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Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media.

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Speaker 2: Book Club Club, Club Club Club Club, book Club Clubs Clubs,

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Speaker 2: Books book Club.

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Speaker 3: Hello everybody, and welcome to Kool Zone Media book Club,

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Speaker 3: where I actually didn't have to chance by myself this time,

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Speaker 3: and the continued on synchronicity of zoom continues to entertain

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Speaker 3: at least me. Cool Zone Media.

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Speaker 4: Book Club is the only book club where you don't

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Speaker 4: have to do the reading, because usually I do it

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Speaker 4: for you, but this time, my guest, Prince Shakur, is

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Speaker 4: going to do the reading for you.

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Speaker 3: Hi, Prince, how are you.

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Speaker 2: I'm good, I'm glad to be here. I've never done

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Speaker 2: a book club like this, so I'm excited.

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Speaker 3: I like this model because I read a lot, but

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Speaker 3: I still struggle with actual book clubs because then I'm like, uh, homework,

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Speaker 3: I can't do homework.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's good to read with other people. And

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Speaker 2: I guess I mean like studying literature and university. It

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Speaker 2: reminds me of being in literature class. And yeah, I

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Speaker 2: don't know. I always liked the communal nature of reading

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Speaker 2: or even workshops or reading like fresh writing with people,

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Speaker 2: so I feel like this just gives me, I don't know,

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Speaker 2: a bit of nostalgia.

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Speaker 3: And you even have your own book that people have

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Speaker 3: probably read. But you're also a podcaster. You have a

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Speaker 3: podcast called The Dugout and a book. Do you want

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Speaker 3: to tell us about those things?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, So my book is a memoir. It's titled

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Speaker 2: When They Tell You to Be Good. I describe it

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Speaker 2: as my political coming of age, what it was like

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Speaker 2: growing up queer in a Jamaican family, getting radicalized, being

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Speaker 2: a part of different movements. A lot of it is

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Speaker 2: about Jamaic colonial violence, patriarchal violence, but I kind of

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Speaker 2: wrote it as like a what is it like being young,

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Speaker 2: queer and radicalized in today's America? And it is really

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Speaker 2: inspired by a lot of other like black power literature

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Speaker 2: and memoirs from like the Civil rights and Black power era.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, it's just like a project of love and

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Speaker 2: me trying to process a lot. And yeah, it came

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Speaker 2: out a few years ago, so folks want to check

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Speaker 2: it out. It's called When They Tell You to Be Good?

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Speaker 2: And I also do a podcast it's called The Dugout

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Speaker 2: of Black Anarchist Podcasts, and we talk about a lot

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Speaker 2: of things on there. We talk about news, we interview

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Speaker 2: lots of people black Panther Veterans Revolutionaries. Recently just interviewed

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Speaker 2: a cadre out of Minneapolis who were doing a lot

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Speaker 2: of like firearms training and community defense, and we interviewed

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Speaker 2: two of the defendants from like the Minnesota fifteen repression case.

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Speaker 2: So a lot of conversations, which I think is good

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Speaker 2: in this particular period of political chaos we're in.

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Speaker 3: I'm really sad about the Minnesota fifteen, mostly because well

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Speaker 3: mostly because of the repression, but beyond that, because Damn

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Speaker 3: fifteen was right there. They're being accused of being part

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Speaker 3: of a group called Damn and that's really what matters.

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Speaker 3: Is that now, I obviously that's not what matters, but

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Speaker 3: people should check out what's going on with the Minnesota

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Speaker 3: fifteen or as no one calls them, the Damn fifteen,

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Speaker 3: because it's bad. Well, this month we are commemorating Black

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Speaker 3: August with guests, interviews, and special episodes on the show.

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Speaker 3: Black August is a month of remembrance, study, and revolution,

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Speaker 3: honoring black freedom fighters and the movements they supported for

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Speaker 3: prison evolution, decolonization, and the end of racial capitalism. Black

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Speaker 3: August was started by incarcerated black radicals in the San

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Speaker 3: Quentin prison in nineteen seventy nine to mark the deaths

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Speaker 3: of George Jackson and his brother Jonathan Jackson at the

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Speaker 3: hands of the state of California a few years earlier,

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Speaker 3: and today people honor many dates in August throughout the

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Speaker 3: whole month. This includes the August ninth killing of Mike

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Speaker 3: Brown in twenty fourteen. August thirtieth was Fred Hampton's birthday

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Speaker 3: in nineteen forty eight, and August twenty first was the

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Speaker 3: beginning of Nat Turner's rebellion in eighteen thirty one, the

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Speaker 3: rebellion that has come up so many times on my

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Speaker 3: history podcast, including last week, I think ended up talking

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Speaker 3: about Nat Turner because we were talking about black literacy,

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Speaker 3: and there's no possible way to overstate how much Nat

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Speaker 3: Turner's rebellion scared white supremacist all throughout the country. And

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Speaker 3: one of the ways besides just like, oh, they actually

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Speaker 3: can fight back and kill people, was just literally that

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Speaker 3: Nat Turner could read, which was illegal, right, and like

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Speaker 3: had read. He was a preacher too, and he had

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Speaker 3: like read the words that he was preaching. And that's

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Speaker 3: good the piss out of people. Anyway, That's what I

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Speaker 3: got about Black August do you guys think say about it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think it's definitely a month of commemoration,

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Speaker 2: and it's a chance, like a lot of the reading

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Speaker 2: and kind ofnology around it says to not only reflect,

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Speaker 2: but do things to honor like these freedom fighters and revolutionaries.

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Speaker 2: So I think it's just for me, like a really

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Speaker 2: key reminder of like the necessity of abolition and kind

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Speaker 2: of re educating myself about abolition. A book that I

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Speaker 2: recommend folks check out if they want to like dig

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Speaker 2: into things more is Tip of the Spear by Urisan

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Speaker 2: me Burton. That's like something I've read a lot over

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Speaker 2: the last year or two, and it kind of follows

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Speaker 2: a lot of the timeline and movements and prison revolts

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Speaker 2: and uprisings and organizing around the nineteen seventy one Attica

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Speaker 2: prison uprising. And I think it just gives a lot

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Speaker 2: of context, and I love that there's a lot in

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Speaker 2: there about like the Black Liberation Army and Kuwasi Ballagoon

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Speaker 2: and other revolutionaries and just it really digs into a

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Speaker 2: lot of the details of just like this really explosive

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Speaker 2: period of of rebellion inside of prisons in jails. So

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Speaker 2: I feel like I'd really recommend that, but I think

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Speaker 2: like auguest is so necessary. There's been countless men in

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Speaker 2: my family who've been deported or in prison, and I

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Speaker 2: don't know, carse. Reality is fucking evil, and I think

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Speaker 2: people should be educated and check in with their education

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Speaker 2: around it and find community events and find ways to

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Speaker 2: organize with people on the inside or letter writing. Especially

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Speaker 2: with all of the ongoing repression cases happening right now,

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Speaker 2: it just feels really relevant.

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Speaker 3: Whenever I try to like really quickly explain prison abolition

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Speaker 3: to somebody. There's like a comic. I don't remember who

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Speaker 3: wrote the comic. It's like four panels long or something,

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Speaker 3: but it's just like someone comes over someone's house and

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Speaker 3: they're like, oh, don't go out of the basement. I

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Speaker 3: have a guy in there. And you're like wait what.

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Speaker 3: You're like, I kind of trying to steal my car

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Speaker 3: a couple of years ago, so he's just down in

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Speaker 3: the basement now, and you're like, well, that's that seems completely.

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Speaker 2: Fucked up, messed up.

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Speaker 3: Yes, Like every now and then, it just like really

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Speaker 3: hits me that if the wrong person hits the wrong

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Speaker 3: person just like punches them, just gets angry punches somebody,

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Speaker 3: which all of us have. No, I would never have

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Speaker 3: done such a terrible thing, but like all of us

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Speaker 3: have done. And you're like, oh, that could just especially

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Speaker 3: if like the system is out to get you for

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Speaker 3: various reasons. You're now spending years of your life in

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Speaker 3: a cage. You're just like, oh, I'm gonna put this

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Speaker 3: guy in a cage because he did drugs. You're like, wait, what, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: Like who's the evil one here?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Like it makes me think of like the Khalif

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Speaker 2: Browder case, like how he was accused of stealing a

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Speaker 2: backpack and spent years in like jail And.

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Speaker 3: Is that the like rikers and he was like it

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Speaker 3: was pre trial, but they just didn't get around to him.

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Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. Yeah, And and like the point that you mentioned,

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Speaker 2: like it reminds me of I think it's like our

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Speaker 2: persons obsolete by Angela Davis, Like she talks about how

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Speaker 2: prisons one of their functions is to invisibilize people and

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Speaker 2: social issues, and so it makes me think about exactly

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Speaker 2: what you're saying, Like just hide the problem, throw in

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Speaker 2: a bunch of violence and misery and call it the

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Speaker 2: justice system.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just yeah, yeah, real ironic name that they

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Speaker 3: picked for themselves. Well, we're not going to do nonfiction.

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Speaker 3: We're going to do fiction, which of course never has

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Speaker 3: any social value. That part sarcastic. I hear you have

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Speaker 3: a story for me this week?

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Speaker 2: Yes, I do. Today, we have a story and it's

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Speaker 2: titled What We Want, What We Believe, by Alex Smith.

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Speaker 3: And if people are like Alex Smith, that name is familiar.

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Speaker 3: Besides the fact that it is almost a brilliantly generic name, Alex.

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Speaker 3: If you're listening, no offense to you here. We did

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Speaker 3: another story by Alex Smith in March. A story was

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Speaker 3: called Girls Who Look Through Class and maybe I'll remember it.

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Speaker 3: It was about a grocery co op worker who gets

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Speaker 3: swept up into a cosmic struggle for justice, and it

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Speaker 3: was really fun and psychedelic. So I'm excited to hear

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Speaker 3: this one. I got that chance to meet Alex earlier

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Speaker 3: this year at a panel in Philadelphia of radical fiction

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Speaker 3: writers and it ruled. So I'm excited to hear more stories.

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Speaker 2: Oh cool. Yeah, this story, I would say, is framed

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Speaker 2: through the Black Panther's ten Point program, which is also

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Speaker 2: called Like, as I mentioned before, what We want what

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Speaker 2: we believe, And it follows basically the aftermath of the

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Speaker 2: police execution of a fictionalized black panther. And it's about

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Speaker 2: revolutionary legacy and transcendental joy. And it's also, i would say,

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Speaker 2: about the painful after image of repression, incarceration, and state violence.

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Speaker 2: And just as a kind of disclaimer for listeners, this

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Speaker 2: story does discuss gun violence, intravenous drug use, hearing voices,

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Speaker 2: childhood psychosis, and kids in traumatic situations. Just wanted to

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Speaker 2: give that disclaim. Okay, okay, So let's begin. What we

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Speaker 2: want what we believed by Alex Smith one. We want freedom,

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Speaker 2: We want power to determine the destiny of our black community.

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Speaker 2: Regina Adams let her hair lick her face in the

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Speaker 2: pulsing rain. She ducked under a canopy near Lee's and waited,

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Speaker 2: her body drenched. Working down at the community college during

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Speaker 2: the day, taking classes at night, she was going to

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Speaker 2: be somebody, even if the long hours meant she couldn't

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Speaker 2: be somebody somebody. A car pulled up to the corner

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Speaker 2: and a man rolled down the window, one of them

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Speaker 2: long cars she thinks used to be white painted black.

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Speaker 2: Who are you out here for the man asked, excuse me,

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Speaker 2: Regina said, taken aback. She straightened her knockoff Pierre Cardon skirt,

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Speaker 2: tucked her satchel closer to her body, and shot the

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Speaker 2: man a look, bitch, don't let me get out the car.

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Speaker 2: The man said in a low tone. His one gold

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Speaker 2: tooth was noticeably dead and dull, but still somehow shown

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Speaker 2: in his rear view mirror as he suddenly adjusted himself.

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Speaker 2: Who in the car, Babe Randall from seemingly out of

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Speaker 2: nowhere called out. As he approached, he called himself rand X,

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Speaker 2: always reading, hanging with fives. What's happening? We have him

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Speaker 2: shrimp tonight. Oh that's your nigga. Huh, the man in

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Speaker 2: the car said to them. Ran shot him a look

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Speaker 2: that was all tight jawed and narrow eyed. Pulling Regina

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Speaker 2: in close. The ladies with me, he paused. Then, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I know who you are. I know you, with your

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Speaker 2: various entrepreneurial endeavors, don't have time to mess with decent

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Speaker 2: folks like us. So if you'll excuse the missus in me,

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Speaker 2: Rollo leaned back in his seat, tapping on the gas,

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Speaker 2: fixing his buffont hair in the mirror. You act to

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Speaker 2: as boys. He shook his head. Y'all ain't good for business.

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Speaker 2: Consider that a fair warning. You have a good Rollo's

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Speaker 2: fake slip car crept back up the street. Regina, lost

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Speaker 2: in the moment, suddenly tugged wildly away from Rand's grasp. Boy,

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Speaker 2: if you don't get your hands off of me, she demanded.

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Speaker 2: Rand had been trying to talk to her since freshman year.

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Speaker 2: She saw him change from a delinquent kid, a bag boy,

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Speaker 2: a stick up kid, and petty crimes to a man

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Speaker 2: walking through campus. He was not taking class one, just

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Speaker 2: using the school typewriters to make his little pamphlets. Sista,

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Speaker 2: no disrespect. I was just you were just tell you

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Speaker 2: what if you won't let me walk you home? Huh,

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00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:44,240
Speaker 2: then he said, handing her a pamphlet. There was a

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Speaker 2: crude drawing of a black panther on it. Come down

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00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,480
Speaker 2: to the YMCA on fifty second. There's something going down

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00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:53,160
Speaker 2: and we need all the intelligent sisters like you in

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Speaker 2: the front row. You dig. Regina pursed her lips together

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Speaker 2: and gently rolled her eyes, crumbling the paper into her satchel.

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00:13:01,880 --> 00:13:05,400
Speaker 2: She watched him walk away, dapping and shaking hands with

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Speaker 2: other black men. Tipping an imaginary hat to rain soap

225
00:13:09,400 --> 00:13:13,120
Speaker 2: black woman as he ambled up the street, disappearing into

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Speaker 2: the night. This Maya, what kind of name is that?

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Speaker 1: You?

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Speaker 2: African? Kill them? Maya sits down on the mattress. She

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Speaker 2: grabs the belt, tying it around her arm tight. The

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Speaker 2: loop feels like an extension of herself. She holds her

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Speaker 2: hand out impatiently toward one of the boys. There they

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Speaker 2: put the syringe in her hand. The two boys sit

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Speaker 2: beside her, on either side, barely men. A husky ambient

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Speaker 2: debris waffs off the bed. The entire thing is encrusted, peeling,

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Speaker 2: just like the room. Walls thick with dried blood, burnt

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Speaker 2: yellow with cigarette stains. Roaches scamper at the weight of

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Speaker 2: the young men. Kill them both. Maya ignores the young men,

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Speaker 2: swivels to one side and back to the other, avoiding

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Speaker 2: their grabby hands. Why she liked that, yo? Why she

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Speaker 2: acting like that? They don't deserve what you possess? Would

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Speaker 2: you just shut the fuck up? Maya rises, stabs one

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Speaker 2: of the boys in the face with the needle. She

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Speaker 2: kicks trash about the room. The other boy searches the mattress,

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Speaker 2: slapping newspapers and condom wrappers into the air. He finds

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Speaker 2: another needle and slowly plunges it into his arm. This

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00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:38,520
Speaker 2: bitch stab me in the eye. Yeah, I seen that.

247
00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:43,320
Speaker 2: Something seems to wrap itself around her body, something wispy

248
00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:47,040
Speaker 2: and shaky, a filament of a thing. It feels cool.

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00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:51,440
Speaker 2: It's the drug, she thinks, the come down. She wants

250
00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:54,560
Speaker 2: the long, warm drink of an opiate in her veins.

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00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:58,880
Speaker 2: She sees blood leak from the boy's eye, the other

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00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:02,760
Speaker 2: swollen with red tears and anger. He's foaming at the mouth.

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00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:05,800
Speaker 2: Maya stares at the door and realizes she has never

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00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:09,480
Speaker 2: noticed its dimensions before, that its frame was once a

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Speaker 2: sturdy oak, its splintered and ripped and vacant. Now just

256
00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:17,920
Speaker 2: a doorway. The hall, just a pitch black, never ending

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00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:21,080
Speaker 2: hole that seems to retract from her vision the longer

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00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:25,760
Speaker 2: she stares. Why had she never noticed it before? Something

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00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:31,800
Speaker 2: about time, the piles of newspaper, the rotting clothes, the

260
00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:35,400
Speaker 2: rusting nails sticking out of the floorboards, and no windows.

261
00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:39,080
Speaker 2: She has not thought about leaving that place for weeks,

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00:15:39,880 --> 00:15:44,360
Speaker 2: weeks like years, folded into her sallow skin, the feeling

263
00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:48,920
Speaker 2: over her morphs into something darker. Can she see it?

264
00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:53,280
Speaker 2: All squiggly lines and rotten, jagged teeth and encasing her.

265
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:58,240
Speaker 2: It swirls around her, seizes her. The boy lunges at her.

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Speaker 2: Then the thing evaporates, twisting in the air and materializing

267
00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:05,360
Speaker 2: in the hallway about ten steps beyond the door, as

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Speaker 2: a little white girl in an orange dress floats in

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00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:12,440
Speaker 2: the darkness. The dress hovers and curls around the child's body.

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Speaker 2: She steals her face, raises a finger and motions for

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Speaker 2: Maya to come. The boy grabs her shoulder. Maya steps

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00:16:21,760 --> 00:16:24,720
Speaker 2: out of the door and feel her feet beating a

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Speaker 2: path toward the girl. The child's lips draw back like

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Speaker 2: dry sacks. Her eyes sink in. The child's face is

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Speaker 2: all jagged, monstrous teeth. They don't deserve your skin. They

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00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:43,400
Speaker 2: don't deserve your drug. Maya freezes. Then suddenly she is

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Speaker 2: ripped back into the room by a pair of black hands,

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Speaker 2: back into the sad void of the young man's face,

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00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:57,760
Speaker 2: screaming hot breath on her cheek. Number two, We want

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00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:03,480
Speaker 2: full employment for our people, Regina, Regina, get up a

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00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:08,000
Speaker 2: beach in California, maybe a warm sun, A seagull chimed

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00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:13,960
Speaker 2: in the afternoon air, aloft but losing feathers. Regina's dressed

283
00:17:14,119 --> 00:17:18,399
Speaker 2: danced on the breeze alive. Who is this smallish, dark

284
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:23,040
Speaker 2: black man running panting his way up the short mounds

285
00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:27,440
Speaker 2: of sand on this beautiful beach? Regina Regina was under

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00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:30,320
Speaker 2: a desk. She looked up through the bullet holes and

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00:17:30,359 --> 00:17:34,560
Speaker 2: the angled turned over tabletop. She held a double barreled

288
00:17:34,560 --> 00:17:38,399
Speaker 2: shotgun in her tiny brown hand. Draped over the desk

289
00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:42,960
Speaker 2: was Harold Martin, and over him was Jerome Pratt. Beside

290
00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:45,480
Speaker 2: her was a skinny Chinese man with soft o eyes

291
00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:48,600
Speaker 2: named Tet Tet, bunching his chest where blood soaked his

292
00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:51,920
Speaker 2: fingers through the brown fishing vest he seemed to wear

293
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:56,200
Speaker 2: every day. Regina, Regina get up. She could hear him

294
00:17:56,200 --> 00:18:00,199
Speaker 2: in her head, somewhere rattling down its labyrinthine caverns, but

295
00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:04,240
Speaker 2: she couldn't see his face. Regina searched the room. Her

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00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:08,760
Speaker 2: senses felt nothing but her own breath. There, behind a

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00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:12,720
Speaker 2: foul cabinet, he was carrying an ingram mac tent. The

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00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:16,119
Speaker 2: poor man's busy, she thought to herself, analyzing the gun.

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00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:20,240
Speaker 2: Proud she got it right, rand X. When he fired

300
00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:23,360
Speaker 2: his gun. She knew she got it right. A thundering

301
00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:26,440
Speaker 2: round ripped through the air. Regina, go to the back

302
00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:30,880
Speaker 2: room now before bullet's tour back at rand Was he hit?

303
00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:35,480
Speaker 2: Wasn't she just lying there cradled in a strangely terse

304
00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:39,879
Speaker 2: yet weirdly doey arms. Was he not holding her the

305
00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:43,240
Speaker 2: same way he had done every time? Weren't they snug

306
00:18:43,280 --> 00:18:46,480
Speaker 2: on the couch watching Lieutenant and her kiss that white

307
00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:50,080
Speaker 2: man on star trek at a reception after a rally

308
00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:54,520
Speaker 2: on Temple's campus. He was there right when she did

309
00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:57,320
Speaker 2: her best impression of Brother Huey while carrying the new

310
00:18:57,359 --> 00:19:01,040
Speaker 2: bullhorn she bought on South Street with her financial aid money.

311
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:05,720
Speaker 2: And she was putting sandwiches and bananas and grocery bags

312
00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:07,960
Speaker 2: to get to the neighborhood kids for the Sunday meal

313
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,919
Speaker 2: programs they started that summer at the gun range. He

314
00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:15,520
Speaker 2: was always gripping her up from behind, whispering some mess

315
00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:19,639
Speaker 2: in her ear, playing all the time, Yeah she been

316
00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:23,360
Speaker 2: read that ridiculous red book. Randall, if you don't get

317
00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:26,000
Speaker 2: your ass in this bed, I'm going to show you

318
00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:29,760
Speaker 2: a red book. Show you right, the moon hung low

319
00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:33,639
Speaker 2: and the sky that night looked like a searchlight in clouds.

320
00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:37,040
Speaker 2: When the smoke from the incense hit it. Don't worry

321
00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:39,560
Speaker 2: about me. You have to get out of here, go

322
00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:44,080
Speaker 2: to the safe house. Another bang and another bang. Ran

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00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,800
Speaker 2: spun around with a sharp, contorted jerk. Regina saw his

324
00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:51,919
Speaker 2: body gracelessly drift towards the floor through the sludge of

325
00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:58,160
Speaker 2: gravity and time. Regina, please, She turned toward the side door.

326
00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:01,320
Speaker 2: It was not the one Ran wanted her to go through.

327
00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:05,520
Speaker 2: She cocked her shotgun that she put her mind back

328
00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:09,520
Speaker 2: on the gun range. That was where he proposed. The

329
00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:13,199
Speaker 2: bullets ripped through paper when they reeled it in. He

330
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:16,879
Speaker 2: made a quip about changing all the target outlines for

331
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:21,240
Speaker 2: pictures of Commissioner Rizzo. She fingered one of the bullet

332
00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:24,840
Speaker 2: holes and licked her lips. Not bad, he said to her.

333
00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:29,119
Speaker 2: Not bad, She smirked. I'll show you not bad. She

334
00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:33,440
Speaker 2: kicked the door in a supply closet, a stool, up

335
00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:36,159
Speaker 2: on top of the stool and out of the small

336
00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:39,960
Speaker 2: top window. Could she make it, she rubbed the slight

337
00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:43,320
Speaker 2: bump of her belly. She would have to. She looked

338
00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:46,200
Speaker 2: out of the window and into the street. The crowd

339
00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:49,359
Speaker 2: had gathered a few blocks up. Their nervous anger was

340
00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:52,480
Speaker 2: trained on the front door of the building. Regina was

341
00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:55,639
Speaker 2: trapped in. Just to the far opposite side of the

342
00:20:55,680 --> 00:21:00,240
Speaker 2: horde was an alley. A black cat walked spryly. They're

343
00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:03,919
Speaker 2: a very small pool of rotting juice from the garbage bins.

344
00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:08,160
Speaker 2: It arched its back and stretched. It looked free.

345
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:12,760
Speaker 3: But do you know what, dear listeners makes you free?

346
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:16,960
Speaker 3: Like that cat? Your ability to hit the forward fifteen

347
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:20,280
Speaker 3: seconds button as many times as it takes before you.

348
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:42,800
Speaker 5: Hear Prince's voice again. Because here's ads.

349
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Speaker 3: And we're back.

350
00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:46,760
Speaker 2: The bed, though, that's where it wants to lie, lies

351
00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:49,560
Speaker 2: on the bed, not supposed to be on the bed,

352
00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:51,560
Speaker 2: but it's the best place to look up at the

353
00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:55,199
Speaker 2: ceiling because the entire room opens up from there, a

354
00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:59,680
Speaker 2: portal maybe where all manner of things can come pouring out,

355
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:04,160
Speaker 2: things like bouncy. Why do I wear a suit because

356
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:06,640
Speaker 2: I am dignified? You see, I wear a suit because

357
00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:08,680
Speaker 2: I want to walk into town with a gorgeous woman

358
00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:11,600
Speaker 2: on my arm, perhaps spinner around in the aisle at

359
00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:15,640
Speaker 2: Bergdorfhin the Goodman's by her, the finest furs at Macy's

360
00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:19,280
Speaker 2: serenade her in the hoisery section at Kmart. Only the

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00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:22,920
Speaker 2: best for her. You understand the finest silver, the finest goal,

362
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:27,959
Speaker 2: and lots and lots of diamonds. But you're a bunny.

363
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:33,240
Speaker 2: Tut tut. That's neither hair Snack's nick nor there I'm

364
00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:37,240
Speaker 2: a creature of class, a man of grace. After all

365
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:41,639
Speaker 2: we've been through together. Surely you can see that sits

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00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:46,760
Speaker 2: on the bed and sighs, weary of bouncys ridiculous proclamations.

367
00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:51,400
Speaker 2: And Bouncy pushed that third grader into the creek, almost drowning.

368
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:55,960
Speaker 2: The boy let the rabbit stick around, despite the fact

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00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:59,560
Speaker 2: that it was that got a beating for it, ran

370
00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:03,520
Speaker 2: my wa or out, couldn't sit down for a week,

371
00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:08,280
Speaker 2: couldn't watch Fat Albert all that year. When Bouncy stole

372
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:13,280
Speaker 2: some candy from mister Griffin's store, he left holding it

373
00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 2: a long hot ride in a policeman's car. Another beating

374
00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:20,600
Speaker 2: and the hushed whispered tones in the living room. Later

375
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:24,480
Speaker 2: the boys got problems for the show Knafelise, but I

376
00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:27,160
Speaker 2: don't know what to do with them. My daughter dropped

377
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:31,440
Speaker 2: him off and I ain't seen her since. I've been

378
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:35,080
Speaker 2: reading about all these disorders. They've been discovering something about

379
00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:40,639
Speaker 2: the attention deficit. Maybe he needs some counseling. Counseling not

380
00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:44,520
Speaker 2: my blood. Haha, you can forget that. Wouldn't hear the

381
00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:47,800
Speaker 2: end of it from Hattie down at the church? Mm hmm,

382
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:52,080
Speaker 2: I know that's right with their sorry ass potato salad. Well,

383
00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:55,200
Speaker 2: it was just a thought. Nothing a belt can't fix.

384
00:23:56,440 --> 00:24:00,199
Speaker 2: You want to open this, don't you? Bouncey stand in

385
00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:03,639
Speaker 2: front of Grandma's dresser like a game show hostess. His

386
00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:08,199
Speaker 2: fur is matted and I dangles sloppily from underneath a patch.

387
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:12,919
Speaker 2: His suit rags. A dirty white foot pokes through the

388
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:17,840
Speaker 2: gaping mouth of his floppy shoe. Still there's a manic

389
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:24,080
Speaker 2: composure about him. Stands and pushes Bouncy aside. They aren't

390
00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:26,800
Speaker 2: even supposed to be in there, not on the bed,

391
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:31,440
Speaker 2: not playing around in the dresser. Again, just leave me alone.

392
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:36,520
Speaker 2: You're bad news, Bouncy. Why bad news? Here's the thought?

393
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 2: Why I would Bouncy Stumbling on his messed up shoe,

394
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:48,760
Speaker 2: falls forward into the dresser. It pops open cranes neck

395
00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:53,080
Speaker 2: to peek a piece of crimson, a snatch of soft

396
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 2: pearly white, go on, go on. Yes, The room darkens.

397
00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:03,160
Speaker 2: The rabbit stands in a dim light, then by itself.

398
00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:11,560
Speaker 2: The dresser rumbles open soft cotton, wonderful velvet grandmothers panties

399
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:18,120
Speaker 2: are as exquisite as imagine them. Gently runs fingers over

400
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:23,800
Speaker 2: the fabrics. The clothes seemed to grip small hands. Soon

401
00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:29,400
Speaker 2: is wrapped up in them. Flailing on the bed, has

402
00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:35,159
Speaker 2: forgotten about Bouncy. Bouncy Bunny calls out, come, lie on

403
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:39,359
Speaker 2: the bed with me. Bouncy sits on the edge of

404
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:42,480
Speaker 2: the bed and peers over the darkening corner of the room.

405
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:47,800
Speaker 2: There's Bouncy, only under a fading net of light, can

406
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:52,200
Speaker 2: still see the rabbit's mangy face. A maggot crawls in

407
00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:55,920
Speaker 2: and out of Bouncy's ear. Bouncy sports as soft a

408
00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 2: smile as he can muster. He dips in a solemn bow,

409
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:06,719
Speaker 2: tips his hat, and fades into the darkness. Three we

410
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 2: won an end to the robbery by the white men

411
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:15,000
Speaker 2: and the capitalists of our black community. And a diner

412
00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:18,639
Speaker 2: in Chelsea, a warbling tune by First Choice clicked on

413
00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:22,040
Speaker 2: the jukebox with the force of a hammer. It snapped

414
00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:24,920
Speaker 2: Regina out of her daze. She had been wearing the

415
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:28,359
Speaker 2: same sweatshirt and baseball cap for the past two days,

416
00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:33,439
Speaker 2: all gray, a slate of banality. The crowd was small,

417
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:37,840
Speaker 2: but there was indeed a crowd, customers who seemed more

418
00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:42,160
Speaker 2: like patients, zombie like and damaged, as they guzzled coffee

419
00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 2: and folded newspapers with Regina's face splashed all over them

420
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:49,840
Speaker 2: in bold print. There was no rhythm to their movement.

421
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:53,119
Speaker 2: The bell over the doorway jarred her each time a

422
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:57,119
Speaker 2: new face entered and an old face exited. She was

423
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:00,399
Speaker 2: grateful for that wretched bell, though she didn't want to

424
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:06,399
Speaker 2: fall asleep there, just waiting for Yes. This woman a stout,

425
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:11,240
Speaker 2: dark skinned creature with an outdated Madam C. J. Walker perm,

426
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:16,160
Speaker 2: long coat and beads, not very conspicuous, but they told

427
00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:21,280
Speaker 2: her that she wouldn't be wanted. Posters be damned. Regina

428
00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 2: perked up her eyes, darting savagely under her tinted glasses.

429
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 2: The woman past her table and headed for the lunch counter,

430
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:33,359
Speaker 2: then huffed slightly as she read a menu. Regina began

431
00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 2: to peel herself out of the booth, a difficult feet

432
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:40,680
Speaker 2: under the weight of pregnancy sit. The woman said, irritation

433
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:43,880
Speaker 2: in her voice. Take off those goddamn glasses. He looked

434
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:47,120
Speaker 2: like a fucking fool. The woman wouldn't look at her,

435
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 2: She just sighed. Regina sighed too, and took off the glasses.

436
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:56,439
Speaker 2: Over easy, Please decap The waitress tagged the board with

437
00:27:56,480 --> 00:28:00,240
Speaker 2: the mysterious perm wearing woman's order. I looked like a fool. Ooh,

438
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:04,120
Speaker 2: Regina thought to herself. You will go to the address

439
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:06,439
Speaker 2: written on the third napkin and the holder in the

440
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:09,639
Speaker 2: booth near the door. Yes, I know there's a white

441
00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 2: family eating there. If you weren't wearing that ridiculous get up,

442
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 2: it would not be a problem to ask for a

443
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:19,120
Speaker 2: few napkins, would it. Once you're up there, you will

444
00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:21,919
Speaker 2: go to the back door, enter through the kitchen, and

445
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:25,040
Speaker 2: go up the stairs to the second floor bathroom. A

446
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:27,800
Speaker 2: tub will be there. It will be filled with warm water.

447
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:32,320
Speaker 2: Lavender rose and liec petals will steep in the water.

448
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,280
Speaker 2: Two women will wait for you there naked. They will

449
00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 2: rub you with alo hum gently. You'll drink the elixir

450
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 2: in a vial on the rim of the tub. This

451
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:47,400
Speaker 2: will relax you. Don't worry about what's in it. Just

452
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 2: do it. You will float there breathing. It will be painful,

453
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:55,240
Speaker 2: but they will be there to ease your pain. Worry not.

454
00:28:55,960 --> 00:29:01,240
Speaker 2: Your journey begins at six o'clock tonight. Take care, restless child.

455
00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 2: The coffee grew stale, the eggs waited there, and the

456
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 2: chili diner air. Regina just stared at them. A wave

457
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 2: of panic rippled through her when the white family nodded

458
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:15,560
Speaker 2: and smiled at her as they grabbed their things and

459
00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 2: headed to the door, the children making a racket, the

460
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 2: father winking at their waitress, the wife pretending not to see.

461
00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:27,680
Speaker 2: There were bald up napkins on the table. Regina darted

462
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:31,760
Speaker 2: over to their table, rifling through their plates. Hey, what

463
00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:34,360
Speaker 2: are you doing over there? Trying to steal my tips? Bitch?

464
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 2: Regina tucked all the napkins into her sweatshirt, ducking her head.

465
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:43,680
Speaker 2: Fuck your tips. She tossed another three dollars on the table.

466
00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:47,200
Speaker 2: When the door chimed upon her opening it, the sound

467
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:51,200
Speaker 2: rattled her bones. She looked up at the bell and wondered,

468
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:54,000
Speaker 2: And she was just like everybody else, coming into this

469
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:57,840
Speaker 2: diner on a ball me Tuesday morning, each soul ringing

470
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:02,080
Speaker 2: this bell announcing their presence. I was in this place,

471
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:09,600
Speaker 2: she reminded herself. Four. We want decent housing, fit for

472
00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:17,720
Speaker 2: shelter of human beings. Bitch, yes, stay girl, Yes, Mother

473
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 2: sits in the chair. No one else can sit in

474
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 2: mother's chair. The girls sit on couches, some sit unfolding chairs,

475
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:30,560
Speaker 2: Some stand not in the chair. They wag fingers and approval.

476
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:35,480
Speaker 2: Some snap where did she get that glorious blouse that

477
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:38,680
Speaker 2: sheer top of, billowing wigh the fuck up around the

478
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:43,040
Speaker 2: arms and cutting off right below the tummy, fitting like

479
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 2: a glove over shoulders so broad they could tag in

480
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 2: for Atlas himself. The burden they carry, Maya thinks is

481
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:56,320
Speaker 2: no less impossible. But there the bitch go dancing. She

482
00:30:56,440 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 2: spins around and stops, nearly completing a one a degree turn,

483
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 2: only to complete the rest of her half circle in

484
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:08,840
Speaker 2: a slow motion. Now pose a slender Puerto Rican man

485
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:12,880
Speaker 2: waves a fan, prosses his legs. He sits beside mother,

486
00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:17,280
Speaker 2: speaking two and for her. The girl and the blouse

487
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:21,920
Speaker 2: poses magazine sharp. Her jaw line clinches tight, hands on

488
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:26,280
Speaker 2: her hips. Now those hands are cinching her breasts. Then

489
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 2: they are in the air, arm straight, practically walking on

490
00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:34,480
Speaker 2: air to pull down clouds. The music stops. Was there music?

491
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:39,960
Speaker 2: Maya looks over to mother. The cron's hands raised. All

492
00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:42,240
Speaker 2: of the girls and all of the boys stop, their

493
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:47,200
Speaker 2: faces once jovial, clownish, now stoic and hushed. A pause,

494
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:52,840
Speaker 2: and Mother speaks, ten, you heard her. The man beside

495
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 2: her erupts, his fan flitting wildly across, down and over

496
00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:00,760
Speaker 2: his face. The music roars back, a pulls beat like

497
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:06,160
Speaker 2: none Maya had heard before. It drones and hypnotizes, tends

498
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:11,320
Speaker 2: across the board. Then a new girl dances. Maya watches

499
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:15,800
Speaker 2: wide eyed. Mother leans into the man beside her and

500
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 2: whispers into his ear. The man looks directly at Maya,

501
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 2: a face like a joker's, mischievous and determined, and he nods. Five.

502
00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:31,200
Speaker 2: We want education for our people that exposes the true

503
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:35,920
Speaker 2: nature of this decadent American society. We want education that

504
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:38,520
Speaker 2: teaches us our true history and our role in the

505
00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 2: present day society. Push push, you can do it, Okay, now, relax, relax,

506
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:54,040
Speaker 2: there you go. Relax, We got you, We got you.

507
00:32:54,160 --> 00:33:02,520
Speaker 2: Let the let the water gently. It's a. Maya digs

508
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:06,000
Speaker 2: her hands in the dirt. The peer is quiet, except

509
00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:11,520
Speaker 2: one sound. Amari screams, where are they coming from? Why

510
00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:16,160
Speaker 2: she covered in blood? The beautiful dirt, Why is it

511
00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:19,479
Speaker 2: such a pure thing to her? Why do the caps

512
00:33:19,520 --> 00:33:23,680
Speaker 2: from the sprite bottles and empty Senca packets, used condoms

513
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:27,720
Speaker 2: and the sea offers such a perfect potpourri? Why is

514
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:33,520
Speaker 2: she drifting here? And what is she dreaming of? Amari screams, down,

515
00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 2: twist She's given you, Banshee. He watches her twist in

516
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:41,840
Speaker 2: the moon's light, covered in the thin haze of that

517
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:45,880
Speaker 2: rocky hue, silhouetted against the backdrop of a calm wave.

518
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 2: This isn't the beach she'd dream of, This is a stage.

519
00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:55,680
Speaker 2: Amari kicks his feet in the sandy earth cunt, Her

520
00:33:55,720 --> 00:34:00,600
Speaker 2: faded jean shorts ride up over her milky golden thigh,

521
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:05,480
Speaker 2: her crop t shirt, once white stained now just a

522
00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:08,880
Speaker 2: few weeks ago, when she walked into London's Ball, she

523
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:12,879
Speaker 2: draped her body in the plastic deture of a replicated ive.

524
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:17,200
Speaker 2: San Laurent carried an umbrella that she tied glow sticks around,

525
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:20,319
Speaker 2: and pranced down the tattered floorboards in the basement of

526
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:24,200
Speaker 2: an African American community center. She tried a few new

527
00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:28,360
Speaker 2: moves that night, Amari was cruel bitch of luck. She

528
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:33,719
Speaker 2: landed an airplane chopped, Maya leaps into the near dark air.

529
00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 2: She kisses space. That lone second that she is up

530
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:42,320
Speaker 2: there feels like a world being berthed. From her place

531
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:46,280
Speaker 2: in the sky, she can see everything. A dog lying

532
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 2: by its dying homeless owner, the dangling neon signed by

533
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:53,200
Speaker 2: the Chinese spot where she first met Amari after a

534
00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:56,960
Speaker 2: hair and fueled night. The steps to the Silvia rivera

535
00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:01,480
Speaker 2: community center downtown with its now crumbling societ, girded by

536
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:06,080
Speaker 2: steel canopies and littered with junkies. Then she is falling

537
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:10,160
Speaker 2: back to the wet earth a split. She falls onto

538
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:14,359
Speaker 2: her back dramatically, her hands pointed as elegantly as the

539
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:19,719
Speaker 2: craning neck of a swan. It's about time, bitch. My

540
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,759
Speaker 2: name is Maya, now, she told him. Then, my name

541
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:29,959
Speaker 2: is Maya, And like I said, it's about time. Bitch. Oh,

542
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:38,160
Speaker 2: oh my god, Maya bitch hell. Amari grasps at his throat. Scaly,

543
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:42,960
Speaker 2: flaking alabaster hands reach over and grab him. They have

544
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:48,880
Speaker 2: poles in their hands, swinging violently crack on top of

545
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:53,640
Speaker 2: a Mari's skin. Maya grabs at their sticks pulling them away.

546
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:57,600
Speaker 2: They were alone out here, she thought, where did these

547
00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 2: men come from? Were they John's? The girls sometimes shared

548
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:05,799
Speaker 2: the peer with businessmen and lawyers and satisfied at home

549
00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:09,319
Speaker 2: on the routine hunt for some dicks to suck, some

550
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:12,759
Speaker 2: bodies to feel up, to get their rocks off, or

551
00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:18,520
Speaker 2: they pimps, thugs, rednecks. Maya grabs one of them, wraps

552
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:21,840
Speaker 2: her hand around his neck, lifts him up into the air.

553
00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:25,800
Speaker 2: He kicks and struggles. She slams him onto the ground,

554
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:29,400
Speaker 2: head first and drags him out to the sea, a

555
00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:33,560
Speaker 2: searing hot blow to her head. Then it all goes black.

556
00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:37,600
Speaker 3: But do you know what, dear listener, Maya probably saw

557
00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:41,520
Speaker 3: when all went black. I'm willing to bet, Prince, I'm

558
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:45,320
Speaker 3: willing to bet that it was the siren call of

559
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:59,600
Speaker 3: the products and services that support this show. And we're back.

560
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 2: Six. We want all black men to be exempt from

561
00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:15,400
Speaker 2: military service. The filter was overflowing hot water blistered on

562
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:18,879
Speaker 2: her right hand. The pain snapped her back. The rink

563
00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:22,920
Speaker 2: smell of stale robustica coffee, overcooked beans and cigarettes s

564
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:27,080
Speaker 2: flooded her senses. Shit, she explained. The counter was a

565
00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:31,720
Speaker 2: mess from the overpore. She sighed, tossed the filter, poured

566
00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:34,840
Speaker 2: the greeny brew from the flask into a cup, and

567
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:39,160
Speaker 2: served it Turkish coffee, she explained. A mousey woman in

568
00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:42,239
Speaker 2: a turtleneck sweater cupped it as if it was a

569
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:46,120
Speaker 2: forbidden elixir and she was dying from some ancient disease.

570
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:49,880
Speaker 2: There's too many grains in this, The white woman squeeked,

571
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's Turkish coffee. The two women stared at

572
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:58,319
Speaker 2: each other for an eternal three seconds, until the white

573
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:01,719
Speaker 2: woman turned away and sat back down out. Just clean

574
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:05,080
Speaker 2: the counter, Regina, Just clean the counter. Make these weird

575
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:08,560
Speaker 2: hippie burnouts their coffee, Smile at their art that looks

576
00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:12,320
Speaker 2: like a baby shit itself, laugh at their poetry about

577
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:15,360
Speaker 2: their souls burning up in the s and M dungeon

578
00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:21,839
Speaker 2: of corporate America, and just breathe for your child. North

579
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:24,560
Speaker 2: Carolina is a long way, isn't it. The white man,

580
00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:28,120
Speaker 2: sitting at a table near the window, said, I'm sorry,

581
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:33,080
Speaker 2: Regina replied, a bit uneasy. What did you say? Strange place,

582
00:38:33,239 --> 00:38:36,840
Speaker 2: isn't it, he said, straightening his glasses. He looked like

583
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:42,320
Speaker 2: Clark Kent. That somehow made Regina nervous duke's coffee, Regina asked,

584
00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 2: throat quavering, A bit, a little, I'm used to it.

585
00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:51,480
Speaker 2: The man took a sip of his coffee. Did Janice

586
00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:54,839
Speaker 2: serve him before she'd clocked out? I bet you are.

587
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:59,760
Speaker 2: She wanted to ask, Cracker, do I know you? Instead,

588
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:05,040
Speaker 2: she let a tense line crack, her robust lips shaking.

589
00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:08,239
Speaker 2: She went to wash a few dishes. She watched a

590
00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:10,560
Speaker 2: minute go by on the large clock by the door.

591
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:14,239
Speaker 2: She watched the door five point thirty. The clock read

592
00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:19,400
Speaker 2: half hour until Sunday close, a sweet two hours earlier

593
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:23,640
Speaker 2: than during the week, but still somehow just as achingly long.

594
00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:27,239
Speaker 2: She picked up a knife. Look at this shit, the

595
00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:30,239
Speaker 2: man called out from behind a newspaper. The mousey white

596
00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:33,040
Speaker 2: woman shifted in her seat, buried her face in a

597
00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:37,400
Speaker 2: highlights magazine. Listen to this. We believe that black people

598
00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:40,600
Speaker 2: should not be forced to fight in the military service

599
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:43,279
Speaker 2: to defend a racist government that does not protect us.

600
00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:46,280
Speaker 2: We will not fight and kill other people of color

601
00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:50,239
Speaker 2: in the world, who, like black people, are being victimized

602
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:55,239
Speaker 2: by the white, racist government of America. Blah blah blah.

603
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:58,959
Speaker 2: Can you believe any of this shit? The mousey woman

604
00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:01,920
Speaker 2: had gathered her thing induct out of the door, an

605
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:07,200
Speaker 2: uneasy smile on her face. Huh, what's that from a

606
00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:10,640
Speaker 2: wave of calmness brushed over Regina. The man had shown

607
00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:14,480
Speaker 2: his hand. There was no mystery left, just her and him.

608
00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:17,759
Speaker 2: He folded the newspaper calmly and tucked it into his

609
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:21,799
Speaker 2: tan leather satchel. He took his glasses off. I have

610
00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:25,759
Speaker 2: a feeling, he said, giving his temples a deep massage.

611
00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:30,879
Speaker 2: He looked directly at her, locking eyes. Regina clinched her jaw.

612
00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:34,600
Speaker 2: I have a feeling. You already know where this is from,

613
00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:39,440
Speaker 2: don't you. It's not exactly esoteric knowledge. I mean, I

614
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:42,920
Speaker 2: know this is a small town in good old North Carolina.

615
00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:46,160
Speaker 2: But I bet you've heard of some of these kooks,

616
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:50,920
Speaker 2: the weather Underground, one group calling themselves the what was it,

617
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:57,680
Speaker 2: Simbonese Liberation Army, people like Joanne Chesamar Geronimo Pratt. I

618
00:40:57,719 --> 00:41:02,240
Speaker 2: know you've heard of them. What do you want, Regina demanded, calmly,

619
00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:06,239
Speaker 2: raising her voice to crest over his got I've got

620
00:41:06,239 --> 00:41:09,800
Speaker 2: work to do. I've got to wrap these croissants. I know,

621
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:13,960
Speaker 2: I know, I'm sorry, he insisted. Listen here, here's my

622
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:17,400
Speaker 2: card if you ever want to talk. He held the

623
00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:21,840
Speaker 2: card out toward her, but she stayed there, frozen, arms crossed.

624
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:24,680
Speaker 2: I'm not with the FBI, I'm not with the government.

625
00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:28,560
Speaker 2: I just I want was best for you, Regina. The

626
00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 2: sound of her name chilled her. I'm with an agency

627
00:41:32,239 --> 00:41:41,800
Speaker 2: that can help you and your child. Child, Regina, Child, Regina, child, Regina.

628
00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:48,719
Speaker 2: We can help you. Our experiments with getting people like you, criminals,

629
00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:53,359
Speaker 2: terrorists into our deep programming tanks have been highly successful.

630
00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:57,600
Speaker 2: We can offer you total immunity with your compliance. She

631
00:41:57,680 --> 00:42:01,560
Speaker 2: had been so careful. She watched the men rise his

632
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:07,040
Speaker 2: coat over his arm, satchel tight across his body, and really, Regina,

633
00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:10,319
Speaker 2: there's nothing to think about. Just we're trying to help you.

634
00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:13,440
Speaker 2: If we don't hear from you in forty eight hours,

635
00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:17,600
Speaker 2: we will call the police. It's that simple. And he left,

636
00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:23,080
Speaker 2: no take care, no scene, ceiling quips. He simply left

637
00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 2: and disappeared down a quaint street, where he got into

638
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:28,520
Speaker 2: a black car that sat there for a minute before

639
00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:33,239
Speaker 2: turning onto a windy road through the college campus. When

640
00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:37,640
Speaker 2: Gina locked the door, ran to a payphone. Now do

641
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:40,600
Speaker 2: it now, she screamed into the phone. She did not

642
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:43,960
Speaker 2: wait for the last bus as she normally would. She

643
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 2: ran home power walked through the white neighborhoods. The moonchased

644
00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:51,880
Speaker 2: her as the sun disappeared into the seams of dust.

645
00:42:54,480 --> 00:42:59,759
Speaker 2: I'm Maya, she screams. A tube is in her arm.

646
00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:02,880
Speaker 2: There's a man in a white lab coat standing at

647
00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:06,600
Speaker 2: the foot of the bed reading a chart. Three pairs

648
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:10,319
Speaker 2: of black arms are resting on hers. Mother is in

649
00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:13,560
Speaker 2: the corner. The man in the lab coat jumps as

650
00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:17,560
Speaker 2: Maya stirs awake. You're awake. Welcome back to the world,

651
00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:23,320
Speaker 2: Miss Maya. The black faces belonging to the black hands echo,

652
00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:29,520
Speaker 2: Miss Maya. The doctor corrects himself. Sorry, this is well,

653
00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:33,760
Speaker 2: it's paul new to me, he laughs nervously. They certainly

654
00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:36,640
Speaker 2: don't teach this kind of stuff in medical school. He

655
00:43:36,719 --> 00:43:40,040
Speaker 2: returns to his chart. Brown eyes in a flock of

656
00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:43,799
Speaker 2: blurry brown faces narrow at him. The brown eyes and

657
00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:51,359
Speaker 2: brown faces turned back to Maya. Where's Amari? Amari? One

658
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:55,359
Speaker 2: of them asks, girl, who is Amari? He almost died,

659
00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:59,440
Speaker 2: miss thing. Why are you always fighting white boys? Girl?

660
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:03,920
Speaker 2: How is he? They all look at each other. The

661
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:07,600
Speaker 2: girls squint and shake their heads, shrugged their shoulders. One

662
00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:11,640
Speaker 2: of them, an older one, says, how do you know Amari,

663
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:18,560
Speaker 2: skinny Puerto Rican pretty boy? Convogue for days? Mother? How

664
00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:21,560
Speaker 2: she know Amari? That was way before your time? In

665
00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:25,920
Speaker 2: this house? Where is he? Maya insists her jaw is

666
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:29,919
Speaker 2: a swollen, pulpy mash of flesh, and teeth cuts lace

667
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:35,160
Speaker 2: her forehead. Where is Amari? Amari? The older one slowly speaks,

668
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:43,280
Speaker 2: Mari is dead, child. He died of pneumonia two years ago. Seven.

669
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:48,160
Speaker 2: We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder

670
00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:52,799
Speaker 2: of black people. The door exploded open. Gina rushed from

671
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:56,080
Speaker 2: room to room, calling out her child's name. A young

672
00:44:56,160 --> 00:44:59,800
Speaker 2: woman in a dashiki stood at the kitchen table. Regina,

673
00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:04,240
Speaker 2: She exclaimed, Regina, I've taken care of it. You're all packed, Crystal,

674
00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:08,359
Speaker 2: I need a car now. Look, okay, you not going

675
00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:10,600
Speaker 2: to just come running up in here yelling at me.

676
00:45:11,200 --> 00:45:17,200
Speaker 2: The two women stopped, breathed, A tear flowed down Crystal's eye.

677
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:23,520
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Crystal, where Crystal pointed a shaky finger up

678
00:45:23,560 --> 00:45:26,960
Speaker 2: the steps. Regina tore up the steps and stopped by

679
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:32,680
Speaker 2: the child's room, so small she thought no time. She

680
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:36,200
Speaker 2: ran to her room. Searching for her bags. A suitcase

681
00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:41,040
Speaker 2: flush with the steel and forced back and wheels about Yahai.

682
00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:44,320
Speaker 2: She tore it open and discarded all of the clothes,

683
00:45:45,080 --> 00:45:47,880
Speaker 2: wieled it back to the other room, grabbed the child

684
00:45:47,920 --> 00:45:51,920
Speaker 2: by the arm, thrust the kid into the suitcase, zipped

685
00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:55,680
Speaker 2: it up, and climbed out the window. Crystal Regina thought

686
00:45:55,680 --> 00:45:59,479
Speaker 2: to herself, you know what to do. In the living

687
00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:03,799
Speaker 2: room down stairs, Crystal lit a match. She shrugged and

688
00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:07,600
Speaker 2: sniffed through some tears. She watched the flame dance a bit,

689
00:46:08,239 --> 00:46:12,240
Speaker 2: a small bulb licking the air, longing to touch something,

690
00:46:12,600 --> 00:46:16,120
Speaker 2: to grow wilder calmed her a bit. She tossed the

691
00:46:16,160 --> 00:46:19,680
Speaker 2: match onto an old ready couch. It was soon engulfed

692
00:46:19,719 --> 00:46:25,719
Speaker 2: in flames. It's dark tight. Every few minutes there's a

693
00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:29,400
Speaker 2: bump and a bigger bump. The small bumps go unnoticed.

694
00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:34,200
Speaker 2: A strong stick pokes through the darkness bricks. The arm

695
00:46:35,080 --> 00:46:39,239
Speaker 2: sounds vibrate through thin canvas walls, filling the air with

696
00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:43,920
Speaker 2: a redolent creepiness. There are only snatches of them. A

697
00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:47,880
Speaker 2: chorus of men laughing and show nothing. All muffled bass,

698
00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:52,840
Speaker 2: a radio buzzing like small insects, A heavy humming car

699
00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:57,400
Speaker 2: engine that sometimes sputters, sounding like distant fireworks over a

700
00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:03,240
Speaker 2: calm field. Can breathe through a hole just above head

701
00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:09,760
Speaker 2: if neck cranes just a tad, can see stars flit

702
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:16,000
Speaker 2: by an a static kaleidoscope. Suddenly there's no ground. It's

703
00:47:16,040 --> 00:47:20,240
Speaker 2: floating in space, drifting for a second or two until

704
00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:26,040
Speaker 2: landing in a huff. A long stillness, no sound. Something

705
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:30,800
Speaker 2: pokes a tiny hole that reveals the black sky. Something snickers,

706
00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:36,480
Speaker 2: gnashes quietly, a sound like thin translucent paper tearing, Then

707
00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:40,240
Speaker 2: a loud rip, and it's as if someone has unzipped

708
00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:43,560
Speaker 2: the universe and opened up the blackness into another dimension.

709
00:47:44,320 --> 00:47:49,800
Speaker 2: Standing before in a clean press suit, its sparkly eyes

710
00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:54,160
Speaker 2: gleaming sunk into its bobbing, fat white head as a rabbit,

711
00:47:55,280 --> 00:48:02,279
Speaker 2: Hey there, gasps with a start. Pardon me, lad, yes, yes,

712
00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:07,080
Speaker 2: could you just yes, just a bit there. The rabbit

713
00:48:07,280 --> 00:48:12,280
Speaker 2: enters into the cramp space, gently pushing to one side

714
00:48:12,760 --> 00:48:17,480
Speaker 2: and zipping the suit case back up. Hi bouncy bunny esquire,

715
00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:22,520
Speaker 2: it is just The bunny adjusts its bow tie, pats

716
00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:26,360
Speaker 2: down the suit, checks its pocket watch, all while folding

717
00:48:26,440 --> 00:48:31,240
Speaker 2: itself around time and space. Well, it's just fantimically tastic

718
00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:34,280
Speaker 2: a Roney to finally meet you heard so much about

719
00:48:34,360 --> 00:48:39,800
Speaker 2: yet the ranch and shakes and tremendously. We're going to

720
00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:42,000
Speaker 2: have some fun, aren't we, old chum.

721
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:45,239
Speaker 3: And I think that's where we're going to leave it

722
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:49,200
Speaker 3: for this week. At this fantastic moment, not just a

723
00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:54,080
Speaker 3: fantastic moment, a fan tibbally tastic a Rooney moment in

724
00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:57,239
Speaker 3: this story, dear listener, both of us spent a long

725
00:48:57,320 --> 00:49:00,000
Speaker 3: time trying to figure out exactly how to pronounce fantom

726
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:02,520
Speaker 3: bibili tastic a Rooney in order to bring me to

727
00:49:02,600 --> 00:49:03,120
Speaker 3: this story.

728
00:49:03,760 --> 00:49:04,360
Speaker 2: It was hard.

729
00:49:05,080 --> 00:49:10,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, this story is fascinating. I like didn't like psychedelic

730
00:49:10,200 --> 00:49:12,680
Speaker 3: fiction all that much when I was a kid. I

731
00:49:12,719 --> 00:49:14,719
Speaker 3: think it has to do with my own personal neurotype

732
00:49:14,719 --> 00:49:16,440
Speaker 3: where I was like everything has to make sense and

733
00:49:16,440 --> 00:49:20,319
Speaker 3: it should be in order, you know. And I've come

734
00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:23,360
Speaker 3: around in the past couple of years and like just

735
00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:27,360
Speaker 3: the stuff that Alex is doing throughout this, like the

736
00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:32,719
Speaker 3: idea that when this little kid is completely disassociated from themselves,

737
00:49:33,280 --> 00:49:36,400
Speaker 3: they don't even have a name, right, They have like

738
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:39,319
Speaker 3: static instead of a name, and they don't even have

739
00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:42,760
Speaker 3: a pronoun right, there's just static instead of a pronoun.

740
00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:45,719
Speaker 3: They don't have an identity, and so they like meet

741
00:49:45,800 --> 00:49:49,960
Speaker 3: this bunny and I think with the like it's Maya. Now,

742
00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:53,279
Speaker 3: I'm assuming she transitions and joins the vogue scene, right

743
00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:57,200
Speaker 3: the scene. Okay, that's my read on what's happening.

744
00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:03,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I I love how intimate all of

745
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:07,520
Speaker 2: this writing feels. How I think one of my favorite

746
00:50:07,560 --> 00:50:11,319
Speaker 2: scenes so far was definitely that diner scene. I mean,

747
00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:14,719
Speaker 2: I guess the diner scene where she meets.

748
00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:16,440
Speaker 3: The non fed.

749
00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:20,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the non fed and like we can test

750
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:24,680
Speaker 2: you and deprogram you. And I just find like the

751
00:50:24,760 --> 00:50:29,319
Speaker 2: psychedelic nature of this. I think it really suits like

752
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:33,520
Speaker 2: the times, like trying to think through all of the

753
00:50:33,920 --> 00:50:38,239
Speaker 2: kind of mind altering experiences people were having. And I

754
00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:43,080
Speaker 2: mean there's definitely like a clear kind of theme of

755
00:50:43,160 --> 00:50:46,719
Speaker 2: trauma and how these characters are dealing with and processing

756
00:50:46,800 --> 00:50:50,600
Speaker 2: trauma or like the traumas that they're running away from.

757
00:50:50,840 --> 00:50:55,759
Speaker 2: And I feel like writing that provides a filter through

758
00:50:55,800 --> 00:50:59,960
Speaker 2: which the main character, the narrator, is seeing the world.

759
00:51:00,239 --> 00:51:02,320
Speaker 2: I think it just makes it that much more effective

760
00:51:02,840 --> 00:51:06,879
Speaker 2: because it's like these people are trying to survive these

761
00:51:06,880 --> 00:51:10,879
Speaker 2: social systems, these traumas, these other elements happening around them,

762
00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:15,040
Speaker 2: and it makes sense that reality is kind of breaking

763
00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:16,600
Speaker 2: apart totally.

764
00:51:17,080 --> 00:51:20,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've always assumed that if I, like in really

765
00:51:20,120 --> 00:51:23,279
Speaker 3: bad situations, my go to is just to stop interacting

766
00:51:23,280 --> 00:51:28,000
Speaker 3: with reality properly, you know, which I don't know. It

767
00:51:28,120 --> 00:51:30,440
Speaker 3: ties into prison. As we were talking about the very

768
00:51:30,480 --> 00:51:33,719
Speaker 3: beginning to work. Yeah, well, we're going to do way

769
00:51:33,760 --> 00:51:36,359
Speaker 3: more talking about this story once the story is done,

770
00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:39,120
Speaker 3: which is going to be after next week, because this

771
00:51:39,320 --> 00:51:42,359
Speaker 3: was only part one of two, and we'll be back

772
00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:45,120
Speaker 3: next week to finish up what we want, what we

773
00:51:45,239 --> 00:51:49,799
Speaker 3: believe by Alex Smith. And who's Alex Smith? You might

774
00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:52,400
Speaker 3: be asking. I want to know more about Alex Smith,

775
00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:56,480
Speaker 3: you might be asking, And fortunately we have a bio.

776
00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:04,680
Speaker 3: Alex Smith aka Alexoteric is a writer, artist, curator, musician

777
00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:08,720
Speaker 3: that gets an Air quotes, musician, slash noise maker. Living

778
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:12,440
Speaker 3: in the cosmically kinetic city of Philadelphia. His work reflects

779
00:52:12,520 --> 00:52:17,080
Speaker 3: that dichotomy. Stark beautiful, wrought with afrotopian tension, avant garde

780
00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:21,879
Speaker 3: fashion and assemblage, and dynamic visual presentation. His sci fi

781
00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:25,600
Speaker 3: inspired worlds collide with afro queer and radical reimaginings of

782
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:28,759
Speaker 3: the fantastic. He is a founding member of the Philadelphia

783
00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:33,279
Speaker 3: based sci fi arts collective Metropolarity, a central personnel in

784
00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:38,600
Speaker 3: Philadelphia's early afrofuturist community, from collage work to zines, to

785
00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:42,400
Speaker 3: bands and solo music performances, to promoting other bands and

786
00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:46,720
Speaker 3: performers via curation and cultural critique and arts reporting, Smith

787
00:52:46,800 --> 00:52:50,560
Speaker 3: transcends the concept of renaissance man and works from the

788
00:52:50,600 --> 00:52:55,480
Speaker 3: afrofuturist vision all things, all the time, each aspect of

789
00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:58,600
Speaker 3: his work in forming the other. Smith won the twenty

790
00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:01,799
Speaker 3: twenty Pugh Fellowship of the Arts, presenting works such as

791
00:53:01,800 --> 00:53:05,359
Speaker 3: his short story collection Arc dust Roserium Publishing, which, by

792
00:53:05,400 --> 00:53:07,920
Speaker 3: the way, is where you can find this story if

793
00:53:07,960 --> 00:53:10,560
Speaker 3: you want to read it, because sometimes with like psychedelic work,

794
00:53:10,800 --> 00:53:13,799
Speaker 3: you might want to read it too. Writ his experimental

795
00:53:13,880 --> 00:53:19,160
Speaker 3: art punk bands Rainbow Crimes, Solarized, Spectral Forces, Glitch Proverbs,

796
00:53:19,520 --> 00:53:24,360
Speaker 3: the cyberpunk superhero indie comic book series Black Vans, among others.

797
00:53:24,840 --> 00:53:28,279
Speaker 3: His work appears in anthologies such as Stories for Chip,

798
00:53:28,400 --> 00:53:32,520
Speaker 3: a tribute to Samuel R. Delaney, Rosarium, Black Quantum Futurism,

799
00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:36,480
Speaker 3: Volume two, black Punk Now Soft Skull and the Black

800
00:53:36,560 --> 00:53:40,239
Speaker 3: Fantastic Library of America. He invites you to join him

801
00:53:40,320 --> 00:53:43,840
Speaker 3: in the chromatic exploration of the unknown, his art a

802
00:53:43,960 --> 00:53:47,120
Speaker 3: visual portal to that limital space. You can find Alex

803
00:53:47,160 --> 00:53:50,960
Speaker 3: Atpatreon dot com, slash they are Birds or they Are

804
00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:57,040
Speaker 3: Birds on Instagram and my guest co host my reader

805
00:53:57,120 --> 00:53:59,400
Speaker 3: this week talking to me about this fun story. Prince.

806
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:00,920
Speaker 3: Where can people find you?

807
00:54:01,440 --> 00:54:06,200
Speaker 2: People can find me on social media on Instagram, I

808
00:54:06,239 --> 00:54:09,960
Speaker 2: am Sweet Black Prince. I also do a YouTube channel

809
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:14,080
Speaker 2: where I share a lot of political education video essays

810
00:54:14,120 --> 00:54:18,480
Speaker 2: about organizing direct action. That's just my name, Prince Shakoor.

811
00:54:19,160 --> 00:54:22,160
Speaker 2: You can also find me through the podcast that I

812
00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:29,080
Speaker 2: mentioned earlier, the Dugout of Black Anarchists podcast and Yeah Yeah.

813
00:54:29,400 --> 00:54:31,879
Speaker 3: As for me, you can find me on the internet too,

814
00:54:31,920 --> 00:54:35,040
Speaker 3: Margaret Kiljoy, I have a newsletter I write almost every

815
00:54:35,040 --> 00:54:39,759
Speaker 3: week and take care of each other. Fuck Ice so far,

816
00:54:39,840 --> 00:54:47,479
Speaker 3: at every prison so and every dead Men Free.

817
00:54:48,560 --> 00:54:51,040
Speaker 1: It could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.

818
00:54:51,120 --> 00:54:53,760
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website

819
00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:56,080
Speaker 1: cool Zonemedia dot com or check us out on the

820
00:54:56,120 --> 00:54:59,560
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or Wherever you listen to podcasts,

821
00:55:00,120 --> 00:55:02,200
Speaker 1: you can find sources for it could happen here, Updated

822
00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:06,360
Speaker 1: monthly at coozonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.