- Welcome to Kalamazoo Lively Arts.

The show that takes you inside Kalamazoo's vibrant creative community and explores the people who breathe life into the arts.

(Punching In A Dream) - Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.

- I'm Jennifer Moss, here at Miller Auditorium.

On today's show, we meet author, artist and activist, Maya James, to hear about her new book and the way she's weaving arts into her work in community.

But first, Kathy Brown shows us her new found love for creating art during her Art Hop showcase in downtown Kalamazoo.

(calm, electronic upbeat music) - Well, I'm here with Kathy Brown.

Art Hop is happening and I wanted to come see some of your stuff.

You're an artist.

And tell me what kind of artist you are.

- I'm a new artist, first of all.

And I do all abstract art.

And that also includes some really unusual, I'll call them collages.

They are mixed media.

We start out with a little bit of acrylic and then I cut up some old albums.

I've got Abbey Road and they all go onto that canvas and it ends up to be a piece of art.

- So Kathy this painting incorporates some album art in it.

Right?

- [Kathy] Yeah.

- And how did you choose it?

You've got Paul up here walking barefoot.

Talk about the rest of it.

- Right.

Well, uh...

I took the cover of the a road Abbey Road, Abbey Road album.

Abbey Road, um, came out in 1970 and this album actually was from 1970.

- Wow.

- So I cut it apart.

I just kind of started working in shapes, wanted the Abbey Road to really stand out in the center.

Of course, Beatles.

And I always wanna include- - Yes.

- The set list.

And we've got side one and side two there.

So, um, I lay those out on the floor.

Then I start on my canvas, start thinking about what colors I wanna bring in, what kind of movement I need behind everything.

And as you were telling me earlier, you found out- - I said, "Is that a word?"

- I actually put, O, O H and then dot dot dot because, Oh!

Darling is one of the songs, right.

This right here, something.

- [Kim] Yes.

Something.

So, you know, kind of wanted to really feel like this is something that is coming out and speaking to you and you've got the music in your head and you've got the album and the paint and everything kind of congealing for something that comes out to be a piece of art.

- What was the music rolling in your head when you were doing this one?

- Yeah.

You know, actually, um, Oh!

Darling was a big one.

I, uh, kind of was on repeat through the whole thing.

Um... Yeah, a, a lot of the different, you know, not even the Abbey Road albums, but the Beatles to Won't Let It Be.

- [Kim] Yes.

- You know, um... That was something.

Because sometimes I have to let it be, I can't keep going.

I wanna stop at a certain point.

That's where the art is, where it's supposed to be.

- So you're a new artist.

What do you mean by that?

- Well, actually I owned a hair salon and I was a hairdresser for about 43 years.

- Oh, wow.

- And, you know, worked with hair colors, with dimension, with highlight, low light, with makeup, with different colors and different tones.

So I thought, well, let's try it.

- So were you interested in art, your whole life?

- My mom was an artist actually.

And I mean the type of art she did, I could never do.

It's, it's the really beautiful, detailed, you know I, I couldn't do that.

But when I sat down and I started to splash around with colors, the abstract just spoke to me.

- How does a painting start for you?

- Yeah.

You know, that's a good question.

Many, many ways.

I called my Art Hop improvisation because it is very improvisational.

Sometimes I'll look at a picture, I'll, um, collect some thoughts and then it goes onto the canvas.

Other times I have something very intentional.

I have some of my black and whites that I really want to have a, a good structure to them.

I want them to be real linear.

And that's what it ends up to be.

- So Kathy, we're at my favorite painting and I'd love for you to show me kind of how to do it.

- You wanna think simple, really.

It looks a little complicated, but when you get started, you're gonna start with some main colors.

You just get that tube of paint, you squish them on there and you start brushing that around.

And then, uh, maybe we're moving over here.

We're doing a little bit more gray, some light gray.

And then I'm thinking, you know, I know my focus is gonna be a big swoosh and then work around a little bit more, sit back and think I've got more color to go back and forth with.

It's just kind of piecing and layering and piecing and layering until you're getting that feel of what that painting wants to be.

- So like, like this, like, do you just go... With a brush.

- [Kathy] Pretty much.

Pretty much.

- And then you, you stand back and how do you know when the painting is finished?

- Yeah.

At the point where I wanted to start layering in a little bling, you know I've got some sequins.

- [Kim] Yeah.

I love it.

- [Kathy] I've got some- - [Kim] Sand.

- Sand and sparkles going on.

Yeah, I really wanted it to be almost my complete picture at that point.

Um, we've got almost like stars or a little bit of- - [Kim] Right.

- You know, movement going on with that again, added those and, um, that's, at that point, you wanna be pretty much finished 'cause you're not gonna wanna go over and layer anything else on.

- Yeah.

And like you said, stars.

And for me it was like maybe splashes of water.

- [Both] Right.

- And that's, what's so great.

You can just kind of tell whatever it is that comes to your mind.

- When you were starting out and I'm sure painting, you know, your very first painting.

Was there somebody who, who pushed you and believed in you?

- Um, my husband really did.

He said, you know, I bet you could do that.

We set up a studio, got all the supplies and I put the first piece together in a couple hours, in fact, and he came into the studio and he said, "How'd you do that?"

And I said, "I don't know."

So, you know, it was kind of fun.

- So you, you brought the albums into your artwork.

Do you listen to music when you're creating?

- You know, it's interesting.

Um, the music that I listen to is just all in my head when I'm creating.

And it's typically, um, One of These Nights or Abbey Road songs, something, you know, that goes along with it.

I feel like it might be a distraction if I have something else going on.

I really wanna be centered on my painting.

- What do you want people to take away?

- Yeah.

You know, it was real fun to walk around and say, "Hey what do you see in that painting?"

And just to kind of hear what other people take from a painting, that was just tremendous.

And it's, it's not what I, you know, intend for, you know, it's whatever they are going to see is what's important.

- Kathy, thank you so much for talking with me here today.

I appreciate your time.

- Today, I'm talking to Maya James who is an activist and author and educator illustrator and artist from right here in Kalamazoo.

Thanks so much for talking with me here today.

- Oh.

Thank you.

I really appreciate it.

- Hey, do you think it would be possible for you to share a little bit out of your book?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Wow.

That is powerful Powerful.

And you illustrated as well, right?

- Yes.

So these are- I'll show you some of the pages.

But this is like at an event that they organized together.

- Oh, it's beautiful.

This is the story of- - Wow, do you do that with, uh, with ink and pen or is that all digital?

- No, this is, uh, actually paint pens.

So these are- - Beautiful.

Beautiful.

So Maya tell me a little bit about you.

Where did you grow up?

Uh, what did your life look like as a little kid?

- Yeah.

So my career kind of took off, uh, when I did a series of stories about growing up in Northern Michigan.

So I grew up in Northern Michigan.

And I always say I grew in Northern Michigan, unfortunately.

Um... (chuckles) - And there are very few black people or brown people or even asian people in Northern Michigan.

At the time black people made up less than 1% of the entire census.

And this is in the, like the entire county.

And I started doing stories about that in my local college newspaper.

And I was talking about, you know, the hate crimes and the the excessive hate-racism that was happening in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 So I went to a Associated Press conference and I met the people from YR Media.

And, uh, they said there was no pitching but I pitched a story called A Great Place to Hate.

And you can look that up but it ended up in USA Today, New York Times.

And then I also did a podcast version with Kevin Allison from Risk!

And who recently re-aired that.

So if you go to the most recent podcast, you can see my first version of telling that story from when I was 17.

And then eventually I moved to Kalamazoo and I was, you know, still fulfilling my education.

But then I started really diving into my art and my father is an artist.

His name's Rufus Snoddy.

And my life with him has been the equivalent of an apprenticeship that a lot of artists would love to spend thousands of dollars on.

And I got the privilege to be his daughter and just learned from him.

Then I ended up doing multiple murals and I got a book deal with Maamoul Press.

And I recently published my first graphic novel, called Lukumi, which is a story by a black woman for black women.

- So tell me, how did you start with Maamoul Press?

- There was an open call for artists, um, and they were prioritizing the stories of marginalized people and people of color.

And it was just asking for proposals for authentic graphic novels about people's identity.

I was dealing with a lot of identity seeking at that time.

I had just moved to Kalamazoo.

So I didn't really, I wasn't really in touch with me.

I wasn't really in touch with my culture and I wanted to be so badly, but when we have no exposure to what that even looks like, it's a huge discovery.

And it's a great migration of its own.

I proposed a book called Lukumi, and I had never written a graphic novel before, but it was about these two friends.

And I had been experiencing, uh, what colorism looked like.

I had been experiencing the real, um, the real effect on the community of people of color and especially women of color, activists and leaders dying.

And so I based the entire story about these two friends and their last conversation being one centered around colourism, as two women of color from different backgrounds.

One is a darker skin woman, one was a lighter skin woman.

And that kinda almost petty conversation being their last time that they talk with each other.

- Who did you write it for?

What do you want somebody to get out of it when they pick it up and they start going through the pages?

- So the answer to that question is in fact in the first page of the book and it's the dedication.

And like I said, my father has a huge impact in my life.

He was my nurturer and he was the, the reason that I care about my culture, my faith, my activism, my advocacy so much.

While it is a book for black women and by a black women, it's also this, this cry for fathers to stand by our side the way that my father has been able to stand by my side.

And I'm just not going to get emotional about it.

But you know, I am a very, very lucky girl to have a father who always encouraged what I believed in and pursuing that as my career.

- That, that's it like seeing, seeing the such strong, raw emotion in you, um, that's the importance of a father in a daughter's life that, I mean, you, you painted it you know, it, it, it's powerful.

Lukumi?

- Lukumi.

- Lukumi.

Lukumi.

Lukumi.

Tell me, um, tell me about the name.

- Yes.

So Lucumí is a word, uh, in T'yar Barr in the practice of Ifá which is an overall practice that, uh, was created in the transatlantic slave trade.

And it is known by more derogatory terms of black magic.

So Lucumí means original people.

And when we're talking about people who practice Ifá, we call them Lucumí because they are the original people.

Lucumí even goes deeper to talk about the people who originated in Africa who were stolen from that land.

- Maya, could you take me through just one of your drawings?

- This one is, uh, the real big spread and this is, uh, you'll see, this is Aida over here and she is weeping, um, and it's all black and white and she is weeping at her altar, um, for the loss of her best friend.

And I created this, um, kind of like thinking about what it would look like in a mirror.

Um, and if you know, sometimes I see mirrors and I think about if there's spirits behind me, you know.

Or is there somebody behind me?

Is something spooky happening?

And I would love the thought of three, um, benevolent nurturing spirits watching me, um, through grief.

And then in the beginning there's a smaller illustration.

It actually has the map of the transatlantic, uh, mass genocide, Maafa, but it's in the form of roots coming from a tree.

So while this was a trauma that we share as people of color, I wanted, I wanted us to have something to see, to show that that's our roots, that's where we came from and we're going to the place that is the opposite of that.

- [Kim] Mm.

- I worked very hard on this.

Lukumi!

- It's gorgeous.

(laughs) - It's gorgeous.

That must feel really good to have that in your hands like that, knowing that it's like a baby, right?

It's, uh, it-it, it will be here long after you and I are gone.

- And I love that on the back.

It says the dedication to my dad which is: This story is for my father and his father and his father.

And for the fathers after that.

For the generations and generations of my ancestors that never knew their faith.

And for my Baba, Ifabayoa Adesanya Awoyade Kefentse, who gave me the space to find mine, unshook by the trauma of Maafa, the colonial trans-atlantic genocide has inflicted to divide our community.

Black lives matter.

- Oh beautiful.

It's beautiful.

Which brings me to your mural because you did a beautiful mural.

I believe you started it on Juneteenth.

Was it a few years back?

- So during the George Floyd summer, me and two other girls we organized a protested of 850 people in Johnson.

And then I had been asking around in, uh, the Vine Neighborhood Association for a mural space.

When they found the funds, they commissioned something and they said we don't know what you wanna do, but just do it.

And the thing is is when you tell me I can do whatever I want I'm gonna do that.

So I depicted 94 faces of police brutality and mob violence in the past 40 years.

And it's on the side of J Bird Vintage on Vine and Westnedge.

All in, it's known as paint blue, and different shades of paint blue which has a very important impact on the black community through slavery and beyond.

Um, and I wanted to give a face to the name.

You said so many times during that movement say their name, say their name.

I wanted people to have to see their faces and have to see 94 of them so that they realized that you actually can recognize somebody in this mural that looks like somebody, you know?

- Yeah.

- And there is also like a little key with different symbols in there, um, um, and it kinda tells you about how they live.

So if there's a pentagram it means that they were in arm services or, uh, served our- - [Kim] Check mark.

- [Maya] Yeah.

Check Mark.

- [Kim] Hearts.

- Um...

There was one for, uh, it was like kinda like, uh, one of those little signs, like with the line through it.

Um, and that, I'm pretty sure, was, uh, if you're a minor and you were murdered before you reached the age of 18.

Um, there's, there's so many things to it.

The rainbow is like a member of the LQBTQIA community who was murdered in a mob hate crime.

Um... Like Muhlaysia Booker.

- What were you feeling?

What were you feeling when you were painting those, those faces?

- It was really hard.

Cause I had to stop and cry a lot.

There were a lot of times where I just, you know and the names kept piling on and they still do.

I'm sure every person of color knows that like, like especially after Patrick Loyola who I wish I could add to the wall, but that's the problem with this is that I can't add more people to the wall and I want to, and I can't add everyone to the wall either.

And I, I had a lot of times where I needed to take breaks and it maybe was a little longer than if I had just been being mural of like a cactus or something a bit more simple.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Do, do you, do you remember, I'm sure you remember who, who was the first one that, that you painted?

- I do know that George Floyd was one of the first.

Um, if you look at it from the corner, the top corner down that's kind where I started.

But I also do when I'm doing a project like that cause I've done now, um, faces and then faces part two, which was at ArtPrize last year um, depicting women of color and accolades and achievements.

Because I wanted to do a positive spin for the faces project.

Um, I usually do more than one portrait at a time because like my dad taught me, the way to do it in layers so that you do one layer, do the other there.

And, um, that actually makes me a very, very much more productive artist.

- How interesting talk about that.

What your dad taught you about the layers.

That's so interesting.

- Yeah.

So like I said, I had a formal arts education so I have been, uh, painting from observation and painting from realism since I was really young, um, and he always- And this is, I guess this is my art tip for the day.

Um, he always says neutral, dark, light.

So you can't paint the whole thing at once.

You have to do the background, hopefully in a neutral color then you add the darks and then you add the light.

And it goes like that in a pattern.

So if you keep going in that way even if you need to keep adding you're gonna have a much more dimensional painting.

- Yeah.

It's beautiful.

It's just, it, it is so beautiful.

I imagine that, that there are people that go there and stand there and just, just look, pray, touch it, um... - Myself included.

I do go back to my painting and I look at it and I'm like, I I've painted this - Maya James, thank you so much for talking with me here today.

I learned a lot and it's been a fun conversation.

Thank you so much for your time.

- Thank you, Kim.

I am so grateful that you had me on your show.

And have a wonderful evening.

- Thank you for joining us on this week's episode of Kalamazoo Lively Arts.

Check out today's show and other content @wgvu.org.

We leave you tonight with a performance by Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers.

I'm Jennifer Moss, have a great night.

(Tenemos a La Niña) (Tenemos a La Niña continues) (Tenemos a La Niña builds) (Tenemos a La Niña continues) (Tenemos a La Niña continues) - Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Can you whisper ♪ ♪ The bittersweet between my teeth ♪ ♪ Can you whisper ♪ ♪ Trying to find the in-between ♪ ♪ Can you whisper ♪ ♪ Fall back in love eventually ♪ ♪ Can you whisper ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪