This is Episode 4 of the Seven Train Dreamers Podcast, where we pay homage to the dreamers and doers — across North America and around the world.

At this stop, we highlight another Seven Train Dreamer: Brooklyn-based hip-hop artist Ashé Koran.

This episode is personal.

We move through Fort Greene, Brooklyn — its streets, memories, and moments that shaped a generation. From Myrtle & Washington to Fort Greene Park, this is a story about place, identity, and standing tall through change.

Marlon reflects on growing up above his uncle’s laundromat on Myrtle Ave in the ’90s — running plates of Ital food, learning his first hustle, and witnessing how trauma and inspiration often live side by side. Fort Greene wasn’t just a neighborhood — it was a classroom.

As the episode unfolds, we explore Fort Greene’s transformation:
from farmland → to a Black middle-class cultural hub → to a neighborhood on the edge of gentrification. A renaissance for some. Pressure for others.

The episode features a special call-in from Ashé Koran, including reflections tied to his song “Stand Tall,” grounding the themes of roots, resilience, and self-definition.

We also revisit Fort Greene Park — a true crossroads:
projects and brownstones, Brooklyn Tech nearby, free summer concerts, reggae, hip-hop, soul, Spike Lee’s first block party, and moments when the entire culture showed up at once. If you’ve ever grown up in a neighborhood that shaped you — even as it changed beneath your feet — this one’s for you.

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Catch you at the next stop. 🚇✨

This is Episode 3 of the Seven Train Dreamers podcast. At this Stop, We’ll be highlighting another Seven Train Dreamer, Saga Asad; Brooklyn-based beat-maker and emcee. Whose work melds jazz, reggae, and hip-hop influences into a pepper pot of sound.

Leaves fall from trees and decompose, they nourish the soil. One should recognize and choose to grow after they fall. Each man owes it to the world to develop itself through hard work, loving gestures, and deliberate creation to become a mighty being.

All man has to do is believe, work on their purpose in life, and never fear the fall. The late-great DMX once said: “Ay yo I'm slippin' I'm fallin' I can't get up Ay yo I'm slippin' I'm fallin' I can't get up Ay yo I'm slippin' I'm fallin' I gots to get up Get me back on my feet so I can tear shit up” 

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"I wanted to touch on the title track from my latest project, New Man. New Man. The title track and the album was inspired by a near-death experience I had while working on the album. This made me change my approach in terms of what I wanted to say and get across to the listener. The title track represents that redirection of the new beginnings, the unexpected endings being greater than the sum of your parts. The first bar is my reinterpretation of a Zen Poem. It went something like, you decided to climb a mountain. What do you do when you reach the top? You jump off going into the unknown and coming out on the other side, something new. I was reading a lot and reflecting on my journey in music, and to that point, New Man isn't necessarily a reintroduction as much as it's a snapshot of my fears and uncertainty, ultimately of my triumph since I'm still here and I was able to convey a message musically of not only who I was, but who I am and who I want to be.” – Saga Asad

Quoted from Iyanla Vanzant's book, The Spirit of a Man: A Vision of Transformation for Black Men and the Women Who Love Them 

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Make sure to follow the podcast on Instagram @seventraindreamers Join the Facebook group, Seven Train Dreamers where we highlight people doing good works and where we break down this episode throughout the week.

This is Episode 1 of the Seven Train Dreamers podcast.

“Man, Know Thyself” was written on Ancient African temple walls 14,000 years ago. So as to achieve Mysticism (Feeling interrelated with all creatures and thus having access to the Divine), “Know Thyself” was taught in Egyptian Mystery Schools as one's vital pre-birth Cosmic Organism origin.” These words were by Joseph A. Bailey II MD (Doctor of Medicine) 

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Join the Facebook group, Seven Train Dreamers where we highlight people doing good works and where we break down this episode throughout the week.

This is Episode 2 of the Seven Train Dreamers podcast.