Empowering Young People Through the Arts with Dr. Dermell Brunson

Episode 19 • 14th June 2025 • The Akkeri • Matt Howlett

00;00;01;24 - 00;00;23;01

Dr Dermell Brunson

We must marry ourselves to the development of young people. And that's more than just academics. It's more than just sports. It is a social work. We want to give kids option when they're young. Helps them to build autonomy and decision making. You don't want to always tell them everything to do. You want to see what thing they're gravitating the most to.

00;00;23;04 - 00;00;33;23

Dr Dermell Brunson

We believe that you can align young people in such a fashion with their strengths and talents and gifts, that you can begin to call those things out of them in a powerful way.

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Matt Howlett

You were listening to the podcast, a show about men and masculinities, the challenges that modern men face, and how to chart a better way forward. I'm your host, Matt Howlett, mental health coach and founder of the Auckland. This episode is a conversation that I had with Doctor Dermal Brunson, a dedicated leader in youth development, mental health advocacy and the arts.

00;00;53;24 - 00;01;15;03

Matt Howlett

As the founder of Leaders of Tomorrow Youth Center, he has spent years empowering young people through education, creativity and leadership training. Dr. Mel and I talk about the importance of mentoring and how to connect with, build relationships, and support younger people. We also talk about how exposure to the arts can help adolescents and young adults learn about themselves, express themselves, and grow into their full potential.

00;01;15;06 - 00;01;27;06

Matt Howlett

If you enjoy this conversation, do us a favor and share it with a friend, or write a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Here's my conversation with Doctor Dr. Melbourne's. Vediamo.

00;01;27;09 - 00;01;32;18

Dr Dermell Brunson

Hey, you can hear me. I can hear him.

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Matt Howlett

Dude. That's wild.

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Dr Dermell Brunson

Oh my goodness. So it must have been what you said. That must have been the issue.

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Matt Howlett

I'm here trying to make it as simple as possible to send people the link.

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Dr Dermell Brunson

And you did that, and you did the right thing. That's normally would work for a guy like me. It's just to go right to the browser in the Safari and it pops up. So yeah, either way, how how's your day gone, man?

00;01;54;05 - 00;02;16;00

Matt Howlett

Interesting. Yeah. I sent you an email saying I need a few minutes because I had a cat emergency. We we have a cat. My wife and I, and this white cat has been hanging around the house past two nights, and my wife's a little bit concerned about it. We tried to get it into the house last night and, get animal control to the handler because the cat doesn't have a collar.

00;02;16;03 - 00;02;35;27

Matt Howlett

But, it wouldn't come in and stay last night. So we wondered, maybe it just lives in the community. It'll go home, but it ended up sleeping on our back deck last night. So, anyways, about half an hour before we were supposed to jump on here, the cat came by again. So Dana called animal control, and then animal control showed up.

00;02;35;27 - 00;02;49;09

Matt Howlett

And I'm just like, baby, I, I, you know, I gotta go jump on this car. And so I got one cat in the kitchen. Our cat is blocked off in another room because I can't trust the new cat with our cat. Right, right. Some downstairs trying to, like, babysit two cats. Right?

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Dr Dermell Brunson

Like that's hilarious. Yeah. And definitely, like, you can't trust a stray cat with your new cat until you get clarity on what's going on there.

00;02;57;25 - 00;03;04;11

Matt Howlett

Yeah, exactly. That the cat could have any type of, you know, disease or something and paste that person. How are you doing? How's your day going?

00;03;04;17 - 00;03;13;17

Dr Dermell Brunson

Good. Going, going, you know, I'll all, you know, points moving forward, you know, caring for that family, bumbling on this, getting on this call, man.

00;03;13;21 - 00;03;26;19

Matt Howlett

Don't worry about it, man. I'm easy going. I'd love it if you could just give us a bit of background on who you are. What, LTC is, you know how that came to be. I love what you guys are doing down there, but, you know, tell everybody else what it's all about.

00;03;26;21 - 00;03;57;07

Dr Dermell Brunson

Well, well, Matt, you know, LTC leaders of tomorrow, youth center, we're A501 C3 arts education nonprofit serving young people through Baltimore, Maryland, DC, and Virginia. We provide performing and creative arts programing and resources for young people who otherwise might not have access to those performing and creative arts. Now we're talking music, theater, dance, visual arts, creative writing, fashion, cosmetology, culinary arts, media arts.

00;03;57;09 - 00;04;31;03

Dr Dermell Brunson

We believe the arts, central to academic success, building with young people. But also, man, you know, social, interpersonal, skill building, mean communication skills learning and work with a team. Learning to be, self self-motivated, but also, collective and group motivated, able, you know, to, to play in the sandbox nicely with other. Right. And so it's that kind of a thing, that we're pushing forward man with love and grace and, and all the wonderful things that we believe young people need today.

00;04;31;05 - 00;04;43;10

Matt Howlett

That's that's very cool, man. I love that. I did a couple years work in group homes here, and a lot of that is obviously trying to teach a lot of what you just talked about. You know, same stuff that tell me a little bit about you.

00;04;43;12 - 00;05;03;11

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah. So I grew up in West Baltimore, young started with the arts, I think, as a youth. My first real job check every two weeks was a on staff musician at a popular church in Baltimore. For seven years, from my pre-teen years through high school, I played the drums and percussions and helped with the choirs and that kind of thing.

00;05;03;13 - 00;05;31;05

Dr Dermell Brunson

And so start out music manager and support a couple of local acts. You know, young and I went to the Baltimore School for the Arts, one of the top, you know, five high school conservatory model schools of its kind in the country. And so I went there and studied theater and, you know, other arts as a part of our theater arts background and program and I started working in the church community and, group homes, as you mentioned, I worked in group homes and took care.

00;05;31;07 - 00;05;50;25

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah. My mom was a social worker for years, and really, she and her network of friends and a couple of friends that my dad had really opened my eyes to the need of love and support through that world of foster care. And so I worked in foster care agencies and group homes here in Baltimore and in Maryland, the surrounding area.

00;05;50;27 - 00;06;11;23

Dr Dermell Brunson

And, and during that time, and I was still young at that time working in, you know, juvenile services. And when I would do my site visits for the young people, I just noticed that they didn't have the arts as robustly as I thought they should. Right, right. They might have 1 or 2 classes, but they didn't have the options of, of all the performing and creative arts.

00;06;11;23 - 00;06;35;24

Dr Dermell Brunson

And so, you know, my life was really decided, I believe, that was geared towards helping to afford young people and others that. But I believed I was blessed with and able to be afforded, which was people believing in the power of the arts, but believing in me as a young man giving me opportunity. And so that's been my life made working in music, working in the arts.

00;06;35;24 - 00;06;56;18

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah. Continuing to build out, I see, give opportunities which are tough, you know, where arts education is normally the first thing to get cut in most programs in America, for young people, which is unfortunate. And then as a nonprofit also, you know, fighting the fight of faith to keep us going, you know, in the right direction there.

00;06;56;18 - 00;07;13;19

Dr Dermell Brunson

So my life has really been my background. It's been in those things, working in the, church world and in the community world and in the foster care group home world and kind of merging and mashing up all those things, from a heart posture to what we do with the leaders of tomorrow.

00;07;13;21 - 00;07;38;12

Matt Howlett

Very cool. We have a lot in common. Well, I knew we had a couple things, but, I just learned a few more. And I used to be a pastor. Wow. On the music side, work the students as well. And young adults, couple of years in group homes. So I did that first, and was working at a church plant at the same time and then went to, like a paid position at a more established church for a few years.

00;07;38;14 - 00;07;49;17

Matt Howlett

But yeah, I studied, theology and music here in Canada. And, you know, Berta and, played drums was my first instrument. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah. Crazy.

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Dr Dermell Brunson

Wow, wow.

00;07;50;23 - 00;07;58;18

Matt Howlett

And, Yeah, I didn't quite get into the same thing as you, but I see a lot of similarities there, you know what I mean? There's multiple.

00;07;58;19 - 00;08;03;16

Dr Dermell Brunson

Similarities. That's actually eerie. That's multiple similarities.

00;08;03;16 - 00;08;24;02

Matt Howlett

Yeah. Yeah, man. And I mean, really, what I'm doing now, it's the same type of vision in a way. You know what I mean? You are mentoring. I'm mentoring. I'm working with other men. I want to see them have the, you know, skills, abilities, support that I didn't exactly have. And you're trying to do the same thing from young men, young women, when it comes to the arts.

00;08;24;04 - 00;08;24;27

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah.

00;08;24;29 - 00;08;43;23

Matt Howlett

Yeah, that's that's awesome. And, just quickly, could you give me an example of, like, what comes to mind? What's the, the memory that sticks out to you of the first time that you really saw a kid get it? Does that make sense to you? Like, you really like. You know, I'm loving this. This is so aligned with who I am, you know?

00;08;43;23 - 00;08;47;01

Matt Howlett

Thank you to you and the rest of your team for for doing what you're doing.

00;08;47;01 - 00;09;05;28

Dr Dermell Brunson

Right. Yeah. It is so many of those stories because you you see it in a twinkle of the kids I. Yeah. Right. It's a, it's an intangible thing, you know, that as a working in the, in the, in the, the background that you have as well, it's so, it's so intangible. And that's where the magic, as I like to call it.

00;09;05;28 - 00;09;34;19

Dr Dermell Brunson

That's the magic, right. There is something you can quantify and document and create data and have those benchmark moments. But what we've experienced working in the community is, you see in a dance class, that kid where everyone else is doing okay and trying and good, but you see that other kid that has the innate thing going on in there that's some spiritual carrot connecting them to this dance class or to this music class.

00;09;34;19 - 00;09;57;13

Dr Dermell Brunson

Right. The way they respond. And so that's what we're after, you know, we're always chasing that, you know, proverbial high, right, is and you don't we don't have the ability to decide if a young person is going to be good at something or really go all the way in and learn the skills, or if they have an innate ability.

00;09;57;16 - 00;10;33;04

Dr Dermell Brunson

But what we do, train ourselves to pay attention to is the twinkle in there are the response to that visual art instruction? Yeah, I know the attention. So that's what this is all about is just exposure, experience, engagement. Right. Enrichment, all that, all the good words. Right. Can we get young people exposed? Because once they're exposed to something that they may not have had exposure to previously, that'll awaken, you know, the art thing inside of them?

00;10;33;08 - 00;10;33;29

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah.

00;10;34;02 - 00;10;51;23

Matt Howlett

Yeah, I love that. And that is exactly what it is. It's intangible. It's body language. Right. You see it in their eyes. You see it, you know, you hear it in the voice. You just body movement in general. Yes. I'm as you're talking. My mind is going back mainly to the years that I worked in the group homes.

00;10;51;27 - 00;11;18;11

Matt Howlett

It was both three years and I think actually, you know what? I probably shouldn't make an assumption cuz I don't know exactly what was going through. The guys minds, mostly young men that we worked with, we had we had a couple girls at this one house, but, mostly young men. And whenever I was trying to get some sense of camaraderie, you know, talk about something that they might be interested in.

00;11;18;14 - 00;11;38;18

Matt Howlett

That I, you know, had some experience with. There was always, like, a hesitancy. Right. So you I know you must have that yourself because you're trying to teach all of, like, very specific skills or I'm just trying to have a conversation and get through those barriers. Right. Like breaking the ice type of thing. Right? Yeah. What is that experience been like for you?

00;11;38;18 - 00;11;59;19

Matt Howlett

Because I'm thinking first you must have some people that are drawn to it naturally because, you know, they, they like A, B or C and then they maybe already have some experience with it or have seen it and interested. But then second, you definitely got some people that are like, maybe I'm assuming, but are there and don't want to be there.

00;11;59;22 - 00;12;32;00

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so in some and so there are programs we, we encourage our partners and providers that we work with to give young people choice. So it's you know, here's music, theater, dance, creative writing vision. Which one are you interested in. What what's your what's your first favorite? What's the second favorite? You know, the typical youthful kid option or thing that we really believe in, you know, do you want to give kids options when they're young, helps them to build autonomy and decision making?

00;12;32;02 - 00;12;53;08

Dr Dermell Brunson

You don't want to always tell them everything to do. You want to see what thing that gravitating the most to? Because we all have our thing that's built in, in our molecular structure, in our DNA, but also in the learned behavior from environment. So we don't know what may already be inside of a young person. And so we believe in giving them options.

00;12;53;08 - 00;13;26;27

Dr Dermell Brunson

So yes, when you have options, the buying is different. When you have programs in certain schools where they're quote unquote forcing a group of kids, hey, today is culinary arts. You're going to you're going to do this class, you're going to always have a numbers game. If you have, let's say you have ten young people, you probably can bet your bottom dollar at least three out of that ten won't care at all about that culinary class, because you just push them into that one group and told them to do it.

00;13;26;29 - 00;13;55;29

Dr Dermell Brunson

So you're going to get that that push back. We believe in a strength based model, and we believe in a relationship building based approach and model. And so we believe that all things can be accomplished in through agreement, right? And through relationship building. We can all accomplish things and even with young people. So the first thing that we're training and teaching our instructors and have taught our team members over the years is build relationship, bill relationship.

00;13;55;29 - 00;14;21;26

Dr Dermell Brunson

You see that resistance happen and go with the resistance, right? Don't add resistance on top of resistance. Just go with the resistance that that young person who might not want to participate in music that day because they're not interested, right? Right. They're not interested in that. They're interested in a different modality of their expressive, you know, self. Let's find what that is but still get by in their relationship building.

00;14;21;28 - 00;14;31;10

Dr Dermell Brunson

Where's the commonality? Where can you find a joining spot, a place to join and agree with them? Because agreement is the sea bed for change. Yeah.

00;14;31;13 - 00;14;49;00

Matt Howlett

I was watching a couple of videos. I believe it was mainly on your Instagram just before we talked a couple days ago. So one of, I could hear one of your leaders. They probably were the, the person that was holding the phone. And there was, I think a young man making some eggs. And he had a couple of other students around.

00;14;49;00 - 00;15;10;23

Matt Howlett

I'm like, I love that because I love to cook. And it's one of the things that I'm very glad that my mother kind of forced me into. Right? Because, I grew up primarily with a single mother and there's I have three siblings, so four of us that she was caring for. My grandmother pitched in a lot, but my mom would often call me from work and she'd be like, hey, Matthew, can you, you know, take this out of the fridge.

00;15;10;23 - 00;15;25;14

Matt Howlett

I need to do this, this and this with it turned the oven on at this temperature, you know what I mean? Yeah. So I'm doing all this, like, sous chef type work. Yeah. Not realizing that later on in life this is going to pay dividends because at first, I mean, at least I could feed myself quite easily when I was in college.

00;15;25;17 - 00;15;38;17

Matt Howlett

But as the years went on, I realized, you know, I really like this, and I can express myself in this and I can enjoy this and I can do it for other people and serve other people and like it. It's amazing. I'm I'm very lucky that way because it was something that I enjoyed.

00;15;38;19 - 00;15;57;15

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yes. Yeah. Yes yes. And I love how you said it. You're mom was training you as a sous chef, prep cook, all of the things, you know, because, you know, I've had that call from my mom to to now take the take the ground turkey out the freezer, put it in the, in the sink so it can thaw out, but, you know, just and you're oh.

00;15;57;15 - 00;16;12;25

Dr Dermell Brunson

And he said, this is the smallest thing you don't realize. Oh it needs to thaw out. I never thought about that because all I've been doing is just eating it. When you cook it, you realize that you have to. It has to thaw out for a while. Okay? And so is that. I love that you use that example.

00;16;12;25 - 00;16;44;03

Dr Dermell Brunson

That's exactly it. And it's and like you said, you were forced. You're, you know, sounds like you're a parental sibling. And so you had that, you know, as we call in the clinical where you you're a sibling that has, leadership responsibilities with your other siblings. Yeah. Instead. Yeah. Yeah. And so that that creates a dynamic, like force because, you know, you're being asked by mom or grand mom or dad, whomever to do something that you're learning.

00;16;44;03 - 00;17;21;17

Dr Dermell Brunson

You don't realize you're learning while you're being asked to walk your walk, your sister to the park, walk your brother to the park. You know, those small things builds the confidence. And that's what we're trying to do. Matt, with the artist, the arts changes kids lives. It gives them an outlet. You know, as a musician, what that outlet can be, you know, positive, healthy social coping skills help you healthy social outlet so that we can deter young people from choosing, destructive pathways early in life, where you know, they could have been expressing themselves in a fruitful, productive way.

00;17;21;19 - 00;17;42;07

Dr Dermell Brunson

That's what we're doing. And so that strength based approach, calling out something that's good with the young person, we want to accuse the young people of doing well. I like that we accuse young people of doing so much, and especially in today's world and different generations, and you know, technology taking kids away from social and interpersonal skill building.

00;17;42;10 - 00;18;14;01

Dr Dermell Brunson

We believe that you can align young people in such a fashion with their strengths, innate talent and gifts that you can begin to call those things out of them in a powerful way that allows for their hearing to be rehearsed. Yeah. Hey, someone, whether it's mom, parent, a sibling, a teacher, a youth pastor, or whomever, you know, my coach, my the lady next door calling out, saying something good to me over and over again will begin to massage it and rehearse it in my memory.

00;18;14;04 - 00;18;24;02

Dr Dermell Brunson

And it it build those skills up in a, in a most precious way. And so that's what we're, we're really pushing that, that message forward.

00;18;24;04 - 00;18;41;11

Matt Howlett

Can you give me examples. Anything come to mind, any specific situations? I mean, obviously without dropping names or anything, but yeah, I can I mean, I can think back just to the three years that I spent in the group home, work and even in the years after that, because I ran into a couple of kids, just randomly in the community, and you hear good stories, right?

00;18;41;11 - 00;18;45;06

Matt Howlett

You're like, oh, that's that's really nice to hear. Do you have anything like that comes to mind?

00;18;45;09 - 00;19;05;01

Dr Dermell Brunson

You know, I think of a young man and his brother that I work with, you know, directly in my years building to see early, they were in foster care. I was full time at a foster care agency. Shout out to Lynn Family Services and, brother Al Laws, who was a mentor and and CEO and boss when I was working there.

00;19;05;01 - 00;19;25;16

Dr Dermell Brunson

He's still a boss, but, more semi-retired now. But he gave me an opportunity and a leadership there to work with young people. I was still a young man myself, late teens, early 20s, you know, working with young people so I could connect differently with the kids because I was literally five, between 5 and 10 years. You know, their their senior.

00;19;25;16 - 00;19;51;27

Dr Dermell Brunson

I wasn't that far away from them age wise. And there was a to two boys and the old, the boy, one of the boys was deaf and the brother who was the younger of the two was actually again the parental sibling, the caregiver, because his older brother, which was a few years older, was deaf. And so this kid, both of them were bright and had a lot of personality and good energy and spunk.

00;19;51;29 - 00;20;13;04

Dr Dermell Brunson

And I just remember when we would engage with the caregiving brother around his strengths. A lot of stress on him. Of course, he has a older brother that's hearing impaired and they're in foster care and and, you know, having people around to love them. But they had that struggle with the life of young people in foster care at times.

00;20;13;06 - 00;20;45;16

Dr Dermell Brunson

What really stuck out to me about this particular young man, and if I could share the story, which is he was very charismatic, was great in the fashion show arts presentations, but he showed up big time as a leader when it was time for us to pray. It was a faith based organization. And then so when it was time for it to pray, he was the guy who raised his hand and offered and volunteered to pray.

00;20;45;19 - 00;21;11;10

Dr Dermell Brunson

And it started another apparent gifting in him. Right? He had good Taurus skills. He was an orator. Naturally, as a young man, he could advocate for himself using words and communicate in a way that was charming and charismatic, but also direct and just that experience. But he was at times a, a little bit of a troublemaker, right?

00;21;11;15 - 00;21;35;05

Dr Dermell Brunson

You know, had that that mischievous streak in him. But when we identified him as we ended up naming him as the chaplain of that group, the little troublemaker, but he would be the chaplain to open us and close us in prayer. Sure. And it really washed over in me a renewed sense of how much strength based approach matters.

00;21;35;05 - 00;22;03;05

Dr Dermell Brunson

Matt, that we could have spent so much time focusing on the unwanted behavior, focusing on the challenges, focusing on the needs and dynamics. Yeah. But instead, when you beam in on that one beam of light that you see happening with a young person, that's sparking the feel good, because we all need that. That's a part of life we all need, you know, love and touch and experience and people and laughter and community.

00;22;03;05 - 00;22;31;23

Dr Dermell Brunson

It's a part of life. Yeah. And so we sometimes omit to cultivate that in young people, especially in the inner cities of America, where there's so many other, again, things to accuse them of and call out that out of a negative human energy, we believe that calling out those powerful things that may be very tangible or even again, as you and I said earlier, the intangible.

00;22;31;26 - 00;22;35;21

Dr Dermell Brunson

And so that's really what sticks out to me right now. Yeah.

00;22;35;23 - 00;23;02;25

Matt Howlett

I'd love for you to, to speak to, like the parents, guardians, older siblings that are going to be listening because as I'm listening to you, that's what I'm hearing. You know what I mean? Because I'm, I mean, I'm hearing that that type of, you know, the audience that you're speaking to. But I'm also thinking of myself in those roles and the, challenge that it is to, to get through that barrier of helping that young person to figure themselves out, you know what I mean?

00;23;02;25 - 00;23;21;10

Matt Howlett

And and not necessarily pushing, pushing them towards one thing or another, you know, as, you know, as a musician and the other things that I have experience with, I would generally try and do that. If I see someone like, you know, I think of my, my nephew, who's a teenager, I think he's 16 or 17, finishing up high school.

00;23;21;12 - 00;23;41;12

Matt Howlett

He was getting into weightlifting there for a while. Right. So I went to the gym with him. Right. And I'm trying to connect with him on that level. But I often find, throughout all the different, types of experience that I've had with students, it really takes a minute to, to get through to them, to let them know that you're genuine, let them know that you actually care, you know, build that relationship.

00;23;41;12 - 00;23;56;13

Matt Howlett

Like you said, can you speak to the person that's in that position? Like what encouragement. What direction even do you give to your leaders to try and build that relationship and say, you know what, hey, whatever it is you're interested in, you know, I want to help you find that. I want to support you in that. I want to help you grow in that area.

00;23;56;16 - 00;24;23;22

Dr Dermell Brunson

Well, being being good, being good listeners, right. Sometimes. But as adults, you know, and I struggle with it even still now with folks that are younger, whether it's young people or younger, folks on my staff and team is you want to give them so much. When you see see goodies inside that you see the potential you see. So you there's an innate thing and you might align with that as well.

00;24;23;22 - 00;24;53;04

Dr Dermell Brunson

Coming from the ministry world is you want to teach, right. And so we forget that if even if we use that model of of Jesus, we know about all of the teaching, the preaching, the Beatitudes and all of the sayings, but a lot of what was happening was them watching them. It was it was example. And so that's my my word is don't feel the need to do all the talking before you make an assessment of how things should move forward.

00;24;53;12 - 00;25;23;19

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah, we're accusing young people of doing well and accusing them to be the best versions of themselves. There's a time, a season where we must hear from them and then reframe and reshape what's coming out of them in a way that we know could be most beneficial. And so for parents and older siblings and caregivers and coaches and mentors and, you know, all of those types of folks, I would say we're be leaning in on the authenticity of relationship building.

00;25;23;19 - 00;25;48;04

Dr Dermell Brunson

Again, can we be authentic with young people and not always feel the need to tell them what the hell to do? Yeah. Can we show them? Can our lives be the example? Can how we handle situations be the example? Can we make ourselves available for conversation and dialog? So if they're interested or the yearning that teachable word talky type of energy, that's cool.

00;25;48;06 - 00;26;11;17

Dr Dermell Brunson

But also, can we just put put them in the mix right by showing them through example? And that that also really breeds back to authenticity, you know, can, you know, as my dad used to say when young, hey, God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. Yeah, right. Yeah. You got two ears. So you should be listening more, talking less.

00;26;11;20 - 00;26;38;20

Dr Dermell Brunson

That will always benefit you in most situations. If you are married to that. And I think as as caregivers, leaders, parents, you know, big brothers, big sisters sometimes that their the love is so passionate and powerful in us that we want to protect and save people coming behind us in a in a chronological form. We want to save them from what we think they may be going down a different road, a tunnel.

00;26;38;21 - 00;27;00;27

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah, we think we know best because this happened with us or happened to us, and now we can share it with you. And that not that doesn't always apply, Matt, to every situation. Yes. As human beings worldwide, the core of us, again, we all need, you know, some basic things to live food and water, everything. Right. But we also need love and or affirmation, all those other things.

00;27;00;27 - 00;27;19;16

Dr Dermell Brunson

Right. Tangible versus intangible. There again. But man, if we could just relax ourselves around the fact that you don't know everything that's happening with inside of a person's mind or heart when you're dealing with them. And so if we're listening more and we're being more authentic, I think good things happen from that.

00;27;19;18 - 00;27;41;15

Matt Howlett

Yeah, yeah. To me, that sounds like it comes a lot down to mindfulness and maturity. You know what I mean? The the ability to hold back, to know that you probably do have some wisdom from your experience that you could, you know, offer, but you really got to be able to just listen and you might not understand that, you know, I mean, you might have to ask a terrifying question or two, you know what I mean?

00;27;41;15 - 00;28;07;29

Matt Howlett

But, it also reminds me of a conversation I just recently had with a psychologist friend of mine we were talking about, mainly the book that he just released. But one of the subcategories in the book is about men finding maturity through words like they bit, the ability to express themselves in words, especially emotion words. So talking about how you feel, you know, what it is that you feel about a certain thing, and you know what you like and what you don't like, right?

00;28;07;29 - 00;28;23;20

Matt Howlett

What you want to do and what you don't do. Helping young people figure that out is so crucial. And I think it's difficult for us to to listen sometimes because they don't use a lot of words, especially men that resonate with you. That makes sense.

00;28;23;22 - 00;29;05;22

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah, yeah it does. It doesn't resonate. And, you know, there's sometimes, there's a, a colloquial and a societal, you know, society driven energy also that promotes this. Right? It might be something that's happened and naturally for, for some men and most men and, but but there's another thing that's happening where we've gotten comfortable allowing that right. Movies, our music, our literature, you know, television shows, our culture has made it okay for men to just grant, you know, not say, I did not do any.

00;29;05;29 - 00;29;30;02

Dr Dermell Brunson

And it's the it's the manly thing, right? Yeah. Even I was blessed because though I was as a young boy, a boys boy, I wanted to, you know, go play sports. I wrestled and, you know, with some friends and played basketball and did the boy thing, scarred up my legs and fought and all that stuff. Yeah. We're not because of the arts being in my in my experience, especially once we got to theater when I started music young.

00;29;30;02 - 00;29;53;26

Dr Dermell Brunson

But once I was trained in theater and in a formal training, I had informal training musically, an innate gifting there, but formally in theater arts. Matt. That's where I was able to get some more instruction and opportunity on the verbal expression, and I'm still working on it. Oh yeah, I'm still working on that's the lifeline out. Yeah.

00;29;53;26 - 00;30;13;14

Dr Dermell Brunson

It's like it's like still some stance. I'm like well shit I didn't really I could have expressed that differently. I didn't realize that that's what I was feeling. Right. I didn't realize that. That's what I was thinking. You know I didn't realize that, until I sat down and reflected and said, wait a minute. I could have used more words.

00;30;13;21 - 00;30;42;17

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah. You know, and, and and also the other piece is back to the example and actual putting things in motion as a leader, I've also recognized that we can use the correct words so that we're not using so many words. It's less words, but it's just the correct words. Right. Can we simplify? Yeah, I feel that we you know, that's something I'm also emotional and working on.

00;30;42;17 - 00;31;09;25

Dr Dermell Brunson

You know, daily is can I say it in a more simple way. Yeah. But still hit the, the the vulnerable parts of that. Right. Without feeling the need for it to be a monologue. Yeah, right. We never now feel the need to for it to be some long drawn out thing. Can I cut to the chase but still leave the deposit, or come out of the situation where I found agreement with someone, you know?

00;31;09;25 - 00;31;15;21

Dr Dermell Brunson

So that's that's the that like you said, that's the lifelong journey that the lifelong journey, brother man.

00;31;15;24 - 00;31;32;13

Matt Howlett

Yeah, yeah. It doesn't stop. And the more that you get into relationship, like you can't have intimacy in relationship without that. Yeah. I mean like and when I say intimacy for some reason that I know how I feel once I spit the word out. And so I'm going to assume that other men and just people listen, they're going to feel the same way too.

00;31;32;15 - 00;31;54;14

Matt Howlett

Intimacy isn't just about romantic relationships. We we seem to take that word and make it only mean that. But it simply means like deep connection. You know what I mean? Right? And I think, at least I was when I was younger. But I know a lot of men in general. We find that to be a little scary or a little maybe feminine, and we shy away from that.

00;31;54;16 - 00;32;14;19

Matt Howlett

But I want to get good at that, right? I mean, with my wife, for sure. That's what comes to mind right off the bat, because, she's generally better than me at explaining, you know, that putting things into words, not necessarily around what she feels, but definitely about what she thinks I'm better at feeling. But I think a lot of men struggle with that.

00;32;14;19 - 00;32;34;03

Matt Howlett

Tell me, or talk to me for a minute about how you find, the arts and the different arts, the different skill sets that you teach. Because I'm really interested in that. Do you find that, say, culinary skills help people more so than music skills when it comes to expressing themselves? Is there a basically straight across the board?

00;32;34;03 - 00;32;39;15

Matt Howlett

They're the same based off of what the person's like. You know, what they're drawn to and not.

00;32;39;18 - 00;33;08;27

Dr Dermell Brunson

Great question. And I think that the the swift answer there would be it depends, like you said, on the person and what they are, are areas we the hip check would tell me, that the things that are when you're writing words or writing music or learning care to work, dancing, getting that physicality out. Yeah, that that helps to have you expressing both emotionally and physically because we know what exercise.

00;33;08;27 - 00;33;27;12

Dr Dermell Brunson

I've been moving and breaking a sweat and all of that can do for us as human beings, right? We learned that some decades ago. And that's important, right? You got to break a sweat every now, you know. So I would I would probably the health side of my brain would probably say that those things are creating endorphins and things in your body that's different.

00;33;27;14 - 00;33;52;13

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yep. But I also just hearing you even mentioned earlier, you know, about cooking, I've heard people who are damn near meats, they barely talk, but when they're creating and they have their thing going in the kitchen and they create new things, that is therapeutic. Yeah, it's like safe relaxing for them. It's it's blissful. And they and they doing that is important.

00;33;52;13 - 00;34;18;20

Dr Dermell Brunson

Right. Yeah. So I think it depends on for me it's music, but it's also a gifting being able to identify with the gift and others. You know, I believe that God has gifted me with a gift of identifying others gifts. That's probably one of my. It's not my dominant thing. Yeah. As a visionary as I can see, beyond what I see.

00;34;18;22 - 00;35;01;20

Dr Dermell Brunson

So I can go, yeah, you're good at that, right? Yeah, I do that more. That's right. That gives me a sensation of expressive balance, which back to your question, because I feel like I'm exchanging with that individual. I also feel like I'm doing fulfilling a purpose on earth, but it also gives me the sensation that painting a portrait may give a painter right, that I feel fulfilled if I'm in a room full of especially young people, but any age and I'm able to do exchange, identify something in them that they may have had little confidence or steam about.

00;35;01;21 - 00;35;22;10

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah. And resonates. That's a gift for me, right. And my personal time is going to be music. But you know, so I think it varies for each person. I know folks that are awesome writers, you know, I mean, writing so many great things and poems and books, you say, hey, can you get up and read this? Oh, no, I can't read it in front of people.

00;35;22;12 - 00;35;38;12

Dr Dermell Brunson

It's like, you can't. This is a great poem. Why don't you read this short story? Why don't you read this? You wrote this great thing. Yeah. Oh, I love I love writing, and everything came out of me. I feel good about it. But why don't you share it with the class? No no no no no no, I can't get up in front of people and talking.

00;35;38;18 - 00;35;44;08

Dr Dermell Brunson

Right. And so you learn that, you know, it balances out for each person.

00;35;44;11 - 00;36;04;15

Matt Howlett

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's important also to point out what you just said, that it's therapeutic and why it's therapeutic. It's therapeutic because it's so deeply aligned with who we are. You know what I mean? Like when when I am making something and generally it's on the music side, I'd like to work with my hands. I don't own a lot of tools.

00;36;04;15 - 00;36;24;24

Matt Howlett

I've never been like, overly handy. But this is the second house now I've owned. And I do like to just make things, you know what I mean? Once I can get lost in that type of task, you know what I mean? And I think anytime that we notice something where we forget how hungry we are, we forget how tired we are, we forget about time we get lost in the task wrapped up in it.

00;36;24;24 - 00;36;39;19

Matt Howlett

Right? That's probably something that we we love when we get to be able to listen to that. And it's therapeutic. You know, when we do these things because they are so aligned with who we are, they help us to express ourselves. They help us to to get ourselves out into the world.

00;36;39;21 - 00;36;52;15

Dr Dermell Brunson

Right? Yeah, 100%. Yeah. It's therapeutic. I love I said, help us get ourselves out into the world. That's great. That's a great quote. That's a great that's a great massage. Yeah. That is.

00;36;52;18 - 00;36;53;05

Matt Howlett

Cool.

00;36;53;08 - 00;37;16;17

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah. That's quotable right there baby. Because that that's the deal. Because again it's so easy to be live in our own bubble living our own isolation. Like you said, you go through your daily routine and how things flow for your life. And again like you said, you can forget to eat, forget to do these other things, but how can you get yourself out into the world and be of service to the world?

00;37;16;19 - 00;37;47;01

Dr Dermell Brunson

And so that's the best, the pieces. And we get young people to be more self-refer effective, right? More self expressive. Right. More, self aware. Yeah. Right. So that now when it's time for you to be of age in the adult world, you are a healthy, balanced, fully aware, not perfect because none of us will be perfect walking this planet.

00;37;47;03 - 00;38;00;02

Dr Dermell Brunson

But will you have a healthy, balanced, effective, fruitful adult life right where you're? Again, as Matt would say, you're now out into the world, right?

00;38;00;05 - 00;38;27;02

Matt Howlett

Yeah. Putting yourself out there, expressing yourself. And a lot of that is coming from, again, all the psychologists I mentioned just a few minutes ago, Ron Johnson is his name, his book. You you might actually appreciate this. He wrote a book called Balls Men Finding Courage with, words, work, wine and women. And we just had a conversation just a couple days ago about the importance of men finding their profession versus finding a job.

00;38;27;02 - 00;38;44;02

Matt Howlett

And that's what the difference is there. It's the profession is professing yourself, putting something of you out into the world doing, you know, making the world a better place through something that is so deeply aligned with who you are. Right? And, you know, Ron says, you know, that could be swinging a hammer, that could be writing a book.

00;38;44;04 - 00;38;49;20

Matt Howlett

Doesn't matter necessarily what it is, right? Could be you know, culinary arts could be theater, could be playing the drums.

00;38;49;22 - 00;39;18;11

Dr Dermell Brunson

Right? Yeah. Yeah, there could be other people, along with other things, real estate developers and things that we I've talked to business people, selling to, I mean, with one of my attorneys a few years ago for a separate project outside of LTC and she had a quote on her, wall behind her desk that said, basically, in summing it up, business is an art form, right?

00;39;18;16 - 00;39;40;21

Dr Dermell Brunson

And so open my mind and talking to more folks on the business side, even legal, CPAs and again, real estate developers and decision makers that you don't normally consider their work to be mission focused or people focused or passion focused. You might see it as just they're after the money, right? Sure. And it's like, hey, not everyone.

00;39;40;21 - 00;40;02;14

Dr Dermell Brunson

Some people have an alignment with what they're doing that goes back to childhood, that goes back to a book they were given by a mentor that they go back to. Right. And, and then it opened them up in a way that creates that connectivity. And they see, hey, I'm building these buildings. And because that is my way of imparting into the world.

00;40;02;16 - 00;40;05;18

Dr Dermell Brunson

Absolutely. Yeah. So, yeah.

00;40;05;20 - 00;40;12;11

Matt Howlett

What's, on the horizon for, for you and for the center. What are you guys working on right now? Big projects coming up.

00;40;12;14 - 00;40;47;06

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah. So so we're we're currently, continuing our regional on site expansion throughout Maryland, DC and Virginia. More schools, more partners, more programs, and our national international push with our LTC learn virtual arts platform. So right now, we're currently talking to potential investors in that platform to ensure that, you know, there's equitable arts access to young people, that may be being homeschooled or don't school online yet.

00;40;47;08 - 00;41;08;25

Dr Dermell Brunson

And so that's important to us. And, a couple of other media, creative projects, youth TV show we're developing. Yeah. Just, you know, inspired by Mister Rogers and inspired by Jim Henson and inspired by that world of creators. We've kind of charted a path to, have a show accessible to middle school students. And so we're developing that.

00;41;08;28 - 00;41;32;29

Dr Dermell Brunson

And then, of course, meeting new partners and friends, where, again, we're nonprofit organizations. So we're in a season right now out of, fighting bureaucratic, you know, challenges, coming through the federal government. Sure. And in America and, also just, the lack of hyper attentiveness towards the arts and young people and the efficacy of the arts in young people's lives.

00;41;32;29 - 00;42;03;06

Dr Dermell Brunson

And so the big projects right now always connect to raising money, raising funds, and getting those donors and supporters who may care about young people or care about the arts and want to donate, you know, tax deductible donation to our organization to help us keep things going. Yeah, keep field trips going. Right now, we're in sharing season from March 1st through June 1st, where we intensify and increase masterclasses for the arts, field trips and performances for our young people in the programs.

00;42;03;09 - 00;42;09;15

Dr Dermell Brunson

And so we're really excited about that. Currently right now, as well as we're in the first month of sharing season.

00;42;09;18 - 00;42;13;17

Matt Howlett

Okay, cool. Very cool. Where can people find you on line.

00;42;13;19 - 00;42;58;06

Dr Dermell Brunson

LTC dot net leaders up tomorrow for Youth Center. We go by LTC as LTC dot net on social media platforms. We're at LTC Arts Arts LTC Arts on all social media platforms. The online learning platform I mentioned earlier is LTC learn dot net LTC learn that. Net. And supporters can also give love and ongoing support through our shop where you purchase, you know, hats, hoodies, t shirts and water bottles and could do that with affirmations and art sayings and cool things on that.

00;42;58;06 - 00;43;22;21

Dr Dermell Brunson

We've created internally, as well as along with some young people. And that's at LTC shop dot net. Okay. Monetary portions and proceeds go to benefit our development fund where we can get, art supplies, paint brushes, stains, items, you know, materials for performances, as well as paying for, school busses and admission to other, trip opportunities.

00;43;22;21 - 00;43;45;16

Dr Dermell Brunson

Just last month, the world's most successful musical was in town in Baltimore, the Lion King, at the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore. And we took a group of students from the Booker T Washington Middle School for the Arts in inner city Baltimore, to see that show. And so things like that, we always need cool, cool folks out there, to support their cool.

00;43;45;19 - 00;44;03;06

Matt Howlett

Yeah. Before I let you go, Dr. Mill and I want to hear the elevator pitch, and I think it needs to get out there. What is, what is it that you see as the biggest reason why people should donate, should give, should support this type of work in general, not even just LTC, because obviously, you know, I'm I'm Canadian.

00;44;03;06 - 00;44;21;27

Matt Howlett

I honestly don't know if, if I've got listeners in Maryland, you know, hopefully I'm helping you out either way. But give me that pitch, man. What what is it that you say to people in a couple sentences? That is the reason for this work and is a reason why people should see the benefit of the arts and young people.

00;44;21;29 - 00;44;45;24

Dr Dermell Brunson

That that beacon of light we talked about earlier, you know, that that's it. You see it in a young person's, you feel in their heart we must marry ourselves to the development of young people as well-rounded, holistic, whole hearted young people that will be successful adults. And that's more than just academics. It's more than just, you know, sports.

00;44;45;26 - 00;45;09;15

Dr Dermell Brunson

It is a social work. The social work comes through the arts, music, theater, dance, creativity, that creative power that exists in all of us. We must teach young people to tap into it, when they're when they're being developed, because it changes their lives in multiple ways, even if they don't choose art as a form of acting, as you mentioned earlier, profession or career or job.

00;45;09;16 - 00;45;26;25

Dr Dermell Brunson

Yeah, it could be a at home hobby. It could be, again, a self, a self healthy outlet of expression. And we will change the world and make the world a better place by ensuring that every young person has equitable and full access to the arts.

00;45;26;27 - 00;45;52;23

Matt Howlett

Above that. Yeah. I'm right there with you, man. I feel that because I know from my experience, what it has done just for me, I'll speak just for myself. But I am so thankful that, you know, I'm not in the church world anymore, but I'm so thankful that I had those opportunities growing up, and, yeah, I, I think it's a stretch to call it theater, but we had church plays, and I was in them.

00;45;52;26 - 00;46;07;28

Matt Howlett

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's a good exposure, you know what I mean? Yeah. Because in a very small way, you know, I had a part to play. I'd lines to memorize and, you know, outfit to put on and it's. Yeah, figuring yourself out, figuring out what it is that you like, you don't like expressing yourself and and learning about yourself.

00;46;07;28 - 00;46;12;18

Matt Howlett

That's a it's a crucial task that we all have, whether you have kids or not.

00;46;12;20 - 00;46;16;21

Dr Dermell Brunson

Herschel I love what you said, man. That's great. It's great stuff.

00;46;16;23 - 00;46;29;08

Matt Howlett

I love them. And, thank you for your time today. Thank you. Thank you for being you have a conversation with you, I hope, I hope you guys are able to expand exactly as you have planned. And thank you. We checking in on you.

00;46;29;10 - 00;46;39;15

Dr Dermell Brunson

Thank you. I appreciate that, and we'll love to keep having additional conversations as the months go by. If you ever have any time to talk about new things, thanks for having us along. We really appreciate it.

00;46;39;15 - 00;46;42;08

Matt Howlett

It. All right, man, it's good to meet you, Jamal. Thanks for tyquan.

00;46;42;10 - 00;46;44;04

Dr Dermell Brunson

All right, buddies.

00;46;44;06 - 00;46;58;01

Matt Howlett

Thank you for listening. I hope you found some value in this episode. If you have, be sure to share the podcast with a friend and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can find The Akkeri on socials, at The Akkeri, and on the web at theakkeri.com

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