October 9, 2024 • 57 mins
As the oldest sister and the mother of four boys, Khadeen knows the value of having a bond with your siblings. Whether it's getting through the awkward parts of life with the help of a big sister, or banding together to get your parents to do what you want them to, the power that siblings have when they are close is unmatched. In this episode of Dead Ass Presents A Day With Kay, Khadeen talks to Etienne and Ivy Coco Maurice about how their bond and the love they have for each other helps them show up for our community in a big way. Dead Ass.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, social media has a way of bringing people
across your timeline and something about them just resonates where you're.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Just like, these are my people.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I don't know them, but I'm going to claim them
as my family. That's how I feel about my guests today.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Dead ass, dead ass.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm Kadeen and I'm Devout and we're the Ellis's.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
You may know us from posting funny videos with our
voice and reading.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Each other publicly as a form of therapy.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Wait, I make you need therapy most days.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Wow. Oh, and one more important thing to mention, we're married.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yes, sir, we are. We created this podcast to open
dialogue about some of Li's most taboo topics.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Things most folks don't want to talk.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
About through the lens of a millennial married couple. Dead
ass is a term that we say every day. So
when we say dead ass, we're actually saying facts one
hundred the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
We about to take Bilos off to a whole new level.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Dead ass starts right now, all right, So, typically for
my listeners out there, everyone knows that we do storytime
every episode, but I actually have a guest today who
would like to do story time for a change, which
is awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Oh and I'm so excited to hear what she got
to say. So take it away.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Guess it's not a it's not a story story, but
you offered to story time. Just tell the story.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
You know.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
It's just funny because I remember being in college with
my friends and I think it was when you were
having your first son, and I don't know. My friends
and I were on Pinterest and we saw this picture
of you and your husband that went viral with the
ten the tens, Yes, with my first born.
Speaker 6 (01:49):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And my friends and I were.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Like, oh my gosh, we're going to recreate photos like
that when we're like getting married.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
And I'm like, oh my.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
God, that's so funny.
Speaker 7 (01:57):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
And to be sitting here with you, and upon a
time I was in my dorm room with my friends
looking at your pregnancy and now you have four kids.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I that's crazy because baby, at the time there was
only one. Yeah, there was only one. And fast forward
for I know, so now look at us. Now we're here.
Now we're here. So I made the vision board. Huh,
you made the vision board. I've heard that before. I
love that. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I feel so honored, and I feel like if anything
being on someone's vision board like that, it's just a
testament to displaying what it's like to be in a healthy,
awesome marriage and your journey through parenthood. And that's literally
when we just tried to put out there, because that's
just our life organically.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
So absolutely, thank you for that couple of goals time.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I love that. I love that.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
It's so funny because today we have siblings on I'm
going to tell you who they are soon, but it's
funny to see the sibling banter back and forth because
my brother, my sister, and I we literally make fun
of each other all day every day. So I love
that quick story about actually to piggyback on story time
because I feel like I'm compelled to tell this right now.
I was so invested in this young man's wedding story. Okay,
(03:14):
so invested, badmind. Hurricane Beryl was taking her broad back
self across the Caribbean, and I'm literally on vacation at
the time in Hawaii with my husband and watching play
by play Instagram stories from you guys.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Because I said, there's no way of.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Every day in a year that you decide to plan
a wedding.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Yeah, the week of July.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
The week of.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
July six where a hurricane would fix itsself to make
its way across our beloved the Jamaica, when somebody is
just trying to marry the love of his life.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Was trying to just have a simple wedding.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
That's all we're trying to do. And I was so
invested that I was watching the play by player.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I said, this has to happen.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I was literally praying for you guys every day that
things would divert and it would work out.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And so said, so done. And I love that.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
And I think y'all's prayers work because it happened.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
It happened, It happened. We'll talk more about that in
a second. Okay, all right, karaoke time. Did we come
up with a song for karaoke folks?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Because I would go to a classic that I feel
like you guys should know.
Speaker 7 (04:36):
Listen, got somebody, She's a beauty, very specially.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Take good care of me.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
The dude day.
Speaker 7 (05:02):
Ride by my Side, nine Day.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
That was the song that I entered into our wedding,
me and my wife.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I know, I was watching it collective. It's a Jamaican thing.
We already know when that beat drops on that song,
no letting go, no holding back, Baby Wayne Wonder, I
love that.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
All right, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
You know, we're gonna vibe here off camera for a
little bit while we pay some bills, and we'll be
back with the meat of the show, and I'll introduce
our two guests for today's episode.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Stay tuned, y'all.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
All right, So, I want to introduce really quickly to
everyone my two guests for today, the dynamic duo, the
siblings that everybody really knows how much I adore my
siblings and how close we are, and I always admire
looking at you two in the way you love each other.
I think that's one thing that's reson through your social
media is your interaction together and just even here today
in this space. So Ivy and Ivy, Coco and Etty
(06:09):
and Maurice are creatives, entrepreneurs, and the children of one
of the great Black mothers of our generation, Cherry Lee
Ralph Fellow Yachtes or yachties as we say back home.
Ettien and Ivy have set out to make their own
marks in the world through wellness, fashion and community connection,
which I absolutely adore. Their organization Walk Good La born
(06:32):
out of the need for self care and somatic practice
during the COVID era Black Lives Matter protests, but rides
the safe space for black and brown Angelino's to engage
in movement practices while building community. Ivy is also the
founder and creative director of House of Ivy and Attilier,
inspired by her grandmother or your grandmother collectively Ivy Ralph,
(06:55):
whose legendary creation the Koreebus shirt jacket became a symbol
of the resistance of the People's National Party in Jamaica
in the nineteen seventies. Baby rich, culture, rich roots, culture rich,
giving all this thing and rich spirit. Thank y'all so
much for being here with me today at TN and
(07:17):
Ivy Coco.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Do you just go buy Ivy or Ivy Cocoa. You
can got me just Ivy, just iv her Coco. Is
that just like a thing for your sibling.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Or the name.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
When she was in my mom's when our mom's stomach,
I pointed out to the stomma.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I was like Coco, Coco. And then Coco was born.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Oh my goodness, I love she became.
Speaker 6 (07:37):
An adults, and that she wanted to be called Ivy Cocoa.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
Ivy Coco I mean, is there's so much history to
the name Ivy in our family.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Well, tell me about that.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
Well, you know, our grandmother is just basically the root
of I feel like who we are is how we
embrace our Jamaican roots and our Jamaican American culture. And
Eta and I spent a lot of our summers back
home in Jamaica, like literally from the day school is out,
you don't come back to the United States until the
Sunday before school starts.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Well, actually we made a pit stop, so we'd stop
in Long Island to visit our grandfather in Westbury. Never remembers,
Oh my god, young, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Stopping what are you talking about.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
We would stop in Westbury for like maybe like a week,
and then we'd go from New York. We'd take off
from j K and then we'd land in Norman. Manly, Wow,
that's how it went.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You don't remember that you were too excited to get
to Jamaica.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
You don't.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
You don't remember, because literally I would That was literally
our itinerary. We stopped see Grampy and then we go
to Jamaica Sea Grandy.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
I remember Grandpa was already there when we read.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Sometimes sometimes he would even meet us there.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yes, I remember, yeah, but I remember. I remember.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
We spent a lot of time in Westbury, like our
our holidays, Collis and.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Lot of time.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
So you guys were originally based in New York. You
didn't always live in La.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
We Yorks in New York. Well, we've always.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Lived in LA but she would just travel there to grandparents.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Gotcha, gotcha? Gotcha?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Sounds good. So that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
So the rich history behind that, and I want to
talk more to you Ettin about that. After posting some
wedding content, you had gotten some people who didn't quite
understand how your grooms men were dressed. So well, we'll
address that a little later in the show, but I
just wanted to start off by giving you guys all
the praise and all the accolades for everything that you
are doing, you know, individually, together as a collective, the
(09:42):
strides that you're making out here in LA to get
people to be very mindful and conscious of their body,
their mind, their spirit, their soul, having that collective, having
that community. I tell my husband, when we were out
here in La for our short stent that I really
didn't have time to connect with like minded individuals who
were kind of on the same path and had the
same values in morale.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
All compass, I would have stayed longer. You actually hit
the nail on the head.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Had we found maybe that community, our tribe of people,
that kindred spirit, kind of connection, we might have stayed
longer and might have been convinced to find something out here. However,
in the meantime, when I do come to visit, I
do like to connect with folks like that. So you
guys have been on my list of folks to chat with,
just because I do have that deep admiration for what
you both are doing, especially if you don't mind me
(10:27):
giving your ages.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, thirty two and twenty nine.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
I mean at thirty two and twenty nine nine, you
guys can be doing a lot other things. And the
fact that you're so invested in your community and your
culture and you celebrated so much, I think is something
to be admired. So shout out to y'all. Thanks enough love,
enough love. So tell me about why you started Walk Good, La.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
Yeah, well, Walk Good started out of a need to
get active, But do it with purpose. And so after
the killing of Ahmud Aubrey, the unfortunate killing of Joy
Floyd and Breonna Taylor and so many black lives that
were taken from us, I felt like this innate need
for us to come together, for me to bring my
(11:09):
community together and get out there and protests, but in
the form of movement through running in my neighborhood in
mid City. I had gone to a couple of other
protests at that time, and I was moved to start
my own community. And so, you know, walk Good started
out as my production company, walk In Productions, because I'm
(11:29):
a filmmaker and an actor. But at that time, I
felt like it wasn't necessary to bring my community together
through my production company. So I wanted to be out
of I wanted to be through community. And by that
somebody asked me, so, what is.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
The organization called? And I was like, walk Good.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
LA, And that's how walkot LA was formed.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And so we would protest on Saturday.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
And at the first protest, my cousin Marley, our cousin Marley,
she just got to let go from a yoga studio,
and I asked her to like, got us some breath
work and some yoga stretches. At that time, I was
not into yoga at all, Like I go to a
few classes here and there. But when she was guiding
everybody in these yoga stretches and these poses, I was like, wait,
there's something here right. So I pulled mart this aside.
(12:20):
I was like, yo, we should come next week to
the park and do yoga again. So we would protest
on Saturday, do yoga on Sunday, and then breathe good.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Our yoga class was born, and we had.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Like thirty five thirty seven people at the first one, Wow,
and each class it started to double, and by the
time we got to the end of the month, we
took over the whole entire park.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
So this is that the park.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
So it's not that you had a brick and mortar location.
It was just people gathering outside in.
Speaker 6 (12:49):
The park that we grew up on down the street
from our mother's house.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Wow Wow.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So you say it was a form of, I guess
in a sense, movement therapy for folks who needed it
during a time that was very very dark for us,
where you met with any kind of pushback or vitriol
just from like the overall la powers that be I
guess I should.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Say, yeah, I definitely think so.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
I think when you're taking a stance like that and
you're in the streets on a weekly basis, we protested
for ten weeks straight, you know, you might have some
people honking their horns or saying negative things, or maybe
even just throwing a water bottle over you. I had.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
I'll never forget that.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Did you throw it back?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Is the you're just so intu it.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
It's like you can't even focus on anything else, right, you.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
Know, Yeah, no, I get you so, I mean, but
the thing about it is that there was some hatred,
but there was so much love. And because of that love,
that's how we were really able to grow. So what
started as twenty five or thirty five people in the
park ended up becoming two hundred and fifty three hundred
people in the park.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
So it really got to be a mass of people.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
Oh absolutely, because it was the thing to do and
it was like the safe thing to do that was
intentional and it was cool like for lack of a
better word, for lack of better words, we literally made
healing and wellness cool, like it was something that people
were able to participate in and actually be impacted at
(14:14):
a time where we were all feeling stagnant and felt lost,
and you know, we came together as a family and
we showed up every Saturday, every Sunday, and when the
protests started to dwindle, you know, we still kept going
to the park to do yoga, and then we were
able to implement our social justice message through the yoga classes.
(14:35):
So while we were out there, you know, protesting and
saying I can't breathe on Saturday. On Sunday, we would
encourage everybody and it became it became something uh, not
only intentional, but really beautiful. People were able to find peace,
(14:55):
enjoy through some of the darkest times that we were experiencing.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Ought into it originally Ivy when he gave there, because
you know something your siblings com up, comes up with
an idea and you're just like, I don't know about this.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
But honestly, honestly, that is exactly how happened.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I guess if you want to be there.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
But asking what she was doing on the first day
we started to protest.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
No, no, honestly, I think the first thing that actually
had a shoot, I got booked. You know, like everybody
was starting to go back to work during virtual bookings. Yes,
so I actually was working during our first protest, and
then my brother the second protest, he was like, the
next Saturday, were doing it again. So I'm like, all right, cool,
I'll be there, like I don't have to work. And honestly,
I was so grateful during that time that I was
(15:36):
able to work. You know, that there was some money
I could put in my own pocket, and she.
Speaker 6 (15:43):
Don't want to do it on another day, I was like, no,
it's happening.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, yeah, And.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
It was great because you know, we were actually getting
donations from protesting and sending it to the families that,
you know, Browna Taylor's family. We were sending them as
donations that we were receiving from our protests, So we
were actually raising money and awareness for people. But I
think the great thing about having a sibling like my brother,
who's so daring and different, is that like you have
(16:12):
to risk it. You know, if you don't risk it,
you don't get the biscuit. And so you know, we
are really wanting that biscuit, right, biscuit biscuit.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
This is mit Coco over here.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
She like, give me five prompts.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And you take the credit for that because everybody is.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Eating.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
You have some nice food on the biscuit. You know,
it tastes nice and sweet right now. Honestly, I think
that's the great thing about what walk Good was is that,
you know, this is somebody that took a chance on life,
and you know it really followed his heart. And I
think that's the greatest thing about is that, you know,
sometimes I will lead with my mind and he will
(16:58):
lead with his heart. And I think that and I
think that that is one of the greatest things he
could have done, because we've seen the growth of what
you know, putting love first looks like.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Oh for sure, And I love that you said that
you weren't deterred from the negativity that may have come
your way. You know, even just with social media, people
ask me all the time, you know, what do you
think about the negative comments? Is that I don't even
see them, right, I don't even see them because, you
know what, the love and the admiration far outweighs and
supersedes the negativity. So it's like, why focus on those
(17:31):
things when the abundance of love that you're putting out
is just growing exponentially.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
So love that, yeah, absolutely, I love that.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
So at what point did you realize, like, we're really
onto something here. Now we can find different ways to
build out what what good La looks like because people
are listening are a lot of entrepreneurs or people who
have ideas, and the point of this podcast is to
share your experience so people can say how we build
something from the ground up using what was our passion.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
Man, we saw the park full up, you know, I
was like, yeah, this is insane, like literally every just
imagine just like a big old park and just nothing
but to see a black and brown folks beauty in
the park doing yoga and just taking moments to breathe.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I think that was when I realized.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Because what we had left to go to Jamaica for
the whole month of January in twenty twenty one, and
then we came back in February twenty twenty one and
our first breathe Good back, we saw how our community
had trippled and in size, and then we were like, okay,
(18:38):
well now we could start hike good. So we started
hight Good, which is our community hig club that we
do once a month. Then we did and then we
brought back run Good and we did our run club
every Wednesday, and then we started Film Good, which is
the first film and wellness festival ever. We started You Good,
(18:59):
which is a Black men's healing circle. We started You
Good Yeah, which is a Black women's healing circle.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Everything everything is good.
Speaker 6 (19:08):
That's when we realized that we were able to expand
and offer things that weren't just yoga and actually provide
spaces of healing through the arts for underrepresented communities for sure.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Now, Etty, and how has your being a survivor of
gun violence? Has that at all informed how you work today,
whether it's just with Walk Good, La or just any
of your other endeavors.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
One hundred. It's funny you bring that up because I've
been thinking about this a lot.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
In my first year of starting Walk Good, I had
met with with the healer and she had asked me, said,
what is the part of your body that best represents you?
And I thought my heart, just like my sister said,
you know, I leave with my heart. I give everything
with my heart. And she kind of like you know,
(19:57):
cocked the head and was like, think about it deep.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
It was almost like a symbol rafiki moment. I'm really
think this is a circle of life, what's going on?
And then literally it.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
Hit me and I was like, Oh, it's my it's
my foot, it's my leg. Now I said, it's my leg,
I said, my ability to walk good. This is the
leg that I was shot in, and I think this
is the leg that has experienced the most trauma, that has,
you know, gotten the biggest beating and has gone through
(20:33):
so much.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
But it's healed.
Speaker 6 (20:35):
You know, I'm able to walk, I'm able to I'm
able to go to the gym. I'm able to find
my balance with both of my legs. So, you know,
when I think of everything that I've experienced through gun
violence and having gone to the psych ward and battling
my own mental health challenges, like it's literally a blessing
that I'm even here talking coherently.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I think of all those trials and tribut.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Relations that turn into my testimony, right, I think there
are a lot of young men who have been shot.
There are a lot of young men and women who
know somebody who's been shot and didn't survive the fact
that I've gone through everything that I've gone through and
I'm able to use my platform and tell my story
through this healing practice, it just might save somebody's life.
(21:23):
It just might have It just might have a young
man inquire about breath work, about meditation, about yoga, because
growing up, I didn't see.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Young black men doing yoga.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Definitely, it's probably frowned upon it.
Speaker 6 (21:37):
Yeah, And so I think when people see what I've
been able to do and build a whole enterprise and
nonprofit with my family, I mean, hopefully there'll be more
walk Goods all across the world based off of this
little plant that we that we that we that we planted,
that we planted four years ago will grow.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
No, that's amazing. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 5 (22:00):
I mean, I'm so grateful to see how we've started,
and I think it's so rooted in love. Like Etien said,
but I think we're able to bring all of our
gifts together. And that was the beautiful thing. Etyen was
able to lead and bring the people together. Marley was
able to bring the sunshine out of people, and during
our raining days, and you know, I was just able
to be there and like literally welcome people every morning,
(22:22):
selling T shirts, T shirt, T shirt, te shirts, you know,
every single Sunday. Like it was like we were all
being able to bring our gifts together because the thing
about it is like we weren't just doing this for profit.
We were doing this because we actually felt like this
was our purpose. We actually felt like we were called
to do this. And I think that's the best thing
about operating in your purpose is that you know that
(22:44):
it's a gift. You know it's God given, and so
I don't take it for granted. And I think that
knowing that we have the support the spiritual guidance of
our grandmother and our grandfather, it wouldn't be walk good
without our grandmother literally telling us every day, make sure
your walk go right, you know. So it's just us
embracing who we are and where we come from.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
You can't even sometimes fathom the idea of you know,
people always talk about like I'm living or I'm walking
my ancestors prayers and my grandmother's prayers, and to think
about where our families have come from. I can relate
to that, you know, also being of Jamaican descent, and
you know, my mom telling me the stories of how
she had to walk five miles to school and she
didn't have the shoes to do its had that same
(23:31):
same story and it's it's what it is, and it
gives such a greater appreciation. But you don't even realize
sometimes at the time, how when you're going through a trial,
for example, yours etsyan that that was just the setup
for the way you were now living in your purpose
to impact so many people. And it's such a beautiful
thing to see because you know, the evolution of our
(23:52):
families coming from such a small little rock right there
in the Caribbean, to like the impact we all have
now within our communities and globally because you know, everyone
has access to social media, we can see what's happening.
So this is awesome in an awesome space for you
guys to be in, and I feel like you need
to keep going.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Then keep going.
Speaker 6 (24:10):
I told us, if you would have told me that
I was going to be a yoga's instructor and that
we would be living the lives we're living right now,
I would have said you must.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Have no good But yeah, no, that's amazing. Your mom
had said once in an interview that nepotism doesn't exist
within your family, right. She said that you two pretty
much work for everything that you have, and she takes
(24:39):
pride in that and you take pride in that. And
have you ever had instances where folks have questioned, like
how you got an opportunity or why you're existing in
the space that you're in because of your mom?
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Oh my gosh, I mean I heard somebody say something
about Walk Good before and they're like, Oh, they don't
need this, they don't need this organizedzation. They have their
support from their mother. And we're like, our mom wasn't
teaching us yoga telling us to do X, Y and Z?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Was she did?
Speaker 5 (25:09):
She inspire us because she's a woman of wisdom and
she's a woman that knows how to bring people together
with her voice. And that's how we were able to
do this absolutely, But she wasn't the one that said
you need to go out there and do X, Y
and Z.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
Why she ain't introduced us to Michael B. Jordan's expressed
to get us that studio.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Oh wow?
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Did it so that that happened through a genuine connection
you had with her?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Let me tell you how that God is right.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
So we had started Walk Good four years ago, so
three years ago, no, last last year. Last year, we
get a call from Propel Fitness Water and they say, hey,
we got this new campaign Propel your City project. We
want to support fitness communities all across the United States.
(25:58):
They want to support Walk Good and asking us, well,
what do you need? What will propel your community, what
will build your organization? And at first we were thinking
about doing some type of program for one of our classes.
But they came back to us and was like, no,
actually we want to do something, but you need create
an impact. What you need yes, And I went back
(26:23):
to my sister and my cousin. I was like, I
think we need a studio space, right, So we went
back to them and they said we got you.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Oh, by the way, Michael B.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
Jordan is a part of this campaign to help your
initiative low and behold.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
They didn't know that Michael B.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
Jordan's brother Khalid had come to the very first Walk
Good protests wow literally June thirteen, twenty.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
And divine because I mean his family has literally come
into our space without even.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
His mom, his dad, sister.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
He said, brother, like, they've all come into the space
and they're like wait, wait, Michael was a part of this.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Yeah, I didn't even know.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
I had no idea, right, And his father actually do
yoga at like a juneteen yoga flow.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
It's crazy, you know, like it was all in divine order.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Wow, in divine order for real.
Speaker 6 (27:17):
And they've been like, I can't tell you enough how
appreciative I am for that family, for Propel, because literally
we would not have our studio space, the walk good
Yard would not exist if they didn't help us get
that money so that we could put it towards our studio.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Wow, very good, that's awesome. I didn't even know, as
you know, it's funny. I actually shot my shot with
Michael B. Jordan, not how you think because I'm a married.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Preface it when I DMD him and I said, well, funny,
quick story, I'll tell you really quick.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
My mom was at the gym, you know, local gym
where we live out in Georgia, and she calls my
phone and I missed the call, so ill I text
her about She texted me and I was like, what's
going on?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Everything good?
Speaker 1 (28:01):
She said, you never guess who's here in the gym
and she's in like the La Fitness and I'm like, ohoh.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
So she goes to Michael B.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Jordan's Instagram page and she screenshots his picture and sent
it to me. So I said, you're in the gym
in LA Fitness, in this random part of Georgia with
Michael B.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Jordan.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
And she's like, yes, girl, wait, let me get a picture.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
So I know my mom is like probably scrambling now
with her phone, probably being so obvious. Right, she probably
don't have an eye glasses or anything, so I can
imagine what she looks like trying to capture discreetly this
picture of Michael B.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Jordan working out in this La Fitness.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
So then I'm waiting for the picture to come along
and I see the bubbles and I see the bubbles.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And I said, I said, what happened?
Speaker 1 (28:43):
And she's like, girl, I lost him. He must have
saw me trying to take the picture.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
So I knew that Michael followed the family and my
husband and all that. So I just was like, you
know what, I want to randomly DM him and just
tell him this joke. So I was like, bro, my
mom literally was at Fitness to explain everything what happened.
So I said, please tell me that she's not crazy
and that you are in this part of Georgia and
you went to Talor Fitness today.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
So he messages me back.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Within a couple of minutes, which I was surprised about
because I was like, this is Michael Jordan. He's not
gonna answer my little DM right, And he was just like, hey,
I actually wasn't there, and that's just so funny that
your mom thought.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
She saw me, So it wasn't here. He was in
New Orleans filming something, and he's.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Like, but if I'm ever in that part of Georgia,
I'll definitely come to LA's Fitness. So I circled back
with him after that because I was having my live show,
which is now since not happening, but I'm gonna pivot
because he was going to be one of my interviews
there and he's like, I'd love to sit down and
do an interview with you one on on my next
press run.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
So I was like, oh, this is great. So it's
a good thing. I shot my shot in back, but
it was just so funny. How you know.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Listen's eye glass home? Are you telling me that that's
my She's like, hey, I promised you. It looked just
like him.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
They smile everything staying where. I'm like, okay, mom, sure,
all right.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
So a kind of.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Fun question for you guys because you grew up of course,
with you know your mom in the position she's in.
When did you realize, like, my mom is famous, like
people revere her. Was there like a particular age or
a moment where you were like this is it?
Speaker 6 (30:20):
I think we were always aware of it. I think
all the events we'd go to, the red carpets we
go to, especially during like the Moesha days, those are
like the big Hollywood moments that I remember, right. But
I think the beautiful thing about our mother is that
(30:41):
even though she is a famous actress, you know, she's
a she's a human being. You know, she's she just
happens to be our mom. She just happens to be
an actress. She's a real person. Absolutely no. She Yes,
she might have like this big bravado and has like
a special waves speaking, but I think that's her gift
(31:02):
that she, like my sister said, has passed down to us.
And I think some people might be intimidated by it,
especially if you have a strong black woman as a mother.
It's something that you can recognize. Oh and I think
she has done such a great job on screen of
playing a mom that when people see her in real life,
they're like, oh, my.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
God, I was raised by you through the TV.
Speaker 6 (31:23):
And I think that is a unique gift to be
able to have compassion for younger people and have an
understanding for younger people. I think is a gift that
my mom has always had and has passed down to
us for sure. But I always, to answer your question,
I always saw our mother as a special human being
(31:45):
and someone who is, you know, extraordinary, because she's not
your average mother at all, and not your average mother
at all, but she cares and then she shows she
shows a lot of compassion.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
So while she's a Hollywood mother, she's a.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
She's a human mom, and I love that.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I had a moment with her at the Jamaica Independence
galap last year. I went and was actually presenting an
award to her and we were sitting at the same
table together with her and oh yes, photo, yes, but
a testament, a testament to your description of your mom, right.
I was with my good friend Joshua, who's also my
videographer photographer good friend.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
His wife makes airrings.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
She's from Jamaica as well, So when we were there
at the event, his wife came along to support and
she had some earrings and she's like I would love
to give these to Cherry Lee, but I'm just shy
to do so I don't know what to do. So
I made the connection because we were at the table
together and my friend was down on her knees right
in front of your mom, and she was just so
humble and just so she had so much humility, and
(32:43):
she listened to my friend's story about her earrings and
how she started making them, and you know, your mom
took off the earrings she was wearing and put on
my friend's earrings and wore them on stage so proudly.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
And that was a beautiful moment from my friend. But
it was just a testament to how much of a
people's people your mom is. And she's just like a
genuine person, which is awesome. How about you, Ivy, when
did you realize, like, you.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Know, Mom's not just mom.
Speaker 5 (33:07):
I think for me, it's just like I've always known
that she's just someone operating in their gift. But I think,
like Etien said, she's very she's grounded. She's so she'd
rather be with the people, you know, And I think
no matter how big and how much she expands as
her brand and as an actress, like.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
She will always be the Sharley Raff that loves to
go to Ross.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
She'll always be the Sharley Raft that loves to go
dip her head in at Marshalls. She's she she loves
the Curer girl. Yeah, she'll always be like yo, I
have to go to my Korean spa.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Like.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
She embraces the things that make her happy like every
individual should. But I think what makes her such an
incredible A lot of people are like, oh, like Etien said,
your mother raised me on TV. It's it's because she's
such an incredible mother. You know, I'll never forget like
being in like probably like yeah, grade one and know
(34:00):
someone asking me my teacher on first day of school,
like what do you want to be when you grow up?
And I said, I want to be a mom. And
they're like, why do you want to be a mom?
I said, because I have an incredible mom, you know.
So when people say, oh my god, I love your mom,
I'm like, I love her too, right, I love her too.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I think that that's an interesting thing that you said,
because for me, I've always grown up knowing I wanted
to be a wife and mom and to your point,
having an example of an exemplary mother or father.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
You know, it's something that you want to emulate, You
want to be like you see what that was like,
you see the impact.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
I know the impact my mom has had on me
now that I'm a four year old woman. So for me,
top tier is mother and wife. Everything else is secondary.
So I can't completely understand how you feel. So I
have four boys, like I told you guys before, and
you know, we always talk to them about the importance
of paying it forward and working hard and like finding
their purpose. How do you guys stay grounded and rooted
(34:58):
in an industry that could potentially be one to kind
of take you off of your target or take you
out of your track. What advice do you have to
me as a mom who's raising some boys. You know,
I know you're just a younger woman, but in this
day and age, things are so different. So how do
you guys stay grounded and rooted in who you are?
Speaker 6 (35:19):
Whatever you do, it has to be bigger than you.
Whatever you do, it has to be bigger than yourself.
I think one thing that I've learned through our upbringing.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Is you have to be of service.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
I think that should always be a part of your
purpose is how can I help somebody else? How can
I use my platform to help somebody who might be struggling.
Our mother she runs a nonprofit called the DVA Foundation.
She started that after losing so many of her friends
and family to HIV and AIDS during her time during
(35:56):
dream Girls. And I think at a very young age,
watching our mother raise money for her organization really propelled
us really to start Walk Good and for us to
build an organization that is rooted in being of service
to people through health wellness in the arts. I think
(36:16):
also growing up, we grew up in the church. Our
grandfather was the music director in New York. We also
found out recently that our grandmother was also a community
organizer in her own right as a fashion designer.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
You know, she was one of the She was.
Speaker 6 (36:36):
The person to desegregate j C. Pennies in Connecticut. And
so I think we come from a family of fighters,
people who wanted to not only do it for themselves,
but do it for communities. And I think anything you'd
(36:59):
do in life, I think it has to be bigger
than just you. Like a movement can't be run with
just one person. People need people don't be afraid to
ask for help. Don't be afraid to, you know, to
just ask. I think that's the biggest thing that we're
a lot of us are afraid to do, is just
ask the question, you know, and just seek advice. Yeah,
(37:23):
And a lot of times that drives us into depression
and then we start to overthink, well, why are we
making these decisions instead of asking somebody who might be
more knowledgeable than us.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
So, yeah, don't be afraid to ask the questions. And
I love that be of service to people. I think
for me, it's just about finding your personal practice. What's
that one thing every day that you feel so unapologic,
unapologetic about that you can just get up and do it.
Speaker 5 (37:47):
Whether that's prayer, whether that's meditation. And I think, you know,
we all have our own type of meditation. I remember
growing up, and my mom's meditation was waking up in
the morning singing and burning her incense. For my dad
might be running biking or doing some pilates, or for
my grandmother might be opening her Bible and finding her scripture.
For my grandfather might be picking up the phone and
(38:09):
singing to his grandchildren. Like there are so many different
types of practices that make you feel good. And I
think that's what we really want to show people is
that you know you as much as you do good,
you have to feel good for sure, because you know,
for me, I'm like, when I look good, I do good.
When I feel good, I do good and I look good.
So I think you have to figure out what your
(38:30):
good is.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
What makes you ticking inside? Speaking of looking good, you're
a stylist. Thank you, you're a stylist. How did that
come about? Was that a passion of your.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Make up to yeah?
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, waiting and putting together stuff.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
And all that, all of that, Like my grandma taught
me at a handstitch. That was the first thing that
she ever taught me to do. She was always making
things in Jamaica, whether it was you know, a garment
or just a table cloth or anything for the house.
But she ran an incredible store called the House of
Ivy in Devon House. So after Ettenna and I would
(39:08):
finish up summer schools, we would go to Devon House
and help her with the shop. And I would remember
tourists would come in on big buses coming from like
ochi Ormo Bay coming to Kingston, and then it would
just be one of those things where I had to
help people and you know, just telling people about product,
and you know, I was amazing to see my grandma
see it from making the pattern, from cutting and sewing
(39:30):
to being on the sewing machine, packaging up and then
deliver and it was crazy. Like my thing was the
retail management of it all. Like it was like everything.
I would pack up my grandma's stuff and I would
take it to Carbs, car Beats. It was one of
the biggest stores, like downtown Kingston or like New Kingston,
not downtown New Kingston, Carby's, Yeah, New Kingston. I would
(39:52):
take my grandma's stuff to live with the taximan to Carbs.
So like all of this stuff, like the styling fashion,
I'm not new to it. I'm true to and then just.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Come about or you started styling your mom.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Is And I think there's a reason why my grandmother
has the name Ivy and why my parents gave me
the name Ivy. I genuinely feel I'm doing exactly what
I'm supposed to do. And I have the greatest teacher
who was my grandmother.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
That is so beautiful.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Wow, I'm loving you guys even more just sitting down
here half the time, I'm just watching you in admiration
because I'm just like so beautiful Grandma ivy. Okay, she
had a piece to play, I'm sure several, but a
specific piece to play in your wedding et t the end.
So we talked about in the beginning of the episode,
(40:46):
you know, me watching and praying and hoping that everything
would come to pass for your wedding day. Before we
dive into Grandma's tribute or your tribute to Grandma.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Rather tell me what that whole week was looking for.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
You give me a.
Speaker 6 (41:04):
Real quick So July sixth is the day that I
met my wife. It's the day that I proposed to
my wife. It's the day that we got married, not
only one day though, in the span of three years,
span of three years. And I always said when we met,
I was like, we're going to get married in Jamaica.
(41:26):
And so we've been planning eleven months for this wedding, right,
and I a month before the wedding, I go shoot
a Christmas movie in Canada and I tell Steph I'm like, yo,
that's her name is Stephanie. And I told her, well,
I'm going to be in Canada. So she was like,
(41:46):
all right, I'm going to go to Jamaica, make sure
that everything is set and good to go, and then
you arrive and we're gonna get married.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Girl.
Speaker 6 (41:56):
It is a week before our wedding. I'm about to
travel to Jamaica. And they said there's an unprecedented there's
an unprecedented hurricane hurricane five hurricane barrel category five hurricane.
I'm like, God, why all the weeks gotta be on
this week July sixth? And we get there, hurricane comes
(42:21):
and we're just stuck in the house, rain, no power
in Kingston at our at our home, yeah, and we're
playing Uno.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
We got the candles burning and we just you know,
share stories.
Speaker 6 (42:39):
It was my best friend Ron, my mom, my other
good friend Nika and her partner and Coco and stuff.
We're all sitting there eating KFC leftover KFC different islands.
And they tell us the next day that they've shut
down the whole airport, all the airports. Nobody can fly
in or come out, and they might not open up
(43:02):
until Sunday. We're getting supposed to get married on Saturdaturday.
My poor wife, she just broke down and cried.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
As much as you tried to be optimistic, and as
much as you try to hold it together, there's just nothing.
Speaker 6 (43:15):
And I said this too, that like that was the
biggest test for us, and it really tested our faith.
Speaker 3 (43:26):
Tested my faith for sure. I was thinking to myself,
why is this happening?
Speaker 1 (43:29):
God, Why were you always optimistic through ivy or were
you kind of like I don't know what I understand.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
I was sleeping, girl, I was up.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
It wasn't wedding.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
It was not anyway.
Speaker 5 (43:44):
It's funny because my mom came in my room and
she was like, yo, Coca has been sleeping for like
fourteen hours. I was so tired, and honestly, I knew
that God always has a plan. But like at the
end said, you know, like God will test you to
get to the testimony.
Speaker 6 (43:59):
It was through the oh, I know my God, just
like the anticipation of whether or not our guests were
even going to make it to the island, if they're
going to open back up the airport, and by the
grace of God, they said, we're going to open it
back up. On Friday, we were looking at the flight
statuses of my father.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
And my wife's parents, all of the key people, the
key friends and.
Speaker 6 (44:21):
Family, that were stuck in like Houston. We had friends
and family that were stuck all over the world. We
had three hundred and fifteen people on that guest list.
Two hundred and seventy five showed up at the Good
Hope in Trelawney.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
Jamaica, and it percentage.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
It was the most amazing wedding ever.
Speaker 6 (44:40):
Like I know, everybody, y'all got your nice little weddings
out there in Italy better than I'm going to say
I fell it out there.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
My husband's gonna be like, not after how much we spent,
But I'm like, man.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
It was given us the spirit.
Speaker 6 (44:54):
It was the story how everybody got there, because everybody
had a story how they Jamaica. I agree there were
a lot of people that didn't make it, but there
are a lot of people that did make it. And
I think when everybody got to the island, everybody just
didn't care.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
They were like, we made it. Read everybody the rain
it was clear.
Speaker 6 (45:17):
They said the rain might have fallen on July sixth.
I said, Baby, I said, Steph, the rain is not
gonna rain on our wedding. It's not gonna rain during
the ceremony. And then lo and behold the rain came
down soon as we did the the son and mother dance.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
Yeah, but it was fine. It was okay as long
as we got through the wedding, it was. It was amazing.
And then we had the best after party home video footage.
And I can't wait the edit that document.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
I was particularly touched to by you and your mom's
dance because it's also the choice of song.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
I'm like, that's a beautiful song.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
You would never think of applying that to your your
son and your child everything. I'm already getting teary. I
thinking about my four sons and having to have that
dance with them.
Speaker 3 (46:08):
Oh my god.
Speaker 6 (46:09):
I remember so growing up when my mom would pick
Coco and I up from school, after she would pick
us up from uh from shooting Mosha, she would play
that album front to back and that specific song everything.
Speaker 3 (46:22):
Wow, we're gonna dance to this song?
Speaker 8 (46:26):
Oh my god?
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Should I be picking out a song now? But the
music is not even good? The music is not even
good now.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
This is probably gonna be some old robat that I
picked because the music nowadays young.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
I don't know about that.
Speaker 6 (46:36):
And then we have you know, our second mom, Miss May.
She was growing up so you know, we were blessed
to have Miss May in our lives. When our mom
was always shooting or doing a show.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
You know, we had Miss May. She was like our
living nanny, and so I got to dance with her.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
That's a beautiful moment.
Speaker 6 (46:54):
We danced to Uh, my life is in your hands. Wow, Franklin,
that started balling.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Yes, you know them kind of moments.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
As much as you try to contain yourself, I'm sure
there was not a dry eye in the house.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
It was a beautifully ordained wedding.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
I love that, such a round out the wedding chatter.
Grandma Ivy, you're paying homage to her. Your groom's men
had a particular garb on tell us about that and
what whose idea was that?
Speaker 6 (47:23):
Like moment?
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Oh, I thought it was no.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
She was.
Speaker 6 (47:28):
She styled in the process. Even dang rest in peace,
war aor Boswell. He was the designer of my tuxedo
and it was the last body of work that he
designed before his pass.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
I'm sorry to hear that.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Thank you. He designed this.
Speaker 6 (47:49):
Beautiful double breasted off white tuxedo jacket and we had
two different pants, so we had the off white pants
to match with the jacket, and then we had the
black linen pants to.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
Go with the jacket to compliment the jacket.
Speaker 6 (48:05):
And the night night before UH we flew to Jamaica,
I was like Coco, which one am I gonna wear?
Speaker 3 (48:13):
And we collectively made this decision.
Speaker 6 (48:15):
That it was going to be the off white pants,
and then I wore the black one for the reception.
And then I hit up my brother Toastin from Naid's
studio and he was able to look at some of
the previous designs that my grandmother made from back in
the seventies, and he created like this modern version of
(48:35):
the cariba that my grandmother designed, which was to come
back colonial forms of dress back in the seventies with
you know, the short sleeve linen jacket and the de
pleated pants. And so it was beautiful that Toaston was
able to bring my grandmother's dream UH to make could
(49:00):
come alive because the Kariba was our grandmother's dream, you know.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
She said it came to her in a dream that
she saw.
Speaker 6 (49:05):
This, this this beautiful suit dress for man that's not
just your regular suit and tie. That's a young man
in Jamaica can feel proud and wear these these these
forms of dress and change the world in this formal attire.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
Wow, that that came from her mind. That literally came
from a dream.
Speaker 6 (49:27):
And so I thought, what better way to honor my
Jamaican heritage and my Jamaican grandmother then to dress my
groom's men in the Cariba.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
They were sharp, so sharp, Oh my gosh, so sharp.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
So from a stylish perspective, you were feeling it, Ivy, Oh, no, absolutely.
Speaker 5 (49:43):
Because I'm so passionate about the Cariba and the history
of it, not just because it's our grandmother, just because
of like the intentionality behind it, and because like not
just off of what Etchien was saying, but just to emphasize,
like she was making something sustainable, Like it was a
thing about her seeing men wearing long sleeve jackets and
suits and they're sweating. They're like, yo, there are men
(50:05):
taking off their shirts and they can see sweat drip.
And she was like, Yo, honestly, we need to make
something that's short sleeve, that's sustainable, that make people look
good and feel good and they know that they can
get into the courtroom and they can know that they can,
you know, take meetings in Cuba with foreign foreigners and presidents,
everything taken seriously. And I really look at this one
(50:26):
photo of Michael Manley wearing his Cariba and it's with
him and different prime ministers and I believe Fidel Castro
and you know, different people from different different countries, and
I'm like, wow, look upon miss Ivy and what she created.
It's just it's you know, it's something that I could
literally google that anybody can see. And I you know,
(50:49):
you know, I plan to do the same at my
wedding one day.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
You know, speak a girl. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
I am even going to say that I think you
might have started some sort of trends. Like people of
course will jump on the trend because they think it's
just trendy or it's fashion or it's different. But I
think that in every thing that you do, honoring your
grandmother and telling the story of the Kreeba is so
important because you know, the blogs will pick up your
picture and people may say, oh my god, we love
(51:15):
this look. Where they may question the look, like some
people did, but you were very clear about saying, uh huh,
not this man.
Speaker 3 (51:22):
You gotta understand where it comes from.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
Pick apart the wedding, but don't pick apart the Koreba.
This is where it comes from exactly, and I can
see people doing that. People have weddings in the islands
and in warm climates always, so this may be like
a new trend that you guys start to just I
see it.
Speaker 2 (51:39):
Ivs. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (51:40):
December twenty twenty four, House of Ivy making a comeback.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Yeah, okay, it's giving announcement. Yeah for sure, we have.
Speaker 3 (51:50):
December is a big year, a big month.
Speaker 6 (51:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
December n it's what's your birthday? December twenty third, nice,
my Goda's birthday. And the fifth of December it's not
love Baby and your Wife is the second.
Speaker 6 (52:02):
Yeah, November sixteenth, I'm the only scorpio on the fan. Well,
my stepdaddy's a scorpio as well.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
My baby boy is too. November eight awesome.
Speaker 5 (52:10):
And then ten has a movie coming out in December two.
Speaker 6 (52:13):
Yeah, HBO will own network. Okay, listen to Matrimony. Nice
coming out, and then day after that premiere is on
HBO Max my first, my first lead role.
Speaker 3 (52:30):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
You know, everybody loves a Christmas, so it's my favorite
time of year.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
Like I was born at the right, so I was
actually doing on Christmas Day came twenty days early and
for me after Halloween, like, that's my time of year.
So my Christmas lights go up, trees go up, all
seven of them. November first, and it's the entire season.
We celebrate Thanksgiving, my Birthday, Christmas, family time.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
And I will definitely put that movie in rotation. Tell
us the name one more time.
Speaker 3 (52:56):
You heard it first right here on Dead Ass Podcast, Matrimony.
Speaker 6 (53:04):
Network Leading Man starring myself and Ashley Sharp Chestnut, directed
by Rhonda Baraka. Yeah, and you'll see it on on
Network and comes out on HBO Max.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
So between that and How Survivor making a comeback, it's
about to be an amazing into an amazing, incredible year
with so many memories.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
I am so honored to sit alongside you, guys.
Speaker 1 (53:26):
You have no idea, and sitting here with you during
this time, I just get to see even more why
I felt like there was a genuine connection here, more
than just the Jamaican roots, more than just you know,
being people who are like minded individuals. But this is
something like a kindred spirit that I feel with you too.
So thank you, thank you for being so eloquent and
for you know, spending some time with me, a day
(53:47):
with k that's what make yea And if you ever
decided to bring Walk Good to La Atlanta, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (53:56):
Like you're also ready hear first. Okay, so let me
know how.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
I love it. Let's take a break, y'all, because we
can sit here and cackle all day. Let's take a
quick break and we will be right back. All right.
Speaker 1 (54:29):
So I'm back with et t N and Ivy Coco Maurice,
So tell me what's something that you're dead ass about?
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Nobody can shake you. I'm dead ass.
Speaker 6 (54:38):
About I am dead ass about my wife. Yes, I'm
dead ass about my sister, Ivy Coco. I'm dead ass
about now my stay Marley Ray. I'm dead ass about
my mother. I'm dead ass about Walk Good.
Speaker 5 (54:53):
I love that all the I'm dead ass about loyalty,
I'm deadass about my family, and I am dead ass
about honesty.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
Those three things. Oh, just so you know, are you single, Ivy?
I am single?
Speaker 1 (55:06):
Okay, So just no, there's a prospect out here to
start with those three Okay, she said, that's about those
three things.
Speaker 2 (55:11):
Three things? Yeah, are you single and mingling or you
just kind of like.
Speaker 5 (55:14):
No, it's don't work now I'm singling single and yeah
I am. It's really it's fun, it's exciting.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
Good for you. I love that. Are you overprotective big brother?
Speaker 3 (55:23):
Very much?
Speaker 4 (55:24):
So?
Speaker 2 (55:24):
I can just imagine I would.
Speaker 6 (55:26):
She knows better than to introduce me to somebody who
she's not serious about it.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Yeah, you got a whole tight until the right time.
Speaker 7 (55:36):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Well, we're gonna wrap up the show now.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
Tell everybody where they can find you, guys about we
heard about the Christmas movie coming out, how Surviving.
Speaker 2 (55:43):
But if there's anything else that you want people to know.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
Follow us on Instagram, Yeah La dot org.
Speaker 6 (55:50):
Make sure if you have a organ, if you have
a corporation that's looking to donate to a wonderful nonprofit.
We are we are glad Lee here to support with
Walk Good La, So please we need the donation.
Speaker 5 (56:04):
Yeah, so follow us at walk go La. You want
to follow our creative wellness studio with the Walk Good Yard,
Walk Good Ivy, Coco twenty three All good things.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
Love that all right, and be sure to find us
on Patreon to see exclusive dead Ass podcast video content.
And if you follow us on social media, you can
find us at dead Ass the Podcast. I'm Kadene I
am and don't forget about hobby. I am Deval And
if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, be sure to rate,
review and subscribe and remember to walk.
Speaker 3 (56:40):
Walkody.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
Oh is that like a thing?
Speaker 3 (56:43):
Yeah, teach me walk good wod Let me see.
Speaker 7 (56:50):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (56:51):
I like you are we leg going the bird.
Speaker 7 (56:55):
Bird.
Speaker 2 (56:58):
Thank you so much for being here, y'all.
Speaker 3 (57:00):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (57:01):
Good time than cut.
Speaker 4 (57:04):
Dead Ass is a production of iHeartMedia podcast Network, and
its produced by Dinorapinya and Triple. Follow the podcast on
social media at dead Ass the Podcast and never miss
a Thing
You know, social media has a way of bringing people
across your timeline and something about them just resonates where you're.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Just like, these are my people.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I don't know them, but I'm going to claim them
as my family. That's how I feel about my guests today.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Dead ass, dead ass.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm Kadeen and I'm Devout and we're the Ellis's.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
You may know us from posting funny videos with our
voice and reading.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Each other publicly as a form of therapy.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Wait, I make you need therapy most days.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Wow. Oh, and one more important thing to mention, we're married.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yes, sir, we are. We created this podcast to open
dialogue about some of Li's most taboo topics.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Things most folks don't want to talk.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
About through the lens of a millennial married couple. Dead
ass is a term that we say every day. So
when we say dead ass, we're actually saying facts one
hundred the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
We about to take Bilos off to a whole new level.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Dead ass starts right now, all right, So, typically for
my listeners out there, everyone knows that we do storytime
every episode, but I actually have a guest today who
would like to do story time for a change, which
is awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Oh and I'm so excited to hear what she got
to say. So take it away.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Guess it's not a it's not a story story, but
you offered to story time. Just tell the story.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
You know.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
It's just funny because I remember being in college with
my friends and I think it was when you were
having your first son, and I don't know. My friends
and I were on Pinterest and we saw this picture
of you and your husband that went viral with the
ten the tens, Yes, with my first born.
Speaker 6 (01:49):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And my friends and I were.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Like, oh my gosh, we're going to recreate photos like
that when we're like getting married.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
And I'm like, oh my.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
God, that's so funny.
Speaker 7 (01:57):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
And to be sitting here with you, and upon a
time I was in my dorm room with my friends
looking at your pregnancy and now you have four kids.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I that's crazy because baby, at the time there was
only one. Yeah, there was only one. And fast forward
for I know, so now look at us. Now we're here.
Now we're here. So I made the vision board. Huh,
you made the vision board. I've heard that before. I
love that. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I feel so honored, and I feel like if anything
being on someone's vision board like that, it's just a
testament to displaying what it's like to be in a healthy,
awesome marriage and your journey through parenthood. And that's literally
when we just tried to put out there, because that's
just our life organically.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
So absolutely, thank you for that couple of goals time.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I love that. I love that.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
It's so funny because today we have siblings on I'm
going to tell you who they are soon, but it's
funny to see the sibling banter back and forth because
my brother, my sister, and I we literally make fun
of each other all day every day. So I love
that quick story about actually to piggyback on story time
because I feel like I'm compelled to tell this right now.
I was so invested in this young man's wedding story. Okay,
(03:14):
so invested, badmind. Hurricane Beryl was taking her broad back
self across the Caribbean, and I'm literally on vacation at
the time in Hawaii with my husband and watching play
by play Instagram stories from you guys.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Because I said, there's no way of.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Every day in a year that you decide to plan
a wedding.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Yeah, the week of July.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
The week of.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
July six where a hurricane would fix itsself to make
its way across our beloved the Jamaica, when somebody is
just trying to marry the love of his life.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Was trying to just have a simple wedding.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
That's all we're trying to do. And I was so
invested that I was watching the play by player.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I said, this has to happen.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I was literally praying for you guys every day that
things would divert and it would work out.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And so said, so done. And I love that.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
And I think y'all's prayers work because it happened.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
It happened, It happened. We'll talk more about that in
a second. Okay, all right, karaoke time. Did we come
up with a song for karaoke folks?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Because I would go to a classic that I feel
like you guys should know.
Speaker 7 (04:36):
Listen, got somebody, She's a beauty, very specially.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Take good care of me.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
The dude day.
Speaker 7 (05:02):
Ride by my Side, nine Day.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
That was the song that I entered into our wedding,
me and my wife.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I know, I was watching it collective. It's a Jamaican thing.
We already know when that beat drops on that song,
no letting go, no holding back, Baby Wayne Wonder, I
love that.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
All right, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
You know, we're gonna vibe here off camera for a
little bit while we pay some bills, and we'll be
back with the meat of the show, and I'll introduce
our two guests for today's episode.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Stay tuned, y'all.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
All right, So, I want to introduce really quickly to
everyone my two guests for today, the dynamic duo, the
siblings that everybody really knows how much I adore my
siblings and how close we are, and I always admire
looking at you two in the way you love each other.
I think that's one thing that's reson through your social
media is your interaction together and just even here today
in this space. So Ivy and Ivy, Coco and Etty
(06:09):
and Maurice are creatives, entrepreneurs, and the children of one
of the great Black mothers of our generation, Cherry Lee
Ralph Fellow Yachtes or yachties as we say back home.
Ettien and Ivy have set out to make their own
marks in the world through wellness, fashion and community connection,
which I absolutely adore. Their organization Walk Good La born
(06:32):
out of the need for self care and somatic practice
during the COVID era Black Lives Matter protests, but rides
the safe space for black and brown Angelino's to engage
in movement practices while building community. Ivy is also the
founder and creative director of House of Ivy and Attilier,
inspired by her grandmother or your grandmother collectively Ivy Ralph,
(06:55):
whose legendary creation the Koreebus shirt jacket became a symbol
of the resistance of the People's National Party in Jamaica
in the nineteen seventies. Baby rich, culture, rich roots, culture rich,
giving all this thing and rich spirit. Thank y'all so
much for being here with me today at TN and
(07:17):
Ivy Coco.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Do you just go buy Ivy or Ivy Cocoa. You
can got me just Ivy, just iv her Coco. Is
that just like a thing for your sibling.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Or the name.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
When she was in my mom's when our mom's stomach,
I pointed out to the stomma.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I was like Coco, Coco. And then Coco was born.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Oh my goodness, I love she became.
Speaker 6 (07:37):
An adults, and that she wanted to be called Ivy Cocoa.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
Ivy Coco I mean, is there's so much history to
the name Ivy in our family.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Well, tell me about that.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
Well, you know, our grandmother is just basically the root
of I feel like who we are is how we
embrace our Jamaican roots and our Jamaican American culture. And
Eta and I spent a lot of our summers back
home in Jamaica, like literally from the day school is out,
you don't come back to the United States until the
Sunday before school starts.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Well, actually we made a pit stop, so we'd stop
in Long Island to visit our grandfather in Westbury. Never remembers,
Oh my god, young, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Stopping what are you talking about.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
We would stop in Westbury for like maybe like a week,
and then we'd go from New York. We'd take off
from j K and then we'd land in Norman. Manly, Wow,
that's how it went.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You don't remember that you were too excited to get
to Jamaica.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
You don't.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
You don't remember, because literally I would That was literally
our itinerary. We stopped see Grampy and then we go
to Jamaica Sea Grandy.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
I remember Grandpa was already there when we read.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Sometimes sometimes he would even meet us there.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yes, I remember, yeah, but I remember. I remember.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
We spent a lot of time in Westbury, like our
our holidays, Collis and.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Lot of time.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
So you guys were originally based in New York. You
didn't always live in La.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
We Yorks in New York. Well, we've always.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Lived in LA but she would just travel there to grandparents.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Gotcha, gotcha? Gotcha?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Sounds good. So that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
So the rich history behind that, and I want to
talk more to you Ettin about that. After posting some
wedding content, you had gotten some people who didn't quite
understand how your grooms men were dressed. So well, we'll
address that a little later in the show, but I
just wanted to start off by giving you guys all
the praise and all the accolades for everything that you
are doing, you know, individually, together as a collective, the
(09:42):
strides that you're making out here in LA to get
people to be very mindful and conscious of their body,
their mind, their spirit, their soul, having that collective, having
that community. I tell my husband, when we were out
here in La for our short stent that I really
didn't have time to connect with like minded individuals who
were kind of on the same path and had the
same values in morale.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
All compass, I would have stayed longer. You actually hit
the nail on the head.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Had we found maybe that community, our tribe of people,
that kindred spirit, kind of connection, we might have stayed
longer and might have been convinced to find something out here. However,
in the meantime, when I do come to visit, I
do like to connect with folks like that. So you
guys have been on my list of folks to chat with,
just because I do have that deep admiration for what
you both are doing, especially if you don't mind me
(10:27):
giving your ages.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, thirty two and twenty nine.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
I mean at thirty two and twenty nine nine, you
guys can be doing a lot other things. And the
fact that you're so invested in your community and your
culture and you celebrated so much, I think is something
to be admired. So shout out to y'all. Thanks enough love,
enough love. So tell me about why you started Walk Good, La.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
Yeah, well, Walk Good started out of a need to
get active, But do it with purpose. And so after
the killing of Ahmud Aubrey, the unfortunate killing of Joy
Floyd and Breonna Taylor and so many black lives that
were taken from us, I felt like this innate need
for us to come together, for me to bring my
(11:09):
community together and get out there and protests, but in
the form of movement through running in my neighborhood in
mid City. I had gone to a couple of other
protests at that time, and I was moved to start
my own community. And so, you know, walk Good started
out as my production company, walk In Productions, because I'm
(11:29):
a filmmaker and an actor. But at that time, I
felt like it wasn't necessary to bring my community together
through my production company. So I wanted to be out
of I wanted to be through community. And by that
somebody asked me, so, what is.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
The organization called? And I was like, walk Good.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
LA, And that's how walkot LA was formed.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And so we would protest on Saturday.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
And at the first protest, my cousin Marley, our cousin Marley,
she just got to let go from a yoga studio,
and I asked her to like, got us some breath
work and some yoga stretches. At that time, I was
not into yoga at all, Like I go to a
few classes here and there. But when she was guiding
everybody in these yoga stretches and these poses, I was like, wait,
there's something here right. So I pulled mart this aside.
(12:20):
I was like, yo, we should come next week to
the park and do yoga again. So we would protest
on Saturday, do yoga on Sunday, and then breathe good.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Our yoga class was born, and we had.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Like thirty five thirty seven people at the first one, Wow,
and each class it started to double, and by the
time we got to the end of the month, we
took over the whole entire park.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
So this is that the park.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
So it's not that you had a brick and mortar location.
It was just people gathering outside in.
Speaker 6 (12:49):
The park that we grew up on down the street
from our mother's house.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Wow Wow.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So you say it was a form of, I guess
in a sense, movement therapy for folks who needed it
during a time that was very very dark for us,
where you met with any kind of pushback or vitriol
just from like the overall la powers that be I
guess I should.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Say, yeah, I definitely think so.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
I think when you're taking a stance like that and
you're in the streets on a weekly basis, we protested
for ten weeks straight, you know, you might have some
people honking their horns or saying negative things, or maybe
even just throwing a water bottle over you. I had.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
I'll never forget that.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Did you throw it back?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Is the you're just so intu it.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
It's like you can't even focus on anything else, right, you.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
Know, Yeah, no, I get you so, I mean, but
the thing about it is that there was some hatred,
but there was so much love. And because of that love,
that's how we were really able to grow. So what
started as twenty five or thirty five people in the
park ended up becoming two hundred and fifty three hundred
people in the park.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
So it really got to be a mass of people.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
Oh absolutely, because it was the thing to do and
it was like the safe thing to do that was
intentional and it was cool like for lack of a
better word, for lack of better words, we literally made
healing and wellness cool, like it was something that people
were able to participate in and actually be impacted at
(14:14):
a time where we were all feeling stagnant and felt lost,
and you know, we came together as a family and
we showed up every Saturday, every Sunday, and when the
protests started to dwindle, you know, we still kept going
to the park to do yoga, and then we were
able to implement our social justice message through the yoga classes.
(14:35):
So while we were out there, you know, protesting and
saying I can't breathe on Saturday. On Sunday, we would
encourage everybody and it became it became something uh, not
only intentional, but really beautiful. People were able to find peace,
(14:55):
enjoy through some of the darkest times that we were experiencing.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Ought into it originally Ivy when he gave there, because
you know something your siblings com up, comes up with
an idea and you're just like, I don't know about this.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
But honestly, honestly, that is exactly how happened.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I guess if you want to be there.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
But asking what she was doing on the first day
we started to protest.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
No, no, honestly, I think the first thing that actually
had a shoot, I got booked. You know, like everybody
was starting to go back to work during virtual bookings. Yes,
so I actually was working during our first protest, and
then my brother the second protest, he was like, the
next Saturday, were doing it again. So I'm like, all right, cool,
I'll be there, like I don't have to work. And honestly,
I was so grateful during that time that I was
(15:36):
able to work. You know, that there was some money
I could put in my own pocket, and she.
Speaker 6 (15:43):
Don't want to do it on another day, I was like, no,
it's happening.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, yeah, And.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
It was great because you know, we were actually getting
donations from protesting and sending it to the families that,
you know, Browna Taylor's family. We were sending them as
donations that we were receiving from our protests, So we
were actually raising money and awareness for people. But I
think the great thing about having a sibling like my brother,
who's so daring and different, is that like you have
(16:12):
to risk it. You know, if you don't risk it,
you don't get the biscuit. And so you know, we
are really wanting that biscuit, right, biscuit biscuit.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
This is mit Coco over here.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
She like, give me five prompts.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And you take the credit for that because everybody is.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Eating.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
You have some nice food on the biscuit. You know,
it tastes nice and sweet right now. Honestly, I think
that's the great thing about what walk Good was is that,
you know, this is somebody that took a chance on life,
and you know it really followed his heart. And I
think that's the greatest thing about is that, you know,
sometimes I will lead with my mind and he will
(16:58):
lead with his heart. And I think that and I
think that that is one of the greatest things he
could have done, because we've seen the growth of what
you know, putting love first looks like.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Oh for sure, And I love that you said that
you weren't deterred from the negativity that may have come
your way. You know, even just with social media, people
ask me all the time, you know, what do you
think about the negative comments? Is that I don't even
see them, right, I don't even see them because, you
know what, the love and the admiration far outweighs and
supersedes the negativity. So it's like, why focus on those
(17:31):
things when the abundance of love that you're putting out
is just growing exponentially.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
So love that, yeah, absolutely, I love that.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
So at what point did you realize, like, we're really
onto something here. Now we can find different ways to
build out what what good La looks like because people
are listening are a lot of entrepreneurs or people who
have ideas, and the point of this podcast is to
share your experience so people can say how we build
something from the ground up using what was our passion.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
Man, we saw the park full up, you know, I
was like, yeah, this is insane, like literally every just
imagine just like a big old park and just nothing
but to see a black and brown folks beauty in
the park doing yoga and just taking moments to breathe.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I think that was when I realized.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Because what we had left to go to Jamaica for
the whole month of January in twenty twenty one, and
then we came back in February twenty twenty one and
our first breathe Good back, we saw how our community
had trippled and in size, and then we were like, okay,
(18:38):
well now we could start hike good. So we started
hight Good, which is our community hig club that we
do once a month. Then we did and then we
brought back run Good and we did our run club
every Wednesday, and then we started Film Good, which is
the first film and wellness festival ever. We started You Good,
(18:59):
which is a Black men's healing circle. We started You
Good Yeah, which is a Black women's healing circle.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Everything everything is good.
Speaker 6 (19:08):
That's when we realized that we were able to expand
and offer things that weren't just yoga and actually provide
spaces of healing through the arts for underrepresented communities for sure.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Now, Etty, and how has your being a survivor of
gun violence? Has that at all informed how you work today,
whether it's just with Walk Good, La or just any
of your other endeavors.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
One hundred. It's funny you bring that up because I've
been thinking about this a lot.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
In my first year of starting Walk Good, I had
met with with the healer and she had asked me, said,
what is the part of your body that best represents you?
And I thought my heart, just like my sister said,
you know, I leave with my heart. I give everything
with my heart. And she kind of like you know,
(19:57):
cocked the head and was like, think about it deep.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
It was almost like a symbol rafiki moment. I'm really
think this is a circle of life, what's going on?
And then literally it.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
Hit me and I was like, Oh, it's my it's
my foot, it's my leg. Now I said, it's my leg,
I said, my ability to walk good. This is the
leg that I was shot in, and I think this
is the leg that has experienced the most trauma, that has,
you know, gotten the biggest beating and has gone through
(20:33):
so much.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
But it's healed.
Speaker 6 (20:35):
You know, I'm able to walk, I'm able to I'm
able to go to the gym. I'm able to find
my balance with both of my legs. So, you know,
when I think of everything that I've experienced through gun
violence and having gone to the psych ward and battling
my own mental health challenges, like it's literally a blessing
that I'm even here talking coherently.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I think of all those trials and tribut.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Relations that turn into my testimony, right, I think there
are a lot of young men who have been shot.
There are a lot of young men and women who
know somebody who's been shot and didn't survive the fact
that I've gone through everything that I've gone through and
I'm able to use my platform and tell my story
through this healing practice, it just might save somebody's life.
(21:23):
It just might have It just might have a young
man inquire about breath work, about meditation, about yoga, because
growing up, I didn't see.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Young black men doing yoga.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Definitely, it's probably frowned upon it.
Speaker 6 (21:37):
Yeah, And so I think when people see what I've
been able to do and build a whole enterprise and
nonprofit with my family, I mean, hopefully there'll be more
walk Goods all across the world based off of this
little plant that we that we that we that we planted,
that we planted four years ago will grow.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
No, that's amazing. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 5 (22:00):
I mean, I'm so grateful to see how we've started,
and I think it's so rooted in love. Like Etien said,
but I think we're able to bring all of our
gifts together. And that was the beautiful thing. Etyen was
able to lead and bring the people together. Marley was
able to bring the sunshine out of people, and during
our raining days, and you know, I was just able
to be there and like literally welcome people every morning,
(22:22):
selling T shirts, T shirt, T shirt, te shirts, you know,
every single Sunday. Like it was like we were all
being able to bring our gifts together because the thing
about it is like we weren't just doing this for profit.
We were doing this because we actually felt like this
was our purpose. We actually felt like we were called
to do this. And I think that's the best thing
about operating in your purpose is that you know that
(22:44):
it's a gift. You know it's God given, and so
I don't take it for granted. And I think that
knowing that we have the support the spiritual guidance of
our grandmother and our grandfather, it wouldn't be walk good
without our grandmother literally telling us every day, make sure
your walk go right, you know. So it's just us
embracing who we are and where we come from.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
You can't even sometimes fathom the idea of you know,
people always talk about like I'm living or I'm walking
my ancestors prayers and my grandmother's prayers, and to think
about where our families have come from. I can relate
to that, you know, also being of Jamaican descent, and
you know, my mom telling me the stories of how
she had to walk five miles to school and she
didn't have the shoes to do its had that same
(23:31):
same story and it's it's what it is, and it
gives such a greater appreciation. But you don't even realize
sometimes at the time, how when you're going through a trial,
for example, yours etsyan that that was just the setup
for the way you were now living in your purpose
to impact so many people. And it's such a beautiful
thing to see because you know, the evolution of our
(23:52):
families coming from such a small little rock right there
in the Caribbean, to like the impact we all have
now within our communities and globally because you know, everyone
has access to social media, we can see what's happening.
So this is awesome in an awesome space for you
guys to be in, and I feel like you need
to keep going.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Then keep going.
Speaker 6 (24:10):
I told us, if you would have told me that
I was going to be a yoga's instructor and that
we would be living the lives we're living right now,
I would have said you must.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Have no good But yeah, no, that's amazing. Your mom
had said once in an interview that nepotism doesn't exist
within your family, right. She said that you two pretty
much work for everything that you have, and she takes
(24:39):
pride in that and you take pride in that. And
have you ever had instances where folks have questioned, like
how you got an opportunity or why you're existing in
the space that you're in because of your mom?
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Oh my gosh, I mean I heard somebody say something
about Walk Good before and they're like, Oh, they don't
need this, they don't need this organizedzation. They have their
support from their mother. And we're like, our mom wasn't
teaching us yoga telling us to do X, Y and Z?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Was she did?
Speaker 5 (25:09):
She inspire us because she's a woman of wisdom and
she's a woman that knows how to bring people together
with her voice. And that's how we were able to
do this absolutely, But she wasn't the one that said
you need to go out there and do X, Y
and Z.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
Why she ain't introduced us to Michael B. Jordan's expressed
to get us that studio.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Oh wow?
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Did it so that that happened through a genuine connection
you had with her?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Let me tell you how that God is right.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
So we had started Walk Good four years ago, so
three years ago, no, last last year. Last year, we
get a call from Propel Fitness Water and they say, hey,
we got this new campaign Propel your City project. We
want to support fitness communities all across the United States.
(25:58):
They want to support Walk Good and asking us, well,
what do you need? What will propel your community, what
will build your organization? And at first we were thinking
about doing some type of program for one of our classes.
But they came back to us and was like, no,
actually we want to do something, but you need create
an impact. What you need yes, And I went back
(26:23):
to my sister and my cousin. I was like, I
think we need a studio space, right, So we went
back to them and they said we got you.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Oh, by the way, Michael B.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
Jordan is a part of this campaign to help your
initiative low and behold.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
They didn't know that Michael B.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
Jordan's brother Khalid had come to the very first Walk
Good protests wow literally June thirteen, twenty.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
And divine because I mean his family has literally come
into our space without even.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
His mom, his dad, sister.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
He said, brother, like, they've all come into the space
and they're like wait, wait, Michael was a part of this.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Yeah, I didn't even know.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
I had no idea, right, And his father actually do
yoga at like a juneteen yoga flow.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
It's crazy, you know, like it was all in divine order.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Wow, in divine order for real.
Speaker 6 (27:17):
And they've been like, I can't tell you enough how
appreciative I am for that family, for Propel, because literally
we would not have our studio space, the walk good
Yard would not exist if they didn't help us get
that money so that we could put it towards our studio.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Wow, very good, that's awesome. I didn't even know, as
you know, it's funny. I actually shot my shot with
Michael B. Jordan, not how you think because I'm a married.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Preface it when I DMD him and I said, well, funny,
quick story, I'll tell you really quick.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
My mom was at the gym, you know, local gym
where we live out in Georgia, and she calls my
phone and I missed the call, so ill I text
her about She texted me and I was like, what's
going on?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Everything good?
Speaker 1 (28:01):
She said, you never guess who's here in the gym
and she's in like the La Fitness and I'm like, ohoh.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
So she goes to Michael B.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Jordan's Instagram page and she screenshots his picture and sent
it to me. So I said, you're in the gym
in LA Fitness, in this random part of Georgia with
Michael B.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Jordan.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
And she's like, yes, girl, wait, let me get a picture.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
So I know my mom is like probably scrambling now
with her phone, probably being so obvious. Right, she probably
don't have an eye glasses or anything, so I can
imagine what she looks like trying to capture discreetly this
picture of Michael B.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Jordan working out in this La Fitness.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
So then I'm waiting for the picture to come along
and I see the bubbles and I see the bubbles.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And I said, I said, what happened?
Speaker 1 (28:43):
And she's like, girl, I lost him. He must have
saw me trying to take the picture.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
So I knew that Michael followed the family and my
husband and all that. So I just was like, you
know what, I want to randomly DM him and just
tell him this joke. So I was like, bro, my
mom literally was at Fitness to explain everything what happened.
So I said, please tell me that she's not crazy
and that you are in this part of Georgia and
you went to Talor Fitness today.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
So he messages me back.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Within a couple of minutes, which I was surprised about
because I was like, this is Michael Jordan. He's not
gonna answer my little DM right, And he was just like, hey,
I actually wasn't there, and that's just so funny that
your mom thought.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
She saw me, So it wasn't here. He was in
New Orleans filming something, and he's.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Like, but if I'm ever in that part of Georgia,
I'll definitely come to LA's Fitness. So I circled back
with him after that because I was having my live show,
which is now since not happening, but I'm gonna pivot
because he was going to be one of my interviews
there and he's like, I'd love to sit down and
do an interview with you one on on my next
press run.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
So I was like, oh, this is great. So it's
a good thing. I shot my shot in back, but
it was just so funny. How you know.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Listen's eye glass home? Are you telling me that that's
my She's like, hey, I promised you. It looked just
like him.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
They smile everything staying where. I'm like, okay, mom, sure,
all right.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
So a kind of.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Fun question for you guys because you grew up of course,
with you know your mom in the position she's in.
When did you realize, like, my mom is famous, like
people revere her. Was there like a particular age or
a moment where you were like this is it?
Speaker 6 (30:20):
I think we were always aware of it. I think
all the events we'd go to, the red carpets we
go to, especially during like the Moesha days, those are
like the big Hollywood moments that I remember, right. But
I think the beautiful thing about our mother is that
(30:41):
even though she is a famous actress, you know, she's
a she's a human being. You know, she's she just
happens to be our mom. She just happens to be
an actress. She's a real person. Absolutely no. She Yes,
she might have like this big bravado and has like
a special waves speaking, but I think that's her gift
(31:02):
that she, like my sister said, has passed down to us.
And I think some people might be intimidated by it,
especially if you have a strong black woman as a mother.
It's something that you can recognize. Oh and I think
she has done such a great job on screen of
playing a mom that when people see her in real life,
they're like, oh, my.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
God, I was raised by you through the TV.
Speaker 6 (31:23):
And I think that is a unique gift to be
able to have compassion for younger people and have an
understanding for younger people. I think is a gift that
my mom has always had and has passed down to
us for sure. But I always, to answer your question,
I always saw our mother as a special human being
(31:45):
and someone who is, you know, extraordinary, because she's not
your average mother at all, and not your average mother
at all, but she cares and then she shows she
shows a lot of compassion.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
So while she's a Hollywood mother, she's a.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
She's a human mom, and I love that.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I had a moment with her at the Jamaica Independence
galap last year. I went and was actually presenting an
award to her and we were sitting at the same
table together with her and oh yes, photo, yes, but
a testament, a testament to your description of your mom, right.
I was with my good friend Joshua, who's also my
videographer photographer good friend.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
His wife makes airrings.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
She's from Jamaica as well, So when we were there
at the event, his wife came along to support and
she had some earrings and she's like I would love
to give these to Cherry Lee, but I'm just shy
to do so I don't know what to do. So
I made the connection because we were at the table
together and my friend was down on her knees right
in front of your mom, and she was just so
humble and just so she had so much humility, and
(32:43):
she listened to my friend's story about her earrings and
how she started making them, and you know, your mom
took off the earrings she was wearing and put on
my friend's earrings and wore them on stage so proudly.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
And that was a beautiful moment from my friend. But
it was just a testament to how much of a
people's people your mom is. And she's just like a
genuine person, which is awesome. How about you, Ivy, when
did you realize, like, you.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Know, Mom's not just mom.
Speaker 5 (33:07):
I think for me, it's just like I've always known
that she's just someone operating in their gift. But I think,
like Etien said, she's very she's grounded. She's so she'd
rather be with the people, you know, And I think
no matter how big and how much she expands as
her brand and as an actress, like.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
She will always be the Sharley Raff that loves to
go to Ross.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
She'll always be the Sharley Raft that loves to go
dip her head in at Marshalls. She's she she loves
the Curer girl. Yeah, she'll always be like yo, I
have to go to my Korean spa.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Like.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
She embraces the things that make her happy like every
individual should. But I think what makes her such an
incredible A lot of people are like, oh, like Etien said,
your mother raised me on TV. It's it's because she's
such an incredible mother. You know, I'll never forget like
being in like probably like yeah, grade one and know
(34:00):
someone asking me my teacher on first day of school,
like what do you want to be when you grow up?
And I said, I want to be a mom. And
they're like, why do you want to be a mom?
I said, because I have an incredible mom, you know.
So when people say, oh my god, I love your mom,
I'm like, I love her too, right, I love her too.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I think that that's an interesting thing that you said,
because for me, I've always grown up knowing I wanted
to be a wife and mom and to your point,
having an example of an exemplary mother or father.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
You know, it's something that you want to emulate, You
want to be like you see what that was like,
you see the impact.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
I know the impact my mom has had on me
now that I'm a four year old woman. So for me,
top tier is mother and wife. Everything else is secondary.
So I can't completely understand how you feel. So I
have four boys, like I told you guys before, and
you know, we always talk to them about the importance
of paying it forward and working hard and like finding
their purpose. How do you guys stay grounded and rooted
(34:58):
in an industry that could potentially be one to kind
of take you off of your target or take you
out of your track. What advice do you have to
me as a mom who's raising some boys. You know,
I know you're just a younger woman, but in this
day and age, things are so different. So how do
you guys stay grounded and rooted in who you are?
Speaker 6 (35:19):
Whatever you do, it has to be bigger than you.
Whatever you do, it has to be bigger than yourself.
I think one thing that I've learned through our upbringing.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Is you have to be of service.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
I think that should always be a part of your
purpose is how can I help somebody else? How can
I use my platform to help somebody who might be struggling.
Our mother she runs a nonprofit called the DVA Foundation.
She started that after losing so many of her friends
and family to HIV and AIDS during her time during
(35:56):
dream Girls. And I think at a very young age,
watching our mother raise money for her organization really propelled
us really to start Walk Good and for us to
build an organization that is rooted in being of service
to people through health wellness in the arts. I think
(36:16):
also growing up, we grew up in the church. Our
grandfather was the music director in New York. We also
found out recently that our grandmother was also a community
organizer in her own right as a fashion designer.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
You know, she was one of the She was.
Speaker 6 (36:36):
The person to desegregate j C. Pennies in Connecticut. And
so I think we come from a family of fighters,
people who wanted to not only do it for themselves,
but do it for communities. And I think anything you'd
(36:59):
do in life, I think it has to be bigger
than just you. Like a movement can't be run with
just one person. People need people don't be afraid to
ask for help. Don't be afraid to, you know, to
just ask. I think that's the biggest thing that we're
a lot of us are afraid to do, is just
ask the question, you know, and just seek advice. Yeah,
(37:23):
And a lot of times that drives us into depression
and then we start to overthink, well, why are we
making these decisions instead of asking somebody who might be
more knowledgeable than us.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
So, yeah, don't be afraid to ask the questions. And
I love that be of service to people. I think
for me, it's just about finding your personal practice. What's
that one thing every day that you feel so unapologic,
unapologetic about that you can just get up and do it.
Speaker 5 (37:47):
Whether that's prayer, whether that's meditation. And I think, you know,
we all have our own type of meditation. I remember
growing up, and my mom's meditation was waking up in
the morning singing and burning her incense. For my dad
might be running biking or doing some pilates, or for
my grandmother might be opening her Bible and finding her scripture.
For my grandfather might be picking up the phone and
(38:09):
singing to his grandchildren. Like there are so many different
types of practices that make you feel good. And I
think that's what we really want to show people is
that you know you as much as you do good,
you have to feel good for sure, because you know,
for me, I'm like, when I look good, I do good.
When I feel good, I do good and I look good.
So I think you have to figure out what your
(38:30):
good is.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
What makes you ticking inside? Speaking of looking good, you're
a stylist. Thank you, you're a stylist. How did that
come about? Was that a passion of your.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Make up to yeah?
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, waiting and putting together stuff.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
And all that, all of that, Like my grandma taught
me at a handstitch. That was the first thing that
she ever taught me to do. She was always making
things in Jamaica, whether it was you know, a garment
or just a table cloth or anything for the house.
But she ran an incredible store called the House of
Ivy in Devon House. So after Ettenna and I would
(39:08):
finish up summer schools, we would go to Devon House
and help her with the shop. And I would remember
tourists would come in on big buses coming from like
ochi Ormo Bay coming to Kingston, and then it would
just be one of those things where I had to
help people and you know, just telling people about product,
and you know, I was amazing to see my grandma
see it from making the pattern, from cutting and sewing
(39:30):
to being on the sewing machine, packaging up and then
deliver and it was crazy. Like my thing was the
retail management of it all. Like it was like everything.
I would pack up my grandma's stuff and I would
take it to Carbs, car Beats. It was one of
the biggest stores, like downtown Kingston or like New Kingston,
not downtown New Kingston, Carby's, Yeah, New Kingston. I would
(39:52):
take my grandma's stuff to live with the taximan to Carbs.
So like all of this stuff, like the styling fashion,
I'm not new to it. I'm true to and then just.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Come about or you started styling your mom.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Is And I think there's a reason why my grandmother
has the name Ivy and why my parents gave me
the name Ivy. I genuinely feel I'm doing exactly what
I'm supposed to do. And I have the greatest teacher
who was my grandmother.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
That is so beautiful.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Wow, I'm loving you guys even more just sitting down
here half the time, I'm just watching you in admiration
because I'm just like so beautiful Grandma ivy. Okay, she
had a piece to play, I'm sure several, but a
specific piece to play in your wedding et t the end.
So we talked about in the beginning of the episode,
(40:46):
you know, me watching and praying and hoping that everything
would come to pass for your wedding day. Before we
dive into Grandma's tribute or your tribute to Grandma.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Rather tell me what that whole week was looking for.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
You give me a.
Speaker 6 (41:04):
Real quick So July sixth is the day that I
met my wife. It's the day that I proposed to
my wife. It's the day that we got married, not
only one day though, in the span of three years,
span of three years. And I always said when we met,
I was like, we're going to get married in Jamaica.
(41:26):
And so we've been planning eleven months for this wedding, right,
and I a month before the wedding, I go shoot
a Christmas movie in Canada and I tell Steph I'm like, yo,
that's her name is Stephanie. And I told her, well,
I'm going to be in Canada. So she was like,
(41:46):
all right, I'm going to go to Jamaica, make sure
that everything is set and good to go, and then
you arrive and we're gonna get married.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Girl.
Speaker 6 (41:56):
It is a week before our wedding. I'm about to
travel to Jamaica. And they said there's an unprecedented there's
an unprecedented hurricane hurricane five hurricane barrel category five hurricane.
I'm like, God, why all the weeks gotta be on
this week July sixth? And we get there, hurricane comes
(42:21):
and we're just stuck in the house, rain, no power
in Kingston at our at our home, yeah, and we're
playing Uno.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
We got the candles burning and we just you know,
share stories.
Speaker 6 (42:39):
It was my best friend Ron, my mom, my other
good friend Nika and her partner and Coco and stuff.
We're all sitting there eating KFC leftover KFC different islands.
And they tell us the next day that they've shut
down the whole airport, all the airports. Nobody can fly
in or come out, and they might not open up
(43:02):
until Sunday. We're getting supposed to get married on Saturdaturday.
My poor wife, she just broke down and cried.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
As much as you tried to be optimistic, and as
much as you try to hold it together, there's just nothing.
Speaker 6 (43:15):
And I said this too, that like that was the
biggest test for us, and it really tested our faith.
Speaker 3 (43:26):
Tested my faith for sure. I was thinking to myself,
why is this happening?
Speaker 1 (43:29):
God, Why were you always optimistic through ivy or were
you kind of like I don't know what I understand.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
I was sleeping, girl, I was up.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
It wasn't wedding.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
It was not anyway.
Speaker 5 (43:44):
It's funny because my mom came in my room and
she was like, yo, Coca has been sleeping for like
fourteen hours. I was so tired, and honestly, I knew
that God always has a plan. But like at the
end said, you know, like God will test you to
get to the testimony.
Speaker 6 (43:59):
It was through the oh, I know my God, just
like the anticipation of whether or not our guests were
even going to make it to the island, if they're
going to open back up the airport, and by the
grace of God, they said, we're going to open it
back up. On Friday, we were looking at the flight
statuses of my father.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
And my wife's parents, all of the key people, the
key friends and.
Speaker 6 (44:21):
Family, that were stuck in like Houston. We had friends
and family that were stuck all over the world. We
had three hundred and fifteen people on that guest list.
Two hundred and seventy five showed up at the Good
Hope in Trelawney.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
Jamaica, and it percentage.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
It was the most amazing wedding ever.
Speaker 6 (44:40):
Like I know, everybody, y'all got your nice little weddings
out there in Italy better than I'm going to say
I fell it out there.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
My husband's gonna be like, not after how much we spent,
But I'm like, man.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
It was given us the spirit.
Speaker 6 (44:54):
It was the story how everybody got there, because everybody
had a story how they Jamaica. I agree there were
a lot of people that didn't make it, but there
are a lot of people that did make it. And
I think when everybody got to the island, everybody just
didn't care.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
They were like, we made it. Read everybody the rain
it was clear.
Speaker 6 (45:17):
They said the rain might have fallen on July sixth.
I said, Baby, I said, Steph, the rain is not
gonna rain on our wedding. It's not gonna rain during
the ceremony. And then lo and behold the rain came
down soon as we did the the son and mother dance.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
Yeah, but it was fine. It was okay as long
as we got through the wedding, it was. It was amazing.
And then we had the best after party home video footage.
And I can't wait the edit that document.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
I was particularly touched to by you and your mom's
dance because it's also the choice of song.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
I'm like, that's a beautiful song.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
You would never think of applying that to your your
son and your child everything. I'm already getting teary. I
thinking about my four sons and having to have that
dance with them.
Speaker 3 (46:08):
Oh my god.
Speaker 6 (46:09):
I remember so growing up when my mom would pick
Coco and I up from school, after she would pick
us up from uh from shooting Mosha, she would play
that album front to back and that specific song everything.
Speaker 3 (46:22):
Wow, we're gonna dance to this song?
Speaker 8 (46:26):
Oh my god?
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Should I be picking out a song now? But the
music is not even good? The music is not even
good now.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
This is probably gonna be some old robat that I
picked because the music nowadays young.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
I don't know about that.
Speaker 6 (46:36):
And then we have you know, our second mom, Miss May.
She was growing up so you know, we were blessed
to have Miss May in our lives. When our mom
was always shooting or doing a show.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
You know, we had Miss May. She was like our
living nanny, and so I got to dance with her.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
That's a beautiful moment.
Speaker 6 (46:54):
We danced to Uh, my life is in your hands. Wow, Franklin,
that started balling.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Yes, you know them kind of moments.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
As much as you try to contain yourself, I'm sure
there was not a dry eye in the house.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
It was a beautifully ordained wedding.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
I love that, such a round out the wedding chatter.
Grandma Ivy, you're paying homage to her. Your groom's men
had a particular garb on tell us about that and
what whose idea was that?
Speaker 6 (47:23):
Like moment?
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Oh, I thought it was no.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
She was.
Speaker 6 (47:28):
She styled in the process. Even dang rest in peace,
war aor Boswell. He was the designer of my tuxedo
and it was the last body of work that he
designed before his pass.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
I'm sorry to hear that.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Thank you. He designed this.
Speaker 6 (47:49):
Beautiful double breasted off white tuxedo jacket and we had
two different pants, so we had the off white pants
to match with the jacket, and then we had the
black linen pants to.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
Go with the jacket to compliment the jacket.
Speaker 6 (48:05):
And the night night before UH we flew to Jamaica,
I was like Coco, which one am I gonna wear?
Speaker 3 (48:13):
And we collectively made this decision.
Speaker 6 (48:15):
That it was going to be the off white pants,
and then I wore the black one for the reception.
And then I hit up my brother Toastin from Naid's
studio and he was able to look at some of
the previous designs that my grandmother made from back in
the seventies, and he created like this modern version of
(48:35):
the cariba that my grandmother designed, which was to come
back colonial forms of dress back in the seventies with
you know, the short sleeve linen jacket and the de
pleated pants. And so it was beautiful that Toaston was
able to bring my grandmother's dream UH to make could
(49:00):
come alive because the Kariba was our grandmother's dream, you know.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
She said it came to her in a dream that
she saw.
Speaker 6 (49:05):
This, this this beautiful suit dress for man that's not
just your regular suit and tie. That's a young man
in Jamaica can feel proud and wear these these these
forms of dress and change the world in this formal attire.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
Wow, that that came from her mind. That literally came
from a dream.
Speaker 6 (49:27):
And so I thought, what better way to honor my
Jamaican heritage and my Jamaican grandmother then to dress my
groom's men in the Cariba.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
They were sharp, so sharp, Oh my gosh, so sharp.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
So from a stylish perspective, you were feeling it, Ivy, Oh, no, absolutely.
Speaker 5 (49:43):
Because I'm so passionate about the Cariba and the history
of it, not just because it's our grandmother, just because
of like the intentionality behind it, and because like not
just off of what Etchien was saying, but just to emphasize,
like she was making something sustainable, Like it was a
thing about her seeing men wearing long sleeve jackets and
suits and they're sweating. They're like, yo, there are men
(50:05):
taking off their shirts and they can see sweat drip.
And she was like, Yo, honestly, we need to make
something that's short sleeve, that's sustainable, that make people look
good and feel good and they know that they can
get into the courtroom and they can know that they can,
you know, take meetings in Cuba with foreign foreigners and presidents,
everything taken seriously. And I really look at this one
(50:26):
photo of Michael Manley wearing his Cariba and it's with
him and different prime ministers and I believe Fidel Castro
and you know, different people from different different countries, and
I'm like, wow, look upon miss Ivy and what she created.
It's just it's you know, it's something that I could
literally google that anybody can see. And I you know,
(50:49):
you know, I plan to do the same at my
wedding one day.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
You know, speak a girl. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
I am even going to say that I think you
might have started some sort of trends. Like people of
course will jump on the trend because they think it's
just trendy or it's fashion or it's different. But I
think that in every thing that you do, honoring your
grandmother and telling the story of the Kreeba is so
important because you know, the blogs will pick up your
picture and people may say, oh my god, we love
(51:15):
this look. Where they may question the look, like some
people did, but you were very clear about saying, uh huh,
not this man.
Speaker 3 (51:22):
You gotta understand where it comes from.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
Pick apart the wedding, but don't pick apart the Koreba.
This is where it comes from exactly, and I can
see people doing that. People have weddings in the islands
and in warm climates always, so this may be like
a new trend that you guys start to just I
see it.
Speaker 2 (51:39):
Ivs. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (51:40):
December twenty twenty four, House of Ivy making a comeback.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Yeah, okay, it's giving announcement. Yeah for sure, we have.
Speaker 3 (51:50):
December is a big year, a big month.
Speaker 6 (51:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
December n it's what's your birthday? December twenty third, nice,
my Goda's birthday. And the fifth of December it's not
love Baby and your Wife is the second.
Speaker 6 (52:02):
Yeah, November sixteenth, I'm the only scorpio on the fan. Well,
my stepdaddy's a scorpio as well.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
My baby boy is too. November eight awesome.
Speaker 5 (52:10):
And then ten has a movie coming out in December two.
Speaker 6 (52:13):
Yeah, HBO will own network. Okay, listen to Matrimony. Nice
coming out, and then day after that premiere is on
HBO Max my first, my first lead role.
Speaker 3 (52:30):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
You know, everybody loves a Christmas, so it's my favorite
time of year.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
Like I was born at the right, so I was
actually doing on Christmas Day came twenty days early and
for me after Halloween, like, that's my time of year.
So my Christmas lights go up, trees go up, all
seven of them. November first, and it's the entire season.
We celebrate Thanksgiving, my Birthday, Christmas, family time.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
And I will definitely put that movie in rotation. Tell
us the name one more time.
Speaker 3 (52:56):
You heard it first right here on Dead Ass Podcast, Matrimony.
Speaker 6 (53:04):
Network Leading Man starring myself and Ashley Sharp Chestnut, directed
by Rhonda Baraka. Yeah, and you'll see it on on
Network and comes out on HBO Max.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
So between that and How Survivor making a comeback, it's
about to be an amazing into an amazing, incredible year
with so many memories.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
I am so honored to sit alongside you, guys.
Speaker 1 (53:26):
You have no idea, and sitting here with you during
this time, I just get to see even more why
I felt like there was a genuine connection here, more
than just the Jamaican roots, more than just you know,
being people who are like minded individuals. But this is
something like a kindred spirit that I feel with you too.
So thank you, thank you for being so eloquent and
for you know, spending some time with me, a day
(53:47):
with k that's what make yea And if you ever
decided to bring Walk Good to La Atlanta, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (53:56):
Like you're also ready hear first. Okay, so let me
know how.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
I love it. Let's take a break, y'all, because we
can sit here and cackle all day. Let's take a
quick break and we will be right back. All right.
Speaker 1 (54:29):
So I'm back with et t N and Ivy Coco Maurice,
So tell me what's something that you're dead ass about?
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Nobody can shake you. I'm dead ass.
Speaker 6 (54:38):
About I am dead ass about my wife. Yes, I'm
dead ass about my sister, Ivy Coco. I'm dead ass
about now my stay Marley Ray. I'm dead ass about
my mother. I'm dead ass about Walk Good.
Speaker 5 (54:53):
I love that all the I'm dead ass about loyalty,
I'm deadass about my family, and I am dead ass
about honesty.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
Those three things. Oh, just so you know, are you single, Ivy?
I am single?
Speaker 1 (55:06):
Okay, So just no, there's a prospect out here to
start with those three Okay, she said, that's about those
three things.
Speaker 2 (55:11):
Three things? Yeah, are you single and mingling or you
just kind of like.
Speaker 5 (55:14):
No, it's don't work now I'm singling single and yeah
I am. It's really it's fun, it's exciting.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
Good for you. I love that. Are you overprotective big brother?
Speaker 3 (55:23):
Very much?
Speaker 4 (55:24):
So?
Speaker 2 (55:24):
I can just imagine I would.
Speaker 6 (55:26):
She knows better than to introduce me to somebody who
she's not serious about it.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Yeah, you got a whole tight until the right time.
Speaker 7 (55:36):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Well, we're gonna wrap up the show now.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
Tell everybody where they can find you, guys about we
heard about the Christmas movie coming out, how Surviving.
Speaker 2 (55:43):
But if there's anything else that you want people to know.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
Follow us on Instagram, Yeah La dot org.
Speaker 6 (55:50):
Make sure if you have a organ, if you have
a corporation that's looking to donate to a wonderful nonprofit.
We are we are glad Lee here to support with
Walk Good La, So please we need the donation.
Speaker 5 (56:04):
Yeah, so follow us at walk go La. You want
to follow our creative wellness studio with the Walk Good Yard,
Walk Good Ivy, Coco twenty three All good things.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
Love that all right, and be sure to find us
on Patreon to see exclusive dead Ass podcast video content.
And if you follow us on social media, you can
find us at dead Ass the Podcast. I'm Kadene I
am and don't forget about hobby. I am Deval And
if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, be sure to rate,
review and subscribe and remember to walk.
Speaker 3 (56:40):
Walkody.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
Oh is that like a thing?
Speaker 3 (56:43):
Yeah, teach me walk good wod Let me see.
Speaker 7 (56:50):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (56:51):
I like you are we leg going the bird.
Speaker 7 (56:55):
Bird.
Speaker 2 (56:58):
Thank you so much for being here, y'all.
Speaker 3 (57:00):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (57:01):
Good time than cut.
Speaker 4 (57:04):
Dead Ass is a production of iHeartMedia podcast Network, and
its produced by Dinorapinya and Triple. Follow the podcast on
social media at dead Ass the Podcast and never miss
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