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