THE ART OF FOREIGN BLACKNESS

I’m gonna go there…

When Pharrell Williams talked about “The New Black”, he was cancelled. LaKeith Stanfield is often raising eyebrows for being that one weird Black guy in Hollywood. Erykah Badu is often doing the same, for being that witchy Black woman that almost every Black person has cancelled at least once, but still deep down has the cultural conviction to consider her Queen or Mama.

What do the three of them have in common besides being seen as the “different type of Black” folx?

They’re still highly successful, loved, and Black. They think outside of the box, pushing forward culture from what’s been considered the norm. And they would ask, what’s normal anyway?

Rightfully so. Black folx are constantly walking the line between getting our Black card revoked and being revered as iconically Black. If you’re on either extreme of the boundaries, you might get caught bouncing back and forth between them both.

Is the safe solution just to stay stable in the middle? For some, sure. But when you are anything like Badu, LaKeith, or Pharrell, you’re not going to stay safe. You’re going to stay dangerous, taking risks outside of your mind, seeing your wildest dreams come to fruition. And guess what. You’re going to share it with the world, with your community, with other Black folx — enriching their world with a wider palette of possibility for Blackness.

Because there is nothing “foreign” about your lived experience or expression of being Black, there’s simply an art to it is all.

NOTHING FOREIGN™

a Conversation, a Gallery, a Portfolio, a Mind-state