Tell me lie, what to do? I think I'm falling in love with you
Living me from the way I feel Won't you give me some advice?
I don't know about life I'm sure that we can make a deal
I confess I'm a fool for me With a clever mind
But you're into letting your match But it's hard of mine
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm using my female try-on On a chipping woman
On a chipping woman This injustice I'll embrace
But your defense won't help my case I'm leaving trouble within the law
Something about the melody Seems to bring up the bad in me
Hey, love me, let me get me when I fall
All I say is that you match your wits With a best of will
But I know when I'm close You're just like the rest of them
Rest of them All I want is a little reaction
Just enough to tip the scales I'm just using my female try-on
On a chipping woman
So put your books aside You sign up for certain time
And open up your heart And let me in
Open up your heart And let me in
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
On a chipping woman
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
On a chipping woman
Oh, a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
I'm just using my female try-on On a chipping woman
All I want is a little reaction Just enough to tip the scales
And how you've gotten to this. Explain that to me a little bit. Explain what it means for a woman to be able to grasp onto this. That's so important.
Thank you. And I started actually getting more serious into photography after I finished writing the book, Journeys Through Darkness, which is about a photographer, an AIDS activist and an LGBTQ activist.
And I think I was mesmerized. I remember the right work with the way he was looking at things.
And I wanted to look at something else other than just text on paper or on screen.
So that's how I started taking some courses. I discovered it was more complicated than I thought it would be.
But I'm not drawn to what you would expect maybe a woman to be interested in in terms of subjects.
Yes.
And I'm okay with that. I find photography another way of expressing myself, my opinions, my feelings.
And I hope I try to do that. And I see beauty in the strength of the subjects that I photograph.
And I like a girl to have some very nice friends to one tomorrow.
I'm looking at not a darker side of life, but I think the more serious aspect of life and maybe reality and try to express that through my images.
Obviously some of them are taken in studio. I mean, everything that you showed there is taken in studio.
But I'm drawn to more unconventional subjects.
Like a woman photographer who shoots men instead of women.
Mostly you see men photographers shooting women's bodies.
I'm also interested in the environment.
That's why I love Hawaii because you get lost in modern nature.
And when you see yourself surrounded by modern nature, by the lava fields, or the volcanoes, the dormant ones, or non-dormant ones,
you realize how small we are as humans.
Within the universe.
Maybe we should consider our respect and the relationship that we have, the connection that we have with nature in general,
and hopefully the environment to protect the environment.
So I shot Hurricane Sandy when it was here, and I shot the rivers, the streets becoming rivers.
So I'm more interested in subjects that are not necessarily considered pretty.
And I'm okay with that.
And for a long time I tried to excuse myself, I think, because as a woman I was expected to shoot certain subjects.
And my interest wasn't there.
And it came a point in my life that I said, you know what, this is what I'm interested to do.
These are the causes that I want to help and to support through my photography, if possible.
And I can live with it, if the others cannot, then there's nothing that I can do about it.
I think you depict also a journey of the spirit.
Whatever you photograph, it always seems to be, and I've seen other pictures of you,
you've taken pictures of sunrise along the horizon of New York.
And just you encapsulate the spirit of that early morning sunrise,
as well as maybe the miss showing the elements.
And you know, we are all part of the five elements.
And that's what is so important.
That's what makes you different from the other photographers.
I know that you have wedding photographers who capture great portraiture images.
You also have other photographers who capture action, even when you photograph here.
Actually, in between what we're doing, you always seem to capture the spirit.
I am not one who's good at posing.
I don't believe in it.
I believe it's manufactured.
And so when you capture those pictures, and I look back and I say, my goodness,
is that the spirit of my reflection at that point in time?
And so that's really amazing.
Let's talk about the ups and downs of photography as a woman.
Yes, as a woman, yes.
Well, as I said, and thank you for allowing me to do this.
I think as women, it's expected about is to follow certain rules, to do certain things,
to follow a certain path.
And if you don't do that, then other people have a reason to point a finger, to critique you.
And it took me a long time to get over that.
And I'm fine with what I do in writing and photography.
I'm okay with the subjects and stories that I photograph.
I do believe that as artists, we are storytellers and we need to connect with the subject
and we need to connect to the story on a level, on a deeper level than just the surface.
So we can, maybe not completely, but deeply enough, we can understand that the subject,
what the subject went through, the story, so we can actually project the story
and capture it in words, in light, in whatever other forms of art we use.
And if we cannot connect to the subject on that level,
we might create a technically perfect piece of artwork, but it doesn't have a soul.
And that's not enough for me.
I think that's the most important thing, that you do not capture the soul.
I remember some Native American Indians who used to say in the beginning
that they wouldn't take pictures because when you take the picture,
you capture the soul of the person.
As time has gone on, of course, in our magazines that we see from fashion to travel to real life,
if you don't capture the essence of what happens within the picture,
I personally just gloss over the picture and I'd see what the photographer wanted them to see in the beginning.
So that's very important.
And any of the pictures that I have looked at or observed that you've taken,
you've always seemed to be able to capture that essence.
Not all photographers can do that.
Or they have to line it up before they get their POV.
And that to me is important because you've captured the lens of the camera,
you've been able to capture that in a momentous, and that really takes talent, expertise, and a drive.
Thank you.
I do believe strongly that you have to be passionate about not only what you do,
but the subject and the story that you tell.
Sometimes we connect with the story stronger or with the subject in a different way, right?
And I think that sort of comes through in the final image, in the final art.
I've been lucky to photograph what I like mostly.
You know, I mean, I'm not saying that it's always 100% in love with the subject.
But if you see something in a subject and you really believe that it needs to be immortalized,
then you have to show viewers what is that you saw that you wanted to immortalize
and why you wanted to immortalize it in your image.
If you cannot connect with a viewer through that, maybe you need to work on the subject that you're interested in
or to try to change.
Maybe to even work on your own passion and the development of that passion towards it.
I think that's important in many of our lives.
I think I tried to photograph whatever everybody else was telling me that I should photograph.
And then I realized that that's not what I really wanted to photograph.
An advice that I would give my younger self.
Don't be afraid to like something that other people don't agree with.
Exactly.
I mean, if you like to photograph shelter dogs or if you like to photograph guys instead of girls
or if you like to photograph extreme weather events.
No, we have plenty.
That's okay.
You don't only have to photograph flowers.
There's nothing against photographing flowers but you have to find that something that you really, really want to photograph
and it might take longer than you think.
And then give it your own spin.
Put your own mark on it.
Yes, your own brand.
Wouldn't you say that?
I think that's what we all kind of like do.
And that's what the purpose of this program, this special program is today.
To single out people who have put their own brand.
I know in Alina Oswald's photograph when I see it now.
Thank you.
Because believe it or not you've put your own brand on it.
Even though we would not, maybe the outside people would notice it.
But the people who are within your circle or the people who get to know you,
no one in Alina Oswald's photograph is or picture.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, really.
And that's so important.
The age of 80, we used to be shooting.
I hope so.
I hope so.
And I don't say that the subjects or the stories that you're interested in should stay the same.
I'm sure they changed throughout the years, but I started out as a writer.
And then I added photography to it.
And I became interested in HIV and AIDS, LGBTQ.
So I had already subjects that I was really passionate about.
So I started with that.
I wasn't just interviewing people, I was just photographing them too.
Yes.
I found some very interesting individuals that allowed me to photograph them.
And it's not the connection with a subject like a subject out of a piece of something.
It's a human being.
Yes.
And it's a personal connection that you have to have there.
And I think that matters a lot.
And I think that can translate.
There's pretty much the same kind of thinking when you photograph nature, when you photograph weather,
I don't know, landscapes, sunrises or whatnot.
You have to, I think you have to kind of stop and think for a second.
Nowadays we just blast through, you know.
Yes, we take selfies.
Everything gets instantaneously.
Yes.
And the French still writes her first drafts, you know, by hand.
You know, it's just slow down a little bit and think about it.
And think about what you want to show through that photograph.
What you see and what exactly, what you want to show and how you want to show it.
How you want to show it better so that the viewers can see what you saw in whatever you
photographed in the first place.
And that takes, you know, it's not, I mean, it might become instantaneously in time,
but it takes a little bit of thinking.
You just don't just...
Exactly.
You're so slow.
Yeah, and start to picture.
Right.
And over time I have been able to kind of grasp that within your photographs and be able to
zero in on what the thought process is and what you're trying to send out to the masses
within the subject that you are photographing.
So that is so important.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
And some people have very nice stories like my models here.
And as I said, some of them are activists themselves.
And I'm glad that it comes through a little bit, that they look like an actress.
I mean, the models here definitely look like activists.
I mean, and their personal journey.
And whatever it is, it seems to resonate within the photograph.
So that's what is really very important.
Alina, my goodness, we're going to be talking with you a little bit more.
I'd like to move over to our next guest, DJ Mimi, who I have known for a number of years
as well, and who has actually spun the music for me at performance at the Jacob Javits
Center for the big original LGBT expo here in New York City.
DJ Mimi, welcome.
Thank you.
And I'm going to interrogate you.
That's fine.
It's really good to be here.
Thank you so much.
You know, it's amazing.
I mean, in all the time that we've been doing this show, I have always believed that quality
is more important than quantity.
You can have a lot of people to interview, and it still doesn't get across as if you
have two or maybe one subject that you encapsulate and talk about their life and their passion
and what they do.
DJ Mimi.
I mean, how does a DJ get started, first of all?
I mean, yeah, you can say, oh, I play music, but what is the person to stick at it, the
passion to stick at it?
Tell me.
Well, for me, I always love music, and I always love to dance, and I've tried to play
several instruments, all through me growing up and being a teenager in high school.
And I found myself at a point where I got to a certain age where I felt like wanting to
be this quote-unquote music store or something was not going to happen for me.
And an ex-partner of mine that I was with used to DJ for her brother and used to take
me along, and I love to dance.
You know me a couple of years.
You've seen me.
I don't stand still.
And, you know, it actually, it happened, wow, over 15 years ago, and I said, you know
what?
I can enjoy music.
I can get people to dance.
I can do it through being a DJ.
And I swear, I started my first party that I got 15 years ago.
I didn't even have equipment.
I told somebody I am a DJ, because that's my true inner passion.
That's my true spirit.
And I just started making copies of every CD that I could think of.
I went to different friends of mine with different ethnicities.
You know, if it was reggae, if it was music from the islands, whatever, a disco house,
and I just started making copies of CDs.
And, you know, for me, music has been, I didn't realize until later in life, has been a way
for me to release.
You know, I made a reference to a feeling.
Yes.
You know, so if I'm having a bad day and I play something that will get me to cry and
get that emotion out, if I'm feeling really good and euphoric, I'm going to put something
on where I can dance and just, you know.
So, you know, I really believe it comes from within.
And that's really how I got started.
When it just grew from there, I got equipment, I started playing, and I've been at it ever
since.
You know, I, yes, I do it to provide, you know, joy for me and also an income.
But I also have volunteered at many.
You mentioned the Jacob Javits.
Yes.
That I played for breast cancer events in Ottawa and Wayne, New Jersey, where I live.
For the last two years, I do an animal shelter.
So, I believe that's important for me to pursue my passion and I have to give back.
Music resonates the soul at, you're so right.
I do what I do because of the inner spirit.
And I think that creative people, we deal with such journeys in our lives because we are creative.
You were mentioning about when you have a bad day.
Is it your form of therapy?
Absolutely.
Music is absolutely my form of therapy.
I just think music of all different types.
I mean, there's certain music I prefer and there's certain I don't.
But I feel music should provide a message.
And that message could mean taking that bad day and turning it around.
For example, just to throw out, I do a nursing home, a nursing facility in Brooklyn.
My mother's in that facility.
She's been there for the last few years.
And I go in there and there's a lot of people that are not having a really great day and they're sad.
They're not feeling well and putting on something to change that mood for them.
And making them dance and hum along and everything.
So, I definitely agree.
It's therapy for me and it's therapy for a lot of people.
Because of you actually doing that.
And it is amazing because many of the people that are in nursing homes have no one.
And for someone to come in and for someone to uplift someone's spirit when they are.
And I'll give you a good example of that.
If they're dealing with Alzheimer's or if they're dealing with dementia,
that one spark of that music could resonate and bring people back to a sense of reality.
So, you are like the double doctor, the doctor too, in the house because it does do that.
I know when I am feeling down and I will put on music to uplift my soul,
to be able to feel better as a person.
Our journey in life is to kind of go through the hills and valleys of positive and negative, I would say.
And I think with all of us, we have that.
I think as women, we have three different totally women here which make the life.
And I want to say as a transgender woman, I feel that time of the month.
And I can go into the deep valleys of emotions about things that have happened years ago.
And then I can also be able to be that arm to reach out to help someone else.
Sometimes the strongest of us to have to do that.
Alina, as a heterosexual woman, you know that that is so.
DJ Mimi, as a lesbian, you know that's so.
And so we have three empowering women here today on this show which makes it so much different
rather than just having three or maybe one type of sexuality.
It doesn't necessarily mean that that's any different, but it means that we've all had our journeys in life
and what we tend to achieve and we are not 20 years old.
So what happens to the woman who might be reaching that age of 40?
What happens in life?
Because I know with men, if they hit the age of 30 and they haven't been able to achieve something,
it seems to be able to go down here for a while.
They seem to have to feed their ego, you know.
What happens with a woman at the age of 40?
What do we do when we haven't achieved something in life?
I know DJ Mimi, you mentioned before about being a superstar at a certain age.
But you know what?
I believe age is but a number.
And by your continued passion to be able to continue to do something that you love,
that makes you a superstar.
How many people give up on their passion and they sit back and say, if I could, I should have.
I would have, but we do.
How do you feel about that, Alina?
Yeah, I completely agree.
It's very hard not to think of giving up, especially at certain times in your journey.
But don't I say that right before you want to give up, right when it's getting the toughest,
the next step is the successful one.
You actually achieve what you want, so never give up.
It might take longer that you might want.
Exactly.
What do you feel about that, DJ Mimi?
I feel the same way.
I mean, I've done a lot of work on myself over the last, I don't know, maybe 10 years
and stuff like that, even doing the DJ music and you don't give up.
You know, I've realized that life is a journey.
The way I was conditioned when I was younger, I was a straight A student, so I felt like
the way I knew I finished something was getting a piece of paper saying I finished it.
I realized, and I won't say it's too late in life, I realized that life is a journey.
I continue to grow and evolve as a woman.
I'm recreating myself.
People assume when you say DJ, they have this whole stereotype of clubs, that I have 100 women,
all of this stuff is going on, and you know, that's not who I am, so I'm recreating myself
as an event DJ.
I want to create a memory for somebody, but I never give up.
I keep pushing.
Speaking of music, maybe it sounds a little corny, but the Barbara Streisand song, Don't
Rain on My Parade, what I'm having one of those days where I'm not hitting an obstacle,
I'll play that.
Oh, yes.
I'll set up my car.
Don't Rain on My Parade, and that gives me a little hope to go into what I have to do.
Oh, yes.
Yes.
That's interesting.
Do you have maybe a favorite song that you might...
Oh, I...
Yes.
Well, just one thing I would like to add.
Don't ever give up, but allow yourself to have bad days, because you will have them.
Don't hit yourself over the head like I used to, that, you know, I didn't have a good day.
I didn't have a productive day today.
It's okay, that will happen, and it's not the last one that you will ever have in your life.
That's true.
And, you know, just to add to that, some of the most productive days are days that don't
start out right.
Right.
You know, the days that you might have planned to say, okay, I'm going to do this, I'm going
to do this, I'm going to do this.
Right.
When I came into the studio today, there were a lot of things I had planned, they didn't
go, they didn't grow to fruition, but we knew that there was a plan too.
And that's what makes the strength in a person, I think, you know, just being a woman, remember,
you are the meat of the earth, you are the strength behind many men.
And I think that that is so important, and whether it's a heterosexual woman, whether
it is a lesbian woman, whether it's a transgender woman, we all feel the same feelings and emotions
when we are cut, we all bleed the same.
And that's what's so important, that that's where the unity and interaction should happen,
especially in a time of crisis as we are today.
And I said I wasn't going to talk about politics, but I just want to say that one thing I will
say, we will fight, we will resist, we will never, ever give up.
Just remember that, that is so important.
That is why we are here today, and we will outmaneuver all of those who want to think
of us as less than people.
And just to answer your question, speaking of listening to certain kind of music, when
I write, I listen to certain kind of music, when I photograph, I listen to, and I'm completely
in awe and love with Freddie Mercury.
Oh, okay, that's a great one, that's a great one, so Freddie Mercury.
And not only Freddie Mercury, but he is an all-time favorite.
Oh, yes, yes, yes, you know, some of the greats, I was actually listening to a acapella version
of Amy Winehouse doing a song on video, and it was amazing.
And I was listening to Valerie, it was an acapella version of Valerie on video, I was watching
her do it, and I really was able to understand kind of her energy and her song and her fears
and her emotions and her vulnerability.
Just listening to that song, and I said my goodness, without all the band behind it, just
sitting in a room with a microphone and hearing a guitar in the background, I said to myself,
my God, what an amazing talent who has gone too soon.
And Freddie Mercury, we've had Janice Joplin, we've had, my goodness, George Michael, recently
we just recently had the terrible, terrible events happen with the lead singer from Lincoln
Park, as well as the other guy who actually also committed suicide, I can't remember
the name of the group, but what happens to people during this period in time, I think
is important, and I'm branching out to, as we were talking earlier, feeling good about
ourselves, and what brings people to that point where they feel that, and even if they
have money, that nothing can keep them here, that agony, that they need to take their lives.
How do you interpret that, Alina, I mean just hearing about that, just in your own opinion,
how do you interpret that?
I think it's a feeling that goes way deep within a person.
I think it builds up over a long period of time, and of course, especially as women,
we have to be perfect, and we push that feeling down while we are being pushed down, or put
down, I should say, sometimes, not all the time, but a lot of times, and I think it just
builds up, and it erodes our self-esteem, and sooner or later.
Some people can go through very difficult times, and they can still be a survivor, and
then we have, DJ, let me have other people who can't, and feel that it's so important
to, at this point, I mean, I talk very honestly with you, I went through a very deep depression
being transgender, to the point where I almost sidelined my career at certain points in
my life, because I didn't want to be around anybody, and I had to, at my deepest point,
I had to say to myself, you have to pick yourself up, and bring yourself out of it, and I was
able to, don't say that you don't, people with that sort of depression, they live with
it, the rest of their lives, just like anybody.
I live with it, I'm able to accept it, I see the signs, and I know what to do now, but
there was a point in my life where it terrified me, what was happening to my life, what was
going on in my head, why was I feeling this way, why was I so fearful, and bringing this
up now, and seeing the end result of powerful people of the mind, and within ourselves is
so important.
How did you feel?
In your own words, DJ Mead, when you were at your lowest point, could you be very honest
about yourself?
I know that I've read, and you're very honest, and a lot of people don't know this about
me, but I do talk about it, about the depression I went through, and the nervous breakdown
I went through in my life, and I was able to pull myself out of it when I saw other people
around me who couldn't.
So I just thank the Great Spirit.
Where was the point where you realized that you were saying, oh, listen, I'm not going
to let this envelop me?
You know, I totally, I've had moments, I've had breakdowns in my life, I didn't characterize
them as that, I didn't know where to go, what they were called, and I used to act out different
ways, my temper with my fists.
But there was a time when, you know, it's hard to put it in words, I was at a really
low point in my life, and I mentioned 15 years ago, I've had other things that happened,
but after the breakup of that relationship, I was devastated, I didn't know how to dream,
I didn't want to work, I didn't want to do anything, and you know, I prayed a lot, and
it wasn't just, you know, to God, my God, I prayed to the universe.
You know, I knew the woman I was, and I wanted to break through that.
And I guess it just takes an amazing strength.
I was very lucky.
I know many friends that have disappeared, I don't know where they're at, for things
that have happened to them in their life, but you know, I had a blessing that I had
this strong will, and I really believe, and you'll get this, my grandmother, may she rest
in peace, has watched over me.
And I believe my grandmother had helped me to get through this dark storm, and then the
idea of coming with music and DJing, again, to it's something I enjoy to do, and I know
it's something that can uplift people's spirits.
So I was very lucky.
I guess, you know, you just pick yourself up, and wipe your shoulders off, and it's not
easy.
You know, it's not easy, but you keep pushing.
And I'm really grateful, I'm at a really good place in my life.
You know, I feel being here today on this show of empowerment, you know, and being in
between jobs, you know, my retail job, you know, this is an amazing opportunity, it's
just another sign that I'm going to keep going after my dreams, and keep moving.
And I guess that's what I feel, I feel my grandmother gave me the nudge.
Your grandmother is the angel on your shoulder, who actually probably spiritually talked to
my mother, and made, you know, put the thought in my head for you to be here.
So we owe a lot to her.
And in your life, I think it's the same thing.
We have angels.
I know I have chiefs who protect me.
My grandparents.
And people.
This is your grandparents, so.
And I do agree with you.
I really truly believe that art, we can use art as a healing tool as therapy.
The secret is that, and it's not easy, it is not instantaneous, it takes time, and sometimes
that's the problem, I think.
Sometimes we don't have that time, because the pain that we feel when we are down, it's
just way too much.
You know, remember those as the where depression hurts, and where it's, you know, it's true.
No, it is true.
No, it is true.
If you can take all that darkness, pain, frustration, whatever else, and use it as a source of energy
to create darker art.
Oh, yes.
And you're actually releasing that dark energy when you do it.
You're releasing it through your photograph.
You're releasing that dark energy, DJ Mimi, through your music.
I release it through performance, and performance art, and what I do, as well as this show.
I want to say this is so special for me today to be able to do it, because there are many
times people do not talk about it.
They always want to show themselves in the great light that they're perfect.
What makes us perfect is the inner strength that each and every one of us has right here.
Getting right here in the studio today, as far as getting through what we had to deal
with in our lives, that is so, so important.
And if we can empower someone who's watching today on this show, who maybe doesn't know
where to turn, because usually when you suffer with depression, you really don't know where
to turn.
You don't want to talk about it, because you feel that people will label you.
This is the time when you need to be able to release and say that there is always somebody
that is there to help you.
As I said again, and I think it's so important, I think what's happening now, even with our
first lady in the city of New York reaching out and letting people know that there are
places to go, if you need help, to please talk with someone.
There are many stories that go unpublicized as far as people committing suicide.
Look at the judge, some court judge, who just took a walk and went into the Hudson River.
People thought there was foul play, but they actually said that she decided to commit suicide.
And here was a very learned woman who was appointed by some of the higher people.
And to hear that this learned woman, a doctor of letters, was a judge, would just be able
to feel that so frustrated that she was able to take her own life because of the inability
to go forward.
That's where we need to have our sisterhood.
That's where we need to be able to come together.
Because it seems like the more learned you are, the more afraid that you are to reach
out, to grasp the hand and say, listen, I'm not feeling well at this point.
Because you're afraid that you're going to be considered weak, not strong enough.
People will love at you.
And there's nothing to love about it.
Exactly, exactly.
Then I need to jump on that, I totally agree.
That was a big thing, asking for help is not such a dirty word, I was brought up a different
way, asking where to get the right help, and also pursuing your dreams, I have to say,
as women, and we all have three different types of women, we all need to stick together
and empower each other.
It's amazing how many, especially in the DJ world, that people don't want to network.
If they can't do a party or they can't do something, they don't let another DJ know.
The way we are successful and the way we grow, and I believe as a woman, and I have a lot
of amazing men in my life, brother and father figures, but we have to work twice as hard
to make an impact.
So we need to all help each other out, and putting yourself out there and trying to get
the right answers or empowering somebody else or reaching a hand to somebody else just makes
us stronger.
You know, and I want to just add to that, it's an addendum to what we're talking about
today, and the fact of mentioning my director, Gloria Mesa, who I've been with for 21 years,
who actually gave me strength in many ways, in an environment where it can be very competitive,
you know, it gives me that strength.
I mean, we always don't talk very nicely, but we talk strongly and know that we're
in each other's corners when it is important.
And so that's why I give her call every day, whether she's busy or not, to let her know.
Because in my life, that's what I did with my mother, who was an inspiration to me during
a period of time when, you know, being the openly transgender was not so much so.
But I do believe that reaching out for one another, for that, trying to find that strength,
I think we find ourselves and we define ourselves and we come, you know, not to an end of the
journey, but we, I think we really sketch out the goal, what we want to do in our lives
with our lives, where we want to be, what is our purpose, passion, dream, you name it.
And I think it takes that, I think it takes that struggle.
If you don't have that struggle, you don't have that good stuff.
Exactly.
Exactly.
You know, the good result, yes, it needs to have that struggle.
I think everything good has a struggle attached to it.
Oh, sure.
Oh, sure.
But in each of our lives, we all struggle with something that was just an interesting
point.
The day before yesterday, I was having a conversation with someone and I had already said I was
going to go to a dermatologist.
Never used a dermatologist before.
Somebody told me, go to a dermatologist.
I've seen commercials on television about people with melanoma, all of this, you know.
Thank God, you know, I am totally without any of those, without any of those afflictions.
But I have a lot of moles.
So I was a little concerned.
So I said, well, doctor, let me know about this.
I said, oh no, and he looked and he said, and he told me.
But I needed to gain that courage in myself because there was a sense of denial about
going to a dermatologist for whatever reason.
And if I was going to go to a dermatologist, were they going to pick up something here,
move something here, cosmetically?
But that didn't happen.
It's not like the show botched, you know.
But I do have to say that that was one of the things that I was dealing with.
And how did I overcome that?
And how do we overcome things in our lives that can be afflictions?
Because we always seem, you know, as we were talking earlier off camera, a dear friend
of us who is going through something deeper and being strong.
And so when we are going through things, sometimes it's good to think outside of the
box and say, oh, this other person, my goodness, we're not dealing with that.
How can we maybe snap back or give back?
Exactly.
I believe that's very important.
Give back so that we are blessed in our lives.
There's an old saying that, you know, the Great Spirit doesn't give you more than what
you can handle.
Some people suffer more.
Some people suffer less.
Some people struggle all their lives financially while other people, it's thrown in their
hands and they don't know what to do with it.
You know what I'm saying?
And I think that that makes the most powerful people, that we are here.
The most powerful spirits are the ones that continue their journey.
It just makes us more stronger, the same as Tina, when everybody gave up on her and she
had nobody.
And she said she wasn't going to give up.
So that empowers, it's amazing the power of women and what we all encapsulate.
I'm sure you will be spinning music way into the 80s and that's great.
That's great.
I love it.
I love it.
And that makes it new.
And that's amazing because a lot of DJs give up at a certain time.
I know a lot of male DJs.
I never hear anyone that are older than 65 doing anything.
Not this girl.
That's really good.
I do have to say at this point, in between our show, you'll be hearing some of DJ Mimi's
mixes so that way you will get a chance to also feel the vibration, the music.
We, of course, were able to feel it before we went to air, but you will be hearing about
it in the show.
And also, something that really, I asked DJ Mimi to especially make for me, the Ed Sheeran
song called The Shape of You.
And the reason why I did that is because we all come in different shapes and sizes.
And there is a love for everyone there in our lives.
And with that, we will be back right here on No Boundaries Up Close and Personal, our
empowerment show.
You say you wanna live some, move out into the fast lane.
You say you need a good side man to make you come alive.
Some place a million miles from the shadows that surround you.
I look for your attention, you're lost out in the future.
When lovers ask no questions, shadows never fall.
I look for your attention, you're lost out in the future.
