Speaker 1: Hello, and good morning, Tammy. How are you doing?
Speaker 2: Hi erroh. It's great to talk to you again.
Speaker 1: I remember you, Oh my god, I remember you too,
because you've got this way of getting inside the creative imagination.
Plant a seed, let it grow, let it activate inside
your reader, and then all of a sudden we start
doing things like together United.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's the end of the interview.
Speaker 1: It's nice talk if you six months. Okay, that's it.
Thank you.
Speaker 2: That works for me.
Speaker 1: But you know what, though, Tammy, you say something inside
this book that really blows me away. And I wish
more people would would really stare at this line, and
I hope that they really do love how you say
two together, the number two together, because so many times
we go into teamwork with a team of one. When
I'll never forget being at one of the big broadcasting
companies and they said, you are the department head. There's
nobody else in here. Man, what do you mean I'm
the department head. I'm the department head of one. Come on, stop,
we don't all know. Yeah, you need a team. You
do need a team. And that's what you really promote
here is that we can all work together because you
dedicated it to doctors and scientists and everybody else that
relies on a team to find their success.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, there's no I in team.
Speaker 1: No, well there is. Have you seen that little critical
game where they identify where the eye is? Where you
need to go in there and look at that, because
if you it's right there in the center of team,
and there is an eye, And I'm going, oh, no,
I did not want to see that. Oh I don't
want I don't even want to. And when I saw that,
somebody proved it to me. It was like, oh, this
has got to stop. We cannot promote this at all.
Oh no, I'm covering my years. You also say something
here that is really right up my alley, because I mean,
as much as I've been a daily writer since nineteen
ninety four, I've been a poet my entire life. I
am poetry. You say justice in action. That's exactly how
poets are.
Speaker 2: That's what we're doing. We you know to me, when
I wrote this book, I thought about what exactly am
I trying to say? Right, this is a final book
and a series that began with all because you matter.
That book says it's exactly as it stated. You matter
you belong. And then I wrote we are here, which says, well,
your history matters, the story of the people who came
before you matters, but together united, What was I really
trying to say here? I knew that I wanted to
kind of pass the torch. Kids, shine your light. Here
are your gifts me, I write, But maybe for someone
else it might be that they style hair, for an example,
Maybe that's their gift, and maybe their gift is filling
people with a healthy self content, self esteem. Everyone has
a gift that when you bring that together with other
people their strengths in that. That's my vibe.
Speaker 1: This book is not just for kids. I'm telling you,
adults are going to pick this book up. And I
would not be shocked if there's not any decision makers
at a business that don't also pick this up and
start incorporating it into their their rule of law basically
or there or there they're way of bringing things together
inside that office, because I mean, the very second you
open this book, what do you see people together? And
is that well that the world of business is trying
to do in a world that is so digitized very
much so, I.
Speaker 2: Mean we artistically speaking, Brian Collier is the artist for
this book, and he did an amazing job. I love
His concept for the book was, you know, when we
are you remember going on a class trip with your
you know, with your classmates. You you're one way in
the four walls of your classroom in your school, right.
But then you you take these kids out of the school,
you put them on a class trip. In this case,
they go to a planetarium, and this is where they
really get to see just how massive the world is
and their place in it and everything. Within this experience,
they're doing this together, they're learning new things together. Maybe
everyone has on the same outfit, you know, because you've
got to stay together. You're talking of people who maybe
you didn't talk to at school. Maybe you're making a
new friend. And by the end of the story, you
see where these kids their self esteem is so gargantuan
that they become bigger than the planets. That is a
metaphor for life, that when we come together and we
do something, maybe we're experiencing something new. This just kind
of like multiplies our strength together multiplies when we come together.
So I think that that speaks to just about any industry.
Speaker 1: Please do not move, there's more with Tammy Charles coming
up next. The name of her book is Together United.
We are back with Tammy Charles. Yes, I think it
was my grandmother or my grandfather, Grandpa Dobrin's that once
said to me that the inspiration for tomorrow starts with
the eyes of a child. And if we're not getting
along as children, and if our children are not feeling
great about wanting to step into a brand new day,
where is that future growing to? Oh?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think of that when I write these stories.
I think of children. I think of how can I
help them become kinder or more empathetic. You know, my
job as a writer is to pour that into the page.
And some of our earliest conversations about that happen between
the pages of a book. So again, like this is
such a foundation for them, sharing stories where they get
to see themselves. Yes, but also I try to write
in a way that allows them to step into the
world of other people too.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't you say, though, Tammy, that you have mastered the
art of what I call hidden speak. I mean, when
you use verse as a way to share a story,
you don't have to physically come out and say something.
What you're doing is planting interpret you know, an interpretation
or something another way to look at something that might
be right or wrong. But let's celebrate it and let's
grow with it. But I mean, I just love the
way that you use verse to get inside our musical hearts.
Speaker 2: Ooh, I'm blushing. I'll take the compliment. I'm really blessing
over here. I love poetry. I love the musicality of it.
I studied music like my whole childhood. Everyone has that
thing that makes them tick, you know, that thing that
really just reminds them of humanity, their own humanity, And
for me it was it's always been poetry and music
and blending that all together to kind of like spark
something within. So I mean, I don't have much more
to say other than thanks.
Speaker 1: Well, the book cover itself, it really has something in
it that's you know, and I'm not going to be
the only one that's going to feel this. Maybe they
won't come out and speak it right away, but the
book cover really does feature one of the stars here
is space. And it's one of those where I looked
at people and said, okay, so what do you want
to do again? Blah blah blah. I can't I can't.
I can't. I can't. And in a book like this,
I go see all that space that's for you to explore,
go do what you want to do.
Speaker 2: Exactly, And it's so massive that it's so massive that
when you look at it you can essentially see, oh,
there's room for me. Yes, and you know what, there's
room for me. There's room for you and you and you.
So again, this is artistically what Brian does. He does
that with water color and collage. I do that with
my words, and it all just comes together and it
just makes my heart saying I'm thrilled that you notice
that on the cover. Well throughout the book.
Speaker 1: You and Brian are doing something here because even with Verse,
if you you can't go into Verse being a profect,
because it's got to have free flows. And it's just
like the water colors. You cannot take watercolors and just say, oh,
it's going to look like this. That's not the way
water works. Flow is everything in writing, as well as
putting things in here in illustrations.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, but.
Speaker 1: See don't you see that the subliminal education that you're
giving people. I want to try this, I won't. I mean,
even Howard Stern has gotten into water color and he
loves it. And he's also a storyteller, and I wish
people would look at the real picture here and see
that that's what we as a generation need, storytellers. We
need people to lead us.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I totally agree. And you know, I sometimes
tell Brian like, I'm so envious of his ability, you know,
with art, because I can't. I can't draw to save
my life. I'm a stick figure kind of girl. But
but yeah, you just never know artistically what you're going
to put on the page, very much in the same
way that I never know what's going to come out
when I start writing my poetry.
Speaker 1: It yep, I never know what I'm going to write about.
I just know I'm here and it's not mine to keep.
It's yours. Do something with it, because I don't want
it to sit here and do nothing.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, don't let your writing collect.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you've got to come back to this show.
Ten minutes with you is not enough, Tammy Charles.
Speaker 2: I'll be back. We'll make that happen. I'll have my
people call your people. Hey, listen, I got more books.
Speaker 1: Coming out now. Oh so I'm not done.
Speaker 2: I got a lot more to say.
Speaker 1: Good well, I'll get you booked. Then you'd be brilliant today.
Speaker 2: Okay, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Erow, thank you.