Speaker 0 00:00:00 The strength of those same ancestors to get through day by day. I'm Anthony Galloway, pastor of St. Mark AME Church in Duluth, Minnesota, and senior partner at Dros Group.
Speaker 1 00:00:08 I'm Holly Lee, owner of the other Media Group and Counter Stories
Speaker 2 00:00:12 Producer. And I'm Don Eubanks, associate at Dross Group and member of the MIAX Banner and with Jim. And
Speaker 0 00:00:17 Keep your head up, keep your strength up. This is Counter Stores. This has been Counter Stories, a co-production of the Counter Stories crew, the other media group and Ampers Diverse Radio for Minnesota's communities with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. For our full conversation, please visit counter stories.com.
Speaker 5 00:00:45 The viewpoints expressed in this program are the opinions of the people expressing them and are not necessarily those of fresh air Incorporated its staff or its board of directors.
Speaker 6 00:01:05 You can burn a whole thing down. I don't care if you are uncomfortable, we can burn a whole thing down. Couldn't care about a zone. You can burn a whole thing down. Y'all don't really care about a brother till we burn our own thing down.
Speaker 6 00:01:27 Yeah, we about to go to work. Yeah, we about to let it burn. Extended quill. Yeah, I bet you will try to skip it. They've been lynching us and till and that's really freaking generous cuz honestly they have been killing nothing since we were property. No stopping me from saying how it is. Listening to whizz. Ain't no easing down the road where we live. That's a biz. We can't go out for a jog or swim. Fuck a dog. Fall asleep in the car. Fall asleep where we live. So we about to let it burn just like gusher. Say baby trying but do not care what gusher say. Put him back, screens up, make a few bucks. My life is in marketing. Who you think you trying to play? Um, I like the better when like nerdy was all fun and stuff. This is really angry.
Speaker 6 00:02:09 Like don't you think you said enough? 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. Yeah. 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 a another zone. You can burn a whole thing down. Burn it down, down. Y'all don't really care about a brother until we burn all thing down. Burn it down, down. Yeah, we about to go to work. Yeah, we about to let it
Speaker 7 00:02:40 Burn. Come on the youngins. What I'm focused on. I'm so old and golden. I ain't know you was talking about Pokemon huh? 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 like be soi watching all the leaders leading Nona minions. But we torture enough to take us and we give into survivors city liars making black people compliant. <laugh> Coon Rapids. Who are you asking? I'm proof. Survive the boomba trick Girl. Ethics got me laughing at your message and Black Lives Matter. You would not get so defensive. We got cops and deeds in rhyme reasoning 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 ask. We just mind up businessing and people be so stuck and 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 perform is saving the racist header. Rodeo normative. You can
Speaker 6 00:03:38 Burn, burn the whole thing down. Yeah, you can burn it all. I don't care if y'all uncomfortable. We can burn the whole thing down. You can burn it, burn it, burn it down. Couldn't care about it. Not zone. You can burn a whole thing down down. Y'all don't really care about a brother until we burn whole thing down.
Speaker 3 00:03:58 Burn
Speaker 6 00:03:58 It down. Yeah, we about work. Yeah. We
Speaker 8 00:04:27 Views from the ground,
Speaker 9 00:04:28 Views from the damn ground
Speaker 8 00:04:29 Views from the
Speaker 9 00:04:30 Ground views from the damn ground
Speaker 8 00:04:32 Views from the ground
Speaker 9 00:04:33 Views from the damn
Speaker 8 00:04:34 Ground. And that's on that, on that, on that. Hey,
Speaker 9 00:04:38 Welcome.
Speaker 8 00:04:40 So this is your host dj, um, favorite non-binary host. Uh, use they them pronouns.
Speaker 9 00:04:49 My name is Jaylen and I use she her pronouns.
Speaker 8 00:04:51 Yep. And it's just gonna be the two of us this week. So go ahead and jump on.
Speaker 9 00:04:57 Yeah, so this week we are going to continue with the theme of black August. Uh, for the last couple Wednesdays I've been talking about black August. And as a reminder, it's a month long dedication to focus study and honor black radical traditions in the ongoing fight against the prison industrial complex and the criminal injustice systems. Um, but it's also a time for celebration, uh, uplifting of black life, black art, and the tenacity of our continued existence. Um, it's about learning. Uh, it's about learning about structures of oppression so that we are better able to fight them, but also about working together to imagine a different kind of world altogether. One that's broken free of racism and anti-blackness. Um, so August was, um, you know, picked for a couple different reasons. There's been a lot of different significant events that have happened. Uh, like today is Marcus Garvey's birthday.
Speaker 9 00:05:53 Uh, he's credited for a couple different things. Um, I know him mostly as the person to come up with the Pan-African flag. Uh, so the, um, flag with the horizontal red, black and green colors, red for the blood, black for the people, and green for the land. Uh, so that's one thing. Um, yesterday actually we were going to be, uh, yesterday in 1970, activist Angela Davis was named in a federal warrant, um, issued in connection with the George, with George Jackson's, uh, attempted escape. And we talked about George Jackson, um, two Wednesdays ago. Um, and his assassination is kind of, um, where some say black August started. Um, and she was charged as an accomplice to murder kidnapping in conspiracy. Um, I also talked about how his brother had a, uh, had attempted to free him and the other Sola dad brothers. Um, and apparently sh uh, Jonathan, the brother, um, she bought the guns that Jonathan sold supposedly.
Speaker 9 00:06:56 And so that's how she got involved in all of that. Um, and it's, um, I mean the Angela Davis trial is one of the few things that, uh, our history books in school kind of talked about briefly. Um, and I think that she's a very, you know, important figure in like during that time, the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression was founded in Chicago and started this, you know, huge campaign that continues today to fight for political prisoners, uh, community control of police and other things. Um, so today I'm going to read a speech originally given by Angela Davis at the, uh, what is now called uh, Bobby Hutton Park in, um, Oakland, California. It was given, uh, November 12th in 1969. So this is before her arrest. Um, she is for sure an academic, uh, but I really appreciate that this speech is still so applicable, um, to a lot of different things that we currently go through.
Speaker 9 00:07:54 And can, you can like tweak some words and it can still like apply. Uh, so this speech is titled The Liberation of Our People. And it starts, I'd just like to say that, and this is Angela speaking. Uh, I'd just like to say that I like being called a system much more than a professor. And I've continually said that if my job, if keeping my job means that I have to make any compromises in the liberation struggle in this country, then I'll gladly leave my job. And this is my position. Now, there has been a ton of debate in the left sector on the anti-war movement as to what the or orientation of that movement should be. And I think there are two main issues at hand. One group of people feels that the movement, the anti-war movement, ought to be a single issue movement.
Speaker 9 00:08:45 The secession, um, excuse me, cessation of the war in Vietnam. They do not want to relate it to other kinds of form of oppression that are taking place here in this country. There's another group of people who say that we have to make those connections. We have to talk about what's happening in Vietnam as being a symptom of something that's happening all over the country of something that's happening, um, something that's happening all over the country. In order for the anti-war movement to be effective, it has to link up with the struggle for black and brown liberation in this country and with the struggle of exploited white workers. Now, I think we should ask ourselves why is this, why is that first group of people want the anti-war movement to be a single issue movement? Somehow they feel that they need to tone down the poli the political content of that movement in order to attract as many people as possible.
Speaker 9 00:09:41 They think that the mere numbers will be enough in order to impact this government's policy. But I think we have to talk about the political content. We have to talk about the necessity to raise the level of consciousness of the people who are involved in that movement. And if you wanna analyze the war in Vietnam, first of all, it ought to become obvious that if the United States government pulled its troops out of Vietnam, that that repression would have to crop up somewhere else. And in fact, we're seeing that in this country is, and in fact, we're seeing that as this country is being defeated in Vietnam, more and more acts of repression are occurring here on the domestic scene. And I'd like to point out that the most dramatic one in the last couple of weeks, which is the chaining and gagging of Chairman Bobby Seale and his sentence of four years for contempt in court, I think that demonstrates that if the link up is not made between what's happening in Vietnam and what's happening here, we may very well face a period of full blown fascism.
Speaker 9 00:10:44 Now, I think there's something perhaps more profound that we ought to point to. This whole economy in this country is a war economy. It's based on the fact that more and more weapons are being produced. What happens if the war in Vietnam ceases? How is it, how is the economy going to stand unless another Vietnam is created? And who is to determine where that Vietnam is going to be? It can be abroad or it can be right here at home. And I think that's becoming evident that Vietnam is entering the streets of this country. It's becoming evident, uh, in all of the brutal forms of repression, which we can see every day, uh, which we can see every day of our lives. And this reminds me because I think it is very relevant to what's happening in Vietnam, that is the military situation of this country.
Speaker 9 00:11:33 I saw on television last week that the head of the National Guard in California decided that from now on their military activities are going to be concentrated in three main areas. Now what are these areas? First, he says disruption in minority communities. Then he says disruption on the the campus. Then he says disruption in industrial areas. I think it points to the fact that they are going to begin to use that whole military apparatus in order to put down the resistance in the black and brown community on the campuses and the working class C communities. I think they are really preparing for this. Now, it's evidence that the terror, that the terror is becoming not just isolated instances of police brutality here and there, but that terror is becoming an everyday instrument in of the institutions of this country. The chief of the National Guard said that outright it's happening in courts.
Speaker 9 00:12:31 There is terror in the courts. That judge whose name is Hoffman, is, uh, proved that he is going to take, take the terror in society and bring it to the courts, that he's going to use what is supposed to be the court of law, justice, equality, whatever you want to call it, in order to meet all of these fascist acts of repression. Now, something else has been happening in the courts, and I think this is an incident that we all ought to be aware of because of, because it's another instance of terror entering the courts down in San Jose. Not too long ago, a young Chicano was on trial. And I'd like to read a quote from the transcript, a quote by Judge Charin, uh, who is a fascist. He said, Mexican people after 13 years of age, it's perfectly, it's perfectly all right to go out and act like an animal.
Speaker 9 00:13:21 Maybe Hitler was right. The animals in our society probably ought to be destroyed because they have no right, um, to live among human beings. They are lower than animals and haven't the right to exist and organize society just miserable, lousy people. Now this is a direct quote, quote from the transcript that's happening within the walls of our courtroom. How can we fail to see that? There's an intricate connection between that type of thing, between what happened to Bobby Sill, between the unwarranted imprisonment of Huey Newton and what's happening in Vietnam. We are facing a common enemy and that common enemy is Yankee imperialism, which is killing us both here and abroad. Now I think anyone who would try to separate those struggles, anyone who would say that in order to consolidate an anti-war movement, we have to leave all these other out outlying issues out of the picture is playing right into the hands of the enemy.
Speaker 9 00:14:18 I mean, it's an old saying. I think it's been demonstrated over and over that it's correct, that it's correct. That once the people are divided, the enemy will be victorious. We will face defeat. And I think the attempt to isolate what's happening on the domestic scene from the Warren Vietnam is playing right into the hands of the enemy, giving him the chance to be victorious. And I think there's a much more constant concrete problem. If we talk about the anti-war movement as a separate movement, what happens? What happens if suddenly the troops are are pulled out of Vietnam? What happens if Nixon suddenly says we're gonna bring all of the boys home? The people, the thousands, the millions of people who have been involved in that movement would feel as if they had been victorious. I think perhaps a number of them would think they could return home and relish in their victory and say that we have one completely ignoring the fact that Huey Newton is still in jail, that Erica Huggins and all the other sisters and brothers in Connecticut are still in jail.
Speaker 9 00:15:19 This is what we are faced with. If we cannot make that connection between the international scene and the domestic scene. And I, uh, and I don't think there's, uh, any question about it. We can't talk about protesting the genocide of the Vietnamese people without at the same time doing something to stop the genocide. That is, um, that is that liberation fighters in this country are being subje subjected to now. I think we can draw parallel between what's happening right now and what happened during the 1950s as the United States government was being defeated in the Korean War. More and more repression did occur on the domestic scene. The McCarthy Witch Hunt started. This is the Communist Party, which was the main target of that. I think we have to ask ourselves why that period served to completely stifle revolutionary activity in this country. People were scared.
Speaker 9 00:16:13 They ran away. They lost their families, they lost their homes. They did not resist. That is the problem. They did not resist. Right now, the Black Panther party is the main target of, of the repression that's coming down in this society. And the Black Panther party is resisting. And we ought to talk about standing up and resisting this oppression, resisting the onslaught of fascism in this country. Otherwise, the movement is going to be doomed to failure. I think we can say that if the anti-war movement defends only itself and does not defend liberation fighters in this country, then that movement is going to be doomed to failure. Just as we can say that if also if we in the black liberation movement, in the liberation movement for all peoples, all oppressed and exploited peoples in this country defend only ourselves, then we too will be doomed to failure within the whole liberation struggle in this country.
Speaker 9 00:17:08 The black liberation struggle and the brown liberation struggle, the sentiment against American imperialist aggressive policies throughout this world because we have been forced to see that the enemy, the enemy is American imperialism. And although we feel it here at home, it's being felt much more brutally in Vietnam. It's being felt in Latin America. It's being felt in Africa. We have to make these connections. The anti-war movement has, uh, has to see that unless it makes that connection, it's going to become irrelevant. And what we have to talk about now is the United Force, which sees the liberation of the Vietnamese people as intricately linked with the liberation of black and brown and exploited white people in this country. And only this kind of united front, only this kind of united force can be victorious. Now I think that there's something else that we ought to consider when we are analyzing the anti-war movement in the anti-war movement hasn't just depended on numbers.
Speaker 9 00:18:10 It hasn't just depended upon tracking more people and more people into the movement regardless of their political orientation. If we remember not too long ago, the, the debate was whether the anti-war movement or the peace movement then should talk about debating, uh, demanding, um, the ending of the bombings in Vietnam or whether it should talk about withdrawing troops. Now I think it's very obvious that you have to talk about withdrawing American troops from Vietnam. This has occurred only through the process of trying to raise the level of political consciousness of the people who were in that movement. And right now what we have to talk about is not just withdrawing American troops, but also recognizing the South Vietnamese provisional provisional revolutionary government. Now I think we have to go a step further. This is what's happening inside the anti-war movement, but we have to take it.
Speaker 9 00:19:03 Um, but we have to take it a step further. And if we demand the immediate withdrawal of American troops and the recognition of the South Vietnamese provisional revolutionary government, then we also have to demand the release of all political prisoners in this country. This is what we have to demand. And I think that the liberation struggle here sheds light on what's happening in Vietnam. It shows us that we can't just push for peace in Vietnam, that we have to talk about recognizing a revolutionary government. There is a kind of peace that was obtained here in this country in a courtroom that was the piece which Judge Hoffman forced on Chairman Bobby Seale by coercion in binding him to his chair. This is not the kind of peace that we, that we want to talk about in Vietnam. The piece in which you have a puppet regime representing the interest of this country in which you have other means of establishing the power of this government in Vietnam.
Speaker 9 00:19:59 And I think on a much more personal level, there's some parallels that we can draw. Some very profound parallels. And I think we have to say Bobby Seal's mother who learned that he had been chained and gagged and that he had been sentenced to four years for contempt of court is no less grieved than an American woman who finds out her son has been captured in Vietnam. I think we have to say that Erica Huggins and Yvonne Carter were no less grieved when they found that the, when they found that their husband's Bunchy and John had died for liberation than an American wife who would feel about her husband. But there is a different political consciousness involved. And this is what we have to show the American people today. We have to show the American people that their sons and their husbands are being victimized by American imperialism.
Speaker 9 00:20:45 They are being forced to go, go and fight a dirty war in Vietnam. They are victims too. And they have to be shown that their true loyalties ought to be with us in the liberation struggle here and with the Vietnamese people in their liber liberation struggle there. Now, Bobby Seale once made a statement at a peace conference in Montreal that the frontline of the battle against racism was in Vietnam. I think we have to ask ourselves what this means because a lot of people have thought what that, what that means is that we can depend on Vietnamese people to win our battle here. Uh, this is not what he was saying. He was pointing to that, um, inherent connection between what's happening here and what's happening there. And I think we can say, and I'm speaking from personal experience, I was in Cuba this summer and I met with some of the representatives of the South Vietnamese provisional revolutionary government.
Speaker 9 00:21:40 And they said that we revolutionaries in this country were their most important allies. And not just because we take signs, um, we take signs and march in front of the White House saying US government get out of Vietnam. But rather because we are actively involved in struggling to satisfy the needs of our people in this country. And in this way as they point out, we are able to internally destroy that monster, which is oppressing people all over the country. I have to admit that I felt a little bit inadequate. Ab I felt a little bit inadequate, um, because of what he was saying. What the representative of the, um, south Vietnamese provisional revolutionary government was saying is that we are to escalate our struggle in this country. We ought to talk about making more and more demands for liberation for our people here. This is going to help them in their liberation struggle.
Speaker 9 00:22:32 Now I think we ought to talk in the context of this upcoming march here and in Washington we have to talk about the necessity to make simultaneous demands in those demands ought to be immediate withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam. There ought to be victory for the Vietnamese. There ought to be recognition of the revolutionary government. And I think this is perhaps most important, we ought to demand the re the release of political prisoners in this country. Just one last thing. You know, Nixon made a speech on November 3rd, I think it was, and he said something that we ought to take heat of. We ought to understand. He said, let us understand that the Vietnamese cannot defeat or humiliate our government. Only Americans can do that. I feel that it is our responsibility to fight on all fronts, to to fight all fronts simultaneously and defeat and to humiliate the US government in all the fascist tactics by wish it is oppressing liberation fighters in this country. And so that was the speech.
Speaker 8 00:23:37 Yeah. Well thank you. I extremely appreciate it. And tell us what you really get from that, uh, speech. What, what did you you wanna highlight?
Speaker 9 00:23:46 Um, I think, I mean I think something that we've said over again is, uh, the importance of solidarity and, um, having, um, you know, black and brown folks unite. I think that was something that she was trying to connect on. Um, a bit broader scale and an international scale, which is something that, um, I think we see like when we talk, um, I think specifically about like Palestine, uh, nowadays and how their struggle is similar to our struggle. Um, and I think that it was, you know, cool to hear her speak about this, you know, before she, um, you know, was in the nitty gritty of things, so to speak. Um, and I think the importance of um, you know, speaking to very directly needing to raise political consciousness is something that, um, I appreciate. And when I think about, uh, the different intersections and solidarity, uh, what's happening a little bit, not a little bit what's happening currently, uh, with the, uh, reproductive rights movement in, um, about body autonomy. And I think having that, you know, making sure that intersection of solidarity, um, is understood and highlighted is something that's really important. Um, and I don't know, I just, just like solidarity,
Speaker 8 00:24:59 <laugh> <laugh>. Yeah, mostly <laugh>. And, and that really shows, um, in her work, especially when she was drawn in prison and the National Alliance against Racial and Political Repression was an international movement that pushed to get her out of prison. So, you know. Yep. So she showed up for other people and the people showed back up, uh, for her. So
Speaker 9 00:25:19 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I would say also that, um, I think that, uh, Angela Davis is a very important person, but I kind of pushed that person. Uh, she, I think has fell into kind of that pedestal like d t role and I don't like that at all. Um, and she had 24 hours in a day just like us. Uh, she did not make the best judgment all the time, just like us. Uh, and I think it's important to, uh, critique her. Um, at the same time, like this speech, I think highlights. There's a few things I'd be like, I don't know about that Angela, but I really like what you said the paragraph before. Uh, and I think it's important that we do that with, um, our, you know, call them leaders, uh, ancestors, people in the past. Um, having that kind of balanced, I guess judgment of like, yes, you're awesome, but also what could you have done better? What can I critique you on and challenge you on to be better? Um, cuz I, I forget where I heard it, but if you, um, if you ped someone that kind of leads to you not feeling like you can do the work. Cuz if we Angela Davis and all the work she does, what can little Jaylen do? And that's not what I want anyone to ever think or do or get in that habit. So Angela is cool and Angela is but a person.
Speaker 8 00:26:40 Yes. Thank you for that very important reminder. With that, we're gonna move on to, uh, the words of freedom segment here. Uh, and I'll let Brandon take it away.
Speaker 10 00:26:57 All right. Hello, this is your boy Brandon. I'm sorry I could not be in the studio today, um, outta town this week, into this weekend, but I will be back next week. But here we are again with another segment of Words of Freedom, which is a segment here on Views From the Ground where we give local poets the freedom to liberate themselves with their expression. Again this month and this week we have Ms. Ma, who is a Minneapolis poet and multidisciplinary artist who, who does the poetry. They also get into the music, um, um, with some rapping a little bit. And, uh, whenever you hear her work, I think the composition is just so, so thoughtful and and crafted so well. Um, so not only does she have the words, she has the voice, she'll put the sound with it. So we're going to listen to three of her poems today.
Speaker 10 00:27:56 And I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that this is the world premiere of a couple, if not all of these poems. So the first time, anyone other than Ms. Ma, uh, is hearing them. So if you are tuning in, you are in for a treat, I'm sure. So the first piece will be titled Black Love. That's B l A Q U E Love. The second piece is titled to The Gentler Sex. And then the last piece is titled Raving Glad. And in parentheses is a poem about raves. So we'll take it away with Ms Ma doing her thing.
Speaker 11 00:28:51 My love is black, like the distance between stars, the abyss found in the deepest swell, still like the darkness of the ocean floor defined like the lines of my love letters
Speaker 3 00:29:07 Black,
Speaker 11 00:29:08 Like the buoys that keep our head above water heavy enough to keep us tethered to gardens. We tended to anytime we needed an altar
Speaker 3 00:29:17 Black
Speaker 11 00:29:18 Like my mother and father with little in this world to serve us certainty. My love remains as black as the other side of our resting eyes. He relies my consistency. He relies my humility the way blackness shrinks and makes way. For dawn, he relies my fragility. How I am fractured and splintered open at the slightest trace of your light.
Speaker 3 00:29:41 My
Speaker 11 00:29:42 Love is as stubborn as the black stain on your favorite shirt, marking a moment in time that would've otherwise been left, forgotten, and unaccounted for My love is safe and secure, the same way our room turns black. Whenever you close the bedroom door, I'm always ready to give you more. Just like black molten rock feeds the tranquil thirst. CC Black like our ancestors folklore, we dream dreams that are worth retelling love blackened by fire in ferocity, this black love holding us still keeping us steady. Who would've ever thought I found my way through utter blackness, a love to ambitious for the tangible world. I love to absolute myths. I find comfort here in this black
Speaker 3 00:30:26 Love
Speaker 11 00:30:27 The same way a blanket shrouds my body in the desk of its relief. Natural and pure is this black love. As I carve our names into raw ebony with octopus, you my black love me to consciously forever meditating on how captivating our fibers intertwine and link. Where do you begin
Speaker 3 00:30:54 My love?
Speaker 11 00:30:55 How and where do I end? You are the type of mythology mothers tell their daughters when their husbands are out of earshot. The type of queen men try to etch out of stone for fear of revived strength.
Speaker 11 00:31:50 The very constellation that guides those who curse you to the wind. The warrior never protected. The warrior always called to defend. The famed fable always follows the narrative that women are shy, fragile, demure creatures, fearful of the base in their own voice and forever ignorant. It is nothing short of insolence to believe that the blood that flows so easily out of us is any less red than the blood of their martyrs and kings. Only we don't have to die to know what death looks like. Womanhood never hit its wounds. Femininity only yields to infinity. What more is to be set of a force that brings war and peace to the same soil and harmonizes with the moon? Every time my womb is ready for renewal, every woman who heals herself heals her children's children. All the baggage we have left so generations can be forgiven. The world resents anyone who tries to make it better because you, my dear, are the revolution that bubbles underneath the skin of an adolescent who has witnessed their first injustice, like the first breath given even when all is lost and hidden, you are the flower that rises up each day to kiss the ferocity of an unforgiving son with roots deep enough to feel the yearning of other flowers who know nothing else but to rise. Woman, you are woman
Speaker 11 00:33:26 Body shaking from sub-zero temperatures and sheer anticipation. We all awaited our turn to step foot into this cathedral of chaos where demons with glowing faces and angels with luminous luminescent fingertips congregate to watch the air fracture into spears of light. As the thundering base of countless speakers and masses await inside our chest.
Speaker 11 00:33:47 This amphitheater of aberration and joy where music is inexplicably felt by all five senses, serves as the enclave for Gods who finds the indulgences of the civil man, polite and unremarkable, and therefore must resurrect their own temples just to house these euphoric excesses of body and spirit and rewrite their own Bible to show that peace, love, unity, and respect can only come forth from the abundance that gluttony brings. Songs woven together by the precise hands of the dj have my body moving like the most divine silk, weightless and glistening under the artificial galaxy, dancing along with me too. And with each crescendo, plumes of smoke would cut through the galaxy moving and zooming above me, making it almost appear as though sunlight was breaking through clouds at Heavens gate. Every glimpse of this dazzling site would occasionally trick me into believing that we were no longer in this sturdy warehouse in the middle of downtown, but in some strange hellish paradise where demons with wide frantic eyes and angels carrying wells in their arms can dance and sing and riot where sin is relative to who you push away, not what you do. And life is measured only by its extremes.
Speaker 10 00:35:24 Can we get some snaps please? Can we get some snaps please? Seems like I said, Ms. Murray has that composition like down exactly how the background music should sound. That's how it sounds, exactly how her voice should sound. That's how it should sound. It's just beautiful, incredible. And make sure y'all stay tuned the rest of this month to hear more of her work. Um, next week we'll have a couple more poems, and then the last week of the month, we will have her in the studio here for an in-person interview. Um, so you do not want to miss it. And again, if you want to follow her on in the meantime, her Instagram is at how she writes, so exactly how it sounds, how she writes, and you can find all of her work and her other socials and stuff like that. So make sure you stay tuned with her. Stay tuned with us and thank you for tuning in today to another segment of Words of Freedom.
Speaker 8 00:36:21 All right, thank you so much. So coming up next we're gonna have, uh, the DJ Spotlight. Just a reminder that I'm doing the spotlight this month. Uh, nerdy take in a break cuz he has an album release. Um, it's actually gonna, he, his album release party's gonna be at first Ave uh, this Friday at 7:00 PM just to let folks know. Um, but our artist of the month is Kenny Gray. Um, my good old friend, Kenny Gray. So, uh, I actually met Kenny Gray when I was playing chess and he told me he played music. And so I, I looked it up and I went through a discography and this was my favorite song of his. So, uh, so we're going to do Call You by Kenny Gray.
Speaker 12 00:37:34 I see you when she looks at me. I hear you every brushy. I know. We already tried.
Speaker 3 00:37:49 I know.
Speaker 12 00:37:51 We coming to games, we can never be the same. Sometimes I really miss your face. No, it your feel, feel ashamed. The memories are flood my brain. Try to push 'em all the way down. Do you ever feel the song? My Heart is really starting to braid you. Why did you hurt me? I shoulda You you should love me. I a new girl. It's hard to tell you. I only call her so I don't call you. If you told me that you love me, I would never leave a side. Should never let dunno how to cry. It might kill me too, but my reason why it's the truth you hold if I try to, we can never be the really your face. No. It feel the shade, the memories. My brain try to push them on the way down. Do you ever feel my heart really start to Did I hurt you? Why did you hurt? I shoulda love you. You should love me. I a new girl. It's hard to tell you. I only call so I don't call. Why don't you pick? Why don't you call me sometime? That ring I had no strength to. I wish you tried to call back better. Yeah, just come back. Why aren't you here? Why you here? Why we, this feels like I know we lost fortune.
Speaker 12 00:40:09 Did you? I should. You should.
Speaker 13 00:40:48 The internet geeks at IP House are proud supporters of Fresh Air Community Radio. IP House provides internet hosting and access for your community. Large or small, more information is
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Speaker 14 00:41:04 This is the Minnesota dose on K F A I. The CDC reports that cases of monkeypox in the US have just topped 7,000 with 46 cases confirmed here in Minnesota. Earlier in May, the US had just one. The rise in cases has prompted the White House to declare monkeypox a public health emergency. Anyone can get monkeypox, which is transmitted through skin to skin contact, or through prolonged face-to-face contact, like kissing or cuddling to protect against monkeypox. Two types of smallpox vaccines can be given. Unlike the various COVID 19 vaccines, the US supply of Monkeypox vaccine is relatively scarce and recommended only for those who have had confirmed exposure, or for those who have had multiple sexual partners within the last two weeks in an area with known cases of monkeypox. You can learn more at cdc.gov/monkeypox for the Minnesota dose on K ffa I Orion Dos.
Speaker 8 00:42:13 All right, welcome back. The views from the ground. Views
Speaker 16 00:42:16 From the
Speaker 8 00:42:16 Damn ground. So, uh, yes, that was my friend Kenny Gray, who will be joining us in the studio later this month. So, but now today we're gonna bring on my very, uh, special guests and one of my favorite activists. Kelly.
Speaker 16 00:42:33 Hello.
Speaker 8 00:42:34 How are you doing? So, um, my friend Kelly is just going to kind of tell us like how she got into the movement and, you know, so, you know, Kelly has worn many hats over the course of the last two years. So I don't wanna pigeonhole her into just saying that she's just this or she's us, that, uh, Kelly has been wore many hats and, uh, I just kind of wanna explore some of those hats that she's worn over the last two years. So, Kelly, can you really like tell us like, um, what got you into the movement? Like, what was one of your first protests that you attended?
Speaker 16 00:43:11 That's such a good question. I remember the very first rally that I went to mm-hmm. <affirmative>. It was, I, I didn't know any of the organizations that were organizing at the time. I didn't know how to find a march, how to find a protest. And a friend told me that you could go on, uh, Snapchat and look at the activity map to see where lots of people were posting from. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 9 00:43:40 <affirmative>. Wow. Throwback <laugh> <laugh>. Oh my God, you're so right.
Speaker 16 00:43:45 I had to download Snapchat to do that <laugh>.
Speaker 16 00:43:51 Um, but yeah, and, and I was like, but there, I know that there's gotta be something going on. And, you know, 38th in Chicago was lit up with, with post and activities. So I was like, okay, there clearly there are people there. I'm gonna go be with the people. And, um, yeah. So I, I went and there was this just giant rally we're all just, you know, crammed into that block. They're, they're just like people shoulder to shoulder to shoulder. And there were, there were local speakers, there were speakers from out of town. There were just activists and organizers, um, you know, bringing us all together and helping us be in community with each other, helping us, you know, heal and, and get our, our feelings out. And I remember just how powerful it felt being surrounded by so many other people. And this is like early covid too. So, so many of us, like hadn't been around people and we were, we were all masked up and we were trying to social distance, but like, there was not much distancing <laugh> because we were there and we just wanted to, to be with each other and to to be close as close to the speakers as possible. So we were just like, all like, pressing in on each other. And it was just a really
Speaker 16 00:45:20 Powerful way to, to be with community, um, at that time. And from there, I, I started to learn the names of organizers and started to learn the names of groups and started figuring out how, how to find protests and, you know, how to go on Facebook and see whose events are coming up and where things tend to happen. Um, so I, I just kept showing up to stuff, um, from there over and over and, and over again until I figured out what my next steps would be.
Speaker 8 00:45:54 Yeah. And, uh, so, so, uh, once you started coming back over and over, uh, tell us like what are some of the roles that you started to play when you would come to protest?
Speaker 16 00:46:09 Yeah, so after I had been to, uh, probably four or five, six protests, I was starting to hear some of the same speakers, starting to see some of the same organizations. And I was like, okay, I agree with the messages. How do I help get these messages out there? Like, I want, I want to help, I want to help put on these events. I want to help keep people safe. I want to help people be in community with each other. Um, and so I started, uh, TCC for j um, was doing the taking Back Pride march that year. I mean, they do it every year, but they were, uh, encouraging, um, especially, um, queer bipo people who wanted to start organizing, um, to join the Zoom meetings. Just as simple as that. Like, tell us you're interested. We'll give you the Zoom link, you can join our meetings and learn how to organize.
Speaker 16 00:47:06 And I was like, yes, this is, this is exactly what I wanna do. And so I, I joined the meetings and then there were committees and I ended up joining the security committee, uh, and I learned how to marshal. And I had no background in that area, <laugh>. Uh, and I, I didn't have any type of security or safety background, um, but I am really passionate about, you know, protecting each other and, and we're the ones who keep each other safe. And so I wanted to learn that skillset. And so I, I marshaled for a lot of my first months, uh, in the movement, which would be, um, that include like blocking traffic and stopping inter like shutting traffic down at intersections and making sure moving cars aren't going through marches. Um, sometimes it was handing out supplies, like making sure people had, um, water or hand warmers, um, making sure people felt welcome when they first arrived.
Speaker 16 00:48:08 Sometimes a job of a marshal is to let people know that they're in the right spot, making sure organizers feel safe and that they have the space that they need. Um, so yeah, that was, uh, a big part of, of what I did at first. Um, I've, I've also, I, I speak occasionally, um, I, I amazing speeches, <laugh>. Thank you. I am very nervous, um, on the microphone, <laugh> <laugh>. Um, so I enjoy it when other people are available to speak. Um, but I think it's really important that, that the message is getting out there and I think it's really important that we're showing up and, and that we're fighting for, you know, revolutionary ideas. And being nervous about something for me isn't a good enough reason to not do it. <laugh>. So I, I speak, I speak sometimes, um, I, uh, I enjoy running as a medic. I, and when you marshal, you're looking to the outside of the crowd to see to, and you're asking yourself like, what are safety issues that I see outside of this protest?
Speaker 16 00:49:23 A lot of the time, and with Medic King, you trust that you're being kept safe and you get to look into the crowd and say like, who are these people that I'm here in community with? How can I best help them? Like, is it hot? Do I need to be passing out water? Is it cold? Do I need to be passing out water and hand warmers? It's, um, a really great way to be really in tune with, with everyone, uh, that's there. Um, I also do a little bit of art, uh, in the movement. I like to make. Um, I, I never thought of myself as an artist before I joined. And being in Movement Spaces has just so affected how, how I think of art and, and how I define art. And I think anybody who, you know, enjoys creating and, and experiences some self-expression in that can, can be an artist. Like you don't have to draw a good looking squirrel, but if you enjoy drawing the squirrel, then that, then that's a good piece of art. Um, and, and so I, I do some, um, a little bit of painting and a little bit of drawing too.
Speaker 8 00:50:33 Yeah. So, so those are a lot of things that, um, you've done here in the movement, um, at large. And I've witnessed you, um, do, and so you do a lot of, um, you've done a lot of organizing and holding hats here with, um, BLM movement here in the Twin Cities mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but you've done a lot of solidarity work with Stop Line three. So can you tell us a little bit about that and like what inspired you to start going up to stop Line three and why you find that important?
Speaker 16 00:51:00 Yeah, so I didn't know a lot about, um, stop Line Three or Northern Minnesota. Um, or the, I didn't know about, you know, the, the treaty territories, the Anishinabe Land. Um, I, I, I had never, uh, been to Northern Minnesota before. Um, but we organize with, um, native Lives Matter a lot, and I really trust their leadership. And they said, you know, this is something that's really important. Um, so I was like, okay, let me learn more about this. And I went up with, um, with a movement medic, uh, sometime in mid-December. It was like one of those record cold days. And I had never been camping, didn't like the winter, didn't know how to be outside, but was like, all right, let's, this is important, so we'll figure it out. And I went up, uh, to a resistance camp, uh, in Palisade, uh, Minnesota.
Speaker 16 00:51:59 And we are, you know, you're basically just outside there. There aren't a lot of, um, you know, like heated structures. It's, it's a lot of, uh, tents. It's a lot of eating outside and sleeping in tents that may or may not have a heat source. And I was, uh, yeah, the, the first night we, uh, we were too nervous to start the wood stove that was in, um, in our tent that we were borrowing from another friend. And so we just, we were so cold <laugh>, I, I had a, a strip of frostbite that actually formed across my forehead. So for the next, like week after that, just like, oh my god, pieces of my face peeled off <laugh> and I couldn't feel my feet like basically the entire time. And I, because I did not have the right boots, I did not have the right gloves, I didn't have any winter gear essentially.
Speaker 16 00:52:50 I just piled together a bunch of fall gear and thought that that would do it. <laugh> <laugh>. And that does it for like 10 minutes if you're going from like a car or a bus to an inside. But that doesn't do it for being outside the whole time. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so, so I was up there because it was important and I was like, okay, I've gone up. I've, I've, I'm, I'm learning how to be in community, but like, I don't think I'm helpful. I don't have the right gear for this. I don't think I can do it safely. I don't know that I contributed enough for the, the time that I was, was there. Like I had all of this self-doubt, like feeling like I, I shouldn't be in this space. Like I can't contribute enough to, to deserve to be in this space. And one of the, um, kind of one of the, the backbone people of the, um, of the camp who, who, who usually did a lot of security at the door.
Speaker 16 00:53:52 So he would, you know, he kept us safe. He, he was the one, you know, greeting people and the one setting the tone for what was acceptable and who was welcome. And we were just sitting around the fire at one point, I'm freezing cuz it was the whole time. And he was like, so when are you leaving? And I was like, today, we're leaving today. Cuz that was a plan. He was like, okay, when are you coming back? And just that like that one statement of letting me know that, that I was welcome that, that I could come back, that, that I was welcome to come back. That whatever I thought that I wasn't contributing that whatever, like internalized thought of like, I'm not enough. Like that clearly wasn't the case. Like I was clearly welcome in that space. They wanted me back. And I think just that those couple of words right there, the winner, you coming back our what helped me keep coming back and also helped me break down some of that internalized, um, I think the, the self-doubt. And, and that was all stuff that I had brought with me that they learned to let go of.
Speaker 8 00:55:08 Why do you think it's important to have solidarity between, you know, we do a lot of, um, anti-police terror work mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, why do you think that solidarity's important between that and stop line three?
Speaker 16 00:55:20 Because it's the same movement. Like you can't, you can't talk about one without talking about the other, you know, we talk about, um, with Black Lives Matter, you know, police brutality and, and the system using, um, the, the state using police to, to control us, to, um, to um, impact our, our freedom of speech. Our civil liberties are, you know, literally killing us, um, lit, stalking us, um, intimidating people who are speaking truth to power. Um, and, and you look at water protectors and land defenders and the, the, the state and these corporations, these billion dollar corporations are also, they're embridge literally paid the, the police in northern Minnesota to um mm-hmm. <affirmative> to, to stock and harass water protectors. So it's not even something that we're like drawing, you know, stretched out conclusions for like, there's literally like Embridge literally paid this private company literally funded the police to, to protect their project.
Speaker 16 00:56:31 So how are you? So we, we can't talk about, you know, um, environmental justice and, and land back and and indigenous sovereignty without talking about police brutality because the police are the, the hands of the state that are, that are, they're the enforcers. And, and, and I think we also can't talk about Black Lives matter and, and black liberation without talking about the fact that we're on stolen land. We can't be free until we are all of us free. And, and so as long as we're on stolen land, we cannot have black liberation. So this is, this is all the same movement. There's different, there's different facets of it there. There's different, um, male like specializations and, and different, um, ways that people with different identities are affected specifically by, by certain functions of the state and certain powers of the state. But, but when it comes down to it, like we need to be fighting for, for liberation and sovereignty, for, for all of us.
Speaker 8 00:57:37 Yes. I, I completely agree. And you know, it's really hard to see cuz cuz they also get like a lot of the prude end of the retaliation from the state because we definitely get people who get like felony charges, like in the Black Lives Matter movement. But I remember they were handing out like felony thing, um, charges like everyone for just doing anything. Yep. That was related to the pipeline. Yeah. And so that, that was like, just really powerful just to see like someone standing in the way gets arrested. Felony. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> like, I'm like, wow. I, you know, so, uh, I appreciate you coming on and telling us the importance of solidarity and uh, um, yes. Um, that was our conversation with Kelly Thomas. And then I'll also wanna thank Jaylen for coming in to the studio today. With that being said, we are gonna be done for this week. So we'll see you next week.
Speaker 17 00:58:35 This gets the police another excuse to hit the streets again. White police, black population can never be afraid. Our mothers and our fathers and our families may be season them. We the ss to them, we gotta rise to the level where we ain't needing them. Everybody organize, organize, organize. Do we with all the lies. All the lies. All the lies they come in with. The and the black and the 45 in between the protests we protest and yes, we have to organize, organize, organize, do we with all the lights, all the lies, all the, I saw the lights. I saw the lights. They coming with the tickets and glass in the 45 in between the protests. We protest every your life. Yes. You have to follow me, follow me, follow me. It's my philosophy. The white law monopoly makes democracy. Hypo in a capitalist economy, it's no democracy.
Speaker 17 00:59:21 I demand the return to my sovereignty. No apology, independence, autonomy. No need to mommy me. I could run my own country if you could just stop bombing me, gimme my lamb back, gimme my gold back, my heritage, my birthright. You outright stole that. Organize, organize, organize. Do wait. With all the lies. All the lies. All the lies. They come come in with the act of the black and the 45 in between the protests, we protest and r realize, yes, we are the organized organiz. Organized to what we would. All the lies. All the lies they come in with the tear block and 45 in between the protests we protest and real lies.
