{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/x639z91712/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Y? (Yogi Guyadin) Oral History"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eY? talks about coming of age as an artist in Jamaica in the 80s/90s and growing up in an Guyanese immigrant household. He discusses finding himself through his creative voice and the role of mentors in his life. He speaks of learning about and taking pride in the rich musical history of Queens, becoming a teaching artist, and art as a form of resistance to gentrification.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCopyright 2020 Y?, Linda Ganjian, CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0. Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["http://digitalarchives.queenslibrary.org/search/browse/42144"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2020-12-02 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Audio"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Y? (Yogi Guyadin) (Interviewee)","Linda Ganjian (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Source"]},"value":{"en":["Interview recorded as part of Linda Ganjian's Jamaica Flux project for Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning."]}},{"label":{"en":["Coverage"]},"value":{"en":["1980s-2020 (temporal)","Jamaica, Queens, NY (spatial)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eY? talks about coming of age as an artist in Jamaica in the 80s/90s and growing up in an Guyanese immigrant household. He discusses finding himself through his creative voice and the role of mentors in his life. He speaks of learning about and taking pride in the rich musical history of Queens, becoming a teaching artist, and art as a form of resistance to gentrification.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCopyright 2020 Y?, Linda Ganjian, CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0. Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/118/877/small/y_aviary.png?1625048279","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - Y-12-02-2020_radio_edit.mp3"]},"duration":3732.864,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/118/877/small/y_aviary.png?1625048279","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-queenslibrary.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/118/877/original/Y-12-02-2020_radio_edit.mp3?1625048152","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":3732.864,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Full Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Can you say your name and spell it?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=0.0,2.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Yes. My full matrix name is Yogi, Y O G I. Last name on government issued IDs is G U Y A D I N. My name that I've given myself is Y?, capital Y lowercase question mark.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2.0,19.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Okay. How old are you?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=19.0,20.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: My government ID says November 17th, 1982. I do not believe that at all. I've had several—I feel way older than that. And then, I've had several incarnations prior that my energy remembers, but yes, according to the government issued ID is 11/17/1982.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=20.0,38.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Okay. So tell me when and where were you born?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=38.0,43.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Yes, in this form, I was born in Queens General Hospital, which is 164th street off of the Grand Central Parkway, I believe over there. And then, I lived in the Jamaica area around 132nd street near Jamaica Avenue. I think that was the first location I was at. And then we moved a couple blocks to 138th street when I was very young, right near Jamaica Avenue.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=43.0,71.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: And so your family was already living in the neighborhood. Do you know what brought your family to the neighborhood originally?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=71.0,81.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: My family is originally from Guyana and they came in the late seventies to Brooklyn, Flatbush, Brooklyn, specifically Caton Ave., around that area. And slowly as more of my family members trickled in immigration style, we moved to Queens and then, from there my grandmother had that one place originally and everybody kind of launched out of my grandmother's home.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=81.0,105.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: So was there a Guyanese community here, when they moved here?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=105.0,112.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: It was kind of interesting because it was, I would say a very mixed immigrant community at that time, you know, in the early eighties. It was just like a mix. We had like a bunch of Jamaicans, Trinidadians, African-Americans, Puerto Ricans, El Salvadorians. I always remember it being like that. And also I remember when I would walk around to the elementary school, people would say your friends look like the United Nations. I just remember hearing that line all over because it was everybody. So it wasn't predominately Guyanese. Predominately Guyanes was a little bit over in the next neighborhood. [inaudible]. That area was okay. Where I was at, on this side of town in Jamaica, I felt really that amalgamation of a bunch of different immigrant cultures. And of course, the native New Yorkers that were here and African-American community.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=112.0,165.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: So your parents were immigrants. When did your parents immigrate?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=165.0,169.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: My pops came, I think, believe in '79 or '78. He came and then that was in Brooklyn and then he went through some stuff and went back and then he married my mom in Guyana and then came back, I think in 79 or 80 flat. So he did like a year or so over here. Things didn't go so well for him. He went back and it's kind of like—my parents' generation are like a lot of people's grandparents generation. So they're almost kind of like a, I don't want to say an arranged marriage, but they didn't know each other very well. It's very customary. It's like a lot of people's grandparents. That's how I've come to understand my parents' relationship with studying how they—\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=169.0,209.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: So it was a kind of traditional culture.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=209.0,212.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: It was more like my pops came over here. I remember asking my grandmother about this. It was like, he came over here and he's the eldest of eight. He's one of eight. My mom is also one of eight, so they have large families and it was almost like, yeah, they had this kind of discussion. And when he was in America, I think it was certain values or cultural things that were missing. So he kinda went back and then they were like, Hey, go back home, get married. And then like, come and start a life back here. He tried, I think, that's my perspective on it. Of course, you know.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=212.0,247.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Like I think, yeah, bringing the culture from the old country [crosstalk].\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=247.0,250.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Yeah. He was here and then, yeah. And then also I think this weather hit them hard. They were in a place that didn't have winter and they were used to space. So they were crammed in this, I think, one bedroom in Flatbush. So they were like, what is this? But what was great is in that part of Flatbush, once again, it was heavily West Indies. So there was that massive immigrant culture that came around the seventies, you know, and of that. So I think they felt that they could make it here, but there were certain things. And I think when it came to like marriage and culture that they went, he went back home for. And I think my grandmother kind of orchestrated a lot of it.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=250.0,288.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Matchmaking.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=288.0,288.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=288.0,291.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: And what did your parents do for work?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=291.0,295.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: When I was born, both of my parents were unemployed for a while, which was very weird. I'm looking at everything hindsight, but we had a large family. So my mom is one of eight and my dad is one of eight. So when I was born and I'm the middle, so I have a brother that's less than a year older than me. So I was kind of like popped in where, they were already dealing with heavy financial situations that were rough. But as things stabled out and my sister, who's about five years younger than me, she came about. That's the year my dad started working for the MTA. And he still works for the MTA till this day.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=295.0,334.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Is he a driver?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=334.0,335.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: So he started out first I think going as an electrician where he was doing track work and he became a maintainer and then eventually he got transferred to a depot in East New York where he still works to this day where he does electrical maintenance for the building itself. So he started out kind of doing more track work in the tracks, in the train stations, and then evolved into kind of like more of a electrical manager thing in the physical MTA building in East New York, the transit depot there. Which he still works at to this day. He's one of those hardcore blue collar. My mom, to give her love, after my sister was born, she worked in a homeless shelter in Rockaway, not too far from here. Homes for the Homeless. So she was always in family assistant and nonprofit work. She was a preschool educator. And then she moved on to becoming a family assistant when her smaller organization, which is called Homes for the Homeless got bought over by a larger nonprofit called The Educational Alliance. And then she was transferred into lower Manhattan from doing the work in Queens. And then she became a family assistant where she continued to work that job fully until she retired a couple of years ago.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=335.0,415.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: So you were born in 1982 in this neighborhood. And so like what do you remember? What were some of the highlights of your childhood?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=415.0,425.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Well, my mom worked in Jamaica Ave. when I was early, earlier born. So she worked in the Coliseum, which is a legendary block right there, 165, the red bricks, always I remember. And after school, I used to just go right there and wait for her. And I remember at the time I would listen to cassettes a lot. Music, you know, I had a Walkman and then I was like, wow. My family, they grew up with this mostly West Indies music, like soca, reggae, and those kinds of music. And then the hip hop was emerging at the time. So I used to get all these cassettes because, kind of like being after school, my mom used to just give me cassettes. And then I used to just listen to the cassettes. And there used to be the street vendors on 165th that made the mixed tapes that were tapes. And I remember just getting one every week and then listening to one a week. And then I got into copying cassettes and then I would listen to radio and record things off of radio.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=425.0,489.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Did you make mixes?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=489.0,490.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Yeah, I made mixes. And then when CDs came out, when I kinda got a little older, I started continuing that tradition through CDs and mixing and matching songs that were there.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=490.0,502.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: And then, but you know, Jamaica is legendary for the food too. A lot of West Indies food out here. A lot of like, you know, Margharita's pizza, all those things. I'm on a plant based vegan lifestyle for 20 years now. But I always remember the pizza. I always remember the beef patties with the coco bread. I remember those.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=502.0,523.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Was there a special place that you would go for the patties?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=523.0,527.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Yeah, it's still there on 165, the Coliseum block. It's Jamaican Flavors now. I don't know if it was called that back then, but you used to go there and I think it was for a dollar, or two bucks for a dollar extra, you'd get the coco bread with the beef patty. Now I do the veggie patties, but it's still there and I still get them when I'm around.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=527.0,547.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: They have veggie patties?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=547.0,549.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: They got them there. So they do the callaloo, which is like a spinach and then they have the veggie. But I still remember it. Yeah. So when I was younger, it was the beef patties and the chicken patties. I always liked the spicy ones. And then now it's the veggie patties. It's still there.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=549.0,564.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: That's awesome. I have to check that out.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=564.0,566.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Yeah, it's right there. It's a great thing. It's a little tiny—near the head of the block. If you're walking down, it's on your left side. You'll see it says Jamaican Flavor. It's a literal hut that's a small window on 165th and Jamaica Ave.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=566.0,581.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Where did you go to elementary school?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=581.0,585.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: I went kind of on the borderline between Jamaica and Richmond Hill at PS 54 Queens. That was it. And then, other than that, I spent a lot of time at the Jamaica library after school. So that's where I learned to read, in the library. And then I remember just really going to a lot of reading things and whenever they would have book stuff or storytelling things, I was really into that. So I loved story. As much as school was there, I never really—I was good at school because I loved to read and write and my pops, kind of on the West Indies discipline, instilled academic excellence in me. And, once again, before school, I was really into the library. So that's what I felt was my real school. That library right there on 165th across the street from the bus depot, because as early as I could remember, I would spend all that time there. And then that was kind of how I think my family was getting me ready for school. But then when school came, I was already good at reading and I didn't like how school did it. I liked the freedom of getting my own book, listening to the stories I wanted to, but then I felt like it was too controlled. So like school became a very rough time for me, but I did good in elementary and made it to middle school was 217 in Jamaica, middle school JHS 217. And then high school, I ended up in Thomas Edison, not too far from here. So all my schools are there. But then by the time I hit high school, I was in kind of like rebel mode because schools don't really function with the way I learn well.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=585.0,679.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: So you felt like the schools weren't encouraging your creativity?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=679.0,685.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Yeah. And now I know I'm meant to be an artist and I wasn't exposed, so I was struggling to find exposure to the arts. And then, when I found my way to it through writing first. When I was in elementary, some teachers saw that I was really good at writing and they were like, \"Hey, you should do this storytelling thing or that.\" And then I wrote some essays and then I would get awards and I would win. And then they'd be like, why do you write so good, but you don't like school? I was like, I like this, but I don't like that part of it. And I said, I'm just not interested. And then, thankfully for some of my good elementary school teachers and like that lady who I said about the Jamaica Arts Center, there was key figures in my life that were like, you're going to be okay. And the fact that your brain doesn't work in this structure that way, you're going to be all right. And my parents didn't really know how to get me into art, but they kind of left me alone. They were a little bit like, all right, just figure it out. And they didn't put that much pressure on me when I got a little older. They let me explore. So, I think that was one thing that really, really helped me a lot. So just exploring that and kind of finding my own way. At first, I was like, Hey—you know, I remember I told my pops when he wanted me to go to Edison for auto mechanics, you know, more traditional trade. I wanted to go to LaGuardia. I wanted to go for arts. And he was like, yo, you barely get up on time to go to this school that's right here. And he was like, what? And I said, Pops, it's cause I don't want to go there. I will wake up two hours earlier to go to LaGuardia. But you know, at that time I didn't really have much of a choice and it was more like—they didn't do the college thing, my folks. They were kind of like banking on us, me and my brother. Hey, the immigrant thing. Hey, we did this. We sacrificed. So you need to go and—\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=685.0,797.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Yeah, you need a stable profession.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=797.0,798.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: You need to go this. But like I told them. I was like, pops it's not going to work. And I remember my mom trying to be like, Hey, you know what? And I was like, Mom, I've been toughing it out my whole school life. I knew I needed to— Yeah, and then, that's when I kind of got into like a little bit more trouble around high school. Cause I knew I didn't fit in that mold. I was trying to break it. And then of course, thanks to a great friend, he took me to Nuyorican poets cafe. And then he showed me that scene that was downtown and that changed my life. And I found out about African Poetry Theater, I should say. I think they might be closed now.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=798.0,834.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Tell me about that place. Is it still open?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=834.0,836.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: I don't know. They were going through some rough times. I know sometimes they've closed their doors and I hear they randomly get back. I would check now. I hope that that place still—I discovered a lot of the scene through going to lower Manhattan. And then I later on discovered the Nuyorican poet scene. You know, at that time it was John Leguizamo. But then before that you had Miguel Pinero. You have these amazing writers.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=836.0,860.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: And from Jamaica, I started to slowly figure out the jazz scene, because a couple of my later-on music mentors who came out of primarily the black church, they hipped me on to Jamaica's jazz history. So I started traveling back. If you look at Laurelton, you'll see the legendary jazz music things, on Sutphin. [crosstalk] St. Albans, you've seen it. And also right in Sutphin where I'm from on Jamaica, they redid all the signs to put jazz musicians. You know, they're now re instilling that history. And of course with hip hop, we got Tribe Called Quest. We had Run DMC. We had everything from early hip hop to Mic Geronimo to those, which now I understand in my era was coming off the backs of jazz. So, you know, all those Tribe Called Quest samples that they use come from legendary jazz records. And then as I got older, I kept going further and further back to study.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=860.0,917.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: And then I got into Chaplin. And when I found Chaplin, he blew my mind. So, Charlie Chaplin really changed my [inaudible]. And then same thing when I found out Charlie Parker, Miles were coming out of the New York bebop scene. Cause I liked early hip hop. I felt that I missed the early hip hop in the seventies because I was born in the eighties. Then I was like, Oh, that was really cool. And then I was like, Oh, but wait a minute, 50 years, that was fire. Then when I read Miles Davis, I was like, the forties were lit and I just kept—and these are very New York things. And I started connecting to the sound of New York. And then being from Jamaica—you know Queens is the more laid back borough, so I found that in my style, in my approach. Because you know, I was nomadic when I became an artist. I used to always have to go out to downtown and go out to that as the Queens head.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=917.0,966.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: I was going to say were there any clubs in Jamaica nearby where you went to hear music or you said spoken word?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=966.0,976.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: It was a little bit because I wasn't old enough in the eighties to hit the real dope clubs that I found out about later on cause cats that were like, you know, of age in those eras when I was real little that's when I missed out on those. But when I became of age, by like the year 2000 or late nineties, you know, when I could just move around by myself, the Jamaica scene was very sparse and the only Haven was the African Poetry Theater where I would actually catch it. But I found myself being more nomadic jumping on the trains heading out. But I just knew that there was so much talent that came out of here. And I was like, once again, I felt like I missed the boat because when I would look at when Run DMC and Tribe were in their teens and early twenties and that, Jamaica was very, very, more thriving artistically with jams and that. But once again, I was in that era. We had the crack era here and it changed everything.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=976.0,1034.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: And when that happened in the late eighties, went into the nineties, when that violence came in, I feel like a lot of that extra art culture, I missed it. But I always felt like to bring it back. And when I got to do it in Jamaica, I started throwing house parties. And, I knew enough talent here, so I just started becoming part of the scene.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1034.0,1055.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Where did you throw house parties?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1055.0,1057.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: We would find either basements or you know, how a lot of these apartment buildings are set up. We were very innovative. And me, once again, being studious about—I fell in love with what was like early seventies, New York culture, that birthed hip hop before hip hop was called hip hop. And it was park jam plug the lights from the lamppost energy that I got fascinated with. So I would know that my friend knew that his building had a basement and there was electricity, and we would just go and take it over and we would cut school and we would make parties there. And then, my friends who were— at first it was with turntables and music, we would just go and do that. And then it was like freestyling. We used to freestyle and then cipher.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1057.0,1101.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Did you DJ?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1101.0,1102.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: I was more into the word. So I had a DJ friend, but the DJ fascinated me. And the deejaying led me to falling in love with music, because they would have these vinyl records that were singles, you know, that had the acapella, the instrumental and the song and the clean [inaudible]. So then the DJs that I met, they would get the record with the instrumental and what they would do, which was one of my first recording experiences at the time CDs were there, but they were bringing me back to that energy. So the DJs I met would play the records and they would put a cassette. And at the time this was outdated technology, but it was what we had. We would leave the equipment there and then we would play it, plug in a microphone. Yeah. So that was it. That was my first. And then I got fascinated with the technology of it. I was like, how do they do that? And that was more on the mic, but then I started following the mic cord into the equipment. And then I wanted to learn how the music and that worked.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1102.0,1165.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Were you doing spoken word at these events, at these parties, like you said, those were your first personal experiences. So were you writing?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1165.0,1174.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: It first comes from writing. And you know, I will give credit to my pops for that, with short stories and then poems in school. But then when I started artistically expressing myself, it was through rhyming, free-styling. Cause what I would do is I would write all these things and because I was a thematic writer. So I'll give you an example. You know what I mean? I've written so many things about leaves. So I could just say, [rhythmically speaking] \"Leaves on the ground with the sound, with a pound. I could hear it all in Kings Park, in the dark with a shark. It's like a night fight, the light fight. I hold it down. It's like a little bit of jazz in the middle. I'm going to hit it. But I live in bottom. I get to the budget till I make it a moves. And I'm singing the blues chicken wings eaten by the squirrel over there with a bum was over there, combing his hair. Lost thoughts on a place that I walk is a dead visit. So I listen, I bring it all down with the sound of song music, let it all go it's therapeutic.\" So I just learned how to do that through,—but if you hear the rhythms, it's jazz. I just listened. I was so acute in listening and mimicking because I didn't know. But now when someone, my jazz mentor, he was like, dude, you need to play. And I was like, I do words, I'm a word guy. And he was like, no. He heard the way I flow like that. And he just insisted. He was a 50 year old dude from Trinidad, and he was like, dude, you're a musician. And then he used it—he literally told me. I used to work at Sam Ash for a second on Queens Boulevard.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1174.0,1257.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: And I was in the recording department, you know after I dropped out of school and just had a regular job at the store and I was saving up for recording equipment. But in the department I would go and dabble, you know, it's a whole it's everything. So he would come in and he would just shed like crazy on his lunch break. He was an amazing construction worker. And then, he gave me assignment, this is how I got into music. So writing poetry, freestyling, then this moment happens. This dude comes in, I'm just watching him kill it. I was like, wow, this sounds like the chords that I like from the hip hop music, but it's so deeper. And I remember just staring at him and I would turn away. And his name is Ray Romaine [phonetic], Professor Keyboard, shout out to him.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1257.0,1294.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: He actually produced some of early LL stuff. He played keyboards. LL Cool J. So he comes in and he goes, Yo, play something. I'm like, Oh my God, I don't know how to play. I was sampling. I was sampling. And then he was like—so I played him some stuff in the store. And he was like, okay, okay. It was like a loop, like a two bar beh, beh. And then it would loop and I'm like, Hey, this is what I do. And he was like, Oh, that's great. Well, you can go to this. You can go to this. He could take what I did. And he figured it out by ear and he would just be like, Oh, that's B flat. And oh—he would just—he was a computer. And when I saw that, my jaw dropped and I was like, dude, how do you do that? And he showed me what I know now. He said, can you do do re mi [sings do re me scale]. And he told me to find do. And then he's like, okay. And now I know in music, it's a major scale. He just, he didn't tell me none of that. He's a master. He said just do do re mi and I said okay. Boom. He pressed a note. Bing. He's like find this note. Bing. Okay. And then he said, okay, I want you to start at every note, which is 12 notes, which is an octave I know now—I didn't know nothing back then. He said, if you can start at any note and do do re mi. He's like just do that. That's all he told me. He disappeared like a mythical creature. And then he was like, I'm gonna come back one day. And he says, I'm going to see if I can go to any note and you can do do re mi. And I was like, all right, dude. Cool. And sure enough, every day I just felt so connected to what he said. And he didn't tell me C, B flat. He didn't tell me none of that because music was always intimidating for me. Cause I didn't know.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1294.0,1393.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: He did it by sound.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1393.0,1393.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: He did it by sound and feeling. And he told me trust that you know how to find do re mi, which was so dope. And he came back. It might've been like a month later and he goes, all right. And he sat at the keyboard. He goes, he played a note. Bing. And he would call out this is B flat, F sharp. And he's like, just do do re mi. And then I passed his test. He threw the chair on the floor and literally he said, come to my house, I'm going to teach you. And I said, shit, bro. And then I was nervous. This time, I'm already in my twenties now. And I was like, well dude, I'm doing this rhyming thing, I can write. But I was just fascinated by those chords. How do you make those chords from do re mi? And then, he just started showing me how one note, like what's a scale. And then he showed me like how to build a chord from notes. And it was all about relationships. So now I know it's intervallic, really it's some nerd shit, but he showed me it by making me feel it. And then afterward, he was like, all right, now you can figure out this. But he waited till I figured it out.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1393.0,1457.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: And then he told me the note sequence and the B flat and F sharp minor and diminished and all that. But he was like, that stuff is not important. What's important. He said, never forget. And ironically, it's the same exact lesson. That woman, I forgot her name in the Jamaica Arts Center gave to me, it was déja vu twice. It was like God came to me through these mentors, a femtor and a mentor, and it was the same message. And he goes, yo, it's your approach that's crazy. Cause he was like, bro, there's other people could do it. But he's like, your approach is so unique. He was like, you're going to do something with this. And he just said, he said the only rule for you. Cause I was like, teach me, teach me. Yeah, he would just be so hands-off with me. He says, if I show you things, it's going to interfere with you. He goes, what you need to do is trust your approach. And it was so hands-off and I used to get mad at him. Like, dude, show me the chord. Like, nah. He was like, no dude, it's going to mess you up. And I was angry at this.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1457.0,1516.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: I mean, they always say with musical training, it's good to learn the foundations and then you rebel against it.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1516.0,1524.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: You know as a visual artist, love, techniques serve story. That has been the punchline of my life. If it is not serving story, it's almost like artistic masturbation.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1524.0,1532.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: As a student, they're always like—\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1532.0,1538.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: There's fundamentals. You do the fundamentals and he said it, he was like, master—what I know is now the diatonic chords of the major. And he was like, then when you start each from a different place. But he was very Mr. Miyagi with me. You go to this and feel it. And then when I went on to study a little bit more, in advanced I got too heady for awhile and then I had to come back to what he was. Then I remember I was like, man, professor—professor KB is what I called him— he was like, dude—I always go back to him, even to this day. He's on Merrick Boulevard. So he's a legendary guy.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1538.0,1571.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Is he still alive?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1571.0,1572.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: He's still around, man. And he's got a regular gig, but he always told me that, yo, that was my job. He said, you had the gasoline, I just threw a match on you. He said, I just saw where you're at. And he's kind of what led me to the deeper, you know, as someone who grew up in that hip hop era, he connected me to jazz. And then when I got into that, that led me to everything from like, you know, Brazilian music to bosa, to [inaudible]. I kept going backwards and backwards, you know? And then now I keep looking at—I feel like I grow like this, I look at the now and the future, and then I go deeper and deeper back. So I feel like it's a dynamic range as I've learned music. Yeah. So that's been—\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1572.0,1614.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: It's amazing that with so many musical traditions here in Jamaica, that seems like it really shaped you.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1614.0,1622.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: I used to not understand how Jamaica I was till hindsight. I went to Brazil. I mean, not Brazil, Berlin. I lived there in 2018 and I remember Illmatic, Nas's album, 1994, right, this album came out. My cousin who's older than me. Now on this cover—now I'm a little kid at this time. [speaking to another person]. Oh, thank you brother. Appreciate it. Thank you. What happened is my cousin sat me down when this record came on. He was like, stop. He grabbed my Walkman. He's like put in this cassette, this is Queen's music. I was like, okay, okay, all right, all right. And you know, before, remember this is when Run DMC, LL has passed. I missed that generation. I was too young for that. He was like, this is us. So I was like, okay, okay. Put it in the rack. And he told me, shut up and don't say a word till you listen to this nonstop. And he just gave me the cassette and the cover. Now on that cover, if anyone knows Illmatic, NAS is a child on this cover. So me being like, I don't know, I think I must have been like around 11 or 12 or so. I looked at that. I thought that it was a kid rhyming like that. So, cause he didn't allow me to speak. He literally just watched me. This is some deep shit. He watched me listen to this and made sure I didn't do nothing and say a word. And I think the record is like 50 minutes or something. So I'm staring at the cover and he's like—it was like a direct order. And I'm like, and then finally he said, what do you think? I was like, it's a kid that does this? And he was like, no, it's a kid picture. But I just remembered thinking. He shouted out Jamaica, Queens Guyer [phonetic] Brewer. The beef patties are mentioned, like all these things that were us were there. And of course Nas's dad, later on I found out is a jazz musician. He's from the other side of Queens, Queensbridge. But they were there and you know, but then Jamaica had the legend in the musicianship? I felt like when it came to music and particularly hip hop and jazz, it was this side of Queens. It had it. And that's when I started feeling my Queens pride.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1622.0,1760.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: And later on, when I went in Berlin. Check this story out. You know, I'm veggie now. So I'm in this vegan cafe in Berlin and not that same album plays. And they played the album from beginning to end, which they don't do. And I sat there and I listened and I cried. Cause I was like, look at this music 30 years or whatever later almost, I was so blown away. And the dude who didn't speak a lick of English was mouthing the album word for word from the stuff that came from Queens. And I was like, yeah, it was full circle. And I fell in love with, and that always reminded me, yo, Jamaica is a special place, man. You are from somewhere. Cause you only know what you know when you grow up, but as I started traveling and going around, I started realizing how my appreciation for here grew so much.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1760.0,1817.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: What do you think makes Jamaica special? Like besides the mix of cultures.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1817.0,1823.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Oh man. It's this hood elegance that I like. It's like if you look at a vesica piscis, there are two circles and boom, Jamaica has this circle. I'm holding up a circle for this is audio and there's this circle, right. There was always this stereotype about Jamaica. You know, I remember, you know, cause you'll hear 50 cent or people that come out of here and they'll explain it's yin yang energy. This dark side about it. You know, I have unfortunately family members that were murdered and, you know, things that were very traumatic happened to me. You know, I dealt with weapons, I'm an attempted murder survivor. And I laugh at these things cause I was like, this is just a part of being Jamaica. But then there's this other side that I call the lotus technique, where only through the deepest mud can the lotus grow.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1823.0,1877.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: So Jamaica to me is if this is music, it's like a harmony, which is like a fifth or a fourth, which is like the sweetest harmony. It's a fifth, fourth, and octave and Jamaica has all these tense tones, which are like a tri tone or a minor second or these intervallic things. Jamaica is like a chromatic scale, which is when you go all notes in order skipping none in between. And as Jamaica becomes now a hub and now they're gentrifying shit and shit is getting crazy. It's so beauty and it's so dark and it's that balance of dark and light that I think is Jamaica. And it's grey. One of my favorite colors I wear a lot is grey. And I think it's because, I feel Jamaica is such a good representation of the balance, that divine of the irony of life, you know? And I feel like it's so rich. And also because of the diversity of people, once again, it's so diverse, but no one on this side, dominates. We weren't dominantly this or this or that. It was like, all right, there's a good amount of black, good amount of Puerto Rican, good amount of Guyanese, good amount of Bengali, good amount of this, but no one dominates. So everyone brings it and it's this beautiful melting pot you'll see at like the Jamaica food court. And you'll see it cause—everyone from Jamaica, if you're from here, you will know Jamaican cuisine, you will know Guyanese, Trini cuisine, you will know Spanish food, you will know soul food and you'll know the pizza.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1877.0,1968.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Also, my neighbor, she was Irish and Italian and she was an old lady. And she was telling me before they built the thing that, you know, that before white flight and that. Cause she was kind of like my nanny. And she loved me. She used to bake cookies for me. And at the time she was one of the last remaining white people there, but she was so nice to me. She was like my other grandmother. Cause she lived right next door to me and her kids were all grown and moved to Connecticut and Massachusetts. And she was like, yo, you remind me. She used to tell me, I remind her of her era. Cause I have affinity for old things. So I used to just love looking at her scrapbook and her black and white things. And she was like, why are you into this? And she used to play jazz records. Yeah. And she used to play Sinatra and Nat King Cole and that, and I loved it. She was like, you like this? She used to always [inaudible]. And she was like, but you [inaudible]? And then I was like, I like it. I was like, it feels good. I said, it feels like a sweater.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=1968.0,2030.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: So once again, that's all Jamaica, it's there. And you know, when I started looking back at the history of Jamaica to the Valencia theater, to it being a hub, I discovered this plethora where it was this place between Brooklyn and Long Island that became an epicenter. And there was the Macy's and there was this, before the dilapidation and of course the era that I knew. So like that made me realize a pride of Jamaica and I started representing that other part of it. So yeah. I didn't know what culture I stood on, but when I started looking back at it—Ooh. And seeing what shows came out of there and how this was such a musical hub and everything from people like Billie Holiday had stopped through and like Malcolm X was right in East Elmhurst at the time. So things that were really influential to me still had a connection to the place. It's so beautiful.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2030.0,2086.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: How did you see Jamaica changing when you were growing up here? I know you talked about the crack era.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2086.0,2094.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: To be real, yeah, to be real, when I was coming of age, it was a very— because I'm old enough where it wasn't all digital yet, but I'm young enough where I adapted. So when we went to dial up and that, but I'm still from the throw a rock at the window and roll the street era, you know? And you know, I got the tail end of that. And because I had an affinity for things that were beyond, I always felt I was born too late. So I purposely hung out with older people. I just liked stories. So they would tell me, oh man. And they became very protective of me. But also when I got into some negativity, to be honest—appropriately, the sirens come. Yeah, I was trying to find myself and I got swept into certain things and I was trying to find, kind of coming of age, finding out—I didn't do good in the college thing. I didn't do good in the school thing. I left, you know. It's kind of when I found Nuyorican and I found some of that and I found what I wanted to do and I rebelled, I just started like leaving. And then at the time I was able to, when I was early twenties—to say it openly, I was able to sell a little weed and find a place and have two or three friends and we were just able to live. And we would throw open mics and shows and charge like $5 at the door and make our own shirts and sell CDs. And we lived. I felt rich. I felt rich because I was like, we would do these events that were there. But what happened is I always felt that I couldn't do them in Jamaica because the scene was pulling toward downtown and then later on in Brooklyn. So I just felt I had to rep for Jamaica, but when I came back here, and I used to take that ride on that J train or that E train, an hour. Cause I'm in what I call train Jamaica, where at least I'm by the trains. Whereas when you get deep into Rosedale or that you got to come here and then take the bus 45 minutes. So I felt lucky that I was in what I call train Jamaica, where I could walk to the J, E or F, get on the LIRR.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2094.0,2223.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: You could get in.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2223.0,2223.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: So yeah, I kind of felt betrayed, but like I had a little distaste for Jamaica because, just to say it openly, I got beat up here. There was crazy situations with weapons.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2223.0,2237.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Was there gang stuff?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2237.0,2238.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/77","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: There was, yeah. Going, when I was in high school, there was a trifecta of schools. I went to Edison, which was considered the lame school because it's a smaller school. And also, as a dude coming of age—like it was auto mechanics, electrical—the ratio for men to women was for every one female student, there was five guys. I was very depressed at the time. So I got into a really big [inaudible]. I used to cut school and walk to Hillcrest or Jamaica High School to try to find social things. And what I did find over here was the cipher culture, that music culture of jamming and freestyling. I found that culture here heavy, but when it came to organizing and events and that, I always kind of had to hightail it. So, then I started kind of having my affair with lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. But Jamaica, I just always felt I had to rep for it. And when I would meet other Jamaica heads or people from Queens, we were like the nomads that were willing to travel. So it was us and Bronx people that were like, we were going to go, but we knew our neighborhoods provided something that was real New York. And as those neighborhoods of Manhattan got earlier gentrified and we saw that change happen. I never would have guessed that now what is happening, what I lived to see happen to Lower East Side and Williamsburg is happening in Jamaica. You know what I mean? Like it's like the blob and the plague. So I almost feel.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2238.0,2327.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/78","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: How do you feel about the gentrification, the big box stores?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2327.0,2331.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/79","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: It's tough, man. Uh, I guess how I got into activism actually, because of that. Because when I started understanding things like these are developments and they take culture and then they'll make like a Starbucks or corporatization. Because I love mom and pop stores. Which if you look in Jamaica, you'll see the old right next to the new and you see this dying energy of it. Oh. And it hurts my soul because—I've joined the Jamaica community partnership. Now that I have a company and business that is there, I've now gotten into local politics and community board. I'm working on becoming a community board member. I would like to do it for my community board, which is community board 12. And that's when I started looking up Queens Council of the Arts and JCAL. Cause I want to rep for a certain thing to be a form. Well you know, you've gotten some art grants as well. I feel that art is the only thing that's going to preserve culture like a time capsule. And because what I have an issue with is now that Jamaica is getting popping and JCAL is kind of pivoting themselves to be the BAM they're importing, for lack of better term, whitewash art. Like they're bringing in these people from, you know, Dizzy's [phonetic] and the Juilliard shit, but I'm like, we have so much art right in those projects right there.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2331.0,2410.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/80","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: See the pigeons know. They flapped right there. That was grrrr. That was 32nd notes. They understand, see, they move. And then they come and they return. See, they know. The land knows. And this is also Jameco. When I had to research what this stands for, this territory is indigenous land. This trade route is a sacred trade route. And I almost feel that that spirit is something that I really want to keep alive in it. You know, that's when I got into my spirituality through understanding, tapping into that. And I asked the land and I asked my ancestors to guide me, asked my grandmother to guide me. She came here and did that thing and she was literally doing communal living. And she chopped up her space into rooms. She never worked a conventional job a day in her life, but she was early pre-gentrification, renting out a room and saying, all right, this person's an alcoholic. I'm gonna let him stay. And if they don't have the rent for a week, whatever, it's okay, they can still eat. But whenever they got back on their feet, they would always remember her. And people used to tell my grandmother, she was crazy. They're like, why are you doing that? Dah, dah, dah. But she had a heart. And she passed that into me. And, you know, I always tell my family, I'm more like my grandmother. And like once again, I kept going back and I saw the way she treated people and that stayed in me.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2410.0,2493.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/81","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: So with the gentrification, to bring it back to this, I have a good feeling that Jamaica is going to handle this differently because the community here is so strong. And also we have an affluent community. You know, there was a lot of black excellence out of Jamaica that I don't think gets talked about enough. Pre crack era [inaudible], there were a lot of homeowners, a lot of people own their homes in Laurelton, St. Albans, Jamaica and that. My family, my dad—MTA, when he got that job and had the steady thing, he got his home through, I don't know if it exists anymore, it's called HUD, Houses Under Development. And it was a first time home buyer program. He was able to apply and get in and get a house that was foreclosed through this. And he knew construction and electrical work. He did the fixer upper and was able to do that. And it was the immigrant thing that my grandmother had instilled in him. You know, my grandfather was also into construction and electrical work. So yeah, my pops was always good with his hands. So he saw what he could do. And while most people ended up stuck in certain situations that I was born into, my pops due to his work ethic, and I think I got to thank my grandmother and immigration for that, that passed into me. So what I feel, why I'm actually, what I call liberfication is my gentrification counterpoint that I feel that the luxury things need to be for the most [oppressed] people. I've connected this to Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I've traced this dude, the theater of the oppressed and the living theater. And then I've traced it back from hip hop to jazz, as artistic movements that serve as forms of resistance oppression. And now in these global movements, why I study Brazil a lot, Why I study these other places. So I don't like where it is in the corporate way, but I do believe it's going to reach a shift where the people, especially those who are the most [oppressed] are going to be the dominant people who run the new things. So when I say to people who feel afraid of the luxury things, I said, no, they're building this for us. It's going to be ours. And we are going to relinquish control.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2493.0,2613.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/82","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: And that's when I moved my life to word. So yeah, the rent work/live space as a person who's never—the rent in East Williamsburg that me and one other person's is paying went down from $7,000 to 5,500 a month. And I was like, I'm going to figure out how to make the rent. I don't care. And they were like, how are you going to do that, bro? And I was like, I don't know, I'm just going to do it. I signed the lease a week ago and they were like, dude, you're not scared. And I said, no, I just know I have to do this. And we have to live in abundance and we just got to do it. And I said, my grandmother is going to guide me and tell me what to do.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2613.0,2645.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/83","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: All of those people who are no longer here are going to move through me and those musicians and those, I just ask them and I ask the most high to utilize me through the art. So I'm so thankful for you. You're an artist. Artists, we see things different. We don't wait for change. We become the change. Any precursor to gentrification, always artists, right. We're the first wave. So I just want artists to stand firm, arms locked and know that we are what makes this thing cool. What made the things cool for these things to want to be here is those same shops and those same musicians, and those same stories that I'm telling you now.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2645.0,2685.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/84","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: But hopefully they will support those cultural institutions.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2685.0,2691.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/85","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: I've become an abolitionist now because when I look up Angela Davidson, I look up the Black Panther party. I was like, wow, we have to create something that makes their thing not so sexy. That's what I think. We have to be so strong in solidary that we're just like, Hey, we don't need. Cause I see what they do is bait and switch. You know, I studied what they've done in Brooklyn and Lower East Side. And you know, other neighborhoods— in Harlem, you know I've studied the way. And what I'm doing is I think there's an intersection between art, spirituality and community. And the term I use is artivism using art as a form, but I don't believe you have to hold a picket signs. I think being your most truest self is the most revolutionary thing you could be and trusting in yourself. And being as weird as you can is the most revolutionary act we can do. And I'm striving to be an example of that. That's why I'm here sitting on the bench with you. And I'm so happy that you were willing to do this off of the Zoom. Cause like, now that we could look at that and hear the pigeons and do that, it's telling a lot of the story that I can't tell.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2691.0,2754.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/86","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Yes, much better.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2754.0,2756.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/87","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: And it's going to bring something here. Yeah. So thank you for that. I appreciate you.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2756.0,2761.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/88","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: I don't know. Let's see. I just want to ask you about places. Well, I want to ask you two general ideas. I want to ask you about teaching. I know you talked a lot about mentors being important for you. So how did you make that jump into teaching and are you teaching in Jamaica now? And then the second thing, maybe we can end with just a little bit more about your favorite places in Jamaica? Like what has meaning to you?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2761.0,2792.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/89","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: So yeah, with the teaching, I call them spirit guides, mentors and femtors. Cause a lot of them were amazing women that really shaped and guided me. And they never sat down and did it, you know, It was just like Professor KB. It was so Mr. Miyagi style. It was about trusting in the process. So a big thing I write on my whiteboard all the time is trust in the process. And what I strive to do is create a space for creative expression and what I've called, this is cipher-based pedagogy, which is creating space and allowing that space to organically—and I also got this from jazz improvisation and hip hop improvisation—it's you come in with this foundation, which is either the beat, the chords, this, it's organized chaos. And then you allow them to morph into what it is. It's partially surrendering and then the other part is hyper-discipline and focus. And I think in that balance between discipline, freeform and structure is where I found my teaching style.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2792.0,2863.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/90","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: That makes total sense to me.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2863.0,2865.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/91","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: I'm not formally educated, but I'm very studious. So I kept looking for the younger versions of me, cause I was like, if I can help somebody who's going through this, navigate. Cause I was always looking toward it, but I had to kind of find it inside. So what got me into it is I just started volunteering when I started doing my own music, I wanted to do it in Queens. So I tried to do it in Jamaica, man, but unfortunately I ended up doing it in Queensbridge, the NYCHA department. So here's the story. You heard my Nas story. I fell in love with that and I tried to come to Jamaica. I tried to go to JCAL. They didn't let me in the door. They didn't want to hear shit from me. I was like damn. So I went to NYCHA, which is the housing authority and I knew they had a community center. I went into Queensbridge and I said, look. At this time, I did a nine month audio school. I learned how to build a mobile rig. I had my laptop and set up and they had traditional music program. They had congas one day, they had some guitar or they had a poetry class. I said, Hey guys, could I tie your things together? And I said, Hey, can I tie it together? I said, I don't want to do—they're like, Hey, do you want to run your own [inaudible]? I said, no, no. I want to take what you're doing and put it together. That's what I learned from hip hop. It's like the gumbo or salsa— also big movement I love is the salsa movement. Fania is a crazy movement out of New York. So I asked him if I could make the salsa. They were like, no, dah dah dah dah dah, you got DOE finger[prints]. Like aw, shit. I went to the next projects, which is Ravenswood. They're like, you'll do this for free? Come on in. So that was a great life lesson. I was like the same things I tried going institutional. Nope. I tried going community. Yeah, but you're not certified and qualified, but I didn't want to ruffle—and they thought I was going to ruffle feathers. This other spot said, wait a minute. The same story, the same proposal, I exactly did it, was picked up by Ravenswood and shout out to Long Island City Ravenswood, Brenda Pearson [phonetic], never forget this woman. She saw it. She was like, dude, you have such a great vision. And I was doing open mics. I said, I'm going to take the money from the open mic. I'm going to come in here. I'm going to pay myself. And she was like, you're amazing.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2865.0,2995.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/92","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: And then yeah, after two years there, teachers started coming to watch our show. And then I got asked by an English teacher to go to the Bronx. And she said, I'll pay you to do what you did in this community center two days a week after. And I got swept into that. So then I went from volunteering and raising money, guerrilla style. And then, she mentored me as well, femtor, you know, Rosaleen Knoepfel. She came from Maine. She moved into the Bronx and was living in Queens. She taught in the Bronx. She told me, she was like your mind is ridiculous. You're an educator. She's like, you just think so methodical. And I was like, well it's a survival technique. So she showed me lesson planning and she was like, dude, you can write curriculum like nobody's business. So after one semester as an artist, I started writing the curriculum. Cause I see things very clear and I see things in steps because that's what saved my life. So she was like, dude, you're a beast. And then, after one year there, I was the head person. And then I became kind of an organic program director. And then I [inaudible].\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=2995.0,3059.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/93","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: This was in the Bronx?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3059.0,3060.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/94","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: This was in the Bronx. And then I started freelancing at every site making a living.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3060.0,3064.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/95","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: So you were a teaching artist?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3064.0,3065.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/96","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: I became a teaching artist. I didn't know what it was at the time. And then I fell in love because when I saw these kids and the gentrification was now taking over Lower East Side and I saw whitewashed art. I felt stronger art was coming out of these kids in the projects and in the worst schools in New York City. So I moved more to word there. So by the time I was in my mid twenties, I just was like, this is where I want to be. And a great story that happened to me. Um, I got fired in the most beautiful way after never—I hit a home run every time. And then I started freelancing for organizations like Urban Word, shout out to Urban Art Beat bridging education art together in Long Island City. BAM started hiring me. My works got so well. Even now I'm doing virtual music for Carnegie Hall, what you call Carnegie Balls cause they're funny. But anyway, let me not digress. But bottom line is that thing as a teaching artist showed me something magical. I got hired by organization that offered me a large amount of money, offered me salary. And they said, what do you want for us to give you more work? I said, instead of bouncing all around, give me one site that I can make a bigger impact. They said, all right, they got a school East Side Community, Lower East Side, between 11th and 12th between A \u0026 B over there, East Side Community High School. Yeah. This organization comes to me, tells me we're going to let you run the music program. Mind you I've never graduated college, nothing.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3065.0,3153.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/97","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: They said, you're going to take over the music program. We're going to give you everything you want and you do this. And I said, what do I want? I want, give me a beginning class, ninth grade. Let me walk them through four years. I said, give me four years. As many days as possible, one site. The program was called Explorers. So I started that music program. By the end I created live band. I'll send you some links on this stuff. I banged it out. It was amazing. Senior year comes in. This ensemble rises with me is the most greatest thing I've ever done in my life at that point. I get mentioned in graduation speech. I'm busting down in tears. They're telling me they bring me to the back room where we did our performances, a little music room. And we were powwow, you know, a little pizza party afterward. And it was funny cause I used to get the pizza with sauce and vegetables, cause I stopped eating cheese. So they used to always laugh at me. And they came up to me, a small group of kids and they looked at me. They were from the projects of the Lower East Side. And you know, I was their music teacher and they were like, Hey, they looked at me like thugs, which is crazy. They said, don't come back next year.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3153.0,3218.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/98","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: What?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3218.0,3218.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/99","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: They were like, get out of here and don't come back. And then they were like, we have a problem with you and if you come back, it's going to be a real problem. I just said what you said. I said, what? What are you talking about? This is my favorite thing in life. And these high school kids surrounded me and God again, just like Professor KB, just like that, they said, you need to be an artist and you need to do everything you tell us to do. I just flooded, like someone opened a faucet and I cried. And they were like, why don't you do what you tell us to do? Cause we were in the Daily News, we did Spotify and all the time I'm making art with them and then, you know, I performed for them and they're like, why don't you care? They're like, you can be this and that. And I was like, I don't care about that. I don't like the industry of music and I don't like the industry. I can tell you know. I was like, there's no purpose in it. But they were like, dude, you have to be heard. And when they told me, you need to do what you tell us to do. Cause they saw how I could push them.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3218.0,3283.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/100","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: And they were like, you need to take your own advice, dude. And that year I went to that organization and I was like, I'm not going back. And they're like, what are you going to do? So then they asked me to write curriculum for them. So then I started publishing and writing curriculum and training the teaching artists. I did this thing called the artivist training. So now I work with artists and educators to kind of help and that led to my education route. I got to go to California and help music for the whole school district. Some things are crazy. They just fall into my life. I went into Berlin, I got nominated for United Nations Sustainable Development Goals award for the curriculum I wrote. Yeah, I understand it.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3283.0,3320.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/101","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: But are you also making more art now? So did you take their advice?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3320.0,3326.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/102","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: I took their advice; it was very hard for me cause I was like, how am I going to do this guys? I was up to the level as a teaching artist where I was getting paid $100 to $125 an hour. I had a car. So what I did, I came back to Jamaica, humble pie. I had to eat it. So the organizations. And you know, some people honestly thought it was going through a mental breakdown, which was totally fine. But cause they were like, dude, you are living in the way—most people were trying to live how I lived. They're like, you're paying New York City rent, you have a car, you have this schedule where you pop into these places for at most like a couple of periods you're done in this and you have all this time in the world and why would you give this up? I said, because you know, when you're an artist a certain way. I don't know. The way I function is I can't halfway do things. So I had to figure out how to do it. And the first couple years were very trial and error and I took a big financial loss and then now I'm older. now I'm hitting my thirties. So I'm like, Hey, welcome to life. So then I found this way of living through sub renting. I learned how to live out of a suitcase. And then I just decided, I said, I'm only gonna do what I love. And, I started doing DIY events. I'll send you some video on it. I started doing these things called party with a purpose. And then, I got very humbled. And then, I started studying movements, particularly like movements of art and culture, like early, you know, salsa movement was a great thing. I studied movements that birth out of oppression. So then I got really into more activism and then I started studying, the Black Panther Ten Point system. I re-read a lot of things that were there. And then I got into understanding what a community land trust is. I started studying indigenous cultures and how art was used to folk. And then that's when I got into really like folk and that level of art through that. And I knew I was going to find a way, but I knew I had this skill from the educator. So yeah. I've just been blurring that together and that's when I founded Creative Expressions dot c o. And then now I work on helping other people get to that place. And then somehow I managed to get taken care of through it. I really don't know. But that's the question mark in my Y. I'm okay not knowing. That was the deep way that education became a real part of it. And also, because I was gifted so much and taught so much by people in what I call a beam in my antenna received so much from the pigeons and the cats. The cats are over there eating the Chinese food, Oh my God. It's so poetic to me. Like I'm just able to translate that so well, and it moves my heart so much. I don't need a museum, everything is art and everyone is an artist.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3326.0,3487.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/103","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: If you see it.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3487.0,3489.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/104","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: If your perspective can see it. So yeah, that was a crazy answer.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3489.0,3495.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/105","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Just tell me what are special places for you? You mentioned a few.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3495.0,3500.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/106","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Yeah. The Coliseum block in Jamaica. [inaudible] also consider the black box theater in JCAL cause I did my first full length on August 3rd. That of the first [inaudible]. It was not really a play, but it's an interdisciplinary art piece because what I do is I do a lot of artistic mediums. But to me in my mind, it's one thing and I'm scared of being a slasher. Oh, and this and this and this. So what I say is, the term that I've reduced it because I like simplicity, is I am an interdisciplinary artivist. That is what I do. I use the mediums to tell stories. So if music comes in, if poetry comes in, if lighting comes in, if dance comes in. So yeah. I'll send you some clips of that. But I wrote the first full length version of that called Shooter, which was like a autobiographical piece that actually really dealt with a lot of my trauma in Jamaica. Because when I started seeing what was blocking me, I realized I had to heal from certain things. And why I didn't—I have this thing where I didn't like certain stuff. I knew that it was in my own healing and when I helped those kids, I realized I had to take their advice and heal myself through that. So yeah. It's been a cathartic healing process.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3500.0,3572.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/107","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Kind of like facing things you want to avoid.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3572.0,3574.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/108","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Yeah. Facing that. So this place right here, this park is a place. It's the closest park to me that I can walk when I'm in this side of town. Um, yeah.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3574.0,3583.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/109","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: What memories do you have in this park?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3583.0,3585.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/110","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: There were a lot more hood memories. This is where I used to come and smoke weed a lot. At the time, you know, like I used to just roll a blunt and just walk here, Goose Pond park, right up there. I like parks out of Jamaica, but then Forest Park has more trails and that was going into Kew Gardens. So I used to always know cause I like walking. So I used to always know that I can get the highest things, but the lotus is from the mud. I like good things and I like excellence at the same time. I like the balance between the have and the have nots. And because at first I was like, Oh, I'm just going to be this living out my suitcase guy. But now that like I'm in my thirties and I have a strong sense. I'm like, no, I deserve to live in abundance. So I got this crazy space in East Williamsburg. I feel funny about it, but then I still come here for fuel. I never want to forget.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3585.0,3639.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/111","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: And specific things, 165th street, the Coliseum block, the library, the bus terminal, the E train, particularly Sutphin Boulevard station and Parsons Archer are my two trains. It's the end of the line and the beginning of the line for me. So beautiful. Just little things that stood out. Goose pond is another little spot right there. I walk there.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3639.0,3667.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/112","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Were there any retail stores?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3667.0,3669.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/113","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Retail things. The mom and pop things, a lot of them are closed, but I always liked those electronic equipment stores. So I bought my first microphones through there. I don't know. Most of them got closed, unfortunately, But there were those, you know, spots, the pawn shops is where I got my first amps and instruments and everything. Pawn shops, Casio keyboards. I love pawn shop culture. on Sutphin. A Couple of them are still open. Sutphin Boulevard is a legendary strip for me, Sutphin and Jamaica, that intersection. Going a little bit on my side, South road—that block was really dangerous, but so beautiful at the same time. South road is such a beautiful street to me. Sutphin Boulevard. Yeah. Sutphin Boulevard going all the way from Jamaica Ave to Rockaway. Ooh. Yeah. Margharita's pizza was legendary. They still kept the aesthetic that space. The Coliseum is still holding on, holding on, but any of the Coliseum—\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3669.0,3723.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/114","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: I was going to go there now.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3723.0,3724.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/115","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nY?: Yeah we can walk. I'll walk with you there. Yeah, we can do it.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3724.0,3728.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877/transcript/30468/annotation/116","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nLinda Ganjian: Okay. So I guess we're done. Okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/45802/file/118877#t=3728.0,3732.864"}]}]}]}