Latest / Creative Roots Podcast / Blues 4 Mama: The Play That Hits Home - Fantah & Trayshaun | Ep. 64

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Blues 4 Mama: The Play That Hits Home - Fantah & Trayshaun | Ep. 64 · Creative Roots Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_03: So Blues for Mama is like a compilation of personalities where we try to negotiate with the mother, and the mother is going through her trials and tribulations because she wants to control.
0:12
SPEAKER_01: For me to come and for a teacher to first, you know, tell me that I was talented when I was young, and then for me to meet you later in life and to find out that you was a teacher.
0:22
SPEAKER_03: And you was like this is what he's suggesting that we have gone down to the abyss, and now we're anti-intellectual because you're not developing truth in the air, let it speak.
0:40
SPEAKER_04: Well, hello, fam.
0:41
SPEAKER_04: Tay has allowed me back on the set.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, boy.
0:46
SPEAKER_01: The light is on.
0:48
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I thought you were saying something.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: No, I just said, Yeah, boy.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, boy.
0:53
SPEAKER_04: So Tay is here with me.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: I am here.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: I am in the back for the second third time.
1:00
SPEAKER_04: The second third time.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:03
SPEAKER_04: All righty.
1:05
SPEAKER_04: So today we are here with uh like two of my favorite Pisces people.
1:14
SPEAKER_04: Can't go wrong there.
1:16
SPEAKER_04: Can't go wrong.
1:16
SPEAKER_04: I'm sorry, y'all.
1:18
SPEAKER_04: So this listen, listen, y'all.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: Before she gets started, welcome back to another episode of Creative Roots Podcast where seeds, sown, become visions grown.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: I am your host behind the camera today.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: I am Tay.
1:30
SPEAKER_04: I am Dina G.
1:32
SPEAKER_04: Everybody's sidekick.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's favorite cousin.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's favorite cousin.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we want to give a shout out to Alan Lux Studios.
1:42
SPEAKER_04: I would like to thank us.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: We want to give a shout out to Charlotte Podcast Studio.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: I would like to thank us.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: And we want to give another shout out to Artbox Charlotte.
1:53
SPEAKER_04: I would like to thank us.
1:56
SPEAKER_04: Us, us.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Because we do all that.
1:58
SPEAKER_04: We do all the things.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: So Dina, please, please, please introduce who we have with us today.
2:05
SPEAKER_04: Today, I have Fanta Hooker and Trey Sean Lipscomb, the writer and director of.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: Put that shirt on the blue.
2:19
SPEAKER_04: I try to surprise y'all with my t-shirt today.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: Love the shirt.
2:27
SPEAKER_01: He surprised me with that one, and I love it.
2:28
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
2:29
SPEAKER_04: So y'all know this is gonna be a good show because this is a show full of Pisces.
2:33
SPEAKER_04: So it's all love here.
2:35
SPEAKER_04: All creativity.
2:36
SPEAKER_04: So that's what we like to talk about here is creativity.
2:39
SPEAKER_04: So we'll like to start from the beginning.
2:42
SPEAKER_04: How did it start, Miss Hooker?
2:44
SPEAKER_04: You want to go back that far?
2:45
SPEAKER_02: Oh, we can go back as far as you like.
2:47
SPEAKER_03: Oh my goodness.
2:49
SPEAKER_03: I I like to go back as far as my uh teaching um method.
2:56
SPEAKER_03: Because this really came out of that whole part of me episode chapter.
3:07
SPEAKER_03: Because I was a teacher before I actually started practicing as a teacher.
3:13
SPEAKER_03: As a teacher as a young person because I had younger siblings.
3:17
SPEAKER_03: And when I actually got certified as a teacher and started teaching in the classroom, well, even before that, because I have six children.
3:24
SPEAKER_03: Wow, right?
3:25
SPEAKER_04: Beautiful.
3:26
SPEAKER_03: And I taught my older children.
3:29
SPEAKER_03: And then when I got certified and started teaching formally, I realized something in the classroom that black children particularly like to perform.
3:43
SPEAKER_03: You know, class clown type thing.
3:46
SPEAKER_03: Always performing, always looking for a laugh, always looking to do something.
3:50
SPEAKER_03: So I wanted to capitalize on that.
3:53
SPEAKER_03: So I started making performance art a part of my curriculum.
3:59
SPEAKER_03: And they loved it.
4:02
SPEAKER_03: Especially in elementary school, because that was a way of getting them to read and write, because they knew that they had to get in front of class and talk about what they were writing.
4:15
SPEAKER_03: Right.
4:16
SPEAKER_03: And they had to research the reading part of it.
4:19
SPEAKER_03: They had to do research so they learned to read.
4:22
SPEAKER_03: I had to trick them into reading a lot of times.
4:25
SPEAKER_03: Because sometimes they push back on that.
4:27
SPEAKER_03: Oh, what do I need this for?
4:28
SPEAKER_03: Especially high school students.
4:30
SPEAKER_03: Right.
4:30
SPEAKER_03: What do I need to know this for?
4:32
SPEAKER_03: And I would say, okay.
4:34
SPEAKER_03: So we you need to be able to present yourself.
4:38
SPEAKER_03: You need to know how to debate.
4:40
SPEAKER_03: You need to know how to have a proposition and defend the proposition.
4:45
SPEAKER_03: You need to know how to write.
4:46
SPEAKER_03: You need to know how to be a what?
4:50
SPEAKER_03: Critical thinker.
4:52
SPEAKER_03: Something that teachers always talking about how to become a critical thinker.
4:57
SPEAKER_03: But how do you actually teach that?
4:59
SPEAKER_03: That's something that's really intrinsic.
5:04
SPEAKER_03: It's a skill now.
5:05
SPEAKER_03: You can learn it.
5:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
5:07
SPEAKER_03: But it's not a direct way of teaching critical thinking.
5:11
SPEAKER_03: Maybe so.
5:12
SPEAKER_03: You can organize your thoughts and you can do research and all that.
5:16
SPEAKER_03: But when you have to perform, when you have to, you're on the hot seat, like I used to call it, especially in high school, because I said, let's use the Socratic method.
5:26
SPEAKER_03: So you come up with a position statement and you say, I'm going, I always like to really get them stirred up by saying, was President Lincoln a racist?
5:39
SPEAKER_03: And they're like, no, he freed the slaves.
5:43
SPEAKER_03: He did this, he did that.
5:44
SPEAKER_03: You know, nobody wants to say he was a racist, right?
5:48
SPEAKER_03: Right.
5:48
SPEAKER_03: And then we started looking through it, and you would find that he made some statements that were racist.
5:55
SPEAKER_03: And that he wasn't really interested in freeing the slaves.
5:59
SPEAKER_03: He was mainly interested in keeping the union together.
6:02
SPEAKER_03: Right.
6:03
SPEAKER_03: He didn't want the South to secede from the Union.
6:07
SPEAKER_03: That would look bad on his record.
6:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
6:09
SPEAKER_03: This country split up.
6:10
SPEAKER_03: So his main thrust was: how do I keep this union together?
6:16
SPEAKER_03: Slaves was a side issue.
6:18
SPEAKER_03: Northerners wanted the slaves because they wanted cheap labor.
6:22
SPEAKER_03: South, of course, wanted slaves because they wanted to not have to pay them for anything.
6:27
SPEAKER_03: Right.
6:28
SPEAKER_03: So those two battles that ensued between the battles that ensued because of the Civil War, I would ask them to, okay, make a proposition.
6:38
SPEAKER_03: How are you going to defend this?
6:40
SPEAKER_03: And it would get out, it would get crazy sometimes.
6:43
SPEAKER_03: I've had people who said, I don't want to be in your class anymore.
6:46
SPEAKER_04: Oh, wow.
6:47
SPEAKER_03: But see, I'm not a warm, fuzzy teacher.
6:50
SPEAKER_04: Say it's not so.
6:53
SPEAKER_03: I don't know how to be that.
6:55
SPEAKER_03: So, you know, I like confrontation.
6:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
6:57
SPEAKER_03: I like debate.
6:58
SPEAKER_03: So I had a few people who wanted to leave my class.
7:02
SPEAKER_03: So my my uh co-teacher, I he said, Well, okay, I'll take them.
7:06
SPEAKER_03: And then he would give me a couple of people, we would switch out because some people just couldn't tolerate me.
7:11
SPEAKER_03: Right.
7:12
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, okay, I understand.
7:14
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes it gets a little rough.
7:15
SPEAKER_03: But you were creative.
7:17
SPEAKER_03: Well, were you creative?
7:18
SPEAKER_03: I was trying to get them, you know, involved and interested in what we were learning.
7:24
SPEAKER_03: Because history can be very boring.
7:26
SPEAKER_03: Very.
7:28
SPEAKER_03: And a lot of people say, I hate history.
7:31
SPEAKER_03: Too much reading, not enough what?
7:36
SPEAKER_03: Content that matters.
7:38
SPEAKER_03: Why do I need I've had so many students say, why do I need to learn this?
7:44
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, you want to be satien.
7:48
SPEAKER_03: You want to know stuff.
7:49
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
7:49
SPEAKER_03: But I ain't gonna never use this.
7:51
SPEAKER_03: Teach me how to make some money.
7:53
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, well, if I could teach you how to make money, I can make some money for myself.
7:58
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
7:59
SPEAKER_03: So you asking the wrong question.
8:02
SPEAKER_03: I'm not the money person.
8:04
SPEAKER_03: I do talking.
8:06
SPEAKER_03: So getting into script writing, fast forward.
8:11
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I thought, okay, let me put history in my playwriting.
8:17
SPEAKER_03: So I flipped it.
8:18
SPEAKER_03: I said, I'm gonna put some historical pieces into my playwriting.
8:23
SPEAKER_03: When I write a play, I want it to be a teach, a tool for teaching, to say some things that maybe you've never heard before.
8:31
SPEAKER_04: Right.
8:31
SPEAKER_03: And and you know, go like that.
8:36
SPEAKER_04: I love that.
8:37
SPEAKER_04: And I think that's something schools are missing out on now is the creativity.
8:41
SPEAKER_04: You know, they're taking the arts out of school, the PE out of school.
8:44
SPEAKER_04: You know, we need all children need all of that to learn, to be well rounded.
8:49
SPEAKER_03: So I think what you're doing is they didn't take the school out of school.
8:52
SPEAKER_03: That is true.
8:53
SPEAKER_03: That is true.
8:54
SPEAKER_01: That's a big statement.
8:55
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, very big.
8:58
SPEAKER_03: They don't the way schools are put together, nobody likes it.
9:05
SPEAKER_03: It's a factory, it's a business.
9:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you roll a little child down the conveyor belt, you put all of these little ideas in their head, and at the end of 12 years, you expect that they should know something.
9:19
SPEAKER_03: And when my students used to say to me, they always rebel, I don't like this, I don't like this, especially high school students, and I know they're worn out because they've had to take American history, what, three times?
9:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:30
SPEAKER_03: So who wants to hear that again?
9:32
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, okay, so what can we do?
9:36
SPEAKER_03: I changed my classroom into a Socratic method, and we debate it all the time.
9:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's the only way I could keep them engaged.
9:47
SPEAKER_03: But we need to take school out of school.
9:50
SPEAKER_03: School is becoming antiquated.
9:52
SPEAKER_03: It is if you teach in the same way for the last hundred years and you're watering it down, of course, they're gonna be bored because they can get on their video game and have so much more fun.
10:06
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
10:07
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
10:08
SPEAKER_03: You know, what are you gonna do?
10:10
SPEAKER_03: How are you gonna make it?
10:11
SPEAKER_03: So I would teach writing and of course push back on writing.
10:16
SPEAKER_03: Nobody wants to write.
10:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
10:18
SPEAKER_03: I said, but how are you gonna be able to communicate if you don't know how to write?
10:23
SPEAKER_03: And even one of the actresses in Blues for Mama was a student of mine, and she said she hated writing.
10:32
SPEAKER_03: She hated my class.
10:34
SPEAKER_03: And she said, but at the end, she realized, okay, I can write now.
10:40
SPEAKER_04: Yes, that's right.
10:41
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
10:42
SPEAKER_04: We always fight.
10:43
SPEAKER_04: We talked about this earlier.
10:45
SPEAKER_04: We always fight the process, but we appreciate it on the other side.
10:48
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but what does that do to me when I gotta battle 30 students in my class?
10:53
SPEAKER_03: That is true.
10:54
SPEAKER_04: It makes you stronger.
10:56
SPEAKER_03: Like the little girl said, I don't want nothing that's gonna make me stronger if I have to go through all of this.
11:01
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that is true.
11:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it makes you, yeah, it makes, but you lose a lot of sleep, you know, because you're saying, Oh, should I have said it that way, should have done that way?
11:11
SPEAKER_03: Did he take it that way?
11:13
SPEAKER_03: Did I have to kick him out of my class again today?
11:16
SPEAKER_03: Did I have to do that?
11:17
SPEAKER_03: You know, the disrespect.
11:20
SPEAKER_03: Do I have to put up with that?
11:22
SPEAKER_03: But it is what it is.
11:24
SPEAKER_03: The dynamics that we're living with today is totally different from my periods.
11:28
SPEAKER_03: It is I had to do some adjusting because if I was gonna keep them engaged for 90 minutes, I had to figure something.
11:38
SPEAKER_04: Figure it out, figure it out, and the world is better because of it.
11:42
SPEAKER_04: It may not seem like it, but it is just you know, you always set somebody like your actress came back later and said it.
11:49
SPEAKER_03: Yes, she did.
11:50
SPEAKER_04: So, and she's now being creative.
11:53
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, look at it.
11:54
SPEAKER_04: So you get to see your fruit, you do get to see your fruit, you get to see your fruit, so yeah, but it's kind of worth it.
12:01
SPEAKER_03: It's a long, hard route.
12:03
SPEAKER_03: You know, I always think about how teachers once really meant something in the community.
12:09
SPEAKER_03: Teachers were like up there with preachers.
12:11
SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely.
12:12
SPEAKER_03: And now we don't even make the chart.
12:15
SPEAKER_03: No.
12:16
SPEAKER_03: Because I I actually did a survey with my students, and I said, Who makes the most impact in your life?
12:22
SPEAKER_03: And this is one of the most telling things I ever did.
12:25
SPEAKER_03: And they listed all the people that they thought were worthy of their attention, like athletes, of course, movie stars, music industry, influencers, even you know, influencers made the list.
12:39
SPEAKER_03: Like influencers.
12:40
SPEAKER_03: Well, they just repeating what they've already heard, but anywho.
12:43
SPEAKER_03: Um I said, well, where are your parents?
12:46
SPEAKER_03: I said, Oh, oh, oh yeah, parents on there.
12:48
SPEAKER_03: That was an afterthought.
12:50
SPEAKER_03: Um, I said, Well, what about preachers?
12:53
SPEAKER_03: No, preachers ain't on there.
12:54
SPEAKER_03: They wouldn't put preachers on there at all.
12:56
SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, where teachers at?
12:58
SPEAKER_03: Well, y'all down there somewhere on the bottom.
13:00
SPEAKER_03: I said, Okay.
13:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, times have definitely.
13:02
SPEAKER_03: I would never have been, I would never thought like that.
13:06
SPEAKER_03: It's a different thing.
13:07
SPEAKER_03: When I was growing up, teachers was up here.
13:10
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
13:10
SPEAKER_03: They were right up there with preachers.
13:12
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
13:12
SPEAKER_03: But times have changed.
13:14
SPEAKER_03: Times have changed.
13:15
SPEAKER_03: And I get it.
13:16
SPEAKER_03: I absolutely get it.
13:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
13:18
SPEAKER_03: Because one young lady said to me that what we're doing in school, we're actually making them worse off.
13:33
SPEAKER_03: School sets you up for failure.
13:35
SPEAKER_03: That's what she said.
13:37
SPEAKER_03: And I was along the way.
13:39
SPEAKER_03: School sets you up for failure.
13:40
SPEAKER_03: She said, Yeah.
13:42
SPEAKER_03: School makes you fail in life.
13:46
SPEAKER_03: And I said, something think about it.
13:51
SPEAKER_03: She didn't elaborate, she really didn't have the words to say that.
13:54
SPEAKER_03: I think it was just a gut reaction.
13:56
SPEAKER_03: The school sets you up for failure.
13:58
SPEAKER_03: And then all the children, of course, when somebody says something so way out, everybody said, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:04
SPEAKER_03: School set you up for failure.
14:06
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, okay.
14:08
SPEAKER_03: So because you're failing, you're gonna blame it on school.
14:13
SPEAKER_03: But I dug a little deeper because I found out she's right.
14:20
SPEAKER_03: There's too much school in the schooling.
14:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
14:24
SPEAKER_03: You're not really preparing children for real life.
14:27
SPEAKER_03: You're really not doing it.
14:29
SPEAKER_03: Now, some you can teach and they don't care, they're gonna figure it out.
14:34
SPEAKER_03: They're gonna do what they do because they just have that endowed.
14:37
SPEAKER_03: They're endowed with something, something special.
14:40
SPEAKER_03: But then you got the folk who just trudge along and just, you know, kind of whatever you throw at them, that's what they do, or they don't do anything at all.
14:49
SPEAKER_03: So, what are you gonna do with them?
14:50
SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
14:52
SPEAKER_03: See, everybody talks about the great equalizer, that we're all created equal.
14:57
SPEAKER_03: No such thing.
14:59
SPEAKER_03: Right.
15:00
SPEAKER_03: We're not equal.
15:01
SPEAKER_03: We're not equal.
15:02
SPEAKER_03: We're not.
15:03
SPEAKER_03: So, I mean, if if I was I was equal to Michael Jackson, I could do moonwalk, right?
15:09
SPEAKER_03: Right.
15:10
SPEAKER_03: And I and I would have that talent.
15:12
SPEAKER_03: You're not equal.
15:14
SPEAKER_03: So trying to get people not to think like that and look at yourself, look inside.
15:20
SPEAKER_03: What particularity do you have?
15:23
SPEAKER_03: What creative thing that you have?
15:25
SPEAKER_03: Because we all have it.
15:26
SPEAKER_03: What intelligence do you have?
15:27
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
15:28
SPEAKER_03: Because we have so many different intelligences.
15:33
SPEAKER_03: We think we just have one type of intelligence.
15:36
SPEAKER_03: It's not one type of intelligence, it's multiple intelligence.
15:39
SPEAKER_03: It's a book written about, and I'm trying to think of his name, but it's a book, multiple intelligence.
15:45
SPEAKER_03: Some people are physically intelligent, some people are analytical, some people, what creative.
15:54
SPEAKER_03: Um, you could say on the crib, communication is a skill.
15:57
SPEAKER_03: Yes, it nothing irks me more when I hear someone talking and they say, uh, uh, uh stop.
16:07
SPEAKER_03: Uh uh I know think before you speak, please.
16:13
SPEAKER_03: But no one really taught them that communication skill.
16:16
SPEAKER_03: Now you can learn it because that's an age-old debate, too.
16:20
SPEAKER_03: Is it inherent?
16:22
SPEAKER_03: Is it nurture or nature?
16:24
SPEAKER_03: Nature, yeah.
16:24
SPEAKER_03: Nurture or nature.
16:26
SPEAKER_03: Are you born with this talent or can you learn this talent?
16:31
SPEAKER_03: And I say you can learn it.
16:33
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
16:34
SPEAKER_03: But there are certain things that people are gifted with that you can't learn.
16:39
SPEAKER_03: That is true.
16:40
SPEAKER_03: When every when when uh and I'm gonna go back before um y'all probably the doctor, Dr.
16:47
SPEAKER_03: J, when he was flying before Michael Jordan, everybody calls more Michael Jordan the GOAT, but back when Dr.
16:57
SPEAKER_03: J was the one that started that airtime.
17:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we don't recognize that.
17:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
17:03
SPEAKER_03: But anywho, it wasn't a lot of people that could do that.
17:08
SPEAKER_03: It took what years, decades for people to really have airtime and be able to do those skills, those physical feats that nobody was thinking about doing one time.
17:19
SPEAKER_03: It was like, what is he doing?
17:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
17:23
SPEAKER_03: So that part shows you that there's a certain skill.
17:28
SPEAKER_03: The um French gymnast, no, she's an ice skater.
17:31
SPEAKER_03: Ice skater, yeah.
17:32
SPEAKER_03: And when she did the backflip, right?
17:34
SPEAKER_03: They gave her hill.
17:35
SPEAKER_03: They gave her a hard time.
17:36
SPEAKER_03: They gave her hell because it's like, what are you doing that for?
17:39
SPEAKER_03: Nobody can do that.
17:40
SPEAKER_03: But she did it.
17:42
SPEAKER_03: And I haven't seen many people do it since.
17:45
SPEAKER_03: I've seen a male, but they didn't want the women doing it at all.
17:48
SPEAKER_03: They didn't because of her doing it.
17:50
SPEAKER_03: You may break your neck.
17:51
SPEAKER_03: She didn't.
17:52
SPEAKER_03: And she said, I may lose the competition because y'all don't like me, no way.
17:56
SPEAKER_03: But I'm gonna do my backflip.
17:58
SPEAKER_03: And that stands even today.
18:00
SPEAKER_03: Nobody's been able to do it.
18:01
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
18:02
SPEAKER_03: So that's a gift.
18:03
SPEAKER_03: It is, it is.
18:04
SPEAKER_03: Talent, gift, high.
18:08
SPEAKER_03: What Simone Biles?
18:09
SPEAKER_03: Is that I'm saying that right?
18:10
SPEAKER_03: Simone Biles.
18:11
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
18:12
SPEAKER_03: She does um gymnastics, what is it?
18:16
SPEAKER_03: It's certain, she has it's called the Bile, Simone Biles flip.
18:20
SPEAKER_03: Nobody can do it.
18:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
18:21
SPEAKER_03: And they didn't want her to do that.
18:23
SPEAKER_03: They said some people may break their neck.
18:25
SPEAKER_03: Well, just because other people might break their neck, I can do it.
18:29
SPEAKER_03: So leave me alone.
18:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
18:31
SPEAKER_03: It's that kind of thing.
18:33
SPEAKER_03: I get it.
18:34
SPEAKER_03: So, whatever gift of talent you have, this country would be so much, so much better if people were allowed to be creative, show their talent instead of the hate.
18:45
SPEAKER_03: Hate, yeah, I agree.
18:47
SPEAKER_03: You know, that's the hate is is just, and I said it's insecure, pupil, insecure people that's propagating all this hate.
18:56
SPEAKER_03: Because if you were confident, sure in yourself, you wouldn't need to hate nobody.
19:01
SPEAKER_03: You wouldn't need to put nobody down.
19:03
SPEAKER_04: That is true.
19:04
SPEAKER_03: Because you would have your own particular individual creative side.
19:08
SPEAKER_03: You would be able to articulate, you would be able to create, you would be able to communicate, you would be all those great things.
19:16
SPEAKER_03: Make something out of stone.
19:20
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
19:21
SPEAKER_03: But the system doesn't allow schooling.
19:24
SPEAKER_03: You're supposed to learn your ABCs, your one, two, threes.
19:27
SPEAKER_03: Now they're even saying you don't have to learn an ad, that the computer can do it for you.
19:31
SPEAKER_04: You don't have the right cursor for anything.
19:33
SPEAKER_03: No.
19:34
SPEAKER_04: But I to add to that, I think as creators, we always find a way.
19:38
SPEAKER_03: You found we found a way.
19:40
SPEAKER_04: And how did you find your way, Trey Shaw?
19:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
19:43
SPEAKER_04: How did you find your way?
19:46
SPEAKER_01: It is a good idea.
19:49
SPEAKER_01: But she dropped a lot of dimes.
19:51
SPEAKER_01: And I love it.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: And I and I appreciate that because I do come from the era where uh teachers and preachers were at the top of our list.
20:00
SPEAKER_01: I do come from there.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: Um from then.
20:03
SPEAKER_01: And I was a class at I used to do this great rendition of Steve Urkel when I was a child when I was a kid and I was like five and six, and the school nurse loved it.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: And she would bring me when we had visitors in the school, she would say, Go get him out of class and bring him up here.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: Y'all have to see this kid.
20:24
SPEAKER_01: And I would pull my pants up and do the whole thing.
20:27
SPEAKER_03: She were on your way.
20:29
SPEAKER_03: They used to love it.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: They would love it.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: And I never knew what the what it was about then.
20:34
SPEAKER_01: You know, I never knew what it was about.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: And then uh, as I got older, I started drawing near to my art teachers.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: My art teachers.
20:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I really felt like um I had a speech impediment, a really bad speech impediment when I was younger.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: I used to stutter a lot, and um she taught me a different way of expressing myself through painting and drawing and all those things and pot and pottery, plethora of opportunities she gave me, and that's what I leaned into.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: Right.
21:08
SPEAKER_01: And so when I got to middle school, my craft had developed some more, and I started winning awards, and I saw that teacher again, and she was like, Oh my gosh, I'm so happy that she leaned into it.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: And I got to high school and did a little bit more.
21:20
SPEAKER_01: And then the hot then the middle school teacher would come and she'd be like, This is amazing.
21:24
SPEAKER_01: Like keep going, keep going.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: And and when I got to college, um, I went to be an art major and I set my counselors for office, and she said, um, she said, she said, the only thing you can be with art is an art teacher or you could work at a museum.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I just want to paint and draw.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: She was like, You can't make a living off of that.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so that kind of crushed uh my vision at that time.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: It really put a seed in me that I that I wasn't ready for because I really thought it was more options.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Um and I stopped drawing.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: I stopped drawing.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: I stopped drawing.
22:05
SPEAKER_01: I stopped drawing.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: And I became a different kid.
22:09
SPEAKER_01: And then I joined the military.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: And so like that came.
22:13
SPEAKER_01: And then I put art down for a long time.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: I was actually scared to pick it back up because I didn't I didn't want to be judged on what on what society had told me what was it at the time.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: And so then there wasn't a lot of um artists popping up, you know, in the early 2000s like that.
22:32
SPEAKER_01: And um, and when I got to uh um when I moved back to Charlotte, um I started telling people that I used to draw.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: Um and one of those people was was this lovely lady sitting across from me, Gina Godfrey.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: And she um and she uh she um she gave me she she told me she said you have something special and you should express it in one of my first paintings uh when I came back to the art was for her.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: Um the last time I went to her house, that was like how many years ago was that?
23:11
SPEAKER_01: That might have been like six or seven years ago.
23:14
SPEAKER_04: You know, I have no cast to tell you.
23:16
SPEAKER_04: It's been a long time.
23:17
SPEAKER_04: But it's been a while, it's been a while.
23:19
SPEAKER_01: Is it still hanging up in your house?
23:21
SPEAKER_04: It yes, it's still hanging up in the house.
23:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's on my fireplace.
23:25
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
23:26
SPEAKER_04: Cotton candy, yeah.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: Cotton candy, that's what we named her.
23:29
SPEAKER_01: It's a very colorful but beautiful picture.
23:31
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I've hence done some other things since then, and so um, and I'm still a class act.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: And I guess that's what Fanta saw in me, uh, because uh we had attended some events together.
23:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, come on, be a director.
23:51
SPEAKER_02: I'm a talented.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes.
23:55
SPEAKER_01: And um, I always always love people and I love to see people come together.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I also like the creative side of people too.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: And um when she approached me with this idea of a play, um, it shook me because I was like, I don't know, no, no play.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: She was like, uh-uh-uh, you got this.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: You got this.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: And uh, I remember telling her, I'm I'm definitely afraid to do this one now.
24:19
SPEAKER_01: This is gonna because it because the concept of it seemed big.
24:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:23
SPEAKER_01: Like I thought about stage, I thought about cameras and lights and everything that comes with it.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: And in a moment, and she said, That's how I want you to do it.
24:34
SPEAKER_01: You know the beautiful thing.
24:35
SPEAKER_04: That's right, do it afraid.
24:37
SPEAKER_04: Do it afraid.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: Do it afraid of productions, do it afraid of product.
24:40
SPEAKER_04: But it's also it also go back to Miss Hooker speaking about your students.
24:45
SPEAKER_04: People see things in us that we can't always immediately see.
24:49
SPEAKER_04: You know, because I remember Trace and I say, you know, Miss Hooker wants me to direct.
24:54
SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, oh wow.
24:56
SPEAKER_04: You know, we never talked about it.
24:58
SPEAKER_04: Like, and sometimes it's the thing that we never saw for ourselves that just like because I think you all did a beautiful job.
25:05
SPEAKER_04: You know, it's just like, why?
25:06
SPEAKER_04: You never would have looking at it, you know.
25:10
SPEAKER_04: I would think that you like people do, they jump in the water.
25:15
SPEAKER_04: But we talk about it a lot here on the podcast, imposter syndrome.
25:19
SPEAKER_04: And you talked about that one teacher that says something to you, and then it, you know what I'm saying?
25:23
SPEAKER_04: We have to do that brain exercise to like stay in it.
25:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but you know, but it happens, it happens.
25:29
SPEAKER_04: So it happens, I'm glad teachers can do a lot of damage, not just teachers, anybody, it could be somebody you love can do it.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: But I think God for you because um, first of all, he made you to be a teacher and a teacher that's deeply um enriched with culture.
25:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, and you've taught me a lot of things along this path that I have myself, and that's to just believe in what you already have.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: You already have everything that you need on this journey.
25:58
SPEAKER_03: Everything that's right.
26:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, and for for me to come and for a teacher to first, you know, tell me that I was talented when I was young, and then for me to meet you later in life and to find out that you were a teacher, and you was like, build on that.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, and so um, yeah, I'm at this point now where like it's time to it's time to build on it.
26:19
SPEAKER_01: And we built a beautiful thing together.
26:21
SPEAKER_01: We have.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we have yes, they have.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: It's great.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: It's a journey, I'm telling you.
26:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is definitely a journey.
26:28
SPEAKER_03: Yes, you're learning so many things along the way.
26:32
SPEAKER_03: And that's what you want to do.
26:33
SPEAKER_03: You want to be able to live your life where you're always learning, learning, yeah, yes, and doing things afraid and doing the stories.
26:42
SPEAKER_04: So to give you all a little backstory, Miss Hooker wrote her first play called A Blues for Mama.
26:48
SPEAKER_03: Well, not my first play.
26:49
SPEAKER_03: That's not your first one, no, that's my first play for adults.
26:53
SPEAKER_03: I used to write plays for children all the time.
26:55
SPEAKER_03: Okay, you know, all the holidays we used to do stuff.
26:58
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I didn't realize it.
26:59
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so speaking of creativity and a teacher, you are the first person to school me on Nina Simone.
27:06
SPEAKER_04: So if you don't know, this is a Nina Simone song.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, and I'm telling you, I think we all love a little bit of uh Nina Simone up in here.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm just gonna throw that out there.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: Um that's all that's all I had to say.
27:18
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so Miss Hooker is the one that not only did I have to listen, I had to really listen.
27:24
SPEAKER_04: Yes, because you would go through each song, it's like, oh dear, you know, like so.
27:29
SPEAKER_04: I because of you also I started listening to music differently.
27:34
SPEAKER_04: You know what I'm saying?
27:34
SPEAKER_04: So yeah, yeah, teacher is always a teacher.
27:36
SPEAKER_03: I'm telling you, we don't ever quit.
27:38
SPEAKER_03: We don't ever quit.
27:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and she was a tortured genius.
27:41
SPEAKER_03: Oh this is what I always say about her.
27:44
SPEAKER_03: Yes, you do, and I've met a tortured genius.
27:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
27:47
SPEAKER_03: My children's piano teacher was a tortured genius.
27:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and they are exceptional.
27:54
SPEAKER_03: Exceptional.
27:55
SPEAKER_03: She was exceptional because she never could rest with her talent.
28:00
SPEAKER_03: She was always reaching for that perfection.
28:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
28:03
SPEAKER_03: And people didn't understand it, that she was looking for something, like culturing, tortured genius.
28:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
28:10
SPEAKER_03: He's always searching for something, trying to make it, you know, what is the next level?
28:14
SPEAKER_03: What am I supposed to do with this?
28:15
SPEAKER_03: Miles Davis.
28:16
SPEAKER_03: Miles Davis.
28:18
SPEAKER_03: Particularly culturing because he's constantly, and you know, I get creative when I put his music on.
28:23
SPEAKER_03: That's how I get started.
28:24
SPEAKER_03: I had to put on culturing in the morning just to get started, because it's something about it.
28:31
SPEAKER_03: And I've heard other people say that too.
28:33
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
28:33
SPEAKER_03: That certain music ignites that in you that makes you want to be creative.
28:38
SPEAKER_03: It does.
28:38
SPEAKER_03: And I listen to other jazz and I listen to other music, of course, because I've started revisiting um Marvin Gay.
28:46
SPEAKER_03: Oh, tortured.
28:48
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, God, I forgot what about Mark Marvin Gay for the longest.
28:51
SPEAKER_03: That his music was also um transformative.
28:55
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
28:56
SPEAKER_03: You know, the way he would just hold notes and the way he would say words, it just made you feel like you're in heaven.
29:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
29:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
29:07
SPEAKER_03: This must be heaven.
29:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
29:08
SPEAKER_03: But anyway, it's it's the thing about Nina, she's called the Empress of Soul.
29:15
SPEAKER_03: You know, um, who am I thinking?
29:20
SPEAKER_03: That is the Queen of Soul.
29:21
SPEAKER_03: Aretha.
29:22
SPEAKER_03: Aretha is the Queen of Soul.
29:24
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
29:24
SPEAKER_03: But they call Nina the Empress of Soul because she took it so many different chances with her music.
29:34
SPEAKER_03: Like blues for mama.
29:36
SPEAKER_03: Blues for mama is really almost like a folk song.
29:39
SPEAKER_03: So she would sing folk songs, she would sing blues, she would sing jazz, she would run the whole gamut.
29:44
SPEAKER_03: Now Aretha did it too, but it was just something else.
29:48
SPEAKER_03: You could feel almost the pain in Nina's song.
29:52
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
29:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
29:53
SPEAKER_03: So that tortured part of her, never really finding what she wanted in her life and her music.
30:00
SPEAKER_03: And it just comes out in the feeling because she has a song about King, you know.
30:05
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
30:05
SPEAKER_03: You've heard the song about King.
30:07
SPEAKER_03: And uh she says, Don't you go fish in the day?
30:10
SPEAKER_03: She tells the young boy, Don't you go fishing?
30:12
SPEAKER_03: Because today is the day for Martin Luther King's funeral.
30:16
SPEAKER_03: And don't you dare go fishing.
30:18
SPEAKER_03: You know, this is a day that's supposed to be hollowed out.
30:22
SPEAKER_03: We're supposed to take time and think about what is come before that.
30:26
SPEAKER_03: So she was so, so deep.
30:28
SPEAKER_03: And then culturally speaking, she learned to speak um French.
30:32
SPEAKER_03: There's a whole community of Francophiles that just love Nina because she learned to speak the language.
30:39
SPEAKER_03: That was the difference between a lot of artists.
30:41
SPEAKER_03: When they went to France, they didn't necessarily worry about learning the language, but she did.
30:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
30:46
SPEAKER_03: You know, her song.
30:48
SPEAKER_03: Um I know the French, okay.
30:50
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
30:50
SPEAKER_03: Nina Key.
30:53
SPEAKER_03: Don't Don't Love Me.
30:54
SPEAKER_03: What is it?
30:55
SPEAKER_03: Nina Kum de Pa.
30:56
SPEAKER_03: I can't I can't remember name, but it's it's I shouldn't have said it because it's the wrong thing.
31:01
SPEAKER_03: It's okay.
31:02
SPEAKER_03: It's okay.
31:02
SPEAKER_03: But anyway, it's okay.
31:04
SPEAKER_03: It's a song that she sings in French.
31:06
SPEAKER_03: And I'm still trying to think of it.
31:09
SPEAKER_03: But she just really touched so many people internationally.
31:14
SPEAKER_03: That was where her strong suit was, because I think that she was like a messenger.
31:20
SPEAKER_03: She was trying to articulate what was going on in this country, particularly with us, yeah, to the world.
31:27
SPEAKER_03: And of course, some people accepted and some people didn't.
31:31
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
31:32
SPEAKER_03: So Nina just bear down on my mind when I was writing this because it's so so much of her her personality, I think, that I was trying to convey, you know.
31:44
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
31:45
SPEAKER_03: If you all picked up on the characters, some little tidbits of her personality.
31:50
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
31:51
SPEAKER_03: Kind of dropped in there.
31:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
31:53
SPEAKER_04: I can see that now.
31:55
SPEAKER_04: Like I see, yeah.
31:56
SPEAKER_04: Did you recognize that, Sean?
31:58
SPEAKER_01: I never thought about it like that.
31:59
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but now that she said it, yeah.
32:01
SPEAKER_01: I know like the overall, the overall play is her.
32:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: You know, because her music takes you from beginning to end.
32:09
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: It's definitely a journey.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: And how you even piece that together.
32:15
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely amazing.
32:17
SPEAKER_03: I I I was at a place where I needed to do that.
32:22
SPEAKER_03: Because my daughters had gone off to school.
32:23
SPEAKER_03: I tell everybody, my daughters went in.
32:25
SPEAKER_03: I said, they didn't even look back when they went off to school.
32:29
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
32:29
SPEAKER_03: I told her, I said, Well, y'all went off to school.
32:31
SPEAKER_03: It was like, okay, bye.
32:35
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, this big hollow space, this void, what am I gonna do with it?
32:40
SPEAKER_03: So I started writing again.
32:41
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
32:42
SPEAKER_03: And it proved to be something that really helped me out.
32:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
32:47
SPEAKER_03: And that's what writing does.
32:48
SPEAKER_03: I tell my students, keep a journal.
32:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
32:50
SPEAKER_03: Write down some stuff.
32:52
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
32:52
SPEAKER_03: You never know.
32:53
SPEAKER_03: You might be in a place where you need to write it out.
32:55
SPEAKER_03: And later on you come back and you look at it.
32:57
SPEAKER_03: You say, Oh, I wrote that.
32:59
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
33:00
SPEAKER_04: And sometimes when you write it, you feel better.
33:02
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
33:03
SPEAKER_04: You feel better.
33:03
SPEAKER_04: It's a release.
33:04
SPEAKER_04: It's therapeutic.
33:05
SPEAKER_04: Yes, very.
33:06
SPEAKER_04: And it's good to write it down too because what does the scripture say?
33:10
SPEAKER_04: Write it down, make it plain, make write the vision down, make it plain.
33:14
SPEAKER_04: You know, because I've I've started doing it.
33:16
SPEAKER_04: And then I start going back and I said, There it is.
33:20
SPEAKER_04: Because I wanted something, I wrote it down.
33:22
SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
33:23
SPEAKER_04: And you know, so writing is very, very powerful.
33:26
SPEAKER_04: So yeah, it's a great tool.
33:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:28
SPEAKER_01: And it's good to hear you say that thing about music too, where you said music is um um it plays with your mental.
33:36
SPEAKER_01: Because we know a lot, uh we've recently had a an issue.
33:40
SPEAKER_01: Well, not an issue.
33:41
SPEAKER_01: Oh, a debate.
33:42
SPEAKER_01: A debate.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: India I re had said something about music.
33:46
SPEAKER_03: India I read.
33:48
SPEAKER_03: What did she say?
33:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, about today's music and how we have to watch what we listen to because music taps into your taps into your soul.
33:56
SPEAKER_03: Yes, it does.
33:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:58
SPEAKER_01: It taps into your soul and it kind of you lean into what the music is saying because it sends your your inner self messages.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: You know, it kind of directs you.
34:07
SPEAKER_01: People are like, no, it's just music.
34:09
SPEAKER_01: It's never just anything.
34:10
SPEAKER_04: Anything.
34:11
SPEAKER_04: Anything.
34:12
SPEAKER_01: It's never just anything.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: And so to hear you say that uh cold train's music gets you creative.
34:20
SPEAKER_01: That's that's death because it you said it speaks it speaks to me in a in a creative type of way.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: In a creative type of way.
34:26
SPEAKER_04: So before your practices, do you play cold train?
34:29
SPEAKER_04: What music do you play before you go?
34:30
SPEAKER_03: I play giant steps, just not every day, at least in the mornings.
34:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
34:36
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes I have to play giant steps.
34:38
SPEAKER_03: And now, since I'm you know writing a new piece, I'm listening to Equinox because I'm trying to find the rhythm in that, you know, when it comes to how men use steel and twisted steel to become something that was useful because that whole era when black men was working with their hands and they made things out of steel and wood and stone.
35:05
SPEAKER_03: And Equinox, the beat in it, it really reminds you of somebody working in a shop where they're hammering out something.
35:16
SPEAKER_03: So I wanted to tap into that and see if I could find the words to to figure out what he might be trying to convey with that music.
35:25
SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, but you know, my favorite things, that song, all those songs resonate resonate with me.
35:33
SPEAKER_03: Naima, I just need to hear that music to get going.
35:38
SPEAKER_03: And it's it's I don't know, it's just something, something like that.
35:42
SPEAKER_03: Something in you, just it pulls it out.
35:45
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
35:46
SPEAKER_04: It is.
35:47
SPEAKER_04: How did you come up with the idea for your play?
35:49
SPEAKER_04: Like, was there something you thought about it and you couldn't stop thinking about it?
35:54
SPEAKER_04: Like, oh, let me write it.
35:55
SPEAKER_03: You know, I'm not the kind of writer that says what she wants to write, he wants to write.
36:01
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
36:02
SPEAKER_03: Something comes to me like a muse and just kind of says, write this.
36:07
SPEAKER_03: Because I got a whole bunch of stuff that I've written that I've never done to fruition.
36:13
SPEAKER_03: And that tells you about my personality that I just start something sometimes and I don't always finish it.
36:19
SPEAKER_03: Um because this was the one that this was the full-blown um adult play that I've done.
36:29
SPEAKER_03: I've done bits and pieces, this and that.
36:32
SPEAKER_03: But this is the first time I actually force myself to focus and do this to fruition.
36:39
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
36:39
SPEAKER_03: And I was happy about because it takes a discipline.
36:42
SPEAKER_03: Writing is a is a discipline.
36:44
SPEAKER_03: It's lonely.
36:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm sure.
36:46
SPEAKER_03: You're isolated with just your thoughts and you know, culture and music.
36:51
SPEAKER_03: And you're trying to come up with a concept, you're trying to verbalize this idea and put them to paper where people would understand what you're trying to say.
37:04
SPEAKER_03: So you have to think about the dialogue because playwriting is different from writing a novel.
37:10
SPEAKER_03: I am in the midst of finishing up my novel that I started probably 20 years ago or something.
37:15
SPEAKER_03: I need I got an editor now, so I'm gonna get somebody to edit it for me, my whole concept of how to teach.
37:21
SPEAKER_03: But the idea of writing, it will allow you to take out some of those parts of you that you may not think that is important or you didn't know you had, and you just say, Well, I'm gonna write it down.
37:38
SPEAKER_03: And when you come back to it, you say, Damn, I wrote that.
37:41
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, I had journals, I wrote that.
37:43
SPEAKER_03: Damn, she good.
37:44
SPEAKER_03: Who is that?
37:46
SPEAKER_03: It's it's like I don't even know myself.
37:48
SPEAKER_04: I think sometimes spirit takes over.
37:50
SPEAKER_04: Spirit takes over, spirit takes over.
37:52
SPEAKER_04: Because yeah, I I've done a few things and it's just like, oh, how it wasn't me.
37:56
SPEAKER_04: It wasn't me, it wasn't me.
37:58
SPEAKER_04: Have you felt there like in your paintings?
38:00
SPEAKER_04: Like, you know, it wasn't me.
38:01
SPEAKER_04: It wasn't me, you know, and I think I think that's a big lesson for creatives.
38:06
SPEAKER_04: Just let it be.
38:07
SPEAKER_04: Let it go.
38:08
SPEAKER_04: You got to you got to let yourself because it ain't me.
38:11
SPEAKER_04: It ain't me.
38:11
SPEAKER_04: It's never you, yeah.
38:13
SPEAKER_03: Even when I made clothing, it wasn't me.
38:16
SPEAKER_03: And people talk about my children.
38:18
SPEAKER_03: Oh, your children did this and did.
38:19
SPEAKER_03: That wasn't me.
38:20
SPEAKER_03: That wasn't me.
38:21
SPEAKER_03: No, I was in the room, but I had nothing to do with that.
38:25
SPEAKER_03: You got out of the way.
38:27
SPEAKER_03: I got out of the way.
38:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
38:28
SPEAKER_03: Even when I taught them, I got out of the way.
38:31
SPEAKER_03: I said, Oh, you want to do that?
38:32
SPEAKER_04: Do it, do it, do it, do it.
38:34
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I know it might be all over the place, but Miss Hooker just said something, and it made me think of you about because I'm guilty of this too.
38:42
SPEAKER_04: Starting to stop and starting to stop and you talked about your art.
38:46
SPEAKER_04: And but you did the poster for the play.
38:49
SPEAKER_04: So it was one of those things that you started and stopped, started to stop.
38:52
SPEAKER_01: She pushed it.
38:52
SPEAKER_04: But then you was like, you were like, I did a poster.
38:55
SPEAKER_04: I was like, I was so proud of you for that as well.
38:58
SPEAKER_04: And then, like, you sold t-shirts.
39:00
SPEAKER_04: This is why I had this t-shirt on.
39:02
SPEAKER_03: We love that painting.
39:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, somebody suggested a different plane.
39:06
SPEAKER_03: No, no, leave no one.
39:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I think they were trying to capture images from online.
39:13
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that what it means?
39:14
SPEAKER_01: And they was like, we were trying to capture it, we were trying to capture a certain image.
39:17
SPEAKER_01: That's what it was.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, no, uh, your son was like, uh, Imani was like, um, Sean, don't you paint?
39:26
SPEAKER_01: He was like, Sean, you paint.
39:28
SPEAKER_04: Uh-huh.
39:28
SPEAKER_01: It was like, well, you know, we don't have to go grab an image from anywhere if you can create something.
39:33
SPEAKER_04: And you never would have done that on your own.
39:35
SPEAKER_04: Never would have done it on my own.
39:36
SPEAKER_04: Again, it takes somebody to see it in you.
39:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
39:39
SPEAKER_04: For you to, you know, we do that for each other.
39:42
SPEAKER_03: It's just have to write it out.
39:44
SPEAKER_03: You have to put it to paper, you have to put your art out there.
39:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know.
39:47
SPEAKER_03: Because it's in you.
39:48
SPEAKER_03: We do.
39:49
SPEAKER_03: You don't want to choke on it.
39:51
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
39:52
SPEAKER_03: I this is an African saying if what is the app?
39:56
SPEAKER_03: How does the African saying that if you have a uh you cannot send away a gift that has been given to you.
40:05
SPEAKER_03: And I'm paraphrasing, but it will you will suffer because of it.
40:09
SPEAKER_03: You definitely suffer.
40:10
SPEAKER_03: If you've been given a gift, you can't send it back.
40:14
SPEAKER_03: The creator's giving you something.
40:16
SPEAKER_03: Can't otherwise you're gonna suffer.
40:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: And and I think that a lot of times we don't realize we have these gifts because we imposter syndrome kicks in, or we overthink what it is, or you know, like Sean said, you get deterred from, you know, something that somebody has told you, like, oh, you'll never make money off of that.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: Because I used to draw.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm a poet.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: I had a three-ring notebook that was an inch and a half full of poems, and I left it somewhere, and I did not write another poem for like two, three years.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: You know, and again, I used to draw all of my drawings from when I was a kid, I don't know where they are.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: You know, so uh the thing, yes, it's it's like we put these gifts in a bed of thorns and we don't realize that's what the uh the plant that's growing around this gift.
41:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and because we know this sticker bro bush is going to hurt.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, instead of just getting some snips and cutting around so we can get to this gift, what we end up doing is we're going in there to get that.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then we let these things get choked up and we let them die.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I had a pastor that used to say the most richest place on the planet is the graveyard.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: And I think about that a lot of times with all of the things that I can do, choose to do, and choose not to do, right?
41:48
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't want to be in front of a camera yet.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: Well, not today, yet, you know, here we are 60 something episodes into this podcast.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: We've been doing this over a year.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: We have a um a partnership with the microphones that you uh y'all are using.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: Mono.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: Mono.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to them too.
42:08
SPEAKER_00: But you know, you never know where your gift can take you.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: And I'm done.
42:17
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
42:18
SPEAKER_03: That is true.
42:19
SPEAKER_03: So he can't be afraid of it.
42:20
SPEAKER_04: He cannot be afraid of it.
42:22
SPEAKER_03: You cannot.
42:23
SPEAKER_03: If you are, just do it anyway.
42:24
SPEAKER_04: Do it anyway, and you know, that's what the photography has done for me.
42:27
SPEAKER_04: And you know, because I'm that person, you know, the fish turns, I will start and stop.
42:32
SPEAKER_04: So with photography, I promised myself I wouldn't do that, and then they won't let me do it either.
42:37
SPEAKER_04: And I'm gonna tell you something else.
42:38
SPEAKER_04: And this one won't let me do it.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell you something else about that, too.
42:42
SPEAKER_01: What I've learned in your talents and your gifts that I've learned in church as well.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, is that your talents and your gifts, they really ain't for you.
42:55
SPEAKER_01: No, no, you're so bright.
42:58
SPEAKER_03: No, they're really not for you.
43:00
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you use them, they're yours.
43:03
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
43:03
SPEAKER_01: But they are given to you because it's your gift to give to someone else, that's right.
43:10
SPEAKER_01: And when you and when what I've learned for myself, and when I stop doing what I'm birthed to do, yeah, that chokes somebody else.
43:18
SPEAKER_03: That chokes people up.
43:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it does.
43:22
SPEAKER_01: Imagine if you would have, if you would have put this play down and never would have wrote it, how many lives has it affect what you're writing it?
43:30
SPEAKER_01: How many lives would you have not touched?
43:32
SPEAKER_03: I tell you, outcasts, they are such wonderful, and I've never worked with this many women.
43:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
43:39
SPEAKER_03: And to be in the company of these women, it's like heaven.
43:45
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
43:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
43:48
SPEAKER_03: It's it's so much gratitude there.
43:50
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, wow.
43:52
SPEAKER_03: Because you can see how they care and love one another.
43:55
SPEAKER_03: And they get mad, like we were saying, when they're not together.
43:58
SPEAKER_02: They get mad, they get mad.
44:00
SPEAKER_03: Figure out well, what can I do to get us together?
44:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
44:03
SPEAKER_03: Two of them just took a trip and they went to Tennessee together, and they said they had such a great time.
44:10
SPEAKER_03: Total strangers.
44:11
SPEAKER_04: And that's another thing.
44:12
SPEAKER_04: I'ma add on to what you just said.
44:14
SPEAKER_04: Your gifts will also make room for you.
44:16
SPEAKER_04: So you made room, you made a beautiful environment for your cast where everybody wants to be together.
44:22
SPEAKER_04: You all eat together.
44:23
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
44:24
SPEAKER_04: You know what I'm saying?
44:24
SPEAKER_04: I well, you know, here I say we have a nice warm atmosphere, but not many places.
44:31
SPEAKER_04: You know what I'm saying?
44:32
SPEAKER_04: And then and I don't want to stereotype.
44:34
SPEAKER_04: And especially with women, a lot of women, a lot of different personalities, even if it was men.
44:39
SPEAKER_04: You know what I'm saying?
44:40
SPEAKER_04: So your gifts made room for you.
44:41
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
44:42
SPEAKER_04: You know, and not only that, your first play was in Charlotte.
44:45
SPEAKER_01: Sold out.
44:46
SPEAKER_04: Sold out in Charlotte.
44:48
SPEAKER_04: Oh, it was amazing.
44:50
SPEAKER_04: Uptown Charlotte.
44:51
SPEAKER_04: Uptown.
44:52
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
44:52
SPEAKER_04: Uptown Charlotte.
44:53
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
44:53
SPEAKER_04: Sold out.
44:54
SPEAKER_04: Sold out.
44:55
SPEAKER_04: The second one went to South Carolina.
44:57
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
44:57
SPEAKER_01: Florence.
44:58
SPEAKER_04: Florence, South Carolina.
44:59
SPEAKER_04: And the third one I want you all to come to.
45:02
SPEAKER_04: That will be in Matthews, North Carolina.
45:05
SPEAKER_04: Matthews, North Carolina.
45:07
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
45:07
SPEAKER_04: What's the day?
45:08
SPEAKER_04: August the 9th.
45:10
SPEAKER_01: Yes, at six o'clock.
45:11
SPEAKER_04: At six o'clock.
45:12
SPEAKER_01: Don't meet us there.
45:13
SPEAKER_04: Right.
45:14
SPEAKER_04: Meet us there.
45:15
SPEAKER_04: So is there a website?
45:17
SPEAKER_01: There is a website.
45:18
SPEAKER_01: The website.
45:20
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to name off everything.
45:21
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
45:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
45:22
SPEAKER_01: Just make sure I don't forget you don't be everywhere.
45:25
SPEAKER_01: It's blues for mama.com.
45:27
SPEAKER_01: If you go there, um, we have news that's going to come.
45:30
SPEAKER_01: You can buy tickets off of there.
45:32
SPEAKER_01: You can get a breakdown of all the characters there.
45:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah and see what awesome things we have coming to you soon.
45:37
SPEAKER_01: Um, we also have a Instagram page.
45:40
SPEAKER_01: It's blues, the number four mama play.
45:43
SPEAKER_01: Blues the number four mama play.
45:46
SPEAKER_01: Um, and that is on Instagram.
45:48
SPEAKER_01: You can follow us for all of our live actions, some clips of the play as well.
45:53
SPEAKER_01: We also have a um Facebook page as well, Blues for Mama.
45:57
SPEAKER_04: So and I don't think we talked about it.
45:59
SPEAKER_04: Can you all give me a little synopsis of the play without giving away too much?
46:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, you know, I wrote the play because I was missing my daughters when they went off to school.
46:09
SPEAKER_03: And I was missing my sisters because the play is loosely about my sisters.
46:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
46:16
SPEAKER_03: And uh five other sisters are depicted in the play.
46:21
SPEAKER_03: So I thought about them because one of my sisters, she keeps saying, Which one, which one am I?
46:26
SPEAKER_03: Which one am I?
46:27
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, well, you gotta figure it out.
46:29
SPEAKER_03: So it was, I took little pieces, tidbits of their personality, my own personality, and I mixed it up together and came out with these characters, you know, yeah, and developed these characters because of this.
46:43
SPEAKER_03: Is I guess this is who I saw in my vision.
46:47
SPEAKER_03: These are the people that I saw, and I wanted to depict them on stage and have people enjoy the little nuances when it came to their character.
46:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
46:59
SPEAKER_03: So Blues by Mama is like a compilation of personalities where we try to negotiate with the mother, and the mother is going through her trials and tribulations because she wants to control her children, even though her children are adults.
47:14
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, she still has to say so with them.
47:17
SPEAKER_03: Um, most of them don't like it.
47:19
SPEAKER_03: They don't want mama interfering like that, particularly without giving away too much.
47:24
SPEAKER_03: One of the daughters that live with mama, she was the one that's really adamant about mama, you taking over my life.
47:32
SPEAKER_03: And also what some families have to go through when it comes to mental illness or mental health, as my daughter should said, I should say, mental health.
47:42
SPEAKER_03: That some of us are really going through some challenges.
47:45
SPEAKER_03: And in the family, oftentimes we don't directly address those issues.
47:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we kind of let them sit and fester over the years.
47:53
SPEAKER_03: And this is what happened to one of the daughters that the mental health, mental challenges that she had as a young person just festered over the years, and now it has come to the place where it's intolerable.
48:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that mama can't tolerate this anymore, and we have to do something about this.
48:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
48:13
SPEAKER_04: Would you want you want to aid?
48:15
SPEAKER_04: Lose for mama, August 9th.
48:18
SPEAKER_01: Matthew's Playhouse, meet us there.
48:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
48:21
SPEAKER_01: Um, but yes, um, beautiful story, well written.
48:26
SPEAKER_01: Very um, beautiful actress.
48:28
SPEAKER_01: I remember when we did our um um when we did our casting call.
48:35
SPEAKER_01: We did our casting call, um, little to none promotions.
48:40
SPEAKER_04: Yes, yeah.
48:41
SPEAKER_01: But the people that it touched, it touched.
48:43
SPEAKER_01: And uh everyone that came um to our casting call, they said, This is about me.
48:51
SPEAKER_01: This is about me.
48:52
SPEAKER_01: Oh, really?
48:53
SPEAKER_03: Yes, they still say it.
48:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they say they don't know how I did it, yeah, but this character speaks to me.
49:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
49:03
SPEAKER_01: This character speaks to me, and the glory of it is uh a lot of our viewers and followers um love the characters because they feel the same way.
49:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
49:15
SPEAKER_01: She asked me one time, Fanta asked you one time, you think it's outdated?
49:19
SPEAKER_01: You think people don't do stuff things like this no more?
49:23
SPEAKER_01: I said, uh-uh, these people still alive.
49:25
SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, love and oil.
49:28
SPEAKER_01: Still alive and roaming the streets, yeah.
49:31
SPEAKER_01: And so um, I bet you if you ask a lot of family members and people that you know, um, everybody has a coop.
49:39
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
49:40
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has a coop situation.
49:41
SPEAKER_01: It can be a male, you know.
49:43
SPEAKER_01: In my family, we had a male that was a coop situation.
49:47
SPEAKER_01: And um, everybody has a divine of that person in the family that thinks they're high and minded.
49:53
SPEAKER_01: Real real flighty, but also spiritual.
49:56
SPEAKER_03: Spiritual.
49:57
SPEAKER_01: Very spiritual and always talking about um always talking about the astrology or into myths and all these things.
50:06
SPEAKER_01: And everybody has a uh um name another one.
50:10
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has a um a um what's the oh Afrocentric.
50:14
SPEAKER_01: Afrocentric.
50:15
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
50:15
SPEAKER_01: That's deeply rooted in culture.
50:17
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
50:18
SPEAKER_01: And the way the thing, in the way mom did things or the way things have been going for a long time.
50:23
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has that aunt, a cousin that's hot, that that sits, puts herself on a pedestal and thinks she's the richest auntie.
50:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, type of thing.
50:30
SPEAKER_01: So there's that, and then we also have that cousin that's always looking for love.
50:34
SPEAKER_01: Yes, there's one of those characters in there, and so um, these characters transcend over time.
50:42
SPEAKER_01: It does absolutely you know, as far as we try to separate what it makes me realize is as far as we try to separate ourselves from the past, we're still there.
50:50
SPEAKER_01: We're still here, we're still here, we're still there.
50:53
SPEAKER_01: Um and that's the art of bringing everything back together, yes, yeah, yeah.
50:58
SPEAKER_01: And it's a way of communicating to one another as well, you know?
51:02
SPEAKER_03: Truly.
51:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a way of communicating to each other as well.
51:06
SPEAKER_01: And it goes back to what you were saying about the coot uh situation, it's not only coot has problems.
51:14
SPEAKER_01: No, all of us have problems.
51:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that's what families do a lot of time because that person's problems can be seen.
51:23
SPEAKER_04: It's louder, right?
51:25
SPEAKER_03: It's louder, it's overwhelming.
51:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's the person that you want to put behind the door, shut the door behind or say they need help.
51:34
SPEAKER_03: But then someone was saying today that they had someone in their family that was challenged.
51:39
SPEAKER_03: And I think uh Lisa was saying that, and that you didn't go down that hall.
51:45
SPEAKER_03: You knew that you don't go down there and bother that person.
51:48
SPEAKER_03: That's right, yeah.
51:49
SPEAKER_03: So I had an uncle like that too.
51:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
51:51
SPEAKER_03: And we knew how far to go with him because he was a sociopath before people even started talking about what that is.
52:00
SPEAKER_03: And his behavior points to that.
52:02
SPEAKER_03: And I said, Oh, we was a social path.
52:04
SPEAKER_03: God, I grew up like that.
52:06
SPEAKER_03: So they were part of the community, they permeated the community.
52:11
SPEAKER_03: We knew who to not to go too far with.
52:14
SPEAKER_03: We knew as children.
52:15
SPEAKER_03: We grew up missing, can't may not bother him.
52:17
SPEAKER_03: You know, you're gonna go off.
52:20
SPEAKER_04: So I remember being young and people saying, There's nothing wrong with them.
52:25
SPEAKER_04: That's just the devil.
52:27
SPEAKER_04: So for a long time, I've seen them put the mental health illness on the devil, but as you know, instead of them like facing the facts, facing the facts.
52:35
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, nobody wanting to face the facts.
52:37
SPEAKER_03: So I think it's too painful.
52:39
SPEAKER_03: It is, it's too painful to face reality.
52:41
SPEAKER_04: It is, it is, it is.
52:44
SPEAKER_04: I think it's painful to face it, and it's painful to ignore it.
52:48
SPEAKER_03: Well, that's what the new agenda millennials are saying that now that we ignored a lot of things, and so now it's coming to the place where you can't ignore it anymore.
52:58
SPEAKER_03: That's true, and I'm like, probably some truth in that, but I think you all look at too much stuff.
53:07
SPEAKER_04: No, we're healing out loud too.
53:09
SPEAKER_04: I think we're okay, I think they are okay with healing and speaking what it is, you know, whereas before you don't talk about this business that's in the house and you know, I don't think there's a wrong way, it was just different ways.
53:24
SPEAKER_03: I'm not saying it's wrong, it's just like it's different, it's different, it's different, and it's a lot for me to take in.
53:31
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, do we really need to talk about everything?
53:34
SPEAKER_03: You know, like some people get on Facebook and they talk about everything.
53:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
53:39
SPEAKER_03: Do you really need to tell us everything about you?
53:41
SPEAKER_01: We're living in a time where the gloves are off.
53:43
SPEAKER_01: Really?
53:44
SPEAKER_01: The gloves are clearly.
53:45
SPEAKER_03: The diaries are out loud.
53:47
SPEAKER_03: The diaries are no longer private.
53:49
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
53:49
SPEAKER_03: But what does that do to the person to just empty themselves that way?
53:55
SPEAKER_01: I think it's a it's a it can be a two-sided thing.
53:58
SPEAKER_01: You know, sometimes when you put people out there, um, they feel like, oh my gosh, I'm naked.
54:04
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
54:05
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm naked and nobody's gonna close me.
54:07
SPEAKER_01: I don't have anything to put on.
54:08
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
54:09
SPEAKER_01: There's a different part of that where people are, you know, um living out loud now because they feel like they have a shelter, they feel like they have a community.
54:19
SPEAKER_01: As as in though back in back before my time or when I was young, if you put yourself out there, you was out in the streets or living at somebody else's house.
54:28
SPEAKER_01: That's true, yes.
54:29
SPEAKER_01: That's true.
54:30
SPEAKER_03: Because it really was too much.
54:32
SPEAKER_03: And like one of my students, I think it might have been Donesha, I'm not sure.
54:35
SPEAKER_03: They said, well, we don't have a movement, a civil rights movement that can concretize all of what we want to do.
54:47
SPEAKER_03: So you turn to social media as an outlet rather than trying to galvanize the community and creating communities so that you can do some of the things that you would prefer doing.
55:00
SPEAKER_03: So you just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk all this stuff.
55:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
55:03
SPEAKER_03: And you don't put things really in action.
55:06
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
55:07
SPEAKER_03: So and I'm just, you know, from my perspective, it's not necessarily right or wrong.
55:12
SPEAKER_03: I don't know, I'm probably wrong.
55:14
SPEAKER_03: No, I don't think so.
55:15
SPEAKER_04: There's some truth to it in my life.
55:17
SPEAKER_03: So why not again?
55:19
SPEAKER_03: But just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, and no action.
55:24
SPEAKER_03: That has always been something that I've steered away from.
55:28
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
55:29
SPEAKER_04: I think I've seen some people, they just talk, and I've seen people create community out of the need, you know, like they needed something and they created something big and it took off.
55:42
SPEAKER_03: Well, that's wonderful.
55:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's what we should be doing without communication.
55:46
SPEAKER_03: But if you just want to talk about your stuff, what's going on with you?
55:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, does it help other people?
55:54
SPEAKER_03: Maybe.
55:54
SPEAKER_03: They can identify with it, huh?
55:56
SPEAKER_00: They can.
55:56
SPEAKER_03: Different times.
55:58
SPEAKER_00: That is part of that uh community building.
56:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, you never know who else is going through something until you put it out there, right?
56:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
56:07
SPEAKER_00: So you you're putting this out there in a sense of, hey, I know I'm not the only one.
56:13
SPEAKER_00: Where's my community?
56:14
SPEAKER_00: Where are my people?
56:16
SPEAKER_00: What what where are we at?
56:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, and then that turns into a Facebook group.
56:21
SPEAKER_00: Now it turns into a nonprofit organization or you know, just these people that collectively get together and go out.
56:29
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, one of the things for me, I grew up outside.
56:32
SPEAKER_00: You know, you didn't come in the house until right when the street lights started flickering.
56:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes we were still outside even after the street lights was off.
56:41
SPEAKER_00: You know, but as I got older, you know, my generation, we got we grew with technology.
56:49
SPEAKER_00: So we seen the rotary phones all the way to the smartphones.
56:53
SPEAKER_00: Now, all of that to say we've also seen video games, you know, go from us sitting in the same house playing to you don't have to come to my house.
57:04
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
57:04
SPEAKER_00: Now we can play online.
57:06
SPEAKER_00: And you know, we um me and my brother, we took the wives, took my wife and her sister, we took them to Vegas.
57:14
SPEAKER_00: And while we were in Vegas, we met up with one of the guys that we used to play Xbox with just because he saw us post.
57:21
SPEAKER_00: He's like, hey, I'm here.
57:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm literally right down the street from where y'all are.
57:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, so it is again, it's building community.
57:31
SPEAKER_00: Some people they feel they don't have community, quote unquote, at home.
57:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I mean at home, like, you know, your city, because sometimes you don't know how to go out and look for those people.
57:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't walk up to someone be like, hey, I'm dealing with mental health.
57:46
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
57:47
SPEAKER_00: Yes, okay, great, let's talk.
57:50
SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't you don't jump like that, you know, or hey, I like them shoes.
57:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh are you a sneakerhead?
57:57
SPEAKER_00: You know, we create a group on Facebook and we tell people about it.
58:01
SPEAKER_00: You know, we create these communities by saying, hey, I'm here and I know I'm not the only one.
58:07
SPEAKER_00: Who else is with me?
58:10
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
58:11
SPEAKER_03: I just see what you're saying, and I agree with that wholeheartedly.
58:15
SPEAKER_03: It makes a lot of sense.
58:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
58:17
SPEAKER_03: Because I just had a conversation with someone, and he was really adamant about social media not fulfilling the needs of community, as you say, that it has caused a lag in our development intellectually, because he thinks that because of social media, we don't read as much.
58:41
SPEAKER_03: And I said to him, I said, well, they do read in social media, they read posts, they read all of that.
58:46
SPEAKER_03: So they are reading, but he mentioned something about content that is not literary because that's who he is.
58:55
SPEAKER_03: He's a literary guy.
58:57
SPEAKER_03: So he wants people to read more of the novels and literature and all of that.
59:05
SPEAKER_03: And I guess, like you're saying, you create community by speaking to these things.
59:10
SPEAKER_03: But I'm coming from a time where you did more inner development.
59:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
59:16
SPEAKER_03: You read novels, yeah.
59:18
SPEAKER_03: You sat back and thought about it, you did book reports.
59:21
SPEAKER_03: What is a book report to people nowadays?
59:23
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
59:23
SPEAKER_03: We did book reports, we had to write term papers.
59:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
59:28
SPEAKER_03: So that part is what he was addressing, that they don't do the research, they don't do the reading.
59:36
SPEAKER_03: And I and I have to admit, now I don't read as much.
59:39
SPEAKER_03: I listen, I do audio books a lot.
59:41
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
59:41
SPEAKER_03: That's true.
59:42
SPEAKER_03: But books one time was so much comfort.
59:46
SPEAKER_03: I guess social media has taken the place of reading in that sense.
59:52
SPEAKER_03: That's what he puts forth.
59:54
SPEAKER_03: But what does that do to the population?
59:57
SPEAKER_03: Are we now anti-intellectual?
1:00:01
SPEAKER_00: I guess it depends on what you're watching and and how you proceed.
1:00:05
SPEAKER_03: This is what he's suggesting.
1:00:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:00:07
SPEAKER_03: That we have went down to the abyss and now we're anti-intellectual because you're not developing those thinking skills, those critical thinking skills, that you're pretty much just being persuaded, like what is it?
1:00:22
SPEAKER_03: Influencers are telling you what to think and how to be.
1:00:28
SPEAKER_03: We don't do that thinking, that process.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_03: And that was the best compliment my children ever gave me.
1:00:35
SPEAKER_03: They said, mom, you taught us to think.
1:00:37
SPEAKER_03: Bless you.
1:00:38
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
1:00:39
SPEAKER_03: You taught me to think.
1:00:40
SPEAKER_03: They are thinkers.
1:00:41
SPEAKER_03: They are.
1:00:42
SPEAKER_03: And and I'm I'm like, you can't, you can't put it, I there's no better compliment.
1:00:47
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's good.
1:00:48
SPEAKER_03: That you've you've taught me to be analytical, and everybody's not analytical.
1:00:51
SPEAKER_03: Like I said, there's multiple intelligences, and you can learn through your hands when you're packing when you're painting.
1:00:57
SPEAKER_03: Your hands can convey.
1:00:59
SPEAKER_03: But he's he's an intellectual guy, so he's thinking, if they don't read, they don't research, they don't, then then they're not gonna be as as as literate.
1:01:08
SPEAKER_03: They're not gonna be as I don't know if that's true.
1:01:12
SPEAKER_03: A lot of times for me to get my creative juices going, like I said with cold training, sometimes I have to sew.
1:01:20
SPEAKER_03: I have to make something.
1:01:23
SPEAKER_03: And if I make an outfit, sometimes it transcends and I can now go right.
1:01:29
SPEAKER_03: So all those vehicles to me are necessary.
1:01:33
SPEAKER_03: It's no one thing.
1:01:35
SPEAKER_03: It's just that I guess social media has become so loud and so prominent that it's taken the floor where everybody else is sitting back.
1:01:44
SPEAKER_03: The people from my generation or his generation or the thought generation is sit back looking and like, why are these people doing all this talking?
1:01:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
1:01:53
SPEAKER_01: I think people are taking um social media for what it is, and sometimes it does sorry, sometimes it does require you to think.
1:02:01
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:02:02
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it does require you to think.
1:02:03
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I go in the comments a lot, and so I'm reading.
1:02:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm reading.
1:02:08
SPEAKER_01: I know a lot of people are comp they like they like they get they get their following from being extreme commenters because they're writing whatever to make this topic bigger than what it is, or doing going back and doing back research to tell you, oh, this is why this happened, yeah, and things of that nature.
1:02:25
SPEAKER_01: I think people are learning in a different type of way now.
1:02:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:02:30
SPEAKER_01: It's definitely not the time where we don't have internet, we don't have social media, so you're forced to read the newspaper.
1:02:36
SPEAKER_04: Encyclopedias.
1:02:37
SPEAKER_04: Encyclopedias.
1:02:38
SPEAKER_01: Go search for some real stuff in a book, crack open a book.
1:02:42
SPEAKER_01: But just to say that we have more influencers now and people that are online and internet does not mean people are not not doing.
1:02:52
SPEAKER_01: Because I see a lot of people that have created, still create in book groups.
1:02:56
SPEAKER_01: I have friends that are avid readers, avid readers.
1:02:59
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, tell me about it.
1:03:01
SPEAKER_01: Tell me about the movie because I don't want to read it.
1:03:02
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a reader at all.
1:03:04
SPEAKER_01: If you want to hide something from me, definitely put it in a book.
1:03:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, but um, I know how I know how to read for myself, though.
1:03:12
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
1:03:12
SPEAKER_01: And so I think there's still a community in which loves to read and do those type of things.
1:03:17
SPEAKER_01: I think it's just being done a different type of way these days.
1:03:19
SPEAKER_03: Well, his point was that they're not doing the critical part.
1:03:24
SPEAKER_03: I get that.
1:03:25
SPEAKER_03: You know, to sit with to sit with it, they just not have somebody else tell you what to think, but to sit and think for yourself.
1:03:33
SPEAKER_03: And and that's a skill, that's something that maybe people don't feel comfortable.
1:03:38
SPEAKER_03: I have a friend she tells, I don't feel comfortable, you know, giving you.
1:03:42
SPEAKER_00: I know when it comes to the whole critical thinking part, right?
1:03:47
SPEAKER_00: That's also something that can be and needs to be taught as these kids are getting older.
1:03:52
SPEAKER_00: Like my kids will ask me something, and I will literally just sit there and say, Well, what do you think?
1:03:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do you feel about it?
1:04:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, what are your thoughts on it?
1:04:02
SPEAKER_00: And then I'll say, Go do some research and come back and let me know what you found.
1:04:07
SPEAKER_00: Because if you really want to learn something, you really want to know something, Chat GPT ain't got all the answer, sway.
1:04:15
SPEAKER_00: You know, you you have to do some research.
1:04:17
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying don't use Chat GPT, but don't make Chat GPT your brain.
1:04:23
SPEAKER_00: That's right, you know.
1:04:25
SPEAKER_00: You you have to learn.
1:04:28
SPEAKER_00: And again, you know, the the whole critical thing, sometimes you have to teach that.
1:04:34
SPEAKER_00: And and that's something that has to be taught early so that while this brain is developing, these kids and become adults, and they're not like, well, uh, let me see what Chat GPT say.
1:04:46
SPEAKER_00: Like there's like a whole commercial or skit where it's like the guy goes in for the interview.
1:04:51
SPEAKER_00: He's like, So, how's it going?
1:04:53
SPEAKER_00: And he freezes, like, oh my God, I wasn't prepared for that question.
1:04:56
SPEAKER_00: So he pulls out his phone as he's sitting down, he's like, he just asked me, How am I how's my day?
1:05:00
SPEAKER_00: What do I say?
1:05:01
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Oh, my day is going very well, whatever, whatever, whatever.
1:05:04
SPEAKER_00: And then the interview, he's like, Oh my God, Chat GBT didn't prepare me for that answer.
1:05:09
SPEAKER_00: So he's on his phone, chat, uh, what am he just answered this way?
1:05:13
SPEAKER_00: What am I supposed to say?
1:05:14
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, is that really what we're going to?
1:05:17
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, to an extent, yes, it is.
1:05:19
SPEAKER_00: There are way more AI platforms right now that are teaching you how to do all these things that are thinking for you, that are running your business, they're doing all these different things.
1:05:32
SPEAKER_00: But we have to sit and say, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's dial it back.
1:05:36
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
1:05:37
SPEAKER_00: What does your brain tell you?
1:05:39
SPEAKER_00: What are you really thinking?
1:05:40
SPEAKER_00: I need you to think through this process before you just go straight to Chat GPT.
1:05:45
SPEAKER_00: Again, that's how I end with my kids.
1:05:47
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:05:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:05:49
SPEAKER_01: I think so.
1:05:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think so too.
1:05:51
SPEAKER_03: But then then there's another aspect of it.
1:05:54
SPEAKER_03: Because it's one thing to say critical thinking.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_03: And you can be a critical thinker.
1:06:01
SPEAKER_03: You can look at things very deeply.
1:06:05
SPEAKER_03: Um but from the perspective of teaching, how do you do that?
1:06:12
SPEAKER_03: Because you have to actually give the tools that's necessary for you to do that kind of cr critical thinking.
1:06:20
SPEAKER_03: It's not enough to say, go do think the way you think, go research.
1:06:24
SPEAKER_03: It's not enough to do that.
1:06:25
SPEAKER_03: And it's a thing called perspective.
1:06:29
SPEAKER_03: I can look at something, you can look at the same thing, you can look at it, and you'll have four, we'll have four different perspectives.
1:06:38
SPEAKER_03: So which perspective is really the correct one?
1:06:44
SPEAKER_03: And I use the word correct loosely because I know the first thing you would say, well, there's no right or wrong.
1:06:51
SPEAKER_03: One time we thought there was a right or wrong.
1:06:56
SPEAKER_03: Nowadays it's relative.
1:06:59
SPEAKER_03: Right is relative, wrong is relative.
1:07:02
SPEAKER_03: You know, alternative thinking.
1:07:07
SPEAKER_03: So we have a platform now where everything is alternative.
1:07:12
SPEAKER_03: Oh, you can just reach into a bag of cornucopia and pull out whatever you think is right.
1:07:18
SPEAKER_03: Okay, that's right.
1:07:19
SPEAKER_03: That's right, that's right, that's right.
1:07:22
SPEAKER_03: Everything's right nowadays, it's no wrong.
1:07:27
SPEAKER_03: What does that do to the brain?
1:07:30
SPEAKER_03: When the brain doesn't really sit with anything and have a perspective, that we can just do anything, say anything.
1:07:39
SPEAKER_03: Like one a young lady told a student actually said that now there's a thing where you can identify as a cat.
1:07:51
SPEAKER_03: And said it was a student in her class that identified as a cat.
1:07:55
SPEAKER_03: Yes, wow.
1:07:57
SPEAKER_03: So you said that's okay, you can do that.
1:08:01
SPEAKER_03: You can be a cat.
1:08:04
SPEAKER_03: And people prop that up.
1:08:06
SPEAKER_03: They give you the tools to be a cat, they put a thing on the floor in the classroom and let you go over there and use the the scratch post, all of that.
1:08:17
SPEAKER_03: So where does this end if everything is right and there's no wrong?
1:08:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:08:21
SPEAKER_03: And if I want to identify as a snake, I can do that.
1:08:25
SPEAKER_03: Or a bear.
1:08:27
SPEAKER_03: Or uh what?
1:08:28
SPEAKER_03: A tiger.
1:08:29
SPEAKER_03: I can say I'm a tiger.
1:08:31
SPEAKER_03: Or a tree.
1:08:32
SPEAKER_03: Or a tree.
1:08:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, not the tree.
1:08:35
SPEAKER_03: So where's the limit to all of this?
1:08:39
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:08:41
SPEAKER_04: I don't know, Miss Hooker.
1:08:43
SPEAKER_04: No, no.
1:08:44
SPEAKER_04: We're living in different times.
1:08:46
SPEAKER_00: That's definitely a good question, though.
1:08:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is.
1:08:49
SPEAKER_00: As a thinker.
1:08:50
SPEAKER_03: That is.
1:08:51
SPEAKER_03: I I just wonder, even with my grandchildren, and they have a lot of um freedom to express themselves.
1:09:01
SPEAKER_03: But then where's the parameters?
1:09:02
SPEAKER_03: Where do we say, oh, you gone too far?
1:09:05
SPEAKER_03: This is not what I'm raising you to be.
1:09:09
SPEAKER_03: Do we do we have a culture?
1:09:11
SPEAKER_03: Do we have a way of like car or your bar?
1:09:16
SPEAKER_03: Do we say that this is how we're supposed to be as black people?
1:09:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:09:20
SPEAKER_03: Or anything goes.
1:09:24
SPEAKER_03: We're not trying to be Afrocentric or uh conscious people.
1:09:29
SPEAKER_03: We're just saying it doesn't matter.
1:09:34
SPEAKER_03: I'm just I'm I'm right now I'm an observer.
1:09:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm a these are some really deep questions.
1:09:40
SPEAKER_00: They are like and what I want everybody to do that is watching right now.
1:09:46
SPEAKER_00: If you have a a comment or a response to any of those questions that have just been proposed, please leave your comment down below.
1:09:56
SPEAKER_00: Let us know which question you're answering, and let us know what your answer is.
1:10:01
SPEAKER_00: How do you feel?
1:10:02
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:10:03
SPEAKER_00: We just want to know.
1:10:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:10:06
SPEAKER_03: Well is there a cognitive disconnect?
1:10:10
SPEAKER_03: Can you get so to the point where your thinking is not based in reality?
1:10:17
SPEAKER_03: It's a disconnect there.
1:10:20
SPEAKER_03: Okay, sure.
1:10:23
SPEAKER_01: Has creativity is cre has creativity went too far?
1:10:27
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
1:10:28
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
1:10:29
SPEAKER_03: I honor those questions.
1:10:31
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
1:10:32
SPEAKER_03: I don't know where we're going in the future.
1:10:35
SPEAKER_03: Maybe it's necessary for us to do this.
1:10:37
SPEAKER_04: Well, I will say in the future, we are going to see a blues for mama and Matthew.
1:10:41
SPEAKER_04: We are definitely going to see August 9th.
1:10:43
SPEAKER_04: August 9th.
1:10:44
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
1:10:44
SPEAKER_01: Booth Playhouse.
1:10:46
SPEAKER_04: And I do appreciate you all for coming.
1:10:48
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:10:49
SPEAKER_04: And I just want you to both um uh what seed out I want both of you to give, what seeds would you like to plant for a creative?
1:11:00
SPEAKER_03: Say that another way.
1:11:02
SPEAKER_04: I know.
1:11:03
SPEAKER_00: So what if there was anything that you could say to the generation that's coming behind us or anything to any creative, what is one important thing that you would want them to know uh after watching this episode?
1:11:22
SPEAKER_03: Be yourself.
1:11:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a say that one more guy.
1:11:25
SPEAKER_00: Be yourself.
1:11:26
SPEAKER_00: I know I didn't use proper English, but yes.
1:11:30
SPEAKER_01: I got one thing.
1:11:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, I was in a conversation today with a lawyer, and he inherited some land, and he had found out some of the land had already been um been farmed by another family member, and she was getting paid off of whoever was farming this land.
1:11:48
SPEAKER_01: And so um he's a lawyer, so he knows all the laws, and he's he's going around searching for other farmers.
1:11:53
SPEAKER_01: So he's he had to evict the other farmers, and he was going around trying to find other farmers to farm what they had left behind.
1:12:00
SPEAKER_01: And he said the answer he got from the um local farmers is why would you find somebody else to farm your land when you can do it yourself?
1:12:12
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm not a farmer, I'm a lawyer.
1:12:15
SPEAKER_01: They said, Before you were a lawyer, do you know how to be one?
1:12:21
SPEAKER_01: Oh, say that one more game.
1:12:26
SPEAKER_01: It shocked me when he said it.
1:12:27
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if he thought he did he know what he was saying when he said it, but did you know how to be a lawyer?
1:12:34
SPEAKER_01: I mean, do you know how to be a lawyer before you before you learned?
1:12:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:12:37
SPEAKER_03: For learning.
1:12:39
SPEAKER_01: But on the flip side of that, for creatives, most of us know what we want to do.
1:12:43
SPEAKER_01: What's what's feel the tug?
1:12:46
SPEAKER_01: We've experienced it before.
1:12:48
SPEAKER_01: Um, it's just the act of doing it.
1:12:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's just the act of doing it.
1:12:53
SPEAKER_01: And even if you want to become a creator, learn it.
1:12:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:12:58
SPEAKER_00: I'll throw this out there too.
1:13:00
SPEAKER_00: If you feel you do have a creative bone in you, you you have a creative itch, I'll put it that way.
1:13:06
SPEAKER_00: If you have a creative itch, you know you want to create something, whatever that vision is that you have within that creativity, use it.
1:13:15
SPEAKER_00: If you see a camera, start with your phone.
1:13:17
SPEAKER_00: If you see, you know, paint, go get some paintbrushes.
1:13:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:13:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you can't get the paint and the paintbrushes and the cameras, go get you some crayons, you know.
1:13:26
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be a writer, go get a notebook and some pens.
1:13:32
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's so many things that me personally that I think about, and it's like, oh, I can do this, ooh, I can do that.
1:13:41
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I'm like, but don't I need and shouldn't I go get?
1:13:46
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, no, you can at minimum write down the idea.
1:13:50
SPEAKER_00: Like, sometimes I can come up with like two or three short films off of one title.
1:13:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, like this conversation, this is another short film to me.
1:14:00
SPEAKER_00: And I kind of see how it needs to play out, but what am I gonna do with that, right?
1:14:06
SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna go home and write this down?
1:14:07
SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna write something down before I leave?
1:14:09
SPEAKER_00: And and I feel that's where a lot of people get when they want to do something, they think of every reason why they can't and why they shouldn't.
1:14:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:14:18
SPEAKER_00: What is everybody else gonna think?
1:14:20
SPEAKER_00: Who cares?
1:14:21
SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
1:14:22
SPEAKER_00: Nobody cares.
1:14:23
SPEAKER_00: If I was so stuck on what other people thought, instead of being myself and learning on my own, I can guarantee you I would not be sitting here today.
1:14:33
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
1:14:34
SPEAKER_00: You're right.
1:14:35
SPEAKER_00: Be yourself.
1:14:35
SPEAKER_04: You're right.
1:14:36
SPEAKER_04: Take us on out of here.
1:14:38
SPEAKER_00: So, um, thank y'all for coming.
1:14:41
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
1:14:42
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
1:14:43
SPEAKER_00: Thank y'all for tuning in.
1:14:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank us.
1:14:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh, yeah, thank y'all, yeah.
1:14:48
SPEAKER_00: Make sure y'all go check out this play.
1:14:50
SPEAKER_00: It is coming out August 9th.
1:14:53
SPEAKER_00: Yes, at 6 p.m.
1:14:55
SPEAKER_04: Matthew's Playhouse.
1:14:57
SPEAKER_00: Matthew's Playhouse.
1:14:58
SPEAKER_00: Come for a good time.
1:14:59
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you'll feel all the emotions.
1:15:01
SPEAKER_04: You will feel the emotions.
1:15:02
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
1:15:02
SPEAKER_03: It's very good.
1:15:03
SPEAKER_03: Get immersed in the emotions.
1:15:05
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
1:15:05
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
1:15:07
SPEAKER_04: Playing some Nina Simone leading up to August 9th.
1:15:11
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
1:15:12
SPEAKER_00: So listen, y'all.
1:15:14
SPEAKER_00: Thank y'all for tuning in to another episode of Creative Roots Podcast where Seed Stone becomes Vision's grown.
1:15:19
SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Tay.
1:15:21
SPEAKER_04: I am Tay's co-host, co-pilot, sad kid.
1:15:28
SPEAKER_00: We are out.
1:15:29
SPEAKER_00: Thank y'all.
1:15:30
SPEAKER_00: Peace.
1:15:31
SPEAKER_04: Thank y'all.