Hey what's up y'all?

It's Raven with The AUXdacity.

I'm here with the man, the myth, the legend, K.J.

Kearney.

What does it mean to be civically engaged?

I think being civically engaged means that you are thinking outside of yourself.

First and foremost.

You're thinking about your community.

You're thinking about the people in your street.

You're just thinking of someone else.

I think that's the start.

Identify what it is you want to do and where you want to help.

The next step, then, is to find organizations who are already doing that work so you can join the fight versus starting something up in your home.

You said, join the fight.

Do you think being civically engaged is a fight or a form of protest?

I think that being civically engaged is a form of community first and foremost.

Right.

It's building relationships with people who care about the same issues that you care about.

Now, once you have that coalition of people then you can fight, right.

Fighting by yourself is, is is doable.

But it's very hard having that community first before you go out there fighting.

I think is is a step that a lot of people skip.

Are there three songs or artists that you say that contributed to the community as a movement, as song, protest or anything like that?

Yeah, I mean, I think a most recent example would be Kendrick Lamar.

'Alright.'

Right.

Like that was definitely a song that a lot of people were using during various times of the 2020 protests Black Lives Matter, you know, movement for Black Lives, and I think so, Kendrick Lamar be number one.

Now, second of all, he would actually be my number one is Fela Kuti.

Okay.

The president of Nigeria, you know what I mean?

Like all his music is very danceable.

But if you listen long enough because we talking about eight, nine, ten minutes.

All right, all right.

We listened long enough.

There's always a message and what he did.

And listen, you can't go wrong with Public Enemy.

You know, 'Fight the power,' Chuck D, Flavor Flav.

You know, President Obama's tan suit.

Yeah.

What do you think about, how fashion plays into being, political or within politics?

Oh, man.

I think fashion can provide a uniform, right?

There are certain movements that when you think over certain people that you think of within movements, you think of what they wore.

Right?

So, you know, when you think about the civil rights movement, you see pictures, you see, you know, men in suits and ties.

Right?

That was the uniform at that time.

Now you're going to see people wearing Jordans.

You know, you're going to see people wearing vans or all kinds of things.

But at the end of the day, what you wear is less important than what you do.

So when we are trying to get, those Gen Zers and Gen Alphas involved, right.

Do you think it will be through music, fashion or just show of community?

Yeah, that's a great question.

I think we do.

Gen Z a disservice.

Number one, we're not in community with them.

It's a lot of talking at them and not bringing them a part of these conversations, letting them know what's going on, showing them the ropes.

And Ella Baker says, if you have strong community, you don't really need strong leaders.

And so we're not doing a good enough job of building up Gen Z, be around us, come to these meetings that we're talking about, just let them see how the process goes and then ask them their opinion.

You know, get them somebody.

Is there anything else that you wanted to say before we let you go?

Absolutely.

The internet is not real, okay.

The internet is a tool of communication.

It's how you can get in contact with people.

But real community is built in person.

So use the internet to find your tribe.

And then as soon as you can, go meet your tribe, build strength in person.

All right.

Thank you, K.J.

and thank you for having The AUXdacity to leave your mark.