[Intro chords of Moses Sumney’s “Plastic”]
Fey Suju: Heyyy y’all, welcome to Porch Pull Up. If you’re unacquainted with my sumptuous vocals, this is your host, Fey Suju. Unbreaking news, it remains cling-to-you hot in Atlantas, but I’m coolin’ out with my homie from the cradle, Mirukosee Balan, who pulled up on today to do an interview — not just raid my fridge.
[Mirukosee pops Fey’s left bicep. They halfheartedly grapple, tottering in twin rockers, then hug and sit back.]
Fey: Besides being a beneficiary of my benevolence and our beloved city, Miru is wonderful — Stevie serenades — a powerhouse, and the inventor of the Plastivap, which, and I quote, has been “successfully deployed worldwide to safely eradicate not only plastic but other pollutants, including oils and forever chemicals, due to its adaptable extraction formulae.” [drawn-out whistle]
Okay, before you speak on throwing out the board and switchin’ up the game, Miru, tell our audience about you — where plastic comes in — and how life’s treating you?
[Fey snorts as Mirukosee pretends to sweep everything off the tray table peeking into view; next to it, the porch railing is leaned on by a couple magnolia branches.]
Mirukosee Balan: Hi, oh my . . . I am indeed that Mirukosee Balan [laughter]. Some background for those I’m being digitally introduced to: I’m a blessed firstborn of Atlantas of the Risen South, “Dedicated to Liberation and Love.” [Mirukosee, dimples flashing, makes two L’s and flies them up to meet. Fey snaps.] For those wonderin’ bout what all that bout, be it ‘cause of distance or firewalls, my fam along with their neighbors — plain sick of being bought and copped and segregated out of their peace — hopped on an Over Yonder Express dippin roun Atlanta before swerving northwest to where the Risen’s seedlings were rooting. If you hung up on why that train ain’t stop, that’s ‘cause it couldn’t risk the Developer League’s tolls to cross MARTA’s tracks, let alone use them. And if ya don’t know I ain’t just talkin’ monetary cost, search “Aretha’d Better Catch the Midnight Train, Less She Wanna Be on the Chain Gang.” [lifts a brow]
Plastic comes in — well, thinking of what you said about us being cradle buds, ours were the two halves of a busted water jug [Fey cups their hands together in the gap between their rockers and Mirukosee reflexively chops them apart]. That’s significant as my earliest memory of interacting with plastic, and because I remember being fiveish and asking DaMa, after my half was converted into an errand sled, why we didn’t just get rid of it. DaMa explained how plastic is nonbio and how Atlantas, then, lacked recycling capabilities, and told me that it wouldn’t be fair to the land to go junking it up. Prior to having the language of “ecology,” “engineering,” and “the Anthropocene,” DaMa’s words fueled my inclination for tinkering with and eventually self-studying them — which was great for the parentals since I didn’t coop myself up, but also nerve-wracking since I could vanish with a thought, no destination required.
Fey: Me in tow, to the grief of my babysitting cuzes.
[Mirukosee and Fey trade mischievous winks and grins.]
Mirukosee: Now bout how I be. I’ve been feeling thankful and actively at ease. With all that goodness, feeling grounded is only amplified by being with you — even though you acting like you don’t stockpile my weaknesses [laughter] — and getting to participate in this living archive and connector. Full transparency, the eagerness to be here has another, more selfish dimension due to my AC, in a manner of speaking, biting the dust. The tech that serviced it last didn’t properly reinstall the conversion filter and it choked on the stuff it’s meant to be digesting into something that greases the gears ‘stead of the air [removes a jar from the tray table, unscrews lid, and sips from it]. Excuse my builder babble, but with these newer ones, the entire thing doesn’t have to be scrapped — just refurbish the housing and reprocess the dud bits into new components — so it should be fixed by tonight, fortunately. Swear I slopped out of my caravan this morning.
Fey: [opens mouth then slightly closes it, sliding fingers into their overall’s pouch as if tucking something away] First, ‘preciate the love and how you offered it to my little pod. As you’re aware, its origins are in my appetite to document and connect the dots of what’s going on in real time; putting real, living amongst us, faces to it when folks are comfortable. Second — ooh you got that look in your eyes, whatchu thinkin?
Mirukosee: [covers eyes, laughing, and turns from Fey briefly] Maintaining our own records is key. And, I’ve gone back-and-forth on anonymity, its advantages, while still countering erasure — which is far too sticky to handle at this moment.
Fey: Why I’m mentally noting you’ll be returning for a panel episode to dig in [Mirukosee tips an imaginary hat.] . . . Where was I . . . ?
Mirukosee: You looked fit to serve shade ‘fore all this.
Fey: [pats their pouch with a slick, Oh yes, expression] That AC can damn near read one of my stories and it was taken out by dust bunnies?
[Fey lets out an Mm with lips pursed. Mirukosee chuckles and stares somewhere off camera.]
Mirukosee: There’s a risk in my vocation of complexity becoming synonymous with fussy; as in, even I, versed in the builder babble, manual and designs laid out on my loaded workbench, am ringing up a tech. So I been trying to predict and mitigate those probabilities moving from conception to fabrication and implementation with the Plastivap. [Mirukosee rocks upright, wheels a Plastivap into frame, and, cheesing, settles again.] Here’s my baby — not the Cylon-offspring of a cooler and a roller backpack. And here’s my pitch to soften up those testimonials: it is a machine that internally poofs chemical-based materials, such as plastic, to their birthday matter. [Mirukosee presses the side of the Plastivap and a slot tilts out. After plucking a motley crumpled lump from the tray table, Mirukosee drops it in. The slot seals.] It then disposes of the materials through a sauna-like evaporator juiced up by solar, and for the stationary in agreeable locals, wind or water too. A model run on and additionally neutralizing captured methane — yes, the cow farts — is in beta testing. [The Plastivap beatboxes as its slot unseals; Mirukosee, widening it, reveals emptiness.]
Fey: [claps] Thanks for that show-and-tell, and doing my job [laughter]. The Plastivap’s general user-friendliness is your commitment to remedying fussiness — sheeet I witnessed one mowed down by a delivery van that lived to beep its displeasure, then get it done. [Mirukosee’s dimples make a proud reappearance. Fey lightly drums on their stomach.] I got an inkling, though, there’s backstory to this you should discuss.
Mirukosee: [rocks back] Well, you recall the buzz following a feature about the Atlengin Co-Op I originally founded to get community involved and organize donations of skills to digi-bills? [Fey nods.] Several external investors circled, from the Fed to “well-intentioned” ashies ‘n crusties deigning to see the Plastivap as legit, who were interested in a concept exclusively for corporate use that dismissed anything everyday people could operate in their various contexts. But wait, you might say, corps are the source of these problems, so isn’t this great? Yeah — ‘cept it would’ve translated to them dictating access and whether or not they’d change their practices causing said problems. Hold up, what! [pumps the brakes]
I cannot emphasize enough that the Plastivap is a tool, and we gotta have mobile garages equipped to the teeth with all sorts. Beyond Risen Belts and other sanctuaries across the world, this would mean reduced plastic production and waste. Environmental protections that don’t leave nobody behind, and environmental protections that aren’t just human centering or focused on human redemption. Shifting how we satisfy our needs and desires — discerning and balancing the difference so we ain’t burdening ourselves and the spaces we share with those “mountains o’ things” Ancestor Tracy warned us bout; creating more of what lasts — like those smoove wallpaper sheets your Grans and Greats got stashed; and exchanging our disposable-first attitude when stuff no longer serves their OG purpose for one where we imagine more, or facilitating the transformation of objects that’ve never served as they are and could be more. [blows out a breath, laughter] Let’s reform the borders into some nice raised beds, okay?
Fey: None of that singular-consumer-against-a-systemic-blight propaganda.
Mirukosee: Nah, it’s learning guided by what we been knowing to grow, and knowledge sharing so we don’t fall for them tales. It’s sovereignty, moving at the rate of our care rather than anyone else’s — looking at anyone who got us into these messes to start with, and tried to keep us there. [Fey hmms and Mirukosee hums.] There’s a special kinda joy in watching people and structures that’ve prospered off outright doing violence to us, propping themselves up by extracting, coercing away, constraining our power, having to fairly compensate our cooperatives, and by extension, our communities, and to shore up those tools to our tune if they want our help. Our tools.
[Fey partially rises from their seat to stomp and clap, then sits heavily, blotting their forehead with a hankie from their pouch. Mirukosee slaps a thigh, cracking up.]
Fey: Wooh, yes, to every bit of that. It’s an —
Mirukosee & Fey: Alignment.
Fey: You did that — ah, ah, not discounting everyone who’ve also put they hearts and backs into it, but you had to render a dream first.
Mirukosee: [heart taps with a look of gratitude] Realized quick I had to believe, be clear in and motivated by its promises, before anyone else that it mattered to would.
Fey: We’ve sure been knocking on the door of what they are while acknowledging limitations, but [smirks] what are the Plastivap’s specific promises? How has considering the everyday assisted in actualizing them?
Mirukosee: Promise in this sense, for me, is opportunity. Everything I’ve shared is what it was supposed to do [jazz hands, laughter], but despite my expectations, I wasn’t entirely certain the degree to which the Plastivap’s design, the variety of ways it could accomplish its purpose, would be oriented as a result of listening and being with my kindred here and the kindred I’ve found globally — that reciprocal learning I mentioned earlier.
[rubs a foot against the Plastivap present]
After I put some meat on this skimpy idea’s bones, I had to start by giving time to existing with communities in their natural rhythms, and I did this kind of “first experiencing” here and in other places I was familiar with, too, to check myself. Then I moved to hosting meets at gathering hotspots, like this here porch, about their relationship with plastic and how plastic was impacting them. Then, I was goin and witnessing the environ — the communities of our communities — roun streets, into the woods, up hills, down by banks and shorelines where infection, or pollution, was rampant to give vetted prototypes a spin — which is when we figured out how the Plastivap can be altered to address other significant concerns like smog and chemical runoff. Mod workshops were held by those chronically ill with a knack for style and homemade making a way. Mountain folk from Appalachia to the Andes and Himalayas also told my head a mess bout how cumbersome it was trying to carry or operate on inclines while ironically not being rugged enough to withstand high winds and real low temps; glad it ain’t prevent them from being oh-so-generous in helping me bundle up my Southern-fried hide [laughs].
Soooo [breathes, taking it slow on the inhales and exhales] . . .
[Fey’s breaths find Mirukosee’s rhythm.]
Mirukosee: All this promise combined signifies what our elders and ancestors understood when they set they minds and set out — the robustness of what opportunities we can manifest collectively. What we can deeply tend to when we attend to one another.
[Mirukosee and Fey beam at each other.]
Fey: Alright, alright. It’s coming on closing, for the on-record-convo at least, and I’m not gonna disrespect you by asking about what else is in the works, what else you’re going to do. Instead, what is being “actively at ease” for you right here, right now?
Mirukosee: When my AC is functional, the ease is in resting and enjoying things that replenish: often appetizers moonlighting as entrees, mapmaking, and immersive single-player games. When outside and I can coexist, trike-wandering, eating at old haunts, and happening on happenings — I live for all the chances here to encounter random coolness! And, of course, squaring away time to spend with you, the parentals, naanbae . . . and y’alls kitchens.
Fey: Bet everyone tuning in picked up on a theme [snorts]. Isn’t naanbae — Ta Balan to all of us not counted among Ta’s soulmates — launching another food truck?
[Mirukosee nods, smiling, fro waving.]
Mirukosee: I’ve made the sacrifice of becoming mostly falaf ‘n kabob for love [laughter] as it’s a halal extension of Ta’s truck Spiciness of Life; after the SEWANA corner store Ta’s family will have owned and operated in Atlantas for seventy years this October — so I’m not completely biased when I say the lot of ‘em are incredible, and you should support if you aren’t already.
Fey: My kinda advertisement to end with. Do I need to say it? I’mma say it: I love you. Gratitude from me and I’m positive our audience for PULLING UP — and to that audience who chose to be here with us [gestures as if showering flowers]. Side sign-off, I’ll drop my next episode before the week’s out, like any true busybody, where Atlantas’s Fresh and Clean Co-Op will speak on everything we ain’t wanna know but gotta know regarding the establishment of an independent sewer system in the Risen South. [waves] Y’all take care now.
[Mirukosee and Fey embrace, and the outro instrumentals of Moses Sumney’s “Plastic” breeze through their words.]
