Episode 25 - As the Fire Grows

Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. In honor of Juneteenth, and the continual efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement, this week we’re featuring plays that keep conversations about race going. This week: reflective questions, deep breaths, family recipes, sticky resin!

Some of the plays in this episode may contain sensitive topics. For more specific content warnings, check out the timecodes below.

If you like what you hear and want to support the New York Neo-Futurists, subscribe to the show, consider making a donation at nynf.org, and join our Patreon. Patreon membership gives you access to bonus content like video plays! We’d really appreciate any support in these difficult times. Contributing to our Patreon helps us continue to pay our artists. 

Take care of yourself, take a video swagging out doing something you like to, and share it with us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

1:49 - Tending to the Disillusion of Action: A Question Starter-Pack by Anooj Bhandari

5:07 [CW: brief mention of racial violence] - Hilary's steps for being, while being black circa June 2020 by Hilary Asare

7:20 - Quick Dinner Break (recorded outside because the weather was nice) by Robin Virginie

8:57 - Resin by Greg Lakhan featuring Caitlyn Jones, Aubrey Lace Taylor, Lindsay Mayberry, Robin Virginie, and Hilary Asare

Our logo was designed by Shelton Lindsay

Our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean

Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Julia Melfi, and Léah Miller

Take Care!

Transcript 

Episode 25: As the Fire Grows

Show Intro

Percussive bouncy electronic instrumental music plays underneath.

Greg: 25. As the Fire Grows. I’m Greg—a New York Neo-Futurist. While our on-going, ever-changing, late-night show, The Infinite Wrench, is on hold for the foreseeable future, we wanted a place to keep making art for you. And thus, Hit Play was born!  

If you’re already a fan of The New York Neo-Futurists, or any of our sibling companies, hello! We can’t wait to start this journey with you. If this is totally new to you—welcome to it!

We play by four rules: We are who we are, we’re doing what we’re doing, we are where we are, and the time is now. Simply put: we tell stories, and those stories are our own. Everything that you hear is actually happening. So if we tell you we're recording while petting a cat and drinking coffee, we’re really recording while petting a cat and drinking coffee. Like I am right now. 

In honor of Juneteeth this week, and the continual efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement, this week we’re featuring plays that keep conversations about race going. 

Just a heads up that some of these plays in this episode may contain sensitive topics. For more specific content warnings, check the timecodes in the show notes.

Greg: And now, Robin will Run the Numbers!

Robin: Hey, I’m Robin, a New York Neo-Futurist. 

In this episode we’re bringing you 4 plays by Anooj Bhandari, Hilary Asare, me--Robin Virginie, and Greg Lakhan featuring Caitlyn Jones, Aubrey Lace Taylor, Lindsay Mayberry, Robin Virginie, and Hilary Asare.

That brings us to 103 audio experiments on Hit Play. Enjoy!

Music winds down.

Play 1: Tending to the Disillusion of Action (1:49)

Anooj: Tending to the Disillusion of Action: A Question Starter-Pack. GO!

Gentle tonal underscore, builds and echoes throughout

Anooj: How do you describe what it is like to feel safe? 

Is safety a feeling you have to imagine? 

Are there people in your life that help you feel safe?  

How did your relationship with those people come to be... when did you feel it grow?  

What are the things or places that you feel safe with or within? 

Who else has access to those things... who does not?  

Do any of these things involve taking away choice from another... if so, are you ready to rely less on those things? 

Can you imagine a world without those things? 

Can you think of a time when those things have been put at risk? 

How did you respond?

What parts of yourself did you show to your neighbors in that moment? 

Is there another part you would have wanted them to see? 

How do you know that part exists within you... are you working to nurture that part now?

Do you provide chances for others to nurture the multitudes that exist within them?  

What do you believe are the signs of a successful community member?  

Where did those ideas come from? 

Do those ideas give way to more than a singular path to happiness?

Have you ever seen happiness expressed in a way that is singular? 

What are the sacrifices that have had to be made in order for you to be happy? 

Under what circumstances are you willing to sacrifice that happiness?  

When you express, what do you use more, your voice or your senses? 

What happens if you change that dynamic? 

Do you show up to spaces that lead to the greater use of systems rooted in control? Rooted in exclusion?   

Where else might you be able to occupy space? 

Where else might you be able to occupy space that divests from those systems?  

Where else might your resources be able to occupy space? 

Can you think back to those people who make you feel safe?

What would you do if those people did something you believed was wrong?  

If your relationship with them was an action, a ritual, what might it look like? 

Are you able to do that ritual now? 

Can you repeat it? 

Can you repeat it, again? 

If you repeat it, do you feel anything tearing down? 

If you repeat it, do you feel yourself reminded of the chance to build something anew? 

Music fades out

Play 2: Hilary's steps for being, while being black (5:07)

Hilary: Hilary's steps for being, while being black circa June 2020. GO!

Hilary: Step 1 inhale, (Hilary inhales) exhale (Hilary exhales). repeat (Hilary breathes in and out).

Step 2. remember, remember the -- before you see it

Step 2a cry

Step 3 search for patience, forgive yourself if you can't find any

Step 4 decide a red heart emoji is the most you can offer, and maybe too much for the white people suddenly interested in your well being and how you are doing in

this. par.tic.u.lar. mo.ment.

and honor your anger because their best is not enough. How is this news to them? Anti-blackness isn't new and you told them, you’ve tried to tell them that lynchings didn’t stop--they got covert and codified. Why didn’t they hear you then? Why didn’t--

Step 4a cry, again

Step 4b remember your anger is valid

Step 4c send the heart emoji 

Step 5 escape, dissipate, float.

Step 6 reach for some joy, forgive yourself if you can't find any but keep your hand out--it's coming--It's coming--

Step 7 donate, sign the petitions, share, tweet, retweet, worry it's not enough, accept you cannot do everything. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Step 8 Receive it when it comes

Step 9 remember why. love blackness, love your blackness, love their blackness. 

Step 10 

Hilary inhales and exhales several times, slowly fading out

Play 3: Quick Dinner Break (7:20)

Robin: Quick Dinner Break (recorded outside because the weather was nice). GO!

Background noise of Robin outside, featuring bird songs

Robin: Keshi Yená. Keshi Yená is one of Curaçao’s signature dishes. It’s often made with chicken or goat, tomato sauce, raisins, an array of vegetables and various herbs and spices which are all stuffed into a scooped-out cheese shell. Usually Gouda cheese. “Gouda” cheese. You pop the whole thing in the oven and out comes this hot, ooey-gooey, cheesy dish. Yum.

My mom often talks about Keshi Yená and its history. The Dutch enslavers, the Dutch oppressors, loved their cheeses but they had no purpose for the rinds. The rinds were trash. And so sometimes, the enslaved people were allowed to keep the emptied out cheese shells and take them home. They would fill the shells with whatever ingredients were available to them and out came one of the island’s most loved dishes.

When my mother tells me this story, I hear: “We can make magic out of anything.”

I also hear: “They see what we create from scraps. Do they fear our power once we get access to the full meal?”

Background noise fades out

Play 4: Resin (8:57)

Greg: Resin. GO!

Greg: Blood of a slave 

Remains in the past

My vessel, here in present

Happiness fleeting 

Pressure the cause of Depression 

Sounds like hands rubbing 

Sticks like resin

Wanna walk tall like a king

But it’s safer to keep my head down like a peasant 

Wanna spread my wings

Get a taste of heaven 

But can’t maintain ascension 

Sound of hands rubbing settles into a faster steady rhythm

Black and trapped in reality

Expectations create a duality

So I walk this earth callously 

Not enough of a nigga and

Niggas get mad at me

Clap

I wish I was still 5

Had healthier ways to kill time 

Sex worker cuz the brain sells

I’m always killing time tryna kill mine 

Background vocals: Mmm

On a search for a happy place

Background vocals: inhale

Wanna try and find acceptance but loneliness is a feeling I can’t escape

Background vocals: exhale

Need to find a new perspective, need some new views

Need a different landscape 

Background vocals: inhale

Butterfly in a cocoon feel so stuck 

Always tryna save face

Background vocals: exhale

Race relations like a prank war

Know I’m privileged and I’m thankful

Background vocals: inhale

Growing tendency to think more

Notice that I smoke and drink more

Background vocals: exhale

Wishing I could just be me but

People refuse to SEE me

An Innovative self starter 

Loyal friend trustworthy partner

Energy that I exude and harbor

Makes it seem like I ain’t really out of order

Background vocals: Mmm

Break the mold so I’m compared to trash

You can call me old, bold, and brash

Just a nigga so I’m never peakin 

Preconceived notions make me crash land

Background vocals: Mmm, snap

I’m not athletic

Sorry if I do not fit the aesthetic 

I speak clearly and I have good credit

I smoke weed and and my hair has been dreaded

Stomp

I’m not in a gang, opposite of a menace

Stomp

Tired of women who date me for fetish

Stomp

I want to be wedded your (stomp) love is synthetic 

I like my chicken when it’s fried (stomp) or it’s breaded (stomp)

And if that bothers you, you’re fuckin pathetic 

The way we treat niggas is fucking HORRENDOUS

And niggas a part of the problem too

The irony is tremendous

Always feel like I’m under attack 

Not black enough for the whites

Too white for the blacks

Scattered claps

But I am just me

And I am enough

That's fucking facts! 

Scattered claps in a faster rhythm play out 

Show Outro (10:55)

Bouncy percussive electronic instrumental music plays underneath.

Greg: Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. If you liked what you heard, subscribe to the show and tell a friend! If you want to support the New York Neo-Futurists in other ways, consider making a donation at nynf.org, or joining our Patreon–Patreon.com/NYNF. Patreon membership gives you access to bonus content like video plays and livestreams. And if this episode gets over 1,000 downloads, we'll order one of our Patreon supporters a pizza on us. We’d really appreciate any support in these difficult times. Contributing to our Patreon helps us continue to pay our artists. 

Take care of yourself, take a video swagging out doing something you like to, and share it with us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

This episode featured work by: Anooj Bhandari, Hilary Asare, Robin Virginie, and me--Greg Lakhan featuring Caitlyn Jones, Aubrey Lace Taylor, Lindsay Mayberry, Robin Virginie, and Hilary Asare.

Our logo was designed by Shelton Lindsay. And our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean. Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Léah Miller, and me, Julia Melfi. Take Care!

Music plays out!