Without spoken word, there'd be no rap: special performance by Baby the Poet of Tribes & Vibes

Speaker: 00:00:00

Thank you for coming.

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: 00:00:01

Thank you to ArtsQuest.

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: 00:00:02

Thank you Jacob.

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: 00:00:03

Thank you Anthony DeSanctis

for having us here for the Hip

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: 00:00:06

Hop Movie Club Film Series.

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: 00:00:08

We got a real special one tonight.

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: 00:00:10

We got “Louder than a Bomb” we knew that.

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: 00:00:12

But we also have an even special-er treat.

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: 00:00:16

We've got Baby

the Poet of Tribes & Vibes!

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: 00:00:19

Yeah.

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: 00:00:20

I've been taught while growing up

that when nature speaks,

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I need to listen to my intuition.

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That's why I find it funny

when people swear I'm in control.

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: 00:00:31

But subconsciously I just fall

into submission when these lies.

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Whoops.

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: 00:00:37

I mean, these laws are being written.

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It got me so clouded when making decisions

that I no longer see in the science.

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Now I'm just trusting in the fiction.

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You want to know what else is missing?

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Well, ChatGPT has been taken over

my critical thinking.

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Let's not forget to mention

that when I use these

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AI services,

they're deploy our fresh water systems.

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But it's hidden so Microsoft

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that I can't even see

when bills are being passed

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through certain gates that it blocks out

my father's sons mission.

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My people, I need to pay attention.

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: 00:01:16

It's no big secret that these warehouses

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are being paid to bioengineer

our chicken that is put in Canada,

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soups sold in bulk and grocery stores

and then fed to the youth because

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first they create our hunger,

then they take our culture.

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Lastly, they pat in our roots.

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Let's not forget their

even marketing teams will deem poison

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as holy,

as long as it's branded as truths,

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because there ain't no soul in the food

they be fixing.

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: 00:01:49

There's no elders

passing recipes down or seasonings.

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: 00:01:54

There's no souls in the kitchen,

only wires and syringes.

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: 00:01:58

You want to know what that's called?

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: 00:02:01

It's called corporate addiction

because they have us

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hemmed up by corporate chains.

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: 00:02:06

You know what it's called?

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: 00:02:08

It's called tech, food and prisons.

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: 00:02:10

It's all the same game

with all the same players.

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They just fall underneath different names.

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But their agenda will always remain

the same

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to keep us dumb, sick

and addicted to pain.

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: 00:02:24

My apologies

for revealing some of these uncomfortable

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truths from being today

America's modern day slaves.

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Boom!

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Thank you so.

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So much

for letting me run that back again.

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Running

poetry like it's memorizing is key.

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: 00:02:48

So for for this this right here,

this piece not not this poem piece,

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but this is for the recording

right here, right now on YouTube.

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I'm just letting all artists know

memorization is not easy, okay?

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It is not easy.

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Even if you wrote it down

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now going forward.

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So I do this thing now, I memorize poems

and then I always

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I write a new poem

and I read it off my phone

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just so people could know that it's

okay with the whole memorization thing.

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I know as poets, even me,

I was one of those people that,

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oh, you got to memorize,

you got to memorize.

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But honestly, reading or off of a phone

or through your book

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can be just as impactful

as long as you really mean it.

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So going forward, this is my last poem,

but I felt this poem in my heart

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and I really feel

like people need to hear it.

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So this poem is called

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Our Children Fall Strong.

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The government says

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it protects the children

and the laws don't lie.

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It's just hard to explain

because they don't speak plain.

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And behind every piece of shady paperwork,

there's always some dirty,

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smelly chains, a form,

an affidavit, no court and no case.

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Just one signature.

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And someone else could take your place.

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: 00:04:17

They call it care,

but I call it a quiet erasure

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of parents, of rights, of the line

between protector and predator.

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: 00:04:27

It gets thinner at night.

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They sealed the Epstein files,

but they opened new doors

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for strangers to cradle kids

without knocking on yours.

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: 00:04:38

So tell me,

how does safety come without oversight?

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: 00:04:42

How do you will protect a child

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from getting trafficked

at an airport in mid-flight?

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I've seen stories

end up in good intentions.

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Boarding schools enforce the rules

and they all dressed up

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in dishonorable mentions. But now this.

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And this is the plan

to let anyone walk away with a child,

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as long as they look like

a profitable man.

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I've seen too many headlines.

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Too many girls go missing.

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Too many black and brown bodies

get called runaways

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instead of being called

the labeled as victims.

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: 00:05:20

So don't you dare pass me a pen and don't

tell me to just sign it right here,

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because I know what a back door

looks like when a coward smells fear,

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you don't hand out power like it's candy

without a catch.

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And I won't stay silent

while they draw the last match.

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I'd rather gas this whole building down

and watch them burn up into flames.

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This is the moment that we rise as a wall.

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Because if this law falls wrong,

then our children fall strong.

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Thank you very much.

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: 00:05:57

Again, again.

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These poems I am.

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I'm trying to figure out what is going on

here in the Lehigh Valley.

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It does not get talked enough

child trafficking.

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It does not get talked enough

that babies are getting eaten.

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It does not get talked enough.

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And we need to scream

this to the mountaintops.

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I don't have no kids,

and I feel like I care more about kids

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than some of these parents,

and that breaks my heart.

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So with that being said,

if it's one thing that you learned from

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these poems

is that we need to be advocates,

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we need to be vigilant, and

we need to protect our future generations.

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Thank you very much for your hearts.

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: 00:06:41

Thank you very much for letting me enter

your minds, and I hope you get home safe.

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And thank you so much.

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: 00:06:47

Hip hop hip hop Club I thank you so much

for this opportunity and ArtsQuest.

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Woo!

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How long have you been doing spoken word?

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Doing poetry?

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I got introduced to poetry, I want to

say, during my high school years.

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So probably around like nine 10th grade,

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I started doing doing it professionally,

I want to say around 23.

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I don't. Yeah, ten years now.

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I'm 33 years old.

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How did you get into it? School. School?

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Yeah. School.

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And going through trauma.

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Sometimes you need an outlet.

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And I was finding outlets

through the streets, getting arrested.

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And then I was like, you know what?

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I think I need to

put it into something else.

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That's how that went.

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Very good.

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Were there people that you looked up to?

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The heroes and poetry, spoken word.

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Well, not like well, of course,

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my Maya Angelou, but, most definitely.

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Like, it was mainly like artists.

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So my main ones I draw energy from R&B.

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So my main ones was like the Temptations,

Sam Cooke.

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Chris Brown is a big inspiration to me.

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So yeah, those were the artists

that I looked up to.

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Maya Angelou was a big one though,

like she

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the way she describes words

and puts on for women.

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I could definitely respect that 100%.

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Very good.

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: 00:08:16

So where can we find you on social media?

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Any venues you have going to be at any

events coming up?

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I don't have any events coming up lately.

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I've been taking some me time

and I think that that is important.

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As artists, sometimes we get burned out

and especially local artists

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going around to so many different places.

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The Lehigh Valley doesn't have

a lot of places to actually perform at.

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So I would go to Philadelphia,

Washington DC, New York City,

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all of that stuff to perform.

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Then I started Tribes and Vibes,

and it's kind of hard getting venues.

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A lot of people don't speak about that.

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As creatives,

especially hosts and business owners.

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You know, a lot of people look at it

and the aspect of an artist, right,

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just going to perform.

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But I got tired as an artist

not having places to perform.

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So with that being said,

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I took a little bit of a break

because it was starting to be a struggle.

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Bumping heads, trying to find places here

in the Lehigh Valley,

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and people not understanding

what spoken word poetry is.

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So that's why I'm super grateful that

you guys even reached out to me for this.

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And I'm super grateful that you're even

putting poetry at the forefront.

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Tell us about Tribes & Vibes.

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Okay, so tribes and vibes.

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Tribes and vibes started in 2021.

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It started right.

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We were the first company

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that actually opened to the community

when the pandemic hit.

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When the doors open,

we were the first events that happened.

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So we started there at 2021 and

we had a whole bunch of sold out shows.

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Yeah, that's that's how we started.

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It started

thanks to Arts Quest in the sense of

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they gave me the platform, right.

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And yeah. Arts.

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Arts quest is the it.

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They do things, you know what I mean?

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They they allow,

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opportunities and I'm grateful for that.

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Super grateful.

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So we're working with five Tribes

and five.

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You on the on the socials.

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Well, you can find Baby the Poet just

like that, Baby the Poet on Instagram.

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And you can find tribes

and vibes at tribes.

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The letter N vibes 2021, on Instagram.

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Just like that.

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And you can find Tribes and Vibes

on Facebook.

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Tribes and vibes just like that. Right on.

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Right, right. Nice.

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