La arte de musica salsa

This interview was important. I knew it was going to be at the beginning, I saw an older gentleman dressed in all white. Thinking in the back of my head knowing that this guy would indeed in fact have a story to tell.

As I approached him nervously asking if he would want to be interviewed for my YouTube channel and and explaining how I was interviewing people asking about their story and he responds

“ Well you better get comfortable because I have a story to tell. “

So I did get comfortable, I attached a microphone to his shirt and interviewed his first question which was “who are you”

He answered that he was the “Salsa Curator of the Musical Instruments Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” This was the one question that I had on camera the rest was off camera.

During the answer of the first question you could immediately tell his passion for salsa music. Talking to him felt as yes he had this love for life because he found his passion in life.

We ended up talking until around 2 in the morning. Starting at Herald Square, once they closed, Bryant Park, and once they closed Times Square. Both agreeing that it felt like we knew each other for a 100 years.

The stories he shared walked me through life after years of collecting knowledge on how the world operates. Each story started on a journey through living life. Each anecdote complete with banter that left me with my back hurting from laughing so much.

Why am I doing this? Because I am searching for what I can learn about life through other people. Asking him how he would change the world. Realizing that the odds of the world coming together to work together are pretty slim to none. That the man’s ego gets in the way of making a peaceful world a reality. Maybe if more women were in positions of power we could see more positive change.

in reality from this conversation taught me the importance of living. That finding your meaning and purpose in life is important. Not taking life too seriously is also important.

I allowed this conversation to go on as long as it needed to. Putting my phone down and listening as well as I could to the stories this man was sharing. Asking for the next question after a long thought out answer for the question prior.

The only thing that I would change about this conversation, would be that I translated my questions in Spanish. Hence my Google translate of the blog title in Spanish. That is one of the goals with this project, to allow people to speak in their native language.

However if this conversation was in Spanish I feel that their would be times that I would miss the jokes in his stories.

Anisa

So I met Anisa and she was more than willing to tell me about her.

Who she is? She says “well I’m Anisa” and when I asked her story. Her story was that she moved to NYC about 3 weeks ago. Leaving her job as a teacher and choosing to pursue a career in acting in a city she always dreamed of.

& what she thinks about- her husband , her kids -her experience teaching history in West Virginia. With the goal as a teacher to always share the most honest information. Personally I always loved my honest history professors so it was refreshing talking to her about the world.

She opened up about her story of marrying a black man as a white women and her own mother not attending her wedding. & that opened up conversations of racism that we both witnessed growing up in rural towns.

Sharing her experience of raising two girls that are brown and her position as a white mother. For example they were checking out at a store. A cop started following her daughter after she did not do anything. The mom approached and as soon as they saw she was white they backed away.

We discussed the systematic racism that exist in America. & something that we will both admit our white privilege prevents us from ever fully understanding. Being aware of these issues and discussing them in conversation I believe is also important in our roles as white women.

Later discussing the problems with our prison systems and well my political views- that we need a two party system- following the government types of many European Nations and adopting a more diversified political system. A place where there is room for moderates because that’s where most of America sits. We just have the two extremes on both sides that create more challenges on the struggle to find some agreement on anything. Both ending that we are hopeful  for the next generation of young adults and their passion to stand up for what is right.

Talking about how America was founded on colonialism and racism. Still being a fairly new country trying to find some type of agreement on various issues.

& her favorite part of American history was another question I asked. Realizing soon after how heavy that question was. But her answer being the 1920s with prohibition and women’s rights. And global history the Mesopotamia civilizations.

It was refreshing talking to someone that has more life experience than me. & I asked her if ever gets easier or starts making sense- her response was a simple no & that none of us know what we are doing. We are all trying to figure it out each day. Accepting that maybe that’s the whole point of life to just live it and not try and figure it out.  & we are finding ourselves through our experiences with other people.

Tattoo Artist

I interviewed two people today (that I will left unnamed and the place unknown). But it was at a tattoo shop and it was always one of my goals to interview tattoo artist.

I saw the purpose of this project again. TO shut up and share the world’s story. What is it like to be a tattoo artist? I do not know, I am very curious to know more and maybe one day learn. BUt for right now they explained theirselves as artist.

Tattoo artist are modern day artist with the amount of people that express theirselves through tattoos globally. All these different people coming in with different ideas on what kind of art that they want on their body. Incredible.

The tattoo artist allowed me to step into the eyes of an artist in how they are able to visualize exactly what a person wants on their body. How they walk through the world with the lens of an artist , coming across design in anything. Even through just celebrating life by the fact that we are constantly living and experiencing the ever changing now. Life in the lens of an artist is seen with lots of color and lots of imagination.

Sometimes after seeing all different types of people coming with their own ideas of art they want on their body, they have to step back. Go back to nature or travel somewhere new to refocus and gain a new sense of creativity. After a long day of tattooing the artist admitted that they come home and enjoy being “couch potatoes.” Going immediately back home to create art can cause an art block and decrease their creativity they explained. Which I find so much beauty in the art of doing nothing for their well art… love it.

We talked about how if we had the power to change the world what would we do. These questions I ask people will remain the same but edited. throughout time. But honestly really they wanted the power to change people’s minds. That it is okay to be wrong that should be more accepted. And honestly that people can be more accepting in general.