00;00;00;01 - 00;00;16;15

Arlene Sweeting

What is our goal? What do we hope to accomplish? Well, for me and this sounds very cliché, but it's always been about changing the world Hi.

00;00;18;11 - 00;00;36;20

Malaika Hollist

Welcome to Season two of the Arts Axis Florida podcast. I'm your host, Malaika Hollist. Each episode we amplify the voices of the diverse art nonprofit organizations in our community. Conversations Community and Connection is right here on the Arts Axis Florida podcast.

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Malaika Hollist

Support for Arts Axis Florida comes from Community Foundation Tampa Bay, championing philanthropy, encouraging and connecting givers to bring lasting good investing in education and economic mobility. Learn more at C F Tampa Bay dot org. Thats C F Tampa Bay dot org. This episode is jam packed as we enter the world of spoken word and the upcoming event poets unplugged an evening of spoken word and music.

00;01;22;00 - 00;01;52;10

Malaika Hollist

First, we speak with Arlene Sweeting, co-founder of WSLR 96.5 Community Radio and Fogartyville, she tells us about their origin story and how they hope to change the world through shared community. Then Arlene introduces us to Melanie Lavender, and Carla Christopher, two talented spoken word art as part of the event. They share their different journeys of coming to spoken word, the origin of the arts and what they believe the art of words can do for humanity as a whole.

00;01;54;09 - 00;02;01;13

Malaika Hollist

Hi, Arlene. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. Would you like to introduce yourself to our listeners?

00;02;02;10 - 00;02;26;07

Arlene Sweeting

Of course. My name is Arlene Sweeting, and I am one of the founders of WSLR and Fogartyville. Founded Fogartyville first with my partner, Dave Beaten up in Bradenton, and then we applied for the license for WSLR and got that a little later on. We'll talk more about that. But I currently serve on the management team. I'm a former middle school teacher and a community organizer.

00;02;26;22 - 00;02;31;00

Malaika Hollist

OK, so how did you come up with the name Fogartyville? How do I pronounce that word?

00;02;31;00 - 00;03;00;15

Arlene Sweeting

Pronouncing Fogartyville? Yes, that's an interesting story, actually. So Fogartyville was originally located in Bradenton, right behind McKechnie Field, which is where the Pittsburgh Pirates do their spring training and I lived on 42nd Street in Bradenton and a dead end end to the Fogartyville Cemetery. So when Dave and I were looking at founding the community coffeehouse, which actually grew out of a campaign for the statehouse that I ran, so I ran for the statehouse back in the year 2000.

00;03;00;22 - 00;03;24;16

Arlene Sweeting

And I met Dave and he became my campaign manager, and we didn't win the campaign. Well, we really we had a good time together, you know, and we energized a lot of the community. It was a really, really grassroots campaign. We got a lot of people involved and engaged. And when the campaign was over, we were like, How can we keep some of this energy going right to keep making our community better?

00;03;24;27 - 00;03;56;28

Arlene Sweeting

And we originally thought, Well, let's look for a print shop and we'll start a community newspaper. And so we started looking around town for properties, and what we found was the old Greyhound bus station, and it was a great building And, you know, we wound up not doing the community newspaper, but doing the community coffeehouse, a place where people could come and gather to talk about issues of concern to express themselves in many different ways.

00;03;56;29 - 00;04;19;08

Arlene Sweeting

We had improv night, we had open mic night, we did table talks about local issues. And then, of course, we started bringing in great live music . When we were brainstorming names for this new entity. They were throwing out a lot of things and walking to the to the cemetery one day. He said, Well, why don't we call it Fogartyville?

00;04;19;17 - 00;04;41;17

Arlene Sweeting

And I said, There's no way people won't be able to spell it. They'll think we're naming it that because of John Fogerty, you know, and. And he said, Well, I kind of like it. So we did some research, and he found out that the Fogerty family, first of all, were some of the original settler settlers in Bradenton and living there on the south shore of the Bradenton River.

00;04;41;27 - 00;05;09;10

Arlene Sweeting

OK. And Madame Joe Assaraf, whose family married into the Fogerty family, grew the first pound of coffee ever grown in the United States. And she spent £4 of that coffee to the president at that time, Rutherford Hayes and he and return sent her a gold coin commemorating the first town of coffee ever grown in the United States. And so when he found that out, I was like, OK, you win, OK, it's be fine.

00;05;11;09 - 00;05;14;27

Arlene Sweeting

So that's how we became the Fogartyville Community Coffee House in Bradenton.

00;05;15;02 - 00;05;33;08

Malaika Hollist

Your site describes for Fogartyville as Sarasota's premier listening room. But as you've already said, it's not just that it hosts other arts, cultural events, educational events, sponsored events. What is your main goal that you hope to accomplish in your community with Fogartyville?

00;05;33;20 - 00;05;56;05

Arlene Sweeting

We are now in Sarasota. WSLR now owns and operates the Nobody Bill. And what is our goal? What do we hope to accomplish? Well, for me this sounds very cliché, but it's always been about changing the world. You know, I don't know if you've heard the phrase change the media, change the world. So media is an important part of it.

00;05;56;15 - 00;06;24;05

Arlene Sweeting

But bringing people together in community is really an important part of that, too. And so our mission is really the same with both organizations with WSLR and the center to build a more just and peaceful world. And how do you go about doing that? Well, we try to do it by giving those who've been disenfranchized and marginalized a voice by speaking truth to power, by building community, by putting out the welcome mat and inviting people in.

00;06;24;29 - 00;06;29;12

Arlene Sweeting

By supporting artists, musicians and others that are working for positive change in our community.

00;06;29;24 - 00;06;43;02

Malaika Hollist

Awesome. I love it. Speaking of all that you do in this episode, we wanted to talk about one of your upcoming events, Poets Unplugged, an evening of Spoken Word and music. Would you mind telling us a little bit about this event?

00;06;43;27 - 00;07;11;04

Arlene Sweeting

Sure. We're really excited to bring spoken word back to Fogartyville . We haven't hosted spoken word events really since we left Bradenton, so this will be a foray into something a little new for us down here. And it came together a little organically last year. Asla was working on their strategic plan, and we held a number of listening sessions with different sectors of the community and we held one with our African-American community members.

00;07;11;13 - 00;07;34;20

Arlene Sweeting

And one of the things we heard over and over again is we really would like you to host spoken word events. And, you know, how the universe works. I got a call shortly thereafter from a member of the community that said, Do you know Melanie Lavender? And I said, No. And they said, well, you know, she is a spoken word artist here in town, and she is really doing great stuff.

00;07;34;29 - 00;07;57;05

Arlene Sweeting

I think she had just performed at an event hosted by Selby Gardens that this person had attended. And they were like, man, she is on fire. You need to connect with her and make something happen, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So we reached out to Melanie and started the conversation and put this series together. And then, you know, we've been a longtime partner with New College of Florida.

00;07;57;05 - 00;08;24;18

Arlene Sweeting

We work with them on their Black History Month and partner on different events. So we reached out to them because we were going to be kicking off in February. And so I called Dr. Mecca, Zabriskie and said, Dr. Zabriskie, you know, do you guys want to partner on this event? She's like, Of course we do. And then she called in Dean Rosario from Ringling College, and Dean Rosario was like, Carla Christopher, who was here last year for Black History Month, was so sensational with the workshops she put on.

00;08;24;18 - 00;08;46;01

Arlene Sweeting

You know, she really just created such a great atmosphere of unity and connectedness. She would be the perfect poet to kick this off. So she reached out, and here we are with Carla Christopher coming in, the poet laureate from York, Pennsylvania, to kick our off our Spoken Word series and great collaboration with the colleges here in town and with Melanie hosting.

00;08;46;01 - 00;08;49;05

Arlene Sweeting

And we're going have a DJ. It's going to be fantastic.

00;08;49;16 - 00;08;55;25

Malaika Hollist

Oh, that's so exciting. And it starts, I believe, February 11th. Right. How long is it running for?

00;08;56;20 - 00;09;21;21

Arlene Sweeting

So we're going to it's the second Saturday of the month for four months. So February, March, April and May. And we have in March, we're going to be working with a group called Greatness Beyond Measure. They work with youth in our community, and they'll be our featured performers. In April, we're bringing down the black on black rhyme troupe from Tampa and we're going to close out in April, and Melanie Lavender will be our featured performer.

00;09;22;19 - 00;09;38;00

Malaika Hollist

Oh, that's so exciting. I definitely want to check that out. I've heard a lot about spoken word too. I feel like it's kind of taking off all of a sudden over the past year, it's just been coming up and there's quite a few events that I've heard of around town, so I would definitely want to check this out.

00;09;38;14 - 00;09;52;19

Arlene Sweeting

Yeah. And you know, Melanie has been really responsible for the growth of the spoken word community here in the Bradenton, Sarasota area. She's put a lot of energy and effort into it over the past couple of years, and we see things really coming to fruition, I think, right now for all the hard work she's put in.

00;09;52;26 - 00;09;55;23

Malaika Hollist

Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Arlene.

00;09;56;03 - 00;10;02;10

Arlene Sweeting

Hey, thanks for having me. I think you'll be speaking to both of our poets, so you'll get lots of information from them.

00;10;08;24 - 00;10;30;23

Malaika Hollist

So I'm here with Melanie and Carla to talk more in detail about spoken word and their upcoming event they're involved in called Poets Unplugged, an evening of Spoken Word and Music. So first question, Melanie, Carla, thank you again. For being here with us today. Would you like to take a moment to introduce yourself to the audience and Melanie, if you'd like to go first?

00;10;31;02 - 00;10;54;28

Melanie Lavender

I am Melanie Lavender. I am a spoken word artist from Sarasota, Florida. I'm also a podcaster and radio host, a mom, a business owner, a wife, all of those things. But the poetry and the spoken word give me meaning and has found my focus and passion.

00;10;54;28 - 00;10;56;02

Malaika Hollist

Karla,

00;10;56;02 - 00;11;09;12

Carla Christopher

I am the priestess speaking in the tradition of Debra and Mary the Magdalene I'm unashamed, my feminine energy rising with the shofar, sacred intensity with the musicality of my poetryI.

00;11;10;00 - 00;11;37;17

Carla Christopher

I create sacred sounds, and I surround you with the incense of praise, raised voices discarding pretense for joyful noises. I make the stage into sacred ground. So you can probably guess by that. I am actually a Lutheran pastor. I was a case manager and a nonprofit grassroots activists, as well as a poet and arts and activism are very much tied for me.

00;11;37;25 - 00;12;03;26

Carla Christopher

And now I work in faith based communities, but also with nonprofits. And educational systems, trying to bring justice and mitigating the harm done against the bodies of particularly black and brown LGBTQ the differently abled people, and do a lot of that raising awareness and building relationship through personal stories told in the forms of art, poetry, spoken word.

00;12;04;02 - 00;12;20;06

Malaika Hollist

Awesome. Thank you both so much. And I wanted to know, can you both tell me why spoken word performances can be so powerful? Or why do you believe the art of spoken word is such an effective performance medium? Melanie.

00;12;20;16 - 00;12;56;02

Melanie Lavender

I feel that it is one of the best forms of healing you can ever experience through telling your story. You're able to connect with people who have a similar journey. Most of us have dealt with right now. Grief is a very big one. Depression, anxiety, piety, joy, happiness, excitement. You're able to, with spoken word, give back to the people and in turn encourage them and feed their souls as well as features.

00;12;56;27 - 00;13;01;10

Melanie Lavender

It is a way we commune with each other through spoken word

00;13;01;10 - 00;13;41;28

Carla Christopher

and I would say that if we look back through history, right, and we ask, tell me about the newspapers that you are familiar with from 50 years ago, a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, the answer is very few. If you say, tell me about the poetry, you know, tell me about the stories that you remember, the plays, the beautiful pieces of art, even the fashion or the food that tells you about the experiences of your tribe from 50 years ago, a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, people can answer that.

00;13;41;28 - 00;14;22;02

Carla Christopher

We are still studying and learning about cultures and learning insights into what worked and didn't work. The struggles of history, the struggles of justice through the freedom songs of the sixties, all the way back to translations of ancient texts from Assyria and Babylon. Near well before the time of Jesus. So, you know, we have so much knowledge contained in the poetic arts because it is a combination of factual and cultural and those personal heart stories that we can empathize with and see ourselves with and find ourself inside.

00;14;22;13 - 00;14;57;06

Carla Christopher

We develop relationship when people share through those personal stories and those powerful metaphors, those images that characterize spoken word. And I think that makes the impact last. It makes the potential for change become much stronger than if we simply put a table of facts or a recitation of statistics in front of folks. We're here for change. And for that, we need the change to be in people's hearts, not just their heads

00;14;57;21 - 00;15;01;15

Melanie Lavender

That was me snapping because Snaps for her

00;15;01;27 - 00;15;14;03

Malaika Hollist

Snaps for her. So I had a question for both of you, but I'll start with Carla. I'm just curious what what got you started in spoken word? How did you find yourselves in that medium?

00;15;14;16 - 00;16;40;23

Carla Christopher

So when I was four or five, I first started dancing and I was in an accident when I was around 11 years old. And the doctors told me that not only would I not dance again ever but that I would likely never walk again without support or assistance of some kind. And so I spent the next five or six years having to learn to rewalk, having to learn to build my body. there was so much happening inside my spirit. I mean, to have someone clinically and coldly look you in the eye and tell you the entire future that you've envisioned for yourself is taken away. There was no one that I could talk to about it. I couldn't even talk to mAndyself about it. You know, you don't have that vocabulary at 11, 12, 13, 14. And that's when I started journaling. I started writing poetry I started writing songs as a way to understand my own emotions. And I had a teacher bless this woman who recognized that I was struggling and gave me the opportunity to share my poetry in some community nights, you know, got me involved in my first poetry competition. And, you know, so I'm a little, you know, middle schooler when in a poetry competition at my school, and, you know, I felt reborn.

00;16;41;02 - 00;17;22;03

Carla Christopher

And I realized that in telling my story and sharing my thoughts, I could actually help other people as well as help myself. And that just became the win win that has continued throughout my entire life. Probably the most popular poem that I frequently recite is one about being a survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence. And when I read that poem, I always say the first time that I recite this piece and someone doesn't come up to me in tears afterwards and say, You told my story.

00;17;22;28 - 00;17;46;25

Carla Christopher

You know, I'm a stop reciting it because I know my work is done, but I've been reciting this poem for ten years, 15 years. The years just keep stacking up, and that has never once happened. Every time I have recited that poem, someone has come up to me, cried, hugged, reached their hands out to me, said, Sister, you told my story and I needed to hear that.

00;17;46;25 - 00;18;09;14

Carla Christopher

And the last lines are just, You are beautiful, you are worthy of love. And I say this because there's always a survivor in the room, and the effect that has on individuals is so powerful so that it just keeps me at the computer. It keeps me with the pen,

00;18;09;14 - 00;18;15;04

Melanie Lavender

definitely. Wow. For me, it was the death of my cousin Victor Ross.

00;18;16;03 - 00;19;17;16

Melanie Lavender

He was killed in Philadelphia, and he was definitely that big brother that I always wanted that got me to writing. And I was 17 at the time, just trying to figure out how I felt. Then I started to perform and go out into my community after the death of my father and spoken word in the stage was a way for me to deal with the anger that came with that. My father was killed by two white men walking his dog one evening after dialysis, and I had a superhero as a dad. A dad that was present and there in the home, one I could talk to. And in order for me to deal with that anger and rage of loss of grief, I put it into my poetry. I spent my time writing out my anger.

00;19;17;16 - 00;19;23;09

Melanie Lavender

Not every piece became angry, but every piece became a call to action.

00;19;24;14 - 00;19;38;29

Malaika Hollist

Starting February 12th, Fogartyville will be creating a four part series around spoken word with the theme Truth and Power. Melanie, what are you hoping this event will do to positively influence the community, particularly marginalized communities?

00;19;39;23 - 00;20;14;10

Melanie Lavender

My goal with this is to show that the written word, that spoken word that poetry has the ability to heal first ourselves. If we can heal ourselves through our words, through recognizing what we're angry or what we're feeling at that time, and allow us to work through it by giving other examples of poets bringing Karla in, dealing with those traumatic veins from our ancestors is a part of the healing journey.

00;20;14;19 - 00;20;50;18

Melanie Lavender

And so I'm hoping this will inspire our future poets in Sarasota, as well as in other places, to write more to connect with yourself, to go in, and to realize that I don't I might not play football, I might not be a basketball or an athlete or an actor, but I do have a voice and I do have paper and pen, and that has the ability to change my entire world you've changed in the entire world.

00;20;51;03 - 00;21;27;18

Carla Christopher

I absolutely have been learning about trauma informed care and recognizing that we are in a period of trauma. Right. With this with this pandemic, the isolation it's causing the economic, the political instability, the raw confrontation with injustice in our society. You know, we're not OK not any of us. We're all affected in some way, shape or form. And that shows up in our health, in our heart rate, in our digestive systems.

00;21;27;18 - 00;22;29;18

Carla Christopher

It shows up in our memory, our speaking ability, our our ability to digest new information and to learn. So if we can present information and point people towards action in a way that they can actually learn from assimilate and remember in that traumatized state, which I think poetry can do, then we have a real ability to make change that others don't have. And and we can also, you know, just like Melanie said, we can create a space for healing where people can begin to share and process some of the things they're just learning how to name right now. And we're not going to be able to find a way forward until we take the time to actually let ourselves feel what the last few years have done to us and and what we were carrying around before that that we would just pushing down and pushing through.

00;22;29;24 - 00;23;02;12

Carla Christopher

And now we've lost the ability to push down and push through. So now we have to not just unpack these last few years, but we have to look at generational trauma, family trauma, the things that we have been carrying across decades it's the time is now that we're going to have to untangle those threads and find a healthy way forward or we will lose a lot of the joy, hope and potential in our communities. I truly believe that.

00;23;02;12 - 00;23;13;22

Melanie Lavender

See Carla I have to give you an amen to that, right? Oh, my goodness. I'm stopping myself from snapping fingers because it's the truth. Thank you. Thank you. My sister. Oh, man.

00;23;15;10 - 00;23;46;07

Malaika Hollist

Well, I have another question adding on to that. So, you know, what I like about this event is it's an event for people to come see, but it's also an open mic. And here on the Arts Axis Florid podcast, we really want to find a way to help make arts more accessible to everyone. So how would you encourage young spoken word artists who are a little bit nervous to participate and to, you know, put a piece of themselves out there?

00;23;46;07 - 00;23;51;11

Malaika Hollist

How would you encourage them to get up there and share share their art?

00;23;53;11 - 00;24;27;00

Melanie Lavender

Let go of fear. Fear is a killer of the mind. Allow yourself to be vulnerable on stage because your story might be the story that someone needs to help them get through. So we don't know what people face. So make your voice impactful, make your story clear and tell it with passion passion with grace. And let's do it together.

00;24;27;22 - 00;24;45;26

Melanie Lavender

It's not going to just be one voice, but many of our voices. So we ain't dying courage. People week our monthly to come out to open mikes and get that stage presence and allow that release to happen. And you be amazed the transformation that will come.

00;24;45;26 - 00;24;52;21

Carla Christopher

Absolutely. And there is really no substitute for just doing it when it comes to skill building.

00;24;52;21 - 00;25;22;23

Carla Christopher

If you hide yourself, you will reduce the impact of your words. But what Melanie said that really touched me that I'd love to uplift is the idea that this is not about you exclusively. And I think as poets we often get you know, we're poets and we sensitive about our stuff. And so we think that, you know, this is about people judging us and this is about us needing to be the best that we can be.

00;25;22;23 - 00;26;21;16

Carla Christopher

And we think about how are people responding. And, you know, the truth is you are writing and expressing for your own healing, but you are also writing and expressing because there's somebody else who feels the way you feel, but they think they're alone in it. And it's not about having to be perfect. It's not about having to say it flawlessly because those other folks who don't have the bravery to get on stage, they are a hundred times messier than you are. And so they will feel so affirmed to have someone else get up there and speak their truth. So if we can just remember that when we're on the stage, we are in active service to our community. We are sharing what other people don't yet have the strength and courage to share. And so it's for us, but it's also a healing for our friends, our neighbors, fellow members, of our community.

00;26;21;24 - 00;26;30;29

Melanie Lavender

And I found that what we struggle to do for ourselves, we can often find the strength to do for somebody else. Yes.

00;26;31;25 - 00;26;40;14

Malaika Hollist

Absolutely. Well, thank you. Thank you both so much for your time and sharing your art and sharing your wisdom.

00;26;40;27 - 00;27;08;06

Carla Christopher

I'm so excited to have the space where community voices from different walks of life and different abilities can come together. You know, this is a time that we need each other, right? This this time of being apart has been wonderful for introspection, but we're starting to see the harmful effects of separation. And so these things like this podcast are such a gift because they help bring people together and share information.

00;27;08;16 - 00;27;16;03

Carla Christopher

But I just I really would love to see the community come out and support this open mic and continue to support the series.

00;27;16;03 - 00;27;35;10

Melanie Lavender

I am looking forward to the to the poets to being fed by by other poets and looking forward to the change that will come when the next generation sees the the poets and hear their stories.

00;27;35;24 - 00;27;56;27

Melanie Lavender

I want to shout out w slr Fogartyville for providing this space that we so desperately need as a community to bring each others together and to share put our voices together for this change, for this moment. And they can see the power of spoken word.

00;27;57;22 - 00;28;21;13

Malaika Hollist

We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of the Arts Axis Florida podcast. You can find more information on today's guests in the show notes. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram by Searching Arts Axia Florida or go to our Web site, Arts Axis Florida dot org to get access to the arts. That's Arts A X I S F L dot org.

00;28;22;12 - 00;28;41;06

Malaika Hollist

Our show is a product of WUSF Public Media and made possible by our sponsors community Foundation,Tampa Bay and GobioffFoundation. A special thanks to our editor Scott Wachtler and many more who make this show possible. Copyright 2022 WUSF Public Media.

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