On November 15th, I had the wonderful opportunity to get breakfast with the world-renowned artist Titus Kapher. Before going to breakfast, I did a thorough internet search about him hoping to understand what I was getting myself into. I learned about his work in social justice and using art as a medium to explain inconsistencies in the histories being told and learned about. One example that was prominent in both his life and his work is of Colombus. In breakfast, we were able to discuss in depth about the portrayal of his character through history. According to him, it seems that history wants to make him seem like a demi-god. One who has great moral justice and has revolutionized history with his mannerisms and ways. A person everyone should embody to be. This, of course, is not true. Columbus just like any other human has flaws and looking at it from another perspective, destroyed the native population living in America by "finding the New World". Why should we idealize a man who hurt so many people? Do those people mean any less to us just because they are categorized as "the others"? Titus through his artwork hopes to embody these questions and show history as it really is rather than is taught in a traditional sense.
Having breakfast with a renowned artist such as him inspired me to really look at the different ways the world is experienced by each other and be a stronghold for social justice in the country. We continued to speak about politics and the inspirations of his younger days in his artwork. One profound question that was asked was his conception of fate. He answered by saying yes, there are many times in life where it feels like event A happened so that event B could happen to lead him to his fate as an artist. He said yes, life does seem to be ordained by also said he did not like this viewpoint. He asked, why me? Why didn't my cousin who grew up in the same environment have this fate? He answered this proposition by stating that if you want something you should put in the work to achieve it. If you want to go to college, put in the effort and the hard work to overcome the challenges to get there. There are a lot of talented people in the world who aren't successful. But in order to be successful, the desire needs to be present to go out there and achieve their dreams.
It was an amazing way to spend breakfast with a finalist for TIME magazines person of the year and a face in the fight for social justice and revolution. I hope to take the life stories and inspiration of an amazing man with me in both my future artwork and endeavors to revolutionize the world into a much better place.
