WEBVTT

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Cranbrook Academy of Art is where I did my
graduate studies.

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It was a bit shocking, I think, at the beginning,

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because I was the only minority there.

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This is in 1988.

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I just considered myself another artist

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out there amongst my peers.

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And I think it was difficult because it was
the first time

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that I was confronted with my identity as
a black male.

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My mother told me when I was, like,
eight years old,

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the complexity of what I would have to deal with.

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So knowing made me think,
"I've got to build a thick skin."

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"I've got to be able to operate in a world…"
[LAUGHS]

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"...that could work against me
as opposed to for me."

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What do I do with that?

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I have been racially profiled.

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I'm walking home with my portfolio
from teaching.

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I am pulled...surrounded by
undercover cops saying,

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"Lie down on the floor"--

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because the convenience store was robbed
down the street.

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That has been my reality.

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Get it together up here.

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Psychologically, I have to really get it together.

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And I just have to get quiet--

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to put it in perspective

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and to, sort of,

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not sort of lash out into rage.

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And if I do, lashing out for me is
creating this.

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All of that becomes the impulse to create.

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I don't ever see the "Soundsuits" as fun.

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They really are coming from a very dark place.

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The "Soundsuits" hide gender, race, class.

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And they force you to look at the work
without judgment.

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You know, we tend to want to categorize everything.

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We tend to want to find its place.

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How do we, sort of, be one on one with something
that is unfamiliar?