Speaker 1: You are listening to waiting on reparations of production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. What's happened? What's happening? Yeah, it's dope.
Speaker 1: Knife in the house. That was a nice little that
Speaker 1: was a little departure from what we usually do. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, we're happy and we're seeing it in we're colored.
Speaker 1: Give me yeah, yeah, what's going on the knife? You
Speaker 1: know what it is? You know what it is? Um,
Speaker 1: how are you doing? Um? Like like I been swept
Speaker 1: through I don't know, like the tumble tumbleweed, Like they're
Speaker 1: rolling rolling across the country inside of a tumbleweed. Somewhat happen.
Speaker 1: You're still on the road, right, I'm on the road. Yep.
Speaker 1: I made it to New Orleans, got my last show
Speaker 1: of the tour tonight, and then um, get back to
Speaker 1: my adorable baby. I'm never doing this again. I'm so
Speaker 1: much just dumb. It sounds like you're It sounds like
Speaker 1: you're in a more comfortable place to record to today
Speaker 1: because last time, last time, it sounded like you were
Speaker 1: in a prison cap You're trying to be quiet about
Speaker 1: the guards and ship like, yeah, that was my last
Speaker 1: transmission before I was never again. We have to fight
Speaker 1: for reparations. Oh no, they're coming in. Yeah, what's good
Speaker 1: with you? I'm good. I have some North Carolina shows
Speaker 1: over the weekend. Um, I had a St. Patty's Day
Speaker 1: show here in Savannah. It was cool. It's cool. It's
Speaker 1: a nice little weekend of performing and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I'm starting to gear back up into it because I
Speaker 1: just made the announcement yesterday that I'm actually doing like
Speaker 1: a you know, pretty much like a full like five
Speaker 1: six days or something like that in April. So I
Speaker 1: thought that's what it is. Yeah, I was saying that,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm shoot you out here, out here, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's coming up soon. So I gotta start getting mentally
Speaker 1: prepared for that grind. And she's like that, you know,
Speaker 1: when you when you just go do these little weekend runs,
Speaker 1: it's not even really like a thing like that, you know.
Speaker 1: So I don't even like a like, I don't even
Speaker 1: know if I can do that anymore. I mean, granted,
Speaker 1: I've been gone for like nine days now, so this
Speaker 1: is kind of like like, but I mean you can
Speaker 1: work out like some sort of thing where you can
Speaker 1: do that like every few months, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: That's pretty much what everybody else does anyway. So yeah,
Speaker 1: but I was like, but so we got showed together
Speaker 1: in Savanna in April or but I'm trying to and
Speaker 1: like I got a little or something sometimes soon I
Speaker 1: don't know if I'm misquoted, but like I was looking
Speaker 1: at my but see this is what I always do,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, I can do little weekends herever there,
Speaker 1: And then I booked like two whole months of weekends
Speaker 1: on accident my life. We're doing that Savannah show, right,
Speaker 1: that's thet We're doing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: excited to do that. So what's hilariously that is I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be down there for the the Conference of Georgia
Speaker 1: County Commissioners that they once a year, the annual conference
Speaker 1: they have her County Inmstrs of Georgia today have it
Speaker 1: everything in Savannah? Is that what was going on last
Speaker 1: time that we didn't appreciate the last time I planted
Speaker 1: show in Savannah, I was down here from this conference,
Speaker 1: is the mayor of Bathan's gonna pop in on us
Speaker 1: night popping? He might pop in, yes he might. Um,
Speaker 1: you got some new commissioners on board might have them
Speaker 1: roll up that's they can see the whole show bang,
Speaker 1: then they can see him. No joke, like this is
Speaker 1: a real time job. Vii is, This is not a hobby.
Speaker 1: So we gotta So we got a dope show for
Speaker 1: you today. We're gonna be talking with streamer and activists
Speaker 1: Mika Gadson. I even feel weird describing her as just
Speaker 1: that she does like I almost want to call historian too,
Speaker 1: like she knows about She's got all the receipts um
Speaker 1: environmental justice like like can like intersections in her work
Speaker 1: are just fascinating. So yeah, we got a lot um
Speaker 1: a lot of love for me because came on. But
Speaker 1: we'll talk to her in a little bit. Again. Before
Speaker 1: we get into that, we got to talk about our
Speaker 1: least favorite but most discussed subject just because he's in
Speaker 1: the news. But we gotta gota we might have to
Speaker 1: talk about Kanye West. Oh god, really, I mean, you
Speaker 1: know when somebody came up to me the other day,
Speaker 1: like someone who is like a genuine fan of the podcast,
Speaker 1: and they were like, Kanya does a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: that makes you guys have to talk about her. But
Speaker 1: all right, so what's going on Kanye is just he's
Speaker 1: divorced with with Kim Kardashian, YadA YadA, beef in with
Speaker 1: a bunch of people. Because of the situation, he's pretty
Speaker 1: much stocking her like online and public lea and ship.
Speaker 1: But so some comedians have waited on this. Trevor Noah waited,
Speaker 1: d L. Hughley has waited, and pretty much all of
Speaker 1: them saying of him, saying pretty much reasonable things like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is stalking. If this dude wasn't a millionaire, billionaire,
Speaker 1: musical genius whatever y'all call them, cops would probably be involved,
Speaker 1: This could lead to abuse whatever whatever you know. Making
Speaker 1: commentary on that won't leave her alone, blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: beefing with her her new boyfriend, Pete Davison, their exchange
Speaker 1: of text messages. It's all really messy. It's all very
Speaker 1: Jury Springer's funny, right. But in response to D. L. Hughley,
Speaker 1: so he says, this is all one sentence to it's
Speaker 1: it doesn't doesn't break. So okay, let we start again.
Speaker 1: We go stop letting practicing drug addicts be used by
Speaker 1: leftists to Willie Lynch our future. Black people with our
Speaker 1: own opinion are not allowed to speak in public. I
Speaker 1: am the glitch d L. God does not like you,
Speaker 1: You have no favor. Your family hates you. I would
Speaker 1: hate to be related to someone who used to be famous.
Speaker 1: Now you're just known as a broke pond. At least
Speaker 1: Oprah got billions quote allegedly, come on, leftist, y'all gotta
Speaker 1: do better than d L. This. Yeah, bring the real smoke, baby,
Speaker 1: show your real face. Charmonne with Charlemagne the guy. Just
Speaker 1: don't hit the same way, do he? Who you're going
Speaker 1: to send? Now? God is with us? You send d
Speaker 1: L against us. You've lost. No brilliant Hebrews will bow
Speaker 1: to y'all no more. Only dumbass, drug addicted house niggers.
Speaker 1: Don't play with me, don't play with God. Anybody related
Speaker 1: to d L called Chris like a bunch of Kanye
Speaker 1: rambling stuff. But the thing that stuck out to me
Speaker 1: was his use of the term leftists. And I noticed
Speaker 1: because I'm punching myself in the face. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you can hear that. I just wanted to transcribe,
Speaker 1: since this is an audio show, that I am myself
Speaker 1: in the face right now. Okay, come on, please, all
Speaker 1: of the expected preachers are obviously all out there now here,
Speaker 1: all of them are coming out and they're like, yes, Scott,
Speaker 1: tell those leftists, tell those that the like I would,
Speaker 1: I would dare him to like like define what I mean.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's applying too much rationality to it, I think,
Speaker 1: because like for me, it's not even necessarily paying attention
Speaker 1: to Kanye, but looking at the right wings reaction to
Speaker 1: him in this situation. And now, like I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: Kanye he wore the MAGA hat, who visited with Trump,
Speaker 1: he did all that stuff. But really, if you think
Speaker 1: about this situation, it's like they're finding solidarity solidarity with
Speaker 1: this dude at this particular moment on the basis that
Speaker 1: he's harassing his wife, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: that's that is that's the leftist attack. The leftist attack is, hey,
Speaker 1: don't like harass your wife and threatened to like kill
Speaker 1: people online, which is why he got he got a
Speaker 1: booted from the Grammys. He was supposed to perform and
Speaker 1: they booted him because of he like he's making like
Speaker 1: threats to d L and Trevor like I've got I
Speaker 1: have enough money to get you hurt. I know where
Speaker 1: you live like ship like that. Right, So they they
Speaker 1: kicked them off the Grammys and that is now the
Speaker 1: right wings they're canceling Kanye. Yeah, just just a further
Speaker 1: demonstrate that this canceling woke, cancel culture ship that they're
Speaker 1: talking about. It's like, really, it's rooted in are you
Speaker 1: trying to be a decent person or not? Because if
Speaker 1: you're trying to be a decent person, then that's well
Speaker 1: that's bad, that's cancel culture. This really is reminiscent to me.
Speaker 1: I was learning yesterday that UM Josh Holly um LAEF
Speaker 1: senator from Missouri. Is that correct? Um, it's endorsed herschel
Speaker 1: Walker for Georgia Senate. UM. If you're not familiar, former
Speaker 1: UM Georgia football player, very famous, UM some have some problems,
Speaker 1: might have like beat the ship out of several women,
Speaker 1: including his ex wife allegedly, and so, UM, so Holly's
Speaker 1: out here talking about how this like democratic candidate for UM.
Speaker 1: Actually let me, I think Nicki Haley came down to
Speaker 1: Georgia to campaign and raise some money with herschel Walker.
Speaker 1: That is Nicki Halleys. She was governor of South Carolina,
Speaker 1: CUM she was UM. I think Ambassador to the U
Speaker 1: n But I mean before that, okay, I don't Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I ain't even pressed. So Josh Holly, what did he
Speaker 1: do besides accused the Supreme Court nominee of supporting pedophilia. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Josh Holly, They're like, look, man, the Republicans are now
Speaker 1: in this new thing where the same way that Putin
Speaker 1: is thrown around Nazi to justify or now the Republicans
Speaker 1: are just like blanketly calling everybody a pedophile, like just everything,
Speaker 1: everybody for everything? Oh, is it like a Q and
Speaker 1: on kind of thing, Like, well, not really see what
Speaker 1: they're saying. So she had ah there was a case
Speaker 1: or something that she was hearing where someone was making
Speaker 1: an argument against like a mandatory sentencing for people who
Speaker 1: I guess indulge in child pornography. And the person who
Speaker 1: was arguing this was making the case that not everybody
Speaker 1: who's involved in it is involved in it for that reason,
Speaker 1: like there's like a bunch of factors that go in.
Speaker 1: So they were explaining this this reasoning to her for
Speaker 1: the sentencing, and she was hearing their reasoning and was
Speaker 1: asking them questions. So they've like sniffed out the questions
Speaker 1: that she was asking to say that this is what
Speaker 1: she was supporting, that she has a history of doing.
Speaker 1: It's really ugly stuff, Like really it's like pretty much
Speaker 1: demagoguery as close to it as you can get. But
Speaker 1: it's a bad ship. But that that that seems to
Speaker 1: be their new tactics. Just like at every level from
Speaker 1: online Twitter discourse to now even politicians are just like, oh,
Speaker 1: we don't want this person to be nominated. Let's just
Speaker 1: float out there uncircumstanced, circumstance, circumstantiator accusations. But I'm sorry
Speaker 1: what we're saying about a drop. So there's a Democrat
Speaker 1: running for something in Missouri I forgot about. But he's
Speaker 1: got some he's got some like the Salt allegations against him,
Speaker 1: and he's like, if you if you beat your if
Speaker 1: you put your hands on a woman, you should be
Speaker 1: in handcuffs, not the Senate or you know whatever. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: he's endorsed herschel Walker though, who like long history of
Speaker 1: allegations of being shifted out of women. And so it's
Speaker 1: like literally like they go they're like go to like
Speaker 1: the bargain bin. Black people just like, oh, what do
Speaker 1: you have? What do you have black Oh you don't
Speaker 1: have Oh we're fresh out of uggar everestus. Oh we
Speaker 1: ain't got no top knives. Uh. Well, I can't leave
Speaker 1: empty handed because we look at real we look in
Speaker 1: real sparks. If I don't, if I don't come home
Speaker 1: with something, um. But actually I would say that, like,
Speaker 1: can we go back and talk about how we talked
Speaker 1: about the Hebrew? Yeah? I mean what does that? Even
Speaker 1: the whole the whole thing is not sensible? Like what
Speaker 1: I don't you know what does this talking about? Well?
Speaker 1: I learned recently. So when I was at south By Southwest,
Speaker 1: I encountered a group of like street preachers that were
Speaker 1: these black dudes with like big old beards, wearing like
Speaker 1: punk rocks, like studded jackets with like um stars of
Speaker 1: David on it, who were claiming to be of the
Speaker 1: Temple of the Israelites and um, talking about how they're
Speaker 1: like like black people are the real Jews. Did anybody
Speaker 1: body photography altogether? I hope no I photographed them. I
Speaker 1: was like, what the fucking my witnessing right now? I
Speaker 1: don't do not know what's going on, and like for
Speaker 1: higher office, that picture is gonna come up with you
Speaker 1: with them, like frank down, Like, what am I witnessing
Speaker 1: right now? How I know that? Um no? So I
Speaker 1: mean that that I was I was been learning about
Speaker 1: how like in the A d O L like I
Speaker 1: don't call you know, I don't know if you call
Speaker 1: it a movement or like circles kind of hope happy
Speaker 1: as like spiritual black people that are like, um, you
Speaker 1: know kind of yeah, anyway, we'll get into a halt.
Speaker 1: We need to do a whole episode in a DUS
Speaker 1: But anyway, but I didn't I didn't know. Apparently this
Speaker 1: is really a thing where um like sounds kind of
Speaker 1: like people think that black people are the real Jews
Speaker 1: and like the real children of Gotten the way that
Speaker 1: Juts are something like I don't know, well, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, Ethiopian Jews or Black I'm not you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not too familiar with the history in terms of
Speaker 1: like who was first or who wasn't. But back to
Speaker 1: this Kanye thing, it definitely sounds like he is trying
Speaker 1: to perfect like a merger of Hotep sentiment, you know,
Speaker 1: sentiment with like full on modern day right wing that
Speaker 1: shittery and it's just, you know, it's curious curious because
Speaker 1: like now if you're you know, you know, when you're
Speaker 1: getting some discourse with these fan groups and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and you know if you're like, oh man, I didn't
Speaker 1: like track number three on Beyonce's last album, and then
Speaker 1: you find yourself like taking it from all sides and
Speaker 1: ship like that. Well, this Kanye discourse just like you know,
Speaker 1: like creeping through some comments sections and ship like that,
Speaker 1: a little little line between like some of these Kanye
Speaker 1: fans and like a full on magal lunatic is starting
Speaker 1: to get raise it at this point, raise it bizarre.
Speaker 1: I'm not an elected politician, so if you were, if
Speaker 1: you if um, I came back to you of ten
Speaker 1: years ago and it's in a little time uh time machine.
Speaker 1: I was like a time caps hope that's not right,
Speaker 1: um spaceship still wrong of time machine and told you
Speaker 1: any years now Kanye West is going to I believe
Speaker 1: he is um uh last by uh um it's leftist,
Speaker 1: and that he's threatening to murder d l Hughley and
Speaker 1: um also slid slavery is fine. You know what a reason?
Speaker 1: What would you think? Would you? Um call for help?
Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked me that because you know, I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna have to do an episode someday of
Speaker 1: like criticizing hip hop from the left, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. But I I wouldn't if you told me that.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised personally, you know, not, not like
Speaker 1: I have any sort of like one up on anybody
Speaker 1: on knowledge or anything like that. But when I started
Speaker 1: becoming just in my own mind, when I started becoming
Speaker 1: more politically aware, like around you know, like post nine eleven,
Speaker 1: two thousand three ish, two thousand two ish, that sort
Speaker 1: of errors, when I started having my own political weight
Speaker 1: ging and developing my own political world view and ship
Speaker 1: like that. Being that was around the time when I
Speaker 1: first started like getting into wrapped and being a rapper,
Speaker 1: and then I was noticing, wait a minute, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of right wing ship in this hip hop day
Speaker 1: right now. It's kind of just going around undetected that
Speaker 1: we're not even like paying attention to because of you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know why, like for for some reason, we've
Speaker 1: got like this blind spot that it's like, yo, if
Speaker 1: Kid Rock was saying this, we would all clearly see
Speaker 1: what it is, you know what I mean. So there
Speaker 1: were just aspects of in particular Kanye West personality as
Speaker 1: a public figure and as an m C. Just to
Speaker 1: be honest with you, where I was like, Oh, this
Speaker 1: beat is dope, but this got something I don't know
Speaker 1: if I really I don't know if I'm working with
Speaker 1: this dude like that, you know. I mean that's just
Speaker 1: me personally. So as time goes on, it's like one
Speaker 1: way you could interpret it is be like, oh he's
Speaker 1: a diva, or oh he's an asshole or a damn
Speaker 1: Kanye is a real jerk, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But if you're like one of those people who looks
Speaker 1: at things through a political lens, it's like I think
Speaker 1: it was this thing was the right winger, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Yeah, I mean like ten years ago
Speaker 1: is when like my Beautiful, Dark Twisted Fantasy dropped and
Speaker 1: even then he was like I had a reputation as
Speaker 1: an asshole, even had that song Are you remind me
Speaker 1: of it? When he said that this one's an asshole,
Speaker 1: you know, like and like there's that moment of redemption,
Speaker 1: was like, oh, maybe Kanye is okay. Like I remember,
Speaker 1: like you're like, I'm ship, Like I love Kanye a
Speaker 1: getting all right, Yeah, maybe you have to go back
Speaker 1: farther than that butt. When people tell you who they are,
Speaker 1: believe them. And we have kept this intro going way
Speaker 1: too motherfucking log, so you wanted to real quickly there
Speaker 1: was some uhmies want to shout it out before me
Speaker 1: moving to oh, yes, you're right, you're right, you're right, yes,
Speaker 1: before you forget abou yo, I smoked my ball before
Speaker 1: we started my memory or short term memories going all right, yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to mention, you know, because we're in
Speaker 1: this uh current news cycle where everybody is talking about
Speaker 1: Ukraine and the situation there is definitely terrible and you know,
Speaker 1: people are dying, the Russians are bombing cities, uh indiscriminately
Speaker 1: killing kids and stuff like that. But I just want
Speaker 1: to take it as the resident African on this show,
Speaker 1: just to remind people that there are currently like wild
Speaker 1: coup's going on in Africa and refuge and refugee crisis
Speaker 1: is of their own. Um. I think Burkina Faso just
Speaker 1: had a military takeover. There was a failed one in
Speaker 1: Guinea Basu, so I mean, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: there's other there's other places where there's tensions on the
Speaker 1: rise and stuff like that. So it's not even like
Speaker 1: I understand, it's like I am not surprised that white
Speaker 1: Western media is focusing on their white Western ship, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. But for people who aren't like
Speaker 1: tunnel visions into that, you know what I'm saying, maybe
Speaker 1: you should, you know, go and and and read about
Speaker 1: some of the other things that are going on over
Speaker 1: the world because this Ukraine ship, as bad as it is,
Speaker 1: it is going to take up twenty four hour news
Speaker 1: coverage at least for like the next year and a
Speaker 1: half maybe two years, so you guys probably won't be
Speaker 1: hearing about much else. And I appreciate you framing it
Speaker 1: that way because we either see like leftists making fun
Speaker 1: of like libs about like how you don't care about
Speaker 1: war when it's when it's brown people, and like libs
Speaker 1: being like not, you know not now, like you know
Speaker 1: why you gotta distract from like those issues those issues
Speaker 1: are about too, But we're focused on Ukraine right now,
Speaker 1: like rather than people just having a genuine dialogue about this,
Speaker 1: instead of folks that have a more robust antipe war
Speaker 1: stands where they are pretension you know, paying attention to
Speaker 1: conflicts internet, like genuinely international, not general international, more like
Speaker 1: a more broad of international conflicts. Can comment on that,
Speaker 1: not just when the war is on white people, right, Um,
Speaker 1: maybe read up on this, Maybe find out about this
Speaker 1: rather than like poking fun at folks for not having known,
Speaker 1: because it's not I don't think it's just like the
Speaker 1: regular average person's fault that they don't know about this.
Speaker 1: It's the meaning and then tell you on top of that,
Speaker 1: on top of that, on top of that with like
Speaker 1: some of these leftists who say ship like that, it's
Speaker 1: like nigga, I don't never hear you talking about ship
Speaker 1: that's going on until so, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's like this opportunity to kind of be your point,
Speaker 1: but also why you have be like that, Like just
Speaker 1: the point, the point is valid. I'm not hating on
Speaker 1: the point, but it's just like you gotta you yourself,
Speaker 1: have to be consistent, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: if I'm watching your ship, if I'm listening to you
Speaker 1: and you're somebody that I listened to on the regular,
Speaker 1: and you weren't talking about fucking Brakino Fasso, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Two months ago when the ship went down.
Speaker 1: Then don't be like, why are you talking about Ukraine?
Speaker 1: Their stuff going on, and you know I don't don't
Speaker 1: do that now, like yeah, everybody shows some humility, like
Speaker 1: I just you know, I just found out about this.
Speaker 1: I want to raise some awareness about it. Oh thank
Speaker 1: you French kidding me about that, rather than just like
Speaker 1: being so stubborn about like I'm right, you're wrong. I'm
Speaker 1: right about this thing. I found out about two weeks
Speaker 1: ago about it. Today, I'll find links down the line.
Speaker 1: But there there are you know, there's there's YouTube channels
Speaker 1: that cover African news and African politics and African occurrences,
Speaker 1: tons of them. I mean there's fifty four fifty six
Speaker 1: countries in Africa, so you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 1: there's there's people who are covering these things that you
Speaker 1: can find if you look for it. I'm just saying again,
Speaker 1: I am not surprised that these things don't get covered
Speaker 1: by people who don't have an you know, feel that
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have an interest in it. I do. And
Speaker 1: I'm just just spreading that out there for people who
Speaker 1: also think that they might that there's a lot, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of problems in the world, so many problems
Speaker 1: in the world, so many Well, let's take a break
Speaker 1: in and get into this interview with me. Guy, let's
Speaker 1: do it, all right, We'll be right back after the job. Alright, alright, alright,
Speaker 1: So today we are here with Mika Gaston. I don't
Speaker 1: even know you wear so many hats, like like you
Speaker 1: are Charleston. To me, I'm like, oh you mean you
Speaker 1: mean Mika City, you know, like her queendom. I will
Speaker 1: let you intro yourself for all our listeners this week,
Speaker 1: are no problem and thank you first and foremost. Talking
Speaker 1: about wearing many hats. Uh, you do it all yourself.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm Mika Gadston. I'm based here in Charleston,
Speaker 1: South Carolina. Um. I am the daughter of Jim Crow
Speaker 1: refugees so are relocated to Charleston probably about eight years
Speaker 1: or so ago. Um. But uh yeah, I'm a I'm
Speaker 1: an activist, I'm an organizer, I'm a gad fly. Um.
Speaker 1: I pissed people off. I interrogate power and all that,
Speaker 1: and and I create and I'm a Twitch streamer and podcasters.
Speaker 1: So that's me. But only she out here in these streets.
Speaker 1: She out here on these um she out here on
Speaker 1: these streams. Oh you can tell who's who's the real
Speaker 1: wrapper around here, real bars. Yeah. So, UM, we had
Speaker 1: the pleasure recently kind of speaking about the intersections between
Speaker 1: some of the projects we're working on. I spoke a
Speaker 1: little bit about my work with Lennontown here in Athens,
Speaker 1: and there's a somewhat overlapping UM project that you are
Speaker 1: working on in Charleston called the Friends with Patson Creek. Correct. Correct,
Speaker 1: you can talk to us a little bit about that. Yeah, absolutely, Well,
Speaker 1: you know, UM, I'll talk to you about this. I think.
Speaker 1: I think, just like so many other towns, not just
Speaker 1: specifically Southern cities, UM, Charleston has this long, the storied
Speaker 1: history UM of taking taking land, UM, taking agency or
Speaker 1: attempting to remove agency. UM. And they do it through
Speaker 1: a myriad of ways. You know, all oppression is linked,
Speaker 1: but specifically in Charleston. I mean, if they didn't create
Speaker 1: the pattern for Hayless, dump into your backyard and then
Speaker 1: take your land and then you know, enter you into
Speaker 1: a cycle of poverty for generations, I don't know who.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that they want to earn that distinction,
Speaker 1: but Charleston has perfected this what my friend calls my
Speaker 1: my brother in this struggle, Cyrus Buffon calls a pattern
Speaker 1: of taking and um, yeah, the friends of Gas and Creek.
Speaker 1: What we're trying to do is we leverage the archive,
Speaker 1: uh and trying to highlight this pattern. But now more recently,
Speaker 1: since we've partnered with you know, the South Caroline Environmental
Speaker 1: Law Law a law group scalp UM, we we're now
Speaker 1: taking it to the courts and so, um, we're taking
Speaker 1: on one of the biggest developers here in Charleston that
Speaker 1: it's actually just another outgrowth of previous effort to take land,
Speaker 1: to take home ownership, to take the ability to build
Speaker 1: equity from black Charlestonians. And so we're currently engaged in
Speaker 1: this fight where we're taking them up. And you know,
Speaker 1: they are a formidable foe, but we are mighty and
Speaker 1: we are persistent, and uh, I'm encouraged by our fight,
Speaker 1: and we want to we want to, we want to
Speaker 1: we want to explain to people this pattern. And I
Speaker 1: think also really quickly for talking back, we want to
Speaker 1: show black folks that environmental justice issues or environmental injustice
Speaker 1: is a black liberation issue. And and that's one thing
Speaker 1: that we're all we're poised to do as well in
Speaker 1: this fight. Um. So just for our listeners, say, when
Speaker 1: you say that Charleston has like a long history of again,
Speaker 1: could you give like an example so those who don't know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so uh in the late nineteen thirties, specifically, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: keep you over here with friends of gas and Creek
Speaker 1: because what's done here on the peninsula. If you look
Speaker 1: at a map of all staid, it's not just the
Speaker 1: tourism district or the tourism tourism region that resembles a
Speaker 1: thumb um, but that the thumb is the peninsula. But
Speaker 1: that's where we're gonna stay, I think for the majority
Speaker 1: of this of this conversation. And so back in the
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, there was a tornado that ripped through Charleston Um,
Speaker 1: the affluent area, as well as Um, an area of
Speaker 1: of Charleston called Gads and Green also informally called back
Speaker 1: the Green Um. If you know anything about Charleston, you'll
Speaker 1: learn about the Gala Gichi language and and so that
Speaker 1: probably was where that name emerged from Back to Green
Speaker 1: so Um as the tornadoes ripped through Back to Green
Speaker 1: Um the affluent side of Charleston was allowed to rebuild
Speaker 1: and to you know, um, you know, rebuild that the
Speaker 1: tourism and buildings, instructures and in residences. Whereas the black neighborhood,
Speaker 1: and this was a black neighborhood that actually held the
Speaker 1: most upwardly mobile, economically independent black people. These were teachers,
Speaker 1: these were fishermen, These were people who um, you know,
Speaker 1: sold livestock. Um. They lived off of a creek called
Speaker 1: the Gadsden Creek right up against back the green or
Speaker 1: gads In Green. And so as this this tornado comes through,
Speaker 1: it's disaster capitalism one on one. This was the time
Speaker 1: where the previous mayors always eyed this part of Charleston
Speaker 1: because you know, they wanted to create I guess they
Speaker 1: wanted to they wanted to create more real estate, but
Speaker 1: they also wanted to have more taxable land. Um. And
Speaker 1: so they started to um. Instead of black folk allowing
Speaker 1: them to rebuild their homes, they literally said no, we're
Speaker 1: going to build a housing project, um, and you're not
Speaker 1: going and they called it a slum. It was a
Speaker 1: slum clearance. All those words that we know are very
Speaker 1: problematical phrases rather that are very problematic um uh and
Speaker 1: so you know, after this community over forty families, not
Speaker 1: forty people, forty families mobilized and organized to not only
Speaker 1: raise the money through th years, um you know, carnivals. Uh,
Speaker 1: they also wrote this, this this amazing letter to the
Speaker 1: mayor at that time, Mayor Lockwood, saying hey, no, no,
Speaker 1: we're we're we got this. We're gonna raise money, We're gonna,
Speaker 1: we're gonna pull ourselves up our boot traps all just
Speaker 1: to get like a one paragraph response from the mayor saying, nah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna, we're gonna build this housing project and that.
Speaker 1: So they took black folks ability to rebuild their homes.
Speaker 1: But also what they did they started to dump that
Speaker 1: thumb I told you about, Well the thumb wasn't as
Speaker 1: fat as it is now. So what they started to
Speaker 1: do specifically on this area, and they did it in
Speaker 1: other areas as well. They started to dump and and
Speaker 1: fill in the marshaland the tidal creek area. This is
Speaker 1: a creek again that folks were baptized in that they
Speaker 1: earned a living from or shoot, they just fed their
Speaker 1: families from it. If you wanted to have crab or shrimp,
Speaker 1: you would just throw out whatever bait out the window. Literally,
Speaker 1: we've heard this from you know, the great the grand
Speaker 1: kids or whatever relatives of folks who remember the memories
Speaker 1: of sitting out a line to to to crab ab Um.
Speaker 1: So people lived off this creek and they had they
Speaker 1: earned a living off this creek. So they began the
Speaker 1: city began to dump into the Marshaland area, and um,
Speaker 1: that caused all kinds of problems as you would imagine,
Speaker 1: and from else to rodents um and also flooding, and
Speaker 1: that's what we're contending with now. So um. You know,
Speaker 1: when you talk about taking, they didn't just take land.
Speaker 1: They took natural resources from black folk over time. It's
Speaker 1: interesting that it kind of comes in at both sides
Speaker 1: for both kind of addressing this side in which like
Speaker 1: weather disasters and natural phenomena, you know, what happens from
Speaker 1: those impact black people. You know, it was very reminiscent
Speaker 1: to me. I'm in New Orleans right now, and so
Speaker 1: it's making me think of females response after the Hurricane Katrina,
Speaker 1: right um. And so then sort of forecasting forward to
Speaker 1: like what this can mean for our environmental justice struggle
Speaker 1: going forward if we don't get climate change under control.
Speaker 1: We already got the we got the seats for what
Speaker 1: they do when this happened to our communities on the
Speaker 1: other side, like like h form of like racial terrorism,
Speaker 1: people don't think about when you mess with somebody's natural
Speaker 1: resources and like the land and the waters from which
Speaker 1: they draw life. And so you got that time too
Speaker 1: linked in with this like narrative running throughout all of
Speaker 1: our histories, um as black people of just like theft
Speaker 1: and then some more theft and look, oh you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just doing a little bit more of that. Let
Speaker 1: me just have that and have that. You're using that?
Speaker 1: Oh you are, you're using it? No, no, no, you're
Speaker 1: not using that. I'm gonna have that, thank you. Um So,
Speaker 1: what so what does this mean for you all today?
Speaker 1: With regards to demands You're continuing to raise your local
Speaker 1: government in other ways, you're elevating this issue, you know,
Speaker 1: not unlike so many people. Uh probably not unlike some
Speaker 1: of the work you're you're involved with, Mariah um uh
Speaker 1: and not unlike the homies in New Orleans. Shout out
Speaker 1: to Pichon Battle and scrape. Request is just two people
Speaker 1: who I've worked are done some projects centering some of
Speaker 1: their work over the last couple of years. UM. You
Speaker 1: know what it means is that we have to again
Speaker 1: educate folks on the history. Let folks know that you
Speaker 1: know those memories that your grandma, your auntie, your uncle's
Speaker 1: kind of told you about, those those you know, these
Speaker 1: are real people. So like reanimating some of those figures
Speaker 1: from the past so that people can make a connection
Speaker 1: to it. And we've done that. I think we've done
Speaker 1: that well, not just alone but with other partners that
Speaker 1: we've collaborated with. UM. So we've told the story by
Speaker 1: leveraging the public archive again something I had learned from
Speaker 1: my my brother and this cyrus buffum um. And and
Speaker 1: so once we we told the story, and then we
Speaker 1: we go up against the powers that be. We make this, um,
Speaker 1: we make this amazing case. And y'all get this, get this.
Speaker 1: This was What really gets me is that we've got engineers,
Speaker 1: We've got um we've got scientists, we've got people who
Speaker 1: run the local aquarium, we've got all types of educators. Uh,
Speaker 1: I mean it runs the gamut. And not to say
Speaker 1: the credentials mean everything, but we've got all these credential
Speaker 1: folks saying, hey, don't feel this creek anymore, because that's
Speaker 1: what we're fighting currently. We're fighting the feeling of the
Speaker 1: remaining four acres of of of title Wetlands is still
Speaker 1: an operational title creek there that they have yet to
Speaker 1: fill to build luxury condominiums and whatnot. And so, um,
Speaker 1: we we made this compelling case. Public outcry has been
Speaker 1: on our side. The majority of people who who gave
Speaker 1: public comment at hearings, Um, they've been on our side.
Speaker 1: And not only that, the kicker was our mayor took
Speaker 1: his took his raggedy self over to Amsterdam because you know,
Speaker 1: the Dutch know how to live with water, right, that's
Speaker 1: that's you know. I've been over their shout out and
Speaker 1: it was great. Um, So they went over there for
Speaker 1: this thing called the Dutch Dialogues, came back and continued
Speaker 1: this Dutch Dialogues like series here where they performed caring,
Speaker 1: they performed listening to what the Dutch said. The Dutch
Speaker 1: on top of all of our friends who are experts
Speaker 1: and engineers. The Dutch said, yeah, don't feel the creek.
Speaker 1: Revitalize it, um, restores title functions so it can drain
Speaker 1: that flooding that was caused by you know, decades and
Speaker 1: deck age of filling and dumping um. But nonetheless you
Speaker 1: know the interests, the powers that be, the mayor um
Speaker 1: and who is a developer who was into commercial real
Speaker 1: estate before he took office, and he took over for
Speaker 1: Mayor Riley, who a lot of people like to put
Speaker 1: up on high esteem after mother Manu. But Mayor Riley
Speaker 1: was an ambitious developer. For forty years, forty years we
Speaker 1: had run mayor forty hyper tenure, like on another level,
Speaker 1: for forty years we had one mayor who was a
Speaker 1: real estate developer in that seat. And he is literally
Speaker 1: if you look at since his data, he literally had
Speaker 1: flipped the black population, which was in the majority when
Speaker 1: he took office in late nineteen seventies. He flipped the population.
Speaker 1: And while I'm bringing that up in this conversations because
Speaker 1: we're trying to we're trying to tell people that this
Speaker 1: was part of the plan the whole time. And some
Speaker 1: of the actors, some of the last names and bad
Speaker 1: actors now well literally their fathers were a part of
Speaker 1: the original plans in the seventies to fill in developed
Speaker 1: this area and to expel black people, black family, black history,
Speaker 1: black culture, and to bring in you know, more more tourists,
Speaker 1: more white folks, more affluent white folks, et cetera. So
Speaker 1: right now, even though we've we've made our compelling case, um,
Speaker 1: they're not listening. So we're gonna take you to the courts.
Speaker 1: And that's where we're at right now. We're taking one
Speaker 1: of the chief developer West Edge to court in June. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so currently, uh, we are you know, we're going
Speaker 1: through a lot of things, depositions and and things like that.
Speaker 1: So like, what what do you think it is that
Speaker 1: y'all need? Because, like you said that, you've been working
Speaker 1: at this for a while, So what is it that
Speaker 1: you think you need at this moment that would like
Speaker 1: push it over the top because of public outcry is
Speaker 1: at a high pit and you guys are doing all
Speaker 1: this stuff and you know what I mean, you're they're
Speaker 1: still resisting. Like what do you think could push you
Speaker 1: all over the top? Yeah, Like, first of all, even
Speaker 1: being go ahead, all right, I was listening to moments
Speaker 1: talked about when we met a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: Like okay, what we're the tactics of like the Lennontown project,
Speaker 1: and like we told you about them, and it sounded
Speaker 1: pretty much like what y'all did. It's like, well, y'all
Speaker 1: must be up against some like especially evil people. If
Speaker 1: like y'all have done, it sounds like even higher degrees
Speaker 1: and we did with letting down and they still trying
Speaker 1: to resist y'all. But yeah, what what was it was?
Speaker 1: He I'm interested in here as well? What's your analysis
Speaker 1: of Yeah? Yeah, the yeah, well you know, um get
Speaker 1: that's like a heart I think I had an answer
Speaker 1: that I'm like, but no, I think being here is helpful.
Speaker 1: Like seriously, one thing about Charleston they lose is public
Speaker 1: like national exposure. They little they might they'll deal with
Speaker 1: a couple of us tree huggers, you know. Um, But
Speaker 1: when it becomes a story um in New York Times,
Speaker 1: because we've seen the tourism industry, or rather I call
Speaker 1: it the Antebellum industrial complex, we've seen them respond to
Speaker 1: perhaps you know, some stories that I've been involved with
Speaker 1: in the New York Times or other stories in the
Speaker 1: Washington Post about about some of the things that they
Speaker 1: do here. The um. So I think more exposure always helps. Um.
Speaker 1: I think more we we love ideas, the call we
Speaker 1: have with you Mariah. UM was so just so important
Speaker 1: because we were doing a lot of the things that
Speaker 1: you were suggesting, Which is not to say that, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: we did that, No, it was it was validation, so
Speaker 1: being in community with other folks and learning new things
Speaker 1: because you also put us up on games, so we
Speaker 1: learned new things. But also it was validation to hear
Speaker 1: that Okay, yeah, leveraging the archive, that's a good step. UM.
Speaker 1: Getting the elders involved, UM. Shout out to Mr John.
Speaker 1: We were just over there yesterday, UM holding space with
Speaker 1: him and walking the creek and talking to him about
Speaker 1: upcoming legal action and how he's gonna participate. And so
Speaker 1: like having these partnerships with people who've been a part
Speaker 1: of that community, even if they moved away, UM bringing
Speaker 1: them back in. And our recent UM a recent part
Speaker 1: ner CAJUM, which is uh, it's like a Christian a
Speaker 1: Christian justice ministry activist group. Well, they rolled deep, six
Speaker 1: thousand strong. We're having a huge rally on April four, UM,
Speaker 1: and we're we're holding the mayor's feet to the fire.
Speaker 1: And even though he won't come and participate in this
Speaker 1: action that we've asked him to come and participate in
Speaker 1: pledge that he won't fill the creek. The the optics
Speaker 1: of having you know, hundreds of hundreds, if not a thousand,
Speaker 1: people show up and n advocate for this, this area,
Speaker 1: this neighborhood is going to help put us a little
Speaker 1: bit over the top. But I think more exposure and
Speaker 1: more collaboration with other like minded groups, especially in the South.
Speaker 1: People really do not give the South enough credit for organizing.
Speaker 1: The blueprint is here. We know this, we know this historically,
Speaker 1: and so UM just continue to build partnerships across the
Speaker 1: Southeast has been really important. Yeah, and then two things
Speaker 1: I wanted to like go back and just highlight. One.
Speaker 1: Mayor had to go across the ocean to find the
Speaker 1: white people that live amongst Water in order to get
Speaker 1: their confirmation that like you, like you should live amongst Water,
Speaker 1: despite the fact that there was a rich and vibrant
Speaker 1: community of black people probably right on the street from him.
Speaker 1: I was doing it. It It was like, yeah, look, we're
Speaker 1: out here doing it. It's like, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: gotta find I gotta find the whitest white people. I
Speaker 1: have to consult with the whites first. It's not real.
Speaker 1: It's not real unless you have white man telling you,
Speaker 1: you know, with a with a nice you know, with
Speaker 1: a funky accident, no shade, but like you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not it's not real unless you do that.
Speaker 1: And to your point, yo, like like Charleston is the
Speaker 1: cradle of slavery. Charleston is the cradle of slavery. My
Speaker 1: last name is tied so directly to one of the
Speaker 1: biggest uh, you know, traffickers of Africans and slave Africans
Speaker 1: Gadsden right, um. And so I'm bringing that up because
Speaker 1: the African people that they stole came from certain coastal
Speaker 1: regions where they had the best like I guess, they
Speaker 1: were engineers. They were. They were these brilliant scientific minds
Speaker 1: that also worked with the water and and also taught
Speaker 1: white folks here how to how to irrigate, how to
Speaker 1: create these rice fields, you know, more more land and
Speaker 1: soil was moved to create these these rice plantations then
Speaker 1: were moved for the pyramids in Egypt, and so to
Speaker 1: just imagine the brilliance. And then when you when you
Speaker 1: learn more, y'all, when you learn more about the Gala
Speaker 1: Gichi traditions of living with water, surviving hurricanes, preparing and
Speaker 1: rebuilding communities after hurricanes and things like that. You know,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't you tap those resources because there are there
Speaker 1: are so many black oystermen, black fishermen, crabbers, you know,
Speaker 1: all types of folks who live off the water. You you,
Speaker 1: you know, this is not a lofty thing, is to
Speaker 1: see a black man with the boat in Charleston, you know,
Speaker 1: because that's that's how people live and and and enjoy nature. Um.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, he went all around the world, and
Speaker 1: I I I when you could just went down the
Speaker 1: highway and and really and just really tap some like.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing about Charleston. They will not they
Speaker 1: will not look to black people for that brilliance, you know,
Speaker 1: they will not look and seek that out. The gyms
Speaker 1: are brilliance among us here. They rather go across the
Speaker 1: globe um to get that white European validation. And that
Speaker 1: that just shows you their priorities and how skewed they are.
Speaker 1: So it's hard enough that you guys are dealing with
Speaker 1: the city and everything like that. But how is like
Speaker 1: the effects of climate change effecting something the fight that
Speaker 1: you guys are. I don't know if I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: here like in five years. Seriously the look Okay, so
Speaker 1: this is my story. Jersey girl born and raised. But
Speaker 1: my dad semi retired when I was in tenth grade.
Speaker 1: So I actually finished high school down here, but I
Speaker 1: was pune out because Charleston was just too regressive. I
Speaker 1: wanted to be near culture and I and went to
Speaker 1: I went to undergrad in the New York metro area. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm saying that because I remember being here. Flooding was
Speaker 1: the thing. We're below sea level. Charleston has been below
Speaker 1: sea level. That's not a secret. Flooding was a thing,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't this thing. When I came back around
Speaker 1: to see us, I didn't know about sunny day flooding that.
Speaker 1: You know, the water just it's just it's just, you know,
Speaker 1: the table is full, like literally below us. And a
Speaker 1: lot of people like to talk about and shout out
Speaker 1: to my My homie also part of the fo g
Speaker 1: C click amaring Um from Pratt. She and her her
Speaker 1: her comrades at Pratt up in Brooklyn. They actually did
Speaker 1: a lot of district a lot of research for us
Speaker 1: regarding tips. And I'm bringing head up because they've also
Speaker 1: been telling me about Hey, yeah, you're worried about the
Speaker 1: storm surge and other sea level rise, but you're not
Speaker 1: worried about the sea level rise that's like beneath our
Speaker 1: feet and so rainy Dave flooding is one of like
Speaker 1: a byproduct of some of that that there's water, uh
Speaker 1: that we don't even we don't even know how to
Speaker 1: deal with that's coming up. So when it's brilliant and
Speaker 1: beautiful days like today, we went we were out in
Speaker 1: back to Green yesterday there were puddles all over the place.
Speaker 1: It wasn't any rain at least in the last for
Speaker 1: eight hours. So so what is that. So so you
Speaker 1: have that and you have um, you know, when it
Speaker 1: when it rains even for literally twenty minutes and not
Speaker 1: nothing torrential, just regular everyday drizzle, it can literally shut
Speaker 1: down the main thoroughfares for students and families to get
Speaker 1: to school and work. And so lots of kids have
Speaker 1: stayed home in this specific area. And that's pretty much
Speaker 1: consistent around the peninsula. They've been filling in the marshaland
Speaker 1: of tidal creeks all around the peninsula for so long
Speaker 1: that it's it's just exacerbated this issue. And now the
Speaker 1: tail of two cities. Back the Green, you'll go on
Speaker 1: a rainy day, you'll see sandbags on everyone's front stoop.
Speaker 1: But over on like south of broad Street, where the
Speaker 1: more affluent, affluent area is, you actually have people hiking
Speaker 1: up their houses. They're jacking up their houses because they
Speaker 1: know that sea level rise is imminent. It's coming. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you know when you come here, you'll see two
Speaker 1: different approaches. And you know, black people can't lift the
Speaker 1: projects up. You know, we didn't do that. But um
Speaker 1: also again shows you the priorities of the city as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we've talked about it before. Is the kind
Speaker 1: of one of the issues that you know, kind of
Speaker 1: gets overlooked when people are talking about climate change is
Speaker 1: how it's gonna affect poor people and marginalized communities quicker
Speaker 1: than it's gonna think those that don't have to live
Speaker 1: like that. Yet, one thing I wanted to circle back
Speaker 1: to the second man once talks back to was um
Speaker 1: public education around this history um as I I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's something we did well, but also
Speaker 1: with engaging like newer generations GENC and folks like that,
Speaker 1: I'm working with like elders and art community to think
Speaker 1: about how we can reach them. I mean, we have
Speaker 1: like technologies that they never even seen, like they might
Speaker 1: have heard of TikTok or something like very foreign to them,
Speaker 1: and so kind of engaged in like like a like
Speaker 1: a almost like an ideological tunnel around like we're trying
Speaker 1: to open. That's one of the demands a Balend Town project.
Speaker 1: They wanted a black history museum built, and we got
Speaker 1: the you know, the space for it carved out. We're
Speaker 1: working out you know, the funding, etcetera. But really like
Speaker 1: the contents of it are like of a lot of
Speaker 1: debate because like they want to have some photos of
Speaker 1: their like grandparents or something like. But what if we
Speaker 1: had like a virtual reality like simulation or you could
Speaker 1: walk through and see the neighborhood, so like things like that.
Speaker 1: So I'm wondering, like, for you, what have you found
Speaker 1: to be a success or struggles as you have encountered
Speaker 1: with regards to educating people in the history. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's why I'm on twitch, right. So one thing about me,
Speaker 1: um is I'm on Twitch. I'm I'm probably I'm trying
Speaker 1: to think. Um, I'm probably one of the older members
Speaker 1: of Friends of Gas and Creek in forty one and so. UM.
Speaker 1: But one thing about me, I know that the work
Speaker 1: has to remain nimble and dynamic, and so it's it's
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid of technology. UM, I've embraced it. I've
Speaker 1: I've gone back to the school and whatnot, and I've
Speaker 1: just literally just you know, taught myself to do everything
Speaker 1: from podcasting to creating digital content across different mediums and
Speaker 1: UM and do that. I've learned a love of sharing
Speaker 1: that information. I've seen a really favorable response. Take take
Speaker 1: for instance, UM, Black History Month that just passed. UM,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to just do the regular not no shade,
Speaker 1: but I didn't want to just do if you know
Speaker 1: about Charleston's history, you know a lot about den MARVC,
Speaker 1: which I did pay tribute to him. I wanted to
Speaker 1: pay tribute to two women, UM, like Mary Moultrie who
Speaker 1: led that famous hospital workers strike with corrector Scott King. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, after MLK was assassinated. This was one of
Speaker 1: probably arguably one of the more more significant moments in
Speaker 1: civil rights history. Is not paying this such, but it
Speaker 1: was so tremendous in terms of you know, you organizing
Speaker 1: hospital workers that were predominantly black and women. Um, but
Speaker 1: when I when I started to create content around Mary Moultrie,
Speaker 1: everyone knows her story. But when I created TikTok's or
Speaker 1: or reels, when I tell people that, hey, we had
Speaker 1: this public art space or this this entertainment hall called
Speaker 1: the King Street Palace or the County Hall where MLK
Speaker 1: talk spoke at and even farra Con and Salt and
Speaker 1: Pepper and Biggie Small notorious b I g I was
Speaker 1: it was written as bigg Small as the paper. But
Speaker 1: but you know, like, look, black, blackhood, black culture used
Speaker 1: to be a people because they've done so much to
Speaker 1: erase our contributions. So to your to your point, there
Speaker 1: is a museum being built and it does have some
Speaker 1: controversy there because it they're trying to put all of
Speaker 1: Charles's black history inside of this museum. And it's not
Speaker 1: doesn't sound similar to what you just mentioned. It's not
Speaker 1: from the people by the people. It's it's from it's
Speaker 1: from the same developers who want to say, hey, we
Speaker 1: did this thing and now shut up black people. You know,
Speaker 1: we gave you this. And so it's more so as
Speaker 1: trying to the predecess the mayors that that preceded the
Speaker 1: current one. But but to that point, that's why it's
Speaker 1: important to create these digital spaces where um, like a TikTok.
Speaker 1: I went to to the Disabled Museum in Chicago back
Speaker 1: in November and they had the virtual reality headsets and
Speaker 1: they put us right there at the March on Washington, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, March on Washington with MLK, and like, what
Speaker 1: would it feel like for my mom to sit there
Speaker 1: and put that on or my dad to put those
Speaker 1: you know, put that on? An experience that we can
Speaker 1: do that here with our history and culture. So it's
Speaker 1: something that we're talking about. I think that's something that
Speaker 1: I'm more so passionate about because I'm in this text
Speaker 1: space to trying to make this information more accessible. Um
Speaker 1: and so I I love the question because it just
Speaker 1: it it gives you endless possibilities of what we could do,
Speaker 1: how organizing could look like, what it could look like. Definitely, definitely. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean one thing I definitely struggle with. It's funny
Speaker 1: my older colleagues. I'm the youngest person on the commission,
Speaker 1: and so there was like, how do you how are
Speaker 1: you always getting these young folks to apply for these
Speaker 1: boards and authorities and like showing up to speak and
Speaker 1: they're like kind of mad about it. They don't like it.
Speaker 1: And then the elders of my community are like, well
Speaker 1: I didn't hear about that. I'm like, dang, like I
Speaker 1: only you know, posted about that on Instagram or whatever,
Speaker 1: like I also need to be mindful of like, uh,
Speaker 1: multigenerational ways of of informing all of you know, the public,
Speaker 1: because you know, our movements have to be multigenerational. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, I think I appreciate the ways
Speaker 1: that you bring in new media's um because the young
Speaker 1: folks are going to be the ones to care of
Speaker 1: the struggle forward after all of us sitting here are gone,
Speaker 1: you know. So that's so I appreciate you for that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take some notes something like but but but
Speaker 1: I guess let me answer you a question at bit
Speaker 1: more directly, like so i'm creating this content, I'm talking
Speaker 1: to the elders, right, so I'm not And I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh no, this woman and she used to live here
Speaker 1: and she gave me a little tidbit. And so listening
Speaker 1: to our older generations has been paramount timp to my
Speaker 1: success as an organizer and of course to our collective,
Speaker 1: the friends of Gas and Creek. So um yeah, finding
Speaker 1: ways to integrate you know what they have to say
Speaker 1: has been a challenge, but a good challenge, one of
Speaker 1: those good challenges, those good problems where you know you're
Speaker 1: always finding better solutions every every month or so. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you got any more? Did you have? I mean, did
Speaker 1: you have something? I mean, I'm enjoy listening to y'all
Speaker 1: talk of what else, what else working on? How else
Speaker 1: you're working on? To other people to know about I Honestly,
Speaker 1: I just need people to get on this twitch like
Speaker 1: I I want people to not be intimidated by it.
Speaker 1: They don't have to subscribe, they don't have to even
Speaker 1: create an account. Push is just a website, as as
Speaker 1: my friends always say, um, and I want to just
Speaker 1: it's a morning show. So every morning Monday through Friday,
Speaker 1: at eight am, I live stream for at least two hours,
Speaker 1: sometimes I go as long as four. Sometimes in the
Speaker 1: evening I do a double day where I come back
Speaker 1: in our livestream City Council from home and we watched together,
Speaker 1: and we prep people days in advance to submit comment
Speaker 1: from home. Now that we have all these tools where
Speaker 1: you know, participating in government should be and is more accessible.
Speaker 1: So I have people submit their written or weight online
Speaker 1: on the phone, but they can tune in and watch twitch.
Speaker 1: And so I'm trying to use twitches a way to
Speaker 1: really get into people's homes. And uh, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a morning, it's a local morning show, and it's city
Speaker 1: like Charleston that's doing everything in its power to displace
Speaker 1: or to replace local voices with aggregated, you know, or
Speaker 1: syndicated voices. Um, I my mind is a little spicy
Speaker 1: now cussing the morning and me in the South. I'm
Speaker 1: a northern girl and so I know that don't always
Speaker 1: culturally fit. Oh my god, spicy and like so so yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe the kiddos can't hear it in the car during
Speaker 1: the car pool in the morning, but if people give
Speaker 1: it a shot, they hang it long enough and they
Speaker 1: see how dogged I am at like excavating. I mean,
Speaker 1: I I just went through the mayor's received last week
Speaker 1: and it was just conflicts of interests and people really
Speaker 1: responded to, Oh, I didn't know his dad own this
Speaker 1: company and I didn't know Mayor Riley created this this
Speaker 1: foundation that's really just a development company. Through the city
Speaker 1: using city money. I didn't know that that they created.
Speaker 1: They have nine districts on the Peninsula alone where they're
Speaker 1: siphoning off money from public education just to subsidize the
Speaker 1: development projects. So like, that's what I like to do
Speaker 1: and what I love about Twitches. It's not so, it's
Speaker 1: not TikTok, it's not Instagram, and that you can have
Speaker 1: a long form it's long form content where you can
Speaker 1: have an extended conversation about some of these things played
Speaker 1: in Charleston. And also we celebrate, we have fun, I
Speaker 1: use sound effects. It's not meet the Press, it's it's
Speaker 1: really dynamic and lively and you know, come check out
Speaker 1: a girl with frizzy hair, embraces, you know, talk shit
Speaker 1: that that things. Yeah, that'll wake up. So okay, So
Speaker 1: where can uh what? What? What's the Where can they
Speaker 1: find the show? Where can they find you? And what
Speaker 1: you're doing? Sure? On Instagram you can find me at
Speaker 1: Charleston Activist Network. UM. On Twitter, it is just me
Speaker 1: Mika Gatz and I'm more active on that UM. But
Speaker 1: twitch twitches, twitch t w I t w A. I'm
Speaker 1: all like now now I'm like tw twitch t w
Speaker 1: I t C h dot tv forward slash Mika gads
Speaker 1: than m I K A g A D S D
Speaker 1: E N. So Yeah, Twitch dot tv forward slash Mika
Speaker 1: Gazon is where you can buy me and I really
Speaker 1: the more the merrier, even if you don't even if
Speaker 1: you're just a lurker as I call him, Even if
Speaker 1: you're just a lurker and you don't want to participate
Speaker 1: in the chat, come and check it out and watch
Speaker 1: for a couple of hours if you can. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: one of these days we're gonna have to hop on
Speaker 1: that stream over. Please do It's fun. It's fun. We
Speaker 1: keep it, We keep it really lively for sure. But
Speaker 1: thank you so much Mika for coming and joining us.
Speaker 1: Um we'll see you on Twitch, yes, and um we'll
Speaker 1: see you out here when one of these things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: y'all invite wh I do interviews, y'all invited to come
Speaker 1: on over definitely. Alright, y'all, that was Mika Gazon. That
Speaker 1: was a really dope conversation. We're definitely gonna go on
Speaker 1: that Twitch stream and talk to where we want for
Speaker 1: Oh hell yeah, I want to break into the Twitter.
Speaker 1: I want to get into all that streaming shot. I
Speaker 1: want to I want to do. There's so much I
Speaker 1: want to do. Ya Like, I want to make like
Speaker 1: a YouTube channel ship, like I want to be able
Speaker 1: to just like I want to just like drop like
Speaker 1: week update wraps on people and stuff like I want
Speaker 1: to do all that ship. Well, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: Remember last time when I was like, yo, we're for
Speaker 1: real winning on reparations. My Venmo is Mariah Parkerto. We
Speaker 1: had one one send me fifty dollars. I'll remember your name, homie,
Speaker 1: But I appreciate you. All I'm saying is if you're
Speaker 1: trying to, like we're trying to, you know, like make this,
Speaker 1: you know, expand our media empire. You can fund that
Speaker 1: by sending Max some money on Dope knife at Dope
Speaker 1: knighte on Venmo. Go to the band camp, buy some ship.
Speaker 1: You know what. We're even gonna make a waiting on
Speaker 1: Reparations band camp and have like exclusive audio and and
Speaker 1: merge and some other things. You gotta straighten all that out.
Speaker 1: But all that ship is un the work, um, but
Speaker 1: appreciate you. Word out, um you feel like crap. Well.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I had a new single
Speaker 1: come out yesterday. Oh good, you did well I mean
Speaker 1: it's coming out. It's coming out Wednesday, but you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, um, so yeah, I would love to
Speaker 1: play all my new tunes called Necessity and top Bell Ringers.
Speaker 1: So you can go download the single today or preorder
Speaker 1: the album. But yeah, all those people pep this um
Speaker 1: and the song goes out to all my MESSI mishies
Speaker 1: that I don't want to say, turn their lives around,
Speaker 1: but also like keep it keeping one hundred like in
Speaker 1: their passion and professional pursuits. It never made me come
Speaker 1: and this affected to oh my god, I never love
Speaker 1: you your room, making your mad parnastory. The saying limps
Speaker 1: fine to do. What I'm trying to say is a
Speaker 1: kind of hey do but lots of hbstacles when you
Speaker 1: ain't out your pockets fools. He just got me two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars and buy foods. We could try to make
Speaker 1: it work. Pictures. That's October twoteen statement safe that I'm
Speaker 1: dropping in the sea of working at the university, curves
Speaker 1: that I'm taking personally like ex gott a new girl,
Speaker 1: but he's still pouncing on the sneak because that coach
Speaker 1: is juicy is a cord of pounder with cheese without
Speaker 1: the while and pretty worked listening. I'm the pous is
Speaker 1: full of police from a tappy cat naps in the kitchen,
Speaker 1: Cabby nitties swearing to catching mousters while he snaps. Have
Speaker 1: been the cop with the boys because even though got burke,
Speaker 1: ever since I lost the power to be what power
Speaker 1: to clean, but power to pay the power, pay the
Speaker 1: then it's in the hospital, pay the internet, the water,
Speaker 1: building up the offices, and pay for kitten chousing out
Speaker 1: the little nigga hostage like he's sending into what Cosby did,
Speaker 1: but not off the his I just adopted him because
Speaker 1: I needed a friend, needed somebody to be with the
Speaker 1: seeded body heating the bed. Oh yeah, and my cat's
Speaker 1: named Egg love you you know, made on never love
Speaker 1: you from your man. Mad's a hardy cut stand straight
Speaker 1: the saying it was fine to do what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say. The card and I hate you all obstacles
Speaker 1: when you ain't got your pockets, fools. He just taught
Speaker 1: me to under dollars and body food. We could him
Speaker 1: when you work. Picture that's November three years ago. I'm
Speaker 1: bet on the next Canada patio because my ears, a
Speaker 1: cold chising with the canny slits and passing canadabis. So
Speaker 1: to be clear, I didn't hit it. I'm not a
Speaker 1: fan of it. No, I'm just chilling with this chatty folks,
Speaker 1: because the antidope to being sad and ship stashing in
Speaker 1: yourself into a mannequin. Open up some sugar, Daddy your
Speaker 1: candidate with daddy and bumpy bucks, and make your pain stock.
Speaker 1: He is the game. Hey, what didn ain't where you're from? Oh?
Speaker 1: Cool bars, closed cars, home, just regard clothes, moan the
Speaker 1: scars don't show when to morrow comes, give him not
Speaker 1: parcel talk, give up your part. Tell low calls sometimes,
Speaker 1: and when he calls, he thinks you're close on him
Speaker 1: and pretty much falsome to adopt you like he's a
Speaker 1: foster kid because of pottery, because you hate your body
Speaker 1: because you're closet it and cant finding yourself what you
Speaker 1: think that you're finding? Love him? You never made me
Speaker 1: come just to shoot you and oh never loved you
Speaker 1: when you're your fans are part of costance dream the
Speaker 1: same And I'm trying to say some kind of hate. Hey, hey,
Speaker 1: this is dope knife, little Frank, and you have been
Speaker 1: listening to Waiting on Reparations. See you this week, Pierce.
Speaker 1: Listen to Waiting on Reparations on the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.