Speaker 1: Criminal justice, heal education, Good morning, afternoon, evening. However, and
Speaker 1: whenever you are watching, you guys shouldn't know me by now,
Speaker 1: But if you guys don't, my name is Holly's Sisa.
Speaker 1: I'm the lovely host of this program we call Morning
Speaker 1: Mimosa or We've Got Human Life, just this healing and
Speaker 1: educator for the black and minority communities, and better yet,
Speaker 1: we actually remixed that to specifically say we empower the
Speaker 1: black and minority communities through wellness, justice and wisdom. Guys,
Speaker 1: today we have somebody that embodies pretty much a lot
Speaker 1: of those characteristics, and I am super duper excited to
Speaker 1: have her on the show. Who I've been trying to
Speaker 1: get somebody from this organization to come on Morning with
Speaker 1: Moses for a long time, So it's absolutely awesome that
Speaker 1: she works for this organization. But she's also a martyr
Speaker 1: in her own individuality. Right. But before we bring on
Speaker 1: this queen, guys, let's get out one commercial from our
Speaker 1: lovely partners here at Danelle's Crafts and Harley Hindrich.
Speaker 2: Good Morning, afternoon or evening.
Speaker 1: It is Harley.
Speaker 2: I am the owner of the Nales Crafts where we
Speaker 2: can make crochet items from our family to yours.
Speaker 3: There are two ways.
Speaker 2: So you can get a handmade item for Canail's Crabs,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna tell you about them. The first way
Speaker 2: and the easiest way, is to just pick from our
Speaker 2: available now inventory. We have items like this awesome floppy
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Speaker 2: for sale immediately. However, you might want something a little
Speaker 2: bit more custom like this beautiful red dress. No problem,
Speaker 2: we got you. You would just fill out an order
Speaker 2: form also located on our Instagram page and we will
Speaker 2: complete your order. Something to note about a custom order
Speaker 2: is that custom orders are to be paid for in
Speaker 2: full before we get started, so.
Speaker 3: We can get the material before you and we can
Speaker 3: pay the laborer ahead of their labor. If you mentioned
Speaker 3: Morning Mimosa's.
Speaker 2: At the end of your checkout or at any point
Speaker 2: you're in your purchase, you get ten.
Speaker 1: Dollars off your total, So shout out to.
Speaker 3: Holly for that.
Speaker 2: Continued to partnership and support. If you want to place
Speaker 2: an order with Gnail Crabs, we are open year round.
Speaker 3: There are only two months of the year where we
Speaker 3: do not take orders. Of July because me the.
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Speaker 3: And the name of our company, Ganioker. Other than that,
Speaker 3: order away, we are available.
Speaker 1: Now Dame once again. Guys, that is Nanel's Crafts and
Speaker 1: Harley Hendrix. Please please please make sure that you guys
Speaker 1: are buying from her. Guys, you guys have been promoting
Speaker 1: her business for twice some time and I love, love,
Speaker 1: love love getting based from her. But guys, I've already,
Speaker 1: you know, praised another queen. Let's welcome another one, as
Speaker 1: DJ called would say, to the show. But guys, let's
Speaker 1: make sure we welcome her the proper way. You guys
Speaker 1: know how we do it. Oh my goodness, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you so much for coming on the
Speaker 1: show today. It is such an honor to have you on. Guys.
Speaker 1: I just I want her to say her name, but
Speaker 1: I also want to say it because it's just it's
Speaker 1: so it's so beautiful neoncore. You see how that rolls
Speaker 1: off the tongue. Neoncore. Just it's just sexty. I love it. Welcome,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Morning with Moses Queen. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for being on the show today.
Speaker 4: Oh so happy, Thank you so much for having me, Holly, Yes,
Speaker 4: my name is Neoncore.
Speaker 3: Also the Crochets.
Speaker 5: I need that red dress.
Speaker 1: Oh my okay, Harley does her thing.
Speaker 4: Right, Oh my gosh. And she said that she'd be
Speaker 4: off in July because it's her birthday. My birthday is
Speaker 4: also in July, so I'm like, okay, let's go already
Speaker 4: a connection.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely love it. Well. As you guys know, we
Speaker 1: care about the person that is our guest for the show.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna ask her,
Speaker 1: so just do a little introduction about herself and who
Speaker 1: she is.
Speaker 4: Ooh okay, this is always an interesting question.
Speaker 3: My name is Neil burge Wage.
Speaker 4: I am the daughter of Cecilia, a book, daughter of Nanuel.
Speaker 4: And I say my mother's names, my grandmother's names, because
Speaker 4: those are who I came from, those are we are
Speaker 4: very much so like a matriarchal family, and so I
Speaker 4: gotta get reverence their first and foremost. I am a storyteller.
Speaker 4: I am a radical communicator. I like to say, as
Speaker 4: far as like my job goes, I'm a cancer.
Speaker 3: Piscey's moon, Virgo, rising.
Speaker 4: Nature, girly through and through, and I'm just really honored
Speaker 4: to be here today and really excited to unpack this
Speaker 4: conversation feeling kind of nervous.
Speaker 3: So yeah, like, let me let me grand myself.
Speaker 1: You're gonna You're gonna do amazing. One of the things
Speaker 1: that we value here in Morning and Moos is making
Speaker 1: sure people feel like family. So if you ever get nervous,
Speaker 1: just let me know. I'm here for you. I'm here
Speaker 1: for you. So we're gonna start off with our first question.
Speaker 1: So we're going to start off with the power of
Speaker 1: our story. So you have worked closely with our our
Speaker 1: Story initiative. Why was it so vital for black women
Speaker 1: and gender expansive individuals to archive their own truth rather
Speaker 1: than letting them out, letting outside resources write them.
Speaker 3: Oh, it is such a juicy question.
Speaker 4: When it comes to our story and specifically black women
Speaker 4: and black films to be able to be at the
Speaker 4: frontline of that. I think it's because there's a lot
Speaker 4: of nuance to our experiences. There is oftentimes, like at
Speaker 4: least from my experience just listening to and I say, like,
Speaker 4: when I talk about like storytelling, I mean like throughout
Speaker 4: different mediums, whether that is through communications or like through
Speaker 4: the arts, film, anything of that sort. I feel like
Speaker 4: storytelling is very much so like an Umberella, and there's
Speaker 4: like different ways to tell stories. But specifically when it
Speaker 4: comes to the ways in which I experienced in the
Speaker 4: past our stories being told, they weren't being told by us.
Speaker 4: They weren't or they were being exploited, and so it's like, yeah,
Speaker 4: like you have black women who are saying these stories,
Speaker 4: but the person essentially like producing the story or like
Speaker 4: directing the story or whatever, is using it for their
Speaker 4: own gain. And I think that there's something very beautiful
Speaker 4: when we're able to collaborate as Black women, as black
Speaker 4: fans to be able to not only like create the
Speaker 4: platform to tell the story, but then also like share
Speaker 4: the story in a way that unpacks that nuance and
Speaker 4: then also hosts dignity. So yeah, that's what I would
Speaker 4: say as far as.
Speaker 1: That, thank you so much for your response to that.
Speaker 1: So from the research that I've done in the here
Speaker 1: Black Women's Series, you use poetry to explore complex topics
Speaker 1: like reproductive justice. How does art help us communicate things
Speaker 1: that standard conversations sometimes can't reach.
Speaker 4: MM, Well, first and foremost they hear Black Women's Series,
Speaker 4: such an amazing, such an amazing project I want to
Speaker 4: shout out my good sis free for just the idea
Speaker 4: and the creative direction.
Speaker 3: So it's a three part series.
Speaker 4: The first one was a short documentary which interview three
Speaker 4: black women about their experiences navigating through abortion and reproductive justice.
Speaker 4: And then my part was like poetry talking about like
Speaker 4: the reclamation of the black women's body. And then the
Speaker 4: third one was a call to action when it comes
Speaker 4: to how do we hold lawmakers accountable? So that was
Speaker 4: just like an amazing, amazing, amazing project I would say
Speaker 4: for to hear black women.
Speaker 5: Like the poem the Black Women's Body poem.
Speaker 3: Specifically, the way.
Speaker 5: That I was approaching that project was.
Speaker 4: How again, like how do how do I how do
Speaker 4: we like really like center dignity and how do we
Speaker 4: also use art to transform and open up conversations around
Speaker 4: hard issues. As an artist, I do believe that art
Speaker 4: is one of, uh one of the ways and like
Speaker 4: a very important tool to be able to talk about
Speaker 4: like very hard conversations when it comes to issues because
Speaker 4: working in just like the nonprofit space, like social justice space,
Speaker 4: sometimes language is like.
Speaker 3: What are these big words that we're using, Like what
Speaker 3: does this mean? Da da da da da?
Speaker 4: And so it's like, how do we like translate that
Speaker 4: to something real, like something that you could like actually
Speaker 4: feel in your body and you could be able to
Speaker 4: like open up and be.
Speaker 3: Like, hey, you know, like I don't know what.
Speaker 5: Reproductive justice means, but.
Speaker 4: I do know that I want to reclaim my body,
Speaker 4: you know, Like I do know that I want to
Speaker 4: have like autonomy over my body, over my choices and whatnot,
Speaker 4: and so like what does that look like?
Speaker 3: But yeah, so I feel like for me.
Speaker 4: I've always thought like that art was like that middle
Speaker 4: language that can like translate and allow people to because
Speaker 4: art makes you feel, you know, as someone who creates it,
Speaker 4: as someone who experiences it, it does.
Speaker 5: Open you up in a way, and it's like I
Speaker 5: don't really like let me explore this more.
Speaker 3: Do I want to learn about this? Do I not
Speaker 3: want to learn about this?
Speaker 4: But it like makes you feel something, and so yeah,
Speaker 4: like it's a different language within itself. And I really
Speaker 4: felt honored to be able to even be considered for
Speaker 4: that for that project, and I thought it was like
Speaker 4: a beautiful way, especially like the way like the series happened.
Speaker 1: That was absolutely awesome And I'm glad that you were
Speaker 1: able to be a part of something so amazing, because
Speaker 1: it just seems like you're just doing just amazing things
Speaker 1: with art and being able to translate that with justice.
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's I'm not saying, that's not an easy
Speaker 1: thing to do. So I'm glad that you're able to
Speaker 1: navigate through that. So my next question has to do
Speaker 1: with healing through creativity. So you're yes for me. So
Speaker 1: your work spans poetry, dance, and digital media. Do you
Speaker 1: find that different art forms that allow you to tap
Speaker 1: into different parts of your own healing journey?
Speaker 5: The short answer is yes, Yeah. I think.
Speaker 4: When it comes to writing, writing for me feels very
Speaker 4: much so meditative. I think of my journal as my therapist.
Speaker 4: I think that's the best way to describe that. When
Speaker 4: it comes to movement, it's it's somatic. I'm somebody who
Speaker 4: struggles with being in my body, and so it's very
Speaker 4: important for me to do things that make me be
Speaker 4: in my body, whether that is dancing, whether it is
Speaker 4: like performative are like, whether it's exercise, like I need
Speaker 4: to be in my body because I'm somebody who will
Speaker 4: literally like be like bye, like I disassociate a lot,
Speaker 4: and so that for me is very healing to be
Speaker 4: able to just be grounded.
Speaker 5: And then when it comes to just.
Speaker 6: Like digital media and like multimedia and like exploring in
Speaker 6: that form, that's like my creative healing for real, for real.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I feel like they tap, Like it's just
Speaker 4: like caps different aspects of healing for me and of grounding,
Speaker 4: And I think it's beautiful because I'm able to have
Speaker 4: to be present in order to figure out like what
Speaker 4: kind of expression I'm looking for. There's this person I
Speaker 4: there's like a TED talk that I watched and it
Speaker 4: was talking about like the eight Oh, I'm sorry. It
Speaker 4: was talking about like the different dimensions of rest. I
Speaker 4: don't know if you're familiar with the NAP ministry and
Speaker 4: like Trish er Hershey and the amazing work that she does,
Speaker 4: but this person was just talking about like there are
Speaker 4: different ways in which you need to rest, and the
Speaker 4: ways in which I think about healing is very much
Speaker 4: so from like a rest perspective until it's like you
Speaker 4: need to Like there's like I don't want to butcher it,
Speaker 4: y'all should look it up, but it's like like how
Speaker 4: do you rest spiritually? Like how do you rest socially?
Speaker 4: Like how do you rest physically, mentally, emotionally, and then
Speaker 4: I'm going to forget the other three So I'm not
Speaker 4: even gonna say it, but I feel like that's kind
Speaker 4: of how I approach my creative work too. It's like,
Speaker 4: what are the different dimensions that I'm trying to tap
Speaker 4: into as I'm creating. And not only that, but also
Speaker 4: it's like I'm experiencing because art heals me too.
Speaker 1: I thank you so much for sharing that. So we're
Speaker 1: going to go into the fourth question. We have three
Speaker 1: more questions to go, and this one pertains to the
Speaker 1: spirit of rest. Now. Yeah, so, as you guys heard
Speaker 1: in the beginning, she is she works for the soldierscl
Speaker 1: Sisters here in Colorado because I know I have my
Speaker 1: podcast is national so that I have to reach or
Speaker 1: I mentioned that. So it is an organization here in
Speaker 1: Colorado that she works for, and they often emphasize that
Speaker 1: rest is a spiritual practice. As a multi media artist
Speaker 1: and professional, how do you personally protect your peace and
Speaker 1: make room for rest? Mm hmm.
Speaker 4: That is such a good question and funny that like
Speaker 4: that was the next question I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: Ooh, I struggle with this, I do.
Speaker 4: I think right now, the ways in which I'm prioritizing
Speaker 4: rest is by it's gonna sound crazy, but by saying yes,
Speaker 4: by like saying yes to supper is. I think what
Speaker 4: protects protects.
Speaker 3: Me is whimsy.
Speaker 4: Like I'm a very whimsical person, and I think that
Speaker 4: sometimes in the work, especially like movement work, being in
Speaker 4: movement spaces, trying to advocate for community being met with
Speaker 4: like so much rigidness, it's very hard to be whimsical
Speaker 4: to like hold on to the joy, to like like no,
Speaker 4: like the world is really a great place and.
Speaker 5: It's not doom and gloom.
Speaker 4: And so I feel like I've been saying yes to
Speaker 4: surprises and that's been helping me rest more because it's like,
Speaker 4: oh so like an example that I can give one
Speaker 4: of my friends was and this somebody maybe friend is
Speaker 4: a stretch and my friends, my real friends, they're gonna
Speaker 4: be like, this is your problem.
Speaker 3: You be thinking everybody is a friend.
Speaker 4: But it was a cool surprise because I was recently
Speaker 4: asked to I'm trying to like say my words in
Speaker 4: a way that won't get me in trouble. Somebody asked
Speaker 4: me if I can come to a film premiere that
Speaker 4: was sold out.
Speaker 3: We didn't have no tickets.
Speaker 5: They were like come and I said, yes, let's go.
Speaker 3: Let's pull up.
Speaker 5: And I pulled and it was an event.
Speaker 4: And I don't know if you know about Boots Riley,
Speaker 4: but Boots Riley was there and I got to meet
Speaker 4: Boots Riley.
Speaker 3: It was like so cool.
Speaker 4: He wrote sorry to bother You and then the show
Speaker 4: I Am a Virgo. He has a new movie coming
Speaker 4: out called I Love Boosters. Yet we watched I Love
Speaker 4: Boosters and it was like a special premiere.
Speaker 3: But I feel like that's how I'm protected my resk by.
Speaker 6: Like feeding my spirit, like feeding my creativity, like feeding
Speaker 6: my whimsy, feeding like all the things that make me great.
Speaker 1: I absolutely love that, and I don't I don't blame it.
Speaker 1: We only live once, right, so you know you're not
Speaker 1: doing anything criminal. No, I absolutely love that. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna move over to the question number five, which is
Speaker 1: the the ancestral connection. Hm hm, So I am also
Speaker 1: I was born to Kongali's parents, so I I know
Speaker 1: a little bit. But the question pertaining to that is,
Speaker 1: you have been involved in traditional African dance and drumming,
Speaker 1: drumming assemblies. How does connecting with those ancestral rhythms feed
Speaker 1: into the work of the modern day liberation.
Speaker 4: Ooh, the immediate answer is sankofa. You know, like we
Speaker 4: gotta go back and get it. And for me, I
Speaker 4: have had the privilege of.
Speaker 3: Just being.
Speaker 4: Sitting literally at the feet of many amazing elders in community.
Speaker 4: Shout out to Seneca, shout out to go to Peiju,
Speaker 4: who have they They're the ones that literally like, no,
Speaker 4: you know, like you gotta you gotta be rooted in
Speaker 4: terms of like your ancestry and your spirituality. It's interesting
Speaker 4: to me because I actually grew up a Jehovah's witness
Speaker 4: and so like for me, and not only that, but
Speaker 4: like migrated here when I was really young, and so
Speaker 4: I didn't really have a connection to I would say,
Speaker 4: like my ancestors my just like family outside of my
Speaker 4: mom and my sisters. And so I feel like that
Speaker 4: work has been very important in allowing me to like
Speaker 4: reclaim who I am and who I know to be.
Speaker 4: And it's it continues to just like unpack every single day.
Speaker 4: But I will say when it comes to just like
Speaker 4: the dancing and the drumming, I want to be accountable
Speaker 4: and say, just in case.
Speaker 3: You know, I haven't been to dance in a while.
Speaker 4: I'll hold myself accountable, okay, but I feel like it's
Speaker 4: just so much deeper. I don't know, the work is
Speaker 4: so much deeper than just like exploring the dance and
Speaker 4: exploring the drums and again just like that unearthing and
Speaker 4: opening inside which has led me to.
Speaker 3: So many things.
Speaker 1: Who well, I thank you for sharing that. We are
Speaker 1: on questionabistics, which is going to go into defining restoration.
Speaker 1: When we talk about community restoration, we are often talking
Speaker 1: about more than just finances. What does a truly restored
Speaker 1: community in Denver look like to you?
Speaker 3: That's a tough question.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 5: It looks like, yeah, it looks like collaboration.
Speaker 4: I think that it requires everybody to quote unquote have
Speaker 4: a seat at the table.
Speaker 3: I feel like.
Speaker 4: Everyone has different needs and that's what I've learned more
Speaker 4: than anything in doing this work. And some people's needs
Speaker 4: are immediate, you know, like it's like, no, I literally
Speaker 4: need food right now, or I need housing right now,
Speaker 4: or I need this thing right now. Like some things
Speaker 4: are very urgent, while other things are not so much urgent,
Speaker 4: And so it's like, how do we hold space for
Speaker 4: those conversations and how do we allow people to feel
Speaker 4: safe to name their urgent needs because a lot of
Speaker 4: people don't because they feel like people don't care or
Speaker 4: don't know, or like there's just like people are disconnected.
Speaker 4: And I think that there are different priorities when it
Speaker 4: comes to.
Speaker 3: The city of Denver.
Speaker 4: Overall, everything's just like so spread out, and sometimes I
Speaker 4: wish it would like come together to be able to
Speaker 4: like hold all those complexities because there are people who
Speaker 4: are making decisions for people who aren't in the room,
Speaker 4: and I don't think that's okay, Okay, do we get
Speaker 4: the people in the room and what does it require?
Speaker 4: But I think that sometimes like being in community. I've
Speaker 4: been saying this a lot lately, is like it can
Speaker 4: be inconvenient, and so like are you willing to inconvenienced?
Speaker 4: And so ask the real question like are you willing
Speaker 4: to go, you know, like pick up that person that
Speaker 4: you feel like needs to be in the room.
Speaker 3: Are you willing to listen? Are we willing to wait?
Speaker 3: Are we willing to hurry up?
Speaker 5: So it's a very complicated question.
Speaker 1: That's interesting that you mentioned that because my last question
Speaker 1: for you is pertaining to the creative call to action.
Speaker 1: So for the listeners who want to support social change
Speaker 1: but don't feel like activists, how can they use their
Speaker 1: own unique creative gifts to help the movement.
Speaker 3: I love this question.
Speaker 4: Because it is unique, and I almost think that in
Speaker 4: movement spaces and like social justice and like social change spaces,
Speaker 4: the narrative is that you have to be at the
Speaker 4: front lines and you have to like go and you
Speaker 4: have to protest, and you have to put your body
Speaker 4: on the plane, and you have to do all this stuff.
Speaker 4: And it's like, that's not true. That is literally not true.
Speaker 4: I for me think that the uniqueness comes from like
Speaker 4: who you are and what you are willing to bring,
Speaker 4: whether that is through your art and that could look
Speaker 4: like whatever, you know, like music, dancing, It could whether
Speaker 4: or not you want to like you know, like go
Speaker 4: feed your community, like that's literally you're doing social change
Speaker 4: work there. Whether you want to read, knowledge is power,
Speaker 4: you know, like read, you could read, you know, like
Speaker 4: you could research, you could you could do so many things,
Speaker 4: you know, like and it does it's not just about
Speaker 4: like being on the front lines and like putting your
Speaker 4: body in a line, like there are so many things.
Speaker 4: I think it's more so like for me, like I
Speaker 4: think like social justice and like social change and like
Speaker 4: movement is a value, and so it's like, how do
Speaker 4: you break down that value and like what are you
Speaker 4: willing to like contribute from that?
Speaker 1: And you guys heard that here and that's why I
Speaker 1: made sure that that was the last question. A lot
Speaker 1: lot a lot of people don't know where to start
Speaker 1: when it's to actors, and they're like, oh, they just
Speaker 1: like you said, they think they have to protest, they
Speaker 1: have to march, don't. I don't go to protest or march,
Speaker 1: but I do my detective work from home, you know,
Speaker 1: when I'm trying to solve these cases. So you can
Speaker 1: definitely do things at your capacity for sure. So I
Speaker 1: thank you so much for giving your opinion on that
Speaker 1: last one, because that is very much valid. Guys, we
Speaker 1: have a special treat from this queen today. He's going
Speaker 1: to read us a poem.
Speaker 3: Guys.
Speaker 1: I love poetry. I oh, I mean I used to
Speaker 1: get published in poetry books when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: I love poetry. So I need y'all just whatever you're doing,
Speaker 1: just mute, mute something. Let's take the time and listen
Speaker 1: to this amazing poem that we're about to take a
Speaker 1: listen to today.
Speaker 4: You are so so generous.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is a poem that I wrote. I visited
Speaker 4: South Sudan, that's where I'm from my family, and it
Speaker 4: was the end of twenty twenty three, I think, no,
Speaker 4: twenty twenty four, I don't know, but I went to
Speaker 4: South Sudan and this was at the intersection of what
Speaker 4: was happening with Palestine, and so this poem is called Home.
Speaker 4: I haven't slept since I've returned home. Away from home.
Speaker 4: I slept and rested in my room, a chair near
Speaker 4: the nile, my sister's lap, my mother's buzzum. Even as
Speaker 4: Daddy drove on unpaved roads, I slept and rested, did
Speaker 4: and right now I want nothing more than to ki
Speaker 4: key with my cousin Lily about dogs and traveling. I
Speaker 4: haven't slept since I've returned home. Away from home. I
Speaker 4: slept and rested and love and safety in communion, the
Speaker 4: irony of being in danger, yet that being the safest
Speaker 4: I've ever been.
Speaker 5: That's home.
Speaker 1: Absolutely beautiful, Thank you, absolutely beautiful, guys. I have nothing
Speaker 1: else after a beautiful home like that. We're gonna go
Speaker 1: ahead and thank our wonderful, wonderful guests Neoncore for coming
Speaker 1: on Morning with Moses. Guys, we're definitely going to bring
Speaker 1: her back. She has been nothing but a beautiful insight.
Speaker 1: So once again, thank you Queen for being on Morning
Speaker 1: with Moses today. Guys, we're going to get out of
Speaker 1: We're going to get out of here. We're finally having
Speaker 1: a decent day here in Colorado as far as wether
Speaker 1: and wise, so we're going to go get out here
Speaker 1: and injoy ourselves. Guys, this is Mourning with Moses. We're
Speaker 1: revalue human life, justice, healing and educating for the Black
Speaker 1: and minority communities, or as we have remixed it, empowering
Speaker 1: the black and minority communities to justice, wellness and wisdom
Speaker 1: until next time. We'll see you guys later