[Terry Carter]: So now the table is set. Let's chop it up with Stephen Smitty Smith. So Stephen, Aline mentioned that you were residents of Medford, obviously. What's your connection to Medford, and what other places have you called home?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's go from when I was born in New York, in the Bronx. A little short time before hip hop. So I moved to Massachusetts. My mother moved to Massachusetts, to Boston, after my father moved here and started a group. singing group, he was part of the Nine Royals. So when I moved up here, I went to school in Metco, which gave me a different outlook from what I grew up around in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan. With that being said, I was able to dodge a lot of things that a lot of my friends I saw a different way of life. I saw a different way of entertaining myself, of having fun and so forth. So yeah, I grew up in Dorchester where I was born in Mattapan. Later moved on to Rhode Island and to the Poconos. I was in the Poconos for a few years and then from the Poconos I moved here. So back in the day, when you was at Dorchester, Battapen, and Roxbury, you skated at Shea Boulevard? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Skated at Shea Boulevard. We even skated up and down Blue Hill Ave. That's how it was.
[Terry Carter]: Yeah, it was community back then. I used to skate around the streets here in West Medford. OK, so you know. But we went to the Battle of the Rooms. Did y'all go to the Battle of the Rooms? Yeah, Battle of the Rooms is a big dog. Yeah, my sisters went to the Battle of the Rooms. Oh, see? See? OK. That's why she should come. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. All right, yeah. All right, so. All of the ideas that you may have had to own and grow a business, and it's been alluded to at least a little bit, but I want to kind of get some of your perspective as well. How did the elephant in the room come about?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, well, the elephant in the room came about, like I said, during the pandemic when there was a lot going on. First of all, my whole life I've felt that I need to do something to contribute to making the planet a better place than I found it. I love it. You know what I mean? So, you know, I tell my friends, live your life in a way where if anyone talks bad about you, they're to be questioned because you live your life a certain way. And that's how I live my life. And I make sure everybody that comes in contact with me leaves a better person. I try, you know, or with some wisdom, some light. So when it's time for me to meet my maker, whatever happens at the end of the day, no one knows, you know, whatever happens at the end of the day, I will be able to hold my head up because I know I contributed to this planet in a positive way. So I figured when all that turmoil was going on, I figured let me try and do something that's going to raise the vibration and bring awareness at the same time. Also, I needed to make some money. But more importantly, I just wanted to raise the vibration and bring some awareness to some things. And that's how the elephant in the room came about. And over time, it dawned on me because it came about initially over the racial disparities and the racial violence and the things that was going on. George Floyd and all of that was going on that I've seen happen since I was a kid. When I moved to Boston, we had race riots. Oh, absolutely. We were the first or second black family on our street. And we had a riot at our house for like a week. Wow. Trying to burn us out and all that stuff. So that was my introduction to racism. I didn't know anything about that, anything like that. So I've always felt that we all have to play our part somehow in some way. And this is my way of trying to help bring some light to a dark situation, even if it has to go back door a different way. And I know protesting can be aggressive to some to get the message through a protest, although it's necessary. But let me scale it back and take an intellectual approach to reach those hard shells to crack, you know what I mean? And see if I can get to them that way, to start to have these conversations amongst their family. Absolutely.
[Terry Carter]: I appreciate that. So let me just kick it to you again. There is a book, The Elephant in the Room in Prisons with No Bars. I'm not going to try and explain all of what it is, because I haven't read it yet. I intend to very soon. But I just want to give Smitty a chance to talk about his book. I always talk about mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK, I can break this down for you. A Prison with No Bars. The reason why it's called a prison with no bars is because there's a lot of people that are dealing with something that they're afraid to talk about or ashamed to talk about, so mentally they're in their own prison with no bars. Sort of like the victims of the Epstein files and stuff like that. It took them forever to come out. They were in prison. They were ashamed to talk about it, you know what I mean? So many people going through some things, do you hear next door neighbor people in your family that they're afraid to talk about? And you know, once you start to open those channels of communication and start to speak and release things. First of all, you might find tools to help you deal with it by speaking to someone else. It's also just a release to get it off of your back and free yourself and get this information out there, whatever it may be. Fantastic, fantastic.
[Terry Carter]: So let me ask you this. I mentioned it earlier on, you've got several talents. your brother with some perspectives.
[SPEAKER_00]: What else were you into when this idea hit you? What else were you doing? Well, first of all, I was acting and things like that before the pandemic hit. OK. I was doing a lot of commercials and movies and stuff like that. And when the world shut down, I had my daughter living with me. She was 11 at the time, or 12 at the time. Her mom passed. And yeah, so when that hit, I figured I have to do something to try and make it a better place than I found it, like I said. So the kids don't have to go through the things that we went through. And just like starting from scratch all over again. So I just want to get back to this real quick. This book here is a collaborative effort. It's me and six other authors. And we're all addressing different elephants in the room that we've had to deal with and overcome or battle. So it's some great stories, all triumphant stories. So tear jerker, you might need some tissue on some chapters, but it's very informative. I know a few of the authors, I've known them for decades, but I didn't know what was behind the mask. You know what I mean? And after reading the chapters, I'm like, wow. I mean, we sat down and chopped it up and laughed and everything. I had no clue that that's what we were dealing with behind the scenes. So you never know. So communication is key. And the book is published by none other than Queen Vivian here. She's got about three, four, six books under her belt. One of her books is called Mask Off, one of the books. It's mental health. Look into the Queen Vivian. Now we have a little chitty chat because I'm always looking for publishers. You can find this book, The Elephant in the Room, on Etsy.com. You'll find it on my website there. And yeah, we have some here today as well, if you want to purchase it and check it out.
[Terry Carter]: Fantastic, fantastic. So how have current events, particularly national politics, influenced how you've positioned the business as you go forward?
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, man. Well, you know what? Short, tall, male, female, white, black, straight, gay, rich, poor. Young, old. Yeah, young, old. It doesn't matter. Everyone, there's an elephant in the room that needs to be addressed. That's something that needs to be resolved. And day to day, there's new things, especially today. Things are changing day to day. Absolutely. Especially with the war that's going on. The Strait of Hamas and Israel versus Palestine. It's just a lot going on and a lot of information being shared ever since 2020. It's been a lot of information. Think about it, 2020, a lifetime. You know what I mean? It's symbolic. For sure. So, yeah, as things happen, as things take its just jump out to me that's like, okay, this needs to be addressed, and the elephant in the room seems to cover every single topic, one way or another.
[Terry Carter]: Okay, alright, alright, alright, you heard it here first. So, I know you travel, and I know you speak a lot philosophically and promotionally about Teeter, the elephant in the room, shorthand for the business name. How do people react to hearing from you, and hearing your perspective, and hearing about, you know, your business when you go out and you speak?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it warms my heart, man, because, you know, you never know. First of all, it's just amazing that I'm not a racist. After the things that I've been through since a child, and not just once, several times over and over, and the things that I see, firsthand experiences, you know what I mean? And family members as well. It's just amazing that when, I break down the Reader's Digest version of the brand, the mission. It's just so welcoming. Everybody is so, like, just, they take to it. So, right away, I mean, I've had a couple of people, like, in tears, like, giving me hugs and coming back to different spots that I've been at and telling me stories about them addressing the elephant in the room in a situation at work, or whatever people wear, this shirt here in their Zoom meetings at work, teachers wear it at school, because they want to make a subtle impact. So it's great. I love that, I love that.
[Terry Carter]: It's a blessing. So, you know, you kind of intimated about this a little bit, but You've been able to open a lot of meaningful dialogues, obviously, between the shirt and the book and other merch that you have. What kind of things have you heard that really surprised you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I've had a couple of college kids talk to me about wanting to address the elephant in the room in school, whether they have a presentation, and they wanted to either wear the merch, or they wanted to book for a family member. But one person at the store that we just had on the pop-up on Boston Ave, one young lady, she purchased this shirt here. This is the latest design I have. There's no words. It's just for interpretation. Everybody will see it their own way. It's a flag. with barbed wire and a fence, and I left it that way because I want people to think. I want people to dig deep and try to think of what the meaning could be. I didn't want to pigeonhole it with anything. And this young lady, she bought this shirt, and I asked her, what does it mean to you? And she said, suppression of information. She felt like, you know, they're trying and she wants to make an impact in a different way.
[Terry Carter]: It's very interesting because, you know, when you first came in, you saw the shirt and we talked about it real quick, but I immediately thought of this piece of poetry that I do with my crew. It's called, I don't think we're doing it tonight, but it's called Alienation. And the first few lines are, One word alienation or alienation? Well, no, alienation. It's both double entendre, obviously. Nice, nice. And it's, here is a fence without a gate. You can't get in. You have to wait. You can't be foreign or somehow strange. This isn't your home, home on the range. And then it goes on. I think we're playing. We're playing, so yeah. So you can check it out. But yeah, so I dig that. I like that a lot, a lot. How have the last few years gotten you, and Aline probably as well, ready for the next few?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll tell you, I don't know what I would do without Aline. OK. Because she is very tentative to following up promptly. I know that. And precisely, everything, all the T's have to be crossed, all the I's got to be dotted. That email doesn't go out. She makes sure all the bells and whistles are in there. And she's a workhorse, man. She's keeping me young. And I have to thank God that she's here to pick up where I may have dropped the ball. She picks it up and keeps it going.
[Terry Carter]: And you know the Bible says a man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. And I believe that. I'm 38, almost 39 years into mine, so I know for a fact that it's been a blessing. It's a blessing. Beautiful. B is a blessing, yeah. What accomplishments are you most proud of so far?
[SPEAKER_00]: My kids. They seem to be better versions of me, which is all I hope for. Yeah, that's great. They're going to be better than me. I try to give them all the tools that I can give them so they don't have to start from scratch and figure it out. But other than my kids, I would say the impact that I've had on a lot of friends, because lately, a lot of people have been coming to me with their testimonials and telling me the impact that I've had, for whatever reason. I don't know, because I've maybe reinvented myself now in doing the clothing, the brand new elephant in the room, and then, thanks to my sister, Queen Viv, the books, and so forth, but the impact that I've had on my friends tells me a lot. My oldest son, I didn't raise him the first half of his life, and there was a lot of things that, a lot of wrinkles that needed to be ironed out. But I had to be careful because I didn't instill certain things in him for those wrinkles not to be there. So I had to be careful with how I addressed that. That's an elephant in the room. That's an elephant in the room, yeah. You know what I mean? I gotta be real with myself. So I had a nice conversation with him one day. We ended up both in tears, man, because I had to break some things down and admit my part for not being there in the beginning. For whatever reason that may have been. how I feel that there's so much that I need to give him, that because I wasn't there in the beginning, it makes it hard for me to give it to him the way I give it to the rest of my kids because they know that. Okay. You know what I mean? Yeah, I understand. Yeah, so just the feedback from my son, showing me the lessons I've taught him and spoke to him about, all of his friends come to him. Like he's the big brother or the uncle. And then some of them are older than him. And they're like, man, I need to come to you with this issue here because you got the light on and I want to talk to you. So when he came to me with that, he's like, pop, this is what be happening with my friends now. Because ever since, like, whatever you, you know, it's rubbing off. I can see it now, and I see how your friends treat you, my friends are treating me like that, so that right there is just like, wow, okay.
[Terry Carter]: I can see, you know, where good pride in a good way, you can take from that, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we know that pride can sometimes not be a good thing, but in this case, you know, it's good to have that kind of pride in your children. Okay, so... You know, nothing without challenge, okay? So, obviously you've been into this business for several years now. What major challenges have you come up against?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so. Things that I hold dear to my heart that I'm into dying off because of the change of time. You know, just things come and things go. Things change. Let's go with, you know, I was break dancing when I was a kid. That was my love. That was it. That was it. Then when break dancing faded away, I was like, what am I going to do with myself? That's when I met Google.
[Terry Carter]: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Keith Ealy. Keith Ealy. We will tell you a quick story about Keith Ealy. We used to hang at this joint downtown called Riley's. It was right before he got together with, was he DJ Premier? Premier. First he did a big show.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[Terry Carter]: And then he got to New York and that was Premier. And we tipped a few back in the day. Yeah. And he was younger than me. And we had some real good, real deep conversations. And then he went to New York and the rest is history.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, with Guru. My man Damo, he used to breakdance too. He was with Boston City Breakers. I was with Spin City Rockets. So when breakdancing went out, I'm like, what am I going to do? Now Damo was connected with Guru because he also beatboxed. shows before they actually spun records and stuff, right? To start doing the shows. He told me, you know, you should come connect with us and dance for Gugu. For Gangsta. And I was like, okay, that's what's up. But I told Keith, listen, I'm not a kid who play dance. I'm a break dancer, so I don't know what kind of dancing I can do right now out here. But we didn't end up doing any shows, but we clicked ever since. You know, he ended up signing me to his record label. He was a good dude. Actually, I started rapping because of Guru. We were going to a movie soundtrack, a movie, filming a movie, previously premiered it, and the movie was called Brother Preacher Man. I got a little piece in it, and on the way to the set, we were just walking down the street, and he was freestyling his thing. I just started freestyling, I don't even remember if I did it before, but I started freestyling. And next thing you know, he just stopped me, and he's like, And I can hear him. You should be rapping, son. Yo, kid. And I'm like, oh, I can hear him. I'm like, OK, I'm going to rap him now.
[Terry Carter]: That's funny, man. It's funny how the world makes all these connections. I don't know who you knew back in the day. You don't know who I knew back in the day. Come to find out we knew a lot of the same people. That's great. That's great. What advice would you give to young people who are trying to start a small business today?
[SPEAKER_00]: Think smart. Think long term. Be clever. Try and come with something that's going to relate to everyone. Like I said, the elephant in the room, there's not a soul that it doesn't relate to, which is a blessing that wasn't my aim. My aim was just to find a way to communicate empathy. But yeah, and do something that's going to leave a mark or help raise the vibration of the planet. That's the only thing I can say. It'll make you feel good inside. If it makes other people feel good, somehow it'll make you feel good. And the rest will come to you.
[Terry Carter]: I like that. I like that. OK, so, you know, and I have some questions that I kind of ask everybody because the answers are always surprising and enlightening. What is always funny to you? Me?
[SPEAKER_00]: My kids catch me in moments, and they show it to me, and I'm like, don't you post it? And they post it. And they post it. So yeah, I'm a goofball with my kids. But what is always funny to me? Funny can be in a good way or a bad way. to me is cognitive dissonance. All right, okay. That disconnect. Well, where someone is so connected to something, could be generational, it could be, you know, your tribe, whatever. You're just so connected to something since, maybe since birth, I don't know. But when something comes to the table that some truth It's sprinkled on that mountain of lies and it crumbles. Somehow, some folks will have cognitive dissonance. They'll turn away from that truth just to hold on to that lie. So what does that say? A comfortable lie. What is it? You've got to hold on to a comfortable lie and an uncomfortable truth. It's funny, but not funny. In an ironic way. In an ironic way. Yeah, absolutely. I get it. I get it. And they used to be the most intelligent people at the time. You know, they talked very intelligent, a lot. For sure. You know, and that part is like, OK, I see a disconnect there somewhere. You've got to get those wires in order. Yeah. All right. All right. That's cool. That's cool. What is always sad to you? Hmm. Always sad to me is, uh, the division of people, the truth being hidden, what's always sad to me.
[Terry Carter]: I tell folks, I'm sure that there's a piece in this for you as well, that I've been working here at the community center for almost 15 years now. I'm going to take this job for six months, and then I'm going to go kick it and do what I was doing or whatever. And 15 years later, through trials and tribulations and a whole bunch of, I'm still here because there's a mission in it. But what is sad to me is losing people. Because when you deal with elder services, the one thing that you're guaranteed is that you're going to turn around and somebody's going to be gone. And I made those two dedications at the outset, because those are two folks that a lot of folks in here are familiar with that we lost in the last couple of months. That's always sad.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's something that's a very popular sad today, because I've lost more friends and family in the last five years, or I'd say 10 years, than the rest of my life. And a lot of them were younger than me. My younger brother, my little cousin just passed away last Christmas, Christmas Eve, or Christmas before that. So many of my friends have passed away. This is a key thing though. There's a lot of things, like I said, I made decisions early in life on my own not to do certain things that everybody else was doing just because. You can call me a weirdo if you want to, I don't know, a nerd. It is what it is. But those decisions came back to show me I made the right call. Whether it might be smoking the wrong thing, drinking too much or drinking the wrong thing, partying too much, out late all the time, you know, overdoing it with anything, eating certain things, there's certain things I just cut out. I just, it's like, you know, I just, I read about it. I don't want it in me. I don't, you know what I mean? And now I see those things coming back to come back to roots, for sure. And, you know, the lifestyle of eating, overeating or drinking too much is starting to take its toll on people younger than me, and they're no longer here because they never changed their lifestyle. And, you know, that's another reason why, with Smitty Waters, when Waters come in, that was my production company, Waters, when all truth enters reality. That's important, I say, because I'm a big believer in bringing truth to reality. And you can't survive without water. There's none of us here that can survive without water, right? Water is, like, say, the percentage in your body of water is similar to the percentage on the Earth of water, right? So we are of this Earth. You know what I mean? Proof is, if you pay attention to the news, the weatherman, whenever there's a full moon, there's high tides, right? Pay attention. There's high tides. The water on the Earth shifts because of gravity. It's the same thing that happens in your body. That's why people act shifty when there's a full moon. You know, when your body shifts. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula.
[Terry Carter]: Like Lula. Like Lula.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula.
[Terry Carter]: Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula. Like Lula Yeah, sure. OK, cool. So I'm going to give you a word or a little phrase. And just very briefly, tell me what that word or phrase means to you. OK? OK. OK, OK. And this might be hard, right? Because these topics can kind of balloon on you. But racism.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cancer on this planet.
[Terry Carter]: All right, that's beautiful. OK, diversity. entrepreneurship.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a lot, huh? Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot that comes with that entrepreneurship, I would say. Freedom. Yeah, freedom. Hard times as well, but freedom. Yeah, yeah. Freedom, definitely.
[Terry Carter]: Yeah, see, this is why you bring your crew with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You ain't got it, they got it for you.
[Terry Carter]: All right, very good, very good. OK, allies. Important. Very important, very important. And then last one is your edge. What is your edge?
[SPEAKER_00]: My edge is tolerating or non-tolerance of racism from anyone. That right there sends me over the edge. I still know the ledge. I still know the list, so I know how to walk on those conditions. I get it, I get it, I get it, I get it.
[Terry Carter]: Okay, so I'm going to, I want to take it in a slightly different direction because you took it in one direction. When I say your edge, I mean, you know, your advantage over the other guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Okay, so what is my edge? Yeah. My edge, it's several things. Okay. reasons why I do what I do, why I don't do a lot of the things that were in front of me to do and in front of me is because I would never want to upset my family or let my family down or disgrace my family name because my family didn't raise me like that. Another one is thinking for self. Thinking for self, over time it proved that, you know, that was the right thing to do because there's a lot of influences. A lot of people are lost, are wandering around.
[Terry Carter]: Okay, that's perfect, that's perfect. So I'm going to give you the last word, okay, as I usually try and do. So what do you want the people out there to know about you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, you pretty much heard quite a bit, and there is so much more, but I'm not going to get into all that. What I do want you to know about me is the elephant in the room is going to be here. So look for more items, more products, more pop-ups. more conversations, and more doors to open. I mean, there's going to be another chapter to the book. I don't know what it's going to be yet, but this just opened me up to a whole other realm. And again, there's a lot in me that I would like to get out, have to get it out the right way, articulate, and make an impact. But yeah, so we have some merch over here. If anyone is interested, at the end of the day, lectures and the book of course and just look out for the elephant in the room and check out the website okay all right all right all right so yeah the website is elephantintheroom.etsy.com okay elephantintheroom.etsy.com and I have business cards here as well okay fantastic fantastic so thank you
[Terry Carter]: bringing your business and your philosophical insights to our cultural community in greater Medford. It's a unique venture that you created and a challenging vision in the current social landscape. And to our audience, both here and elsewhere, thanks so much for your attentiveness. Thanks for coming along with us as we continue to refresh for greater flexibility and bring you the best stories and entertainment we can. Get ready for something hopefully special on the musical side of the coin. We're going to take a break to reset our stage and be back and share some WMCC announcements Bravo, bravissimo, primo extraordinaire. All right, okay, all right, let's shift the room.
[Unidentified]: I think we need a new cutting. Could I, would you like two of us? close-ups, the camera might fight him, but do your best. All right, everybody can grab a seat.
[Terry Carter]: And we promise there'll be time for, you know, your purchases and your snooping around and your conversations after, right? We won't kick you out.
[Unidentified]: Spend as much time with us as you like.
[Terry Carter]: All right, so.
[Unidentified]: All right, so. It's poetry month, and I'm greedy.
[Terry Carter]: I like to have as many opportunities as possible to get out there with my poet-type friends, one of which is in the room. I can see Robert back there. And we like to go around to as many invitations as we get and do poetry. So I get to, I get to. And so every once in a while, I get to do what I want to do. Not very often, OK? Because I got bosses that, you know, several of whom are in the room, so. But joining me in a celebration of Poetry Month are dear friends, collaborators, And we call ourselves the Ally Project. And the Ally Project is really, really the brainchild of Jonathan Fagan. And Jonathan and I have known each other for several years now. And we first got together behind Jonathan hearing me do something somewhere and saying, you know what? it would be interesting to see if, you know, what I love and what he loves could somehow, you know, come together. So, and we always say we met at the intersection of jazz and social justice. So, you know, I was, yeah. I was social justice street and he was jazz avenue. And now it's kind of, You can't really tell where the jazz stops and where the social justice starts and vice versa. So it's real cool. But Jonathan is also the impresario behind the Medford Jazz Festival. So if you haven't been, we've had it here for the last several years. And we'll be having it again on the third weekend, second or third weekend in August. right out in the backyard here. And it's going to be a big event for the community center. We love hosting it. But we've had the opportunity to do some really, really cool stuff together in literally dozens of places. The original Medford Jazz Festival, which actually ended up being a studio exercise because it was during the COVID. So we did it as a studio, in a studio, and it was broadcast in YouTube and all of that stuff. And we've also cut a studio CD and done some recent work with classical string music ensembles, right? Which is a whole nother flavor, you know, when you add that. to the jazz, and we're hoping that at some point in time we can maybe do that here as well. But anyways, Jonathan, he's an incredible pianist, he's an arranger, he's a composer, and he's a band leader. He teaches music in Concord and probably half a dozen other places. And he has two big, floppy-eared bunnies. Does he look like a bunny guy? He's a funny guy, but does he look like a bunny guy? But anyways, the bunnies are wonderful. He has them with his partner in crime, Sheila. And they're an interesting, they're too interesting. Yeah, they're very interesting. In a good way. Yeah, in a very good way, but sometimes not so good, but you know. Well, because they, you know, they can't get it together sometimes. They just be in love with each other the way, because bunnies, you know, bunnies. I'm sorry, that's my stand-up. So Julian, John, and me, Greg Toro and the big sexy over here, all right? And my man, he really can pat him, just go to that angle guy on the drums. And again, together we are the Ally Project. And so we're going to continue the conversation that I was having with my man, Smitty, at the intersection of jazz and social justice. So strap yourselves in. It's going to be a bumpy ride. All right?
[Unidentified]: All right.
[Terry Carter]: How about it? They gave my people the lowlands, and not much of it, just a few streets high by the river. Banks turned a blind eye behind the red lines. And it wasn't about the money. Class was an irresistible force. Perhaps it wasn't a written rule, but white folks knew the legal tool to keep us in our place in this mystic valley space where slaves and rum and chips had built some mansions, made some millionaires, and hid some old money. So it was hot by the mystic we went, money and a big turn down. where one could be found in this ancient Middlesex County town. But we named it, we claimed it, we made it our own. Even in the heat of summer when the shores were parched and the soil was rank with the decay of aquatic alchemy, we were one with the river. We followed its flow to the lakes On our own Jordan shore, we baptized and blessed our brothers and sisters in Christ. We caught the little fishes to go with our loaves of bread and became the team of multitude whom our Lord Jesus fed, hired by the mystic. We became community. We commanded unity. We embraced the village and raised up our children in the way they should go. As the river ebbs and flows, the tide can turn and our fortune grows. A few more streets become our home. Houses on Sharon join, kin on Jerome. From Duggar Park to the railroad tracks, the color line recedes a bit, and the white folks make more room for blacks. Church and school has such a fit. DeVille becomes a part of it, hard by the misty shores. Now the world has surely turned, and folks who left have surely turned. Things couldn't stay the same. The money mystic most days is clean. The banks are freshly cut and green. Faces once distinctly brown are not the only ones in town. All confines must now embrace what gentry defines, condominium culture, bedroom convicts, university sprawl, access, egress, invest, and dispossess. Now those lowlands have become the highlights of a trending city, and sometimes that success isn't pretty when it's at the expense of your black and brown and tan friends. And yet, the river still turns and bends from where it begins to where it ends. The only place where one can be found in this ancient Middlesex County town, where we named it, and claimed it, and made it our own. All right, so continuing in a similar vein, we're going to do a piece called Cornelot. It's another West Medford poem. standing at the apex of Arlington and Jerome, trying to remember the black and the brown and the tan. Ronnie and Otis used to live in the big house on the corner lot. It's probably changed hands half a dozen times since then. Conrad only's been there for a minute. He's good with his hands and knows his way around wood and tools. Place has been dusted up quite a bit. Picket fence is off-white, but if you know, Asian kid in a Tufts hoodie just whipped by in a helmet with rollerblades. Didn't see much of that back in the day. The university sort of hit on the hillside, trying its best to be a baby Ivy. But the co-eds come here all the time now. Basketballs, tennis rackets, and football paddles in tow on bikes, benzos, and rollerblades. We used to bust ourselves up pretty good on rickety metal skates, clunky keys, and leather straps. Nothing a little Vaseline and Mercurochrome couldn't handle. How did Henley put it in Invictus? Oh, yeah, bloody but unbowed. Not too many white and off-white kids hanging out down here back then. It was as if the invisible lines once drawn to keep us in sometimes kept the other folks out, too. they've pretty much taken over. Duggar Park, the Rhone Tennis Court, and Hervey's School Yard. And a hundred addresses on Arlington, Lincoln, and Jerome. A host of our remembered places, so few of our original faces. Meanwhile, back at Ronnie and Otis' old place, I'm still standing. Like that centurion, knowing that Jesus doesn't have to go in to heal the servant. He just has to speak a word. I guess I keep hoping that he'll speak a word to the corner lot, too, and bring back the black and the brown and the tan. Across the street is the river. It's low tide, but the smell is gone, and the grass is greener than I recall. That was our little park, away from Dublin, a lot less hectic. We had makeshift bases or discarded cones for football and softball. We lost a few balls in the river, but nobody was going into that muck to retrieve anything. We'd probably wade in that water today. They planted some trees there many years ago. They're all pretty big now. Maple and ash, I think. Nobody plays baseball or football there anymore, but there are a lot of dogs frolicking off-leash and gaggles of fat geese daring pitties, pugs, and poodles to chase them off. I can't imagine my childhood without losing a few softballs there. I can't imagine not hearing Mrs. Allen calling James Michael to come eat, or a little Charlie watching us play from his folding chair because his spinning legs were too weak to let him run. I can't imagine that I'm still here, but Ronnie and Otis, Darryl King, Frankie French, Aaron McDaniel, Michael Davis are all Everyone had a nickname back then. Daryl was super fast, so we called him Roadrunner Jackrabbit. Mark was as thick as a big oak tree, so we came up with oak for him. Eric was fun, Frankie was fruit man, and I was top cat. Too cool, ran to school. Everyone wants the corner lot, a little more land, and perhaps the new angles that, the new perspectives that angles create. I wonder if that meant anything to Ronnie and Otis, or Jed, or Miles, or Gil, or Barry, or Coco, or Keith, or Kenny, or Byfield. It certainly meant something to the white folk looking to displace, transplant, and uproot below the color. Black folks built homes here, only place where they were allowed to be, where they could color inside the lines Medford once drew against the perceived discomforts of darker skin. We were here first, first firefighters, police officers, war heroes, shop owners, tradesmen, postal chiefs, teachers, artists, and preachers. We were the human bedrock of the only neighborhood they let us build. The old church is gone. Nelson even changed the street number from 33 to 35 Lincoln, as if to erase the fact that the original Shiloh Baptist ever existed. But if you know, you know. That corner lot still has a corner stone. 1900, and Nelson couldn't do nothing about it without a more draconian demolition. Two more condos in the house of the Lord. Two more houses that our sparse folk can't afford. Two more dismissals of the blessings of his word. One more holy stone rejected and ignored. Thank you.
[Unidentified]: The name of Cornelot. Yeah. Let me see. Let me see.
[Terry Carter]: Moving parts. We've got a lot of moving parts.
[SPEAKER_03]: Your music and poetry is so beautiful.
[Terry Carter]: It's not for you to tell your own story. That is the burden of your children. They must shoulder this yoke with love and loyalty. And yet, you have not gathered them up and bid them sit before the campfires of their elders. You have not seasoned their meals with the spice of their identity and the savor of their names. How will they learn to walk the walk and talk the talk? How will they learn to tell your stories even as they live out their own? Sons and daughters and heirs, if you didn't smell the burning ash or feel the warmth of the flame on your neck, you don't know. If you didn't revel in the growl of the griot's cursing reply or the trill of the mockingbird's cry, you don't know. If mama was too tired and daddy too long gone to carry the wood, light the spark, and stoke the flames, you don't know. And until the Lion Club cub knows how to tell the pride stories, the hunters will always tell them first. The good book says, train up the child in the way they should go. Will we let them depart from the community of faith and the city on a hill without their master's touch, without the oil of his anointing and his full measure of grace? Will we not show them Anansi's clever ways and Popo and Fabina's The prophet says he will encourage fathers and their children to return. But how will they know the way home if no map tries to see, measures the road, cites the peaks and valleys, and names each forest despite the thickening trees? Will the burden of the other stories be too heavy for the children? Will their care to carry, will they dare Will they labor at the foot of the briar? Will they hunger for the wisdom of the sage? We must put them on the page, where hard work earns the man his wage, where power is measured by God's own gauge, where miracles start at the wand of a maid. We must share with them the truth that is loyal and fierce like Naomi and Ruth, that doesn't wait for the confessional booth that has the bite of the panther's tooth. This is a gift of legacy, where a glorious past sets the captives free, and the candles light beckons liberty. Sons and daughters and heirs, I speak to you. Sit before the campfires of your elders, hear their stories, gather up their stones, and build up your strength. They will show you a Nazi's clever ways. Popo and Kavina's journey will borrow those beautiful daughters of people who complied Soon, you will be the herald. Write these things down on the tablets of your spirit. Let them put a running in your feet. With each quickening step, you repel the arrows of the hunter with the shield of abiding faith. You capture the flags of your enemies and gather up their spoils. You remain the lions of the pride, and your tales will always be your children's breath. You will never abandon the community of faith, though you build a thousand cities on a hill, drawing wondrous strength from the master's touch as the oil of his anointing
[SPEAKER_03]: I feel like we're at a nice jazz club, but this is amazing. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much.
[Terry Carter]: We're trying our best to make it work for everybody. OK, so Smitty's wearing that. I'm going to have him stand and show you. He's wearing that fabulous sweatshirt with the fence on it, the barbed wire, and the chain link. So I just want you to keep that image in your mind as I read this. Thank you, Smitty. Here is a fence without a gate. You can't get in, you have to wait. You can't be foreign or somehow strange. This isn't your home, home on the range. You can't arrive in a rickety boat. Our castle has a treacherous moat. We won't post refugees at our door. You're not assorted with a few. Take good note, we stay on guard. We don't want you in our backyard. Despite dangers you seek to avoid, our best deterrents have been deployed. You say your country's full of peril, but like stray cats, we think you're feral. We think you're prone to guilt and crime. We don't want either at this time. more than hope and pray. Our stance is clear on human rights. Lock the door. Turn off the lights. You saw that statue in the bay. It stood for liberty until today. It welcomed tired and huddled masses, not criminals from your underclasses. We've got militias on the border. They own big guns to keep the order. Law enforcement lets them stay to help them keep your kind at bay. Why do we feel that this is good? Why can't we share the neighborhood? Is it because you're black and brown? No, we just choose to stand our ground. Stay in your place, deal with your issues. We'll send lots of coal and tissues. Don't form caravans and run. You'll find yourselves in the sight of a gun. There are no streets here lined with gold. Our eyes are closed, our hearts are cold. There is no flowing milk and honey. American skies are not that sunny. The fences we build keep aliens out. They serve to keep our faith devout. This land we scheme to make our own is ours, you say, and ours alone. As long as you stay on the other side, we can maintain our national pride. Please don't show us your anguished faces. We're cutting back on other races. We know how to win these fights and limit all these civil rights. Safety nets in the wealthiest state will have to stop in the lost and laid. A rising tide that favors the rich. That's our favorite campaign. Me too movements and black lives matter. In all due time your rights will scatter. You think that you shall overcome. Just cross this line, we'll give it a thumb. burning churches, and black boys hung from posts and graves. We'll give you a taste of incarceration in prisons.com, the corporate plantation. We're taking this country back to a time when a brown life wasn't worth a dime, except for the way it worked the field, except for a bushel of crops to yield. We're taking this country back to the day when white meant right in every way, when men of privilege could rape and beat and kill with might than lie and cheat. We're taking this homeland back to the sea. When hooded marauders needed no reason to hunt folks down with rifles and dogs through the lonely woods, the swamps and falls. When confederate flags were boldly raised and crosses in the darkness glazed, and the land was full of racial hate, served with grits on a breakfast plate. You thought the worm had surely turned, and young black bodies no longer burned. Yet here you are, again today, with the specter of prejudice winning the day. The MAGA caps, wear with pride, they let you know who's on their side. The pointed hood and long white robe, fine clothes for the xenophobe. Perhaps this place that immigrants covet can somehow heal and rise above it. Until that day, our best advice, to call this home, you'll pay a price. You'll pay a price as many misguided embrace the hate their voice provided. His Twitter rants and soundbites full of ethnocentric cock and You'll pay a price as higher walls lead great climbers to great walls, where fences are the new condition, announcing the refugees have no vision. This isn't our nation's greatest hour, this flexing of white supremacist power. And yet the season is fully revealing the stain of hatred we've been concealing. So take good note and be on guard of deadly traps around the yard. Our agents are on high alert to keep you foreigners off by. Tolerance is in short supply. We won't let your kind occupy this sacred land our forebears built. We don't subscribe to Anglo guilt. This fence was built without a gate to keep out all who come here late. To all you aliens, we don't like strange. No room at the inn in our home on the range. It kind of gets me like that, too. OK, so West Method. The word that I use often to describe the neighborhood I grew up in, it's an SAT word. It's called phyloprogenitive. Basically, what it means is that just, you know, you love your children. And in the neighborhood that I grew up in, All the adults loved the children so much that they would dime them out for any little dirt that they did. And it's love. They'd call your parents and say, listen, I see little Johnny out there on the street corner. He's doing something he ain't got no business doing. And your mother would say, well, go snatch his little butt and hold him until I get there. And when I get there, I have something for him. And it ain't what he was doing out there on the street. But anyways, we loved growing up in West Medford. And one of the reasons why we loved growing up in West Medford is because we had institutions that were dedicated exclusively to the children. And one such institution was on Jerome Street, and it was called The Little Store. It was a tiny red hovel on Upper Jerome, a bit run down and rough around the edges. And Mr. Henry seemed so old to us, even then, with a lot of whispers, impatient and a little scary. One would suspect that he didn't even like kids, but he really must have loved us. Or else, where did all that penny candy come from? He had all of them. No, seriously. We busted there with a few nickels or a handful of pennies, all loud and unruly. He'd clutch us up while he finished the grown folks' business. Then he'd be back, like a black Willy Wonka up in that old shack. And he'd peer over those old homegrown glasses and tell us he didn't have all day. Then he'd blow over one of those small brown craft paper bags and get to stuffing while we would ooh and then ah and then huff and puff and sing. Mr. Henry had all of our, had all the treats, all of our favorites, a hundred great sweets. Root beer barrels and pixie sticks, squirrel nut zippers and banana splits, green mint juleps and button strips, red licorice ropes and bottlenecks. He had a bazooka joke bubblegum, and a tiny sucker called a dum-dum. Jar breakers and tootsie rolls, sugary love for little kids sold. Candy necklaces to wear and bite, and waxy red lips was such a sight. Fat gum cigars and kid cigarettes, right beside the crunchy six lets. Mary Jane shoes. and beefy bats, hot fireballs and Mexican hats, just the genuine Percy's kisses, all of the hits and none of the misses. Like kid taffy squares and nickel wafers, liquor made in Boston-made beans, gold rocks, nuggets that come in a bag, a kid's idea of sweet-tune swag. Before the days of Laffy Taffys, we would gobble up peppermint patties. Before we knew about gummy bears, Twizzlers always came in pairs. Chewy Cowtails had a creamy filling, but Sugar Babies had top billing. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups had us whistling like newborn pups. Mikey Nikes and orange slices, salt water taffy, and tiny prices. Lifesavers and charms and fruity flavors, we grabbed those bags like potty fingers. Chuckles were a favorite choice, and milk duds made us all rejoice. Jolly Ranchers and bitter honey, we always got a lot for our money. Talk about kids getting excited, you can't Take that candy like a fish, take bait. From cold January to chilly December, all kinds of candy that I can remember. At the Bill's storefront on Upper Jerome, I knew I had to write this poem. See, Mr. Henry had all the treats, all of our favorites, a hundred great treats. Hallelujah, hallelujah. OK, so we're going to go back to that intersection of jazz and social justice. And we're going to play a theme song, so to speak. It's called The Ally. OK, all right, all right. Friends become distant. as if you have some creepy maze. Family wonders why and brings their hands. How could you choose them over us? We're your blood, bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh. They're not like us. They're so different, less than, not equal to, be need. Declarations have been made. Arrangements are in place. These are matters of our canon. Signs have been painted. You're going to be cast out. You're going to be shunned. You need to stick with your own kind. An ally? Is that what they're calling you? Well, it's a hard road to hoe. You're making strange bedfellows. You're casting your white pearls before swine. You weren't raised to behave like this. Our family is a proud and honored clan. We'll never be lower than any black man. There's no room for them at this table. There's always been two sides of the track, a right and a wrong side of town. Your people and those folks. It's going to kill your mother and your daddy turning over in his grave. You want to shout out Black Lives Matter, but the master plan is to make them scatter, to serve them pain on a silver platter. You can't be out there with them. You can't be shoulder to shoulder with the ones we need to dominate, subjugate, eliminate. They want reparations. Well, we're making preparations to give them 40 acres of hell in a mule kit to the gut. You don't seem to get it, son. This is the way the races run. There's not enough room for everyone. The time for black and brown is done. Show your pride and pick up your gun. Pick the side that has always won. You can't be out there with them. You can't be shoulder to shoulder with the ones we need to dominate, relegate, subjugate, eliminate. We're going to move from Social Justice Street back to Jazz Avenue for a little while. And we're going to do a piece. little sexy jab Is this where the Sandman picks up each grain, restoring the beauty, reducing the pain? Is this where we fly to never, never land like a troop of lost boys with Peter Pan? All of the mystery of hidden dreams, nothing now is as it seems. Tell a sweet tale that sugars and creams with flashes of stardust and shining moonbeams. As I lay down to my slumber, paint a landscape of ochre and umber. Let there be a hint of romance. Turn up the quiet. Love wants to dance. Tell me a bedtime story, please, of secret gardens and pecan trees, of babbling brooks and waterfalls, of gentle breezes when summer calls, of hidden havens and wondrous spaces, of astral planes and mystical places. Let there be a melody that sings in four-part harmony, that resounds in symphony, that bowls into dreamland's reverie. Tell me the fable of Arabian nights spread on a table of personal delights, free from the label of anger and fights, willing and Tell me a bedtime story now. As the baby walks in the maple bough. As the blue ox puts his nose to the plow. As the sweaty farmer wets his brow. And each green seedling happily bows. To yield each fruit the ground allows. And seven dwarfs whistle a happy tune. And sleeping beauty awakens soon. Let there be a melody that sings in four-part harmony. Let it resound and simply then fold into Greenland's reverie. This is the time when the same man whispers, and seven broods meet seven sisters, and the prairie sings an ode to love as angels release the turtle doves. But now I lay me down to sleep and pray to God my soul to keep. Victoria on bass, Jonathan Fegg on the keys. All right. All right. We're going to end with something that we love and that we want you to love to love. Nobody ever wants to leave. They're like the blueberry stains on mama's apron, settled and satisfied. Good food has been eaten. Fresh corn and collard greens, fried chicken and potato salad. Bellies are fat and full. This is that room. Oh my god, and girl, and are you serious right now? It's real talk. We're real people, family, you know what I'm saying? We're family. You can smell the love long before the door opens. You know there's going to be pecan pie. And the sweet tea will be ice cold. Southern folks will slip out of their northerness. Access will begin in the country. Shady will feel closer to the city sun. and they'll stay at that table. Long after the crumbs are cleared, the dishes will be all washed, the food will be put away, packed in towel-wearing Ziploc bags. Everyone will have a doggy bag and a story to tell. The men will be playing big, slapping down some dominoes, sitting on a little something, something, and talking big trash. The smiles will be broad, and the laughter will be contagious. The women will be edgy. You know I'm right, girl, you know I'm right. in its system. Soul food has been shared. My gene has prayed down heaven and the baby sang their song. Everyone's tickled and tranquil. This is that room. I really miss pap. Is baby boy's cancer in remission? And when you coming back to church, It's real talk. We're real people. Family. You know what I'm saying? We're family. Thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_03]: Once again, Ray Cole on bass. Gordon Higginbotham on drums. And the maestro, Jonathan Tate on keys. It's been a pleasure getting to know you.
[Terry Carter]: All right. We should take a quick pause for the call. I want to say thank you, big ups, to my man, Kevin Harrington, and his team from Medford Community Media. Thank you to Medford Arts Council, a member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. I want to once again thank our membership and our donors for all that they do to keep this organization going. If you'd like to donate and be a part of the movement that's been ongoing for 90 years here on this spot, the West Medford Community Center, you can always contact us at 781-483-3042 or info at WMCC-US. We take checks, we'll take cash, we'll take take Bitcoin before it's over. But we love having you all in the room and for everybody that joined us online, YouTube, however you may have watched the program, we're just thankful that you came and joined us this evening. We have a seniors program, runs Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. If you want to come have lunch with us sometime, about something to feed you. And you can have some fun with the other elders of the house. We have an after school program. If you had been here several hours ago, there's bedlam up in here. 35 little scrubs running around, wreaking havoc on the place. But we love the energy that they bring to the building. And I'm usually gone before they get too wound up, so it's all good. But this is your home. This is the West Bedford Community Center. You're welcome here. We just want you to know that. And one of the ways that we welcome you is by inviting you to events like this. So thanks for coming out on a Friday night and spending some time with us. Take a look at the wares that Smitty and Aileen brought. I've got some books over there. Smitty has his book over there. And if you're interested, you can Y'all ain't got to go home. God bless you and have a good evening.