Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Marley Powell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Marley, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

Leading from idea to execution is the discovery process for creativity, the whole thing is the discovery along the way. Taking an idea to its execution is the clarity of knowing what you want in the immediate moment. What you intend the end result to be from the start will always change if it’s competing interest or limits of the form. I kind of believe in the idea of the “art coefficient.”  Creativity is the difference between unexpressed intention and what is unintentionally expressed, and none of it matters until somebody else thinks about it as a creative work. In that way the end point can’t be seen as a single end point and the point becomes to intentionally express something, anything.

You don’t need to know how to get to some end point because that will always move and you don’t need to know what you’re setting out to do. The clarity in intention and construction comes from decisions in the immediate. The discovery is seeing there isn’t one way to do it. It’s hard to figure it out. Organizing and task management are linked and part of it but as is taking aside time to teach yourself. It’s searching out the purpose of everything that you do.

My podcast Black Skin, Red Heart began as an obsession that began when I was unemployed at the start of the pandemic and the race protests that were happening across the country. I read all day and dug into weird corners of things that I found interesting. Comparing and contrasting history. Using a dialectic as an idea to examine Black American communists to illustrate the evolution of an ideaology from experiences that are often glanced over. It became a fun exploration of an intellectual history, which helped enrich how I saw the politics at the time.

By the end it had become the kind of project that made me see things differently. I had not expected to make a podcast from the outset and certainly did not think making a podcast would podcasts could change how I saw the story. When I first started in on my research into Black Skin, Red Heart during the lockdown, days of reading became days of writing. The writing was unorganized but was a process to help me organize my thoughts. Once those were clear I began trimming up the writing and seeing a larger shape. To show the spark of the idea, the idea in practice and the response and evolution. I saw the bigger story and the smaller stories that were connections that went beyond what I had thought was the big story. It wouldn’t have started without me trying to get my ideas down. Even now I’m certain my exploration of this history and culture is finished.

Marley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Much of my formation came as an autodidact from trouble in school. I dropped out of high school and set out to try and manage my life on my own. I spent a lot of years thinking that art was something I did alone. It was a lot of years of feeling around with my eyes closed. The reality was that it wasn’t something to do on your own and that was part of the maddening process for me. It needs an audience.  At one point I thought I just had some kind of unhealthy need for attention and actually tried to strip myself away from it. The years of struggling were difficult and draining. At one point I had a bonfire in my backyard and lit my paintings and writing on fire. I checked into a mental health facility for a short stay just after that. Coming out of that period made me see things from outside of myself. I survived. After I attempted to abandon art I went to work in politics and government to get a straight job, but after a few years of that I realized no matter what I was getting into the people wrangling business. If I couldn’t avoid them why wouldn’t I push myself into doing what it was that I cared about: writing and making art.

My obsessions tend to turn into processes though. That’s one of the beautiful things of art is that often obsession turns itself into a process. Once ideas start to spark you always end up trying to take something apart, make something or read about how to do it. This podcast became reading one book, which became three books, then seven, each multiplying itself out from ideas that were all looking for a way to get done in some way to express themselves.

After I attempted to abandon art I went to work in politics and government to get a straight job, but after a few years of that I realized no matter what I was getting into the people wrangling business. If I couldn’t avoid them why wouldn’t I push myself into doing what it was that I cared about. I thought that living off the grid was key but that didn’t solve my anxiety over it all.

A former boss taught me that your power is heightened by empowering others. I’m sure it’s the secret to success in art, but it’s hard for me because I’m difficult by nature. I’m inaccessible. Always have been. I always tell people just to try harder. I’m hard to get a hold of and  I have no social media.  It’s difficult to be that way these days but I like being difficult.  I’m not trying to be obscure but I just can’t chase being recognized that way.  I think there is a big movement coming that is going to happen off-line, unplugged, and hyper local.  Off the grid, blue and anxious.  I am suspicious of things (with the exception of monster movies and professional wrestling) that are too popular or accessible.

Black Skin Red Heart started for me as a project about the history of Black American’s involvement in global communism. It grew and became something more which was a look at unique and obscured and buried history. It’s not about promulgating communist ideology in podcast but rather that context helped excavate unique and hidden or obscured history. A friend called it a cultural archaeology podcast. History is the long running story of connections between people and over time you see how those connections can resonate.

The kind of artists that have always moved me have been outsiders.  Anyone who is willing to toil in obscurity in the service of some f*ck*d up but pure vision is my kind of person. It makes sense thinking back on it but in the past decade my admiration and attention has turned toward Professional Wrestling. Professional wrestling is just so unconcerned with any outside option it exists beautifully on its own.  I want to create that kind of reality, but maybe still keep my underwear inside my pants.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Showing movement is the best way forward for coming out of a period of being beaten down. There were points where I was isolated and felt unheard in a lot of ways. What I was able to realize was that connection and communication were the two things that made me begin to seek any kind of audience. That I could create a connection to a value that I held dear with an audience. Art really was the coalescing force in bringing me back from the brink and showing me the stability that it offers.

What artists often believe is that there is only one route for them; one to make money so your body to survive or to make art for your soul to survive. I didn’t find success young in life as an artist so I had to make two routes. A challenge that comes with that is when you make that second pathway for yourself, other people will make it their purpose in life to determine for you that your art is a hobby. That can be the most devaluing thing to think about and hear about the thing you care so much about. It’s a reason that artists starve or give up.

The problem is those people aren’t an audience. They’re just more obstacles. The audience are the ones that have the connection to the work and understand the work on their own. Realizing that the audience is your goal helps you reframe the procrastinating instincts that tell you to seek perfection. Once you begin to work for the art’s sake and not your own or who you believe is your audience then you will find yourself on the other end of the tunnel.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

You come realize that your life really is made up of the hours in the day. There’s a point where you have to have a serious engagement with your art. There’s a point where it can no longer remain an interest, or a hobby. It has to manifest itself as something more.

Pivoting and change isn’t about isolating yourself or cutting yourself off from friends in order to get something done. In the end I realized that I felt like my hours not being creative were wasted and it spiraled depressions. Committing hours in a day to do just something always builds. It’s not easy, it’s a long way to understanding that pivoting isn’t a sudden or drastic step but something to do daily.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://marleypowell.net