00:01:07.580well alinda thank you so much for being with us today i'm a huge fan and just kind of amazed that
00:01:21.040that uh you're here and all the amazing folks that for the wild brings into my life so
00:01:26.460feeling really grateful oh wow i'm so grateful to be here thanks for having me
00:01:31.300Yeah, absolutely. So, gosh, there's so many things to ask you, but lots of things to talk about. Yeah, so much. But I think I'm going to start by thinking through the ways your newest album, Life on Earth, is rooted within this ever evolving relationship to place and to the environments that shape us.
00:01:57.700So I just love to hear more about the evolution of this relationship for you and about some of the thread lines that have supported this deep relationship throughout your life.
00:02:09.840Well, this album, I feel like it's taken me my whole life to make, you know, of course, it was born out of sheltering in place in New Orleans, and that really informed so much of the writing and, and just the recording process and everything.
00:02:28.640but I'm originally from the Bronx, from New York. And as a lot of people know, who listen to my
00:02:35.280music, I left home pretty young at 17. And I was a freight train rider and was homeless and
00:02:44.020learned how to play music playing on the street. And so I come from a very urban area, you know,
00:02:53.040I come from the city and it wasn't until I came to New Orleans that I now call home and where I
00:03:02.160wrote all of these songs that I just started to feel this relationship with the natural world
00:03:10.020around me. And I started to really suddenly see the aliveness that was around me and started to
00:03:17.100feel like perhaps myself and plant life and bird life and all of these other life forms were in
00:03:26.000communication with each other. And it just kind of opened up my senses, you know, and I've had an
00:03:33.040evolving relationship because growing up, I was really kind of raised with this idea that like
00:03:38.500the outdoors were like for rich people, you know, and that I was just in this, you know, like I said,
00:03:46.500extremely urban environment with not a lot of plant life and other life forms. So it wasn't
00:03:54.880until I got to New Orleans that I started to really depend on my environment. And also during
00:04:03.460the pandemic, the beginnings of the pandemic really rely on trying to listen. Suddenly something
00:04:12.000happen, you know, with all of us all over the world. And I felt like I really needed to listen
00:04:18.100and depend on the wisdom of the life around me. And it wasn't until writing this record that I
00:04:25.340started to look back and, and realize that I actually had been doing this. When I ran away
00:04:31.200from home, I was sleeping in bushes and sleeping under trees and finding refuge and, you know,
00:04:37.760needing to hide from cops and stuff like that when I would need to go to sleep outside so I started
00:04:45.360to see this relationship that had always been there but it was just you know I had this certain
00:04:51.200narrative um and New Orleans really taught me so much about about that relationship that's
00:04:59.760been happening my whole life. Gosh, I'm thinking about New Orleans and honestly, so many places
00:05:08.940around the world that are, you know, some may say threatened because of climate chaos and changes in
00:05:17.080weather patterns. And in an interview with Pitchfork, you say, quote, living in New Orleans
00:05:22.660with the hurricanes, you're always on. Here we go. It's that time of year when we all might lose
00:05:28.540everything. And so I'm wondering, how does loss become woven into our personal and collective
00:05:38.360ecosystems? And what can we learn from embracing that? Well, I, I feel lucky in my specific
00:05:49.660background of of the way I've lived my life because I don't have that much very you know I
00:05:59.340don't have a home that I own and also I don't have generations of family in one place my family's
00:06:06.780originally from Puerto Rico and you know moved to the United States and well to the mainland
00:06:13.340So I have this very specific perspective of, I lived so much of my life with just my backpack on. And now what I'm trying to learn to do is to root and to be responsible for my community.
00:06:31.840Like, how do I use that perspective and that background that I have to be of some service and to be responsible with the people around me who don't have that same background, who have generations of family here, who, you know, are not able-bodied or it cannot just leave whenever a hurricane is coming.
00:06:56.160And that's something I'm really trying to learn. And it's extremely confusing. But New Orleans has taught me that that is the future are those kind of conversations. Like if you're in an urban environment, especially, you're going to run into all of these dynamics.
00:07:19.200some people can afford to leave some people can afford to leave early some people have to take
00:07:24.120care of their grandmother you know and I've learned also like what my role is because what
00:07:31.600I do is I write songs and what I do is I witness and I try to be a storyteller and I also try to
00:07:38.520use that power because I do think it's a power to redirect funds you know how do I take this like
00:07:47.740very magical thing like writing a song and all of that that comes along with it and how do I make it
00:07:56.420practical into actually doing you know the work with my community and it's it's really it takes
00:08:05.120a lot of asking and trying to listen and researching the people around me who are
00:08:13.100who are setting up outdoor kitchens after the hurricane comes you know people who know how to
00:08:21.540do this work who've been doing it for a long time and have so much to teach so that's a lot of what
00:08:27.640I'm learning is what's my role I need to be honest about my role and I also need to be
00:08:36.000very responsible with the attention that I get from what I do. But of course, it's an ongoing
00:08:44.560process. And I think we're all learning at the same time, you know? Yeah, your response brings
00:08:51.940up so many themes that I think a lot of us are trying to learn through, especially those of us
00:08:58.160who are in a sense orphaned from our homes in what is so-called North America and but also like a lot
00:09:09.080of us are displaced whether that was I mean it's hard to say chosen displacement because there's
00:09:15.660been so many migrations all over the world for so many different reasons running from
00:09:19.760uh wars or oppression or following family needing to move for more opportunities you know so on and
00:09:28.180so forth and so i think yeah so many of us over here in the so-called united states we don't have
00:09:35.360those roots to generations upon generations and yeah the roots to the land but the fact is like
00:09:42.460we are where we are and how do we hold a type of reverence respect and responsibility and how do
00:09:50.140we show up for these communities that that we're now a part of in a good way and so I really I
00:09:57.520think what you're saying is so important and is so relevant to so many of us because we're just
00:10:03.060not at a time on the world clock where we can live in places and take but not give back and
00:10:08.680not be in service. I don't think probably we were ever there, but I think especially now with
00:10:17.380so much awareness from so many of us, how do we do that in a good way? I don't know if there's
00:10:24.240any experiences you can share with us because I think sometimes it can be scary. I've talked to
00:10:29.800a lot of friends who have moved to places and want to root town, but they're nervous. They don't
00:10:34.280want to embarrass themselves. They don't want to come across a certain way trying to get involved
00:10:38.440into a new community, even if they have the best intentions. And so I wonder if there's any
00:10:44.960stories that you can share with us, or I don't know, just what you've witnessed of how people
00:10:51.820can show up in a good way. Well, my experience with New Orleans has been, you know, now it's
00:10:58.760been a long time. It's getting close to being the same amount of time I grew up in New York.
00:11:05.700And because I got here at, you know, at such a young age at 17 and it was really messy for a long time because I came as a homeless kid and I also arrived the year before Hurricane Katrina and I came back and I was still playing on the street.
00:11:25.940And that was a really big learning experience for me of being like, wow, I don't want to take from this place where everyone is just, you know, suffering and trying to rebuild and trying to heal, but also feeling like I really loved this city.
00:11:47.000And I think what my only advice would be that, you know, it's a very humbling process to have to prove yourself to have, you know, like people aren't just going to trust you because you want them to trust you.
00:12:04.820It's going to take a long time. And maybe, you know, it doesn't, and not everyone who's from a certain place or a city is going to trust you even after 16 years. I think like what I've learned is, like I said, to know my role and to understand what I'm trying to do with my life here.
00:12:26.820And, and it's not to, you know, capitalize off of the city. It's to live my life and live my life with all of the people that who, you know, have kept me alive in a very real way here.
00:12:43.580but I think it's like, it's a humbling process and it's getting comfortable with knowing that
00:12:50.680like you have to stick it out. And also, I mean, I come from, you know, a very like working class
00:12:58.200background and I think that's like a whole different thing. You know, I can only speak0.62
00:13:03.740to my experience of coming and not being able to buy a house and, you know, not being able to like,
00:13:08.940I'm not like starting Airbnbs you know what I mean um but still trying to um understand my
00:13:16.780responsibility of I'm going out into the world and people know I live in New Orleans that really
00:13:21.860helps my band and and I do that will equal money you know so I think a lot of it is being honest
00:13:29.540being really honest with yourself about um your relationship to place and I just feel so lucky
00:13:38.340that I've learned about incredible activists and thinkers and, you know, community organizers here
00:13:47.200in New Orleans. And so what I really have tried to do is direct attention to them, direct funds to
00:13:54.640them. That's like really all I know how to do at this point, along with make my art, be honest
00:14:02.440about what I'm seeing and try to tell the story of what life is like here, because I think a lot
00:14:10.920of people are going to start to feel what we feel every year. And it makes me sad to say that,
00:14:17.460but that's just the truth. You know, it's already started to happen that family members of mine
00:14:23.620will be like, we lost power for a week. And I'm like, well, yeah, I know that you live in Florida
00:14:30.080and you weren't expecting that, but that happens now.
00:14:34.520While I was making Life on Earth, Hurricane Ida came through
00:14:38.860and the whole city of New Orleans lost power for over two weeks.
00:23:55.660or stay within the confines of the status quo.
00:23:59.200And, you know, I just love to think about the ways
00:24:01.780that these commitments break from even traditional activism.
00:24:05.660mm-hmm yeah I don't think I'm a very a very good activist you know I and I had to really
00:24:14.040come to terms with that I had to really be real about what it is that I do
00:24:21.880um and I have such respect for people that do community work that I had to learn okay
00:24:32.620That isn't exactly what I do. But like I said before, how, how can I be in partnership with people that do that type of work? You know, I think also a lot of the process that I've gone through throughout my career is queering ideas of success, of what it is, what is it that I'm looking for?
00:24:56.660What is it that I'm trying to do? Queering the idea of, of like, what a songwriter is supposed to be in this society, because it's, you know, our current modern world is, is teaching us that a songwriter is supposed to write a song that gets a big sync on a commercial.
00:25:19.700that's like really what a lot of people think of when they think of music and they think of songs
00:25:26.860so they think of making money and um of course i would love to make money i need to make money
00:25:34.720but i i've really needed to um to be strong internally about what is success for me and what
00:25:46.180it is that I am really trying to do and it gets very hard sometimes I can just feel like I am
00:25:54.420such a failure and that is is a while like it's it's that notion you know if you were to talk to
00:26:03.38017 year old me this is like all I've ever wanted how could that ever be a failure
00:26:07.420So I'm learning how to protect my spirit and protect my mental state to not internalize this constant messaging of what music is supposed to do and what songwriting is supposed to do.0.58
00:26:25.680And, um, I feel so lucky that I came up in a punk music world in like a DIY queer radical
00:26:38.080I just feel so lucky to have that education because it's saving me now.
00:26:47.080Gosh, the voices that try to beat us down, they're so strong, you know, just like your
00:26:55.480voice thinking that that failure is anywhere close to um what you've done with your life you know
00:27:03.240it's uh that self-critic is so strong and I think that's also part of the survival of this time
00:27:11.440is you know probably more than acceptance although acceptance is a good place to start but
00:27:18.580and it's so hard like the self-love thing I get sometimes I'm like I don't want to love myself
00:27:24.220or you know like that's oh I relate to that sometimes like I'm failing at self-love I don't
00:27:32.040feel like a goddess you know like I don't I don't relate to that type of thinking
00:27:37.640but I do um I do you know in my in the depths of um those moments where I feel like
00:27:50.220I'm never doing, I'm never quite getting enough of whatever it is that the internet's telling me
00:27:57.400is success. Basically it's in those deep moments that I can find, at least for me,
00:28:05.060my guiding light is just like a ferocious resistance to like an anger. My anger
00:28:13.760is what pulls me out and it pulls me out. And then I can learn how to, okay, that got me out
00:28:22.980of the hole. Now, where do I go? Cause I can't just stay in the anger, but I think that's what
00:28:29.840I've found is like my version of self-love is just being so, I don't, I don't know. I just,
00:28:38.000I think that like anger during this time is really underrated. And it's like, if we can learn
00:28:45.080how to share it with other, you know, other forms of care for ourself, then it's, you know,
00:28:53.500we have to do that. But that's what gets me out is like, it's that little kid who was into Riot
00:29:00.900Girl. It's like, that's the person that's like, we have to get out of this hole. And we have to
00:29:07.560keep making what we make you know no I love that and it reminds me of an interview I did with
00:29:13.900Terry Tempest Williams I don't know how many years ago now four five years ago and we talked about
00:29:19.500sacred rage and yeah I think that anger sacred rage being pissed that's beautiful like yeah like
00:29:28.360if we're not feeling I mean and I know rage isn't for everyone so you know don't want to make some
00:29:33.840blanket statement but for those of us who do feel that type of that blood moving because to me it's
00:29:41.020very somatic it's like I feel the like I feel it in my face I feel it in my hands they clench like
00:29:46.920they yeah and it's like that's how much I love this world is because like that the sacred rage
00:29:53.420feeds a love and a passion for justice or for right relationship or for reconnection
00:30:00.300And so I think when our, when that rage and that anger are actually feeding the desire to love, there's something so primally beautiful about that and powerful.
00:30:13.620And we can really utilize that for some, like that's an, that is like that catalyst energy for change or like, you know, like sometimes we need that to really boost us to believe that the impossible is possible or, you know, to do something that is unexpected or, or, or feels too hard.
00:30:37.480like for you know sometimes like the sacred rage allows me to do things i never would be able to do
00:30:42.420otherwise um and so i i and i think so many folks are really um attracted to but like what's the
00:30:52.320word i was looking for drawn but there's another word to your work because i think your music
00:30:58.560allows people to feel a type of safety maybe in that anger or like maybe that like that punk feeling
00:31:06.420too it's like oh it's a it's like I can release that with your music or something well it's really
00:31:13.760beautiful that's like all I've ever wanted to do so yeah I think it's important for people to have
00:31:23.540a place where that's okay too and I know everybody needs something different and that's not for
00:31:29.100everybody for but for those of us who do need an outlet to be like you know what I am angry
00:31:34.900and I need to be able to release that in a safe place where somebody out there gets it and they're
00:31:42.940gonna be with me and it's gonna be artistic and musical and I feel it in my body and I can like
00:31:48.920be in that world like that's that's healthy and I again like I think it is transformative energy
00:31:56.280It's not like be angry, stay angry. It's like, yeah, you know, I don't know. I have have you felt that to just the power of that anger?
00:32:05.060oh yeah yeah i mean i definitely it's what has fueled me to get through most of my life and it's
00:32:15.540very like it's a anger that i've felt sometimes when i wasn't able to feel it you know in defense
00:32:24.280of myself i was able to feel it well in defense of little me you know or in defense of of my friends
00:32:31.400or my neighbors or just feeling like this anger about an injustice or bullies or you know oppressive
00:32:40.000forces and that anger has gotten me to be my age to be 35 and you know I was I feel really lucky to
00:32:51.840also have been raised with that that's just like the you know my aunt that raised me that's her
00:32:57.460vibe as a woman, which I feel so lucky about is like survival as resistance. And, um, as just
00:33:07.620like this rebellious act to being like, you're not going to see me stop writing songs because you
00:33:13.360think I'm a failure or you think I'm too old or you think I'm too this. Like, so I feel really
00:33:18.900grateful for it. I think also though, I I've had to learn a relationship with it where I didn't
00:33:25.960turn it on myself because of course there have been years where it was turned inward because I
00:33:31.580just didn't have the proper outlet or I lost my thread with my outlets and it turned into some
00:33:38.340kind of like self-destructive you know like self-hating uh just like force in me so I think
00:33:48.020like that's why I'm so grateful for just the the act of songwriting and the magic of it
00:33:54.420because it just like brings me out of it takes it out as opposed to it turning on me because
00:34:01.680sometimes I feel like that type of rage turns on me at these moments where I'm like I don't
00:34:08.420even know how I could affect the world in a good way I don't even know how when I feel just like
00:34:13.260so powerless you know and I don't know where to put it it just swirls around so I'm so grateful
00:34:19.000for songwriting to, you know, release it out.
00:34:49.000All the wolves have arrived at your door0.99
00:35:19.860I want to like I guess what I'm seeing is there's this yeah this rage and anger that is um you know
00:35:35.680like we're saying truly powerful and not to say that there needs to be anything underneath it
00:35:41.540But I guess I'm also thinking about vulnerability and just the connection between anger and vulnerability. And I feel like you really tap into both in your music.
00:35:56.900And that's part of, for me, like watching artists, which is something that I'm so mesmerized by, is how to hold the complexity of maybe emotions that seem like they're on totally other ends of the spectrum.
00:36:12.260I mean, it really speaks to me for sure. To me, like what it makes me think of is love. Like that's where, that's what draws the two together.
00:36:23.200I mean, when I choose to be vulnerable in my music with a song like Saga and talk about, you know, my journey with being a survivor and, you know, deciding that I wanted a narrative for my life that wasn't just focused around that.
00:36:47.760That wasn't like, that's the last chapter, you know, like, that's the defining part of me. And, and that type of vulnerability is met with a rage of, I'm so angry that so many people have to feel this pain. I'm so angry that younger me had to go through this.
00:37:06.100And also, but the thing that combines the two is a love, like just a love for people, for a love for this world and really wanting to share it and be vulnerable and feel that rage because I just, the love combines the two.
00:37:32.240you know I think it's also like growing up in the punk scene and stuff and like and even in like
00:37:40.300indie quote-unquote indie music people are you know they put on a show of being like so
00:37:46.120apathetic and stuff and so cool and I've just never felt like that just like it's been I've
00:37:53.400always just been like I just really love this world and I really want I know it's not like
00:38:01.260the coolest thing to do. But I started to learn to just accept that and be like, this is my nature.
00:38:11.020Something that you just said kind of reminded me of this theme of rebirth. And I think that
00:38:19.380like when you were saying about the next chapter, and for some reason, I know I found myself
00:38:26.980feeling like oh well here I am this is what I am and I just had to stick with this forever and
00:38:33.120once this chapter is over I'm over or something or like I become irrelevant or obsolete and I
00:38:40.260think that's really a horrible part of our culture is making us feel irrelevant after a certain age
00:38:49.240a certain time a certain like totally you know it's like oh you wrote a book okay well that's
00:38:54.760the book and you know you'll never write a book again or whatever it is I mean I feel like this
00:38:59.380theme is so constant which is really about devaluing people devaluing disposability culture
00:39:07.980to me like that's really what it represents that's like okay like you know you know especially like
00:39:13.880with this youth driven culture it's like all right well now you're 20 something like you're
00:39:18.840chewed up and spit out and like never again will you be successful I mean that's like these themes
00:39:23.700especially that are told to women over and over again i'm like what the hell is this this is just
00:39:28.580horrifying and i love to me with this album like there's so much about rebirth and also um we can
00:39:36.700rebirth reinvent ourselves time and time and time again um and i think also the idea of relevance
00:39:45.600and capitalism they really go hand in hand and i try to you know psychologically try to
00:39:53.640understand like what is it about capitalism that wants this feeling of irrelevance and and maybe
00:40:01.620it's because they just want to keep selling more so you know dispose this move on dispose move on
00:40:08.260but I think there is so much needed power built in whether it's in the anger to say nope like
00:40:17.600you're not going to see me fail and no I'm going to rebirth myself over and over and over again like
00:40:22.440there is nothing you you know whatever the you is like can do about it like I am this um inner
00:40:29.200energy force that will continue to expand because we are multi-dimensional creatures
00:40:35.420I don't I don't want to be put in a box I don't want to be told like yeah this is all I can be
00:40:40.320and this is the timeline of how and what I can be that's uh and and I think the queering of
00:40:47.120culture is really helping us expand the binaries or boxes of these rules that culture tells us0.55
00:40:57.240one way or the other and so I don't know maybe just we could talk a bit about rebirth and kind
00:41:02.620of like saying we're gonna keep going and we're gonna reinvent and maybe reinvent isn't even the
00:41:09.000right word because like we can always be ourselves but we get to be many things in our life and
00:41:14.060that's great yeah you know it's like shedding it's shedding skin and and coming out with this
00:41:23.280new perspective or these new ideas and you know it makes me really think about how for me a part
00:41:29.740of queering my career and my ideas of success is also deciding you know goes back into the
00:41:36.360vulnerability of well if because of capitalism it looks like I'm not going to be some huge star
00:41:43.260making a ton of money. So how do I, how do I be intentional with my audience, with my listeners
00:41:49.860in a way that's really trusting them to be like, I'm going to be real with you. And I hope you'll
00:41:56.680support me because as we know, this culture wants to throw me away and throw you away and throw us
00:42:02.760all away. Um, so that's a part of it is like you, I've had to do like a trust fall into hoping that
00:42:12.260the people who listen to my music will be community members with me to an extent you know
00:42:17.840will have this relationship with me where they will support me throughout my career and that's
00:42:25.940been a really beautiful thing and I really I mean I feel like I'm getting like I feel like I'm making
00:42:34.040my best work now I feel like I finally have some wisdom to share now it's just like this idea that
00:42:41.360you're at your peak, especially as a songwriter in like your early twenties, which of course is
00:42:47.600when, you know, everybody has so much wisdom to share, but I'm like, the idea that that's the
00:42:52.140end is it doesn't make any sense to me, you know, because it is just sexist. And it's just this,
00:42:59.060I often say when it comes to music, what really concerns me is this capitalist machine makes
00:43:08.700more money off of an artist when they're dead and so I feel like a lot of musicians who are
00:43:16.400out there touring who don't have support systems who are suffering you know I don't feel like
00:43:24.400people within the industry are trying their best to get them help you know I mean of course
00:43:33.060there are people out there but it overall the music industry makes more money when a musician
00:43:40.940is no longer around and everyone is like oh my god what a genius let's buy all the records but
00:43:47.800you know all of a sudden they become an icon i'm very aware of that and we see it all the time and
00:43:55.180I'm really, that's another part of my rebellion is just deciding that I need to do everything I can
00:44:05.280to protect myself and protect my mental health and my spirit. And that involves growing and
00:44:11.980changing. You know, I started off my career in a genre that suddenly started to feel very unsafe
00:44:20.360for me. It was very harmful for me to be in this like Americana world as a Puerto Rican person,
00:44:26.820you know, walking into the Trump era, I started to feel like this is not a good place for me
00:44:35.160anymore. And a lot of people are telling me this is a terrible career move because, you know,
00:44:41.060they're giving me their honest feedback, but I really had to make a decision that was
00:44:46.280good for my spirit and was going to protect me and say, I need to get back to the spaces
00:44:53.700that are full of people who, you know, are seeing me for who I really am. And
00:45:00.360I just think like those tough decisions really have to be made as an artist.
00:45:07.540i really loved hearing that and it almost also reminds me again of mutual aid and valuing each
00:45:17.780other beyond what we're conditioned to and it also it just relates back to what we're talking
00:45:26.600about with trust trusting ourselves trusting others building communities of resilience because
00:45:32.940we need the artist. The artist needs us. We need the birth worker. The birth worker needs us. Like
00:45:41.340we actually do need each other. Like everyone has a place. And of course, dominant culture
00:45:47.860says everyone's disposable, but it's not true. It's actually really not true. And we can't just
00:45:55.740keep replacing each other time and time again. That leads to emptiness. Like when there's no
00:46:01.800accountability and there's no real knowing of people it can be distracting you know and that
00:46:07.980can be entertaining for a moment or it can feel safer because we can mess up and run away or maybe
00:46:14.780we feel like we're not liked so we can run away and we can try to get away from all of those fears
00:46:20.320that probably started in childhood but we never get to actually grow into a type of security safety
00:46:28.860wisdom closeness that i think really is like almost at the base of all of our discomfort
00:46:36.960is yeah again like feeling like we aren't truly rooted to a people to a place to a time to a
00:46:48.840purpose i mean it's and and like we see it manifesting all over the earth in just the
00:46:55.080most horrid of ways um like the rapid consumption which allows us to give in to destroying like
00:47:03.400every last intact ecosystem left on earth because we're trying to fill the void of valuing each
00:47:10.360other and belonging to each other and belonging to place and so like we're never gonna get out
00:47:16.300of this like we can't we cannot circumvent this issue by anything that we're sold or told that
00:47:24.680we can somehow get out of it like we won't get out of it alive you know it's like it's hard but
00:47:29.420like the bottom I mean this is just my belief system on this one but well I know we're starting
00:47:35.180to come to a close of our time but I don't want to miss out on asking you about your work with
00:47:42.280immigrants and the ICE detention centers. And, you know, as we talk about how rooted in truth
00:47:52.400and struggle so much of your art is, I just would love to hear more about the work focusing on
00:47:58.140fighting for freedom for immigrants and how this effort of community organizing and work can show
00:48:04.000us what freedom and relationships are genuinely vital to life and necessary to keep us moving
00:48:09.600forward, you know, in spite of policies and systems that want the opposite. So I started
00:48:16.240to volunteer with Freedom for Immigrants in Louisiana. It was about a year before the pandemic
00:48:24.140hit us. And I was off tour and I knew that I was going to be off tour for a bit.
00:48:30.900And I really was feeling very lost and very alone. I just spent so many years, you know, being on the road and feeling like I didn't, I had lost touch with so much community.
00:48:44.780And I went to a meeting that was held in New Orleans and started to learn about how Louisiana has become a really big hotspot for these immigration jails.
00:48:58.220A lot of them are in rural Louisiana, where people are very isolated. And we're also like, community people in these rural areas will be convinced that this is, you know, going to bring in money that that it's a good idea for the community for some financial reason.
00:49:18.520and I started to go with groups of people, we would sometimes have to drive four hours both
00:49:26.720ways to visit folks that were stuck in these detention centers. Freedom for Immigrants is a
00:49:33.140really great organization because groups will be formed all over the country and it's really
00:49:40.920community run. They have a national hotline where folks can call and let people know who they are
00:49:49.680and what kind of help they need. This work taught me a lot also about being very honest about what
00:49:56.460I can and can't do. You know, I had to go visit folks and first off, tell them that I'm not a
00:50:04.300lawyer. And I had to just be honest about, you know, what is it can I, that I can do? I can get
00:50:10.080in touch with your family members. If you need that, I can help search for stuff online. I can
00:50:15.440help crowdfund for money to an extent that I can get, you know? And I learned also so much about
00:50:24.880working with other people because we were able to get the two men that I was visiting
00:50:31.360out of detention. Both of them had been stuck in ICE detention for over a year, each of them.
00:50:37.620They came to the United States because they were seeking asylum and they just got lost
00:50:42.620in the system, which is what happens to so many people because people are making money