February 6, 2025 • 40 mins
This week my guest on the Podcast is the amazing Lance Markeith Felton talking about "Black History They Don't Want You to Know". It's a one-man show talking about black history in a very unique way: tickets for the show are still available so if you are in the Tampa area Feb 12&13 make sure to check it out.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-history-they-dont-want-you-to-know-tickets-1123324747559
If you want to check out Lance on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lance.felton.1/about
Delvin Cox Experience Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheDelvinCoxExperience
Shoutout to Patreon Productor Douglas Riegert-Johnson and Ben Goodwin. Also, a Special shoutout to Erica Marie,Mike Fowler, Sandi Magee, Almighty Ray, Matthew Dawson, Michael LaCombe, Cynnara Tregarth, Derrick Spinner and Jason Alme
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This podcast is sponsored by patreon.com/devil Cock
Experience. If you want more content,
including exclusive shows, make sure you go to patreon.com/devil
Cock Experience. Also, special shout out to
Patreon producer Douglas Mcgirt Johnson.
(00:20):
Thank you. Welcome to the Delvin Cox
experience, the podcast, which each week I'm on a one man
(00:43):
mission to you Now that comes todiversity.
I'm your host, Delvin Cox and Whitney on the podcast, there's
a very special guest who's working on a special project, my
boy and Lance, my Keith. How you doing bro?
I'm doing all right, man. I'm doing really, really well,
man. How you doing?
I'm doing good, man. I'm doing very good man.
Yes, Sir, yes. Sir, as always.
Oh, go ahead, you said something.
(01:04):
No, no, go ahead, Go ahead. Look.
I was going to say, as always, let's start the podcast off with
the five for five, five questions, 5 asks to get the
ball. Roller Lance, Are you ready?
I'm ready. Question #1 Who do you think is
the most famous person that has your name or your first name?
(01:24):
Oh, definitely, Lance Gross. OK, Lance Gross.
Well, it depends on who you're talking to.
It depends who you're talking to.
Like but but Lance Armstrong is what I lead with, but I also I
Lance Gross is who I like often hear people talking about.
OK, I'd probably say Lance Armstrong, but yeah, Lance Gross
(01:44):
makes sense, too. Yeah, definitely.
OK, I like that question #2 Lance, I don't think I've asked
you this. Let me ask you here.
If all the serial mascots have abig bra, who do you think is
going to win? No, we did have this.
We on the on the first part, Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, thank you for thank you for telling me that.
(02:05):
See, I forgot if I asked you that question or not.
So, you know, I'm going to switch it up.
Whoop, switch it up then. Yes, Sir, Yes Sir.
Let. Me ask you this then, since
we're we're going in the Black History Month, I think it's
appropriate to have this conversation.
What black icons inspire you? Give me like 3.
(02:26):
Give me your top three. Top three, all right, top off
the top is Malcolm X is at #1 that's a great one.
I love his commitment and his discipline to his faith.
When I read, read his words, when I hear his words, I do hear
(02:46):
a devout follower of his faith and I respect that.
I, I have an interesting appreciation of Marcus Garvey.
When I went to London, I, I had a moment where it was down to
the last trip of the, of the study abroad program.
(03:11):
And so I had this is my last week and I had like, you know,
one option of what I was going to do and it was either Sherlock
Holmes or the Marcus Garvey library.
And mind you, I have been tryingto the Marcus Garvey library was
the first thing that I was trying to go see.
(03:32):
And it turned out to be like a fashion Nova place and they had
actually moved to way deep in East London.
So I had to make a whole trip. Long story short, I went to the
Marcus Garvey library all the way in East London.
I took like 2 tubes to get there.
It was a really long distance. And, you know, the librarian
gave me his biography and so hisstory and the fact that he
(03:56):
literally died for what he stoodfor.
I honor that. I respect that.
And then third, Martin Luther King, he is a exquisite social
scientist. He knows how to organize people,
why to organize people and when to organize people.
(04:18):
His strategies are written all in his books.
And you know, that comes from somebody who used to think like,
I'm not going to, you know, justhe had a very strategic plan for
non violence. And he's he wrote a reason why
every other black nationalist movement was not a solid form to
(04:42):
obtain what we want ultimately. So yeah, that's my 3.
Those are three great answers and they were well thought out,
so I appreciate that. So let's let's go a little bit
more further down that that rabbit hose if we're already
there. Now with question #3 and this is
going to be a little bit more ofa pointed question, I guess
(05:07):
based off of what you said, based off of the MLK dream,
Doctor Mark King's dream that people like to talk about a lot.
Do you think we have as a country's accomplished that?
The dream, You know, I heard somebody say earlier today that
the, the constitution, this country was built on a, a, the
(05:34):
ability to make it perfectible. Not that it is perfect, not that
it will ever be perfect, but that we have, we continue to
gain tools to make it perfectible.
And I think that about Mark I, Ihad a thought about Martin
Luther King's dream immediately after that and thought like, I
(05:54):
think that we are ever growing the tools to be able to make
significant change. I don't know what's going to
happen in the next 4 years rightnow, but I do know that.
I do know that if there is a project 2025, then we need an
opposing manifesto. We need to be in our Huey P
(06:16):
Newton our our our Barack Obama like strategic mindset if we are
ever going to see that change come to fruition.
The point, let me, let me ask you this question.
I think this is going to also add to this, you know, I'll make
a question #4 do you think we'llever see that error again of
(06:43):
activists? Because, you know, in that time
we had like, you know, we had Martin Luther King, we had
Malcolm X. But they weren't the only ones
we had like Muhammad. We had a lot of black people in
general speaking up for the rights and, you know, of our
society and and gorgeous for thebetterment of black people and
not only black people, just people in general for equality.
(07:05):
And it seems like as time went on, went on, we've a little lost
a little bit of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think that honestly, I think it's because of technology and
the advancement of technology and what it does to our brain
chemistry. I mean, there are definitely
(07:27):
science, scientific studies on like how we are the high, we
have the highest rate of dopamine hits.
We have the, we have the most disengaged, we are the most
disengaged generation of, of history.
And it's like that's on paper, you know, and I think that that
(07:47):
is a part of the disconnect withsocial justice and social
activism. I think that is it's because we
can talk to each other through ascreen and we don't have to
really engage like I was. I started the the election
series reading Obama's Audacity of Hope, the first book that he
(08:09):
wrote as as he was a sitting president.
And he talks about being mentored by people who spoke of
a time where Republicans and Democrats could talk
legislature, legislature over dinner, over a steak dinner and
beer. And and like there was not this,
(08:31):
this, this, this divide and thischaotic, you know, mindset, this
cancer culture, this back and forth, this left or right.
Like it wasn't so radical that we were always at odds.
But then he talks about as he was entering presidency that
that or running just as a candidate, that he experienced
(08:54):
the backbiting, the the buckfush, the all all of these
like moments where like politicsis becoming a back and forth TMZ
game, but not a basic structure for how to better the lives
around us. Yeah.
(09:15):
I think that is also something that's really interesting what
we'll we'll get to that coveragewhen we get out this 55, that's
the whole of the coverage I wantto.
Have it. OK, so question #5 this is going
to be a simple one, but I think it's going to be deeper in this
process. What inspires you each day?
(09:38):
The moment when a student says, oh, I get it.
Like, yeah, the moment where somebody says, wow, I never
thought of it like that. The moments where people are
like, man, that's some real feeling that I get out of your
(10:03):
music. You know, those small things
like, help me keep going. Get it?
And that makes a lot of sense. And yeah, I, I, I kind of agree
with that. When you when you do things that
inspire other people and you feel like, especially when it
comes to music, when it feels like you're making a difference
(10:25):
and you're touching people that you wouldn't normally touch.
But you know, that's one of the brilliant things about music
that you know, music is such a powerful tool to be used because
you can use it to touch people'shearts.
You probably normally wouldn't even want to have a conversation
with you, but because of the power of music, you kind of just
reach a whole of the audience that you probably wouldn't even
(10:46):
get a reach, which is just your voice alone.
Right, right, right. And it's available and
accessible everywhere. You know, everybody has the
right to it, you know, And that's something that it often
is seen as a bad thing in the music industry, like the fact
that Spotify makes music so accessible and it cheapens the
(11:06):
experience. But I feel like the fact that
people can take a hold of the music and make it a tool of
their life, the backdrop to their moment, the sound to the
cookout, the walk to school, thejog around the neighborhood,
like, like people have a hold ofit a lot more in a way that they
(11:27):
didn't, you know, in the nineties, 80s and 70s and, and
and, you know, it's it's just, Idon't know, it's it's
interesting that like, you know,as it pays out, I understand.
But in terms of the fact that like I could it felt good in my
family when I was like, yeah, the song is on Spotify.
You can go to this link. You can type my name.
(11:49):
It like that felt good when everybody was like, Hey, my
cousin like or my that felt good.
That those moments feel good beyond what it if it's, you
know, 3 thirds, less than a cent, like whatever.
Like I understand that that is frustrating, but you know, that
moment though, it's priceless. Yeah, also to add that I think
(12:11):
it's really cool that we have this generation where you can be
an artist and put out music and it and it actually it's hurt.
You know, you can just put it all back in the day to do to put
out any songs like in basically get in the mainstream.
You have to like, you know, be signed to a label or or best
(12:32):
case scenario, you'll be just selling CDs out your car at the
back of your car like Master P And hopefully you'll get lucky
Well enough people will check itout and you'll make it big.
But now you can kind of just putyour music up on Spotify or
SoundCloud or any one of these streaming apps and people will
check it out. And if it's hot and if enough
(12:54):
people check it out, you can kind of blow up just like that.
And there was a time, there's a brief like two to three-year
period where if you were to go to submit your music to Spotify,
they would be like, sorry, we'reonly taking submissions from
somebody who's represented by a label.
(13:15):
I remember that. It's a very different time.
Man, yeah, it's. It's a very interesting time to
genre music, to say the least. But we're not here to talk about
music now. We're here to talk about you and
this project you got working that you're working on that's
coming out very soon. So let's hear about let let
everybody know what you've been doing since.
Give it away. Man.
(13:36):
So since the last time we spoke man, I went to the International
Black Theatre Festival. I was gifted the idea of the
title Black History. They don't want you to know.
And I put the, the, the grind in, man.
I took the time I've been writing for like I want to say 7
(13:57):
to 8 months, months straight. I workshopped it and then
another month later I spoke on it.
I wrote on it and developed it with Bob Devon Jones in the
writing process. And then now we're putting it on
his feet. And so it's a full one length
show accompanied by poetry by Charles Hines.
There will be a lot of music in it.
(14:19):
I'm going to be highlighting Bumpy Johnson, Huey P Newton,
Barack Obama with Malcolm X as abackdrop.
And yeah, man, it's it's a really interesting story.
A lot of people have been sayinglike, you know, this has created
a universe and I have in mind tokind of create like a $0.50
(14:40):
power universe space with the black history.
They don't want you to know because you know it it.
One of the forefathers ahead of me, John Leguizamo, He, he, he
did Latin American history for morons.
And, and that was, that was something that, that that really
(15:02):
inspired me and I was challengedto do that.
But then I also had been workingon a black history tour that I
wrote a 30 minute show, a coupleof monologues between 3 actors
and in the middle of the show wehad to cut it short because the
(15:23):
that one of the actors started speaking too deeply on the N
double ACP and talking about thehistory of them burning for
colored only signs on militants grounds.
And they told us to stop it because of the book ban law.
It stopped the whole show. Wow.
Yeah. That's crazy.
(15:43):
Yeah, man, and. It's also crazy that that's
something that happened so long ago and it's almost like history
of repeating itself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, man.
And and it it's scary, but it's invigorating, is encouraging to
know like and when reading revolutionary unaliven by by
(16:08):
Huey, like he, he talks about when he made the resolve to to
stand firm and made the resolve,he recognized that the cops
feared him more than he feared them and that his resolve is
(16:28):
more is a weapon and that him standing firm in this is.
And it was just at that moment like the this was probably, I
want to say in July, August whenI was reading this and you know,
that was still some form of hopeand and and and what transpired.
(16:49):
But then, like at this moment, going back to it and recognizing
like, wow, like some of this wascautionary for me.
Like this was, you know, a handwritten letter from the
ancestors to me. And yeah, man, it's, it's, it's
powerful to recognize that, to hear that here.
(17:12):
God-given me the tools and the, and the faith.
And we're standing steadfast. Everybody is, is happy to be a
part of it. And, and I'm I'm really happy to
be a facilitator of this, of this journey.
Yeah, man, this is, this is really cool, man.
This is a a big project that you're working on.
(17:33):
It's coming out. People can go see if they want
to see it. February 12th or 13th at 7:00
PM, 1120 E Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa, FL.
So if you're in the Tampa, FL area you can go check this out.
What they don't want you to know?
Last, you wrote this whole thing, right?
Yes, except for the poetry. Yes, I did write the the play
(17:55):
the the scene work. Yes, Sir.
So how how long does it take youto write this?
This is. The writing usually is like
spurts of like 30 minute sessions, but the planning and
the preparing, I'll say it took like 8, nine months totally.
That's amazing, man. That's and you see this, this
(18:18):
tells you creators about that. You know, you got a passion, you
stick to it, you keep working onit and you can see the vision
because now you're you're performing it.
That's amazing. That's amazing, man.
You know, how did you get from the process of writing to
performing it? Well, I'm very thankful to the
team that we've built, my stage manager, my assistant director,
(18:43):
my director, Bob Devon Jones, they've all sort of, and the,
and my costume design team and, and the set builders, like we've
all like built a team of intensefocus.
And it just, it wasn't like I came in saying, hey, we all got
to be intensely focused. Like we all saw what this was.
(19:05):
We all recognize that we had to sacrifice ourselves to it to to
the greater mission and the cause of it if we want to see
this to continue growing. And nobody, it was, it was all
telepathic, like we all just agreed and we just hit the
ground running and we've been inthat synergy ever since.
(19:25):
And so, you know, I, I came in very nervous because as the
writer, I was like, do they likeit?
Is it good? Oh my God, I hope, I hope
everybody's like, you know, liking it.
I hope that that this doesn't, you know, it is, isn't trash.
But like once we got in the room, all that started to wash
away, man. So like I'm very, very thankful,
(19:47):
very thankful let. Me ask you this, what, what, how
big is the crew that's working on this project?
And two, what role of any of youplaying in the actual play
itself? So what can you say?
Can you say what role you're playing?
(20:07):
You mean the characters? Yes.
Oh yes, it's a one man show, so all of it, all of the characters
that come on stage, see. Now that's see, I'm glad that's
what I wanted to hear. That's dope.
So you're doing this, It's essentially A1 man show that
you're doing that. That's that's amazing.
Yes, Sir. I'm, I'm and there and I'll, and
(20:28):
I'm a big fan of Greek theater. So there's going to be a poet
that serves as the Greek chorus and he'll come intermittently
throughout certain moments and certain things close and like
wrap it up in spoken word poetry.
And it's so fire. Like it's so far.
I'll freeze frame in the moment and he'll come out.
Man. I don't want to get too much but
(20:49):
this is fire man. How, how did you come up with
this process? What's your process?
How do you practice for a one person show?
Like I feel like this is, this is like this feels like a lot of
work in terms of approaching who's writing it, creating it
and performing it seems like a great undertaking.
And, and it's and also you're promoting it as well.
(21:10):
So it's like, that's a lot and it's a man.
That's that you're doing it. Thank you, man.
Yeah, man, it's a lot. It is a lot.
It is a lot. Cannot stress how much it is,
but it is it. But it it is rewarding, man.
I like you, you. The first question you asked was
(21:31):
like how, how do I, how did I come up with this, this, this
process and ultimately trial anderror like the first season in
terms of the momentum that we have now as Rise, I mean, like
it, it just is night and day. I recognize throughout the
process of Rise needing the stage manager, needing people to
(21:56):
come into a physical space to rehearse and being able to jot
down lighting cues. Like some of these things, we
were just doing it off the cuff.We just literally, we marketed
it off the cuff. We, I wrote and, and other poets
came and they brought their poems, Other actors came in,
(22:16):
they brought monologues and we all sort of just like put it
together, knit it together and it was almost like a variety
show. And then I got some advice, some
really, really, really good advice from Andreessia Mosley.
She said that, you know, either you're going to do a play about
poetry or you're going to do poetry with, with plays in it to
(22:41):
a scene, work in it. And so this new model, I was
just like, well, at least let's put the playwrights in the poets
together and let us see what we come up with.
And at this personal moment, I just had a play in mind based
off of an improv game that we did in the first rise.
(23:03):
And it was like my friend Ivy Sunflower, she said, and we are
now in the Museum of Black history.
They don't want you to know. And we just started like naming
off people and random facts thatcould or could not be true.
But I had that that title stuck in my head for like weeks on
end. And then around about I say
(23:26):
October last year, I had it in mind and I wrote it.
I started writing the the first pieces who I thought would be.
Then I started doing like a lot of research and then I knew
exactly who I was going to get as the poet.
And so Charles Hines came on board, and he wrote pieces based
on the monologues that are in the show.
(23:48):
And yeah, for. For those who don't know,
because I don't know if people listen to the last people, you
know, every podcast had a new list of things like that.
Let people know around stage workshop because I don't think
I'm quite sure this who who don't know what that company is
exactly so. Let's get you.
And right now it isn't a theatretroupe a part of Stage Works
(24:11):
theatre. It is a rise.
The first season was reach inside to start evolution and
this season is resolutions and small escapes.
And so yeah, the rise is a theatre troupe.
They like specializes in parent spoken word poetry with
(24:33):
stagecraft elements. Nope.
Very dope that you're doing this.
I like the process that you guysare doing.
If if you haven't seen any of Lance's work, I highly recommend
going on his Facebook and just check out some of his videos and
stuff like that because he's an active, very good actor.
(24:54):
There's a lot of different things that people should
definitely check out. Thank you.
Thank you. Man, so let let me ask you this
since since we all talk about these hot butt butt issues and
things like that, because your play is literally that based on
how it's the things that you know that they don't want you to
(25:15):
know. So let me let me ask you about
that part. OK.
What are some of the things thatthey don't want you to know that
you're going to be addressing inthis?
You got to give all the sauce away, but just a little bit.
Yeah, so I, I highlight how and in the in about 68, you know,
(25:45):
Bumpy and Malcolm were they, they work together and that, you
know, some things that you mightknow about Bumpy, you, you, you
would or you would not know. But just his philosophy.
I, I felt like it was personal to sort of humanize these pick
these people as as historians ofthe culture, carriers of the
(26:07):
culture, what Harlem was like for for black people in the in
the 30s up into the 60s. I talk a lot about Huey's
strategy and, you know, what he went through personally.
I talk about Barack Obama and what he heard.
(26:28):
Like, I sat down and listened toa lot of personal interviews
with Obama and read a couple of his books and just recognize
like, you know, there is a huge discussion or debate about, you
know, did he or did he not do enough for black people?
And I addressed that and yeah. That is a constant conversation
(26:52):
that's been had even today. And I, I'm glad you brought up
Obama because it's very fascinating looking where we
left, we left office to where weare right now, where they're
talking about, you know, affirmative action that they,
they got rid of that they talk about the getting rid of DI
(27:16):
essentially that every chance you look, everything you look
at, it's about basically going backwards as opposed to moving
forward. And I, and I understand how
people said that Brock, that Brock didn't do enough, but in,
in my opinion, how do I say thisproperly?
(27:41):
In my opinion, no one black president could come in and do
enough to make it all right. Facts.
Facts it. Would take.
It would take generations to fixeverything that needs to be
fixed and for true equality. And not only that, the first
piece of legislation that he ever signed over or tried to get
(28:04):
out, 0 Republicans voted for it.Yes, and then?
He couldn't have made any changelike, like, not that he, not
that he didn't make change. He made sick.
There was an article that read that like all four of the major
things that he tackled would have ruined the presidency.
(28:24):
One of those things would have ruined the presidency.
Yeah, being like the economy bill healthcare, assassinating a
a a foreign terrorist twice because of the the Syria
chemical warfare. Like it's so much like that he
(28:46):
had up against him that it he couldn't have like made
everything about one particular group.
And, and what makes this confidence about him even more
interesting to me at least, is the fact that he was so
impactful. The next president has been
spent essentially spent his first four years in office
(29:08):
trying to erase Obama's legacy, and now he's going to spend this
four years in office trying to erase Obama's legacy.
You know, and that was what was crazy because my aunt, she is
the the history team lead at Middleton High School and she
teaches the black history classes.
And she asked me like, why? Why do you why do you feel it
(29:31):
important to talk about Obama? Like, I don't think that that's
black history that people don't know, but I, I feel like this
conversation is, is something that is unspoken in the black
community. Like, not that people don't say
this sentiment enough, but we don't have the due diligence or
the time spent talking about it at length.
(29:52):
Like we don't spend time going in on it.
And why people feel that way, why people should feel like,
like what the facts are, You know, this is my thought on
that. Yeah, I think, and I found it
really interesting that, and this goes to show why things are
(30:13):
the way they are, because we're now in a society that that's
very fascinating because facts almost don't matter.
Right. Because you can make your own
facts and you can, you can basically lie and people and it
becomes facts all of a sudden. And that's the thing that
(30:35):
alarmed me to be the most about the way things are going today.
It's not that this guy's in office.
That's one major part of it, butalso the fact that you can use
social media as a as literally aweapon and weaponize it against
anybody to basically omit the truth or or hide the truth in a
(30:58):
way where people will start believing blatant lies about
anything they want to. And I think that's a very
dangerous situation that we are in society and it's and what
alarms about the most is that our people are falling for it.
You know, and I'll even add to that with that, we are in a time
(31:20):
where I personally believe I don't have the statistics or the
facts. I just know what I feel.
And I see in my students, they are the most socially active
group of people and the most emotionally insecure group of
people that our history probablywill ever see.
(31:42):
And it's like their emotions areon their sleeve.
If anybody tells them no or tells them not right now or you
have to try harder, they crumble.
And, and but they are so socially active in the sense
that like people used to use this thing that use social media
as a as a, a ploy. They used to be like social
(32:05):
media is like diminishing their minds.
And I can understand in some ways, but when I saw a fight
break out in the hallway and within mere seconds of the end
of the fight, everybody said turn your air drop on.
And in mere seconds that fight was disseminated.
(32:27):
And I'm sure the same thing happened in 15 other classes
that that visual was was spread across from multiple angles.
Like like they are creating their own villages, They are
creating their own chat rooms. They are creating their own
space where they have codes, they have words, they have
(32:48):
language that they can use that a teacher won't ever know.
They have like rooms where people share fights on
Instagram, but teachers won't ever see them.
Or if they do, they try to crackdown on it.
And it's like, I just am. I'm, I'm weary of what social
(33:09):
justice looks like in the hands of that generation.
I'm not like, that's what I think about.
Like what will happen if a civilwar breaks out?
Yeah, I, I, I don't, that does worry me because if you want to
be frankly honest about it, I think it's a little alarming
because when I was growing up, Idon't want to miss Nick, say
(33:32):
like old stuff like that. But when I when I was growing up
and a person shot in the fight, the fight happened once it was
over. That was it.
That was it. You moved on with your life.
Now this generation, fight happens.
Fight gets posted to social media and that fight lives on
(33:52):
for years. Right.
And this person has to relive though, you know, fighting is a
traumatizing event, especially if you have to relive it over
and over again. And, you know, like especially
if we become the butt of a joke or a conversation like that.
And because of those things, sometimes these kids want to
retaliate because they've been embarrassed and they're being
(34:15):
constantly embarrassed because this video lives on forever.
The next thing you know, that's why you have these kids getting
guns and doing violent acts likethat.
And I think that's a very scary thing that we have these
situations where these kids are being put through these things
and these things that we just didn't have to deal when we were
younger that they just have to deal with now.
(34:35):
Just like it's not what they'll say.
Well, fight just society in general.
Like these these kids whole lives are in their phones and on
social media. That's the worst part of it at
all. And so you're not allowed to
make mistakes Like we were, we were a kid we made like when I
was a kid, I know there was a lot of things that kids said
(34:56):
that were dumb and offensive andstuff like that, but they were
allowed to say it because no onewas catching on the video.
And then when I was out there posting it and saying, hey, this
is a bad person. You know, you, you learn from an
older adult like, hey, you probably shouldn't be doing
that. Now these kids are making these
mistakes on social media in front of millions of people, and
these millions of people are judging them on those mistakes
(35:19):
for the rest of their lives. And I, you, I, I literally had
this exact conversation with a, with a, a girl in class that she
was, she was talking about how one of the, the APS has her
phone and she won't get it back.And one of the students asked,
(35:40):
they were like, you know, Sir, what do you do if the if the
student parent don't care? And I was like, well, that's
what makes it difficult for us to ever try to get through to
you. Because if your mom teaching you
that, you know, authority doesn't matter if you think it's
OK to curse out your AP, if you think that it's OK that you
(36:04):
thinking in your mind after you hang up with my Mama, I'm a
curse her out again because she can't call my Mama back.
Like if, if that's your thinking, then like you have
already put yourself in a, a place where you're going to be
categorized. And it's sad.
It's a, it's not that it's not right that people do this, but
(36:25):
teachers talk about you, teachers talk about like you,
you get classed. I remember seeing the statistics
that the most referrals if, if every time a person gets a
referral, it increases their likelihood to go to prison.
And we talk about students that don't care that they got 10 plus
(36:48):
referrals. Wow.
That's that's rough. Yeah, man, it's it's and and and
COVID don't make it no better. This, this, this generation.
I, I really, I really fight for stories like this.
I really fight for them to have pride on like it's, this is
something that I just, you know,I care passionately about.
(37:12):
And like, you know, it often feels like a vanity project when
I, when I talk to people. But in the, in the grand scheme
of it, like I will risk my livesfor my students.
I will put my life on the line to stand up for a a better
education and a better means of educating and because we need
(37:36):
it. Like I say, like their minds are
so far past the PC Dell computerthat we are accustomed to.
Their phones are 10 times fasterthan that.
If they got memory, they they can traverse worlds beyond what
we are even used to at this moment in technology like, and
(37:59):
it's happening faster and on a day-to-day basis.
They're changing, their thoughtsare changing.
And in this world, the same exact world that they are doing
all of that, they also have to fear that ISIS coming to raid
the school and make sure that all of the students have their
papers. Yeah, it's a interesting time
(38:20):
we're in now, man. I don't know how like I don't
know how to really answer for the deal with.
It's just more of a like, hey, we got to just be there for each
other and support each other to best our abilities.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, man, yeah, yeah.
And and, and and fight for what we believe is the truth.
(38:41):
That's that's one thing that that this whole thing covers is
what is the truth? Like what?
Like, you know, even if if it's hearsay.
OK, well, let's Fact Check it if, if, but let's talk about
what the real history is. Let's go back through time and
see what we valued as a community.
(39:03):
What has changed? Are we better?
Are we worse? You know, that goes back to your
question. Do do we feel like we've reached
the dream? It's like, you know, I think
everybody should look at themselves and be like, have we?
Am I better human? Do I talk or treat people
better? You know, has this time made me
(39:26):
more loving or has it made me more hateful?
That's the question then. That's the perfect place to end
this episode, man. That's something for food for
tough people. So, Lance.
Yes, Sir. Let them know where to find you
at, and more importantly, let them know where to see this play
(39:46):
at. OK, so you can find me at Lance
Under Score, Mark Keith on Instagram, Lance Mark Keith on
all other social medias and you can find this play at Stage
Works Theatre February 13th, February 12th and the 13th.
Tickets our own Eventbrite. So I will put the Eventbrite
(40:10):
link in the show notes. If you're in the Tampa area
around that time, definitely go check it out.
Tell Lance the devil sent you. Show them some love.
Place going to be dope. Thank you, Lance for coming on
brother. I appreciate you.
Thank you for having me man. Thank you so much.
And as always Devil Cox experience, we are out peace.
Peace, man.
This podcast is sponsored by patreon.com/devil Cock
Experience. If you want more content,
including exclusive shows, make sure you go to patreon.com/devil
Cock Experience. Also, special shout out to
Patreon producer Douglas Mcgirt Johnson.
(00:20):
Thank you. Welcome to the Delvin Cox
experience, the podcast, which each week I'm on a one man
(00:43):
mission to you Now that comes todiversity.
I'm your host, Delvin Cox and Whitney on the podcast, there's
a very special guest who's working on a special project, my
boy and Lance, my Keith. How you doing bro?
I'm doing all right, man. I'm doing really, really well,
man. How you doing?
I'm doing good, man. I'm doing very good man.
Yes, Sir, yes. Sir, as always.
Oh, go ahead, you said something.
(01:04):
No, no, go ahead, Go ahead. Look.
I was going to say, as always, let's start the podcast off with
the five for five, five questions, 5 asks to get the
ball. Roller Lance, Are you ready?
I'm ready. Question #1 Who do you think is
the most famous person that has your name or your first name?
(01:24):
Oh, definitely, Lance Gross. OK, Lance Gross.
Well, it depends on who you're talking to.
It depends who you're talking to.
Like but but Lance Armstrong is what I lead with, but I also I
Lance Gross is who I like often hear people talking about.
OK, I'd probably say Lance Armstrong, but yeah, Lance Gross
(01:44):
makes sense, too. Yeah, definitely.
OK, I like that question #2 Lance, I don't think I've asked
you this. Let me ask you here.
If all the serial mascots have abig bra, who do you think is
going to win? No, we did have this.
We on the on the first part, Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, thank you for thank you for telling me that.
(02:05):
See, I forgot if I asked you that question or not.
So, you know, I'm going to switch it up.
Whoop, switch it up then. Yes, Sir, Yes Sir.
Let. Me ask you this then, since
we're we're going in the Black History Month, I think it's
appropriate to have this conversation.
What black icons inspire you? Give me like 3.
(02:26):
Give me your top three. Top three, all right, top off
the top is Malcolm X is at #1 that's a great one.
I love his commitment and his discipline to his faith.
When I read, read his words, when I hear his words, I do hear
(02:46):
a devout follower of his faith and I respect that.
I, I have an interesting appreciation of Marcus Garvey.
When I went to London, I, I had a moment where it was down to
the last trip of the, of the study abroad program.
(03:11):
And so I had this is my last week and I had like, you know,
one option of what I was going to do and it was either Sherlock
Holmes or the Marcus Garvey library.
And mind you, I have been tryingto the Marcus Garvey library was
the first thing that I was trying to go see.
(03:32):
And it turned out to be like a fashion Nova place and they had
actually moved to way deep in East London.
So I had to make a whole trip. Long story short, I went to the
Marcus Garvey library all the way in East London.
I took like 2 tubes to get there.
It was a really long distance. And, you know, the librarian
gave me his biography and so hisstory and the fact that he
(03:56):
literally died for what he stoodfor.
I honor that. I respect that.
And then third, Martin Luther King, he is a exquisite social
scientist. He knows how to organize people,
why to organize people and when to organize people.
(04:18):
His strategies are written all in his books.
And you know, that comes from somebody who used to think like,
I'm not going to, you know, justhe had a very strategic plan for
non violence. And he's he wrote a reason why
every other black nationalist movement was not a solid form to
(04:42):
obtain what we want ultimately. So yeah, that's my 3.
Those are three great answers and they were well thought out,
so I appreciate that. So let's let's go a little bit
more further down that that rabbit hose if we're already
there. Now with question #3 and this is
going to be a little bit more ofa pointed question, I guess
(05:07):
based off of what you said, based off of the MLK dream,
Doctor Mark King's dream that people like to talk about a lot.
Do you think we have as a country's accomplished that?
The dream, You know, I heard somebody say earlier today that
the, the constitution, this country was built on a, a, the
(05:34):
ability to make it perfectible. Not that it is perfect, not that
it will ever be perfect, but that we have, we continue to
gain tools to make it perfectible.
And I think that about Mark I, Ihad a thought about Martin
Luther King's dream immediately after that and thought like, I
(05:54):
think that we are ever growing the tools to be able to make
significant change. I don't know what's going to
happen in the next 4 years rightnow, but I do know that.
I do know that if there is a project 2025, then we need an
opposing manifesto. We need to be in our Huey P
(06:16):
Newton our our our Barack Obama like strategic mindset if we are
ever going to see that change come to fruition.
The point, let me, let me ask you this question.
I think this is going to also add to this, you know, I'll make
a question #4 do you think we'llever see that error again of
(06:43):
activists? Because, you know, in that time
we had like, you know, we had Martin Luther King, we had
Malcolm X. But they weren't the only ones
we had like Muhammad. We had a lot of black people in
general speaking up for the rights and, you know, of our
society and and gorgeous for thebetterment of black people and
not only black people, just people in general for equality.
(07:05):
And it seems like as time went on, went on, we've a little lost
a little bit of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think that honestly, I think it's because of technology and
the advancement of technology and what it does to our brain
chemistry. I mean, there are definitely
(07:27):
science, scientific studies on like how we are the high, we
have the highest rate of dopamine hits.
We have the, we have the most disengaged, we are the most
disengaged generation of, of history.
And it's like that's on paper, you know, and I think that that
(07:47):
is a part of the disconnect withsocial justice and social
activism. I think that is it's because we
can talk to each other through ascreen and we don't have to
really engage like I was. I started the the election
series reading Obama's Audacity of Hope, the first book that he
(08:09):
wrote as as he was a sitting president.
And he talks about being mentored by people who spoke of
a time where Republicans and Democrats could talk
legislature, legislature over dinner, over a steak dinner and
beer. And and like there was not this,
(08:31):
this, this, this divide and thischaotic, you know, mindset, this
cancer culture, this back and forth, this left or right.
Like it wasn't so radical that we were always at odds.
But then he talks about as he was entering presidency that
that or running just as a candidate, that he experienced
(08:54):
the backbiting, the the buckfush, the all all of these
like moments where like politicsis becoming a back and forth TMZ
game, but not a basic structure for how to better the lives
around us. Yeah.
(09:15):
I think that is also something that's really interesting what
we'll we'll get to that coveragewhen we get out this 55, that's
the whole of the coverage I wantto.
Have it. OK, so question #5 this is going
to be a simple one, but I think it's going to be deeper in this
process. What inspires you each day?
(09:38):
The moment when a student says, oh, I get it.
Like, yeah, the moment where somebody says, wow, I never
thought of it like that. The moments where people are
like, man, that's some real feeling that I get out of your
(10:03):
music. You know, those small things
like, help me keep going. Get it?
And that makes a lot of sense. And yeah, I, I, I kind of agree
with that. When you when you do things that
inspire other people and you feel like, especially when it
comes to music, when it feels like you're making a difference
(10:25):
and you're touching people that you wouldn't normally touch.
But you know, that's one of the brilliant things about music
that you know, music is such a powerful tool to be used because
you can use it to touch people'shearts.
You probably normally wouldn't even want to have a conversation
with you, but because of the power of music, you kind of just
reach a whole of the audience that you probably wouldn't even
(10:46):
get a reach, which is just your voice alone.
Right, right, right. And it's available and
accessible everywhere. You know, everybody has the
right to it, you know, And that's something that it often
is seen as a bad thing in the music industry, like the fact
that Spotify makes music so accessible and it cheapens the
(11:06):
experience. But I feel like the fact that
people can take a hold of the music and make it a tool of
their life, the backdrop to their moment, the sound to the
cookout, the walk to school, thejog around the neighborhood,
like, like people have a hold ofit a lot more in a way that they
(11:27):
didn't, you know, in the nineties, 80s and 70s and, and
and, you know, it's it's just, Idon't know, it's it's
interesting that like, you know,as it pays out, I understand.
But in terms of the fact that like I could it felt good in my
family when I was like, yeah, the song is on Spotify.
You can go to this link. You can type my name.
(11:49):
It like that felt good when everybody was like, Hey, my
cousin like or my that felt good.
That those moments feel good beyond what it if it's, you
know, 3 thirds, less than a cent, like whatever.
Like I understand that that is frustrating, but you know, that
moment though, it's priceless. Yeah, also to add that I think
(12:11):
it's really cool that we have this generation where you can be
an artist and put out music and it and it actually it's hurt.
You know, you can just put it all back in the day to do to put
out any songs like in basically get in the mainstream.
You have to like, you know, be signed to a label or or best
(12:32):
case scenario, you'll be just selling CDs out your car at the
back of your car like Master P And hopefully you'll get lucky
Well enough people will check itout and you'll make it big.
But now you can kind of just putyour music up on Spotify or
SoundCloud or any one of these streaming apps and people will
check it out. And if it's hot and if enough
(12:54):
people check it out, you can kind of blow up just like that.
And there was a time, there's a brief like two to three-year
period where if you were to go to submit your music to Spotify,
they would be like, sorry, we'reonly taking submissions from
somebody who's represented by a label.
(13:15):
I remember that. It's a very different time.
Man, yeah, it's. It's a very interesting time to
genre music, to say the least. But we're not here to talk about
music now. We're here to talk about you and
this project you got working that you're working on that's
coming out very soon. So let's hear about let let
everybody know what you've been doing since.
Give it away. Man.
(13:36):
So since the last time we spoke man, I went to the International
Black Theatre Festival. I was gifted the idea of the
title Black History. They don't want you to know.
And I put the, the, the grind in, man.
I took the time I've been writing for like I want to say 7
(13:57):
to 8 months, months straight. I workshopped it and then
another month later I spoke on it.
I wrote on it and developed it with Bob Devon Jones in the
writing process. And then now we're putting it on
his feet. And so it's a full one length
show accompanied by poetry by Charles Hines.
There will be a lot of music in it.
(14:19):
I'm going to be highlighting Bumpy Johnson, Huey P Newton,
Barack Obama with Malcolm X as abackdrop.
And yeah, man, it's it's a really interesting story.
A lot of people have been sayinglike, you know, this has created
a universe and I have in mind tokind of create like a $0.50
(14:40):
power universe space with the black history.
They don't want you to know because you know it it.
One of the forefathers ahead of me, John Leguizamo, He, he, he
did Latin American history for morons.
And, and that was, that was something that, that that really
(15:02):
inspired me and I was challengedto do that.
But then I also had been workingon a black history tour that I
wrote a 30 minute show, a coupleof monologues between 3 actors
and in the middle of the show wehad to cut it short because the
(15:23):
that one of the actors started speaking too deeply on the N
double ACP and talking about thehistory of them burning for
colored only signs on militants grounds.
And they told us to stop it because of the book ban law.
It stopped the whole show. Wow.
Yeah. That's crazy.
(15:43):
Yeah, man, and. It's also crazy that that's
something that happened so long ago and it's almost like history
of repeating itself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, man.
And and it it's scary, but it's invigorating, is encouraging to
know like and when reading revolutionary unaliven by by
(16:08):
Huey, like he, he talks about when he made the resolve to to
stand firm and made the resolve,he recognized that the cops
feared him more than he feared them and that his resolve is
(16:28):
more is a weapon and that him standing firm in this is.
And it was just at that moment like the this was probably, I
want to say in July, August whenI was reading this and you know,
that was still some form of hopeand and and and what transpired.
(16:49):
But then, like at this moment, going back to it and recognizing
like, wow, like some of this wascautionary for me.
Like this was, you know, a handwritten letter from the
ancestors to me. And yeah, man, it's, it's, it's
powerful to recognize that, to hear that here.
(17:12):
God-given me the tools and the, and the faith.
And we're standing steadfast. Everybody is, is happy to be a
part of it. And, and I'm I'm really happy to
be a facilitator of this, of this journey.
Yeah, man, this is, this is really cool, man.
This is a a big project that you're working on.
(17:33):
It's coming out. People can go see if they want
to see it. February 12th or 13th at 7:00
PM, 1120 E Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa, FL.
So if you're in the Tampa, FL area you can go check this out.
What they don't want you to know?
Last, you wrote this whole thing, right?
Yes, except for the poetry. Yes, I did write the the play
(17:55):
the the scene work. Yes, Sir.
So how how long does it take youto write this?
This is. The writing usually is like
spurts of like 30 minute sessions, but the planning and
the preparing, I'll say it took like 8, nine months totally.
That's amazing, man. That's and you see this, this
(18:18):
tells you creators about that. You know, you got a passion, you
stick to it, you keep working onit and you can see the vision
because now you're you're performing it.
That's amazing. That's amazing, man.
You know, how did you get from the process of writing to
performing it? Well, I'm very thankful to the
team that we've built, my stage manager, my assistant director,
(18:43):
my director, Bob Devon Jones, they've all sort of, and the,
and my costume design team and, and the set builders, like we've
all like built a team of intensefocus.
And it just, it wasn't like I came in saying, hey, we all got
to be intensely focused. Like we all saw what this was.
(19:05):
We all recognize that we had to sacrifice ourselves to it to to
the greater mission and the cause of it if we want to see
this to continue growing. And nobody, it was, it was all
telepathic, like we all just agreed and we just hit the
ground running and we've been inthat synergy ever since.
(19:25):
And so, you know, I, I came in very nervous because as the
writer, I was like, do they likeit?
Is it good? Oh my God, I hope, I hope
everybody's like, you know, liking it.
I hope that that this doesn't, you know, it is, isn't trash.
But like once we got in the room, all that started to wash
away, man. So like I'm very, very thankful,
(19:47):
very thankful let. Me ask you this, what, what, how
big is the crew that's working on this project?
And two, what role of any of youplaying in the actual play
itself? So what can you say?
Can you say what role you're playing?
(20:07):
You mean the characters? Yes.
Oh yes, it's a one man show, so all of it, all of the characters
that come on stage, see. Now that's see, I'm glad that's
what I wanted to hear. That's dope.
So you're doing this, It's essentially A1 man show that
you're doing that. That's that's amazing.
Yes, Sir. I'm, I'm and there and I'll, and
(20:28):
I'm a big fan of Greek theater. So there's going to be a poet
that serves as the Greek chorus and he'll come intermittently
throughout certain moments and certain things close and like
wrap it up in spoken word poetry.
And it's so fire. Like it's so far.
I'll freeze frame in the moment and he'll come out.
Man. I don't want to get too much but
(20:49):
this is fire man. How, how did you come up with
this process? What's your process?
How do you practice for a one person show?
Like I feel like this is, this is like this feels like a lot of
work in terms of approaching who's writing it, creating it
and performing it seems like a great undertaking.
And, and it's and also you're promoting it as well.
(21:10):
So it's like, that's a lot and it's a man.
That's that you're doing it. Thank you, man.
Yeah, man, it's a lot. It is a lot.
It is a lot. Cannot stress how much it is,
but it is it. But it it is rewarding, man.
I like you, you. The first question you asked was
(21:31):
like how, how do I, how did I come up with this, this, this
process and ultimately trial anderror like the first season in
terms of the momentum that we have now as Rise, I mean, like
it, it just is night and day. I recognize throughout the
process of Rise needing the stage manager, needing people to
(21:56):
come into a physical space to rehearse and being able to jot
down lighting cues. Like some of these things, we
were just doing it off the cuff.We just literally, we marketed
it off the cuff. We, I wrote and, and other poets
came and they brought their poems, Other actors came in,
(22:16):
they brought monologues and we all sort of just like put it
together, knit it together and it was almost like a variety
show. And then I got some advice, some
really, really, really good advice from Andreessia Mosley.
She said that, you know, either you're going to do a play about
poetry or you're going to do poetry with, with plays in it to
(22:41):
a scene, work in it. And so this new model, I was
just like, well, at least let's put the playwrights in the poets
together and let us see what we come up with.
And at this personal moment, I just had a play in mind based
off of an improv game that we did in the first rise.
(23:03):
And it was like my friend Ivy Sunflower, she said, and we are
now in the Museum of Black history.
They don't want you to know. And we just started like naming
off people and random facts thatcould or could not be true.
But I had that that title stuck in my head for like weeks on
end. And then around about I say
(23:26):
October last year, I had it in mind and I wrote it.
I started writing the the first pieces who I thought would be.
Then I started doing like a lot of research and then I knew
exactly who I was going to get as the poet.
And so Charles Hines came on board, and he wrote pieces based
on the monologues that are in the show.
(23:48):
And yeah, for. For those who don't know,
because I don't know if people listen to the last people, you
know, every podcast had a new list of things like that.
Let people know around stage workshop because I don't think
I'm quite sure this who who don't know what that company is
exactly so. Let's get you.
And right now it isn't a theatretroupe a part of Stage Works
(24:11):
theatre. It is a rise.
The first season was reach inside to start evolution and
this season is resolutions and small escapes.
And so yeah, the rise is a theatre troupe.
They like specializes in parent spoken word poetry with
(24:33):
stagecraft elements. Nope.
Very dope that you're doing this.
I like the process that you guysare doing.
If if you haven't seen any of Lance's work, I highly recommend
going on his Facebook and just check out some of his videos and
stuff like that because he's an active, very good actor.
(24:54):
There's a lot of different things that people should
definitely check out. Thank you.
Thank you. Man, so let let me ask you this
since since we all talk about these hot butt butt issues and
things like that, because your play is literally that based on
how it's the things that you know that they don't want you to
(25:15):
know. So let me let me ask you about
that part. OK.
What are some of the things thatthey don't want you to know that
you're going to be addressing inthis?
You got to give all the sauce away, but just a little bit.
Yeah, so I, I highlight how and in the in about 68, you know,
(25:45):
Bumpy and Malcolm were they, they work together and that, you
know, some things that you mightknow about Bumpy, you, you, you
would or you would not know. But just his philosophy.
I, I felt like it was personal to sort of humanize these pick
these people as as historians ofthe culture, carriers of the
(26:07):
culture, what Harlem was like for for black people in the in
the 30s up into the 60s. I talk a lot about Huey's
strategy and, you know, what he went through personally.
I talk about Barack Obama and what he heard.
(26:28):
Like, I sat down and listened toa lot of personal interviews
with Obama and read a couple of his books and just recognize
like, you know, there is a huge discussion or debate about, you
know, did he or did he not do enough for black people?
And I addressed that and yeah. That is a constant conversation
(26:52):
that's been had even today. And I, I'm glad you brought up
Obama because it's very fascinating looking where we
left, we left office to where weare right now, where they're
talking about, you know, affirmative action that they,
they got rid of that they talk about the getting rid of DI
(27:16):
essentially that every chance you look, everything you look
at, it's about basically going backwards as opposed to moving
forward. And I, and I understand how
people said that Brock, that Brock didn't do enough, but in,
in my opinion, how do I say thisproperly?
(27:41):
In my opinion, no one black president could come in and do
enough to make it all right. Facts.
Facts it. Would take.
It would take generations to fixeverything that needs to be
fixed and for true equality. And not only that, the first
piece of legislation that he ever signed over or tried to get
(28:04):
out, 0 Republicans voted for it.Yes, and then?
He couldn't have made any changelike, like, not that he, not
that he didn't make change. He made sick.
There was an article that read that like all four of the major
things that he tackled would have ruined the presidency.
(28:24):
One of those things would have ruined the presidency.
Yeah, being like the economy bill healthcare, assassinating a
a a foreign terrorist twice because of the the Syria
chemical warfare. Like it's so much like that he
(28:46):
had up against him that it he couldn't have like made
everything about one particular group.
And, and what makes this confidence about him even more
interesting to me at least, is the fact that he was so
impactful. The next president has been
spent essentially spent his first four years in office
(29:08):
trying to erase Obama's legacy, and now he's going to spend this
four years in office trying to erase Obama's legacy.
You know, and that was what was crazy because my aunt, she is
the the history team lead at Middleton High School and she
teaches the black history classes.
And she asked me like, why? Why do you why do you feel it
(29:31):
important to talk about Obama? Like, I don't think that that's
black history that people don't know, but I, I feel like this
conversation is, is something that is unspoken in the black
community. Like, not that people don't say
this sentiment enough, but we don't have the due diligence or
the time spent talking about it at length.
(29:52):
Like we don't spend time going in on it.
And why people feel that way, why people should feel like,
like what the facts are, You know, this is my thought on
that. Yeah, I think, and I found it
really interesting that, and this goes to show why things are
(30:13):
the way they are, because we're now in a society that that's
very fascinating because facts almost don't matter.
Right. Because you can make your own
facts and you can, you can basically lie and people and it
becomes facts all of a sudden. And that's the thing that
(30:35):
alarmed me to be the most about the way things are going today.
It's not that this guy's in office.
That's one major part of it, butalso the fact that you can use
social media as a as literally aweapon and weaponize it against
anybody to basically omit the truth or or hide the truth in a
(30:58):
way where people will start believing blatant lies about
anything they want to. And I think that's a very
dangerous situation that we are in society and it's and what
alarms about the most is that our people are falling for it.
You know, and I'll even add to that with that, we are in a time
(31:20):
where I personally believe I don't have the statistics or the
facts. I just know what I feel.
And I see in my students, they are the most socially active
group of people and the most emotionally insecure group of
people that our history probablywill ever see.
(31:42):
And it's like their emotions areon their sleeve.
If anybody tells them no or tells them not right now or you
have to try harder, they crumble.
And, and but they are so socially active in the sense
that like people used to use this thing that use social media
as a as a, a ploy. They used to be like social
(32:05):
media is like diminishing their minds.
And I can understand in some ways, but when I saw a fight
break out in the hallway and within mere seconds of the end
of the fight, everybody said turn your air drop on.
And in mere seconds that fight was disseminated.
(32:27):
And I'm sure the same thing happened in 15 other classes
that that visual was was spread across from multiple angles.
Like like they are creating their own villages, They are
creating their own chat rooms. They are creating their own
space where they have codes, they have words, they have
(32:48):
language that they can use that a teacher won't ever know.
They have like rooms where people share fights on
Instagram, but teachers won't ever see them.
Or if they do, they try to crackdown on it.
And it's like, I just am. I'm, I'm weary of what social
(33:09):
justice looks like in the hands of that generation.
I'm not like, that's what I think about.
Like what will happen if a civilwar breaks out?
Yeah, I, I, I don't, that does worry me because if you want to
be frankly honest about it, I think it's a little alarming
because when I was growing up, Idon't want to miss Nick, say
(33:32):
like old stuff like that. But when I when I was growing up
and a person shot in the fight, the fight happened once it was
over. That was it.
That was it. You moved on with your life.
Now this generation, fight happens.
Fight gets posted to social media and that fight lives on
(33:52):
for years. Right.
And this person has to relive though, you know, fighting is a
traumatizing event, especially if you have to relive it over
and over again. And, you know, like especially
if we become the butt of a joke or a conversation like that.
And because of those things, sometimes these kids want to
retaliate because they've been embarrassed and they're being
(34:15):
constantly embarrassed because this video lives on forever.
The next thing you know, that's why you have these kids getting
guns and doing violent acts likethat.
And I think that's a very scary thing that we have these
situations where these kids are being put through these things
and these things that we just didn't have to deal when we were
younger that they just have to deal with now.
(34:35):
Just like it's not what they'll say.
Well, fight just society in general.
Like these these kids whole lives are in their phones and on
social media. That's the worst part of it at
all. And so you're not allowed to
make mistakes Like we were, we were a kid we made like when I
was a kid, I know there was a lot of things that kids said
(34:56):
that were dumb and offensive andstuff like that, but they were
allowed to say it because no onewas catching on the video.
And then when I was out there posting it and saying, hey, this
is a bad person. You know, you, you learn from an
older adult like, hey, you probably shouldn't be doing
that. Now these kids are making these
mistakes on social media in front of millions of people, and
these millions of people are judging them on those mistakes
(35:19):
for the rest of their lives. And I, you, I, I literally had
this exact conversation with a, with a, a girl in class that she
was, she was talking about how one of the, the APS has her
phone and she won't get it back.And one of the students asked,
(35:40):
they were like, you know, Sir, what do you do if the if the
student parent don't care? And I was like, well, that's
what makes it difficult for us to ever try to get through to
you. Because if your mom teaching you
that, you know, authority doesn't matter if you think it's
OK to curse out your AP, if you think that it's OK that you
(36:04):
thinking in your mind after you hang up with my Mama, I'm a
curse her out again because she can't call my Mama back.
Like if, if that's your thinking, then like you have
already put yourself in a, a place where you're going to be
categorized. And it's sad.
It's a, it's not that it's not right that people do this, but
(36:25):
teachers talk about you, teachers talk about like you,
you get classed. I remember seeing the statistics
that the most referrals if, if every time a person gets a
referral, it increases their likelihood to go to prison.
And we talk about students that don't care that they got 10 plus
(36:48):
referrals. Wow.
That's that's rough. Yeah, man, it's it's and and and
COVID don't make it no better. This, this, this generation.
I, I really, I really fight for stories like this.
I really fight for them to have pride on like it's, this is
something that I just, you know,I care passionately about.
(37:12):
And like, you know, it often feels like a vanity project when
I, when I talk to people. But in the, in the grand scheme
of it, like I will risk my livesfor my students.
I will put my life on the line to stand up for a a better
education and a better means of educating and because we need
(37:36):
it. Like I say, like their minds are
so far past the PC Dell computerthat we are accustomed to.
Their phones are 10 times fasterthan that.
If they got memory, they they can traverse worlds beyond what
we are even used to at this moment in technology like, and
(37:59):
it's happening faster and on a day-to-day basis.
They're changing, their thoughtsare changing.
And in this world, the same exact world that they are doing
all of that, they also have to fear that ISIS coming to raid
the school and make sure that all of the students have their
papers. Yeah, it's a interesting time
(38:20):
we're in now, man. I don't know how like I don't
know how to really answer for the deal with.
It's just more of a like, hey, we got to just be there for each
other and support each other to best our abilities.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, man, yeah, yeah.
And and, and and fight for what we believe is the truth.
(38:41):
That's that's one thing that that this whole thing covers is
what is the truth? Like what?
Like, you know, even if if it's hearsay.
OK, well, let's Fact Check it if, if, but let's talk about
what the real history is. Let's go back through time and
see what we valued as a community.
(39:03):
What has changed? Are we better?
Are we worse? You know, that goes back to your
question. Do do we feel like we've reached
the dream? It's like, you know, I think
everybody should look at themselves and be like, have we?
Am I better human? Do I talk or treat people
better? You know, has this time made me
(39:26):
more loving or has it made me more hateful?
That's the question then. That's the perfect place to end
this episode, man. That's something for food for
tough people. So, Lance.
Yes, Sir. Let them know where to find you
at, and more importantly, let them know where to see this play
(39:46):
at. OK, so you can find me at Lance
Under Score, Mark Keith on Instagram, Lance Mark Keith on
all other social medias and you can find this play at Stage
Works Theatre February 13th, February 12th and the 13th.
Tickets our own Eventbrite. So I will put the Eventbrite
(40:10):
link in the show notes. If you're in the Tampa area
around that time, definitely go check it out.
Tell Lance the devil sent you. Show them some love.
Place going to be dope. Thank you, Lance for coming on
brother. I appreciate you.
Thank you for having me man. Thank you so much.
And as always Devil Cox experience, we are out peace.
Peace, man.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes present: Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial
Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.