In observance of Black History Month and as a quest to better understand the experiences of black artists locally, Oklahoma Gazette recently invited local artists to participate in a Q&A to share their perspectives. Each was asked the same questions. Here are some of their replies.
If your radio breaks, you dont just replace it with one thats brand-new; you call someone to fix it. In an attempt to break through my perfectionist tendencies, I developed a freestyle drawing technique where I would begin with an image in mind, then freestyle draw without erasing.
In turn, I created images that I couldnt have imagined by continuing in the direction of so-called mistakes and watching where they would lead. I learned to work with what I have organically, and this has forever altered my work.
Jabee: My black culture has been in my music since I started. I didnt just recently start with it.
My first album sampled Malcolm X. I had a song about James Earl Jones and [another about] Stokely Carmichael. My album had Che Guevara on the cover, and the intro was Gil Scott Heron.
All of those things are my culture and make me the artist I am.
Black kids are some of the most creative and trendsetting people in the world. When you take those things away, its like taking away the language. It shows kids we dont care and they arent important holding on to your comfy salary or job title is more important than giving these kids a fighting chance at a real future.
Don Eisenberg: The passion to create was given to me from my education through the arts program at Classen School of Advanced Studies and teachers who made you believe that what you were performing in that moment was bigger than one person, that the music had a life all its own and you were given the chance to experience that.
I fear that without the opportunities to explore ones creative nature, black and other students of color will succumb to the lackadaisical world of underfunded public schools.
W. Jerome Stevenson: Id say that such experiences are integral to the development of students of every background and particularly to the goal of developing artists and arts patrons within the African-American community.
I want students of color to see themselves and their stories onstage.
When they do, they will no longer inherently connect this art form to someone other than themselves.
Also being pulled over prior to a performance; the anxiety of being followed by the police from a highway, to a frontage road, to the public streets and then as you come to that last turn before you pull up to the venue, the lights come on.
To leave your own home en route to an event and to drive only two blocks from your home before a squad pulls you over to ask, Where ya headed, pal?
To have to perform in that trembling state; to have to entertain and not sulk in the thick air of systemic racism its tough.
Deanne Brodie-Mends: Well, I see that as a people, we do need to come together and support one another. I believe as a black woman, its incredible that I can inspire people to be strong and to live for God and that doesnt make you any less of who you are.
I come to defy the stereotypes that are placed on African-Americans with the way I choose to live my life as well as the things I post and say.
There are limitations, but I choose not to let that stop me from doing what God has called me to do.
As far as art goes, I dont think we do anything out of the norm or above and beyond belief that would make someone come here specifically for that. It would be nice if state or city magazines and news platforms pulled together to shed light on more hip-hop and rap events going on in the city. There are quite a few things that go on here that I dont think too many know about. In all honesty though, I dig the fact that I was raised in Oklahoma. As an artist, I have to push myself twice as hard and find other ways to inspire myself or be motivated living here.
Thats not easy.
Stevenson: In theater, the audience is connected in a conversation that is initiated from the stage and allows the audience to share.
Much of our work in the theater deals in universal themes: love, loss, growth, fear, etc. The beauty of the theater is that we find ourselves sitting in the dark, sharing emotional experiences with complete strangers.
The Pollard [Theatre Companys] mission is to showcase that shared human experience, and we feel it has been a critical component to our success and growth. Artists must continue to have faith in and seek to cultivate that audience and bring them together for more diverse works and artists.
Dallas: I definitely believe the opportunity for cultural exchange exists through the arts, but I do not believe we are exploiting it enough.
As artists and organizers, we have to be willing to step outside of our own comfort zones and be very intentional about working with diverse groups in meaningful ways.
Ive always been a writer as well, and English was the subject I excelled in at school. For me, it was a way to use my thoughts and words in a positive way while venting and releasing bottled-up emotions.
Definitely seeing people who looked like me on television made me want to be in that kind of world.
Brodie-Mends: Before I began poetry, I always had a love for writing. I used to have so many notebooks. I would write stories for my friends and tell them what their lives would look like in the future.
As I grew up, I wrote out of frustration and it wasnt anything positive. My sophomore year in college, I met a man named Willis Lusk, and he did poetry, videos, etc. He opened up my mind to this new world of poetry.
I loved the connectivity of the art. I loved how words could bring people together.
Print headline: Future history, Oklahoma City artists discuss how and why they create and the importance of culture and education in our communities.