- Hello everyone.
My name is Basit and this is "Fluid."
♪ Water in motion ♪
♪ Swim in the ocean ♪
♪ My river flows out to the sea ♪
♪ You flow away, I flow to you ♪
♪ You swim to me, I'm floating ♪
♪ I hear you calling out to me ♪
♪ Voice moves as smooth as waterfalls ♪
♪ A mesmerizing siren ♪
♪ My reservoir of ecstasy ♪
♪ Begins to flood into my blood ♪
♪ We're in a pool of heaven ♪
♪ Enchanted by fluidity ♪
♪ I flow away, you flow to me ♪
♪ Divinity deep in the blue ♪
♪ Watch the water flow ♪
♪ Waterfall below ♪
♪ Where's it gonna go ♪
♪ Where's it gonna flow ♪
♪ Healing through it ♪
♪ Feeling fluid ♪
♪ Healing through it ♪
♪ Feeling ♪
♪ Swimming ♪
♪ Feeling ♪
♪ Fluid ♪
♪ My river flows out to the sea ♪
♪ You flow away, I flow to you ♪
♪ You swim to me, I'm floating ♪
♪ I hear you calling out to me ♪
♪ Voice moves as smooth as waterfalls ♪
♪ A mesmerizing siren ♪
♪ What do we need ♪
♪ I'm gonna follow your lead ♪
♪ Let's take it back to the start ♪
♪ Follow the beat of my heart ♪
♪ We are ♪
♪ Going for a swim ♪
♪ We are they and them ♪
♪ I am in love with you ♪
♪ You set me free ♪
♪ I can't do this thing called life without you ♪
♪ Here with me, because I'm dangerously in love with you ♪
♪ I'll never leave ♪
♪ Just keep loving me the way I love you loving me ♪
♪ 'Cause I am in love with you ♪
♪ You set me free ♪
♪ I can't do this thing ♪
♪ Called life without you here with me ♪
♪ 'Cause I'm dangerously in love with you ♪
♪ I'll never leave ♪
♪ Just keep loving me, loving me ♪
♪ Healing through it ♪
♪ Flowing ♪
♪ Fluid ♪
♪ Enchanted by fluidity ♪
♪ I flow away, you flow to me ♪
♪ Divinity deep in the blue ♪
♪ Oh, deep in the blue ♪
♪ Fluid ♪
♪ I, ooh ♪
♪ I ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
Thank you so much.
Before we get to the next song,
I wanted just to share that "Fluid"
is an ode to fluidity,
not only fluidity in gender
and not only fluidity and sexuality,
but fluidity in the sense that we all can afford
to move like water, to ebb and to flow.
And I wanna thank you all for joining me on that wave.
So
the next song that
I'll be singing for you
is another original song that I released
under my feminine persona, Dionne Slay,
February of last year,
so right before everything kind of came to a pause.
And this will be the first time
I get to perform this song live.
So I'm glad that I get to share this with you all.
This is "Motherland."
♪ Wind up and roll, lose control ♪
♪ When I wake up time to shake up ♪
♪ Lose what's lost and keep what's real ♪
♪ Forget get the breakup ♪
♪ I'm going to take up all the space I want to fill ♪
♪ I don't need your permission ♪
♪ My decision to love myself is made ♪
♪ Now I'm dancing in the sun, just one-on-one ♪
♪ Don't stand there in the shade ♪
♪ Wind up and roll, lose control ♪
♪ Follow the rhythm of your beating heart ♪
♪ Deep in your soul, fill that hole ♪
♪ Stop wishing for your life to start ♪
♪ Why don't you take my hand ♪
♪ And I'll take you to the motherland ♪
♪ Then you will understand ♪
♪ Why it's sweeter than the promised land ♪
♪ Living your life is free ♪
♪ So celebrate and dance with me ♪
♪ Why don't you take my hand ♪
♪ And I'll take you to the motherland ♪
♪ The motherland ♪
♪ There's nothing to it, you can do it ♪
♪ Find the music in the sun ♪
♪ If you're going through it, chop and screw it ♪
♪ Now it's time to have some fun ♪
♪ Feel the anticipation and hearts racing ♪
♪ 'Cause love is in the air ♪
♪ 'Cause it's a celebration in the nation ♪
♪ You can feel it everywhere ♪
♪ Wind up and roll, lose control ♪
♪ Follow the rhythm of your beating heart ♪
♪ Deep in your soul, fill that hole ♪
♪ Stop wishing for your life start ♪
♪ Yeah, and I'll take you to the motherland ♪
♪ Then you will understand ♪
♪ Why it's sweeter than the promised land ♪
♪ Living your life is free ♪
♪ So celebrate and dance with me ♪
♪ Why don't you take my hand ♪
♪ And I'll take you to the motherland ♪
♪ Where you wanna go ♪
♪ The motherland ♪
♪ Where you wanna go ♪
♪ Let me hear you say it ♪
♪ The motherland ♪
♪ Hey, where you wanna go ♪
♪ The motherland ♪
♪ Why don't you take my hand ♪
♪ And I'll take you the motherland ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
(audience clapping)
(Basit laughs)
Thank you so much!
- Basit, welcome to "Show and Tea."
I am your host, futurity artist, but you know this.
- Yes,
(Kamra laughs)
we do.
- So today I have
some warm,
delicious,
piping, searing hot.
- Ooh, warm and searing hot.
(Kamra laughs)
Dualities
- Berry tea for you, there you go.
- Thank you so much, ooh-
- Clink clink. - It is giving clink,
clink, searing hot.
Cheers.
- So the first kind of tea
I wanna check in with you about is creative tea.
And I wanna know,
what is the future
of Black creativity for you?
- The future of Black creativity for me
is making sure that we have all that we need.
Allocating resources, allocating space,
making sure that everyone
has the full autonomy
to give
(Kamra snaps)
every project and every artistic endeavor
the full attention it deserves.
(Kamra snaps)
I think oftentimes we feel like
we are limited to our circumstances.
And I want Black Queer people to feel
empowered to do the biggest and most beautiful
and most vibrant versions of their creative
expression as they possibly can dream up.
So that's part of the reason why I started
this production collective, Legacy,
with my three closest friends,
and we're making sure that we're producing the art
for the girls and for the boys
and for the boths and for the neithers.
(Kamra snaps)
Clink.
- Clink.
(laughing)
Speaking of high quality production value,
what was your experience like today during your show?
- Oh, it was so much fun.
It was so much fun.
I, well, first off, the plants.
I get my whole life and energy from
plants.
I believe that photosynthesizing
is my new way of socializing.
I love to breathe out.
The plants love to breathe out as well.
And we have an understanding-
- Symbiosis.
- Exactly.
(Kamra laughs)
We have an understanding, as long as I'm breathing,
they're breathing.
(Kamra laughs)
And so that, for me,
was so life-giving.
And then on top of that, we love several camera angles.
We also love
getting to sing our music and sharing it
during a time of a pandemic.
So I'm very grateful for this opportunity.
Thank you for having me.
- Absolutely.
What are some things that you've noticed
in the art world that you feel need some adjusting
in order to achieve that quality care
that all artists deserve?
- I think it's about attention to detail.
I think that we should all be very, very sure about
what our art looks like
and making sure that our art is being perceived
the way that we intend it to be perceived.
So if that means like
a hair's out of place, do it again.
You know what I mean?
(laughing)
If that means that things aren't necessarily
how you expected for them to be,
then making sure that you have
the full range to make sure you execute your vision,
so that when people see it, they're not saying,
"Did they mean for that hair to be out of place?"
And that type of autonomy, again,
it's the key word of the day, kiki
(Kamra laughs)
is what will ensure that we are getting
everyone's vision and their story right.
- Absolutely.
Absolutely, cheers to that.
- Cheers to that.
- What you were talking about with care is why
I love being on set.
Like I'm the bitch that's like,
does the artist have everything that they need?
Do they need water?
Do we need to pause?
- You're so good about that. - What's the vibe?
- You're so good about that. - Because it's like,
I'm so tired of being in environments
where there's no vibe checks,
and things are going unsaid,
people are getting mis-gendered, people are upset.
It's like, how can I be productive
and produce quality work
when I have feelings on my heart that no one's caring about?
- Exactly.
It's so harm reductive when you actually
put that energy into that kind of care.
And I think that that's really the big issue
that we're facing in this time, like where
we've had leadership that is so harmful,
intentionally harmful,
that we aren't cognizant of spaces that are harm reductive.
And I really think that you've cultivate so many spaces
that are so based in making sure that people feel seen,
people feel heard, people feel checked on.
And it allows people to breathe.
One thing that I always wanna focus on is my breath.
We don't focus on
the inhale and exhale and the stillness enough.
And I think that if we can incorporate meditation
into our daily practice in any way that we can,
it will also lead to more harm reductive spaces.
(Kamra snaps)
- I wanna close by shining
a little bit more light on Legacy,
'cause I think it's such a beautiful venture.
It's absolutely necessary.
And I also think that it gives way for that autonomy
of Black creators to feel fully safe
and comfortable in creating.
And I wanna know what you hope
Legacy to achieve this year
and how you're gonna work as a collective to make it happen.
- Absolutely.
Ooh, that's some tea.
Can we clink to that question?
Wow!
So
the tea on that is
I don't even wanna limit what is possible
for Legacy right now,
because we do a daily series, a spotlight series, where we-
- I'm sorry, real quick.
I have to jump in, because literally,
when you checked in on me about
doing my spotlight yesterday,
and you were like, "Okay, bio, headshot,
"dah, dah, dah, dah, dah,"
didn't even have to send anything to you.
You picked exactly the picture I wanted.
You picked my fucking bio for my website
like a fucking professional,
and said such amazing things about myself
that I hadn't been affirmed in.
So I just wanna like really,
like your eyes are sparkling at me right now,
I can't take it. (laughs)
- Because I'm so happy.
That makes me so happy to hear.
And we didn't plan on that.
That was very, just genuine, authentic.
And that is what Legacy wants to do.
Legacy wants to give that feeling to Black Queer people
and black queer artists,
because we're not being told enough.
People love to secretly peep our Instagrams
but not follow us.
People love to secretly check in on our art
but not subscribe to our art.
And we're saying, we're combating that by every day,
using our platform to uplift Black Queer artists
that people need to know,
people need to follow.
People need to see your website.
People need to know what you're doing.
People need to know the work that you're doing.
Because it's so amazing and it's so beautiful
and it's so important.
So that is specifically what ties us back
into the questions.
- Yes.
skrt skrt
(Kamra laughs)
- That is exactly what Legacy is here to do.
We are uplifting, not just ourselves,
we're uplifting every Black Queer artist that we can.
And we're making sure that all of us,
the world is gonna know our names,
the world's gonna know our art,
and the world is gonna recognize us
and celebrate us specifically for the work
and the contributions that we have given to culture.
(Kamra snaps)
On Periodt.
- You heard it here, first folks.
And that's on periodt.
- Clink clink.
It's weird for me to see
the ways in which Black Queer folks like
have been contributing.
We hear Marsha's name a lot now-
- Yeah.
- But I'm like, but wait,
do y'all remember when people
weren't talking about Marsha?
Do y'all remember when everyone was talking about
RuPaul's Drag Race, but not giving Marsha
the flowers that she had been giving-
- Consistently. - Consistently?
And then like,
and I want, not only Marsha,
but like then let's talk about all of the people
who are unnamed that we still don't even know.
And we both are doing
such great work in this community and in this and,
where are my spectacles?
(laughing)
It's that.
(Kamra laughs)
It's the look under.
We are doing the work,
and we're not asking for praise or accolades.
- Absolutely not.
- But don't forget.
Don't let it be 20 years down the line
and then it's like, where are the Black Queer people?
We've been here.
- I don't need to be buried before I get my flowers.
- No, you need them now.
- [Kamra] Hello.
- I need the bouquet. (laughs)
Send them.
(laughing)
- [Kamra] I am so sent.
I am so sent.