Speaker 1: You know, social media has a way of bringing people
Speaker 1: across your timeline and something about them just resonates where you're.
Speaker 2: Just like, these are my people.
Speaker 1: I don't know them, but I'm going to claim them
Speaker 1: as my family. That's how I feel about my guests today.
Speaker 3: Dead ass, dead ass.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: Hey.
Speaker 2: I'm Kadeen and I'm Devout and we're the Ellis's.
Speaker 4: You may know us from posting funny videos with our
Speaker 4: voice and reading.
Speaker 2: Each other publicly as a form of therapy.
Speaker 3: Wait, I make you need therapy most days.
Speaker 2: Wow. Oh, and one more important thing to mention, we're married.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, we are. We created this podcast to open
Speaker 4: dialogue about some of Li's most taboo topics.
Speaker 2: Things most folks don't want to talk.
Speaker 4: About through the lens of a millennial married couple. Dead
Speaker 4: ass is a term that we say every day. So
Speaker 4: when we say dead ass, we're actually saying facts one
Speaker 4: hundred the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Speaker 3: We about to take Bilos off to a whole new level.
Speaker 1: Dead ass starts right now, all right, So, typically for
Speaker 1: my listeners out there, everyone knows that we do storytime
Speaker 1: every episode, but I actually have a guest today who
Speaker 1: would like to do story time for a change, which
Speaker 1: is awesome.
Speaker 2: Oh and I'm so excited to hear what she got
Speaker 2: to say. So take it away.
Speaker 3: Guess it's not a it's not a story story, but
Speaker 3: you offered to story time. Just tell the story.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: It's just funny because I remember being in college with
Speaker 5: my friends and I think it was when you were
Speaker 5: having your first son, and I don't know. My friends
Speaker 5: and I were on Pinterest and we saw this picture
Speaker 5: of you and your husband that went viral with the
Speaker 5: ten the tens, Yes, with my first born.
Speaker 6: Yes.
Speaker 2: And my friends and I were.
Speaker 5: Like, oh my gosh, we're going to recreate photos like
Speaker 5: that when we're like getting married.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, oh my.
Speaker 3: God, that's so funny.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 5: And to be sitting here with you, and upon a
Speaker 5: time I was in my dorm room with my friends
Speaker 5: looking at your pregnancy and now you have four kids.
Speaker 2: I that's crazy because baby, at the time there was
Speaker 2: only one. Yeah, there was only one. And fast forward
Speaker 2: for I know, so now look at us. Now we're here.
Speaker 2: Now we're here. So I made the vision board. Huh,
Speaker 2: you made the vision board. I've heard that before. I
Speaker 2: love that. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I feel so honored, and I feel like if anything
Speaker 1: being on someone's vision board like that, it's just a
Speaker 1: testament to displaying what it's like to be in a healthy,
Speaker 1: awesome marriage and your journey through parenthood. And that's literally
Speaker 1: when we just tried to put out there, because that's
Speaker 1: just our life organically.
Speaker 5: So absolutely, thank you for that couple of goals time.
Speaker 2: I love that. I love that.
Speaker 1: It's so funny because today we have siblings on I'm
Speaker 1: going to tell you who they are soon, but it's
Speaker 1: funny to see the sibling banter back and forth because
Speaker 1: my brother, my sister, and I we literally make fun
Speaker 1: of each other all day every day. So I love
Speaker 1: that quick story about actually to piggyback on story time
Speaker 1: because I feel like I'm compelled to tell this right now.
Speaker 1: I was so invested in this young man's wedding story. Okay,
Speaker 1: so invested, badmind. Hurricane Beryl was taking her broad back
Speaker 1: self across the Caribbean, and I'm literally on vacation at
Speaker 1: the time in Hawaii with my husband and watching play
Speaker 1: by play Instagram stories from you guys.
Speaker 2: Because I said, there's no way of.
Speaker 1: Every day in a year that you decide to plan
Speaker 1: a wedding.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the week of July.
Speaker 6: The week of.
Speaker 1: July six where a hurricane would fix itsself to make
Speaker 1: its way across our beloved the Jamaica, when somebody is
Speaker 1: just trying to marry the love of his life.
Speaker 3: Was trying to just have a simple wedding.
Speaker 1: That's all we're trying to do. And I was so
Speaker 1: invested that I was watching the play by player.
Speaker 2: I said, this has to happen.
Speaker 1: I was literally praying for you guys every day that
Speaker 1: things would divert and it would work out.
Speaker 2: And so said, so done. And I love that.
Speaker 3: And I think y'all's prayers work because it happened.
Speaker 2: It happened, It happened. We'll talk more about that in
Speaker 2: a second. Okay, all right, karaoke time. Did we come
Speaker 2: up with a song for karaoke folks?
Speaker 1: Because I would go to a classic that I feel
Speaker 1: like you guys should know.
Speaker 7: Listen, got somebody, She's a beauty, very specially.
Speaker 2: Take good care of me.
Speaker 6: The dude day.
Speaker 7: Ride by my Side, nine Day.
Speaker 6: That was the song that I entered into our wedding,
Speaker 6: me and my wife.
Speaker 2: I know, I was watching it collective. It's a Jamaican thing.
Speaker 2: We already know when that beat drops on that song,
Speaker 2: no letting go, no holding back, Baby Wayne Wonder, I
Speaker 2: love that.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 2: All right, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna vibe here off camera for a
Speaker 1: little bit while we pay some bills, and we'll be
Speaker 1: back with the meat of the show, and I'll introduce
Speaker 1: our two guests for today's episode.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned, y'all.
Speaker 1: All right, So, I want to introduce really quickly to
Speaker 1: everyone my two guests for today, the dynamic duo, the
Speaker 1: siblings that everybody really knows how much I adore my
Speaker 1: siblings and how close we are, and I always admire
Speaker 1: looking at you two in the way you love each other.
Speaker 1: I think that's one thing that's reson through your social
Speaker 1: media is your interaction together and just even here today
Speaker 1: in this space. So Ivy and Ivy, Coco and Etty
Speaker 1: and Maurice are creatives, entrepreneurs, and the children of one
Speaker 1: of the great Black mothers of our generation, Cherry Lee
Speaker 1: Ralph Fellow Yachtes or yachties as we say back home.
Speaker 1: Ettien and Ivy have set out to make their own
Speaker 1: marks in the world through wellness, fashion and community connection,
Speaker 1: which I absolutely adore. Their organization Walk Good La born
Speaker 1: out of the need for self care and somatic practice
Speaker 1: during the COVID era Black Lives Matter protests, but rides
Speaker 1: the safe space for black and brown Angelino's to engage
Speaker 1: in movement practices while building community. Ivy is also the
Speaker 1: founder and creative director of House of Ivy and Attilier,
Speaker 1: inspired by her grandmother or your grandmother collectively Ivy Ralph,
Speaker 1: whose legendary creation the Koreebus shirt jacket became a symbol
Speaker 1: of the resistance of the People's National Party in Jamaica
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies. Baby rich, culture, rich roots, culture rich,
Speaker 1: giving all this thing and rich spirit. Thank y'all so
Speaker 1: much for being here with me today at TN and
Speaker 1: Ivy Coco.
Speaker 2: Do you just go buy Ivy or Ivy Cocoa. You
Speaker 2: can got me just Ivy, just iv her Coco. Is
Speaker 2: that just like a thing for your sibling.
Speaker 3: Or the name.
Speaker 6: When she was in my mom's when our mom's stomach,
Speaker 6: I pointed out to the stomma.
Speaker 3: I was like Coco, Coco. And then Coco was born.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, I love she became.
Speaker 6: An adults, and that she wanted to be called Ivy Cocoa.
Speaker 5: Ivy Coco I mean, is there's so much history to
Speaker 5: the name Ivy in our family.
Speaker 2: Well, tell me about that.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, our grandmother is just basically the root
Speaker 5: of I feel like who we are is how we
Speaker 5: embrace our Jamaican roots and our Jamaican American culture. And
Speaker 5: Eta and I spent a lot of our summers back
Speaker 5: home in Jamaica, like literally from the day school is out,
Speaker 5: you don't come back to the United States until the
Speaker 5: Sunday before school starts.
Speaker 6: Well, actually we made a pit stop, so we'd stop
Speaker 6: in Long Island to visit our grandfather in Westbury. Never remembers,
Speaker 6: Oh my god, young, you know.
Speaker 3: Stopping what are you talking about.
Speaker 6: We would stop in Westbury for like maybe like a week,
Speaker 6: and then we'd go from New York. We'd take off
Speaker 6: from j K and then we'd land in Norman. Manly, Wow,
Speaker 6: that's how it went.
Speaker 2: You don't remember that you were too excited to get
Speaker 2: to Jamaica.
Speaker 3: You don't.
Speaker 6: You don't remember, because literally I would That was literally
Speaker 6: our itinerary. We stopped see Grampy and then we go
Speaker 6: to Jamaica Sea Grandy.
Speaker 2: I remember Grandpa was already there when we read.
Speaker 3: Sometimes sometimes he would even meet us there.
Speaker 2: Yes, I remember, yeah, but I remember. I remember.
Speaker 5: We spent a lot of time in Westbury, like our
Speaker 5: our holidays, Collis and.
Speaker 3: Lot of time.
Speaker 2: So you guys were originally based in New York. You
Speaker 2: didn't always live in La.
Speaker 3: We Yorks in New York. Well, we've always.
Speaker 1: Lived in LA but she would just travel there to grandparents.
Speaker 3: Gotcha, gotcha? Gotcha?
Speaker 2: Sounds good. So that's awesome.
Speaker 1: So the rich history behind that, and I want to
Speaker 1: talk more to you Ettin about that. After posting some
Speaker 1: wedding content, you had gotten some people who didn't quite
Speaker 1: understand how your grooms men were dressed. So well, we'll
Speaker 1: address that a little later in the show, but I
Speaker 1: just wanted to start off by giving you guys all
Speaker 1: the praise and all the accolades for everything that you
Speaker 1: are doing, you know, individually, together as a collective, the
Speaker 1: strides that you're making out here in LA to get
Speaker 1: people to be very mindful and conscious of their body,
Speaker 1: their mind, their spirit, their soul, having that collective, having
Speaker 1: that community. I tell my husband, when we were out
Speaker 1: here in La for our short stent that I really
Speaker 1: didn't have time to connect with like minded individuals who
Speaker 1: were kind of on the same path and had the
Speaker 1: same values in morale.
Speaker 2: All compass, I would have stayed longer. You actually hit
Speaker 2: the nail on the head.
Speaker 1: Had we found maybe that community, our tribe of people,
Speaker 1: that kindred spirit, kind of connection, we might have stayed
Speaker 1: longer and might have been convinced to find something out here. However,
Speaker 1: in the meantime, when I do come to visit, I
Speaker 1: do like to connect with folks like that. So you
Speaker 1: guys have been on my list of folks to chat with,
Speaker 1: just because I do have that deep admiration for what
Speaker 1: you both are doing, especially if you don't mind me
Speaker 1: giving your ages.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thirty two and twenty nine.
Speaker 1: I mean at thirty two and twenty nine nine, you
Speaker 1: guys can be doing a lot other things. And the
Speaker 1: fact that you're so invested in your community and your
Speaker 1: culture and you celebrated so much, I think is something
Speaker 1: to be admired. So shout out to y'all. Thanks enough love,
Speaker 1: enough love. So tell me about why you started Walk Good, La.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, Walk Good started out of a need to
Speaker 6: get active, But do it with purpose. And so after
Speaker 6: the killing of Ahmud Aubrey, the unfortunate killing of Joy
Speaker 6: Floyd and Breonna Taylor and so many black lives that
Speaker 6: were taken from us, I felt like this innate need
Speaker 6: for us to come together, for me to bring my
Speaker 6: community together and get out there and protests, but in
Speaker 6: the form of movement through running in my neighborhood in
Speaker 6: mid City. I had gone to a couple of other
Speaker 6: protests at that time, and I was moved to start
Speaker 6: my own community. And so, you know, walk Good started
Speaker 6: out as my production company, walk In Productions, because I'm
Speaker 6: a filmmaker and an actor. But at that time, I
Speaker 6: felt like it wasn't necessary to bring my community together
Speaker 6: through my production company. So I wanted to be out
Speaker 6: of I wanted to be through community. And by that
Speaker 6: somebody asked me, so, what is.
Speaker 3: The organization called? And I was like, walk Good.
Speaker 6: LA, And that's how walkot LA was formed.
Speaker 3: And so we would protest on Saturday.
Speaker 6: And at the first protest, my cousin Marley, our cousin Marley,
Speaker 6: she just got to let go from a yoga studio,
Speaker 6: and I asked her to like, got us some breath
Speaker 6: work and some yoga stretches. At that time, I was
Speaker 6: not into yoga at all, Like I go to a
Speaker 6: few classes here and there. But when she was guiding
Speaker 6: everybody in these yoga stretches and these poses, I was like, wait,
Speaker 6: there's something here right. So I pulled mart this aside.
Speaker 6: I was like, yo, we should come next week to
Speaker 6: the park and do yoga again. So we would protest
Speaker 6: on Saturday, do yoga on Sunday, and then breathe good.
Speaker 3: Our yoga class was born, and we had.
Speaker 6: Like thirty five thirty seven people at the first one, Wow,
Speaker 6: and each class it started to double, and by the
Speaker 6: time we got to the end of the month, we
Speaker 6: took over the whole entire park.
Speaker 2: So this is that the park.
Speaker 1: So it's not that you had a brick and mortar location.
Speaker 1: It was just people gathering outside in.
Speaker 6: The park that we grew up on down the street
Speaker 6: from our mother's house.
Speaker 3: Wow Wow.
Speaker 1: So you say it was a form of, I guess
Speaker 1: in a sense, movement therapy for folks who needed it
Speaker 1: during a time that was very very dark for us,
Speaker 1: where you met with any kind of pushback or vitriol
Speaker 1: just from like the overall la powers that be I
Speaker 1: guess I should.
Speaker 2: Say, yeah, I definitely think so.
Speaker 5: I think when you're taking a stance like that and
Speaker 5: you're in the streets on a weekly basis, we protested
Speaker 5: for ten weeks straight, you know, you might have some
Speaker 5: people honking their horns or saying negative things, or maybe
Speaker 5: even just throwing a water bottle over you. I had.
Speaker 3: I'll never forget that.
Speaker 2: Did you throw it back?
Speaker 3: Is the you're just so intu it.
Speaker 6: It's like you can't even focus on anything else, right, you.
Speaker 5: Know, Yeah, no, I get you so, I mean, but
Speaker 5: the thing about it is that there was some hatred,
Speaker 5: but there was so much love. And because of that love,
Speaker 5: that's how we were really able to grow. So what
Speaker 5: started as twenty five or thirty five people in the
Speaker 5: park ended up becoming two hundred and fifty three hundred
Speaker 5: people in the park.
Speaker 2: So it really got to be a mass of people.
Speaker 6: Oh absolutely, because it was the thing to do and
Speaker 6: it was like the safe thing to do that was
Speaker 6: intentional and it was cool like for lack of a
Speaker 6: better word, for lack of better words, we literally made
Speaker 6: healing and wellness cool, like it was something that people
Speaker 6: were able to participate in and actually be impacted at
Speaker 6: a time where we were all feeling stagnant and felt lost,
Speaker 6: and you know, we came together as a family and
Speaker 6: we showed up every Saturday, every Sunday, and when the
Speaker 6: protests started to dwindle, you know, we still kept going
Speaker 6: to the park to do yoga, and then we were
Speaker 6: able to implement our social justice message through the yoga classes.
Speaker 6: So while we were out there, you know, protesting and
Speaker 6: saying I can't breathe on Saturday. On Sunday, we would
Speaker 6: encourage everybody and it became it became something uh, not
Speaker 6: only intentional, but really beautiful. People were able to find peace,
Speaker 6: enjoy through some of the darkest times that we were experiencing.
Speaker 1: Ought into it originally Ivy when he gave there, because
Speaker 1: you know something your siblings com up, comes up with
Speaker 1: an idea and you're just like, I don't know about this.
Speaker 5: But honestly, honestly, that is exactly how happened.
Speaker 2: I guess if you want to be there.
Speaker 6: But asking what she was doing on the first day
Speaker 6: we started to protest.
Speaker 5: No, no, honestly, I think the first thing that actually
Speaker 5: had a shoot, I got booked. You know, like everybody
Speaker 5: was starting to go back to work during virtual bookings. Yes,
Speaker 5: so I actually was working during our first protest, and
Speaker 5: then my brother the second protest, he was like, the
Speaker 5: next Saturday, were doing it again. So I'm like, all right, cool,
Speaker 5: I'll be there, like I don't have to work. And honestly,
Speaker 5: I was so grateful during that time that I was
Speaker 5: able to work. You know, that there was some money
Speaker 5: I could put in my own pocket, and she.
Speaker 6: Don't want to do it on another day, I was like, no,
Speaker 6: it's happening.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And.
Speaker 5: It was great because you know, we were actually getting
Speaker 5: donations from protesting and sending it to the families that,
Speaker 5: you know, Browna Taylor's family. We were sending them as
Speaker 5: donations that we were receiving from our protests, So we
Speaker 5: were actually raising money and awareness for people. But I
Speaker 5: think the great thing about having a sibling like my brother,
Speaker 5: who's so daring and different, is that like you have
Speaker 5: to risk it. You know, if you don't risk it,
Speaker 5: you don't get the biscuit. And so you know, we
Speaker 5: are really wanting that biscuit, right, biscuit biscuit.
Speaker 3: This is mit Coco over here.
Speaker 6: She like, give me five prompts.
Speaker 2: And you take the credit for that because everybody is.
Speaker 4: Eating.
Speaker 5: You have some nice food on the biscuit. You know,
Speaker 5: it tastes nice and sweet right now. Honestly, I think
Speaker 5: that's the great thing about what walk Good was is that,
Speaker 5: you know, this is somebody that took a chance on life,
Speaker 5: and you know it really followed his heart. And I
Speaker 5: think that's the greatest thing about is that, you know,
Speaker 5: sometimes I will lead with my mind and he will
Speaker 5: lead with his heart. And I think that and I
Speaker 5: think that that is one of the greatest things he
Speaker 5: could have done, because we've seen the growth of what
Speaker 5: you know, putting love first looks like.
Speaker 1: Oh for sure, And I love that you said that
Speaker 1: you weren't deterred from the negativity that may have come
Speaker 1: your way. You know, even just with social media, people
Speaker 1: ask me all the time, you know, what do you
Speaker 1: think about the negative comments? Is that I don't even
Speaker 1: see them, right, I don't even see them because, you
Speaker 1: know what, the love and the admiration far outweighs and
Speaker 1: supersedes the negativity. So it's like, why focus on those
Speaker 1: things when the abundance of love that you're putting out
Speaker 1: is just growing exponentially.
Speaker 2: So love that, yeah, absolutely, I love that.
Speaker 1: So at what point did you realize, like, we're really
Speaker 1: onto something here. Now we can find different ways to
Speaker 1: build out what what good La looks like because people
Speaker 1: are listening are a lot of entrepreneurs or people who
Speaker 1: have ideas, and the point of this podcast is to
Speaker 1: share your experience so people can say how we build
Speaker 1: something from the ground up using what was our passion.
Speaker 8: Man, we saw the park full up, you know, I
Speaker 8: was like, yeah, this is insane, like literally every just
Speaker 8: imagine just like a big old park and just nothing
Speaker 8: but to see a black and brown folks beauty in
Speaker 8: the park doing yoga and just taking moments to breathe.
Speaker 3: I think that was when I realized.
Speaker 6: Because what we had left to go to Jamaica for
Speaker 6: the whole month of January in twenty twenty one, and
Speaker 6: then we came back in February twenty twenty one and
Speaker 6: our first breathe Good back, we saw how our community
Speaker 6: had trippled and in size, and then we were like, okay,
Speaker 6: well now we could start hike good. So we started
Speaker 6: hight Good, which is our community hig club that we
Speaker 6: do once a month. Then we did and then we
Speaker 6: brought back run Good and we did our run club
Speaker 6: every Wednesday, and then we started Film Good, which is
Speaker 6: the first film and wellness festival ever. We started You Good,
Speaker 6: which is a Black men's healing circle. We started You
Speaker 6: Good Yeah, which is a Black women's healing circle.
Speaker 2: Everything everything is good.
Speaker 6: That's when we realized that we were able to expand
Speaker 6: and offer things that weren't just yoga and actually provide
Speaker 6: spaces of healing through the arts for underrepresented communities for sure.
Speaker 1: Now, Etty, and how has your being a survivor of
Speaker 1: gun violence? Has that at all informed how you work today,
Speaker 1: whether it's just with Walk Good, La or just any
Speaker 1: of your other endeavors.
Speaker 3: One hundred. It's funny you bring that up because I've
Speaker 3: been thinking about this a lot.
Speaker 6: In my first year of starting Walk Good, I had
Speaker 6: met with with the healer and she had asked me, said,
Speaker 6: what is the part of your body that best represents you?
Speaker 6: And I thought my heart, just like my sister said,
Speaker 6: you know, I leave with my heart. I give everything
Speaker 6: with my heart. And she kind of like you know,
Speaker 6: cocked the head and was like, think about it deep.
Speaker 3: It was almost like a symbol rafiki moment. I'm really
Speaker 3: think this is a circle of life, what's going on?
Speaker 3: And then literally it.
Speaker 6: Hit me and I was like, Oh, it's my it's
Speaker 6: my foot, it's my leg. Now I said, it's my leg,
Speaker 6: I said, my ability to walk good. This is the
Speaker 6: leg that I was shot in, and I think this
Speaker 6: is the leg that has experienced the most trauma, that has,
Speaker 6: you know, gotten the biggest beating and has gone through
Speaker 6: so much.
Speaker 3: But it's healed.
Speaker 6: You know, I'm able to walk, I'm able to I'm
Speaker 6: able to go to the gym. I'm able to find
Speaker 6: my balance with both of my legs. So, you know,
Speaker 6: when I think of everything that I've experienced through gun
Speaker 6: violence and having gone to the psych ward and battling
Speaker 6: my own mental health challenges, like it's literally a blessing
Speaker 6: that I'm even here talking coherently.
Speaker 3: I think of all those trials and tribut.
Speaker 6: Relations that turn into my testimony, right, I think there
Speaker 6: are a lot of young men who have been shot.
Speaker 6: There are a lot of young men and women who
Speaker 6: know somebody who's been shot and didn't survive the fact
Speaker 6: that I've gone through everything that I've gone through and
Speaker 6: I'm able to use my platform and tell my story
Speaker 6: through this healing practice, it just might save somebody's life.
Speaker 6: It just might have It just might have a young
Speaker 6: man inquire about breath work, about meditation, about yoga, because
Speaker 6: growing up, I didn't see.
Speaker 3: Young black men doing yoga.
Speaker 2: Definitely, it's probably frowned upon it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And so I think when people see what I've
Speaker 6: been able to do and build a whole enterprise and
Speaker 6: nonprofit with my family, I mean, hopefully there'll be more
Speaker 6: walk Goods all across the world based off of this
Speaker 6: little plant that we that we that we that we planted,
Speaker 6: that we planted four years ago will grow.
Speaker 2: No, that's amazing. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm so grateful to see how we've started,
Speaker 5: and I think it's so rooted in love. Like Etien said,
Speaker 5: but I think we're able to bring all of our
Speaker 5: gifts together. And that was the beautiful thing. Etyen was
Speaker 5: able to lead and bring the people together. Marley was
Speaker 5: able to bring the sunshine out of people, and during
Speaker 5: our raining days, and you know, I was just able
Speaker 5: to be there and like literally welcome people every morning,
Speaker 5: selling T shirts, T shirt, T shirt, te shirts, you know,
Speaker 5: every single Sunday. Like it was like we were all
Speaker 5: being able to bring our gifts together because the thing
Speaker 5: about it is like we weren't just doing this for profit.
Speaker 5: We were doing this because we actually felt like this
Speaker 5: was our purpose. We actually felt like we were called
Speaker 5: to do this. And I think that's the best thing
Speaker 5: about operating in your purpose is that you know that
Speaker 5: it's a gift. You know it's God given, and so
Speaker 5: I don't take it for granted. And I think that
Speaker 5: knowing that we have the support the spiritual guidance of
Speaker 5: our grandmother and our grandfather, it wouldn't be walk good
Speaker 5: without our grandmother literally telling us every day, make sure
Speaker 5: your walk go right, you know. So it's just us
Speaker 5: embracing who we are and where we come from.
Speaker 2: That's beautiful.
Speaker 1: You can't even sometimes fathom the idea of you know,
Speaker 1: people always talk about like I'm living or I'm walking
Speaker 1: my ancestors prayers and my grandmother's prayers, and to think
Speaker 1: about where our families have come from. I can relate
Speaker 1: to that, you know, also being of Jamaican descent, and
Speaker 1: you know, my mom telling me the stories of how
Speaker 1: she had to walk five miles to school and she
Speaker 1: didn't have the shoes to do its had that same
Speaker 1: same story and it's it's what it is, and it
Speaker 1: gives such a greater appreciation. But you don't even realize
Speaker 1: sometimes at the time, how when you're going through a trial,
Speaker 1: for example, yours etsyan that that was just the setup
Speaker 1: for the way you were now living in your purpose
Speaker 1: to impact so many people. And it's such a beautiful
Speaker 1: thing to see because you know, the evolution of our
Speaker 1: families coming from such a small little rock right there
Speaker 1: in the Caribbean, to like the impact we all have
Speaker 1: now within our communities and globally because you know, everyone
Speaker 1: has access to social media, we can see what's happening.
Speaker 1: So this is awesome in an awesome space for you
Speaker 1: guys to be in, and I feel like you need
Speaker 1: to keep going.
Speaker 2: Then keep going.
Speaker 6: I told us, if you would have told me that
Speaker 6: I was going to be a yoga's instructor and that
Speaker 6: we would be living the lives we're living right now,
Speaker 6: I would have said you must.
Speaker 1: Have no good But yeah, no, that's amazing. Your mom
Speaker 1: had said once in an interview that nepotism doesn't exist
Speaker 1: within your family, right. She said that you two pretty
Speaker 1: much work for everything that you have, and she takes
Speaker 1: pride in that and you take pride in that. And
Speaker 1: have you ever had instances where folks have questioned, like
Speaker 1: how you got an opportunity or why you're existing in
Speaker 1: the space that you're in because of your mom?
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, I mean I heard somebody say something
Speaker 5: about Walk Good before and they're like, Oh, they don't
Speaker 5: need this, they don't need this organizedzation. They have their
Speaker 5: support from their mother. And we're like, our mom wasn't
Speaker 5: teaching us yoga telling us to do X, Y and Z?
Speaker 2: Was she did?
Speaker 5: She inspire us because she's a woman of wisdom and
Speaker 5: she's a woman that knows how to bring people together
Speaker 5: with her voice. And that's how we were able to
Speaker 5: do this absolutely, But she wasn't the one that said
Speaker 5: you need to go out there and do X, Y
Speaker 5: and Z.
Speaker 6: Why she ain't introduced us to Michael B. Jordan's expressed
Speaker 6: to get us that studio.
Speaker 3: Oh wow?
Speaker 1: Did it so that that happened through a genuine connection
Speaker 1: you had with her?
Speaker 3: Let me tell you how that God is right.
Speaker 6: So we had started Walk Good four years ago, so
Speaker 6: three years ago, no, last last year. Last year, we
Speaker 6: get a call from Propel Fitness Water and they say, hey,
Speaker 6: we got this new campaign Propel your City project. We
Speaker 6: want to support fitness communities all across the United States.
Speaker 6: They want to support Walk Good and asking us, well,
Speaker 6: what do you need? What will propel your community, what
Speaker 6: will build your organization? And at first we were thinking
Speaker 6: about doing some type of program for one of our classes.
Speaker 6: But they came back to us and was like, no,
Speaker 6: actually we want to do something, but you need create
Speaker 6: an impact. What you need yes, And I went back
Speaker 6: to my sister and my cousin. I was like, I
Speaker 6: think we need a studio space, right, So we went
Speaker 6: back to them and they said we got you.
Speaker 3: Oh, by the way, Michael B.
Speaker 6: Jordan is a part of this campaign to help your
Speaker 6: initiative low and behold.
Speaker 3: They didn't know that Michael B.
Speaker 6: Jordan's brother Khalid had come to the very first Walk
Speaker 6: Good protests wow literally June thirteen, twenty.
Speaker 5: And divine because I mean his family has literally come
Speaker 5: into our space without even.
Speaker 3: His mom, his dad, sister.
Speaker 5: He said, brother, like, they've all come into the space
Speaker 5: and they're like wait, wait, Michael was a part of this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't even know.
Speaker 5: I had no idea, right, And his father actually do
Speaker 5: yoga at like a juneteen yoga flow.
Speaker 2: It's crazy, you know, like it was all in divine order.
Speaker 3: Wow, in divine order for real.
Speaker 6: And they've been like, I can't tell you enough how
Speaker 6: appreciative I am for that family, for Propel, because literally
Speaker 6: we would not have our studio space, the walk good
Speaker 6: Yard would not exist if they didn't help us get
Speaker 6: that money so that we could put it towards our studio.
Speaker 1: Wow, very good, that's awesome. I didn't even know, as
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny. I actually shot my shot with
Speaker 1: Michael B. Jordan, not how you think because I'm a married.
Speaker 2: Preface it when I DMD him and I said, well, funny,
Speaker 2: quick story, I'll tell you really quick.
Speaker 1: My mom was at the gym, you know, local gym
Speaker 1: where we live out in Georgia, and she calls my
Speaker 1: phone and I missed the call, so ill I text
Speaker 1: her about She texted me and I was like, what's
Speaker 1: going on?
Speaker 2: Everything good?
Speaker 1: She said, you never guess who's here in the gym
Speaker 1: and she's in like the La Fitness and I'm like, ohoh.
Speaker 2: So she goes to Michael B.
Speaker 1: Jordan's Instagram page and she screenshots his picture and sent
Speaker 1: it to me. So I said, you're in the gym
Speaker 1: in LA Fitness, in this random part of Georgia with
Speaker 1: Michael B.
Speaker 3: Jordan.
Speaker 2: And she's like, yes, girl, wait, let me get a picture.
Speaker 1: So I know my mom is like probably scrambling now
Speaker 1: with her phone, probably being so obvious. Right, she probably
Speaker 1: don't have an eye glasses or anything, so I can
Speaker 1: imagine what she looks like trying to capture discreetly this
Speaker 1: picture of Michael B.
Speaker 2: Jordan working out in this La Fitness.
Speaker 1: So then I'm waiting for the picture to come along
Speaker 1: and I see the bubbles and I see the bubbles.
Speaker 2: And I said, I said, what happened?
Speaker 1: And she's like, girl, I lost him. He must have
Speaker 1: saw me trying to take the picture.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 1: So I knew that Michael followed the family and my
Speaker 1: husband and all that. So I just was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I want to randomly DM him and just
Speaker 1: tell him this joke. So I was like, bro, my
Speaker 1: mom literally was at Fitness to explain everything what happened.
Speaker 1: So I said, please tell me that she's not crazy
Speaker 1: and that you are in this part of Georgia and
Speaker 1: you went to Talor Fitness today.
Speaker 2: So he messages me back.
Speaker 1: Within a couple of minutes, which I was surprised about
Speaker 1: because I was like, this is Michael Jordan. He's not
Speaker 1: gonna answer my little DM right, And he was just like, hey,
Speaker 1: I actually wasn't there, and that's just so funny that
Speaker 1: your mom thought.
Speaker 2: She saw me, So it wasn't here. He was in
Speaker 2: New Orleans filming something, and he's.
Speaker 1: Like, but if I'm ever in that part of Georgia,
Speaker 1: I'll definitely come to LA's Fitness. So I circled back
Speaker 1: with him after that because I was having my live show,
Speaker 1: which is now since not happening, but I'm gonna pivot
Speaker 1: because he was going to be one of my interviews
Speaker 1: there and he's like, I'd love to sit down and
Speaker 1: do an interview with you one on on my next
Speaker 1: press run.
Speaker 2: So I was like, oh, this is great. So it's
Speaker 2: a good thing. I shot my shot in back, but
Speaker 2: it was just so funny. How you know.
Speaker 1: Listen's eye glass home? Are you telling me that that's
Speaker 1: my She's like, hey, I promised you. It looked just
Speaker 1: like him.
Speaker 2: They smile everything staying where. I'm like, okay, mom, sure,
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 3: So a kind of.
Speaker 1: Fun question for you guys because you grew up of course,
Speaker 1: with you know your mom in the position she's in.
Speaker 1: When did you realize, like, my mom is famous, like
Speaker 1: people revere her. Was there like a particular age or
Speaker 1: a moment where you were like this is it?
Speaker 6: I think we were always aware of it. I think
Speaker 6: all the events we'd go to, the red carpets we
Speaker 6: go to, especially during like the Moesha days, those are
Speaker 6: like the big Hollywood moments that I remember, right. But
Speaker 6: I think the beautiful thing about our mother is that
Speaker 6: even though she is a famous actress, you know, she's
Speaker 6: a she's a human being. You know, she's she just
Speaker 6: happens to be our mom. She just happens to be
Speaker 6: an actress. She's a real person. Absolutely no. She Yes,
Speaker 6: she might have like this big bravado and has like
Speaker 6: a special waves speaking, but I think that's her gift
Speaker 6: that she, like my sister said, has passed down to us.
Speaker 6: And I think some people might be intimidated by it,
Speaker 6: especially if you have a strong black woman as a mother.
Speaker 6: It's something that you can recognize. Oh and I think
Speaker 6: she has done such a great job on screen of
Speaker 6: playing a mom that when people see her in real life,
Speaker 6: they're like, oh, my.
Speaker 3: God, I was raised by you through the TV.
Speaker 6: And I think that is a unique gift to be
Speaker 6: able to have compassion for younger people and have an
Speaker 6: understanding for younger people. I think is a gift that
Speaker 6: my mom has always had and has passed down to
Speaker 6: us for sure. But I always, to answer your question,
Speaker 6: I always saw our mother as a special human being
Speaker 6: and someone who is, you know, extraordinary, because she's not
Speaker 6: your average mother at all, and not your average mother
Speaker 6: at all, but she cares and then she shows she
Speaker 6: shows a lot of compassion.
Speaker 3: So while she's a Hollywood mother, she's a.
Speaker 2: She's a human mom, and I love that.
Speaker 1: I had a moment with her at the Jamaica Independence
Speaker 1: galap last year. I went and was actually presenting an
Speaker 1: award to her and we were sitting at the same
Speaker 1: table together with her and oh yes, photo, yes, but
Speaker 1: a testament, a testament to your description of your mom, right.
Speaker 1: I was with my good friend Joshua, who's also my
Speaker 1: videographer photographer good friend.
Speaker 2: His wife makes airrings.
Speaker 1: She's from Jamaica as well, So when we were there
Speaker 1: at the event, his wife came along to support and
Speaker 1: she had some earrings and she's like I would love
Speaker 1: to give these to Cherry Lee, but I'm just shy
Speaker 1: to do so I don't know what to do. So
Speaker 1: I made the connection because we were at the table
Speaker 1: together and my friend was down on her knees right
Speaker 1: in front of your mom, and she was just so
Speaker 1: humble and just so she had so much humility, and
Speaker 1: she listened to my friend's story about her earrings and
Speaker 1: how she started making them, and you know, your mom
Speaker 1: took off the earrings she was wearing and put on
Speaker 1: my friend's earrings and wore them on stage so proudly.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: And that was a beautiful moment from my friend. But
Speaker 1: it was just a testament to how much of a
Speaker 1: people's people your mom is. And she's just like a
Speaker 1: genuine person, which is awesome. How about you, Ivy, when
Speaker 1: did you realize, like, you.
Speaker 2: Know, Mom's not just mom.
Speaker 5: I think for me, it's just like I've always known
Speaker 5: that she's just someone operating in their gift. But I think,
Speaker 5: like Etien said, she's very she's grounded. She's so she'd
Speaker 5: rather be with the people, you know, And I think
Speaker 5: no matter how big and how much she expands as
Speaker 5: her brand and as an actress, like.
Speaker 2: She will always be the Sharley Raff that loves to
Speaker 2: go to Ross.
Speaker 5: She'll always be the Sharley Raft that loves to go
Speaker 5: dip her head in at Marshalls. She's she she loves
Speaker 5: the Curer girl. Yeah, she'll always be like yo, I
Speaker 5: have to go to my Korean spa.
Speaker 3: Like.
Speaker 5: She embraces the things that make her happy like every
Speaker 5: individual should. But I think what makes her such an
Speaker 5: incredible A lot of people are like, oh, like Etien said,
Speaker 5: your mother raised me on TV. It's it's because she's
Speaker 5: such an incredible mother. You know, I'll never forget like
Speaker 5: being in like probably like yeah, grade one and know
Speaker 5: someone asking me my teacher on first day of school,
Speaker 5: like what do you want to be when you grow up?
Speaker 5: And I said, I want to be a mom. And
Speaker 5: they're like, why do you want to be a mom?
Speaker 5: I said, because I have an incredible mom, you know.
Speaker 5: So when people say, oh my god, I love your mom,
Speaker 5: I'm like, I love her too, right, I love her too.
Speaker 1: I think that that's an interesting thing that you said,
Speaker 1: because for me, I've always grown up knowing I wanted
Speaker 1: to be a wife and mom and to your point,
Speaker 1: having an example of an exemplary mother or father.
Speaker 2: You know, it's something that you want to emulate, You
Speaker 2: want to be like you see what that was like,
Speaker 2: you see the impact.
Speaker 1: I know the impact my mom has had on me
Speaker 1: now that I'm a four year old woman. So for me,
Speaker 1: top tier is mother and wife. Everything else is secondary.
Speaker 1: So I can't completely understand how you feel. So I
Speaker 1: have four boys, like I told you guys before, and
Speaker 1: you know, we always talk to them about the importance
Speaker 1: of paying it forward and working hard and like finding
Speaker 1: their purpose. How do you guys stay grounded and rooted
Speaker 1: in an industry that could potentially be one to kind
Speaker 1: of take you off of your target or take you
Speaker 1: out of your track. What advice do you have to
Speaker 1: me as a mom who's raising some boys. You know,
Speaker 1: I know you're just a younger woman, but in this
Speaker 1: day and age, things are so different. So how do
Speaker 1: you guys stay grounded and rooted in who you are?
Speaker 6: Whatever you do, it has to be bigger than you.
Speaker 6: Whatever you do, it has to be bigger than yourself.
Speaker 6: I think one thing that I've learned through our upbringing.
Speaker 3: Is you have to be of service.
Speaker 6: I think that should always be a part of your
Speaker 6: purpose is how can I help somebody else? How can
Speaker 6: I use my platform to help somebody who might be struggling.
Speaker 6: Our mother she runs a nonprofit called the DVA Foundation.
Speaker 6: She started that after losing so many of her friends
Speaker 6: and family to HIV and AIDS during her time during
Speaker 6: dream Girls. And I think at a very young age,
Speaker 6: watching our mother raise money for her organization really propelled
Speaker 6: us really to start Walk Good and for us to
Speaker 6: build an organization that is rooted in being of service
Speaker 6: to people through health wellness in the arts. I think
Speaker 6: also growing up, we grew up in the church. Our
Speaker 6: grandfather was the music director in New York. We also
Speaker 6: found out recently that our grandmother was also a community
Speaker 6: organizer in her own right as a fashion designer.
Speaker 3: You know, she was one of the She was.
Speaker 6: The person to desegregate j C. Pennies in Connecticut. And
Speaker 6: so I think we come from a family of fighters,
Speaker 6: people who wanted to not only do it for themselves,
Speaker 6: but do it for communities. And I think anything you'd
Speaker 6: do in life, I think it has to be bigger
Speaker 6: than just you. Like a movement can't be run with
Speaker 6: just one person. People need people don't be afraid to
Speaker 6: ask for help. Don't be afraid to, you know, to
Speaker 6: just ask. I think that's the biggest thing that we're
Speaker 6: a lot of us are afraid to do, is just
Speaker 6: ask the question, you know, and just seek advice. Yeah,
Speaker 6: And a lot of times that drives us into depression
Speaker 6: and then we start to overthink, well, why are we
Speaker 6: making these decisions instead of asking somebody who might be
Speaker 6: more knowledgeable than us.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, don't be afraid to ask the questions. And
Speaker 1: I love that be of service to people. I think
Speaker 1: for me, it's just about finding your personal practice. What's
Speaker 1: that one thing every day that you feel so unapologic,
Speaker 1: unapologetic about that you can just get up and do it.
Speaker 5: Whether that's prayer, whether that's meditation. And I think, you know,
Speaker 5: we all have our own type of meditation. I remember
Speaker 5: growing up, and my mom's meditation was waking up in
Speaker 5: the morning singing and burning her incense. For my dad
Speaker 5: might be running biking or doing some pilates, or for
Speaker 5: my grandmother might be opening her Bible and finding her scripture.
Speaker 5: For my grandfather might be picking up the phone and
Speaker 5: singing to his grandchildren. Like there are so many different
Speaker 5: types of practices that make you feel good. And I
Speaker 5: think that's what we really want to show people is
Speaker 5: that you know you as much as you do good,
Speaker 5: you have to feel good for sure, because you know,
Speaker 5: for me, I'm like, when I look good, I do good.
Speaker 5: When I feel good, I do good and I look good.
Speaker 5: So I think you have to figure out what your
Speaker 5: good is.
Speaker 1: What makes you ticking inside? Speaking of looking good, you're
Speaker 1: a stylist. Thank you, you're a stylist. How did that
Speaker 1: come about? Was that a passion of your.
Speaker 2: Make up to yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, waiting and putting together stuff.
Speaker 5: And all that, all of that, Like my grandma taught
Speaker 5: me at a handstitch. That was the first thing that
Speaker 5: she ever taught me to do. She was always making
Speaker 5: things in Jamaica, whether it was you know, a garment
Speaker 5: or just a table cloth or anything for the house.
Speaker 5: But she ran an incredible store called the House of
Speaker 5: Ivy in Devon House. So after Ettenna and I would
Speaker 5: finish up summer schools, we would go to Devon House
Speaker 5: and help her with the shop. And I would remember
Speaker 5: tourists would come in on big buses coming from like
Speaker 5: ochi Ormo Bay coming to Kingston, and then it would
Speaker 5: just be one of those things where I had to
Speaker 5: help people and you know, just telling people about product,
Speaker 5: and you know, I was amazing to see my grandma
Speaker 5: see it from making the pattern, from cutting and sewing
Speaker 5: to being on the sewing machine, packaging up and then
Speaker 5: deliver and it was crazy. Like my thing was the
Speaker 5: retail management of it all. Like it was like everything.
Speaker 5: I would pack up my grandma's stuff and I would
Speaker 5: take it to Carbs, car Beats. It was one of
Speaker 5: the biggest stores, like downtown Kingston or like New Kingston,
Speaker 5: not downtown New Kingston, Carby's, Yeah, New Kingston. I would
Speaker 5: take my grandma's stuff to live with the taximan to Carbs.
Speaker 5: So like all of this stuff, like the styling fashion,
Speaker 5: I'm not new to it. I'm true to and then just.
Speaker 2: Come about or you started styling your mom.
Speaker 5: Is And I think there's a reason why my grandmother
Speaker 5: has the name Ivy and why my parents gave me
Speaker 5: the name Ivy. I genuinely feel I'm doing exactly what
Speaker 5: I'm supposed to do. And I have the greatest teacher
Speaker 5: who was my grandmother.
Speaker 2: That is so beautiful.
Speaker 1: Wow, I'm loving you guys even more just sitting down
Speaker 1: here half the time, I'm just watching you in admiration
Speaker 1: because I'm just like so beautiful Grandma ivy. Okay, she
Speaker 1: had a piece to play, I'm sure several, but a
Speaker 1: specific piece to play in your wedding et t the end.
Speaker 1: So we talked about in the beginning of the episode,
Speaker 1: you know, me watching and praying and hoping that everything
Speaker 1: would come to pass for your wedding day. Before we
Speaker 1: dive into Grandma's tribute or your tribute to Grandma.
Speaker 2: Rather tell me what that whole week was looking for.
Speaker 3: You give me a.
Speaker 6: Real quick So July sixth is the day that I
Speaker 6: met my wife. It's the day that I proposed to
Speaker 6: my wife. It's the day that we got married, not
Speaker 6: only one day though, in the span of three years,
Speaker 6: span of three years. And I always said when we met,
Speaker 6: I was like, we're going to get married in Jamaica.
Speaker 6: And so we've been planning eleven months for this wedding, right,
Speaker 6: and I a month before the wedding, I go shoot
Speaker 6: a Christmas movie in Canada and I tell Steph I'm like, yo,
Speaker 6: that's her name is Stephanie. And I told her, well,
Speaker 6: I'm going to be in Canada. So she was like,
Speaker 6: all right, I'm going to go to Jamaica, make sure
Speaker 6: that everything is set and good to go, and then
Speaker 6: you arrive and we're gonna get married.
Speaker 3: Girl.
Speaker 6: It is a week before our wedding. I'm about to
Speaker 6: travel to Jamaica. And they said there's an unprecedented there's
Speaker 6: an unprecedented hurricane hurricane five hurricane barrel category five hurricane.
Speaker 6: I'm like, God, why all the weeks gotta be on
Speaker 6: this week July sixth? And we get there, hurricane comes
Speaker 6: and we're just stuck in the house, rain, no power
Speaker 6: in Kingston at our at our home, yeah, and we're
Speaker 6: playing Uno.
Speaker 3: We got the candles burning and we just you know,
Speaker 3: share stories.
Speaker 6: It was my best friend Ron, my mom, my other
Speaker 6: good friend Nika and her partner and Coco and stuff.
Speaker 6: We're all sitting there eating KFC leftover KFC different islands.
Speaker 6: And they tell us the next day that they've shut
Speaker 6: down the whole airport, all the airports. Nobody can fly
Speaker 6: in or come out, and they might not open up
Speaker 6: until Sunday. We're getting supposed to get married on Saturdaturday.
Speaker 6: My poor wife, she just broke down and cried.
Speaker 1: As much as you tried to be optimistic, and as
Speaker 1: much as you try to hold it together, there's just nothing.
Speaker 6: And I said this too, that like that was the
Speaker 6: biggest test for us, and it really tested our faith.
Speaker 3: Tested my faith for sure. I was thinking to myself,
Speaker 3: why is this happening?
Speaker 1: God, Why were you always optimistic through ivy or were
Speaker 1: you kind of like I don't know what I understand.
Speaker 2: I was sleeping, girl, I was up.
Speaker 3: It wasn't wedding.
Speaker 1: It was not anyway.
Speaker 5: It's funny because my mom came in my room and
Speaker 5: she was like, yo, Coca has been sleeping for like
Speaker 5: fourteen hours. I was so tired, and honestly, I knew
Speaker 5: that God always has a plan. But like at the
Speaker 5: end said, you know, like God will test you to
Speaker 5: get to the testimony.
Speaker 6: It was through the oh, I know my God, just
Speaker 6: like the anticipation of whether or not our guests were
Speaker 6: even going to make it to the island, if they're
Speaker 6: going to open back up the airport, and by the
Speaker 6: grace of God, they said, we're going to open it
Speaker 6: back up. On Friday, we were looking at the flight
Speaker 6: statuses of my father.
Speaker 2: And my wife's parents, all of the key people, the
Speaker 2: key friends and.
Speaker 6: Family, that were stuck in like Houston. We had friends
Speaker 6: and family that were stuck all over the world. We
Speaker 6: had three hundred and fifteen people on that guest list.
Speaker 6: Two hundred and seventy five showed up at the Good
Speaker 6: Hope in Trelawney.
Speaker 2: Jamaica, and it percentage.
Speaker 3: It was the most amazing wedding ever.
Speaker 6: Like I know, everybody, y'all got your nice little weddings
Speaker 6: out there in Italy better than I'm going to say
Speaker 6: I fell it out there.
Speaker 2: My husband's gonna be like, not after how much we spent,
Speaker 2: But I'm like, man.
Speaker 3: It was given us the spirit.
Speaker 6: It was the story how everybody got there, because everybody
Speaker 6: had a story how they Jamaica. I agree there were
Speaker 6: a lot of people that didn't make it, but there
Speaker 6: are a lot of people that did make it. And
Speaker 6: I think when everybody got to the island, everybody just
Speaker 6: didn't care.
Speaker 3: They were like, we made it. Read everybody the rain
Speaker 3: it was clear.
Speaker 6: They said the rain might have fallen on July sixth.
Speaker 6: I said, Baby, I said, Steph, the rain is not
Speaker 6: gonna rain on our wedding. It's not gonna rain during
Speaker 6: the ceremony. And then lo and behold the rain came
Speaker 6: down soon as we did the the son and mother dance.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it was fine. It was okay as long
Speaker 3: as we got through the wedding, it was. It was amazing.
Speaker 3: And then we had the best after party home video footage.
Speaker 3: And I can't wait the edit that document.
Speaker 1: I was particularly touched to by you and your mom's
Speaker 1: dance because it's also the choice of song.
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's a beautiful song.
Speaker 1: You would never think of applying that to your your
Speaker 1: son and your child everything. I'm already getting teary. I
Speaker 1: thinking about my four sons and having to have that
Speaker 1: dance with them.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 6: I remember so growing up when my mom would pick
Speaker 6: Coco and I up from school, after she would pick
Speaker 6: us up from uh from shooting Mosha, she would play
Speaker 6: that album front to back and that specific song everything.
Speaker 3: Wow, we're gonna dance to this song?
Speaker 8: Oh my god?
Speaker 2: Should I be picking out a song now? But the
Speaker 2: music is not even good? The music is not even
Speaker 2: good now.
Speaker 1: This is probably gonna be some old robat that I
Speaker 1: picked because the music nowadays young.
Speaker 2: I don't know about that.
Speaker 6: And then we have you know, our second mom, Miss May.
Speaker 6: She was growing up so you know, we were blessed
Speaker 6: to have Miss May in our lives. When our mom
Speaker 6: was always shooting or doing a show.
Speaker 3: You know, we had Miss May. She was like our
Speaker 3: living nanny, and so I got to dance with her.
Speaker 2: That's a beautiful moment.
Speaker 6: We danced to Uh, my life is in your hands. Wow, Franklin,
Speaker 6: that started balling.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know them kind of moments.
Speaker 1: As much as you try to contain yourself, I'm sure
Speaker 1: there was not a dry eye in the house.
Speaker 2: That's beautiful.
Speaker 3: It was a beautifully ordained wedding.
Speaker 1: I love that, such a round out the wedding chatter.
Speaker 1: Grandma Ivy, you're paying homage to her. Your groom's men
Speaker 1: had a particular garb on tell us about that and
Speaker 1: what whose idea was that?
Speaker 6: Like moment?
Speaker 2: Oh, I thought it was no.
Speaker 1: She was.
Speaker 6: She styled in the process. Even dang rest in peace,
Speaker 6: war aor Boswell. He was the designer of my tuxedo
Speaker 6: and it was the last body of work that he
Speaker 6: designed before his pass.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry to hear that.
Speaker 3: Thank you. He designed this.
Speaker 6: Beautiful double breasted off white tuxedo jacket and we had
Speaker 6: two different pants, so we had the off white pants
Speaker 6: to match with the jacket, and then we had the
Speaker 6: black linen pants to.
Speaker 3: Go with the jacket to compliment the jacket.
Speaker 6: And the night night before UH we flew to Jamaica,
Speaker 6: I was like Coco, which one am I gonna wear?
Speaker 3: And we collectively made this decision.
Speaker 6: That it was going to be the off white pants,
Speaker 6: and then I wore the black one for the reception.
Speaker 6: And then I hit up my brother Toastin from Naid's
Speaker 6: studio and he was able to look at some of
Speaker 6: the previous designs that my grandmother made from back in
Speaker 6: the seventies, and he created like this modern version of
Speaker 6: the cariba that my grandmother designed, which was to come
Speaker 6: back colonial forms of dress back in the seventies with
Speaker 6: you know, the short sleeve linen jacket and the de
Speaker 6: pleated pants. And so it was beautiful that Toaston was
Speaker 6: able to bring my grandmother's dream UH to make could
Speaker 6: come alive because the Kariba was our grandmother's dream, you know.
Speaker 3: She said it came to her in a dream that
Speaker 3: she saw.
Speaker 6: This, this this beautiful suit dress for man that's not
Speaker 6: just your regular suit and tie. That's a young man
Speaker 6: in Jamaica can feel proud and wear these these these
Speaker 6: forms of dress and change the world in this formal attire.
Speaker 3: Wow, that that came from her mind. That literally came
Speaker 3: from a dream.
Speaker 6: And so I thought, what better way to honor my
Speaker 6: Jamaican heritage and my Jamaican grandmother then to dress my
Speaker 6: groom's men in the Cariba.
Speaker 2: They were sharp, so sharp, Oh my gosh, so sharp.
Speaker 1: So from a stylish perspective, you were feeling it, Ivy, Oh, no, absolutely.
Speaker 5: Because I'm so passionate about the Cariba and the history
Speaker 5: of it, not just because it's our grandmother, just because
Speaker 5: of like the intentionality behind it, and because like not
Speaker 5: just off of what Etchien was saying, but just to emphasize,
Speaker 5: like she was making something sustainable, Like it was a
Speaker 5: thing about her seeing men wearing long sleeve jackets and
Speaker 5: suits and they're sweating. They're like, yo, there are men
Speaker 5: taking off their shirts and they can see sweat drip.
Speaker 5: And she was like, Yo, honestly, we need to make
Speaker 5: something that's short sleeve, that's sustainable, that make people look
Speaker 5: good and feel good and they know that they can
Speaker 5: get into the courtroom and they can know that they can,
Speaker 5: you know, take meetings in Cuba with foreign foreigners and presidents,
Speaker 5: everything taken seriously. And I really look at this one
Speaker 5: photo of Michael Manley wearing his Cariba and it's with
Speaker 5: him and different prime ministers and I believe Fidel Castro
Speaker 5: and you know, different people from different different countries, and
Speaker 5: I'm like, wow, look upon miss Ivy and what she created.
Speaker 5: It's just it's you know, it's something that I could
Speaker 5: literally google that anybody can see. And I you know,
Speaker 5: you know, I plan to do the same at my
Speaker 5: wedding one day.
Speaker 2: You know, speak a girl. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I am even going to say that I think you
Speaker 1: might have started some sort of trends. Like people of
Speaker 1: course will jump on the trend because they think it's
Speaker 1: just trendy or it's fashion or it's different. But I
Speaker 1: think that in every thing that you do, honoring your
Speaker 1: grandmother and telling the story of the Kreeba is so
Speaker 1: important because you know, the blogs will pick up your
Speaker 1: picture and people may say, oh my god, we love
Speaker 1: this look. Where they may question the look, like some
Speaker 1: people did, but you were very clear about saying, uh huh,
Speaker 1: not this man.
Speaker 3: You gotta understand where it comes from.
Speaker 1: Pick apart the wedding, but don't pick apart the Koreba.
Speaker 1: This is where it comes from exactly, and I can
Speaker 1: see people doing that. People have weddings in the islands
Speaker 1: and in warm climates always, so this may be like
Speaker 1: a new trend that you guys start to just I
Speaker 1: see it.
Speaker 2: Ivs. Yeah.
Speaker 5: December twenty twenty four, House of Ivy making a comeback.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, it's giving announcement. Yeah for sure, we have.
Speaker 3: December is a big year, a big month.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: December n it's what's your birthday? December twenty third, nice,
Speaker 1: my Goda's birthday. And the fifth of December it's not
Speaker 1: love Baby and your Wife is the second.
Speaker 6: Yeah, November sixteenth, I'm the only scorpio on the fan. Well,
Speaker 6: my stepdaddy's a scorpio as well.
Speaker 2: My baby boy is too. November eight awesome.
Speaker 5: And then ten has a movie coming out in December two.
Speaker 6: Yeah, HBO will own network. Okay, listen to Matrimony. Nice
Speaker 6: coming out, and then day after that premiere is on
Speaker 6: HBO Max my first, my first lead role.
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
Speaker 2: You know, everybody loves a Christmas, so it's my favorite
Speaker 2: time of year.
Speaker 1: Like I was born at the right, so I was
Speaker 1: actually doing on Christmas Day came twenty days early and
Speaker 1: for me after Halloween, like, that's my time of year.
Speaker 1: So my Christmas lights go up, trees go up, all
Speaker 1: seven of them. November first, and it's the entire season.
Speaker 1: We celebrate Thanksgiving, my Birthday, Christmas, family time.
Speaker 2: And I will definitely put that movie in rotation. Tell
Speaker 2: us the name one more time.
Speaker 3: You heard it first right here on Dead Ass Podcast, Matrimony.
Speaker 6: Network Leading Man starring myself and Ashley Sharp Chestnut, directed
Speaker 6: by Rhonda Baraka. Yeah, and you'll see it on on
Speaker 6: Network and comes out on HBO Max.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: So between that and How Survivor making a comeback, it's
Speaker 1: about to be an amazing into an amazing, incredible year
Speaker 1: with so many memories.
Speaker 2: I am so honored to sit alongside you, guys.
Speaker 1: You have no idea, and sitting here with you during
Speaker 1: this time, I just get to see even more why
Speaker 1: I felt like there was a genuine connection here, more
Speaker 1: than just the Jamaican roots, more than just you know,
Speaker 1: being people who are like minded individuals. But this is
Speaker 1: something like a kindred spirit that I feel with you too.
Speaker 1: So thank you, thank you for being so eloquent and
Speaker 1: for you know, spending some time with me, a day
Speaker 1: with k that's what make yea And if you ever
Speaker 1: decided to bring Walk Good to La Atlanta, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Like you're also ready hear first. Okay, so let me
Speaker 3: know how.
Speaker 2: I love it. Let's take a break, y'all, because we
Speaker 2: can sit here and cackle all day. Let's take a
Speaker 2: quick break and we will be right back. All right.
Speaker 1: So I'm back with et t N and Ivy Coco Maurice,
Speaker 1: So tell me what's something that you're dead ass about?
Speaker 2: Nobody can shake you. I'm dead ass.
Speaker 6: About I am dead ass about my wife. Yes, I'm
Speaker 6: dead ass about my sister, Ivy Coco. I'm dead ass
Speaker 6: about now my stay Marley Ray. I'm dead ass about
Speaker 6: my mother. I'm dead ass about Walk Good.
Speaker 5: I love that all the I'm dead ass about loyalty,
Speaker 5: I'm deadass about my family, and I am dead ass
Speaker 5: about honesty.
Speaker 2: Those three things. Oh, just so you know, are you single, Ivy?
Speaker 2: I am single?
Speaker 1: Okay, So just no, there's a prospect out here to
Speaker 1: start with those three Okay, she said, that's about those
Speaker 1: three things.
Speaker 2: Three things? Yeah, are you single and mingling or you
Speaker 2: just kind of like.
Speaker 5: No, it's don't work now I'm singling single and yeah
Speaker 5: I am. It's really it's fun, it's exciting.
Speaker 2: Good for you. I love that. Are you overprotective big brother?
Speaker 3: Very much?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 2: I can just imagine I would.
Speaker 6: She knows better than to introduce me to somebody who
Speaker 6: she's not serious about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got a whole tight until the right time.
Speaker 7: I love that.
Speaker 2: Well, we're gonna wrap up the show now.
Speaker 1: Tell everybody where they can find you, guys about we
Speaker 1: heard about the Christmas movie coming out, how Surviving.
Speaker 2: But if there's anything else that you want people to know.
Speaker 3: Follow us on Instagram, Yeah La dot org.
Speaker 6: Make sure if you have a organ, if you have
Speaker 6: a corporation that's looking to donate to a wonderful nonprofit.
Speaker 6: We are we are glad Lee here to support with
Speaker 6: Walk Good La, So please we need the donation.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so follow us at walk go La. You want
Speaker 5: to follow our creative wellness studio with the Walk Good Yard,
Speaker 5: Walk Good Ivy, Coco twenty three All good things.
Speaker 1: Love that all right, and be sure to find us
Speaker 1: on Patreon to see exclusive dead Ass podcast video content.
Speaker 1: And if you follow us on social media, you can
Speaker 1: find us at dead Ass the Podcast. I'm Kadene I
Speaker 1: am and don't forget about hobby. I am Deval And
Speaker 1: if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, be sure to rate,
Speaker 1: review and subscribe and remember to walk.
Speaker 3: Walkody.
Speaker 2: Oh is that like a thing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, teach me walk good wod Let me see.
Speaker 7: I like that.
Speaker 2: I like you are we leg going the bird.
Speaker 7: Bird.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for being here, y'all.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2: Good time than cut.
Speaker 4: Dead Ass is a production of iHeartMedia podcast Network, and
Speaker 4: its produced by Dinorapinya and Triple. Follow the podcast on
Speaker 4: social media at dead Ass the Podcast and never miss
Speaker 4: a Thing