The Black Project: Highlighting Black Voices and Differences in the Community
In this very special interview, I sat down with Akeem Mason to talk about his ongoing photography series entitled “The Black Project.” Mr. Mason captures a portrait of each participant and interviews them about their experiences of being Black, highlighting the rich diversity within the Black community.
Mr. Mason is an all-around artist with a background in graphic design, photography, and music. He is currently a UX Design Manager at Q2 Software and spends his free time exploring creative projects that give him a sense of meaning and fulfillment. When the Black Lives Matter protests gained momentum in May 2020, Mr. Mason published a self-portrait along with an intimate glimpse into his experience as a Black man in our society. His self-portrait became the first in a series of interviews with other Black individuals about their personal experiences.
For full transparency purposes, Akeem and I are married and I am more than honored to conduct his first interview related to The Black Project. Below you will find Mr. Mason’s self-portraits, original piece, and his account of exploring Blackness with others.
“Another flame dimmed.
I feel my soul cry out and my own fire start to choke.
Gasping for oxygen, my fire, my will…
My own flame begins to sputter as I search the darkness around me for hope.
What is the fire?
What makes fire dangerous?
Lack of control?
A powerful thing it is.
Am I taking control or is the fire?
The point doesn’t matter, the world makes a problem out of both.
What is the world?
What is the vast darkness around me?
It’s unwelcoming. It’s taking everything it can.
The control, the fire…
Will it be safe as I venture on?
Can I breath life into this flame and allow it to grow?
What else will the darkness take from me?
When will my own flame dim?
I knew innocence for a short time as a boy.
The darkness took that away sooner than it should.
‘People won’t see you the same, you have to be careful.’
Unwillingly, resilience has become a survival mechanism.
A word that strikes fear in me, not hope.
Ability to withstand and overcome, but at what cost to this effect?
I shouldn’t have to be resilient.
We shouldn’t have to be resilient.
You shouldn’t have to be resilient.
Our only responsibility should be decency, respect, and love to one another.
Not to withstand atrocities perpetuated by an unjust system.”
- Akeem Mason, 2020
Dr. Lauren Mason:
“What is The Black Project and how can others find your work?”
Akeem Mason:
“The Black Project is a project that I came up with a few years ago, and it came from a need for me to have some sort of expression within the Black movement. I wanted to put something out there that showed Black faces and told Black stories, and I didn't want to limit the stories to the trauma that we as a collective have undergone. We have tons of movies, articles, documentaries about the trauma of being Black in America or being Black anywhere.
I think I reached a very low point after the murder of George Floyd - seeing the stories, looking at the riots, fearing for my own safety at traffic stops, and just the fear of existing in my own town. I hit that low point and I wanted to put something out there, not necessarily to negate the trauma stories and images, but to use my platform that I already had as an artist to expand on the different facets of what it is to be Black as a collective.
We definitely have things that we can align with in terms of our stories and our trauma that we've gone through. But there is a lot of diversity within and outside of different groups of Black people. I find that there is beauty in exploring those different facets and there is beauty in sharing and elevating those stories.”
Dr. Lauren Mason:
“What has been the most meaningful part of The Black Project for you personally?”
Akeem Mason:
“Personally, I would say the most meaningful part has been sitting down and hearing people's stories - seeing their eyes light up when they are sharing joy, sitting and feeling with them when they are sharing sadness, and connecting on that level too. With strangers, we have a lot more in common than we realize and I really do enjoy sitting down and hearing the stories and connecting on that deeper level.”
Dr. Lauren Mason:
“Before you starting interviewing others for The Black Project, you took some self-portraits and wrote about your experience as a Black man. Can you tell us about your process of how this started with your own experience and transformed into interviewing others?”
Akeem Mason:
“That's a tough one. I actually don't remember the catalyst for that one…”
Dr. Lauren Mason:
[Pulls out copy of Akeem’s original post for reference]
Akeem Mason:
“Oh man, Dr. Lauren has pulled up the poem that I wrote for that piece. [Reads through the poem]. So this self-portrait was a commentary on how I was feeling with all of the imagery of lives lost around me. It was my own expression in poetic form of my experience as a Black man so far in life. The first portion of the poem was a response to what I was seeing on the news, in conversing with people around me about how I felt, and how other people felt with all of the death that we continued to see in the news.
The second portion of the poem, I reflected on how I perceived the world around me and how the world perceived me. It's a commentary on safety- on feeling like you need permission to exist.
The third portion is an explanation of the loss of innocence. As a young Black person, you inevitably have to have that conversation with your parents on the fact that things are going to be different for you in society, and this portion of the poem is a response to that.
And then the last portion is on resilience. When people have these stories about the Black struggle, there is often a commentary on, “They are so strong,” or “They are so resilient.” Resilience is a big defining factor for Black people, and we shouldn't have to be resilient. I explicitly say that at the beginning of that last portion- it is not our responsibility. Resilience is not meant to be a defining trait. We should just be able to simply exist as everyone else does. That was the emotional space I was in at the time, and I think that speaks to the catalyst for this project.
In the self-portrait itself, I used the color red and shot it in a way that was dark and showed the texture of my skin. The poses that I used showed tired shoulders. It shows distress even though the form was strong, and the red coloring speaks to those two different things. It speaks to the anger that exists in all the things that you have to trudge through as a Black person, but it also signifies the weight or gravity of it all.
And then I superimposed a poem over it so the viewer would be able to see glimpses of the poem as it goes in and out of the lighting against my skin.
That was the piece and I hope that I don't have to create anything else like that in the future, but we will see. I was just very, very driven to put something out as a response and then I experienced a turning point where I wanted to try to explore the different facets of the experience of being Black.
Dr. Lauren Mason:
“As your partner, I have witnessed how racial injustice has affected you personally, and something that others might not be aware of is that we were pregnant with our son at the time of George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter protests. Can you talk a little bit about your experience as a Black parent and raising a biracial child at this point in time?”
Akeem Mason:
“That’s hard because I tried not to dwell on it too much since there is not much that I can change about the situation. I would say that there was a lot of pain and hurt in the beginning after realizing that I would have to have that conversation with our son one day about the loss of innocence and how, “You're going to be seen differently.” If his skin gets darker, that just makes him more of a target.
There is pain in knowing that your child, who is totally innocent, is at risk. We [Black men] will be seen as older and we will be seen as a threat. Just genetically speaking, we [my partner and I] are built bigger. Everyone in my family on my Dad's side, they are all 6 feet tall and up. Our son is going to be a big boy, and he has his Mama’s genetics in his thick, strong legs. He is built muscular already and he isn’t even 2 years old. As soon as he hits puberty, there is going be a target on his back and it hurts to have that realization. It is something that will (and has) brought me to tears.
That is the toughest part of the experience and, of course, there is a flip side too. There is the joy, the laughter, his dancing to music whenever it comes on. Then there is the joy of him connecting with pieces of our culture whether it be in Jamaican food, Jamaican music, or Afro-centric beats. He has a love for music and dancing. There is joy in seeing him flourish, and there is joy in seeing him explore the world as it is with innocent, fresh eyes. But there is also pain. I am trying my best to figure out a way to balance the joy and the caution to keep him innocent for as long as I possibly can. That has been the experience thus far. Then, of course, there is all the usual stuff like keeping him away from trauma and trying not to pass that down from family. I think we are both still pretty new at it and we've got a lot to learn as he continues to grow.”
Dr. Lauren Mason:
“Last question- What does being Black mean to you?”
Akeem Mason:
“Oh man, it's funny because I have asked this question to other people that I've interviewed for The Black Project as well! Being Black…unfortunately it means being resilient. It is a double-edged sword, but we have to be resilient. Being Black is being inventive and it's being artistic. It is so many things. There's a lot of pride in being Black and in Black culture itself- everything we have brought to the world. Yeah…resilience, pride, culture, delicious food, and music.”
More links to a couple other interviews from The Black Project can be found on these two pages:
Franki's Interview
More stories to be shared for The Black Project in the near future.
