Us People Podcast

History Is Your Power - Selena Carty - Cultural & Ancestral Consultant & Historian - Season 5 - #225

• With Savia Rocks • Season 5 • Episode 225

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How does one's upbringing in a vibrant yet challenging environment shape their identity? This is precisely what we uncover with the incredible Selena Carty, a cultural and ancestral consultant and global African military historian. Growing up in Brixton during the 80s as the eldest sibling in a Windrush generation family, Telena's early passion for truth and history was ignited by her mother's simple yet profound gesture—buying encyclopedias. Telena opens up about her journey from an inquisitive child to a knowledgeable historian, emphasizing the importance of heritage and the quest for knowledge in personal development.

We then navigate the intricate ties between cultural heritage and education, particularly for those with a West Indian background. Selena and I discuss how schools often prioritize test scores over cultural values, making family traditions crucial for cultural transmission. We delve into the challenges immigrants face in preserving their identity amidst societal pressures and the lingering effects of colonialism on education and cultural erasure. This conversation underscores the importance of nurturing both personal and communal identities and the role of respect and individual autonomy in navigating these complex cultural dynamics.

The episode culminates in a powerful exploration of self-acceptance and personal empowerment. Selena shares how embracing one’s natural self, understanding and documenting our history, and blending traditional beliefs with modern faiths can lead to profound personal growth. From the symbolism of personal adornments to the impact of music on our lives, we reflect on the journey of self-rebirth and the significance of setting and achieving personal goals. Join us in this enriching dialogue that encourages embracing potential, overcoming challenges, and fostering a deeper connection to heritage and personal growth.

Website: https://www.gold.ac.uk/our-people/profile-hub/history/ug/selena-carty/

"If you don’t see a history book with your culture – Write One teach people that each island or country has a history that inspires, impacts, teach people that without your culture maybe you and I would not exists because of what we inherited from our generations of ancestors ." - Savia Rocks

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Savia Rocks:

Hey guys, we made it to season five of the Us People podcast. I'm your host, Savia Rocks, and in this season, we aim to empower and embrace creativity through diversity. As we dive into the fascinating stories and experiences of a diverse range of individuals, highlighting their unique perspectives and creative endeavors, from artists and entrepreneurs to innovators and activists. We celebrate the power of diversity in driving creativity and fostering positive change. Join us as we engage in thought provoking conversations. Like I made myself intentionally homeless in pursuit of my purpose. We're aware that a lot of people want to present, and they were in my position and, what's worse, they weren't a white male, which is a joke. That's even still a thing.

Selena Carty:

I think my family never, ever say you can't do something. So full of support, full of support for whatever dream. If I said tomorrow I want to fly to the moon, they'll probably say I wish you all the best, mel.

Savia Rocks:

So, guys, guys, I just want to say thank you for supporting the Us People podcast for the past five years. I really look forward to sharing another new theme song with you. Let's go. Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the us people podcast. I'm your host, savvy rocks, and today I'm humbled to have the lovely telena cartier with me. She is a cultural and ancestral consultant, global African military historian. Selena, thank you so much for taking your time in a beautiful son of where you are to come and spend time with me. You're so welcome. Oh, bless you. So I want to get to know more about you. So the first question I absolutely love and adore thanks Anyone who I have beautiful contact with is could you tell me about yourself, where you grew up, but also how that influenced you to be the person who you are today?

Selena Carty:

OK, I can. So I'm born in Brixton, so I grew up in Brixton in the 80s after the Brixton riots. Um, I'm a mother of two, so I have a 13 year old and a five year old, 13 year old son and a five year old daughter. Um, I'm eldest of eight for my father and four for my mother first. So whenever you know that I think that's the key aspect that I'm first born, and for a lot of us first borns, that means a variety of different things that people can't understand, because when you're not first born and for a lot of us first borns, that means a variety of different things that people can't understand, because when you're not first born, you just can't know, okay, so, what it means to be first and leading, and you know, when I was growing up, I definitely wanted my siblings to follow the right examples from me, and you know to try and live as best as I could and experience things, but do things in the right way.

Selena Carty:

So I try to be very truthful, because the truth makes sense to me and it means I can build from it. A lie means that you know I'm waiting for something to be discovered. You know, and I can't really be myself. So you know my tongue can be very harsh because my brain thinks very fast. And growing up in Brixton in a house of three and then an additional one in the late 80s, my mum bought the encyclopedia set from the Daughter Dore Salesman which a lot of people may not know or remember.

Savia Rocks:

But when we were in the 80s.

Selena Carty:

My mum and dad and four grandparents are part of the Windrush generation, so they all migrated from Jamaica to England. So I'm first generation born there. So my mum wanted to make sure that we had educational information in a way that she couldn't give to us, so we had the encyclopedia sets. So I used to be looking for black history or looking at something that resonated with me, because I used to have people tell me that I should go back to where I came from and I know they weren't talking about Brixton, but I didn't want to run their tomfoolery as to where they think they were sending me back to, especially when you talk about Africa, when it's a continent.

Selena Carty:

Well, where do you start seeing that you know so much? But I started to realize when I was younger that you know tooth fairies, all these little white lies that we're told, all these lies that we're told we shouldn't tell. But we're surrounded by little white lies and we're surrounded by so many different things that don't make it make sense but where we used them as an appeasement growing up. So I was very, very harsh and literal. If I read it in a book, it was a fact and that fact I was sharing with you. So in the encyclopedias I used to look for Black people and I didn't understand how to look for Black people's names because, as you see, my name is a Spanish and Irish name, just so you know that Selena means a lunar goddess, just so you know. So anytime you want to call me queen, please bypass that, because the name is goddess. It's a Spanish name and an Irish name. So when I enter a room and you see this face, you're like but this face shouldn't go with the name. So when I was looking through the encyclopedias, I was looking for faces, and then I used to write out all the information and I used to go and tell people about it. So now, years later that I do this, you know that's very much where I was coming from.

Selena Carty:

I was always inquisitive. I was always, you know, looking for answers to questions that just didn't make sense to me in the world. I've traveled around the world and looked for our people, or people that look like me, or people that are coming from you know, a heritage of like mine, because, as I've developed, you know, we're not all the same people. That's true, whether people like to say it or not. We're not all the same people because when you have a white mom and a black dad and you've got a black mom and a black dad, your worlds are completely different, but you're still classified as the same black. It's not possible. None of us are the same. Nothing, and that's what I've learned through the journey about looking at how to understand my own self, my own cultures, you know, like eating pasta I'm Italian, so why do I eat pasta? Because that's what's accessible to the culture that I'm a part of in the place that I call home so that's.

Selena Carty:

That's kind of a summary of where it came to the intrigue of of learning. But then out of my mouth I said black people weren't in the war and to me somebody would have run away with that and gone and told other people because you know they valued what I have to say yeah they value what I have to say. As a result, they will take that word and go and make it their truth, and then create arguments based on it not being true yeah, and.

Selena Carty:

Tony Warner from Black History Studies. I was working on a project with Narrative Eye and Black History Walks I should say, not studies. I also work with Black History Studies. Um showed me video footage of Black people in the war. I found books, you know, memorabilia, and I thought how do I recall what I've said? So we were looking at, you know, creating something to remember our ancestors. And I was starting my genealogy journey at that time and because I was learning about Hitler's grandmother and I thought how can I know more about Hitler's grandmother than my own grandmother? That didn't make no sense to me. And then I was starting to think well, how can I make sense of history if I don't understand my own history? And how can I help others who may have the same kind of um misunderstandings as I do? You know, when we're looking at World War I and II, we're looking at 1914 to 1918, 1939 to 1945. What were my people doing then? What were we doing?

Selena Carty:

yeah we impacted alongside this. You know global, these two global warfares, so that's what the intrigue that mixed it up. And then they were looking at doing a black ribbon and I thought, not for my ancestors, not for our ancestors, because I only knew of the red ribbon for AIDS, and I thought that's not appropriate. So then I started looking at flowers, I started looking at history. You know, marcus Garvey is one of the pillars in our communities and you know he's coming from the island of Jamaica and he traveled the world to see that we were being treated practically the same everywhere on the planet and created the UNIA, acl, united Negro Improvement Association and African Community as a platform for us to be able to become empowered on several different tiers. So I saw that.

Selena Carty:

You know we had the Pan-African flag black is for the people, red is for the blood needed to be spilled for the liberation and green is for the land. You know the development, the nurture. So I took the black aspect because it meant more than one thing. I took the poppy because I'm British and we have all over Britain and the British, former British colonies, now the Commonwealth the poppy as a symbol of remembrance. But nobody understands how that symbol represents them, and when you're creating something new, our communities. They don't understand something new when it comes to attaching it to history. So poppy meant for triggering the conversation and rose because I grew up watching a lot of Disney and and so we could do a whole show on Disney and my thoughts on Disney.

Savia Rocks:

I don't mind. Do you know what we might have to just translate and go through to Disney later on?

Selena Carty:

We can do that, but I you know I love Beauty and the Beast because it, you know there's so much going on. She, you know single parenthood. You know who has a gifted mind. She's an avid reader. She's not around anybody like her. She's looking for much more than this provincial life, looking at the language used.

Selena Carty:

But the rose was a symbol of, you know, protection. It was a symbol of timelessness. It was a symbol of honour. It needed to be protected but yet isolated.

Selena Carty:

So when I looked at rose, when we look at, you know, the military, when we look at the army or service or war, we only think of soldiers. We don't think of the people who have to pick the food to feed the soldiers. We don't look at the communities left behind, the mothers giving away their sons. You know mothers and wives giving away their husbands, producing the next generations to be military servicemen for the next generations, how that impacts the community, their positions in their societies, the loss, the generational trauma. When you're taking away the young men, you only leave the older men and the younger men. So the younger men don't understand how to become men because they're only looking at the elders who have already lived life. So looking at those aspects and then looking at the mental traumas that we all face in a variety of different ways, from abandonment, rape, genocide, malnutrition.

Selena Carty:

You know dietary requirements. You know ailments based on medications, based on exposure, based on you know all types of things that we're dealing with differently to be able to try and have a shared conversation where we're not all assuming that we're all the same, that we understand all the same, because we do ourselves a disservice. You know, you should know better than that. You should. How, why, where, who, who gave us that formula? Most of what we learn is on the television or in newspapers. So we learn about society or people or things from the television, from movie scripts, not from being a part of communities or being in people's households. Back to back, because I don't know what's going on in your house growing up, you didn't know what was in my house growing up. So how do we have a framework for me to say why don't you put a dishcloth over your, over your dishes? Because that's what we do. Why don't you eat rice and peas on a Sunday?

Savia Rocks:

why don't?

Selena Carty:

you. You know, that's what I wanted us to explore how do we live, how do we exist, how do we identify and bring that together?

Savia Rocks:

another thing I want to talk about is one thing that I read about you is the the fact that in schools and this was a big thing for me in schools I was learning about everybody else's history, and I know you're going to go big on this, right. I can just feel it in schools. I was there and I always used to fall asleep in history. I'm not gonna lie. I did yeah, because I wasn't learning about my culture. I wasn't learning about who I am.

Savia Rocks:

I'm half Indian, jamaican, st Lucian and English, so I'm a full across the board global citizen, so nobody can put me in a box, which is great and I love it, but at the same time, I wasn't taught my cultures Indian, jamaican or St Lucian in any school that I went to to educate myself. How do you feel about this, especially coming from a West Indian background or any background that has culture?

Selena Carty:

School is not the place for you to be taught anything but to pass tests.

Selena Carty:

I like that. Your culture is something you live, not something you have to go to a school to be taught or go anywhere to be taught. There are environments that you can go and learn how things are done, based on the peoples that you're coming from and being a part of generations who have migrated to the UK with no real idea about settlement and staying and what needed to be set up in their new homes to ensure longevity, to ensure you know, an insulated cultural reference point yeah we didn't have that as people coming over to the United Kingdom, especially after World War II, when you look beyond the Windrush, which we're told is when the first real wave of Black people, of colour Black people coming from the West Indies came.

Selena Carty:

There were people in England for years before that who had integrated into societies, because that's the nature of going to somebody else's home you integrate, you become a part, accustomed to the culture of the land. Then, before you know it, you've forgotten yesteryear. You're now living in what you're living now. So that's why I mentioned, you know, eating pasta.

Savia Rocks:

Yeah.

Selena Carty:

You're Italian Cheese. We don't. The things that we eat we do not make. You know when you're part of a culture. You know Italiansians grandmothers, they teach their children and their grandchildren how to make pasta, because that's cultural. So what did your grandmother teach you? Or was she around to teach you? That's culture, from my perspective. You're taught and you're handed down. You know stories, memoirs, language sayings, um recipes, um artifacts. You know a lot of things. Again, we watch on telly and we watch everybody else being passed down things. We assume that that's the same for our communities and cultures, when what's happened is is that all we've been trying to do is work to survive, to ensure that we are able to provide for our children at home and within the lands that we're now calling home, and that's a task in itself. And then we have an expectation on the people who are leading and in charge to do what's necessary for the next generation. And unfortunately, based on where we're coming from colonially we've only had european education that's very true so from being.

Selena Carty:

You know, when they came to us, yeah, they brought their religion. They brought their culture, they brought their customs. You know we were baptised under their names. You know we amalgamated our cultures to ensure that it was adaptable for survival, based on whether or not it was Christianity, islam or it doesn't matter which faith it would have been. But what our communities haven't truly seen is that you cannot erase any part of yourself. You can only hide it or trap it and as time goes on, through the generations and the children that you have, it will come up, because we are linked to the past in ways that we can't understand, because we're so busy not feeling and not allowing ourselves to understand ourselves in the way that only we can.

Selena Carty:

We're told how we should be. We're told that we need to pass this. We're told we need to do things in 15 minutes, we're told we, you know. We're told how to structure ourselves, to exist in a society, not to exist in the world. Yes, and as a result of that, our young people, where we're gifted, you know the the, the wisdom of the generations before. So they had to learn the hard way is what we're told.

Selena Carty:

You know, who don't hear must feel. I grew up hearing, you know. But I'm like how am I supposed to know that this is not right for me Not whether or not you believe it's right for me how do I know this is not right for me If the tenants that are supposed to be gifted in regards to truth telling and the ability to feel a decision right or wrong because a lot of people are like, you know, it didn't sit well with my spirit, it didn't sit well with me none of that's nurtured with you as a child. Your dreams aren't nurtured, you know. Your visions aren't. No, no, things are nurtured. It's almost a you know, you know, kind of get on with it kind of thing. You have to literally grow yourself in that way, but then you're growing yourself with markers based on what somebody else has given.

Selena Carty:

So within the education system in this country, it's about reframing how you look at it. It's designed to pass tests so you can gain access to a particular world, so you can benefit infrastructures that already exist. So you know, they say the most gifted people are autistic, whatever autistic means nowadays, but back in the days nobody bothered to recognize those terms or any of those people were victimized and made to feel very little and disrespected as a result of that, because the world didn't want to catch up with itself, because of the untruths that were nurtured behind. And we create and we keep the same framework, knowing it didn't work, because we're afraid to take the steps necessary to try for ourselves, because it is difficult to try for ourselves, because it is difficult and it's not. I don't say in jest um, it's not easy to to assign yourself a role, to be able to say I'm going to be autonomous for myself, I'm going to read as much as I can, I'm going to make these choices and I'm going to put myself out there. It's not easy and it's not for everyone. So, before people go oh, yeah, I could, it's not for everyone, okay, because nothing is for everyone. But those who it resonates with will pick up themselves and they will go and they will do it, yeah. Yeah, because there are some people who just have to be the gatekeepers.

Selena Carty:

You know, we all have different roles and the idea was to respect the key word is respect and try and gain some understanding that we do not all have the same positions.

Selena Carty:

We can't all be generals, we cannot all be colonels, we cannot all be left tenant, second lieutenant. We can't all get promoted at the same time, because we need people to stand at the front line. We need that. We need people who are going to be the strategists, we need the mathematicians, we need the doctors, we need the entertainers, we need the medical practitioners. We need everybody to understand where their gifts lie and share that with our communities, that with our communities. So, when it comes down to school, it's about you know whether or not our communities are still aware that we still play a key role in every single young person's life, regardless if we're blood related to them or if we're in close proximity or not. That we share you know our understandings of what it is our culture means, what it means for us to be learning more what it means to share more, what it means to explore this cultural and ancestral line.

Selena Carty:

So when somebody like you, who has a variety, we're able to take you along that journey, even if you don't have access to those people directly linked to you by blood.

Savia Rocks:

I love that. That was a brilliant answer. I love that I took that with me and it was like so I want to get to know you even more so I love to dig more into people and their vulnerability.

Savia Rocks:

No is good. This is good. So can you define yourself as a person, but who do you see when you look in the mirror? But on the flip side of that question, has there ever been a time where you have looked in the mirror and not recognized the person staring back at you? How did you manage to change who you were and wanted to be, to be the positive person that you are now, with the strength and the gift to be able to push and do what you want to do in life?

Selena Carty:

well, well, um, I've never looked in the mirror and not seen me, and I don't know if you see this dark patch under my eye. I've had this since I was a teenager, so everything about me this is new. This hair's new, because I'm here doing photo shoots and all kind of things. I I don't see myself unless I have my natural hair, unless I have my natural face. I'm not a makeup wearer, you know I, if I have something that's not of me, from me, that's where I get confused with myself and it's taken me a long time to be able to to be as confident as I am without this, with this on, because, again, it's a different look, it's a different style. But at no point do I look at myself and think who are you? I think what the hell are you doing?

Selena Carty:

that's what I think that's what I say to myself, and for years I you know I'm my worst critic. There's nothing you could say to me or anybody that will. That will imprint on me in the way that I, that I, that I challenged myself and I held myself to account, especially with the work that I do with Black Poppy Rose and especially with the genealogy work that I do, because I want our people to have the best. Yeah, and not everybody knows what the best is from their perspectives, but I have an idea from my perspective and my responsibility is to develop myself in a way that allows me to be relatable to myself, because then I share that with you. You know I share that with whoever comes in contact with me. So at no point do you think I wonder what she meant. I wonder what she. You don't have to wonder, because you're not, because I show you, you feel it, you smell it, it doesn't matter, you're never going to be confused when you stand next to me, and if you are, it's because I'm confused, yeah, so, um, in regards to me being this, you know I've, I was very, very opinionated growing up, very opinion.

Selena Carty:

My mum was very opinionated growing up. You know it was fact. So, as it was, I learned from her being the first, because when you're first, you're the one who sees up. You know it was fact. So, as a result, I learned from her being the first, because when you're first, you're the one who sees the most. You know everybody behind you. They might peep over or the rest of it, but you're the one getting whatever it is that you're getting first and foremost. So I observed a lot for my mum and her nature and I realised I was carrying a lot of her burdens and I had to unearth them off me because I said I didn't live that life. They're not for me. I've got to. I've got to work out what is mine. So I had to work out how to separate my mother's hurt and her burdens from me to be able to get to me because I've always been very opinionated but it was always based on my mother's backing and then learning for myself, doing for myself, to then not have my own experiences, because now that's my backing, not living off somebody else's experiences. So I don't live off other people's experiences. If I can do the best that I can do, I will go and learn for myself.

Selena Carty:

People like well, why are you doing it again. You're not doing it again. I'm doing it for the first time. Somebody else did it and I'm doing it for the first time. And you know, when I look at history, I'm like, okay, that's what they're saying, but if I look at this or I do that, what would I say?

Selena Carty:

From where I'm coming from, you know we've all got different perspectives, different views, different visions and different messages that we need to share and, as a result, you know, when nobody's duplicating the work, you know we are building on our repertoire and building on our own character, developments of how we interpret information. Time has passed, because the one key thing that I would like everybody to take away is that you weren't there. Okay, that's the baseline. You weren't there. So your concepts about how you would be there, they're concepts, they're not realities, and what I would implore is that you look at your reality now and say what am I actually doing now? So in the future, when the future generations are saying the same things we're saying now, they actually see what you were doing or why you was doing it. And you have. You know you plotted that journey. So people are clear on why you did it, because the generations before it was about survival, it was about ensuring longevity, it was about ensuring that their families were surviving and as any means necessary. Whereas we have these perceptions of freedoms today that we feel, well, I would have made a different choice, how. What choices are you making now with that freedom? What choices are you making now with all of these concepts? What are you doing to ensure that what you think was a was was not right yesterday, today? That's that. So, with that and my god, that's how that and my God, that's how I see, that's how I, that's how I look at myself.

Selena Carty:

So I say to myself if I didn't understand a culture that I am a part of, so people tell me I'm African. Yeah, what does that mean? Because when I was growing up, it was children with swollen bellies and flies on their eyes. It was boys called Tunji who had tribal markings that I said you could never be putting on me. It was foods that I was not accustomed to. It was clothing I wasn't accustomed to. It was a language I did not understand. It was all kinds of things that didn't make sense.

Selena Carty:

And my history teacher was told me that my ancestors were slaves. I said nobody told me that. So I moved from history and I went to geography who? That's nothing to do with me. I had no understanding the connections of being African and West Indian, because that wasn't understood, that that was a necessary timeline. You know, and I can only talk from my unique perspective because there are many people who were taught that and again, you know, that's wonderful for them and I hope that that's allowed them to be empowered and empower other people to do that. But I wasn't and as a result of that, I now do work because of what I feel I was lacking not missing, but just lacking and I feel that some of the I feel I was lacking not missing, but just lacking and I feel that some of the things that I was lacking are still lacking today.

Selena Carty:

And sharing that and I'm trying to. You know archives that people probably would never go into. You know getting that information out and making that visible. You know images that people would not know how to identify with. Things like that that, you know, I'm intrigued by. So the things that intrigue me and interest me is what motivates me to do what I do, because I'm very, very, very happy doing the work that I do. I've been self-employed for almost two decades doing this work all around the world and you know, I would never have known that people would have received it in this way. I would have never known that it would have been needed in this way. I would have never, never, I could have never understood that. You know, some of the platforms that I've been able to to have, be have the honor to be on, would have, you know, called for me because I don't look for work. You know I don't look for work.

Selena Carty:

You don't have to, it comes to you because I'm doing it, because I'm passionate about it. I want that visibility. I want our community to be respected in a way that we haven't understood how to respect ourselves and that's not to say again it's not to, that's not a generic, that's not a generic thing. It's not generic. Like you know, we're not respecting ourselves. But when I look on the world stage and I continue to see what's happening based on what they're televising and what they're choosing to put into the media, that's what I'm challenging. Not the things going on behind the media, not the things going on behind what people cannot see. It's the things that they're choosing to make visible. That's what I'm aiming to challenge that disrespect from, not what the wonderful work our community continues to do to ensure that our young people, old people, all peoples have a better understanding of who we are, what we are and what we actually do and how we sustain ourselves.

Savia Rocks:

I love that whoa that went Jesus. So when I was reading up about you, selena, yeah you do so many things.

Savia Rocks:

Now, a person who does so many things, how do you make time for them? From being a speaker, a presenter, you do so many different things, researcher. When do you find time for yourself? But also, before you even answer that, wait, wait a second, because I know you're on fire before you. Before you even answer that, what is a day like in Selena's life? And when you walk, wake up in the morning, from when you open your eyes and say you know what? Today is a fresh new day, this, this and this is what I'm going to do. What is a day like from when you wake up to the evening right.

Selena Carty:

So I, I break my days up into three parts. Uh, there are 24 hours, so I think what is it? Is it three sets of it's? Four sets of six? It's four sets of six. Six hours for sleep, uh. Six hours for working on black poppy road, six hours for genealogy, and then, in between the shopping, spending time with my children and I don't get any exercising right now, but that that would be in that time as well. That's coming next week, um, but that's. I break it down into four parts and I I also have had to take two half days off a week, so I have Selena time so I can sit and watch some of the things I enjoy watching on Netflix, like I've just been watching a series called Alchemy of the Soul, which is phenomenal from my perspective, and it helps.

Selena Carty:

It helps me to kind of, you know, fine-tune my thinking about what I think about the world. I'm also able to look at other cultures, because I love to watch other cultural shows, because it gives me an insight in regards to history, identity, visibility. I love the dramatization, I love the costumes, I love the landscape. I also love the theatre, so I make time to go to the theatre at least once or twice a month. I love live music, so I try and get to a live show and I encourage my friends to to to still share with me that things going on, even though I may not be able to go, because they stop sharing things with me because they're like, well, you're always busy, you're not here, none of that matters, just send it to me anyway, and then when I'm here, I'll be able so um, I like to go out to eat different foods.

Selena Carty:

I love food.

Selena Carty:

I love cheesecake oh, I had vanilla cake first yesterday so, um, I've literally had to really fine-tune what I love, because I don't do things that I like. That's you know. That's the work, that's working with other groups of people. Um, but the love of what I do, the love of you know, I love teal. Teal's my favorite color. Um, I love, um airworners because it it allows me to show me on the outside that people won't be able to see.

Selena Carty:

You know, I'm a global African citizen. The cowrie shell is about wealth, abundance and femininity. That's, you know, the core aspects of me. The earrings are, you know, supremacy for God. So, although I, you know, I believe in traditionalism and understanding ancestral contributions and that there is a higher being and higher power, and I'm able to use and fine tune those tenets of my understandings and align them with things like Christianity or Islam and other people where they found their faith and their, you know, devotion to something higher. I'm able to also have a conversation with other groups of people Because, again, we're all peoples. None of us are the same. We don't follow the same things, and who am I to tell you what you should and shouldn't follow? If it works for you, let it work for you, but let's see how we can work together. So I'm also at university. So I'm studying history, with military history at Goldsmiths University, to continue with the journey with Black Poppy Rose, to now create additional resources from the information that I've been finding and be able to do that on an academic level as well as on a grassroots level, so I'm able to cross over different the different tiers to be able to also have access to the information and influence on those different levels. So it's very much about timetabling what's the priority. So I use like the Eisenhower method if it's a priority, you do it. If it's a priority and it's not important, you delegate. If it's important but not urgent, you plan, and if it's not important and it's not urgent, you delete it. Yes, that helps me to simplify a lot of the things coming in.

Selena Carty:

You know, what do I value? I value my children. I value my time. I value my family. I value people who understand me. I value new relationships. I value um knowledge. I value um ideas. I value experiences. I value other people's experiences, but I don't value disrespect. I don't value bullying. I don't value, you know, things like that. I don't value people shortchanging me. I don't value people telling me lies. So you know that's not important and it's not urgent. It's deleted and I don't have the. I don't have the um, the hang-ups in regards to that. Every opportunity is for me. It's not all for me. My favorite cheesecake is cheesecake. I'm a plain woman. New York cheesecake, but don't but tempt me. New York cheesecake, but don't but tempt me. So that's the first one. Anything to do with salty caramel, yes, that'll be the next one. And then strawberry cheesecake. That's definitely New York cheesecake, a baked cheesecake at that.

Savia Rocks:

You're making me hungry.

Selena Carty:

Raw, frozen in the fridge cheesecake. Please bake the cheesecake. I love a baked cheesecake. No, it's true, because what I hadn't realised is that you know in your mind, because you know you think by saying whatever it is, you're saying that people will get it. So if I say a cheesecake, they will bring me a cheesecake, but it won't be what I want, because I have to be clear.

Selena Carty:

So now what I've learned is that I've got to say it's a baked cheesecake, it's a New York City baked cheesecake because, again, it's culture, I'm not from America. Why am I eating cheesecake? You see, it's an Italian fusion with the fusions of the Europeans and the Africans and the indigenous peoples in North America. Yeah, so now I enjoy that because they've allowed that to come over to England, so I get to enjoy that. You know, that's very much a part of my culture now. But when you talk about, you know, being African, it's not a part of the African culture. You talk about West Indian, it's not a part of the West Indian culture.

Selena Carty:

But what does it mean now? I now have to identify myself and my own culture and the cultures that influence me and inspire me and allow me to enjoy it. Because I love a black cake. You know, christmas time we love a black cake. I love sweet potato pudding, I love cornmeal pudding, you know all of those things. That's a part of my culture. But I'm also able to understand and appreciate other cultures, which doesn't, you know, diminish my culture, doesn't diminish me in any way. It just allows me to be able to experience more on a world stage, because I'm a world, global citizen. So when it comes to to what I do, it's very much timetabling and because before I didn't have it, I literally because I I founded Black Puff Heroes and I started it- almost decades ago.

Selena Carty:

Nobody, nobody, can give you guidelines about what you should be doing, how fast you should be going, and for me, this is very much spiritual work, because the doors that open. I could have never planned for the doors to open. I could have never planned that this book would align with me, that the person I spoke to, who was the one, maybe one person who came to my talk, has shared Selena, did you know this? Have you seen this? And without them I wouldn't have been able to make those next steps. So I literally spent a lot, of a long time just trying to take opportunities of every opportunity and not making the time to rest for myself, and that has been quite you know, it's been. It hasn't been detrimental, but it has been something that has had an impact in a way that has caused me to have to stand to attention. Say, selena, you actually have to treat yourself better because there is no work. So when you're resting, it's not you're not, you're not doing nothing, dear yeah, so it's, it's that. You know, it's that challenge of myself that you're not doing nothing. When you're sitting down and not moving or not writing or not speaking or not reading, you're actually allowing yourself to settle, let everything settle. Let the all, the all, the dust in the water, let it settle. Look at the beauty of the water and the reflections of what's being reflective and then take your time to get to those next steps.

Selena Carty:

So starting uni in September has allowed me to be a little bit more structured, because I've got more support in regards to my learning challenges and now access to different things, different libraries, different you, you know peoples and because of the work that I've already been doing, I've already established a base based on people understanding that this is where I'm coming from. So the conversations aren't you know, they're not drawn out anymore. It's like, ok, we've seen your work, we've seen what you've done, we've seen who you work with. How can we? You know we're there now and as a result of being there like a goldsmith's, I think last year, uh, two black poppy rose reeds were laid in two universities. So goldsmith university and the university of westminster. Uh, they made black poppy rose reeds because they have memorials within their buildings to remember those who fall, have fallen in the war.

Selena Carty:

So, again, being a part of these establishments allows for further conversation, allows for you know, more history to be made, more connectivity, more visibility. So the timetabling and, you know, prioritising how to move the work forward, how to ensure that I'm also being social, because social, the social aspect of any work, is just as key as going into a boardroom and having a meeting. You know, having chinwags over, you know a mojito, a properly made mojito, please, and thank you. And we do like lychee mojitos now because, but again, mojitos cultural, where they're coming from, you know, um, and I actually, yeah. So just looking at that and really just just saying, selena, it's one life dear and there's no blueprint model for anybody and it goes fast and it goes fast so enjoy the place

Selena Carty:

you know I love the mountains. I love, you know, rock climbing, I love to swim, I love nature and the elements, you know. So I find time to sit with them and go for walks and take the children for walks and we do the rock climbing and they've got their swimming lessons and they've got their lessons and stuff so they can also have access to different things. I'm a part of an organization called the Urban Equestrian Academy where we get children from the urban environments into the rural lands on horses to look at horse care, their relationship with nature, their relationship with animals, because if we don't share our passions and our you know worlds with them, yeah you know, and you know a lot of our communities talk about our children being despondent because they're not interested yeah

Selena Carty:

we can't force people to be interested in anything. They have to be, you know. There has to be some sort of spark for that. Um, so with my own children, you know, we talk about a lot of things, I share with them a lot of things and they tell me what they're interested in and, as a result, we go down what they're interested in, not what I think they should be. I don't demand that they learn black history, I don't demand that they go and do any of those things, but what I do is I use the things that they enjoy and then I weave everything else in there together yes, as a smart mother right.

Selena Carty:

So my son, you know, he really loved dinosaurs. So we learned all the dinosaur bones were all over the world and then we looked at the countries where those bones were coming from. We looked at the peoples there, we looked at the languages there. You know, a lot of the time we we, because we don't have the time again we don't make the time, and this is not to punish us we don't make the time and this is not to punish us we don't see how expansive learning can be, especially from a child's perspective. Learning how to count. Count all the letters in Tyrannosaurus Rex. How about that? How about that? It gives you almost 20. It gets you up to 20. And then you're like what letter, what number in the alphabet is letter T? You know it's just again, when you're not stressed and when you're not under pressure, you can.

Selena Carty:

You can find these things and get access to these things and look at where the dinosaur bones are, look at where they are in the world, like we have them in the national history museum. So you take them to the museums and then you're able to look at other things, not just dinosaurs. What other things are available? What other things can we see? Go around the corner to the science museum, you know, go up the road to the victorian albert museum again for about history and about monarchy, um, and be able to look at that and talk to them about that.

Selena Carty:

You know, up and down the country I've taken my son to newcastle because they have a tyrannosaurus rex up there as well and then they also have hadrian's war right and they also you know it's close to um, scotland we're able to talk about the Romans. We were able to talk about Septimus Severus. We were able to talk I've taken him to York. We're able to talk about York used to be called Everacum and London was Londinium and the Roman roads and Septimus Severus, the only African ancestry Roman emperor, you know, for Rome, because he has a family coming from North Africa and again, everywhere we go, because I do history in that way, I'm able to then, you know, kind of open up his world. So when he was in and out of school, because he was homeschooled and then going to school, he's got so much more to share because he has lived experiences, he has things that he's able to connect, that he doesn't have to be forced to remember because that's just his life.

Savia Rocks:

I love that. It's true, a mum who educate is a wise woman. She is a wise woman, and there's something a lot of us may have missed out on, so it's nice to know that there are mothers out there educating their children in different ways and it no, it keeps them open-minded as well. The most beautiful thing that you can have in life is open-mindedness to absolutely everything that comes in your path.

Selena Carty:

Yeah, because as long as you're dealing with your inner truth, there's nothing you can't deal with. You know, when you go out and somebody's like, oh, look at that, you know, based on whether or not you're this big or this big, you're not seeing it in the same way. And again, it's just, it's all of that, and it's taken me. I'm, I'm 40 now. It's taken me years to get to this place, but I've been learning along the way and, you know, adapted, and then, looking back at what I did, what am I going to do differently? What can I do now, now that I've got this experience? I've got this experience, I've got access to this, I've got access to that. How do I keep making the cake sweeter? How do do I keep making new cakes? Because I use cake as analogies for everything, because I'm like once you've got a cake, can you take the egg out of it? No, can you take the flour out of it? No, so you just have a cake, right? So when you're eating the cake, you're like oh, it tastes nice on the first day, but how does it taste on the second day? And the second day? And the first day, do you see? But do you allow yourself to know. Or do you eat the whole cake on the first day to then not have the knowledge of whether or not it's spoiled by day nine, whether or not you can actually have it for nine days? And have you put it in the fridge? Have you frozen it? Have you put it in an air? You know, these are different things that we're able to do in life and I use cake as the because I love cake, as I told you. But looking at that and even like, with cake, where are you getting your flour from? Yeah, because it's not as simple as just say, just get flour, because every recipe says flour coming from Iceland, tesco's um, sainsbury's, waitrose. Is it organic, is it non-organic? Is it gluten-free? Is it wholemeal, is? Is it rye? Is it coconut flour, ground flour? What flour are you are use and how much do you need? What's the density? Does it have enough? You know the raising agent in it is the raising agent. Oh, do you have to add a new one? And again, where are you sourcing it from? Is it coming from Scotland? Is it wheat coming from Wales? Is it wheat coming from South England? Is it wheat coming from Italy? Where is it coming from? And that's again. Another thing I look at.

Selena Carty:

You know the detail in regards to what we're doing. Where's your sugar coming from? Is it from sugar beets from this country? Is it from sugar cane? What you know? Is it agave? Is it honey? Is it date? What sweetener are you using? What eggs? Are they free-ranged? Are they, you know? Are they battery eggs? What is it? What form has been put into those eggs? How long have they been? You know, hatched laid, not hatched laid. You know, just looking at that. Where's your velina coming from? Is it chemically induced? Is it fresh velina pods from Madagascar? You know what ingredients are you choosing to put into your cake. So when you eat the cake, you're not just simply just saying, oh yeah, it's a cake. It's not just the cake, it's a cake that Selena made using these ingredients. Not just that. You talk about the oven that you're choosing to use to bake the cake.

Savia Rocks:

There's one other thing as well, selena is the energy that you put into cooking.

Selena Carty:

Yeah, on top of the equipment, that bowl is a wooden bowl, a glass bowl, because all of those things add to the cake and that's what I see about people, our environments, the water that we're using to wash our skins, the shower gel, the soap, the toothpaste all of those things add to who and what we are and we're not taught to look at it from that holistic perspective. Because that's how, in our characters having a 28-day cycle, you know always being ovulating but not ovulating, and you know things like that and going through things and different things like that same with men, and you know all peoples go through different cycles. But again, we're told nowadays we're told that what periods are the equivalent to a heart attack.

Selena Carty:

Lord have mercy okay, but we're not going to talk about any of that. And you know all of those, a lot of the misogynistic principles that we've all had to endure for centuries because of how the world was created. But again, we're looking at these things and we're revisiting these things and again looking at who we are and what we are and looking at whether or not the tenets from the past are still viable today, in the future.

Savia Rocks:

Yeah, man, here's one for you. How important is diversity to you? Wait for it. Wait for it because I can see why your brain ticks. I love it. So how important is diversity to you and how do you feel that you bring value to the word diversity?

Selena Carty:

I bring value just by existing.

Savia Rocks:

I love that. I knew it was coming yeah, because everything is diverse.

Selena Carty:

There are peoples, there are rivers, there are, there are buses, there are children, plural. Nothing is in isolation unless it has been genetically modified to be isolated. Nothing is individual. There are always a variety of things. And again, the other, the other example I use is lemonade. So I enjoy lemonade, I enjoy our whites, yes, and I enjoy Sprite. Don't give me nothing else, because to you it's lemonade, to me it's not my flavor profile, but I enjoy that. There are a variety, because the ones I enjoy somebody else may not enjoy, and they should be able to enjoy something that they have an affinity to. So diversity is key to every aspect in life. Any organisation you go in, it's the diversity of the characters that make that business successful.

Selena Carty:

It is not one person, one idea. Black Poppy Rose, although I lead it, it's not just me, it would never just be me. Just like I told you, you know Tony Warner, black History Walks, whose book is out. Black History Walks, whose book is out? Black History Walks. Go and get that. Um, he shared with me his knowledge, so now I have that with me. So I have a little Tony Warner with me. Everybody.

Selena Carty:

I've read Maya Angelou with me you know, Amy Ashwood, amy Jacks Garvey with me, queen Nzinga with me. You know, all of that diversity assists in this diversity for me to then be able to present and deliver what I deliver air wanna. You know, mac. Thank you, mac for my lipstick. You know, it's all it all adds up. You know style, flavor, flair, things like that, how I choose to represent myself.

Selena Carty:

It's all diversity, and the encouragement is to truly look at yourself and see how you define your beauty, how you define your intelligence, and that nobody else needs to tell you. You're, nobody needs to validate anything that you're doing. The work is validated through the fact that it is, you know, it's seen and it is showing impact and everybody does that. It doesn't matter what you're doing, everybody shows that. You know, when I, you know, I'm grateful for the road sweepers because they make sure that I don't step in anything, that I shouldn't ruin my shoes, they make sure the path is clear for me, they ensure that when I'm looking, I'm not looking at a mess, because then that mess, then it contaminates my mind, because I'm surrounded by a mess and my mind is already, you know, filled with so many ideas and things like that. I'm like. When I see clarity I'm like right, where can I start? You know all involved in that.

Selena Carty:

And diversity, you know the word, how we use it today, to use it for tick box exercises um it's for tick box exercises and you know, when I look at frameworks of organizations and things, these are very much things I talk about to educate and empower people on how to get through this tick box exercise, because everything is diverse but what's happening is we're using diversity then further marginalize exactly people.

Selena Carty:

And again, some people understand it, some people don't. I don't argue with people who don't understand I don't. I don't argue with anybody because your perspective is I'm grateful for, but if it's not one that I can receive, I say thank you and I move on that's exactly what I do.

Selena Carty:

I don't try and terrorize you. I don't try and do any of those things. I'm grateful for your perspective because it helps me to be solid in my own and look at the rationale between behind, you know, the clients that I'm going to come up against and see how I can then, you know, reframe some of the work that I do to be able to meet you where you are.

Savia Rocks:

I love that. If there was one quote that represented you as a person, what quote would you choose and why would you choose that particular quote?

Selena Carty:

Right Me and quotes aren't friends.

Savia Rocks:

I like this one now Me and quotes aren't friends.

Selena Carty:

I like this one now me in quotes aren't friends um, I'm, I'm some, I'm a script person, so I love film, I love tv, so there are scripts to me so there are. Let me see. Um, oh, let me see line, line, line. If my sister was here she'd be like yeah, that's the line, that's the line we work from, that's the line we work from Script. So there's a cartoon called Kiriku.

Savia Rocks:

Yes, I know what you mean. Yes.

Selena Carty:

Written by a white Frenchman. Did you hear me? Kiriku K-I-R-O-K-O-U Written by a white.

Selena Carty:

Frenchman. Did you hear me? Kirikou K-I-R-O-K-O-U, written by a white Frenchman. Yeah, little African boy, he says I'm Kirikou and I know what I want.

Selena Carty:

Kirikou birthed himself from his mother's womb. Because he had decided that he was ready to come out of his mother. He crawled to a calabash of water and bathed himself. He looked at the solutions. He looked at the problems in his village and created solutions for them, and he was met with adversity from those who could not see that there was solutions in every possible way. Because he was small in stature, he was able to access things and places that people couldn't access.

Selena Carty:

So, regardless of how big I am or how you know, we're all small in some aspects, in some arenas.

Selena Carty:

You know, men in Black showed us that when they showed, you know, the galaxy on the cat's bell, and then when they, you know, again scripted the smallness of our contributions, and the same with what's it called Happy Feet, the drip drops of the icicle that created, you know, all of that devastation, the iceberg.

Selena Carty:

There's power in being small, there's power in being humble, there's power in knowing that the one moment that you say your truth, the one moment that you tilt your head and say, ah, actually, that's not. It allows others to trigger that smallness in themselves, then create that wave. So I'm Kiriko and I know what I want is the first thing that's come to my mind in regards to being birthing yourself. So, although many of us didn't birth ourselves through our mothers, being birthing yourself, so, although many of us didn't birth ourselves through our mothers when we did become born. We then get to have a variety of different rebirths. Every time we get to decide who we are, who we want to be, who we want to continue to become and develop and, as a result, we allow the people who we keep around us to also experience that and to empower them to also know that that is a possibility for them whenever they decide to have it.

Savia Rocks:

See now, we're not going to play no soccer on the show today, right? But I am going to ask you this question If there was one song that was the soundtrack of your life, what song would you choose, and why would you choose that particular song? She's looking down, but I don't know if she's looking down at her phone, and why would you choose that particular song?

Selena Carty:

she's looking down, but I don't know she's looking down at her phone, so my my favorite song of all time is um is a cover called you are my starship by the jazz band. So the jazz band did not make the song, they did not write the song, but I love their version of the song and I've forgotten who's um, who the original is. But you are my starship is is a song that deeply, deeply, deeply resonates with me as well as, uh, brand new heavies.

Selena Carty:

You are the universe yes future and you've come for what is yours, you know, um. And you've come for what is yours a hidden treasure, and the the word play. I love word play and I love all of that and it basically talks about you are the driver. Yes, well, you are the universe. And when we're learning about, you know, the sun and the solar system, and mercury, venus, mars and all the rest of them, and now pluto's a moon, um, just so, everybody in the in you know who were at school in the 80s and 90s, who learned that Pluto was a planet, and then now we're learning that Pluto is a moon didn't Pluto disappear.

Savia Rocks:

Okay, I'm just saying as a result.

Selena Carty:

It's just to show that nothing is ever in stone. In that way, we're always learning and we're always relearning, but you are the universe, brand new heavies and starship, because I definitely believe in there being a lot more, especially with connectivity, and it's a lot more than you know, the simple, simple, just. You know walking and being, and I think there's so much more of that connection when they talk about atoms and everything's an atom, and atom is tiny, tiny, tiny, but we're all made up of billions of atoms and the relationship between all of that. Those are the songs that really, really, really get me, and ain't no stopping us now yes, that was a good day no stopping us now we're on the move.

Selena Carty:

Um yeah, because they got a list after this well, I do, because it's on my playlist Whitney, whitney Houston, step by step, taking it step by step. You know, ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough to keep me from nothing. But I tell people all the time, if I want it, then I will get it because I will make a plan.

Selena Carty:

I will make the necessary. You know I will make the necessary steps to be able to get it. And you know people sometimes come with unrealistic notions. Notions well, what about if you wanted to be the queen?

Selena Carty:

I could be a queen, I could go to the continent of africa and I could become a queen when they say queen, they're categorizing you in one categorizing me to queen elizabeth, the late queen elizabeth, the second, for that concept, and again, I try not to limit myself to concepts that other people have limited themselves to. So anything that I choose, that I want to do, it may take me 10, 15, 50 years, but it's going to happen because I'm going to put things in place for it to happen.

Selena Carty:

So a lot of the songs that I play literally re-empower me. A lot of reggae, a lot of Freddie McGreg mcgregor's I was born a winner, you know, I live for that and etana, I am not afraid. Um, what other songs? Because these are on my playlist, because, again, when I hear them, I'm like I true, I true, I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid. You know, I may be a little nervous, I may be a little, you know, I'm not sure how it's going to play out, but I'm not afraid because the outcome will be what it is and I look at it and I will deal with the consequences as a result of the outcomes. But I know that I'm walking with truth, I'm walking with knowing that this is my best intention, this is my best foot forward, and if the formula doesn't quite work, then I'm going to revisit the formula and I'm going to look at, see what I think didn't work and move it forward. But at no point do I ever see what I do as a mistake.

Selena Carty:

At no point do I ever see what I do is wrong or incorrect, if I've got enough guidance around me and people are able to give me their honest feedback, as opposed to trying to prevent me from doing something. Because if you're preventing me from doing something, then that triggers, you know, my ego and I'm like, well, well, I mean, I've got to do it so, but it doesn't allow me to have you know, doesn't allow me to have you know, it doesn't allow me to to go in it with you know, with a, with a clear kind of heart. It's just like, well, they're not gonna make me do it, I'm gonna do it. That's how I used to be. But, um, it's very much about just, you know, supporting the idea.

Selena Carty:

Just because you don't believe in it, just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean that you don't have the capacity to support it, even if you're just saying you know, I'll hold the door open for you, I'm not coming in, I'll hold the door open so your hands are free. So, whatever you're facing when you go in there, you're able to have your guard up and be ready for what's coming. So you're not, you know. So we're just looking at how to kind of nurture relationships through music, yes, sound, through vibrations, and just allowing people to exist in the way that they understand to exist and so that we all matter.

Selena Carty:

You can play a small, however minor it is, but that small role is beneficial because all the people who take up small roles in my life, they alleviate a lot of the pressure that they can't understand that I have. So they see me as doing heavy work, because I was meant to do heavy work. Some of the light work I just am unable to get done in the same way, and I'm appreciative of those who literally take the small, the small I'm not able to get to, and they're consistent in that. So those are my songs.

Savia Rocks:

I love it. I think you're going to have to make me a playlist. I will.

Savia Rocks:

I'm on it. What is the best advice, selena, you have ever received from somebody that has helped you, not just in a small part of your life, because I know there are parts in our life where people come in, like you say, and come out, and even though they say something to us at that specific moment, it helps us with what we're going through. But has there been anybody in your life that has been consistent, who has given you consistent, good advice that has helped you throughout your life?

Selena Carty:

not throughout my whole life. I don't think I've had people in my life long enough that's not a bad thing there are a few people who have been in my life for my whole 40 years, um, but there's one, one man. I have one of my mentors. His name's Malik Mohammed um. I think he's got a book called Coffee and Contemplation on Amazon.

Savia Rocks:

That's a cool title.

Selena Carty:

Coffee and Contemplation. Because he has a passion for coffee.

Savia Rocks:

Plug it, plug it.

Selena Carty:

Yeah, malik, mohammed, coffee and Contemplation, amazon, and I even gave it to my son to read, and then we have reasonings around it for him to see what he sees from himself in it. But he always says to me that you are powerful, you are special and the things that are destined for you will not miss you. Yes, yeah, and always powerful reinforcement in regards to my value, um, taking the time for myself, you know, what I'm doing is significant ancestral work and just just validating the acknowledgement of how the work is received by him and how that, in turn, allows him to view me and sharing that with me, um, which helps me to just, you know, remain a little bit more humble, because sometimes I get very annoyed with myself that I'm not doing enough, but there is no measure for me to know what enough looks like or what enough is.

Savia Rocks:

That's true.

Selena Carty:

And it's a constant reminder that every day you wake up is enough. You know, one of my successes for the day is ensuring I brush my teeth. It's literally setting simple targets for you to achieve, it's true, things for the day, and I only set myself three things, you know brush your teeth, feed your children and make sure you drink water, because then everything else is an abundance. You know, whether or not I read a book or whatever, or not, you know I've got a list to do with things, but that's not achievements for me. Ensuring that I am looking after myself and looking after what my major priorities are, that's the first thing, and I don't try not to lose sight of that. So then the work comes secondary to that. But looking after myself and mine, I'm able to then apply myself to the work in the same way that I apply to myself and mine.

Savia Rocks:

I love that. I've only got two more for you, selena, so let's do. Let's do this. So when was the last time you felt totally at peace with yourself? This morning what was it that made you feel at peace? Were you just relaxing or you just woke up?

Selena Carty:

because sometimes it can just be a moment well, because I'm currently in Jamaica and I should have come to Jamaica a long time ago and other things came into play, but I ended up coming and yesterday I went. I traveled for the first time to Westmoreland, a place I've never been to before, and I have a new genealogy client that I got via my cousin, who I found on the journey doing my own family tree. So she never knew me and she got me in contact with her ex-family in-laws and they were looking for somebody like me. So I went down there. So, bear in mind, I didn't know nobody, don't know nobody, and I'm traveling places I don't know again, but I have people I trust with me and I was able to document a 77 year old woman and I was able to get as much information from her at the time to be able to lay the foundations, and I laid the foundations for them. But what the connectivity was that astounded me is that where I'm staying at the moment, her great-grandfather worked in the same place I'm staying at the moment and then on the journey back, you know, looking at what I do, where I'm staying at the moment and then on the journey back, you know, looking at um what I do, where I'm coming from, why I'm doing it.

Selena Carty:

Familiarization with the island, because I travel around Jamaica all the time. Uh, to familiarize myself, because it's my ancestral place, because, although I'm born in England, this is where my people peoples are from. And when I got back you know, the time that I assigned for the day was perfect, even though we hadn't done it before. Just doing that, just trusting in you know what I do. Got home, I rested and when I woke up this morning, I thought this is exactly where you're supposed to be, this is exactly what you're supposed to be doing and the energy that you're investing. So you're not doing more than one thing, you're actually specializing in one thing at one time and seeing how they all connect and seeing how they're all interconnected.

Savia Rocks:

I love that. That is so cool and it goes to show that the work that you do has an awesome effect, and it's so cool to know that. So my last question for you this is for you, this is for you to go a while. Okay, you're ready for this, ready, right? Finally, I want to know where everyone can find out more about you, more about what you do, how you do it. Where can we find about Selena?

Selena Carty:

You can't. That's me. Linkedin is the best place at the moment. So, selena Carty, s-e-l-e-n-a, c-a-r-t-y on LinkedIn, I'm working on my own website at the moment so I'm doing a lot of the visuals for that and the content so people can understand. Uh, there's two other websites, so there's uh y I w a e dot com.

Selena Carty:

That's ye way it stands for you are, I am, we are enough, because if you're not enough and I am enough, we can't be enough. And if you are enough and i're not enough and I am enough, we can't be enough. And if you are enough and I am not enough, we can't be enough. It takes you and I to make a we, and if there is no you and there is no I, there is no we. So it's looking at bringing it together.

Selena Carty:

So that's where you can find me for information about the genealogy work that I do and blackpoppyroseorg. You can find a lot of the work for Black Poppy Rose and our ancestral service. That's on all social medias on Twitter, instagram, linkedin, facebook, I think. I set up a TikTok the other day and I was quite gracious. I was glad that nobody had plagiarized Black Poppy Rose and made. It was like why are you so slow. I do a lot of other things, thanks. How about that? Um, I don't have any students. I don't have any students to come and do the social media for me, because you know it takes funds. You know um with time with time right.

Selena Carty:

So now we're here, but you can find Black Poppy Rose and you know, if you google Selina Carty, there are different articles, there are different um interviews that people have had and said things about me in the work that we're doing. Um, I guess you're one thing. So I I don't know if you know the game call of duty. Yes, so they called for me to be their cultural, military african specialist on the game where they created their first black protagonist character. I could have never known they were looking for me. I could have never known that they would have called me.

Selena Carty:

I could have never done any of of those things and, as a result of them calling me, we created the character, and then the actor of the character has gone on and said my name in a few other interviews about his thoughts about the work that I do and why he felt it was significant. So all of that I think that was about two years ago during the pandemic, but all of that's coming out in regards to who I've worked with, what I'm doing and what we're moving on to do now. So there are a lot of things coming up in 2023, a lot more partnerships that we've been able to secure globally in the West Indies, west Africa and North America. So we're looking at how we deal with that. But, yeah, just keep looking on the website, keep looking on blackpapieroseorg, because I'm going to start doing some lives monthly.

Selena Carty:

We're going to have workshops coming from March because we're launching our book, our Ancestors Served at the end of March, which will allow people to have more information about things that we've been doing for the last decade and a half what that means, how it's connected and how we can start developing more resources and building more infrastructures that allow us to do this work on a full-time basis Not that I don't do this full-time, because I do this full-time but how we can then employ our children. You know, employ specialists, employ people who have ideas but haven't been tertiary educated and not, you know, negate the fact that some people may not be able to go down the academic route, but they still have a lot of value, a lot of contributions. And the last thing is, people don't work for me, they work with me because I don't want anybody to stay.

Selena Carty:

I want people to continue to grow and build what they need to build. You know this is what I'm sent here to build and I appreciate, you know, all the support that I get to assist in building it. But I don't want people to work for me and spend years investing in what I'm doing. I want them to have the access that we have and go and continue to build a thing that they are passionate about so we can continue to share this interdependency. So we're not independent and we're not. We're not what's the word. It's independent, no, not dependent.

Selena Carty:

Independent, interdependent, because I'm trying to assist us in building interdependencies so we each have a role to play within our societies and our communities that we're choosing to grow and choosing to be a part of, and how. You know what I do with Black Poppy Rose and the cultural and ancestral genealogy allows us to be able to do that and connect in a way that doesn't force us to say, well, because you're not black enough or you're not this enough or you're not this enough. It's no longer about what's not enough, it's about what is enough, and I decide that for me and you decide that for you, and everybody decides that for themselves and whether or not we can work from the same page. Moving forward, yeah, I love that.

Savia Rocks:

Selena, this is what I say to you you're awesome. You have strength in you and an energy in you that boost the world. Thank you, continue to take it with you, continue to be awesome. But, more than ever, time is precious and you spent an hour of your time on the show, so thank you so much, and don't forget my playlist.

Savia Rocks:

I'm coming for it you will get it man guys, I want to thank you so much for listening to the first episode of the us people show with selena. It's been an awesome show. Guys, please remember you can listen and subscribe to facebook and youtube and any other platform. Please also remember to follow us on facebook, instagram and twitter and from now on, we will be on every thursday at 8 pm, uk time. Guys, take care. Guys, thank you so much for listening. Take care, stay happy and, as always, please continue to be kind to one another.

Savia Rocks:

I fly like I'm Superman. Spread your wings and let the wings out. I fly like I'm Superman. Spread your wings and let the wings out. I fly like I'm Superman. Spread your wings and let the wings out. I fly like I'm Superman.

Savia Rocks:

Through the darkness of the night. You'll be guided through the light.

Selena Carty:

Oh yeah, the night you'll be guided through the light. Oh yeah, set me free. So there is no work. So when you're resting, it's not, you're not, you're not doing nothing, dear yeah, so it's that. You know, it's that challenge of myself that you're not doing nothing. When you're sitting down and not moving or not writing, or not speaking or not reading, you're actually allowing yourself to settle. Let everything settle. Let the all, the all, the dust in the water, let it settle. Look at the beauty of the water and the reflections of what's being reflected, and then take your time to get to those next steps. I fly like I'm Superman.

Savia Rocks:

Spread your wings and let the wind glide you high. I fly like I'm Superman. Spread your wings and let the wind glide you high. I fly like I'm Superman. Spread your wings and let the wind glide you high. Spread your wings and let the wind glide you high. We're just soaring through this journey, leaving fear far behind. Our hearts are full of courage. You can win if you try. We are ready. As to you, you'll see the power of us If you try. I fly like I'm Superman. Spread your wings and let the wind glide you high. I fly like I'm Superman. Spread your wings and let the wings fly. I fly like I'm Superman. Spread your wings and let the wings fly. I fly like I'm Superman. Spread your wings and let the wings fly. I fly like I'm Superman. I fly like I'm Superman. Spread your wings and let the wind blow.