Title:
Stop Hiding It. Start Celebrating It. with Lachi

Subtitle:
Lachi joins Alycia Anderson to talk disability pride, music, identity, Glam Canes, RAMPD and what happens when you stop shrinking yourself to fit in.

Alycia Anderson: Welcome to Pushing Forward with Alycia, a podcast that gives disability a voice. Each week, we will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience, and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people. Open hearts, clear paths, let’s go.

Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I’m Alycia Anderson, your host. We’ve got a big show today. I wanna start with a question. What happens when a musician stops trying to fit into an industry and starts changing it instead? Today’s massive guest, is an award-winning recording artist, author, media personality, and one of the most influential voices shaping disability culture in entertainment today and actually beyond. She uses music, fashionista sense, storytelling humor, culture to challenge the way disability has traditionally been represented, in our world. She has hosted PBS Renegades. She has written an award-winning book, I Identify as Blind, Co-produced the Grammy-nominated album, The Colours in my Mind, And founded RAMPD, the UN-recognized organization advancing disability inclusion across the music industry. She is now bringing energy to a children’s album, called Magnificent that she has just released. I love this, Lachi, welcome to the show.

Lachi: Hi. Hello, everybody.

Alycia Anderson: What a lineup. What a career you have created in this space. Congratulations on being one of these pillars that we’re all following and admiring, and your work has just been so incredible. So I’m so excited personally to meet you, and, thank you so much for your time.

Lachi: I am, I, you know, when I listen back to that, I’m like, “Man, I’m quite the Renaissance Woman.” I’m just like, “Let me just go do that, and then let me just go do that, and then why don’t we have this, and then let’s go do that now.” So really, I summarize it as actually just doing one thing, which is using pop culture to really combat the stigma and erasure of the disability identity.

That’s ultimately what I’m doing, so that we can start to have some disability liberation with a wink and a smile.

Alycia Anderson: I love that. And pop culture, what a beautiful lane and do that work, , right? Let’s talk about disability culture. I was gonna start with looking back in the mirror, but you mentioned it, and your advocacy is changing the landscape and exposing and elevating disability culture. Can you talk a little bit about what that means to you?

Lachi: Yeah. So to me, disability culture is the art, music, perspectives, heroes, traditions, and contributions that come from the different minds and bodies that we find ourselves in. It’s vast, it’s diverse, it is encompassing of all of us, and it, it is essentially what is created from having to navigate the world differently, right?

It is adaptable, it is visionary, it is creative, it is problem-solving, it is driven, it is determined, and it is really forged through a lot of the marginalization and erasure that we’re constantly up against. And I believe that it truly makes for nuggets of the most beautiful innovation, and it deserves to be celebrated.

And so I celebrate it every day, whether it’s through my glam canes line, right, which is, again, a symbol of me no longer contributing to my own erasure, and walking around the town going, “You know what? I deserve to be looked at.” I love, you know, the fact that I can showcase my mobility situation in a way that is a symbol of strength and fashion instead of a symbol of, you know, what people might honestly often think of it as.

My books, uh, like specifically I Identify as Blind, 10 humorous essays really celebrating disability, identity, and pride, and it’s full of jokes, dad jokes, rap bars, interviews with other celebrities that I forced to be in the book, and I can’t believe they said yes. And really, I want you to be able to just walk through disability and learn about these heroes, learn about these different amazing contributions through this lens of being able to talk about it.

So I guess I’ll round up by saying, listen, so many people are wearing so many masks. So many people are in so many closets and hiding the deepest parts of themselves that really call for these innovations, that call for this creativity, that call for this difference, and overcompensate for them, right?

Because we just don’t know how to talk about it. We talk about it through a lens of charity or through a lens of grievance or through a lens of paperwork or through a lens of medicalization, when really we should be talking about it through the lens of, hey, everybody’s, when they shot the gun and said, “Go,” everybody ran for five minutes, and I had a five-minute delay in my ability to run this race, and still I’m out here winning.

That’s how we should be looking at disability. It’s a celebration of being able to navigate and win at a world that wasn’t built for you to thrive.

Alycia Anderson: So powerful and beautifully said. I love that. You mentioned in all of that… So first of all, I love your canes. Tell me…

Lachi: The bling, girl.

Alycia Anderson: Okay. So the glam cane, hold it up again for a moment.

Lachi: Sure

Alycia Anderson: This is a line that you carry, is that correct?

Lachi: Yes. Yeah, it’s Fashion Like Me

Alycia Anderson: is sparkling like a beautiful accessory, and I love this.

I think we need more accessible accessories that are sought after because they are beautiful, just like your cane. That is so lovely. I love

Lachi: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: every girl needs a little sparkle,

Lachi: Every girl needs it. And it’s so funny, we… So we were actually told, “Oh, you shouldn’t sell that because blind people don’t have money,” right? And first of all, I was like I have money, so there’s gotta be other me’s out there.” And I was like, we didn’t do any advertising. It was all word of mouth.

And now Glamcanes is at a point where we can’t keep up with the demand. And now we have spread to, glammed walkers, glammed quad canes just glammed everything. Now we have T-shirts, glam cane T-shirts, for those who aren’t cane users that just wanna support the cause. And I think one of the reasons why it’s doing so well is because, oftentimes people say things like, maybe wheelchair-bound, not recognizing that the wheelchair is actually the tool of independence.

Or they think to themselves, “Oh, the cane looks like a tool of needing help.” But actually the cane is a tool of independence, and it allows for people to break that ice. Because when you walk up to somebody with a glam cane, you’re walking up to somebody that’s already said, without having to say it, “I believe I’m worth it.”

Alycia Anderson: Love it. So I’m a wheelchair user. Do you have glammed-up wheelchair accessories yet?

Lachi: We don’t yet, but we do things on like a bespoke situation. Do you know Emily Ladau?

Alycia Anderson: Yes.

Lachi: So we ended up glamming her wheelchair for her wedding.

Alycia Anderson: Ah

Lachi: we just glammed her chair. So we do do one-offs for wheelchairs, and we’re hoping that we’re gonna be able to kind of mix it into the regular rotation.

Alycia Anderson: We gotta get together because I’ve got some ideas, and I would love to get glammed up on stages too.

Lachi: Let’s do it, girl.

Alycia Anderson: And to the point of, like our mobility devices can be beautiful accessories, and I love that you’re shifting that narrative.

Lachi: Yes.

Alycia Anderson: So, beautiful accessory that you’ve got there, sister. Okay, so you also mentioned in all of that, going from hiding to not anymore. Can you talk about your journey in that?

Lachi: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: I believe you once said that there was a moment, a season in your life that you were trying to hide, mask, being blind. Can you talk about the younger days and the transition that you had?

‘Cause I think it would really help our community to hear that story.

Lachi: And it’s funny, people will say what was the moment?” And I … And, there wasn’t really a aha moment like, “Hello, I’m going to just be out, loud, and proud.”

Alycia Anderson: Yeah.

Lachi: But there was a moment where, so I had better vision when I was younger. I always kinda had low vision, but I had, you know, vision enough to kinda get around and what I call be sighted passing, right?

And I would do … I still, I was supposed to use a cane at that time. I was supposed to be wearing, trifocal glasses. But I didn’t wanna use any of those things because I was already standing out. I was afraid, especially in the music industry, that if I used all these devices or if I this or if I that, then I might lose an opportunity.

I might damage a relationship. I might lose a gig. And, you know, listen, I’m in New York. Manhattan rent, girl, don’t play with me, okay? So I needed to do anything I could to make sure I could make that money. Here’s what happened though. One day, I woke up blind, like my vision was gone. So that happened.

And it was so funny because being a New Yorker, I was just kinda like, “Oh, this now?” You know, it wasn’t even like a, “Oh my God, what do I do?” It was just like, “All right. So the dog’s barking. I’m blind.” Like, you know what I mean. So I ended up going to the clinic, and they were like … You know, they put some drops in my eyes that gave me a teeny bit of vision back.

But the doctor was like, “This is your new life now. Your vision is, you’re gonna go from low vision to no vision. And, um, get your affairs in order,” right? And, I had thought to myself, ” You know what I wanna do?” And maybe this was the Nigerian or the Aries or whatever talking, but I was like, “I want to somehow capitalize off of this.”

I wanna turn … First of all, I wanna do a bucket list. I wanna do a bucket list where I do all of the things that I’ve always wanted to do before I completely lose my vision. Started jumping out of airplanes, started going camel riding, spelunking snorkeling. I just started calling up celebrities and saying like, “Hey, can we hang out?”

It was like a Make-A-Wish attempt. You know what I mean? And I also was like, “I wanna do this music thing for real,” right? And, there’s a stat, I don’t know what the stat is. It’s some ridiculous stat, like 74%, but don’t quote me ’cause I just, I’m kinda pulling that out of the air. But of the amount of people that have said that they would rather die than either go blind or gain a disability, right?

But when I was told I was going to lose my vision, it actually was the first day I decided I wanted to live and stop sitting in the backseat of my own car that I’m driving called my life, right? Who’s steering? And so I decided I wanna sit in the front and grab the wheel. And that’s essentially where it all really began.

I realized that when I started using a cane and when I started, advocating and accommodating in these different music studios- I wasn’t actually losing gigs. I was getting more work because I was doing better at my job, right? I was accommodated, so I was doing my job better, and that led to me actually getting more work.

The problem is, you know, a lot of folks, they’re gonna be judgy and judgmental, and they’re gonna say some no’s. But you will get those yeses. And every time I got a yes, I got myself accommodated, and I just did awesome at it. And then I got another yes and another yes, and I just kept pulling on the yarns of yeses until I got to where I am today.

I mean, today you couldn’t tell Lachi, eight-year-old Lachi, that she would be, you know, speaking, performing on some of the largest stages in the world, some of the biggest, globally, and winning awards, running around, RAMPD, which is, you know, my organization that allows for music creators and industry professionals who have disabilities to get opportunities. We also train and consult in the music industry. We’re the ones that got ASL on the red carpet of the Grammys.

You wouldn’t be able to tell me, the younger me, that this would be this Lachi. I was super shy. I spoke to no one. I didn’t have a lot of friends, and it’s why I took to the piano.

We moved around a lot, so I didn’t have a lot of stability in my life to even grow friendships, right? So I was very quiet and shy. And I was ashamed of my blindness and my neurodivergencies. And that led to my quietness. That led to my shyness. That led to me always thinking I was doing the wrong thing.

But today, I’m a fricking social butterfly. You can’t get me to shut up as, as evidenced in this conversation. I have a lot of friends. I feel like I’m doing a lot of really cool things. But I’m still blind, and I’m still neurodivergent. So obviously, the blindness and the neurodivergence isn’t the problem.

It’s not the condition. It’s the conditioning. And, that’s really why I do what I do because, you know, people ask me like, “Do you feel grief from losing your vision?” And I tell them I do feel grief, but it’s not from losing my vision. It’s from realizing how much time I wasted not being liberated.

So that’s me.

Alycia Anderson: I love it. So much to unpack there. I love that when you knew or learned you were gonna be completely blind, and correct me if I’m using the wrong words, please. And that lit a fire in you to check off bucket lists and to start living.

Lachi: Ya.

Alycia Anderson: What a story for all of us in this community to instead of stopping, putting your foot on the gas and going forward.

And like, in my career too, the second I started embracing my disability and stopped masking it, which is hard ’cause I’m a wheelchair user, it’s very visible. But that is when so many doors opened up for me too that kept opening. And so I think that lesson of embracing who you are as best as you can in the moment, even if you’re not accomplishing what you’re trying to accomplish, there’s layers of foundation of strength and experience that transforms you, literally. Look at you. You are on these stages. I saw you perform at WAWABILITY, and you’re in person, which such a cool experience for me. That was my first time seeing you perform in person. And you’re a powerhouse. You command the stage.

Lachi: Thank you.

Alycia Anderson: Your artistry is lovely. It’s beautiful. It’s powerful. It’s soulful. It’s funky. It’s like all the things, and you own it, and it’s something to recognize, and it’s absolutely amazing, honestly. So I’m a fan.

Lachi: Thank you.

Alycia Anderson: I’m fangirling today. So I was extremely excited you wanna come on my show. Um, was there a moment… Like, is is there a moment that you had a fangirl… Like, all the star-struck moments that you’ve had, the stages that you want. Is there a stage that was a surreal moment? Or a, a musician that you got to partner with?

Or, um, like, can you, like, let us dream a little bit through your experience?

Lachi: There, there are kind of many. Um, I think, ugh, God, what is his name? Oh, Arthur, you’re gonna have to remind me the name of the trumpet player. Jesus. Hold on a second. Okay. The trumpet player? Yeah, the trumpet player at the White House

Go look it up. I got one while he’s looking that up.

Alycia Anderson: You said the trumpet player at the White House. Hello. And by the way, Arthur, you’re so awesome to work with. The best.

Lachi: Yeah, Arthur’s always like voice of God in the background. Okay, so first and foremost, I just always love to collaborate with my community, period.

Alycia Anderson: Ooh

Lachi: When people say, “Who is your dream collaboration?” It is always my community. Everything I do is in community. So, like, perfect example again, I’m gonna highlight this book because my publisher says I’m not doing that enough.

Okay. So in I Identify as Blind, we have over 60 interviews with folks from all over the disability spectrum, whether it isa, little person comedian, a wheelchair-using sportscaster. Like, everybody who’s anybody that is in entertainment, with a disability, I really wanted to get into this book, and it turned out we just have over 60 interviews and stories and histories.

The album that I just put out, which is somewhere over here… Uh-oh, Arthur, where’s my album? You don’t got the album out here?

Alycia Anderson: I think it’s, it

Lachi: Oh, is it?

Alycia Anderson: does it have a crown on it?

Lachi: It has a crown on it. Is this it? Oh, perfect. Okay. So this album, Magnificent, which you just mentioned earlier, it has over, 70 collaborators on it, and about 35 of them are from the RAMPD member network. And I wanted to collaborate with as many people because while it says it’s by Lachi, it’s really by the entire community.

Everything I do, I really try to do in community. And on this album, I got to collaborate with some people that I’ve been wanting to collaborate with for a long time. So a great example is Lisa Loeb. When I was young, I had to wear those trifocal glasses, and I hated it. I looked like, you know, such a dork.

And I remember seeing Lisa Loeb’s music videos and, you know, it was a woman wearing, like, big glasses and, being, you know, confident and wistful and on TV. And so I had the opportunity to work with her on this album. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Matthew Whitaker, a Grammy-winning pianist who’s blind.

Raúl Midón, he is a legendary guitarist out of Mexico who is blind. I even actually worked with Wawa. Wawa wrote, co-wrote one of the songs on this album, and I sang it with Mandy Harvey.

Alycia Anderson: Ah.

Lachi: Along with Lateef, who also wrote on it. It’s just so many people are on this little… And Don Kelly, who’s an amazing singer and a disability activist.

There’s just so many people. Like, as I close my eyes and just think of all the amazing people on this album, I’m really excited about it. And we got to release it through Apple Platoon, so.

Alycia Anderson: Oh my God.

Lachi: It’s, like a major release for the disability community, and then it’s about disability. The songs are about, don’t shy away from using terms like disability, ASL, ADHD.

I have a rap about neurodivergence called Fidget, and we just say, “There ain’t no shame being neurodivergent. We win the game and it’s here where you heard it.” It’s that type of joint that we talk about out here. So just to be able to collaborate with my community. But I will say that the trumpet player, or the horn player Wynton Marsalis.

So when Biden was in office I ended up going to the White House probably at least two dozen times.

Alycia Anderson: Amazing.

Lachi: Just visiting or being a part of different things and whatever. And so that has probably, When I look back at it, I’m like, “God.” I feel like I kinda took it for granted. But at one point, I was just walking around the White House and their, the White House band would always play Autumn Leaves every time I was there for some reason.

I guess they knew I liked the song. I guess I told somebody once. And so they started playing Autumn Leaves, and I, and Wynton Marsalis was there, and he’s, like, the most famous horn player ever. And so he’s playing, and he kind of- Says, “Hey, come in. Come into the like, start scatting.” So I’m here, I’m scatting, he’s playing the horn, the White House Band is playing, and we’re just…

It’s so, it’s impromptu. You know, everybody’s got their phones out. And I’m jamming to the White House Band with Wynton Marsalis. That’s probably gotta be one of the most, like, starstruck situations other than maybe… I’ve now met, like, Stevie Wonder a handful of times, but the first time we met, I was walking with my team down a hallway at the National Association of Music Merchants down in Anaheim, and he was walking with his team down the hall.

He’s walking forward, I’m walking forward, and apparently we just kind of walk right up to each other and shake hands and start talking, like we knew each other was coming at each other.

Alycia Anderson: Ooh.

Lachi: And both of the teams are like how did you guys… Y’all can see. How the hell did y’all just walk right up to eachother?

Alycia Anderson: Oh my God.

Lachi: But, um, and I have just a dozen random stories like that, so.

Alycia Anderson: Those are the stories we wanted to get you. That is incredible, and that’s a surreal moment. First of all, saying, “I’ve walked around the White House a dozen times, and I got…”

Lachi: I knew that wasn’t gonna work. Here, Arthur, you wanna help me with this real quick? Alycia says hi, by the way. Hi.

Alycia Anderson: Thanks for being so awesome.

Lachi: Okay, got it. You go ahead. Okay, fine. But yeah, so those are the stories and the other half a dozen stories are just…

Alycia Anderson: And wait just a quick follow-up on that.

Lachi: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: And you said then you got to sit and at the White House.

Lachi: Yes.

Alycia Anderson: I am…

Lachi: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: I love live music.

Lachi: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: I love a good jam, and that is so cool.

Lachi: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: Like, that is beyond amazing.

Lachi: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: love that you collabed. I can’t wait to listen to your album. I love that you collabed with Mandy Harvey.

You two up on the Wawa stage was, like. I was absolutely captivated. So just the women empowerment.

Lachi: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: And just the vibe you both give off.

Lachi: Ya.

Alycia Anderson: That must be an incredible song. I can’t wait to hear it.

Lachi: Specifically too, I wanna just like very quickly talk about that song. It’s interesting because we really wanted to do… So the album kinda touches on different aspects of disability, like the different ways we move, the different ways we think, the different ways we whatever. And then we wanted to write a song about the different ways we communicate.

And so the song, the first verse was co-written with Wawa about sign language and folks who are deaf, and sang by Mandy Harvey. The second verse I co-wrote with Lateef McLeod, who is a non-speaking poet, an AAC user. And then I performed that second verse, but we have his AAC voice like scratched in with the scratches, and it’s really, really cool.

And it was produced by Andrew Barkan, who is blind, Polly Hall, who has chronic conditions, and Lucy Collantari, who also has immune deficiencies and things like that. And the backing vocals is by Marsha Elle, who is a bionic model and singer.

Alycia Anderson: She’s been on the pod!

Lachi: Mark Arelli. Yes! Marsha Elle is the best.

I love her. Shout out Marsha Elle and Mark Arelli, who is a blind guitarist and singer.

So every song is that intentional on the album. And so I just kinda wanted to give people a like almost a snapshot. And that song is called Emoji Of A Heart, and it really just celebrates the different ways we communicate.

Alycia Anderson: And, this album Magnificent.

Lachi: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Alycia Anderson: Is a children’s album. Is that correct?

Lachi: It’s a children’s music album, yes. But I will say this. You know, I wrote this song for my eight-year-old self. And if I stop and think about my eight-year-old self, I wasn’t listening to, like, Wheels On The Bus. You know what I mean? These kids out here, these kids are listening to Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, like Bruno Mars.

And so I wanted to create, anthemic soul pop bops that kids could listen to in between Cardi, in between Bruno, that will still keep them hyped up while they’re getting to unmask and liberate. So it doesn’t infantilize disability, and it doesn’t infantilize children

Alycia Anderson: I love it. One of my favorite things to do, and this is getting into the holidays probably a little bit too early though, but this is gonna be the gift that I give to everybody in my family, and all the kids and all the adults too. Honestly I have the most incredible people come on this show, and I I love… it when I have something like this to give a gift, because this where you change lives, cultures.

Lachi: Sure. Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: You are doing You are so incredibly well through your artistry.

Lachi: Thank you.

Alycia Anderson: It’s awesome. It truly is.

Lachi: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Alycia Anderson: So you mentioned the little girl, the eight-year-old little girl.

Lachi: Yes.

Alycia Anderson: That you needed to create for.

Lachi: Mm-hmm.

Alycia Anderson: What do you tell the children that are coming up today that are searching for their path?

Lachi: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: What do you tell those eight-year-olds of today?

Lachi: It’s interesting because the world is a lot different now than it was when I was growing up. I was a kind of a lonely kid in a world that had everybody was out playing together and hanging out, and I see that today a lot of kids are almost lonely by default, isolated because of social media or, you know, post-pandemic life, right?

And I think that what kids need to hear, know, and understand is that freckle, that deep freckle inside of you that is being told to be hidden, being told to remain silent, being told to be seen but not heard, that little freckle that you overcompensate for, that little freckle that you try to swallow deep down, that little freckle is gonna be what deter- what makes you do big, great things.

That little freckle, every time that you’re by yourself and you need, Just access that part of yourself. Access the deepest parts of yourself that society tells you to reject, because that is going to be your deepest form of liberation. You belong just from being. People are gonna say, “Oh, well, you should look like this. You should talk like this. You should sound like this. You should be here. You’re in the way. You should this, you should that, you should the other thing.” Just remember that you belong just because you are. Just because you’re alive, you belong, and you deserve to be loved, and you deserve to be happy. You don’t need anything else.

You can always choose to be happy.

Alycia Anderson: You belong just the way that you are. I love that so much. what are we dreaming up next?

Lachi: Oh my God, girl.

Alycia Anderson: That’s a big question!

Lachi: So many things. You know, we had the big, the book and then the big book tour. We’ve got the album. We’re doing so many shows for the album. I have really loved and embraced this idea of really working. So we, we also had a paired curriculum with the album and schools have been picking it up alongside schools picking up the book.

And so there’s just been a lot of collaboration with schools and education and working with school systems to stop being so, like, dinosaur-y about the entire topic. So that is something I might be leaning into, but I think as an entertainer, as a, global advocate, speaker, and musician I think I just want a bigger stage.

I don’t know what that bigger stage looks like, but I need the stage to keep growing so that I can continue to get more of my people on it, right? It was so funny, so I don’t wanna jinx anything. Uh, but right now, you know, we want to put in for trying to get a Grammy for this album, and we’re running around saying like, “Listen, if we win, every single human being on Earth is coming on that stage to say the speech with me.”

Because every single human being on Earth wrote this album together. The idea of tearing down walls and wanting to be liberated is a thing that everybody deals with all of the time. And so the bigger the stage for us to get this message of liberation on, whether it is television, whether it is film, whether it is a lot of little things that I can’t mention because they’re all under NDA and I hope they all turn into big, amazing things that’s where I’ll be.

And I’ll be saying the same thing that I say all of the time, which is, “Society is going to tell you to hide it. Anything they tell you to hide, put on fresh display. Wear a T-shirt of it and put it right on your nose and say smell this.'”

Alycia Anderson: I love it. I love it. Okay, so for all the corporations that are listening to this and anybody who wants to work with you, we’re gonna leave all of your information, website, social media, where to buy the book, where to get your album, all the things. But give us your… How do we book you and get into contract with you?

Lachi: Yes, if you would like to either book me for a speaking gig or to come in and do a workshop you can just find everything at lachimusic.com/events. you can reach out to Arthur, who does all of my general inquiries. You can reach out to Allison, who does my booking inquiries. If you wanna book me for music, you’ll reach out to Hava.

I mean, everybody’s information is just right there. but yeah, check me out at lachimusic.com. also, just follow me. This is a really, really fun journey, and you can follow me @lachimusic as well, L-A-C-H-I M-U-S-I-C. And if you are into music, entertainment, and you want either training, consulting, a partnership with rampd.org, or if you want to, you know, look at some of these other amazing musical artists and music industry professionals, beyond myself, go over to rampd.org, R-A-M-P-D.org.

And if you just wanna support and give a donation we’re here for it. We are tax-deductible donation available as well. So check us out at RampD. Check me out at Lachi Music. I’m here to do all of the things and to really get folks really, I don’t know, feeling disability pride with some swag.

So if you want that in your life, I’m right here.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, I definitely want it in my life and need it. I love following you. Absolutely love it. It brings brightness to my feed all of the time. And thank you so much for coming on the show. This is a bucket list for me to meet you, so I really do appreciate finally making the personal connection, and just thanks for everything that you do.

I love that you’re not only reshaping how disability culture is represented in our culture, but you’re bringing us all along with you and supporting everyone, and lifting them up. You know, Jay and Pamela were on my show a few weeks ago from TLC, and I know you gave him some opportunities as well.

And I just think the way that you open the door for others in our community is a big deal. So we’re all in this together, and thanks for lifting us all up the way that you do.

Lachi: Absolutely.

Alycia Anderson: It’s fantastic.

Lachi: Thank you.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah.

Lachi: Thank, thank you for having me, and thank you for this platform so that we can continue to share these things.

Alycia Anderson: Anytime. Okay. Did we miss anything?

Lachi: No, I think we’re good. I think I threw it all out there, girl. You gave me a … I just blip, blip, blip.

I loved it. This was a great conversation. Okay, so I warned you as we sign out, even though you’ve already had many pushing forward moments as we’ve gone through this, a lot of takeaways. Oh wait, my friend, one thing I do wanna say is that if you’re a cane user check us out at glamcanes.com. g-L-A-M-C-A-N-E-S.com. And then also, Alycia, hit us up. Let’s chat. Let’s chat about your chair ideas.

Alycia Anderson: I’d love it. Can we sparkle up my chair please?

Lachi: Let’s bling it out.

Alycia Anderson: This is one time I’m having FOMO of not being able to walk so I can use a cane. Okay?

I’m like, how can I use the cane in the wheelchair?

Lachi: I got you. I got you, girl.

Alycia Anderson: Okay, pushing forward moment. Do you have a little mantra, something you live by, a quote, little inspiration, motivation, little beauty to give away to our community as we sign off?

Lachi: The one mantra I always say, which I believe I’ve said here already, is essentially, listen, take that deepest part of yourself society rejects and don’t just accept it and embrace it, I mean celebrate it. Because the reason they reject it is because You know, folks are afraid of that light because it’s too bright.

But keep that fire shining. Keep that brim a-brimming, especially when you’re alone and by yourself, and you’re going through those thoughts of the day. Maybe you’re worried about something you said. Maybe you’re embarrassed about something that happened. Just remember that those wrinkles, those little folds, those are what make your star shine bright and you be you.

So take those things that society tells you to reject and embrace the crap out of them, and then can’t nobody tell you nothing.

Alycia Anderson: Brighten it. I love it. Lachi, thank you so much For coming on the show. Truly.

It’s been so great to meet you. I really appreciate everything that you do and everything that you are. And this is a friendship to grow, for sure, and thank you to our community for showing up again. I know you love this episode, so definitely share this one for sure. and we’ll be back next week. This has been Pushing Forward with Alycia and Lachi, and that is how we roll on this podcast. We will see you next week.