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As a well known African proverb says, a child who is not embraced by

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his village will burn it down to
feel its warmth. This proverb underscores the

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essential need for children to feel accepted
and valued by their community. This week's

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guest philanthropist, former University of Maryland
football player and visionary founder of the Pinkett

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Foundation, Damien Pinkett, is a
prime example of what happens when a child

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is embraced by his village. In
this episode, Damien and I continue the

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conversation surrounding men's mental health, while
the Pinkett Foundation is pioneering efforts to provide

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resources and support for those in need, particularly within marginalized communities. Or Mutual

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Love for nineties R and B and
Akaian, Selfish, and so much more.

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As I listen to Damien's story,
his journey reminded me of a powerful

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truth I realized last year. Or
true happiness often lies in reconnecting with the

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passions we cherished as children. Similar
to the other inspiring men we've spoken to

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this month, Damien is a member
of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, and

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provides insight into the unwavering support he
has received from several fraternity brothers throughout his

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adult life. Damien's story supports my
belief that true value is not found in

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material possessions, but in the challenges
we overcome and the positive impact we have

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on the world. Damien embodies the
paradox of a life lived in high definition,

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seamlessly transitioning from being the franchise player
on the field to a key player

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in philanthropy and the medical field,
addressing the un finish business of those who

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came before him, proving that we
can uplift and empower our communities through philanthropy

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without needing to be the martyr per
usual. This episode will definitely inspire you

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and make you laugh. So grab
your tea, coffee, or a glass

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of wine and let's talk the Tings. Hello everyone, Welcome back to another

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episode of Let's Talk the Things,
where we discuss personal growth, travel,

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music and wellness while encouraging you to
live fearlessly and fabulously. I am your

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host, Ash and this week we
are Talking the Things with philanthropist and the

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visionary founder of the Pinkett Foundation,
Damien Pinket. Hi, Damien, how

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are you? I'm doing? I
love that intro? Why? Thank you

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very much. You know, I'm
trying to put Oprah out of business.

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No, thanks so much for coming
to talk the things with me. So

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when we have guests, I like
to start the episode with our listener's favorite

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segment to kind of break the ice. And it's called that no sound safe,

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which translated to English means that does
not sound safe. For in this

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case, that doesn't sound like a
good idea. Right, So for this

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segment, I'm going to read social
media post or comments that listeners sent in.

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And if you think it sounds crazy
or like a little bit concerning,

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then you would respond that no sound
safe. If you want to try some

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patuas or you can just say that
doesn't sound like a good idea and explain

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why. And then if you agree, same thing, say you agree and

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again explain why makes sense? All
right? All right? So the first

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one, somebody said evil can pretend
to be good and kind, but good

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and kind people cannot pretend to be
evil. So when you see evil behavior

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in someone, believe it that is
who they really are. I can agree

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with that, I can agree with
it. I think at the end of

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the day, everybody deserves grace and
mercy because not everybody's perfect, only person

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perfect. I'm a Christian soul.
Jesus would be my north stuff for that.

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But when you have I guess just
evil characteristics and your actions are evil,

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you gotta believe what you're seeing and
what people are saying. Obviously,

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pray for them. We absolutely,
absolutely, And I think that a lot

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of times, especially if you're a
kind hearted person, like you want to

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see the best in people. But
I think there's a difference between when somebody's

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maybe like having a bad day or
even a bad week, versus their character.

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You know, absolutely, yeah,
for sure, I agree with that.

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Okay, So the next one,
the person said, my god,

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some people are just not okay.
The person said, I'm a tend but

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my hairline holds me back from approaching
women that don't sound say oh we got

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confident. Man, you can't work. I don't know if they're gonna be

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able to see me obviously have a
hair full of locks. But you know,

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yeah from a ball brothers or follow
the challenge brothers. You know,

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just have confidence with who you are. Great advice, I agree, I

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agree, And this day and age, you know, everyone has something right.

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Nobody's perfect, money is perfect,
Nobody in this place is perfect.

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We're not looking at myself. Everyone
has something that the other person may not

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like. So yeah, you have
to you know, still have confidence absolutely,

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and you didn't always have dreads.
The Damien I remember had a low

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cut, so you know both sides
right the waves. Yeah, it's been

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in a few years now. Oh
my gosh, that's crazy. Wow,

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crazy time flies by. Okay,
the next one, the person said,

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no matter how wrong she is,
if she's short, forgive her. After

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all, she's just a baby.
Oh goodness. Instagram quote a Twitter quote

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something for the short Queen's out.
Yeah, that's how they try to get

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you though. They try to get
you with the sweet, innocent Sure you

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know it can't harm you, No, watch out for them. Excuse me

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as somebody that is standing at five
too. I don't know how I feel

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about that, Damien. The average
hype for women's five five in America,

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so you're not too far off.
Five two is not that bad, not

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too short. Yeah, I like
to say, you know, I'm not

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that short, but people think I'm
very short, and I don't. I

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don't know. I guess because I
know that I think about it. Most

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of my friends are like my height
or shorter, so maybe that's why it

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seems normal to me. But usually, like if I'm around people that maybe

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have always worn heels around and then
they see me in like sandals, They're

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like, oh my god, like
you're so short, and I'm just like,

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geez, I'm not that short.
You do wear heels, though you

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do wear heels, so it's like
you can I do. I know you're

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gonna lose some inches. Yeah,
yeah, no, that's true. But

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I still think I kind of agree
with you that that know so uns safe

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because you can't let the innocence like
fool you. You know, absolutely trust

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the big button a smile. You
can't trust the you know. Just that's

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funny. That is hilarious. Okay, the next one. Let's see.

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I can't stand when people say you
didn't answer my text, but I saw

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you on Instagram. I don't care
if I was on the news. I'm

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gonna reply when I reply. That
doesn't sound safe. I'm a big advocate

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for healthy communication. Yes, I
agree. If sometimes you just got to

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tell that person, hey, look, you're not you know, a priority

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like that or or not, or
you got to take the hint that you're

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not somebody's priority. To point of
why they aren't you back or anything,

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and that's fair too, But I
like healthy communication when it comes to you

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know, availability, things of that
nature. It's like, okay, yeah,

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what's going on with Absolutely, And
I think a lot of times people

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talk about this when it comes to
like man and woman or any type of

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romantic relationship. But I think it
can also go for friendships, right because

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you have some friendships where the person
is maybe really needy or they think because

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they called you and they need you
right this moment, that you have the

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capacity to be you know, there
for them in that moment, and maybe

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you don't, you know, but
you should still communicate for sure. Absolutely.

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I think with friendship is it's a
little bit different. I think romantic

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relationship because everything is so new in
that realm, I think it can be

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a little different. I think friendship
you kind of understand who this person is

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for more than a couple of months. Yeah, you know how they are

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or what they would need. And
I think platonic friendship, I think in

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general you probably have healthier boundaries.
So that's you should to that community.

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Yeah you should, right, Yeah, No, definitely, Okay, a

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couple more somebody said being a baby
must be scary. Imagine falling asleep at

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home and then waking up in TJ
Max. I agree, I agree.

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Next time you know your target target
I'm like, where do people get these

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things? But it's so true.
Knocked out. Have you ever like in

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the car and like went to sleep
and next time you know you're there?

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Yes? Yes, Oh my gosh. That happens so often, especially when

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you're like super tired mm hmm,
you know, or when you're even like

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even when I'm traveling. As you
know, I travel a lot, and

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sometimes I'll be so tired and then
i feel like we just took off and

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then I'm hearing we're about to land. I'm like so confused. Those those

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are the best flights. Those are
the best flights. Yes, for sure,

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you cannot be able to sleep on
flights really as like, okay,

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give me the asle see and and
I'm knocked out. Okay. Second to

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last one, the person said,
I dated a man who I knew was

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out of my league, but I
chose to start a relationship with him anyway.

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He eventually lost respect for me and
spent most of the relationship trying to

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destroy my self esteem. That sounds
all bad, not so safe at all

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at all? Out of your league? One? What is that? Why

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is that a thing? And then
why was he destroying or trying to destroy

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your self esteem? That means you
were of his league in the first place.

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Yeah, it's all bad. Yeah, I don't wish that all buddy.

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Yeah, and there those are a
lot of a lot of good questions

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that you asked that. Yeah,
it would be I guess would help us

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make like a better assessment. Does
that mean he doesn't have money? Is

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it like a superficial thing? Or
its character the type of person he is.

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I think those are factors that could
really make you do some like introspection.

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You know, I've read that question
as she thought he was above her.

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Oh that's how you read it.
Interesting, Yeah, if I was,

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if I if I as a man, and if I want to say

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I was dating somebody out of my
league, people would think like behnest,

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Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, and then he tried to

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destroy her self esteem? Yeah?
Yeah, interesting, it's not good.

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Yeah, that sounds safe at all. Okay, And then the final one,

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someone said, somebody needs to have
an in host R and B nights

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where we all where we sing all
night and have drinks. Yes, and

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I would love the host that.
Yes. So, oh my gosh,

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do you love R and B like
I love R and B? Of course,

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shout out to my boy baby J. He's doing a wine and slow

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jams July thirteenth. Oh, this
is getting bigger and bigger every year,

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so I'm looking forward to that.
Some of my friends from med school are

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coming down, so we're gonna have
a good time. But the house party

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R and B. I would love
to host that. I'd be right and

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especially like nineties R and B,
like you know, Soul for Real,

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Candy Rain, that's my favorite song. Stop it right now. Don't let

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me test you know, because I
will test you on the lyrics. No,

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don't test me. I got you
because I could, but you know

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it was it was a song played
yeah in a good part of my life.

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Yes, And did you do like
dance routines? I did that.

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I'm a holy snow Okay, got
you. But what about like your friends

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like in the neighborhood, You guys
didn't do like talent shows in school and

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stuff. We were outside riding bikes, jumping on, playing basketball, football.

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We were outside we didn't even get
on video games until you were like

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ten twelve, you know. Oh
yeah, yeah, the video games for

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sure. But like even though you
were outside, not even a little running

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man running place. No, there's
no music when you run. But that's

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true. Yeah, that's true.
That's true. Okay, I'll let you

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slide. As long as you're on
the nineties R and B trained, then

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it's safe. That was fun.
But now let's really talk the things.

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So, as you know, June
is men mental health Awareness month, so

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I would love it if you could
share why you think bringing awareness to men's

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mental health is so important. But
before we do that, I think it's

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important to get to know who you
are. So who is Damien Pinkett?

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And specifically, I want you to
answer without stating your name, what you

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do, or where you are from. So who are you without any of

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the labels that have been placed upon
you? I am first and foremost a

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child of God. I am an
adultee ah, I am a friend.

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I am honest, I'm kind,
I'm calm, cool, collected, or

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however they say that, I think
I'm a pretty chill person in general.

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I love that. Love that,
And how do you think you being an

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adoptee has affected your ability and we'll
talk about it a little bit more,

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but your ability to and your desire
to kind of give back to underserved and

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marginalized communities. Absolutely. I think
being adopted. I know everybody has their

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own story, particularly with adoption,
so it's never once I fit all,

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it's all. But I believe my
story is pretty amazing and it kind of

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created who I am as a person. I know love because I'm adopted.

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I've seen the love of my parents. I was their choice, right,

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so they picked me, and I
think that really stuck with me throughout my

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life. Granted so much from the
Pinkets, it I would be to not

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give back. I remember when I
first started the Pinkin Foundation, my health

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nonprofit. I talked to my dad. He's, oh, I could always

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see you doing this, Like when
you were young, you used to clean

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up parts and you just wanted a
safe place and a clean place for your

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friends to play. So I get
that my parents absolutely. I've just seen

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my parents give some back to the
community and to their family, the ones

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who the family really leans on it
in times of trouble, whether people are

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passing away as we get older,
Yeah, yeah. So I think my

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roots are strong in terms of community
service, public health because of my parents.

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So yeah, I think being a
doctor, I know where it could

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have been given my my birthing story, which it's interesting I kind of find

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out. I found out more a
couple of years ago when I turned thirty.

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Oh wow, first story. So
yeah, it could have went to

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went left. I could have had
a different life. But why am And

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I love the positive way that you
look at it, that you were a

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choice, right. I don't think
I've ever heard anyone look at it or

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say it like that, which I
think is so beautiful because it's true.

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You know, I think a lot
of times when people talk about family,

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like the go to quote or saying
is like, you know, you don't

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get to choose your family, but
your family chose you. And I think

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that's such a beautiful way to look
at that. Yeah. And then also

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you talked about how your dad mentioned
that or said to you or reminded you,

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I should say, because you obviously
lived it, but that you used

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to like to clean up parks and
stuff like that, And it just makes

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me think of how much like as
we get older, especially in our thirties,

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it's like you're going back to who
you were as a child, and

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that's really where like our happiness life. I think that's a very profound statement

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because I think it's very true,
and I'm getting close and closer to that

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every day. It's all right,
what made me happy when I was like

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ten twelve, even like fourteen fifteen. It's like that childhood in us is

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sparking and it's been reinvented. I
think in our college years and early twenties,

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we were grinding, grinding, grinding. I think now that we're a

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little bit more, you know,
some of us are more blessed to be

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able to reflect a little bit and
kind of go back to our root.

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That's so true, and you know, it's just it's such a good feeling

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because you look back and you realize
that you kind of I don't even want

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to say lost yourself, because I
do believe that you have to go through

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things to become who you're destined to
be. I think, you know,

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there's no such thing as something bad
happening to you. I think everything happens

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for you. And that's just so
that I choose to look at life,

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because, like you, I believe
in God, and I believe that God

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lets everything happen for a reason,
even if we don't understand it in the

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moment. And I just for me, I know, like I realized you

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change as you get older because you're
surrounded by people that are telling you no,

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right. And when I say no, I don't necessarily mean in the

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literal sense. But for example,
you know, when you're maybe in I

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don't know, third or fourth grade, and somebody asks you what do you

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want to be and you say,
oh, I want to be an astronaut

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and a basketball player and a carpenter. Nobody goes, what the hell,

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like you can't be all those things. They're just like, oh my gosh,

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yes, that's so great, Oh
gosh, tell everyone what you want

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to be. But then when you're
eighteen and you go to your parents and

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you're like, you know what,
I'm really good. I'm really good at

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painting. Like I really think I
could paint. I could be a painter,

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and I can study. Your parents
or your family or your friends might

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be like what you want to paint? Like what the hell are you going

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to do with painting? You know? So it's just so interesting how like

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being an adult is kind of trying
to survive adulthood, but also not lose

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who you were as a child when
you had so much freedom just to be

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yourself, you know. Yep,
Yeah, that's a great perspective. Well,

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speaking of the foundation, before I
get started on that, I should

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say back to the first question,
why do you think it's important to bring

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awareness to men's mental health? I
think in general, when it comes to

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men's mental health, Black men's mental
health specifically, I think it allows us

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to be seen a lot of the
times in America where typically typecast as people

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who hardened or aggressive, but you
know that comes from not seeing somebody.

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So when it comes to emotional health
health, allowing us the latitude to think

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and live and breathe and be without
judgment, I think it's important. If

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we're considered to be leaders of our
families and patriarchs of community and that quote

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unquote typical you know, strong nuclear
family. Yeah, then we have to

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be strong all the time. And
it seems seems like we don't necessarily have

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emotions, but we do. So
when it comes to certain things that are

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happening in the community with men,
suicide happening at higher rates, and things

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of that nature, it's because we
don't necessarily have the outlet sometimes, So

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I think that's why mental health manage. Definitely. And do you think it

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has something to do with the fact
that black boys are looked at as adults

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at a younger age than their counterparts, So it's like they don't really have

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such a large span of time to
be looked at as like a boy.

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Like what makes somebody look at,
you know, a five year old black

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boy and say, oh my gosh, she's so cute, and then in

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five years they're afreed, you know
what I mean? Like, do you

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think that has something to do with
winging on the mental health of particularly black

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men. Absolutely, I think we
have to grow up a little bit earlier

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than other communities. But it kind
of just Also I talked about the nuclear

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family that it does relate to that
in terms of eighty percent of our children

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not being born in a two parent
household, so you grew up a little

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bit earlier. Who's in poverty,
it's not the majority, it's black and

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brown folks. When you when you're
growing up in poverty, you gotta you

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gotta work a little harder, you
gotta, you know, kind of build

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yourself up and to get out of
that situation you looked at as a you

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know, somebody that needs to help, you know, sooner. Not everybody

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the chance to just be boys,
you know, yeah, yeah, gotta

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get that job, help with the
with the family, you know, at

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younger rates. But I think there's
a lot of things that kids have to

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do. Then we're not fully developed
as kids, but we're being made to

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make adult decisions and it's unfortunate.
Back to your foundation, as I mentioned

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also in the introduction, you have
your own foundation, the Pinkett Foundation,

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and you spoke about this a little
bit, and it focuses on improving public

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health within underrepresentative and underrepresented, sorry
and marginalized communities, which I think is

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so amazing. And although your foundation
supports men and women, focusing on men

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for this episode, how do you
think intersecting identities such as race, which

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we kind of talked about to a
little bit, maybe sexuality or disability influence

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men's experiences of mental health and their
access to get support. Okay, so

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when it comes to intersectionality in men
in general, first and foremost, we

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have to understand that there is intersectionality. I don't think I think sometimes men

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are kind of grouped together, especially
in black men. My nonprofits for black

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and brown people the African diasporas,
so that's who I focus. But you

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have to think there are people who
are mixed race, there are people who

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are in the LGBTQIA community, there
are people who don't identify as anything,

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right, and then we have to
think about age and things of that nature.

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So you might be talking to nineteen
year old about mental health, but

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the eighty year old might be dealing
with depression as well, right, So

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it kind of all needs to be
talked about in general. So what I

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do with my nonprofit, yes,
it's open to everyone, so but being

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open to everyone means I got to
be open to everyone, right, including

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men. So what I do is
work with different routs organizations and just try

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to have that community engagement. So
through different programs that I do, we

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just try to make it, you
know, as fun as possible where people

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can come in and just talk and
be themselves. My background is pedietary,

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so when I was up in New
York and pedietary school, I kind of

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learned a lot about foot health.
It's all about foot the inkle surgery up

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there. But in terms of diabetic
patients a lot of our homeless community,

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and that's a part of my story
as well. My birth mother was on

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this, so it's like a lot
of things kind of got hide the end

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to me without me knowing. People
would donate coats every winter, right,

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but you only need one heavy coat
for the winter. You need a different

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pair of socks every day, especially
for you talk about your foot, So

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we're talking about people who are don't
have that access to care. There might

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be fissures in their feed or cracks
or their their poor wound healing. New

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socks are good and they're the least
donated item and the most needed item in

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00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:36.799
different homeless shelters throughout America. I'm
in now. So we just did a

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00:27:36.920 --> 00:27:41.759
drive in the winter for in Ward
eight, Ward eight and seven really at

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different shelters including New York Avenue Men's
Shelter. So just being able to do

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that and then posting events on on
like physical health of our of our brothers

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too. Heart health is a big
thing, cholesterol, hyperden stuff, walking

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group, things of that nature.
So we got physical health, how healthy

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are we as people? And then
we have to think about the access to

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health as well, So definitely do
a better job at that as a country

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really for sure? For sure.
And have you noticed any disparities in mental

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health awareness and resources based on factors
like race or like you said, socio

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economic status. Oh, absolutely,
absolutely, I think that's that's kind of

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the main thing. You look across
any health statistic, Black people in general

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are not going to be at the
top of those, regardless of race socio

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economic status. So that's already a
mapped in thing. Right. There was

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a study. It was with black
women, but regardless of economic status,

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black women had a higher maternal mentality
rate. I'm actually doing any lie that's

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focusing on the work. But and
it affects men too, because what happens

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when you know, a mother passes
away during childbirth? Yeah, the father

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00:29:18.119 --> 00:29:22.279
of more as a single parent in
that regard. So we're helping them raise

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diapers for fathers in need as well
as families in need as well. So

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yeah, it's a it's a big
thing. And then we got to think

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about say that one more time,
I said, and then we have to

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think about you know, poverty levels. Black Americans live in a poverty level

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more than any other group, almost
had two times. Then you have to

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think about the prison population. Black
people make up fifty percent of the prison

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population. There's over forty percent of
people in the foster care system. So,

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and these are just all things that
have to do with me. My

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mother was my birth mother. She
was in the DC jail. So these

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are some things that I've had a
passion without knowing the birth story, right.

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But yeah, and I think,
you know, it's so interesting to

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me how God works, right,
Like, you didn't even know you were

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on a path that had so much
to do with you know, your birth

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story. And I think, like
like I said, as we get older,

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we realized that everything that we thought
in life was a mistake or why

356
00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:40.920
did this happen? Or maybe I
should have done something else. You come

357
00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:44.920
to realize you were on the right
path all along, even if you didn't

358
00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:48.480
know it, you know. Yeah, So I think that's that's so beautiful

359
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that you found that out a couple
of years ago when you got more information

360
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on your birth story and you started
to connect the dots. And it must

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be such a good feeling knowing that
it sounds like you're right where you're supposed

362
00:31:00.319 --> 00:31:07.279
to be. Yeah. I like
that perspective too. That for sure,

363
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when I first moved to New York
where I lived at Column I would go

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to the door and they would have
everything locked up. Then I went to

365
00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:22.720
a different stores a Dwayne Read I
believe in like the Upper east Side,

366
00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:27.079
nothing was locked up at all.
So it's like, all right, how

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are we living? How are we
being perceived to it? And it's like

368
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does that take a toll? I
know it takes a toll on our mental

369
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health. I gotta I gotta all
somebody so I can get this deodorant,

370
00:31:41.039 --> 00:31:44.000
Like, how do you how's that
gonna make me? You know, growing

371
00:31:44.119 --> 00:31:48.960
up versus being able to freely go
in and yeah, So it's very commoluted.

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00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:55.359
It's very convoluted. Yeah, because
if you think about it, that

373
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that's gonna tell let's say a young
boy that whoever owns this store doesn't trust

374
00:32:00.039 --> 00:32:07.440
him. You know, that's how
it's gonna be received. And that has

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to affect the mental health of young
men, particularly young black men. And

376
00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:20.319
it's interesting because being from somewhere like
Jamaica, our motto is out of many

377
00:32:20.359 --> 00:32:22.880
one people. There's a lot of
persons of different races in the country.

378
00:32:23.119 --> 00:32:27.279
You know, in my family,
I grew up with persons of Chinese,

379
00:32:27.279 --> 00:32:32.000
Indian descent, white whatever. However, the majority of the country is of

380
00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:37.359
African descent, right, so business
owners are women, black women, black

381
00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:40.400
men. The other day, I
saw this young black boy that opened up

382
00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:45.039
his own school in his neighborhood.
He was helping kids with homework and he

383
00:32:45.119 --> 00:32:47.160
just started his own school to help, you know, kids that don't have

384
00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:52.160
access to certain things. And so
it's not until I got older, and

385
00:32:52.200 --> 00:32:57.599
by older I mean probably like two
or three years ago, that I realized

386
00:32:57.960 --> 00:33:02.839
how positively that's affected me and my
family members that are my age that we

387
00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:08.240
saw that growing up, So it
wasn't so odd to see like, oh,

388
00:33:08.319 --> 00:33:12.839
there's a black person that's the CEO
of this company, okay, And

389
00:33:12.880 --> 00:33:16.720
it makes me think, no,
what that does to your psyche growing up

390
00:33:17.240 --> 00:33:21.319
not seeing that, you know what
I mean, Like, I never really

391
00:33:21.319 --> 00:33:24.519
thought about it before, but now
I'm realizing, Like, don't get me

392
00:33:24.519 --> 00:33:28.759
wrong, everywhere has its problems,
and even though that is the case,

393
00:33:28.759 --> 00:33:35.160
there's still problems in Jamaica, right. But I think just when you talk

394
00:33:35.200 --> 00:33:38.960
about that store situation and things being
locked up and to get a deodorant you

395
00:33:38.960 --> 00:33:43.799
have to ask for a key.
It's just like It's making me think what

396
00:33:43.880 --> 00:33:46.319
does that do to a young person's
mind, Like, what message does that

397
00:33:46.440 --> 00:33:51.759
send to them? It definitely sends
a message of I have to ask,

398
00:33:52.079 --> 00:33:55.839
I gotta need I need permission to
do this. When I was around my

399
00:33:57.039 --> 00:33:59.519
friends in college, they were just
like, just do it, like,

400
00:33:59.640 --> 00:34:04.119
oh I can. I don't need
to ask somebody to be able to do

401
00:34:04.160 --> 00:34:07.960
certain certain things, you know.
So, yeah, I think it does

402
00:34:07.840 --> 00:34:14.119
something. It does something. Can
I quantify or qualify it? I don't

403
00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:16.199
know. I think that'd be a
great study to look at for sure,

404
00:34:16.519 --> 00:34:21.880
if it hasn't already been done right
right, No, definitely definitely. And

405
00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:27.880
you mentioned college and I had Oz, who's your fraternity brother. I had

406
00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:31.800
him on here and we were talking
about how, you know, in college,

407
00:34:31.840 --> 00:34:36.440
you go to this place and you're
surrounded by so many different types of

408
00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:39.400
people, Right, how did you
use your brotherhood to kind of help with

409
00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:44.079
your mental health? Because when you're
in college, you're not just there to

410
00:34:44.119 --> 00:34:46.079
study, right, Like, you're
going through trying to figure out what you

411
00:34:46.119 --> 00:34:52.079
want to do in life and also
have a social life. So how do

412
00:34:52.119 --> 00:34:57.960
you think that being part of that
brotherhood positively affected your mental health? I

413
00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:02.280
think It's great first foremost out File
fraternity incorporated with the first black Greek letter

414
00:35:02.440 --> 00:35:22.280
organization ever in a in collegiate setting
found at Cornell, you know, Ivy

415
00:35:22.360 --> 00:35:27.280
League school that we weren't allowed to
be another fraternity, so we you know,

416
00:35:27.719 --> 00:35:31.119
started our own, particularly at the
University of Maryland College Park, the

417
00:35:31.159 --> 00:35:37.599
Iotazeta chapter. I think just being
surrounded by people who thought like me and

418
00:35:37.760 --> 00:35:42.320
had had a vision for life like
me too. I crossed when I was

419
00:35:42.440 --> 00:35:46.400
seventeen, so I was young.
I couldn't vote. There was a discrepancy

420
00:35:46.440 --> 00:35:52.280
because there was everybody in Alpha has
to be able to vote. I wasn't

421
00:35:52.400 --> 00:35:57.719
holding though. We had a question
around two thousand and ten when when I

422
00:35:57.760 --> 00:36:00.360
was going through if I if I
could finish or not. But you know,

423
00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:06.079
they allowed me to because there was
certain historical members like doctor Martin Luther

424
00:36:06.159 --> 00:36:09.400
King, who was of a younger
age too when he became an Alpha.

425
00:36:09.480 --> 00:36:15.920
Oh wohoa, so you're in good
company. I'm a great company. But

426
00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:20.880
yeah, so just being around the
brothers and some of my best friends,

427
00:36:20.960 --> 00:36:23.519
you know, growing up, like
I said, I was seventeen, I

428
00:36:23.639 --> 00:36:29.679
was the baby still, you know, Oh my gosh, I can't believe

429
00:36:29.719 --> 00:36:35.880
you were seventeen. That's crazy.
Yeah yeah, wow wow wow wow.

430
00:36:36.360 --> 00:36:39.239
No, that's that's amazing. And
is there or can you think of a

431
00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:43.559
time and maybe it was recently or
maybe back when you were in school,

432
00:36:44.039 --> 00:36:47.800
was there a particular brother who supported
you and gave you guidance like when you

433
00:36:47.880 --> 00:36:52.639
really needed it the most, Because
we talked about how you know, it's

434
00:36:52.719 --> 00:36:55.920
not just while you're in school,
but OZ even talked about the brother from

435
00:36:57.039 --> 00:37:00.719
like nineteen ninety five that reached out
to him and still reaches out to him

436
00:37:00.760 --> 00:37:02.679
to check to see how he's doing, which I think is so amazing.

437
00:37:04.320 --> 00:37:07.719
Yeah. Absolutely so. When I
first got to campus, Mark Conway,

438
00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:12.960
who is a city council member in
Baltimore City now, which is awesome.

439
00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:17.159
Need to see him thrive politically.
He was president of the NAACP chapter at

440
00:37:17.360 --> 00:37:23.320
University of Maryland. So he's somebody
who I've always held close. My dean

441
00:37:23.480 --> 00:37:27.400
Eric Brady, he's a lawyer.
He's always looking out and checking in with

442
00:37:27.440 --> 00:37:32.360
me. I got some brother eighties
Byron, awesome brother. He played football

443
00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:37.239
at Maryland and for the Miami Dolphins. I played football at Maryland, so

444
00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:43.280
there's a connection there as well.
Doctor Hector, not doctor Melvin Ego,

445
00:37:43.840 --> 00:37:47.280
Joseph Thomas, all those people always
giving me advice in terms of medicine.

446
00:37:47.320 --> 00:37:52.000
And I got some younger brothers who
are in medicine as well, whether it's

447
00:37:52.039 --> 00:37:57.960
dentistry or internal medicine that nature.
But yeah, we got people from over

448
00:37:58.199 --> 00:38:02.400
dj he's a Somali a like one
of my best friends, Maurice. He's

449
00:38:02.440 --> 00:38:08.320
going to law school. So we
keep each other. Just we reached back

450
00:38:08.360 --> 00:38:13.519
and we reach up. And Rohan
Rasheen like, yeah, these are some

451
00:38:13.559 --> 00:38:16.280
great brothers. Yeah, Reggie,
I've so many of the name, but

452
00:38:16.880 --> 00:38:22.360
I think all of them always looked
out for me, especially older brothers because

453
00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:27.119
I was young. I always going
to have them as big brothers. And

454
00:38:27.199 --> 00:38:29.840
the people who crossed after me,
some of them are older than me,

455
00:38:30.159 --> 00:38:32.960
even though I crossed maybe like three, four or five years before them,

456
00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:37.360
maybe born in the same year because
you were so young. Yeah, so

457
00:38:37.400 --> 00:38:45.039
I have I have that perspective and
access to a lot of people in generations

458
00:38:45.079 --> 00:38:50.440
really love. I think, yeah, they always if I need a question,

459
00:38:50.599 --> 00:38:53.000
I talked to like Micah, like
my line brother, he's just got

460
00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:59.360
his d D last year, Like
Joshua Paris has seen mo Nick like just

461
00:38:59.440 --> 00:39:07.679
doing it beautiful. It's definitely amazing. All right. So for our last

462
00:39:07.920 --> 00:39:13.199
segment, I'm going to ask you. I'm gonna honor the jewels and ask

463
00:39:13.280 --> 00:39:20.320
you seven questions. Okay, So
they're gonna be like quick questions, meaning

464
00:39:20.920 --> 00:39:24.199
you don't have to give long responses. So you can give one word or

465
00:39:24.239 --> 00:39:28.840
you can give a sentence. And
I only say that because I don't want

466
00:39:28.840 --> 00:39:31.119
people to feel like they have to
give detailed responses. But if you want

467
00:39:31.159 --> 00:39:36.079
to, you can feel free to
do. So, okay, I'm gonna

468
00:39:36.079 --> 00:39:42.920
give us some detailed responses. Okay, no problem, it's this is your

469
00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:46.559
episode, so whatever you want to
do, it's fine by me. Okay.

470
00:39:46.679 --> 00:39:55.239
So okay, so the first question, what does happiness mean to you?

471
00:39:59.199 --> 00:40:08.719
Happiness? Happiness means to me the
state of being content. And I

472
00:40:08.800 --> 00:40:16.000
say that in a way that's biblically
sound. So a lot of people know

473
00:40:16.320 --> 00:40:21.760
Philippians for thirteen, I can do
all things through crisis strengthens me. That's

474
00:40:21.800 --> 00:40:25.119
one of my favorite Bible verses.
A lot of people don't understand that the

475
00:40:25.199 --> 00:40:30.079
context I told you'all weren't gonna be
short. No, that's fine, it's

476
00:40:30.079 --> 00:40:34.000
your world. You know, I'm
just here. That's fine. A lot

477
00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:39.599
of people don't understand the context of
that that chapter is. It talks about

478
00:40:40.079 --> 00:40:45.599
contentment really like if God a lot, if God gives me a little,

479
00:40:45.639 --> 00:40:47.280
what can I do with that?
And will I be happy with either?

480
00:40:47.480 --> 00:40:52.519
Or so, if I only have
X amount of things in my life,

481
00:40:52.559 --> 00:40:58.039
cannot be happy with that. If
I have X times x amount of things

482
00:40:58.079 --> 00:41:01.119
in my life, cannot be happy
with that. I think that's what means.

483
00:41:01.440 --> 00:41:06.880
Am I content? Or can I
be content? I love that in

484
00:41:06.920 --> 00:41:13.760
the state of currently obviously, I
think ambition is great and you're wanting to

485
00:41:13.800 --> 00:41:16.599
do more and give more. I
think that's amazing. Can I be content

486
00:41:16.639 --> 00:41:21.039
where I am right now? I
love that. I think that's how beautiful

487
00:41:21.079 --> 00:41:27.000
answer. Okay, next question,
If you could have dinner with anyone living

488
00:41:27.199 --> 00:41:31.639
or deceased, who would you choose? And why? Just one person?

489
00:41:32.159 --> 00:41:36.639
Just one person is the one person
you have to choose, So make a

490
00:41:36.639 --> 00:41:49.480
good choice. Oh, my my
grandfather comes to mind, Richard allen Brand.

491
00:41:50.199 --> 00:41:52.840
Yeah, he passed away when I
was in college, and unfortunately I

492
00:41:52.920 --> 00:41:59.519
missed his funeral. And like I
said, I was young in college.

493
00:41:59.519 --> 00:42:01.239
So I think now at this time. I would love to just have a

494
00:42:01.239 --> 00:42:06.880
conversation with him and pick his mind. He's also my fraternity brother as well.

495
00:42:07.320 --> 00:42:10.960
Oh wow, yeah we didn't.
We didn't get a chance to really

496
00:42:12.039 --> 00:42:17.880
talk about that as he was older
when he passed. But his wife,

497
00:42:19.320 --> 00:42:23.639
my grandmother, she's still with us. She's ninety four, so what Yeah,

498
00:42:23.679 --> 00:42:29.039
she talked about him every day.
She misses him. So yeah,

499
00:42:29.079 --> 00:42:34.639
I would love to sit down conversation
with I call him pop Pop. I

500
00:42:34.719 --> 00:42:40.639
love that amazing. Okay. Next
question, it's also, as you know,

501
00:42:42.119 --> 00:42:46.000
Caribbean American Heritage Month, so I
have to ask, what is your

502
00:42:46.159 --> 00:42:52.079
favorite Caribbean food? I said Caribbean, but I really wanted to say Jamaican,

503
00:42:52.199 --> 00:42:57.320
but I'm trying to be increasing.
You know you heard I can't sell

504
00:42:57.440 --> 00:43:04.480
fish, but damn man, I'm
impressed. You know the teaing's them there,

505
00:43:07.480 --> 00:43:10.320
Damion sewfish is my favorite food of
all time. Like, I would

506
00:43:10.360 --> 00:43:16.039
eat it all day every day if
I could see then yes, you did

507
00:43:16.039 --> 00:43:22.599
it. That was the right answer. Mm hmmm, I'm just yeah.

508
00:43:24.480 --> 00:43:32.880
Okay. Next question, what is
your favorite food pairing with wine? Mm?

509
00:43:32.880 --> 00:43:37.320
Okay, so I like wine.
I hope my best friend DJ,

510
00:43:37.440 --> 00:43:45.679
who is the Somalia. I talked
about food Cabernet like red cats. I'm

511
00:43:45.679 --> 00:43:52.400
a player with a with a medium
steak. If I'm doing a white wine,

512
00:43:52.960 --> 00:43:57.239
sam block is my favorite, I'm
gonna do some type of fish.

513
00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:05.280
Salmon's the easy answer, the same
as what if you never had like a

514
00:44:05.360 --> 00:44:13.639
red blend with like pizza. It's
great, interesting, it's good. So

515
00:44:13.760 --> 00:44:19.239
I will tell you My alcohol tolerance
is in the basement. I have a

516
00:44:19.360 --> 00:44:27.000
very low tolerance for any type of
alcohol. However, I have no you

517
00:44:27.039 --> 00:44:30.159
know what. I don't like beer. I think it tastes very bitter.

518
00:44:30.280 --> 00:44:34.760
I'm more of a rare nephew kind
of woman. But it's literally like one

519
00:44:34.880 --> 00:44:42.280
drink and I'm done. That's it. I could give you some pounds so

520
00:44:42.320 --> 00:44:46.480
you can be you know, have
a higher tolerance, but no. So

521
00:44:47.039 --> 00:44:51.239
here's the thing. I was never
really into wine like that. Like I

522
00:44:51.280 --> 00:44:54.199
was just the person that I have
wine when I go out for like a

523
00:44:54.239 --> 00:44:58.800
birthday dinner or something, and I
just order whatever is like not too sweet

524
00:44:58.840 --> 00:45:04.960
but not too dry. Right.
But then I had my lovely guest who

525
00:45:05.039 --> 00:45:09.079
is now a friend of mine,
Bannery, who is the public relations the

526
00:45:09.119 --> 00:45:14.159
director of public relations I'm sorry for
wine enthusiasts. I had her as a

527
00:45:14.199 --> 00:45:20.880
guest earlier this year, and she
invited me to sip Off South America and

528
00:45:21.159 --> 00:45:25.280
there were like seventy vendors and you
had to like go around and do tastings.

529
00:45:25.519 --> 00:45:29.920
And I was so nervous because I
thought I was gonna drop down because

530
00:45:29.960 --> 00:45:32.480
after like two tastings, I already
felt the room was like tilting, you

531
00:45:32.519 --> 00:45:38.280
know. But it was so it
was so like interesting and it was so

532
00:45:38.519 --> 00:45:45.599
fun and to see how you know, people are so into wines and they

533
00:45:45.679 --> 00:45:47.239
know these things and they know,
like the guy's telling me, oh,

534
00:45:47.320 --> 00:45:51.880
this is from this climate, and
I'm like, sounds great, sir,

535
00:45:51.960 --> 00:45:53.599
but I'll just take some of the
whites. I don't know what you're talking

536
00:45:53.639 --> 00:46:00.559
about, but I'm just gonna smile
and pretend, you know. But it's

537
00:46:00.599 --> 00:46:02.960
so like, I think it's great. Like for example, what you mentioned

538
00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:07.760
what DJ does and you know him
being like a black man. She was

539
00:46:07.800 --> 00:46:09.719
even telling me, you don't see
a lot of that, you know.

540
00:46:09.880 --> 00:46:15.119
So I think that's so amazing that
even in that setting, I saw a

541
00:46:15.159 --> 00:46:20.119
good amount of black and brown people
and they were so knowledgeable about these wines

542
00:46:20.159 --> 00:46:22.960
and like you know, the guy
saying, oh, well, you might

543
00:46:22.079 --> 00:46:25.719
taste this in this and I'm just
thinking, oh, this tastes good,

544
00:46:25.760 --> 00:46:30.760
you know, just on like a
very basic level. But being around her

545
00:46:30.920 --> 00:46:36.960
and her putting me in that environment
really opened my eyes to like wine pairings.

546
00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:42.960
And we were even talking about wine
pairings with Caribbean food, you know,

547
00:46:43.480 --> 00:46:46.719
and that being something that persons don't
really talk about as much. I've

548
00:46:46.719 --> 00:46:51.119
seen a lot on like Indian food
and like you said, maybe pizza and

549
00:46:51.519 --> 00:46:54.079
fried chicken, but I don't really
see a lot when it comes to Caribbean

550
00:46:54.119 --> 00:47:00.440
food. So she sent me some
articles and I even had a sponsorship from

551
00:47:00.920 --> 00:47:06.639
the McBride sisters and paired it with
like some escavich fish. And yeah,

552
00:47:06.679 --> 00:47:09.840
so I am not DJ. I'm
not quite there, but yeah, I'm

553
00:47:09.880 --> 00:47:16.119
building up my tolerance. Trying to
take it from the basement is amazing.

554
00:47:20.239 --> 00:47:27.159
Okay, three more questions. The
next question is if you want an all

555
00:47:27.239 --> 00:47:32.159
expense paid luxury vacation on a yacht. I'm talking like Big jay Z,

556
00:47:32.960 --> 00:47:37.159
big pimpin yacht, although we don't
condone pimping, but you know what I

557
00:47:37.199 --> 00:47:43.039
mean, big yacht right throughout the
Caribbean, and you can only bring.

558
00:47:43.239 --> 00:47:47.800
You can only bring Damien. Five
people? Who are you bringing? Hum?

559
00:47:50.639 --> 00:47:54.400
Five people? I have a only
five special lady in my life.

560
00:47:55.000 --> 00:48:00.840
She's coming, Okay, Okay,
I'm just glad you said her first.

561
00:48:00.880 --> 00:48:02.960
I just wanted to put that all
there. I'm just glad you said her

562
00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:10.199
first. Five people. Hm hmmm. I would bring my parents too,

563
00:48:12.639 --> 00:48:20.440
okay, okay, so that's three
parents, Aaron Jackson, who was my

564
00:48:20.519 --> 00:48:25.960
best man, that's my we call
we call each other cousins. But okay,

565
00:48:27.199 --> 00:48:31.840
but that's like family, and his
wife I'll bring Okay, okay,

566
00:48:31.920 --> 00:48:37.519
nice. Nice. Normally people panic, but you did pretty good. You

567
00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:39.519
seem like you had it. You
know, you thought it all really quickly.

568
00:48:39.599 --> 00:48:43.840
So that's good. I had.
I had a picture where we're going.

569
00:48:44.119 --> 00:48:52.000
We're going to church, We're going
to Haiti. Yeah. I love

570
00:48:52.079 --> 00:48:58.679
that. Love that. Okay.
So I tried this new thing, and

571
00:48:58.760 --> 00:49:01.559
I'm going to see how long it
lies asked. But I'm allowing my guests

572
00:49:01.800 --> 00:49:06.119
to ask me anything they want to
ask me, since you don't get to

573
00:49:06.159 --> 00:49:08.960
ask any question. Okay, how
many questions do I do? I did

574
00:49:09.000 --> 00:49:13.880
five or six? This would be
the sixth one, So you have one

575
00:49:13.920 --> 00:49:29.239
more after this question. Okay,
what is your biggest inspiration that speaks to

576
00:49:29.360 --> 00:49:37.679
your purpose? Mmm, I would
have to say the what would be a

577
00:49:37.800 --> 00:49:40.800
quote, but the who would be
who the quote is from. Does that

578
00:49:40.880 --> 00:49:46.519
make sense? That can't be who? You gotta be what I need to

579
00:49:46.559 --> 00:49:49.880
hear. Okay, so I'll stick
with the what. Then I'll stick with

580
00:49:49.920 --> 00:49:55.280
the what. So the what is
a quote that my Well, it's not

581
00:49:55.320 --> 00:50:00.679
a quote something that my grandmother said
to me all the time before she passed

582
00:50:00.719 --> 00:50:07.280
away, for my entire life.
You can you Yeah, that's true.

583
00:50:07.320 --> 00:50:10.960
I'll give it. I'll say that
is a quote and it's don't let anyone

584
00:50:12.000 --> 00:50:21.440
take your freedom, and it really
supports who I am and it really was

585
00:50:21.480 --> 00:50:24.199
the foundation for me even starting this
podcast. So that's funny that you asked

586
00:50:24.239 --> 00:50:29.760
me that. I think that when
I was younger, I didn't quite know

587
00:50:29.840 --> 00:50:31.880
what she meant. Like, when
I was really really young, I used

588
00:50:31.920 --> 00:50:36.039
to think she meant it in a
literal sense, and I would just think,

589
00:50:36.119 --> 00:50:38.719
oh, gosh, like I'm free, grandma, Like no one's gonna

590
00:50:38.760 --> 00:50:42.480
take me. Like I'm like,
I'm a free person. I can move

591
00:50:42.519 --> 00:50:45.920
around, you know. But then
as I got older, like let's say

592
00:50:45.920 --> 00:50:47.440
when I went to college, she
would say, you know, don't get

593
00:50:47.480 --> 00:50:52.440
into any arguments with friends or over
a guy or anything like that, because

594
00:50:52.719 --> 00:50:57.719
you don't want them to take your
literal freedom, meaning to get you into

595
00:50:57.800 --> 00:51:00.960
a situation where you could go to
or you know, you could get hurt.

596
00:51:01.559 --> 00:51:06.119
But most importantly, as I got
older, she reminded me not to

597
00:51:06.199 --> 00:51:10.800
let anyone take my mental freedom.
And I think that's the most important because

598
00:51:13.159 --> 00:51:19.639
when you are a kind person,
you tend to project your kindness onto other

599
00:51:19.760 --> 00:51:24.400
people. And a lot of times
you can put yourself in a situation where

600
00:51:25.599 --> 00:51:30.280
you see that this person or this
situation is not good. Right, Like

601
00:51:30.360 --> 00:51:36.960
you see that someone or some job
or something is showing you like this is

602
00:51:37.000 --> 00:51:40.519
not good. But you think,
well, if they just could you know,

603
00:51:40.519 --> 00:51:45.559
know this, or get this piece
of information or feel this love,

604
00:51:45.079 --> 00:51:50.519
that maybe that could change, you
know. And what you don't realize is

605
00:51:50.599 --> 00:51:55.360
that takes away your peace right,
which is essentially part of your freedom.

606
00:51:55.679 --> 00:52:00.800
And it always makes me feel really
proud that throughout any thing that I've been

607
00:52:00.840 --> 00:52:05.559
through, I've always leaned on that
and I've never allowed anyone to take away

608
00:52:05.880 --> 00:52:08.880
my peace of mind. And I
think that by doing this podcast, and

609
00:52:08.920 --> 00:52:14.239
people have told me that, which
really warms my heart. That it gives

610
00:52:14.280 --> 00:52:19.800
people an outlet to kind of talk
about themselves, talk through things, you

611
00:52:19.800 --> 00:52:23.400
know, and not alone in life
and like stuff that they go through,

612
00:52:23.440 --> 00:52:27.480
which means a lot to me.
So I know that's kind of like a

613
00:52:27.559 --> 00:52:31.760
roundabout way of answering it, but
hopefully that answered your question. I identify

614
00:52:31.920 --> 00:52:37.760
with that quote so much, both
in the literal sense and the figurative says,

615
00:52:37.800 --> 00:52:43.679
like, for me, a big
thing that I always aligned with is

616
00:52:44.320 --> 00:52:52.239
I can't have anybody lying on my
name. I'm so like, no,

617
00:52:52.800 --> 00:52:57.440
don't do that, Don't say I
did something I didn't do. Don't accuse

618
00:52:57.519 --> 00:53:02.480
me of something. That's like one
of the biggest pet pies for me.

619
00:53:02.559 --> 00:53:07.960
But in terms of literal freedom too, if we're talking about mental health,

620
00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:14.599
being black in America, being a
black man in America, it doesn't matter

621
00:53:14.960 --> 00:53:19.440
how much money you have, you're
going to be considered a black man period,

622
00:53:19.719 --> 00:53:22.800
right, Absolutely, No one in
ten black men are going to be

623
00:53:22.800 --> 00:53:27.400
incarcerated by the time they're thirty two. Like that's a lot of people.

624
00:53:27.760 --> 00:53:30.519
Yeah, And that was one thing
I said, I never want to go

625
00:53:30.559 --> 00:53:37.960
to jail, you know, especially
for something I did not do literal freedom,

626
00:53:37.159 --> 00:53:42.360
but also, yeah, don't take
my mind. Yeah, I want

627
00:53:42.360 --> 00:53:44.719
to be able to think. I
want to be able to move how I

628
00:53:44.800 --> 00:53:49.079
want to move and honor the people
who want to going to honor. So

629
00:53:49.159 --> 00:53:52.719
I love that if you think about
it, and my mom actually says this

630
00:53:52.840 --> 00:53:58.079
all the time, your mind is
so important because it's with you twenty four

631
00:53:58.119 --> 00:54:00.519
to seven. It's the only thing
that with you, like all the time,

632
00:54:00.639 --> 00:54:06.199
you know. And so I remember
being younger and being like, you

633
00:54:06.239 --> 00:54:09.039
know, I'm I'm doing good in
school, Like you should be happy I'm

634
00:54:09.079 --> 00:54:13.480
not out there doing bad things.
And my mom would be like, that's

635
00:54:13.480 --> 00:54:16.280
what you're supposed to do. You're
not doing me any favors because if you

636
00:54:16.400 --> 00:54:21.079
do something wrong or you do something
quote unquote bad, you have to live

637
00:54:21.119 --> 00:54:24.639
with that, not me. And
at the time I was just thinking like,

638
00:54:25.239 --> 00:54:29.039
well, that didn't go over how
I thought it was supposed to go.

639
00:54:30.480 --> 00:54:34.119
But like as I got older,
I thought like, she's so right.

640
00:54:34.280 --> 00:54:37.920
You know, when you do something
in life and you think I was

641
00:54:37.960 --> 00:54:42.320
telling this to somebody the other day, People do things and think that they're

642
00:54:42.320 --> 00:54:46.119
getting away with it, right.
But there's a saying in Jamaica. God

643
00:54:46.159 --> 00:54:51.280
doesn't sleep right. So you might
think you're getting away with it, or

644
00:54:51.280 --> 00:54:54.840
you might think you can do something
really bad and you know you got away

645
00:54:54.880 --> 00:54:59.559
with it like nobody saw it,
or you know, you won the lottery

646
00:54:59.639 --> 00:55:01.199
the next time day, or you
got that job you always wanted and you

647
00:55:01.239 --> 00:55:04.920
thought, well, you know what, I did that, but whatever,

648
00:55:05.079 --> 00:55:09.639
like I'm moving on, it happened. But trust me, eventually you will

649
00:55:09.719 --> 00:55:14.239
reap what you saw, and that
can be in many different ways. And

650
00:55:15.039 --> 00:55:20.239
you can't do things in life and
just think that you can live, you

651
00:55:20.280 --> 00:55:25.079
know, freely and you don't have
to. I guess I don't want to

652
00:55:25.119 --> 00:55:34.039
say pay because that sounds a little
rough, but like you, you can't

653
00:55:34.079 --> 00:55:39.039
do things to others and not reap
what you saw, yep, you know.

654
00:55:39.400 --> 00:55:45.159
And I just think that's really it's
really important for just everyone to remember

655
00:55:45.280 --> 00:55:50.760
to not let anyone take your peace
of mind. It's literally all that you

656
00:55:50.880 --> 00:55:57.199
have. And I think until you
have gone through something where it's been taken

657
00:55:57.239 --> 00:56:00.079
from you or tried to be taken, you don't really realize how valuable it

658
00:56:00.159 --> 00:56:05.480
is. Right because if you've never
been through anything that has attempted to take

659
00:56:05.519 --> 00:56:08.039
your freedom, then you think,
oh please, like you know, nobody

660
00:56:08.039 --> 00:56:12.199
can take my freedom from me,
or no one can say anything to me

661
00:56:12.360 --> 00:56:15.639
or whatever until you're in it,
and then you're like, oh my god,

662
00:56:15.880 --> 00:56:17.840
like how you know, Deborah Cox, how did we get here?

663
00:56:22.079 --> 00:56:29.199
Okay? And the final question,
if you could give your eighteen year old

664
00:56:29.320 --> 00:56:35.320
self one piece of advice, and
yes, Damien, just one, what

665
00:56:35.440 --> 00:56:40.280
would you say? Oh man eighteen
so, oh gosh eighteen. I was

666
00:56:40.280 --> 00:56:46.800
a sophomore in college. I was
on the football team. I had pledged

667
00:56:46.880 --> 00:56:53.960
our Yeah. The first thing that
comes to mind is don't do it.

668
00:56:54.440 --> 00:57:00.920
Oh my god, it okay,
do it? Like I was happy with

669
00:57:01.159 --> 00:57:07.880
who I was in my path,
especially like living for God, so I

670
00:57:07.920 --> 00:57:09.559
would I would have say don't do
it. But obviously life, life,

671
00:57:09.800 --> 00:57:14.679
and everything happens for a reason.
So I think I wouldn't be who I

672
00:57:14.719 --> 00:57:17.239
am today if I didn't do some
of the things that I did. But

673
00:57:17.519 --> 00:57:22.039
I would just say, you know, keep God first, So that I

674
00:57:22.079 --> 00:57:25.840
think that would be the one.
Keep God first and everything I do,

675
00:57:25.840 --> 00:57:30.320
don't stray away from Him, lean
not on my own understanding, in all

676
00:57:30.320 --> 00:57:35.960
my ways, acknowledge Him would be
the advice I would give to that eighteen

677
00:57:36.039 --> 00:57:39.639
year old version of me who I
felt like from you know, going to

678
00:57:39.760 --> 00:57:45.599
church. I fell away from the
Bible at that particular time in INSIGHT's gonna

679
00:57:45.599 --> 00:57:52.000
be twenty So yeah, I wasn't
even thinking, you know, about God

680
00:57:52.079 --> 00:57:57.039
and my relationship which Jesus that at
eighteen, Yeah, eighteen sophomore year.

681
00:57:58.000 --> 00:58:07.119
Yeah, man, madness and badness
combination. But you know what, like

682
00:58:07.159 --> 00:58:10.199
you said, that had to happen, right, because if that didn't happen,

683
00:58:10.280 --> 00:58:14.880
you wouldn't have had the epiphany like, okay, wait, I need

684
00:58:14.920 --> 00:58:17.360
to like run it back, you
know. M hm. So not a

685
00:58:17.440 --> 00:58:22.039
mistake, just a lesson. I
was gonna do the jay Z quote,

686
00:58:22.079 --> 00:58:23.480
but it just came away from me. I have to get better at these

687
00:58:23.559 --> 00:58:29.960
rap lyrics. I didn't need to
college either. I was a little late

688
00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:36.320
to jay Z, but you know, I just used for my launch or

689
00:58:36.440 --> 00:58:39.199
or for the event I'm doing the
Castle nice. Well, if you need

690
00:58:39.199 --> 00:58:46.159
somebody to step in as a rapper, I am available. Right, We're

691
00:58:46.159 --> 00:58:52.840
gonna have some some different music.
There's something gonna be some instrumentals maybe that

692
00:58:52.000 --> 00:58:57.000
you can rap. Okay, you
know it's gonna it's gonna sound a little

693
00:58:57.079 --> 00:59:00.280
like the Queen's English. But I
will do my best not to embarrass you.

694
00:59:00.320 --> 00:59:07.960
I promise you good. You're good. Well, Damien, I'm so

695
00:59:07.159 --> 00:59:13.320
sad. But that concludes the episode, and I want to thank you again

696
00:59:13.360 --> 00:59:15.840
for coming to talk the things with
me. And I think that the work

697
00:59:15.880 --> 00:59:22.199
that you do for underserved and marginalized
communities or just in general is admirable and

698
00:59:22.880 --> 00:59:28.800
inspiring. Problem thank you for having
me. I'm definitely honored that you even

699
00:59:28.800 --> 00:59:34.119
thought about me. Of course,
the health, equality, those are kind

700
00:59:34.159 --> 00:59:37.960
of the things that I focus on, and I think that's kind of my

701
00:59:37.000 --> 00:59:44.280
life purpose in terms of being a
voice for the people who don't have one.

702
00:59:44.599 --> 00:59:45.800
I love that. I love that. And before we go, is

703
00:59:45.840 --> 00:59:51.800
there anything that you want to share
with the audience, perhaps any events that

704
00:59:51.840 --> 00:59:54.960
you have coming up, or where
they can find your foundation or donate or

705
00:59:54.960 --> 01:00:00.760
anything like that. Yeah. So
the pink and Foundation dot org is the

706
01:00:00.760 --> 01:00:07.119
website, The Pinkinfoundation dot org.
Backslash donate is how you can donate.

707
01:00:07.119 --> 01:00:14.400
I'm on I guess zel at info
at the Pinkin Foundation dot org for donations,

708
01:00:14.480 --> 01:00:17.760
but Instagram you will find me at
the Pinkin Foundation. So it's pink

709
01:00:17.800 --> 01:00:23.719
Foundation everything it's not a lot of
pinkets. We're all related. Uh so

710
01:00:23.840 --> 01:00:30.039
that's cool. But the big thing
that's happening is we're doing an event actually

711
01:00:30.039 --> 01:00:37.159
on my birthday, July nineteenth,
down at the It's my birthday. It's

712
01:00:37.159 --> 01:00:46.000
gonna be fun Smith Center Healing for
the Arts. They're they're really doing it

713
01:00:46.039 --> 01:00:51.599
in the community. And I found
this organization via an artist. He goes

714
01:00:51.599 --> 01:00:55.800
by kid and Noble on Instagram,
and it was during Women's History Month where

715
01:00:55.920 --> 01:01:01.239
he was a photography so photographer.
So we had a gallery of just black

716
01:01:01.239 --> 01:01:05.360
women all over the place. So
I fell in love with the space.

717
01:01:05.400 --> 01:01:09.079
I fell in love with Ms Lisa
over there, who is the executive director,

718
01:01:09.559 --> 01:01:12.960
and I was like, yeah,
we have to work together. So

719
01:01:13.360 --> 01:01:19.400
July nineteenth, it's called a Night
at the Art exhibit. An artist,

720
01:01:19.440 --> 01:01:22.719
a local artist named Courtney. She's
gonna have her work up. We're gonna

721
01:01:22.719 --> 01:01:27.400
have jazz there, We're gonna have
dj there, j candle making, and

722
01:01:27.559 --> 01:01:31.679
just a chance for philanthropy as well
to raise some money for the center and

723
01:01:32.239 --> 01:01:37.280
returnal mentality and collecting diapers. So
it's free. It is a free thing

724
01:01:37.400 --> 01:01:40.800
for everybody, but I am asking
that people do bring diapers so we can

725
01:01:40.840 --> 01:01:46.639
give to people in DC who need
it. So it's gonna be good,

726
01:01:46.679 --> 01:01:50.400
it's gonna be fun. I'm getting
a little sponsorship, so I just got

727
01:01:50.400 --> 01:01:53.760
one to email that right before this, I got one from Coca Cola's gonna

728
01:01:53.760 --> 01:02:00.880
be sponsoring. Oh that's amazing,
thank you. Gallo a wine company.

729
01:02:00.880 --> 01:02:07.880
They're gonna be sponsoring some wines as
well. So if you know uh in

730
01:02:07.039 --> 01:02:12.280
Cua Champaign, that's be a gallow. If you know a pothic, that's

731
01:02:12.480 --> 01:02:15.639
gallow. If you know barefoot,
that's gallow. So they're gonna be donating

732
01:02:15.679 --> 01:02:19.199
some wines. So it's gonna be
a good night. It's gonna be my

733
01:02:20.159 --> 01:02:23.039
better be a good night. You
know it has to be. And look

734
01:02:23.079 --> 01:02:27.920
how selfless he is. Ladies and
gentlemen. You're having an event like that

735
01:02:28.199 --> 01:02:30.360
on your birthday. That's amazing.
Thank you,