A Podcast Interview with Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas

For this episode of Woods & Wilds: The Podcast Season 3, we interviewed youth organizer and activist Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas is an Italian African American living in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains in Asheville, North Carolina. She is currently a senior at Asheville High School and plans on attending a four-year university to earn her bachelor’s degree in business and marketing. She’s passionate about being an advocate for others and bringing awareness to the importance of things. She’s a dreamer and puts in the work to see her ideas come to life.

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Read the full transcript of our interview with Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas!

Full Transcript featuring Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:

Elizabeth:
Hi everyone. I’m Elizabeth Lashay with Slay the Mic, and I am so excited to be back for season three of the Woods & Wilds Podcast brought to you by Dogwood Alliance. And I am joined by my amazing cohost, who’s going to take it away.

Kimala:
I’m Kimala Luna from Dogwood Alliance. We’re so happy to be here with Slay the Mic and Elizabeth, and we have a really special guest today. We have Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas, who is an Italian African American living in the heart of Appalachian Mountains in Asheville, North Carolina. She is currently a senior at Asheville High School and plans on attending a four year university for her bachelor’s in business and marketing. She’s passionate about being an advocate for others and bringing awareness to the importance of things. She’s a dreamer and puts in the work to see her ideas come to life. Thank you so much, Trinity, for being here today. And I wanted to talk to you just right off the bat, jump right into it, about your very special business plan.

Elizabeth:
Yes.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. So I came up with a business plan while in my business management class of last semester. And essentially we were told to look at an industry and see what it’s lacking and what we could provide for it. So I looked at the marketing agency industry and there were two key factors that I noticed. One being that it was not affordable. All of those big businesses were only catered towards very rich companies. And then secondly, what I noticed even just from experiencing this big wave of Black Lives Matter is that there’s a lot of Black owners of their businesses, of their own… Like for instance, Liz, people who are sole proprietors of their own businesses that don’t get enough attention, that get left behind. So Livello is what it’s called, which means level in Italian. And it’s a marketing agency that serves all, but it’s specifically designed to cater towards and help uplift the underrepresented Black and people of color community and those businesses within it to help them get the recognition they deserve and bring more traction to the business.

Elizabeth:
And I’m so excited to be able to see this growth.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
So nice too to have y’all’s support with everything as well. I think that’s another huge factor is like, I was like, “Oh, this is a cool idea.” And then Liz were like, “Get the domain.” And I was like, “Okay, we’re doing this.”

Kimala:
Let’s back up a bit though. Let’s talk about… Because I know Liz introduced me to you, Trinity, but how did y’all meet?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
We met through an organization through my high school called CAYLA it’s the City of Asheville Youth Leadership Academy.

Elizabeth:
Academy.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Yes. So actually it’s this program through the school or you actually do have to apply to it and you have to get interviewed, just like any other job. And it’s pretty competitive. But it’s designed for us to become part of this little close-knit community of students where we do summer internships based on careers or hobbies that we’re interested in expanding on. So Miss Alex, who is the leader, the coordinator of CAYLA, we had talked about what I was interested in and I was like music and it was also business and entrepreneurship. And she was like, “Girl, I’m going to put you with Liz. Liz is everything you need.” And it kind of just started there. And then I worked with them for the summer and then we decided that I would to continue on working with them after the summer as an intern for them.

Elizabeth:
Mm-hmm. And I’m just so excited because both Kimala and I have been able to just witness this amazing… You’re about to graduate. Do you have any excitement? What are your feelings before, as you’re getting closer to graduation?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
I’m really just excited to go out on my own. I have always been independent growing up and I’ve always had the support of my family. But just the idea of like flying from the nest and getting to really develop who I am. Right after I leave is when it’s really going to start being, “All right, who do you want to be? What do you want your life to look like?” So I’m really excited to start sculpting that.

Kimala:
That’s awesome. And for those that are tuning in, I just, for context, want to say that after the CAYLA internship, we had such a good experience working with Trinity and were so blown away by Trinity, your leadership skills and your organization and your commitment working with us that we kept Trinity on working on Slay the Mic multimedia. Which keep an eye out, there’s a lot of projects coming out for that soon. And for me, I can say I’ve been working with you for four or five, maybe six months at this point. And I am really, really impressed by your drive and your artistic passion. And I just want to know maybe a little bit about you grew up in Appalachia, what’s your relationship to nature to forests look like?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Well, first off I want to say thank you. So very sweet. So yes, well I would say originally my mom had a very much closer relationship with nature than I. But I grew up in my mom’s way of living and what was important to her was that we were always in the woods, either hiking or camping or just being in the nature. So a lot when I was younger we would go hiking. I learned how to backpack when I was younger as well. And I’ve always been raised to believe that the woods are not only just trees, they’re this living, breathing thing that senses you and it’s something I can connect deeply with. And I think when I was younger, I took that very literally. I would remember going on hikes with my mom and stuff and just thinking all the trees were my friends walking beside me. And I would imagine forest spirits and stuff. So I’ve always had this silly, goofy, fun relationship with being in the woods and everything.

Elizabeth:
That is awesome. What a wonderful story and what a wonderful way to be introduced and to hone in on that imagination. As we’re discussing and looking at environmental justice, what are some things that you are noticing that you are appreciating that’s being done? And then that will lead me into my next follow up question.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Yes. I think one really big thing that relates a lot to my generation is there is that huge, giant worry of climate change and what our lives are going to look like 10 years from now or whatnot. And so I do know that in my generation there’s many small movements of us doing what we can to start pushing the older generation toward providing what they need to know so that we have a life to live some years down the road that’s healthy and clean. And I see young people younger than me all the time advocating. And I think… What was her name? Greta? Greta, I believe. She amazes me. And I just think seeing that inspires me to advocate myself. And again, going back to my mom and nature, it’s important to us so we do everything we can to provide for it as well. And that looks like just being environmentally friendly and making sure we recycle properly and replanting things and stuff like that. And giving back to the land.

Elizabeth:
I think that actually answered my next question was what are some things that can be done or things that you’ve implemented into your lifestyle and practiced? And you just simply answered that. So thank you.

Kimala:
Well, it sounds like it’s not dissimilar, right? Your passion for your business plan and your reverence in nature, how we’re pursuing racial justice, climate justice and spending time in nature all have these similar patterns. So where do you see those patterns happening in your business plan and like also how you treat nature?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Actually, that’s a really interesting question because the other day I met with Alex and I had an essay that I was going to have to write for a scholarship that was asking me, “As a business, how can you be environmentally and culturally aware and still maintain corporate responsibilities?” And I was like, “That’s a very loaded question. How will I do that?” But it is something that’s super important to me. I’ve always told my mom when I knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur and start my own business that I want the things that I care about now and my morals to carry into the business and not shift or bend to capitalistic values or views and things like that.
And I think as a business, for me, every way that I would operate would be environmentally conscious and friendly. And even in having an office building, when I eventually get one of those, I want to make sure that all the product that we’re producing is friendly. All of the product that we use is friendly. Everything in that space supports protecting our forest and our world. And while doing so, keeping my employees happy and feeling like they’re in a productive and healthy environment. And when my employees and I can feel that way, like we are supporting our environment and each other, we can then be our strongest selves to support this social justice movement that we would like to contribute to.

Elizabeth:
Oh my goodness.

Kimala:
That’s beautiful.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Thank you.

Elizabeth:
That was beautiful. And I cannot wait. You don’t have to employ me, but I would love… No pressure, but years down the line. What I would love to know is when you think about the future, so let’s say five years, eight years away, how do you see individuals tackling climate crisis together? I think what you were saying is that your generation is bringing awareness and creating these movements. I wish that there was more awareness during the time that I was growing up. And then for those other generations, how can we build this gap to create the future?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Right. Well, I think it’s interesting because the older generation that is kind of in charge of what we do now does have a very different way of thinking, being that they came from a different way of life and that was capitalism and making the most of what you can and however much money you can out of these things. And now our generation is starting to see that these things that they believe in won’t provide for us at all by the time that we’re their age. And so I think in the next five years it’s going to make a huge difference because now those same people from older generations tend to kind of discredit are words and our ideas because we’re just thought to be kids, how do our opinions really hold impact? What do we say really matters? What do we know? Is kind of what is questioned.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
But I think it’s going to be interesting in the next five years we have all these brilliant minds who have already been doing so much and will hit this age where going to power forward, you know? I think that’s at a point where we no longer can be silenced and that we have the ability to expand our ideas.

Kimala:
Ooh, that sounds powerful. And a lot of really forward momentum. Really, every time I talk to you, I have like so much reverence and this deep desire to just really support those that are coming up, who’ve really come up in some of the wildest times we’ve ever seen in terms of the political environment, the climate environment. I just want to show up in the best way. What is one thing you wish, or one thing you could ask for from the older generation to support the youth right now?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
I think I would ask them for more opportunity. As youth, we’re doing a lot to reach out to the older generation to try to bridge that gap. In turn, the older generation could bridge that gap with us as well. That will heighten our ability to communicate and open the floor more for that conversation. I really think that would do a lot for connecting generations.

Elizabeth:
I knew that I really found the power of nature in a very low moment for myself. And then it’s just been this love ever since then. Whenever you are out in nature, what are some feelings that you get whenever you’re surrounded by just nature in general?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Oh my gosh, I love this one because it’s truly so amazing. Actually, at my old house, we were on a lot of land so there was a lot of space up the mountain. And we had a spring, an actual water spring that came down the mountain and all these big, giant mossy boulders. And I remember a lot of times when I felt a little bit lost or like I needed to just breathe, I would go up into the mountain and I would go sit on like the biggest boulder I could find that would look over all the springs. And it’s just such a relieving feeling. I would sit there and just close my eyes and just breathe and listen. And listening, it’s just amazing. You can hear so many different things. And it’s really remarkable what you realize by just sitting quietly. The creatures will start to move around you. And it’s really just this super relief that life does exist and it is here thriving beautifully.

Kimala:
In the next couple of years, what do you hope to have accomplished?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
By the time I graduate if there’s the opportunity for me to gain more experience in the field and what I’m interested in, and I really hope that I can have the foundation of a steady job to where that I can bring in enough money to where I can go out and explore. I think that’s something that’s really important to me. Building my career on something I’m interested in is really important to me, but also realizing that life can’t just be your career. It has to be so much more because there’s so much to experience.
But while I do something that I enjoy, I want to be able to explore the world and travel, but still feel like I have a safety net at home. That’s the biggest thing to me. I love traveling. I love getting to experience other cultures. And it’s really eye opening. I think a lot of times, especially in our country, people get trapped in this bubble and we forget that there’s so many different cultures and so many different lives lived all over the world. And I think it’s super important to experience that and see how people live their lives and it makes your feel not so small.

Elizabeth:
I absolutely love that. And I think it’s a wonderful reminder for me as well, who came from a mother who was like, “You need to work this job and you need to be able to be financially stable in this way.” And there was no room for that adventure and that travel. And so I’m having to unwind some patterns and thoughts of like if taking a break, feeling guilty. So I just want to say thank you for that wonderful reminder. And I admire you and your strength. With that being said, it might be something that’s uncomfortable for some, but what are you proud of of yourself? What are you proud of of Trinity?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
I would say I am really proud of how I reach for my future. I think a lot of what I see around me sometimes is people feeling hopeless because they’re waiting for that to come to them. But since I was young, I’ve always done everything I can to achieve what I want to. I guess it couldn’t really see the crazy importance of it until this year, but as I’m getting into colleges and I’m getting scholarships, I’m just starting to see the whole weight of everything I’ve worked so hard to do come into one. I just think like I’ve worked so hard and diligently all my life that the next chapter of my life is going be an amazing one. So I’m proud of myself for that and for showing myself [inaudible 00:18:06] along the way.

Kimala:
Absolutely. That’s wonderful. You are such an appreciator of art and music. What is music that you’ve been really loving recently?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
I’ve been really, really, really into folk recently. I detached from that because that was my mom’s thing and moved towards like hip-hop, R&B was my thing for a really long time. But recently… I mean, folk is like the roots of the Appalachia. That’s always at the basis of where my taste can come from. And so I’ve been listening to a lot of also country, like Brandi Carlile. I am obsessed with her. I’m very obsessed. Same thing with these two ladies Lark [inaudible 00:18:55] is their name. Their music is so… It just hits right in your soul. It just vibrates in your soul. I really loved that. I think too though, I’ve been a little bit less into music, but I’ve been a lot more into poetry. Poetry has really been my thing recently. And writing.

Kimala:
I love poetry. And you showed me this one poet, what was his name again? It was so beautiful.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Kwota B. Yes, Kwota. Oh my gosh. I love his book, When Doves Fly. I like read it like 50 times and analyzed everything. And really honestly, after reading his book, I actually started writing my own poetry. And then I started buying all kinds of poetry books. He really inspired me into this whole different mindset. Because I think I used to be really afraid of poetry just because I thought it’s so intense and complex and I’m like, “How do I dissect this?” But I realized too with reading Kwota’s work and then also listening to a lot of spoken word that it doesn’t have to be so complicated. It doesn’t have to have such a specific form. It’s just what you’re feeling. So that was a cool moment for me. And I started writing my own poetry with no rhyme or reason. It’s just kind of like a bunch of words.

Elizabeth:
Well, I love how everything is really deeply intertwined. Your love for nature, your business model, your writing and your passions and your music. It all really seems to be centered from the soul that is able to be then generated from the core of the soul outward. So I really appreciate that. When you’re thinking about next steps for your business, what are things that you would like support on, if anything, to make your dreams turn into reality?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
For one, I’ve kind of laid out the groundwork. And I think I was telling you this earlier in another meeting, Kimala, but I have this groundwork that I built in my business class, but there’s a lot of it that I want to go over and revise. And I think with that, I could use a lot of help. And I think another biggest thing for me is too, I know some experiences based on my family, but I really want to spend time going into the community and hearing everyone’s grievances and such towards what it’s like, or not even grievances, just like achievements as being a person of color and owning your own business. And I think hearing everyone’s experiences will help me develop my marketing plans and such to address specific things. I don’t want to be so vague. I want to really hone into what the community needs. So I think that would be really cool to get some support from.

Kimala:
If you had a recommendation for your peers on how to get started, if they’re interested in being an entrepreneur, if they’re interested in getting more involved in the community, since these are things that you’re already doing, what would your advice be to them?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Take every opportunity you can. I was really unsure of CAYLA and I was just kind of like, “I don’t even know if I’ll get in. Or do I even really want to do this?” And it ended up being the most beneficial thing for me that I’ve experienced in a really long time. I met Liz and now I am on board with you guys learning so many new things. And I’m building Livello and having the support from you guys at building Livello. So I would just say to my peers, take every opportunity that you can take. Don’t spend the time to worry about the logistics of it or whether or not it’s right. Just jump right in and see what happens. And it might be something pretty amazing.

Elizabeth:
I also know that every few years there’s always new trends and one that I keep hearing a lot lately, at least for the past four years, is self care. Self care this, self-care that, are people actually doing it. And so what is something that you do that’s self care?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
I think the most important decision that I’ve made for myself is when I really started cherishing my hair. It’s really interesting. It took me a really long time. But I never liked my curls and I always threw it up in a bun. And I don’t know why I always threw it up in a bun because I always hated the way it looked. But I was just like, “Whatever’s easiest.” And I think this year and last year I started really looking into how to take care of my curls. I do hair care routines after my shower and actually I got a bonnet because I used to just sleep on my hair and just let it get all dry and brittle.
But now I do my hair care and I wear my bonnet and then I take my hair down in the morning and then I wear it down or I style it differently. And I think as soon as I started doing that, there was a huge shift in a lot of different things. Like the way I carried myself and then also my style, the way that I presented myself. And then it also just felt so good for the soul. I felt like I unlocked a new Trinity by letting my curls be free and taking care of them. That is probably one of my biggest things that I’ve done recently.

Kimala:
This is for my own curiosity, but I was wondering, what is it like coming up through high school and you’ve had a really unique high school experience, you’ve probably been remote for a lot of it, it’s been really activated for the other half, what’s that feeling like?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
It was really strange. I think it contributed a lot to my interaction with people. Pre-COVID Trinity didn’t interact with anyone and just kept her head down and just walked where she needed to go. But then we went into COVID and I was thinking everyone’s complaining, but I was like, “I’ll be fine. I don’t interact with people anyways. So this is like my thing. I’ll just lay in bed all day.” But I actually think it worked the opposite. I started to be like, “Oh my gosh, I don’t want to be in here anymore. I’m so bored and I want to talk to someone.”
And so as soon as we got out of COVID, I was like this social butterfly. And now I still am. I have so many friends now and so many acquaintances and I’m so interactive with people. I feel like it had like a reverse effect on me where I’m just like, “I need to talk to people now.” And there’s still those like little parts of me. I can be pretty introverted still where I sometimes I’m just like, “I just want to spend time by myself.” But I definitely think it benefited me in the way of I made a lot of important and close friends after that. So it was really hard though.

Elizabeth:
So I’m just going to ask where we can find and keep going with Trinity’s journey. But…

Kimala:
I mean, I know we can find Trinity monitoring the cafe project at her school, and I hope she talks about that. And before we wrap up, just definitely want to say that you are so special Trinity and you inspire us all the time in ways you are never going to be aware of. And we’re always blown away. So keep doing what you’re doing. You’re doing a good job.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Thank you so much. That makes me really happy. Thank you guys for even having me here as well and letting me talk for a while.

Elizabeth:
Yeah, well I want to hear about this cafe project. So tell us about the cafe project.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Yeah, so it actually happened like this. So we have this Groundhog… It’s called Groundhogs and it’s a cafe within our school where we make breakfast, right now it’s every Thursday morning, for the teachers and staff. It’s not available to students right now. I just started doing the mornings there this semester. And there was a point where my teacher was like, “Okay, so we have this social media, but nothing has been done to it. Does anyone here know how to do marketing?” And I was looking around and then everyone simultaneously stared at me. And then that’s how it started. It was like I kind of got [inaudible 00:27:28].
So I did, I got put in charge of doing the social media management for Groundhogs. It’s been really great so far actually. It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve been taking pictures. Actually, I have an intern that I’m teaching a little bit about marketing. Although we’re kind of learning along the way to get there. So me and her, we take pictures during the days when we’re cooking and then delivering. And we’ve done some cool little teaser post because we are on the brink of something pretty cool. We’re in the development of something pretty cool. So we’ve been just doing the marketing for that and it’s been pretty responsive so far.

Elizabeth:
That is awesome. So where can we find this? So on Instagram?

Kimala:
What are the handles?

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
I got you. Okay. So it’s called groundhogs.cafe.ahs. Yeah, it was actually called Groundhogs because we have this family of groundhogs that lives on campus and they’ll literally like walk up to you. There was several points where I just like sat and just me and this groundhog just stared at each other for a while. They live there, they interact with the students. So that’s why it’s called Groundhogs.

Elizabeth:
That’s amazing.

Kimala:
That’s amazing.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Yeah, they’re so cute. They’re seriously super cute. There’s a really, really chunky one.

Kimala:
Groundhogs, they know where to find the medicinal plants. If you follow a groundhog all around all day, they’re going to eat the most nutritionally dense medicinal plants in the area. They’re an Appalachia secret, yeah.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
I didn’t even know that. That makes sense though. We have this big hill around Asheville High that’s just dense vegetation. So maybe that’s why, there’s some goodness in there somewhere.

Kimala:
Yeah. For sure. Very cool.

Elizabeth:
Oh my goodness. Well, we know that this is not the last that we’re going to hear from you. And actually we have some really cool possible opportunities that we would love to continue to collaborate on. But this is really going to start where we share the table. And actually not share the table, we wanted to take a step back as the generation, the millennials, to just say, “Hey we want to learn from you, the youth, on how we can create a better future.” So we’re so excited and grateful for what you’re doing, what you continuously do and how you show up for others. So I know that, again, just following what Kimala said that this has been inspirational and we are always grateful for you choosing to be part of our life and be our intern and teach us.

Kimala:
Yes.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Equally, I’m so, so happy you guys chose me to continue working with you because it’s been one of the greatest experiences of my life so far. And I love working with you guys so much. And I’m happy that this is such a big family. Because I know that even when I leave Asheville, I’ll still be able to be a part of it.

Kimala:
Definitely. Well, thank you so much, Trinity. And for those tuning in, keep an eye out on what we do this year. Trinity’s going to have a big part in that. And thank you, thank you all so much.

Trinity Giovanna Barnwell-Thomas:
Thank you.