Regular readers to this blog know that my favorite Fresno radio show, Move On Up, is ending. I am sad that Fresno is losing this creative and educational little media outlet. Tonight is the final show for Devoya and Mykal. The guests tonight are Sol Lopez
And now, the whole story of Move on Up, from host Devoya:
And this is how the story goes....
It all began about 5 years ago. I was asked by the then Executive Director of KFCF (Vic Bedoian) if I'd like to come up with a proposal for a local show. I said yes immediately. But, I had just ended a 3 year stint at a monthly Poetry Jam and was kind of tired of being busy.
So instead of following up....I just chilled. All summer in fact.
Me and Dave drank a lot of beer that summer and just as the season's began to change he asked me what I was going to do about the show proposal.
I remember saying I didn't want to commit to anything, that I would rather just pretend like I was never asked and continue being lazy. He didn't laugh, he didn't smile he just put his bottle down on the coffee table and said. "You know you have to do this Dee, it's a great opportunity you can't just pretend it wasn't offered to you". So I went home and wrote a proposal and two weeks later I was suddenly the host of a program I decided to call "Move on UP".
If someone would have told me that I would spend about 90% of my Friday nights behind a microphone talking to people from all walks of life about culture, community and our place in the entire equation I would have told them they were crazy. But there I was ( with Dave, Tiana and Mykal) every week with 1 sometimes up to 8 people sitting in a tiny studio on Wishon Ave.
There were times when I was sick, tired, hung over or just plain in a bad mood and I'd come in and all that would be out the window...I was transformed for an hour into a world were possibilty wasn't a bad word. Where people put into action the ideas they were told would never work. Where people who had something to say found a safe space to say it in. It was my personal therapy session for the masses (myself included). I became comfortable with my own voice during these moments and if I'm not mistaken we helped some folks become unified with their own as well.
In the words of Talib Kweli...It's a Beautiful Struggle...Please keep Movin on UP...it's essential to our growth as a community.
Love to you all~
Devoya
