Today we’d like to introduce you to Brady Black.
Hi Brady, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
My wife and I moved to Beirut to start a school for children who were living on the streets. After our project finished, we were stuck in Beirut because we were adopting a kid from the school, and his case was stuck in the courts.
We lived in Beirut, and the whole country was falling apart economically, and it was in the middle of a revolution. I was struggling a lot with depression and anxiety and found art as a way to help.
During the revolution, I would go down to the streets and draw live as a form of documenting the revolution or like old-school journalism illustration. On the streets, I met an art gallery, “Art of Change,” and they offered me a solo art show to exhibit my revolution drawings.
During the art exhibition, one of the directors of Art of Change challenged me to start putting my art on the streets, and from there, I fell in love and haven’t stopped. Now I focus on helping others get their voice out on the streets by creating collaborative community murals. These are murals that I help conceptualize and complete with the community that will be enjoying the mural. My focus is empowering others to be able to make their impact on the public space through art.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The majority of my street art experiences came as we were stuck in Beirut, Lebanon. We were adopting a boy from Lebanon, and his case was stuck in the court system for five years. As we battled the court system the country was going through a revolution, an economic collapse, and also the results after the Beirut Blast (one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history that caused massive damage to the whole city)
While this was all going on, I was struggling very seriously with depression and anxiety and found myself drawing on walls literally because I was kind of going crazy. But people liked it and just kept on encouraging me to continue.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I am known for street art and focusing on social issues that are surrounding the community and the people where the art is placed. In addition to my own work, I love doing community murals where I help others get their voice into the public sphere through enabling them to create their own public art.
I work with groups from all kinds of backgrounds, from people with disabilities, people living on the streets, refugees, to university students.
Other than my community murals, I am most proud of the work I did highlighting the injustices from the Beirut Blast. In Beirut, the explosion killed 230+ people, and the govt never took any responsibility or even really acknowledged the tragedy. It has been two years, and no one has been held accountable, and anyone who tries ends up being forced to resign or “disappears.”
To draw attention to the injustice, Art of Change and I collaborated and created a “People’s Memorial” for the victims. I drew all of the victim’s portraits and pasted them on a wall in the center of the city. The installation did not have permission to be put up, so we had a team of 40+ people who believed in the message, and we all put them up in the center of the city. The installation is 350 yards long, almost wrapping around a complete city block.
This installation ended up becoming an important symbol for those who are fighting for justice for those families affected by the explosion.
Alright, so before we go, can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I have been working in Beirut for the past 8 years, but we just moved back to the States. So, I am trying to take all that I learned in Beirut and put it in an American context. I love working and collaborating with people. My favorite thing is creating the collaborative murals with organizations who have a strong message they would like to get across to the public. My main mode of contact is my Instagram @bradytheblack, or just by email; you can find on my website www.bradyblack.net
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bradyblack.net
- Instagram: @bradytheblack
- Facebook: Brady black
- Twitter: @1bradyblack
