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EP. 127 Fredrick Joseph, speaks on family, Palestine, and Sports
67 Plays5 months ago
Fredrick Joseph, New York Times Best Selling author, thought-provoking speaker, and advocate for equity and social justice, joins us for a captivating conversation. Fredrick will discuss his new poetry collection "We Alive, Beloved," which explores a new genre that seeks to find joy in moments of difficulty.
Whether illuminating the beauty of being Black, highlighting the hope that can be found in childhood, or sharing intimate truths revealed on a mental health journey, this collection will appeal to both new and established readers of poetry. Fredrick's words promise to resonate within the deepest corners of your soul, leaving a mark on your heart and a renewed appreciation for the beauty of being alive.
As a proud New Yorker, Fredrick will share insights into his upbringing and the cultural influences that have informed his perspectives on the world. Delving into the realms of music and sports, he'll unpack the powerful interconnections between these mediums and the pursuit of equality and liberation.
Listeners can expect a dynamic and insightful dialogue as Fredrick shares his unique experiences, challenges preconceptions, and offers a blueprint for a more just and equitable future.
Website: https://frederickjoseph.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fredtjoseph
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Transcript
Introduction and Early Life
00:00:00
Speaker
All right. You good? Yeah, let's do it. All right. Welcome back, everyone, to another episode. um He's a little late, but it's okay. We still appreciate him. We still appreciate him. I got my guy here today. I am so excited. So excited to chop that with him. Can you introduce yourself? Hi everyone, I'm Frederick Joseph, um' best-selling and award-winning author um and attempting my best to just be a changemaker in this world. I appreciate you and that is a very small snippet of what
00:00:35
Speaker
you are into and what you are doing for the world. um Frederick, tell me a little bit about just like, I have known about you for so long. I've read basically everything that you've written. And I always ask this question because I think it's really important. Like tell me about Little Frederick. Like what did that look like for you growing up? Yeah, um I was a kid who is, Little Frederick, me, I was really, in my own little bubble, kind of um to be honest, afraid of the world a little bit. right I was a kid who got teased a lot. I was a kid who you know grew up without my father being around. I was a kid who grew up in in poverty. um and And so I think that I created this little world for myself. you know We didn't have um the money to do certain things. My mother did the best that she could. And so I remember I would get like action figures, stuff like that, and build storylines.
00:01:32
Speaker
And I would like have little whole like narrative arcs for each character, right? And sometimes if we couldn't afford a new action figure, I would like take the arms off of one and put the arms on another. I hope this one just got a power up, you know what I mean? And things like that. So I was just i was one of those kids who was just creatively surviving. in my own little world. And would you say, how did the writing and the creativity happen? um Was that something that was brought up like in your childhood and the household? Was it at school? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cultural Influences and Music
00:02:05
Speaker
You know, I liken myself as a writer to somewhat of a jazz musician. um You know, I grew up around the culture, really, right? Like, I grew up in New York. um You know, on Sundays, we were listening to Anita Baker to Stylistics, listening to Marvin, um and all around my my house and in my grandmother's house as well. um There were books everywhere, right?
00:02:29
Speaker
Toni Morrison, to Richard Wright, to Du Bois, everything. There was just books everywhere. um And this was a time when you know there wasn't there wasn't as much TV. and We didn't have cable, right? So I was in the house reading. I was reading. And and my grandmother really impressed upon me the importance of of writing. um and And I think that everyone who writes is a writer, but I think that she was able to combine my interest in kind of creative storytelling and narrative arts with writing. And that's kind of what was sparked it. I love that. I have so many questions. So you speak about the culture and it would be rude of me not to ask. And we talked about this a little bit. I don't know when this podcast is coming out, but we got to talk about it. We got to talk about it. Speak it of the culture.
00:03:20
Speaker
And i'm not I'm from Canada, but I'm out for Toronto. I already talked about that.
00:03:27
Speaker
what are your I have so many questions around it, but what are your thoughts around hip hop right now and what these two individuals um are doing in regards to you know battling it out for what a lot of people are saying is you know the head of the snake, right? Yeah. um let me let I want to know your thoughts. i know I want to know what you're thinking. I know and yesterday there was three of them. Three of them came out yesterday. So I know there's a lot to digest as well.
00:03:58
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, it's so funny. I'm a big basketball head and my Lakers got eliminated. So like last night I was watching the Clippers in the Mavs game hoping that the Clippers got eliminated and I fell asleep in the middle of the game. I woke up to like 40 text messages and I'm thinking, oh, you know, something must have happened in the game that was wild. I saw the Clippers eliminated, but I'm like, oh, that couldn't have been it. All I see is, where are you? Where are you right now? How come you be calling me? What's going on? And they're like, Kendrick, Drake. I'm like, all right, all right, all right. And so for me, it's interesting. Let me first say, this feels like, for somebody my age, right? like This feels like being in the 90s all over. The Knicks are a good team in basketball. X-Men 97 is out. It's you know um But I think that.
00:04:51
Speaker
I'm really, I don't know, because I have to look at everything through a lens of kind of like social criticism or whatever. And I think, you know, Kendrick is the better writer, the better rapper, the better artist. um I don't think that there's even really a comparison. I think that Drake, you know, allows us to have fun, so on and so forth. I don't think that their artistry is anywhere on the same level. um I think that they're both hypocrites, right? Like in reality, um yeah they're both hypocrites because on the one end, I guess you had Drake saying, oh, Kendrick, You know, you beat your wife, um which is horrible. And then on the other end, you had Kendrick saying, oh, um you're not for the culture, and you are hiding children, and you're on weight loss drugs, and all these different things. um And they both are essentially calling each other like, misogynoirists, right? um In different ways. And I'm like, well, you're both also just like, that is who you both are, right? Like, you can't criticize Drake, but then have Kodak Black on your album. That's the first thing I was thinking.
00:05:51
Speaker
that's the first thing i was thinking like on his last album he had a man if i'm not mistaken i could have sworn that like Kodak did something like lock a woman in like a room for like three days and beat her something it was so you have him on your album and you also talk him about i'm not black i'm i'm like it's just a color um whatever right and another drape talking about some oh you rap like you're trying to free to slay it's like what's happening what's what's are either of you talking about all i know is that somewhere Nas and Jay-Z are looking at them like, oh, these young boys. You know what But what are you doing, man? What are you doing? No, I i was thinking the same thing. It's hard. I mean, similar. ah Growing up, it was Nas, it was Jay-Z. And it's felt different then. I think now, I think it's a lot of
00:06:44
Speaker
you know, yeah they're looking for, a lot of a lot of it is like, I'm looking for the gossip, I'm looking for the stories and I'm gonna implement the stories however I feel fit. On one end, I think one is, I think that there's a lot of reaching that's happening. Like we're reaching for a lot of different angles that, how like how are we as audience members going to know what is true and what's not true? Right. So, We can only base it on the facts that we see. like You talked about Kodak. We have seen Drake over and over and over again the way he talks about women, specifically Black women. like There's so many things that I think, there's so many layers to it, but I i don't think it's over. I don't think it's going to get any ah better or any worse. um I feel like at at this point, it's just going to continue until one of them are like, you know what? I'm just going to step aside.
00:07:40
Speaker
and continue on like it it I don't think it's going to get to a point where we are saying Drake is a better rapper than Kendrick. like we again already We already know that. We already know the answer to that. So it's interesting, though. Yeah. I would hope that, and maybe this is just the the mature, older me. A younger me would be like, yeah, y'all need to just keep going, whatever. I don't care. It's entertainment. But I think me at this age, um I look for some of the older
00:08:11
Speaker
rappers and people in the culture to step in soon and just kind of say like y'all need to actually end this because you know whether that's Jay Z or Nas or whomever because I do think that we're getting to the point where it's not really about rap like when you start talking about you know you have a daughter that you don't take care of and you know or this you know all these different, like, oh, this person slept with your wife or whatever. You're getting into a territory where I don't want this to end in violence, right like whether that's violence to one of them or to people around them. um And so I just think it needs to end soon because it's going to become something that's not entertainment. It's already becoming toxic. Yeah, no, I agree. And then you know strays are going to be thrown. More people are going to be brought in.
00:08:58
Speaker
and it's just gonna be a repeat cycle over and over again. I agree. I i totally agree with you. ah there Are there people within like hip hop culture, and I'm assuming there are, that have influenced you in your writing? woo Yeah, definitely. I mean, I grew up, so I oftentimes say I write, depending upon what I'm writing, I write like a rapper, depending upon what I'm writing, right? Like, like i I think if I'm writing for, and Actually, it doesn't matter who I'm writing for. I write pretty directly. I get to the point. I say what needs to be said, and I'm not really afraid. And and that's just kind of growing up in New York from, you know, I grew up on, on like I said, a hove. I grew up on, I'm from, I'm i'm from Yonkers, right? like So, but for those who obviously weren't on before, um my publishers for some reason had identified that you were from Yonkers. I'll take it. I'll take it.
00:09:50
Speaker
But I am from Yonkers, so I grew up on DMX. I grew up on Jadakiss. I grew up on The Locks. And it means something to us. I think we have a chip on our shoulder, because Yonkers is not in New York City, but we have greats that come from where we're from. So there's this lineage, right? So I'm always like, oh, I got to show up like I'm part of the Rough Riders whenever I show up on the page, right? Like, if I'm going to say it, I'm going to say it with my chest. And because I got to prove a point with people who are from the Bronx, who are from Brooklyn, so on and so forth. I would say a lot of my writing is influenced by, yeah, like I said, Jada Kiss, DMX. um I think there's a lot of Mary J. Blodgett in my writing, who also is from Yonkers, that I was to marry. Yeah, there's a lot of hip-hop in my writing. who And then I guess my other question, the other, like, there's so many layers to, you like, what was your influence to get into just, like, social activism, social justice, racial equity? Like, where where does that side come from?
00:10:47
Speaker
Yeah, you know something
Activism and Personal Challenges
00:10:48
Speaker
funny? I don't like i think because everybody throws around the idea of what an activist is, I never actually consider myself an activist um or anything along those lines. i just My grandmother just taught me, like if you if you have the hands to do the work, then do good work, right? and so um I'm just like, I have the hands and the hands, you know, obviously, metaphorically, I have a platform, um I have readers, I have followers, I have a robust email list. So if I'm gonna have an email list, like right now, I'm writing something about Hakeem Jeffries and Eric Adams, all these different black men who are New York politicians, and how damaging they are for black liberation. um Not because I have to, but because I want to, because we need to, right? And that's just what I was brought up in, you know, so
00:11:34
Speaker
I don't know if that answers the question necessarily, but it's just, cause it doesn't feel like there was like a thing per se. It's just like black American, how, this is, this is my lineage. It's just my heritage. who No, i I love that. um What's the quote from, from grandma again, if you have the hands. Yeah. If you have, if you have the hands to do, do the work, do good work. work I love that. I love that. I love that. And I think it's so important. Like when you are, when people are also When people are giving you a name, it's not something you necessarily have to take on as well. um yeah I think what specifically for you, I think one of my questions is like, with so much happening, so much happening in the world and so much that you take on in regards to sharing your voice, expressing your opinion about things, um sharing knowledge, like where do you find time to you know just be
00:12:30
Speaker
um to find joy to you know turn off do you turn off um o that's a that's a good question um so i like to work out um i've been working out for since I was like maybe 14, I grew up playing sports, so on and so forth. um But I don't think that I necessarily do turn off. right um I think that's just the reality of it. And I'm navigating that now. like What does it look like two you know to turn off? right I don't think that many people, whether James Baldwin say um to be you know conscious is to constantly be in a state of rage. I'm butchering that a little bit, but it's it's is it's the general essence of the quote.
00:13:12
Speaker
um I'm constantly enraged, right? And I think that even when I try to chill, just being really honest, um you then have moments like, you know, like what's happening in Gaza. um So the sad truth is, not all of us are going to put into pain and do the work. So I constantly feel like those of us willing to do the work, I'm not trying to be a martyr by any stretch of the imagination. but that's the work, right? I don't think that, you know, as the as the forces of evil as they were constantly are pushing, there's not really a chance to sleep per se. And I know that a lot of people preach, you know, rest and, you know, even rest is resistance was a huge book, you know, last year and so forth. I just don't find the time necessarily. And that's not a good thing, but it's just the honest truth. who No, I appreciate that. I guess my follow up question is that how do you handle the, for lack of a better word,
00:14:11
Speaker
comes with it in regards to you know criticism, um you know the outside voices, the noise, et cetera. You just block it out. like what do you what What happens when that that that stuff happens around you? I mean, I think you you sadly sort of get used to it. right? Like, unlike, I think there's a lot of people, especially in in our day and age, who wanted to be public figures who wanted to be, you know, whatever, have the the hundreds of thousands of followers and stuff like that. I never wanted those things. I never looked for those things. I never asked for those things, right? If something has gone viral, it's not because it was plotted out to go by religious happenstance over time. And so I think because of that in the beginning, it was really hard, because I'm like, I'm just a civilian out here. What the hell? like um you know you would have You know, you would have a moment where like, I'll say something historically like, oh,
00:15:10
Speaker
I don't know, like whatever about race, and then all of a sudden your tweet or your video is on Fox News. I'm like, yo, I'm gonna ask you this. You know what I mean? And I don't have an apparatus built around me for this, but I think I think over the last three years, especially, is when I've been like, you know what? This isn't even the real world, right? The real world is this conversation with you, right? in The real world is the culture. The real world is where you find solace and hope and peace if you can find those things. And that's the real world that you build up from, right? That's the ground level for me and I build up from there. I don't even, to now, I don't even see some of the things that are said about me because that's not the real world.
00:15:55
Speaker
who who And I'm thinking about a black friend and how much you talk about liberation and your idea of liberation. So what what is your thoughts on where we need to go for liberation in regards to the state of the world right now? Like, what does that look like for you? I think the the root of it would be intersectionality, right? like And I think the sad that and think the sad and i think that ah think the sad truth is a lot of people are not invested in liberation outside of themselves.
00:16:32
Speaker
Right. And that's sadly, um you know, people from communities I belong to um included, right? Like whether that be men or um or whether that be, you know, black people at times, so on and so forth. And so for me, the goal is for people to be more intersectional. I think when you look at a moment like Gaza, right? You just had the other day, um again, to the point of like, Hakeem Jeffries and Eric Adams. And for those who don't know who they are, Hakeem Jeffries is a congressman from New York City. Eric Adams is the mayor of New York City, both black men. And, you know, despite what happened with the NYPD at Columbia University, for those who are not familiar with that,
00:17:12
Speaker
um the and NYPD came in and completely assaulted peaceful protesters at Columbia University, students who attend that school um for no reason, right? ah And Hakeem Jeffries was just like, oh, I didn't see any any um you know excessive force being used. And the person who sent them in was Eric Adams. And these are two black men knowing the ways in which state sanctioned violence has impacted black and brown bodies. And they still did these things. And so when I look at liberation and focus on people like that, somehow we need to bring those people either along or just or or demolish those people. Get rid of them. like
00:17:56
Speaker
Yeah, and's it's so it's so funny. I was reading something online the other day to talk about how much we want kids. And I mean, they're not even kids, young adults to, you know, be involved or share how they feel. And here they are, like here, here they are. Here are these kids on these campuses, genuinely, you know, out in front of the front lines trying to do what it is to make sure people are being heard and they are being treated like animals. they're being treated
Societal Critiques and Intersectionality
00:18:28
Speaker
like animals, right? So how do you tell a group of how do you tell a group of kids? Yeah, you have freedom of speech, you should do what you need to do the right thing. And then all of a sudden, you know, you have the dogs and the hoses on you. Right? Like, it it just doesn't it doesn't make sense. um I mean, you know, um I'm not gonna say cause I don't know if you're public about this, like what country you're in right now, but you know, you're in another country. And if you if you look at the ways in which that country has historically been treated by the United States, you've got to realize that sure if you live in this country, you're dealing with a villain. youre you're you're at the You were living at the head of the snake, right? The United States is ah ah is a demon.
00:19:16
Speaker
I don't know another way of putting that, right? It is a it is a ah colonial settler nation built on ah propagating and perpetrating violence globally. um And I would say it at this point, um intergalactically, probably for what we know. um And so with that being said, I have to constantly remember that so many people who are marginalized were still brought up in that culture, right? That culture of dominance, that culture of of of of demolition. And so I have to remind myself, I can't bring everybody along, right? Time is ticking, for example, to save um people in Gaza. So I don't have time to take two years to bring a hot King Jeffries along to get him the baseline understand. Honestly, it gets you out of the out of the way, because I'm trying to save lives. Yeah, get out of the way. Help out or get out of the way. And it's so interesting because we we mentioned before, before we hopped on, like I had lived in Manila, which is the Philippines, and you see the impact there. And then now I'm in Vietnam and you see the impact here still to this day of how much the American war has has placed on them. Like we're in Hanoi where you know there's families and
00:20:33
Speaker
strut the structure of Hanoi in itself, you can see that it's been damaged based on the past, which has been you know something they've been dealing with for a very, very long time. So yeah, I like that you called it a demon because that's exactly what it is. It it truly is. You're talking about this is a nation founded by degenerates who were sent away from their original country. like This is a nation of of of of pirate degenerates. You know what I mean? This is the reality of what the United States is. And so I think that, you know, I tell everyone to watch Exterminate All the Brutes by Raoul Peck. I believe that's still on HBO Max. It's one of the most brilliant documentaries ever. It's just a mini series just about the history
00:21:25
Speaker
of ah colonialism um in the United States and a few other places and just how brutal it was and yet how gaslighted we are to to actually call ah natives brutes, to call black Americans brutes, to call all these other people brutes.
Literary Career and Capitalism
00:21:42
Speaker
And you were taking pikes and sticking them through the anuses and through the mouths of native peoples and roasting them in front of their children. And that is the lineage for which that our politicians descend. wow Wow. I'm i'm sure i'm trying to like ah trying to understand what it is that they don't understand. like what it Why aren't they moving? like Why aren't they doing the things that may maybe intellectually they don't know? Maybe they don't know. I mean, I think capitalism is a... you know Be real with you. you know it's it's
00:22:17
Speaker
I say this all the time, right? So I've i've had a a pretty solid career out the gate as an author. But I tell people constantly, had I made different decisions, wrote about different things, I would be, you know, Colleen Hoover is? Yeah. I would be Colleen Hoover at this point. I'd be like Colleen Hoover, right? Because yeah I love me a good rom-com. I love me a good, listen and if I wrote a story about of a young scrapping black, black teen dating one of the Gilmore Girls or something like that. If I wrote me a little Dawson's Creek, One Tree Hill, I could do that, right? And I would show 10 million books. But that's not my calling. when all People, even when it's not their calling, will still answer the call because the money's there. That's so true. And it's and it's so funny, because I had the same conversation with my editor a lot like a while ago, just talking about
00:23:13
Speaker
people like us. And I'm very early in this like writing thing, but I've talked to a lot of black writers. And the amount of writers that write about their trauma is like all of us, everybody yep is writing about their trauma and writing from a place of like vulnerability. And that can be so exhausting. It can be so exhausting. um But at this, but at the same time, you know, like that's, that's where you get your liberation from. That's where you get like your release from, like you can put all of what you want to say on the page, right? And it lives for forever once it's out there. So I think it's so I think it's hard, but I think it's definitely
00:23:58
Speaker
worth it. And I definitely think that over time, that's what longevity looks like, right? Like what you do on the page is is going to be there forever. So i appreciate I appreciate you. I really do. I appreciate you for doing that. That means a lot. I mean, you know, it's so funny because so So sorry my dog is, my dog, he he knows what I'm doing, like a podcast or a competition. Yeah, he'll beg for treats because he knows he can do it at this time. He's, you know, I don't know, he's different. But um but to the point, you know, it's it's it's funny because my, so my next book coming out is my poetry collection. And then I have a y YA, my first my first novel, my YA novel comes out next May.
00:24:44
Speaker
um And ironically, my second YA novel, which we're going out with one um proposal next month, part of it ah censors actually a Vietnamese girl. So that's just ironic. but ah No way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um yeah, we'll definitely have to get you that. but But anyway, the point I was about to make was, but it's so interesting is the other day I was doing the audio book for my um poetry collection. My engineer in the room and all the people like from Spotify on the thing, like listening in, like the directors or whatever, they're all these white men and in it, I'm like, you know, I'm like black liberation, black dick, you see me as a black, yeah like you you see me as a, I'm like, yo, this is my truth, right? Like I'm writing about white women fetishized, I'm go finish out they're like, oh, when I walk by you, you have Mandingo dreams, you know what I mean?
00:25:34
Speaker
and And it's so funny because I'm like damn, I really wish in this moment that I would have wrote about like daffodils and blah.
00:25:47
Speaker
what What is the reaction? can you Are they reacting at all? Like, what what are you looking at? no Yo, yo. At the show, it's funny. Like, at some point, at some point, I had a new water break. And so what the engineers is, it was like, I just want to take a second. It's these three white guys. And one of them was like, Frederick, I just want to take a second and say, thank you. Thank you for your truth. You know how white people are. like like just went take Thank you for your truth. And thank you for, and thank you for giving us things that we don't deserve.
00:26:26
Speaker
and so funny cause i think the pay that for that one way um you know really I'm a direct writer. So I'm like, these crackers can't break me. you know
00:26:41
Speaker
so It's just hilarious to me. Like you said, it's cathartic though, right? like I think people don't realize, I think people sometimes like, oh, why do y'all talk about this? Why do y'all talk about that? I'm like, yo, some of this shit just be cathartic. When you can put on the page that like white women see you as a mandingo, that's cathartic as shit. You know what I mean? Where else can I say that? I can say that maybe to like you, have the same conversation on NPR, but yeah, you know, white women see me as a man dingo. Thanks. like CNN.
00:27:17
Speaker
I'm trying to picture these men. Oh my God. Because they do. That's what they said. It's like, thank you so much. You're so, peace thank you for being so vulnerable. ah We really appreciate you.
00:27:35
Speaker
but That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. Can you hear me? Yeah. my dog good oh don't Take your time. Take your time. Take your time. Frederick, tell me ah your um tell me about your feelings about the Knicks right now.
00:27:56
Speaker
So you know what's so funny? While I am from New York, I actually can't stand the Knicks. I'm a huge fan. I know. I saw you post the other day the late the Lakers logo. You changed it to the Wolves. Yeah. So I am a massive Lakers fan. um but So everything else is New York. I'm ah i'm a Mets fan. i'm a and I don't really watch hockey a lot, but I'm a Rangers fan. you know so So I'm an All Liberty fan. Go Liberty. But I'm a Lakers fan because my first time ever seeing somebody hoop on a high level ah what was Kobe Bryant when he was in high school. And so I just kind of like followed him from there and became a Lakers fan, whatever. But man, I hate the Knicks because I feel like the Knicks
00:28:48
Speaker
Why are you so mad? Why are you so mad at them though? Because they are defined by like everything that people have as stereotypes about New Yorkers,
Sports and Social Justice
00:28:58
Speaker
right? like They're just delusional, man. The Knicks are delusional. like Every time the Knicks get anybody, like, oh, we're going to the championship. You haven't won a championship in 40 years, B. Anyway, why'd you ask me this? I'm just curious. um just you're you know You're in new youre New York, right? You're from New York. So I just i just assumed that you know you had little love. Not at all. Because another thing is, i because I'm not a Knicks fan, but i live in i'm i'm a I'm a New Yorker die. I'm a New Yorker New Yorker, right? And because I'm not a Knicks fan and my friends are all New Yorkers,
00:29:41
Speaker
i It's the one thing that I have to deal with a New York personality going against me with right? and i'm like you're okay i'm like like they'd like no dead ah be
00:29:56
Speaker
By default know but i was go ask wait so are you ah are you a rap this fan by default you don' really try to broad away all of so nany
00:30:16
Speaker
By default I you know what I by the default I am a Raptors fan um But I love ah Shay. So um'm ah I love OKC just because of what Shay does. I've watched him since he was in Kentucky and on the Canada canada team when he was really young. So OKC fan. Rapid fan by default, but I just love good basketball. I grew up playing basketball as well. I play basketball in university. Oh, what? Yeah. So a small, small college, but like I love, I love good basketball. I really do. So, um, I, and I asked about the Knicks because, and I hate bringing up the Knicks. I know you don't like them, but I'm gonna bring them up again. Uh-huh. Looking at what they're doing right now without Julius Randall,
00:31:07
Speaker
Do they need Julius Randall? I guess that's the question. Ooh, damn. And you and I got to do probably a whole episode at some point ah but about about who? Because, ah damn. And so here, I'm going to say this. Another reason I don't like the Knicks is because of how they treated Julius Randall after that playoff series when they were tearing down his, like, emotions and stuff. I have that have a i a soft place in my heart for him. I just don't want i don't want him on my team, but I got to go find my heart for him. But they don't need him. They don't need him. I think that they need
00:31:40
Speaker
Another score right? I wouldn't be I i would be interested to see them probably get Devin Booker or Katie or something like that I mean, I think Julius is undersized. I think that what they've gotten with ah Mitchell Robinson and Hartenstein To me, what is Julius Randall gonna provide except for like the ball stoppage? um You know in Jalen Brunson look like ah Ouch. I don't know. I don't know either. I don't know either. He's something out of a mystical storybook right now. Yeah, that little, he looked like, you ever seen Lord of the Rings? He looked like um the homie with the axe. ah kimmon you like him But he'd be having a rock on a string, though. He looked like a little, whatever them drinks is called. um He's so tough.
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah. He's so tough. He's so tough. He's so tough. He's so tough. And I guess my last ball question is, did your boy deserve to get fired? Darvin? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. I have never in my life seen so, and you watch ball, you know ball, so we can talk real ball, right? you, how do watch a 22 run and don't call a timeout? Like part of the game is playing chess with timeouts, playing chess with lineups and so forth. I've never seen that man do anything particularly interesting or, or make a move that was like, Oh, like, for example, when, if your team is not scoring, like, like that game when the Lakers are up by 20,
00:33:24
Speaker
the second to me that you don't that you lose there was like actually have a like 24 at one point the second that it goes down to like a 15-point lead you call a timeout if y'all not scoring I'm switching up whatever I'm like whoever is not shooting well whoever's not we we have to yeah you have to and I think the other part is like he also I mean, LeBron is who he is. But like, I think Austin wasn't in the starting lineup for like half of the year, like they can't bring them off. And they were bringing them off the bench. And it's like, what are you like, what are you trying to do? You already are at like, underman like you don't have I think it was a couple of other couple guys that were injured. And all of a sudden you
00:34:05
Speaker
like they're bringing these dudes off the bench, but you need buckets. Where are the buckets coming from? um right and ah And there's a lot of, there's not a lot, but there's like, for instance, I would have tried to play Max Christie a bit more if they were not scoring, right? Like Max Christie has more of a, a spot up shooter ability than like Boston Reeves at times. So if he's not scoring, You know, and, you know, do what you got to do. But I don't know. Darby Ham was trash. Also, not that you asked, but the LeBron ever got to send, send LeBron packing. If we could do a sign and trade, I will. I'm over LeBron. And I know that sounds bananas to people. but If you really, he's a ball stopper. And I don't think that any of these players are going to get better playing with him at this point. And I don't think that I'm four years old. He's still phenomenal, but I don't think he is who he thinks he is. And it doesn't benefit the team when he thinks he's still that.
00:34:56
Speaker
No, I agree. we have And I saw another, I think it was a a tweet or someone posted on Instagram the other day, just like we need to acknowledge him for what he is. He's phenomenal at what he's done for the league. But yes, like you're not going to grow with him on your team. Right. It's gonna be very, very difficult. So I agree, I totally agree. Get what you can now, because he only has two, maybe two, maybe two years left of score in 20.
00:35:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, realistically, he and people would blame AD for a lot. AD had a phenomenal playoffs this year. And in two of the close intuitive games, he only touched the ball once in the fourth quarter. A lot of that is LeBron's fault. Why are you why are you top of the key running ISO plays with four minutes left in in the fourth quarter? And AD's the one who's been cooking. Give him the ball. You shouldn't have. We shouldn't have. No basketball. for what what is the, I had a question about sports here. So the question was like, how do you see the intersection of sports and culture impacting like the fight for racial equity and social justice? Oh, man, that's such a good question. Because I think that they are intrinsically connected, right? And primarily because sports
00:36:20
Speaker
have been in many ways our front lines for connecting with the youth, right? Connecting with culture, so on and so forth, right? I think it's extremely important. Like you look at like people like Muhammad Ali, Jesse Owens, um the history of how you know certain individuals become mythical to us. And when those mythical beings um make political decisions and are open about their politics, it changes the game. right um I do think that Muhammad's stance on not going to fight in Vietnam helped raise mass awareness about Vietnam, especially within communities that otherwise were not engaged. I think that you know even more recently, and I've been disappointed about this, I think LeBron has
00:37:07
Speaker
gonna, okay job at times of being, you know, outspoken. of being outspoken doesn't always know what he's talking about though. of He tries. He tries, but he doesn't always know what he's talking about. um But yeah, I think it's extremely important. Even if you look at women's sports, like the the the necessity of supporting women's sports is intrinsically tied to um feminism in general, right? like at
00:37:39
Speaker
you look at Serena Williams and the conversations around her while she was playing were also conversations about misogynoir, right? Like all of it is interjected. No, I love that. And I think it's so important. I mean, it's all it's always been important, but even more now seeing that like athletes have such easy access to social media, to people and their influence can be so big. Like I look at what the Caitlin Clark in South Carolina, like what they've done, like Angel Reese, like how these kids have had such an impact already just on like the sport in itself. And now what comes along with that, like what comes along with that responsibility of having so many people look up to you? um
00:38:25
Speaker
I'm excited to see what happens. um Yeah, yeah. I mean, i I will say I do wish that a few people, not a few people, I wish the vast majority of athletes would use their platforms a bit more. Right. We used to have um You know, you have to wait for the media historically or make certain, uh, stances while or maybe like, if again, if you're Jesse Owens and, you know, um, everyone at the ah Olympics, you know, throwing up the black power. You don't do that anymore. You've been literally just going Instagram right now and say free Palestine whenever you can.
00:39:00
Speaker
that's I'd love to see more of that and I hope that we get there. Um, but you know, You have a new book coming out. Well, yeah, you but you mentioned multiple books coming out. You talked specifically about, well, you talked about being in the, in the.
00:39:20
Speaker
ah tell Tell me more about the project, why it's important to you. um What are you excited about?
Future Projects and Conclusion
00:39:27
Speaker
Yeah, so um my debut poetry collection, We Alive Beloved, comes out June 11th. And it's probably the project These next two projects are the projects i I've been most excited about in my entire life, right? In my entire time as ah as ah as a published author. um Because I think that they get to my actual literary prowess, right? I think that with the black friend, people don't realize that's a book for 13-year-olds, right? you know It's a book. It's a middle grade. Yeah, it's' exactly. It's a book for 13-year-olds. And because of the fact that
00:40:01
Speaker
We have a country that's anti-intellectual. I think that a lot of people, anti-intellectual and also just like everyone's in echo chambers. So primarily adults right there, like I get brought into company ah conversations, like brought into like talk to like staffs about that book. And I'm always surprised like, oh, I'm talking to a bunch of 70 year olds about the black frame, which is 13 year olds. But you know, I get it though. And then, you know, if patriarchy blues and better we found all these different books, These have been trying to essentially like mirror my sense of the world and get people activated. But for the first time, with We Alive Beloved, with This Thing of Ours and all these coming books, so i'm just I get to just be a writer. right like Obviously, my my social um sensibility is injected into these books. But you know we ah but I just have some some poems in the book that are just like,
00:40:56
Speaker
one poem just like about being tender like two men being tender with each other as as black men, right? What does that mean? What does that mean? I have, you know, a poem that's just about hip hop. I have a poem that's about capitalism, but but the poem is called Cream after, you know, cru cream cash flows everything around me And I just use the lyrics from Cream to get into the poem, right, about capitalism. And so I'm really getting, for the first time, to be in my literary bag versus versus my help bring y'all along bag. I love that. I love that. What's the official date again?
00:41:36
Speaker
ah June 11. June 11. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So it's available for pre-order everywhere. um I hope that people pre-order it. You know, I know you've had this conversation before, but you know, with people, but um we all have pre-orders are important for marginalized authors. Yes, they are. but well And work ed for where can people find you online? um a Substack, I don't know the the URL for that, but if you search my name is Substack, Fredy Joseph, that'd come up. ah Instagram, TikTok. But I always tell people primarily try to find me on a Substack because ah that's where my actual writing is. That's where I get in my like essay bag.
00:42:21
Speaker
on you know, so if you're interested in reading and and really like unpacking things, I kind of hate social media. So, you know, Substack tends to be the place where I function a bit better and more um thoughtfully as a writer. I appreciate you. This was everything I needed tonight and more. we will We will circle back eventually to talk hoops, but I appreciate you so much. Continue doing new, man. I appreciate it. Man, the pleasure is all mine, and I appreciate you just as a writer, as as as a as a traveler, as as a black man creating platforms for for us. you know just
00:43:05
Speaker
You know, you just I'm i'm really proud um to be in this conversation truly. And I can't say that about every conversation. And I'm proud to be in this conversation. And I do once again apologize. It took so long to get this done. But, you know, let's make it happen way more often.