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Aired: September 22nd, 2021
Audio and Photo Source: Isis Asare and Instagram
We dedicate this Wine Down Wednesday to all the Blerds, Fantasy Fans and Sci-fi heads! Our host Orion Brown sat down with Isis Asare, the founder of Sistah Scifi. As a purveyor of Afro-futuristic literature, and an avid traveler, Isis shares how her company allows her to tap into her love of travel. The two talk about everything from Japanese onsens (hot tub anyone?!), to fictional planets based on real locations in Jamaica. So grab some popcorn and a glass of wine… your inner nerd will thank you!
Wine Down Wednesday: Isis Asare
Orion Brown
Good, we're gonna get that lighting right. What will get us with the lighting? Hey, guys. Hello, hello. It's Wednesday. I'm a few minutes early. I've been so excited to see you guys. I'm already a few minutes early. You're gonna see who we got this week. I'm really excited. My inner geek is super excited for our guest. Y'all gonna see in a minute, y'all gonna see in a minute. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Hey, y'all. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Orion Brown. I'm the founder and CEO of Black Travel Box. So, you should see it right above me here. I guess it would be in here. And I'm looking at myself as like kind of over there. But anyway, black travel box. We're personal care products company for travelers the color. And we do [01:06] Wednesday every week, because travel is my self-care. I don't know about y'all, but travel is my self-care. And when I'm not traveling, I like to think about traveling. I like to talk about traveling. I like to kick it, share stories, and that's what we are doing with-- wait y'all gonna make fun of me. I may have thrown like a couple of ice cubes in my wine because it was too warm. Oh, wait, let me get these right. There we go. Yeah, I couldn't so I threw a little. So, I hope y'all are ready to get into it. I'm like a couple minutes early. So, I know people are still coming in. But we are going to have a dope little show today. I'm excited. Y'all know sis Sapphire? Who knows sis Sapphire. We are going to have a dope time. I hope you have your glasses. It could be juice. It could be Pepsi. I went with wine with a little bit of ice. I don't normally do it. I don't normally do it but it's hot in here and it's been a long day and I needed it, cold quick. So, we do we got to do. Where are you guys at? Where are you from? I see some new faces here today. Kelly Bell, Is it Kelly belly? I don't know. I'm not quite sure. Hi, Miss Stephanie, thanks for joining us. Awesome Hey, Catrina, Hey. I'm like waving it. So, is this dorky? Y'all gotta tell me, is it dorky that I wave at everybody? But I feel like you know you have a party and people are coming in like you kind of-- like it's awkward when somebody just yells come in, and then you just wander in their house. I like to like open the door for people. So, I waved to y'all every time you come in so you know I see you. I thought Welcome, welcome, welcome, It's wind down Wednesday. Oh my god, you guys, I've had such a week, such a whole week. But it has been amazing. And there's so many dope things that are coming, there's so many dope things that are coming. And I can't tell you yet, but I'm really excited. Is any of y'all in the Atlanta area? We're about to do some really cool stuff. Just saying but I can't say so. I didn't say, I want to gossip. So, you ain’t heard that from me. This wind down with us if you turn up because I am in a tired but good mood. Y'all ever been in the tired good mood where you’re like, Oh, I'm on fumes but it's popping. Baby, baby. I love it. I love it. I don't know if I told you guys yet. I am going on a trip. Thank you [] I'm going on a trip in December to Morocco. Yeah, I can't even tell you how excited I am. I haven’t been outside the country since January 2019. It's a travesty. So, I am so, so here for just all of it. Just all of it. Let me see if I can get Miss Missy on. Let's get our guests on right quick. If I can spell you guys, I can't spell. Let me try it. Bear with me, I got it in, I got my invite in. Hey, oh, you hear, hey, boo. Yes, I'm so excited, y'all.
Isis Asare
I'm a few minutes late. Oh my god. Anyway, I'm so happy to be here.
Orion Brown
I'm so happy to have you. And I was just like trying to figure out technology because the way my hair is going like getting old, I was trying to figure out how to invite you. Oh my gosh. So, you guys. I'm like yelling for a treat. Because Well, I have some geeky too, I got some nerdy too. I've got some tendencies. And our guest today and I'm gonna let her introduce herself and tell you what she does and everything. We're gonna do our regular, regular. But we got to talk about travel, but I tell you what it's gonna be extra entertaining today. We're talking about traveling to the farthest reaches of reality in the universe. That's what I imagine we're going to talk about. So, tell everybody your-- so we do kind of a ritual here for the first time. Tell everybody your name, where you live, where you're from, if they're not the same place. I'm gonna ask for this number of stamps on your passport doesn't have to be exact. Like how many countries you've been to? And then tell us all about what you do. And why I'm so geek to see you. Yay, I can do all those things. I'm so excited to be here. I think Black Chocolate Box is the coolest thing ever. Thank you.
Isis Asare
Yeah, I'm like, so I am Isis Asare. Oh, yeah. Wine down and I have anyway. But anyway, I am Isis Asare. I'm CEO and founder of Sistah Scifi and Sistah Scifi is the first black owned bookstore focused on science fiction and fantasy. So [07:14] sci fi heads, fantasy lovers, we are here for you. Where do I live? I live in Oakland, California. But would you start when [] in this current moment? I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. There's a long story behind that. But I’m in Oakland, California. I was born in Harlem, New York, but both of my parents are from Ghana, West Africa. So, number of countries that I've been to, it's not like a huge amount. I think it's like 12 or 13. I should probably sink out but we'll go and talk for 30.
Orion Brown
I love it. But you I mean, you've got the states covered. Because you're like, I'm from here. I live there. I'm kicking it here but as a long story, I mean I love it, I love it, I love it. And I love that one I love getting perspectives of-- I presume first generation so your parents are from-- so I love getting first generations perspectives because how we get indoctrinated to travel and how we get introduced to it is really predicated on our family stories. So, I would love to, like just hear what you're and then we got to get nerdy as Oh, y'all understand, y'all Understand? You waiting to double Dutch and you tried to get in you like you’ll understand when I get in there [] pop ups. I digress. But tell us what was your first memory of travel or What was your first travel experience? If you remember.
Isis Asare
Orion, this is a great question. Because I was born in New York and grew up in Houston. I don't know if that counts. But I would say my first international trip is my dad took my younger sister nice to Ghana. So, we were like, I was 15. That would make my sister 10. She's five years younger. And so, we spent like the whole summer in Ghana, it was like super grounding for me, I think it like solidified my dual identity as both like African and African American, which a lot of times are intertwined, but sometimes can be very different, right? And then it also like gave me like a source of motivation. Like, I want to ultimately do something that highlights the continent of Africa and the country of Ghana. That was outside of like, Western capitalism might be honest, like, I want to get a good job. I want to make a lot of money, like ultimately, like I want to uplift black people across the diaspora. We were there for like six weeks. I realized like I don't speak to like, I don't speak the language of Ghana so like I'm like-- I'm going to take care of that. So yeah, so my first travel experience.
Orion Brown
And I love when you can just be like, Yeah, I don't really speak the language like that. It's funny especially with New Yorkers, I know this particularly with like the Hispanic community, they have like the whole like, New Year Rican concept, which I think I'm outside looking in, but I feel like you can't ignore each other. You just didn't realize this. But this idea of like, learning language and knowing how to like, hear it and accept it, but not necessarily knowing how to speak it is like such an interesting concept to me. I'm from Chicago, so I don't have to, there's no like, interesting. There's nothing interesting. I'm just bright, but like, there's nothing interesting. So, it's like, I just speak English most of the time. It's close to English. But there's something-- So I've learned second languages. I say this, because I learn a little bit of a few things, but not a whole one. But do you find yourself getting stuck with like words or translations that you're like, oh, what's the word like in English?
Isis Asare
Oh, sorry. I'm trying to charge my phone. No, because I am very monolingual. Like, I only speak English. So, like, there's like, the typical, like, social awkwardness of like, what's my next word? But not the like, I'm translating in my head type thing, because I don't really know what language I mean, unless you count African American vernacular English.
Orion Brown
That’s the only language there is, what are you talking about. Any other language? I love that. I love that. So, you talked about, like, getting grounded in heritage and like, your two identities by going to Ghana, and they had to be like, do you think if you were the 10-year-old in that situation, you would have had the same experience? Or was there something about being 15 that made that experience more impactful?
Isis Asare
Well, that's a great question. Um, I don't know. I mean, I want to say like, oh, it was going. But I know, like my sister especially now that she has a daughter is very much connecting back to Ghana. But sure. I mean, like, I think most of her life was like, my parents are from Ghana. And I don't know, she personally had a tie to but when I left, I was definitely like, I'm Kenyan American. And like, I like I'm gonna go back to Ghana and I did. So yeah, I think 15 is a very pivotal age, because you're forming your self-identity. And then so to have that trip, so I can incorporate my cultural identity as I formed, my self-identity was important. So yeah, that's a good question. I've never thought about that. So, thank you.
Orion Brown
You're welcome. Go you won't go. I'm just curious. I'm just curious. So, another thing that I've noticed with sometimes people will be like, I'm from the continent, so I don't really hang out in the continent other than my home country, or like I'm from the Caribbean. I don't really hang out all around the Caribbean except for my home country. Do you explore like North Africa, West Africa, South Africa, are you just like, just give me my Ghana and I'm good?
Isis Asare
Yeah, I'm definitely an explorer and that's for when Ghanaians travel. That is like there are two things that are like cultural in Ghanaian DNA. One we travel and two, the term I use is [14:20], we love tours, borders, strangers. I think the first official is like a problem which is welcome like so, those two things. So most of my travel in Africa has been West Africa. So, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast, Mali, but I didn't make it up to Timbuktu. I've gone to South Africa for Afropunk which is kind of like--
Orion Brown
It’s good for most western African. I'm not mad at it though. Like I mean, I'll go to the tip of the continent for a party like but yes--
Isis Asare
It’s probably the most American thing I could have done, yeah. Oh, somebody says sounds like a book, give me my Ghana. So yeah, but I do tend to like-- I've been at Ghana, like several times in my next trip to the continent. So Sistah Scifi is planning an Afrofuturism trip to Ghana December 2022. Yes, right now we're still in the collecting inches forms, but like, we have like a partner stuff like that. And I'll be going back, I'll like to say I'll be going back to Ghana. It's a tiny country but there's a lot to explore, though. That's what I tell myself.
Orion Brown
I mean, the thing is, is I personally, when I travel, it doesn't really matter where or what the place is, it's like, if you can find the piece of history, the food helps. You can find some nice people, like it makes that experience so rich that like, yeah, there's definitely times where I'm like, I just want to kind of be back in that space and dig into that space more and get more out of it. So, I haven't been to Ghana yet, it's on my list, I know.
Isis Asare
Yeah, come true. I mean, no pressure. So, I tell my friends whenever they meet my dad, I was like, my dad is gonna do two things. He's gonna be like when are you coming to Ghana and did you buy the ticket? I'm not going to be that person. Just know that if you ever, my daddy's gonna be like, did you buy your tickets up?
Orion Brown
Is the ticket purchased? Because otherwise I don't believe you. You lie, you lie. I love that. And I'm like this mixture of Scifi and Afrofuturism and the continent, I'm like, Oh, my God, tell me all the things. Tell me about what your brainchild is for this trip next year? And how do you think that comes together? And tell us a little bit about Afrofuturism on the continent versus maybe in the States, if there's anything different, I don't know if there is,
Isis Asare
Wow, whoo. Okay, let's start with the trip. Well Say hi to Chloe. So, for the Afrofuturism trip to Ghana, it really is, in my mind, like, for lack of a better word, Afrofuturism coming full circle. So, I think the original definition of Afrofuturism, which has kind of diverge with the Tasha woman's definition was like, black people in the US imagining themselves in the future. So, it was definitely very US focused. It was definitely very future focused. So that takes out like fantasy that takes out my core that takes that like mysticism. I think, as for lack of a better term, Afrofuturism goes mainstream. There's been an expanding of it across the African diaspora. So, the US and Canada and the Caribbean and of course, Africa. So, for me, it's the trip. it will really be like, so some of the things that we're talking about, that we share some of the folklore anansi tales, really experiencing that, like in West Africa, where a lot of those stories came from. And the plan is to kind of plan the trip around the novella by [18:46] remote control, which is set in Ghana. So, we're actually going to go to Northern Ghana, to this city where the story starts and ends. So, people who come to the trip have like a literal reference, like a literary reference that they can go through.
Orion Brown
That’s dope. So, you're stepping into the novel, you're stepping into the novel, and like creating an experience around that grounding it in the reality of the place.
Isis Asare
Yes. 100%. So yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited about that. Like, and it opens up to like similar trips like a lot of like children of the blood and bone. Like you said, [19:31] which is modeled after Nigeria so like, that would be a breakthrough but that's not this next trip.
Orion Brown
So, you got ideas. She's like, and the next one gonna be and the next one. I'm not mad at that girl, do what you gotta do.
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