Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Lynae Vanee Talks ‘Parkin Lot Pimpin,' Launching ‘The Peoples Brief’ Being An Influencer, Politics + More

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INTERVIEW: Lynae Vanee Talks ‘Parkin Lot Pimpin,' Launching ‘The Peoples Brief’ Being An Influencer, Politics + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Breakfast Club.
• 0:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, since the World's Most Dangerous wanting to show to
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Breakfast Club CHARLAMAGNEA God just hilarious. DJ Envy is off
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: and Laura LaRosa is at court following Diddy's try But
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: we have a special guest here, Lenee Bene.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: What's happening in Lenae?
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: How are you? I'm good?
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm sure that y'all see Lenae all the time.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: Her parking Lot pimping, Pimping episodes have come across your
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: feed in some way, shape or form. But now you
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: got to show called the People's Brief. Yeah, on Revolt
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Tuesday at nine pm. What's the difference between the People's
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Brief and Walking Lot Pimping?
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Oh, one thing, we got more time, it's forty five minutes.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: It's also not so you know, every week news headline.
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: It's more so evergreen things that are happening in the news,
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: but things that we can talk about over the course
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: of times. They affect us every day. And just giving
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: people more tools. I feel like on social media, I've
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: always tried to be more information heavy and.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Just provide a positive outlook.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: But now that we got more time, we want to
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: try to provide resources too, and answers to questions.
• 1:01
  Speaker 5: And I just complained, how different is it from parking
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: lot pimping.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: I won't say it's too different. I still get to
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: say what I want to say. We what TV fourteen,
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: so let's cuss in. But the team over there want
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: to do what I want to do, and that's like
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: give everybody the truth and be helpful. We kind of
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: take the same old doctors do, do no harm and
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: as much as we can. Yeah, the tone is the same,
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: but it's really cool because it's not it's newsy, but
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: it's not. I never taken a traditional approach to things.
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: So it's like a mix of sixty Minutes and John
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: Tonight with John Oliver, the Daily Show, a little bit
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: of Amber Ruffin but with me, Yeah, it was rounded.
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: It's very well rounded. We have a lot of fun.
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: The first couple of episode, the first episode were premiered
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: What's Day Thursday. Premiere this week Tuesday, and I had
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: Angela Rye On as my first guest.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: That was amazing.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we get to get out in the field, do
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: something on the street, but a lot of good people
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: come through and we have a lot of fun.
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: Did you want to keep parking lot pimping as the
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: show for a revolt like the title of the show. No,
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: did you wanted to make it something else?
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: I wanted to be something else.
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: I think the identity of it transfers because it's still me,
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: but it needed to be something different.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: It needs to be an evolution. So I was cool,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: and I still get to do the parking lot.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: I don't know how often, because as you see, I'm
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: here just like my weeks look different now. But I've
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: always said the parking lot is never going to leave.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: It's something crazy. They're right on the Capitol another January sixth,
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: I'll pull out my chair and I do some content.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: We're just figured it out the flow.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Do you have a random parking lot you go to?
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Are you just fine where I live?
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what I wanted to ask you, Lina.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: How do you know when to educate, when to entertain,
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: and when to rest Ooh?
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Restling is new to me. It's been
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: a new endeavor.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: When I say new, maybe the past couple of years
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: because I've just had to be so much more intentional
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: about it. But I speak to things when I feel
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: it's necessary, and I'm real in tune with the Lord.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: I used to stay stay in tune with your star player,
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: as Kat william says. But yeah, I just everything that
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: I speak to I make sure that I'm not just
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: trying to be the first one to speak my opinion
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: on something or just like offer something to the dooms grow.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: How can I make this conversation useful? How can I
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: make this something? How can I provide another tool? And
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: like I said, it's easy to find confident that makes
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: you feel bad?
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: How can I make people feel good?
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: And more often than that, especially now that I have
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: a team to help me concoct these stories, it's less
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: on me, so it's less taxing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, do you write from a place of anger or
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: hope or exhaustion?
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  Speaker 4: All three of them? And it's funny you say that,
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: did y'all see inside out to Oh?
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Hell?
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, if you've seen them, then you get the concept.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: I have my friends say like, who's at our leaderboard
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: and everybody said my top three are anger, discussed, and joy.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: Because of the way that I see things, I just
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: I'm real big on character above anything, and the way
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: you like contribute to society above anything, so more often
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: than not, I'm disgusted, and more often than not that
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: makes me exhausted. And you know, a lot of things
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: make me angry. But I also think anger is a
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  Speaker 4: valid emotion and it doesn't always have to present in
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: a way that is heavy.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: It's just what it is.
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  Speaker 5: Like.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a black woman in America.
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  Speaker 4: A lot of things make me upset, and I should
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: be able to say that without being made to feel
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  Speaker 4: like I have to cover up my emotions in any
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  Speaker 4: particular way. But I think the method of storytelling me
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: uses combines all those things in a beautiful way that
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: also shows that we're more than our anger, or more
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: than our joy, more than our exhaustion, more than our disgust,
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  Speaker 4: and we can be all things at one time and
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: still be full functioning members of society.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: How did you end up at Revolt? How did that happen?
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: You know, good people speaking my name, and good rooms.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: I've been very blessed to have a team no matter
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: what I'm working on, and they've been fighting for me
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: in different rooms. I've been pitching different versions of shows,
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: whether it's scripted unscripted, for the past five years, and
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: nothing's just been the right fit. But as I said,
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: I be in tune with the Lord, and he told
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: me at the end of the last year to stop
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: trying to force things and to just put stuff down
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: and let him work. And as soon as I said okay,
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: wasn't even expecting it. Two weeks later got a call
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: and said Revolte wants to give you a show. I
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: was like what, Wow, okay, and my hands were open,
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: so I was ready to receive it. So that's how
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: we ended up together.
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: Oh.
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  Speaker 2: I wonder for somebody like you, Lene, what do you
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: do when you feel like your words on enough.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: I don't feel like my word's on enough.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: I feel like I do what I'm supposed to do,
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: and I'm okay with that my contribution as long as
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: I do my best, I'm okay with that whatever the
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: result is, because whatever I was supposed to contribute is
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: all I was supposed to contribute, because it's not just
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: up to me, it's not just up to anybody.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Like we all put in.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: We all have a piece to the puzzle to create
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: the fuller picture. And sometimes it may feel like it
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: didn't hit the way it was supposed to hit, but
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: you got to give things time, like the sows. The
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: seeds you sow always have their time for harvest, and
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: I've just learned to be content and patient with my contribution.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: So it's sometimes you feel like it's like a call
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: to action, almost like you might activate the person who
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: might go out there and actually get active.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's absolutely what I feel like. My lane is.
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  Speaker 4: I feel like I am My job is tent part
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  Speaker 4: information to bring as many people to the table as possible,
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  Speaker 4: to make them invested, to make them excited, and those
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  Speaker 4: are the people that go out and do something with it.
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  Speaker 4: Even when I left my master's program, my professors told
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  Speaker 4: me I was only going to be able to make
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: money or make a life for myself if I continue
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: to get my PhD.
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  Speaker 1: And that's not what I felt called to do.
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  Speaker 4: I immediately wanted to go and share with very young
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: people all the things that I learned in my program
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  Speaker 4: that I had to pay twenty five thousand dollars and
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: take out loans to get with all these real stuffy
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: people that may not have the best methods as far
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: as connecting with the general public. But I was like,
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: if I can impart this in high school students, they
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  Speaker 4: can apply to college, they can go on career paths
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  Speaker 4: that with the knowledge, with a fuller knowledge of their
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  Speaker 4: capacity and ability and vocabulary and nuance to be change agents.
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  Speaker 4: So that's all I've ever wanted to do, and that's
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: what I'm doing, and I'm grateful for that.
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: And as a Spellman grad, congratulations, I love that. What
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: part of that hbc you experience has shaped your voice?
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  Speaker 4: Well, at Spelman, we got a sand It's my choice,
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  Speaker 4: and I choose to change the world. And it's funny,
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  Speaker 4: I've said this, I've told this story so many times,
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  Speaker 4: but when I was first applied, I had teachers at
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: my high school telling me they didn't think I should go.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: They didn't think that I would get in because it
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: was too expensive, that it wasn't.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: The real world.
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  Speaker 4: But we shouldn't be encouraging our kids in masks to
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: go to school to learn how to plug into the
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: way things already exist. Like we need to be disruptives,
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: we need to be change agents. And that's what my
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: HBCU did for me. It was a psychology student, but
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: every single class you take, whether it's the biology of women,
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: whether it's math, finite math, or whatever, computer science, you
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: take it through the lens of black feminism, and so
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: we have advantage point that allows us to see everybody's
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: pain and it just makes us. That's why we be
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: the best applicants for the job most of the time,
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: most suited for the job most of the time, because
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: we see people. And so my HBC experience really allowed
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: me to see what people need in order to feel seen,
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: and I try to put that in my storytelling as well.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: How do you navigate being both a political educator but
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: also a cultural influencer and algorithm driven work.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: Well, politics was never my game, It was never my choice.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: You couldn't touch me with politics with a ten foot pole.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: It just became necessary. So, like I said, I've always
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: been driven by what's necessary, and I started this work
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: to really be steeped in pop culture and connect that
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: through to history through an interdisciplinary lens. But as I began,
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: I started in twenty twenty, so politics was just like
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: thrust upon us in a real way, and so I
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: challenged myself to say, like, Okay, I know that we
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: need to understand this, so how can I incorporate this
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: into what I do? And it just became even more
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: and more and more necessary. So I just think because
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: I speak to people like we cousins, like we family,
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: because I don't try to hit people over the head
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: with it, and because I let myself feel all the
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: things like a regular person feels. They the algorithm can't
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: beat the content that I'm putting out. Yeah, Like I
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: draw people regardless, and people sharing it in their family
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: group chats, grandmas and aunties and kids in seventh grade
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: and high school students all like talking about what was
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: on the parking lot this week. And I'm really grateful
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: for that because it's not about me and my parking lot.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: It's really about the information being shared. So I'm grateful
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: for the anointing that's been put on me that's allowed,
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: no matter what's changed in the social media landscape, people
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: to come to the parking lot.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: Of I love when black people say we're not political.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: Are you saying politic politics is not your back? Because
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: when you black in this country, everything is politics. I
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: don't care what hood you from, I don't care what
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: ruin are you from. In the South, everybody from your
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: drunk uncle, your crackhead cousin, everybody's talking about what's going
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: on in that system and how the government is sucking
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: us in someone, So it's like you can't avoid having
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: that conversation.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: That's what I learned. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, what's.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: One political issue you think just we've become too performative
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: about and not solution oriented enough about.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I think voting.
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I'm not saying voting is the only tool.
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: It is, but it is seventy five percent of the
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: work organizing and sustaining that movement.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I will actually take that back.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: It's sustaining period, sustainability period in terms of how we organize,
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: in terms of how we fight back against political oppression,
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: because we often wait the year cycle to begin to
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: complain about what we don't like about candidates and then
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: are upset when we're not able to show up in
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: full force and vote together.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: And that make a difference.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: I don't think that we give ourselves the opportunity for
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: our work to actually for our work to return to
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: us in a good way, because unfortunately, a lot of
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: times we are motivated by rage and sadness and we
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: want to get active when things hit close to home.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: But something is always hitting close to home for everybody,
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: and if we don't learn to act as a community
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: and have the sort of sustain Garrison Hayes said in
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: a segment in my episode this past Tuesday. He said,
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: these people don't let up. They've been strategizing. They don't
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: stop strategizing, So why should we, And especially if we're
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: already playing catch up, Like it's never a day when
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: we should just be like, oh, the struggle will be
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: here tomorrow. But that means you should also be strategizing
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: for tomorrow. And it's not to say that your life
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: has to be completely shaped by that, because I say
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: often like I don't my friends think I'm single now,
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: and they're like, so what you want like a Mark
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: Lamont Hill. No, Like, no shade to Mark. He's great,
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: But I don't need that to encompass my entire life.
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: Like I'm still a human being. So I'm not saying
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: that you gotta live, breathe, die, fight the power, but
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: you do have to have some things ingrained in the
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: way that you move about your day period to.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Understand that the work never stops. So we just gotta
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: find that balance.
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: And for you, I want somebody who knows that women
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: can have babies. Oh, only women can have babies.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: I just want to let you know that interesting there
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: are other people who can have babies, Okay, yeah, I
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: mean if they have a uterus, they can have babies,
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: but they just might identify as women two different things,
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: Like you can be biologically female, but you can't be
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: biologically woman.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: This woman is a gender construct ocial construct. If you
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: got a uterius here, you can have a baby.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's the point. If you have a uterusy, you
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: can have a baby.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, cool, we have we agree on that.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: Has the Democratic Party tried to cooper your platform or
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: methodge I was reading this article in the New York
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Times yesterday and it was the headline is Democrats throw
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: money at a problem.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. I just had it up.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: But it basically is out there paying influences and they're
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: trying to figure out how to utilize the Internet and.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: In the game. I think people got to understand is.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: Republicans have been using people with a microphone for years
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: to just disseminate misinformation. So it's not even like that's
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: not a tool that shouldn't be used because we do
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: have to have some opposition. They haven't tried to buy me. No,
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: I only talk to people I want to talk to.
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: There's no amount of money. There's no check that just
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: would make me want to like jump on the bandwagon,
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: especially because I have critiques. I gotta be able to
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: say whatever I want to say, and the Democratic Party
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: definitely got some things that need to be worked on.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: I had the honor of working with some good people
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: in the CBC. And that's the other thing. Like we
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: live in America, there's no institution that's got it right
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: or has always had it right from jumps. So I
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: don't sit here and act like I absolutely have to
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: agree with something a body has done since its conception.
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: But if I'm working with people who I understand are
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: genuine and their efforts, like I'm down with that because,
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: like I said, I'm trying to be solution oriented and
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: do no harm and as much as I can.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: And you mentioned Garrison earlier. I like Garrison a lot too.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Have you all ever thought about being in politic.
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure where Garrison has planned. I have mess
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: some influencers who are interested in that work. I just
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: don't think it's personally my calling. Like I said, I
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: think my role is to inspire and my role is
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: to work alongside. When we look at the people who
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: have been people who have been a part of our
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: story as far as Black history goes. We got people
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: in every industry, and I think we forget that it's
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: not just about politics. It's also about who is singing songs.
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: It's also about who's acting on TV scerience because even
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: like the breakfast Club, who's listening to you guys speak
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: every day like we all have a role in getting
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: people engaged in a process, and we have to be
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: in the marketplace, in mass and in different ways to
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: be able to exercise enough influence to get people focused
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: back in on the problem. So I'm just one of
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: those people. And I consider myself more of an artist
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: than anything, a storyteller. As I said, I'm getting back
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: into my poetry and spoken word. But that's what I
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: feel called.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: And it's sad to do.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: When you Askedelman, what was your major psychology? You want
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: to be a therapist psych Absolutely not.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: I wanted to understand people.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so you're majored in psychologists to be able to
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: understand people.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Absolutely dope.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Well, clearly it worked.
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: What is uh?
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Some challenges that you know, because this is a big responsibility.
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: You have a show, a weekly show, having to come
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: up with this content, whether it is I know, it's
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: a bunch of different things that you do, but it's
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: still when it's a longer time, you know, is there
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: or are there any challenges that you run into having
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: to have everything together? You know, and it ain't nothing
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: going on?
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: What do you oh? It's always something going on. But
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: I think I have a team. It's not just me.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: So we got about five writers on the show and
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: we id eight.
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: We were really never not talking to each other, but
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: we picked these themes that honestly could use three to
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: four episodes, but we try to pick out the subtopics that.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Make the most sense for the story we're trying to
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: tell in that one episode.
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: And I think the biggest challenge right now since we're
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: brand new, is bringing people to the table to have
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: a conversation with us, like booking guests. We're also in Atlanta,
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: and people travel through Atlanta all the time, but they
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: don't stop and stay all the time. So we're hoping
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: though with what we've done so far, we're able to
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: build a portfolio that makes people be like, dang, I'm
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: going through Atlanta. Let me see if I can stop
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: by the people's reef just like people want to stop
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: by the breakfast club. So we're working towards it, we're
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: figuring it out. But yeah, I just think the hardest
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: part is adjusting because we want to be ahead, you know,
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: and it's hard to stay ahead when you want to
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: do it right because things take time.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: But we'll figure it out.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: You said something that it's so interesting to me. You
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: said you went to Spellman, you're majored in psychology because
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: you wanted to understand people. I never went to college,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: but I did try to attend a couple of technical
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: schools in my area.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Charic in Psychrolina, tried and technical college.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: One time I went for communications, one time I went
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: for business, one time I went for psychology. And I
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: went because of that reason. I wanted to understand myself
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: and I wanted to understand other people. So what did
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: you want to understand about people?
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Exactly?
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Behavior? What drives behavior? Also what affects behavior?
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: And you find out, you know, one of the biggest
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: arguments is nature versus nurture, and you just find out
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: all the things that contextualize those two things. What it's
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: your upbringing, whether it's like in the things you might
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: Inherit also like what socioeconomic stressors that have affected your
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: family long term that can result in yielding specific behaviors
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: or even psychotic breaks or what have you. Don't have
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: to get too deep into that kind of stuff. But
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: at the end of the day, and I also was
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: a person I grew up in the Deep South Baptist,
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: I didn't really stand that much about therapy, and I
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: remember in one of my first classes, I was like, yeah,
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: that's cool and all I want to learn about bipolitist order,
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: but like black people don't really get that right, and
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: it was like, no, girl, we are exposed to these
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: sort of things. But anyway, I think at the end
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: of the day, it just really helped me understand emotions
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: and like I said, the validity of them and giving
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: them space to exist and what can trigger you on
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: what can't, And then also how outside stressors like race,
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: like gender, like sexuality or whatever also contribute to a
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: person's well being. And I think saying it right now,
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: I think what I just want most is for Black
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: people to be well, no matter what you look like,
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: no matter who you with, no matter how you move
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: throught your life. I want us to be well and
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: I want us to be invested in the wellness of
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: one another, because the object and goals of oppression is
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: to make us sick, to make us distracted. And if
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: we are focused on one another's wellness and wholeness, then
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: we can be stronger than ever.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: Do you remember one of the first textbooks they gave
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: you at Spelman.
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, adw in the World, the African Diaspora in the world.
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: We all had to take an introductory class where we
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: learned about just the experience of black people around the globe.
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: I was not just us experiencing things and how oppression
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: looks similar for us, and not just people who identify
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: as black, just darker skinned people around the globe, because
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: the case systems and things like that.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: What about the regards to psychology, because I remember they
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: gave us a psychology by.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: David Myers.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: I don't know if I remember too much about my
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: psychology textbooks because my master's was in African American studies
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: and that's what's most salient. But if anything I remember
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: is that damn DSM the diagnostic manual. Basically it has
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: all the disorders like psychological disordument.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, gotcha.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: What's the moment when you realized your influence was having
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: real world consequences for better all words, real world consequences.
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: Honestly, because I started during the pandemic, we was all inside,
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: so I didn't get to really get to see people.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: But when we started to trickle back outside, and unfortunately
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: Atlanta was among the first to get back outside when
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: people started meeting me and just like crying, like talking
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: about like how either I changed their perspective on something,
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: or I helped heal a relationship in their family, or
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: even really what it was. I think I was invited
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: to speak somewhere at the school, and an older woman
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: about sixty years old, she took me to the side
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: and she thanked me for saying things she never got
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: to say when she was my age.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: And that was really beautiful.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was something you've never said in park a
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: lot temper because you knew people weren't ready for it.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's nothing I've said.
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: I say what I want to say, and sometimes it's hard,
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: sometimes it's even it's scary for me, like for instance,
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: when October seven happened, just not really being ignorant and
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: also knowing like the necessity to discuss these things in
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: the call was strong, like also with my management being
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: like I don't know what you should say, and I
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: don't know what you shouldn't say, and maybe we should
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: just like bow out, and also seeing other creators get
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: like flamed or for not saying anything at all. So
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: sometimes it's hard, but I don't I don't not say
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: the things I had a mentor tell me once. I
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: always pray for a tongue of clay so that I'm
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: speaking whatever God puts on my heart to say and
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: it's not coming from me. That it also helps me
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: feel less responsibility.
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: But yeah, have you ever said something that you I
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: guess would be like was say after it said, and
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: after you know, you get like I guess, some type
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: of backlash like, well maybe they weren't ready to hear this,
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: so I should have said that later.
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: No, no, no, we don't got time. Yeah, and I mean, yeah,
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: we just don't have time. And even if the first
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: time you hear me say it and you don't like
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: it and that's your introduction to it, I know it's
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: going to be brought up again and you've had some
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: sort of yeah, some point of reference. So whoever, whoever,
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: the they're able to get the point across from It's
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: fine because again, it's not about you agreeing with what
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: comes out of my mouth.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I don't. I'm not responsible to people in that way.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Have you ever felt like you had to like shrink
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: your truth to protect your peace?
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Not shrink my truth. But sometimes I just be quiet. Yeah,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: sometimes I don't feel the need to argue with folks.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, what's something you think you've out grown as a creator,
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: even if your audience has mm.
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: I think early on I outgrew the need to feel
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: like I was always on time or in time with
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: the demands of social because, like I said, I just
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: want to be responsible with what I'm saying and give
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: myself time to research and learn about what's going on
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: before I say something about it.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, how do you you know everybody likes to say
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: for the culture, how do you define being for the
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: culture in a time when culture is constantly commodified.
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: I speak to the originators of the culture. I speak
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: to the heart of it, the see of it, the
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: ground up. I meet people where they are. Yeah, I
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: think as I said, Also, I think I might have
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: a different definition of it because not everybody agrees like
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: what the priorities of the culture are. But as again,
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: I'm interested in protecting all black bodies and speaking up
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: for all black bodies.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: So that's that's how I define culture.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: I like, I like the idea of people's brief I
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: would love to see linee in settings I'm talking to you,
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: like you know said right here, but I'd love to
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: see you in settings to where like you're debating people
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: in a way, not debating, because you know, you debate
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: your equals everybody else you teach.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: But I think a lot of times on these platforms, do.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: You need people who are actually speaking truth to power
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: and teaching folks you ever thought about like going to.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Some of those spaces. Maybe no, I'm mixing it up
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: on Abby Phillips show.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Or no, I mean because I mean sometimes I just
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: feel like a lot of that is bating.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: I feel like a lot of it is unncessary waste
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: of time and breath because some people don't have They
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: come into rooms knowing they're not going to change their mind,
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: and they're coming their rooms with misinformation as their goal
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: to spread. So I don't me personally, that's not my
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: my give. I think someone like the Conscious Lee, he's
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: very good at that and I let people do what
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: they do best.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the consciously.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah well, lene Vannie hosted The People's Brief every Tuesday
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: at nine pm on Revolt And I guess we get
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: parking a lot of pamper when we can.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Where they follow you at, you.
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: Can follow me everywhere at Lenavanee. You can tap into
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: the show on Revolt TV. You can also watch us
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: at eleven am the next day on streaming and then
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: snippets of it on YouTube.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's it's the Breakfast Club.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club