Oct. Newsletter: House Callz

When we return home, will we bring more than what we left for?

Editor's Note

Oh, October. Weather is cooling. Days, shortening. Holidays that center the dead and honor the living ensue. These traditions all call back to the process of reflection, reviewing who we’ve become throughout this year to prepare for the next.

This month’s newsletter asks; what are ways that our former foundations set the tone for our futures? House Callz features those who embody that answer. 

Recording artist FluxTheRenegade discusses her nomadic journey to chase her dreams of making music, until a farewell visit grounded her back into her Maryland roots. A feature story discusses her role of returning to herself through her latest album ‘Meteor.’  

In bQ.’s first Q&A, photographer Johnnel ‘Sivivid’ Kyri discusses gogo’s rich legacy and his responsibility to document the New Impressionz gogo band. Our Brooklyn born writer Elijah Hamilton gives us an overview of what to expect during this NBA season as we gear up for opening week, including a special look into what to expect from his hometown New York Knicks this season.

House Callz details what happens when we answer the call home.

 I hope this resonates as you carve out your own journey of self in reflection and preparation.

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4 Things To Be Excited About This NBA Season

(left to right) New York Knicks’ Julius Randle, R.J. Barrett and Mitchell Robinson discuss plays in team huddle during preseason. (Source: New York Knicks)

By Elijah Hamilton

The 2022-23 NBA season is finally upon us and bQ. couldn't be more excited. 

The last season in the NBA was full of dramatics that led to the Golden State Warriors winning their seventh NBA Championship against the Boston Celtics. 

This season looks more like the same, with many different narratives that will shake the basketball world to its core. 

Here’s four things that I’m excited to see in the 2022-23 NBA Season. 

The New York Knicks will be NBA Champions 2023 (Hopefully)

Yes, you read that correctly; the New York Knicks will go 82-0 and win an NBA championship their first since 1972!

…Okay, maybe a championship may seem too far fetched for the New York Knicks next season, but there are reasons to believe the Knicks will be better than what many believe.

They have one of the underrated, young cores in the league that features small forward R.J Barrett looking to build off an impressive season where he averaged 20.0 Points per game. Along with Barrett, Immanuel Quickly and Obi Toppin, who took significant leaps in year two of their careers are.

The Knicks signed point guard Jalen Brunson to a four-year, 104 Million dollar deal. Brunson is coming off an impressive playoff run with the Dallas Mavericks last season. He will provide a steady point guard for the Knicks, filling a gap that has been an issue with this team forever. 

Fans should anticipate a bounce-back season from Knicks power forward Julius Randle. Last year, Randle failed to replicate his All-NBA performance from the 2021-22 season, which won him the NBA’s KIA Most Improved Player award. If Randle can play close to his all-star form during the shortened COVID season, we should expect good things from the Knicks.   

The Knicks have also set themselves up to be a significant player at the NBA trade deadline with tons of draft assets in case a star player becomes available. Overall Knicks fans, including me, have a lot of reasons to be optimistic about their team moving forward. 

The New-Look Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers were one of the pleasant surprises last season, finishing with a 44-38, good enough to get them into the NBA Play-in Tournament.

The Cavs will look to build off their success from last season, only this time with another significant addition, acquiring all-star combo guard Donovan Mitchell from the Utah Jazz.

Mitchell will join a roster that features young all-stars in Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen, two significant players in the Cavalier's success last season.

Adding Mitchell makes the Cavs a force in the Eastern Conference, but their future success hinges on the development of Evan Mobley.

Mobley with the Cavaliers’ third overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. During his rookie season, he showed flashes of generational play, averaging 15 points, eight rebounds and two assists on the season. If Mobley can continue to develop, there's no reason to believe the Cavaliers are well on their way to becoming a title contender.

LeBron in Year 20 of His Career 

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is going toe-to-toe against Father Time. So far, he is coming out on top. James will play his 20th NBA season this year. However, that’s only the beginning of significant milestones for King James this season.

James has a chance to  break the NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar record on the   time-scoring leader list. James only needs 1,326 points to surpass Abdul-Jabbar's total of 38,387 points, a record set when Abdul-Jabbar retired in April 1987 after 20 NBA seasons of his own.

LeBron has proven time in and time out that he is undoubtedly one of the greatest basketball players. One reason for that is his longevity. 

Few throughout NBA History have played in the NBA as long as LeBron. However, only one has done while still producing at an MVP-caliber level, and it's LeBron James. 

Last season was another example of his longevity. James averaged 30.3 points per game at the ripe age of 37. This accolade made him the oldest player in NBA history to average 30.0 points.

I’m not sure how many years we have of Lebron left, but I’m glad to witness every step of his legendary career, especially seeing James pass Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time scoring list.

Can the Celtics bounce back after the ‘22 Finals loss? 

The Boston Celtics were two wins away from hoisting up the elusive 18th banner, one the team has been chasing for a better part of a decade. However, the franchise known for its championship royalty came up short against the Warriors back in June. 

The disappointing loss in the NBA Finals would only be the beginning of a rocky off-season for the league's most-winningest franchise.

Due to violations of team policies, the Celtics suspended their head coach Ime Udoka for the 2022-23 season. Assistant head coach Joe Mazzulla is taking over for the season. 

To make matters worse, the Celtics will start the season without starting center Robert Williams III who will be out for half the season after undergoing surgery on his left knee.

I am intrigued to see how the Celtics respond after a disastrous offseason. They’re still is a favorite to win in the East despite the landscape appearing more competitive than ever, with the Bucks, Nets, and Cavaliers all making significant improvements.

The Celtics made some significant additions to their roster by trading for Malcolm Brogdon from the Indiana Pacers, adding him to a core that features all-stars guards Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. They also signed Blake Griffin to a one-year veteran minimum. 

It would be interesting to see how the Celtics look under head coach Mazzull and if the loss of Williams will play a significant role in the team.

Have any story ideas, people, music, or anything that’s up the bQ. alley?

Let us know and we’ll see if it’s a fit for our newsletter!

bQ. & A: SidVivid

by Amber D. Dodd

Johnnel “SidVivid” Kyri poses in front of the Spotify billboard that highlights New Impressionz and honors the #DontMuteDC movement (Source: Jada Imani M)

Name: Johnnel “Sidvivid” Kyri 

Age: 30

Sign: Capricorn 

Place of Birth: Arlington, VA

Fun Fact: Thinks Kaytranada having his own genre is “lit as fuck.”  

Q: What’s the inspiration behind your name?

A: I came out with the name because ‘vivid’, means out of the ordinary, brighten. Then “dope” it’s what everyone wants. So the dope that I’m providing is out of the ordinary, vivid. The story behind Sivivid is an origin from the wrestler, Sid Vicious. And I just incorporated the vivid part. 

Q: When did you realize you wanted to be in photog? When did it click for you?

A: My mom is a hairstylist, covered in Vogue, all that stuff. She wanted to pick up a new trade, so she picked up photography. She took it to a set with her. I went with her, I grabbed the camera while she was doing hair and I was just taking photos. After I looked at them and uploaded them on Facebook, I’m like ‘Oh this is lit, cool!’ 

I think when I got to college and my mom brought me my first camera during the winter break, I went back to Bowie State and started taking pictures all the time. Then I was surrounded by a lot of artsy people. So it made me want to do it more and more and the work that I was doing was A1 and it  landed me here. 

Q: What do you think the importance of gogo as a gathering place is for DC or the DMV? 

A: Gogo is to DC what second-line dancing is to New Orleans. It’s our culture. We gotta keep that shit alive. We have to. There’s no way to put it. It means a lot. I think Muriel Bowser made the official music of D.C. 

Q: You are a photographer for a legendary ass gogo band. Can you please tell me how that connection came about? 

A: So I’ve known members in the band for a very long time. But it wasn’t until during the pandemic until where I got really close with my friends Earl and Troy. We were in a group chat, just like a wellness check group chat during the pandemic. And I was telling them how I don’t want to shoot anymore and I don’t think I’m going to shoot after the pandemic. And Troy, who works the door at these gogos was like “Nah…come to a show.” He literally told me to come to a New Imperessionz show and take photos. I did and that was the first time I picked up my camera in two years. Once I did, I got a call from (New Impressionz Manager) Jody and he was like ‘Yeah…nah we need you.’ Ever since that I’ve been in the band for a year and some change. May 2021. We’ve done a lot of good things since being in this band. I’m super grateful for it. I’m not going to say it’s like a family. It is. 

Johnnel Kyri (bottom right) poses with members of the New Impressionz Band (Source: Jada Imani M)

Q: What is your style? You capture faces so well. 

A: During event photography, my two purposes are: I want you to feel the picture and I want you to feel like you were there. So when I shoot these shows that I’m doing, I want you to be like ‘Damn, I missed it’ or ‘Damn, I feel like I was there.’ And if you were there, and I took the picture, I want you to feel the exact moment that you felt when you were there. Even for me, when I take photos, I’m like damn I can really see it was that song playing, it was this, that and the third. I try to capture energy in photos for sure.

 A collage of photos taken by SidVivid during a New Impressionz gogo session at Babylon in Falls Church, VA. (Source: SidVivid)

Q: I know we love the classic gogo photos with everyone posted up with the backdrop, how do you think you’re extending or modifying that? 

A young SidVivid poses in front of the iconic DC backdrop at a gogo in Washington D.C. (Source: Facebook)

A: It’s iconic, very iconic. I was one of those kids that was pressed. My mom would give me money like ‘Oh I gotta take pictures in the booth!” But now I guess I’m changing the culture because I’m getting people in the act of partying. With the booth, you can sit, stand, 1-2-3- cheese. You’re posing. But the pictures I’m taking in the club are in the act. Half the time, people don’t know I’m taking photos of them. So you’re getting the raw emotions of them. But I definitely want the photo booth to stay. I give photobooth men money so they take my photos. I’m not taking money out of nobody’s pocket. We can all eat. 

Q: I see you’ve been working on New Impressionz social content, what’s your vision for that? 

It’s a worldwide spotlight to draw attention to gogo in general. It’s working. Someone told me ‘You’re single handedly shifting New Impressionz’s image.’ I’ve seen other gogos bands follow what I’ve done and I’m doing. Some people will say ‘Oh you’re biting my style!’ and I’m like ‘Good. BET! YES. Let’s get this shit going.’ It’s the only way we're going to bring gogo to its forefront and kick that door in.

Everything I post on their page goes viral. 40,000 views. 50,000 views, 20,000 views. After we dropped those CDs, I see other bands doing marketing tactics to get their shit together. I’m just happy that people are willing to gravitate toward gogo again. 

Q: Tell me what it’s like working with Wale, and how it’s prepared you for this job now?

SidVivid captures Wale and a special guest, rapper Ade at Wale & Friends in 2021 (Source: Steven Blanco) 

He’s a big brother to me. Super cool, super human. Great individual. I was one of those things where we go back and forth on Twitter, which turns into me going to his shows and taking photos for him, pretty much. Then I end up doing Walemania, one in New York and one in Dallas. That was cool, meeting all the wrestlers, capturing that. Another reason we came close on Twitter is because we talked about wrestling. 

I’m glad I did that before I did this, because it helps me bring in those unique tools into this. It makes it that much easier. I treat New Impressionz as if they’re a big name. I’ve learned a lot of marketing tools working with artists of Wale’s magnitude, so even in the gogo it was easy. It’s something gogo has never seen before so it’s captivating. 

Q: The theme for the October newsletter is Home. You being a child of the DMV, particularly Virginia, how does it feel to capture something that’s so huge to our legacy in our area? 

A: I always tell people we have to keep the visual documentation going. Twenty, 30 years from now, people are going to want to know what was happening, especially during the #DontMuteDC era and the pandemic. I’m a student of the game so I love gogo. I was 12 going to gogos, so I know how much gogo means to this city. My love for photography and my love for gogo was the perfect mesh. I always go to gogos and now I love it more doing what I do right now. I’m really cementing history for years to come and I feel like it’s my responsibility to keep documentation going. 

It’s very cultured and we have to keep the culture alive, and I’m really just doing my part. 

blaQplight Spotlight: FluxTheRenegade

By Amber D. Dodd

(FluxTheRenegade poses for ‘Meteor’ album cover and album art. Source:)

Subconscious voices are guiding, warning, holding every human. For artist FluxTheRenegade, whose name is Brianna Manderson, her inner voice is a firm one. She remembers, as a child, hearing it for the first time as a backseat passenger on Brookdale Road in Woodlawn, Maryland.

“‘You’re going to be famous,’ Manderson recalled. “I was like, “Who the fuck – what the fuck was that?! Where is this coming from? Is this secretly me wanting this?!” 

After nearly a decade of decoding the affirmation, Manderson now finds herself in the thick of her career as a recording artist. She never thought home would reintroduce itself back into her path, but her latest album ‘Meteor’ is a collection dedicated to self-release and returning to one’s self. 

“It’s like a death and a rebirth,” Manderson said. “It’s a celebration of what was. Just knowing your worth and how you feel moving forward.” 

At Busboys & Poets in Columbia, Manderson’s birth city, she described herself like the average middle child: rooted in helpfulness and simplicity. Her dish for our lunch interview embodies that, an order of French toast with cheesy scrambled eggs along with crisp bacon. Music is a main source of simplification and self-expression in Manderson’s relation to the larger world.  

“It was therapy for me,” Manderson said. “I needed to release a lot, and every time I did it vocally, I did it wrong and that’s not a healthy way to be.” 

One of Manderson’s first core memories is around five or six years old, feeling music in her soul and blushing. Throughout her 2000s childhood, Manderson’s father filled those glass-window stereo systems with cultural staples that reflected their Jamaican heritage and American pop culture.

“He would just play shit, blast shit all the time,” She recalled. “Me and my sisters would dance to it, get hype. Sometimes I would find myself jumping on the couch and act like I was performing, and my sisters would be like ‘Aaaahhh!’ That kinda made me feel. I liked music and that made me like music even more.” 

Her relationship to music strengthened after her parent’s divorce during the emergence of the neo-soul era; sneaky, sultry, sexy songs with the raw undertones of 90s R&B. Her mother’s palette includes Destiny’s Child, KEM’s debut album Kemistry, Mariah Carey and Toni Braxton. 

“‘The Heat’ album? She was blasting that motherfucker,” Manderson said. Braxton’s third album was released in 2000. “There were songs that grabbed you, made you feel a certain way. Very confident. The toxicity? Vibes.”

Whitney Houston, disco and reggae were ever present in her father’s catalog. Manderson credits them as a prominent component of her own tastes, part of the reason she calls her genre alternative R&B. 

In a distinctive but unclear kind of way, reggae is the grandfather of lots of fast-paced, bass-beat dance genres. Manderson found peculiar similarities in the instrumental makeup of reggae and EDM.

“A lot of the times, it was the drums, the cadence,” She said. 

To her, songs require three interactive experiences; “Hello, I’m here.”  “You’re here, and I’m glad you’re here, so let’s have fun together.” and proper goodbye as a finale.

“And the songs with the goodbyes are always my favorite,” Manderson said. “That’s what I realized the EDM beats were doing without lyrics.” 

After listening to Soundcloud catalogs of underground EDM artists around the world, Manderson reminisced on the way music had always made her feel. Manderson began writing music to EDM instrumentals in high school. But, by 2016, Manderson lacked the necessary community, education and equipment. 

“That same little voice that came into my head…was like ‘Hey you’re gonna be famous! I know you don’t know how you’re going to get this out, or how you’re going to record it or anything, but write as much as you can, so when you can (record), you can write about anything. You can express anything.” She said. 

Manderson kept pens in her car, writing impromptu lyrics on napkins and Arundel Mills mall receipts, storing them in shoe boxes, sticky notes and notebooks. 

Her father gifted her studio equipment in December 2017. Since then, Manderson has written over 1,400 songs. Her journey of becoming FluxTheRenegade began. 

FluxTheRenegade originates from Manderson once asking a customer how their day was going. The nonchalant man responded that they were “fluctuating.” In Latin, flow, flux, translates to river. Manderson admired his calm demeanor as he “went with the flow of life.” Manderson is the renegade, leaving Maryland behind in 2018 to pursue an education in audio engineering at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. 

After graduating, she moved to Atlanta then Boston. After a failed relationship, Manderson set her eyes on California to build a thriving career. Maryland, she said, had become an afterthought. 

“I talked to my mom and then I told her I was going and she was like ‘No! You need to come here!’ Manderson put on a shrilling, soothing voice to portray her worried mother. “‘If you’re going to go, you need to visit Baltimore one more time before you leave! How could you go without seeing us first?!”

Manderson returned home to a brewing music scene in both the DC and Baltimore regions.

“All my friends, they’re established and everything and I’m like ‘Wow, this is a vibe, I left this bitch because I felt like there was no community.’” Manderson said. 

She was still focused on her West coast departure, then her friend Brittny, owner of the clothing brand Intiit, sent Manderson’s music to Jeremiah Collins. Collins is the owner of Onle Vibes, a music event venue in College Park, Maryland. 

“I got a call from Jeremiah and he was like ‘I wanted to introduce myself, come by. I want to hear your stuff, I want you do to a show.’” Manderson said. 

Her Onle Vibes debut was an official homecoming: reintroducing her sound back into the region that curated it, while building networks to sustain her goals of being an artist. 

She orchestrated a community of her own, the Intiit group, a young collection of ten mixed media artists who promoted Onle Vibes’ events at local college. The pandemic came and halted all events, killing Onle Vibes’ momentum. The Intiit group split, but Manderson had found what she’d been looking for. 

“Then my sisters, they wanted me to stay so I was like ‘Aight, I guess I’m staying.’” Manderson said. 

Her latest return on investment is her album ‘Meteor’ released earlier this year in July. 

‘Meteor’ is a dark, gloomy album that transcends genre and emotional wellbeing. It serves as a psychoanalyzing lens that sharpens Manderson’s uncertainty of her past relationship, sifting through an emotional purgatory, unread letters and observations. The 22-track project, Manderson said, is a collection of “things in the relationship that I didn’t let go of yet.”

“It’s moreso walking away from a cage,” She said. “Not having a key really, but slipping through and getting out of my own way. Letting myself out. Meteor helped me shake a lot of the feelings I had.” 

That three-pronged EDM formula is pressed into the DNA of Meteor, as many of the songs are stories within themselves. ‘WDYM,’ the album’s sixth track, shows Manderson questioning the buildup, moment and aftermath of toxic arguments, especially how clear it is that they, too, are formulaic in nature. 

She swoons for answers, asking her former partner ‘How you act mean/but can’t take my steam’ reflecting on the gaslighting and double standards of their spats.

Her favorites off the album are ‘Soot,’ ‘Heart of Stone’, ‘Not Far’ and ‘Mint Green.’ With Meteor the last of petty ex squabbles, Mint Green is Manderson’s former beau’s favorite color. 

“I wanted her to see mint green and automatically know ‘Go play that shit, I’m talking to you, nigga!’” She admitted. “Very petty, I know.”

Manderson’s Maryland community is sprinkled throughout the project. ‘Not Far’ includes an interlude from Manderson’s former coworkers who witnessed the relationship in real time, amazed at Manderson’s ability to turn pain into passion. Her mother is at the beginning of ‘Highest I’ve Been,’ giving Frank Ocean’s mom teas about smoking concerns, a regular coping mechanism for heartbreak. 

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t or you should stop, you should just curve it a little,” Ms. Sharon begs for moderation. “I think you’re doing it too much…you know what I mean?” 

Though Meteor encomposses tough emotional and self-awareness, it is clear the album is a compass to Manderson’s return home, to herself. Music is indeed her therapy, a house of mirrors for all her grief that once wandered. She is finally home in her skin again, feeling the music, fluctuating within it too. 

“Home is creation,” Manderson said. “I didn’t know how much I needed to make music until one day, I was having a bad day…I went up to the mic, started singing and I felt that shit exit my body. I was like “Oh! This is why I do this shit.” 

Have any story ideas, people, music, or anything that’s up the bQ. alley?

Let us know and we’ll see if it’s a fit for our newsletter!