(jazz music) - I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, I was born there.

I'm not funny about age.

I was born there in 1971.

All of my family, born and raised in Louisiana.

We had, some left as a result of marriage or jobs, but most of my immediate family stayed.

And stayed there really until Katrina.

But New Orleans is such a unique place in terms of the fusion of culture, whether that be from European culture to African diaspora.

So I remember it was a vibrant place, a place that I was around so many different kinds of people but I probably didn't realize the nature of that, even as a kid.

- I didn't really love the arts at first.

I mean, I grew up in the church.

My father was a pastor and a minister, so we were constantly in the church and we were put into the choirs and I didn't really like singing at that point, but you know, crying and singing at the same time, got through it.

But as I got older, I started to appreciate it.

And I do appreciate my parents for kind of like seeing that in me, cause I didn't see it at that point in my life.

But even before that, Rose Weaver once came to my school.

She came in and she taught us about jazz.

She taught us about, you know, African American, the African American roots in history and the music and the arts.

And I remember she came in and did ♪ It don't mean a thing ♪ ♪ if it ain't got that swing ♪ and she taught us how to swing dance a little bit.

You know, little elementary kids trying to figure it out, but it definitely sent a spark.

You know, it started the spark as far as the love of the arts and the love of, of performing and just being you and being comfortable in your own skin, so.

- I fell in love with hip hop music when I saw DMX Rough Riders Anthem.

Right?

It was something about the pit bull biting the tie and the four wheelers, just, you know what I'm saying?

You hear that, that beat drop, (mimics beat) I was like, ooh, this is hard, I like this right here, right.

It was something about it that just drew me in, right.

So I fell in love with hip hop and through hip hop also a love for words and poetry cause that's really what hip hop is, you know?

Rhythmic African poetry.

That's what it stands for.

Right?

That's what rap stands for.

Every night monsters can linger in our minds Where I got introduced to it, as far as me personally like my involvement it was a lot of things that fell into place for that.

There was my mother getting ready to put her foot up my behind because I wasn't doing my schoolwork and I was just being lazy at home.

So she told me I had to get a after school hobby or a job.

It was this English teacher who actually invited me.

He liked the way I carried myself and he invited me to be a part of this theater program.

Only one year that they ever did it.

It was my freshman year in high school.

Cause he even asked me, he was like you ever thought about acting?

I was like, I've been acting the fool my whole life.

Maybe I'll be ight at it.

Right?

That was always my joke back then.

And on my way to the first reading I was sitting there thinking up of excuses for how I can get out of it.

I really ended up finding myself through the process of having a sense of belonging.

- I went to Notre Dame.

And like a lot of things that I've done in my life.

I went to Notre Dame.

I didn't even know they had a football team.

I didn't even know there was a golden dome.

To be brutally honest with you that even my relationship to blackness and to understanding with the struggles of our people have been historically.

That really became more of it became more crystallized for me during college.

You need them take responsibility.

You know, there was a problem with black student retention.

There was no center, no hub.

There was no director of multicultural educa- nothing, nothing, nothing.

There was no place to go.

So it all led to, we staged to sit in.

(students protesting together) It was the end of my junior year college that we all met around campus, different satellite campus areas.

And we walked toward the golden dome.

We shut down the golden dome.

We walked in we had sleeping bags, food, music, black folk, white folk all kind of folk, football players, everybody piling in.

And we piling.

We shut the building down for a day after handing them our demands.

And that began a discussion that I'm proud to this day to say that my brother went back to Notra Dame 10 years after I finished.

And there was an office of multicultural affairs And, there were more black faculty and the the climate was less hostile.

But you know, I was so tired after all of that.

I felt a little bit defeated because there was really there was really, no outcome at that time.

And so I'm like, well the last thing I wanna do is mess up my GPA.

So I'll take it an acting class.

Since I took my first acting class in my senior college and it changed my life.

I didn't know that much about Providence or about the idea of making a life here.

So once again, making a decision purely on my gut.

And my gut was that I wanted to be part of a community.

- (Producer) For me.

I see joy as kind of a charging port for black people in America and you know getting joy and being like, all right I can go out and face the world again.

Have you experienced that here, People coming in having a bad day and leaving more joyous?

- Absolutely.

Every single rehearsal.

There's always somebody that comes in, they had a bad day, but they leave laughing.

They leave at least having a smiling on the, on their face, at some point during the rehearsal.

There are people that have their own struggles, their own burdens.

I mean, people are taking care of their moms and or elderly or you know, whatever situation that they're in.

And this is a place where they come to unload and shake that off for a little while and recharge so that when they do go back to their tasks they have a little more energy to come with, to go with.

This is a charging place.

This a charging station for a majority of the community that comes through.

Conception of the project usually starts with something that needs to be said or something that needs to be done.

Our last concert Greatness of Gospel 14 was based around freedom.

The reason we chose freedom was because it seemed like during the times that we're living in right now everybody seems so heavy and everyone seems so bound by the fear.

There's so much fear in this world right now.

People just need to be broken free.

They need to be released in a certain kind of a way - [911 Operator] All units responding 110 Calhoun state.

- [Police Officer] Active shooter, multiple people down.

- [Newscaster] (Name censored out) revealed that he had been planning the attack for some time.

And that he chose the church because it was an historic African-American church.

Sources say he also - - I never forget watching all the coverage around the shooting at Mother Manuel Church I won't say the, the kids' name, but walked in.

He walked in and shot the place, they were in the middle of praying.

And it was so deep because there were lots of conversations going around, in the on the interweb about the grace of those people and their capacity to forgive.

And I had to be with myself on that too because my gut reaction you ready to go out and destroy stuff.

The rage, the anger.

But yet you watch those people who went through something unspeakable, still be able to find that grace.

- Felicia had lost her son.

And I said, she could forgive, why you so hardhearted you can't forgive.

There's no healing with Patriots.

You have to love each other - In the midst of, of, of so much adversity.

Adversity we really, sometimes can't even name and we can go on and on about all those things that had been heaped upon a people.

But to me, the joy is, is that Phoenix rising from the ash.

And we, as a people continue to do that.

Narrative is a powerful thing.

We tell a lot of stories in this country, some of which are not true.

But those narratives shape how we see ourselves.

- So these days I speak like my tongue has eyes watching everything I say quicker to shake hands than I am to move that even when my fist wants to trip trap into someone's face, I found surprising.

We're connected.

We live in a foundation of love.

You know what I'm saying?

That's our foundation.

And so like it's sad to see how through poverty and through manipulation tactics and stuff like that or whatever you see it starting to switch now.

But black joy still always exists regardless to what the situation is in some form of fashion.

Even if it's something that we look at and it's like sad but they still find a way to have some kind of joy within it.

- [Joe Wilson Jr.] Black joy is grace.

It's in our DNA.

It's from the drum.

It's from the song.

It's from the mother.

It's from the father.

It's from our capacity to reshape and to reinvent.

It's our love of color, cause we are so many colors.

It's about the recognition in that moment that you see me beyond how everybody else sees me, in that I find joy.