Tell me about growing up, being a little girl.

Oh, growing up being a little girl.

Grew up right across the river in Newark, New Jersey as a little girl.

I moved to East Orange when I was about 13 years old,

till I moved out of my mom's house at 19 years old.

A lot of stuff between then, between the beginning and then.

Life was fun. We had a big family, so, you know, my father has nine brothers and sisters, nine of them, and my mother comes from seven brothers and sisters.

Did you think I'm a girl, I can only do certain kinds of things, or was that never part of your...

Well, I was a tomboy, so that never really entered my mind. I part of your well I was a tomboy so that never really

entered my mind I didn't really know I was a girl until I had to put on a shirt I couldn't

run around with naked anymore and somebody told me you got to put on a shirt Dana you're a little

you're a girl I'm like why they're like you're a girl and I'm looking at my brother and my cousins like they're just running around with no shirts on and I'm like, why? They're like, you're a girl. And I'm looking at my brother and my cousins, like, they're just running around with no shirts on. And I'm like, well, why do I have to put on the shirt? They don't have to put on. And then I kind of realized there's a difference between boys and girls. So, and I didn't, I don't think I liked it initially because it meant, you know, something gets taken taken away and you get treated a little

differently so that was like strike one but um but yeah but other than that I mean it was kind of

it was a lot of fun a lot of love in our house not a whole bunch of money but a lot of love a lot of

family um a lot of music you see you've've said that you listen to all kinds of rock and roll.

Yeah.

I listen to everything.

My dad primarily played strictly jazz.

So you get in my father's car and it was always jazz on the radio.

And you get with my mom or in her car and it was anything from Elton John to Bob Marley to

Phoebe Snow to the Tim Pree's and the Shylights and you know we just had a big

musical dynamic. You know as I grew older I just loved all kinds of music.

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