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Speaker 1: Hello, and good morning, Tammy. How are you doing?

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Speaker 2: Hi erroh. It's great to talk to you again.

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Speaker 1: I remember you, Oh my god, I remember you too,

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because you've got this way of getting inside the creative imagination.

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Plant a seed, let it grow, let it activate inside

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your reader, and then all of a sudden we start

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doing things like together United.

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Speaker 2: Okay, that's the end of the interview.

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Speaker 1: It's nice talk if you six months. Okay, that's it.

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Thank you.

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Speaker 2: That works for me.

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Speaker 1: But you know what, though, Tammy, you say something inside

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this book that really blows me away. And I wish

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more people would would really stare at this line, and

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I hope that they really do love how you say

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two together, the number two together, because so many times

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we go into teamwork with a team of one. When

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I'll never forget being at one of the big broadcasting

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companies and they said, you are the department head. There's

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nobody else in here. Man, what do you mean I'm

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the department head. I'm the department head of one. Come on, stop,

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we don't all know. Yeah, you need a team. You

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do need a team. And that's what you really promote

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here is that we can all work together because you

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dedicated it to doctors and scientists and everybody else that

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relies on a team to find their success.

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Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, there's no I in team.

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Speaker 1: No, well there is. Have you seen that little critical

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game where they identify where the eye is? Where you

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need to go in there and look at that, because

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if you it's right there in the center of team,

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and there is an eye, And I'm going, oh, no,

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I did not want to see that. Oh I don't

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want I don't even want to. And when I saw that,

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somebody proved it to me. It was like, oh, this

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has got to stop. We cannot promote this at all.

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Oh no, I'm covering my years. You also say something

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here that is really right up my alley, because I mean,

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as much as I've been a daily writer since nineteen

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ninety four, I've been a poet my entire life. I

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am poetry. You say justice in action. That's exactly how

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poets are.

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Speaker 2: That's what we're doing. We you know to me, when

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I wrote this book, I thought about what exactly am

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I trying to say? Right, this is a final book

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and a series that began with all because you matter.

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That book says it's exactly as it stated. You matter

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you belong. And then I wrote we are here, which says, well,

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your history matters, the story of the people who came

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before you matters, but together united, What was I really

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trying to say here? I knew that I wanted to

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kind of pass the torch. Kids, shine your light. Here

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are your gifts me, I write, But maybe for someone

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else it might be that they style hair, for an example,

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Maybe that's their gift, and maybe their gift is filling

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people with a healthy self content, self esteem. Everyone has

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a gift that when you bring that together with other

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people their strengths in that. That's my vibe.

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Speaker 1: This book is not just for kids. I'm telling you,

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adults are going to pick this book up. And I

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would not be shocked if there's not any decision makers

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at a business that don't also pick this up and

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start incorporating it into their their rule of law basically

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or there or there they're way of bringing things together

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inside that office, because I mean, the very second you

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open this book, what do you see people together? And

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is that well that the world of business is trying

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to do in a world that is so digitized very

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much so, I.

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Speaker 2: Mean we artistically speaking, Brian Collier is the artist for

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this book, and he did an amazing job. I love

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His concept for the book was, you know, when we

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are you remember going on a class trip with your

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you know, with your classmates. You you're one way in

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the four walls of your classroom in your school, right.

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But then you you take these kids out of the school,

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you put them on a class trip. In this case,

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they go to a planetarium, and this is where they

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really get to see just how massive the world is

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and their place in it and everything. Within this experience,

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they're doing this together, they're learning new things together. Maybe

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everyone has on the same outfit, you know, because you've

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got to stay together. You're talking of people who maybe

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you didn't talk to at school. Maybe you're making a

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new friend. And by the end of the story, you

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see where these kids their self esteem is so gargantuan

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that they become bigger than the planets. That is a

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metaphor for life, that when we come together and we

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do something, maybe we're experiencing something new. This just kind

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of like multiplies our strength together multiplies when we come together.

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So I think that that speaks to just about any industry.

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Speaker 1: Please do not move, there's more with Tammy Charles coming

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up next. The name of her book is Together United.

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We are back with Tammy Charles. Yes, I think it

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was my grandmother or my grandfather, Grandpa Dobrin's that once

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said to me that the inspiration for tomorrow starts with

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the eyes of a child. And if we're not getting

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along as children, and if our children are not feeling

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great about wanting to step into a brand new day,

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where is that future growing to? Oh?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think of that when I write these stories.

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I think of children. I think of how can I

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help them become kinder or more empathetic. You know, my

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job as a writer is to pour that into the page.

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And some of our earliest conversations about that happen between

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the pages of a book. So again, like this is

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such a foundation for them, sharing stories where they get

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to see themselves. Yes, but also I try to write

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in a way that allows them to step into the

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world of other people too.

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Speaker 1: Wouldn't you say, though, Tammy, that you have mastered the

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art of what I call hidden speak. I mean, when

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you use verse as a way to share a story,

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you don't have to physically come out and say something.

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What you're doing is planting interpret you know, an interpretation

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or something another way to look at something that might

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be right or wrong. But let's celebrate it and let's

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grow with it. But I mean, I just love the

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way that you use verse to get inside our musical hearts.

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Speaker 2: Ooh, I'm blushing. I'll take the compliment. I'm really blessing

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over here. I love poetry. I love the musicality of it.

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I studied music like my whole childhood. Everyone has that

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thing that makes them tick, you know, that thing that

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really just reminds them of humanity, their own humanity, And

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for me it was it's always been poetry and music

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and blending that all together to kind of like spark

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something within. So I mean, I don't have much more

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to say other than thanks.

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Speaker 1: Well, the book cover itself, it really has something in

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it that's you know, and I'm not going to be

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the only one that's going to feel this. Maybe they

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won't come out and speak it right away, but the

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book cover really does feature one of the stars here

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is space. And it's one of those where I looked

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at people and said, okay, so what do you want

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to do again? Blah blah blah. I can't I can't.

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I can't. I can't. And in a book like this,

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I go see all that space that's for you to explore,

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go do what you want to do.

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Speaker 2: Exactly, And it's so massive that it's so massive that

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when you look at it you can essentially see, oh,

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there's room for me. Yes, and you know what, there's

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room for me. There's room for you and you and you.

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So again, this is artistically what Brian does. He does

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that with water color and collage. I do that with

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my words, and it all just comes together and it

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just makes my heart saying I'm thrilled that you notice

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that on the cover. Well throughout the book.

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Speaker 1: You and Brian are doing something here because even with Verse,

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if you you can't go into Verse being a profect,

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because it's got to have free flows. And it's just

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like the water colors. You cannot take watercolors and just say, oh,

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it's going to look like this. That's not the way

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water works. Flow is everything in writing, as well as

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putting things in here in illustrations.

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Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, but.

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Speaker 1: See don't you see that the subliminal education that you're

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giving people. I want to try this, I won't. I mean,

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even Howard Stern has gotten into water color and he

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loves it. And he's also a storyteller, and I wish

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people would look at the real picture here and see

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that that's what we as a generation need, storytellers. We

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need people to lead us.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I totally agree. And you know, I sometimes

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tell Brian like, I'm so envious of his ability, you know,

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with art, because I can't. I can't draw to save

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my life. I'm a stick figure kind of girl. But

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but yeah, you just never know artistically what you're going

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to put on the page, very much in the same

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way that I never know what's going to come out

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when I start writing my poetry.

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Speaker 1: It yep, I never know what I'm going to write about.

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I just know I'm here and it's not mine to keep.

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It's yours. Do something with it, because I don't want

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it to sit here and do nothing.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, don't let your writing collect.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, you've got to come back to this show.

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Ten minutes with you is not enough, Tammy Charles.

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Speaker 2: I'll be back. We'll make that happen. I'll have my

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people call your people. Hey, listen, I got more books.

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Speaker 1: Coming out now. Oh so I'm not done.

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Speaker 2: I got a lot more to say.

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Speaker 1: Good well, I'll get you booked. Then you'd be brilliant today.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I appreciate you.

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Speaker 1: Erow, thank you.