Displaced, but undeterred. DJ Bee and Keja spin love, music and bikes into a movement– reclaiming the streets while building community. This is the story of how DJ Bee and his wife Keja came to host the protest Freshtopia Boom Box Bike ride.
https://www.freshtopiava.com/
https://elizabethrivertrail.org/
https://www.nps.gov/locations/chesapeakebaywatershed/index.htm
https://virginiahumanities.org/
DJ Bee: I didn't eat yet. Check one, two. (laughs) That's it. One, two...
(Sound of a tape being put into a tape player, and then music playing)
I'm originally from the city of Philadelphia. My parents moved to Virginia. I moved to Virginia.
I got stuck here, started my family--that's not being stuck, but I attempted to go to school. It didn't work out for me. I decided to DJ full time and that decision started when I was here, and it worked out fine for me because I take care of my family off of something I love to do.
I had a passion for music and I decided, okay, I'm gonna DJ. My plan B was to make plan A work.
You know what I mean? But as a father, I don't tell my kids that. As a teacher, I don't tell my students that, either. That's not the best way to handle things. But that was just my path.
Growing up I was always into music and taping off the radio.
Nichole Hill: Taping off the radio is what we did before music was on demand. Imagine only being able to hear a song you like if you happen to catch it when it came on the radio. And if you hit the record button at just the right time.
DJ Bee: My first residency club was here.
It was the Now Club. And then it turned into the Mirage and I was there, well, one thing, my mentor Bruiser in Philly told me was like, "If it's three people, 30, 3000, 30,000, it doesn't matter. Just make sure you pretend like it's 30,000 people there."
And around 2003, maybe just really 2004, everything, the industry–music really started to make a switch. It started to make a change. It got up until 2010 when I decided instead of complaining about it, really create something that will be my outlet.
And I created an internet radio station called Fresh Radio on October 10th, 2010, 10-10-10.
(Sound of DJ Bee’s voice on the radio: https://itsfreshradio.com/)
So when I started DJing, I always wore music shirts. My wife was like, "Let's make shirts to promote the brand," which makes 100 percent sense. And that's what we did. And that's how we marketed the radio station with our own ideas of logos and sayings, and t-shirts was all music related that had to do something with the station, and that turned into not only just promoting the station but just the brand of things that became a record store. You know what I mean? And so I owe a whole lot to my wife, Mrs. Keja Reel.
Keja Reel: (laughs) I mean, when you–you know, when you start a business and you're self-funding a business, right?
Your budget is limited. So we were trying to think of a way to promote the business, advertise the business, get people to know about the business, without having a marketing budget, because we didn't have a marketing budget, right? So we started off with some t-shirts, and it had the--the website on it, and you know, you could get maybe what, a dozen t-shirts for a couple of hundred dollars.
So we were like, how are we going to have a business and just not generate revenue, like how are we going to pay the taxes, how are we going to pay the Yeah,
DJ Bee: Because it's a hobby at that point, right?
Keja Reel: It's a hobby, right? So, so, so that basically was it, and it became a movement, and the people that supported us, that loved good music, that appreciated what he did, bought the shirts, but also they became our walking billboards.
(A beat drops and underscores the following)
Nichole Hill: They generated enough revenue to move into their own space.
Keja Reel: You wanna know how that came about?
DJ Bee: You really--you want me to tell it? I'll tell it.
Keja Reel: Alright, so. I don't know you, you, this might be on the edit floor. This one. You want me? Oh, because of. Well, well, well, I'll say this. I'll be diplomatic about it. We
DJ Bee: Were displaced.
(Record scratches and music stops)
Keja Reel: See, that's why I said, so basically
Our first studio was located in 6 45 Church, which is now the Aspire building in the new St. Paul's community.
DJ Bee: So, so when we relocated,
Keja Reel: Well, we were displaced out of six, we were displaced outta 645 Church. And we were, we were part of the displacement of people and businesses in the Tidewater Gardens, St. Paul's area. And a lot of the relocation was focused on the people that lived in Tidewater Gardens, even though there were also businesses in Tidewater Gardens, in St. Paul's. And so, after being dislocated out of 645 Church Street, we ended up on 35th Street, right?
DJ Bee: And that became Freshtopia.
Keja Reel: And that became Freshtopia, and the reason behind that was because on 35th Street, the space that we looked at was a retail space. It wasn't a space where 645 Church was more of an office, right? And we could run the radio station in an office setting to meet the requirements of the city. This is a retail space.
This is street-facing. I said, Oh, well, I guess we're going to be a store then and we're going to be a store with a studio inside of it, and Fresh Topia came to life! And we got in there, we put some shirts up, and we're thinking, Okay, we're open now, and we're just looking for the people to come in.
DJ Bee: But then two things happened. We moved, and I had a DJ friend that passed away. His wife said he would want you to have his records. Come get his records. And at the same time, me moving, I was like, I got a lot of extra records. And that became, oh, let's be a record store.
(Music with a beat drops back in)
Nichole Hill: One of the 30 BO record stores in the country, one of just 30 Black owned record stores in the nation.
DJ Bee: So, so if you know, 35th street and Park Place in Norfolk, VA, it's the last black business district, but the only street with a center bike lane.
There's nowhere else in the city has a center bike lane except for 35th Street.
Keja Reel: Bike month came around, and I noticed that there were a lot of bike month activities, but none were on 35th street!
They were on every block except for 35th Street. I'm like, you know, there's no bike month activities on 35th street. And I think I reached out and I said, "is, is there going to be anything on 35th street?"
(Sound of crickets)
Keja Reel: And so I said, "Oh, okay, no problem."
DJ Bee: "We'll do our own." So we also, you know, just trying to get healthy.
We have our Live Life Fresh wellness campaign. So I also related that to the record store and to Fresh Radio. So, we're going to talk a little bit about which it became a little Live Life Fresh Boombox Bike Ride where--Oh, bring your Bluetooth speaker attached to your bike. Listen to what you want.
Listen to what we play on the bike ride. I was like, let's do a casual cruise around the bike lanes in Norfolk, especially the center bike lane and park place on thirty-fifth Street, and we have the ERT, the ERT was a little new. Let's let's let's ride the ERT.
For the the bike month of 2019. We rode every Saturday. We met around 10 o'clock at the store and we peeled out at 10:30 for a casual cruise.
Now May has five Saturdays. June comes and we like, I'm still riding! People showed up. We kept riding.
(Music stops)
Nichole Hill: It began as just them and their friends, but soon collaborations started coming their way, and what started as four people grew to crowds as big as a hundred strong.
DJ Bee: That's a lot of lives to be, be in control of. You know what I'm saying? When you just want to ride your bike. But it was good because we got people off the couch on Saturdays, put their phones down, and also see different parts of Norfolk that you would never see from your car unless you're, you know what I mean?
So, that was the beginning of the Live Life Fresh boom box bike ride. You know?
(Sounds nostalgic music, and of bike gears clicking–like the bike is coasting)
DJ Bee: My whole life I rode a bike. I rode a lot. And when did you get your first bike?
Keja Reel: 2016.
DJ Bee: Okay.
Keja Reel: We've been married 12 years, but we were together before that.
DJ Bee: Just 12? We do this to each other all the time. You really thinking about it. Are you sure?
Keja Reel: It's, yeah. It's gonna be 12. Okay.
DJ Bee: It's not 12 or is it going to be 12?
Keja Reel: I think it's going to be 12.
DJ Bee: See, I think. Oh, wow. Okay. Oh, wow.
Keja Reel: So, I got my bike in 2016 because he was riding. So, what happened was is that's his way of, like, releasing, or whatever, I was like, I think I want to go, and so he bought me a bike and we would just ride the bike lanes, like, all through Norfolk, and it was just kind of like our way of connecting, we would ride downtown, we would park out, we would ride to the mall.
We would ride down on Granby Street and lock our bikes up, and go to maybe some of the restaurants on Granby Street at the time. But it was like our connecting time, like our time to like put everything else to the side, and it's just the two of us, and we just ride in, and he's laughing at me trying to
DJ Bee: Ride with no hands.
Keja Reel: (laughs) Ride with no hands, it's like I'm throwing my hands up at the bike's going like this. So, I mean, we're just, just, just, just riding and enjoying the city and seeing the sites and using the bike lane. That was our way of connecting in our marriage.
(Sweet piano music gently plays)
Nichole Hill: In addition to their marriage, it was also a way to connect with their community, which wasn’t where they were born, but it is the home that they’ve chosen.
Keja Reel: Norfolk has come to embrace us. Right
DJ Bee: We raised kids here...
Keja Reel: We raise kids here, yes, yes,
DJ Bee: We have businesses here...
Keja Reel: And Norfolk loves us and we love Norfolk back. I mean, we couldn't be. Who we are and have the businesses and do what we do in Norfolk if we won't embraced and loved by Norfolk. And you know, I always joke around and say he's put Norfolk on his back and we have we I mean we love Norfolk We couldn't think of anywhere else To actually live and raise our family, you know So yeah, we we are Norfolk!
(Music swells)
BOTH: LIVE LIFE FRESH (laughter)
Nichole Hill: To learn more about Freshtopia and how you can join a Boom Box Bike Ride, click the link in show notes.
Visit our website Truthbetoldcommunity.com to find out ways to get involved, and share this episode with friends.
This series was written by Jackie Glass and Hannah Sobol, edited and hosted by me, Nichole Hill, Sound Design by Trendel Lightburn, and our work has been supported by the Elizabeth River Trail Foundation through a National Park Service Chesapeake Gateways Grant. Follow our work by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. We couldn’t do this without people brave enough to share their experiences, so thank you DJ Bee & Keja!