Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Art, Community, and Change with Jordan Robinson #60
28 Plays12 days ago
Description:
What happens when creativity meets civic engagement? Jordan Robinson explains how his experiences in education, museums, and community programming inspired him to build projects that create both beauty and impact. From transforming neglected spaces into playgrounds to organizing exhibitions that spark meaningful dialogue, he demonstrates how art can help communities connect, heal, and grow. The conversation also tackles current challenges facing the arts, including funding cuts and political pressures, while offering practical ways listeners can support creative organizations. It’s a thoughtful discussion about leadership, service, and the lasting power of culture.
Guest Descriptors
- Creative
- Visionary
- Community-Minded
Episode Tags
#ArtandCulture #CommunityEngagement #MuseumLeadership #CreativeActivism #ArtsEducation #CulturalPreservation #PublicArt #QueerChangemaking #NonprofitArts #JordanRobinson
Tags Again
#ArtandCulture #CommunityEngagement #MuseumLeadership #CreativeActivism #ArtsEducation #CulturalPreservation #PublicArt #QueerChangemaking #NonprofitArts #JordanRobinson
Recommended
Transcript
The Role of Curators and Cultural Preservation
00:00:00
Speaker
Curators are people who care for the art, the artist, and the reasons why we should even continue to care about these things. Art itself is a cultural artifact. Art is proof of our existence.
00:00:14
Speaker
And for us as curators, it's our job to preserve that narrative, preserve that history, preserve that culture that's embodied in the artifact.
Introduction to 'Power Beyond Pride'
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Power Beyond Pride, a weekly queer change-making podcast bringing you voices and ideas from across our fierce and fabulous spectrum to transform our world. I'm Kenyon Farrell. I'm a writer, communication strategist, sorry, activist, and very glad to be here today.
00:00:46
Speaker
yeah And I am Maddie Vino. I am always the loudest person in the room, whether I am speaking or just standing. My presence is always well and known. So we love that. And we are sitting here today with the amazing Mr. Jordan.
Meet Jordan Robinson and JTR Presents
00:01:01
Speaker
And today we get to welcome someone who reminds us that art isn't just something that we hang on walls. It is something that we live inside of each and every day.
00:01:10
Speaker
Jordan Robinson is a creator in every sense of the word. He is the founder of JTR Presents, a contemporary art museum and a design firm rooted in creative community services right here in North Carolina and Raleigh to be ex exact.
00:01:26
Speaker
In today's world, Jordan shows us that joy can be intentional, that art can be accessible, and that building communities can both be beautiful and bold. So thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Jordan Robinson for being on the show with us today.
Jordan's Path to Art and Curation
00:01:45
Speaker
Well, thank you for the privilege privilege of having me here. it It really is an honor. And I thank you all for even thinking of me. Oh, no, thank you. We're so glad that you're here to join us. So, Jordan, as an artist, curator, illustrator, designer, and founder of JTR Presents, so, one, that's just like an amazing set of of titles and descriptions for you. But before we get into into that and and your, you know, kind of work now,
00:02:14
Speaker
um Tell us about your origins. often like to say, you know, if this was the Marvel Universe. what What is your origin story? So for you, how did you become the artist, curator, illustrator, designer, and obviously founder of this organization?
00:02:30
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I like that analogy because it makes me feel like I'm a superhero. Yeah. So... I am born to a family of educators. Mom has been an English teacher for about 25 to 30 years.
00:02:44
Speaker
My brothers, they both worked at NC State, Chapel Hill, just to name a few. One of them continues his career in education, working at a charter school. So I've been around a bunch of educators.
00:02:56
Speaker
And so i think of art often with education and cultural preservation. We can get more on that later. But to answer your question, we're all New Yorkers, but I was raised in the South. I moved down here when I was two. So I i kind of had the best of both worlds.
00:03:12
Speaker
The way I say it, it's i have a New Yorker mindset with a Southern personality. I'm the most polite person to ask you to move because you're in the way.
00:03:24
Speaker
And as far as the arts, like my family's just been so supportive with mom and dad supported me and my brothers in everything we did, be it scouts, sports, band. I was playing with instruments and drawing pictures since I was like two.
00:03:39
Speaker
And they just kept pouring into us and I kept going and doing it. So by the time I was eight, because I think was eight, whatever grade I was in, i remember someone asked me, like, when I grow up, what do I want to do for a job? And I was like, if I got to get out of bed every day to do something, I want it to be something fun. I want to do cool things with cool people that matter.
00:04:04
Speaker
And so artists, engineers, designers, all of the architects, all of that looked interesting to me when I was looking at job professions when I got a little older.
00:04:16
Speaker
And so by the time I got into and and d i I was planning to be an architect because I was signing up for the architectural engineering and they put me in art, which was the best mistake they ever did, because that's how I met one of my mentors. I can also expand on that later.
00:04:31
Speaker
So yeah, that's a little bit of an over summary of just my experience and kind of where I come from. Well, the good thing is you were, you said you started in college ah and as an architect major, but art is an architect of life. So it does still kind of go hand in hand in what you're doing. you so You're still an engineer of sorts now, instead of constructing buildings, you're engineering
The Impact of Art on Life and Community
00:04:55
Speaker
life. And I think a lot of times, especially as an artist,
00:04:59
Speaker
That's a harder but more rewarding job because you create the soundtrack that that people's lives develop to. You create the illustrations that depict a person's mood and feelings. So when you think of as an artist and you are in that creative moment, what was the moment in life that most influenced you to tap into that creativity? How how did that get sparked inside of yours?
00:05:25
Speaker
Yeah, gosh. The first thing that comes to my mind was, so after I just said, my parents poured into me. The first memory that comes to mind is mom.
00:05:36
Speaker
So I remember i had been like four or five and we were playing with Legos. Like we had like tubs of Legos. And i remember were building this house and mom had like we were putting in like different blocks whatever to make it to make the kitchen appliances, this the refrigerator, like we were going in details.
00:05:58
Speaker
And when we were done, i was just fascinated about that. And I was like, oh, that's really cool. So one of the reasons why I wanted to do an art, wanted to be an architect was because it just reminded me of of that experience.
00:06:12
Speaker
And again, doing cool stuff that matter. You're designing spaces that people are going to be using every day. In fact, in high school, we had to do a graduation project.
00:06:23
Speaker
And so i was doing some research about particularly climate change, specifically with our carbon footprint. And a lot of that comes from energy consumption, which use which uses like coals, I think natural gas, if I'm not mistaken.
00:06:39
Speaker
And while using alternative energies was helpful, It still was kind of a big problem. And so I was doing research on how does architecture help cut our our carbon footprint.
00:06:50
Speaker
And one potential avenue was designing homes that self-heat and self-cool throughout the seasons. So you won't need to use your HVAC, which makes up about 50% of the energy consumed in an average household at the time.
00:07:07
Speaker
So I did a whole research project on that. And
Museums as Community Spaces
00:07:10
Speaker
then when I went to A&T, we were doing our graduation project. I was like, well, why not? I just pull that research back up and then design something to fix that.
00:07:18
Speaker
but So that ended up being my graduation project again for college. But to answer your question, it started with mom. It started sentimental and then mom and dad, because dad, I mean, we bond over music.
00:07:31
Speaker
So dad would give me the history of sort of the classics of jazz, particularly like Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Sam Cooke. Dad was more on the music side. Mom was more visual arts because I remember one time in middle school, she was I was drawing in like one of my notebooks. She's I'm tired of you drawing stuff.
00:07:51
Speaker
these beautiful things and it's on lined paper. We just cannot have that. So she took me to an art store to buy me an an actual sketchbook. So it's like little things like that. well Yeah.
00:08:03
Speaker
i love it. That sounds like something that my mom would have done too. Yeah. it It was just, it was so dramatic too. She that's enough. We're going to the store now.
00:08:15
Speaker
But that was, so, So that that is what really drives me with a lot of this stuff. It's like the journeys we get to have with each other, memories get to the memories get to create with each other that we can cherish.
00:08:32
Speaker
And then if I'm being fully honest, it's nice to know if it whatever we create actually helps other people to afterwards. So that's always a sweet spot that that's just kind of been again at eight years old. And that's kind of what I was envisioning. And I felt like those jobs would provide that. And thankfully, I was right.
00:08:52
Speaker
Yeah. So kind of fast forwarding to where you are now, you work at this kind of intersection of of art, of museums and kind of community service, community programming work.
00:09:04
Speaker
And there's been a lot kind of written and said or demonstrated over the years about people think about museums as kind of an exclusive kind of space that that actually a lot of community don't necessarily have access to, right? There's a lot of debate in the art world. has been for a long time about that. So for you, why do you feel like this intersection is so important in terms of bringing art, the kind of museum space, and then community together? And and what's your sort of take on what's happening now in terms of arts and the attacks from the current administration? Ooh,
00:09:41
Speaker
Yeah, a lot to go from there. I want to break up your question a little bit. So the first part, with how I see
Art in Community Engagement
00:09:51
Speaker
particularly in museums and like art institutions, there is...
00:09:57
Speaker
There's like a larger narrative and a more personal narrative. So starting with a larger narrative, there seems to be a bigger effort even before everything that's currently happening was happening. There was already a bit of a shift to museums and cultural facilities. They were becoming more of lived in cultural spaces rather than quiet places for you to just quietly look at art and then go about your business. And with the change of audiences, like particularly with millennials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, as as newer generations are starting to come of age to where they're entering in these spaces and engaging with these spaces, they're engaging it differently than the previous generations.
00:10:40
Speaker
And I think a lot of these institutions caught on that and was trying to make in are trying to make that shift. Now, I think it's a balancing act. Mainly because those that support those institutions, be it through grants, private donors, there's always a little bit of pushback, right?
00:10:59
Speaker
This reminds me of my time at the Mint Museum. When I was at the MIT Museum, I was only working at the front desk. And at some point, one of my mentors who was part of the community engagement program, she was running an event with Dr. Aliyah Twiggs on a series of art pieces he did to commemorate those that were affected by the Charleston Nine shooting.
00:11:23
Speaker
And so i had brought up to her, hey, I i' played around with live stream before because that was a new feature that YouTube was doing. And then later on, Facebook and all the other social media platforms were doing live streams. So i i just finished grad school at SCAD with arts administration. And i remember from that program, I was thinking about like it was talked about of how community engagement is a way for institutions to kind of connect with the communities they're supposed to serve.
00:11:55
Speaker
And understand what opportunities there could be for those institutions to continue helping the public so they can get more support. And so all that said to say, live stream was something of interest to her. So she indulged and we did a live stream and it slowly gained popularity.
00:12:13
Speaker
So that was where we got a lot of our online engagement. from younger audiences on YouTube and then more so on Facebook when we made the shift to that platform.
00:12:24
Speaker
And so that's to say, like on a larger narrative, these institutions were already starting to change and in little and big ways on how they can still serve the public and the new generations to come.
00:12:39
Speaker
And now on
Projects at JTR Presents
00:12:40
Speaker
a personal note, I think about and this goes back to ah changing spaces. It's it's there's so many moving pieces, right? There's managing what you what resources you actually have. There's listening to your audience.
00:12:57
Speaker
And I want to kind of go back to another part of your question about what got me interested in any of this in the first place. So I used to be an apprentice to Edie Carpenter over at Green Hill.
00:13:09
Speaker
i i had done an internship with her. And I remember one advice that she said, if you want to be a curator, you need to curate shows. But I recommend that you curate shows that are socially minded because that's what the public tends to focus more on and seems to care more about.
00:13:27
Speaker
And so when I later went to grad school, learned about supply and demand and also like your product, if your product serves the need of your audience, it creates this sort of cycle of support. Like they'll buy into it, which then allows you to market it, improve the product, so on and so forth. If your product sucks, it's hard to market it. It's hard to get people to support it. And it it just kind of it turns into a vicious cycle. So when I was interning at Alliance Theater in Atlanta,
00:13:55
Speaker
They had just done the production. This is like 2016. They had done their production of Disgrace. And it was this play about racial tension, about tensions between different religions, of different ethnicities, different nationalities.
00:14:13
Speaker
And it was so impactful to the community that the leaders from both the Jewish and Muslim communities in Atlanta wanted to do like a town hall meeting at our theater.
00:14:24
Speaker
And so when we hosted that and we first started talking about the artwork, the themes that it, like like the art of the, of the play, the themes that it touches on, how it relates to real life.
00:14:36
Speaker
And then that helped translate the conversation to actual things that we can do for one another in the community to have a better relationship. And that was where it, all of this kind of hit to me about the power of art and space building.
00:14:50
Speaker
I think art has the ability to hold space. for for the organizers and actors to come together. it has the power to facilitate the conversations for us to ground our focus in something that can then translate into action.
00:15:09
Speaker
And that's a very similar model in marketing about AIDA, awareness, interest, desire, then action. So I think there's some opportunities and I see a bunch of puzzles in our community and our creative industries that we could utilize to better organize our our leaders, to better organize our constituents, to better organize folks towards a a focused cause.
00:15:32
Speaker
Real quick, I do want to pause you real quick because we do have to take a quick break. I love this conversation. So we're coming right back to Power Beyond Pride and we're going to drive right back into this conversation about politics, activism, art, music, and how they will all make ah our world a better place. We'll be right back with Power Beyond Pride.
00:15:57
Speaker
Welcome back. This is Power Beyond Pride, a queer change-making podcast. And I am Kenyon, and I am here with my co-host, Maddie. And we are into a great conversation with Jordan Robinson.
00:16:10
Speaker
So Jordan, to bring us back, I want to talk more about your some of your projects. So you started at JTR Presents, a contemporary art museum and design firm that conducts creative community service projects back in 2016. So you're coming up on your 10th anniversary, that I think about it. yes You know, I heard there was even a story linking it back to professor that you had at the North Carolina A&T. You started to talk a little bit about that.
00:16:36
Speaker
But since you started the firm, how have you seen it making the change in the community that you envisioned when you started it? What's been the impact? I try to think of it project by project. So each project has its own unique input, like the playpad, which is where we took an abandoned parking lot near a charter school and then turned it into an active blacktop playground that then had like interactive features that helped with the kids lesson plans or help the teachers lessons plans.
00:17:09
Speaker
That was one particular impact. Another impact is the transparency project. And that one is one of a series of exhibits that I wanted to plan but i want to plan it and conduct to try to build the same effects that I saw at
Art as Activism and Social Responsibility
00:17:26
Speaker
Alliance Theater, right? Where, again, making meaningful programs that speak to a specific need in the community.
00:17:33
Speaker
And so trying to answer your question, the i try to pay attention to what the culture wants and then see what makes the most sense with the time and resources that I have.
00:17:46
Speaker
and just try to address it like the direct needs that I see at the moment. And that's a little bit of how JTR Presents has been operating. So at the time, people were asking me, I have friends that started small businesses. My dad started a small business. And so folks were asking me for logo designs. And at the time, I was looking for a job.
00:18:07
Speaker
And so while I was still hunting for a job and being and being rejected because I was told they didn't have the experiences they were looking for, I was thinking, well, Since I don't have the experience they're looking for, why not I make the experiences that they're looking for and figure out how to make money off of that and go from there. So in a way, jt Presents is a bit of a prototype just as a whole of trying to test everything that I learned in grad school to test and build on my skills as an administrator, as a creative professional,
00:18:41
Speaker
And ah yeah, to just try to build whatever seemed to be lacking. And so, but I want it to be meaningful from the jump. I didn't want to be doing a bunch of passion projects for my own ego. i I wanted to do something that we can look at and be like, this went towards this.
00:18:58
Speaker
So all my client and client work that helped me get money to survive, I portioned that out too to fund projects like Transparency. Well, you actually just ah feed me right into the next question, which I love one of our conversations just goes organically the right way. But Jordan, I am very interested in knowing what your views and your stances are about art and politics, because I think a lot of times we forget that art itself is a form of activism, whether it's music
00:19:29
Speaker
print, visual, whatever, any form of art, literary, is it's a form of activism. So to you, what does it mean to be an activist and an artist? And what do you think the responsibility falls back on the artists and the curators to do their job as activists in a political stand?
00:19:48
Speaker
That's a great question. i have a working theory about that. So for curators, it's in the name. Curators are people who care for the art, the artist, and the reasons why we should even continue to care about these things.
00:20:02
Speaker
Art itself is a cultural artifact. I remember one artist, her name is Lena Gray, beautiful illustrator. Like her illustrations are phenomenal. And she was part of the Transparency Project.
00:20:14
Speaker
In an article from
Challenges for Art Institutions
00:20:15
Speaker
Yes Weekly, I think she had mentioned about art is proof of our existence. And I see so much of it it. When I heard, when I read that, it just clicked.
00:20:28
Speaker
Art is proof of our existence, be it a whole society, be it a specific group of people. And for us as curators, it's our job to preserve that narrative, preserve that history, preserve that culture that's embodied in the artifact.
00:20:43
Speaker
As far as art relating to politics, again, i i think back to my experience at Alliance Theater and the Mint Museum, for that matter, if I remember correctly, they, after the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, like the year after his murder, they had a hosted space for the Charlotte-Meckelbert Police Department and the neighborhoods that were affected to try, again, somewhat like a peace talk and like, how can we work better together as a community?
00:21:10
Speaker
So I, These examples are all case studies in my mind about how art can have social and political influence, how it can build community by holding space and facilitating the conversation through the art and through the artists and their voices.
00:21:28
Speaker
We're obviously living in a really, i just heard Cardi B in my head say, we're really living in a hellhole right now. If you remember that from 2020. That's real. Yeah. good ah that's real yeah Yeah, sure. So living in this time when LGBTQ rights, particularly trans rights, are being openly challenged. So how does how does that and just the overall context of this administration shape the reality of your work or how um how is that impacting either how you see your your work or just direct impacts on it?
00:22:03
Speaker
It makes me feel like I'm on the right track, right? About, again, creating something meaningful. I think when I did Transparency, it did not go as great as I had imagined, but it happens. I even remember one of the art galleries that I did part of the exhibit in, we they they were also serving as like a mentor role for me. So we had kind of a debrief after. And I remember them asking, how did I feel? And I was just reminding myself like,
00:22:33
Speaker
While there's plenty of things that could have went better, i do acknowledge and take pride in the fact that it happened. I did the thing. Because how many institutions did something in their programming specifically to speak on that issue?
00:22:49
Speaker
And that's there's complexity to that. But by the end of the day, in my mind, I think about what did we do or not do? And i think that influences at least me a lot of the times about, again, how i'm how am I serving my community?
00:23:10
Speaker
How do they need to be served? Is what I'm doing in alignment to that? And ah if i'm if I'm doing that, great. If not, okay, well, what's that about? With what's going on right now, and again, this is easier said than done, right? I'm not an institution that's getting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NEA or from a government another government agency that could be threatened depending on any administration. Right. So I have to factor in that that is a real consequence that some institutions have to think about. In fact, I remember talking to some colleagues at at a couple of museums I've worked at who who were in higher leadership and that's some of the tough conversations they have to have.
00:23:55
Speaker
I recently did an artist, we did, me and some artists did a talk about William mas Johnson and his work with the
Supporting the Arts
00:24:05
Speaker
Fighters for Freedom. There we go. The Fighters for Freedom exhibit. And I made a comment about how, again, some things either you, as an institution, either you do it or you don't.
00:24:16
Speaker
And we have to have those conversations about what makes the things that we do worth doing or not and then own what consequence comes from it. And that does include like having honest conversations with your constituents, with grant funding or with whoever supporting, with your volunteers.
00:24:35
Speaker
This is the part that I meant earlier about there's a lot of moving pieces, but I digress because I'm not sure if I'm really answering your question. The short answer in it. Yeah, that's that's all that comes to my mind.
00:24:48
Speaker
Well, let me ask that because youre you you are answering the question. and You're on that that right push. So what is it that, because you made a comment about not receiving a lot of funding, being in a funding space. And we know that funding for the arts as a whole since 2024 and 2025 has gotten slashed very much so because of our government. So how can the community get involved? like how How can we partner with you to do this?
00:25:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that's that that's fair. So definitely volunteers, personal donations, donating directly to the organization. So JTR Presents is not a five hundred one c three However, we do partner with 501c3s. With transparency specifically, we had done a fiscal sponsorship agreement with the Arts Council for Greater Greensboro, which then allows us to then offer you receipts for your donations, to write off your taxes if you need that.
00:25:43
Speaker
Other people just donated to be donating. And that went directly towards the project, helping out with the logistical needs. In-kind donations, that's ultimately it. Like volunteering in-kind donations or giving money to organizations that are doing stuff that you want to be involved in, I think are the most direct ways that people can assist.
00:26:04
Speaker
I think another way too is there's there are folks that are advocating for the arts, like the American for the Arts. That's an organization I see on LinkedIn all the time.
00:26:17
Speaker
giving us information on who to reach out to in terms of our representatives of asking them to support the arts. There's also that other part. Talk to your representatives about how important the arts are in your community.
00:26:31
Speaker
Look at the people that are making those arguments and then just join in on that. Spread the word, even sharing it on your social media pages. So those are avenues I think people can directly support, at the very least me, on these causes, but also the institutions that they respect and appreciate.
00:26:47
Speaker
I think
Rapid-Fire Questions with Jordan
00:26:48
Speaker
the biggest thing that you're you're saying out there to our listeners is there's nothing that you cannot not do. So I need y'all to pay attention when things like this do come up that because the arts is under attack, not just for any particular community, is is all of us are benefited as well as we are all affected when the arts leave our community. So yeah this is not a ah thing where it's, well, this doesn't bother me. It bothers somebody else. so I don't have to jump in. No, please jump in.
00:27:17
Speaker
Every child deserves the right to grow up knowing what art looks like and how it can benefit our life, how it sets the tone of your life. Music is our soundtrack. Like, we need these things. ahead, Jordan. Yeah.
00:27:31
Speaker
And pay attention to the larger narratives, right? Depending where you're living, the arts and creative industries are the biggest employers in some places. That was the case and in Georgia when I was in Atlanta. The arts was the biggest industry in terms of jobs for the whole state.
00:27:46
Speaker
Now, they weren't the most paying, but they were the most hired. who Well, our is art ever really paying? It's not a financial thing that we do artists. This is more about part a passion for art. We do have quick break and we are going to come right back with more of Jordan and our speed round. We're going to come back talking to him to get more to know about Jordan personally, have some fun with Jordan, laugh with Jordan, and just continue talking about how art shapes our lives.
00:28:12
Speaker
So stay right here. Stay tuned. right back.
00:28:21
Speaker
and Welcome back to Power Beyond Pride. I'm Kenyon here with my co-host, Maddie. And again, we're having a very interesting conversation with Jordan Robinson, artist, curator, ah museum founder, et cetera.
00:28:36
Speaker
and So now we're going to get into our speed round of questions to get you to to get to know you even better. So this is when we just ask you some questions. We don't want you to overthink your responses. Just the first thing that comes to your mind is your answer. Right. So eron are you ready for that?
00:28:54
Speaker
I will try. First question. Museum opening. Oh, I like this question. Jordan, I think there's a big good one for you. Museum opening or house party with good music.
00:29:05
Speaker
What's your flavor? House party, believe it or not. What's your most used emoji? A black heart. I like black and I like love. So a black heart. Okay. Yes, black arms.
00:29:17
Speaker
I've always wondered what the different colors represented because I'd be getting confused because a heart is a heart to me, but you know, to eat whatever you want. so let me ask you this question. Are you a messy studio or organized chaos person?
00:29:30
Speaker
Oof. Organized chaos. i I try to have some structure. Whether it's actual structure, we don't. That's up to the interpreter.
00:29:41
Speaker
But ah the more I can pre-plan, the better. so who was your first art crush? It could be a designer, another artist, a fictional character, but first art crush.
00:29:52
Speaker
Art crush? Maya Lin, I really love Maya Lin's like monument sculptures or all our conceptual pieces or Todo Ando for all his architectural designs.
00:30:04
Speaker
I'll leave it at that. If you were thinking of your emotional state right now, what color would your aura be? Dark blue. Blue is my favorite color and i like darker colors. So dark blue, I feel pretty good. I'm in a good headspace.
00:30:18
Speaker
Okay, so are you more risk it all and send the risky texts or are you type it, delete it, overthink it, rinse and repeat? yeah I think we know the answer to that. That part. Definitely.
00:30:34
Speaker
Yeah, no, no, no. I take calculated risks. so You an overthinker. Okay. Yes. overthink it.
00:30:51
Speaker
Well, I'm going to ask this question real quick. Kenyon, are you an overthinker? i probably am a calculated risk as well. Like I'm pretty direct in terms of the risky tech situation, but i've if I do it, I pretty much have already thought through the consequences or I already highly suspect you down with it. but or Or calculated the probability of something bad happening and realizing it's not that high. So why not take the risk? Right.
00:31:21
Speaker
ah I'm a risky person. I'm a true Leo. I'm just going to put it out there. I'm just going to be honest. What's the worst you're going do? Yes or no? Like, which one is it? And if you come back and say, yeah, that was scary. I'm calling the cops. going to like, well, my daddy is one and I got him on speed dial, so you ain't got to call. So i will I say just risk it and do it. hey I honor your courage.
00:31:44
Speaker
okay yeah um just saying you only live once. What's the worst that can happen? I mean, well, no let me take that back because a lot a lot of bad things can happen if you just send the risky test, especially if you, because I have done this before, thought I was sending it to one person and sent it to a whole nother person. Yeah, that wasn't. Wow. So, yeah. Yeah.
00:32:06
Speaker
Or you want to send a flirt. You want to flirt with your partner and that flirt accidentally reached your boss. It didn't happen, but that's like a nightmare I have. We'll leave that one alone because I got so many things I can say to that. So your next question would be, what's go-to outfit when you feel powerful? And I want to make this a two-parter. So since we talked about Marvel earlier, if you were a superhero with your powerful outfit, what would be your superhero?
00:32:41
Speaker
i mean, what would be your
Understanding 'Power Beyond Pride'
00:32:42
Speaker
superpower? right it's two parts because there's one for winter, one for summer. So in the summer, I have this yellow, green, and blue daishiki that I just wear. It doesn't matter what else I wear with it. Just that daishiki and how vibrant it is and how big yellow the yellow is. It just, it makes me feel...
00:33:01
Speaker
I have energy to tolerate the day. yeah but so that's in the summer. And it's light. It's like light cotton. So it's like I can breathe in it. It's flowy. So it's not like constricting my body. it i like how it sits on my body and I feel comfortable with it.
00:33:18
Speaker
In the winter, i i i do like me a good blazer and peat coat and a scarf. So anything that has me in that. I recently got like this wine, like this dark red wine Merlot colored coat that I've been kind of sashaying around in.
00:33:34
Speaker
So that and then like a blue Ravenclaw or like a blue scarf that I, one of my friends just got me a new scarf for Christmas. So I've been rocking that lately. So wine and cerulean are the colors for this this season.
00:33:48
Speaker
I have heard. So wine and cerulean blue. Ooh. Okay. and I feel like I do well primary colors. Just red, and yellow, blue. What brings you instant joy?
00:34:00
Speaker
Friends and family. Friends, family, and my partner. um Very specific people just being around them. I feel safe. I feel seen, heard, affirmed. And whatever shenanigans we get into, be it a hiking trip, camping trip, board games, or watching Dragula, I know i'm i'm I'm down for a good time.
00:34:20
Speaker
So spending time with those I care about, that that gives me instant joy. What's a song that you play when you need to hype yourself up? I guess the most consistent one would be a Beyonce's Who Runs the World.
00:34:34
Speaker
a Yes, Queen and B. Okay. Yeah, I think that's it. Okay. All right. so last question in this this series, this B round, what does Power Beyond Pride mean to you?
00:34:48
Speaker
Power Beyond Pride, i think, means genuinely thinking about and genuinely participating in any effort that that leads to us having a more peaceful, calmer and accepting world, no matter who you are or what you're about.
00:35:09
Speaker
For us to work together to look out for one and another. i think Power Beyond Pride for me is really about essentially being your brother's keeper or being your sibling's keeper. We're gonna keep it all inclusive.
00:35:24
Speaker
And figuring out what that fully means. and i try to reflect. And I think a big part of that is also just walking your talk. Whatever value that you're standing on make sure you're you're standing two toes down on it. All
Conclusion and Audience Interaction
00:35:39
Speaker
right. Thank you so much for that and for answering all those questions, honestly. so just lastly, where can people follow you in your work?
00:35:48
Speaker
Yeah. So for me as an artist, there's Jordan T. dot Robinson on Instagram and then any platform that has JTR Presents. You can follow me on either one of those.
00:36:00
Speaker
All right. So you heard it, audience, where to follow Jordan and his work. And so one, I just want to thank you so much, Jordan, for being here. We are unfortunately out of time for this podcast, but hope that you will join us again in the future because we would love to have you back.
00:36:15
Speaker
I'd be honored to be here. Thank you for the privilege again. Anytime, anytime. It has been great. It's wonderful when we can sit amongst friends and and and have a great conversation. So yes, great experience, Jordan. Love you. Real quick, is there anything coming up with at tr Productions there anything that you're working on that people need to look out for?
00:36:38
Speaker
Yes. Right now is just my work as an artist. With JTR Presents, we will be launching some online programming. We did something with Fall of Freedom recently, so we may bring a reboot to that. So just stay tuned on our platforms. Just for me personally, there's two art exhibitions, one in Charleston from February 2nd to the 27th. And there is a solo exhibit I have in Charleston, Virginia.
00:37:06
Speaker
in one of their public libraries. So follow my socials. I'll give you more details. beautiful beautiful and I am one of your many co-hosts here at Power Beyond Pride I am Maddie Bynum I am always the lowest person in the room like I always say whether my hair my clothes anything i am always the personality that you want to get to know and hang out with because I'm cool like that you can also follow me on social media Instagram at Maddie Simone 737 you can also follow me at Facebook at Maddie Bynum and those are all my socials Kenyon I think I'm pretty good yeah
00:37:40
Speaker
Yes, and I'm a your co-host Kenyon Farrow, and you can follow me on most of the things just at my name, just at Kenyon Farrow. I'm very boring and don't have more interesting handles than just my name, so you can follow me there.
00:37:56
Speaker
But remember to subscribe and get your friends, your homies, your lovers to subscribe to Power Beyond Pride on all of the platforms where you can get podcasts. We're pretty much on all of them.
00:38:09
Speaker
And also check out our website, PowerBeyondPride.com. And Power Beyond Pride is a project ah from A Great Idea, queer-owned design and content agency. Learn more about A Great Idea at AGreatIdea.com.
00:38:22
Speaker
This episode is produced by Shane Lucas, Maddie Bynum, who you also just heard, is the project developer. Our editor is Jared Redding with support from Ian Wilson. And we, me and Kenyon, are just, like I said, a portion of our amazing hosting here Power Beyond Prime. We invite anybody and everybody, please send us questions and comments so that we can stay in tune with you and always current with our events.
00:38:47
Speaker
Check out our new episodes each week, and we look forward to change-making with you next time from a queer perspective, because that's who we are. Thank you again from all of us at Power Beyond Pride.