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Artist Statement: I did extensive readings and research on Nicholas Payton's #BAM or Black American Music Essays on his website (https://nicholaspayton.com/). I learned about this musician's biography and the culture's of New Orleans that I had never experienced to understand. In Payton's Essays such as "On Art, Community, And The Culture Of Commerce", "Black American Music And The Jazz Tradition", "On The Real New Orleans Second Line . . ." which I recommend as a must read. The musician addresses many residential issues of the New Orleans community and Culture. Pinpointing that New Orleans has become the beating heart of America, of which African American and Indigenous cultures have been coined and popularized into a man-made trap of gentrification and capitalism where we no longer own the streets we march on, and the youth don't know what we're marching for. Payton states "that it's all become one big party" in response to the modern day Second Line tradition. Nowadays we Second Line for everything in fashion, but its celebration has passed much like the funerals they originally were in celebration of, the original First Line Tradition. In Payton's essays and in my beliefs, I believe the youth is the half of the key, we have the merit to push the city to shore but we need the direction, the mentor. In famous terms, the Tradition must be passed down with Respect, and the Culture must be taught with Sobriety.
Hi, I'm Andre Lebone. I participated in SingForHope's Piano Artist program in the spring of 2023 going as Andre the Alchemist. I believe the time period between then and now has been my biggest period of growth and understanding as a Creative. During the Summer I worked as a counselor at the Eternal Seeds Summer Session and took a leadership role in teaching youth creative skills from sculpture to mural painting, but more importantly conversation about the world around them and their investment in their community. However, I found that I was who was taught. Not just through the lessons of Eternal Seeds but through the lessons of life. I had struggles with family, I had creative blocks and I had moments of healing. And in such a thin period of time I began to understand why I am able and should create. It is because of my family, my friends, my community and environment that I am able to do the things that I do because they have sheltered and taught and invested in me and my dreams and have asked for nothing in return. But in return I will give everything I have, and I will continue to invest in my community the way it has in me. Through my teachings and research where my peers and I connect the dots of all the worlds struggles, where we think globally and act locally, through my mastery of mediums and my glass jewelry in particular, which I wear to tell the stories of my representation and my vows to my community, through my identity as a resident of New Orleans that has such rich and vibrant culture and spirit that my generation has only begun to harvest.
