Creative Permission

But I'm excited for you all to listen to today's episode.

Today's conversation is about what I think every creative can relate to when it comes to the things that give you permission to create the things that you love.

I feel like the guest I have today, we did have a great conversation about his project that we're going to talk about.

But most importantly, just how different things inspire you.

Yeah.

Before we create, before we tell our stories, before we decide what our voices sound like, there are usually other stories, artists, characters, films, music, and moments that show us what might be possible.

Things that give us inspiration.

And today's guest and his project, Seraphim, some of his influences that we talk about, like Janet Jackson from Rhythm Nation in Rhythm Nation 1814.

Purple Rain, Moonlight, and Noah's Ark.

Do y'all remember Noah's Ark? I don't think I've done this before, but I really do want to do a full-on Noah's Ark recap just for shits and giggles.

For all the people that listen that love Noah's Ark, if you're listening to this, leave in the comments.

Leave in the comment Noah's Ark if you want to do a full-on Noah's Ark recap.

That would be fun.

Um, those four pieces of art are clearly very different.

They come from different worlds, um, and they tell different stories about love, identity, blackness, queerness, and are different types of music and, you know, connects with different types of community.

And I wanted to dig into that with today's guests, not just what inspired them about their project Seraphim, but what each of those works of art gave to him when he was creating his project.

Maybe one gave him permission to be ambitious.

One maybe gave him permission to blur the lines between music and film.

And maybe another one showed him that Black queer stories could be intimate and And they could be complicated and beautiful also at the same time.

And maybe another showed him that the stories could simply exist without needing to explain or apologize for who they or it.