And yet the onus is still on you, the black artist in the white space to tell the white space how that dynamic works.
And I’m suppose to do that using somebody else’s terms, even if they aren’t the best fit to describe what I feel!
You know, though, it’s been that way since I moved to Wisconsin. I mean, I love folk music. Because I grew up in Wisconsin. And I embrace that Americana culture much more that pop R&B. Since third grade, I’ve kind of disengaged from a fair amount of what’s considered “black culture.” My dad listened to soul music, and I did when I was at home, but when my friends parent’s were like “AC/DC!” I wasn’t like, “The Persuasions!”
But I was talking about this with some friends yesterday: [In high school], I straightened my hair every single day. I wore my foundation too light. And feeling compelled to do that, that’s such a horrible way to feel. It effects everything, and then there’s just being a woman and all of that embedded shame.
It’s that evil process of self-mitigation that, if you’re a woman, you go through anyway but if you’re ethnically or racially other than white, it’s compounded because you’re trying to get to the closest approximation of what every other woman around you looks like. It’s a survival technique, but it’s exhausting, emotionally.
Oh, sure.
Do you think that has something to do with the critic in a female artist’s own head? Like we’re so busy trying to smooth out the edges of our sense of self that creating something new is all but impossible? So much of making art is about embracing whatever uniqueness one’s voice carries, but that’s the very thing we’re taught to stamp out.
God, I think you’re right. And that’s important to hear — important to remind oneself about. I think about this, too, every day. Take performing: I end up being the hair dresser. I love doing hair, I love doing makeup. But I’m really good at those things because I hate how I look. So now I can reason with myself and say, “This is just a fun way to express yourself!” And it is. It is. But I’m continuing to alter my natural state.
In a way that skews away from blackness?
Sometimes. When it comes to this stuff, hair and make up, if I ever have a daughter, I’ll tell her to use it if it’s fun, but I hope she’ll know she doesn’t need it.
There are just so many things like this where you don’t know. Like, when are you doing it because you have to? When are you doing it because it’s fun? Bold blue eyelids: That’s dope! I feel bad that men are shamed into not playing with makeup. It can be awesome. But it can become a routine, and it can become a way to hide yourself.
Interview: PHOX’s Monica Martin on race, voice and the perfect album – Little Village
Yup. Shes my type of hype. Love the aesthetic.




