Entrepreneurial Appetite

Culture Travels: Pivots, Politics, and Entrepreneurship with Leroy Adams

• Leroy Adams • Season 5 • Episode 45

Share episode

Ever wondered how travel can shape your understanding of identity and culture? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Leroy Adams, the visionary founder of Culture Travels, as he shares his extraordinary journey. From his early adventures in Taiwan and Ethiopia to his transformative years in China, Leroy's story is not just about exploring new places but about rediscovering and connecting with Black culture worldwide. Discover the challenges he faced during the rebranding from the Buddy Pass to Culture Travels and how this brand now serves as a beacon, showcasing the global influence of Black culture through travel, art, politics, and entertainment.

Tune in as we recount the pivotal moments at the Black Media Conference in Detroit that paved the way for Leroy's ambitious vision of a Black travel media company. Learn about the inspirational story of Carmen Davis, a fashion travel writer whose career has soared through collaboration and shared goals. We also shine a light on the importance of representation in travel media, emphasizing the inclusion of diverse body types and lifestyles within the Black community, including LGBTQ+ and plus-size individuals, ensuring that everyone sees themselves in the stories we tell.

Lastly, we explore the profound impact of media in empowering Black travel, featuring influential voices like Jeff Jenkins of Chubby Diaries. We also delve into the historical and contemporary connections between Black Americans and Palestine, illustrating the power of international alliances in advancing civil rights and Black liberation. Reflect with us on how travel experiences enrich our understanding of identity and culture within the African diaspora, and consider the potential transition from a magazine to a book that captures these transformative journeys. This episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about travel, culture, and social justice.

Support the show

https://www.patreon.com/c/EA_BookClub

Langston Clark :

Once again. My name is Langston Clark and I'm the founder and organizer of Entrepreneurial Appetite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism and supporting Black businesses. And today I have my homeboy, leroy Adams, here, who is the founder of Culture Travels, and Leroy is like a regular on the show. He's been a guest host, he's been a guest and now he's a guest again. First time we spoke I think the first two times that we spoke the brand for Culture Travels was still called the Buddy Pass, and so part of what we're going to talk about today is the process of rebranding, the evolution of Culture Travels, because not only did the rebrand happen, but I think there were some additional focuses that happened as well, and then this latest initiative about traveling to the ballot. And so first, for those who you know, this is their first time meeting you and knowing who you are, could you talk a little bit about, like, how you got into travel briefly, cause I know you shared it before just give us an abbreviated version of like your journey into travel.

Leroy Adams:

So my first time abroad, my first time traveling abroad was a study abroad program with to Taiwan at the University of Houston downtown where I was going to college. I was a junior and that experience just sort of propelled me into a world of travel. After that I came back to the US, was looking at different teaching programs abroad. My sisters told me I need to join the Peace Corps. So I went to Peace Corps to Ethiopia Ethiopia for about two and a half years and then China shortly after that for about two years. And then around my 20s I just traveled abroad for about 10 plus years man um so that was my just introduction and just journey to travel.

Leroy Adams:

yeah, yeah, well, I'm studying abroad to being an expat and to going from study abroad to being a peaceful volunteer which is so relevant today about this conversation and what's going on in the US and then also being an expat in China.

Langston Clark :

Yeah, Leroy has a funny story and he shared it on an NPR set. What's that NPR show you're doing TPR, yeah, tpr, worth repeating, Worth repeating. So TPR is Texas's version of National Public Radio, and he shared a story about how this little girl in china licked her.

Langston Clark :

So go watch our previous episodes with me or listen to his uh story on what's repeating on texas public radio, because that that's a funny story now. Now I want you to talk about, like what happened with the buddy pass, because there's an interesting story that I think a lot of people who are founders, starting their brand, starting their business, maybe they're going to be prepared for and maybe don't realize when they're starting their brand and they pick a name it's a really clever name for what they want to do.

Langston Clark :

So just give us, like, what caused the rebrand and what that process was like.

Leroy Adams:

So I started the Buddy Pass. The Buddy Pass is an idea I came up with when I was an expat in China. It was after I had started my first venture, which was Black Chain, which is a brand that I started in China, and to see the impact of that ad on Black people wanting to travel, particularly those that then wanted to travel to the US, coming to China because they saw Black people in China through the Black Chain brand.

Langston Clark :

And so I get back to the US and I say you know what?

Leroy Adams:

I want to tell more stories about Black people and African Americans traveling and living abroad.

Langston Clark :

So I started the Buddy.

Leroy Adams:

Pass, and the reason I named it the Buddy Pass is because, when I talked to every Black traveler that I met, no matter where I met them at, no matter where they were in their travel journey, 90% of them would say I started traveling through a buddy pass, which, if those of you are familiar or unfamiliar with it, the buddy pass is essentially a program that airlines have, where you know, if you have a friend or a family member that runs an airline, they can share their buddy pass with you and that gives you the. You've used it before. And so I said you know what man? That's cool, because it's sort of some. It's connected to the black travel story and since that I would hear from a lot of black travelers. This is how they started, and so I had random buddy pass for about two, three years at this point, and now we're getting into a space where we want to scale. So I'm attending different business incubators, accelerator programs, business development programs you name it pitching to different investors and different businesses and sponsors and what have you.

Leroy Adams:

And one of the things that kept coming up is about trademarking not only our name but our business assets as well. And so it turns out the Buddy Pass was trademarked already. It was actually trademarked by another Black travel brand that actually never took off. I went back and looked at it the other day in preparation for this interview and they really never used the Buddy Pass brand. Now I did work with a trademark attorney who did tell me that I had a legal precedence because I had used the Bunny Pass brand commercially before anyone else did. So if I wanted to buy it, I could have the problem with that or the challenge with that is the time and the money couldn't be, and so that then forced me and I'm sure a lot of entrepreneurs go through this.

Leroy Adams:

That then forced me to go back to the drawing board and say, okay, what is it you're really trying to do with this brand and does the name actually reflect that? And a lot of my contributing writers would say we love the Buddy Pat's name, but it doesn't feel like it really taps into the element of Black travel and culture. And so went back to the drawing board for about two weeks and I said what really started me on this journey with this media brand was I wanted to show how Black culture, I wanted to help Black people connect to their culture and show how Black culture was shaping and influencing the world through art, through travel, of course, but then also through art through politics, through entertainment, all of those subjects sort of fitting under the umbrella of travel and culture. And so the BT Awards was coming up, and on one of the promos for the BT Awards, the tagline was culture's biggest night, and I looked at it and I said that's what it is.

Leroy Adams:

We identify as culture. That is an identifying mark that we, as Black people, carry not just here in the US, but around the world, and if I wanted to talk to this particular audience and connect and show them how their culture also travels and influences the world and thereby then encouraging them and influencing them to get out there and travel, then I had to adopt the language that I use. Yeah, and my brand name really needed to speak to that, and so, in short, that's how we came to culture travels yeah, and I actually thought I remember when, because we're in a group chat together with a few of our other homeboys.

Leroy Adams:

And.

Langston Clark :

I remember when you put the different iteration of the brand Culture Travels.

Langston Clark :

I was like man that's actually a brilliant name and it fits much better than the Buddy Pass, especially because I think everybody knows what a Buddy Pass is. You kind of have to explain that to them and so now that you've gone through, you know the rebranding and all of that. The business itself has evolved. So the Buddy Pass started off as a podcast and a magazine, yeah, and you know, you started to build your team and have some growth and I want to talk about that. Yeah, before we do that, I want you to tell the different stories of the opportunities that you have had to grow as an entrepreneur. So you talk about different incubators. You've been invited to speak. Yeah, you've gone to certain prestigious universities and things like that and have numerous opportunities to grow yourself. As you grow, the brand culture travels. So talk about those learning experiences that you've had and you know the opportunities you've been given to travel and do different things it's.

Leroy Adams:

That's a great question because it really speaks to right now.

Langston Clark :

I'm in this phase as an entrepreneur where it feels like I I don't want to do it and I feel kind of lost.

Leroy Adams:

I'm trying to find my way back and really it's just about getting back into a routine, but I I have I've been here before, so I know that you know we don't get out of it. Right, and I think what happens is, as entrepreneurs, we sometimes we don't realize that even though people don't see anything doesn't mean they're not watching yeah, and so a lot of the opportunities that have come my way had not had very little to do with me reaching out.

Leroy Adams:

It was folks reaching out to me and saying, hey, we love the work that you're doing. We think this will be really great for you. With the business accelerators and the incubators, that was me actively saying I need to grow in these areas. As an entrepreneur, I need to understand finances, I need to understand marketing, I need to understand PR better, I need to understand operations better, and so I'm going to put myself into these business incubators and programs and learn these skills and apply these skills.

Leroy Adams:

With the speaking engagements, you talked about the invitations to universities. That was other people recognizing our work and saying, hey, we think you'd be great for this opportunity. So, as an example, the African Descent Social Entrepreneurship Network, which was a program which is a program that's still in its day, obviously, but it was a program that was started by the Obama administration in order to they wanted to bring together a group of social entrepreneurs who had identified with the African diaspora. So they brought about 54 people from Black countries outside of the US, along with 25 African-Americans who identified. I was one of those African-Americans and we were invited to Baltimore to meet those folks who were invited into the country and the whole goal was we want you all to develop a network that allows us, the US was. We want you all to develop a network that allows us, the US government and the White House, to improve our relations with the African diaspora, africa specifically along the lines of politics, culture, social economics and community development.

Leroy Adams:

And so someone sent that to me. They were like yo, this is for you. If you think what you're doing is great, then you'd be grateful for that. And so I got accepted into the program and that took me to Baltimore and it then took me where I got a chance to meet people from the Department of Justice and the Department of State who were responsible for organizing this program. But then also I got a chance to meet social entrepreneurs from 54 different countries around the world who were from the African diaspora. And then that took me to Spain for a work retreat and that brought me back there and I'm the communication lead for Accent, so I run their newsletter, I run the US element and to other governments around the country who are representative through that program about Black travel and culture through a different lens, and then talk, adding in the political element in there to talk about how Black travel and culture does in fact influence global politics.

Leroy Adams:

Yeah, it's really interesting how the thing that you do builds your network, because I think it's weird, like sometimes we think it's like you have to network, network, network network to do the thing that you want to do.

Langston Clark :

But really if you start do the thing that you want to do, but really if you start building the thing that you want to do, the network will come to you yeah, people see, and again, it's tough.

Leroy Adams:

It's a tough thing to hear because you don't, especially if you're an entrepreneur that's always on the ground, always on the go. You're not paying attention to that stuff. You're trying to build the thing and so you don't see that people, your network, is slowly coming in and slowly evolving. Next week I'll be headed to florida. Well, next week I'll be moderating the panel here in san antonio or an african american museum to talk about, uh with the director of the green book global. Uh, the green book documentary, not the movie documentary, yeah. And then the week after that, and then, I'm sorry, the following week I'll be headed down to Florida to moderate a fireside chat with the editor-in-chief of Travel Weekly and then also a senior travel writer of Bloomberg News and all of these opportunities came because people saw the work that I was doing, saw that it was valuable and quality work, and they said said, we want you to be a yeah, yeah, um.

Langston Clark :

So it's really interesting that you know you build, you build the brand. Culture travels, opportunities come to you, the network grows, you've grown, so talk about the growth of the product or the entity that is. Culture Travels from podcasts to magazine to some of these other things that you're now doing.

Leroy Adams:

Yeah, so when I started the Buddy Pass, it did start out as a podcast all over the world and I interviewed Black travelers all across the world Mexico, ireland, switzerland, you name it and telling their stories.

Leroy Adams:

And when I got back and settled back in the US, I wanted that to evolve and I looked at the history of media and publications specifically within the Black community and Essence popped up, and so I took a look and I started to read about the founding of Essence that it was founded by four black men who wanted to create a business that elevated not only the black community but supported the black community economically as well, and they saw an opportunity to uplift the voices of black women in the 60s, at a time when no one was paying attention to black women, like there's an incredible market that business could tap into, but because of racial bias and prejudice, corporate America was not paying attention to them.

Leroy Adams:

And so I read about the trajectory of Essence and I said you know what? That is what I want to be. Essence has been around for 50-plus years and it has had cultural and economic impact in the black community for 50 plus years and if you read their story, it has not always been easy they've had to evolve over the years and learn how to evolve, and they, they had great successes, but they've also had a lot of failures.

Leroy Adams:

And I said, well, I want us to be that 50 year brand that has that similar impact. And so I said it would be dope and amazing to start a magazine. There isn't a magazine that really speaks to black travel and culture the way that I want to do it. So I started the magazine. I took all of those podcast episodes that I had recorded over the years and converted those into articles and new stories and created them and worked with a designer for about a couple hundred dollars and made a magazine. And once I made that first issue and I started just like sharing it with people. That's when the network started to grow and I said, okay, all right, let's just stay consistent with the magazine. Every three months we'll publish a print magazine, along with putting content out there on our website as well.

Leroy Adams:

And it wasn't until I went to the Black Media Conference hosted by Bonesi in Detroit. Who's Bonesi? So Bonesi is essentially. Bonesi is a Black media organization that works to uplift Black media companies in the larger global uh media ecosystem. In the us, though, yeah, um, so they provide funding resources. Support, I mean you talk about some of the, some heavy hitters. All right, the black enterprise is a part of home s reach tv is a part of home magazine. Impact magazine is part of is part of O'Messi, so I saw there was an invitation to attend their Black Media Conference in Detroit just a couple of months ago.

Leroy Adams:

And so, like you said, I took that opportunity, put my own money up, bought a flight ticket, got an Airbnb, found my way to Detroit. It was at that conference. I saw how not only culture but money was moving within media and how black media companies were tapping into that and at least 90% of them, in addition to probably having an editorial product, also were putting out original programming. And so I got back After that Detroit trip, about a month later myself, my food writer and our events writer we took a trip to Richmond, virginia, which was sponsored by Visit Richmond. They wanted us to come out and explore Black culture and history within Richmond Virginia. We did that for about a week.

Leroy Adams:

We back my food writer wrote an amazing article about black culinary experiences in richmond and it resonated with the right people and I'll talk about what the right people means in a moment here and I sat back and I said it would be cool if we created a travel show where the food writer went across, went, you know, to different places.

Leroy Adams:

She experienced the food, learned about the culture and the story behind the food, but then she also she came back home and recreated those dishes in her own kitchen for her audience and and I shared that with her, and I shared that with some investors that I knew, some sponsors I thought would want to get behind it, visit Richmond included and they were all like this is they don't like it, like let's do this.

Leroy Adams:

And so now we have evolved from a print magazine print and digital magazine, which we still publish, but we are now taking a step to get into producing our own original travel content, starting with a travel food show where our host goes around the world, tries different dishes, meets people, then she comes back and she recreates those dishes in her own kitchen, sharing her travel experiences while also sharing the recipes of these different foods. And so this will be the flagship show to what we are essentially creating as a Black travel network. So, starting with the school travel show, getting into a sports travel show, getting into a fashion travel show, getting into just a general travel show where we travel around and show you the different places and experiences travel show where we travel around and show you the different places and experiences. But the big vision is to become a black travel media company where we're producing our own original content and storytelling man.

Langston Clark :

So it's interesting. You talked about how you've built this team of writers, right, and contributors to culture travels. Talk about building your team, um, and what that process has been like, because one of the major sort of setbacks that a lot of black entrepreneurs have. Yeah, is people talk about like we don't hire? Yeah, so we're not hiring other people.

Leroy Adams:

Yeah, and then you know, I think, some of the things that we talk about here, locally, in our community, is like everyone's doing their own thing, yeah, and because everyone's doing their own thing in the same lane, you gotta find an intersection right, always a connecting partner. Yeah, so how?

Langston Clark :

are you? How are you able to build this team?

Leroy Adams:

so I, it was just gotta be that and I'll be completely honest, man, when I started the buddy pass and I was reaching out to people, it was the team grew in two ways. One people reached out and said I want to be a part of this. I love the vision, I love what you're doing. I love your authenticity, I love the representation. I want to be a part of this. I'm like yo, but I can't pay you. We don't have any income coming in. They're like we see your plan and we see your vision. Like we don't have any income coming in. Right, they're like we see your plan, we see your vision. So what I say? So the the the lesson there is have a plan, have a vision, talk about that plan, and that vision is this if it's the gospel, and people will connect to that and want to be in front of it and they will trust the fact that you have a plan in place to eventually get to a point where you can paint them.

Leroy Adams:

The other part of it was I did strategically reach out to people, yeah, so, for example, carmen Davis, who was our fashion travel writer. Carmen is a New York-based fashion stylist. I want to talk about fashion and travel, particularly how Black fashion influences travel, and I reached out to Carmen. I said I think we have an opportunity here. She was going to her own brand, trying to get it up off the ground, had some clients but wanted more. I said I think that's a great opportunity for us to partner here and that's what we did.

Leroy Adams:

And she's been writing for us for the past year and now she's in Kenya for us, you know, visiting Kenya for a week and attending the magical travel Kenya Expo, where she is responsible for helping us establish relationships with other African countries like Rwanda, nigeria, south Africa, tanzania. And I have never paid her one cent, but she saw the vision from day one. And now she's in Kenya and she's like I can't begin to thank you for this opportunity. And so it's been like that I've been able to provide. Even though we have not been able to pay people, we've been able to provide opportunities in other ways that allows them to perhaps grow professionally or also helps them grow their brand while they're supporting others.

Langston Clark :

What has it been like for you personally to transition from how was it said Working? Was it working on the business? Yeah, working on the business versus working in the business.

Leroy Adams:

That is a hard and very difficult transition to make.

Leroy Adams:

I'm in that phase right now because working as an example so working in the business is me posting on social media.

Leroy Adams:

But priority dictates that I work on the business and therefore I need to prioritize getting our marketing and advertising up to help generate more awareness, to help generate revenue, so that we can invest, reinvest that back into the company and grow it and scale it, but then also pay our writers, which is why, about three weeks ago, I sent out an email to my team and I said we're actually going to pause editorial production for the rest of the year. We have more than enough content to get us in 2024, but I need to prioritize marketing and sales. I need to focus on this, and so we got our first Facebook ad a week ago. So I'll be going back to look at the data around that. But it has the transition from working on the business marketing and sales, getting those systems up versus working in the business posting on social media every day working on a newsletter has been very difficult because of the fear of not posting right and not having that engagement.

Leroy Adams:

It's nerve-wracking. I get so like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I need to post. No, you need to work on marketing and sales, and so that was a huge transition for me to make. A challenge it was to make. It required meditation. It required meditation. It required me staging my office because my thought process also had to change around what I need to prioritize as the CEO and founder of this company.

Langston Clark :

One of the things that I like about what you said as to why people came to you was that they liked the commitment to representation, and I think that that goes beyond just you know, black folks being central to the magazine, but recognizing that we come in all different shapes and sizes, right, and so you have like a commitment to, I guess, what I would say is body representation. So not everybody who's on the cover of the magazine is you know what, what we perceive to be the idealized, especially on the travel industry, yeah, yeah. So so talk about how you have, um, expanded the representation of black folks to travel beyond just you know what, what, what our americanized view of what is an ideal body or person? Yeah, I think a part of it has to do with so, to answer, your question off the bat.

Leroy Adams:

It wasn't a thought. It was just like I want to show black people traveling and all the ways that we travel and all the ways that we look while we travel. And so it wasn't a thought of like I gotta make sure I show gay black people, I gotta make sure that I show plus size black people. It was like no, I just gotta show black people who also happen to be gay, show plus size black people. It was like no, I just got to show black people who also happen to be gay or plus size. To give credit to those communities and others like them. They've already been doing this work.

Leroy Adams:

There are tons of communities and social media channels out there that are dedicated to LGBTQ+, plus size travelers, single travelers, the whole nine it's a billion communities out there and I thought that we could be an extension of their voice.

Leroy Adams:

And so having Jeff Jenkins, the founder of Chubby Diaries, whose whole platform is about encouraging plus size people to get out there and travel in the way that he does, it was a no-brainer. You know, I loved his story. I loved his passion, his values about representation, aligned with the values of my, of our, brand, and I reached out to his team. I said, jeff, I would love to have you on the cover of the magazine as the first person, first child, and on the cover of the magazine as the first person, first traveler, on the cover of the magazine. And for him it was a no-brainer as well, and so it was just something that just it's what we want. If we want to tell Black stories, we want to tell all Black stories and also challenge the travel community to diversify his representation and image of what a traveler looks like, you know. And so, yeah, for us it was just, it was a no-brainer.

Langston Clark :

Yeah, yeah, talk about now. You know we're currently in like a very political climate right, and you always have a bent towards social entrepreneurship, although maybe what culture travels is and what the bloody past west doesn't fit that box of a definition. Yeah, absolutely it's interesting. So um last year I did a whole series on black philanthropy and so there's these um these ideas that, like black people, don't get right, or black people um aren't philanthropic.

Langston Clark :

Well, considering, like, the origins that we come from, yeah, it's like when you buy from a black business or you give to your church or you give in different ways, like that's the type of philanthropy that we do. So someone, as someone who went to a historical black college, they would say, like if you made the choice to go to a black college when you had other options, that's that's like, because, like, you're giving yourself back to that organization your tuition dollar going back into that institution, excuse me.

Langston Clark :

And so I think the same is true for social entrepreneurship Just because you're not a nonprofit doesn't mean you're not engaging in social entrepreneurship, and I think your latest initiative related to voting is an example of that. So talk about this latest initiative that you have Traveling to the Ballot, traveling to the, the Valley, yeah, yeah, man.

Leroy Adams:

So you know, my introduction into travel and into the influence of black travel was Malcolm X's story. Yeah, learning about Malcolm X and his travels. He traveled to more than almost more than 20 countries, than almost more than 20 countries, most notably Saudi Arabia, to do the pilgrimage and to hear him talk about how travel changed his views on race and identity, particularly in America. And then he had the courage to come back and voice that changed perspective, which led him into conflict with the nation of Islam. But then to learn about Frederick Douglass, who traveled throughout Ireland and the UK giving anti-slavery speeches. To learn about James Baldwin, who went to Switzerland where he wrote his first novel, hotel on the Mountain, maya Angelou, who spent time in Egypt as an editor, and Ghana as well. So to learn about the stories of our historical Black leaders and their travels.

Leroy Adams:

That was my introduction to travel, and through all of her stories there is a single theme of Black liberation, but also political engagement. Yeah, and so now you fast forward to 2024 and you know you have a very like all elections at this point feel like they're, you know, very important, very critical, right, um, but I thought it was important for our brand to be the leading voice in encouraging black travelers and expats, black black people who live abroad, to make sure they still vote even though they live abroad. Because there's this idea that, well, I live in Spain, american politics don't affect me. That's not true. American elections and politics influence the rest of the world. How could someone, how could a Spaniard, a local Spaniard, be more concerned about an American election than an American who lives in Spain? It doesn't make any sense.

Leroy Adams:

And so we wanted to start a campaign that encouraged expats to just vote. Get out there and vote, no matter where you're at, because your vote matters, it's important. And also, just because you don't live in the US doesn't mean that.

Leroy Adams:

Black folk back home still don't need your vote and need your political support. And so we said let's start a ballot, let's start a campaign, travel to the ballot where we encourage at least 50,000 expats to cast their votes at the ballot, and we'll work with the Democrats abroad. We'll work with Republicans abroad there are Black Republicans, so we'll work with Republicans abroad. There are Black Republicans so we'll work with these two groups to encourage their voters to get out. We're not telling you to vote for them, we're just saying get to the ballot and vote. And if you look throughout history and I know we talked on your show before we interviewed Dr Mia Bay, the author of Traveling While Black, she talks about how travel and the freedom of mobility was the catalyst to the civil rights movement. So the history, the legacy of how travel and Black mobility imposes politics, is there. We wanted to bring that back to life, in a way, and encourage today's Black travelers to still get out there and cast their vote. Yeah, yeah, yeah, black travelers to still go out there and cast their vote.

Langston Clark :

Yeah, talk about some of the previous issues and the current issues of the magazine, and I wish I had brought my. I wish I had brought. We're going to bring one of the issues out for the guests to see before we go, because the magazine itself is a piece of art and there's an aesthetic to it that really like it's an elegant black aesthetic, an elegant, appealing black aesthetic that goes into the magazine.

Langston Clark :

So, talk about the artistry of the magazine and some of the concepts that are talked about in the magazine. You talked about Jeff. The magazine talked about jeff jenkins and chubby chubby diaries. But give us a little, a little taste of what is in the magazine itself.

Leroy Adams:

Yeah so the magazine, our latest issue, um uh features jeff jenkins on the cover, and we talked to jeff. He's our, that's our uh feature story. We talked to Jeff, that's our feature story. We talked to Jeff about his travel journey, how he started, and then also about his show, national Geographic, and so we always try to feature a Black traveler who's doing something heavy, significant within the Black travel space that we think can inspire more of us to get out there and try this, and so Jeff's story has inspired us to go and start our own travel show. Also in the magazine we break it down into about four to five sections Entrepreneurs. So we're talking to Black entrepreneurs abroad. Where do you live, how did you start your business, what's your vision and what do you see yourself?

Langston Clark :

And what advice do you have?

Leroy Adams:

for other Black people that want to move abroad and start a business as well.

Leroy Adams:

So we have entrepreneurs. We have Reimagined, where Black travelers, black expats, black people in general are using their social activism, education, to redefine what it means to be black on a global, in a global context. We have peace, which is a session dedicated to black people who have literally just found peace through travel peace with themselves, peace with past trauma, peace with identity or just peace. Um, those are some of the sections and discover, I'm sorry, and the other section we have in there is discover, where again black people have discovered maybe something new about themselves, a new destination that's inspired them in a way, a new business idea, a new culture, a new type of food that just really resonated with them and really has an impact on their life in a certain way. We have Blacklist, which is a section dedicated to a destination that is high priority for Black travelers right now, and so the first issue, blacklist we featured Ghana, and this latest issue, we featured Portugal. But you have a lot of black women in Portugal starting businesses, buying land, getting involved politically as well.

Leroy Adams:

So the magazine itself to what you mentioned earlier, it is certain it is beautifully designed. That is what it teaches, because black travel is vibrant, it's beautiful, it's diverse. So we try to reflect that in the design and the artistry of the issue. But we also ran in these collection of dynamic stories that span travel, politics, art, culture, fashion, entertainment, you name it. That again shows the influence that Black travel and culture is having around the world.

Langston Clark :

Man talk about the cadence of the magazine, like how frequently does it come out? Where can people get their issues of the magazine, um, and? And where can people begin to start to see some of the other forms of media that you produce, the podcast, like. Where can we expect to see the tv show with the cooking and all that stuff?

Leroy Adams:

so the magazine is a digital entry we print every three months. If anybody wants a copy of the print issue, they can order one online at culturaltribalscocom. In terms of, a lot of our content also exists we we also publish content on social media. So Instagram I'm very active on LinkedIn with sharing our journey and sharing what our brand is doing right now. As I mentioned, we have a traveler right now in Kenya.

Leroy Adams:

In a couple of weeks I'll be down in Florida and then in November we'll be in New York for a project up there related to Harriet Tubman's legacy in Auburn, New York. In terms of the, now we'll be having an opportunity to watch our video program and original programming come out. We're going to also be sharing some of that content on our social media, particularly our Instagram and our TikTok, as well as longer form videos and content and episodes on our YouTube channel. That will be up next week, but we will be teasing out our new original program. We started with our travel cooking show on our Instagram page, so if anybody wants to tap into that, it's Culture Travels Media on our Instagram page and you will literally have an opportunity to watch us build this company and build this brand step step, piece by piece brick by brick, starting with our travel cooking show.

Leroy Adams:

And so again, you said the magazine's coming out quarterly, right.

Langston Clark :

Every three months. So there's you know, every three months there's a new issue of the magazine and you all really should check it out because it's on the ground floor. So, like I got my copy of the magazine still in the plastic because, you know, I think it's going to be a collector's item one day, so it's still an opportunity to get that first issue right. I encourage all of you in the audience who join us today to get a copy of it, and those who are watching and recording afterwards, make sure you get a copy of that first issue. You got a stack of books, yeah there. So talk a little bit about what you've been reading and how you are integrating what you've been reading into what you've distilled down into culture, travels and some of the things that you've been thinking about doing from the perspective of literature the book I just finished is maya angelos.

Leroy Adams:

All god's children deserve of travel issues, highly recommended. It's about maya angelos like a god. She was 33 years old. She moved to ghana. She moved to egypt, was working there as an editor of the Eric Observer WEB. Du Bois' stepson was the person that helped her get the job. Wow, yeah, it's crazy man. Reading her travel stories, her travel journey, it's just mind-boggling in terms of the people that she met over the years. And so then, after her time in Egypt Egypt she wanted to move to Liberia, so her and her son stopped in Ghana. First, when she got to Ghana, her son got in an accident and was hospitalized very serious car accident hospitalized. So she ended up staying in Ghana for about two years.

Leroy Adams:

And her experiences in Ghana in terms of the interactions with African people, particularly Canadians, the ups and downs of those interactions and how she had to rethink her identity as it pertains to being a black person in Africa and all the ideas and perceptions we have about what that looks like. When we come back, they're going to be so great to see us. It'll be a red carpet rolled out for us. That didn't happen for her and she had to understand. Well, ghana is there for Ghanaians. First, you're welcome to come, but it's Ghanaians. But then also when she, when Malcolm X visits and she talks about when Malcolm got there and the excitement and the energy that he gave to not only the Native people but the Black Americans that were living in Ghana at the time, but then when he leaves, everything goes back to normal in the sense of you're just expats, made her realize as much as I want it to be Ghana.

Leroy Adams:

it's not my home and I need to get back to the US and there's work still to be done there.

Leroy Adams:

And the last part, particularly about this book, was again her experiences, both directly and indirectly, with the history of the African slave, the transatlantic slave trade, where, on her last week there, she visits a village of the Kata people and she's in this shop and this old woman just starts boohoo crying. She sees Maya. Maya's like the language barrier I don't know what's going on and Maya thinks does she think I'm somebody? So anyway, maya comes along with Ganean and translates. Turns out Maya and Angelo not only reminded this woman, but the entire village when they saw Maya they thought about their sisters and aunts who were taken during the slave trade.

Leroy Adams:

So the Keta people, they were hit hard by the transatlantic slave trade. The children would run behind bushes when the enslavers came and they saw their parents being taken away. They saw their parents being chained, being whipped, they saw their villagers literally bashing the baby hands up against you because they did not want their babies going to sleep and then being slain. And so then the kids that saw that they grew up and they had kids and those stories were passed down. And so when they saw maya, they saw their people that had been taken away and you got to think when Maya Angelou was 33, 33 in Ghana.

Langston Clark :

That probably could be like four generations removed. Yeah, Right, so that's not that long ago.

Leroy Adams:

That's not that long ago, you know what I'm saying and those stories have remained.

Langston Clark :

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What else you got in the stack over here?

Leroy Adams:

the other one, I mean I I read right before that was black tower and palestine, and again, this is another book that I highly, highly recommend for anyone that wants to understand the relationship between black americans and palestine, but also black americans in israel.

Leroy Adams:

But the book really focuses on black america and palestine and obviously I read this book given our current times.

Leroy Adams:

But I spent about a week and a half in palestine and so when you know, october 7th happens and the world is sort of turned upside down, my position was very firm pro-palestinian, certainly after having been there and seeing what people in palestine have been going through not that haven't been there and seeing what people in Palestine have been going through not long before October 7th happened.

Leroy Adams:

And so, reading this book, you get a chance to learn what the position was of the Black Hamptons, of Martin Luther King, of Jackson Jackson, of David Rubin, of Maya Angelou, of Angela Davis, of Nick Giov Giovanni. You get a chance to learn what their positions were on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and you'll be surprised. You will be surprised at Martin Luther King's position, you'll be surprised at Stokely Carmichael's position of how they had to. Some of them had to play the political game, but what you'll learn mostly is that they all wanted African-Americans to have a larger voice on American foreign politics, and they were irate at the idea that a foreign government, in this case Israel, could have more of an influence on American foreign policy than American citizens.

Langston Clark :

That's an interesting way to look at it. It is you talk about Malcolm X, we think about Malcolm X, we think about Harlem, yeah, yeah, and I think people think about his pilgrimage to Mecca. Like if you saw the movie, it's a prominent part of the movie yeah, yeah.

Langston Clark :

But people don't understand. Like Malcolm X had an office at the UN yeah, Because I can't remember. Remember I think it was. It might have been Ghana, it was some African country or Caribbean country gave him an office at the UN, but he couldn't get it from the United States. I think it was Ghana. So it's really interesting to see those dynamics and how our liberators here in the United States leveraged their international relationships to give us more access to the freedoms that all Americans have, which is why we are so heavy on the travel to the ballot initiative, but also even after that ends.

Leroy Adams:

We are like staunch opponents of lifting Black expat groups. They are uniquely positioned, just like Maya Angelou was when she lived in Egypt and Ghana, just like Malcolm X was when he traveled to Ghana, when he traveled to Egypt, when he traveled to Saudi Arabia, just like Martin Luther King was when he traveled to the Bahamas, when he traveled to India. They are uniquely positioned to forge international relationships and allyships with communities and governments abroad in a way that can serve Black communities back in the US. You know what's interesting?

Langston Clark :

A few months ago, I think it was probably like early, early this year William Darity and A Kirsten Mullen came and they spoke at Texas Public Radio and I think it was in that discussion they talked about how, when, something's going down in south africa black america boycotted stuff.

Leroy Adams:

Yeah, yeah, we were boycotting, boycotted stuff and they were saying you know, these are things that we here in the united states black folks.

Langston Clark :

United states did for folks on the continent.

Langston Clark :

We need folks on the continent to boycott stuff so we can get reparations you know what I mean and so, like I think building those international relationships and things like that is part of like you know the way the greater politics works, because people do leverage people, groups do leverage their international relationships to get resources here. And I think it's part of you know the same way we talk about, like, supporting black owned businesses and thinking about that in terms of our own interests. Like the same could be done in terms of our relationships with folks abroad business wise, or what have you?

Leroy Adams:

That's what Malcolm X talked about all the time. He would say that the civil rights struggle is not only a civil rights, it's a human rights struggle. And he wanted to reframe it because he said, if you keep it as just a civil rights struggle, well then it's just a domestic issue, but if you reframe it as a human rights struggle, now it's an international issue and that opens you up to international support. So you know, this idea and concept of building international allyship and relationships is nothing new. Within Black liberation spaces, black literature spaces. We just now see it as a great opportunity because Black travel is not something that's now that's not limited to just celebrities and intellects.

Leroy Adams:

Yeah, the masses can tap into it, you know.

Langston Clark :

My final question for you will be can we expect a book from you Beyond just a magazine? Under the magazine there's a book. I don't want to diminish that.

Leroy Adams:

I got asked that question what would your first book be, man? I was asked that question last week on the podcast and I told them them as an entrepreneur. Ideas come and you want to jump up to the very next ones. So I'm not currently writing a book. However, I've documented my travels and I keep notes and journals from all of my travels over the years.

Leroy Adams:

And when I do take a step to write a book, my first book will be about my time in Taiwan, ethiopia and China and how my experiences there shaped my understanding of identity and then led me to my sense of identity, culture, politics, entrepreneurship at the African diaspora and then led me to start the Cultural Travels Media brand. And then that'll be a second book on its own about how my travels from that point then influenced my work around the Cultural Travels Media. But I really want my first book to just be about the unique experience I feel like unique experiences I have, from being linked by a Chinese student to starting Black Gen, to building classrooms in the Peace Corps, to having to educate the Ethiopians on the fact that not all Black Americans walk Black with a wing, to having to talk about my anatomy with Indian people. It'll be about those experiences and how that going to talk about my anatomy with Indian people.

Leroy Adams:

Yeah, you know it'll be about those experiences and how that, how those led me to creating this video.

Langston Clark :

One last thing. I have a suggestion, and I know I shared this with you before and I don't know if the exhibit still exists, but not last summer, but the summer before my wife and I went to went to england for a friend of mine's wedding and we had a chance to go to the museum at the bank of england. The major.

Langston Clark :

The major exhibit there was called the slave bank and it talked about how the bank of england had its hand in like all the different slave trade right, and it talked about how the Bank of England had its hand in, like all the different slave trade right, and it talked about different churches, different other organizations across Europe and whatnot, and like they just had their hands in it. And so I think sometimes we diminish the impact of slave trade. We diminish the impact of the slave trade on what is now the global economic system, slave trade on what is now the global economic system. So what they did was they took an image of the continent of Africa and it's just like all in black right, and they made a graph of it, so there's arrows coming out of Africa, two different parts of the world.

Langston Clark :

Okay. And the larger the thicker the arrow, the more black folks were taken for slavery. Okay, and there was a thicker arrow going to india than it was coming to the united states. And it was a thicker arrow going to, you know, the middle east than it was coming to the united states we know brazil had had south america more than north.

Langston Clark :

Well, I was blown away by India and all that stuff. Wow. So when people say, literally the global economy is built on, you know, slave trade, it's not just the triangle trade and America's dominance globally and economically, it's the fact that we were taken to all of these different places and you know, the entire continent was closed. So you know, we, we are, we are literally everywhere, and so I think you know what, what culture travels makes me think about. Is that, like we have, we have a right to the world. This is money. Yeah, I love that. I love that, leroy, thank you for being a guest, of course, and