Welcome to Vancouver True Crime. I'm honored to have a very
special guest, something very different that I usually do.
I want to do more interviews of people in the community event
coover and Metro Vancouver that are doing good, things in the
community. And and revi here has an amazing
page on Instagram. She highlights black cultural
events and Vancouver Caribbean. You're doing a liquid from the
whole entire black community and and things like concerts and
Fashion shows. I've seen so many and it's
really caught my attention and I really wish and I hope everyone
listening can support her and maybe and go to some really fun
events because Vancouver. Truly needs more fun people and
more fun events will be nice to bring the fun back to Vancouver.
So revi, want to introduce yourself.
Tell me about your platform and maybe some upcoming concerts and
events that people can go to. Alright.
Hi, my name is Ruby and I am founder of black van Club on
Instagram and I guess I describe myself as a events blogger.
But this is all new to me. And like you said, my page aims
to highlight black events or events by black people.
Or if let's say, I'm black artist is performing in the city
will host bad for the community. To know what's happening in the
city and I think, I don't want to get too far ahead, but why I
started the blog was I think after the pandemic, I realized I
needed to ReDiscover the city that lived in for about 12
years. I made a conscious effort to
kind of, you know, explore the city this summer.
Everything was back open. Everyone was looking to have fun
and I think I start to document the journey on my page.
So came out of a place that you're saying you want.
You, we went through the pandemic like all of us and you
probably saw there was something missing in Vancouver as far as
events and and community and you filled in a gap there by
highlighting your community. Maybe told me a little bit about
your background and and maybe where your food came from before
Vancouver. And okay, yeah, so like many
people in the city, I am a transplant.
I was not Not born and maybe I'm here from Africa Zimbabwe.
Oh, wow. Yeah, so so long way the way I
was as a student student I would explore was adventurous.
I would go out, are these concerts the whole?
You know, when you're young and then the older you get, the less
time you have to spend. And the less in tune you are
with what's going on on the scene, the older you get Right?
Yeah, caught up in a Thing Called Life, right?
I think, but I was still. Social person.
Yeah, go out my friends and then obviously the pandemic hit the
right down and it was kind of, you know, a tough time for
everyone around the city. I pretty much kept to my bubble
for about two years. I didn't really go out to events
like that and I think as a whole the whole Vancouver Community
has events community and things going on in the city has kind of
shifted, you know, I kind of yes scene.
A change and it's like, yeah, this is used to go to are no
longer there, you know. Yeah, I noticed that too.
Even restaurants, like, you know, your favorite restaurants.
All that didn't make the pandemic that didn't make the
pandemic and yeah, I know what you mean.
Yeah, so I think like many people, I was just tired of
being indoors. I was tired of, you know, not
doing anything and being afraid, I made a conscious effort.
I said, you know, I'm going to ReDiscover the city.
I'm honored. Yeah, what Vancouver has to
offer? I wasn't even telling one of my
friends, like I was tying them. Like I took a vacation in
Vancouver. Like I?
Yeah. Did he?
Like, I would treat a city. I was visiting, right?
Be a tourist in your own town kind of thing.
Is clearly, I kind of lost touch with what was going on in the
city and obviously there's a lot of things that I do know that
with their before and new things that were happening in the city
as a conscious effort by the city of Vancouver as well.
So yeah. Well it's really amazing.
Like I said, you know my platform, you know I obviously
you know crime-related and there's lots of crime to report
in Vancouver and then I came across your page.
I'm like oh this is nice. This is cool like that we need
more of this. It's like, you know, you always
highlighting, like he said, concerts events, fashion shows.
And and again, you know, this is why people move to a city,
people live, go to a city to have access to these things.
You know, museums restaurant events, you know, fashion shows,
you know, live theater and I always felt the, you know, that
it's always was very lacking in Vancouver even a little bit
before the pandemic, been specially for the pandemic.
So it's nice that people like yourself with some
entrepreneurial Spirit going to fill in that Gap.
So maybe talk about maybe some upcoming events for end of
September and maybe in October that people can go to and find
out more about going on your platform about and keep
informed. About these events are so
basically I think the way I would Post.
So I have a weekly event calendar black bag Club.
So, I kind of compiled a list of about 27 events a week, which is
a lot in Vancouver. Yes, yeah it is.
I like you get at least one event per day for a week or
several events depends how busy that week is.
So I posted on the Asian black fan club so I think yesterday I
posted Vancouver events September yeah 24th to the 30th
so if you're looking Before anything you can go on there.
And if you take a quick scroll, you can see that this weekend
that is, you know, the Vancity roots and culture experience
Festival, that's going on at Granville Island.
So cool and like live reggae Reggae Hip-Hop soul.
So where is that going to be located?
Sorry, Granville Island Granville Island.
So to so Their audience hears this so at Granville Island on
September 24th. There will be live, reggae
they'll be Latin reggae hip-hop dance, hall, R&B music, jam and
local artists. Like you said, yeah.
And the address is this 1411 rail.
Spur a lie. Yeah.
So I like trying to put the time and the location and then I
usually linked. Check my stories highlights.
There's a highlights that doesn't events and when you
click in there, sorry clicked on this.
Yeah, I'll send a link to the website or where someone we can
get tickets or more information. Yeah.
And he did a great job organizing.
You do like a nice slideshow. You can just slide through.
There you go, through the list, look for the events that your
inch, and there's quite, it's quite a quite packed like yeah.
Cuban cultural Gala at the Ukrainian all this one looks
pretty. Citing Roz woman Champion,
hearing couple are at the Civic Coliseum.
I do for you wrestling fans, right?
Yeah. Because I think not especially
pertaining to black people, the black experience is very diverse
and people for interest and from what I found out speaking to
people is that they weren't seen in these spaces or they pretty
much ignored in terms of the marketing, Pray that they get
kind of off the Crocs a little. They may not know like, you
know, these are Cuban garlic going on, you know?
So I think representation matters these types of platforms
where black people can consciously see themselves doing
these things and different types of things as well.
Yeah, I know you're very diverse.
Like you have everything from, you know, African dance Gianni
cooking ghanian cooking Feast by a chef.
That sounds pretty amazing and Even have stuff for, you know,
the LGBT community. Yeah, so it's a really diverse
so it, you know, you've done a really great.
Great job. Even a drag show on the 25th.
So yeah, you know, again, one of the things that people always
complain about Vancouver. Oh, there's nothing to do
nothing to do, right, drum and dance performance at Richmond,
Cultural Center. There's a lot of, a lot of
really great things. Comedy comedy show on the 27th.
And then if you check the pages while I like to sometimes I post
like festivals that are growing around.
So I had the series going about some of festivals bunch of
festivals that were going on. I think was a four part Series.
So initially when I first did it, I was like, whoa, like wow,
there's a lot of stuff going on about nine festivals.
I posted really did well. And it had a lot of shares and a
lot of Engagement. So I was like, well, excellent.
People are looking for this type of stuff.
Yeah. Not like I'm doing anything.
Us it's not rocket science you know know the presentation and
making information easily. And yeah, I know you have a
good. Your graphic design is really
nice. I think you have a good, you
have a good flare of how you present the information and
stuff, it's very easy to read and it's very yeah.
You know, I enjoy the post I and you know, I share them to just
to kind of give people a break from Mike, you know, Doom and
Gloom and crying, you know, so I thought, you know, like I said,
it's a, it's a, it's a bright light and In the city and I
really appreciate what you're doing and stuff.
And and you know, I want, I want that, I want Vancouver to be the
place that I grew up in when I used to be fun.
You see fun to go out, used to be fun to, you know, go to
events and festivals and stuff. And, you know, this generation
the younger generation need that.
Well, before they all move away, right?
I mean, the thing is, what I've learned is they are a lot of
people doing, the work is just about getting the exposure.
So where every time I go, I try to chat to the people at the
events or Organizers or the Arts putting in a lot of effort into
a lot of these events. Oh, for sure.
Yeah, you know a few people People brought up.
And actually aware that these things are going on so they can
and them oh, for sure. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
No totally. Yeah.
It again, you know, you know, there's a lot of these vets
that, you know. Again, they take a lot of work,
you know, coordinating finding the venue and you know again and
so, you know, the oldest work, the no one shows up.
Right? So the promotion or of, it's
important, right? And getting people have been
stuck in this mindset of not wanting to go out there scared
to go out and for various reasons.
Now in other stuff that, you know, they can look at and
choose to go and have some fun and it might be a good
experience for them. Something, you know, for made me
for non-black people like Asians or other people from other
cultures. It'd be great for them to be
exposed and different, you know, different, you know, of events
like this. And like you said, the black
community is very diverse. It's extremely diverse.
And and and so this, this is nice.
How you you present that diversity from stuff?
From the Ian from African to, you know what I mean?
That it's a real. It's real interesting.
Mix that you put together what I've known.
What I think is the important thing to understand is that it's
we want more of these events to happen.
Like we have to show up and support and is not absolutely as
any Community whether you're black or white, you know, about
supporting people of color black people, and whatever they do.
And you know, because they invented a comedian whose black
and white comedians, you know, jokes the jokes.
Everything's. Yes.
Yeah. So about the more we support.
The more we see people color and black people doing These things
for example, like the Juneteenth Festival that happened early on
the summer. That was the first one that ever
happened. But you know, it was a great
turnout. So they first think that, you
know, and I feel like because it was such a good turnout and it
was so successful that next year, you know, it might they
might have more and more people write what not just, you know,
black people but everyone from around Vancouver, to support
black artists on the stage performing.
So you know, once we The more people incentivized to do these
things. And I'm just playing my own
part, you know, like I'm just a blogger.
I'm just an average person. I'm not, I don't have any
background in events, or blogging, or whatever.
It's just something that was a passion project.
And when I started posting, you know, it was a couple of events
and people meeting and they were like, really like, oh, thank you
for posting, thank you for sharing our work.
And I, you know, I always get DM's like thank you for sharing
my stuff like people are really grateful.
They like, you know, Oh, I feel skiing.
I feel like you are genuinely trying to help, you know, expose
our can, you know, help us as well, you know, share our work
with the world. So for me, you know, I, you
know, I just started off as a little fun project but it's kind
of Bloom taking a life on its own.
Yeah. So that's what keeps Going good.
Well that's wonderful. And again I really appreciate
you coming on. I'm going to share this link on
my platform and then hopefully people listen and hopefully,
we'll get more people supporting and you know, I really enjoy it
what you're doing and and when things quiet down, will be fun
for me to go to some of these events as well.
So I look forward to going as well, so and again, it is.
So it's cool. Ha ha ha.
I could do it, I could do a crime.
I could do a crime one, or something, right?
Or maybe do some Storytelling. Yeah.
That'd be cool.
Yeah, we'll talk about it for sure.
That's that's kind of sounds intriguing, right?
Yeah. Yeah, I know that it's funny
though that you mentioned that and there are a lot of
podcasters owner doing live shows and stuff and I, you know,
I was totally cool. Wow.
People are going to like there was 10.
I think there were in beat a beacon.
Theatres, like, people are going to New York and buying tickets
to sit in the audience and to listen to a podcast.
They can just listen to it on their phone when they're
walking. I think that's a terrific.
Yeah, I'd probably do it in a different way.
I'd have to do it where the audience would have some
interaction for me to make it interesting kind of thing,
right? I don't know.
Did I don't know if when you were a kid, did you ever see the
okay? There was these books were gonna
go off track. But who cares either they ever
seen those books when you were a kid and you pick the ending of
the story? Like you read the story and then
you have to choose? Oh, does it?
There's a person to this or not, and then the story had different
endings, right? Depending of how you pick in the
book so maybe I can do like, a podcast for the audience, picks
the ending and then it's like a different outcome, right?
Getting their participation, Thing.
You just engaging with the guests on stage and they like to
see their finger people life. Yeah, you did.
I could watch it on Netflix but I want to go watch it and yeah,
that's true. Yeah, you know, again it's fun
and like, you know, for myself not Towing talk with myself.
It's a similar story as yours honestly.
I thought I was just going to be, you know, I was bored.
I was at home. I started working from home.
My kids have are on the autism spectrum.
Spectrum. So I worked in a had a corporate
background. I worked in corporate sales.
I couldn't be out of the house, you know, you know commuting
sometimes up for two hours a day and then being gone for 10 hours
a day with my kids, I couldn't I couldn't do that and then I had
a tragic, my wife passed away. So now I'm at home something.
Okay. Got to start something at home
and this like this like you it just, you know, I it filled the
void and that kind of created a life of its own, you know, so
yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm great.
But you know I never I never in a million years like someone's
like 10 years ago that I'd be doing this tiny never would have
guessed this. I mean that's fruitful the
beauty of life. You never know where you'll be,
you know. Yeah, that journey of Discovery,
you know, that's the best thing for sure.
For sure. And like I said, the the and
when I said with another guy is the best part of having, this
platform is meeting really cool people.
I met you, I met a cowboy that goes to third world countries
and These children from a human traffickers.
I met, you know, high-powered lawyers.
I bet you know, some really, really interesting cool people
that I would never probably would have met in my real life.
So I that that's the fun part 2. Yeah.
I could say the same the most interesting people, you know,
and I would have never met them. So yeah, made some good
connections. Some of them some friendships as
well. So right crazy that that's
what's happened from Small little idea.
Yeah, and that's something. I actually encourage the
audience because again, you know, there's a lot of people
with depression and anxiety. A lot of mental health issues
Vancouver has a very high rate of people mental health and and
this is how you get out of it. You find something that you care
about something that you could put your energy into something
productive and and it won't grow overnight, and that's not going
to blow up over night, but little increments is slowly
grows and grows a I'm like a Snowball Effect, right as so
keep all controlling its bigger and bigger and then you have
something that you built with your own hands, your idea and
anyone can do it. Like you said, what?
It's not rocket science but it everyday, it's a little bit of
work, a little part of applying yourself and, you know, and then
it will be something. It definitely, it definitely
takes consistency. Yes, and dedication.
And I think what makes it easier for me to keep consistent is, I
actually meet people in real I swear like, oh yeah, I saw this,
if I go to the bank, oh, I saw Are these?
I saw your I've actually met people in real life.
I've touched them. I spoke to them Exchange number.
So it's like, wow, this is actually real.
So yeah, you're affecting people in the community.
Yeah, yeah. The World Wide Web.
But when you actually go then you meet someone who's like,
yeah, I go on your page all the time like like, wow, this is
crazy. Hey, you know, yeah, and and
you're touching people in a positive way and it which is
great and and you know, I really salute what you're doing and so
tell people again, how can they find you how they support your
work? How you know, all about that?
SLI active on Instagram. So black van Club.
So blackpearl8 Club CL movie on Instagram.
I also have to go on that page. I have my link tree there.
But black man club.com page. I'm still working on developing
that you know I have a full-time job on the side so it's hard for
me to have the actual site. Yeah I know it's or I building
my website as I speak because I get so distracted so many things
like So like totally Philly, I guess it's probably building two
years, you can see whatever update on Instagram is updated
on the website. So, if you're not an Instagram
person, you just go to the website, right?
Then I have Tick-Tock cannot Instagram person.
I have a black fan club on Tick Tock.
Well, fine antique Buck. Yeah, so I'm just growing that
as well just different ways. People like to consume things
differently. Yeah, so what I'll do on the
post, I'll post your link tree and then they can find how to
No, you know hopefully though follow you on LinkedIn and get
updated post because like I said, again just to break down
for the audience to understand, typically what you do is you
break down events for what's coming up for the for the, for
the next couple of weeks at a time, did you through the 10 day
period? Per week, right?
Going on. And then, if there's a holiday,
like let's say there was Labor Day, I had a special post for
those four days Friday to Monday, where it was just events
for Labor Day. Right?
I'll probably do the same thing. Maybe for like Halloween, where
I pray. Okay.
Yeah, you have a lot of events and usually there's, at least 10
to 12 to 15 events for that week.
So people, They have nothing to do there there.
There you go. Right there.
Something. There's something for everyone.
And in your post like there's it's very diverse.
It's and I really believe there's a something fun for
everyone. There's family stuff.
There's more concert stuff, there's LGBT stuff.
So, you know, you really cover you do a good job, covering all
the events and I'll have Festival post coming next week,
so something for like fall because obviously the way we
attend events changes is the weather changes.
So right, you know, less outdoor stuff.
So, again, thanks for coming on. Maybe next time.
You'll do a live with me. Yes.
You know what's so funny? I'll tell you, I'll tell you a
confession. I had my plan.
Form, for a whole year, I didn't put my name.
I didn't put a picture of myself.
I only because again, Jen in the, in the beginning, I was
putting more work into the podcast.
The Instagram was kind of like secondary and then and then, of
course, the link the link to, I mean, not to LinkedIn the
Instagram exploded and then then I used as more engaging in the
local community and stuff like that.
So, but for the first year, I did not have my name picture.
Anyone everyone says are you like some kind of Batman
character that don't want to, you know, I some okay, fine.
I started posting pictures and then slowly you know I started
doing some live, they did a few one minute videos, I think if
you look scroll down, I'm like walking through the forest and
then you do a tank top right and and then you know, I got and
then the first live I ever did was with two lawyers who
high-powered lawyers and was a pretty intense conversation and
and that was that's how I how I broke the ice on that, right?
So it's like right at the deep end of the pool.
You know, you know, safety net and yeah.
So so then they here we are today.
So I have. I'm still discovering what I can
do with the platform for sure. Thanks for me.
If I'm going to be in front of the camera, it has to be
meaningful it. Yeah, of course.
Like I just want to be seen type of thing.
Yeah. Because the whole purpose of the
page is to promote the Creator's.
Yeah. Secondary I am.
Do you want to take a step back? But you know what, you should
be. You should be proud of what you
did and you're a beautiful lady and I think people would love to
see you. So thank you.
Sometime soon. All right.
Well, I'm Gonna Let You Go here and I'd love to do this again.
Maybe we can hook up for a quick podcast for Halloween.
We'll talk about some Halloween events.
I'll be fine. Go from there.
All right, rather be thank you so much, and I look forward to
seeing your events and I would love to go to the some, to, as
well. Wonderful day.
Let's see you later. Bye bye.