The Art of Racial Healing – Essence

It’s no secret that creative expression has the ability to heal. Whether it’s a movie, a sketch comedy, a painting, and even graffiti on the side of a constructing, art gives us a approach to deeply explore our personal histories in order that we will transform trauma and feel whole again. Even more powerfully, it helps us understand the stories of individuals with very different experiences.

My perspective on art was a piece in progress. As someone who grew up in a working class family in West Philly, my parents encouraged us to experience art, however it felt like something other people did. Growing up Black, African American, Afro-Latino, and gay also meant I encountered racism and other “isms” that forced me to make use of my very own capability for healing. That’s after I discovered that artistic expression doesn’t care about how much money you’ve got or where you reside. It’s throughout us in so many alternative forms and spaces. Art offers a path to seeing ourselves and others as we learn, transform, and heal.

Racism and other forms of social injustice shape our lives—irrespective of where we’re or what we appear like. These are systems that fuel inequality that affect everyone, just in other ways. In today’s polarized environment, we must find ways to heal as individuals and as communities. This process calls each of us to courageously reflect on our personal stories. This experience just isn’t at all times easy. Sometimes things get uncomfortable. But that’s okay. We have the ability to make use of our knowledge and wisdom to dive deep, confident that we are going to safely make it to the opposite side. We are called to unpack what now we have been taught at school, in our homes, in our neighborhoods, and in our communities. We are called to significantly consider what we’d like to “unlearn.” As many writers and thinkers have said, the more we all know ourselves and our history on this country, the more healing we’ll experience and the more grace we can have for one another.

I do not consider myself a very “political” person, but I consider in people and
civil rights. I actually have been fortunate to make use of my voice and platform to advertise what is vital to me on the earth. I need the movies and art I work on to not only entertain, but additionally encourage thought-upsetting and compelling conversations. Every artist approaches this otherwise – one of the things I need to do in my work is to disrupt stereotypes about who we’re as black men.

A director I do know once said something about art that I believe is a fundamental principle of racial healing—“It doesn’t have to look like you to be about you.” We should give you the option to have a look at stories from outside our own experience and trust that in some ways they’re our stories too. As an artist, my job is to be curious and interpret humanity to seek out out what makes us more similar than different. It’s an attractive responsibility and part of my job that I like since it keeps me connected to the world.

I recently had the chance to talk with leaders on the W.K. Kellogg Foundation about how the humanities encourage people to make the world a greater place for everybody, including children, families, and communities. The foundation focuses all of its work on children. Knowing that children live in families and families live in communities, it really works with grantee partners to interrupt down systemic barriers. This can be where racial healing is available in—all of us have a story and a approach to walk on the earth. But if we recognize and honor our common humanity, these persistent barriers will be broken down. One way this happens is thru National Racial Healing Daywhere people reflect on shared values ​​and work together to create a plan to heal the consequences of racism.

Let’s make racial healing a every day habit and practice. Let’s tell the reality about
the past and what lies behind the present reality. Let’s do the “people work” that is required to
Let’s evolve into something greater. Let’s cultivate empathy and construct trust
relationships to create social systems that work for everybody. And as part of that healing,
Let’s create art, let’s witness art and let it open up a very latest world to us.