Arin Maya Lawrence, 34, Born and raised in Chicago (Currently living between Brooklyn and Philadelphia)
I haven't always been comfortable calling myself an artist, because I feel "artist" is such a broad term, it can be jarring to the listener. Nevertheless, it is what I am. I'm a musical artist who sings and creates sounds intended to inspire, uplift, and change people into their best and most thoughtful selves. I'm also an accessories designer, working with both traditional and non-traditional materials such as brass wire, bottle caps, tee shirts, and cork. Through all of my art, my goal is to shift and widen perspectives and to inspire the possibility of joy, growth and positive change.
So I left the country when I was about 26 to explore the wonderful world of "outside the US" and went to Paris. I had applied to a program I didn't end up getting into, but a friend/colleague had, so I decided to piggy back on his success! While in Paris, one of my favorite places to go and just be near was Centre Georges Pompidou, which houses a library, a museum (à la MoMA) and (also, I think) a movie/film theater. One of the times I visited, I saw this amazing tapestry-like piece that had to have been at least 12 feet up on the wall, draped down to the floor and coming out from the wall no less that 3 feet. It was amazing and lush and textured and colorful and shimmery and elegant...and it was made from bottle caps and other metal recyclables. It stunned me and awed me and truly inspired me - to the point where I suppose I subconsciously kept that image in my mind (and perhaps in the photo log somewhere on my computer) and years later started creating jewelry from bottle caps and other recyclables. I even had the chance to lead a workshop at the Brooklyn museum during an exhibition of the same artist's work (El Anatsui) in 2013.
I don't know if I know how to answer this.... (such great loaded questions!) I am a black woman from Chicago who has always been surrounded by and imbued with an appreciation for art. I think my identity informs my art in a number of ways, some of which are very basic. For example, because I'm a woman, I create jewelry and accessories for mainly women. As I get older, I think of ideals like elegance and grace when I'm creating. In my music, my womanhood informs the things I go through - both emotionally and socially. My life and story is informed by the things I go through as a woman and as a black person in America. I can't escape (nor do I want to) my background. It and my identity have made me who I am and love to be. If anything, my background and identity strengthen and sharpen my vision. I have a tattoo of the Ghanaian Adinkra symbol Sankofa. The most meaningful translation of Sankofa is "look to the past to get to the future." When I was given the gift of a necklace with the symbol on it by my mother at age 13, it kinda stuck with me. So I definitely look back in a lot of my work, as well as my living. I love singing and playing with (and reimagining) Negro Spirituals because I feel empowered to do so based on my lineage. I love singing covers of old jazz standards to pay tribute to what I feel are some of the best vocals that ever existed. I also love shopping at thrift stores and vintage stores. Finding something old or untreasured and giving it new life is a very present joy of mine. I don't know how to create without giving any thought to who I am or how I came to be. .
I most enjoy anything that involves me creating. There is work that I'm willing to do and that I see a profitable end in, but the work I most enjoy is the work where I'm using my hands or voice to create something new (to me) and beautiful. And I love the work of sharing that work with the world. Not so much the social media of it (because I don't feel I'm yet mastered that) but being on stages and getting close with audiences. That's where I feel most at home..
There is a project I've written a couple of grants on (and have yet to be funded....one day). A few years ago I was blessed with the opportunity and funding to take part in a circlesinging retreat with Bobby McFerrin at New York's Omega Center. It was so amazing and life-changing, it's hard to explain. Nevertheless, it changed the way I sometimes approach the writing/producing part of music creation, and it expanded the way that I go about creating and exchange with my audiences. The project I dream of one day doing is a large scale circlesinging gathering in a central location in a city like Brooklyn, where I'd bring people of all different cultures, ages, religions, classes, and backgrounds together to join voices and sing some language-free songs. I think an exercise/event like this would strengthen communities in a powerful way. Because it's an intangible experience, it's been difficult for me to voice it in the right way to get funding for it, but I still believe it will happen one day.
1 - Don't take yourself too seriously. 2 - Trust yourself. 3 - Everything is always alright in the end. If it's not alright, it's not the end. 4 - Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
My sister, Nia Lawrence, is currently on my list of inspirations because of her strength and will to push past the unfortunate and horrible situations she's been going through to still achieve magical things. My partner, Gerald Trotman, inspires me by constantly being willing to see and own up to his personal monsters. The things he fears, the voices that haunt him, the doubts in his mind. His willingness to maturely look at himself and see where he is and assess how he got there and his role in his own life - and then his willingness and strong and ambitious desire to change... these things inspire me. And vain as it may be, I inspire me. (This is new.) Through conversations I've had with other people who admire me, I'm coming to see more and more, the way I don't spend much time being fearful of what might happen, but rather make a decision and go with it. Where I lack patience, it serves me well. When I believe in something, I go after it, and I'm increasingly going after it with more rapidity than previously. That's a great thing.
Doing things at the speed of lightening. (Mainly traveling.) But I would have the option to do them fast or slow. Some things are better as a process.
Movies: Boomerang Shakespeare in Love The Toy Story Series TV Shows: Jane the Virgin (!!!) House of Lies (it's over now but it was GOOD) A Different World (timeless) Project Runway Books: (I'm taking liberties) The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Harry Potter Series (I still have to read the newest last one - no spoilers!) Cypress, Sassafrass and Indigo For Colored Girls Who've Considered Suicide (When the Rainbow is Enuf) (most anything by Chimamanda Adichie or Zadie Smith) The Four Agreements Food: (more like ethnic styles of food) Indian Ethiopian Thai Senegalese ...and French Fries :)
Our resilience. How Sway?!? And while I don't question it, and am truly inspired by it, I'm interested in our willingness to welcome and our (seemingly eternal) willingness to forgive the unforgiveable. And I mean this in terms of all black cultures - not just Black American. This world has been HARSH and HARD and UNKIND to black people. Yet and still, we're still here, shining and winning and being good to the very people who tried to break us. That's a powerful truth.