I set a goal for myself when I graduated from University of South Carolina Upstate in 2012 to out perform the degree I earned. That summer we lost Trayvon Martin, I say we in respect to his immediate family but he felt like one of us. With my love for the arts and it's transformative power, the power to create, I decided that my dying contribution to the world would be bring light to the continual unseen people's in this country. Art plus purpose with a focus on building community would bring us forward, I believed. Two years later I discovered that, in addition, the issue is even much deeper. Mental health wasn't a focus in our communities. However, people still are creating programs, governing, executing the law, and doing so much with the idea of progress but not fully equipped. So now I share healing, art, and liberation with a focus of community building. Welcome to my world. - Shemuel
trust not a soul a soul with no sight
You don’t know what it is like..
To live a life of mistakes on the stage for people to see
To experience reject at stage where we cleave
You don’t know what its like
To desire everything but your own
Thus your own doesn’t desire you
You don’t know what its like
To know in the dark is where the gold is
but somebody has to get to it
You don’t know what its like
to cry for help but people just tell you “keep going you’re fine, you’ll do great things”
And then you hate yourself for even asking
You don’t know what its like
to know you must provide but with what
You don’t know what its like to see yourself as piece of shit
but also overrstand our waste blossoms the most colorful gardens but who wants the shit?
You don’t know what its like to look for everything but love
You don’t know what its like to wake up every morning unsure of yourself
and someone also unsure of you but in fear of letting you go
So we substitute love for control
You don’t know what it is like to pray today is the day God brings you home
and wake up back in the same cell of toxicity You know?
You have no idea because what your friends told you and what social media says but yet to experience
You know feeling but you lie to feeling for what you know
You see but do not know
You hear but can not distinguish
You don’t know the half
to experience rage in high forms and you tell yourself “smile.. its not that serious”
You have no idea but the ideas I just expressed
The picture I just gave, the Picasso with many vantage points
but who asks the creator WHY?