Hello everyone and welcome to Inside Leather History at Fireside Chat. I'm Doug O'Keefe, the host and producer of the chats, and we are a program of the Leather Archives and Museum. Today, I'm doing an interview with Graham Isbister, who's in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Occasionally the chats will do an interview with someone who's creating community and that's what Graham is doing. Welcome Graham to Inside Leather History at Fireside Chat. Hello and welcome. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Our pleasure. My pleasure. Okay. You are a community organizer and a leather man in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Tell us a little bit about Edmonton for people who may have never seen that. Yeah, absolutely. So Edmonton is, I mean, we have a population of a million people. That being said, we're a relatively conservative portion of Canada. We like to refer to ourselves, I guess, as the Texas of Canada. Oil is very much a big thing here. But getting back to my before comment is, yes, we are a bit of a conservative area within Canada. When you think leather community in Canada, the three major cities that kind of come to mind are Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. Edmonton does not come up in that. That being said, I'm really wanting to create that space in Edmonton and also Alberta, given our population is small relative to some of those other markets, knowing that I also would like to partner with Alberta as a province and not just limit ourselves to Edmonton. In terms of sort of the kink community, I'm going to call it a work in progress. So it's connecting the community right now and starting to build that up and trying to show that there's a positive safe space for everyone to express themselves. And that's sort of, I would say, step one in my mission right now. Before we go too far, tell us a little bit about your circumstances growing up and how you grew up in that environment. For those of you who don't know, I'm 31 right now. Growing up in Edmonton, this has always been home for me. And I would say I was probably blessed with some very progressive parents and a progressive family that wanted me to embrace who I was at a very young age and unapologetically be who I am. So I am forever thankful that that's how I grew up and probably shaped me as the leather man I am today and the person I am in my regular life. Tell me a little bit about coming out. Coming out for me was, so I first came out as a gay man and then I came out as a leather man. And coming out as a gay man was relatively an easy experience for myself. It was funny when I came out to my parents and my brother all at the same time. My brother looked at me and was like, yeah, I mean you. I was like, awesome. Okay, perfect. And it was like, we just kind of went on with our day. It was not this like, horrible story or this very traumatic ending. It was literally set in the living room on Halloween night because that's how everyone was at home.  So it was a very accepting story. My family is very accepting of me. And it was a very anticlimactic story to say the least as a coming out story as a gay man. How did you even know about homosexuality in the gay community prior to that? Yeah. So I came out at a quite a young age and I'm blessed that I've always grown up with technology, I would say. So you start to sort of Google things and sort of figure that out. I think that's how I figured that out myself. And I'm like, yes, that's who I am. Or that's what I associate with. And not wanting to harbor that for any longer than I had to. Growing up in a family where it was very much accepting to be who you were. It was just natural to say, yeah, I'm a gay man. And that would just seem very fitting to myself. What kinds of things were you finding on the internet at that time? Yeah. So I think it was synonymous with sort of my leather self.  I knew I had a love for or a love or a desire for leather before I even knew what sex or gender or anything like that was.  Probably wasn't Google at the time, but it's Google today.  And I think that sort of started me down the path to say I have a like for leather, but I also really like this leather male image. Oh, I feel like I'm associated very much with that.   Well, I know that's how it worked out. When you were looking at the internet, what kinds of images were you finding? Traditional images, maybe of people on a motorcycle or were you finding some of the more risque images of Leatherman doing fun things? Very good question. It definitely started out as leather clothing. It started out with, you know, looking for leather jackets or leather pants. And then you start saying, you know, men in leather pants and men in leather jackets. And then, you know, searches would have it that you'd find them a little bit more of a risque image with someone in boots. And then it would sort of was a domino effect from there. So it started out as a very much a clothing of leather search that expanded to a male leather search.   And that domino effect happened rather quickly. But I definitely associated myself with looking for more of that leather uniform and leather officer look versus the biker look. Not that I don't like the biker look, but I definitely had an aversion to the uniform first as evidenced by what I'm wearing today. I very much enjoyed the leather uniformed officer look as luck would have it. And that sort of formulated my search for the Leatherman that way. And then I ended up finding out, you know, there were more than just uniform. There was a whole fantasy fetish leather erotic view to that. And that sort of formed the rest of my searches thereafter. Any surprises? Oh, I'm sure there were surprises that happened along the way. Ones that stick out for me along that journey. I mean, nothing that probably hasn't really happened to anybody else.  And I was like, no, not for me. Let's go back to the man. And I think really helped shape the fact that I was definitely a gay man and that I very much enjoyed that visual. So I think that was very much an early discovery for myself. It wasn't it wasn't alarming. It was just an early discovery that I had of myself and one that I would later aspire to be and one that I would hold near and dear to my heart for the rest of my life. I would say I haven't I haven't given that up, but I don't think I will. So I think that's been something that has been identified with and something that has shaped me as the person I am today. You told me when you were young, you were able to travel quite a bit and explore a few things that way. Tell us about that. Yeah, so we were very fortunate as a family to be able to travel as a family at a young age. So we got to experience lots of different cultures and adventure. And that was sort of bred into us as a family and as kids. So it wasn't it wasn't an anomaly for me to watch to travel on my own as soon as I could. One of the first trips I took on took as an as an adult was to New York City, actually, I had just turned 18. Me and a friend went he's very much straight. We went to New York City for was four days. And one afternoon we sort of broke up and we did our own things one for the museum. And I was like, I want to go check out this Leatherman New York City store. So I went and found it. I knew where it was. There were no smartphones back then. I had a razor, so I had to get out my map and figure out where it was in New York City like a very big tourist. And I got to the store and I never went in. But I was enamored by the store and what it stood for just from street level. I would later go on and kick myself that I didn't go in on that trip. But I went in in future journeys to New York City. But that that experience and going to the store, even just standing on the outside of it was overwhelming in all the right ways. Yes, I didn't go into the store and I can admit that now. And I wish I would have. But it was that that overwhelming desire, that overwhelming sense of community, community I even felt from street level. So I am forever grateful and thankful for for that store for being as public as it was for a young Edmonton boy who was wanting to find his leather self. That was still a very positive experience for me and one that I I share fondly and one that I, you know, helped shape me as an individual. What did you hope you would have found if you had gone in? That's a good question. Back then, I would have hoped that I would have found when I walked into that store, an array of leather clothing and gear, not so much, you know, BDSM sex gear. At that age, I would have hoped to have found, you know, a lot of, you know, unique leather clothing, which I know they do have. They have everything and then some in that store now. And I think if I would have went and I would have been overwhelmed again, in probably all the right ways and I wouldn't have known what to buy. I would have wanted it all. But when I went when I finally did go into that store, I was 21, I believe, when I went back to New York and it was everything that I had imagined and then some that things that I had been into other sort of leather gear shops around the world since then. So I knew what I was expecting when I walked in. But given that I was 18 at the time, I would have hoped and wanted, you know, an array of leather clothing that you probably couldn't have found anywhere else.  Other shops, where were those? Yeah, so, I mean, some of the earlier ones that I would have went to were Northbound Leather in Toronto at their old location on Young and St. Nicholas. So that was one of my very first shops that I ever went into and one that I will still share fondly of today, most of my years from Northbound. Also, having gone into regulation in London, that was another very first one for myself. And Fetishfreak, actually, which is a very local one to London as well. So those are some of my very firsts. I've actually never been into Mr. S in San Francisco, I'll figure. I've never been there myself. So that's unfortunately one of the ones that's not on my list, but have been into some of the other shops in Europe. But why were you comfortable going into the shops in Toronto and London, but not New York? I was older then. I was wiser. I wasn't 18 anymore. And as I had grown, you know, I was two years after that experience when I went to Europe for an extended period of time, I just felt very comfortable. One of the very, very positive experiences or early experiences in the leather community that I had was actually in London. I went to Compton's. It was a very social experience. There was no kinky sex that was had or any any sort of huge fantasy, if you will, that happened that afternoon. But I will share that. And that really did help shape me and who I was that day. I went there in no gear. There were leathermen that were there and they just sort of embraced this young Canadian bloke that just happened to walk into Compton's and was clearly very curious about them and who they were. And they I don't even know their names, unfortunately. I didn't get them. But it was just an afternoon of like sharing a few beers and just chatting. And they shared the world with me and allowed me to ask questions in a very safe space. And I'm forever grateful for that. That was 11 years ago. The internet was very much a thing back then. But it's not like it was today. Social gatherings were in that sense were very much part of our community on an ongoing basis. And that one experience, I still feel very strongly with today. And when I started talking about, you know, building a community here, I visualized that experience as a driver for how I want our community in Edmonton to be a very safe space with a social aspect to it where you can truly be yourself in all your glory and that would be a huge win for me and a sense of accomplishment. Coming back to Compton's, you indicated that they shared the world with you and enabled you to ask questions. Tell us more about that. What kinds of things did you learn? What did you ask? The first questions I asked were, you know, where do you get your gear? Where do you get your leather folding? Like, I've never seen leather pants like that before. And that's where regulation came up. And then I subsequently went to regulation that after. And we started talking about, you know, it starts very, I want to say, innocent around, you know, what are you wearing and leather folding? And then the questions are coming up, well, you know, how do you have any fun in leather?  And my answer was no. And, you know, the conversation then started going down a bit of a BDSM route. And I was very intrigued by that and enamored. And I was like, that sounds very interesting. I could probably get on board with that. And there was there was no difficult question that I couldn't ask that they wouldn't they wouldn't answer it seemed like. And there was also no pressure to do anything. Like it was it was a very safe environment.  I would say that would be their early onset to, you know, some some very fun leather experiences that I would go on to have. From that afternoon, what was the most profound thing you learned? The most profound thing that I learned was be your true self and be humble. And I think maybe that's maybe that's an interesting comment to say, but I think it it really resonates with me is to be humble and be true to who you are in every sense of the term, because you only have one life to live. And if you're going to. You're going to.  You're doing yourself and the community, no justice. And I think that has always stuck with me in more than just the leather community, but also who I am as an individual is to be humble, to be who you are and be encouraging and create that safe space. Because I was forwarded that opportunity at a very young age and had it been a very negative experience, I don't know how it would have shaped me. Like I said, I wasn't from there. They did not know me. I did not know them. It would have been very easy for them to carry on with their afternoon, drinking their beer and saying piss off like, I don't want to talk to you. But that was that's also not the English way either. So again, I'm forever grateful for that. And I will always look fondly on that on that afternoon. Did anyone ever express concern that you were coming into the community very young? Yeah, I would say so. I know there were some experiences about that. You know, so much young as in maybe you weren't wearing the proper gear, which would translate into, well, you're also young. I would say a lot of people have, you know, I would say a lot of people have always commented on the fact that I have a very low bluff number. I was very fortunate to have been given that number when I registered, but I can assure you that the original pictures that I sent in when I became a bluff member were not this. My year collection was a lot smaller back then and a lot less uniform. I met probably the minimum requirement, but I was a very confident young man when I signed up to be a bluff member, and I'm glad I did. Please tell us, please tell the audience about the bluff. Some people know what that is. Yeah, good point. So bluff is an international membership for, I would say, the Leather-Fetish community. They are, if you ever see anything on social media where it's B-L-U-F, chances are that individual belongs to the bluff brotherhood and family. They're encouraged to be who they are in every sense of the term, building the community. It's Leather uniform and breaches. I think that I'm wearing them presently right now and then some. And I would say, again, it's really about identifying, connecting with the community with a very heavy Leather uniform emphasis. Those numbers typically mean when you joined, although mine is not indicative of that. So the higher the number is, chances are that's when they would have joined. And it's just a unique identifier to connect with the community on an international scale. There's also other local groups within different cities. Like I've belonged to Bluff Montreal. So there's a Montreal group that meets monthly. There's other groups around the world that meet on a cyclical basis. And when you go to some of the international events, chances are there's going to be a bluff meetup while you're there. So it's always nice to see those individuals when you're at those events. You said your bluff number is very low. What is it? Yeah, so I'm bluffing, too, which would probably indicate that I should have joined right on the early stages of bluff. I did not. And when I was reading up on bluff and the experiences that it was sharing and having chat with other people, when I was registering, I truly believed in everything that they spoke for. And then when you read their page and the about them, I was very much felt connected to that. So when I signed up, I gave a financial donation, and I still do. And I was, I guess, rewarded with that donation with a small number. That was not my intent. I just, it's a nonprofit group. And I know how much work goes into creating those groups and those spaces and wanted to show my appreciation and was rewarded with a small number, I guess, which was very nice of them. How did you even learn about it? How did you find it? Instagram. Instagram is a really good place for that. Again, internet. You see everyone quoting these bluff numbers. And you're like, well, what is this?  You start talking to random people and like, well, this is what the group is. And then you go and search for it.  Oh, I can't access it. I got to be a member. How do I become a member? I'm also a very research inclined individual. So to me, I will research anything. And as I was doing some of my earlier research, I was like, yep, this is exactly who I identify with. And do I meet the minimum requirements in my leather gear? Arguably, yes, I do. And I'm a very confident individual. So I signed up relatively quickly. And I have kind of the rest of history with that one. What do you feel is the most beneficial element that bluff has afforded you? A sense of community, for sure. Living in Edmonton, I think, so expanding to Alberta. I think there's four of us that belong to bluff in Alberta. So a very small number. We have four million people here and there's four of us that belong to bluff. So you can deduce how small our community is here. But bluff really gave me a sense of connection to an early stage to be like, I belong to this community, even though there's no one really in my city that belongs to bluff. And again, that sense of community stemmed back to again, my early visit to Compton. I guess it was a very positive experience. And I felt like I was a sense of the community and I wasn't. I wasn't challenged. I wasn't belittled. I was just accepted for who I was. And again, it was that experience. I was like, absolutely, this is who I am. And I want to be this and then some. I want to be all of this. And I want to experience this for everything that it stands for. My first bluff meetup was in Montreal, which for Edmonton is actually a very far journey. It's like a six hour flight. So it's quite far from Edmonton. But yes, that was my very first bluff meetup. And it was a very overwhelmingly positive experience. There were actually quite a few of us that day that had never been to a bluff meetup before. There was, I believe, four of us that kind of thus was our first time at a bluff meetup in Montreal. For those of you who don't know where it is, it's at Listad. It's not at Eagle in Montreal. And again, very social experience.  That was all it was. And again, I'm forever grateful for that. I'm very much still connected and friends with a bunch of that community to this day after that meetup. You said it was overwhelming in all the right ways. For example, how? What?   That was overwhelming in all the right ways. And then just the opportunity to have a conversation. I mean, no one there knew who I was and coming from Edmonton, they were all shocked. Oh, an Edmonton boy is coming to Montreal in leather. What is life in Edmonton like? I think they were very curious about me in Edmonton more than I was of them in Montreal. So that was really interesting. Again, they're like, well, how do you live in Edmonton? And what is life like there? It must be really hard to be a leather man. And in some aspects it is. We don't have a space like that here. We don't have at that time where there was no real at visible leather community in Edmonton or in Alberta really. So I largely connected with those individuals on an online basis. And it was those, that experience and others alike that really got me thinking to say, you know, going to all these cities is wonderful and I'm able to travel and I'm afforded that opportunity. But why can't I build that in Edmonton in some capacity in a capacity that makes sense for Edmonton or Alberta? And that has always been in the back of my mind, which really challenged me to start creating a leather group for Edmonton. And I'm happy to report it is in the infancy stages right now, but it is being created. We're having the group is called Edmonton Leatherman. We've walked on all of our social media. We would have had our first event on Friday, but COVID has somewhat denied us that ability, but we're forging ahead with connecting the community here. So that really challenged me to want to build that community locally here in whatever capacity it is. Knowing that that community does exist. It existed at one time in the early 2000s and it has dissolved unfortunately, but I'm looking to rebuild it in a new fashion or whatever that might look like. What do you know of its previous incarnation from years ago? There was a title event in Edmonton. I have messaged the title holder or one of the title holders. I don't really know where it all existed. The gay bars of the time are no longer in existence in Edmonton. We have now one gay bar and at the time there were three, I believe, in different locations. Locations where it was held and the individuals who were part of that, it seemed very disjointed, unfortunately. There's not a lot of history that has been left for my generation to pick up on. So the little bits and pieces that I've got from individuals that I've chatted with around the community, that's kind of what I've yielded. I did reach out to, like I said, one particular individual hoping to maybe connect with him and try and build something up and fortunately that hasn't been responded to at all, but that's fine. I will forward ahead myself. And like I said, build a community that is for 2022 and onward. So it might have a different flavor and a different outcome in the end, but one that hopefully will last the test of time is the goal. Now, you've had the privilege of being able to see leather communities abroad, leather communities in Montreal, in Toronto, other major cities. From those communities and from those experiences, what are the most valuable pieces you're bringing to the creation of a community in Edmonton? Yeah, that's a good question. I would say for starters, having a realistic expectation. Edmonton is not any of those cities. Those cities have had established communities for decades and ours arguably is not visible if there is one. So I'm trying to build a community from the ground up. So that in itself is a challenge. So having a realistic expectation of connecting and creating a safe space would be ideally number one. People need to feel that they're accepted and are in a safe place to be who they are before they can open up further. And I was given that opportunity as a young age and I want to give that to someone else or others alike. From there, I think the journey is kind of endless.  I think the leather community, there's no mystery here that we do enjoy a very good time. And would like to have an opportunity and events that would sort of cover an array of expectations, everything from a social gathering to an amazing leather pink experience and everything in between. So the long journey would be to sort of create a space like that, but the community needs to be connected and feel safe first. And being a visible leatherman myself as often as I can and showing the world that it's showing the world and showing the city that it's not as scary as maybe some people think it is. And the community is very, very accommodating. Like I have gone out like this in numerous occasions to various places in Edmonton and no one bats an eye. You might get a couple looks. I've had a couple horn honks that are very excited to see me, but never a bad experience. No one has ever questioned, you know, why are you wearing that?  So again, I've had a very positive experience. So I want to create that for other people. What places are you visiting in your leather? Pubs, I've been to the grocery store, restaurants.    They're right downtown.   Fortunately, we don't really have a gay pub like we would in even Calgary, say or Toronto, but they have created a very good and connected LGBTQ space. There's a lot of other LGBTQ positive spaces and or where they want to bring the community. I think that's that's the difference of Edmonton is like we're a very open and accepting city. So we don't need to have a lot of dedicated spaces because we're just accepted everywhere, which is again a very different it's a different era that we're in where we're accepted everywhere. So we don't have to go to a dedicated gay space because we're accepted everywhere. So going to a local brewery downtown, I've gone like this. People are wonderful.  So it's it's not a negative experience. You you mentioned Calgary a moment ago. You've said that's very different from Edmonton. Tell me a bit about that.  Everyone sort of lives all over the city.  That's just the nature of Edmonton or very decentralized that way, whereas Calgary has still maintained some of that community aspect within their sub downtown core. So they have a neighborhood called Beltline. That's typically where you're going to say that's where the LGBTQ community largely resides. That's a good demographic there. It's relative. That's where their two bars are. They have one nightclub and one hub, although the second floor of the pub is a bit of a nightclub as well. So they have a couple of two unique spaces that they have. So they've sort of diversified in that regard and spoken to more than just the nightclub community. So for that, they're a bit of a unique city. I would say they're also a bit more international. They're a lot closer to the mountains. So they naturally just get a lot more tourists that come through their city. They have a lot more. They're a bigger population than we do. Edmonton is as far from all of that. So we don't get a ton of international tourists that come here and then with the leather community that not a lot of people come to Edmonton. We're not a huge draw like Calgary is. So for those few reasons Edmonton and Calgary are very different. You've mentioned social media a number of times. Is that your primary conduit to trying to gather other kink folk, other leather folk from all around the Edmonton region? Yeah, for starters, that is essentially where it starts with is through social media. We live in an era of technology. So working with it, not against it is sort of my motto. That's how I've been connected to the community and that's how I'm going to reach out to the community. Large is through social media. I also think a lot of people are comfortable with being behind their phone first and through social media lens and then presenting themselves in the public thereafter. I know I was and I would imagine that speaks largely to a lot of individuals. So in addition to sort of my own, so I have a palette of vanilla Instagram and my kink Instagram. Both are kind of synonymous. So they both play off of one each other connecting the Edmonton Leatherman as a group through social media is sort of the biggest draw factor. So doing so through Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and our website will be our high traffic areas to connect the community first and then hoping to, like I say, create a safe public space for then people to connect in person thereafter. What responses are you getting at the moment? Are you receiving a lot of interest via your media? I would say so. Again, it's very early days. So I would say within a year of launch, if we have a group of 40 Leatherman that are connected, I would call that a huge success. So quantifying success here, that's what I would call a huge success. And I would say as of right now, we're on our track to meet that goal within our first year. Again, event aside, I'm sure we will have some events this year coming up. Unfortunately, not right to this moment. So we'll have to sort of roll the punches that way. But again, leveraging social media as an example also helps connect the community. So in December, instead of getting the group together, I hosted an Instagram live session where everyone could just watch me and ask questions. I did so right by the Christmas tree and sort of tried to again connect the community in that regard. So not being defeated, but trying to leverage the opportunity in any way it presents. How was that received? Oh, good. It was wonderful. I had about 16 local guys that joined throughout my hour and a half chat session and given it was right before Christmas, I was pretty happy about that. And then there was about 200 international that probably joined throughout that chat. So yeah, it was, it was a wonderful draw. I had a plethora of questions that people were asking me such as, where do I get my gear? What's your gear like? Do you have a dungeon? I'm working on that. Yes, I want to not home dungeon. It's coming. What is my husband like? Is he into kink? No, he's not. That is my thing. How does that relationship work? So yeah, I pull through our questions right from A to Z and I'm pretty much an open book. So you can kind of ask me anything. I do want to ask about your husband because you two are on very different points of view with this. How do you two manage a relationship like that? Open communication. If I'm going to talk about one thing when it comes to any relationship, you have to have good communication. And that's paramount and key. Kevin, my husband is not a Leatherman or a kink individual like I am. That's definitely my thing. And it really just starts with open communication and open dialogue between the two of us. And I really can't stress that enough from there. It really comes up to, you know, what, what are we looking for? What are we wanting? We're very fortunate. One of the reasons why we still like to live in Edmonton, although our families are here is our cost of living isn't atrocious. We have a fairly good life here that allows us to invest in things that we want. My Leather and Gear collection being one of them. It is not a cheap fetish. So we are able for me to invest kind of how I see fit in that regard. And I'm forever grateful for that. You mentioned when we were preparing for this interview, you mentioned you have a fetish for gloves. Yeah, tell us more about that. Yes, absolutely. So we're going to pair right now. Tough gloves. One of my favorites or favorite brand. So I would say when we start talking about leather gear in general, my very first love or fetish was for leather gloves. I would that is where it started. And from there, it was a domino effect thereafter. And I you're going to get my attention. A tight pair of leather gloves is probably your best bet. The sure way to not get my attention is either not have them or have them be ill-fitting. So that's just my own personal thing. I think at last count, I had 120 pairs. Yeah, it's a fetish for sure. It's a love of mine. It was always my first love and first desire. And from there, my Gear collection grew after my leather gloves. I'm gloves tight on Instagram. So I associate everything with sort of that persona of myself.  You are very much an extrovert. How do people react to that? I'm sure it probably comes off as intimidating at some points because I am a very confident individual in probably every sense of the term in myself. And I do try and be cognizant to the fact that I do come off maybe overzealous and confident and an extrovert, but I'm doing that in the most sincere way possible or the most sincere way I can perceive myself. Again, I think it comes out to the fact of how I was raised. We were always raised as being very confident self-aware individuals and be who we are. And that has carried through my entire life in all aspects. I think well, that's probably one of the most common misconceptions is in me is that I am so overconfident that I can't be approached and or maybe I come across as you know, overconfident and you know, how would I approach someone like that? And I think that's why I like hosting Instagram live videos and showing a visual of myself that is the true me because I think it sort of helps break down that barrier and that perception that oh, he is very accommodating and he is really wanting to build a community because that is really what I am about at the exact same token.  If someone and the grocery store said to me, you look awful in my leather gear, I would say I didn't ask you for your opinion and keep walking because I truly don't care what you think of me. I have and will wear leather pants to the office not going to wear a leather uniform not because I don't want to it's just a very professional setting and I do keep part of my life separate. But I'm not going to hide that side of myself and if you don't like it. That's your problem not mine and I recognize the fact that that is a truly unique part of who I am and not everyone possesses that same level of confidence and I hope my confidence is perceived as a community builder not a roadblock. What do you see for your community in the next couple of years? For example, what kinds of events? What kinds of activities? Yeah, absolutely. I would say in the immediate short term so year to two years would be largely very social very much to connect the community again in that very safe space Edmonton is not like other cities we don't have we don't have a sex club. We don't have a we don't have a bar with a dark room. Unfortunately, that's not here in Edmonton. So I have to kind of work with what I got here. Although other cities have those spaces and they're wonderful and I'm jealous of them. So I think being realistic on the outcome is we're going to be very largely social with the exception that maybe there will be some demos.  In the long term, one of the big successes that I would love to see happen for say Edmonton and expand to Alberta is again leveraging what we have and we have a beautiful mountain community here that isn't that far and would love to do a leather getaway into the mountains where we all charter a bus and there's 50 leather guys that have a bit of a call it a convention. We all talk about the knitting conventions that happen that would happen in Bath or in Camor or in Jasper and really leverage a beautiful piece of scenery that we have in our backyard. So I think that would be a huge success in the future that I would like to work towards. Are you able to coordinate with your local bar or another that is welcoming in order to secure a space? Yeah, locally, we definitely have those bases like evolution as an example is very one that is wanting to work with us and work towards building that community. So no questions there. We have another wonderful local, we have quite a few local breweries, but one in particular that I'm frequent quite often has said, you know, we would love to do a partner with you and do a private event. And again, it would be very social, but it would be a bunch of leather guys that come together and have a meeting together at a brewery. We also have a wonderful cigar lounge. So I have reached out to them and said, you know, would you be interested in having a bit of a private event? They have a private space in their cigar lounge that we could probably rent. So we wouldn't be big enough to run the whole space, but a private section of the bar or the cigar room would be another again opportunity for us to leverage. So those are some of the events or gatherings that I'm sort of have in mind in the coming year coming two years that I would like to work towards.  Very welcoming. I think that that's the difference in Edmonton that I find is we have a lot of spaces that if you just ask or just talk to you, they're very accommodating. They want to work with the community. They're not off putting, but they're just not a completely dedicated LGBTQ space. Now someone who may want to connect with you on social media, how can they do that? Yeah, absolutely. Um, so my, like particularly myself, the best way to connect with me would be through my Instagram account, love tight, um, because it's open to everybody. You have Instagram, you can access it. Um, I do have recon and I do have love, but you have to be part of those apps or part of those communities. Um, so you can definitely reach out to me there, but you also have to be part of that community first in order to find me. So I would say the best way to reach me would be likely through Instagram. Um, again, cause it's a public public space. My domain is open. You can search it. Um, and that's probably the best way to get a hold of me. That being said, I do have boundaries with Instagram. Um, I have a lot of, I have a lot of followers and a lot of DMs that come through. So if you message me and it takes me a couple of days to respond to you. Just be patient because I do get a lot of traffic on my Instagram account. So I do want to connect the community and I do want to build it up, but um, I also have to manage all aspects of my life as well. Sure. Graham Isbeester, I have to thank you for sharing something new in the community, seeing positive space growth in the community. And I sincerely hope that Edmonton and the surroundings will grow and be a more welcoming and leather friendly situation. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And I think, um, those are all outcomes that I want to achieve and hope to achieve both in the short and in the long term. I also feel like when we look at, you know, other cities in the international community, I do think this is going to be maybe our new normal. Um, as the LGBTQ community is largely accepted around the world, some of our spaces dissolve to be open to all. And in some aspects that hurts the community, but if we can reimagine our community in a different way, I think we'll still stay very connected. And I think that's, that's sort of the outlook that I'm taking is this is a new era and we have to change as it's 2022 and let's sort of build that community in a different way. Thank you very much for an amazing interview for Inside Leather History at Fireside Chats.


It is sharing your Chrome window. We are seeing ourselves. You have to go back and choose your PowerPoint from the three options. I'm trying to do that, but I think it's OK. I found that. I found that, yes. So could you see it now? Not yet. It's coming out or something? Yeah, yeah, I think we are there. Yeah, go on. OK. Thank you so much for giving me the chance to present my research here. I want to talk about heat transfer characteristics of non-confined gas medium. And since I can't see the chat section, please ask your question whenever you want. I can't actually see the part that is actually for the chat. First of all, I want to actually explain about the application of the heat conduction in the gas. Non-confined gas medium. One of them is some thermal switch that has been recently in 2018, of course. There is thermal diode, actually, that uses the gas non-confined medium. The other application can be in the field of thermal switch that controls the heat in both directions. And the other is some, actually, new one that is called absorption capillary transition control thermal switch, which uses the gas phase of the, for example, argon and let the heat transfer in only one direction. Beside the application, I think I should explain a bit about the physics of that in the beginning. And the most important, actually, number that we deal with in non-confined gas medium is Knudsen number. It's actually consists of mean free pass divided by characteristic lengths of the channel. Define the Knudsen number. And based on this Knudsen number, we can divide the Floyd flow and heat transfer into different regime. Actually, you can see the classification here. For the continuum flow, we can use, actually, we can solve Euler equation or Navier-Stokes equation. And even for a slip flow, we can actually use the Navier-Stokes with a slip on recondition. When it comes to free molecular flow regime, the heat transfer and Floyd flow can be dealt with, actually, collisionless Boltzmann equation that's a form of the Boltzmann equation, which we omitted the collision part. And about the transition flow, which I have focused, the Bayer-Nett equation is a possible choice. But besides, actually, the Boltzmann equation, which governs here also. But there's some problem about the transition flow. Actually, rarefaction can be dealt with Bayer-Nett equation and Boltzmann equation and this sort of equation that could be solved numerically or even analytically. But there's two other phenomena which can be considered as surface adsorption. The gas adsorbed on the surface of the valve of the channel and valve force field, which cannot ideal, actually, correctly or actually, how can I say? Precisely, we cannot actually model these two phenomena by Bayer-Nett equation or Boltzmann equation. Because of, and in order to solve the problem in this regime, transition flow, which is this Knudsen number is actually 0.1 up to 10, it's better to use molecular dynamics to solve the heat transfer. And Reza, Reza had a question for you. What is the wall made up of, typically? Everything can be made. Some metals I have actually, I will actually talk about it in the next slide. Yeah, go ahead. Thanks. So we use molecular dynamics to actually solve the problem in this region. The surface adsorption is clear. The gas atoms adsorbed on the surface. What's about the valve force field? Valve force field is actually the force that penetrate into the fluid in the order of 1 nanometer and can change the characteristics of fluid in that region. If we deal with liquid, we have density layering that you absolutely know and hear about that. But when it comes to gas, there is only one peak in the density. And the density increased in this 1 nanometer from each wall in this region. The reason refers to the fact that when the gas atoms come actually to this region and collide with the wall, they actually attracted by the absorb actually somehow by the force field that wall atoms create. And due to that, their velocity actually somehow decrease and they accumulated in this region. We could say that somehow the residence time of the gas atoms in that region increases somehow. And so our goal was to find out how can this phenomena increasing the density near the walls affect the thermal resistance of the gas domain. We used such simulation and actually assigned higher temperature to the wall and lower temperature to the bottom wall. The gas molecules are free to move and the wall atoms stick together with some spring somehow. And they vibrate. They produce the temperature. The gas collide with them and the heat is transferred and between these two walls due to actually the conduction. Sorry for the interruption. You're at nine minutes. Basically, we have one minute to your official time and then five more minutes for questions. But it's flexible. Go on. OK, OK. We can see here the result of this phenomenon when the temperature difference is applied on the walls. When it is 200, actually we can see that the bottom wall was the cold wall and the upper wall was the hot wall. It can be seen that when the gas collide the cold wall, actually it loses more energy and it accumulates more near the cold wall. In contrast with the upper wall, that can be seen that when the gas atoms collide it, it actually gains some more energy. I had a clarification. These are doing NVT simulations of this or what? Or NVE? No, it's NVE. At this stage it's NVE and the walls are actually landgevin all applied on the walls. OK, I understand. And the gas is, and no thermostat is applied on the gas. So it's free to interact energy. And this actually density profile will lead to such normalized temperature distribution as can be seen here. Usually in the continuum fluid mechanics, the normalized temperature are the same. The profile is the same. And we don't have this difference. This is occurred due to this density difference that occurs near two walls. And the heat flux is also calculated. And effective thermal conductivity is also calculated from Fourier's law. And we can consider the profile, those temperature profiles, something like this. It has five actually separate regions that can be distinguished here. And we actually somehow calculated the thermal resistance for each of these parts. Actually, you can see that the lowest value goes for the bulk part, C2D. It has the lowest resistance and the interfacial resistance near the cold wall and hot wall can be seen here. And this resistance actually goes back to the wall force field region, the resistance that this region creates itself. So it's actually the main parameter that are effective is one of them is the Knudsen number, which clearly can change the characteristics of gas medium. The other one is temperature of the wall that can be seen, which change the temperature of the wall, can greatly change the thermal resistance. And the other is a wall gas interaction parameter we have used in that study. We have used some simple assumption. Maybe I can refer to that somehow. Like we have to wrap it up. We have a minute to the strict. OK. This assumption was made for the first, actually, our first research. And in the others, we have changed gas Knudsen number, wall temperature, and wall material. I should actually escape them. And these are the person who, which I have worked with them during that project. About the current project I have, I'm working on charged nanoparticle in collaboration with Sami Merabia, Ali Rajapur, and Mohamed Hasan Saidi to see the effect of charge on the nanoparticle, on the viscosity of the flow, and interfacial thermal conductance of fluid and actually the water, which is around that. Thank you so much for your attention. Right, the time is over. Sure, thank you very much for the interesting talk. So I guess Ali said that we leave 30 seconds for the next, but we don't have enough time for questions. I believe there is one question from the audience. I think we better leave it for the break. Thank you very much.


The you book How do you spell? When you see you what do you do you can say it ooh or you When and where you need a clue, please pay attention.    What's wrong with you? How do you spell ooh Once in a while you spell it you I fruit juice suit bruise Fruit juice on your suits not cool. Please don't spill it.   Oh Some of the time you use a silent e once in a while you spell it with an oh Once in a while you spell it with a you Once in a while you spell it.   It's confusing. That is true. The rules are strange. There are a few. But you can know just what to do. Sue can spell it. You can too.


Thank you for tuning in today to learn about our aspirations for teacher education and the foundation with open education that Minnesota State has built to support this important life-changing work. My name is Kim Lynch, Senior System Director for Educational Innovations at Minnesota State and I use the pronouns she, her. I'm joined by two colleagues who will introduce themselves before I share a bit more about who Minnesota is and are grounding in open education. Hi, I'm Tim Anderson, System Director for Student Success Technologies in Educational Innovations working with Kim and Steven. I'll be serving as the Project Director for this grant and I'll be covering the why's we chose this product and the goals. And hello, my name is Steven Kelly. I served as the Innovation Program Director at the Minnesota State System Office. My pronouns are he, him, his. And it's my pleasure to share with you all today our open curriculum development workflow. So I introduced myself as an employee of the Minnesota State System of Colleges and Universities. This is a snapshot of that system and really a graphic showing our geographic reach from tip to toe of the state. You can see that we have 37 colleges and universities, 54 campuses spread across the state. We serve over 340,000 students with more BIPOC students than all other higher ed providers in the state combined. And we have a large number of faculty as well, about 15,000. The unit that I have the good fortune to lead aims every day to identify, seed and support innovative technologies and talent to drive and enable the highest quality teaching and learning experiences for students across Minnesota State. Increasingly we have embedded within our work attention to equitable and inclusive practices. You probably aren't surprised that open educational resources have been a key area for us to promote cultural fluency and digital accessibility. Before diving into the work, I do want to share the commitment that educational innovations develop collectively and iteratively and has been really operationalizing over the past two plus years. It has progressively informed our evolution with OER and other work we do. The project we're discussing today is really one example of this commitment coming to life. And that commitment is to serve our diverse communities. We seek to develop skills and strategies to engage in uncomfortable conversations that allow us to acknowledge and incorporate multiple perspectives. In our work, we seek to identify and dismantle barriers based on race, socioeconomic status, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and ability. By using an equity lens and stepping outside of our comfort zones, we can address the issue or issues at hand. Minnesota State has been building a solid reputation as leaders, promoting open education and open educational resources for over six years. We create awareness, develop skills and abilities both across the system and at local campuses. We have essentially been really building readiness to accelerate quickly with an opportunity like the Open Textbook pilot program or opening opportunities for teacher education. Well, we don't really have time to talk about each of these and how they've grounded that work. This snapshot really shows the breadth of our efforts at the faculty and at the course level. Additionally, we have a strong base of colleges that have implemented OER or zero cost options at the program level. With great support from the Minnesota State Legislature, in fall 2019, Minnesota State offered six colleges, eight campuses the opportunity to convert an AA degree pathway to one with zero textbook costs, sometimes referred to as a Z degree. Four colleges began offering Z degree pathways in fall 2020. Of note, this was achieved in less than 12 months and during a global pandemic. Two more fully implemented a zero textbook cost degree path this fall 2021. This graphic really shows participating colleges and projections about number of courses, average of students per course and progress. The six colleges really had originally predicted they would save over $1.5 million in textbook costs in the 2021 academic year. In fact, college Z degrees saved students over $3 million that year with an aggregate, as you can see on the slide, of over $4.2 million. So again, we really see that this work combined as a solid foundation for our next challenge, opening opportunities for teacher education. It's also a success story and we've been really trying to tell it. Not because we like to boast, but because success is contagious, meaning when our communities hear about something that has a real meaningful impact. And again, we have a lot of communities all over the state. They're more likely to support it and forward it and keep this system wide momentum of valuable purposeful work moving forward. Thank you, Kim. The United States Department of Education Award Minnesota State three year $978,332 grant to establish the opening opportunities for teacher education program. Like all FIPSI awards in 2020, the award was reduced. In our case, the request was reduced from a $1.2 million ask. The program will create open textbooks and open educational resources, also known as OERs for core teacher education courses that will provide significant savings for students while maintaining or improving student learning outcomes. But why did Minnesota State apply for this grant? Nationally, researchers have projected a teacher shortage of nearly 100,000 qualified teachers. Research also indicates that this deficit can reach as many as 200,000 by 2024, 2025 academic years. And worse, the national survey by the Economic Policy Institute in 2020 reported that as many as 20% of teachers indicated they were likely or somewhat likely to leave because of the COVID pandemic. So in alignment with the national studies, Minnesota teacher shortages is real and the impact can vary by district. The number of students in Minnesota grew by approximately 20,000 from academic years 2015 to 2018. The discipline shortages in Minnesota include special education, science, theater, mathematics, world languages, career and technical education, and bilingual education. To note, another alarming concern according to a 2019 teacher supply demand report is that nearly 3.4% of our active teachers were teachers of color in 2018, but statewide, 33.5% of the total students are of color. We also discovered a survey of school districts that found that 90% of respondents reported difficulty even hiring teachers of color. So what we've also found in the research is that race-matched teachers to students have been shown to benefit students of color through increased reading and mathematical test scores, reduced absences, lower suspension rates, reduced high school dropout rates, and raised college aspirations. These findings are of interest as Minnesota has one of the highest racial achievement gaps in the nation. Research has also shown that teachers of color positively impact all students, but mainly on students of color who continue to experience educational achievement gaps across the country. Under the leadership of educational elevations at the Minnesota State System Office, a consortium of six institutions of higher ed have agreed to assist in the authoring, reviewing, leadership, and piloting of zero-cost teacher education curriculum to support this effort. To support this project, Minnesota State has four primary goals in the redesign of teacher education program curriculum. The first is to lower the financial burden of attaining teacher education degree. A 2018 Florida textbook survey found that high school textbook costs led to students not purchasing required textbooks, taking fewer courses, earning a poor grade, or dropping a course entirely. Economically disadvantaged students and students of color, the specific populations in which will be the greatest beneficiaries of our project feel these negative impacts. When complete, we expect to save our students between $420 and $627,000 per year. Our second goal is to remove the barriers. An unpublished report from the Minnesota State University Student Association Survey noted that 59% of students reported that they had to wait for their financial aid check to purchase a textbook. The urgency to provide day one access to course materials has never been greater. The created OER will ensure that all teacher education students can receive their course materials on the first day of class, even if their campus is under the restrictions because of the public health concerns. Third goal is to reduce the teacher shortage. Teacher education faculty in Minnesota has further indicated shortages in greater Minnesota where attracting teachers to small town areas is challenging. By addressing goals one and two, we intend to reduce the teacher shortage in Minnesota. And finally, the fourth goal is to increase the cultural fluency of teacher candidates using culturally responsive texts that better prepare them to teach in diverse and multi-ethnic communities. Research has demonstrated that culturally responsive education, also known as CRE, decreases dropout rates in suspension and increases grade point averages, student participation, self-image, critical thinking skills, and graduation rates. This opportunity takes on a dual purpose for our teacher candidates of color who must see themselves in the work and ideally extend these same practices through the future classrooms. This project will meet the students and the education sector needs through the development of open textbooks or OER for five teacher preparation courses. A sixth course, Introduction to Special Education, will be considered later. As Kim shared previously, educational innovations at the Minnesota State System Office has been working on open educational resources at a system level for over six years. And during that time, we've learned quite a few things about how to get this work done on a system level. All the different things that we have done over the past years are informing the way we are approaching and strategizing around this work for teacher education. It really comes together in what we call our open curriculum development workflow. And you can see here that the workflow itself has 12 different steps. Next slide, please. We start with an open inventory for teacher education. The open marketplace, as you may well know, is fairly large. It's growing every single year. And it's really hard to keep track of all the different materials that might be out there for a particular discipline. Our first step in the curriculum development process is to go ahead and look at what is out there for teacher education. We are going to identify the different open materials that are currently available for the courses we're looking at, both open textbooks and ancillary OERs. We are also going to reach out in the case of materials that might be copyrighted that are really, really good for teacher education. Reach out to those folks and say, hey, you have these really great materials. Would you be willing to openly license this material so that we can incorporate into our work and share it with the rest of the world? After we've done our open inventory, we will move on to the open inventory evaluation step. And this is where we take all the materials that we've gathered together from our search and we present them to our teacher education faculty and we say, okay, one of these materials is maybe meeting muster and what maybe isn't really ready to work with or maybe not applicable to the work that we're doing. And from that work, we will develop a more tight list of different resources and materials that are available out there in the open marketplace that we can then incorporate or potentially incorporate into our work. Once that is done, we move on to our teacher education curriculum inventory. In Minnesota State, we have a teacher education pathway and we need to identify within that pathway where there might be some really great opportunities to create OER ancillary materials. So we'll take a look at that pathway itself. We'll take a look both the course and the module designs, as well as the materials that are available for them. And we will go ahead and mark those different areas that our teacher educators identify where we can really strengthen them through OER and through the authoring process. Now, once we bring these three together, we're able to make some decisions about how to prioritize our work on this project. And that's in the next slide. Here what we're looking at is our opportunity analysis step or our step four. And this is really important because critical with the limited resources and time that we have that we make some very good decisions about where to apply both of those. So we drill down to the module topic level within the course. You'll see that in the upper left hand corner. From the first three steps in the process, we take a look at our teacher ed OER materials that we pulled together during the open inventory. We take a look at the in-test standards and what materials might be aligned to those of those open-end materials we pulled together. And we take a look at our current teacher ed materials from our pathway. Then we go ahead and triangulate those to figure out whether we want to apply our efforts in those particular module topic areas for OER or not. So for instance, imagine what's called module topic A has some really great teacher ed OER materials in the marketplace. And those happen to be aligned with the in-test standards as well. But when we look at our current teacher ed materials, they're already really inexpensive and maybe up to date. We may possibly create OER in those situations because again, if the materials are already relatively cheap, maybe students aren't getting the best benefit from the creation of OER materials. So it's a possibility. Conversely, if we have great teacher OER materials in the marketplace for a module topic and our current teacher ed materials are really expensive or need some updating, but all those materials combined may not be fully up to the in-test standards, we may be likely to create materials for that. Again, in that situation, bringing those OER materials that are available in the marketplace up to the in-test standards where we want them might be worth our time. And so we'll look to apply some effort there. Now, if we have in-test standards aligned curriculum that's already available in our pathway, but we're not finding any OER materials out in the marketplace, we are unlikely to create OER in that situation. And the reason why is because it would present a tremendous amount of effort to kind of bring all of that together and pull together those new OER materials. The sweet spot we're looking for is we want to find OER materials in the marketplace that are in-test standards aligned in situations where we also have expensive need updating or non-existent materials in our pathway and that represents the core in the middle. We are absolutely creating OER in those situations because that is worth our time and resources. Moving on to the next slide, please. So that's our opportunity analysis. Step four, moving after that, we go into the faculty and personnel training. In this situation, we pull together some of our best practices and faculty development from in the system. Over the past six years, we have launched many OER learning circles, more than I can count. And these are opportunities for faculty who are brand new to OER to come together in a learning community and work alongside peer mentors who are faculty that have been doing OER and publishing for several years now at least. And together they're able to mutually help one another and new faculty to OER are able to build the kind of skills that they need working alongside, again, a peer expert. We are also gonna work with our partners at the Open Education Network to provide a publishing short course. And through this publishing short course, faculty who are brand new to OER creation in Teacher Ed will be able to become informed about how to make great decisions on for instance, publishing format where they wanna publish their things and other sorts of decisions that they may need to make along the way when considering publishing. Next, we go to our OEM curriculum design mentoring. And this is an opportunity for the faculty member to work alongside an instructional designer looking at the actual design of the open material and open content that they plan to create. Now we will also be focusing on applying in test standards using a rubric to all the design work that we do within that process. So that not only our faculty learning in the last step all about OER but they're also learning to do some really great planning and curriculum development and curriculum design alongside the trained expert. Moving on to the next slide. After all this training, we move on to the actual material development. And this is where faculty begin authoring either individually or in teams. We're gonna work with our faculty to figure out what makes the most sense and where their comfort levels reside. We'll also provide the opportunity for faculty to work alongside equity coaches to help inform the creation of culturally responsive materials. And once all that authoring is complete, we will be looking at a module of personalized learning. Now actually, in reality, this is probably going to work hand in hand even though the one step comes after the other in the workflow, they'll probably be intermingled a bit. Modular personalized learning is really our attempt to open up the personalized learning landscape. So we are aware that many personalized learning platforms on the web are proprietary and oftentimes for faculty or students to access them, there's a subscription cost involved. That's not very consistent with the idea of open in our opinion. And so instead, we are going to pursue the creation of modular personalized learning materials inspired by a program inside Minnesota State called FlexPace. This focuses on the creation of materials and leveraging the learned management system to create the kind of pathways that we want to see in personalized learning. So for instance, ancillary design for plug-in player customization will be created and these will appear as either SCORM or common cartridge files that can be plug-and-played into a learning management system like D2L or Blackboard. We will also create this aggregated folders of all of our content that will allow faculty to take individual folders or modules and either put them into a learning management system or up onto a website. And then all of these will be accompanied by specification guides which inform our instructional designers or the faculty how to set up links and how to connect everything together to come out with an outcome of personalized learning that best fits their needs or their students' needs. After we get all of the different materials created in modular format, we move on to a comprehensive curriculum review. And in the curriculum review step, we invite both internal and external reviewers and who are teacher educators and we get a mix of faculty and industry partners in there. So it might not just be educators, it might be some of our partners too from for instance, the Minnesota Department of Education. And all of them will apply custom rubric that sort of checks all the boxes that we wanna see checked along the way to ensure that our curriculum materials are being created consistent with cultural responsive best practices, consistent with good and strong curriculum design or applied to a rubric such as quality matters. And also that are all going to be fully accessible ready. And that moves on to the next slide in our next step, which is an accessibility review. Our instructional design in partnership with some of our other technology experts will do a comprehensive accessibility review on all the materials we create. And any materials that are found to be slightly deficient will be kicked back to the authors and they will be edited and then returned for subsequent publication. Once all of those materials are ready, we will begin piloting and revising. This is where we scale out all of our different materials to our six campuses who are part of the consortium and they go and run them in the courses and we get feedback from students along the way. We will then take that feedback and we will further revise all of our materials so that we finally reach the last step which is OER taken to scale. And this represents a few different steps that we intend to take to bring all of our materials to the world. First of all, we'll upload all of our materials to our Minnesota State repository called OpenDora. Secondly, we will promote all of our materials through the Open Education Network. And in the case of open textbooks that we create, we will pursue having those posted in the open textbook library so that folks can download them there. The last thing is we intend to promote at conferences and associations for the next few years. In fact, right here at the OpenEd conference, we hope to come back every single year and share the latest updates on this project with all of you. And with that, are there any questions that anyone here today would like to ask the three of us?


And guess what, one of his songs was in one of the movies in Kenya that is on Netflix, 46. So, my people. And today he has brought to us his 4th studio album and we'll be talking more about that. And what his plans are with the album. Karibu sana jublak. Niko fiti sana. To me furaia kwa na wea pa leo? Ata mi na furaia kwa pa manje. Nino tama ningi kuru di. So kindly introduce yourself to our audience. You tell them what you're all about and what you have brought for us today. I'm jublak. That's my stage name. I'm a man of many caps manje. I'm an artist. I'm an actor. I'm a lot of things. I'm just a creative. And I also love God. Ya, ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya, ya. Repass. Anyway, um, you know, I feel like the fact that I know you na feeling kamakilam dana kujua. So you know, I feel like I know you. Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya. Tell them a bit about jublak na jomesema you're an actor, artist and you also love God. So tell us a bit about your musical journey when you were a newmaker kwa industry for a while and you're doing great. Ya, thanks, thanks. I started music when I was still in school. But it was, it was, I was just doing music because it was a passion then. Ya. So when I graduated kuka umana to jandi kwa kazi, I was like yo, mbo na nini jump the ship na we have already sailed So I came okay, let me just concentrate on making music, participating in film And also like I paint, during the pandemic I used to spend a lot of my time alone Jwa twizi perform, muna jwa quarantine yourself and stuff So I just went bought paints, canvases ni nini nikazaku paint So yeah, my style is expression is when it comes to painting But when it comes to music, music to me is something very special I talk through music, my ideologies I put them through music So I have this side of activism in me So na fi lengi pi atu kwangerada maze, like our society needs Generation ni nini piwa na elewa, things to do with You know, just being upright as a youth Story za leadership wana get our mental health issues Ju saiz enya atu kofiti, that's wana matu wana kunyomba wana pigashere wana jwa But pigashere wana nini shu kohapi Ya, by the way Okay, kupigashere wana say nafana, at least na atu liya At least na, wana cheke But the thing is, as much as wana pigashere he If you are not okay, seek help first before indulging in the shere he Kus it might go down, downwards Ya, that's a disclaimer Nisa wa sii atu kote wa atu apige shere he, enjoy, have fun But if you are not okay, seek help first before you in Kus ineza kwa It's simple, talk, just talk to someone out there People are also going through stuff but kiyongenam To wana find okay, how did you go about your own problem You can find my own way pia wana jwa bini nili Kata kus idea pia So to me, music is one of those ways I used to escape a lot of things If I could be out there drinking or smoking or doing whatever people do But I was like okay, why don't I write something nibongi About how I feel right now If I'm feeling low, you find some music I did in the album As in zikwa bit low When I'm saying low, like I'm speaking in your voice You get, I've been through some hard times as an artist You know how artists have been How many years? Was it 2 years? Yeah, almost 2 years Thank you So you see, like atakubi kwa na ka-saving ka-dog Manzo na pa-delisha Una kumukawa wasu kenda kubai ma-stok Ma-tishu paper I know Delisha? I don't understand your story I don't want to know Lisa What was the thing Of all the things that you did It was just panic manzo We did not know what was going on We did not know what was happening We didn't know yet We didn't know until we got a stretch You get, so yeah Such periods in me to funza People changed Kuliko na jobu leha cha jobu But kuliko na artist Yolo zana artist Melodies were like, where you are, pusip Inspiration was like You can't sleep Una ganji, una ganji So in that spirit Melodies Is there any song that Out of these sofa set dreams Kuna kuna enye ilku Is there one that came about At that time of the night One song We'll talk about the album but tell us a bit about that There's this song in Itwa's story It's a very short song It's one minute It's one minute In enda kitu ka Story amtu na jua Ako stack in the zone Kila day hananga kwa kia Kible kiki kwa machu om Na kwa ke home Anna feel strange Life danger niku kwa cup na night mayas Kubei cup kula vitet Nobody cares Borani chip, borani accessible Ma zumpi wo kwa festival Rusha miku ono juka Ya ya It was just I was looking out in my neighborhood And people were just Getting by the day Aja tu leo siku ishe It became a phrase So people indulge For the sake of the moment And you end up being A stranger to yourself I didn't even write it That's why it's a minute I didn't write it I just called my producers And told them it was a vibe So everything will talk to If you've been creating music for long I'm not sure if it's special But I feel like In rap You can always find it easy To record and create music without writing Without writing So I want us to talk about Sofa said dreams I know the previous albums We'll be here In Pakakeshwa As you have heard It's deep It's deep It's very deep So tell us a bit about the album And the inspiration behind the cover Because it's quite interesting I thought maybe we'll see your face No This is my face It's arts The album cover The album cover The album will come to Sofa Sofa said dreams But the S name is a kind of dollar sign Madhu So I'm from Madhu So I dream of Patagangi Of course It's not just kuka kwa sofa na kudos It's not that you will pass out kwa sofa Then you dream a lot of stuff and you made music Yes, also When you are at your worst To chef unkiwa hau I thought you can sleep on the sofa Yes I thought you can sleep on the sofa We can call it a bus We can call it a bus We can call it a bus Sofa said dreams Sofa said dreams Sofa said dreams Sofa said dreams Sofa said dreams So that's why I made it I just want to be in a better place And whoever is going to listen to the album I want to inspire them To have better dreams And also I did that album to uplift On a get But then it record It's not a periodia pandemic Yes Because I couldn't end out much So the songs are a bit low-fives It's a chill na zuko hau You can wash your dishes Ok, skia uko And there are few You can dance kwa hau How many tracks are here? The delu version has 13 But the official album has like 24 tracks Wow What's that? You need to work Yeah Moja moja Pinches Pinches on the skia of honda No, but yet We cut some slack Of the 6-year break But from now it's work after work Before the year At least it's not a periodia Pinches on the album I know Ok, so talk to us about the cover And what was the third process Behind creating this cover Point Black Vumbi He's one great MC But Point Black I want to make an album Nakaskia few songs in there Idiya ganyu kwa na kwa Animated one So, e binyali skia kaja Aka na kwa This song sounds like you're in your head Kusamu me kato You just imagining your own things Ok, let me see what to do I'm just seated on some sofa and chill too And I'm just vibing So, akani tu mi na That cover Animated characters all over Around me flying about Namini kwa pali na kwa Aka na kwa Of course I wanted you guys to hear Kwa kwa kwa kwa Labda na ni check out Ama labda na reach out to anyone Ama account social media Because nowadays everyone is on their phones Una ni get It is just me and her in the house Kwa meza kuna do Na some bibles, whatever Raki ni kwa na kiyatuyangu mi mera ruka Nimi kwa on the road Saki tabu ya Kandika lyrics Then kuna tatu ya na zira rura rua Ina manisha life, ina konga chaotic Pia in the course of creation Uki kretkitu kukua na isu Destruction Even from within So those characters as ina faces Una animal faces na ne Because you can always put any character you want So you said that in the house It's just you and your lady But now na witu zingine Na witu zingine So those are just the people I create in the music In your head It's quite interesting Very interesting How much of The songs Yeah the songs over here Have you done videos for? I have like six videos For the album The latest one being Dalomo Yeah Hopefully it will get more and more I am interested in the whole album On my boom play Profile On my soundcloud Una get I will just put some on my YouTube So that's why I decided to buy an album And put it on my channel No, I will produce it Our technical crew What is Taiga? What is the meaning of Taiga? These are the characters But you can maybe It's always my I think it's an animal spirit I always identify with How it survives I always identify with It's agility I know Of course Let's plan Say I am the male Taiga I love one of you Because I am a Shiba I know I am the male Taiga So that's why it's female So before we even get to the newest release From the album, Dalomo Tell us how the experience was When one of your songs was on 46 On Netflix And tell us the song itself And what was it? The movie itself in it was 46 Probably we may watch But there is a scene in Yekianza The main characters on it One of their gang members When I'm shoot and then the song plays It's so cool When the producer reached out We want to use that song No time must end No one will go out of the house At least we can survive It was important to me Because now I have a new audience People listen to the song And then it will live over the ages People will always ask Even 10 years Which song is that? I felt so blessed Because it was just a song I did under 2 minutes I don't make long Najiwakina nesha tohachezangi Music 3 minutes So at most 40 seconds That's what the DJs have for you Because to go a lot of artists And we want that space So they also played it For some seconds But everyone was reaching out And I was like It felt good Being that I'm still young In this I feel like in the 5 years You've done a lot I feel independent I feel like in the 5 years You've done a lot I feel independent I feel independent I feel independent I feel independent I feel independent It's a big day But I feel like Because it's not who will stop you So I just keep doing you Let's talk about Dalamoku Now tell us what the concept of Dalamoku was And what was going through your mind When you were writing the song Dalamoku is produced And it was a Kokos vibration Kokos is part of Amai is part of Sarabi It's a band if you feel So to record Samoen at the river Umse Tumengia studio He was playing me that beat Kwa gari to kihanda I was like hey! So to kufika studio Akai zoomo everything Akai kumichi zemangu maza vichi To know what's going on This guy David and Nini Akai nambia even he killed himself I was so interested Kujwa His life had a kufika point He had to take his own life He was one of the most top selling Biggest artist I love him at it's prime I was intrigued Sometimes we might portray ourselves Very happy but deep inside We have a purpose With all this Nini Nini So when he played the song In my head He didn't know the melody But it was a love song I wanted to sing about Nini Then Koko goes like Why don't you make it gospel Even before we go on How it fits is gospel What does Ndalo Moka mean? Ndalo Moka is a lower phrase In shengsi kuzengine In shengsi kuzengine So like Can't you make it gospel And then it just changed the entire song After the verses I penned it instantly Because when it was gospel Now it was another inspiration A different vibe And finally enough When I was looking at how Of which he lived his life I felt like Let me try to speak in a voice When you are low What do you look for When you have friends How All the time on stage You even get high You are dying in hospital bed But doctors say Resistate too much Ndalo Moka was from that perspective Your mental health Stories are also madre Nini just uplift yourself You don't need to To escape Ndalo Moka I'm looking for a friend Ndalo Moka I'm looking for a savior You get So After Ndalo Moka Nika create that kind of song So with the video I want to show A church I wanted to show a journey My own fears My own mountains Climb mountains up to the peak And I'm even dropping off my clothes And I'm giving up some other stuff It's a process of change And I get So after that Some African art So that's how In my head I wanted it to be In rock pictures It came through And when I was watching I was like It's a good one Now that I know the meaning Niteza kwa iskiza Tena Okay an idea So I know We might be here up to tomorrow Like I say, there's a lot There's a lot to talk about When it comes to new black But kindly tell the people How they can purchase the album How much it's going for And where they can find the songs But the album First of all I'm a rebel soul I'm a rebel soul And if I know That's so cheap And it's so comfortable So you can check us out On our social medias And on our Instagrams Rebelsoulink Beside that Rebelsoulrebel And that's called Rebelsoul So one as a part Also my album You can get the album On Mdundo You can also reach out to me I'll send you a digital In the box I'll send you a copy So that copy is just one thousand But just Tau too Pesaki dogo But also can mail you on your So it's value for your money You can put up a tangoma From the artist Good song Thanks And also Just continue supporting us And I'm happy you guys had me here today In fact this is the first interview After me releasing Tawamoko So this is the first place when I Cheers And it's one of the dopest DJs I know Thank you So thanks for having me So I'll send you a copy I'll send you a copy We need this We need this So To make some social media Anything else before we wind up any shoutouts Shoutout to My fans Kwanzaa My family And my friends When we were in Kwanzaa My fans, my family and my friends Big up so much Strangers on your Mekwa friends Check out my music And also E-Circuit is the best show We want to support Kenyan Kenyan music is 100% 100% So thank you so much for coming through To not cut us Ki zendalo moko You get what we are talking about And go YouTube get the album Support our artist Please support our artist We need you to support our artist So thank you so much for coming through once again Thank you so much And Before the next album It might be coming sooner than we think It might be coming sooner than we think We need you to support our artist We need you to support our artist We need you to perform So thank you So that's it from Jublak Up next is Ndalo Moko By Jublak


Hey everyone, welcome back to Nintendo Prime and you guys know about the rumors and the leaks and everything around the emulators for Game Boy Color, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance. You know, we've been talking about it for a few days and it's looking pretty legit. Anyways, it looks like these are systems that are likely going to come to Nintendo Switch online. But what if I told you a platform that I think I can universally say all hardcore, longtime Nintendo fans have been dying to see on either Virtual Console, Nintendo Switch online, or any other form from Nintendo, even a mini console like they did with an NES and SNES mini. This is a system that I think everyone's been wanting. What if I were to tell you there is a chance, a maybe more than likely chance, that it's going to be coming to Nintendo Switch online. What system are we talking about? Gamecube. Why are we talking about Gamecube? Because my good friend Mike Perez pretty much gave us a nice juicy rumor to talk about today in Gamecube coming to Nintendo Switch online and coming by the end of 2023. Now you might go, but Nate, why should we care about what Nintendo Academy has to say? And I'll just say this. I don't know who his sources are on this, of course. He's not going to divulge those details. However, Mike Perez has had contact and interviews with Nintendo employees. How? I don't know, but they're literally on his channel. You can go watch them for yourself. So literally he knows some people and that's all I can really say about it. But he, how did I find out about this information? It wasn't just something that like Mike was talking to me about in private. He brought it up himself on the Nintendo Prime podcast yesterday and shocked all of us here. Take a listen. I'm going to put a cherry on top called Gamecube. Oh, no, no. Oh, no, no. You're going to a place Nintendo seems afraid to go. They're going to go there. They're going to go there. They're going to go there. Well, what makes you think they're going to go there anytime soon? I got my sources. Voice of Peach is telling you too much.   I got my sources, dude. I got my sources. Got to keep quiet because there you go. There you go. Keep it quiet. You mentioned on a public fire. Yeah. You literally might just go to my video for the morning. Thank you. No, no, you must give us your sources. Obviously, God, but if I do make a video tomorrow, I do apologize for the attention that comes your way that helps you get to 10,000 subscribers. Right. Right. But yeah, I believe wholeheartedly, yeah, it's not only... Well, I'm going to mark this point in the video so I don't want to go back to it. I might need to clip that out for... I'm sorry. When I hear Nintendo Academy tells me he's got his sources, I'm starting to think, I have a nice little 10 minute speculation video dropping tomorrow. But I mean, first thing I'd cover Gamecube because that's just huge. Notice how he quickly made his gloss away from the Gamecube stuff. By the way, yeah, I've got my own sources. Gamecube's happening. Yeah. By the way, look at that shady thing over there. So Gamecube. So I obviously don't know who your sources are and I'm going to follow the assets. That's your own private stuff.  Do you know there's a possibility that the Gameboy might be part of the first year? Yeah. I think a lot of people kind of assume Gameboy, Gameboy Color could be that. Gameboy Advance would be like the expansion. It could all be part of that though and if they're going to have Gamecube in that could be the expansion too because like Gameboy Advance, you know, you can kind of liken that similar to the Super Nintendo. Yeah. But I had a completely different idea on that one. Well, what do you got? What do you got? So looking at the N64 NSO release was in September. Yeah. It's been in September for every time they've announced.  I don't think they've ever pushed a September game before. Yeah. I'm joking. I'm joking. I don't think that's ever happened. But it is funny. Gameboy. Gameboy. It cleared the way. No, no, no, why? It's because Gamecube is coming in. It's such a big deal. Right, right, right. We need to clear September up for the 32 million that are subscribed to MSO.   Right. We care about the 32 million that might maybe have like a million of you try out one. But no, um, saying it's true. I mean, that'd be awesome. But I was actually thinking instead of Gamecube, I could see him pairing along with the Game Gear because they did the Genesis already. And that's kind of in that same ballpark of Gameboy, Game Gear, you know, those handhelds kind of the same timeframe. So that would be, and by the way, we had no rumors on Genesis. So if Game Gear is coming, we, it's not like we'd even know. Yeah, yeah, but they're building up little by little. I spy, I expect from here two years from now, we're going to have all the retro consoles. Let me retro is from, let's say Gamecube and down every single console that came from Gamecube and down, plus the Wii and and and then and then, um, from here to two years, that's what I feel that we're going to see. That's insane. What are your sources to say? When is Gamecube dropping? Is that this year next year? I don't know. You don't know.  One day. So you know, I'm fishing, I got to fish, I got, I got to get like a little extra. Like, look, if we're getting Gameboy, the shares, I think somehow dropping Gamecube as well. I'm just going to blow our minds. Could be four years from now. I'm trying to figure out. Could be four years from now, but he'll look back and say, see, I called him four years ago. To be fair, he said, hey, if we read into what he said, he said, within the next couple of years, Gamecube and Wii. True, true. Now he never said he had a source on Wii, so that could just be speculation. But, but do you remember, do you remember how, how they introduced the Nintendo 64? I don't know. They just dropped it. Yeah. They just, they dropped the Nintendo 64 and all of a sudden they go whoop. And they brought the Genesis right next to it. Nobody was expecting it. So you can expect something similar to that. Gameboy. Yeah. I mean, are you telling me the space and sources of speculation? I'm all confused now. I don't know what's happening. I'm going to, I'm in La La Land. And I like to see Mike over there is being like so careful. Like what can I say, what can I not say? Yeah, I don't, I don't want to, I mean, hold on a minute. Let me, let me, it's my phone. I don't want to. Yeah, I probably got like 10 texts. Like, what are you doing?  So as you heard from Mike, it's obvious that he does know something about GameCube. And he sort of hinted that, you know, you're going to, they're going to do something like they did with N64 where it's like, here's Game Boy.  And the other thing he didn't know here is Mike was being very, very careful in even saying what he said. But he essentially was saying, look, we're getting GameCube. Not when we're going to get it, but the GameCube is coming and he's pretty confident in it. Now, this is a rumor. I do not know his sources. I cannot verify them. This is just based on a trust level I have with Mike Perez to not spread misinformation intentionally when he is the actual source of this information, or at least the source that we hear it from. So he does mention, you know, within a couple of years he expects to see GameCube and Wee. So that does give us sort of a window here, you know, that we can see GameCube and maybe Wee. He didn't note that he actually has a source on Wee. So that could just be his speculation. That's why we're sticking with GameCube. Maybe he does have a source on Wee and he just really wasn't willing to confirm that because, again, he was being very careful. And I know Mike could be a funny guy. Some people think he was joking. When the podcast ended, he wasn't joking. I'm not divulging any specific details. But he legitimately has a source on this. So the way that I look at this is this. Look, if Nintendo wants to bolster their Nintendo Switch Online service, adding a bunch of consoles is obviously a major way to do it. Getting GameCube on there would be a massive feather in the cap of Nintendo Switch Online because that's never happened with Virtual Console. For everyone who says, I'd rather have Virtual Console, but let me give you some stuff that you've never had on Virtual Console before. Like GameCube would be a very enticing reason for people to get it. And we all know GameCube would be part of the expansion pass. And some people would argue GameCube couldn't make the expansion pass worth the extra money, especially if they give you some of the highest quality GameCube games. The Luigi's Mansion, you get some all Resident Evil 4 in that mix. You get Wind Waker in that mix. You obviously get Mario Sunshine and all of the rest could really, really make that package look more enticing, especially when we consider the fact that all of the online games, I mean, God, imagine they get Rogue Squadron, Rogue Leader on there. Like imagine that all those online games or all those multiplayer games now have online multiplayer. Imagine Super Smash Bros. Melee is back officially from Nintendo with online play. Like that would be so huge. And many people would consider that well worth the price of admission, let alone the fact that Nintendo would release wireless GameCube controllers. We actually talked about that a bit on the podcast, but Nintendo would obviously have wireless GameCube controllers. I don't know if they would look exactly like the Wavebird. Nintendo did lose a lawsuit over the Wavebird back in the day. So it's possible they can't go with that exact design, but they could just take the normal GameCube controller as it is and just make it wireless. So I don't know. Nintendo obviously has a lot they could do here. And that does make the price look a bit more enticing, in addition to the fact that we get DLC with it. Now obviously this doesn't make Nintendo Switch online. Suddenly this amazing service from remissing basic functionality, no ability to message people, let alone localized voice chat. Like those are kind of the two big ones. Some people talk about themes. Themes wouldn't really be part of the Nintendo Switch online. Anyways, but yeah, and some people obviously never going to be okay with paying to play online, even though you have to do that on PlayStation or Xbox. It doesn't mean that people like it. Some people feel strong-armed into it. In fact, I do wonder of the 32 million people last reported from Nintendo. Subscribe to Nintendo Switch online. How many of them would stay subscribed if they didn't have to be to play Smash and Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart online and stuff like that. But obviously Nintendo is looking to bolster this. This is their, not I wouldn't say their version of Game Pass because Game Pass not only has the old library, but really the selling point of Game Pass is New Games day one. And we'll be the show day one. Halo Infinite day one. Starfield day one. Like that's really the selling point of Game Pass. But PlayStation has their own little subscription service. We're classic games. Some of those classic games are local that you can download. Some of them are streaming. This is kind of like that. And it's interesting because Nintendo kind of creates apps around it where you download an app for a system and then you play the games through that app. It's going to be quite interesting. Obviously we all know about the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance stuff. But GameCube to me, that is the one that gets us the most excited here at Nintendo Prime because GameCube was my high school days. That's how old I am. GameCube was a high school system for me and I love it. We came out after I already graduated. So I know we have some people in our audience where we was their high school system. Not here. I was already fully an adult and almost able to legally drink when that system dropped. So anyways guys, thank you so much for tuning in. Let me know what you think about this rumor down in the comments below. Again, it is a rumor. As much as I trust Mike, I'm not even out here saying that this is going to happen 100%. But I will say that, hey, Mike Perez is a good buddy of the channel. And when he says he's got sources, I can believe it. And you could just look at his channel and see that he's interviewed Nintendo employees in the past. It doesn't mean any of those employees are the source, but it just lends some credence to who he is. This isn't just a random person on Twitter. We don't know. We can't verify anything in their background besides, oh, did they say something? Did that something come true?  So thank you guys so much for tuning in. I am Nathan and Rebel Jads, and I will catch each and every one of you in the next video.