We caught up with the brilliant and insightful LeChell R. H. a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, LeChell thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

When I first started the “Jaywalking” project, it was all rooted in personal narrative. While I had always known I was queer, I was just coming into a space of openly sharing and identifying as such. I wanted to talk with other queer black femmes and allies to understand their journey navigating through the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, specifically as a Black person. I didn’t know that by the time I would get to showcase it to the public, it would be on the heels of LGBTQ+ rights being attacked globally. It gave new meaning to the project. The opening introduced me to several people who were filled with appreciation to see themselves in the work as Black Queer and Trans folks and a curator honored to support the work and show their dedication to LGBTQ+ and racially marginalized artists. I didn’t anticipate the overwhelming gratitude and connection that members of the community would feel, but seeing that the aid each contributor to the project provided me in my search for understanding and compassion meant more than I bargained for.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is LeChell “The Shootah” R. H. I am a multidisciplinary artist who creates socially engaged works exploring the complexities and taboos of intersectionality through the lens of queerness, femininity, and mothering in Black womanhood. I use blended, mixed, and multimedia art forms such as photography, poetry, film & collage to pay homage to my identity & also the community in which I serve: Black womanhood & queerness as a creation of culture rooted in doing what you can with what you have where you are, reshaping something extraordinary out of the mundane and honoring the stories that exist within us.

I got into the artist as a means of expression for the things I was scared to communicate or did not have the mean to express emotionally. I found art as a medium for language and understanding in many forms

What I offer, and what feels unique about me, is that my work does not stray from the things people try not to say out loud due to fear or social stigmas, with the goal to educate and encourage empathy. I do not do this with the idea that I can change people but rather with the idea that I can challenge your worldview to, at a minimum, see the other side. I am always most proud when my work becomes topics of healthy debate for others in their personal lives.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is finding my audience. Those moments I shared with my community in which, I am able to connect with them and hear how my work is a reflection of their lives and experiences. I feel immense gratitude for the ability & gifts to translate into words or visuals the things that others struggle to voice. It is also an honor when those who I ask to participate in my projects or choose me to tell their stories trust me to do so. Each of us holds our personal narratives close to our hearts; trusting someone to share yours or share in your life story is highly vulnerable and risky, and yet I have been able to find and build a sort of base that is willing to take that risk on me and put enough stock in my work to invest in me in so many ways. I don’t take that for granted.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

There is no such thing as just words.

We grew up believing “words cannot/should not hurt us.” As a poet, first and foremost, there is a learning curve in which you come to terms with the reality that your words are powerful. No matter how small your fan base or following, putting words into the world invites someone to follow them, to hear them, and this allows an opportunity for them to harm or heal. It’s easy to get caught up in the culturally or socially common vernacular and dismiss the root and impact they can have. It’s easy not to take heed of how words are genuinely being used, but as a poet, you learn to deconstruct language and rebuild it with a new understanding.

You are challenged to ask yourself why this word, is this the intention, so many questions that challenge everything you hold true of language. I’ve spent so much time unlearning language as a passive form of communication to be intentional about my word choice and when I choose to use my words. I remember being called out on using ghetto to describe something negatively, and it flipped the axis on which I understood language. I didn’t put any thought to how it just slipped out, but at that moment, I had to contend with my own shallow explanation “Well, I didn’t actually mean it to be a bad thing. I was forced to ask myself why did I use it in this context, with this connotation, and is it something I feel good about?

I want to say you unlearn the behavior and that’s it, but in truth, I am still unlearning and deconstruction language to be intentional about my words and my voice.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bylechell.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bylechell/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bylechell

Image Credits
headshot @rdaugust remaining photos [lechell r.h.]