My guests this week: Caleb, Wealth, Angel, Gregory, Daphne, Edwin, Diamond, Nicosha and Promise – some of the inspiring young people Raphael Olympio works as a youth mentor with the Cork Migrant Centre (who featured last episode).
Many thanks again to the Arts Council who funded this particular workshop – and to Raphael and Fionnuala O’Connell of the Cork Migrant Centre.
I recorded this a couple of months ago so the Anti-Racism Summit we talk about was going to be on at the end of May, and it’s interesting to hear how they were all preparing for this, and why it’s so important to have an event like this.
Shout out also to the Haven Cafe, on Bachelors Quay in Cork who provided the space for the young people.
Created with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland.
Transcript:
Bairbre Flood: Hi and welcome. Hope you’re all keeping well. If you remember last week I talked to Raphael Olympio and we mentioned his work as a youth mentor with the Cork Migrant Center. And this week I’m delighted to bring you some of the young people that he’s working with. Many thanks again to the Arts Council of Ireland who funded this particular workshop, and to Raphael and Fionnuala O’Connell of the Cork Migrant Center.
We recorded in the Haven Cafe on Bachelor’s Quay in Cork, who provided the space for the young people. So thanks also to the Haven Cafe. I recorded this a couple of months ago, so the Anti-Racism Summit we talk about was going to be on at the end of May, and it’s interesting to hear how they were all preparing for this and why it’s so important to have an event like this.
Here are my guests this week. Caleb Wealth, Angel, Gregory Taney, Edwin Diamond, Nicosha and Promise.
[MUSIC]Caleb: My name is Caleb and we’ve been working on a project with Raphael Mark and some others. And I have a speech to address on what we’ve been doing for the last weeks.
So Raphael and I have been working on a series of anti-racism workshops to further educate and inspire action. We are incorporating drama and artwork into our upcoming summit.
Our hope is that these mediums will engage our audience and serve as a member of the ongoing struggle for racial justice. We are excited to use our creative talent for positive change and look forward to starting our work at the summit in May.
Bairbre Flood: Brilliant. And so what is the summit? Can you tell me a bit about it?
Caleb: It’s about anti-racism and how to like, stop racism in Ireland, so we’re going to be able to present it in, in a form of art, music, drama, etc.
Bairbre Flood: Wow, that’s amazing. Yeah. So what kind of art art are you most interested in? Is it writing or music or a dance?
Caleb: Well, I really like doing art, like drawing and painting, so I’m thinking of doing that too. And a bit of music too.
Bairbre Flood: Brilliant. Why do you think it’s so important to be doing something like having an anti-racism summit?
Caleb: Because racism is a major thing in the world, and I feel like it’s, it needs to stop at some point. So, Even though we can’t stop it fully, we have to try and bring the, we have to try and bring it down a bit.
So that’s why the summit is going down.
Bairbre Flood: Good stuff. Yeah. And how do you think art can, can change things? Do you think it can help change things?
Caleb: Yeah, because art brings a message to people. It it, it transmits like a, a message to people. I personally like art because I just found out I knew how to draw. So it, it really like inspires me when I like draw.
Creative things. So yeah, I feel like the group is very positive. There’s cooperation, there’s efficiency. We, Raphael, Fionnuala, Mark, come try to come to where we live so we can work on different projects in music and art so we can try to bring something together for the summit.
[MUSIC]Wealth and Angel:
My name is Wealth.
My name’s Angel.
I just write down anything that comes to my mind, like random. Cause I have, I’m just a very random person. It just calm me down, kind of. Yeah. It calm me down. Yeah.
And I like the fact that. Like we all do the same thing and we’re joined like family.
A lot of people don’t really understand like how racism works and how micro aggressions work, and we just want to like put it out there so people can understand like what it means and how it affects us and yeah, how it affects us generating.
Art, music, there are really fun ways of expressing things. You know, people use that to like get their messages out. It’s better than like a boring speech. If it’s just a speech, no one’s going to listen. So it’s, it’s visual, it’s auditory, it’s just, it makes, it draws people’s in more.
[MUSIC]Racism a poisoned that destroys, telling us we less, taking our joys,
While we stand together, hand in hand, fighting for justice,
justice, love, and our land.
We lift up our voices. We won’t be held down,
will make sound and let’s love abound.
For we are all equal in every way
and racism will never, ever have its say.
[MUSIC]Gregory: my name is Gregory.
Okay. Discrimination, racism and micro ignitions are big problems that all people in different ways. Microaggressions are small things that people see, or two that can make one feel bad about themself because of their race, political belief or whatever. And we don’t choose our race by ourself, and I think we shouldn’t feel bad for that.
And there are bigger problems and it can make it hard for people of certain races or identities to get them opportunities as others, I think, to fix it. We are, we need to learn about them and listen to people who are affected and work towards fairness and equality for everyone. And regarding the summits, the reason why I think it’s a very good thing to put out to the people, because the reason why I think there’s still racism in the world and in the country is because people are not educated.
They don’t know what their action might, might have an impact on the other person. For instance, in class, if they just says, Something like for instance, in class teacher was reading a book, a Martin Luther King book and he says, A big black negro slave. And when saying that, I think it should be said in such a way that everyone in the class shouldn’t be looking at me and me feeling bad for being black.
Cause it’s not something I did to myself or something I can change. And I think this summit is good.
Bairbre Flood: But that happened in your classroom?
Gregory: Yeah.
Bairbre Flood: Jesus.
Gregory: Yeah. And everyone was looking at me laughing…
Bairbre Flood: And did the teacher do anything?
Gregory: No.
Bairbre Flood: Hmm.
Gregory: Yeah. And I feel like the summit is gonna educate people because we having the people in education and everybody there, and if we see both we discuss our plight through arts and everything, I feel like it’s gonna make a great change.
Yeah. Because it’s just micro aggressions not someone coming to your face and doing it – it’s just like little, little, little.
Bairbre Flood: Yeah. Do you think there needs to be more training for teachers as well?
Gregory: Yeah, because for instance, I think a situation happened in the class as well. Someone said something about my country, about Africa not having water in the country, but I feel I wasn’t insulted by what he said, but I feel bad cuz teacher did not caution him or tell him this is not right, or this is right.
I feel like they should be educated as well.
Bairbre Flood: Do you, do you write a lot? Do you write a bit?
Gregory: Mm, yeah. I do write, but like I write raps. Oh, because I really enjoy rap because it makes me feel good and if everything adds up, I just listen to rap. So calm down. But anytime I’m down as well, I just play some music and I feel good.
Me and Edwin and Pablo, we rap and we’ve also done one already for for another submit.
Traveled the world. Oh, okay. Yeah. Traveled the world. Mm-hmm. And we did the session with Raphael and Fiona.
And we talked about our experience in our experiences coming to Ireland.
Bairbre Flood: Cool. When was that?
Gregory: I think that was in summer. Okay. Yeah, it was in The Kabin Studio.
Bairbre Flood: Ah, cool. Oh yeah. Up with Gary. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That’s cool up there. Do you remember your rap by any chance?
Gregory: Yeah.
Bairbre Flood: Maybe you might, you might do a little something?
Gregory: Took a flight from the West, like I’m Kanye. New location, like Dave on the airway. It feels like we run away from home. Forced to live a life unknown. Search for soul.
You can see it on Chrome, all dripped out, but don’t feel in the zone.
Way too young to be grown.
Way too young to be grown. So far we had to elope with the ones that we love.
It was tough, like we never had enough. Ran away from home, went room, slept on no phone…
…and I think that’s all.
[MUSIC]Daphne: My name is Daphne.
I’m from Zimbabwe. I love to dance. I love my family. I love myself. I know I’m beautiful. I know I’m smart. I know I’m excellent. If you don’t like me, I don’t care. But I’m do me. I don’t care about the world’s negativity, but as long as I know that God is side me.
Raphael: Sick.
Bairbre Flood: Nice. That’s really good. You’re really good at rapping.
Daphne: No.
Bairbre Flood: Yeah,
Daphne: I’m trying. It’s my first time.
Bairbre Flood: Your first time. you’re serious.
Daphne: Yeah. I’ve never actually,
Bairbre Flood: Is that your first time writing something?
Daphne: Yeah, it’s my first time. I never thought of rapping, you know?
Bairbre Flood: Why not?
Daphne: I didn’t, I didn’t know I was good at it.
You know, I’ve never take, rapping is my serious thing, you know? Only dancing. Okay. Sing dancer. Yeah.
Bairbre Flood: What kind of rap do you like? Do you, do you listen to that or?
Daphne: I used to like listen to Drake and Lil Wayne. Yeah. So, yeah.
Bairbre Flood: Cool, cool. Yeah. So what do you like about it?
Daphne: You know, facts. Yeah. They speak facts sometimes, you know?
Bairbre Flood: Yeah. Yeah. And what do you like about writing, like the process of it when you sit down with the pen and
Daphne: I don’t know, like, I don’t know. I just, I just like, if I feel like I want to write something, I just, you know, wanna write it.
Bairbre Flood: Do you feel better after you’ve written down stuff? Like, does it, I dunno, help clear things in your head or does it just feel good?
Daphne: Yeah, because it actually helps me to like be confident, you know, and love myself more. Yeah.
Bairbre Flood: Brilliant. Yeah. So the dancing, are you doing something as well for the the thing summit?
Daphne: No, I’m usually dancing at home, but yeah, I can dance if, yeah.
Bairbre Flood: Cool. And why do you think the, the summit is important? The anti-racism summit?
Daphne: So that everyone can be free, like, and love each other and respect each other, you know, because yeah.
And treat each other better. You know, we don’t have to like hate each other, you know, and love ourselves. Yeah.
[MUSIC]Edwin: My name is Edwin.
Bairbre Flood: Cool. Nice to meet you. So how, how do you too, see, so have you prepared a piece for today or do you
Edwin: No. Are you gonna speak about, I came to speak about what I do. And what I do is make beats
Bairbre Flood: Nice. Yeah. Yes. Cool. What do you use?
Edwin: I use band lab and I use SoundCloud, so I make the beats through there and yeah, I make them at home using my laptop.
Bairbre Flood: Nice. What, what kind of sound like this?
Edwin: It’s trap and hip hop.
Bairbre Flood: Oh, cool. Yeah. So do you add lyrics to then too, or?
Edwin: No, I’m working with Rafael to try and add some lyrics. Oh, cool. What’s your SoundCloud like if people wanted to listen to it? My, my name on Ben Lab, it’s icebox. Ice walks. Yeah. See people look that up.
Bairbre Flood: Yeah. Cool. That’s very cool. Nice. What do you like about creating music?
Edwin: I like I don’t do it when I’m excited. I do it when I feel like when I listen to music. Cause I feel like music is a way to express your feelings, but without words. So I feel like that’s the only way I can actually express my feelings.
Bairbre Flood: Hmm. And what kind of things inspire you,
Edwin: NF. He’s a rapper and he inspires me a lot. Cause when he rap he talks about life and he talks about money. He talks about how people backstab each other and, yeah.
Bairbre Flood: Cool. And what, with this summit coming up, why do you think it’s so important to have something like that?
Edwin: I think it’s important cause I can influence other small town people who wanna also make beats that they can actually do it. It doesn’t need you to actually know someone who makes beats. It needs you to believe in yourself and have faith that you can.
Bairbre Flood: Did you just teach yourself experimenting on the
Edwin: Yes.
Bairbre Flood: Cool. Nice one. Yeah. Good stuff. And what do you like about the group here and working with Rafael and with the other, other teenagers?
Edwin: I like the kind of confidence that we build each other to have, and Rafael helps us a lot, encourages us to do more and yes, I love how his promises.
Bairbre Flood: Do you think it’s important like for artists to have like, support and have people to bounce ideas off?
Edwin: Yes, because if artists don’t have that much of support, they are not able to like have confidence, self-esteem, and positivity. If an artist is alone, it heal would be mostly filled with negativity cause he’d not be able to make friends a lot. And yes, balance it. They could post his self-esteem when he’s in the studio and he could just tell themself he can do it and he’d actually do it.
Bairbre Flood: Mm-hmm. B. Yeah. Is there anything you wants to add?
Edwin: Don’t forget some ice box and thank you very much.
Bairbre Flood: Excellent. Nice one. That’s cool. I’ll looking up. Ice Box.
[MUSIC]Diamond: My name, name’s Diamond. Nice to meet you. You too. Oh yeah. I prepare the song -when we made it, I didn’t really think I could do it, but Raphael encouraged me so well and been listening to the bit of like, wow, it’s not me. So it’s like really encourage what he does for us and then really good.
Bairbre Flood: Cool. Have you got it there?
Oh, it’s beautiful. Thank you. That’s really nice. Thank you. Yeah. Why, why do you like writing rap about this?
Diamond: I don’t know. I just feel like I can, like, it’s like a form of expression for me. Kind like communicate, like if I have like stress to live with my stress and helps, like making more people, like talking with people in the society and like explain to like con have conversation with them.
Bairbre Flood: Cool. And do you have any advice for, for young artists or young rappers?
Diamond: I could like sing song. I didn’t really know how to sing. I felt encouragement. So I just wanna say don’t give up. So like, just keep going and you’ll get it. Yeah, that’s all. Cool. And try, try it. Like don’t. Yeah. Yeah. Try try and like make, even though you’re bad, one day you become good. So like just keep giving all the effort you can give, then you become better.
Bairbre Flood: Yeah. Cuz everyone’s bad at the start, you know, like at anything you do.
Diamond: Yeah.
Bairbre Flood: It’s like riding a bike or it’s like drawing or anything.
Diamond: Yeah. Just like start from point, then you get better by the way.
Bairbre Flood: Yeah. Cool. What’s your favorite rapper?
Diamond: My favorite rapper is just wood.
He’s like American. He’s an American rapper. So what I was more like to listen to is music cuz talks about life, emotions and I feel like express myself listening to the music cause like, it gives me hope and makes me believe. It’s really cut. You should check it out.
Bairbre Flood: Yeah, I look them up. I look them up.
Yeah. Like obviously hiphop and rap and poetry are all very linked. Yeah. But do you, do you see a big crossover there? Because obviously it’s the same. It’s it’s expression, it’s words, it’s creativity.
Diamond: Yeah. But people like it could like be the same lyrics, but the way you express it could be different.
Cause everybody have different expression, different emotions. Just the way you express it and the tone you use, that’s how you get the same.
Bairbre Flood: Mm. And do you mention that like you do to help yourself? Like, I mean, I dunno, go for walks or what, what kind of things
Diamond: I listen to, like the sounds of nature. Like what we did with Rafael one time to like make beats suck, like sing with them, which is really, really good.
Helps calm me. And I also got a breathing technique, which I learned from Rafael. Like, put your right hand on your chest, put your left too much, then breathe in out like four times, which is really good. It means relax. Nap like that, make lyrics.
Bairbre Flood: Yeah. Cool. And what are you looking forward to in, in the summit?
Diamond: Like what I’m looking forward to like showcase my new rap, I’m waiting to say it. So I’m gonna showcase my new rap, and this is make like, I think it’ll make me more confidence since I can like sing for 500, 1000 people. It’s gonna be really good and I can’t wait for the day. And the event also provides education, meaningful discussions and comfort with take actions towards a man, just a credible society.
So I feel we should come together, talk about things so people will not feel like nervous or awkward. Again, people just feel it’s normal then because people could like like anti-racism stuff if it’s not really awkward with them. Cause sometimes just awkward and people don’t want to talk about it. Then it just feels more peering up and beating up as recent that.
So if people like can’t become awkward talk about it, then I think it’s gonna stop. I just wanna say be yourself. Don’t give up. Even though you’re not really good, now you become better in the future and motivate yourself, even though you’re bad at start. Just know you couldn’t become better. And thank you from so much for like listening.
See my expressions to your podcast. Thank you so much. Oh. Thank you so much.
[MUSIC]Nicosha: My name is Nicosia and I am from Georgia, which is in between Turkey and Russia, which most people I think don’t know. I have been going on workshop with Rafael for a few weeks, which has been really interesting for me is like the way of expressing myself. We use some art, music and some art of things with all, which also work as my creativity, which helps me a lot to discover myself and know my, get to know myself better.
And it has been really fun and enjoyable thing to do.
Bairbre Flood: Nice. And what do you like particularly working in a group?
Nicosha: Yeah, I’m a really social person, so it’s like, Enjoyable to be with other people and hang out with them, and it’s like a family to me.
Bairbre Flood: Do you find that you’ve got like you spark ideas off each other?
Nicosha: Yes. It’s like they, they awaken something inside me, which creates a bit of a spark and then my creativity comes out.
Bairbre Flood: Cool. And so what are you working on for the summits?
Nicosha: We are doing some music, which we will discuss it later. I don’t wanna real reveal anything like, yeah. And we have been having conversation about racism and anti-racism and how could this problems should be solved and that, and what do you think about that?
What do you think that the summit is a good step in that? Yeah, it’s like a good step for me. I’m the type of person who thinks that if there is a problem, the best way to solve the problem is first discover. What’s the, Issue in that problem first, you have to actually reveal the problems that’s in this pro, in this issue, and then we can eventually make, if you make these problems public, I think that it can solve a lot of things.
Bairbre Flood: And do you think we have a problem with racism in Ireland? Yes. It’s just a Yeah, yeah. We, we do.
Nicosha: Yeah. Yeah.
Bairbre Flood: And do you think like what kind of things could be done about it or what, what do you, what’s your take on that?
Nicosha: There’s not like specific things, but because people are people and people will have the same opinions as usual, but to put these problems up and for them to know that it is a problem and it’s an issue, I think that it’ll, it can make changes.
[MUSIC]Promise: My name’s Promise. I’m from Zimbabwe, so I’ve been working with Raphael and Ola and I’d like to say it’s been great. Yes, the way they let us explore ourselves, our inner ourselves with creativity, music, and art. Oh, we write out lyrics based on how we feel. Makes me feel free and open, actually, like writing my feelings away.
Bairbre Flood: Yes. Brilliant. Yeah, that’s really good. Well are you looking forward to this summit in maybe
Promise: Yes, I am. Which it, why, why is that? Cause we have three new labels. As I said. We have three new labels and we’d like to showcase and let everyone know how we feel about racism. Do you think it’s a problem here in rn?
Yes. I, I really think it is mostly at schools. Do you think there could be more maybe training for teachers or more things on in schools or what kind of things do you think? Yes, I think they could be more training to let them know that we, we don’t like racism. We don’t take it. Do you think the cultural The cultural landscape as well really helps, like change things.
Bairbre Flood: So the more black people, for instance, that are on our TV screens and make music and are like visible in Ireland, do you think that’ll help?
Promise: Yeah, that, that would help a lot. It would show them that we are here and we don’t like racism. The young people of nowadays who experienced racism can put it into a song – or into art.
[MUSIC]Raphael: Is this loud enough for you to do it? Yeah, and we might do it.
We’re gonna do that song. I kind want to be maybe wrapped an old wrap to that beach, like maybe something that we did from the cabin. Even if you did your six lines again or from the travel around the world…
diamonds are made under the pressure. Diamonds are made under the pressure.
{Under pressure}
diamonds are made under the pressure. {Under pressure. }
I’m a treasure rapping for pleasure in the world corrupt our sing God to bless her. And one day we could all come together.
Diamonds are made under the pressure {under pressure}.
Diamonds are made under the pressure. {Under pressure}.
A diamonds are made in the pressure {under pressure}. I’m a treasure rapping for pleasure. In the world. Corrupt. I’m asking God to bless. And one day we can all come together.
What do we want? Change. When do we want it? Now. What do we want? Change. When do we want it now? What do we want? Change. When do we want it? Now now, what do we want change? When do we want it? Now!
Bairbre Flood: Nice.
Raphael: Well done.
[MUSIC]Bairbre Flood: A huge thanks to Raphael Olympio for facilitating this workshop and to Fionnuala O’Connell of the Cork Migrant Center, the Haven Cafe, and all the young people who spoke to me. Caleb, Wealth, Angel, Gregory Daphne, Edwin, Diamond, Nicosha and Promise.
Thanks to the Arts Council of Ireland for supporting all of this, and thank you for listening. If you haven’t already, please subscribe on whatever channel you listen on and share with anyone you think might be interesting. This is an independently produced podcast, and anything you can do to help amplify it is much appreciated.
Also, all the newly commissioned pieces are up on the website. Again, thanks to Sandrine Ndahiro, Nandi Jola, Samuel Yakura and Raphael Olympio for their beautiful work. And you can read and listen to all of them at bairbreflood.org. I hope to be back next year with a new season. Until then, bye for now.
This article is an eye opener! Thank you Gemma.