Tomorrow is my first day out, the first thing statement I ever made socially to the world last year was
“Gloves on, let’s go!”
This was taken a myriad of ways but what I meant was let’s go punch for punch, I was on the ropes but I was ready to war and that’s exactly what would be asked of me. I was told everything-that I was foolish for not quitting, that I was insane for thinking I stood a chance and that I was unreasonable for continuing to push forward with my work in the face of people who wanted to bury me. The artist is responsible only for following the vision the universe has imparted to them, everything else is futile.
To me fighting didn’t just mean making it through the storm for myself, it meant coming back and succeeding in the face of the oppressor for those that look like me and have suffered through the same. I’ve been working diligently on a number of broader, more expansive projects that will do just that, one of them launching tomorrow on my first day out. I told everyone involved in that oppression, when I succeeded I was bringing the fight right back to the soil of Cincinnati and they would have to witness everything I would become. I told them it was funny now but that one day their kids and grandkids would learn about me in school. I always wondered what it would feel like when things came full circle, what one man could birth out of a dream and deep, resonating knowledge of self. Each day I’m learning more and more there is no limits to what can be accomplished with this knowledge. Tomorrow is just one step in taking back everything that was taken, tomorrow is one day in a much longer war, a year ago I was on the ropes but this year we’re punching back.
📸: @houtxtoast & @haddzes
