We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Slavery The International Cotton Artist. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with SLAVERY below.

Alright, SLAVERY thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was making small patches of gardens in front of my house as a child. I would come home after school everyday and play in dirt for hours. I was only in the first grade and for some reason farming vegetables really moved me. Then my father came home with a cotton plant from South Carolina to Florida and planted it in front of our house, he told my siblings and I to ‘Know our History’ and that gave my artistic play-garden more depth. Creating art out of nature and planting seeds that I’d buy from Home Depot was my first artistic experience. Then I was introduced to the performing arts world when I was in the 7th grade playing the Lion in the Wiz, that’s when I knew I wanted to be a performer. And now both of the artistic worlds are blending as I continue to do performance art with cotton and cotton jewelry.

SLAVERY , 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?

Can You Teach Me About Cotton is an initiative that started from DGP COTTON-TALK, a business that all began with a very small patch of cotton growing in my backyard in Fort Lauderdale Florida. The first seeds were planted September 25th 2019 and after waking up from four dreames (one of which I was teaching children, another I was in Paris talking to models) a cotton boll had cracked open and bloomed on February 18th 2020, I cried and took myself out to breakfast to celebrate. I knew I had a business!

Covid came in March and then I was stuck in the house researching all things about cotton, finding out that cotton is in the hibiscus family, that US money is made of 75% cotton 25% linen, also discovered that cotton grew in multiple colours such as green, brown, white and tan. I managed to grow up to 14 different varieties of cotton including Egyptian and Pima cotton. I also learn how to spin cotton on a book charkha spinning wheel and make cotton yarns as well as make cotton jewelry out of all of the cotton that I grew in my backyard.

A year after my first cotton boll cracked open, my friend James, who knew I grew plants, told me to sell plants at the Swap Shop, but it didn’t dawn on me just what plants because I had so many fruits and vegetables. Then there I was sitting in my backyard trying to understand just what I was going to do with all the multicoloured cotton I was growing and an inner voice told me: “sell cotton”.  As soon as I had that thought (heard that voice) a Crow flew 12 feet by me cawing; it felt like confirmation from God. To sell cotton plants in my Fort Lauderdale community amongst peers that new me as a rising star actor was/is the bravest and humbling thing I had ever done. But it was/is a calling I couldn’t explain but that had to be done. I started selling cotton and May 2021 and have been doing so ever since.

I laughed for an hour packing up multicoloured cotton plants just wondering what the community was going to think of me – an African-American man going to a market to sell cotton plants. It turned out to be a smash hit and I practically sold out of all the plants I packed up. The people thought it was bold and educational.

My mission and purpose quickly turned into reintroducing “black” and “white” Americans to multicoloured by bringing the raw cotton back without enslavement in hopes to heal from the psychological trauma done through the exploitation of cotton in the USA and abroad.

Primarily offering a hands-on experience and opportunity with children and adults to touch and reconnect with raw cotton in real time and at the same time proposing an opportunity to engage in confrontational-healing with a crop that has been the “black” sheep of nature (the hibiscus family) in America for a very long time.

I filed a trademark and registered a slogan that would challenge the ugly stigma about cotton in the USA –

SLAVERY IS ONE THING, COTTON IS ANOTHER: THE COTTON IS INNOCENT. ®

I’m most proud of the fact that all of my raw creativity managed to garner respect amongst my peers, and that nothing on the cotton plant was wasted. I’ve taken everything and created unprecedented cotton jewelry that has healed communities (specifically, African people’s of walks of life) who have graciously responded internationally.

I ventured out on a nomadic experience and traveled to 11 countries including London, Paris (where I also modeled my cotton jewelry), Rome, Germany, Spain and Morocco, and sold my cotton jewelry to the peoples on the streets with other artistic vendors and they have supported my business and mission.

The Crow is the bird that I believe God sent me to protect me and guide me on my mission internationally with the cotton so that I can reclaim cotton through education and fashion. the jewelry that I have created consists of bracelets, rings, necklaces, crowns and so much more.

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

After leaving London for 90 days I decided to go to Paris for 90 days and continue to sell my cotton jewelry.

I had no friends in France, no family, no one that I knew in Paris. I didn’t even speak French. But I took the opportunity to go to the streets and sell my cotton jewelry regardless of the setbacks.

I slept on the buses and the trains at night (sometimes with cotton plants growing in clay pots gently place in my reusable bags). I woke up every up morning went to the shower in which was public to all kinds of travelers and students living or coming through Paris. My routine was to take a shower in the mornings, have breakfast at Starbucks or create cotton jewelry in whatever pub I can find that was open 24 hours, spin yarn and practice French into the afternoon. By late afternoon I’d sell my products on the artistic streets of Paris. In the evening, I’d eat then find a metro to sleep on. The next morning, I’d head back out to the streets to sell my cotton jewelry all over again and be supported, every time. All of my clients became my friends and supported my jewelry and mission. It was quite miraculous. I never went hungry, I never went without making a sale to support myself. I backpacked through Europe feeding Crows, with my cotton jewelry by my side. I trusted God purposed me with a calling and was guiding me through messages from Crows and so I follow(ed) them.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

What drives me deeply about reclaiming cotton is the children that are coming up that see cotton as a beautiful plant until they are told otherwise. The children are what drive me to reclaim cotton in the way that my father reclaimed cotton for me when he came home from South Carolina with a cotton plant and planted it in front of our house and Fort Lauderdale and told my siblings and I to know our history/herstory.

I want children to fearlessly and shamelessly know their history/herstory in America about cotton and at the same time feel empowered to learn how to create innovative art with the ancestor-plant that can heal themselves, their Ancestors, and the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/canyouteachmeaboutcotton
• Instagram: @canyouteachmeaboutcotton
• Facebook: Can You Teach Me About Cotton
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/shorts/DnaKPoSBc5Q?si=9wAsoOzIwu_cuDnW
• Other: SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/album/4zM5nYLvuGXrHyE8WUsS6M?si=awAoWCMwTymRF2u4r4TKAw

Image Credits

Photo credit: Andre Russell

(First image with blue sky and cotton afro)