March 21, 2025 • 67 mins
What happens when creativity meets community celebration? Our guest Chin-Yer embodies this powerful combination as a published poet, musician, radio host, and cultural curator in Baltimore.
Born in England to Jamaican Rastafarian parents and raised in New Jersey before settling in Baltimore, Miss Chin-Yer describes herself as an "alien" who has transformed that outsider perspective into artistic strength. Her childhood immersed in music—watching her father perform in his reggae band and growing up surrounded by vinyl records—shaped her deep connection between words and melody. When early childhood trauma left her unable to speak, singing became her first form of communication, revealing the healing power of artistic expression that would guide her life's work.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when discussing creativity itself. "Writer's block does not exist," she declares with conviction. "What people suffer from is being too critical of what they put out." Her advice? Put "crumbs on the page"—even if it's nonsense—because like birds attracted to breadcrumbs, the muses will come once you've taken that first step. This practical wisdom demolishes the paralysis of perfectionism that prevents so many artists from creating.
Her most visible contributions to Baltimore include founding the Baltimore Crown Awards, now in its 19th year, which celebrates everyone from community activists to musicians, giving them "their flowers in the form of crowns while they're living." Through The Black Mall marketplace and her radio show on WEAA, she continues uplifting talent and spreading positivity, deliberately countering negative stereotypes about her city.
After exploring numerous spiritual traditions throughout her life, from Catholic schools to Buddhist monasteries, she arrived at a beautifully simple philosophy: "If God is love, that means love is God." This clarity mirrors her approach to creativity—finding the essential truth within complexity.
Ready to be inspired? Listen now and discover how putting "crumbs on the page" might be exactly what your creative practice needs. Don't forget to follow her on IG @chinyer & @baltimorecrownawards . Thanks for tuning in everyone!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So nothing off limits .
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Nothing, nothing, no, we could talk about whatever
you want, dude, seriously, okay,yeah, I think that's important,
you know, to even go.
You know, there's sometimeswhere even being uncomfortable
can sometimes really bring outsomething that you never knew
that you even had in you.
You know, like with my mom I,she didn't want to do it like at
(00:24):
all and she was like, please,mom I, she didn't want to do it
like at all and she was like,please, andrew, I don't want to
do it.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I was like say it again what's her sign?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
um?
Okay, so her birthday is um may8th.
What's that?
I don't know.
I'm not good with that.
That's him.
That's him.
That's Matt.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Oh, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, I think I hear him yelling.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
It's Taurus.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Okay, oh, taurus, okay, okay, okay, and so with
her.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Let your mom know that you don't know her son, so
you're not into signs like that.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
You know what?
Not yet.
I'd like to learn more and I'dlike to dig into it, um, but I
don't know as much as I guessthe the more, uh you know.
Most people seem very informedabout, uh, astrology these days
what's your sign?
I am a, a Libra, I know that.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Oh, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
But I couldn't even give you anything more.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Like kind of air about justice balance.
Oh, okay, Diplomatic.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Okay, all right, now you're telling me some stuff I
don't know.
All right, actually, when meand Matt sat down, he was able
to.
I don't think we reallyactually went over my sign.
That's something that we dowant to do in the future.
Um, but we kind of just talkedabout like the history of it and
(01:54):
, um, uh, you know, we got intoa whole bunch of different
things.
Um, okay, so let's see here, uh, we're just gonna go right off
the bat.
Okay, how does how does thisstart?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
yeah, it starts like this this.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yo, we are on the respecting perspectives podcast
and this is the official startto miss chin years episode, who
let me tell you something.
Uh, you know she is affluent inthe baltimore community, uh,
with things like the, the blackmall, things like the baltimore
(02:35):
crown awards, and she's got herown radio show.
But listen, enough of metalking about her.
I'm going to let her tell you alittle bit about herself and
where she comes from.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Hey, hey, hey hey.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
How are you?
I'm doing excellent, I'm doingexcellent.
How about you?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
I'm great, I'm excited to be here.
Yes, before I start, what madeyou start this podcast?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Let's see here.
I always felt like I needed tosay something and with music I
feel limited, you know, becauseof whatever the instrumental is,
or I feel like you know eachsong has a specific vibe, but
(03:24):
with a podcast you can reallytalk about.
Like we say, you could talkabout anything and everything.
Now, whether or not it fits toa specific, let's see here.
You know reasoning.
I think that's the coolest partabout it is it gives me more of
a way to communicate with otherpeople and to help them also get
(03:50):
their ideas out.
So, yeah, I've always had thisin the back of my head and then
I had a few friends tell me like, hey, you should probably do a
podcast.
And I was like, yeah, it's agood idea, but there's a lot to
it, a lot that goes behind thescenes here.
But, uh, it felt like it wasdefinitely worth it and, uh,
(04:11):
it's.
It feels like right now it'sthe perfect timing where
podcasts are great forinformation.
They're great for education, um, they're great for marketing,
um, there's so many different,uh facets of a podcast that you
can use in your in your dailylife.
So, uh, yeah, I feel like it'sbeen a uh, an awesome experience
(04:33):
so far and really just gettingto sit down with people like
yourself and uh, and even getlike ask these questions, like
it makes me think about thingsthat I don't even really get to
think about as much.
You would think that I wouldthink about that why I started
this, but there's times wherethat kind of gets lost in
translation.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, an extroverted introvert, a rebel, a shy rock
star, a shock star.
A shock star, I like that.
(05:16):
A musician, creative andcurator and a big dreamer and an
alien and a her hermit I thinkthat's about it, right?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I'm sure it depends on the situation, right?
That brings out the uh, thetype of person in you, right?
Um, let's see here, why don'tyou tell me a little bit, uh,
where you grew up and let's see?
You know some of the thingsfrom you, maybe your early
childhood that maybe helped you,you know, get to where you are
(05:53):
now, whether it's like schoolingor did you play any instruments
or like, just give us a littlebit of your background, if you
don't mind that's where thealien part comes in.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So I'm jamaican, I was born in england and I was
raised in jersey and then I'vebeen in in baltimore for like 20
something years, so no matterwhere I've been.
So I'm a british citizen, okay,as of now.
But of course when I'm inengland I have this accent and
then i'm'm Jamaican.
(06:24):
It's just like I'm always feellike I'm an alien everywhere,
which has served me well like interms of artistically.
My parents Jamaican Rastafariansand they're both artists, my
mother visual artist.
My father, he played severalinstruments and was a producer.
So I grew up in a very free, uhhappy, musical household what
(06:48):
did he play?
he played the bass and theguitar and he also sang and he
had a reggae band.
Oh, that's so awesome.
So he used to drag me to like Iwon't say drag me, but I was
seven years old and six yearsold, like out, two in the
morning, three in the morning,like watching them play, and I
loved it, so that just has mademe the person I am.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, that's so awesome.
What about schooling?
Give me a little bit aboutwhere.
Where did you go to school?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I went to a Catholic school at first.
Until later I went to a publicschool, which also played a huge
part into my whole life,because we used to have like
days off for like saints andthings like that.
So the very first thing Iwanted to be when I was little
was a saint.
Oh, shoot.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Who was your favorite saint?
What did you have like afavorite patron saint back in
the day, then now probablymother theresa, but oh right, uh
, not particularly.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I just remember wanting.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I wanted to be a nun too, until I really understood
what that meant still, youunderstood what nunhood meant
yeah, but yeah, that's what Ireally wanted to be wait, what
was it about the nuns that that,um, you know that attracted you
oh, I just, I just wanted tolike heal.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I don't.
I'm trying to think of a songslike we are the world and all
these different songs.
Yeah, I just wanted to make adifference, that's.
That's the big thing.
And because we were around thatall day, every day in school,
that was like my first frame ofreference gotcha, I had that as
well when I went to a catholicschool.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I went to, uh, saint thomas aquinas, chow chow um,
over there in handen, and we hadnuns, uh, as well, and I do
remember them having like this,like somber, like one with
themselves, um, energy, and theyreally, you know they were,
(08:46):
they were very quiet, though,you know they weren't loud, um,
but they all they always seemedlike they had had their, had
their stuff together, you know,until somebody did something bad
, dude.
And then that's when they,that's when you kind of saw the,
the, the, you know the, uh, themore wild side, and I can see
(09:08):
where you would think that,though, because, like, they're
very, like reserved and they,you know they, they know what
they're doing and like, eventhough, like you know, uh, chaos
erupts around them, they'restill able to kind of keep that,
uh, that composure.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
So, yeah, and there was this one specific nun.
Her name was sister josephclear.
She was my first grade teacherand she would play the guitar
for us and sing and then, likein the middle of the school year
, she just disappeared and wedidn't know where she went.
Then we found out she went tolike um, help people in africa.
Oh wow, that just stood in myhead, like her guitar and
(09:44):
helping people and feeding.
You know what I mean Doing yeah, giving back she's probably the
only teacher's name I rememberfrom then.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Well, there's a reason, right Gosh.
I never had none of the nuns atSt Thomas played any music or
anything like that.
Although I feel like that, thator anything like that, although
I feel like that, that would besomething that would have, uh,
stuck with me.
Yes, for sure.
What about, um?
Did you play any instrumentswhen you were younger?
(10:12):
My voice, oh, there you go.
Yeah, there you go.
How old were you when yourealized you know the power of
your voice and and what was whatyou were capable of?
Speaker 1 (10:24):
who.
So when I was born, my parentshad me relatively young and they
I was left in england for thefirst four or five, six years of
my life and then they were here.
So I think because of thetrauma of that me not
understanding where they went, Iliterally didn't speak like I
(10:44):
didn't.
When I came here I should havehad a british accent, but I
didn't because I didn't speak, Iwas just so my first way to
communicate was through singing.
Like I didn't speak but I sangokay.
So singing was just like acomforting, healing thing for me
.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Oh, it always has been yeah, I can, uh, I can
sympathize uh with that,especially recently, uh, taking
vocal lessons with a vocalinstructor and really just being
able to harness that power andknowing how to take care of it
(11:21):
right and to think that we allhave this ability, or most of us
uh have this ability to tocommunicate, um, but, yeah,
that's so interesting.
That's really cool to hear.
Um, let's see here.
What about, um, when you wereyounger, tell me more more about
you said England, that's whereyou how, how long did you live
there?
And six, really, okay, okay,and let's see here.
(11:46):
So you have wait, I'm sorry,you said till six.
Okay, do you remember it?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, I do Foggy, rainy, right Chill, kind of like
Sherlock Holmes vibe.
Yeah, I remember it yeah, let'ssee here.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Do you remember the street that you grew up on?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Not in England.
No, let's see here Jersey.
Yeah, oh, Jersey.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Okay, all right, shout out to Jersey.
I got family who, well, most ofmy family is from Philadelphia
but we frequent jersey, uh, likethe beach and whatnot.
Seattle city, um, let's seehere.
Uh, okay, so after six, tell me, um, what happened day after
that.
Where did you go?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I stayed there for uh , lived in elizabeth, I don't
know, people know new jerseylike that, but I kind of hopped
different parts of new jerseyelizabeth, newark, okay,
irvington, and then I saw morganstate university, which is in
baltimore, and that's what mademe fall in love with baltimore
oh sweet, what was it about, uh?
Speaker 2 (12:56):
morgan state itself that uh attracted you.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
It was a, it was a vibe, it was like like a
spiritual, like electriccurrency, to just it really hit
me when my feet just landed onthere.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
So we went on like a tour to all the HBCUs and I
don't know.
I just had an electricconnection.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Damn, that's awesome.
Let's see here.
Did you end up studying there?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:25):
What was your?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
uh, what was your focus?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
my first major was social work, and then I changed
it to creative writing.
Okay, which is what?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I two totally different things there.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
No, not really because creative writing is
probably the best thing, inaddition to all arts, to use to
heal people that's a good point,actually.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Um, now let's see here with the social work itself
.
Um, did you have any particulardreams or goals at that time?
Um, you know, when you startedschool that you wanted to
achieve.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
It went back to that whole saint.
None thing.
I wanted to be a social worker,just like change the world,
heal the world type thing yeahbut I realized I could do it
even more through the arts.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Oh, I love the way you put that actually.
So was there like a time inbetween where you let's see here
, um, you found that creativewriting, you know, was going to
be something that you wanted topursue.
Was it like an overnight thing,or did did you kind of have to
go through like a process?
I asked that because when I wasin school, um, I went for
(14:36):
engineering and that's what I,you know, started out as, and
then, as I, I didn't know whatthe heck I wanted to do.
You sound like you had more of aclear vision about what you
wanted to do, but I had no ideawhat I wanted to do, and
engineering just sounded cool atthe time, you know, um, I
wanted to build things, uh, butthen I slowly started to realize
(15:01):
, um, you know, whatcommunication was and how to be
able to use it properly to builda network.
And it was like maybe like twoor three months in between there
that I went to my advisor andwas like this is not what I'm
meant to be doing, likecommunications is my clear path
(15:22):
and that's what kind of helpedme um you know, transcend into
the arts for me, but for you,was there anything uh specific
that changed like?
was there any like event maybethat you you went to that was
like, oh, you know what this is,this is something, or was it
any particular thing that thathelped you realize this?
I had always always lovedwriting.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
I had won writing contests since I was a little
girl.
The first one was when I wassix, but again that time, when I
didn't speak and I was singing,the other thing I was doing was
writing that was just the way Icommunicated through the world
through musical notes andthrough writing.
(16:04):
So that was very healing for me.
And then I closely associatemusic with writing as well
because, my dad being a musician, our whole living room was
filled, like ceiling to thefloor, with vinyl records and
then, of course, all the wordswas like printed on the back.
So I had a really strong loveof words, my whole life directly
(16:25):
connected to music.
So when I was going to schoolfor social work, I would write
papers for my social workclasses and they would read them
and be like this sounds like afilm, this sounds like a script.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
This sounds like a poem.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
This sounds like so all my teachers my whole life
always told me to go into that.
So then, eventually I was likeyou know what, yeah, yeah, have
always told me to go into that.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So then eventually I was like you know what, yeah,
yeah, you know what.
It's cool that you, you, youtalk about that, because I love
thinking about like back in theday, um, like, yeah, reading the
back of records and the words.
You know, like there'ssomething about that connection
to be able to really just youknow, I feel like people don't
(17:07):
do that as much these days, eventhough like lyrics are
available If you, you know, ifyou're in like Apple music or
Spotify, if you, if the artistis, you know, doing, I guess, or
I think, what they you know,know to be doing and to help
them connect with more people.
And this is a word of advice toall artists out there if you
(17:29):
know you have music out, makesure that you go through the
proper distributors and outletsto get those lyrics you know, um
, not just like put up, but alsosynced, so that that way people
can follow you and I feel likethey can make more of a
connection with you if they havethose words.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
But I also remember having to rewind the tape, and
we would literally sit there andwrite the words like line by
line too Right.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Oh, that's so awesome .
And then, even like, if itwasn't a vinyl, remember, when
CDs, you know, they had thelittle, the little packets that
you and I remember, like therewas a time there was a shift
when, like, I would open thatpacket up and the words wouldn't
be in there and I'd be like,I'd remember being like so, like
(18:20):
mad, like man, like this wasone of the reasons, like why I
would even like get the CD is sothat I could follow along with
them.
But it's cool to think aboutthat type of stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
When you think literature or English literature
and creative writing, to methere's no better way to study
it than through music.
If you're talking poeticdevices like hyper, it's like
there's a song for every, everydevice, every skill yeah, yeah,
I, I agree with that.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Um, let's hear, was there any particular favorite
like album that you, youlistened to?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
you know over and over again from your dad's
collection that you can remember, hmm yeah, think about that
fella cootie, which, um, Ididn't really understand that's
uh, he's an artist from nigeriaand he was a activist as well,
so he would literally like getarrested for putting out his
songs and stuff like that.
(19:18):
So I remember it wasn't more some playing it all the time, but
they it was always playing inthe house, and then bob marley,
of course, and whitney houstonthat was my favorite for my
first favorite singer andstephanie mills, and there's so
many, yeah, yeah, I'm sure youcould go through who was the
(19:39):
first artist?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
you said though oh, fella cootie yeah, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna put a link and uh,we'll put a picture up so that
that way other people can uhresearch and uh and watch and
listen, and personally I'd liketo uh to hear and see.
Um, did you see the more themost recent the bob marley movie
I haven't no no, I haven'teither.
(20:01):
actually I've been been meaningto do that.
Let's see here.
Other than that, let's move onfrom that a little bit.
Jersey Tell me a little bitabout Jersey and what brought
you from Jersey to Baltimoreitself.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
That was the Morgan.
I went on a college tour,college tour.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Okay, let's see here.
And then the creative writing.
Um, now, when you were, whenyou speak about creative writing
and like music, do you meanlike actual, like music notes or
like words themselves?
Words?
Yeah, yeah okay, um, you know,yeah, okay, you know what?
Let me tell you, I have been amusic writer for, I would say,
(20:49):
at least 20 years now, and thatis something that has guided me
throughout my whole life.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
So when you say that, do you mean notes or do you
mean writing?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I mean writing the words yeah themselves as well.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Um, I have about a hundred notebooks at home who's
your favorite songwriter or oneof your favorite?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
man, my favorite songwriter, um, I would say uh,
mac miller yeah, yeah, I likeMac Miller.
Yeah, yeah, he really justhelped me understand that you
can just be totally different oneach track.
(21:34):
And I feel like now withartists they kind of get like
they see this, like let's seehere, they see success in a
particular genre and then theyend up like sticking with that
genre, you know, and kind oflike staying with that genre,
(21:56):
and especially like nowadayswith like playlisting and things
like that, you know there'sdifferent feels that people have
, or, as the kids say, it'svibes these days.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Okay, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
And so, you know, it makes me really think about most
artists, I would say, really dokind of put themselves in a box
or in a particular lane, youknow, and more power to them to
be able to know what they'regood at.
Um, although I think, uh, youknow the the strength of an
(22:34):
artist is their ability to beversatile, you know, and to be
able to, to, to, to really justcreate something.
I think that's the thing thatwe're missing is like creating
something out of nothing youknow, I don't think art and
boxes even go together.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I mean it's debatable .
Yeah, if an artist who is in abox is an artist yeah I'm not
sure yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Right, I feel like um it, it feels like sometimes, uh
, of, yeah, maybe they see, seesuccess in the outside world.
But it felt really good to makethat type of music and I would
(23:40):
make it and then make it overagain and I will give a word of
advice, like, if you're feelingit, you know, you know, run with
it as as far as much as you can, but guess what?
There's always a finish line.
You know so you need to realizeyou know how many laps can you
do before you know you.
(24:01):
I think it really all comesdown to like you know what you
can get from the musicpersonally, I mean, I know you
know everyone else hearing itand what they get is amazing,
but I feel like the best artistsor sorry, the most creative
artists are willing and able tolearn from their own.
(24:22):
You know movements in order toget them to other people and
outside.
Let's see here, let's talkabout music and songwriting a
little bit.
When do you feel like you writeeither your best work or, let's
(24:45):
see see, yeah, when do you feellike the best time to write is,
for you, the best time to writeis every single day.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Writers block does not exist.
Yeah, yes I totally agree withthat.
It doesn't exist.
Um, that's one great thingabout going to school for
writing.
Because there's no, you can'ttell your professors oh, the
muse didn't come, or I wasn'tinspired.
Like if I had a screenplay dueand it was a 90-page screenplay,
(25:16):
I had to write it, Like period.
Or I fail.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, so that whole processtaught me like, no, like you
can't wait on the music, youhave to take the music and grab
them.
Love that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Love that it forced you to be productive.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, it forced me to .
Can you cross on here?
Yeah, Okay.
Say whatever the fuck you wantit forced me to not bullshit
like and not like.
Procrastinate yeah, so yeah,that's a huge procrastination.
Like, oh yeah, I'm not feelingit, there's no ideas flowing to
me, there's no, no.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, no, I feel like , with the amount of words that
are out there, that, yeah, youcan explain and describe things
in so many different ways andmaybe we should both try and
give a tidbit of advice forsomeone who is suffering from
(26:20):
writer's block.
Writer's block, I think there'sa different emotion that can be
connected with sorry, there'smillions of emotions that can be
connected with a particularfeeling or a particular let's
see here way that you're tryingto get your voice heard.
(26:40):
I think, even if you're notfeeling like inspired to write,
I've been personally able towrite poetry when I'm not
feeling inspired to write music,because I feel like when I'm
(27:01):
writing poetry it's more of likewhen I'm feeling like somber
and I'm feeling maybe like not Iwouldn't say depressed, but
like when I'm feeling a while torealize that and to figure that
(27:24):
out.
But different let's see heredifferent mediums, you know for
the different ways that you'refeeling.
Do you write any poetry itselfor is it all music?
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, I'm a published poet.
I have a few books.
But going back to what you saidearlier, I'm going to say all
the way off the record fully, noone suffers from writer's block
.
No one.
No, what people suffer from isbeing too critical of what they
(27:58):
put out.
You always have something tosay.
You always, if your hand canmove like this, you always have
something to write.
But what stops is it is youtelling yourself, oh, it's not
good enough, this sucks, this isbullshit.
This is that's what peoplesuffer from, not writer's block,
it's the scrutiny.
But what I learned is is likemuses are like birds, so you got
(28:22):
to put crumbs on the paper.
Crumbs is the bullshit.
You just write whatever comeslike bullshit or not, you just
put it on the page and what thatattracts is now the muses see
the crumbs on the page and theyfly and they come around and
they swarm around and they landon you.
But they reward you doing thatstep.
It's just like if you play asport, you're going to stretch
(28:47):
first.
You're not going to think thestretch is you slam dunking.
You're not going to think thestretch is you jumping over
hurdles.
You know that that's thestretch.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
So slam dunking.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
You're not gonna think the stretch is you jumping
over hurdles?
You know that, that's thestretch.
So you just gotta see the samething as writing love that.
Put the bullshit on the pageand I promise you the muses will
come.
But you gotta do that firststep.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Love that, that's.
That's amazing.
Yeah, that.
I think that is something thattook me a little bit, uh, to
learn as well.
Um, I feel like when I amwriting music, yeah, you never
write your best stuff, like Imean actually not sometimes.
Sometimes, yeah, you're rightsometimes that hook will come
(29:45):
right away.
But, um, you know, yeah, if youI always do feel like strike,
while the iron's hot too, andit's like even if, even if, like
that little bit of creativity,everything that you need in the
song itself, and you have likethe hook, and then you have, you
know, a few verses, like keepwriting, like write, until you
literally feel like you can't goanymore because you know, say,
(30:12):
you know you have enough foryour song, you know, halfway
through that a proper musiciancan then take the words that
they wrote for that andtranslate it into another song.
You know, so having all of thatmaterial is just more fuel for
the fire later on.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
And don't discount dreams also.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Oh, yeah, yeah, Tell me a little bit about that Songs
and melodies that can come indreams.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Just don't write off anything.
Any inspiration.
Yeah, Sometimes I'll just go tolike a thrift store and look at
book titles and write down thetitles and just force myself to
write something based on that.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
There's inspirations everywhere let me ask you this
uh, do you have a dream diary?
Speaker 1 (30:59):
oh, absolutely do you really so?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
when do you do you feel like?
I mean, you do you have to fillit out, like as soon as you
wake up?
Is that something that or like?
Is there times when, like timewhen you later on kind of think
of like a detail that's in thedream that you then can add
later?
How do you feel like the bestway to fill out a dream diary?
(31:26):
I've been finding it difficultpersonally, because I have other
things that I try and do rightwhen I wake up, and if I don't
do those things then I feel likeI'm veering off my path.
So do you have any advice?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
on that.
For me it has to be as soon asI wake up.
If I do it later, it's going tobe some details that are
missing, and then I title thembased on subjects.
So when the time comes like Iwas listening to your last guest
, like I'm the same way, Like Ihave dreams and they happen.
So when I need to find them,I'm able to easily find them by
(32:04):
topic.
Topic Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
And she's speaking about Cassandra Hurley, who we
just had and an amazing personand interview, and glad to have
her and you here as well.
Let's see here.
Back to the dreams, though.
Do you feel like dreams have asignificant meaning to our
(32:27):
personal life?
Speaker 1 (32:30):
I can't speak for everyone, but I know with me in
particular, absolutely yes,they're like it's a whole nother
realm, a whole nother parallelreality universe.
And what happens there in mysituation?
It happens here.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
And let's see here Do you feel like you know, you see
these like books that have likeI don't know, like a whale?
If you have a whale in yourdream, then it means you have
like a big problem that you arescared to confront.
Do you feel like those signs orsymbols mean the same thing you
(33:10):
know overall for all people, orthey can mean different things
right, not in my experience yeahthat doesn't no, yeah me, me
too as well.
Um, let's see here I, uh, youknow I've always wanted to and I
gosh, I have to add this to myum, to my bucket list but I've
(33:31):
always wanted to teach a classon dreams you know, just kind of
like teaching younger people ornot even younger people like
anyone how to interpret theirdreams.
But, yeah, prophetic dreams, Ifeel like I, I feel like I do, I
(33:51):
feel like the dreams that Ihave.
Actually, I think that this is.
I want to write a book on thisone day, okay, and it will be
called.
I think it will be called likeDream On which is.
I heard your version of it.
(34:13):
I love it.
It's really cool.
And, yeah, check out some ofher music.
We'll put it in the captionhere below.
But let's see, here I feel likedreams are our way of living
(34:33):
out the next day ahead of time.
So, but, but you really have tobe, like, extremely in control
of your dreams and you basicallyhave to be able to lucid dream,
you know, to be able to achievethis, um, but I, I
wholeheartedly feel that in thateight hours that we are asleep,
(34:58):
you know we should, or we inour dreams should, be living the
next day, so that that way wecan like make mistakes.
That way we can do things thatwe wouldn't normally do in our
regular life, to kind of testourselves.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yeah, right To see if and it really does give you
like a clean slate for what yourfuture is, say you have like a
situation that you're scared toconfront.
Well, in your dream you cancreate that situation, and if it
doesn't work out, then you knownot to go that direction.
(35:38):
You know.
If it works out, you know, okay, you know what.
Let me harness this power andyou know, move forward with it.
Now again, though, that wouldrequire us to have like lots of
control on you.
Know the way that we think andthe way that we dream.
Do you feel like there is a wayto control your dreams?
(36:00):
Um, more or less it probably is.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
I haven't.
That's not how it works for meokay okay, yeah, mine really
come up like lessons or thingsto avoid or things to do like
very direct, like you weretalking about the dream.
Like an elephant means anelephant.
Usually it's very black orwhite most of the time.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Okay, well, that's a good thing then, because then
you don't have there's no extraroom for misinterpretation.
I guess you could say let's seehere extra room for
misinterpretation.
I guess you could say let's seehere.
Do you have any like recurringdreams that are either like
something that is, you know,like something that is either
like scary or something that'slike I don't know fun, like
(36:46):
you're like I don't know, likean adventure park or something
like that or anything.
No, I don't have any recurringrecurring dreams.
I have one that is me in I usedto be a server and a bartender
and I have a reoccurring dreamwhere I have I'm the only server
in the whole restaurant and I'mtaking people's orders, like
(37:13):
back to back to back, but likeI'm writing it down and I can
never get everybody's order inand I'm like going from one
table to the next and then likeI can't get that table and I'm
missing like drinks, and they'reyelling at me, they're
screaming at me and then, gosh,I love when I wake up from those
(37:33):
because I'm like just likenervous as hell, like I find
myself sweating and I wake upand I'm like, oh, thank god, I'm
not a server anymore.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
I have something, not that often, but I'll have a
dream that I'm in high schoolagain.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
I'm like that's how I wake up, like no right, you
like your jump, you're like, ohshoot oh shoot.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
High school was fun, but I don't want to do that
again yeah, right, right, I hearthat.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Um, let's see here, let's get a little bit more.
We, we talked a little bitabout your past.
Uh, let's talk about thepresent.
Um, let's dive a little bitinto the, uh, the baltimore
crown awards.
Tell me a little bit about whatthey are.
For anyone who's not fromBaltimore, who's listening, give
(38:19):
me a little bit, give me thegoods on the Baltimore Crown
Awards.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
For people especially not from here or listening
about Baltimore not from here.
They usually associateBaltimore with the wire violence
.
You know what I mean.
So the Crown Awards was one ofthe reasons it was founded was
to make Baltimore synonymouswith what Baltimore really is
(38:45):
about, which is creativity,genius, community love, talent.
So it really awards people justdoing great things in the city.
So we have things likecommunity activist, entrepreneur
of the year, poet, musician,everything that you can think of
(39:06):
, sports, all the different artforms, fashion, makeup artists,
tattoo artists.
Oh, about shining light on onall the people doing great
things and also to affirm peoplelike sometimes, especially as
artists like you, just need that, that push or you might have
(39:27):
one of those days like why am Ieven doing this?
is anyone even paying attention?
So it's like to let people knowwe see you, we hear you, keep
doing it, we celebrate you, wehonor you.
And to do it now.
So it's like we give peopletheir flowers in the form of
crowns now while they're living.
So we had like legend awards.
So there's been some peoplewe've lost over the years and
(39:51):
I'm so happy that we as a citygot to celebrate them in such
big ways while they were here tohear those words.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yeah, love that.
Now let me ask you this as faras the people who are nominated
is this something that youself-nominate, or how can people
be nominated, or how can peoplebe nominated?
Speaker 1 (40:12):
So they would go to the website thebaltimoresceneorg
and you nominate people and yougive a reason why they should
be nominated, like a detailedreason and that's like a several
months process and that's howthe nominees are gathered, and
then there's a second roundwhere you vote again with
(40:33):
reasons.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Okay, when are the actual awards themselves?
Speaker 1 (40:37):
The December, like the first week of December, so
we just had one December 8th,okay, at Iconic Live, all right.
Yeah, it was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Nice, nice, let's see here.
So when will people start?
I know you just had the lastone, and congratulations to
everybody who won an award thisyear for 2024.
When do you start to see peoplegetting nominated for the 2025?
Speaker 1 (41:08):
January 1st.
We start early, but just withthe one question.
It starts with one questionlike who do you think in
Baltimore should receive theirflowers?
For doing so simple, and thenwe're going to extend it.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Love that, and where can people let's see here?
You said thebaltimoresceneorg.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
And Baltimore Crown Awards on Instagram and TikTok.
Okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
And the Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Scene on Instagram and TikTok.
Okay, all right.
And the Baltimore scene onInstagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Okay, and let's see here how many years have the
Baltimore Crown Awards beenaround?
Speaker 1 (41:44):
We just had our 18th 18 years.
Really 19th year now.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Wow, that's amazing.
That's awesome.
Anything special for the 20thanniversary?
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I'm just recovering from the 18th.
I'm really on my sabbaticalright now.
Where do the actual awardsoccur?
At a beautiful venue calledIconic Lives on Goofrood.
Oh I'm familiar.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Okay, alright, let's see here.
Okay well, hey, shout out to uh.
Everybody who has beennominated.
Um, all of the winners from uhfrom this year.
Is there any winner that youwant to maybe shed a little bit
of light on uh right now, whileyou have the opportunity?
Speaker 1 (42:28):
man, there's too many to yeah that out to one.
Okay, okay, okay, all okay, allright good thinking Everyone,
yeah, good thinking.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Okay, let's see here.
Tell me a little bit, let'spivot a little.
Let's go to the Black Mall.
Tell me a little bit about howthat started and maybe some of
the vendors that are a part ofit where people can go to visit
it.
Give me the deets on that, okay.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
So again, my parents were Rastafarian, so part of the
Rastafarian religion or way oflife is about Afrocentric
learning history being anentrepreneur, so I grew up in
that like making our own thingsand selling our own things, so
it's basically one place whereyou can go and and buy things
(43:19):
from.
You have, uh, people who makesculptures, um, t-shirts,
clothes, shea butter, and thenyou get the culture, too, to
dance.
We got Baltimore Club Dance,hip hop, live bands and open
mics and it's open to everybody.
Love that, yes.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
I love that.
How can someone become a vendorthere?
You could just text me Text her443-248-2596.
Oh, there you go.
Say it one more time443-248-2596.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Love that Love8-2596.
Nice, love that.
Love that let's see here.
Is there anything that you arethere, any type vendors that you
really either need, or aspecific type of let's see here
Medium that you feel like youcould use either more of or?
Speaker 1 (44:13):
We love visual arts.
Okay, that's me being biasedbecause I collect art.
Okay, my whole heart, my wholehouse is like a museum.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah, love that.
Clothes and clothes sneakers.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Nice now you're.
You were talking about, uh,music itself.
How um does, do you like, throwparticular, particular events
to where these artists canperform?
Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Do you?
Speaker 2 (44:39):
have any events coming up that you want to
highlight?
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Our next one will be March 16th, because I've been
double working for months andmonths and months, so I'm taking
a winter sabbatical.
There you go January andFebruary.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Nice Time for yourself, time for myself, time
for myself outside of the radioshow.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Yeah, and then you'll call, you'll come back even
harder.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Um, exactly, let's actually.
You mentioned the radio show.
Was there anything else about,uh, the black mall that you
wanted to either speak about ormention?
Speaker 1 (45:10):
um, it's the third sunday the month.
Okay, please come, we have aball and, yeah, like support our
vendors.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
That's about it.
Where is it located?
6.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
East Lafayette.
It's the third Sunday of themonth, 1 to 5.
And it's free.
Free admission and you get ashow.
It's like music, an amazingdance show.
We have um an event called thegreatest dancer competition.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
Oh nice, so you have like amazing dancers I wouldn't
be a part of that, just so youknow, although maybe I could
learn something you never knowand then we have a segment
called the all-stars where um,we celebrate people by sign, so
each month like we'll have a allpisces show oh nice, the djs,
the pisces, the host of umperformers love that.
(46:02):
Yeah, so we have a segment ofthe show called the all-stars
nice, nice, um, okay, yeah,let's see here.
Let's uh, let's pivot a littlebit.
Let's go to the um, to theradio show.
Tell me a little bit about thestation itself and uh how long
you've been doing that and uhwhat people can look forward to
when uh tuning in it's on um88.9 fm, weaa, and it's
(46:28):
basically a version of thebaltimore crown awards, just on
a weekly basis, putting energyon people.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
So, on a side note, I don't have a TV in my house.
I don't watch the news.
I haven't watched news indecades.
So it's basically about givingpeople good news, like, yeah,
because that's what I want tohear.
So basically producingsomething that I want to hear,
so shedding light on peopledoing amazing things.
And then we surprise everybody,every guest, with flowers.
(46:59):
So we have somebody in theirlife give them a speech that
they never told them before.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
On the show, love that, oh, wow, so, okay.
So give me a scenario like ifsomeone were to be on the show.
They would then write a speechto someone that I would be
recording.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Okay, Say, if you were, I would research somebody
close to you, okay, or someonethat knew you in the city, okay,
and I would ask them to send mea recording of, and I
specifically say say somethingthat you've.
You would normally wait to afuneral to say and say it now
and then we just play it.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
There you go love that, love that, right.
That's a good opportunity to uhtake some time and uh, yeah, to
appreciate, you know people andum energy for uh for for what
they're known for, and uh, youknow before people and um energy
for uh for for what they'reknown for, and uh, you know
before it's too late, right,it's so important, man, I love
that.
Um, let's see here, what elsedid we want to talk about?
(48:03):
Um, you know you are also acurator of events other than
kind of the things that we spokeabout.
You have any um, either pastevents that you want to shed
some light on or uh futureevents that you feel like um are
something that uh that that areimportant for for people to
hear and that you want to be apart of.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
I love uh, I love all the arts.
So, like I said, we have adance competition, we have have
a beat battle, beat god.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
Oh shoot.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Okay, I know some homies who we do MC battles.
We've had Cypher, so very muchinto hip hop, every single art
form that you can think of, wehave an event for it.
Nice.
So if you do any kind of art,please connect with me Now, are
these events connected together?
Speaker 2 (48:54):
yeah, are they now.
Are these events like,connected, like together, or
like, are they like the, the mcones, you know a separate night,
and then like the uh, you knowthe dancers a separate night.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
Or or do you kind of sometimes they're separate, but
then, like at the crown awards,we have like little segments of
a whole, like we had a beatbattle, we had a dance battle.
So we do a lot of things likegotcha, the one thing, nice.
But yeah, there's separateevents Gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
Let's see here.
I feel like we went throughsome good things.
Is there anything?
I know we had some other thingsthat we kind of spoke about
that you want to kind of shedlight on or anything like you
know, like any like, uh, let'ssee here, um, anything in the
(49:36):
maybe more recent uh you knowfuture that you want to, uh you
know other I said march 18th was, was something.
Any other dates that people cankind of like put on the
calendar now, that way they canlook forward?
Speaker 1 (49:51):
um, the improv y'all have coming up here because I'm
definitely going rolling yeah,and sing something right.
Rhythm royale shouts out torhythm royale I'm definitely
going to be in the building forthat.
That sounds so exciting yeah,it's, it's so cool improv yeah,
like really I've done a lot ofjam sessions and but I've never
(50:12):
heard nothing like yeah well, hewas explaining to me and it's
cool because it's like it's afull band improv.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Usually you'll have like, just like, maybe like the
singer or like you know.
The band themselves maybe havea few bars that are improv, but
most of it kind of follows likea, a specific um, let's see here
, guideline.
I guess you could say um, butyeah, so we picked the, the
tempo, um, we pick the, uh, the,the theme of the song itself.
(50:41):
That's wow, yeah, that's, that'spretty cool um, let's see here,
uh yeah, and then, like theyhave, like you know, you can
even if you're not like athousand percent like
comfortable with like a specific, if you know how to play it and
you can keep a rhythm, you cantry percussion and stuff like
that you can even step out ofyour comfort zone a little bit.
(51:04):
So I highly recommend thatWe'll put the date for the next
one down in the comments here.
It'll be either the first orsecond Monday in January, so
we'll put that down there.
Let's see here.
There's one last thing I wantedto talk about, and that was
(51:24):
your shirt here.
Oh yeah, love is God.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
Love is God.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, tell me a little bit about that and, uh,
what that means to you.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
so my dad, I know I reference my parents a lot.
You, know as you should um huge, you know?
I mean like everything that I amis from my parents shouts to
dad, yeah, shout out to dads andmoms, yeah, but rastafarian, so
very much into love, love, love, love, love.
So he said he became arastafarian because that was the
(51:58):
only religion that didn't tryto convert him into something oh
really.
So he could have easily, justlike forced us to be rastafarian
, me and my brother, but hedidn't.
So he gave us the the chance tojust explore however we want to
explore in terms ofspirituality.
So, me being a little girl, heexplained it to me.
He said God is like Florida,and if you're going to Florida,
(52:23):
you could take the plane toFlorida, the train, the
motorcycle, you could hitchhike.
And if you do take the planethere, spirit, frontier, delta,
us air, like basically there'sso many different ways to get to
florida.
That's him just explaining itto my little girl, mine.
So basically he was saying,however you want to get to god
(52:46):
being meaning goodness in hiseyes, being a spiritual, you
mean good person you do that.
So he allowed me to.
There was a church on the corner, so I went to the church and
sang gospel in church.
He sent me to a catholic school.
I lived in a buddhist monastery.
I lived in a hindu ashram.
(53:08):
I studied yoruba.
I've studied West Africanreligion, I've been in the
mosque, everything that you canthink of and of decades of just
that kind of searching.
When I came up with was, if Godis love, that means love is God
, and it just made it realsimple for me.
(53:28):
So that's what I live by Lovethat Love is God.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
Love is God.
Love is God, love is God.
It's so simple.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
If you just love, then you're doing it right.
But that's just my way.
And again, my way is not.
Somebody wants to take a planeand I take a train.
That's what we do.
We all get into the same place.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Right, right.
I think the option of beingable to have those different
ways of getting to a particulardestination Super grateful for
you know, being able to have allof those different options, you
know, and I feel like you knowthere's at different times to
(54:15):
like, think about, like, even ifyou do take the plane, you know
, think about like you have totake the plane and then you
might have to take like a bus,like exactly exactly, like
that's why some people might bethis path from this age to this
age and then that path from this, you know.
Speaker 1 (54:26):
I mean it's all different and they're all.
I don't, I don't, me personally, I think it's kind of silly to
say that, like there's so manydifferent types of flowers,
there's so many different typesof birds.
There's so many different typesof everything on this planet.
So I think I know that there'sdifferent paths you know what I
(54:48):
mean and one doesn't have to bebetter or worse than the other.
Speaker 2 (54:52):
Yeah, I totally agree with that and I love the way
that you put that.
You know we're going to switchit up a little bit.
I have a few cards here that Iwant to ask you Just some fun
questions here.
We usually do like a some funquestions here.
(55:16):
We usually do like a, a rapidfire um questionnaire that I
have.
But uh, with these this kind ofswitches it up a little bit.
Um, uh, 10 seconds on the board,oh okay no, no, I'm just
kidding, no, you, you, you haveas much time as you want,
although we want to try, and youknow, think of it.
Think of it as a little bit ofa rapid fire type thing okay,
all right, so will you ask me aquestion?
Speaker 1 (55:34):
Can I ask a question?
Speaker 2 (55:36):
Yeah, of course All right, yeah we can do that.
Okay, all right, you ready.
First one Would you rather beable to speak every language or
play every instrument?
Speaker 1 (55:47):
Absolutely fully play every instrument.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, let's see here.
You know what I feel like.
Yeah, I feel like it would beevery instrument as well.
Yeah, I agree, I agree withthat.
One.
Okay, second one If you couldbe good at something overnight,
what would it be?
Speaker 1 (56:12):
The piano.
I know that's cheating.
Oh, there you go, okay.
Speaker 2 (56:15):
Yeah, I could dibble, I'd dabble, dabble a little bit
Dibble dabble, a little bit.
Mine would be cooking.
Speaker 1 (56:22):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
Yep bit um, mine would be uh cooking.
Oh okay, yep, because I, I,what do you want to make?
Well, I would make some like uh, some italian like dish that,
like I could, like you know,serve to everybody oh, okay, yep
yep, also.
Okay, next one here, name abook you've read more than once
um creative visual.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
Creative visualization by shakti going oh
, love that.
Speaker 2 (56:49):
Um, let's see here mine would be.
Uh, the four agreements.
Oh, I love that.
Yes, what was, what was yoursagain?
Speaker 1 (56:57):
one more time.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
Creative visualization, okay, all right,
we'll put that up here so y'allcan see the cover.
Okay, what qualities do youadmire most in your parents?
Speaker 1 (57:12):
How rebellious and wild and free they are and how
much of a hustler they're.
Both hust they just like theydon't follow rules, but, in a
good way, love that they maketheir own rules.
Speaker 2 (57:30):
yeah, uh, let's see here my uh, what is the quality
I admire most about my parents?
I would have to say, um, thelove that they, that they show
not just to me, but the care andkindness that they show to
(57:50):
people around them.
All right, would the world bebetter or worse if no one
carried around phones?
It would be way better, waybetter, right, way better.
Gosh, I I mean, let me thinkabout that, yeah, yeah, I do
definitely think that, uh, ithas created a uh, distraction
(58:14):
for us and, even though, likethe good things about the phone,
I don't feel, I feel like we'renot harnessing them the way
that we could and that we should.
Speaker 1 (58:26):
I miss the inner peace, like when you leave the
house and no one could get intouch with you and that was okay
.
Now it's just like you just gotthis constant thing.
And everybody thinks that theyhave 24-7 access to you.
So now you got to just controlthat boundary for yourself.
Oh, I like that Controlling theboundary of the access itself.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
Yeah, love that yeah, so now you got to just control
that boundary for yourself.
Oh, I like that.
Controlling the boundary of theaccess itself.
Yeah, love that.
All right, all your clotheshave to be one color forever.
Which color would you choose?
Speaker 1 (58:54):
that's a hard one.
I mean, everybody's gonna thinkI say purple, which is probably
one, but it's pink or purple.
So there you go with lavender.
Speaker 2 (59:02):
Oh, okay, all right, the half and half.
Um, let's see here, mine wouldbe green.
Oh, why green?
Speaker 1 (59:10):
just because I thought you were gonna say black
, no I know right now.
Speaker 2 (59:13):
Well, see, that's too easy.
I feel like green just because,well, it's my favorite color
for one and for two.
Um, yeah, it's just like thecolor of grass and the color
like earth, you know?
All right, let's see herewhat's the first thing you
notice when you meet a newperson their eyes and their aura
(59:35):
love that love that.
Um, let's see here.
Uh, mine would be.
The first thing I notice when Imeet a new person is how much
they laugh and smile.
Speaker 1 (59:49):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (59:52):
Okay, let's see here what's the best gift you've ever
received, with Christmas rightaround the corner.
Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
My dad had those vinyl records so he surprised me
.
It was like a lunchbox but itwas like a record player.
Oh, cool Like a kiddie recordplayer.
Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
Oh nice.
Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Yeah, that was my favorite gift.
Do you still have it?
I don't.
I wish I did.
Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
We need to get you one of the lunchbox record
players.
They exist.
I know for sure the best giftthat I've ever received, um, and
I'm not gonna be cheesy aboutit either.
Uh, let's do an actual gift.
Um, I remember when I was a kid, uh, there was like this oh,
(01:00:37):
actually, you know what?
My my a puppy?
It was a dog and it was thecoolest.
Her.
Her name was Carly.
Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Uh, she was a.
Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
Dalmatian and I remember like being so
flabbergasted at like why myparents didn't like fully wrap
this present and like then likewalking in the energy they had,
like as they were walking inwith it and then just opening
the you know just the, the paperwas just kind of like laid on
the top and just pulling off andseeing the puppy there and just
(01:01:08):
being like this is the coolestthing ever, it was my first pet
basically too, so yeah, so thatwas cool.
Oh, that's cool to think about.
Uh, what do you not want to bewhen you grow up old?
Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
right, I mean, you know, I mean like, yeah,
psychologically, yeah, I likethat, uh, mine would be a dick.
Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Don't be mean, I don't.
Don't be that mean old.
You know that get off my lawntype yeah don't be a grumpy old
man type, Be the type I fixpeople's heaters for a living.
And I'm in, you know, manydifferent houses a day and you
know there's sometimes when yougo into somebody's house and
their energy is just likethey're so like grumpy.
(01:01:59):
Grumpy and mean.
And I know it's cold.
I understand that.
But, like you know, I'm here tofix it.
If you're cool with me, ifyou're nice to me, guess what
it'll?
It'll get fixed.
And even if you're not nice,I'll probably be fixing it
anyway, although I'll fix itquicker if you're nice that
makes a lot of sense in theworld uh, let's see here what
(01:02:19):
other language do you wish youcould speak?
french?
Oh, any particular reason?
Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
because I I went to.
I want to go to every countryin africa one day, but I've been
to several and I learned a lotof spanish in school.
I just wish I had learnedfrench so it would be able to
easier.
Yeah, it would be easier for meto communicate when I was there
gotcha.
Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
Um, mine would be, uh , portuguese, yeah, because I
have uh some family in brazil.
And um, nice, yeah, I wouldlike to be able to uh, yeah, we
hear when they're talking aboutme behind my back, and then you
know I have one more segmenthere.
Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
Oh gosh, and then you know, I have one more segment
here, oh gosh, who's thiscalling?
Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
Oh, okay, this is you , but like many years in the
past, how many?
Years.
Let's see here, let's say like20 years ago, okay ago, okay,
yeah, she wants to talk to you,she's very excited.
Oh, she just, she can't wait, Iknow, okay, well, you better
(01:03:32):
listen to her, all right here oh, my gosh, yep, what's up, girl,
what's up?
Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
hey, how you doing?
Yes, it's so good to speak toyou.
Keep it up, keep writingWriter's Block.
Let me tell you from now, soyou don't waste time, writer's
Block does not exist.
Write, write, write, write,write.
Oh, and if you ever get aninkling to call someone, if
(01:03:59):
someone comes up on your mind,your spirit, drop everything and
call them.
If your father tells you to govisit him, please drop
everything and go visit himwhile you can and while you have
the opportunity to.
I love you.
We on this, we doing this bigyes all right, you got this nice
(01:04:22):
.
Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Oh, that was awesome, awesome.
I know that you're a little.
I know that that one could bechallenging.
Right, it is challengingbecause there's so many
different things that you wantto tell your old self.
You know whether they'repositive, whether they're
negative, whether they're thingsthat, um, you know are like an
experience that you had, or likememories.
(01:04:43):
You know that you want toreally share with that you had,
or like memories.
You know that you want toreally share with that person,
but I, you really, uh, youtouched me when you said you
know, make sure that you takeadvantage of opportunities you
know, because you might notmight not have them, um, forever
, or you, you definitely won'thave them forever.
Well, you know what I want to.
Thank you so much for joiningus today and I was able to learn
(01:05:07):
so many cool things.
This was fun.
Yeah, about the Crown AwardsI'm going to make sure that I
vote for people.
Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
Yes, please Give people their flowers.
Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
Yeah, definitely.
I have some people in mindalready that I think would be
great for a few of the topicshere.
Go visit the Black Mall.
When is the next?
March 16th?
Yeah, March 16th.
Okay, save that in yourcalendar.
Let's see here Any otheranything else that you want to
(01:05:41):
kind of mention, or any?
Oh I?
Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
have books.
One is called the C Word.
It's about my experiencegetting through cancer and black
fairy tales, my experiencesjust growing up.
Love that, both poetry books.
Speaker 2 (01:05:59):
And where can people find those Amazon, amazon.
Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:06:06):
All right, all right, and we'll put links uh down
below here.
Um, awesome.
Well, hey, thank you so muchfor joining us.
Uh, yes, I I'm so glad that youcame through and uh, I'm
excited to uh to see what you uhcan bring to uh baltimore and
the way that you you celebrated.
I think you should be extremelyproud of of who you are and
(01:06:27):
what you've done with with yourtime here.
So far.
Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Thank you Awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Awesome, awesome.
All right, well, we are out ofhere.
Just wanted to thank everybodyelse for joining in on the
respecting perspectives and wewill see y'all next time.
Peace out.
So nothing off limits .
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Nothing, nothing, no, we could talk about whatever
you want, dude, seriously, okay,yeah, I think that's important,
you know, to even go.
You know, there's sometimeswhere even being uncomfortable
can sometimes really bring outsomething that you never knew
that you even had in you.
You know, like with my mom I,she didn't want to do it like at
(00:24):
all and she was like, please,mom I, she didn't want to do it
like at all and she was like,please, andrew, I don't want to
do it.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I was like say it again what's her sign?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
um?
Okay, so her birthday is um may8th.
What's that?
I don't know.
I'm not good with that.
That's him.
That's him.
That's Matt.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Oh, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, I think I hear him yelling.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
It's Taurus.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Okay, oh, taurus, okay, okay, okay, and so with
her.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Let your mom know that you don't know her son, so
you're not into signs like that.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
You know what?
Not yet.
I'd like to learn more and I'dlike to dig into it, um, but I
don't know as much as I guessthe the more, uh you know.
Most people seem very informedabout, uh, astrology these days
what's your sign?
I am a, a Libra, I know that.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Oh, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
But I couldn't even give you anything more.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Like kind of air about justice balance.
Oh, okay, Diplomatic.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Okay, all right, now you're telling me some stuff I
don't know.
All right, actually, when meand Matt sat down, he was able
to.
I don't think we reallyactually went over my sign.
That's something that we dowant to do in the future.
Um, but we kind of just talkedabout like the history of it and
(01:54):
, um, uh, you know, we got intoa whole bunch of different
things.
Um, okay, so let's see here, uh, we're just gonna go right off
the bat.
Okay, how does how does thisstart?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
yeah, it starts like this this.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yo, we are on the respecting perspectives podcast
and this is the official startto miss chin years episode, who
let me tell you something.
Uh, you know she is affluent inthe baltimore community, uh,
with things like the, the blackmall, things like the baltimore
(02:35):
crown awards, and she's got herown radio show.
But listen, enough of metalking about her.
I'm going to let her tell you alittle bit about herself and
where she comes from.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Hey, hey, hey hey.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
How are you?
I'm doing excellent, I'm doingexcellent.
How about you?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
I'm great, I'm excited to be here.
Yes, before I start, what madeyou start this podcast?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Let's see here.
I always felt like I needed tosay something and with music I
feel limited, you know, becauseof whatever the instrumental is,
or I feel like you know eachsong has a specific vibe, but
(03:24):
with a podcast you can reallytalk about.
Like we say, you could talkabout anything and everything.
Now, whether or not it fits toa specific, let's see here.
You know reasoning.
I think that's the coolest partabout it is it gives me more of
a way to communicate with otherpeople and to help them also get
(03:50):
their ideas out.
So, yeah, I've always had thisin the back of my head and then
I had a few friends tell me like, hey, you should probably do a
podcast.
And I was like, yeah, it's agood idea, but there's a lot to
it, a lot that goes behind thescenes here.
But, uh, it felt like it wasdefinitely worth it and, uh,
(04:11):
it's.
It feels like right now it'sthe perfect timing where
podcasts are great forinformation.
They're great for education, um, they're great for marketing,
um, there's so many different,uh facets of a podcast that you
can use in your in your dailylife.
So, uh, yeah, I feel like it'sbeen a uh, an awesome experience
(04:33):
so far and really just gettingto sit down with people like
yourself and uh, and even getlike ask these questions, like
it makes me think about thingsthat I don't even really get to
think about as much.
You would think that I wouldthink about that why I started
this, but there's times wherethat kind of gets lost in
translation.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, an extroverted introvert, a rebel, a shy rock
star, a shock star.
A shock star, I like that.
(05:16):
A musician, creative andcurator and a big dreamer and an
alien and a her hermit I thinkthat's about it, right?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I'm sure it depends on the situation, right?
That brings out the uh, thetype of person in you, right?
Um, let's see here, why don'tyou tell me a little bit, uh,
where you grew up and let's see?
You know some of the thingsfrom you, maybe your early
childhood that maybe helped you,you know, get to where you are
(05:53):
now, whether it's like schoolingor did you play any instruments
or like, just give us a littlebit of your background, if you
don't mind that's where thealien part comes in.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So I'm jamaican, I was born in england and I was
raised in jersey and then I'vebeen in in baltimore for like 20
something years, so no matterwhere I've been.
So I'm a british citizen, okay,as of now.
But of course when I'm inengland I have this accent and
then i'm'm Jamaican.
(06:24):
It's just like I'm always feellike I'm an alien everywhere,
which has served me well like interms of artistically.
My parents Jamaican Rastafariansand they're both artists, my
mother visual artist.
My father, he played severalinstruments and was a producer.
So I grew up in a very free, uhhappy, musical household what
(06:48):
did he play?
he played the bass and theguitar and he also sang and he
had a reggae band.
Oh, that's so awesome.
So he used to drag me to like Iwon't say drag me, but I was
seven years old and six yearsold, like out, two in the
morning, three in the morning,like watching them play, and I
loved it, so that just has mademe the person I am.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, that's so awesome.
What about schooling?
Give me a little bit aboutwhere.
Where did you go to school?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I went to a Catholic school at first.
Until later I went to a publicschool, which also played a huge
part into my whole life,because we used to have like
days off for like saints andthings like that.
So the very first thing Iwanted to be when I was little
was a saint.
Oh, shoot.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Who was your favorite saint?
What did you have like afavorite patron saint back in
the day, then now probablymother theresa, but oh right, uh
, not particularly.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I just remember wanting.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I wanted to be a nun too, until I really understood
what that meant still, youunderstood what nunhood meant
yeah, but yeah, that's what Ireally wanted to be wait, what
was it about the nuns that that,um, you know that attracted you
oh, I just, I just wanted tolike heal.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I don't.
I'm trying to think of a songslike we are the world and all
these different songs.
Yeah, I just wanted to make adifference, that's.
That's the big thing.
And because we were around thatall day, every day in school,
that was like my first frame ofreference gotcha, I had that as
well when I went to a catholicschool.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I went to, uh, saint thomas aquinas, chow chow um,
over there in handen, and we hadnuns, uh, as well, and I do
remember them having like this,like somber, like one with
themselves, um, energy, and theyreally, you know they were,
(08:46):
they were very quiet, though,you know they weren't loud, um,
but they all they always seemedlike they had had their, had
their stuff together, you know,until somebody did something bad
, dude.
And then that's when they,that's when you kind of saw the,
the, the, you know the, uh, themore wild side, and I can see
(09:08):
where you would think that,though, because, like, they're
very, like reserved and they,you know they, they know what
they're doing and like, eventhough, like you know, uh, chaos
erupts around them, they'restill able to kind of keep that,
uh, that composure.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
So, yeah, and there was this one specific nun.
Her name was sister josephclear.
She was my first grade teacherand she would play the guitar
for us and sing and then, likein the middle of the school year
, she just disappeared and wedidn't know where she went.
Then we found out she went tolike um, help people in africa.
Oh wow, that just stood in myhead, like her guitar and
(09:44):
helping people and feeding.
You know what I mean Doing yeah, giving back she's probably the
only teacher's name I rememberfrom then.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Well, there's a reason, right Gosh.
I never had none of the nuns atSt Thomas played any music or
anything like that.
Although I feel like that, thator anything like that, although
I feel like that, that would besomething that would have, uh,
stuck with me.
Yes, for sure.
What about, um?
Did you play any instrumentswhen you were younger?
(10:12):
My voice, oh, there you go.
Yeah, there you go.
How old were you when yourealized you know the power of
your voice and and what was whatyou were capable of?
Speaker 1 (10:24):
who.
So when I was born, my parentshad me relatively young and they
I was left in england for thefirst four or five, six years of
my life and then they were here.
So I think because of thetrauma of that me not
understanding where they went, Iliterally didn't speak like I
(10:44):
didn't.
When I came here I should havehad a british accent, but I
didn't because I didn't speak, Iwas just so my first way to
communicate was through singing.
Like I didn't speak but I sangokay.
So singing was just like acomforting, healing thing for me
.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Oh, it always has been yeah, I can, uh, I can
sympathize uh with that,especially recently, uh, taking
vocal lessons with a vocalinstructor and really just being
able to harness that power andknowing how to take care of it
(11:21):
right and to think that we allhave this ability, or most of us
uh have this ability to tocommunicate, um, but, yeah,
that's so interesting.
That's really cool to hear.
Um, let's see here.
What about, um, when you wereyounger, tell me more more about
you said England, that's whereyou how, how long did you live
there?
And six, really, okay, okay,and let's see here.
(11:46):
So you have wait, I'm sorry,you said till six.
Okay, do you remember it?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, I do Foggy, rainy, right Chill, kind of like
Sherlock Holmes vibe.
Yeah, I remember it yeah, let'ssee here.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Do you remember the street that you grew up on?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Not in England.
No, let's see here Jersey.
Yeah, oh, Jersey.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Okay, all right, shout out to Jersey.
I got family who, well, most ofmy family is from Philadelphia
but we frequent jersey, uh, likethe beach and whatnot.
Seattle city, um, let's seehere.
Uh, okay, so after six, tell me, um, what happened day after
that.
Where did you go?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I stayed there for uh , lived in elizabeth, I don't
know, people know new jerseylike that, but I kind of hopped
different parts of new jerseyelizabeth, newark, okay,
irvington, and then I saw morganstate university, which is in
baltimore, and that's what mademe fall in love with baltimore
oh sweet, what was it about, uh?
Speaker 2 (12:56):
morgan state itself that uh attracted you.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
It was a, it was a vibe, it was like like a
spiritual, like electriccurrency, to just it really hit
me when my feet just landed onthere.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
So we went on like a tour to all the HBCUs and I
don't know.
I just had an electricconnection.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Damn, that's awesome.
Let's see here.
Did you end up studying there?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:25):
What was your?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
uh, what was your focus?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
my first major was social work, and then I changed
it to creative writing.
Okay, which is what?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I two totally different things there.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
No, not really because creative writing is
probably the best thing, inaddition to all arts, to use to
heal people that's a good point,actually.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Um, now let's see here with the social work itself
.
Um, did you have any particulardreams or goals at that time?
Um, you know, when you startedschool that you wanted to
achieve.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
It went back to that whole saint.
None thing.
I wanted to be a social worker,just like change the world,
heal the world type thing yeahbut I realized I could do it
even more through the arts.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Oh, I love the way you put that actually.
So was there like a time inbetween where you let's see here
, um, you found that creativewriting, you know, was going to
be something that you wanted topursue.
Was it like an overnight thing,or did did you kind of have to
go through like a process?
I asked that because when I wasin school, um, I went for
(14:36):
engineering and that's what I,you know, started out as, and
then, as I, I didn't know whatthe heck I wanted to do.
You sound like you had more of aclear vision about what you
wanted to do, but I had no ideawhat I wanted to do, and
engineering just sounded cool atthe time, you know, um, I
wanted to build things, uh, butthen I slowly started to realize
(15:01):
, um, you know, whatcommunication was and how to be
able to use it properly to builda network.
And it was like maybe like twoor three months in between there
that I went to my advisor andwas like this is not what I'm
meant to be doing, likecommunications is my clear path
(15:22):
and that's what kind of helpedme um you know, transcend into
the arts for me, but for you,was there anything uh specific
that changed like?
was there any like event maybethat you you went to that was
like, oh, you know what this is,this is something, or was it
any particular thing that thathelped you realize this?
I had always always lovedwriting.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
I had won writing contests since I was a little
girl.
The first one was when I wassix, but again that time, when I
didn't speak and I was singing,the other thing I was doing was
writing that was just the way Icommunicated through the world
through musical notes andthrough writing.
(16:04):
So that was very healing for me.
And then I closely associatemusic with writing as well
because, my dad being a musician, our whole living room was
filled, like ceiling to thefloor, with vinyl records and
then, of course, all the wordswas like printed on the back.
So I had a really strong loveof words, my whole life directly
(16:25):
connected to music.
So when I was going to schoolfor social work, I would write
papers for my social workclasses and they would read them
and be like this sounds like afilm, this sounds like a script.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
This sounds like a poem.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
This sounds like so all my teachers my whole life
always told me to go into that.
So then, eventually I was likeyou know what, yeah, yeah, have
always told me to go into that.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So then eventually I was like you know what, yeah,
yeah, you know what.
It's cool that you, you, youtalk about that, because I love
thinking about like back in theday, um, like, yeah, reading the
back of records and the words.
You know, like there'ssomething about that connection
to be able to really just youknow, I feel like people don't
(17:07):
do that as much these days, eventhough like lyrics are
available If you, you know, ifyou're in like Apple music or
Spotify, if you, if the artistis, you know, doing, I guess, or
I think, what they you know,know to be doing and to help
them connect with more people.
And this is a word of advice toall artists out there if you
(17:29):
know you have music out, makesure that you go through the
proper distributors and outletsto get those lyrics you know, um
, not just like put up, but alsosynced, so that that way people
can follow you and I feel likethey can make more of a
connection with you if they havethose words.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
But I also remember having to rewind the tape, and
we would literally sit there andwrite the words like line by
line too Right.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Oh, that's so awesome .
And then, even like, if itwasn't a vinyl, remember, when
CDs, you know, they had thelittle, the little packets that
you and I remember, like therewas a time there was a shift
when, like, I would open thatpacket up and the words wouldn't
be in there and I'd be like,I'd remember being like so, like
(18:20):
mad, like man, like this wasone of the reasons, like why I
would even like get the CD is sothat I could follow along with
them.
But it's cool to think aboutthat type of stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
When you think literature or English literature
and creative writing, to methere's no better way to study
it than through music.
If you're talking poeticdevices like hyper, it's like
there's a song for every, everydevice, every skill yeah, yeah,
I, I agree with that.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Um, let's hear, was there any particular favorite
like album that you, youlistened to?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
you know over and over again from your dad's
collection that you can remember, hmm yeah, think about that
fella cootie, which, um, Ididn't really understand that's
uh, he's an artist from nigeriaand he was a activist as well,
so he would literally like getarrested for putting out his
songs and stuff like that.
(19:18):
So I remember it wasn't more some playing it all the time, but
they it was always playing inthe house, and then bob marley,
of course, and whitney houstonthat was my favorite for my
first favorite singer andstephanie mills, and there's so
many, yeah, yeah, I'm sure youcould go through who was the
(19:39):
first artist?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
you said though oh, fella cootie yeah, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna put a link and uh,we'll put a picture up so that
that way other people can uhresearch and uh and watch and
listen, and personally I'd liketo uh to hear and see.
Um, did you see the more themost recent the bob marley movie
I haven't no no, I haven'teither.
(20:01):
actually I've been been meaningto do that.
Let's see here.
Other than that, let's move onfrom that a little bit.
Jersey Tell me a little bitabout Jersey and what brought
you from Jersey to Baltimoreitself.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
That was the Morgan.
I went on a college tour,college tour.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Okay, let's see here.
And then the creative writing.
Um, now, when you were, whenyou speak about creative writing
and like music, do you meanlike actual, like music notes or
like words themselves?
Words?
Yeah, yeah okay, um, you know,yeah, okay, you know what?
Let me tell you, I have been amusic writer for, I would say,
(20:49):
at least 20 years now, and thatis something that has guided me
throughout my whole life.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
So when you say that, do you mean notes or do you
mean writing?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I mean writing the words yeah themselves as well.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Um, I have about a hundred notebooks at home who's
your favorite songwriter or oneof your favorite?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
man, my favorite songwriter, um, I would say uh,
mac miller yeah, yeah, I likeMac Miller.
Yeah, yeah, he really justhelped me understand that you
can just be totally different oneach track.
(21:34):
And I feel like now withartists they kind of get like
they see this, like let's seehere, they see success in a
particular genre and then theyend up like sticking with that
genre, you know, and kind oflike staying with that genre,
(21:56):
and especially like nowadayswith like playlisting and things
like that, you know there'sdifferent feels that people have
, or, as the kids say, it'svibes these days.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Okay, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
And so, you know, it makes me really think about most
artists, I would say, really dokind of put themselves in a box
or in a particular lane, youknow, and more power to them to
be able to know what they'regood at.
Um, although I think, uh, youknow the the strength of an
(22:34):
artist is their ability to beversatile, you know, and to be
able to, to, to, to really justcreate something.
I think that's the thing thatwe're missing is like creating
something out of nothing youknow, I don't think art and
boxes even go together.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I mean it's debatable .
Yeah, if an artist who is in abox is an artist yeah I'm not
sure yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Right, I feel like um it, it feels like sometimes, uh
, of, yeah, maybe they see, seesuccess in the outside world.
But it felt really good to makethat type of music and I would
(23:40):
make it and then make it overagain and I will give a word of
advice, like, if you're feelingit, you know, you know, run with
it as as far as much as you can, but guess what?
There's always a finish line.
You know so you need to realizeyou know how many laps can you
do before you know you.
(24:01):
I think it really all comesdown to like you know what you
can get from the musicpersonally, I mean, I know you
know everyone else hearing itand what they get is amazing,
but I feel like the best artistsor sorry, the most creative
artists are willing and able tolearn from their own.
(24:22):
You know movements in order toget them to other people and
outside.
Let's see here, let's talkabout music and songwriting a
little bit.
When do you feel like you writeeither your best work or, let's
(24:45):
see see, yeah, when do you feellike the best time to write is,
for you, the best time to writeis every single day.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Writers block does not exist.
Yeah, yes I totally agree withthat.
It doesn't exist.
Um, that's one great thingabout going to school for
writing.
Because there's no, you can'ttell your professors oh, the
muse didn't come, or I wasn'tinspired.
Like if I had a screenplay dueand it was a 90-page screenplay,
(25:16):
I had to write it, Like period.
Or I fail.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, so that whole processtaught me like, no, like you
can't wait on the music, youhave to take the music and grab
them.
Love that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Love that it forced you to be productive.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, it forced me to .
Can you cross on here?
Yeah, Okay.
Say whatever the fuck you wantit forced me to not bullshit
like and not like.
Procrastinate yeah, so yeah,that's a huge procrastination.
Like, oh yeah, I'm not feelingit, there's no ideas flowing to
me, there's no, no.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, no, I feel like , with the amount of words that
are out there, that, yeah, youcan explain and describe things
in so many different ways andmaybe we should both try and
give a tidbit of advice forsomeone who is suffering from
(26:20):
writer's block.
Writer's block, I think there'sa different emotion that can be
connected with sorry, there'smillions of emotions that can be
connected with a particularfeeling or a particular let's
see here way that you're tryingto get your voice heard.
(26:40):
I think, even if you're notfeeling like inspired to write,
I've been personally able towrite poetry when I'm not
feeling inspired to write music,because I feel like when I'm
(27:01):
writing poetry it's more of likewhen I'm feeling like somber
and I'm feeling maybe like not Iwouldn't say depressed, but
like when I'm feeling a while torealize that and to figure that
(27:24):
out.
But different let's see heredifferent mediums, you know for
the different ways that you'refeeling.
Do you write any poetry itselfor is it all music?
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, I'm a published poet.
I have a few books.
But going back to what you saidearlier, I'm going to say all
the way off the record fully, noone suffers from writer's block
.
No one.
No, what people suffer from isbeing too critical of what they
(27:58):
put out.
You always have something tosay.
You always, if your hand canmove like this, you always have
something to write.
But what stops is it is youtelling yourself, oh, it's not
good enough, this sucks, this isbullshit.
This is that's what peoplesuffer from, not writer's block,
it's the scrutiny.
But what I learned is is likemuses are like birds, so you got
(28:22):
to put crumbs on the paper.
Crumbs is the bullshit.
You just write whatever comeslike bullshit or not, you just
put it on the page and what thatattracts is now the muses see
the crumbs on the page and theyfly and they come around and
they swarm around and they landon you.
But they reward you doing thatstep.
It's just like if you play asport, you're going to stretch
(28:47):
first.
You're not going to think thestretch is you slam dunking.
You're not going to think thestretch is you jumping over
hurdles.
You know that that's thestretch.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
So slam dunking.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
You're not gonna think the stretch is you jumping
over hurdles?
You know that, that's thestretch.
So you just gotta see the samething as writing love that.
Put the bullshit on the pageand I promise you the muses will
come.
But you gotta do that firststep.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Love that, that's.
That's amazing.
Yeah, that.
I think that is something thattook me a little bit, uh, to
learn as well.
Um, I feel like when I amwriting music, yeah, you never
write your best stuff, like Imean actually not sometimes.
Sometimes, yeah, you're rightsometimes that hook will come
(29:45):
right away.
But, um, you know, yeah, if youI always do feel like strike,
while the iron's hot too, andit's like even if, even if, like
that little bit of creativity,everything that you need in the
song itself, and you have likethe hook, and then you have, you
know, a few verses, like keepwriting, like write, until you
literally feel like you can't goanymore because you know, say,
(30:12):
you know you have enough foryour song, you know, halfway
through that a proper musiciancan then take the words that
they wrote for that andtranslate it into another song.
You know, so having all of thatmaterial is just more fuel for
the fire later on.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
And don't discount dreams also.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Oh, yeah, yeah, Tell me a little bit about that Songs
and melodies that can come indreams.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Just don't write off anything.
Any inspiration.
Yeah, Sometimes I'll just go tolike a thrift store and look at
book titles and write down thetitles and just force myself to
write something based on that.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
There's inspirations everywhere let me ask you this
uh, do you have a dream diary?
Speaker 1 (30:59):
oh, absolutely do you really so?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
when do you do you feel like?
I mean, you do you have to fillit out, like as soon as you
wake up?
Is that something that or like?
Is there times when, like timewhen you later on kind of think
of like a detail that's in thedream that you then can add
later?
How do you feel like the bestway to fill out a dream diary?
(31:26):
I've been finding it difficultpersonally, because I have other
things that I try and do rightwhen I wake up, and if I don't
do those things then I feel likeI'm veering off my path.
So do you have any advice?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
on that.
For me it has to be as soon asI wake up.
If I do it later, it's going tobe some details that are
missing, and then I title thembased on subjects.
So when the time comes like Iwas listening to your last guest
, like I'm the same way, Like Ihave dreams and they happen.
So when I need to find them,I'm able to easily find them by
(32:04):
topic.
Topic Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
And she's speaking about Cassandra Hurley, who we
just had and an amazing personand interview, and glad to have
her and you here as well.
Let's see here.
Back to the dreams, though.
Do you feel like dreams have asignificant meaning to our
(32:27):
personal life?
Speaker 1 (32:30):
I can't speak for everyone, but I know with me in
particular, absolutely yes,they're like it's a whole nother
realm, a whole nother parallelreality universe.
And what happens there in mysituation?
It happens here.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
And let's see here Do you feel like you know, you see
these like books that have likeI don't know, like a whale?
If you have a whale in yourdream, then it means you have
like a big problem that you arescared to confront.
Do you feel like those signs orsymbols mean the same thing you
(33:10):
know overall for all people, orthey can mean different things
right, not in my experience yeahthat doesn't no, yeah me, me
too as well.
Um, let's see here I, uh, youknow I've always wanted to and I
gosh, I have to add this to myum, to my bucket list but I've
(33:31):
always wanted to teach a classon dreams you know, just kind of
like teaching younger people ornot even younger people like
anyone how to interpret theirdreams.
But, yeah, prophetic dreams, Ifeel like I, I feel like I do, I
(33:51):
feel like the dreams that Ihave.
Actually, I think that this is.
I want to write a book on thisone day, okay, and it will be
called.
I think it will be called likeDream On which is.
I heard your version of it.
(34:13):
I love it.
It's really cool.
And, yeah, check out some ofher music.
We'll put it in the captionhere below.
But let's see, here I feel likedreams are our way of living
(34:33):
out the next day ahead of time.
So, but, but you really have tobe, like, extremely in control
of your dreams and you basicallyhave to be able to lucid dream,
you know, to be able to achievethis, um, but I, I
wholeheartedly feel that in thateight hours that we are asleep,
(34:58):
you know we should, or we inour dreams should, be living the
next day, so that that way wecan like make mistakes.
That way we can do things thatwe wouldn't normally do in our
regular life, to kind of testourselves.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yeah, right To see if and it really does give you
like a clean slate for what yourfuture is, say you have like a
situation that you're scared toconfront.
Well, in your dream you cancreate that situation, and if it
doesn't work out, then you knownot to go that direction.
(35:38):
You know.
If it works out, you know, okay, you know what.
Let me harness this power andyou know, move forward with it.
Now again, though, that wouldrequire us to have like lots of
control on you.
Know the way that we think andthe way that we dream.
Do you feel like there is a wayto control your dreams?
(36:00):
Um, more or less it probably is.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
I haven't.
That's not how it works for meokay okay, yeah, mine really
come up like lessons or thingsto avoid or things to do like
very direct, like you weretalking about the dream.
Like an elephant means anelephant.
Usually it's very black orwhite most of the time.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Okay, well, that's a good thing then, because then
you don't have there's no extraroom for misinterpretation.
I guess you could say let's seehere extra room for
misinterpretation.
I guess you could say let's seehere.
Do you have any like recurringdreams that are either like
something that is, you know,like something that is either
like scary or something that'slike I don't know fun, like
(36:46):
you're like I don't know, likean adventure park or something
like that or anything.
No, I don't have any recurringrecurring dreams.
I have one that is me in I usedto be a server and a bartender
and I have a reoccurring dreamwhere I have I'm the only server
in the whole restaurant and I'mtaking people's orders, like
(37:13):
back to back to back, but likeI'm writing it down and I can
never get everybody's order inand I'm like going from one
table to the next and then likeI can't get that table and I'm
missing like drinks, and they'reyelling at me, they're
screaming at me and then, gosh,I love when I wake up from those
(37:33):
because I'm like just likenervous as hell, like I find
myself sweating and I wake upand I'm like, oh, thank god, I'm
not a server anymore.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
I have something, not that often, but I'll have a
dream that I'm in high schoolagain.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
I'm like that's how I wake up, like no right, you
like your jump, you're like, ohshoot oh shoot.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
High school was fun, but I don't want to do that
again yeah, right, right, I hearthat.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Um, let's see here, let's get a little bit more.
We, we talked a little bitabout your past.
Uh, let's talk about thepresent.
Um, let's dive a little bitinto the, uh, the baltimore
crown awards.
Tell me a little bit about whatthey are.
For anyone who's not fromBaltimore, who's listening, give
(38:19):
me a little bit, give me thegoods on the Baltimore Crown
Awards.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
For people especially not from here or listening
about Baltimore not from here.
They usually associateBaltimore with the wire violence
.
You know what I mean.
So the Crown Awards was one ofthe reasons it was founded was
to make Baltimore synonymouswith what Baltimore really is
(38:45):
about, which is creativity,genius, community love, talent.
So it really awards people justdoing great things in the city.
So we have things likecommunity activist, entrepreneur
of the year, poet, musician,everything that you can think of
(39:06):
, sports, all the different artforms, fashion, makeup artists,
tattoo artists.
Oh, about shining light on onall the people doing great
things and also to affirm peoplelike sometimes, especially as
artists like you, just need that, that push or you might have
(39:27):
one of those days like why am Ieven doing this?
is anyone even paying attention?
So it's like to let people knowwe see you, we hear you, keep
doing it, we celebrate you, wehonor you.
And to do it now.
So it's like we give peopletheir flowers in the form of
crowns now while they're living.
So we had like legend awards.
So there's been some peoplewe've lost over the years and
(39:51):
I'm so happy that we as a citygot to celebrate them in such
big ways while they were here tohear those words.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yeah, love that.
Now let me ask you this as faras the people who are nominated
is this something that youself-nominate, or how can people
be nominated, or how can peoplebe nominated?
Speaker 1 (40:12):
So they would go to the website thebaltimoresceneorg
and you nominate people and yougive a reason why they should
be nominated, like a detailedreason and that's like a several
months process and that's howthe nominees are gathered, and
then there's a second roundwhere you vote again with
(40:33):
reasons.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Okay, when are the actual awards themselves?
Speaker 1 (40:37):
The December, like the first week of December, so
we just had one December 8th,okay, at Iconic Live, all right.
Yeah, it was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Nice, nice, let's see here.
So when will people start?
I know you just had the lastone, and congratulations to
everybody who won an award thisyear for 2024.
When do you start to see peoplegetting nominated for the 2025?
Speaker 1 (41:08):
January 1st.
We start early, but just withthe one question.
It starts with one questionlike who do you think in
Baltimore should receive theirflowers?
For doing so simple, and thenwe're going to extend it.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Love that, and where can people let's see here?
You said thebaltimoresceneorg.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
And Baltimore Crown Awards on Instagram and TikTok.
Okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
And the Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Scene on Instagram and TikTok.
Okay, all right.
And the Baltimore scene onInstagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Okay, and let's see here how many years have the
Baltimore Crown Awards beenaround?
Speaker 1 (41:44):
We just had our 18th 18 years.
Really 19th year now.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Wow, that's amazing.
That's awesome.
Anything special for the 20thanniversary?
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I'm just recovering from the 18th.
I'm really on my sabbaticalright now.
Where do the actual awardsoccur?
At a beautiful venue calledIconic Lives on Goofrood.
Oh I'm familiar.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Okay, alright, let's see here.
Okay well, hey, shout out to uh.
Everybody who has beennominated.
Um, all of the winners from uhfrom this year.
Is there any winner that youwant to maybe shed a little bit
of light on uh right now, whileyou have the opportunity?
Speaker 1 (42:28):
man, there's too many to yeah that out to one.
Okay, okay, okay, all okay, allright good thinking Everyone,
yeah, good thinking.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Okay, let's see here.
Tell me a little bit, let'spivot a little.
Let's go to the Black Mall.
Tell me a little bit about howthat started and maybe some of
the vendors that are a part ofit where people can go to visit
it.
Give me the deets on that, okay.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
So again, my parents were Rastafarian, so part of the
Rastafarian religion or way oflife is about Afrocentric
learning history being anentrepreneur, so I grew up in
that like making our own thingsand selling our own things, so
it's basically one place whereyou can go and and buy things
(43:19):
from.
You have, uh, people who makesculptures, um, t-shirts,
clothes, shea butter, and thenyou get the culture, too, to
dance.
We got Baltimore Club Dance,hip hop, live bands and open
mics and it's open to everybody.
Love that, yes.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
I love that.
How can someone become a vendorthere?
You could just text me Text her443-248-2596.
Oh, there you go.
Say it one more time443-248-2596.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Love that Love8-2596.
Nice, love that.
Love that let's see here.
Is there anything that you arethere, any type vendors that you
really either need, or aspecific type of let's see here
Medium that you feel like youcould use either more of or?
Speaker 1 (44:13):
We love visual arts.
Okay, that's me being biasedbecause I collect art.
Okay, my whole heart, my wholehouse is like a museum.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah, love that.
Clothes and clothes sneakers.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Nice now you're.
You were talking about, uh,music itself.
How um does, do you like, throwparticular, particular events
to where these artists canperform?
Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Do you?
Speaker 2 (44:39):
have any events coming up that you want to
highlight?
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Our next one will be March 16th, because I've been
double working for months andmonths and months, so I'm taking
a winter sabbatical.
There you go January andFebruary.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Nice Time for yourself, time for myself, time
for myself outside of the radioshow.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Yeah, and then you'll call, you'll come back even
harder.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Um, exactly, let's actually.
You mentioned the radio show.
Was there anything else about,uh, the black mall that you
wanted to either speak about ormention?
Speaker 1 (45:10):
um, it's the third sunday the month.
Okay, please come, we have aball and, yeah, like support our
vendors.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
That's about it.
Where is it located?
6.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
East Lafayette.
It's the third Sunday of themonth, 1 to 5.
And it's free.
Free admission and you get ashow.
It's like music, an amazingdance show.
We have um an event called thegreatest dancer competition.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
Oh nice, so you have like amazing dancers I wouldn't
be a part of that, just so youknow, although maybe I could
learn something you never knowand then we have a segment
called the all-stars where um,we celebrate people by sign, so
each month like we'll have a allpisces show oh nice, the djs,
the pisces, the host of umperformers love that.
(46:02):
Yeah, so we have a segment ofthe show called the all-stars
nice, nice, um, okay, yeah,let's see here.
Let's uh, let's pivot a littlebit.
Let's go to the um, to theradio show.
Tell me a little bit about thestation itself and uh how long
you've been doing that and uhwhat people can look forward to
when uh tuning in it's on um88.9 fm, weaa, and it's
(46:28):
basically a version of thebaltimore crown awards, just on
a weekly basis, putting energyon people.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
So, on a side note, I don't have a TV in my house.
I don't watch the news.
I haven't watched news indecades.
So it's basically about givingpeople good news, like, yeah,
because that's what I want tohear.
So basically producingsomething that I want to hear,
so shedding light on peopledoing amazing things.
And then we surprise everybody,every guest, with flowers.
(46:59):
So we have somebody in theirlife give them a speech that
they never told them before.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
On the show, love that, oh, wow, so, okay.
So give me a scenario like ifsomeone were to be on the show.
They would then write a speechto someone that I would be
recording.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Okay, Say, if you were, I would research somebody
close to you, okay, or someonethat knew you in the city, okay,
and I would ask them to send mea recording of, and I
specifically say say somethingthat you've.
You would normally wait to afuneral to say and say it now
and then we just play it.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
There you go love that, love that, right.
That's a good opportunity to uhtake some time and uh, yeah, to
appreciate, you know people andum energy for uh for for what
they're known for, and uh, youknow before people and um energy
for uh for for what they'reknown for, and uh, you know
before it's too late, right,it's so important, man, I love
that.
Um, let's see here, what elsedid we want to talk about?
(48:03):
Um, you know you are also acurator of events other than
kind of the things that we spokeabout.
You have any um, either pastevents that you want to shed
some light on or uh futureevents that you feel like um are
something that uh that that areimportant for for people to
hear and that you want to be apart of.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
I love uh, I love all the arts.
So, like I said, we have adance competition, we have have
a beat battle, beat god.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
Oh shoot.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Okay, I know some homies who we do MC battles.
We've had Cypher, so very muchinto hip hop, every single art
form that you can think of, wehave an event for it.
Nice.
So if you do any kind of art,please connect with me Now, are
these events connected together?
Speaker 2 (48:54):
yeah, are they now.
Are these events like,connected, like together, or
like, are they like the, the mcones, you know a separate night,
and then like the uh, you knowthe dancers a separate night.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
Or or do you kind of sometimes they're separate, but
then, like at the crown awards,we have like little segments of
a whole, like we had a beatbattle, we had a dance battle.
So we do a lot of things likegotcha, the one thing, nice.
But yeah, there's separateevents Gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
Let's see here.
I feel like we went throughsome good things.
Is there anything?
I know we had some other thingsthat we kind of spoke about
that you want to kind of shedlight on or anything like you
know, like any like, uh, let'ssee here, um, anything in the
(49:36):
maybe more recent uh you knowfuture that you want to, uh you
know other I said march 18th was, was something.
Any other dates that people cankind of like put on the
calendar now, that way they canlook forward?
Speaker 1 (49:51):
um, the improv y'all have coming up here because I'm
definitely going rolling yeah,and sing something right.
Rhythm royale shouts out torhythm royale I'm definitely
going to be in the building forthat.
That sounds so exciting yeah,it's, it's so cool improv yeah,
like really I've done a lot ofjam sessions and but I've never
(50:12):
heard nothing like yeah well, hewas explaining to me and it's
cool because it's like it's afull band improv.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Usually you'll have like, just like, maybe like the
singer or like you know.
The band themselves maybe havea few bars that are improv, but
most of it kind of follows likea, a specific um, let's see here
, guideline.
I guess you could say um, butyeah, so we picked the, the
tempo, um, we pick the, uh, the,the theme of the song itself.
(50:41):
That's wow, yeah, that's, that'spretty cool um, let's see here,
uh yeah, and then, like theyhave, like you know, you can
even if you're not like athousand percent like
comfortable with like a specific, if you know how to play it and
you can keep a rhythm, you cantry percussion and stuff like
that you can even step out ofyour comfort zone a little bit.
(51:04):
So I highly recommend thatWe'll put the date for the next
one down in the comments here.
It'll be either the first orsecond Monday in January, so
we'll put that down there.
Let's see here.
There's one last thing I wantedto talk about, and that was
(51:24):
your shirt here.
Oh yeah, love is God.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
Love is God.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, tell me a little bit about that and, uh,
what that means to you.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
so my dad, I know I reference my parents a lot.
You, know as you should um huge, you know?
I mean like everything that I amis from my parents shouts to
dad, yeah, shout out to dads andmoms, yeah, but rastafarian, so
very much into love, love, love, love, love.
So he said he became arastafarian because that was the
(51:58):
only religion that didn't tryto convert him into something oh
really.
So he could have easily, justlike forced us to be rastafarian
, me and my brother, but hedidn't.
So he gave us the the chance tojust explore however we want to
explore in terms ofspirituality.
So, me being a little girl, heexplained it to me.
He said God is like Florida,and if you're going to Florida,
(52:23):
you could take the plane toFlorida, the train, the
motorcycle, you could hitchhike.
And if you do take the planethere, spirit, frontier, delta,
us air, like basically there'sso many different ways to get to
florida.
That's him just explaining itto my little girl, mine.
So basically he was saying,however you want to get to god
(52:46):
being meaning goodness in hiseyes, being a spiritual, you
mean good person you do that.
So he allowed me to.
There was a church on the corner, so I went to the church and
sang gospel in church.
He sent me to a catholic school.
I lived in a buddhist monastery.
I lived in a hindu ashram.
(53:08):
I studied yoruba.
I've studied West Africanreligion, I've been in the
mosque, everything that you canthink of and of decades of just
that kind of searching.
When I came up with was, if Godis love, that means love is God
, and it just made it realsimple for me.
(53:28):
So that's what I live by Lovethat Love is God.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
Love is God.
Love is God, love is God.
It's so simple.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
If you just love, then you're doing it right.
But that's just my way.
And again, my way is not.
Somebody wants to take a planeand I take a train.
That's what we do.
We all get into the same place.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Right, right.
I think the option of beingable to have those different
ways of getting to a particulardestination Super grateful for
you know, being able to have allof those different options, you
know, and I feel like you knowthere's at different times to
(54:15):
like, think about, like, even ifyou do take the plane, you know
, think about like you have totake the plane and then you
might have to take like a bus,like exactly exactly, like
that's why some people might bethis path from this age to this
age and then that path from this, you know.
Speaker 1 (54:26):
I mean it's all different and they're all.
I don't, I don't, me personally, I think it's kind of silly to
say that, like there's so manydifferent types of flowers,
there's so many different typesof birds.
There's so many different typesof everything on this planet.
So I think I know that there'sdifferent paths you know what I
(54:48):
mean and one doesn't have to bebetter or worse than the other.
Speaker 2 (54:52):
Yeah, I totally agree with that and I love the way
that you put that.
You know we're going to switchit up a little bit.
I have a few cards here that Iwant to ask you Just some fun
questions here.
We usually do like a some funquestions here.
(55:16):
We usually do like a, a rapidfire um questionnaire that I
have.
But uh, with these this kind ofswitches it up a little bit.
Um, uh, 10 seconds on the board,oh okay no, no, I'm just
kidding, no, you, you, you haveas much time as you want,
although we want to try, and youknow, think of it.
Think of it as a little bit ofa rapid fire type thing okay,
all right, so will you ask me aquestion?
Speaker 1 (55:34):
Can I ask a question?
Speaker 2 (55:36):
Yeah, of course All right, yeah we can do that.
Okay, all right, you ready.
First one Would you rather beable to speak every language or
play every instrument?
Speaker 1 (55:47):
Absolutely fully play every instrument.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, let's see here.
You know what I feel like.
Yeah, I feel like it would beevery instrument as well.
Yeah, I agree, I agree withthat.
One.
Okay, second one If you couldbe good at something overnight,
what would it be?
Speaker 1 (56:12):
The piano.
I know that's cheating.
Oh, there you go, okay.
Speaker 2 (56:15):
Yeah, I could dibble, I'd dabble, dabble a little bit
Dibble dabble, a little bit.
Mine would be cooking.
Speaker 1 (56:22):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
Yep bit um, mine would be uh cooking.
Oh okay, yep, because I, I,what do you want to make?
Well, I would make some like uh, some italian like dish that,
like I could, like you know,serve to everybody oh, okay, yep
yep, also.
Okay, next one here, name abook you've read more than once
um creative visual.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
Creative visualization by shakti going oh
, love that.
Speaker 2 (56:49):
Um, let's see here mine would be.
Uh, the four agreements.
Oh, I love that.
Yes, what was, what was yoursagain?
Speaker 1 (56:57):
one more time.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
Creative visualization, okay, all right,
we'll put that up here so y'allcan see the cover.
Okay, what qualities do youadmire most in your parents?
Speaker 1 (57:12):
How rebellious and wild and free they are and how
much of a hustler they're.
Both hust they just like theydon't follow rules, but, in a
good way, love that they maketheir own rules.
Speaker 2 (57:30):
yeah, uh, let's see here my uh, what is the quality
I admire most about my parents?
I would have to say, um, thelove that they, that they show
not just to me, but the care andkindness that they show to
(57:50):
people around them.
All right, would the world bebetter or worse if no one
carried around phones?
It would be way better, waybetter, right, way better.
Gosh, I I mean, let me thinkabout that, yeah, yeah, I do
definitely think that, uh, ithas created a uh, distraction
(58:14):
for us and, even though, likethe good things about the phone,
I don't feel, I feel like we'renot harnessing them the way
that we could and that we should.
Speaker 1 (58:26):
I miss the inner peace, like when you leave the
house and no one could get intouch with you and that was okay
.
Now it's just like you just gotthis constant thing.
And everybody thinks that theyhave 24-7 access to you.
So now you got to just controlthat boundary for yourself.
Oh, I like that Controlling theboundary of the access itself.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
Yeah, love that yeah, so now you got to just control
that boundary for yourself.
Oh, I like that.
Controlling the boundary of theaccess itself.
Yeah, love that.
All right, all your clotheshave to be one color forever.
Which color would you choose?
Speaker 1 (58:54):
that's a hard one.
I mean, everybody's gonna thinkI say purple, which is probably
one, but it's pink or purple.
So there you go with lavender.
Speaker 2 (59:02):
Oh, okay, all right, the half and half.
Um, let's see here, mine wouldbe green.
Oh, why green?
Speaker 1 (59:10):
just because I thought you were gonna say black
, no I know right now.
Speaker 2 (59:13):
Well, see, that's too easy.
I feel like green just because,well, it's my favorite color
for one and for two.
Um, yeah, it's just like thecolor of grass and the color
like earth, you know?
All right, let's see herewhat's the first thing you
notice when you meet a newperson their eyes and their aura
(59:35):
love that love that.
Um, let's see here.
Uh, mine would be.
The first thing I notice when Imeet a new person is how much
they laugh and smile.
Speaker 1 (59:49):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (59:52):
Okay, let's see here what's the best gift you've ever
received, with Christmas rightaround the corner.
Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
My dad had those vinyl records so he surprised me
.
It was like a lunchbox but itwas like a record player.
Oh, cool Like a kiddie recordplayer.
Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
Oh nice.
Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Yeah, that was my favorite gift.
Do you still have it?
I don't.
I wish I did.
Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
We need to get you one of the lunchbox record
players.
They exist.
I know for sure the best giftthat I've ever received, um, and
I'm not gonna be cheesy aboutit either.
Uh, let's do an actual gift.
Um, I remember when I was a kid, uh, there was like this oh,
(01:00:37):
actually, you know what?
My my a puppy?
It was a dog and it was thecoolest.
Her.
Her name was Carly.
Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Uh, she was a.
Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
Dalmatian and I remember like being so
flabbergasted at like why myparents didn't like fully wrap
this present and like then likewalking in the energy they had,
like as they were walking inwith it and then just opening
the you know just the, the paperwas just kind of like laid on
the top and just pulling off andseeing the puppy there and just
(01:01:08):
being like this is the coolestthing ever, it was my first pet
basically too, so yeah, so thatwas cool.
Oh, that's cool to think about.
Uh, what do you not want to bewhen you grow up old?
Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
right, I mean, you know, I mean like, yeah,
psychologically, yeah, I likethat, uh, mine would be a dick.
Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Don't be mean, I don't.
Don't be that mean old.
You know that get off my lawntype yeah don't be a grumpy old
man type, Be the type I fixpeople's heaters for a living.
And I'm in, you know, manydifferent houses a day and you
know there's sometimes when yougo into somebody's house and
their energy is just likethey're so like grumpy.
(01:01:59):
Grumpy and mean.
And I know it's cold.
I understand that.
But, like you know, I'm here tofix it.
If you're cool with me, ifyou're nice to me, guess what
it'll?
It'll get fixed.
And even if you're not nice,I'll probably be fixing it
anyway, although I'll fix itquicker if you're nice that
makes a lot of sense in theworld uh, let's see here what
(01:02:19):
other language do you wish youcould speak?
french?
Oh, any particular reason?
Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
because I I went to.
I want to go to every countryin africa one day, but I've been
to several and I learned a lotof spanish in school.
I just wish I had learnedfrench so it would be able to
easier.
Yeah, it would be easier for meto communicate when I was there
gotcha.
Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
Um, mine would be, uh , portuguese, yeah, because I
have uh some family in brazil.
And um, nice, yeah, I wouldlike to be able to uh, yeah, we
hear when they're talking aboutme behind my back, and then you
know I have one more segmenthere.
Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
Oh gosh, and then you know, I have one more segment
here, oh gosh, who's thiscalling?
Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
Oh, okay, this is you , but like many years in the
past, how many?
Years.
Let's see here, let's say like20 years ago, okay ago, okay,
yeah, she wants to talk to you,she's very excited.
Oh, she just, she can't wait, Iknow, okay, well, you better
(01:03:32):
listen to her, all right here oh, my gosh, yep, what's up, girl,
what's up?
Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
hey, how you doing?
Yes, it's so good to speak toyou.
Keep it up, keep writingWriter's Block.
Let me tell you from now, soyou don't waste time, writer's
Block does not exist.
Write, write, write, write,write.
Oh, and if you ever get aninkling to call someone, if
(01:03:59):
someone comes up on your mind,your spirit, drop everything and
call them.
If your father tells you to govisit him, please drop
everything and go visit himwhile you can and while you have
the opportunity to.
I love you.
We on this, we doing this bigyes all right, you got this nice
(01:04:22):
.
Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Oh, that was awesome, awesome.
I know that you're a little.
I know that that one could bechallenging.
Right, it is challengingbecause there's so many
different things that you wantto tell your old self.
You know whether they'repositive, whether they're
negative, whether they're thingsthat, um, you know are like an
experience that you had, or likememories.
(01:04:43):
You know that you want toreally share with that you had,
or like memories.
You know that you want toreally share with that person,
but I, you really, uh, youtouched me when you said you
know, make sure that you takeadvantage of opportunities you
know, because you might notmight not have them, um, forever
, or you, you definitely won'thave them forever.
Well, you know what I want to.
Thank you so much for joiningus today and I was able to learn
(01:05:07):
so many cool things.
This was fun.
Yeah, about the Crown AwardsI'm going to make sure that I
vote for people.
Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
Yes, please Give people their flowers.
Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
Yeah, definitely.
I have some people in mindalready that I think would be
great for a few of the topicshere.
Go visit the Black Mall.
When is the next?
March 16th?
Yeah, March 16th.
Okay, save that in yourcalendar.
Let's see here Any otheranything else that you want to
(01:05:41):
kind of mention, or any?
Oh I?
Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
have books.
One is called the C Word.
It's about my experiencegetting through cancer and black
fairy tales, my experiencesjust growing up.
Love that, both poetry books.
Speaker 2 (01:05:59):
And where can people find those Amazon, amazon.
Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:06:06):
All right, all right, and we'll put links uh down
below here.
Um, awesome.
Well, hey, thank you so muchfor joining us.
Uh, yes, I I'm so glad that youcame through and uh, I'm
excited to uh to see what you uhcan bring to uh baltimore and
the way that you you celebrated.
I think you should be extremelyproud of of who you are and
(01:06:27):
what you've done with with yourtime here.
So far.
Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Thank you Awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Awesome, awesome.
All right, well, we are out ofhere.
Just wanted to thank everybodyelse for joining in on the
respecting perspectives and wewill see y'all next time.
Peace out.
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