​Why are you an actor?
I am an actor because I like escaping the real world. Embodying a character and telling their story whether it's made up or true. I also became an actor to help audiences escape their reality. To help them experience emotions that they may not otherwise feel like they can express. I became an actor to make art because art can imitate life and that's a beautiful thing. Whether it is sad, infuriating, hilarious, or joyful it's beautiful.

What is an ideal role for you and why?
An action/comedic role is my dream role. I've been told by my high school theater teacher I have great comedic timing. I grew up watching action movies and comedies that’s all I have ever wanted to do.

What is your relationship with the piano/organ?
Great question and it is not a simple response since my relationship with the piano started at age 3 and the organ at age 7 (when my mother was hospitalized and my father needed an organist for worship service and I volunteered to play) with no prior lessons on organ.
Both instruments have different relationships.  The piano needs my careful attention to the use of the sustain pedal, particular touch depending on the genre of music I am playing, classical or gospel, and the control of volumes.  It is a completely different instrument than organ.
The hammond organ is a world of its own as is the pipe organ.  On the hammond I primarily play gospel music and love the rich, warm use of the drawbars, leslie speakers and the ability to share my feelings and emotions with my listeners and worshippers.
The pipe organ is the king of instruments and I have the chance to explore and express my technical abilities and command of the hundred, thousands of different sounds available through the use of organ stops and techniques from different music periods historically.

How have the arts impacted our community?
The art of fashion has such great impact on our community. It’s the embodiment of self expression. Whenever I approach design, I am often thinking of ways to push the envelope as I have watched my community do so, since the beginning of time. Art is an imitation of life, and vice versa, I see how peoples moods, and feeling about themselves can transform with the art of fashion. 

Tell us about your favorite designed item.
My favorite item I have designed was for Teyana Taylor. I created all of the wardrobe for her video “Bear With Me”. She’s such a creative genius so it was so fun to create these costumes. My favorite aspect of the costumes, was probably the colored trench coats. I love period pieces, and this was supposed to be set in a 20’s vibe, but modernized.

How have African Americans impacted the arts?
African Americans are great contributors to the art of fashion. One amazing example is Dapper Dan and his direct impact on the high fashion world. He recreated so many cool street aesthetics in the late 80’s from high end fabrication. Luxury brands weren’t creating streetwear, or clothing that reflected us. I believe his ideas transformed fashion, and is a reason that so many luxury brands caters to streetwear now.

How have the arts impacted our culture?
I see the arts and culture as deeply intertwined, not only for us -- as unique and special as we are, -- but for all of humanity.  The two are in constant dialog with one another, pushing, creating, reinforcing, reifying one another. The arts flow from culture and they also inform the culture.  To use an industrial metaphor, culture is often the train and "arts" are the steam flowing from it.  

What inspired "Mannish Water"?
The contours of the book began in the title and in the ongoing work that my co-editor (Olufemi Vaughan) and I hammered out in 2019 and 2020.  As the COVID-19 pandemic raged and as the George Floyd murder galvanized the country and world, Femi and I began to identify  "Black scholarly men" who were willing and able to share their autobiographical (or autoethnographic) stories.  The tragic injustice surrounding the murder of Trayvon Martin lingered in the zeitgeist as Femi and I asked these men, across four different generations (millennials, Gen X, Baby Boomers, and the Greatest Generation) to reflect on their lives in America and to theorize "Black life" in America.  We wanted to hear from these men and we strongly believed then, as we continue to believe now, that America and the broader world would want to hear from them, too.

The title itself is a loan phrase from the island country of Jamaica.  "Mannish Water" is a famous soup that is known synonymously as "Goat Head Soup".  While the name "Mannish Water" is Jamaican, the soup itself is diasporic, to be found historically in West Africa and elsewhere in the Caribbean.  The title is something that my wife and I batted around some years ago.  My wife's family is from Jamaica.