Sirens, Diversity and Trauma

My leg has all the knowledge you want. Le has all the knowledge you need.

Yet they have all the books that the whole wild world one up read books. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to Malik's Bookshow, bringing the world together with books, culture and community.

Hi, my name is Malik, your host of Malik's Book Show.

Well, I put together a podcast studio inside Malik Books so that when authors come in there, I'm able to do a podcast right on the spot.

So sometimes some of the noise in the mall in the.

Background is picked up, so I apologize for that, but I wanted to be more spontaneous. I wanted to, you know, take advantage of when authors walking to the store or when we engage in events in the store, to have a nice conversation that I can feature on Malie's bookshelf. So I did a couple of podcasts in the store, and I want to bring that to you. On this particular episode, we hosted Marcelli's Reynolds, who wrote three He got a trilogy about three different books about Supreme Model,

She's going to do the podcast with Marcelle Reynald.

I might track meet with my daughter, so we you know, sometimes we gotta go ourselves ways. Family community. Books still go down. So if I'm in one place, April is at another place. We're putting it down still. So she's gonna host Marcella at the store. She's gonna interview him for the podcast. So if you hear any noise in the background like a baby, and we're sorry, but hey, some things out I control.

We're doing our best.

But this is an impactful, iconic interview from a person who's well accomplished and has taken He's an award winning reporter, he is a now our author, and he's known throughout the industry. Like I said, he won won awards. He's well accomplished, he's iconic. His name is Marcella's Reynolds, and we are happy to feature him on our podcast and host.

Them at Meleak Books for Supreme Books.

Signing from his Supreme series three books, you know, one about women in acting, Supreme Actors, Supreme Models and Supreme Sirens, women in the music. Hisstory is his latest book, Revolutionary Women. So we're happy to have him grace us with his president of Malik Books. That interview took place justice last March ninth at Mileae Books when we hosted them, and.

April is going to do the interview.

I'm also going to feature two other interviews that I was able to take take advantage of in the store.

We had the.

Dlay Datch who wrote a book called The Versity Dilemma talking about de I.

You know, that's all in the news about.

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and you know, some battle people think it's reverse racism. People think that there's something that is a handout, another ear mark, another you know, uh, subsidy that the disenfranchised blacks, Whites, Asians, Hispanics or whatever. You know, we live in this country, but it's a lot of insensitivities.

You know, we started in America under slavery.

Don't forget, and we pulled ourselves up and many of us are well accomplished. And although the focus shouldn't be of yesterday and it should be about what's going on now.

They are disparacies, there's just franchise.

There are just environments where communities are underserved, and it's just a lot of people that feel that in corporate America that the playing field is leveled out. No one should have entitlements and therefore there's no need for affirm the action which President Clinton eradicated, you know.

And now we're back today, and I've lived to see.

The multicultural movement which came and gone in the nineties, where it's the same concept, you know, earmarking trying to create space and leverage to level up the Black community in corporate America, abroad, in schools and so forth. Now we the di diversity, equity, inclusion corporations now feeling like, you know, how can we close that gap income, opportunity and all of the things that you know in society that can make one successful but yet make it almost impossible for other groups.

Because the power in America is.

Just not share and the people who make decisions make decisions based upon their bias and their upbringing and so forth.

So the world it is what it is. But it's a battle.

It's a battle in this country on council, culture, book, band, DEI verse.

Equity, clue. It's just you know, no one is happying, no one is satisfied.

Everybody is arguing with each other about the direction in the future of this nation and so forth.

So we just have a battle. And I always say this, no one could do for you what you can do for yourself.

So do as much as you can for yourself to benefit yourself. And if opportunities like DEI and other things can also elevate and help and grants and all that, then you know, if you can qualify, you can get it, go after it and what have you. But you know, the hard work and the real work is if you do as much as you can on your own for yourself. There are a lot of things that Black America needs to do that we need to do on our own,

A lot of people just.

Want to throw it under the table and act like it don't. There is diversity dilemma that exists. But I think that we also as black people, and I'm black, and I'm proud I'm and I'm unapologetically black, and I feel like, you know, there are things that we have to do on our own. It's important for us to do. You know, is more powerful than an atomic bomb. And we have to ask ourselves, do we have the ultimate unity in order to do the things that we can do on our own without the aid of all of

But we gotta do better. We gotta do the things that we can do.

Instead of complaining about what's not here, let's leverage what we can do. So I got that interview with Delay that the diversity dilemma, and I'm gonna feature that on this episode. I'm also gonna feature this episode that this podcast segment that I took when a young lady came in and she wrote a book called Don't touch My No No, Don't touch my no No. And it's because a lot of kids are touched and they stay in

Because I wrote a book.

I wrote a chapter in a book called The Heart of a Black Man, the Stories of tryumph RESIENTI, and my chapter is called from Devastation, the elevation from of a station. The elevation is in how you know things that happened to me when I was young and how it impacts you later on in life and you just don't know that. But we we you know, people keep these things in silent and so I made myself vulnerable

In this book. Don't Touch My No No is an example of.

Someone a young lady named Adrian Alexander wrote this book in an effort to talk about a very sensitive subject matter.

And so I'm featuring that segment on this episode.

And so that's pretty much three book reviews, three interviews, and I just enjoy, you know, trying to take this to another level video on these podcasts. Now I'm going to be uploading these episodes on YouTube as well, so enjoy the episode.

All right, Hello, today we have mister Morse.

You want to grow up the Morriscale.

Thank you so much for worsening us with your president of Finlik book.

And today we are doing today this book discussion and book signed with this lovely book and it is Supreme Sirens.

Title. Okay, well you're doing I can't do it better than you.

Supreme Sirens iconic Black women who revolutionize music. And what's important about this book and my other two books actually is that they're the first, that they're kind they're the first ever art books devoted exclusively to celebrating the stories of black women.

So it's how.

Important with this journey you have a trilogy?

Here have a trilogy, So how important the trilogy?

Honey, the first one.

Just give a little bit about your first.

So the first one, I always say, like it depends on how I talk about each one. The first one will always be my favorite because it took so long for it to happen. Supreme Models took eight years to sell, and then along the way, a bunch of people told me a book about black women.

Would never sell, and as you know, Supreme Models became lies. You tell us lies, they tell us.

Supreme Models became a best selling book and became you know. Essence named it the number one book to read on Black style. Vogue and Team Vogue named it one of the best fashioned books of all time, and then not to mention, it just became a perennial bestseller, and then it became its own documentary where I co produced it with MND, which now has like you know, now has like eight point five million.

Views on Vogue YouTube.

Channels, so you know, all right, Supreme did what she did, what she was supposed to do, and then we have Supreme Actresses. So because of the success of Supreme Models, Abrams came to me during the pandemic and was like, do you want to do? Do you have an idea for a second book? And I was like, do I have an idea for a second book?

And I didn't, but I.

Like, I did have an idea for a second book because there's actually a past of Supreme Models that has an actress that has models to actresses in it, right, and it was its own little section, but I was over on pages so Abrams throughout Model to Actresses, and so I was already in.

That mindset of actresses.

So the Supreme Actresses came out and it became a It was just like another big book, especially because it came out during the pandemic. It came out in the fall of twenty twenty one, and it came out right around that time where people were where people.

Were really eating black books.

Check it take it from us, you know, and the pandemic really elevated you and I this is not.

Just our fly first ball game. And when I met two years back, and we were at the ball and whose Mall. But the pandemic really elevated us. Some people, the pandemic put a pause on them because of fear. For fear is a stop sign. And we opened this location the Moly books in the covers the hall in the middle of the pandemic. Wow, we've been here for four and a half years, so fear get.

Out the way. Yeah yeah, And then you know, Supreme Actresses did what she was supposed to do.

What I think is most important to for our supremactresses speaking about the pandemic was it was very easy to interview actresses because they were sitting that hall at work.

So I interviewed so many people that I interviewed, Like.

My favorites are Lynn Whitfield, who played justinin Baker. That was a break because she's just a legend and she was wrapping her last show Greenwood, I think the name of the show.

So that was really interesting to talk about her process and what she was going to do next, and she was like, I have to do nothing next. I'm good like things keep you know, things will come to me when they're ready.

I interviewed Sonna Lathan, who was really funny and dishy. I interviewed Ray what I love about Supreme Actresses and what I want people to not sleep on is and why say it's my favorite.

I interviewed Ray before Barbie. I interviewed Alexander's Ship before Barbie.

So there are two barbiees in Supreme Actresses before Barbie was even a thing.

And Alexander Ship's interview is really beautiful. Who else? Oh, of course Gabrielle Union. She wrote the form.

And I found Gabrielle on the day where she seemed to be mad, but she was just talking like she was telling all the truths.

She was like, they can't get your makeup right, they can't get your hair right, they underpay it us. And I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes to all.

This, because you know some people like try to do an interview, they try to be politically. Gabrielle was like, not today, not today, not. Plus, I was in my bathrobe. We was doing a zoom and I thought it was gonna be zoom audio and Gabrielle, and all of a sudden, the screen opens and Gabrielle's in her beautiful mansion, hair and makeup done, and she was like, are you going to show yourself And I was like, no, I'm not my bathle throbe, and she's like, well, I'm not talking to a black screen.

So now I'm not only in my in my bathrobe. I'm in my bathrobe in the bed in front of the computer with like no lights all like like like some like her brother. But it was just supposed to be a zoom interview.

So I turned the camera and she was like, you're killing your white man about the ground bathroom and I was like, so, I mean I love that and all of the books.

Now you know it didn't come from Oh, let me get this together.

So you came in and that's not my Well, I'm always like if i'm not, I'm always in my bathroom.

Oh, I tell her, Okay.

So Supreme Sirens is the third book, and I say it's the final one in this trilogy.

Another bathroom story. I got the day I was supposed.

To interview Monica, Monica did the foreward. The day I was supposed to interview Monica, I got my days mixed and her her manager is her cousin, Melinda, and I have been having all these conversations with Melinda, so I was really like a little.

Casual with Melinda. So when Melinda called me, I was like, hey girl, what's up. And she was like, are you ready for the interview? And I was like, yeah, it's tomorrow, and she's like, no, it's today. It's in an hour.

And I was like, and she was like, please tell me that you're ready for this interview because Monica starts traveling tomorrow.

And she's like, it's today or it's not happening. And I was like, I'll be ready, like tell her to call me, you know which, Tell her to call me when she's ready. And because of.

That, I was now scrambling to do like all this stuff. I was like, how am I gonna set it up? Blah blah blah. And I ended up and again I was in my bathrobe because it was super early. I created like a a like a sound booth, which like I was literally under my.

Bed because my bed is like this. So I was under my bed trying with the computer in front of me, with my things on on my knees, with the crops on a pillow like this, trying to create a sound booth.

And at the end of the interview, Monica was like, let Monica kept saying, the Lord is trying to tell me something.

The Lord is talking to me, and I was like okay, and she was like, are you on your knees?

And as it turned out, I was actually on my knees because I was under my bed on I was like this on my like not on my belly, but on the pillow like this with the headphones on. And I was like, yeah, I'm on my knees and she was like, let's pray. So we prayed, and then after what we were praying, she was like, stay the course. And I was like, okay, yeah, I'm I got it. I'm a stay of course. And she was like stay the course and I was like, yes, stay the course.

So then when we finished saying stay the course. She was like, all right, you're.

Good, and I was like, I'm good, and she was like, all right, if you need something, you got Melinda's number. You call her and tell and tell her that to get to me if you need something. And that's how Monica's interview with came to forward because it was that how.

Well.

I also think the power of words and I think the power of black women Monica was there when that interview. It was so important because I literally had had a conversation maybe within a week, telling my literary agent that I wanted to give back the advance.

I didn't want to do this book and look at it, and look at it. It's so beautiful. It's so beautiful.

I want to thank you so much for your time, and I thank you so much for giving me your tongue.

I want to thank you for the the never ending support.

I want to thank you for creating places where black artists can thrive and be exalted. I want to thank you for still going. I know how hard it is to be in a in in in the business, and in the be in a black bookstore. So I just want to thank you for all the things you're doing for our community.

Thank you actually appreciate it. Tell the people who they can find you.

I'm Ourselvia s Redols.

You can find me on Instagram a Marquie mark like Marquee naming lights and.

You can find me here.

We will find autograph copy of all three of his book that lead books both look and online. You can find us on social media Elik Books and our podcast Leak Bookshelf.

Thank you so much Marcell.

Malik's bookshelf bringing the world together with books, culture and community. Hi, my name is Malik, and I'm standing by this dynamic female who wrote a beautiful new book to just hit the market just now. It's called The Diversity Dilemma, A Survival GUD for Diversity and Inclusion good Doors.

Her name is.

Doctor dlay That and she's gonna tell you more about this book. Why because she wrote the book. So I'm gonna turn the mic over to her right now, because Hey, she wrote.

It, right I wrote the book.

What an amazing introduction. I just feel so hyped and blessed to be here at Malik Books. And I did write the book because there is a diversity dilemma. A lot of people, women, people from marginalized communities. We want diversity, we want equity, we want inclusion, and we want justice. So in the work that I do, we call that the Jedi principles, like Jedi from Star Wars.

Yes, I love the Jedi.

I love science fiction, right, and some of the things I talk about and I believe is true change is an act of science fiction. And so I really work at connecting like things that we are entertained by and things that we see in our society to the real work that we need to do, which is justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. That's the Jedi work. And so in the book, I talk about how I fired up to

So I'm assuming nothing has changed. It's just the game is played different.

I have to say something has changed. I have to give our society credit, and I really think it's our new generation coming up. They're a lot more tech savvy. They they have access to books, they have access, yes, they have access to information throughout the you know, intranet. They're seeing things when our generation they have resources. The generations before us they didn't have access the way this generation has access, and because of that, they are challenging

So in your position, you was speaking truth to power.

Yes, I was attempting to speak truth to power, using my truth, using my experiences. And I was often told that people just weren't ready to hear it.

Well, they always say a person ain't ready, But the reality is that those are authority and those who have power. You're ready, and so why don't you implement it? Why somebody?

Why you gotta hire somebody to come in and do something that you could do yourself.

You just summed up the whole book that is the dilemma. Why are you asking me to help you one person who's getting paid a fraction of what some of the senior leaders are being paid. And then when that person, usually a black woman, when that person is not successful, they blame the failure of these programs on that person.

Yes, they do.

You know, we've seen it in sports. They brought Jackie Robinson there.

He had to take a lot of spitting and a lot of bad words throwing at him, a lot of hate throwing at him, but yet he persevered. But what he had to do and doing it and the trauma and all that he had to do, you know, in order to integrate and diversified baseball, it's.

Almost like you just become the sacrificial lamb.

Well, you know, it's I'm excited that we have those like you are in positions that are not afraid and to challenge the normals and to make changes within because you can't make a check to let you within.

You know, I always say, you can't play the game unless you win the game. So if you're on the outside looking at the game, how you gonna make a change?

Exactly? So, but I want to give you credit because you're making a change as an entrepreneur, as an owner, you're creating a whole table. So in corporate America we talk about bringing a chair, bring a chair to the table. Well, by the work that you do, you've created a whole table. You've created a whole room without asking permission from you know, corporations and other powers that be. He said, you know what, We're gonna create our own table. We're gonna create our

I really appreciate appreciate that.

Thank you, Thank you, and I'm sure that my audience on Police's bookshelf is gonna love. I know this, someone I'm gonna relate wholeheartedly. Damn positions of authorities is gonna hear this. You know, and some people work in in places that they can still make a different even though they might not be a manager.

Or supervisor, executive. But we can all do better whatever position.

Than we in.

So I want to thank you for taking the time to speak to my honors on Malise bookshelf.

Thank you, And if you could just tell the audience. How they can reach you directly.

Sure, so my name is spelled T like Thomas h E la FLA. Last name is Thatch. T you like Thomas h A t h. So just go to Thla Thatch dot com. I am the owner of Thla Thatched Consulting. I do HR and Equity Consulting. I'm an author and I'm a professor at UWLA and Kelset University, Long Beach. So you find me just google Thla Thatch And I look forward to coming back to my leak books because there's so many books in here I need to buy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Well.

Welcome, welcome, walk to Malik's books. She'll bring in a world together with books, culture and community.

Another author just walked into Malik Books and you know how listen, no one knows about that book better than them.

I have Adrian Alexander.

Yes, she wrote a book called Don't Touch My No No, So I'm gonna turn it on over to her.

She gonna break down this wonderful book. It's wonderful contribution to our voice.

Yes, thank you so much, Malik. I am excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

You know listen, y'all.

First and foremost, if you ain't got it, if you don't stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready. If you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready.

If you stay ready, you.

Ain't gotta get ready.

Hello, I came in here.

My name is Adrian, and Alexander's Malik said. I did write a children's book. It's called Don't Touch My No No Parts. And I wrote this book because kids are being touched. You know, it's a very important topic. It's a situation that we need to talk about that we're not talking about enough. We have people out here that would like to sweep this under the who act like it's not happening. And so when I did this, of

Know your no no parts.

It shows you what your know no parts are. It's a children's book. It's for ages like four to kindergarten elementary. It does talk about the no no parts. It talks about you know experiences, people offering you candy, people offering you things to try to touch you, making you comfortable enough. Because statistics show that most children who are physically assaulted are touched by someone that they know, someone that they're comfortable, someone that they're used.

To being around.

And so I needed to have the conversation to say, regardless of yeah, regardless of how they try to tell you, oh I might hurt you, I might hurt your family. You know, if you tell somebody it's going to be wrong. You know those things, but don't listen to that, Like if they can tell you that, but even if they tell you that, you still need to tell. We need to empower empower our children with their voice to say no and to tell and share their experience.

Well, this is deep here me personally.

I can relate to some of the things you said because I wrote a chapter in a book called.

The Heart of a Black Man, the Stories of Triumph and Resilience.

Yes.

And my chapter is called from Devastation to Elevation.

Yes. And I opened up and made myself vulnerable and told my story. But it wasn't I was ten, but I was touched by my babysitters. Now she was sixteen, but I was ten, right, But nevertheless I was touched. And I didn't know the impact that it had made on me over my lifetime though, and how I've looked at women, how I viewed women, and the and the and the effect of being so young and thinking about sex and how that affected me in a lot of different ways.

So I made myself a.

Varna and told the world in my chapter about that, and I think, you know, and I shared that, and a lot.

Of other men have come forward, and I think that and not even think I know what's important, because men don't, because you know, unfortunately we do.

You coddle our.

Girls and you know, make our boys like, oh you can't cry, you can't you know, you shouldn't be affected. You can't you know this stand the third and because men don't know how to humanize their experience, because men are so conditioned to being hard, to being strong, to not being affected. And so as a five, six, seven, ten, fifteen year old boy, because you know, even sometimes like you're older, you're still being touched by people and it's inappropriate.

I've never heard the stat thirty years.

Wow, it takes children thirty years to begin to heal from sexual trauma because people aren't getting help these children. And then they are even children who do tell, but people tell them they're lying.

They don't believe.

Every time she came over, Hey, I already knew she was coming in the room.

Wow.

Wow.

Yeah.

See, And that's the thing, and it's like, you know, it continues on and it becomes normal, you know, and it's sexualizing things for children that shouldn't even be sexualized. You know, it's like just at ten, Yeah, like at ten years old, you're supposed to be playing your video game or reading a book or outside running.

The street, you know what I mean.

Like, that's not something that you're supposed to be dealing with. And because children are not mature enough to understand and recognize what's happening to them as being bad, that's what they do. And I want to take this moment too. I would be remiss if I didn't No, No, No, because I would be remiss if I didn't mention my first children's book, which is called My Parents Have a

You know, I always say this that in today's families, you have a Christian, you have a Muslim, and I say you have a crack right right, I would say just about everybody the family has those three reality and and you know, I don't say it in the derogatory way because but it's addiction is something that's killing our families, in our communities. I watch my mom pain in my family, dealing with my sibling. I watch other people, families and individual I.

Know, deal with that addiction. This is a devast stating reality. And I don't have all the answers, but some of the answers you can find in a book, and you can find it.

You can find it.

That belief author, Wow, I thought you had one, but I know you got multiple.

I do.

And this has been a wonderful talk, short and sweet, but powerful.

Yes, tune in to Malik's bookshelf, bringing a world together with books, culture and community.

Tell the people how they can reach Yes.

So don't touch my no no parts dot com.

There's a website.

You can go to my agency pagees www dot ipy agency dot com and follow me on Instagram at I'm promoting you.

Why you being go?

Thank you, thanks for listening to Malik's Bookshelf, where topics on the shelf are books, culture, and community.

Be sure to subscribe and leave me a review. Check out my Instagram at Malik Books. See you next time.