00:00 You know, the way people think about arts is like,
00:02 it's an extracurricular activity
00:04 'cause they've been defunded in schools
00:06 and you know, all kinds of stuff.
00:07 And I think for, it makes sense if you're white maybe,
00:10 you know, because people, for white people,
00:13 art might be something really cool
00:16 or just a pastime or whatever.
00:17 For black people, a lot of the time,
00:20 what we're looking for, art is our expression,
00:22 art is our culture, art is the way that we thrive.
00:26 It's also what's extracted from our communities
00:28 and profited from by other people, right?
00:31 It is a valuable commodity to them, right?
00:35 But then it's trivial when we wanna get paid for it
00:38 and when we want equal participation
00:40 or, you know, minimal participation really
00:45 in those profits that they love so much.
00:49 They demonize our culture.
00:51 - That's, I mean, that's a really great point
00:53 because when we think about how we've used art
00:56 as a people historically,
00:58 like that was a part of our freedom.
00:59 We use drums, you know, we had these talking drums
01:03 in order to communicate with each other.
01:06 Art is not just about, you know, for art's sake,
01:09 it's like, how do we survive these really troubling times?
01:12 So that's a great point.
01:14 - Yeah, it's the way that we communicate
01:16 beyond the language that's been forced on us, right?
01:20 You know what I'm saying on our people?
01:22 It's the way that we provide resistance.
01:26 It's the way that we communicated in the railroad,
01:28 you know, putting in the braids that, you know,
01:32 putting maps and different clues
01:36 and signs for folks to follow in braids.
01:39 You know, our culture,
01:43 Eric Alexander was saying the other day
01:44 that black people are natural futurists.
01:47 I think you were there, you were there, right?
01:50 In Atlanta.
01:54 Eric Alexander was saying that, you know,
01:56 black people are natural futurists.
01:58 And I had to think about it for a second.
01:59 She's like, our people were stolen.
02:02 So we didn't, they took our past from us
02:04 and then they've been trying to lie about that forever.
02:07 And so we had to come here and create.
02:12 We had to come here and create.
02:13 We had to create what exists now.
02:16 It wouldn't be done without us.
02:18 (upbeat music)
02:21 (upbeat music)
