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This program is designed to provide general information with regards
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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling,
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professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services
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of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.
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Hello, and thank you for tuning in to a Sharp
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Outlook on pay for HD radio and Talk or TV.
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I am Angela Sharp, your host. Our arm chair discussions
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with industry experts will give you the steps, tools and
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information to be successful in business and to prepare you
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to be your best self. Hello, I'm Angela Sharp, and
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welcome to a Sharp Outlook Day. We're going to talk
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about something that I believe touches everyone, and that is art.
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The show today is called Art Watches the Soul, and
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it really does. When you really get engaged in get
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involved in what you're looking at, whether it be visual
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art from a painting or some canvas, or you're looking
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at a sculpture, or you're enjoying art on stage someone acting.
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That's all still art and art is really important today.
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Art of the diaspora is a term that encompasses an
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incredibly wide range of artistic traditions, practices, and expressions from
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across Africa continent and around the world. It's not a
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monolithic entity. We're talking about thousands of years of history,
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hundreds of distinct and ethnic groups, and diverse array of
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materials and techniques and purpose ruses, from ancient rock paintings
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to contemporary installations. This art refleet reflects the people of
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the diaspora, rich cultural heritage, spiritual beliefs, social structures, and
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historical experiences. In other words, it's an art that is
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actually coming from the soul, from experiences that they have
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gone through, experiences from history, from the beginning of time.
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I know people don't believe you can think back that far,
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but you know, today they're talking about the DNA. DNA
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never forgets, and we're talking about tens of thousands of
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years ago that we are still bringing in emotions, we're
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bringing in thoughts, we're bringing in things. You know, sometimes
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you feel like, gosh, seems like I've been here before.
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Maybe you have, maybe through an ancestor maybe you have yourself.
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But it's just kind of interesting how we reflect on
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things that we have seen before. A good starting point
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is to recognize the importance of contexts. Art from people
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of the Diaspora or any other group is often deeply
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intertwined with daily life, ritual, and community. It's not always
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created for purely esthetic purposes. Many objects are functional, spiritual,
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or social roles. For example, a mask are often used
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in ceremonies and rituals to connect with ancestors or spirits.
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Sculptures can be represent deities or some of importance in
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a community. Textiles can signify status or identity, importance, influence
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on art, or experiences that were joyful and experiences that
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were filled with pain and tears. We want to delve
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into the stories behind the world's most fascinating art and
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artist and today we're embarking on a journey to explore
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the vibrant and diverse world of the Diaspora through art.
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And we're incredibly fortunate to have with this Brenda Phillips,
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an artists that brings such expressional art that it touches
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your very soul. And I've seen her art and I'll
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tell you when I was thinking that art washes the soul,
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and it was something that I had seen her write,
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I thought, it really does you feel something? You cry,
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you laugh, It just affects you that way personally. Brenda
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is a self taught artist creating from digital art medium.
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Her digital paintings mirror the joy and energy she feels
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when creating works of uninhibited color, movement, and emotion. Her
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dedication to promote and preserving the diasporus rich artistic heritage
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has significantly contributed to raising awareness and appreciation for bold,
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colorful and emotion art that draws you into her passion.
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You begin to smile or cry or laugh, and you're
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drawn in and become a part of a story in
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the art piece. Brenda's passion for art began early in life.
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Growing up she exposed to She was exposed to diverse
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cultures and artistic expressions, which sparked a deep interest in
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the arts. She has a career in the performing arts
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as an actor Aldiko in the arts. She has a
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career in the performing arts as an actor, award winning playwriter,
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vocalists and poet at More Pity Party Blues, She worked
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at Visual and Performing Arts Academy and Visual Arts Strand.
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Her artistic work is characterized by a commitment to presenting
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some African arts and arts of the diaspora in a
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nuanced and inform manner, challenging stereotypes and promoting a deeper
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understanding of the cultural significance. She realizes art offers a
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profound window into the human experience for listeners. This may
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be familiar, how but I'm going to have Brenda join
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me now because I would like to find out more
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about all of her art, which she's going to give
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you information on how to see her art and be
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able to purchase her art. But we're going to talk
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about a lot of things. One of the things I
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wanted to talk to you about I was mentioning that
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you presented you that you actually did performing arts. Tell
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us something about the performing arts, and to tape some things.
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Hey, hi everyone, and thank you Angela for having me today.
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Oh my pleasure.
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Yeah. But visual not visual arts, but performing arts. I
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just sort of moved into it from a child. My
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mother used to always have my brothers and my sister
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and I always in church singing, you know, always ad
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that extra something that they would uh the church would have.
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Oh we got this group and this group and dis
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choir and this choir and this family sing, and these
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kids sing, so along with my brothers and sisters and
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sister we performed early on, you know, but only gospel.
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Who sick. My mother wasn't having anything except when she
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wasn't home. We didn't have any any what she could
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call worldly music in our home. We all only had gospel.
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We just had all kinds of gospel. And I love it,
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I love it. I love it. But you know, as
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a child, you know, you want to hear other stuff too,
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and you hear other stuff from other places. So when
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she wasn't around, trust and believe, we got all we
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needed from the other stuff in reverence of music, rhythm
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and blues, you know, of the times. And so as I,
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as an individual performing artist, got older, I started performing
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in high school, but in a choir that was called
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the Jefferson Acapella Choir, which was well known. And then
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they had an outside group which was the Leyshon Tours.
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And I was also a member of the Layschon Tours.
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So we were always performing and singing all types of music,
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show tunes, gospel, what they call spiritual, all kinds of music,
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you know, and every year we'd have big performerformances especially
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around Christmas time and the Hallelujah chorus and that song
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that you know, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Yes, it was just but
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there was fifteen different harmonies going at once. It's just
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a beautiful thing. So I was always performing, you know,
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but I didn't do theater until after I had gotten
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out of college. I started doing theater with this local
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theater group called the Interstate Firehouse Country Center in Portland, Oregon,
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and also with Rosemary Allen's Black Theater Company that she
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had going at that time, and it was a phenomenal experience,
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and we did original performances, original works. We did Langston
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Hughes Simply Heavenly and the late Garland Lee Thompson Senior
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he directed that. He's all so from Portland, Oregon, but
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he lived in New York, so he would go back
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and forth from New York to Portland. He was one
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of the founders of Frank Severe Writers' Workshop in New
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York City at the time. He used to be one
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hundred and twenty fifth and fifth. I can't remember the
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others across street, but anyway, I just sort of gradually
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got into performing arts and then you know, doing speeches
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and writing, making short poems and essays and things like that,
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and I would start to perform them in small groups
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and things you know of that nature. But I didn't
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have any training, any professional training in the theater while
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I was going to UH school when I was in
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high school and college. But I got on the job
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training and trust and believe. Afterwards. I joined the Actors'
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Union in nineteen eighty eight, so I've been a member
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of the Actors Union for quite some time. I lived
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in New York for ten years during professional theater, and
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I I was involved with Intosaki Shane Gays a remount
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of the nineteen ninety five production for Colored Girls who
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Committed Suicide When Enough, and they got the Tony Award
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for it. So we did the remount of it and
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the past we all received our individual Adelco Awards, which
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is a very high prestigious award in reference to theaters,
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especially African American theater. You know, we have to we
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have to crown ourselves. We can always look for someone
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else to give us praise and give us about, you know,
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what we're doing from the other you know groups out
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there that people looked at the oscars and all of
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that and we're just for position, but uh, we better pay.
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If we don't have a seat at the table, we
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better make our own table.
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Nacan. Yes, absolutely absolutely, I.
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Think a little bit about it. But that's the gist
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of that.
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Oh no, no, not at all. When you were talking
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about being at church and things like that. Yeah, I
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remember we had to go and do our speeches and
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we had to sing in the choir. And I had
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two other sisters and we were called the Sharp Sisters,
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and we traveled around going to different conferences and meetings
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and stuff like that, singing. And I tell you, you just
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get pushed into things. It's like, okay, whatever you say.
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It wasn't like we had a choice.
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You had to.
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She said you're going to sing. You were going to sing,
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and we had a yeah, and we.
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Traveled around and you know, thought we would enjoyed it.
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Yeah, it was really great. So for listeners who may
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be less familiar, how would you describe the diversity of
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diaspora art. It's such a vast category. I mean we're
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talking about when we're talking about diaspora, I want to
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kind of say we're talking about, you know, areas of Africa,
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but we're talking about America. We're talking about the islands.
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We're talking about South America, We're talking about Mexico, we're
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talking about Philippines. We're talking about a huge area of
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peoples and everyone has their own culture. But you're the artist,
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you could give give a little better description.
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Well, people would tell me early on when I would,
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you know, would be presenting some of my work and stuff,
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and they would say, you know, this looks like something
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from Panginia or this is uh. Are you familiar with
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the ivory colts? Are you from? And they would ask
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me about different things Zimbabwe and Ghana and Nigeria, and
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this looks like that? And I said, I have never
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been to Africa, I said, but I have been around
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people from other countries. I mean Africans and Asians and
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and and and East Indians you know, and uh, Native
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Americans and and and I always was interested in their art,
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you know, and just and looking at it and seeing,
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you know, how they related to their particular cultures. And
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I could see me in all of it, something that
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I liked, something that drew me in. And I would
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be thinking, like, wow, that's nice. I really like that,
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you know, So I would, you know, I would copy uh,
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some people's style, and if it didn't work for me,
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it wasn't gonna work because the only thing that can
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come out of me, it is me. But I always
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wondered how certain works of our different types, of our
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different medias of our how how people would come to
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learn to do that and it would be spiritual for me.
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You know, I would see something, I'd say, I'm gonna,
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I'm gonna, I'm gonna paint that, And nine times out
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of ten, whatever I started out doing is not what
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it ended up as. I just had to let it flow.
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I had to let it be whatever it's gonna be,
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and it would always turn out to surprise me. And
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it was a journey. So I have fallen in love
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with the creative process in reference to the arts and
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in reference to where they came from, and in reference
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to our differences and our sameness in so many ways.
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And for me that's kind of the diaspora, especially with
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reference to the African diaspora, you know, me being from
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my ancestors from the Motherland, I have always felt something
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that that I wasn't getting in Portland, Oregon. That's where
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I was raised, born and raised in Portland, Oregon and
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moved to New York much later in my forties. But
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I always knew that there was more to us than
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I was seeing the media, other than you know, the
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stereotypical us in the media. And I always knew that
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the colors and things that that I was drawn to
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were just off to the off center from primary colors.
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They were red wasn't red. Red was a deep blood color,
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or orange was like a burnt orange, and yellow was
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like a mustard yellow for me. And that's what I saw,
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and so that's what I would gravitate towards when I
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would start to create something. And even as a small
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child of my my kindergarten teacher, when we would have
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you know, crayon times she would give us crayons and