March 7, 2023 • 49 mins
This week I’m happy to welcome spoken word poet, writer, model, actor and author of new book The Unfolding: An Invitation to Come Home to Yourself, Arielle Estoria! Listen in as Arielle and I talk about poetry, music, her new book and a few of her favorite things. Check out Arielle’s new book here: https://arielleestoria.com/.
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Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to a new episode of Her
with Amina Brown. We're back in the living room together,
and I love when y'all come to the living room,
and I also love them. We have a guest, and
we have a guest in the living room with us today.
So I want to welcome spoken word poet, writer, model, actor,
(00:52):
author of new book The Unfolding and invitation to come
home to yourself, Ariel. A story up, my favorite and
that's what you get. A yell you get too strong.
Oh that's a third one, three weeks. Oh my goodness,
(01:12):
I wish everyone could see this. Thank you so much
for joining me. I really appreciate this. Oh my gosh,
thank you. I feel like this is just an accumulation
of like so many years and just having been able
to be watching and guided by you, whether you know
it or not, not to the same. This is a gift.
This is the gift same watching your work too. And
(01:34):
ari yell for those of y'all, because ye and I'll
be talking about stuff that's not y'all business. But you know,
now we're recording so we can talk to y'all about
things at all y'all business. But one of the things
we were talking about prior to the recording that we're
gonna let be y'all business is that Ari Yell and
I should have met many years ago. This is not
right and it's not okay. We have a lot of
mutual friends. It's like so much vin diagram like in
(02:00):
both of our lives been orbiting, just orbiting arondy to
each other, but just never just never meeting. Yeah, we've decided.
I guess COVID is to blame. COVID is to blame
for that, and I hate it. I feel like I
feel like I want to blame COVID the way people
blame the devil when I was growing up. Like I
really want to be like, wow, wow, y'all are letting
(02:21):
COVID use you? Like That's what I feel right now,
right right, No, And I'm like top of it. It's like, oh,
I never want to like demonize it, you know, because
just the energy of demonizing things in general. But at
the same time, like, I mean, life could have been
a lot different. Why you do that, COVID? Three four
years of this, I don't know. That's why I'm saying,
(02:43):
why you do it? But we hear now, Ario, we
hear now I'm very glad. I also want to let
the audience in on something that's really unfortunate about being
a poet, because nine times out of ten, especially if
you are a poet, like performing at events nine times
out of ten and you don't meet other poets there
because they only us one at a time. Why one
(03:06):
at a time? And like, hell us face out in
the day too, you know, you're like, oh, you're the
morning one, you're the afternoon, when you're the evening. So
we just be rolling out just by ourselves. It's not right.
How to make something out of it? Yeah, it's not
literally orbiting, just orbiting. See. So I just want you
to know a lot of a lot of us fellow
poets unless we live in the same city and like
(03:28):
come from the same poetry scene. If we don't live
in the same city, the people make it heart. Unless
you're going to a poetry conference, then you will see
there you go, Yeah, is that a thing? A poetry conference?
There are I am just learning about this, apparently that
there are poetry conferences. Have I been going to them?
Apparently not? So now I'm very I'm very starved for
(03:50):
meeting other poets because I have wonderful, wonderful poetry community
where I live. I know you do too, But sometimes
you want to, like, especially those of us who are traveling, sometimes, yeah,
you want to like meet some other people. What's it
like in your city? What are you doing there in
the community? Okay, so through whatever, Yes, we need to
talk about that. Yes, are yell and I gonna figure
this out. We don't figure this out, and one day
(04:12):
we're gonna hug each other. It's gonna be a time. Yes,
it's gonna be a time. Great, Okay. So I like
to describe to my listeners that this podcast space is
a living room, because that is the space where I
gather with my girlfriends. That's the space where when we
you know, sometimes you have a conversation with your girlfriend,
You're like, we can't do this in a restaurant, Like
I really need to be in a home where I
(04:33):
can say my things that need to be said, not
in a public space. And some of my girlfriends are
more fancy with the snacks that they bring. Some of
them are very like, you know, I could get up
my stack in a gas station and you better be
happy about whatever I bring in here. So I want
to start with an important question Ario. When you are
(04:55):
gathering with your your girlfriends, your bulls, your homies, your community,
people that you're very close with them, I want to
know what's the snack? What are you what are you
bringing into the space? If you are asked to bring
your snack, what is it? Um? I am to do
(05:17):
the most kind of individual So we'll start there. So
if I'm hosting, there will be leftovers. There will and
even if a snack, there's gonna be a leftover. I
probably will make you take some home. Um. I love
a charcoterie. I love a cheese track or situation. But like,
(05:39):
I'm also gonna throw some fruit in there. I'm also
gonna throw some Marcana almonds with the truffle on it.
I might even throw in you know, like a little
like something. I just I don't know how to do things.
I am not a non chalant kind of person. I
am all of the chalant. So yeah, if I'm bringing something,
then I try to scale back because obviously that's a
(06:00):
lot of work more work. Um. But even if I'm
bringing something, it's like, oh no, we can't go to
like Valves, which is just like a grocery store. Here
like like, I gotta go to like old foods because like,
at least I'm gonna make a presentation out of me
just bringing something. So that's kind of the route I
go ter. Yeah, I want to say that you had
(06:20):
me at truffle because that's really you know, like when
you said that, I was like, oh, I know the
caliber of snack. Now, thank you, like trouble almond tuffle,
and they're like, you know, shaved down, so all the
truffle really gets on on the almond. Yeah, that's where
we're gonna it's it has to have a truffle moment.
(06:42):
That's definitely where I stand. I really like this and
I appreciate the much chalance. I appreciate the amount of
chalance given to that, Like I thank you for that.
And I feel like we we all need a friend
who is like you, you know, because sometimes you're you're
sing out on some delicious things of life. Yes, yes,
(07:04):
And my husband's definitely yeah, he's like you're doing you
too much, you know, like just and I'm also I'm
the oldest child. I'm a pastor's kid. So hospitality, where
either I want it to be or not, is just
in my bones and also come from that there's like
seven eight of us, so people will be fed, you know.
There there's just like so much in me that can't help.
(07:25):
But I'm like, yeah, there's two of us and I
did too much. But it's but it's fine, But it's fine.
I'm gonna commiserate with you and tell you that as
a cook, I am a person who it's like I
don't know how to cook for less than twenty people.
It's like I made an individual thing for myself, or
it's twenty people, don't ask for It's fine, don't ask
me about seventeen. I don't know. But it's like I
(07:48):
made one pudding cup for myself or it's twenty people,
and I just don't know. I don't know, And to me,
I'm I'm with you. I'm like this. This is also
like southern black woman things for me too, that like
the worst offense is that you invited someone to your
home for food and you ran out of food. So
(08:09):
to me, to have an overabundance of food means what
people pack up and take leftovers with them. It's more
to share. I don't say where the error is there,
but there's an error in me making food for two people,
and seven people showed up, and now we don't have
enough food. Like that's really the biggest fear that I
(08:29):
have in hosting people. Literally literally, yeah, yeah, I feel
that struggling. I mean, you probably answer this question all
the time, but I'm also curious, like what do you bring?
M I mean, it depends on the mood, and it
probably depends on the friend. Depends on the mood and
the friend the point of our visit. I feel if
(08:52):
we are both tired. I'm a hummus girl. I am
a good hummus girl, though, you know, like it's gotta
be like I really I am also like this is
a hummas that I have to go maybe to Whole
Foods and get t like it's a brand that I
need to really have. Um, there's a brand called Roots
Hummas here in the Southeast, and I don't play games
(09:16):
about that hummus. There's only like two grocery stores I
know of they sell that thing, and I'm going there.
So I'm okay. I'm a hummus girl. I probably already
had three of them in the fridge. I take one
and bring it to your home. But if we're celebratory,
then I too like to get involved in some charcouterie,
(09:36):
but I'm gonna tell you right now it's gonna be
very ugly because I'm a terribly not visual person. So
if the people were looking for like an instagram worthy charcouterie,
I'm more in the ugly delicious category. Yeah. Wow, that
looks terrible, but it's delicious. That's really me where I'm
(09:59):
at at right now. In my broke days, I have
been a person who's like hearing I have a chocolate
bar that I broke two squares off of. Um. Maybe
I have a bell pepper that I tried slicing a
little bit of. And here's a bag of tortilla chips
that I ate some late last night and I put
(10:20):
a clip on it. And I have arrived to your home. Yep. Yes, yes,
all of the Lakes have been that person. So I
feel all snacks are very important. I want to also
ask you, do you have a favorite snack? Like, is
there a snack that you're like this one must have
(10:40):
for me? Yeah? I love. I feel like I will
come back to a chips and salsa. I feel like
for some reason that will all wait. It's always gonna hit.
It's They're just something about it where you're like, oh,
I'm not super like hungry, but I'm trying to snack
and it's just like you just grab it and it's
probably not all seals. Is like I'm a chunky I'm
(11:00):
a chunky girl. Um in the mild range is where
I say I like it, like yes, so that I
feel like it. Chips and salsa is kind of where
I'm always gonna go. Um. I love an almond um
at any time. Really, I have a wide variety of
almond loves. But also I have a sister who's alertic
to nuts, So I'm not about to bring that. That's
(11:23):
like always like that's alwayst like my thing. I know
that they can have, not that they can be around those.
If not, then I'm steering clear. But um, I will
always have them in my home so they are an
accessibility and we can audit to mix, you know. But
chips and salsa, for sure, I think that's the first one.
And like I love a popcorn. I love a popcorn,
(11:44):
love of popcorn, So I'll bring a bag of um
is it Annie's um? I think, Um, yeah, I'll bring
a bag of popcorn. Or I'll make popcorn like I
grew up like kernels on the stove, like, oh no,
the batter shake it, salt ship that shake it like
(12:05):
I love a good cattle popcorn. Oh yeah. When you
said on the stove, I was like, come on, people
need cheese. I done. It doesn't taste the same. It
does not taste the same. And you can't give in
see that it does. So no, the people need it.
I love the stove pop I'm here for everything about this. Okay,
(12:28):
let's I want to talk about your poet origin story
because we are going to get into the book. I'll
say the title again for you listeners, The Unfolding an
invitation to come home to yourself. And I'm selfishly asking
this because I'm just curious and want to know. But
was there a moment that you knew you wanted to
(12:48):
write poetry? And was there a moment you knew you
then also wanted to perform it? Because for those of
us who perform poetry, those two moments are not always
the same. Ye, So what would you say it's an
origin story there? I would say that I didn't have that.
I knew I wanted to write a moment I always wrote,
(13:08):
I just I didn't know how to process, to think,
to feel without doing that, So that just was like
a very natural thing I had to do that makes
sense and not out of like, oh, poetry was like
keeping me captive, but I needed that, you know it,
and some kings it needed me. So writing was always like, yeah,
(13:30):
I do this, Yeah, this is how I heal, Yeah,
this is who I am. It was the performing that
definitely came a lot later. My performing background is theater
first and foremost. So before I was writing the poems
that I would say out loud, I was writing plays
and short stories and monologues and things like that that
(13:51):
would just were in this very poetic way. And it
wasn't until college where I had some wouldn't say like
that was spoken word and I'm like, no, that was
a monologue that I realized that they were actually like,
really connected. And I was already doing it without knowing
that I was doing it, so that before me came
through theater, I have always been on stage kind of person,
(14:15):
and I shut down a lot of that just because
of my upbringing, and a lot of that is in
the book as well, but I shut down a lot
of it in a sense of like this is not
glorifying to that. You can't be an artist and creative
unlessed just a scripture. Scripture, scripture, you know, God, God, God.
And so I kind of shied away with like doing
that thing because I was like, oh, I can't, I
(14:36):
can't do this. This is glorified to me, not to
the Lord, you know, which I've un done a lot
of that as a because it's my profession now and
so um, that's where my origin for performing and writing
came from. And then it wasn't until college, where I'm
like into my psyche degree, thinking that I'm about to
work at a university and be in the student development
(14:57):
world that I was like, maybe I should actually of
this more of a try. And it had been all
throughout college of the performing aspect, now realizing through theater, Okay,
this is actually a whole another creative role that I
have not fully dropped into. And I went to an
arts high school, a game theater, all of it was
like theater and writing. So I was kind of teetering
(15:19):
on that world. And then spoken words specifically came in
in college and I competed for two years on a
slam team and then was president of our poetry club
and then carried that out to conferences and things like that.
But it kind of it all kind of just snowball together.
But the writing had always been like the core of everything. Yeah, oh,
(15:40):
I love that. Tell me who are some of your
favorite poets. One of them that I will probably actually
always always say is my coach. His name is Brian.
His poetry name was Superb or superb B. And he
has this one poem and it will be the thing
that haunts me in the most beautiful way forever and ever.
(16:00):
And he ties the beginning of his poem to the
end of his poem. But the way he does it
is just every person, every detail connects back and then
circles right back around and it is about like basically
death and his grandma and it's just like stunning. So
he is a story killer that I just love his heart,
love his personhood, and I will always go back to
(16:23):
kind of like my og like in all people that
I think will carry with me forever is Sarah and Phil.
Kay of them are people who have like if you
they're still on YouTube their poem about each other, you know.
And while the never Date is like one of my
favorites Um. Their poem about when love finds You is
one of my favorites. And so and then Sarah Kay
(16:44):
on her own is also a poet whom I think
the first spoken word in a sense of with her
ted talk with a poem to my daughter. That was
the first poem. I was like, let me try to
write a version of this myself. And they're they're both
based in New York City. Um. And then I'm getting
more into you. Like sadly, I realized that a lot
of besides my ANGELU, like I didn't grow up with
(17:07):
learning or knowing about a black a lot of black boat.
So I'm coming back into that space. Umzati sings a
poet but then also a playwright. Um, I'm really getting
back into like her work. Um and so um yeah
and then um um worse on Shire, I think, um
and I hope I'm saying worse on um their name right,
(17:29):
But they're just they're just such like this um bloating
entity that's like there and not there. But then when
you read their work, you're like, what, oh, it's that?
What did this come from it? And you're not familiar
with them. Beyonce, I had her I think and lemon right, yes, yes, yeah, um,
(17:54):
those are the ones that come to mind now. I
think every time I answer that question it's stiff, except
for the film their kay and then my my my
coach Brian. Yeah, oh I love that. Yeah, I'm not
gonna lie Warson and Lemonade specifically watching the film Lemonade
(18:15):
until like, not knowing at first that that was war
soon Shire's work. We're hearing like. I literally watched it
the first time and thought, if this is Beyonce writing
spoken word for the first time, I really contemplated r y'ell.
I was like, maybe this isn't. Maybe this isn't the
career for me, Like, maybe this isn't because if Beyonce
(18:38):
could just sit down randomly like mad as hell like
her husband. Um, I've been trying a long time for
Beyonce to try one time and it sounds like that. Yeah.
Like the first time watching it through, I was like
I don't know, I really I really questioned my career choices.
And then I went on Twitter and everybody was like,
(19:00):
oh my god, we're so excited. Way okay, okay, all right, okay,
because Beyonce, don't do me, don't do me, don't show
up and you ain't been writing poems and now you
write in a poem and it sounds like that. But
when I saw warsaw shire name, I said, oh, I
gotta chance. There's a room for me. There's room for me. Okay, yes, okay, yes, yes, yes,
(19:23):
uh yes. I want more of them. But they are
definitely like like she knows she's a gift, like like
they know they're again. Yeah, so yeah, I'm like, where
are you? Are you in London? Like where I just
told where you are? What you're doing? It's I think
war soon Shire gives this the poet's version of shade.
(19:47):
It's like me out a book, right, the thing that
Warson has done, and then Warson just kind of like
dissipate into their personal life. And I feel like that's
a shade vibe because may be like a soldier of
love and then just dissipates into her personal life. She
(20:09):
doesn't care, like doesn't care y'all wanted to interview y'all.
I don't want to know what I'm doing. It doesn't matter.
When I feel like putting an album out, I do it,
and then I tore it and then I like disappear
into the stratosphere and I feel that's a war song. Yeah,
I feel that's a war sie. So shout out to
warsaw Shire for giving us hope that we too could
be poets. Still, okay, I want to ask about another favorite.
(20:32):
Are you a person that watches reality TV? Show? Are you?
Are you? Do you watch the genre of reality tab
and if you do, do you have a favorite that
you could share with us? Sure? Love Is Blind is
the only show I am. I don't like reality TV.
(20:53):
I liked reality I'm also in Inneagram four, so I don't.
I don't do well with this level of especially when
it comes to like television ones I think is creating,
you know, like as an actor too, I'm like, that's
that's money there, that's movement, that's creativity. So whenever it's
just like just I'm there to bench trashy stuff, my
(21:18):
heart's like I can't, I can't function. But thank you
to you COVID. I did fall for the Love Is
Blind situation, and I watched all seasons until the most
recent and the most recent reminded me this is reality
to me and I don't do that ship. I was like,
(21:40):
and that's around for me. I tried to circle because
my sisters are obsessed with it. Couldn't um. We watched
one season of Too Hot to Handle. Couldn't no U.
I just yeah. After even the spinoff of Love is Blind.
I think I watched one episode, I said, ultimate, I'm
de old to me, I'm I watched one of the Ultimatum.
(22:01):
I said, absolutely not. I can't. I cannot. So that
is blind if the only one. And I went through
like years of just everyone around me just living and
breathing The Bachelor, and I said I can't. I would
rather stay in my room, eat peanut butter and watch
reruns of Psych. And that's a lot of what I
(22:21):
did while my whole hall had parties for The Bachelor.
I said, I'm not doing this. So love It's blind.
It's been the only one. And I only really watched
it for Lauren and Cameron and then I got sucked
in and now I'm out. So I mean, yeah, I
have to agree with you here about Love is Blind.
Shout out to Lauren and Cameron because they they really
(22:44):
like I feel like if that had not been the
first season, like because there's like I think we're three
seasons now, right, so like I feel like, if like
the seasons have been like switched around and Lauren and
Camera season happen two or three, I would have I
would never have watched it. It was something about their
season that really, like wild Note, made you believe in
the format, which then took me into the second season. Yeah,
(23:08):
but by the time it got to this one, I
was like, oh, that's right, this don't work, but I'm
glad it worked there. Yeah, okay for this it worked.
We love them. And I was like, she Jesus, like,
you know, like, oh, we wearing she poses something. It
was like we wearing my lowest blink stuff. And I
think I called it. I was like, come on back
on this show and hosted, because anyway, the host are
(23:29):
a whole different subject. I'm just like, and it's not
an experiment anymore. It's only experiment if you do it
the one time. Now people know the outcome and they
know they can grow following, they can get a podcast,
they can moo boo boo. I'm like, yeah, I'm not.
I can't. I can't do list anymore. And also the
(23:50):
first two seasons, so they were so great, like the
first two seasons were really wonderful. Something about this. Last
season had me like, oh that's right, this, this is
phil right. But but I'm not gonna lie listeners. I'll
be talking trash and with cecil four. Come on im.
I'll probably watch it anyways, so don't worry our don't
you worry, girl. I will probably watch it and just
(24:10):
be messaging you like you don't have to watch, but
let me tell you, let me tell me. Even this
last season, I was like, I'm done seasons. I'm good,
but my sure she got posting on Instagram and now
I'm like, no, I need contact, dang it. So then
I watched and then I tucked my husband then and
we were just at the end of it. We were like,
(24:30):
we can't get this back. He can't get none of
that time. He can't. I do it. An you want
to binge it because you need to know all of
it is just wired for addiction and I hate it.
That's not a lie. That's not a lie. Okay. I
(25:00):
want to talk to you about your book process because
I'm always curious about how book ideas arrive to authors.
So how did the idea for Unfolding come to you? Yeah? Yeah,
So in twenty eighteen, actually there was like this weird
sweep of like publishers like reaching out. Honestly, I think
(25:23):
to people with Instagram followings, I think that's completely what
it was. They don't really know that I could write,
but they're just like you post a graphic, I think
you are it. And so in twenty eighteen, I had
just said I said no to like four different poetriers
because I didn't I didn't have it like and I'm
very much so like if an idea is nested, I
(25:43):
can birth it like I see it, I start dreaming
about it, like I'm working on on content tomorrow for
the book, just like Q and A reading some quotes
and also a new poem I wrote called and Care
for the Church Girl. And I can see all of
it in my head. I can see the visuals, I
can see the dancers, I can see everything. So for this,
(26:05):
when they were asking, I was like, I can't, I
can't see I can't envision any of this, And that
really that really sat in my spirit of like I
don't think it's time yet. I said no to every
single one of them. And then a year later, like
a few months later, I met my now literary agent,
and she was the first person to say, you know,
you don't have to write a book right now, like,
(26:26):
if that's not in your spirit, you don't have to
do that. If I released it, and then a year later,
a whole lot of things happened. I got engaged to
a person that was not a lot of people's first choice,
and my faith started starting to do this unravel thing.
You know, everyone talks about deconstructing. I don't like that term.
(26:47):
I also think that negates a lot of the black experience.
So for me, it was just like this word feels
so heavy and so just destructive, you know. And I
was like, this doesn't feel like me. And also at
the same time, I don't feel like I'm becoming this
new person. I don't feel like I'm I just feel
like I'm folding back these layers, hence the unfolding. And
(27:11):
then it came time where I just kept spilling poem
after a poem and experience after experience, and a year
later then another publisher can reach back out. But this
time I knew the unfolding. I had written it in
my notes a year or two before that. I was like, oh,
this might be a new spoken word, a it might
(27:32):
be like I didn't know what it was, but I
just the unfolding, that's and I just put that in
my notes. And then eventually the book started to form,
and I was like, oh, the book get called the Okay, great.
You know, like I don't know how your creative process comes,
but sometimes you get these downloads, these dumps, these you know, inklings,
whatever you want to call it, and you don't know
(27:53):
where they go, Like you don't know what it could
before or you do, but there's some like the title.
I didn't know what it was going to be until
those poems started to form, and then I called that
process the unfolding. And then yeah, I pitched it and
then started writing more consecrated within that storyline. Then. I
(28:13):
mean obviously working with a publisher, like you know, getting
notes and getting feedback from a third person. This is
my first under a publisher book, and so my first
two were just poetry. It was with other people. It
was self published, but having a little bit more hands
in the kitchen, as I like to say, definitely helped
with creating this really full I'm a really beautiful thing.
(28:34):
Even though I had the initial idea, I knew that
the title was going to be when it came time
for that all of that, I knew what the vibes
individuals were for, and then all of that came together
within the last like two and a half years. So
I signed the contract in October of twenty nineteen. That
had been writing it up until honestly like in the
middle of last years when its final notes, and then
(28:57):
recorded the audiobook in December, when she's out in March.
No nice, Oh my goodness. So listeners, as you are
hearing this, Ariel's book is out there where you can
get it in your hands if you're a person that
needs that physical book that you can turn the pages too.
(29:17):
You can also hear the audio, which I think is
going to be really gorgeous, because you know, your voice
is such an important part, not just in the figurative
sense of voice, but your your literal sound of your
voice is so important to you to your work, you know,
So I think it's going to be dope. You can
you can engage this way. You can get it on
(29:38):
your your kindle or your iPad or whatever your tablet situation.
You have all sorts of things. So if you didn't
click on the link already, you need you to do
it right now. Okay, this is what I want to know, Arielle.
When you were writing, did you, I guess, in general,
do you find yourself a person that writes to music,
And if so, did you find yourself feeling inspired by
(30:01):
any particular musical artists or genres of music while you
were working on the book. Yeah. So I tend to
always write to instrumental music. I tend to avoid in words.
Some artists and creatives can like and I find this
is a lot of screenwriters and things like that. They
can write things and it comes from music. But I'm
(30:23):
also like that doesn't get in as messy as a
detail as it does with copyright and stuff. So I
really try not to have words that way. I'm not like,
you know, just type it out someone's lyrics, some consciously
thinking it's a poem. Um. So I write to instrumental
music and that's like that instrumental music that really builds.
I love people's names I can't pronounce. They're probably German composers,
(30:47):
They're probably from some other space. And so I have
a playlist usually that I rotate through, and I'll write
through that space, and then specifically there is a song
by an art is a Canadian artist. His name is
Luca Fogel UM, and I it was like funny, I'm
like in the process of writing already, Um, I have
(31:07):
the title. And then my friend Ruthy Lindsay she posts
this song called The Unfolding by Luca Fogel and I
was like, okay, wild and I listen to it and
I just start leaping because all of it is literally
what I'm experiencing and also writing. Um. And some of
the lyrics are just like you're not breaking, Um, You're unfolding.
(31:31):
You know, you are not broken, you are not breaking,
You're unfolding. And he himself comes from some of a
faith background, and so all of it just was like
so timely and so that specific song in some spaces
of editing and writing, I just listen to that over
and over and over again. I do I do quote
him um in the book, and so um, that's just
(31:52):
a specific song. But then yeah, most instrumental um, I
love Anado Lindsay Cook instrumental, Um, I love feels from
instrumental Sleeping at Last. Those are all people that are
just like, give me a vibe, give me a feel,
and I'll usually get sparked or creatively ignited by that. Yeah,
(32:14):
I also love what you said earlier about waiting until
you felt like you had something to say in this book,
or waiting for the idea to kind of arrive to you.
And I do think it's interesting. I hear this a
lot among us as writers and authors, people from various
the sundry corners of the business and life sort of
(32:35):
coming to you like, oh, it's time, it's time for
a book, you know, And sometimes the idea isn't there
or the place inside your own soul where you're ready
to write about whatever the story is, or where you
(32:56):
know what the idea is. And I just really wanted
to say I think that is an important word for
all of us listeners here, to wait for the idea
to say. And I think that applies to books, but
I think it applies to a lot of kind of
creative work that people sort of can come into your
life and say, oh, it's time the next stage of
(33:18):
your career, you need to do blank whatever that is.
It's a book, it's an album, it's whatever it is,
and really not letting that be the pressure, but giving
yourself the space to see what the poem, the book,
the album, actually wants to be. Yeah, and also knowing
(33:41):
that it's time doesn't mean now. We've associated it's time
so in this moment, but like it's time could be
a very wide range of and that could be ear
you know, that could be a few months. But just
know that you're you're you're grounding and centering and preparing
(34:05):
yourself for that time. But it's time doesn't mean now.
And I think that was you know, like I knew
there was a book. I felt that there was a something,
but I just knew timing wise. And my husband's always
like times of contract, but it's like he just because
he goes on the whole thing. But you know, and
it since I'm like, actually, I do kind of see
(34:27):
that because we put ourselves in these um constraints when
when time is in to the conversation. But I think, um, one,
I believe in orchestration, and I believe in in and
in divine timing. I believe in um you know, things
happening in synchronous ways. Um. And so we think it's time, Yeah,
(34:48):
I think I think we can release ourselves from thinking
that means right now in this breath. I think, you know,
I think that means like when that it's time, you know, um,
not warnings, but reminder you know, or thoughts come up.
I think using that as more of a space of like,
all right, I clearly need to start preparing myself for
(35:08):
something or to be open to the idea. I think
once I'm open to something, then it's like you know,
you see a car that you buy, you start seeing
it everywhere. I think similarly, ideas and creative process is
similar for me in a sense of like oh, once
I start that, like, okay, I'm putting it in, it's there,
do what you want with it? God like, do you
what you want with it? You know, like um, divine? Like,
(35:31):
that's when I start to be like, oh, look at
that idea. Okay, put it, you know, and store it.
But know that it's time doesn't mean right now in
this moment that you release yourself. I think from from
that idea, yeah, oh that's so good. Just to give yourself,
give your creative self the patience, and give the ideas
the patience. I think I was just talking with a
girlfriend of mine and I was saying, like, we have
(35:53):
to try to be patient with the ideas because some ideas,
I mean, I know you've experienced as a poet too.
It's like I have some poems that like whoa that
came quickly, and then I have some that they just
say take months to write. They take years to write,
and it doesn't matter how many times I try to
rush a little two lines at the end so I
can finish it. The poem would be like I'm not done, Like,
(36:16):
let me do what I'm doing here, Yeah, let me
have my say the way I want to, not the
way you want me to. And I think that is
sort of a challenge of creative work, but also it's
what draws us back because that's the journey of getting
to see what the ideas want to be, you know.
So I think that's lovely. Okay, I want to ask
(36:39):
you what was your favorite thing about this book? Like
if you could say it could be about the process
of writing it, it could be about you now being
able to look at the whole thing now that it's written.
What's your favorite thing? My favorite My favorite part of
the process was definitely the audiobook. I think being a
(37:01):
spoken word poet, it was just like, oh, it's just
just like so exciting, like and they gave me this
like whole long like preparation and like they're like it's
a lot of sitting, it's a lot of speaking in
like it was kind of scary at first, but then
I was like, this is my wheelhouse, like this is
my arena, like and I had a director in my
(37:22):
ear and like she was just like so lovely and
like guiding as well. And we finished and like a
day in three hours, I think, Um, and so it
like went so fast. Um, but yeah, I think getting
to that part and then also like reading my acknowledgements
out loud, like I again, I'm in a motive. I'm
a sensitive person, so trying it's not necessarily I'm sad.
(37:44):
It's just like I'm processing me, I'm feeling, I'm happy,
I'm seeking, give me a lot of different things. And
so I did the whole book and I was like, okay,
I didn't cry. My best friend who's also photographers, she
was like, I was kind of spuking that you would,
you know. And we get to the last day, I'm
reading who I'm thinking, you know, for guiding me, for
(38:06):
knowing me before a book even comes out, before a
book deal, for you know, being part of the process,
whether they you know, not know it or not, And
that part is what made me really emotional. I think
I just kind of saw this wave in these years
of like I knew I would be a creative. I
knew I would be a writer. I just never fully
(38:27):
envisioned what that would entail and what that could fully
look like. So being in that space was just like
this all overwhelming gosha of just like gratitude in and
so that's where I ended up crying. And yeah, I
think the audio book was definitely I was like, it
was almost like that part where you're like the adrenaline
I guess after you give birth and people are like,
oh my god, a baby, look what I did and
(38:47):
you forget the pain, you forget you know how much
time you forget all those things. That's what I've been told.
So the kind of that moment where I was just like,
look at this beautiful thing at birth and now I
was like, oh I miss it. I want to do
it again, you know, like I want to have over
and again. And so I think the audiobook was also
my final moment where I was like, oh, this is
(39:09):
my last like intimate moment with my book, just me
and and her. I guess I'll call her her, just
me and her. And it was like that last moment
of like, Okay, I'm about to release you, like you're
about to be out in the world. And so I
think that was like a really a really beautiful momentum.
And I loved the process of writing it too, and
if ways, like I went outside a lot as much
(39:32):
as I could, um, and I enjoyed that. And so
but I think the audio book makes me want to
do it all over again. Yeah, I love that. I
love that. I love about the book that it is
this combination of non fiction and poetry together. So I
(39:53):
really enjoyed that mix of getting a chance to know
some of the sometimes it's like the background connected to
how a poem got written. You also are taking us
through the phases that happened in the unfolding, which I
thought was such a beautiful way to think about that
(40:13):
because I think, especially sometimes in different sort of developmental
stages of life, I think we think of that as
far as like childhood development, but I don't think we
think about it as much as the developmental phases that
we experience as adults, and sometimes we are experiencing this
shift of who we thought we were going to be
(40:34):
and maybe now that's a different something or the family
of origin that we're from, and maybe now we realize
some things we believe or want to do in life
or want to be that are different than maybe we
were raised to be. And like there are a lot
of those shifts and it's sort of like, it's not
that what you were giving us in the book reminded
(40:56):
me of the stages of grief, but in the way
that when you're grieved, the stages of grief sort of
give you, give you like a context as to like
where am I, you know, in the process, even though
it isn't a linear thing, right, And I think in
the unfolding sort of the phases you're giving us there
in the book give us a way to say, Okay,
(41:17):
I'm here, you know, I see myself at this portion
of that and I may experience these phases at different times.
I mean, would you say that the process of unfolding
has not felt linear to you as well? Yeah, not
at all. And I say in the book, I was like,
this is do not hold this to being a linear thing.
(41:38):
I think we discount any stage of any part of
life well when we view it and think we're experiencing
it Clane early, and I think that's our human need
to control. I think that's our human need to know
what's happening and know what's going to come next. There's
a lot of safety in that, especially for you know,
(42:00):
I'm trauma healing and things like that. But also like
to know that something is cyclical. I think there's peace
there and knowing that, like one, I'm not going to
stay here the whole time, but two I could come
back to this point, and when we come back to it,
we learn a little bit more of that time around,
and so it definitely is cyclical. And even as I'm
(42:20):
sitting it two three years now, there's like little parts
of me that are still coming back to part one,
you know, like I get to the point where I've
I've mended and I've returned, and now I'm all the
way back at the beginning, where I say is the awakening.
I feel like I'm realizing and seeing new things, and
especially now as I'm like in my space of faith,
(42:42):
I'm just like I am tired of hearing from white people.
That's just kind of like where I'm at in my space,
and so I'm trying to immerse myself in black authors,
in black theology, in black liberation, conversation, and so I
feel like I'm just awakening all over again, you know, um.
And so I think giving yourself grace in that space
(43:04):
to know that you could get here it again. You
could go backwards, you could be on the next level
of eclipsing while you're in the middle of illuminating. And
all of it is just part of it. It's all
part of it, um. And there's no right or wrong,
there's no good or bad. It's that's the unfolding. That's
(43:25):
that's where we're at. We're experiencing all of it and
what it means to be human and and change and growing. Oh,
I love it. I love it so much the way
are y'all trying to get me in my tear ducks,
y'all trying to get me right here in my tear ducks?
Are ya? You are now going to have this experience
of having written this book and now the book going
(43:49):
into the hands of the people of people reading it,
some who are very familiar with your work, some who
will be meeting your work for the first time. What
do you the reader, Yeah, walks away with like if
they have their physical book and they close the end
of it, they get to the end of their audiobook recording,
(44:11):
they get to that part of the e book where
it like gives you other links to the author and
all that, Like, what do you hope the reader is
gaining from the book when they get to the end. Yeah,
I think first and foremost, I hope that I'm I'm
taken out of it. I think, just like constantly as
(44:31):
an artist, as a creative, I'm like, you're only left
with like, Wow, that was so cool with her, or
I love you know the x Y Z her, or
that was great. I feel like then I didn't do
what I was supposed to do in there. And each
of the phases end in reflection questions specifically so that
I'm taken out of it. I say, like I teach yoga,
(44:51):
and I've been saying in my classes, I'm like, I
am a guide, but you are the teacher. You know
your body more than anyone knows your you know what
feels good, you know what comes thanks. I'm just here
to guide what you've already know. And I think I'm
trying to do that with the book as well. I
think I'm calling it the unfolding, but you could have
(45:12):
called it something entirely different. For the last five years,
we're just creating another made for it. And so I
hope that foremost I'm taking out of it. And then
I think, secondly, I think there's um this exhale of like, Okay,
I'm not alone, Okay, I'm not crazy in this, UM. Okay,
there's solidarity UM, and that I can trust myself in
(45:33):
this process of moving forward. I think the greatest work
sometimes are the works we read and we're like, I
knew this, you know, like I knew I knew this
about myself where I knew this was happening, or I
had that thought and I didn't know how to execute
it the way I wanted to. UM. And then there's
the books and the things we read that I'm challenge
(45:54):
and bring up new ideas. So I hope there's a
mix of both of trusting yourself and then also some
I'm like, Okay, I didn't I didn't know that, or
I didn't expect that, and now I can put that
in that space for myself. UM. And so and I
hope that something you can pick back up, you know,
and and keep I mean back to you whether it's
just the poems or whether it's the reflection questions to
(46:15):
journal in your own thought process and your own healing
and so um, yeah, those are kind of like the
goals and and maybe a few tiers because I hope
that this heals a little bit. Um. I hope that
it brings about on healing and orchestrates healing that maybe
you're already navigating as well. And so I think those
(46:36):
are those are my main things on my heart in
terms of what I hope people get from the I
love that tell the people how they can follow you,
how they can stay connected to your work. And also
tell the people how they can buy this book, how
they can buy five copies. That's what we want, five
(46:56):
copies at a time. If you buy five copies, like
the thing is, you always got one for yourself trimmed
then and when people come over sometimes if you got
a physical book, they'd be like, oh my gosh, I
always wanted to end. Now you got like an extra one.
You can cons to them for gifts, you know, random
birthday parties, Like yeah, you have a lot of things
you can do with five copies. So where can they
(47:17):
follow you and buy five copies of the book Aril,
So you can go to my website which is just
my name Ril with two elves and the e estoria
e s t o Ria dot com. Um, you can
buy the book through there. UM. I list a few
different UM spaces like bookshop. But then also if you
want to support black owned, um, there's Reparations book bookstore
(47:40):
on there as well. UM you can if your local
go into a local bookstore and purchase from there. Go
to a physical space. I still believe in physical books.
I still believe in physical books spaces. So if you
can walk into your romans or something physically, UM, then
please do that as well. UM. And then everything social
(48:00):
media wise is also my name, Ariella story yea Instagram.
It's kind of like you might as well be emailing
me at the same time, So I respond to dams.
I don't have someone controlling my Instagram. People are always
very shocked by that, and I'm like, it's still me,
and so I respond to your dms. Please message me,
Please send me pictures of you reading and engaging. Please
(48:22):
let me know how this process is for you, in
with you and also just fread hang out with me
over there. Yeah, Arielle thank you so much for doing this.
I'm just like, it was a wonderful excuse to get
a chance to at least a meet you. And one
of these days, y'all, miya, are y'all gonna get this hug.
I'm telling y'all right now, you get this hug and
(48:42):
it's gonna be great. Thank you for joining me, great,
Thank you for having me. Start with Amina Brown is
produced by Matt Owen for Sol Graffiti Productions as a
(49:04):
part of the Seneca Women Podcast Network in partnership with iHeartRadio.
Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and
review the podcast.
Hey, everybody, welcome back to a new episode of Her
with Amina Brown. We're back in the living room together,
and I love when y'all come to the living room,
and I also love them. We have a guest, and
we have a guest in the living room with us today.
So I want to welcome spoken word poet, writer, model, actor,
(00:52):
author of new book The Unfolding and invitation to come
home to yourself, Ariel. A story up, my favorite and
that's what you get. A yell you get too strong.
Oh that's a third one, three weeks. Oh my goodness,
(01:12):
I wish everyone could see this. Thank you so much
for joining me. I really appreciate this. Oh my gosh,
thank you. I feel like this is just an accumulation
of like so many years and just having been able
to be watching and guided by you, whether you know
it or not, not to the same. This is a gift.
This is the gift same watching your work too. And
(01:34):
ari yell for those of y'all, because ye and I'll
be talking about stuff that's not y'all business. But you know,
now we're recording so we can talk to y'all about
things at all y'all business. But one of the things
we were talking about prior to the recording that we're
gonna let be y'all business is that Ari Yell and
I should have met many years ago. This is not
right and it's not okay. We have a lot of
mutual friends. It's like so much vin diagram like in
(02:00):
both of our lives been orbiting, just orbiting arondy to
each other, but just never just never meeting. Yeah, we've decided.
I guess COVID is to blame. COVID is to blame
for that, and I hate it. I feel like I
feel like I want to blame COVID the way people
blame the devil when I was growing up. Like I
really want to be like, wow, wow, y'all are letting
(02:21):
COVID use you? Like That's what I feel right now,
right right, No, And I'm like top of it. It's like, oh,
I never want to like demonize it, you know, because
just the energy of demonizing things in general. But at
the same time, like, I mean, life could have been
a lot different. Why you do that, COVID? Three four
years of this, I don't know. That's why I'm saying,
(02:43):
why you do it? But we hear now, Ario, we
hear now I'm very glad. I also want to let
the audience in on something that's really unfortunate about being
a poet, because nine times out of ten, especially if
you are a poet, like performing at events nine times
out of ten and you don't meet other poets there
because they only us one at a time. Why one
(03:06):
at a time? And like, hell us face out in
the day too, you know, you're like, oh, you're the
morning one, you're the afternoon, when you're the evening. So
we just be rolling out just by ourselves. It's not right.
How to make something out of it? Yeah, it's not
literally orbiting, just orbiting. See. So I just want you
to know a lot of a lot of us fellow
poets unless we live in the same city and like
(03:28):
come from the same poetry scene. If we don't live
in the same city, the people make it heart. Unless
you're going to a poetry conference, then you will see
there you go, Yeah, is that a thing? A poetry conference?
There are I am just learning about this, apparently that
there are poetry conferences. Have I been going to them?
Apparently not? So now I'm very I'm very starved for
(03:50):
meeting other poets because I have wonderful, wonderful poetry community
where I live. I know you do too, But sometimes
you want to, like, especially those of us who are traveling, sometimes, yeah,
you want to like meet some other people. What's it
like in your city? What are you doing there in
the community? Okay, so through whatever, Yes, we need to
talk about that. Yes, are yell and I gonna figure
this out. We don't figure this out, and one day
(04:12):
we're gonna hug each other. It's gonna be a time. Yes,
it's gonna be a time. Great, Okay. So I like
to describe to my listeners that this podcast space is
a living room, because that is the space where I
gather with my girlfriends. That's the space where when we
you know, sometimes you have a conversation with your girlfriend,
You're like, we can't do this in a restaurant, Like
I really need to be in a home where I
(04:33):
can say my things that need to be said, not
in a public space. And some of my girlfriends are
more fancy with the snacks that they bring. Some of
them are very like, you know, I could get up
my stack in a gas station and you better be
happy about whatever I bring in here. So I want
to start with an important question Ario. When you are
(04:55):
gathering with your your girlfriends, your bulls, your homies, your community,
people that you're very close with them, I want to
know what's the snack? What are you what are you
bringing into the space? If you are asked to bring
your snack, what is it? Um? I am to do
(05:17):
the most kind of individual So we'll start there. So
if I'm hosting, there will be leftovers. There will and
even if a snack, there's gonna be a leftover. I
probably will make you take some home. Um. I love
a charcoterie. I love a cheese track or situation. But like,
(05:39):
I'm also gonna throw some fruit in there. I'm also
gonna throw some Marcana almonds with the truffle on it.
I might even throw in you know, like a little
like something. I just I don't know how to do things.
I am not a non chalant kind of person. I
am all of the chalant. So yeah, if I'm bringing something,
then I try to scale back because obviously that's a
(06:00):
lot of work more work. Um. But even if I'm
bringing something, it's like, oh no, we can't go to
like Valves, which is just like a grocery store. Here
like like, I gotta go to like old foods because like,
at least I'm gonna make a presentation out of me
just bringing something. So that's kind of the route I
go ter. Yeah, I want to say that you had
(06:20):
me at truffle because that's really you know, like when
you said that, I was like, oh, I know the
caliber of snack. Now, thank you, like trouble almond tuffle,
and they're like, you know, shaved down, so all the
truffle really gets on on the almond. Yeah, that's where
we're gonna it's it has to have a truffle moment.
(06:42):
That's definitely where I stand. I really like this and
I appreciate the much chalance. I appreciate the amount of
chalance given to that, Like I thank you for that.
And I feel like we we all need a friend
who is like you, you know, because sometimes you're you're
sing out on some delicious things of life. Yes, yes,
(07:04):
And my husband's definitely yeah, he's like you're doing you
too much, you know, like just and I'm also I'm
the oldest child. I'm a pastor's kid. So hospitality, where
either I want it to be or not, is just
in my bones and also come from that there's like
seven eight of us, so people will be fed, you know.
There there's just like so much in me that can't help.
(07:25):
But I'm like, yeah, there's two of us and I
did too much. But it's but it's fine, But it's fine.
I'm gonna commiserate with you and tell you that as
a cook, I am a person who it's like I
don't know how to cook for less than twenty people.
It's like I made an individual thing for myself, or
it's twenty people, don't ask for It's fine, don't ask
me about seventeen. I don't know. But it's like I
(07:48):
made one pudding cup for myself or it's twenty people,
and I just don't know. I don't know, And to me,
I'm I'm with you. I'm like this. This is also
like southern black woman things for me too, that like
the worst offense is that you invited someone to your
home for food and you ran out of food. So
(08:09):
to me, to have an overabundance of food means what
people pack up and take leftovers with them. It's more
to share. I don't say where the error is there,
but there's an error in me making food for two people,
and seven people showed up, and now we don't have
enough food. Like that's really the biggest fear that I
(08:29):
have in hosting people. Literally literally, yeah, yeah, I feel
that struggling. I mean, you probably answer this question all
the time, but I'm also curious, like what do you bring?
M I mean, it depends on the mood, and it
probably depends on the friend. Depends on the mood and
the friend the point of our visit. I feel if
(08:52):
we are both tired. I'm a hummus girl. I am
a good hummus girl, though, you know, like it's gotta
be like I really I am also like this is
a hummas that I have to go maybe to Whole
Foods and get t like it's a brand that I
need to really have. Um, there's a brand called Roots
Hummas here in the Southeast, and I don't play games
(09:16):
about that hummus. There's only like two grocery stores I
know of they sell that thing, and I'm going there.
So I'm okay. I'm a hummus girl. I probably already
had three of them in the fridge. I take one
and bring it to your home. But if we're celebratory,
then I too like to get involved in some charcouterie,
(09:36):
but I'm gonna tell you right now it's gonna be
very ugly because I'm a terribly not visual person. So
if the people were looking for like an instagram worthy charcouterie,
I'm more in the ugly delicious category. Yeah. Wow, that
looks terrible, but it's delicious. That's really me where I'm
(09:59):
at at right now. In my broke days, I have
been a person who's like hearing I have a chocolate
bar that I broke two squares off of. Um. Maybe
I have a bell pepper that I tried slicing a
little bit of. And here's a bag of tortilla chips
that I ate some late last night and I put
(10:20):
a clip on it. And I have arrived to your home. Yep. Yes, yes,
all of the Lakes have been that person. So I
feel all snacks are very important. I want to also
ask you, do you have a favorite snack? Like, is
there a snack that you're like this one must have
(10:40):
for me? Yeah? I love. I feel like I will
come back to a chips and salsa. I feel like
for some reason that will all wait. It's always gonna hit.
It's They're just something about it where you're like, oh,
I'm not super like hungry, but I'm trying to snack
and it's just like you just grab it and it's
probably not all seals. Is like I'm a chunky I'm
(11:00):
a chunky girl. Um in the mild range is where
I say I like it, like yes, so that I
feel like it. Chips and salsa is kind of where
I'm always gonna go. Um. I love an almond um
at any time. Really, I have a wide variety of
almond loves. But also I have a sister who's alertic
to nuts, So I'm not about to bring that. That's
(11:23):
like always like that's alwayst like my thing. I know
that they can have, not that they can be around those.
If not, then I'm steering clear. But um, I will
always have them in my home so they are an
accessibility and we can audit to mix, you know. But
chips and salsa, for sure, I think that's the first one.
And like I love a popcorn. I love a popcorn,
(11:44):
love of popcorn, So I'll bring a bag of um
is it Annie's um? I think, Um, yeah, I'll bring
a bag of popcorn. Or I'll make popcorn like I
grew up like kernels on the stove, like, oh no,
the batter shake it, salt ship that shake it like
(12:05):
I love a good cattle popcorn. Oh yeah. When you
said on the stove, I was like, come on, people
need cheese. I done. It doesn't taste the same. It
does not taste the same. And you can't give in
see that it does. So no, the people need it.
I love the stove pop I'm here for everything about this. Okay,
(12:28):
let's I want to talk about your poet origin story
because we are going to get into the book. I'll
say the title again for you listeners, The Unfolding an
invitation to come home to yourself. And I'm selfishly asking
this because I'm just curious and want to know. But
was there a moment that you knew you wanted to
(12:48):
write poetry? And was there a moment you knew you
then also wanted to perform it? Because for those of
us who perform poetry, those two moments are not always
the same. Ye, So what would you say it's an
origin story there? I would say that I didn't have that.
I knew I wanted to write a moment I always wrote,
(13:08):
I just I didn't know how to process, to think,
to feel without doing that, So that just was like
a very natural thing I had to do that makes
sense and not out of like, oh, poetry was like
keeping me captive, but I needed that, you know it,
and some kings it needed me. So writing was always like, yeah,
(13:30):
I do this, Yeah, this is how I heal, Yeah,
this is who I am. It was the performing that
definitely came a lot later. My performing background is theater
first and foremost. So before I was writing the poems
that I would say out loud, I was writing plays
and short stories and monologues and things like that that
(13:51):
would just were in this very poetic way. And it
wasn't until college where I had some wouldn't say like
that was spoken word and I'm like, no, that was
a monologue that I realized that they were actually like,
really connected. And I was already doing it without knowing
that I was doing it, so that before me came
through theater, I have always been on stage kind of person,
(14:15):
and I shut down a lot of that just because
of my upbringing, and a lot of that is in
the book as well, but I shut down a lot
of it in a sense of like this is not
glorifying to that. You can't be an artist and creative
unlessed just a scripture. Scripture, scripture, you know, God, God, God.
And so I kind of shied away with like doing
that thing because I was like, oh, I can't, I
(14:36):
can't do this. This is glorified to me, not to
the Lord, you know, which I've un done a lot
of that as a because it's my profession now and
so um, that's where my origin for performing and writing
came from. And then it wasn't until college, where I'm
like into my psyche degree, thinking that I'm about to
work at a university and be in the student development
(14:57):
world that I was like, maybe I should actually of
this more of a try. And it had been all
throughout college of the performing aspect, now realizing through theater, Okay,
this is actually a whole another creative role that I
have not fully dropped into. And I went to an
arts high school, a game theater, all of it was
like theater and writing. So I was kind of teetering
(15:19):
on that world. And then spoken words specifically came in
in college and I competed for two years on a
slam team and then was president of our poetry club
and then carried that out to conferences and things like that.
But it kind of it all kind of just snowball together.
But the writing had always been like the core of everything. Yeah, oh,
(15:40):
I love that. Tell me who are some of your
favorite poets. One of them that I will probably actually
always always say is my coach. His name is Brian.
His poetry name was Superb or superb B. And he
has this one poem and it will be the thing
that haunts me in the most beautiful way forever and ever.
(16:00):
And he ties the beginning of his poem to the
end of his poem. But the way he does it
is just every person, every detail connects back and then
circles right back around and it is about like basically
death and his grandma and it's just like stunning. So
he is a story killer that I just love his heart,
love his personhood, and I will always go back to
(16:23):
kind of like my og like in all people that
I think will carry with me forever is Sarah and Phil.
Kay of them are people who have like if you
they're still on YouTube their poem about each other, you know.
And while the never Date is like one of my
favorites Um. Their poem about when love finds You is
one of my favorites. And so and then Sarah Kay
(16:44):
on her own is also a poet whom I think
the first spoken word in a sense of with her
ted talk with a poem to my daughter. That was
the first poem. I was like, let me try to
write a version of this myself. And they're they're both
based in New York City. Um. And then I'm getting
more into you. Like sadly, I realized that a lot
of besides my ANGELU, like I didn't grow up with
(17:07):
learning or knowing about a black a lot of black boat.
So I'm coming back into that space. Umzati sings a
poet but then also a playwright. Um, I'm really getting
back into like her work. Um and so um yeah
and then um um worse on Shire, I think, um
and I hope I'm saying worse on um their name right,
(17:29):
But they're just they're just such like this um bloating
entity that's like there and not there. But then when
you read their work, you're like, what, oh, it's that?
What did this come from it? And you're not familiar
with them. Beyonce, I had her I think and lemon right, yes, yes, yeah, um,
(17:54):
those are the ones that come to mind now. I
think every time I answer that question it's stiff, except
for the film their kay and then my my my
coach Brian. Yeah, oh I love that. Yeah, I'm not
gonna lie Warson and Lemonade specifically watching the film Lemonade
(18:15):
until like, not knowing at first that that was war
soon Shire's work. We're hearing like. I literally watched it
the first time and thought, if this is Beyonce writing
spoken word for the first time, I really contemplated r y'ell.
I was like, maybe this isn't. Maybe this isn't the
career for me, Like, maybe this isn't because if Beyonce
(18:38):
could just sit down randomly like mad as hell like
her husband. Um, I've been trying a long time for
Beyonce to try one time and it sounds like that. Yeah.
Like the first time watching it through, I was like
I don't know, I really I really questioned my career choices.
And then I went on Twitter and everybody was like,
(19:00):
oh my god, we're so excited. Way okay, okay, all right, okay,
because Beyonce, don't do me, don't do me, don't show
up and you ain't been writing poems and now you
write in a poem and it sounds like that. But
when I saw warsaw shire name, I said, oh, I
gotta chance. There's a room for me. There's room for me. Okay, yes, okay, yes, yes, yes,
(19:23):
uh yes. I want more of them. But they are
definitely like like she knows she's a gift, like like
they know they're again. Yeah, so yeah, I'm like, where
are you? Are you in London? Like where I just
told where you are? What you're doing? It's I think
war soon Shire gives this the poet's version of shade.
(19:47):
It's like me out a book, right, the thing that
Warson has done, and then Warson just kind of like
dissipate into their personal life. And I feel like that's
a shade vibe because may be like a soldier of
love and then just dissipates into her personal life. She
(20:09):
doesn't care, like doesn't care y'all wanted to interview y'all.
I don't want to know what I'm doing. It doesn't matter.
When I feel like putting an album out, I do it,
and then I tore it and then I like disappear
into the stratosphere and I feel that's a war song. Yeah,
I feel that's a war sie. So shout out to
warsaw Shire for giving us hope that we too could
be poets. Still, okay, I want to ask about another favorite.
(20:32):
Are you a person that watches reality TV? Show? Are you?
Are you? Do you watch the genre of reality tab
and if you do, do you have a favorite that
you could share with us? Sure? Love Is Blind is
the only show I am. I don't like reality TV.
(20:53):
I liked reality I'm also in Inneagram four, so I don't.
I don't do well with this level of especially when
it comes to like television ones I think is creating,
you know, like as an actor too, I'm like, that's
that's money there, that's movement, that's creativity. So whenever it's
just like just I'm there to bench trashy stuff, my
(21:18):
heart's like I can't, I can't function. But thank you
to you COVID. I did fall for the Love Is
Blind situation, and I watched all seasons until the most
recent and the most recent reminded me this is reality
to me and I don't do that ship. I was like,
(21:40):
and that's around for me. I tried to circle because
my sisters are obsessed with it. Couldn't um. We watched
one season of Too Hot to Handle. Couldn't no U.
I just yeah. After even the spinoff of Love is Blind.
I think I watched one episode, I said, ultimate, I'm
de old to me, I'm I watched one of the Ultimatum.
(22:01):
I said, absolutely not. I can't. I cannot. So that
is blind if the only one. And I went through
like years of just everyone around me just living and
breathing The Bachelor, and I said I can't. I would
rather stay in my room, eat peanut butter and watch
reruns of Psych. And that's a lot of what I
(22:21):
did while my whole hall had parties for The Bachelor.
I said, I'm not doing this. So love It's blind.
It's been the only one. And I only really watched
it for Lauren and Cameron and then I got sucked
in and now I'm out. So I mean, yeah, I
have to agree with you here about Love is Blind.
Shout out to Lauren and Cameron because they they really
(22:44):
like I feel like if that had not been the
first season, like because there's like I think we're three
seasons now, right, so like I feel like, if like
the seasons have been like switched around and Lauren and
Camera season happen two or three, I would have I
would never have watched it. It was something about their
season that really, like wild Note, made you believe in
the format, which then took me into the second season. Yeah,
(23:08):
but by the time it got to this one, I
was like, oh, that's right, this don't work, but I'm
glad it worked there. Yeah, okay for this it worked.
We love them. And I was like, she Jesus, like,
you know, like, oh, we wearing she poses something. It
was like we wearing my lowest blink stuff. And I
think I called it. I was like, come on back
on this show and hosted, because anyway, the host are
(23:29):
a whole different subject. I'm just like, and it's not
an experiment anymore. It's only experiment if you do it
the one time. Now people know the outcome and they
know they can grow following, they can get a podcast,
they can moo boo boo. I'm like, yeah, I'm not.
I can't. I can't do list anymore. And also the
(23:50):
first two seasons, so they were so great, like the
first two seasons were really wonderful. Something about this. Last
season had me like, oh that's right, this, this is
phil right. But but I'm not gonna lie listeners. I'll
be talking trash and with cecil four. Come on im.
I'll probably watch it anyways, so don't worry our don't
you worry, girl. I will probably watch it and just
(24:10):
be messaging you like you don't have to watch, but
let me tell you, let me tell me. Even this
last season, I was like, I'm done seasons. I'm good,
but my sure she got posting on Instagram and now
I'm like, no, I need contact, dang it. So then
I watched and then I tucked my husband then and
we were just at the end of it. We were like,
(24:30):
we can't get this back. He can't get none of
that time. He can't. I do it. An you want
to binge it because you need to know all of
it is just wired for addiction and I hate it.
That's not a lie. That's not a lie. Okay. I
(25:00):
want to talk to you about your book process because
I'm always curious about how book ideas arrive to authors.
So how did the idea for Unfolding come to you? Yeah? Yeah,
So in twenty eighteen, actually there was like this weird
sweep of like publishers like reaching out. Honestly, I think
(25:23):
to people with Instagram followings, I think that's completely what
it was. They don't really know that I could write,
but they're just like you post a graphic, I think
you are it. And so in twenty eighteen, I had
just said I said no to like four different poetriers
because I didn't I didn't have it like and I'm
very much so like if an idea is nested, I
(25:43):
can birth it like I see it, I start dreaming
about it, like I'm working on on content tomorrow for
the book, just like Q and A reading some quotes
and also a new poem I wrote called and Care
for the Church Girl. And I can see all of
it in my head. I can see the visuals, I
can see the dancers, I can see everything. So for this,
(26:05):
when they were asking, I was like, I can't, I
can't see I can't envision any of this, And that
really that really sat in my spirit of like I
don't think it's time yet. I said no to every
single one of them. And then a year later, like
a few months later, I met my now literary agent,
and she was the first person to say, you know,
you don't have to write a book right now, like,
(26:26):
if that's not in your spirit, you don't have to
do that. If I released it, and then a year later,
a whole lot of things happened. I got engaged to
a person that was not a lot of people's first choice,
and my faith started starting to do this unravel thing.
You know, everyone talks about deconstructing. I don't like that term.
(26:47):
I also think that negates a lot of the black experience.
So for me, it was just like this word feels
so heavy and so just destructive, you know. And I
was like, this doesn't feel like me. And also at
the same time, I don't feel like I'm becoming this
new person. I don't feel like I'm I just feel
like I'm folding back these layers, hence the unfolding. And
(27:11):
then it came time where I just kept spilling poem
after a poem and experience after experience, and a year
later then another publisher can reach back out. But this
time I knew the unfolding. I had written it in
my notes a year or two before that. I was like, oh,
this might be a new spoken word, a it might
(27:32):
be like I didn't know what it was, but I
just the unfolding, that's and I just put that in
my notes. And then eventually the book started to form,
and I was like, oh, the book get called the Okay, great.
You know, like I don't know how your creative process comes,
but sometimes you get these downloads, these dumps, these you know, inklings,
whatever you want to call it, and you don't know
(27:53):
where they go, Like you don't know what it could
before or you do, but there's some like the title.
I didn't know what it was going to be until
those poems started to form, and then I called that
process the unfolding. And then yeah, I pitched it and
then started writing more consecrated within that storyline. Then. I
(28:13):
mean obviously working with a publisher, like you know, getting
notes and getting feedback from a third person. This is
my first under a publisher book, and so my first
two were just poetry. It was with other people. It
was self published, but having a little bit more hands
in the kitchen, as I like to say, definitely helped
with creating this really full I'm a really beautiful thing.
(28:34):
Even though I had the initial idea, I knew that
the title was going to be when it came time
for that all of that, I knew what the vibes
individuals were for, and then all of that came together
within the last like two and a half years. So
I signed the contract in October of twenty nineteen. That
had been writing it up until honestly like in the
middle of last years when its final notes, and then
(28:57):
recorded the audiobook in December, when she's out in March.
No nice, Oh my goodness. So listeners, as you are
hearing this, Ariel's book is out there where you can
get it in your hands if you're a person that
needs that physical book that you can turn the pages too.
(29:17):
You can also hear the audio, which I think is
going to be really gorgeous, because you know, your voice
is such an important part, not just in the figurative
sense of voice, but your your literal sound of your
voice is so important to you to your work, you know,
So I think it's going to be dope. You can
you can engage this way. You can get it on
(29:38):
your your kindle or your iPad or whatever your tablet situation.
You have all sorts of things. So if you didn't
click on the link already, you need you to do
it right now. Okay, this is what I want to know, Arielle.
When you were writing, did you, I guess, in general,
do you find yourself a person that writes to music,
And if so, did you find yourself feeling inspired by
(30:01):
any particular musical artists or genres of music while you
were working on the book. Yeah. So I tend to
always write to instrumental music. I tend to avoid in words.
Some artists and creatives can like and I find this
is a lot of screenwriters and things like that. They
can write things and it comes from music. But I'm
(30:23):
also like that doesn't get in as messy as a
detail as it does with copyright and stuff. So I
really try not to have words that way. I'm not like,
you know, just type it out someone's lyrics, some consciously
thinking it's a poem. Um. So I write to instrumental
music and that's like that instrumental music that really builds.
I love people's names I can't pronounce. They're probably German composers,
(30:47):
They're probably from some other space. And so I have
a playlist usually that I rotate through, and I'll write
through that space, and then specifically there is a song
by an art is a Canadian artist. His name is
Luca Fogel UM, and I it was like funny, I'm
like in the process of writing already, Um, I have
(31:07):
the title. And then my friend Ruthy Lindsay she posts
this song called The Unfolding by Luca Fogel and I
was like, okay, wild and I listen to it and
I just start leaping because all of it is literally
what I'm experiencing and also writing. Um. And some of
the lyrics are just like you're not breaking, Um, You're unfolding.
(31:31):
You know, you are not broken, you are not breaking,
You're unfolding. And he himself comes from some of a
faith background, and so all of it just was like
so timely and so that specific song in some spaces
of editing and writing, I just listen to that over
and over and over again. I do I do quote
him um in the book, and so um, that's just
(31:52):
a specific song. But then yeah, most instrumental um, I
love Anado Lindsay Cook instrumental, Um, I love feels from
instrumental Sleeping at Last. Those are all people that are
just like, give me a vibe, give me a feel,
and I'll usually get sparked or creatively ignited by that. Yeah,
(32:14):
I also love what you said earlier about waiting until
you felt like you had something to say in this book,
or waiting for the idea to kind of arrive to you.
And I do think it's interesting. I hear this a
lot among us as writers and authors, people from various
the sundry corners of the business and life sort of
(32:35):
coming to you like, oh, it's time, it's time for
a book, you know, And sometimes the idea isn't there
or the place inside your own soul where you're ready
to write about whatever the story is, or where you
(32:56):
know what the idea is. And I just really wanted
to say I think that is an important word for
all of us listeners here, to wait for the idea
to say. And I think that applies to books, but
I think it applies to a lot of kind of
creative work that people sort of can come into your
life and say, oh, it's time the next stage of
(33:18):
your career, you need to do blank whatever that is.
It's a book, it's an album, it's whatever it is,
and really not letting that be the pressure, but giving
yourself the space to see what the poem, the book,
the album, actually wants to be. Yeah, and also knowing
(33:41):
that it's time doesn't mean now. We've associated it's time
so in this moment, but like it's time could be
a very wide range of and that could be ear
you know, that could be a few months. But just
know that you're you're you're grounding and centering and preparing
(34:05):
yourself for that time. But it's time doesn't mean now.
And I think that was you know, like I knew
there was a book. I felt that there was a something,
but I just knew timing wise. And my husband's always
like times of contract, but it's like he just because
he goes on the whole thing. But you know, and
it since I'm like, actually, I do kind of see
(34:27):
that because we put ourselves in these um constraints when
when time is in to the conversation. But I think, um, one,
I believe in orchestration, and I believe in in and
in divine timing. I believe in um you know, things
happening in synchronous ways. Um. And so we think it's time, Yeah,
(34:48):
I think I think we can release ourselves from thinking
that means right now in this breath. I think, you know,
I think that means like when that it's time, you know, um,
not warnings, but reminder you know, or thoughts come up.
I think using that as more of a space of like,
all right, I clearly need to start preparing myself for
(35:08):
something or to be open to the idea. I think
once I'm open to something, then it's like you know,
you see a car that you buy, you start seeing
it everywhere. I think similarly, ideas and creative process is
similar for me in a sense of like oh, once
I start that, like, okay, I'm putting it in, it's there,
do what you want with it? God like, do you
what you want with it? You know, like um, divine? Like,
(35:31):
that's when I start to be like, oh, look at
that idea. Okay, put it, you know, and store it.
But know that it's time doesn't mean right now in
this moment that you release yourself. I think from from
that idea, yeah, oh that's so good. Just to give yourself,
give your creative self the patience, and give the ideas
the patience. I think I was just talking with a
girlfriend of mine and I was saying, like, we have
(35:53):
to try to be patient with the ideas because some ideas,
I mean, I know you've experienced as a poet too.
It's like I have some poems that like whoa that
came quickly, and then I have some that they just
say take months to write. They take years to write,
and it doesn't matter how many times I try to
rush a little two lines at the end so I
can finish it. The poem would be like I'm not done, Like,
(36:16):
let me do what I'm doing here, Yeah, let me
have my say the way I want to, not the
way you want me to. And I think that is
sort of a challenge of creative work, but also it's
what draws us back because that's the journey of getting
to see what the ideas want to be, you know.
So I think that's lovely. Okay, I want to ask
(36:39):
you what was your favorite thing about this book? Like
if you could say it could be about the process
of writing it, it could be about you now being
able to look at the whole thing now that it's written.
What's your favorite thing? My favorite My favorite part of
the process was definitely the audiobook. I think being a
(37:01):
spoken word poet, it was just like, oh, it's just
just like so exciting, like and they gave me this
like whole long like preparation and like they're like it's
a lot of sitting, it's a lot of speaking in
like it was kind of scary at first, but then
I was like, this is my wheelhouse, like this is
my arena, like and I had a director in my
(37:22):
ear and like she was just like so lovely and
like guiding as well. And we finished and like a
day in three hours, I think, Um, and so it
like went so fast. Um, but yeah, I think getting
to that part and then also like reading my acknowledgements
out loud, like I again, I'm in a motive. I'm
a sensitive person, so trying it's not necessarily I'm sad.
(37:44):
It's just like I'm processing me, I'm feeling, I'm happy,
I'm seeking, give me a lot of different things. And
so I did the whole book and I was like, okay,
I didn't cry. My best friend who's also photographers, she
was like, I was kind of spuking that you would,
you know. And we get to the last day, I'm
reading who I'm thinking, you know, for guiding me, for
(38:06):
knowing me before a book even comes out, before a
book deal, for you know, being part of the process,
whether they you know, not know it or not, And
that part is what made me really emotional. I think
I just kind of saw this wave in these years
of like I knew I would be a creative. I
knew I would be a writer. I just never fully
(38:27):
envisioned what that would entail and what that could fully
look like. So being in that space was just like
this all overwhelming gosha of just like gratitude in and
so that's where I ended up crying. And yeah, I
think the audio book was definitely I was like, it
was almost like that part where you're like the adrenaline
I guess after you give birth and people are like,
oh my god, a baby, look what I did and
(38:47):
you forget the pain, you forget you know how much
time you forget all those things. That's what I've been told.
So the kind of that moment where I was just like,
look at this beautiful thing at birth and now I
was like, oh I miss it. I want to do
it again, you know, like I want to have over
and again. And so I think the audiobook was also
my final moment where I was like, oh, this is
(39:09):
my last like intimate moment with my book, just me
and and her. I guess I'll call her her, just
me and her. And it was like that last moment
of like, Okay, I'm about to release you, like you're
about to be out in the world. And so I
think that was like a really a really beautiful momentum.
And I loved the process of writing it too, and
if ways, like I went outside a lot as much
(39:32):
as I could, um, and I enjoyed that. And so
but I think the audio book makes me want to
do it all over again. Yeah, I love that. I
love that. I love about the book that it is
this combination of non fiction and poetry together. So I
(39:53):
really enjoyed that mix of getting a chance to know
some of the sometimes it's like the background connected to
how a poem got written. You also are taking us
through the phases that happened in the unfolding, which I
thought was such a beautiful way to think about that
(40:13):
because I think, especially sometimes in different sort of developmental
stages of life, I think we think of that as
far as like childhood development, but I don't think we
think about it as much as the developmental phases that
we experience as adults, and sometimes we are experiencing this
shift of who we thought we were going to be
(40:34):
and maybe now that's a different something or the family
of origin that we're from, and maybe now we realize
some things we believe or want to do in life
or want to be that are different than maybe we
were raised to be. And like there are a lot
of those shifts and it's sort of like, it's not
that what you were giving us in the book reminded
(40:56):
me of the stages of grief, but in the way
that when you're grieved, the stages of grief sort of
give you, give you like a context as to like
where am I, you know, in the process, even though
it isn't a linear thing, right, And I think in
the unfolding sort of the phases you're giving us there
in the book give us a way to say, Okay,
(41:17):
I'm here, you know, I see myself at this portion
of that and I may experience these phases at different times.
I mean, would you say that the process of unfolding
has not felt linear to you as well? Yeah, not
at all. And I say in the book, I was like,
this is do not hold this to being a linear thing.
(41:38):
I think we discount any stage of any part of
life well when we view it and think we're experiencing
it Clane early, and I think that's our human need
to control. I think that's our human need to know
what's happening and know what's going to come next. There's
a lot of safety in that, especially for you know,
(42:00):
I'm trauma healing and things like that. But also like
to know that something is cyclical. I think there's peace
there and knowing that, like one, I'm not going to
stay here the whole time, but two I could come
back to this point, and when we come back to it,
we learn a little bit more of that time around,
and so it definitely is cyclical. And even as I'm
(42:20):
sitting it two three years now, there's like little parts
of me that are still coming back to part one,
you know, like I get to the point where I've
I've mended and I've returned, and now I'm all the
way back at the beginning, where I say is the awakening.
I feel like I'm realizing and seeing new things, and
especially now as I'm like in my space of faith,
(42:42):
I'm just like I am tired of hearing from white people.
That's just kind of like where I'm at in my space,
and so I'm trying to immerse myself in black authors,
in black theology, in black liberation, conversation, and so I
feel like I'm just awakening all over again, you know, um.
And so I think giving yourself grace in that space
(43:04):
to know that you could get here it again. You
could go backwards, you could be on the next level
of eclipsing while you're in the middle of illuminating. And
all of it is just part of it. It's all
part of it, um. And there's no right or wrong,
there's no good or bad. It's that's the unfolding. That's
(43:25):
that's where we're at. We're experiencing all of it and
what it means to be human and and change and growing. Oh,
I love it. I love it so much the way
are y'all trying to get me in my tear ducks,
y'all trying to get me right here in my tear ducks?
Are ya? You are now going to have this experience
of having written this book and now the book going
(43:49):
into the hands of the people of people reading it,
some who are very familiar with your work, some who
will be meeting your work for the first time. What
do you the reader, Yeah, walks away with like if
they have their physical book and they close the end
of it, they get to the end of their audiobook recording,
(44:11):
they get to that part of the e book where
it like gives you other links to the author and
all that, Like, what do you hope the reader is
gaining from the book when they get to the end. Yeah,
I think first and foremost, I hope that I'm I'm
taken out of it. I think, just like constantly as
(44:31):
an artist, as a creative, I'm like, you're only left
with like, Wow, that was so cool with her, or
I love you know the x Y Z her, or
that was great. I feel like then I didn't do
what I was supposed to do in there. And each
of the phases end in reflection questions specifically so that
I'm taken out of it. I say, like I teach yoga,
(44:51):
and I've been saying in my classes, I'm like, I
am a guide, but you are the teacher. You know
your body more than anyone knows your you know what
feels good, you know what comes thanks. I'm just here
to guide what you've already know. And I think I'm
trying to do that with the book as well. I
think I'm calling it the unfolding, but you could have
(45:12):
called it something entirely different. For the last five years,
we're just creating another made for it. And so I
hope that foremost I'm taking out of it. And then
I think, secondly, I think there's um this exhale of like, Okay,
I'm not alone, Okay, I'm not crazy in this, UM. Okay,
there's solidarity UM, and that I can trust myself in
(45:33):
this process of moving forward. I think the greatest work
sometimes are the works we read and we're like, I
knew this, you know, like I knew I knew this
about myself where I knew this was happening, or I
had that thought and I didn't know how to execute
it the way I wanted to. UM. And then there's
the books and the things we read that I'm challenge
(45:54):
and bring up new ideas. So I hope there's a
mix of both of trusting yourself and then also some
I'm like, Okay, I didn't I didn't know that, or
I didn't expect that, and now I can put that
in that space for myself. UM. And so and I
hope that something you can pick back up, you know,
and and keep I mean back to you whether it's
just the poems or whether it's the reflection questions to
(46:15):
journal in your own thought process and your own healing
and so um, yeah, those are kind of like the
goals and and maybe a few tiers because I hope
that this heals a little bit. Um. I hope that
it brings about on healing and orchestrates healing that maybe
you're already navigating as well. And so I think those
(46:36):
are those are my main things on my heart in
terms of what I hope people get from the I
love that tell the people how they can follow you,
how they can stay connected to your work. And also
tell the people how they can buy this book, how
they can buy five copies. That's what we want, five
(46:56):
copies at a time. If you buy five copies, like
the thing is, you always got one for yourself trimmed
then and when people come over sometimes if you got
a physical book, they'd be like, oh my gosh, I
always wanted to end. Now you got like an extra one.
You can cons to them for gifts, you know, random
birthday parties, Like yeah, you have a lot of things
you can do with five copies. So where can they
(47:17):
follow you and buy five copies of the book Aril,
So you can go to my website which is just
my name Ril with two elves and the e estoria
e s t o Ria dot com. Um, you can
buy the book through there. UM. I list a few
different UM spaces like bookshop. But then also if you
want to support black owned, um, there's Reparations book bookstore
(47:40):
on there as well. UM you can if your local
go into a local bookstore and purchase from there. Go
to a physical space. I still believe in physical books.
I still believe in physical books spaces. So if you
can walk into your romans or something physically, UM, then
please do that as well. UM. And then everything social
(48:00):
media wise is also my name, Ariella story yea Instagram.
It's kind of like you might as well be emailing
me at the same time, So I respond to dams.
I don't have someone controlling my Instagram. People are always
very shocked by that, and I'm like, it's still me,
and so I respond to your dms. Please message me,
Please send me pictures of you reading and engaging. Please
(48:22):
let me know how this process is for you, in
with you and also just fread hang out with me
over there. Yeah, Arielle thank you so much for doing this.
I'm just like, it was a wonderful excuse to get
a chance to at least a meet you. And one
of these days, y'all, miya, are y'all gonna get this hug.
I'm telling y'all right now, you get this hug and
(48:42):
it's gonna be great. Thank you for joining me, great,
Thank you for having me. Start with Amina Brown is
produced by Matt Owen for Sol Graffiti Productions as a
(49:04):
part of the Seneca Women Podcast Network in partnership with iHeartRadio.
Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and
review the podcast.
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