Interviewer: Anthony Andujar Jr
Interviewee: Justin Brown
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| Photo courtesy of Justin Brown |
Hello and welcome to the Artist Ant Interviews People Summer Series! Welcome to another edition to my latest talks with local and global creatives that are alive, hustling and thriving in their respective crafts! Today I have a new guest who happens to be my next door neighbor! In life, you never know who you might meet when you walk around the corner. When I moved in with my father back in 2018, I was already familiar with the mother of my guest, who would let me know If my father was around from the few times that I would visit prior to living in the area. When I revealed to her that I am an illustrator, she informed that her son is a writer. Little did we know that we would bump into one another in the hall, talking about hearing each others music session’s beyond our walls. I would either sing or play my electric guitar in my room, while at other times he would be playing his bass in his home. I would hear and sometimes listen as I worked away at whatever projects that I would work on in the wee hours of the night. There would be days where we would bump into each other as we made our way to our respective homes after long nights of work. A local writer, a screenwriter, a local artist in his own right, ladies, gents, androids, avatars, and all of cyberspace, please welcome Justin Brown!
Q0. Who are your inspirations?
JB: bell hooks, is an inspiration to me for her piece, All About Love: New Visions. She is a black feminist, teacher and activist whose writing has made clear to me the importance of love and nurturing growth. Since then I have actively searched for love, where it is and isn’t and how to spread it correctly moving forward in life. She does not write fiction to my knowledge, but she has come to inform my writing and attitude on life which I am eternally grateful for. Visually, I have always appreciated Micheal Gondry’s work. Everyone remembers him for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, and some know him for Be Kind, Rewind with Mos Def and Jack Black, but other works of his like Mood Indigo and the Science of Sleep also showcase his ability to depict surreal concepts in a palatable, familiar and enjoyable format and I hope to be as memorable and talented as him when I finish my projects.
Q1. How did you get into art, most notably writing?
JB: For me it was as early as the fifth grade. An English teacher told me that some work I had submitted was very good and that I had potential to be a writer. I have no idea what I had written, but I remembered what she said. I was more interested in trying doodles and making comics out of them, and during the era of middle school and early high school, my drawings and stories took heavy inspiration from Codename: Kids Next Door. Drawing was the way I was coming to understand myself though I did not really see this until the end of high school. I wanted to make my drawings into comics when I entered the High School of Art & Design but when it came time to choose a major, I was intimidated by the information that the Cartooning and Animation majors were competitive to get into because everyone wanted to do them. Instead, I chose filmmaking since it would’ve been the next way to make my doodles come to life, and that is what I studied throughout high school. Side note, my back up choice for my major since they make you choose one in case you don’t get the first choice, would have been architecture. Makes me wonder where I would be then if I had been put there.
Anyway, I found throughout high school, I enjoyed specifically the writing aspect of film, rather than the camera work or editing. I enjoyed filmmaking enough that I wanted to major in it in college but missed the deadline for the film conservatory twice because I lost the locations for the films I was making to apply with both times. I settled for a Media Studies type-program and took a minor in Screenwriting to make up for it. After college, writing was where my heart was at and still is today, and initially it was supposed to be in writing for Film/T.V. It wasn’t until a year or so ago in the middle of a very detailed outline for a feature length film, that I considered writing a short novel.
I have no training in this kind of story telling and am exploring it for the sake of trying something new, and surprising myself with whatever the outcome will be. Plenty of older folks always remind me that I am young when I have fears of not succeeding or knowing fully what I want and I took a chance to throw myself into a different form of the passion I already had. I am now on the 4th draft of the short novel, and I still doodle all the time and write short scripts here and there.
Q2. What drives you in your daily life?
JB: Whenever I am at work as a server at a cafe or as a doorman, I am reminded that I and other minorities are usually only ever servers in life and it is dejecting. I don’t want to take orders my whole life, that is not what life is for. It’s about growing and becoming the highest, most aware version of yourself you can be. I can do that best with art.
Q3. If you could speak to any living creator or inspiration, who would it be, why, and what would talk to them about?
JB: I suppose I would like to talk to Princess Nokia about spirituality, race, masculinity, love and art. She was raised for a time just up the street from us, you know? On 110th or something like that. I met her at the pool hall on 86th, but she was with her father. I got a picture with her which was sweet of her to do, but a conversation then would probably have been too much at the time. I trust her background and recent fame have made her wise and may enlighten me on what I don’t yet know.
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| Justin Brown and Princess Nokia Photo courtesy of Justin Brown |
Q4. If there were any deceased creators, actors, singers, writers, etc that you would want to speak to, who would it be, and why?
JB: He is not a creator, I think, but I would love to talk to my grandfather, if not both grandparents on my mothers side. They passed when I was in high school and it wasn’t until college that I was interested in my culture and family history. I might have even been able to pick up more Spanish from them and everyone in the family says I am just like him. I wonder how close our perspectives on life would have been.
Q5. If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?
JB: I’d go to South Asia because the land and people are beautiful and it would be nice to learn about a culture I know nothing about.
Q6. What is one thing that you fear?
JB: I fear that my efforts for love and growth will be stifled by greed and capitalism and my life and mind will be for nothing simply because powerful rich white people did not want to hear it. I fear that saying what I truly feel might cost me my life because I’m brown.
Q7. If you had a superpower what would it be and why?
JB: It’s funny you ask this because one of the huuuggggeee side projects I have is a superhero project. The character Justin, directly inspired by myself, (although they all have a bit of me in them) has Ice powers. The reason however is not because I thought it would be awesome, in fact it's the exact opposite. When I created the character in high school, I intentionally wanted my character to be an underdog of sorts, I wanted to make a wack hero into something truly awesome, so I gave him a power I thought at the time was the least interesting, the power to make ice.
He can do other things like fly, and has super strength although he is one of the least powerful characters and the ability to regenerate and heal wounds. Still, I’d like to have the powers of another character in my writing, the power to become a shadow and cast spells. I love the dark mysterious element of the powers more than Ice powers and it's certainly one of the more interesting powers I assigned to a character.
Q18. What catches your attention when you meet people?
JB: Mannerisms that remind me of my own because they are familiar, and the ability to catch a person’s mistakes.
Q9. What is one word of advice that you would impart to your younger self?
JB: I’d tell myself not to get hung up on minutiae regarding love interests and take more chances to experience people, but I guess I wouldn’t be me now if I had.
Q10. What are three books that you always remember or return to, and why? How did they shape you?
JB: I gave you All About Love: New Visions by Bell Hooks, but three others would be Siddhartha, The Phantom Tollbooth, and Exit West. Exit West has two main characters whose relationship blossoms in a realistic and natural way which is admirable, The Phantom Tollbooth is a quirky, funny read that works as well for a middle schooler as it does for an adult, and Siddhartha expresses a relatable search for the point of life that we all undergo.
Q11. If you could continue or remake a movie, or franchise, what would be your film of choice ?
JB: I wouldn’t because there are too many remakes and reboots and we can do better than what we did.
Q12. If you were to make a film, novel, or comic book based on an album, what album or artist would you pick?
JB: Anything that has to do with expressing blackness. If I could do it as well as Jordan Peele, I would choose something like Mos Def’s Black on Both Sides or Kendrick’s DAMN, or Gang Starr’s Moment of Truth. Maybe Jordan should just do it haha.
Q13. Who In this life, has motivated you to stay true to what makes you who are?
JB: Me, because when the cards are down I find I’m the only one I have. It may sound a little selfish, but I think it's important if not vital to know who you are and how to function alone.
Q14. Where do you hope to see yourself in five years?
JB: As the author of two published books or a book and a film. Traveling to speak on my work and exchange thoughts with other artists. Ideally not working minimum wage.
Q15. What are three albums or songs currently, that you listen to on repeat? And why?
JB: There's too many songs I listen to on repeat to list all of them, but when I do I know that it’s on repeat because it has something to do with what I’m feeling or want to feel, or has something to do with something I’m writing. The song on repeat keeps the idea or emotion in my head so it can ruminate on it for longer.
Q16. What color speaks to you the most and why?
JB: Not sure. If you mean what my favorite color is, it’s green. I wouldn’t dress in it much but I’ve liked it since forever and it hasn’t changed.
Q17: What is your greatest weakness?
JB: Procrastination. I think the world of minimum wage work and being told constantly what to do is so soul crushing, so much so that it's easy to want to do nothing and screw around in your free time to finally do what you want to do, rather than expend energy on even a project you care about. I have to get better at managing that.
Q18. What is your greatest strength?
JB: My faith in love. I believe there is not a thing love couldn’t remedy, since nurturing growth can do no one harm.
Q19. What's one thing that you're proud of?
JB: I don’t know what I’m proud of honestly. I’m proud that I’m beginning to invest in myself in a healthy way, although I struggle with that here and there.
Q20. What is a mantra that you tell yourself?
JB: Once I wrote on a post-it, “You should be doing better than you are.” That has helped a bit but I may need something stronger and more obvious to hang in my room.
Q21. What is success to you?
JB: I’ll probably have a better answer for you in the future. I know it has something to do with having full volition over your own life and not answering to a check.
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| Justin Brown's room. Photo courtesy of Justin Brown |
You can follow his work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asignaturewriter/
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