The Power of Water (Feat: Tara Roberts)

Summary

Gettin’ Grown – “The Power of Water” (Feat. Tara Roberts)

Date: April 1, 2025
Hosts: Jade and Keisha
Guest: Tara Roberts (National Geographic Explorer, author, storyteller)

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jade and Keisha welcome Tara Roberts—a National Geographic explorer, award-winning podcaster, and author—to the Kitchen Table. They discuss Tara's remarkable journey from Atlanta to the depths of the world’s oceans, where she documents Black scuba divers and the search for slave shipwrecks. Together, they explore Black history, the significance of water, storytelling, women’s legacy, and how purpose often finds us when we least expect it.

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Main Themes & Purpose

• Intertwining of Storytelling, Purpose, and History: Tara’s journey is a testament to how our curiosities and discomfort can guide us to fulfillment and meaningful impact.
• Visibility of Black Aquatic Legacy: Shining a light on the little-known history of Black divers and the vital role Black people have played in maritime history.
• Healing through Recognition: The act of naming, remembering, and honoring ancestors lost to the Atlantic as both a personal and collective healing process.
• Women in Adventure and Scholarship: Black women as trailblazers in aquatic archaeology and storytelling—redefining cultural narratives.
• Following the Call: Practical advice on listening for and leaning into your life's purpose, often found in moments of discomfort or curiosity.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening: The Joys & Trials of Adulthood and Black Womanhood

• Jade and Keisha swap stories about recent music events, cultural flubs (Emily King and Alicia Keys not knowing “Angel” at Anita Baker’s concert—[04:00]), and the ongoing effort to show up for community and global justice (campaigning for Sudan and Gaza, organizing dinner parties for Black community—[08:38]).
• “I have to put my figurative money where my mouth is…” – Jade [08:41]

2. Introducing Tara Roberts ([16:07])

• Jade beams introducing Tara: “Tara Roberts is a storyteller, adventurer, and traveler…who reports on shipwrecks that once carried captive Africans during the transatlantic slave trade... National Geographic Explorer of the Year!”
• Tara’s response to her bio: “It’s so crazy when you hear, like, it all spoken out, like, okay, I know. That's so crazy.” – Tara [16:23]

3. Tara’s Roots and Childhood Inspiration ([17:10])

• Raised by her mother Lula, a reading teacher, Tara fell in love with books and imagined adventures as an escape and future possibility.
  • “Books took me around the world... gave me this love of adventure and fantasy.” – Tara [18:13]
• Discussing favorite childhood books, like A Wrinkle in Time and the Taran Wanderer series, and reflecting on the lack of Black representation in these genres.
  • “I used to dream at night that Mrs. Whatsit would come and knock on my door and invite me to help save the universe.” – Tara [19:34]

4. Finding Purpose Through Discomfort ([23:38], [54:55])

• Tara’s career detour into nonprofit work gave her stability but left her unfulfilled. In 2016, seeking more meaningful work around race, she visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture and encountered a life-changing archival photo of a group of Black women in wetsuits ([29:14]–[31:07]).
  • “It was almost like the women, to me, they looked beautiful—afros, braids. They were laughing. There was something so free about them... they reminded me of little Tara who used to dream of adventure.” – Tara [32:04]
• She learned about Diving with a Purpose, an organization committed to finding and documenting slave shipwrecks.
• Accepting the invitation to join and train with them, Tara left her nonprofit job, guided by a powerful sense of calling.
  • “Purpose is something that finds you… sometimes it will come and get you.” – Keisha [54:55]
  • “Lord, make me so uncomfortable that I have to change.” – Tara citing Iyanla Vanzant [56:30]

5. Black Aquatic Legacy & Debunking Myths ([37:48]–[38:52])

• Tara shares surprising and affirming history: Black people invented the freestyle stroke, and African divers were renowned worldwide centuries ago.
  • “The idea that we're not connected to the water is false.” – Tara [38:52]
• Jade recounts her great-grandfather as the only Black swimmer on his Boston swim team, emphasizing generational pride.

6. Training, Community, and the Rigors of Scuba ([44:10]–[49:39])

• Tara joins Underwater Adventure Seekers, the oldest Black diving club in the US (founded in the 1950s), describing the intensity and camaraderie of the training and community.

7. Honoring Ancestors and Shifting Narrative ([67:46]–[80:11])

• Moving from wanting just adventure to realizing the gravity of the mission: honoring the 1.8 million Africans lost in the Middle Passage, many unnamed and unacknowledged ([71:04], [71:57]).
  • “Who's honoring that? Who's acknowledging that number?” – Tara [71:51]
• The transformative instruction to “speak their names” from her mother’s pastor reoriented her storytelling to include the spiritual aspect of healing—personally and communally.
  • “By speaking their names… we can help put them to rest.” – Tara [75:57]

8. Highlighting Black Women’s Legacy in the Field ([58:24])

• Tara recounts diving and connecting with nearly all the Black women in that life-changing photo.
• Inspirational stories, like that of Ayanna Flewellen, co-founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists, who sees “the water as home—a body that is fluid, constantly in motion, changing.” – Ayanna via Tara [62:41]

9. Spirituality, the Ocean as Feminine, and Cosmic Perspective ([64:05]–[66:26])

• The ocean’s feminine, mysterious, and boundary-setting energy; respect for the unknowable.
  • “The ocean feels so decidedly feminine to me… it’s changeable, powerful, moving…” – Tara [64:29]
  • “There are parts of the water we cannot explore… it’s not your business.” – Jade [65:03]

10. Transformative Finds & The Healing Power of Acknowledgment ([91:00])

• Tara recounts a profound event: returning soil from Mozambique to the site of a slave shipwreck in South Africa to allow ancestors' spirits “to touch home,” after which the sea calmed and the sun emerged.
  • “The ancestors were put to rest… because they just needed to be acknowledged and honored.” – Tara [97:25]

11. Storytelling, Youth, and Imagination ([82:01]–[88:17])

• Discussion of the role of Black storytelling in YA fiction, recommending Eden Royce’s and Justina Ireland’s work.
• Hope for Tara to turn her real-life stories into works for youth, continuing the fantasy tradition she longed for as a child.
  • “There’s so many interesting ways to pivot our history and information to appeal to the young people and continue to tell those stories in ways that they want…” – Jade [86:57]

12. Advice for Finding Your Calling ([100:55]–[103:32])

• Reassurance for listeners searching for purpose: discomfort is a sign to seek change; follow your curiosity and where you feel “the lightness.”
  • “Sometimes the next step is not clear… but my tip is the universe speaks through your feelings. When you feel the lightness, that’s the only thing you need to listen to.” – Tara [102:47]
• “If I can do it, so can you.” – Tara [108:10]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [19:34] Tara: “I used to dream at night that Mrs. Whatsit would come and knock on my door and invite me to come help save the universe.”
• [32:04] Tara: “They reminded me of the little Tara who used to dream of adventure.”
• [38:52] Tara: “This idea that we’re not connected to the water is false.”
• [40:51] Tara: “...these women are on real life quests to change the world.”
• [56:30] Tara (citing Iyanla): “Lord, make me so uncomfortable that I have to change.”
• [62:41] Ayanna (via Tara): “I think of the water as home… this body that is fluid, constantly in motion, and changing.”
• [64:29] Tara: “The ocean feels so decidedly feminine to me. It’s changeable, powerful but steady…”
• [71:57] Tara: “Who’s honoring that? …when you think about that amount of loss of life, this is something for not just the US. The world needs to acknowledge this.”
• [97:25] Tara: “...the ancestors were put to rest. And they were put to rest because they just needed to be acknowledged and honored.”
• [102:47] Tara: “As soon as you feel the lightness… your body’s like ‘Ooh, that’s the sign. That’s what you listen to.’”
• [108:10] Tara: “If I can do it, so can you.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [16:07] – Tara Roberts Introduction and Background
• [23:38] – Tara describes her moment of transition and the museum photo
• [32:04] – Tara reflects on seeing herself and possibility in that image
• [37:48] – Black aquatics history and invention of swimming strokes
• [54:55] – Discussion on pursuing purpose and letting it find you
• [62:41] – Ayanna Flewellen’s explanation of water as home
• [67:46] – Honoring ancestors, speaking their names, and shifting the narrative
• [91:00] – The Mozambique soil ceremony: a story of healing and acknowledgment
• [100:55] – Advice for listeners searching for personal calling
• [108:10] – Tara’s empowering closing words

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Resources & Guest Info

• Tara Roberts’ Podcast: Into the Depths (streaming everywhere)
• Book: Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging (2025)
• Organizations Mentioned: Diving with a Purpose, Underwater Adventure Seekers, Society of Black Archaeologists

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Final Thoughts

This episode blends laughter, sisterhood, and deep wisdom, inviting listeners to reflect on legacy, adventure, purpose, and healing. Whether through history, storytelling, community work, or finding your own “lightness,” the message is clear: everyone can contribute to the ongoing project of honoring those who came before and moving towards a more just, connected, and imaginative future.

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To learn more:

• Check the episode description for Tara Roberts’ book, podcast, and social links.
• Support Black storytelling, adventure, and history—seek out the recommended books and organizations.

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“If I can do it, so can you. That’s it.” – Tara Roberts [108:10]

Transcript

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[Keisha]

I' ma put you on, nephew.

[Jade]

All right, unk.

[Tara Roberts]

Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order, miss?

[Keisha]

I've been hitting up McDonald's for years.

[Jade]

Now it's back.

[Keisha]

We need snack wraps.

[Jade]

What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back. I can remember stories those things my mother said she told me fairy tales before I went to bed she spoke of happy endings Then tucked me real tight she turned my headlight on and kissed my face good night My mind would fill with visions of perfect paradise she told me everything she said he'd be so nice he ran up on his Take me away one night I'd be so happy with him we'd rather not of sight she never said.

[Keisha]

Curse.

[Jade]

Crying, screaming light she never said that maybe someday say goodbye the story ends like stuff stories do Reality steps into view no longer live alive in paradise no her.

[Keisha]

Remember when Remember when she.

[Jade]

Didn'T know.

[Keisha]

Don'T upset me.

[Jade]

Emily King, Alicia Keys. We need to have a conversation.

[Keisha]

I mean, embarrassed a generation.

[Jade]

Yeah. Truly.

[Keisha]

Down to the Radio City music.

[Jade]

Why didn't Anita call us up there? Because she's mean.

[Keisha]

But still, because I would have understood.

[Jade]

The assignment, you hear immediately. I'd be like, auntie, I cannot sing. But I do know the words and I will join.

[Keisha]

It were a little backstory. Jade, Crystal, Jean, Franiqua, I believe. And myself, we all had the privilege of going down to see our Auntie Anita Baker at the Radio City Music hall one Valentine's Day.

[Jade]

The mean auntie who will ash on your baby's head, but she'll make sure they're fed and sung to. That's me.

[Keisha]

Listen, listen. And toward the end of the concert, you know how Auntie Anita typically invites, you know, the other entertainers in the audience to the stage to sing and join her singing some of her songs, I believe. The night we was there, Cynthia Revoke was there as well. Oh, I remember that.

[Jade]

That's crazy.

[Keisha]

Yeah. Emily King.

[Jade]

Emily King.

[Keisha]

And Alicia Keys. And Alicia Keys were Called.

[Jade]

Called to the stage to sing Angel. Angel. Like a wrong Angel. Sorry.

[Keisha]

Wrong Angel. And. And did not know the words.

[Jade]

They didn't.

[Keisha]

I mean, embarrassed.

[Jade]

I mean, in a really. Like, it didn't even. Couldn't even fake through it.

[Keisha]

We were all. All of us were there in Radio City. Like, what are you like?

[Jade]

I mean, what I wish.

[Keisha]

Why are you here?

[Jade]

In both of you talented in individual ways, but what are we doing here? But this. You had one job, a single assignment. 1. A single one assignment at Anita Baker show job. And you all did not fulfill that. To this day, it haunts me. And I will eventually haunt them.

[Keisha]

We will never forget. We will never forget it.

[Jade]

No, I can't wait to meet them one day so I can be like.

[Keisha]

I can be like. Sit down here for a minute. Let. Let me talk to you. You know what I'm saying?

[Jade]

Diary, Fantastic song. Listen here. Also album for the Times. Listen, Miss Girl, why didn't you know the words to Angel?

[Keisha]

I mean, angel. And not like. It's like. It's not like she asked you to sing the B stanza of the second verse. The hook, girl, come on.

[Jade]

That was literally it. And it was just lost in the sauce.

[Keisha]

She wanted you to sing the chorus.

[Jade]

Yeah. I have questions for you all. And Anita, I got questions for you, too. You're not off the hook. That was your show. Yeah, but also, what the happened in Atlanta? Mother's Day? Did you come down with the shits? What was it?

[Keisha]

Listen here. Listen here. In any case, praise the Lord, because we don't have time to go down that. We don't have time to go down that road.

[Jade]

I do, but it's fine. We won't.

[Keisha]

Okay.

[Jade]

I want to know. It don't have to be smoke.

[Keisha]

It's the last. It's the last week of women's Hers.

[Tara Roberts]

Three months now.

[Jade]

And we will always speak her name. And even no one can sing Anita Baker better than Emily King and Alicia Keys. Howsomever?

[Keisha]

Because you raised her right.

[Jade]

Exactly. Hello. Thank you, sister.

[Keisha]

Good morning.

[Jade]

That's probably one of the highest compliments I've received all week. Yeah. Praise the Lord. How are you doing, sis? How you. How you feeling?

[Keisha]

Listen, it is another day. As my grandmother would say, it's another day the Lord has kept me I'm doing all right. Just the day the Lord has kept me. But no, I'm safe. I have what I need. Listen, we're walking through each day.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

The best we can. Yes. Okay.

[Jade]

Yeah, we are.

[Keisha]

And that's. That's what I have. I'm safe. I have what I need. I'm figuring it out and I'm giving myself grace and space to do that. And that's all I got. How are you doing, sister? Same.

[Jade]

Same. I, I too, am the same. And I mentioned it briefly in the, in the kitchen table, but I'm getting ready to travel tomorrow to go. So by the time you all are listening this to this, I've already done so to go to the juvenile detention center in Cleveland. And if you ever listen to. I admonish anybody who's interested to listen to season three of cereal season Season one, you know, riveting. You know what I mean? Riveting. True crime season two, y' all could have kept that. Season three dives into the Cleveland, Ohio justice system, which is a very interesting system. Yeah. So shout out to campaign zero. I'm headed. I'm headed to Cleveland with them to go. It's awesome. I, you know, I talk a lot of, as I told you off camera, I have to put my figurative money where my mouth is in making sure that I talk about community. I'm pouring in, in, in, in my know hows, you know what I'm saying? So, or as our. A fantastic guest is going to point out, you know, really paying attention to the call that comes in and heating, heating the steps that go along with that. So, yes, you know, also in light of that, make sure you all are please continuing to keep your eyes on Sudan and Gaza and all of the multiple genocides around the world, but specifically those areas right now are continuing to be grossly targeted with the atrocities we've been speaking on for the past year and a half. Too, too long. Sudan's over 700 days into their genocide. Palestine over 500. And yeah, we, we don't want to lose sight of what's going on in the ground when people are being told that they are, they don't matter because we know that not to be true. So, yeah, in, in light of, you know, speaking on, on, on those things and what's going on in our own country and all around the world, I just want to make sure that I'm able to offer my little bit of my little piece, you know what I'm saying? So, yeah, also, hey, thank you all. What a pivot. Thank you all. I'm extremely grateful for everybody who has purchased tickets so far to Sunday on a Monday. My, my first solo dinner party the first of May.

[Keisha]

It's gonna be a time.

[Jade]

It's gonna be a time. You know, yes, I'm already planning so many, so many locations and different ways of figuring out how to make this work, because this is an important community space for me. And this, This I also of my work. So thank you all for trusting me to fill your bellies and your spirits. And I'm really trying to put together something very intentional to offer to the community. So I'm grateful for that support. Yeah, I'm grateful for that. So that's. That's pretty much been my week, sister. I am awesome. I'm, you know, forward movement. There's so much happening, but, you know, we're just trying to figure out how to pivot and exist within all of that.

[Keisha]

For sure.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

Yeah, we're doing it. We thank God for progress. We're excited about all of the things that we are blessed and privileged to offer.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

And contribute to the. To necessary conversations and community that we. That that is being built during such an important time. So.

[Jade]

Absolutely.

[Keisha]

Yeah. And I think our guest today is. Is a unique and beautiful contribution.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

To that work. And it's a. It's an awesome conversation that we're delighted to share with you. Just a powerful conversation about purpose and storytelling and history and life.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

Through the lens of the water, darling. It is good. Yeah, it is good. It is really good.

[Jade]

Yeah, I. I geeked all the way out, y'.

[Keisha]

All.

[Jade]

Like, I geeked, like, surely.

[Keisha]

I mean, Jay, if you're watching on Patreon, you will see Jay literally turn tickled pink.

[Jade]

Yeah, honey.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Jade]

Yeah. Salmon.

[Keisha]

I mean, all of her. All of her toes.

[Jade]

She.

[Keisha]

You could tell her toes was moving.

[Jade]

You know, they were wiggling.

[Keisha]

Right. She was having a time. Time.

[Jade]

Oh. And as was I. Yeah, no, the both of us. I felt the delight in a very specific way.

[Keisha]

Yeah. It was a good time. We're excited, so I won't delay. We won't delay. We'll let you guys get to the kitchen table and then we will reconvene shortly thereafter. But enjoy, y'. All. It's couple A.

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[Keisha]

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[Jade]

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[Keisha]

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[Jade]

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[Keisha]

I participate in McDonald's for a limited.

[Jade]

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[Keisha]

Hey, Tara.

[Tara Roberts]

Hey, y'.

[Keisha]

All.

[Tara Roberts]

It's so crazy when you hear, like, it all.

[Jade]

I know. Spoken out, like, like, okay, I know. I know. It's like, I take that.

[Keisha]

That's so crazy. That is. You have been.

[Jade]

Who's that girl?

[Keisha]

You have been typing fast. You have been doing all of. Okay.

[Jade]

Oh, y' all are funny.

[Keisha]

Casually. Casually on the COVID of National Geographic. I guess that was me.

[Jade]

I was the first black woman to be on the COVID of National Geographic. But no big deal. No big deal at all.

[Keisha]

Welcome to the kitchen table, Tara. We're happy to have you here. Jade, so graciously, you know, read some of your accolades and achievements, but tell us who Tara is, you know, beyond what you do. Who is Carl Roberts?

[Tara Roberts]

Oh, that's interesting. Okay, well, I'm the daughter of Lula.

[Keisha]

Yes. Lula. I'm not mad at Lula. I love already Ms. Lula.

[Jade]

We love that.

[Tara Roberts]

And Lula's the daughter of Elizabeth.

[Keisha]

Yes.

[Tara Roberts]

Strong, beautiful energy coming out of Edenton, North Carolina, by way of Atlanta, Georgia. I grew up in Atlanta. It was just me and Lula growing up. She was a reading teacher, and I was one of those nerdy kids who loved books.

[Keisha]

Same.

[Tara Roberts]

I always say, like, I don't know how parents and Children get mixed together, like. Or get matched. I don't know how that happens, but I feel like my mom was the perfect mom for me.

[Keisha]

It works out that way sometimes, you know?

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

And even. Even when it doesn't seem like it's perfect, maybe it is.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

Perfect.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah. So as a. As a reading teacher, my mom used to bring home books all the time. And, you know, she worked, like, three jobs, so I was always at home. I was always home alone. But I had my books with me, you know, and my books took me around the world. They opened my imagination in ways that I still feel so grateful for. I think that gave me this love of adventure and fantasy. And, you know, like, all of that energy grew because I was reading those books as a kid. And I think that's a direct correlation to how I ended up where I am now.

[Jade]

What were some of your favorite books as a kid? Can you knit? Can you think of three off the top?

[Tara Roberts]

Oh, hello. Yes. Yes. Okay. So this is. This is a kid, you know, like me, totally into fantasy, sci, fi, adventure. And the book that I reread, like, every year, probably memorize lines from it, was Madeleine Lingle's A Wrinkle in Time. I don't know if you guys, like.

[Keisha]

I think we could have all said it at the same time, but please. Yeah.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

I grew up in an apartment building on the second floor in southwest Atlanta, and I used to dream at night that Mrs. Whatsit would come and knock on my door and invite me to come help save the universe. I was like, Ms. Whatsit, I'm ready. Come, come.

[Keisha]

Let me go to bed now, because Ms. Wetzit is waiting on me and.

[Jade]

Ms. Whatsit to arrive. I have things to do and people.

[Keisha]

To see in my subconscious. That's right. That's correct. That is correct.

[Jade]

Okay, so Wrinkle in Time, number one. Also one of my faves. Number two, what else?

[Tara Roberts]

So Number two was actually a series. And it's so funny, I've revisited that series as an adult, and I'm like, it doesn't quite hold up as I think I know. I don't know if you're gonna know this one. So it was. It was the Taran Wanderer series by a guy named Lloyd Alexander. And the last book in the series won the Newberry Award.

[Keisha]

Okay.

[Tara Roberts]

It was a fantasy of this kid who didn't know who his parentage was. And so he's growing up and being involved in all these quests and, of course, who he is and where he comes from. Turns out to be magnificent. But he had to go through. Okay, all of this to get there. That's another series that I used to read over and over and over again.

[Jade]

Oh, I don't think I ever read.

[Keisha]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

I'm so curious of who you're gonna say now.

[Jade]

I'm like, oh, well, I want to hear your third. And then I'll tell you what I thought you were gonna say after you.

[Tara Roberts]

Okay. Oh man, I've like blanked out and like, what's my third?

[Keisha]

I thought, okay, tell me.

[Jade]

You were gonna say the lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

[Tara Roberts]

You know what? That, that. It didn't.

[Jade]

It was very.

[Tara Roberts]

I was like, interesting.

[Keisha]

These.

[Tara Roberts]

These like are 10 year old kids and they are telling these grown animals.

[Jade]

What to do with them.

[Keisha]

I'm like, there for me as well.

[Jade]

That's what I thought you were gonna say.

[Keisha]

Cuz I feel like, you know, the way that my mama was set up and the way that the adults in my childhood was, lot of the stuff going on would not fly. So I can relate to that, to that distance. And I. I struggled as well.

[Tara Roberts]

I'm like, these are literally dumbass kids who. Forgive me, you know, but it's like grown.

[Jade]

Have you met me? Do you know what this mouth is? It's grown. And it's very biblical is what it. It's a biblical basis is what it is. So it's fantasy mixed in with other messages.

[Keisha]

But even still, what that seems, I'm.

[Tara Roberts]

Like, why didn't you choose those kids though?

[Keisha]

Like. And I grew up in a home where my mama was very involved, very in the know. Like, the fact that these kids was roaming around the whole world by themselves was always like, I don't know where they. I mean, what. But that's like, where are their parents? I mean, this. This is not safe, guys. Like, that was me reading this. Like, I don't know where the adults.

[Jade]

Are, but this is so incredible because this shapes like so much of what. What you do now and the important work that you do. Especially with the times that we're living in right now. Our storytelling is more important than ever.

[Keisha]

It.

[Jade]

You really are a legacy at this point. Do you ever. Does that ever resonate? Like, do you ever process that?

[Keisha]

You.

[Tara Roberts]

You can't go there.

[Jade]

Yeah, no, I hear you. Y.

[Keisha]

There's a lot of pressure. That's a lot of pressure.

[Jade]

It's a lot of pressure. But there's real such important.

[Tara Roberts]

I've done some storytelling, but there's so much more to do. Like, let me Be out there for 30 more years and then we can.

[Jade]

Talk about something like that.

[Tara Roberts]

It just. Yeah, fair.

[Jade]

So let's start off with your journey. What got you? We started off with you being young and being a reader, but what got you to this iteration of where you are right now?

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah, it's a great question and it actually is a full circle moment.

[Keisha]

Nice.

[Tara Roberts]

This all started well, let me say this first. I think I didn't. I said, you know, I got covet brain. So sometimes I forget what I said. I said, I'm from Atlanta.

[Jade]

Right.

[Tara Roberts]

Do we have this? Yeah, yeah.

[Jade]

Southwest.

[Keisha]

Yes.

[Jade]

Daughter of.

[Keisha]

Elizabeth.

[Jade]

I love it.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah. I didn't grow up near the ocean. You know, it's Atlanta. Atlanta is landlocked.

[Keisha]

Landlocked.

[Tara Roberts]

We don't know anything about the ocean. I did grow up swimming and in pools, but I was not thinking about scuba diving in any way. I also wasn't that interested in history. Tell you that, Tell you truth, especially our history. It. I'm, you know, I'm a little ashamed to say that now, but it just felt like all the stories about our history centered inside of our pain and our trauma and our tragedy, and it just hurt too much to go there. It's just like. Just felt like being traumatized over and over and over again. So I didn't like to think about our history, but the year was 2016, and I don't know, maybe you flash back to that year for a second. It was a lot happening.

[Jade]

I did that year at a three year old.

[Keisha]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

I had just moved to Washington D.C. and I'd moved there to work for a non profit. I am trained as a journalist, but I had taken some detours and I ended up on this path that I didn't quite intend to. You know, like, I felt like, oh, I'm doing some things and it's good and it's okay. But I look up like six years later and I am like, you know, my heart and my soul is around storytelling, but I am working for a nonprofit. And it was a good nonprofit. Like, it was a good job, but it wasn't my passion. And I'd also spent the majority of my career really doing work in the gender equity space, like trying to empower women and girls around the world, doing all of this to support women and girls. And in 2016, I mean, we still had a long way to go, but it felt like you could see progress. There was progress around the world, like conversations about girls and the importance of educating girls, of supporting girls, issues around violence against Girls and like, it. It was in the air. Like, we were talking about it. We had new policies, new work. Things were happening. So I felt like stuff was good there. Again, still a ways to go, but there was stuff that was moving things forward. But what was happening in 2006 was that issues of race were huge on the national side stage in a way that they hadn't been huge in a long time. And so I was really conscientious of the fractures in the conversation and in our national consciousness around race. And I wanted to do something to heal the space, but I didn't know what to do. Like, you know, working for a nonprofit that was doing good work in the world, but they weren't. That wasn't their focus. And I wanted that to be my focus, but I didn't know how to do it. So it's 2016. I'm like, oh, I feel so out of step with myself. I'm not on purpose. I feel kind of miserable. I'm unhappy. I don't enjoy getting up, going to work in the mornings. And then somebody, some sort of way, gives me a ticket to the National Museum of African American History and culture in Washington, D.C. have you.

[Keisha]

Oh, for sure.

[Tara Roberts]

Have y' all been yet?

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Jade]

Kia lives in. Lives out right outside of D.C. ah, got it. I don't. I have to go back because I think I was there for, like, not enough time.

[Keisha]

Four hours.

[Tara Roberts]

Which is all you did.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Jade]

I was like, we've had.

[Keisha]

We have to come back. Thank you.

[Jade]

There will be a part two, the readings.

[Keisha]

So.

[Jade]

But it was a lot to take in. But I definitely. But. So, yes, please. You visited the museum.

[Tara Roberts]

And I also. I love the way the universe works, because even though I was working for a job that wasn't my passion, that job got me to DC and if I didn't live in dc, I don't think I would have attacked the museum in the way that I did. Like you just said, if you didn't live there, you know, you visited. It's like all you can take in is about four hours of. And it's so much in there, so much history. Because I lived in D.C. i went that first time, then I went back, and then I went back again, and I was like, we are gonna go slow in this museum. Even though I am scared of the history, this museum is too important. You know, like, they spent close to a billion dollars on building that museum.

[Jade]

Absolutely.

[Tara Roberts]

You know, when it's on the National Wall, it's just like.

[Jade]

Right.

[Tara Roberts]

I was like, I gotta go I gotta go.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

But so, because I was going slow, I ended up on the second floor. And the second floor is this tiny floor that I think most people skip because it's an archival floor. So it's got, you know, like, a place where you can go and write and you can. It's. It's not a sexy floor. And it has. It had a couple of exhibits on it. And one of the exhibits, particularly a picture in one of the exhibits, completely changed the trajectory of my life. It was a picture of a group of primarily black women on a boat in wetsuits. I had never seen a group of black women on a boat in wetsuits before. It, like, it stopped me, y'. All.

[Keisha]

It.

[Tara Roberts]

I. I was like, oh, I. I. This sounds like I'm over exaggerating here. It sounds a little. Come on, Tara. Like, take it down a notch.

[Keisha]

Oh, my goodness.

[Jade]

In my magic.

[Keisha]

That's right.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Jade]

I will frolic.

[Keisha]

She will party with the dinosaurs and. And skip amongst the sky. I've been.

[Jade]

Yeah, yeah. I've been like, Kia knows I've been clinching my ass cheeks this whole conversation. Like, what's your birthday?

[Keisha]

Right up here.

[Jade]

Feel free.

[Keisha]

Be your full.

[Jade]

Yeah. Oh, my God. So is my husband, like, a triple Aquarius? Okay, that makes sense for all this exploration and deep diving, no pun intended, into the things that you get interested in.

[Keisha]

I won't go there.

[Jade]

Keep going. So sorry.

[Tara Roberts]

I really felt like time stopped when I saw that picture. And it was. So now I've gone back. I've seen the picture a million times now, and it really is an ordinary picture. Like, it is. It's even. I mean, it's not quite a snapshot, but it's not that much more than a snapshot. And that's not to diss the photographer who took it, but it, you know, like, it wasn't like a studio shot and everybody's posed, but there was no.

[Jade]

Everybody at the museum is looking for Harriet Tubman Shaw. You know what I'm saying? They're like, you know, is the immensel. And you're like, gosh, this is so, like. I can understand how in the context of all of that, it's an awesome thing right? When you start zooming out and thinking about it, but initially you're like, okay, okay. You know what I mean? So, okay, keep going, keep going. So interested.

[Tara Roberts]

So I see it, and it was almost like the women, to me, one, they looked beautiful. Like, you know, afros, braids. They were laughing. There was just something that was so Free and joyous and beautiful about them. I swear, it felt like they morphed in the picture. And, like, when I. When I went away, it took me going back and looking at the picture again to be like, oh, wait, that's.

[Keisha]

Really what made up something else in my imagination. I joined the picture in my imagination.

[Tara Roberts]

They all had on capes and, like, the capes were blowing in the wind.

[Keisha]

They were sitting there like flippers were going.

[Jade]

The afros were. Yes, they were calling you. It might have been doing all of that, honestly.

[Tara Roberts]

And what they did was they reminded me of the little Tara who used to dream of adventure. And I would say that somewhere along the way, little Tara, as she read these books. I don't know if this was your experience, but rarely back then. Not even rarely. Like, never any of those characters look like us. Like, not at.

[Keisha]

No, not even.

[Tara Roberts]

Like, there weren't even sidekicks back then.

[Jade]

No. I would have to put myself in stories and even as an adult. Not to cut you off, but. So, like, Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite writers, right? Because he's so. You can see everything he puts. So I read American Gods, like, four times, right? I kept rereading it because I also have ADHD and I wanted to see if I was missing something in the end of this book. I'm like, this book is so fantastic. And I always felt like I'd never finished it, so I kept rereading it. Come to find out, Neil Gaiman can't tie up a story to save his life, but he can paint a picture anyway. I say all that. Say, even in reading American Gods, in all of the imagery and the way that he wrote the imagery, am I represented in American Gods? Absolutely not. Am I one of those three Russian sisters who could do the coin trick with the moon? I am not, but I felt like I could be. And I would always place myself in those stories because we weren't in those stories. And we don't get a lot of that fantasy and we don't. We don't get a lot of that. So we cling on to what we can, if that is the world that we're drawn to. But please continue.

[Tara Roberts]

That's exactly it. It's. It's wonderful to be in conversation with folks who know, who know, you know.

[Jade]

All of our little whimsical, divergent people.

[Keisha]

Shout out to real, though, because so many of us, I think a lot of women or just individuals will resonate with this. We were not represented in a lot of the medium that we came across in Our youth. And we leveraged books and stories to take us to different places and do different things and see the world. And that is what is such a gift about what you sharing and books opening up worlds of possibilities. And I remember I was. I've always been a little grown. So I was the little girl, like reading memoir, very young. Because, you know, I love to get in people's business. I'm curious. You know what I'm saying? My mother used to say, you're nosy. I would say, I'm curious that you need to.

[Tara Roberts]

It's a distinction.

[Jade]

Yes.

[Keisha]

Yes.

[Jade]

I'm curious and precocious mother. Get it right. Fine line.

[Keisha]

But to your point, I remember being a young girl and searching for black women's stories. And I wanted to know, you know, so much as you said, so much of our life or the stories that were told were about our struggle. And so in the moment, I remember Zora Neale Hurston. I read Zora Neale Hurston probably way too young, but I loved her imagination and her, you know, her ability to. Even when she. And especially when she was dealing with really hard things to transport herself to another place was always something that was really powerful to me, even as. As a child. And so I love that. And I mean, we had a guest a few weeks ago, the CEO of the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington. And we talked a lot about museums as cultural institutions. Like Jay was saying, we expect them to be filled with sort of these relics from the past and all the history that we were sort of exposed to in books. But really engaging with them opens up all of the other things. And I know what floor you're talking about at the Blacksonian. I have that, like, quickly. And yes, I call it that, too. There's so many things. To me, it illuminates the rich depth of our culture and the things that black women, Black people do beyond the conventional things that we are known for doing. Well, we also do super cool things. We've been doing them, too. That connection, I totally can relate to being stopped in my tracks at being like, wow, look at us scuba diving.

[Tara Roberts]

Okay.

[Keisha]

Because they told so. Okay. We scuba dive, too. Thank you very much.

[Tara Roberts]

Yes.

[Jade]

We swim. Well. We swim.

[Keisha]

Yes.

[Tara Roberts]

We have a long aquatic. We have a long aquatic history.

[Jade]

Like, long.

[Tara Roberts]

I don't know if y' all knew this.

[Jade]

I have to.

[Tara Roberts]

But we invented. This comes from Kevin Dawson, who's been doing. He has a beautiful book out called. It's Undercurrents of Don't Tell Me I Can't get the name of it, but he has researched African legacy or aquatic legacy. And we.

[Keisha]

Aquatic culture in the African.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah, that's it.

[Keisha]

Under currents of Power. Aquatic culture in the African Diaspora.

[Tara Roberts]

I don't know if y' all knew this, but we invented the freestyle stroke.

[Keisha]

Of course we did.

[Tara Roberts]

That was from us.

[Jade]

We do everything.

[Tara Roberts]

We were one of the first divers, you know, scuba was is the equipment. But we've been diving since the 13, 14, hundreds in such a way that we were famous around the world. Like kings used to hire Africans to come dive for them. This idea that we're not connected to the water is false.

[Jade]

Lies asinine. First of all, don't get me. Ocean of the river don't play. And also, if I may share. I don't think I've ever shared this. I'm not even with you, sis. It just never came up. My great grandfather was the only black swimmer on his swim team in Boston. I have the picture. And he swam with the original Tarzan. He was on the swim team with the original Tarzan. And I have his. I have their team picture. And my great grandfather Jacob is there only black face in all, you know, in that seat. And he was one of the best swimmers. So there is absolutely something to what you're saying.

[Tara Roberts]

Absolutely.

[Keisha]

Wow.

[Jade]

So, okay, this is like. Because this trajectory is so twisty turny. So you're at, you're at the museums.

[Keisha]

You are.

[Jade]

You're in non profit. Then now you're at the museum. You see this photo where that you are in it.

[Keisha]

Yes.

[Jade]

You joined there. They are talking to you.

[Keisha]

You join the. And my cape is slapping.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

Absolutely. Like my actors are ready to go.

[Jade]

So how did we get to from there to national?

[Tara Roberts]

I'm engaged in that photo for way too long.

[Jade]

That's no.

[Tara Roberts]

And then I read and I, I'm like, well, who are they? Why are they featured here? And I discover that these women are part of a group called Diving with a Purpose. And that what they do is dive for and help document slave shipwrecks around the world.

[Keisha]

Wow.

[Tara Roberts]

So then I'm just like, okay, not only are these women stepping into the sense of adventure and exploration, but they are actually on real life quests to change the world. So it just floored me and I ended up staying on that floor for like an hour. I was just like, I gotta sit and google these people. I gotta find out who they are. And so I reached out and I have to say that originally when I reached out, I wasn't well. Okay. In the back of My head. I was like, oh, my God, I could totally see myself doing this with them. But I was like, but I'm not a scuba diver, really know all this stuff. But I was like, but I work for this nonprofit, so maybe. And the nonprofit gave out grants to people doing amazing things in the world. So I was like, maybe I can help them get funding, because I know if it's a normal black organization, like, they probably need some funding.

[Keisha]

Always looking for it.

[Tara Roberts]

Always.

[Keisha]

Yeah, Always looking for the funding.

[Jade]

Yeah. Okay.

[Tara Roberts]

So I reached out to the co founder. It's a gentleman named Ken Stewart. Ken is wonderful. We've become great friends. But back then in 2000, so now this is. I think it's 2017, we're talking. And it turns out that he doesn't speak social entrepreneurial speak. And so he's not quite a fit for the grant. But he and I became friends. And towards the end of one of our last calls about the. The grants and working with my non profit, he says to me, he likes to call me by my full name. And Ken is. At the time, he was 72 years old.

[Keisha]

Oh, yay.

[Tara Roberts]

He's from New York. He's from New York, but he lives in Tennessee.

[Keisha]

Yes. New Yorkers, we say first and last names. That's a thing. I don't know if y' all know. Yeah, that's a thing.

[Tara Roberts]

I thought that was just cute.

[Jade]

Hello, Chris Rogers.

[Keisha]

Exactly. Yeah, we call out. I mean, in high school, you talk about what you talk about. You talking about Marcus Walton? Yes, Marcus.

[Jade]

Yes, right.

[Keisha]

There.

[Tara Roberts]

So many of y' all out there, that's.

[Jade]

You gotta figure out who you. Leslie White?

[Keisha]

Yes, Leslie White.

[Jade]

Now which one? That's one Leslie from Syracuse or Leslie from. From over here.

[Keisha]

That's a thing for sure.

[Tara Roberts]

All right, so Ken says to me, he says, todd Roberts, do you know that you live in the epicenter of black scuba diving? And I was like, what? I live in D.C. and he was like, that's what I'm talking about. He's like, all the cats, they live in DC. Dr. Albert Jose Jones, who is considered the godfather of black scuba diving from dc. Kamau Sadiqi, Jay Hagler, like, Shariki, all these people, they live in dc. And he was like, do you want to join us? And I was like, oh, I needed the invitation.

[Keisha]

I don't know why I needed the invitation.

[Tara Roberts]

I could have just jumped in, but I don't know. I was a little scared.

[Jade]

It was all battery.

[Tara Roberts]

So he extended that invitation to me, and I said yes. And so he was like, I'll get you in the class. And he got me in the class, which had just started again. I love the way the universe works. It was like the cat. The class was starting that week. And he was like, I will get you in. And it was a class by. Given by the Underwater Adventure Seekers, which is the oldest black diving club in the United States. I can't do math. You could do math with me really quickly. In 2019, they celebrated their 60th anniversary. So now it's 2025. That's six years. So 66.

[Jade]

63.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah, 66. So it's a 60. They started in the 1950s, black scuba diving and now UAS. It's like, when. So they all go on dive trips, trips every year, and they show up at these resorts with like 100 people.

[Jade]

With the scuba gear on.

[Keisha]

I love it.

[Jade]

Right? I love that.

[Keisha]

I love that.

[Jade]

Like, who's gonna. With a whole gaggle of black people in scuba suit.

[Keisha]

I would love. I want to go to the trip advisory with all the resorts go to say. Because then people is like, what. What is going on here?

[Jade]

I'll be on the sand and I'll be like, y' all better dive. What is happening?

[Keisha]

Hundreds of blacks showed up in wet suits.

[Jade]

Would you believe it? Scuba suits, I mean, and then they're.

[Tara Roberts]

They're excellent. And they're excellent divers too. You know, like, Doc Jones is in the scuba diving hall of fame and he trained most of the folks and they take it seriously. Like, a lot of people get their scuba diving certification in a weekend. Now, uas, it took me three months.

[Keisha]

We don't play about certification. Okay?

[Jade]

You need to get your credentials. Especially with my. My breathing and my livelihood underwater, like, you better know, I need to know all the information.

[Keisha]

Okay.

[Jade]

No, you're not. Get.

[Keisha]

Get your notebooks.

[Jade]

So what kind of promises have you made to yourself this year? Getting in better shape. That's what I said.

[Keisha]

Eating a little healthier. Sure. Me too.

[Jade]

Saving more money. Absolutely. God, I hope so. Should I say traveling somewhere new? What about discovering a new culture by learning a new language? Well, with Babbel, you can, in just a few weeks this year, speak like a whole new you. With Babbel, the language learning app that gets you talking. Babbel's quick 10 minute lessons, handcrafted by over 200 language experts, gets you to begin speaking your new language in three weeks or whatever pace you choose. And because conversing is the key to really understanding each other in new languages, Babel is designed Using practical real world conversations. Spending months with private teachers of times past. And nothing screams visitor like holding a phone translation app to your face all day. All right, we'll get that fanny packed. Babel's tips and tools are inspired by the real life stuff you actually need when communicating. My husband, he wants to go see the northern lights in Sweden. And you better believe that I have been on Babel preparing myself. Please take note, that means why do you leave your babies outside? Not in a judgmental way. I'm just fascinated and want to learn more. Thought I would be respectful and learn in the language of the land that I'm going to. I want to know why they leave those babies outside. And do you hear how fluent I am? It's absolutely nuts. You need proof that Babel gets you talking. You need more of that. Other than me and my fluency. Studies from Yale, Michigan State and other leading universities continue to prove that Babel works. One study found that using Babel for 15 hours is equivalent to a full semester in college. That is not one week of work. Okay? That is less than a week of work. That's incredible. This year, get talking with Babel. Let's get more of you talking in a new language. Babel is gifting our listeners 60% off [e-mail] grown that's 60% [e-mail] grown spelled B A B B E L.com grown babel.com grown rules and restrictions may apply.

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[Jade]

All right, unc.

[Tara Roberts]

Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order, miss?

[Keisha]

I've been hitting up McDonald's for years.

[Jade]

Now it's back.

[Keisha]

We need snack wraps.

[Jade]

What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back. So what was your stamina in the water like before this? Like, how did you get. How did you get to where you are now? Like, how were you a great swimmer? Like, how did this come to be?

[Tara Roberts]

I'm a decent swimmer, but swimming doesn't really have a Lot to do with scuba diving. I mean, scuba diving is more about math, teachers.

[Keisha]

Oh, man.

[Tara Roberts]

It's more about breathing. It's math.

[Keisha]

It's breathing.

[Tara Roberts]

You gotta know, like, how long you can stay down. You got to be paying attention to your.

[Jade]

Yeah. How far you can go down.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah, it's. It's. It's different. But there are skills to learn to become a good scuba diver, and it's all training. That's why UAS takes three months, because they want you to really get the skills down. And then there are levels. So you get your first. It's called the open water certification. Then you get your advanced open water, then you get your rescue. And then it just keeps going on and on until you get to, like, instructor level. But I. I started diving with them. Well, I started training with them, and as I. As I got to know these people, I just fell in love with them. I love it. Some of the most generous. All of them volunteer their time, you know, and they had us, like, we were in the pool once a week, and then we were in the classroom once a week. So it's twice a week that these people are giving their time to train, you know, folks who have an interest in scuba diving. So as I got to know them and then I started to learn a bit more about the ships and about this history, and I was like, oh, my God. People should know about them, and they should know about this work. This is incredible. This is completely upending the idea of who black people can be in the world. And then they're doing this important work. I was like, somebody should tell their story. And I was like, oh, shoot, wait.

[Keisha]

Actually, maybe that could be me.

[Tara Roberts]

Maybe I could tell a story.

[Jade]

That's me, Tari, Tara.

[Keisha]

And God is up there. God is up there looking at you like, hello.

[Jade]

Hello. Duh.

[Tara Roberts]

You can't even blame it on Covid. But I tell you, it did.

[Jade]

I was literally waiting for you.

[Keisha]

Exactly.

[Tara Roberts]

I moved you to dc.

[Jade]

Hello.

[Keisha]

You don't be paying attention.

[Tara Roberts]

I wasn't. I wasn't connecting the dots, but it's.

[Jade]

Such an organic trajectory, and I love that it's not an obvious one. Yeah, it is, but it's not. And right is in the sense of who you are at your.

[Tara Roberts]

Exactly. Exactly. And then when I. When I made this decision and I was like, wow, I really want to help tell their stories and help lift this work out in the world some sort of way. So I went to Ken, and I was like, hi, can I, like, tell your story? And I went to the Board. And I was like, I'd love to. I want your permission. And I'd really like to go all in. I was like, I don't want to tell this on the side.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

I was like, I, the group was doing missions all over the world. They were doing missions in South Africa, Mozambique, Senegal, Costa Rica, St. Croix, around the U.S. i was like, I want to dive with you and I want to really be a part of this. And I realized I couldn't do that working for my non profit. So I was like, I'm gonna quit my job so I can do this. And I am, I'm not a trust fund baby. And I did not have a bunch of savings because.

[Jade]

Right. So you were from southwest Atlanta, so you knew that. Okay, I know southwest Atlanta. Oh yeah. My parents live in esports. Oh yeah, I know. There you go. No shade.

[Tara Roberts]

Hello.

[Jade]

You know?

[Tara Roberts]

Yes. My mother now lives in College park, which is right there.

[Keisha]

Yes. There you go.

[Jade]

Okay. I was like, and she was a teacher. We already, my husband's a teacher. We, There's a cap on that. So we know you ain't a trust fund baby, but you had to quit the job because you had.

[Tara Roberts]

I was like, I got to do this all out.

[Keisha]

Yeah, yeah. You didn't do a half ass.

[Jade]

You did it with your full ass.

[Keisha]

I said, no.

[Tara Roberts]

I, I, I told Ken, I was like, ken, I'm gonna quit my job so I can do this. And he was like, oh, no.

[Keisha]

Wait.

[Jade]

You told that to a 72 year old black man?

[Tara Roberts]

What you thought he was gonna say for that?

[Keisha]

We don't have that kind of insurance.

[Jade]

What are you talking about?

[Tara Roberts]

You cannot sleep on my sofa. So no work. He can'.

[Keisha]

No, no, no.

[Tara Roberts]

I was like, yeah. So I was like, don't. I, I'm, I'm feeling this. Don't, don't worry. And so I quit, I quit the job without knowing how I was going to do this. Wow. And how I was going to make it happen. But I was like, the universe is speaking. The ancestors are called. I didn't know the ancestors were calling. I didn't have that language in that moment, but it just, just felt like my whole body was alive. Thinking about this, thinking about connecting to the ocean, thinking about diving, thinking about help telling a story that, that's little known. So it just felt perfect.

[Keisha]

There's so, there's so much beauty there, I think, you know, again, grown. You know, at the kitchen table, we talk about how to adult for real. Right? And all of the things about adulting that are Sort of the unspoken unwritten rule that nobody really tells us, but we're all figuring it out as we go. And so you would imagine, so many of us come to the kitchen table with questions around, how do you find your purpose? How do you find what you're supposed to be doing? And in all the years that we've been doing this show, listen to all of the amazing guests and storytellers and people who have come to join us and tell us their stories. What has been the thread that connects the dots across all of that? It's like purpose is something that finds you. And even when we have maps and five year plans and timelines by which we want to accomplish all of our goals, sometimes it will come and get you. It will be like, girl, I know you came to the museum to see other things, but you're gonna get caught up in this one photo of these women you've never seen before scuba diving. And it's going to change the trajectory of your life, which is so powerful. So powerful. Yes.

[Tara Roberts]

I never could have imagined that scuba diving would be the thing to enter my life.

[Keisha]

So crazy.

[Tara Roberts]

And change it.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

Completely. Like, what?

[Keisha]

But you are open.

[Jade]

Insane.

[Keisha]

You are open.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

To it. And I think that's, that's the lesson. That's one of the takeaways I always love.

[Tara Roberts]

I love what. Yanna Vincent said this in one of her books. I'm paraphrasing this, but it was something like, lord, make me so uncomfortable that I have to change.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

I have to do something.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

So there is something about, like when you're sitting in the misery or you, you know, you're unhappy.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

You feel depressed. You can't get up. Like that is ripe time to make the change.

[Keisha]

Yes. It's so many of us. Yes. And so many of us feel like when we feel those feelings, that means we're doing something wrong or that we're off course. But oftentimes, like you're saying, and as your story helps us to see, that often means that we are doing something right. And the first step in figuring out what you're supposed to be doing is learning and knowing what you don't want to do.

[Tara Roberts]

So. Exactly.

[Keisha]

So I know that. Okay. I don't know what it is, but I know this ain't it. I love that. So talk to us a little bit about, you know, it's Women's History Month. This episode will be the last episode of Women's History Month. And so I know that in, in your work there has been a central theme around, you know, black women and, and the role that they play in doing this work of, you know, black marine life, aquatics, scuba diving. Is there any cool stories or any. Anything that resonates or comes to mind specific to women's history that you want to. That you want to talk about?

[Tara Roberts]

I will say that, you know, seven years later, I think that I have now dived with most of the people who were in that picture.

[Keisha]

Nice.

[Tara Roberts]

So that is something that feels amazing.

[Keisha]

So you have joined the picture in real life.

[Jade]

Oh, that was God's calling.

[Tara Roberts]

Or if I haven't dived with them, I've at least met them and connected with them, which has felt beautiful. And I've also. I've just met incredible women who are part of this. And it's not just women who are part of this. It's. It's men, women, it's people of all races, but it's primarily black folks who are driving this. And there are women who are doing incredible things inside of it. And I think about some of the ones that I've met and how their perspective has completely influenced me. I think about, for instance, Ayanna Flewellen, who is the co founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists. And I had this profound conversation with Ayanna in St. Croix. We. St. Croix. There's work that's happening there with the Society of Black Archaeologists and with diving with a purpose. They're training up young people. They're also exc. A site there. And St. Croix, you know, had something to say about the slave trade. It's a. It's also an incredible story in history there. But one night, Ayanna and another archaeologist, Gabrielle, and my friend Malaika, we decided to go. What do you call. It's like. It's the bioluminescence tour.

[Keisha]

Oh yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

You can see out into.

[Keisha]

Oh my God.

[Jade]

Oh, yeah.

[Keisha]

Yes.

[Tara Roberts]

Water. When you move the water. So we decided to go to that one night. It was a beautiful night. There were, I don't know, let's say like 10, 12 other kayaks. We are out, like the moon is out that night. It's silent, it's beautiful. We end up in the middle of this area where the luminescence is strongest. And Ayanna and I just sort of reclined. She was in her canoe, I was in my canoe and we just sort of reclined. And I talked to Ayanna and it was one of the most profound conversations that I have ever had where she really. And she's like this young kid who's just smart and Brilliant. But she had me thinking about our connection to the water, to Yemaye, to Olukun, in just such profound ways. And had, like. I asked her this question about. Well, okay, let me say this. That one of the questions that I wrestled with throughout the book, which is, you know, the book is about this journey. And I tell stories about the ships, about the divers, about this history, but it's also my journey. And throughout this journey, I've been asking myself this question, like, how does this history help me as a woman, as a person of African descent, as an American, figure out where I belong in this world? And Ayanna, I asked her this question. I asked numerous people this, but Ayanna's answer, I was like, oh, girl. That was a whole other level of stuff. But I was like, well, where do you consider home? You know, she comes from Texas, but she lives in California. She's traveled. She's got this connection to the earth through archeology. And she was like.

[Keisha]

I think of.

[Tara Roberts]

The water as home. And I was like, she's like, you know, this. This body that is fluid, that is constantly in motion and that it is changing. She's like, that's.

[Jade]

That's like an essence, but he's still so steady. And then there's a level of mystery to it. And.

[Keisha]

Yeah, it's very humbling.

[Jade]

Yeah, it's humbling.

[Keisha]

It makes me think. When we went on my birthday trip to Antigua a couple years ago, we were out in the water and twins, a diver, she was telling us about the bioluminescence. And it was just like, fascinating to learn of that because that was not something that I had any knowledge of but had been able to sense to a little bit more reading. But, you know, the water is, like, powerful in that way. You know, I remember telling Jay when we went on the cruise, like, you know, it's just so, like, humbling. Like, I don't know, we sit out on the water. To me, I'm just like, wow, this is how big God is. Like, you know what I'm saying? Never have I ever felt so small.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

When you are in, you know, it's. This is like, you know, it's still, but it's powerful and it's moving, but it. And it's dynamic and it's. It seems limitless.

[Tara Roberts]

Yes.

[Keisha]

There's so much. So much there. Yeah. When.

[Tara Roberts]

When I think about, like, Aquaman and. Who's the other one? The one with the pitchfork or the.

[Jade]

Try there's trident. Zeus is not in the water.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah. What's this Jason Momoa is aquaman, but there's another one.

[Jade]

Poseidon. Poseidon.

[Keisha]

Poseidon.

[Tara Roberts]

Yes. Poseidon.

[Jade]

Poseidon. Okay.

[Tara Roberts]

It just. It. It kind of makes me laugh that all of these male energies are designed to represent the water or the ocean. The ocean feels so decidedly feminine to me. It's a feminine energy, you know, because it's. It's changeable. It's all the things that you just said. It's powerful, but it's moving. But it's steady, but it's calm. But it, you know, like, it eats away, but it also can destroy immediately.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

Like, it just feels like it's got.

[Jade]

A feminine energy, and it's got extreme boundaries. Because if you think there are parts of the water we cannot explore, it's not for us. It will crush our very. It's not for us. It's not your business. And now they're talking about. Now, sorry. Sorry to be that girl, but they're talking about how the aliens. Y' all been looking in the wrong direction. They might be. I don't know.

[Keisha]

It's not.

[Jade]

But truly we might. You're like, who is the them you're talking about again, Jade? You know, but it's not. It's not far off because there are parts of it that we cannot. We cannot physically explore. And that is for a reason. There is a respect you have.

[Keisha]

Exactly.

[Jade]

And you're a water bearer.

[Keisha]

Exactly. You have to respect it. You have to respect it. It's like certain things are not for. But, yeah, there's this there. And it's a very male to me. Sor. Be that girl to add on, but, like, it's a very male energy to feel like that's the space that is for you. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, to me, like, the kind of people that want. That feel like, I don't know. Okay. Like.

[Jade]

No.

[Keisha]

Go there.

[Jade]

No. Because I'm sitting here thinking to myself, I'm like, how do you negro, say that you are moving water? How do you think that you are fluid?

[Keisha]

It is moving, malleable. How do you think you're. That the people who feel like they are entitled to know what is on the ocean's floor? Or all the people who. It's like, girl, that is not your business. And why do you feel like that is for you? Okay, sit back. Yeah, it's like, what does it mean? Like you said, there are literally depths that. That we cannot breathe. Like the crush. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's not for us. So we don't belong down there. And the fact that y' all trying to just bypass all the rules and go down there anyway, but that's another conversation for another day. I'm sorry. But, yeah, it's like, Jamaica, calm down.

[Jade]

You clearly have gotten such a spiritual rejuvenation from this work. So how has that shifted your spiritual and emotional transformation? I know you started touching on it, but how has it really shifted it in doing this work, especially coming from somebody who didn't. Not in a. Not in that way, but, like, you're like, I don't really want to. Like, this is. There's a lot of trauma tied to our history, so. To be here. Beautiful. But I'd love to hear that.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah. I almost would say. Well, not. I almost would say. I would say that. I think I actively fought it for a while. So even though I chose to be a part of this work, which is about slave shipwrecks and, hello, I am a black girl, so. And I know that I'm descended from enslaved people, so I know that it is my history. But, of course, I thought about telling stories around this by focusing on the divers and focusing on the ships. Like, I want it to focus on the adventure a bit more than the history until.

[Jade]

Important. Well, oh, I mean, I think both are important.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

I mean, it. The other is important, but it's. It's not the full story. And this is, you know, like, what's. What's been missing from our history book. And I think as I started to learn more, I actually started to get a little upset about it. Here are a couple of stats that I want to throw out to you. Two things that I learned and two things that really made me go, this is not okay. So the first stat that I learned was that there were 12,000 ships that brought 12.5 million Africans to the Americas. 12,000 ships.

[Jade]

Wow.

[Tara Roberts]

So when I was growing up, I realized I couldn't tell you the name of a single one of those ships, but yet I could tell you the name of the Mayflower. I could tell you about the Titanic.

[Keisha]

Listen, listen.

[Tara Roberts]

I could tell you about all this other history. Couldn't tell you a single one of them. So that's one thing that I was like, that's. That's not okay.

[Jade]

That's all I know. I'm a stuff that's like, well, you knew one. Yeah. Was that the name of the ship?

[Keisha]

Yeah, there was one.

[Tara Roberts]

You knew one. Okay. Did you know that as a kid or. I think that movie came out when we were At. Absolutely.

[Jade]

Absolutely not. No. Yeah. No, I did not know that as a child. Wow. Okay, so 12, 000. I guess I didn't even. We don't even. First of all, this is all by design. There's a reason we don't know these things.

[Keisha]

Right.

[Jade]

But 12,000, which would make sense. They're coming from all over, right? Portugal and Spain.

[Tara Roberts]

Nick. They gotta transport a lot of people, you know, is.

[Jade]

Yeah, they gotta. Yeah. For all the spices and all the rice and all the nutmeg and the black pepper. Don't get me started. I wrote my whole culinary paper on why y'. All. Y' all have spice in the first place. Anyway. Anyway, please. I'm so fascinated. Okay, so 12,000. 5 million African Africans.

[Tara Roberts]

So that's one stat. The second stat, and this is the one that sits heaviest on my heart, is that there were approximately 1.8 million Africans who died just in the crossing from Africa to the Americas. We're not talking about the number of people who died on the march to the ships or the number of people who died once the boats arrived and they were enslaved just in the ocean. 1.8 million people. I'm like, who's acknowledged that number? I had no idea that it was that many people. I mean, it's not okay if it was a hundred people or if it was a thousand people.

[Keisha]

Right?

[Tara Roberts]

But 1.8 million people. I'm like, who's honoring that?

[Jade]

Just. I just had to Google this right now. Phoenix right now has a population of about 1.66 million people. So 1 point. So Phoenix. Phoenix died in route. That is.

[Tara Roberts]

Yes.

[Jade]

That is very heavy, right? That is very.

[Tara Roberts]

And the question is. Or. Or. The thing that really hit me is nobody's honoring that. That's not true. I won't say nobody, because there are small groups that are holding this heritage, that are acknowledging. Honoring the ancestors who do it every year. But when you think about that amount of loss of life, this is something for not just the U.S. for small groups in the U.S. like, the world do, you know, like, needs to acknowledge this. This is the global.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

Events that happened. It's a global tragedy. But who's honoring it? So learning those stats in particular made me realize that. I mean, this is. It's a whole chapter of history that's just missing. And when you think about all the stories. Because this is another thing that I realized is it took my. My mother's pastor. My. I was visiting my mom for Easter, and her pastor came to visit her. And, you know, like, I'm A grown person. But my father. I'm her only child. And she was like, oh, Lord, she's traveling all over. I need you to bless her. Bless her? No, she doesn't know where I'm going. Like, she's in some place that begins with the eye, not in a place that begins with.

[Jade]

She's like, she's in Taiwan. You're like, I was in Thailand.

[Tara Roberts]

If there's anything happening in the world, she's like, oh, Lord, another country, another concert.

[Keisha]

That's how they are. We all got the same mama every.

[Jade]

One of us worried about. We do. And grandmothers. Yeah, we do.

[Tara Roberts]

So she asked him to bless me. And I have to say that he gave me a gift that I'm still receiving to this day. What he told me is that I needed to ask permission of the ancestors. And he told me that I needed to ask them to guide, protect, and to support my journey. And then he told me. And this is the thing that really shifted the way that I thought about this, and that helped me understand also what was at stake. He told me, you have to speak their names. He was like, speak their names. Speak their name. Speak their names. Call on them. Speak their names. And I realized. When he said that, I realized that I had been thinking about the people who were in those cargo holes. Not really as people. I was thinking of them as statistics. I was thinking of them as victims, but I wasn't distinguishing them. They were sort of faceless, and it felt, like, too horrible to really think about it too much. But when he told me to speak their names, what he helped me realize is one, that this is also a healing for the ancestors, and it's a way to put them at rest. You know, they say that the Atlantic is one of the most turbulent oceans on the planet, and that's because it churns with the souls of all of those lost people.

[Jade]

Think about Lake Lanier.

[Ad Host]

Yeah.

[Jade]

Think about all of those different spaces where they have disrespected us in the grossest of ways. And the. The. The. The spirit that lives in those spaces, they've never had a resolve. You built towns over town, or you built a lake over a town that you drowned.

[Tara Roberts]

Yes, yes.

[Jade]

That you drowned intentionally. What you think is going to happen? You're gonna have nothing but unrest. Y' all diverted levies to make sure that the. In the poor areas. Excuse me, Are the ones who get all of their damaged. To make sure that the people with the money are protected. Like, you all have continuously, intentionally tried to erase us and disrespect us. We don't have any choice but to honor us. I love that. I, I love that very much. Thank you for. Yeah, thank you for that.

[Tara Roberts]

So by his saying that, I realized. Well, I'll say this, that the storytelling that I've been doing took another. It went, it went another level. Went down another level or up another level. So in the podcast that we produced about this, it's called into the Depths, streaming everywhere, if anybody wants to listen.

[Jade]

But in into the don't, humbly, no, promote it out there.

[Tara Roberts]

It's six episodes. It's a narrative podcast where we tell the stories of the divers, six of the ships. We tell a little bit about my journey, and in it, we speak their names. We have a spoken word artists who we, I mean, we won't know the names of all 1, 1.8 million people who die, but we can imagine their names. And we try to speak them, and we also try to, to speak their stories. Like, all of these ships had stories around them. And we know a lot of the histories, so we can tell some of those stories. And the stories aren't just stories of death. They're also stories of resilience, of survival, of strength, of creativity. Like, it's all of this other stuff. It's, it's not something simple. You know, there's a complex history. So I try to tell those stories that way. And similarly in the book, which the book is called Written in the Waters, A Memoir of History, Home and Belonging, and it just came out in January. And the book also tells stories of the divers of the ships, but it tells a lot more of my journey and my transformation. So through all of this, I found a way to look back, but to look back not through a lens of, like, let's stay in the tragedy and trauma and pain, pain. Because I don't want to stay there. Like, that ain't fun. I'm like, you know, I, I, I, I need to be able to sleep at night. I want good health. But there's a way that I can acknowledge this history and I can honor it and I can help heal through it. Do you know, like, it's time for us to transform it. But the only way that we can transform it is by looking at it and by absolutely by acknowledging it. So that has been a transformation for me. And the other piece is that through this work, I've had the courage to actually look back at my own ancestry. And I ended up hiring a genealogist who helped me find a lot of information that I didn't know about a particular ancestor who was born enslaved. And it was an ancestor that I had thought had such a painful, horrible story and I just didn't want to know more. And it turns out my ancestor was a badass who I am so proud of. Like, I love the story you shared about your dad. How you know, like that's something of. Yeah, what, like what the only black person on a swim team like thinking about what he had to endure. But he did it. And then he was the best at it. Those are the stories, you know, for.

[Jade]

Us to be proud, like they're important and I think all of them there's an to be a balance. But we do have to have that levity of those stories of resilience and of those stories of our traditions and our histories because they are ingrained in our epigenetics. They help us to understand ourselves better and like you said, they help us to honor those who have not. There is no Ellis island for us. You know what I mean? So to be able to create that in a way where it's like and, and not in a way where you all chose to come over here. You know what I mean? So that deserves even more of an honoring and we're so grateful definitely that you are doing this work. You're such a. An example for people like my daughter, for myself.

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[Tara Roberts]

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[Jade]

I have a question for you as a reader and these books were not out when we were younger, but I don't know if you've come across. There's an author by the name of Eden Royce. And Eden, she writes Gullah Geechee fantasy for young. For, for, you know, young. Ya. Ya. Right.

[Tara Roberts]

Thank you.

[Jade]

So my family, my origins are Gullah Geechee, part of them. And from, from James Island, South Carolina.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Jade]

And so Eden wrote this book. Ah, is it Root Conjure Island. She has a series. There's Conjure island, there's Root Magic. But Conjure island is about a young black girl who didn't know about her. Her Gullagichi roots and all of the beautiful magic that came with that had to go to her family had to go to off of Charleston because of a family emergency. And that's where she really, this whole book is about her discovering what her fam like the traditions and the magical traditions of her family. Like specifically and hoodoo and oh, it's I, I want to fit like me and my daughter didn't finish it yet. And I'm like, I'm gonna go finish it on my own if you're not because I need to know how this turns out. But have you ever thought about. I think you should read it first of all. And not to be presumptuous or but have you ever thought about taking this information and who, who Tara was as a young Tara and creating that, that lane for. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Tara recently. Same. I'm into fantasy. I'm into and I am into our stories and they can be heavy and I can understand why people can't consume too much because they can be so heavy. But lately I have been watching a lot of black thriller and horror, psychological and so forth. So I did a re watch of Lovecraft Country. I, I visited them, which is, I didn't see that.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah, it's a lot.

[Jade]

I don't think you might not want to watch them season one or two, but I did watch them. But what it did bring up for me was that that this is a space that is so needed, especially for our youth as our history is being lost. So I'm excited to see how you take such incredible work and continue to grow and build on it in ways that are just going to be such a contribution to us as a people.

[Tara Roberts]

I love that I, I, I'm going to take that in. I'm gonna receive that and yes, we're.

[Jade]

Gonna mix up something then I'm, I'm about to be on la. You're gonna be sick of me. I'm sorry. You about to be sick of me. Okay.

[Tara Roberts]

But have you heard of this author? I. I just came across her and I'm like, I love your work. It's an author named Justina Ireland. Have you heard of her?

[Jade]

Justina? No, I don't think so.

[Tara Roberts]

She's also a YA author in the, okay, sort of fantasy space. But what she's done is imagined reimagine the time of reconstruction. So we're back in the, you know, late 1800s. But in her world, there are zombies and young girls not, well, like 17, 18 year old girls of color. Particularly free now freed black girls are trained as zombie hunters. So they are the ones that are on the front lines, you know, I mean, they're on the front lines cutting down these zombies and they go to finishing schools to learn how to do this. It's a fascinating take that she has.

[Jade]

It's. It's giving Octavia Butler inspiration a la Kindred. Ish. Like, yeah, it's giving a little bit. I have to talk to you after this recording because I'm.

[Tara Roberts]

You just.

[Keisha]

I mean, Jade is.

[Jade]

When I tell you geeking the.

[Keisha]

Okay.

[Jade]

I'm like, oh, gang, gang, tribe, tribe. We.

[Tara Roberts]

I think we just sit here out there now.

[Jade]

There's so many. There's so many and there's so many stories and there's so many interesting ways to pivot our history and our information to appeal to the young people to continue to tell those stories and to continue to tell them in the ways that they want to as well as they become storytellers. And I think that's such important work. It's so important for our youth to have these examples in front of them.

[Keisha]

We've talked a lot about all of the different ways in which your storytelling has taken shape. And I know sort of very recently in January of this year, you released a book. So wanted to make sure that you had the opportunity to talk directly about your book Written in the Waters. A memoir of history, home and belonging. And you know, how all of this does it all culminate with the book. Is the book sort of a collection of all of it? Like, you know, just. We've talked about the stories themselves, but tell us how this relates to the, to the book you recently read.

[Tara Roberts]

Asking that Kia. I did get a chance to mention it a little bit, but happy to talk about it even more.

[Jade]

Yes.

[Tara Roberts]

So the book, it really is my, my journey throughout this process. It. It starts, you know, in D.C. and it ends. Well, I don't want to tell you where it ends, but, you know, throughout the book, I really am wrestling with this question, where do I belong? And so the book, it follows my journey with the divers, with the ships, to all of these different countries. It's part of travelogue, part adventure. You also. I. I'm learning how to scuba dive. Sometimes it's not easy. Sometimes, you know, some things happen that, you know, make that a challenging moment. But it's also me encountering history that I didn't know. So you learn about some of the events attached to these ships, which has you understand more and more about the transatlantic slaves trades, all of this, that we aren't taught lot. There's some understanding around that. But this is also about. You know, I'll say it this way. There's a way. When we talk about slavery and the slave trade, the conversation is often around white and black. It's white people and black people. But there are so many nuances and complexities inside of black world around slavery. And I am encountering much of that and questioning much of that. So the journey takes me to Sri Lanka, Thailand, to Mozambique, South Africa, Senegal, Benin, Togo, Costa Rica, St. Croix, Florida, Alabama and North Carolina, which is where my family is from. So it's all of those things, journeys or places add to me figuring out, like, how do all these identities connect? Who am I? Where do I belong? I think it's a fun book.

[Keisha]

It's available everywhere you get your books, you know, and so y' all better go on ahead and. And pick that up. Thank you for sharing, since I'll let you ask your last question.

[Jade]

My last question is, what's been one of your most. Most fascinating finds that you might want to share with the audience in. In all of this work?

[Tara Roberts]

I mean, they're. They're all incredible. But I will tell you.

[Jade]

I'm sure it's hard.

[Tara Roberts]

I will tell you a brief story about one of the most beautiful finds. So that also insists on a. On a note of hope and healing and not sadness and trauma. This is a really brief story about a ship called the South Jose Piquet Diafrica. It was a ship that wrecked in South Africa in Cape Town, and it originated in Mozambique, which is. See, this is another example of what you learn. I didn't know that East Africa was a part of the transatlantic slave trade. I thought it was all West Africa.

[Jade]

Me neither.

[Tara Roberts]

But no.

[Jade]

Yes.

[Tara Roberts]

There were at least 500,000 people that were trafficked from Mozambique. There's just so much about this history that we don't know, so many of.

[Jade]

Us would make sense because when you think about our structures and. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

[Tara Roberts]

Anyway. All right, so the story. So the dive team discovers that the people who were in the cargo hold of the S. Jose PET D Africa came from northern Mozambique from an ethnic group there called the Makua people. And so the team decided, well, let's send word to the Makua people about what happened to their ancestors. So they sent word back, and the Makua people are overjoyed because they finally know what happened to their ancestors. So they decide to hold a celebration to honor them. And they do this celebration that's full of music and dance and food. You know, as black people, it's music and food and dance for sure.

[Keisha]

As you know how we do what we're.

[Jade]

Electric slide or whatever they do with. With the.

[Keisha]

We going have. And we going to have something to eat.

[Jade]

Yeah, we. Exactly. Exactly.

[Keisha]

Don't think. We not going.

[Jade]

Somebody died. Somebody was born. Somebody graduated. We're doing the same.

[Keisha]

We're going to have something to eat as well.

[Jade]

We're going to move our feet.

[Keisha]

Yes, that's right. There will be tunes and fresh chicken.

[Jade]

In some way, a little bit of twerking or whatever it's called indigenously.

[Keisha]

But yes, however. However you need to respond to the music is also how you're going to imply.

[Jade]

Exactly.

[Keisha]

It's also very much implied. Yes, naturally.

[Tara Roberts]

So they have this celebration, and they also give speeches. And at the very end, the Makua chief comes up to the head of the delegation and the. That's Mr. Lonnie Bunch, who is the founding director of the Black Zombie. And now, like, he's the head of all the Smithsonian museums, and this is, you know, one of his pet projects. So the MCUA chief gives a gift to Lonnie, and the gift is a carry shell encrusted basket. But before he hands it over to Lonnie, he reaches down and he puts soil from Mozambique into the basket. And then he hands it to Lonnie and he says, I'm charging you with a mission. Your mission is to go back to that rec site, and I want you to pour this soil over the rec site so that my ancestors can touch home for the first time time in over 200 years. Yeah, but wait, the story doesn't end there. So. Hello.

[Keisha]

Got a little chill. Okay, so give me a little chill, Lottie.

[Tara Roberts]

And the team, they do as the Makua chief asked. They go back to South Africa. They Choose a Mozambican, a South African and an African American, all three divers, and they choose them to go into the water with the basket. And so they do. But the day that they do this, it's a horrible day. Like, it's overcast, it's raining. The sea is heavy like it is. The swells are high. It's rough weather and rough water. And so the three of them have to hold on to each other to walk into the water because the water will knock them down, down. But they do it. They go as far as they can. They pour the soil into the water, and they turn and they walk out. And this was a day where, you know, this was a big ceremony. So they invited, you know, dignitaries, media, ambassadors. Like, there's all kinds of people on the beach and nearby watching the ceremony. So I wasn't there, so I cannot attend attest to this personally. But I talk to a lot of people, and they all say that when the three of them walk out of the water back to the shore, and everyone agrees that when that happened, the seas calmed down and the sun came out, of course. So the ancestors were put to rest. And they were put to rest because they just needed to be acknowledged and honored. You know, like, that is the work that we're doing with these slave ships. This is not sad work. I mean, maybe there are moments when there is sadness, but this is work that I feel so proud of, and I feel such power and such agency, and it's because I have. We have these historians, these archaeologists, these divers. We have all raised our hands and we've said, we're not going to wait for anyone else to prioritize this history. No, we volunteer. And all, the majority of them do not get paid for this work at all. But we volunteer our time to help bring this history up from the depths and back into memory.

[Jade]

Tara, so good.

[Keisha]

Oh, thank you.

[Jade]

Thank you. You just. I. I, like, I might have cried a second ago. Like, I have chills all through my body.

[Keisha]

I'm.

[Jade]

The work you do is. I. I can't say it enough. It's such important work. And, you know, what a bittersweet realization that you were the first black woman on the COVID of National Geographic in 2022, I believe. Was it the 2022 edition cover one of the. In 2022.

[Keisha]

But, I mean.

[Jade]

I mean, I think it's amazing that you ended up on the COVID for the work that you're doing, especially because we need to bring as much attention to that as possible. But how. How of you all to put a black woman for the first time on the COVID in 2022. So it's like just a little bit.

[Tara Roberts]

Of clarification because there have been.

[Jade]

Okay.

[Tara Roberts]

There have been a few other black women on the COVID Oh, okay. But no, but never a black woman explorer. Someone who has agency, who is telling a story. It's been, you know, like the naked black women that are nameless.

[Jade]

Yes. Yes. Okay. Yes. But for your work.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah.

[Jade]

For this work.

[Keisha]

Who actually.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

Very upset.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah.

[Jade]

Yeah. It's so much work to do. And you're.

[Tara Roberts]

You're not being objectified.

[Jade]

Exactly. And it just proves that there's so much work to do.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Jade]

Out there in society. But the work you're doing is just absolutely phenomenal for us. And we need as many people archiving our history and our stories as possible. Imagine how much has been lost in that. In that, you know, translation. What were you about to say, sis?

[Keisha]

No, I was going to say, particularly now. Yeah. In the. In the moment, in our cultural.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

History. Where our contributions and our identities and our stories are being diminished.

[Jade]

Yes.

[Keisha]

And misinterpreted and misconstrued. I think there's. There is such power and necessity and utility in your model.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

For, you know, following the calling. You know, answering the call. Because, I mean, it's very clear, as we were talking about, this is not something that you was looking to do.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

It's something that literally came and got you. And so just for your obedience to, you know, the assignment is something that I personally am coming away from this conversation encouraged. I think there's so many of us who are figuring out. I mean, you know, we have a burden, and we know that there's something that we're supposed to be doing. We haven't quite found it. We don't really know what it is, and that can be frustrating and that can, you know, make you feel small. But, you know, you sharing the story of your journey to this work and then the journey of doing this work and all the things that came with it and also being patient. Right. Because it didn't happen overnight. Yeah. But, you know, look at all that has come through. Oh, well, we've been a. We've been able to glean from your obedience. So I just wanted to acknowledge.

[Tara Roberts]

Thank you for saying that. And it. I. I just want to add to it that I think many of us are being called right now. I think this is a time for some wide planetary healing and we are being called. The question is, are we listening and are we willing to Heed the call. And sometimes it does require a leap of faith, you know, like, sometimes the next step is not clear. Sometimes it also requires a releasing of ego. You know, like, I was starting over. I didn't know how to scuba dive. I know.

[Keisha]

What your willingness to learn. You didn't know how to do it. Like, that's the thing, right?

[Jade]

That's not your history.

[Keisha]

You were willing to be a beginner at something to start all over.

[Tara Roberts]

Even though I was a journalist, I'd never told adventure stories before. I was like, I don't really know how to do this, but I'm gonna.

[Jade]

Go all in, but I'm gonna figure it out.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Tara Roberts]

So I feel like, yeah, there are many of us who. Talents whose energies, whose ideas are needed in the world, and many of us, I think, are ready to listen. Sometimes we don't know how. But my. My tip for this. This is how I think the universe really speaks to you and how, you know, your soul is speaking to you. It's all through your feelings. Like, when you're in your head trying to rationalize things, you. I mean, you know, you will always not choose because it's always smarter to sort of stay where you are or to take.

[Jade]

Yeah, you're not always going to choose the uncomfortable.

[Tara Roberts]

You won't. But your feelings like that drop in your stomach when you can't get out of the bed in the morning, when.

[Jade]

You'Re like, I hate this.

[Tara Roberts]

I can't do this anymore. When you got headaches, all of those things, that is your body talking to you. And as soon as you feel the likeness, if you're willing to follow your curiosity. And I think when you follow your curiosity, it takes you to the likeness, and your body's like, ooh, that's the sign. That's the only thing you need to listen to. You follow that sign. Every time I thought about this work, I was like, yes.

[Jade]

Yes. Okay.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Jade]

Yep. Oh, that is such a. I hope you all peeped that, heard that, took that in process, that let it sit with you. It resonates so much, Tara, especially recently. Kia knows. You know, I. I do a lot of things. I'm a chef, I guess, by trade. You know what I mean? But I do a lot of things, and especially over the past. Past almost two years now, I've really been called. And I've done things before, but I've really been called into this space. I'm like, I've always cared about humans. And then, you know, we started getting a lot of information around these genocides And I, I felt I'm like, okay, I have to dig into this information. As much as it's uncomfortable to read, watch much, pay attention to, because this is interconnected to us as well. These are humans first and foremost, but this is connected to us. Why am I so invested in this? But I had to keep. So I'm just coming on the show every week. Like, I'm not a journalist. I don't know all of what I'm talking about. But I'd like to send you all over here. You know what I'm saying? Go check out Bisan. She's going to tell you everything you need to know about what's going on in the ground around. Go check out Sarah over here. She's going to let you know all of the ins and outs of what's going on in Sudan. And even tomorrow as we're recording this, I'm flying to Cleveland to go teach some young people who are incarcerated in juvenile detention center. I'm not no damn teacher. But you are out here.

[Keisha]

But you are.

[Jade]

But I have to listen to all of these things that come and be intentional about the movement when I hear those things, because clearly if they keep coming up, it's for a reason. And so I really am very grateful for you highlighting that aspect. It's not just about your overall work, which is, like we've said so many times is so important, but that aspect of it is. Is so important for the people to hear as well. Well, because so oftentimes we get so many messages and we don't necessarily heed them because they are challenging or they are not. They're against the grain of what we are. You know, what brings us our comforts. And so thank you. Thank you for that perspective very much. I could talk to you for two hours. Honestly, we're almost there, aren't we?

[Keisha]

Yeah, we almost had.

[Jade]

We are fully past our doctor.

[Keisha]

Also feel like this means that, you know, hopefully this won't be your first time joining us at the kitchen table. You're always beautiful. Come back. Yeah. And continue. I love this. Who you are and what you do.

[Jade]

Oh, my God. I just found you on Instagram. I'm about to be like, hey, girl.

[Keisha]

You'Re in the middle of a. I know you're in the middle of a book tour as well. So, you know, whatever information we can share so that people can find you and learn more about all the. Awesome.

[Tara Roberts]

You guys got a copy of the book.

[Keisha]

We'll share.

[Tara Roberts]

But did you get copies?

[Jade]

Not.

[Keisha]

I don't think we got one yet. I think it's supposed to be coming. I think it is ahead of recording, but I think we will because you.

[Jade]

Are out of printed copies, which is a fantastic.

[Keisha]

Okay thing. Period.

[Jade]

Okay. I mean that means people are what, buying it up. Okay.

[Keisha]

You gotta wait to get out course. Because the people already.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

You know that, that we love that. You see, we had no complaints. I'm just gonna wait my turn.

[Tara Roberts]

That's funny.

[Jade]

I'm sitting patiently waiting for my phone.

[Keisha]

Add it to my shelf.

[Jade]

I'm hyped so we can't wait. Please continue to tell us, Tara, about all of the new developments of, of the work that you, that you have coming. All of the different iterations that you have coming of what you've already done. We're so excited to continue to learn more from you. What a possibility model you are and I hope you really sit with that. I know you're so humble. You're so like.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Jade]

But I want you to like, you're so awesome, you know, like, you really are. You really are incredible. And we're really grateful to have you come and spend this time with us at the kitchen table. It's my honor. Make sure you all check out the description below box wherever you are so you can find all things Tara. All things Tara. So you can go discover all of the work that she's doing. Thank you so much, Tara.

[Tara Roberts]

Thank you.

[Jade]

Thank you. Anything you want to leave the people with?

[Tara Roberts]

If I can do it, so can you. That's it.

[Keisha]

That's it.

[Jade]

And that's it. And that's all. We'll see you all for the next segment. Make sure you check out that description box.

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[Jade]

All right, y', all, it is time for the petty P. I mean, for the self care. Yeah, wrong. Wrong segment. Self care. Caring for self.

[Keisha]

Getting a little. Getting a little ahead of ourselves.

[Jade]

We are. It's like I've got to pack anyway, so thank you. It's my self care this week. I guess it's multi pronged, actually. So, you know, Tristan went away on a. On a boys weekend and Noah decided. She was like, I'm not going to come home. She went to her nana's and she stayed.

[Keisha]

Right.

[Jade]

I had plans for us. I was like, we're going to have a movie night, Take you to brunch. No, this was like, well, actually, I'll see you later on. Can you drop my backpack off so I can finish my homework? So I was like, well, I'm going to take this opportunity to have the entire home to myself. And I got so many things done on the list that have just been sitting there. But also I was able to just take some time to kind of chill out, which I don't normally get to do. And then to round the weekend out, out. Mary and I went to go see Cleo Soul at Radio City Music hall.

[Keisha]

Which was my, my favorite venue, by the way.

[Jade]

You know what? Radio City is one of my favorite venues to attend a show.

[Keisha]

I love a concert there.

[Jade]

I love a concert there.

[Keisha]

Every time.

[Jade]

Same, actually. I thoroughly enjoy Radio City. I think every seat is a good seat. Seat, everyone. You. Yeah, you just get like, yeah, I do.

[Keisha]

You just feel like you're at a show.

[Jade]

You feel like you're at a job.

[Keisha]

You feel like I am at a concert and you people can't. Okay, I'm at a concert. Okay. With some respect on it.

[Jade]

Like, I would say King's Theater. But the only problem with King's Theater is I don't feel like King's Theater. Every seat is a good seat, but.

[Keisha]

Correct.

[Jade]

I do enjoy King's Theater, but I don't. But at Radio City I'm. I'm like, I could be in the quote unquote nosebleeds of Radio City. And I'm still seeing the stage.

[Keisha]

They're having a time.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

Yes.

[Jade]

And I hadn't been in so long. I want to say one of the. Oh, no. The last show was the Anita Baker show was where I went. And then before that, the last show was like when Janet Jackson did her Number Ones tour. But Good Time Cleo Soul, it was just So I love her and you know, I. I didn't think I was going to get to see her. Cuz originally it was announced as one night. Once she kept adding the nights to it, it was like, okay, let me jump on this. Got the tickets. And when I tell you. It was multiple things. First of all, her voice is just as clean it is as it is on record, which is so beautiful to hear a lot. Right. It's so refreshing when you hear that live.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Jade]

And what I think you would have really appreciated about this is that Mary brought out. It was just good singing without all, any extra production. She did not change clothes. She came out in a pair of hills and within 30 seconds of whatever that the, the first, you know, singing was, she was like, do you mind if I'm taking my shoes off? Off? And everybody was like, girl, no, coming, I'm coming.

[Keisha]

I'm coming down off this mountain.

[Jade]

We saw you step out here in them 6 inches, take them off. So she took them off and never.

[Keisha]

Put them back on for such a time as this.

[Jade]

And she's a good, you know, she's a Jamaican girl. So she. A lot of her music has like nice little rhythm influences. She brought Chronic, Chronic, one of my favorites out to perform Shine shine your light. So she brought chronics out and it was just her background singer sis were harmony Zing.

[Keisha]

You know, that's my singers sister.

[Jade]

They were singers and not necessarily just in the like powerful voice sense, but just in the way that they knew how to flow with one another. They knew how to use those voices. Voices. They sounded like they were like they were produced. Yeah. It was incredible.

[Keisha]

They rehearsed.

[Jade]

Oh, man. Oh. I just. In her energy.

[Keisha]

That sounds like a good time.

[Jade]

Her energy is just. It radiates through her music and it radiates through her presence. It radiates just how she shows up. It. She just seems so authentic and genuine and it was a beautiful show and I'm really, really. It really, really filled me to be, be able to go to that. She's one of my favorite newer artists. And to have somebody of that caliber that's like not been out for years and years and years and years is refreshing. So that's my self care this week. What you got?

[Keisha]

I love that.

[Jade]

Thank you.

[Keisha]

So as I shared last week, my self care last week was Toya was coming to visit. We were going to have some bestie time. Yes, we had that. It was excellent. It was. Was excellent. And because it was simple, it was not like, you know, we didn't Fill up a days with full itineraries. We just sort of took it. Took each day as it came. And I love that. You know. Of course we had a little bit of a food tour. Tried a few new restaurants. Pretty good. A new newer. I don't know exactly when it's open, but more recently open new black owned all day brunch spot in Silver Spring. Okay. Call the breakfast. Yeah. And the food with a K. No. Cuz we look it up. It's not like. Yes, it's not the same but same premise but I don't think they're the same people. But okay. Yeah. Pretty good. Awesome mix of all day long sort of breakfast and breakfast brunchy kind of food. But then like some wonderful entrees as well. They have like Toya got the seafood grits. So it's like. It's like lump crab, lobster, shrimp and this amazing cream Cajun cream sauce over three cheese grits. She got that. That was really good. Good. I got the lamb chops.

[Jade]

Yes.

[Keisha]

Very well, very well seasoned. Cooked very well. Had like a five cheese Mac and cheese and some broccolini. Really dope. They got really good drinks and everything as well. So yeah, we just had some good. You know, I told you, like going and having awesome dining experiences with my favorite people. People in athleisure. Right. We not too dressed up. We look presentable. But yeah, not like, you know, not evening gowns and things but you know, you put on a good, you know, a, A good outfit and a little lash and some mascara and you going down and get you something to eat and you get home and get into bed and rub your feet together, sister. I mean at times, literally one of my favorite.

[Jade]

I was about to do in my, my, my description for the dinner party. I was about to, you know, or my caption for the Instagram. I was about to be like, I'm a. I know it's a Monday. I'mma have you home in enough time.

[Keisha]

Thank you.

[Jade]

To. To wash your face and rub your feet together.

[Keisha]

Period.

[Jade]

I thought about Toya.

[Keisha]

So that's. That's real self care right there.

[Jade]

It's real self care. That's real adulting.

[Keisha]

Yes.

[Jade]

You know, we need a decompression time after. After the funk Shan.

[Keisha]

That's right. Thing.

[Jade]

So I love that you all had that time. Did Ian and Joanne come?

[Keisha]

They did not.

[Jade]

Okay.

[Keisha]

Last minute change of plans but you know, it was cool. I think we will have, we will plan. They. They will reschedule and we will have some more sort of family Time. But okay. Yeah.

[Jade]

I love that it was a good time. I love that you all got this time this weekend.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Jade]

It's always refreshing and filling when you just get to spend time with your people.

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah.

[Jade]

Without any extra around it.

[Keisha]

Yeah.

[Jade]

When you get to just kind of be together.

[Keisha]

That's nice. Yeah.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

Not, not nothing specific to do but just enjoying each other's company. Awesome self care.

[Jade]

Amazing. Yes. We would love to continue to hear from you all your self cares, your honesty boxes as well as your. I know that's right.

[Keisha]

Right.

[Jade]

If you sent anything last week and got any bounce back, please just know that we had a little technical the web issue. But. But we're back. We're back, we're back. You know the hackers are out here trying to destroy to send those to trying hating ass. So hello at getting grown co that's where you send all your good things to. And we'll move on to these petty peeves and close this out.

[Keisha]

Correct. And I want to be very responsible.

[Jade]

Of the things I say to because everybody know I can be real petty P E to the tty Honey, honey.

[Keisha]

Okay. My petty peep is real straight to the point. Okay. Because it is, you know, a first world problem. But just let me. You know the, the term blow a gasket. I've heard that term several times before and I understood that it meant that, you know, you pop your top like you have, like you're upset, you lose. You lose it for a moment. Evidently.

[Jade]

I don't want a nuke.

[Keisha]

Yes. I don't know who did it, but somebody pissed off my washing machine. And the last time I came home from a trip, I washed a load of clothes. I noticed there was some leaking so I had the repairman come and he came today. Thankfully Toya was able to be here to greet him while I. Because I had to go into the office today and Toya wrote back, wrote text me. I mean we were sort of communicating via text when he arrived. And she said, man, the man said that the washing machine you done popped the gasket. I said, what? But yeah, evidently the gasket is the rubber lining around the drum of the washing machine. And whatever happened, I don't know who did it, but that part of my washing machine needs to be repaired. And so home ownership, that's what I mean own a house. They said, unfortunately I don't have live and direct. I don't have a superintendent to call.

[Jade]

It is on me.

[Keisha]

And so this, this part has to be ordered. And then the man has to come back to my home to replace it, you know, to the tune of a couple. Couple. Couple of hundred dollars.

[Jade]

When is this supposed to be?

[Keisha]

Yeah, he said that he needed a couple of days to order the part and receive it. So I will. I will have to wait until he calls me back and says that the part is here, and then we'll plan a time for him to come.

[Jade]

So you have to go to the laundromat in the meantime?

[Keisha]

I mean. I mean, I'm thinking that. I'm thinking that, you know, I have enough draw. Thankfully my clothes are clean. You know what I'm saying? Like, okay. It's not like I had, you know, okay. I can make nothing that needs to be immediate, so. So he said it will only take one to two days for it to be delivered. So I'm hoping that by the end of week, early next week, we can get this done.

[Jade]

Okay. Okay.

[Keisha]

I'm feeling. You know, listen, it's. It's a petty peeve. It's not a catastrophe in that this is going to throw me off for a long time, but, you know, just like, you know, you. I didn't really have. I didn't plan to have to spend 300 on my washing machine, but, you know, to God be the glory, I have it, and. And the repairman came, and it is fine. So if. But, you know, just allow me to thank y' all for allowing me to just whine a little bit. But we thank. We're thankful, because when that thing pops.

[Jade]

Up, you'd be like, here we go.

[Keisha]

You know? And I mean, in reality, like, this is the first time since I've owned this home and this wash machine that I've ever had a problem. And so I'm grateful that it will be fixed, but just in the moment, it was just like, what? But, yeah, these things come up. It's a part of adulting. You know, we deal with it, we move forward. So if.

[Jade]

Yeah, yeah. Just for those who, you know, who are not there yet, you know, this.

[Keisha]

Is what comes with magical. The way that pop up.

[Jade]

Yeah, it's magically delicious.

[Keisha]

Thankfully. Yes, thankfully. This is not a super expensive one, but it's not cheap. You know, when things break now, you.

[Jade]

Still got to pay for them to get fixed.

[Keisha]

Correct all of them when they're not under warranty, parts and labor.

[Jade]

Yeah, yeah.

[Keisha]

That's the thing. But it's all right. But, you know, it's gonna be fine.

[Jade]

Always get the warranty. Always get the warranty.

[Keisha]

Absolutely.

[Jade]

Remember I told you the other day I was gonna go out.

[Keisha]

Yes.

[Jade]

And I did.

[Keisha]

To dance. And I did.

[Jade]

I did. And sister, when I tell you the strength of. Of all of them. I had to get me up to get out of this house.

[Keisha]

I was like, I'm doing this. That's the thing I told y'.

[Jade]

All, I told y' all, especially leaving your, leaving your home after midnight.

[Keisha]

Oh, girl, you did better than this age. Midnight.

[Jade]

Oh, girl, I'm not gonna tell you what time I actually left, but it was after midnight. Okay. To go support our good sis.

[Keisha]

DJ reborns. Outside.

[Jade]

I was outside and you know, had a good time.

[Keisha]

You know what I'm saying?

[Jade]

It was necessary energy. The blacks. We, you know, we, we Electric slided. Yeah, Electric slid during reboots.

[Keisha]

On the ground. Yes.

[Jade]

Boots on the ground. You know, the OG version.

[Keisha]

Tim's on the ground.

[Jade]

It was. That was delicious. You know what I mean? Tips on the ground. And then, you know, it's always one of you flat footed who's got to come through and ruin. Ruin a vibe.

[Keisha]

So here we go.

[Jade]

You know, I'm having a good time, right? Because it's not even that type of crowd where you got to be thinking about all that. And in all honesty, when you are in that kind of party setting, like, I was not the youngest. I was not the young people there. I wasn't the oldest, but I wasn't the young people there either. And I'm like, you know, I feel like I'm in a great space. Like, you know, I'm having this little two step dance dancing all on my own, like Robin and you know, just, just all of the things. Can you hear me?

[Keisha]

Yes. Oh, damn it.

[Jade]

Oh, okay.

[Keisha]

Yeah, I can hear you. Keep going. So.

[Jade]

So, you know, having a good time, you know, it's not doing too much. And here comes a now it's not so packed in here by any means, were there, like there was enough space to walk around people and do things. He did that grab your waist to go around move.

[Keisha]

What a mess.

[Jade]

And I was incensed because here he was in his van sleep and his. In his skinny jeans and I was like, you know, you are a creep by nature. I can just tell by looking at you right now that you are a creep. And so he did the, the hand on the. On the waist thing. I turned and I was like, I was like, do you like, are you trying to get it in the side? And he was like, huh? I was like, don't ever put your hand on my waist again. And he looked at me and he Slithered off somewhere else. And I saw. And so I'm watching him like a hawk after that, right? Like to the point where I'm like, no, I want you to. I want you to see me watching you. Like, I want you to know that I'm looking at you because I'm watching you slither around this room and do this whack ass, weird ass, creepy ass movement to multiple women. He also did it to Mary. He did it to Mary before he did it to me. And I didn't even know he did it to Mary marry. So I was like, oh, this is your move. And I. No, not on the airwaves anymore. I can't do that in a new day. Let's just say I protect myself at all times.

[Keisha]

Oh, dear.

[Jade]

And I was ready to turn him into a piece of catfish, but I. I got him to slither away. He absolutely was very uncomfortable. That's what you have to do to these when they try to do. When they do do slick. Make them feel uncomfortable. You don't get to be a creep in this space. Like, on the low. I want you to know that I peep all of your nasty little slithery moves. I'm sorry that you were a weird seventh grader who couldn't get a girlfriend or a boyfriend or a friend. I don't care what your zhuzh is. I'm sorry that you couldn't get that. But please take that energy back to your childhood and leave it there. Put your ass on somebody's leather head, off of people's waist. I see you so clearly.

[Keisha]

And still am.

[Jade]

I was disgusted.

[Tara Roberts]

And still I still am.

[Jade]

I still am. I still. He looks like a. You know who he looked like. The dream. A living Teletubby is what he looked like. Exactly. Yeah, there you go. There's some physical reference for you all, so. Or that note. Keep your hands off people's way. That. That move is so lame. Stop. It's not cute.

[Keisha]

Yeah, you would think that after me too. And get your hand out my pocket. You would learn to keep your hands to yourself. Christ. Jesus.

[Jade]

What that.

[Keisha]

What's wrong with you all?

[Jade]

Y' all got to stop touching people anyway. But yes, thank you do to our.

[Keisha]

Yes, we appreciate.

[Jade]

Amazing.

[Keisha]

Oh, so good.

[Jade]

Incredible.

[Keisha]

Oh, my God.

[Jade]

Oh, my God. Tara. Tara, you living gem. You breathing diamond.

[Keisha]

What a gift. Yeah.

[Jade]

Make sure you all check out all of her information in the description box. How you can purchase. Purchase the book, how you can listen to the podcast and everything in between. These are. These are gyms, tools and things for us to take with us and to share with our youth. So, yeah, tap into that. And also that whimsy that she spoke on. You know what I'm saying? That whimsy is so needed in so many ways. And so I just love when people, especially our people, lean into that. So, Tara, thank you for coming and. And spreading your magic here on Getting Grown. We're so sorry. Grateful for that. And thank you to all of you who continue to support us. We are. Wait a minute. Hold on, sister. We are officially eight years old.

[Keisha]

Oh, we are. Yeah.

[Jade]

We're officially aged. You know what's so funny? The. When she. I actually meant to tell her that. Tell Tara this, but as she was talking about 2017 and those transitions and those shifts and. And the Blacksonian and all of those things. Remember that the trip that I told where I did go was 2017. And after that trip to the Blacksonian, I met up with you, and we took our very first.

[Keisha]

Wow.

[Jade]

Awful. Getting grown pictures.

[Keisha]

Right in Keisha's living room. What a time.

[Jade]

Right in Keisha's living room with a white sheet backdrop. And beginnings.

[Keisha]

The beginnings were humble. Humble. Humble, humble.

[Jade]

Very humble. That's what I used to record at my kitchen table. Literally. Ah, right. So, you know, I'm just. I'm really grateful to be on this ride with you. You didn't actually. Weren't you in the studio?

[Keisha]

My little table. It was like a dinner tray table where I sat and typed my dissertation with about, you know.

[Jade]

Yes.

[Keisha]

About 15 inches wide of surface area. But listen, wait a minute.

[Jade]

Didn't we. Was that a team typing fast we held in that building?

[Keisha]

No, it was.

[Jade]

Wait, was that.

[Keisha]

It wasn't in. No, it wasn't in my building. But we did have the first one in D.C. i think that was 2018 by the time we did that. But, yeah, okay. Humble beginnings, man.

[Jade]

But, yeah, and we're great.

[Keisha]

Humble beginnings come a long way.

[Jade]

We have. We're grateful, and we're just. Yeah. I'm grateful to do this with you.

[Keisha]

Absolutely. Same.

[Jade]

I'm grateful for the space that we've built. You know what I'm saying? I'm grateful for what we're continuing to build and all the things that we're planning and seeing them actually come into fruition after talking about them for so long. Wrong. You know, we're so different. But it works.

[Keisha]

It does.

[Jade]

And. And I love you. And, you know, I can't imagine doing this with anybody else. You brought some amazing people into my life. Some amazing Information. And yeah, this has been invaluable. It's been an invaluable experience, and I'm excited to continue to see how we grow.

[Keisha]

Yeah, everything you said, I feel the same way. I'm glad. Grateful to be on this journey with you, to be a partner in learning and growing and, you know, changing and evolving for the better. We are at the kitchen table figuring out this thing called life in community, you know, and that's how we do it. This is how we do it. A word to Montel Jordan. We did this. This is how we do it. And so to everyone who has ever listened to an episode of Getting Grown, if you've ever pressed play at any point in the last eight years, we value you and your support of what we're building, and we thank you for being a part of our tribe. Shout out to all of us figuring out this ghetto, the worst hood that is adulthood. It, man. Man, what a time.

[Jade]

Oh, the washing machines of life.

[Keisha]

Popping gaskets out here.

[Jade]

Popping a gasket. We popping tags and gaskets. So, yeah, we're grateful for you all for being on this ride with us. We're grateful to all our guests who have come through and. And. And shared all of this, their different expertise and knowledge and experiences and stories and personalities and so forth and so on. And we can't wait to continue to talk to so many people across and. Yeah, sure, continue to build this platform and sis, take them out, tell them what to do.

[Keisha]

Yeah, man. We appreciate you all continuing to take care of yourselves and each other. Do that first by moisturizing your mind. And the quickest way to do that is to mind your business. Attend to the business that is yours and yours alone. Don't be worried about what other people is got going on. I mean, you want to water your own garden by minding your own business.

[Jade]

Yeah.

[Keisha]

You also want to moisturize your insides. Okay. We want you to drink just as much water as your body can sustain. That's what keeps you useful and energetic out here in these streets. Yeah. And finally, your skin is your largest organ, and you want to take care of it as often as you can. And the best way to do that is to keep that also moist and supple. Okay? Because your black will crack if it's dry. We love y'.

[Jade]

All. Or if you're like me right now, your white will smite if it's dry.

[Keisha]

Your wife will smite.

[Jade]

New merch.

[Keisha]

New merch coming. This ring. Your white will smite if it's dry.

[Jade]

If it's I know that's right.

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[Tara Roberts]

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[Jade]

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