Why Do You Design - Donald

Name 3 things you like about living in Harlem and why.

I love being surrounded by Black people, all kinds of Black people, all of our stuff, all of our possibilities. True, many of those possibilities are trifling as hell, but I'd like to believe that we are all trying to do our best at whatever we do. Besides, whenever I'm buying something computer-related or temping on assignment at some financial institution, I'm always surrounded by white people. I believe what Aunt Sarah said with her last breath in Rosewood: "Don't let 'em surround you!"

I like feeling like I'm a part of what Black people are doing here now and I relate a lot to what we have done here before. I love feeling our history percolate all around us. I can still feel the energy of James Reese Europe and his Hellfighters march around me whenever I walk down Lenox Avenue - I can almost hear the music!

I like being away from the rest of Manhattan. It's like we got our own thang uptown. There are many weeks that I never leave Harlem, because whatever we don't have up here, I can get from the Internet. Except for some place that plays cool house music, that is.

Will black people ever get tired of being in vogue?

You know, I don't think Black people walk around thinking, "Gee, what am I going to do today to be in vogue?" I think our fierceness and innovation is effortless - it comes from somewhere else. It's something that we're given, not something that we have manufactured. I think maybe that's why it (whatever Blackness really is) can't really be authentically replicated ... there's such mystery in that conversation, so much we truly don't understand.

When did you become interested in web design and why?

In 1996, I was living in Fort Greene. Angel Williams and Rebecca Walker were running Kokobar (now defunct but still the only cyber-café I've known to be Black-owned and operated). I've been using computers since I was about 12 and I've been an amateur photographer since high school, so when Angel approached me about trying my hand at building their site, it gave me a chance to pull those and many other interests together into one cohesive media experience. Also, I didn't know too many Black people with cool websites, so I took that as a challenge. There was so much synergy around Black people getting online - New York Online was really popular at the time. Guess it all had to end some time ...

What's the best way to spend a night in New York City?

With my friends, anything is possible, but here goes: my suggestion is to get your grub on first (some favorites: Kobma, Ollie's, Day-O, BBQ, Dojo or Amin) and then go shake your body down to the ground at either The Shelter, Together in Spirit (Sunday evenings) or 667 Bar Gallery Lounge. I also love spending romantic nights under the blue light at the Rose Center for Earth and Space after having some of Cafe Lalo's pecan pie ... mmmmm!

Or you could always stay home and play Scrabble! Fun fun FUN!

Give me five reasons why black people should invest in black art.

1. Art is pretty but artists can really starve. We are in a bad economy - hello? We should support our artists, if we can afford to. In a way, we can't afford not to ...
2. We need to worship our ancestors, especially since many Black men our age have become ancestors in our time. Our artists: our writers, our painters, our musicians, etc. use creativity to document our collective experience - for all of us. We have a heritage and a tradition to pass on to others in the future who will be like us. They need to be able to see us and to see themselves in our art.
3. Black people and Black art go together like collard greens and hot sauce! HELLO?!
4. Personally, my face gets fixed up whenever I see someone white buy Black art. It's like diamonds, you know, African miners getting black lung so that white people all over the United States and Europe can wear baubles to charity events (and so Black hip-hop artists can wear them in music videos pretending to enjoy the same privileges) ... it's very similar to that.
5. Buying Black art allows Black artists to make more and to make better Black art. Their art is our art - if it's not, then more of us need to be creating art.

Monday, September 08, 2003 @ 11:07 AM