The People’s Culture.

Back in 2017, I’d dreamed up an idea for a series highlighting how artists and artistic-minded folks sustained creative careers. Particularly, I wanted the world to understand that arts careers were possible, sustainable, and not as uncommon as mainstream media suggests. In short, I hoped to counter the narrative of the “starving” and perpetually struggling artist. And The People’s Culture was born.

The People’s Culture is a platform exploring the ways in which artistry, perseverance, and business savvy collide to create enduring careers in the arts.

Through first-hand interviews, neophytes and masters alike share with you how they make it happen.

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Food for Thought

Adisa is a veteran sound mixer, writer, director, and philanthropist. We discuss what it means to make tough career choices, to overcome setbacks, and what it was like for Adisa to direct his first feature, Skin in the Game, a film tackling the horrifying world of human trafficking.

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The Next Right Thing

My thing is when I got into film, and I think it was like a dream deferred for so long, when I finally acknowledged it, I was like “I'm never working outside of film again.”

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The Rhythmnast

Given his superb percussive skills and his start-studded list of collaborators, Grammy Award-winning drummer Mark Colenburg is incredibly humble. He has worked with Common, Q-Tip, Maxwell, A Tribe Called Quest, the Robert Glasper Experiment, and Keyon Harrold, to name a few, and is known for effortlessly blending elements of hip hop, jazz, and other genres into his craft.

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Super Duper Black

"I didn't know what I was going to see, but I did know that I didn’t want to put the same information out that the news were, the stuff that was really negative. So I focused on the peaceful protests and the people of the neighborhood.”

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