(crowd cheering)
(crowd chanting indistinctly)
(camera clicking)
♪ Oh ladies first, ladies first ♪
- [Woman] We love you Yandy!
- I was put in this place by God
to have a platform so that I can amplify the voices
of so many marginalized people.
So that I can amplify the voices
of low income people, how I grew up.
So that I can amplify the voices of black people.
So that I can amplify the voices of LGBTQIA+ community.
♪ Cause they see a woman standing up on her own two ♪
♪ Sloppy slouching is something I won't do ♪
- Because I was supposed
to do something with that influence.
♪ Stereotypes, they got to go, got to go ♪
♪ I'm a mess around and flip the scene into reverse ♪
♪ With what, with a little touch of "Ladies First" ♪
- She is most comfortable standing next
to us online, learning, leading,
and allowing her platform to extend to the point
that people truly believe in the cause.
- [Crowd] No justice, no peace!
- Yesterday was hard. We marched.
I saw people in anguish.
People that have the right to fight
for their voices to be heard.
- Sometimes she go a little to hard.
But, there's no stopping her.
- We did it!
(upbeat music)
(sweet music)
My name is Yandy Smith-Harris, and I grew up in Harlem.
I lived in Harlem all my life.
(upbeat music)
She always had a big heart
and always cared a lot for people
and she had deep conviction, you know,
at a very, very young age about what was right.
So she was always with me in whatever social activity,
march, walk that I participated in, she was there as well.
(upbeat music)
- I grew up in Harlem in the eighties
and if you know anything about Harlem,
you know, Harlem is all about culture.
I remember Al Sharpton having a building on 135th,
I believe, in Harlem and they would always
do so many community events.
You would see, it was almost church outside of the building
with the gathering that would happen.
I also remember so many heroes that aren't famous.
I remember Tamika Mallory's parents
leading marches in Harlem.
They were very active in the community in which I lived in.
(upbeat music)
Straight out of high school,
I decided I wanted to explore more.
I wanted to see more of the world.
So I went to the Mecca.
If you don't know what the Mecca is,
it is Howard University.
Going to Howard University absolutely shaped my ideas
on who we are as black people.
How incredibly diverse we are as black people,
even within our communities.
We are so diverse.
Every single thing that I needed to experience
for my life as an adult I dealt
with at some level at Howard.
♪ I put my lifetime in between the papers lines ♪
♪ In the quiet storm that fights rhymes ♪
- So, I started in the music business over 20 years ago.
I worked for Violator Management
under Mona Scott-Young and Chris Lighty.
I was touring the world with Missy Elliott,
going to show dates with 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes.
♪ To make her feel, lump them in the club ♪
♪ Have you out the neck when you wrote this ♪
- But the most important thing for me is
that I was under the tutelage of Mona Scott-Young
and I was able to learn so much
about just business etiquette,
about being a woman in entertainment,
about standing your ground.
All of those things were super important lessons
that were just as important as learning about tour life.
(upbeat music)
When I started out as one of the creators
and producer of "Love & Hip Hop",
I realized that there was a very important space missing
in front of the camera.
That was a woman that was successful,
that wasn't necessarily attached to a man,
that was in the entertainment business.
10 years later, I am still in front of the camera
but I realized it wasn't to be a star.
When I experienced my own personal family trauma
with the criminal justice system
that's when I really got a spark.
I have got to be a part of this change.
I have to do something.
Today is a huge event that I'm hosting
to support prison reform.
It is a cause that is very close to my heart.
(upbeat music)
Five years ago, my husband Mendeecees was sentenced
to eight years in federal prison.
- I'ma call you as much as possible.
I love you, a'ight?
- So I don't have to put words in his mouth.
Let's just ask him, okay? Babe?
I know you didn't think you'd
be getting on camera today.
So he asked me, how do you feel about my activism?
- Oh, I'm proud of her.
You know, she see a lot of things that,
you know, a lot of unjust that's going in the world
and she felt like she had to say something
and use her platform to, you know,
amplify, you know, the unjust and I'm very proud of her.
(sad music)
- I love you, a'ight?
- I love you, too.
- Even when you went through what you went through
with the criminal justice system,
those things made me realize
that we have a broken criminal justice system
and I wanted to just get more involved.
We went through a lot.
- You can send me these pictures.
- Anything.
- All right? And send me this money.
- I watched her travel back and forth
to the jails on the weekends, taking her kids
and going to the prison and visit her husband.
- My ring.
Here, take it.
- I've been in many rooms with her when she's
in the middle of the most fabulous presentations
and photo shoots and yet she has to stop to take a call
from her husband who she's been waiting
to speak to until he's able to use the phone.
- [Woman] Turn it off. Turn it off, right now!
(intense music)
- If your toilets are working, bang!
- Silence. - Silence!
- If you have not received the blankets sent, bang!
(banging)
You see that? Unacceptable.
- Just seeing, you know, you getting maced
and seeing that things that happened.
- Peace, peace, peace, peace. (people coughing)
- Sometimes I think it's a little bit too far
but I understand.
- Yeah. - You know.
- I understand the sacrifice.
- Yeah.
- But you getting arrested now
and you're on the other side.
- I got pepper sprayed and I got thrown on the floor.
- But you're on the side of right.
- There's video footage that most people have seen
of Yandy being inside of the building
during the MDC protest.
Out flies, Yandy from the building,
maced, crying, people screaming, trying to help her.
She was in pain.
They were pouring milk in her face
but I could just remember her saying to me,
"If I had to do it all over again, I would go back.
I would go with those mothers.
They were determined and I'm a mother
and I was determined as well."
- She's out there and she's, you know,
letting people see another side of her
that they probably didn't imagine
and in some cases probably think, Oh, this is not real.
This is not really who she is,
but it is and it always has been.
I will tell you this is more of who she is than
that reality part of it.
- I deserve to live! - I deserve to live!
- I am Black! - I am Black!
- You see so many injustices happen right before your eyes.
- I deserve to live! - I deserve to live!
- And I decided to get off my tail and get out there
and fight with those that were fighting.
- [Crowd] I'm a trans woman!
- And I deserve to live! - And I deserve to live!
(funky music)
- In activism, you absolutely have to have a crew.
♪ Don't be afraid ♪
♪ To let it shine ♪
♪ My Umi said shine your light on the world ♪
- It was important for me to align myself
with people that were actually doing the work.
Not looking to be famous or looking for clout chasing.
♪ My Abi said shine your light on the world ♪
- You cannot in any way substitute knocking on doors
and putting your feet on the ground,
which is something that I love about Yandy.
She is not an at home, behind the phone activist.
- Hey, bro?
- Okay, sis, you're in here looking,
what's going on with you?
- What's happening?
- We just finished bagging up probably
about 500 bags of food.
- Wow. - It is cold.
- And rainy out here, so.
- Hey, did Tamika or Toya tell you
that on the 21st I collected and,
in sum, purchased about 5,000, 6,000 toys.
I want Until Freedom to come on board
and help me hand them out in this community.
- We're doing our pop-up shop on the 21st.
- What's happening at the Until Freedom pop-up shop?
- We're doing giveaways.
We got merchandise that we doing a pop-up shop.
We gonna do seminars talking
about what our new platform is going to be.
So it's going to be dope, dope, dope, dope.
- When I met Tamika Mallory,
for me she was like the modern day Sojourner Truth.
- Daniel Cameron is no different than the sellout Negroes
that sold out people into slavery.
You are a coward! You are a sell out!
- No justice, no peace! Prosecute the police!
No justice, no peace!
- We have marched and held up one of the busiest bridges
in Kentucky all to bring awareness to her unjust murder.
- No justice! - No peace!
- Say her name! - Breonna Taylor!
- Me going on Daniel's Cameron lawn was so important
to disrupt his life so that he understood we are going
to make sure she gets justice whatever that may mean
and until you decide to prosecute
and arrest those officers for murdering her,
we are going to keep disrupting your life.
(somber music)
I am here to expose those injustices that are happening
in towns where women like Brianna Taylor live,
so that they can not just go and get swept under the rug.
Everyone needs to be held accountable
from the top down to the bottom.
She should be here.
(somber music)
So I think with the definition of being a rebel,
when you are rising against authority
or rising against a governmental structure,
sometimes they don't like it.
- It's just important to me
that she's speaking what's important to her.
- I'm a Black man! - I'm a Black man!
- And I deserve to live! - And I deserve to live!
- And so I'm proud that she's out there.
- You're on the other side,
but I think you're not you're on the side of right.
But at the same time, you know,
I understand the sacrifice, but I just get fearful.
♪ Whatever you want ♪
- For us to call ourselves change makers we have
to be relevant with the people we want the change for
and for me, I want to change the world
for the generation after me.
I'm hoping that there are tons of children and young adults
that can one day say I'm doing what I'm doing
because someone did it for me.
- She is in her time going to become one
of the most incredible leaders in this movement.
♪ Every woman, every woman ♪
- I'm the Yandy Smith-Harris and I'm a "Rebel with a Cause".
♪ Behind every woman ♪