When the world is burning is art a waste of time

[Music]

i grew up in atlanta georgia

and i didn’t know very many white people

but i was raised in a southern black

church that was under the shadow of

white supremacy

and run by black people who in many ways

were taught to hate themselves

the generation that raised me was still

familiar with

lynchings so in order to not be murdered

by racist

some of the black people in the

generation before me learned to make

themselves

smaller we couldn’t be too loud

too smart too attractive too bold on

some level they felt like

anything that we did that made us stand

out

might get us murdered

in the midst of that i emerged this

straight a student who rapped loved

without yankovic

and read comic books so much for not

standing out

so the grown-ups around me regularly

discourage my artistry

to them comic books were the pursuit of

a kid who didn’t really understand the

world

they told me that art was silly and that

i was in for some

hard lessons about the real world

back then i only had one other friend

who was in the comic books and he went

to a different school

so when i was around 11 he and i went to

our very first

comic book convention they were so

unused to seeing black kids there

that one grown white man mistook me for

security

and showed me his convention badge in

order to get in

remember i was 11.

but me and my friend loved these

conventions finally we had other

people to talk to about the important

questions like

why does the hulk always wear purple

pants

about a year or so later with every free

moment that we had me and that same

friend

were actively drawing comic books

his father took notice of this and he

sat us down in the living room

he loved us both and he decided it was

time to set us straight

he said it’s great that you two love

these comic books

but you need to pick a serious

profession something that’s going to

take care of you

and your families and you’re not going

to be able to do that with comic books

my friend’s father wasn’t trying to hurt

us he was trying to prepare us for the

world

and underneath that was this fear that

was shared by my own parents

that being a black artist would make me

stand out

and that i might be murdered by racist

and it’s not like that was a far jump my

parents were born in the early 50s

in 1955 a white woman accused

a 14 year old boy of whistling at her

he was black and two grown white men

brutally murdered him

just for her accusation these men never

went to prison

the boy’s name was emmett till

so my parents grew up in a time where

just the accusation

of whistling at a white woman could get

a black boy brutally murdered

so why wouldn’t they be concerned about

me standing out as some bohemian artsy

dude

so as a black artist i’ve had to ask

myself

when the world seems like it’s burning

is art really worth it

i grew up and i worked serious jobs and

did art on the side

let me tell you about the most serious

job that i ever worked

i ran an insurance agency and i know

everything that you’ve learned about me

so far screams insurance agent

predictably i hated that job

so after a few years and against all the

wise advice i heard in my life

i decided to close my insurance agency

and try my hand at writing graphic

novels i wanted to

address the social issues that i was

passionate about

police brutality sexism racism that kind

of thing

but to make it clear i was leaving the

serious insurance job

in order to pursue writing comic books

you know art which is silly

especially in the face of a world that

seemed dedicated to murdering me

this was 2016 and there was this reality

show host running for president you guys

probably never heard of him

but there were all these disturbing

things arising in the world

nazis are feeling bolder people are

feeling less shame about their racism

hate crimes are rising in response

my black and brown friends organized

public protests and boycotts

a lot of my liberal white friends were

marching on the capitol every weekend

and i wanted to write a comic book

was it being silly vain

i never made a living off of art before

and now i just quit my job when it

seemed like the world was falling apart

art is silly right i struggled with this

for a while so

i took a month to travel in the uk for

the first time

i was nervous about this trip because i

was traveling alone

and i didn’t know how people in these

countries felt about black people

but i went to berlin prague

budapest and this tiny british town

called milkshane

in berlin i sat down with the owner of

the biggest comic book store chain there

and we talked about how as a kid his

favorite hero

was captain america

but certain issues of that comic book he

never got to read as a kid because

captain america

was fighting nazis in those books and

nothing with nazis was allowed in

germany

even if they were getting beat up

so let’s think about that for a moment

in germany

nazis were banished from everything

while here in the states we’ve erected

statues

to confederates who betrayed our country

anyway i thought about this man this

comic book fan who grew up in germany

but fell in love with the story of an

american icon

and i realized a well-written comic book

or graphic novel could reach someone

all the way across the world

and i thought about revolution how

whenever society needs to change

that change is inspired at least in part

by the

i artist about how dictators and despots

regularly murder and discredit artists

hitler’s people came up with a term

specifically to discredit artists

degenerate art they were burning books

and paintings

but why

why were the leaders of the nazi party

dedicating their attention to destroying

art

if art really has no power if it’s

really a silly waste of time

then why are dictators afraid of it

why were nazis burning books and

paintings why was mccarthy so dedicated

to blacklisting artists in the 1950s

why was stalin’s government so focused

on censoring artists in russia

because art scares dictators

because they understood something that

i’ve been struggling to understand my

entire life

art is powerful art is important art can

change hearts

and minds all the way across the world

in 1894 russian author leo tolstoy wrote

the kingdom of god is within you it’s a

book that advocates for non-violence

in the 1920s mahatma gandhi listed

tolstoy’s book as one of the three most

important

influences in his life

so tolstoy inspired gandhi

and you know gandhi inspired

dr martin luther king jr

so how would the civil rights movement

in america have changed

if tolstoy had never written his book

would i even be here talking to you now

tolstoy’s book made real changes in the

world by inspiring people

during the civil rights struggle black

people would stand

hand in hand as police and dogs attacked

us

and we’d sing gospel songs

those songs that art

inspired these people and it helped to

make it through

activism is how we change the world

and the different ways to engage in

activism and for me

that way is art

so i came back to the states and

i wrote about all those issues that i

mentioned before the police brutality

the sexism the racism

honestly i didn’t know how the world was

going to receive it from me

i just knew that i was tired of giving

my life

to things that i didn’t care about

so i hired a comic book artist i ran a

kickstarter campaign

and my graphic novel became the burning

metronome

it’s a supernatural murder mystery about

otherworldly creatures

who absorb magical power from human

cruelty

they watch human beings and they give us

the chance to choose between

compassion and cruelty

in one of the stories a police officer

has an opportunity to go back

and undo a time when he was

unnecessarily violent to someone

so what happened as a result of me

writing this book i was interviewed on

tv news

newspapers the university invited me to

teach writing in the master’s program

i’m a professor now

but more importantly i was able to reach

into my heart

pull out the truest parts of my soul and

see it have a positive

impact on other people’s lives

i was signing books in this comic book

store and

this man made small talk with me for

about 20 minutes eventually he said

that my book made him think about how he

does his job

so of course i asked what do you do for

a living

he was a police officer

so my book made a police officer

think about how he does his job

that never happened when i sold

insurance

i write comic books and graphic novels

for a living now i’m a full-time artist

if i hadn’t written that book none of

you would be listening to me right now

and listen my parents weren’t wrong to

warn me about the lethal tendencies of

this country

just last year a white supremacist sent

me death threats over a book that i

hadn’t even finished

writing yet but obviously the only

reason he was threatened

is because he recognized the power of

art to change hearts

and minds all the way across the world

so i say to you now if there’s any art

you want to create if there’s something

in your heart

if you have something to say we need you

now

your art can be activism it can inspire

people

and change the world if you’re afraid

that’s okay just don’t let it stop you

go make art and scare a dictator

is art worth it hell yeah

thank you

you