Rob Lee: Welcome to The Truth in Art, your source of conversation connecting arts, culture, and community. These are stories that matter, and I am your host, Rob Lee. Thank you so much for joining me. Today, I am recording down in Eaton, DC, in downtown DC at the Eaton Hotel, and I'm catching up with a returning guest. This guest is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Vibe Room
This is a DMV and Baltimore platform dedicated to showcasing underrepresented talent through curated events, magazines, and art books, nurturing a vibrant community of artists and visionaries, as well as amplifying their voices. We last spoke back in 2022, and I'm excited to catch up and explore what's new in her world. Please welcome back to the program Natasha Magino. Welcome back to the podcast.
Before we get to the main question, this did not say delve, by the way, the whole AI thing, right? Before we get to the main questions, I want to give you the space to introduce yourself and explain what's shaping your current work, artistic direction, community building. Let's talk about that a little bit.
Natasha Magino: Well, Natasha, born in Uganda, raised in Maryland, Silver Spring for most of my life, in Germantown. I founded the Vibram during when Trump first came into office, like 2017. It was definitely from getting tired of the monotony of our nine to five and trying to create an artistic playground of some sort.
I thought of the Vibram being a room, but then I was just like, oh, $35,000 salary. Let's bring it down a notch, and then it turned into a publication. It was definitely to highlight underrepresented talent in the DMV. We have a lot of talent, but I feel like people don't care, and you see a lot of artists packing up leaving, like, bye, off to New York, London, or places that they feel will recognize them. That's where we came in to basically create a platform for them and just spotlight those incredible artists.
Rob Lee: Nice, nice. We're at this point sort of at this stage, 2025, so that's what, eight years now. I first talked with you, this was like 2022, so we're at the midway point, so that's the point of reaching back out. I like that you touched on the core mission, right? Yeah. Is it safe to say in it one of the guiding principles, and if there are any other ones, please add, but one of the guiding principles would kind of be being tapped in, knowing what's around you, knowing what that creative community is around you. Because you were touching on, folks may not really feel they're getting opportunities or feeling supported, and I go back through and thinking through who I want to interview this year, I'm like, ah man, they moved. They're in the UK now, they're in New York now. So what are those guiding principles, if not in addition to what I mentioned?
Natasha Magino: Yeah, we're a heavy, heavy, heavy-on community, bringing people together. I think that's something that the DMV I see kind of like lacks is community, very clicky. A lot of the times too, we have a lot of resources amongst each other, and I notice like we have a tough time coming together. I think that sometimes we'll see artists just trying to line their pockets, just like, pay me what I deserve and then I'm out. Over utilizing their community, you could be an artist that writes incredible music and somebody would be willing to shoot your video if you write for them a commercial or something like that. There isn't enough sense of community and bartering, and so we're always pushing that. Whenever somebody wants to collaborate with the Vibe Room, they just come through, we're not gatekeeping. We want to create a platform where people can grow.
Rob Lee: Growth is important. And again, looking at doing this and being able to tap in with folks and seeing, I don't know if you follow any of the Marvel movies or anything, but when the time jump happens sometimes in the movie, it's like, oh, that's what you look like now, that's what your work is now. And I even look at some of my old stuff and when I go through the old questions, I'm going to do a better question than us now. But seeing that progress and then what's rooted in it, so the initial thinking for this season was this idea of what support looks like, what community looks like, artist, attrition, things of that nature. Because I think a lot of times that class of artists, that community that we're looking at and they don't need money, but they don't need the people who
Natasha Magino: have money around all the time, that makes sense.
Rob Lee: And I think concepts and ideologies starts to slide in that might be counter to what the intent of the work is. Because there are times where I'll talk to artists, you know, like, yeah, I just make purely commercial stuff. And I was like, yeah, but you have all this sort of black power and all these...
Natasha Magino: It's that passion. Right. And, you know, I try to pry this part on sort of authenticity. So when I hear that, it's like, I appreciate you sharing it. You know what I mean? That, hey, I do this purely for commercial reasons, but like the work seems to be kind of not in that lane either. It feels odd.
Rob Lee: So I want to talk about some of the milestones. Again, we're at this midway. We're at the midway. Now we're at this stage. So, you know, eight years in, where... What are some of the milestones that you've achieved with the Viper?
Natasha Magino: I think definitely the growth of the team is a huge milestone for me. Before the pandemic, we were strong. We had a perfect team, designer, writers, everybody was there. And then the pandemic happened. People moved away. People started feeling fatigued.
It was a huge struggle. So like when I guess outside opened back up, we decided to like have events and you could see like people, like it almost felt like the vibe from boss momentum because when we had our event, we usually used to like 150 to 200 people showing up and then I was dropped. It was like 75 people and we're just, it was just me and one other editor went from six to two of us and we're just standing there like it's either we push through or start re-evaluating like what we want to do. And then we, somebody that we featured, the pocket actually a venue that we featured reached out to us and they were like, do you guys want to do an event? And we're like, yeah. So we threw an event for Valentine's Day and we noticed like a whole plethora of people coming through and we were amazed by it.
And we're like, okay, we still got it. And then in that event, we met our now art director, Sats. And then one of my friends was helping us take pictures and she's done a lot of copy editing for us and she was just like, I'll be an editor. And Landria, she joined in. So now it went from just me and Jasmine and then it grew to SAP and Landria and like more and more people have been reaching out to us for opportunities for collaboration.
And you don't really realize like how much a team means until like you lose everyone. And from then on, we decided to branch out from just our magazine to an art book. And we had a celebration at the Lyon Hotel and that's where we finally saw the numbers like stacking in and then we're like, oh my God, there's almost 200 people coming in.
Rob Lee: So, yeah, we're back. We're back. And we just need to just keep this momentum. It shook us a bit, but we're back. So having sort of this momentum and then a bit of the valley and then kind of the comeback trail. I've heard that sort of response and I know that there's a podcast and an article I read this week about sort of just folks who are celebrating night going out to things. And so there's a few questions to be far going to the art book. There's a few questions that come to mind. For you, what does good collaboration look like?
What does good like, you know, in your opinion, like what do you look for in collaborations? Again, it's a term that's thrown around. Yeah. Bro, let's build some community. Let's collaborate. Let's fellowship, King. Yeah. I hear that too much in the DM like, nah, let's not.
Natasha Magino: Yeah, good collaborations. I honestly feel like it's people that don't ask for permission. They like act first and then be like, what do you think? And I like people that also open a feedback because I know that you've been doing this for a long time. And like, sometimes you give people feedback, people get offended.
I think that it's just people that are just open and like willing to share ideas and willing to work with different types of people because we could get to a place where like there is conflict. I want to know that people are able to like move past that and just basically have like that respect for each other. I think that that's literally all that it takes. The willingness to just come together without having it be so transactional. I think that I'm always heavy on like passion and like just getting to like the finish line of the goal.
Rob Lee: That's good. That's good. And you know, again, when I think of, you know, third spaces, community, idea when just folks are able to get together. I sit there and I partner these things all the time because, you know, it's the TikTok theme and trend where folks that celebrate canceled plans, like just doing backflips and stuff. It's like, yeah, in theory, you want to do this. And you know, like, and that's one of the points why in doing this season, I was like, wherever there's the opportunity, I want to make it a point to see people in person. It's important. And we're as humans, outside of any of the disciplines that we're working in any of our interest as humans, we're social creatures.
And, you know, looking at sort of as you touched on with the pandemic leading to that sort of valley, it's something there. That's a lesson that I think some folks just didn't get. And like, why don't folks come out?
Why don't people show up? I remember earlier in the season, I was talking to a well-known writer and he would do like, you know, book talk, signings and he would talk about books, live readings and so on. And he was like, you know, a few years back, maybe 300 people show up. He's like, I might get 30 people that show up now. He's a well-known person with a strong background. And I think it plays an impact on, it impacts how one thinks they're doing their stuff.
Natasha Magino: Yeah, it's not hitting no more. It's very humbling, I could say that.
Rob Lee: So I'm curious about the art book, right? So let's talk about that a bit. So what was the impact of the release? You touched on that a bit there. And so what is the intent? Just give us the rundown. Okay.
Natasha Magino: To be funny a little bit, I realized and expression on social media that we always see that people don't read anymore. People like pictures, people like beautiful things. And a lot of times when we create the magazine, everybody will try to hit you with like, magazines or old media, like nobody's reading anymore. And I was like, okay, I heard.
We still have an audience that does read. But we decided to just like pivot and just to like try it out. There's a lot of artists that create physical work from designers, the painters, the photographers. So like that's where like that idea came from just to see like, maybe it's like short format text is put out there to people. And like we reached out to like, artists that are making such an impactful job out here. Like let's see if we can like just put their work out there and see if like it's a community case that way. And so it was very helpful that a lot of them showed up to the release because then they could speak more to their work. And of course, like after that, like a lot of people were like, this needs to be on tables everywhere. And I was like, we're going to have to run this back. Not just the magazine, the art book, and also it was very helpful because we are a very small team.
It's just four of us for now. And an art book is a lot easier than having to do the copy editing and the writing and like seeking out different writers. And that gave us some a bit of like a pause and also helped us like create the fun still also be able to reach out for our next issue, which will be starting. Nice.
Rob Lee: Nice. I've been involved in sort of the pre-release of a few books ranging from different topics, but with local photographers and so on. And I can imagine that process is really, really intense. So, you know, talk a bit about that creative process and sort of almost maybe the validation piece of what it means. So like, we got this book out as well as we put this, we put our magazine, we put out the publication, but we also we got a book. We're in this lane as well. Yeah.
Natasha Magino: I think that I see the greatest impact when the artists like open it up and like they feel so proud of like the work that we've done. I literally at the art book release, like I remember seeing like one of the teachers open it up and literally just start like dancing.
And we had like a slideshow of the art book on a big screen and he was like pointing at it was just so happy. Like those are the things that bring so much joy to me and like the creative process of like searching for these artists, vetting them. I think it's like the biggest bulk of the work because we have to find people that also fit within our mission, willing to be vulnerable enough to be interviewed by us. Because even if it's like just short blurbs in these art books, we're asking them things that will allow you to tap more into them and things that may be a bit more personal to them. Because when it's super surface level, it's just does not land that well, even if their artwork is beautiful.
Rob Lee: You know, I know what you're talking about. Yeah. And no, that's good because I think and maybe this is where the alignment is that in my head is, you know, you're curious about what the art is curious about what the work is and all the sort of technical. But it's like who's the person making that work? What have you and and maybe pulling it, extracting something from that that story of who the person is almost shows like what is it about them that goes into making this work? It adds a full fullness and a well, well, well roundedness to it.
Natasha Magino: Yeah. And it's also fresh and because we have met some really dope artists and then we try to interview them and then it's just like this cool or I'll just like this is the one sentence that I'm going to say because it's quotable. And it's just like, who are you? Like, tell us more. You know what I mean? Like, it's not appealing.
Rob Lee: I'll say. Yeah. And I think that that's really funny, actually, because there's a few times where I'll have some like mic drop moments that I'm going through doing the the packaging for like social media for like opus. I'm like, all right, let me take this piece here. What's the mic drop line?
I'm like, oh, I don't like this. And I want something that is is oriented around storytelling. And I find that the more that I do these conversations and the more that I'm talking in real life, they start to blend. Like when I'm talking with someone is not just that quick quotable thing. It's something that's almost a story that I'm sharing. And I think in those terms and those are the things I'm curious with because I'm curious for and I'm listening for certain things. So in that, I think the nature of looking for something that feels real. I think that's the thing that separates and will continue to separate various media outlets, whether it be podcasts, whether it be magazine, whether it be books. So in your opinion, how does the vibrum and sort of the work that's through the sort of whole umbrella continue to capture the attention of folks that are around?
You know, we're back on the comeback trail, right? And but at the same time, as we talked a little bit beforehand, she's got to see the strings of how some of these things work. You know, there's a million things a minute on social media. Everyone is busy. People love canceling plans. So how do you keep the attention?
Natasha Magino: Some of the best advice that I've ever gotten is that you need to put yourself out there. A lot of people in the past have seen vibrum and be like, oh, I didn't know that that was your thing, you know? So then I was just like, OK, OK, I'll put myself in the front.
I have to show up to these events and introduce myself as like, I'm Natasha, I'm the editing chief of the vibrum. So making sure that I'm outside as much as possible. I go to so many events. Granted, I tend to hibernate in the winter. But like what spring hits, I'm just like going to every event, trying to support as many artists, trying to make sure that people put like a face to the name. I encourage like the rest of my 10 members to do that too. And of course, too, like during the wintertime, I think the best way for us to show up, especially somebody that hates the cold, is just to host our own events.
Of course, me to go out. You know what I mean? Like our last release was in December during the wintertime.
And then of course, like we did Valentine's Day R &B night like in 2022. So just showing up, trying to have as many events as possible as time allows, as the size of our team allows, and also to just show up for as many events as possible. If people recognize you, people will show up.
Rob Lee: That's true. And that's a lane that I, I strike this sort of balance of not trying to give myself another job. I'm pretty busy with this, right? And but I do enjoy sort of those live events because I think it does in my head, at least it doesn't have to be a money generator. That's not that's not the priority for me, right? But if there is, I shouldn't become not a pocket for it, that makes sense. But also, I think it's something good for the community where with folks can get together and just connect and chit chat without those guardrails and those parameters that those people with the money, as I mentioned earlier. Well, yeah, bro, we created this problem for connection, but we're now going to add a solution. Exactly. You pay us to get what you can. And I like to do movie nights.
And I did a bunch of them back in like in 2022 and a few in 2023. And it's something that, you know, that's the other side of what my interests lie at. It's like, look, I'll talk about a movie for an hour. And, you know, sometimes there's an intent with it. So the, the first year doing these, these movie nights, I was like, I don't think a lot of people want to know each other, right? Like they know of someone's work, but I'm going through my catalog of people I've interviewed.
Hey, here's an invite, pull up is free, you know, what have you. And being able to do that and to check certain things out. And I think the other thing about having folks kind of get together is sort of, you know, you lead to unexpected conversation, unexpected connections. But so the intent of the whole movie night, the guys was, hey, I want to celebrate these Baltimore movies. Yeah.
So that was the intent because I found like so many people didn't know things that would happen in their own city. And I think the first one we did was Meteor Man. And that's the, that's the four of your time. It was Meteor Man for 1993.
Natasha Magino: And I was born in 1992.
Rob Lee: Well, like I said, it's a Robert Townsend movie. And he's like a black superhero, right? And you can, when you're watching the movie, you could see different landmarks of what Baltimore used to look like.
Wow. And the running bit was I would point out where in the movie where it was filmed. And it's like in this part of Northeast DC, I was like, this is Baltimore.
So that was the running thing in each one of these movies. They would say it's a different city. And it's like trying to celebrate film culture in the city and sort of showing like what it was as a historical component. It's a gathering component. And it works. And I think I want to bring that back.
Natasha Magino: Yeah. I would definitely love to attend. I don't think that things like that created like a lot of trust because I feel like a lot of times people want to work with us and are willing to offer their services even for like for free because they build that type of relationship with you just off of movies together.
Rob Lee: And the other thing I would do with it in each one of these sessions because I'm not a filmmaker or anything along those lines. I'm a person that enjoys movies. So I, and it's always a weird thing of how do you in some instances charge because most of them were free, but few were. And you can't charge someone to watch a movie that you kind of don't really have the rights to screen.
Yeah. So watch the movie, stay for the conversation. The conversation afterwards is what the charge is.
The charge would be and the people I would have on would be alumni from the podcast whose work is relevant to the movie. Nice. So one that sticks out since we're in DC at Eaton. I had a political strategy so on after we watched Head of State, the Chris Rock movie. And I was like some Bernie Macs fits. Let's talk about it. So being able to show people in a different realm and these are all.
Transcript. and that again where we're located I've noticed more and more of these major publications moving art out and even the free ones is either been super diminished or it's just gone altogether. And as I tend to say off mic these are just in words and suits.
That's literally what it is. And so how where do you think the vibe room fits when it comes to sort of there's lack of the attention or lack of coverage when it comes to sort of like what's happening in arts and culture especially in a local space.
Natasha Magino: Honestly decorating space for us I don't care do your thing. Decorating space for us will be the platform that leaves room for people to have those artistic voices and to be able to showcase themselves. I'm not worried and I feel like people because these publications are doing things like that and also because the way the climate of the city right now people are looking for outlets. We don't always just want to hear about like all of the terrible things that are going on in this world.
We don't want to always talk about the political climate. People are looking for escapism. So we'll do the music shows. We'll highlight these artists. We'll do anything possible to just make sure that art does not die out. As much as like people are always in survival mode art is very important to that.
It affects our mental health and I feel like it brings a lot of joy to people so I don't know why they're moving in that direction but so be it. Make room for us.
Rob Lee: Yeah and I think the thing that's the challenge and I feel the same way. I think the thing that's the challenge there at times is folks that might have access to maybe give it that bump to that next level they're not always appreciating and respecting the game because it's just like this podcast I've never charged anyone to come on this podcast. I know other ones that have quoted numbers 30 grand to come on my podcast. Yeah I've heard things like this and I've said to people this podcast will always be free but it's not free to make and I think that's the thing that gets lost sometimes.
Like if these things are important and these are audiences that are being covered whether it be a podcast, a publication, an art book, what have you. How is this thing supported to continue? Yeah and it's and as you touched on earlier these things could be humbling sometimes. Look at these numbers. I think the key thing is not to stop. Yeah. Keep rolling with the punches and figure out ways as you touched on a couple of times to pivot.
Natasha Magino: Yes I'm the pivot queen. Yeah I also think that like when it comes to people that are just so focused on like monetization and moving away from community I feel like it kind of I don't know I feel like it's also humbling for us people will ask an artist and be like hey like we can provide this and do this for you or whatever and like come through and like because like for example we have featured some artists and then like when it comes to like okay like would you be willing to perform at this thing so we can also we'll put money in your pockets but so we can also raise this money to keep this book going and it's just like no pay me this amount I'm just like we're in the sense of community and I get it though. Yeah you know what you're worth but at this point it's just like we're trying to build something and that's going to hinder us if we're always just shelling out instead of like also building on ourselves
Rob Lee: because if you you're always shelling out not pouring in you know that that just leaves everything deflated and empty and you know every now and again I throw up there my my sort of criteria in my background it's like yeah I'm like I'm technically an educator I'm like professor Rob now
Natasha Magino: let's learn and I find like I try to make myself available you were touching on being out there it gives this sort of this it's not special if I can't catch this person but like it sounds so counter counter productive right yeah it's very much so that is something that I've been battling with as well where it's just like if I make myself so available with that will people lose interest and I'm finding that to not be true I think that people just once they're able to like see me and get to know me get a feel of who I am or even like who the rest of the team members are I feel like people are just more willing to show up it almost feels like we're building friendships within this community and they just want to be part of something cool and part of like something where people are trying to help their artists to get out there
Rob Lee: and I like that she said friendships because that's um that's the thing is um maybe before I move into this next question that's the thing that I looked at again and during the curation of this this season um you know I get so many people reaching out to come on talk and I'm like that's great and sure and and it's usually like new folks whereas with very few exceptions I'm only having folks that have been on before um because I want to see like yo what's been like over the last years um so part of that is like I don't have a problem getting people if that makes sense yeah and having folks come on but now it's being a little bit more tight with the vetting and also like who are people I consider friends within this lane because again it's a lot of work that goes into this it's time it's attention and as we touch through again people don't like getting up doing anything look you know like I got up you know I might have put a hat on a sweatshirt um but you came over too so that's another thing and you know that's um it's important to you know be mindful and aware of folks' time and also don't waste their time you know that's the thing so I want to get um you know a little little background or maybe submissions pitches things of that nature right um what are a few factors that you look for that fit you know as far as uh the vibrum like what are some factors that you're you're looking for for maybe a submission a pitch referral um I have a criteria obviously when folks are like this person be good to talk to I'm like this is like no they don't answer questions or yeah everything is one word everything is like it's my mic drop
Natasha Magino: yeah honestly definitely quality quality in their work I want to see that like somebody cares enough to make um good work sure authenticity and somebody has authenticity outcome-blind authenticity and vulnerability I feel like somebody that's willing to like tell the truth um be vulnerable about what's like actually going on because I think like a lot of the times when we're getting that mic drop person it's just like yeah and I do photography and like it's cool and it's just like no like you spent lots of money on this camera you heard to learn how to do color grading like you had to search for these subjects like a lot goes into this and I think the last one is just respect I think that a lot of sometimes I have met like artists that put themselves like I be about your business I put yourself up in a pedestal but don't look down on other people you know like having a sense of community and getting to meet people like I do listen like oh this person was rude this time or this person was just respectful to this person like I'm listening like I have my ears to like the streets to just make sure that like this person aligned with our mission and when people see them in the magazine or in the art book that they'll be happy to see their work and not like disgruntled it'll be like I can't believe you see shit this people and especially in the type of climate that we're in and also how I would say very sensitive most people are these days
Rob Lee: yeah I I run into that on occasion where I find you know you especially through social media I'll have folks DM me randomly about a guest and I was like it's funny you haven't DM me about any of the other interviews but the one that you seem to take personal offense to now that's the one and it's just like well I'm asking them about this stuff I'm asking them having this conversation with them and so I don't know it's it's all that
Natasha Magino: yeah the chime in I don't I don't so I was kind of keeping it like more so PC like it has to be like something super detrimental to me I mean like if somebody was just like oh he was just rude to me that one time and cut me off in like it's not something like that like if it's something very detrimental to the community that's what I'll be like
Rob Lee: yeah I know absolutely there there are probably four or five interviews that I've taken down with folks who were you're not good you're not a you're not a good person and then there are other folks it's just like because you know going out there and this is actually a nice segue to this next question going out there and being in community sometimes whether it's an opening whether there's some sort of function right yeah people can be weird people can be very weird I am very tall and I can be off putting that time so it's not intentional it's more so like yeah I'm overstimulated I don't know what I should be saying are these Dr. Martin's clean this is sort of a conversation and and I've gone to openings in the last year where folks haven't seen me in a while the first thing they say oh you taking a visit one of the first well and these are things that people are comfortable saying I don't put them on blast but it's like I'm not up and down and it's it's interesting to sort of people aren't and I think it goes to just people aren't being in the same room with each other yeah so they're not sure what to say that's in a different bucket of this is an odd interaction versus this
Natasha Magino: person that's who that's who I was trying to lean towards I would kept it very PC but definitely like been a predator or has done something in the past where it's just like
Rob Lee: I always look at you know they they shouldn't be getting hunted this is the old reference sorry it's a movie reference they shouldn't be getting hunted by car weather and they're almost working there they can't be getting hunted by them yeah but I always look at some of the business like the business aspect that's the thing that always sticks out and you know I look through folks that I've interviewed have a really good concept everything works and then for whatever reason within three to nine months of the launch of their business you'll see like oh you were misallocating funds you were a little bit of a crook and it's it's sort of the observation thing it's just like I'm not going to put so much thing out there it's not really my lane to do that but and I think this is kind of what you're getting at I don't need to have you and what I'm doing though yeah regardless of how good your stuff is yes um so this is sort of that next question and this is the next to last question um when did you get comfortable right being in the arts and culture community because there is a point that we talked about before getting on my the outsider or the imposter syndrome and all of that and I know it happens to varying degrees I had to get an update like an iPhone I was like yo are you ready for this one?
Natasha Magino: I don't know the new year yeah it was I'm not gonna lie to you it was so recent I think it was after the pandemic I went through like a I went through like a really bad breakup I had to like move out move all my stuff in and like I kind of was just sitting within myself and I was like no but I have to keep vibing going and then like hearing and I feel like things get louder when like you're low and it's just like hearing people be like oh I didn't know you were connected to like the vibram oh oh I didn't even know that this was like a thing and I was just like I have to start getting louder and I feel like I just felt so motivated to like get myself out of this slump so I was just like no I have to like speak up so maybe like 2021 was when I was just like no I have to like I have to be the person on the mic now like I have to sometimes host these things because a lot of times I was very introverted and very shy so I just be like oh well like somebody do it and I would often see people get credit for the work that I was doing because I was so quiet or just like diminishing like the work that I do I'm like no it's fine like or whatever but after a while it just started to get to me and like being in my own thoughts I was just like you need to put on your big girl pants get on that stage tell people who are do these interviews and just open up your mouth just talk Natasha
Rob Lee: did you make it a point to bring the box
Natasha Magino: yes I did bring the box
Rob Lee: this is a smug thing that I do all the time I took my glasses down anime character style because I know what the dad joke that's coming I'm not a dad but I throw off the dad joke now that that's that's really good um you know I find like having to get comfortable not not not comfortable in it but I can rely on the things that I know how to do I can be awkwardly charismatic yes and that can get me along but it's just like hey do this
Natasha Magino: yeah yeah it's it's it's always I can say that we I always feel uncomfortable I always feel nervous but I know that this is something that really matters to me and maybe that's where the nervousness comes from so I just just push that's always my mindset and I'm always like even my inner voice is really nice to speak to myself it's like no you can do this like just push
Rob Lee: I I use this before I move to the last question I have um I I move I use this term I've been using for a number of years when it gets really busy and I try to I'm against the whole grind culture I like aspects of being busy but you know it's the aquarius thing I was like look I gotta ride the wave it's just like I'm gonna figure this out and I'm always gonna be going in the direction that I think makes the most sense for me at that given time and it was just one year when I think in this podcast first started in 2019 I was still doing my other podcast so I was doing two different podcasts that took up a big chunk of my time this one was a lot slower and in 2019 I only got like 20 interviews um but in 2020 it kind of started to grow and 2021 really blew up and um I had like a sort of weekly podcast that I knew and it was just like this is good it's sufficient and I'm not operating this one but this particular one was I'm talking to other people that it's like blind dating it's like this to go left and it's all of the nerves you're meeting people for the first time and then so on but I was just like I feel good doing it so I'm gonna keep riding with it and now I have again the sort of the awkward charisma that people are like oh you're so confident I am not
Natasha Magino: I cannot tell well so first we wrap up I'd love to get a piece of advice for the listeners here again you know I think it's always and you're not a gatekeeper so it's always a always space for folks to cover arts culture the way that you from your perspective is going to wait I from my perspective do it so you know what are the signals that you look for for someone who's more of a novice in covering it and someone that's more like this is an expert and how what would you recommend that they do to refine and be moved from that novice to that expert yeah I think like what I see a lot from novices is like the need for perfection the fear of negative feedback I think that there is a lot more scrappiness when somebody's like more like in the game long enough because you you'll see them like just put their ideas out there and it doesn't matter it's just like it will come together on its own and I just have an confidence that things will eventually work out even if they fall apart it's just like you just pick yourself up and just keep going I think like kind of having that tough skin yeah I would tell people is just like keep pushing yourself don't let um anything or setbacks or like if you have an event and like two people show up have that best event have exactly how you planned it you know I mean like um and also like when it comes to writers I would say like just put your voice out there be vulnerable honestly I always say vulnerability because you can always tell when something is just written to what you think other people want it to be I think you should just like be yourself and everything I know that this this sounds corny because everybody always says be yourself but like people can tell when you're faking it and people don't want to be around you when I
Rob Lee: think it's a good point you were you were touching on earlier how folks uh are this is idea that folks aren't reading yeah and in that we have this pervasive sort of insertion of AI which is by nature inauthentic it's trying to have a certain voice you can write a really good prompt yeah but really that finds itself in journalism and in writing so much and the sort of human aspect of is the the real and it's missing and sometimes you can tell on the surface something factually isn't there or something is this is not how people write um but and I think that's kind of what I was touching on earlier that's the thing that's going to keep us around as long as we're interested in curious doing it because of that vulnerability because of the authenticity and it's just having sort of the wherewithal to continue and the curiosity to continue
Natasha Magino: yeah right on the head all
Rob Lee: right so that's the main the main stuff I got three rather fire questions for you before we wrap up here okay uh don't overthink these okay you're probably gonna overthink these all right so here's um here's the first one aside from the art right what is something that you look for at an opening you're in a tenant you're attending an event an opening or something what's something you're looking for is this particular vibe is it like all right I got I got the good cocktails what is what are you what are you looking for at a particular event
Natasha Magino: things that don't feel clicky I want to be able to walk into a room and feel like I can talk to almost everybody I don't want to feel like I'm put in a corner and like people won't speak to me yeah
Rob Lee: okay we're gonna think we're gonna say hi my way I like this I like this so um we're here at Eden DC um and so I'm curious um from your perspective how would you describe the identity of DC through the lens of arts and culture
Natasha Magino: through the lens of arts and culture very black very brown I think that you see a lot of the art culture um made by people that were originally here when it was chocolate city um yeah I see a lot of authenticity and originality within people of color
Rob Lee: got it it's good I'm glad that you initially the question did have chocolate city in there so I'm glad that you said it uh all right more like a cow now yeah so here's the last one um so what are three sources for you you don't have to go into any depth in it but what are three sources for you where you get your news whether it be art related or otherwise where do you get your news from
Natasha Magino: um definitely tick tock I scroll for hours um Instagram of course I follow a lot of like art blogs podcasters and then last but not least I think it's just me traveling and like trying to like tap into like different artsy cultures like later in November actually we're going to Mexico City to check out their art culture so yeah
Rob Lee: I like it there's a little out there you get it um so I'm so happy that we were able to to chat today and um and catch up and there are two things I'd like to do as we close out here one again thank you that's that's number one always gratitude and um number two I want to invite and encourage you to share with the listeners any of the detail social media website all that good stuff the floor is yours
Natasha Magino: okay so check us out on the vibrooms instagram underscore vibe underscore room same thing on twitter and also you can catch us on tiktok at the vibroom dnv and also our website is www.thevibroom .me so yeah if you've catch us there you can come out to um oh also we have a show coming up on April 12th r &b night is called rhythm and bloom with artist HASANI, Tasia Jae, as well as Rayonté so yeah come through show some love and yeah that's our stuff
Rob Lee: and there you have it folks I want to again thank Natasha Vigino from the vibroom for coming back on to the podcast we definitely had a great conversation and in court of vibe and for Natasha Vigino I am Rob Lee fan of there's art culture and community in and around your neck of the woods you just have to look forward
