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Homegoings
Homegoings cover art
Homegoings

What makes you feel free?

By Myra Flynn
Published July 18, 2024 at 2:56 PM EDT
Speech is the lead MC of Arrested Development. “On our debut album, ‘Three years, five months and two days in the life of…’ you're hearing this young guy who's realizing for the first time who he is and where he comes from and the beauty of all that.”
Photo: Todd “Speech” Thomas
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Image: Zoe McDonald
“On our debut album, ‘Three years, five months and two days in the life of…’ you're hearing this young guy who's realizing for the first time who he is and where he comes from and the beauty of all that.” — Todd "Speech" Thomas, lead MC of Arrested Development.

What is freedom? What does it sound like? How do you know when you have it? In this episode, Homegoings talks the complexities of freedom with Todd “Speech” Thomas, lead MC and singer of the band Arrested Development. We also take to the streets of Randolph and Burlington, Vermont, on July Fourth, seeking out BIPOC strangers and family members to ask them a simple question: “What makes you feel free?”  We’ll see if we get some simple answers.

This is the latest episode of Homegoings, a podcast that features fearless conversations about race, and YOU are welcome here. Follow the series here.

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There’s a lot of irony in freedom because freedom is inherently unfree. It’s something to be defended, fought for, stood up for. It’s been hard-won in a lot of our history. You can’t totally own your freedom because one person relishing in freedom typically takes freedom from someone else. And freedom is also elusive. Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes it isn’t even an option. So what is freedom? How do you know when you have it? What does it sound like? How do you get more of it?

This episode works to create some cognitive dissonance, on purpose, between the sounds of freedom and the reality of it. We’ll hear thoughts captured at a Fourth of July parade in Randolph, Vermont, and have a candid conversation with Speech, lead MC and singer of the band Arrested Development, who is fighting for freedom in his own way.

“You know, a lot of the things we're facing, we're facing in this particular era of time. Our ancestors faced wholly different things, and the ancestors way, way, way before them faced totally different things as well. So many things are temporary, but what are the things that are more lasting?”  - Todd “Speech” Thomas

The infamous mixtape, made by Jodi Carmen, that introduced Myra to Arrested Development.
Myra Flynn
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Vermont Public
The infamous mixtape, made by Jodi Carmon, that introduced Myra to Arrested Development.
Speech (on the right) as a teen with friends in Milwaukee. “It's one of the more beautiful cities in the nation, and yet the Black neighborhoods and the Black sides of town, you could see a stark poverty and feeling of, you know, just being oppressed.”
Todd “Speech” Thomas
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Courtesy
Speech (on the right) as a teen with friends in Milwaukee. “It's one of the more beautiful cities in the nation, and yet the Black neighborhoods and the Black sides of town, you could see a stark poverty and feeling of, you know, just being oppressed.”
"When I started realizing that … from living in Atlanta, that oh, there is this whole world of Black beauty, history, dignity, pride, joy. I realized that they had it all around me the whole time.” - Todd “Speech” Thomas
Todd “Speech” Thomas
/
Courtesy
"When I started realizing that … from living in Atlanta, that oh, there is this whole world of Black beauty, history, dignity, pride, joy. I realized that they had it all around me the whole time.” - Todd “Speech” Thomas

Deep listen

Arrested Development - Raining Revolution

Raining Revolution - Arrested Development
Todd A. Thomas / Todd Thomas

This is Headliner from Arrested Development, and I come here tonight
To give thanks to the rain, so brothers and sisters please put down your
Umbrellas, you won't be needing those today
Look to the clouds with the most rain coming from it, for without the
Rain there's no me and there's no you
I said a drip-drop, a drip-drop, drip-drop
Viva bum bum bum drip-drop

Let it rain, let it rain, let God's water feed me
The water of life, mentally rinsing me, physically drenching me
Most are frowning upon your arrival
But I need you for survival
And when you fall on my community
I run outside to properly
Greet you
Let it rain, take my pain, I'm glad to meet you
Fill my eyes with a colorful rainbow
Every drop hits me, fills me
With an unmeasurable amount of security
Knowing my God acknowledges me
As if each drop of rain is aimed toward me
My Lord: Thanks for life Thanks for my rain

It's raining revolution
It's raining solutions
It's raining revolution

I struttle strut through the ghetto
The rain this time I feel is mental
The goal of this rain I feel is spiritual
Saw through the eyes of the inflicted people
Their eyes are hard as a million tombstones
Marked with the names of the millions of kin thrown
To the dust that gave them their colored skin
Fade to black is the scene they're embalmed in
The rain many nights have witnessed her
Receiving the sperm of a brother into a sister
And blessed that life to guaranteed existence
A conscious baby for a black resistance
I feel the rain enhances the revolution
And reminds us of a spiritual solution
And reminds us of an unnatural supernatural solu-lu-lu-lution

It's raining revolution

Lost between reality and psychology, 1990's mentality is described
By the honorable truth message which is 'True Knowledge Is So Priceless'
Which is so true
Rain, rain, stay here! Wow
Love that power
Brothers and sisters haha
Raise your hands up high and let me see the colors of your beautiful skin
Now the ceremony begins
Lord, let the heavenly rains cleanse
Run into your nearest rainbow
To grab, hold, to ride on
Each color, learn it ! The importance of each color oh yeah

Let it rain

Credits

This episode was mixed and reported by Myra Flynn, and created in collaboration with: Corey Dockser, Bryant Denton, Nathaniel Wilson and associate producer James Stewart. Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr. edits the show. The Homegoings theme music is by Myra Flynn; other music by Arrested Development, the band Gumbo and Blue Dot Sessions. Zoe McDonald is the graphic artist behind this episode’s Homegoings artist portrait.

See you in two weeks for the next episode of Homegoings. As always, you are welcome here.

To continue to be part of the Homegoings family:

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Homegoings New England News Collaborative
Myra Flynn
Myra Flynn joined Vermont Public in March 2021 and is the DEIB Advisor, Host and Executive Producer of Homegoings. Raised in Vermont, Myra Flynn is an accomplished musician who has come to know the lay of dirt-road land that much more intimately through touring both well-known and obscure stages all around the state and beyond. She also has experience as a teaching artist and wore many hats at the Burlington Free Press, including features reporter and correspondent, before her pursuits took her deep into the arts world. Prior to joining Vermont Public, Myra spent eight years in the Los Angeles music industry.
See stories by Myra Flynn