September 2, 2026 • 49 mins
Derell Wade Jr has put together a program to care for the mental health of black people. We sit down and talk bout being in nature is also something black people can enjoy
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, Hub Politics with Prop.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You may see I'm not in the office alone this time.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
We here.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm a homeboy, Darrell Wade Jr.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
We here.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I used to call him Darrelly Rail.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Uncle Rail is in the building.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You were born an uncle. What is that? Has it
always been like that? You were just been an old
soul forever?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I think so. There was a woman at my church
when I was like 15 years old, Sister Melissa, and
she would say that I was wise beyond my years.
When she would see me, she would see an old
man with a gray beard and long white hair.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
That is definitely you. Hood Politics with Prop, not on
a Zoom, like actually in the office. I want to
talk about What Darrell's doing up in the northeast, northwest,
my bad, PDX, Portland, the black part.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
The PNW.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
The PNW. The black part.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
The black part.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Did y'all know there was a black part?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
The black side.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
The black side of the northwest.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
As we get into this episode, it's a very special one.
Darrell and I have a very long friendship. When I
moved to Portland, that little bit of time I went there,
he was part of the black welcoming committee because I
didn't really, I knew three people in Portland.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
They were all black.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I was so surprised that Portland was that white because
everybody I knew in Portland was black.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It's deceiving.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
It's very deceiving.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
We had a little micro-community Of black and brown folks.
That was very, very deceiving.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
It's like I met them all. It seems like I
met all the black people in one swoop.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I was like, oh, that's dope.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I can move up here. Turns out you met all
of them.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It was curated black space. It was curated black and
brown space. Oh, man. And the way we moved. Yeah.
It was borderline strategic, I would say.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
And... When you think about the collective of artists and
community organizers, it gave the very, very deceptive view that
Portland was way more diverse than it actually is. And
(02:50):
I also experienced that. And then when everybody moved back
to their respective hometowns, you realize... Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I had no idea.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Where did all the culture go? And that... Oh Lord.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I find that funny and also real.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
So like I said, Darrell and I go way back
to my years in Portland.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Darrell's an artist. Just an all around good dude.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
But I'm here to talk to him about what you're
doing with Black Man's Wellness. So first, tell us what
that is, and then let's go.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Through the origins.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So Black Man's Wellness is a public health initiative aimed
at addressing the health disparities in Black men with a
focus on high blood pressure, heart disease, and chronic disease
through culturally specific workshops and events to create innovative pathways
(03:55):
to health and wellness. We do quarterly workshops, more than
quarterly at this point, around nutrition, access to physical health,
outdoor space and mental health resources.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
OK, so why specifically? Because obviously this is a politics podcast.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So like, why.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Specifically do you think this is something specifically for black men?
And when you say black men, we talking like boys
to men.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
We're talking boys to men. We're talking all ages from
five to 65. Okay. Right. And even younger. We've had
three-year-olds at our workshops with their parents. So black men
are the, black American men specifically, are the highest population
(04:46):
to suffer fatalities related to cardiovascular related illnesses.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Why do you think so?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Well, that is something that is still being researched.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Word.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
So if you went to your doctor and they diagnosed
you with hypertension, prehypertension, and let's just say you're not obese,
you're fairly active, you have a relatively healthy diet, they
really couldn't tell you specifically why you have high blood pressure.
(05:21):
But one of the... newer theories is that black Americans specifically,
in addition to the environment, right. That we live in that,
that puts us at risk for having higher stressors, things
like microaggressions and just the systemic concerns and worries that
(05:44):
we carry through our daily lives is that there's something
called sodium retention. Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
And we love us some sodium. I ain't going to
hold you.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
But sodium retention is the theory that our bodies went
into survival mode during the transatlantic slave trade.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
And because we were deprived of food and water in
the way that we were. This is a month's long
journey being shackled down in the hull of a ship
that our bodies went into survival mode.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, laying flat.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
And laying all the things yeah and that our bodies
retain salt at a higher rate than other populations even
even our our brothers and sisters in Africa and even
in the Caribbean yeah and so if you pair that
with then the horrors of slavery yeah and the Jim
(06:43):
Crow that followed afterward and just all of the things
our bodies held on to a type of survival that
causes us to retain salt at a higher rate.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Just an epigenetic.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I know, like, I know when I talk to, like,
a lot of the younger dudes about, like, that kind of, like,
romanticized the era we came from, especially, like, the street
era as far.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
As, like, you know, that 90s era. Like, I, I
wish that on no one. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Same.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And I wasn't, I wasn't as outside as some of
the homies, you know what I'm saying? But, like, But
the idea of like, I don't, just what it does
your body to be in constant fight or flight. Like,
I don't think people understand like how that like really,
like your body keeps the score like of like, like you're, it's,
(07:35):
I don't know how to just roaming hordes of, at
any moment, just roam, whether it's the police or hoods
or whatever, or just the reality of, Knowing that even
if I choose to do all the right things and
avoid all of the pitfalls that falls like inner city youth,
(07:57):
like you were the nerdiest of nerds, you know, you
go when you try to apply to school.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
There are going to be barriers. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
It's a different type of black tax. Yes. When you
think about it. Yeah. It's a tax that we pay subconsciously. Yeah.
When your brother gets locked up or your cousin and
you have to be concerned about their safety while they're inside. Yeah.
When you lose a close homie to community violence. Yeah.
(08:30):
Any of those, any of those systemic issues, when the
political climate shifts and it is against your better. Yeah. Well-being. Yeah. Right. It's,
these are stressors that affect our overall health and wellness.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah. I, you never, I never, you know, you know
that it affects you like psychologically, but it's like the
connection between that psychological environment. And then what, how you're,
I never thought about that, how your body responded and says,
I need to hold onto these hormones.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I need to hold onto this. I need to do this.
I'm going, I'm about to be deprived of this.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Like all the, just the way to keep the gears running,
the things that your body is releasing for your protection,
your safety, to stay alive, your desire to see, your
empathy to others. I never thought about the fact that like, damn,
that really stayed with us.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I mean, it's like you said, our body keeps the score.
So we're like, we can be walking We can be
walking bags of cortisol. Yeah. And when you think about
most of the brothers I know, they love working out. Yeah.
They stay on a basketball court.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
They stay in the gym. Yeah. they stay i mean
it's one of the things that makes us so attractive
to a lot of our uh non-black counterparts yeah that's
one of the things i hear is like oh black
guys they smell so good they dress well yeah they
they stay in shape yeah and but i know brothers
(10:16):
that when they you know when it comes um You know, pool, summertime.
They look like Greek gods when they take their shirts off. Yeah.
And if you take their blood pressures. Nicks. It's alarmingly high. Yeah. Yeah.
Alarmingly high. Yeah. And we've also been taught and trained, right,
(10:37):
to bury our mental health challenges, our emotional challenges. Yeah.
The stoicism, the nonchalant. Mm-hmm. attitude that makes us so attractive. Yeah.
That all, that's, your body's like a bank account. Yeah.
(10:59):
And then there comes a time where it's time to.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
It's time to pay.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
It's time to pay.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
It's time to pay.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
And so, and that's Black Men's Wellness. We're trying to
introduce our communities to individual and group Lifestyle changes. Yeah. Right?
So our first workshop was a hike.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
That's what I was going to ask you.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah. And it was called Black People Don't Do That Shit.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Black People Don't Do That Shit.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Black People Don't Do That Shit. Yeah. Because I was hiking,
but I was doing a lot of hiking and outdoor
activities in the Pacific Northwest I was getting into. And
it was always with my white friends. And this is
a time... You know, we had a lot of homies.
They were into music. They were throwing, like, really cool
(11:49):
and dope parties. It was kind of like a renaissance
that was going on in Portland. Yeah. And, you know,
with events like The Fix. Yeah. And The Beatdown and
Heavy Rotation.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, that's when I started showing up.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
That's right. If you know, you know, you know. And
Tony Ozier's events. Like, it was cracking.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
But when I wanted to go out, on a hike and,
you know, see some of like the majestic waterfalls on
the Pacific Northwest. I couldn't get none of the homies
to go with me. It was like, what?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I'm good.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
I'll get into like a, a kayak and just explore
some of the rivers. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I like it now, but I would, I was definitely
on the like.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Nobody, right? And, um, it, it, it was just a
challenge getting, getting folks out or even just to, you know,
accompany me, to a yoga class. Yeah. And this is
circa 2008, 2009. Yeah. We just weren't on that type
(12:52):
of time. Yeah. And now, you know, we're in this
health and wellness renaissance where you see a lot of
black hiking groups on Instagram. Black yoga, yeah. Black yoga
is beautiful and I love seeing it. And so, but
you know, black men's wellness was born and we'll get
into this, right?
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, I want to ask about that, but I want
to go back to some of the things you said.
I think one, I know in my mind, I always
felt like the woods, nature was dangerous because to me, it,
I think somewhere subconsciously, it felt like this is, this is.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
The underground railroad. And like, I need to do my
best to get out of the woods.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
That part.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Because in the woods is death. It's dangerous. The masses dogs.
It's all that like.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
The lynchings.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
The lynchings. All that happened in the woods.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Like I do not want to be in here.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
And I think somewhere subconsciously I was like, I used
to joke about like cosplaying poor. Like I'm not going
to go out there and construct a house. Like I
already have a house. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And it's a, and I think too, it's like the
city danger is a danger we know. Like I don't
know this danger, you know? But you know, besides like
the normal fear of wild animals and stuff, I think
to me somewhere, my mind shifted when it was like,
once you see the beauty and then I'm like realizing
(14:22):
that I'm only tracing my heritage to the slave ships.
Like I am from the jungle, my ancestors, are from nature.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
You understand what I'm saying? And I'm like, this is
ours too. And I can't believe I relegated this space.
Like I just, like it's, I gave it up. Like
I relinquished my claim on this planet by just calling
it white shit.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You understand what I'm saying? And I'm like, wait, that's
not fair.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Like this wasn't even stolen from me.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I gave it to you. You understand what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
So like, You know, a lot of that for me
came through the lens of coffee and just like being like,
wait a minute, coffee from Africa.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
What the hell are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
You know what I mean? And but but yeah, like
I respond to the same thing. I responded the same way.
But I feel like I think that there was somewhere
subconsciously that I was like, the forest represents danger.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Like and I need to get out of it to
get to safety.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
There's definitely a trauma attached to it. Yeah. There's definitely
a trauma attached to the wilderness and was not widely known, right?
If you have Jewish friends, they know the stories of Auschwitz. Yeah.
From their.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
They know it, yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
From their grandparents. But I feel like it was not acknowledged.
It's like, I don't know the stories from Jim Crow,
my grandmom... Told me about what she saw walking home
from school. She told me about men that hanging from
trees that were naked and castrated. Yeah. And guess where
(16:34):
she had to walk through? The woods. Yeah. And how
it was just like nothing to see it. Yeah. It
was just like, you just saw it. It was there
and you just accepted it. And then, so we have
those stories. We have that trauma. And- You see that
through a lens of, I don't belong here. Yeah. I
(16:57):
shouldn't be here. I should stay away.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, I should stay away.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I should stay away from the forest. Yeah. I should
stay away from these hikes. And whether that's intentional or not,
it's there. Yeah. Right? And so, you know, when I
first started getting Black men out to the woods, that's
the first thing that.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Why was that important for wellness, you think?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
For one, a lot of people don't understand how toxic
industrialization and industrial built environments can be. Yeah. And that
one tree can produce anywhere from 20 to 60 pounds
(17:45):
of pure oxygen. Yeah. That your breathing is better when
you're in the woods. Yeah. That bird song actually lowers
blood pressure. This was published in the New York Times
just last year.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
That listening to a waterfall can literally reduce your cortisol.
The walking itself burns cortisol. There's so many components. It's
literally overall.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Or like what some people will call 360 wellness. Yeah.
You're getting physical activity. You're getting mindfulness. You're getting forest bathing.
In Japan, they literally have blood pressure cuffs sitting on
walking trails, along walking trails outside of work areas.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Damn.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
In some places in Japan. Yeah. And forest bathing is huge. Yeah.
Where you allow nature to essentially wash over you. Camping.
All that. When I adopted my nephew, he had a
chronic cough at night. Every night, this little boy would
cough himself to sleep. And I promised him, because he
(18:55):
was a Boy Scout, he moved there from St. Louis.
I moved to Portland, rather. And I said, I promised
him we'll go camping at least once a year. So
I bought a Honda Element. We went camping with some friends.
And he didn't cough once. Dang. The whole time we
were on the mountain. He just went to sleep.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Dang.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
But he coughed. every night he had like a chronic cough.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
In the city so that was so that was the
first thing y'all did was you started doing.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Hikes and yeah i was gonna ask like what sort of.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Programs and things do you guys do in these in
these like wellness workshops and one of them is hiking.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
One of them is hiking when our so i'll talk
about our most popular ones which is our pan-african snow
day which is a black ski and snowboard event that
happens once a month uh throughout the season. Really, normally
we start Black History Month and the ski season in
oregon uh or in portland rather goes through may yeah
(19:55):
so we go once a month and it's it's grown
exponentially every year yeah and it's a it's family oriented
it's not necessarily like You know, some other black ski weekends,
which is kind of like Essence Fest on the mountain.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I was like, that little hood. Yeah, that little ratchet.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Right. We try to keep it family friendly. We love
seeing dad interact with his son and daughter and mom
there and, you know, falling in the snow, learning.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, I was going to say, it's really good to like,
I'm saying this as a black father to be. like
learning with your kids, something like, like I'm not the, like,
I don't know how to ski.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Like, you know what I'm saying? All right, we're going
to go learn together.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Like, and what that does, I know what that did
for me of like not having to be this like
superhero protector, which in my house, I mean, I live
in a matriarchy.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
So like, it's a different scenario.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Like, but, but still like feeling the need to present
myself as this, like, well, dad's got it.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Like in those scenarios, it's like, dad don't got it.
And in our house, Alma, Dr. Alma, everybody knows like
she's the camper. Like, so I'm following her lead anyway.
But I think, but I know for my own development,
it was, I felt like it was good for my
kids to see me as a learner.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Absolutely. That's super important. Yeah. You know, we tend to
put on capes as black men in our household. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
And we present ourselves as these infallible beings.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
And we're just not. Yeah. And it's also, there's humor
to it to see dad falling down the slopes or
freaking out like a little bit. And it's just a
good time. Last year, we were able to accommodate over
200 black Portlanders on the mountain. That's crazy. We partner
(21:48):
with several ski shops and adventure shops as well as
a resort on a mountain to make it like an
affordable experience. We even scholarship, uh, some of our participants,
we provide outerwear. It's a very expensive activity. It really is. Yeah.
Like just snowboard boots can be $ 400. That's crazy. A
(22:10):
snowboard can be anywhere upwards to a few thousand dollars. Um,
then we talk about food and fuel and transportation. It's it's,
it can be really expensive. And exclusive. But it's one
of our primary and premier events. So dope. Shout out
(22:34):
to Lorenzo Lowe for organizing that. And my facilitator, Robbie Smith,
also known as Don't Ride With Robbie. Don't Ride With Robbie.
Don't Ride With Robbie. And then we host kayaking events.
We partner with Camp Yoshi for our Black Men's Wellness
(22:57):
Camping Retreat. We do breathwork sessions. Sound healing is a
really popular one. Our nutrition workshops. And these are all led,
or what we call peer-led events. So they're all led
by Black folks.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
That's incredible, man.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Do you, I'm curious about, and I don't know how
to phrase this question, but like, I think often about.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Like appropriation.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Like sometimes I feel like as black people, we get
a pass cause I'm like, well, we're oppressed. So like
if we start doing yoga, it's different. Like, it's like,
we're not, we're different. You know what I'm saying? Like
you should let us be a part of this.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
But sometimes I think like, yeah, like sound bath and
stuff like that. Like, you know how we're always the
ones that are, because obviously just anti-blackness is global.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
So it's like, we're always on the bottom of it.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
So I feel like if, if it's a person of
color or another person, part of the diaspora doing something dope,
and then we start doing it, it's like, we will,
we should, you should feel welcome. Like we should be
welcomed because it's like, nigga, we get it.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Right. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (24:08):
But, but at the same time, like I can't put
words in their mouth. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Like, do you think, do you think there's anything to
like the idea of like using yoga or something like that?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Well, I think with black people, when we do anything,
it's just a vibe. It's just a different vibe. Yeah.
We're on a mountain. So we do a call and
response at most of our events. Yeah. And obviously, you
know me, old MC, hip hop head. So it's all day.
So can I kayak, for instance, when we get together
before we, when we suit up our life vests, then
we go, can I kayak? And everybody goes, yes, you can.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
I already knew.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
That's a tribe call question.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
And, you know, at Pan African Snow Day, we do
a circle. We huddle up. And we just screaming to
the top of our voices, like, where are we at?
And everybody goes, we outside.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
We outside.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
We outside. And, you know, 40 black people to 72
black people on the mountain screaming, we outside.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
It's pretty dope.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
It's going to garner some attention. Yeah. And it's just
a vibe. We did a rock climbing event, and I
called it All The Way Up.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Nothing can stop you.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
And so we talked about resilience. Yeah. And tied that
into it. And we had a call and response. Nothing
can stop me and everybody there. We're all the way up.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
See, now I want to be there.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Okay. And that is the primary goal.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, you just make it a vibe.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
It's to make it a vibe. We believe that wellness
begets more wellness.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
And we started off. creating small group workshops and to
kind of create a sense of FOMO. And so they
were like 15 to maybe 25 participants, all free. Yeah.
And I started getting DMs, bro, every time I try
to sign up, it's sold out. Hell yeah. It's the
(26:03):
club effect, right? So a lot of people don't know
that if you're promoting a show or a club, what
a lot of promoters would do, they would, what they
call stage a line. Yeah. So you ever been in
a club and it's empty, but it's a line outside
because they staged it. Yeah. And so you see the rope.
We got to pull up in there. That looks like
it's lit.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Yeah, that's the plan.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I throw parties, so I know.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Yeah. And I knew going into it that we would
have some challenges around the certain activities we were really
presenting to the black community. And so really getting us
to take our health seriously. And it's like... we have
to like stage a line a little bit.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah but what i love about it is the fact
that like when you go in saying oh you're just
finna go for a hike we're finna go for us
yeah as you know a swim or a kayak it's
just fun yeah you're not saying hey we're gonna we're
gonna be intentional and you know yeah we're gonna charge
our rose gold you know i'm saying like it's like
(27:06):
nah it's like We're going to go be us.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
And if you just go be you, it's healthy for you.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
And not only that, it's really not that we're trying
to like manipulate the black community. No. But more so
is that we're trying to really educate like, okay, this
is actually safe. When we go kayaking, you're in about
three feet of water mostly. Yeah. You're not going to drown. Yeah. Right.
We provide water. Personal flotation devices are life vets. We
(27:34):
usually are able to send our participants away with equipment
so that they're able to engage in these activities with
their families independently of the organization.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
It's like you're giving us things that don't feel like homework.
That was one thing that kept me away from camp.
And I was just like, you just need so much equipment.
that I'm like, this feels like homework. Like, and I'm not,
it's just so stressful to have.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Everything you need.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
You know, and I tied a lot of that to, again, masculinity,
like feeling like, because my dad is not an outside person. Like,
so whenever he was going out with families where their
dads were like freaking Navy SEAL, like could survive outside,
they'd be like, your dad teach you.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
How to tie a knot. And I'm like, well, taught
me how to put a knot in your forehead. You
know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (28:26):
So like, I tied a lot of like, my masculinity
to the fact that I didn't know how to do
this stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
So I was just embarrassed, I think, in a lot
of ways.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
But like- I feel that.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, you know, but I think when you put it
in a context of like, nah, we belong here too
and you can do it.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Like, nigga, you didn't know how to hoop the first
day you started hooping.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Facts.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
It's fine, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
I still don't.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
But it's, yeah, that it's like, dog, like it don't
have to feel like homework. Like it could be fun.
And when something is fun, it's like your shoe collection.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Like, yo, these are just.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Things that you just accumulate over time, but it's because
you feel like it's okay for me to be there.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Absolutely. And that's one of our biggest points that we're
trying to drive home, that this space and these activities
are for you. And I had a homie, he's an
artist and he's a community worker. Shout out to Rich, Risky,
Risky Star, Rich Hunter. And Rich, he's Black and Indigenous. Uh-huh. And, man,
(29:27):
I had known Rich for years. You know, back in
the days, like, you know, he rapped and we'd play
shows together. And one day we just, I saw on
his IG that he was involved in the community work.
I said, man, we got to link up. It's been
a minute. Yeah. And this fool had been practicing archery
for the better part of a decade. And I was like,
I had no idea. Yeah, right?
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Like bow and arrow?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Right. We met up and he talked about how calming
it was and how he felt like it cured PTSD
and how he was able to focus. I said, bro,
we do have a guy. to lead an archery workshop
for us. Bro, I don't know any black men. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Up at the Forest Park Archery Range. Yeah. Up in
Pulau Nori. And it is one of our most popular.
(30:10):
We call it shoot your shot. Love it. See?
Speaker 2 (30:13):
When we do it. That's what I'm saying. When we
do it.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
It's a vibe.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
And as a homegirl, and Angie, I'm dropping a lot
of names here. That's great. She kind of put me on.
She's a dope ally. And I said, do you ever
see any brothers up at the range? And she said, sometimes.
She said, rarely. She said, but when I do... She said,
they're always dressed to the nines. Ah, yeah. They always
look fly as hell. And so Rich, that day after
(30:39):
happy hour, he took me up. He had extra bows.
So dope. I said, this is dope, bro. Yeah. And
recently there was a woman and she brought her son
up for our Juneteenth Wellness Week. We just had our
fifth annual Juneteenth Wellness Week, which is kind of a
recap of all of our events over the course of
a year that takes place over the course of a
(31:00):
week leading up to the Juneteenth holiday. And she came
last year, and then she came to our Pan-African Snow Day,
and she said, you know, I wouldn't purchase the bow
and arrow. I love that.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
That's so dope.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
I go up regularly now, and I love hearing that.
I love those stories.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
That's dope.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Like, I love... The brother who was terrified to go
on one of our hikes. And he's like, bro, I
hike regularly now. In fact, I'm like super into birds.
I brought some birds.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
He's birding.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Now he's birding. And those are the stories that, those
are the reports that we like to hear. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
So now I want to go back to the origins. Um,
our part of the lore for the show is the
killer Pino, the B-boy Pino, a DJ effect.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Oh, cool. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Cool.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Yeah. Cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Effect though. Um, and again, if you know, you're part
of the lore, catch everybody up.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
DJ effect.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Oh, half of those records behind me were his touring DJ.
We toured the world 10 years straight, um, passed away
in 2018. Uh, but the, the, his kindness, his legacy,
like when this, you know, when he passed, like people
(32:53):
flocked down to Long Beach and Darrell was one of
the people that came down for that. So, and what
you told me earlier was like, that's part of the
origin story.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
There's a huge, there's a huge component. Okay.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
So tell that story.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Of why I founded Black Men's Wellness. So Ron also
lived in Portland for a while. Yeah. And I remember
him coming to my studio apartment and we had this, Like,
it was me and the Lightheaded Cats. Yeah. And they
had this Goonie poster. And it just passed around. If
you move to Portland.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
I remember you get the Goonies poster.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
You get the Goonies poster, right? And I called Ron
the last Goonie because he was the last person to
get the Goonies poster. And I said, man, you live here.
You got to take the poster.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Also, there's a little side note to that. It was like,
it's at the stage of life when people are like,
starting to get married and like find families. So if
you like, if you got it, it was like, that's
because I was like, you were single.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Yep. So yeah. And, um, and so when I learned
of his passing, it was devastating. Yeah. Um, and you
threw an event in his honor called E for Effecto.
Ron was 39 and he passed away, I believe so,
(34:07):
in his sleep, right?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Pretty sudden.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
He was in, uh spain he was stopping touring with
us and he wanted to get into culinary he was
an amazing chef and he was going to study under
a chef up there to learn paella he was going
to do this like you know fusion thing and apparently
i think the story is like his his blood pressure
just like bottomed out yeah yeah he was and he
(34:30):
you know he struggled his way you know he big
boy you know what i'm saying and worked out a
lot but like just couldn't get it together yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
And so At the event, and Ron was one of
five men of color that had passed in like six
years that I knew of. And none of these men
made it to the age of 50. Yeah. It was
all related to cardiovascular health or high blood pressure. And so,
(34:58):
but the event was so dope. There was so much
community there and music and art and food to the
point I was... Like you said, I was looking for Ron.
I was like.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
It was the weirdest.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
It was surreal.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yeah, it was very surreal because it's like, you know, he's...
That's our ace. And the event, since it was, I mean,
curated in his honor, it was everything he likes. It's
everything we all like. So every once in a while,
you would be like.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Like a song would come on. You'd be like, oh, Ron.
You'd be like, yo, that's... And you're like, oh, wait,
it's in your honor. Like just forgetting these moments.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Yeah. And... I remember I was talking to JB. I said,
I was just frustrated. I was angry. Actually.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I was like, JB's been on the show. That's the memory.
We did a show. I'll be him called. We called him, uh, okay.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Season. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
That is accurate.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
100%. Yeah. And I said, man, Ron would love this.
I was just like, I was like stomping. I was like,
I was hot. I was enjoying it, but I was
also like, just really frustrated that he wasn't there. Yeah. And, um,
Back at Airbnb, you know, Theory Hazard was in the building.
And Theory, I was theorizing Black Men's Wellness at that point. Yeah.
(36:08):
And I had already ran it by Theory. And he said,
you should tell everyone your idea. Yeah. And I said, well,
we do like breakout groups and some dope retreats. And
we talk about our health and our trauma growing up. Yeah.
And maybe we like do some connections to like therapeutic
resources and just overall like our trying to improve our
(36:30):
health and wellness as black men. Because when we, when
we pass, we leave a vacuum in a community. Yeah.
And JB responded. He said, that's dope. He said, if
you do that, I'll fly out. I'll fly out for
your events. Yeah. And, and that was, that's all I
needed to hear. Yeah. That was just such a like
(36:51):
supportive response from the homies.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
To hear one from the homies, but to like a
homie that you're like, you're who I'm talking about. Like
in the sense of like, you are the person that
needs this because JV is, I mean, he's a great man,
but he's from the streets.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (37:08):
And he's, he's very, like you all know, he's very
active in his community. Like he's, we're very plugged in,
very aware. We're trying to be better fathers, like trying
to do these things, but just.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Have, like you said, very few examples. A lot of
our OGs don't live long, you know?
Speaker 1 (37:23):
And if they do, they're just this like, with this
physical and psychological, like to the point, I know when
you talked about earlier before off mic, he was like,
I just don't have a lot of Paul's in my life.
Like Paul's isn't like, like men that came before you
that could drop wisdom. I felt the same way. A
lot of, a lot of the dudes that I look to,
(37:45):
to wisdom, I listened to him now, you know? And
I'm like, it, it feels like a role reversal where
I'm like, I, okay. I feel like now I need
to help you understand the toxicity of what you just
said right now. Like, you know what I'm saying? Where
it's like, I feel like now I'm leading, you know?
And I'm like, but I need a leader. You feel me?
Speaker 3 (38:06):
I mean, we become, it's almost like with all of
the weight and the stress, the battle that we have
to fight as black men. Yeah. By the time we're
in our elder age, we're pretty much, shells of ourselves.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Exhausted yeah yeah and i'm saying that i mean i'm
saying that and it's like i'm saying that not to
like diss my ogs i'm saying like i understand what
you've gone through you know i'm saying like i get
it you know yeah you know i i.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Turned 50 this year in a in a couple months
actually and i'm feeling it yeah and what i'm what
I'm communicating to people is how tired I am. Yeah.
I find myself saying that so often, man, I'm tired. Yeah.
I'm so tired right now. And that is something that
(38:57):
I understand. Yeah. Now I get it. I get where
our men are like, oh, I'm tired.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
I just want to kick my feet up and smoke
my pipe.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Nigga, I'm done.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
I'm done. Like, Like, really, really wearing niggas down. Yeah, no,
for real. This work, this world, it really, you know,
just trying to care for our communities, our people, our families. Yeah.
The best of us are exhausted. Yeah, man. And I
get it. I get it now. Yeah. And salute to
(39:31):
our OGs. Yeah, man. That put in that work and
put in that time.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
That made it, number one, are still alive.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
That made it.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (39:37):
We salute you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
So let me ask the last two questions. The first
one is like, when we do these series, we call
them terraformers. Like these are people who are building a better.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
World for us.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
So like, A lot of people got ideas, but you.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Did it, right?
Speaker 1 (39:55):
So give me like two questions here. Like what was
the scariest and the hardest to actually get over the hump?
Maybe those are the same thing, to get over the hump.
And then the last question is like, what are some,
give me like three things you can practically start doing
right now for your wellness. But let's do the first
two of like, Okay, so you actually did it. It
(40:17):
went from idea, like we should, we should, to like
now we're doing it. What was the scariest and the hardest?
Speaker 3 (40:24):
The scariest was really dealing with the imposter syndrome. And like, man,
do I need this? I need that degree. I need
this credential. And really, the scariest and the most difficult
was decolonizing my own mind.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Because the meritocracy that we were uh, indoctrinated with tells
us that you need this, that, and the third to,
to accomplish those goals and to serve your community. And
really that was the hardest. I was like, man, I'm
not a doctor. I'm not, I'm not even a wellness influencer.
(41:05):
And really what I ended up telling myself is like, okay,
I'm taking, I'm trying to take care of myself and
all I'm doing. I'm not, I'm not a guru. I'm
not a health and wellness guru. And people were telling me,
trying to convince me of that. Like, oh, you can
be an influencer. And I was like, nah, I'm just
a guy who's trying to take care of himself and
(41:26):
inviting my friends, family, and community on this journey with
me so that we can hold each other accountable. That's it.
And I just really tried to simplify it as much
as possible so that I wouldn't talk myself out of it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
There's a lot of that with, even with this show
where I'm just like, I don't have a degree in polyscience.
Like I have, I'm, I have a graduates, you know
what I mean? Post, post, post undergrad, like education. Like
I was an educator for a while, but like, I'm
not Mark Lamont.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
You know what I'm saying? Like, I like that nigga
is brilliant.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
I'm not Yaki Raphael.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
You feel me? It's like, I'm not like, but I
know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
I'm not Dr. Sebi. Exactly.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
But I know what I'm talking about. And I know
that like, I'm like, The stuff that we're talking about,
what we're doing is like, like the example is like,
I remember when we was living in Long Beach, you know,
we started going to the gym a little more and
you at the beach.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
So like everybody gorgeous is LA.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Right.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
And then one day I saw this guy that was like,
he was like jog. I was on the way to,
to like pick up my kid from daycare and he's
jogging along the beach.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
And the nigga was beautiful, like just perfect. And I'm like, well,
he's on a jog.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
At 2 p.m.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Nigga no wonder you look this good you ain't gotta.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Go you know I'm saying so I'm like well you
like so like when I think like for to tell
somebody to understand and choose their elected officials and the
only way to choose wisely is to give your life
to understanding politics and being a wonk is like that's
not realistic you know I'm saying like realistically we're all
trying to make these decisions based on the limited information
(43:09):
that they have like we're not experts you know I'm
saying so like I started looking at it like that
to be like, well, listen, dude, like I'm a citizen
like you are.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
You feel me?
Speaker 1 (43:19):
And granted, I do like it's stupid that I am
sitting here at 2 p.m. at work, like I'm at
work talking about this. But that being said, it's like
that imposter syndrome, too, to be like, man, y'all really
like who gonna listen to.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
This show now?
Speaker 2 (43:33):
You know what I'm saying? But yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Now, the last one is like, OK, give me like
two or three things. black men could do like immediately?
Speaker 3 (43:44):
So the first thing you can do, and this is
going to sound, it's going to sound a little silly.
You can breathe. For real. Most of us are breathing incorrectly.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Way shallow, huh?
Speaker 3 (43:57):
It's shallow. And so we need oxygen, obviously, to live.
You can breathe. And the way you should do that
consciously is inhale deeply through your nose and Fill up
your belly as much as possible. Slowly breathe out of
your mouth. And that is what we call circular breathing.
(44:18):
You can literally lower your blood pressure in moments.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Just breathe.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
By just breathing. Secondly, you need water. We need water.
And not just water. It's best to have some type
of like infused water. So a little bit of lime
juice from a lime. And if you can throw a
pinch of salt in there, you basically got homemade Gatorade.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
But real, like electrolytes. Yeah. And lastly, you need rest.
We need sleep. Our body repairs itself mostly when we're
in deep sleep. Yeah. So those are three practical things
you can do. And then a bonus, you want to
stretch as much as possible. Every morning, you should learn
(45:05):
a 10-minute You can YouTube a 10-minute yoga routine, and
you'll be surprised at how much that actually affects your
overall well-being. And if you can get out to a
green space, a park, anywhere, and just walk around, that's
a great, great, great, great pathway to your health.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Those are doable things. It's like walk your dog.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
These are all things that we can do in the
comfort of our own home and neighborhoods. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Yeah. I, yeah, I always say like, Hey, okay. So
like you got off work.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
So I'm just saying before the beer, before you get
a beer, before the drink.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Just get a water, like get a water.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
And sometimes it'd be like, that means that you probably
drank one less beer today, which is good for you.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
You know what I'm saying? But just, just, just get
a glass of water.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
You want to drink enough water, eight to 10 glasses
a day. And it doesn't have to be in one setting. Yeah.
And you want to drink enough to where your urine
is clear at least once a day. Yeah. And that's
how you know you're hydrated. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
That's a lot of water.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
But no, it's not really.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Anyway, so drop the links if people want to support.
Tell them how they can support you. This is a 501c3,
so donations are welcome.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
Blackmenswellness.org has our donation link. You can also find us
at Black Men's Wellness PDX on Instagram, Black Men's Wellness
on Facebook. And that's where you can find us. We
appreciate any and all donations. Yup, yup, yup.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
Helping brothers go outside.
Speaker 3 (46:42):
Yeah, if it's a dollar, listen. If 60 of y'all
donated a dollar.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
That's all we need.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
Or a hundred dollars. We'll take it. We'll take it.
I had to get on my... What was the commercials
back in the day with Sally Field's.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Oh, the poor Africans? Yeah. One dollar a day.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
Well, listen.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
In the arms.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
Of an angel. You want to save the life of
a black man, woman, or a child? One dollar a
day is all it takes. Thank you, brother. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
Appreciate it, man. This is going to work out.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Stay in with us. Well, not right now because I'm
going to stop talking.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
All right.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
Now, don't you hit stop on this pod. You better
listen to these credits.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
I need you to finish this thing so I can
get the download numbers.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
OK, so don't stop it yet.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
But listen, this was recorded in East Los Boyle Heights
by your boy propaganda. Tap in with me at prop
hip hop dot com. If you're in the cold brew coffee,
we got terraform cold brew. You can go there dot
com and use promo code hood. Get 20 percent off.
Get yourself some coffee. This was mixed, edited, and mastered
(48:13):
by your boy Matt Osowski, killing the beat softly. Check
out his website, mattosowski.com. I'm going to spell it for
you because I know. M-A-T-T-O-S-O-W-S-K-I.com. mattosowski.com. He got more music
and stuff like that on there, so go and check
out the heat. Hood Politics is a member of Cool
(48:36):
Zone Media. executive produced by Sophie Lichterman, part of the
iHeartMedia podcast network. Your theme music and scoring is also
by the one and only Matt Alsowski, still killing the
beat softly. So listen, don't let nobody lie to you.
If you understand urban living, you understand politics. These people
is not smarter than you. We'll see y'all next week.
All right, Hub Politics with Prop.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You may see I'm not in the office alone this time.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
We here.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm a homeboy, Darrell Wade Jr.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
We here.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I used to call him Darrelly Rail.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Uncle Rail is in the building.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You were born an uncle. What is that? Has it
always been like that? You were just been an old
soul forever?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I think so. There was a woman at my church
when I was like 15 years old, Sister Melissa, and
she would say that I was wise beyond my years.
When she would see me, she would see an old
man with a gray beard and long white hair.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
That is definitely you. Hood Politics with Prop, not on
a Zoom, like actually in the office. I want to
talk about What Darrell's doing up in the northeast, northwest,
my bad, PDX, Portland, the black part.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
The PNW.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
The PNW. The black part.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
The black part.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Did y'all know there was a black part?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
The black side.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
The black side of the northwest.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
As we get into this episode, it's a very special one.
Darrell and I have a very long friendship. When I
moved to Portland, that little bit of time I went there,
he was part of the black welcoming committee because I
didn't really, I knew three people in Portland.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
They were all black.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I was so surprised that Portland was that white because
everybody I knew in Portland was black.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It's deceiving.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
It's very deceiving.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
We had a little micro-community Of black and brown folks.
That was very, very deceiving.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
It's like I met them all. It seems like I
met all the black people in one swoop.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I was like, oh, that's dope.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I can move up here. Turns out you met all
of them.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It was curated black space. It was curated black and
brown space. Oh, man. And the way we moved. Yeah.
It was borderline strategic, I would say.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
And... When you think about the collective of artists and
community organizers, it gave the very, very deceptive view that
Portland was way more diverse than it actually is. And
(02:50):
I also experienced that. And then when everybody moved back
to their respective hometowns, you realize... Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I had no idea.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Where did all the culture go? And that... Oh Lord.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I find that funny and also real.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
So like I said, Darrell and I go way back
to my years in Portland.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Darrell's an artist. Just an all around good dude.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
But I'm here to talk to him about what you're
doing with Black Man's Wellness. So first, tell us what
that is, and then let's go.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Through the origins.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So Black Man's Wellness is a public health initiative aimed
at addressing the health disparities in Black men with a
focus on high blood pressure, heart disease, and chronic disease
through culturally specific workshops and events to create innovative pathways
(03:55):
to health and wellness. We do quarterly workshops, more than
quarterly at this point, around nutrition, access to physical health,
outdoor space and mental health resources.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
OK, so why specifically? Because obviously this is a politics podcast.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So like, why.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Specifically do you think this is something specifically for black men?
And when you say black men, we talking like boys
to men.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
We're talking boys to men. We're talking all ages from
five to 65. Okay. Right. And even younger. We've had
three-year-olds at our workshops with their parents. So black men
are the, black American men specifically, are the highest population
(04:46):
to suffer fatalities related to cardiovascular related illnesses.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Why do you think so?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Well, that is something that is still being researched.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Word.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
So if you went to your doctor and they diagnosed
you with hypertension, prehypertension, and let's just say you're not obese,
you're fairly active, you have a relatively healthy diet, they
really couldn't tell you specifically why you have high blood pressure.
(05:21):
But one of the... newer theories is that black Americans specifically,
in addition to the environment, right. That we live in that,
that puts us at risk for having higher stressors, things
like microaggressions and just the systemic concerns and worries that
(05:44):
we carry through our daily lives is that there's something
called sodium retention. Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
And we love us some sodium. I ain't going to
hold you.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
But sodium retention is the theory that our bodies went
into survival mode during the transatlantic slave trade.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
And because we were deprived of food and water in
the way that we were. This is a month's long
journey being shackled down in the hull of a ship
that our bodies went into survival mode.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, laying flat.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
And laying all the things yeah and that our bodies
retain salt at a higher rate than other populations even
even our our brothers and sisters in Africa and even
in the Caribbean yeah and so if you pair that
with then the horrors of slavery yeah and the Jim
(06:43):
Crow that followed afterward and just all of the things
our bodies held on to a type of survival that
causes us to retain salt at a higher rate.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Just an epigenetic.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I know, like, I know when I talk to, like,
a lot of the younger dudes about, like, that kind of, like,
romanticized the era we came from, especially, like, the street
era as far.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
As, like, you know, that 90s era. Like, I, I
wish that on no one. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Same.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And I wasn't, I wasn't as outside as some of
the homies, you know what I'm saying? But, like, But
the idea of like, I don't, just what it does
your body to be in constant fight or flight. Like,
I don't think people understand like how that like really,
like your body keeps the score like of like, like you're, it's,
(07:35):
I don't know how to just roaming hordes of, at
any moment, just roam, whether it's the police or hoods
or whatever, or just the reality of, Knowing that even
if I choose to do all the right things and
avoid all of the pitfalls that falls like inner city youth,
(07:57):
like you were the nerdiest of nerds, you know, you
go when you try to apply to school.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
There are going to be barriers. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
It's a different type of black tax. Yes. When you
think about it. Yeah. It's a tax that we pay subconsciously. Yeah.
When your brother gets locked up or your cousin and
you have to be concerned about their safety while they're inside. Yeah.
When you lose a close homie to community violence. Yeah.
(08:30):
Any of those, any of those systemic issues, when the
political climate shifts and it is against your better. Yeah. Well-being. Yeah. Right. It's,
these are stressors that affect our overall health and wellness.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah. I, you never, I never, you know, you know
that it affects you like psychologically, but it's like the
connection between that psychological environment. And then what, how you're,
I never thought about that, how your body responded and says,
I need to hold onto these hormones.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I need to hold onto this. I need to do this.
I'm going, I'm about to be deprived of this.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Like all the, just the way to keep the gears running,
the things that your body is releasing for your protection,
your safety, to stay alive, your desire to see, your
empathy to others. I never thought about the fact that like, damn,
that really stayed with us.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I mean, it's like you said, our body keeps the score.
So we're like, we can be walking We can be
walking bags of cortisol. Yeah. And when you think about
most of the brothers I know, they love working out. Yeah.
They stay on a basketball court.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
They stay in the gym. Yeah. they stay i mean
it's one of the things that makes us so attractive
to a lot of our uh non-black counterparts yeah that's
one of the things i hear is like oh black
guys they smell so good they dress well yeah they
they stay in shape yeah and but i know brothers
(10:16):
that when they you know when it comes um You know, pool, summertime.
They look like Greek gods when they take their shirts off. Yeah.
And if you take their blood pressures. Nicks. It's alarmingly high. Yeah. Yeah.
Alarmingly high. Yeah. And we've also been taught and trained, right,
(10:37):
to bury our mental health challenges, our emotional challenges. Yeah.
The stoicism, the nonchalant. Mm-hmm. attitude that makes us so attractive. Yeah.
That all, that's, your body's like a bank account. Yeah.
(10:59):
And then there comes a time where it's time to.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
It's time to pay.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
It's time to pay.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
It's time to pay.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
And so, and that's Black Men's Wellness. We're trying to
introduce our communities to individual and group Lifestyle changes. Yeah. Right?
So our first workshop was a hike.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
That's what I was going to ask you.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah. And it was called Black People Don't Do That Shit.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Black People Don't Do That Shit.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Black People Don't Do That Shit. Yeah. Because I was hiking,
but I was doing a lot of hiking and outdoor
activities in the Pacific Northwest I was getting into. And
it was always with my white friends. And this is
a time... You know, we had a lot of homies.
They were into music. They were throwing, like, really cool
(11:49):
and dope parties. It was kind of like a renaissance
that was going on in Portland. Yeah. And, you know,
with events like The Fix. Yeah. And The Beatdown and
Heavy Rotation.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, that's when I started showing up.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
That's right. If you know, you know, you know. And
Tony Ozier's events. Like, it was cracking.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
But when I wanted to go out, on a hike and,
you know, see some of like the majestic waterfalls on
the Pacific Northwest. I couldn't get none of the homies
to go with me. It was like, what?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I'm good.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
I'll get into like a, a kayak and just explore
some of the rivers. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I like it now, but I would, I was definitely
on the like.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Nobody, right? And, um, it, it, it was just a
challenge getting, getting folks out or even just to, you know,
accompany me, to a yoga class. Yeah. And this is
circa 2008, 2009. Yeah. We just weren't on that type
(12:52):
of time. Yeah. And now, you know, we're in this
health and wellness renaissance where you see a lot of
black hiking groups on Instagram. Black yoga, yeah. Black yoga
is beautiful and I love seeing it. And so, but
you know, black men's wellness was born and we'll get
into this, right?
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, I want to ask about that, but I want
to go back to some of the things you said.
I think one, I know in my mind, I always
felt like the woods, nature was dangerous because to me, it,
I think somewhere subconsciously, it felt like this is, this is.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
The underground railroad. And like, I need to do my
best to get out of the woods.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
That part.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Because in the woods is death. It's dangerous. The masses dogs.
It's all that like.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
The lynchings.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
The lynchings. All that happened in the woods.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Like I do not want to be in here.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
And I think somewhere subconsciously I was like, I used
to joke about like cosplaying poor. Like I'm not going
to go out there and construct a house. Like I
already have a house. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And it's a, and I think too, it's like the
city danger is a danger we know. Like I don't
know this danger, you know? But you know, besides like
the normal fear of wild animals and stuff, I think
to me somewhere, my mind shifted when it was like,
once you see the beauty and then I'm like realizing
(14:22):
that I'm only tracing my heritage to the slave ships.
Like I am from the jungle, my ancestors, are from nature.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
You understand what I'm saying? And I'm like, this is
ours too. And I can't believe I relegated this space.
Like I just, like it's, I gave it up. Like
I relinquished my claim on this planet by just calling
it white shit.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You understand what I'm saying? And I'm like, wait, that's
not fair.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Like this wasn't even stolen from me.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I gave it to you. You understand what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
So like, You know, a lot of that for me
came through the lens of coffee and just like being like,
wait a minute, coffee from Africa.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
What the hell are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
You know what I mean? And but but yeah, like
I respond to the same thing. I responded the same way.
But I feel like I think that there was somewhere
subconsciously that I was like, the forest represents danger.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Like and I need to get out of it to
get to safety.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
There's definitely a trauma attached to it. Yeah. There's definitely
a trauma attached to the wilderness and was not widely known, right?
If you have Jewish friends, they know the stories of Auschwitz. Yeah.
From their.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
They know it, yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
From their grandparents. But I feel like it was not acknowledged.
It's like, I don't know the stories from Jim Crow,
my grandmom... Told me about what she saw walking home
from school. She told me about men that hanging from
trees that were naked and castrated. Yeah. And guess where
(16:34):
she had to walk through? The woods. Yeah. And how
it was just like nothing to see it. Yeah. It
was just like, you just saw it. It was there
and you just accepted it. And then, so we have
those stories. We have that trauma. And- You see that
through a lens of, I don't belong here. Yeah. I
(16:57):
shouldn't be here. I should stay away.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, I should stay away.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I should stay away from the forest. Yeah. I should
stay away from these hikes. And whether that's intentional or not,
it's there. Yeah. Right? And so, you know, when I
first started getting Black men out to the woods, that's
the first thing that.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Why was that important for wellness, you think?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
For one, a lot of people don't understand how toxic
industrialization and industrial built environments can be. Yeah. And that
one tree can produce anywhere from 20 to 60 pounds
(17:45):
of pure oxygen. Yeah. That your breathing is better when
you're in the woods. Yeah. That bird song actually lowers
blood pressure. This was published in the New York Times
just last year.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
That listening to a waterfall can literally reduce your cortisol.
The walking itself burns cortisol. There's so many components. It's
literally overall.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Or like what some people will call 360 wellness. Yeah.
You're getting physical activity. You're getting mindfulness. You're getting forest bathing.
In Japan, they literally have blood pressure cuffs sitting on
walking trails, along walking trails outside of work areas.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Damn.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
In some places in Japan. Yeah. And forest bathing is huge. Yeah.
Where you allow nature to essentially wash over you. Camping.
All that. When I adopted my nephew, he had a
chronic cough at night. Every night, this little boy would
cough himself to sleep. And I promised him, because he
(18:55):
was a Boy Scout, he moved there from St. Louis.
I moved to Portland, rather. And I said, I promised
him we'll go camping at least once a year. So
I bought a Honda Element. We went camping with some friends.
And he didn't cough once. Dang. The whole time we
were on the mountain. He just went to sleep.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Dang.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
But he coughed. every night he had like a chronic cough.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
In the city so that was so that was the
first thing y'all did was you started doing.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Hikes and yeah i was gonna ask like what sort of.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Programs and things do you guys do in these in
these like wellness workshops and one of them is hiking.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
One of them is hiking when our so i'll talk
about our most popular ones which is our pan-african snow
day which is a black ski and snowboard event that
happens once a month uh throughout the season. Really, normally
we start Black History Month and the ski season in
oregon uh or in portland rather goes through may yeah
(19:55):
so we go once a month and it's it's grown
exponentially every year yeah and it's a it's family oriented
it's not necessarily like You know, some other black ski weekends,
which is kind of like Essence Fest on the mountain.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I was like, that little hood. Yeah, that little ratchet.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Right. We try to keep it family friendly. We love
seeing dad interact with his son and daughter and mom
there and, you know, falling in the snow, learning.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, I was going to say, it's really good to like,
I'm saying this as a black father to be. like
learning with your kids, something like, like I'm not the, like,
I don't know how to ski.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Like, you know what I'm saying? All right, we're going
to go learn together.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Like, and what that does, I know what that did
for me of like not having to be this like
superhero protector, which in my house, I mean, I live
in a matriarchy.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
So like, it's a different scenario.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Like, but, but still like feeling the need to present
myself as this, like, well, dad's got it.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Like in those scenarios, it's like, dad don't got it.
And in our house, Alma, Dr. Alma, everybody knows like
she's the camper. Like, so I'm following her lead anyway.
But I think, but I know for my own development,
it was, I felt like it was good for my
kids to see me as a learner.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Absolutely. That's super important. Yeah. You know, we tend to
put on capes as black men in our household. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
And we present ourselves as these infallible beings.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
And we're just not. Yeah. And it's also, there's humor
to it to see dad falling down the slopes or
freaking out like a little bit. And it's just a
good time. Last year, we were able to accommodate over
200 black Portlanders on the mountain. That's crazy. We partner
(21:48):
with several ski shops and adventure shops as well as
a resort on a mountain to make it like an
affordable experience. We even scholarship, uh, some of our participants,
we provide outerwear. It's a very expensive activity. It really is. Yeah.
Like just snowboard boots can be $ 400. That's crazy. A
(22:10):
snowboard can be anywhere upwards to a few thousand dollars. Um,
then we talk about food and fuel and transportation. It's it's,
it can be really expensive. And exclusive. But it's one
of our primary and premier events. So dope. Shout out
(22:34):
to Lorenzo Lowe for organizing that. And my facilitator, Robbie Smith,
also known as Don't Ride With Robbie. Don't Ride With Robbie.
Don't Ride With Robbie. And then we host kayaking events.
We partner with Camp Yoshi for our Black Men's Wellness
(22:57):
Camping Retreat. We do breathwork sessions. Sound healing is a
really popular one. Our nutrition workshops. And these are all led,
or what we call peer-led events. So they're all led
by Black folks.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
That's incredible, man.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Do you, I'm curious about, and I don't know how
to phrase this question, but like, I think often about.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Like appropriation.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Like sometimes I feel like as black people, we get
a pass cause I'm like, well, we're oppressed. So like
if we start doing yoga, it's different. Like, it's like,
we're not, we're different. You know what I'm saying? Like
you should let us be a part of this.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
But sometimes I think like, yeah, like sound bath and
stuff like that. Like, you know how we're always the
ones that are, because obviously just anti-blackness is global.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
So it's like, we're always on the bottom of it.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
So I feel like if, if it's a person of
color or another person, part of the diaspora doing something dope,
and then we start doing it, it's like, we will,
we should, you should feel welcome. Like we should be
welcomed because it's like, nigga, we get it.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Right. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (24:08):
But, but at the same time, like I can't put
words in their mouth. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Like, do you think, do you think there's anything to
like the idea of like using yoga or something like that?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Well, I think with black people, when we do anything,
it's just a vibe. It's just a different vibe. Yeah.
We're on a mountain. So we do a call and
response at most of our events. Yeah. And obviously, you
know me, old MC, hip hop head. So it's all day.
So can I kayak, for instance, when we get together
before we, when we suit up our life vests, then
we go, can I kayak? And everybody goes, yes, you can.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
I already knew.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
That's a tribe call question.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
And, you know, at Pan African Snow Day, we do
a circle. We huddle up. And we just screaming to
the top of our voices, like, where are we at?
And everybody goes, we outside.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
We outside.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
We outside. And, you know, 40 black people to 72
black people on the mountain screaming, we outside.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
It's pretty dope.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
It's going to garner some attention. Yeah. And it's just
a vibe. We did a rock climbing event, and I
called it All The Way Up.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Nothing can stop you.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
And so we talked about resilience. Yeah. And tied that
into it. And we had a call and response. Nothing
can stop me and everybody there. We're all the way up.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
See, now I want to be there.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Okay. And that is the primary goal.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, you just make it a vibe.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
It's to make it a vibe. We believe that wellness
begets more wellness.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
And we started off. creating small group workshops and to
kind of create a sense of FOMO. And so they
were like 15 to maybe 25 participants, all free. Yeah.
And I started getting DMs, bro, every time I try
to sign up, it's sold out. Hell yeah. It's the
(26:03):
club effect, right? So a lot of people don't know
that if you're promoting a show or a club, what
a lot of promoters would do, they would, what they
call stage a line. Yeah. So you ever been in
a club and it's empty, but it's a line outside
because they staged it. Yeah. And so you see the rope.
We got to pull up in there. That looks like
it's lit.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Yeah, that's the plan.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I throw parties, so I know.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Yeah. And I knew going into it that we would
have some challenges around the certain activities we were really
presenting to the black community. And so really getting us
to take our health seriously. And it's like... we have
to like stage a line a little bit.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah but what i love about it is the fact
that like when you go in saying oh you're just
finna go for a hike we're finna go for us
yeah as you know a swim or a kayak it's
just fun yeah you're not saying hey we're gonna we're
gonna be intentional and you know yeah we're gonna charge
our rose gold you know i'm saying like it's like
(27:06):
nah it's like We're going to go be us.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
And if you just go be you, it's healthy for you.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
And not only that, it's really not that we're trying
to like manipulate the black community. No. But more so
is that we're trying to really educate like, okay, this
is actually safe. When we go kayaking, you're in about
three feet of water mostly. Yeah. You're not going to drown. Yeah. Right.
We provide water. Personal flotation devices are life vets. We
(27:34):
usually are able to send our participants away with equipment
so that they're able to engage in these activities with
their families independently of the organization.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
It's like you're giving us things that don't feel like homework.
That was one thing that kept me away from camp.
And I was just like, you just need so much equipment.
that I'm like, this feels like homework. Like, and I'm not,
it's just so stressful to have.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Everything you need.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
You know, and I tied a lot of that to, again, masculinity,
like feeling like, because my dad is not an outside person. Like,
so whenever he was going out with families where their
dads were like freaking Navy SEAL, like could survive outside,
they'd be like, your dad teach you.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
How to tie a knot. And I'm like, well, taught
me how to put a knot in your forehead. You
know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (28:26):
So like, I tied a lot of like, my masculinity
to the fact that I didn't know how to do
this stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
So I was just embarrassed, I think, in a lot
of ways.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
But like- I feel that.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, you know, but I think when you put it
in a context of like, nah, we belong here too
and you can do it.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Like, nigga, you didn't know how to hoop the first
day you started hooping.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Facts.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
It's fine, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
I still don't.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
But it's, yeah, that it's like, dog, like it don't
have to feel like homework. Like it could be fun.
And when something is fun, it's like your shoe collection.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Like, yo, these are just.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Things that you just accumulate over time, but it's because
you feel like it's okay for me to be there.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Absolutely. And that's one of our biggest points that we're
trying to drive home, that this space and these activities
are for you. And I had a homie, he's an
artist and he's a community worker. Shout out to Rich, Risky,
Risky Star, Rich Hunter. And Rich, he's Black and Indigenous. Uh-huh. And, man,
(29:27):
I had known Rich for years. You know, back in
the days, like, you know, he rapped and we'd play
shows together. And one day we just, I saw on
his IG that he was involved in the community work.
I said, man, we got to link up. It's been
a minute. Yeah. And this fool had been practicing archery
for the better part of a decade. And I was like,
I had no idea. Yeah, right?
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Like bow and arrow?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Right. We met up and he talked about how calming
it was and how he felt like it cured PTSD
and how he was able to focus. I said, bro,
we do have a guy. to lead an archery workshop
for us. Bro, I don't know any black men. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Up at the Forest Park Archery Range. Yeah. Up in
Pulau Nori. And it is one of our most popular.
(30:10):
We call it shoot your shot. Love it. See?
Speaker 2 (30:13):
When we do it. That's what I'm saying. When we
do it.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
It's a vibe.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
And as a homegirl, and Angie, I'm dropping a lot
of names here. That's great. She kind of put me on.
She's a dope ally. And I said, do you ever
see any brothers up at the range? And she said, sometimes.
She said, rarely. She said, but when I do... She said,
they're always dressed to the nines. Ah, yeah. They always
look fly as hell. And so Rich, that day after
(30:39):
happy hour, he took me up. He had extra bows.
So dope. I said, this is dope, bro. Yeah. And
recently there was a woman and she brought her son
up for our Juneteenth Wellness Week. We just had our
fifth annual Juneteenth Wellness Week, which is kind of a
recap of all of our events over the course of
a year that takes place over the course of a
(31:00):
week leading up to the Juneteenth holiday. And she came
last year, and then she came to our Pan-African Snow Day,
and she said, you know, I wouldn't purchase the bow
and arrow. I love that.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
That's so dope.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
I go up regularly now, and I love hearing that.
I love those stories.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
That's dope.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Like, I love... The brother who was terrified to go
on one of our hikes. And he's like, bro, I
hike regularly now. In fact, I'm like super into birds.
I brought some birds.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
He's birding.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Now he's birding. And those are the stories that, those
are the reports that we like to hear. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
So now I want to go back to the origins. Um,
our part of the lore for the show is the
killer Pino, the B-boy Pino, a DJ effect.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Oh, cool. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Cool.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Yeah. Cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Effect though. Um, and again, if you know, you're part
of the lore, catch everybody up.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
DJ effect.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Oh, half of those records behind me were his touring DJ.
We toured the world 10 years straight, um, passed away
in 2018. Uh, but the, the, his kindness, his legacy,
like when this, you know, when he passed, like people
(32:53):
flocked down to Long Beach and Darrell was one of
the people that came down for that. So, and what
you told me earlier was like, that's part of the
origin story.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
There's a huge, there's a huge component. Okay.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
So tell that story.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Of why I founded Black Men's Wellness. So Ron also
lived in Portland for a while. Yeah. And I remember
him coming to my studio apartment and we had this, Like,
it was me and the Lightheaded Cats. Yeah. And they
had this Goonie poster. And it just passed around. If
you move to Portland.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
I remember you get the Goonies poster.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
You get the Goonies poster, right? And I called Ron
the last Goonie because he was the last person to
get the Goonies poster. And I said, man, you live here.
You got to take the poster.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Also, there's a little side note to that. It was like,
it's at the stage of life when people are like,
starting to get married and like find families. So if
you like, if you got it, it was like, that's
because I was like, you were single.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Yep. So yeah. And, um, and so when I learned
of his passing, it was devastating. Yeah. Um, and you
threw an event in his honor called E for Effecto.
Ron was 39 and he passed away, I believe so,
(34:07):
in his sleep, right?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Pretty sudden.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
He was in, uh spain he was stopping touring with
us and he wanted to get into culinary he was
an amazing chef and he was going to study under
a chef up there to learn paella he was going
to do this like you know fusion thing and apparently
i think the story is like his his blood pressure
just like bottomed out yeah yeah he was and he
(34:30):
you know he struggled his way you know he big
boy you know what i'm saying and worked out a
lot but like just couldn't get it together yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
And so At the event, and Ron was one of
five men of color that had passed in like six
years that I knew of. And none of these men
made it to the age of 50. Yeah. It was
all related to cardiovascular health or high blood pressure. And so,
(34:58):
but the event was so dope. There was so much
community there and music and art and food to the
point I was... Like you said, I was looking for Ron.
I was like.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
It was the weirdest.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
It was surreal.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yeah, it was very surreal because it's like, you know, he's...
That's our ace. And the event, since it was, I mean,
curated in his honor, it was everything he likes. It's
everything we all like. So every once in a while,
you would be like.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Like a song would come on. You'd be like, oh, Ron.
You'd be like, yo, that's... And you're like, oh, wait,
it's in your honor. Like just forgetting these moments.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Yeah. And... I remember I was talking to JB. I said,
I was just frustrated. I was angry. Actually.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I was like, JB's been on the show. That's the memory.
We did a show. I'll be him called. We called him, uh, okay.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Season. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
That is accurate.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
100%. Yeah. And I said, man, Ron would love this.
I was just like, I was like stomping. I was like,
I was hot. I was enjoying it, but I was
also like, just really frustrated that he wasn't there. Yeah. And, um,
Back at Airbnb, you know, Theory Hazard was in the building.
And Theory, I was theorizing Black Men's Wellness at that point. Yeah.
(36:08):
And I had already ran it by Theory. And he said,
you should tell everyone your idea. Yeah. And I said, well,
we do like breakout groups and some dope retreats. And
we talk about our health and our trauma growing up. Yeah.
And maybe we like do some connections to like therapeutic
resources and just overall like our trying to improve our
(36:30):
health and wellness as black men. Because when we, when
we pass, we leave a vacuum in a community. Yeah.
And JB responded. He said, that's dope. He said, if
you do that, I'll fly out. I'll fly out for
your events. Yeah. And, and that was, that's all I
needed to hear. Yeah. That was just such a like
(36:51):
supportive response from the homies.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
To hear one from the homies, but to like a
homie that you're like, you're who I'm talking about. Like
in the sense of like, you are the person that
needs this because JV is, I mean, he's a great man,
but he's from the streets.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (37:08):
And he's, he's very, like you all know, he's very
active in his community. Like he's, we're very plugged in,
very aware. We're trying to be better fathers, like trying
to do these things, but just.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Have, like you said, very few examples. A lot of
our OGs don't live long, you know?
Speaker 1 (37:23):
And if they do, they're just this like, with this
physical and psychological, like to the point, I know when
you talked about earlier before off mic, he was like,
I just don't have a lot of Paul's in my life.
Like Paul's isn't like, like men that came before you
that could drop wisdom. I felt the same way. A
lot of, a lot of the dudes that I look to,
(37:45):
to wisdom, I listened to him now, you know? And
I'm like, it, it feels like a role reversal where
I'm like, I, okay. I feel like now I need
to help you understand the toxicity of what you just
said right now. Like, you know what I'm saying? Where
it's like, I feel like now I'm leading, you know?
And I'm like, but I need a leader. You feel me?
Speaker 3 (38:06):
I mean, we become, it's almost like with all of
the weight and the stress, the battle that we have
to fight as black men. Yeah. By the time we're
in our elder age, we're pretty much, shells of ourselves.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Exhausted yeah yeah and i'm saying that i mean i'm
saying that and it's like i'm saying that not to
like diss my ogs i'm saying like i understand what
you've gone through you know i'm saying like i get
it you know yeah you know i i.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Turned 50 this year in a in a couple months
actually and i'm feeling it yeah and what i'm what
I'm communicating to people is how tired I am. Yeah.
I find myself saying that so often, man, I'm tired. Yeah.
I'm so tired right now. And that is something that
(38:57):
I understand. Yeah. Now I get it. I get where
our men are like, oh, I'm tired.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
I just want to kick my feet up and smoke
my pipe.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Nigga, I'm done.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
I'm done. Like, Like, really, really wearing niggas down. Yeah, no,
for real. This work, this world, it really, you know,
just trying to care for our communities, our people, our families. Yeah.
The best of us are exhausted. Yeah, man. And I
get it. I get it now. Yeah. And salute to
(39:31):
our OGs. Yeah, man. That put in that work and
put in that time.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
That made it, number one, are still alive.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
That made it.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (39:37):
We salute you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
So let me ask the last two questions. The first
one is like, when we do these series, we call
them terraformers. Like these are people who are building a better.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
World for us.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
So like, A lot of people got ideas, but you.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Did it, right?
Speaker 1 (39:55):
So give me like two questions here. Like what was
the scariest and the hardest to actually get over the hump?
Maybe those are the same thing, to get over the hump.
And then the last question is like, what are some,
give me like three things you can practically start doing
right now for your wellness. But let's do the first
two of like, Okay, so you actually did it. It
(40:17):
went from idea, like we should, we should, to like
now we're doing it. What was the scariest and the hardest?
Speaker 3 (40:24):
The scariest was really dealing with the imposter syndrome. And like, man,
do I need this? I need that degree. I need
this credential. And really, the scariest and the most difficult
was decolonizing my own mind.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Because the meritocracy that we were uh, indoctrinated with tells
us that you need this, that, and the third to,
to accomplish those goals and to serve your community. And
really that was the hardest. I was like, man, I'm
not a doctor. I'm not, I'm not even a wellness influencer.
(41:05):
And really what I ended up telling myself is like, okay,
I'm taking, I'm trying to take care of myself and
all I'm doing. I'm not, I'm not a guru. I'm
not a health and wellness guru. And people were telling me,
trying to convince me of that. Like, oh, you can
be an influencer. And I was like, nah, I'm just
a guy who's trying to take care of himself and
(41:26):
inviting my friends, family, and community on this journey with
me so that we can hold each other accountable. That's it.
And I just really tried to simplify it as much
as possible so that I wouldn't talk myself out of it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
There's a lot of that with, even with this show
where I'm just like, I don't have a degree in polyscience.
Like I have, I'm, I have a graduates, you know
what I mean? Post, post, post undergrad, like education. Like
I was an educator for a while, but like, I'm
not Mark Lamont.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
You know what I'm saying? Like, I like that nigga
is brilliant.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
I'm not Yaki Raphael.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
You feel me? It's like, I'm not like, but I
know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
I'm not Dr. Sebi. Exactly.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
But I know what I'm talking about. And I know
that like, I'm like, The stuff that we're talking about,
what we're doing is like, like the example is like,
I remember when we was living in Long Beach, you know,
we started going to the gym a little more and
you at the beach.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
So like everybody gorgeous is LA.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Right.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
And then one day I saw this guy that was like,
he was like jog. I was on the way to,
to like pick up my kid from daycare and he's
jogging along the beach.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
And the nigga was beautiful, like just perfect. And I'm like, well,
he's on a jog.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
At 2 p.m.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Nigga no wonder you look this good you ain't gotta.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Go you know I'm saying so I'm like well you
like so like when I think like for to tell
somebody to understand and choose their elected officials and the
only way to choose wisely is to give your life
to understanding politics and being a wonk is like that's
not realistic you know I'm saying like realistically we're all
trying to make these decisions based on the limited information
(43:09):
that they have like we're not experts you know I'm
saying so like I started looking at it like that
to be like, well, listen, dude, like I'm a citizen
like you are.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
You feel me?
Speaker 1 (43:19):
And granted, I do like it's stupid that I am
sitting here at 2 p.m. at work, like I'm at
work talking about this. But that being said, it's like
that imposter syndrome, too, to be like, man, y'all really
like who gonna listen to.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
This show now?
Speaker 2 (43:33):
You know what I'm saying? But yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Now, the last one is like, OK, give me like
two or three things. black men could do like immediately?
Speaker 3 (43:44):
So the first thing you can do, and this is
going to sound, it's going to sound a little silly.
You can breathe. For real. Most of us are breathing incorrectly.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Way shallow, huh?
Speaker 3 (43:57):
It's shallow. And so we need oxygen, obviously, to live.
You can breathe. And the way you should do that
consciously is inhale deeply through your nose and Fill up
your belly as much as possible. Slowly breathe out of
your mouth. And that is what we call circular breathing.
(44:18):
You can literally lower your blood pressure in moments.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Just breathe.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
By just breathing. Secondly, you need water. We need water.
And not just water. It's best to have some type
of like infused water. So a little bit of lime
juice from a lime. And if you can throw a
pinch of salt in there, you basically got homemade Gatorade.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
But real, like electrolytes. Yeah. And lastly, you need rest.
We need sleep. Our body repairs itself mostly when we're
in deep sleep. Yeah. So those are three practical things
you can do. And then a bonus, you want to
stretch as much as possible. Every morning, you should learn
(45:05):
a 10-minute You can YouTube a 10-minute yoga routine, and
you'll be surprised at how much that actually affects your
overall well-being. And if you can get out to a
green space, a park, anywhere, and just walk around, that's
a great, great, great, great pathway to your health.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Those are doable things. It's like walk your dog.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
These are all things that we can do in the
comfort of our own home and neighborhoods. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Yeah. I, yeah, I always say like, Hey, okay. So
like you got off work.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
So I'm just saying before the beer, before you get
a beer, before the drink.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Just get a water, like get a water.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
And sometimes it'd be like, that means that you probably
drank one less beer today, which is good for you.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
You know what I'm saying? But just, just, just get
a glass of water.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
You want to drink enough water, eight to 10 glasses
a day. And it doesn't have to be in one setting. Yeah.
And you want to drink enough to where your urine
is clear at least once a day. Yeah. And that's
how you know you're hydrated. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
That's a lot of water.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
But no, it's not really.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Anyway, so drop the links if people want to support.
Tell them how they can support you. This is a 501c3,
so donations are welcome.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
Blackmenswellness.org has our donation link. You can also find us
at Black Men's Wellness PDX on Instagram, Black Men's Wellness
on Facebook. And that's where you can find us. We
appreciate any and all donations. Yup, yup, yup.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
Helping brothers go outside.
Speaker 3 (46:42):
Yeah, if it's a dollar, listen. If 60 of y'all
donated a dollar.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
That's all we need.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
Or a hundred dollars. We'll take it. We'll take it.
I had to get on my... What was the commercials
back in the day with Sally Field's.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Oh, the poor Africans? Yeah. One dollar a day.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
Well, listen.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
In the arms.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
Of an angel. You want to save the life of
a black man, woman, or a child? One dollar a
day is all it takes. Thank you, brother. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
Appreciate it, man. This is going to work out.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Stay in with us. Well, not right now because I'm
going to stop talking.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
All right.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
Now, don't you hit stop on this pod. You better
listen to these credits.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
I need you to finish this thing so I can
get the download numbers.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
OK, so don't stop it yet.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
But listen, this was recorded in East Los Boyle Heights
by your boy propaganda. Tap in with me at prop
hip hop dot com. If you're in the cold brew coffee,
we got terraform cold brew. You can go there dot
com and use promo code hood. Get 20 percent off.
Get yourself some coffee. This was mixed, edited, and mastered
(48:13):
by your boy Matt Osowski, killing the beat softly. Check
out his website, mattosowski.com. I'm going to spell it for
you because I know. M-A-T-T-O-S-O-W-S-K-I.com. mattosowski.com. He got more music
and stuff like that on there, so go and check
out the heat. Hood Politics is a member of Cool
(48:36):
Zone Media. executive produced by Sophie Lichterman, part of the
iHeartMedia podcast network. Your theme music and scoring is also
by the one and only Matt Alsowski, still killing the
beat softly. So listen, don't let nobody lie to you.
If you understand urban living, you understand politics. These people
is not smarter than you. We'll see y'all next week.
Host
Prop
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