![\"Thompson,](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0261\/3941\/products\/sbo_paul_robeson_as_othello_khalif_thompson_blackartinamerica_1024x1024.jpg?resize=699%2C733&ssl=1\")
<\/a>“Robeson As Othello” by Khalif Thompson<\/p><\/div>\n
I\u2019m a private person, but oddly, when I engage with people one-on-one, I\u2019m very transparent. \u00a0 If there\u2019s anything that someone can learn from my life to help them through the universe, I owe them that because I\u2019ve been helped along the way, likewise.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s the same with art.\u00a0 The artworld can easily corrupt your journey.\u00a0 It can flip it from an honest passion for creating to an obsession with gaining the attention of shot callers who can position your work to sell for ridiculous amounts of money.\u00a0 That might sound pretty good at first, but In the process of getting to fame and fortune, the experience you came to Earth to have as a creative being could be forever lost.\u00a0 What a sad thought: to be born into the magnificence of life, only to never fully experience YOU.\u00a0 In you, there is something special that no one else was given and it\u2019s something to be relentlessly protected.\u00a0 So, before I get to DMX and Shakespeare. I want to share a quick story.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Soulja Life I” by Vitus Shell<\/p><\/div>\n I learned how to fight for me early.\u00a0 In my youth I took an aptitude test at work hoping to get a promotion.\u00a0 When the test was done and the lady sat down with me to share the results, I only remember one sentence.\u00a0 Now I had sat down excitedly, with particularly good posture, and was dressed all cute and professional.\u00a0 I was ready to win.\u00a0 And then she said, \u201cAccording to my analysis of your scores and your personal characteristics, the best match for your skills would be placement as an office filer.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now, what, now? An office filer?\u00a0 You talkin\u2019 about that job where you put folders in filing cabinets all day, based on alphabetical order? \u00a0 Yep.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what she meant.\u00a0 The highest possible thing she saw me achieving with my whole entire life was filing paperwork.\u00a0 While I absorbed the shock, she sat there looking at me with a stern condescending look meant to reduce me even further in my lowly status.\u00a0 I sat there in silence.\u00a0 Inside, huge chunks of things were collapsing: my self-esteem, my ego, my high hopes for the future.\u00a0 It was an awful feeling.\u00a0 It was just one person delivering the news, but it felt like the whole world and, to me, she represented something much bigger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019d already been primed by life to know the world had not been taught to see value in people who looked like me\u2026 Black by any shade.\u00a0 By the time I got to my car, I was madder than mad.\u00a0 In that room, she had won something and I had lost something.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t sure what it was, but this was not a feeling I was willing to live with.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This experience taught me something big about myself.\u00a0 It made me want to prove \u201cme\u201d to \u201cme.\u201d\u00a0 And this is what really determined what I would become in life from that moment on.\u00a0 The reason why I needed to prove me to me is because when that lady told me I wasn\u2019t fit to do anything in life but repeat my ABCs and file, I didn\u2019t really have a comeback, inside my own head, for me.\u00a0 I can\u2019t really say I had done anything in my own mirror that assured me I was worthy of greater things. \u00a0 I felt I was worthy, but I had never really proved it to me.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CUT to many years later\u2026\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I thought about that lady the day I stood on the stage to receive my Master of Science Degree in Engineering.\u00a0 But lo and behold, as soon as I entered the art world, here we go again.\u00a0 The very first art exhibit I applied for, I was rejected.\u00a0 The letter said something like, \u201cSo many great artists applied, unfortunately, you weren\u2019t one of them.\u201d\u00a0 LOL!\u00a0 Well, it might as well have said that.\u00a0 Anyway, I felt so rejected.\u00a0 I had prepared so much art for the show and had my hopes up high, and then, BOOM!\u00a0 \u201cSorry, we see no value in you and your art.\u201d\u00a0 That day, I felt that same awful feeling I\u2019d felt upon getting my filing-clerk-fortune told all those years ago.\u00a0 And that\u2019s when it hit me in the following precise words.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Urban networking by Paul Goodnight<\/p><\/div>\n I picked up the envelope, dropped it in the garbage, and said to myself, \u201cI ain\u2019t about to stand in your line to become me.\u201d\u00a0 And then I started thinking, \u201cI might not have value to you, but I can\u2019t let you make me not have value to me. \u00a0 Why would I sit somewhere feeling bad because someone sees no value in me?\u00a0 The only real question is: what value do I see in myself?\u201d\u00a0 I got myself right out of that line.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For this is the question we, ultimately, have to keep returning to, whether we fail a test, lose a contest, a relationship, job, etc.\u00a0 <\/span>Who are we to us?<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 In other words, how do we value ourselves, independent of what anyone else in the world says is our value?\u00a0 Artists, in particular, have to stay braced up and laced up for constant judgment because, in the artworld, rejection is simply part of the game.\u00a0 It\u2019s a game filled with people trying to tell YOU what the value of your artwork should be to YOU.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And not only do artists get rejected in the mainstream artworld, but so do collectors.\u00a0 A collector could be uber rich, but that still doesn\u2019t mean they can buy any piece of art that\u2019s for sale.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not on certain VIP lists, you\u2019ll never even be notified when certain works hit the market. \u00a0 And some top tier galleries and art dealers will not even place certain works in your collection if they don\u2019t deem your collection worthy.\u00a0 Also, some collectors pass judgment on the collections of others.\u00a0 The fact is, no matter what an artist creates or what any collector buys, not everyone will love or appreciate that work.\u00a0 So artists and collectors have to stay prepared not to let others invalidate them (to themselves)\u00a0 through the use of VIP lists, auction price tags, fortune, fame, or peer pressure.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is what I hope every artist and collector\u00a0 takes away from this article, especially Black artists and collectors who are constantly having their works evaluated and measured by yardsticks that can\u2019t begin to encompass the scale and meaning of their stories.\u00a0 Which brings me to DMX and Shakespeare —\u00a0 two artists who couldn\u2019t appear more dissimilar, and whose works will likely never be measured by the same yardstick\u2026 anywhere except here, of course. \u00a0 Because the one thing I try to do is to bring Black artists into the conversation of artistic scholarship where they have been historically excluded; but I want to bring them into these conversations on their own terms.\u00a0 Black artists should not have to become clones of someone else\u2019s culture to have our creativity examined and placed in historical context.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So, what is the difference between DMX and Shakespeare?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Not a \u201cbleep bleep\u201d thing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When it comes to artistic talent and creative expression, both DMX and Shakespeare came to Earth and performed the same job.\u00a0 They were both great storytellers of their day, and they\u2019ve both left behind celebrated bodies of work that reveal the best and worst of who we are as a human group.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Both DMX and Shakespeare were unparalleled writers who used metaphor, cadence, alliteration, rhythmic speech, iambic metering, and every other sanctioned and non-sanctioned literary device — in order to skillfully craft the human experience into compelling and dramatic works-of-art that delved deeply into the interworking of the human psyche.\u00a0 They exposed us to the rawest instincts of our species.<\/span><\/p>\n From their respective windows on the world, they observed, processed, and poeticized the dynamics of human existence.\u00a0 They both examined life and struggle, power and money, love and ego, the social hierarchies of mankind.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n DMX\u2019s track \u201cWho We Be\u201d is as profound a summation of humanity as Shakespeare\u2019s exploration of any monarchy or any layer of society depicted in his plays\u00a0 The gritty eat-or-be-eaten street laws reflected in DMX\u2019s lyrics are the same ones played out in Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet where the uncle kills Hamlet\u2019s father to take both his throne and his woman.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Both writers told stories that were unique to their own voices.\u00a0 In the scene in Hamlet where his uncle begged for salvation, Shakespeare wrote, <\/span>\u201cPray, can I not, though inclination be as sharp as will?… Help Angels, all may yet be well!\u201d\u00a0 <\/i><\/b>whereas DMX wrote\u2026<\/span>\u201cAnd I\u2019m still going through it\u2026pain and the hurt \u2013 soaking up trouble like rain in the dirt \u2013 and I know only you can stop the rain with the mention of my SAVIOUR\u2019S\u00a0 name, LORD\u00a0 give me a sign!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Same theme: two different men crying out from their darkness, begging for relief from their internal wretchedness.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In fact, Shakespeare\u2019s\u00a0 madman character, Hamlet, could easily have spit a few bars from DMX\u2019s \u201cY\u2019all Gon\u2019 Make Me Lose My Mind Up in Here,\u201d and the verse would\u2019ve fit any scene.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Promises, Promises” by Najee Dorsey<\/p><\/div>\n Between DMX and Shakespeare, there existed two storytellers who used their art to reveal humankind in all its vivid harshness, frailty, greed, lustfulness, and truth.\u00a0 Each artist brought the world their tormented protagonists in perpetual states of battle for both soul and sanity.\u00a0 The difference: Shakespeare\u2019s stage-sets were palaces.\u00a0 DMX\u2019s stage-sets were the streets.\u00a0 His curtain opened on reality in real time and DMX was the principal actor in his life-long one-man play. Still, as an artist, he was able to transform that reality into a rhyme scheme.\u00a0 Like Shakespeare, DMX took the social-political shards of life and fashioned them into art.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Shakespearean experts would likely not validate the work of DMX in literary terms, and DMX\u2019s fan base would likely not choose Shakespearean art over rap.\u00a0 Nevertheless, who\u2019s to say which one of these artists has contributed more to their audiences, or ultimately, to art and society?\u00a0 Whose art has really helped the world to see deeply into the nature of men?\u00a0 The answer: Both.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Both artists clearly understood their audiences and the stories that would resonate.\u00a0 Shakespeare summoned his characters and stories from his imagination.\u00a0 DMX sourced his characters and stories from the streets, with no breaks or intermissions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n DMX lived his stories.\u00a0 They were as gruff and harsh as the reality they were scuffled from.\u00a0 Shakespeare, like many writers, pulled from his own emotions to craft characters and worlds.\u00a0 But even as characters were made up, they were harnessed from bits and pieces of the reality he\u2019d observed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is not an evaluation of the lives of these great artists, but only a comparison of their ultimate outputs as writers, poets, storytellers, and actors.\u00a0 Both DMX and Shakespeare suffered great adversity in their lives and the emotional territory they could draw resources from was authentic to them.\u00a0 This made each of them significant and extraordinary artists.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Authenticity most often creates the best art.\u00a0 But to be authentic you have to be able to self-validate to the point where others can\u2019t constantly make you second-guess or devalue your own art simply because they reject it.\u00a0 Not everyone will appreciate the same paintings you do, but work that speaks from a place of truth usually emits authenticity.\u00a0 As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, \u201c\u2026To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.\u201d\u00a0 Or as DMX put it, \u201cKeep it real, partner.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In your art, are you true to yourself?\u00a0 As artists and collectors, how authentic is your art to you?\u00a0 Are you able to speak about your art genuinely and unapologetically?\u00a0 Have you dug deep enough into your own story to really understand why you create or collect what you do?\u00a0 There is value and depth in your story, and in this present time when the public is hungry for meaningful work that reflects our cultural nuances, it\u2019s a great time to really think about why you create or collect what you do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Othello Re-imagined in Sepia” by Curlee Raven Holton<\/p><\/div>\n Try to think about what attracts you to certain forms, colors, themes or subjects, and why that is.\u00a0 If you have no idea why, trace it back as far as you can to uncover those moments in your life where they became important.\u00a0 Look for the memories that helped shape you, or made you want to paint, or collect.\u00a0 For example, musicians often show up in Black art.\u00a0 This could be mistakenly dismissed as \u201cunimaginative\u201d by those outside the culture.\u00a0 They may not consider how important music has been to us as a survival mechanism; or how this art-form was used to etch our way into American society and to finally be recognized as complex humans, even as laws outright stated we were not to be considered as such.\u00a0 Our musicians, using their instruments, carved a path through the worst periods of racism.\u00a0 Our Jazz artists transported our full humanity into mainstream consciousness.\u00a0 Our music has eased us into mainstream America, as quietly and stealthily as the Underground Railroad.\u00a0 \u00a0 Our Jazz artists amazed the world and made it impossible to ignore how undeniably special we are as humans.\u00a0 By the masses, White teens defied lines of segregation for the first time, in order to dance alongside Black teens to live Jazz.\u00a0 Meanwhile their parents listened to it on the radio and were in awe of Black talent.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Music has such deep meaning in our history that it\u2019s one of the most important subjects a Black artist might cover when speaking about our evolution in America.\u00a0 Our reasons for admiring our musicians and singers go deeper than just entertainment.\u00a0 That high regard has deep roots and has been handed down to us.\u00a0 If you purchase a painting of a Black orchestra or band, what from your life or childhood moved you about the painting?\u00a0 Are there family moments or memories connected to why you bought or painted it?\u00a0 Did your parents share that music with you?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Digging deeper into our own motivations and our own stories helps to give context to our work, and supplies fertile ground for finding new work and inspiration.\u00a0 Just based on a single event in my life, I could authentically paint pictures of file cabinets from here on out.\u00a0 Of course I won\u2019t, but if I did, it certainly would ring with the truth of a pivotal moment that changed my path.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The point is, when you look at your work, what does it authentically say about you or your life or your perspective?\u00a0 Even if you haven\u2019t quite narrowed it down, there\u2019s something valuable to be discovered and shared about your story.\u00a0 Every piece of artwork we create or buy tells us something about ourselves and something about the way we see the world. \u00a0 These stories are what make your paintings or collections even more engaging.<\/span><\/p>\n Because DMX was so authentic, his albums went platinum, one after the other. \u00a0 His words painted the streets and his hard-bristled brush slashed the canvas without apology.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Many of his songs were ingenious in my opinion.\u00a0 Some are not necessarily my cup of tea, but all of his music tells you how he authentically saw the world.\u00a0 And that I can appreciate from any artist.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n DMX was able to find value and belief in his own talent, long before others validated him.\u00a0 This is a great<\/span> accomplishment for any artist.\u00a0 But even greater than that is the achievement of maintaining your true calling as a creative person, even in the face of fame and fortune.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With all of DMX\u2019s success \u2013 and despite the inner turmoil and challenges he admitted to facing daily, he never lost his genuineness as an artist.\u00a0 And he never lost his humility or compassion for the everyday man.\u00a0 His close friend and longtime producer Swizz Beatz said of DMX, \u201cWith 30 million dollars in the bank, DMX was still humble enough to sit with the homeless in an abandoned building and share a meal.\u201c\u00a0 These are the kinds of stories he left the world with, along with his art.\u00a0 Many will learn from his story.<\/span><\/p>\n Your compassion, your preferences, your dreams, your internal wars — these are all things that can help other\u2019s learn.\u00a0 It\u2019s up to you to find value in your point of view and be brave enough to assert it in your art and collections.\u00a0 It\u2019s up to you to state the value of your culture, to you.<\/span><\/p>\n In closing, I repeat these words hoping, in particular, that some young person will remember them just this way:\u00a0 Don\u2019t stand in nobody else\u2019s line to become you.\u00a0 (Double negative intended).<\/span><\/p>\n First and foremost, validate yourself.\u00a0 If you want to be an artist, make some art.\u00a0 If you want to be a collector, collect some art.\u00a0 If you want to be a great artist, make some art you think is great, and know within yourself that you\u2019re a great artist.\u00a0 When you\u2019re able to validate yourself, you\u2019ll be better prepared to stand against the outpour of opinions that will surely come your way in the artworld, and in life\u2026 especially when others try to dismiss your value, or condescendingly flick you away to file their paperwork.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rest well, DMX and Shakespeare.\u00a0 Thank you for your art.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As always, we welcome your thoughts in the Comments Section below.<\/span><\/p>\n “Spirit Sister” by Nelson Stevens<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Browse and shop for fine art from our growing network of artists, collectors, estates, galleries — specializing in works by Black American artists with great values on premier art.<\/p><\/div>\n Sign up for our\u00a0free\u00a0email course<\/u><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>on how to begin your collection.<\/p>\n Paul Laurence Dunbar by Debra Hand<\/p><\/div>\n DEBRA HAND<\/b>\u00a0is a museum-collected sculptor, painter, and writer.\u00a0 She is the creator of the historic bronze statue of Paul Laurence Dunbar in Dunbar Park.\u00a0 Among the history makers who own her works are former President Barack Obama; Hillary Clinton; Harry Belafonte; Cicely Tyson; Smokey Robinson; Yo-Yo Ma;\u00a0 Spike Lee; Seal; Sinbad; and the renowned sculptor, Richard Hunt; the late Winnie Mandela, and the late Dr. Maya Angelou also owned her work. Debra Hand holds a Master of Science Degree from the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University.\u00a0 She is a self-taught artist whose talent was discovered by the legendary Dr. Margaret Burroughs, principal founder of the DuSable Museum. It was Burroughs who arranged for Hand\u2019s first public exhibit.<\/p>\n Would you buy stock in BAIA if you could? Well we invite you to join us in becoming a monthly supporter, starting at just $3 a month\u00a0YOU<\/b> become a stakeholder and begin to help us transform lives through art. We are growing the BAIA team and will use your contributions to hire more team members for the purpose of creating more educational and marketing resources for schools and universities about african american artists both past and present. Such art initiatives and educational programming like Blacklite with Steve Prince, Relating to Art with Dr. Kelli Morgan, and BAIA BITS would not be possible without the ongoing support of our Patreon members. Please consider becoming a monthly Patreon member today! <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Deloris and Eddie Young<\/b>, <\/b>Esther Silver-Parker<\/b>, <\/b>Eugene Foney<\/b>, <\/b>Zadig & Voltaire, Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art<\/b>, John and Melanie Guess, Frank Frazier, Houston Museum of African American Culture, Leslie Fields, Jim Nixon, Dr. Michael Butler, Mary “Madea” Jones, <\/b>Patrick Stewart, Noreen Winningham, Reg Pugh, Kevin Smokler, Deborah R. Moore, Dr. Skyller Walkes, Jae M, Jocelyne Lamour, Marion Zweig, Shannon DeVaney, Ashlee Jacob, DaNia Childress, Rev. Anita Marshall<\/strong>, Mary Ali-Masai, Devera Redmond, Roslyn Valentine, Robin King, Brenda Larnell, Michael, Jeffery Washington, Tricia Konan, Debra L Lacy CHARLES BIBBS, Fredric Isler, Silvia Peters<\/strong>,\u00a0 Harold Moore, Shurvon Haynes K.Coleman Shannon Dale Davis Terese L Hawkins M. Rasheed Jamal Love Annette, Mason Archie<\/strong>, Manuelita Brown, <\/span>Carolyn L. Mazloomi<\/b>\u00a0 Gale Ross KL Martin michael jacobs Virginia Joy Simmons Christ Van Loan Sr. Cecilia Winters-Morris, Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Pearlie Taylor, Danny Jenkins<\/strong>, Sara, Lloyd Goode, Marina Kovic, Sarah Rooney, Mitchell Shohet, Nicole Farley, Cheryl B Blankman, Jocelyn Greene, Laura Di Piazza Petrina Burkard Hannah Diener Sarah Drury Claire Sig Mina Silva Whitney, Sara Friesen, Megan LaCroix, Kellyn Maguire, Sophia Bellin,o Cory Huff, Wilhelmina Barker, Linda Eaddy, Shelley Danzy, Rosalyn D. 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