Speaker 1: Milk Bus has all the knowledge you want.
Speaker 2: My league bus has here the knowledge you need.
Speaker 1: Myligus yet they have all the books that the whole
Speaker 1: wild world one of breed Malgue Books. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome
Speaker 1: to Malik's Bookshow, Bringing a world together with books, culture
Speaker 1: and community. Hi, my name is Malik, your host of
Speaker 1: Malite Bookshelf. I've been on a long journey. Should I
Speaker 1: say vacation, Well, hey, I deserve it. I had a
Speaker 1: lot going on and I had to take a break.
Speaker 1: I had to get my mind right so I could
Speaker 1: come back bigger and better. That's right, the new and
Speaker 1: Improved Malif's Bookshelf. I'm going to be doing some things
Speaker 1: a lot different going forward, so stay tuned on that.
Speaker 1: But hey, this is going to be the only eighth
Speaker 1: episode that in itself is a milestone. You know. When
Speaker 1: I first started, I just jumped into it. But hey,
Speaker 1: like anything in life, you got to grow, you got
Speaker 1: to learn. But I've just been blessed to get a
Speaker 1: lot of interviews, through a lot of book reviews, and
Speaker 1: grow my audience here on Malice Bookshelf, bringing the world
Speaker 1: together with books, culture and community. I'd rather say I'm
Speaker 1: not back on better.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I got that statement from Shikari Richardson, who won the
Speaker 1: World Athletic Championships out in Budapest this year, and it
Speaker 1: was annoy now because you don't know what athletics is.
Speaker 1: That's another term for track and field. Used to be
Speaker 1: called track and field. Well the word now is athletics,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna go with that, okay, But she won
Speaker 1: the world she took the goat. And I know this personally,
Speaker 1: not because I saw it on social media. I saw
Speaker 1: it on television. I was there in Budapest watching her
Speaker 1: do her thing. Silence all the naysayers put the smack
Speaker 1: down on the goat. That's right. And the Shikar of
Speaker 1: shanis Kajashi, who won the two hundred meters in the limits.
Speaker 1: She took down not only Shirley an Freezer, the goat
Speaker 1: she took downis Kajak, both Jamaicans, and won the crown
Speaker 1: jew of the world's fastest woman in the world and
Speaker 1: broke the World Championship record ten point six five ten
Speaker 1: sixty five, the fastest time ever ran in the World Championship.
Speaker 1: I was blessed to be there and Budapest in Hungary.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. It was a great exp Let me
Speaker 1: tell you that city is I felt like I was
Speaker 1: in the United States because that city felt like it
Speaker 1: was home. And let me tell you something. I was
Speaker 1: greatly surprised how good the food was. The food was extraordinary,
Speaker 1: I mean delicious. I couldn't believe. You know. I made
Speaker 1: a lot of chicken burgers, but that chicken burger I
Speaker 1: had at Budapest was delicious. And let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: I went to this Mexican restaurant and it was called
Speaker 1: Mexican Amigo. You know, so you know, gringo amigo that's
Speaker 1: what it was called. So that means white friend, right.
Speaker 1: Amingo means gringo means white. Amigo means friend, white friend.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. Let me tell you something
Speaker 1: I don't Well, I looked it up. I didn't see
Speaker 1: any in America. But let me tell you that Mexican
Speaker 1: food I had all the way and Budapest in Hungary
Speaker 1: was deep delicious. No, I only mentioned that we had
Speaker 1: some traditional Hungarian meal. Boy, they love gulash out there.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: I'm not a gula shi. My son ate the gula
Speaker 1: this my son was in Vienna Californi and he you know,
Speaker 1: it was only two hour train ride for him to
Speaker 1: come over to Boodle. So he hung out with us
Speaker 1: in Budapest. So we had a good time, you know,
Speaker 1: and my son, now that I mean, I don't know
Speaker 1: how the stars lined up, but it did. I was
Speaker 1: hoping he had a chance to run it, you know,
Speaker 1: because that's why he was in Europe. He was running.
Speaker 1: But it didn't work out. But hey, he was there
Speaker 1: and came over and we all hung out together for
Speaker 1: about three four days. My son, my wife and me
Speaker 1: was all in Budapest and we had a wonderful time.
Speaker 1: Stayed at the wonderful hotel call you know, the Rents Calton,
Speaker 1: which was very you know, plush, elegant and well maintained.
Speaker 1: It's a brand and it's an upscale brand, and it
Speaker 1: was a great stay at the Ridge Calton in Budapest.
Speaker 1: But it was festive, it was electric, it was extraordinary.
Speaker 1: It was just a wonderful experience from being in budapast
Speaker 1: to the most supportant World Athletic Championships twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: that was off the chain. So we had a beautiful
Speaker 1: time as we at the World Championships and didn't you
Speaker 1: know we started there in Budapast. But then you know,
Speaker 1: I was there for five days. But I went to
Speaker 1: the track meet three times. Well it was five sessions
Speaker 1: morning and the evening and so forth. I went to
Speaker 1: five sessions. So I witnessed the one hundred meter finals.
Speaker 1: I witnessed nord Liles from the USA, when the one
Speaker 1: hundred meters men Tom spec. I witnessed a lot of
Speaker 1: world or championship workers and some world records there shot
Speaker 1: put us extraordinary to watch the Sweden guy you know
Speaker 1: who came up the last throw, the one who was
Speaker 1: second place, threw further than his leading throw and he
Speaker 1: came up one throw left and he broke the record.
Speaker 1: Today told the dog that was extraordinary and electric, and
Speaker 1: the crowd went off. I mean he went off. So
Speaker 1: you know to watch that.
Speaker 2: Now, this guy, you know, he a Viking, he come
Speaker 2: from you know, Sweden, and he won.
Speaker 1: He you know that that's that Viking territory. He was big, huge,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So he took down the
Speaker 1: world championship to win it. Watched long jump through that thing.
Speaker 1: It was just a spectacular and very electric and exciting.
Speaker 1: Every enthusiastic everybody had. It was just man, it was beautiful.
Speaker 1: That was my first time ever attending the World Championship.
Speaker 1: So hey, you know, hey, if you got to live,
Speaker 1: you don't lived once. So let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: You can work your whole life, but one day, you know,
Speaker 1: you can't take these nothing with you when you pass away.
Speaker 1: You can't take your wealth knowing your memory. So enjoy
Speaker 1: This world has a lot to offer, and sometimes you
Speaker 1: got to leave your little ram, your little space and
Speaker 1: journey on out journey and go beyond. You know. Like
Speaker 1: I said, I never went to the World Championship, so
Speaker 1: that was my first and I'm a truck runner and
Speaker 1: I love track, so hey, but it was never too
Speaker 1: late fifty nine, but hey, I finally went to the
Speaker 1: World Championships and I had a wonderful time, wonderful experience.
Speaker 1: And then me and April we left and went to Greece. Right,
Speaker 1: and we went to Greece. I've never been to Greece,
Speaker 1: and we visited three location Athens, me Scots, the Party
Speaker 1: the Miklos that is the Party Island, and we visited
Speaker 1: Eos and it was just a wonderful experience. And I
Speaker 1: tell you. We stayed at some very upscaled exclusive luxuriage place,
Speaker 1: particularly this place you know in Eos, at a private
Speaker 1: location out in the island of Eos called Kololo, very
Speaker 1: very artistic technology water art. It was just a work
Speaker 1: of creation, a work that was just illuminating in just
Speaker 1: a mind blowing You got to have imagination to do
Speaker 1: this kind. I mean, they built this thing right inside
Speaker 1: of a rock, this hotel. But it was luxurious, It
Speaker 1: was just so beautiful. We had a wonderful time and
Speaker 1: I just you know, imagination is very important. You can
Speaker 1: have all the money in the world, but if you
Speaker 1: ain't got no imagination, you ain't gonna do nothing with it.
Speaker 1: Whoever put together this, this luxurious resort and on the
Speaker 1: island of Eos called color Lou, which means let me
Speaker 1: tell you, hold on, hold on klor Lou collor lol
Speaker 1: means create the life you want to fall in love with.
Speaker 1: That's what he came up with the name kind of
Speaker 1: low create the life you want to fall in love with.
Speaker 1: And all over this result was love and hope and
Speaker 1: you know, and live and smile and laugh and enjoy.
Speaker 1: It was all about man taping in to your soul
Speaker 1: to bring about illumination and elevation and creativity and joy
Speaker 1: and happiness. You know, yet, we know life is a grind.
Speaker 1: We know that as a lot of things going on
Speaker 1: in life. But you are how you think, and if
Speaker 1: you want to create a life that you could fall
Speaker 1: in love with, you don't got to do it. And
Speaker 1: that hotel was saying, hey, stop complaining and go out
Speaker 1: here and create the life that you want to live
Speaker 1: that you can fall in love with. And I loved that.
Speaker 1: So the guy, the owner, I didn't get a chance
Speaker 1: to meet him, and he was gonna come. They was
Speaker 1: gonna do some kind of ceremony the following day, but
Speaker 1: I didn't get a chance. We had to go. We
Speaker 1: had to go. We had to take a helicopter back,
Speaker 1: and I was extraordinary. A helicopter over the islands of
Speaker 1: the GNC, the Mediterranean, going across all those islands to
Speaker 1: get back the afters and catch the airplane the only way.
Speaker 1: We had to get on a helicopter and ride for
Speaker 1: two hundred miles over the oceans and over the islands.
Speaker 1: That was an electric, beautiful experience. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: have it like that, but hey, you got to create
Speaker 1: the life that you want to fall in love with. Right,
Speaker 1: So sometimes, man, dude, you gotta do to have those
Speaker 1: kind of experiences. And that's I said to myself, Hey,
Speaker 1: one a lifetime probably experience. I might not never go
Speaker 1: back to Greece, But on this day and in this time,
Speaker 1: we hit one out and we're gonna have a good time,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna take a helicapter ride, a plane ride,
Speaker 1: We're going to the World Championship, were standing at Luxe
Speaker 1: Your's resources. Live the life that you want to fall
Speaker 1: in love with. And that's how we ended at kler Low.
Speaker 1: We ended it at Eos, Greece, and then flew back
Speaker 1: to America, so that it was, you know, my point here,
Speaker 1: create the life that you want to fall in love with.
Speaker 1: Now this seventy eighth episode because as soon as I
Speaker 1: got back, the you know, Malik Books is in full swing.
Speaker 1: We got events that are set up and we just
Speaker 1: hosted two events on Saturday that I'm featuring on this
Speaker 1: episode seventy eight. That's right. The first book signing that
Speaker 1: took place Saturday, September ninth, was host of that Brooks
Speaker 1: running store out in Venice, and it was running wild block.
Speaker 1: So it started out with a five k run followed
Speaker 1: by a conversation that books signing by Alicia Desser. She
Speaker 1: created a movement called Running Wild Black, and so I
Speaker 1: got a chance to talk to her. I got a
Speaker 1: chance to get some tid bitch, some inform, you know,
Speaker 1: interview her a little bit here for the podcast from
Speaker 1: my audience, and I got it, you know. But it
Speaker 1: was just a very beautiful day starting out with a
Speaker 1: five k run, charging a body with running, and then
Speaker 1: followed by some nutrition and then a comsation and then
Speaker 1: a book signing. So I'm featuring that conversation and that
Speaker 1: on this episode Running Wild Black because basically she's using
Speaker 1: running as therapy or for you know, trauma that people's
Speaker 1: experiencing in their life, and that's kind of the book
Speaker 1: is very you know, I didn't really go in depth
Speaker 1: about the book, but anyway, it was moving on because
Speaker 1: she's gonna tell you a little bit about why why
Speaker 1: she created that. Now. The other thing, uh other book
Speaker 1: signing that we had took place at Maliti Books in
Speaker 1: the Westfield, Covid City ball that's our market. You gotta
Speaker 1: come down. It's a very beautiful bookstore where we hosted
Speaker 1: April show. She created a movement and she has a
Speaker 1: brand called Afro Unicorns. So we had a book signing
Speaker 1: with her. We are Afro Unicorns, the name of the book,
Speaker 1: and that was a very festive, free flowing, electric, extraordinary
Speaker 1: engaging book signing at Malague Books in the Westfield, Cover City.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to feature a conversation I got a
Speaker 1: chance to have with her throughout the book signing experience,
Speaker 1: and so stay tuned. This episode is for seventy eight
Speaker 1: and I got two interviews and from the events that
Speaker 1: I hosted on Saturday, September ninethe but I also have
Speaker 1: on this episode as a customer appreciation a segment that
Speaker 1: she somebody walked up the lady named Cat and that's somebody,
Speaker 1: and she just started telling me about the impact and
Speaker 1: thanking me and the impact that Malik Books made from
Speaker 1: the time her kids were just babies, and so that
Speaker 1: was wonderful because it's not always I meet a customer
Speaker 1: that knew me back from nineteen ninety or what have you.
Speaker 1: But I do want to end my segment is before
Speaker 1: we go in to the other segments part of that episode.
Speaker 1: Market Calendars September thirtieth three o'clock. Guess who's coming to
Speaker 1: Malite Books or should I say the neighborhood. Cedric the
Speaker 1: entertainer wrote a book. His debut book is called Flipping
Speaker 1: Box Cards, and I'm going to turn up the volume
Speaker 1: because he's coming to Malik Books. He's doing a book
Speaker 1: signing on September thirtieth at three pm. So you got
Speaker 1: urs repeat, so go to Milikbooks dot com. RS repeat,
Speaker 1: I need to see you. I need you all to
Speaker 1: come out in full fourth. We need to show the
Speaker 1: love because he's coming to the neighborhood, coming to Malik Books.
Speaker 1: So RS repeat Milikbooks dot Com. Now enjoy the rest
Speaker 1: of the episode. Thank you. I listen to sir. You
Speaker 1: know I have a podcast, LAK's Bookshelf, and I just
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you a few questions regarding book running
Speaker 1: while Black. But you know you mentioned earlier to me
Speaker 1: about the growing changes that has taken place in New York,
Speaker 1: particularly Central Park where a lot of people don't know
Speaker 1: the true history of Central Park. We see it on TV,
Speaker 1: we see it, you know, on movies. We see that.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a park that a famous part. Things
Speaker 1: have happened over the years in the park. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing. You got a little history about how Central
Speaker 1: Park was in the past. But also I want to
Speaker 1: thank you for hosting this five K run walk and
Speaker 1: books signing here at Brooks Running Store out here in
Speaker 1: Venice Beach, California. We started the day off with a
Speaker 1: five clave run followed bout this wonderful conversation when you
Speaker 1: just dropping gyms And I'm so grateful that I get
Speaker 1: opportunity to share on these jams with my podcast, Leak's Bookshelf.
Speaker 1: So can you share your thoughts? Well, give us the
Speaker 1: little background about the history of Central Park.
Speaker 5: So Central Park before Central Park was Central Park.
Speaker 6: Right in the center of it was Seneca.
Speaker 5: Village, which is a village that was inhabited by free blacks,
Speaker 5: and it was a thriving community right there were you know,
Speaker 5: people were not living like now when we think mostly
Speaker 5: because of like Hollywood and the way history is taught
Speaker 5: whenever we think of black people historically, we think of
Speaker 5: black people only as being enslaved or being in really
Speaker 5: poor conditions. But it was this beautiful, thriving community in
Speaker 5: the middle of Central Park, well in Seneca Village, and
Speaker 5: what happened was in the nineteenth century, all of these
Speaker 5: projects around, like widening streets and creating the city that
Speaker 5: we know today were instituted and as as a result
Speaker 5: of imminent domain, they just came in and bulldozed Seneca
Speaker 5: Village and moved people out right, And I forget the
Speaker 5: architect of Central Park?
Speaker 7: Is it Lomstead?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 7: Who said that?
Speaker 6: Who confirmed?
Speaker 1: I just couldn't see your face?
Speaker 4: Also, right, So he's.
Speaker 5: Regarded as like this genius and like hero and like
Speaker 5: I mean, yes, clearly he was a visionary, but at
Speaker 5: what expense?
Speaker 7: Right, at who's expense?
Speaker 5: And obviously we know this entire country was indigenous, so
Speaker 5: all of this lad was like taken from people. But
Speaker 5: then the fact that even when you have a thriving
Speaker 5: community with an opportunity for generations to thrive, at any
Speaker 5: point it could be taken from So yeah, now, if
Speaker 5: you got Central Park, I believe it's like in the
Speaker 5: seventies or in the eighties, there are delineations. There's like
Speaker 5: signs that tell you Seneca Village and it shows you
Speaker 5: what the plot looked like, and some of where the
Speaker 5: reconstructions of what the buildings would have looked like.
Speaker 1: I like to know what was your inspiration for creating
Speaker 1: a movement called Running Wild Black? So far it to
Speaker 1: a book?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's almost like I that's only our last question.
Speaker 5: So my son was born in July of twenty nineteen,
Speaker 5: and of course, like going out my whole life as
Speaker 5: a black person, like I had seen and heard all
Speaker 5: these terrible things that happened to black people, all of
Speaker 5: the injustices, all the racism.
Speaker 6: I remember Rodney King.
Speaker 5: I remember watching that on TV and like just being
Speaker 5: so stunned by how brutal it was and how it
Speaker 5: kept being replayed. And then even at a young age,
Speaker 5: the way that Rodney King was treated was as if
Speaker 5: he was like dufis right and.
Speaker 6: Can we all just get along?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 5: That became like just I think it was like mocked
Speaker 5: on SNL and all kinds of places. Right, So this
Speaker 5: black man who was like beaten within inches of his
Speaker 5: life then was ridiculed and ended up becoming.
Speaker 6: An addict and killing himself.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 5: So anyway, so I of course always knew the history
Speaker 5: of racism in this country, but then having a black son,
Speaker 5: I was like, oh crap, Like was that irresponsible to
Speaker 5: like have a child in this country where they're gonna
Speaker 5: kill him. Tanahasekoats has this beautiful sentence quote in between
Speaker 5: the World and Me, and he says that black people
Speaker 5: love their children with a certain kind of fervor because
Speaker 5: they come into.
Speaker 6: Our lives endangered.
Speaker 5: Right, So then we were all of course at home,
Speaker 5: and we were seeing what was going on. First it
Speaker 5: was so he was born in July, and that whole
Speaker 5: summer there were like school shootings.
Speaker 6: And I was like, oh my god, my son is
Speaker 6: never going.
Speaker 5: To school, right, Like, well, it wasn't even school shootings
Speaker 5: and shootings everywhere, and then I had really bad postpartum
Speaker 5: depression and anxiety, and finally I was feeling like comfortable
Speaker 5: enough to get out of my house and then boom
Speaker 5: the pandemic HIDS and I.
Speaker 7: Was like, why me.
Speaker 5: Know, so that we were obviously shut back in our
Speaker 5: homes and then seeing all of these murders just with
Speaker 5: nothing else going on in our lives. A mott Arbery,
Speaker 5: Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, right, George Floyd.
Speaker 7: I just started to really.
Speaker 5: Never want to leave my house again, right, And I
Speaker 5: started to think about, like, wow, running saved my life.
Speaker 5: But it's also this thing that comes with this additional
Speaker 5: set of risks that somebody like a mot arbery could
Speaker 5: be running and be hunted down. And so I wrote
Speaker 5: this first. It was an op ed that talked about
Speaker 5: the experience of being a black person loving running, saving
Speaker 5: my life, but it also being something that scares me
Speaker 5: to death and other black people and marginalized people in general, right,
Speaker 5: Like a lot of trans folks also were like, thank
Speaker 5: you for putting this into words, like, yes, this is
Speaker 5: how we live our life in a mix of fear
Speaker 5: and you know, joy, And so many white people were
Speaker 5: like I never thought of this, which I always make
Speaker 5: fun of white people because the fact that they live
Speaker 5: in the same world world but know nothing about all
Speaker 5: the world works or how anybody else's life works other.
Speaker 6: Than their own.
Speaker 5: And so I thought to myself, I got to write
Speaker 5: a book, like I have to this note, Like there's
Speaker 5: lots of running books.
Speaker 6: Out there, there's probably less.
Speaker 5: Than a dozen written by black people, and there's no
Speaker 5: book that tells this complex story. I wanted people to
Speaker 5: know that I love running. It's everything to me. It
Speaker 5: gave me my partner. My son's name is Quori means
Speaker 5: to run Asian Creole, right, So running is everything to me.
Speaker 5: But it also is something that is anything that comes
Speaker 5: out of this world comes out built with white supremacy
Speaker 5: in it, with misogyny, with you know, transphobia, like all
Speaker 5: of our cultural structures and ways of being are part
Speaker 5: of that. And so I wanted to expose that and
Speaker 5: challenge the running community to think about it, challenge the
Speaker 5: running industry, which is ninety plus percent white people, to
Speaker 5: think about like, how is it How is that a
Speaker 5: coincidence that white people just live in the best neighborhoods,
Speaker 5: have the best jobs, get access to the best education.
Speaker 6: Do we really think that white people are entirely better?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 6: Like why aren't we challenging those ideas?
Speaker 1: So that was the inspiration.
Speaker 5: I'm also clearly somebody who speaks their minds. Excuse the
Speaker 5: hell out of my mom. But I was like, if
Speaker 5: not me, then who.
Speaker 6: So here we are, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 9: Well, thank your Freddy, Welcome, welcome, welcome everybody to Malite Books.
Speaker 7: I want to appreciate y'all coming out on this Saturday.
Speaker 7: I know that y'all to be and wealth.
Speaker 1: From jacking here and April Shower.
Speaker 9: You know, I always gotta do my too. Maunity commercials
Speaker 9: before you start every days. You know, if you're not
Speaker 9: following Releague books, and if you're not following April, pull
Speaker 9: out your phones and let's go.
Speaker 7: Let's go Instagram. You know it, social media, it's important.
Speaker 7: So you want to follow them.
Speaker 9: Elite books and you want to follow for god A Showers. Okay,
Speaker 9: now I know y'all taking photos.
Speaker 7: I know y'all taking me. So y'all got to tag
Speaker 7: his boat in the boat. Okay, can we do that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 7: So let me just can't tell you about my elite books.
Speaker 7: I know where.
Speaker 9: Obviously I can burn anything black owns right basing the community.
Speaker 9: Been doing this since nineteen ninety.
Speaker 7: I do it with a passion. I love what I do.
Speaker 9: In fact, you know, I like to say that with
Speaker 9: the total African American experience or pride, George, when we
Speaker 9: get voice to the forts, let's see you.
Speaker 7: So, books like these are very unique. Fortunately for acial.
Speaker 2: You know, she's.
Speaker 7: Branded her idea and she's the CEO. Oh, I believe we.
Speaker 9: Are UNI and we are our pro union county. So
Speaker 9: she created a brand and she gonna tell you more
Speaker 9: about that. Okay, I'm gonna tell you I believe books today.
Speaker 7: So We got two locations.
Speaker 9: Obviously you here as our marquee location right here in
Speaker 9: Westfield Coma Seemo aka Fox Heals Mall.
Speaker 7: But we also located in the ball with Hille Prince Yard.
Speaker 9: But that's where we started at over there in the
Speaker 9: Lemur far Babo Hills print Shaw area.
Speaker 7: Been serving the community since nineteen ninety. That's why I
Speaker 7: fee doing my community work.
Speaker 9: You know, we can complain about a lot of things,
Speaker 9: but that's a question you've always got to ask yourself,
Speaker 9: is what if you can you do to make a difference,
Speaker 9: You see what I'm saying. And so I like to
Speaker 9: use books as a way to change the conversation because
Speaker 9: reputations representation, you see.
Speaker 1: So we got two brands that here addation. If body
Speaker 1: is trying to do something to change the compensations, a
Speaker 1: thin unconsciousness of why who and what we are and
Speaker 1: why we are important? All right? The way we look,
Speaker 1: the way we.
Speaker 9: Did it matters because if they didn't, they wouldn't try
Speaker 9: to write rock history. Okay, So how we look, how
Speaker 9: we walk, I swag, the way we live our culture.
Speaker 7: It matters, all right.
Speaker 9: And so books is very important because children are one
Speaker 9: hundred percent of our future. So I love them when
Speaker 9: we have children officers coming through Milite books and representing
Speaker 9: not just a foot, but she's representing a movement.
Speaker 1: So give it up for ankle shots and I'm player.
Speaker 1: She won't say, you know what, see cool, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let see you do it. That's like I can
Speaker 1: represent a lae better than anybody. I'm gonna let April
Speaker 1: shouts representing her brand. We are I pro you and
Speaker 1: the Bruget fight. We are ready, We are ready.
Speaker 8: Thank you all for coming out, you guys here because
Speaker 8: you know about the brand after Unicorn. I created this
Speaker 8: brand to have normalize black beauty, to give our black
Speaker 8: and brown people a Unicorn that represents them so that
Speaker 8: they could love to say that they're in and embrace.
Speaker 6: The crowns on their heads.
Speaker 8: I wanted to create a lifestyle brand, but that's exactly
Speaker 8: what we've done, from the shirts to the backpack, the
Speaker 8: water bottles, toes to the Balazs books.
Speaker 1: Yeah yea.
Speaker 8: So listenership is the part of the experience, as Malik
Speaker 8: was saying after Nicorn, It's all about the experience, and
Speaker 8: we're building an experience you guys to actually.
Speaker 6: Live in of Pronia and visit of Pronia. This is
Speaker 6: the starting point.
Speaker 8: Next is the episodic TV series dex Is, the cinematic
Speaker 8: motion picture, the amusement.
Speaker 6: The hotels. All that will come after Crags brand in
Speaker 6: the world.
Speaker 8: Darty Black Women have a license, brand, character, and major retail.
Speaker 6: But I will not be the last because the whole
Speaker 6: objective is to find others and bring them on this.
Speaker 7: Journey with me.
Speaker 6: So thank you for coming and let's sign some books.
Speaker 1: Apulshaw Wills, thank you for joining me on Malice's Bookshelf podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you this simple question. How did
Speaker 1: you get started in getting all these deals in branding
Speaker 1: your empire? I should say Afro unicorns. Just tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit about this journey.
Speaker 8: This is what I didn't have a public I didn't
Speaker 8: have a big agent. I didn't have a publishing deal
Speaker 8: or anything. I literally just said, okay, but this is
Speaker 8: what I want, and I always get what I want
Speaker 8: and what I say I'm going to have, so I put.
Speaker 1: It out there.
Speaker 8: She connected me to give me a literary agent. I
Speaker 8: didn't know what a literary agent was, but she gave
Speaker 8: me this literary agent. But she told me at that
Speaker 8: time that they're gonna take. Maybe how long they to
Speaker 8: respond to me.
Speaker 7: I don't know.
Speaker 8: It was like three weeks, five weeks to respond to me, right,
Speaker 8: and I'm like, okay, send the email.
Speaker 6: I responded in two hours. I got that agent. I
Speaker 6: signed with Karen in December. I used to tell Karen.
Speaker 8: In January, I'm going to have a publishing deal this
Speaker 8: quarter April.
Speaker 4: Publishing is so slow.
Speaker 8: Just understand, especially if you're not trying to self publish.
Speaker 8: If you want to selflage, you can put it dog now.
Speaker 8: But getting the deal it's very hard. It's very difficult.
Speaker 8: It's gonna take a long time. I write down in
Speaker 8: my journal the three big things that I want to
Speaker 8: happen in my life every day. It's all about the
Speaker 8: ten things that I'm grateful for. So big thing was
Speaker 8: I won't have a publishing deal by the end of
Speaker 8: this quarter. I kept reminding Ca what I was writing
Speaker 8: down every day. Meanwhile, April was at March. At the
Speaker 8: end of March, I didn't have I didn't sign the
Speaker 8: deal yet, but they were there first week in April.
Speaker 8: Not only did I have the one publishing deal, I
Speaker 8: had three four publishing deals. I have random House. Andrew
Speaker 8: mcmill was part of Shivan Simon Schuster. I have Benden
Speaker 8: and then I have Rear Link YEP, and Simon Schuster
Speaker 8: came to the table and said, we want to do
Speaker 8: full color graphic novels.
Speaker 6: Well, she told you you couldn't what that lady told me,
Speaker 6: I couldn't have. They came out the gate and said.
Speaker 8: This is what we believe we wanted to do, and
Speaker 8: then people were like, you can't have two publishing houses,
Speaker 8: especially two kid publishing houses because of the rights.
Speaker 6: One came in and said I wanted to do.
Speaker 8: Young young readers and the other one said I want
Speaker 8: to do middle grade.
Speaker 6: So we was working.
Speaker 8: And so when I found out that random house who
Speaker 8: wanted me they owned a Little Golden Book. I says,
Speaker 8: what about the little Golden Book? I want a little
Speaker 8: Golden Book. It said, okay, done doing it.
Speaker 6: So I always tell.
Speaker 8: People your job is to have the vision of what
Speaker 8: you want the end results to be, and it's not
Speaker 8: to worry about the how Like you put it out
Speaker 8: there in the universe and you say this is what
Speaker 8: I want, and then the universe will trend, will will
Speaker 8: conspire for your good, and it will bring all those
Speaker 8: pieces together, true story I have.
Speaker 6: We're working on a big thing right now. And we
Speaker 6: had a call the other week and we were running
Speaker 6: through the whole script.
Speaker 8: I was running through the cast everybody and Leonka at
Speaker 8: the end of my call, she wanted to be a
Speaker 8: Debbie Downer.
Speaker 6: And she said, well, are they Have you contacted the
Speaker 6: girls to see if they're available?
Speaker 1: Yes, I.
Speaker 6: I said, we need to make sure these girls are available.
Speaker 8: Because I have.
Speaker 6: I have written the whole script for them, for specific
Speaker 6: for specific girls that are.
Speaker 8: If I'm not worried about the if I say, when
Speaker 8: it was supposed to have happened, it's not my job.
Speaker 8: Now it might be her job to worry about the how,
Speaker 8: but it's not my job to worry about the how.
Speaker 8: I put it out there what I want to happen.
Speaker 8: And then everybody got to move to make your happen.
Speaker 6: Yes, and that's it. Dam When she said that if
Speaker 6: the messages out.
Speaker 1: Like think it to speak it and then work towards
Speaker 1: you work towards.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and see yourself already there. You've got to see yourself.
Speaker 1: See yourself at the finish line. Ye, see the final product.
Speaker 8: Yes, she sees the final product, and if she tells
Speaker 8: me I'm struggling with this because I can't see the end.
Speaker 6: Then I said, okay, well let's take a step back
Speaker 6: from it.
Speaker 8: I trust her intuition, I trust her instinct, but she
Speaker 8: also trusts mine, so I'll be like, I'm not sure
Speaker 8: if and she's like I was singing the same thing, Okay,
Speaker 8: let's do or I'm like we should really do and
Speaker 8: she's like I was just so I'm like, people, I'm
Speaker 8: confirmation to her. The team is confirmation to her. Or
Speaker 8: it's like she's like, I don't know, and we all
Speaker 8: trust her.
Speaker 4: Intuition because she she got exist for the house that we.
Speaker 6: Live in the area that I live in, was it manifested?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's her story too.
Speaker 6: That's a whole story that I live in rolland Hills.
Speaker 6: We was looking at Rolling Hills houses before we had
Speaker 6: the Walmart.
Speaker 8: Deal, before we knew he was going to retail here,
Speaker 8: before any of it. But I said, this is where
Speaker 8: we're gonna live, and this kid over here, he.
Speaker 6: Like taps into what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: And I hadn't spoken in a while, like I hadn't
Speaker 8: talked about Rolling Hills, and then he was just bombie steadily.
Speaker 6: He was just like one day he was just like
Speaker 6: I was looking at houses too.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: He was like, you said we was moving to Rolling
Speaker 8: Hills and we're still here in downtown Long Beach.
Speaker 6: What's happening? And I'm like, I remember.
Speaker 8: I got so frustrated with him because he was I
Speaker 8: was headed out, like I was going to my first meeting,
Speaker 8: I think in Vinerville or something, and he was hitting
Speaker 8: me up and hitting me up about houses, and I
Speaker 8: was like.
Speaker 6: You know where he sent me.
Speaker 1: I was like, you forget.
Speaker 6: I'm just gonna apply for it right now.
Speaker 1: And I did it while I was in.
Speaker 6: The airport before I came home. They were like, it's yours.
Speaker 10: Right.
Speaker 1: It was just before the Walmart deal, he said.
Speaker 6: So, I think we had just entered. It wasn't in
Speaker 6: stores yet. We weren't even in stores. And I asked
Speaker 6: the lady that gave me the house.
Speaker 4: I asked her like she was telling me.
Speaker 8: About all all the neighbors. It's like this guy is
Speaker 8: a doctor, and this guy is this and that. And
Speaker 8: I said, okay, well me I on a brand.
Speaker 4: She's like, oh go, we know all about you. We
Speaker 4: went to Google.
Speaker 1: We saw who you are.
Speaker 8: Like didn't ask me for nothing else, nothing, nothing, but
Speaker 8: it's like everything that I see, like visualizing. I kept
Speaker 8: this when I had a different picture on my phone
Speaker 8: it was me and him and my son at one house.
Speaker 8: But then I just kept this photo as my screen saver.
Speaker 8: So I looked at it every day and I'm like,
Speaker 8: this is the area, and he'll do it. He be like,
Speaker 8: you want to get out and take a picture. Like
Speaker 8: if I say I want something, he'd be like, you
Speaker 8: want to take a picture.
Speaker 6: And whatever you said you was go to.
Speaker 1: And I did, and I did fruit snacks.
Speaker 6: I got free snacks coming to Walbert manifesto fru snacks.
Speaker 1: I walked up and down the grocery and I saw
Speaker 1: that I.
Speaker 8: Didn't have There was no fruit snacks that looked like me.
Speaker 8: And I said, I'm on for snacks. Just like that.
Speaker 1: I got on the phone.
Speaker 8: I called Walmart and said, who's over fruit snacks? They
Speaker 8: told me he was over fruit snacks. I sent that
Speaker 8: person an email. That person wrote me back it was
Speaker 8: like it was March. It's like, we don't look at
Speaker 8: fruit snacks until the fall.
Speaker 4: I was like, okay, well you know remember me. The
Speaker 4: fall came.
Speaker 6: And I got a line review email. That is when
Speaker 6: they want to they give you.
Speaker 8: Opportunity to basically audition to show your products. I didn't
Speaker 8: even have a partner for fruit snacks, and my line
Speaker 8: review was in four weeks.
Speaker 6: I said, I wanted to do it, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: I don't make for snacks to the right person at
Speaker 1: the right time.
Speaker 6: And so we found a partner with the four weeks
Speaker 6: we had.
Speaker 8: I had a virtual meeting with Walmart four weeks later,
Speaker 8: and that man told me, I've never done this before
Speaker 8: ever in my career, but I feel so strongly about
Speaker 8: you and this brand.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna guarantee at least three thousand doors going in.
Speaker 6: And I know I'm not supposed to even do that
Speaker 6: on a call like this, but I'm gonna do it
Speaker 6: for you.
Speaker 2: And there we are.
Speaker 6: Well, Hey, amen, even Walt was nen tested by this kid.
Speaker 1: Is good. Because I was frustrated.
Speaker 8: I was frustrated with the deal that went bad with Amazon,
Speaker 8: and we had all these plush that were just delivered
Speaker 8: to the house and I'm like, I was gonna send
Speaker 8: them through Amazon, but that wasn't working.
Speaker 6: So I'm like, what to do with these plush? That
Speaker 6: was so frustrated, and Jesse came in. He was like, well,
Speaker 6: what about Walmart?
Speaker 8: And because of my ignorance of being fearful in that
Speaker 8: moment and not wanting my son to see that I
Speaker 8: didn't have it all together, I was like, Walmart, I'm
Speaker 8: not putting my stuff in Walmart.
Speaker 6: It's because I didn't even know, like how you just
Speaker 6: don't get to Walmart? How do you get to Walmart?
Speaker 6: So he was like, okay, but I think Walmart would
Speaker 6: be good. He went in his room.
Speaker 4: We shared the same email account, and they.
Speaker 6: Was like thirty minutes later he opened up his door.
Speaker 6: He looked at me.
Speaker 4: He was like, you see that.
Speaker 8: We got an email that said Walmart X for Unicorn
Speaker 8: collaboration and the.
Speaker 4: Email said and the email said would you.
Speaker 6: Consor doing this collaboration party supply? Wow, And that's how
Speaker 6: the whole thing kicked off.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's what you've been on. An amazing journey
Speaker 1: and a roller coaster. Yeah, you have to share that
Speaker 1: with the world. You I mean, you have a lot
Speaker 1: of content and everything that you're saying and you've developed
Speaker 1: and the tangible things along with it. But the story
Speaker 1: bout the backstory getting to that is incredible and it's inspirational,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna lift up, you know, the next generation
Speaker 1: because it's you know, the children are one hundred percent
Speaker 1: of our future. And you know with these children books
Speaker 1: and the brand that you had, that's who you folks
Speaker 1: and on and so that's gonna get that's gonna lift
Speaker 1: up the next generation of change because that's where the
Speaker 1: real change comes. Why you are young for sure, and
Speaker 1: so your story along with the tangible isews is gonna
Speaker 1: inspire for generations to come. I want to thank you
Speaker 1: for visiting Eleegue Books, hosting this wonderful book signing and
Speaker 1: dropping the gems that I could share with my audience
Speaker 1: on the Malik's bookshelf. Best of Love would be definitely
Speaker 1: one of your supporters that I definitely want't be encouraging
Speaker 1: my customers to support the Iyefro you on the corn
Speaker 1: movement and all that you do. During the Aprilshowers book signing,
Speaker 1: a customer walked with me while I was videotaping the
Speaker 1: event live on Instagram. She walked up to me and
Speaker 1: she thanked me and appreciated Malik Books for all the
Speaker 1: years of work in seminars and workshop and all that
Speaker 1: we've done over these decades, and I just was greatly appreciated.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to share that customer appreciation because that
Speaker 1: was natural, it was organic, and it just came from
Speaker 1: the heart.
Speaker 6: I love telling you thank you for what you do.
Speaker 6: I was working in La living out the.
Speaker 11: Eighties like you, and between Star's bookstore, these bookstores of
Speaker 11: music bring my foods like Randol there somewhere welse d.
Speaker 5: That's why grandams bring children and your own ms brods
Speaker 5: like adults to bookstore.
Speaker 1: So that's how wonderful you are. And you're going back
Speaker 1: to the eighties and nineties.
Speaker 4: You said, I'm telling you how patful you.
Speaker 6: Are, and we've been helping us just being and doings.
Speaker 1: Man, just come in remind me how just how long?
Speaker 4: But you see what I mean.
Speaker 5: It looks see now people what they just go everywhere
Speaker 5: think they see in this stuff everywhere.
Speaker 12: I'm talking about when I had to find you, Yes,
Speaker 12: you were there like the boss, like you can find
Speaker 12: these plans, say these I look Claude Anderson all.
Speaker 4: The kind of can only bind. That's That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: What I want.
Speaker 1: And now they've grown. Your kids came in to leeting.
Speaker 1: They was baby.
Speaker 2: Then they've grown the door they fold Friday was that
Speaker 2: young now they that's so that's something less.
Speaker 5: Since I just wanted Sometimes you don't know their inpact
Speaker 5: and what they were doing.
Speaker 4: Because you set up something a ground.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I like, you know one of the things that I
Speaker 2: say that when I talk to people and do interviews,
Speaker 2: you know, I refer to myself as a book active.
Speaker 2: Then I use books not bullets to change the trajectory
Speaker 2: of made avail to uplift and elevate.
Speaker 4: You made them available and made.
Speaker 1: Available, made a place with themself and when they wasn't popular,
Speaker 1: when nobody was buying the black books, but you were
Speaker 1: what we were learning. And yes, where do I go
Speaker 1: get that information? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Thank you?
Speaker 1: Wish your name my sister, Kathy, Kathy. Yeah, the kitchen.
Speaker 4: I'm all suddenly excepting Crenshaw.
Speaker 8: That's the other thing, because I'm seven serving, I have
Speaker 8: a healthy neighborhood market because I'm here.
Speaker 2: Right, I passed seventy seventh All the time I dropped
Speaker 2: by that when I'm going up Krisshaw because it's on
Speaker 2: the liquors on the corner.
Speaker 6: So Cappies is tough than the corner.
Speaker 1: In the corner, it's in a shop.
Speaker 12: Sid no what it is.
Speaker 1: Is this a school building?
Speaker 4: Seafood, maland liquor.
Speaker 13: When you're coming up, got these kitchens right here because
Speaker 13: they take up two thirds of the building.
Speaker 1: I'm one third in. Okay, you got your card, right,
Speaker 1: I have my card.
Speaker 13: Okay, you know, but it's just it's just to say
Speaker 13: if you want healthy juices this movie. I even understand
Speaker 13: and appreciate your business more because you know, when I
Speaker 13: was working, that was one thing when I starting up business.
Speaker 1: Okay, you're going the firsthand. Now you learn the first
Speaker 1: hand about you know, one thing open is nothing getting
Speaker 1: being to come into your business. That's marketing.
Speaker 4: Hills. I'm just telling you.
Speaker 5: I'm just like respectful, I'm just like on so many
Speaker 5: levels happened.
Speaker 1: To you know, And I appreciate that acknowledgement. I really do.
Speaker 1: I don't always you know, someone come in.
Speaker 2: Especially going way back way back when their children was
Speaker 2: four five years old. You know that that, you know,
Speaker 2: the timing couldn't be more perfect, And I appreciate you
Speaker 2: sharing that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna eat on that.
Speaker 2: It's fuel for something. You know, when you come in
Speaker 2: and tell me that that to me is few for
Speaker 2: my spirit, for my passion. So let me know that
Speaker 2: I'm where I'm supposed to be. I'm doing what I'm
Speaker 2: supposed to.
Speaker 1: Do, and I'm helping in a way that I feel
Speaker 1: the impact that I'm trying to do, Okay, especially Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know I started out with the conscious books, the
Speaker 1: hard to find books, and I still you know, that's
Speaker 1: why I love for the self published office because that's
Speaker 1: where it really started. We didn't have we ain't have all.
Speaker 1: They wasn't publishing these kind of books. They wasn't publishing
Speaker 1: these kind of books. But you know, it's because the
Speaker 1: value of the black dollar and that we need to
Speaker 1: recycle that money, recycle that dollar.
Speaker 4: We're learning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we learn it. We learn it into steps and
Speaker 1: you know it might be baby steps, might take a while,
Speaker 1: but we're trying to get to that generation. Yeah, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, Katherine. Appreciate that I have to
Speaker 1: drop out your place.
Speaker 13: I don't believe to do the market and I'm trying
Speaker 13: to push the nutrition kind of likely how you put bulls.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because our lifestyle is killing us. That's our
Speaker 1: lifestyle is killing us.
Speaker 2: That's you know, those are the choices of killings, you know,
Speaker 2: with don because of our own hand doing things to
Speaker 2: ourselves and violating our temple and therefore killing. I said,
Speaker 2: before we have to die, Like I told this guy
Speaker 2: that came in. You know, I said, you telling me,
Speaker 2: I said, he said, God in control. I said, but
Speaker 2: he also gave you a part of the control. Yes,
Speaker 2: your choices also dictate how long you live. So I said,
Speaker 2: if you wasn't spoken, let's say, you know, you die
Speaker 2: from overdose. Put that person and still being if they
Speaker 2: didn't wasn't wasn't doing those kind of drugs that doctor,
Speaker 2: I said. I'm like, come on, I said, if they
Speaker 2: wasn't doing those drugs, they would be still here with me.
Speaker 10: So you know, we can do, you know, a quick suicide,
Speaker 10: or we can do a slow suicide. But either way,
Speaker 10: you're gonna suffer the constant when you put poison in
Speaker 10: your body, your body eventually is gonna it's going to
Speaker 10: affect that body, and your tilt is going to start
Speaker 10: to change much more rapidly, and your mobility and your longevity.
Speaker 3: It's because of the lifestyle choices. We gotta choose better
Speaker 3: choices to absolutely fame. Health is wealth and wealth is health.
Speaker 1: Thank you all right, thank you, thank you, Kathy, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. Thanks for listening to Malik's Bookshelf, where topics
Speaker 1: on the shelf are books, culture, and community. Be sure
Speaker 1: to subscribe and leave me a review. Check out my
Speaker 1: Instagram at Malak Books. See you next time.