Today we continue our journey listening to and uplifting Black Creative Voices. This is an ongoing series where we interview black artists about their work, challenges and dreams. This episode features incredible Seattle-based author, artist, and entrepreneur, barry johnson. Join us as we talk about:

-barry's IMMACULATE exhibition depicting black and brown faces that have been distorted, covered up and partially erased to represent what has happened to black culture and heritage to fit another party's narrative, and his nomination for the Neddy Award

-barry's work for TEDx exploring identity and the creation of different personas as a way to navigate the world by freely evolving to explore multiple areas of yourself and your life

-"Black Lives Matter" as an apolitical statement that refers to human rights and the non-radicalism of inclusion and togetherness

-the call to enforce law emotionally rather than physically which requires removing military-grade gear within police, and addressing the profitability of holding citizens back through mass-incarceration and slave labor

-the origins of the black peoples' mistrust in American systems due to racist law enforcement, mass sterilization of black people at the hands of racist American health-care systems, and mass killing of black people at the hands of racist American systems, along with black peoples' unwillingness to share for fear of their vulnerability being used against them again as it has in history

-black peoples' agency to believe freely and go against norms, systematic erasure of their accomplishment in history, the potential for their lives to change at the hands of police, their generational trauma and the willful ignorance of racism within society

-the way divisiveness is used against society for profit, causing humanity to forget their likeness to one another, and how our inherent shared values can be appealed to by radical ideals exacerbated by the echo-chamber of social media

-the importance of artists' roles in society and their duty to document the aesthetic and emotional history of humanity, and art's potential as a healing force

You can find barry's work at:

barryjohnson.co

Instagram: @barryjohnson.co

Twitter: @barryjohnsonco

Patreon: patreon.com/barryjohnson