We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jaylen Brannon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jaylen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest risk I’ve ever taken and the one I’m still in the middle of is moving to New York City to try and be taken seriously as an artist. After graduating from North Carolina A&T, an HBCU in Greensboro, I made the trek to pursue my MFA in photography at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. It’s hard to imagine two more different environments. Not leaving behind the familiar support system of my friends, family, and culture in Charlotte, North Carolina, but, stepping away for a second, to come to a city where I really have no connections was a leap for me, but one I knew I had to take. Being a young Black artist comes with a unique set of challenges. I’ve always felt that I have to work harder than others to gain access to spaces where I can represent my people and our stories. I knew New York would be a completely different world, but it’s also the heart of the art world. If I can make it here, I think I’ll be ready for anything, but more importantly, the plan is to bring back some information to share with the homies.
Lately I have been acclimating to navigating everything from public transportation to new social norms. I’m now often the only person in the room, which is a stark contrast to the community I was part of at North Carolina A&T, where everyone in the room looked like me. Even small things, like the shift from dapping people up to handshakes, remind me of how much I’m out of my element. But I’ve been trying to embrace the discomfort. It’s been forcing me to grow in ways i never even thought possible.
I’ve never taken a formal photography class before coming here, but the resources and opportunities available at Pratt have been life changing. I’m creating non-stop, staying true to my promise to myself to not lose my fangs while I’m away from home. I know to many people who deserve to be here that didn’t have the chance to be here, and I have to succeed for them too. Every door I walk through, I’ll leave open just enough for the next person to slip through.
Brooklyn has already begun to shape me in ways I didn’t expect. It’s been challenging of course, but I kind love the community I stay in, I think Bedstuy was the perfect place for me to come when arriving in this place. I know I’m becoming a better artist and person because of it. This risk/ this leap is what I needed, and I’m have no choice but to make it count.

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?

I’ve always struggled to express myself in conversations and often felt ignored or talked over. Eventually, I got tired of feeling that way, so I decided to use art as my voice. Art became my way of expressing thoughts and concerns that my words couldn’t convey. Struggling with not knowing where I come from, without a flag to represent me other than the one I was taught to pledge allegiance to in school, it made me question what it truly means to be African American. Whether it is photography, painting, and drawing, I use art to try explore and understand things that challenge me. The more I create, the more I find out about who allegedly I am.
Rather than staying being at America, I rather focus on honoring the resilience of those who came before me. The plan is to make America reflect on it’s “product”.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn as funny as it may sound- to make a long story short, was the myth that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America. Growing up public schools presented this narrative as fact, but the truth is, Columbus arrived on land that was already inhabited, already thriving with cultures and histories. That realization was a turning point for me, not just because of what it revealed about history, but because it made me question everything I had been taught in school. I learned early on that I couldn’t rely solely on the education I received within the walls of the institution. If I wanted to truly understand where I came from and what shaped this world, I had to study on my own, outside the curriculum designed for me. This shift in perspective changed everything. It taught me to seek knowledge critically, and more importantly to question narratives, and to value the stories that aren’t always told.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My creative journey is driven by a desire to inspire black youth to look at theirselves in the mirror and not be ashamed of their appearance, hair texture, or where there ancestors came from. I want them to see themselves and one another with pride, free from shame or embarrassment, I want them to admire the resilience and tenacity that got us to where we are today.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.jaylenbrannon.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jay2kool/