I only smoked the loudest your shit ain't making noise that bitch real modest face a
couple bloodstained case in the projects that went to link my man's all my niggas
potheads anytime we link up we rollin' them treaties up stink up your whole block of
these don't pee fuss took a couple pulls down waving to Jesus then we packed the
bong now rip the pieces my name's a lia monne I'm from Brooklyn New York and I'm
model I guess I always say who I am is someone who's trying to empower women and
people of color and just give them a confidence in representation as positive
and the way I'm doing that right now is through my style and through modeling so
that's how I'm doing that and I also like acting too and writing skits but
that's in the future but right now just modeling I'm probably going to use art
because I am an artist but I want to honestly in the ladder of things write
films that portrayed people of color in horror because there's no like all black
horror movies and I'll be sick and we could like get that together wait I just
want to show that like it's no to making a film or to modeling or to acting I
want to be able to show that you can create your own and be different and I
just want to be a positive representation for like women and people
colored I do feel like it's important because I feel like this is a crazy time
especially in America but the world in general there's a lot of like colorism
issues and stuff like that and I just feel like it's important for people to
start speaking up about it and since the media is such a heavy influence I feel
like that's the way I want to do it because I feel like the media hides so
much so be cool to have some people in the forefront who are actually fighting
for the fighting for equality people realize how much representation
matters because it's just that you grow up looking up to these TV shows and these
billboards of people that don't even look like you and they don't look like
themselves on that picture so be cool to like bring some realness to the
industry I love that New York is dirty I think it's so funny that we're one of
the top cities in the world and it's like disgusting something rough and raw
about that to me a close second it's just the fast-paced environment it's
productive and motivate you if you know that like if you're not on your shit
someone else will be
Mr. Rockcropper 24 years old and I'm from Ohio I would say I'm chill and laid
back and my preferred method of expression would be digital art I've
always been curious ever since I was little just always getting into different
things just like drawing and just trying to figure out different stuff just like
reading books and all that and I just gravitated towards it I think it's more
so for myself because there are some things I mean you can say anything you
want but sometimes it's not socially accepted so you have to like get those
feelings out in other ways and just like a comedian they can make jokes of
serious topics but people will listen because it's actually in a format that
you know is acceptable to consume I don't know if I want to change the world I
just more so for a selfish reason just want to be good just like be respected
as an artist and not have to worry about anything changing the world would be
nice but it's very it's like a very broad way of looking at it I don't think
you can actually change the world you can change parts of it or you know people
who exist within certain spaces and those people may have the power to do
something you can't but it's all about inspiring others just anything really I
don't really think they should have like a specific feeling towards a piece but
as long as they feel something about it or can connect it to experiences that
they have had then I think my art I will have done its job
I'm Jimmy Leeson I'm 23 years old I'm from Washington DC I make music video
work and yeah just all around I feel like all the mediums are kind of like
connected so when I'm making something like Sonic I feel like there's a visual
aspect to that and I kind of think in visuals it's an easy way to like make
an environment and like a space for somebody it's kind of like like that's
why I was thinking of music like physically and it like kind of like as
an object because the songs by it you're kind of like in it and you're kind of
like in the space and it kind of creates a space for the person to experience and
feel and also think that's why it's interesting to like to like experience
music in the physical so like making spaces is also important so I kind of
chose music because I think music is the glue to a lot of different mediums I
moved to New York like three years ago I moved for school I used to live in
Atlanta I lived there for like two years and I liked it but it was like not
right for me when I first moved here I really loved it it's kind of like it's
cool to be like anonymous so I just do fucked up shit weird and then like talk
to strangers and stuff like that and then it doesn't matter because you might
never see that person again I've always admired people that were able to create
work and then also like influence people's lives and feel like a boy that
people had I think there's a lot of artists that felt that for me like
there's sometimes where let's uh this is like what's going on with like Marvin
Gaye and that should just bring me to tears you know I'm saying even though that
was made in like the 70s it's just like it's timeless and like it exists outside
of the human that made it and I want to be able to do that for people and have work
that like when I'm dead people can still experience it and it's a
relationship life and it still teaches them something that no one else can
besides me. I chose Jimmy Lucid because I wanted something that was like like
just timeless I wanted something that sounded like it was beyond time it
sounded like something that was like good about death and something that was
able to like describe energy and like light and like just like that and I
thought like Lucid was something that I don't know even the sound of it it
sounds like light ray especially when I was younger I had this dream like every
night there was sometimes where I would literally like the entire day I wouldn't
give a fuck about school or anything just because I was like excited to Lucid
dream and I'd do that like in the middle so I'd do that all the time and I'd just be like
I'll give you a fuck all this shit I'm gonna have to do. I'm just fucking like dream.
There's nothing that I'm more sure about than this shit that I make.
I'm Kara, I'm 23 years old and I'm from Ohio. I'm kind of sporadic like physically I will just like
go into something when I can move to do it but I'm always drawing up here and I'm
working with water so watercolors just kind of speaks to me, teaches me a lot about myself.
I have to. I don't have another choice. I don't know how to do anything else.
Well I could do other stuff of course but creating is like it's like my life force you know that's why I'm here.
I moved out here permanently for college and then I came back for Pratt but you know my
family's from New York I grew up half of my time in Ohio half of my time in New York and I always preferred New York.
Here you can be alone without being kind of like quarantine you know you can be in a crowd of people and still be by yourself and I fuck with that.
I just like that space of self-reflection you know and not like in a realm of narcissism but in a realm of like how am I affecting myself
and like the world and the people around me when I'm not in this kind of like kind of peaceful seclusion.
Yeah I do just because I feel like the creation process you know it's kind of like when people have kids you know you think you know so much and then you have this little life force
that you have to take care of and it's teaching you about yourself way more I think than a lot of people expect like people expect to like direct art and make art
but at the end of the day you're educating yourself like art is teaching me about myself so I don't think you need a large amount of self-awareness
but I think in creation it's teaching you about yourself.
I mean my intention is always one to explore and two to express you know myself.
I'm not that good about talking about I feel like my really strong feelings and things that really hurt me you know like when it comes to like love
or all these things this is the way that I express that most normalize kind of the hard things too.
You know it's happy and these colors but like the characters and there are moments of confusion and decision and stress
but also growth and beauty too. I just want people to be comfortable expressing themselves without that like third wall of
that you pass through like how people are going to view me or are they going to think I'm weak because I feel this way
or maybe they'll just think I'm strong and build up this idea of me that I can't meet but I just want people to be comfortable with that
and I feel like we could let go of so many expectations and the disappointment of expectations and we just let ourselves be comfortable with
like the shit that's hard or the shit that feels over the top but it's human.
I mean just make stuff and don't hurt people on purpose you know and forgive yourself and forgive others
because I think that's one of the biggest part of making art too is you have this process of catch and release
and you're judging yourself other people are judging you but like don't forget to be like okay like there's something else next
like forgive yourself don't like don't torture yourself for anything creatively you know personally relationships.
I'm Kayla Westley Young Shelton, I'm 21, I'm from DC and I'm living in Brooklyn now to study photography and practice.
I really enjoy digital manipulation and appropriating internet visuals to create psychedelic, Afro-futurist.
Because I think that time is kind of liquid in a way and I think it's up to black people to sort of represent themselves in a way that kind of ignores time
and accepts a unity between individuals but also a unity between time, space and reality.
It's sort of showing people like the weird side of blackness and like the geeky side of being a black man
and sort of what that means to me and how it makes me proud, how it makes me feel strange and beautiful at the same time.
My perspective continues to grow or change based off like other people.
I'm Marley, I'm from East Harlem, I'm 17, I am a very independent person who's stubborn which can be good and bad.
I consider myself to be like really creative, I just think of everything visually.
When it comes to painting like it's just something that's instinctual for me like I found a certain point like being around my dad who was also a painter too
and like I would show it to him in the studio like a lot of the time and like he would teach me like different tricks and things
and like something he taught me for example was like how to blow paint down and like as you can see like all my paintings have like super long jerks and stuff like that
so that's like a really significant part of my artwork but like he basically just made me comfortable with painting
and this idea of abstract art because he was an abstract artist so I never felt inclined to have anything that I was painting or drawing be perfect
to what I was seeing or I didn't even think that I had to correlate it to anything that had meaning you know because it was just like me letting out my emotions
or me kind of just like visualizing things as I go on.
I've always loved music like I've always just been like weird with music since I was like in middle school because like I was kind of a loner so like I just like was a music nerd
and I did my research a lot like I used to listen to more like rock music and like alternative shit I just really got put onto hip hop like I don't know
I feel like definitely I had this feeling of a lacking of understanding kind of of just like I don't know just having like a voice of someone who could speak for black oppression
but someone who could also just put it down for me and laid out of just what it means to be black.
My mom is I'm mixed so my mom was white and I spend most of my time raising my mom so she exposed me to like rock music and like shit that she listened to in Manchester
like New Order and like Oasis and shit like that but like I really identified with hip hop because I felt like because my dad wasn't around that much and my dad is black
and he was a DJ too and he was into hip hop.
This is the perspective I've needed that I've kind of been missing from my life a little bit because like I don't know I don't have people close to me that were really like I don't know that were older
that really saw how shit went down you know that could really speak for it like my dad is from Africa so like he was kind of dealing with other shit he was dealing with war you know
it wasn't so much about race it was more about like just economic issues like I invested into some decks and I just started like I didn't even use them for like three months
like to be honest when I first got them because I was like fuck like I don't even know how to use this digital shit like I'm really like was so confused and then like I actually like put it together.
Um district is something I came up with when I was like um younger like three four years ago I kind of was like thinking I don't know I just like had a sound bug and I was just listening to mad underground hip hop because I was getting into old school hip hop
but also doing research about people who were like kind of tapping into that now so much dope underground music and like it kind of sucks that we have nowhere to listen to like we're young like we're like fucking 16 15 at this point
so we can't listen to music like we can't go out and listen to music.
Um just created this idea of something that would have videos and free styles with interviews and something that would have articles um articles about things that are happening like upkeep things with like artists
and just dope things that are happening on the underground scene and like kind of creating a space for them to collaborate you know like I really want to introduce artists and help them like create a bond that can like morph a new sound
I just know that it'll pick up and become something of its own once people start recognizing it you know because I really wanted to be like a social movement in a way.
Like I grew up in Chelsea so um at that when I was young like I didn't really think New York was that tough you feel me because like Chelsea like you know like um just didn't really have like it wasn't that bad when I was around there like it was kind of
it's not you know half as nice as it is now but I did see a lot of policing around the projects and I peeped at that but when I moved up to Harlem like five four years ago
and this neighborhood just has so much culture and it like um such a sense of community you feel me like it's diverse but there's also like it's also like you know a safe haven for people of color.
It's just like um a lot of African markets and things like that like African businesses um black owned businesses.
I want to do so much shit you know like honestly.
I want to embrace conscious music more. I want people I want to create a wave that stops unconscious music slapped it in the face and said okay like if you're doing that you're just awesome bullshit and I want people to pay attention more to finding music
that um actually has political meaning or has like significant meaning you know emotional meaning like something that's deeper something that's conscious.
That's the thing that's just about inducing and pleasure you know black so when you're not listening to things that perpetuate like a positive message like it just can fuck with your demeanor.
Or you know for men it can like create this sense of you know it adds to their sense of like over masculine hypermasculinity.
The only way that we can get shit done if we have to come together is to actually get things to notice because it is harder when you're a person of color to get things to notice so.
In terms of empowerment I mean empowerment for each other but also let things get noticed a lot more for people of color when they come together because that's just how things work in this world and we're in a group.
Create sisterhood it can create a sense of I'm not alone you know.
So I'm Darius Marino from DC P&G to DMV and I'm an illustrator and painter I go to Parsons 21.
I mostly paint I sculpt now too but I prefer more expressionist painting like in my free time most of the times I paint portraits of people.
The environment that I'm inspired by mostly like where I grew up I grew up in a lot of different places moved to a lot of different places even now as an adult.
So usually I adapt to like the environment that I'm inspired by the people around me.
Well like honestly New York is like a second home because my mom are like a lot of my families from Harlem so like it wasn't like it was a completely new place to me.
Plus I never really experienced New York like downtown New York on the business side.
I only experienced like Harlem and like growing up as a kid like you know seeing stuff like that.
So I just wanted to be able to like get my own experience from it and kind of like be able to take advantage of the city the way a lot of people do.
Through my work and hopefully like to influence people to not necessarily make better decisions but just be real with themselves.
That's why I think you know the world better they're going to just like genuine with themselves.
So I try to be as genuine and honest with my own work so that it can inspire people to be honest about themselves too.
I'm living my heart and now I have a knife but life goes on and yes I am sharp.
I've been through worse I just want to curse you.
I loved you more than I can't stand but then it is the worst for me taking for granted.
Please don't take me for. Please don't take me for.
I am Anastasia, some people call me Anas, some people call me Stasi, Stay, Stasia, the list goes on and on. It really just depends on the day and the person.
I am at times very impulsive which I guess can be a good thing or a bad thing. I am a little awkward sometimes, a little strange sometimes but I like that about myself.
Why be normal?
I definitely say like through clothes I really love to express myself. I'm really into like details and stuff like that.
I like to express myself through my wardrobe, through my makeup, like it's all a good like from the makeup to your clothes, to your earrings.
I really like to make jewelry sometimes too. I really like to make these personal.
I like to express myself through modeling, through acting, singing, whatever man, like whatever feels right, whatever is right in that moment.
So I do it because I feel it in my heart, like that's what genuinely makes me happy and because it feels good and you know, it's like my truth, like personified, like embodied.
I don't really know how to explain it but it just feels right.
And I'm changing the world by just spreading a message of love and positivity and like I want to embody that and I also like hope for others to embody that as well because it's like what's the point of just, like why not just be full of light and love and just spread that.
Like how much more of a better place would this world be? Like this world honestly is just filled with so much darkness and evil and it breaks my heart but as long as I can spread some light onto others,
hopefully they'll spread that light onto others as well, like that's all I can do as a human, as a person, as a thing.
Bringing happiness to others, making them see the light, making them realize that the light is within them.
So I'm not quite sure if my art will do that for people but if I can do that with my words, just remind them like how incredible they are, like that's enough for me and that's how I think I can change the world.
Even if it takes like a little bit. It's just something, you know?
