Full video

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[Music]

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it's so important to have

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black storytellers in music in the arts

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in film in literature because we have

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important stories to tell and we are

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fully

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human the only way that you can show

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the full breadth of our humanity is to

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be present to be represented and to be

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able to tell your own stories

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[Music]

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we interviewed some of the best and

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brightest black storytellers of our time

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[Music]

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these people are true talents and take

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their crafts to new heights

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each of them come from vastly different

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fields of work

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but the one thing that bonds them

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together is their ability to tell

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compelling stories through their mediums

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[Music]

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story has the power

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to imprint on

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our memory in a way

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that pretty much nothing else does

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when stories are left out

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a section of humanity is left out and

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when you hear

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someone's story you can connect with

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them on a way and it makes it so much

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harder for you

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to enact violence on someone or to

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discriminate against someone when you

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know

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their story i've dedicated my life to

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storytelling it's

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one of the greatest ways to transform

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like the hearts and minds of individuals

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to try to bring people together to try

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to make a more loving place

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photography has always been writing

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stories i see a story

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in front of me and i'm trying to figure

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out how to capture it

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history tells us that our stories are

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not considered as valuable or worthwhile

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and that if you want to be a true and

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successful storyteller

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you have to tell the universal story

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which really means the white story

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and i just refuse to do that with the

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1619 project

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and my work in general i really try to

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put

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the legacy of slavery and the

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contributions of black americans at the

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center

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how do we understand how we got here

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today if we don't understand

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the history and the architecture that

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built the society that we live in

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a lot of what drives me in my work is

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creating

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images of people of color of children of

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color

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in ways that i never got to see them

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when i was growing up i didn't have any

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books with

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people that looked like me so i'm really

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excited to kind of

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open up as many different aesthetics and

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and styles to young readers

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[Music]

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when people listen to my music i want

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them to take away that

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they're not isolated in their challenges

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the song let go

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speaks to how black men feel when

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confronted

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by the police even when you're selfishly

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kind of

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creating your own therapy in your art

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you're also doing that for other people

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and

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by doing that song i was able to create

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even closure in places where i still

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held on the feelings because i placed it

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in a

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piece of art and i think for other

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people they can connect with the honesty

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there

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the challenge is being in a world

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where you don't see yourself i get an

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email

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from a black mother who has lost her son

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and she says to me

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that she's been looking for a way

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to reflect her loss

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for years and it wasn't till she saw

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my painting on the cover of time

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magazine that she felt like she saw an

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image

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that actually reflected her loss

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identifying stereotypes in black culture

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it's kind of easy for me to see we all

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see it and because we don't like it

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it look it sticks out it's not right

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i started my film career with

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you know the mindset that we would not

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further along these stereotypes and not

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depict

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these images in our film so and do the

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right thing you don't see a kid

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with a basketball bouncing it down the

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middle of the road

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and so in many films that you see um

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of mine there is a sense of pride in

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culture with hair love the big

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stereotype we try to debunk was the fact

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that black fathers aren't involved in

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their kids lives

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that's definitely something that's

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persistent in the film industry

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you know black men not being depicted as

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good dads or being present that was a

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big thing that we try to

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circumvent the ability to see yourself

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represented means a lot and people need

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to see themselves as a mirror

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in the work that they consume

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when people see us dress as kings

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a lot of times they're like oh they're

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hollow it's materialism but

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you know people don't see the work that

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goes into it the idea of us being

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materialistic as a culture is just

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insufficient

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most people report that they do not know

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a trans person or they're not aware they

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know a trans person so

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most of their information about who

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trans people are comes from what they

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watch from television

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and on film and if those representations

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are showing us as

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victims as devious people cisgender

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people playing dress-up

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then they're going to get

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misinterpretations of who we actually

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are

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when you have real trans people playing

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real fully fleshed out

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characters it shows the humanity of who

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we truly are

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i think for me that's my goal in terms

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of how to look

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ahead at the types of stories that we're

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telling

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and i think giving other people the

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opportunity to

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share their world view and their

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perspective is going to be so important

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in leveling that

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i think what's really exciting about

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making work for young readers

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is that the work gets to be wonderful

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and whimsical

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and kind of hopeful and i really want to

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make work that shows young people that

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there

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are so many options and opportunities

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for them

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[Music]

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where i live where my palate is is black

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that the experiences that i see around

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me are

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black that the voices that i hear the

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songs that i hear

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the footsteps the the laughter

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the grown the quarrels the the

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expletives they're black

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and i try to trap them in a frame

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our culture has brought so much in terms

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of creativity

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in terms of connection and innovation so

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it's like to overlook that

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and to devalue that is just it's tragic

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and it lessens who we are as people

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as a whole so you know we we're here and

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because we're here we matter

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so when i think about particularly the

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tradition of black journalists but black

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storytellers

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in general it has been to push back

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against the narratives of white

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supremacy that said that we were an

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inferior and a lesser people

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but when we grab the reigns and we

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control our own stories and we give a

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truer depiction of black life and we are

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able

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to affirm our culture and affirm our

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people

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and to give a much more accurate

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depiction of what it means to be an

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american and what it means to be a black

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american in particular

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[Music]

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