June 12, 2025 • 48 mins
In this episode, Harry chats with Fancy Lanier-Duncan, a multi-hyphenate creative and co-founder of the Legacy Building in South Minneapolis. Fancy opens up about her journey as a musician and community builder focused on uplifting Black creatives. They delve into how storytelling can heal and connect people, as well as why having accessible artistic spaces is not just important but crucial for a thriving arts scene. Fancy also discusses organizing the Soul of the Southside Festival, being recognized in the 40 Under 40 Awards, her dream of writing a children’s book, and her wish to explore her ancestry in totality. This conversation is all about the power of creativity, legacy, and the profound impact of being present for your community.
For more information on Soul of the Southside: Soul of the Southside Festival
For more information on the Legacy Building: The Legacy Building | Creativity and Community Hub | Minneapolis
For more information on iLLism: HOME | ILLism | Hip Hop Duo
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, my name is Harry, andwelcome to Odejuma.
Odejuma recognizes the magicof storytelling.
From personal experiences tostories of adventure, from tales
of resilience to finding joyin the simple things, this story
seeks to inspire, entertain,and educate because there is power
in the stories of everydaypeople, and these stories are worth
(00:22):
telling.
Hey, y' all.
Welcome to another episode of odejima.
I'm super excited about myguest today.
She is part of, you know,folks doing amazing things in the
Twin Cities, from music tosort of the south side and the Legacy
(00:46):
Building.
I'm happy to have Fancy here.
Hi, Fancy.
How are you doing?
How are you doing?
I'm doing good.
And thank you for agreeing todo this.
I know this is like a busytime for you.
It's like planning for us atthe south side.
So I really appreciate yourtime and you just coming through
on the podcast.
Yeah.
And for, like, you know, folkswho are listening in, who are not
(01:09):
very familiar with you andyour work, could you just give like
a brief, like, intro to whoFancy is for the audience?
Yeah, sure.
Well, you said it.
My name is Fancy.
A brief intro into my work.
My work is.
Is rooted in creativity and inserving black folks.
My.
My community.
Let's see.
The root of everything comesfrom music for me.
(01:31):
So I started with performingand singing, and that has sort of
been the vehicle that has ledme to kind of everything else that
I now lead, including my workat the Legacy Building, which is
a creative art space in South Minneapolis.
It was birthed from the needto expand the way that both me and
my husband create.
(01:52):
We're the founders together ofthe Legacy Building.
Birthed from the LegacyBuilding is the festival.
It's all the south side.
So when we celebrated ourgrand opening back in 2022 of the
legacy Building goal of thesouth side was like our big final
party at the end of our grand opening.
And so since then, it has grown.
It was really only supposed tobe like a one time event and the
(02:15):
community came up and theyshowed out and maybe like a few months
later, I was already gettingcalls saying, hey, are you starting
the planning?
Hey, how can I be a part of itagain this year?
And so it's.
It has grown ever since, andwe are now in our fourth year.
Yeah, the work I lead is verymuch invested in community, creating
opportunities for.
For people who look like youand me and, and being nurturing,
(02:38):
in a sense, with mentorship and.
Yeah, just I love to learn andlean into people too.
So I learn a lot in this workand, And I have a.
A.
An obsession for growing andlearning, so.
Yeah.
Yeah, that is good.
Thank you for sharing that.
And we're gonna take you backa little bit to, like, what was.
When did you discuss.
Discover that the creative body.
(02:58):
You had, the creative bone?
When did that change?
When did that spark for you?
Yeah, you know, it sparked forme early.
And it's not necessarily amemory that I remember, but it's
a memory that my momoftentimes recalls.
And I was only about threeyears old, which is why it's a memory
that I don't necessarily remember.
But at 3, I definitely knew it.
I was in the living room, andshe was in the kitchen.
(03:20):
My mom was in the kitchen, andshe had just folded a bunch of clothes
up, and they were in a basketsitting in the living room, and I
was in there listening tomusic or whatever I was doing.
And by the time she came backfrom doing whatever she was doing
in the kitchen, I had unfoldedall of the clothes, and I was performing
for them.
I had matched, like, shirtsand pants and socks to.
You know, I made, like, my ownlittle audience, and that's what
(03:41):
I told her I did.
She was like, what did you do?
And I was like, I'm performingfor my audience.
And she, like, couldn't evenbe mad at it.
Like, wow, there's something.
There's something here.
Now, when can I remember thatI really, really wanted to do it?
I.
I would say maybe when I wasabout 10 or 11 years old, and being
a part of choir at church,being in band at school, there was
(04:03):
always something creative thatI wanted to do musically, for sure.
Although I did do some dance,and I did some acting and modeling,
too, when I was younger, but Iusually went straight running back
into the arms of music.
Yeah.
And you're in a musical bandwith your husband.
How did that happen?
Did y' all start the band wheny' all were dating?
What was the.
(04:23):
What was that.
What was that whole.
How did that come about?
And how has that process beenlike for you?
Because working with aromantic partner has its challenges
also.
So how's that experience likefor you?
Yeah, so me and my husband, wemet at a.
At a job.
We worked at a call center atand T actually back in 2006.
And that's when we first met,and we were friends for a couple
(04:44):
years following that.
But when I met him, he wasalready doing music.
He actually.
The way we met was heapproached me and asked me if I was
interested in going to localshows, and he had a flyer to a show
that he was promoting, thathim and a person he was doing music
with at the time werepromoting, so they were doing together.
So that's how we initially met.
I had stopped doing music fora while.
(05:05):
I became a mother really young.
I became a mom when I was 17years old.
And so I experienced a lot ofviolence in that relationship.
And so my focus turned awayfrom music.
It was almost like music wassomething to be jealous of.
And so it wasn't something Icould do when I was in that relationship.
It really pulled me away from it.
So when I finally was able tobreak free from that, and especially
(05:28):
again at such a young age, Imet E again, like, at work.
And I was.
Had just turned 21.
So for him to say that waslike, oh, my God, like, I've just,
like, broken free from this relationship.
I'm in this, like, new job,and it's like a job that pays a lot
of good money for.
For.
For the time at least.
Like, I was used to makinglike, seven, eight dollars an hour.
You know, it's just like 2006.
(05:48):
So I got this new job.
Now there's this new persontalking about music, and it wasn't
even about attraction.
It was about the fact that hehad reintrod something that I was
so incredibly passionate about.
And from there, like I said,we were just friends.
We would go to lunch, we had,like, mixed CDs, and we would share
those, like, swap those backand forth.
And he was always like, youknow, you got good taste in music.
(06:11):
I was like, I know I'm popping.
And eventually that.
That blossomed.
I was able to be a huge partof his artistic journey when he was
just, you know, touring anddoing things just individually as
himself, just as Envy, just.
That's the stage name that hegoes by.
It wasn't until 2010 that Iwas like, let me see what I can do
(06:32):
now.
And I started doing a lot ofindividual stuff on our own.
But then when we collabed onour first album in 2010, it got a
really great response.
Like, there's just our dynamicand I think our chemistry, the way
that we create together isreally, really unique and it's really,
really special.
So we didn't actually form illism until five years later in 2015.
(06:55):
It's very.
Been sitting ever since.
So 10 years.
That is amazing.
And y' all.
Y' all are writing Sin tocreating together.
Yes.
What does it mean?
What.
What does it mean, like, tocreate with your partner but also
work in community because youbecause your work is very red and
it's very community centric.
I met you because your workwas, you know, you were fellow for
(07:18):
the Minnesota Black Collective.
So what.
What.
What does that look like for you?
Why is it important for bothof y' all to have work that is very
rooted in community?
It's foundational.
He grew up in the Rondoneighborhood, so he's from St.
Paul, and I'm from the south side.
So Minneapolis is, you know,my home.
And where I'm from, it's whereI'm still rooted to this day.
(07:39):
And it's a huge part of whatwe do, even just as ill.
Ism.
One of the first ways that weinvolved community was by putting
on just shows and invitingdifferent bands and.
And artists to be openers orto be collaborators in those shows,
to build shows together.
We used to throw eventsdowntown at a.
(08:01):
At a venue called Elixir.
And then I think it waseventually renamed in.
Into a bunch of other things.
But it's right next door toFine Line, The.
The old space.
We used to throw shows inthere all the time.
And it.
And it had always been abouthow can we build and how can we create
community.
I know a lot of people feellike everything is very siloed here.
I hear that often that peopleare very siloed.
(08:23):
It's very cliquish.
But I don't know.
It's like the world that Ioperate in is because I'm always
trying to create community andcreate opportunity for people.
So I always feel like that'sjust all that there is.
And I think that's why wecontinue to build.
The way that we build isbecause we know that community is
so possible because we'realready doing it.
And, yeah, it's foundational.
It's foundational.
It's the reason legacybuilding came to be, and it's the
(08:46):
reason Solo, the South sidecontinues the way that it does is
because it's a huge part ofour relationship and our connection
is in serving people.
And so that's how we tie it up.
That is.
That is pretty cool.
I really.
I really like that.
I was also on the south sidein 2023 and 2024.
Had a great time.
(09:07):
It was just nice to be aroundso many black folks in the city and
just having a good time.
Lots of nice vendors, lots ofcool art, great music from all.
From all genres.
And so I think that is reallysomething dope that you all are doing,
and I really.
I really love that a lot.
I want to ask about like theLegacy Building.
(09:29):
Because I feel like that issomething that is very important
for creatives of study.
For Black.
For black creativesspecifically, who.
Access is just a very.
Is a struggle, right?
Access to resources, access tophysical space to create and to be
creative.
So talk us through.
Talk.
Talk us through theinspiration behind the Legacy Building
(09:52):
and what you envision is thefuture of.
Of the Legacy Building.
Yeah, the Legacy Building wasjust birthed out of our need for
access.
So we actually shot a musicvideo in Las Vegas for a song that
we have called Simple Shit.
And it was in this really,really cool, like, garage sort of
warehouse space.
(10:13):
They had, like, a bunch of,like, LED lights on, like, a wall,
and they were designed super cool.
If you go watch our musicvideo for Simple Shit, you'll.
You'll be able to see like.
Like the really cool stuffthat they had in there.
And it was really inspiring toeat, actually.
And, you know, a lot of hiswork is also rooted in preserving
and telling stories from thepeople in our community, too.
He does a lot of video andphotography work with a lot of the
(10:36):
nonprofits and.
And creatives in our city,too, and helping to share and tell
their stories.
And so he kind of said outloud, like, I need something.
Like, I need a productionstudio that's like this, where I
can bring clients to, and itcan also be a space that we can use
for our own creative endeavors.
And I was like, yeah, cool.
Let's.
Let's try it out.
Let's.
(10:56):
Let's see what happens.
And we shot our music video.
We came home, and maybe like amonth or two later, um, we were driving,
or actually he was driving onhis way to go pick up some coffee
one morning.
And we just.
We just.
At the.
At the time, we lived just acouple blocks from where the Legacy
Building is located, and therewas a sign in the window that said
(11:17):
it was available.
It had been Solsta Records,and before that, it was a consignment
shop for many, many, manydecades called the Pink Closet.
And we had never actually seenit empty before then.
And so he called the phonenumber, we went and we looked at
it, and it was tore up.
And I was like, ah, hell no.
And he was like, well, give ita second.
Sometimes I want everything to be.
(11:38):
Sometimes I just want thingsto be turnkey.
Like.
Like.
Like I don't want to do the work.
But there is something toputting in the labor and not always
just having things just readyand laid out for you.
You need the process.
Trust and believe.
You need the process.
So we were like, okay, well,what is this going to be?
And we knew that we wanted aproduction studio because that's
where the dream was founded on.
(11:59):
But then we said, but we needa rehearsal space.
Like, we can't just keep goingout to, you know, a member in our
band.
His name is Mike.
We can't keep going out toEdinah to go to Mike's house.
It's in his living room.
Like, we need a space to rehearse.
Let's put a rehearsal space in here.
It's like we started thinkingabout the things that we needed as
creatives because we knew ifwe needed it, someone else was gonna
need it.
(12:19):
Storefront space, galleryspace, there's a recording studio.
I mean, it really speaks to,honestly, all of the different hats
that he and I both also wear.
I mean, I do.
I do the graphic design as well.
I do web design.
So it's a space that allows meto maintain those sort of creative
ventures and as well.
But when we kind of got down to.
To the root of it, the newroot of it, I should say, or the
(12:42):
new root that grew from.
From what was kind of alreadythere was to center black community,
we started to really start tosit back and think, like, remember
that one time we went to this venue?
Or we had this experience withthese people and it was just like
they just couldn't understandwhat we were trying to do.
They didn't want to give us a chance.
They're like, rap, hip hop, ohmy gosh, no, you can't come in here.
There's going to be someshootout probably.
(13:02):
And it's like, man, if onlyyou knew, like, could you just give
our song a listen?
Could you just give it a.
Who do we need to have vouchfor us?
And sometimes it's just youneed your people to just be the ones
that you are in community with.
Sometimes we just need each other.
And so we said, hey, we aregoing to ensure that the space is
(13:23):
accessible for all.
But the priority here is blackpeople as black creatives, black
led organizations andentrepreneurs that experience the
same type of.
Of, you know, roadblocks andobstacles that we have been facing.
Because, you know, we're thesame, you know, we're after the same
(13:43):
things.
We're experiencing the same things.
It's a black very lived, blacklived experience.
And so the Legacy buildingformed from that.
And for the past almost fouryears now, community has made it
into what it is.
It's the community's handsthat say, hey, we need this.
So then we do it or, you know,we need opportunity to create these
(14:03):
types of experiences.
Can we do it there?
The building continues to moldand form.
A lot of the time people walkin and are like, oh my God, you did
this in here.
Now every time I come here,something's different and it is,
it feels like home.
It feels like, you know, whenyou want to move your living room
around or you want to, youknow, feng shui the bedroom, you
know, a little bit different.
You see, building is thatbecause people need the creative
(14:25):
freedom to create.
And for black peopleespecially, our creativity is a way
to our liberty and our freedom.
Man, that, that brings so much joy.
And, and that's the reasonfor, for the season of the Legacy
Building.
And it's really good to knowthat community is responding really
well to the building that they are.
It is becoming something thatis very important to them.
(14:46):
That is so good to know.
I'm curious as to what if,say, someone is curious about wanting
to use the space.
I know there was a creativefund that y' all put out recently,
but like for a young,independent, black creative in between
cities that is looking for a space.
How can the Legacy Building help?
(15:07):
Help them with their work ortheir art, basically?
Sure.
So the Legacy Building is amulti level space and it's pretty
modular, meaning that you canpretty much move things around.
There's not a whole lot ofdedicated like you have to keep this
year.
Unless we're talking about theart on the walls or like the recording
booth, like things that justcan't be moved or they, they are
(15:27):
there for a reason.
But for the most part, it's awide open space that has an incredible
vibe because of, of the artand the contributions that community
has made to it.
We got all the plants, we gotall, we got all of that.
And so it's really availablefor whatever the creative need is.
If you're someone who says,I'm trying to grow my business and
I want to host, you know, apop up event to get community access
(15:48):
to my products or my services.
You know, you might be ateacher or yoga instructor and you're
like, I just need a space tobe able to host, you know, this six
week course.
Like, how can I do that?
Do you have space?
Do you have access?
The answer is yes.
It isn't even just about youdo music or you need, you know, to
film or you know, do somethinglike that.
It's we've had all kinds ofthings in there.
(16:09):
We've had cake decorating inthere, we've had Fashion shows there.
We've even had weddingsinside, inside of the Legacy Building.
And we do have a special fund,you mentioned it just a little bit
ago, called the CreativeFreedom Fund.
And the Creative Freedom Fundwas established because there were
lots of artists and creativesand organizations too that would
(16:29):
approach us about accessingour space and they would be just
out of budget.
And because we want to remainaccessible, we work with people and
their budgets.
That doesn't mean we're goingto give, you know, away everything
for free.
But we understand that being acreative is hard financially.
So we make it accessible.
We say yes, through theCreative Freedom Fund, we can provide
(16:51):
space in kind for yourartistic needs and especially if
you're doing something that'sgoing to be ongoing, that's going
to be enriching for the community.
Now when we're talking aboutsustainability, we're talking about
access, but we also need to sustain.
So like I said, we just can'tgive everything away.
So through the CreativeFreedom Fund, what it's allowing
us to do is to collectinformation from the community.
(17:13):
You know, hey, this authorsgroup needed the space to do this.
This particular individual hada writing workshop.
They needed six weeks to do this.
They couldn't.
They got no's everywhere elsebecause places were asking for 2,000,
3,000, $4,000 just, you know,for space for, you know, two hours
on a Saturday, you know, oncea month.
And they, the community istelling us they need this and we
(17:36):
are creating the space to makeit accessible.
So in order for us to sustain,we can say here goes the need of
the community.
And then we can go back out toour funders, we can go back out to
the people who are investinginto the Legacy Building and say,
hey look, we just supported inkind all of these, you know, different
projects and workshops andcommunity oriented and enriching
(17:59):
events.
They sustain and pour, pourinto what we're doing.
We love to do the that type of work.
I get a thrill out of beingable to do that type of work.
Like I said, I'm reallyobsessed with growing and seeing
things progress.
And so if that means that wecan create a program like the Creative
Freedom Fund that supportsupports artists with space in kind
and then we can show that toour investors and the people who
(18:21):
invest into Legacy Building,who should be investing into creatives
and who should be investinginto spaces that support creatives
and that also sustain ourecosystem, we need that.
And the black community, theblack creative community especially
needs that.
So what can you do?
You can do just about anythingif you go online and you go to the
(18:42):
creative Freedom Fundapplication on our website, legacybuilding.org
thelegacybuilding.org you justfill out the application.
It's revolving.
It doesn't like, work between,you know, a certain date and you
got to have it in by certain date.
It's completely revolving.
If, you know, if there's anindividual or a group, an artist
(19:03):
group, a nonprofit that needsaccess to creative space, to host,
to create, to have the freedomto do what they need to do, and it's
in full alignment with ourmission, then we have this.
This is the support, and wehave the access, and that's what
we're here for.
(19:23):
Yeah.
Yeah.
The work that you all aredoing is trying to make art accessible
to creatives.
And I feel like there'ssomething that we find in, like,
art spaces or in creativespaces is that everything is just,
we want to create, we want to be.
Want to do things, but theresources aren't there.
They're not accessible.
(19:43):
Why.
Why is it important forcreativity to be accessible?
Because I.
I feel like when the peopleare creating, you know, the culture
keeps evolving and culturekeeps moving, and I feel like the
twin citizens in a very, like,sweet spot right now with how creative
folks are being and how thecreative community keeps growing
(20:04):
every year.
But in the midst of growth, wehave to make the.
We have to make it moreaccessible for people to be able
to get in and also create, too.
So why is that also veryimportant for us to do?
Well, like you mentioned, itkeeps moving culture forward, if
we're being specific.
But yeah, it keeps movingculture forward.
If you look around you,everything in your room had to be
(20:26):
created by somebody.
So if we care aboutelectronics, then we care about that
TV behind you being made.
If we.
If we care about even like your.
Your lighting fixtures, likesomeone was in a.
Was in a studio somewhereblowing glass to create our light
fixtures.
It's all creation.
We were created to create.
I was created to create.
Even people who think thatthey don't create, they're like,
(20:46):
oh, no, I'm just so bl.
Do anything.
It's like, well, you did your hair.
You thought about that.
You know, you put your outfiton, you chose your car.
Like you knew what color caryou wanted, you know, that sort of
thing.
And it's.
It's because creativity is allaround us.
And for some reason, there'sthis sometimes this idea that creativity
is only for a specific types of.
(21:07):
Type of, like, artsy, fartsyindividual who might be naming what
they do creatively like, I'm aceramic artist, or, you know, I do
interpretive dance, or, youknow, I do, you know, films and I'm
a director.
Like, sure, we can name thosethings and when we put a name on
them and it's like, ah, you'rea creative.
But in actuality, we're all creatives.
(21:28):
We're all trying to express ourselves.
We're all trying to push ourown narratives or our own agendas
forward, whether that's in asmall sense, like within our families.
You know, sometimes we'recreating babies and we're, you know,
trying to extend the lineageand we're, we're, you know, I have.
We have.
Me and E.
We have a four year old.
(21:49):
And so right now it's allabout like, our, like our rituals
and like doing things, youknow, at a certain time.
Like, it's 8 o' clock, wegotta go to bed.
If he's up for 30 moreminutes, he's gonna be crazy.
But it's like creating thoseschedules and knowing how to like,
sustain your family.
It's, it's, it's creativity isessential to our survival as humans.
(22:09):
And if we aren't creatingsomething, then.
Then what are we doing?
I think we're kind of justlike sitting there, kind of like
blinking our eyes.
We aren't being our true full sel.
We aren't creating.
And so it's important to pourin into creativity because that's
what, what keeps us moving andgoing and pushing forward.
That's pretty.
That's pretty amazing.
(22:29):
You all.
You brought up something Iwanted to touch on.
I know you touched on itearlier a little bit about being
like a parent and justmanaging your parenting and your
artistic endeavor.
What is that dynamic like for you?
Are your kids having the needto want to be in the creative space
(22:50):
too?
What is that looking like for you?
Yeah, so we're a blended family.
So he has a daughter, Imari.
She's from a previousrelationship and she's my daughter.
She's my daughter too.
But biologically that's.
Imari is E's daughter.
And then I biologically havetwo kids that are mine too.
Santino, who is my oldest,he's 21.
(23:11):
And then sire, who is thechild that me and E have together.
And he is for as far as I cansee it, just like I seen everybody,
everybody got a littlecreative bone in them.
For Imari, she not only.
She's just this incrediblybeautiful individual both inside
and out, she has a passion forfood and cooking.
She's always had that she wasalways trying to bake and, like,
(23:33):
cook and, you know, finddifferent ways to express herself
through her cooking.
And she still does.
She even has an Instagram pagewhere you can go and you can watch
her put together these dishes that.
That look and are really,really delicious.
She's also like the makeupboss, you know, Let me show you my.
My routine.
You know, she has those typesof videos too.
So she's definitely tapping ininto that world, and she does a really,
(23:56):
really, really good job at it.
And Tino, he's 21.
He is into CRE.
Being creative right now.
I think his.
His biggest outlet is videogaming, but he is a visual artist.
If you go to the LegacyBuilding and you go to the arcade,
that' of the space.
All the pictures that are upin the arcade space were done by
(24:16):
him.
And he is an incredible visual artist.
He also is an actor.
He was in several plays whenhe was in high school, and he still
pursues, you know, actingopportunities if they present themselves.
So he's in that world.
And he's a great singer as well.
So theater very much pulledmusic out of.
Out of him too.
Sire, he's on fire.
(24:40):
He is our fiery little spirit.
You know, Imari is just so,you know, she's.
She.
She's like.
She's the girl's girl.
She's, you know, she's prayingfor everybody.
She's like that type of person.
Santino, he's like, laid back.
Who.
I'm cool, mom.
You know, I'm kicking it.
I'm chilling.
And he has a great, funny personality.
But sire, he is on fire.
He's a fiery personality.
He wants to do everything.
(25:01):
He has a drum kit.
He has a keyboard.
He has play doh.
He has coloring.
He has.
He wants to do it all, but Ifeel like they all do.
At that age.
Everything is so.
He just used to be amazing.
Planes in the sky, things thatare just so, like, small to us, like,
yeah, yeah, I wish I was on it.
They're probably goingsomeplace nice.
You know, that's like what weall say, like, wonder where they
(25:21):
going.
But to him, it's like there'sa thing flying in the sky.
Like, do you see this, Mom?
So he's so tapped in to nature.
He tells plants that he loves them.
He just.
I feel like he, He.
He was sent to be a.
A.
A generational change maker inour family and have a huge, huge
(25:42):
impact.
And I'm excited to see wherethis goes.
And I know a lot of it has todo with the fact that even me and
I know ourselves so much morewith the age and maturity that we're
at right now too.
And so we just got this fieryindividual with so much spirit and
joy and just big eyes for the world.
(26:02):
And so it's going to be greatto see where he goes creative.
That is awesome.
Thank you for sharing that.
I really, really appreciate that.
I will be remiss if I don'ttell you.
Congratulations, 40 under 40.
Thank you.
St.
Paul Business Journal.
That is, that is amazing.
How you feeling about that?
It's, it's actually I, I wasin shock.
(26:22):
I posted the video of mefinding out and I'm like, dance.
I'm like, yeah, you know,she's my personality.
But, you know, honestly, incomplete shock.
We attended the 40 under 40awards in 2024.
We were there actually filmingfor another recipient who was receiving
an award.
And we were just the cameracrew, but I was like, I'm going to
give me one of those.
Watch, I'm going to get me one.
And you know, spoke it rightinto existence.
(26:45):
And, you know, you're sittingin a room with people who work for
these really big, you know,organizations and corporations like
3M and Wells Fargo and Targetand Best Buy and I mean, it's big.
And here I am, I'm just grassroots.
We in the community, wekicking back and we chilling and
we vibing like.
And y' all chose.
(27:06):
I was chosen and speaks somany volumes to the work that I do
because sometimes we think youhave to operate at such a high level
in order to, to, to feel likeyou're doing something and, and honestly,
props to the people who are,who are working in those higher positions
and dealing with, you know,million dollar budgets and, you know,
(27:27):
manufacturing and you know,things that, that also contribute
to the overall global successof Earth, I guess you can say.
But when you really get downto the, to the grassroots and you
are in it and you in the thickof it with the people, like you can
be at, at 3:00am making, youknow, two, $300,000 an hour.
But when you go home, are youlike at home and like your cul de
(27:48):
sac just kicking back like atyour crib with like just your family
and you go fishing on theweekends and you go traveling during
the summer, how are youmaintaining your connection to community?
And I think that's why for me,the community for me is like the
center of it.
And so it's incredible to behonored and it's a huge honor to
be recognized for our work andfor the work that I lead and for
(28:09):
the individuals who support mein that work.
When we were at the ceremony,I brought an entire table of all
black women with me becauseit's mostly non black people at these
awards.
Everyone came to our table.
We were the most lit table, of course.
We had so much fun, so muchgreat conversation.
When I got up on stage to getmy award, the screaming and the yelling,
(28:32):
and it was just like, we're here.
And it did.
It took so many incredible,amazing black women to help me and
nurture me and get me to where.
To where I am.
And they too are individualsthat work at such grassroots level,
like just black women are the backbone.
And so to be able to upliftthem in that space too, was an incredible,
incredible honor because theyare some movers and some shakers
(28:56):
who are doing incredible workthat our community also has access
to, access to.
And it was saying thatstatement too, like, y' all have
access to these women.
Please, please, please tap in,see who they are.
You know, let's celebrate thework that, that we all do collectively
as well.
What is your hope for thefuture of the creative scene in the
(29:17):
Twin Cities?
Like, how do you want.
Where do you.
In like 10, 15 years, where doyou want it to be at?
Yeah, you know, I want thereto be a really strong ecosystem here
for, for us to be able to tap into.
I want to be a part ofbuilding and being a contributor
to that ecosystem.
(29:38):
There are so many black ownedspaces and movers and shakers that
are, you know, 15 years old,20 years old, 30 years old, 40 years
old, and so on, so, so far up.
And collaboration is so key.
You know, you go alone, youmight get there quick, but boy, go
(29:58):
farther if we can go together.
And that has been myexperience in everything.
The festival grows becausethere's more collaborative effort
year after year.
If this was all just ridingon, you know, me and E, it'd be kind
of rough.
But I envision this beautifulecosystem where people recognize
their part that they don'thave to be it, they are a part of
(30:21):
it.
And when you're a part of thehistory, when you're part of the
story and a part of thenarrative, and you operate in the
lane that you're the moststrongest in, you're the most confident
in, then we can, like, joinarms and be like, you know, let's
do this together.
And there already is so muchof that that I'm witnessing just
from, from, from where we'reat, you know, today.
(30:42):
So 5, 10, 15, 20 years fromnow, if this continues the way that
I am experiencing it from myend, then Sky.
Sky's the is one limit.
It's not even a limit.
You know, what is that line inMean Girls?
There isn't a limit.
There's not a limiter.
Whatever she says when she'sat the math thing and the limit doesn't
(31:03):
exist, that's it.
Limit doesn't exist.
And it doesn't.
It's such a profound momentthat Katie, you know, and I love
that movie.
It's like you all's generationof my clueless.
But the limit doesn't exist.
And honestly, whoever iswanting to make the contribution
and really be a part of it,like I said, I feel like that is
(31:24):
the dream.
The dream is this beautifulecosystem with tons of collaborative
effort to keep moving things forward.
I feel like the machine hasalways been growing.
And, you know, this place isreally, truly at a sweet spot where,
you know, before.
Before the uprisings in 2020,it wasn't like this.
(31:44):
You know, I was a creative andI was, you know, out here pushing
the scene and, you know,trying to do our thing, you know,
just as ill ism or, you know,just pursuing different creative
endeavors.
What we are experiencing nowin 2025 is vastly different than
what it looked like in 2019.
And so if in just a small, youknow, short year spans, five, six
years or so, I am reallyexcited if we can continue this,
(32:09):
you know, minding our own business.
We don't got to be la.
We don't got to be New York.
We don't got to be Atlanta.
We don't got to be Houston and Miami.
We just got to be us.
And us is good.
Us is fantastic.
Us is like.
We are like.
That is, you know, we are thething, you know, that's it.
So we can do it.
We got it.
(32:29):
Awesome.
I love that.
I love that.
And are there any, like,dreams and things that you're still,
like, looking forward to,like, achieving as a creative?
Yes, actually.
So I'm in the middle ofwriting my first children's book.
Yes.
So I have a children's bookthat I'm working on.
It's a story about a child whosees the world through this really
(32:53):
imaginative set of eyes.
And they are attempting tobuild a fort, which I feel like we
all have done at some point inour childhood, trying to build a
space that feels like our own,that we can crawl into and be imaginative
or color in or, you know, justto be like, look what I did, mom,
or, look what I did, grandma.
Or, you know, invite thecousins over so they can come over
(33:15):
and hang out in the fort.
I want to sleep in the fort.
I want to have my food in the fort.
So it's about the challengesthat the character faces when trying
to.
To build this fort and whatresources are around them, making
their.
Their connection to.
To animals and watching whatanimals do to solve problems.
What does the wind do?
(33:36):
What does.
How does water move throughthe creeks and bend over curves?
And don't let nothing stop itor get in its way.
It just goes with the flow.
So it's going to be a great,great story.
I'm working with a reallyawesome illustrator, Uzo Uzo.
She's local to the Twin Citieshere and does a lot of.
Of really dope work.
Uzo has a short film thatshe's working on too, that's tied
(33:59):
back to her roots as well andexperiencing going to a Nigerian
funeral for, like, the first time.
And it's this really cool thing.
And immediately when I saw herwork and she had inboxed us regarding
the legacy building andaccessing the space for something
she was dreaming up at thetime, we just stayed connected and
I was like, this is going tobe a great opportunity for me to
(34:21):
continue working with anduplifting, you know, black women,
but an opportunity for.
For my work to grow, too.
So.
Yes, there is a children'sbook coming.
Probably be in a position toannounce what that is at the end
of the summer because we'llhave a lot more of our illustrations.
We're, like, in theillustration portion of it now, so
(34:42):
everything's been written, sowe're just kind of illustrating now.
But it's going to be very,very, very exciting to have.
That is pretty exciting.
I can't wait to see what itlooks like.
So congratulations.
And also to check out loser'swork too.
I'm sure it will be prettydope because I'm Nigerian too, so
it'll be nice to see.
Yes.
To see what the.
What the.
What the Nigerian creativesare doing in the Twin Cities.
(35:05):
I'm down for that for sure.
Before we wrap up, we're gonnado a little fun, like, trivia section
just to know, like, a coupleof, you know, things about you.
So the first.
The first one is, what are thetop three songs on your playlist
right now?
Oh, okay.
I have to look at my phone soI can tell you because I want to
make sure I do this right.
Okay.
What are my top three songs?
(35:25):
Okay, that has to be.
I'm just gonna go and Be like,what have I been playing?
Okay, so one song I have beenplaying non stop.
Okay.
Is Sade.
Do you know who Sade is?
Yeah, for sure.
Okay.
So lovers rock.
I've been playing that non stop.
So that's in my top right now.
Honestly, anything Beyonce.
Not picking one song, butanything Yonce.
(35:46):
You got meyonce.
So I'm with you right there.
I know.
I seen you at the concert andI was incredibly excited to see you
there.
Cause I'm.
I can't wait for my turn.
I'm going to see her for my40th birthday on July 14th in Atlanta
and I.
That's going to be a good show.
I'm hoping I can go against.
I'm hoping I can go again too,to the Atlanta.
(36:09):
So fingers crossed, you know,magic, you know?
But yeah.
Yes.
It's a great.
You're gonna have a great time.
Yeah, no, for sure, for sure.
Yeah.
No, honestly, anythingBeyonce, even if you were like, what's
the top three things in your timeline?
Beyonce, you know, I.
She's the person that I, thatI, that I, I study, I, I study and
(36:30):
people be like, are you in the beehive?
I'd be like, no, the beehiveis for the crazy people, the people
who like to avenge.
And I'm the Beyonce ologist.
Like, I know lots of things.
I follow, I study, I, I, Ideepen my connection with this woman
who don't even know my name.
She will one day.
I will know my name one day.
I had a dream one time that meand Beyonce.
(36:51):
I was trying on Beyonce'sOscar dresses.
She invited me into her closetin my dream and she was like, come
try on my dresses.
And I did.
And we ran around her house inher dresses and it was fantastic.
So I just feel like my dreams.
To guard the ears, you know,it can happen.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So as far as music, I saySade, anything, Beyonce, and then
let's see.
(37:11):
We know.
Kendrick Lamar, man in the Garden.
That's like my.
This year, that is like my soundtrack.
That's the.
The song that represents meright now in 2025.
This year, I feel like where Ihave come from in the challenges.
There's so many challengesthat I have faced even just the last
(37:32):
several years and being ableto come out on top and to keep going
and pushing forward.
Kendrick Lamar's man in theGarden is a song I got on repeat
buzz show the whole entiretime that I was getting ready for
40 under 40 that was on repeat feet.
Okay, cool.
That's a good one.
That's a good one too.
What is the TV show yourecommend to anybody who asks you
(37:54):
for a recommendation?
Oh, okay.
Oh, just one.
Okay, give me, give me, giveyou three.
Okay.
One.
I would say Ozark.
That's one that, that I havegone back and watched lots of times.
It's a great, a great movieabout a family who does money laundering
and things like that.
(38:15):
They're trying to getthemselves out of, out of a problem
that they're in.
But Marty, he's the husband inthis particular show and I forget
the character that or theactor that plays him, but he's a
banker, like an accountant,and he's really good at money and
he knows how to launder andit's a great show.
Just overall, if you're intothat type of thing.
(38:36):
I would also say right nowwe're watching this new show called
Government Cheese.
Yeah.
So if, if you're tapped intolike Apple TV and like watching shows
through Apple TV and liketheir platform, it's, it's on there.
It's about this black man whojust got out of prison because he
was forging checks.
And while he was in prison hecreated an invention that is later
(39:01):
called the Magic.
It's a drill.
It's a self sharpening drill.
So you can drill and then whenthe bit gets bad, it can go inside
and like, you know, likeresharpen itself.
So it can, it makes productiontime and production floors.
Because it's based in like the60s, I think.
60s?
Yeah.
It's based in like the 50s,60s era.
Great for production.
If you're working on like aproduction floor where you're using,
(39:22):
you know, drills and drill bits.
But he just cannot seem tostay away from the previous life.
The other really mind bendingshow I gotta mention is a show called
Severed is also on Apple tv.
And Severed is a show about agroup of employees work at, they
work at.
I don't even know what it is.
(39:43):
Is this severance?
Yeah, it's not like a.
They don't really like an effect.
It's like this like office space.
Have you watched Severed?
Yeah.
Severance.
Right?
I've seen like clips from it.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yes.
And so they all opted in tohave a brain surgery where they sever
a portion of the brain so thatwhen they're at work, they only know
(40:05):
where they don't know theirlife outside of work at all.
And then when they leave work,they go in an elevator.
That kind of triggers the chipin their brain to turn on their at
Home life.
And they don't know anythingthat they do at work.
They only know that they'realways at home.
So when they're at home, itfeels like they're always at home.
And when they're at work, itfeels like they're always at work.
And then it kind ofdisassociates their personalities
(40:28):
too, because when they're atwork, some of them are happy and
they love being at work.
When they go home, they'relike super depressed or their marriages
are falling apart, or theyhave really hard trouble finding
love.
And even one of the employeeswho ends up getting severed is actually
the founder's daughter ofthis, this place that they work up.
But it's just very mind bending.
(40:48):
It's so incredibly good.
So if you're really into likemind bending, like make you think
and be like, oh, I'm not severed.
But this is kind of whathappens to us sometimes.
We kind of, you know, tunnelvision into our work and nothing
else matters and we can't seeanything else.
And we sometimes do becomecomplet the individuals when we go
to work and when we're doingsomething else in comparison to what
we do when, when we are athome and being able to use our work
(41:12):
as a distraction.
And so it kind of layers inthose things, but it has a great
storyline.
And, and I would, I wouldrecommend, I highly, highly, highly
would recommend.
Okay, okay.
I'll have to check that out.
Yeah, like the third personrecommending it to me, so I have
to watch that.
What, what is the restaurantyou recommend to someone who is just
visiting the Twin Cities forthe first time?
(41:33):
Time.
And you know, like, you haveto go here to eat.
Have to go here to eat.
Let's see here.
Okay.
One place I would recommendfor sure is the Dripping Root.
So if you're looking for aplace that has like smoothie bowls
and fresh juice and, you know,just really good whole food, Black
owned support, black womanowned would be the Dripping Route.
They're on the south side.
They're just off of 40th andMinnehaha Avenue.
(41:55):
So definitely stop by andsupport the dripping Route.
It's every.
Everything that Katisha has is good.
All of it is good.
There's never not one thingthat's not good.
And she, she, she and her momoperate the dripping Route.
But yeah, it's right there on40th and Minnehaha on the south side.
Let's see, where else would I go?
(42:17):
I would tell people to go to.
I would tell people to go to Kaluna.
Okay, so period.
Oh, my God, I love K.
Yeah.
Kaluna is so good.
And they have a brunch now,and I want to.
I'm.
I'm really dying to try to try it.
Yeah, definitely.
(42:38):
Kaluna.
See a third.
Let me see a third.
A third, a third.
I'm trying to think of, like,places like we're like, oh, yeah,
we just have to go there.
Everything I'm thinking of,it's like, yeah, that's good.
But that's not it.
To go there.
You give me one.
Where's one that you have togo to?
I would have said Kaluna too,because I really like.
(42:58):
I do like classic classics.
It's black owned.
Yeah, but.
But I.
I like it specifically for the crowd.
Bowed wings.
It is so good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Their sweet potato soup.
Their sweet potato curriedsoup is actually really good too.
Yeah.
Britain Gerard do their.
Do their thing over there.
They also have the cream cafenext door.
(43:19):
And then Sobo over at.
Have you gone to Sobo too,over there at.
Yeah, yeah.
It's at the V3 now.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Cool, cool, cool.
Okay.
Where is your dream travel destination?
Where do you have to go to?
Oh, you know, I.
I just have to go somewhere onthe continent, somewhere on Africa.
It don't even matter where.
(43:40):
Drop me.
Just drop me.
Wherever, wherever.
If I could just parachute outand wherever I land, that's where,
like, I'm at.
And that's where theexperience is happening.
Cool.
Let's start there and let'swork our way around.
But there's something aboutjust discovering roots.
And one thing too, I've beenhaving to unravel uncomfortably.
I'm an obvious mixed raceperson, but I identify black and
(44:00):
I say uncomfortably, unravelthe European, Scandinavian side of
myself.
And it's uncomfortable becauseof the trauma that white people have
inflicted upon black people.
And so you're just like, I'msiding with the.
You know, I'm over here.
I'm over here with these people.
And what that doespsychologically sometimes to you
(44:21):
is it makes you feel confidentand strong in one part, but then
it's like there's like thislingering thing.
And it's not necessarily anidentity crisis, but it's like this
lingering thing.
And how do you.
How do you create space tofeel connected to it and aligned
with it?
Because it's a big part of me too.
I have Sardinian in me andMelanesian, and I have a little bit
(44:43):
of Danish in me as well.
And so it's like, you know,unraveling those different cultures.
I don't have to focus for them.
Didn't start at slavery either.
Right.
So.
So everything about me didn'tjust start at slavery.
The white people bring in theAfrican enslaved people.
And for the African enslavedpeople, didn't start there with them
either.
So I have to give that honorand that privilege to both sides.
(45:07):
And so I have been diving inand I would really, really love to
visit Sardinia too.
It's a small island just offof the coast of Italy.
And then obviously Fiji, wherea lot of the Melanesian people come
from too, would be anothergreat, great, great spot to live.
But it's been a trip reallyunraveling what.
What it.
What it all means culturallyfor me.
(45:29):
So if anything, I want tovisit the places where my DNA comes
from.
Okay.
Okay, cool.
And finally, what is yourguilty pleasure besides two chains?
Guilty pleasure?
Well, you know, I'm a sweets girl.
I love chocolate.
I love chocolate cake.
Yeah, yeah, that's.
I like a nice chocolate cakethat is moist in the middle.
(45:50):
Chocolatey is my kind ofchocolate cake.
Yeah.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
They.
And I also really like.
I love to go to, like,chocolate shops, like, specialize
in, like, like chocolate.
I've been really wanting to goto the.
I believe it's in thatAfghanistan chocolate place.
They have, like, TurkishDelight and they have like, all these
(46:10):
different types of chocolatesand stuff up in there.
I really want to try it.
And I haven't gone there yet, but.
Yeah, no, I love chocolate.
Shout out to that.
And finally, I want to ask youwhat you want your legacy to be in
10, 15, 20 years when you're,you know, for your kids, when you're.
You've left the Earth, what doyou want to be remembered for?
(46:31):
And by.
Oh, what do I want to beremembered for?
Oh, my goodness.
I never really given that any thought.
I.
I suppose just.
Just for the contribution, youknow, I.
I don't really do it foraccolades, so it's hard to not look
at it as an accolade.
Cause it's not necessarily anaccolade, like being remembered for
something.
But I want people to know thatI treated them with kindness, was
(46:52):
fair, that I listened, that Iheld space, that there.
There wasn't, you know, awhole lot of, you know, judgment
in the way that.
That I sat in space with people.
I want my children to feellike my mom created community for
me.
I got lots of extra auntiesand cousins because my mom did a
lot of great work in thecommunity and nurtured and sustained
(47:14):
these relationships that nowuplift and.
And support them and hopefullytheir kids, my grandkids, you know,
and so on and so forth.
I.
To make the south side abetter place.
I'm really invested in theplace that I come from.
South Minneapolis is, youknow, where I was.
I was born is where.
It's what raised me.
So if I can just see thisplace just continue to evolve and
(47:37):
to get better and to honorculture and to honor the people who
live here and who make thisplace what it is, then I feel like
that's that.
Yeah, that's.
That's.
That's.
That's the key right there.
Just for my.
My.
My piece and just for.
For.
For the way that it evolvedand the joy that it brought people.
(48:00):
Okay.
Thank you so much for comingon, for sharing your story and your
journey.
And, you know, I reallyappreciate the work that you do,
the work you and your husbandare doing to foster community, especially
among black folks in the Twin Cities.
I just create space for us tojust thrive and be excited about
still on the south side.
(48:21):
I'm going to be there this year.
So.
Yeah, folks, if you'relistening, come through to still
on the south side.
Details will be in thedescription box.
It's gonna be a great time.
Trust me.
I've been twice and I had agreat time.
Yeah.
Great, great time.
Yeah.
Thank you, Fancy.
And thanks, y' all.
(48:41):
And thank you all for listening.
This is Odeja.
Hi, my name is Harry, andwelcome to Odejuma.
Odejuma recognizes the magicof storytelling.
From personal experiences tostories of adventure, from tales
of resilience to finding joyin the simple things, this story
seeks to inspire, entertain,and educate because there is power
in the stories of everydaypeople, and these stories are worth
(00:22):
telling.
Hey, y' all.
Welcome to another episode of odejima.
I'm super excited about myguest today.
She is part of, you know,folks doing amazing things in the
Twin Cities, from music tosort of the south side and the Legacy
(00:46):
Building.
I'm happy to have Fancy here.
Hi, Fancy.
How are you doing?
How are you doing?
I'm doing good.
And thank you for agreeing todo this.
I know this is like a busytime for you.
It's like planning for us atthe south side.
So I really appreciate yourtime and you just coming through
on the podcast.
Yeah.
And for, like, you know, folkswho are listening in, who are not
(01:09):
very familiar with you andyour work, could you just give like
a brief, like, intro to whoFancy is for the audience?
Yeah, sure.
Well, you said it.
My name is Fancy.
A brief intro into my work.
My work is.
Is rooted in creativity and inserving black folks.
My.
My community.
Let's see.
The root of everything comesfrom music for me.
(01:31):
So I started with performingand singing, and that has sort of
been the vehicle that has ledme to kind of everything else that
I now lead, including my workat the Legacy Building, which is
a creative art space in South Minneapolis.
It was birthed from the needto expand the way that both me and
my husband create.
(01:52):
We're the founders together ofthe Legacy Building.
Birthed from the LegacyBuilding is the festival.
It's all the south side.
So when we celebrated ourgrand opening back in 2022 of the
legacy Building goal of thesouth side was like our big final
party at the end of our grand opening.
And so since then, it has grown.
It was really only supposed tobe like a one time event and the
(02:15):
community came up and theyshowed out and maybe like a few months
later, I was already gettingcalls saying, hey, are you starting
the planning?
Hey, how can I be a part of itagain this year?
And so it's.
It has grown ever since, andwe are now in our fourth year.
Yeah, the work I lead is verymuch invested in community, creating
opportunities for.
For people who look like youand me and, and being nurturing,
(02:38):
in a sense, with mentorship and.
Yeah, just I love to learn andlean into people too.
So I learn a lot in this workand, And I have a.
A.
An obsession for growing andlearning, so.
Yeah.
Yeah, that is good.
Thank you for sharing that.
And we're gonna take you backa little bit to, like, what was.
When did you discuss.
Discover that the creative body.
(02:58):
You had, the creative bone?
When did that change?
When did that spark for you?
Yeah, you know, it sparked forme early.
And it's not necessarily amemory that I remember, but it's
a memory that my momoftentimes recalls.
And I was only about threeyears old, which is why it's a memory
that I don't necessarily remember.
But at 3, I definitely knew it.
I was in the living room, andshe was in the kitchen.
(03:20):
My mom was in the kitchen, andshe had just folded a bunch of clothes
up, and they were in a basketsitting in the living room, and I
was in there listening tomusic or whatever I was doing.
And by the time she came backfrom doing whatever she was doing
in the kitchen, I had unfoldedall of the clothes, and I was performing
for them.
I had matched, like, shirtsand pants and socks to.
You know, I made, like, my ownlittle audience, and that's what
(03:41):
I told her I did.
She was like, what did you do?
And I was like, I'm performingfor my audience.
And she, like, couldn't evenbe mad at it.
Like, wow, there's something.
There's something here.
Now, when can I remember thatI really, really wanted to do it?
I.
I would say maybe when I wasabout 10 or 11 years old, and being
a part of choir at church,being in band at school, there was
(04:03):
always something creative thatI wanted to do musically, for sure.
Although I did do some dance,and I did some acting and modeling,
too, when I was younger, but Iusually went straight running back
into the arms of music.
Yeah.
And you're in a musical bandwith your husband.
How did that happen?
Did y' all start the band wheny' all were dating?
What was the.
(04:23):
What was that.
What was that whole.
How did that come about?
And how has that process beenlike for you?
Because working with aromantic partner has its challenges
also.
So how's that experience likefor you?
Yeah, so me and my husband, wemet at a.
At a job.
We worked at a call center atand T actually back in 2006.
And that's when we first met,and we were friends for a couple
(04:44):
years following that.
But when I met him, he wasalready doing music.
He actually.
The way we met was heapproached me and asked me if I was
interested in going to localshows, and he had a flyer to a show
that he was promoting, thathim and a person he was doing music
with at the time werepromoting, so they were doing together.
So that's how we initially met.
I had stopped doing music fora while.
(05:05):
I became a mother really young.
I became a mom when I was 17years old.
And so I experienced a lot ofviolence in that relationship.
And so my focus turned awayfrom music.
It was almost like music wassomething to be jealous of.
And so it wasn't something Icould do when I was in that relationship.
It really pulled me away from it.
So when I finally was able tobreak free from that, and especially
(05:28):
again at such a young age, Imet E again, like, at work.
And I was.
Had just turned 21.
So for him to say that waslike, oh, my God, like, I've just,
like, broken free from this relationship.
I'm in this, like, new job,and it's like a job that pays a lot
of good money for.
For.
For the time at least.
Like, I was used to makinglike, seven, eight dollars an hour.
You know, it's just like 2006.
(05:48):
So I got this new job.
Now there's this new persontalking about music, and it wasn't
even about attraction.
It was about the fact that hehad reintrod something that I was
so incredibly passionate about.
And from there, like I said,we were just friends.
We would go to lunch, we had,like, mixed CDs, and we would share
those, like, swap those backand forth.
And he was always like, youknow, you got good taste in music.
(06:11):
I was like, I know I'm popping.
And eventually that.
That blossomed.
I was able to be a huge partof his artistic journey when he was
just, you know, touring anddoing things just individually as
himself, just as Envy, just.
That's the stage name that hegoes by.
It wasn't until 2010 that Iwas like, let me see what I can do
(06:32):
now.
And I started doing a lot ofindividual stuff on our own.
But then when we collabed onour first album in 2010, it got a
really great response.
Like, there's just our dynamicand I think our chemistry, the way
that we create together isreally, really unique and it's really,
really special.
So we didn't actually form illism until five years later in 2015.
(06:55):
It's very.
Been sitting ever since.
So 10 years.
That is amazing.
And y' all.
Y' all are writing Sin tocreating together.
Yes.
What does it mean?
What.
What does it mean, like, tocreate with your partner but also
work in community because youbecause your work is very red and
it's very community centric.
I met you because your workwas, you know, you were fellow for
(07:18):
the Minnesota Black Collective.
So what.
What.
What does that look like for you?
Why is it important for bothof y' all to have work that is very
rooted in community?
It's foundational.
He grew up in the Rondoneighborhood, so he's from St.
Paul, and I'm from the south side.
So Minneapolis is, you know,my home.
And where I'm from, it's whereI'm still rooted to this day.
(07:39):
And it's a huge part of whatwe do, even just as ill.
Ism.
One of the first ways that weinvolved community was by putting
on just shows and invitingdifferent bands and.
And artists to be openers orto be collaborators in those shows,
to build shows together.
We used to throw eventsdowntown at a.
(08:01):
At a venue called Elixir.
And then I think it waseventually renamed in.
Into a bunch of other things.
But it's right next door toFine Line, The.
The old space.
We used to throw shows inthere all the time.
And it.
And it had always been abouthow can we build and how can we create
community.
I know a lot of people feellike everything is very siloed here.
I hear that often that peopleare very siloed.
(08:23):
It's very cliquish.
But I don't know.
It's like the world that Ioperate in is because I'm always
trying to create community andcreate opportunity for people.
So I always feel like that'sjust all that there is.
And I think that's why wecontinue to build.
The way that we build isbecause we know that community is
so possible because we'realready doing it.
And, yeah, it's foundational.
It's foundational.
It's the reason legacybuilding came to be, and it's the
(08:46):
reason Solo, the South sidecontinues the way that it does is
because it's a huge part ofour relationship and our connection
is in serving people.
And so that's how we tie it up.
That is.
That is pretty cool.
I really.
I really like that.
I was also on the south sidein 2023 and 2024.
Had a great time.
(09:07):
It was just nice to be aroundso many black folks in the city and
just having a good time.
Lots of nice vendors, lots ofcool art, great music from all.
From all genres.
And so I think that is reallysomething dope that you all are doing,
and I really.
I really love that a lot.
I want to ask about like theLegacy Building.
(09:29):
Because I feel like that issomething that is very important
for creatives of study.
For Black.
For black creativesspecifically, who.
Access is just a very.
Is a struggle, right?
Access to resources, access tophysical space to create and to be
creative.
So talk us through.
Talk.
Talk us through theinspiration behind the Legacy Building
(09:52):
and what you envision is thefuture of.
Of the Legacy Building.
Yeah, the Legacy Building wasjust birthed out of our need for
access.
So we actually shot a musicvideo in Las Vegas for a song that
we have called Simple Shit.
And it was in this really,really cool, like, garage sort of
warehouse space.
(10:13):
They had, like, a bunch of,like, LED lights on, like, a wall,
and they were designed super cool.
If you go watch our musicvideo for Simple Shit, you'll.
You'll be able to see like.
Like the really cool stuffthat they had in there.
And it was really inspiring toeat, actually.
And, you know, a lot of hiswork is also rooted in preserving
and telling stories from thepeople in our community, too.
He does a lot of video andphotography work with a lot of the
(10:36):
nonprofits and.
And creatives in our city,too, and helping to share and tell
their stories.
And so he kind of said outloud, like, I need something.
Like, I need a productionstudio that's like this, where I
can bring clients to, and itcan also be a space that we can use
for our own creative endeavors.
And I was like, yeah, cool.
Let's.
Let's try it out.
Let's.
(10:56):
Let's see what happens.
And we shot our music video.
We came home, and maybe like amonth or two later, um, we were driving,
or actually he was driving onhis way to go pick up some coffee
one morning.
And we just.
We just.
At the.
At the time, we lived just acouple blocks from where the Legacy
Building is located, and therewas a sign in the window that said
(11:17):
it was available.
It had been Solsta Records,and before that, it was a consignment
shop for many, many, manydecades called the Pink Closet.
And we had never actually seenit empty before then.
And so he called the phonenumber, we went and we looked at
it, and it was tore up.
And I was like, ah, hell no.
And he was like, well, give ita second.
Sometimes I want everything to be.
(11:38):
Sometimes I just want thingsto be turnkey.
Like.
Like.
Like I don't want to do the work.
But there is something toputting in the labor and not always
just having things just readyand laid out for you.
You need the process.
Trust and believe.
You need the process.
So we were like, okay, well,what is this going to be?
And we knew that we wanted aproduction studio because that's
where the dream was founded on.
(11:59):
But then we said, but we needa rehearsal space.
Like, we can't just keep goingout to, you know, a member in our
band.
His name is Mike.
We can't keep going out toEdinah to go to Mike's house.
It's in his living room.
Like, we need a space to rehearse.
Let's put a rehearsal space in here.
It's like we started thinkingabout the things that we needed as
creatives because we knew ifwe needed it, someone else was gonna
need it.
(12:19):
Storefront space, galleryspace, there's a recording studio.
I mean, it really speaks to,honestly, all of the different hats
that he and I both also wear.
I mean, I do.
I do the graphic design as well.
I do web design.
So it's a space that allows meto maintain those sort of creative
ventures and as well.
But when we kind of got down to.
To the root of it, the newroot of it, I should say, or the
(12:42):
new root that grew from.
From what was kind of alreadythere was to center black community,
we started to really start tosit back and think, like, remember
that one time we went to this venue?
Or we had this experience withthese people and it was just like
they just couldn't understandwhat we were trying to do.
They didn't want to give us a chance.
They're like, rap, hip hop, ohmy gosh, no, you can't come in here.
There's going to be someshootout probably.
(13:02):
And it's like, man, if onlyyou knew, like, could you just give
our song a listen?
Could you just give it a.
Who do we need to have vouchfor us?
And sometimes it's just youneed your people to just be the ones
that you are in community with.
Sometimes we just need each other.
And so we said, hey, we aregoing to ensure that the space is
(13:23):
accessible for all.
But the priority here is blackpeople as black creatives, black
led organizations andentrepreneurs that experience the
same type of.
Of, you know, roadblocks andobstacles that we have been facing.
Because, you know, we're thesame, you know, we're after the same
(13:43):
things.
We're experiencing the same things.
It's a black very lived, blacklived experience.
And so the Legacy buildingformed from that.
And for the past almost fouryears now, community has made it
into what it is.
It's the community's handsthat say, hey, we need this.
So then we do it or, you know,we need opportunity to create these
(14:03):
types of experiences.
Can we do it there?
The building continues to moldand form.
A lot of the time people walkin and are like, oh my God, you did
this in here.
Now every time I come here,something's different and it is,
it feels like home.
It feels like, you know, whenyou want to move your living room
around or you want to, youknow, feng shui the bedroom, you
know, a little bit different.
You see, building is thatbecause people need the creative
(14:25):
freedom to create.
And for black peopleespecially, our creativity is a way
to our liberty and our freedom.
Man, that, that brings so much joy.
And, and that's the reasonfor, for the season of the Legacy
Building.
And it's really good to knowthat community is responding really
well to the building that they are.
It is becoming something thatis very important to them.
(14:46):
That is so good to know.
I'm curious as to what if,say, someone is curious about wanting
to use the space.
I know there was a creativefund that y' all put out recently,
but like for a young,independent, black creative in between
cities that is looking for a space.
How can the Legacy Building help?
(15:07):
Help them with their work ortheir art, basically?
Sure.
So the Legacy Building is amulti level space and it's pretty
modular, meaning that you canpretty much move things around.
There's not a whole lot ofdedicated like you have to keep this
year.
Unless we're talking about theart on the walls or like the recording
booth, like things that justcan't be moved or they, they are
(15:27):
there for a reason.
But for the most part, it's awide open space that has an incredible
vibe because of, of the artand the contributions that community
has made to it.
We got all the plants, we gotall, we got all of that.
And so it's really availablefor whatever the creative need is.
If you're someone who says,I'm trying to grow my business and
I want to host, you know, apop up event to get community access
(15:48):
to my products or my services.
You know, you might be ateacher or yoga instructor and you're
like, I just need a space tobe able to host, you know, this six
week course.
Like, how can I do that?
Do you have space?
Do you have access?
The answer is yes.
It isn't even just about youdo music or you need, you know, to
film or you know, do somethinglike that.
It's we've had all kinds ofthings in there.
(16:09):
We've had cake decorating inthere, we've had Fashion shows there.
We've even had weddingsinside, inside of the Legacy Building.
And we do have a special fund,you mentioned it just a little bit
ago, called the CreativeFreedom Fund.
And the Creative Freedom Fundwas established because there were
lots of artists and creativesand organizations too that would
(16:29):
approach us about accessingour space and they would be just
out of budget.
And because we want to remainaccessible, we work with people and
their budgets.
That doesn't mean we're goingto give, you know, away everything
for free.
But we understand that being acreative is hard financially.
So we make it accessible.
We say yes, through theCreative Freedom Fund, we can provide
(16:51):
space in kind for yourartistic needs and especially if
you're doing something that'sgoing to be ongoing, that's going
to be enriching for the community.
Now when we're talking aboutsustainability, we're talking about
access, but we also need to sustain.
So like I said, we just can'tgive everything away.
So through the CreativeFreedom Fund, what it's allowing
us to do is to collectinformation from the community.
(17:13):
You know, hey, this authorsgroup needed the space to do this.
This particular individual hada writing workshop.
They needed six weeks to do this.
They couldn't.
They got no's everywhere elsebecause places were asking for 2,000,
3,000, $4,000 just, you know,for space for, you know, two hours
on a Saturday, you know, oncea month.
And they, the community istelling us they need this and we
(17:36):
are creating the space to makeit accessible.
So in order for us to sustain,we can say here goes the need of
the community.
And then we can go back out toour funders, we can go back out to
the people who are investinginto the Legacy Building and say,
hey look, we just supported inkind all of these, you know, different
projects and workshops andcommunity oriented and enriching
(17:59):
events.
They sustain and pour, pourinto what we're doing.
We love to do the that type of work.
I get a thrill out of beingable to do that type of work.
Like I said, I'm reallyobsessed with growing and seeing
things progress.
And so if that means that wecan create a program like the Creative
Freedom Fund that supportsupports artists with space in kind
and then we can show that toour investors and the people who
(18:21):
invest into Legacy Building,who should be investing into creatives
and who should be investinginto spaces that support creatives
and that also sustain ourecosystem, we need that.
And the black community, theblack creative community especially
needs that.
So what can you do?
You can do just about anythingif you go online and you go to the
(18:42):
creative Freedom Fundapplication on our website, legacybuilding.org
thelegacybuilding.org you justfill out the application.
It's revolving.
It doesn't like, work between,you know, a certain date and you
got to have it in by certain date.
It's completely revolving.
If, you know, if there's anindividual or a group, an artist
(19:03):
group, a nonprofit that needsaccess to creative space, to host,
to create, to have the freedomto do what they need to do, and it's
in full alignment with ourmission, then we have this.
This is the support, and wehave the access, and that's what
we're here for.
(19:23):
Yeah.
Yeah.
The work that you all aredoing is trying to make art accessible
to creatives.
And I feel like there'ssomething that we find in, like,
art spaces or in creativespaces is that everything is just,
we want to create, we want to be.
Want to do things, but theresources aren't there.
They're not accessible.
(19:43):
Why.
Why is it important forcreativity to be accessible?
Because I.
I feel like when the peopleare creating, you know, the culture
keeps evolving and culturekeeps moving, and I feel like the
twin citizens in a very, like,sweet spot right now with how creative
folks are being and how thecreative community keeps growing
(20:04):
every year.
But in the midst of growth, wehave to make the.
We have to make it moreaccessible for people to be able
to get in and also create, too.
So why is that also veryimportant for us to do?
Well, like you mentioned, itkeeps moving culture forward, if
we're being specific.
But yeah, it keeps movingculture forward.
If you look around you,everything in your room had to be
(20:26):
created by somebody.
So if we care aboutelectronics, then we care about that
TV behind you being made.
If we.
If we care about even like your.
Your lighting fixtures, likesomeone was in a.
Was in a studio somewhereblowing glass to create our light
fixtures.
It's all creation.
We were created to create.
I was created to create.
Even people who think thatthey don't create, they're like,
(20:46):
oh, no, I'm just so bl.
Do anything.
It's like, well, you did your hair.
You thought about that.
You know, you put your outfiton, you chose your car.
Like you knew what color caryou wanted, you know, that sort of
thing.
And it's.
It's because creativity is allaround us.
And for some reason, there'sthis sometimes this idea that creativity
is only for a specific types of.
(21:07):
Type of, like, artsy, fartsyindividual who might be naming what
they do creatively like, I'm aceramic artist, or, you know, I do
interpretive dance, or, youknow, I do, you know, films and I'm
a director.
Like, sure, we can name thosethings and when we put a name on
them and it's like, ah, you'rea creative.
But in actuality, we're all creatives.
(21:28):
We're all trying to express ourselves.
We're all trying to push ourown narratives or our own agendas
forward, whether that's in asmall sense, like within our families.
You know, sometimes we'recreating babies and we're, you know,
trying to extend the lineageand we're, we're, you know, I have.
We have.
Me and E.
We have a four year old.
(21:49):
And so right now it's allabout like, our, like our rituals
and like doing things, youknow, at a certain time.
Like, it's 8 o' clock, wegotta go to bed.
If he's up for 30 moreminutes, he's gonna be crazy.
But it's like creating thoseschedules and knowing how to like,
sustain your family.
It's, it's, it's creativity isessential to our survival as humans.
(22:09):
And if we aren't creatingsomething, then.
Then what are we doing?
I think we're kind of justlike sitting there, kind of like
blinking our eyes.
We aren't being our true full sel.
We aren't creating.
And so it's important to pourin into creativity because that's
what, what keeps us moving andgoing and pushing forward.
That's pretty.
That's pretty amazing.
(22:29):
You all.
You brought up something Iwanted to touch on.
I know you touched on itearlier a little bit about being
like a parent and justmanaging your parenting and your
artistic endeavor.
What is that dynamic like for you?
Are your kids having the needto want to be in the creative space
(22:50):
too?
What is that looking like for you?
Yeah, so we're a blended family.
So he has a daughter, Imari.
She's from a previousrelationship and she's my daughter.
She's my daughter too.
But biologically that's.
Imari is E's daughter.
And then I biologically havetwo kids that are mine too.
Santino, who is my oldest,he's 21.
(23:11):
And then sire, who is thechild that me and E have together.
And he is for as far as I cansee it, just like I seen everybody,
everybody got a littlecreative bone in them.
For Imari, she not only.
She's just this incrediblybeautiful individual both inside
and out, she has a passion forfood and cooking.
She's always had that she wasalways trying to bake and, like,
(23:33):
cook and, you know, finddifferent ways to express herself
through her cooking.
And she still does.
She even has an Instagram pagewhere you can go and you can watch
her put together these dishes that.
That look and are really,really delicious.
She's also like the makeupboss, you know, Let me show you my.
My routine.
You know, she has those typesof videos too.
So she's definitely tapping ininto that world, and she does a really,
(23:56):
really, really good job at it.
And Tino, he's 21.
He is into CRE.
Being creative right now.
I think his.
His biggest outlet is videogaming, but he is a visual artist.
If you go to the LegacyBuilding and you go to the arcade,
that' of the space.
All the pictures that are upin the arcade space were done by
(24:16):
him.
And he is an incredible visual artist.
He also is an actor.
He was in several plays whenhe was in high school, and he still
pursues, you know, actingopportunities if they present themselves.
So he's in that world.
And he's a great singer as well.
So theater very much pulledmusic out of.
Out of him too.
Sire, he's on fire.
(24:40):
He is our fiery little spirit.
You know, Imari is just so,you know, she's.
She.
She's like.
She's the girl's girl.
She's, you know, she's prayingfor everybody.
She's like that type of person.
Santino, he's like, laid back.
Who.
I'm cool, mom.
You know, I'm kicking it.
I'm chilling.
And he has a great, funny personality.
But sire, he is on fire.
He's a fiery personality.
He wants to do everything.
(25:01):
He has a drum kit.
He has a keyboard.
He has play doh.
He has coloring.
He has.
He wants to do it all, but Ifeel like they all do.
At that age.
Everything is so.
He just used to be amazing.
Planes in the sky, things thatare just so, like, small to us, like,
yeah, yeah, I wish I was on it.
They're probably goingsomeplace nice.
You know, that's like what weall say, like, wonder where they
(25:21):
going.
But to him, it's like there'sa thing flying in the sky.
Like, do you see this, Mom?
So he's so tapped in to nature.
He tells plants that he loves them.
He just.
I feel like he, He.
He was sent to be a.
A.
A generational change maker inour family and have a huge, huge
(25:42):
impact.
And I'm excited to see wherethis goes.
And I know a lot of it has todo with the fact that even me and
I know ourselves so much morewith the age and maturity that we're
at right now too.
And so we just got this fieryindividual with so much spirit and
joy and just big eyes for the world.
(26:02):
And so it's going to be greatto see where he goes creative.
That is awesome.
Thank you for sharing that.
I really, really appreciate that.
I will be remiss if I don'ttell you.
Congratulations, 40 under 40.
Thank you.
St.
Paul Business Journal.
That is, that is amazing.
How you feeling about that?
It's, it's actually I, I wasin shock.
(26:22):
I posted the video of mefinding out and I'm like, dance.
I'm like, yeah, you know,she's my personality.
But, you know, honestly, incomplete shock.
We attended the 40 under 40awards in 2024.
We were there actually filmingfor another recipient who was receiving
an award.
And we were just the cameracrew, but I was like, I'm going to
give me one of those.
Watch, I'm going to get me one.
And you know, spoke it rightinto existence.
(26:45):
And, you know, you're sittingin a room with people who work for
these really big, you know,organizations and corporations like
3M and Wells Fargo and Targetand Best Buy and I mean, it's big.
And here I am, I'm just grassroots.
We in the community, wekicking back and we chilling and
we vibing like.
And y' all chose.
(27:06):
I was chosen and speaks somany volumes to the work that I do
because sometimes we think youhave to operate at such a high level
in order to, to, to feel likeyou're doing something and, and honestly,
props to the people who are,who are working in those higher positions
and dealing with, you know,million dollar budgets and, you know,
(27:27):
manufacturing and you know,things that, that also contribute
to the overall global successof Earth, I guess you can say.
But when you really get downto the, to the grassroots and you
are in it and you in the thickof it with the people, like you can
be at, at 3:00am making, youknow, two, $300,000 an hour.
But when you go home, are youlike at home and like your cul de
(27:48):
sac just kicking back like atyour crib with like just your family
and you go fishing on theweekends and you go traveling during
the summer, how are youmaintaining your connection to community?
And I think that's why for me,the community for me is like the
center of it.
And so it's incredible to behonored and it's a huge honor to
be recognized for our work andfor the work that I lead and for
(28:09):
the individuals who support mein that work.
When we were at the ceremony,I brought an entire table of all
black women with me becauseit's mostly non black people at these
awards.
Everyone came to our table.
We were the most lit table, of course.
We had so much fun, so muchgreat conversation.
When I got up on stage to getmy award, the screaming and the yelling,
(28:32):
and it was just like, we're here.
And it did.
It took so many incredible,amazing black women to help me and
nurture me and get me to where.
To where I am.
And they too are individualsthat work at such grassroots level,
like just black women are the backbone.
And so to be able to upliftthem in that space too, was an incredible,
incredible honor because theyare some movers and some shakers
(28:56):
who are doing incredible workthat our community also has access
to, access to.
And it was saying thatstatement too, like, y' all have
access to these women.
Please, please, please tap in,see who they are.
You know, let's celebrate thework that, that we all do collectively
as well.
What is your hope for thefuture of the creative scene in the
(29:17):
Twin Cities?
Like, how do you want.
Where do you.
In like 10, 15 years, where doyou want it to be at?
Yeah, you know, I want thereto be a really strong ecosystem here
for, for us to be able to tap into.
I want to be a part ofbuilding and being a contributor
to that ecosystem.
(29:38):
There are so many black ownedspaces and movers and shakers that
are, you know, 15 years old,20 years old, 30 years old, 40 years
old, and so on, so, so far up.
And collaboration is so key.
You know, you go alone, youmight get there quick, but boy, go
(29:58):
farther if we can go together.
And that has been myexperience in everything.
The festival grows becausethere's more collaborative effort
year after year.
If this was all just ridingon, you know, me and E, it'd be kind
of rough.
But I envision this beautifulecosystem where people recognize
their part that they don'thave to be it, they are a part of
(30:21):
it.
And when you're a part of thehistory, when you're part of the
story and a part of thenarrative, and you operate in the
lane that you're the moststrongest in, you're the most confident
in, then we can, like, joinarms and be like, you know, let's
do this together.
And there already is so muchof that that I'm witnessing just
from, from, from where we'reat, you know, today.
(30:42):
So 5, 10, 15, 20 years fromnow, if this continues the way that
I am experiencing it from myend, then Sky.
Sky's the is one limit.
It's not even a limit.
You know, what is that line inMean Girls?
There isn't a limit.
There's not a limiter.
Whatever she says when she'sat the math thing and the limit doesn't
(31:03):
exist, that's it.
Limit doesn't exist.
And it doesn't.
It's such a profound momentthat Katie, you know, and I love
that movie.
It's like you all's generationof my clueless.
But the limit doesn't exist.
And honestly, whoever iswanting to make the contribution
and really be a part of it,like I said, I feel like that is
(31:24):
the dream.
The dream is this beautifulecosystem with tons of collaborative
effort to keep moving things forward.
I feel like the machine hasalways been growing.
And, you know, this place isreally, truly at a sweet spot where,
you know, before.
Before the uprisings in 2020,it wasn't like this.
(31:44):
You know, I was a creative andI was, you know, out here pushing
the scene and, you know,trying to do our thing, you know,
just as ill ism or, you know,just pursuing different creative
endeavors.
What we are experiencing nowin 2025 is vastly different than
what it looked like in 2019.
And so if in just a small, youknow, short year spans, five, six
years or so, I am reallyexcited if we can continue this,
(32:09):
you know, minding our own business.
We don't got to be la.
We don't got to be New York.
We don't got to be Atlanta.
We don't got to be Houston and Miami.
We just got to be us.
And us is good.
Us is fantastic.
Us is like.
We are like.
That is, you know, we are thething, you know, that's it.
So we can do it.
We got it.
(32:29):
Awesome.
I love that.
I love that.
And are there any, like,dreams and things that you're still,
like, looking forward to,like, achieving as a creative?
Yes, actually.
So I'm in the middle ofwriting my first children's book.
Yes.
So I have a children's bookthat I'm working on.
It's a story about a child whosees the world through this really
(32:53):
imaginative set of eyes.
And they are attempting tobuild a fort, which I feel like we
all have done at some point inour childhood, trying to build a
space that feels like our own,that we can crawl into and be imaginative
or color in or, you know, justto be like, look what I did, mom,
or, look what I did, grandma.
Or, you know, invite thecousins over so they can come over
(33:15):
and hang out in the fort.
I want to sleep in the fort.
I want to have my food in the fort.
So it's about the challengesthat the character faces when trying
to.
To build this fort and whatresources are around them, making
their.
Their connection to.
To animals and watching whatanimals do to solve problems.
What does the wind do?
(33:36):
What does.
How does water move throughthe creeks and bend over curves?
And don't let nothing stop itor get in its way.
It just goes with the flow.
So it's going to be a great,great story.
I'm working with a reallyawesome illustrator, Uzo Uzo.
She's local to the Twin Citieshere and does a lot of.
Of really dope work.
Uzo has a short film thatshe's working on too, that's tied
(33:59):
back to her roots as well andexperiencing going to a Nigerian
funeral for, like, the first time.
And it's this really cool thing.
And immediately when I saw herwork and she had inboxed us regarding
the legacy building andaccessing the space for something
she was dreaming up at thetime, we just stayed connected and
I was like, this is going tobe a great opportunity for me to
(34:21):
continue working with anduplifting, you know, black women,
but an opportunity for.
For my work to grow, too.
So.
Yes, there is a children'sbook coming.
Probably be in a position toannounce what that is at the end
of the summer because we'llhave a lot more of our illustrations.
We're, like, in theillustration portion of it now, so
(34:42):
everything's been written, sowe're just kind of illustrating now.
But it's going to be very,very, very exciting to have.
That is pretty exciting.
I can't wait to see what itlooks like.
So congratulations.
And also to check out loser'swork too.
I'm sure it will be prettydope because I'm Nigerian too, so
it'll be nice to see.
Yes.
To see what the.
What the.
What the Nigerian creativesare doing in the Twin Cities.
(35:05):
I'm down for that for sure.
Before we wrap up, we're gonnado a little fun, like, trivia section
just to know, like, a coupleof, you know, things about you.
So the first.
The first one is, what are thetop three songs on your playlist
right now?
Oh, okay.
I have to look at my phone soI can tell you because I want to
make sure I do this right.
Okay.
What are my top three songs?
(35:25):
Okay, that has to be.
I'm just gonna go and Be like,what have I been playing?
Okay, so one song I have beenplaying non stop.
Okay.
Is Sade.
Do you know who Sade is?
Yeah, for sure.
Okay.
So lovers rock.
I've been playing that non stop.
So that's in my top right now.
Honestly, anything Beyonce.
Not picking one song, butanything Yonce.
(35:46):
You got meyonce.
So I'm with you right there.
I know.
I seen you at the concert andI was incredibly excited to see you
there.
Cause I'm.
I can't wait for my turn.
I'm going to see her for my40th birthday on July 14th in Atlanta
and I.
That's going to be a good show.
I'm hoping I can go against.
I'm hoping I can go again too,to the Atlanta.
(36:09):
So fingers crossed, you know,magic, you know?
But yeah.
Yes.
It's a great.
You're gonna have a great time.
Yeah, no, for sure, for sure.
Yeah.
No, honestly, anythingBeyonce, even if you were like, what's
the top three things in your timeline?
Beyonce, you know, I.
She's the person that I, thatI, that I, I study, I, I study and
(36:30):
people be like, are you in the beehive?
I'd be like, no, the beehiveis for the crazy people, the people
who like to avenge.
And I'm the Beyonce ologist.
Like, I know lots of things.
I follow, I study, I, I, Ideepen my connection with this woman
who don't even know my name.
She will one day.
I will know my name one day.
I had a dream one time that meand Beyonce.
(36:51):
I was trying on Beyonce'sOscar dresses.
She invited me into her closetin my dream and she was like, come
try on my dresses.
And I did.
And we ran around her house inher dresses and it was fantastic.
So I just feel like my dreams.
To guard the ears, you know,it can happen.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So as far as music, I saySade, anything, Beyonce, and then
let's see.
(37:11):
We know.
Kendrick Lamar, man in the Garden.
That's like my.
This year, that is like my soundtrack.
That's the.
The song that represents meright now in 2025.
This year, I feel like where Ihave come from in the challenges.
There's so many challengesthat I have faced even just the last
(37:32):
several years and being ableto come out on top and to keep going
and pushing forward.
Kendrick Lamar's man in theGarden is a song I got on repeat
buzz show the whole entiretime that I was getting ready for
40 under 40 that was on repeat feet.
Okay, cool.
That's a good one.
That's a good one too.
What is the TV show yourecommend to anybody who asks you
(37:54):
for a recommendation?
Oh, okay.
Oh, just one.
Okay, give me, give me, giveyou three.
Okay.
One.
I would say Ozark.
That's one that, that I havegone back and watched lots of times.
It's a great, a great movieabout a family who does money laundering
and things like that.
(38:15):
They're trying to getthemselves out of, out of a problem
that they're in.
But Marty, he's the husband inthis particular show and I forget
the character that or theactor that plays him, but he's a
banker, like an accountant,and he's really good at money and
he knows how to launder andit's a great show.
Just overall, if you're intothat type of thing.
(38:36):
I would also say right nowwe're watching this new show called
Government Cheese.
Yeah.
So if, if you're tapped intolike Apple TV and like watching shows
through Apple TV and liketheir platform, it's, it's on there.
It's about this black man whojust got out of prison because he
was forging checks.
And while he was in prison hecreated an invention that is later
(39:01):
called the Magic.
It's a drill.
It's a self sharpening drill.
So you can drill and then whenthe bit gets bad, it can go inside
and like, you know, likeresharpen itself.
So it can, it makes productiontime and production floors.
Because it's based in like the60s, I think.
60s?
Yeah.
It's based in like the 50s,60s era.
Great for production.
If you're working on like aproduction floor where you're using,
(39:22):
you know, drills and drill bits.
But he just cannot seem tostay away from the previous life.
The other really mind bendingshow I gotta mention is a show called
Severed is also on Apple tv.
And Severed is a show about agroup of employees work at, they
work at.
I don't even know what it is.
(39:43):
Is this severance?
Yeah, it's not like a.
They don't really like an effect.
It's like this like office space.
Have you watched Severed?
Yeah.
Severance.
Right?
I've seen like clips from it.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yes.
And so they all opted in tohave a brain surgery where they sever
a portion of the brain so thatwhen they're at work, they only know
(40:05):
where they don't know theirlife outside of work at all.
And then when they leave work,they go in an elevator.
That kind of triggers the chipin their brain to turn on their at
Home life.
And they don't know anythingthat they do at work.
They only know that they'realways at home.
So when they're at home, itfeels like they're always at home.
And when they're at work, itfeels like they're always at work.
And then it kind ofdisassociates their personalities
(40:28):
too, because when they're atwork, some of them are happy and
they love being at work.
When they go home, they'relike super depressed or their marriages
are falling apart, or theyhave really hard trouble finding
love.
And even one of the employeeswho ends up getting severed is actually
the founder's daughter ofthis, this place that they work up.
But it's just very mind bending.
(40:48):
It's so incredibly good.
So if you're really into likemind bending, like make you think
and be like, oh, I'm not severed.
But this is kind of whathappens to us sometimes.
We kind of, you know, tunnelvision into our work and nothing
else matters and we can't seeanything else.
And we sometimes do becomecomplet the individuals when we go
to work and when we're doingsomething else in comparison to what
we do when, when we are athome and being able to use our work
(41:12):
as a distraction.
And so it kind of layers inthose things, but it has a great
storyline.
And, and I would, I wouldrecommend, I highly, highly, highly
would recommend.
Okay, okay.
I'll have to check that out.
Yeah, like the third personrecommending it to me, so I have
to watch that.
What, what is the restaurantyou recommend to someone who is just
visiting the Twin Cities forthe first time?
(41:33):
Time.
And you know, like, you haveto go here to eat.
Have to go here to eat.
Let's see here.
Okay.
One place I would recommendfor sure is the Dripping Root.
So if you're looking for aplace that has like smoothie bowls
and fresh juice and, you know,just really good whole food, Black
owned support, black womanowned would be the Dripping Route.
They're on the south side.
They're just off of 40th andMinnehaha Avenue.
(41:55):
So definitely stop by andsupport the dripping Route.
It's every.
Everything that Katisha has is good.
All of it is good.
There's never not one thingthat's not good.
And she, she, she and her momoperate the dripping Route.
But yeah, it's right there on40th and Minnehaha on the south side.
Let's see, where else would I go?
(42:17):
I would tell people to go to.
I would tell people to go to Kaluna.
Okay, so period.
Oh, my God, I love K.
Yeah.
Kaluna is so good.
And they have a brunch now,and I want to.
I'm.
I'm really dying to try to try it.
Yeah, definitely.
(42:38):
Kaluna.
See a third.
Let me see a third.
A third, a third.
I'm trying to think of, like,places like we're like, oh, yeah,
we just have to go there.
Everything I'm thinking of,it's like, yeah, that's good.
But that's not it.
To go there.
You give me one.
Where's one that you have togo to?
I would have said Kaluna too,because I really like.
(42:58):
I do like classic classics.
It's black owned.
Yeah, but.
But I.
I like it specifically for the crowd.
Bowed wings.
It is so good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Their sweet potato soup.
Their sweet potato curriedsoup is actually really good too.
Yeah.
Britain Gerard do their.
Do their thing over there.
They also have the cream cafenext door.
(43:19):
And then Sobo over at.
Have you gone to Sobo too,over there at.
Yeah, yeah.
It's at the V3 now.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Cool, cool, cool.
Okay.
Where is your dream travel destination?
Where do you have to go to?
Oh, you know, I.
I just have to go somewhere onthe continent, somewhere on Africa.
It don't even matter where.
(43:40):
Drop me.
Just drop me.
Wherever, wherever.
If I could just parachute outand wherever I land, that's where,
like, I'm at.
And that's where theexperience is happening.
Cool.
Let's start there and let'swork our way around.
But there's something aboutjust discovering roots.
And one thing too, I've beenhaving to unravel uncomfortably.
I'm an obvious mixed raceperson, but I identify black and
(44:00):
I say uncomfortably, unravelthe European, Scandinavian side of
myself.
And it's uncomfortable becauseof the trauma that white people have
inflicted upon black people.
And so you're just like, I'msiding with the.
You know, I'm over here.
I'm over here with these people.
And what that doespsychologically sometimes to you
(44:21):
is it makes you feel confidentand strong in one part, but then
it's like there's like thislingering thing.
And it's not necessarily anidentity crisis, but it's like this
lingering thing.
And how do you.
How do you create space tofeel connected to it and aligned
with it?
Because it's a big part of me too.
I have Sardinian in me andMelanesian, and I have a little bit
(44:43):
of Danish in me as well.
And so it's like, you know,unraveling those different cultures.
I don't have to focus for them.
Didn't start at slavery either.
Right.
So.
So everything about me didn'tjust start at slavery.
The white people bring in theAfrican enslaved people.
And for the African enslavedpeople, didn't start there with them
either.
So I have to give that honorand that privilege to both sides.
(45:07):
And so I have been diving inand I would really, really love to
visit Sardinia too.
It's a small island just offof the coast of Italy.
And then obviously Fiji, wherea lot of the Melanesian people come
from too, would be anothergreat, great, great spot to live.
But it's been a trip reallyunraveling what.
What it.
What it all means culturallyfor me.
(45:29):
So if anything, I want tovisit the places where my DNA comes
from.
Okay.
Okay, cool.
And finally, what is yourguilty pleasure besides two chains?
Guilty pleasure?
Well, you know, I'm a sweets girl.
I love chocolate.
I love chocolate cake.
Yeah, yeah, that's.
I like a nice chocolate cakethat is moist in the middle.
(45:50):
Chocolatey is my kind ofchocolate cake.
Yeah.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
They.
And I also really like.
I love to go to, like,chocolate shops, like, specialize
in, like, like chocolate.
I've been really wanting to goto the.
I believe it's in thatAfghanistan chocolate place.
They have, like, TurkishDelight and they have like, all these
(46:10):
different types of chocolatesand stuff up in there.
I really want to try it.
And I haven't gone there yet, but.
Yeah, no, I love chocolate.
Shout out to that.
And finally, I want to ask youwhat you want your legacy to be in
10, 15, 20 years when you're,you know, for your kids, when you're.
You've left the Earth, what doyou want to be remembered for?
(46:31):
And by.
Oh, what do I want to beremembered for?
Oh, my goodness.
I never really given that any thought.
I.
I suppose just.
Just for the contribution, youknow, I.
I don't really do it foraccolades, so it's hard to not look
at it as an accolade.
Cause it's not necessarily anaccolade, like being remembered for
something.
But I want people to know thatI treated them with kindness, was
(46:52):
fair, that I listened, that Iheld space, that there.
There wasn't, you know, awhole lot of, you know, judgment
in the way that.
That I sat in space with people.
I want my children to feellike my mom created community for
me.
I got lots of extra auntiesand cousins because my mom did a
lot of great work in thecommunity and nurtured and sustained
(47:14):
these relationships that nowuplift and.
And support them and hopefullytheir kids, my grandkids, you know,
and so on and so forth.
I.
To make the south side abetter place.
I'm really invested in theplace that I come from.
South Minneapolis is, youknow, where I was.
I was born is where.
It's what raised me.
So if I can just see thisplace just continue to evolve and
(47:37):
to get better and to honorculture and to honor the people who
live here and who make thisplace what it is, then I feel like
that's that.
Yeah, that's.
That's.
That's.
That's the key right there.
Just for my.
My.
My piece and just for.
For.
For the way that it evolvedand the joy that it brought people.
(48:00):
Okay.
Thank you so much for comingon, for sharing your story and your
journey.
And, you know, I reallyappreciate the work that you do,
the work you and your husbandare doing to foster community, especially
among black folks in the Twin Cities.
I just create space for us tojust thrive and be excited about
still on the south side.
(48:21):
I'm going to be there this year.
So.
Yeah, folks, if you'relistening, come through to still
on the south side.
Details will be in thedescription box.
It's gonna be a great time.
Trust me.
I've been twice and I had agreat time.
Yeah.
Great, great time.
Yeah.
Thank you, Fancy.
And thanks, y' all.
(48:41):
And thank you all for listening.
This is Odeja.
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