We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Duke Porter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Duke below.

Hi Duke, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I have been a professional poet and author for a few years now but it wasn’t until being confined in my home during quarantine that I was forced to really answer the question, “What makes me happy?” That answer, for myself has always been video games. But as a young Black boy I never knew how or had access to understand how to make being involved with gaming a lucrative career for myself. I was quickly told to focus on a real career and while I continued to play games a lot over the years, I never dreamed of making it part of my business ventures. when quarantine lifted, I made a bet on myself and engaged with local gaming venues, integrated with community, became a commentator and hosted various gaming tournaments. My team I were recognized to eventually be involved with Red Bull’s Campus Clutch

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a 31 year old poet who has led a successful career sharing my experiences as a Black same gender loving man and what it’s like living in a society that makes it considerably hard to feel valued. My work focuses primarily on decolonization of the mind, spirit and gender, helping others to have access to worlds, cultures, norms that are more authentic to themselves and their history.

As a podcaster and gamer, I strive to assist Black community in recognizing all the ways that gaming as a medium can expose them to worlds, theologies and economic opportunities. Too many think that a career in gaming means you have to be a coder, when really this industry also needs, HR, fashion designers, music producers, event coordinators and so much more.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Partnerships and K-12 engagement, As a youth of Baltimore city I was never presented the opportunity to learn coding and it was only because of my brief attendance at one Highschool that I was exposed to sound engineering. But that was not the norm. Youth are very attracted to venue spaces like concerts, plays, films and most recently content creation like podcasting, but nearly all have to go well outside of their communities to learn the tricks of the trade of how to organize such large scale events or. what is the difference between dynamic, condenser, and ribbon microphones. These are skills that have been locked behind huge pay walls in college and usually only available for people who already have an interest. It would be wonderful if these career opportunities were exposed as options at younger and younger ages. I think America in general has an issue with showcasing how different career opportunities become accessible.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I just knew about gaming community growing up. I was forced to exclusively keep my head down in books while the fighting game community (FGC) was organizing (with growing pains) to become a platform to honor gamers, commentators professional photographers while also networking with large gaming corporations that have now invested more into those change makers. I was also quite unaware of where local gaming hubs were. Beyond “Barcades” there are also venues like Gaming Arena in Ohio and MAPTechnologies here in Baltimore that are connected with the Esports scene and create pathways for enthusiasts like myself to become professionals.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://realgameclique.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duke_ofgames/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DuketheRoot2
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mScfnyhx-ko&list=PL7_X-VeroWRsP6iJLx5YL0clffoqqLket&pp=iAQB

Image Credits
Game Clique Cohost: Brian Marvin aka CharmCityChamp (https://instagram.com/charmcitychamp?igshid=MzMyNGUyNmU2YQ==) Pic with 2 ladies: Baltimore Ravens Cheerleaders supporting Ravens Gaming League event I hosted