(Ep.86) Finding Purpose In The Dark with guest Corey Staten

Chuck: 0:10

Welcome back to another episode of Lets Just Talk About it podcast. I'm your host, chuck, and if you're here for the first time, this platform was created to give genuine people just like you an opportunity to share a portion of your life's journey. So, with that being said, on this episode, I have guest Corey Staten on with me, where he shares his experience growing up in Chesapeake, Virginia, and how he lost his vision at the age of 19. However, through it all, he became an accomplished playwright, with several stage play strips produced at several local theaters here in Virginia. So, hey, you don't want to miss this amazing conversation today. As a matter of fact, do me a favor go and grab your husband, your wife, your children, or even call a friend and gather around to listen to my conversation with Corey on let's Just Talk About it podcast. Hey, let's jump right in. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode of Lets Just Talk About it podcast Today. I have Corey Staten on with me today. So how you doing today, Corey? I'm doing fabulous. Glad to have you on today. I'm glad to be here. So, I'm on the privilege. Yes, sir, appreciate you, man. Man, I love to jump right into my interviews to have those genuine conversations, Corey, with genuine people just like yourself. You know kind of the share portion of your life's journey and, as I always state, man, you never know who's listening, you never know who's going through the same thing that you're talking about. So this platform is about, you know, encouraging people.

Corey Staten: 1:35

Yeah, you need more platforms like this because I know, with the things that I went through as a teenager heading into young adulthood, I didn't have anybody to listen to or turn to to help me navigate my situation. That had done it before. So, yeah, that's why I definitely say, when you gave me a call, especially because you were recommended by the fabulous Ms Carla Turner, shout out to Ms Carla. Yeah, shout out to Ms Carla. But yeah, what you recommended. You stopped to me and I talked to you. I said, yeah, I got to come up here because there are too many times that our people out there that are going through something but they don't know who to reach out to and how. So, yeah, I always try to make myself available for those type of situations.

Chuck: 2:19

Yeah, appreciate you, man. So first of all, man, I just want to ask this question, man, where are you from?

Corey Staten: 2:25

Oh man, I'm from Deep Creek, chesapeake, virginia. Yeah, a little place, they call back the whole. That's how this little country park One way in, one way out neighborhood.

Chuck: 2:38

Yeah, I'm familiar with that back, they call it back the whole.

Corey Staten: 2:42

One way in right, yeah, one way out.

Chuck: 2:43

Yeah, it's got to say it right there. You got to say back the whole, back the whole, not the the Okay got you, yeah, yeah back the whole yeah. Shout out to back the whole man Deep Creek, yeah, so how was it for you man growing up back there, man you know, in Deep Creek?

Corey Staten: 3:01

Oh man, it was awesome because shout out to the Jenkins and Harvey family Okay, the Harpers back there, the Perkins Wow. I grew up around a lot of people. I was the only child. Okay, my mom and dad. They were going to be able to have me because my dad had a childhood memory that they thought was going to keep them from having children. But here I came, so I guess I was destined to be here. But growing up, growing up without brothers and sisters, it was amazing because a lot of cultured folks were called a cul-de-sac. I lived on a dead end street and it was several children right around my age group that were there and I'm talking about. We had enough kids to play legit five on five basketball, legit 11 on 11 football, and so you know, we had a ball. I had a ball going up and then, of course, being an only child, you know I have an every day I did your friends go on your nerves. So once my friends got on my nerves and I just go home to the same, to my home. I had two awesome, loving parents and especially, I had an awesome dad. I love my mom and but my dad, resting soul. He was an awesome dad. He taught me a lot. I could go to him about anything. You know, I got in trouble, but he always guided me through those situations. So you know that was awesome. So how long has it been gone, man? Oh see, he asked me to do some math. Let's see, my oldest daughter is 17. So he's been gone about 16 years now.

Chuck: 4:26

Wow, Wow, 16 years First in peace. Man Shout out to dad man, yeah, wow.

Corey Staten: 4:33

So yeah, but like I said, it was a great, you know great. Growing up in that community. You know tight knit. Family is still tight knit for those that still live in those guys and a lot more developed in that area. The neighbors, a lot of the same neighbors, are still there. My mom, she's elderly and she's there on her own and I get out there as often as I can but my neighbors always keep an eye out for her to cut the grass for her. They'll make sure trash kids get up. So it's still that tight knit community that's out there.

Chuck: 5:00

So you think about growing up in Deep Creek, man. What were some of the challenges? I know you talked about the good times in Deep Creek. Back to home, you know what I mean. So as a young guy, young male growing up in that time, what were some of the challenges that you faced?

Corey Staten: 5:17

growing up Challenges that I faced. Really, it sounds kind of fair to say I really didn't face any immediate challenges because, you know, contrary to popular belief, I didn't know what divorce was. I didn't know what a single mom was growing up by then. I grew up around stable families all the time. So I think about the only challenges that I had was how did we avoid the watchful eyes of the parents when we were doing something that?

Chuck: 5:48

we didn't get to do man talk about it, go ahead. Hey, go love man. I know this is your interview, but you are exactly right. I had a neighbor and I used to take my mom in the hit car when he left and I always got in trouble and I always wondered who was telling on me. It was the next door neighbor. Yeah, yeah, soon, you're right.

Corey Staten: 6:11

Yeah, we had a Miss Jinkers. She was the mama that everybody was scared of and it was like so if you even thought about doing something, you had no business doing. Miss Jinkers for home. You thought about it again and you didn't do it Because she wasn't a. Go tell your parents about you. She would tell you about yourself, tell you, tell them and then send you home. Send you home. Yeah, she was in play. So, to be honest, I had it relatively. It wasn't until I got older and was able to drive. I began to experience I need to quote, unquote challenges. I grew up as far as the school system was concerned. It was very, very much a mixed school. It wasn't like a predominantly white or predominantly black, it was all. It was pretty culturally diverse. So I really didn't have any challenges and didn't understand what the challenges I faced were going to be until I got older and started going into other communities when I was driving and doing those types of things. That's when I started finding out oh, all the world is not like back to home.

Chuck: 7:18

Interesting man. I hear you were a football player man.

Corey Staten: 7:22

Oh, yeah, I still love the sport to this day. You know I can't watch it. I actually, you know, shot up the call of term and two up there because I've gone to a couple of professional football games. Yes, I'm a Washington Commander's fan. My name is Lister. Just go ahead, yeah, go ahead and give it to me why you want to give it to me. But yeah, I've been to a couple of professional games. Even though I can't see, I still listen to the games online and on the radio. I just love football. So I grew up playing football, you know, from the age of 12, organized football is the age of 11 all the way through high school and got a half a look by a pretty local HBCU, and but at that time I I about something. I got to be a senior. I had some coaching that I just didn't really enjoy. I had one coach when I was younger, from nine to 11, ray Jim Garrett. He was an awesome coach and but when they changed command, the game just wasn't fun to me anymore. So even though I got a half look at my HBCU, I was just like I don't have the passion anymore and so I told him no, and so that's when I decided to pursue more academic studies, I was going to go be an X-ray technician and then become a nuclear medicine technician and working the hospital and just keep living out my dreams of you know, you know being. I want to go back and become a football coach, but you know you have to high school. They all got waylaid by. You know me losing my vision.

Chuck: 8:53

So you just said something I wanted to go into because I heard you say earlier you love football, you know, but now you really can't see it. Talk about that, man, you, you're not being able to see that, your vision.

Corey Staten: 9:06

Yeah, that happened, like I said, literally I graduated high school, deep creek high school in 1993. And then, in the fall of 1994, I still have any severe headaches and migraines and things of that nature. And ironically, it was after around the vaccinations that I had to take to work at the hospital and I just started losing weight. I couldn't hold food down, had these severe headaches, neck stiffness, and you know, I got, you know, tested for everything. I had people having me. I was getting popped for random drug tests because they thought I was on drugs, because I'd be at work, you know, kind of like fall in sleep and in odd places, and it was just. It was just so draining and I would keep these fever spikes like 103, 102, you know fever's going, and in the middle of June I'm walking around with a coat on because I'm freezing, because that's the, that's the action to the fever, and so didn't know quite what was going on. They told me it was stress, they told me some of everything, and then just one day I went to the doctor because I had blurred vision. I couldn't. I was driving home one night and I got my eyes got caught by the traffic light and it went black for a while and then I came under the traffic like I could see it again. So I went to the doctor to get checked out and he shined his light in my eye and he said need to get you to a neuro-optimologist quick. And so I went to a neuro-optimologist. They said, yeah, it's something pressing on your optic nerve and it may be a tumor. And you know, at the age of 19, at the time it was like, okay, that's the scariest thing you hear that you might have a brain tumor. So I went on to the doctor and they found it was not a brain tumor, but I was. My body was reacting like I had been a gynecologist. And after about a month of treatment and two surgeries I woke up in the hospital and I told my mom and dad I said, hey, that's a blood light cell. And I said, hey, this is dark in here. And they were like what are you talking about? It's 11am, the blinds opened, the sun, the sun is shining in the room. And then I realized that the TV was on but I couldn't see it. I could hear it but I couldn't see it. And then I needed to say I lost it right in the hospital. But in fact it was a little bit. I went through some periods of time where I was severely depressed because I felt like life was moving on without me and even got to one day where I ain't gonna lie, I could say that, you know, ending it all. It wasn't a question of if it was just how, and yeah, but you know, thanks to God, my good friend, mike Jenkins, lifelong friend, he came over and knocked on the door and he just said something in my spirit to say come check on you. And it's a deeper story than that. But yeah, he came and checked on me and we talked, he prayed and we just talked and talked and I was determined that, you know, I got to be here for a greater purpose than that and this is just. You know, this is a hurdle I got to overcome. So, yeah, so it was a major adjustment. I mean, you know, I wasn't able to drive anymore. I had to depend on somebody to come get me and take me places. It wasn't like I could just walk around and you know, you know, if I wanted to go shopping, I couldn't just go, try, to the mall, right, I had to wait for somebody to take me and go with me and you know I ain't gonna lie. You know, shoot, I can't see all the pretty girls going by.

Chuck: 12:22

I got you, man, everything changed, yeah, yeah.

Corey Staten: 12:27

It was just a big change for a 19 year old kid. Wow, I mean, I ain't gonna say, well, you grown when you're 18, when you're not out as a kid. Yeah, I hadn't lived all my life and so it was a really big shock and, like I said, but you know, praise be to God, you know, made it with faith, family and friends. Faith, family and friends, I like that Faith, family and friends.

Chuck: 12:47

I love it.

Corey Staten: 12:47

Yeah, that's what helped me get me through Wow.

Chuck: 12:51

Shout out to Mike Jenkins, man for coming.

Corey Staten: 12:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah, past the Mike Jenkins.

Chuck: 12:56

Okay, shout out to the past. The Mike Jenkins yeah.

Corey Staten: 12:58

Yeah, yeah, that's my best friend. Yeah, you know ups and downs he's been a major part of it and you know I can't thank God for him enough in his wife, tony Jenkins man, they've been there through the best and the worst of it, so I appreciate them for everything they do. So, yeah, so I consider myself an honorary Jenkins. You know, that's a great. They're a great family because, like I said, even his older sister, she owns brother's restaurant downtown Norfolk and she's basically created a legacy of business and entrepreneurship for her family. So it's just, they're just a whole, entire awesome family. I can't thank God enough for having them in my life.

Chuck: 13:40

Yeah. So where you are now today, does it still affect you a little bit, like not being able to have your vision?

Corey Staten: 13:49

I think I'm adjusted to a lot of different things. Like you know, I still go to movies and you know, in past times when we were together, my wife would never dictate what was going on in the movies. And so I'm, and now my children have gotten to be old enough, they started doing it. We watched the stuff at home. They'll tell me some of the actions on stage, what's going on on the screen. So you know, I still do a lot of those types of things. But I think, with two things, that I miss most is that I've never seen my daughters, and I told them. I said, if I woke up today with my vision, I said y'all would be forced to sit on that couch of snout until I got tired of looking at you. I said, and then I'm going to go back through all the baby pictures and look at y'all. I had y'all transitioned and y'all grown and I said probably going to require like 1800 boxes of Kleenex. That's how I get through. Crying and blowing my nose. I said but yeah, that's about the biggest thing that I miss is actually being able to physically put eyes on my daughter. But that's led us to have, you know, some very close bonds because, shoot, I think they all spent like the first three months of their life taking naps on my chest and so and I did, I spoiled them. You know I held them all the time and things of the nature, and I did create a tighter father daughter bond. And I do get moments where I'm like God, doggy, you know, my ride is late again. You know I get those moments that kind of remind me that I can't see. But other than that, you know, I'm thankful I came up in the age of technology when all this happened, because I'm able to use my screen reader to work, because I do have several sides to what I do. You know I'm an educator, educator at the Portman Museums system. So I teach a lot of educational programs, playing special events. But it also has allowed me to do entrepreneurship myself, because my company, clear Vision Entertainment, formed else, formerly a member of Ahton Pahn Entertainment, but I'm now flying under the banner of Clear Vision Entertainment LLC. Talk about it. Basically what I do with that is I'm able to go and travel, you know, to perform and I teach in informal education. So I teach social studies, anti-bullying for kids and grown-ups. I do corporate trainings. I've done several team building workshops throughout the Hanson Rules area and beyond, and just using world music and storytelling. And because I'm a professional storyteller using world music, storytelling, story sharing and team building exercise by creating music to get people into a mindset of teamwork you know to be cliche mixed to dream work. You can't have a good company if you don't have a tight team inside. Wow, your communication in your, in your business, is what drives your business to be successful to the clients outside. If you got bad customer service from the front end of your business, you don't have bad customer responses. And so my goal is to teach people how to communicate and resolve internal conflict and stress and to build a better, more positive work environment through using music, storytelling and story sharing. Wow, this is a backtrack, just to let everybody know. I got to that point when I attended Old Dominion University and I say this, study communication, history and theater arts, and I say this not to brag, but just to inspire I went to school without being able to see a thing and graduated with a 3.99 GPA. And it's all because of those three F's faith, family and friends. I didn't do it by myself. I had a lot of people you know walking, supporting me and saw all this. So yeah, but you know, now I'm now parlayed that until, like I said, the crew vision entertainment business and also I do I have done independent work for independent contract work, for writing scripts for training films, for investor reels for companies that want to entice investors to invest in their properties or their business. So I wrote scripts for that. And a partner of mine up in Nate, darren shout out to Darren, I call him next DMC, up in Pennsylvania. He's major influence on my writing because he's an animator and he's worked for some pretty big companies. Some of you might you know he's worked for some little companies that people might not know, you know Disney, marvel or some of those places, those small companies, yeah, so he's been a major supporter of mine, a great friend, a great friend, and so I've been doing script writing and even now I've had several play scripts produced and commissioned by local theaters. You know hands and rose and coming up in February well, we're already just about in February, coming up the weekend 16th, ok, the whole raw players, family theater and awful. Yeah, they're actually going to be producing my stage play, path to Freedom and Carla Turner is actually directing that, and so that's going to be an awesome experience. So, yes, I've found that side of myself in the darkness. I would have never found myself. Yeah, I would never found my creative self in the light. Oh, that's good, yeah, so so, yeah, so you know how they say. You know, before this dark, before the light is the darkness, yeah, things that nature. Yeah, like I said, I always been a bonafide fool and my dad used to say, just being trying, you know, being humorous and funny and things like that, but I never would have actually went and dove into that side of myself and not yield out the challenges.

Chuck: 19:29

So yeah, so let me ask you this man, let me ask you this what is a professional storyteller? What is that?

Corey Staten: 19:38

That's a good question, because a lot of people just don't know. Yeah, but it's a person that gets paid to go and tell stories. The way I do it is the way I explain it is. I'm a cost between an actor, a motivational speaker and a teacher. Got you and a comedian all rolled in the wine. And so, to give you an example, you know how Bill Cosby and a lot of people don't like to hear his name these days, but I'm going to use him as an example. If you ever listen to a Bill Cosby comedy album, you're not like laying on the floor rolling around as if you were listening to like Dave Chappelle or Kat Williams. And even Dave Chappelle, to agree, I would say you know I'm not as famous or funny as he is, but they're all storytellers. Comedians are storytellers.

Chuck: 20:24

Got you, I got you yeah.

Corey Staten: 20:27

Right, but they just come on the brand of comedian. See, I'm smart, I got some businesses. I call myself a storyteller because that way if I ain't funny, nobody was paying. No one was paying to come see me be funny. They'll come to hear a story, right. But if they think I'm funny at the time, then great. So hats off to comedians, because you have to be funny Until you step on the stage. Yes, me, I don't have to be, it's just a bonus, got you. So that's why I'm saying, oh, you should be a standard. No, no, no, no, you won't get me booed off stage. Yeah, right, right, right, I got you. Yes, so that's what I would say. You know, just just thinking people like Dave Chappelle and Bill Cosby, some of the other comedians and take the title comedian off of them and just think about what they do in the storytelling.

Chuck: 21:15

Got you man, that's deep man. You had a lot of young guys coming up right and listen to the challenges you've faced in life and out of those challenges you've become creative. So what would you say to a young person today Young male man that's that doesn't have those challenges like you do, but they're going through some challenges. What would you say to them to encourage them today?

Corey Staten: 21:38

Well, I would say to them is this try everything positive at an early age and I say this more to the parents than to the young men themselves but get your children involved in multiple things at multiple times. You know, give them choices. Because you don't get it early, because you don't want to force them to do anything, because they kind of they, they, they kind of get spiteful towards it and they don't want to do it. You're resentful, but you know, my parents were great. What they would do with me is, I don't know if you remember, back in the day, they had a little blue sheet that would come out from Parks and Rec. Ok, my parents said look, you can pick out three things that they and we're going to see which one that you really want to do. So that's actually how I got into football was you know, football is available. So I picked that and, boom, I stayed out there, stage 12 to 18. My parents, they encouraged me to. It's a funny story. They actually fostered my love for theater. My dad was a great storyteller, you know, telling me about growing up as a kid in Elizabeth City, north Carolina. But it was funny because I went to DP Elementary School and when I was in first grade. Right, there's this teacher there named Miss Walker and she was so fine and she was my first. She was my first girl from the she knew, you know. She asked me. She asked me if I would be the lead in the school play. I went home to my mom and dad. Miss Walker asked me to be the lead character in the school play. I said what's this play about? I said I don't know. And so I went back to school and found out I was playing Santa Claus and she was adamant about having the African American kid play Santa Claus. So, and it helped us a little bit, but my parents, my parents wouldn't let me just say the lines I mean you talking about my mother and father. They coached me through that whole process, but I had fun doing it. It was fun, and even in my writing, my mother, she encouraged me to read a lot. And then back in the day, when we actually had textbooks we go to school with, you know, we had those reading books and we had to answer questions. I had to like, take those vocabulary words and make up stories with them for some of my assignments, and so my mother really pushed me to be as creative as I could. So I tell everybody the parents, get them involved in something early, whether it's sports, whether it's martial arts. If you have a child that can draw or that can dance, don't tell them it's not a career in it. Don't tell them that. Find out what the career choices are, because you know I use my friend. Darren is an example. Darren was told he should really work. Look for a job at the post office to tell the drawing man. That dude has drawn album covers for hip hop artists. He has done some major ad campaigns that we see on TV to this day. He's one of the few artistic or creative directors at a major ad company in the United States. And because his mother and father wouldn't accept the fact, no, just because my son can't control, that's not me. He could be gangsta employee, right Right, there are other people that I know. Like I said, you know you don't have to be the dude in the mic. You don't want to be an MC or a rapper. You don't have to be the person. You can be the person producing the beats. You can be the person that's doing the recordings. Absolutely, you can get, you can. You'll be getting royalties off of that way. After MC, whoever he might be, is off the mic, right, right, exactly. And so it's like I mean, how many years James Brown been in the ground, his estate still getting royalties? Why? Because he was producing his own music, wow. And so he kept the rights to his own music. So don't stifle a child's creativity. You know, whatever it is that passions, please foster that passion. But as young men and young adults going up, if you have a passion, find a way to explore. Find yourself a mentor that's doing what you want to do professionally, and get with that person and tell them what you're doing. Say, hey, what can I do for you? Cause I want to learn about your business. I want to do what you're doing. I mean, even if it's just, you know, if it's a long-term service, I do, you know so many yards for you for free, without pay, if you just show me how to set my business up. And then there are also a lot, especially in the black community, a lot of what they call incubators here in the local Hentaroza area Okay, there's something called the B force accelerator and they actually teach you the ends of our outs of setting up your business. For success, now you have to have been in business, I believe, for at least a year or two, before you can qualify to be in the program. But they take you to different resources. They talk, walk you through the books, get bank loans and how to set yourself up for success. Brian Owens is one of the key players in that um in that organization. So I guess it just get with somebody that's successful, volunteer to do something for them in exchange for their wisdom and knowledge. That's what I tell people.

Chuck: 26:41

The reason why I asked that man, cause there's so many young guys that are going to prison, that are, you know, being killed on the street. And I think it comes down to what they see, the exposure. They haven't been exposed to something better, so it was like right, when they see things like you just talked about, it introduces them to a better side of what they've been used to seeing. You know what I mean Right, right, and you know it's. And people don't.

Corey Staten: 27:08

You shouldn't let them. The media relationships. That's, that's the fact. But that's where a lot of influences. Most teenagers become teenagers. They get influenced by their friends, they get influenced by media and it's really shocking if you look into the background of some of the people that they quote, unquote, idolized, and say this is not the path that you want to follow, because all our kids, they say they want to be rappers. Well, you shouldn't have to have been exposed to gang violence to tell a story, because all rappers do tell stories. They don't do it well these days, but all rappers do is tell stories over music. You shouldn't have to be exposed to gang violence to tell a story. You shouldn't have to have been sexually assaulted to be a female emcee and get on the mic and talk about you know what you can do for somebody in the bedroom as your story. So that's why I tell kids I say don't pigeonhole yourself into being that person. The person in front is the person that's got to keep up an image, but the person in the background don't have no image to keep up. They just got to be producing beats and making recordings and collecting royalties. So I use that music example a lot because I hear a lot of young people these days talking about that, and I'll give a good example for people that are actually listening with young kids, my friend Dan was good friends. Okay, before I say this, do you remember the fat boys? Yeah, okay, you remember Prince Marky D? Yeah, okay, dan was telling me how Prince Marky D you know he dressed in pieces. Well, he was sitting back like a fat cat because he was the producer of the track that Mary J Blasson to Real Love. He produced that track, real Love. Well, target picked up on that and made a national commercial with that beat and he sat back and collected checks. Wow, because it was his music. What? Because it was his music, he sat back and collected checks. And that's the position you want to be in and that's the position I'm working towards right now, to the point where my goal is eventually to have I want to do two sides to the coin. I want to have my children's educational television programming, but then I want to do my own adult swim, so to say, and we talk about socially potent topics like racism, sexism, ableism, things of that nature, and then, like I said again, especially for the creatives out there, their organizations, like Ultimate Roots. Shout Out to Ultimate Roots. I'm a member of that. They actually are granting agents. They go out and get grants so they can give business key artists, who are business people, grants to continue to do their art. Wow, so, yeah, there's a lot of resources out there for our creative kids that say, okay, you don't have to be the next Michael Jordan, but what you could do is not to be an agent. Yeah, and he's off. The next Michael Jordan, yeah, right, wow, you don't have to be the next. Yeah, yeah, they don't have to be that next hot MC, because you only gonna be hot for about five or six years. You got it. You can be the next. Like I said, prince Mark, he's the next producer, right, that's still collecting royalty checks. Yeah, you can be a ghost writer. So if you're into writing, you can be the. Or what you can do is you can go. Go to the direction I want to go in for a while, which is go ahead and get your doctorate, your PhD, and then you can teach the next generation.

Chuck: 30:37

Love it. I love it. Man. That's good man, I like that. So yeah so you don't necessarily have to be that one. You could be the one to go find the one right for that one.

Corey Staten: 30:48

Exactly yeah. Exactly, and who knows the one might be your next door neighbor, your best friend right now. And then I think, like another, another story I said, like she is, on recognizing that, recognizing these things. But 50 years of hip hop, go through some research. Mc light was friends with audio too.

Chuck: 31:07

Okay.

Corey Staten: 31:08

And all your tools letting her rhyme with them Milk D, yeah, milk D and Giz, yeah, and milk D and Giz. That shot them around to get them a contract, and one of the writers was that they had to bring MC light with them and they had to produce her album next year. So you want to get yourself in a position where you can set other people up for success.

Chuck: 31:32

You know your history, man. I never knew that. I knew. I knew the father did that. You know the profile record thing. But yeah, five MC light, I didn't know that.

Corey Staten: 31:40

Yeah, and history is your best teacher. Like I said, you know, no, ain't nothing new on the sun. This is a lot of washroom, but it's, it's. It's a lot of, not a nuggets to. You know, knowing the history, no matter what it is. But one thing I will say for those with you you are a scientist, whether you are a writer, a singer, a musician, make sure you keep the royalty rights to your stuff. Wow, because that's what's going to keep your children's children's children in a good position. Because, like I said, how many artists have we seen? They said oh, so, so that you know previous, but you know they don't talk about. You know people like Prince and Michael Jackson who own their own catalogs. Yeah, wow, and, and, and. So it was the dollars too. Exactly, exactly, and their estate is going to be offered. That for how, how, how long To some trash these strikes, or some dummy in the family decide they want to sell it. You know, it's just, it's just all about understanding. I say, I tell people it's a symbol called the San Cofa bird from Africa, in the Akon culture of Ghana, west Africa, and it's a bird looking backwards, grabbing an egg, but the feet on the bird are walking forward. The simple translation is go back and fetch it. But what it's really saying is our legacy, guys, our footsteps. And I just I just trademarked the. I can't trademark the San Cofa bird, but I just trained trademark the whole symbol with the, with the slogan as well, cause that's something that I'm going to stop putting on shirts and table calls and Danas and stuff like that, because it's just real. It's just real, I can say it. And until people start to realize that, yeah, you know, it wasn't like okay, boom, black folks were slaves. And then all of a sudden, president Obama came up and said nah, you go back, it's black folks. You don't know it black. There's not being taught about correctly Hannibal. He came from North Africa but they paint him as a European all the time. But see, when you expose it all the time, you don't think of the possibilities for yourself. And I'm not going to sit here and jump on the educational system, I'm not going to sit here and slam down on European brothers and sisters. But the reality is, if you don't go out there and find it for yourself, you don't have nobody to blame but yourself. So that's why I take note of the work that I do you know writing the play like Path to Freedom for the Harao players, or writing you know doing the perform the storytelling, teaching social stuff. I think they're very seriously because it's not an opportunity to teach white and black people that about the legacy that's been left behind and to let people know that black history is just not black history. Black history is world history and we all can learn something from it.

Chuck: 34:34

Wow, amazing man. I'm enjoying this conversation. So last question who is Corey stating today? Who is it? If somebody was to ask about you, what would be the words that you would say about yourself?

Corey Staten: 34:46

I would say a lot of people say God Farron, I don't like that. I say I'm a God motivated person and I'm a God motivated Right. I'm a God motivated father, God motivated I'm, brother and sister, but cousin and friend, a God motivated performer, a God motivated teacher, a God motivated student, because I never stopped learning. And I'm just a God motivated person. I'm motivated to do not just was writing pleasing to God, but I'm motivated to do what God has laid off me for my purpose. And sometimes it gets a little muddy and roughing and unclear what that purpose is. But I'm motivated by past experiences to not just say I believe God's gonna work it out. I know God is gonna work it out in my favor, and when he works out in my favor, it's gonna benefit a whole lot of people around me and that's coming behind me that I don't even know. So I mean, that's the word. That's how I get up in the morning Like, all right, it's gonna be an adventure today for a reason. That's how. So yeah, so you know.

Chuck: 35:54

So how could people reach out to you, Corey, If they, you know they hear what you're saying, they wanna be involved with your plays or whatever, how can they reach out to you?

Corey Staten: 36:01

Right now I'm in the process of getting a website. But I've been going back and forth with this for a while because you wanna have an online presence but it's a website really necessary, for it just depends on the type of business that you're in. So I've been kind of waffling on that one. I had somebody working on that kind of pushed the pause button on it because I was like I don't know if I wanna do that or, you know, do I wanna do a link tree page? You know, just keep it simple because I don't want people to get lost in the sauce trying to read all this stuff. Got you, I just wanted to get in the glance. And then, but really the best way I like to talk to my people that are looking to connect with me, because that way I get the gauge. You know the type of person I'm about to deal with. The best way to get in touch with me is simply by sending me a text or calling me directly, and I don't mind giving up my number on 757-377-4782, that's 757-377-4782. If you wanna find out about any of the plays, like the one I'm doing with Heroplayers, go to heroplayerscom. Typically I'm producing through another company. They're commissioning me to do the work. So they handle all the ticket sales and request the things in the nature. So 757-377-4782 is my number and I can say I don't just do children's performances, I'm going to New Jersey to do a team building workshop for military installation up there. So I got something from ages two to 202. So you can contact me there and you can also email me. My email is not simple but email is clear C-L-E-A-R vision, v-i-s-i-o-n edutainment and that's E-D-Z-B-U-T-T-A-N as Nancy, m-m-m-e-n as Nancy T-Z-T-M. Clear vision edutainmentcom.

Chuck: 38:02

Amazing conversation, man. I really appreciate you being on, corey, and this is the very first one we'll have, but hopefully it'll be some more conversation where you can come on and just share it with the people which you're up to, you know. So I appreciate you man.

Corey Staten: 38:14

Yeah, man, chuck, I appreciate it. This is awesome, man, good conversation. It's good that you're giving a platform to people to actually share this type of information because I mean, how many times do you turn on the news and all these other types of different information unless you hear nothing but craziness? But it's good to hear some people that you know our story's gonna have some craziness in it. We've had an opportunity to overcome that craziness and again I tell everybody don't forsake your faith, your family and your friends. Please keep cherished those things, because those are the things that are gonna get you through when you don't feel like you can get through yourself.

Chuck: 38:52

Thank you so much again and I really appreciate you. All right, chuck. Yes, sir man, wow, what an amazing conversation. Shout out to Corey for having this dialogue with me. You know, one of the things that really stuck out to me about this conversation is that you never know what a person had to go through just to get to where they are today, and Corey is a testament of someone who's gone through tough times and has found the resilience to find purpose even in the dark, which lets us know that we too can find hope even in a hard place. So shout out to you, corey Again. Thank you so much for always tuning in to let's Just Talk About it podcast, and please check out my website. Just Google let's Just Talk About it podcastcom and then hit that subscribe button to receive all the new episodes every Friday. You can also find me on Facebook. Just type in Chuck L-J-T-A-I, which means let's Just Talk About it, and, as always, until next time, don't hold it in, but let's Just Talk About it. Talk to you soon.