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Singing For Representation: A Conversation with Alexander Lloyd Blake · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Have you ever wanted a safe space where you can
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  Speaker 1: just exist, where for a moment in time, you can
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  Speaker 1: be you, with all the intricacies and parts of you
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  Speaker 1: that people don't always understand. Welcome to in the deep
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  Speaker 1: stories that shape us. I'm your host, Zach Stafford, and
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  Speaker 1: each episode we create a space to be you, all
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  Speaker 1: of you and all your messy and complicated glory. Every
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  Speaker 1: story shares what it means to be a black and
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  Speaker 1: Latin X man living with different hardships, whether it's a
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  Speaker 1: struggle of identity, discrimination or health, and how they've managed
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  Speaker 1: to push forward despite the circumstance. We hope to get closer,
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  Speaker 1: even it's just a little to a road of healing
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  Speaker 1: and understanding. Hi everyone, Welcome back. One of life's biggest
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  Speaker 1: mysteries is why exactly music is so powerful for our souls.
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  Speaker 1: You probably have a soundtrack to your life, jam for
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  Speaker 1: those happy days, maybe one for the tough days too,
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  Speaker 1: and you can't forget those special songs that keep you
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  Speaker 1: in your driveway until they play all the way through.
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  Speaker 1: But undoubtedly music has the power to heal and in
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  Speaker 1: our communities, it is an auditory expression of our cultures fabric.
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  Speaker 1: It's who we are and what we believe in our
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  Speaker 1: guest today is not only a testament to this that
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  Speaker 1: his story gives us something even bigger, because the music
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  Speaker 1: he is creating is not only helping us see the
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  Speaker 1: world and all its complicated glory, but it's also creating
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  Speaker 1: a future that heals us all. Dr Alexander Lloyd Blake
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  Speaker 1: is a lot of things. He's an award winning conductor,
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  Speaker 1: he's a composer, he's an arranger, he's a vocal contractor,
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  Speaker 1: he is a singer, and he is a music activist.
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  Speaker 1: But before this, he was a young boy in North
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  Speaker 1: Carolina where his first introduction to music was in a
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  Speaker 1: church where he was a little kid singing in the
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  Speaker 1: adult choir gossip. Music to me is something that resonates
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  Speaker 1: really deeply. I think a lot of music that seems
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  Speaker 1: from Black tradition is based in experience and stories. Even
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  Speaker 1: in the joyous songs, they come from a place of
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  Speaker 1: either dealing with or coming from trauma, from resistance, and
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  Speaker 1: there is an emotional pool. I tie that to a
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  Speaker 1: spiritual realm and purpose, and this is where I feel
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  Speaker 1: fed really more than any other relationship experience. Was listening
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  Speaker 1: to a gospel choir. You can feel people's emotion on
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  Speaker 1: when they're singing. And not to say that that is
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  Speaker 1: specific to gospel music, but I think it is tangible
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  Speaker 1: in a way that other genres might not have the
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  Speaker 1: same access to. And so I think that's why so
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  Speaker 1: many people enjoy just the environment that comes around that
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  Speaker 1: type of music. Yeah, I agree completely. And you know,
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  Speaker 1: we're speaking the week of Martin Luther King Junior's official
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  Speaker 1: holiday in the United States, and I think a lot
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  Speaker 1: about how back when he was doing the work and touring,
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  Speaker 1: he called gospel singers and have them sing to him.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that really speaks to what you're saying.
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  Speaker 1: And I want to ask you about that, as someone
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  Speaker 1: that's been in the church, what types of things were
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  Speaker 1: you turning to gospel too as a young person as
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  Speaker 1: a teenager to help you move through the world. Who
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  Speaker 1: so many things my own struggles personally, you know, things
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  Speaker 1: that I was dealing with at home. I felt like
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  Speaker 1: I turned to gospel music to vent, you know. Not
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  Speaker 1: every time was negative. I love singing and jumping around
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  Speaker 1: when I was younger, but there are definitely songs that
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  Speaker 1: I think spoke to me and allowed me to deal
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  Speaker 1: with things that I I didn't feel like I could talk
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  Speaker 1: about openly. And even now, I think some of these
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  Speaker 1: songs I listened to that really kind of speak to
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  Speaker 1: specific emotions and about really getting through and trusting and
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  Speaker 1: having hope and faith. I feel like it kind of
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  Speaker 1: served as a therapy or a friend. Really. Yeah, that's
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  Speaker 1: so beautiful to hear you say that I had similar
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  Speaker 1: experiences as a young person, and you know, we both
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  Speaker 1: I did. If I's being black, ay men, I know
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  Speaker 1: personally how complicated that relationship is because you find so
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  Speaker 1: much hope in gospel music and then you go to
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  Speaker 1: church on Sunday and you hear words that don't make
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  Speaker 1: you feel so hopeful. Did you have that experience? Was
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  Speaker 1: there ever a time that you were in the church
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  Speaker 1: feeling that you weren't supposed to be there? You know,
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  Speaker 1: it's interesting my pastor never openly spoke towards any gay topics.
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  Speaker 1: It really wasn't mentioned in my church. However, it was
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  Speaker 1: certainly mentioned in the community. I mean really, even up
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  Speaker 1: through my college years, I was running into experiences with Christians,
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  Speaker 1: people who I considered friends who didn't know about me.
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  Speaker 1: I would say harmful things. I learned from a very
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  Speaker 1: early age that to be gay, especially in the religious environment,
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  Speaker 1: was not something that I could be freely. You use
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  Speaker 1: this word freely. And I was telling the producers before
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  Speaker 1: this that my grandmother, who still even in the pandemic,
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  Speaker 1: she was doing the drive through church, she was going
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  Speaker 1: to going every week and her mass windows up, all
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  Speaker 1: these things. Very religious woman. Love her to death. And
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  Speaker 1: she called me because there was a sermon at her church,
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  Speaker 1: the church I grew up and where the pastor said, hey,
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  Speaker 1: y'all should love your LGBTQ children. You know we're gonna
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  Speaker 1: just say it, because they hadn't said it ever. And
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  Speaker 1: she called me crying. She was so relieved to finally
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  Speaker 1: be like, yo, God says I can love you in
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  Speaker 1: the ways I do love you, or that God also
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  Speaker 1: loves you the ways that I love you. Have you
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  Speaker 1: found that kind of complicated experience to be your own
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  Speaker 1: damigating the Black church, especially as a young person, a
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  Speaker 1: lot of things were spoken in the unspoken. I feel
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  Speaker 1: like everyone knew about me, but no one said anything.
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  Speaker 1: And to me, I'm learning in my older age of wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: silence is a response. And you know, everyone took touring
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  Speaker 1: around and being asked questions about girlfriends, and everyone knew
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  Speaker 1: that was not the case. Uh, those things are triggering.
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  Speaker 1: People are asking you when you're gonna get married. So
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  Speaker 1: I was older. I didn't really start coming out to
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  Speaker 1: people in North Carolina until I was you know, luckily,
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  Speaker 1: I started with low hanging fruit. So I started with
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  Speaker 1: friends that I had made in l A. One of
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  Speaker 1: my best friends, you know, she had asked me earlier
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  Speaker 1: when we were at U C l A together, and
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  Speaker 1: I lied because you know, that was that was what
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  Speaker 1: I was used to. And then I ended up actually
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  Speaker 1: in like a romantic relationship situation. You know. She was
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  Speaker 1: a friend, So I talked to her about it, and
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  Speaker 1: I was finding more and more people out here. I
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  Speaker 1: would tell them and they'd be like, okay, and your
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  Speaker 1: shirts blue. Next. I mean, it was nothing, and I
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  Speaker 1: realized that, you know, how much of this am I
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  Speaker 1: carrying from home. I was in my thirties before I
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  Speaker 1: started talking about it with my family, and yeah, the
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  Speaker 1: comment that came to me was, you know, well, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I always knew, and I think I can feel the
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  Speaker 1: intent to be one of support. That's not how I felt,
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  Speaker 1: because you know, I was walking our exshells, and I was,
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  Speaker 1: you know, trying to prey away and do all these
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  Speaker 1: things and living in shame. The child and me could
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  Speaker 1: have really used someone to reach out and say you
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  Speaker 1: are okay as you are. For Alex, this juxtaposition of
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  Speaker 1: two worlds, one very liberal and one very conservative, one
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  Speaker 1: in l a versus one in the South became very complicated.
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  Speaker 1: But as a gay black man, music was the way
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  Speaker 1: he could make sense of himself in this world because
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  Speaker 1: it's where he found comfort in learning of the enormous
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  Speaker 1: contributions his culture made to music as a whole in
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  Speaker 1: both the past and the present. As vocalists who sings stories,
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  Speaker 1: I think we have a huge responsibility to treat all
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  Speaker 1: those stories well inequitably. And then I saw Considering Matthew
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  Speaker 1: Shepard actually, which was our piece that was done by
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  Speaker 1: Conspiary Professional Choir in Texas, and it told the beautiful
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  Speaker 1: perspective of the not so beautiful murder of Matthew Shepard,
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  Speaker 1: a gay student who was killed. And that was the
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  Speaker 1: first time I was able to see what music can
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  Speaker 1: do in a space where it is everyone is held
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  Speaker 1: for a moment, a couple of hours and really kind
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  Speaker 1: of forced encouraged. Might be nice to consider, you know,
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  Speaker 1: all of the aspects and feelings around such an incident
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  Speaker 1: and then really have to kind of sit with the
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  Speaker 1: feelings around the issues and the people. Yeah, why do
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  Speaker 1: you think that is possible only through music? And you
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  Speaker 1: know I used to write a lot about death and people.
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  Speaker 1: Never changes the behaviors, you know, we do all these
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  Speaker 1: stories and you watch the news everynight, you hear about
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  Speaker 1: people dying tragically, and is change anybody? But when you
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  Speaker 1: put music or create music as a space to tell
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  Speaker 1: a story, you know, the where that comes to mind
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  Speaker 1: is the song telling. Dolly Parton uses that phrase song
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  Speaker 1: telling a lot, which I love. It does make it
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  Speaker 1: sick with people a bit deeper. Why do you think
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  Speaker 1: that is? I think when we read or what we
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  Speaker 1: see stories to protect ourselves, I think we keep the
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  Speaker 1: stories distant from us emotionally. And when you see and
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  Speaker 1: hear so many stories, I'm gonna you know, talk about
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  Speaker 1: police brutality, for instance, as extreme as it might seem,
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  Speaker 1: when you start to see so many people being shot
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  Speaker 1: on Facebook or you know, other platforms, you become desensitized.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't think that's people intentionally just saying I
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  Speaker 1: don't care. I think it's this is way too much
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  Speaker 1: to take in, so I'm just going to treat it
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  Speaker 1: as this incident and I will get mad from an
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  Speaker 1: intellectual point of view. But when you hear these stories
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  Speaker 1: of music, I think music is used to express and
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  Speaker 1: I think naturally people mirror that, and so the emotions
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  Speaker 1: I think are brought back into the stories, and then
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  Speaker 1: people have to think. It's not just anger, it's grief,
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  Speaker 1: it's sadness, it's embarrassment, it's frustration. And when you are
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  Speaker 1: in a musical environment, your emotions are allowed to take over,
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  Speaker 1: and I think then people feel a lot more intimately
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  Speaker 1: connected to the story, stories of injustice or heartbreak, you know, loss, joy,
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  Speaker 1: love as well. I think it really allows people to
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  Speaker 1: engage in a different way, and it's harder to turn
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  Speaker 1: that off in a musical environment. I don't know why
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  Speaker 1: this has popped to mind. I think a lot about
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  Speaker 1: Tilcs Waterfalls. What is that song about? And why do
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  Speaker 1: you think that's an example of this? You know, it's
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  Speaker 1: funny because I remember seeing the words for years before
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  Speaker 1: I even knew what happened. But the three letters took
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  Speaker 1: him to his final arrest, gives me chills just saying that,
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  Speaker 1: Like when I finally understood what that song in the
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  Speaker 1: video was about. Again, I think it just becomes I
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  Speaker 1: think it makes what seems distance so much more accessible.
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  Speaker 1: And there are experiences I think many of us will
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  Speaker 1: never ever have to endure personally, but I think music
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  Speaker 1: allows a lot more proximity two issues that might not
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  Speaker 1: be our own. And I think there's something to people
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  Speaker 1: learning these songs and finding out later what they mean.
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  Speaker 1: So Waterfalls, again, we were younger, probably did understand the context,
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  Speaker 1: and then later someone tells me, oh, you know that's
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: about HIV eight or Together Again by Janda Jackson. Everyone
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  Speaker 1: knows that song and that's about her losing her friends. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and then it makes people question, you know, you've sung
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  Speaker 1: these songs, you have internalized these words, So it kind
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  Speaker 1: of makes people feel like, oh, well, I've been I've
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  Speaker 1: been a part of this narrative unknowingly. And again it
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  Speaker 1: makes it your story too, in a sense, or at
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  Speaker 1: least your opportunity to be empathetic. So here's Alex, a
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  Speaker 1: young man learning about a very traditional Western music with
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  Speaker 1: empathy and respect, but he didn't feel that love back
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  Speaker 1: when it came to the sounds of his community, that
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  Speaker 1: rich gospel music he grew up with, and after seeing
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  Speaker 1: his culture missing in that high level discourse that revolved
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  Speaker 1: around classical music, those conversations about richness and impact on
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  Speaker 1: the genre overall, he decided to build Tonality, an award
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  Speaker 1: winning choral ensemble that emphasizes spreading messages of social justice.
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  Speaker 1: And this idea that originated as a tool for inclusion
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  Speaker 1: grew but in ways that he did not anticipate. So
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  Speaker 1: Tonality is a vocal ensemble, and we use music and
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  Speaker 1: we use stories to speak to issues of injustice, of inequality,
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  Speaker 1: and as we've been talking about here, really using music
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  Speaker 1: as a catalyst for people to be activated and not
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  Speaker 1: just to learn, but how to get involved and create
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  Speaker 1: being a more just world for all of us. Our
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  Speaker 1: focus actually at first was not about social justice directly.
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  Speaker 1: It really was to address some of these inequalities within
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  Speaker 1: classical music that I saw. I heard someone misrepresent a
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  Speaker 1: genre or a style that I grew up singing, guessing
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  Speaker 1: the ways that gospel music was described. Don't use beauty,
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  Speaker 1: use energy, m hmm, right, as if this music is
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  Speaker 1: not beautiful, yeah, And the attention we would spend towards
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  Speaker 1: the music of the classical cannon and the composers and
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  Speaker 1: knowing their history. I said, I knew how Bok could
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: tie his shoe before he wrote one of cantatas. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, we'll be lucky if we even hear the
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  Speaker 1: names of the composers of spirituals and gospel music and rehearsal.
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  Speaker 1: And so, you know, I started to feel that way
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  Speaker 1: about music that I knew personally, and in going through
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  Speaker 1: my schooling, my education, different performance environments, I realized it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't just black music, Hispanic music, hinderstining music, really music
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  Speaker 1: again that was not coming from Western European cultures was
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  Speaker 1: treated in that way. And I said, we could do better.
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  Speaker 1: There's a way to do better. And so I thought,
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  Speaker 1: how can we give the intentionality and respect through our
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  Speaker 1: musical practices two more cultures and we're seeing now. And
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  Speaker 1: that's how Tonality started. And so when we started that
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  Speaker 1: first meeting, even with most of the people in that
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: room not knowing each other, you could immediately feel when
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  Speaker 1: we started singing, the intention was there, and I think
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: it makes people sing differently, and we felt that with
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: our audience. Our first concert was free, because again, who
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: were we to charge anyone? It was jam packed. I
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  Speaker 1: think people were really interested in what does this mean.
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  Speaker 1: I have found that a lot of people have resonated
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  Speaker 1: with this same call to find an equitable space, and
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  Speaker 1: we weren't. Really we received a lot of support, I
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  Speaker 1: think from outside musical organizations and core organizations. When you
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  Speaker 1: were just telling that story about the first concert, I
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: thought back to your earlier story about your first time
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  Speaker 1: in which gospel really had a big impact on you
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  Speaker 1: when you were sitting there seeing kind of the environment
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  Speaker 1: of the church. Do you see these two experiences as
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  Speaker 1: being similar, did you when you were sitting there the
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  Speaker 1: first concert, thinking back to that first time you heard
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  Speaker 1: gospel music as like the powerful thing it is? I think.
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  Speaker 1: So we've done this piece called seven Last Words would
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: be Unarmed by Joe Thompson, and it takes the last
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  Speaker 1: words of seven black men who have been shot and
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  Speaker 1: killed by police, and obviously in a very different way,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: but music bringing out such a strong emotional response is
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  Speaker 1: what I felt and what I know. Uplifts and encourages
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  Speaker 1: and challenges and activate to me and has since my
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  Speaker 1: days in the church. And I feel like that is
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  Speaker 1: what I believe music can do if we choose to
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  Speaker 1: use it in those ways to speak about issues of
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  Speaker 1: our time. And again, our audience doesn't always reflect the
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  Speaker 1: families of those stories, and so maybe for the first
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: time someone has to sit there for a couple of
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  Speaker 1: minutes and engage emotionally. When men are hitting themselves, slapping
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  Speaker 1: themselves on the chests and saying, you shot me, you
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  Speaker 1: shot me. That's intense, and it's a very different experience
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  Speaker 1: than seeing it or hearing about it or reading about it.
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  Speaker 1: And so I think, yeah, I think the way that
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  Speaker 1: gospel music moves me, I would like to think that
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  Speaker 1: the music that we do, in the ways that we
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  Speaker 1: tell stories in our concerts all so helps to move
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  Speaker 1: people to a heighened emotional state, and in that state,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: then we hope to help them find ways to get
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: involved now that they're emotionally connected. Tonality was finding its
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: voice and sharing the experiences of Black Americans, pulling the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: curtain back and delving into the emotions of black identity
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: rather than just an explanation on paper. But then something
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: happened that propelled the discourse into center stage. George Floyd's
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: murder on May Floyd was killed by the hands of
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: police in Minneapolis after a convenience store clerk called nine
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: one one over an alleged counterfeit twenty dollar bill. As
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: they detained him, former police officer Derek Chauvin tak a
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: knee to his neck. Eight minutes and forty six seconds later,
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  Speaker 1: he was gone. For Tonality, an organization that has become
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: known for making you feel what it meant to be
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: black in America through music, this moment was a turning point,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: and suddenly the whole world was watching. So yeah, George
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  Speaker 1: Floyd's murder did a lot. Actually, I think fra Tonality
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  Speaker 1: and it's obviously unfortunate circumstance, I think it, like the
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  Speaker 1: whole world, it turned people onto the realization that everyone
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  Speaker 1: needs to look inward, that that injustice wasn't just that
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: particular incident, but really so many systems, especially within our country,
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  Speaker 1: helped perpetuate or at least do not resist the racism
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: that we see. And so when that work was seen
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: within our choral environment, I think a lot of people
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: turned to leaders and organizations that has been doing this
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  Speaker 1: work well before, because I think people were really inspired
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: to actually make the real changes. But maybe didn't have
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the answers have had to do that. And so because
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Tonality has been doing this work really since sixteen, I
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: kind of felt, I think, like so many black people,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: kind of felt thrust into a spotlight. And for me,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: this is a work I wanted to be doing. I
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: know a lot of people felt uncomfortable. It's like I
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: did not I don't walk around as a diversity expert,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: but these are conversations that I was hoping to have,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: you know, again, it's why Tonality started, and so it
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: really allowed us to move intentionally and to help people
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  Speaker 1: move with us. You know, A group of colleagues and
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: I started a Black Voices Matter pledge, which listed out
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: some very practical steps about how to get involved. We
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: worked with an amazing artist from and Jeer and Arthur
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: who made this song build Me Up, which kind of
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: became an anthem for us around the Black Lives Matter movement.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: I wrote my first piece about criminal justice and how
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: that affects communities. So I think really this allowed us,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: you know, as we were doing this thing on the side,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: at least from my perspective, of talking about these things
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: directly and really engaging our audiences and our singers and
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: composers in this way to have more of a platform.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I brought a platform to say, you know, this work
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: doesn't have to be this thing on this side. We
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: all care about these things, and we're all musicians, so
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: we can use our gifts to bring more people into
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: this conversation. I love that because so many people I
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: hear constantly say, you know, I feel so much, I'm
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: so sad, I'm seeing the news. I don't know what
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: to do. Where do I fit into this? And what
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: I'm seeing from what the work you're doing is you're saying, well,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: you can do the work and everything that you do
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: because the genre of music the Tonality typically does is
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: not what I would ever think of seeing on Kelly
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Clarkson show thinking about black lives mattering, right, it's not
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the thing. It's true. I know it was interesting. That
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: was special to say, oh yeah, you know. The song
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: that they chose to play was a song on the
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: three Strikes Law, which talks about the issues of criminal
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: justice and how they are certainly unjust. Okay, something I'm
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: thinking about right now. I don't know if you relate
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: to this is uh, you know. I get asked a
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: lot how am I feeling about the world around me.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: You know, it's so dark. We're seeing all these stories,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: and you know, we as black people, not only do
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: we know that these stories have already existed, but we
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: also come from a deep history of knowing that we
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: overcome them. You know, we had foreign years of slavery.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: We overcame them. And I always tell people, you know,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I feel good a lot of days when I think
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: about it, when I let myself think about it at scale,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: because I see more and more people talking about my
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: life and it feels good to see people fighting for
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: my life in the various ways that they can do.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: You feel good these days as you do this work,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: because it makes you feel more hopeful as you keep
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: the battle going for justice. Mm hmm. I'm certainly inspired
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: by the attention that's given. I feel that sometimes we
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: get in our own way. We as I'm going to
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: see liberals, get in our own way by letting intention
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: sometimes override impact how we feel about situations. How we
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: feel about ourselves in those situations sometimes causes us to
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: pause in shame of frustration. I do feel like we're
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: moving out of that. But those have been a lot
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: of conversations I've been having un centered yourself, and I
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: think you'll find that you can move freer to help
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: those around you. I do feel though, yes, I mean certainly,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: I think it's easy to say the conversations that we're
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: having now we're not happening a couple of years ago.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: And now I think it's really you know, how do
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: we keep this up when it's no longer trending and
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: it's no longer the post that everyone's talking about Because
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: this work, as you mentioned, you know, this injustice trend
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: has lasted a long time, and I think the more
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: we uncover how ingrained some of these patterns are, the
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: harder it gets. In a lot of this work. It's
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: not fun and it's not public, and it's frustrating and
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: it's hard and it takes a long time. But I
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: do feel again that people are open to learning how
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: they can be a part of the change, no matter
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: how faster slow that moves. And I'm learning too in
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: my own growth and awareness about patients that you know,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: you're not going to move anyone faster than they want
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to move. I think I'm learning that politically as well.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: So I do feel encouraged and I feel seen in
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: a different way. Tonality continues to stay on course and
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: its goal of delivering authentic stories and for Alex, bringing
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: choral music into the mainstream using the message of inclusion
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: and storytelling is a big opportunity, and thanks to this mission,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the group is catching the attention of artists like the Ork,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: who Tonality recently shared a stage with in Los Angeles.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: But with more attention comes more responsibility, which is not
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: a challenge Alex has to take on alone. With his
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: community at his side, collaborating every step of the way,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: the vocal ensemble continues to share the stories and spread understanding.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, really, Fra Tonality, what an amazing opportunity to
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: be brought in, you know, I think we certainly don't
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: consider ourselves on the sidelines. Obviously, we consider the work
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: that we do important, but we also we are aware,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: and I'm aware that choral music is not exactly the
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: most trending type of music out there, So to be
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: able to do that on such a huge stage is
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: really exciting. I'm excited to see what might come from
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: these opportunities. I think it's so difficult to get involved,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: to have organizations and different people in Like you said,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: kind of the more famous identities to be able to
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: reach out and say, this group is doing the work
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: that I care about, and this is my way to
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: help them. And I think for York, for us, for
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Keyliy Clarkson, like, you don't have to do the work
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: all your own. I think, you know, there are people
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: who maybe feel that burden that I need to take
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: on all the things, And I think this is where
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: collaboration really helps. There's a group that's during this, there's
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: a choire this, during this, you can get involved in
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: this way. So I would say it certainly would be
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: a great model, and I'm sure many other artists who
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: are involved in this work would appreciate if this kind
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: of collaboration became more of a mainstain. I love that
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: we are ending on this idea that if you yourself
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: are too overwhelmed to do the work, that maybe the
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: path forward is collaboration or community building. Is that right? Absolutely?
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: When two worlds collide and are drastically different, it can
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: be difficult to pinpoint where you fit in or where
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: you can bring your authentic self. Alex found a real
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: need in elevating his culture the sounds of gospel choirs
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: that introduced him to his own passion and then turned
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: it into a community vessel that heals it's own members
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: and the world. And it's within the richness of this culture,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: the one they know deeply and is ingrained in their
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: own identity, is where they find support and one another
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: to face what is next. This has been in the
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: deep stories that shape us. Find this episode and others
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts. Don't forget to share, rate, and
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: review if you enjoyed this conversation. The show is produced
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: by Ivan Chien and mastered by James Foster. Our show
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: researcher is John and Raggio and our writer is Vette Lopez.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: A shout out to our guest Dr Alexander Floyd Blake.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Zach Stafford.