Hi everybody, my name is Jason Klein. I'm the director of P20 initiatives at Northern Illinois University. My job is to work with school districts and community colleges throughout Illinois on a whole variety of things, including supporting the work of our students and teachers on the career pathways. We are launching a series of YouTube shows called Career Pathways Virtual Trailheads because we can't be out right now in workplaces getting those work-based learning experiences. So we're excited to bring you a whole bunch of different people and a whole bunch of different careers so you can learn about their work. And so to start with, we've got our first guest. I'm going to let him go ahead and introduce himself. I'm Marco Castellana. I am Senior Vice President of Product Management of Einstein, which is the artificial intelligence component of Salesforce. And for those people who don't know, because many people, while many people, millions of people use Salesforce every day, there would be many teachers and students who would be like, I don't know what Salesforce is and don't understand that it's a Google, Microsoft, Apple kind of company in terms of its incredible importance in the IT space and for businesses and organizations may kind of can tell us what Salesforce does. In a nutshell, Salesforce connects businesses to their customers and that has a couple of different facets. So marketing is part of that. So Salesforce is actually one of the biggest email senders in the world. Although Salesforce itself is not the one sending the emails, rather it's like Banana Republican, Room & Board and Lids and all these different companies that are sending emails through Salesforce. And so you have definitely gotten an email that came through Salesforce today. There's also the sales functionality, so it helps you track your sales from when it's a lead and you just don't know whether they're going to buy to when they're actually progressing through a deal. Then there's customer service. For example, if you call Southwest Airlines and you have a problem with your flight or something like that, they will log that in Salesforce. So Southwest uses Salesforce to track their customer service. And finally there's e-commerce. And so a lot of websites that you see on the internet today, like Echo, The Shoes, Shiseido, The Makeup, there's a whole bunch of these. When you're buying from their websites, that is actually a Salesforce website. Cool, that's awesome. And not-for-profits also use Salesforce? Absolutely they do. A lot of them in the education space, in fact. Can you give us one quick example of that? Yeah, I mean a great example is College Forward. College Forward is a nonprofit that helps underprivileged kids get into and stay in college. And so they use Salesforce to track the journey of the student through middle school to high school and then into the college. And then real quickly to tie this together, tell us about, give us your definition of artificial intelligence and why it's important in a company like Salesforce or to its customers. Well, I take a pretty broad definition of artificial intelligence. I call artificial intelligence anything that learns, learns from your history of data of information. And so that's how I consider artificial intelligence and why it's important to something like Salesforce. Well, it removes a lot of the grunt work from people's days. So you can use artificial intelligence to automatically fill forms or to decide who to send an email to and who not to or what to recommend to somebody. So there's all kinds of different ways where you can kind of remove the grunt work from humans and allow them to do more important things than just these repetitive tasks. Awesome. Thanks so much. So tell us first about what a typical day looks like in your work, where you work and what kinds of tasks you do and maybe even how long you work, how many days a week you work, that kind of thing. Okay. Well, I work in Salesforce West, which is at 50 Fremont Street here in San Francisco. That's where I would normally work obviously outside of coronavirus as it stands today. I'm working from home. And that kind of remote work set up actually works pretty well for Salesforce because Salesforce is a global organization. In fact, I have teams in Tel Aviv, Israel in Grenoble in France, and there is also one in Hyderabad in India. So we're a pretty global team. And so I'm kind of on video calls all the time anyway. So a normal day for me, well, I have a pretty varied job. My job is kind of all over the place. Part of my job is I manage a team of people that are building these artificial intelligence products. And so a lot of my days spent talking to my team about what the next products are, what our customers are looking for and things like that. But I also spend a lot of time talking to our customers, the people that are using our products like Marriott and Southwest and all these different companies. And so I talk a lot to those folks about the kinds of things that they need from artificial intelligence. And I try to kind of synthesize that for my team so that we know what is the next thing that we should be building. So in that kind of work and with your team being spread literally across the world, what would you say are some of the skills that are most important, the most important skills for you to have in your work? There are two that I would consider and they are communication and creativity. So when it comes to communication, you absolutely need to be able to present well, to speak well, to present well is a key skill, I think. And not even just for my job, but you know, all throughout my career, I've been honing my ability to speak, to speak in front of crowds, to speak online like this. And that's been really key, I think, to my own career growth. And so for a lot of the folks on my team, you know, I'll send them to like speaking classes, to presentation classes, how to build a good slide deck and how to give a good demo and things like that. So that they are also good speakers and good presenters, but also creativity. I mean, when I'm looking to interview somebody, that's really what I'm looking for. I'm not even necessarily looking for their past experience or anything like that, but especially in artificial intelligence, all this stuff is brand new. I mean, these things, the kinds of discussions that I'm having every day now would have been ridiculous five years ago. And that was only five years ago, right? So we can talk about all kinds of crazy things like like image recognition, like being able to read the text right off of forms like automatic recommendation and things like that, that we couldn't even do just a few years ago. And so you really need a lot of creativity to understand how you can take what's coming fast and furious, you know, these new technologies are coming at us very quickly. And use those in such a way that they're useful to our users in businesses. Awesome. So thinking about those things and having a team that is spread across France, Israel, and India. And here in the United States, one of the questions I have, you probably have team members who are from beyond those four countries as well, correct? Absolutely. In fact, I always say that the Einstein team ranges from A to Z because our head of marketing is from Azerbaijan. And we have one of our development managers is from Zimbabwe. So we actually have people from all over the globe, both here and all around the globe. That's awesome. So one of the elements of the career pathways work in Illinois is that we want students no matter what kind of career they're going to go into to develop this cross-cultural competence. So I would imagine that's pretty important on your team. Can you talk a little bit about what that looks like and then layer in the fact that you're not even all physically together to be cross-culturally competent? Yeah. So one major example of that is, you know, so as I mentioned, we have a team in Tel Aviv and, you know, barring coronavirus actually would have been in Tel Aviv last week, in fact. And we have to set kind of ground rules for working with the folks in Tel Aviv. You got to bear in mind that people in Israel and Tel Aviv is in Israel, you know. People in Israel, their weekend is actually Friday and Saturday and also they're 10 hours separated from San Francisco in terms of their time zone. And so when we're working with Tel Aviv, we have to plan these meetings out in such a way that they're in the morning in our time so that they're not too late in their time. And also, you never want to make a meeting on a Thursday because that's a Friday in Tel Aviv and that's not going to work. That's their weekend. So they're not too thrilled about that. So you do have to be aware of these different cultures. Meanwhile, actually, tomorrow I would have been on my way to Japan had I not been quarantined due to coronavirus. And I actually have recently had business cards printed in Japanese because Japan is very much a business card centric culture. And so, you know, one of the first things you do when you get into a Japanese meeting is you all pass around your business cards and you kind of observe them and stuff like that. And you have to be aware of that. It's a very different setting when you're in Japan. And so it's something that does take a little bit of getting used to. Now, do you speak Japanese or Hebrew or French? So tell us about how you overcome that then when you're interacting with people from other places. So I don't speak Japanese at all. And there in Japan, I usually have an interpreter, which itself is fascinating, by the way. Sometimes I have a team of interpreters that rotate. So I'll have three interpreters that'll take turns because it's very exhausting work to interpret, especially to interpret me. Well, I don't have to speak Hebrew because frankly, most people in Tel Aviv speak English and that kind of works in a lot of countries. Certainly in India, a lot of people speak English. In the low countries like the Netherlands, a lot of people speak English. So I don't have to speak Dutch there. I do actually speak some French and some Spanish and some Italian. So I can kind of get away with that. I used to have a customer called SFair, which is a phone company in France. And we would have these funny meetings there. I didn't really have an interpreter or anything like that. And I understand French pretty well, but it takes me a while to form the words. And so we would have these meetings where they would speak to me in French, which I understood fine. And I would speak to them in English, which they understood fine because they had the same problem with English as I had with French. So when you do speak another language, I think it really helps. So if you do speak French or Spanish or Japanese or certainly Mandarin Chinese, I always wished I spoke Chinese when I had a Chinese team. That I think is very beneficial. So here we are. Salesforce is really a software and services company. And we haven't talked about coding at all. And let me add, we're talking about artificial intelligence, which is on a bleeding front edge of even software development. So that is not a skill we've talked about as being one of the most important skills here. If you were going to talk to someone who was interested in getting into this space, into a career that you might be hiring for, and they're in 8th grade or 10th grade or 12th grade. What would be the kinds of things that you would be telling them in terms of that they need to focus on in terms of school? And what educational experiences do they need to have? For example, do they need to have a bachelor's degree or not? So kind of walk us through the advice you would give a middle school or high school student. Well, certainly math and computer science and science in general are pretty key to a career like this. I myself have a bachelor's degree in computer science. Ironically, I have probably the lowest degree of anybody on my team. Everybody else has got all PhDs and stuff like that. I have people on my team with PhDs and mathematics and bioinformatics and all kinds of things like that. So educationally speaking, I'm the least educated on my team probably. But nonetheless, I do have a significant background in computer science. And part of that was, I mean, I've been interested in computer since I was 6 years old. I got my first computer when I was 6 and I started kind of coding it when I was 8. So if that's your passion, that's a wonderful thing because it makes it much easier to make that your career. But certainly, yes, coding and the ability to code. And I don't just mean scratch here, but learn some language like Java or Swift or something that's actually in actual use today. Being able to code is kind of key even to my job today. When I'm talking to my team and the engineers on my team, it really helps to understand what's going on. What kind of code we're talking about. When we're talking about scaling, today we're doing like 10 billion predictions per day. And so the scale of that is gigantic. And so you kind of have to understand the inherent trade-offs that you have to make in any kind of computer science environment. So computer science is pretty key, I would say. But I would also point to just math. If you think about it, if you play games, and I started really in this vein, I was really a gamer and I still kind of am a gamer to be honest. I play lots of games. And if you think about things like Fortnite or Far Cry or Just Cause or these kinds of games, all of those graphics are actually matrix math. And so we call that discrete algebra. But that's what's really going on when you're playing these games is that your computer is doing a whole ton of matrix math. So you really want to pay attention to that mathematics because it'll benefit you later. Whether you're doing computer graphics or neural nets or statistics or whatever, it's going to come out later. What is the most exciting part of your job? I mean, I think the most exciting part of my job is traveling to meet with customers. I am disappointed that I wasn't able to go to Japan this coming week because I was looking forward to meeting with a lot of the customers there in Japan. But it's really interesting that I meet with people in all kinds of different businesses. I met with the CIO of Kraft Foods not that long ago and I learned all about how Kraft works and how they sell. And it's more than just ketchup and pickles, believe it or not. But I've met with businesses all over the place. I met with the third biggest bank in India last week. I meet with all kinds of different businesses and it's just fascinating to see all the different things that people are doing. What is one of the frustrating things about your job that other people wouldn't know you encounter in your work? That's a tricky one. You know, prioritization is the tough part of my job. We have a fairly large, the Einstein team is, I don't know, five, six hundred people at least, so it's not a small team. And yet there are still limited resources and there are all these things that I want to do, that I and my team want to do. These kind of advances that we could do. And we have to choose just a few of them for each release. You know, we have three releases a year, so we basically bring out new versions of the Salesforce software three times a year. And so three times a year, we're bringing these major advances. And yet there's always more that we could do, always more that we want to do, and we can't do it all. That's great and obviously there's a lot of advice that comes from that. And I think that's another example of something that's true in a lot of jobs. That's certainly been true in all of my professional experiences. Last thing, how would you say your job or the work that you and your team are doing has a positive impact on the world? Well, you know, a lot of these capabilities, as I said, they kind of remove the grunt work from a lot of people's days. And at the same time, we can add real value. And I mentioned College Forward earlier, and College Forward is actually one of the pilot customers for one of the Einstein things that's coming next, which is called Einstein Recommendation Builder. And in the case of College Forward, they're going to use it to recommend colleges to students. So we're using a machine learning model in the background there to learn what kinds of students go for what kinds of colleges. And that machine learning model is going to populate those recommendations. In that sense, you know, we really can use these capabilities to improve the world.  Well, in everybody's job, they kind of have to prioritize what am I going to do first? And so a lot of the artificial intelligence that we have today helps people prioritize these things. Like, which customer should I call first? Well, artificial intelligence can help you decide who is most likely to buy. Because you should call the most likely people first. Or, again, Southwest Airlines, right? What is this customer service case about?  Which department should that go to in Southwest? Well, artificial intelligence can read the case and predict which department it should go to. And basically take away the kind of grunt work of somebody just sitting here reading it and routing it off. So there's all kinds of things that we can do. And, you know, we can make the world better, but we can also just make people's days a little bit easier. So I'm going to ask one last question. This is our first one. We're going to do a new final, final question. Hopefully I'll remember to ask everybody this question. What general advice would you give someone who's between 14 and 18, 20 years old today and kind of thinking about what they might want to do career-wise as a next step? Well, think about the things that you're passionate about.  I was really into computers. And so it was a fairly natural fit for me to go into computer science and into this realm. But different people are passionate about different things. If you're passionate about cooking or baking, then maybe you should think about something like chemistry, food science. If you're passionate about music, well, you might think about actually music as a career or a friend of mine works at a company called Digi, which makes Pro Tools, which is the system that a lot of music producers use to make music. So there are lots of career paths available to you, but really look at what you're passionate about today. And that can often help guide where you're going to go. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for your time. For those of you who've watched this, if you have ideas for careers that we should investigate further or specific questions you'd like us to ask people in different careers, hit us up on Twitter at P20 Network. Again, that's Twitter at P20 Network, all one word. And we'll be happy to take those questions there. We've got lots more of these coming, and we're not only going to help people get through this time in the short term, but we're looking to continue this series long into the future when school is back to normal. So thanks again, Marco, for your time. Good luck with everything out there in San Francisco. And thanks for your work and your advice today. All right. Thank you for having me, Jason.


Good evening. Thank you for joining us tonight. My name is Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald, and I'm your host we're going to be Giving some comments on a film that you're going to be watching later this evening a very powerful film called Memphis Montgomery to Memphis and that film documents the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and his struggle and his lead on the civil rights Joining me in the studio today. I'm very honored to have two very special people here with me from Hartford, Connecticut We have the wonderful Reverend Earl W. Lawson. Thank you so much for joining us here Reverend. It's a privilege We also have here in the studio a longtime resident of Davis many of you know Dick Holstock. Thank you so much for joining us. Nice to be with you. Thank you We're gonna be commenting on this very important film that documents the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and This incredible journey that he led during a 12-year period He was a leader in the civil rights movement What?  Yeah, I guess first of all I have to say that we're gonna see a lot of footage in that video later on That shows the what was happening in those days some of the horrible things were happening to people in this country and Watching television in those days. I don't see how anybody could possibly not want to go and stop this from happening Further in our society So we were very fortunate that Dr. King invited people from churches all over the country to come and join him and a combination of the different churches here in Davis got together and We arranged a full bus load from Davis to go down there It was an incredible experience The the the contrast we saw between the reception we got from our black black brothers and sisters in in In Montgomery was just so that was just so wonderful to us. How many people went I think about 34 Yeah, and yet and then we when we saw the way we were treated By the white people that were standing on the sidewalk spitting in the face of the The preacher of our church here in Davis the community church at that time It was an amazing experience So not only were black people treated poorly, but those white people who were the sympathizers with them were also treated Absolutely. Oh, yeah And when when people went down to respond to Martin's call the only safe place was in that Black community once you got down there, you better be sure you were in that that Community The interesting thing is that even those who went down on the buses from all over the country Their eyes were open too because they never ever dream They would run into such spontaneous hospitality some would say if It were reversed I'm not too sure whether we will open up our community our beds our food no as eagerly as they do it now the overall thrusts of the people Going into the South upon the invitation of Martin Was a penetrating Confrontation to the South itself Because those people who went in were going in Integrated they were blacks and whites and everybody going in although where we were going it was separated and segregated and all It gave the community People who were in opposition to us a chance to see that White and black and other Nationalists could actually live together as human beings. This was the first kind of Confrontation to tell them it can work if you understand we'll be trying to do yeah your point about how much Better you fell when you were around black people It's so well taken. I mean I I wasn't at all uncomfortable at all in that situation But I was dead uncomfortable when I was out of the range of the black community Because you saw the hostility because all the hostility of where I want it and of course we were sort of prepared for it We we read about it and we saw what was going on on television But I the one point that I would like to really make is that we had to do some soul searching when we came back We were only there a very very short time We were welcomed in and they we won't were welcomed out So they didn't have to keep track and take care of us like they had to so we came back pretty quickly But on the way back we got to thinking about what was going on in California. Was it really different in California? And it was different, but there was a lot of problems in Davis and throughout California when you shared with me dick That shock that surprised the contrast when you came back to California back to our community of Davis at the time It was such a stark contrast Well, excuse me start contrast, but there was a lot of similarities and you shared with me some of the discriminatory practices that our own town had at that time just briefly mentioned three things I think might be useful Almost every piece of property in Davis had a restrictive covenant saying that you could not sell to to Jews African-American people are Mexican-American that was on the restrictive covenant on the property that you bought them There's the piece of property that I owned on K Street, which was just built It was three years old at that time had it on it as did other properties here in town now I must say though in those days The Byron-Rumpford Fair Housing Act had passed but most people didn't know that they just saw that piece of paper and felt that they weren't Able to sell it which legally they they were not allowed to discriminate, but it was happening all the time So that was true and as far as rentals were concerned Many black students that came to Davis as they were more coming in those days Found that they couldn't find an apartment to rent in Davis So we had to go to the apartments and ask for an apartment as a white person And they would say well, we've got three apartments and we said well Let me go tell my cousin that you've got your cousin happen to be My black cousin I want to get an apartment for him. It was a heart-searching experience for many people because No matter how eager they were to answer the call of Martin As you have said very clearly it's easy to go in and come out The problem is although we we had the people coming in to help us It is different if you have to live In that situation day by day You can easily easily go back home and business as usual search your heart. No We found out under the leadership of Martin that the people not only Came briefly and shortly some of them they came finally made the Plunge into dedication to take their gifts back into the South to help us in the struggle We needed all kind of gifts to do it but if you went in for a few days and and Left that meant the gifts of organization and legal counseling anything would go back in those buses home so our challenge was to get people to Commit larger time Under the peril and the danger of their life so that we could really Really help the people down in the South Galvanize how did they do that? What were some examples of what? People in organizations. Yeah, that's right. It was through several kind of organizations and we had people who was skilled enough To take the people who were coming down and to do a whole lot of things one was to train them how to survive if they were attacked how to practice now violence to screen them to find out what Skills they had and tell them what slots they could fit in to help us Well, one of the greatest contributions that happened Was on the level of the presence of the college student because they brought all kinds of skills in terms of it all day including The skill of investigating, you know, when you deal with problems and all and writing up significantly intelligently the reports and all like that we could have could not have half survived if We had not have those talents committed the long enough to stay to help us Are you talking about the student nonviolent? Yeah committee That was a wonderful thing and we had a number of students the year before that went down on the Mississippi Freedom March is that it went down for registering voters in Yes, in Mississippi through the the Davis's Cal Agui Christian Association. We had a whole bunch that that first summer and the group was called snick What did that stand for again student nonviolent coordinating committee? That was wonderful that so many kids, but you know, don't you think that there were still a lot number of Very brave courageous white people in the south to that supported Yeah, one day when they made the committee some Didn't come down the state. No, but they were really Chow. Oh, yes, we couldn't have done it without the presence in the marches or in the inside of the area There is a kind of bravery and courage if it's awakened Even though they knew there was danger all the time down there they risk their lives In such a way that and stayed long enough to build To build a force that did not cave in The problem with the beginning of thing was all they knew they knew it was dangerous When they start killing people Our job was how on earth are you gonna keep those people down there when you see the high prices debt? So when the three civil rights Leaders disappeared and got killed Hundreds and thousands of a flew down not only we flew down to stabilize those Corporal stations where the people were working and to prove by our presence That we were not gonna let depth the threat of death Drive us out. If we were there to put our warm bodies on the line. We felt that it Probably would influence them to stay and it worked because some of what when those three Persons disappeared we knew they were killed and if these these students start packing the league It's one thing to work in danger, but when you start losing troops.  What did people treat you differently? I had lots of friends who had similar Political social feelings that I had and so I was welcomed back and I will I've always been part of a music community of days and we learned how to sing those wonderful Freedom songs and we would sing those and think and have lots of Fun doing that. But I will say that the pastor of the community church Suffered a great deal a number of people Resigned from it. Oh, yeah, they lost here in Davis and it was it was a very sad period of time and The pastor of the Methodist Church was felt uncomfortable there, too Several people moved out a couple it started another couple of churches whose names I will not That where people went after they left the churches that were very actively involved in that period But I think Davis, you know, I think this is a university community And I think people are educated and intelligent enough to realize that that that was not right And we were able to make some amazingly good Correctional things that happened there. I I'm really curious to know what you think Reverend Everyone's know while I say well we take one step forward but we seem to take two steps back Then I just don't know whether we're ready I can see that there has been some wonderful changes in the past now We're coming up to now and sometimes I'm wondering if we're not If we're not careful, we don't work hard to hang on to these things that we become this if we slide back And Reverend before you answer that question at my apologies. I wanted to let our audience know I Introduced the Reverend Lawson, and I didn't tell you who exactly he is the Reverend Lawson Was a friend was a friend and colleague of the Dr. Martin Luther King He knew Dr. King since He was what did you say? So we have a legend here in our presence not only was he involved but he knew him very intimately He knew him very closely good friends of him So back to Dick Holstock's question one of the one of the deepest insights in our struggle was To reckon with the fact that the oppressor is never going to give up never No Oppressing group ever intelligently gives people freedom We found out if you ever going to be free it has to Come from our posture and not because the oppressor gives it to you So there's a lot of danger and peril because when the pressure Increases on the part of the opponent You don't know what's going to happen to people Who are trying to help us and they can easily get discouraged the best of them it is not easy to Work in a midst of danger productively and faithfully with deep commitment It's so easy to get out of it. It gets too tough So some people left it's just that dangerous Martin King brought to the forefront endurance Stictuativeness passive resistance no retreat even in all of his marches and all he never entertained retreat So even though some people lost courage and hope He was always there what were going any kind of danger So he had a group that keep stimulating We had enough people to believe in his leadership that filled the vacancies when people Would leave it it it became So adventuresome and right what we were doing That in mushroom people kept coming It did not reduce all do they were going forward and going back They discriminatory practices in the south were so infrastructure. It's so institutionalized You know into the it's hard to destroy conditioned racism So you're always going to have a struggle if you know If you don't record the fact that it's going to be a tough fight You're never going to get in they're never going to give it give up easily never You were on that bus trip you came back you've seen all these changes over the years And you know there have been many changes many advances Now though we're in the year 2004 where we have a president with Some very independent Ideas he seems to be marching to his own drum Spending billions of dollars on a war where other countries don't want to join him It's affecting our economy It just healthcare is outrageous and inaccessible to many people Are we I looked at I look at dr. King's speeches And so many speeches that he gave about vietnam You could replace vietnam in those speeches and put iraq and the same holds true nowadays It are we making progress do you feel we are have we taken some steps back? Well, we need to listen to what dr. King said and and recognize that that that we are Steering away from the path that he provided for us to go on and I I I for one would want to do what work I can and I really feel Like the river was saying, you know It gets tiring after so many years you keep on trying to to do stuff and and I'm I'm frankly I'm I'm tired of having to re-deal with those same kinds of issues all over again But we can't afford to let go we've got to keep on Working we've got to do what we can to stop this when I mean when I went and marched this year in san francisco That march I've never I've never been in anymore. I've been in lots of marches in my life But I've never been in any march that that resembled the numbers of people that were opposed to the war But we tried to we we couldn't even get started because there were so many people We stood there for hours waiting to get started because the end of the line was at the end of Was where the where the body was taken that was two miles away And we had started packed people coming from every direction And it was never covered properly in the press as so many things were never covered properly in the press in your time so the The leadership of king Does not rest on immediate victories. No he is a Hard leader to follow because he can see the obstacles But he can see way beyond All of the obstacles if you if you study Martin Luther king's speeches and all he talks about a future That will become a reality no matter how many Times it goes backwards and forwards and people fall on use a wrong methodology and all He had such profound faith In the reality that that kind of future that talks about the whole family Of brothers and sisters including the people who are now opponents who are now opponent I don't know too many people who had that long range View of martin king for instance The night before he died he said i may not get to the prime of slain, but we as a people What what's this we as a people would get to the prime of slain some people think In terms of he's only talking about the black people But if you read the end of his speech, I have a dream It's for all he talks about the slain Master children all and then he he he did a geographical flight on us. He took us from new hampshire down across pennsylvania to california came back to Stone Hill and georgia what he was saying was when all that happens. What's that future? When that happens Then we can say thank god almighty. We free the free The freedom he was talking about was not before it happened which was started with the future. Yeah Nice to say that it makes you feel better when you yeah, we can't let up. Can we we can't give up We can't Uh, can I ask a question? Please do. Please do ask a question. Okay. You're five years older than martin king You're five you're five years older than dr. King one. No, I'm older than that. Yeah, it was 10. I'm about nine years older well You know it from what he was 16 But yet you talk of him as your leader Well, what point did you really? Fight figure out this guy had the gift that it was going to take okay to believe I'm not only I'm also a preacher Yeah, so that martin and I like others Or train theologically So that uh So that our roots the root system is really biblical What martin did was he did not spend all of his time poop pulpit preaching Explain the theology he did a marvelous thing by living it out He didn't he didn't get in the poop and keep talking about all this bible stuff He knew from the base of the bible that his His calling was on the level of healthfulness service Rather than the theology The theology was just the inspiration for him to go you cannot really read the bible unless you know you've got to be a servant In the midst of people And the emphasis is his practical Experience over against a background of the theology He didn't carry the bible. He carried out what the bible say You understand he took off the preacher's robe and he got that way that people were and lifted them Did he have that when you first knew it when you knew him? Well, he was in college training then you know He was precocious But nobody Ever dreamed, you know, even when he went to Montgomery Nobody ever dreamed the escalation of his effectiveness Again, you would civil rights He was a big follower of gandhi, right? He was a very big follower of gandhi. I remember you shared that with us before That was a part of his methodology In approach to all this in the western world the non-violence. Yeah, uh civil disobedience. See it's not enough To criticize And stand against what's injuring you you have to find out not how to move It was causing me injury So that what he did what he he went to India But gandhi was dead then when he started on the ne'eru And he found out that the only way to really come alive As a warrior against evil is you not only got to believe it But you got to really do it the way you do it is It's dangerous. The way you do this.  It's been an honor speaking with you both about this I'm sure we could we could have a show for two three four hours just talking about this That about wraps up our show, but you can hear more of Dick Holstock tomorrow. He's going to be playing at the The martin luther king celebration Yeah with the freedom singers Up tomorrow at the at the martin luther king celebration over at the varsity theater at 12 noon And the reverend earl w. Lawson is going to be our honorary guest speaker and He will be able to hear his profound message that we've all been honored to listen to We can hardly wait to hear and thank you all for joining us And please be sure to stay tuned so you can watch the wonderful documentary This evening. Thank you. Bye. Bye


So check the website, is that correct? It'll be on the website, and probably, and also I'll email it out to you. Okay, so website email, you can't go wrong. It should be two weeks, but we'll check to make sure that it's all kind of accommodated. So two people, so my auntie will pass away. And that's a very great, great person that we all know. And another person some of you might not know is Gail Great, who also passed away today. And Gail Great is an actor, actress who I was lucky enough to have act in several of my plays that happened right here. So she was Lucy in the American play of the Barnsons, and she was also bully in the blood that was Shiva. And she was one of the actresses who joined us when we started doing the 365 days 365 plays. We had a table full of fabulous fabulous actors who read to her with us before we put it into publication and started the whole year-long festival. She was one of them, and she was sent through all the time, and she passed away today. So she's made it out of mine. I had to go. She's the main director, and we really missed it. So today we're going to talk about the important part of the technique, or we can think about ourselves and our own work, which is probably going to be a bit disappointing. So we're going to work for 45 minutes an hour, so those of you who don't know what we're doing, does anybody know what we're doing? I wonder why they're here or what we're doing. Sure. We're here for the first time. Does anybody else want to go upstairs for a second? Oh my god! Yay! That's amazing. This is amazing. Look at you guys. The first time here. Okay. Well, now I have to explain what we're doing. So this is Watch Me Work. This is one of the parts. This is the lobbying of a theater. And so what we're going to do is we are... This is two things at once. It's a two group. It's a meta-theatrical free writing class. And those of you who have gone to grad school or been hanging out while learning meta-theatrical means, I'm not sure I do. It's a meta-theatrical free writing class. And it's also a play. So what we do is first we do the... I have people online watching also and maybe they'll tweet in their questions and Patty is going to give us the address for that.  Whatever your work is. It can be writing. It can be whatever. And you guys all can also. And then we spend some time after 45 minutes doing the dialogue of the play, which consists of you all and also online asking me questions about your work. I'll say it again. You ask me questions about your work. Not you asking me questions about my work. It's you asking me questions about your work. So it's about you actually. So what's your work? The B is you. If that's not complicated enough, all you gotta do is be quiet before you start to have some energy to work. So Patty is going to give us the address for folks online who want to tweet in their questions. I don't watch me work SLP with the hashtag you play. I don't watch me work SLP with the hashtag you play. Yeah, I'm sorry. I just repeated that.  Great. So we're going to work for 45 minutes and we're going to time it. And then we'll have another dialogue. Okay? And I... Just wait a minute. Yeah, let's wait a minute. Come on. What if they see that? You can get up in a while. It's not that we don't distract you in your chairs. This isn't that program where you can't pee or whatever. Just call somebody over. Just pee. You ready? Okay. Let's do 45 because... Because... Because... Because... Because... Because... Because... We give your email addresses if you haven't already to Patty. So we can remind you of what we're doing together. Okay? Here we go. Yes, sir. Excuse me. Your work. Your work. I'll do it like this. Your work. Since you have your creative process. Last week we were talking about... Like, being really specific about the back story. And we also talked about... You know that... At least it boils down to no character wants something. No, you don't want something. And then there's a conflict. So does that... So if the character comes in and gets what they want. Can you change? I mean like... Can you change? If my character comes kind of gets what she wants and doesn't get it all the way. So she comes for something kind of gets it. And I don't know what to do after. Right. She comes for forgiveness. Kind of gets it. Just get it all the way. Right. And I... Is there something else that's going on?  That's there, right? Yeah, yeah. But there's something else, sure. His shoes and characters want a series of things, you know. One thing, then another thing, then another thing, then another thing, then another thing. Okay, so that... Yeah, that's pretty sure. There you go. She might want to take her out to dinner. Okay. She might want to borrow those shoes. She might... You know what I mean? This has to be just one. Right.  You know, I mean... To read some plays where they're two character... Two character plays? At least in two character plays, you know, where that... where there's... that, you know, there's a story there. There's a knight called the... you know, the two knights. This is the story nine. Okay. Yeah, you know, that might be helpful. We're just in any place, actually, where we're just sitting in the same room. Because you'll see the things, you know. Is that a good sense of screen? I think there's a bunch of character plays that you can read. I'll type your name. Which character? I'm just thinking something great. I said, do you have a story? You know, I'm a best person. I can't come out to a story. I'm... I'm just... I've got to use it for... Okay, okay. So you get... So just reread the... you know, maybe try to go, I think, what does she want here? What does she want here? What does she want here? What does she want here? What does she want here? Or maybe you would be able to discover, oh, well, maybe, that thing she wants, maybe she shouldn't get it so easily. You have... You have... She'll have to jump with one loop together and then she needs 12 loops. You know. So if I can't get hard again, she can get hard again. Anybody? Do you know people? Where are you from? You're all from the same place? You don't know each other, you don't know all the others, or anything. You don't come on a bus. And he's like, blue man goes across the street. Oh, shh! I didn't think this was blue man going through. You're just checking, just making sure it doesn't happen. Yes? Stage of it? Okay. Truggling with just writing when it becomes the interaction needs, he's saying that to the set, or do you recommend the workshops? That's just great. The actors will really help you with dialogue, but they're not going to help you with this. They might not help you become a better writer. They might help you become a better transcriber of actors' dialogue. Right? I mean, they can help, right? So, they maybe don't help them become a better writer. Maybe after you got Tracy they might help you become a better visual artist. I don't know. Maybe. But, maybe a combination. Maybe eventually doing some more trouble with actors, sure, but not to come on them for dialogue, necessarily. Okay. So, maybe reading the something really great script, thinking of some writers that you really like, or some movies that you really like, and finding their scripts that are easy to find, they still want to read. Right? So, easy to find. Maybe watching some movies. You don't even have to read them. Just turn on the Netflix or the Amazon Prime or whatever. You don't know who or whatever you've got. And watch them. Just listen. Maybe really focusing, focusing, focusing on what your characters want. So, they're not going around about things. You know, they're not, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, that's not you know what I mean. They're, they should think that kind of thing. Yeah, even if it's a romantic comedy, still, especially a romantic comedy.  But, they should always be, you know, in the pocket and there. Even if they're So I would say after you've done the watching and the reading and focusing on your character's intent or desire, and I've seen all the cake as a workshop, I think, in my opinion. Yes, you've been here before, no? Nope. No? Yeah, I've stayed for a while. I get told that a lot, so. I'm learning a play about the Booth Brothers and specifically the rivalry between Edmund and John Wilkes and the role that had in Lincoln's assassination. Right. So being that it's just a really kind of large sweeping story, I'm trying to ignence as much as I can of the action, and I find a lot that I'm getting forced to use like a letter metaphor, kind of letters back and forth to this, not a metaphor, sorry, a device to tell the story. It just seems like it's getting static because it's a lot of just monologues. Right. So I'm wondering if you have any advice on how to maybe find a cleaner path through that and to move the action forward without getting kind of caught up in those? Did they write letters back and forth and talk a lot? Yes, quite a bit. So that's a real thing you're using, which could be cool. Were they often in the same room? I mean, not all the time, but sometimes. I mean, any time that they were sort of in the same place, I'm trying to focus on that and really expand the scenes there. But there's so much information from, you know, one year when they're in the same room or one place and then one year later that I'm trying to cover. Right. That I just feel like to try and get it out in dialogue then it just becomes an entire scene of just expository information. And the information is necessary for driving the story forward? Yes. Okay. I mean, I don't know. I don't see why a letter would necessarily be boring if it's, you're not just taking it from the actual letter. I mean, I'm trying to use that for inspiration, but I'm also not. Right. I mean, I'm not just a copy-pasted. Right. The letters sound kind of interesting if they're taken from actual historical documents.  I mean, I think part of it is just I'm still in first draft and that's kind of, you know, a lot of it is just kind of part of my friendship, but it's like verbal diarrhea. Right, right. It's just kind of all spilling out on our page and it feels like they wonder a lot about it and getting the information out and just getting through it. You're right. So you're going to think, how close are you to taking the first draft? Probably another week, two weeks worth of writing here. So finish it. No, look at it.  Throw away. You know, you should be like, no, no, no, no. We'll finish it. We'll bring it to turn and then we'll take a look at it and see if it's worth keeping or worth whatever. It's a lot like a lift and they let you live, whoever they were. Here you are today. So if we can use the same idea for our play and get to the end of it, we need to turn before you're going to look at it and start picking it up. Right? Give it a chance to become, you know, the first draft. Which is the first date. And then start writing again and see if they're boring and you can fix them then. You're going to see where it goes. You know?   You know, it's always that, that's, or you'll start worrying about disappointing your dad or something. May I ask you a question? Yeah, yes. What's your name? Justin. Justin? Yes. Okay. And sorry, this is about how you were. Oh, then what did I say? I apologize. Pause. Pause. Does anybody else have a question about your or your creative process? Just pause. If it's not a lovely writer who is talking about dialogue, it's just something that I do. Yeah? I take the subway. I find that the subway is a great, if you listen on the subway, you will hear so many, how people really speak. And it's just a wonderful tool. It's, it's kind of a joy. I'm going to take this away from the spoon. There you go. I'm going to take it away from the spoon. Take it away from the spoon. You're right. You're doing great. Yes, it's the way people speak to each other. Yeah. What's tricky though is to say, if you pick up in your writing, and it's also great when you can get into the train. But what's, what's tricky is the way people talk in real life isn't necessarily not necessarily. No. Or the way something that happens to you in real life isn't necessarily, if you just silly funny to down the page, it's going to make a great play. Or it's going to make a great screenplay or a song or whatever. You have to use that right in your mind. So that's good for the living. The living is good for your brain. We'll get back to you. We're just taking people to have issues about their stuff. Do you mind having a first one? Yes. Okay. How's it going? So, you know, I'm back to the play. We had struggles with it from the very first time I came here. And I'm finding that I'm wondering if my character's point seems to constantly be evolving with what's going on in my life. If I like, there are more things to add on. And one of the, I guess they're both of the characters. But one of them is still kind of, his objective is still the same, I guess, in the whole arc. And I don't know exactly where we're going again with this play as far as even down to, I had four characters, and it went to three. And now it's the two of them. Do you want to do the names though? No, this is something, yeah. Something that the other one that I've been lost the work, we went through. Oh, yes. Yeah. I have to add just a varma, varma. But so now I just kind of trying to figure out where to go, what to do with them. Because again, one seems like, I don't know if it's, it takes place in one place in one setting. And so it's like, are they just going to sit and just talk? Or 90 minutes, or 87 minutes, or what are they going to talk about? What are they, you know, I don't know. I don't know if that's even a real question. Have I asked a question? It didn't have a whole thing at the end. That was the question. It had a thing that they call the question mark. I guess I didn't mark it. Did your voice kind of go off? I guess, what do I do with them? Sounds like a question to me. Now? Yes, now. I do them now. Oh my God. Please write me crazy. Yes. Okay. So, and do you, I know you have kids. Right. Do you meditate? Meditate. You got medicated. You do? You meditate? Meditate. Meditate. You're in there? You're in there. How about you meditate with people? You have to have fear 20 minutes a day. You have to talk about this fear 20 minutes a day to yourself that you can tie your children up in the classroom. Very late at night. Very late at night. You're awake enough to have some rest? About. About? About, yeah. Yeah, I can do that. You have a timer and you have a train. You can take a train. You can take a train. You can take a train? Yeah. So, you've got 10 minutes. Right. You've got a notebook. Yes. Great. So, I just try to, I want to start with, is every day do a writing meditation. Okay. Writing meditation. This is not my day. This is a, you do a sim meditation or you can do, you know, those famous Julia Cameron. She has these morning pages. Julia Cameron, you have the writers, the artist, Matt and Goldberg. That's one of them. I know what she calls it, but I call it writing meditation. She might call it singing. The way is it, it's kind of, I think, better than the morning pages because you're up early in the morning. And again, it does not have to be three pages, but she says to it for 20 minutes, which magically comes out to be three pages. But it's better because she says, keep the pen moving on the page. The morning pages, you get lost in your mind. Like, oh, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And then an hour goes by and you have two pages done. This is better. 20 minutes. 20 minutes and you do it. So, every day, writing meditation. Keep the pen moving. Right? We're in a long-handle type of play. Right? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And you can start thinking about your point of view. Just be that. Don't worry about your dialogue singing. You could just stand in the room. Just write it. Just be that. Just write about the play or just... You can write about the play. Sure. Or anything. Yeah. Like a journal. Yeah. Like that. Don't worry about the play. Don't worry. It's trying to be crazy.  I'm going to do the same. A real smart fuck-off thing. It's taking ahead. You've got a lot going on. You've got a lot going on. Get ready to focus. Try this. You might find a play starting to make more sense If you're not staring at it, well, wait!  Just...attach. It's fair. You're not gonna burn it or lose it.  Just be okay about your play, sir. Don't pull it that straight. Try that for...I don't know. A week or so. Yeah. And then specifically, go, okay, yeah, I'll go by play. Let me write for 20 minutes about my play. What do I think? What do I think? What do I like about it? What do I like about it? Still don't have it.  What do I like about it? Oh, maybe that's true. Maybe I'll burn that. Take it easy. How about it? Alright, alright. Eight and then my son is turning six. Take it easy. Take it easy. Alright, we'll make sure you get the right attack. We're going. Okay. I have a question. It was similar to... Justice. It was about exposition. I have some of my characters asking questions based on, you know, like the media, what they've read, in order to bring, you know, some exposition into the scene without having a direct question. Or didn't I hear that you had two kids? That sort of thing. So, I mean, how do you know what you have even when you're using that method, you know, how the characters convey information that you want the audience to know about, you know, the names, how do you know when you have too much of that? Right, that's a great idea. That's a great question. What's your name? Desiree. Desiree has a question about exposition. So, again, there are a lot of questions which I think you're right. You've got to get some information out there. How do you get the information out there and how do you suggest connecting to the urgent desire of the character? Right? So, I can't give you one example of that, actually. But think of what the character needs and their need is going to move them to ask the question of their character. Right? So, it might not be a direct thing. Like, you know, are we going to make a conversation? How many kids do you have? That's a way to get the person talking about their... And I heard that one of them is really tall. But your husband isn't, right? You know what I mean? I don't know. You've got to get to know the character. You've got to get to know the characters. Okay? Connect it to the urgent need for the characters. And not the urgent need of the playwright to get the information out to the audience. That's the difference, I think. We sit there and go, hopefully I know this. And you get the characters... It has to be connected to the character's need and not the playwright's need. How can this be connected to my character's need? What does she need? Why is she asking these questions? You know? And once you start getting to that, then you're going to get to... The questions will formulate themselves in such a way that... What about leaving? All the time? What's the end for that? It's hard to get out of the workshop. It's like an interfaith workshop with open-ended situations and too much decomposition. I mean, it's like... Even if it's your first or second track, you need to go over there to get that with yourself. And I just want to... I just want to know when it is too much. Or you'll know, I guess, when it's too much. No, when it's too much. I mean, I have... I like types of theater that are big-on storytelling. That's the type of theater that I like. And so... I like, you know, when the message that comes in tells you, oh, man, I saw him at the crossroads. Man, he was like swimming in the club, and it was deep, man.  I like that kind of theater. It's interesting. When it comes in with the need to tell a story. So that makes sense. That's a good guess. Yes. I don't know. But it fits, right? It's not too much. It's not too much. It comes in with the needs. Oh, man, you're the guy who had to think that I took you to the outside. Look at who you are now. Right as a need. I don't know when it's too much. Hi. My name is Ali. Hi. I'm going to open it up to everybody. Good. So, I'm having trouble writing an actual play. I write like little scenes, because I see little scenes in my head and how the people would move. But I have no idea how they speak or even if I want them to speak. So then I'll write these little scenes or these little images. But then I'll bend with them. So I have all these little paragraphs that I just leave. And I want to bring them all together. And I don't know if it's to create one whole actual play with dialogue or if it's just going to be an image piece. And if it's an image piece, how do I even know where to begin with that? Because I don't have experience with that. But I feel like that's the way I'm wanting to go. Because I'm not really caring about words. So I don't know if anyone has experienced this before. Probably. How do you deal with that? And where do you go? Sure. I'm just editorial background. So I'm a documentary teacher and their start is like I cut these small things that don't really make sense to the picture. And they're small scenes or interesting characters or cool images or motifs that just interest me. And then I just like string it along into a random order or a chronological order. So I'm going to try just putting it into an instinctual order and just like reading it together. Not yet. I've literally just been abandoned in a pile. I'll see you. I mean my instinct would be to take those things like every bit that you've kind of obtained it and just like put it in any sort of an order and try just like reading it in a chronological order not chronologically. Just like step back and take a look at what that means. I think that would like that effect. That's sort of like the fun part of writing what you're doing.  And you may not be at that point yet but I think it's great that you're doing it. It'll come right at you. Yeah. My first one the first draft you go to the first thing you wrote is just about you just keep going until you take notes on it and it happens real fast. Keep going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Often happens you go back and get perfect and then it won't make any sense until you make it to the end. So keep going, make some notes on post-its or whatever. Yeah, wait in the end. Just as an exercise. You know what I mean? Okay, good question.  Alright, we're out of time right now. So I want to thank you guys for coming out and I want to thank JV for the camera and thank you guys and Andrew for the chat. We'll be back.


what has happened fellas welcome back to the channel hope you guys have been doing well and welcome to another lookbook a quick update for you guys this is probably going to be the last the very last video filmed out here in New Mexico because uh if you guys haven't subscribed to my vlog channel and watched those videos I am moving back to New York it's finally happening I really appreciate you guys for the support and I cannot wait to see what comes from whenever I move back better content better scenery more fashion you know New York is the fashion capital of the world New Mexico definitely isn't but anyways you guys are here for the looks we got three outfits today so let's check out the first outfit this is look number one I kept the vibes of this fit more skateware-esque because the one good thing that came out of this quarantine is I really picked up skating again I always did it here and there and would ride around and all that but I would never try progressing like I did before so that's the one blessing of 2020 so I've leaned into that aesthetic quite a bit recently however with this fit let's just start off on the kicks since we're already on that topic instead of normal skate sneakers like my nijas or vans I'm just rocking a simple pair of white leather sneakers from Oliver Cabell white leather sneakers guys the best footwear purchase you can make in my humble opinion along with vans these are more versatile though I used to just associate white leather sneakers as oh it's a menswear piece I'm not really into menswear I'ma stay away from that however I should slap 2018 Johnny upside the head because that is false when you stay a hundred percent true to a genre it only limits you in my humble opinion should Jordans only be worn on the court and solely on the courts that's ridiculous anyways rant done these white leather sneakers are basically almost exactly like the common projects the pants are the car heart flex dungarees these definitely top the dickies 87 for work pants in my opinion has the same straight cut fitment and vibes however you are paying double the price at $44 which is still cheap and affordable I cuffed the pants along with throwing on crew socks to give the fit just some more depth and also mainly because the kicks are slim now rocking Air Force ones would definitely call for letting the pants break on those or cuffed as well I'm not really into showing my ankle anymore especially with more relaxed straight cut pants if I'm going to cuff my straight cut pants there has to be a pair of crew socks behind it now with the slim and skinnies I'ma let the mangle show the top comes from one of my boys clothing brands here in Albuquerque 505 represent brand is called Astral you guys can check them out you guys know I'm big on showing love to the locals this shirt is printed on Bella canvas so just be aware if you size up this is a large by the way it's going to drape a lot but where an item is sourced with whether it be gilding or Bella canvas it's not a big deal because at this point you're paying for the design and the local love the necklace pendant actually belongs to my grandma but she passed it on to my mama who passed it down to me gotta show love to my culture and side note again guys if you rock items that are just a part of you and your lifestyle ain't nobody's opinion out there should mean anything to you I'm Chinese from Vietnam it's already a part of my lifestyle so I just own it then I topped it off with a maroon colored beanie from amazon it's hella cheap and I just picked up a bunch of colors as you should as well and the rest of the jewelry consists of the orient's kamasu some rings etc so for the second fit this is another aesthetic I like to get inspiration from and lean into a little bit and that is more of that tech wear tactical aesthetic so this time let's just start from the top and move our way down the top does come from lulu lemon this is the confluence snap down over shirts and the main purpose for this item was to be easy to throw on you know it's got two-way stretch very comfortable and it's a great transitional piece where whenever fall rolls around I really like this because when you think of lulu lemon you don't think of street wear you don't think of tech wear you just think of athleisure so this piece actually changed my perspective and I really dig it I buttoned up the top few buttons you know it gives off a little bit more of that valence vibe if you guys know about that brand it's one of my favorite brands is just way out of my price range but anyways guys the snap down buttons actually gives it a pretty cool look you know with the bottom buttons exposing the color of your shirt underneath it's a great way to add some contrast or just a little pop of color in this case I'm letting it contrast against the darker shirts that's underneath because with any tech wear outfit you always see an all-black look okay so I decided to switch it up for this outfit not roll with the typical all-black look especially when I shot this video it's kind of hot outside but hey I'm trying to find any excuse to wear a tech wear outfit this is the last outfit I was shooting in New Mexico I decided it's gotta go all out okay give me a break chill out anyways so the shirt underneath is actually the bamboo tee from our sponsor today essentials so real quick guys let me firmly thank essentials for sponsoring this video I really do dig their bamboo tees it's one of the best t-shirts out there I'm not trying to hype it up I actually really do like their shirts the fitments if you guys like fitted clothes is amazing especially with the confluence snap down over shirt I have to wear a fitted shirt if I wore a boxy tee or a relaxed fitting tee you know it would wrinkle and ruffle up inside the sleeves of the confluence shirt and it would just look really awkward there is a time and place where you need a fitted shirt even if you don't like fitted shirts so if you guys haven't heard of essentials they are a brand started by the Zinigas shout out to them and they make high quality basics for men if you guys have seen my looks you will hardly see any hype stuff I'm just not into heavy branding and I never really was I do have a few kids shirts here and there but I personally just look for how things are cut and how it was designed instead of just branding branding branding and that is why I really dig essentials and this Saturday August 29th at 10am eastern standard time they are dropping their new collection and they've got plenty of new items and color ways as well as their new work shirts newly designed aloe vera pants but also you cannot go wrong with their basic bamboo tees they are dropping a baby blue color that looks pretty dope and much much more as always every time they launch they sell out sometimes even in the same day so guys click the link in the description down below you guys use my discount code johnny10 to save some money there is free shipping domestically and I just want to thank you guys in advance if you guys use my discount code it massively helps out this channel the best season of fashion is right around the corner so if you guys have been hesitant on picking anything up from essentials I definitely say that now is the perfect time there are pro members they do have 24 hours in advance to pick up their own items so you guys want to head on to the site right on the dive before they sell out and once again really appreciate you guys and thank you essentials for sponsoring this video so anyways moving on to our pants we are rocking the deploy cargo pants from Nike lab acg fall winter 18th that's that's such a mouthful these are incredibly popular and they've actually gone down in price thankfully I did pay a pretty penny for these unfortunately if you guys ever roll with these pants just I'm telling you this is a size medium on me and it's a little bit too baggy for my personal taste and I do have a black version which is a size extra small and that is beautifully fitted even though it's still somewhat baggy and fortunately these actually are very breathable in my opinion I don't get too hot in these like other technical cargo pants and then closing off the fit we got the vans checkered slip on and I actually think it compliments this look very well surprisingly it feels pretty cohesive in my opinion that is a second fit I really want to encourage you guys to try out new aesthetics and just stay tuned because fall is coming up I'll be making more videos about it and finally for the last fit we kept it very simple sometimes the simpler the better of course the bread ones classic I'm never gonna sell these and every so often someone tells me your shoes look too big on you you should size down 11s are not your size hey you think I'm that stupid to size down just so my feet can look more proportionate you shut your anyways guys can't beat the 2016 breads these are complimented by the cargo pants I recommend to anyone that asked for a good place to start with cargo pants essentials and also these cargo pants pockets have a really sleek design nothing too crazy if a minimalist style is your vibe I'd say these are a definite pickup and that wasn't even part of the ad by the way the top is from Uniclo this is the Erism oversized boxy tee I talk about these teas enough I mentioned it many many times you guys can watch previous videos if you guys didn't want to know more about it it's perfect for summer even though the fit is all black because Erism actually cools you and I personally believe having different cuts of fitment gives you options and expands your fashion spectrum I don't like to subscribe to one fitment one style and all that but anyways I'm rocking the same family chain as the last fit and topping it off with a gray beanie I like this fit because it's so simple yet the colors work really well black and red you can never really go wrong with and the gray beanie just breaks up the fit especially because I'm Asian and I have pitch black hair the beanie just adds that little bit of contrast that was needed with this outfit all right y'all those are the three looks and this is the last video filmed in Albuquerque been quite a journey let me know in the comments down below what you guys favorite outfit was if you guys haven't already followed me on instagram at flywardjohnnytai subscribe to this channel subscribe to my vlog channel so you guys can keep up to date with me with my move to New York and all that and of course turn the like button blue for the youtube algorithm and until then guys stay fly check out essentials and I'm out peace


Root Capital is a social investment fund working to reduce poverty and sustain the environment in developing countries. So we're pioneering finance for unbanked rural communities and grassroots businesses in Latin America, Africa, and getting started in South and Southeast Asia. So think farmer and artists and associations that can move rural populations out of poverty and become engines for sustainable development. So places like say Ethiopia, Bolivia, they create alternatives to short-term survival tactics like slash and burn agriculture or illegal logging which contribute to massive deforestation, soil erosion, the growing threat of climate change. So we do three basic things. We provide capital to businesses locked out of the local banking system, stuck in the missing middle between microfinance and traditional banking. So too large for the $500 loan to the street vendor, the chute cobbler, and still too small or perceived as too risky to attract commercial financial institutions. Second thing is we build local talent and business skills with a focus on bookkeeping and basic financial management. So folks with little or no formal education can kind of compete in the global marketplace, connect their enterprise to buyers and banks. And then lastly we try to engage with the finance industry and encourage local banks and financial institutions to recognize market opportunities, adopt and enhance our work and work ourselves out of a job over time. We, two weeks ago, made a loan to small farmers living in the eastern Congo in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And the Congo is a country that between 1999 and 2003 was the scene of violent conflict involving nine different countries largely related to mineral extraction. And it was called the First World War of Africa. And the death toll was from fighting malnutrition and disease was over three million people. And peace is coming slowly and fighting continues in certain regions. But in a particular region called Betobutembo, which is right along the border with southern Uganda, the community there has opted for peace and they're trying to restore a once-driving farm economy. So we made a loan two weeks ago of $140,000 to a remarkable company called Gourmet Gardens in Uganda that has trained over 1,200 small scale farmers in production of organic cocoa and vanilla. And the company in Uganda has specialty market access in Europe and is paying premium prices that are three times the local conventional price if there are conventional buyers. And the producers are also in the buffer zone of the Varunga National Park, which is home to one third of the remaining guerrilla population. And so the premium prices provide incentives for forest conservation and alternatives to poaching. So that's an example of supporting businesses in places like the Congo that can both drive economic renewal and national reconciliation.