Lester Jay is a vocalist who blends old-school church vocals, hip-hop hooks, and pop production to create his upbeat brand of House music. But before we get into music, we have to talk family and faith: the family that ain’t kin and the kin that ain’t family, navigating spirituality outside the heterornormative bubble, and coming out to your people. Then we explore the how Lester discovered he was a vocalist and performer in church, why he fell for House music, why I stopped DJ, and why I’m anticipating our forthcoming collab. If I ever bummed you out with one of my late DJ sets, that’s my bad.

Resources:

• Lester’s music: SoundCloud | Spotify | Apple Music
• Instagram: @lesterjayofficial
• Facebook: facebook.com/Lesterjaymusic

Let’s Talk:

• Website: conversationforadults.com
• Instagram: @conversationforadults
• Facebook: facebook.com/conversationforadultswithjimiizrael
• Twitter: @convoforadults

Conversation for Adults is a production of Crate Media

Dan Curtin, DJ and creator of Metamorphic Recordings, is one of the key players in creating the sound of modern techno over the last three decades. Dan shares stories from Cleveland to Berlin, from breakdancing in his parents’ basement to spinning in European nightclubs, from choosing between buying cat food or human food to starting his own label. Curtin also gives us a rundown of what it takes to get started in the scene today: starting a label, blowing up your tracks, and making house and techno music that does’t suck.

Resources:

• dancurtin.com
• SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/dan-curtin
• Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/3346lOPGfAtx8KV1bEJhFD
• Instagram: @dancurtinx
• Facebook: facebook.com/dancurtinmusic
• Twitter: @DanCurtinMusic
• Metamorphic Recordings
• FAT OF EXCELLENCE Production Services
• Hardgroove Mastering

Let’s Talk:

• Website: conversationforadults.com
• Instagram: @conversationforadults
• Facebook: facebook.com/conversationforadultswithjimiizrael
• Twitter: @convoforadults

Conversation for Adults is a production of Crate Media

Christine Jones Woods is a professional opera and jazz vocalist who has performed on stages across the U.S. and Europe. We talk about the first time she opened her mouth to sing, and trace her career from New Jersey to Rome and back. Then, we talk about the romantic night she met her husband, the brothers dissing big girls, and her unlikely ranking of our bedroom shenanigans. Her date with Mike Tyson and onscreen, with Adam Driver. All love, all the time, from our girl in Rome, and all that jazz … on #conversationforadults.

Resources:

• Hear Christine sing on YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCAr5_EbHhF3lIr5UuOlyw3A
• Instagram: @christinewoods3140
• Facebook: facebook.com/christine.j.woods.1
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/christine-jones-woods-56047480

Let’s Talk:

• Website: conversationforadults.com
• Instagram: @conversationforadults
• Facebook: facebook.com/conversationforadultswithjimiizrael
• Twitter: @convoforadults

Conversation for Adults is a production of Crate Media

Michael Gill MFA is the Editor and Publisher of CAN Journal, the collaborative arts magazine of the Collective Arts Network and, a few days after Christine Priola, Susan Allan Brock and other Donald Trump supporters try to take the U.S. Capitol hostage, answers the musical question “what the hell is going on with white people?” We talk about why liberals love James Baldwin and Ta-nehisi Coates, how white women try to restrain black opportunity (#Karen) and the two types of whiteness. Also, taking care of the edlerly and the rules to handling a Black Man’s Money. It’s cocksuckery, printmaking and white accountability -- at last-- on #conversationforadults. 

Resources:

• Canjournal.org
• Michael on FB: facebook.com/michael.gill.7547
• Read my articles in CAN Journal

Let’s Talk:

• Website: conversationforadults.com
• Instagram: @conversationforadults
• Facebook: facebook.com/conversationforadultswithjimiizrael
• Twitter: @convoforadults

Conversation for Adults is a production of Crate Media

Angelique Kingsbury is a former blogger and e-acquaintance I haven't talked to in about a decade. We talk about not letting anyone sew a scarlet letter on her breast, the difference between North and South Minneapolis, dealing with colorism, and advice for maintaining relationships with adult children. Angelique also shares her on-the-ground report of the George Floyd’s protests: his GFs, the pattern of police violence beforehand, the Purge-like scene at the 3rd Police Precinct, and the conflict over defunding the police. It’s line-dancing teeth, Prince and too many blogs … on #conversationforadults

Resources:

• Instagram: @quintessential_minneapolitan

Let’s Talk:

• Website: conversationforadults.com
• Instagram: @conversationforadults
• Facebook: facebook.com/conversationforadultswithjimiizrael
• Twitter: @convoforadults

Conversation for Adults is a production of Crate Media

Artist Michelangelo Lovelace’s paintings depict the soul of the streets: real life in America. We talk about being raised to hustle, belt vs. extension cord whoopings, meeting his first wife (who is also his fourth wife), how many jobs a man really needs, and why it’s never Momma’s fault. What artist and mentor Reverend Albert Wagner taught him about life, paint, and sex. Then, we explore the life of an outsider artist, from selling his work in the streets to selling at Tina Knowles’s benefit and collectors abroad, and all of the rejections and hustles in between. It’s vodka love, Superman, and Black Kryptonite ...  on #conversationforadults.

Resources:

• www.lovelaceart.com
• Michelangelo’s recent online gallery: “Nightshift” at Fort Gansevoort
• Write-up in the New Yorker
• Explore more of his pieces on IG: #michelangelolovelace
• Rev. Albert Wagner

Let’s Talk:

• Website: conversationforadults.com
• Instagram: @conversationforadults
• Facebook: facebook.com/conversationforadultswithjimiizrael
• Twitter: @convoforadults

Conversation for Adults is a production of Crate Media

I never knew much about my Great Aunt Maisy. My grandmother’s oldest sister, they had been fighting since the 40s. So I went down to the house she’s lived in for 57 years to get her side of the story and chat about what she’s seen over the last 90 years. We share stories about taking care of your siblings, white people not raising their own children, why the coronavirus is the new flood, the only four things Aunt Maisy needs in life, family that only has a problem until they need some cash, and two big things we have in common: stepping up to fill a parental role real young and losing your spouse. And we really get into the beef; Aunt Maisy always tells it like it is, but her daughter Cassandra comes in with the assist to spill all the tea.

Let’s Talk:

• Website: conversationforadults.com
• Instagram: @conversationforadults
• Facebook: facebook.com/conversationforadultswithjimiizrael
• Twitter: @convoforadults

Conversation for Adults is a production of Crate Media

Freddie Mercury, Waylon Jennings, Gene Simmons, Joan Jett, Dolly Parton, Todd Rundgren, Alice Cooper, Rod Stewart, Meatloaf: that’s just an abbreviated list of the music legends that Anastasia Pantsios has photographed over the last 50 years. We talk about growing up in the middle of Chicago’s redlining (five blocks from Michelle Obama), witnessing segregation in action, Cleveland’s porn days, a white woman’s take on Blaxploitation, and growing up when women were given three choices out of college: marry, teach, or grad school. Then we share stories about how Anastasia became a rock photographer, the most scandalous situations she witnessed, why she was always the consummate professional, how Linda McCartney gave female photographers a bad rap, and my almost-groupie moment with Samantha Fox.

Resources:

• Check out Anastasia’s photos: soniciconic.shootproof.com
• Instagram: @ajpanastasia
• Facebook: facebook.com/anastasia.pantsios
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anastasia-pantsios-b2739b12
• anastasiapantsios.com (under construction at the time of publication)
• Read Anastasia’s articles on EcoWatch.com
• Read Anastasia’s articles on CoolCleveland.com

Let’s Talk:

• Website: conversationforadults.com
• Instagram: @conversationforadults
• Facebook: facebook.com/conversationforadultswithjimiizrael
• Twitter: @convoforadults

Conversation for Adults is a production of Crate Media

I first met Denise Oliver when I was a solid B+ student in her English 099 class, but we went on to become peers, engage in a brief romantic interlude, and, years later, sit down in my home for a conversation — my first with an “ex” of any kind. We talk about writing, colonialism, why you can’t be an effective agent for change in the Black community with a white partner, and if that is fair or not. Then we get into relationships: her swirl year with a white boy, me getting caught up in some BDSM raceplay, how a Case history major grows up to date a truck driver, dating and mating within your caste and she rates our romantic sojourn, which makes me feel some type of way. It’s a walk down memory lane … on #conversationforadults.

Resources:

• “The Denzel Principle” by Jimi Izrael

Let’s Talk:

• Website: conversationforadults.com
• Instagram: @conversationforadults
• Facebook: facebook.com/conversationforadultswithjimiizrael
• Twitter: @convoforadults

Conversation for Adults is a production of Crate Media

Kisha Foster returns, and a lot has changed since she last appeared: she had a daughter named Love, published "Poems 1999-2014," and won the Cleveland Arts Prize for Emerging Artist in Literature. We talk about co-parenting and why you can’t throw sex into the co-parenting mix, why she loves Ghostface Killer and why someone gets seven Wu-Tang tattoos. What makes a great poet? She tells us about what it took to win the Cleveland Arts Prize. The president is temporary but Wu-Tang is forever… this is #conversationforadults.

Resources:

• Facebook: facebook.com/kisha.n.foster
• Instagram: @iamkishanicolefoster/
• "Poems 1999-2014" by Kisha Nicole Foster
• Episode 9: “Kisha Foster Knows Lesbian Secrets”
• Twelve Literary and Performing Arts Incubator
• "Cleveland Arts Prize helps poet Kisha Nicole Foster ‘move one step up.’"

Let’s Talk:

• Website: conversationforadults.com
• Instagram: @conversationforadults
• Facebook: facebook.com/conversationforadultswithjimiizrael
• Twitter: @convoforadults

Conversation for Adults is a production of Crate Media