Episode 49– You can also listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts, and Amazon Music
About the Episode:
New Mexico is full of people with unique and inspiring stories! If you like innovation and creativity, you’ll love this episode with DJ Hill, (one of) the minds behind “Owlets & Co -“a live action television series for pre-K and early elementary kids (3-5 years old) and their parents, that is rooted where it is filmed in the vibrant and diverse cultures and ecospheres of the Southwestern United States.” Find out more about DJ and her show at the links below!
Links
Owlets & Co. Website
More about DJ
Buy DJ’s book
DJ’s Blog
I Love New Mexico blog page
Bunny’s website
I Love New Mexico Instagram
I Love New Mexico Facebook
Original Music by: Kene Terry
Featuring:
DJ Hill
DJ Hill is an award-winning poet, artist, and author. Her new collection of poetry, Of Ash & Fire, was recently released by Finishing Line Press.
Homespun Mercies, DJ’s debut collection of poetry, won the NYC Big Book, IBPA Benjamin Franklin, and CIPA EVVY Awards in Poetry, Art Winner in the Eric Hoffer Awards, and silver medalist in the Nautilus and IPPY Awards. The cover art (created by DJ), received the Spirit of the Suffragists Prize during the national exhibition VOTE: A Centennial Celebration at the Loveland Museum in Loveland, CO. Her first children’s book, Who’s That I Hear?, launched in April 2021 and named NYC Big Book Award Winner in Pre-K Children’s Picture Books and Finalist in two categories of the 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. DJ lives and creates in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband Bob, Australian Labradoodle Hazel Grace, and a hillside of unruly coyotes.
Episode Transcript
Bunny : (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native new Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico’s stories, talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of Enchantment. We’re excited that you’re here, and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico. Once again, I get to spend some time with, um, a new Mexican that I, I would never have been introduced before. Today’s guest is DJ Hill, and she’s doing some really fun, and for me, kind of expected work that, um, is in, in the realm of, um, as I understand it, um, helping children understand, um, different things about New Mexico and, um, about us, us. Well I keep talking and I keep stumbling over my words. DJ Hill, thank you for being our guest, and please tell our listeners exactly who you are. I don’t want them to miss a minute of your conversation.
DJ : (01:35)
This is such an honor. Bunny, thank you so much for the invitation. Um, we have created a program, uh, called Owlets and Company, and that came about in 2020, um, as the world was in a, in a state of, um, uh, panic of fear, not knowing what was gonna happen. We didn’t have a vaccine. We had a, you know, a contentious election coming up. We were, we were all kind of in limbo land, and we were all set to publish our first children’s book. And I stopped and said to our team, it seems like we need to do more for children. Yes, publishing a book is great, but as I looked around at the families, I know both my own family and other children. I am a early childhood educator in my past life, and I thought, there’s gotta be something more we can do to support children during this time, and their parents and their family as a whole. And so we began a, a year long conversation about how could we do that? What would that look like? What is it that we’re hearing from families that would be of help to them, especially during that time of covid, but going forward? And so we had that conversation, and in the meantime, I moved from Colorado to New Mexico to Santa Fe and had the opportunity to meet, uh, Genevieve Russell, who is an amazing storyteller. That is her work, that is her passion. And I share that idea with her. Genevieve has young children, and so she was like, I think that’s amazing. Now, I wanna introduce you to this other group I know called Film Nest. And Film Nest is also, uh, it’s all women, and they tell stories. They’ve worked with the B B C, they’ve worked with some big, big clients. And we sat down again for the next year now that I was in Santa Fe and talked about what would that look out, look like. They had a lot of experience in promoting programs and creating programs. So they asked a lot of questions. They, they wanted to know what the vision was, what, what, in my mind’s eye, I saw as a way to communicate with children, uh, that would bring them comfort, bring their families’. Comfort would be something that would be a healthy, uh, program for children to watch. So their families, their parents, caregivers, would never have to worry about what they were watching. Uh, and so that began another long conversation, and we learned a lot during that process. And slowly, the idea for s and company, uh, came to be, and that is where we are today.
Bunny : (04:34)
And I wanna be clear, because we have a lot of listeners who are not from here or who may speak a si a different language. When you say owlettes, you mean? Yes, baby owls, right? I
DJ : (04:46)
I do mean owlettes. And when I think of Owletes, I think of curiosity. I think of, um, owls as being wise, as, as having a bird’s eye view. Um, so they would, it’s for owls, they, these children would become our owl outlets. Um, we have mother Owl, uh, we have is the owl who would be our sidekick or mascot. And we have found through our studies that children learn best from a character or other children. And so this is actually going to be, uh, a series of TV programs that would be 30 minutes long. And we would include kids between the ages of three and five that would come along with us on our adventures throughout the state of Minnesota, or state of Minnesota, sorry, state of New Mexico. And, uh, I just think kids really relate well with other children, and they see them doing things, and they see them asking the questions that they might want answered. And so that is, that is our idea.
Bunny : (05:55)
So it, so are you in production at the moment?
DJ : (05:59)
We are not in production. As I said, we have spent a great deal of time, uh, coming up with the concept, understanding how each episode would be broken down, what would be important to each episode. We’re excited because the series would be based in our beautiful state of New Mexico, and there is so much to see and so many cultures to explore that it’s a great backdrop for the program. Uh, we are not in production yet. Uh, we have created our, our pilot episode, and at this time we are searching for a partner. We have spoken with some, some folks that, uh, uh, in media that have done this. We’ve spoken with some state folks, and we need that funding to create our pilot episode, which of course is the big one because that’s where you develop your characters. You develop your setting for the program, uh, you, you create your production schedule. So going forward after the pilot, we would have a very clear view of what, what we feel would be most beneficial to kids.
Bunny : (07:05)
So let’s talk about, is there a way that just general public, I mean, do you have a GoFundMe or do you, are you, other than just looking for investors, is there a way that the public can get involved in helping you with the funding?
DJ : (07:20)
Absolutely. Uh, if, if people are listening to your podcast, uh, which we know they do, uh, if they want to know more, I would love for them to reach out to me, uh, on our website and company. There is, there is an opportunity to reach out. Uh, they can make donations to us. Uh, if they’re a person that is working with nonprofits, maybe they’re, you know, they, they work with nonprofits, say no, nonprofits, their best friend works at a nonprofit, reach out to us or give them our name. Um, we feel very strongly that this program is needed. And, um, but like everything else, uh, you have to have the funding to, to follow through, and we’re ready to get done with that. Sure. Yeah.
Bunny : (08:03)
So tell me about some of the, because I feel certain that, you know, just from listening to you that you’ve created, um, some I mean, for lack of a better term, and I’m sure I’m using the wrong word, a storyboard, but tell me about some of the places and cultures and stories that you wanna tell about New Mexico with Alex and company.
DJ : (08:26)
It’s so vast, right? It’s so vast, right? What we can explore here. And when, when, uh, film Nest and I got got talking, it was like, well, we could go here, we could go see, we could go to the Kestrel Center and see how birds that have been injured are rehabilitated. And then we come back to our home nest and we talk about that, and we, you know, we expand on that. Um, we’ve talked about everything from going to the caves, going horseback riding, going to one of the natural farms that exists, uh, making, making seed dumplings. If you’ve ever done that, you know, uh, healing and working with the earth, uh, oh my goodness, uh, going on the road runner taking kids. Some kids never have the opportunity to go to these places, right? We, I know a lot of adults have never seen some of these locations. Oh, I know. And we’ve lived here a long time, right? Um, so imagine getting our little outlets on the road runner and saying, we’re going, we’re going on a trip. We’re gonna talk about transportation, we’re gonna talk about, and link that to parents leaving home, you know, a lot of kids have had their parents home during, you know, the pandemic and everything. And slowly going back to a workday, what does that look like? And how can we talk about our fears of them leaving and coming home so it won’t just be going to a location and having it be, well, today we wrote did the Road Runner, and that was fun. It’s expanding on that. And what does that look like to, in a child’s eyes, right? I mean, it’s exciting for them, but there’s also lessons that can be incorporated. And I think it’s very important to see every adventure that we go on as something that, uh, it’s helping a child, uh, see the world, feel safe in the world, and see that th there’s so much wonder. I think we, we’ve, uh, we test, test test children, and I know schools are licensed to do that, but, and they have to do those things, but we need to allow children to wonder, like we did when we were kids, right? Wonder at, uh, you know, what does, um, if we go to any of the pueblo, you know, we’re pueblo cultures, what, what does that look like? How are we the same? And how are we different? What is their rich history that can teach us something about ourselves and about accepting people from all cultures so that we can see we’re, we’re all the same, and we all have something wonderful to teach each other. Another idea was, uh, going to the Santa Fe School for the Deaf, right? As we’re talking a, a big portion, um, not a big portion, but our segments would be divided up into a welcoming, right? We have our, we have our opening song, um, and our animation, and then we, we kind of touch base with the kids at the beginning of the segment in a safe space, this big nest, where is the owl lives? And then we go out into the world and, um, and see it. But we also wanna inc include language, basic language, other languages, um, you know, whether that’s a s l, that’s Spanish, whatever it is, we, we wanna incorporate that. We wanna incorporate music right into these episodes. It’s such an important part of child development. Um, it, it helps our brains work in such amazing ways. And so, um, we would then go out into the world, have our adventure, come back, do a craft, maybe do have a story time, because as we know, we’re working on literacy, especially in New Mexico. Um, that has to be a crucial part of anything we do. And then we come back to our nest, we say goodbye. Kids love structure, they love consistency, and we say goodbye to them.
DJ : (12:30)
But one thing I find really exciting, we, the team and I talked about, okay, we did our program. That’s great. Maybe this child is watching it all by themselves. Parents might be busy making dinner, caregivers running to activities, whatever it is. How can we include the parents and the families and the caregivers, whoever that might be in what they’ve just learned? All right? So say we’ve, we’ve recorded this episode and, and, um, maybe we discussed a large, uh, a large topic, uh, uh, a difficult topic. Maybe we are, are talking about, uh, the loss of a loved one, a grandparent, a parent, a sibling a pet. Maybe we’re talking about bullying, maybe we’re talking about, um, fear of doing new things, whatever it might be. Maybe we’re talking about something as important and vital as food insecurity. I mean, maybe we’re approaching that and we want to offer resources to parents. How are we gonna do that? The team came up with the idea that after a child, if, if the family opts in to receiving a text, letting them know this child, or your children have just watched this episode, right? And today we address the topic of loss. That’s big. That’s big for a three-year-old, a five-year-old to sit with. It’s big, it’s hard for adults. And here’s what we talked about. Here’s what we did during this segment. And then here are the resources, whether it’s recommended books that we get from our local library that says, you know, if you’re, if you’re talking about the loss of a grandparent or the loss of a pet, here’s something that might be helpful. And whatever resources we can offer the family, um, to expand on it and to create a talking point with their, with their child at dinner or at bedtime. So many fears children have come out at bedtime. You know what, you know, what happened to grandma and grandpa? What, what, you know, any number of things. Divorces, you know, feeling that sadness at bedtime, and then including parents and caregivers in that conversation so that the child feels, heard so much of children, I, it pains me that they don’t have the agency or the skills maybe of communication to be able to say, I’m really fearful. I’m really fearful tonight, and I don’t know what to do, and how important it is to let the adults in our, in our world know how we’re feeling, because otherwise they, they couldn’t know.
Bunny : (15:17)
So Dj, that’s so interesting. I mean, interesting. Seems like, uh, two mild a word. I’m, I’m really blown away by your passion for a young children. And you know, full disclosure here, I have a grandson who is about to be three years old. And until you’re around children that age, you kind of forget. I mean, I remember things that I was fearful of as a child. And, um, and they were completely, if I look at them now, they were completely irrational fears. I remember being scared to death of a large steamer trunk that my grandmother kept in the corner of a bedroom, because I had, as a child, because I’m from a huge family in a rural community, I’d been to, you know, I started going to funerals when I was three years old. And somehow in my mind, that trunk resembled a coffin to me. So I spent this huge part of my childhood being afraid of that. And nobody, and I’m telling you, I grew up in a household where people were very caring and loving, but, but I never felt free to say, I’m really afraid to sleep in this room because I have this irrational fear of that steamer trunk. And I think what a cool thing you’re doing where you, um, and, and what a cool thing we’re doing now for children where we give them where we actually listened . I mean, we don’t, I mean, we really were, you know, children should be seen and not heard. But, um, I felt like so many of my fears were ridiculous as a child. You know, I was forever afraid of vampires because I watched several episodes of, um, dark shadows. But you are, you are giving kids a safe place to say, uh, I love this, this, this makes me uncomfortable. Uh, Milo will come in the house and he will say, and this is not a child who obviously has been exposed to any monsters in his life, but he will come in and say, there are no monsters at grandma’s house. And I will say, no, there are not. But isn’t that interesting? Where do they get that? Right. Where do we get these fears?
DJ : (17:32)
Right? I Bunny you just, I mean, that, that story about the chest, and, and that’s such a great illustration of when I was a kid, we didn’t talk about feelings, you know? Right. We didn’t. I mean, I think that was, maybe it’s still in some families, is the way it is. I think we’re more open. But it, in, in my time, and maybe you can relate to it, we just didn’t talk about feelings. And one feeling, feeling that we never addressed was that of anger.
Bunny : (18:01)
Oh, oh, no, no. In my family, we did not get angry. We went in a room and were quiet. .
DJ : (18:07)
Yes, exactly. But think about it, anger, joy, fear, all of these are normal, healthy emotions. Where we run into trouble is what we do with that anger. You know, how, how, um, how it comes out sideways. If, if we are not as caregivers, encouraging children to say, wow, you seem, you, you, you seem kind of outta sorts today. Do you wanna, you know, what’s going on? Or just sitting with the child. I always find with my grandkids, when they were small, sitting, sitting with them, and then all of a sudden it pop up, like, yeah, I don’t wanna go to bed tonight cause there’s a monster under the bed. I you know, I just don’t wanna do that. Can I, can I sleep in your lap? I mean, kids present it when they feel safe, right? They feel like they can express whatever it is they’re afraid of something happening at school, a trunk that you’re equating to something else. And we have to be able to hear them, for them to, as they get older, have that skill of being able to say something is making me uncomfortable. Something is making me fearful. I’m afraid to go to school because, you know, stomach aches in kids show that they are fearful of something, that there’s something up, right?
Bunny : (19:26)
I wrote a blog post long ago about how I spent the entire second grade with the stomach ache, because I had a teacher who, that I was so afraid of. There’s a blog. I, you know, I wrote a blog post about it a long time ago because we were, you know, rather than me being able to say to my parents, because this was a family friend who was my teacher, rather than me being able to say, she scares me to death, I just had a stomach ache every day, .
DJ : (19:55)
Oh, and what a miserable way to spend a year. How can you learn when you have this, this big giant thing looming? Right? Um, great example. And so our whole idea with this program is, um, to make a connection with kids. I know, I know there are so many programs that are, uh, animated. I know there are cartoons. I know there are some live person programs. I just really feel that our program, Allison Company, fulfills a need. And since C O V I D and all of that, and even before, but I just read a, a statistic that made me, made me really pause. And the statistic was that 60, now 60% of people that live in America say that they are lonely much of the time. Not alone, but lonely much of the time. This is not new to Covid. This is, it actually started in the 1970s, and it has been climbing. But what’s the an anecdote to feeling alone, to loneliness? It’s human connection, it’s touch, right? And so we feel that the human element is important, that children know there is a safe space. They can come for this program, that, that some of their, their concerns or their fears are addressed by the kids or by is the owl, who’s absolutely adorable. Um, and then they can say, oh, okay, I guess I don’t have anything to be afraid of at bedtime. I, you know, is, was feeling that way too. And this is how, what is told me. And, I think there is a need for, again, that human connection and, um, making sure kids feel heard.
Bunny : (21:49)
Well, I love that you said something at the beginning about another children’s book. Have you, do you have another, do you have children’s books out?
DJ : (21:58)
I do? The, my first children’s book, uh, came out later than we thought, as we were waiting to see what else we wanted to do. It came out in April.
Bunny : (22:06)
DJ, that’s how every book is . My book came out, my book came out 10 years later than I thought it would.
DJ : (22:12)
I know, right? I mean, We created and then we have to go through all the other stuff to make, bring in the world. Please. No. Um, but, uh, who’s that I hear came out and it actually came from the idea of fears, right? Yeah. I wrote it in this little tiny book when my kids were small, they were having trouble sleeping. I was getting no sleep. They were afraid of the monster whatever was under the bed. They read the book, you know, um, monster at the end of this book with Grover. And they were just sure that there was something, every noise was somebody, somebody something. And so I sat down one night in the middle of the night and wrote this little book, put it back, put it back in a drawer, and years later found it. And we put illustrations to it. So I feel there’s so many things we could do to help help kiddos. And, uh,
Bunny : (23:02)
Well, and let me tell you, that leads to, um, you know, any, anything you do for a child in their formative years leads to a, um, a a better adult. I mean, I’m still afraid of things that go bump in the night. So, um, , um, I, I would say I want people to know that we are going to provide links both to your website and to, um, any books other than this one that you’ve written, and, and of course to this one, because I think it would be fun for people to be able to find them. And I’m certainly going to I wanna know, um, tell me about your New Mexico experience since you came. You came here during the pandemic.
DJ : (23:47)
We did. Oh my goodness. What were we, ?
Bunny : (23:49)
I do have clients who moved here during the pandemic, and I think that was so brave. .
DJ : (23:56)
Yeah. No, we, we drove in, it was, I believe, January 10th, 2021. We pulled into Santa Fe in a snowstorm trying to find our rental. And we had scoped out Santa Fe before. I’ve taken many art classes down here, and, and we showed up, and all the restaurants we wanted to go to all the, of the museums that we thought, this is gonna be such a cultural, you know, oasis, we’re all closed. But we, we explored New Mexico while everything was closed, which I think was actually, in retrospect a good thing because we kind of said, okay, when everything opens, this is what we wanna do. This is, uh, the kind of thing we wanna try out. And so while timing wasn’t great, it actually worked out. We’ve, I mean, I think New Mexico has been, uh, it’s an amazing place. It’s an oasis for people. It is, uh, for artists and creatives, obviously beautiful majestic, but offer so many cultural things that I would’ve had no idea existed. And I have a master list of every place I wanna visit and everything. I am, I am good through like 50, uh, no 20, 20 50, I don’t know. Um, but, uh, it, it really has been amazing. I’ve met amazing people like you. And, um, everyone has a story. Everyone has their New Mexico story of why they’re here, what brought them here, and what they most love about it. So, uh, it’s been a great experience.
Bunny : (25:34)
I’m really curious about what brought you here.
DJ : (25:38)
I don’t know the city different. We lived in New Mexico or in Colorado for four years. And in all honesty, it’s a, it’s a beautiful place. I mean, everywhere you look in Colorado, it, it is stunning. There wasn’t that connection there, there wasn’t that, um, feeling of we have a, a place and a space that, that we have community there. And so when we got ready to move it was like, where do you wanna go? And I couldn’t believe we were doing it because I’m a person that wants to, I wanna know five years ahead of time, what am I doing on Thursday? And I wanna be ready for any, anything that comes up. And we, my husband looked at me and said, okay, where do you wanna go? And I said, well, I’ve kind of liked my visits to New Mexico, to Santa Fe. And I’m like, what do you think? And he is like, okay, let’s go for it. And I thought, oh my goodness, what are we doing? We picked, we packed up the car, we packed up the dog, and, uh, you know, we away we went. And, uh, it, it, that was kind of fun in itself because it was like jumping, jumping over the edge, not knowing what was on the other side, and just saying, we’re gonna have faith that this is gonna work out, and we’re gonna meet the people we’re supposed to meet and connect and serve the purpose we were put on earth to do. So, I’m glad we took the chance.
Bunny : (26:59)
I gotta tell you, DJ, that is a story that I keep hearing a lot. And, it’s, you know, you start an endeavor like this thinking, well, I just wanna hear people, you know, I wanna hear what other people think of New Mexico, and I wanna get, you know, this is sort of, there’s some selfishness in this. Well, there’s a lot of selfishness in it, because I get to hear, wait a second. I can’t wait to go to this place in Silver City, and I’m dying to go to Gallup to the flea market, and I’m getting all these amazing tips. But what I have found that surprised me is that this is a place, um, where people feel really safe to come and follow their dreams. Yes. Even though sometimes they don’t know what they are. I think about, you know, I did a podcast with, um, Charlie Obie who has, um, Lone Hawk hats. He did all the hats for, um, the, the Yellowstone, um, prequel, like 1870, whatever, whatever that is. Um, and I think about, um, the woman that I did the podcast with who took over the Abq dome and turned it into a gallery. And I can, I can think of dozens of, you know, I recently talked to a young woman named Sarah McIntyre, who was a photoshe was a scientist, but then she also, then she became a photographer, and then she became a full-time photographer, and then she’s doing a series and a coffee, coffee table book on churches in New Mexico. And it’s sort of like, you don’t quite know what your dream is, but this seems like a great place to, um, show up. And I don’t want people to think that it’s only folks from outta state who are doing that. I’m, I’m, I grew up in New Mexico, and, um, and my husband grew up in New Mexico, and, and this is a place that, um, has the potential to foster a lot of dreams and success. So that’s something that I keep hearing. And I love it. I mean, I want Alex and Company to be a huge success, because you’re doing something really important.
DJ : (29:10)
Thank you for that. I appreciate that. And I totally agree with you. I people have asked me, well, where, where did the ideas for your books come from? Where, where did this idea for olives come from? I mean, you didn’t do this when you lived in Minnesota. What, where did all this come from? Come from? And I think there’s something about here that when you say you have this dream or this idea, and you have no idea where it came from, I mean, you know where it came from, right? But, and you, you say it to someone, it’s like, oh my gosh, that’s a great idea. We need that here. How can I help? Right? I mean, people jump in. It’s like, how can I support you? Because everybody wants to fulfill their dreams, fulfill their, their reason for being. And, I found that time and time again, whenever you express something you wanna do, um, this is a great playground for creative ideas and to spark something and make something happen. So, um, I should be very proud. Yes.
Bunny : (30:16)
Oh, it’s, it’s amazing. So, Owlets and company in the works and hopefully soon to be, um, on a TV station near you. And, um, I’m so excited to, um, for Milo and I to sit down and watch the first episode. So please keep us posted absolutely. On when it’s coming. And if folks would like to help, um, in a financial way, um, we’ve got a link to your website. Perfect. We’ve got a way for them to, to contact you and learn more. And, um, everybody go out there and live your dream today.
DJ : (30:53)
Yes. And you living your dream and following what’s been put in your heart, could change, could change everything for a person, for someone else. So go for it.
Bunny : (31:03)
Thank you so much, DJ. This has been so fun.
DJ : (31:06)
Thank you. You are an absolute joy. I appreciate it.