tv Watching the Hawks RT March 18, 2020 8:30am-9:01am EDT
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on event for the global economy is no longer whether the u.s. and other economies will slip into recession the question now is how deep how long the recession will last it's going to get worse before it gets better. the feds have the full force to look at all the little plastic and news new york at the sun to make the stunt work and shirtless with a cheap if we keep focused feeling i mean the steel wool for your clothing or not and i do it is made up for bush but i will push the fence so could i should have been kicked out i should know she had been an assistant. yes.
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if you want to know what job would know to u.c.d. a new series of attacks sound like tyrrell which is what you need to analyze it to gauge where the bottom sit if you speak to my left whether they like it or not i got tablets this fall with the police oh man the 1st put out free service and it is still going on in this world but now you know it opened up a bit opened up your mind to start to put your. greetings and salutations you know you can't have music without our. revolution without dancing. if you want to talk heart music revolution you're talking about taylor alexander out of atlanta georgia was watching the hawks strikes
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a chord. with 3 larry alexander one. that's called white. ha. ha ha. ha ha. ha ha. working for the man. who makes the money but it don't make sense given pay an excuse that's all you want to these days was excessive climbing up the ladder. as like you do with the guys on. the pond and they keep out and never make it out of the business of the top of the mountain and there's really nothing mysterious
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peoples wakefield's nobody eats pleased to hate. it doesn't really seem to. want to shop could be the whole. thing. to a close. one of the stories. i should not cut. ties is hard to conceive just good christmas eve for me it's you our viewers good you thought it was about the work but. it's not about oh i don't step out into everybody who wants to have a good time. visit to the top of their mouth to. it's ready to deceive people it's misleading nobody teaches me to be patient. it
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doesn't really. want to shock people by. the fellow's. name it's a slow leak. it's a big lie and the big smile it makes one it might make. a. baby with your leg out of the problem raises their places but you get to keep the trophy on apollo upon me i can trust you on its own people to guess notices you know. it doesn't really pay. the full. length of film.
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and. the plus side. doesn't really. fit the whole world. to. make it so. if it is snowing you. think you're. taylor alexander. one of the hardest working drag queens in atlanta georgia. she is. a drag reformer a community organizer a proud parent of 2 kept. and. it's really about creating art that people can connect to i know that's very cliche but i think for people who kind of share my background and my various identities finding something that they can
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connect to is really important i want to ask what is a d.i.y. performance artist as and what is a do it yourself performance artist and what was your journey to become one. a performance artist a fancy way of saying that i do i create most of everything that i do so with my music i write i produce a creative director. i'm my own from owner and manager there's no force or label that's behind me to push my music i'm the driving force. and really that 'd reflects itself in every single aspect of my life you know being a performer in atlanta being a community organizer a lot of what i do is grassroots from the roots that's from starting with nothing ending up with something and knowing that you know it's all uniquely organic in a way and it's also a way for me to be a control freak so you know everything comes back to me i accept the appraisingly
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applause but i also know like if i mess up i have full accountability for that 0 it's all on you whether the succeed or the failed it all comes down to you with me on me all the pros. let me one did music 1st touch you when to suddenly you said you know what it's music that's what i really it's one of those i really want to work so when i really feel like i can get who i am inside out through music one of the like feeling vibe inspiration 1st to you. well i've always been making music i didn't seriously start creating music until 2015 you know back in like elementary school i took piano lessons i was in the chorus i did all those things i've been. writing songs since i was 7. but yeah i didn't start seriously you know saying i'm gonna sit down learn how to produce learn how to you know be a full well rounded musician as well 2015 and i think it's because music allowed me
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to express myself in certain ways that other parts of my life couldn't even doing drag you know with you know being a drag reformer off to sing other people's creations. and there's a certain limitation with that and there were certain things that i couldn't say in my day job i couldn't say at my night job being a drag queen. i mean in music really. kind of like made it known to me and. allowed me to use it as outlet you know talk to me a little bit about your music what do you want like you know the 1st track to recenter to be that you perform what do you want people to take away from that what do you want to inspire and people when they listen to your music i always want to create music where people. i usually say i want people to dance to but also to think so i love dance music as you know a black person as a queer person and dance music has often been the driving force of
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a lot of different aspects of our cultures. but i want to create music where people can listen to it maybe here to a 2nd time here like a lyric again oh that's that's that's real like i want them to like relate to it and i think that that's what i strive to do with my music you know what you mention community organizing no a couple times women when did you start getting into community organizing you know that activism giving something back and what inspired you to get into that part of you know it's a little bit out of something with your problem in your life from them to work oh yeah i think it all start when i moved to atlanta in 2011 i'm born and raised in georgia but i moved in 2011 to go to georgia the universe. he for college and so i started getting involved with local. organizations i started getting involved with a lot of the differently seen and so my community organizing background arose from
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wanting to be involved because where i'm originally from griffin georgia is a population of like 3400 people it's really small i was raised on a 400 acre fire and so there was no clear community there was no kind of like community for people who express themselves and experience life like myself so i wanted to do whatever i could when i moved to the big city to give back and so that you know start off as a volunteer ng and then it went into performing and then also just uniquely finding how performance r. and r. in general can create ways to advocate being activists i think sometimes when we say the word activist we think about you know you had to be lobbying you have to be up in the senate you have to be up in all these different forms of government when really the most radical changes that we can have in our communities day to day are grassroots and very d.i.y. and so that's kind of where i found myself being
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a part of community organizing because change really comes at a local level yet is really i mean the things that we want there are national things that we want there's the world things that we want to see change politically community wants but really it's starting to started right at the local level you see a problem in front of the room and doing something about it to try to fix it. you know. you grew up as you say you know in this small town 3500 people you know what was the i mean did you know that like you know what this is who i am and i'm proud to be who you know but now i'm growing up in a town of what 3500 people you know was there any kind of acceptance for who you are what was that journey. it was maybe it's just me being an aquarius but i just really didn't care it was you know i came out in 8th grade the 1st time i came out because there's an ongoing process and i came out in 8th grade in high school i was the 1st person ever started a gay straight alliance at my high school even though i hadn't fully come out like
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my parents you know like friends affairs and it just i knew what i needed and i knew what i would want to see happen and whether that you know had certain repercussions was completely 2nd to anything else so you know being in a small town you have a lot of eyes on you you know you go to the local wal-mart or the local grocery store the flea market and people talk about things and so it's a very small fishbowl kind of community. but i think here i knew what i need to do and whether they got me in trouble with the principal or my parents didn't really care for all that well for other kids out there like you you know growing up in a small community or at least a close minded community you know what advice would you give them you know do in terms of what you know whether it's coming out or just you know how to make you know how to make their community better understand what they're going through and how wonderful they are well i think what we'll talk about. you know people in kind
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of more vulnerable situations and like smaller communities i think sometimes we forget about safety a lot of the narrative is come out and you know because you'll be more honest and things like that i think that's a terrible framing i think people should mind their safety in a space where you're you're you might be physically or emotionally or mentally you know harmed if you come out mind yourself like take care of yourself 1st. but also . being out sometimes in small spaces and communities like that can really. just bring up a whole new community can really show to other people hey there's somebody else like me and we can form some kind of general bond. but i definitely think in terms of like small community sometimes you have to mine your own and take care of yourself and then eventually once you get a proper footing you can develop some kind of like connection to
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being from the south when you talk about being you know. a queer trans. you always hear about it's amazing in new york it's amazing in california it's amazing in seattle chicago the south it's only talked about queer and trans media or in the context of you know there's these statistics you know atlanta's rising hiv rates or you know queer homeless youth rates or things like that were always. sticks and were never fully humanized the south east south region of the united states has the largest population of queer and trans people in america we have so many historical figures and moments and figureheads we have our own stonewall we have so many vibrant communities that are constantly negated under this idea that
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the south is incredibly conservative and it definitely isn't certain pockets but completely erase the existence and the reality of a and entire you know quarter of the nation. is harmful i think and so that's part of why a southern fried where pride came up because we see ourselves our president in media we didn't see ourselves as you know black and brown queer and trans youth poor people's sex workers. reflect and we needed to build community in that regard and so we started in 2014 and it's been you know 5 amazing years building community because there wasn't. enough for us. as marginalized people so hard so from the from sort of from the outside looking in like how you know what do you think is like one of the biggest misconceptions you know of that community you must solve what do you know for folks never even realize that exists and that
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it's so strongly about what do you think it's a bigger misconception is that if you're going to struggle with even getting your music oh well i think. i think people have a major misconception that. we're all miserable that we're all just waiting for some kind of like savior to come along and save us from the south we don't need to be safe from the south i think this idea that southern people are just overly oppressed by republicans and conservatives and whatnot. which does play out sometimes and political races and things like that. the idea they were miserable and that we need saving we don't need saving we just need. assistance we need respect and we need to be thought of a considered as legitimate communities. and i think in terms of like me when putting my music out there you know obviously a beautiful drag queen and
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a few i think a lot of people think that drag is a very limited in that only exists in one kind of form of lip sinking top 40 hits and then performing in bars and clubs and so when you put that on top of being in the south is just like. you know how it is even work i think people think that you have to make some kind of great. to new york city where you find yourself and love yourself and that's not the case i want to stay at the wall file so that land in my life when you sit down when you sit down to write a song you know what you're doing ok here are your what do you look for you know what inspires you just song by song as a conversation you had or is it just thoughts were going around you're like what what does that process when you sit down and said ok i'm going to put pen to paper put put in you know figure out how to make a hit song i it varies you know sometimes i'll get like a melody stuck in my head and i'll take my voice. and be like this is a songwriting create and so i like you know i record that i build upon it sometimes
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as a phrase so like the song one started off with a phrase that i thought about what does one mean and it was right after i had read invisible man by ralph ellison and so there is a portion of that book that talks about where that coming here to work from like a paint factory and the trying to make the purest form of white and any kind of a little dot of anything which is completely messed up and thought about like you know what are some situations where i feel like the one message situation or the one being. whiteness so really it's just like you know it can be anything you know a melody can be a phrase it can be a certain kind of feeling. i get inspiration from anything really. this song is called. and it's.
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probably you don't know. if. you've got questions. take a 2nd. post. show it. on the screen. it was because. you need to log disconnect take some time so. you need to log off just and that takes time to so. this is how you do you. think you struck out. because how do you. think you struck out. a clock out you thought you were out you. need to log off this takes time to so because how do you. do you need. to
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take time to go because. you need to log off. because. you need to log on. so. you. think you. log off literally i was like scrolling on and facebook you know as one is like ours and you don't see anything and it's like reading people's statuses it just you know. didn't really say anything and it's like i think people sometimes think they can solve all their so problems with social media and that's just not the case so literally i was like you need to log off you need to disconnect from. this could work into something and so at that time when i was writing the songs on my 1st hologram. a lot of the songs already talking about like ways that we kind of
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communicate to the world outside like we think we know who we are internally that's great but trying to communicate to the world to be like social media technology just like person to person interactions. with logged off it was really about you know. are we actually affectively communicating who we are to the world outside is the algorithm that we're all playing into really like doesn't mean anything if they completely delete it it's a camera facebook where we are like where would your self value be as a person d d lake form self value as a person on the internet or is it like in here within you it was just a lot of questions i had i thought i had the answer is. like a lot of you listening to logoff disconnect and take some time to self reflection to great software it's a really great song it's a great message you know it's interesting because it also kind of. in that internet world or in the you know online world that we exist in you know i think it's easy
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to talk about the enemies it's easy to draw a lot of a better word if you talk about those who would stand against us whether it be our you know our religion our gender or sexuality or whatever may be a lot of people can stand against us but them at the same time allies are an interesting kind of mix too because wall a lot of people kind of say amen al i change my avatar to be this picture or you know i don't have to you know thing on line and you know but. you know what should allies really like how can allies truly help how can they truly make a difference when they're fighting for a cause beyond just kind of given the overbill hey you're doing great you are all of them leaving you i think you know this is something i've always had conversations around because you know there's a lot of people who are really fervent supporters of like any kind of marginalized community now we think about l.g. being a community you think about how some people think that the last days ally or that
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you know in the black lives matter movement that it wouldn't be successful without you know the allies and i think. you know in even as like a marvelous person within myself obviously i don't detain all of the identities in the world so obviously i'm allied to other people i think if you're in a situation where you're trying to support a movement or a marginalized community and you constantly hear your wars your voice more than others you're probably. shouldn't be happening i think sometimes you have to listen and show up and not so much be heard i think sometimes. it is very performative is very a look at me i'm doing this i use all the pronouns i showed up to the protests i made a sign i'm like but like. you know you need to sometimes take a seat back and realize that you know whatever community your cause that you're trying to be an ally to these are very harsh real lived i didn't use the realities
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and taking up space and talking over people and trying to perform being an ally honestly i think sometimes i don't even like the word ally i think sometimes that you should just be a decent human being in this should be expected things that we have as people you shouldn't get like a trophy for like showing up for like women and you shouldn't get a trophy for showing up for like i don't know where trans people you shouldn't you know just be like natural things that just come from being a decent human being but you know i think that's also asked me to you know what you are going to say thank you for saying that because it's one of the things the blood i see your law amongst in all the kind of community and things like that and what you guys are you stop performing for yourselves you know stop performing for yourselves actually see how you can truly help people. elevate other voices in your home would your popularity does not help. you. you know but. the other question i have because it's fascinating to me and you know it's great
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talking to someone who is right out there both artistically and personally and making a difference in this world like yourself you're putting out really great music and to put yourself out. it takes a lot of courage and it also takes a ton of creativity and you have both. so i want to kind of finish up and ask you this and it's an interesting question that opposed quite a bit to other musicians who sat across from me in these chairs what do you want your legacy to be. there's no right or wrong answer central crisis. no i think my legacy. i want to. when i eventually disappear and turn into like a pile of glitter i want to be remembered as somebody who. really tried to leave things better than when what i have found you know even if
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the smallest change i'll be completely grateful i want to be remembered as somebody who love the art of you know southern where entranced people who was always trying to carry spaces when they when there weren't any and so as long as like that attach to my legacy that's totally you know i think. there is a great quote from dorian corey in paris is burning and i think it's actually the quote thing and. she's like a bee shooting arrow and goes are a high or a for you and i think that's really you know i i don't really get caught up and wondering who's going to remember me when i when i die i think i focus more slave what am i who am actively being right now being the person the people in the you know my being the person that i need myself to be and as long as i'm very present right now i think the legacy will inform itself and if that is our show for you
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player. headlines this hour an hour t.v. show since borders for a month to limit the spread of covert 9 same for on the sites of the strictest measures in the blog of correspondent there describes the situation. anybody even the pope he is also being told the fleet's one cincinnati street so to say why they will be free while the world health organization urges countries to take a leaf out of beijing is book and impose tougher restrictions to fight the pandemic as the situation in china itself begins to ames with the world distracted like a big 19 a controversial bill that critics to say will practically end online privacy makes its way through the u.s. congress.
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