WEBVTT - Destination Cuba with Diallo Riddle 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:05.480 Hey guys, welcome to Greatest Escapes, a show bringing you 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:06.800 the wildest. 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:08.119 True escape stories of all time. 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:11.360 On this episode, we're going to head back to the 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:14.680 nineteen seventies for the daring daylight jailbreak of a true 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:19.880 American revolutionary. I'm Mortcastro, and for this journey, I'm joined 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:25.360 by the incredible talent, actor, writer, producer, and DJ Diallo Riddle. 0:00:56.320 --> 0:01:01.520 Dallo Riddle. Am I saying your name completely right? 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:02.880 Or completely You said. 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.040 It completely right, Diallow Riddle. You know people sometimes mistake 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.440 di'allo for Diablo. My mother in law said that my 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:13.039 to b wife could not date me because but. 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:16.080 My mom did warm me about having the Diablo on 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:17.800 Like I have questions. 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:19.640 Diablo was surprisingly available. 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.600 You know you're thinking, but right now the world's kind 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:24.119 of fucked, so. 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:26.680 It seems really busy. He seems really busy. 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:28.920 May I ask the origin of your name? 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:33.440 So my name is d'allo nob uh two ills. Actually 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.640 it's from West Africa. Diallo amir Riddle. It stands for 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:40.880 bold prince riddle in a West African language known as 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.320 Fulani Fulanilani. 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.240 So I'm from Atlanta, Georgia. 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:47.320 You know, my parents just wanted to give me a 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:51.080 name from Africa because you know, black Pride, and that 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:53.480 is how you end up with a bold Prince Riddle 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:55.120 aka Diallo Amir Riddle. 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:55.960 Oh fantastic. 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:59.040 You know, at the beginning of my career, I did 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:04.480 a few Nigerian films and they call them Nollywood. So 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:07.720 anything from West Africa films they call it Nollywood. And 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.120 it was amazing because you know, obviously, like we'd go 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.520 off to shoot in Lowell, Massachusetts and they'd be like, 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:15.000 come make we go a white boy, and. 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:19.480 I'm like, I'm not white. It looks like me, No, 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:20.320 you want a white boy. 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:22.840 You know what's funny is on one of our shows, 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.080 Sherman Showcase, we uh, you know, we just shot a 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:28.320 proof of concept, which you know is a fancy industry 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:30.880 term for essentially we shot like the best five or 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:32.720 ten minutes of a script and showed it to the 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:34.360 network and we got picked up the series. 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:36.520 But in that relations oh thank you. 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:40.240 In that proof of concept, we had a essentially what 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:45.200 was a Nollywood movie trailer. And in that trailer, because 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:46.960 we have we have we have a couple of Nigerian 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.640 writers on our staff, and we thought it was so 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:51.480 funny that they were. Like, if you watch enough of 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:55.200 these Nigerian Nollywood movies, a lot of times the twist 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:57.160 is that somebody is a witch in some way. 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:00.600 Every trailer it was she a witch. 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:05.560 Yeah, and it's usually the preacher who's also kind of 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:09.040 a love interest, Like who reveals this story? 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:15.920 Tell me about your greatest escape. 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:17.640 It doesn't even have to be life threatening, it just 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:19.480 has to be one of those like whoa I got 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:20.040 away with that. 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:22.160 Very few people know this story. 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:24.840 But actually, when I was about seventeen, I'm filling out 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:27.360 college applications and so I went to the store. Because 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:29.320 you couldn't email the men back then, you had to 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:30.920 like print them out on paper and send them in. 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:34.040 So I go to the local drug store to pick 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:34.720 up some paper. 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:36.000 I'm literally buying. 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.880 Paper to go to college and build a better life. 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.320 When a guy came in and held up the convenience 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.520 store and I remember he said, everybody on the floor, 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:46.800 and I remember how like I had never seen a 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.800 handgun wielded, you know, in person before, and I just 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.520 remember thinking, that is a gigantic gun. And so we 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.160 all got down on our stomachs and I'm like, you know, 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:58.160 praying and like, you know, just thinking like, oh, if 0:03:58.160 --> 0:03:59.760 I can just get out of here and mail off 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.560 my college application, I will never come back to this 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.480 Ecker drugs man. So this is a great escape of 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:09.720 someone else that actually saved my life potentially, because you know, 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:11.640 everybody in this store, there weren't many of us at 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:12.000 the time. 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:14.960 I thought, like, you know, he might be like no witnesses, 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.520 you know, and what a thought. 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:19.640 And then somebody ran out the back like it was 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.680 probably an employee, and just something about that emergency door 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:25.520 jamming open, like the guy just grabbed a bunch of 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:27.800 money out of the register and then ran back out 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.760 the front. And then I got up and I picked 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:32.800 up my paper, and I'm pretty sure I just walked 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:34.960 down with my paper. I think I was like, they're 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.200 going to have a lot of paperwork to fill out, 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:38.760 and I don't know that I want to. 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:39.360 Hang out here. 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:40.400 I'm not here for it. 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:42.400 I'm not trying to be like, you know, I can't 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:44.960 identify the guy. All I saw was a black glove 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:46.200 on a gun. I'm out of here. 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.479 Have you ever wanted to get to Cuba? Have you 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:53.320 ever been to Cuba? 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:55.560 Or I did? I really wanted to get to Cube. 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.000 I mean, like, oh, man, you know, Cuba is such 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:02.640 a obviously it's such a complicated social political topic. But 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:04.960 I've always wanted, in my heart of hearts there to 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.920 be like a very simple way to just fly out 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:10.360 of Lax you know, into Cuba and just you know, 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.640 go and visit and go around and see the country. 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:15.960 So it's one of those places I've really wanted to go. 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.000 I feel like every time I get a chance to 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.480 go something something comes up. 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.640 Now, Cuba is important in today's story for two reasons. Now, 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:26.839 first the revolution in nineteen fifty nine that inspired a 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.719 ton of people in the next couple of decades, and second, 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:35.160 Cuba dozen extradye people today United States, which takes us 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.480 back to the end of the nineteen seventies and one 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.479 of the most significant prison escapes in American history. 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:43.919 It was November two, nineteen seventy nine. 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.200 Three men walked into the Correctional Facility for women in Clinton, 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.960 New Jersey, sometime between one and four pm. Each of 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.920 the visitors showed their ID and they gave their names 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.960 and addresses and were entered into the prison visitor log, 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.880 but none of the information they gave was so you see, 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:05.880 this wasn't any old visit. These men were complete revolutionaries, 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:08.160 and they arrived to pull off one of the most 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:13.160 staring jail breaks of the century in complete daylight. Afterwards, 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.359 the only true thing the guards knew about him is 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:20.480 that they looked seventies as hell. I'm talking afros, full beards, sideburns, 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:22.000 a guy with a base behind him, going. 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:25.680 Okay, that last part isn't true, but what that be awesome? 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:29.239 So if you were gonna help with the jail break, 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:30.599 how would you disguise yourself? 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:32.040 Like, what would you be wearing for this? 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:35.200 Oh man? Probably all black? 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:40.840 Right, you gotta go like full you know what panthers slash, 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.280 you know, calm cruise when he's like rappling in from 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:45.240 the ceiling. That's that's what it is. 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:45.920 I would wear. 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:49.640 I would like wear like really thick eyebrows, because that's 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:51.880 the one thing that people would describe me as. 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:53.520 They're like and then I just rip them off and 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:54.120 you have these ones. 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:55.760 I couldn't have been here. I'm looking out. Then those 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:56.520 zyebras are. 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:02.360 The first man alone. He was checked through the registration 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.160 building in the minimum security area of the prison. Then 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.359 he climbed into a van that drove him across the 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.120 prison grounds to the South Hall. Now this was the 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:14.880 prison's maximum security area. But and this is key, okay, 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:16.360 he was not searched. 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:17.000 He wasn't. 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:20.640 No. Instead, he was let through the extra fencing around 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:22.840 the South Hall, and then the guards led him down 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.239 to the glass booth, where he sat down to visit 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:26.080 with an inmate. 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:27.160 Now you got I got it. 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:31.080 Put seventies nineteen seventies security teams like I just feel 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:31.600 like yeah. 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:33.280 They were just like, yeah, I don't care, you can 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:35.640 go through. Who are you here to see? Yeah, okay, sure, 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:36.000 go ahead. 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:36.160 Man. 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:39.080 It reminds me of that Simpsons episode where like mister 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:41.320 Burns has to go through like eight levels of security 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.160 to get down to the nuclear reactor, but then a 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:48.679 cat wanders in through a broken. 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.160 So the next two men arrived soon after, and they 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:54.240 did the same thing. They passed through registration without being searched, okay, 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:56.960 and were shuttled into the prison van in the South Hall. 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:58.640 Literally, nobody gave a fuck. 0:07:58.720 --> 0:07:59.640 Yeah, I mean it's the seventies. 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:01.640 Everybody was packing and nobody was checking. 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:04.440 When they came to the fence around the South Hall, 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:06.720 and it was open for them. They sprang into their 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:11.600 escape plan. They pulled out guns on the van driver 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.560 while the gate hung open. Now inside the visiting booth, 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:16.760 the first man turned to the prison guard who was 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.600 watching the visit, and he whipped out two pistols out 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:21.160 from under his jacket. 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:23.960 That one and like you know, shoved into his crotch 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:26.560 or like literally two guns. 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:27.800 He was our own style. 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:29.880 Something must have given it away when he had like 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.880 a bullet belt around him. So holding the garden there 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:37.040 at gunpoint, he forced her to open the booth up 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.560 from behind the glass walked activists, black panther and soldier 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.880 of the Black Liberation Army a Sata shaquor. 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.400 That's right, yep yep Asadakor. 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:53.320 Suddenly free from herself, Asada and her visitor took the 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.719 guard hostage and they marched outside. They climbed into the 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.200 van with the other two men, and now the four 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.800 revolutionary and their two hostages were able to drive the 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.320 prison van right out of the main prison gate. They 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.560 reached a nearby parking lot where their getaway cars were 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:10.319 part waiting. 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:13.960 So Asauna and her rescuers left from. 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:16.960 The van and into the cards and just fucking peeled away. 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.120 The prison guards were left handcuffed in the prison van, 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:24.559 but unharmed. Now everybody started flipping the fuck out. Roadblocks 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.400 were rushed out onto the highway to stop the escaping vehicles, 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:31.280 but conflicting reports flew in right. Some said they were 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.319 in a blue Pondiac and a blue Cadillac, and no, no, no, 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:36.440 they were in a Ford Maverick and a two toll Lincoln. 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.319 No no, no, they had massive eyebrows. Everybody had massive hours, 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.960 no confusing all the way. So the contradictory reports may 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:45.880 have been the saving grace of the escapees. Before officials 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:47.880 could decide which roads could be shut down and where 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:50.720 to hunt, Asauna and her allies were out of there. 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:52.880 Asada Shakur was free. 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:54.240 It's insane, yellow. 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:56.640 What do you know about Asada Shagar's life and why 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:57.400 she was in prison? 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:01.880 I mean, admittedly, you know, my my father was a 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:06.240 painter in South Central now called South LA during the 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:08.760 time of the Watts riots, and so you know, he 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:12.280 used to, you know, do paintings and sculptures about you know, 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.559 the ghettos in the in the hood back then. 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:14.840 You know. 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:16.439 And I always felt like even though he wasn't like 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.520 a black panther. Growing up in our household, we definitely 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.240 understood the point of view that like our community needed 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.400 you know, uplift and it needed, you know, certain things 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:28.040 to reach its full potential. 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.200 So the idea of like Asada Shakur. 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:36.160 And Mumia abou Jamal, like these were not random names 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.520 to us, Like these were people who we knew. 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:40.079 In our household. 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.800 And and honestly, when Tupac Shakur first blew up, I 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:44.920 was like, is that Asada son? And of course you 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:48.160 know Asada Shakur was the godmother. 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:49.319 Of that's rights. 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.080 Yeah, and I think his mom, Afienie Shakur was a 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:54.880 was a good friend of Asadas. 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:55.520 That's right. 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:58.040 And you know this is a little off topic, but 0:10:58.120 --> 0:10:59.680 let me ask you something because you bring up something 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.440 interesting about I didn't know that about your father. Do 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.360 you think that you got from him the desire to 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:09.040 express yourself and surroundings and sort of your point of 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:11.559 view through art, be it to a through a writer, 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:12.840 acting perspective. 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.920 But no, you listen, you ask something that not many 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.680 people have ever asked, but it's got a very very 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.439 clear and strong answer, which is that absolutely one hundred percent. 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.400 You know, my father started off at La City College 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:28.440 doing still life, like he would paint pears, you know, 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.120 in bowls and you know, light coming through a window 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:31.880 on a villa. 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:34.760 But you know, at the end of the day. 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:37.080 Once the Watts Rice broke out, he was like, I 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:40.560 can't do pears and bowls and still life anymore. I 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.040 have to do art that means something. And he's sort 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.120 of instilled, you know, in us. Even before I knew 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.439 that I wanted to be an artist in my own way, 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:50.720 even though before I knew I wanted to be creative 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.560 with my profession, he always said that he felt like 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:57.480 art without any social commentary had no interest to him. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:57.720 You know. 0:11:57.760 --> 0:11:59.760 He felt like everything that he did had to have 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:04.040 some not message. He wasn't trying to be polemic, but 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:06.760 it was just that he had a point of views. Yeah, 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:08.200 it had to have a point of view. It had 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:10.800 to have a very strong point of view. And I 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.719 think that in my work to this day, everything from 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:16.000 Sherman Showcase The South Side to some of the shows 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:19.240 that we're working on now, I always think, what will 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.240 this contribute to the world. It doesn't have to be 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.200 anything like, oh, it's gonna get people to wake up 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:26.720 about climate change. It's not like that. It's just more like, 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:29.600 how will this make lives? You know, people's lives better. 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:31.120 Even if it's just to say it's going to be 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.280 so funny that it's going to give people who have 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:36.080 had a hard week, it's going to bring them a 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:38.920 little bit of joy. That is enough. There has to 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:41.320 be something in there like that for me to be interested. 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:43.559 What a fascinating thing to be able to witness that. 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.600 If you see your dad's paintings from before the riots 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:48.880 and after the riots, and you know how you just climb. 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.320 And then suddenly so we're just watching it. 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:54.480 I love the moment where you watch an artist find 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:58.120 find their voice, you know, and visually being able to 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:02.400 witness it must be really fascinating and impactful as a 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:02.920 young man. 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:06.000 Yeah, John Thomas Riddle, he's you know, his artwork is 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:09.800 up at the California African American Art Museum and the 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.840 Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.520 So it's it's you know, he had a great career. 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.400 Sadly, as many people who work in that field know, 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:21.880 the second that he died, his art skyrocket in value. 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:24.200 Because there's not going to be anymore. That's the way I 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:24.800 think about that. 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:26.760 We'll put up a link at the bottom of this episode, 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:28.280 so people going to check out you dad's art. Man. 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:29.280 I think that'd be really cool. 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.760 Okay, so we've heard about ASADA's legendary prison escape, but 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.240 now we're going to jump back and hear the story 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.680 of the real person behind the legend. So, dell, well, 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:43.720 you know a lot of this already, but for the listener, 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:45.480 we're going to go way way back. 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.880 Okay. Asada was born in Queens, probably in the year 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:51.800 nineteen forty seven, though the exact date is kind of lost. 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:52.320 Oh wow. 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:52.840 Yeah. 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:54.839 So she was born with the name Joanne and her 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:57.400 family called her Joey. It was only later that you 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:00.320 would leave it behind and become a Soda. Grew up 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:02.720 with her mother and her on, and when she was three, 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:06.280 her grandparents bought a beach property in Wilmington, North Carolina. 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.959 So they moved south and they took a Soda with him. Now, 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.400 and this is a really beautiful solo memory, I think. 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.240 Asana says that while in Wilmington, the women in her 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.040 grandmother's generation became her role models. 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:19.880 They would some rivers and. 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:22.440 Shoot the head off a snake and plant a garden, 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.400 saw a pattern, kill a hog, and also quite a 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:28.560 little fussing baby, all at the same time. Do you 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:30.960 have any older women in your life that you consider 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:31.880 bound asses like that? 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:32.360 Oh? 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:34.960 Yeah, I mean it's interesting. I have an aunt Joanne 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.480 a relation to a soada. Oh shoot, now it comes out, 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:41.880 that's what we got. 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:44.280 To come storming my booth. I'm like, I don't, what 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:44.840 do you want with me? 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:47.080 They're so I mean, like every I feel like all 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:49.240 the women in my family are badass in their own way. 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:50.640 But you know what's really. 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:52.880 Interesting about what you say about them moving from New York. 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:55.400 I think you said Queen's to North Carolina. I grew 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:57.880 up in Atlanta. And the thing about Atlanta is, I 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:01.160 think we have more trees, you know, per square inch 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:02.840 than any major city in the country. 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:03.200 Right. 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:05.720 We have these woods, and we have these really wild 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:08.560 areas that are right in the heart of Atlanta. 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:11.000 And as a result, you know, me. 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:12.600 And my friends right there in the city limits, we 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:15.800 learned how to fish and identify which makes are harmless 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.280 and which ones will kill you. And there's like this 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:20.000 this strait of wile, and I think that that's. 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:21.680 Really cool because unfortunately, every. 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.520 Time I see, you know, black people depicted on TV 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:28.320 in any kind of like rural or like river strewn area, 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:31.840 it's almost always like something about slavery. Like it's just 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:34.200 like they're always like running away from dogs trying. 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:35.480 To like take them back into bondage. 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:37.880 And I'm like, guys, there are a lot of rural 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.520 black people who like know how to like fish and 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:42.720 do the wildlife, you know, outdoors thing. 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:44.280 You know, I love to hear stories like that. 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:48.120 Picking black joy in the outdoors is something too much of. 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:49.840 I totally hear you, dude. 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.000 Do Mike all alone in the archery club, like come 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:52.800 join me? Please? 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.120 Did every time I see a Latino person in the desert, 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:56.520 I'm like, oh, fuck, okay. 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:58.320 I know I know where this is going. I couldn't 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.360 have just been out for a fucking hike. Yeah, I 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:02.560 love hiking. Like every time everybody ever. 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:04.840 Catches me like outside like an out of a palm springs, 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.280 there's something they're like, oh, I know where you came from. 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:08.040 No, you fucking go. 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:10.400 I came from the Ace Hotel, motherfucker, and I just 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:11.600 went for a nice little stroll. 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.440 Fuck you. I was just on a doom buggy. Okay, 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:15.680 forget y'all. That's right. 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.160 Okay, that's why I'm all fucking dirty and thirsty. 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:19.880 Okay, motherfucker, because I'm hungover. 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.320 So to paint a picture of like what Wilmington was 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:31.880 like at the time, public beaches around Wilmington were whites only, 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:36.520 So Asadast's grandparents moved onto their ocean front property and 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:39.320 opened it for business. Right, so they welcome black visitors, 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:41.200 sold refreshments, and rented umbrellas. 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:41.600 Smart. 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:42.840 Yeah, So her time on the. 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:45.160 Beach growing up became a sadast picture of what freedom 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:48.800 really means, right, watching people enjoy themselves, sharing treats with them, 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.040 dancing in the sand, kind of what we were talking 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:55.040 about about minority joy that you hardly ever see. After 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:58.280 elementary school, Asada moved back to New York, and after 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:00.720 moving around so much as a kid, she was convinced 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:02.920 that there wasn't a place in the United States where 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.960 she could actually escape discrimination. You know, it was everywhere, 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:08.240 both in the North and in the South. So in 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.320 her teens, Asada ended up back living with her on Eveling, 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.639 a lawyer who would eventually become a law professor at NYU. Okay, 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:18.679 now under Yeah, so under Evelyn's care, Asada made it 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:20.840 through high school and into college at the City College 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:23.359 in New York. The year ever go to City College 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.000 or visited that area at all in New York, Yeah. 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:28.800 I don't think so. My time in New York was 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:29.720 a little bit limited. 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:31.440 The only time I lived there was when I was 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:33.800 a writer for Jimmy Fallon and that was about four years. 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.640 And honestly, I went straight from my place in Upper 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.960 West Side straight to thirty Rocks, So I never really 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:43.320 got to know some parts of the city, like City College, 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:43.960 and that's where I've. 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.880 Got my first play, and like I had a mentor 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:50.000 who taught film classes there, so I'd come out auditors class. 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:52.440 So it still had those feelings that whenever you walk 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.720 into a place that has been really important to a city, 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:57.840 you still feel sort of the ghosts of the past there. 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:01.159