in those meetings besides you?
0:22.4	None.
0:23.7	As a young black woman who'd grown up on Staten Island's North Shore, one meeting in particular stuck out to her.
0:31.6	I remember one of the meetings that I went to, there was a speaker, and the speaker basically began talking about how her life was while she was an addiction.
0:39.9	She was miserable. She hated it. She was living in blah, blah, neighborhood. And I looked at her like,
0:47.0	girl, what's from with that neighborhood? I was raised in that neighborhood. The borough that I come from
0:51.0	is very North Shore, South Shore, North Shore, a mixed diverse of immigrants, black folks, and then the South Shore is predominantly white.
1:03.2	I was really annoyed and offended that she said that because there's nothing wrong with that neighborhood.
1:09.8	Katie was navigating her early career as a lawyer in New York City
1:13.8	and her own alcoholism while struggling to find a recovery path that was right for her.
1:20.6	In the process, Katie learned that recovery doesn't have to look a certain way.
1:25.7	She was able to create her own recovery community
1:28.6	one she wished she could have had in the first place. I'm Vic Valle. I'm a journalist,
1:39.1	a storyteller, and a recovering drug addict. And this is back from Broken from Colorado Public Radio.
1:46.0	Stories about the highest highs, the darkest moments,
1:49.3	and what it takes to make a comeback.
1:56.4	Growing up in New York, Katie was always a high achiever.
2:00.8	Very creative, fiery.
2:02.6	A go-getter.
	...

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