1
00:00:08,309 --> 00:00:12,509
Cranbrook Academy of Art is where I did my
graduate studies.

2
00:00:13,299 --> 00:00:16,430
It was a bit shocking, I think, at the beginning,

3
00:00:16,430 --> 00:00:19,550
because I was the only minority there.

4
00:00:19,919 --> 00:00:21,759
This is in 1988.

5
00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:25,780
I just considered myself another artist

6
00:00:25,780 --> 00:00:28,320
out there amongst my peers.

7
00:00:28,970 --> 00:00:31,449
And I think it was difficult because it was
the first time

8
00:00:31,449 --> 00:00:35,849
that I was confronted with my identity as
a black male.

9
00:00:39,610 --> 00:00:43,060
My mother told me when I was, like,
eight years old,

10
00:00:43,060 --> 00:00:46,470
the complexity of what I would have to deal with.

11
00:00:46,470 --> 00:00:51,230
So knowing made me think,
"I've got to build a thick skin."

12
00:00:51,230 --> 00:00:55,450
"I've got to be able to operate in a world…"
[LAUGHS]

13
00:00:55,450 --> 00:00:58,170
"...that could work against me
as opposed to for me."

14
00:00:59,140 --> 00:01:00,680
What do I do with that?

15
00:01:04,960 --> 00:01:06,820
I have been racially profiled.

16
00:01:08,540 --> 00:01:11,140
I'm walking home with my portfolio
from teaching.

17
00:01:11,140 --> 00:01:15,850
I am pulled...surrounded by
undercover cops saying,

18
00:01:15,850 --> 00:01:17,100
"Lie down on the floor"--

19
00:01:17,100 --> 00:01:19,880
because the convenience store was robbed
down the street.

20
00:01:20,300 --> 00:01:22,540
That has been my reality.

21
00:01:25,580 --> 00:01:27,440
Get it together up here.

22
00:01:27,740 --> 00:01:30,620
Psychologically, I have to really get it together.

23
00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:33,280
And I just have to get quiet--

24
00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:35,420
to put it in perspective

25
00:01:35,429 --> 00:01:37,009
and to, sort of,

26
00:01:37,009 --> 00:01:40,549
not sort of lash out into rage.

27
00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:45,420
And if I do, lashing out for me is
creating this.

28
00:01:46,079 --> 00:01:49,999
All of that becomes the impulse to create.

29
00:01:55,500 --> 00:02:00,200
I don't ever see the "Soundsuits" as fun.

30
00:02:01,500 --> 00:02:04,140
They really are coming from a very dark place.

31
00:02:07,780 --> 00:02:12,820
The "Soundsuits" hide gender, race, class.

32
00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:17,200
And they force you to look at the work
without judgment.

33
00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:22,200
You know, we tend to want to categorize everything.

34
00:02:22,209 --> 00:02:25,150
We tend to want to find its place.

35
00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:32,160
How do we, sort of, be one on one with something
that is unfamiliar?