The son said yay!

Both.

The moon said yay!

The children, the star said.

I would describe myself as a Renaissance artist.

I'm an artist that, I don't practice any one art, but I practice all of them because I believe each art feeds the other.

I just want.

Yes, he did.

I did, yeah.

Yeah, well, I'm a visual artist.

I have it at one point.

Been a dancer.

I'm now a choreographer.

I am a painter.

I, have dabbled in writing, and I am a storyteller, so I do all of the art.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

So weakness is the word that he is going to demonstrate.

And he has to do that both physically.

And he has to also do that vocally.

My background is mostly theater, but the difference in that is that I knew that in order to become that theatrical artist, I still had to embrace all of the other art.

And that makes me a Renaissance man.

My Uncle Albert.

Don't go.

In college, I started to become an English teacher because, again, I loved English in terms of the literature.

Convinced me.

But when I got to college, I took an education course leading toward the English and decided that I didn't like the education courses.

I'm the strong as an ox.

It's true.

It's true.

So, I went to the theater department and auditioned for a play, A raisin in the sun.

Got cast in that production.

I knew right off the bat that that's where I should have been all along.

But.

So now I'm directing and teaching that kind of thing.

The vocal is doing as well.

What's he playing?

Is he playing fear?

It's how you that moment, how you leave a part of yourself with the world and with the students.

People will remember you because you have given them the tools to be able to be successful at any job that they choose.

And in this case, in the arts.

I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood and human vein.

The arts are a really undervalued commodity in the education system.

They don't realize that we are the people who who teach the critical thinking skills and the problem solving, and that has to go back into the school system.

Looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I'm going to tell you a really neat story.

And this story comes from Africa, and it's called Why the Sun and the moon Live in the Sky.

I do, do artist in residence work in the school systems.

Are you sure I didn't that didn't sound like you were ready.

Are you ready to help?

That, That sounds like you're willing to help.

Kids need to be able to be aware that lessons are taught in stories that, they can have imagination, through the stories that we all know.

Isn't it wonderful that a child can look at you and believe that, the sun and the moon and stars dance singing.

I'm, I'm a ebo a day, a day.

I'm, I I I I I'm, I'm, I'm a day, a day.

I'm, I yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It takes the it takes a harsh edge away from the lives of children.

And and it teaches them to have fun at times, but it also teaches them to listen to words and to listen to melody and to listen to rhythms.

And that, again, is also a part of what is important in being a storyteller.

The sun said, yeah, but the moon said, yeah.

The children of the star said, yeah, yeah.

It's great to be listening because you get to learn more about things.

I don't.

I don't come from Africa though, but I've been there before.

It's fun.

I learned that I didn't know Africa specs speak so many languages.

Singing I'm, I'm ebo a day to day.

I'm, I, I I, I I I'm, I'm, I'm ebo a day, a day.

I'm, I, I I and that's where they are to this day.

Every story comes from a different place in the world.

And if you understand that they come from a different place in the world, we understand that in that locale, the people may have a different sound in their voice.

The people may have a different way of dressing.

The people may have a different way of dealing with an idea.

Oh, the world has been three fourths water.

So they are learning geography, they are learning math, they are learning science, they are learning movement.

They are learning reading skills.

They are learning vocabulary.

So it all, you know, all of it ties itself together.

So yes, even though it may not seem them teaching that I am teaching that.

And so yes, we teach all of those things in storytelling.

Some.

In my studio, I like to refer to it as my think tank.

When I talk to students, I call it Timbuktu, because Timbuktu was the, the seat of learning on the African continent was one of the seats of learning.

And so I think my studio is that seat of learning here is where I can come, pick up poetry books.

Here is where I can come and paint.

My students can come and partake of that knowledge before I send them out into the world.

My paintings are about my heritage and my background.

They try to reflect the faces, the style, the attitudes, the colors that, the African continent has, both in its clothing and then the skin color of the people.

We see for one day, I know, and I will, I use acrylics, but I also use, crayon.

I do a thing called crayon.

Resist.

But but largely, I paint in acrylic.

What?

I need.

I mean, I currently have an exhibit at the, Gold Dome Gallery on the corner of 23rd and, Classen.

You see the the exhibit at the Gold Dome definitely became very, very special to me because it was the.

It's now my first exhibit, of my paintings alone.

I've always shared a space with other artists.

But this is my exhibit.

It is.

You know, they are my images.

They're what could be happy to do it.

Well, you mean this piece of of the Benin Bronzes?

You know, I'm very fond of, all the civilizations.

Mali and Timbuktu.

And Benin was the first ones to use metal to sculpt.

Lifelike forms of themselves.

So I want them to understand that that that African and African American culture is something that should be admired, should be, respected and should and should create an emotional, an emotional flow inside your body when you see them.

I want people to come away with all of that.

And and if they do that, I've done my job as an artist.

Al's work appeals to me.

A because of the passion in it, the fact that it's such a part of who he is and also just the energy behind it, the colors are bright, the imagery is is fantastic.

And his, the way he handles medium, the medium is very unusual.

So it's they're very original pieces, but they're also very tied to his background.

And so there was Mr.

B, he says, you know, we'll make history.

He says the world is an open book.

He says there's many look and feel.

You see, he says, which one are you?

Which one do you want to be?

One of my former students wrote a song, about me calling them.

There was Mr.

B, come back to my do, and we'll talk some more.

What the song means to me is the preservation of who I am.

I mean, I listen to it, and I have to shake my head.

Yeah.

These are things that I say.

These are things that, you know, you're not going to.

You know, you son, you got to.

You're going to crash, but you're not going to die.

You have to learn to explore, you know, the full, width and breadth of life.

You have to explore your culture, you have to explore your heritage.

You have to become who you are through all of that, all of that support you.

And that's what that song says.

Well, it was me, myself and everybody else while talking with Mr.

B, the world became a bigger and brand new place.

While talking with Mr.

B, I find I put flesh on my skeleton often while talking with Mr.

B. I sometimes feel like I wouldn't be the man if it wasn't for Mr.

B, so I hope that you are fortunate enough to find you and Mr.

B. Yeah, he scolded and inspired.

He made me believe in me.

So observe and wonder and see a lot of the things you think you know.

Take shelter from your ignorance.

Don't give in to the status quo what it is to be Mr.

B, as they say it is to again make them understand that Mr.

B has the best of both worlds.

I have that that African and that American culture, and that I have a heightened awareness.

And I go through life and I and I talk about what it means to find your way through and to have passion in whatever you do.

And so there's still Mr.

B, but you don't know.

We'll still make history.

The world still an open book.

As many who look, if you see which one are you, which one do you want to be?

How much do you want to see?

And again, I still can't imagine myself doing anything else.