**** Producer's Note: The following is a general transcript of LCC Connect's weekly radio program. Contents include but may not be limited to podcasts, program imaging, announcements, and PSAs. More detailed and accurate transcripts of the podcast episodes featured in this broadcast can be found at LCCconnect.com or by following the links provided in the show notes of this episode. ****

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Now Spinning, the official podcast of the Lansing Community College Vinyl Record Club. We meet twice a month to listen to vinyl and talk about music. Stay tuned to learn about how you can get in touch with us and attend our meetings. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Now Spinning. Today in the room with me, I

have Tyler Reckon, Jacob Zocvic and Noah

Miller, and I am still Simon Medina. Welcome back, everybody.

Are you sure?

Pretty sure.

I mean, he could change his name if he wanted.

You're gonna be surprised next time, don't you?

Destroyer of Worlds host, Now Spinning.

All right, speaking of names, however, today we have an interesting topic for our meeting we did on November 26th of 2024, and the theme was what's your name? And every song that was played today, minus the first one, but that's for a good reason, had a name in it. And we have some interesting ones to talk about here. But first, I want to start off with the first song that was played, which is who Are youe? By the who.

I brought that one in.

Yeah, that was fun.

It's that English single picture sleeve, which I am very proud of.

It's fancy.

I love that song. Just because of, like, the who Were always ridiculous doing, like, who's Next? And, like, had funny album names, like, clearly bordering on puns. And for the who to do who Are you? Is just another classic example of that, where it's like, you guys are having a little bit too much fun with this.

Yeah. Can't think of a better song to start off. A meeting that saw all people's names, though. That was inspired. Yeah.

This is like textbook 101.

I was thinking of doing that for, like, months and months and months.

As soon as you saw the.

Yeah, I was like, oh, I'm definitely bringing this in.

Love it.

It's powerful. Moving on from that one, though, we have Was this Martin by Soft Cell. That's a good band.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So Soft Sell kind of just recently got into them myself. I didn't bring this one in. I don't remember who it is. And I'm pretty sure.

Pretty sure it was Steve.

Yeah, Seems like a Steve thing, but just a classic sort of electro synth pop duo from the 80s narrative into it.

I mean, you know, it's like a. I mean, it's just kind of like a killer, basically. He's watched too many movies and he's getting all these crazy ideas from all the things that he listens to. And, you know, it's just general, like, media panic of that Kind of nature there.

A lot of soft sell songs lyrically have a very dark tone. They're one of the first electronic groups to, like, introduce discussions about drugs into their songs and stuff, too, and how that can affect you and things. And that's like. Yeah, it's a serious tone for what is essentially just dance music, but it. It also forces you to take it a lot more seriously.

Yeah.

Which is cool, too.

Yeah. A lot of their stuff, they definitely lean into, like, kind of the post punk kind of sound a little bit on addition to that. I mean, obviously, like, a lot of the dance stuff from that time was kind of, kind of linked to that, like, you know, New Order in a weird.

In a weird kind of way. Yeah, it was very. It was very intertwined in genres that we don't necessarily think of as being similar, but fundamentally kind of are.

Yeah, that's great. Interesting stuff. Moving on from that one, though, we have a favorite song of mine from a favorite album of mine, and a favorite album of one of our friends who couldn't be here today. And that is Amelia by Joni Mitchell off the album Hejira. This is maybe my favorite song that she's ever written on. That's a tall order.

But my favorite Joni Mitchell song that she's written is Woodstock.

That's a good one. That's a very good one, though. But this one is a very interesting song because it ties together, I believe, like, one of Joni Mitchell's own experiences of kind of just being, like, lost in the desert with Amelia Earhart and her story of getting lost. And it's very evocative imagery. It's a very good song. I wish I could get more in depth with it, but I try to remember.

Yeah, I agree with that.

It's a very lyrically complex one. It's a good song, though. Shout out to that album. We love that album.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Leo, I'm sure, is glad to.

Got it. Yeah, we got it.

So now we've got. Andrew Eldridge is moving back to Leeds. This one is actually pretty interesting. It's by the Mountain Goats, which on their Spotify page, it basically says that for all intents and purposes, it's one guy, John Darniel, and whoever he chooses to have around him at that moment. But yeah, it's just kind of like a one man thing and he brings people in. I just kind of really respect that sort of work style and just being so, like, singular minded in the vision that you want to do that. You're just really excited to Bring people on to realize that.

It's kind of the drifter mentality a little bit. You know, the vagabond drifter kind of style of like, I'm gonna go from town to down, get in work anywhere I can. And it's like, to be a musician, say, I'm just gonna drift from one musician working with me to another and just keep making music. And it's. It's got to be lonely in some ways. But you must get so much more variety. Like, I. I'll bet you he. They're. They're never really bored.

Yeah. I mean, I. I tend to go back to this guy a lot, but Frank Zappa, it's very much that kind of energy and just. I don't know. I just super respect that. I don't know.

Zappa is good. I've been getting into him and I learned. The other day I was looking up, you know, the whole thing with the theater or whatever that caught fire.

Yeah. Smoke on the Water.

Yeah.

And then the next morning, I was heading to work, and on 92.9, they were like, talking about, oh, music like lesson, whatever. And they were talking about Smoke on the Water. And I was like, man, I was just reading about that last night.

Yeah, it's a pretty wild story. We got off topic. We got off topic.

Very off topic.

But that's okay. All the story.

Great artist. Next to the next song we've got, aren't we? Is that all you had?

Yeah, just Andrew Eldridge. Really, really good track. Really nice, laid back, cool chord progressions. Just really cool structure of how the band and the guy John Darniel works. Yeah, just really respect that.

Okay, so the next song on the playlist is a song that I brought in. That's. Sheena is punk rocker by the Ramones. Love the Ramones. This is actually from one of their later albums. Interesting.

Really?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, later is relative, but it's not from, like, the first four. But it was after they had started to kind of wane in commercial success, and this was another kind of big hit for them. And it's actually kind of, like, stylistically a little bit different. It has very obvious, like, surf rock influences, but still pretty squarely within the world of punk rock and just like, classic song. So I looked this up right before this. Sheena is based on a comic book character, but otherwise isn't an actual person. They just wanted to write, like, a punk rock anthem for all the gals out there that want to get into it, which is super cool.

That's Cool.

Yeah.

Oh, also, apparently one of the first songs to explicitly mention punk rock, like the term punk rock. So there you go. If you're ever wondering why. Why does everybody say the Ramones invented punk rock? Well, because they kind of. They were kind of pretty influential.

The set of prints.

Quite a big deal. That's fair. That's all I got for them.

Good band.

And we got Neil and Jack and Me by King Crimson.

Did you bring that in?

Yeah, that was. That was me.

This is the complete opposite side of the spectrum from the Ramones.

I think, in some ways, wacky transitions here in these meetings.

Yeah, yeah. There's some that are pretty kind of like, whip your head around. It's like, whoa, okay.

I always love when we do that. It's just so jarring.

It's one of the best parts of meetings, whenever that kind of thing comes around.

Absolutely.

But, yeah, Neil and Jack and me, just a cool, like, kind of sort of math rock kind of thing. Whenever I listen to this track, I always think of Mac DeMarco for some reason.

Just the guitar part of it is

like the guitar tone and then like, the interweaving, like, rhythmic melodies of the guitars there. I don't know. That's just what pops into my mind. But, yeah, just really fun. This was about, like, the Beat Generation. Hence, it's on the Beat album and it's mentioning Jack Kerouac. And I forget who the Neil is in reference to.

Is it Neil Young, friend of the show? I'm pretty sure we've definitely made that joke before.

Friends of the show. Yeah, we have tons of those.

No, I mean specifically Neil Young.

We might have made that joke.

Yeah. Georgia got played at a meeting and I think we had a whole spiel about Neil Young. Anyway, sorry to keep referencing our own

material, but I might jump back in and mention who the Neil is. And later, since I'm having kind of

trouble finding it right now.

I'm very sorry about that.

Who played next? We've got Clementine by Elliot Smith.

That was Leo. It was Elliot Smith. That's another great artist that I've been getting into a lot recently. It's beautiful melodies. The vocals are very like. It's like they're both, like, at the same time. It's really vulnerable, but it's very, like. He's very confident, what he's singing. I think it's what it is. And this album is very stripped back. Most of the songs are just him and a guitar. Occasionally there's drums in there, but that's One of my favorite songs by him, we love. That's a great album.

Sometimes. Sometimes you gotta be confidently vulnerable, right?

If you.

If you. If you go into therapy and you're not gonna confidently tell them what's wrong with you, then you're. You're missing the mark. You gotta be confidently vulnerable. And honestly, as a singer, it's hugely important for connecting with an audience. Hugely important to like to go out there and show part of yourself to be vulnerable, but like to do it with confidence. Cause otherwise people are gonna be uncomfortable. And that can be challenging to connect with people if you're not confidently vulnerable. I've never heard that phrase before.

I totally heard somebody else say that before. But I thought it really applied here. Yeah, that's Elliot Smith though. Most of his stuff is really just sad stuff. But it's delivered in just a very honest way. You can't help but empathize with it. That's very good.

Yeah. Next, if I may, we have one double. And this is gonna be one of two doubles, I think.

Yeah.

Candy says, and Stephanie says by both by the Velvet Underground. I think Candy says is off their self titled. Yeah. And Stephanie says off of Vu or compilation. Yeah, a 1985 compilation of all like their lost hits or lost songs, I should say. Can't really be a hit if it's a lost song, you know.

Very true.

Yeah. I love Stephanie Says so much. It really speaks to me.

No, that's a good song. Yeah. Velvet Underground is another one of those really interesting bands because there's very. There's like two different sides of that band. I think there's like this side which is like the soft kind of folk rock, dreamy kind of thing. And then obviously there's like their, you know, hard edge of proto. Like I'm just like proto punk kind of stuff where they invented that kind of thing.

Well. And even they're just personal history is absolutely. All of that whole scene was so weird and occasionally not so great, you know, but just, just. Just some next level stuff.

They're also just kind of like living like Renegades are really just kind of on the edge of society there.

Yeah.

A lot of their songs kind of encapsulate that feeling too.

Yeah, that's cool.

I love their. I love Stephanie says gives me good feelings and you know, of past people. I guess that if I've, you know, been around and past places I've been.

Yeah, I get that.

Yeah.

There's something about music that makes warm memories so much more ready to pop back in your Head.

Absolutely.

There's an interesting thing about Candy says, too, is that there's a game called Immortality that came out in 2022. And this kind of comes from a Jacob Geller video where he analyzes this particular thing. But the idea of the game is that you're discovering, like, hidden scenes in, like, three different movies that don't exist in real life, but they're made for the game. But you're going through all these different, like, film reels and stuff. And there's points of the game where your controller will vibrate and you can find some extra content there. And the extra content has this, like, alter ego of, like, one of the. Of the actress that's in all three movies and, like, kind of takes over and, like, really twists, like, certain scenes into, like. Like, really, like, dark directions and stuff like that. And there's a scene where the song Candy says comes in as the character is, like, just really. Just nakedly exposing, like, their feelings about, like, how they don't fit in, how they don't feel like they're actually this person and how they don't fit in their body. Basically, kind of the. The message of the. The song itself, and it just really, really elevates the impact of that scene a lot more.

Yeah.

Yeah. Cool.

Stephanie says shout out to a certain equestrian from Florida. What? That she turned me on to the song.

Cool.

That's a good sign. Nice. Okay, right on.

Shout Out.

Yeah. Moving ahead. It's a song that's musically kind of similar, I think, in the folk rock sense to the Melbourne Underground stuff, but it's a Simon and Garfunkel song. Kathy's Song. This is the first. First of, I think, two Paul Simon related songs that was played today.

So, yeah, I brought in Kathy's Song.

That's a good one.

Yeah.

Very good little song.

Yeah.

But. Yep. All right, so I'm in a Garfunkel moving on after that nice little run of, like, calm, contemplative folk stuff. Somebody who will rename Nameless through, like a Molly by Wayne, which is an awful noise rock song. Molly, Molly, Molly. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Awful song. I hate it. I love it so much. But it could have been anybody who played that.

As soon as we find them, get away from.

We need to bring him to justice. If they find him.

Even the meetings that Simon doesn't come to. Somebody plays.

We've got. I've got people. Don't you worry. I've got people for that.

You got moles.

Yeah. All right.

Yep. And then this song, I Don't have too much to say about it other than this is a powerful band name. That is the Jesus Lizard the song. Then comes Dudley. That's like an another noise rock thing. A little bit more conventional than the Ween song.

Yeah, a little bit more like. Yeah, just kind of conventional noise. But for this one, I mostly want to shout out the man who got me into Jesus Lizard in the first place. And that would be Tyler Blakesley.

Shout out to Tyler from Tyler.

Yeah, unfortunately, Mr. Blakesley is no longer with us, but he mentioned this in one of our classes one time. I think he had this on. He oddly enough had this on in the background at one point. And, you know, we asked him, hey, what's this? And he said Jesus Lizard.

So.

And. And Tyler Blake said he. He was an amazing guy. He could dig into media and text like just very thoroughly, very, very deeply. And yeah, just respect to my man out there and. Yeah, hope you're doing well.

We have all those people come and go in our lives that always mean so much to us. Yeah.

So very memory focused episode so far. That's part of names, though. Carrie do carry so much meaning.

That's very true. Moving on from the heart to heart we just had. That was really beautiful. But we have Anna by Los Psychos. This is an interesting song that somebody brought in. I did a little bit of research on this band, Sarah Sara. Yeah. And they're a Peruvian garage rock band. And that's an interesting, interesting sound. It's very like punkish. Like it's compared to like, you know, a lot of the stuff that was coming right around the time.

I'll have to check it out.

Sounds pretty good song. I don't have. I don't know anything about the band. If I did, I would say something about it naturally.

That's all right.

I want to look into that.

Yeah, it was a good vibe of the song.

Next we've got Korina by Peter Beale. German artist Easter West. I'm not sure, Probably West. Yeah. It's not on the playlist because it's not on Spotify.

That's all right.

If you look up on YouTube, it's really good. If I may I say Freundersholl, which is friendless show in German.

We're bilingual now. Multilingual podcast, ladies and gentlemen.

Polyglots unite.

Exactly.

Okay.

But anyway, now for something completely different, we have Mad Mad Judy by the Buzzcocks. Yeah, it's a good song. I got all I got to say about it.

The Buzzcocks, just like the Ramones, another really early punk group.

They're British then.

Are they British? British punk group, yeah. And you can kind of tell there's some stylistic things. Very different between American punk. Oh, definitely British punk. But, yeah, the Buzzcucks were one of the first ones. Like, they didn't even, like. A lot of their, like, most famous stuff wasn't even released on albums. It was compiled later. Very fast sound, not necessarily heavy, more lyrical in moments, but a hundred percent punk and very cool.

Still pretty aggressive almost always.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And always outrageous.

Really.

Very much.

All right, so now we have Diana by Comus. This was kind of like a power folk. I think that's how it's described. It's like more intense, kind of darker folk stuff going on in there. I think one of the influences that's mentioned on their page is, like, King Crimson, stuff like that. They only came out with three studio albums. They came out with the one with Diana, which is first utterance in 71. And then they came out with another one in 1974. That one. I can't quite find the name of that one. But they had one in 2012 come out called out of the Coma, which. Kind of fitting.

Yeah.

You know, 40 year absence.

Yeah, that'll do it.

But, yeah, not really cool. Kind of dark, kind of brooding, sort of dark folk track. Yeah.

All I have to add here is that this album cover frightens me.

Oh, yeah. It's pretty freaky.

Weird album cover.

No, look at it again.

We'll have to look at it. Yeah, I'll show you.

Yeah, that's not too weird.

The one episode where we don't have visual aids.

Kiss Noah is showing me.

Yeah.

So, yeah, look up the album.

But.

All right, I've seen worse.

Now for something completely different again, we have You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon.

I brought that in and I'm very happy that everybody seemed to like it.

Everybody loves this song. This is, like, one of the most cheerful. Just like.

Yeah.

Nobody. I refuse to believe anybody hates.

I defy you to find someone who says that I hate. I hate this song so much. It's so full of joke.

I had heard the tin whistle solo, like, a while back, and I didn't know what it was from. I saw, like, a video of some guy who does, like, a. Like you. Like a saxophone.

I've seen this video.

Yeah, yeah, he plays saxophone, but he, like, whips out this, like, tin whistle from his, like, breast pocket, like, at a show. And they're playing the song and he does the tin Whistle so, like, nails it. And I was like, dude, this is. This is tight. I really want to find what this song is. But I had had no idea until we played this one at this meeting.

Really?

I literally had no idea.

First of all, let me just. Because I assume you don't know enough Paul Simon. Just go listen to a bunch of Paul Simon.

Yeah, Yeah. I haven't done. I haven't done a deep dive into him personally.

He's got good stuff.

Outstanding songwriter.

Listen to some Simon Garfunkel, too.

That's pretty good, right?

One of the great songwriter.

I actually prefer his solo stuff, but it's all great.

I've only ever listened to Graceland all the way through, but that is a great album.

So if I have something to mention about this. Speaking of solos, Steve explained this to us during the meeting. There's a famous bass solo in the middle of the song and you hear it and you're like, how the heck did they play that? They didn't play that. It is actually the bass part reversed. And that's why it sounds so wild and that's why it sounds so weird.

Yeah, the volume swells.

Literally. Yeah, Literally reverses. Yeah, you're not gonna do that. You pick up a bass, you're not just gonna figure that out, you know? And it's a super cool, simple technique, you know, all they had to do is reverse the tape, you know. But that's so cool. It is sick. It is really. And it's like, you don't. You don't get a lot of bass breaks and stuff in, you know, four minute pop songs. So it's.

It's super cool to hear one of the more notable ones.

Yeah, definitely.

Next is our second and last double, Carmelita. Twice.

Yeah.

Warren Zeven and Linda Rodstadt.

Yeah.

After this meeting, I was listening to Warren Zeven's Carmelita so much.

Oh, it's a good.

I was like, oh, man. You know, it's really good. And I was like, man, he made more stuff than just Werewolves of London.

You would be.

Warren Savann was more prolific as a songwriter. Really. Like, he has a ton of songs that ended up becoming hits, but his performance of them are not the ones that anybody cares about.

Yeah.

Is a perfect example. So I. I don't remember who brought in Zavon, but I brought in the Linda Ronstadt one. Love Linda Ronstadt. Just an amazing singer. Pretty amazing person if you ever read about her life and some of the things that she took an interest in. But, yeah, this is one of her early Albums. The songs themselves, the two tracks here themselves sound remarkably similar.

Yeah.

So they would have been recorded, like, within a year or two of each other and released within a year or two of each other. And you can really tell. And the Warren Zavan version's pretty good, but the Ronstadt version is just incredible. Her voice is so powerful in just every song. But even more than that, her tone in this song, like, the way Zavon is singing it, is very sort of, like, relegated. And, like, the song's about being a heroin aid. So, like, he talks about methadone and all kinds of stuff.

Something that you would actually hear listening to on the outskirts of town, like some little cowboy town where my mom lives.

And that's. It's got a very, like, broken down sound and stuff like that. Like, especially the way he sings it. But Linda Ronset's is, like, more moving in a way. The sound is so much more depressed.

Yeah.

And.

And less, like, aloof and more just straight up down and out, you know?

Yeah.

And it hits really hard. There's one line change in the song. She changes one of the lines to Smith and Wesson to make one of the lyrics more clear that they are referencing a gun because they're discussing suicide. Because being a heroin addict sucks. Don't do it.

Okay.

Final record Club advice for the day. Don't do heroin.

Don't do any hard drugs.

Don't do drugs or anything like that.

Yep.

All right, so we got My Michelle by Guns and Roses.

This was a song that was played.

Yeah, it was Guns and Roses. All right.

Yeah, I like Guns and Roses just fine. They're. They're a little bit corny sometimes, but

they do, like the big 80s, like, rock sound. Kind of like Van Halen stuff. A little bit after Van Halen. And

next up.

Oh, my. No, go ahead.

Jimmy Jimmy by the Undertones.

I like this one a lot. Yeah, this is like a. Another one of those punk. I don't know if this one's. This one's punk, but it's like, a lot more. A lot more pop punk, I think, than like, straight up punk rock.

It's a little bit softer.

Yeah. It's more upbeat. It's very. It's pretty good. I like this one a lot. That's all I have to say about it. Just a good song.

I'm sorry, but when I see Jimmy Jimmy, all I can think of is Jenny. Jenny, you know. Yeah, I know.

It happens. You got similar lyrics. It's going to get you, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah. That was a Good song.

Yeah.

Moving on from this one. Great transitions Today. I'm gonna touch on this for like half a second. The continuing story of Bungalow Bill. I just wanted to play it because I brought in the White Album and I think I picked the wrong name song because there's like three other songs that are people's names on there. Way better than this one.

That's all right. It's a good enough song.

You play. You wanted to play Dear Prudence. I was like, no, play the continuing story of Bungalow Bill.

Yeah, so it is. It's a fun little song.

And moving on. Yeah, Great transitions. We've got Magnus the savior from episode four of X Men 97, which I like. Yeah, watch it.

Still haven't seen it. Sorry.

Magneto was right. Just go watch it.

That's a hot. Does not the official position of the final regular.

Well, no, I know, but if you

watch the show, you'd realize that he was right. Xavier's dream was wrong and stuff.

Oh, my.

They delve in all that stuff and stuff the show.

I'm have to watch it. I'll get around to it.

I'll do it eventually.

It's on the list.

Crime Sentinels and all this other stuff. All right. Anyway, moving on again. Noah, you brought this one in.

Yeah.

Can you tell we're running out of time? We have a Sister Andrea by Mahavishnu Orchestra from Between Nothingness and Eternity recorded live in Central Park. This album is a collection of three songs that were initially going to be recorded at the Trident. I believe that's a studio that they were going to be recording at, but it was lost to time and they. They just recently refound them, rediscovered them and re release it as the Trident Sessions with a couple extra songs that were initially supposed to be on their third album. And then we got Cindy Tells Me by Brian Eno, friend of the show Shout Out.

Brian talked about Brian Eno Loads. We love Brian Eno. This is one of the more chill songs on the album.

Not.

I like this one. It's a fun little song.

It's okay.

It's a good album. I love this album. Fantastic. No Eno slander.

Well, I'm not a big fan of Brian Eno.

We love.

That's the thing about me is, like all these guys and girls that come to the club love all these bands and I'm like, you know, that's okay.

We gotta have to like everything.

I like Brian Eno's like, ambient stuff.

That's a good producer.

I love. I love the ambient. I love The. The rock music. I love when he got into even some more weird stuff, you know, especially when he started doing collabs later.

My favorite stuff is the stuff he produced personally. Like, he's a great producer.

Cool.

Last.

Last, but certainly not least, we've got

Alana by the Beach Boys, a good surf rock kind of thing.

Gotta have the Beach Boys in there.

We gotta kind of stop delving into all their 70s stuff and just go more earlier. Yeah, you know, I gotta bring in some surf rock in at some point.

Yeah, that one's a. That was a good little short song to emulate.

Yeah, it's like surf wap.

Like, I see what you mean.

Like do.

Yeah, yeah.

They're not that surf rock as much. They're like regular pop, but like, it's a little surf, a little bit of

surfing in there, a little surfy.

The album's called Surfing usa so they gotta sneak in there.

But yeah, they've got some. They've got some very surf rock guitar parts. But. Thank you. David Morris, more well known for other

stuff quite a bit, but yeah. I do, however, think that that's about all of our time we have today. Thanks everybody for watching. If you're interested in being part of the club or, you know, checking out any of the music we brought in, check out our website where we have all of the playlists on there. We have all of our meeting dates and themes and a lot of other interesting information you need to know about the club. I'd like to say see you later, everybody. Goodbye. We love you. Goodbye. Thanks a lot. I love you. Love you. Bye.

Bye.

Goodbye.

Sharing the voices of Lansing Community College.

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Lansing Community College Performing Arts is proud to present Island Song. Words by Sam Carner. Music by Derek Greger. The energy and passions of New York City explode with a percussive, soaring pop score in Island Song. An ambitious set of 20 and 30 somethings navigates the promises and perils of big city life. As the city spins around them. They get lost, fight back, fall in love, face setbacks, and most importantly, come alive with the strength that comes with conquering the Big apple. Featured in LCC's Dart Auditorium November 7 through the 9th and November 14 and 15. All performances are free to attend. Visit LCC.edushowinfo for showtime information.

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this is Amy Wagonar from the Historical Society of Michigan with a Michigan History Moment. Her name was Isabella and during the 19th century she became a leader of the abolitionist movement. An African American woman who never learned to read or write, she became a living legend. She settled in Battle Creek, Michigan, and from there witnessed the emancipation of the enslaved people for whom she had labored so hard. Isabella was born about 1797 in Ulster County, New York. Enslaved from birth, Isabella married an enslaved man, Thomas, in about 1815. They had five children, but during the next 11 years, Isabella was sold several times. She finally rebelled in 1826, taking her infant daughter Sophia and walking to freedom. Having essentially stolen herself, Isabella settled in New York City. She emerged on the national stage in 1843 when she announced the that she would travel the north as an itinerant preacher and speak out against slavery. The abolitionist movement was still in its infancy, but Isabella journeyed through the east and Midwest, preaching against slavery and promoting human rights. Although illiterate, she was a dynamic force in the abolitionist movement. Her List of Friends was a who's who of the nation's leading abolitionists, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Laura Haviland, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Antony, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. In addition to speaking out against slavery, Isabella promoted women's rights in suffrage, temperance and prison reform. She earned a living by selling photographs of herself that were captioned I Sell the Shadow to support the substance and from royalties from her biography published in 1850. She moved to Michigan in 1857, settling first in the Quaker village of Harmonia and then nearby Battle Creek in Michigan. Isabella continued her fight for human rights. During and after the Civil War. She worked with the Freedmen's Bureau to help newly emancipated slaves. You might think that you've never heard of Isabella, but you have. You see, in 1843 the enslaved woman who stole herself changed her name as an itinerant preacher. Isabella had become, in essence, a sojourner for truth, and that is why we know her today as Sojourner Truth. Passing away in 1883, Sojourner Truth is interred in Battle Creek's Oak Hill Cemetery. In 1999, a 12 foot tall bronze statue of this remarkable woman was established in the city's Monument Park. This Michigan history moment was brought to you by michiganhistorymagazine.org

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Connect, Voices, Vibes, Vision.

Welcome to.

You are Invited.

A podcast hosted by Dr. Dale Dan, where we celebrate diversity and invite everyone to share their own stories with the world. Here at Lansing Community College, we believe every voice matters. Dr. Dan and the Office of Empowerment want you, our LCC community, to be part of the conversation. Join us, share your experience and help us build an inclusive community where everyone is heard.

Lola, such a pleasure to have you here with us.

Thank you so much.

Part of our series that we call In Spite of Life, I'm here. Isn't that something?

Of course it is.

Can you share a little bit more about your name in detail where you're from and just tell us a little bit about Lola? Thank you.

Thank you so much. My name is Owolola. That's my full name. The last four letters of my name is Lola. That's why people call me Lola, because it's easier to pronounce. I am from Nigeria. I moved to the United States two years ago. I am from a very big family. I'm the first of eight.

Wow.

Yeah, my dad is a twin, so my cousins are technically my siblings. So we all live together. So I have a bachelor's in counseling. I work here at lcc. I also, I'm a fashion designer. I own production factory back home in my country. I started my factory like in 2015 and I've been doing that. Yeah, pretty much over 10 years now. Yeah, that's about me. I love to travel. I love to meet new people. I love to learn about people's culture because it inspires my design. And those things just make, you know, a very, very diverse kind of design for me. And, yeah, I intend to pursue my master's degree pretty soon. I'm just figuring out the funding piece.

Yes. You've decided what you're going to major in?

Yes. It's going to be an msw.

Oh.

Because my bachelor's in council.

It makes sense. Right. Well, that's so wonderful. Thanks for sharing that with us. You talk about your designer.

Yeah.

Outfits. You wear it every day almost.

Yes, I do.

And I'm fascinated by every single one I see.

Thank you so much.

If we wanted to buy them or take a look at them. You have a website, don't you?

I do have an Instagram page. Not a website. Yes, I have an Instagram page. My Instagram page is B, E, L, U, C C. I underscore lbf. That's Belichi. Underscore lbf. That's where you see most of the things that I post up in there, like things that I create. My factory is still basically in Nigeria right now because I'm still recent immigrant somewhat, but I tend moving things slowly here and see how, you know, I can figure out that part.

She's such a amazing blessing that you're bringing this fantastic clothes to America.

Thank you.

But also jobs to your people back home.

Right.

So that. I really admire that.

Thank you so much.

You were selective for this podcast, Lola, because you and I talked a few times, and I have to tell you, I was so impressed. And when I listen to stories like yours and meet with people of your personality. Personality. The first thing that comes to mind is, can't waste this. We got to get this out there, let others know about you, and really believe that many lives can be touched by just listening to your story. And that's what the Office of Empowerment is about. Using our life experiences to help others to further their own. You know, so thanks for sharing a little bit about yourself. But in such a nice, big family, what was your upbringing like? Like every day.

Wow, that's a huge question. I'm the first, like I said, of a. I had to grow up really fast. I didn't have a lot of mentors, so I had to grow up fast. For my younger ones, it was. I made a lot of mistakes, if I'm not gonna lie. I'm just like, I didn't make some smart investments. I would say I was scammed a couple times. I started my business really early. Not this business, but I started business generally really early. Like at the age of 13.

Oh, my goodness.

I had. I was selling firecrackers to my Friends and, like, gift for, like, you know, birthdays and Valentine's and whatever they wanted to do at the time. So I was just selling, like, gifts to people, and I moved from that to selling caps and shoes before, like, the clothing business became the next thing. So, yeah, I made a lot of mistakes. But good thing is I'm here now and I've learned from my mistakes. I didn't even realize how to write the business plan at the time when I read my. When I had my. Started my business. But, you know, I've learned over the years, and I'm happy about that.

And learning is so important. I'm thrilled by the fact at such a young age, you had that desire for business. But I'm not my Chief Diversity Officer chair. I'm also a business professor, have been for 30 years. So I'm always fascinated to hear how people have that natural desire, you know, to further business. That's fantastic. What I really would love to ask you is, what would you say were a couple challenges that really stand out when you think of some things that you faced along your journey?

Like I said, I didn't know how to write the plan. A business plan was something that I had no idea how to write, so it hindered a lot. And I don't know, there's a saying that if you. You don't plan, you plan to fail. So I wasn't effectively planning because I didn't even know what I was doing. I was just. I wanted to make money to support my family, and because there was no funding for me, I had to save a lot of money. That was another major challenge that I had. And brand acceptability was another thing, because people are like, who is this person trying to sell us this? You know, where are you from?

Do you feel that brand is growing?

Oh, yeah, my brand has. It has grown in the past. It has grown. I've been able to, like, style people for the red carpets and video shoots, things like that. So it has grown. But it's almost like I'm repeating the same thing again now in a new country. But I know I'll get there, you know?

Absolutely.

I know time would. Time teaches me a lot. And even, you know, navigating and working with people has helped me a lot, too.

Thanks for sharing that. I know that you're doing a lot of fantastic work here at Lansing Community College, working closely with students. And so this podcast is for our students, for me, first of all, and then everybody else, you know, at LCC and beyond lcc. But what would you Say to some students who have that burning desire, like you did, to get into business, they may not have all the resources. They may be scared, very hesitant. What some of the advice you would

give to them, first things first, is believing yourself. If you believe in yourself, always remember that the world remember you for what you show you know how to do, not what you think you know how to do. So believe in yourself and keep that fire burning. Find your tribe. They're out there. You know, another major thing that I felt was like, you know, I was like, I don't know who was gonna buy my clothes, but there were people out there that I wanted to see what I had to offer. So if you find your tribe, you would eventually sell your clothes. And then don't be too emotional. Try to separate yourself from your business.

Very important.

One thing that I was failing at is that I wasn't paying myself for working in my organization. And that's something I had to learn as I grew, that I am not the business, the business is the business. I'm separate from the business. I'm an employee of the business. So I needed to. To pay myself, to compensate myself in a very decent way. So don't take anything personal. People, people, try as much as possible to remember why you started and keep your head up.

I really, really like that. I say that a lot of my students, too. Don't just, you know, put yourself down right, Lose your confidence. Don't do that. Just look at the business issues you're dealing with and be determined to overcome them. So I really, really liked your response. And. But it's interesting, if you yourself were to go back 10 years in your life, what advice would you give to Lola?

I think the first thing I would do regarding my education is to get my master's done. I think this weight that I had is really affected me a lot because as a person, I feel like my master's degree would have opened a lot of doors.

Oh, yes.

And yes, been investing. I would say that, you know, setting and investments that I made, I didn't research properly before I invested in them. So don't just jump into, like, things. Do your proper research. Because, yes, you might have the money, but if you don't do your research properly, things might happen and go south. So those are like, the two major things I've done differently, is invest wisely and get my master's degree.

Another excellent response. A lot of times I say to students is, don't rush. Like my master's degree students, I teach doctoral students too, is Just clearly decide what you desire to do and build the foundation. Don't rush and start to climb before you're ready. I say to a lot of people, one of my very strange hobbies is when I'm taking a drive, like in the evening, and I see new buildings being constructed, I pull off my car just to watch, especially when they're pouring the foundation. And many times I say to myself, if they don't pour that foundation well, everything that is built above that is at risk. Right?

Yes.

So to me, where business is concerned, 50% of the focus should be building that foundation.

Yeah.

Would you agree with that?

I do agree. I do agree with that. Time. Time helps in building things from the bottom up is better. Like your foundation has to be key,

has to be solid, really important. We have to test that first. You know, oftentimes people say that in this life, when we think of success, our success, like your amazing success, we stand on the shoulders of others. Who would you say was your greatest inspiration and share why you chose that person or persons?

Oh, I did not mention earlier that I am an advocate for social justice. There's a person I admire the most. I would say Fumalaya Ransom Kuti. She's someone from my country who fought for, you know, equity and equality for women. That's some person that I look up to. Even though, like, you know, she wasn't exactly this business tycoon, but I learned a lot of things from certain things that she did. And as a business person, there was a guy that I never got the opportunity to meet back then. His name is Marco Martinez. While I was like, you know, starting up my business, I would always, like, watch his stories and watch what's product and what he was trying to do to the world. Because he also came from a humble background, too. So that's another person that I look up to and pretty much wrote on what he did.

Isn't this wonderful having those role models,

you know, I mean? Yeah, it is. It is very wonderful because everything starts from something.

Oh, yes, absolutely. Let me cherish those people. I hope that you're in touch with them, and I'm sure they're very proud of the progress that you're making. It's so continuously amazing what you're doing.

Thank you so much.

Another thought that comes to my mind is what motivates you, Lola, to just keep going even when it gets tough. Because we know some days can be really trying. When you wake in morning, it's like, wow, but I can do this. What pushes you forward?

My Family, my community, and the fact that I just enjoy helping people generally and putting a smile on people's face. My family is very huge for me, because without them, I wouldn't be here, of course. And my community, I feel like when I win, they all win because everybody took a better me. Yeah. So, yeah, those are like the.

The family element.

Yeah.

Are your seven younger siblings, any of them here? All back home?

Yeah.

So I'm sure I often say It's. It's having WhatsApp help.

Yeah.

Because it's free. You're able to communicate closely with them, of course. Share photographs with them, graphics with them. That's so important. They learn from what you're doing.

Technology.

Yep. Every time we've met, I mean, I am again and again and again, I'll say this, very, very impressed by how focused you are.

Thank you.

So determined you are for success. Right. And then, of course, when you and I talk about your work here at lcc, you're just as committed, just as intense. So when you are not. Wow. Designing and helping students, what do you do for fun?

I love to travel. I'm a very, like. I'm avid traveler. I like to travel a lot. I love to listen to music, specifically Afrobeat. It's African music, but I really love to listen to music, and I love to research. That's.

Any specific areas?

Pretty much things about education, generally about, you know, things in my field. Counseling.

I would think so.

You know, social work and things like that. I would love that. And then I love to also, like, go out and take walks. Those are, like, the things I like to do.

We like a lot of the similar things. It's interesting, you know, when I think of your background, when I think of what you've gleaned from life so far in the area of counseling. And then there's designing. I remember years back in my country, I'm from Guyana, South America. There was an amazing fashion designer, and she used her gifting, her calling to work with, especially young girls in the country who were abused who were, you know, felt that they couldn't do life. And it's amazing how she helped them to just look at themselves in the mirror and value who they are through clothing, through designing clothing, special clothing, having them wear that and feeling, wow, look at me, you know, do you see that connection with what you're doing in the context of counseling, which is to help people to have better lives? And then you have this designing gift that also when most of us dress and stand in front of a mirror, we feel Good about ourselves. How do you see bringing those together?

So another thing that I did not mention is that my factory specifically is in the area that I was born intentionally because I train people for free and then employ them. So when I train them for free, I employ them. Most of them decide if they want to still stay and work on the or start up their own business. I feel like it's a way to empower people around me instead of just, you know, giving them money every time.

Is it.

We teach them a skill that will better help them throughout their lives. And then for people who do not have opportunity for formal education, at least they have something skill set that they can use. So connecting, helping people, which is my passion with also fashion, is kind of what I've been doing all my life. It's just that I need proper certifications and degrees.

Right?

Yeah.

That's so amazing. I listen to you and I think of. I think the cliche you're referring to is instead of just giving them fish, teach them how to fish. You know, I had a desire from very, very, very young, constantly giving. Oh, my gosh. Constantly giving. We weren't the wealthiest in the country, but well enough that I would just pack my pockets and go find poor people and just give them stuff. And my mom told me the same thing. She said, sweetheart, you're not always going to have enough to give. Give them something that can help them to multiply. And that's education for me. Giving them. Like you are doing that in form of training. How do you go about recruiting those persons? Because I know you're from a country with millions.

Yep.

Not thousands. Is there a process in interviewing these persons? Are there certain things you're looking for?

Sometimes there are people who. Their parents bring them to me because I have, like, you know, banners and flyers out there. Free training. I mean, people like free things. That's the first thing. So when they come, I interview them and ask them questions. Is this something that you want to do? Some of them don't even know what they want to do. It's just like, you know, my mom says I should come here, or my dad says I should come here. And I'm like, okay, test this out for like two weeks and let's see if you like it or not. And then some of them would say, okay, let's go. Some people would be like, I don't want to try it. I just. I'm just here to report and. But majority of the people, people that have come have stayed. And that's how I have that says a lot. Yes. That's how the staff strength that I

have right now, that is truly amazing. Like we said, they just don't know something. What they want to do, who they want to become, or maybe not even have the confidence they can become anything. And I remember many, many years ago when I went to work with a certain village in the Caribbean, and we were to bring education to persons who've never had education, but they didn't even feel they were worthy of it. We took in books, we put laptops, all of that. And I remember the government saying to me, put all of that aside. You have to use psychology to help to change a mindset, helping people to understand. And it's interesting. You have that background. I know you're going into msw. Have you found yourself needing to use that psychology, that counseling background, to help people to do that paradigm shift from I can't. Oh, yes, I can. Have you had to do that?

Yes.

You know, counseling generally by empowering people, giving them that, not just taking that choice away from them. And my degree is guidance, and counseling is gnc. So guidance typically would come before the problem and counseling after the problem. But I have been able to, like, guide people a lot with this. And there are people who in the past have helped them financially. And I said, you know what? Come and try this, and let's see if it works out for you. Because giving I can continue to give you, but then again, I'll just continue to give you. You would have something that you would take with you for the rest of your life.

Correct.

So this has helped me a lot.

That's wonderful. Do you write so many lives you're touching. And when you. When you do the counseling, use the psychology, do the training, remember those persons are going out and sharing that with others. So it's that domino effect. You know, Peter Drucker, father of management, said many times that throwing that one stone or pebble in a pond and just seeing it ripple out. I see. I see your work like that, Lula.

Thank you.

It's rippling out very far.

Thank you so much.

Truly amazing. So I know this is tough, but if I were to ask you what is one main goal you have in your life as of today?

What comes to mind, basically, is to make the world a better place than I found it. That's my major goal in life. I do also want to finish up with, get my MSW done, get my master's done, and finish up with that and be able to impact more lives that way.

That's Amazing. Let me ask you this. If you were to look ahead now and 10 years you've gotten your master's MSW, but 10 years from now, where do you see yourself?

Working in a school setting, number one,

because I really like that.

I love the education award. I love working with students. I work higher education. I'm already in love with it at this point. So working in education, still running my business and on a bigger scale. So that's why I see myself 10 years and continue to help people in every capacity that I can.

So scaling up. Yes, scaling up and scaling up. And I imagine developing leaders who would have. Because you can't do it all alone. Developing trainer training sessions. So you have to help people to do all of that and so on. You do such remarkable work that one listens to you. And it's not just business and making profit.

Yeah.

It's all the other human things you do that come out of this. How can others help you make this the big thing you want it to be? How can we help your cause?

Right now I'm still seeking funding.

Yeah.

For education. So yeah, the funding part is the.

Is that funny? For your education?

Yes. As soon as I can get that out of you and collaborate with me. I also have non profit that I'm trying to register back home.

What would be the purpose of that

is to help people because the name of the non profit is your priority. So it's going to be helping people get funding for education or starting with the girl child. A lot of the girl children in my school in my country are not educated in the northern part of the country. And then collaborate with me and support my business too because it helps me. You know, I make a lot of good designs. Like I said, my Instagram is B, E L U C C. I underscore lbf. You can find majority of my work there.

Yeah.

Working on my website and it's coming up pretty soon, so.

And thanks for sharing that again. I hope you'll be doing not just this, with many, many more podcasts to get your voice out there. Right. And the voice of others that you're working with.

Yeah.

You know, I know it's not easy running a business long distance. I've done it for years. Right. I was fortunate in that there were times when I had staff in 13 countries. And many times people will say to me, how can you trust them? You know, they're in so many different countries. And I have to honestly say, Lola, it will come down to one simple four letter word. Love.

True.

Just loving People trusting them, believing them and caring for them. In all my teams over the past 30 years, honestly, I know when they're married, when there's a debt in the family, a birth in the family, when there's a birthday in the family because I love them to the point of caring. And I think when people feel that love and sincerity, they're willing to do almost anything right. And so again, I know it can be challenging, but I know it's doable, it can be a blessing. How have you found the experience, experience in being here in America and having your manufacturing plan there? What has that been like doing that long distance management?

It's been tough.

Wow.

I'm not going to lie, it's been very tough. But I do have cameras. Another thing is that because majority of my staff members are people that I trained. So there's this sense of like commitment and loyalty that they have. And I also have my mom who is kind of like in charge of like the day to day.

Who else can you trust know, doing

all of that for me and I'm very appreciative of her. So she does all, you know, the other things pieces that I'm not able to do in person. So I manage virtually and every other thing my mom handles.

Well, mom is your biggest champion and I think that's wonderful. That's fantastic. I, I do encourage you. Thank you again. I'm impressed. I would love to see this grow, continue to grow. I encourage you to continue to show that love and support, support to your long distance team. You know, in business we talk about entrepreneur. We've heard that word over and over. And that's you who find the funds, invest, you're carrying the money back for this business. But then we teach a lot about what we call entrepreneur that lots of persons have not quite heard of that word. And that's where we are able. We're carrying the money back, but we're able to find persons such as MOM and others who may not be the financial carriers of the business, but they're so committed, they're like an entrepreneur. We call them intrapreneur. They're inside running that business, owning their desk and just want to see do well as much as you do. So I hope that over your period of time that you were able to find and build those intrapreneurs to the point where you can continue to travel and do what you have to do, knowing that all is well.

Yeah.

Lola, a lot about what today is about is not only because I'm impressed with you and I want others to know about you, but to give you a voice. Right? And so as we come to an end, closing to an end to our of our podcast, what are some things you that come to mind that you haven't had a chance to say?

Firstly, for everybody listening to me, I want to say again, keep your head up. Believe in yourself. Nothing comes from the comfort zone. You know, try to stretch yourself like understand that impact and value, anywhere those two go, money follows. So just focus on impact and value.

That's wonderful. And Lola, on behalf of all of us, we love you.

Thank you.

We value you and we pray God will bless you with all of your efforts. Thank you so much and thank you for being a part of our journey.

Thank you so much.

Okay, take care.

This concludes today's episode of you are Invited, hosted by Dr. Dale Dan. We hope this episode inspired you to reflect on your own experiences and share them with us. For additional resources on diversity and inclusion, visit us at lcc Edu Empowerment. We'd also love to hear your thoughts. Send your comments or Questions to youarinvitedtar LCC.edu. your voice helps shape future conversations. Let's keep building a stronger, more inclusive community together.

This has been a presentation of LCC Connect, a weekly program that features the

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