Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Anita Kopacz Talks 'The 'Sinners,' Ryan Coogler, Sacred Trinity, ‘Daughter Of Three Waters’ Trilogy + More

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INTERVIEW: Anita Kopacz Talks 'The 'Sinners,' Ryan Coogler, Sacred Trinity, ‘Daughter Of Three Waters’ Trilogy + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Every day a week ago up the Breakfast Club. You
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: don't finish for y'all done morning.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Everybody is DJ Envyes hilarious, Charlamagne the gud We are
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: the Breakfast Club. Lawla Rose is here as well. We
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: got a special guest in the buildings. She's back, Miss
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Anita Kopak. Welcome back.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: I'm so happy to be back. Thank you so much
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: for having me.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: How are you feeling?
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Amazing? Amazing? I feel so blessed to be in here,
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: and I could tell you all are having fun. So
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: I love to be in places where I know people
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: love what they're doing.
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: The Wind on Her Tongue is your second release in the.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Trilogy, right, yes, but it's not in paperback.
• 0:44
  Speaker 5: Now it is.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: It is what is the difference between the paperback and
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the hall cover experience.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: So what I'm really excited about with the paperback is
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: that we have the results for the art contest, right that,
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: and then there was a couple of poems and so
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: those are in the paperback. And you know, I was
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: able to to correct a few things that I had
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: forgotten in here, so that was great to have just
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: a few, you know, more corrections in there.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: I love the world that you're building with the Daughter
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: of Three Waters trilogy. The first book was Shallow Waters.
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: This is the wind on our tongue. Just explain to
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: people what those two books are and what the trilogy
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: is going to be.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, so all of my books are about the Orishas,
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: which I don't know if you all noticed. But last
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: night or not not last night, sorry at the Oscars
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: that Michael B. Jordan that he won for Best Actor
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: and his for his smoke and stack right, and they
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: are created from the Ebaji, which are the orisha. So
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: he won an Oscar for playing an orisha and it's
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: the twin Orisha. Wow, the twin Orisha is the Ebaji.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: And so the Ebayji are actually in this book. I'm
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: gonna put this no, so let me let me just
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: read this part the end the end note of this book.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: So I say there There are many different stories about Oya,
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: but according to popular legend, after nine miscarriages and still
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: births Oya made a sacrifice on a cloth with the
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: color of the rainbow. She then gave birth to four
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: sets of living twins and a ninth child. In Yureba myth,
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: twins are called Ebaiji, meaning born two times. The theme
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: of the rainbow and Ebaji are closely linked to Oya,
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: so we have Ebaiji in here. I always say that
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: me and Ryan Coogler are like twin souls with our writing,
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  Speaker 3: if I do say so myself. But you know, there's
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: a lot of similarities in the works that we're putting
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: out there. And you had sent me, you know, the
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: videos from Brazil where they were doing those huge floats
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: to the Arishas, and it's like this energy, like people
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: are really black, people are really remembering who we are
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: and are, where our ancestors are from, and our spirituality.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: And I think the more and more we connect to that,
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: the more and more unstoppable we are.
• 3:37
  Speaker 6: I was gonna say, I'm just now I'm like looking,
• 3:39
  Speaker 6: I'm looking at the cast, and I'm looking at what
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: you were talking about with the different energies, and they
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: have so like any or Mary who was the white
• 3:48
  Speaker 6: woman who came in and started dating one of her
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: brothers played by Hailey Seinfield, She's like, it's literally everything
• 3:55
  Speaker 6: we talked with you about before was literally the movie.
• 3:58
  Speaker 6: Like the cast members all themselves was like it. I've
• 4:01
  Speaker 6: never made the comparison soil.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: You said Orsha Connections and Sinners.
• 4:06
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so Ocean was played by Mary oh Shoon. I'm sorry,
• 4:11
  Speaker 6: One me, one me mosaku uh who played who played Annie?
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  Speaker 6: She's oh Ya, yes, and she's the warrior and the
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  Speaker 6: she carries the like and has the miscarriage.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: Have you met I have not met him, not yet,
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: so we got to figure that out. No, but I did.
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  Speaker 3: I don't. You don't know this. I finished the third
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: book wow, and so it doesn't come out until next year,
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: so there's still the process of editing and everything you
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: got to do as an author, all the fun stuff.
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  Speaker 3: But the third one is about o Shoon.
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  Speaker 7: So I just want to know what was because I
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  Speaker 7: know you saw Sinners obviously right the first time you saw.
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  Speaker 3: It ten times?
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  Speaker 5: Were you all right? Well all ten times? What was
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  Speaker 5: your thoughts?
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  Speaker 3: Like?
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  Speaker 8: What?
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  Speaker 3: As soon as I saw it, I was like, first
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  Speaker 3: of all, with all of his films, I end up crying.
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  Speaker 3: I'm an emotional being and so when I feel something deeply,
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: I'm just like crying and my daughters are like, what
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: what are you crying about? And there were so many
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: things that were similar, the fact that he brought in,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: like the how the Chinese people mixed in with the
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: black people. I have that within this as well. And
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  Speaker 3: the storyline of the woman being the witchy woman, right,
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  Speaker 3: that is all powerful in the spirit world. I have that,
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: and so for me, it just feels like, oh, I'm
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: seeing someone speaking my language and then there's something that
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: awakens that feel so familiar. And I feel like so
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  Speaker 3: many people are feeling that with Sinners, and I love it,
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  Speaker 3: and I'm just I'm excited for more and more and
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  Speaker 3: more people to read my books.
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: What inspires you to write about African spiritual traditions through fiction?
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: So you know what is interesting is that I feel
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  Speaker 3: like the spirits chose me, like it didn't feel like
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  Speaker 3: I had a choice. It was like at the time
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  Speaker 3: the first time I wrote my first book, Shallow Waters,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: I was the editor in chief of Heart and Soul magazine,
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: so I was doing health and wellness for black people
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  Speaker 3: and this story just kept coming up. It was like
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  Speaker 3: this woman, which I didn't realize was Yemeya at first,
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  Speaker 3: was just sitting at the edge of my bed telling
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  Speaker 3: me this story. And I'm like, what is this? What
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  Speaker 3: is this? And for most of us who are daughters
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: and sons of the diaspora. I was taught that it
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  Speaker 3: was demonic right to even look into it or ask
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: about it or figure, you know, read about it. And
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: so but the more and more I did, the more
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  Speaker 3: it felt like home, and the more it felt like
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  Speaker 3: I was with my ancestors. And I'm like, well, who
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  Speaker 3: told me this was demonic?
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  Speaker 5: Were you afraid of her?
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: I was yes, I mean you know, like Yameh Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: oh yeah, they you know, they're they're intense, They're intense spirits.
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  Speaker 3: So I guess I would say I have respect. I
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  Speaker 3: have respect.
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  Speaker 2: Spoke about it before. I was gonna say, I know
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: you spoke about it before, but what got you into
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  Speaker 2: that deep dive of viewing things?
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  Speaker 3: So it was actually yame Yeah, Because my friend Lee
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  Speaker 3: Thompson Young who's passed away now, yes, rest in peace.
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  Speaker 3: He was telling me about the Orishas and he told
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  Speaker 3: me that about Yamey, Yeah, that she washed watched over
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  Speaker 3: our souls as our ancestors went over the middle passage,
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: and she was a black mermaid and I was like,
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: what a black mermaid? Hold up? What is this? And
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: so he told me all these stories. He was a
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  Speaker 3: priest of Oshoon and I am not in the religion.
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  Speaker 3: But I think one of the things that's really beautiful
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  Speaker 3: for me about that is that I'm coming at it
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  Speaker 3: from a place of curiosity and of you know, research,
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: and you know, like if I was raised in it,
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  Speaker 3: I think it would just feel more like normal, like, oh, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: that's just what we do, you know. And so I
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: guess it's that curiosity. When he was telling me about Yamya,
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  Speaker 3: I was so excited about that.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: So when you tried to when you published the book,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: how difficult was it at first to get a publisher?
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: We know it Charlomone published it, But before that was
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  Speaker 2: it very difficult telling somebody the story and having him
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  Speaker 2: understand that.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: So I didn't really go on that journey yet, but
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: I was. It was twenty twenty and all of the
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: things were happening, and I was like, you know what
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: it this is the times for the story, and so
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: I was like, I don't know how to do it,
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: but I'm going to self publish. And as soon as
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: I decided that, that's when Yadi a. Yadi an amazing
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  Speaker 3: friend who is a part of the Goddess Wisdom Council
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  Speaker 3: with me, my sister and Cora and basically Yati was like,
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: I went to the ocean or the shower. We still
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: haven't figured it out. Some water and I asked like
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: yea may yeah, like what so she's the mother of
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: it's all, the mother of the ocean. And she was like,
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: you know, like what should I need to do to
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  Speaker 3: be able to get this book out there? And the
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: answer was given to Charlemagne. At that time, he did.
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  Speaker 4: Not have any I never even mentioned nothing, and so
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: she was like.
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  Speaker 3: I need it and she's YACHTI can tell things, She's
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: she knows things, and so she was like, can I
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: send it to Charlemagne? I was like sure, Sure. Within
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: two days he was like, do not sign with anyone else.
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  Speaker 3: He was like, I'm putting this out.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: I'll sit in the backyard. I read it on my laptop.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: It was Kobe.
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  Speaker 4: We were moving around and nothing. I'm just like, yo,
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: this is amazing. This needs to be in the world,
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: Like you know, this is you know, because it's like
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: racism is colorism, but then it's classism, but then it's magic.
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  Speaker 1: Like it just felt very black.
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: Yes, as an author, right of these type of stories
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: that people act like we have to shun away from.
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: How did the success of centers and everything they did
• 10:11
  Speaker 6: in a box office make you feel like what your
• 10:14
  Speaker 6: future is about to look like that?
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: Oh it made me feel great. It felt It felt
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: almost the same way as I did when I saw
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: like the things that you sent me in Brazil with
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: these huge, amazing floats. If you all haven't seen that,
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: see the floats of the orishas from Brazil, And to me,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: it just feels like, yes, people are opening up to it,
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: We're seeing like what these how deep these stories go?
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: This religion survived underground for hundreds of years because if
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: people practiced it in the open, they would be killed,
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: they would be beaten, whatever it was, so it had
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: to survive underground. And so the fact that it did
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: and it's in us, like to me, I feel like
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: when people read my stories, it's a remembering because you
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: can feel it in your bones. You can feel it
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: in your bones. You're like, oh, wait, I know this
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: story from somewhere, but where.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: Why do you think people are reconnecting with their ancestral spirituality?
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Because it's time. I mean, those motherfuckers are eating babies,
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: you know, like it's like you see, oh my gosh,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: they're doing the spiritual like things to make give them power.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: We know that we have our own, and I feel
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: like that connection to me, I know, as soon as
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: that came out for me, as soon as I read
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: the files, I looked at my altar and I was like,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: I need to dust that shit off.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: We have our own that's rooted in righteousness. Though that's right,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: we're not eating babies.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: No exactly, Yes, thank you for the clarify. No, it's
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: rooted in righteousness, in being a better person every day.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: How important is it to connect to your ancestors.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: Well, for me, it's it's non negotiable. I mean, before
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  Speaker 3: I was even really interested in this, I always would
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: like talk to my grandmother, grandfather and lee now on
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: the other side, but so many to me, it's it
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: feels like that's a part of us, connecting to our
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: wisdom because they're a part of us. And then you know,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: there was this one time that I did ayahuasca in
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Peru and my ancestors came to me and they basically told.
• 12:33
  Speaker 6: Me that.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: You are the living blood. You are the one that
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: can exact change in this world right now. And because
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, for me, I would look to
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: them like venerate them like like they're so much better
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: than me, but they're like, you're the one that's in
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: the world that can make the changes. We can give you,
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: you know, the suggestions, but you're there make the changes.
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: How does one connect with their ancestors?
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Right?
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  Speaker 5: You see how you were called.
• 13:05
  Speaker 7: You didn't know what was happening at first, right you said,
• 13:08
  Speaker 7: you know, we've always it's always been said that it
• 13:11
  Speaker 7: was demonic or something like that, and it scared you
• 13:13
  Speaker 7: for a while. But once you really like just embraced it,
• 13:16
  Speaker 7: you know, it was powerful. It was an impact that
• 13:20
  Speaker 7: it had on you. How does one get there? Because
• 13:22
  Speaker 7: I haven't done ayahuasca. I do shrooms, and that brings
• 13:27
  Speaker 7: me enlightment and clarity when i'm you know, looking for
• 13:29
  Speaker 7: certain answers when I feel like I'm stuck and in
• 13:31
  Speaker 7: a place. But I also heard you have to be
• 13:33
  Speaker 7: called to do ayahuasca as well. That's not something that
• 13:36
  Speaker 7: you just go have fun doing. Yeah, yeah, and it's
• 13:39
  Speaker 7: a whole thing. It's totally different from shrooms all you know,
• 13:41
  Speaker 7: although I get clarity with that too. But how do
• 13:44
  Speaker 7: you connect with your ancestors?
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: It's so easy. You have a picture of your grandma
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: just look at her and talk to her like she's here.
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  Speaker 3: And to me, that's I start with the ones that
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: I knew in life life, because then I feel like
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: I can have that type of conversation and getting all
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: emotional and thinking of our grandmothers, amazing amazing women we
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: call it. Baba was our Polish grandmother and then Granny
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: was our coetitionan grandmother. So uh, and just talking to
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: them like they're here. And sometimes, you know, imagination is
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: really important in spirituality because sometimes you can feel like, oh,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: I'm imagining that I can hear them talking to me,
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: but there's no way go with the imagination.
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: Now.
• 14:37
  Speaker 7: I had an experience very similar to that when I
• 14:40
  Speaker 7: shroomed and me and I have a little sister, she's
• 14:44
  Speaker 7: eleven years younger than me. Yeah, and we were hugging,
• 14:47
  Speaker 7: she was shriming. She was shrimming too, and we were hugging,
• 14:50
  Speaker 7: and we were in my home right, but it was
• 14:55
  Speaker 7: like we went.
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: Through time when we were hugging.
• 14:58
  Speaker 7: I was my mother, she was me, and then I
• 15:01
  Speaker 7: was my grandmother and she was my mother, and then.
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: I was her and she was me.
• 15:08
  Speaker 7: But she was telling me that it was okay, Like
• 15:11
  Speaker 7: I didn't know what it was. I wasn't afraid of it.
• 15:13
  Speaker 7: I just didn't know what. I wanted to go back,
• 15:16
  Speaker 7: and I wanted to because I wanted to talk to
• 15:17
  Speaker 7: my grandmother. I lost my grandmother at a very young age.
• 15:20
  Speaker 7: I was her favorite and she was mine too, and
• 15:23
  Speaker 7: I just had so many things to ask her before
• 15:26
  Speaker 7: she left. This is my mom's mom, and I was.
• 15:29
  Speaker 7: I just I wanted to get back to that moment.
• 15:31
  Speaker 7: But I don't want to have to shroom to do
• 15:33
  Speaker 7: it all the time, because shroom's nasty.
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: My stomach was hurting and then you'd be high too long.
• 15:36
  Speaker 7: But that one part, like I was really really happy
• 15:40
  Speaker 7: to have connected with her, But like I said, we
• 15:43
  Speaker 7: were going through time.
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: But I wanted I want to be able to do that.
• 15:46
  Speaker 7: Without all the like being high, Like I want to
• 15:49
  Speaker 7: be able to do that.
• 15:51
  Speaker 8: Well.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: The beautiful thing about that is that once once you
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: have done something like and some people don't need anything
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: at all to connect with that, right, but once you
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: have done trooms or ayahuasca, you can connect to that
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: part of yourself that has been in that place, whether
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: it's through meditation or just you know, allowing yourself to
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: move back into that space and and really get back
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: into that place, because when you think about it, it's
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: like it's like your mind getting out of the way
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: and then you're moving through your heart or through your
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: it's more of an embodiment. And then where is this
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: journey taking you? And I feel like that's a part
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: of these books. These books are like that there a journey,
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: like if you and when you read this it is
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: it is a journey and you'll feel that. Speaking of
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: Oshoon for the I'm not saying the name of the book,
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: but the third one that's coming out on Black Privileged
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: Publishing next year. So O'shoon is the orisha of the
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: sweet Things in life of honey and I brought gifts
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: for you all from my sisters Lomar Farm. So she's
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: a bee keeper and honey and so uh these are
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: hand poured candles that oh my gosh, yes, there you're
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: going to be addicted.
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: I'm sorry.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: My wife loves yes.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: I already told her I'm bringing her one.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: What does what does oil represent? In the wind on
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: her tongue?
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: So oil represents transformation power For me, it was the
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: energy of the quote unquote angry black woman and going
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: deeper into that trope and seeing what is there. And
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: as I did, it was like, oh no, she's just
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: so fucking powerful that that's how people experience her. So
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: I have the story of her coming into her power.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: So she's younger and and so it's you kind of
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: see where the anger comes from. How you know, she
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: was treated a lot of the characters within the book,
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: Marie Leveau, Mary Ellen Pleasant, they're all people. So those
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: are historical figures, and they were demonized women who were demonized,
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: and they did amazing things in this world. And I was,
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: you know, for me, I was like, how come I
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: didn't learn about them in school? And it's really I mean,
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: I think a big part was that they were Voodooon priestesses,
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: both of them, and you know, voodoon has been demonized
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: and these women if you look up what mary Ellen Pleasant,
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: she like owned half of San Francisco, a black woman
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: started the Bank of California, which is Wells Fargo. Wow,
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: And I mean she she was a beast and now she,
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: I guess also was known as the civil rights leader
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: of California. And it's it's like, how did I not
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: learn about her?
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: I'm glad you did that because you know, like you said,
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: all your struggles with controlling her power, right, but it
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: is meant to symbolize with black women struggle with in
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: everyday life. And the thing always you know, tell black
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: women like you know, they say, I don't want to
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: be looked at as the angry black woman.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: What if you are angry?
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: Your therapist always tells you to feel your feels, right,
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: so why not lean into that if that's how you're
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: feeling in that moment.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well it's because there is the whole trope about it,
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: and it's like, oh my gosh, am I falling into
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: that trope. But it's really is like, yes, feel your feels,
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: express them, and that is a part of us remembering
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: who we really are. And that's not We're not always angry, right,
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: Like that's not, Yes we're angry because there's fucked up
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: shit that's happening, But we are a people who know
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: how to get in touch with our jo no matter
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: what we are going through. And so yes, we can
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: be in our joy, we can be on our deep
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: spiritual being. And you know, for me, having a black
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: mother is one.
• 20:16
  Speaker 8: Of the most blessed experiences that I can ever have
• 20:25
  Speaker 8: because of how deep her compassion is.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: And you know, I go out into the world after
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: that and I'm like, whoa, this is what the world
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: is like going back to my mama.
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: That's why it's so crazy.
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: Like when people had a conversation about like how black
• 20:40
  Speaker 6: women should deal with and treat each other, and they're
• 20:42
  Speaker 6: always like, we should be somewhere much more kind to
• 20:45
  Speaker 6: each other. I think it's crazy that, like you even
• 20:47
  Speaker 6: have to talk to especially intergenerationally, so you even have
• 20:51
  Speaker 6: to say that because it's like what type of love
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: and or not did you not come from?
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: Because like like.
• 20:57
  Speaker 6: Why don't you feel that for a person that is
• 20:59
  Speaker 6: right there with you and that's how you were brought
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: up and you were born like you know what I mean,
• 21:03
  Speaker 6: like in your household, that's what that's what you're giving
• 21:05
  Speaker 6: even on the worst day. Like why do you have
• 21:06
  Speaker 6: to be taught that once you get back into the world.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well not everybody. And there's so many people who
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: weren't taught with that same type of love. So it
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: is right, like it it is a lesson once you
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: get out into the world.
• 21:18
  Speaker 7: But everybody's household is not you know, loving either. You
• 21:22
  Speaker 7: know what I mean because it's generational trauma. You know
• 21:25
  Speaker 7: that that actually weighs heavily in people's house and a
• 21:29
  Speaker 7: lot of women aren't able to teach their daughters how
• 21:32
  Speaker 7: to love because they weren't loved or they you know
• 21:34
  Speaker 7: what I mean.
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: It just goes back.
• 21:35
  Speaker 6: So yeah, yeah, how do you when black women read
• 21:39
  Speaker 6: this book and they look at all you're right, how
• 21:41
  Speaker 6: do you talk to them about even if that trope comes,
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: how they still stay in their like power and not
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: like cause once it comes, you're you're then trying to
• 21:51
  Speaker 6: fight it and then you forget all about who you are, right,
• 21:54
  Speaker 6: So how do you talk to black women through that?
• 21:56
  Speaker 8: Yeah?
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: Well all of my books are a love letter to
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: black women, right, so these these are just like it.
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: It's really like when you read it, it's like I
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: see you, I see you, And so it's kind of
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: just sticking with it. Right, Like, if you are feeling angry, Okay,
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: what am I angry about? Sometimes even saying that to
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: yourself out loud, what am I angry about? That helps
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: because it might be like, oh, dang, I'm just angry
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: because that person cut me off, and then then my
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: mind is starting to think of all the other things
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: I'm angry about, because I already got angry from one thing,
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: and so, you know, talking to ourselves helps, and I
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: feel like just really continuing to learn ourselves, allow ourselves
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: to be the main character in the story, because we
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: know all of us want to give and give and
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: give to everyone. And so it's like, really like, okay,
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: if I'm the main character, what is it that I
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: need right now?
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: When you say talk to yourself, you'd be saying to yourself, I.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: Say I gotta do laundry, not just no, but I do.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: I I'll talk if I begin to feel anxiety, I'll
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: be like, what am I anxious about? And I'll say
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: it out loud. And then sometimes it'll just be like,
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: oh my gosh, I'm anxious, anxious because I think that
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: I'm going to look crazy when I go on this
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: show or something, you know, like the I And once
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: I say it out loud, I'm like, that's silly. You know,
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: Like kind of talking to myself is if that's the
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: the inner child, you know, speaking their insecurities.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: What traditions did you discover or find out about that
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: you feel like, as a community, we miss out on
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: all we forgot about or we don't do and I'm black,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: I'm not Dominican, I am black.
• 23:46
  Speaker 8: I am.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: Okay. Well for me, one thing that I have done
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: with my sister and with a few of our friends,
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: we read the book The Conjuring of America, and which
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: was actually very similar to the Wind on her Tongue.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: It was like the real version. Like she talked about
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: Marie Leveau, and she talked a lot about erbalism and
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: how black people like they're the ones who brought in
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: all of the herbal medicines, right, so they had the
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: medicines that worked. And I was like, wow, I feel
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: so disconnected, like if I walk into a forest, I
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: don't know what any plant is. And so what we
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: did is we got all of our friends together and
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: once a month we learned something that our grandmother has
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: taught us. And so we've learned spiritual baths, We've learned
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: how to make hot sauce. We've learned all kinds of
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: different things. And so I think community and gathering and
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: teaching one little thing. I mean, when I went to
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: South Carolina, Oh my gosh, have you guys gone to
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: the African American Museum.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: No, I haven't done, yet they don't care about Black history.
• 25:02
  Speaker 8: Yo.
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: Yo, I really did.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Yo.
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: It's so good.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: It's so good. And one of the things that I
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: learned that I mean, it's not going to be a spoiler.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: I did put it into the new book, but was
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: about seeking, which I didn't realize. So the Gullageechee have
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: this practice called seeking where children from like seven to eleven,
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: they go out into the forest alone for days until
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: they have a vision. And when they have that vision,
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: they come back with that vision. So they have to
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: know what plants you can eat, They have to know
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: what plants cure things. So by seven these children are
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: out there knowing, knowing. And I was like, what, I
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: had a similar thing in Shallow Waters where because I
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: knew indigenous children did that, and so I had put
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: that in Shallow Waters. I had no idea that the
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: Goligie she did that. I learned a lot.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: What called you to child?
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: I remember when you hit me and said you wanted
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: to go down there like to do research for your
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: third book?
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Like what what called you to the to the Holy City?
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: So it was the the third book, which is about Ocehoon.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to say the name. So it takes
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: place in Beauford and Saint Helena, and so I was like, well,
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: you know what, I've never been there. I was like,
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: I need to kind of feel the land, the earth.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: When I got down there, the trees were talking to me.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: I had never ever seen trees that look like that
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: with the moss hanging down. Oh, it was amazing. And
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: so when I was there, I learned that, you know,
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: all of the the money that that the enslaved people
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: made for the South was through rice, indigo and cotton
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: and all of these ills. They brought the the enslaved
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: Africans over who had those skills, who knew how to
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: do the rice in the in the swampland.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Specifically picked them. They weren't just grabbing.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: Random like exactly. So they're like, okay, you know how
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: to do this, and then took them and it's it was.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: I was mind blown, like in so many different ways.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: I did a tour with this woman called the Grave Woman.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: Her name is Joel and and so she took me
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: to a rice field where they're also like, you know,
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: just make sure there's when you're walking, there's no snakes.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: And let me tell you. Let me tell you, we
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: walked by an alligator. The people in the South are
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: not scared of alligators. They're not scared. Like they walked
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: by like it was nothing. Freak out.
• 27:54
  Speaker 6: I hate when people from the South say that, like
• 27:58
  Speaker 6: it's not normal.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: All this is not normal?
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: Was its huge as you jump?
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: Were you scared?
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: I was horrified? And they were like the father, the
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: girl's father was like, yeah, we used to swim with them,
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: and always like oh all that. Yeah they were black,
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: they're black.
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: Oh wow, they're black.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: They're not scared like not. They're like of the land,
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: like the Gulagche, so the Glagichi, they were somewhat isolated
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: in certain islands, so they were able to keep so
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: much of their traditions and and so yeah, it's like
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: you're saying it allgators black.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: No, that's why you got to go to the International
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: African Americans.
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: God no, the people.
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: Weapool got her on the twenty one day detoxs I know.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Of mine umbert twisted.
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: Day three started yesterday.
• 29:05
  Speaker 7: I went Sunday and Sunday.
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: No, no, no, I'm letting it go slowly. But surely you
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: can't just change.
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: What are you.
• 29:16
  Speaker 7: Just just for like I don't know health and wellness,
• 29:20
  Speaker 7: you know what I mean? Like I want like I
• 29:22
  Speaker 7: want to go in that holistic journey of health. Like
• 29:25
  Speaker 7: my diet is messed up, you know. I want to
• 29:27
  Speaker 7: be able to kill the cravens that I have for weed,
• 29:30
  Speaker 7: you know what I mean. But it's not just weed,
• 29:32
  Speaker 7: it's just even what I consume, you know what I mean.
• 29:34
  Speaker 7: When I'm watching what I'm listening to, what I'm I
• 29:37
  Speaker 7: wake up on my phone, go to before I go
• 29:39
  Speaker 7: to sleep on my phone, I wake up angry sometimes
• 29:42
  Speaker 7: and I realized it because what you watched before you
• 29:44
  Speaker 7: went to sleep.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 29:45
  Speaker 7: My dreams are crazy like and not all the time,
• 29:48
  Speaker 7: but a little bit too franquent for me.
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: I'm thirty four years old. I'm not I gotta be
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: all of us, you know what I'm saying.
• 29:55
  Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, but it's just a different way of living,
• 29:58
  Speaker 7: you know.
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: Optimal health. I want.
• 30:00
  Speaker 7: I want that, and I want that for my kids too,
• 30:03
  Speaker 7: you know, and my husband, Like, I really really want
• 30:05
  Speaker 7: that for my family.
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: And if you can, if you can be you.
• 30:09
  Speaker 7: Know there, we already got everything we need here right
• 30:12
  Speaker 7: to heal ourselves. I want to be able to heal
• 30:14
  Speaker 7: my family. You know what I'm saying. I want to
• 30:16
  Speaker 7: be able to do that, and I want my kids
• 30:17
  Speaker 7: to be able to heal their kids, not sick of myself.
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: Shut up, No, but that's important. That's important. And my
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: sister was just telling me that there is a line
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: in the Bible that in many Bibles that has been
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: taken out of where it says to heal yourself, all
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: you need to do is fast and it's taken out.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: Like she showed me one Bible where it was in
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: and another one where it's like taken out. I can't
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: tell you which. Someone will be able to tell you
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: which line it is, but I can't tell.
• 30:48
  Speaker 6: You a lot of churches though they teach, I mean
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: they do fast together in the church, but I know
• 30:51
  Speaker 6: in my church, like they fast. Thing is kind of
• 30:54
  Speaker 6: like what just is kind of talking about where it's
• 30:56
  Speaker 6: like you take that time of just discipline and like
• 30:58
  Speaker 6: in those moments you like talk yourself to things and
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: just have some real like hard moments that make it
• 31:03
  Speaker 6: you change after the fast happening.
• 31:05
  Speaker 7: Yeah, it's very challenging, even on my third y, Like
• 31:07
  Speaker 7: it's very challenging because fast and is not just about
• 31:10
  Speaker 7: like not eating what you want is really not not watching.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: The shows you like, you're not talking to the people
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 31:17
  Speaker 7: No sex, no, Like, it's very strict. It's a very
• 31:20
  Speaker 7: strict way to discipline yourself.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: You know, you're going to know sex for thirty days?
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: What what? What else.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: You do? You do have to do? No sex when
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: you there's a whole fast that you have to do
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: before you do Iawatska too.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to do three weeks. Yeah, we had
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: to do three weeks eating clean.
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah, no sex for three weeks, even if you're married.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: Like, yeah, gotcha. And you know, as far as like
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: guiding people through things like that with the with the
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: Goddess Wisdom Counsel that I'm a part of this group
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: with me, my sister Yachti and a woman named Cora,
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: we take people on retreats. Charlemagne has supported that in
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: so many ways because I want to basically create spaces
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: where women of color, people of color can come and
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: experience a beautiful space where all you have to think
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: about is your healing. Yeah, and we have monthly calls
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: called the Leap, and so it's kind of like a
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: community that is more of like you know, people who
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: can meet once a month and we do like group
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: coaching with them, and then we're about to start a
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: mastermind where if a legacy mastermind, and that can be
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: where if someone has like a project that they've been
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: thinking about. So to me, that's where fasting comes in
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: because sometimes you can't even see what it is that
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: you want to do, and it's like, well, what is
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: the legacy? What is the legacy that I want to
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: leave behind? And so if you do some fasting, and
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: then this clarity comes because only you know that you're
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: the only one who got that call, and you know
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: if it's if it's fuzzy.
• 33:06
  Speaker 7: Yeah, it's the purpose thing right now, right like you
• 33:09
  Speaker 7: don't know what it is. And I thought that was
• 33:11
  Speaker 7: like a bad thing to not know your purpose, you
• 33:14
  Speaker 7: know what I mean?
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: But oh yeah, I can't. I can't see it as foggy.
• 33:19
  Speaker 7: That's why I want to stop doing a lot of
• 33:21
  Speaker 7: things that I'm doing to get the clarity for it.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: And sometimes our purpose is just as simple as to love,
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: right like, that's that's one of my purposes. I know
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: that is one of my purposes is to love deeply,
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: to love the people around me deeply. And also I
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: feel like a part of my ministry is black women.
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: Like I just love black women, and I feel, you know,
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: just thinking of my daughters, and I love my son
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: as well, of course, but just thinking of like, to me,
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: if black women are healed, like it's that's why even
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: with with like micro loans, if you give it to
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: black women, you know that the whole community is going
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: to be served because they're not going to just take
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: care of themselves, They're going to take care of the
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: people around them.
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: Can we talk about the sacred Trinity? So that's what
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: this book series represented. Yeh, shallow Waters was the mother,
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: the wind on our tongue is the daughter in the
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: next book would be the Holy Spirit.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: But tell people what is the sacred trinity?
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: Yes, the sacred Trinity from most people is the Father,
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Right. And so within
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: my books, I'm not I don't want to tell too
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: much about what's happening in the third one, but I
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: have the Mother, the Daughter, and the Holy Spirit. So
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: I have the mother which is Yameya. She is the
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: black mermaid, right, the mother of us all. And then
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: the daughter who's Oya, so she is the daughter in
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: the flesh, and then I have the Holy Spirit, which
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: is going to be ocean, which is the sweet things
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: in life, the muse, the artist, and these the daughter
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: of three waters. Within the Cuban practice of the EFA religion,
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: so when the enslaved Africans were dropped off at different
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: parts places in the Americas, they different parts of the
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: religion sprung up. So in Cuba, in Brazil, right, So
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: in Brazil it's condomble. In Cuba it's Santaria, right, lukumi
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: ifa right, Like there's many different versions, but it's all
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: from EFA. And so within Cuba, if you're a daughter
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: of Yameya and Oshoon, they call you the daughter of
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: two waters, and usually you're only a daughter of one orisha.
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: So when I was thinking of these books, I'm like, oh,
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: but there's three of them. There's three of them, and
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: I was like, there, it's a daughter of three waters
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: because Oya is a storm, there's rain, transfermtion, she is powerful,
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: and so that's really where that Holy Trinity came in.
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: And I'm super excited. I'm so excited. I've been calling
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: my dad every morning early and been reading him like
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: chapter by chapter, and he's he's an anesthesiologist, right, So
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: he's I always think of him as super analytical and scientific.
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, he's helping me so much. So he
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: was I had I had sent it to him, and
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: he was like, I can't see it too well right now,
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: like he was having a hard time seeing it. And
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: I was like, well, I read the book to my
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: sister Evanna, who's back here, who is my ebaji, my twin,
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: And I always reach like she's the one who I
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: usually read the book to. She gives me the feedback
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: I know which way to go. She if she gets
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: a feeling of what's going to come next, she tells me,
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: And you know you've written books? Have you guys written books?
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: So you know it's a process. It is hard, like
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: as far as like sticking to it writing a full novel, right,
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: And so to me, I think of them as like
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: kind of like infants, And so I have to be
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: really careful who I share my words with because someone
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: might say something that feels like a stab and then
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: I am sitting and I can't write for the rest
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: of the day. Right, I did say I was sensitive, right,
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: he did. And so I'm super careful with who I
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: share with and so I was like, I am going
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: to call my dad and read this to him. And
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: he has helped me because all of them, this next
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: one takes place in nineteen oh nine, and so he's
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: helping me stay true to that time, Like, well, would
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: they would have said that during that time? Did they
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: have a toothbrush?
• 37:58
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, oh, I didn't even look right, and
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: I saw that, you know, only the elite had toothbrushes
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: during that time, And so I know, how does it take.
• 38:10
  Speaker 7: For you to How long did the third book actually
• 38:14
  Speaker 7: take to write?
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it did not take long, which was interesting because
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: the way I did it, which was very different from
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: the other ways, was that I woke up early, early
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: in the morning and just wrote a little bit every day,
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: and so I would say I started writing around November
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: and now it's March, right, and so it was really,
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: I would say, the quickest one, even though I felt
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: like I didn't feel like I was writing a lot,
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: because it just felt like I'd wake up in the morning,
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: rite some and then go throughout the day.
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: I love you know the daughtera through Water series. What
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: do you when it's all said and done? Right, Like,
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: what do you want these books to do to people,
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: not just how do you want to be received?
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: What do you want them to do?
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: I want people to feel transformed and go out and
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: do what they came here to do in this world.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: And I know that might be a big tall order,
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: but I do. I want that to be the inspiration.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: And I went to go see like a sneak performance
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: of dream Girls that's going to be coming on Broadway.
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: The way that made me feel. Oh, I would be
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: so happy if my books made people feel that way
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: because I sat there. My cousin Elyssa is in it,
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: and I sat there, and it was the first time
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: I felt unworthy of sitting in an audience seat. Real wow,
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: y'all when it comes out. When it comes out, y'all
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: have to see it. It's so good and so I
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: feel like that type of artistry. I hope that my
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: book can do that, and I would love for the
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: ip to turn into movies. It will plays, and so
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: it is yes from your lips to gaz.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if you haven't picked it up, pick up the paperback,
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: release the wind and hard tongue and.
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: Go get shallow waters too. Shallow waters is the mother.
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: Okay tongue, your daughter.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: Telling them about your sisters. She's a beekeeper, telling them about.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: The beef army.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: Yes, very interesting.
• 40:19
  Speaker 7: That that is very interesting to.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: It should be interesting to YouTube because when you land
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: and them bees come.
• 40:26
  Speaker 5: I've been to the farm, his wife loves. What do
• 40:31
  Speaker 5: you want to know?
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, how did you get into being
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: a bee keeper?
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: How did that happen? Yeah?
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: Hold on, we will get you another mic and you
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: can sit down and everything.
• 40:39
  Speaker 7: Yes, that is very important people, it is pay attention.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, put it right there. Yeah.
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and then it's going to give you. Thank you
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: so much.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: So how did you get into being a bee keeper?
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 41:07
  Speaker 9: So, I, my husband and I and our two daughters
• 41:10
  Speaker 9: lived in Harlem and we decided to move out to Palisades,
• 41:14
  Speaker 9: New York. And at the same time, we found a
• 41:17
  Speaker 9: six acre farm, and we also saw a documentary called
• 41:21
  Speaker 9: More Than Honey, which talked about the decline and honey bees.
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: So we wanted to.
• 41:25
  Speaker 9: Revive the property as well as sort of help the
• 41:29
  Speaker 9: bees at the same time. And so we started keeping
• 41:31
  Speaker 9: bees and we became obsessed. We started loving it and
• 41:36
  Speaker 9: learning more about what they do for us in the world.
• 41:39
  Speaker 9: We thought we could help them and they can help us.
• 41:41
  Speaker 9: So it's sort of a synergetic relationship.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: For anybody out there. It's against the law. I just
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: want to say, it is against the law. If there's
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: a honey bee hive and you're killing, you're going to jail.
• 41:52
  Speaker 5: You're going to know this.
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: Yes, no, yeah, listen, if you have a beehive, call me.
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: She literally we can go in get the hive and
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: then put it into one of the boxes. If I
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: don't know, if you still do that, then she's gangster.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
• 42:11
  Speaker 5: How many times have you been stung?
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, because I'm curious.
• 42:14
  Speaker 9: It's amazing a lot, a lot, but bees are so amazing.
• 42:17
  Speaker 9: Even the venom is medicine, So any anytime it gets stung,
• 42:21
  Speaker 9: I'm like, okay, it actually helps with arthritis. It's also
• 42:25
  Speaker 9: been tested to help some certain breast cancer. So every
• 42:29
  Speaker 9: time it gets stung, I'm like, okay, this is this
• 42:32
  Speaker 9: is medicine.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: And also the honey is medicine.
• 42:34
  Speaker 5: The propolist is medicine.
• 42:36
  Speaker 9: The I mean, everything about the bee is medicine to us.
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: We need them.
• 42:41
  Speaker 6: I was going to actually, what was the importance of
• 42:43
  Speaker 6: the work that you do in the space with the
• 42:44
  Speaker 6: bees but hearing the healing part of it. Do you
• 42:46
  Speaker 6: have people that come to the farm for that specifically?
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: I don't because it's not open to the public.
• 42:51
  Speaker 9: But we do have community time where we will have
• 42:55
  Speaker 9: a farmed table dinner to benefit our Palisades Library. And
• 42:58
  Speaker 9: if there are people that I know, that you know
• 43:01
  Speaker 9: that want to reach out, I would do it.
• 43:03
  Speaker 5: I would have them come to the farm.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: Go look up Lamar Farms dot com.
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: Yes, Lomar fire quick.
• 43:09
  Speaker 5: Did you ever see the movie Beekeeper?
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: Yes?
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: So I was watching that and I.
• 43:16
  Speaker 7: Love Jason State the man Felicia for Shod by the way,
• 43:18
  Speaker 7: movie is great, right, So he was a beekeeper in
• 43:20
  Speaker 7: the movie, and I was talking to like somebody I know,
• 43:23
  Speaker 7: and I was telling them like, yo, he because they
• 43:26
  Speaker 7: was joking about him always like having a job, like
• 43:29
  Speaker 7: you know, because he kills and everything. But he was
• 43:32
  Speaker 7: protecting the bees, right, and Felicia Rashad had a farm,
• 43:36
  Speaker 7: and so they was all like, n always just a
• 43:38
  Speaker 7: movie about I'm killing him, Like nah, he was protecting
• 43:41
  Speaker 7: the bees because the bees are for healing, like the
• 43:43
  Speaker 7: every part of the bee, even the venom everything, like
• 43:45
  Speaker 7: you just said. I was explaining that, right, I know
• 43:47
  Speaker 7: about the breast cancer part, but I didn't know like
• 43:50
  Speaker 7: arthritis and the bones.
• 43:51
  Speaker 5: It helps with, you know, sickness.
• 43:53
  Speaker 7: Niggas tried to tell me I was lying. I'm like, yo,
• 43:56
  Speaker 7: for real to because you always lying.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: It's not.
• 44:04
  Speaker 7: Because you don't understand, you know, they just think, you know, oh,
• 44:07
  Speaker 7: it's a you know.
• 44:09
  Speaker 9: Honey bees are medicine. You need them, and it's the
• 44:12
  Speaker 9: kind of part of what Anita was saying. It's like
• 44:14
  Speaker 9: we've forgotten how to connect with the land and being
• 44:17
  Speaker 9: a part of that, you know, beekeeping is helping me
• 44:20
  Speaker 9: connect with the land and the healing that the land.
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: Has for us.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: It's all here for us.
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: Can you explain the differencetween massage candles and bees wax candles.
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: So, our massage candles are made with shade butter.
• 44:32
  Speaker 9: It's made with a special mix that you can put
• 44:35
  Speaker 9: on your skin and you just heat it up and
• 44:37
  Speaker 9: put it on your skin.
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: It's also it's so sexy.
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: You light it and like let it melt and then
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: you blow it out and then you could pour it
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: either on yourself or your partner.
• 44:48
  Speaker 9: Yeah, the regular beeswax candles actually bees wax when they're.
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: Burned is also medicinal.
• 44:53
  Speaker 9: They act as an air purifier, so it releases negative
• 44:56
  Speaker 9: ions into the air, connects to the positive ions, which
• 44:59
  Speaker 9: is like just allergy allergens and just bring them down
• 45:03
  Speaker 9: out of the air. So that's the regular beast.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: And then on the website you have honey, but then
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: you have raw honey.
• 45:09
  Speaker 9: It's all raw honey, ra honey, okay, honey.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so they got soapbody.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: We order from you, so I ain't got to go
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: to store get honey anymore.
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: I order from This is a candle.
• 45:17
  Speaker 9: This is This is the beast Rex candle.
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: That this one everyone did. I went into our.
• 45:24
  Speaker 9: Best seller wild Mountain honey candle. So this has like
• 45:26
  Speaker 9: a very strong honey.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and jes tell it. Tell your daughter's name, Jess,
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: My daughter name is Marley.
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, oh my god, that's why Lowland Marley.
• 45:38
  Speaker 5: Yes, okay, so this is mine, right. I knew that
• 45:46
  Speaker 5: the bees were important.
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: You knew what I want to make sure was going
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: to be here too.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining us, ladies.
• 45:52
  Speaker 5: We appreciate it.
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: Go get shallow water, Go get the wind on her tongue.
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: Man available, both of them in hadcover and paperbacks.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Anonymous Anita Kolpaks, thank you so much. It's the Breakfast Club.
• 46:01
  Speaker 5: Good morning.
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: Hold up.
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: Every day I wake pass up the Breakfast Club.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: Finish for y'all.
• 46:08
  Speaker 5: Done,