Good evening and welcome to Courageous Conversations.

My name is Pastor Phillip Davis, and I'm your host.

Today on Courageous Conversations, I'm blessed to have Bart Cooper with us.

He's a contemporary artist who recently created an art series called Heroes, which is on tour right now at ArtsQuest in the Lehigh Valley.

Don't go anywhere.

We'll be right back with this talented and gifted young artist on Courageous Conversations.

Well, Bart, man, I'd like to welcome you to the show.

This is exciting.

We go back a long way, right?

This is not new to us, right?

So we're just having a conversation.

Welcome to the living room, right?

You know, the work that you're doing is pretty intense.

It's pretty amazing.

And you're impacting the world.

So, so tell me, man, how did you, how did you get into art?

You're right, you're from the Lehigh Valley.

So, but, how did the art thing come about?

How did you get connected?

- I've been I've been creating since I was three, since the age of three.

It first started where I saw my father drawing a picture.

And right after he was done, I picked up the pencil and never put it down since.

- And you're still, you're still doing that.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Where do you draw your inspirations from?

- They come from, well, they come from inside.

So, like, they come from all over.

Sometimes they come from my surroundings, situations that are happening in the current time.

Conversations with other people.

They just, they just pull.

So, like, whatever that vision that comes in, I just have to share it.

- That's pretty cool, man.

Think about the fact that you're right here from the Lehigh Valley, and a lot of times we don't get a chance to celebrate people from the Valley who are doing tremendous things.

You went to Northampton Community College, right?

What did you, what did you major in when you were there?

- Visual Communications.

- OK. OK. - Visual Communications,.

Right after I graduated, I started working in Jersey, teaching computer animation.

- No kidding?

- At a college.

So, yeah, I did that for five years before I came back from Jersey and started working more in the area.

- Yeah, you got a good job over at that church in Easton called Shiloh.

- Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, - I had to throw that in there, right?

A simple plug.

You really transformed the work that we were doing there from a visual perspective and just what we were able to present.

So, you know, not only did you do the work in Jersey, but you came back to PA and you helped your church out.

- Yeah.

- So, so tell me, in your journey how important is your faith to the things that you do and what you've been able to accomplish?

- My faith is very important because I take it as, I don't take my creativity lightly.

So what I put out there, it's something that's going to exist for the end of time.

So it's always through my faith, in my firm belief, understanding my teachings to be able to express those messages out when I put my work out there.

So I hold myself accountable for that.

- That's cool.

- So, yeah.

- So that inspiration is kind of a God inspiration as well as this internal gift that you've been given to be able to create.

It's got to be a beautiful thing.

I can't draw.

So, you know, I do stick people, but, you know, what a gift that you have, and you recently created Heroes.

Can you talk a little bit about that and, you know, what you were looking to accomplish when you created the whole set?

Heroes started off with a project that was just, it started off as a fun project.

I created, the first character was Harriet Tubman, so I created Harriet Tubman and I showed it to one of one of my friends I was mentoring at the time.

He was 23 years old, so I showed him it.

He didn't know who Harriet Tubman was.

He didn't know her name, but he knew, he was like, "That's the Underground Railroad lady."

So he didn't know, he didn't have a clue.

And I was just like, "You don't know her name?"

And, you know, with the series, it has them wearing a regular T-shirt with the Marvel and the DC logos on it.

So she had the Superman logo.

So I asked him, "Do you know what that logo is?"

And he was like, "Yeah, everybody knows that."

And he started laughing.

He was like, "That's the Superman logo."

So I was like, OK, this is where it brought that concern.

If you're 23 and you don't know who Harriet Tubman is, but you know who Superman is, I could only imagine what a 13-year-old, a 12-year-old or 11-year-old might think of these people.

So that's where I decided to create the whole series of these ten women, of historical figures and compare it to the comic book characters.

And it just worked perfectly.

It's a perfect bridge that brings that education, brings that fun creativity to it, and then it brings the historical understanding and teachings behind it to who these women were.

- It's this idea of association, right?

So when I see this black woman, but she's got an S on her chest, the question is automatically, all right, that's a Superman, but what, how does it tie into this, you know, this black woman?

So when you were creating and you started with Harriet Tubman and then you, you expanded it, you didn't stop with Harriet Tubman.

Who are some of the other people that you included?

- We have Sojourner Truth.

Oprah Winfrey.

Angela Davis.

Madam CJ Walker.

And it just goes deeper into the ten featured people, And I just brought them together, so the ten just combined is my own personal Avenger that I call it, you know, the title's Heroes, and then it's like my heroes have real superpowers.

And the inspiration came from when I started drawing figures and characters came from my passion for comic books.

And then I also have a passion for history.

So studying those two and then bringing those passions together to kind of educate through that and reach the youth is an amazing thing that I just kind of just thought it would connect, and it's working, you know?

- How has the reception been so far?

- Oh, it's great.

It's great.

That's why I'm, you know, in the Lehigh Valley right now we're creating curriculums to go into the schools.

So the students are now learning more about other women of color and putting together the same kind of structured process of how I came about this piece, because you have to study the superheroes, but most of all, the superheroes, their powers have to match up with the person's powers.

So it's not just, "Oh, I just want to create this person and "just put a superhero character on it."

It's like, no, they have to correlate, and it has to make sense.

- Sure.

So now the research can be like, what were the superpowers that, you know, she has?

She's got the S on her chest.

You know, what were the superpowers that were connected to that?

- Well, you know, Superman, he stands for justice, equality.

He's always that light that people look forward to.

Same thing where he saves people.

You know, Harriet Tubman, similar.

You know, with the Underground Railroad, she followed the North Star to lead people.

- I didn't even think about that, right?

OK, yeah, yeah.

- And then, like, you know, those are some of her, some are her strengths.

So it combines and, you know, just Superman saving a bunch of people.

Harriet Tubman did something similar, and I felt like she was the Superman of that time, you know, to save all those people.

- And Sojourner Truth is the Green Lantern.

- Sojourner Truth is the Green Lantern.

- Why the Green Lantern?

- The Green Lantern.

They usually wear this ring, and it's the lantern creed they usually have.

And it's like this long creed that they talk about being this light in this dark place and standing up for justice and going into these places and being able to stand in a place of, you know, the darkness and all these other kind of things.

And Sojourner Truth, which was a slave when she had got her freedom, a Christian, you know, with her deep faith, she changed her name into Sojourner Truth and wanted to be that light in those dark places when she went to go speak across the US and stand for civil rights.

But most of all, like, you know, for women rights and all those other things.

So, you know, that just gave her the courage in her faith with God, she felt like she needed that to be a reminder to be the truth in these dark places.

- Wow.

So she was the truth.

She was the light, right?

Because the Green Lantern light, it's all making sense to me now, I'm a little slow, but every now and again, I can pick stuff up.

You put Oprah in there, too.

And I think about how you kind of spanned the decades, right?

And even the centuries, when you're talking about moving from, you know, Harriet Tubman to Oprah to Angela Davis.

Why Oprah and why bring it to the times that we're in right now?

- Oprah is Captain America, and she has the star on her chest and she wears the shield.

Oprah is important to me because, you know, the top layers are people who kind of risk their lives, and the bottom layers are the creatives, the business, the entrepreneurs, those women that kind of stepped forward and led those ways.

Oprah being Captain America, I feel like, you know, she's an American girl.

She speaks for everyone.

She stands for everyone.

Everyone gravitates to her.

When she had her show, like, you know, it wasn't just one type of culture that gravitated to Oprah in America, it was all of America.

And she stands them, she gives that balance and that justice.

So I feel like, you know, she was Captain America to be able to wear that star and be able to speak to all the masses, for everyone, and she stood for that.

- Being an African-American woman, right?

She has this... She's able to cross, as you said, cultures, and everyone gravitated to her in such a way.

Now, it's interesting because you do focus on women kind of in the African diaspora, right?

You focus on black women.

Why is that important to you and what are you hoping to accomplish in that space?

It's important to me because I was raised by women, so I have a whole list of aunts that... - I know.

- Yeah.

So, raised by a lot of women.

So, on my finger, I can count probably ten.

But I would say, if you really look at how many women raised me, would probably be in the upward of 20-plus women, so just getting inspired by them, I felt like, you know, these women of color from the past and in their eras and what they stood for, I felt like they needed their power.

They were courageous.

They were strong.

They had that strength to be able to stand within the times where people were not, you know, supporting their stance.

And throughout the ages, if you look at those time frames, they were all in different time frames, but they were all saying the same thing and standing for the same thing.

So, yeah, that's why I felt like, you know, let me give these women their flowers, creating these heroes as they should be.

- Yeah, it's a lasting legacy, too, though.

I mean, when you create art, you said it earlier, like, it's going to be around, right?

And it's not just for curriculums, but people are able to buy the prints as well, right, and engage in that space.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

I mean, how would someone find Bart Cooper's art or the Heroes?

- You can go to bartcooperart.com... - OK, that's easy.

And you can find the stuff there.

You can find out more about me, my latest bodies of works that I'm putting out.

And then you can see the series and prints that are available and stuff.

And, yeah, and you can contact me through that.

- Yeah, it's not just Heroes, though.

You've done some work for some of the icons in America.

Talk a little bit about that.

- Yeah.

Great... Yeah.

So I've done stuff for a lot of celebrities.

I have a lot of, you know, some private clients, but most of all, like, you know, Floyd Mayweather, the boxer, you know... Yeah, he's one of my collectors.

And then I have some collectors from all the way to Gene Simmons from Kiss.

Yeah, yeah.

- Was that in the Purple Series, though?

- Yeah, some of it was in the Purple Series.

Yeah.

Floyd Mayweather was in the Purple Series.

- Make sure you go to the site and check out his work.

It's amazing.

I mean, the work that Bart has been doing for years has always transcended, I think, you know, modern art and, really, from a contemporary perspective, you really present your art in such a way.

Essence got involved as well.

Can you talk a little bit about Essence?

2019, I was in a cover spread of their, I think, 50th anniversary.

And I was in...

I had an article in their magazine.

One of my collectors, the one that purchased the body of work from the Heroes was the owner of Essence Magazine, which is Richelieu Dennis.

He's one of my private collectors and close friend, and he purchased the body of work.

- Now, did they integrate it into Essence magazine?

I feel like I've seen the spread.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it was in the magazine, an article on it, and, you know, it spoke more into that.

And there's more, you know, where some of the pieces are now, they're also posted up in their headquarters as well in New York.

And, yeah... - Yeah, you know, I remember, Bart, when you were telling us you were moving to California, and we were like, "No, don't go Bart!

California?!"

But you had the, you had the passion, the desire and the courage, right, to step out from where you were - your family was here - and go to California.

What was the drive?

What was it that gave you the gumption, I guess you could say, to kind of get up and make that move?

I just always had a pull for California, like, the first time I went and visit, I just felt like, you know, this is a place I'm going to, I'm going to frequent and then probably live here.

- It's a lot warmer out there.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And the weather, of course, the weather was very, very encouraging.

I think that was the first thing that encouraged me to go down here was the weather.

But, you know, LA is a very creative atmosphere.

So that's one of the things that kind of like pushed me into that.

A lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of young entrepreneurs and, you know, the conversations that's had in LA, it's all around, based off of creativity, and it just gives you that chance to be able to expand yourself and being encouraged by other artists.

You can kind of like, you know, step into that world.

It's a bigger ocean.

So, you know, I just needed to jump into that and see what, what, what I can be able to do and how I can... - It's pretty, pretty awesome.

Yeah.

The scripture says if you're going to be wise, right, be around wise people.

I guess it's parallel.

If you're going to be creative, get around some creative people, right?

And it was, it was a bold move, a bold step, and you went out there and launched the business when you got out there.

Now, you're an African-American man in the in the art world.

How is that for you?

I mean, what have been some of the challenges that you've had to face?

- Some of the challenges, it's been, it's actually been great for me.

The way my plans have been laid out, it's actually a real good...

I mean, just as an artist, you know, most artists are not business-savvy, so I already kind of had that to my arsenal, so I self-represent myself, you know, where I can be able to have more control of what I create, more control of what lane I want to be in.

And, you know, and as far as, like, you know, how I set myself up, I can be more successful as a businessman in the art world, so it works perfect for me.

I can't say... - Are you an independent artist?

- I'm an independent artist.

Yeah.

- You use studios to...?

- I have my own studio.

I rep myself when I do my shows and events, I usually, you know, fund my own projects.

And then I also sell my own art, so my collectors come directly to me.

- Sure.

Cut out the middleman.

That's always a good thing.

- Utilizing social media and the internet nowadays, you know, marketing and knowing that side of it, it's definitely a plus for me.

- That's exciting.

I mean, you don't find young men like yourself actually blazing that path, but also being a pioneer for others.

I heard you say earlier that you were mentoring another young man.

How important is mentorship in the space that you're in?

- Oh, it's very important.

I mean, at Shiloh, it was the same thing.

I understood that.

I understood accountability and having someone in your life, someone that's further ahead of the game that can kind of put you on the right path or be able to show you a direction and point you in the right direction, you know, so it's very important.

So when someone comes and wants me to mentor them, you know, it's something that I'm always open to do.

Always keeping someone there.

I don't even, you know, to be honest, I don't even look for it.

They usually gravitate to it, to me.

And then, and then, yeah.

And then I help people throughout the seasons.

- That's exciting.

That's exciting.

Now, to get back to the Heroes series that you have.

Now, you're working with some schools.

Can you talk a little bit about how that's going and what you feel like you're accomplishing with working with the local educational facilities?

- Oh, working with Heroes, it was great.

We pitched the project to...

I was working with Faces International and what we did was we came together to pitch this project to ArtsQuest, and ArtsQuest loved it.

We were just looking for a bunch of sponsors and we were like, you know, and Kevin Green, he came to me and he was like, "You know, I'm just going to "start with ArtsQuest.

They're the largest non-profit "art organization in Pennsylvania.

Let me start with "them, and then we'll go down and get some other guys."

So, like, he talked to ArtsQuest and they loved the project and they were like, "No, we want to take on the "whole thing.

We're going to do the whole thing."

And then we partnered up with United Way of the Lehigh Valley as well.

And also my vision was to create curriculum to go into the schools, yeah, to go into the schools, because I wanted to also not just be an art show, but also an education piece to be able to go into these schools and teach these kids about these women and look more into depth with other women that we haven't really, haven't gotten their flowers.

So that was the key thing.

So creating this curriculum and no more than having it start off with where I graduated, we went to Whitehall.

So I got to speak to the elementary kids and then I had to speak to the high school.

That was emotional as well, because I saw myself walking through those hallways, sitting in the art room that I once was creating and stuff like that, when I was in high school.

And, man, it just brought so much memories to see that and being able to encourage those kids to let them know that I was sitting in this same classroom that you guys are being encouraged, and understand that you can do great things when you focus, and just keep on the path of your passion.

- How inspirational was that for the kids, excuse me, who were there at the school and literally can look and see someone who came through this school and is now on a national, international stage?

Did you see any of your old art teachers or anyone?

- I saw... Yeah, I graduated a long time ago, but I actually saw some of my classmates that are now working there, so that was cool.

- In the school district?

- In the school district.

So that was cool to see them in there.

And then some of them, they had their kids that were in the class, so that was interesting.

- Yeah, I can imagine.

I could imagine.

I could imagine so.

- So it was, it was cool.

It was cool.

- You're doing a private viewing for some folks here in the Valley and then there's going to be a public presentation.

How long will it be up at the ArtsQuest?

- It goes all the way into May 22nd.

- Oh, nice.

- So, yeah, so it's carrying over into May 22nd so that you can come in there during the day and check it out, you know, during the hours of our Banana Factory, and you can just check out the pieces and stuff like that.

- That's pretty cool.

I'm thinking about now you're going to, you know, after, I know after the show you'll be going to work with some kids from different schools.

How have the school districts responded to your work?

And, you know, it sounds like they're on board.

- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The list is building up and everybody's jumping on, like, yeah, so I have some, right now, they're having some school trips coming in and they're checking out the gallery, doing a walk-through and then they have to do, like, some art projects in the.... ..Banana Factory.

So they have, like, a setup and they're doing similar to the same thing where they got to research somebody, create it and do the history behind it and educate it., And it's a great way because this is also a project that reaches all ages, where the kids can now interact with their parents and they can educate their parents on someone.

And then, yeah, so it goes, it's just continuing to just build.

- That's going to have a long-lasting impact because I think, you know, you came up in the Allentown School District.

A lot of times for African-Americans, we don't get a chance to see ourselves, right, in history.

So creating this is going to give an opportunity, not just for African-American children or Latino children, but also for Caucasian children to engage and understand because there's this whole push out there right now around what they're calling critical race theory, which is not even being taught in elementary schools, where they want to suppress the history of African-Americans and non-Caucasians.

And it's creating this tension in America.

But your work is really unifying and saying, "Listen, there are contributions from "black women who, if your kids learn about them, "it will help to educate them about history."

Why is that important?

- Oh, it's so important.

I mean, just seeing how these kids gravitate to this thing, it's immediate.

Like, even when they don't know who the person is, the first thing is when they see, like, one kid walked in and he was, like, scratching his head.

He was like, "The Punisher," you know?

He didn't know who Angela Davis was, but as soon as he knew The Punisher, it started to get him to work because he knows what The Punisher represents.

So, like, then immediately, then it's like it correlates with where, you know, either a teacher can explain to him who Angela Davis is and then, like, they connect it, or if he Googles it, then he automatically is like, "Oh, wow!"

And then it makes them more excited to see why I picked the other person or why this person is this character.

So it clicks immediately.

- Yeah, it's the idea of association when you connect The Punisher with Angela Davis.

You're like, "All right, what's that?

What's that really mean?"

All right, so tell me, what was the mindset behind Angela Davis being The Punisher?

- Angela Davis being The Punisher.

I felt like, you know, she was that rebel.

She was that rebel that stood for something.

But, you know, everything was good.

But The Punisher, you know, same thing.

He stood for things, but he just, he's just more on the rougher...

He's rough around the edges and stuff like that.

So, like, how he delivers his judgments and how he delivers his stance.

It's usually always not accepted, but it's needed, you know?

So I feel like Angela Davis was that rebel, you know, being locked up for sometimes for her stance and beliefs and stuff like that and what she stood strong on.

It's the same thing with The Punisher, you know, that vigilant kind of spirit.

- Revolutionary.

- Very revolutionary, on the edge.

- When you think about Angela Davis, you think about afros, right?

She was not conforming to the kind of Eurocentric mindset based in white supremacy, like you've got to have straight hair and a thin nose and all of that.

But Angela Davis is like, "No, I'm standing in my blackness."

- Exactly.

- And being able to do that, and then for you to communicate that through art, man, I think it's, I think it's genius, I really do.

What can we expect from you, Bart, in the future?

Do you have any projects in the works, or is Heroes kind of your primary space right now?

Heroes is the one that I felt like it really connects with the children, so the youth as well as the adults.

So my art process is usually a whole journey that I'm taking people on.

So it started off from Purple Series.

Purple Series was just to, you know, encourage people to understand, you know, look within themselves and be unique, be a one-of-a-kind, you know, and that has a whole other explanation to that series.

Then I took them to the journey of the Heroes.

You know, the superpowers.

Where did these people get their superpowers from?

So that's the dialogue I wanted to kind of start off with.

The next one I'm working on is called DNA.

Now, this one is like looking within yourself, going back to nature, going back to the connection of your people, your tribe or where, what makes you do the things that you do?

Why are these things ingrained in you?

These are the things that I'm going to start challenging in DNA.

So that's the next stage, a body of work that I'm working on right now.

- You come from a rich history, Liberia.

We've made the trip there a couple of times and have been there and met the family.

A strong village.

How important to you is family and the village that helped to shape you and form you into the man you are?

- It's very important.

My tribe is from Liberia, originally migrated from Ethiopia into West Africa, Liberia.

So, like, you know, understanding the rich histories of that and my tribe, you know, they're knowledge seekers and understanding and teachers as well.

So looking at the DNA, just like we said, the apple don't fall too far from the tree.

That's why I do what I do.

So I understand those things, and that's where I want to encourage people to start looking within and understanding why we do these things, but mostly it connects back to the tribal... Connects back to the understanding of nature and where it's like once you have appreciation for nature, I feel like there's order in nature.

There's a higher power in nature.

There's understanding.

Those people took those lessons from studying what they saw around them, and I felt like there was a sort of order there.

And then they had... Not only did they have a respect for the world and their surroundings and the Earth, they had a respect for their brothers and other individuals around them.

And then, but they have a respect for God, a higher power as well.

So, like, I wanted to break that down and understand where we all went back to and how we got to where we are.

So that's where DNA is going to be taking it.

- I'm excited to see it and participating in it.

But let me just say, man, how proud we are of you being from the Lehigh Valley, being from our church, but also the work that you're doing, like I said, transcends race.

It's about education and transformation.

And I'm grateful that you took the time out of your busy schedule to come hang out on Courageous Conversations with me, man.

It's been a blessing.

Thank you for what you do, man.

We pray God's blessings on you.

You continue to do what you do, and on behalf of everyone here at PBS39, we'd like to thank you for tuning in.

Make sure you go by and check out the exhibit at ArtsQuest.

|I believe it's in the Crayola Room that they have over there.

Yeah, Crayola Gallery, and make sure you go by and check it out.

I promise you, it will impact your life.

Thanks for tuning in and we will see you next time.

Until next time, God bless you, heaven smile upon you, and we'll see you soon.

Keep being courageous.