Octavio Blanco (00:00)
Good morning everyone and welcome to another episode of Uptown Voices, Black and Blanco Live Edition. Yes sir, as always, I'm joined by my good friend, neighbor, and verbal sparring partner, Led Black, how are you doing?

Led Black (00:06)
I bloggo.

I'm doing good, my brother's doing good. I just want to remind everyone to make sure that they subscribe to the page. Make sure you show us that uptown love because we're doing this every week. You know, we're doing it for y'all. So make sure you support us.

Octavio Blanco (00:28)
Yes, yes, sir. Yeah, please support us. It's very, very helpful. Hit that like hit that subscribe if you're on YouTube. Political season, it's in full swing and we're doing our part here on the show. ⁓ But before we go into that, I want to just say sometimes

Things don't always work out as planned. Last week, we had Congressman Adriano Espaillat on the show, but we had a technical meltdown and I was hardly able to join the remote studio we use. And then on top of that, our feed with the congressman was interrupted and we couldn't get him back in the studio. It was all due to my equipment, ⁓ our shoestring budget. ⁓ I've been relying on a laptop that was way too underpowered and hence.

technical difficulties. I've updated my equipment since then and we should have smooth sailing going forward. Knock on wood. ⁓

and the congressman ⁓ has graciously agreed to join us very soon. if you were looking for that episode that aired last Sunday, we're holding it until we do the new episode and we'll have that up for everybody very, soon. So stay tuned for more on that. ⁓ so, know, now, you know, without further ado, I'd like to introduce our guest.

You've seen him canvassing all over Uptown with his unmistakable orange tie, although today he's not wearing it. He's wearing a purple tie. He's running to represent District 71 of the New York State Assembly. That encompasses like west inwood in Washington Heights, down the west side to around Manhattanville, and then it doglegs west to east along the lower Washington Heights.

Harlem border. ⁓ He's Julian Segura. Welcome to the show. How are you doing?

Julien Segura (02:30)
What's going on? You can say Sigurdah, it's okay. You don't have to anglicize it. For the... I mean, if you want to. But ⁓

Octavio Blanco (02:33)
Seguras.

I appreciate the correction. My name is Octavio. My name is Octavio. People always call me Octavio and I always correct them and say it's Octavio. So I appreciate that. ⁓ It's good.

Julien Segura (02:44)
Good, then.

Get all the vines.

Octavio Blanco (02:56)
It's good to have you here. ⁓ I really appreciate you making the time. I've seen you on the socials. I've seen you in real life. I've seen your ⁓ posters. I know that you're having an event today. ⁓ Let me start with the first question. You're running against someone here with established roots in upper Manhattan. ⁓ He's also, you

Can you tell us a little bit for those who don't know you, tell us about your own personal connection to Uptown.

Julien Segura (03:33)
Sure. So I've lived uptown since I was 12. I grew up moving around the city before that. I did some time in Queens and Brooklyn, downtown, Midtown Manhattan as well. But I've been in uptown since I was 12. And I've been in Sugar Hill for the last 16 years. So it's really, you know, my connection to this place is this is my childhood, right? And pretty much my entire adulthood as well. Yeah, I didn't, I didn't really leave.

⁓ Other than during renovations for a couple months I moved to Queensbridge, but other than that I've been here the entire time that I've been an adult and You know growing up uptown like the first place I lived in they did the blood initiation ritual on Halloween You know where they they jump people and like in the elevator and now that block is like a place where they do like events and stuff every day like

It's kind of crazy how fast things have changed uptown and I kind of saw this exponential shift growing up here where, you know, there was a time where I'd be the only, you know, person with my skin tone that was in Puerto Rican that was staying after on the train past 96 or past 59th. And it was, it was an interesting experience to see that completely shift and to the point where, you know, people look at me and they may not realize that I'm from here until I opened my mouth.

⁓ and it's really, you know, to me, it's, it's something that I know is policy decisions, right? I know my neighbors got pushed out and you know, we'll talk about that more later, but in terms of my connection to uptown, you know, I, I born, I was born downtown, but you know, I breathe and I live it right. ⁓ and I never left and there was a time where, especially on my block, I wanted to leave, you know, but at this point, this is my heart of my soul. love this.

You I see people shooting dice on my block now and it makes me happy to see when I used to get me tight as a kid, you know, like that's, it's, you know, you just learn the sense of community that this is right. Uh, especially in the one fifties, one forties, one sixties, that's it. That's a distinct culture. You know, every block's got its own stuff going on, but everyone kind of keeps an eye on each other. And while that sort of, you know, classic.

Led Black (05:26)
you

Julien Segura (05:46)
Harlem, takes a village mentality, has died down over the years, especially as, you know, folks pass away and a lot of folks are pushed out, a lot of to the Bronx. ⁓ You know, it's something that still exists, but it's barely hanging on. ⁓ As an example, I helped organize a block party on my block, and it's the first one we did in 25 years. To be fair, we would have a block party every day in the summer for most of my life, so, you know, like it's a different...

Octavio Blanco (06:12)
Ha ha ha!

Julien Segura (06:13)
It's a

different kind of block, but at the same time, it's like nobody like we didn't manage to do that in a long time. And it's because folks are really started to disconnect from each other. Isolate. That's just something that we see across the board. But not to digress too far, I'll hit on my opponent, right? ⁓

Essentially, know, Al has been around for very long time. He's very ingrained in system. He got a job at the board of elections from the father of the current party boss of the Manhattan Democrats to show how old school and ingrained he is. But the political machine down here has essentially sold out so much of Harlem that they no longer really have control over their elections, right? They were all pushing Cuomo and that did not go far.

last time around anywhere in central harlem west harlem did okay in east harlem right but the reality is that the hold that this machine is had for a long time because they've they've allowed crazy development they've allowed a lot of corruption in a lot of buildings with a blind eye or cutting checks to make up for people doing fraud in a way that you know is just unfortunate ⁓

There's a lot of issues here. I mean, we can talk about the imminent domain that Charlie Rangel gave to Colombia, and Colombia's given next to nothing in return. What, the Forum is cute, but it's about making sure real. Oh, they brought back the McDonald's, you know? what? You know, it's really disheartening to know that once you dig deeper into the history that these folks, some of them really did incredible things in their time, too. The Gang of Four especially.

denny farrell included who is the predecessor to al and then he was there for forty two years and so he got his pick of who we wanted as a successor ⁓ initials his chief of staff and alice someone that you know all time is well say this on record ⁓ he moved out of the district ten years ago ⁓ and he won the election and he never came back and i was here the entire time you know it's not

This is not a neighborhood that I would I would not want to be in my district is really nice We got really nice parts. There's no excuse not to live here You know, it's it's and a lot of folks don't live in their districts, unfortunately, but it's really it's something that I think is a bit unfortunate But beyond that really at this point young people are showing up and that is the number one thing whether it's folks that just moved here or people that have been around for

a while, you know, I've been able to vote for a few years. Finally, 18 to 40 is a voting block that matters. I ran two years ago and 60 plus, 65 plus was what I had to rely on to be half the voters. And of course, these are folks that have known Al for many years. A lot of young people do not really care. You know, they don't care about what family name you're from, who tapped you in, you know.

the connections and the fraternities and sororities that doesn't matter to a lot of folks at this point, especially young people who are pissed off with the establishment and see what's happening to our neighborhoods. ⁓

Led Black (09:36)
Julian,

Julian, let me, you you're spitting some fire right now. Like you're going at him and that's, I love it, love it. You know, keep it going, but let me just interrupt you really quick, man. Like, you mentioned, you you've ran before, you know, I want to know, you know, we're to get back to the Al Taylor stuff and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm for all of that. You know I mean? I just want to get a word in edgewise. So why is public office important to you?

Julien Segura (10:02)
So for me, there's a lot of things that I've done in my life. I've worked a lot of jobs. I've volunteered to do a lot of things, rescuing animals, ⁓ doing a lot of protests since I was a teenager. I was at Occupy Wall Street until they got kicked out. That was a crazy night. But really, I didn't really understand how to turn my desire to see changes into society into something tangible until I started.

working on campaigns and I started seeing how all the flows of money through all the industries interconnect and I realized, okay, if you want to change the rules of society, this is literally the medium, right? ⁓ We're not going to do bloody revolution in America, ⁓ most likely, right? So, and I'm not really interested in that. So I think the closest thing to that is getting into office and changing things. And for a long time, I was working on other campaigns and running with other people, but

In my own community, when I was looking for someone to run against Al Taylor, I realized everyone that was viable preferred to kiss his ass. And I was like, okay, nobody is going to do this. Nobody has the balls. So I don't like, they're not going to call my aunt and uncle and you don't tell me not to run. Cause my aunt and uncle are not in this country and they don't speak English. So the normal Harlem shenanigans would not work. You know what I mean? ⁓ but at the end of the day, it's, ⁓

It's a blessing that I'm even in this country and that's another aspect. My mom's a refugee. like you could be killed for set or imprisoned, probably not killed at this point. You can be imprisoned for, for saying and doing the sorts of things that I'm doing towards your local government and the places where my family is from. So that's also something I don't take for granted at all. this is, this is a place where you can actually affect change if you show up and you make stuff happen. ⁓

And that's just a big aspect of my philosophy.

Octavio Blanco (11:58)
Yeah, and you know, I appreciate a lot and we can see that in our own society, it's getting more dangerous to speak out and to be vocal about what we believe. ⁓ But ⁓ part of what you were describing before ⁓ is the massive amount of development that's going on in the district. ⁓ It's the biggest stressor, the cost of housing. ⁓ What's your plan? Like, how do you help?

residents here actually afford to stay here? You spoke about the residents that have been pushed out. What's your practical plan for keeping people here?

Julien Segura (12:38)
Well, unfortunately, we are now in a post city of yes post ballot amendment time. And that's a controversial statement out of me. But, you know, it's given developers a lot of the keys. It's given developers a lot of tools to get around community boards. It's given us a pseudo board of estimates, ⁓ which is the old way that they did rezoning, ⁓ which was deemed illegal. And that's why we have. Engagement with rezoning.

⁓ But you know these things happened right and so now developers already had most if not all politicians in their pocket ⁓ but at this point they also have the tools to just ignore the community so like when I talk to developers like I appeal to God with them I'm like you think God wants you to do this like you know and Everyone wants to make money, and I understand it's New York. It's the it's the center of

business on earth, know, capital of the world, whatever people want to say. A lot of stuff happens here and a lot of money flows here, especially Manhattan. And so my practical solution for development is it's boring and it's unfortunate. But the way that many of these things are developed, I mean, ⁓ this building over here, I'm not sure if you can see it. It's a new construction, I guess it's behind my head. Yeah. Like that's a condo building.

Octavio Blanco (14:03)
Yeah, I can sort of see it.

Julien Segura (14:04)
Yeah, so that's one that's following the under 100 unit thing, which is a new way of saving money for folks, but it's really tax incentives. To make it very simple, it's tax incentives. And we have tax incentives to build big glass towers right now, very easily. We shifted the 80-20 rule to like, believe, 60, 40, or 75, 25. I don't remember the exact differences in how they did the tax incentive. I gotta read it again. There's a of numbers in my head right now.

But I'll say that it really wasn't enough. And the way that they calculate what an affordable unit is off AMI, there's this illusion that is drawn that this is the only way to calculate this. It's not. You could build income bracket based housing. You can build housing for seniors. Maybe it's not legal to make it 100 % for seniors. You can make a 98 % senior building. ⁓ There's buildings in Europe and Asia where they split it between students and seniors. And that's an incredible model.

⁓ for lower income housing, right? You know, you're above a certain age or under a certain age, you can get access to this new development. These are ideas that literally, if you made a tax incentive for that in the state, you just proposed it, they would probably go through. It's all business, but these people can do business building something useful for the community and society instead of doing business building ugly and expensive $4,000 a month studio buildings. You know, like that doesn't help anybody.

That doesn't even help the guy who just moved here. He doesn't want to pay that either. Even if that's the only folks who can afford a lot of this or people who really made it and for some reason want to live in a glass tower that towers the hood. don't know. I don't really understand the mentality beyond necessity. And housing is a necessity. So whatever we build, people will try to occupy within their means. ⁓ It's not a surprise that

Octavio Blanco (15:37)
Hahaha

Led Black (15:39)
Yes, no.

Julien Segura (16:02)
things have shifted up here. We've only built things that nobody can afford. In my neighborhood, it's 35K a year on average income. Looking at the data, right? ⁓ It's really depressing that we're building things that are not even close to affordable for that. And we're deleting section nine housing, but that's a whole other debate.

Led Black (16:24)
And Julian, I kind of want to talk about another thing that I see uptown that has been concerning me for a while. You know, I grew up here during the crack era. I was a kid during the crack era. I saw my neighborhood change overnight, right? And now I feel like, you know, as an adult, I'm kind of, it's happening again, but this time with heroin.

heroin is exploding, people sleeping on the street. Like, you know what mean? I grew up on Wadsworth, right? And, you know, I used to look at Fort Worth, like, mean, Fort Washington, you you made it, and now I'm on Fort Washington, and you see these signs everywhere of heroin's creeping, just kind of devastation uptown. And then, you know, we also have on Point, we have the only places, there's only two safe injection sites in the whole country, and they're both uptown.

Right, so I feel like, you know, when we talk about gentrification, I feel that those safe injection sites are our Trojan horses for gentrification, right? Like, I think it's another way of getting us out of here. And then, you know, once they get us out of here, you know, then they'll get rid of the safe injection sites. I wanted to hear your take on safe injection and harm reduction and your thoughts on that, please.

Julien Segura (17:33)
So, for many years, like since I was a teenager, since I really understood my own political understanding, before I understood it was even a political understanding, I thought it was just my personality or something, you know, but still, I'm someone who's always been a proponent of harm reduction. ⁓ Having seen the way that it worked in Amsterdam and places like that and Portugal and how they decriminalized drugs and they intervened, they got people back into society and I was like, wow.

It would be great if America did this with the folks I see on the street, right? But instead what America did is they took like half that idea and somebody took it and turned it into a money making machine. And so now people are just making money off of harm reduction, right? And that to me is really horrifying because it's like, I really despise when people take great movements or great ideas and turn it to shit and then people look at it they're like, well, this is a terrible idea. And it's like, no.

It's not that it's a terrible idea, it's that whoever is doing it is doing half the job. ⁓ Harm reduction is half the job. The other half of the job is getting people into housing, getting people into work, and getting people reintegrated into society. look, fent, which is really the number one aspect of why these heroin addicts are so ⁓ obvious and so out there, it's because of the fent. Heroin itself is not a great drug, but it's...

What you're seeing, the slouched over folks, things like that, it's something worse, right? And obviously these things are cut with other things. Point is, these cocktails that folks are addicted to are more potent than any of these things. If you were providing pure heroin to folks in these safe injection sites, ⁓ instead of maybe methadone, which I believe is the main thing that they give at these sites, ⁓ you know, that...

is something where it doesn't even scratch the itch that they're looking for at this point, because they're taking seven different things. So I look at Portland where they completely decriminalized all drugs with like they didn't even bother to really push their own program. They're just like, do whatever you want. And people just died in the streets. Right. I was someone that is as a young person, I was someone that thought that might be a good idea on the government's part, but there's an irresponsibility.

Led Black (19:50)
Yeah, was a disaster. Yeah.

Julien Segura (19:59)
to doing these things without government intervention and people argue about, then the government's gonna be the drug dealers. What are pills, You know, like that's not, that's not really, we regulate all this petroleum based medication regularly. Why we would not be able, hell, you can be prescribed methamphetamine in certain instances, right? So we're already kind of doing that. Why would we not extend that to controlling this market? me.

Led Black (20:23)
Julia, Julia.

I just want to say like, first of all, I agree with you for the most part. That it's an idea that was implemented wrong and not in the right way. So I give you that much. And I'll say also that, I ask this question a lot because it is one of my main concerns living up here. ⁓ And I think you've given probably the most thoughtful answer with a very good. ⁓

Julien Segura (20:42)
Thank

Led Black (20:51)
understanding of the issues, you know, and the drug cocktails that involved that I agree with that. But I'm just going to say, I don't think giving people uncut heroin is the answer either. But that's neither here nor there. So I want to commend you at least for really thinking through this issue. So but right now, if you could get rid of the safe injection sites or not get rid of them, what would you do?

Julien Segura (21:10)
I would give that contract to someone else at the bare minimum. That's it. You know, like if we're going to have a safe injection site, maybe another operator needs it. Sorry, on point staff will live in my district. ⁓ You know, like at the end of the day, it's like, if this is going to be here and it's going to be a massive fight to remove it and Robert Jackson will fight me in the street and whatever it is, right? Like I'm not really someone who's trying to reverse these things, although

they're certainly causing damage in the community. The argument that they need more of them, I'm like, fine, but don't give it to on point, right? I think there needs to be a degree of losing your contract if you don't do the job properly. ⁓ And so.

No is the answer, but yes in terms of who's running it.

Led Black (21:54)
And Julie, hold on,

got you. You said you and Robert Jackson fighting in the street. What was that? I don't know. What does that mean?

Julien Segura (22:01)
Well, the, the, the,

well, cause he's a, he's one of the big proponents of it. believe his sister died of an heroin overdose. I, I totally understand that. have friends who have unfortunately passed from overdoses that I grew up with. It's really not something right. But at the same time, ⁓ you know, if I got a, I'm not going to fist bump, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll argue in the street. That's, that's what I meant by fighting the street with Robert Dexter.

Led Black (22:07)
⁓ gotcha.

Gotcha, okay.

I

didn't understand the reference.

Julien Segura (22:29)
I'm not fighting seniors.

Octavio Blanco (22:31)
Hahaha

Julien Segura (22:32)
⁓

But you know, like I said, like I'll debate with him on this, you know, maybe having it all be an uptown is also inappropriate. Maybe we could put one downtown.

Led Black (22:42)
I agree.

Yeah, they either should be ubiquitous or nowhere. That's my opinion.

Octavio Blanco (22:47)
Yeah, that's definitely something that we ⁓ that we really believe that they shouldn't just be uptown. If they're going to be in existence, other neighborhoods need to share the burden because unfortunately, ⁓ what happens is people from downtown who are addicts come uptown and they mess it up up here. ⁓ You know, that's the other thing that I wanted to

to discuss is that, you know, we've got, like you, like you said, we see people who are nodding out all over the neighborhood, there are needles on the on the sidewalks. ⁓ And so ⁓ my question is,

Julien Segura (23:28)
⁓ you

Octavio Blanco (23:28)
you know, how do we, how do we make the quality of life that better

protected? And, and I think, you know, I think personally, think policing is, a part of it. ⁓ and I know that last year you sort of, you, had a lot of controversy. You posted some images of yourself. I think you were at an anti-ice protest, giving the middle finger to a police precinct with like, NWA's fucked the police in the background and you know,

I cannot, know, can you explain what does, what's that? What was that about? And can you work with local police, you know, who are crucial to like addressing some of the safety concerns, although they have a lot of, you know, problems too.

Julien Segura (24:11)
So, I mean, look, ⁓ that was a situation that was blown out of context because I pissed off someone within the Republican Party in Queens on a campaign that I was running. ⁓ know, Bob Holden's chief of staff got upset with me and put out a little hit on me in the New York Post with a screenshot of that. Now, the reporter didn't really want to write the article. And I could tell that. used to be a reporter. I talked to reporters and I'm like, bro, like, what is the editor really like?

Is this really what you want to be writing, But look, ⁓ I'd say I'm somebody that is pretty loud about being against what ICE is doing at this point, especially. ⁓ You know, I believe that it should be abolished. And I was at an ICE protest and I had missed the part where everyone was getting arrested. ⁓ But I was there and I was like,

You know, F these guys. Now the SRG is a specific unit within the NYPD that has arrested a lot of folks that I've organized with over the years. ⁓ not going to say that all of those arrests were unjustified, regardless, ⁓ you know, it's, it's not a group of folks that I've been arrested by, ⁓ since seeing Occupy at 13 and seeing guys with riot shields, I've been pretty good at walking away from situations at that point.

I can't afford to get locked up, unfortunately. don't have a lawyer. God bless those who do and go and get arrested and make a point of that. really respect those folks, especially the seniors who do it at like 80 years old. Those folks, I'm like, damn. But I'd say the point is that I'm not someone that has an inherent hatred for law enforcement at all. Like I inherently respect anyone who puts on a uniform and

Octavio Blanco (25:36)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Julien Segura (26:02)
puts in work for this city, especially first responders. A lot of my close friends were first responders in New York City when I was younger. you know, I come out with a lot of paramedics. ⁓ And let me tell you, like, that is a job that is psychologically difficult, right? First responding, whether it's NYPD, SBNY, it's psychologically traumatizing. you know, things happen. ⁓

Octavio Blanco (26:21)
Yeah, crazy.

Julien Segura (26:30)
I understand that it is an imperfect job and it is one that has a lot of scrutiny right now. But at the same time, I'm someone that has always challenged authority that I deem unjust, right? When I see folks doing what I see is wrong, I've always kind of spoken up about it. And that got me in trouble in class, but at this point I turned that into a professional role. ⁓ As an example, when Sanaya Cheetham, who was killed in the Bronx,

Her murder essentially was covered up. Cops roughed her up, as they say internally, and they beat her to death. She was the only ⁓ person who died on July 4th last year, and they covered the cameras. They pretended it didn't happen, and my guy comrade Don got in contact with the family, and he was like, yo, we're gonna organize some protests. And I was like, I'm absolutely gonna be there. And for weeks we were there, maybe.

Led Black (27:14)
I remember that story, yeah.

Julien Segura (27:28)
six weeks in a row until it got to a point the family was like look you know we'll just deal with the legal part i think they get the message but we were outside of the 41st precinct regularly until at this point we are gonna get see some degree of justice for the family but losing your 18 year old girl ⁓ is not something like a trillion dollars can't make up for that right ⁓ so just making sure that at the bare minimum there's

Led Black (27:53)
Yeah, yeah.

Julien Segura (27:56)
there's some sort of compensation, there's something for that family is something that I'm proud of participating in. But that's an example of where, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna flip off the cops and I'm gonna flip off whoever, right? It's not, and you know, flipping off, it's a little unprofessional. It's not something that I do like in a daily basis or anything, you know, it is, ⁓ it is, it is a symbol of just, you know,

Led Black (28:08)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (28:16)
Hahaha

Julien Segura (28:22)
As if you look at my New York Post article in the the URL, it's Brooklyn Wave, right? You know, it's I would have called it the Harlem Wave, but either way, you know, like it's it's a New York thing to be mad and flip something off that you disagree with. You know what I mean? It's it's just it's an expression of of how I express myself as a New Yorker. And I don't I don't endeavor to flip off cops in the future. You know, I'm to be very careful with my middle finger from now on. Both of them.

Led Black (28:31)
you

Octavio Blanco (28:50)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Julien Segura (28:50)
you know, I'm gonna keep

in my pockets, but, ⁓ you know, in terms of working with law enforcement, there's no doubt. Well, to wrap it, yes, I can work with law enforcement.

Led Black (28:55)
Julian we almost time running up on this half hour.

Yeah, Julian, so let me ask you real quick.

Yeah, nothing. I think I agree with you. I think sometimes, you know, I think it's a good balance to be struck there, right? It's not about hating all cops. You know, they're trying to their job and we need our public servants, all of them, you know what mean? Before we let you go, though.

Julien Segura (29:16)
that might get fired.

Led Black (29:19)
Before we let you go really quickly, want you to tell me like, you know, especially in heavy Latino community like ours, the word socialist, you know, could be misconstrued, know, you don't communist. You know what mean? So give us a little bit of what socialism means, why you are socialist, what that means to you. And then just tell everyone where they could follow you, where they could where they could fund your campaign. And then we'll let you go, my brother. So go ahead.

Julien Segura (29:41)
For sure. So, you know, I'm a guy that hates labels. I didn't really like to label myself the last time I ran, but this time I realized, like, people are awake and they're ready to hear socialism and not just be, like, terrified at this point, ⁓ Really, my father was very socialist-leaning in his politics. My mother not as much, but this is something that I grew up with. And so my father's socialism comes from my grandfather's socialism, where...

He ended up in a village in France after he left Algeria after the war and communists took over the village and he's the only one who did not become a communist. And so he suffered there, but he was also the only one who could fix everything. So, you know, he was like the handyman. But the point is at the mayor's office, but the point is that, you know, for me, socialism is a protection against communism and it's a way to shift what we currently have, like things that I wholeheartedly believe in, like making

publicly available universal healthcare. Things like colleges and universities being free, that's deemed socialist and that's at the top of my list. So if that's what the public defines what I'm doing as, that's how I'm gonna categorize myself. I'm not a labels guy, I think I'm very reasonable, I'm not an extremist, but by some people's metrics, you know, they look at those things as an extreme, but.

If we don't invest in American society over American business interests, we're cooked as a country. The only country that can take down America is America. And we're taking ourselves down right now really quick. but you know, it is positive. We've got young people out here, not just me. We got a lot of heads and you know, it's, it's going to be a beautiful thing in the next year, two years, three years to see new fresh faces come in and hopefully they don't fall into the same, you know,

hits of patronage and money as the others, but God willing. ⁓ So in terms of following me, you can find me at my website is juliansegura.nyc. It's J-U-L-I-E-N-S-E-D-E-R-A.NYC. On Instagram, you can follow me at juliansegura.nyc as well. TikTok, same thing. Twitter.

Same thing, although I really don't post on there. Not my favorite place. Sorry, Elon. But you know, beyond that, you can donate there, you can sign up to volunteer and local support is all that I run on. And I'll end on that. You know, I don't take any PAC money. Even Planned Parenthood PAC, who's probably going to endorse me, I'm not going to take a check from them. You know, I'm very adamant about that. I want to make sure that I only am funded by local people and local businesses and local community.

I might end up at a certain cafe more often, but that's as ⁓ bought out as I'm going to allow myself to be. Right. And with the matching funds program, that's 12 to one, you're allowed to do that. Right. You're, you're able to be able to run a serious campaign just with local money. And that's, that's the sort of stuff that I want to see more of. And we already have the tools for people to not be bought out. ⁓ if Al really wanted to, he could do the same thing, but those Columbia checks are just too nice.

Led Black (32:42)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (33:03)
Wow. Yeah.

Led Black (33:03)
Ooh, we're gonna leave it there. We're gonna leave it there. Julien, we're gonna maybe have to have you back. I think we're gonna have Al

Taylor. We're gonna say the stuff you was telling him about him. So we're gonna go back and forth. Julien, thank you so much, brother.

Julien Segura (33:13)
Look, he's mad

at me, so you know, you should have him speak his peace.

Led Black (33:19)
I'm

Octavio Blanco (33:20)
Yeah.

Led Black (33:20)
yeah, yeah, man. Julian, nice to talk to you brother. Have a good rest of your weekend. You got it, brother. You too. Thank you so much.

Julien Segura (33:22)
I appreciate you guys. Have a wonderful day.

Octavio Blanco (33:25)
All right, bye bye.

Julien Segura (33:26)
Peace.

Peace.

I don't know how many of you saw.

Octavio Blanco (33:28)
⁓ Yeah, you can go ahead and yeah, yeah, you're good.

Led Black (33:29)
brother. That was that. Yeah, he was not playing. was he was.

Julien Segura (33:32)
I just gotta close the

app or something. Okay.

Led Black (33:37)
Yeah, he was not playing. He was spitting fire. Spitting fire. He was going at the machine. But, know, let's get on. We gave him a lot of time. Let's talk about what we need to talk about now. So I just want to straight talk about Mapbills to Pay's opening weekend, right? So that means today's the last day of opening weekend. There's tickets right now on sale right now. See Mapbills to Pay at the Film Forum, downtown third best theater in the world according to

Octavio Blanco (33:40)
Yeah, he was. He was. He, he, he, uh.

Yeah, yeah, let's do it.

Led Black (34:06)
on Time Out New York, March 2026. So that's recent. So it's third best theater in the world and also the Regal Concourse right there in the Bronx. I'm actually gonna be there today. I'm moderating a panel with my brother Calixto Chinchilla, the executive director of the York Latino Film Festival. So him and I are gonna be talking to select members of the cast. We might even have Joel Alfonso Vargas, the director of the film. But your Octavia, man, like I've been telling you, like this opening weekend has been amazing.

We've had really good ⁓ reception. I just want to say that this movie is almost like a miracle that it happened. No budget, to be honest. Filmed entirely in the Bronx, Fordham Road, Orchard Beach, all these, the Bronx is a character in this film. We got this week, we got New York Times critic pick. We also got an article in Vogue. We had Gothamist.

WNYC, with Alison Stewart, all of it. So, you know, I'm just trying to let people know, like, this is an important film. It's a film about us. You know, we could talk all day about representation matters, but this is representation on the screen. It is home on the screen. If you're from uptown, if you're from the Bronx, if you are from a New Yorker period, this is a film that you must support. So right now it's in theaters. It goes to LA in May 2nd at AM Cinematheque. And hopefully we get more theaters all across. you know, I just want to say this movie won.

It went on a historic film festival run as of last year, won best ensemble cast in January last year. And then they won a Sundance. And then the female as a collective won best female act, a lead in Beijing. They've been around the world. And even with all these accolades, it's still a struggle for black and brown films to do well, right? So what I'm saying is it's super important. Because if we don't support our art, who will?

Octavio Blanco (35:40)
at Sundance.

Led Black (36:00)
Mad Bills to Pay in theaters right now. Click in the link in bio, Uptown Collective. Go get your tickets. It's super porn film. I've seen it like seven times. And every time I see it, I get more from it. This is an amazing director, amazing cast, amazing crew. Mad Bills to Pay. So how to get that out there, brother. It's mad important to me.

Octavio Blanco (36:18)
No,

no, I wanna make sure that we do get that out there. ⁓ I'm gonna put up your Instagram, ⁓ at Uptown Collective. That's at Uptown Collective, just with a V, no E on Instagram. I'm gonna show it on the screen right now. ⁓ But ⁓ what I wanted to say is that I saw the film and I think that,

Led Black (36:39)
Mm-hmm.

Octavio Blanco (36:47)
it's it's transcendent, like it can be transcendent because, you know, we've we've spoken a lot about representation on the screen and how it's still ⁓ not enough. It's ⁓ somehow somewhat improving, but it's still like, just like a drop in the bucket in terms of representation, you've got kind of the same act when you're talking about

big budget films and actors that are in these big budget films, you know, or leads in non Latino films, like, you know, stuff like that, we see that there are there are some, you know, Michael Pena is out there and people like that who are

getting seen, but what we don't see getting the success and the accolades, generally speaking, are those films that are both produced and then also distributed or promoted by ⁓ our own communities. Films that are authentic to our story, independent cinema that can break through the independent cinema ceiling, right? Like not all independent films get the distribution ⁓ that they deserve.

Led Black (37:53)
Mm-hmm.

Octavio Blanco (37:58)
and especially difficult are the films that are created and produced by black and brown people. And so I really hope that with the accolades in the New York Times and in Variety and in Vogue and everywhere else that we've seen such recognition for the quality of this film because there, let's not forget that like it is a quality film ⁓ that that will also ⁓ instigate

more people, not just black and brown people, to see us in our story, in our reality. And so, you know, I think it's a wonderful movie. think ⁓ everybody should get out there. It's amazing that it's at the Film Forum and also that it's at the Bronx Regal.

And I really, really, really hope that it's going to get much more distribution all across the country. Because I know that there's so many people across the country that want to know about New York City, the real New York City, the authentic New York City, people who live, work here, who are born here, who struggle to live here. You know, like, it's not just the billionaire class on Fifth Avenue. It's the Bronx, it's upper Manhattan, it's Brooklyn, you know, like, you know, I think Spike Lee did something

Led Black (39:05)
Done.

Yeah

Octavio Blanco (39:13)
that like, you know, brought that that aesthetic into the mainstream. And I can see that this is like in that vein. And I really I really want to support it.

Led Black (39:17)
Mm-hmm

I agree. Yeah,

I agree. And then, you you bring up Spike Lee and I think that's a good, it's a good comparison I think to Joel Afonso Vargas, right? Because everything he does is intentional. You know, it's a new visual language just for people to know. Like the way he did it, it's the camera's stationary. So every, every shot, the camera's not moving. The scene evolves around the camera and it's 80 % improv. You know what mean? So it's a special thing. And then,

You know, it goes beyond what you see on the screen. Joel Afonso Vargas, you know, when he was going to sign to Ascetic Scope, which is the distributor, you know, he put in his contract, he wants a multicultural agency to represent the film. You know, and that's how we got involved as NYLIF, right? Because the New York Latino Film Festival is not just a festival every year during Hispanic Heritage Month, it's also an agency. So we pitched to get the role.

And then we got it, but that was because Joelle wanted it that way. And again, it's in the third best theater in the world at Film Forum, but Joelle wanted to make sure that it was in the Bronx. He wanted to make sure, hey, look, this ain't right if we're not in the hometown. This can't be a film about the Bronx. We don't show the Bronx no love. So that's what I like about it. this whole, ever since Friday, actually it's a Thursday, I've been at the Regal Concourse, you know, with the, you know, as part of the Not Live Agency supporting the film. And again, you know, it's interesting, like I don't really go to that theater, but that's a nice theater.

that recliners and what's really cool is that you pull up, it's a plaza. you pull up into, there's always a parking spot there. You I think you could give your parking validated so it's either reduced or free. But again, it's comfortable because you don't have to live for parking. You just pull up and see the movie. And again, I think it's really important that we support our art, right? Like a lot of times we shoot ourselves in the foot when we either shit on our art or we don't support our own art. So just support it.

Matt Bills to pay, ⁓ Matt Bills to pay, Matt Bills to pay out right now.

Octavio Blanco (41:19)
Madbills to pay, madbills to pay, madbills to pay. Out right now, support it. And ⁓ I love it, Led. And you've been doing God's work out there promoting this film. I know you've thrown yourself into this. As you do, I mean, you do this, that's...

what you believe in, you throw yourself into it and it's no BS, you know, so I, ⁓ I appreciate that. And that's why I'm so grateful that you're part of this as well, because if you didn't, if you ⁓

Led Black (41:48)
Yeah, I feel very lucky. Like, yeah, I feel very

fortunate to do things that I love. And I really love this film. And then to be able to, know, to also get a check from it, you know what mean? That's a beautiful thing, because it's not fake. It's real. And then, you know, speaking of, I also want to shout out, you know, Noma, right? Because I think it's important that we always like shout out Noma, because they have a lot of stuff happening right now. There's actually, there's deadlines, there's fixed deadlines to think about right now. So right now.

Octavio Blanco (42:02)
Yep.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Led Black (42:16)
You know, the Uptown Art Show for everyone that doesn't know, it's a month-long celebration of the arts uptown. Wash Heights, Inward Harlem, right? So this is a month-long extravaganza. just so you know, the deadline to have your event in the NOMA's printed guide. So the printed guide is a really big deal every year. So you have until May 1st.

to submit your event. basically what's cool about it is that like you're having an event somewhere uptown, somewhere art related. You can have your event as long as you go before May 1st, it'll be in the guide. And I also have to shout out Martha Blair who won.

the Uptown Art Stroke poster contest this year. It's a super powerful image of a fist with, you know, coloring pencils in her hand. And it says, love our community, ICE out now. So I'm really happy that that's the poster. So that's going to be the cover of everything Uptown Art Stroke related. So deadline is May 1st. So submit your event there. Also, Woman in the Heights Shade is closing next Saturday. There are no more...

open hours, but on 424 is that last day, but you have to make an appointment, right? Go to NYC, NomaNYC.org to check out all that information. But you should check out, women in the heights shade is the 17th annual curated by the prolific, amazing uptown art queen, Andrea Arroyo. So there's that. And then there's another thing, which is really cool. Actually two more things for Noma. They have a...

a deadline of April 26 for their next exhibit, which is called America the Beautiful with a question mark at the end. And it says we're reaching our 250th anniversary as a country. It could be whatever you think it means. But you have until April 26 to submit. And the last one, and I'll turn it over to you, my brother, is that on April 21st,

Noma has this thing called Noma Labs, so it's like a monthly event where they get someone from the community doing something important and they bring them in to show the community how it's done. So, ⁓ Edu Diaz is doing a clown class, right? It's a joyful taste of the world of clown designed for all levels of experience. know, me, I find clowns kind of creepy. So, you know, I don't think I'm go to the clown class. And plus, you know, in Dominicans, we like, it's un payaso, like I never want to be a payaso, you know what saying?

Octavio Blanco (44:40)
Hahaha!

You haven't met the right

clown.

Led Black (44:48)
I don't know, man. I don't like clowns. You know, yeah, no, but check that out. It's the 21st. It's coming up this week. So I think that'll be really cool. What is that? Tuesday? So you have some time. Go to nomanyc.org.

Octavio Blanco (44:52)
Yeah, yeah

Yeah, Tuesday.

Led Black (45:07)
Check it out. And that's the last thing I got. one last thing, I'm sorry. Shout out to Dykeman Diary. They did a really cool video for Noma. They interviewed Nerea, the executive director, and Martin and Michelle. And it was a beautiful, well done video for a really important organization. Shout out to Noma, every day, all day. Go ahead, brother, take it over.

Octavio Blanco (45:26)
Yes, yes. Shout out to Noma.

No, I love it. I love it. And Deichmann Diary, ⁓ you do good work. I really, I follow you and I see you've got great skills. So ⁓ good job on that. In terms of community stuff, I don't have too much to add. I will say this, something that I'm personally very excited about is that ⁓ Gustavo Dudamel.

The Gustavo the Dude. Yeah, El Sistema. Gustavo the Dude. If you don't know who he is, he's a classical music conductor, ⁓ director, ⁓ and he's bringing the New York Symphony to the United Palace Theater. And I believe that's May 6th. Let me double check that. ⁓

Led Black (45:56)
Gustavo. Venezuela in the systema.

Octavio Blanco (46:25)
in United Palace.

That's the date.

believe it's May 6th.

Anyway, go to boletos.com. That's where you can find tickets. Tickets are going fast. Yeah, Gustavo Dudamel and the New York ⁓ Symphony coming uptown to United Palace Theater. if there's, I mean, that's got to be one of the best places to listen to music. And particularly this concert is going to be amazing. ⁓

⁓ It's a rare opportunity that we have in this community to just walk out of our doors and not have to take public transportation, not have to like, you know, and we have a world-class symphony and a world-class conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, and it's going to be in early May, first week of May. ⁓ You know, check out United Palace for more information. Check out boletos.com. That's where the tickets are being sold. And they're going fast.

Led Black (47:07)
That's a big deal.

Octavio Blanco (47:28)
So, you know, there's some pretty inexpensive tickets. I bought tickets for me and my wife and my son and they were like 25 bucks and it's on the it's on the ground floor. So, you know, that's that's that's not a bad price. That's a that's that's that's that's something that

Led Black (47:41)
Nice.

Octavio Blanco (47:47)
I think a lot of folks in the community should be able to do. I mean, of course, there's like some higher price tickets there too, if you want to get really close and do it. If you can afford it, get up there. ⁓

Led Black (47:58)
Yeah, I'm

going to get my tickets for that, man. And I want to also go into some of the stuff that West Harlem Development Corp has going on. So just for the young kids, for ages 5 to 18, they're partnering up with the Harlem Junior Tennis and Education Program. So it's a West Harlem tennis clinic, right? For ages 5 to 18, make sure you check that out. Go to westh Harlem underscore DC on IG. They got good stuff there. And it's also a really important.

Octavio Blanco (48:03)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Led Black (48:27)
not a webinar, it's gonna be an in-person, it's called Nonprofits and the Law, What You Need to Know, a community forum and mixer is gonna be at, ⁓ I think it's at the forum, yes, at the forum, 125th, and the West Harlem Developer Corration and the Lawyers Alliance are partnering up for that. And then I got another one more.

The West Harlem Arts Alliance is also has so so I don't know if you remember last year. They did this really cool jazz festival. So they've been doing it. is for the fourth year, the fourth annual West Harlem Summer Jazz Festival. So the kickoff performance is Saturday, May 2nd. So it's right around the corner. And, you know, make sure you follow them as well. W H A A N Y C on IG to stay up with all the stuff happening. But you could always check Uptown Collective as well. And Uptown Voices, because we're going to keep you on in two.

And then we also have, we don't want to talk about it now, but we also have some things that we're working on to help the local businesses, the local artists, you know, get the help the word out. You know, it's been a long time in the making, but you know, this has never been about making money. You know, it's always been about helping find solutions to our problems as a collective. So we're going to be unveiling some new things in the coming days.

Octavio Blanco (49:42)
Yes, yes, yes, we are gonna be unveiling some cool stuff. And I wanna say, we don't have a lot of time left in our stream here, so I just wanna say ⁓ some good news. ⁓ I know you've heard me talk about Dolphin Park, which is that park on the end of 180th Street, all the way west, right next to the George Washington Bridge. It's a beautiful little park. was envisioned originally for children, young children, but it's been closed for years, for years, ever since before the pandemic, it's been closed. ⁓

And the community has come around and has really been instigating to open this park up and trying to get some support for opening this park up. This program, Uptown Voices, has been part of that ⁓ fight. And I'm happy to say that the Port Authority, which owns the park, has committed to opening the park officially.

by ⁓ Memorial Day. And so that is great news. That means that we are going to be getting another really cool little park. think they're still ⁓ in the works as to whether or not there's going to be a ⁓ nonprofit that's going to do programming from that park.

So there's going to be events in that park and there's going to be all kinds of stuff, you know, ⁓ but this just goes to show something that we talk about all the time. You and me, this is like community is the answer. If you don't organize the community, if you don't let your voices be heard, then you can't really get stuff done. And we really are proud that we had, you know, a part in that, in that happening because we went to the community board along with our neighbors and representing our neighbors to say, Hey, what's going on with this? And then the community board, the parks and

The parks division did a great job of like writing a resolution, making sure that it was in front of all the elected officials, but then also involving other parts of the community board who have the contacts at Port Authority to communicate with Port Authority about this need. And it's just been something that's been slow. Yes, bureaucratic.

Yes, it's not happened as fast as we wanted, but it's happening now. We finally have like official like word from the Port Authority. Think about it. The Port Authority is this huge organization that really doesn't have to answer to anybody. It's a it's an authority. So that means that it's not it's not under the state. It's not under the city. It's its own thing. And the fact that they came around and are committed to reopening the park is just a testament.

to the intelligence of the people in this community, the support of the people in this community give to one another, and the power that we have as community. So when we see problems out there, don't shy away from them. Don't just throw your arms and your hands in the air and say, we can't do anything about it. We actually can, but it just requires time, consistency, and the effort. So I'm really happy about that.

Led Black (52:38)
Yeah man, me too brother. Glad you really took that issue and ran with it. And look at that, like you said, there is power when people get together and make noise and agitate and coalesce and all that. So that's amazing. Also amazing, Nick's won yesterday. So you know what I mean? We got one victory in. It was good. I like that. It was exciting because we're winning the championship. just first step.

Octavio Blanco (52:55)
Yes, yes, yes.

Yeah, the energy was electric. I still want to go to one of those like, you know, they show the game like outside on 33rd Street. I think it's 33rd Street. And that looks like a ton of fun. It looks like just like a ton of fun. I don't know what they're going to do during the finals. They're going to have to close Eighth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. It's going to be nuts.

Led Black (53:13)
Bye.

Right.

does.

For real, for real, for real. know, but

again, go out to one of these local bars, go out to a game, know, support your local businesses. There's a bunch of people doing things for the game. So it's a fun time to be a Nick fan, you know what I mean?

Octavio Blanco (53:40)
Yeah, yeah.

Led Black (53:41)
Let's share

it with others. A lot of times I watch it at home and then I'm like, my wife or my kids are like, dad, stop making noise. So I like to talk shit and make noise when I watch the game. So it's fun. I watch it usually at 181 Cabrini. That's my local bar. I was there last night watching the game. know, go Knicks.

Octavio Blanco (53:59)
Go Knicks, go Knicks. Yeah, man, anything else you wanna talk? mean, we've been on for a good hour, I think.

Led Black (54:07)
Yeah, no, think I think we

could my mom is actually in the in the other room waiting for me to play dominoes so we could wrap it up now

Octavio Blanco (54:13)
I love it. I love it. That's awesome. I love that. I think that's that's I love the connection you have with your mom. I love how much your mom shows shows up for you and you know cooking and coming over playing dominoes. It sounds great. She's she sounds like an amazing woman. Hopefully I'll meet her one day.

Led Black (54:17)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so last thing tonight at 410

showing of Matt Biltope at the Regal Concourse. I'm going to be there with my brother and the executive director of the New York Latino Film Festival, Calisto Chinchilla at the Regal Concourse. So come out, check out the movie. We're going to talk to the cast. Hopefully we'll get also Joel Alfonso Fargo as the director. But it's going to be a good time. Important film. Spread love is the uptown way. Make sure that you subscribe to the channel to all your people about it. Right, y'all? Spread love is the uptown way.

Thank you so much.

Octavio Blanco (55:02)
Peace.