Speaker 1: My League Buns has how the knowledge you want.
Speaker 2: My League bus has here the knowledge you need. My
Speaker 2: league but.
Speaker 3: Yet they have out the books that the whole wild
Speaker 3: world onner read My League Bus.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 3: To Malik's Book Show, Bringing a world together with books,
Speaker 3: culture and community. Hi, my name is Malik, your host
Speaker 3: of Malik's Book Show, Changing the world with one Book
Speaker 3: at a time.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad you tuned in because this is a
Speaker 2: hot episode.
Speaker 3: I was able to get a few interviews I'm gonna
Speaker 3: air on this episode. I was able to interview Koran Butler,
Speaker 3: who is a two time NBA All Star and won
Speaker 3: the NBA Championship with the Minnesota Timberwoods fourteen years in
Speaker 3: the league, NBA phenomenal player. I gotta interview him and
Speaker 3: Justin A.
Speaker 2: Reynolds.
Speaker 3: They collapse on a book called Clutch Time, So I
Speaker 3: interviewed them.
Speaker 2: They're out here trying to help the next generation.
Speaker 3: Of youth to read, to achieve, and understand the importance
Speaker 3: of being there during clutch time to excel. So that
Speaker 3: book Shot Clock was the first book they wrote. Then
Speaker 3: the sequels Clutch Time is out Guy. That Malik's where
Speaker 3: all books are sold as well, but I'm going to
Speaker 3: air that interview. Classic also was able to interview Teresa Thomas,
Speaker 3: who wrote a book called Napoli Ever After. They turned
Speaker 3: into a movie. But her latest book is out called
Speaker 3: The Secret Keeper on Main Street. She used to own
Speaker 3: a dress shop. She's a former entrepreneur now a full
Speaker 3: time author. I was able to interview her and her
Speaker 3: new book and the book that paved the way of
Speaker 3: her success as an author, Napoly ever After. So I'm
Speaker 3: a feature that interview as well, So stay tuned for
Speaker 3: the upcoming episode. But before I get to the episode,
Speaker 3: I had a question what's more likely to end this world?
Speaker 3: Climate change or WARLD War three a nuclear war? Which
Speaker 3: one is likely to end this world? This civilization? Ay,
Speaker 3: that's just a question for the audience here on Malice,
Speaker 3: Folks show me personally, I think nuclear war.
Speaker 2: Climate change.
Speaker 3: I think is gonna take a whole lot longer to
Speaker 3: destroy the earth than how.
Speaker 2: Close we are to a nuclear war.
Speaker 3: People having such major disagreements and think that violence is
Speaker 3: the answer. You know, technology and science has evolved humanity
Speaker 3: and civilization rapidly.
Speaker 2: Violence might have worked in the past to.
Speaker 3: Solve a lot of problems in cr and in wars
Speaker 3: that were devastating and the violence of power change. But nowadays,
Speaker 3: because of technology and the advancement of nuclear weapons, it's
Speaker 3: a lot more serious and the consequences could be a
Speaker 3: lot more devastating.
Speaker 2: So this just violence needs to end.
Speaker 3: This violence needs to stop because technology is able to
Speaker 3: kill a million people more so in a much more
Speaker 3: quicker pace than traditional methods of war.
Speaker 2: And no one wins.
Speaker 3: That people can s I can look at it and
Speaker 3: and analyze it and dissect it, but no one when
Speaker 3: everyone loses. We have to find a some civility to
Speaker 3: talk out the deal differences and be fair and equitable.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of in unjust injustice occurring because of
Speaker 3: inequities and social injustice. We have to be fair. We
Speaker 3: have to understand that there's opportunity in space for all
Speaker 3: of us to exist and to have what we need
Speaker 3: to be happy. And we cannot keep thinking that a
Speaker 3: small group of people should own all the resources, all
Speaker 3: the power, and all the wealth.
Speaker 2: This is is strangling humanity and creating a bubble that's
Speaker 2: going to bust.
Speaker 3: We add the closest than ever for a nuclear war.
Speaker 2: And no one wins.
Speaker 3: No one wins, so we have time to to make
Speaker 3: a change. We should do it, and we should do
Speaker 3: it now. As far as this uh climate can ch change. Okay,
Speaker 3: well that's gonna take a long time for the Earth
Speaker 3: is destroyed. But they are wars right now going on,
Speaker 3: just escalate not de escalating, and people are are are
Speaker 3: being obliterated. So we a m I my opinion is
Speaker 3: more likely that a nuclear war would kill the planet
Speaker 3: before climate can change, and more emphasis should be on
Speaker 3: that issue than any other issue because of the t
Speaker 3: the the fractions, I mean, hell, we in America they
Speaker 3: had two attempted assassinations on a presidential candidate, Donald Trump,
Speaker 3: another attempted assassination so one because they don't like what
Speaker 3: he says, they don't agree with his policy, They wanna
Speaker 3: blow his head off. That's crazy, that's crazy, and we
Speaker 3: need to find a different path to deal with our
Speaker 3: differences because killing and murdering and assassinating I don't think
Speaker 3: it's the answer, and I hope you don't either.
Speaker 2: Anyway, if you want.
Speaker 3: To give me your feedback on terms of their question
Speaker 3: I asked, you can email Real Malik Muhammad at gmail
Speaker 3: dot com. Realmlik Muhammad at gmail dot com to give
Speaker 3: me your answer on what's likely to destroy our planet
Speaker 3: nuclear weapon or climate change?
Speaker 2: All right, thank you. Now here come the episode.
Speaker 3: I'm sitting here at forty second Street School. Were about
Speaker 3: to put an event together with Karan Butler justin a Reynolds.
Speaker 3: They got to brook out called shot Clock is the
Speaker 3: first book of the series, and we out here with Clutchtime,
Speaker 3: the new release. But more importantly I got an opportunity
Speaker 3: to talk to them from my fans on Malik's bookshelf
Speaker 3: bringing the world together with books, culture and community. Welcome
Speaker 3: Kuran Butter, Welcome, justin a real we out here chopping
Speaker 3: up entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: We ain't even talking about books. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm so impressed with Karan Butler's moved in from
Speaker 3: basketball to entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: Tell me all about that, man.
Speaker 4: I'm extremely blessed the monitor to you know, be able
Speaker 4: to pivot into another space and different verticals. The hospitality
Speaker 4: business with the Graduate hotels. We just iPod we sold
Speaker 4: to the Hilton and uh it was a significant number.
Speaker 4: And it's still doing other stuff in the community as
Speaker 4: far as like franchising with the Starbucks, the O n
Speaker 4: H Bakery and just trying to employ people that look
Speaker 4: like me, but also just try to inspire young people
Speaker 4: that you know, it ain't just basketball, is not just
Speaker 4: just a sport. But we could pivot in other things
Speaker 4: and be successful in and it's still be clutch time
Speaker 4: and still be up against the shot clock, a hit
Speaker 4: game winners.
Speaker 3: That's like a cliche, clutch time. We in the clutch time,
Speaker 3: justin riddles, Come on you brother. One of the books
Speaker 3: that we constantly sell all the time is the Mom
Speaker 3: Spider Man series. Tell us all about that man, because
Speaker 3: that book is man touching people.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, it's a it's been. It's been wild to
Speaker 5: see the way that the books impacted young people. I think,
Speaker 5: uh the best part about it is I think about
Speaker 5: growing up and loving uh Spider Man myself.
Speaker 1: But we had Peter Parker, right, and now.
Speaker 5: We get to give kids a new Spider Man, Miles
Speaker 5: Morales from Brooklyn, and so just to see him the
Speaker 5: way he moves.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: The crazy thing about Miles Morales is like when I'm
Speaker 5: trying to figure out the villain that he's gonna go against,
Speaker 5: he's so powerful. It's like I have to set up
Speaker 5: extra stuff just to make him slow down, Like, how
Speaker 5: can we slow him down? How can we slow that?
Speaker 5: That's that's actually real, Like actually he would just use
Speaker 5: his camouflage in that situation. I was like, man, this
Speaker 5: guy is too powerful. This wi so so it's it's great.
Speaker 5: The only thing that the only challenge I thought that
Speaker 5: we could actually give him to show his connection to
Speaker 5: the community, because that's what he's about, the friendly neighborhood Spider.
Speaker 5: He's about the community first and foremost, even more than
Speaker 5: saving the world. It's about saving the people, you know,
Speaker 5: save your family, your friends, the people on the corner,
Speaker 5: people at the corner store, like all that. And so
Speaker 5: I had to I had to give him an earthquake
Speaker 5: because we see that happen and the devastation it causes,
Speaker 5: especially to the beautiful people of Puerto Rico, and being
Speaker 5: half Puerto Rican, right, that would impact them deepley family
Speaker 5: and friends over there seeing his mom and the distress
Speaker 5: it causes her, and that's something that even Spider Man
Speaker 5: can't change, right, but he can impact in the aftermath.
Speaker 5: He can rally the community together to bring to bring
Speaker 5: resources and make sure that they get in the right
Speaker 5: hands and so yeah, it's it's been a blessing to
Speaker 5: be able to write those stories. We got another one
Speaker 5: coming out with April. We just announced it, so we'll
Speaker 5: be happy about that.
Speaker 2: Wonderful wonder them.
Speaker 1: Well, when you go on your tour, tell them the
Speaker 1: Leak books.
Speaker 2: Hey, we out here.
Speaker 3: They're about to speak to the students at forty second
Speaker 3: Street Elementary. So you're gonna be talking about the book
Speaker 3: Clutch Time that just came out.
Speaker 1: So just touch on, you know, up this series about
Speaker 1: how it came about.
Speaker 2: Let's star what you corone.
Speaker 4: You know, basically, we're gonna be talking about life because
Speaker 4: that's what Shot Clock and Clutch Time is really about.
Speaker 4: It's about young people in a nutshell getting the experience
Speaker 4: of going out the confines of a seven mile radius
Speaker 4: north southeast west Oasis Springs and just being able to
Speaker 4: see the world, and also talking about just the trauma
Speaker 4: that they carry and the adversity that all these individuals
Speaker 4: are going through different channels of adversity. But they go
Speaker 4: outside the confines of that that seven of myle radius
Speaker 4: and they see different things, they get exposed to different things,
Speaker 4: and then the village of all these individuals, the love
Speaker 4: and the empathy that so many people just rally around them,
Speaker 4: the mentorship, the subtraction of lives and what they experience,
Speaker 4: and then also the healing of it. And then you
Speaker 4: see so much growth from the young people and they
Speaker 4: become solution based instead of being and you know, in
Speaker 4: the dark space, and they're controlling their own narratives. And
Speaker 4: I think that's the real game changer and all of
Speaker 4: this because we have to stay solution based to move
Speaker 4: forward in life. You just talked about it. Life be
Speaker 4: life and all the time. So you gotta, you know,
Speaker 4: either you deal or you get left behind. And we're
Speaker 4: teaching young people at a young age to understand that.
Speaker 3: Absolutely right time is not gonna wait for nobody use it.
Speaker 2: Why is it now?
Speaker 3: Justin let's let you talk about the book and just
Speaker 3: how y'all too connected, man, because y'all dynamic dual?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, we like to say we like the perfect
Speaker 5: pick and roll. You know, you can't you got to
Speaker 5: pick your poison. You know, you stop you try to
Speaker 5: stop hiling me. Okay, I got you try to stop me.
Speaker 5: He already got the rack, right, So it's like it's
Speaker 5: been like that from the very beginning. Honestly, our first conversation.
Speaker 5: This is not even a joke. My editor, he hit
Speaker 5: me up and he said, he said, I know how
Speaker 5: much you love basketball. We should talk about Koran and
Speaker 5: everything I tell I tell Karan. I grew up. Me
Speaker 5: and my dad used to go to Cavs games all time.
Speaker 5: And when he came out to be drafted with the
Speaker 5: tenth pick. We had the tenth pick, we thought one
Speaker 5: thousand percent, We're like, oh, we about to definitely take
Speaker 5: Kron Butler. And then we took no offense to mister Wagner,
Speaker 5: somebody named Dwan Wagner who didn't pan out, and so
Speaker 5: now have the chance to kind of come full circle
Speaker 5: and be able to partner up with him and be
Speaker 5: able to tell these stories. It's been amazing. The reason
Speaker 5: why we even chose those titles is because you know,
Speaker 5: we don't know how much time we have, right, and
Speaker 5: so we got to make the most with every possession.
Speaker 5: You can't afford to turn over the ball and then
Speaker 5: clutch time. That's winning time. Right when your backs against
Speaker 5: the wall, the seconds are are taken down, are you
Speaker 5: gonna be able to have the afforded you to take
Speaker 5: the shot? Are you gonna be able to have the
Speaker 5: understanding of I need to make this pass right here?
Speaker 5: Do you understand the game well enough to make the
Speaker 5: right decision when it counts the most? And so that's
Speaker 5: what it is about about winning. And the thing about
Speaker 5: winners they know that whether that ball goes in or not,
Speaker 5: there's always the next shot, and they're gonna be ready
Speaker 5: for that, right And so it's about preparation. You're not
Speaker 5: taking a shot in a game that you didn't take
Speaker 5: a million times before in practice.
Speaker 3: Right. Absolutely, that book is life and all the keys
Speaker 3: to be successful is what you described. You know, put
Speaker 3: up a shed up. The most critical time is when
Speaker 3: you're under pressure.
Speaker 2: How do you perform? You know?
Speaker 3: I mean I was a track ad the leader, so
Speaker 3: I know about the pressure.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I ran in the Olympics, so I know about it.
Speaker 2: I ran for Puerto Rico. So but that was one
Speaker 2: of the highest achievements in my life.
Speaker 3: So sports have helped me, especially individual sports has helped
Speaker 3: me to and I carry in every industry of my life,
Speaker 3: every endeavor in my life because of what I've learned.
Speaker 3: Team sports teaching certain things, individual sports teacher certain things.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: So finally, what's the takeaway you want readers to get
Speaker 3: from your book?
Speaker 4: You could be anything. We're trying to unlock the realness
Speaker 4: in the most authentic way. We have a cliche that
Speaker 4: we're just trying to unlock the magic inside of you,
Speaker 4: but you know, it really is what it is. You know,
Speaker 4: we're just trying to open your mind to something different.
Speaker 4: We're trying to let you know that there is no
Speaker 4: seelings to the possibilities. Stay dreaming. I'm forty four years
Speaker 4: old and I still dream when I sit down and
Speaker 4: think about characters and share my ideas, and we write
Speaker 4: these books, we're dreaming. It's a little bit of all
Speaker 4: of us in this book. And we just want everybody
Speaker 4: to be able to connect identify with the visual that
Speaker 4: you see on the covers, that is black and brown
Speaker 4: boys and girls. And you can see yourself in this
Speaker 4: book and you can be inspired by this book. And
Speaker 4: not only that, the true legacy is, you know, impacting lives.
Speaker 4: You know, the money and the material stuff that's nothing.
Speaker 4: But if you could change someone life, you could change
Speaker 4: their direction and their trajectory. That's that's so impactful, and
Speaker 4: that's beyond best.
Speaker 2: Any final thoughts about it.
Speaker 5: Just The only thing I'll say is he mentioned something
Speaker 5: about having black and brown kids on the cover, and
Speaker 5: Crina and I talk about this all the time. We
Speaker 5: could have put a basketball on the cover and so
Speaker 5: three times more copies, right, but we were insistent that
Speaker 5: we wanted black and brown faces.
Speaker 2: To be representative.
Speaker 5: Because the most powerful thing you can see is your
Speaker 5: own image reflected back to you. It gives validation, right,
Speaker 5: It says that you belong to you belong here. Not
Speaker 5: only do we see you and hear you, but you
Speaker 5: are invaluable.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 1: You deserve to be the hero of a story.
Speaker 5: Every child deserves to see themselves reflected in the story,
Speaker 5: especially as the hero, not the sidekick, not the comedic relief.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 5: We're done with that being at the forefront of the story.
Speaker 5: And so we're just proud to be a part of this.
Speaker 5: We probably bring the stories together and you know, we
Speaker 5: just keep making the magic happen hopefully.
Speaker 2: So intentional intention and intention. Thank you, My brothers appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to Malik's bookshelf, bringing a world together
Speaker 3: with books, culture.
Speaker 2: And community. We did an event tonight with.
Speaker 3: Tricia are To, the author of the secret Keeper of
Speaker 3: main Street. But she hit it big and hit it
Speaker 3: out the park and had made a home run with
Speaker 3: the Napolis series.
Speaker 1: So that's you know, they didn't make movies.
Speaker 3: They didn't, you know, she didn't want it was the
Speaker 3: Monapoli Ever After series.
Speaker 1: So but I got it right here.
Speaker 2: And as I always say.
Speaker 3: No one can tell you about the book more than
Speaker 3: the author and her new book, The Secret Keeper of
Speaker 3: main Street. She just did a book designing and discussion
Speaker 3: with Jay Allen as the moderator. But I had to,
Speaker 3: you know, for my audience at Malik Bookshelf, we do
Speaker 3: book reviews and author interviews, and we need you.
Speaker 1: To tell us about this wonderful new release.
Speaker 6: The Secret Keeper of main Street is a historical novel
Speaker 6: set in nineteen fifty at dressmaker has the ability to
Speaker 6: touch a bride and know if she's marrying her true
Speaker 6: love or if there's someone else out there who might
Speaker 6: be her soulmate. She particularly helps one bride who has
Speaker 6: a secret. When she touches her, she finds out there
Speaker 6: was a crime committed, and a body turns up and
Speaker 6: that bride is arrested, and only the dressmaker knows what
Speaker 6: truly happened.
Speaker 3: So describe this book in three words.
Speaker 6: Oil, love, and scandal.
Speaker 1: Oh we like drama, don't we?
Speaker 2: We like drama.
Speaker 3: Now, now, apparently you're a maginative. So how did you
Speaker 3: come up with this idea?
Speaker 6: I actually owned a bridal salon for ten years, and
Speaker 6: I was a dressmaker, and I had so much time
Speaker 6: with the brides, and they had so much heartache and
Speaker 6: so many things that they wanted to talk about, and
Speaker 6: I was there for it, and so I just poured
Speaker 6: it all into the story.
Speaker 2: Wow wow, Wow.
Speaker 3: So you wrote a little bit from some experience and
Speaker 3: people that you met over those ten years owning.
Speaker 2: A bridle shop. Now tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3: You've been an entrepreneur, that's right, you know, not just
Speaker 3: the author, you know what I'm saying. Wow wow, So,
Speaker 3: so what made you get into bridle.
Speaker 6: My father was a dressmaker. My grandmother was a dressmaker.
Speaker 6: I learned how to sew when I was really young,
Speaker 6: and it was just the thing I knew how to do.
Speaker 6: I used the money to put myself through college and
Speaker 6: eventually just got a shop and opened up and started
Speaker 6: paying rent. But it was it was a big undertaking,
Speaker 6: and it was profitable and it was fun. And so
Speaker 6: by the time I was done doing the job, I
Speaker 6: sold the business and started writing, became.
Speaker 2: A full time writer. That's right.
Speaker 3: But now here you work owned a bridle shop, worked
Speaker 3: in a bridle shop. But years later you write a
Speaker 3: book about the bridle shop. Why not early in your career,
Speaker 3: because you came out with Nappy ever After.
Speaker 6: That was first, and that was really a story that
Speaker 6: was on my heart at the time. And so I
Speaker 6: think everything comes when it's supposed to come. I mean,
Speaker 6: Napoli ever After was really the story that needed to
Speaker 6: be told at that time. It was a big deal
Speaker 6: for natural hair at that moment, and it just needed
Speaker 6: to be told.
Speaker 2: And it still needed to be told.
Speaker 3: You know, you got kids running up the black kids rubbing.
Speaker 1: In their hair.
Speaker 3: You know, adults doing it too. So but yeah, we
Speaker 3: need to love our napoly hair. We need to fall
Speaker 3: in love. So that was your inspiration as you experienced something.
Speaker 6: Well, I was going through this time where I was
Speaker 6: being a teacher and you know when after I sold
Speaker 6: the salon, I finally used my degree and started teaching,
Speaker 6: and so I was with the seventh grade and they
Speaker 6: were so mean to each other and they were calling
Speaker 6: each other nabyhead this and nabyhead of that, and it
Speaker 6: just it just broke my heart that we were still
Speaker 6: experiencing that, and it just really just triggered something. And
Speaker 6: I started that story just remembering what it's like, you know,
Speaker 6: when your hair is not perfect.
Speaker 2: Well, those are two things that you know being in
Speaker 2: bookstore owner.
Speaker 3: You know a lot of books have come out on identity,
Speaker 3: about loving self, about accepting who you are to be
Speaker 3: who you are, the skin color, the hair texture, all
Speaker 3: of these things matter because these two big important things.
Speaker 3: Why a lot of black kids grow up, boys and girls,
Speaker 3: you know, not loving themselves, not looking in the mirror
Speaker 3: and appreciating themselves, believing in themselves, all based upon the
Speaker 3: color of their skin and the texture of their hair.
Speaker 2: And a lot of it.
Speaker 6: Is just inflicted by other kids, really and it's sad.
Speaker 6: So it was just something that inspired me to tell
Speaker 6: that story and it became a film.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, hey, this has been wonderful, wonderful one.
Speaker 3: Now I'm gonna tell people go out and buy The
Speaker 3: Secret Keeper of Main Street. Now we got to have
Speaker 3: Elik books. But we know it's so wherever books are
Speaker 3: so We appreciate the time you took to talk to me.
Speaker 3: Malik's Bookshelf bringing a world together with books, culture and community.
Speaker 3: Changing the world with one book at a time.
Speaker 6: Man and come get the secret keeper of main Street
Speaker 6: because there are signed copies and I can't wait.
Speaker 2: For you to read it. Bawn, you heard it live.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thanks for listening to Malik's Bookshelf, where topics
Speaker 3: on the shelf are books, culture, and community. Be sure
Speaker 3: to subscribe and leave me a review. Check out my
Speaker 3: instagram at Malak Books. See you next time.