Alexander “Nico” Martin is the creator of Ethnic Ish N More, a Podcast and Platform that bring awareness to black culture through support, empowerment, and celebration. This podcast has only started a year ago, but it has already made a name for itself across the St. Louis community, and beginning to spread across the nation. Nico has a passion to ensure that every black business, creative, artist, and organization gets the light and opportunity that it deserves. He promotes positivity of all things black and calls for everyone around to do the same. Even more, he gives incredible love into his son and supports him in everything that he does. He hopes to continue in being a positive role model and creating the best future for his son.
Where did “Ethnic Ish N More” come from?
Nico’s top passion (next to promoting black people) is skating. You will find Nico skating at any part of downtown during the evening hours. At a skating session in a local rink, Nico was rocking his “Support Black Women” shirt and people were looking at him as if it was an odd shirt. He thought, “they are probably thinking ‘this is some ghetto sh__.’” That was a light bulb moment for him that he should create a platform that focuses on the “ethnic” things that we do in the black community. He switched up the words to be more approachable and called it Ethnic Ish and More. A week later, he hosted his first episode on FB Live.
Nico recognizes that a lot of people in the black community are trying to start their hustles and career but don’t have a safe space to showcase their work. He recognizes that sometimes our community struggles with putting people on, so he makes it his mission to help people to share their talents, build networks, and uplift the black community. Nico mentioned that he used to joke about being on the radio or on TV, and now it’s truly coming together. He uses comedic relief and real stories to bring the black community together every Wednesday night and experience true Ethnic Ish for over a year now.
“I didn’t care who listened. At the end of the day, I did it for Nico. I was so dedicated to this show, I hand-wrote my notes every week.”
This dedication paid off because Ethnic Ish N More landed a sponsorship from Cashapp. Nico still has the humbled goal of expanding so that more people within the black community have an opportunity to showcase their skills to the world, and that the black community can rise up to our potential.
The Joys of Fatherhood
Nico has one son, Shaun, which he calls his “light-skinned twin”. Nico loves having a black son as he knows the impact he gives and can be his son’s hero. He mentions that Shaun looks up to him as his favorite person, and that will always mean the world to him. Nico is grateful that he has been in Shaun’s life for everything—his birth, his spelling bees, his school events, his church events, any awards, and all of the joyful moments in between. Even for the short time when they were not in the same city, Shaun was still always his best friend.
Even while Nico and Shaun are so close, he recognizes that they are complete opposites. In fact, Nico mentioned that Shaun was the kid that Nico would talk about while in school! Nonetheless, Nico absolutely loves all of these things about Shaun, and he is so happy that Shaun is so intelligent, involved, and a tender person.
One thing that he and Shaun have in common is that that they both like Pokemon. Shaun would talk about Pokemon so much that it actually got annoying to Nico, so he asked, “why do you like Pokemon so much?” Shaun replied, “you said you liked it, so I wanted to like it too.” This is the power of their bond. Nico is also so elated that Nico’s father is a huge part of Shaun’s life and that they also have a strong bond, just as he has with his father.
Misconception of Black Fathers
Nico first hopes that men understand that you must first be a black man to be a black father. Therefore, it is essential for black men to focus on who they are as a person to understand how they will be able to navigate fatherhood. Nico also hopes for the community to understand that there are men who want to be in their child’s life, but a ton of circumstances may hold them back from happening. He recognizes the importance of the communication between the mother and father of the child and that it remains positive for the father’s role to be present in the child’s life.
Dear Dad,
“I appreciate you still being around for Shaun, and for having such a relationship with him”.
Nico hopes to remind us all that kids are beautiful, and kids are fun, and to enjoy being a father. He also hopes to continue to the role model in demonstrating empowerment and celebration of black culture and black talent so that we can continue to push forward the black, and beautifully black, agenda.
For more information on Ethnic Ish N More, visit www.ethnicishnmore.com, follow on IG @ethnicishnmore, and follow their page on FB, Ethnic Ish N More.
To learn more about Nico, follow on IG @nicothagreat357.
