Desmond Beach: Artist on Race & Healing in Art - A Baltimore Story
Welcome to the Truth in His Heart. I am your host, Rob Lee. Thank you for tuning in to my conversations at the intersection of arts, culture, and, of course, community. And a big thank you to the Robert w Deutsch Foundation for supporting and sponsoring this podcast. Thank you.
Rob Lee:Today, I am thrilled to welcome my next guest, an interdisciplinary artist from the greatest city in America. That's Baltimore, of course. Their artistry is not only a form of expression, but a powerful dialogue on race, identity, and social justice. They're working to heal the black congregation. Please welcome Desmond Beach.
Rob Lee:Welcome to the podcast.
Desmond Beach:Yeah, man. Good evening. Well, I'm glad to be here. Thank you.
Rob Lee:Thank you for for coming on or what have you, and I I don't know why. Like, usually, I say this, you're not wearing them currently, but I feel like you wear glasses. Are you a glasses guy?
Desmond Beach:I am and I left them back home.
Rob Lee:Usually, I like to greet my fellow bespectacled individuals, you know, us sort of art and art adjacent folks that have the 4 i's, you know, we see things in a different way.
Desmond Beach:Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. Well, I have them.
Desmond Beach:I have them.
Rob Lee:I have 3 different pair, and it's like the ones that are tiny and, like, almost tortoiseshell, I wear them when I go to galleries, and I wear them. Uh-huh. I'm I'm going for an image, And, when I have to lock in in a day job, I have a, a very analytical day job, so I wear the glasses that almost look like I got someone in the scope.
Desmond Beach:Okay. Okay.
Rob Lee:My glasses look like my personality depending on what I'm doing.
Desmond Beach:Yeah. Yeah. I wear them for my my really serious moments, and, I I just forgot the one on my dresser when I walked out before I before I left, but I got to my plane.
Rob Lee:I dig it. It's just like sometimes you gotta get your thing, you gotta go. It's like glasses be damned. Right. Alright.
Rob Lee:So, you know, and thank you again for for coming on and making the time. It's always like a privilege to, and I say this all the time, it's always a privilege to speak with people who are very talented so I can glean just a little bit just a little bit of the talent off of you all. So thank you. Thank you for allowing me to be a talent vampire. And before we get too, too deep into the conversation, you know, we've talked a little bit here.
Rob Lee:I want to give you the space and opportunity to introduce yourself in your own words. I find often, you know, you get online, you find these different, artist statements and bios. Sometimes they're out of date. Sometimes they they don't really get to the heart of who the person is. So I wanna give you that space to introduce yourself.
Rob Lee:Tell us a little bit about yourself and your creative work.
Desmond Beach:Yeah. Well, I always have to start by saying, I am from the greatest city in America and that city is Baltimore.
Rob Lee:I am
Desmond Beach:the great city of Baltimore. But I currently live right now in New York city. I'm a practicing artist and my work is really centered around bringing healing to the black community. I like to call it the black congregation because I grew up in the church. And so a lot of language I use is like churchy language or language that I grew up around.
Desmond Beach:And so, the Black congregations, what I call all of us black people, you know, the work is really, I got to be an artist because it's the language I feel most comfortable in. It's the way that I can articulate my perspective and my point of view like no other. And so I'm just this, this little Black boy from Baltimore, that's now living in New York, making work about healing Black people and bringing, a sense of purpose and joy to the community. Yeah. So, you know, middle son of 3 boys, really influenced by living in Baltimore.
Desmond Beach:Baltimore is like in my DNA, you know, it's who I am. It's how I see the world and I would have no other way. Like Baltimore made me Baltimore proud.
Rob Lee:I I love that. I love it. I'm I'm in that middle spot. So when I saw that, I was just like, uh-huh. You get it?
Rob Lee:It's like that thing of like you're not getting all the attention as the youngest, but then like the oldest is just like, alright. Cool. I guess I just gotta sit here.
Desmond Beach:Yeah. I would do my own thing, make my own path my own way.
Rob Lee:Yeah. 100%. Yeah. So I'm I'm reading in, you know and correct me if I'm wrong here. I I see, like, multiple areas that you're working.
Rob Lee:I see sculpture. I see painting. I see this whole sort of interdisciplinary and, like, multidisciplinary, like, sort of flavor here. So can you, you know, speak on that and give us a little peek into, like, your process perhaps, what you're currently working on, what you most recently worked on.
Desmond Beach:Yeah. Well, the reason that that is is because there's not just one medium that I feel serves the right purpose to articulate my point of view at times. Right? And so there might be moments of performance where I have to like enter into a space and make that space holy and sanctify it in order to receive the ancestor spirits. Right.
Desmond Beach:You know, tying back to like my upbringing in church. Right. And, and so,
Rob Lee:or maybe there's times I have to, I have to
Desmond Beach:do a drawing, I have to do a painting, I have to make a sculpture. It really is based on what I'm trying to convey to people and what medium I think best serves that. So in undergrad, like I've really, I I was a general fine arts major at MICA. And so I took tons of classes in sculpture and fiber arts and drawing and painting. And so those are the means I feel most comfortable in articulating my point of view.
Desmond Beach:But for grad school, I was a sculpture major. I went to a graduate, sculpture program. And so this idea of making objects that sit in space and take up space or even creating installations, feels like second nature to me. Right. And, and, and, and for me, this is not the case for all artists, but for me, I find it limiting if I only operate it in one medium.
Desmond Beach:If I only was someone who did fiber based work, if I was only someone who did photography, honestly, that would make me a little bored. I would get bored with the idea of working the same medium over again. But I think that sometimes certain messages, certain ideas, certain things come across, stronger, depending on the medium that they're in. Right. So, for a while I was doing a lot of work about honoring Black people in death, you know, like growing up in Baltimore, there was a lot of, and I hate, hate to even say this because it is such a stereotype about Baltimore.
Desmond Beach:That is such a violent place. But growing up as a teacher, I had friend friends who were like killed, you know, was at the hands of other people or by the hands of the police. And so I was making all this work that was trying to address the hurt and the mourning that was happening. So I was making these sculptures of these figures that were laying on the ground, in this rest like state. Right.
Desmond Beach:And so could that have been a drawing up painting? Yes. But I felt there was more poignant. It was more immediate to have it be a sculpture to actually see the physicality of somebody's body, like on the ground. Yeah.
Desmond Beach:To me it was more impactful. Right? So I, so I think I, I pick mediums or, or I work within different mediums based on how I think the themes or messages of the work will come across. And I just feel really comfortable combining them together, combining mixed media, sculpture, performance all together within the experience. So that's why I do it.
Desmond Beach:You know, like I often say I'm a project based artist. And so I work based on projects And projects dictate to me the mediums that I use.
Rob Lee:Gotcha. That helps. And having having something that's, like, sort of your your own way of going about it, like, you know, we I would imagine you you touched on it, like getting bored if it was just the one thing. And, you know, I hear that in jobs. I hear that in sort of even in doing this, You know, I'll like, the goal is this many episodes.
Rob Lee:I'm gonna talk to these different people. And it's like, why don't you just do the same interview over and over again? I was like, I wouldn't wanna do it. Or Right. It's it's and I was talking to one of my students because I too do the education thing.
Rob Lee:I was talking to one of my students today about sort of failure and, like, that serving you and doing really well, and I was making the comparison to, like, because he's a runner, making the comparison to, like, failing at something, like, physically. It's like, you know, you're gonna have this progression, but eventually, you you failed at one point before you got to that next stage, and now you might look back at that point where you failed, and it's like, that's light work. But part of it is, I think that drives it, is not becoming bored. If you just ran the same 2 miles every day, you're like, okay. There's the mailbox that I, you know, and there's the part the ground that I trip over each time, and there's nothing exciting about that.
Rob Lee:And I think, you know, because of the school I was teaching in, it's, you know, an art school, you know, so we're we're we're talking about that. He's like, oh, you see, like, the light bulb go off. He's like, oh, there's a lot going there, and I was like, yeah. So what part what part of Baltimore again?
Desmond Beach:I grew up on the west side. I grew up in, like, the Hawkeye Woodland area of Baltimore. I grew up.
Rob Lee:Okay. So that's okay. You know, you know, we have to do the scene check sometimes because, I got some Owens millions that throw out there. So I am from Volsa. You are not
Desmond Beach:That is not Baltimore. You in the suburbs, brother. You in the suburbs.
Rob Lee:I love it. I love it. So I I see in there, and definitely we're gonna dive back in because I because I wanna wanna ask a bit about, you know, sort of choosing to work in different sizes too. Like, you know, that might hit a different way, like getting that response from a person or someone that's viewing it or even a response from yourself. Like, damn, I was able to, you know, present this idea in this way and in this format.
Rob Lee:But before I go to that, I I wanna ask about some of the influences, because I see CJ's fault when I see African storytelling, that those traditions there, How do those elements, like, kinda show up in your work and, like, shape your artistic sensibilities, your narratives? Speak a bit about that.
Desmond Beach:Yeah. Well, I am definitely, inspired by James Baldwin. I think that, his writings are just so profound the way that he speaks about the Black community and being Black himself and the issues, the trials that we face, but also the victories that we can have as well is so profound to me. Right. And so I think he is one of the greatest scholars and in love of what he writes and how he talks about, the human condition.
Desmond Beach:So James Baldwin, yes, is an influence, but I think that, I have my art influences like Faith Rangel, God rest her soul. She just passed away, couple of days ago. Like William Pope L who was another artist who just passed away as well. Who's now an ancestor. So I definitely have like these artists that sit in a place of teaching me aesthetics and composition, and what that looks like.
Desmond Beach:But I would really say that my, my true influence comes from the people in my life, everyday people. You know, I, I still think back to all the moments I grew up in my house with my dad and my mom and my brothers and my grandmother, my mom's mother, and how those moments on like Saturday evenings of us like dancing around and I clean the house and like they're making meals, like how all of that really has influenced how I want people to feel when they see my work. Right. It's like how I felt growing up. It's the same thing.
Desmond Beach:I'm trying to have people when they walk into a gallery, go into a museum and see my piece. I want them to walk away with that same level of, humanity. Right? Like, I learned so much from growing up, in the church I grew up in Baltimore. I spent my entire life in this church.
Desmond Beach:So I made all of my closest friends in this church. It's where I learned how to stand up and be really bold and proclaim the things that matter to me. Right? Like I learned that, you know, by watching like the ministers and like my pastor and like my parents' friends and like, so all those influences really have formed how I make work, right? Like I am always the time to make the peace.
Desmond Beach:I'm trying to get people to get a glimpse into like how I feel. Right? Or I want them to feel seen and affirmed in a way that I did growing up. Right? Like that is so important to me.
Desmond Beach:Like I grew up in a house where this is no lie. And I thank God for the parents that I was given because I would be in, you know, undergrad come home for spring break. And my mother would come home from work or my dad came home from work and they would find that I had painted the living room a different color, or I had painted their bedroom. Like I would like tape off walls. I would spray paint designs.
Desmond Beach:I would take plaster and put it on walls and I try to do fresco type work. Right. I work in wet into plaster. You know, all these things I'm learning about, like in school, like I'm using their house to experiment on. Right.
Desmond Beach:And my parents never once said to me, don't do that. Don't stop. Like I never got yelled at, never got punished for it. Like I took tissue paper and covered all the diamond walls trying to create a texture. I took liminal foil, like I was trying to do gold leaf and, and like did like the ceiling of the dining room.
Desmond Beach:Like I was doing like a gold leaf silly. Like they never said to me, don't do that. Right. And so it's like their willingness to see something in me. Right.
Desmond Beach:And to nurture that. And like their level of love and care for me, like that is such a huge influence. Right. And so I feel like when I'm making work, I think back to that, the level of freedness that I had, you know, when I would like paint a room in the house, right. Or, or collage a wall, right.
Desmond Beach:It like that same level of, of play and experimentation and imagination is what I still tap into now in the studio. Right? Like, so like that's a big inspiration. You're like my, my mom is a crocheter, so she's always crocheting things, right? Always making blankets.
Desmond Beach:My grandmother would like, would hand piece things as well. And so those are really my biggest influences, you know, like, and, and, and I can't even talk about like all of my, my uncles who were like the civil rights, like activists who were all talking about, you know, Black is Beautiful and Black Power and being Black and what that looks like. Like I knew from the age of like 2 years old, I was black. Right? Like there was no getting around it.
Desmond Beach:And so like having those influences that spoken to my life and fed into my life about, you you know, the beauty of being Black and like the richness of, of who we are. You know, the struggle is part of our story, but it's not all of our story. Right. And like, and so, so having that, grown up in that every day, you know, while you're forming your ideas and who you are and who you want to be was so transformative. Right.
Desmond Beach:It was so freeing, you know, like, and, and as an adult, and I think back on it now, how fortunate I was to have a family unit that really supported that. So like, they are my biggest influence. Like they are like and those ancestors that are always standing behind me, around me, speaking to me, like those influences that that that that are always pushing me to make stuff and do stuff.
Rob Lee:Thank you. That that is that's that's wonderful. And, know, I feel like you may have been a, an an unpaid journeyman, you know, kinda tightening up things around old homestead. It's like, yeah, look at that. Oh, look at that scuff.
Rob Lee:I guess, Desmond's gonna gonna paint later. I don't know. Yeah. It it is it is great when you're you're able to to do that, and I I I can touch on this before moving into this next question that where I relate where, you know, as part of that middle child thing, it's like you're almost left to your own devices. It's like, you know, you're fine.
Rob Lee:You're probably a decent student. All of this stuff, I'm just projecting maybe, probably a decent student, all of that different stuff, but it's just like, oh you're interested in something? Cool. I don't have the time for you, but I support you. I don't know what you're doing, but I support you.
Rob Lee:Yeah. That's kinda what it's been like for me. I wanted to be an artist, an illustrator, and it's like any color pencil, any book, anything like that, here you go. Have at it. Enjoy.
Rob Lee:Make sure your grades don't lapse. It it was kind of that. That was the version of support growing up in in in my household, but, you know, it was definitely something, I guess, informative that it's just like, yeah, you're gonna be doing this. So pick the thing that you like and kinda ride it out, see where you wanna go and, you know, see what you wanna do with it, but also being able to balance the 2, you know, living this sort of dual lifestyle where I remember the one thing they told me. I don't know if art's gonna be the career for you, but you should you should keep doing it though, whatever that creep outlet is.
Rob Lee:That's what the message was for me with that support being there. I had a, an uncle who was, like, a commercial artist. He passed before I was born. So it was always some of those sort of, man, I really wish you met your uncle. You'd be able to learn so much from him.
Rob Lee:But it was like that, where you they recognize seeing someone who was creative.
Desmond Beach:Yeah. So it's
Rob Lee:like that's something. Yeah.
Desmond Beach:Yeah. Yeah. I was so fortunate for it. You know, like I'd never had the, oh, you shouldn't be an artist, you shouldn't make work. Oh, find another job.
Desmond Beach:Like go get one of those good government jobs. Like that was never a conversation that they ever had with me. It was, if you're gonna do it, do it well, you know, become skilled at it, you know, and, and do that thing. So I'm very fortunate to, to have grown up in a house like that.
Rob Lee:That's that's great. Yeah. So I wanna know a bit about this is a newer question that I've been using, and since we're kind of around this topic. Within the the your your artistic journey, and it's a journey that's still being written, you know, that's the thing, you know. So thus far, what has been the most rewarding or informational or even challenging part thus far?
Rob Lee:Like, in, you know, when you speak on, like, trauma, when you speak on sort of, you know, the healing of the Black congregation, I'm a use your terms, When you're working in that, there can be some sort of, like, pushback or sometimes when you're like, okay, finally, someone is speaking, you know, a language that often is missed and often is sort of suppressed. Talk about sort of what part, what phase within your artistic journey that's been the most rewarding information or even challenging?
Desmond Beach:Well, okay. That's a great question. And so many different ways that I could answer that question. I think the most rewarding thing I've had so far has been when I've had conversations with people and they have said to me, just looking at your work online, whether it's on Instagram or on your website, it feels different. It doesn't feel like just a work of art, but I feel that the work is much more than that.
Desmond Beach:It's about much more than that. Right. And the fact that someone can articulate that to me saying that just seeing it on a computer screen and not even in person, that's so rewarding because that's my intent. My intent is that people will see the work, engage with the work and see themselves, see the humanity of themselves, will see the humanity of black people, will, will just see themselves within the work and walk away feeling changed in some kind of way. And so when I hear people to say that to me, and then when they say, Oh, but when I saw it in person, when I saw it up close, it's even more profound.
Desmond Beach:Like, Oh, I was struck by it looking on the screen. But when I saw it in the gallery hanging
Rob Lee:on the
Desmond Beach:wall, it was even much more than that. Right? Like, so that to me is so rewarding because it what that tells me is that the path that I'm on is correct and I have to stay on the path and I have to constantly do the thing I must do. And if I just keep my eyes focused on what I have to do and not get consumed by other people and their level of success and what they're doing, which really, it can be hard as an artist because you're looking at the success of your peers. Those who went to school with those who are, you might consider your contemporaries and you look at like their careers and whatever the barometer is for success, you feel that maybe you haven't reached that success that really can be the downfall.
Desmond Beach:So like you can get caught up in, well, I don't have as many lights. I don't have as many shares. I don't have as many followers. I haven't shown in so many galleries. I haven't so many pieces.
Desmond Beach:My work has been so for Sam out there. Their work is being so you can get so caught up in other people's paths, right? Like other people's journeys that you don't take time to really fully sit in your own, right? And be grateful for that. And so I'm constantly so I would say like, that is like the if there's a downside, it's always reminding myself to focus again, to recenter myself, to say that my success is my success.
Desmond Beach:And that what someone else has achieved is for them to achieve. And eventually what is all for me, I will receive. Right. And like, I just gotta make the work, I just gotta make the work and it will come. So, so I would say like, if I, if there was a downside, it is not being distracted, or being so hard on yourself because you see other people achieving what you want to one day achieve.
Desmond Beach:Right? Like it just means that it's not your moment yet. Right? But like, you have to constantly be prepared for it. Right?
Desmond Beach:So I have to constantly keep working. I have to constantly stay in the studio. I have to be ready for when it comes. So when opportunity comes, I can take full advantage of it. Right.
Desmond Beach:And so that's part of it. Were there like some hiccups along the way? Yes. We're like, you feel people don't see the value in your work, right. Or, don't respect the work that you're making or see the need for it.
Desmond Beach:Right. If I think back to being in grad school, there were moments with my, some of my colleagues in grad school that, and I'm just gonna say it, point blank were, were racist at times, right? With like their language behavior, right? Where you have to fight against that. Right?
Desmond Beach:Like, so here I am, in a predominantly white institution making work. The program is predominantly white. I'm making work around the Black experience, Black trauma, and the feedback that I receive isn't helpful. Right. It's destructive, which I guess looking back at it now was the fuel to keep making the work, right?
Desmond Beach:Like, because you're just giving me more reasons why we have to do the work, you know, why I have to do the work. Right. And so, that I think is also like another downside to it, right? When you're working in an area that's rooted in identity, that's rooted in race, rooted in racialized trauma. Not everyone, not everyone is going to receive it in the way that you hope that they would.
Desmond Beach:And some are gonna be convicted by it. And because they're convicted by it, they don't know how to respond to it. And so to respond in a negative way as well. Right? Because it taps into that thing that they didn't know they were sitting inside of them.
Desmond Beach:Right. And it brings it up and there, and now here we are having to negotiate that we have to have this, this dialogue, this conversation, which I appreciate. Cause I often say that my work, I want us to have conversations about it. I want you to walk out with questions. I want you to walk out and have that conversation with the person you came with or with someone in the gallery about the work.
Desmond Beach:Right? Like, because we got to talk about this stuff, right? We got to bring it up to the surface. Talk about it. Let's, let's begin to work through it.
Desmond Beach:Cause if we don't, we will constantly just keep repeating the behavior over over again. And so, that for me, I might've considered a challenge when I was younger within my practice. But now I see it as just part of the necessity of the work that I do now, right? Like this heart work that I'm doing is rooted towards Black people, but it's also other people as well. Right.
Desmond Beach:And how they engage with the work. And, I would've said in the beginning that I was making work to teach white people about their humanity, to show that, how brutal they were or are to black people, into black bodies. And that was my mission. I want everybody who's white to see this, to recognize that the colonizer has done some horrible things, right? Recognize it, own it, and less, less find a path to move forward with it.
Desmond Beach:Right. And so, but now the shift has been, I did that for a while for a very long time, which is also very tasking on one's, you know, mental well-being, my spirit, my soul, all of that always constantly being in that state of arousal of always, always being on the, on the defense, always having to be ready to like respond to the comments, respond to the, well, I disagree. That's not every white person. That's not I'm like, see, RLS, we know you already defensive already. Because you said that's not everybody.
Desmond Beach:Did I say that? Is that peace saying that? That means just showing you what has happened. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just telling you history. Right.
Desmond Beach:You know, kind of thing. And for me, that's when the shift had to happen. I had to like take a moment and go, you're doing a lot of work trying to educate. Now let's take some time to do some healing. Right.
Desmond Beach:And so I know that wasn't part of the question, like how I made all the transition around it. Right. It was about the success, but also like the trials or troubles that come with it, like the tribulations in, in making the work. But for me it's like so intertwined together that like there isn't, it isn't easy for me just to say, Oh, this is a struggle. Oh, this is something that's hard.
Desmond Beach:Because with the struggle comes forth new work. Right? Like it's it's it's about that as well.
Rob Lee:So No. No. No. That that was great. And and and the other thing, you know, I I never complain when someone makes my job easier because you've answered, like, one other question in there.
Rob Lee:And even in it, you know, it's the, you know, informational piece as well. Like, you know, learning that as you kinda closed off on, it's like, yeah, I I gotta shift this. This is a lot. This is taxing on me in this way. And, and, you know, you know, as I was, you know, kinda touching on a bit there, covering some of these heavier topics, especially being someone that is, you know, black person or what have you, and I would imagine there are real life situations that show up in your work or at least influence your work that I was like, damn, that that was one of my friends or that was a a person I really admired, never really met or what have you.
Rob Lee:Those things are are there. You know, that trauma thing for for people that look like us, I find really it's a profound sort of connection when you at least when I I guess, I don't wanna speak for anyone else. When I see some of the stuff we've seen over the last, you know, say, 5 years, pretty much since this podcast started. Right? And being on social media much more and seeing things that happen to to black bodies or what have you.
Rob Lee:Generally, I'm almost 40. I'm numb to a lot of things at this stage, but that's the one I can't quite get past. And, you know, being a large 6 foot 4 black guy is, like, a reality that I have to live with. I'm from Baltimore as well. I don't sound like it, But I have to live with with that sort of thing as well and have, you know, that belief, that consideration, that that arousal, as you touched on, just in real life.
Rob Lee:So having someone that's covering that is getting at least assuages some of that, assuaged some of those those feelings. It's like, okay, I'm not the only one seeing this or someone is actually talking about it and maybe someone who goes to see your work or works similar is like, I get it. I get it to some degree. And I think that's why work like yours and your work obviously, but work like yours is very important because it's like discourse, conversation? No, we don't do that.
Rob Lee:So having work that is a invitation for such dialogues is so, so important, especially coming from one of these cities where, you know, in doing this podcast, I I do interviews here. I do, DC, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and pretty much what interests me in these these other cities, the base is here, I'm here, I'm from here, is you guys say these cities or you write these cities off as being negative and violent and so on, but I posit something different. I think it's much more there. And I think being able to talk to creative folks, artists, creative thinkers, folks that are around sort of what drives the place, what makes the culture, I think that that's important. And I find that often when we have people who, you know, got colonized a light, I guess, they they kinda diminish that contribution.
Rob Lee:They wanna do a rebrand of what they no. So this is Baltimore. You know? Some might say it's gritty. Some might say it's tough and vibrant and, you know, strong and all of the other catch phrases that you spend too much money on for marketing.
Desmond Beach:Yeah.
Rob Lee:That's what I that's what I I see see happening, but I rather hear it from folks such as yourself. Yeah. Who are making this stuff and who are really saying, hey, I remember back in, you know, 2005 when this situation happened and it showed up in my work. You should take a look at it.
Desmond Beach:Yeah. I mean like, and, and that's so true. And Baltimore is all those things, right? Like it is vibrant. It is gritty.
Desmond Beach:It is sometimes tough. Like, and why can't all those things be true at the same time? Like, Baltimore can be a multifaceted place, right? Like we don't have to like be pigeonholed in so one thing. Right.
Desmond Beach:And you gotta look out for the people that you say are, you know, count it out because we'll come back and show you the real deal. Like we will, we'll rise and like, it will be at the head of the pack, you know, type thing. So don't, don't count out that. Right? I don't make assumptions about people like that.
Desmond Beach:But like, when you said that, I thought about the, the death of Freddie Gray, and the rise that we had in the city, right? Like, and even the language around, you know, not calling it a riot, not calling it whatever, like, but say no, it is an uprising. Like we are sick and tired of the boot of oppression on our nets and our backs, like get the hell off my neck. Like, like, and I remember like making a piece about that. Thinking of what it means to like have to hold your humanity, the humanity of your city, other people, like all of that, like your struggle, your hurt, your pain, your joys, all that, like at the same time, right?
Desmond Beach:Like, like, I'm sorry. Black people, we are a peculiar group of people because we have to endure so many things at so many times all at once, right? Like, and this idea that we could hold trauma and joy and pride and sorrow and loss, like altogether at the same time, in the same moment, it's a pro it's a real profound act to me. Right? And so we talked about like something like in the 20,021,005, I was like, oh, I thought about like Freddie Gray's like murder and how they took him for a ride, you know, in the back of like the police, van.
Desmond Beach:Right. And like, and as a result of it, like he died and thinking about how that could have been any one of my family members, church members, friends. I still deal with that every day. Every time I leave my house, I think about the wrong kind of encounter.
Rob Lee:Mhmm.
Desmond Beach:Take me out of here. The wrong interaction, the wrong misconception, the wrong whatever assumption could have devastating consequences, right? Like life or death. Right? And I remember like, as an artist, I only, I know how to speak through my art, right?
Desmond Beach:Like it's, it's making a piece for you to look at, or you come into a space and we sit down in an environment that are creative for us to like sit and talk and heal and whatever. Or it's back when I was at my home church in Baltimore and I writing plays for us on, you know, like that idea of creating these productions to like express one's feelings and thoughts. And that was like, I only know how to respond to stuff like that. Right? Like the way that I do my own healing work and my own deal with it, it's to make the work because to be in this state all the time, since my work themes are this, I have to find safeguards to protect my mind and my heart at times.
Desmond Beach:Right. And sometimes I don't, and sometimes it's really hard and it's really labored and it gets dark at times. I can't find like a path forward. Right. You know, at times, because I'm constantly coming through archives.
Desmond Beach:I'm constantly reading articles. I'm constantly looking at what is happening as a way of responding to it, as a way of trying to bring some light to the situation, to bring some type of hope to it. So it's some type of like healing to it, you know, like I I've started going to sites of trauma, for black bodies. Right. I started going to, I've been to spaces in New York city, in DC, in North Carolina, where I do like these pouring out of libations at particular sites as trying to release that trauma and that energy and that pain from it to free us.
Desmond Beach:Right. Because, because I feel that that connects to all. Right. It connects us all. Like I may not have known that somebody might have been murdered there or lynched there or whatever, but that trauma is released into our, into our being as a Black congregation.
Desmond Beach:Right. And like, so I'm trying to go as many places as I can to release as much trauma as I can out of spaces so we can all be free. Right. Like I want us to be so free. I want us to like, be walking on air.
Desmond Beach:Right? Like, like, like it is my mission to do that kind of stuff. Right. And so, so when I think about, how people want to, label certain places or people from certain places, Like I said before, you have to be very careful how you label people because those will be the leaders, you know, like, like, like, like, I think, like, I think back to the biblical story of like Moses, right. And how Moses became the leader.
Desmond Beach:Right. You know, like Moses supposed to have died. Josefic counted out of the whole thing, but came to like free people. Right. And so like, don't count out places like Baltimore, don't count out places that where you think nothing's good is going to come from it because we will be your leaders one day.
Desmond Beach:Like, like we will, we will lead you to like a new thing, a new way of seeing a new way of being. Right. And so, yeah, I think about it all the time. I think about every time I'm doing something that I walk into a room thinking you're from Baltimore, right? Like you bring that pride with you.
Desmond Beach:You bring all your family, all your experiences into the space with you. You know? So
Rob Lee:I try to bring all of that with the exception of the accent, because I just I just don't have it.
Desmond Beach:And I have it and I don't care. And people people always say, say to, say you, say do. I don't care. I don't care. And and I don't care is where I'm from.
Rob Lee:I and the thing is I I don't have it. I've had people on pods, like, yo, where's this accent coming from? I was like, East Baltimore. And he was like, by the way, where? I was like, further in East Baltimore, Lafayette projects, what do you need from me?
Rob Lee:Right. Right. There's there's certain things where my partner, she's just like, you know, say orange. I was like, nah. I was like, orange.
Rob Lee:She's like, see? You're not you're you're from Baltimore. I was like, yo, kick rocks. Get out of here.
Desmond Beach:They love doing that. They I know it's the sidebar, but they love doing that. I'm like, get over yourselves. Is it is it jealousy? Are you mad that you don't speak the way I speak?
Desmond Beach:What's it? Get off of me. Just I know who y'all are. So if y'all hear this, no, I'm talking about you.
Rob Lee:So I I got I got 2, like, real questions, left, and I think you you see even in that in that last portion, you you answered one of the ones I I had about sort of when there's that lack when you're you're talking about, like, kinda being in that dark and finding your way. I think definitely getting getting that sort of answer because, yeah, you know, kinda just switching it, getting back to sort of the reasoning, the the the why of it all. And I I run into the same thing here, like, you know, doing this, like, in in theory. Right? I'm going through doing I'll be, sooner than later, at a 1000 episodes.
Rob Lee:Wow. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, like, I'm almost at 800 now.
Rob Lee:But to my point, you know, it's sometimes you you were touching on it earlier, you do that comparison thing, and I'm, like, man, I wish I was doing this. So you see people who are doing things, and I was, like, at at one point, it used to be, why don't I have this? Why aren't people more supportive of what it is? Or even sometimes the guests that are coming on, like in theory, guests are coming on basically talking about their work for an hour, and a lot of times they're not even promoting a thing that they're on. And I look at it, I was like, if it was one of these other outlets that maybe not look like me, you probably weren't able to get into, you'd be gassing it up a bit more.
Rob Lee:You know, Baltimore Sun came up. Yeah. Love it, but I, you know, do this, and this is sort of this is mostly a self funded project. Get a grant here and there, but this is self funded project, and the and that's not even the point behind it. The point is, as we were talking about, we're gonna be your leaders one day.
Rob Lee:Mhmm. My thing is to document, archive, and have people share their stories the way that I do the intro. Who are you in your own words? Yeah. That's sort of the way these questions are focused, and you see it and you gotta get back to the root of it.
Rob Lee:It's like, what am I curious about? That's always sort of going back to the root. What is the reason I'm doing this? It's not to gas myself up. It's none of that stuff.
Rob Lee:I mean, I got a giant billboard right now, which is really cool. But, you know
Desmond Beach:Come on. People say you know
Rob Lee:what the action is? Yeah. That's all good. So I got these last two questions, and and one I wanted to go back to. So let's talk about the exhibition stuff part because I I wanna get the, you know, sort of the the performance component because, like but but I wanna frame it a little differently.
Rob Lee:So you you're let's say you're building out sort of, like, I want to do this. What is the that initial thought? What is that sort of plotting in that process of well, I think this fits this sort of presentation fits or maybe it's gonna be sculpture. Maybe it's gonna be the performance component. Talk a bit about that, like, where you start off at with, I'm gonna do some new work and I definitely wanna have performance in there.
Rob Lee:At what point do you realize performance is a part of this particular body of work or this particular idea?
Desmond Beach:Yeah. Well, that's a good question. So thank you for that. And I would say that performance has really become a really important part of my practice and it shows up pretty much in almost everything that I do. Like it doesn't, not show up.
Desmond Beach:Right. And so for instance, I just had a, my most recent solo show was up in Connecticut, and maybe a couple of months ago. And I knew for that show that I wanted to make work that honored my grandmother. Right. And so I do a lot of work around ancestral knowledge and voice and things like that.
Desmond Beach:And my grandmother, my mother's mother, who I grew up with, is one of my guiding lights. Right? Like, like I feel like she's always walking beside me. She's next to me in the train, in the backseat of the car. Like, like she's like, just there kind of like with communicating, she'd give me ideas, thoughts or whatever.
Desmond Beach:Right. So I I knew I wanted to do, like, a show that focused on black women. And because for a very long time sorry, I should not say a very long time for some time. I had been feeling that Black women are not loved the way they should be loved. And I'm saying that to you, Black people, to the Black congregation, that I don't even think that you even love Black women the way you should love Black women.
Desmond Beach:And, and so I was happy like that kind of heaviness of just like, does you gotta love on Black women? You gotta pour out to Black women. You gotta like show them how much you appreciate them. They know they're amazing. So you don't have to tell them they're amazing.
Desmond Beach:Just show them how much you care for them. Right. And so I did this show where I created maybe 9 portraits on tapestries, on these wall hangings that, that I do. And it was all trying to show different aspects of what I thought my grandmother was about. My grandmother did not have a portrait at all.
Desmond Beach:Like you didn't see her likeness in the room at all, but the space was in an old Victorian house. And that felt like a very grandmother like space to me, right? Like it was like deep wood floors, these beautiful brown archways and doorways and things like that. And so I want to create like my grandmother's like bedroom, right? Like I wanted to like, have like her dress with like all the lace doorlies on top of it.
Desmond Beach:And I wanted to have like the bowl of candy and like all that kind of stuff. And I built an altar to her, like in one of the windows and she had this coat that she just loved. And I called my mom and said, Ma, can I get grandma's coat? I'm gonna come down. Can I get it?
Desmond Beach:She's like, Sure. And I sat in the gallery and I just mended the collar of her main coat because it had come apart. And I sat in a stool on this wooden box actually. And I just mended it with like thread and just sewed it together. And for me, that was like my community with my grandmother in that space.
Desmond Beach:Right. It became like this holy act of me thinking about how I'm trying to mend the wounds of the black congregation. Here I am mending her actual coat. And the reason about this mint coat, right? Like my grandmother was someone who went as far as 6th grade, you know, in school, was a domestic worker in Baltimore.
Desmond Beach:She took care of white children and cleaned their homes, but raised a family, put them through school, such an accomplished woman. Right? And this idea, this coach to me was like her example of like, look what I have achieved. Yes. My, my children are doing well, but I'm also able to acquire this level as well.
Desmond Beach:Right. And so the fact that I got to like sit in the gallery and mend it and sing to her and, and, and commute with her in that way, created such a sacred moment. Right? I mean, and, and, and, and when I get into that space, the people who are there, they kind of like fade like to the background. Like I don't even see them anymore until like I come out of it all.
Desmond Beach:Like I get into like this real trance where like it's me and the ancestors or me and the Holy Spirit or whoever you wanna
Rob Lee:call it. Right? Like we're all just
Desmond Beach:like having this great moment together. And, and so I thought about how sitting there and mending her coat was another act of gratitude to her. Like I was thinking like, Oh, grandma, thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for the way that you took care of the family for the lessons you taught us. Thank you for, being example to all of us of what resilience looks like and what it looks like to be proud and confident and strong.
Desmond Beach:Right. And and think about that, like this woman who was born in the early 1900s, right? 50 years after slavery was abolished, was able to accomplish so much stuff. Right? And like, and I get to be in this moment.
Desmond Beach:I get to bring your story forward to even more people. I get to talk about you in places that you never were allowed to be in or probably would ever have access to. And I get to bring you with me. Right. And so, so I think about performance.
Desmond Beach:I use the term performance because it's what we would use in the art world, but it's more like blessings is more like these offerings or moments of healing. Right? But, but I wouldn't say there's anything performative about it. Like, I'm not walking with, like, kinda any kinda script in mind. Like I know I'm going to mend the code and whatever happens in that moment is what happens.
Desmond Beach:Right? Like, and I couldn't tell you all the times that I've done. Like I hate people come and video it or whatever. And like, I'll go back and watch it and go, Oh, I didn't know I did that. Oh, I didn't.
Desmond Beach:I did that. Oh, I said that. Oh, I sang that like, like, you know, which is another part, right? This idea of like using my voice and singing is another way of me, invoking spirit in, in, into the space. Right.
Desmond Beach:And my way of saying, Hey, ancestors, I'm here. Will you come greet me? Will you come do something with me in this moment? Like, don't leave me alone by myself. I can't do it alone, you know, kind of thing.
Desmond Beach:And, so it does become a real worship experience, you know, and not worship like Christianity kind of worship, like religion kind of thing. Like it becomes this moment that is beyond just me. Right? Like, I feel like I, in some way, have kind of like I kind of fall to, to the background as well. Right?
Desmond Beach:And like the stage the platform has given, you know, to all of those laborers, you know, to all those assets, to all those who endured, it's like, I'm willing to like share this one with you. Like here, take, take front, you know, stage, you know, like have your moment, stand here in the light, like receive it, you know, like all of that. So like, even those kinds of thoughts come in my head, I'm less like, Oh, this, this stage is crowded today. Oh, this gallery is packed today. You know, like it ain't just y'all that's here.
Desmond Beach:There's a whole lot of people here, you know, kind of thing. So, and, and, and, and that's something that I would say the idea of performance work has come up in maybe the past, maybe 10 years, 10 to 8 years. Right. And always was something that I always did. So I used to do it like in private, I would ask the gallery, can I come and do a thing before the show opens?
Desmond Beach:If I'm in a group show, can I come and do a thing before the group show opens? Just because I need to make sure that the, the gallery is set to receive the work that I'm making to make sure that it's gonna be a safe place for the work that I'm making. Right? Because to me, that it's the object is more than just an object. Like it has much more meaning behind it and it's, it's endowed with much more energy and purpose and soul and life than it just being an object.
Desmond Beach:Right. So like I just didn't do that in private. And then something said to me one day, probably the ancestors are like, you ain't gotta be quiet about that. You gotta be quiet about
Rob Lee:that thing. Do it out in
Desmond Beach:the open. Like what you're ashamed of, right? Like what you're ashamed of? So I was like, you right. I understand nothing, you know?
Desmond Beach:And so then it just, it becomes a thing. Like if if I'm giving an artist talk, I start out with a song. I'm like, come on ancestors. We about to give a talk. This talk is just as much for me as it is for you.
Desmond Beach:Right? Like I don't do anything alone. Like this work, like I have just been chosen in this moment to do what I'm doing right. To be the, to be the force, the vehicle that's going to help the message go forward. Right?
Desmond Beach:Like, but I recognize this is not like my ego isn't caught up in this. It isn't like, Oh, this is all Desmond. No, my success is caught up in the ancestors. It's caught up in like my grandmother who was like out there and make a provision and making ways for me. And my job is to just keep making the work to keep fine tuning what I'm doing, get better at my stitching, get better at making a sculpture, get better at like, that's my job, right?
Desmond Beach:Like, which is why back to the other question, I really have to like stay focused and not get caught up on external things, right? Of what success is. Because when somebody says to me, Oh, I feel moved by your work. That's a success, right? That's the success.
Desmond Beach:When somebody says, Oh, I felt something that moved me. Like, like, sorry, back to this again. So, so the show I had out, out in, New Haven in Connecticut, I got an email from a woman, who said, because I do like this kind of workshop closing artist talk at the end of the show. And she walked in and said, I came and saw your work when it was open, you know, within a month, like a month or 2 ago. And she said, I walked in and immediately thought, Oh, this is a sanctuary.
Desmond Beach:Then nothing up in the space had no religious relics. They had nothing. They don't know crosses. There were no, there was nothing that would have said, I'm trying to have the idea of sanctuary come across. She said, I just walked over threshold and immediately felt that I was in a sacred space.
Desmond Beach:And she said, I sat there and I just weeped in the space. Now this is a woman who's not Black, not Black at all, but was moved by it. Right? And that to me is success. If I didn't sell any other work in the show for her to say that that success, right?
Desmond Beach:Or, or like this, or like a or an elder who came to me at the close and then said, I can't stay, but I brought you these gifts because I thought I had to give you something back to what you gave to us in the community. I mean and and and I mean, when I say gifts, it was like, she had gift bags. And I was like, I have never
Rob Lee:Gift swag bag.
Desmond Beach:Ever experienced that before. Right. But like, here's this elder saying, I see you and I see the work that you're doing and I have to give back to you. I have to pour back into you. Right?
Desmond Beach:Like it's the way we'll say in church, pour into the ministry, right? Like she was pouring back into me what I was doing and like profound. So like those moments, those are the real sweet moments. Those are the moments that tell me that the work isn't just about me and that it's out of my hands. Right?
Desmond Beach:Like, like, like for somebody to say I weeped being in the space. How did I like, I couldn't do that. Right? There were some other forces that came together to make that thing happen. You know?
Rob Lee:That is powerful stuff. That is Wow. I I don't I don't I don't even know if my last question I'm gonna I'm gonna get rid of that last question because that's actually the way to close out on the real questions. That was no, it's great. And, you know, when I do this, and I I wanna just chime in on this real quick before moving into these rapid fire questions, you know, you're you're out here.
Rob Lee:I'm adjacent to, you know, sort of the creative stuff, like struggling for an identity. I know how I feel about what I do, but, you know, folks would deem it this or deem it that, but my my partner reminded me not too long ago, and it was very helpful. She's the one that hears all of the behind the Freddie Mercury aesthetic and the the the curtains and all of that. She's the one that hears all of the the losses. Like, man, I stink.
Rob Lee:I'm terrible at interviewing all of these different things and the insecurities and all. And, as you remember, we were walking and, you know, sometimes it's it's it's, ambivalent, so sometimes it's indifference. Right? And we were walking, like, in station north, and there was a dude that was in his car. He's, like, yo, is that truth in his art?
Rob Lee:Sup, bro? Love the show, man.
Desmond Beach:Come on. Come on.
Rob Lee:And I was like, you're about to get to an accident, my bro. So it it's that. So when, you know, some of these different outlets I may have mentioned earlier might choose someone else who isn't the real guy, like, I present myself as or whatever that might look like, the people, those are the ones that I'm doing it for, and I struggle with saying it because it feels so hokey, but that's at the root of what it is, like being accessible but with quality and not trying to waste someone's time. You know, I like folks come on here and just, like, give me the real. What's the real?
Rob Lee:Like Yeah. And that's the way that it goes, and, you know, having those those things, like, people wanting to wanting you to win or even and I and I and I have to do it to to close out on what we were talking about when we first started. When When folks hit me up, and they're like, yo, so it's really good, man, really high quality stuff. Are you from LA or something, right? From New York, I say, not from East Baltimore, baby.
Rob Lee:Every time. Every time. I don't front. I don't front. Right on.
Rob Lee:So so with that, I'm gonna move into these rapid fire questions, and as I tell people, do not overthink these.
Desmond Beach:Oh, boy. Okay.
Rob Lee:Fun questions, but they're, you know.
Desmond Beach:They may be nervous. They may be nervous.
Rob Lee:They put you in a hot seat, though.
Desmond Beach:Okay.
Rob Lee:I'm gonna start off with, one of the easier ones, maybe. I I find, like, some some of you artist types, you know, like, I don't really talk about myself. How do you get the word out about your work? You're gonna say poorly.
Desmond Beach:Well, yeah. I mean, like, poorly. Like, I posted to my Instagram page. That's it. That's what I did.
Rob Lee:Like, here's a new episode. I you should listen. Maybe. I don't know.
Desmond Beach:I'm like, I put out there. Now all y'all should go see it because it's gonna be great. Y'all should come to it, but hey.
Rob Lee:I'm not a full time, like, you know, social media marketing person. It's like, I did the work.
Desmond Beach:Yeah. I I'll make a post. I might make a reel, but I definitely will make a post and put it on my story. That that's it. That's all I can do.
Rob Lee:When you're working, like when you're in the midst of it. Right? Like, you know, you got, like, you gotta catch up on some stuff. We got deadlines. We have all these different things.
Rob Lee:Are you more of an early bird or night owl?
Desmond Beach:Oh, night owl. I can work well into 5 o'clock in the morning, But have you just at 5 o'clock in the morning to go to work?
Rob Lee:It's a reset. I I I get up at 5 now. I I'm I'm I'm sleep at 8:30. I feel washed. It's it's not great.
Rob Lee:Who are your favorite people to discuss art with? Knows how to get progressively more challenging.
Desmond Beach:Okay. My favorite people, I'm gonna say they have to be my 2 closest friends from grad school, Orman and Christina. We get on our FaceTime and we just talk about art and our lives. And it fills me in a way that no other conversations do. So Orman and Christina, I love talking about art with them.
Rob Lee:Okay. I I don't like that you're doing well at these. I'm gonna go to the last one. This is this one is this is a challenge, because it's kind of a 2 parter. It's a little bit I'm I'm cheating a little bit here, and and I'm very curious about it.
Rob Lee:I watch watch a lot of travel shows before I go to sleep at 8:30 because I'm an old person. What is your favorite New York bite and your favorite Baltimore bite? Like, if there's, like, look, I need to get something that's quintessential that's New York for your New York. You know, you might be in one part or the other that is like, yeah, we do a really good chopped cheese. We don't do the pastrami over here.
Rob Lee:What is your thing in, you know, what is your Baltimore thing? If it's crab cakes, I'm gonna look at you with the side eye. But what are your favorite bites in Baltimore and New York?
Desmond Beach:Okay. Well, I don't have an answer for you for New York because I don't want to say the truth, but I think the Baltimore has much better food than New York does, but I might be biased and I struggle to find a place to eat and people might come for me to comment and you know what? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But if it was New York, thin slice, you really can go, can't go wrong with that.
Desmond Beach:Most people make a really nice thin slice. Okay.
Rob Lee:Okay.
Desmond Beach:Now, now you're talking about Baltimore now.
Rob Lee:Now you're
Desmond Beach:talking about, I was talking about chicken box with chocolate to ketchup, hot sauce and a half and half. That is always going to be when I went home or now this is not in Baltimore, it's in Baltimore County, but it's adjacent. It's the Greek Village, chicken cheese steak, fresh fries and gravy. Now I would drive when I was at Micah, I would drive for Micah all the way out to Rammestown to get that cheese steak and French fries and gravy and come back to campus. I didn't care.
Desmond Beach:And I will call them in the car because they always, they late. I mean, they slow as hell in there. So you got to call them a good 30 minutes before you want to pick your food. But those two things that cheesesteak from Greek village, fresh fries and gravy, and a chicken box, man, let me tell you, I am still trying to chase and find a place like that right now. Where is my go to place?
Rob Lee:And I hear you.
Desmond Beach:I hear you. I hear you where I am right now, but that is Baltimore. Now, if you want some seafood stuff, ain't nothing better than going down to like Monroe street to like the crab row, getting a bushel of crabs and you at home, you don't put some trash bags on the table. I used to eat some crabs. Now that right there, now that's a good time, but we don't have no crabs all year round like that.
Desmond Beach:Right? So it's like, put a chicken box. I can get me a good little chicken box anytime, you know. So
Rob Lee:I I gotta I gotta comment. I'm a food guy. So I gotta comment on this. 1 well, I gotta clarify. Thin slice, is it just cheese?
Rob Lee:Is it pepperoni? Like, what what are we going with?
Desmond Beach:I tend to go for either cheese or pepperoni. Yeah.
Rob Lee:Okay. Oh.
Desmond Beach:Okay. I I probably take pepperoni over the cheese though, because I want a little bit of meat on something. Yeah.
Rob Lee:And when it comes to that chicken box, right, now this this is this is almost political. Western fries, crinkle cut, what what what are the fries? What's the fry situation?
Desmond Beach:Okay. I don't want Western fries. I'm not Western fries, but I don't want Western fries. Give me the crinkle fries or give me like the regular straight ones. Crinkle Fries are the best.
Desmond Beach:I remember being a kid and would go to the corner store or the little cut in the basement of the house and be like, Tell me the ketchup on my fries, please. And I just have like that steaming hot bag of fries and the plastic fork. Man, you couldn't tell me nothing. That was like
Rob Lee:That that's that's 10 on 10. Tell
Desmond Beach:me nothing. You can't tell me nothing.
Rob Lee:That's that's that's 10 or 10. And the last thing I'll say, and this is gonna be the most, like, damaging for my Baltimore rep, I have not actually done the Bushla Crab situation in my 30 9 in my near 40 years of existence. It might have been less than less than 5 times. I don't think I've really done it. I'm a crab cake guy.
Rob Lee:I make a really good crab cake. I I here's the thing. I'm a civilized man. Right? I'm
Desmond Beach:turning my head to you on that because something's wrong with you.
Rob Lee:Look. Look. This is this is where my cred goes. So I I I go to New Orleans a lot. Right?
Rob Lee:We have the same crap they have down there. I got into a beef with someone in a New Orleans restaurant. I was like, ours is better. Y'all know how to make them down here. You're like, what?
Rob Lee:It's like they're ours. I was like, nah. You ain't doing alright. That's how
Desmond Beach:I know you're from Baltimore because we ignorant like that. We will say that. It ain't that good. It's mid. Get it out of here.
Desmond Beach:We will say that.
Rob Lee:Oh, man. That was that was great. That was great. So thank you for indulging me in the rapid fire and in the full, like, conversation. And in these final moments, Desmond, I wanna give you the space and the opportunity to tell the fine folks, what do you got coming up?
Rob Lee:Social media, website, Instagram, all of that good stuff. The floor is yours.
Desmond Beach:Okay. So I would say check out my Instagram, you know, come follow me. You know? Like, that's the much, that's the most up to date information you're gonna have or what I'm doing. Right?
Desmond Beach:Like I posted all the time there. So that's at Desmond Beach, just my name, Desmond Beach. You can find me. My website's the same thing, desmondbeach.com, you know, pretty simple, right? Like ain't nothing fancy about it.
Desmond Beach:It's just my name. Well I shouldn't say just my name. It's my name, you know? What do I have coming up next? I can't talk about it yet.
Desmond Beach:Cause it's not official yet. Right. You know, within the art world, you can't say you got something coming up until all the T's have been crossed and I's have been dotted and the people you're working with are ready to announce it. Right. So, but let's just say wink, wink.
Desmond Beach:It might be a show coming up soon, sometime this summer, hopefully. Right. But again, I should have even said that because now it might even happen. Not because of books. But, but yeah.
Desmond Beach:So it's Yeah. Like I, I, I just had some shows end or whatever. And so now I'm in the studio just working and waiting for the next opportunity to come, which it will come. Right? Just making the work.
Desmond Beach:And then anything else I wanna say, like, I would say to those who are listening, particularly the black congregation, y'all, it is so important for us to do our healing work. It is so important for us to recognize that there's generational trauma that sits in our bodies. It shows up in our behaviors and our attitudes and our moods, how we walk through space. And we got to take the time to heal it because we got babies coming behind us that need for us to do the work. So they're not doing the same work, right?
Desmond Beach:Like let's, let's, let's take the heavy lift, right? Like let's, let's do work for them so they can live in a, in a, in a space and a life, that isn't, trauma informed, you know, whether they're not acting out of trauma in that. And another thing, yo Baltimore, I love y'all. Thank you, Baltimore. Like y'all made me and I'm making me who I am.
Desmond Beach:And I love y'all and everywhere I go, I take y'all with me. I don't care. Like I was just saying to a friend yesterday that I was at a conference in California and I I said, I'm from Baltimore. I don't know where you from. I'm from the greatest city I'm from Baltimore.
Desmond Beach:And this guy was like, well, I live in B Moore. I said, see, you said B Moore. That's how I know you're not going to Baltimore because you said
Rob Lee:B Moore.
Desmond Beach:And, and like, and that ended our conversation. Like we couldn't recover from it. I was like, I'm sorry. But like we ignorant like that involved. We just ignorant, like, You know, whatever.
Desmond Beach:But, Yeah. Like I, I love it. And, and, and I think about, I just want to do something I'm thinking, am I making Baltimore proud? Is my mama proud? Is Baltimore proud?
Desmond Beach:The ancestors proud. You know, I'm always thinking about that all the time. Yeah. And thank you for opportunity to sit here and talk to you today. Right?
Desmond Beach:Like, and just share my thoughts and ideas and things that are important to me and my passions and laughing and joking. Right? Like it's good to like connect, you know, with people, right. And have a moment and, and all of that. So I, I appreciate that as well and support this brother.
Desmond Beach:Y'all like support this brother. He doing stuff like support him, you know, share it, comment, you know, like show them some love, you know. We all there's enough out there for all of us.
Rob Lee:Absolutely. Now that's that's great, and, I'm gonna close out right there. Thank you for the the kind words, and this has been just just wonderful. And and there you have it, folks. I wanna again thank the Never Alone Always With Someone, whether it be Baltimore, whether it be the ancestors, never outnumbered.
Rob Lee:Thank you, Desmond Beach, for coming on to the podcast. And I'm Rob Lee saying that there's art, culture, and community in and around your neck of the woods. You You've just gotta look for it.
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