Let's Red Table That: Introducing Cara & Tracy Your Hosts

just claiming springtime exactly. Yeah, I'm spring. I'm super ready for spring. You know. I'm ready for the beginning, in the beginnings for the season, the beginnings for the flowers and the trees and for us. So I'm super excited to just be everybody's favorite. O G. Right, we are on and Tracy, I'm just excited. Do you guys hear my dog barking? I'm sorry, can you guys hear that at all? She's outside? I could go get her. Let me just go get her. I think she's going to

continue to bring cold on just a second. Dolla is real life Benji. So yesterday she got caught in the creek like she just my neighbors ring her back. They're like, oh, we saw her up that thing. But I think she hasn't an owner. I think she stays over there since it does not make sense she will not come back. And then at like seven o'clock in the morning, she's like Earth like, let me in, and I'm like, oh, let me get up because because you run my life.

So now I have to know you told us, we know about our sweet fellers, your beloved baby and my Mary J. Blige. I got a question for you, so I want you to tell us all about yourself. I am car Sleep, I am from Richmond, Virginia. I am successful, I'm a mom, I'm a daughter, I'm auntie, I'm cousin, I'm a niece, I'm a friend, and I am a R T T O G. I have one of the biggest red table talk communities on Facebook. So that is

who I am. Girl. Shout out to my friend Dr Chantel cham Bliss, who is the executive director Address for Success. She is supportive of any woman doing women things in Richmond, Virginia. She was my second member and then after the first week or so, we had like three hundred people and then after that we grew to like thirty thousand people and like two months, and it might have been a little bit longer than that, but he was still like within ninety days. And after we got up to I

want to stay close to the forty thousand people. That's when Jada reached out to us, like Jada Willow and gam did a video and they were like, thanks for just supporting us, and we want to support you. And from thirty fifty sixty past a hundred thousand also we're up to a hundred thousand plus and still growing, consistently growing millions of views a month. The group like expands beyond like Canada, all fifty states like It's it's a vibe and we are one of the biggest red Table

Talk groups. But just because we're big in numbers doesn't mean the other groups aren't as well. To shout out to the other r T T O G s because we are a full own family, especially Yo Memphis group Memphis Sister Friends to exist, give it up from Memphis. The nine oh one is definitely being represented here. I am nine o one. I am on Facebook all the time, and when I saw that there was a show coming

out on Facebook Watch. That included Jada Pinkett Smith Willow, who I already adored, and then Gammy, who I had known about but had never really known about. I was hooked. I couldn't wait for the premiere. So episode one, season one, I was glued. My eyeballs were on that screen. And I want you to know that they have kept me in. I have been locked in and addicted and one connected. I think I'm called a super duper fan. I'm calling

myself a super duper fan. That's how I started watching them was because I, you know, love Jada Pinkett Smith number one, and I just wanted to connect with her and see how she truly has her you know, perspective and take on life. Our group was formed, interestingly enough, after the model we used the model. There were three of us that got together and had in a conversation about an article that was written about black a black

mother and her daughter. It was the daughter and she had written it as in a pseudonym because she was talking about her mom. And you know, if I'm talking about a mama, now you got to be careful. And the community was just right. Did you see birtha daughter

talk about it? Right, we don't. We don't five on that, and so she didn't use her real name, but her story was real, and the article was was heartfelt and sincere, and we connected and said, we're using the platform that the Red Table platform is based on with truth and talking about hard topics and being able to just share and and talking about your mom is a taboo topic

for us. And so we had a just phenomenal engagement where people were able to unburden themselves and the community was really developed from the people that we intentionally invited because we wanted there to be people that were from each of our pasts, and so we were really excited about having that conversation. And that was how the Memphisister Friends started. I can tell you for me, I started watching like you. I started watching Red Table Talk at

the very beginning, first episode, episode one, season one. I was there in eyeballs, loud to the screen. I wanted to see what they were talking about because it was just never done. You never saw women of color and three generations having real conversations with each other, and especially not in public, not in public form, and and with a certain stature that we all have, just you know, like they're putting themselves in a line, very sacrificial. I loved it and so transparent, and I just I was

hooked from the first episode. I was hooked. I loved it. We used the platform to have the conversations and have the transparency. The group was small, intentional so that we could maintain the integrity of that circle of trust and

established a covenant. I also have to tell you from a personal perspective, it's it's really wonderful to be in a position where you can see people living their authentic truths and they say, and I can tell you it took me years, literal years to be able to stand firm and say here is who I am as a woman, as a black woman, as a um short woman, and as a gay woman. And for years I was everything that people wanted me to be and happy about it.

But I wasn't ever really open about being with my wife, and so it was difficult and so I had to take ownership of that. I'm grateful that being able to see people live in their authentic truth, whether it was something that was difficult or easy, is what they did. So I'm grateful for that. The people in the community with Red Table Talk connect at least once per week

for an episode. Learn something, they share, something, they grow, and hopefully what's happening is that they're giving that information so that other people have the opportunity to learn and grow and share being super transparent. I lost my brother

in March to cancer and it was super fast. We had just gotten through the pandemic and my job was doing something I ain't like, and I was like, you know, we had to fork in the road and I'm either gonna choose me and do this for me for another twenty years or I am going to fight it out at the job. And I decided to fight for myself.

So you know, the week I retired from twenty years of government service, we went to Jad Pecktsmith's house, so we were at the first annual R T T cookout and from there, man, we had such a great time and won an Emmy and we just had such a vibe meeting R O G S R R T T O G. Having said all that, as the career cheerleader, red table talking has been a part of that because it helped me realize how much more I was of

a woman. So I was I was able to should show and be engulfed and and found my place because these were more just like me. Jada Pinkett was a stony from set it off, like, who does it? Love what Jade is doing. She's a woman, seen her acting, We've seen her be a mom, like okay, so she has another part of her life. Like I just felt like she was trying to show the world. I'm just like you guys were out here having conversations trying to

figure things out. So I started watching and tried to engage, and I was like, I'm gonna be able to community with women in my city because like I want to go to brunch, I want to go have drinks, I want to go talk with other women like myself in the same city and do those things and talk about this show or have our own show or own conversations. So it really gave me the launch pad to really

fully stand in the woman that I am today. I feel like it did like the same for you because you were one of the first groups that Red Table Talk visited and and came out to see. So just just for one one heartbeat, um, the community is one that we align ourselves with what the topics are, which I love that. So if the topic is about, you know, gosh, pick one because we've had so many great, great episodes, we like mental health was one. We then have a

conversation about mental health. We talk about the things that we're on there so we can have some insight and just dig a little deeper into them, which I love that we have so many different things in our community that are unspoken and that are unheard and that need to be shared. I'm so excited about hosting less red table that because it's going to bring life to all

of the conversations we were already having. Anyway, I think that's something that's exciting because we've already been doing this. We've we've thought these things, we felt these feelings. We know what love is like, we know what heartbreak is like. We all have anxiety since the pandemic. We are trying to heal. You're trying to figure it out, and instead of thinking you're by yourself, you get to figure it out with other people who look like you, feel like you,

and have gone through the exact same situation. So that's why I always love red table talk. That's why I'll continue to come back, and that's why I'm glad we can continue to build community from a podcast standpoint, So this is gonna be exciting. I love that on every episode of Let's Red Table That, we are going to be sharing messages from all of you. We want to know how you're feeling about this new season of Red Table Talk, What makes you happy, what are you connecting

with We want to hear all about it. We are open to talk about any and everything with you, So send in your questions at Let's Red Table that at red table talk dot com. Listen. Thank you so much for listening. We appreciate you, Thank you for tuning in, Thanks for choosing us as your favorite podcast today. Make sure you subscribe on the our Heart Radio app, and please rate this podcast on Apple podcast. We'll be back next week for another episode of Let's Red's Table That m