July 1, 2025 • 54 mins
Ep #77: Exploring the Intersections of Food, Art, and Community: A Conversation with Radius
This episode premiered first on Lumpen Radio on July 28, 2025
Summary of the episode
In this episode of noseyAF, we get into the transformative power of food, wellness, and culture with multidisciplinary creative Radius. Our conversation explores how food is not just sustenance, but a form of resistance, celebration, and healing—especially within Black and Brown communities. We talk about decolonizing our diets, embracing natural abundance, and how creativity, music, travel, and community all intersect in the journey to holistic wellness.
If you've ever thought about food as more than just something you eat—if it’s a connection to your roots, your creativity, your people—this one's for you.
What We Talk About
- How food can be a decolonial tool and a form of cultural empowerment
- Radius’s personal journey from traditional habits to holistic lifestyle living
- What it means to live abundantly—and honestly
- Traveling as a cultural ambassador and what it’s taught him
- Daily rituals, creative practices, and hydration as rebellion
- The role of music, photography, and storytelling in his mission
- An inspiring shoutout to Dr. Aris Latham and the importance of natural foods
Things We Mentioned
RA’s Natural Abundance – Radius’s wellness brand
Dr. Aris Latham’s Instagram – the father of gourmet ethical raw food cuisine
Lumpen Radio – where this episode was recorded
All About... Radius
Radius (Ramón, a.k.a. Radius Etc / Ramón Etc / RA) is an interdisciplinary artist, DJ, music producer, and photographer born and raised in Chicago, with deep roots on the city’s South Side. Known primarily by his moniker Radius, a name rooted in his early years immersed in hip-hop and graffiti culture, he embodies a practice centered on community, creativity, and care.
As a musician, Radius is the founder of ETC Records—a label and artist brand with an evolving list of meanings: Ear To Chicago, Educate The Children, Express Truth Consistently, Embrace The Circle, Empower The Community, and more. His work with ETC reflects his commitment to truth-telling, sonic exploration, and uplifting community narratives through sound. His forthcoming vinyl album, Alive & Thriving, will be released via Consumers Research and Development Label in collaboration with Someoddpilot Records in Fall 2025.
Under the name Ramón Etc, he explores photographic storytelling, capturing moments of place, migration, and transformation. His recent zine Brooklyn Zoned reflects on his time living in Brooklyn during the early pandemic (2020–2021), with upcoming projects documenting life in Morocco, Mexico, and beyond.
Beyond his creative practice, Radius is a passionate advocate for holistic health and food sovereignty. He actively promotes indigenous, earth-derived, plant-based living—especially sun-fired RA (raw) foods—helping others transition to cleaner lifestyles rooted in decolonization and wellness. This ethos extends into his community organizing as a co-founder of The Love Fridge Chicago, a mutual aid initiative that combats food insecurity through shared, accessible community fridges.
Radius’ work—whether through beats, images, food, or movement—is a dedication to liberation and joy. Grounded in love, gratitude, and an unwavering belief that we are meant to thrive, not just survive, he works to
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Gotta get up, get up to thewhole world. You a winner, winner,
vision of a star with amission in the cause what you doing,
how you doing, what you'redoing and who you are. Flex yourself
and press yourself Checkyourself, don't wreck yourself if
you know me then you know thatI'll be knowing what's up. Hey, Stephanie,
Graham is Nosy as you'relistening to WLPNLP Chicago 105.5
(00:29):
FM Lumpin Radio. Welcome toSaturday. Welcome to Two O' Clock.
I'm your host, Stephanie andtoday I'm talking with Radius, also
known as Radius, et cetera.He's a multidisciplinary creative
and a true all city Chicagonative with deep roots on the south
side and a vibe that's rootedin hip hop, community and wellness.
(00:50):
So Radius, welcome to nosy AF.
Greetings. Greetings,Stephanie. Thanks for having me.
So like, one thing I wanted tobring up quickly is that recently
on your Instagram stories youwere showing like sort of like this
book of like cooking, like howto cook something. Like you were
(01:12):
studying food. And I just, Inever study food, I just eat it and
just go out and socializearound food. And so I was like, oh,
that's so smart.
Yeah, well, I'm not sure, hey,I'm not, I'm not sure what it was
in. Right reference exactly.But there's some things there that
you mentioned that are inalignment with my day to day. I do,
(01:33):
I do study and immerse myselfwithin food, especially when it comes
to the holistic elements ofit, the natural elements in relation
to it. And yeah, it's a hugepart of, of my, my living and I like
to bring it more into theliving space in general and pay it
(01:54):
forward.
And so yeah, I admire thatabout you.
I respect, I'm grateful forthat. You know, it's been, it's been
something that's been withinmy being for a long time and it's
constantly expanding. They'reone and the same to me with the music
and I'm really tapped intothat the same in a similar way as
(02:16):
I am into music. Yeah.
Oh really?
For sure, for sure. So yeah,anything with the living element,
the life and bringing morelife into the vessel is into this
body and this is essentialbecause that's what we are, natural
living beings.
It just made me think like,oh, I should take like food more
(02:37):
seriously. Oh yeah, we, oh myGod, so childish.
Uh huh. Well, we all should.And I don't, I don't like to lose,
use absolutes when to otherslike you should. And you. You should
do this. But I thinkcollectively it is important because
we better understand ourrelationships with ourselves and
(02:57):
thus all creation if we did,you know, so there's a. There's an
internal and an externalconnection with that, you know, so
it's. Yeah, it's veryimportant if we, I.
Feel, if we want to thriveRadius as food chef.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(03:18):
And you, like, talk aboutdecolonizing through food. And so
I was wondering if you couldbreak down like, RA foods and why
they matter and especially forblack and brown folks. Because, like,
like I said, and I know that alot of people think this way probably
I'm assuming, you know, thatit's just such a social thing to
(03:41):
me. Like, so I don't thinkabout. I don't know, I just go back
to like, you studying food.
Right.
You know, but like, it seemedlike you like really study it versus
just like. And it's going tosound ignorant on my part, but just
like being like a chef, likelearning to just cook.
Okay. Yeah, well, you've.You've touched on a lot of elements
(04:03):
and they all intertwine and sobrings an autobiographical thing
that I would touch on as faras, like, so with my names and then
also those, Those endeavorsand. And the study in themselves
are. Are a living. It's aliving entity as well. Like, you
(04:25):
know, if I. From off top, if Igo into, for example. Well, I'll
start with this. Okay, soRadius in itself, that. That name
is mostly. People mostly knowme as Radius for. For music production,
music performance, recordsand. And music that I've. That I've
released and PJ and thingslike that. That's mostly where the
(04:50):
Radius and Radius the namestems from back in, I want to say
like late high school, reallybeing immersed in hip hop. So it
starts off as a tag graffitiname and essentially goes forward
into B boying and dancing.This being so immersed in hip hop,
my. My alias Radius comes fromthat. Buying records and DJ Radius
initially and then droppingthat off because I'm just embodied
(05:13):
Radius. You don't need to say.I don't feel you need to say DJ this
if you embody more than that.And that's. That's just. That's who
you are. And people start tocall you more who you are based upon
their introductions to you andtheir aliases and their tags and
things like that. So. And thenwhen it comes to the chef, the holistic
(05:35):
Wellness, I have RA's naturalabundance, RNA. And RA is. RA is
the prefix Of Ramon, which ismy birth name. Also the prefix of
radius. And other peoplecalling me Ra for short, especially
in Spanish and Latincommunity. I noticed that. And especially
(05:59):
with women or they'll shortenit too and say Ra, you know. And
as I was moving around more sowithin Mexico and other lands like
that, I embraced the Ra more.I was already kind of doing that
because it was shortened bysome others. But I was embracing
it more also because of theCameron Egyptian. And this is the
(06:22):
relations to the sun that somany, so many of us have. And of
course sun rod, just anythingrelated to the sun. I really, really
run with the sun. Like the sunis a big thing to me. And so that's,
that brings that element. Youknow, I usually like to stand in
the sun and few stretches. Andso when it comes to raw food, a lot
(06:48):
of people say raw food R a W.But if you go a little further in
sun food, that's where the rawfood can be. And I'm inspired also
by that from one of myteachers, master teachers based in
Panama. Well, I'll be going tostudy. I'll probably by the time
(07:09):
this airs will be out thereworking with him again, studying
with him in Panama again forsome things. Dr. Aris Latham has
sun fired food and he's, he'sknown as a gourmet raw gourmet godfather
cuisine. Sun fired where thesun is the chef. And everything that
(07:31):
we have is already in aperfect condition cooked by the sun.
We, we thrive the most highestby the sun. And even if, even if
we don't have the sun, we can,we need to consume it. And that consumption
is by sun food. And the foodthat receive the most energy is our
vegetation. And that's what wethrive the highest off of sun food.
(07:53):
So raw food, essentiallyliving food. Raw food so to speak
is where we would thrive asour highest because that's how we
started. And so with risenatural abundance, I'm saying this
is the natural sun element,this is the natural food. And that's
how we'll, we'll thrivebecause abundance is our birthright.
(08:16):
So that's, that's thathopefully that sums up those right
there.
Yeah, I love that. Abundanceis our birthright.
It is though. It is.
So yeah, yeah. Especially Imean you traveling to be with this
master teacher. That soundsvery abundant and luxurious, Ethan.
Yeah, well, I studied with himin 2021. Just a month ago, four years
(08:42):
ago, I left New York, put somestuff in storage, thinking I'd come
back to New York a little bitlater. But it was just, you know,
that's another story. I. Youknow, I moved there for an opportunity.
It was pandemic time. And Imoved there just before pandemic
time and. Well, just inJanuary 2020. And then I had a space
(09:06):
I was working within for anopportunity there. I was doing Airbnbs,
flipping Airbnbs in exchangefor rent for friends of mine that
moved up north. So to haverent taken care of in New York is
a major thing, you know, And Iwas already doing a lot of nomadic
and various moving around andpushing art and found myself in Chicago
(09:28):
after doing a gallery here andtrying to figure out what I was doing
in and out of it, you know,still trying to figure it out to
this day. Yet I had anopportunity that a friend presented.
I moved there, and theagreement was, yo, you're. You're.
I'll take care of your traintransportation and your housing if
you take care of the twoAirbnb properties in. I got. And
(09:50):
we move, we go up north. Andso, like, cool. Yet also I had. I
started to look for work too,because I was like, yo, I'm not making
any money doing this, but I amholding that down. And I got hired
by some restaurants. Butanyway, I ended up. So as time flew
a little bit, I had to. Thatsituation changed. So I had to go
stay. I had to. I ended upmoving in with two friends of mine
(10:13):
because I couldn't sustainthat place. And then as time went
on, I was like, man, I reallywant to live alone again. I was really
embracing that a few months inhaving that. And then after moving
around so long, not having aspace of solitude to myself, I was
grateful to have that. I canfinally build that in New York. And
(10:36):
that dynamic changed. So I putmy stuff in storage. I couldn't afford
to be alone, and I went to gostudy with Dr. Aries. I had some
money that came through. Andso now this is four years. This is
four years later since Ilinked with him, to just tap in with
him again and now be a part ofhis retreat a different way and see
what other opportunities could come.
(10:57):
So, yeah, that sounds superexciting and again, super fancy.
I gravitate towards thingsthat are fancy and that sound, you
know, well, fancy luxury.
So, yeah, but luxury in a. Ina sense of. Of not like balling out
of control, but ball luxury.
Right.
In a natural way. Like, he's.He's. He. He has roots in Panama
(11:20):
from Jamaican and Barbadianancestry, yet is there educating
people on a lifestyle so wecannot be sick and we can thrive
within our natural element. Solike, yeah, I'm going. That's a.
That's luxury in a sense.Like, yeah, our life is valuable,
(11:41):
so. Yep, exactly.
Was there like a moment whereyou realized food was like, more
than just like personalwellness? That it was like political,
spiritual, even artistic?
Wow, that's a really greatquestion. You soak it all in there.
(12:03):
I would say a combinationearly on. Okay. I have memories early
on of being around mygrandmother, my family, my. My family's
rooted in Chicago with mygrandmother, my grandparents and
above that come in from, ofcourse, the great migration in Mississippi
(12:25):
and things like that. So mygrandmother held on to certain practice.
I just remember her doingcertain things in the kitchen with.
With herbs or. Or likecleansing fruits and vegetables with
homemade solutions and justcertain things that she would say.
And I early on didn't like adoctor visiting a doctor, these types
(12:52):
of practices. There was alwayssomething off about it. And I gravitated
to an encyclopedia of herbs.Dr. Heinerman. I can't remember when,
but I was definitely ateenager and looking into ways to
cure, heal myself, so tospeak. And these. These books coupled
with some of the things Iremember being around her started
(13:15):
to unlock more, you know, sothat's like some of my earliest memories
with that and gravity beingalso coming up in the southeast side
of Chicago, mostly SouthChicago, South Shore, High Park,
Kenwood, those areas in WestInglewood, those areas. Early on,
(13:40):
I remember seeing certainthings that would pop out that would
show some sort of wellness andhealth in a mix like colon therapy
or like other. Something wouldpop up and I just would have these
visions, like, what does thatmean? You know, So I would see some
art of that early on, as youhave me thinking, flashing back as
far as the decolonizationelement, that. That grew more as
(14:02):
I continue to move around indifferent places. I've been through
like Ecuador and as Imentioned, Panama and Costa Rica.
I spent a lot of time inMexico and Ecuador too, but way more
in Mexico and. And alsotapping in with Dr. Iris, the decolonization
element. It's interestingbecause a friend of mine pointed
(14:23):
out that colon is indecolonization, you know, and that
has sparked something evenmore recently. You know, a lot of
us talk about like, ouroppressors and land back and defund
the police and so manyelements of. You know, thankfully
(14:45):
we. We co. Found a lovefridge. We have. We have. That's
an anarchist mutual aidactivity that comes with. That's
more of a decolonizationelement with food. So it's it's,
it's a, it's just to say ifwe're going to focus on those things
and be revolutionaries, well,you got Dick Gregory, you got Layla
(15:10):
Africa, you got Francis CrestWilson, you got a lot of individuals
that tapped into the holisticelements. The Queen Afua. These are
people. It's revolution. It'sso revolutionary. And to decolonize
by us going further into whowe are as natural, natural people,
living people, and to let gomore of the oppressor's food, so
(15:34):
to speak, the westerncivilization, and so to speak, the
ways of eating that are precolonial is essential for us to thrive.
And I'm really focused a loton that, especially within our music
and art community, more so nowthan ever, because I see it so much
around me because I'm in thesecommunities, you know, and I don't
(15:57):
see them too, I don't see themas different communities because,
you know, once again, thisculture likes to separate and make
genres and subjects andconstructs. But the overlap is, it's
one to me. So if you want toreally decolonize, we really gotta
go further into that and letgo of some of those. And not be sick
(16:21):
out here.
Yeah, let's not be sick outhere. One thing that's been super
popular is like black travel.Black people travel, you know, women
travel, travel solo. Like,it's this whole like movement, you
know, and you've been to tonsof places you've, you know, traveled
(16:45):
to that you've lived in. And Ijust wonder if you could speak to
what that does for you. Andlike, maybe some of those things
that you pull from all thesedifferent places, like what you bring
back to Chicago.
Oh, wonderful. Yeah, the fullcircle element, like the, I'm, I'm
(17:06):
like a bridge, an ambassador,so to speak. You know, a lot of people
are using the word expats alot. And I don't know if that's really
a strong enough thing for it.Because when I, the more that I tap
into this, whether it bethrough elders I've connected with,
books I read, or even mostimportantly, my own personal documentation
(17:28):
and living, struggling, movingthrough these spaces because a lot
of how I move is, and a lot ofpeople say they might over the years,
I envy you, or I'm jealous ofyou, or like, I would, I wish I could
travel with you. A lot ofpeople don't realize that I, I, I
haven't taken, like, oh, I gotthis wealth of money, I'm about to
(17:50):
go ball out and go to allthese places. I haven't lived like
that yet, you know, I, I, mygoal is to go to a lot of these places
and be invested in personallybroadening them to help exchange
and educate or do my ownaccord and go be able to fall out
and check what it's like to dothings in these places. A lot of
(18:11):
my travel has been taking alittle bit of what I had or coming
back into Chicago or othercities I've lived in, hustling different
endeavors I know and goingright back in because I have a strong
vision and I, that for what Iwant to do and, and, and I may not
even fully know everything,but I'm, I really strive to go into
(18:34):
spaces and with intention andthere's reasoning for them or if
I really want to reach acertain space and I'm over here,
but by this time I want toreach this space and it's like I
gotta really see that through.I might end up going somewhere along
the way because I still wantto reach that, that space. So I consider
(18:57):
myself a cultural ambassadorand my, and I look at our ancestors,
A lot of our ancestors,whether you're in Morocco, you have
the Amazigh, which is anindigenous term for people that's
there often call the negativeterm bar Berber barberry means barbaric,
barbaric. But their indigenousword is Amazigh. They're, they're
(19:21):
a nomadic people. There arepeople of the land that move around.
You have the Fulani peoplethat are in other areas of Africa
that move around. You havegypsies that move around. I, I feel
strongly a lot of us aremigration, migration people and we
move in a tribe and we'relooking to connect with each other.
(19:42):
More and more of us are comingtogether. We may have been displaced
by our own movements or byslavery and other movements that
have come through anddisplaced us or killed a lot of our
ancestors off. So now, youknow, we, we, we're a lot of us are
doing that. We might not knowwhy we are pushed to do that and
(20:07):
maybe there's more for us tounlock. When I come back into these
spaces, especially coming fromthe south side, south east, southwest
side and living all over thecity, there's a, there's a line by
common that I've always lovedthat's on like Waterford on, like
on some, I don't forget thewhole bars. But he says that you
(20:30):
know about traveling the worldand somebody asked him about traveling
the world and he finds outthat he hasn't been past downtown.
Like I've come across thatbeing over here riding the bus. People
don't know what it's like onthe other side of the city. People.
People might only live withintheir certain neighborhood or few
around them. They don't knowwhat it's like to go to the west,
(20:52):
to the north. I did a lot ofthat early on. So for people to even
go to another city, let aloneanother state, another country, is
major. So if I come throughand I'm able to reflect in my documentation,
whether it's food, music,photography, or any other element
that I embody from me goingthrough there that I feel that's
(21:16):
major, to inspire somebodyelse and thus gonna further inspire
me. So yeah.
Yeah, that's awesome. Anotherfavorite quote of mine from Common
is just because you're in amusic video doesn't mean you're ball,
yo.
Ain't for real though, right?
It's. Yeah, for real.Something like that. Or like not
(21:37):
everybody that has a musicvideos ball or something like that,
I'm like, you know, that'sseriously so true.
I've been in a few. You knowwhat I mean? Yeah, yeah.
In your name, Radius, etc.That has like a whole bunch of meanings,
right? Like it's like educatethe children and base and is it educate
(21:57):
the children. Embrace the circle.
There's a lot of them.
Expose the corrupt.
Yeah, there's a lot.
What was, what was the firstphrase that came to you?
Wow.
And like, how has it grown?
Okay, yeah, so I'm radiusfirst and the RA and the radius,
et cetera came along from acouple different things. One, a lot
(22:20):
of people might be familiarwith. Tall black guy. I had a. So
I had an EP that I did in 2009called etc. And I released it with
some good friends of mine thatwere based in New York, a crew of
mine from Dallas. I moved toNew York called Gritty Goat and shouts
(22:40):
to my brothers, especiallyKevin and Hans. They don't live in
New York anymore, but the EPwas called etc. And the goal is etcetera
was to showcase that I haveother styles, I'm working on other
styles. So if you had alreadyknown me for this instrumental hip
hop element you can tap into,I'm working more and navigating into
(23:04):
the house to techno and brokenbeat and ambient stuff. So that EP
embodies different things. Sobecause I was. I was. I was working
on a lot of music and I was, Iwas, I was, I was experimenting.
I would go to spots to dancemore here and I was hearing things.
I'd go back home and make alot More so Et cetera was like infinity
(23:24):
limitless at first. Timeless,you know. And so when tall black
guy did a remix on a project,he put radius, etc. In there. As
I saw that that was one thinghe put. He put that there. But also
the digital platforms,Spotify, itunes, all this. There's
(23:45):
other radiuses that exist, thegroups and stuff like that. So for
me to further separate myselffrom some of them, I hate. I hate
that stuff and the algorithm.And even if you write them, they
don't categorize you properly.So to differentiate, I took the radius,
etc. A little bit more.That's. That's another reason. And
just kind of. So my labelbecame Et cetera. Like I started
(24:11):
making planted seeds for a setof records. Maybe like 2011, 2012.
And whenever there's arelease, especially vinyl, those
vinyl that vinyl reflects in.Etc. So the first one. Yes. Was Educate
the children. Ever release asrelated. Like has that. So there
(24:39):
is this. And. And I started tothink of more. And the thing was
if an artist is on a label,which is really good friends of mine
initially, please inputanother etc for your project. So
etc is just like what. Etcetera is limitless, Timeless. You
can't there. The number of Etcetera can be. I've had so many,
(25:00):
I've forgotten, you know. Soyeah, educate the children. Expose
the corrupt. Embrace thecircle. Excite the crowd. Express
truth consistently. Everythingchanges. Expect to change. There's
so many of them, you know, andit's ongoing.
Yeah, yep. Yeah. I love that.
(25:22):
Yeah. Respect and love becausethat's what the life. This life is.
Yeah. And I feel like there'slike, you know, how folks will have
like different cliques. Like Ifeel like I could be like a Stephanie,
etc.
Of course.
Like do something now. Likepeople can like make. Become an etc
now.
Right. Yo, for real.
Or et cetera.
Yep, yep.
Yeah, I love that.
(25:43):
Yeah. That's what it is. It'sunlimited. I can't. I can't hold
it, you know, But I can put itout there for others to gravitate
to as they can and add to it.I just. I always want.
Yeah.
I'm always about community andexpansion. I'm not about like. Like
solo destruction and this. Wedon't build, you know, so.
(26:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. For somereason, big things pop and comes
to mind.
For real. Exactly. Yeah, yo,for real. Yeah. I think of etc for
that.
You also are a musician, aphotographer, community builder.
(26:33):
You know, do you have afavorite or is it all the same to
you?
There was a moment when reallycoming up, navigating what I say
was Babylon Matrix. Reallycoming up within this and seeing
how everything is like Imentioned construction constructed
and genres and justcompartmentalized. They compartmentalized.
(26:55):
You know, I used to be like,okay, I'm gonna do this. Oh, I'm
not spending enough timemaking music. Oh, I'm not spending
enough time doing that. I usedto. Oh, I gotta. I gotta block now.
I can't do this. I gotta. OnceI broke that out and once one of
my bigger big brother Rossbrothers Josh son respect me. Well,
once he said to me one time wewere working on music. Working on
(27:16):
music in la. He's from here.He's. He lives in Barcelona now.
But once we were working onmusic and he was like, the box doesn't
exist. We gotta navigate as ifthe box never existed. Just get it
out of there. So anytimepeople say think outside the box,
that's still a limitation.When we say the sky is a limit, that's
a limitation. That's one thingI've come across. Like, it's limitless
(27:39):
skies. There is no such thingas a box. Once I embrace that element
more, then it's like, okay,etc. It's like, as long as I'm creating,
because naturally we're allcreators. So people are like, oh,
I'm not a creative. We allare. If I'm not working on music,
(27:59):
it's going. And I got mycamera with me and I'm making sure
that I have it out or I havethis other thing out. As long as
it's out, I might be intransition, I might be stagnant.
There's something that mightbe throwing me off. But as long as
I have something out and Igravitate to it, I'm doing something
creative. It's going to feedinto the other endeavors because
it's all one. So I don't havea. Necessarily, I wouldn't say too
(28:22):
much of a favorite, but yet Iwill say that there is something
about music. It's all. Musicis definitely the foundation and
the orchestrator of all ofstill of it all. Because the way
that I feel when I'm dancingthe music, meditating, rating music,
(28:48):
creating music solo and withothers, performing music, DJing,
there is no feeling that canoverride that. That's. That's the.
That's the ultimate. And Icould tell that obviously things
are created out of the soundwaves. It's pretty obvious. So, yeah,
I would say that that's.That's the. That's the thing, you
(29:11):
know, that's the.
Yeah, that's the base. Yeah.For me it's like filmmaking. Like
I feel like everything that Ithink of, like comes through like
storytelling, you know.
Yeah.
And it's like the foundationof everything.
And, and when I create music,I see visuals. Just like when, when
I'm documenting with video,video or, or photo, I may have music
(29:33):
going, I may be hearingsounds. It's all, it's all going
in and out. I don't. The audiovisual is very, is. Is very strong
in the connection. Yeah. So.Yeah. You know, and of course the
holistic. The food is going toempower all that. We all need our
nourishment, even though wemay, we may like neglect that because
we're really involved in ourmusic. Oh, I didn't nourish myself.
(29:54):
Once you get that, you know,you're going to really hone in on
all that.
Then with your photography,you've like brought your camera with
you everywhere. Can you speakabout your photography and then like
how it breaks out in yourzines. And your new project, Brooklyn
(30:16):
Zoned.
Thank you. Brooklyn Zoned. Yeah.
So that's beautiful. Let'sdescribe it to the listener. So listener
radius is holding up BrooklynZoned, which is a zine that is black.
It says Brooklyn Zoned inyellow. And the picture is a city
(30:39):
street with the sun coming up.
Yep. Standing from a train,right? Uh huh. I was standing from
a train platform in Brooklynand I saw the sun. I think the sun
is actually setting. And itsays Ramon et cetera in red. And
on the back it has my links tomy site and my Instagram and things
like that and my label, etc.Records. So this is a 60 plus page
(31:03):
documentation, the zine. I'vedone three other books in the past,
published trade books. One wason the first one was a black and
white of different travels.This is like maybe 2018 and in 2019.
Well, no, yeah, like around2017. 2018, 2019. And there was a
(31:24):
one after that that's anotherdocumentation of travels, more so
in color. And then the thirdone is specifically Ethiopia, when
I would have been throughEthiopia, Addis Ababa and Lalibela.
I have documentation of thatand trade books and so what's that?
The trade books?
No, this. What did you say? Sababa.
(31:45):
Addis Ababa. The capital. Thecapital of Ethiopia.
Oh yeah.
Addis Ababa. Yeah, yeah. Um,in Lalibela, Ethiopia. I went there
in 2009, 2019. A pilgrimage. Iwent, I went over there in like March
of 20, 20, 19. But yeah, sothose. And those books are the first
(32:12):
ones I did. And I Brooklynzoned. I was living in New York,
as I mentioned, in pandemictime. But 2020-2020-2020-2021. Also
got a new camera in 2021. Andso this book features analog and
digital photography, mostlydigital with my newer camera with
(32:35):
my phone as well as film withsome disposables as well in there.
And I was. A lot of healingwas going on for me at that time
and a lot of creative, a lotof music because I was living in
New York, Brooklyn, at a spotto myself for the most of that time.
And I was going to be, I feltliving there long term. I didn't
(33:00):
know the pandemic was comingor none of us did. And also I didn't
know that I was not going tobe able to hold down the spot that
I had and so on. But I wasdocumenting at that time. And so
I feel the zines are reallyimportant because they are a moving
gallery, just like thegraffiti trains are. And you know,
(33:22):
they, you can, you can takethem with you and you could put them
anywhere and the next personcan see them and walk with them and
buy them for somebody else andkeep it, keep it moving. I think
it's an art form that, thatcame up in more radical times to
punk rock scene and otherscenes probably. And now it's being
(33:44):
embraced more. And I thought,let me do my works a little differently,
even though it's similar tothe trade books, but it's a little
different of a format. So Ifigured on the, Let me try, let me
go this route now. And I'll bedoing Morocco and Mexico and I have
folders set of differentdocumentation that I'm in process
(34:04):
of laying out to get more ofthat work out there, specific locations.
Do you design it yourself?
Oh yeah.
Did you lay it out yourself?Oh, wow.
Yeah. I've done all thelayouts for my books and to be honest
with you, like, I started offas a. I know music was always present
(34:25):
because I come from a musicfamily more or less yet I was drawing
very early and drawing oftenbefore anything. So I don't draw
much now. And I've recentlypicked up a little bit because I've
been around more writers ingraffiti lately. So I've picked up
(34:47):
a pen a little bit to trysomething. But my, my, my drawing
was deterred in art school, Ifeel a little bit. And it went, and
it went more into thephotography and the music, you know,
that channeled another way. SoI kind of got out of drawing much
and. But, you know,photography really, I feel, captures
a lot of that. That is thatelement. Yeah.
(35:07):
I feel like there's like a rawhonesty in your work, you know, and,
you know, whether it's likethe beats or the photography or community
organizing and do you thinklike, honesty, the word honesty is
like something that wepractice or is it something we channel?
(35:28):
Like, how can we be more honest?
Wow, that's a great question.Yeah. Genuine.
Because, you know, folks are.Folks are acting wild out here.
For real, though. Well, youknow, everything, everything more
or less beginning at the endof the day, start with the self,
you know, and it comes fromthis nucleus of this space. So am
(35:51):
I being honest and true tomyself first? Before I step into
any spaces that I'm going to,whether that's a physical space or
a relationship space of anykind, am I being honest, truthful
with myself? And so I feelthat takes like a reference. Another
(36:14):
rap rap line. Because I'm abig Wu Tang cat. Coming up, Capadonna.
He says every, Every other dayI have about myself meeting, it's
important to have a. I thinkhe said it's either. Every day. I
think it says every other day,maybe either way. But like, because
off, off top, I mean, I hearit, I know it, but like, you know,
you gotta have a meeting withyourself and check yourself, but
(36:36):
also not overthink. And I can,I can get into that. And that's,
that's been the death of me toa degree in certain spaces. And I'm
getting better. But that alsoshows that. How important the breath
is and breathing and beingpresent. But when we're. The more
we're present with ourselves,then we know, okay, I'm not being
honest. Be more honest withyourself first and, or, or life is
(37:01):
going to check you. Anddefinitely has checked me in times,
you know, I really feel it'sso important to be honest, you know,
I cannot be.
I love this by myself meeting.Like, what's your morning routine
like?
Well, I've gotten into some ofour bad. Our distractions though,
so I. Depending on where I'mat, you know, certain time living
(37:26):
situations aren't the mostfitting sometimes. But I'll. I'll
grab that phone. Sometimesthat's a bad thing, you know, I'll
grab the phone.
Me too.
And I, and I'm. I'm betterwhen I put the phone in another side
of the room or out of theroom, you know, and I. And I gotta
do that again. But when I'mnot doing that. I usually, I usually
(37:46):
give thanks first off forlife. You know, I do my best to,
to go in how I go to sleepmost of the time. And that is just
being grateful for being here.And I want to do more of that. I
didn't even do it today, soI'm going to say it right now. I
give thanks for life. I'mgrateful to be present. I'm grateful
for life. I'm grateful foranother opportunity to be here and
(38:10):
be present and thrive. And I'mgrateful for you for having me here
with you and for bringing me in.
Thank you.
But like giving thanks firstoff is, is, is the more is a thing
and doing some sort ofstretching. Some sort of stretching
and breathing is good, even ifit's a quick one. So we want a little
bit of connection with the body.
(38:31):
Yeah.
Is it, Is it? And then I'llgravitate into breaking fast a little
later. And I'll usually bringin the most hydrating fruit I can
for my, for my hydration, youknow, for my, for my electricity
and for my, for my. Just tocut the lights on, so to speak. So
(38:52):
usually that's, that's whatfruit is that. Usually it's a melon.
Usually it's some sort ofmelon, whether it be watermelon or
honeydew melon or cantaloupeor canary or crenshaw or one of the
melons, because that's themost water, the most hydrating outside
of a coconut water that is themost electrolyte heavy next to cucumber,
(39:17):
which is also in the samefamily. But I usually start with
a melon and it's going todigest the fastest, it's going to
cleanse the fastest. It'sgoing to just do what it do the fast.
It's, it's, it's, it's likesome of the best water you can ever
bring in in the, in the air.Highly high, highly electrical electrolytes.
So that's first. Or I'll take,I'll take some spring or distilled
(39:41):
water and squeeze a bunch ofkey limes into it because that's
going to alkalize and bringthe, make the water structured and
more vibrant because thisempty water isn't going to do anything.
So you got to, you got toactivate it like you would the fruit,
make it into a fruit, so tospeak. So I usually do start my day
with or juice and that'spretty much a juice once you activate
(40:04):
it with some citrus. Sothat's, that's usually It.
I see why people say they'rejealous of you. You're really living
this, like, creative life outhere. Like, so fun. Well, so glamorous.
Wow.
I mean, hey, this is ouroriginal ways.
Get some key lime.
You got to go into the marketto get. There you go. And any citrus,
(40:24):
preferably with seeds. She'llhelp you to start off. You know,
it's going to. They're acid,but once they go in, they turn alkaline
and they just get you. Theyget you ready. They have life within
it, and they're going tobring. They're going to. Thus are
going to bring more into that.You know, a lot of people start their
day off with coffee that's onthem. But if you think about it,
like, that's a process. That'sa process. And it's a. It's a heated
(40:52):
process and it's a darkersubstance. It's like, well, as far
as, you know, aestheticallyand what it contains, and it's an
acid. You know, I would. Iwould. I. I think that if I was in
nature, like our fellowprimates, our fellow hominids, I
would be going immediately forthe. The true fast food. And that's
(41:15):
picking something off for thetree or off the vine and eating that
first to start my day, to getthe lights going. And that's okay.
You know, this is somethingthat I've learned over time, tapping
into experience studies anddirect education as well. Combination
of those things, you know. Andhow do I feel when I do that? I'm
(41:36):
ready. Even if I only got fourhours of sleep, my body's like, yo,
let's go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Huh? Okay. I'm definitely acoffee person, so I have to think
about that.
I would. I would break fastwith something natural that digests
really fast. Get the lights onfirst, then bring your coffee in.
Because coffee is going to. Isdiuretic. Yeah. But it's going to
(41:59):
also dehydrate you.
So, you know, if I can askanother selfish question, you know,
because you're like, all withthe food, the recreational sugar,
candy. You know, we weretalking, you know, outside of this
year, like, oh, you can have,like, a date for, like, sweet stuff.
You remember.
Do you have any suggestions toget off of recreational sugar? Because
(42:23):
I know, like, in, like,American Diet, right. Like, maybe
sugar is hard to get out ofeverything, but. So that's why I
say like, recreational, whereit's like, you know, Sharon, a starburst
star. There you go, you know,Jelly belly. Oh, my gosh.
Okay. All right, Right, right.Taking it back.
Any suggestions?
Skittles and all that. So letme say this. I'll say a couple things.
(42:48):
I'm still continuing on in,in, in. In this form of this human
experience and this, in thisself mastery. I'm continuing on.
I'm still a student. I'm stilla baby. I'm not a healer. I am a
conduit in a space as abridge. So I'm gonna continue to
unlock this and I'm open formore knowledge and wisdom and to
(43:11):
share an exchange. So I don't.I'm not coming with any absolutes.
Let me just put that first off.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
And also to say I grew up allover the city of Chicago, mostly
Southeast and Southwest hood.It was all around me. The, the fast
(43:35):
food, the sugary snacks, thechips, the salty stuff all around
me. So I didn't start off likethis. And I'll say, and I give much
love to my, to my family,especially my mother. My mother started
us off on. When we go togatherings, you and your brother
(43:58):
got to share a soda. You can'tdrink a whole one. And we might sneak
one, but we wasn't having abunch. My mother started us off like
that. And I used to take. Iused to take lemons and strawberries
and dip them in sugar and eatthem. I used to make Kool Aid, don't
get me wrong, I used to putfruit, fresh fruit into the Kool
Aid. At a point, some told methis makes sense. So only to say
(44:23):
all that recreational stuff,all these refined sugars are out
here to mimic nature, to mimicwhat we naturally are supposed to.
This body thrives off ofglucose, fructose, simple sugars.
It wants that. And that's whyI mentioned fruit earlier. And that's
why I mentioned our importanceof fruit and breaking the fast with
fruit. These are, these arethings here to mimic that. So a way
(44:47):
to first off is to not have itaround, like certain elements of
things that I really was into.I had to just really. But you know
what? I'm not going to buythis today. I'm going to buy this
today. I specialize and I'mreally available and open. Anybody
who wants to build more aboutthis, I specialize what I like to
say in transitioning. And ifyou take the word diet, you see the
(45:09):
word dies in it. Diet to me isgoing to lead to disease, sickness,
death. We want to go to out ofhabit and into lifestyle living.
So if so, if so, if so, theway to shift that, I would say is
increase our Ways rehydrate.Like I mentioned earlier, the ways
and the value of our hydrationis very important. It helps us to
(45:32):
curve these cravings. Um, andyou mentioned dates natural. It just
means, like, somebody mightnot be consuming, you know, may not
be consuming enough fruit, maynot be consuming fruits at a certain
time. Dates and figs are greatthings. When there's a. Some people
have asked me before I get acraving late night, I go eat cookies
(45:53):
and dates and figs and othertypes of fruit can be a way to curve
that. Or maybe you didn't haveenough, or maybe your hydration wasn't
enough. And so you're. You'regetting into that. Or maybe certain
herbs could help you, likeburdock root or dandelion or certain
bitter things that can helpyou. Certain salads can help you
to curve those things. But Ithink, first of all, if any of things
(46:16):
we're mainly addicted to, ifwe try our best not to have as much
as of it around or maybe takea day when we don't do that or another
day we don't do that and nothave it so much around us and bring
something else with us to thefunction and be like, you know what?
I'm going to stick to what Ihave here. That has helped me also,
you know, and not being alsoso hard on ourselves. But just, you
(46:41):
know, I think those are someof the ways to do. To do that.
So I hope, I hope I'll sayyes. I will say, hey, guys, instead
of bringing Jelly Belly andHennessy to the party, I have bought
figs and dates.
Yeah, I brought some figs anddates. I'm gonna share it, you know.
Gonna share it.
Yeah. Bring your own.
Enjoy.
Bring your own date. Here'sanother saying that comes. Today
(47:04):
is the perfect date to take adate on the date for dates.
I love it.
I made that up. Could quote meon that.
I love that. But, you know,big, oh, bring your own date party.
Come on now. Today's a perfectdate to bring a date on. A date for
dates.
Wow, what a tongue twisterthat is. Oh, man, you say that three
(47:25):
times fast, you get a date.
There you go. Oh, my gosh.
I love it so much. Yeah, Ifeel like we could have like, oh,
my gosh. I bet, like, your artopenings. You probably have, like,
the best food and snacks andessential drinks and all sorts of
(47:45):
stuff you have that's essential.
Essential.
The place to be. Your stuff isprobably the place to be.
Yeah. And. Oh, yeah. And withmore resources in the right time,
it's going to be even more. Iknow it just this past Monday. Well,
as far as the memorial,daytime I was in Detroit and opened
an exhibition with a goodfriend of mine, Moppy and DJ Moppy
(48:09):
collaborated from Chicagobased in Detroit. Again now he just
opened up his space called theMop Shop and I was the first featured
artist. Yeah. And he's goingto be called moving of the movement
of people and other elementsis going to come out of that. He's.
He's got some other breakdownsfor the mop element too, but. Yeah.
So my exhibition was alive andthriving and that we had. I cut up
(48:33):
watermelon seeded watermelonand I cut up some other golden honeydew
melon. I made a watermelonmint key lime juice. Well, watermelon
tells you what it is. It'swater. So I made really a water,
a key lime mint water. But we,you know, melons anyway, you get
(48:55):
what I'm saying. I love that Ilike to have these things. I love
curating and coordinatingevents. I love doing that and I love
to have it all embodied. Ilove all of the senses to be stimulated,
all of them, so you can walkaway and not just be like, the music
was great or the art was dope,but I feel good. The food tasted
(49:18):
good. The visuals areexcellent. It sounded good. I want
them all to be stimulatedbecause it's going to resonate long
term and it's going to bring.Also I like to bring that family
element and that home elementthat I don't often have as being
nomadic or sometimesexperience degrees of houselessness
(49:39):
or these other elements oftime. I like to bring that so people
are there. Man, oh man. Youknow how to bring us all together
and we really feel good whenwe leave because I'm bringing you
into a home, you know, andthat's, you know, that's so. Yeah,
yeah, it's all. I'm all about that.
Yeah. One question before weland this plane.
Cool.
But okay, this, this likefancy water, you know, with the kiwi
(50:00):
and stuff. Can we make it andthen keep it by. Or key lime. Can
we make it and keep it by ourbed? You know, like, you know, in
case you make wake up in themiddle of the night and you're thirsty.
Is that fine or does it haveto be cold?
No, no, no. It's up to you onhow you like to receive. I. I feel
from my. For my. From my, frommy experience and knowledge and movements.
(50:22):
I feel it's best to take the.To water any type of liquids in more
so at a room temperature. Moreso at our body temperature. And slightly
chill is cool. Of. Of course,we. We love. We love hot drinks.
We love teas and things likethat. I think too hot or too cold
is not really that great, youknow, for. Especially depending on
(50:44):
the climate and what's goingon. But. Yeah, why not? You know,
why not? But just keep in mindthat that hydration level increases
to a more vibrant level whenyou put any type of living entities
in it. Like you just mentionedthe lines. So you're going to most
(51:04):
likely be going to thebathroom a little more. You know
what I mean? So which is.Which is a good thing. But if you're
trying to sleep, you might notwant that. You know, when we're sleeping,
we're fasting. Our body'srepairing. And then you go into breaking
your fast and the rising time.So if you have it by. If you go to
bed and you have it there, youdrink it right away.
(51:25):
Hey, it is what it is.
It is what it is.
Yeah. Hey, anything else youthink we should cover before we call
our conversation?
Unity's in the community.Unity's in the word community communications
in there. So as long as ourcommunication is holistic and. And
(51:46):
honest, we will unify more andcontinue to decolonize from that
which is bringing us any typeof lack, energy and fear, you know,
And. Yeah, you know, I justwould like to encourage us to invest
more in each other so that wecan thrive, you know, and.
(52:06):
Yes.
Yeah.
And we'll be happy and healthy.
We will be good nature.
We'll have fun.
We'll have fun. Nature's gotit. So.
Yeah, for sure. Wow. Thank youso much, Radius, for talking to me.
Big thanks to Radius forcoming to Lumpen today. I don't know
(52:28):
about y' all, but I was atbrunch earlier and I hate to say
it, but I had coffee. I hadcoffee before water and oops. And
I hate to also say it. I had amimosa, too. I had a mimosa, too.
All these things before havingmy full glass of water. You know
(52:50):
what? That's why Radia saysthat we have to have grace with ourselves
because God willing, tomorrowwill be a better day. And when I
leave you all, I'm going toget myself some key limes. I am really
inspired by what he wassaying. And you know what? I might
even host a brunch. Like,listen, just go with me here. A brunch
(53:13):
theme. Key lime water. You gotyour lime green. We got our melon
water. We got our dates, ourfigs. It's super elevated and we
are just having a time, right?I don't know, I just think it could
be lovely if you've enjoyedtoday's conversation with Radius.
(53:33):
He's on Instagram at Radiusetc and you are invited to check
out his zine Brooklyn Zone andphotography@ramonetcphoto.com More
conversations like the onewe've had today are right here on
Lumpin Radio. There are somany lovely shows that Lumpin produces
(53:55):
here and I'm really hopingthat you are enjoying them and checking
them out. My name is StephanieGraham and this has been Nosy af.
I hope you're enjoying yourSaturday. What are you up to? Folding
laundry, running errands,sipping iced coffee after you've
had your water and just likevibing out, you know, whatever you're
up to. Enjoy the rest of yourday. I really hope that it's a casual
(54:19):
day for you. Nosy.
Gotta get up, get up to thewhole world. You a winner, winner,
vision of a star with amission in the cause what you doing,
how you doing, what you'redoing and who you are. Flex yourself
and press yourself Checkyourself, don't wreck yourself if
you know me then you know thatI'll be knowing what's up. Hey, Stephanie,
Graham is Nosy as you'relistening to WLPNLP Chicago 105.5
(00:29):
FM Lumpin Radio. Welcome toSaturday. Welcome to Two O' Clock.
I'm your host, Stephanie andtoday I'm talking with Radius, also
known as Radius, et cetera.He's a multidisciplinary creative
and a true all city Chicagonative with deep roots on the south
side and a vibe that's rootedin hip hop, community and wellness.
(00:50):
So Radius, welcome to nosy AF.
Greetings. Greetings,Stephanie. Thanks for having me.
So like, one thing I wanted tobring up quickly is that recently
on your Instagram stories youwere showing like sort of like this
book of like cooking, like howto cook something. Like you were
(01:12):
studying food. And I just, Inever study food, I just eat it and
just go out and socializearound food. And so I was like, oh,
that's so smart.
Yeah, well, I'm not sure, hey,I'm not, I'm not sure what it was
in. Right reference exactly.But there's some things there that
you mentioned that are inalignment with my day to day. I do,
(01:33):
I do study and immerse myselfwithin food, especially when it comes
to the holistic elements ofit, the natural elements in relation
to it. And yeah, it's a hugepart of, of my, my living and I like
to bring it more into theliving space in general and pay it
(01:54):
forward.
And so yeah, I admire thatabout you.
I respect, I'm grateful forthat. You know, it's been, it's been
something that's been withinmy being for a long time and it's
constantly expanding. They'reone and the same to me with the music
and I'm really tapped intothat the same in a similar way as
(02:16):
I am into music. Yeah.
Oh really?
For sure, for sure. So yeah,anything with the living element,
the life and bringing morelife into the vessel is into this
body and this is essentialbecause that's what we are, natural
living beings.
It just made me think like,oh, I should take like food more
(02:37):
seriously. Oh yeah, we, oh myGod, so childish.
Uh huh. Well, we all should.And I don't, I don't like to lose,
use absolutes when to otherslike you should. And you. You should
do this. But I thinkcollectively it is important because
we better understand ourrelationships with ourselves and
(02:57):
thus all creation if we did,you know, so there's a. There's an
internal and an externalconnection with that, you know, so
it's. Yeah, it's veryimportant if we, I.
Feel, if we want to thriveRadius as food chef.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(03:18):
And you, like, talk aboutdecolonizing through food. And so
I was wondering if you couldbreak down like, RA foods and why
they matter and especially forblack and brown folks. Because, like,
like I said, and I know that alot of people think this way probably
I'm assuming, you know, thatit's just such a social thing to
(03:41):
me. Like, so I don't thinkabout. I don't know, I just go back
to like, you studying food.
Right.
You know, but like, it seemedlike you like really study it versus
just like. And it's going tosound ignorant on my part, but just
like being like a chef, likelearning to just cook.
Okay. Yeah, well, you've.You've touched on a lot of elements
(04:03):
and they all intertwine and sobrings an autobiographical thing
that I would touch on as faras, like, so with my names and then
also those, Those endeavorsand. And the study in themselves
are. Are a living. It's aliving entity as well. Like, you
(04:25):
know, if I. From off top, if Igo into, for example. Well, I'll
start with this. Okay, soRadius in itself, that. That name
is mostly. People mostly knowme as Radius for. For music production,
music performance, recordsand. And music that I've. That I've
released and PJ and thingslike that. That's mostly where the
(04:50):
Radius and Radius the namestems from back in, I want to say
like late high school, reallybeing immersed in hip hop. So it
starts off as a tag graffitiname and essentially goes forward
into B boying and dancing.This being so immersed in hip hop,
my. My alias Radius comes fromthat. Buying records and DJ Radius
initially and then droppingthat off because I'm just embodied
(05:13):
Radius. You don't need to say.I don't feel you need to say DJ this
if you embody more than that.And that's. That's just. That's who
you are. And people start tocall you more who you are based upon
their introductions to you andtheir aliases and their tags and
things like that. So. And thenwhen it comes to the chef, the holistic
(05:35):
Wellness, I have RA's naturalabundance, RNA. And RA is. RA is
the prefix Of Ramon, which ismy birth name. Also the prefix of
radius. And other peoplecalling me Ra for short, especially
in Spanish and Latincommunity. I noticed that. And especially
(05:59):
with women or they'll shortenit too and say Ra, you know. And
as I was moving around more sowithin Mexico and other lands like
that, I embraced the Ra more.I was already kind of doing that
because it was shortened bysome others. But I was embracing
it more also because of theCameron Egyptian. And this is the
(06:22):
relations to the sun that somany, so many of us have. And of
course sun rod, just anythingrelated to the sun. I really, really
run with the sun. Like the sunis a big thing to me. And so that's,
that brings that element. Youknow, I usually like to stand in
the sun and few stretches. Andso when it comes to raw food, a lot
(06:48):
of people say raw food R a W.But if you go a little further in
sun food, that's where the rawfood can be. And I'm inspired also
by that from one of myteachers, master teachers based in
Panama. Well, I'll be going tostudy. I'll probably by the time
(07:09):
this airs will be out thereworking with him again, studying
with him in Panama again forsome things. Dr. Aris Latham has
sun fired food and he's, he'sknown as a gourmet raw gourmet godfather
cuisine. Sun fired where thesun is the chef. And everything that
(07:31):
we have is already in aperfect condition cooked by the sun.
We, we thrive the most highestby the sun. And even if, even if
we don't have the sun, we can,we need to consume it. And that consumption
is by sun food. And the foodthat receive the most energy is our
vegetation. And that's what wethrive the highest off of sun food.
(07:53):
So raw food, essentiallyliving food. Raw food so to speak
is where we would thrive asour highest because that's how we
started. And so with risenatural abundance, I'm saying this
is the natural sun element,this is the natural food. And that's
how we'll, we'll thrivebecause abundance is our birthright.
(08:16):
So that's, that's thathopefully that sums up those right
there.
Yeah, I love that. Abundanceis our birthright.
It is though. It is.
So yeah, yeah. Especially Imean you traveling to be with this
master teacher. That soundsvery abundant and luxurious, Ethan.
Yeah, well, I studied with himin 2021. Just a month ago, four years
(08:42):
ago, I left New York, put somestuff in storage, thinking I'd come
back to New York a little bitlater. But it was just, you know,
that's another story. I. Youknow, I moved there for an opportunity.
It was pandemic time. And Imoved there just before pandemic
time and. Well, just inJanuary 2020. And then I had a space
(09:06):
I was working within for anopportunity there. I was doing Airbnbs,
flipping Airbnbs in exchangefor rent for friends of mine that
moved up north. So to haverent taken care of in New York is
a major thing, you know, And Iwas already doing a lot of nomadic
and various moving around andpushing art and found myself in Chicago
(09:28):
after doing a gallery here andtrying to figure out what I was doing
in and out of it, you know,still trying to figure it out to
this day. Yet I had anopportunity that a friend presented.
I moved there, and theagreement was, yo, you're. You're.
I'll take care of your traintransportation and your housing if
you take care of the twoAirbnb properties in. I got. And
(09:50):
we move, we go up north. Andso, like, cool. Yet also I had. I
started to look for work too,because I was like, yo, I'm not making
any money doing this, but I amholding that down. And I got hired
by some restaurants. Butanyway, I ended up. So as time flew
a little bit, I had to. Thatsituation changed. So I had to go
stay. I had to. I ended upmoving in with two friends of mine
(10:13):
because I couldn't sustainthat place. And then as time went
on, I was like, man, I reallywant to live alone again. I was really
embracing that a few months inhaving that. And then after moving
around so long, not having aspace of solitude to myself, I was
grateful to have that. I canfinally build that in New York. And
(10:36):
that dynamic changed. So I putmy stuff in storage. I couldn't afford
to be alone, and I went to gostudy with Dr. Aries. I had some
money that came through. Andso now this is four years. This is
four years later since Ilinked with him, to just tap in with
him again and now be a part ofhis retreat a different way and see
what other opportunities could come.
(10:57):
So, yeah, that sounds superexciting and again, super fancy.
I gravitate towards thingsthat are fancy and that sound, you
know, well, fancy luxury.
So, yeah, but luxury in a. Ina sense of. Of not like balling out
of control, but ball luxury.
Right.
In a natural way. Like, he's.He's. He. He has roots in Panama
(11:20):
from Jamaican and Barbadianancestry, yet is there educating
people on a lifestyle so wecannot be sick and we can thrive
within our natural element. Solike, yeah, I'm going. That's a.
That's luxury in a sense.Like, yeah, our life is valuable,
(11:41):
so. Yep, exactly.
Was there like a moment whereyou realized food was like, more
than just like personalwellness? That it was like political,
spiritual, even artistic?
Wow, that's a really greatquestion. You soak it all in there.
(12:03):
I would say a combinationearly on. Okay. I have memories early
on of being around mygrandmother, my family, my. My family's
rooted in Chicago with mygrandmother, my grandparents and
above that come in from, ofcourse, the great migration in Mississippi
(12:25):
and things like that. So mygrandmother held on to certain practice.
I just remember her doingcertain things in the kitchen with.
With herbs or. Or likecleansing fruits and vegetables with
homemade solutions and justcertain things that she would say.
And I early on didn't like adoctor visiting a doctor, these types
(12:52):
of practices. There was alwayssomething off about it. And I gravitated
to an encyclopedia of herbs.Dr. Heinerman. I can't remember when,
but I was definitely ateenager and looking into ways to
cure, heal myself, so tospeak. And these. These books coupled
with some of the things Iremember being around her started
(13:15):
to unlock more, you know, sothat's like some of my earliest memories
with that and gravity beingalso coming up in the southeast side
of Chicago, mostly SouthChicago, South Shore, High Park,
Kenwood, those areas in WestInglewood, those areas. Early on,
(13:40):
I remember seeing certainthings that would pop out that would
show some sort of wellness andhealth in a mix like colon therapy
or like other. Something wouldpop up and I just would have these
visions, like, what does thatmean? You know, So I would see some
art of that early on, as youhave me thinking, flashing back as
far as the decolonizationelement, that. That grew more as
(14:02):
I continue to move around indifferent places. I've been through
like Ecuador and as Imentioned, Panama and Costa Rica.
I spent a lot of time inMexico and Ecuador too, but way more
in Mexico and. And alsotapping in with Dr. Iris, the decolonization
element. It's interestingbecause a friend of mine pointed
(14:23):
out that colon is indecolonization, you know, and that
has sparked something evenmore recently. You know, a lot of
us talk about like, ouroppressors and land back and defund
the police and so manyelements of. You know, thankfully
(14:45):
we. We co. Found a lovefridge. We have. We have. That's
an anarchist mutual aidactivity that comes with. That's
more of a decolonizationelement with food. So it's it's,
it's a, it's just to say ifwe're going to focus on those things
and be revolutionaries, well,you got Dick Gregory, you got Layla
(15:10):
Africa, you got Francis CrestWilson, you got a lot of individuals
that tapped into the holisticelements. The Queen Afua. These are
people. It's revolution. It'sso revolutionary. And to decolonize
by us going further into whowe are as natural, natural people,
living people, and to let gomore of the oppressor's food, so
(15:34):
to speak, the westerncivilization, and so to speak, the
ways of eating that are precolonial is essential for us to thrive.
And I'm really focused a loton that, especially within our music
and art community, more so nowthan ever, because I see it so much
around me because I'm in thesecommunities, you know, and I don't
(15:57):
see them too, I don't see themas different communities because,
you know, once again, thisculture likes to separate and make
genres and subjects andconstructs. But the overlap is, it's
one to me. So if you want toreally decolonize, we really gotta
go further into that and letgo of some of those. And not be sick
(16:21):
out here.
Yeah, let's not be sick outhere. One thing that's been super
popular is like black travel.Black people travel, you know, women
travel, travel solo. Like,it's this whole like movement, you
know, and you've been to tonsof places you've, you know, traveled
(16:45):
to that you've lived in. And Ijust wonder if you could speak to
what that does for you. Andlike, maybe some of those things
that you pull from all thesedifferent places, like what you bring
back to Chicago.
Oh, wonderful. Yeah, the fullcircle element, like the, I'm, I'm
(17:06):
like a bridge, an ambassador,so to speak. You know, a lot of people
are using the word expats alot. And I don't know if that's really
a strong enough thing for it.Because when I, the more that I tap
into this, whether it bethrough elders I've connected with,
books I read, or even mostimportantly, my own personal documentation
(17:28):
and living, struggling, movingthrough these spaces because a lot
of how I move is, and a lot ofpeople say they might over the years,
I envy you, or I'm jealous ofyou, or like, I would, I wish I could
travel with you. A lot ofpeople don't realize that I, I, I
haven't taken, like, oh, I gotthis wealth of money, I'm about to
(17:50):
go ball out and go to allthese places. I haven't lived like
that yet, you know, I, I, mygoal is to go to a lot of these places
and be invested in personallybroadening them to help exchange
and educate or do my ownaccord and go be able to fall out
and check what it's like to dothings in these places. A lot of
(18:11):
my travel has been taking alittle bit of what I had or coming
back into Chicago or othercities I've lived in, hustling different
endeavors I know and goingright back in because I have a strong
vision and I, that for what Iwant to do and, and, and I may not
even fully know everything,but I'm, I really strive to go into
(18:34):
spaces and with intention andthere's reasoning for them or if
I really want to reach acertain space and I'm over here,
but by this time I want toreach this space and it's like I
gotta really see that through.I might end up going somewhere along
the way because I still wantto reach that, that space. So I consider
(18:57):
myself a cultural ambassadorand my, and I look at our ancestors,
A lot of our ancestors,whether you're in Morocco, you have
the Amazigh, which is anindigenous term for people that's
there often call the negativeterm bar Berber barberry means barbaric,
barbaric. But their indigenousword is Amazigh. They're, they're
(19:21):
a nomadic people. There arepeople of the land that move around.
You have the Fulani peoplethat are in other areas of Africa
that move around. You havegypsies that move around. I, I feel
strongly a lot of us aremigration, migration people and we
move in a tribe and we'relooking to connect with each other.
(19:42):
More and more of us are comingtogether. We may have been displaced
by our own movements or byslavery and other movements that
have come through anddisplaced us or killed a lot of our
ancestors off. So now, youknow, we, we, we're a lot of us are
doing that. We might not knowwhy we are pushed to do that and
(20:07):
maybe there's more for us tounlock. When I come back into these
spaces, especially coming fromthe south side, south east, southwest
side and living all over thecity, there's a, there's a line by
common that I've always lovedthat's on like Waterford on, like
on some, I don't forget thewhole bars. But he says that you
(20:30):
know about traveling the worldand somebody asked him about traveling
the world and he finds outthat he hasn't been past downtown.
Like I've come across thatbeing over here riding the bus. People
don't know what it's like onthe other side of the city. People.
People might only live withintheir certain neighborhood or few
around them. They don't knowwhat it's like to go to the west,
(20:52):
to the north. I did a lot ofthat early on. So for people to even
go to another city, let aloneanother state, another country, is
major. So if I come throughand I'm able to reflect in my documentation,
whether it's food, music,photography, or any other element
that I embody from me goingthrough there that I feel that's
(21:16):
major, to inspire somebodyelse and thus gonna further inspire
me. So yeah.
Yeah, that's awesome. Anotherfavorite quote of mine from Common
is just because you're in amusic video doesn't mean you're ball,
yo.
Ain't for real though, right?
It's. Yeah, for real.Something like that. Or like not
(21:37):
everybody that has a musicvideos ball or something like that,
I'm like, you know, that'sseriously so true.
I've been in a few. You knowwhat I mean? Yeah, yeah.
In your name, Radius, etc.That has like a whole bunch of meanings,
right? Like it's like educatethe children and base and is it educate
(21:57):
the children. Embrace the circle.
There's a lot of them.
Expose the corrupt.
Yeah, there's a lot.
What was, what was the firstphrase that came to you?
Wow.
And like, how has it grown?
Okay, yeah, so I'm radiusfirst and the RA and the radius,
et cetera came along from acouple different things. One, a lot
(22:20):
of people might be familiarwith. Tall black guy. I had a. So
I had an EP that I did in 2009called etc. And I released it with
some good friends of mine thatwere based in New York, a crew of
mine from Dallas. I moved toNew York called Gritty Goat and shouts
(22:40):
to my brothers, especiallyKevin and Hans. They don't live in
New York anymore, but the EPwas called etc. And the goal is etcetera
was to showcase that I haveother styles, I'm working on other
styles. So if you had alreadyknown me for this instrumental hip
hop element you can tap into,I'm working more and navigating into
(23:04):
the house to techno and brokenbeat and ambient stuff. So that EP
embodies different things. Sobecause I was. I was. I was working
on a lot of music and I was, Iwas, I was, I was experimenting.
I would go to spots to dancemore here and I was hearing things.
I'd go back home and make alot More so Et cetera was like infinity
(23:24):
limitless at first. Timeless,you know. And so when tall black
guy did a remix on a project,he put radius, etc. In there. As
I saw that that was one thinghe put. He put that there. But also
the digital platforms,Spotify, itunes, all this. There's
(23:45):
other radiuses that exist, thegroups and stuff like that. So for
me to further separate myselffrom some of them, I hate. I hate
that stuff and the algorithm.And even if you write them, they
don't categorize you properly.So to differentiate, I took the radius,
etc. A little bit more.That's. That's another reason. And
just kind of. So my labelbecame Et cetera. Like I started
(24:11):
making planted seeds for a setof records. Maybe like 2011, 2012.
And whenever there's arelease, especially vinyl, those
vinyl that vinyl reflects in.Etc. So the first one. Yes. Was Educate
the children. Ever release asrelated. Like has that. So there
(24:39):
is this. And. And I started tothink of more. And the thing was
if an artist is on a label,which is really good friends of mine
initially, please inputanother etc for your project. So
etc is just like what. Etcetera is limitless, Timeless. You
can't there. The number of Etcetera can be. I've had so many,
(25:00):
I've forgotten, you know. Soyeah, educate the children. Expose
the corrupt. Embrace thecircle. Excite the crowd. Express
truth consistently. Everythingchanges. Expect to change. There's
so many of them, you know, andit's ongoing.
Yeah, yep. Yeah. I love that.
(25:22):
Yeah. Respect and love becausethat's what the life. This life is.
Yeah. And I feel like there'slike, you know, how folks will have
like different cliques. Like Ifeel like I could be like a Stephanie,
etc.
Of course.
Like do something now. Likepeople can like make. Become an etc
now.
Right. Yo, for real.
Or et cetera.
Yep, yep.
Yeah, I love that.
(25:43):
Yeah. That's what it is. It'sunlimited. I can't. I can't hold
it, you know, But I can put itout there for others to gravitate
to as they can and add to it.I just. I always want.
Yeah.
I'm always about community andexpansion. I'm not about like. Like
solo destruction and this. Wedon't build, you know, so.
(26:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. For somereason, big things pop and comes
to mind.
For real. Exactly. Yeah, yo,for real. Yeah. I think of etc for
that.
You also are a musician, aphotographer, community builder.
(26:33):
You know, do you have afavorite or is it all the same to
you?
There was a moment when reallycoming up, navigating what I say
was Babylon Matrix. Reallycoming up within this and seeing
how everything is like Imentioned construction constructed
and genres and justcompartmentalized. They compartmentalized.
(26:55):
You know, I used to be like,okay, I'm gonna do this. Oh, I'm
not spending enough timemaking music. Oh, I'm not spending
enough time doing that. I usedto. Oh, I gotta. I gotta block now.
I can't do this. I gotta. OnceI broke that out and once one of
my bigger big brother Rossbrothers Josh son respect me. Well,
once he said to me one time wewere working on music. Working on
(27:16):
music in la. He's from here.He's. He lives in Barcelona now.
But once we were working onmusic and he was like, the box doesn't
exist. We gotta navigate as ifthe box never existed. Just get it
out of there. So anytimepeople say think outside the box,
that's still a limitation.When we say the sky is a limit, that's
a limitation. That's one thingI've come across. Like, it's limitless
(27:39):
skies. There is no such thingas a box. Once I embrace that element
more, then it's like, okay,etc. It's like, as long as I'm creating,
because naturally we're allcreators. So people are like, oh,
I'm not a creative. We allare. If I'm not working on music,
(27:59):
it's going. And I got mycamera with me and I'm making sure
that I have it out or I havethis other thing out. As long as
it's out, I might be intransition, I might be stagnant.
There's something that mightbe throwing me off. But as long as
I have something out and Igravitate to it, I'm doing something
creative. It's going to feedinto the other endeavors because
it's all one. So I don't havea. Necessarily, I wouldn't say too
(28:22):
much of a favorite, but yet Iwill say that there is something
about music. It's all. Musicis definitely the foundation and
the orchestrator of all ofstill of it all. Because the way
that I feel when I'm dancingthe music, meditating, rating music,
(28:48):
creating music solo and withothers, performing music, DJing,
there is no feeling that canoverride that. That's. That's the.
That's the ultimate. And Icould tell that obviously things
are created out of the soundwaves. It's pretty obvious. So, yeah,
I would say that that's.That's the. That's the thing, you
(29:11):
know, that's the.
Yeah, that's the base. Yeah.For me it's like filmmaking. Like
I feel like everything that Ithink of, like comes through like
storytelling, you know.
Yeah.
And it's like the foundationof everything.
And, and when I create music,I see visuals. Just like when, when
I'm documenting with video,video or, or photo, I may have music
(29:33):
going, I may be hearingsounds. It's all, it's all going
in and out. I don't. The audiovisual is very, is. Is very strong
in the connection. Yeah. So.Yeah. You know, and of course the
holistic. The food is going toempower all that. We all need our
nourishment, even though wemay, we may like neglect that because
we're really involved in ourmusic. Oh, I didn't nourish myself.
(29:54):
Once you get that, you know,you're going to really hone in on
all that.
Then with your photography,you've like brought your camera with
you everywhere. Can you speakabout your photography and then like
how it breaks out in yourzines. And your new project, Brooklyn
(30:16):
Zoned.
Thank you. Brooklyn Zoned. Yeah.
So that's beautiful. Let'sdescribe it to the listener. So listener
radius is holding up BrooklynZoned, which is a zine that is black.
It says Brooklyn Zoned inyellow. And the picture is a city
(30:39):
street with the sun coming up.
Yep. Standing from a train,right? Uh huh. I was standing from
a train platform in Brooklynand I saw the sun. I think the sun
is actually setting. And itsays Ramon et cetera in red. And
on the back it has my links tomy site and my Instagram and things
like that and my label, etc.Records. So this is a 60 plus page
(31:03):
documentation, the zine. I'vedone three other books in the past,
published trade books. One wason the first one was a black and
white of different travels.This is like maybe 2018 and in 2019.
Well, no, yeah, like around2017. 2018, 2019. And there was a
(31:24):
one after that that's anotherdocumentation of travels, more so
in color. And then the thirdone is specifically Ethiopia, when
I would have been throughEthiopia, Addis Ababa and Lalibela.
I have documentation of thatand trade books and so what's that?
The trade books?
No, this. What did you say? Sababa.
(31:45):
Addis Ababa. The capital. Thecapital of Ethiopia.
Oh yeah.
Addis Ababa. Yeah, yeah. Um,in Lalibela, Ethiopia. I went there
in 2009, 2019. A pilgrimage. Iwent, I went over there in like March
of 20, 20, 19. But yeah, sothose. And those books are the first
(32:12):
ones I did. And I Brooklynzoned. I was living in New York,
as I mentioned, in pandemictime. But 2020-2020-2020-2021. Also
got a new camera in 2021. Andso this book features analog and
digital photography, mostlydigital with my newer camera with
(32:35):
my phone as well as film withsome disposables as well in there.
And I was. A lot of healingwas going on for me at that time
and a lot of creative, a lotof music because I was living in
New York, Brooklyn, at a spotto myself for the most of that time.
And I was going to be, I feltliving there long term. I didn't
(33:00):
know the pandemic was comingor none of us did. And also I didn't
know that I was not going tobe able to hold down the spot that
I had and so on. But I wasdocumenting at that time. And so
I feel the zines are reallyimportant because they are a moving
gallery, just like thegraffiti trains are. And you know,
(33:22):
they, you can, you can takethem with you and you could put them
anywhere and the next personcan see them and walk with them and
buy them for somebody else andkeep it, keep it moving. I think
it's an art form that, thatcame up in more radical times to
punk rock scene and otherscenes probably. And now it's being
(33:44):
embraced more. And I thought,let me do my works a little differently,
even though it's similar tothe trade books, but it's a little
different of a format. So Ifigured on the, Let me try, let me
go this route now. And I'll bedoing Morocco and Mexico and I have
folders set of differentdocumentation that I'm in process
(34:04):
of laying out to get more ofthat work out there, specific locations.
Do you design it yourself?
Oh yeah.
Did you lay it out yourself?Oh, wow.
Yeah. I've done all thelayouts for my books and to be honest
with you, like, I started offas a. I know music was always present
(34:25):
because I come from a musicfamily more or less yet I was drawing
very early and drawing oftenbefore anything. So I don't draw
much now. And I've recentlypicked up a little bit because I've
been around more writers ingraffiti lately. So I've picked up
(34:47):
a pen a little bit to trysomething. But my, my, my drawing
was deterred in art school, Ifeel a little bit. And it went, and
it went more into thephotography and the music, you know,
that channeled another way. SoI kind of got out of drawing much
and. But, you know,photography really, I feel, captures
a lot of that. That is thatelement. Yeah.
(35:07):
I feel like there's like a rawhonesty in your work, you know, and,
you know, whether it's likethe beats or the photography or community
organizing and do you thinklike, honesty, the word honesty is
like something that wepractice or is it something we channel?
(35:28):
Like, how can we be more honest?
Wow, that's a great question.Yeah. Genuine.
Because, you know, folks are.Folks are acting wild out here.
For real, though. Well, youknow, everything, everything more
or less beginning at the endof the day, start with the self,
you know, and it comes fromthis nucleus of this space. So am
(35:51):
I being honest and true tomyself first? Before I step into
any spaces that I'm going to,whether that's a physical space or
a relationship space of anykind, am I being honest, truthful
with myself? And so I feelthat takes like a reference. Another
(36:14):
rap rap line. Because I'm abig Wu Tang cat. Coming up, Capadonna.
He says every, Every other dayI have about myself meeting, it's
important to have a. I thinkhe said it's either. Every day. I
think it says every other day,maybe either way. But like, because
off, off top, I mean, I hearit, I know it, but like, you know,
you gotta have a meeting withyourself and check yourself, but
(36:36):
also not overthink. And I can,I can get into that. And that's,
that's been the death of me toa degree in certain spaces. And I'm
getting better. But that alsoshows that. How important the breath
is and breathing and beingpresent. But when we're. The more
we're present with ourselves,then we know, okay, I'm not being
honest. Be more honest withyourself first and, or, or life is
(37:01):
going to check you. Anddefinitely has checked me in times,
you know, I really feel it'sso important to be honest, you know,
I cannot be.
I love this by myself meeting.Like, what's your morning routine
like?
Well, I've gotten into some ofour bad. Our distractions though,
so I. Depending on where I'mat, you know, certain time living
(37:26):
situations aren't the mostfitting sometimes. But I'll. I'll
grab that phone. Sometimesthat's a bad thing, you know, I'll
grab the phone.
Me too.
And I, and I'm. I'm betterwhen I put the phone in another side
of the room or out of theroom, you know, and I. And I gotta
do that again. But when I'mnot doing that. I usually, I usually
(37:46):
give thanks first off forlife. You know, I do my best to,
to go in how I go to sleepmost of the time. And that is just
being grateful for being here.And I want to do more of that. I
didn't even do it today, soI'm going to say it right now. I
give thanks for life. I'mgrateful to be present. I'm grateful
for life. I'm grateful foranother opportunity to be here and
(38:10):
be present and thrive. And I'mgrateful for you for having me here
with you and for bringing me in.
Thank you.
But like giving thanks firstoff is, is, is the more is a thing
and doing some sort ofstretching. Some sort of stretching
and breathing is good, even ifit's a quick one. So we want a little
bit of connection with the body.
(38:31):
Yeah.
Is it, Is it? And then I'llgravitate into breaking fast a little
later. And I'll usually bringin the most hydrating fruit I can
for my, for my hydration, youknow, for my, for my electricity
and for my, for my. Just tocut the lights on, so to speak. So
(38:52):
usually that's, that's whatfruit is that. Usually it's a melon.
Usually it's some sort ofmelon, whether it be watermelon or
honeydew melon or cantaloupeor canary or crenshaw or one of the
melons, because that's themost water, the most hydrating outside
of a coconut water that is themost electrolyte heavy next to cucumber,
(39:17):
which is also in the samefamily. But I usually start with
a melon and it's going todigest the fastest, it's going to
cleanse the fastest. It'sgoing to just do what it do the fast.
It's, it's, it's, it's likesome of the best water you can ever
bring in in the, in the air.Highly high, highly electrical electrolytes.
So that's first. Or I'll take,I'll take some spring or distilled
(39:41):
water and squeeze a bunch ofkey limes into it because that's
going to alkalize and bringthe, make the water structured and
more vibrant because thisempty water isn't going to do anything.
So you got to, you got toactivate it like you would the fruit,
make it into a fruit, so tospeak. So I usually do start my day
with or juice and that'spretty much a juice once you activate
(40:04):
it with some citrus. Sothat's, that's usually It.
I see why people say they'rejealous of you. You're really living
this, like, creative life outhere. Like, so fun. Well, so glamorous.
Wow.
I mean, hey, this is ouroriginal ways.
Get some key lime.
You got to go into the marketto get. There you go. And any citrus,
(40:24):
preferably with seeds. She'llhelp you to start off. You know,
it's going to. They're acid,but once they go in, they turn alkaline
and they just get you. Theyget you ready. They have life within
it, and they're going tobring. They're going to. Thus are
going to bring more into that.You know, a lot of people start their
day off with coffee that's onthem. But if you think about it,
like, that's a process. That'sa process. And it's a. It's a heated
(40:52):
process and it's a darkersubstance. It's like, well, as far
as, you know, aestheticallyand what it contains, and it's an
acid. You know, I would. Iwould. I. I think that if I was in
nature, like our fellowprimates, our fellow hominids, I
would be going immediately forthe. The true fast food. And that's
(41:15):
picking something off for thetree or off the vine and eating that
first to start my day, to getthe lights going. And that's okay.
You know, this is somethingthat I've learned over time, tapping
into experience studies anddirect education as well. Combination
of those things, you know. Andhow do I feel when I do that? I'm
(41:36):
ready. Even if I only got fourhours of sleep, my body's like, yo,
let's go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Huh? Okay. I'm definitely acoffee person, so I have to think
about that.
I would. I would break fastwith something natural that digests
really fast. Get the lights onfirst, then bring your coffee in.
Because coffee is going to. Isdiuretic. Yeah. But it's going to
(41:59):
also dehydrate you.
So, you know, if I can askanother selfish question, you know,
because you're like, all withthe food, the recreational sugar,
candy. You know, we weretalking, you know, outside of this
year, like, oh, you can have,like, a date for, like, sweet stuff.
You remember.
Do you have any suggestions toget off of recreational sugar? Because
(42:23):
I know, like, in, like,American Diet, right. Like, maybe
sugar is hard to get out ofeverything, but. So that's why I
say like, recreational, whereit's like, you know, Sharon, a starburst
star. There you go, you know,Jelly belly. Oh, my gosh.
Okay. All right, Right, right.Taking it back.
Any suggestions?
Skittles and all that. So letme say this. I'll say a couple things.
(42:48):
I'm still continuing on in,in, in. In this form of this human
experience and this, in thisself mastery. I'm continuing on.
I'm still a student. I'm stilla baby. I'm not a healer. I am a
conduit in a space as abridge. So I'm gonna continue to
unlock this and I'm open formore knowledge and wisdom and to
(43:11):
share an exchange. So I don't.I'm not coming with any absolutes.
Let me just put that first off.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
And also to say I grew up allover the city of Chicago, mostly
Southeast and Southwest hood.It was all around me. The, the fast
(43:35):
food, the sugary snacks, thechips, the salty stuff all around
me. So I didn't start off likethis. And I'll say, and I give much
love to my, to my family,especially my mother. My mother started
us off on. When we go togatherings, you and your brother
(43:58):
got to share a soda. You can'tdrink a whole one. And we might sneak
one, but we wasn't having abunch. My mother started us off like
that. And I used to take. Iused to take lemons and strawberries
and dip them in sugar and eatthem. I used to make Kool Aid, don't
get me wrong, I used to putfruit, fresh fruit into the Kool
Aid. At a point, some told methis makes sense. So only to say
(44:23):
all that recreational stuff,all these refined sugars are out
here to mimic nature, to mimicwhat we naturally are supposed to.
This body thrives off ofglucose, fructose, simple sugars.
It wants that. And that's whyI mentioned fruit earlier. And that's
why I mentioned our importanceof fruit and breaking the fast with
fruit. These are, these arethings here to mimic that. So a way
(44:47):
to first off is to not have itaround, like certain elements of
things that I really was into.I had to just really. But you know
what? I'm not going to buythis today. I'm going to buy this
today. I specialize and I'mreally available and open. Anybody
who wants to build more aboutthis, I specialize what I like to
say in transitioning. And ifyou take the word diet, you see the
(45:09):
word dies in it. Diet to me isgoing to lead to disease, sickness,
death. We want to go to out ofhabit and into lifestyle living.
So if so, if so, if so, theway to shift that, I would say is
increase our Ways rehydrate.Like I mentioned earlier, the ways
and the value of our hydrationis very important. It helps us to
(45:32):
curve these cravings. Um, andyou mentioned dates natural. It just
means, like, somebody mightnot be consuming, you know, may not
be consuming enough fruit, maynot be consuming fruits at a certain
time. Dates and figs are greatthings. When there's a. Some people
have asked me before I get acraving late night, I go eat cookies
(45:53):
and dates and figs and othertypes of fruit can be a way to curve
that. Or maybe you didn't haveenough, or maybe your hydration wasn't
enough. And so you're. You'regetting into that. Or maybe certain
herbs could help you, likeburdock root or dandelion or certain
bitter things that can helpyou. Certain salads can help you
to curve those things. But Ithink, first of all, if any of things
(46:16):
we're mainly addicted to, ifwe try our best not to have as much
as of it around or maybe takea day when we don't do that or another
day we don't do that and nothave it so much around us and bring
something else with us to thefunction and be like, you know what?
I'm going to stick to what Ihave here. That has helped me also,
you know, and not being alsoso hard on ourselves. But just, you
(46:41):
know, I think those are someof the ways to do. To do that.
So I hope, I hope I'll sayyes. I will say, hey, guys, instead
of bringing Jelly Belly andHennessy to the party, I have bought
figs and dates.
Yeah, I brought some figs anddates. I'm gonna share it, you know.
Gonna share it.
Yeah. Bring your own.
Enjoy.
Bring your own date. Here'sanother saying that comes. Today
(47:04):
is the perfect date to take adate on the date for dates.
I love it.
I made that up. Could quote meon that.
I love that. But, you know,big, oh, bring your own date party.
Come on now. Today's a perfectdate to bring a date on. A date for
dates.
Wow, what a tongue twisterthat is. Oh, man, you say that three
(47:25):
times fast, you get a date.
There you go. Oh, my gosh.
I love it so much. Yeah, Ifeel like we could have like, oh,
my gosh. I bet, like, your artopenings. You probably have, like,
the best food and snacks andessential drinks and all sorts of
(47:45):
stuff you have that's essential.
Essential.
The place to be. Your stuff isprobably the place to be.
Yeah. And. Oh, yeah. And withmore resources in the right time,
it's going to be even more. Iknow it just this past Monday. Well,
as far as the memorial,daytime I was in Detroit and opened
an exhibition with a goodfriend of mine, Moppy and DJ Moppy
(48:09):
collaborated from Chicagobased in Detroit. Again now he just
opened up his space called theMop Shop and I was the first featured
artist. Yeah. And he's goingto be called moving of the movement
of people and other elementsis going to come out of that. He's.
He's got some other breakdownsfor the mop element too, but. Yeah.
So my exhibition was alive andthriving and that we had. I cut up
(48:33):
watermelon seeded watermelonand I cut up some other golden honeydew
melon. I made a watermelonmint key lime juice. Well, watermelon
tells you what it is. It'swater. So I made really a water,
a key lime mint water. But we,you know, melons anyway, you get
(48:55):
what I'm saying. I love that Ilike to have these things. I love
curating and coordinatingevents. I love doing that and I love
to have it all embodied. Ilove all of the senses to be stimulated,
all of them, so you can walkaway and not just be like, the music
was great or the art was dope,but I feel good. The food tasted
(49:18):
good. The visuals areexcellent. It sounded good. I want
them all to be stimulatedbecause it's going to resonate long
term and it's going to bring.Also I like to bring that family
element and that home elementthat I don't often have as being
nomadic or sometimesexperience degrees of houselessness
(49:39):
or these other elements oftime. I like to bring that so people
are there. Man, oh man. Youknow how to bring us all together
and we really feel good whenwe leave because I'm bringing you
into a home, you know, andthat's, you know, that's so. Yeah,
yeah, it's all. I'm all about that.
Yeah. One question before weland this plane.
Cool.
But okay, this, this likefancy water, you know, with the kiwi
(50:00):
and stuff. Can we make it andthen keep it by. Or key lime. Can
we make it and keep it by ourbed? You know, like, you know, in
case you make wake up in themiddle of the night and you're thirsty.
Is that fine or does it haveto be cold?
No, no, no. It's up to you onhow you like to receive. I. I feel
from my. For my. From my, frommy experience and knowledge and movements.
(50:22):
I feel it's best to take the.To water any type of liquids in more
so at a room temperature. Moreso at our body temperature. And slightly
chill is cool. Of. Of course,we. We love. We love hot drinks.
We love teas and things likethat. I think too hot or too cold
is not really that great, youknow, for. Especially depending on
(50:44):
the climate and what's goingon. But. Yeah, why not? You know,
why not? But just keep in mindthat that hydration level increases
to a more vibrant level whenyou put any type of living entities
in it. Like you just mentionedthe lines. So you're going to most
(51:04):
likely be going to thebathroom a little more. You know
what I mean? So which is.Which is a good thing. But if you're
trying to sleep, you might notwant that. You know, when we're sleeping,
we're fasting. Our body'srepairing. And then you go into breaking
your fast and the rising time.So if you have it by. If you go to
bed and you have it there, youdrink it right away.
(51:25):
Hey, it is what it is.
It is what it is.
Yeah. Hey, anything else youthink we should cover before we call
our conversation?
Unity's in the community.Unity's in the word community communications
in there. So as long as ourcommunication is holistic and. And
(51:46):
honest, we will unify more andcontinue to decolonize from that
which is bringing us any typeof lack, energy and fear, you know,
And. Yeah, you know, I justwould like to encourage us to invest
more in each other so that wecan thrive, you know, and.
(52:06):
Yes.
Yeah.
And we'll be happy and healthy.
We will be good nature.
We'll have fun.
We'll have fun. Nature's gotit. So.
Yeah, for sure. Wow. Thank youso much, Radius, for talking to me.
Big thanks to Radius forcoming to Lumpen today. I don't know
(52:28):
about y' all, but I was atbrunch earlier and I hate to say
it, but I had coffee. I hadcoffee before water and oops. And
I hate to also say it. I had amimosa, too. I had a mimosa, too.
All these things before havingmy full glass of water. You know
(52:50):
what? That's why Radia saysthat we have to have grace with ourselves
because God willing, tomorrowwill be a better day. And when I
leave you all, I'm going toget myself some key limes. I am really
inspired by what he wassaying. And you know what? I might
even host a brunch. Like,listen, just go with me here. A brunch
(53:13):
theme. Key lime water. You gotyour lime green. We got our melon
water. We got our dates, ourfigs. It's super elevated and we
are just having a time, right?I don't know, I just think it could
be lovely if you've enjoyedtoday's conversation with Radius.
(53:33):
He's on Instagram at Radiusetc and you are invited to check
out his zine Brooklyn Zone andphotography@ramonetcphoto.com More
conversations like the onewe've had today are right here on
Lumpin Radio. There are somany lovely shows that Lumpin produces
(53:55):
here and I'm really hopingthat you are enjoying them and checking
them out. My name is StephanieGraham and this has been Nosy af.
I hope you're enjoying yourSaturday. What are you up to? Folding
laundry, running errands,sipping iced coffee after you've
had your water and just likevibing out, you know, whatever you're
up to. Enjoy the rest of yourday. I really hope that it's a casual
(54:19):
day for you. Nosy.
Popular Podcasts
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.
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
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!