ZuluOne: Heal the Wounds You Didn't Know You Carried
Welcome to the ZuluOne Podcast, your space for transformative conversations on systemic healing, family constellations, and transgenerational trauma. Inspired by the work of Bert Hellinger, this podcast explores the hidden dynamics shaping our lives and offers tools to heal ancestral wounds and foster personal growth.
Through biweekly episodes featuring expert guests and heartfelt discussions, we delve into topics like family systems, cultural awareness, and the path to deeper self-understanding. Whether you are seeking personal healing or exploring systemic patterns, the ZuluOne Podcast is here to guide your journey.
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ZuluOne: Heal the Wounds You Didn't Know You Carried
08. The Family Pattern Behind Your Struggles | J. Phillip Tavernier
J. Phillip Tavernier is a seasoned communicator with over 25 years of experience in media and community organizing, education, business development, and politics. Holding a BA in Philosophy from the University of Florida, Tavernier has demonstrated expertise in public relations through his work in municipal operations, grassroots community organizing, and multimedia presentations. His accomplishments include designing campaigns for artists, scholars, and business leaders, and serving as the Public Affairs Manager for the City of North Miami Beach. Currently, Tavernier is driven by his role as the Wellness Activities Coordinator for the Circle of Brotherhood. Notably, he is a founding father of The Fatherhood Taskforce of South Florida, which advocated to establish Fathers in Education Day, now in its 10th year. Fluent in French, Creole, and conversational Spanish, Tavernier has been married for 24 years and is the proud father of 6 children.
Find more from J. Phillip:
Circle of Brotherhood: https://www.circleofbrotherhoodmiami.org/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGh1aV3nqg
Circle of Brotherhood Hunger: https://www.circleofbrotherhoodmiami.org/hunger9
Support the ZuluOne Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/892585/support
Find more from us:
Website: https://www.zuluone.org/
Substack: https://johnacosta.substack.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zuluonepodcast/?hl=en
X: https://x.com/jaykaboomboom
Welcome to the Zulu One Podcast. Today, I'm honored to introduce my good friend, Philip Tavenier, Communication Community Leader and Wellness Activities Coordinator for the Circle of Brotherhood. From his Haitian roots to founding the Fatherhood Task Force of South Florida, Phil's life is a powerful story of connection, healing and service. Let's dive into his journey and the impact he's making. Thank you.
Speaker 2:What's going on, brother? I'm good. Jonah, how are you feeling today?
Speaker 1:Good man, it's really great to hear from you, man, and great, great to connect with you again, and I know we've been talking about getting you on the podcast for a little while, so I'm just uh, I'm really happy we were able to get this, get this to happen. So thank you for coming, man. Yeah, man, I'm looking forward to the conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So you know Phil, tell me, you know I. I obviously know who you are. We've been, we've been working closely together for for a little while now. But for the audience on the podcast, can you tell me a little bit about who you are and how you came to this incredible organization for the Circle of Brotherhood?
Speaker 2:So my name is. I was born Jose Philip Tavernier to parents that were immigrants here to the United States from the tiny island nation of Haiti and originally born in New York City and then moved to Miami when I was really young like so young that you know pretty much to the core and growing up here in Miami in what's known what was at that time known as Carroll City Now it's known as Miami Gardens and went away to school for a few years, went to University of Florida, got a degree in philosophy from there and came back to Miami in 1999 after leaving in 89, and started. You know, of course we all have a journey that precedes our birth, even some would argue right, and we'll probably get into some of that later on. And we'll probably get into some of that later on. But by the time I reached here to Miami, came back, I had my first child. My wife and I got married in 2000. We're coming up on our 25th anniversary this year. I have six children.
Speaker 2:I've spent a great deal of my life in search of truth and I'm a Muslim. I'm a student of the Honorable Louis Farrakhan, and I mention that because he had a great role in playing in my life. I grew up in a household with a father who was considered like a compa Haitian music legend, josé Tavernier that's my birth name, josé Tavernier and my mom, who was a soldier herself but who lost her father when she was 14 to political unrest in Haiti. And so I grew up around a very intimate relationship with culture and music and art through my father and then a great sense of justice with my mom, with her going through what she went through and then always being reminded of that. So I got connected with the Circle of Brotherhood really in its inception. Brother Lyle and I were friends. We both attended the local mosque here and I met him when, when they started the Circle of Brotherhood, which started out as really an organization of black men that were doing exercise in what is considered the pork and bean projects here in Miami, which is like a notorious projects here in Miami, that was featured our first 48 quite a bit, and and so it started out like that. You know our relationship, you know through the mosque and through our community activism, and then the circle of brotherhood just kind of grew from that movement and momentum and then it's like a child is conceived right Sperm and egg and then you got a head that's formed, and then the rest of the body just starts to grow from there, and then the rest of the body just starts to grow from there.
Speaker 2:So the brotherhood I first got introduced in its infancy stages, like probably even embryonic stages, right, and then from there just continued to be engaged with the membership until ultimately, fast forward to January 2024, well, or go back a little bit in 2019, we had an exhibition, or rather an expression of love for our community and sacrifice in what was known what we call the Hunger Nine and what the world knows as the Hunger Nine, which was a group of nine of the members of the Circle of Brotherhood. By the way, our motto is black men solving their own community problems, and also another motto is one brother, one hood. So when I speak of the circle of brotherhood and the things that I do in the name of the circle of brother, violence, the gun violence in our community that had just become accepted as normal, and so that was in 2019. The Circle of Brotherhood had already been forming as an organization at that point, but me being one of the Hunger Nine along with eight other brothers, it really raised the awareness of the Circle of Brotherhood's love and commitment for the community. That led to another resurgence and growth in the Circle of Brotherhood for me, which happened in January 2024 when I became a wellness coach for the Circle of Brotherhood, when our staff just increased that much more. So Circle of Brotherhood has a membership side and we have a staff administrative organizational side and I serve as one of the wellness activity coordinators in the wellness department and so in a nutshell, that's kind of my relationship with the Circle of Brotherhood how it came about.
Speaker 2:From the very beginning I knew brother Lyle, who is our executive director, prior to the forming of the circle of brotherhood, and I knew our Lord, our lead organizer, brother Leroy Jones, from his community work and activism. And you know when Miami's Miami's not that big, but there's a lot going on here. And when you're involved in certain circles here, you know when Miami's Miami's not that big but there's a lot going on here. And when you're involved in certain circles here, you know you run into people. So I knew our lead organizer prior to the Circle of Brotherhood and it's and it's, it's, it's, it's growth.
Speaker 2:And when you know people like that and you meet along the ways and then you come together right here, it really confirms that there's something greater than us at play, bringing us together, that there's a force. You know, in the Holy Quran, the Muslim book of scripture, it says call on Allah or call on the beneficent, by whatever name you call them, those are the best of names. So, whatever name you call God by, whatever you recognize the divine force by. You know, this is what we know, is really, you know, pulling this thing together. And then, of course, here comes this guy named John Acosta, with Zulu One right Starts coming to these meetings, and then, through the mission of the wellness department, right Now, john, who came to the brotherhood meetings. There was no wellness department, so now the wellness department comes about. So, oh, so now we can connect the membership, the administrative side along with this, this idea that John and Zulu one has about bringing constellations into the work that we're doing, we got a wellness department and actually to facilitate that. So here we are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I'm just. You know, I've been just in awe of the of. You know the blessings that come come to cob right, and you know you wouldn't you wouldn't if you weren't in the circle and you weren't there witnessing what was happening. It's like it would be almost. You know you couldn't write a story about this, right. It's like if you started saying to people like this is what happens and everything that you need is in the circle and you know, for for the listeners that don't know, there's every Tuesday night a group of men come together right, and now a group of women right in another room a group of women come together.
Speaker 2:It's a wellness circle now.
Speaker 1:Right, and sometimes there's speakers, sometimes there's ice-breaking activities or collaboration activities, and sometimes you have an event right that comes apart. But you know, as sometimes you have an event right, that that comes apart. But you know, as, as I know you say this, I know brother Lyle says this, I know uh pop says is that everything that you need is in that circle, right, and and I've seen it live right as somebody says I want to learn mortuary affairs, and then he's like, well, we got somebody exactly. I'm going to put you in contact with somebody. The kid's doing, you know, a kid's doing an internship. You know two weeks later he's doing an internship at a mortuary. You know, like who would have thought that? And that's just. You know the most obscure example that I can give, because I've seen just every need filled on a regular basis in that circle and it's just so powerful. And I think I've told you this right, We've said this before that this couldn't happen if you planned it right, if you said, hey, we're going to have an organization in 10 years that is going to have a national impact, is going to be recognized by the White House, is going to be part of dealing with real practical solutions nationwide and you say we're going to start and we're going to found that organization.
Speaker 1:Today I don't think you could be able to do this, other than the miracle of what the Circle of Brotherhood is, man. So you know, I want to, personally and on the record, just say you know how much I admire the Circle of Brotherhood and the work that you guys are doing, and you know it's it's so needed, even with and you know, know you're on the right track when the enemies are coming out of the, you know, out of the woodwork, right, that people are trying to derail the organization and people are trying to do everything that they can to make sure that they're right and that this thing doesn't happen. But you guys persevere in the face of that. So you know, I know the organization is secular and it's not, you know, politically affiliated and everybody comes from different backgrounds and different walks of life, and from the street to the suites. And you know what's the, what's the kind of unifying force that, that that binds everybody together.
Speaker 2:Love. In fact, that is what that's our greeting, or whenever we depart, like you know, it's love, comma, brotherhood, love, brotherhood. Like you know, people say peace, people say goodbye, see you later. It's common for us to to greet each other and to say hello and goodbye by saying love, and it's not the love that typically people associate with, that is just an emotion. You know, love for us is not only a noun, it's a verb.
Speaker 2:So, you know, we have, of course, the principle of sweat equity and, like you know, in the example that you gave just so that people that are listening that they know, that's an actual example that you witnessed, where somebody said they wanted to go into mortuary science. Like you say, you can't make that stuff up, right. But in the same respect, john, there is something that is very divine about the way that the Circle of Brotherhood has come together, that we believe it is by a divine plan, because all the time, in fact, brother Leroy has been saying it lately he said most of us will not really even understand what we're doing until 20 years from now. You know, and then, even before that, he told us he would. Even before that, oh, look at this guy, he walks. Look who just walked in. We're doing the podcast right now, 20.
Speaker 1:You better realize how great you is now. Don't wait 20 years from now and then wake up. You got to enjoy the moment right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's Leroy Jones, our lead organizer. We're literally talking and then superstars just be walking in. Look at this man. We got Desmond Meade man. No, no, desmond, come on now. Listen, man. This brother right here has been you know, you hear about, yeah, you got to. He's shot for no reason. This brother right here man is the brother that is responsible for the Florida restoration rights, the Amendment 4 in Florida that has become the talk of the world. This is him. He just be floating around in the talk of the world. This is him. He'll just be floating around in the circle of Brother. Real World, the real Amendment 4. That's incredible.
Speaker 1:That's incredible.
Speaker 2:So when we say that this is by divine, you know to that point we're talking about that this is by divine order. Like you can't make this stuff up, man. You can't Right. Listen, man, you can't Right. All right, man, thank you, desmond. Thank you, brother. Yo love you too, sir. Yeah, so you know to that point we can't make this stuff up, man that what we're doing, how they say build it and they will come, and we believe that. And we're building a refuge man, that what we're doing how they say build it and they will come, and we believe that.
Speaker 1:And we're building a refuge man for folks to come in and be able to, you know, serve our community better. Yeah, yeah, and you know, I know you. This is this is an important topic to highlight, and about the generational dynamics of incarceration in the community and how. You know how much that affects the. You know the ability to create these, to perpetuate these patterns of pain. Can you talk a little bit about what you've seen with the combination of constellations and breaking these cycles?
Speaker 2:I'm tripping because you know, because Desmond was one of Time Magazine's Men of the Year, bro, wow, yeah, he's on the cover of Time Magazine, it's amazing.
Speaker 2:It's hilarious man. But as far as constellations go, I've seen various responses to constellations, which has been feeding my curiosity about the how do I say. It's been feeding my curiosity, john, about, first off, how different we all are as individuals and how we process information and how we process our experiences. Right, because I've seen folks go through Constellation, where it was it was it was, it was so impactful that they're like I don't really want to deal with it right now. I don't, I can't, I like it's, it's too much for me to to to deal with right now, so we're not going to go too much further in it. And then I've seen even my personal experience with constellations, right. So I've been through, I think, maybe three experiences right Sessions.
Speaker 2:And there was one session where I was a part of it and I told and I gave myself permission to just try to feel whatever it is I can feel from it. Right, you know, they pull me from out of the circle. You come stand right here, all right, and as I'm standing there I'm telling myself who are you? What does this mean? Open yourself up. And I'm talking to myself and I'm just like, ok, just be whoever, just be whatever you're supposed to be in this situation.
Speaker 2:And then I began to feel angry, I began to feel, um, uh, outcasted. I began to feel like, um, like, literally, I don't care if you all don't care about me, you know these things. So I'm like, okay, I'm, you know, I'm going to go ahead and just and let this go where it goes, so, and and I'm getting these things. And then, and then later on in the, the, when it's revealed who I am to me and to the group, in the thing I was the perpetrator, I was like, hmm, that's interesting, right? So my experiences with constellations and with healing and the process of healing, right, because sometimes, in order to heal, you have to hurt first.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to acknowledge what is.
Speaker 2:You have to acknowledge what is, and acknowledging what is can be hurtful, yeah, you know, especially if you're the one who was the one who hurt the person Right. And then it's also hurtful accepting the fact that you were not volatile it was what's the word I'm looking for. You were young, you couldn't protect yourself. Yeah, you wanted, were young, you. You couldn't protect yourself. Yeah, you wanted to, and you couldn't protect yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it hurts the fact that, man, I wanted to do something about this but I couldn't. And then sometimes it just hurts because you were numb at the time.
Speaker 1:So anyhow, no, and that that's such a, that's such a uh, like that's such an accurate representation of it right, is because, you know, and that's such an accurate representation of it right, and that's the kindness of this thing is that we can understand how we've all been victims and perpetrators in some point, right, yes, and I think that that's the beauty of some of these constellations is that it's a profound acceptance of responsibility, or assumption of responsibility, yes, sir, and you can say now that I, that I'm aware I can do it differently, and I think that that's like, you know, one of the things that that you know, we, we short shorthand for cervical brotherhood is COB, right, is one of the things that I see in COB is just an assumption of responsibility. It's like, hey, we're going, this is our fight and this is our mission, this is our, you know, cross the bear, for lack of a better term, right, this is the thing that we're going to do and it's just, it creates such deep admiration. You know, and I, and I know that, that there's many modalities because, you know, brother Lyle and I were talking about the. What would the 777, the 20, you know, like, what happened when you were seven? What happened when you were 14? What happened when 21?
Speaker 1:You're like that came from from his religious teachings and I was like man, the exercises, they all resonate, they all come to the same place to understand what happened in those, in those places. And you know, as they say, as they say, and there's a japanese samurai guy that says, when you know the way broadly, you see it in all things right and you say like that's why this resonates so much with me, is like you're, this is all ancient generational knowledge that we have. It's just different packagings or different delivery methods for it yeah, it's uh, you got the 21st century.
Speaker 2:um woman philosopher known as El Boogie, a Lauren Hill Everything is everything, everything is everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah Right, so. So, phil, I know you've been a staple in the Miami community man. I know you've you come from, you know kind of the entertainment background a bit and you've been, you know, involved with you know the city of North Miami.
Speaker 2:You know tell me a little bit of how those connections and and and that experience has brought you, you know brought you, to connect more with the community, with, with CLB in every way, because we, we have quite a few different outreach events that go on and and we, you know, at the end of the day, man, we, we, you gotta have some kind of way to measure your impact and and you got to be able to you measure your impact by the, the number of engagements that you have.
Speaker 2:And so, just in my sojourn here in Miami, as well as prior to being here, I've worked in the world of politics, right, I've worked in the world of entertainment and I've done a lot of work with non-profit organizations, and from that work and building relationships with people in those different environments, it's allowed me to move around and negotiate in a lot of different rooms and I'm able to bring all of that back to the circle of brotherhood.
Speaker 2:The best example of that would be the bee Bees. What they do is they go around to different flowers and not only do they pollinate flowers, but they extract from the flowers and in the process of the bee doing that, they're able to come back to the hive and make honey and honey, which a lot of people don't really know and understand the medicinal properties of honey. Honey is one of the best medicines on the planet, you know, and that's what those experiences have led me to be able to bring back and make some honey over here at the Circle of Brotherhood, you know, with all of those experiences, yeah, and speaking about that, so, speaking about honey, right, and, and you know the the sweet part of life, um, what was?
Speaker 1:and I would imagine that there's some deep insight into this process, but what was what was doing a 21 and a half day hunger strike, like you know? I bet there wasn't a lot of honey in that process, right in that process, right, what was? What was that like? What, what made you decide to do it? And and what was it like through throughout the process?
Speaker 2:So, if you can, just from the beginning, paint the scenario, paint the stage of what, how, how it came about. So so legend has it no-transcript. And so this one particular event, that annual event that was taking place, the Brotherhood was participating. There was a group of brothers that were there, and Brother Leroy was one of the ones that was there, and at that event there was like 40 women, man, 40, 40 to 50 women that were there that were wailing and crying about the loss of their children who had died to gun violence, to violence, man, and, and at that event there was one brother that was there, ok, and his son is named King Carter. King Carter is a was was a story that made national news Little, six year old boy who caught a stray bullet and was killed by that stray bullet. And his father was there and St Tarvis King was there and he spoke. When he spoke, he spoke and roared, the way that you see movies and the Lion King, and when you hear a lion roar and all in the jungle they scatter and they run for cover and they fear for their lives, they run for cover and they fear for their lives. His pain was so profound when he spoke that day that the brothers in the circle of brotherhood heard his words and, as they were leaving the event, they said we got to do something about this man. So Brother Leroy, chicken George, brother Albert and a few of those are the ones that come to my mind right now that were there that day. Who these, all of these brothers, are? Og hood legends? Okay, brother Albert is the producer of one of my favorite songs ever, a Miami classic called Pick it Up. Pick it Up by the home team, but he also has a book that's out right now. Right, and he is a legend. He's a legendary pharmaceutical distributor here. Those are that y'all dope deal All right here in Miami. And Chicken George put it like this and Leroy as well Leroy is Leroy. You know, the first time he was arrested, I think he was eight years old or something like that, and Leroy and was arrested subsequently and did he was eight years old or something like that, and Leroy was arrested subsequently and did three prison terms, et cetera.
Speaker 2:These are brothers that were known nemesis to their community and that are now turning their lives around, that have experienced this event, hearing these women crying and hearing King Carter's father speak and say to themselves we have to do something. And then he came back and he said listen, man, we're going to do a hunger strike in the same vein as some of the great ones did hunger strikes. Gandhi did a hunger strike right In the same vein as that. We're gonna come together and and we have to do something to raise the consciousness in our community that this is not normal. Now, for me personally, at that particular time in my life, I was looking for something that I can, that I could put myself through to raise. It's like you have to put gold through a furnace in order to clean the dross off. And I was looking for something at that time and, ironically enough, I was. I wanted to do a 21 day fast myself, but I could hardly get past 12 noon. You know much less 21 days.
Speaker 2:And so Brother Leroy contacted particular individuals in the circle of brotherhood to talk to them about hey, man, we're going to do this thing and it's not going to be, it's not going to just be a normal hunger strike that we're doing. We could get into it a little bit more, but the Hunger 9 was an encampment that we created. In the words of Dick Gregory, he said you don't do a hunger strike in order to turn bad people. Good, we never had the intention to do a no hunger strike, thinking that we're going to end gun violence from that. But what you do is that you create a hunger strike so that you can create an energy, so that like-minded people can come together around that and to raise the awareness. So you know, in brief, that's kind of how that came together for me. But each brother has a different, particular kind of journey that brought them to that space.
Speaker 2:But there was one thing that Brother Leroy would say when we were in there. He would say hey, man, the longer we stay in here, the more we raise our stock in what we're doing. Right, so we have to stay. We can't. We have people come in. What are y'all doing? You need to stop. And we were right across the street from a Dunkin' Donut, john, like, yeah, we like this. We'm literally looking at Dunkin' Donut every day watching people come in and out. Some people they had it got to a point that we had to stop people from coming in the encampment because they would come with their food, they would come with their lunch. It was like to some people it was like, oh yeah, I'm going to go do my lunch over there at the Hunga Nine, so I'd go talk to them and see what was going on and we had to kind of stop that.
Speaker 2:So for me that's kind of what brought me to that place. I've always been in search of my calling and my purpose and I've been blessed man. God Almighty has blessed me that. You know, whenever I really think about something and I'm looking for it, it appears to me kind of clear. You know, it's one of my superpowers that I really, you know, everybody needs a Professor X in their life, man to help them understand and develop and grow their superpowers. And I don't. I have, I don't really have a Professor X in the sense that's right there molding me and shaping me. But I've had a few in my life and but that particular time that was one of those experiences, man, that brought me to better understand my purpose. And then, you know, going through the Hunger 9, there's a few lessons that I learned from that right, one of them which I tell my wife and you know my wife, who I'm so grateful for her and I'm so blessed man.
Speaker 2:I have six beautiful children and just yesterday I was talking to my wife about, you know, everybody's starting to go in a different direction. You know we still have an 11 year old that's at the house and a 14 year old and an 18 year old. That's there. My 24 year old. We're blessed because we have some land and so he's got a tiny house on the property. So he's there, but he's not there. But I'm saying that to say that my two daughters on top of that right, we're talking and I'm like everybody's growing and developing.
Speaker 2:And one thing I realized, john, I lost my father. He passed away last year and one of the things that I realized actually passed away in 2023. And one of the things I realized when my father passed away was that my mother and my father, they were just two young people trying to figure it out. It's really, at the end of the day, what they were. And so I realize right now in talking with my wife that you know, we're two young people trying to figure it out, but I'm looking at our beautiful children, man, who's starting to grow and they're blossoming.
Speaker 2:And you know everybody got issues and whatnot, but you know, I'm grateful because that's the big hat that I wear. The big hat that I wear is father, you know, and I don't get it right all the time, man, but all of these experiences that we go through, we need to learn how to use those experiences in the present tense so that we can become better. As we are and I think that's one of the things that constellations do too is that by facing and dealing with your trauma, you can better put into perspective who you are, so that you can benefit from the trauma, as opposed to the trauma being a blood sucker of your your physical, spiritual and mental being you know that's, that's, uh, that's such a good point because you know it can be a pain, can be a catalyst for growth, right, it's like when you go to the gym, right, no pain, no pain, no gain, as they say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, it's like people's lifting weights and you know they go in, you know that you've lifted weights when you, when you're sore, when you're like you're in pain, and all this stuff. And I think the the same thing happens when you do hard things and you know I was, I was just a bystander and and when, with the hunger nine and I saw it on the news and it made national news that these guys are doing this, you know, 21 and a half day hunger strike to bring awareness to gun violence, and I'm like man, that is something, that really is something. And so tell me, tell me a little bit about you know the, the role of of men in the community and why this is. This is so different than than everything else that's tried out there before. There's something special about this and, from your perspective, what do you think is a little bit different about this group?
Speaker 2:What I would say to that, john, is that one you have. There's a scripture that says it's in Proverbs, I believe it says men sharpen men like steel sharpens steel. So the idea and the concept of men coming together for the benefit of securing their community is nothing new, right, there's nothing different about that. But what is different is that in the black community, we have had some very deliberate efforts to destroy our unity. Right, you can go, you can research for yourself those that are listening. You can go and research the counterintelligence program you can of the United States that came from out of the CIA. Right, to destroy the rise of a black messiah that can galvanize and unify. You know the different fractions in the community. You had the.
Speaker 2:What we're finding out right now is that the United States government was hands-on involved with the assassination of Malcolm X, like his family. There's literally they're suing the US government right now for $100 million I think that is what. That's the number that's attached to it. Right, you have the effort of the government to destroy the nation of Islam. So there's always been this effort to destroy the coming together of black men in particular. You know Allah, the way Pharaoh said when he saw the children of Israel multiplying. He said let us, let us deal wisely with them lest they join on to an enemy and come against us. So kill the male bull, the male child and spare the female. And this has been the pattern in America, particularly as it relates to the unification of black men, so that coming together and striving to build something for the benefit of our community is nothing different. Right At the backbone of Black Wall Street, tulsa, oklahoma, and numerous other Black communities that developed that were able to create a nation within a nation, there's always been Black men that have been at the root of that right. I was just looking the other day. Do you know that ambulances here in the United States? It was the Freedmen's, I think they were called the Freedmen's, not the Freedmen's Bureau, going back that far. But the first ambulances in the United States were created by black men in the black community that were rejected, outcasted and despised, that had to find a way to take care of our ill Right, and so ambulances grew. The ambulance served Police were the ones that used to bring people to the hospital back in the day.
Speaker 2:So I think what makes the circle of brotherhood a little different Is our motto one from the streets to the suites. Number two is that our president, pastor Mack, is a Christian pastor. Our executive director, brother Laum Mohamed, is a Muslim. Our lead organizer, brother Leroy Jones, is a spiritual brother who navigates through all of those environments freely, openly. But Brother Leroy is a mastermind strategist who is a very spiritual brother, right.
Speaker 2:So we strive to not allow these particular denominations and these particular socioeconomic backgrounds right. It doesn't matter if you have a million dollars or no money in your bank account, or you don't have a bank account, if you've been, if you serve 32 years in prison, like our brother Jay right, jay Innocent. Shout out to Jay Innocent. Right, who did 32 years in prison, man who was wrong, who was held in prison, wrongfully convicted, right. Or if your brother Albert, who did 23 years in prison for whatever he did, or if you never seen the back of a police car, you are welcome here to the circle of brotherhood, because our job is our motto black men solving their own community problems. And I think that's what makes us a little bit different is the seasoning of the men that have come to this to make this particular meal for all to come and feed off of.
Speaker 1:That makes all the sense in the world and you know, I've witnessed it firsthand. Right, and be able to say that. You know, all these men from different backgrounds come in and look at it. Right, and even me, right, that I just came down as like it was I'm always in awe and it always makes me emotional of like how welcoming it was it was. I'm always in awe and it always makes me emotional of like how welcoming it was, you know, and like the courage because I I look like a cop, right, and that's because it's a reality.
Speaker 1:I look like a cop, my background, like I grew up in Venezuela, I look like the way that I look, and it was just like open arms, man, it's like, come on, in, everybody's welcome, and I just stayed around. You know, just like, as this person just stayed around, I was so curious about what was happening and also the curiosity the curiosity of capitalizing on the tools as well, to say that this kid's coming in with this weird ass that's going to, you know, go in deep and and and work on people's souls, that through family constellations, and be like, yeah, let's do it All, all tools are welcome here. It's just like that. I think that's just such a magical thing that's happening organizationally.
Speaker 2:You know, one of the biggest differences with the Circle of Brotherhood and other organizations that have tried to come together to do this, that are, quote unquote, secular right, is our training. We put a very, very, very strong emphasis on training. You don't just come and sign an application, fill it out, pay some dues and get a brown shirt. You have to go through the training. It doesn't matter. Right now we have a newly elected judge, you know, from Broward County, who is in the training with you know, a 20-year-old young man who doesn't even have a high school diploma doesn't even have a high school diploma. It's because we our training and the emphasis on training is what also separates us, apart, man, our one of you know. There's a couple of key terms that the circle of brotherhood has right.
Speaker 2:You come into the room we say brotherhood, you're going to hear a massive amount of people say brotherhood. Do we serve our community? One brother, one hood. When does training stop? Never.
Speaker 2:So that's another thing that makes us very different, man, and it goes back to again. You know, scripture is one of the foundations of my life, so it's a reference point I go back to, not to make you not to be religious, and I'm not saying that as a, I'm just saying that because we, you know, we got to tell people that because religion has been run through the mud man. So when you even bring up Bible and you bring up Quran and you start, oh man, here go one of them. Guys. Right, but I say that's why I say that.
Speaker 2:But the reason I'm saying that is because to lift up that scripture man that says train a child in the way they should go and when they get older they will not depart from it. That's the principle of the circle of brotherhood. If you get the proper training when you come into an organization or into a job or at your house, right Home training, once you go out you won't depart too far away from that training man. You'll be able to do the things in your community that bring honor and respect to the organization or the family or the group or the government that you represent. And so our training is very, very, very, very significant to who we are.
Speaker 1:Hi, I'm John, host of Zulu One. When you become a supporter on Buzzsprout, you're investing in the future and mission of this podcast. Click the link in the description to get started. We're very grateful for your support and thank you for being part of our journey. You know, one of the biggest things that my takeaways you know always from the meetings is, like you know they're saying is like you know, grown is a prohibited word. Right, I'm a grown A man. Right, I'm a grown A man. No, no, no, it's like no man we're growing.
Speaker 1:We're growing, man, we're in a constant state of growth, and that's just such a powerful mindset to say nobody's arrived.
Speaker 2:Once you're grown, what happens? If you're grown, then you're what.
Speaker 1:Then you die, you're done it's over. You're done, you're dead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because there's always room to grow. Once you're grown which is the past tense of to grow then that means you stopped growing. Grow, then that means you stopped growing, which means that's the end to your ability to become better, and you don't come to the circle of brotherhood to stop getting better. You come to the circle of brotherhood to continue to grow and be better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's, that's so powerful man. And, and you know I, I think you know I was I was listening to a podcast a couple a couple of weeks ago and it's like, if you surround yourself by high performers, your performance goes up by 15%. That's right. If you surround yourself by low performers, your performance goes down by 35. Wow, it's not even equal. It's not even equal, it's a it's. It's double, right. The effect is double in some right that if you're, if you're around slouches, right.
Speaker 1:So you know I, I like to, you know I, I, you know I take my son to the meetings and I'm like, listen, man, this is inspiration, this is, this is what being a man really looks like. You know, assuming responsibility, grabbing the bull by the horns, solving problems, taking, you know, taking life and doing something with it, setting direction, growing as a human being, being held accountable, holding other people accountable, creating clarity, creating momentum towards solving, you know, the deep rooted issues in a community. Then I'm like this is the most every, every community in the country can learn and sit down and take this as a case study for for becoming the best versions of themselves. It's just, you know, and I've, and I've drank the K've drank the Kool-Aid man, you know, I'm, I'm in, I'm all in, and I and like, and you know, so much so that that I've challenged some things and I'm like, hey man, you know, I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to create another perspective here and I'll and I'll, you know, just with all with, because I'm invested, you know, and I and I've never been like, hey man, you can't say stuff is like, it's always been welcome.
Speaker 1:And you can't imagine how grateful I am for, for the opportunity for, for the lessons, for you know the care and love that you guys show my, my family, my son. You know I brought my dad to the, to the, to COB, and, like you know, it's three of us, right, all three generations. They are man supporting and just such a blessing man and and and and it's been, it's been so incredible.
Speaker 2:And and I applaud you for that, man, because I watch your son when he's at the meetings and I would say, if I counted the number of meetings that your son's been to, he's probably been to at least 15 meetings. Oh yeah, At least. At least 15 meetings Right, and meetings right. And your son is what? 10, 11?, 11.
Speaker 1:He's 11.
Speaker 2:And I watch his engagement at the meeting.
Speaker 2:It's not like the engagement of a typical 10 or 11-year-old comes to me, because we have a lot of those too. We've had 11-year-olds that we had to put in the middle of the circle. You've experienced that as well, and I watch your son engage. And it goes back to training Train a child in the way they should go when they get older they won't depart from it. So the circle of brotherhood, the purpose of it, is so multifold, multifaceted, that it it just bears witness to what brother Leroy says.
Speaker 2:Most of us really don't understand what we're doing. And we know he says we won't understand what we're doing until 20 years from now. And what I think about that. I'm thinking about little John, your son, and we don't even know what we're doing. Imagine little John 20 years from now when he's citing the things and his experiences and he's got a foundation then that he's standing on One. Just his relationship to black men. Right, I know he's not going to see himself different from being a black man. He's going to be like yo, I'm one of you, you know, just by virtue of his presence, you know what I mean. And he is because black is not just color man. Black is color, it's culture, it's consciousness and it's a corresponding cosmic connection, man, which is how you perceive the divine. If you could get past those layers, man, then that's when you get to the core of what makes us, you know, divine creations of a most high God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, that's what I love so much about constellations is you can not even speak the same language and deeply resonate with the emotions of another person, race, creed, background, whether you're plaid, polka dot, striped, you know, purple rainbow, whatever you are, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:We all have, we all that's and that's what zulu the one in zulu one stands for is that we come from one unity, one connection that, regardless of race, creed, background, whatever, I can represent the exact internal dynamics that's happening in you because we resonate as we have soul resonance, and that's what you know.
Speaker 1:If that's happening in you because we resonate as we have soul resonance, and that's why you know, if that's why I want everybody in the world to do a consolation right now, that's why the the, my mission is to say, is to educate people on how to recognize yourself and the divine in others.
Speaker 1:We can do that. We can break down every single barrier in the world that you know just and you, you, you present that you had that. You know that experience when we did the constellations is like this is everywhere, man, every single time, regardless of whatever happens. So I think it really is that game changer that you can set this thing that's like the light switch every single time we get into a room, and I think the Tuesday meeting is a version of that. It's like that miracle happens when you get people together that deeply resonate, that are doing the call and response, that care about each other, that are holding space for each other in love and only in that place is where those miracles can happen and the power of brotherhood and connection brings out the best in each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I agree with you, man, and for me, constellations, because I've been giving it a lot of thought and I was a philosophy major in school Like that's what my degree is in and I don't give a lot of that stuff a lot of credence. You know what I mean, or at least I didn't as much in the past and now that I'm starting to delve a little more into you know Nietzsche and existentialism and Kierkegaard, and I'm looking at those guys relative to you know the teachings of the most honorable Elijah Muhammad, to the struggle of the history of black folks here in America, and then my background coming from Haiti and voodoo, and then Islam, and now I'm trying to make sense when is the one God in all of these different things? You know what I mean and constellations being like. You mentioned a tool from my personal toolbox. You mentioned a tool from my personal toolbox right to help me better understand myself and my relationship to this world that I'm in so I can live my highest purpose and vibrate on the highest level.
Speaker 2:Going through constellations for me has kind of it is awakened a child's side of me too, because I used to love the X-Men man and I still do, you know, and I love the concept and the idea of superheroes and being able, and even the Matrix. Right, neo being able? Like when the little boy is bending the spoon and he says you know? And he's like wow, that's awesome. Right, neo's talking to the little boy and the little boy says you know? In so many words the real trick is to realize the spoon doesn't even exist.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:The goal is to see that these barriers that we have, that they don't even really exist, right. Going back to you know everything is everything and how you quoted the samurai, right To see everything in, in, in the smallest thing. Right To see the whole world in a drop of water. That's the goal. And so, going through family constellation sessions myself, you know one of the things that I share with you. It kind of it opened up that part of me. I used to play Dungeons and Dragons when I was young, right, which is a what it's a role-playing game, right, and one of the best ways to do training is when you bring people up and you go through role-playing right To deal with you know how would you deal with a certain issue, et cetera. So, between Dungeons and Dragons and role-playing right, and then also being into the comic books and Dr Strange and how he would open these portals, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then also knowing something about the pyramids in Egypt, where many argue that these are actually time travel portals for beings to come in and out of, I'm saying, okay, dr Strange, right, you go through portals, right, the pyramids, which are really there. These are, you know that vibrate on a higher frequency and some say that they're portals right, or antennas to give information out to higher. And then I'm like, okay, so constellations, you create this circle and people are willingly open to giving themselves to be representatives for another person's issues, traumas and experiences. Oh, so that that maybe that's where it's at. So, you know, I just give that to you, man, because that's what kind of is helping me to better understand, um, family, constellations and and how they work, so that I can be, you know, the proper uh, you know like uh, the cog, or if I'm, if I'm just a little bolt in it, let me be the best little bolt in the process.
Speaker 2:Right, or the body. You have nine systems right, or you, or or you have cells make tissue, tissue makes organs, organs make systems, systems make the body. I'm just a little cell in the big body, but cancer starts with a cell. Yeah, exactly One cell cancer starts with.
Speaker 1:The most beneficial things and the most detrimental things start with one little cell. Yeah, exactly One cell gets to starts with. The most beneficial things and the most detrimental things start with one little cell start with one little cell.
Speaker 2:So it's like, okay, how do I figure out how to be the, my, be the best cell, whether it's the circle of brotherhood, in, in my, in my Muslim community, in the, the, the, in the, the, the community at large that I serve in my household as my father, and that's to me, that's what Constellation has opened up for me a different way to look at all of those things that I mentioned, and I think that's the value, you know, to the question about, that's the value to me that I think that others can get from.
Speaker 1:You're, you're, you're absolutely on track. Because if we look at it like we are cogs in a cell in a system, right, you know, we're, I'm, you know, all the way from our, from the cells that we have in our body, the atoms that make up our body, right, those are all resonating inside of us and then those make up our you know blood vessels and those make up our organs and that's all a system, right. Your reproductive system, your, you know respiratory system, your circulatory system, your, your neurological system is all system that make us right. And then we are also a system inside of I'm a father and I'm, I'm the son of somebody, of two people, and then, and then they're the kids of two people, and they're the kids of two people and they're the kids of two people, yeah, and then I have children, and then I'm part of my community and I'm part of my neighborhood, I'm part of, you know, in some way, cob and I'm a part of Florida, I'm part of Broward County, I'm part of my job, I'm part of super complex superposition systems that all work in unison.
Speaker 1:But my theory is that the more you can heal yourself through methodologies like constellations or COB, or prayer, or Kung Fu or yoga or breath work or fasting, or all the things that make you heal and release the trauma. You can become a better cog, you can become a better influence on that larger system and I think that you know the road to 5,000, that poster that you have behind you is how do we get to that tipping point that will change a community over that next 20 years, that 20 years in the future, we can say we did all these things and all of all these things. We don't know exactly what worked, but the combination of all of it changed the trajectory for millions of lives. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:And just like the cancer starts from one cell, the healing also starts from one cell. So, mr Farrakhan, he says it like this in a series of study guides. They're called self-improvement is the basis for community development. So if you can focus in first and foremost on yourself, right, know thyself.
Speaker 2:It's been written in like Know thyself yeah, know thyself, man, then you can begin to affect the outside environment. But when you're on an airplane, man, what do they, we do, and what prevents us from doing the things that we want to get done? Doing the things that we want to get done and you cannot? I was. I'm reading a book right now by Tim Grover, relentless. And he says in there he throws passion to the wind. He says he says what he says.
Speaker 2:I get tired of people saying follow your passion, because it's not. It's not your passion that's going to get you to where you need to be, it's you doing the work. You got to work on your passion. If you don't work on your passion, it'll just be a feeling and an emotion that's inside of you. You can't follow a feeling and an emotion. You can't follow that. You have to work on your feeling and your emotion right Now.
Speaker 2:Mind you, you can get into semantics. You know what I mean, because to some people, follow means continue to do. But the point that I'm trying to get at is the work, man, and work got to be defined too. You can't say, oh man, I'm working hard, but your economic condition ain't changing, your relationships ain't changing, but all you doing is really being busy. You're not really doing work. Work is force times. Distance equals work. So everybody that's listening and I'm talking to myself more than anyone we have to dig deeper into ourselves, man, and really do the work. That's where the constellations and meditations and the internal work the way out. A good friend of mine Society once told me he said going in is the way out.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:You got to go in to get out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and one of my favorite Bible verses and I talk about this in almost every single podcast, but Romans 12, 2 says do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be renewed by the transforming of your mind. There, it is Right, you hear this stuff everywhere. Everybody has these universal truths that we talk about and they deeply resonate with who we are, and I think that, you know, the biggest act of service that you can do is to do that to yourself. Right, it's like love thy neighbor as thyself. That's the part that everybody, where you know, doesn't think about, is you have to love yourself first to understand, to be able to be able to be a good servant to others, and that's, it's all starts with self-love. Man, like love brother, right, you gotta, you gotta love yourself as well. And you're in and you're part of that, uh, of that dynamic, and you know so. So let me, you know, let's go, let's go into a deep cut.
Speaker 1:And you know, one of the one of the, the things that came up and, uh, when, when I was in in the circle, is is the Willie Lynch letter. And for those that don't know, and, and there's, there's a, there's a consolation context to this, to this letter, and you know it was. It was written, you know, quite a while back and you know four, four hundred years ago, right to say how do you keep black men down right in some capacity, or slaves? Really capacity is slaves right, slaves down. And you know I, when I was reading I would never come across the document and you know I did some research of it and some people say it's whatever right, it's like, whatever the criticism is of it. Criticism is that it's not real right correct, correct.
Speaker 1:The principles are real but the principles are absolutely 100 real.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what I was, what I was thinking is like making of Willie Lynch, the making of Correct.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that letter could be changed to the the the making of unresolved trauma as a weapon to keep people separating, to keep them, you know, to keep them activated in their trauma.
Speaker 1:And so if we start looking at it like now, we understand how the mechanisms of social systems work. The anti-consolation is the Willie Lynch letter, right, just like to separate it, to use trauma as a weapon. You know, one of the things that I've, that I, that you and I, you and I've had this conversation is like one of the most effective things that you can do is when you heal yourself, you become immune to the social and, you know, to the social and communal trauma activations and you escape, you create almost escape velocity to get out of that. You know pattern vortex and it's like that's the, it almost seems like that will be the way, like, like your, your buddy was saying that through this pain and through healing this generational trauma is how we're going to be able to escape this, this internal dynamic of what Willie Lynch did was that he says I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves and I take these differences and I make them bigger.
Speaker 2:I use fear, distrust and envy for control purposes.
Speaker 1:Does that sound like anything that's happening today?
Speaker 2:Oh man, it's even when you go through now and you're talking about, you know, and I don't want to go off on it you know into, into, you know conspiracy, quote, unquote, conspiracy theories. But even when you're talking about in Hollywood, right, and they take these child actors, right, or even the situation with with the rap mogul who's now in jail, and that they use shame, right, they use envy and distrust and shame and those things for control purposes, and that they even take little children and if you want to really produce a child star man, you subject them to violence and you subject them to, you know, just shame and just bad situations. But then you put them, you use their talent and their gift and you make the talent and the gift them right. They get riches from it, they get attention from it, they get all those things from it, but then you always linger behind their shame on it and then that's how you can control them, right. You know even, I think, what's his name's birthday was this week, elvis's birthday was this week. And when you go back and you look at the history of Elvis and who they call the colonel, right, who is his handler and how there's always been this mysterious relationship between Elvis and the handler.
Speaker 2:And then you know my point in saying all of that is going back to trauma, man, and how those who really know the human mind, they know that you can control human beings by traumatizing them. In fact, the slave master on many of the plantations they would take some of the pregnant slaves that were on the that they would take. They would pick a pregnant slave from out of the groups, that of the slaves, and they'd line all the slaves up and they would take the pregnant woman, man, and they would cut her belly and they would in front of the other slaves, particularly the women that were there right, the other pregnant women, and they would make them watch this and they would kill the child. Some say that the taskmaster would crush the skull of the baby once they snatched them out of the womb of the woman and the aim and the objective of that was to pour trauma into the unborn children of the women that were watching what was going on.
Speaker 2:That's how deep you know wicked scientists man that know and understand the power of trauma in order to manipulate and move people. And I'll close it out with the point that Henry Kissinger, he said in the past it was easier to fool a million people than it was to kill a million people, but today it's easier to kill a million people than it is to fool a million people. Why am I bringing that up now? Now, in this age of information and technology and constellations and new age thinking and meditation, and now it's not as easy to fool a million people today as it is to kill a million people. But now what they do is that now they give you these cell phones, man, and misinformation. Or, as you and I were in the brotherhood meeting this week, man, little did I know, man, how detrimental, damaging and toxic and poisoning toilet paper is? Man, how it's killing us? Now it's easy. So, anyhow, man, I digress, man.
Speaker 1:You know, I think it's a it's, it's such a good point, and the same mechanisms can be used for healing Right, it's like let's and that's. You know, that will create. We can. We're in the process of doing. It's going to be slow, arduous work, but as we're doing it, we, I think we can. The territory is ripe to be able to.
Speaker 1:Now that we understand the mechanisms of trauma control and the weaponization of trauma, we can use the same towards healing and connection, because that's what makes everybody great, that's what creates the most potential from everybody, that's what creates the most connection. We can create momentum towards abundance and synergy, rather than being held down by the traumas of the past. And you know, are you familiar with Pogo? Have you ever heard of the?
Speaker 1:Pogo has a great saying, and I love this saying is that we found the enemy and they is us. If we truly believe that we're one consciousness, you're a representation of me, man, and we all connected to God. That you are, I am, you are the representation of me and I'm the representation of you, and we all sit in the, this reality that is that is held together by the creator, by the creator of all things right, that that us doing this is the highest purpose that we've been, we can be called to, is to heal to heal not only for me, but to heal for you and to heal for everybody around us, to heal for our children. And it's, it's a it's that that profound calling of responsibility that I have, that it says that I'm going to dedicate my whole life and I'm I'm never going to stop until this mission is fulfilled and this will take generations to do, to be able to, to, to spread this word and spread this message with, with incredible people like you, man.
Speaker 2:You know, to that point there is. You know there are many who say that the best way to learn how to do something is to teach it, and so the best way to learn how to heal yourself, man, is to actively engage in helping others to heal themselves, like that's part of your healing man is for you to help others do it.
Speaker 1:you know you know and we're talking about the previous point is like I think a lot of the today's dysfunctions in our society come from. You know, people even being unaware of the depth of how horrific some of our social wounds are, you know, like, how horrific and how generationally destructive they were, and I don't think many people know and even realize how that echoes through our, our society today and that malicious actors have learned how to grab onto those things and weaponize them for their own personal benefit. But if you heal, you're no longer triggered, you can no longer be manipulated, you can no longer be subject to those external forces.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in fact, we see it happening a lot in politics in the world today. There's a word for it, I think it's called a populist candidate. A populist candidate, right. A populist candidate is somebody who uses you know what is popular epithets, right? A person, a politician, who strives to appeal to ordinary people, who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups, right. So populists, they'll get out there, and and they have no concern about the poor, but they'll just get out there, and those you know I won't talk about anybody in particular, because it's effective, right, and it's math and it's science?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's math and it's science. Yeah, it's math and it's science. If you have a lever and you understand the lever, the logical thing is to pull it right To win. If you're willing to win at all costs, you would do the same thing. So there's something that so.
Speaker 1:Are you familiar with Carl Jung? Yeah, for sure. So Carl Jung talked about you know Hitler, and he said Hitler was the voice of the subconscious of 78 million Germans, that Hitler had the crowd as much as the crowd had Hitler. And so that's why I'm always very concerned about a base level of trauma, the dangers of a base level of trauma, because that trauma can be catalyzed for absolute, catastrophic destruction, and it's a lesson that we should all learn. To say you know the more. That. That's why I'm I'm so passionate about like doing.
Speaker 1:This mission is like the. We have an opportunity. This is an experiment, and this experiment has had some really good things and really bad things, but it's led to at least what we have now. Right, the fact that we're around is a miracle. The fact that you and I are having this conversation over the technology that we're having is is nothing short of a miracle, that we haven't torn each other apart.
Speaker 1:You know that traffic happens, that you know that the structures of society have some, with all of its warts and bumps, and all the things have in some way maintained, to sending people to the moon, to creating, you know, beautiful music, creating beautiful art, creating a place that we have at least to live. And, you know, find some prosperity Right, and that the people that that that want us to destroy our country and to destroy the place that we're from are are counting on our inability to heal, so you can continue to tear apart the country. That's right. What if we, instead of doing that, we do this and we teach everybody else how to do this as well, to come together and to create a prosperous future that's going to be beneficial for all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is that being the goal, right, it's very important that we understand, like Sun Tzu in the Art of War, you have to understand the lay of the land and you have to understand the enemy that you're up against. You have to understand yourself, you have to understand the lay of the land and the enemy that you're up against. And I think he says he who knows, he who does not know himself and does not know his enemy, will lose in every battle. He who knows himself but does not know his enemy will win one and lose. One who knows himself and his enemy will be victorious. Right. So we got to understand these things, man and the environment that we're in, like a concept and an idea that you and I in developing. You know, coming to where we are now with constellations, which is in systemic resistance, right, that's a very significant part of the lay of the land. And if you don't understand that, it'll be like in the public enemy with Chuck D when he says in that song, brothers gonna work it out. He says brothers that try to work it out, they get mad, um, and don't realize they're super bad. Right, because brothers that try to work it out, they, they get mad, p-funk, real, super bad. The bottom line is that when you don't know the lay of the land and you're working in it and you're getting all of this rejection right Like Jesus has said, he came unto his own and his own received them not you don't understand it. Before you know it, you'll be like the hell with this. You'll be like that joke that says man, what happened to all the revolutionaries in the 60s? Oh, man, they got government jobs in the 70s. And that's what happens. Because this thing is a protracted war and you got to understand how to take care of yourself in the war, how to heal yourself in it, because we're battling not against you know flesh and blood, but against principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places, people that have learned over time, man, how to manipulate mind frames. So it's no longer about controlling a person, man, it's about controlling the water. It's about controlling the educational system, the financial institutions that get people in a state of deprivation and constant survival mode that there's no room to create and work on yourself. So all we're going to do is continue to pour into your community things that cause you to traumatize your own self and your own kind, so that now we come up in there and we're the saviors, we're going to help you figure your thing out. That's what you see happen in Haiti, man, right now.
Speaker 2:This week was the 15th anniversary something you celebrate, really the 15th memoriam of the earthquake. But there was these billions of dollars, man, that were given away to Haiti and to organizations and NGOs, which are non-governmental organizations, and it found that, like the Red Cross, who got billions of dollars, they built like a handful of houses, man, 85% of the money that they got in most of those organizations went just towards paying the salary and covering the overhead. Crazy stuff. Like that, man, these are people that have long learned to be. They're the Willie Lynches of today. They systematize Willie Lynch, they systematize populism, you know, and whatnot.
Speaker 1:And and I think that in in as above, so below, right, yeah, and we get it they're just reflections of both of our internal systems, is what's reflected, and I think over the years we've gotten a little bit better, but we got a long way to go. Man and I'm I'll tell you this I'm glad I'm shoulder to shoulder with a guy like you, man.
Speaker 2:Raise me to God.
Speaker 1:I have so much to learn and you know it's really inspiring man and today's been such a cool conversation to have. So, Brother Phil, if people want to get a hold of you or want to get a hold of COP, how do people do that?
Speaker 2:Well, with Circle of Brotherhood, you can definitely go to all of our social medias circleofbrotherhoodcom or Miami. Circleofbrotherhoodmiamiorg is our website, right? We're at Circle of Brotherhood on all the socials. Right, At Circle of Brotherhood on Facebook, on Instagram, on all of those. You can give us a phone call at our headquarters. I got to pull up that number. Shame on me, right? I don't know the number. Pop, who is our director of communications? You can call us Circle of Brotherhood at 786-615-4475. 786-615-4475. That's the Circle of Brotherhood phone number you can go to again, circleofbrotherhoodmiamiorg. We also opened up our first chapter in Broward, which is the Pompano Circle of Brotherhood.
Speaker 2:If you just Google Circle of Brotherhood, you will. Or if you search Circle of Brotherhood I got to get out of the habit, man Like saying Google, google is not the only search engine out there, right? I'm synonymous with. Now, you want to look for something, google it, right? Which? I ain't mad at those guys, but I'm like again changing the mind frame, right? But you just search on the internet for Circle of Brotherhood and you'll find a great deal of information. Myself, in fact, I think I sent it to you. I don't know if you had a chance to watch it. I just launched.
Speaker 2:Really, I've been documenting hip hop and and and movements I really culture right over the past 35 years of my life, and I just launched a new television program. It's online Right. It's online right. I like the word podcast, but it's so. It's becoming so generic now, like for everything, right, and I don't want to be throwing that thing. But anyhow, my point is it's called the Urban Globe and we've been doing it for quite some time. We've been doing it for a lot of years, man, and so we just released episode one, take Uno, of the Urban Globe, and you can see, you know, you can also go on. It's on YouTube. We got you know some classic clips with Queen Latifah.
Speaker 2:We're going into the last election that just took place. We're actually striving to get Nick Quested, who is a longtime hip hop video director, who produced a documentary that is called 60 Days, and it was. It was the 60 days from the election of of Donald Trump, the first time, to the insurrection that took place on January 6th, and those 60 days in between, and contrary, I shouldn't say contrary and those 60 days in between, and contrary, I shouldn't say contrary. A lot of people really don't know that the Proud Boys who were at the at the. At the root of that they. They were formed and founded right here in Miami. You know what I mean. So, god willing, we'll have Nick Queston on the video, you know, sometime soon. He doesn't know it yet, but we just putting it out there right now Nice.
Speaker 2:So, anyhow, that's the urban globe.
Speaker 2:You can find me at T H E U N O U N O, faisal F A I S A L on Instagram, faisal X T or Faisal X Tavernier my last name, t A V E R N I E R on Facebook and we're just figuring this thing out, man, cause I got tons and tons of interviews and information and people and experiences that I've gone through, that I've documented, and now it's just that time to really share it, john, because people can really benefit from the stories of our lives, like my children, shouldn't have to start from scratch, like every other generation, because men don't share with their sons and their children their experiences.
Speaker 2:So that's who I am and that's the circle of brotherhood, and I'm so grateful for you, man, and the work that you're doing, and for and for seeing it through and sticking through, man, with um zulu, one with the circle of brotherhood, because I know it came a time it was like yo, it's a wrap, man, I'm done, yeah, but you know all things. All things you know come at the right time and at the right season and we, as farmers of, of, of souls and spirits and experiences, man, you know we got to keep working. Man, the people got to eat, bro. We stopped farming. Man, the people? People are going to starve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no. Thank you so much, man. And and if anybody wants to get involved, witness this firsthand, the miracle that's happening in Miami, you know. Encourage people to come by, take a look and and donate, collaborate, post, amplify these voices. These voices are the things I need amplified. You can criticize and throw rocks all you want, but in Miami, on Tuesday nights every week, in and out, it's real works happening.
Speaker 2:The address is 5120 Northwest 24th Avenue at the Dr Dorothy Bendross Mendingall Social and Economic Institute. Please come and see us, man. Come and hang out, not hang out. We don't use hang out, no more. I got one of my elders man on the last note. He told me one day he says brother, his name is Minister BI Muhammad and he survived the lynching. You know, and back in Louisiana it's a legendary story. And one day he said, brother, how are you? And I was feeling a little weird. That day I said, oh, brother Menestai, you know I'm hanging in there and he looked at me. He says you know, brother, you shouldn't use that language. And he starts rubbing his neck. He says you shouldn't use that language. I could still feel the rope burn.
Speaker 2:So on that note, man, no more hanging out, man, it's time to pull up.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, yes sir, Brother Phil, thank you so much, man, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2:You got it, john Love man.
Speaker 1:Love. Thanks for tuning in to the Zulu One podcast. If you found value in today's podcast, please don't forget to like, share and subscribe. Your support means everything to us and thank you for being part of this journey.
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