 Too often, the media focuses exclusively on the violence and tumultuous actions of bad actors during crises that occur daily around the world. And with clickbait exploiting negative social events for the sake of increased ratings of revenue, there are few incentives for media outlets to focus on the good that is happening in the world right now. Even media channels dedicated to peace building and sustainable development remain focused on the ills of corruption, war, and conflict rather than the efforts of peace builders within those conflicts. But peace talks too, and with this show, the voice of peace will be amplified. Mr. Rogers is often quoted in saying that when crisis strikes, look for the helpers. This show intends to do just that. Every day, right here in Vermont, there are thousands of engaged citizens actively building peace. We plan to amplify their efforts and we seek to develop a platform where peace builders all over the state can connect with each other across social boundaries and industry sectors to collaborate for the benefit of our collective community. Ladies and gentlemen, this is peace talks, and today we are meeting with Mr. Rajni Eddins. He is a poet, a community organizer, and he is currently serving Burlington as the director of cultural empowerment with the Racial Justice Alliance of Vermont through the Richard Kemp Center, the first black-owned community center in the history of Vermont. Rajni, it's a pleasure to be with you today. I am delighted and honored to have you as a guest on this show and to premiere our efforts here in amplifying peace builders right here in the state. So let's just kick it off by kind of, you know, tell us what does being the director of cultural empowerment mean in this community and how are you engaging in that space? Definitely. Well, first of all, I wanted to begin by thanking you for holding space and using your, and this platform to elevate and affirm and emphasize the need for peace in the world. I think we all have to be co-collaborators and co-creators towards that pursuit, towards that end. Of course, peace cannot necessarily manifest itself fully without the needs of human beings being met. So my director capacity as a director of cultural empowerment has to do with meeting the needs of people of African descent in this area. As we know, Vermont is a very homogenous space, so not always do we have the opportunity to have ourselves reflected in positively life-affirming and integrity-based ways that show up as so nourishing and crucially respectful and experiential in regards to our human personality. So I think that's more of my primary role to serve those needs in terms of youth development and overall affirmation of the people. What does that look like on a daily basis? What are some of the primary activities that you're really focused on when you speak about meeting the needs of the BIPOC community here in Burlington? Well, I think BIPOC is misleading. It's another of the recent terminologies that kind of shortcut the specificity of addressing and aligning with people's needs and true beingness. When we're speaking about black people, of course you have not just a monolithic group of people, but the origin of human civilization is so vast. From Africa to the present, the entire human race stems from African people. So the origin of that biogenetic diversity that all people stem from, that vast descendency of people and our role in the world is so key. Sadly, because of the aftermath of colonization, genocide, and conquest, and white supremacy, a lot of that has been relegated to an external or periphery-based attention. My role, more so, is to use my art form as a way to encourage people of African descent to raise the consciousness of human family in general. So we hold spaces for the Black Artist Showcase. We are taking a group of black youth in April to go to the African American Museum in terms of being based here in Burlington and Vermont proper. Youth of African descent, whether born on the continent or any aspect of the diaspora, don't often get a chance to see themselves reflected in positive ways and learn about our key contributions and experiences in history that can really play a key role in contextualizing the way that we see ourselves in the world, what we've done, what we've been through, what we still must do. So I think that's key. We're also involved in supporting the endeavors of the second iteration of the Black Indie Summit, BX 2023, where we will be bringing Dr. Angela Davis, the world renowned revolutionary icon, as well as the All Black Ballet Company, Philadelphia, to the Flynn Theater on February 25th and 26th. And this is intention to be a yearly practice, a tradition that will be instituted so youth of the present and the future to come will have spaces to see themselves reflected, to see the brilliance and beauty and heritage and history of black people. We've seen and affirmed in holistic ways that are black led and seen through our own eyes, where we have actual agency and autonomy over our own narrative. So my role as cultural empowerment director plays a number of roles from just everyday engagement with people, learning about how people see and view themselves in the world, unpacking a lot of the conscious and subconscious, cultivated anti-black pathology in human beings to be able to deconstruct and arrive at a more reverential appreciation of our shared humanity from Africa to the present. So it's definitely a daily crusade. No, it's very powerful work and much needed in our world today. There's just a lot of need to really amplify those messages and find better ways for us to connect culturally and to create more understanding with the folks that we surround ourselves with. And what really stuck with me with what you were saying was talking about the Black Art of Showcase and mentioning just where we've been, what we've gone through and what we still must do. That sounds just, that's a story for me and that's something that's really a powerful experience. I've been to a few of the Black Art of Showcases at the Richard Kemp Center and they're phenomenal. But can you speak to that a little bit more? When you talk about the Black Art of Showcase, what are artists doing in that space and how do they use story to empower, to work towards cultural empowerment? Well, I think it has a multiplicity of utilities. For one, having the space curated by Black people ourselves gives us, returns us to a certain space of agency in arraying our own and deploying our own narrative and expression of ourselves artistically and creatively and restores the freedom and the liberation of having that authentic power in terms of speaking life into our dreams through a vaster Black imaginary that's not inhibited by the circumscribed and limited myopic viewpoints of white so-called supremacy in racism. So being able to see ourselves in our own eyes is key. Having a cathartic outlet to express all of the range of our human emotions is key. Being able to share that space intergenerationally and have youth who are still in the space of formative development is key. All these things are microcosmic seeds in terms of a grander foundation for macrocosmic paradigm shift. So it's about starting where we are, holding space for our people's empowerment, sincere love and appreciation, affirmation of us across the diverse array of how we exist in the world and just holding space for that beauty reverently and sincerely. That is, I love that approach so much. It reminds me of one of my favorite peace builders. His name is Johan Galtung and he has written prolifically about peace building in a variety of different contexts. What I'm thinking about right now is Galtung's approach to development, not just economic development but cultural development and the development of communities. This notion about microcosmic seeds playing out on a macro scale really kind of speaks to one of his peace building theories where he speaks about development as unfolding. Now I'm paraphrasing here. I wish I had the direct quote but he basically speaks about development as a process of unfolding that's organic and evolutionary. It's something that happens through positive feedback loops rather than negative feedback loops which is generally what we see in society today as some kind of negative feedback loop that prevents something from moving in a direction and tries to steer cultural and economic forces in another direction. So look at development as unfolding and there's this great section where Galtung says, you know, in everything that is living on this earth there's a latent code in the seed. Seeds grow into plants, plants grow into trees and they evolve and share that latent code that's inside of them that has always been there. And the objective of folks that are trying to build development through this process is not to try and dictate or direct how development should unfold but simply allow those latent seeds to grow into the spaces that they're a part of. It sounds like that's a lot of the similarities to what you're trying to do here with cultural empowerment in Burlington. Is that sound, am I speaking kind of on the same page here or have I missed a few points? No, I think there's truth in it. I think the unsheathing of those seeds with the focus intention for peace and prosperity and freedom and liberation, health and restoration, abundance and wellness in community, regionally, nationally and globally is all part of that seed and part of this self-same intention. I think that often things get muddied because we're so taught to see life in terms of polarities instead of a synthesis. If we remember, you know, we just passed Dr. King's birthday recently. We had an event called Reclamation of his life, legacy and meaning because so often he's relegated to the sound bites of I Have a Dream. But I think when we look at him with more nuance and how he spoke to the need to address the three evils of militarism, poverty and racism, how he spoke to us as a human family, have an intertwined destiny, that's part of the same seed I speak of. If we understand our destinies are intertwined from Africa to the present, if we understand that the term white and whiteness itself is an invented identity that was more so for the purpose of hierarchizing and justifying a more insidious way to manipulate and exploit the majority of human beings by not allowing them to unify and strengthen for the purpose of peace, then we'll be able to act with more agency, wisdom and clarity for our children's benefit and for those to come. Wow. Well, this is obviously a passion for you. This is really deeply rooted. I know that based on our past conversations Rajdi, you know, you see this as something of a calling as your purpose in life to step forward and bring this message to the communities that you participate in. And I know that poetry is a big part of that for you. I know that working as an artist using poetry to disseminate these seeds and help to cultivate space for other artists and poets to do the same is something that you are doing a great job at. I know I showed up in the Burlington area about a year ago and was doing my best to, you know, arrive at open mics. And there wasn't a lot going on in this post COVID world, but there was Rajni Eddins showing up at every single open mic that I could find hosting events, creating that space and giving opportunity for folks right here to share their talents and to build that culture that we're talking about. That culture of peace and development. With that being said, I really want to just like dig into your past for a little bit here. I want to be able to share that story of like where did poetry come from for you? How did you get started? What does that process look like? Well, yes, I do think that finding your purpose and your calling has a lot to do with being self-curious. With being able to think deeply upon what really brings you fulfillment and joy and enthuses you, you know, and brings a spring well of passion to the fore. And I think where you find that arriving and where it meets a need in the world is your calling. And so I found that I was fortunate to find that by the grace very early in my life, my mother was the founder of the First Black Writers Group in the Northwest known as the African American Writers Alliance. So she founded in 1991 and I became the only child member at that time. And how old were you at the time? I was 11 years old, which is how old my daughter is now. She's an amazing poet as well. But I think being immersed in that space as a youth, having a mother who was already so based in a solid appreciation of the power and potency of creative self-expression and had a passion herself was led by a purpose to see Black people have an autonomy-based foundation for our own creative self-expression and being able to do that without being inhibited or relegated to some prop or fixture to make white organizations fail or seem less racist or some type of exploitive effort. Having our own autonomy and witnessing that as a child being immersed in a community so rich with so many gifts from novelists to poets to playwrights to actors and directors and singers and songwriters. All of these amazing creative gifts and talents and so much vision and wisdom really fed my spirit in untold ways that activated me. And then I began to be received by my community, encouraged or continue to be nurtured by my mother and others and fostered the gift and the love and appreciation for the possibilities of it and what it could do in the world. And so really sprang forth in me and set me upon my path at that juncture such that it's never been a time that I can recall since then that I haven't been active in some capacity with artistry and community because my mother was also a foster parent over 70 children. So I was always the older brother so that facility of engaging with youth in a familial capacity and using artistry as a way of nurturance and empowerment and positive affirmation and self-actualization of purpose are all intertwined. We also co-founded a group called the Poetry Experience because I had so many peers who were gifted a vast array of different ethnicities and backgrounds. So I think that seemed fitting in terms of origin story and sequence as we know we all begin with black people from Africa to the present. So starting with the African American Writer's Alliance and then expanding to the Poetry Experience that was a welcoming platform for all people seemed a divine unfolding. Yeah, I was just thinking about that too about you know development as unfolding it seems like your mother had a sense for this. You know if we kind of take that concept and apply it to this very practical experience that you're talking about it seems very much like your mother gave you the space to unfold and develop in your own way. And here we are now at this juncture and you're a community organizer. You're creating space for others and you're giving people that same opportunity to unfold that latent code inside of each of us to become the very incredible folks that we can be. I think that there is powerful potential in every single person and what generally prevents that from unfolding is the obstructions, the barriers in our communities that act as negative feedback groups. Right you know there's social institutions some of which you've already touched on here. You know we look at racism in America we look at the challenges of structural violence that is enacted within the system in those spaces. And this seems to be kind of a foil to those issues and through a very organic process. You know I don't even necessarily think it's a foil or a counter I think it's similar to maybe it's a roomy poem or something of the Sufis but it speaks to the necessity of not necessarily having to do anything more than remove the obstructions to love, remove the obstructions and the barriers to peace. So I think our natural way is peace, our natural way is love when we're held space for it and nurturing and caring and passionate ways that speak to the light within all of us. That sense of Namaste like the light and the spirit within me recognizes the light and the spirit within you. I think too often because we've been so inundated with negativity we're so quick to spring to respond in a kind of Pavlovian dog-like manner to that veil of embracing that the negative more often are assuming the negative to be true without deeply thinking critically and having the more intentionality about seeing the light in ourselves and in each other. And that's what I think that our imagination and creativity has the capacity for when you have that kind of child like awe and wonder about the world and the universe. There are no limitations to what can be and you have much more possibilities in terms of what you can create in the world and in the universe. And I think that's why there's some fear for a lot of the powers that be wanting or stemming very much from materialistic standpoint of wanting to accrue and aggrandize and accumulate resources and hoard them at the expense of the masses. You have to have a definitive system in play to do so to be able to restrict people's imaginations and keep them from seeing greater possibilities in their unity and shared prosperity. But that's why I feel blessed to be an artist because very nationally so we have access to limitless imagination and creativity. We can be bridges and beacons for the like in ourselves and in each other. Beautiful. Absolutely. It's one of the reasons I kept showing up at your open mics. I can feel that every time that you host an event or share a poem. There's just a strong presence of this kind of cultural development of peace and love and breaking through those barriers with our creative imaginations to shape something new in our community. Now I wanted to ask have you faced any resistance or opposition to your poetry in this community? And if so, how do you deal with that? What is your approach to responding to folks that are still trying to understand what we're doing here? Well I think any resistance that you have in terms of people's willingness to view you negatively even while you address things in a positive manner and hold space for truth and conciliation and greater awareness for affirmation stems from woundedness so it doesn't necessitate the need to reject the people who are rejecting. It seeks a deeper wisdom of involvement in the consistent practice of love, peace and compassion for all present and the holding of space for greater possibilities. I learned early on with a lot of the things that I was beset with in terms of character assassination, attempts to align me with tropes of black men, refusal to connect to me as a human being and hold space for my own story or even be willing to hear my experiences. I think that because I stayed rooted in my love for myself, having that sound model of my mother holding a space for so many people she had always said children are treasure so it let me know as a child I am treasure and then as an adult, as a grown man, oh we all are treasure and those who are not as adept at seeing that readily, you have to know at some point they were wounded and they didn't receive the same things that you received so I have something honestly of more treasure than monetary or material value because it's the practice of embracing all people in a space where they are sincerely welcomed in love and appreciation which is irreplaceable and of really increasingly vital need in today's times so I think in the long run overall having had these experiences and still cleaving to a solid sense of myself in terms of sharing my art even when it's harsh truths coming from a place of love and recognition and belief in people's capacity to grow and to understand that we have an intertwined purpose and destiny and that we're capable of more for our shared prosperity for that of our children and children to come has really enabled me to persevere in ways that I think align me with folks who have been examples in the past and ancestors who shoulder we stand upon who did so much in terms of self sacrifice and honoring of our humanity before we were even born so I aim to be worthy descendant and legacy builder so that I can be a good ancestor for those next to come and it's less about who gets that quickly in the moment and that it's done consistently in a committed fashion such that it continues to honor that practice and plant seeds and those here and those next to come There's so much I would like to say but I think something that's more important is maybe what would best express this approach and helping folks to understand the process of engaging in our communities through art with the effort of cultural empowerment and collective unity building on that love and peace and creating space for those that have been wounded I really want to just take a second and look at a couple of these books we've got in front of us Now we've got two books here their names are mine which I believe was published in 2019 That's right This is one of your books of poetry right Rajni? Yes sir Yeah and then we've also got a brand new book that was published just a few years ago not a few years ago Last year Just last year a few months ago forgive me and this is in the coded language of this mortal tongue I've had the pleasure of reading through both of these books and an even greater pleasure listening to Rajni perform some of these poems live at the poetry open mics that I've attended with him and I'd like to give you some space right now if you're willing to maybe share one of those poems and then we can speak about that for a second Definitely Wonderful Please Maybe I'll share something from the newest text in the coded language of this mortal tongue as you can see my mother is here She's quite often a pronounced figure in my life so I wanted to give her flowers while she is in the vessel and still lives amongst us in real time The piece I want to share with you in terms of this text is called In Our Wake this was actually written maybe a week or two into the pandemic I just returned from Seattle Washington as I transitioned into full-time employment using my art as a way to confront white supremacy and affirm mutual humanity in many form-packed ways the whole space for people to deconstruct the social construct of race and to think more deeply about how we can heal the suffering of black people and people collectively and inspire and encourage all of us to find our purpose in calling in meaningful and impactful ways that speak to peace and love and shared prosperity So this is a piece I know this was such a crucial time for myself and so many in the world and that we are still reeling from it to this day So hopefully this will offer some inspiration and encouragement in terms of the recognition that there is still more possible So this is called In Our Wake Inside these hands a golden chance Within these walls a castle falls while all the peasants dance Where does one turn in a house of mirrors if everywhere you look there you are If silence becomes too loud to hear over the birds songs When touch seems a distant stranger fuzzy and still wet with hazy memory No one said anything about the masks we'd wear over the masks we wore before And yet the sun still shines through gloom and flowers dare to bloom I saw a patch of onion a robin thrusting its chest out eyed me suspiciously as if to say what are you doing here It appears we are still here maybe we can outlive and outgrow our shadows Maybe life will look us square in the eyeball and not notice our flinching imperceptibly Or see it and still forgive us our immortal mortalities Maybe today will be the day the walls part like seas and the ceilings raise and the light has its way with us Maybe the rain will merge with the sweat born of our contained lives and become indistinguishable Maybe we'll take ourselves out of ourselves cast away the plastic packaging and see something more alive Something more fun to play with than fear and shallow mirrors Maybe we can be friendly to ourselves even when the world is not watching When the ceaseless eye of Babylon has gone to sleep or long died We can be here creating, musing, imagining, envisioning life as it could and can be And leave what it was and is in our wake Absolutely beautiful. I love that. The bit about the mirrors. It sounds like kind of a metaphor for the zoom world that we're all attached to right now. At least that's the way that I was kind of interpreting that. In the midst of the pandemic how many times do we find ourselves in front of a screen filled with tiny little mirrors and boxes and there we are always. It's a strange phenomenon to have to look at ourselves digitally as we engage with others. Anyway, I find that to be just a fascinating element of like there needs to come a time when we can step back and really look at ourselves through something more than a shallow mirror. I think so too. I think it can have that meaning in terms of referencing the disconnect regarding our forced reliance on technology to engage. And it can also I think refer to how we can sometimes be subject to acquiescence, to have knee jerk reactions, stereotypical perceptions of perspectives of people who are our reflections. Every person is your reflection. Every person has something to learn and something to teach. So when you circumscribe them to one dimensional ideas from past experiences that have nothing to do with the depth and nuance of who they truly are, you're in effect robbing yourself of access to the brilliance that is within all people. And it's important that we don't deprive each other of our mutual value because there's a shared wealth in that brilliance amongst the collective of human beings that if we just hold space for curiosity and a willingness to learn and grow and see what we share in tandem and what differs in our stories, so much learning and beautiful things can be attained from that phenomenon and that interaction and engagement. And it certainly is needed in a world where so much history is based on the opposite, where we're taught to have a quick, fast take on who people are and think that we know them before we even get a chance to know ourselves and share each other's stories. As the old adage goes, don't judge a book by its cover. That's a little bit cliche for a conversation regarding poetry, but what you're talking about here is so much deeper than that and even deeper than this idea of flat zoom worlds. What you're really talking about is stepping back and pulling back that curtain for ourselves as well as for the people we interact with and really giving space for understanding, giving space to learn and to grow and to give people the benefit that they have something valuable to offer. Well, I think what that willingness to be present and to share yourself and receive other people's self-expression and shared story authentically does is it takes us out of the programmed realm of stereotypes. It allows for space for sincere care and love and appreciation based on who we are and also allows us to have a more intentional hands-on approach about who we are allowing ourselves to become. Because I remember that's something that James Baldwin said too that was quoted I think in that movie Bamboozle by Spike Lee about the history of minstrelsy and how people still take to these stereotypes. But I think he said people pay the price for who, I'm not paraphrasing, for what they do and what they don't do. And even more so by who they allow themselves to become and they pay very simply with the lives they lead. So I think the whole terminology of whiteness, thinking that it's above European people conditioned to believe that white exists, thinking they're above, has robbed them of their own humanity in terms of appreciating the richness of the world they exist in and feeling some weird or strange need to preserve something that's based on fabrication that has nothing to do with the true essence, the true humanity, the true spirit. Having need to draw from so many different faiths and different ethnic backgrounds to attain spirituality to have a kind of a buffet mentality about drawing from the culture of appropriation of other people's culture rather than residing in an authentic place where you find your own centered presence and focus on the value within. I think that's what we can offer the world as artists and as human beings when we're heart centered and we have that approach to hold space for ourselves and each other authentically. And there's where so much care, love and peace can dwell. Yeah, no. What you're really talking about and getting at for me, and this is something that you and I have fallen on in many occasions in our past conversations. I've really enjoyed getting to know you better and getting to know your approach to civic engagement and trying to address these very challenging issues directly. And like we're talking about with development as unfolding through Johan Galtang, when we get into this aspect of race and the concept of white supremacy, you know, when you talk about, you know, that white folks, very much like myself, I think we're all on a journey of trying to understand that better, but, you know, of white folks robbing themselves of, you know, being something different, you know, of unfolding into something new. It speaks to Pablo Ferreri's book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. And, you know, there's this balance that kind of plays out in the first chapter of that book where Ferreri really dives into the relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor and how it doesn't matter what side of the equation you're on in that space, whether you're the oppressed or the oppressor, violence affects both sides, right? The one committing the violence is also hurt, is also bruised by those events. And so, you know, when you're talking about creating understanding and acknowledgement and bringing truth to this space and allowing space for white folks very much like myself to, you know, acknowledge that and find alternative ways, it really speaks to that dynamic between the oppressed and the oppressor. And I'd love to maybe just end with like, you know, asking, how do you use your poetry to build peace in this space, you know, based on these kinds of concepts that Ferreri is talking about? Well, I think that, as John Henry Clark said, African history is the pages of African history are the missing pages of world history. So when you think about the term white that has nothing to do with the true identity of human beings, but what is rather something that's fabricated, what happens when people of European descent replace that term and think more deeply about how they play into different patterns and coded behaviors that have been intergenerational? What happens when there is more leadership capacity held for black educators and educators of global majority to fill those gaps and lapses where spaces of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice, which are maybe short-sighted when they're simply held to be enacted by white women, white educators, in terms of normalizing the concept of white supremacy in a new age and more contemporary fashion. Because if you're not allowing for the voices of the people who have been most adversely affected to take a leadership role, then you still create the same patterns of the past. So I see that within the school district, I see that within politics at large and civic engagements and the ways that we are positioning ourselves. But I think that if we as human beings hold space for a deeper listening to ourselves and to underheard voices, voices that haven't historically been suppressed or repressed or other people have been being oppressed, then we can find ways to outgrow these circumscribed roles of oppressor and oppressed and think more deeply about how we have agency over transforming that paradigm, transforming the way that we engage and respect and have sincere reverence for our shared humanity and ways that reflect on the dignity of the human personality that Dr. King spoke of and ways that speak to the beauty and the brilliance inherent in every child and by the same token, all of us. Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I wish we could talk for hours more, but I think that this episode is coming to a close and I just want to take a moment to remind you all who are listening to this and watching right now that peace talks and that there are many people in our communities today that are working to build peace despite the many crises and challenges that we are facing in this volatile world. And with that I just want to say this show is being brought to you by Community Wealth Development and we're going to be talking to folks from various sectors of our community that are building peace in wildly different ways. This episode is really focused on, like we said, development as unfolding, really connected to art and humanity and the opportunity to build new cultural spaces that allow us to understand and grow and unfold as we should with peace in mind at the center of that. Following this episode we'll likely be moving into more economically based developments but also very focused on mission driven actors that are trying to create access to justice, access to opportunity and generating a collective effort in order to do so. So thank you so much for watching and you all have a wonderful day.