This week we commemorate Africa Day across the African Diaspora. Reflecting on the journeys of liberation that Black people have endured in trial and triumph, I am ever reminded that those that laid the groundwork will never in my heart, mind or acts have done so in vain. As the pillars of imperialism are finally weakening--though, not without reverting to its tried and tested battle techniques--the new next is taking shape in all manner of action and practice across the globe. So today, as I do in some way every day, I salute us all for staying the course and redirecting the path as necessary on the #PanAfricanProgress mission that is imparative to human evolution and a sustainable existence here on earth.

Speaking of existence here on earth and the ways that we inhabit it, I came across my guest this week via a connection that I made last year at the Charter Cities Summit in Nairobi. Remi Adeleke, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and entrepreneur, serves as Chairman and Co-Founder of the Small Farm Cities Africa Resilience Fund, a for-profit venture developing sustainable, agricultural communities to combat poverty and human trafficking. He is actively scaling this model across Africa, including projects in Malawi, Zambia, and other regions, focusing on economic empowerment through infrastructure and land ownership for local farmers.

Following a successful career as a Navy SEAL, in 2016 he found himself pursuing a careers in writing, speaking, and acting, including the 2017 franchise film Transformers: The Last Knight, SEAL Team CBS, and the 2022 Universal thriller Ambulance. He served as a consultant on Netflix’s 6 Underground and Apple+ TV series Invasion.

As an educator he co-founded Muskegon Michigan’s OPS Academy which opened to inner city students K-8th grade in Fall of 2022. His story is captured in his HarperCollins bestselling autobiography, Transformed: A Navy SEALs Unlikely Journey From The Throne Of Africa, To The Streets Of The Bronx, To Defying All Odds.

As you’ll hear in our conversation, Remi is also the founder of Kejo Wear a brand changing negativity to positivity one shirt at a time and where he is marrying this social entrepreneurial enterprises with activism; a portion of proceeds go toward supporting efforts to end human trafficking.

Where to find Remi?
Small Farm Cities
Civil Watch Technologies
On LinkedIn
On IMDB
On Instagram
On YouTube
On the Down Range Podcast

What’s Remi watching?
Bad Boys
The Rock
The Unexpected Short Film

Other topics of interest:
The Story of Banana Island and the late Chief Adebayo Adeleke
Victoria Island, Lagos
About San Diego, California
About the making or the Small Farm Cities Resilience Fund
What are Critical Minerals?
About the game of Monopoly

Special Guest: Remi Adeleke.

This week on the podcast it’s an NYU affair with a side of Columbia University, Harvard University and UCLA. I first met my guest as fellow New York University students/alumni in the late 1990’s, at a time when slam poetry was beginning to reaching global audiences with influences from hip hop music and other activist movements. Fast foward after more than 20 years to earlier this spring when our paths crossed again at an event hosted by fellow Glocal Citizen and Director of NYU Accra, Chiké Frankie Edozien - The Labone Dialogues.

Bryonn is a poet, actor, prison activist, playwright, scholar, author, hip hop artist and professor of African American Studies, Theater, Film & Television, and World Arts & Cultures in the School of the Arts and the School of Law at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Playing over 40 characters, his one-man show, LYRICS FROM LOCKDOWN, won “Best Solo Performance” from the LA Weekly and the NAACP. Executive produced by the late and great, Harry Belafonte, the show tells stories of wrongful incarceration through spoken word poetry, hip hop theater, calypso, comedy and classical music. He founded the Prison Education Program at UCLA in 2015 and in 2019, the program and his performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts were featured on the debut episode of LA Stories, which won an Emmy Award.

His work has been featured on a diverse range of stages including the Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Public Theater (NYC), National Black Theatre (Harlem), NJ PAC, The Actor’s Gang Theater (Culver City), Los Angeles Theater Center (LATC), Festival de Liege (Belgium), M-1 Theater Festival (Singapore), Universidad de las Americas (Mexico) and Muteesa Royal University (Uganda), Rikers Island (New York), Marion Prison (Ohio), TEDX at Ironwood State Prison and Sing Sing Prison.

He has performed at over 250 colleges and prisons in the U.S., Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. And soon in Ghana!

Where to find Bryonn?
https://www.bryonn.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Bryonn reading?
A Survey of Muhammad Ali Biographies

What’s Bryonn watching?
Concerning Violence

What’s Bryonn listening to?
Blues Women

Other topics of interest:
What is a Calypsonian
About Veteran Black Panther Jamal Joseph
About Akuse Prison in Ghana
90’s music roll-call - The Fu-Schnickens, Digital Underground, Tupac Shakur
About Pedro Noguera
About Delroy Lindo
Sinners the film
About Michael A. Jordan

Special Guest: Bryonn Bain.

After spending the new year chasing [Aurora Borealis aka the Northern Lights](linkhttps://www.space.com/15139-northern-lights-auroras-earth-facts-sdcmp.html) in the North of Ireland and communing with friends and family there and in the UK, I’m back in NYC grounding and self-caring for a bit. The not so great news is that I just missed seeing the Northern Lights live, but now I’m that much more prepared for the next time. The great news is that I was able to catch up with this week’s guest, Ghanaian actor, producer and casting director, Agbeko “Bex” Mortty before he heads to the Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival representing Ghana with The B.A.T.U. Project: ADAM THE FIRST, Ghana’s first feature length science fiction film. He has stared in films and series like the Tribeca Film Festival award winning film Children of the Mountain, Shampaign, Men Don’t Cry, The Cursed Ones, and the world No. 1 Netflix Original Sci-Fi TV series AWAY, staring Hilary Swank and Josh Charles. His production titles include Children of the Mountain, Amerikafuo and The B.A.T.U Project: ADAM THE FIRST. As casting director his projects include FREETOWN, PARADISE and Children of the Mountain.
In addition, he is also an IT consultant and an enstooled chief in Ghana’s Volta Region, which Bex tells us all about in this in depth tour of his experiences as a returnee.

Where to find Bex?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On YouTube

What’s Bex reading?
Producing Independent Feature Films That Make Money by Rick Jenkins

Other topics of Interest?
About Tamale, the Dagomba People and Dagbani language
The Yaa Centre in London
About Gbledi, in Hohoe, Volta Region Ghana
Ghana Inaugurates, John Dramani Mahama as President
Africa Cinema Summit
About Filmmaker M. Sayibu
About Silver Star Tower, Accra and their Corporate Run Ghana Initiative
Where did my Aurora chasing take me in Ireland?

Special Guest: Agbeko “Bex” Mortty.