“I am neither important enough or not important enough to blog” - Emiliano Styles
THIS SONG IS THE SOUNDTRACK FOR THIS POST
It’s late night. 2am and counting. There’s only a handful of house party guests left. Red cups are only one quarter full. The “Turnt Up” playlist is only at a dull whisper now. Loud enough to identify the song, but low enough to leave the neighbors undisturbed. Buzz from alcohol is being flushed away by room temperature water in second nature sips. Normal speaking voices are now raspy from intense, passionate discussions of opinions about everything under the moon from why Tupac’s music is overrated to how we cope and navigate our way through racism in our careers and everyday lives to the difficulties of dating. It is memories like these that inspired me to blog. Discussions about art, culture, and society. These late night discourses that I participated in allowed everyone’s perspective and respective voice to be heard with equity and open minds.
Inspiration comes to artists in different ways. Oftentimes I am sent scripts or rough cuts of films or video for feedback, I meet with other creatives to discuss developing projects, and other times people reach out to me for simple questions like, “What editing software do you suggest?” or “What camera did you use on your film?” I thought it would be great to begin an archive of material based on my experiences so when people ask me these questions, I could direct them to a blog entry that would give them greater insight on their topic of interest. Learning is a two-way street, and teaching is as well. To teach is to learn. Or it definitely increases the probability. This blog will be a showcase of like-minded artists who are aligned with the Soulploitation Creative Works Mission Statement, creatives from all walks of art. and will also feature a “DVD-commentary” to projects that we have done over the years.
I’ve flirted with the notion of blogging for a while, but I always tried to justify the reasoning behind why anyone would read what Soulploitation Creative Works had to say. I watch hundreds of youtube videos and I see how people can say thoughtful or mean-spirited, damaging words. Words that they would never dare to utter in person. The same with twitter or any other social media platform. I finally realized, that everyone has a voice to be heard. I am neither important enough or not important enough to blog. I’m going to blow the dust off of my journalism skills. I was the Arts & Entertainment editor in college at Tennessee State University’s weekly student newspaper “The Meter”, so this will be definitely like riding a bike. Here are the first segments that we will feature on the blog.
Stories Behind the Shoot: Anecdotal stories of our film and photography shoots
Women Creatives of Color Wednesday(#WCW)/Men Creatives of Color Monday(#MCM): Showcasing creatives of color in different artistic mediums.
Inspiration Information: Sharing our perspective on inspiring stories of creativity all around the world.
Stay tuned!