Episode Lineup:

A PsychoDelicious Conversation – Topic: Household Relationships (Family & Therapy, Pt. 1)

Michigan History Moment – Topic: Orlando Bolivar Wilcox

Community Convos – Guests: Julie Mullin & Anya Lee / The Gathering 2026 (An Evening of Music and Fellowship)

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Welcome to a Psycho delicious conversation on mental health issues and trends from two local mental health professionals in the greater Lansing area. I'm Michael Stratton, lmsw.

And I'm Morgan Bowen, dnp, pmhnp. And we're here to provide you with a deep dive into the human experience of consciousness and beyond. Our aim is to be educational and entertaining.

So just kick back and open your ears and your minds.

Hey, I'm Mike Stratton.

And I'm Morgan Bowen.

And we're here today to talk about families and how they relate to mental health. Oh, also, we have a third voice with us that is not Dalian today. This is Brendan.

Hi there, everybody.

So are you the positive person in your family?

I don't know. I don't know.

Are you the cheerleader?

I wouldn't say this is. Well, we're jumping in.

We are. I'm gonna grill you.

Okay?

Both of you. I'm feeling spicy. I'm feeling. You got some spicy interrogative.

Well, I think. Is that a word? Your brother, a couple years ago did a play called the Incredibly Human Thing.

And I don't think there's anything more human than being in a family. We are all products of a family, one way or the other.

Families come in all shapes and sizes, all different dimensions, descriptions biological or genetic versus not and cultural and socioeconomic. I mean, there's all different dimensions of families, all different things that form, formulate what a family is.

And you and I are, you know, we're from, what would you say? Middle class, upper middle class? Families.

Yeah, middle class.

My parents Caucasian. How about you? How about you, Brendan?

Yeah, solid middle class.

Solid middle class. American, usa.

Both my parents are from Protestant traditions. You're Catholic?

Catholic. Catholic family, Catholic central, Holy Cross, all that stuff. So all that had an influence on it.

So one of my thoughts was when I think about families, there was a guy named Bill Moyers who was a great journalist. A number of years ago. He did a number of different specials.

And one of the specials he did was on a book group that was studying the book of Genesis on Old Testament Bible stuff. And he made this point. So he was recording these conversations and then editing them down. But it wasn't like only priests were there.

It was priests and clerics and rabbis and authors and atheists and artists and all kinds of different people were participating in this. And they were just giving their take on these different pieces of literature. But one person, this always stood out to me.

One person said, you know, these are all stories about families and it's about when things go wrong in families. Like who slept with the wrong person, who gets the blessing, who didn't get.

The blessing, who murdered their brother. Who murders their brother is what immediately comes to mind.

Exactly, exactly. And very few times is there any clear resolution. It's kind of like, well, this is what it is. This is the way life is.

And what are you going to do about it?

It's a very primitive thing. A very primitive. Yeah, family system. I mean, I'm thinking of caveman or primitive human clusters.

Our social groups are going to be family groups and primates. If you look back at the biological mammals and primates are very family oriented.

So when they started writing stuff down, one of the earliest stories is don't kill your brother. So that must have been going on a lot.

Yeah, well, I mean, let's not do that. People need somebody to blame also.

Let's not sacrifice our children. Let's not put them on a burning pile of wood. Yeah, that was another.

Was that another one? That's beyond.

Yeah, that was. That wasn't Job. That was Abraham. Abraham was. Had heard voices of God saying, I want you to kill one of your sons. And then when he went as.

Like a sacrifice.

Yeah. To show his fealty.

Right.

Or his allegiance.

All right, we got to move on from the Bible.

This is dark.

It says dark. Let's talk about Freud.

The Bible is pretty dark.

Then we can go to Freud, who is equally dark. I'm teasing. We don't have to.

But, you know, I think I would say most psych individuals have a lot to say about early relationships in somebody's life and how that impacts them.

They've studied it from all kinds of angles. You know, stages of development, attachment, all kinds of things. Freud.

The interesting thing about Freud, I think when he was first doing his studies, he was working with hysterical, quote, unquote, hysterical women.

And at the time, women that were having a lot of feelings and would be crying or upset or something, they would call them hysteric and they would take out their wombs, they would give them hysterectomies to relieve them of their hysteria. And he thought that there was a different cure. It was very messed up. So he would do these things.

He would have them hold a watch and he'd have them go back. You know, the watch would go back and forth in front of their eyes and he would just say, free associate. Say anything that comes into your mind.

And after a while, after he gained their trust, a lot of them started to talk about Incest experiences or being molested in some way. And at first Freud thought, oh, my gosh, this is like, there's an epidemic of this in our culture. And then he thought, that's got to be wrong.

That can't possibly be. And so he said, this is a fantasy.

This is the Oedipo fantasy that people want to, you know, boys want to sleep with their mothers, daughters want to sleep with their fathers. He thought that's probably what it was. And he was wrong. And so he's gotten a lot of flack for that over the years, and rightfully so.

He was right about other things, but not that. Anyway, let's talk about our families now.

Moving on. When families go wrong is often a topic in psych, but what about good stuff? I mean, you know, well, are you okay with talking about your family?

Where are you in your family in terms of, like, siblings?

Well, I think all families are a blend.

And even, you know, it's interesting, sometimes when kids are removed from abusive families, one of their desires is to get back into the family, you know, so there's a connection that families have that there's a lot of things that you draw from a family.

There's an origin story.

Yeah.

I'm working with folks who are adopted, especially kids, teens who are adopted. Not always, but there's frequently just a real.

Whether or not it's conscious, a desire to understand why they were put up for adoption or why they were not kept by their biological family.

I think that's true. More often than not.

People that I've worked with that are adopted often have a real strong wish to understand their own origins and sometimes have a desire to really search it out. And other times not so much, but.

And also, I think I'm thinking, you know, I'm thinking of people in genealogy. I mean, I love genealogy, and that's a. That's a hobby pastime, and I love it from.

Yeah, from like, a family background, but also, you know, kind of as a lens to look at history. But now I studied in England for a year, and I was at the University College of London, and I took. This was a social theory course.

But somehow the concept of Americans wanting to come to, you know, the UK or to Ireland to connect with their past was a. It was not necessarily a joke, but it was definitely a trope. Like the American. That is like, seeking. I did it, you know. Seeking.

Yeah.

I mean, my. My dad did it. I. You know, and it's such a major thing. Like what. You know, even for us wanting to Know, as Americans, I mean.

Yeah.

But.

Yeah.

So wanting to connect to even, like a longer history.

Yeah.

And speaking of history and the way psychology has viewed families, you know, there was the idea, I think it was very prevalent in the 70s and 80s, maybe even into the 90s, of the dysfunctional family. You know, and all families exist on a continuum. There's really positive attributes to them. And then there's also things that I.

Say, show me the functional family. I don't know that I've ever met a functional family.

Well, I think every family would probably, you know, at least somebody in the family would say, this is dysfunctional.

Every. Well, okay. Do you want to say more about that?

Well, you know, you don't know what you're getting into. You know, like, when you're growing up as a child, I mean, you know,.

You didn't pick this.

You did not pick the family. You did not pick the family. And you don't have a lot of choice as a, you know, as a child, and.

Well, this may be a point of interesting discussion, but you really don't. You know, at least when I was growing up, there wasn't a lot of choice in what was happening or how you were raised or what was gonna.

You know, I mean, it was kind of like you just. You went along with what people told you to do. And, you know, even though I. And I'm sure you. And plenty.

You know, I mean, you don't necessarily agree with it or don't have a great time or, you know, there's positives, but there's also negatives. There's just not a lot of. At least for me, it didn't feel like there was a lot of choice. You just endured until you.

Until you were done and you went off to college, in my case. But. But now I think, you know, children are much more of a. You know, they're much more of a cooperative sort of relationship. Like they.

I mean, I think some people would say kids call the shots, you know, in a lot of families these days. And, you know, the parents are more reactive to what the children want.

Whereas I would say in my family growing up, it was much more like my parents were doing whatever they were doing and we were along for the ride.

Yeah.

There's a certain amount of. That's an interesting word. Endure.

There's a certain amount of endurance that goes on in childhood where you're just kind of like, okay, this is what we're doing. And it was just the way it was.

And it isn't until you get later in your years, into your adulthood, that you look back at it and say, now wait a minute, what was that about? What's going on here? But, you know, generally, you know, when I think about my family now, my dad was very, very kind.

My mother could be very nurturing, but way too much alcohol, a lot of depression. My dad was a World War II veteran. He'd served in Europe. I think he had PTSD.

Because as a kid, you know, I was very interested in finding out what happened to him as a soldier. And anytime I'd ask him, he would dissociate. You know, he. I call it leaving the room without leaving the room. You know, he would just.

It was like, oh. And I learned after a while not to talk to him about that, not to ask him about that, because it was evidently some painful memories.

How about you, Brendan?

For sure, just thinking of my family dynamic and how we all fit in. You don't necessarily get to choose your family. You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose.

It's like that.

My parents used to say that.

Right. You can't pick your.

But you can't.

You can't learn.

Exactly.

Right, right.

But it's like, no, it's. They're the people you come into this world with and that out of all of the people on this planet, they are your people.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're. They're both, you know, I think on the one hand, they're a testing ground for conflict.

You know, those are, Those are the people that are your first rivals are your siblings. And your, your interaction with your parents is your first experience with any kind of authority figures.

And how do you negotiate that and is that a smooth ride? I always had problems with authority figures, you know, Me too. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I'm self employed.

Me too.

But with siblings, you know, they're your rivals and also your best friends growing up. And it's a combined thing. And that either gets resolved or resolved to an extent or not at all resolved. And that's different.

How many times do you hear about people saying, well, I have this brother, but I never talked to him, or I have this family member where we haven't spoken in years. And that always hits me as sad. And sometimes it's necessary if someone is really way out there or really abusive or something.

But that whole, how did people. If you can't kill your brother, what else do you do with them? I mean.

Cause that's another old World thing of shunning somebody, you are no longer in the family, which I think prior to maybe a couple hundred years ago maybe was probably a death sentence. You know, you're outside the family, you're done, you're done for, you know, kind.

Of like you have to fend for yourself.

Yeah, yeah. You become a wanderer or a, you know, just a loose person in some way. I don't know. I don't know.

Yeah, it's.

The kids were completely dependent on the parents and the parents job is really to kind of raise them until they could.

Until they could work and they could be part of the family system and contribute and you know, if you lived rurally then you just became part of that. It was an. Yeah, he wanted to leave. That was kind of a different, you know, that was unique, that was rare.

Anyway, back in those days you had 14 kids because seven of them wouldn't reach age five, you know, and.

And the rest of them were probably going to either work on the farm or they were going to apprentices if you had a, you know, if you were making shoes, for instance, that kind of thing. So there wasn't this idea of you're going to grow up and you're going to leave home and make your way.

There often was a really more pronounced kind of family unit, I think, in a lot of ways, and that's not true.

I mean, I think that families who had an immigrant experience and I think almost everybody in the United States came from a family which had an immigrant experience and. Yeah, right, right, right, right. But I'm three generations away from that experience.

On the Irish side, some people are only one, you know, or sometimes they're first generation having that experience.

So anyway, that's so interesting, you know. Now my grandmother. So my grandmother on my mom's side, her mom died when she was. Her mom immigrated from England.

So my great grandmother was English, from Liverpool, but she died in the Depression.

Are you related to any of the Beatles, do you think?

I don't think so, not that I know of.

Have you checked?

No, not really? Actually. So her last name was Pollock. P O, L, L, A, C, K. So I don't know if there's a Pollock anywhere in The Beatles.

Pollock McCartney.

Pollock McCartney. But she. So she had one brother who she was incredibly close to because her father was away. They grew up in the Depression. Her father was away.

He was a civil engineer for the military. And so she basically raised her brother after her mom died when she was in her early teens, I think. And so she describes her childhood and family.

It was just very lonely. I mean, it was just a lot of loneliness. It was in northern Michigan. She was very.

I wouldn't say she was, like, overly committed to family, but if there was a need in the family, she was a nurse. She was the one to go and help people.

This is your father's side?

This is my mom's side. Oh, your mom's side.

Okay. How about your dad?

On my dad's side. Both my grandparents were flawed. Well, you know, flawed individuals. So my grandmother grew up very poor.

The other one, and she was from Missouri, and her father died when she was very young. And so she and her three sisters moved to Detroit to work in factories when they were. It was right around the war.

So right before the war started, 40, 19, 40 or 41, she met my grandfather. He was. They married right before he went to war, and then he came back from the war.

PTSD and severe alcohol problem, and never really could, you know, kind of get it together.

Did you know those people?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Grandma and Grandpa Polly. Polly Fraser, she was a Scottish woman. And James Bowen, that was my dad's dad. So, yeah, so they. And my dad had a very. I.

You know, I don't think it was a poor relationship with his father, but it was not a fatherly relationship. Like, he was very absent. He just wasn't available.

Yeah.

And so my dad was pretty much on his own in terms of, like, kind of fending for himself very early.

That's interesting. My dad's dad died when my dad was 13.

And so the first time I ever got into therapy, and I was complaining that my dad wasn't very present to me, and the therapist pointed out, well, he didn't have a dad himself. He didn't know what to do, you know, like, oh, okay, I don't have to own that then. You know, that's not about me.

Well, in family work, you know, and that was a lot of. That was a big component for me to understand and to realize.

And you don't get that when you're a teen, when you're young, when you're a teenager, you're, I think, fundamentally very self absorbed as a adolescent.

As an adolescent, maybe it was just me, I don't know, did that, But my dad and I had enormous amount of conflict and, you know, and he just, like, he just wasn't. He was not a bad. He just didn't know what he was doing. I mean, he just really didn't know what he was doing.

And he equated, I think, being like a man, like, I'm using air quotes, like masculine man, with being a father. And that was.

And a hunter.

Yeah, he was a hunter. Rode motorcycles. I mean, you know, he was.

Yeah.

And so somehow, you know, that blend of fatherhood and masculinity, that was really important to him. He had tattoos as well, so. He had a lot of tattoos about his role as a father, his role as a man. He was a great provider. You know, he.

He did a lot of. I mean, he.

I was, you know, he did a lot of things really well, but in terms of, like, being able to, I think, relate on a structured kind of, I'm gonna sit with you and we're gonna talk. And, you know, consistently over time, like, you know, that was. That was not him. But he was busy. He was doing a lot of stuff.

So I see parents now, like my brothers, I have three brothers. And, you know, they're much more intentional, I think, with their parenting. They.

Yeah, they are aware of, like, early development stuff with their kids, and they want to spend the time. They want to teach attributes, patience, kindness, you know, so it's much more. I think it's just much more intentional.

I think my parents were just kind of making it up as they went along.

I was.

Aren't we all? Yeah, exactly. Well, I was of that generation, too, that we were considered free range, you know, just.

Just, you know, feed us breakfast, send them out, come. Come home when the. When the streets come on. Yeah, yeah. So there was.

Well, and I think that there's a role for parenting for all sorts of people who aren't parents. You know, I had teachers, I had, I mean, like, friends. And their parents are, you know, really helpful. And, you know, you meet people along the way.

Yeah.

That are meant. I guess they're. Maybe they're mentors, but they provide. They provide that, you know, journal mentorship or something.

And the other thing for me, being a parent, even though I only have one child, she also has a mother, so it's not just a brother. Yeah.

However,.

That I got a Lot of empathy from my parents after that of like recognizing like, oh my God, it's really hard to be a parent. You know, it's, it's a really difficult thing and scary thing.

You know, I remember after she was born and it was time to go home from the hospital and I thought, aren't you going to send a nurse with us? Are we supposed to keep this child alive?

Yeah, it must be, right? Yeah.

Anyway, so when a client presents, I mean, do you do a lot of, I don't know, exploration of their family dynamics?

I want to understand, you know, so I, I'm not doing therapy, but I do want to understand, you know, when I'm working in evaluation and diagnosis, how well a, there's family history of, of disease process. So, you know, depression, bipolar disorder, really, you know, psychosis.

Is this a, is there a family history of such as, well as what was your early, you know, kind of childhood like, you know, attachment wise?

Because that can be incredibly informative of if somebody has a lot of, I want to say, chaos, difficulty in relationships and you know, anxiety, stress.

Is, you know, is this from a primary kind of biochemical issue or is this more related to the way that you, your relationships are formed and maintained, your expectations and relationships, your model of things. And I think that early childhood and really throughout can be very instructive.

And that's what helps me, I guess maybe with case formulation, kind of think about where the person is coming from.

Yeah, yeah.

Pretty much the same for me that people, when I get to know people initially in therapy, I want to know who are you today, what do you like to do, what are your interests? And now what's the problem?

And then usually when we start talking about their family, you can see it starts to make sense the more they talk about their families.

And also for me, it's what is your understanding or what are your thoughts about medication? And a lot of times the family, their early experiences or what their parents thought, especially if they're young, are very influential in that.

I can think of one case where this person was pretty sick and had psychotic issues and their parent was very against them taking medication. And so it was constant. And this person was in their 20s, at least, maybe even 30s.

And so we would talk and then they would go home and their family is like such a primary source of support. And then we come back and have the same conversation over and over.

It was, you know, it was such a question as to why, if you're, are you interested in Medicaid, like, how is it that we're gonna kind of work through this and. And we weren't able to ultimately they. I don't know what they're doing, but they stopped working with me.

Have them call in.

Yeah.

All right. So in part two, we're going to talk more about therapy and family therapy.

A psycho delicious conversation is meant for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is no substitute for therapy and should not be treated as such.

If you feel a need for real therapy, you should consult your local provider, Google Therapy or therapists in your area. Check with community Mental Health or a suicide hotline if you are feeling suicidal.

Mike and Morgan welcome your questions, feedback or dilemmas.

Feel free to send us an email at a psychodelicious conversationmail.com that is a psychodelicious P S Y C H O D E L I C I o u s conversationmail.com the views expressed on.

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This is Bob Myers from the Historical Society of Michigan with a Michigan History Moment Orlando Bolivar Wilcox fought in the Civil War from start to finish.

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Welcome to Community Convos, a podcast and radio Program from lcc. Connect with conversations about what's happening in Lansing and around mid Michigan.

Hello, welcome to Community Convos.

I am Megan Simmons and I'm coming for the second time as the host of this and the first time I came here, I had Jesse Stipak here with Pickle Palooza, which was yesterday. And my voice is still recovering, but I have to say I sound a lot more like Dadalion got a little raspiness, so I'm kind of digging it.

And so this week I'm so excited because it is finally summer in Lansing, Michigan. It's supposed to be beautiful all week. And some of my favorite events that we have here in the community is during the summertime.

And so I'm really excited because I have another great friend of mine and not only a guest with me today. I have Julie Mullen, who is the owner of Hope Sports Complex, Fin Cleats Bar and Grill.

And Julie, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to let you take the mic.

Can you talk to everybody about how you got started in the Lansing area and let us know a little bit about how Hope Sports Complex has just grown and cleats let us know a little bit about that location.

Well, sure.

Well, thanks for having me, Megan. This is exciting. We have lots of good things going on.

About 15 years ago, I had taken my daughter to Europe for a soccer tour and every place that we played games at the little city or village had connected soccer fields with a little restaurant. And you'd see the older men watching the kids play, drinking their espresso or having a beer.

And I thought, wow, we don't do that really in the US and when I came back, I happened to own a soccer club. At the time.

I thought if I ever have a chance to do that and bring the ability for families to have a meal together or something like that, that would be very cool. I thought it would just bring more families together and create a really nice community space for people to gather at.

And lo and behold, Hope Sports Complex was, it still is owned by the city of Lansing and they were about ready to close it. And so I created a public private partnership with the city of Lansing and they we met with city council.

It was a big deal to get approved and they are allowing me to manage it and privately fund it. Of course, because it was closing, they have a lot of parks to manage and this one happens to be one of the bigger ones.

But it had great bones and my husband and I were looking to build a complex Anyway, well, we ended up taking it over and the first thing I did was measure out a restaurant space and an outdoor patio. And I built the biggest patio that I could afford. Back then. It was like $4 a square foot for concrete.

So it's just under an occupancy of 600 people, which is fantastic. I think we're the largest patio in the greater Lansing area.

But what I love about it is it's right in the middle of the complex and it brings sports together. Community. Some people just do parties on the patio like high school graduations, family reunions. We do big corporate team events.

And sometimes we close down the whole park for events like wedding receptions and things like that. So we're doing a little bit of everything. And I am a female owned company. I am the board of directors.

So if it makes sense to me and we can make a little profit, then we can do it. Usually, you know, if you can dream it, that's what we. We try to say. Yes. What's your question?

So, yeah, and you, you guys really grew during COVID right?

We did.

It was like everything. You couldn't go inside. Weren't you like, one of the best? I mean, your plants are beautiful.

Thank you.

I know, they're so. I mean, you're really good at just making it look gorgeous out there. And Covid, we were just so. We couldn't go anywhere.

And then this provided an outdoor space. Were you voted, like one of the top event centers spaces during that time, especially for weddings?

Not at that particular time.

And we would get a call saying, hey, my mother hasn't seen our new baby. She's coming in. We have 10 people. Do you have space outdoors?

So we just separated families and put them in different areas of the patio so that they could all enjoy each other and not be worried about catching anything. And it worked out great.

And we were finally discovered by the public because we were really primarily taken over by just the soccer families and the other athletic families and their children and spectators and things like that. We hold very large tournaments and a lot of people didn't know that we were open to the public.

So during COVID people are like, hey, you have a patio? Can we sit by ourselves? And we did that a lot. We held a lot of wakes as well.

Just a lot of people passed away during that year, and it was a place to celebrate their life. And I was really happy that we could do that.

I didn't realize that.

Yeah.

Wow. And so what excites you the most right now in this season? Is it. Everything is. Kind of excites you the same.

Is it the events that you're gonna have coming up? Is it the food? Is it the sports stuff? Is it all of it combined? Like, from your perspective, what inspires you the most?

Owning the great space that you have. I mean, so much potential. What sparks you the most?

I think it's seeing when I drive up and it's packed, like, the fields are just all used for different things, like children's lacrosse, men's rugby.

We have a very large flag football program that's run very well by the NFL flag football people and that takes up almost all the parking spaces on Sundays. But it's just. Just having everybody there and they're excited.

Then they win a game and the whole team comes in for a meal, and the parents are happy because we sell alcohol. And it's not really a destination bar. It's more of, like, a bar of convenience for people to enjoy a cocktail.

We make our own sangria, and everybody has a smile on their face when it's sunny out. So you just look around. Yesterday, it was a beautiful day. We were super busy.

We had a couple of high school open house grad parties, and everybody was just happy. You know, there's music playing. I'm a freak about plants.

So I start looking for plants in March and slowly bring them over there and just watch them grow all summer. And it's just fun. It's just a joyful, happy place for me because it has flowers and life and lots of smiles. We. I think we sell very good food.

We make most of the food fresh. I'm a foodie, so if I wouldn't pay for it at a restaurant, it won't stay on the menu. Right. It's gotta be good.

Yeah. And I've gotta vouch for that. So the ACME office is right around the corner. And I'm so excited because I'm like, julie, I'm gonna go there for lunch.

I'm gonna go there to work on your patio during the day. It's like this hidden gem during the day. So it's such a good place if you're out in the area, you know, to.

To go and just swing by there and you can bring your family and bring your. Your Businesses and your teams to go and eat there. And your food is. I will vouch for that. Is absolutely phenomenal.

Well, thank you.

You're welcome. Very genuine. And I had my wedding there, and it was just phenomenal.

And so I think the patio, I think a lot of people still, when I talk about it, they talk about the sports complex side of things, but there's such a bigger realm that has now become a lot more apparent, I think, to the community, which is so fun. Yeah. So today we brought you in specifically about a new type of event that you're really excited about.

I mean, out of all of them, you've never done an event like this before, which is why specifically we brought you in today to share with the community what some new things are happening there over the summer and you brought a guest. So can you kind of bring us through that? Maybe invite us and introduce us? I'm sorry to analy and what you guys are doing.

Absolutely.

Well, I've just been thinking about unique events to hold at Hope, but one thing keeps coming back to my head and my heart, and that is holding a Christian concert. And I attend New Hope Church in East Lansing. And I had the pleasure of meeting Anya at one of my Bible studies.

And she just quietly, humbly said, I'm a singer. And Evan's like, excuse me? And she's like, yeah, I'm on Spotify. So then I invited her out to Cleats to talk about that and tell her my vision.

And she's like, wow, I belong to this group. And I'm gonna let Anya tell you about that. But there's lots of singers that are. They just want to.

They just want to serve, you know, the Lord and sing their songs and tell their testimonies. And we're hoping to pull it all together and have a wonderful Christian concert on July 24th.

And so Anya has been busy in the background securing some of the artists, and we've got a lot to do, but it's going to be a fantastic show and we can hold a lot of people there. Our goal is a thousand attendees, so hopefully our listeners can spread the word. But I'd like to.

To have Anya speak a little bit more about the group that she's in and what they offer. Hi.

Hi.

Thanks for coming out today.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, you're welcome. So tell us your side of the story to this. Yeah.

So I'm fairly new to Lansing about a year now and was able to get connected with an amazing church, New Hope, and met Julie in our Women's study, which was just wonderful. I was given the opportunity to support leading worship on Sunday mornings, which is just so fulfilling.

And I would say probably about two, maybe three years ago, I started doing music as an independent artist. And I was blessed to connect with nrt, which is new release today.

Started with just a few artists. Now, I believe we're more than 30 of us of varying degrees of professionalism, or some are fairly new, some have been established.

And I communicated with Kevin McNeese, who's the president and the owner, and when he heard about this opportunity, he was absolutely excited.

Static to be able to support it through nrt, but also to have all of those that are signed with him as a distributor be given the opportunity to come together.

And we're hoping that this would be the first stop on the tour and that we'll have an NRT presents the gathering in numerous cities that are the home cities of these artists. So because I was willing to be a bit of a guinea pig, and because I'm pretty good at organizing things, I was, you know, the. The first city.

So we're gonna do it here.

And it was just beyond imagination to be able to work with Julie for cleats and hope to be able to have a place like that that we know is blessed and eager to connect with the community in that way. So we're really excited to kick this off.

Wow. So do you know how many destinations you guys are focusing on?

Yeah, currently I would say that we have six strong options. We've got Minnesota, we've got South Carolina. We even have a location in Canada right now that we're looking at. So. Yeah.

And let's go. Lansing, number one.

Let's go.

That's awesome.

Yeah, that's way cool.

Yeah.

So I guess from that, what. What are people that are maybe are listening to this and they're like, okay, so what is the experience gonna be like, who's gonna be there?

How long is this gonna be? Can you kind of give us, like a snapshot? Expect, like, if we. If we attended this event?

Of course, yes. So currently we have four groups or artists that have committed, so obviously I will be there. And I'm Anya Lee.

If you're trying to find me on social, it's me, Anya Lee. You'll find me. We also have Scott Riggin, the Slower I Go and Howard Grip. They all are unique in their sound and their style, which is gonna be fun.

We have another potentially three artists that are also interested. We're reaching out to community churches to see if anyone would be willing to come and join us.

Whether that's for testimony time, prayer, anything of that nature. Each of the groups will be doing just a handful of songs. We're going to start at 6pm and we're going to go until people are tired of us, I guess.

It will be wonderful.

Hey, Julie.

Yes.

You might want to pack a cat.

Yes.

Snacks. Snacks.

And cats.

And cats. We've got Cleaves and we're really excited for each of the artists to be able to share a bit of their story.

Everybody comes to music or ministry from a different standpoint. I know for me personally, I'm a pastor's kid.

So I was raised in the church and I used to think that I didn't have much of a testimony because I was a pastor's kid. But not too long ago I went on a hiking trip and my hiking partner decided to go on her own without me. And I died.

And two ladies found me on the trail and they revived me and they took me to the hospital. And ever since then it became an undeniable hunger that the things I was doing before were too small. I was thinking singing in church is enough.

And God let me know very clearly that it was not. And if he put songs in my heart to write and to sing, I needed to commit to that. So this is my second act and I'm committed to saying yes.

Even when it's uncomfortable, even when it's strange, even when it gives me a little bit of a panic attack. He's got it. So this is part of that.

Okay.

I didn't expect that.

Isn't that a great story?

I didn't expect that story. That's amazing. Yeah. So. Well, that just threw me off. I just was like, yeah, she did say that. She said that's amazing. So, okay, so we've got cleats.

What a perfect. What a perfect place to spring this at six o'. Clock.

So it sounds like you've got bands that are going to be there, people that are going to be speaking, kind of a laid back atmosphere. I'm assuming family friendly.

Absolutely.

Okay. And there is a lot of local talent in Lansing. I mean, that's one thing.

We got Jazz Festival, Blues Fest, but we've got all These people that just love. We love music here. I really do believe that's one thing we do really well. Music on the park, you know, all the things.

So if there are any artists out there or any churches that want to be a part of it, just really quickly, is there a way that they can reach out to you? What is the best way to do that?

100%. So we just kicked off things on social media last week, so it still looks a little bit bare, but it is there.

So you can reach [email protected] and then the gathering. Lansing would be on Instagram and TikTok. And then there will be a Facebook event page that will be going up shortly.

So the gathering and then what we'll do, guys, for anyone who's listening, we'll make sure that all of those links are in the show notes so that that way it's easy to do that. Okay, so Julie, from your perspective, you're preparing these people to come there with.

I'm assuming you're gonna provide food, things that they can order there and come hungry.

Yes. Yep. Come hungry and ready to listen to some great artists. And they can pray they can just celebrate life with all of us.

And it's gonna be a wonderful day.

Yeah. And so I'm thinking, like, you have big numbers in mind.

I do.

So I'm like, I'm visioning cleats. Like, should people bring their own chairs? Like, how can people be prepared coming to this event?

So that's a great question, Megan.

I have rented the Showmobile from Lansing and it's a big trailer that opens up as a stage and it has built in electricity and lighting and all of that. And each artist can be up there and they do their thing and then they exit and then the next group sets up and does their thing.

So it'll be pulled up in a roundabout area and there's a grassy areas all over the place. They can set up their lawn chairs, blankets, and just enjoy the music that way.

Or if they want to sit in chairs on the cleats patio, there's lots of seating there. We may have extra seating here and there as well. So we're figuring all that out. But they can certainly bring their own chairs and things.

Okay, great.

To enjoy.

No, that's great. And you definitely have ample parking there. If anyone who's listening has ever been to cleats, that's like really great benefit to that.

It is.

Now, is there a registration? Are there tickets or can you just show up? So what is that, like.

So there is going to be some information that's going up hopefully by the end of this week. We're working on a ticket page right now. We're looking at cost per vehicle, just to make it a little bit easier coming in.

There will also be a VIP area that will come with a couple of little perks, whether that is food or drinks. And we're finalizing all of that right now. So that'll not only be posted on the event, but we're trying to lock down the eventbrite page as well.

So all that information, if they're looking on social@thegatheringlancing, or if they want to email us thegatheringlancingmail.com we'll be able to get all of that out, but we're gonna work really diligently connecting that to Julie's information to my information on social and. And they'll be able to get all the details as they roll out.

Great, great. So, again, I'll try to make sure all those things as they come about will go into the show notes.

Maybe there'll be a perk in there for all of our listeners or something like that. Yeah, we can do that. I mean, I'm just so excited. I want to hit your numbers. And I love the idea of paying for per vehicle. That's really interesting.

I haven't heard that in a while at an event, but something that could be managed inch there. No, that's really neat. Anything that you're most excited about, like, is there going to be books that people can buy?

Swag?

Are you more excited about people being able to just meet each other, meet the artists? Like, tell me, what are your, you know, inspiration that you're the most excited to see come into fruition from this event?

Well, I'm excited just because my vision of a couple of years ago is going to gonna come to fruition. And it's just, to me, it's God's work.

Just when I met her, like, it was just like, oh, gosh, that's exactly what I needed at the right time, you know, and just pulling all the artists together and understanding why they are in this and sharing their life with us and their skills and artistry. And they all have different merchandise. Anya can talk a little bit about that, but we'll have lots of stuff going on.

We've got a big tent and a place to pray and worship and talk to the artists even. So you want to expand upon that?

Sure.

I'm excited for it to be not very formal, not a Lot of distance between people.

I'm excited to not just share the music that the Lord has put on my heart, but also just be able to talk to people and hand out free stickers and have a good time, close with people without a lot of distance. That makes me really excited. And the artists who have already confirmed are very much the same way.

They're all about connection, testimony, winning souls for the kingdom. I think that they would be just as excited for that.

And then obviously the ones that are able to bring or ship merch are doing that as well so that people can leave with a little goodie, a little tidbit of the gathering that's fun.

And for something like this. Julie, are you guys looking for any volunteers or anything like that, or are you going to.

We definitely are, yeah. Volunteers, corporate sponsors. Any company that's Christian based that has a calling to help us out, we would certainly like that help.

There will be a link tree in the bio of all of our platforms that people can link to, volunteer to, donate to, sponsor. We've got tiered sponsorship which they can choose a package and then that will be in part of our marketing as well.

So all of that will be in the bios of our social pages.

Great, Great. All right.

Yep. We still have a lot of work to do, but it's all coming together pretty quickly and I think it's just meant to be.

So it, it should all be out there in the next week or so. Yeah, I think.

Can you remind us the date again? July.

It's Friday, July 24, and it starts at 6. 6 Until roughly 10. But if we have to go later, we will gladly. But yeah, we're very excited.

I know, we're excited too. And cleats is open now, so in the meantime we can start going to eat because I know you're seasonal. So are you completely open?

What are your hours look like right now for people to come visit cleats?

We are completely open. We are open Monday through Friday, 4 until 9pm, Saturday is 10 until 9pm and Sunday is 11 till 8pm all right.

We all go to church on Sunday morning, so we gotta make it later.

No, I'm so excited. Thank you so much for coming.

And is there anything else that you feel is really important that you feel a lot of people are not thinking of when it comes to cleats?

When people are thinking about going out and doing something in the community, what do you want them to think about with cleats that you think people are not. They're not thinking of what is something unique that you'd like them to know that they know they can come and experience there every time.

It's just, it's hard to find like a dining area to dine al fresco and just enjoy the beauty and nature around us and have really good fresh food and it's open to the public.

A lot of people just think that we're sports related only and we're tucked away up inside Hope's Worth complex, which is located on Aurelius Road between Miller and Jolly.

If they don't know where that is, it's an old landfill, but it has a beautiful patio and it's a happy place to eat and great food and beverages and great music and hopefully see everybody there.

That is wonderful.

And then how about you, Anya?

Yeah.

As a newbie to Lansing and not knowing where everything is and just trying to find my way around, it was so refreshing to be there and be up on a hill with a view. Whether you play sports or have family. I'm a single lady living in Lansing and I didn't feel out of place.

It was great to be there, feel safe, get amazing food. And the hospitality is top tier. Not just because I know Julie now, but even my first time there.

The students that work there, the young people, the cooking staff, everyone was just super warm and welcoming. So if you're just looking for a new place to try, that's it.

Absolutely. And no, I can't agree more. Thank you, Julie, so much for being here. Annalee, thank you for sharing your story and partnering with Julie on this.

And there is, there's a lot of events going on this summer, but not a lot like that. And so we're really excited for you to try something different and big.

So everyone who is listening, if you want to be involved as a business or if you want to volunteer, make sure that you're following the links that we'll have in the show notes. Check out Cleats on Facebook. I know you guys are really regularly on there.

Stay in the know how and if not, please mark your calendars for July 24, a Friday night and come out to Cleats. Thanks guys. Both perfect.

Thank you. Megan.

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