I think that's kind of indicative of a type of self-confidence that people develop when they recognize their own ability to create.

There is something to be said about laying bare the vocabulary of the aristocratic measure, right? There's something to be said about allowing the powerless to tell their own story.

I think there's something important in going against the grain, and perhaps finding value in things that aren't necessarily institutionally recognized.

I think that's kind of indicative of a type of self-confidence that people develop when they recognize their own ability to create.

I was 12 in 1989 during perestroika, when my mother found a program that sent me to Russia to study art in the forests outside of Leningrad.

My mother's from Texas. Small town outside of Waco called Downsville. And my father's from Nigeria. And so I guess I'm properly African-American.

I think it was a matter of, like, I'm not going to have my kids in these wild streets. Both my twin brother and I were in art school together.