Episode 26: Feeding a Community's Body, Mind and Soul With Chef Mic True: Professional Chef, Violence Interrupter, and Holistic Healer

Grey Matters Now

Chef Mic True is an award winning international chef that has committed himself to feeding and introducing his community to healthy food rooted from the earth. He is an incredibly humble and holistic chef and peace warrior that feeds the mind body and soul of his community. As a Violence interrupter with Gideon's Army, he nurtures and protects the roots of his community and helps to fuel the powerful movement and mission of this extremely comprehensive and effective endeavor.

Chef True feeds and nurtures a community starving for representation, protection, tools, mentors and trauma first response - a community zip code 37208 in Nashville, TN with the highest incarceration rate in the nation! The Mission of Gideon’s Army is to act collectively, boldly and strategically as a unified force for all children and to dismantle the school to prison pipeline. I love one of their latest posts that reads: Stop blaming systematic failures on individuals trapped in that system. Fight for people to have better choices.

On March 3, a devastating tornado ripped through North Nashville leveling hundreds of homes and businesses. Now in the midst of a global pandemic and civil unrest, Gideon's Army is STILL working non-stop on the front lines every day assisting and supporting North Nashville. As a matter of fact, Mic True is so busy in the field, that we recorded the whole podcast in his truck via zoom while he juggled his community work with the construction of a new vegan restaurant, market and resource center in the center of 37208 an area considered a food desert. We even get to go through the building with him in the podcast and I’m introduced to Rasheedat Fetuga the founder and CEO of Gideon's Army when she pops her head in the truck. Rasheedat is an absolute genius and a goddess BTW.

I encourage you to visit and learn more about this impressive and comprehensive organization as I am just barely able to highlight the surface of all they do. There is SO much to learn and it WORKS!!! I am personally learning SO much and have been so inspired that I have gone down a rabbit hole of reading and watching documentaries about other inner-city programs that implement violence interruption. I hope you are inspired to do the same – the more we know the more connections we can make to fill the gaps of a disconnected broken system.

Thank you Chef True for your truth and for your passion that lights the high road for us all with hope and shines a light on the deep roots of a community sometimes overlooked.

To learn more about Chef Mic True, his mouth watering recipes, and his live interactions with his healing communities, follow him on IG @chefmictrue or @mictrue. To learn more about Gideon's Army visit gideonsarmyunited.org, follow Gideon's Army United on IG and rebuildnorthnashville.com.

As they say #weallwegot

The end of the podcast / the altro was created as a very special production.

Tanee Osborne is a female West African Drummer from LA . Through a mutual friend I contacted Tanee about her thoughts and potentially playing the drums for this episode. She expressed that she felt this to be a divine vibrational connection to Chef True, she too is a black Vegan and she would love to play. Tanee is a very special woman - she is joined by fellow drummer and African dancer Daunte for this gift of vibrational percussion. Chef True loved it!

You can follow Tanee and Daunte on IG @taneetheto, @daansekou, @iamkingtae

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/interrupters/

https://www.amazon.com/Interrupters-Ameena-Matthews/dp/B007TWBW7M

https://www.violenceinterrupters.org/

https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/cover-story/article/21074753/how-gideons-army-is-making-peace-in-north-nashville

Producing and delivering this passion project and show to you has become an actual job. The show places large demands on my time and finances. In order to continue providing the very best content and quality, I could really use your help. 100% of all funds contributed through Patreon will be used to cover my production, equipment and growth expenses so I can focus on creating great content with one goal -- to facilitate conversations for REAL healing! So… if it feels right to you, anything you're comfortable contributing is most appreciated. HUGE LOVE AND LIGHT FOR THE SUPPORT!

Photo credits: www.croyraplens.net & Eric England.