Latest / DA CREW Podcast / DA CREW PODCASTSEASON 1_ EPISODE #32 HOST BLAQUE DIAMOND _(SHOW #6)

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DA CREW PODCASTSEASON 1_ EPISODE #32 HOST BLAQUE DIAMOND _(SHOW #6) · DA CREW Podcast

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M hm admatize with us ht A Enterprise. Allow your brands to be heard
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and seen around the world on the Crew podcast the Hottest thing going on this
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side of Chick and connected to the Crew podcast and allow your brands to be
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heard and seeing around the world. Basic Black after Dark all new podcast show
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with your host Black Diamond. H Hello, Hello, Hello, this is
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your girl, Black Diamond. You're perfectly imperfect parent, coach and the host
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a Basic Black after Dog where we have relaxed conversations and from time to time
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we have guests and friends dropping by. But tonight I can't think of anybody
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else for sharing this podcast with my beautiful granddaughter and my special co host are
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Last night I showed my granddaughter one of the books that I read at elementary
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school, The Captain of Fiddle, which I thought was a pretty good book.
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Now now I know books have changed quite a bit. We didn't have
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soft covers or chapter books. But my guest springs words and images together to
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bring stories to life. He's an educator and a counselor in the public school
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system. He was featured on several TV shows. He holds an undergraduate degree
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in psychology and a masters in education. He is a radio show host.
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Currently, he is a doctorial candidate at American International College. His children book
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series has been endorsed by movie and TV actor Andy mcphigh and two time Grammy
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Winding producer and composer Dennis Scott. Ladies and gentlemen and boys and girls,
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please welcome the author and creator of the Adventures of Harold from the Hood,
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Jim Price. Hello. Thank you. Such a blessing and such a blessing
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to share this evening with both of you. It's just to such amendous blessing
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and moves to glide to be here. Well, it is a blessing to
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have you here. Thank you so much for being a part of the show.
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Was good. Thank you, I appreciate it. I'm glad that you
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enjoyed the book. That's what I try to do, inspire the youth,
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and um, you know, um do things that are inspirational. Now,
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I'm going to be honest to say that I enjoyed your book as well.
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I guess they're still a little kid inside of all of us. Wow,
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I mean it was definitely a journey. Um. So, my sister actually
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was going to the University of Arizona many years ago, and um, why
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she finished her her her masters at the University of Arizona. Um, she
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was actually affiliated with the church out there, and so like she came back
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here and at that time, during the pandemic, everything and everything was shut
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down everything. Um. I actually was sitting around and I said, you
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know what I think I need to I think I could come up with a
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with a children's series which was based on stuff that I did with elementary kids,
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you know, many years ago. So I was able to connect with
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my sister and then she had connection with a publisher out in California, and
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then from there everything just came together and I was able to get the first
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book published. And I mean it's been a tremendous journey since then. Oh
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you always want to be an author, Um, that wasn't really the plan.
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I wasn't planning to be author. It kind of happened. So,
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you know, as an educator and everything working in the school systems, I
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was always drawn to helping youth and things in that nature, but I wasn't
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really It was more like when this happened back in twenty eleven or twelve,
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vers I was doing like social skill groups with kids who are you know,
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pricing the du Vinch's private school and they were elementary as age kids, so
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they had, you know a little bit of problem being focused and staying focused
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on my social groups and I have to do. So one day I decided
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to improvise and I brought in a puppet, a snail puppet. It was
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a little snail put and I utilize that to you model social skills and having
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interact and maybe being a pay attention more which it worked like dream and I
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happened to call the snail hair from the hood. And that was years ago,
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and I mean so all of that works together in hand in hand,
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and so like got me to the point where I am now. I never
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thought I would have it published in any kind of way, because that wasn't
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a plan back then to have anything publish. It was just more like an
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idea that I had created to have the students be able to focus and things
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like that during my social groups. But now years later, you know,
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it went in a whole different direction. Well, you know, I think
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that the book is amazing, I honestly do. I first thought then when
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he wrote it that it was probably based on somebody that you knew from childhood.
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But to hear what you're saying now, it's it's a great idea.
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Kind of glad we went into COVID unfortunately lost so many people from it,
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but we wouldn't have power from the hood if we You know, you didn't
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have that time to do it. So kudos to your sister for, you
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know, for that little jump start. I believe every child should should know
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how from the hood, and parents to teach it, should introduced their children
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to them if they haven't already. What message do you hope your young readers
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take away from your books? Well, you know, I'm always my whole
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series is about diversity, inclusion, accepting others differences. Those are the major
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parts of my book series. So I mean any kids, families. I
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think when you're reading with your kids and stuff, that brings about such a
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different dynamic because now you're incorporating your kids and using that as a base to
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connect and be at a form relationship. So even reading to your kids are
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so important. And I think with Harold from the Hood, the series being
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created and the way it is, it's just springs it goud a different,
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a nice dynamic where you know, families and kids can share the experience of
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reading the books and learning through the social lessons that are incorporated within each book.
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Wow. So what do you think set your books apart from other children's
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books and you from other authors? I think for me, I mean,
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like I kind of I've always you know, I understand how that wasn't growing
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up in poverty and things of that nature. So a lot of that it's
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incorporated into how my style is in terms of how I present my social skill
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lessons and my stories and things like that. So it's like Harold from the
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hood, you know, it's like me understanding the higher level not just of
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myself, but being able to connect with others who maybe have shared shared similar
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experiences and even if they haven't, still be able to say, Okay,
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I can connect with this because you know, when you talk about accepting others
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differences, the inclusion and those things, Um, those things are all a
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part of the fabric of makes makes us, you know, who we are.
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And in terms of um, connecting and working together and and you know,
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I mean that's what the whole gist of it is connecting people together and
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having people work together, unity and things of that nature. Okay, all
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right, So, um, when I first heard you talk about the Hood,
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I thought it was gonna be a little different with them when I saw
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him in the park, because that's one of the first books that I've read
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that you've written. But I plan on getting the other books not I'm gonna
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be honest, not just for them, but for me. I want to
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story myself. I want to get to know more people, um more things
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that's going on in the Hood, And it just seemed like it's a great
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foundation so far this book. Um it took me from be getting the like
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you know, you come up with the pre mind of what the main lesson
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topic is kind of got to be. So it took like six to eight
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months in terms of me getting all the foundation for what the you know,
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creating the framework for the story, and also moving forward. We were talking
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about the animations and things of that nature. So it took like six to
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eight months to come together with everything where I felt like I had a a
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feeling where the product was finished, where the book was kind of completed,
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and I had got the message that I wanted. I had the vision of
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what I wanted to be, the way I wanted to it to be,
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and things I think too, So I mean, yeah, it's definitely a
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process and the process that I was, at least for our first book.
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It was definitely a process because I didn't know anything about a lot of that
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part of the author game or the author you know, being author and stuf.
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So like fortunate to be able to go through that experience and be able
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to learn so much from it. So did you face any challenges as far
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as the character itself, as far as you want it to be more not
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like a child, more of maybe what is it an insect or something like
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that? Was there any challenges with that? Because I see that you even
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got with the color scheme, the purple, which this is just so vibrant
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and whatnot. I was wondering whether any challenges with deciding whether you wanted to
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go with Maybe most children books authors they put children in there, but I
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saw that you didn't, and I said, wow, this is definitely different.
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And I think I did that deliberately because you know, of course I
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say, we always have problems and we still have issues with race in the
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country. Yeah, I purposely made sure I want to have it be that
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way so that I could touch upon, you know, topics and stuff like
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that that would be relatable to kids, but also being able to nourish their
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minds and things of that nature through the social lessons that are in the book.
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So I purposely did that to be able to differate from maybe cultural values
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and norms and things like that. And that made it easy here to do
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it that way when I'm included, like you know, having the intersects,
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and I mean even with Harold the snail himself, he's the main character,
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he's a snail and stuff like that, So I thought it was important to
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have something that the kids can gravitate too, and also make it vibrant and
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colorful and attention as well. It's definitely it's definitely colorful. As educator,
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is easy to stay creative and originally we're writing, or do you research the
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topics that you write about as a combination of both. I mean, as
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an educator, you know, I see the ins and out and what the
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kids are going through every single day, and I think, um in that
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sense, you know, you see them in the hallways, you see them
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in the classroom, you see them all the time. And you know,
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as a counselor, UM, I get to see firsthand all of the things
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that they go through. So I mean that plays a part and a lot
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of it too. But I mean when you have that pleator, that platform
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there and you're able to see the kids of what they're going through day in
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and day out. Um, in terms of the classroom in the school environment,
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it makes for a plator of ideas to be able to generate it,
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to be able to come forth new ideas and u fresh new ideas for future
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lessons, future books and all that kind of stuff as well. Okay,
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do you think this will be a good book for my little brother? I
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mean absolutely absolutely, because you know, hey, I think also with me
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being a male black author, it also turns a lot of things in terms
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of um, you know, when like I would do like virtual virtual read
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allows with different districts and stuff like that within my area, and it would
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be interesting to see how a lot of the kids who look like me and
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stuff like that would be enthralled and asking questions and very interested in how I
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became an author and the book and all that stuff. So I mean,
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it all kind of works in itself together, and I think that's important when
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you know, kids can see somebody looks like you doing things like this.
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And you can inspire them to be able to want to do the same thing
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too. Well, that was genius to to use it with the snail,
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And I really never thought about that when when authors write books and they don't
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use you know, characters such as boys and girls and actual teachers or adults
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that they use those characters. Sometimes you see that the characters are there with
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maybe like the dog or a cat or anything. And Harold from the Hood
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is a three part series and you cover social skills, excepting differences, and
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children even advocating for themselves. What's next for Harold? Um? Well,
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I mean, in the midst of everything that's going on, I'm definitely doing
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more a lot of promotional stuff across the country and stuff like that. UM
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in terms of like just a lot of more promotion, UM connecting with a
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lot of different authors and collaborate with a lot of different people across the country.
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UM. In terms of promotion and stuff like that. I mean,
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I haven't really started on the fourth um the fourth it addition yet UM and
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missing me trying to finish on my dissertation. It's tough for my doctorate program.
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It doesn't really haven't really had a lot of time to you know,
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get into that aspect of the fourth book. I mean, but I mean
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it's it's a process, and I know if that you know, within time,
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everything happens with its divine timing, and so whenever it's meant for me
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to have the fourth book of the installment of the series, it will happen.
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But in the meantime, I might just continue to promote the book the
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best I can and connect with people and collaborate people across the country to have
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it happen for Harold from the Hood. Well, congratulations on the dissertation.
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I know that could be a little rough, and because you're writing the book
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and you're in school trying to get that doctor degree, which I know you'll
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get. Are there any other projects that you're working on besides Harold, Well,
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I mean, there's a lot of things I though that I had to
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put together, like a movie script that been put together, our script that's
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been put together, our ship scream play. So I'm also in the background
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of all this, I'm hoping to have everything become like an animated something animated
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and something's like that that the kids can look at. That a component to
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the series as well. My first two books have been put together as a
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screenplay, so I think that's something that's in the background. Um. But
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like I said, I just continue to promote and try to inspire youth across
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the world to be the best versions of themselves and to be able to understand
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that. You know, hey, wherever you come from, you can do
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whatever your mind imagines. Whatever you couldn't do it now any mc fee called
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you relentless and unstoppable. What was that like? Oh, that was one
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of my first uh, one of my first food podcasts. And of course
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back then, I was very I was you know, I was kind of
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always nervous and everything. So but I never during that podcast, like I
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did the podcast at that time, I didn't know. I didn't I never
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knew who Ani mc fee was at that time. But then after we had
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the show and recorded everything, you know, it's like, oh, your
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intimate Fee's like oh yes, He's like, yeah, you did great in
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the interview and everything like that, and I would love to be able to
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support you in any way I can. So like after that it was like
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cool, Like he even did like a video endorsement in my book series.
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It worked out that way. Now, I never imagine that would have happened.
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But from a experience like that, I mean, everything happens was his
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mind time. And sometimes you meet the right people at the time, y
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if you meant to meet them, and in that situation, particular situation,
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it happened that way. And I mean, I think that was a big
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help too in terms of promoting Hit the Hair from the Hood series a lot
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to getting him to actually do a video endorsement and things like that and being
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a user as a promotional item or two. And I mean, he's a
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cool guy. He's a will supports me to this day. Well I'm not
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going to drop a dime, but I'm going to drop a fifty cent piece.
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You also was on the set, I believe with Tom Hanks. What
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was that like? So that act she was? We did? We did
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like a I just recently recorded a a show for in Pittsburgh. It's called
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a Neighborly Review Book Cast and it actually features um the character he just played,
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mister Rod, I mean mister McFeeley. His name David Knewell. So
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he does interviews for that particularly show. So I was in Pittsburgh doing that
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and so after the show, after we recorded everything. Um. He actually
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took all the studio staff and all of us out to eat at this restaurant.
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Restaurant actually was featured in the movie, The Mister Rogers movie, and
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so like, after he had finished eating, I was like telling the staff.
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I was like, yo, David, you know telling hey, you
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know we were talking everything. I was like, yeah, I would like
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to get a chance of getting the actual movie booth that the movie was,
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you know, put into, and you know, take a couple of promo
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shots with Harold from the Hood everything. So I'm status, maybe they actually
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cleared the table and got the table set for me and let me actually sit
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in the booth that was featured in that movie and do some promo shots with
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my book. And I thought that was so cool to be able to have
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that experience. And I think David and stuff it was that wasn't very definitely
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a good detum. That's gonna be premiering on April Tuesday whatever this coming Tuesday
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is. That's going to premiere um this coming Tuesday where they'll have that it's
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called the Maaborly Review Book Casts, and they're bringing you back as soon as
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I see that. Also, look, now I know a celebrity. So,
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hey, you also have a radio show. Tell me more about the
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show. So my radio show was actually about talking about educational issues within the
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public school system. Now I haven't been able to really get into it,
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um, since it's been so much al I played with the doctorial program and
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things like that, I've kind of haven't had a chance to really do too
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much with that. But I mean even with my I mean one of my
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last podcasts. That's why I ended up meaning um dinner Scott because me and
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Dennis where we had the same thing about kind of having mister Rogers music catalog
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put into the Music Hall of Fame. So he um, Dennis was asking
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why I to support him with that, and I said definitely. So so
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then from that conversation it turned out to be he was like, hey,
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would that you could, would you be okay with me be on your podcast
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show? And it turned out I was like, yeah, so we I
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mean the podcast show with Duell. But and then after that, it just
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so much was on my plate and so I haven't really had a chance to
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get into it like that. Like I was like, I was having the
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show at least like every two weeks or so. I would just have a
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broadcast and it would talk about educational issues within the public school system in regards
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to anything, and you know how they have test or whatever, you know,
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like all the issues. Well, so are you You mentioned a catalog
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And I've heard a lot of people in the music industry talk about catalogs.
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Can you tell me a little bit more about that. I think that I
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know I've heard some people talk about the rights to the catalog and who owns
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the rights? How does that work? So I'm not sure exactly how all
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that works. I do know that mister Rogers he did have a catalog of
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music and everything that was I guess had been put together and Denn Scott had
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helped bring a bot of that back to fruition and things like that that nature,
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and so he would just on it. He want to be on that
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drive to be able to have mister Rogers music recognize and stuff in the in
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the Music Hall of Fame. But in terms of like the ownership and things
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of that nature, I'm not sure about. No. Dennis is definitely one
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of the people that's pioneer in the movement to have mister Rogers music recognize in
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that way. And I mean, I even remember mister Rogers growing up.
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That would be one of the shows I want. And I particularly remember a
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show when he was in the backyard and he was another black gentleman and they
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were playing like in the backyard. They had their feet and like a little
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waiting pool, you know, the kiddie pools, like the kids, and
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they were sitting together talking. Now, back at that time, I mean
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that was unprecedented because you know, the tends are so much different back then,
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and so I mean I've always been like saying, okay, yeah,
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I totally you know, mister Rodgers was doing this thing back then, and
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um that's why I was so okay, you know, like I'm bored with
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trying to have that movement happen now. Normally I would say something jokingly like,
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oh, well, mister Rodgers, that was way before my time because
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I'd been telling my age. But mister Rodgers here, if there's anybody between
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a certain age and I'm not gonna say they did not know mister Rogers.
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He was in everybody's neighborhood, no matter yeah, where you came from,
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everybody knew mister Rodgers. And when they mentioned about Tom Hanks and mister Rogers,
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I was looking at older pictures and then looking at Tom Hanks. I
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was like, you know what, they did a great job, Yes he
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did. I was just looking at comparing them. You know, it was
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unbelievable just to look at it to know I am here talking to somebody that's
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got in with that. So you let them know next time you here to
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do. It's the fame right here, mister Rodgers. And definitely, so
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definitely it's all of listen, it's all of us have just be able to
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connect with so many wonderful people. I mean, I'm never in around of
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life imagining that, um, becoming an author and things like that would actually
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have me connect with so many wonderful people. And I mean, it's it's
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just interesting. You beat so many people from different walks of life, from
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all across different countries and everything, and it's just, um, it's very
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heartwarming when you're you're you know, meeting people who after the same inspire inspiration
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to do the things that I'm doing in terms of inspiring youth across the world
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and things that nature. So I'm it's just all with all of that,
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it's just such a blessing. Well, you you're You're so amazing when you're
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talking about children. That's one of my things children. When you talk about
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children, when you talk about educating them, when you talk about just giving
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them everything you have, that just that just reels me in. You're so
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amazing when it comes to things like that. Thank you developing this book.
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I can't wait to get the other copies. I'm waiting for a big movie
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with how from the Hood and just the series and just to keep going and
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no shade to have Harry Potter, but Harry Potter look out here coming out.
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People can connect with you and and HOWLD So I am on Twitter,
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Facebook and Instagram, and the best way to connects with all that is through
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my website which is Jim Price Books dot Education, Jim Price Books dot Education
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and on there you'll see all my book series. I have coloring books.
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Um, you'll be able to connect with me with all the social platforms and
25:06
things of that nature. So um yeah, just visit my website Jim Price
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Book Style Education, and um you can connect with me. And I also
25:14
do speaking engagements, things that nature, read alouds, webinars. I have
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a whole program that I have that put together to talk about children and the
25:25
importance of children learning social skills through literacy. So that's another thing that I
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do for speaking engagements and things of that nature. That also is um you
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can connect with me in that regards through the website as well. Okay,
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what advice would you give to a young writers who want to be an author?
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Well, I mean it's just like anything else. You know, in
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my basketball days when I used to play basketball, I used to have to
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go to practice, you know, and things of that nature. So I
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mean, it's all about coming up with a framework or idea, a main
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idea of something that you find important to talk about or you want to express.
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And once you have your main idea, you get the framework together.
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You add to that main idea and flesh out more ideas and more ideas until
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you have a full what you feel comfortable with is a full book in that
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sense. And you know, once you do that, I mean sometimes it's
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you go through the rigors of pushing through and things like that. And I
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mean I was going through a period of time when I was not sure how
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is everything was going to work out in terms of after the even I finished
26:36
the first book, like I was going to invade it published. But then
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you know, things work out and towards my sister Iris and everything, and
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was able to connect with the publishers that she had um went to go church
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with. Her name is Sherry Carretting, Sherry Carretting Publishing. That's that's my
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publisher. And she's been tremendous help and a blessing to me to actually bring
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this whole Hair from the Hood series to lie to bring it to life.
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Wow, it's been so amazing. It's Jim, it's been a pleasure having
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you here with us tonight. I want everybody to remember to get your copies
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of Power from the Hood and the entire series. If you start to run
27:12
out, please make sure that you have a couple of copies of that for
27:15
me because I'm going to be ordering my copies. I have been through your
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website, so I advise anybody go on his website look at what's going on
27:23
in there because he has a lot of stuff going on. Listen to Jim
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on his educational development analytical development radio show because it is awesome. Jim,
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I thank you so much for being here tonight with us. Thank you so
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much, and I definitely want you to come back, okay, because I
27:41
want to talk more about Power from the hood. He's my holy brother,
27:48
and I want to talk more about the movie and a lot of other things
27:52
that I know that you're gonna have going on. I appreciate that. I
27:55
appreciate the time to be that you gave the yeah, don't have me to
27:57
be a guest on the show and everything like that. It's always a blessing
28:00
to ben to let with positive people. And that's what my life is about,
28:03
connecting with positive people and living in my purpose in terms of serving youth
28:07
and trying to expire it to be the best version of themselves that they could
28:11
be. Thank you so much. Building social skills involves learning and practicing verbal
28:17
and nonverbal behaviors that are involved in typical social interactions. This can be done
28:22
by interacting with others, observing our piers, playing games, or participating in
28:27
skill building interventions. Building social skills can help a child manage challenging social interactions,
28:34
reduce conflict, and support positive relationships. You never know when Howl and
28:40
his friends will be dropping by your neighborhood. If you're hearing this message,
28:45
you've listened to the entire episode for that we want to thank you from the
28:48
bottom of our hearts. Join me on May fit to honor National Force to
28:53
Kire Month. We'll be going on a journey through Force to Care and on
28:57
May nineteenth, sit down with a panel of former Force to Kire you to
29:03
discuss their journey through Force to Kire. Here on Basic Black after eight after
29:08
Dark. Thank you everybody. Basic Black after Dawn our new podcast show with
29:18
your host, Black Diamond.