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Queering Hip Hop, Liberation, and Telling Truths with Shirlette Ammons #44
42 Plays24 days ago
In this episode, musician and artist Shirlette Ammons digs into what it means to be an interdisciplinary artist—moving between music, poetry, and page-based writing with different tools, stakes, and intentions. She reflects on influences ranging from church music and mass choirs to Janet Jackson, Meshell Ndegeocello, Tribe, De La Soul, Outkast, and Lauryn Hill, describing a “rich” musical palette that shaped her sound. Shirlette also explains how learning about blues singer Gladys Bentley helped her “queer” her approach to hip hop performance and build the project Twilight for Gladys Bentley around the question, “What would Gladys Bentley do?” Co-hosts Daniel WK Lee and Mattie Bynum connect her work to movement-building, emphasizing that there’s “no movement without music,” and Shirlette argues the arts are essential for free thinking and critical thinking—especially when independent thought is being discouraged.
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Transcript
The Role of Arts in Critical Thinking
00:00:00
Speaker
The ability to free think and critically think comes from an engagement in the arts, in my opinion, being able to express yourself freely. And I think the arts imperative to doing that is almost makes me want to cry to imagine what my life would have been like without access to music and drawing and painting.
00:00:20
Speaker
I don't really understand world without that.
Introducing the Hosts and Podcast
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Power Beyond Pride, a weekly queer change-making podcast bringing you voices and ideas from across our fierce and fabulous spectrum to transform our world.
00:00:38
Speaker
I'm Daniel W.K. Lee, poet, author, and middle child without middle child syndrome. Are you sure? I'm sure. the only son.
00:00:49
Speaker
you don't have it and I am Maddie, the other co-host for today. i am the hostess with the loudest laugh in the room. I promise you, I'm always going to be the loudest person. I'm country, southern, and beautiful all the way around.
00:01:05
Speaker
And we are your co-hosts today on this QueerCast journey. So thank you for joining us and listening to our podcast.
Guest Introduction: Charlotte Amons
00:01:11
Speaker
On today's episode, we are talking with Charlotte Amons. She is a hip-hop artist, poet, and producer from Durham, North Carolina. She is known for combining music, poetry, and film, and for exploring themes of race, gender, and sexuality.
00:01:28
Speaker
Welcome, Charlotte. How are you doing today?
Reacting to Current Events
00:01:30
Speaker
Hey, y'all. Thank y'all for having me. I appreciate y'all having me on. We are so honored to have you. Before I get to our planned questions, i don't know if you were paying attention to the news today, but did you have any thoughts and on the fatal shooting of conservative pundit Charlie Kirk?
00:01:50
Speaker
I actually, I think that's what I had as we were connecting. I was listening on my ah computer. I mean, it's like, yo, you just, there's some irony there. That's all I have to say about that.
00:02:05
Speaker
Yeah. irony is an understatement but ah yeah yes yeah you can't speak hate and expect and hate not to be taken out upon you so this feels like that honestly very hateful dude so Yes, he was very glib about gun control.
00:02:26
Speaker
Gun violence and the irony. He hits the irony. That's what I was referring to. For sure, for sure. And on top of all the other vitriol he spewed out in the world.
00:02:37
Speaker
So, yeah, maybe folks will think about like creating a world that we can all live in and be safe in. And this maybe will be some sort of, well, you would hope that this will be some kind of kind a Jesus moment for some folks, but we'll see.
00:02:51
Speaker
We'll hope. I was that's a long way to vote. yeah i don't know. You would think, but shit, we've seen so many other opportunities for that to be so, and it has not been so. so it Absolutely. Absolutely.
Creative Processes of Charlotte Amons
00:03:07
Speaker
Well, to carry on from that, my first question for you is as a multi and interdisciplinary artist,
00:03:17
Speaker
Do you have different creative processes depending on the medium or is it really just kind of one process? And if so, what is that process or what are those processes? yeah Well, I guess I'd say it varies. I've been doing it so long now that i've ah depending on what I'm writing or what I'm working on, i feel I'm very um a bit of a purist. If I'm writing a song, I want it to be a song, and so I try to work it out as a song.
00:03:44
Speaker
Usually if I'm writing a song, I might hear a melody or a bass line in my head normally. ah can't I don't play guitar. But I play bass, so I often write music to the bass or like on my MIDI bass or compose a simple drum loop and write to that, write lyrics to that. Or sometimes I just get stuck on a line and drive my wife crazy by repeating it for days nonstop. My dog, really she don't like it either. Yeah.
00:04:16
Speaker
But yeah that's normally how the music thing starts. Writing is a different process. is Writing for the page is a different process. It's just such a... I just find writing for the page to be... in Daniel, you said you're poet, so you might relate. It's just a such a drudy, intense process to write for the page. It's a different... I feel...
00:04:36
Speaker
less like there's less room for error I guess because of the way
Vinyl vs. Digital Music Experience
00:04:41
Speaker
it's composed and the way it's collected in time like something that's collected for the page to me has a different type of purpose to serve in the world and know we live in a such a digital time that you know Music, we're just kind of overwhelmed by the amount of music that we choose from and how to pick out that what, quote unquote, we find good or satisfying or uplifting or relevant or necessary.
00:05:09
Speaker
You have to be way more intentional with what you and encounter on the page. I think people that people are way more intentional about picking out a book or reading a poem than they are with music just because it's not as saturated, I think.
Charlotte's Artistic Background
00:05:22
Speaker
So the process of writing stuff for the page is a bit more involved for me.
00:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of like fundamentally archival. Yeah, exactly. Word. That's a great way to put it. I see you, poet. Okay.
00:05:36
Speaker
No, that's a great way to put it. Just by the nature of the medium, it is fundamentally archival. Yeah. I know you have made a comment about the digital age. Let me tell you, there's still nothing like listening to the vinyl. I'm an old school vinyl. Amen. Thank you.
00:05:52
Speaker
It's nothing like vinyl. And it's funny how lot of people don't even realize more recent work. You can still get it on vinyl. Some things are still... I agree. Yeah. I try to cop new stuff on vinyl as often as I can.
00:06:05
Speaker
There's nothing like that listening experience. And you don't get to be lazy. You got to get up and turn the shit over. It don't do anything.
00:06:13
Speaker
It's a very interactive listening experience. So you are not just the audience. You are now the audience. and Yeah, exactly. Stagehand. Yes. Yes. I get it. Stagehand.
00:06:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. So that look, y'all the poets, I'm the actress. So that's that's where I fit into the conversation. Stagehands and directions. Look here. So, Charlotte, could you give us a little insight as what has been the journey to bring you to becoming a hip-hop artist, being an advocate, being a poet? What things do you draw off of?
00:06:49
Speaker
Well, like you, I'm from eastern North Carolina. I grew up in the church or from North Carolina. You're not as east as me. From a small town called Boatankas, which most people know Mount Olive, North Carolina, which is where the pickles are from, Olive Pickles.
00:07:03
Speaker
So Boatankas is like a little blip right below Mount Olive. So I grew up in a church like most Negro children in the South. Just grew up singing in the church choir. I have a twin sister. peter cross and that we were all alright We were always kind of a spectacle because we looked alike. And so we'd sing a solo in the church choir all the time. and We were just, because we were in the country too, we were just outside all the time.
00:07:30
Speaker
And all this open land was around us and we were just hella creative by the nature of being in all that open space. And ah yeah we would just create songs. and so I come from a pretty big family. My mom has twelve had brothers and sisters.
00:07:46
Speaker
So all we had out a shit ton of cousins around and we would just create and imagine all day. That was our job as kids. And so I really credit that experience of growing up out in the country with my creative blossoming and just my ability for my mind to just do what it wanted to do.
00:08:05
Speaker
And then the church experience was
Exploring Gender Roles and Performing Persona
00:08:07
Speaker
formulative. You have to sing in the choir. You have to learn in Bible verses and so um remembering, like memorizing these like a lengthy Bible verses for Sunday school for a church.
00:08:19
Speaker
So that kind of helped me with the freestyle element and the ability to recall stuff and then Fast forward to 18 and one moving to Raleigh to go to NC State and getting involved with the spoken word movement that was popping off in the 90s.
00:08:33
Speaker
That was a really interesting time, too, because it was that it was the era of boom bap hip hop and conscious rap is what we were calling it at the time. So folks were really like writing about and delving into this particular Afrocentricity and hearkening back to just the love of being Black and really cultivating a Black culture.
00:08:53
Speaker
And so that was just really exciting to be part of. And that's when I started going to open mics and writing and then just trying to tell, basically still telling Southern stories and still talking in the vernacular of Eastern North Carolina and my people, but but doing it amongst all these different young hip hop cats that I was coming of age with.
00:09:14
Speaker
Awesome. Thank you for sparing that. Yeah. Yeah. I want to kind of like also will highlight one of your early projects called Twilight for Gladys Bentley.
00:09:25
Speaker
Yay. Gladys Bentley. Yeah. Which seemed to be inspired by Harlem Renaissance and Gladys Bentley, of course. Yeah. And the single from the project titled Get Dressed, that is, an homage to Bentley's Defiance of Gender. Yeah.
00:09:44
Speaker
How would you say that your personal work and is it a how long has it maybe been a part of your performing persona as well, we kind of to and defy or shape the discourse of gender?
00:09:58
Speaker
a Gladys Bentley was important for me to find, especially as a little burgeoning, dykey, queer hip-hop artist, just posing like the dudes on stage, just grabbing my crotch on stage all the time and not knowing what where the fuck I'm doing that.
00:10:14
Speaker
because all the dudes do it, I guess. That's why I'm doing it. But then I started to interrogate. It was like a sign of prowess, like lyrical and sexual prowess, of course. But I was like, you know, what was that for queer people? Like, not not how do I like queer this a bit and not just replicate what the straight boys are doing? And half of the shit they were doing was misogynistic. And it just was like ah kind of troubling.
00:10:37
Speaker
And so I found this story. anthology called The Greatest Taboo and there was an essay about Gladys Bentley in it. But yeah, Gladys Bentley, finding her, reading this fun this essay about her, and like it was really important because it it showed me that what I was doing was nothing new what I was seeking was nothing new. There were folks that i could look back to throughout queer history who were challenging gender roles the same way that I was trying to do within hip-hop, but they were doing it within course of course, in their own genre.
00:11:07
Speaker
So she was just mad important. So the whole Twilight for Gladys Bentley record is not only a homage to Gladys Bentley, it's also me writing with the question, what would Gladys Bentley do, basically, in this time with hip-hop as the primary genre of the populace.
00:11:24
Speaker
Okay. I love that as a project. That's very cool.
Musical Influences and Inspirations
00:11:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I want to start with great projects. It was actually, you know I took time to go listen to it. I thoroughly enjoyed that project.
00:11:38
Speaker
Oh, thank As a poet and artist and as a ah hip-hop artist, who did you look up to? Who inspired you that were already artists or in the movement and things like that?
00:11:50
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Well, like I said, I grew up also like in the church, so like the Clark Sisters were a big deal. Shirley Caesar, I loved the mass choir, the mass choir sound. Mississippi mass choir was a huge deal.
00:12:01
Speaker
um my folks would always listen to Slim and Supreme Angels and that type of gospel music, like that quartet gospel. And then when I started kind of venturing out on my own, Janet Jackson was my first love.
00:12:14
Speaker
Janet Jackson's probably why I'm queer right now. yeah Sexual awakening. Sexual awakening. I'll blame Janet.
00:12:26
Speaker
But then getting more, I guess, the more subversive music, Michelle Negachella was a huge influence on me. And then also coming of an age in that, that Neo soul era, like all the, like, I loved Chris Summers records. Like i I love the, like more like the indie rock black folks, like, ah dang, brand new heavies. And, and then hip hop wise, of course, I love tribe and De La Soul and outcast. And then later Lauryn Hill, of course.
00:12:57
Speaker
so that which I just feel so so much, I guess everybody probably says it's about their generation, but I just felt like our musical generation was so rich. And then we had the ability to build on like the 80s and 90s R&B soul, rock stuff that was happening that I was in. I loved Wham! I loved Prince, of course, and Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. So it was just a girth of music that I feel like I had to pull from was just vast and rich.
00:13:27
Speaker
And so to then be able to try to make my own stuff with all those different influences is kind of was mad exciting.
Music's Role in Social Movements
00:13:33
Speaker
It's like having the like the 68 crayons. You got so many colors, so many things to.
00:13:39
Speaker
And this is why it shows you the box of 24. You know what I'm saying? Then it's like, oh, shit, it's on. Yeah. Well, we need to go to a quick break and then please stay tuned and we'll be right back.
00:14:00
Speaker
Welcome back. This is Power Beyond Pride, a queer change making podcast. And I am Daniel W.K. Lee with my co-host, Maddie Bynum. We're here talking with Charlotte Amons. And my next question for you is, it's clear that politics is integral to your kind of creative voice.
00:14:19
Speaker
I'm curious which issues first stoked those fires inside you. Well, and this I guess that it's interesting because I feel like the obviously coming from the Black experience and growing up in a rural area where it's predominantly Black and white growing up, that's basically how it looked in Eastern North Carolina.
00:14:43
Speaker
I was very much always aware of my Blackness before i came in into my sexuality. so And I don't believe in like a hierarchy of oppression at all. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is my Blackness has always been, um and the struggle for Black liberation has always been at the forge just simply because of that awareness.
00:15:03
Speaker
going Only when I got to the school... I started writing about the more intimate experiences of being black and and and coming into my own sexuality. Did I start to feel like my work was quote unquote political?
00:15:18
Speaker
started to really get into the understanding that, you know, everything, it even the personal is political. ah so I was writing a lot about my personal experiences, but I think it came off, it proved itself political simply because I was writing about these, living in the margins of these existences.
00:15:33
Speaker
i was writing about being black. I was writing about being queer. I was writing about being Southern and coming from poverty. So I was writing in a kind of,
00:15:44
Speaker
subconsciously writing about all these intersections of ah marginality. i was writing about class and in a way that I wasn't even actually aware of intentionally until I started meeting people who were actively immersed in in different movements and activism. So, yeah, it's interesting how that kind of happens. i like Folks down home, where I'm from, probably would not call themselves activists per se.
00:16:13
Speaker
But they very they very much are, and they stoked that in me. I have a question. Before we go to talking about you coming to the North Carolina Folk Festival, which I can't wait to see you at this weekend, but... We're going to see each other in person.
00:16:28
Speaker
Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. We sure are. Okay, yes. Look, it's all love, baby. But getting back to the politics part, I do want to ask a question, because this has always been something i thought of.
00:16:40
Speaker
Why do you think when we come to movements and oppression, politics, or just in general, why do you think people will resonate and are moved so much by music, sometimes more than just spoken word?
00:16:51
Speaker
you're listening Yeah, I think there's no movement without music. I think that's inherent. People need something to motivate us. And also, i can't think of no no thing in life that is not made better by a soundtrack, especially when we need to be uplifted and doing the hard work of fighting imperialism. And that would be shitty without music. It already sucks.
00:17:16
Speaker
It would suck even more without music. Yeah. fighting fucking homophobes with no music? Jesus. feel you. It's important. And and's just what it does. And there's a thing that thing in Black community about call and response and this the hearing feel good of the oral interaction in group settings and how that has motivated and moved a lot of movements forward. So I can't imagine a movement without music.
00:17:44
Speaker
Yeah. And it's the artist's job. Yeah. Yeah. That's the job of the artist. it's that the It's our job to put the soundtrack to it. It's our job to chronicle it for posterity.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, we I think that's just inherently part of what the artist is supposed to be doing. I love it. It's like we're always seeking for anthems. Right on. Yeah. We are.
00:18:06
Speaker
mean, well, think about If you think of the 60s, the first thing everybody think about is wake up everybody. So, and the movement that was happening during the 60s and the 50s. So that's what made me really want to ask the question. Because I'm like, you like you said, you can't have a movement without the music. Like, it's just yeah like it's a part of it.
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, think about Fight the Power of Our Public Enemy. A lot of folks, when they think protest music, they usually think like a Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan, but hip-hop has made us some pretty dope protest anthems too. so it Yes, it has.
00:18:39
Speaker
Yes, it has.
Preparing for Live Performances
00:18:40
Speaker
so as you get ready for the Folk Festival this coming weekend, can I would like to ask, one, give us a little behind the scenes of how you prepare for performances. And if you wouldn't mind, if you have a rhyme or two, if you would like to speak to give us a preview of what's coming up.
00:18:55
Speaker
Oh, lower no Lord. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. So we actually just had a rehearsal today was today yesterday. So I sometimes play with a four-piece band, including myself, or a five-piece band, including myself. So at NC Folk Festival, we're going to bring, there'll be five of us. My homeboy Griffin Wade on drums.
00:19:18
Speaker
Chris Sharp on bass, Russell Favre on guitar, and Brandon Williams keys. Then we have a special guest vocalist who's going to sit in with us for a song.
00:19:29
Speaker
So I tell folks all the time, we don't get paid to play. We get paid to rehearse and show up and look like we know what we're doing. By the time we play, we want to have a good time just like everybody else. So we we get in a we go to the shed and just work stuff out so we can come out and have a good time with everybody.
00:19:46
Speaker
So yeah, we've been working, we've been playing this particular set for a while. So we like to, it feels good. So we it gives us opportunity once we have that set internalized to just kind of not overthink it, just be present and enjoy it and try to get the crowd involved. And hopefully the weather will be nice and get folks moving. I'm stoked to see Arrested Development and Sonny Miles, my homeboy. So, yeah. So I'm just honored to be part of it. And when the lineup is that thick, yeah we think about we got to bring our A game because we don't we don't want to be the weak link.
00:20:21
Speaker
No, no, no. Let tell you, I'm so ready to hear this song, Tennessee. When I saw it, the rest of the development was going, oh my God. Now that was my childhood. That is the soundtrack to my childhood. Yeah. i Yeah. It made me think about riding to Topsail Beach and my homegirl, Alicia Reeves's 1987, 86 Honda Prelude blasting Tennessee and trying PJ for the first time.
00:20:49
Speaker
ah ah That was the soundtrack. Tennessee was the soundtrack. Yeah. Is Dion Ferris like touring with them? I don't think so, but that's a good question.
00:21:02
Speaker
actually forgot that. I think she left kind of she left the group before, i mean yeah and they kept doing the things. but Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. But that will be some this that would be a nice surprise.
00:21:15
Speaker
Yeah, love her. I love
Favorite Projects and Inspirations
00:21:17
Speaker
her. Speaking of love, and is there a favorite project that you've worked on, and why is it your favorite project? They all have different...
00:21:27
Speaker
They all have different significances to me. i love Language Barrier just because it the music was written by my homie Daniel Hart and is the music was really challenging for me to write to. Obviously, the Gladys Bentley project kind of gave me a new insight into myself via the lens of Gladys Bentley. And it got to turn a whole bunch of folks on to to Gladys Bentley and her story, which was really important.
00:21:52
Speaker
um But the new joint Spectacles, which came out last April, That step is very in introspective. And I got to have some at the top of, like I mentioned, I'm an identical twin. So this whole project, this idea of spectacles is about people being gazed at all the time because you look like another human.
00:22:10
Speaker
And also just the patriarchal gaze of being black, queer, gender queering. And so yeah, I asked a bunch of black folks who occupy similar identities. What does it what does it mean for them to be a spectacle?
00:22:25
Speaker
So that made the answers I got for that made this project really important. asked Mickey Blanco and my sister and doctor sister Dr. Alexis Pauline Gomes and Fred Moten and, yeah, just ah a wide variety of people to talk about, black people particularly, to talk about what it means to be a spectacle.
00:22:46
Speaker
And just in in an effort to embrace it more, I guess, and interrogate it Is this a new project going to be probably the most highlighted at the Folk Festival? ah we'll do Yeah, we'll do like ah look we'll do three songs from it.
00:22:59
Speaker
We'll do the title track and this joint called Short, which features ma na Mavis Poole on the record. And then the song called Hello, which features Amelia Meath from Sylvan Esso on the record. But we'll do it with a special homie at the Folk Festival.
00:23:14
Speaker
Awesome. I love it when artists bring like something different than on the record. or verdict Yeah, nobody. Yeah. Just play the record. you want the record, it let's do something different. We're in person.
00:23:25
Speaker
Now, sure. Tell me now who the special person is. Because if you bring out Jill Scott or if you bring. Oh, I'm already on the bill. that That's say. The way already on the bill.
00:23:39
Speaker
Okay. Okay. I can't say no surprises today. No, I'm trying to get no heart attacks before we even get to the chat. hurt But I do want also highlight, too, because I love to ask people this, especially who are musically inclined.
00:23:54
Speaker
With our government trying to whittle down the education system to basically nothing, Can you explain to us why it is very important and vital for children to have the arts included in an education while they grow up?
00:24:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's the ability to free think and critically think comes from an engagement in the arts, in my opinion. The ability to like ah say that this don't work for me or if something feels like it's not serving you comes from being able to express yourself freely.
00:24:23
Speaker
And I think the arts imperative to doing that. i don't i I can't imagine what I can't, it almost makes me want to cry to imagine what my life would have been like without access to music and drawing and painting and Yeah, growing up.
00:24:43
Speaker
I don't really understand a world without that.
Artists as Truth-Tellers in Society
00:24:46
Speaker
Like, ah I do believe that the artists are the are basically the griots of our moment. So, yeah, yeah yeah it's important.
00:24:55
Speaker
Hands down, it's just important. And I want to say, too, like, I had an algebra teacher, and I think I was in sophomore year. so because I think it was even my algebra or geometry. I can't remember. But it was funny. I was struggling really bad with math. And I could not get it. And one day, he brought in, can only imagine the song. And he brought in the sheet music.
00:25:17
Speaker
And honest to God, that's what helped me with algebra. Because he was like, you're so musically inclined. And you know how to read sheet music. know what three-fourths of this is. And you know how that is So he started integrating the two. So agree with you need the arts in school because for kids who are dyslexic or have learning disabilities, sometimes it's for me, it was the metronome that helped me study. It was the metronome that helped me pull it to focus in school with being able to, and also to do an oratorical contest. I remember my aunt, she had a metronome and when I would prepare for oratorical contest, it would, tickets. Wow, that's amazing.
00:25:57
Speaker
So the metronome would help you like time your speech or help you? It helped me keep time because like when you're speaking, you got to speak with a cadence, like but you know poetry and spoken word. And so a lot of times the way I would memorize it to stay on B and to keep the next line is using the metronome.
00:26:16
Speaker
and the tick That's amazing. But understanding or having a critical idea about arts or appreciation is so particular and relevant now where yeah I think that the poets and the artists are speaking the truth where the journalists have failed at this point, especially in the West. it's really brilliant to be able to ah want to look towards the artists and the writers and the poets and things like that to kind of hear the truth that corporate media in particular are obfuscating. so i Especially when critical thought is being so, folks are not being encouraged to think critically and just be b blind sheep.
00:26:55
Speaker
That's the arts that encourages you and teaches you to think critically. Ask questions, ask, and don't just accept the shit if you don't agree. And I think the arts critical to making that true.
00:27:07
Speaker
It's funny to think that independent thinking is demonized in our country. Wild shit. I'm like, yeah, it's wild. It's wild. We're going to take a short break here and stay with us because we'll be right back to share some fun facts, plus a speed round of questions to get to know Charlotte and...
Art as a Medium for Critical Thinking
00:27:31
Speaker
Welcome back to Power Beyond Pride, queer change-making podcast. And I am your fierce and fabulous host, Maddie Bynum, sitting here with my smart, witty, intelligent, and oh-so-funny Daniel, my co-host, Mr. Daniel W.K. Lee. And we are talking to the amazing artistic...
00:27:53
Speaker
blessing. and That's really what I can call you is a blessing. Miss Charlotte Ammons. And just if you haven't tuned in yet, if you're just tuning in now, we're just talking about how vital art, music, poetry is to life in general. And this angel that we're talking to just loves to bless people with gems. So Daniel, you got the next question. Daniel Yeah, this is a perfect question, I think. As you look to the future,
00:28:20
Speaker
What message do you want to continue to express with your artistry, with your music and poetry and other work? What what is that mark that you want to leave to the world?
00:28:30
Speaker
Yeah, appreciate that question. i man I think I subconsciously, or i don't know, I'm 51, so I think about that. I think the main thing is to be critical, criticism think and observe and dissect and dismantle everything and then put it back together, whatever works best for you.
00:28:47
Speaker
i feel like that's what I've tried to do and my work, and my goal has always been to have of like volumes of work, my own work, like on my shelves along with some of the other folks that I look up to.
00:29:00
Speaker
Write your stories, tell your stories, innovate, question, observe. those those I think those qualities have helped me create a life doing stuff I love.
00:29:14
Speaker
So yeah, question everything. Take nothing at face value. yeah i like that. Absolutely. think First off, and Dame, you see how she just snuck that in there, I'm 51. I need y'all to understand people who are listening. This woman does not look 51 at all. It's the baseball cap. It's the baseball cap pool.
00:29:38
Speaker
but No, seriously, you do. I love it. I love it. think it's, and I'm going to take it right back to it. I think it's the art. It's the creativity. I agree. It keeps me happy and young and I enjoy it. It keeps me vibrant. Yeah, for sure.
00:29:55
Speaker
I love it. I love it. So, Charlotte, this is our favorite part of the show. This is our speed round question. Like I told you, if you're getting ready for it, don't think about the answers. Just say the first answer that comes to your mind. It may be a little racy, so that's when you can start using the fuck, pussy, shit, damn words that you want to use in your vocabulary, your vernacular.
00:30:17
Speaker
But I'll say Daniel has the first speed round question, so let's see what we got. Okay. All right. Who are the three people living or unalive that you would like to have sitting at your table for a dinner party?
00:30:33
Speaker
Oh, Lord. Jimi Hendrix. ah Dang it. Toni Morrison and Janet Jackson. Those are great. it's just it oh Those are great. I don't even know what you serve that crew.
00:30:50
Speaker
don't know. LSD and potato salad. I don't know. I think, though, they would all get along, though. That's the important part. think that would be a time. Yeah. I'm just like, can I come just float past the table? I just want to hear the conversation. That would be a good conversation.
00:31:07
Speaker
Jenny Hendrix, Toni Morrison, and who was the third? Janet Jackson. She just came out. I think she's just been on my mind since the top of this conversation.
00:31:18
Speaker
Well, you would need her because you need the velvet rope. So you would need the velvet rope yeah cu to secure the area. I see your vision. I'm with it.
00:31:31
Speaker
Okay, so where do you get the most inspiration when writing? Walking, like walking around in my head or like literally like I just I feel shit. It just gets I can tell when it's oiled and things are cooking up there.
00:31:45
Speaker
And then I just start to pace so or move around and mumble and repeat things to ob live till it's just annoying. Yeah, and I just try to yeah just try to stay open. And sometimes I just jot words down because I like them and come back to them.
00:32:01
Speaker
And then I also try to treat shit so precious. Words not a trip knock to covet and hold on to them so much that if they don't work, I won't let it go. Let it go and find another. It'll come back to me at a different time if needed or when needed.
00:32:16
Speaker
Absolutely. I definitely do the writing down a word that I like thing. Yeah. Ongoing list on my phone. If you could choose one sense to keep and you lose the rest, which one are you choosing?
00:32:28
Speaker
Oh, Lord. One sense? One sense. That's not fair. yeah. maybe sight because look at Stevie Wonder. I mean, it's just a goat.
00:32:42
Speaker
I'm like, I'll just be like Stevie.
00:32:47
Speaker
I'm just going rock it like Stevie. Hey. No sight. And we make sure we won't let your hairline get all we have with it. Okay, so I'm just going to do what Stevie does. That'll work. That'll work. Yeah, my eyes are a little bulky anyway, so.
00:33:05
Speaker
but i think I could be blind. i mean, I know this going sound so bad. I know this is going sound so bad, but just know I'm a comedian, but I think I could be blind too. I think if I had to give up a sense, I would give that one up as well.
00:33:20
Speaker
Yeah. um mean, as long as I couldn't, I need to hear, i need to hear. I need to engage. I mean, from the country, all those like natural sounds, that would break my heart not to be able to hear that.
00:33:33
Speaker
So yeah, I'll stick with sight. Yeah. So do you drink water or tea before performance? Usually water, maybe some hot tea, but always water and prep preferably room temperature.
00:33:45
Speaker
Like cold water. Yeah. yeah All right. What is your favorite picnic food? Fried chicken, cold. Because fried chicken, you can rock fried chicken.
00:33:59
Speaker
So you go pick up fried chicken or you fry it up and you put it in the basket. So it'll be it may not be hot when you get to your spot, but at least it's still got the crunch, got a little lukewarm heat.
00:34:13
Speaker
Chicken can be cold and you can it'll be it's just as good. It's either that or potato salad. Because now thinking about potato salad and Janet Jackson going on a picnic. i up soft It's like a whole sense little scene in my mind now.
00:34:29
Speaker
But we used to eat potato salad sandwiches. That's how much I love potato salad as a kid. Potato salad on white bread. You know Carolina Reese is really coming out. yeah That all makes sense to me.
00:34:42
Speaker
Trust if you've never had a potato salad sandwich, do yourself a favor. For real. Okay, so I got to ask this question. This is not of the truth of their questions. Do you prefer yeah fresh, warm, room temp potato salad or day-old cold potato salad?
00:34:58
Speaker
I life like right after you boil the potatoes and boil the eggs. and I like it like room temp. Right after it's made. It's the best potato salad. Yes.
00:35:08
Speaker
Oh. Yes, exactly. I used to hate my mama be like, won don't you wait till tomorrow? No. Eating it warm is the best. Oh, my God. what Right now. Yeah, I feel you.
00:35:20
Speaker
We might be cousins or something. It might be because I'm writing them with the fried chicken. Look, I carry hot sauce in my pocketbook. I'm ready. So let so let me ask you, when you are going through your process of writing, do you like it organized? Do you organize things or do you more of a chaos and let's just what happened happens?
00:35:40
Speaker
a Kind of little bit of both. This writer, Nikki Finney, told me that taught me to write according to themes whenever I'm trying to write a body of work. and It don't have to be like a strict theme, just oh something loose that can tie the work together. it kind of helps kind kind of inform and frame the writing a bit.
00:35:58
Speaker
but and also But you can also interpret interpret a theme however you can to make whatever you're writing about work. But i I used to be a bit more organized. I keep a lot of composition books of written ideas. Now i write more on a computer.
00:36:14
Speaker
When I travel, I try to take a notebook, though, because i'm I like, like what and there's nothing like writing with pen and paper. You can't replace that feeling and and that connection. But yeah, not as chaotic as it used to.
00:36:27
Speaker
I need some sense of organization now that I feel like I've turned it more into, there's a more honed profession. So I try to be more intentional. But so there's so much creativity that can be done in chaos. I'm not one of those people, but... Yeah, I can't do it. Well, I can, but it's just like, I can barely find ah two socks that match. So I just got to have some sense of order because I have stuff strewn all over. And when I'm working on a record, when I'm deep in it, like things might get chaotic.
00:36:57
Speaker
Like four songs in, it might get chaotic. Yeah. Speaking of socks, what's your favorite season for fashion? Spring or fall, actually.
00:37:09
Speaker
Fall, you can get fly. I'm not a big winter person, but also in North Carolina, we don't really have crazy winters. But I love a good blazer, some boots, and hat. I just like to kick it in fall ball gear.
00:37:25
Speaker
I don't call it. Accessories. Yeah, accessory game in fall is you can't beat it. North Carolina has spring, summer, and fallter. Because like you said, like we get maybe January and February of winter. like That's the only part of winter we can't in North Carolina is January and February. That's so true yes so true. Then we get that one occasional snowstorm that shuts us down for a long 12 weeks. Every three years. Yes, ma'am. Every three years. I was talking to someone one day in North Carolina. I ain't mad at it because everybody agrees to stop. Everybody just goes home and sits down.
00:38:04
Speaker
And I love it. so So when you are in your performance mode, what is the favorite what is your favorite part of performance? The beginning, the middle, the end?
00:38:16
Speaker
Yep. I just depend. The middle is, by the middle, I think I've found my stride. as in as a I play with dope musicians. I play with musicians that make me have to level up to stay up with them.
00:38:31
Speaker
i like that feeling. I like working with cats who I feel like are just... challenge me and push me. and So I i want and my lyrics and my performance to to be on on par with what they're bringing.
00:38:44
Speaker
So by the middle of the show, we've locked in. i feel like, I hope. And, you know, so I'll say about outside the middle. By the end, I'm sad. It's over.
00:38:54
Speaker
and Yeah, yeah. I think, well, this is, oh, not, no, I'm a liar. and This is not the last question, but what is one thing that makes your house feel like home?
00:39:09
Speaker
Oh, the pup. I have a cat, too. Her name is Fiddle, but she probably doesn't know that because she we call it Kit Kat all the time, so she probably thinks her name is Kit Kat.
00:39:21
Speaker
But she's mean as shit. I love her. I do a lot of her. the meanest they ever seen and nobody's ever met it because people come over she hides out and i'm like i promise i have a cat she's a little bitch right now and won't come out and she's just like then as soon as the front door closes boom she reappears I'm like you just be doing shit Yeah, exactly.
00:39:47
Speaker
Sorry? No, go ahead. yeah so the yeah the And my ukuleles. I'm a ukulele nerd these days. I got three ukuleles. A tenor, a baritone, and a bass ukulele. I'll just be sitting on the couch just on my ukulele half the time.
00:40:04
Speaker
That's cool. Well, I learned something today. didn't know a ukulele came in tenor bass or baritone. I thought there was just one ukulele. Yeah, you'd be surprised. You'd be surprised.
00:40:15
Speaker
My goal is to work up the player out in public, but I ain't there yet. you'll get there and I'm pretty sure you're already amazing to do it and you probably already there so this is like Daniel was saying a while ago this is our last question I think he was just next excited but no this is one of my favorite questions and we ask everybody this what does power beyond pride mean to you that statement Oh, man.
00:40:40
Speaker
ah For some reason, I have some sense of community and collectivity in that. Because I think it takes it takes all of us collectively to create the world we want to live in. And the beautiful queer, all the beautiful queer people I know are fam, they're family. And we use that term for a reason. I look forward to Yeah, every time I'm a queer space, it just feels good. It feels jovial. And that's what that collective body can do is what Power Beyond Pride means to me.
00:41:13
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. And then finally, where can people follow you and your work? Charlotte Ammons.com. Charlotte Ammons on all the social media handles.
00:41:25
Speaker
But, you know, mostly check the website and come out and see me live. And we like I like to interact with people in real time and in person. And if you come out, say hey and sit let's talk and fellowship and meet each other.
00:41:37
Speaker
So and let me know what y'all are doing, too. So you come out to see me play. Let me know what you're doing so I can what will you do as well. That's awesome. Thank you so much for being here. you. This is so fun. You were incredible and awesome.
00:41:51
Speaker
but We are out of time for this podcast, but we hope that you will join us again sometime. Thank y'all. Appreciate it. Yes, ma'am. This has been a blessing. I think I am sitting with my cousin. We may be related. I don't know, but we'll find out later. There you go. Well, we're welcome That's the story we're telling from now on. That's it. We're cousins. Yeah. I tell people now, if I meet my wife, I'm family.
00:42:17
Speaker
So that was all the time that we have for today. Like Sherylott go to sherylottamons.com, Sherylott at all the different social media platforms, and you can contact her there and interact with her. I'm your co-host, Maddie Bynum. Yes, I am the loudest person laughing and talking in in every room. I'm just, I'm a Leo. We're just loud people. That's who we are are. You can find me and connect with me at Maddie Simone 737 on Instagram and Maddie Byam on Facebook. I do try to respond, but I don't always, so don't get upset.
00:42:51
Speaker
And I'm your co-host, Daniel W.K. Lee, poet, author, and instant ramen snob. And you can follow me at Strong Plum on Upscroll because I'm desperately trying to de-platform meta.
00:43:04
Speaker
So Strong Plum on Upscroll. Remember to subscribe and get your friends to subscribe to Power Beyond Pride wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And check out our site at powerbeyondpride.com.
00:43:17
Speaker
Power Beyond Pride is a project from A Great Idea, clear-owned design and content agency. Learn more about them at agreatidea.com. This episode is produced by Shane Lucas, Maddie Bynum is the project developer, and our editor is Jarrett Redding with support from Ian Wilson.
00:43:36
Speaker
And me and Daniel are just a part of our amazing hosting that we have here at the show. So we ask that you please write into us, send us questions, send us comments and concerns. We would love to be able to converse about them and hopefully answer your questions.
00:43:51
Speaker
Check out our new episodes each week and we look forward to queer change making with you next time. Thank you from all of us at Power Beyond Pride.