Latest / DA CREW Podcast / DA CREW PODCAST SEASON 2 | BASIC BLAQUE AFTER DARK| HOST BLAQUE DIAMOND

Transcript

DA CREW PODCAST SEASON 2 | BASIC BLAQUE AFTER DARK| HOST BLAQUE DIAMOND · DA CREW Podcast

0:45
Speaker 1: Every thick.
2:20
Speaker 2: Cock like.
3:14
Speaker 3: Thick Hey everybody, this is Black Diamond from the Crew
4:38
Speaker 3: Network and you're listening to Basic Black After Dark podcast show.
4:42
Speaker 4: That meets you where you are and give you what
4:44
Speaker 4: you ask for. And today's fast paced world, mental health
4:49
Speaker 4: care is becoming increasingly essential, not only to address psychological concerns,
4:55
Speaker 4: but also to force the holistic well being. For many,
5:00
Speaker 4: virtual guidance provides a foundation of strength and meaning and
5:03
Speaker 4: challenging times. Integrating mental health principles with spiritual insights a
5:10
Speaker 4: doctrine in divinity brings a unique perspective that brings faith
5:14
Speaker 4: in psychology. This combination empowers individuals that navigates life's complexities
5:21
Speaker 4: with resignments rooted in both clinical approaches and spilled ground.
5:26
Speaker 4: By honoring the role of faith in personal growth and
5:30
Speaker 4: mental wellness, this approach aims to offer compassion, culturally attuned
5:36
Speaker 4: support to force the healing and inner peace. Today, we
5:40
Speaker 4: are honored to welcome doctor Carolyn Stevens. She was raised
5:45
Speaker 4: in New York City, my hometown, and later relocated to
5:49
Speaker 4: a land. Doctor Stevens initially pursued a career in fashion.
5:54
Speaker 4: That's something else we have in common. However, her passion
5:57
Speaker 4: for supporting underserved communities, which is where I'm at myself
6:01
Speaker 4: right now, led her to shift her focus to the
6:05
Speaker 4: academic and mental health field. Doctor Stephen's now founds can
6:09
Speaker 4: Factor in Beginning and is a clinical mental health therapist
6:14
Speaker 4: and family support specialists. As the CEO of Black House Collaborations,
6:20
Speaker 4: Incorporated and founder of I Am Black Women, she champions
6:26
Speaker 4: cultural diversity and empowerment for African American women. Her work
6:31
Speaker 4: is an inspiring example of leadership, resilience, and dedication to
6:36
Speaker 4: the community. Please welcome doctor Stevens to Basic Black After Dog.
6:58
Speaker 4: And you probably have a little bit technical issues because
7:01
Speaker 4: we are starting with a new program, but we do
7:05
Speaker 4: have doctor Stevens. She's in the back. She will be
7:08
Speaker 4: coming up forward. But I want you to know that
7:11
Speaker 4: you are in for a show. When I say you
7:13
Speaker 4: are in for a show, you are in for a show.
7:18
Speaker 4: Not only are your info show. This is a see
7:20
Speaker 4: were I have bonus people. Not to say there's anything
7:22
Speaker 4: wrong with the people that I normally have, but when
7:25
Speaker 4: you can get somebody like doctor Stevens to come in
7:29
Speaker 4: and to chop it up with us and talk about,
7:31
Speaker 4: oh gosh, we're just gonna be sitting here talking. We're
7:34
Speaker 4: gonna be talking like, oh my God, like yesterday. So
7:37
Speaker 4: we're gonna just keep chatting and talking, and we're gonna
7:39
Speaker 4: be talking about mental health. We're gonna be talking about
7:41
Speaker 4: her programs about Iron Black Women, Black House Collaboration, We're
7:46
Speaker 4: gonna be talking about the DAG Awards, and she's gonna
7:48
Speaker 4: express to you with the DAG Awards is but a
7:50
Speaker 4: lot of what we're gonna be talking about is gonna
7:53
Speaker 4: be on a clinical and a mental health therare beside it,
7:56
Speaker 4: because it's so very important for us to be able
7:58
Speaker 4: to talk about that. So we're going to try to
8:01
Speaker 4: bring doctor Stephens up as soon as we can. So
8:06
Speaker 4: hanging in with us while we're waiting, I want to
8:09
Speaker 4: say hi to Chanette. Hey, Jeannette, how are you, Natania?
8:14
Speaker 5: How are you?
8:15
Speaker 4: Thank you for joining us? And Patrese hey hey, hey, hey, hey, ladies,
8:20
Speaker 4: thank you so much for joining us. Tonight we're gonna
8:27
Speaker 4: be bringing up doctor Stevens.
8:34
Speaker 5: Okay, well, good evening, I can see all right. Thank you,
8:39
Speaker 5: thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us. How
8:41
Speaker 5: are you? I am absolutely black taboleist on tonight and
8:49
Speaker 5: that's what I love. The little black taboleist one of
8:52
Speaker 5: my my world words. I am excited about being here
8:56
Speaker 5: and uh I am loving this vibe and so far.
9:01
Speaker 5: Good evening to all of you who are joining in.
9:04
Speaker 5: I see some familiar people that I know and some
9:08
Speaker 5: people I love. I see some I see my Alma Beara,
9:11
Speaker 5: Suna Jackson. I see some of the Dad authors, Natalie
9:20
Speaker 5: and Patrece, and some other people. I see Rishanna. So
9:25
Speaker 5: I'm really bobbed about being here tonight, being with being
9:31
Speaker 5: being with everybody. So welcome to everybody who's coming in
9:35
Speaker 5: and those of you who may watch the replay. Good
9:39
Speaker 5: evening to you. I hope they.
9:40
Speaker 4: Miss it tonight and telling you you're gonna you're gonna
9:42
Speaker 4: miss something awesome tonight, because we got a lot to
9:45
Speaker 4: talk about. One we're gonna start with is with doctor Stevens.
9:48
Speaker 4: I just want to let you know that I was
9:50
Speaker 4: reading your bio and we have a lot of things
9:52
Speaker 4: in common. Now.
9:53
Speaker 5: I see you from New York as well as I am.
9:56
Speaker 4: I'm from the I'm from the so I'm from Queens.
10:02
Speaker 4: So you know what that means right from New York.
10:06
Speaker 4: To understand what that means when you say you're from
10:08
Speaker 4: the b K. And when you say you're from Queens,
10:11
Speaker 4: we didn't battle. We just know that that was just
10:13
Speaker 4: gossip that people were talking about. They have nothing better
10:15
Speaker 4: to do back.
10:17
Speaker 5: In Battle.
10:18
Speaker 4: I see you went into fashion, which is something I
10:20
Speaker 4: did too. I went into fashion, and I did the
10:23
Speaker 4: other way and went someplace house that happened. Okay, I
10:28
Speaker 4: went to fashion as well. My thing was boots. I
10:32
Speaker 4: wanted the boots, to design the boots and I wanted
10:34
Speaker 4: to design it myself. And that was at the time,
10:36
Speaker 4: the Male School of Fashion. That's the one that I
10:39
Speaker 4: went to.
10:40
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, I graduated from High School of part and
10:45
Speaker 5: Design and then I went to f I T Mmm.
10:51
Speaker 5: Ain't have the pleasure of going f I T. I
10:53
Speaker 5: went to and my plans was to be a Parisian
10:58
Speaker 5: fashion designer, travel all across the world. Had not planned
11:02
Speaker 5: on children and so far.
11:06
Speaker 4: You know what, I said, the same thing. I said,
11:10
Speaker 4: the same thing. My kids are look at me and say,
11:12
Speaker 4: my you don't want us. I said, That's not what
11:14
Speaker 4: I'm saying. I'm saying is that at that age, in
11:18
Speaker 4: that time, I didn't want any children at that time
11:21
Speaker 4: because I wanted to stay focused on what I needed
11:23
Speaker 4: to do yes. Eventually, I may have wanted them, but
11:27
Speaker 4: my shift to get because I left fashion and when
11:30
Speaker 4: I graduated.
11:31
Speaker 5: I wanted to be an international judge, so I wanted
11:33
Speaker 5: to go to Howard. Life happened. Life happened, and things
11:38
Speaker 5: happen and here here now.
11:40
Speaker 4: But I'm going to stay off for me because people
11:42
Speaker 4: probably know enough about me, and they probably sick of
11:43
Speaker 4: me too, because sometimes I get sick of myself hearing
11:46
Speaker 4: the same story over and over in my head, because that's.
11:48
Speaker 5: My best friend. I got my best friend in my head.
11:51
Speaker 4: But doctor Stevens, what led you to make such a
11:54
Speaker 4: significant career change shift from fashion to mental health and
11:59
Speaker 4: how was this journey went your approach to empowered African
12:02
Speaker 4: American women?
12:04
Speaker 5: Oh wow, Well, first and foremost, my journey started out with,
12:11
Speaker 5: of course, me embarking upon a career in fashion design
12:17
Speaker 5: while I was in school. When I went to school,
12:20
Speaker 5: a part of my education in fashion design. I went
12:23
Speaker 5: to school here in Atlanta. While I was in college
12:27
Speaker 5: with black I made a profound discovery while living on
12:32
Speaker 5: a campus, and that was that I had to eat.
12:38
Speaker 5: I was on campus and I discovered that I had
12:43
Speaker 5: to eat, and I wanted to eat something else other
12:45
Speaker 5: than rocky noodles. So I said, well, I need a job,
12:52
Speaker 5: and I tried to find something kind of quick. I
12:55
Speaker 5: always loved working with children, so I went and worked
12:58
Speaker 5: in a daycare. While working in the daycare, I discovered
13:05
Speaker 5: something about myself that people liked talking to me, and
13:10
Speaker 5: I like talking to them, and mostly I like listening
13:13
Speaker 5: to them. This was teaching st and children, and I
13:19
Speaker 5: worked in most of the daycare that were women undiserved population.
13:24
Speaker 5: So then I began to notice that our people had
13:28
Speaker 5: needs and that they needed to be listened to, and
13:32
Speaker 5: they needed opportunities to talk. And so that's what made
13:36
Speaker 5: me shift gears and decide to go into mental health.
13:42
Speaker 5: So that was the beginning of my mental health and
13:45
Speaker 5: wellness journey to embark upon a career in psychology.
13:51
Speaker 4: So how do you envision I am black women in
13:54
Speaker 4: black house collaborations evolving to address the current needs of
13:58
Speaker 4: African American women that's in mental health and cultural empowerment.
14:03
Speaker 5: Sure, and that's a that's a great question. So a
14:07
Speaker 5: little bit of background about I am a black woman.
14:11
Speaker 5: I am a black woman was a concept in my
14:15
Speaker 5: head because at this point I had been doing therapy
14:20
Speaker 5: for about five years. Of my clientele were African American
14:27
Speaker 5: women who had two or more diagnoses. Oh they had
14:35
Speaker 5: what we call duo diagnoses dinoses diagnoses the combinations of
14:41
Speaker 5: ADASD and bipolar disorder, combinations of odd and schizophrenia. And
14:51
Speaker 5: so I realized that about the fifth year serving as
14:55
Speaker 5: a therapist, that these women needed to have opportunity to
15:01
Speaker 5: tell their story. They needed to be able to talk
15:04
Speaker 5: about their trauma. I had always asked clients to journal,
15:11
Speaker 5: that's a part of my practice is to have women
15:14
Speaker 5: in journal. But I knew that African American women needed
15:19
Speaker 5: a safe place to be able to talk about this struggle,
15:23
Speaker 5: talk about their trauma. And so I had a concept.
15:29
Speaker 5: I had never done it before. I had never written
15:31
Speaker 5: a book. I didn't know anything about writing a book.
15:35
Speaker 5: I didn't know anything about publishing. I didn't even know
15:37
Speaker 5: how I was gonna get these women together. So I
15:42
Speaker 5: had put the thought in the back of my head
15:44
Speaker 5: to be honest with you, this black and in that
15:48
Speaker 5: year that I started with I am a black woman.
15:52
Speaker 5: I had had some personal things that had happened in
15:56
Speaker 5: my own life, and I always like to tell this
15:59
Speaker 5: story when I asked so that this question about how
16:01
Speaker 5: about I am a black woman? In that year, I
16:04
Speaker 5: lost my very best friend, which was my dad, and
16:09
Speaker 5: then I lost some other thank you, and I lost
16:11
Speaker 5: some other people. I had a big contract at that time,
16:15
Speaker 5: so I lost some money. So one night in my
16:18
Speaker 5: apartment in Atlanta, I was just thinking to myself, Okay,
16:24
Speaker 5: what am I going to do here? I've lost my dad,
16:26
Speaker 5: I've lost this person. I need money. I don't know
16:30
Speaker 5: what I'm going to do. But I said, okay, but
16:32
Speaker 5: I'm gonna make it. And so I stepped into the
16:35
Speaker 5: shower and I was black, and I began to cry.
16:40
Speaker 5: I didn't even know why I was crying. I just
16:43
Speaker 5: knew that I had all of these disparities coming at
16:45
Speaker 5: me at one time. And I began to weep profusely.
16:49
Speaker 5: That lasted about thirty minutes. I tired off. I sat
16:53
Speaker 5: on the edge of the bed and I said, why
16:56
Speaker 5: was I crying like that? Why was I going through that?
16:59
Speaker 5: And I heard God save this to me. Do you
17:02
Speaker 5: know how you felt just now? Do you do you
17:06
Speaker 5: know the stress, the anguish, feeling alone, feeling like nobody cared,
17:13
Speaker 5: all of everything you just felt and experienced and I
17:16
Speaker 5: said yeah, and God said, right now, there are millions
17:20
Speaker 5: of black women that are feeling that way right now.
17:25
Speaker 5: And I knew I had to do the book. I
17:28
Speaker 5: knew that I had a mandate to do the book.
17:31
Speaker 5: And so, long story short, I met thirteen African American
17:35
Speaker 5: women from all across the country. People ask me, how
17:38
Speaker 5: did I meet them. The answer is, I don't know
17:41
Speaker 5: these women. I don't I just met one woman and
17:45
Speaker 5: maybe another one told another one.
17:47
Speaker 4: I don't know.
17:47
Speaker 5: But we got the thirteen women and then I needed
17:50
Speaker 5: a publisher. And my publisher at that time was Darchelle
17:53
Speaker 5: mc alpine of Boss Lady Press. I reached out to her.
17:57
Speaker 5: I was honest, I said, listen, I want to do
17:59
Speaker 5: a book, but I don't know what I'm doing because
18:01
Speaker 5: I've never done it. And we just came together. Everybody
18:04
Speaker 5: just came together, and then we had the women who
18:09
Speaker 5: started writing the book. But what we did was I
18:12
Speaker 5: was intentional about forming a sisterhood. I wanted these women
18:18
Speaker 5: to have a safe space that they could talk about
18:21
Speaker 5: their pain because MS black the one thing that we
18:25
Speaker 5: all have in common, irregardless of our socio economic position,
18:31
Speaker 5: irregardless of wherever we may live in the world irregardless
18:35
Speaker 5: of background. We all share pain. That's the one thing
18:39
Speaker 5: we have in common is pain. Pain is universal. Well,
18:44
Speaker 5: when I did the book, my intention was to do
18:47
Speaker 5: the book and go back to and get my contract back.
18:51
Speaker 5: I was going to be like, great book, Let me
18:52
Speaker 5: going back to my contract. Well, the creator had different plans.
18:58
Speaker 5: And so when we started promoting on over the place
19:01
Speaker 5: and people would see all these thirteen black women getting together,
19:05
Speaker 5: everybody started calling the movement and I was like, hey,
19:08
Speaker 5: wait a minute, I'm not starting a movement. I'm not
19:11
Speaker 5: doing it. I'm just writing a book here. But you know,
19:17
Speaker 5: I often people would ask me why was the book
19:20
Speaker 5: so popular, and I simply I think it was. At
19:25
Speaker 5: the time, it was what black women needed. They needed
19:29
Speaker 5: to see women getting along. They needed to see the
19:32
Speaker 5: stereo type of black women don't get along. They needed
19:37
Speaker 5: to see that broken. Because we did get along and
19:41
Speaker 5: we are still friends to the day when we were
19:43
Speaker 5: a sister and we traveled together and we shared together,
19:46
Speaker 5: and we cried together. And so that was the power
19:50
Speaker 5: of I am a black woman. And I must say,
19:52
Speaker 5: since I'm telling that story, in the middle of publishing,
19:55
Speaker 5: I had another idea, and I said, listen, we can't
19:59
Speaker 5: do some thing for the women and not hear from
20:01
Speaker 5: the men. And so from that book. From that book,
20:06
Speaker 5: then I Am a Black Man was created. I have
20:09
Speaker 5: to say in my heart, and I almost cry when
20:11
Speaker 5: I think about it. I Am a Black Man was
20:15
Speaker 5: one of the greatest projects I had ever done. There
20:18
Speaker 5: were eight men to this project. I told them, just
20:22
Speaker 5: tell us your story. We're not here to judge. To
20:25
Speaker 5: tell us your story, we're bad of it, indifferent. We
20:29
Speaker 5: want to hear from black men.
20:33
Speaker 4: That's so important because so many black men hold back
20:37
Speaker 4: because they don't want to be judged, you know, and
20:41
Speaker 4: rightfully so, because they have been for so many years,
20:44
Speaker 4: have been judging. But you had mentioned earlier about the
20:47
Speaker 4: dual diagnose of some of the women that you have met.
20:50
Speaker 4: But I've always said that we are all African American
20:54
Speaker 4: women dual diagnosed. But African American that's one, and then
20:59
Speaker 4: us and women men that's the other. So to me,
21:02
Speaker 4: that's a diagnosis within itself, and that's something that we're
21:06
Speaker 4: never going to get rid of. We're always going to
21:07
Speaker 4: have that diagnosis as being black and being a woman.
21:12
Speaker 4: And I understand we have our counterparts, the African American man.
21:15
Speaker 4: But when I think of it, I always look at
21:18
Speaker 4: a totem pole, and I always see that they always
21:21
Speaker 4: place us, no matter what happens, on the bottom as
21:24
Speaker 4: a black woman, and that's where they put us. You
21:27
Speaker 4: look at the other cultures and they'll stack them all
21:30
Speaker 4: up above us, even women stacked above us. Even our
21:34
Speaker 4: black men are stacked above us. Now, I don't mind
21:36
Speaker 4: walking along with my black men, but when you look
21:38
Speaker 4: at that totem pole, we're on the bottom, and that's
21:42
Speaker 4: where they want to keep us. But they have no
21:44
Speaker 4: idea how powerful and strong we are. And the thing,
21:47
Speaker 4: the thing that I say is that we're on the bottom,
21:49
Speaker 4: but we're holding everybody else up. That's how strong we are.
21:54
Speaker 4: I don't mind being right, we're holding everybody else up.
21:58
Speaker 4: And I'm good not for us to really kind of
22:01
Speaker 4: peggyback on that, because that's our strength, but also sometimes
22:09
Speaker 4: it's our weakness, h because we're holding everybody up.
22:15
Speaker 5: We're holding everybody and who's holding us up? Who's holding
22:19
Speaker 5: us up? That's exactly right. And we have become very
22:23
Speaker 5: accustomed to holding everybody up. We come very we have.
22:29
Speaker 5: That was something that's in need, you know.
22:32
Speaker 4: And I was talking to a guest the other day
22:35
Speaker 4: and when I had to go back to slavery, I said,
22:37
Speaker 4: because it goes all the way back there, and I'm
22:38
Speaker 4: not gonna keep taking my shows and going back to
22:40
Speaker 4: because people know our history. You know, some people don't
22:45
Speaker 4: want to accept it, but that's a part of our
22:48
Speaker 4: history and that's not something that we can just get
22:50
Speaker 4: rid of. And that's not something that I take lightly. So,
22:52
Speaker 4: doctor Stevens, with your experience as a clinical mental health
22:56
Speaker 4: therapist and family support specialist, could you share some of
22:59
Speaker 4: the most common chases families face today.
23:02
Speaker 5: Sure, there are several, but I will share from my
23:08
Speaker 5: experience in working with families the two most common, and
23:14
Speaker 5: that would be depressive disorder and anxiety disorder. Now I
23:20
Speaker 5: mentioned those two, but the root cause of those two
23:27
Speaker 5: is the lack of financial sustainability. Lots of times that
23:32
Speaker 5: brings about depressive disorder and anxiety disorder, and that's across
23:39
Speaker 5: the board from father, mother child, And those are the
23:45
Speaker 5: two future things that I see.
23:48
Speaker 4: And in what ways do you feel therapy can be
23:51
Speaker 4: a meaningful support for families navigating these challenges?
23:55
Speaker 5: Therapy can be very meaningful extremely health hopeful, and needed.
24:02
Speaker 5: I would say because in therapy you have an opportunity
24:08
Speaker 5: to be with an objective person that can look at
24:15
Speaker 5: the family as a whole and be able to effectively
24:21
Speaker 5: hear each person's side. However, I do want to add
24:25
Speaker 5: a component here, especially when you talk about the African
24:29
Speaker 5: American family, it is very important. It is vital almost
24:35
Speaker 5: I would say that you have therapists that are culturally cognitive.
24:42
Speaker 5: That's really important. Culturally have some.
24:47
Speaker 4: That's within your own culture that's not even culturally competent.
24:50
Speaker 4: That that's the thing that bothers me the mostly you
24:55
Speaker 4: know with that. You know, what, did you fall off
24:57
Speaker 4: the side of a different boat? What happened?
25:01
Speaker 5: Yeah?
25:01
Speaker 4: How are you not culturally competent? I don't care if
25:06
Speaker 4: you have a different accent from you. Still should be
25:09
Speaker 4: culturally competent enough if it's worth it to you. It's
25:12
Speaker 4: like being respectful enough to try to learn somebody's name,
25:18
Speaker 4: whether it's the African name or the name that was
25:20
Speaker 4: given to them by their parents. Be culturally competent, especially
25:24
Speaker 4: when you're dealing with your own And I hate to
25:27
Speaker 4: interrupt with that because moving in the state that I'm
25:30
Speaker 4: in now, I wasn't culturally competent because I moved here
25:34
Speaker 4: and I didn't know their language. So I tried my
25:38
Speaker 4: best to get to understand where I was at and
25:42
Speaker 4: what was going on here. But because I did not know,
25:46
Speaker 4: that was more strikes against me than enough without them
25:49
Speaker 4: trying to teach me what I needed to know. It's
25:52
Speaker 4: like when you move to a new state, you need
25:54
Speaker 4: a handbook, a guide, you know. I said, well, maybe
25:57
Speaker 4: they should be passing that out once you get past
25:59
Speaker 4: a certain bridge, because it became very hard. But you know,
26:03
Speaker 4: throughout the years that I've been here, I have learned
26:08
Speaker 4: their ways. It doesn't seem doesn't mean that I'm going
26:11
Speaker 4: to adapt it and make my own. But I understand this,
26:15
Speaker 4: so I can be respectful of who you are, where
26:20
Speaker 4: you come from, and what you're about, but it's not
26:23
Speaker 4: going to change who I am. So be cultural awareness
26:29
Speaker 4: goes on both sides. That's the way that I see
26:31
Speaker 4: both by you know, where early science indicate a family
26:35
Speaker 4: might benefit from therapy or additional support services.
26:39
Speaker 5: And that's a great question. I want to say this.
26:42
Speaker 5: If I made Miss Black just real quickly about being
26:45
Speaker 5: culturally competent, that also that's not only reserved from race
26:53
Speaker 5: or ethnicity. But being culturally competent is being respectful or
27:00
Speaker 5: more so, being knowledgeable about a culture of people. And
27:05
Speaker 5: when I say that, I'm not talking about African American,
27:08
Speaker 5: I'm talking about a culture of people. For example, if
27:13
Speaker 5: you work with young people, if you have young people,
27:19
Speaker 5: being a young person, that is a culture in itself.
27:22
Speaker 5: Being being competent and cognitive of that culture of Generation Z,
27:30
Speaker 5: the gen generation that being culturally competent enough to understand
27:37
Speaker 5: the lingo they speak things like that. So when we
27:40
Speaker 5: talk about culture, you know, it's it's kind of across
27:44
Speaker 5: the board, and it really really means is that I
27:47
Speaker 5: and I love something you said, but being respectful enough
27:52
Speaker 5: to say I want to learn something about you so
27:57
Speaker 5: that I'm able to effectively communicate with you. That that's
28:03
Speaker 5: really what that what that says. But now you ask
28:08
Speaker 5: me about some of the some of the things that
28:12
Speaker 5: are early signs. Early signs one when we start to
28:18
Speaker 5: see that there's a lack of communication, and oftentimes in
28:23
Speaker 5: families we can begin to see that there's a breakdown
28:26
Speaker 5: of communication. I want to say this before I give
28:29
Speaker 5: you the nine things that I want to mention on that,
28:32
Speaker 5: and that is it doesn't mean that we got to
28:35
Speaker 5: see these issues in every family member. As a family,
28:40
Speaker 5: we are a unit. So if you see one person,
28:43
Speaker 5: then that's the family. One person in the family affects
28:47
Speaker 5: the whole family oftentimes, So if we really see that
28:51
Speaker 5: there's a communication issue, a communication breakdown in the family,
28:56
Speaker 5: that's that means that there's a need for a professional
28:59
Speaker 5: to come in and help with communication issues. If we
29:02
Speaker 5: start seeing behavior problems, children failing in school, children misbehaving
29:08
Speaker 5: in school.
29:10
Speaker 4: So that would be specific patterns or behaviors that suggests
29:15
Speaker 4: reaching out could be helpful.
29:17
Speaker 5: Reaching out could be helpful. Obviously, mental health issues, that
29:22
Speaker 5: there is one person in the family who perhaps has
29:26
Speaker 5: mental health issues that is going to affect the entire
29:29
Speaker 5: family and family as a whole unit. How do we
29:33
Speaker 5: now communicate with that family member that has mental health issues?
29:39
Speaker 5: What is it that we should say, How do we
29:42
Speaker 5: support that person? How should we be there for that
29:46
Speaker 5: for that person. I'll give you for example, let's say
29:51
Speaker 5: that you have a parent who now has dementia. Okay,
29:57
Speaker 5: now the family, not one person, but the family now
30:01
Speaker 5: has to say, now what do we do, how do
30:05
Speaker 5: we communicate? How do we relate, because now the whole
30:09
Speaker 5: family has to know if there is a life transition
30:16
Speaker 5: in your family, If there's been a major life transition,
30:20
Speaker 5: there may be a need for a therapist, a need
30:22
Speaker 5: for an outside person or a professional person to be
30:25
Speaker 5: able to come in. If there's been trauma in the family,
30:30
Speaker 5: if the whole family unit has been traumatized, or if
30:34
Speaker 5: one person in the family has been traumatized. Oftentimes, I
30:40
Speaker 5: have twenty I have thirty clients that are children. I
30:44
Speaker 5: work in the public school systems, and I work with children.
30:48
Speaker 5: I have adult clients too, but I work with thirty children,
30:51
Speaker 5: and unfortunately, I do have some clients in the elementary
30:57
Speaker 5: school age that has been molested. And I will tell
31:02
Speaker 5: a parent, you too need to be in therapy. They
31:06
Speaker 5: may say, but it didn't happen to me. No, it
31:10
Speaker 5: did happen to you. If it happened to that child, you're.
31:15
Speaker 4: Living with a child that has been molested, so you're
31:18
Speaker 4: living with it, and even though it did not happen
31:21
Speaker 4: to you. You know, My thing was, what advice would
31:24
Speaker 4: you give parents on maintaining strong, positive relationships with their
31:27
Speaker 4: children while respecting their independence, Because what I have seen
31:32
Speaker 4: some children go through that molestation, but they're going through
31:35
Speaker 4: it by themselves. Parents are Some parents are not going
31:38
Speaker 4: to say oh, are afraid to address it, they don't
31:43
Speaker 4: know how to address it.
31:44
Speaker 5: And then some.
31:45
Speaker 4: Of them sweeping under the rug and become some parts
31:48
Speaker 4: of the family skeletons, things that titten in.
31:51
Speaker 5: Closets, this term that you just use, miss Black, sweeping
31:55
Speaker 5: in under the rug. I have to be honest and transparent,
32:00
Speaker 5: which I feel like I'm in an environment where I
32:01
Speaker 5: can be pretty transparent here. That's why I like being
32:05
Speaker 5: on your platform. And also because I believe you can't
32:08
Speaker 5: heal what you're not willing to confront. If you want
32:11
Speaker 5: to heal something, you got to confront it. Sweeping stuff
32:15
Speaker 5: under the rug for African Americans is our signature mark.
32:20
Speaker 5: We've been sweeping stuff under the rug for centuries, the
32:23
Speaker 5: years and years and years. So in order to build
32:27
Speaker 5: positive relationships, especially with our children, we have to be
32:32
Speaker 5: willing to no longer sweep stuff under the rug. We
32:35
Speaker 5: have to be willing to talk. We have to be
32:39
Speaker 5: willing to talk, we have to be willing to speak openly.
32:43
Speaker 4: I find that effective communication is often one of the
32:46
Speaker 4: toughest challenges families faced, especially when each other, when each
32:50
Speaker 4: member may have unique needs and perspectives because they some
32:54
Speaker 4: of them don't see it the same way. How do
32:56
Speaker 4: you support families in navigating these communication challenges because one
33:01
Speaker 4: person will say one thing, or wasn't that bad? Or
33:04
Speaker 4: well he was just playing with you, he didn't mean
33:05
Speaker 4: anything by excuses, and then you have some families that
33:09
Speaker 4: hide behind the laughter because that's their way of coping,
33:13
Speaker 4: as some of their coping mechanisms where they will laugh
33:17
Speaker 4: it off. Well, it's not funny to everybody, but that's
33:20
Speaker 4: their way of dealing with it.
33:22
Speaker 5: Or either they.
33:23
Speaker 4: Become very angry and start to blame someone, and it's
33:29
Speaker 4: usually the child that they blame.
33:31
Speaker 5: Well, what did you do?
33:33
Speaker 4: You know you shouldn't have been in there? Well, uncle
33:36
Speaker 4: or auntie or whoever know, they shouldn't have violate.
33:39
Speaker 5: It, you know.
33:40
Speaker 4: And I don't even really like I take that back
33:42
Speaker 4: and I apologize. I don't like saying violated. I say
33:44
Speaker 4: tampered with. They should have known not to tamper with.
33:50
Speaker 4: How do you support families and navigating these communication challenges
33:53
Speaker 4: because it becomes a challenge because they can't they feel
33:56
Speaker 4: as though or either they choose not to I'll say
33:58
Speaker 4: it that way. Choose not to say anything, because it
34:02
Speaker 4: is a choice. When it's the parent that knows that
34:06
Speaker 4: the child has been temperate, they choose not to communicate.
34:10
Speaker 4: They choose not to say anything, to keep it as
34:13
Speaker 4: a family secret that develops over and over and over again.
34:17
Speaker 4: And then what you find is that it's happened to another.
34:20
Speaker 5: Person in the family. Now you have hit it on
34:24
Speaker 5: a generational thing exactly. And the great majority of the
34:30
Speaker 5: time is black. If you find that there's the family
34:33
Speaker 5: member who chooses to minimize the trauma or they choose
34:40
Speaker 5: not to discuss it at all. We have found that
34:44
Speaker 5: eight out of ten times it's because that family member
34:47
Speaker 5: has dealt with that themselves. They have dealt with that themselves,
34:53
Speaker 5: and so then the molestation becomes passed on. So when
34:59
Speaker 5: I do when I do therapy with a family, I
35:03
Speaker 5: do therapy with the client who at hand may be
35:07
Speaker 5: the child. I do individual therapy and family therapy together,
35:14
Speaker 5: individual and family individual very important. I do that to
35:20
Speaker 5: create a certain amount of safety so that I'm able
35:23
Speaker 5: to hear out what the person has to say, especially
35:26
Speaker 5: a child, because a child will oftentimes communicate with you
35:29
Speaker 5: a bit more freely if their family is not around.
35:32
Speaker 5: And then of course if there's a parent, there's a mom,
35:35
Speaker 5: and there's a grandma or what have you, they feel
35:37
Speaker 5: a little bit more free to say things if a
35:40
Speaker 5: child's not present or another person. If they're not present,
35:45
Speaker 5: then my job is to then merge the two of
35:49
Speaker 5: you together, or it might be a whole family. I
35:53
Speaker 5: had a whole family that had a history of molestation.
35:56
Speaker 5: At one time, there was a whole big family, but
35:58
Speaker 5: didn't marriage their families to get other. So now we
36:01
Speaker 5: can come together, and now we can talk about it
36:04
Speaker 5: once I've prepared them, and so they can that they
36:08
Speaker 5: can discuss the issue at hand. So how should parents better? Yet?
36:13
Speaker 5: Educators because they play a major role in this too,
36:16
Speaker 5: the poor.
36:17
Speaker 4: Children's the toime ofmy remaining steady and support because sometimes
36:23
Speaker 4: educators they either look the other way.
36:29
Speaker 5: Or to report things that weren't there.
36:31
Speaker 4: And I understand their mandated reporters, but I think sometimes
36:35
Speaker 4: educators needed to be need to be educated too, you know,
36:40
Speaker 4: just as well as our offices.
36:42
Speaker 5: See, I can go throughout the system because see I'm
36:44
Speaker 5: a social worker here in this state, and.
36:49
Speaker 4: So that's like I can ask these questions because I said,
36:50
Speaker 4: I've seen I've seen a lot.
36:52
Speaker 5: Okay, now I've learned it and I worked. I definitely
36:58
Speaker 5: get it.
36:58
Speaker 4: So I get it. I get it, and I don't
37:02
Speaker 4: do the children and the child wealth anymore. I've done
37:06
Speaker 4: that for over forty years and I've moved on.
37:09
Speaker 5: So now I do.
37:10
Speaker 4: Policies and practice so that and I love doing that
37:15
Speaker 4: because I see it at a different level because I've
37:18
Speaker 4: come from a different level. I've adopted, I've been a
37:22
Speaker 4: foster parent, I've been the custody and guardianship. I tell
37:27
Speaker 4: people I'm the mother of all mothers because I've had
37:29
Speaker 4: every one of those titles. So to do that, you
37:33
Speaker 4: have to understand, you know. So that's why I asked
37:35
Speaker 4: about house your parents or educators support children's autonomy while
37:40
Speaker 4: remaining study and support.
37:42
Speaker 5: Well, there was something you said very early on at
37:45
Speaker 5: the beginning of your question, and I'm a strong advocate
37:48
Speaker 5: for that. Educators need to be educated. Educators need to
37:52
Speaker 5: be educated. So one of the things when I go
37:55
Speaker 5: into public schools and I do therapy, I do have
37:58
Speaker 5: an office, but I've I really stay in my office.
38:01
Speaker 5: Everybody knows me. I do something called walk the hall,
38:06
Speaker 5: and that means, oh, I walked these to do that
38:09
Speaker 5: when I was in elementary school. I like that.
38:11
Speaker 4: I like that because if you closed in, the child
38:14
Speaker 4: doesn't know that your door is open. They're not adults,
38:16
Speaker 4: they don't know that you have an open door policy.
38:19
Speaker 4: But if they see you walk in the hall, it's
38:21
Speaker 4: easier for them to approach you. You know, they'll see you,
38:24
Speaker 4: and they'll see the same familiar face for you. And
38:28
Speaker 4: I walked the halls for a reason.
38:31
Speaker 5: I walk the hall so that when I get to
38:33
Speaker 5: the classroom, I speak to the teacher. I'm asking the teacher,
38:39
Speaker 5: what have you observed? What problems? What problems is Jonathan having?
38:44
Speaker 5: How can I help you to help Jonathan better? Sometimes
38:47
Speaker 5: I give out little cards with coping skills on it
38:50
Speaker 5: and I say, hey, Ms Brown, you the next time
38:54
Speaker 5: Jonathan acts out, I've got some things here I want
38:57
Speaker 5: you to use. That's my informal way of educating the educator.
39:02
Speaker 5: And then quite often listen, the educator themselves needs therapy.
39:07
Speaker 5: The educator themselves dealing with a certain amount of anxiety
39:10
Speaker 5: having thirty thirty five kids in the classroom, And that's
39:13
Speaker 5: why I walk the halls so that I can touch
39:16
Speaker 5: that teacher's life and then I sit back. Sometimes no,
39:21
Speaker 5: go ahead.
39:23
Speaker 4: Now, I was gonna say, sometimes there's those boundaries, you
39:26
Speaker 4: know that you have to create a safe framework for independence.
39:29
Speaker 4: Especially when children understand family values and expectations, they feel secure.
39:35
Speaker 4: How should families explore family values while building trust so
39:39
Speaker 4: the children know what to expect, because when that happens there,
39:43
Speaker 4: we all should be working together. I'm not saying that
39:45
Speaker 4: a family has to go and tell the school or
39:48
Speaker 4: anything on what's.
39:49
Speaker 5: Going on in their home. I'm not one that's what.
39:53
Speaker 4: Happens in the home stays in the home, because that's
39:55
Speaker 4: where a lot of the problems happen at. But I
39:59
Speaker 4: still believe in boundaries creating a safe framework for independence.
40:04
Speaker 4: You walk the halls and you do engage with the teachers,
40:08
Speaker 4: you know, that's a that's a boundary that I see
40:11
Speaker 4: does create a safe framework for independence for the children
40:15
Speaker 4: and for the teachers. I think the teachers are pretty
40:17
Speaker 4: happy when they see you because they feel that they
40:20
Speaker 4: have a safe place too, and that you get them
40:23
Speaker 4: and that you see them and that you understand.
40:26
Speaker 5: They are over They are overjoyed when they see me
40:31
Speaker 5: because when I come out of my office, I'm one
40:36
Speaker 5: of you. Now I'm here with you. And the biggest
40:41
Speaker 5: thing that we can do for people, for people, this
40:46
Speaker 5: is for everybody that's listening. You don't have to be
40:50
Speaker 5: a degree person such as myself. You don't have to
40:53
Speaker 5: be an experienced person like this Black. This is the
40:57
Speaker 5: this is the thing that we can all do. Show up.
41:04
Speaker 5: Show up, Just show up, because especially if a child
41:10
Speaker 5: knows listen. I've had people say, well, you know, you
41:15
Speaker 5: think that children are open to therapy, Miss Black. These
41:20
Speaker 5: kids I have here, when they see me come to
41:24
Speaker 5: the classroom, they tell their friends, I'm going now to therapy.
41:30
Speaker 5: He's a therapist.
41:33
Speaker 4: Because I believe that families, I honestly believe that families
41:39
Speaker 4: should celebrate efforts, not just results, you know, because that
41:45
Speaker 4: is very very important for them to celebrate the effort,
41:48
Speaker 4: even the effort of themselves. They may not get the
41:52
Speaker 4: result right away, but you know as well as I know,
41:56
Speaker 4: it's every reasonable effort, which.
42:00
Speaker 5: Effort, and you know some reasons. When I talk to parents,
42:04
Speaker 5: often so my initial contact that I make with a parent,
42:11
Speaker 5: and I often have parents that say, well, you know,
42:13
Speaker 5: I've got this problem I've got this problem. They have
42:17
Speaker 5: this problem, and I don't know exactly. And I always
42:20
Speaker 5: tell a parent the fact that you're here talking to
42:24
Speaker 5: me right now, give yourself credit. Give yourself credit for
42:29
Speaker 5: the fact that you are open to receive therapy. And
42:34
Speaker 5: I want you when you get off the phone with me,
42:37
Speaker 5: I want you to sit with your child and celebrate
42:41
Speaker 5: with them that they are open, that they are open
42:45
Speaker 5: to receiving a therapist. And by the way, quick question,
42:49
Speaker 5: sure ahead and tell I tell them. And I said, hey, mom,
42:53
Speaker 5: here's something I want you to do for me or dad,
42:55
Speaker 5: because I have dads. I want you to tell your child,
43:01
Speaker 5: I'm so proud of you that you're going to be
43:03
Speaker 5: in therapy now. And I want you to know I'm
43:07
Speaker 5: taking the journey with you. And I tell this to
43:11
Speaker 5: every one of my I'm also a coach. I tell
43:14
Speaker 5: us to coaching clients. I tell this to my therapy clients.
43:19
Speaker 5: Thank you for allowing me to take the journey with you.
43:23
Speaker 5: We're taking the journey together. Yes, So every reason i'm
43:29
Speaker 5: you're not alone, they're not alone.
43:31
Speaker 4: Good question. The last few years have brought significant changes
43:36
Speaker 4: in mental health awareness and accessibility. How has the landscape
43:40
Speaker 4: of mental health shifted recently, and what changes are you
43:44
Speaker 4: noticing in the way families are approaching therapy. I'm noticing
43:47
Speaker 4: that people are becoming more open to therapy. Therapy is
43:51
Speaker 4: not a bad word anymore. People are more open. So
43:55
Speaker 4: is there a greater emphasis Is there a greater emphasis
43:59
Speaker 4: on family inclusion approaches to therapy where parents and children
44:02
Speaker 4: work together to build emotional intelligences and healthy coping strategies.
44:07
Speaker 5: Absolutely, families are realizing that we all need each other here.
44:11
Speaker 5: We all need It's not just one person in the
44:14
Speaker 5: family that has the mental health issue. We all together
44:19
Speaker 5: need to be a part of this journey.
44:22
Speaker 4: The family is living with it, you know. Then you
44:24
Speaker 4: can't say, oh, my son has that. He's your son.
44:28
Speaker 4: You're living with it, you know. I was working with
44:31
Speaker 4: children with autism and I would often hear some of
44:35
Speaker 4: the family say, oh, my son has autism, you know,
44:38
Speaker 4: and I had to educate them and I had to
44:40
Speaker 4: tell him, no, he's living with it. He doesn't have it.
44:44
Speaker 4: He's living with it. And believe me, if he could
44:47
Speaker 4: choose not to live with it, he would. If he
44:50
Speaker 4: has it, it's there, but he's just living with it.
44:54
Speaker 4: And to look at their face to see that there's
44:57
Speaker 4: another way of saying it. I feel is though, it's
45:01
Speaker 4: a cleaner way, and it's a more respectful way, and
45:03
Speaker 4: it's a more unaccepted way of saying things, especially when
45:07
Speaker 4: you're dealing with people who are substance users, because we
45:12
Speaker 4: used to call them junkies.
45:14
Speaker 5: Those who are popping pills.
45:18
Speaker 4: We used to say those pill heads, popheads or crackheads,
45:22
Speaker 4: or whatever you want to call them. You know, it's
45:25
Speaker 4: a way of saying it in a respectful manner, and
45:28
Speaker 4: it goes across the border. No matter what a person
45:32
Speaker 4: is living with. But if it's your family member, I
45:35
Speaker 4: wouldn't care. It was my uncle twice removed. My uncle
45:38
Speaker 4: is living with this, so that means I'm living with it.
45:42
Speaker 4: Because that's my uncle, that's my aunt, that's my niece,
45:46
Speaker 4: that's my nephew. We're all living with I may not
45:48
Speaker 4: be living in your household, but we're all living with it.
45:51
Speaker 1: Now.
45:51
Speaker 4: I want to skip you off to at being the
45:54
Speaker 4: CEO of Black House Collaborations and the founder of I
45:57
Speaker 4: Am Black Women, an active member as an active member
46:01
Speaker 4: of the DAD the Distinguished Actors Guilt, you are deeply
46:04
Speaker 4: committed to creating spaces with African American women can find
46:09
Speaker 4: it empowerment, representation, and community. Could you share how those
46:13
Speaker 4: roles compliment each other, because I've already heard you speak
46:17
Speaker 4: on Black House Collaborations and iron Black Women.
46:21
Speaker 5: How does DAG Distinguished Authors Guild sharing all that the
46:29
Speaker 5: Distinguished Authors Guild aka Dad and I have some of
46:34
Speaker 5: my dad's family here with me, and here I see
46:38
Speaker 5: that you hear my how I describe them. It's my family.
46:44
Speaker 5: And so the founder, president and visionary for Dad is
46:50
Speaker 5: none other than Gina Gadson. And we compliment each other
46:56
Speaker 5: extremely well. You would have thought that we were both
47:01
Speaker 5: born to meet each other the way that we work,
47:08
Speaker 5: the way that we worked together, because we compliment. You
47:11
Speaker 5: brought you guys together. He brought you together. He brought
47:15
Speaker 5: you together for a reason. You had to meet. Let
47:20
Speaker 5: me but let me be real frank with you, Miss Black.
47:25
Speaker 5: When I when I met when I met Gina, she
47:32
Speaker 5: had just experienced some business trouble and I had experienced
47:39
Speaker 5: some business trouble. And so here were both two gals here.
47:44
Speaker 5: We both experienced some business trouble, but we had our
47:48
Speaker 5: business trouble was the same kind of business trouble, and
47:52
Speaker 5: so when we came together, it was it was an
47:57
Speaker 5: automatic connection. I knew I could help you, and she
48:03
Speaker 5: knew she could. And the way that Gina helped me
48:08
Speaker 5: because I knew I had some skills and talents that
48:10
Speaker 5: could help Dag and she also gave me room to
48:18
Speaker 5: be doctor Carolyn and to help. And I say that's
48:23
Speaker 5: very important because sometimes when you come into something that
48:28
Speaker 5: someone else has developed, and you come in with a
48:33
Speaker 5: person with lots of talents and skills, sometimes those people
48:37
Speaker 5: feel intimidated and then the competition comes in. Gina and
48:42
Speaker 5: I have never had that problem, so and show I
48:45
Speaker 5: don't like that, don't you know?
48:48
Speaker 4: Whenever we're talking about authors and projects like what you have,
48:52
Speaker 4: I always reference and I tell them that there is
48:54
Speaker 4: no competition in this. This is not the record business.
48:58
Speaker 4: That's well, that competition has been for decades and generations exactly.
49:02
Speaker 4: You know, we have a lot of indie authors now
49:05
Speaker 4: and they are coming together, such as your organization with Dad.
49:09
Speaker 4: So how does these initiatives amplify one another? And what
49:13
Speaker 4: is your vision for future projects that further advance empowerment
49:16
Speaker 4: representation for African American women and men, and diverse authors.
49:22
Speaker 5: Well, going back to my creating the Black House, collaboration
49:27
Speaker 5: is just exactly what the name says, is that I
49:31
Speaker 5: created a business where I collaborate with other businesses, other
49:35
Speaker 5: business owners, I collaborate with people. Collaboration is the foundation
49:40
Speaker 5: of every project, everything that I that I do, And
49:44
Speaker 5: so working along with Distinguished Authors Guild, first and foremost,
49:49
Speaker 5: Gina has her company, I have my company. We come
49:52
Speaker 5: together and there's a collaboration, there's collaboration there. We encourage,
49:57
Speaker 5: we encourage other collaborative effort efforts. The strongest part of DAD,
50:03
Speaker 5: which I that's my most my most heartfelt thing about
50:08
Speaker 5: the Distinguished Authors Guild is that we're big on support.
50:12
Speaker 5: We believe in giving authors support and we support them.
50:16
Speaker 5: That's why we become family. We support them, we support them,
50:21
Speaker 5: and we give them visibility. We want them to get
50:24
Speaker 5: out there, we want them to be seen. And while
50:28
Speaker 5: you're being seen, we're going to be somewhere in the background,
50:32
Speaker 5: while you being stem which is why I have family
50:34
Speaker 5: here tonight.
50:36
Speaker 4: So and I see them, they're out, they're out, and
50:39
Speaker 4: then they're not loud, but they're out, and that that
50:41
Speaker 4: speaks volumes. They don't have to say a word, but
50:44
Speaker 4: it speaks volumes. So what steps do you believe are
50:47
Speaker 4: essential in creating platforms that celebrate and elevate the voices
50:51
Speaker 4: of African American authors and other under representative writers. So
50:57
Speaker 4: I know you have some kind of creativity going on
50:59
Speaker 4: with your platform because I see I've been just for
51:02
Speaker 4: the past couple of months, I've been seeing dag dagda.
51:05
Speaker 5: And I'm like, what does that mean?
51:06
Speaker 4: And when i got involved by reading more about it,
51:09
Speaker 4: and I've been interviewing some of your powerful authors, I'm like, Wow,
51:13
Speaker 4: they're not joking. They're not joking. So I'm interested to
51:16
Speaker 4: find out about you. I could see, I can see,
51:19
Speaker 4: and you.
51:21
Speaker 5: Know we're not playing in my seat and miss Black
51:25
Speaker 5: you you now listen, I'm saying this on camera in
51:28
Speaker 5: front of the thousands of thousands of people. You know,
51:31
Speaker 5: we want you to be a part of DAG I have,
51:34
Speaker 5: I have. I make it no secret. We listen. Thank you.
51:40
Speaker 5: I see the cover of that book you got out.
51:42
Speaker 5: Now that cover is something man, I said to myself,
51:47
Speaker 5: that lady right there. But uh, you know again, we
51:52
Speaker 5: host these events every year, the Distinguished Authors Guild Awards
51:57
Speaker 5: and and and and and banquet we call the Gala.
52:00
Speaker 5: This year is going to be in Illinois at Theater
52:03
Speaker 5: forty seven in Illinois, right close there to Chicago. We're
52:09
Speaker 5: gonna have authors come out. They're gonna be dressed in
52:12
Speaker 5: they're black and gold. We're going to celebrate them. And
52:16
Speaker 5: you got to remember, most of us have not seen
52:18
Speaker 5: each other face to face. We've just been seeing each
52:20
Speaker 5: other virtually, so this is gonna be the first time
52:23
Speaker 5: that many of us are going to see each other.
52:25
Speaker 5: We're going to get a chance to love on each other.
52:27
Speaker 5: We're gonna get a chance to hug each other. They're
52:29
Speaker 5: gonna be authors who are going to win awards. That's
52:33
Speaker 5: how we celebrate authors. And I think that's one of
52:35
Speaker 5: the biggest things. And this is why I believe that
52:38
Speaker 5: Gina Gatson created Dad so that we could celebrate the
52:42
Speaker 5: work you put into your book. We want to support
52:46
Speaker 5: and celebrate you. You work hard, you poured out your
52:50
Speaker 5: soul and put it on paper, and we want to
52:53
Speaker 5: be there to celebrate you whether you win the I
52:58
Speaker 5: mean we say we're all winners.
53:01
Speaker 4: Is that's all I see, you know, And I just
53:04
Speaker 4: see a sea of faces that every time I turned
53:09
Speaker 4: on my social media and now I've seen DAG and
53:13
Speaker 4: I would go and I would start googling everybody because
53:15
Speaker 4: I said, this is something about this award that just
53:20
Speaker 4: seems to be different than other awards. How important do
53:24
Speaker 4: you believe mentorship and collaboration are for underrepresented writers and
53:28
Speaker 4: what opportunities does the DAG provide to facilitate these connections.
53:34
Speaker 5: We definitely provide mentorship. We take a personal interest in
53:40
Speaker 5: all of our authors. We communicate with our authors. If
53:45
Speaker 5: there are problems that you're having as an author, if
53:48
Speaker 5: it's not myself, it's just not Gina, then there's another
53:51
Speaker 5: author that may be be able to address it. We
53:55
Speaker 5: come together. For example, I see my sister Natalie Murphy
53:58
Speaker 5: that's on UH Natalie does workshops and we will say, hey,
54:04
Speaker 5: you need to get over in Natalie's workshop. I myself
54:08
Speaker 5: am a publishing consultant and so I helped authors self published.
54:14
Speaker 5: We have doctor Barbara Whitehead, who is a Christian publisher.
54:18
Speaker 5: We have several people in our group that if you're
54:22
Speaker 5: having problems in the area or challenges, I would say
54:25
Speaker 5: in an area, We're going to find somebody that can
54:27
Speaker 5: help you with whatever your particular challenge is I am
54:31
Speaker 5: the CEO of a television on demand company, and so
54:36
Speaker 5: that is the media company that works along with distinguished
54:39
Speaker 5: authors guil while you see them popping up all over
54:42
Speaker 5: the place because we provide the fay, we provide the graphics.
54:47
Speaker 5: They they know, they'll tell you they see in graphics. Uh,
54:52
Speaker 5: they're gonna be there as a metaphorre on television. My
54:56
Speaker 5: company creates all that, and they know. We get in
54:58
Speaker 5: those chats and I tell them on out there. We've
55:01
Speaker 5: even had some that started with us who said, I'm
55:04
Speaker 5: not gonna call her name because she killed me. I'm
55:06
Speaker 5: not gonna call her name. But I'm too shy. I'm
55:10
Speaker 5: too shy. I don't know if I can get on
55:13
Speaker 5: the interview. She's probably laughing at me right now. That's
55:16
Speaker 5: one of my menteens, and we take it as a
55:18
Speaker 5: joke right now. But now when I see her on
55:20
Speaker 5: interviews and everything, and we were like, so, who said
55:22
Speaker 5: they were shy again? Because we're gonna push you. We're
55:25
Speaker 5: gonna push you that. We're gonna push you so you
55:28
Speaker 5: can push your book. We're gonna celebrate because we're celebrating
55:32
Speaker 5: your book. To me, that is the biggest thing that
55:36
Speaker 5: African American authors need. They need us reading their books.
55:40
Speaker 5: They need us to tell people to read their books.
55:43
Speaker 5: They need us to tell people how interesting their books
55:46
Speaker 5: are by getting them know, to be up close in
55:49
Speaker 5: front and knowing the publisher. And I must say, without
55:52
Speaker 5: leaving this platform, my spiritual daughter, my beloved Angela, I
56:00
Speaker 5: would not be here tonight if not for her, and
56:05
Speaker 5: to you, miss Blacky or saying yeah, and Angela and
56:10
Speaker 5: I we are a collaboration, so we collaborate, my company,
56:16
Speaker 5: her platform. Let's say, let's make it happen. Thank you,
56:20
Speaker 5: Miss black for saying yes, not only to me, but
56:23
Speaker 5: to all of the authors you know, Miss little John,
56:29
Speaker 5: so many of you that said yes to us and
56:34
Speaker 5: having us on the platform. This is how we support
56:38
Speaker 5: each other. This is what authors need. They need opportunities
56:42
Speaker 5: to have visibility, to be able to talk about their
56:45
Speaker 5: book and talk about who they are, meet the author themselves.
56:50
Speaker 5: And that's what we provide with distinguished authors guilt along
56:53
Speaker 5: with the great celebration. Yes.
56:56
Speaker 4: So for those who are inspired by your work and
56:58
Speaker 4: want to learn more, want to learn more about you,
57:02
Speaker 4: how do they connect with you? And how can I
57:04
Speaker 4: listeners engage with your with you, of course, your different platforms,
57:08
Speaker 4: because you just seem to have so many of them.
57:10
Speaker 4: And again you just gave her a shout out. But yes,
57:12
Speaker 4: she is our queen of collaborations, Angela. She she definitely is.
57:17
Speaker 4: Because I don't even want to go as far as
57:19
Speaker 4: how how I started off with her because I'm almost embarrassed,
57:23
Speaker 4: but I'm gonna leave that one alone.
57:25
Speaker 5: But yeah, how how can we connect with you?
57:28
Speaker 4: How can listeners connect with you and engage in your
57:32
Speaker 4: different platforms?
57:34
Speaker 5: Sure, you know, like with the DAG, you know, it
57:37
Speaker 5: is very easy to connect with me. I mean you
57:39
Speaker 5: can go up on Facebook under Carolyn Stevens and you
57:43
Speaker 5: can deep direct message me. I'm pretty accessible, uh easy
57:49
Speaker 5: to reach uh. So you can connect with me on Facebook,
57:54
Speaker 5: you can go to my website doctor Carolyn Stevens dot com.
57:58
Speaker 5: You can reach me on that. I do have a
58:02
Speaker 5: therapeutic social media page onder doctor Carolyn Stevens where people
58:07
Speaker 5: can reach me. If you're interested in finding out for
58:11
Speaker 5: you or for a friend about therapeutic services, you can
58:16
Speaker 5: DM me there or on my website you can go
58:19
Speaker 5: there and reach me. And so those are ways that
58:21
Speaker 5: if you want to get in touch with me that
58:23
Speaker 5: you're able to reach me. The Distinguished Authors Guilt has
58:27
Speaker 5: its own social media page on Facebook. You can type
58:31
Speaker 5: in Dad EAG twenty twenty four because over the years
58:37
Speaker 5: we've developed different pages, So Dad twenty twenty four, you
58:41
Speaker 5: can hop in, you can inbox Gina Gatson, g A. D. S. O. N.
58:47
Speaker 5: How can I be a part? We're accepting new authors
58:50
Speaker 5: right now, so if you want to be a part
58:52
Speaker 5: of what we're doing in twenty twenty five, it's going
58:55
Speaker 5: to be off the chain. In twenty twenty five, the
58:58
Speaker 5: visibility is going up another not We're super super excited.
59:03
Speaker 5: The energy is great and fantastic. So you definitely, if
59:06
Speaker 5: you're an author, if you know you're going to be
59:08
Speaker 5: having a book coming out the first of the year,
59:10
Speaker 5: you want to come and be a part of the
59:13
Speaker 5: DAD family. And if you're in the Chicago area, by
59:17
Speaker 5: all means, it's not too late to get your ticket.
59:19
Speaker 5: Go to event Bright and look up the DAG event
59:23
Speaker 5: on the event Bright and come and put your pretty
59:26
Speaker 5: dress on and come and celebrate with us there on
59:29
Speaker 5: November the tenth, we will be there in that place
59:33
Speaker 5: we heard it.
59:34
Speaker 4: Here on Basic Black after doc, get there, get your tickets,
59:39
Speaker 4: go support, be supportive, get in the know, because I'm
59:44
Speaker 4: quite sure they're gonna be doing a lot of networking
59:46
Speaker 4: that evening. Doctor Carolyn Stevens, we were honored to have
59:50
Speaker 4: you and to have the insightfulness of you. Thank you,
59:54
Speaker 4: Doctor Stevens for bringing your expertise and want to the podcast.
59:58
Speaker 4: Your perspective made for truly enriching conversation. We're grateful for
1:00:03
Speaker 4: the wisdom and compassion you share with our audience. I
1:00:06
Speaker 4: appreciate it. I'm gonna check out Dad a little bit more.
1:00:09
Speaker 4: I've been already on three on pages and been looking
1:00:12
Speaker 4: at some of your nominees, and again, congratulations to each and.
1:00:16
Speaker 5: Every one of you.
1:00:18
Speaker 4: You know, I don't know how it works, but if
1:00:21
Speaker 4: I can give out a gift to each and every.
1:00:23
Speaker 5: One of you from what I've seen, I would love you.
1:00:27
Speaker 4: Join us for an exciting episode of Basic Black after
1:00:30
Speaker 4: Dark on Friday, November fifteenth. We will be welcoming our
1:00:34
Speaker 4: special guest, Bobby Scratches. She's the author of Walking on
1:00:38
Speaker 4: Streets of Gold. She'll be sharing her insights and experiencing
1:00:42
Speaker 4: and you won't want to miss it. After eight after
1:00:45
Speaker 4: Dark