What Does Chester, PA Sound Like? Inside Engineered Grace Vol. 1

Transcript

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Naij B: for people on the outside who, who don't know who we are, um, Engineered Grace is about how we, how we create our own joy, our own happiness in this- Whatever you wanna call it.

But it just, it's, it's engineered grace. It's by design. It's by, it's by accident. It's, but it's happening.

Jay Ray: Greetings and welcome to Queue Points. My name is Jay Ray, also known by my government as Johnnie Ray Kornegay III. My partner, my friend, and co-host DJ Sir Daniel is off tonight. So the sounds we hear every day often shape our moods, our feelings, and how we see and interact with our environment. Depending on the amount or the kind of sound, or theoretical, actually, we can miss those sounds of the voices who are fighting for our freedom. What if there was an album that could make that hearing a little easier? There's a new project out called Engineered Grace Volume One, and it's out now from the Chester Gifted Program, and it aims to do that and so much more. According to their Bandcamp, Engineered Grace Volume One is an experimental storybook EP derived from direct field recordings made in and around Chester, PA, inspired by collaborative dialogue between the Chester Gifted Program sound system and artistic collaborators Hong Kai Wang and Jun Ting Wong. Tonight, I am joined by two-thirds of the Chester Gifted Program sound system, Christopher R. Rogers and DJ Naij B. Christopher R. Rogers, PhD, started We Win From Within in June of 2023 as an educator and cultural worker from Chester, PA, with more than a decade of experience in supporting justice-oriented arts, culture, and community in the Greater Philadelphia area. Naijee Burrell, also known as DJ Naij B, is a DJ, event organizer, and entrepreneur from Chester, PA. And I must say, y'all, I am super excited because this is the first time we have had all brothers from Chester, PA on Queue

Points.

What's up, y'all?

Naij B: I'm chilling, man. Glad to be here. Thank you for having us

Christopher Rogers: Yeah, C Pride in the building. You know, should we start naming high school classes and, uh, takeout orders? Like, what we doing?

Jay Ray: this is about to happen. So actually, real talk though, um, okay, so I'm gonna freestyle this beginning part a little bit, um, 'cause I didn't, I did not write any of this down. But listening to Engineer Grace Volume One, um, just kind of made me think of all these memories of Chester. So I have been back, um, this is six years, which is crazy to me that I've been back for six years.

Um, because I wasn't ever expecting to come back.

Christopher Rogers: Hmm.

Jay Ray: right? I was from that generation of folks, a lot of us were like, "No, you should go and go out and do other things," right? But here's all these things that started coming up for me as I was listening to this project. So my daycare, um, William Wilson, it's no longer active, but the building is still there, so that was...

I was like, "Oh, okay, that's one thing." My elementary school, Columbus, long closed. That's not there either. school was Immaculate Heart of Mary. Not there anymore. That school is closed, and even the church that was attached to it, of course, caught fire last year. High school, now I went to Chester High School, but I went in that very short-lived window that y'all might have heard about when they created the academy and stuck us in another building. I was

Christopher Rogers: The Perry Building

Jay Ray: yeah, I was one of the few classes. Uh, we were the first class to graduate from the academy. That building is now something completely different, so that's gone, right? even so all this work I do with sound, um, and the work I do in music every day, I learned at a recording studio in this city that no longer exists.

The building is still there. It's 15 East 8th Street. It is still there. It is falling down. That used to be a studio called The Sound Spa. That's how I learned how to do all this stuff. Gone. Has been gone for over 20 years. And this project really got me thinking about the importance of memory and the stories we tell and the stories we preserve, right? Um, so my question is, uh, I wanna get y'all reflections, so let me just do reflections first. How do y'all see your work as the Chester Gifted program kind of preserving memories in this city?

Christopher Rogers: That's beautiful, man. And, um, you know, I'm writing down these addresses and thinking of these locations and, um, yeah, Columbus, I was at Columbus. You know what I'm saying? And, uh, it's, it's interesting to see what has been done with it in its sort of like closing from the inside out, right? It's just like a huge graffiti.

Um, but let me get back to the point. In terms of this album, um, and, and the project of Chester Gifted Program, it started as this sound system. You know, the three of us, myself, Naij, and also, uh, Brian Rebel Foster, uh, who's an incredible DJ himself. Uh, we all were, you know, kind of... You know, I'm a researcher, you know, academic in some ways, but my, my research is kind of built around sound and music, you know?

And certainly the work that they do is, you know, deeply involved in not just, you know, the producing the sound, but also the story of like what any good DJ set should do. You know what I'm saying? Of like it takes you somewhere, right? It takes the, the room somewhere, right? Um, I remember telling, telling Naij at homecoming, uh, maybe not last year, but the year before, I was just like, "Yo bro, you doing a whole set about 2006, like from your memory.

Like you are doing like act like improv," you know? And it's like the level of, you know, collective memory that is established through song, um, is incredibly important, you know? And I, I, what, what I th- was thinking about as we sort of like went into this project was like the way that, as you even mentioned, like it, the sound, um, you know, invites memories, right?

It invites a journey, right? It, it can take you, uh, somewhere, right? So we wanted to sort of be in this process of recognizing these sorts of, uh, shared moments of recognition that we may experience in Chester, um, even beginning with the first track, right? And, you know, what it's like to be under the train station when that, when the, a train comes over.

Um, like those things are, you know, it, it brings you back to the city for me. And, um, as someone who lives in Philly now, um, which is only 20 minutes away, but you know, in many ways a world away, uh, it

Jay Ray: It feels like a

Christopher Rogers: was

Jay Ray: away, and I never understood that.

Christopher Rogers: Yeah.

Jay Ray: that. Yeah.

Christopher Rogers: Um, I, I appreciated being able to, like, return, um, to the place that, like, raised me. Um, and yeah, I'll just, I'll save it there, you know?

Jay Ray: Yeah. Naij, you work, DJ in the

Naij B: Reside currently

Jay Ray: in the

Naij B: Yes

Jay Ray: How do you see this work as kind of an extension of, you know, the stuff that you do with music? Because it is, uh, it's different, but it's aligned. Like, how, how do you, how do

Naij B: It's very, it's been very different, man. It's, um, it's opened up a world to me firstly. Um, one that I didn't consider frequently and that been the kinda like the theme underneath the project is like, uh, you know, listening to certain things and, and bringing awareness to certain things also. Um, and, um, and one thing I always, um, I get from Chris or I tell Chris, you know, he just, he has a way of making, um, things that's normal to me and, and put it in this historical context.

It's like, oh, I didn't even know I was doing that. Um, uh, things that we don't think about common, you know? So I, I, I think I represent that side of like, someone that's here but maybe not always present, um, in a, in a way to whereas though we could make those connections. Um, but the work has been, um, it's been, it's just been a eye-opener, man, all the way around I say

Jay Ray: Uh, y- I wanna stay with

Naij B: Yeah

Jay Ray: If you can, for

the uninitiated to Engineered Grace, uh, by the time this conversation ends, I know all the people listening will now go and listen to it. But how would you describe it to people? If somebody said, "Yo, what is Engineered Grace Volume One?" How would you describe it to them?

Naij B: Man, I s- I say this a lot in the title before, before you get to the audio. Like, the audio is one thing, but then, um, you know, what we're s- what we're ultimately saying, like, like Engineered Grace, like this whole project is about, uh, you know, Chester can be a, a rough place, um, for d- for some. For, for, and for people on the outside who, who don't know who we are, um, Engineered Grace is about how we, how we create our own joy, our own happiness in this- Whatever you wanna call it.

But it just, it's, it's engineered grace. It's by design. It's by, it's by accident. It's, but it's happening. So I, I would say that Um

Christopher Rogers: Yeah.

Jay Ray: You?

Christopher Rogers: I just think, like, just, like, to even underscore that, like, you know, the title, uh, itself is, uh, the grace comes from, um, Toni- work of Toni Morrison. Toni Morrison particularly in Beloved, uh, who says, you know, um, "The only grace we may ever have is the grace that we can imagine. If you could not hear it, you would not have it."

Um, and I think there is something about Chester in that way of like, like, um, Naij is talking about. Like, the conditions, uh, the structural conditions, right, that are sort of, like, imposed on us in Chester. The legacy of white supremacy in this country, the legacy of, like, racial capitalism and the abandonment of, like, the public welfare, the, you know, the erasure of the social welfare state, the closing of schools, the, um, private equity-ification of our healthcare.

The, like, the, these are, like, wide over, like, all-encompassing policies that no one in Chester really chose or voted for or, you know, argued for, and we're still in the midst of, like, figuring out how to make decent, dignified lives in the midst of it. And we, like, claim... And that's the part that I, and I, again, my book kinda gets into this too, like, we claim this city.

It's like, yo, this is our city. And I think what the album is intending to do is try to name that, like, the story of the city that we are claiming is not the mu- municipality, is not the property tax records. It's not the parcels. You know what I'm saying? It's the relationships. You know? It's the sorta, like, history.

It's the community. It's the folks who, you know, um, who stood up for you. Like, right now we working on, uh, me and Naij are, you know, part of our 20th year high school reunion right now, right? And it's, you know, and, uh, one of the folks, uh, uh, Shamira, when I talked to her about like, why do, why should we do this?

She's like, "Yo, we don't all, we ain't all promised good times. So if we got the opportunity to put a good time on for our, for our people, we gonna do it, and that's enough." And I was like, that philosophy, right, is I think only possible, right? In a type of, like- Finding joy amidst the chaos of, you know, our lives in this city.

Um, and, and in that way we have sort of like reclaimed it and renamed it and found a way to take pride in it. Um, you know, so I just, that's what the stories I feel like are getting at, the way that... in many sort of, you know, unique and gestures in, in small ways we, we're fighting for our city. You know what I'm saying?

Um, and our city is not the property, but the people

Jay Ray: So this is bringing up something for me. Um, I talked about this, with Pierre actually. Shout out to CMP Radio.

Christopher Rogers: Word

Jay Ray: um, I was saying to him that there are so many of us... I'm back now, but remember I said at the beginning that wasn't supposed to be the thing, right? I was supposed to go and become be somewhere else, right? And I'm so glad I'm back because I'm also relearning those things which took me to those places that I went,

Naij B: More

Jay Ray: So I was

Christopher Rogers: Brit

Jay Ray: Chester with me wherever I went, and people knew where I was from, but now I get to be back here and I'm figuring out what that means for me. You know what I'm saying? But one of the things I said to Pierre was, are so many of us brilliant Black folks that were part of that generation that left, right? And so I'm wondering, as y'all think about this work, especially talking to those people like me who had gone on but still love Chester and Chester's in their blood 'cause it never leaves, how do you hope that people, though- us, how do you hope that folks interact with this and engage with this as like a reminder of home?

Naij B: First, I, I, I like to say I, I knew y'all was coming back Oh man, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's one of them things that happens over and over again, man, where, but it's, it's indoctrination, man, where you feel like you have to go somewhere else to be something.

Jay Ray: Yeah

Naij B: know? When you are, you already are, in my opinion. Like I've, I've also, I, I went away to, um, to Florida to do, to do schooling in Florida or whatever like that.

And um, the, the one thing that I liked, um, I did like part of it was there were a lot of young people. I seen a lot of young people, um, in glorified positions and, and, and having careers and different things like that. And I only wanted to take pieces of it to come back home. That's all. So that was, that's for me

Jay Ray: Yeah

Christopher Rogers: Yeah, I mean, the, the, um... And I'm sort of

in between in some ways. Like, uh, like I live 20 minutes away, but it's far enough away that I'm not in family favor land, you know what I'm saying? They might see this, but at the same time of like, you know, I'm not getting the call to like, "Yo, can you go pick up da-da-da?"

Like, I'm far enough away, you know what I'm saying, but close enough to get home when I need to. And I think one of the things, you know... Well, there's a couple things, right? And I know this is like a music podcast. So like there was one piece of like I feel like in some ways I needed to step away in order to discover more about myself.

Um, there's a story that I tell. Um, we used to have a music studio in Chester. Um, ours was on Welsh Street. Um, we was there for like a good year, maybe two years. And, uh, Kendrick Lamar's, uh, Heart Part 2 came out,

Jay Ray: Mm-hmm

Christopher Rogers: and I am like, "Yo, yo, stop everything. Y'all need to listen to this. This is just, this man just changed rap music."

You know what I'm saying? And of course, all the people I grew up with was like, "Whatever. Yeah, I mean, man, what is it? Blah, blah, blah." And I, you know, so then I'm like, "Nah, so I'ma turn this on in the lobby, high volume. Let's go Man, tell me why we get to the end of the record, they like, "I mean, it's all right."

I said, "Oh, no." Like, this is... I had to... It's like I had to step away, 'cause the music that I was, like, trying to discover for my... It was not being immediately reflected. So it's like the way that in Chester our lives are kind of always on top of each other, um, in some ways. Like, uh, it's very out in the open.

Everybody knows your business. You know everybody else's business. You know what I mean? Sometimes that space is needed to, for that space of reflection, right? In order to, like return. I think that, that was, you know, uh, one piece for me. And, but I think another thing, like, while I was in Philly, was also, and I said this with Naij and Rebel, we do this party, we used to do this party called Mama's Basement at Dalok Paradise in West Philadelphia.

And it was like, you know, the, the thing about Chester is, the magic of it, is that we all related, kinda. Like, we all know each other. Like, we kinda... You know, in, in a way that in today's climate of, you know, displacement, gentrification, and sorta like the impact that that has on Black, you know, communities and ecosystems, folks are kinda alienated from each other in some ways, right?

The idea of like having to rely on other people is not as pre- So it was like, there's also a magic of Chester in like that piece of like, for someone who's involved in organizing work, of like, yeah, I don't look out for my brother 'cause like, just because it's, you know, quote-unquote the abolitionist thing to do.

No. We look out for each other 'cause we need to survive, and I know that's how we survive, you know? So it was like that way of being 10 toes down with each other and recognizing like what is the, you know, thing of solidarity that holds you together. In Chester, I don't think it's this sort of discovered or named politic.

I think it's the fact that like, yo, who's selling stamps this weekend? You know? Like, we need each other.

Jay Ray: Yes

Christopher Rogers: So I think that's also important. It's something that's missing, and something that always brings me back home, too

Jay Ray: Hmm. know, it's so interesting that you mention that. That is one of the things I always talked about Being from Chester that I will always talk about. When I was living in Atlanta, this would come up a lot. Um, and Atlanta is, it's a big small town. In particular, when you get, like, outside of the city, like, it, you, you develop these, like, close relationships of survival with folks.

It's just the way it works, and it was very much like Chester in that respect. And it's crazy how many people from Chester, like, ended up in Atlanta. But

Christopher Rogers: true

Jay Ray: it's

one of the things that for me has been super dope watching... Okay, so first of all, as a music guy, like, who has seen and done and all of these things, when I heard about what y'all were doing with the Chester Gifted program, I was like, now what is this that is happening? is interesting." You know? And, and, and it, it is not that I expected to see, here, from brothers that were from here. It's just not... and so I, I need to, us to spend a couple of minutes, um, talking about just that evolution of, first of all, y'all calling it Sound System. As somebody who was a fan of the Bristol sound systems of the 1990s, I was like all into Massive Attack and all into Soul II Soul. I'm like, "Huh, what do we got a sound system in Chester? Who are these brilliant young men to kinda bring that world here?" So I wanna talk about that evolution. How did y- how did y'all get started, like, just working together and doing this

Naij B: T-28, 2018? Yeah, uh, your party? Um, the first? Yeah,

Christopher Rogers: Well, yeah.

Naij B: Was that '18

Christopher Rogers: The birthday party, my. Yeah. So, um, well, it, and there's a connection to that too. So I, I, the Chester part of it, I'm, and I f- I feel like, and Chester would know this, is like we always designing new ways that we can, you know, create opportunities with. Uh, so like, uh, the Philadelphia Museum, I was doing a project with Philadelphia Museum of Art, uh, called Philadelphia Assembled.

Uh, it was the idea of like doing a, a number of, you know, participatory community events, um, and trying to like imagine a vision for Philadelphia. Um, and Rebel was just making his way into the city as a DJ, um, and you know, he was anchoring for like that more sort of like taste maker DJ route. Like, you know, a Rich Medina, uh, uh, like that sort of like I'm trying to play songs for the music heads and for the dancers

Jay Ray: I, that's how I got connected. I landed at some event, and Rebel was DJing, and I'm like, "Who's

Christopher Rogers: Yep

Jay Ray: like, Chester.

Christopher Rogers: Yeah

Jay Ray: I got, that's how it all happened. It literally came from me ending up at some random event that somebody was like, "Oh, Jay, you need to come through," and I heard

Naij B: Wow. Yeah

Christopher Rogers: Exa- ex- exactly. You know what I mean? And then, like, so we did a project together where I was able to bring Rebel and I think get his first, like, sizable, you know, his, like, real wage to DJ. You know what I'm saying? And so this idea of, like, um, DJing, but DJing with concepts, right? And, and, and themes, you know?

It's not really a Chester... Like, we doing, we doing a party in Chester, it's, it's a Chester party. You know? But certainly as you get to the, you know, that sort of, like, city, metropo- m- metropolis world of things, they want you to have, like, different concepts and things on it. So, like, I feel like that's where we started, and then, uh, 2018, on the tail end of that project, we threw a, a party at The

Naij B: Saint

Christopher Rogers: on Girard, um, that was, like, all three of us together.

Um, and me, I don't DJ. I'm just more, like, you know, the storytelling of, you know, what, what, what we're here to do. Um, and, and from there, I, I feel like we had this... And I would love Naij to expand on this, but I feel like we had this idea of, like, one of the issues is like, yo, we can win Chester, and then, but as a, you know, a base, it's only, like, what, 35, 35,000 people?

You know, it's like, you can't, the, in terms of, like, sustaining your creative sort of, like, uh, passion and turning it into a job or that sort of thing, it's like you need this thing. But we're not also trying to sell out our hometown. Like, we, that's, you know, that also means something to be integrated with our roots, right?

Uh, you know, shout out to ODB, right? Like, you can take people out the neighborhood, but you can't take the neighborhood out the people, you know? So it was like, how do we go about this work of exploring the sort of Philadelphia scene and how the, you know, the rich history and the competitive nature of DJing in the city, um, while also staying rooted in our home?

Jay Ray: the whole art scene in Philadelphia. It's a

Christopher Rogers: Right

Um, but yeah, I, I don't know, like Naij, you know, um, how'd, what'd you, how did, how did you see the evolution of this

Naij B: Man, I, uh, I think I came to them for about the same time, uh, before St. Lazarus. Like, I just wanted to, um, I wanted to dig in my crates a little bit, as a, as a, as a DJ here. Um, again, like you said, it's just a, it's a party, but they're also expecting to hear certain things. It's a- it's already set in stone what BPMs we like, what artists we like and all that, and, you know.

Um, you know, I got other playlists. I got other crates and stuff, man.

Jay Ray: You like, "Yeah," you like, "I got other stuff I

Naij B: Yeah, and it's, and it's, and it's n- and it's not gonna fly. And it's like, all right, I, I accept that for now. You, you know I accept that for now, you know? So it's like once we get to, uh, you know, and it's here now, you know. It's, it's been here.

Um, it's growing, the arts community in Chester, but it's not like, um, like you said, the bigger metropolitan cities. So just seeing that as an opportunity to like, oh, we like, we can, we can go there. We can take it there. And I don't think we see ourselves as that sometimes because of the, the limits somewhat that we kinda place on ourselves here

Jay Ray: that's a word. Um, yeah. Yes. There... It's interesting that you mention this. So there have been, there have been things... I've d- I did all kinds of stuff in Atlanta, like it was crazy. Like, just the amount of things that I was just like, "Let's just try it and see if it will work." A lot of times it would work.

It'd be like, "Oh, dug that." when I got back, of course, I'm like, "All right, well, so here's the thing that we gonna do, and da, da, da, da, do." And literally people were looking at me like, "That will never, that will never work." And I'm like, "How can it not work? We need to do a Naked Music retrospective, and we can do it in Chester, and people from Philly will come to Chester."

And they were like, "No, they're not. Johnnie, it's not happening." And I'm like, "Duh!" So anyway, I, that resonated with me so much.

Naij B: Yeah

Jay Ray: But I, but what I love is y'all do this work. So

I wanna bring this now back to the album one of the things that was fascinating to me as, as you listen, as you get the sounds of the city, but you also get the stories.

So I am, I would like for y'all to talk a little bit about the, the process of putting this together because we talk about these, um, limits, which are real. Y'all are truly breaking the mold what a Chester project could sound like. I feel like it's expanding. It's showing people something different when they listen, like, "Oh, that's possible?

I can do that?" So how was the process of creating? What was the process of creating it?

Naij B: Man, this was really Improv. Improv, if we could use that word

Jay Ray: is, that's a, that's a skill that Black folks have. My brother Dr. Ed Gons would be like, "Black folks, we are, we are improvisational. That's a

Naij B: A lot of, lot of, lot of, lot of improv, a lot of, uh, resourcefulness and creativity. Um, so we're, um... fast, fast-forward a little bit, so we're gonna be a part of the, uh, an exhibition at ICA in September, um, from the sound recording that we did. So Engineer at Grease is, is kinda like a B side to this other thing that's gonna be at the exhibition in September

Jay Ray: I love a

Naij B: Yeah, yeah. So, so this was, this, this was, this was like, um, this was like the version we came up with, and then we kind of took it to back to the label, and the label was like, "Yeah, well, we kind of just need this."

Christopher Rogers: Right.

Naij B: And it was like, "Well, well look, well we really, we, you know, we, we went in. Like I feel like we went in, like we did it right, no?"

Yeah. Yeah, we just kind of just went this, you know, and, and we had to be cool with that.

Christopher Rogers: It's like what, what, what, what would George Clinton do? I'm putting it out. Just put ano- just put another name on it. Look,

Naij B: It's going out, yeah.

Christopher Rogers: But yeah, I mean that, and that was ... And one of the things that, you know, that conversation was about was

we went around with these, you know, Zoom recorders, and we talked like ... Remember, we was like, "Yo, can you, you ..." We, they're now all at the J. Louis Crozer Library, which is the public library of Chester on the West End.

Um, and then these recorders are available for public use. Like, people could do whatever they want with them. They could continue to contribute to the archive if they want. But the, the goal was like we had to go around and, and talk to people. Like, um, I'm not ... You know, mentioned like sitting with his mom on Hayes Street, right?

And like pulling the recorder out and being able to get some things. Like, I, you know, um, my, uh, older sister and her nephew were at the A-field, the Chester athletic field, walking the, walking the track and are recording some things. Um, w- we are, uh, I'm, I'm sitting outside the car at Ethel Waters Park, right?

Um, and recording this sort of like sou- So these were like- Important, and yes, we had Zoom H1s and, you know, people could talk about the quality, if you will. But I think there's, and Black music has always been about, it's not just the, it's about the context too. It's about situating, you know, folks in place, right?

Um, like one of the, the final track, right, the outro, is me giving the recorder. Yeah, it's just me giving the recorder to my six-year-old nephew. Um, and he decides he's gonna run around Uno's Pizza and just, you know, singing to the mic. Um, so, like, the improv was, like, recognizing that, like, we wanted people to feel free, you know, with the recorders or we wanted a sense of relationship to be present.

And I think, like, the relationship was the quality, right? The quality is in the relationships that we had to the places, to the people, um, and letting that shine forward. And I, I, I, I am excited for people to, you know, recognize that. That, like, yeah, that's Coach Blake Johnson, you know what I'm saying? I known that man, like, sleepovers when we was, like, five, six years old going, 'cause my brother and him played on the basketball team and had to travel, you know?

And now, you know, he's 38 and he's coaching the next generation. We got two, we have a sponsored basketball teams, the Chester Pro- Gifted Program basketball team as part of Chester Bitty, and we get to talk with Blake about, like, what's it like putting on for the next generation? And also, I should say, Naij, I was just talking to Blake the other day, he's still rapping out here too, and I told him, "Bro, we got a EP."

Like, I, if he ready, we could do Engineer of Grace volume two, three, four, you know what I'm saying? Get him in the booth and make, put some basketball sounds underneath it. You know, like the old Nike commercial, get to it. So, we'll, we'll see.

Jay Ray: Mm. So many ideas. 'Cause there was, when I was listening to Engineer Grace too, I was like, want a scratch and a song, like right here." Like, yes. So, many things. I'ma just let y'all, I'ma let y'all cook. But it's inspirational. And before, uh, before we end this, this con- this part of the conversation, I would be...

We cannot

not talk about the fact that this project supports, Chester Residents Concerned With Quality Living, talk about the importance of the giving back through this project.

Christopher Rogers: Yeah

Jay Ray: the voices of, of Ms. Zuline and Dr.

Nolan and, and the young people part of Choices. Um, to us about the importance of supporting C.R.C.Q.L. and the work that they are doing

Naij B: Yeah, you

Christopher Rogers: I'll start on this to say, like, um, the... So obviously right now, Circle is in the midst of a huge campaign, um, uh, allied with folks in Philadelphia. Uh, the City of Philadelphia burns its trash, or a huge portion of its trash, in Chester, Pennsylvania. It is burned by the nation's largest incinerator, which is, you know, under this sort of ReWorld corporation.

Um, and it goes into our air. Um, we know that the, our air is impacted. There are numerous studies that, uh, talk about the health impacts of the sort of like toxic waste industries on Chester's waterfront, with ReWorld being the number one contributor of that, but not the only one. Um, so right now they are in a effort to sort of dismantle or end the Philadelphia's contract with ReWorld, to embrace an alternative strategy.

Right now it's like, uh, landfills or whatnot. Um, and this campaign is just a continuation of work that Circle has been doing since like 1991 or 1993. Three, yeah, right. Uh, Miss Zulene has always been on the, the front lines of, of, of this fight. And it was important for us to recognize that, like, in the tradition of art n- that I aspire to, and it's sort of like Black aesthetics, it's functional.

Like, we, we not just putting out stuff to just, you know, um, self-aggrandize, right? Like, we're, we're here for it to serve a particular purpose. So the, the work that we're doing in putting this album together, I think, you know, some people could say it's a, a, you know, it's, it is a delightful story, and it's meant to be sort of like joyous, but it's also...

And this is the thing that we're constantly flirting with, and it shows up in Black music all the time, of like, um- Would, would they rather hear our blues? Or would they rather see our suffering end? And I feel like what we're doing in this project is like, say like, we still can find ways to be joyous.

And what you're seeing out there is seeing all the ways that we suffer. And we need y'all to support the work of ending our suffering by, yes, fighting back and to end the, the contract with Reedy World by, um, helping, you know, uh, Circle already has the demands. They already have the campaign. We need folks to get behind it.

Um, so I think like, for us it was like, if we're gonna do a project and, and put something out there, how can we make it serve these sort of like larger goals, right? It's not, um, it's not just about the, the music, but the music is in service of our, like livelihoods

Jay Ray: Mm-hmm. Man, Um,

this work means something. Um, in our next segment, uh, Chris is gonna stay behind because we gotta talk about his book, My City Needs Something. Um, but I wanna thank you both, um, for the work of putting together this project, uh, Engineer Grace volume one. We will make sure that there is information on how to get it, um, in the description so our folks can interact with it. And I will ask our Queue Points family, so as y'all are listening to this conversation, weigh in. Because one of the things about Engineer Grace volume one is, yes, it is centering the city of Chester, but insert Black city here is also a part of Engineer Grace. Like,

Christopher Rogers: Gary, Indiana is, is our people

Jay Ray: you know, Flint, Michigan, all of these places, you are hearing echoes of that in Engineer Grace.

So more than just Chester. Chester is speaking for all of us, uh, Black folks in the country. So thank y'all so much for creating this. Naij, before you get out of here, how can folks interact with you? Where can they, they, they dance to your music and you DJing, where can they find you online? Tell the folks what's up

Naij B: so first, um, I'm on Instagram @djNaijb. I'm on, um, Facebook, Naijee Burrell. Um, and I'm also gonna have a ... I have a day party coming up soon. I'm mobile, so I move around, but I have a day party coming up soon at, at Boots & Bonnets in, um, 1521 Townsend Street, the legendary Boots & Bonnets. Um, it's a Sunday at 6:00 PM, man.

It's gonna be, it's gonna be a good time. Um, it's a track on Engineered Grace. Um, salute to that. Um, yeah, so that, that's where I'm at, man. Thank you again for having me

Jay Ray: No, no problem. Thank you so much for being here. And for all of you that are joining. In our next segment, uh, Dr. Christopher R. Rogers will be hanging out 'cause we gotta talk about his book.