Listen Up with Host Al Neely
Hi, I'm Al Neely. I've spent most of my life asking, " Why do people behave a certain way? Why don't people understand that most everyone wants basically the same thing? Most everyone wants their fundamental need for peace of mind, nourishment, shelter and safety."
What I have learned is that because of an unwillingness to open one's mind to see that some of the people you come in contact with may have those same desires as you do. We prejudge, isolate ourselves, and can be hesitant to interact, and sometimes we can be belligerent towards one another. This is caused by learned behavior that may have repeated itself for generations in our families.
What I hope to do with this podcast is to introduce as many people with as many various cultures, backgrounds, and practices as possible. The thought is that I can help to bring different perspectives by discussing various views from my guests that are willing to talk about their personal experiences.
Hopefully we all will learn something new. We may even learn that most of us share the same desire for our fundamental needs. We may just simply try to obtain it differently.
Sit back, learn, and enjoy!
Listen Up with Host Al Neely
Brenten Sims on Amplifying Black Voices: Mental Health, Identity, and Cultural Impact
What happens when Black men are given a space to speak openly about their mental health and societal pressures? Join my conversation with Brenten Sims, a local influencer and the voice behind the podcast "I See You, Bro," who has made it his mission to uplift Black men through candid dialogue and community support. We tackle the often-overlooked challenges Black men face, from the societal expectations that stifle emotional expression to the socioeconomic barriers that impede progress. Brenten's insights reveal the transformative power of providing platforms that amplify underrepresented voices and how these platforms can be a catalyst for change.
Explore how art and music shape cultural perceptions and provide a canvas for vulnerability and growth. We discuss the vital role these mediums play in redefining the narrative around Black men while addressing the systemic issues that persist. Touching on political commentary, we reflect on the Black community's response to the recent presidential elections and the pressing need for actionable change beyond political rhetoric. Together, we examine how education and empowerment are pivotal in overcoming these challenges and enhancing communication within the community, ensuring that every Black man is met with the respect and understanding they deserve.
In an intimate turn, I share my own experiences of navigating identity and spirituality, contrasting my upbringing in Chesapeake with my time at Liberty University. Through these personal stories, listeners gain insight into the complexities of aligning personal beliefs with broader institutional narratives. As we close, Brenten introduces initiatives like Black Boy Joy Fest, designed to connect men of color with wellness resources, encapsulating our shared commitment to fostering supportive communities. I See You, Bro remains a beacon of hope, providing honest dialogue and community connections, and is ready to welcome new listeners on this journey of empowerment and understanding.
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Hello everybody, Welcome to Listen Up Podcast. I'm Al Neely, your host, and today we have Brenton Sims. He is a local influencer in the Hampton Roads area and I have the opportunity to talk with him. One of the things we wanted to discuss is the issues that we deal with with Black men in the community. Brenton, go ahead and say hello to everybody and just give us an idea what your focus has been for the last several years.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Thank you for having me. What's up? What's good everybody, what's good everybody. I'll do my little drop that I always do. I say what's good everybody. It's your boy, brenton. Even if I ain't your boy, you know, I'm still your boy. I am an uncle, I'm a brother, I'm a son, I'm a friend, I'm your favorite cousin. You know, I'm all of the things. I like to say those things and alongside of those titles which are my favorite titles, I'm also a creative, an entrepreneur, a mental health advocate, especially when it comes to men of color, and just somebody who likes to create space for people that look like us, right, and people that are underrepresented and people that don't have a loud voice as my, you know.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, absolutely so. That's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on when I started doing this. One of the things I wanted to focus on was black men, and the reason why is because I just constantly see I have a business too and I constantly see just the same mistakes made over and over again and then the frustrations that, uh, they encounter on a regular basis. Um, you have a podcast what is your podcast name?
Speaker 1:and you have that with three other guys right, yeah, so it's uh, two other hosts, um, and we obviously have a team behind us of people that help us produce and project manage, but it's called I See you, bro, and it's a space dedicated to conversations that Black men generally don't get to have with one another.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, and let's talk about that. So where do you find conversations that black men don't usually get a chance to have with one another?
Speaker 1:Everything. We don't talk about anything. Really, to be quite honest with you, yeah, unless it's something that's really really detrimental. I believe that we generally, like honestly, like I think of my grandfather, like honestly, like I think of my grandfather and an amazing man, right, an amazing provider, right, um, I can tell that he loves his family, based off of, like how well he provides things for us, right. But when it comes to, when it comes to, um, maybe who, like what bothers my grandfather, right? Or maybe him discussing with me like what angers him, right, like I don't really know those parts of him, right, and so I'd say that story to say, like, that's kind of like an example of a lot of black men, right, we don't really get the opportunity to get to know them and we don't get the opportunity to get to hear from them, and partly because we really haven't given them the space and and also partly because we're we're not provided the space.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah. So that kind of gets into one of the things I like to talk about, which is the manosphere itself. And you have to when you're talking about men in general. It's kind of cultural, right. So we've always been taught to suppress your feelings.
Speaker 2:You can't express, right, and what winds up usually happening is we're, we're a little bit different now, we're starting to change, but what winds up happening is you wind up looking to self-medicate, you have issues with addiction, and but you just don't know how to communicate. Like your grandfather did what was expected of him, but he probably doesn't really know how to communicate. Like your grandfather did what was expected of him, but he probably doesn't really know how to communicate. That's a skill too, right, right, so you, being in marketing, your whole, the whole idea of having a conversation not having a conversation but getting your customer to see exactly what you want them to see is having a skill of communication. Right, and if you don't talk and if you don't have conversations, you don't know how to have them. You don't know, you don't know where to go with things.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, so um how long have you been on IG? Yeah?
Speaker 1:So how long have you been on IG? Oh man, since it, since. Since it, since it became a thing. I love the internet. You know, like I absolutely love the internet, like obviously because of my profession, but also just being able to have access in that platform, right, and so really I would say I had an IG since IG came out, being able to have access in that platform, right, and so really I would say I've had an IG since IG came out Okay, because you have quite a few followers.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking you're up around 19,000 to 20,000 followers on your IG, right yeah?
Speaker 1:so I'm at about, I think, like 18,000, a little over 18,000 followers. And so that's been cool too, because that's just been a product of community, right and like people supporting the mission, and so I can't even really take any credit for how large that is, because it's. You know, really what I've done is just built community of people to understand, Right, right.
Speaker 2:So what do we do? What do we do as influencers to assist Black men? How do we get to them? So that, by me being a business owner, one of the things I study is one communication education and I look at social economic income levels and we're constantly below the average. The average. So I think the socioeconomic income level for Black men is somewhere around $35,000 to $40,000, right, and we know you can't do anything with that. Today you can't raise a family, you can barely survive. I mean, maybe you have a car payment and a small apartment payment, maybe, right. So I tend to focus on that. As influencers, what are the things that we can do to get men to see the steps that are necessary, um, to grow?
Speaker 1:Um, so I wouldn't give this advice to anyone, right? Like, because I feel like everyone has influence, everyone has impact, yeah, but I think for me, like, a simple, tangible way that ripples across community is vulnerability, right? Yeah, one of the ways that I've began to combat stigma right Around. Dishonesty in general is not, right? Yeah, if you ask me how I feel, I'm going to tell you the truth. My truth is not for you to like and it's not really for you to accept, right, and so my threshold is as long as I'm not being disrespectful, as long as I'm not being rude, right? Um, as long as I fall within those confines, which 90 of the time I do, I'm gonna, I'm gonna share what is truthful to me, right, regardless of how you perceive it or how you take it, because what I do, not only do I create space for myself, right, but now I create space for the next time they come and they have a conversation with a Black man, and whether or not he decides to use it or not, he has now created space not only for himself, but for whoever follows after him, right, and so I think that that's what we can do as people in general, whether you have, whether you think you have this large influence or this large impact or not, like you become the change, like, right, you know how people are. Like you become the change that you want to see you genuinely, and you, you, um, you embody those things and I want an honest.
Speaker 1:I want a world where people are able to be truthful, where Black men are able to say I'm not feeling good today, I actually don't have the capability to do this today, and people be okay with it, right, because they don't be People don't be okay with us having a voice, right, or us, and I think that's the world in general, right, like when you look at people in general, people place you in this box and if you don't perform within that confine, you know they have a problem with you, right, but I think that we can. We can fight against that if we are vulnerable and honest. You know, um, and advocates for ourselves first, right, right, um, and not to ramble, but I do that in every space. I go in, like even my jobs, right, whether I'm making, and like even my jobs, right, whether I'm making 30 an hour or whether I'm making, you know, 50 an hour, everybody get that same energy. You know like yeah, you, everybody is getting that, you know.
Speaker 1:I'm saying you, you, you gonna get that. And and for me it's kind like hey, you are now dealing with a Black man that knows how to articulate himself, who knows how he feels man, that is, yeah, how he sees himself. And so now you, it is your, you better. Like. The expectation is now, every single black man that you meet has that capability, so treat him that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So, um, I want to talk about a couple of things. Um, what I'm learning is humanity, art, um, and the communication of those things they drive culture, right. So the fact that you can see it all the time like music, the ideology of the tough guy, the gangster, with all of those things they kind of drive culture, and I think we need to get to a place where exactly what you're talking about is exactly where we need to be to help drive the culture, and the fact that you're open and you're honest about things. That gives everybody that space.
Speaker 2:Brenton, that, okay, all right, here we go. We got an excess black man doing something. He's articulate we're going to come back to that too but he's vulnerable. You know what? Because of all of that, he's way stronger than that guy that you know feels like he has to have that hood or that gangster mentality, because that's a persona. What you're talking about is mental health, strength and just that's a healthy mental space to be in, right, right, yeah, so I definitely understand. And then you were talking about communication.
Speaker 2:I was listening to some rap songs the other day, some hip-hop songs, and I can't remember who it was, but you'll know what I mean when I was talking to you about arts and everything drive culture. I'm listening to this song and they're basically mumble, rapping, right, and I can barely tell what they're saying. But what I've noticed, brenton, is there's a lot of guys that actually do that, and I can't understand what they're saying in real life, right, because I feel like they feel like it gives them swag, which I pretty much think that Black people have a lockdown on that. That's when you're looking for that, that you know. That's one of the first things you think you know, but it's difficult to communicate.
Speaker 2:So if you were in that space where you were a mumbler, how effective would you be at doing your job? Right, you know you wouldn't be that effective. Nobody's going to pay you 30, 40, $50 an hour to do what you do, right, so they're going to be. They can't understand what you're saying. So, right, right, you gotta learn to speak up Right, so they're going to be they can't understand what you're saying. So, right, right, you got to learn to speak up Right, yeah, and be able to express yourself. You know you do, yeah, you can be. You still have swag and be articulate, right.
Speaker 1:And I found the better way that I am able to communicate with people, the better you know, the better that they're able to respect me and meet me where I'm at too, because if I'm able to advocate for myself and communicate about what is going to make me successful, it's up to them to meet me there, right, and then from there it's up to me to kind of like stay or go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what did you learn about the black community from the last national election, the presidential election? What did you learn?
Speaker 1:This is the most recent one.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What did I learn?
Speaker 2:I learned that Were you surprised about the outcome? No, I wasn't.
Speaker 1:You thought he was going to win. No, I knew that he was going to win and I'll tell you why. So, to answer your first question what did I learn about us? I learned that we, I learned that there's a group of us that just like wrong they're wrong.
Speaker 1:Some people just like to subscribe to what is wrong, right. I know that there are a group of people in general, black people in general that I feel like and because we have not been given the opportunity to be educated and to be placed in different spaces, media and culture even black media and culture will sometimes exploit the ignorance that's there, Right, Like I'm, and I wish I could say it in a more like graceful way, but I don't know.
Speaker 2:No, you, you, dad on. Exactly that's what rap music does, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it exploits that.
Speaker 1:So I learned that, right, like that we're still there.
Speaker 1:I also learned that we say we're ready for a lot of stuff, but we, like, when it comes to the work that it takes to get what I see it amongst myself, right, and the black man that I work with, like, we do a lot of talking, right, like we are great at identifying it, but when it comes to um taking the action that's necessary to like, shift things, like that's a different conversation, right, and so I don't think that we quite have that part of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, did I know that he was going to win, absolutely, because I kept seeing the emails from the democrats asking for money. So I knew that, like, so, and I know that the world is ran by money, right, and so, like, he is much richer than she is, whether she's the president or not, so I knew that there was a disadvantage from that regard, right, um, yeah, that disadvantage combined with, like I said, us I'm not really having that piece yet that says, hey, like we're gonna do it instead of just talking about it, I kind of knew, also, coming from a black mom being raised by a single black, I knew that the world just wasn't ready for that yet. You know, like I just knew that.
Speaker 1:And while that, while she's biracial, she's still a black woman in some regard, and a lot of regard, regardless of what a lot of people say, regardless of what I say, she does have a certain experience. She does have a certain experience and so I knew from that regard that people were down for Barack Obama because he was a black man, and he was still a man, but they were not going to let somebody black and a woman be in office and lead this country. Um, you know, again, I wish I could say things a lot more eloquently, but some things, just it just don't be that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm past that. So that's one of the things I learned that I'm going to always have a conversation about race and um. It's just something that has to just be discussed, because we can't put it on the back burner and keep going yeah, things are getting better, and then you have things happen the way that whole campaign was run, the way his cabinet is being put together. You have to have this conversation about racism, xenophobia. I mean, it's just why are we? We've been attacking people from different countries since this country was started and it didn't matter. It's just a constant. It's like a constant Political campaigning issue people from someplace other than this country. So when I realized that, you know, we got to have this conversation and I'm not a racist, um, cause I don't hate anybody unless they've done something to me Um, I don't dislike anybody. I don't think any of us are better than anybody else. So, uh, but we need to. We need to address it because it makes people uncomfortable, and when you make people uncomfortable, you get them to think. So I'm going to keep talking about it. But you're absolutely right, she's way more qualified. But that doesn't matter, that didn't matter. Not one bit. Not one bit it's.
Speaker 2:It was, it was a revelation. And but here's the funny thing too, brenton, I don't think either one of those parties are Effective the Democrat Party, I don't think, one of them a little bit more than the other for people, but in general it's just so much is left out with those two parties and you selecting those two parties, because they're both funded by PACs. Right, that has special interests, right, and those packs that have special interests are the reason that your food's high. There's a reason that rents are high. Um, there's a reason that you, your healthcare is high. Now, you know healthcare. Because of that, you know assassination, that murder. Now, everybody's talking about health care. Finally, right, I don't know, you probably work for companies where you've had health care, but now it's, it's to the forefront, right, it's expensive for health care and this half the time they don't want to pay for anything. Once you get it, right, I mean, do you have? Do you have with your jobs?
Speaker 1:Mm, hmm, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I always keep health care, even in between my jobs, like I'm health care and I'm going to get Medicaid, so like if I got that, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So these are the things that everybody's dealing with that neither one of the parties really addressed, things that everybody's dealing with that neither one of the parties really addressed or they don't address because they're all taking money. It doesn't matter, democrat, republican, all taking money from these special interest groups. Right so um. The guns you know no one's going after. You know the gun manufacturers Right, right so um. I I basically stopped listening to the news because they're they're all. I don't know most of my. I get all my information basically from either people like yourself, podcasters or um, or the internet, you know, and it does give me the option of listening to left-wing, right-wing people that are centrist and just seeing where they are. I got to tell you this is pretty interesting. I learned a lot from it. You're absolutely right. Where did you grow up?
Speaker 1:I grew up in Chesapeake, virginia, so south norfolk, okay, and so we moved to deep creek when I was in third or fourth grade yeah, in the fourth grade, I think um, and I grew up there throughout my childhood, for the rest of my childhood so Chesapeake primarily.
Speaker 2:Yeah, chesapeake's a little more Chesapeake in the area. It was probably a little more diverse for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. Funny enough, my mom actually um, so I see what she was trying to do, right, like, so, actually, like, we moved to a predominantly black neighborhood and the school, the elementary school, was predominantly black. She drove me back and forth until I got to middle school, which was a more diverse environment. She drove me back and forth to South Norfolk to have that experience, versus the one that I would have had, in an effort to just give me a different experience. Right, on the flip side, it did allow me to experience, you know, things from a different perspective and have, even, like, better. I'm not naive to understanding that. I had a better education experience. Right, but two things also happen with that choice.
Speaker 1:Is, like, once, she risked her life. Right, because when parents do that, that's illegal. Like, you can't decide to put your child in a new school, in a different school district, unless it's approved, um, by the school district. Right, and if you do it, you somebody else's address you. That's, that's an offense. Right, um, parents should have the choice to put their schools. But the other thing is that it almost um made me, um, disassociate with my blackness too, because I almost felt like being Black was a disadvantage. Right, because, as a mom who was trying to like excel me, right, knowing that she has a Black son, you know she's like honey, let me take you out of this environment. But in a lot of cases that that makes you disassociate with it and maybe not appreciate it as much. And so my experience was, was, was, was large and from that perspective, right, yeah, I can see that, that perspective Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can see that I think I grew up in a fairly diverse city but our family was we're close-knit family both sides when I was growing up and my parents worked in different areas, but I got to tell you I didn't learn a lot about. I didn't learn as much as I learned when I came here to go to college and I went to, you know, norfolk State HBCU and then you started delving into a lot of things that the black community has done and even how they had to start the university. So I definitely understand what you mean by you were getting something from one and you weren't being around the associate, you were being disassociated with, just you know, the black culture in itself. But you had a good mom. You know she knew that you needed that Right, and that's what moms do. You know my mother would have done the same thing just to make sure that. That's how you know you got a good parent.
Speaker 2:Education is really important. So, yeah, so she. She's probably seen it and grew up in it all her life. So she knew, wow, interesting. So, uh, where'd you go? Did you go to college?
Speaker 1:yep, so funny enough, I went to a pwi, I went to liberty uh, oh.
Speaker 2:so that in itself was an experience, because basically what they're teaching you there is what I would consider Christian nationalism, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Oh absolutely.
Speaker 2:That's exactly what they're teaching, which has nothing to do with Christianity, right.
Speaker 1:So, absolutely, they teach you the politics of what it looks like to look a certain way, yeah. So talk about that experience. It was just that of what it looks like to look a certain way, yeah.
Speaker 2:So talk about that experience.
Speaker 1:It was just that I didn't really, to be quite honest with you, the university of itself didn't really provide much, you know, much of an experience, whereas there were different groups that I got involved in, like, there was an organization called Bridging the Gap, and Bridging the Gap was a space that brought Black people into Greek life, into Christian Greek life, and so I was able to pledge and I'm a Christian fraternity and I was able to travel and just be around other Black and brown people that looked like me and have the same um had the same experience.
Speaker 1:I will tell you that, like, like you said, even in that space, I learned Christian nationalism right, yeah, um. And Christian policy right, right, like, which then took me on to work for, you know, other Christian schools and work for churches. Like, it did bring some amazing opportunities, but when it comes to my spirituality like, I absolutely did not Everything that I learned there was more of like a community, like, I actually feel like I got the community that I was supposed to have there. Everything else in regards to spirituality and connection to go into a religious institution. I don't necessarily know that the two connect.
Speaker 2:I understand it. I understand it now. I just started figuring that out about five years ago. I'm like, hey, I'm looking at this. I'm like a lot of this doesn't align with the way I want to treat people. Right, I don't want to judge anybody for anything and I don't want to be judged by anybody for what my thoughts are and I want to help people. I believe in Jesus Christ, but hey, this kind of doesn't go. Why do you need me to do this again? Right?
Speaker 2:And those are the questions that run through my head, because I'm still seeing the same thing over and over with religions that focus on those things religions that focus on those things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I used to work for the 700 Club. I was doing digital strategy for 700 Club. I was working right under Gordon Robertson for a long time. What was that like? Oh it sucked, yeah, like it sucked. Like, um, I think that, like, a lot of people are under a lot of pressure, like just because of how you look, that doesn't, that doesn't change, you know, it's just a different experience. I think that, like it's one of those things where, like again, because I practice spirituality and not religion, um, and there I do have some religious practices, right, like I'm going to church, like I might meditate, like those are religious practices right, but in regards to like spirituality and the connection of self and that, um, like I didn't really experience that there either. You know, yeah, you know what.
Speaker 2:I find-.
Speaker 1:I've met some great people. That doesn't discount. Like you know, I'm always super grateful for the opportunities, you know. So it's hard for me to be like, oh it sucks, you know, cause I know that things are intentional and on purpose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Do you find those spaces, those religious spaces, leave people out? That maybe I should just say I feel like they leave people out that I should include in what? Everybody that may need some help or some assistance? Absolutely so to me those places tend to those spaces tend to leave people out, and I don't, I prefer not to leave anybody out. I don't know, I don't understand or I don't know their challenges or their struggles. But compassion, I think we all need compassion and that starts with just giving people space to understand, express, and then you can make your judgment from that. So that's what I mean by that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, they do leave a lot of people out and, just like you, that was one of the things that made me recognize like, ooh, I got some unraveling to do Of some theories and things that I've been taught, and when you really are present with what, who, who, who we're, who we know God to be and who we're taught to know who God is, it doesn't necessarily align with some of um you know, just like the practices that you know are aligned with with the religion itself. So that makes it really hard to connect you know with, with the higher power, with Jesus, if it is that you subscribe to. Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, when you said that I've had a number of people that, um, it'd be to work with, or, um, the Robertsons, or worked alongside of them, and it's almost like they're enamored or they feel as though they're in the presence of greatness around here, and I'm like that's interesting to me. So I could say at least three people that I've known that have done that, and I don't know if they've done that before. You know the Robbersons and I work with them and they treat them like royalty around here. So I don't know how they act. I don't know how they acted, what your experiences was, but it was just interesting that you said that, as this one yeah, so, um, your podcast one of the things I would like to do is get you guys to come in one day, um, and then let's all chop it up.
Speaker 2:One of the things I would like to do is get you guys to come in one day and then let's all chop it up. Let's take a couple of subjects, that, and just chop it up. But at this point, tell me what you have going on, tell us where they can find you, yeah, where you can be followed and then just give me everything so they'll know we got you so, um, everyone can follow my personal journey um at Brenton Jamar.
Speaker 1:Um, that's where I have everything going on. Um. A few of the things that I have going on that I'm really, really proud about is black man hill yoga.
Speaker 2:Um, I probably oh yeah, I saw that that's interesting yeah go ahead.
Speaker 1:So, um, uh, so in the midst of I like lost the job I was working for a church, funny enough, and I had lost, like, my faith, community, right, like, because you know that, you know, you, you are taught the politics of it and right and that's being around. And so, like, I was really involved in my community, which was also my job. And so when I was laid off, I lost my community and also lost my job and, just like, really my identity, right, right, um, I was also going to therapy during that time. And so, obviously, with being laid off, you lose your benefits and I couldn't afford. I couldn't afford to go to therapy. My sessions were one hundred and sixty dollars. Black men were in high demand, right, they were in high demand. At the time, I had a black, black therapist. He was great, um, and I just couldn't afford him. And so I started doing yoga and in in in the midst of me doing yoga, I started inviting my friends and being like yo, we should come to this class with me. And I was like yo, it would be dope if we created a class. And so, from there, I was friends with the yoga instructor and she taught all of my classes and I was raising money on social media, on my social pages, to pay the fee for each guy to come and also pay for the instructor as well as the space. Fast forward to today. We actually have a partnership with Norfolk State Public Health Initiative and we provide a free yoga class to men of color up to 25 men of color every month, and so that's been going on through since July and that continues through July, and so far we've had classes in Chesapeake. Right now we're in Norfolk. We moved, I think, to Chesapeake again at the top of the year, and so that's one thing that I'm really really proud about. People can find that information on BMH Yoga, so that stands for Black Men Heal Yoga, so that's bmhyogacom. You can register for the upcoming classes, you can do all the waivers and all that stuff. We actually have a class tonight and it's our first sold-out class, and so that's something that I'm really proud of, and it's all black men coming for the same purpose, and so that's been really, really dope, and people can find out when the next classes are. I linked all that stuff in my bio.
Speaker 1:The podcast is something that I'm really really proud of as well.
Speaker 1:It's called.
Speaker 1:I see you, bro. It's a space dedicated to having conversations that black men and men of color generally don't get to have. Uh, it's with host myself, yuri, and mars um, and we're friends, genuine friends. We started the journey with each other about a year and a half ago, but what a lot of people don't know is we became friends right on camera, right and um, not only are we talking about the things that are really, really hard, but we're having to practice them in real time with one another, and so we've had conversations about our sexuality, about our identity, around our conversations about our relationships with our parents, right and Black men, and fatherhood, black men and motherhood, and how our experiences in that space has changed us, and so it's just in a really amazing podcast. You can find us on YouTube, you can, and all of the streaming platforms, and then I have a space called Black Boy Joy Fest.
Speaker 1:Black Boy Joy Fest is a space dedicated to partnering men of color with wellness resources, and so that's kind of where Black Men Heal. Yoga fall up under that, and I also just curate spaces myself as a host and as an interviewer, as a panelist, as a speaker, and so Brenton Jamar is the website, it's the social platforms and all that good stuff. But if you're looking for a good podcast, if you're looking for a good community of like-minded men, even if you are not a Black man and just a man in general or you want a space and you want perspective, I see you, bro, on IG. I see you, brocom, yeah, and it's. I see you, bro, on all streaming platforms.
Speaker 2:Okay good, alright. Well, I appreciate you coming on with us today and looking forward to getting you all the guys into the studio one day. And that's just chopping it up this. All subjects that I want to talk about on my podcast, absolutely so, thank you and that's it. Thank subscribe for upcoming videos.
