Speaker 0 00:00:00 Zone. You can burn a whole thing down. Y'all don't really care about a brother till we burn whole thing down.
Speaker 0 00:00:10 Yeah, we about to go to work. Yeah, we about to let it burn. Like send Quill. Yeah, I bet you will try to skip a they been lynching us and till and that's really freaking generous cuz honestly they have been killing us since we were property. No stopping me from saying how it is. Listen ain the whizz ain't no easing down the road where we live that a biz, we can't go out for a jog or a swim or a dog fall asleep and the car fall asleep where we live. So we about to let it burn. Just like gusher say they be trying but let do not care what gusher say. Put him back, screens up, make a few bucks. My life isn't marketing who you think you trying to play? Um, I like it better when like, nerdy was all fun and stuff. This is really angry. Like don't you think you said enough? Huh? Well that's freaking tough cuz I'm being loud and the people are not playing with you now. Yeah, you can burn a whole thing down. Yes. Yeah. I don't care if you are uncomfortable, we can burn a whole thing down. You can burn a whole thing down. Couldn't care about another zone. You can burn a whole thing down. Burn down. Y'all don't really care about a brother until we burn our thing down.
Speaker 0 00:01:20 Y'all. We about to go to work. Yeah, we about to let it burn
Speaker 2 00:01:23 Bro. Come on the youngins. What I'm focused on. I'm so old then go then. I ain't know you was talking about Pokemon, but I'm more like me and nerdy next to a burndown system with a candle of gas and a handful of matches and know we ain't miss some famous. Now my mission be so watching all the leaders leading banking Nona Minions. But we taught you enough to take us and we give into survivors city liars making black people compliant. Coon Rapids. Who are you asking? I'm proof. Survive the boomba trick bro. Ethics got me laughing at your message. And in Black Lives Matter. You would not get so defensive. We got cops and deeds and robberies and gas light us. We are not the same. We on the scene we pass typing cuz y'all don't care about us and we ain't come to ask. We just mind up businessing and people be so sucking mad. So pass the gun and mask and pass the athe. Nu Y'all can really kill us for anything. Y'all just bend the laws the same performance art, the same performative saving the racist head of normative. You can
Speaker 0 00:02:21 Burn. Burn the whole thing down. Burn it all. I don't care if y'all uncomfortable, we can burn whole thing down. You can burn it, burn it, burn it down. Couldn't care about it. Zone. You can burn a whole thing down down. Y'all don't really care about brother until we burn whole thing down down. Yeah, we about to go to work. Yeah, we about to let it
Speaker 3 00:03:10 Views from the ground, views from the damn ground views from the ground views from the damn ground views from the ground views from the damn ground. And that's on that, on that on day. Alright, this is, uh, DJ on your favorite agender host. I use they them pronouns. My name is Brandon. I use he him pronouns.
Speaker 4 00:03:29 My name is Jay. I use their he pronouns. My name's Nur d I use he him pronouns.
Speaker 5 00:03:34 My name is x, I use he him pronouns.
Speaker 3 00:03:36 All right, we're gonna jump straight into the nerdy spotlight, um, artist interview. So take it away. Nerdy.
Speaker 4 00:03:42 Yo everybody. Hello. Hello. Welcome. Turn on your radios. Turn 'em up. Grab everybody, you know, grab 'em into the room wherever you're at. If you're in the bathroom, leave 'em outside that take that time for you. But right now, <laugh>
Speaker 3 00:03:54 <laugh>
Speaker 4 00:03:55 Is the artist's spotlight again. Boy Nerd D. Every month we take this time to rock with somebody from our community. Making waves, making music out there. It's lovely, it's beautiful. And tonight we are here. Live in the studio with the one and only X. What is up X? Hello.
Speaker 5 00:04:12 Hello. How we doing? I'm doing good. You
Speaker 4 00:04:14 All doing good? It's great to be here. It's great to rock out. Every time we are on views from the ground, it's where, where it's all at. So we've been listening to your music all month long.
Speaker 5 00:04:25 Okay. What have, uh,
Speaker 4 00:04:26 It's been amazing. I gotta tell you, I gotta tell you. I love, I love when I get to like, show people some really new talent. And I love it when it's people that are from our community. Cause our music rocks. Tell us a little bit about like how you started, where, where you come from. Give us, tell them who you are. X.
Speaker 5 00:04:41 All right. Okay. My name's X. Uh, my real name's Xavier if we want to go by that, but, uh, I am, I've been doing music for basically all my life. It's really started with me doing choir in like elementary school and middle school and high school. And every opportunity I could really get. I tried to play instruments for a little bit. Definitely didn't work with that <laugh>, but, uh, a friend of mine got me into rapping. Just said, Hey, you sing, you should try this. And it's been like I caught fire ever since then. It's, I've loved it. Shout
Speaker 4 00:05:07 Out to that friend. Who's your friend? Do you know that friend?
Speaker 5 00:05:09 My friend Dan Dean. Shout out my friend Daneen. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:05:11 Dan Rap. Bringing the first sign. The talent. Absolutely. We love it. So, uh, so X we are playing a bunch of your music. You have so much versatility. Okay. In your sound. I think like, you, you one one track to the next. It's like you never know what's coming. Tell us, tell the people at home a little bit about your process. Like how do you create music in your head?
Speaker 5 00:05:32 Uh, really, for me, it all starts with a beat. Like, I think then that's why, like partially why the versatility comes in, because I just hear something I like and I, instead of going, I just go, oh, what type of song do I hear with this beat? Instead of like, what type? Like yeah, like thinking of a song or writing a song to myself and then finding a beat for it. I always, I like to get inspired by the beat first. And so if I hear something like muse, like something that's kind of like poppy love songy, then I'm like, all right, where would I hear this song? What, how would that song go? Even if it's not my usual hip hop rappy thing?
Speaker 4 00:06:06 Yeah. No. Cause like I said, muse is like very poppy. It's like dancing. Yeah. Where vibing about it. So, so, uh, where, where did that come from? Where did the, where was that inspiration from?
Speaker 5 00:06:18 Uh, I mean it's, uh, almost the hotline blingy type of, uh, or the Boss Nova. Boss
Speaker 4 00:06:27 Nova Vibes. Yeah. That's
Speaker 5 00:06:28 Where it came from. That's where it came from. I was listening to some Boss Nova and then that beat came up and I was like, okay, let's, let's give it a shot. And when I wrote it, I think I started it at like 8:00 AM when I started my workday. Yeah. And by like two, when I started three hours left, I was done with it. And I was like, this is a hit. You know, when it happens like that, that makes
Speaker 4 00:06:44 Yeah.
Speaker 5 00:06:45 A real
Speaker 4 00:06:45 One. Now speaking of Workday, I wanted a, I was working for your workday. I wanted to talk about a particular song, but we didn't get a chance to play on this month. And I'm sure we'll get to it. And I know the listeners will get to it once they start diving into your discography. Nine to five. Nine to
Speaker 5 00:06:58 Five.
Speaker 4 00:06:58 Everyone wants to, I wanted to play that one. Unfor. We have radio standards and practices, <laugh>, and there's certain things that, uh, certain things that we are not able to, to throw out to everybody. Tell me a little bit about nine to five for, for those of you who didn't get a chance to hear it on Air.
Speaker 5 00:07:12 Nine to five is for everyone who's ever hated their job or hated their
Speaker 4 00:07:16 Manager
Speaker 5 00:07:16 Or just been in a situation where everybody, they absolutely just can't stand where they are and they just need to,
Speaker 4 00:07:24 I felt
Speaker 5 00:07:24 Safe. Just get rid of it. Don't toss in the wind.
Speaker 4 00:07:27 <laugh>, thank you. Nine to five. I, I, uh, so, uh, for, for those of you who don't know, I performed with X at, uh, at a show on New Year's Eve. Eve of last year. Awesome Night. An awesome night, awesome night. And you performed that track. And I gotta say, the two things I, I wanted to tell people about that one, uh, it blew up. Everyone was like going crazy on the nine to five. I've been like, I can't, I don't even want to do it. I can't do it justice. But it was really dope. Also, I wanted to tell you in person, my choir teacher was there. My high school choir teacher was there. Okay. To see Mr. Steven Alba from Rosemont, Minnesota <laugh>,
Speaker 5 00:07:59 Bob the 95
Speaker 4 00:08:01 Cut. But then I also was like, your job was to teach me. Are you not liking that big boy? He's loving him. Music speaks, music
Speaker 5 00:08:09 Speaks to everybody, man. I mean, and who knows what he, who knows what he was doing before he taught. Yeah. And he might have hated that job and been like, Hey, I, I vibed this, this is exactly how I'm feeling.
Speaker 4 00:08:17 Yeah. So, um, for people who, how do you balance doing music and also having like a regular workday? Where is your, what, how does that look like for you?
Speaker 5 00:08:28 Uh, I work from eight to five. Uh, I just pack car parts and send 'em out to shops. And then, I mean, from there, it's either, I like to write a lot when I'm driving mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So while I'm out delivering car parts, I'll do writing then. And hopefully by then I can get an idea. And then from there, rush straight to the studio, record something, record a demo, and then I can just start working around it. But, uh, weekends, nights, and weekends, man, like, it's all, I'm all big on studio time.
Speaker 6 00:08:54 You'd be like listening to instrumentals on your drives, like when you're
Speaker 5 00:08:57 Yeah, I'm, I'm all over beat stars now. <laugh>. Hey man. If there's any producers out there who are looking to get some beats off men, please send 'em my way. <laugh>. Um, I am buying right now. I'm looking, I'm trying to make some new stuff. So let's get some, let's get some work done.
Speaker 4 00:09:08 That's right. Hey, if you're, if you're a person who listens, uh, to the pro broadcast, I know that's everybody. It's, everybody listens to the broadcast. This is the best show on the history of Minnesota Radio. Everybody knows that it's been a, it's been official for a while now. Undisputed. Um, please network with everybody you hear on this program. If you hear a poet, if you hear a musician, you hear somebody like, Ooh, that person's dope, please network. Hit 'em up. Please hit me up. Yeah. Cuz that's what it's all about. But let me, I'm gonna ask you another question. You run with a collective, is that correct? I
Speaker 5 00:09:35 Do. I do, I do collect. What's
Speaker 4 00:09:36 The collective, what's
Speaker 5 00:09:37 The collective? Ken Collective. K Yn family, like Kindred Spear. It's my boys. My brothers.
Speaker 4 00:09:41 That's lovely. Yes. Now, tell, tell, like, how does a collective kind of enhance what you do? Like where, where, where does the benefit of that? It's
Speaker 5 00:09:49 All support. I was doing this alone, dolo for so long, and with, I mean, with them around me, they're, they're my longtime friends. And so it's just, I don't know, it happened naturally and we kind of just wanted to make something and it didn't work out one time. And I don't know, they just came around and just being there to have somebody be like, no, this is a dope song. You should continue with this. And just like, push you to make more, or like throw something or finish a song for you that you've had unfinished for Who knows how long it could be months, years, weeks. Yeah. But just, just having the, the support of having other artists who understand what you're going through and are trying to achieve the same goal there together is it, it, it, it, it means so much. Like, it, it, it really helps like, boost you up and like, keep that workflow going and just reach higher for like, higher aspirations. Man,
Speaker 4 00:10:37 That's real. That's really real. Working together, unity, communication, like all of that stuff is so powerful, especially in our industry that we have, uh, right now in our community as well. I think that's something that we do very well. As in Minneapolis, twin Cities, Minnesota, we tend to connect mm-hmm. <affirmative> in that way. Do you, what, what is a, what is a big show that you've done that you felt really proud of? Like that you, when you've got done, you walked off, you were like, yeah, that was it.
Speaker 5 00:11:03 I mean, uh, the New Year's Eve show. Okay. I
Speaker 4 00:11:07 Was really proud of when I walked
Speaker 5 00:11:08 Down stage with that. It was a fantastic show. I thought I did. Like, I think I was walking off of that like, man, I haven't performed like that in a while. Thanks, COVID. But I mean,
Speaker 4 00:11:17 Thanks again. Yeah, thanks again.
Speaker 5 00:11:19 But I mean, you know, I, it was, it was like super, super, super amazing to get out in front of a stage again with all those people. But aside from that, I mean, any time that I got to really perform, I used to love Honey mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so anytime that I got to perform at Honey, like just, I, I love the vibes, I love the people that worked there. Yeah. And everybody who always came out like it. It was just a great stage to rock. Speaking
Speaker 4 00:11:38 Of, speaking of like, uh, COVID d and like that kind of stuff, like things shutting down as a young up and coming artist with the landscape change mm-hmm. <affirmative> post, uh, post the, you know, the pandemic and the lockdown. How do you, what do you feel is missing or is there anything missing in the scene that can help young up and cutting artists come up?
Speaker 5 00:12:00 Uh, just talk to network and talk to everybody who you possibly can. And also, I mean, with the way that Covid changed things, a lot of things closed down. Yeah. A lot of people don't know where to throw shows anymore. Mm. And so just, I mean, that's why, and that just goes with talk, talk, communicate. Like, I mean, don't be afraid to walk up to a venue and ask 'em. Just be like, Hey, I want to throw a show here. Are you down with that? Or, and if that doesn't work, then move on to the next one. But like, just be relentless with the networking and wor I mean, be respectful. Yeah. But be relentless with the networking and the work and the collaborating with other people around the city. Because I mean, that's just gonna make everything that we do that much bigger and better.
Speaker 4 00:12:35 Have you found any, like, hindrances or blocks to trying to do that? Like, is there, like, is there any pushback? Uh, because I know hip hop can sometimes be very, um, what's the, what's the right word? Is it divisive to certain venue people? Uh, diploma diplomat. That was my very diplomatic, uh, way of saying they're black. There's too many black people for the at one time. Uh, there's been <laugh>. I'm, I'm too, this is is your first, this is this for those of, you know, this is his first black radio show interview. So I just started to throw him all those things.
Speaker 5 00:13:11 <laugh>. Oh no, let's go, let's go on here before I'm ready.
Speaker 4 00:13:13 Throw in. Throw in. Yeah.
Speaker 5 00:13:15 But, um, I mean,
Speaker 5 00:13:17 There have been some places not necessarily in the cities Yeah. That I've tried to get into that I felt like I wasn't really welcomed at after trying to get into it year after year after year. And then I kind of took the, took the hint after that. And I'm like, okay, you guys aren't really ha like looking for hip hop acts, so I'm just gonna like, take my business elsewhere and let you guys do what you wanna do. But I mean, around the cities, I mean, mostly it's us throwing shows for us, like hip hop acts, throwing shows, who, and they want dope, other dope people on their acts. And so they're just trying to like, promote and get cool people out and just show love and have, have a good time, have a good night.
Speaker 4 00:13:51 And that's, I think that's great. And that's again, where the collective comes in. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> working together with other artists, like-minded artists, you can kind of insulate yourself from some of that, you know, negativity. Exactly. Because you have a little pre-made group. Right. And kind of go from place to place
Speaker 5 00:14:05 And you can, I mean, and even when you're getting, like, say you're getting turned down by places mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you always have that support system Yeah. To be like, Hey look, it's okay. What about this spot? We haven't talked to them. We can always bounce back. You know, it's just keeping everything going and being there when somebody else needs you. Always tell everybody in the collective, I'm like, if you need anything, hit me up. Let me know. One of us is in, uh, the Dominican Republic right now, shout out Crush. And I was like, man, if you need me to post, do anything, upload songs while you're gone, I can do all that. I got it. I'm just here to help.
Speaker 4 00:14:34 You didn't know this, this show is number one in the Dominican Republic as well. <laugh> number one
Speaker 5 00:14:37 In the Music
Speaker 4 00:14:38 Republic. We're about to get like, sued. I know. I don't, I don't think I can say that for real. And Haiti though. The whole island whole, here's the thing. Most and Yola, I was told that there I was given a, a group of things that I'm not allowed to say. I read some of them <laugh>. So there might be some things that I say not, and not everything I say is, is necessarily, uh, responsible of the, the views of the entire station as a whole <laugh>. So just let that be what it is. Okay. So X let me ask you a few questions. What I always ask every artist that comes on, we do an interview with, okay, if, is there an artist or artists living or dead that you would love to perform with? Had you had the chance, or if you have the chance. Uh,
Speaker 5 00:15:25 Man, until like a couple weeks ago, my answer would've been real clear. But now it's real. Oh yeah. Until a couple weeks ago, my answer would've been real clever. Now it's real divisive and I don't really want to step on that too.
Speaker 4 00:15:36 Ooh, okay. Whoa, whoa. Hold on, hold on.
Speaker 5 00:15:40 I mean, my man Kanye was,
Speaker 7 00:15:44 I knew as soon as he said it, I'll do it. Oh bro. Before some recent
Speaker 5 00:15:51 Events, it would've
Speaker 7 00:15:51 Definitely been Kanye West, but graduation the past couple years, he made Graduat. I was gonna say that was like, things have been rocky for a while.
Speaker 4 00:16:02 That man was, that was Alu. Remember that slow fall joke? <laugh>, that slow fall joke. How old people fall really slowly. That man's been falling really slowly for quite a time. Ah, ah,
Speaker 5 00:16:15 It's been a really rough decline for us all Kae fans just trying to hang out. All
Speaker 4 00:16:19 Right, so outside <laugh>, outside of Alex Jones's good friend Kanye
Speaker 7 00:16:25 <laugh>.
Speaker 4 00:16:27 Who do you, can we, let's turn it around. <laugh>. Oh no. Oh, I, I saw it in your eyes.
Speaker 7 00:16:36 I dunno what, I don't know what stage that would be. I don't think you wanna be on it though. I dunno. The venue that are taking him anymore.
Speaker 4 00:16:44 Lot of pointy, lot of pointy hats.
Speaker 7 00:16:46 See oh man. And see, I'm out. I'm out.
Speaker 5 00:16:48 You know, I can't, there's some people that can't rock.
Speaker 4 00:16:51 Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Speaker 5 00:16:53 Um, man, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a huge fan of Hope. I love Jay-Z. Okay. I would love this stuff. On the stage I was raised off Jay-Z my dad's been playing Jay-Z in the car with me since I was like a type type. So Yeah. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 4 00:17:05 That's dope. Would
Speaker 5 00:17:06 Crazy. I saw him perform once and it was life changing.
Speaker 4 00:17:10 I, I saw him perform once at the, at the Target center was You were probably the same place. Yeah. Timberland was. I remember looking at the stage, I was like, who's playing piano for him? Was like, is that Timberland? That
Speaker 5 00:17:20 Was the second time I saw Timberland. That's crazy. First time with Justin Timberlake.
Speaker 4 00:17:24 Oh wow. Okay. All right. So, uh, what, is there a venue here in the, in, in, uh, twin Cities? Is there a venue that you would love to play at one day? First. First, yeah. Play first. The main, the main
Speaker 5 00:17:35 Main I'd love. Yeah. Yeah. I would love to play first. The main stage. I mean, it's great, but then, I mean, bigger than that, um, I really like the Armory. Oh,
Speaker 4 00:17:43 Okay. I
Speaker 5 00:17:44 Really like the Army. Like going to shows at the Army. Yeah. The Armory seems pretty cool. And the Excel Center is just a, a major dream. I mean, just, who wouldn't like to play the Excel Center? I mean, it'd be cool if you can, if you can bring that many people someplace Yes. Might as well rock it out and have the biggest party you possibly can.
Speaker 4 00:17:58 Might as well. And I feel like you're on your way. We got you got, you got a lot of, you got a lot of energy behind you. You got a lot of, you got a really lot of good talent. So it's really dope to see. Thank you. We're gonna see X at the XL X at the XL very soon. Sunday. Sunday. So well tell everybody real quick, where can they find you? Where's all the stuff? If you have anything coming up, uh, outside of your, uh, Kanye West collaboration,
Speaker 5 00:18:20 <laugh>. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Kanye West Collaborations coming up. Good, good. Yeah, none of that. Um, I <laugh> just uploaded a bunch of songs to Disco kids, so I'll be dropping, uh, music coming up pretty soon. Probably about a song a month, hopefully for the next couple months. Oh wow. Um, yeah, it'll, at the end of the, the day after they're all released, I'll group 'em into a little compilation and I'll have a little project for like, the summer maybe.
Speaker 4 00:18:44 That's super dope. Where, where can they, where can they find you if they wanna listen to your music?
Speaker 5 00:18:47 Oh, anywhere and everywhere. Band Camp, Spotify, apple Music title for those who listen to title, um, SoundCloud, even. I still put all my stuff up on SoundCloud for the people who are diehards and just won't leave me alone there. <laugh>. But yeah, everywhere. SoundCloud absolutely everywhere. And I'm on all social media, Instagram, Facebook. So Skin Collective. We're everywhere.
Speaker 4 00:19:07 Got it. All right. Well, hey, thank you so much X for rocking. We gotta we got a little bit more time though real quick. So before we, before you get you outta here, any of y'all have any questions for X before we, we bounce about them off?
Speaker 5 00:19:17 What's up?
Speaker 4 00:19:20 Yeah. Nope, I got it. Wait, hold on, hold on. No, I wasn't, I wasn't ready. Nobody's ready. This is what we do. We came through here ready to do nothing other than hang out because that's what, sometimes we just hang out. So let me ask you, I'll ask you one more question before Okay. Before we, we jump off. Sure. So, okay, I'm gonna ask you if you were mm-hmm. <affirmative> to be able mm-hmm. <affirmative> to write a song for, or write a soundtrack for a particular franchise character or series that has yet to be made. What do you think you would be able to knock out of the park?
Speaker 5 00:19:54 That's crazy. Yeah. Static shock. Ooh.
Speaker 4 00:19:59 Say that. What a good answer. Say static shock. That so
Speaker 5 00:20:02 Static shock. Damn. I, it, it is. I thought of it. What really got me was that has yet to be made. Cause I'm like, oh man, set me up for the next whatever they're doing with Avatar. The last Air been doing
Speaker 4 00:20:11 <laugh>. But
Speaker 5 00:20:12 Yeah, static Shock would be crazy. Like I see the, I see the potential there.
Speaker 4 00:20:15 Yeah. See what's up. We all know that Michael B. Jordan is a big fan of this show. Uh, they're calling, they call in every day to say something to dj. I remember <laugh> that
Speaker 5 00:20:25 Set.
Speaker 4 00:20:26 Okay. Dj. Yeah. Yeah. You know, always on. So, uh, when you're listening to this back, uh, Michael b uh, X is ready. I'm ready.
Speaker 5 00:20:34 I'm ready. And waiting. Like we can make some calls. We can work some magic. Let's do it.
Speaker 4 00:20:39 So do you think that, uh, you would rather do a static than like, uh, another Miles Morales or something like that? You like static, right? That's your, that's your dude. Static. Yeah. Static's been, I mean, much loved to Miles Morales into the Spider verse was fantastic, but yeah, Dick static's my guy. I'd love to do that. It'd be crazy. Alright, well look to Hollywood X is ready to bring static to the big screen. So if you need a, if you need a, if you need a thing, thank you so much X for coming through here. Thank you for inviting me. You got a shock to your system. Six. Wow. Check 'em out everywhere. On all the socials X. That's E X, X E, X. This has been the artist spotlight. Which boy Nerd. D Woo. Woo.
Speaker 8 00:21:18 All right. Oh, have you noticed the vending machine selling lottery scratch games at the airport? As if getting to the airport, making it through security, finding the right gate and the weather not canceling your flight wasn't enough of a gamble. A kfa I isn't risky at all. You know, you are always going to get the coolest mix of music because every program is personally crafted by the show's host. And you know that your
[email protected] will always go into keeping the station strong. K F A I, the community's true voice and we won't lose your luggage.
Speaker 10 00:22:10 Fresh Air's Board of Directors is meeting Monday at 7:00 PM Members of the public are encouraged to attend and provide public comment the more information. Visit cafe i.org.
Speaker 8 00:22:25 K f A I is proud to present Mad Mojo Jet at the Turf Club on Friday, February 3rd, mad Mojo Jet is a local party, rock Garage Trash Doom Pop Quartet featuring members from the toxin, low Rats and Jet Kick. Joining Mad Mojo Jet on the bill are fellow local bands, pill cutter, the mood swings and spit tapes. Tickets for Mad Mojo Jet can be found at the First Avenue website. Visit first avenue.com for more details.
Speaker 12 00:23:03 K ffa, I is proud to present the Tana Hill Weavers at the Cedar Cultural Center. On Wednesday, February 8th, the Tana Hill Weavers have made an international name for their special brand of Celtic music, blending the beauty of traditional melodies with the power of modern rhythms. As one of the world's premier traditional Celtic bands, their diverse repertoire spans the centuries with fire driven instrumentals, topical songs, original ballads, and lullabies and humorous tales of life in Scotland. Tickets for the Tanya Weavers can be found at the Cedar Cultural Center website. Visit the cedar.org for more details.
Speaker 4 00:23:40 It's like, I'm around. Same as that time.
Speaker 8 00:23:42 Welcome back here. To Views From the Ground. Views
Speaker 6 00:23:45 From the Damn Ground. So,
Speaker 3 00:23:47 Um, nerdy is out the house, so Brandon's gonna take it away, um, with the words from Freedom Interview.
Speaker 6 00:23:53 Yeah. So all month long we've been doing words of freedom, uh, segment here on views from the ground, views
Speaker 3 00:23:59 From the damn ground where
Speaker 6 00:24:00 We give local poets a chance to, you know, free their mind, free their heart, and liberate their souls, uh, with their words of freedom. So all month long we were listening to some amazing poetry, some amazing interludes off of people's albums, stuff like that. And all that work was done by the Lenore Elaine, and we have her in the studio here today. Peace y
Speaker 14 00:24:20 <laugh>.
Speaker 6 00:24:21 So you do so many things, right? When it comes to poetry, when it comes to curating, when it comes to teaching, when it comes to, uh, putting on tours of buses, bus loads of people from the East Coast to the Midwest all over the place, you know, um, but all of it, uh, you know, revolves around poetry. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So if you could think back to, when did you, even before that little sidebar. So whenever I think of you, and when I hear you do your poetry, I'm like, see, that's how poetry supposed to sound. That is, that is what poetry sounds like. She is what Poetry sounds like <laugh>. So think back to maybe when you found poetry or when like poetry found you mm-hmm. <affirmative>, or talk a little bit about how that started.
Speaker 14 00:25:10 Uh, I was in fourth grade and one of my teachers, she had his right poetry and I just liked doing it. I just, I think my first poem was about God's eyes being the stars. And she's like, that's really deep <laugh>
Speaker 3 00:25:23 For a fourth grader.
Speaker 14 00:25:24 And then, um, and then I didn't really get into spoken word until I was 16. And, uh, I had actually started listening to Def Jam Pry. And I, I just hit me. That was something, but it was Def Jam was one of the things. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, listen, Def, um, poetry Jam. And I was like, oh, I'm gonna do that <laugh>. That sounds. So I started writing and then started performing when I was 16 and I've been doing it ever since.
Speaker 6 00:25:47 Got you. Um, so that's a long career of doing, you know, poetry, writing poems and, and performing. Can you think back to the first time off the top of your head that, you know, being a poet and being an artist, there's a lot of like, insecurity that comes with that from time to time. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Can you think back to the first time where you did something, you were like, oh no, I did that <laugh>. Like, can't nobody tell me nothing. That was dope. That was cold. If you could think back,
Speaker 14 00:26:14 I mean, if, if those moments came, it was probably one of those surpri it was private moments. Hmm. Okay. Like <laugh>, when I was in my mirror, practicing on the bus stop practicing my poetry. So anybody in Philly might saw mean this bus stop, this <laugh> focusing <laugh> honestly. Um, but I would say, Hmm, uh, whew. Yeah. I don't ever feel that way. I think, um, yeah, I don't know if I ever feel that way. Like I did that. Like, it was like, really? Cuz I don't feel like I'm doing it. I feel like I'm being, I'm a channeler, I'm a vessel for the most high. Okay. And then when I'm really like in my bag, I feel like I'm not even there. Like Eagle Lenore is not there, but I'm there with everybody and everybody's with me. Okay. But, um, yeah, I can't think I was of a moment like that <laugh> <laugh> to be honest.
Speaker 14 00:27:04 I would say mo moment. I was, I really proud of, in 2017, I did, um, my first open mic. So my first show, um, big show in Philadelphia, and we had a lot of people come out. It was a, a community. I looked down in the crowd and was just all these people, I'm like, all y'all came to this for sister. That's what's up. So in that way, I felt like I did something, but it wasn't the necessarily the poetry that was, I was born to bringing the community together and just seeing us to sea of beautiful black and brown faces and Philly doing that thing. So that was a proud moment.
Speaker 6 00:27:38 Got where, where do you see, or where can you see through your work? Where do you think you've grown the most over this long career? Mm-hmm.
Speaker 14 00:27:47 <affirmative>. Um, I've, I feel a lot more confident, more often, um, getting more and more confident every time I perform and, um, you know, having brothers like you and like, support me in the ways I have. And then even more so, um, just recently I was a, a poetry slam, so I won my first couple of poetry slams this year. And then I was at <laugh> Okay. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, um, I never only won, participate in a poetry slam, so I was always afraid of competition. So when I participated and I won, that really helped me build my confidence and my own voice. And then, um, this most recent poetry slam shout out to j o Speaks was an online poetry slam, but he has, um, really, um, experienced poets be judges and give us feedback. And that really helped me with my own, not only my pen game will also my performance and figuring out ways to be more centered when I perform. So yeah, I feel like I get more confident every day. Gotcha.
Speaker 6 00:28:41 Okay. Um, mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So when we listen to a lot of your work, um, a lot of it is very pro-black and is, uh, <laugh> centered around that. Um, why do you think, one, why do you think you do that? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> or two, why do you think that it's important that you do that and that other artists do that? Other black artists do that? Well,
Speaker 14 00:29:04 I'm a black woman and so like, I think any, anyone, any poet artist puts themselves in their work, um, their, their identity in their work. And so since blackness is such a big part of, of my identity, woman is such a big part of my identity, a lot of my stories come to that center point that is black, that is woman. But I'm trying, actually, I'm like learning to like, see myself as bigger than that as a mm-hmm. <affirmative> first divine being universal being, and then probably going center in. But my experiences is in, in this current reality I live in mm-hmm. <affirmative> has always been a black woman. So therefore I feel like it's important to speak for my truth. And my truth is, as a black woman, so I'm on the mission that I mission that fact that there's certain things I was able to do and not able to do because of my identity.
Speaker 14 00:29:50 Um, I think it's important for a black artist, I guess to not necessarily talk about being a black artist, but just talk about being themselves and therefore that might include their, their, um, journey as black people in, in America, or black people in this world. And I feel like if you're being true to you can't ignore it. Like you cannot escape that no matter if, even when you're born on, like, on some Hillary Banks type level of richness. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you cannot escape being, um, being tied to the collective trauma that is being a black person in this world, at least for the last 600 years mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but I try to not ne necessarily focus on our traumas, but focus on all the reasons we can celebrate ourselves, all the reasons we're glor, we're glorious in black people, all the history they don't tell us in our history books mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, and, and all the ways that we can create a future for ourselves tapping into our magic, our power. So, um, because I feel like a lot we have, we overhear I think I talked to you about about this before, we always hear these stories about us trying to be free and us struggling and like our, all right, I know that story, but what's the new story we're trying to write moving forward? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So that's how I focus on mm-hmm.
Speaker 6 00:31:01 <affirmative>. So you talk about living your experience and putting that into your work. Um, so when you wrote the piece, uh, when a black man dances mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, what what inspired you to, to write a piece about, I mean your, your, it's not your experience, but about the black men's experience as well.
Speaker 14 00:31:22 Weird actually was two fucks of DJs here. Shout out to DJ for this. Cause actually that day I, I started writing that poem. I was thinking about you, why it is so crazy, <laugh>, why, cause I dunno if y'all know this. So dj, when I was uh, uh, 2021, I was a leader or, uh, the youth program coordinator for um, Nia and MA Youth Center and DJ used to come to the open Max House host there and do Gills, got har poems. Oh. And I was thinking about him and his father when I was walking. I was like, man, he used to be spitting those poems. And Gil, Scott, Karen, I was thinking about Gil Scott hearing's voice. I'm like, yo, that's dope. If I can write a poem like in the St. Cadence as Gil Scott. And I was thinking about like, I love when the black man dances.
Speaker 14 00:32:04 And that's when it started <laugh>. And then, um, and I was thinking about how he was doing his poetry, like literally. And I was like, yo, that would be dope to write some poem. Like, and so that's what kind of inspired me. So that thought led to a thought, the thinking about like, I just love when black man dances. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that led to like me writing like this, like what happens on a magical, on a magical supernatural level when a black man dances. And then, um, and then I just start thinking about all my, the black men in my life, especially my father, my friends, my students, and thinking about all these moments they dance and like what allows someone dance or what they're dancing against. And then I just pinned this poem and it came out of me this, and the whole time I'm thinking about Gil Scott Heron's way of, of cadence of where he has that rhyme, but he has that jazz bebo type of rhythm. And I really was trying to, um, copy that and the way I did it. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:32:56 You you really taking me back. Whoa. Those, that was way back in the day. Most
Speaker 14 00:33:01 Definitely. That
Speaker 3 00:33:02 Almost feel like another lifetime. <laugh>. That's
Speaker 14 00:33:05 Crazy. Cuz that was one of my most inspirational times, man. Like, the reason I do a lot of things that I do is cause those moments.
Speaker 6 00:33:11 So let's, uh, let's talk about it. You said that you have, um, not only have you had your successful career doing, um, art and poetry, but you've also taught and you've led mm-hmm. <affirmative> and you, you curate mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Can you talk a little bit about why you felt the need to do that and why you felt uh, uh, like, I don't wanna say pressured, but like compelled to be like mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's not always gonna be about me. Cuz you always make it so much about every, most everybody, you know,
Speaker 14 00:33:38 It always is. It always is. Cause um, so first I'm the founder Oran Arsenal. Oran, the word Oran, the yoba word for source a k, we all come from the same source. We all started with the same source. So in that belief, we all have sourced wisdom, wisdom god, wisdom within us that we can extend to each other. So I started with the sister circles because, um, I was teaching in, in Phil in Camden, New Jersey. And when I was teaching, um, a lot of my students would come in eating junk food, like soda and honey bums for breakfast. I'm like, no wonder they can't focus on my class. They're eating junk food every day. So I call parents and I'll let 'em know like, you know, it might help if they, you know, weren't eating honey bums and hot Cheetos for breakfast. They're like, I didn't know they were doing that and I didn't even know that would matter.
Speaker 14 00:34:22 And I was like, you know what? The thing is, like, maybe if I was a more experienced teacher, may wouldn't matter. No. But <laugh> at the same time, um, a lot of just didn't know how the physical health of their children affected the ability to learn. Then one of my mothers came in and she had lost all this weight. And on top of that, her, her Turk daughters both, I had both her daughters, they started doing way better in school. And so I'm like, well, how'd you lose all this weight? She said, oh, I just stopped eating sugar. But even more so, I noticed how her daughter started doing better in school as, as she got healthier mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that's why it came to me like, oh, women, women are the first teachers, the first leaders of the, of the home of the children.
Speaker 14 00:34:57 And so when the woman's healed, then the, the family's healed, the community's healed. So I started doing Oreo and sister circles and um, I started that in 2014. And then that building and brother side come to me, you should do, um, circles for brothers too. I'm like, y'all need to do your own circles, <laugh>. But now I started thinking about, well, there's other things I could do. So I started doing, um, the open mics and then, um, in Philly and shows in Philly. And now I started doing something called Always Sun Creates. The next one's gonna be February 2nd. Um, and that's four Brothers. So it's like the sister circles, but it's for everybody, men and women. And then I started doing the writing workshops this past in 2019. So, um, in that just trying to build, create, um, community around creating, because I believe through creating, we're able to access our God power through creating cuz creators our creators, you feel the creator created us.
Speaker 14 00:35:50 And so when we tap into our creative energy, we tap into our doc our God power as well as a healing space, tap into a God power that allows each other to heal each other, to more, uh, to heal each other, to lead to more healing. I'm talking so bad <laugh>. So tap into our source wisdom to help give each other, um, guidance, tap into our source creativity to help create beautiful things, to help us heal ourselves is the main point thing of Ho Sun. And, um, so the events I create are not just like you just come and sit, but I try to have inter engaging interactive ways of, um, of, of building your stuff and building community. So, um, the next big event I have is the black, my annual Black Love Day party, which in this year we're focusing on filmmakers and we're not just gonna be watching the films, the short films that these filmers submitted, but also we're going to be talking about how these films, um, support, challenge or inform us about how we can love each other. And then we're also gonna be doing some games and stuff. So it's gonna be a good time. So it's not just like a party Party, it's a party with a purpose.
Speaker 6 00:36:51 Okay. Ooh. Okay. Yeah. Um, <laugh>, so you've talked about, you know, how you started and, and now what you are doing with, uh, your curation and you're creating events and stuff like that. What is next? Like what, what is something that you've been like, oh, I gotta kind of tap into that, or I kind of want to go into that lane a little bit, or I want to create a space where this can happen. Or like what's, what's something that you want to do but haven't gotten around to doing yet?
Speaker 14 00:37:19 Right. Well, coming soon, hopefully by the, by this summer it will be the online marketplace. Dedicat cater to artists and artisans. So they wanna buy your book. They can go online and look up poetry books and they find your book. They wanna buy, um, some custom made jewelry. They can buy it online. They wanna get access to a black reiki professional or uh, uh, just a buck healthcare and wellness professional. So I don't really wanna start expanding to more healthcare and wellness, um, hub for people of color to come to, because it's really hard for us to find wellness in healthcare workers, healers that are dedicated to us and dedicated to knowing about us and our as unique beings on this planet. Um, and I say us as the melanated people because it's a different experience. Uh, and we have different healing that we need that the, you know, western healthcare work doesn't really do for us.
Speaker 14 00:38:07 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> number two. Um, the bus tour is gonna be coming around again this year. So that's, this next bus tour will come from Minneapolis to Philadelphia. And, um, that's gonna be focusing on gathering artists and connecting, um, artists in different cities, especially black and brown artists. And preserving culture that black and brown people create before it gets capitalized on by, you know, the powers that be. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then, uh, the last thing is I really wanna look forward to doing retreats and conferences. Someone try to phase out of doing monthly events and doing more quarterly events. So, um, yeah, so women retreats, artists retreats, and then, um, big conferences dedicated to educating people about holistic health and healing. So that's the main goal. And I'm just trying to right now focus on building community, which is why I'm doing the monthly events.
Speaker 6 00:38:56 Got you. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Very, very cool. Um, so again, like I said, you do so many things mm-hmm. <affirmative> and they always center around art center around blackness, center around community. But to focus on that, that art piece, um, you as an artist and everyone has artists mm-hmm. <affirmative>, being an artist has its ups and downs, uh, has its parts you love, parts you hate. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so I'm gonna ask you a two part question. I ask like all of my poets this, what is your favorite part about being an artist? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Then also, what is your least favorite part about being an artist?
Speaker 14 00:39:30 My favorite part is, like I said, me having that access to God power. Like I really, when I'm writing like something really from my heart as not, I just feel God using me. And in that, I feel like that's what we all seek when we do drugs, when we're having sex, when we're at church, when we're at work, when we're working out, we're always seeking that alignment to the most high. And so for me, creating is one of my best ways to, to to have access to that alignment. Um, and sharing my work is, is also part of that experience then. But the next thing, what's the worst part? Being an artist, I don't feel like there's another worst part. I don't really feel like that at all. No, everything's good. Like I, everything I do, like even being like my legal job right now as a teacher, as a teacher, like of my nine to five brother as a teacher, that's art.
Speaker 14 00:40:20 Everything is art. Everything's creating, everything's creating cuz you, your mind creates your reality. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so when I understand that there's nothing that can stop me from creating what life I wanna live even more. So, um, with that, when hard times come, whether it is as an artist or it's as a, a, a human being, like I had to sit back and realize, all right, sure. Some part of me created this. There's some decisions I made that created this, but even more so there's something I needed from this that will help me become a better person. So in that, I, I send gratitude to the most high mm-hmm. <affirmative> for helping me give, giving me this challenge so I can become stronger, wiser, and all that kinder <laugh>. So every hardship has always had like a beautiful ending, so. Gotcha. Nothing's bad.
Speaker 6 00:41:07 Okay. Um, so I mean, you heard it here straight from, straight from Leno, Elaine herself. Can you tell people how they can find you, follow your work and all that type of stuff. So go ahead, plug your social media's, websites, all that stuff,
Speaker 14 00:41:20 Um, for us at that, appreciate y'all for having me Of course. And remind of me and sharing my work. Of course, of
Speaker 6 00:41:25 Course. I was so grateful,
Speaker 14 00:41:26 Grateful to be connected with DJ and all that. <laugh> lessons on lessons to everything y'all do. Um, my name is Leno Elaine. You can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Leno Elaine, l e n o r a e l a i n e. My business website is ri sun wellness.com. That's o r i S U n wellness.com. And you can find out more about my services, my events, and hopefully soon, very soon, the products, um, about be having online for your wellness and your creativity
Speaker 6 00:41:59 And speaking of products mm-hmm. <affirmative>, someone has a book that is out. Uh, so go ahead and tell people, uh, where they can find that at mm-hmm. <affirmative> if they would like, and, and that
Speaker 14 00:42:09 I just published my first blood clot, everything on
Speaker 6 00:42:12 Publish what? Ok.
Speaker 14 00:42:15 So it's a great to get it done, but everything is everything by the philosophy in Leno Lang. So you can hear, read more about what I think this idea of oneness is through my poetry, but even more so, um, you can buy it on Amazon. This type in Leno, Elena, Amazon. Um, eventually it will be on my website as well.
Speaker 6 00:42:34 Got you. Okay. Well thank you. Thank you so much for coming in. Um, thank y'all. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work, seeing more of your events, hearing more of your poetry, hearing you on some other people's albums and all that type of dope stuff that you've been doing. Yeah. Say get me yo <laugh>. That's what I'm saying. You need an interlude. You need an interlude. You me, head of minority Elaine, she gonna get you. Right. So thank you. Thank you so much. Yes sir. Thanks for coming in and, uh, yeah, thank you DJ for letting us do this tonight. Yeah, of
Speaker 3 00:43:01 Course. Uh, with that we're gonna take a quick break.
Speaker 14 00:43:04 <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:43:28 Open your heart.
Speaker 3 00:43:57 All right. Now welcome back the views from the
Speaker 15 00:43:59 Ground. Views from the damn ground.
Speaker 3 00:44:01 All right. We have a, um, Jay Gates who's here to educate the masses. So go ahead.
Speaker 15 00:44:08 Uh, what's up? My name is Jay. I do the Historical Currents news segment every month. Um, and this month we are talking about protests, police and pollution untangling the history of the cop city movement. Um, Atlanta has recently been in headlines a lot as several dozen protestors occupied Milani Forest in DeKalb County. 85 acres of forest are slated to be destroyed in order to build a new police training facility to bring more law enforcement to Atlanta. Anti-police and environmental protestors have vehemently opposed the plan development forming the Stop Cop City movement to try and keep the facility from being built. Protestors have correctly pointed out that historically additional training does not reduce police violence against the public, and that such facilities actually increase the likelihood of deadly force encounters. Additionally, forest defenders who occupied Yani Forest for months in attempt, uh, to halt construction, were subjected to a brutal raid on January 19th leading to multiple arrests.
Speaker 15 00:45:11 And the tragic murder of indigenous activist Manuel Tortu Gita Teran, um, police narratives on raids on the raid have followed the usual course of claiming they feared for their lives, saying that protestors shot at them and forced in the return fire. Since the raid, solitary actions and protests have sprung up across the US and fueled the struggle against police violence while the general opposition to cop city merits attention on its own. What's not being talked about as much is the environmental angle of the ongoing resistance and the reason why this struggle is centered in Atlanta specifically. So today I'm kind of exploring the history of environmental racism in Atlanta, um, and trying to give a little bit of context for listeners who are like less familiar with black environmentalism in the South. Uh, but first I kind of wanted to, um, talk about like what is environmental racism? Um, so like when you hear the term environmental racism, like what do you think of, what does that mean to you?
Speaker 6 00:46:11 When I hear environmental racism, I think about the, um, areas with nothing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right? That's where you send the, the poor people, the poor black and brown people specifically is you, oh, there's a, a part of town that has no resources mm-hmm. <affirmative>, oh, that's where they'll send them. Oh, there's a part of town that we can build a highway through mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's gonna be the black and brown part of town. Oh, there's a town where we need to dump our toxic waste at mm-hmm. <affirmative> build our power lines at, it's gonna be the black and brown part of town. So when I think of environmental racism, I think of them either damaging the environment or, or using what is already poorly given with no resources and allocating black and brown people to go there cuz they know that they have no, no need for it or, or they don't wanna live there. But
Speaker 15 00:47:03 It's, it's that expend ability. Right. Exactly. That like, you know, black neighborhoods are infinitely expendable. They're the first, they're the first thing that gets like, mowed down when, like you said, like there needs to be a highway or there mm-hmm. <affirmative> Yeah. Where there needs to be something else.
Speaker 3 00:47:16 Yeah. When, when I think of environmental racism, I think of high spikes of asthma and, uh, lead poisoning. I think of, uh, uh, Rondo mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I think of, uh, all of those types of things, you know, uh, the East Phillips neighborhood currently. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. Um, yeah. So
Speaker 15 00:47:34 That's, yeah. They're gonna release a lot of asbestos by, by trying to demo that building the way that they're planning to do it. And like, I think that, you know, knowing, knowing like what environmental racism even is and like kind of the mechanism by which that happens is like part of combating it. Right. And I feel like we don't, we don't really talk about like how environmental racism like happens. And so, um, the, the term environmental racism was first coined by a black activist and academic named Robert Boyard. Um, he's often considered the father of the environmental justice movement and refers to, um, the, the term environmental racism refers to any policy, practice or directive that differential affects or disadvantages where intended or unintended individuals, groups or communities based on race. Um, and in practice, like kind of what this idea means is that areas where racial minorities live are considered less valuable.
Speaker 15 00:48:32 Um, and also like, are sometimes literally less valuable because of how, um, zoning, zoning happens in cities. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and therefore those areas are less deserving of basic necessities such as clean air, water, and soil. And it doesn't have to be the result of overt racism, but because of redlining and segregation, black and brown neighborhoods are often on cheaper, less desirable real estate, especially post reconstruction. Um, which leads city planners to allow polluting industries to move into those areas. Um, and Boyard, uh, is like kind of an interesting character and I won't spend too much time on him because he's from Houston and not Atlanta. And this is supposed to be out about Atlanta. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But, um, he's, he's a really, uh, prolific, um, writer and academic and has done a lot of work, um, getting scientific communities to like, think about environmental racism more seriously.
Speaker 15 00:49:24 Um, but he first and got involved in environmental justice in Houston's academia in the 1970s. Um, and there's this quote from an interview he did with, uh, the Grist, which is a climate justice publication where he explains, quote, I was a young sociology professor just two years out of graduate school. My wife asked me to collect data for a lawsuit. She had filed, a company had decided to put a landfill in the middle of a predominantly black middle class suburban neighborhood, a neighborhood where 85% of the people owned their homes. Of course, the state gave them a permit, but the people said no. And I saw that 100%, 100% of all the city owned landfills in Houston were in black neighborhoods. Though blacks made up only 25% of the population. Ooh. Three out of four of the privately owned landfills were located in predominantly black neighborhoods.
Speaker 15 00:50:14 And six out of eight of the city owned incinerators in a city that does not have zoning. It meant that these were decisions made by individuals in government. Um, and so PI's work really focuses on, on exposing the connections between class, race and the environment and the ways that city officials disproportionately expose black and brown working class people to hazardous waste and suboptimal living conditions. According to research conducted at the University of Michigan, polluting industries are more likely to locate in communities of color and worse. The National Academy of Sciences conducted a study from 2003 to 2015 that found people of color are disproportionately exposed to pollution compared to the amount of pollution they produce. Now, I'm about to say a bunch of statistics about this, and when I first read these like a few years ago, um, I, I honestly like could not believe this, but Latinx populations are exposed to over 63% more pollution than they produce. And black populations who make up a significantly smaller percentage of the US population are exposed to over 56 times more pollution than they produce. And conversely, white Americans are exposed to 17% less pollution than they produce. So this is like a clear indication that race and class are the main drivers of environmental inequity. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 15 00:51:38 Wow. <laugh> just like,
Speaker 6 00:51:39 See, that's like, it's crazy to think about these things cuz when you ask like, what does environmental racism mean to us? We think of highways and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but literally like landfills. Yeah. Garbage. Yeah. Where do you send your garbage? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> by the black and brown people. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Like how, how much more? I mean, literally black and white. Can it be, you know, it's crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 15 00:51:59 Well, and I think the fact that like white people on average are exposed to like white people being the majority of the population in the US and then also being like the heaviest polluters on average, like they are able by, by the fact of environmental racism's existence, are able to almost completely bypass the effects of their own environmental practices. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, which is just kind of like nuts to think about. Like 17% is a lot <laugh>.
Speaker 6 00:52:30 Yeah. And, and it's, it like goes into this cycle of, like you said, they don't see the repercussions of their own actions. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like they know that they will be the last to feel the effects of their damage. Exactly. And that's like globally.
Speaker 15 00:52:45 Exactly.
Speaker 6 00:52:45 You know,
Speaker 15 00:52:47 Um, so, uh, in Atlanta, um, in Atlanta itself is actually like one of the birthplaces of the environmental justice movement. Um, and the earliest documented actions are from 1900 when a furnace operator in Proctor Creek, um, was dumping waste in the area. Um, and at the time, activists were able to stop the then legal waste dumping. But the Proctor Crew Creek watershed has been a battleground for black environmentalists ever since. Um, if you don't know what a watershed is, is it's basically just like the area of a body of water where excess water drains to. Um, they're very ecologically important. But, um, in any, anyways, uh, in the nineties, Atlanta was a hotbed of struggle against increasing incidents of raw sewage leaks, illegal pollutant dumps, and the serious health consequences that came with them. Um, groups such as the West Atlanta Watershed Association and the Chattahoochee River Keepers filed dozens of lawsuits and complaints, even monitoring several areas of the watershed and locating sections of sewer that had not been updated in compliance with New City sewage codes.
Speaker 15 00:53:47 Um, and according to the EPA and the Defend, the Atlanta Forest website, which is, um, kind of the, um, affiliate group of a lot of the stop cop city, um, kind of ecological protectors. Um, Atlanta itself is a quote city in a forest and home to a diverse but precarious ecological system. Um, it has the highest percentage of forest canopy of anywhere in the us which makes an important part of at Atlanta's defense against climate change. Um, and the proposed area for Cop City also has a deep history of exploitation and theft from the D A F website. Quote. The history of this particular land is deeply scarred in the 18 hundreds, shortly after the land was stolen from Muskogee Creek peoples, it was used as a plantation in the early 19 hundreds, a prison farm was open, where inmates were forced to perform unpaid agricultural labor marking the rebranding of slavery into for-profit prison labor.
Speaker 15 00:54:39 The Atlanta Police Department currently uses this hallowed ground as a firing range. Um, protestors, uh, arrested in the recent raid are facing four felony charges. Domestic terrorism arson in the first degree, criminal damage in the second degree, and interference with government property. And aside from these being grossly trumped up charges, the fact that these actions are considered terrorism, while the erosion of public access to natural resources is not, is proof that there's a lot of work to be done to prevent capitalist interests from destroying what little livable land we have left. So solidarity to everyone in Atlanta continuing to fight for justice. Um, but you know, like what differences and similarities are there between environmental activism in Minneapolis versus Atlanta and like, what lessons or tactics can we learn from, from the struggle that they're in? Because I think that that's like a really important part of movement building is to kind of like summate the experiences of our comrades, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,
Speaker 6 00:55:34 I think when you talk about, uh, these people, these protestors being charged with domestic terrorism, that, that whatever police chief said, like starting a fire and breaking windows is terrorism and you'll be charged as such, like definitions of violence mm-hmm. Are so different depending on who you ask. Absolutely. You know? Absolutely. Like, they're not worried about killing people defending land. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> killing people defending forests, but they're worried about some, some buildings, some windows and stuff like that. It, it's just Right. It's crazy to see.
Speaker 15 00:56:06 Well, and they don't see like the ecological impact mm-hmm. <affirmative> as being violent terrorism.
Speaker 6 00:56:11 That's,
Speaker 15 00:56:11 That is, that is its own form of terrorism. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> when you take away people's access to, to public land. I talked last time I was on here about kind of like the idea of the commons and like the way that we don't have access to public resources in, in even the same way as people in like the 1980s had access to mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Like it's, it's this rapid erosion and it's accelerated by police violence. It's, it's accelerated by things like cop city that are going to decimate, I mean, 85 acres of forest in a place that's already like a heat desert that's already mm-hmm. <affirmative> like having all of these like issues combating climate change. It's, that's, that's murder.
Speaker 6 00:56:53 That is terrorism. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:56:56 Yeah. And, and it's affecting the city that's 70% black too. Yeah. Um, and so, you know, it's just so much messed up stuff that's going on here, um, that we see, you know, it's, it used to be an old plantation, you know mm-hmm. <affirmative> where, and it's also, you know, part of it is that it's indigenous land too. Yeah. That we're, that we're talking about, you know, doing all this polluted on and so, and so it's just like messed up on like so many different levels, you know what I mean? Right. And when we see them burst in guns blazing, um, saying that there's no body cam footage mm-hmm. <affirmative> and then claiming people are shooting at them mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, and George Floyd overdosed to, you know, on a medical thinking like, we're supposed to believe them now. Right. Right. That, that this, uh, that people are shooting at them.
Speaker 3 00:57:43 It, it just doesn't make any sense. And you know this right now that what we're seeing is the government is asking permission. Right. They're trying to see if the world is gonna care if they're going to shoot and kill protestors for standing up for, for all the wrongdoing. Yeah. Okay. And we saw a lot of national and international solidarity. Mm. Um, with, um, around tort who was, um, murdered. Yeah. Um, defending the forest. So we, we need to make sure that we stand up in solidarity here with Atlanta, cuz this is a real big issue Yeah. Um, in America, but also in the world right now. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So,
Speaker 6 00:58:21 And especially with what you were talking similarities between Atlanta and here mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like when we had the line three Yeah. Uh, uh, protests and actions, like it could very well have been the same thing. I know they arrested plenty of people mm-hmm. <affirmative> had they killed somebody for a pipeline. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? It's the same for a
Speaker 15 00:58:38 Pipeline that's already like done Yeah. Massive amounts of damage to the ecological system here. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:58:43 And like, you know, and it was wild because when the water protectors do their actions or when they come to town, um, but they'll be like, they'll just be like, oh, we're gonna stop you from doing this thing. They're like, felony, felony. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, felony. Felony. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I'm like, what is going on? Like this? Just, it's just wild. Right. Um, what they're trying to deem as terrorism here.
Speaker 15 00:59:01 Absolutely.
Speaker 3 00:59:03 So, um, with that being said, um, I appreciate you, Jay, for bringing in, um, this amazing topic. We've seen a lot of solidarity, um, internationally, um, nationally and also here on the local level. We saw a visual happen on Friday. Um, but that was wonderful. You can, um, see a lot of that on Unicorn Riot that was recorded. Um, and we also saw that there was a protest that ended up happening in uptown on Saturday, so that also happened. Um, so we saw a lot of solidarity here locally in support for Atlanta. Uh, so I appreciate that. I also want to give a special shout out to, uh, nerd d and Brandon for bringing in amazing artists and poets like they always do. Um, it is just been amazing. And with that, um, I've been d I'm dj, I've been your host and we are outta here.
