Almost an enigma, we finally pinned down the Blessed Madonna, as she finished her mental world tour, grabbing breakfast with presenter Ralph Moore as well as collaborators and friends Choose Love founder Philli Boyle and Ugandan refugee Aloysius, founder of LGBTQ refugee support network ‘Say It Loud’ club. Discussing the importance of having somewhere to call home, The Blessed Madonna reflects on her time working with the charity as well as the ongoing relationship between dance music and activism.
Almost an enigma, we finally pinned down the Blessed Madonna, as she finished her mental world tour, grabbing breakfast with presenter Ralph Moore as well as collaborators and friends Choose Love founder Philli Boyle and Ugandan refugee Aloysius, founder of LGBTQ refugee support network ‘Say It Loud’ club. Discussing the importance of having somewhere to call home, The Blessed Madonna reflects on her time working with the charity as well as the ongoing relationship between dance music and activism.
Introduction: 0:00
Welcome to little more conversation with Ralph Moore. Get closer to the biggest names in electronic music. This episode Ralph gets closer to the Black Madonna and her passion for causes close to her heart with founders of the LGTBQ charities; Choose Love and Say It Loud.
Ralph: 0:29
Welcome to the latest and hopefully greatest episode off a little more conversation. You have a very special episode today. Normally, with three. This week, there are four of us. We are for the Fantastic Four. Indeed. To my very left, we have the black Madonna.
Marea: 0:43
Hello. It's my pleasure to be here.
Ralph: 0:45
Thank you so much for coming. This has been a bit of a mission to get you in, you're so busy.
Marea: 0:50
It has been a mission to make time to do anything. But this was very important to me. And I'm so happy to be here.
Ralph: 0:59
And you mention gardening as well. So, uh, you're gonna have a little bit of time out of club land for a little bit now.
Marea: 1:04
Yeah, I'm an album time right now. And so basically a lot of elements of my life I'm pulling the shutters down on and just trying to even even the roads out a little bit in and get some some deep work done.
Ralph: 1:18
Ah, whoa. We've found a very good reason to get you out of the garden today.
Marea: 1:24
A very good reason! The best reason!
Ralph: 1:26
Would you like to quickly summarize what's so important about coming in. It's partly the tour. It's partly a charity. It's partly a whole bunch of things, from an apron to a T shirt to a poster.
Marea: 1:38
Never did anyone foresee a future where I would be making aprons. But here we are. Of course, playing music is the joy of my life. But the other side of it that is so important to me that I have managed to connect is service to others. And in particular, I think that people do their, do their best service, and they find the thing that they're meant to do when they combine what they're able to do with what they're passionate about. And for me, due to a variety of experiences that I had, I realized that I was passionate about serving people who are refugees or seeking asylum, um, people living without papers as there are many, many, many people in that situation around the world, and it's a very difficult situation and in particular, I am interested in serving queer people who are in that situation because it takes an already difficult thing and makes it a lot harder. So I was lucky enough that these people to my left returned my telephone calls and gave me the time of day because I'm wanted so badly to be able to work with them. And I started working with an organization called Help Refugees and specifically a partnership they have with a group wonderful group called Say It Loud. And so I'm here today with these incredible people to talk about how essentially I'm using my touring and merchandise to raise money for their organizations.
Ralph: 3:12
Now, Philly and I met a couple of weeks ago. We realized how important this was to you and how important it was to get this across. But how did you guys all, mate, would you like to introduce your team members today?
Marea: 3:21
Okay. Well, I think I could introduce themselves better than I can. Please. Yeah. Um,
Aloysius : 3:26
I'm Aloysuis Sandy. Uh, I come from Uganda originally. I had to leave my country. Not because I was running away from the war. That's what everybody thinks off that there's a war somewhere. People are dying. I wasn't running from the war. I was running away because of my sexuality. And I couldn't live in my country because of that. But you face so many challenges when you are different from what the cultures and traditions believe, to be the normalities. And if you are different from them, then you are evil. You are influenced by Western cultures and stuff like that, which is absolutely not true. So it is that experience that has led to me to these wonderful people because they know what to me is they are trying to put their themselves into the shoes of refugees. And that's why I'm so grateful to be here to share my experience. To talk about these wonderful social issues. That's what I think the world needs nowadays.
Ralph: 4:24
Thank you so much for joining us.
Aloysius : 4:25
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me
Ralph: 4:27
on, I guess. Philly? How did you first get involved?
Philly: 4:30
Well, I've been involved in help refugees since we started about four years ago s So we started in Calais. We were very much like we were a group of friends. We went to Calais and the idea was that we were gonna give the money that we raised and we we're going to take some donations and that would be it. We will go back to our day jobs. But what happened is we were in a moment when there was such a huge outpouring of support from the British public, people who felt unrepresented by certain areas of the media and politics, people who felt that they wanted to stand in solidarity with people arriving on the shores of Europe rather than putting up walls and kind of responding in fear on and because of that kind of movement of humanity. We still here now and having gone from just starting out in Calais, we are now finding 105 projects. Grassroots groups in 14 countries in Europe, the Middle East and on the US Mexico border. It was one of the most enormous honours in the world's to have met Aloysuis and have been introduced to the amazing work that he doesn't talk himself up enough, he set up say it loud club when he was able when he got his leave to remain, He set up Say It Loud club to provide support to individuals who were in the same situation as him. To be able to help them to be able to tell their own stories and to give them the confidence to claim asylum because that even that process itself is really, really complicated and bureaucratic and quite scary and so he has created this beautiful community of people who are here, and they are trying to make themselves homes in this country. And he is helping people to be able to start their lives again. Basically, And yeah, And then when we started working with Maria and she has such an affinity with the work they were doing on, really wanted to get involved and has come down and get involved in sessions, at say it loud club. So it's just this kind of quite a beautiful network and community that has kind of grown over the last four years, and now you're in it, too.
Ralph: 6:33
So I guess it is deeply caring. It's deeply important to all of you. You're wearing the choose love T-shirt today. That's obviously been something that's popped up a lot. Whether you're wearing the T shirt or Yeah, it's a little bit wham esque, isn't it? But it's amazing.
Marea: 6:51
In a really wonderful way.
Ralph: 6:53
Yeah, So can you explain what what it means to you to be, You know, an ambassador for this?
Marea: 6:58
Well, really, The beginning of this journey for me was when I've visited Uganda and I went ostensibly to go and do a workshop with a bunch of other women DJs, and it was a really tremendous experience. Um, for all of the reasons that we were supposed to be there, which was sharing information, technology, I mean, you know, there are no record stores in Kampala. So just one thing I did was I brought everything that I owned digitally and I gave copies of the of my whole collection to the other women DJs because it would have been difficult for them to get that music, and that was all great. And we were filming and documenting the process. But of course, underneath the underneath, the story we were telling there was another story, and that was that. Ah, lot of the women that I was meeting there were, uh, queer and facing tremendous difficulty that they were reticent even to talk about privately because, um, they were in great danger. Uganda has incredibly, ah, draconian laws about homosexuality, and right now is there is an election coming every time that there's an election. There's A reawakening of people trying to run on More and more vicious anti-homosexual laws. And so right now is a particularly bad time. And there's been a lot of violence in the community of people that I got to know when I was there. And some of the people that I met now have actually fled to the United States since the time that I was there and I it was really through being friends with them and trying to be a resource for them, you know, just it came about very naturally like I have friends who are in this situation. We're talking about what to do, what do we do? And then knowing that if they were going through this that a lot of people were going through this. So it started out with just nuts and bolts. Things like trying to connect them with a lawyer and paying the lawyer and paying, you know, their son's school bills or whatever was that I could do to help make the transition as they were trying to get out and it's still in transition. It's still it's still an incredibly complex situation and there's a lot of fear. I mean, they're out of there for now. But who knows what's gonna happen? It's Trump's America. But that was the thing that really clicked for me and I was like, This organization is doing the thing that I want to Do So I wanted to do two things I wanted to start assisting help refugees and that's how I got to know Say it loud club, which was just such an incredible revelation in It was amazing to me that Aloysuis was from Uganda, which was exactly where I had had this experience that, you know, it was it was like I knew exactly what was happening because I had seen it and because I was dealing with it with two of my closest friends and it just activated me in a way that that nothing else really has and and I decided to throw the full weight of whatever I could at this this issue, because it it's so widespread and so many people are in this situation and it's and they're often ostracized by the existing service is that there are many kinds of refugee services are cut out for mothers and fathers who are married and children who belong to them, and they're not cut out for gay families or transgender people or whatever that there's a lot of things that, if you don't fit neatly into a box, become very difficult even on top of already being difficult. So I started to Think about ways we could do things. One thing I do is aside from this, I've been providing just micro-grants directly to people because I think the number one thing is to know that people know what they need most. You can't get to America with shoes and jackets and what are those Are those are those are important things But people also just need money that they can decide how to use in the ways that they need. And so that was one thing that I could do and then also I started a line of merchandise because that is a regular source of income and we just said, you know what? Hey, we're going to give all of the money from this to these organizations and let them do whatever they need to do with it.
Ralph: 11:43
It's clear to me that your commitment to this is as important as your music career.
Marea: 11:48
absolutely, yeah, I mean, because this is real life, parties are amazing. But when you see someone that goes from living in mortal fear of their lives, just to like, not even be able to hold hands at the grocery store or things like that, You know, I have some friends that that just are in the process of hopefully getting asylum or starting the fight for that. And they have been together forever, and they have a child together and they had never held hands in public. Wow, you know, and the things that that they went through, It's a different thing when you meet somebody that's been through it. It's not that I wasn't empathetic before and I made my donation every month to different refugee organizations already before this started. And, you know, I kind of checked it off my list of things to do. But it just became urgent in a different way for me when it was a friend on my couch and we were sitting figuring out how to do it together because I didn't know, and I I still don't know. I still don't know. But I know how afraid my friends were and that just it was. It created a fundamental change in me where it became not abstract. And that's when that's when things got real for me.
Ralph: 13:24
Now Philly. Let's get your take on Maria's involvement. I guess she provides a platform through dance music. So there's an element of reaching her fan base and a club fan base who are maybe not thinking about these kinds of issues as much as they could be, What have been the benefits so far of of you working together?
Philly: 13:45
You know, when people see someone that they, they look up to, who they admire, who they respect when they see someone putting, like putting their name behind a cause. Talking about a topic that you know, there's just no doubt that that's one of the most powerful ways that we can reach new people, change people's minds in some cases, even just make people aware of things that they were not aware of. I think that as these guys have already touched on, it's not necessary. Being an LGBT refugee isn't necessarily something that automatically springs to mind. So they do the most amazing advocacy for for themselves that say it loud and Aloysius is such an incredible advocate. But the more people that we can have talking about these topics, the better keeping it. You know, it's no in the media anymore, so we really rely on public figures to keep the conversation going on. And so, yeah, it's incredibly significant. And the dance music community, since we started has really responded in the most generous and open-hearted way of connecting with the message of choose love of, you know, equality. I feel like that has been a big kind of part of dance music since the beginning, so it's always felt like a really, really welcoming space for us, and it's just it's just growing and it's yes, the hugest, hugest honour to be able to work together.
Marea: 15:07
The the honor is all mine, and I would just say that, you know, I think that these ideas exist in dance music and I'm just interested in making them really, instead of to have them be lyrical platitudes in songs, you know, and I I think I think those were important lyrical platitudes to have. But But at a certain point, we have to stop talking about us being all 1 nation and doing something about that in the actual world and not just ideologically on the dance floor.
Ralph: 15:38
And we should talk about the tour as well because there's a two part tour and it looks, um, I right in saying that some of the venues you've specifically picked as well there's no huge venues are playing out, either.
Marea: 15:47
Yeah, some of them are big. Some of them are small, I think one of the things that's, uh, I have a Choose Love tour. And I think it's really important to kind of take the message back into the core audience that I've always had a connection with because I think that those people are most likely to get to get really involved. I know that if I'm gonna go somewhere like sub-club, I know that if I you know that that that room is ready to hear that message and decided to build a whole tour around it into to take the messaging globally, and it was just It's been amazing to go to Los Angeles and see people in the shirts and people write in and and it's just been incredible to to see the response around the world. You know, you want to believe that people would get excited about the things that you care about, but they have really shown up and people send pictures back in the merch or just make donations and send me the receipt. It's just been incredible.
Ralph: 16:47
And let's talk about music just for a minute, because I know you're working on an album and that's been a long time coming to. It has. I guess touring and making an album don't always necessarily make great bedfellows.
Marea: 16:59
That's right, Yeah, it's been kind of stitched together around in studios from Los Angeles to London. We have done a lot of sessions in strong room and also just in I think in general, on a person that kind of likes to make something in them, set it down for a little while and come back to it. Ah, virtually every record that I ever put out had a period where it sat for at least three years. And if it if it still smelled good later on, then then all right. But if you know I I've been very conscious about making things that sort of sit out of time a little bit. So they're things that I've been working on forever and things that are new, but it's just incredible. The people that have come together on the album are just phenomenal and a really interesting cast of characters from Jamie Principle to Bob Weston from Shellac and, um, more people I can't even reveal yet. But it's just been phenomenal to write for all of those people and to share those experiences.
Ralph: 18:05
Jamie Principle though!
Marea: 18:07
Yeah, Jamie and I've been working together for a while. We're really good friends. Ah, Jamie and I are really close, And, um, I can say that our collaboration will extend past this album. It's exciting. It is. Yeah, I love Jamie a lot. And umm writing for him has been a dream.
Ralph: 18:27
And you've been doing when you've had time when you I'm sure you have to turn down a lot is remixes. Yeah. Um the Georgia one I particularly love. I read yesterday that her dad is in left field, I had no idea.
Marea: 18:40
I know, right? Yeah, she gets it honest. Uh, Georgia is like, the smartest, coolest person in the room at all times. And she's like, you know, she's this, like, prodigy drummer and her songwriting is amazing. And we we went and we had a breakfast date, and it was like, Total love at first sight. And, um, I can't say there are very few people that I've ever shared a brain with like Georgia. And she's actually ah, working on the album with me. She is also a big part of the album. We've been producing and writing, and she plays drums through the whole record. She's the drummer for it. And, um, actually, I'm on my way to see her after this to go work together. We have a session with a guy called Fred, and, uh, it's ah, just such a delight to have someone that I love so much that just to have that connection with and the remix was it was one of those things where I literally I wrote it in 30 minutes in bed. It was one of those situations I was like, I had to get this done, and I'm going to sit down and do this, and I just I sat down in the bed in the guest room with my laptop and banged it out right on the spot, and it was like, Wow, this is I think I hope she likes this and we went to press like I mean, like, the next day or something.
Ralph: 20:13
But has there been experiences at the other side where you worked on something for three months or three weeks and you're still agonizing over?
Marea: 20:19
You know, I tend to be a I'm I'm quick for the trash bin If if something isn't working, I mean, don't get me wrong. I definitely have a patience for something where I know it's there. But it's gonna take time. Like, uh, he is the voice I hear took, uh, six years like I wrote it, but I couldn't afford real strings when I wrote it. So I had to write it all with a little dinky synthesizer, and the notes just sat there for, like, five years. And then it took another year of recording strings and piano and everything in piecing it back together. So sometimes I'll just be kind of waiting to have the tools that I need to finish something. But that's just one of a kind with remixes. If it's not working in the first hour, I throw it in the can and start over. I completely delete the files
Ralph: 21:09
And with the album. Is there? Ah, a thing to have you. Is there an idea that follows through or
Marea: 21:15
Yeah, I think it's about, Um Ah, it even has a title, which I will not reveal yet, but I will say that it is about reconciliation and it's about sickness. And it's about option. And there's certainly a spiritual element to it. I've been with the House Gospel choir. Um,
Ralph: 21:40
I'm slowly gonna get all the guests out of you by the end of this was another one.
Marea: 21:43
You have another one? Um uh, You have kitty smile. There's another one. And so there's definitely a big element of it would take gospel in a way. But, um, just more about freedom and transformation.
Ralph: 22:01
That nicely Segways into my next question. Which was I was gonna ask you, Philly and youAloysuis just What have you learned from working with Marea and being around her on, then also vice versa.
Marea: 22:11
They have learned nothing for me. I'm gonna cut that off. Nothing I am. I'm the only learner here.
Philly: 22:17
I would say, like one of the things that is has been. I'm not gonna use the word learned, but but more like, impressive about working together Is Marea's commitment because it's so hard to? You can care about something but actually making the time like going out of your way to make the time to make it happen and find all the different ways you can help. That is a rare and really beautiful thing which we don't see very often. We've got loads of incredible supporters that the level and the kind of creativity and energy for helping that Maria shows and finds time to show is is really remarkable. And so I've got goose bumps.
Aloysius : 22:57
She's our voice is the voice that spread. They love the gospel of understanding. I remember last year she actually visited one of our workshops, one of our meetings, and when she left people asking she's not a refugee is she? I said No, no, no. She was just here to listen to us, and that is massive to so many people because what's actually happening in our days is nobody's listening to anybody. Refugees don't have a voice. Those were making the policies; government officials, the politicians the mainstream organization is. They have no time to listen to refugees. But to have someone toe come on, sit with I mean with refugees on that kind, By the way, it changed many people's lives. Now we have women, young men and women who have come out openly. Now they are leaving an openly life in the UK They are fully integrated just because she stood up and spoke to us and she said, don't give up. We will help you and that is the gospel of love and somebody to use her talents, to use her music to spread love. And that's why theChoose love campaign is such an amazing platform, because for the way I see this, that the movement is going is nowadays the organizing your grassroot organizations, they have taken over the work that has been that should have been done by the mainstream people now come to us, they come to the say it loud club if they could, they kill off. The Choose love campaign because they trust that if you do, you can speak to help refugees. And if you can read about choose love when when Maria is doing her to us and it talks about any preference, looks about say it loud club that goes so far away Because now there's what we have is the culture of disbelief . Those that are in power, Oh, everybody's just coming into Europe into the UK because of economical reasons or because they just want to come here. But people are leaving their homes and there's no voice, these are people who have suffered, as Marea said in Uganda with you in Nurse, or a doctor, you cannot even treat a child dying of malaria simply because you are queer or simply because you identify as a member of LGBT. But for her to use the music to change people's lives, That is a social change of which we are very proud Off. My experience. I wouldn't be able to reach up so many people without the amazing work off these wonderful people and help refugees organization. Because many people come in this country, they fear even to go to talk about their experiences because they don't believe anybody would understand where they come from. Those who are making the policies, what the government look at, what they talk about people as a number not as people. How many people you knew, Cadi. How many do support trying to come into the UK the Children who are stars in the Carina They just talk about him as a number did. But these are people with names. These are people who have individual circumstances. Everybody has their own stories on who is listening. Help refugees supporting stay it loud club, marea spreading the gospel of love. So the mainstream Where are they? People don't go to the directly today because they believe Oh, I might get into trouble if I go to the home office or if I got the NHS they come to settle out of court because they identify themselves with someone they see. Someone looks like them talking about sexuality These are very sensitive issues, but but imagine when you have to to sick for asylum, for protection. And you have to give your whole journey of your life involving where you come from, your experiences growing up. Identifying as a lesbian because I get personal, transgender and you talking these things to a foreigner to a very strange person they expect you to put everything on the table.
Marea: 27:32
It's so traumatic, my friend is going through that now. They just gave their first deposition where they had to go back and do their entire life. And it was what I have never seen either one of my friends who have been dealing with this cry until they had to do this deposition and to reveal all of these things that they would never even talk about To a friend - to a stranger, You know, the deepest parts. I mean, people who have experienced sexual violence, all kinds of stuff, and to just have to meet some standard and say I was abused enough to come here. That, in and of itself is a kind of trauma that I don't think people who have not come into contact with this process really understand how bad it is, the kind of documentation that you're asked to provide, and and so on and so forth, and the kind of people that you have to give it to who may not be sympathetic and who are certainly not your friend. It's a layer of trauma that that is, is added upon. It's one thing to say I'm fleeing a war which is terrible in its own way. But to have to say I'm fleeing my home because of who I am and the specific kinds of violence and the violence that people are facing is insane and it is public and it is meant to be humiliating, and it is meant to. It is meant to terrify other people in Uganda. They'll things will be put into the press lists of Uganda, your average tabloid newspaper. In the grocery store. Will have lists, you know, Uganda's top 100 homo and stuff like this. This is one of those one of the lists that I saw run. I mean, it's just incomprehensible what people aredealing with and then to have to relive that as you go through the process. It's just something where people need support. They need people who have been through that because just having to tell it to a lawyer or or a court or or whomever it's just too much to bear. People must have community. And that's why what they're doing is so important because it creates a new community of experiences around people so that they know that it's not. It's not just them and that there's somebody that that has had this very unique but often very traumatic experience. It's just absolutely essential, because I know with my friends who are going through it. I like I I didn't I was like, I don't have the tools I don't know what to do And I know that if we're in that situation, then many thousands of people are also
Ralph: 30:26
It seems to me that the factors that are important I support hope and change and
Marea: 30:31
and money. Yeah, money. I can't do the other stuff, but I could do money.
Ralph: 30:38
This money is literal support it in some way.
Marea: 30:41
It it it is.
Aloysius : 30:42
Yeah. Actually, they hope. What hope is there that here Yeah, for us. We depend on that little hope and that hope we get it from help refugees from wonderful people like Marea from the communities. People who are doing extraordinary things to help are the others when you need. It's not actually always aside because now we see people cominback on giving testimonies to how their lives off come back to into into normal just ways of living on. People get now, they're fully integrated and these are people who have been through terrible situations. But when we work with them will transform them was with about them. We support them emotionally, No way advocate for them and eventually you see people coming back and they become part of their communities. They begin to contributed. They become nurses, become social workers on here that people were being in the detention centres for months and months. York is one of the countries in the world that doesn't have a limit on how long a person can be in the detention centres. There is no fall up off what happens to those who spend this time in detention centers. People come out when they are even more traumatized than even before they come out with severe mental illnesses. And doesn't know any full up for like rehabilitation of things like that on the organization receives over 100 people every month on. We're not a main stream organization, we are grass root. Now, without the support off help refugees, where will these people go? They will just end up in the underground being abused, getting into a drug abuse and on into domestic slavery. How can you say that you are fighting a domestic slavery on modernist level when you don't understand the communities with people who are here? People come from different cultures and traditions on did it? What happen is with the home office. It's as if they're using Western ways of life to determine who is, uh, a lesbian who is gay, who is transgender. But you are dealing with an African in person or Asia and someone owe money from Asia, huh? On you are using the knowledge off what you know about people in Europe or in the UK to make an assessment in the In a four hour interview on. Then you say, OK, well we don't believe you. We don't believe you are lesbian, they are rejected by the same government that was supposed to protect them. They deported back the same countries where they are fist prosecution, where the first sexual abuse and violence just because off the culture off this belief under the communities on, like help refugees and the black Madonna programs are the one with which correcting the policy makers.
Marea: 33:47
I also think it's important to say that if if you grew up in the West, that a lot of, um, the extreme religious stuff that leads to things like anti-homosexuality laws that is not necessarily a, ah, a locally born concept. Ah, Western missionaries are responsible for some of the most extreme ideological shifts happening in countries far outside of the United States and the United Kingdom. And so I think it's really important that we start to take responsibility as Westerners for injecting some of that extremely dangerous stuff into places where we had no business doing so. And that is a thing that ah, I hope in some time we will reckon with. But, um, you see, in many places where there is a culture of violence against homosexuality or or transgender people where that's directly tied to Western missionary work. And that's Ah, that's Ah, that's a bar tab that we need to we need to own up to.
Ralph: 35:03
Right. But we are all here in London right now.
Marea: 35:07
We are
Ralph: 35:08
my goodness. The UK is getting a bad rap right now, but I'm very fun of London. I've lived here 20 years. Marea How long have you lived here now?
Marea: 35:15
I'm in my third year and I love London. I have never been so happy in my whole life. I never want to leave. I I absolutely treasure it here. And I have loved the culture and actually the positivity of people in the friends that I have made here in the music scene. And it has been, uh I feel like I waited my whole life to live in this city. Oh, I love it here.
Philly: 35:45
It is a good tribute.
Marea: 35:46
Yeah, I My family comes here for Christmas now, really? They come over from America. I fly them in and we love it here. We're just very happy.
Ralph: 35:57
Well, yeah, And you guys,
Aloysius : 36:00
I've been here for now for16 years. Yeah. So now I fully,
Marea: 36:04
you're a Londoner now baby
Aloysius : 36:05
Yes Im a Londoner now! If I find every way off my way out I know. I think every corridor of London actual London is a very beautiful place. It can provide opportunities to everybody. For me, it has transformed them. It is now home. Am I? I have made wonderful people through my charitable work volunteer as organization is coming to work with us coming to to improve the social change of people as well. Sometimes when we have the choose love stores in London and you see the people, the young people already people, they all come to listen to the experiences off refugees And you see the real London what it means to be a Londoner I think London actually has the capacity to change the world.
Marea: 37:00
Oh, yeah
Aloysius : 37:00
The voice says from here they go far away even when we have problems in Uganda. Africa in general. Um, when people here says something when he people here speak that kind of change, even those extradition ist in minds on and it is a beautiful place, but I think it's kind we can do more. We can use London to promote social social change and with amazing people there, all the programs I go to all these London for so areas. And you see this most more stores for promoting LGBTQ rights promoting. They're talking about women especially, and and and you can see they these movements. They're all kind of the beginning from London. The women the equality today kind of things and that makes this city wonderful place to be. I'm finally feeling,
Philly: 37:55
Yeah, I've been here I think 16 years as well and it's I mean, I just absolutely love it too. It's so home like however nice the trip I've been on always happy to land back.
Marea: 38:09
back every time, baby Yet when its wheels down in London I'm like, Yeahhhh
Philly: 38:16
love the parks. I love the pubs. I love the community, the connections that people make Since becoming part of this this movement, this kind of this sort stage of my life anyway I feel so connected to people, and I feel like there's so many other people who share your values and world view, and there's so much potential in that. And there's so much hope in that that it's quite rare that I feel a complete lack of hope because of that, and I think you can find it. You know, I think it's it's right here and it's Yeah, it's a beautiful place.
Marea: 38:53
There's a friendliness in the city of it makes these kinds of projects really work. The thing that I have loved here is just the sense of of collaborative energy in the city and how willing people are to come together around an idea, and it seems like it's easier here than in a lot of places to to get energy around positive change. And, um unpopular opinion. I even love the weather here.
Philly: 39:21
I like it too, I love autumn.
Marea: 39:23
I like the rain, and I don't care who knows it!
Aloysius : 39:26
I had to get used to that. Where I came from where I come from it was the middle of the equator it was quite different .
Ralph: 39:36
Yes, but now it's beautiful, which is also very good for your garden
Marea: 39:40
great, it's great from I'm also a very, very pale person. So, uh, this is this is good. This is the weather of my people.
Ralph: 39:47
And just to close out since we started on gardening. What are you growing in your garden?
Marea: 39:52
Well, my garden right now is indoors. So I actually have an app on my phone that tracks all of my plants because I have that many. Because it has to to keep track of the watering and cycles and everything. I have several trees in my house. I have Ah, large Pikus. I have a ponytail palm. I have a corn plant I have zizi tree or Azizi plant Zanzibar O I have ah, crawling Poththose. Ah, the only other DJ I know that's as nutty about houseplants as me is Derek Carter. And he's got me beat! Derek, Of course, never to be outdone in shoes, dogs or plants has got the most incredible indoor garden. I have about 30 plants, but Derek just puts me to shame. I mean, they're everywhere. It's really phenomenal.
Ralph: 40:44
We talking like 100 plants. Do you think?
Marea: 40:47
I bet Derek's got 100 plants. I seen pictures of it. We're in it. We're Ah. Um Well, I'm not on Facebook anymore, but when I was, we were in like a plant fanatics, houseplant fanatics Facebook group where it's just like thousands and thousands of people posting pictures of their healthier plants and stuff
Ralph: 41:04
On that wonderful, flowery moment. Thank you all for coming down this morning.
Philly: 41:13
You and can I say, if anyone would like to find out more about the different ways they can get involved to check our website about volunteering or advocacy campaigns or donating or anything until on Just get in touch. We're always open to meeting new people and getting connected.
Marea: 41:32
Absolutely and anybody from dance music world needs help Get in there. You can find me on the Internet, go to the black Madonna dot com or send us a message on Instagram or anywhere and, uh, get involved
Philly: 41:47
Thank you for having us.
Ralph: 41:48
Thanks, guys. Pleasure.
Introduction: 41:50
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