Patrisse Khan-Cullors is a household name for a few good reasons. We know her as an artist, organizer, freedom fighter, and last but most certainly not least, the Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter. Khan-Cullors is absolutely no stranger to world, and along with being a New York Times bestselling author, Civil Rights Leader for the 21st Century, and the Sydney Peace Prize, she can now add producer to her name. Khan-Cullors has a “partner in culture”, Shakara Wyatt, who alongside of her, is also producer of The Damon + Damon Podcast, featuring two brilliant minded brothers Damon Davis and Damon Turner, who give us everything unapologetically from politics, sports, entertainment, and as they put it, other “shit that Hennessy makes them experts on.”
On January 11th, the creative duo hosted a soft launch party and LIVE taping at The Underground Museum in Los Angeles, and boy were we in for a special treat. The conversation between Davis and Turner was real and heartfelt, yet simply hilarious. A powerfully packed event, speaking on the sensitive matters of the culture such as how we handle the effects that politic injustice has on our culture, what our responsibility is to push the culture forward on matters that we have tolerated, and what better way to face these matters than from a artistic yet humorous approach?
Here are some of our favorite quotes from the night, that we noted as our personal takeaways to share with you:
Toxic masculinity is at an all-time cause. -Damon Turner
We have an obsession with youth. -Damon Davis
Police see young black boys as men. -Damon Turner
Is that the prescription? -Damon turner
I want us to celebrate our victories as much as we do the things that cause us hurt. -Damon turner
As creators we are creating content, our ideas, relationships, and energy serves as a mirror to society. -Damon Turner
I am not a perfect person and you’re watching me process it in real life. -Damon Davis
We are a community and you look out for people in a community fashion. -Damon Davis
We had an exclusive and exciting opportunity to not only be in attendance, but to also sit down with both producers Khan-Cullors and Wyatt, along with Davis and Turner.
MillBuzz: What inspired you to produce this podcast?
Khan-Cullors: We need to hear from black men who don’t necessarily come from academia or super hyper intellectual, but are artists and regular dudes that are being honest about our culture.
MillBuzz: What do you want the listeners to get from the podcast and what should be their call to action?
Khan-Cullors: It’s a comedy podcast and we want people to get humor from it and create an intervention in the Black community about how black men can show up.
MillBuzz: As millennial black women, what can we do to help progress these conversations and situations that happen in the community?
Wyatt: Curating black space is important, taking care of one another, and honoring people when they show up, and to love and not harm, and when people do harm, keeping in mind how we react to that.
MillBuzz: What inspired you to create this podcast?
Davis: I wanted to bring the conversation we had in private to the public.
MillBuzz: What impact do you want people to get from this podcast?
Davis: I want to bring a little humor, a little honestly, a little truth, and a little gravity to a lot of conversations.
MillBuzz: What is the impact that you want other cultures and races to get from the podcast?
Davis: I want to expose the complexity in humanity of the black culture that other races didn’t know about.
MillBuzz: What is your inspiration behind the podcast?
Turner: Sharing this energy that Damon Davis and I have with the rest of the world.
MillBuzz: As an influencer what impact do you want to have on people with the podcast?
Turner: As a cultural architecture, I want to tap into all things culture. I want to embed an idea in that space that could ultimately change the outcome in the next 10 to 15 years.
MillBuzz: What is Trap Heals?
Turner: Trap Heals is a company in the culture that pulls the resources from the culture to help build the culture. A culture architecture firm that pulls resources from the trap culture to help provide spaces and opportunities for those in the culture to actualize their dreams and visions.
About Damon Davis:
Damon Davis is a multi-media American artist, musician, and filmmaker based in St. Louis, Missouri. His 2014 public art installation All Hands on Deck has been collected in the National Museum of African American History and Culture. He is also a founder of Far-Fetched, a St. Louis-based artist collective, and co-director of Whose Streets?, a documentary on the Ferguson unrest following police officer Darren Wilson’s fatal shooting of Michael Brown. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017.
About Damon Turner:
Damon Turner is a performance artist, cultural architect and creator of the concept G.R.E.E.D.Y. City, a Generation Righteously Enduring to Eradicating Dying Young. He is a dynamic and powerful speaker and has been called upon to share his ideas globally: from the streets of South Central Los Angeles to the campuses of USC, Columbia University, and Oxford University to name a few. As a performance artist, Damon has released four independent projects: Timeless Music, The REALese Vol. 1, Young Life Crisis and most recently, The Declaration: Rough Draft. In September 2016, Damon Co-Headlined a nearly sold out show at Ford Amphitheater.
To become a subscriber, listen to, and follow this podcast, be sure to follow The Damon + Damon Podcast @ListenDamon and visit SoundCloud.com/ListenDamon.
