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[0:10] Robert Bannon: Are you ready?

[0:11] Robert Bannon: It's the round table with me, Robert Bannon.

[0:15] Robert Bannon: Well, hey everybody, welcome to the round table.

[0:18] Robert Bannon: I'm Robert Bannon. You're listening to us on the Broadway Podcast Network or watching us right here on YouTube.

[0:22] Robert Bannon: I am excited because as a musician, occasionally, and as someone who loves music, I took violin lessons for one week.

[0:33] Robert Bannon: It's a lot of twisting and turning.

[0:37] Robert Bannon: And I have some friends who are violists and violinists, and anybody who can put together and make music.

[0:43] Robert Bannon: We had a harpist on the other day who made a beautiful album. We've had people on who have played all sorts of instruments, and the fact that you're able to make a career out of being a solo artist and win at the Apollo and tour and put out music.

[0:58] Robert Bannon: I'm ready. And we're neighbors because she's from Teaneck, New Jersey, and I'm from Richmond Park, New Jersey.

[1:04] Robert Bannon: So Bergen County, stand up. Welcome. Welcome, Kersten. Welcome to the show.

[1:11] Kersten Stevens: Hi.

[1:12] Kersten Stevens: Hi, Robert. Thank you for having me.

[1:15] Kersten Stevens: I am so excited to talk to you.

[1:17] Kersten Stevens: And while we're here, we might as well just bury the lead right from the get-go.

[1:22] Kersten Stevens: The album, the album, out now.

[1:26] Kersten Stevens: You know, you can you have to check out the album.

[1:29] Kersten Stevens: "Release the Grace" is the single.

[1:40] Robert Bannon: Yes, please. What is I I've asked this question. What makes you as an instrumentalist say, I'm not gonna just play in an orchestra, I'm not just gonna play in a pit. I want to make my instrument be the voice, be the main focal point of the music.

[1:56] Kersten Stevens: Yeah, well, I mean, I think it started when I was younger. So I started playing, actually, I know exactly how it started. Let me rewind.

[2:01] Kersten Stevens: So I started playing, I was three years old, and I started playing the violin, and I grew up studying Suzuki, the Suzuki method, which is a very specific, very widely known method in classical violin playing, where you learn to listen with your ear and play notes, and it's a lot.

[2:22] Kersten Stevens: But before I go into all of that, there was a lot of competition in that school, and I guess a good way, you know, growing up in the 80s, 90s, there was always a lot of competition with classical musicians, and I think there was a part of me that said, How do I stand out? What's what can be different about how I play and express myself on the instrument?

[2:44] Kersten Stevens: So that started in one way. At the same time, I had a great uncle who was a preacher, and his opinion was if you're playing the violin, you should know how to play "Amazing Grace" and "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" and "Holy, Holy, Holy," and "How Great Thou Art."

[3:00] Kersten Stevens: And he made it a point every time I was at his house to teach me a different hymn. And so as I learned the hymns, somewhere along the lines, my parents were like, Oh, well, now that you know this, you should be playing in church.

[3:11] Kersten Stevens: Okay. So then I was put in stages and on stage in pulpits and on stages, and in a position really to perform, and the more I performed, the more I had opportunities to improvise on the instrument.

[3:26] Kersten Stevens: And I didn't know what that was, and my parents weren't like, Well, how's she gonna learn that? And so I went from having classical music teachers to having jazz teachers who taught me how to improvise.

[3:35] Kersten Stevens: So, some of it, all of it, all of that to say that, you know, some of it started with, well, how can I be different in my expression on the instrument? And then also there was, well, here's all this music that I'm being taught or being told I need to learn.

[3:48] Kersten Stevens: And then learning those things created opportunities for performance. And it just kind of went from there because I really loved performing music that wasn't just Bach and Beethoven and Mozart.

[4:00] Kersten Stevens: As much as I loved Bach and Beethoven and Mozart, I'm absolutely certain I wasn't meant to be an orchestral musician. I was meant to be the artist that I am.

[4:09] Robert Bannon: So yes, I love that. Did you study violin here in Jersey? Did you study violin in the city? I'm sure there have been many teachers who didn't.

[4:17] Kersten Stevens: So I studied everywhere. I grew up in Stratford, Connecticut. So the majority of my classical study was in Connecticut between teachers in New Haven, the proximity to Yale University where I ultimately went for undergrad.

[4:30] Kersten Stevens: So a lot of all my classical teachers, most of them were either Yale graduates or had come through there one way or the other. On the jazz side though, my at least I would say the teacher I spent the most time with was John Blake Jr.

[4:44] Kersten Stevens: And he was in Philadelphia. However, most of my study with him happened in Massachusetts. So I was all over the map most of the, you know, with my study.

[4:54] Kersten Stevens: And I was actually thinking about Connecticut in and of itself with its proximity to Massachusetts and what's going on with jazz there and its proximity to New York City as a jazz mecca and how being positioned there really allowed me to kind of glean and develop all of the musical training I needed.

[5:14] Kersten Stevens: So yeah.

[5:16] Robert Bannon: I love that. I love the jazz world. I love the community that is the jazz world, and I love that everyone, and whatever word you use, jazz or whatever word it is, that there's a people get who love the music and your music, listening to your music makes you just it could it's great for cleaning the house, having a dinner party, driving in the car, going to sleep.

[5:39] Robert Bannon: Whatever you need to do to just be, it is perfect moment.

[5:44] Kersten Stevens: It really is.

[5:45] Kersten Stevens: It really is.

[5:46] Robert Bannon: While you're here, people can while we're talking, besides streaming the album and listening to the music, where can we find information about you?

[5:52] Kersten Stevens: We could find you on Instagram.

[5:54] Kersten Stevens: Oh yeah, I would love for everyone to find me on Instagram.

[5:57] Kersten Stevens: On Instagram, I'm at Kersten Stevens, and I post there all the time.

[6:01] Kersten Stevens: That's the best place to find out what I'm laughing about at any given day.

[6:07] Kersten Stevens: What I'm listening to, what's encouraging me. And but also, you know, where I'm performing and where you can see me and hear me and learn updates.

[6:16] Kersten Stevens: So there's all of the music stuff, but then there's all the other side stuff, you know, because we're still human beings, you know, we're artists, art as an artist, you are many, many things in addition to your art.

[6:25] Kersten Stevens: So that's a great place to engage with me and chat and learn, meet my dog, things like that.

[6:30] Kersten Stevens: Yeah, you'll hear my dog. He's he never listens and follows directions for an interview ever.

[6:35] Robert Bannon: Kersten's also you can go to KerstenStevens.com if you want more information about her history and where you can find the music and all of that fun stuff.

[6:42] Robert Bannon: The album, Queen Rising.

[6:45] Kersten Stevens: Yes.

[6:52] Robert Bannon: The single, "Release the Grace," the videos that go gorgeous, gorgeous, and what do you mean?

[6:52] Robert Bannon: I've I listened to it, so I know a little bit what you mean, but what does it mean when you say the single "Release the Grace" is an ode to Luther Vandross?

[6:59] Kersten Stevens: Oh well, I mean, so I'm a little old school, right? I'm young, but I'm old school.

[7:04] Kersten Stevens: I mean, I when I grew up, the artists, I remember the moment when we got a CD player in the house, and that was somewhere in the early 90s.

[7:13] Kersten Stevens: And there were only so many CDs in the house. Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Prince, Stevie Wonder, and Luther Vandross.

[7:22] Kersten Stevens: Like at one point, those are the and TLC around 96, right? Because I was crazy sexy cool, you know, that's where I was in fifth grade, sixth grade.

[7:30] Kersten Stevens: So those are the albums that I first started listening to.

[7:33] Kersten Stevens: Luther Vandross, I have performed his songs time and time again, but never "Too Much."

[7:39] Kersten Stevens: It was important for me with this album to have something people could dance to, like really actually dance and enjoy and listen and just vibe with.

[7:49] Kersten Stevens: And I didn't on the artistic side, I didn't think about what I'm about to say, which was that I was gonna need permission from the Luther Vandross estate to do what I did to that song.

[8:01] Kersten Stevens: Fantastic. We record the song, we master it, we get all the work done, all the investment.

[8:06] Kersten Stevens: And then I go to figure out, you know, all the back end stuff.

[8:11] Kersten Stevens: And our licensors were they're like, you know, they very rarely approve anything with this song.

[8:18] Kersten Stevens: So we'll send it out. You can pay us, but you know, when you pay us, there's no likelihood that you're even gonna.

[8:24] Kersten Stevens: They literally were like, you can just flush this money down the toilet, but we'll do our due diligence.

[8:29] Kersten Stevens: But we did it. We put it out, we put it out, we sent it to them, and you know within two weeks they came back and had approved the song.

[8:37] Kersten Stevens: And so "Release the Grace." I mean, there's a lot to say about the title, a lot to say about Luther Vandross, but I'm really mostly thankful and grateful and appreciative that we were able that they allowed Christian and I to do what we did on the album with that song, with that track.

[8:53] Kersten Stevens: And to this day, it's one of my favorite tracks on Queen Rising.

[8:56] Kersten Stevens: It is a fire track.

[8:58] Kersten Stevens: And it is fun.

[9:00] Kersten Stevens: And the same, the whole vibe of it all is just something that will get your energy up and your spirit up.

[9:05] Kersten Stevens: And it is fun.

[9:06] Robert Bannon: You talked about Christian McBride, Christian McBride, a time Grammy Award-winning bassist, but artists in his own right, innovator in his own right.

[9:15] Robert Bannon: What was that relationship like? And how did you grab him to do this?

[9:22] Kersten Stevens: Yeah, that is one of the most cherished special relationships I have in the music industry.

[9:28] Kersten Stevens: Christian agreed to produce the album in January 2019.

[9:33] Kersten Stevens: We're out at breakfast. We've been friends for some years, and I thought, like, what would it mean if he produced this next album?

[9:40] Kersten Stevens: He had mentioned to me, like, you know, if you just had the right support behind you with the album, you know, I'm pretty sure it'd be really hot.

[9:45] Kersten Stevens: And I was like, you know what, I think he's on to something.

[9:48] Kersten Stevens: And when I asked him about producing, my thought was literally production. Help me with the songs, decide what they are.

[9:55] Kersten Stevens: We ended up writing all the original tunes on that album together, all of the arrangements we arranged together, and then he performed on every single song.

[10:05] Kersten Stevens: So when you listen to that album and you hear bass, even if it doesn't say featuring Christian McBride, it is Christian McBride on bass, which is just my it still blows my mind.

[10:18] Kersten Stevens: We did the album release at City Winery last month, and I'm still that's my dog.

[10:24] Kersten Stevens: I'm still like mind-blown over the fact, even that day I was like, Is it gonna happen? Are we really this is actually still this is a thing?

[10:31] Kersten Stevens: And I'm still we've recorded the album, mixed, mastered, put it out there, and still the day of the album release, I was like, this is actually really happening.

[10:39] Kersten Stevens: And I think that that makes it even more magical and more special.

[10:43] Kersten Stevens: Because it's really humbling to have an artist of his stature point you out and say, I see your magic too.

[10:51] Kersten Stevens: And how can I help to elevate and bring you up?

[10:55] Kersten Stevens: And so I've just been really humbled and really blessed, amazingly blessed by being able to work with him and glean all of his expertise.

[11:04] Robert Bannon: So you bring it's out now. Stream the album, everybody. You hear it.

[11:09] Robert Bannon: Your show at City Winery, I heard all about it after it was said and done.

[11:14] Robert Bannon: I heard you had an amazing crowd, you put on a show for the people.

[11:18] Robert Bannon: And what is live performing versus you home rehearsing versus you in a studio recording?

[11:26] Robert Bannon: What as it for someone who plays violin, what do you get from that live interaction with the audience compared to you just all the practicing and all of the recording that you do where it's very alone and insulating?

[11:40] Kersten Stevens: What's it like to get that energy back from the crowd?

[11:42] Kersten Stevens: Yeah, I mean, it's like immediate gratification, right?

[11:45] Kersten Stevens: Any performer, I'm sure you know like you can think you're really amazing in your little corner.

[11:52] Kersten Stevens: A lot of us are amazing opera singers in our showers every day.

[11:56] Kersten Stevens: But when you get up on stage and perform, that's the litmus test.

[12:01] Kersten Stevens: And it's a little easier on a night like your album release when the room is filled with, you know, half of your friends and family.

[12:08] Kersten Stevens: But still, you can still, as an artist, you know when the notes are hitting right and when the melodies are saturating the people who are listening.

[12:16] Kersten Stevens: And so I find that performing, I actually need the energy of the audience to really just deliver.

[12:23] Kersten Stevens: But I will say on the other side of the pandemic, and having recorded this particular album, there's a certain flow.

[12:35] Kersten Stevens: There's a certain natural flow that's different in my playing than it used to be.

[12:35] Kersten Stevens: It used to be like an effort, like an up the hill.

[12:44] Kersten Stevens: Now it's just like sliding down a hill.

[12:46] Kersten Stevens: Like, oh these are the notes I want to play. Let's just go.

[12:49] Kersten Stevens: And it just feels effortless and graceful and really beautiful.

[12:53] Kersten Stevens: So and it shines through on all of the music.

[12:57] Robert Bannon: Your whole team if you go through the press release of who's on this album if it's your dreamer if it's the person who mixed the album all the musicianship if it's keyboards if it's everything that you brought onto this your music director it all the people that you brought on to this I've worked with legends top to bottom Grammy awards stacked to the ceiling and you know your audio engineer 10 Grammy awards you know like you have a team that has worked with everyone.

[13:27] Kersten Stevens: Yeah what does it mean you know for a long time as an artist I would have get a band get a music director that I thought was going to be great have a horrible show or have trouble communicating and then people would say you got to let them go and I'd be so afraid to level up or to let go of someone who was with me until I found my team and then when I found my team I was like oh this is what it's supposed to be like what what has it been like to assemble this team and to work with them.

[13:53] Kersten Stevens: Right.

[13:54] Kersten Stevens: Well I mean it's it's been a blessing right like also I feel like like a planet inside a really magical orbit in the sense that it's very intimidating, just to be really transparent, it's very intimidating.

[14:10] Kersten Stevens: Um, I absolutely had to fight imposter syndrome over and over again. I'm glad when I was sitting working with Todd Whitelock on the mixing of the album. We were working one of the sessions we worked in his home studio, and he had one Grammy sitting over the computer. It's great, cool. I come and it was raining that day. I remember I rushed in and rushed upstairs. When I came downstairs after the session, and I happened to just glance up at the wall, that's what I saw, all the other Grammys. And I was like, well God, I'm so glad I didn't see that on the way in. Because I don't know if I could have like functioned properly, because it can be very intimidating to say, okay, all of you have accomplished all these things, and then here I am, and having you know accomplished, you know, some things, but not those things, and those things are my dream.

So it's like sitting and watching people, and that I think that's the power of it. Like I would say it's also power, it's empowering in the sense that you know you all have accomplished this, and you all are using all of your accomplishments to assist me in accomplishing what's next, and we're doing it together. And so if it why not me, if you right, it's kind of how you start to think. And so I found it just really um just really empowering and really encouraging um to be among such talented special people. And each one of them had their own special soft spirits that they brought that made the project for all my imposter syndrome and anxiety and proclivities or whatever I had coming in, they're being surrounded by all of that excellence, kind of just zeroed all that out so it's a it was really cool to work with.

[15:51] Robert Bannon: That's because you're right where you're supposed to be with people with contemporaries, with people that want to work with you. It's uh it's I'm sure very overwhelming I get it I really do but that's elevated your game and here you are and the album is out and you could be streaming it everybody so make sure you're streaming it. Let's talk uh you have a uh special relationship with the Apollo. I mean the Apollo is sacred ground uh for performance and for art and culture in in in Harlem in New York and the United States and the world I mean it's synonymous with talent. Yes. What made you be a part of amateur night and what was the trick how did you end up winning 168 times and what what was that experience like what was that building ground for you and your career?

[15:58] Kersten Stevens: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um, I'll put that back on my family. So I was 15 when I first took the stage at the Apollo Theater. I had no idea what that was even about. I mean I okay I knew Showtime at the Apollo but as a teenager I wasn't as appreciative of the fact that this was this major opportunity to make a name for myself and Apollo back then you could play on that stage once and get signed backstage right there were always press and publicity and and record label folks milling backstage so it was really I want to say my grandma my grandfather my father and my mother between the three of them they all got together and say okay she she's gonna audition and I want to say um leading up to it I had I had competed in the Hal Jackson talented teens competition and Hal Jackson's daughter was a talent scout for amateur night at the Apollo.

So once I performed in Hal Jackson, I was 15 years old, she had me do a private audition for the team at Amateur Night at the Apollo. And so that's how it all ultimately came together. You know, all of that performance in church led to ultimately, well, if you're performing, you might as well be competing in all these talent competitions. Well, what's that? Did the talent competition talent scout saw me inviting me to compete in Amateur Night at the Apollo? And the secret sauce to get to your question, um, back to where I started about how do I stand out? What do we do differently on this instrument? Um, and back to what I said about being old school. I was listening to Regina Carter, and I think she had done this really jazzy island infused version of Papa Wasn't Rolling Stone.

So I said, okay, I'm going to the Apollo, I'm gonna do the Temptations, my version of the Temptations, Papa Was a Rolling Stone. And that's what I chose. So by the time I got there, I was 15. So those audiences saw a 15-year-old come out on stage with a black, skinny little violin playing Papa was a Rolling Stone. And that was the song that did it. And I won that first one, second one, third one. Um, and then that same team, for those who don't know, Amateur Night at the Apollo is the stage show, the stage talent show. And then Showtime at the Apollo is the broadcast television show. And so that same amateur night team brought me back for Showtime, and that's when I won the next three episodes.

And it was magical, and it really changed how I play because I was so scared. I stepped on stage. And so to get over it, I just closed my eyes. So sometimes when you see me play, even to this day with my eyes closed, I'm not playing now because I'm afraid, but then as a 16-year-old taking, you know, the amateur night stage, because I could be booed then. Now they don't boo the child contestants, but then you could definitely get booed. And I don't recall getting booed, but I do recall being scared and closing my eyes in order to just get through the performance but yeah magical experience 15 I remember going to tapings of Showtime of the Apollo I remember staying up in the New York area until one o'clock in the morning on NBC to watch Showtime of the Apollo.

[19:46] Robert Bannon: Yeah, yeah. Hal Jackson if you're not from the New York area is a legendary you know DJ in a radio personality here in New York. What a wow wow what a what a journey what a journey. Are there moments where you feel in a modern world where you know where do you fit in as an artist because are you jazz are you classical are you only instrumentation are you what what how do you do you don't even think about that and just say like I'm just gonna stay true to what I am?

[19:46] Kersten Stevens: Yeah, yeah, I mean I don't think I have a choice but to be true to who I am so there's that um but I also strongly believe that the industry makes room for excellence at all times you know and so I feel like even though I don't uh some of the tracks on that album fit into you know smooth jazz others fit into contemporary jazz some of them have hints at real hard jazz like swinging bop right um but I just believe that as an improvising violinist to some extent there is no genre for that you just enjoy it like as long as it's good music you know good feel good music which all of you should be streaming or can absolutely stream today on Spotify, Apple music and Amazon music and YouTube music everywhere you listen to music um if for all of the excellence that it is, I feel like your gift makes room for you. I'll always believe that. And as such, I think that um that that I'll right now I'll stand firmly rooted in contemporary jazz, but I I know that there's there's so much more for me to do.

[21:30] Robert Bannon: Kirsten, when you say improvised violinist, when you go into when we listen to the album, what were all of those notes written on the page, or are they are they coming to you? And when we see you in concert, yeah, are the notes planned, or are they improvised? What does that mean to be an improvised violinist?

[21:48] Kersten Stevens: Yeah, well, improvise means if you give me a chord or a melody, I can take it, bend it, shape it however I'd like. Now, we all, I think, as musicians, um, have that ability. I think it it's a it's a skill that that requires training. Uh, and it I think I'm well positioned to do it. Any Suzuki trained classical violinist is well trained to do it because we play with our ears very strongly. And when you develop that ability to hear the core changes, well, then you can just, you know, now we're and then you layer on to that all of the tenets and methodologies of jazz and core chordal progression, right? Um, then that part is not written. What is written are the melodies, the structure, the song structure, the form structure of the particular song, those things don't change.

Um, it's just it's it's it's there's always a song form, right? A A B A, whatever that is, and then you follow that form through your solo, and then you come back to the song. Like all the questions I usually have are like, how long does a solo have to be? Doesn't it have to be a year long, you know? Sometimes musicians, we have so much to say, but it's like, move on to the next song and save that thought. You know. Um, but I think that's the cool part. And when you're able to improvise, that's really the key to unlocking all the various genres. You know, you can improvise and do a rock solo, um, contemporary a jazz solo, a smooth jazz, hip hop, all those things you can break into if you know if you can say, okay, here's the chord I've got, here's the beat, here's the rhythm.

Let's go. Um, and I think what helps all of that is listening to a lot of different artists. Like for me, rhythmically, I think I like I I know I like hip hop, like literally love hip hop. But for me, musically, it's the um uh the rhythms of the rhymes that speak to me. Like, so if I'm listening to a bunch of hip-hop for a whole week and then I go and play a jazz gig, you'll hear a lot more rhythmic playing from me because it's because I'm literally rapping and rhyming in through the notes. Um differently from that, uh, gospel on the on the improvisational side from gospel, I'm taking um that exaltation from the gospel music, right? That moment where the song lifts and it becomes worship. That has taught me how to build a solo, how to build it to a place where it really reaches that peak in your heart.

And people, I cry and people cry when I play, but that's coming from that gospel tradition, I feel like that I sit within. Um, and on the jazz side, there's that improvisational, you know, form, taking the chord progressions and the song form and knowing when it starts and when it ends and how long it should or shouldn't be, and leaving space. So there's a lot to say for what it is. And I think just I think it's magical for any artist, no, any musician to understand, whether you're a vocalist or an instrumentalist to really learn and understand how to improvise.

[24:42] Kersten Stevens: I you know, it's why I don't do musical theater anymore because I'm so tired of music directors telling me how to sing. However, I feel it, it's how I'm going to sing it. That's how.

[24:48] Robert Bannon: Yeah, that's different. You're right. I mean, when you're on Broadway, you know, doing a show day in and day out, there's certain things you've got to do as rote. There's just it's just, you know, that's how it's meant to be. I was in musical theater for a little while as a kid. So on the roof several times. You know, I did several uh uh Fiddler on the Roof, Annie, Annie Warbucks, right? Two different plays. Um, which is the one that's like, please, sir, can I have some more? Oliver.

[25:19] Kersten Stevens: I was in Oliver. I was in two Olivers. So I did a lot other than violin as a kid, but all of it was somehow tied to creativity and music and performance. When it's in you, it's in you. And I love your conversation about the music that inspires you and how it moves your playing, because I feel that away as a singer. If I'm really in a certain type of mood, when I get up on you and innately just take on some of the things that move you and and especially in a nerdy way, the chord structure and the build of a song. Um that you make us cry, or that moment where we feel jubilant and elated and and lift up you emotionally manipulate us with your chord structure. Make us feel a certain way. You know, that's what music is about. That's what it's about.

[26:00] Kersten Stevens: Everyone go to my Instagram page. I'm gonna make I'm gonna make a uh a quote for you. Emotionally manipulate us. When you stream the album, you'll character and then DM her all the moments she emotionally manipulated you when she on its head and made you feel something.

[26:20] Robert Bannon: Please tell me, I want to know.

[26:23] Kersten Stevens: And Robert Bannon.

[26:27] Robert Bannon: That's fantastic. I'm so excited to see what's next. I'm excited to see you do more live shows. I'm excited for more music. I'm excited for you to just fly. We need this good, smart, talented music that that is needed and fills our soul.

[26:45] Kersten Stevens: Um, Stevens is uh on Instagram. It's K-E-R-S-T-E-N Stevens S-T-E-V-E-N-S. And go to her website as well so you can stay up to date on the music, the albums, the concerts, the whole thing. And go listen to the go listen to Queen Rising wherever music is heard. And when you go to the Instagram page, you could also click the link, see the music video, see the whole the whole the whole experience. You know, it's a whole thing. And there's more coming. There's more music that's coming, you know, there's more performance coming. There's a lot planned for 2024. So definitely please please stay in touch with me because I want to be able to bring and share as much music as I can with everyone.

[27:29] Kersten Stevens: We're ready. Congratulations.

[27:31] Robert Bannon: Thank you so much.

[27:32] Kersten Stevens: Thank you, Robert, so much for making this space and place, not just for me, but for so many artists here in New York and around. Because you know, the more the more platforms we have, the better. And it really, it really matters that that you take the time and dedicate it in this space in this way. So thank you for holding space for us.

[27:49] Robert Bannon: The honor is really mine. I'm I'm in awe and and so enamored by the all that you all are and and the light and the little beauty that you shine through. So thank you.

[27:59] Kersten Stevens: Oh, thank you. Thank you.