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
How One Nonprofit Uses Dance, Language, And Story To Heal And Educate
What happens when culture becomes the bridge instead of the barrier? We sit with Rita Addico Cohen, executive director of the Tidewater African Cultural Alliance, to explore a life that stretched from Accra to Hampton Roads and a mission that now spans classrooms, libraries, and community stages. Rita shares how TACA’s African Cultural Education (ACE) program brings one country at a time into schools through language, storytelling, and dance—turning curiosity into confidence and delivering measurable gains in knowledge, relationships, and social-emotional skills.
We dig into the design: six- to eight-week modules, vocabulary from major African languages, and a storytelling practice adapted from Ghanaian tradition that helps students name morals and navigate behavior with empathy. Thanks to a partnership with curriculum experts at Old Dominion University, ACE is built to scale. Rita’s own path—polyglot, federal interpreter, Manhattan School of Music alum, theater artist—powers a teaching style that makes heritage feel alive. Beyond classrooms, TACA convenes joyful public events: a gala featuring 20+ countries, country-focused showcases with local diasporas, and the return of Afrobeats Fest with youth workshops, college connections, and cultural scholarships.
We also face the hard history. Rita unpacks the transatlantic slave trade’s reach, the endurance of African design and polyrhythms across global music and fashion, and why attempts to erase culture ultimately fail. Mental health sits alongside celebration, with monthly conversations led by clinicians to help communities of African descent process trauma and strengthen resilience. If you believe culture should be accessible, accurate, and shared, this conversation offers a roadmap—and an invitation.
Subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of culture, education, and community. Share this episode with a friend, and tell us which country you’d like to see ACE bring to your local school next.
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YouTube: Listen Up with Host Al Neely
Okay. Hello, everyone. I'm Al Neely with Listen Up Podcast, and we're in season four. And today we have the executive director of the Tidewater African Culture Alliance, Rita Adico, Rita Adico Cohen.
SPEAKER_00:That's right.
SPEAKER_02:How are you?
SPEAKER_00:I'm great. Thank you. How are you?
SPEAKER_02:Wonderful. I am so happy that you came in. I've been following you for several years now.
SPEAKER_03:And wow.
SPEAKER_02:And uh your performing arts and your events are amazing, and it covers so much from the performing arts to culture to mental health. And um it's it's very refreshing. Thank you. Um let's talk about the Tywater African Cultural Alliance. You are the founder of that.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. It's a nonprofit.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:And it was um established. Why?
SPEAKER_00:All right. Well, so in order to answer that question, I have to go backwards four decades.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my, okay.
SPEAKER_00:Or more and give you a little bit of my story and how I'm here.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So, hmm, more than four decades. Let's let's do five five plus decades.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:When an African-American couple came and visited Accra, Ghana. That's where I'm from. And they met my parents and they really took a liking to my father. And when they learned about the difficult life or the livelihood in Ghana for people who are not of the upper class, because in Ghana we have classism. We don't have um racism per se as a as a social issue, but we have classism. So the if you're poor, you're definitely going to stay poor and probably get poorer unless someone from the upper class helps you. So we were from the lower class. And uh again, this couple from Virginia Beach came and they then decided to sponsor my father to come to this country. Back then, the whole immigration process was so much easier than it is now. And so at that point, I was an infant.
SPEAKER_02:What period was this? What years? What what decades?
SPEAKER_00:I want to say, well, early 1970s.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, got you in Ghana.
SPEAKER_00:So because I I was an infant, so um, and so at that point, which would have been 1973-74, the plan with my parents was that he would come first, make a way for us, us being my older sister, my mother, and myself, and they thought within a year, three years, everything will be fine. Well, it took almost eight.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:So I do remember my father coming home-ish in my memory one time, but I really don't have an active recollection of it because of my age. So my conscious memory of my father began when I was almost nine when we came here.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay. That's interesting.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So of all my siblings, oh, this makes me feel so sad. I had the least time with my father because my brother was born here when I was almost 13. Um, my sister was born there, my father was with her until he had to leave when she was about four. So she really knows him, even though he was gone. Anyway, so to get back to the story, when we came to this country, I noticed that there were a lot of Africans, Nigerians, Ethiopians. I was, I loved it. But I also noticed one thing: they never intermingled. Kind of like on the continent at that time, Nigerians stayed with Nigerians, Ghanaians stayed with Ghanaians, Ethiopians with Ethiopians, Kenyans with Kenyans, etc. So even as a little child, I was like, nah, this is not right. We need to do something about that. And then having gone to I began fourth grade here.
SPEAKER_02:Where did you live? What city and what schools did you attend?
SPEAKER_00:I was in Norfolk in the Greenfield Farms neighborhood.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And I went to Suburban Park.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Then I went to Norview Middle, then Norview High, and for my junior and senior years in high school, I went to Norfolk Academy on a full academic scholarship.
SPEAKER_03:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:Because of a soccer coach at Norview who said, You're wasting your time here. And now, in hindsight, I disagree. I was in all the gifted classes. I sometimes I was traveling on behalf of my school, representing them for different things. And it wasn't until my own children were actually applying to college that we learned that the counselors actually prefer to get kids from inner city, tight home one schools, whatever have you, who have really, really done well for themselves under those conditions, rather than the same type of student who would then go to uh a prep school where almost everybody else is supposed to be that way. So it was interesting learning that. But going back to the story, so having been here for most of my life, I then realized also that especially Hampton Roads has such a rich connection to the continent of Africa as far as African Americans.
SPEAKER_02:Because the first documented Africa is a continent, folks. It's not a country. Thank you. Yeah, that's my many, many countries.
SPEAKER_00:Many. Fifty-fourth.
SPEAKER_02:Very rich in history, culture, natural resources.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. So the first documented Africans coming to Hampton, being from Angola, and then by the 1740s, the largest group of Africans taken from the continent were from Nigeria, specifically from the Igbo people.
SPEAKER_02:So can I I I comment on those things? These are the things that kind of touch me.
SPEAKER_04:I would think so.
SPEAKER_02:So uh when we we talk about taking people from the African culture, it was mostly from the West Coast. Is that correct? Yes. So Nigeria is located on the west coast of the continent of Africa. Okay, just want to just a little commentary on the learning. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00:No, I appreciate you saying that, but I also have to say that the reach not only stayed in the west, but it went all the way to the southeast to Zimbabwe.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And that blew my mind when I found that out.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And I'll I just have to take a moment to say this.
SPEAKER_03:Please.
SPEAKER_00:What would happen is, let's say you were captured in Zimbabwe.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:You had to walk for days, weeks, sometimes months, all the way to the west.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, and there were slave castles.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:That were they were like cookie-cutter castles that were created by the Portuguese all along the coast. The same in South America, by the way.
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:They look exactly the same.
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And if you somehow made it on that trek, then you were taken to one of those castles, and then you were put into the dungeon. In this room where we are, there would be at least a hundred people who would eat here, sleep here, use a bathroom here.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And then the hole that you have is about this big in up in the ceiling. That's how much air all of you had to share.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And that that was what happened in those slave castles. My um, that took a turn. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:It did. So many things went through my mind. Um, and and I'm going to talk about a few of them. That's okay. Uh, first of all, um the first Europeans that really um began with the the slave trade with the Portuguese and the Dutch, right? So if you the reason I'm saying that is because if you take a look at languages, culture, and the very first event I went to was uh that you guys put on was the Haitian. So the diaspora for the Haitians um who speak French, they were settled or colonized or brought to that area by the French. So um Portuguese, of course, would be Brazil, right? So that's where we started.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And then so anyway, I just wanted to point that out.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah. No, I mean, you can't help it. And that's the thing. That is both the beautiful and the painful, and sometimes, let's be honest, the ugly story about the African continent.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:You can never be on the straight and narrow. There's so many diversions, so many detours, and that's it. Right. You have to honor that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, wow.
SPEAKER_02:I appreciate so much what you do because you bring it together with your organization and your events, and you focus on um a particular diaspora. And um that's so amazing to me because you learn by just going to those events.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Yeah. And going back a little backwards in in my story, I remember going to Suburban Park my very first day. I was so excited, and it was and it is a predominantly black school. So I saw all these brown children, black and brown children, many of them who looked like me.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So in my childhood's naivety, I thought, if they look like me, they must speak like me. So English is my fifth language.
SPEAKER_03:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:So I began with Qi, which is the predominantly spoken indigenous language in Ghana, and they looked at me just like with your head off looking there, like, what? So then we tried, I tried Eve, which I believe is my first language, my mother's language, nope. Then Dangbe, my father's no, Ga, nothing. And so finally I resorted to English, and then they started laughing. What? What are you saying? I said, I'm speaking English just like you. No, you're not. So they have the southern twang and a lot of a lot of it with urbanized, you know, slang underneath, and I have the British heavily accented, African accented, British English going, and we were speaking the same language, but it was difficult for us to understand each other.
SPEAKER_02:Different dialects, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So not only do we have the linguistic or dialectical difference, but then now we have the cultural difference. Because when they found out I was from Africa, oh boy, bring out the jokes. Oh, how did you get here? Did you swim? Did you live in trees? Did you did you live with lions and tigers and blah blah blah? And I said, Well, we lived in Accra, which is the capital city. I've never seen a lion or a tiger. As a matter of fact, I never saw a lion or a tiger until I went to the zoo.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, we lived in an apartment, you know, all this stuff. But I'm saying all of this now because it's the same. Yes. We've been here for 43 years.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Nothing has changed.
SPEAKER_02:No. I I never really thought about it. And um, you just made me think about one of the things that I I appreciate about my mother is that she would do things that were outside the box. We actually had um an exchange student stay with us from I think she was from Ghana, right? I was so young. Um Wow. So my mother made sure I have I had a lot of experiences, which it comes across with me doing this, what I do. But uh I never looked at, I never joked anyone from Africa. And that's probably why because I've actually lived with someone who's actually from Africa.
SPEAKER_00:Well, on behalf of all the African immigrant children who came here and were called African booty scratchers, we thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my goodness. So um Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And you it it's what what did that obviously you weren't happy with that. Are you seeing any type of um I'm sure after you've gone into schools and you've done the events, things began to change. Yes. So that's a lot of your inspiration and your motivation. And I was taking a look at some of your videos where you were uh teaching dance in the middle schoolers and the high schoolers in Churchland. Right? And part of those the videos, there were uh brown people, there were white kids, and they were enjoying it and they were experiencing it. Yes, and so if you're just touching a few people, um you're changing things because hopefully that'll multiply. Yes, yeah, so that's part of your inspiration.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, thank you. Well, the work we do, yes, it's Afrocentric, yes, and we believe in being very authentic, you know, we go to great lengths, but we are also 100% convinced and insistent on the fact that it's for everyone.
SPEAKER_02:I think so.
SPEAKER_00:It's for everyone. The biggest reason is because everyone took part in Africa's supposedly demise, everybody benefited from that, so everybody has to be a part of the solution as well. Yes, and the first part of that solution is education and communication. If I'm going to take only a certain group of people and edify them with the materials, the resources that we have, I don't think that's going to be successful. If everyone has access to it, then that information is disseminated faster.
SPEAKER_01:Correct.
SPEAKER_00:And on a larger scale. And that's what we're doing. And going into these schools, some of them, yes, some of the group of the groups we have are all African American children. Great.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But they also have friends who are not African American, they may have family members who are not African American. But because of us, then they go home, they go into their communities, wherever they go, and they're able to share this information without even knowing it.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And that's the power that we have in the resources that we're able to share.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So talk about the challenges um that you encountered developing the alliance in the early early days.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, one of the biggest challenges were one, well, why? Why do we need it? Okay, you need it because Africa is the source of all civilization and humans. And to this day, as I had shared with you from when I was a baby, when I was a child in this country, to now, people really don't understand what Africa is, what being an African is.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:So that's why.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Number two, the millions of people, not only in this part of our state and country, but all across the country and on honestly the world, who were taken from the continent of Africa without their permission.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And therefore, not only were they kidnapped physically, but they're they were kidnapped from their culture.
SPEAKER_02:Right. I have no idea about I know what percentage I am of West African or North African, but I have no idea where it is, what country it is.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Yeah. And then there are the people who are of African descent who said, I'm not African. I'm not African American. Don't no, don't include me in this.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's fine.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, that's that's basically what you were just saying. It's Africa is a cradle of civilization. And after I did the DNA test, started looking into it more. And um so I don't think everybody realizes that everybody actually has DNA from that continent.
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:And because of that, every other race is African. The other race is African. And and being an African, you're which I I don't think people understand, you can get every other race from the African DNA. Correct. And that there is in in the world. And you can't get it from any other DNA.
SPEAKER_00:So mitochondrial DNA, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So um I think it's needed. Yeah, it's what you're doing is needed. And uh I can see the the backlash or the pushback because that's not how we've been taught.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And that's it's actually something that people want to actually erase. So let's talk about um what's been you're working with the African cultural education, and that's a part of TACA, which is the tie word African Culture Alliance. Uh what's unique about you bringing the African culture and education to local schools, and how many schools are you in now in this area?
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I read that. I want you to tell my body to hear you tell it.
SPEAKER_00:All right. Well, I will tackle the first part of your question. Um, so the African cultural education or ACE with TACA, we go into a school and we're there for the school year, typically beginning October, ending May, April, May, June, depending on the school. And we bring one country at a time.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Usually one country takes six to eight weeks, depending on if there's school closures, whatever, and the and the content. So we will stick with that one country. We talk about the culture, they learn a little bit of vocabulary and phrases from the language, uh, the majority non-European language that's spoken. Then we, if it's elementary age, we add a storytelling slash citizenship component. And that came about, that's African storytime, which came about during the pandemic when we were shut in and the kids weren't allowed to go to school. My son was in his last semester or last half of his senior year, and I remembered my childhood in Ghana, where whenever we would visit our aunt, and she was the oldest of my mother's side, she would pull all the kids together and she would tell us a story, a fable, like an Aesop fable type, and we were responsible in identifying the the store, the lesson or the allegory. So I used that, then I added the languages, I added a little bit of culture because we're outside of Africa, and then I added dance. So especially here and the demographic we work with, a lot of the kids identifying the moral of the story helps them with behavioral issues, and just being together with other kids during the program also elevates their social uh socio-emotional needs. And and then, of course, we have the dance, which is almost always their favorite part because it puts everything together, yes, and we generally ask them, we always begin before to find out what they know about the target country. I would say nine times out of ten, they know nothing. But then when we're done, we get anywhere from 87 to 97 percent knowing much more about the country. Um their ability to make friends is easier, they get along with their teachers better, they feel better about themselves, and they want to visit said country.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So I as I'm I was driving over here, I was like, I know he's going to ask me how many schools we've been in. I don't remember because it's been five years now.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:It's so many.
SPEAKER_02:When I read it said five Hampton Roads schools that you have programs in.
SPEAKER_00:Currently.
SPEAKER_02:Currently, yes, but you've been to a lot of different schools um with these programs.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And and the reason why I And they're in the Hampton Roads areas.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Actually outside of We've also been to Alexandria.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Alexandria Libraries has booked us. Ooh, and then we were also recently in um King and Queen County.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:In Virginia. So that's the reason why I don't remember the exact numbers. Sometimes they're in libraries, sometimes it's in an amalgamation of several schools for one program. But we have been in the schools, we've been in libraries, we've done assemblies. It's a lot that we've done.
SPEAKER_04:Right.
SPEAKER_00:But what I'm really excited about is that we have worked with a curriculum team from ODU and they've developed and created the curriculum for us so that we can scale this and take it not only to other schools, but eventually statewide, nationally. Yeah. So we're we're gonna reach a whole lot more people than we have in the past five years, and we've been doing this. I know the way we structured it and specifically through the Hampton Rose Community Foundation, where they they supported it financially with a 50% match, is on a three-year grant, we're able to collect data and work with kids for three years. So the latest three-year data that I have is we touched 193 kids. And just as I told you, we began from knowing nothing to then later knowing a lot more, being able to say phrases in Zulu, Qi, Swahili, uh, what else? I'm missing one more. Yoruba. So those are four different countries I've told you about. Those are the public schools. Once a month, we also go to Cape Henry, and we just began a fifth year with them. They always ask us to come back. We work with the entire fifth graders, and their biggest thing is the cultural sensitivity because they are more of the elite crowd or class, and some of these kids are not exposed to yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That was going to be my next. So um my next question: how has it influenced the area? And the Hampton Rose, it's the diaspora. Um I really didn't really start focusing on that until um I ran into the taco organization and performing. Yes. So how do you select the diaspora that you're going to focus on? And then what has been the impact, like you're saying, in those particular schools?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So well Can you tell us that?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, excuse me. The way the whole thing began, because for a long time it was just me.
SPEAKER_02:So do you still speak those languages? That's what I before I forget.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, I still speak languages fluently.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I don't speak English with my parents or my sister.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so you have a a background in teaching and it's natural. Okay. It's natural. Yeah. Okay, and um performing arts. Okay. So that what else is would your background be? Is it language?
SPEAKER_00:Languages.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Yeah. Language.
SPEAKER_00:I'd been a federal level interpreter and translator.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And so when I the reason why I say it's natural is because even all the way back in grad school at the Manhattan School of Music, when I was getting my master's in classical voice performance, the school asked for me and paid me to be a language tutor to the all the other singers. So that began for me a way to really capitalize on my unusual linguistic gift. Um, and I was tutoring students in Italian, Spanish, French, German diction, and then they would also somehow work. Oh, are you okay? Somewhat, somehow, word got out, and I remembered I also was a tree translator for a Ghanaian boy that had come in and they were having issues with communication in New York City. So that began my experience with not only interpretation and translation, but also teaching. And I just kept it. Uh at some point I taught, oh, this is funny. I taught voice at the Governor School of Music in the early 2000s, and now I'm teaching African dance.
SPEAKER_02:Same school.
SPEAKER_00:Same school.
SPEAKER_02:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, and then the the voice department is also whispering in my ear. I'm like, wait, one department at a time. Um, and then I also have a theatrical theater background. I did lots of musical theater, even a little bit of um street theater, no singing or dancing. Um, so I have a very diverse liberal arts background, and I'm one of these people I love to keep learning. You can never know enough. We don't use enough of the brain power with which we were born. So I try and use more and more of it and develop more and more of it because literally use it or lose it. And it's the same with languages.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Yeah. So let's talk about how do you select the diaspora that you're going to focus on. So and the so when was the last one that The event. What's the last event, first of all?
SPEAKER_00:Well, we had our gala.
SPEAKER_02:Gala. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Um before that.
SPEAKER_02:And the gala, we had your Is that a combination of um African countries? We had the gala. Just talk about that. Because I wanted to go. I had an event. I couldn't make it.
SPEAKER_00:It's okay. It was our first one.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So it was a learning experience for all of us as well, but it was very successful. And we ended up having over 20 different countries represented in that room.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And I was, I don't remember going to an event like that where you feel the positivity and the happiness. People were literally happy to be there to learn about one another, to talk to one another. And we created these placemats, these country placemats. Oh, that's awesome. So we had 14 tables. Each table represented a country.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And so for each seat, there were eight seats. You have a placemat representative of that country. Of course, it tells you the capital, the year of independence, if it's not Ethiopia. Um, some fun facts about it. And then there was a QR code where you could learn more.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:So at some point, people were going from table to table, taking pictures with the police mats.
SPEAKER_02:What I like about the events, you actually have uh dress, and there usually tends to be um the older ladies like to dress. Did you in that event which you did with the gala where they're all different dress from each they were dressed differently from each country? I bet you that was beautiful.
SPEAKER_00:It was beautiful. And we can't wait to start sharing the photos and videos. Yeah, everything is the color is just oh my god. It was beautiful. Yeah, so that one we used to, we have done two different African diaspora heritage month, which is September events, and then we decided, you know what, we should just from now on do our gala during that month in place of that event, because that's what it is. Yeah, it's bringing everyone from the diaspora together. And how do we select the country? To be honest with you, it depends on who we know, it depends on our network. So, and I guess the communities that are already here. So the very first one was a broader one. Then we thought, okay, we've introduced it, let's focus on one country. We decided to do Kenya, and I truly cannot tell you why. Um, I don't remember the decision-making process.
SPEAKER_03:Gotcha, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But then after Kenya, we did Nigeria because we have a large Nigerian population here.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:There, I think, anywhere from four to six different Nigerian organizations in Hampton.
SPEAKER_02:Really? Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So we elicited their help. It was great. We did it at the public library. Then after that, we did Ethiopia, and we collaborated with TCC because one of their staff, actually, they have more than one staff member who's uh from Ethiopia or has a connection to Ethiopia. But at that time, we had a member whose husband is Ethiopian, so that was easy. Then the next year we thought, you know what? We keep talking about the diaspora. Let's show the diaspora. So then we decided Haiti, because it was the first black republic. Um, and then there also there's a strong Haitian contingency here.
SPEAKER_02:Then I um I'm gonna cut you off.
SPEAKER_00:No worries.
SPEAKER_02:It's kind of funny because I went to that several years ago when we had and you had it, and then started watching the Black Panther, and then um his wife moved to Haiti and his son was born in Haiti. I was like, oh, okay. So it gave me a little more awareness. I knew about Haiti, but I did not. I don't you I don't know if I just didn't put it together.
SPEAKER_00:Um, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So but that caused me to have a little bit more awareness. So I just then I started studying about Haiti. And um good. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Good.
SPEAKER_02:So that's it's your influence on me.
SPEAKER_00:So well, we hear that a lot. I didn't know about so-and-so until you shared, and now I'm obsessed.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. So great.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So let's talk about the representation of art in our museums and the climate now where it's trying we have an active movement to remove culture. Um, what is the you feel like your importance now with introducing the diaspora, various cultures, and then African um the what's Africa's given to the world? How do you feel about that? Right.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. Oh my that's a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot to unpack. I will try my best.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Um I just want to make the statement. Without culture, you have nothing. Culture is a signature of a civilization.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Culture is not threatening. Culture literally, if you if you bought a black and white book, coloring book, if you don't color it, it's a black and white coloring book. When you start coloring it, you're adding culture. You're coloring civilization. Okay, when you have culture. So whether it's fabric that Africa is known for, beautiful, bold, geometric, different prints, patterns, no other culture can put together prints and colors like the African civilizations. I don't care if it's north, south, east, central. In the north, you have the Berber fabrics or Amazich, the indigenous um people of the Maghrib, and their contributions. In the West, you have Kente, Ashoki, oh my god, the Zauli fabric, so many things. In the south, you have a Shwe Shwe, Angola, you have a Samakaka, Kitenge, in Kenya. I I can go on and on.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But when I say those words, mud cloth, they evoke a specific image that takes you right there.
SPEAKER_02:Gotcha. Right?
SPEAKER_00:You don't have to really think about it. There's no negativity. If anything, I think it brings a smile to your face, your soul, your heart.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So why do you want to take that away?
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:You want to take it away because you feel threatened.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:No one is here to threaten you. There are also a huge number of people who need access to that for many, many different reasons. Actually, for the exact reason why you feel threatened. You feel threatened because you feel that having the African culture accessible to everyone, specifically those from whom it has been deprived, then will threaten your peace of mind and your stability and everything that you think you and your ancestors have worked for. Well, many of our ancestors, all we have, which is a lot, are those things that I'm talking about. So taking that away from us takes away from the whole world. Because the whole world uses that. If you look at designers, Louis Vuitton, his his um trademark, that's from Africa.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:All these different things, the world has benefited from it. We're not asking to benefit from it and therefore make you lose money. We're just asking for you to leave it alone. Let it be, let us honor it, let us celebrate it as is due.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:That's it.
SPEAKER_03:Gotcha.
SPEAKER_00:No one is declaring war. No one is coming to your home to try and take anything. So I personally don't understand the issue. Okay, so that's that's one aspect. Now there are those who say they are owed monetarily reparations because of everything that has happened with the transatlantic slave trade. I'm not here to argue yes or no. I'm not even going to touch on that. Will they ever succeed? No. It's not gonna happen. They can try. Will they fully succeed? No. The world will not let it. The world. How can you go around eating chocolate and not acknowledge Africa? The world's best chocolate is from Africa. Co d'Ivoire is a number one producing country of chocolate. Ghana is number two. Gold, Ghana, diamonds, Botswana, South Africa. There's also some in Ghana. I can go on and on.
SPEAKER_02:Farming. Rice.
SPEAKER_00:Kultan. I mean, let's keep going. You know? So music. Specifically polyrhythm.
SPEAKER_02:Rock.
SPEAKER_00:Rock.
SPEAKER_02:Blues. Blues. Jazz.
SPEAKER_00:RB. Hip-hop. Obviously Afrobeats. Afro house. I'm a piano, all the latest things. Go ahead. Try and take that stuff away. It won't happen.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:It's too ingrained, whether we acknowledge it or not. They are too ingrained within our Western cultures.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Yes. So Dr. King, people I like to say, we're all connected.
SPEAKER_00:Do you know he was at the first 6th March or Ghana's Independence Day celebration?
SPEAKER_02:I did not. I thought I knew a lot about him, but I didn't know about that. I know he traveled uh to Africa and Vietnam, and that's when he realized that we're all interconnected. And that's when he started having a change of mind. I had no idea though.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, he was there for 6 March 1957. And when he came back, he wrote a letter to the governor of Alabama saying if our brothers and sisters on the Gold Coast, as it was called then, can get themselves liberated, surely we can get the Civil Rights Act to become a reality. This is seven years before the fact. Kenneth Kaunda from Zambia, he came to the US and he also met with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Um, Thurgood Marshall traveled to Kenya and wrote the constitution of the new country, Kenya. He went twice. The first time they came, they they asked him to help them establish their constitution. Then they uh invited him again, and he wrote before he died that Kenya is his home country.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. Yeah. That's interesting. Um, one of the things I want to talk about, I did attend a fashion show recently, and the best designer as the African influenced the colors. So I think everybody that was with me will probably agree with that. So there's a few people. So uh what kind of upcoming projects do you have?
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm. You know what? I I will talk about it. I usually don't like to talk about these things until um you could just give us a brief summary. Well, I can tell you that in February the Afrobeats Fest is coming back.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I'm looking forward to that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. We've been doing it every two years. This is the is it the second, I think it's the second skip and then second year, and then I think, I think from 2026 on, it'll be annual, I think.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Um, but yeah, that's coming back, and we're gonna we have a major star who's going to be uh headlining the concert. So this year we'll well, next year or this iteration, what we're doing is a little different. So each year we grow bigger and bigger and bigger.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Last year we had just under under 1200 people. This upcoming time, we're sure we're gonna at least double that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, we're gonna bring middle and high schoolers on the campus of Virginia Wesleyan to take free dance workshops with internationally renowned artists, then they get a visit from the admissions office. Then Saturday at a high school, which is so exciting, we're gonna have a community Afrobeats experience. And there's gonna be a Ghana room, Nigeria room, documentary going, um, and then a dance workshop going, and of course, food and vendors. So people are gonna be broken up into groups, and it's you know, you're gonna be rotating the whole day, and then we're gonna finish it off with an hour and a half dance competition.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's nice.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Where we're gonna give cultural scholarships to the winners and the top three teams, they get to perform with a headliner that night in the concert.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. That's awesome. Looking forward to it. Uh, one of the aspects that I've noticed that you incorporate in these events are you lots of times I've gone and you've had mental health professionals. Where did that come from and why do you think that's important to do that?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'm making a blanket statement. I'll say it. Anyone of African descent is mentally impacted.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:Whether consciously, subconsciously, whether we know it or not, we are. Because of the collective experiences that we have lived through, whether on the continent, on the diaspora in the diaspora, in this country, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, whatever, there are certain patterns of behavior that regardless of where you were born, you experience it because of the color of your skin. And that is a result of what our ancestors have had to experience in order for us to be here. So at the end of the day, we all have some mental trauma to unpack, analyze, and then move forward. That said, we are the one demographic that hates the term mental health or mental wellness. We hear it and we run the other direction.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So we're doing it. It's changing, but it is changing. Yes, it is changing.
SPEAKER_02:I definitely agree with you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I I have to give it up to Nigeria. They have mental health clinics that are apart from hospitals in their country. Have you ever heard of such a thing?
SPEAKER_03:No. No, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's anyway. So there's that, they are doing an amazing job for that one. Um, so ever since our existence, and one of our founding members and board members is a mental health uh professional. So we began with two months. Well, okay, let me go back. We began in May with Mental Health Awareness Month having a discussion. Then the following year, we did it in July, BIPOC, our Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Then, since then, thanks to the Hampton Rose Community Foundation, we've been able to have monthly discussions on various topics. And it's amazing when we all come together and we would say something, and oh my gosh, you do that in in Kenya? Well, we do that in Trinidad. Da-da-da. We say this. And so there's healing in not only getting to share your story, but also finding that whoa whoa whoa, we are alike, we are from the same place.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So let's really work together and work toward coming together.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:They go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. I agree. Tell us where we can find you, what you need as far as help is concerned, and um any of the platforms or that we can use to get in contact with you.
SPEAKER_00:All right. I'm going to address the help first because I want to finish with you all remembering how you can get in touch.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Um, so we always need volunteers. 100%. We need volunteers at events. Uh, we need volunteers. Also, we're trying to build capacity and grow our organization. So we are looking for people who are highly trailed, um, excuse me, highly skilled andor trained in specific skills that can help us to grow. So admin, um, things like that, programs helping. We currently do not have a physical location. So if someone had a physical location that they were able and willing to donate, we'll take it.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and then the the final thing is where to find us. Visit our website, which has a lot of information and resources. Just keep clicking. Taca, T is in Tom, A is an apple, C isn't cat, A is an apple, our area code 757, the numbers.org. We're also on Instagram, taka757, Facebook, Taca757, LinkedIn, Tidewater African Cultural Alliance, uh, TikTok, Tidewater underscore Afro, and YouTube. So just do a search, you will find us. We there is always a way to get in touch with us on any of those platforms. So, but if all else fails and you want to go the old-fashioned way, you can give us a call. 757-777-1564.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you for coming in and just enlightening us. It's been a pleasure, and I'm looking forward to the events coming up.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:All right. There we have it. That's concludes today's episode of Listen Up. We'll catch you next time and listen up.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks. These things always end, and I'm like, I didn't say anything.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, you sound like that.
SPEAKER_00:But there's so much to say. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, you're probably gonna have to come back after.
SPEAKER_00:I took it out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I think um I would love to. Yeah, I think what I need to do with the media company is just probably just start doing live adfits at the media when you have the evidence if that's okay with you. Yeah, the new media. Okay. I told you tell me how I could help you. I've been asking you for yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know how to say to talk about yeah, like to break it down.
