Man Cave 2025: Empowering Men, Building Futures

00:00:00 Everything’s going through you. Everybody else’s mics is muted except mute all time. Okay. Everyone else could be muted, but this is still going to work through it. Okay. So, what happens? Um, Uni, you got the audio coming out of this feed here. You got the audio coming through here. I think this is what you got the thing right. I just started to show this song. Oh, that might help. [Music] [Music] Another one here. What time you told them the people to be here? 12. Okay. Hey, what’s up everybody? You tuned in

00:01:28 to another episode of Strategic Moves. I’m your host Ken Da. This is a place where we bring art, culture, politics, and business all together and we do it every Tuesday right here in the WOVU 95.9 studios. But when I’m not shooting this podcast, I am the owner of Strategic Resources where we specialize in political campaigns, government, and public relations work. I’ve been doing it all around the city for over 25 years. met some fascinating people along the way and we want to make your next move, a strategic move. So, this program

00:01:59 gives me an opportunity to do just that. I bring in some of the people I met. We sit down, we talk about our experiences and maybe maybe you get something out of it that’ll help you with your business or your personal life. So, if that sound like something that you’re interested in, all I need you to do is turn um hit that like button, hit the subscribe button, and the notification bell as well so that you will know the next time this program’s coming on. If you’re watching us online or on our social

00:02:24 media, but if you’re listening to us on the radio, you know, you can go on and tune in by easily by just dialing in to 2162710959. That’s 2162710959. And you can be a part of this conversation. This is what’s on your mind Tuesdays right here at WOVU. Um right here in the heart of Cleveland. So we gonna get started on a program today. We’re going to get going because we got a full program today. Before we get started, I want to give a shout out to the producer who helps me pull this program together, none other than DJ TR.

00:02:59 What’s on your mind today, brother? It’s Tuesday. What’s on your mind, Cleveland? What’s up on your mind today, son? I’m kind of upset today, man. What you upset about, man? Y’all be killing me. Oh, man. No, no, to be honest, it was kind of a tragic situation. Did you hear about the um uh the Shaker Heights Library shooting? Yeah. Mhm. Um, so that was a a pretty sad situation because, um, probably back in like 2010, um, I used to have a a youth mentoring group called, um, the Futuristic Movement, and that was one of our

00:03:41 meeting places. And we used to have a lot of kids come up to that library and we tried our best, you know, to keep them in line and and keep them engaged and I was proud that we were able to do that. So to hear, you know, all these years later, a actual shooting, a fatal shooting happened there, I was uh I was kind of upset about that and kind of sad because that library has a lot of resources and a lot of rooms for people to meet over there. So, it could have easily been uh an innocent bystander or somebody

00:04:22 else that wasn’t in even involved in that altercation that could have got hurt. So, it was um it was messed up. Yeah. Um Yeah, it was pretty um it was pretty messed up, man. I heard what happened there, man. I was really upset to hear um what was going on there. And what I’m really um I guess what I really want to say out of that situation is um is that I don’t want the community to kind of overreact, you know, because this is what I mean by overreaction. overreaction is that I believe as a as a

00:05:02 citizen and as a whole, Shaker Heights is police department safety and everything else and what it does for it citizens there always seems to be on point and on t uh on point for all the stuff that it’s always been doing over the years and I think it’s good and um I think that in a city like that where you know it’s hard trying to find recreation and things for those students to do which they do have a lot of stuff there for the kids to do But you do have the thing where kids hang out. And and and I

00:05:33 like to believe wholeheartedly that you don’t have bad kids hanging out at the library. You see what I mean? And I just want to think that this was an incident that was unfortunately a bad incident, but nevertheless, it was just an incident. And I I hope the city do what it needs to do to bounce back, but I don’t want them to make it as if, you know, things are really messed up and this is how we’re going to do things from now on. I just really don’t. Yeah. I I just think that um it’s a little concerning. I don’t want overreaction,

00:06:07 but the sad part about it, it was the younger the 15year-old that had the weapon that shot the 18year-old. So it’s like where are 15y olds, you know, finding weapons and and you know what’s fostering that? So there’s a deeper reason that we got to go into um about you know back to gun violence, but just about, you know, who’s watching our kids that they’re able at 15 to get weapons and why did he even feel like he needed a gun to go into the library? Oh, that’s why I say I Why you need a gun in

00:06:45 the library? Yeah, that’s why I say I believe it’s a in is an isolated incident that I hope Shaker Heights deal with. And Shaker Heights do a good job of always coming through with um prevention and all kinds of things that they need to do to dig into it. But again, I don’t want people because there are kids and there is why I’m saying that. I’m gonna say it this way is because when we were uh when my kids were smaller and they were going to middle school and stuff like that and elementary, the libraries were the

00:07:18 ultimate dayc carees. I mean I’m just keep it 100. I mean they still are, man. We used to drop our kids off at I mean we didn’t drop them off. They left from school, walked across the street to the library. They stayed in the library till I was able to get them. And and they had programs in the library. They had meals that the kids they they serviced them in the light. This was in Cleveland Heights and I imagine Shaker and other places doing the same thing. That’s why uh and and there were kids who hung out at the

00:07:46 library and there were the people and the staff in there would make people move and do what they need to do. So, I’m just saying I don’t want them to make it feel as if you take away that ability to know that you can still even if you want to go hang out, you can still go there and have that versus we going to shut it down and everybody now is a criminal. I see you standing in the library, you keep it moving, keep it moving. I don’t want that. That what I don’t really that that’ll be sad a fatal

00:08:13 incident and now kids is discouraged to even go to the library. Go to the library. trying to get them to engage in education and read and do all the stuff that they’re not doing and socialize because that’s the way they socialize. The ones who want to, they’ll socialize there. So, we don’t want to take away that socialization by because of something that happened by one guy and that’s all I’m saying. Right. So, I want to get into my guest we got here today because we got some guests in our some of our favorite

00:08:42 people walked in the door today and I wanted to get them on the show today because they got a couple of things coming up and I wanted to get them on so that they could get the word out about their one event. They’re going to be coming on our podcast later on in the season, but that would have been after this event. So, I wanted to make sure the public knew exactly what you were doing. Latif thought about it. Say, “Hey, man. Let’s squeeze them in on the radio.” I said, “You know what? We can do that.

00:09:05 He said, “Let’s go and put him in.” I said, “You know what? That’s a good idea.” So, we gonna have him come on down. So, today in our studio, I got Tanora Edwards. He’s a really good friend of uh matter of fact, I’m a better friend of her fathers. That’s who my buddy is is her father. And and and we’re going to talk a little bit about him. And we got Demetrius in and they’re going to talk about a few programs and projects that they got going uh on in the city of Cleveland. So without further ado, everybody, let’s give a

00:09:32 warm warm warm warm warm welcome to Tanora and Demetrius. What’s up? What’s up? What’s up again? Absolutely. What’s going on? So, how y’all doing? Busy. Yeah, you always busy. Always. This year we added on some new projects and that’s what I’m here to support. Demetrius uh and Allan my son have collaborated and put together a event titled Manave. Yes. So we wanted is incorporating uh support for entrepreneurs for the community and I I’ll let him get into but hold on before you you know wait I got to ask how my

00:10:14 man doing how Mr. Edwards doing? He’s doing great actually. And you last time you came you brought Melbourne more to the studio. Yeah. So how are they doing? Everybody’s doing wonderful. When she comes back into town, we’ll bring her back in for a visit. And so the f my man Mr. Edwards, he’s doing fine. He’s doing great. Excellent. He’s a part of this project also. Okay. So, Tenor, before you pass it to him because everybody don’t know who you are. So, give him just your really quick who Tanor is and

00:10:40 what you do. And then we gonna pass it on to my man. Let him do his thing. He’s really good. So, I’m I’m holding him off. So, we gonna let him do his thing. He gonna do his thing. Yeah. He gonna do We know he gonna do his thing. But here we go. Let tell us who you are a little bit. Put your out there. Go ahead. No problem. I’m Tora Edwards. I’m the founder of the Pink and Black Honors, the founder of Multi-Resource Networking Expo. Okay. Which is a arm of the Pink and Black Honors where we provide

00:11:07 resources for entrepreneurs. I’m an advocate for women. I’m an advocate for entrepreneurs. Um I’m just I’m a a serial entrepreneur myself. Mhm. Um, I just love my city. I love this community. I love creating spaces where people can grow, network, and learn from each other. Excellent. And how long Pink and Black you’ve been doing that? This will be our third year. Excellent. So, we’re excited about that. We’re bringing in Sherry Shepard this year and to come back on the show to talk about. Yes. Uh,

00:11:39 some of the uh speak honores and some of the speakers that will be hosting the event this year. Excellent. And so part of that is she does a quite a bit of things. This she does that and she has a a woman’s weekend event that you guys put together as well. And now it sounds like you’re moving into our space. You get into the men’s space. You coming on man. Yeah. You know, so I’m trying to get more we can promote brothers is that’s what I’m all about. So I was really happy to hear about that. And so I’m going let you introduce

00:12:13 tell us who you brought in here to talk to us about. Well, today I brought in uh Mr. Demetrius Harvey who’s uh a great uh advocate for men who’s very uh active in the community and he supports the pink and black honors. So, he’s our marketing person and uh he will be hosting this year. So, before we actually get into man cave, I am a visionary. So, God gives me different assignments. Okay? And when he landed um man cave in my lap, I said, “Well, how am I going to do this? I’m not a man.” But I knew that I had to

00:12:50 create the foundation. So Demetrius and myself and my son, we went out to breakfast one morning and we were sitting there going over, you know, what I had envisioned for this space. And we were trying to come up with a title and just out of the blue, I just heard clearly every man is a son. M. So that’s the title of this year’s in our first um man cave retreat. Excellent. I like that title. That’s right. That’s right. And the reason why every man is a son is so important is because um we wanted for

00:13:22 everybody who’s going to be in the room to be able to identify with each other in some way. Yeah. Stay in your mic. To identify with with each other in some way. I’m sorry about that. So um the truth is every man is a son. You know what I mean? even if they’re not a father or a brother or you know a husband, one thing that we all have in common is that we’re all sons. So, you know, we’re more alike than we are unalike. So, being able to foster that and and just gel that together amongst everybody in the room. So, that’s really

00:13:47 what we want to be able to do. So, man cave every man is a son. April the 12th. April 12. So, what is that? We we I I know. So, I want you you got you know my audience I tell people break it down like we in one of his kids. So, break it down to us. What what what’s happening, how many people, where it is, what’s the point, all of that. Absolutely. So, um uh Man cave uh 2025 is actually going to be held April the 12th through the 13th down in Warren, Ohio at the Grand Resort. Uh it’s a beautiful place. It’s a beautiful place.

00:14:19 It’s about 50 minutes out from from Cleveland. So, it’s a nice drive, beautiful scenery, but there that that actual facility, uh, we wanted to be able to not just come together and and, you know, uh, have conversation, but to be able to relax a little bit, you know what I mean? So, we got basketball tournament going on, we spade tournament going on, you know what I mean? We got we’re doing pool and there’s many different restaurants and a full golf course is fully furnished with, you know, activities for for us to be able to, you

00:14:48 know, enjoy. Uh but outside of that, we have a a phenomenal lineup of speakers who are going to be coming to just be able to pour into men. We want it to be um a space where men can collaborate, grow together, network, you know what I mean? Uh we’ll also have some um job readiness opportunity. Um resume building. Chase Bank is coming on board with us as well to do some fin uh some financial literacy teaching. Um and then we have different workshops as well that our different speakers are going to be.

00:15:16 So, so give us uh can you give us any speaker that might be coming? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So, uh we’re super excited. Uh Joe Little is actually one of our speakers from the R boys award-winning artist. Um man, we are so excited to have him in the building and to be able to share uh his experience, you know. Um, you know, we were having a conversation here recently about what pain does, you know, and how that is equity that we have in life to be able to get us through some of the hard, you

00:15:45 know, some of the hard portions in life. And so Joe Little has such a phenomenal story um about losing some people who are significantly close to him, you know, in a very small time frame, what he has been able to do to pour back into himself to be able to continue to show up how he does. That’s correct. So, we’re excited to have uh to have him. And also on Sunday uh one of our our our next uh keynote address is going to be Pastor Judah Early. Okay. From uh New Community uh Fellowship here in Cleveland. So he’s going to do our

00:16:12 farewell address there. But outside of that, we also have Philly Weeden. Okay. He’s going to come. He’s doing boss talk. I say he going to do some motivation, I imagine. Indeed, we got, you know, we’ve been able to see all that he’s been able to do here in the city of Cleveland and just his his uh contribution um and his uh you know, just his notoriety here. So, we’re excited to have him. Um also, we have Waverly Willis. Okay. Waverly Willis will be there. Yes, indeed. We’re hosting a conversation called Barberhop

00:16:42 Talk. Okay. you know, on barber shops, you know, on uh remember Saturday mornings when you would go into the barber shop and you hear you hear the older men sharing and talking about all types of things, right? And sometimes those are the first times that you’re hearing these types of conversations. You’re a young man and you don’t know how to you know interjecting the conversations. So, you just listening and taking it all in and uh you know, sometimes that’s the first time that you start hearing men talk about money or

00:17:06 relationships, right? You know, uh what it is to be a father or things of things of that sort. you know, people, you know, contributing in in the community. Uh, so barber shop talk is something that we’re really looking forward to. Um, we also have um, oh my goodness, start calling Ishmail. Ishmail from Cleveland public school. He’s retired now, but he he has a phenomenal session on um, wisdom and y, you know, just being an elder and also Kenyan is going to speak to our young king. So, this event is

00:17:38 geared towards uh men of all ages. I was going to ask you that. So, what’s the youngest you expecting to come in? So, we’re anticipating 15 and up. 15 and up. 15. Absolutely. And so, what you got for the 15 year olds? Um, so sometimes, and it’s I’m glad that you asked that because we’re actually having a session that we calls and nephews. Okay. Where um passing the wisdom on from from the elders on to the youth. Right. I like that. There is a um there is a quote that I heard that says an old man can see more sitting

00:18:11 down than a young man can in the top of a tree. Right. You know, man, I want you to say that one more time. That is so profound, man. I mean, Jesus, an elder can see more sitting down than a young man at the top of a tree. And and you don’t have when they say elder, I want us to put a word on that cuz elder doesn’t necessarily mean that you are old person. It just mean that you might be just a little more seasoned in that particular vision that you’re seeking. That’s all. Cuz you know, it don’t mean

00:18:42 that you got to be old. And I think some people do. And I also want to tell some of these young people that y’all young people running around calling y’allselves young. Y’all old. You know, my grandfather used to say, he said, “It doesn’t matter the year on the car, matters the amount of miles.” Exactly. I’ve been tripping. They be calling me old. I’ll be like, “How old are you?” Oh yeah. You can’t tell me you’re 35 and you young, right? You can’t. All right. If you’re 30, if you’re in your 30s, you’re

00:19:10 almost close to middle age these days the way we living. So I’m like, come on. 30. 30. They be acting young. 25 and older was grown. You look at 25 and older. Now you be like, are you really 25? Right. That’s all I’m trying to say. But I don’t want to get us off subject because the other thing I want to talk to you about is what do you want to accomplish? You you did that weekend, everything went good. What do you and Toro really want to get out of that weekend? Well, you know what? I I’m actually going to

00:19:42 pass this to Nora so she can let you all know the foundation of how this actually started in honor of her brother. This weekend is actually um her brother’s birthday weekend. Wow. And so he is actually the root and the foundation of why this is actually coming to fruition. Absolutely. So, we’re I’m very intentional. So, we don’t just create spaces just to uh create them for fun, but it is a celebration of his life. And it’s a celebration um it’s his birthday, April 12th, but just for his sons and

00:20:14 for other individuals that have lost loved ones, that have lost fathers, that have have lost that guidance. So this space is is it has all of the different factors as far as entrepreneurship, mental health, um resources. Okay. But also for those that have lost and you know we we shared I don’t know if you you comfortable but maybe you could touch on a little bit of how not only is it helping me heal and helping the community that I’m in heal but it’s helping you heal as well. Sure. And what she what she means when she refers to

00:20:50 loss um her she Tenor actually lost her brother a few years back tree accident right yeah I remember the story and so I know last time we were together she got a chance to share um so we were here recently just uh putting the final few touches on this man cave um event and we were sharing just about loss and what that does um you know specifically grief what that does to individuals and So, um I uh experienced losing my father when I was 20 years old. Okay. Um to a in a very tragic way um having to find him um passed away in

00:21:30 his apartment and moving forward doing initiatives like this um giving back to the community in ways outside of this that I do as well. Um without necessarily having a blueprint, right? Um I’ve I’ve already survived. Those the best ways though, man. Yeah. Yeah. When you don’t have because you have no boundaries. Absolutely. Absolutely. And and and it is. And it and it develops so much in you, you know, not just as a as a young man, but just as a person in general. You know, when you are pushing

00:22:02 and you’re continuing to thrive every day. You’re you’re just waking up every day and saying, “Hey, whatever I can give is what I want to give.” However, we do also have those moments where we wish that we could share with those who were before us. That’s correct. you know, because what we what we plan to do is just perfect on their design. You know what I mean? I’m named after my father. So, I have always tried to um just be the very best version of myself that I have while also bringing honor to

00:22:27 him as well. So, um this for me being able to share in this initiative with Tor and Al in honor of her brother and his uncle. Um also for me is is is near and dear to my heart because I know my father and my grandfather are going to be standing right there with me as well. um as we continue to just try to be the very best version of ourselves that we can be and be the change in the city that we want to see because as you said earlier even the young man who you know whatever happened in in in Shaker

00:22:53 recently you know we have to be the change that we want to see and so showing up every day to be that you know that’s what I hope to accomplish uh in and of myself but as a as an organization as a group as a team um to be able to bring some light to the city of Cleveland you know what I mean one step at a time that’s beautiful man you guys always doing good work here in the city of Cleveland. You uh like I say her story u you can go to my podcast and matter of fact what we’ll do is we’ll reair her story from last year so you

00:23:22 get a chance to see she had a very good story. She and what she does she does for herself and what I mean by that she don’t have to. There’s no organization. It’s nobody say that every year we have to do this or any of that. There’s nobody giving her a chunk of money that says she has to do it. She raised it all and they do a good job of it. So again, I want to thank you guys for coming on our program and doing that. Demetrius, you know, you’re supposed to come on the podcast. We supposed to do a show for

00:23:48 you. He’s a dynamic dude. We And we we going to do just a show with him cuz he he got a lot to talk about. And uh uh we’ll make sure we follow up with you. Hey, before you go though. Yeah, he’s good. I talk too much. I’m sorry. Oh, you’re good. You’re really good. You’ll be good. And and he’s a He works at a bank. I thought the brother I thought he was like a a minister or somebody. He said he’s a he works this dude. Yeah. Yeah. He got a corporate guy. I’m like he’s a corporate guy. So he he he’s

00:24:20 really really a deep brother. And we going I can’t wait to introduce you to our audience and get a chance to talk with you on that. But before we go because we got to get ready to get out of here and go to this break, I want you to give everybody how they can get in touch, where they again, when is it, how they can get in touch if they want to get tickets, all of that stuff. Give that before we get out of here. Absolutely, you guys. So, once again, Man Cave 2025, um we are um hosting at the Grand Resort April the 12th through

00:24:45 the 13th. Um if you want to grab your tickets if you haven’t yet already, we are on Instagram and there’s a link in our bio. It’s man 216. That’s where you can go. It’ll take you directly to the link in our bio, which is an Eventbrite link um that you can purchase your tickets. I do know that our rooms have currently sold out by Wow. Okay. However, we do still have day passes available for people to be able to participate. So, please um Man cave216 on Instagram is where you can follow us. April the 12th through the 13th, Warren,

00:25:13 Ohio at the Grand Resort. We are so looking forward to seeing you guys here. Hey, that don’t sound like it’s going to be a bad time at all. And I advise everybody if you get a chance to go out there, do so. We’ll make sure we get your information. We’ll spread it out to everybody that we know and everybody who’s looking for that information. Please, we’ll have that on our website and on our information where you can and we’ll shoot something out on social to tell Mr. Edwards. I said hello. I sure

00:25:37 will. You know, and tell him, you know, a long time no hear from. He was going to try to hook up again. But just let him know we always thinking about him. And again, thank you for all what you do for our community and everything you go. Demetrius, we’ll see you soon, brother. All right. And we’ll be right back with our millennial moment. To protest or not to protest, that’s the question. We’ll be right back. All right, y’all. Thanks again. Thank you for having me. Oh no, you guys. I don’t know. Thank you, man. you guys

00:26:05 some tickets. You did? Yeah. I sent you an email for free tickets if you want to come down. I need to I check my email and it came from you know I’m gonna check my email and make sure he’ll be there. Yes. And I was just thinking while you was talking I’m going grab my son. I was thinking can I get him to get in my car and go with me? I’m going try to get him to come with me. Well, I’ll be I’ll make sure I look for you. I’m coming down there just to look for you. and Oh, okay. Exactly. So, everything’s going good this year.

00:26:56 And I’mma get you. We We need to check. Just I’ll call you. I’ll just call you. I’ll make sure. If not, I’ll see you uh for sure. For sure. Uh cuz you’re busy now. So, I’ll call I’m going call you after that and I’ll see you Saturday and I’ll call you so we can talk after this is over. That way you you I know you’re all about trying to get this done. Yeah. I’ve been on my listing. No problem. As soon as this you’ll see me there and I’ll we’ll uh get together and after this is over. Okay. And if you want to

00:27:24 bring it any I I’ll let you know. Thank you. I appreciate that. Were you referring to this part or you got a PayPal? I think on the PayPal I could use my credit cards. But you got Listen, this what you do. send me the invoice back and in your invoice put in your route number and your account number to where you want and they’ll put it through that they call it a they do yeah they can do it that way we just don’t do zale or those but they do do a my man it’s always good to see you coming I just told I’m just enjoy

00:28:04 yourself yeah I am come back and chill man you free I’m going come with you’ll be there we’ll be looking forward all brothers thank you guys all right Oh my, you know, I’m going to get one of those. That’s the new ones, ain’t it? It’s the dragon fruit lemonade. Is it good? Yeah, that’s why I saw it. I got to go get me one. childare location for kids open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday with activities like exercise classes and a food pantry day. Seniors can also join the foster grandparent

00:28:45 program to mentor and tutor children. Visit.org. Support for WBU comes from the Alzheimer’s Association presenting a free care lunch on Saturday from 1:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Fatima Family Center. This special event honors caregivers with a complimentary lunch, family portraits, and access to valuable community resources. If you cares for a loved one, this event is for you. To RSVP, call Frederick Knuckles at [Music] 216342-5607 and tell us what’s on your mind or stream. Let’s make your voice count.

00:29:39 It’s time for the Millennial Moment. Turn it up. We’re about to spill the tea on everything. Yeah. Get ready for some hot takes and all the drama. All right, everybody. We’re back. Cleveland, what’s good? Welcome back to Strategic Moves with Kendall, broadcasting live from WOVU 95.9 FM here in Cleveland. I’m your host, Kendall, the son of Glennville and a student of the struggle and unapologetically black every day of the week. And today’s episode, we’re going to this is one for not to faint a heart

00:30:08 where it’s for the folks who care about the future of the people and the legacy of our fight. Today’s topic is to protest or not protest. And we’re doing that in our millennial moment because today I’m going to sit down with our millennial expert on our panel today. And that millennial expert is none other than Zeke. He’s a new employee here working with us here at our company. and he does our our uh our what we call content creating for our organization and all the stuff we do on social media.

00:30:38 And we were having a discussion the other day where we talked about the protest and there’s been a big thing going on in social media today where everybody has put out this thing that’s supposed to be I guess representing our ancestors with a voice that’s saying sit your down and people were putting that all over social media telling everybody that you shouldn’t go out here on April 5th because the way to protest is through our cell phones. He believed that the new way of protesting isn’t necessarily meaning that you have to go

00:31:11 out there and hit it on the ground day after day or I’m doing it that way. He believes that using your cell phone is the new form of protest and I argue that to be different. So, I want anybody who wants to get in on that conversation to call in at 216-2710-0959 if you believe that using a cell phone is the new way of protesting and that black folks should u set this protest out and not do anything. So, I’m going to let Zeke give his opinion on why he has that position and then we’re going to talk a little

00:31:46 bit about it. So, go ahead, Zeke. Um, it’s not that I don’t believe that we shouldn’t protest at all. I don’t believe that April 5th was our protest. I mean, what you mean? What you mean by that? I don’t I don’t think that protest was for us. And what I mean, you say that, but what you mean by that? Explain what you mean by I mean that um just as we suspected a lot of us on social media just as we suspected um it wasn’t anything that to be taken serious and and the reason why I say that is because you know ironically I went out

00:32:25 there with my wife Hold on let’s be clear. Did you go protest or you went to the store to get something? No no no no. So you didn’t go protest. You saying you went on Tell them where you went and tell the sir what you did. I went to go get food with my wife and you went to where? Uh I went to Ohio City. Okay. You went to Ohio City. I didn’t equate at the time liberal white people in um Ohio City. So how long how how long you lived in Cleveland? My whole life. And you didn’t know that white folks lived in

00:32:55 Ohio? No. It’s not that I didn’t know that. I just didn’t think about it at the time. Okay. So when you got there, you was you discovered there’s white people here in Ohio City and they protesting. Is that what you say? I mean, I’m trying to get to What is your point? I’m trying to get there. So, let’s go because we ain’t got a lot of time. You got to talk fast. My point is um we protested. Actually, no. I’ll say this. I feel as if there was it wasn’t important enough. It it didn’t feel like a protest when I s what I saw was a

00:33:30 festival. What I saw was a parade. I saw people with their people with their kids, a luxury that white people have um that we’re not given, that we’re not afforded. So, hold on. I just want to get clear. You’re saying that it was white privilege because white folks went to a protest and they took their kids with them. And that’s a form of privilege. No, I I I do believe that’s a form of privilege. Okay. And I think um also too I feel like we’re tired of the same old cycle. And what’s that? Fighting for things just to stay the

00:34:11 same. Even if we weren’t there, if I wasn’t there through the 60s or like you said yesterday, Ronnie King, I’m tired of that being our narrative that we fight a little bit and we incrementally grow. Fight a little bit and we Your point is we just sit our black down. My point Yeah. Absolutely. I think that we should do that, but I also think that power and solidarity. Let’s do nothing is the plan. No, I think there’s power in solidarity. So, solidarity people figured out a way that we have power and

00:34:42 we have leverage. and how we do that the next time we go out there to help them because I’m not naive enough to say that we’re not eventually going to have to go out there. But what I am saying is when we do go out there, there needs to be terms and conditions and who we’re going to make those with. We’re going to make those with the people that we help win this war. That’s what I’m saying. And how many times are we going to be um how many times are we going to be fooled by white liberals who act like

00:35:15 they care and maybe they think that they do but ultimately doesn’t care enough to bring enough real change for us. Okay, that’s my issue. And then you got white people out here giving ratings to Oh, the the protest was a eight out of 10. What? But but who gives credence to that? Mindset. No, but there’s a there’s a there’s a mindset behind everything. And there’s stuff you give credence to and then there’s stuff you don’t just like you giving all this energy to that, but you would give no energy to the fact that you said that

00:35:53 people should have did other things. And my argument with you was I understand if you didn’t want to go protest, but everything I got from your social media, I’m gonna call y’all what it is. The keyboard warriors. The keyboard warriors, all I got from the keyboard warriors was a bunch of sit down. I saw a bunch of people jumping out the bed, jumping back in. I saw And then when they did say do something, this is what they told us to do. Where those fans at? They I heard that. Then the next one was

00:36:20 let’s go play spades. Then here was the other one. You should do self-reflection. Now, I know for a fact they say it on social media every morning that the time you wake up every day, if you wake up at 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 in the morning, that’s the best time for self-reflection. And people do self-reflection every day. But the one day when it was time to do some type of fighting, the best answer we came up was that. Now, I would not have this much of a beef against it or even I wouldn’t even talk about this if it wasn’t for

00:36:52 the fact of what you said and how we came at it. And I came to this conclusion that I looked at a lot of platforms and I really took last night to really dig deep into it. And I didn’t see many people saying this, you know what, sit your butt down on Friday, but meet me on 105 in St. Clair because we’re going to clean up that whole area today. meet me over on Huff because there are some vacant lots over there and black folks, we’re going to actually really do something in our community. We’re not going out there to protest,

00:37:20 but we’re gonna really make a difference in our community. I didn’t hear many of those and I’m not going to say there wasn’t none of them because I can’t speak on the world in my I just got so much I can take in at one time, but what I did look and I didn’t see lots of that. I saw a lot and when I say a lot, I saw a lot of people saying not to go out there. That’s cool. And if you choose not to go out there, man, I it ain’t even worth it. I just knew that I grew up in a time where that’s what it

00:37:47 was. And I and from the excuses or the the I ain’t going to even call them excuses because it’s the words we use that accept upset people. I’m going to say the reasoning that people were using for not going out there, I just didn’t find valid. That’s all. And I find Violet that I told all my kids growing up, oh God, today must be the day. I I taught my kids growing up that there is no rules to fighting. Told my son first thing when he got ready to go and start going to school and everything said,

00:38:18 “Son, let me tell you something. There ain’t no rules to fighting. So if you get in a fight and dude is beating your butt and you look next to you and there’s a brick, pick up the brick and do what you need to do to protect yourself. So when I say that is we’re in a fight for our democracy and for everything that’s on the line right now. Now whether you choose to get in the fight is up to you, but I’m in the fight. And as long as we got other people that’s out there fighting, our congress people, our mayors, individuals

00:38:50 who gets up every day that say they want to go out there and fight, I choose to take that level and say, “I want to fight.” And if I know going into the fight that you know what, somebody might get hurt, somebody might bleed, somebody may die, because that’s what fighting is. There’s no rules to fighting. So I don’t judge when I know I’m in a fight to say, “Oh, Latifah, I ain’t going with you, brother, because you might get our butts beat.” Because when we you called me and you told me, “Ken, I need you to come

00:39:18 with me and we’re in the fight.” I was supposed to show up. Now I It’s up to me. Demonizing how they No, I’m not demonizing nobody. I’m just saying if from my I’m only talking. No, be I didn’t say it. Martin Luther King called it that. If you look up other statements and everything. Yes, he did. There’s there’s many people and listen people love to talk about Martin. Yeah. As many people say that but they don’t talk about towards the end of his life and his philosophy and his shift in philosophy on his peaceful protest. His

00:39:48 peaceful he switched from a peaceful protest. He didn’t say go violent. He just said that he didn’t think we should be as peaceful as we was. He did not say go violent. So it was that. And I and I also I’m also totally against the fact and I’m going give let you say something. I’m totally against the fact that us as black people want to believe that if we all gather as a group that automatically the police and everybody is coming against us because there’s been states and there’s been protest and

00:40:16 there’s been other avenues where that haven’t happened. Yes, it has happened. If we want to go back and say, “Oh, it happened with black lives.” Yes, it has. But there’s been plenty others that hasn’t. Uni, go ahead. I know this is unusual, but I think I I understand Zeke’s anger in this situation because let’s be clear, white people were in Ohio City doing protest because of what? Zeke, it had nothing to do with us. It was everything that was affecting them. We weren’t even Look at that flyer. We

00:40:47 wasn’t even included in that. So, why are you angry? I’m upset because how many times are as a black woman, how many things are we gonna start just for you to have to be able to go up to the podium and say, “Ain’t I a woman?” How many times are we going to have to do that and put our trust in these white liberals? The same white liberals MLK was talking about towards the end of his life, the same white liberals that uh James Baldwin has been talking about for the all of his career. How many times are we going to put our

00:41:18 trust in them and not with no conditions with nothing but just our support so then we can get on the other side of the issue and we’re left in the dust again. That’s my anger. Okay, I understand that. I I You’re talking about trying to have bouncy houses in these. I’m not even about to Man, you stuck on a bouncy house. Who cares? That’s why like who cares? And that’s why I asked where this anger is rooted because it sounds like you are upset because their protests look different than ours. They have certain privileges

00:41:53 that we we did not want to bring our children to these protests because we knew we would get hurt. So why would we want to bring our children? But there but I asked why they were protesting in the first place. Because if something they are protesting isn’t going to nine times out of 10 end in violence, then they might feel comfortable bringing their children and that’s okay. But for us, we have to understand their fights is their fights and our fights is our fights and they don’t look different

00:42:24 and we have to be okay with that. And instead of being angry, we have to do the work within our own communities to see what it is that we want to see. But I understand your anger. We just got to rechan that. Yeah. But I think we re channel it in a way to where like I said, we we have conditions. Our fight is condition. All of all of our fight our fight needs to be included in yours in a real Let me ask you a not just this surface level. When you say that when you say that, give me a condition. You saying we should put

00:42:56 conditions. Give me a condition. So you’re saying we should we should They’re never going to volunteer themselves for that. Yeah. So you’re talking about people that we’re talking about a big group of one concentrated group of people, white people. That’s who they are worried about. That’s who they invited because that’s who they are worried about. They don’t they’re not concerned about us and what it is that we need. So, we have to get on our own backs, on our own feet, on our own ten toes, and figure out what it is that we

00:43:25 want for our own communities and invite our own communities out to the same types of things so that we can get this ball rolling. Again, I understand your anger, but we got to rech and I’m not against I’m not I’m not completely against your point. I’m not completely against Ken’s point. My point is, I understand people’s feelings when it comes down to not wanting to protest, and I’m not the type of person to try to demonize their version of protest. It’s protesting. And listen, let me let me be clear about something. And and

00:43:58 it’s not a difference in protest. It’s what you protesting about. Okay? Black Lives Matter was a shot at the police department and the safety of police. the actual people that was supposed to be down there that was supposed to be keeping everybody in line was the exact same people that the protesters were against. So walking up to that was going to be volatile. It was the protest yesterday was against Donald Trump, the administration, and what he’s doing to mess up our social security, healthc care, education, and all that other

00:44:35 stuff. The teachers wasn’t going down there to fight nobody. Oh, you see what I mean? The police wasn’t down there to stop you from protesting Donald Trump. They wasn’t down there. The Black Lives Matter was a straight up We were going right at the police and the safety department. And the safety people were standing there. That’s why people in those protests walked right up to them, got in their faces and said what they said because they were talking to them. You the you’re the problem. The problem

00:45:04 that yesterday and on the 5th was not out there on the street. The protest yesterday was all about what you say, solidarity. We don’t like this. We don’t like this. Black folks could have came out there and did it. They could have stayed out there. And to that point, there were black people out there who did who still came. So, my only point that I’m getting at is that I don’t believe that. And when we started this thing off, we talked about using the cell phone and protest. I explained to Zeke that the cell phone and social

00:45:32 media is not a protest. It’s a tool. Protesting is a tactic and a strategy. You use your social media to communicate to people to tell everybody what we’re doing. Be at the site. Be at this. Give me some opinions. You can get that. The protest is the action. The protest is me going out there chaining myself to this plow like some people did and say you’re not getting in here unless you roll over me. The social media guy going to be there with his camera to take a picture of me doing that so he can put it on social media to

00:46:08 show everybody look what Ken did. But without my protest, without my action, there’s no social media. There’s nothing that I can put on for the keyboard warriors to use their sword on because I hadn’t did nothing. And that’s my point of where I’m trying to go. So, we use social media as a tool. We use protest as tactics and strategy to push our mission and our point. So, Mr. D, let me ask you this. What could you say you would like to see Zeke and his millennial friends do that would use their platform to be able to

00:46:46 say more than just sit down. Use your platform to say, you know what, we’re going to not go out on the fifth, but we’re getting together to clean up our war. We’re getting together to do what uni say. Let’s black folks, let’s come together and have a meeting to talk about how the next protest, how we’re going to get in and who’s going to work with us to make sure we’re in. That’s all I The the the what I saw was fun. It was fun. I almost did it. Let me be clear because I I I’m in this battle and I’m be honest with

00:47:15 everybody. I’m in a battle because I’m out here on the radio. I’m out here with my podcast. I’m out here trying to get people to follow me and do what I’m doing. So, I almost was there, but it wasn’t enough. It was like, that ain’t you, Ken. Because you believe in fighting. You always fought. You don’t believe in that. And I understand what they meant, but I didn’t like them using that. Yeah, people got 5,000 likes. People got But there’s never been a piece of legislation in Congress or the Senate that was passed because they got

00:47:46 a thousand likes. There was never a piece of legislation or anybody moved anything in this city or this county or the state or the government because social media told them to. It’s always done by the power of the people. And that’s the thing. And so we may change that over the years and to Zeke’s people. Maybe in 20 years from now because that’s what a lot of people going is there. But for right now, the fight we’re going to keep fighting for what’s right and what’s right is what what’s happening on the fifth whether

00:48:13 you believe it or not. You didn’t have to go out there, Zeke, but you’re not going out there. The folks who did still saved your social security if you want it. If you didn’t go out there, they still saved your education if that what comes out of it. if you want it. If you didn’t go out there, they going to still make it safer for you whether you wanted it or not. So, it’s up to you whether you get out there or not. But get out the way of everybody else who is. And don’t make stuff that’s out there that’s

00:48:37 telling people to not ever fight for what’s right. Never. We always fight for what’s right. My point was never My point was never to make it seem like never to go protest. Never never do anything. Mhm. My point was for April 5th for this thing, they’re going to fight this themselves while we regroup and we come up with tactics for our own. And yeah, you seen that. You seen that one clip cuz I sent it to you and I’m sure you’ve seen it other places, too. But there are millions of other people out

00:49:11 here on social media that is that are bringing out new ideas, bringing out things that we can do. Holding together um uh car pools so people can go to these blackowned businesses so they don’t have to go to a Walmart, so they don’t have to go to a Target. Both are important as well as my my only point was both are important. I I just think that um we got to pull it all together like your your ideologies um what we do as a people you know the traditional way or whatever the you know how we protest because it’s like when

00:49:50 you got one set of people over here doing this and another set of people over here doing that then it allows us to basically be divided and conquered and That’s pretty much what Project 2025 did it. They put all their cards on the table and did everything that they wanted to do in concert to create this chaos. Matif I’ve seen I’ve seen the footage of every platform. We were pretty united on this one. We were pretty much united on this one. But just imagine if all those people that was on social media was

00:50:30 downtown at the protest and on social media. Just how big of an impact would that have been to everybody if all those people that was saying sit down or they was doing their thing on social media came out and we had whoever you know you said the liberals were were there then you had Ken and his people there. So, just imagine how much more people, how much more of an impact, how much more footage would have got out and they would be saying, “Man, that’s a lot of people. There’s a lot of people that’s upset

00:51:06 about what’s going on.” It’s the masses and the impact that changes things. And sometimes we got to get into one area and do that and express that. Even if we believe in different ways of doing that, it’s the power of everybody coming together all at one time that makes the most impact. All right. Well, I get that. But you know, like I say, man, you it I feel sorry for what’s coming. I just have something to say that me personally, I’m proud that we came together on one thing. I’m I’m actually proud of us. I’m

00:51:47 proud of what we’re doing with Target and I pray and I hope that we kick keep kicking the wallet down. And you know, we go in the news, Walmart’s next. So, I’m proud of us and I pray that we can take this energy and put it to something more productive to Ken’s point. Z, what would you say to your other millennial counterparts out here listening to promote that same thinking within them? I mean, I I think that I think that we’re doing it. I mean, yes, that was a trend. trends come and go, but the from

00:52:21 what I’m seeing and the push for black people has been outside of sit down. It’s also been how can we um how can we um have our economic boycott information campaigns that people have been running on social media um and community empowerment to what Ken’s doing. So, I think all of it is all of it is important. And I think about the single mom who has three kids that have that can’t afford to go out to protest. But you know what they can do? They can pick up their phone and do something about it now. Like what? You keep saying

00:53:03 that. What can they do? Spread information. Continue information about economic boycott. Social media activism is a real thing. All right. There it is, y’all. You heard from the millennial corner of our prize, our program today. Zeke is at the millennial moment. He believed that social media is going to save us. He’s Elon Musk and who was that people call him? Skynet. Skynet. Skynet. Watch out for Skynet. That’s going to be next y’all. Skynet the Terminator. To the Terminator. Oh yeah, brother. We going about the Skynet. All

00:53:39 right. Let me get We gonna end with this. Let’s, you know, let’s take a look at the lay of the land. Every generation gets tested. Our Rottney King, our George Floyd and beyond. Our ancestors didn’t sit down. They stood up. Every even when it was dogs in the place um fighting against dogs, let’s be clear, the fight for justice and equality is a fundamental right, not a spectator sport. It’s not tended. It’s not trendy hashtags. It’s a relentless boots on the ground battle to demand more than just

00:54:06 digital activism. The social media atmosphere of our voice is it cannot replace the power of collective physical presence. History has shown us in real change is forged in the cru crucible of the direct actions concerned the considering the hands-off protest that erupted nationwide on April 5th in cities from Washington DC to right here in Cleveland, Ohio. Thousands took to the streets to oppose the um the uh terrierism of what was going on with Donald Trump’s administration and all the work that they’re doing. These are

00:54:40 not just mere gatherings. They were powerhouse powerful demonstrations that um that united the resistance in Cleveland. Protesters convened at the Westside Marketplace. Their voice would echo through the streets demanding accountability and justice. To the millennials who believe our ancestors wanted us to sit down, I say to our ancestors didn’t endure fire hoses, police batons, and attack dogs for us to become complacent and keyboard warriors. Okay, this march it this march has bled this march they bled and some of them

00:55:15 even died and some of them couldn’t have the privilege to stand up to be heard. Dismissing the power of protest is not only dishonoring their sacrifice, but it weakens their fundamental and the fundament the foundation of what the struggle was really all about. For our material for the martial law government, martial law um as it relates to the martial law govern governments of what was going on there and people feeling that that was going to be the pro person um the reason why you didn’t want to

00:55:46 show up because you were scared of martial law. scrutinizing the fear is not um not to be cautioned is not really a a real good argument about it because most of the stuff that goes on in our community today are issues and we feel as if we’re in a martial law state right now. Every day you walk out the door getting gas at some of the neighborhoods and things of that nature. So I don’t believe that that was a big enough reason for us to not go down there as well. So my only thing that I want to end with is just saying that everybody

00:56:15 has a right to do what you want to do. There’s some people who want to get in the way and there’s some who don’t. But I just say that the only way that I know to get things done is to get in the way. And if you feel that getting in the way is sending out a tweet, a hashtag or pushing on a like to a comment that you got, then maybe that’s your way of protesting. But my way of protesting and the way that we get things done is being right there in your face because being in somebody’s face usually get it done.

00:56:43 And that’s what we’ve been seeing done over the years. So with that being the case, I want to thank everybody for listening to Strategic Moves with Kenda today. We had a wonderful discussion to Edwards was on earlier with the theme that she’s doing with AfricanAmerican men, which is really, really powerful. Please, if you heard about that and you got some information, check that out. I think it’ll be a good thing for us to all get together on. And if you want to continue to listen to more about what we

00:57:09 discuss and things we talked to, please check us out on our YouTube channel at YouTube Kendall. That’s YouTube at keenn d o w lll and you can get a chance to see this program and even more because we record every one of these programs. So till next time I want to tell everybody thanks for coming on to our program and to all our listeners keep to all our listeners want y’all to keep fighting for what’s right. about you today, boy. I was Yeah, I was a little passionate. I was like, your anger like I don’t know

00:57:48 if your message was translating through your anger and I wanted them to fully understand what it is that you were saying. Oh, hello. Yeah, I listened in. I was trying to call in, but the phone lines wasn’t working. Oh, you know what? I forgot all about that. You know what? I You should have text me. I would have told him. We’ have said something. I didn’t want to text you cuz I know you was on the show, so I texted Latif. Oh, okay. I don’t know why it was going to call in for some reason. But yeah, it

00:58:27 went well.