Welcome, everyone.

I'm Myra Flynn, creator of Homegoings, the Vermont Public Podcast, featuring candid conversations about race with artists of color.

We celebrated the series by inviting some of those artists from the podcast to perform in a live event, which resulted in an evening of great music, storytelling, poetry and visual artistry.

For the first time ever, Homegoings featured a live painter, Liza Phillip.

So for our series finale, this is Liza in action alongside all the incredible artists who took to the stage that night.

Liza Phillip, where are you?

(applause) Liza grew up in Bethel, which is literally 7 minutes from where I grew up in Vermont.

So I know it well.

And Liza graced us with their most recent episode of Homegoings.

And I feel like it moved the series forward.

And here's why.

We have something in common.

We are both biracial, Black people.

And there's this nuance, right?

There's this, like, really I call it delicious, really delicious nuance sometimes, a conversation where things don't have to be so bianary.

It doesn't have to be Black, white, good, bad love, hate.

There's all these interesting, juicy conversations about what it's like to as Liza has put it, journey towards your Blackness.

Journey toward your Blackness.

What that journey looks like, especially in a state like Vermont.

When trying to think about this performance, just like the variety of folks involved, it was like, oh, Liza, would you be willing to paint on stage?

And they were like, yeah, I've done that a bunch, actually.

That's not like that innovative, so.

(laughing) So Liza will be up here for the entirety of the performance and maybe you can see some of what they are doing and maybe you cant.

Depends on where you're sitting.

But we'll do a big reveal at the end, if that's cool with you.

All right.

Has anybody been following along with the series?

Show of hands or applause?

Yeah, whatever.

Yeah, great.

Alright.

Than you definitely know this next artist.

This is Senayit Tomlinson.

(applause) You caught me by surprise, spread me wide and now our blood burns, bodies collide so on this shoreline, if the high tide finds you on your knees, oh you call on your angel you call on me (improvised singing) (improvised singing) (music) (applause) (music) But you pull me into you, for a second or two, everything stops, everything stopped.

This next act is a spoken word artist, an author, an emcee, a father.

Let's go ahead and give it up for Rajnii.

(applause) Charleena Lyles and her daughters will turn into wolves The moon will howl back And the sun will be your undoing Emmett Till will come back as Elephant Man He will whistle Lasciviously At white women In broad daylight And no harm will come to him Sandra Bland will stand around your bed, staring hungrily Her gaze will change your heart to stone Or if already stone Then the rest of you Jordan Davis will return You will meet him In the gas station parking lot in your dreams he will have just purchased cigarettes and a pack of gum And oh yes his music will be playing very loudly Yes it appears we are monsters Demons with terrible resilience and incredible strength And we are coming for your children No handcuffs tasers or futuristic weaponry Will thwart your doom We are rock and roll rnb hip hop gyrating colorfully Through your black and white TV screens It's too late Michael Jackson already made Thriller The wretched negro demon rapists are dancing with your daughters We've already soiled the White House It's brown now Like the earth Our clawed hands clambered out of We have the dark dignified audacity To breathe the white mans air Unapologetically To look a white lady right in the eye Unfazed To not stand for the hypocritical bull * * * of white supremacy Yes the monsters are loose We are claiming our lives matter more than just on Halloween The next time you wear a Native American costume You'll be scalped and hung By the flag you hold so dear The next time you wear Blackface Tap-dancing in layers of burnt cork and grease To mock our monstrous plight It will become permanent And none of your lily white loved ones Will recognize you You will be burned at the stake Like only a true nigger Or a faggot could be You will taste The human tears The blood behind These razor sharp teeth And suddenly The world will morph And you will truly see The monsters at the dinner table In your classroom And right beside you As you lay down to sleep Their red glowing eyes will surround you For knowing For simply knowing That we are And have always been Human (applause) (music) Is the Black joy contagious yet?

This next act is the founder and CEO of All Heart Inspirations.

Please give it up for Ferene Paris Meyer.

(applause) I am held, lifted, supported, some days even cradled by the profound Black femme community that exists in Vermont.

I was told of mountain ranges.

I was told of lake fronts.

I was told of all of these things that existed here.

But what I need your help to do, because I'm only one voice, is to let this global community know that we are here.

Because every time we keep saying how white this place is, you erase me.

You erase the narrative that is actually here and vibrant and wanting to exist, not simply having a seat, but might literally say, back away because it is my turn.

Can I please get my turn?

Can Chenille get her turn?

Can Madison in this crowd get their turn?

Can Blaine get her turn?

As a storyteller, we all have stories worthy of sharing, and I'm using my platform to not only allow us to think about the narratives you want to give Blackness, but I'm here to tell you it's dope as f * * *.

It's magical.

It's melanaded.

It it's hairstyles, it's bright colors, it's sneakers, it's family.

It's the food, it's the culture, it's the music.

It's can't stop, won't stop.

Because at the end of the day, we are what we have.

(applause) (music) I'd like to introduce our next act.

Her name is DonnCherie.

She said an artist's responsibility is to be who you are.

Right here, right now, exactly where you're at.

So please give it up for DonnCherie.

(applause) Love is a fool just a big ole waste of time Honey, aint it the truth?

Im losing everything that's mine but when you kiss me deep enough oh I'm fool enough to believe the lie Because deep down inside I know youll go onto the next thing yeah Im such a fool, I don't want to say goodbye And no one can love you quite the way that I (improvised singing) I know as soon as I let my heart go You'll go on Her touch is poison, but I can't live without it like a glacier once the heat rises and it's kind of crazy if you think about it when a fire sparks a meadow and a rainbow after the wind blows, it's been so long since anyone's held me spellbound like this and so long since I let myself be held onto (improvised singing) Yay, yay, yay, yay.

(instrumental music) Somebody has been painting this entire show.

(applause) Liza, Come on my mic, take my mic.

Can you tell us about this painting please?

(applause) Thank you.

I did the podcast and I was really excited to do it.

Little did I know that I would be here painting in front of everyone tonight.

But, um, I was excited to have the opportunity when I found out and I decided when I got this opportunity that I wasn't going to come up with a design beforehand.

I wanted to be in this environment around these really talented artists and let their voices and their energy move this piece and create this piece.

So just like sitting in the back and listening to all of them, I doodled something up because I was like, I don't know if I can go on stage and just whip something out.

But, so I was a little prepared, but I came out and the music and the words just moved me over in that corner.

And yeah, it just kind of let it take control.

So thank you for watching.

(applause) Alright.

Here it is.

(applause) It's not finished yet.

Well, we will bring it back for the next one No, we have plans for this.

All right.

So, Liza, so I'm going to get back to my notes here.

You have said that you paint monsters.

The monsters have no gender, represent all people.

And while you say your art is for everyone, it is a communication of your unique lived experience.

Is this tracking?

Okay, cool.

All right.

It's not just to look at it is to process.

Liza aligns most in our pillars with healing and reminds us that no matter how you heal, healing is not linear.

And Liza does something else.

I'm going to leave you with that.

(applause) So this is my time performing music live.

(applause) And I wrote this song for my sister.

My songs don't really have titles.

I just create them because it feels good.

Youve come so far And here you are And if you ever feel alone I will make my heart your home And if you ever feel youre lost Well I will be right here Youve come so far And here you are Well 30 years, 30 years around this world Well 30 years, damn And if you ever feel alone You can make my heart your home And if you ever feel youre lost Well I will be right here Cause Ill always be here Ill always be here Ill always be here for you Well Ill always be here Always be here Ill always be here for you (applause) You were never lost darling You were just returning You were never lost darling You were just returning Welcome home Welcome home You are not alone Welcome home Welcome home You are not alone You were never lost darling You were just returning Thank you.

(applause) That was a nice surprise.

So we haven't quite decided, I've been talking with Liza off and on for a little bit now, what to do with this painting.

And also, like we welcome ideas, thinking of maybe auctioning it off.

Or thinking of maybe donating it there's so many conversations going.

All I can say is just keep checking in with Homegoings In the meantime, it is Q&A time.

All right.

I'd like to start.

(laughter) And anybody can take this or maybe it can be just a brief mention from all of you.

But the podcast was born after George Floyd.

And I'm wondering now that the world looks like what it looks like, what's changed in your worlds?

What has changed since George Floyd in my life, a lot.

I was given a platform to use my voice in the protests, which was terrifying.

And I didn't even know that I could use my voice in that way.

So this past couple of years has been me not only finding my voice, but having the courage to use it.

(applause) Your turn.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

First of all, I needed this.

I tend to be the only in any space that I walk into, especially professionally.

And that gets exhausting.

Now, when it comes to youth and for those of you that have children, when we think about these four pillars, including numbness.

How do you protect them from that or in the opposite do you allow them to feel those things?

The young mind is so fragile and it's ever growing.

So when we see this constant violence, do you allow them to feel what they feel?

Or do you shield them from that and throw on Disney and say, but at some point we will reach the Promised Land?

What does that look like?

I mean, parents want to speak to coping mechanisms for their children.

I appreciate the question, sister.

I think for me personally.

Um, and again, this person is in the room right now so theyre going to hear it too.

Having that outlet, to be honest, to express yourself, to have catharsis.

I think its better not to lie.

It's better to show that you feel the pain, too.

Why hide and lie and pretend and let them discover it later?

Why not be honest?

Life is not just one note and we are incredibly resilient people.

But we didn't become that way by pretending that it's not happening.

We have to face what we're experiencing and be all of our force selves unapologetically to cry when we need to, to weep when we need to.

And our laughter can be this that much more rich and full, and we can be of authentic selves.

And children are incredibly, powerfully resilient and capable.

Sometimes I think we're babying ourselves more than we're concerned about them.

Mine's also in the audience.

Um.

Yeah.

No, sheltering.

Its like absolutely the worst thing you could do.

The ability of the African to grieve and laugh and grieve again and laugh again and be clear like, I mean, be honest.

Be all the ways we are, you know, mean as hell sometimes to you as a mom.

You know, not, you know, necessarily always the friendliest, but like if we have brought these babies into the world, we are responsible for telling them about what the world is actually like.

Not by lying, not like, there is no Disney that works for us though, anyway But like in general, it just really, um, that honesty we expect them to take on the mantle of what what we've had to deal with and what's coming after us when we can't take care of them anymore.

Right.

So don't lie.

Never lie.

Never, never lie.

What do we need to do?

what do you need from your educators?

It definitely starts with the people in the roles of, I guess, power roles.

Um, it starts there, like, doing the work, educating themselves wherever trauma, whatever pain they have to work on healing that not so they're not projecting that on to the youth.

Um, and I think like growing up, I mean personally, I think more about like high school and what it was like for me there.

And a lot of the time it felt like, you know, I, it just was like, what am I learning?

It's like, I'm not learning my history.

Like, what is it that I'm learning?

Um, and so I just want to know my history, I just want to know who I am.

Um, I think that's what I need as a person of color, um, from educators is to teach me about who I am, like, how I got here and not to hide that part of me away.

Because that's pretty painful to not know your history.

Thank you for following the series.

Thank you for following us on Vermont Public while we are continuing to broaden and diversify our audience.

And thank you for showing up for such, like, seriously deep conversation tonight.

Artists where are you?

And did we find Senayit?

All right, come on.

Can we please, can we please, please, please give it up.

(applause) This is Homegoings 2023.

Welcome home, welcome home.

You are not alone.

Thanks so much for joining us.

If you want to continue to be a part of the Homegoings family, stay in touch at homgoings.co and subscribe to the Homegoings podcast wherever you listen.

Take good care.

Welcome home, welcome home.

You are not alone.

Come in to me.

You better bring your baking, baby.

I'm going to make it easy.

But I'm situation for someone.

Get the credit for pushing the big news things don't leave it at only know it home yeah.

There was a protest in Montpelier and the White folks were like, There's this thing going on like you really need to be there.

And I was like, Not anymore.

Nope.

This isn't our work anymore.

Yeah.

It's time for the white community to turn inwards on itself while we do the work to heal ourselves.

I'm asking you all to turn inwards your communities because the answers are there.

There is no brown person.

That's some kind of messiah who's going to tell you all the ways to do it and make it perfect.

You need to find those answers in yourself.

Live, breathe, exist, be your authentic self.

Take up space, give up space, communicate space, make space for others understand, learn, seek to learn, seek to learn more.

Instead of making assumptions, ask questions.

Questions can be a very powerful tool, right?

So I say that to say acceptance takes accepting all.

I feel like sometimes there's this respectability thing that sort of meanders behind everything and everything needs to look a certain way and talk a certain way and act a certain way.

We can say, Oh, that's okay.

But there's also the rest of us, there's mediocrity.

There is low, there is high, there is family, there are parents, and there are those of us who are not parents but who are parents to all.

As the storyteller, I, I just can't stress enough that I feel this scene that you described about being an alien and you just land on Earth.

I feel that was the onset of the pandemic for me.

Like when that started, everything just got canceled.

Relationships to me felt like it got canceled.

I was supposed to be a teacher now for kids.

I was like all my places that I would go to to just exist and be.

All those places got closed down.

And the reason why I was inspired to start this storytelling business, all heart inspiration is because when we couldn't visit or when we couldn't like, but we had our stories, you know, and I found myself quarantining with my, my partner and my kids.

And I thought I knew them and I found ourselves.

We got a lot of time together playing kickball, which is for people, is not cute.

But I just remember just really asking like like why do you do what you do or what does move your heart?

What is getting out?

What are you so angry about, you know, and just stripping that down.

I really.

Yeah.

Catarina that was a beautiful question and I think we have to think of it that way because it's it's not just about me, you know, why do I stay?

When I moved here, Bev Colston and some other folks were like, Hey, I'm going to connect you with these families.

You know, they're called Black Friday.

You know, they care.

And Maria, you're in this place like, you know, like they are.

It's all types of parenting.

It's all types of families.

But the common thing is they're raising brown and black children.

And so we just kind of get together at so-and-so's house food.

I'm like, all right.

And that literally started to just be anchors in relationships.

And I think that's what this is about.

What Vermont doesn't realize is.