Celebrating Black Art: Melissa Hunter Davis on Creativity, Community, and Representation

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Speaker 1
Only a couple months down. I think I recognize.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
What could a truth in this art. I am your host, Rob Lee, and I am thrilled to welcome my next guest. They are a true force in the creative industry. Known for her work as the founder and publisher of the award winning Sugar Cane magazine. This internationally lauded digital and print platform dedicated to showcasing and celebrating global black art and culture.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Please welcome Melissa Hunter Davis. Welcome to the podcast.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Hey, thank you for having me.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Thank you for coming on. I like the three word names. It's just lends itself to being like an acronym. That's what I feel like. I wish I had that in Rob Lee's just six letters. Yeah, I get no respect. No respect here. But I'm just really super excited and thrilled to have you on. And one of the things that I like to do.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
What I have a guest on is kind of go back to sort of bedrock sort of the origin, you know, when people say in the beginning. So, you know, could you share a bit about your background and what first inspired you to explore, like create the creative industry and particularly in the realm of like, you know, African-American art and culture?

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You know, I feel like I started probably like everyone who majored in anything in the arts and college. Well, there was theater, dance, visual arts, you know, at the end of the day, you were always looking for yourself because when you took classes, whether it was in high school or college, no one talked about black playwrights. They didn't talk about black artists.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You know, they didn't really talk about black dance. It was as if we didn't exist. And so you spend your next four years looking for yourself. So I think that's, you know, ultimately what piqued my interest in being hyper focused on black art. So when I was in college, I had this incident where we were supposed to direct a scene.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
It sounds so dumb. And I still I keep saying it, but I keep forgetting the name of this is a black playwright, but he's not a well-known black playwright and I did not need to find that play so that I'd get this name correct. But I decided to direct a scene from one of his shows, and I caught a lot of help from my theater teacher because he had never heard of him.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And I was like, I don't know what you mean. Like, I showed him the compilation of a population of African-American plays like, Oh, dear, here it is. What else do you need? Right. And he's like, you know, I don't know. This is a real a real playwright. He never he didn't have any black playwright in in his head.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
He he never bought any He didn't know of any. He probably only knew of Raisin in the Sun. And that's like and that's not unusual. I had an intern who said she never heard about black artists. She had a degree in art history. They never talked about black art in her degree program. And she just graduated, like, what, 2017?

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
That's so this is not yes, it's not unusual. You know, we're always looking for ourselves, you know, in the outside world. I feel like that's really where this focus on black art really came from. And that when I was in high school, I performed a poem by a black poet. And my mother was afraid because I went to a predominantly white, predominately white high school.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And she thought that, like, I would alienate my friends. And I was like, I don't care what we can't do. This pool is I love it. I see that we always had those conversations, like where she thought like I was going overboard to light that black jacket. What do you want with me? You know, there's no hiding. There's no there's nothing there.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Nothing is going to hide. This is who I am. And I think that's why, you know, like I just at stayed here. You know, these are the stories that I want to tell. I want to tell our stories. I thought our stories are cool and fascinating and interesting and global because it's different all over the world. You know, it's different yet the same.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So that's that's what got me there. And that's what keeps me there. We would we don't people.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
100%.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Or don't people I.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Mean I run into different things at times. It's this thing I've been telling people recently that I experience and I think it speaks to sort of that lack of awareness and sort of representation of that area. I've had more and more people talk, Oh, you don't look like a podcaster. I was like, What does that mean? I was like, I want to go in this way just naturally.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Like, you mean because I'm 64, right? You know, you need that, right? It is like, Oh, no, you mean black Got it in or like, this is done so well, so professional. It's like this is. I don't know what to do with this. It's so many, so many different things. And it just speaks only to me. I look at the person is almost that they may say something like that as almost having lack of vision.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
It's like you're not going deep enough and you know, you need there's several of us, you know, when you in Baltimore, you know, we're a decently sized city. We're not a huge city. But, you know, there are more than one black podcaster here, more than two. You know that are doing like, really interesting work. So I think that that kind of extends to the idea around who the black artists is.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Like you, you can go deeper. If you look, you know?

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Right. Right. Absolutely.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
So what comes to mind is sort of your like first experience in kind of appreciating art and appreciating creativity, because I think we get to like, this is the real story of why I got, like, really interested in it, but maybe sort of that first instance where like, how do they make that? You know what I mean? Like it might be a movie or something like, Wow, you know, creativity where you took that, you know, you adapted this book and now it's a movie or or what have you to talk about, Maybe that sort of first experience.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
And I think that that goes further back at times that, you know, you either creating or experiencing art. What was that sort of first experience for you that comes to mind?

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So a few things. Okay. My mother, she couldn't afford to buy art from artists, but she bought her art from the furniture stores. And when she but she didn't buy like she didn't buy the set that came with, like the sofa, the chair and the painting that go though she didn't do that. Yeah, but she liked she liked abstract art and she was, you know, she was just like, I like abstract art.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
That was what she really liked. And so she would buy interesting pieces, some that I didn't understand, but I always would have I kind of sit and look at as a kid. Also, we didn't have cable, so all of my friends had cable. I remember they were like all talking about what Michael Jackson's when was it not beat?

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
It came out of Thriller like a thriller came out like everybody was watching the child. So for me, we didn't have cable. So like, you know, cable of my mouth, I had to watch it. Eventually, somebody had it on at their house and I got a chance to finally see it. But and I think that was actually years later of my.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Girl that's old.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
But it was it was old. But because we didn't have cable, we had I had like the regular channels and I had PBS. Yeah. And for me, PBS was everything. So I got a chance to watch the opera. I got a chance to watch all of the British television shows, which was like some me. You can tell me nothing because I was watching Doctor Who.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Oh, are you being served? It was a couple of other ones, but I got a chance to watch all the British shows. What else? I got a chance to see National Geographic, all wonderful documentaries. I had all of this access to the arts that I would not have had if not for PBS because we didn't have cable. B We lived in Indiana.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
We lived in I'm from Gary, Indiana, which was about 30 minutes outside of Chicago. My mother used to commute to work every day. So before I was born, up until I was maybe like two, she would get up it probably four or five in the morning, get us dressed. She would drop me off at my grandmother. She would hop on a train, go to work.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
She would get home at 8:00 at night, pick me up from my grandmother, come home only to sleep a few hours and do this over and over again. So she hated going to Chicago. So those were that was our only option to go see, you know, great place or to go to the orchestra. But I didn't have to do that anymore because we had PBS.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So that was my like, my window to the world. Yeah. And truthfully, that was also the call, the call letters for the station for the PBS channel, Chicago WTW Window to the World. So that was really how I got into the arts. And then when my grandmother died, I was eight years old. My mother decided to go back to college and she would take all of her humanity courses and all of the, you know, the basic courses you take until you get into your major.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And she didn't have a babysitter, so she had to take me with her. And I went with her to her art history class and I was in love. You. Oh, my God, I love going to class with her. It was so fun. I loved her art history book. And so at the end of the semester, she would sell her books back to the bookstore to get her new books.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And I begged her, Please don't give this book up. Please let me have it. And she let me have it. And I got it out. I got out the pictures and taped off of my wall all everything that I liked. But that was like I was in love with the arts. Because to me, the arts represented like good living.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Like, you know, to me that was being rich. And I didn't know about money. I didn't know, you know, how much money you need to be rich. I didn't know what the IRS tax bracket was. It says that you were the 1%. But I knew that the having the arts in your life meant you had a rich life.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And that's where I was sold. I just wanted the arts of my life forever.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
That's. That's wonderful. Thank you for. For sharing that. It. It made me think of I used to get art. We'd have that sort of, you know, African panther, you know, the black couple we would have that. We didn't have anything. It was abstract art. It was like, Oh, this isn't very black. Like, what is this? Why is that?

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
What kind of. And so you'd have that sort of vibe and yeah, you know, big shout out to PBS and also cut the check my big shout out to PBS in that regard because like, you know, I, I love like cooking shows and I used to watch cooking shows all the time with my grandmother, Julia Child, the whole thing.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Right. And even Reading Rainbow, you know, on a local affiliate and you're able to kind of like get this sort of different vibe. And I want to think that stuff should be funded a bit further than it does get. But that's just something that just kind of, you know, sparks to sort of like creative juices. And it's like, wow, there's a large world out there.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
And even now, you know, it is still here. When I talk about, like the origins, right, I, I watch cooking shows all the time. When I go to a different city, I'm like, I, where's Food Network? I'm going to learn something. And from the culinary arts perspective or even here locally in Baltimore, I'll dive in. There is like, this is the Japanese PBS world or what have you.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
And I was like, I don't speak Japanese, but I'm going to watch this because I'm going to learn something culturally that I'm not aware of.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Yes, I love that.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
So I want to I want to go into this sort of next question about Sugar cane. Sugar Cane magazine. So could you give us an overview of the concept and the mission and ultimately, like how different from other publications and, you know, because, yeah, we're for the culture and I hear so many folks that are about that. I'm like, But you're not, though.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Whereas, you know, when I mention them and talking about this a little, but I've been talking this up a little bit, I was like, you know, what a great Melissa day was coming on. And, you know, Sugar Cane magazine, you know, like, how do you get early, you know, just a few strings in there. So talk and talk about the mission.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And, you know, somebody.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Passed a few keys, a few keep a few emails, you know, so to share, you know, like the mission and the concept around it and ultimately, like, what makes it such it's such a unique and a really beloved, like publication.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You know, sugar cane archives, the culture, you know, that's our, our new tagline. So in 2006, I was on a job that I hated and I was ready to quit and actually know before too. That was like 2004. I was ready to quit and didn't know that I was pregnant at the time and I was ready to quit this job.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
But in the meantime I was doing the work for the job, right? So I was asked to put together this cultural season for a community center, but they didn't have the money to send me to New York so that I could see the shows that were being offered and start the process of booking them. So I just went online and started Googling and I thought it was just really weird that there was no website dedicated to black art and culture.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
It just it didn't exist, I think even at the time. I'm not sure if Ebony was online yet, but I don't think Ebony even had a website at that point because that was one of the the some of the criticisms of a lot of black publications is that they had not gone online at that as quickly as everyone else had.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So you just really couldn't find anything. There were some some small Nigerian sites. Okay, Africa was around, but Africa only focused on music at the time. That was it. It was strictly African music. They didn't start focusing on a wider audience until much later, so there was just nothing there. And I thought that was weird. And I would.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
I decided then to create sugarcane, but I was always looking for competition. Like I just thought, I know somebody is going to do this. You know, this is not just me. And I was so surprised I couldn't find anything. So I just went for it. And the goal was to have a place where we archive black art and culture, where we talk to artists and, you know, ask them about their practice and learned about what they did and made sure that that information was available to all to to read and see.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
I do believe in making art equitable. I don't believe that your geography should dictate your access. I believe that you should have access to people who look like you, who come from Europe, probably from your same neighborhood, who have gone on to do well. I believe that you should have access to their stories. And so that's really important to me.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And that's where we started. And I'm really blessed to have, you know, really great writers and people who have who signed on to be a part of this. This is I'm really proud of the work that I do. That does not mean that I don't have bad days where I ask myself, like, is this important? I don't know.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Because, you know, it's hard being a black publication. You know, let's not try to act like, Oh, was great. No, it's not always great. This is very difficult. You know, you have to convince people of your worth all over. You know, you have to convince artists, You have to convince writers. You have to convince, you know, advertisers, funders, constantly.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
It's like being an actor, you know, always going in to audition for people and hoping that they choose you. You know, it happens all the time. And, you know, trying to balance a family and do this at the same time, it's it's really rough. It's really difficult to do. But, you know, every once in a while, I get a reminder that this is where I'm supposed to be.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
So thank you.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
We keep going.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
I relate to that, especially today in looking at sort of things that I want to do to kind of like progress. Like, you know, there are folks who really kind of get it. And I remember listening to two people was like, why can't this be easier? Why don't they understand it? And yeah, you know, I've been podcasting for 14 years at this point and been doing this podcast for about four years.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
And, you know, I talk to people and I definitely the acting, they are so apt. I used that earlier today. I was like, Man, I don't need to audition anymore, man. I got 500 podcasts out there and I was like, Nah, just send yourself like, let that frustration or whatever it is, live. Because you know, in this it's a people are very busy.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
You know, people are very flighty at times. And, you know, I'm always very appreciative when someone shares their time with me and I try to approach what I'm doing with that same sort of consideration and respect. And, you know, sometimes it is a hassle and, you know, you have the funding conversations. And so it's you're consistently trying to prove what you're doing.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
And the thing that I run into sometimes is like this is kind of one of those things of making your own lane and trying to grow it. And, you know, this is against me, you know, which, you know, it works in some regards really well and finding that sort of group. But, you know, the things that are in there because this is a digital platform, you know, I want to do more things that are public, but for the most part, to listen to the podcast is a digital thing.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
So you got the algorithms again to get all of these different things that are kind of like it's baked in for you not to succeed in still having the courage to. I think it takes courage to create, but the courage to create and combine it with sort of entrepreneurship and the strategy and all of that stuff.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Yes.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
So the name Sugar Cane, what's the significance behind that? I feel like there's, you know, significance with the name. Like people ask me about why the truth in this art. And I'm like, You want the real answer or do you want the you know, in these spaces I feel like I'm writing the artist statement. I answer because I got both.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Yeah. And I actually can only have one and I don't do the whole artist label answer. Thank you, I guess because it doesn't exist. So I was on this very same job that I couldn't stand, and when I decided that I would do this, I was thinking of a name. I'm like, Oh my God, it name, what am I gonna call this?

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And so I start to think about, you know, what do we all have in common? And, you know, now that it's over with, I have so many other options. I don't know why I went with this, but I was thinking of things that we have in common, you know, just thinking about, you know, I was thinking about, like, what do we cultivate?

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
What do we grow, you know, in Brazil that you could get in West Africa, that you can get in the United States? And I remember my aunt telling me this story about when she was a little girl that she used to chew on sugarcane as a kid. So my family's from Louisiana. And that was she said it was just like chewing on a like a candy bar.

00;19;29;13 - 00;19;48;00
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
She said we used to love getting sugarcane and we're thinking, I want to chew on a piece of sugarcane for, like, a snack or a thing that grows on the side of the house. And you. Correct. But she swore by it and I thought about it and I was like, wait a minute, That grew in Louisiana and I said, you know, that grows in the Caribbean.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And I was like, Sugar cane. Got it. That's what this is.

00;19;52;11 - 00;19;58;07
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
I love that. I love it. I in Louisiana, I love the way I was down in New Orleans recently, you know.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Oh, nice.

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Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
That's you know, that's one of my it might be my home in the next few years.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And yeah, that's a magical city, isn't it?

00;20;05;26 - 00;20;31;21
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Yes, I think it's a portal. I really do. I purely like as a portal. Yeah, but yeah, just, just going down there and just I always go for my birthday and Aquarius angle. So, you know, I'm always down there and you know, is that it just, it is a restorative trip and going down there and being around the folks and just, you know, being dipped into the culture, that magic that you describe so creative path.

00;20;32;17 - 00;20;57;03
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Like I said, I've been doing good trying to do this, trying to make that lane. And there are bumps in all of these zigzags along the way. It is not a straight line. It is it is a snake. And if you're not looking right, it might bite you. So talk about some of the like, you know, the stops along the path, if you will, within the journey that kind of helped shape you as a successful creative entrepreneur.

00;20;57;03 - 00;21;05;14
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
I think that's the word that people throw around these days when they find other words, particularly when it comes to your role as the head of Sugarcane magazine. Talk about some of those stops, please.

00;21;06;15 - 00;21;55;03
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You know, it took a long time to get here. When I first started, I was so most solely focused on content. And I spent a lot of time with artists that, you know, broke for artists that could never, you know, pay for things. Everything was a struggle. And I did not want to be a part of it. I wanted to be sure that I could pay people properly for the work that they put in because, you know, this takes time and energy and I remember early in my career working in a cultural facility where people didn't value thinking, which sounds bad, but let me kind of clean that up.

00;21;55;18 - 00;22;22;20
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You know, they were very focused on, you know, when did you get up and do you had to constantly be creating and moving and doing things and checking off things off of a list, all of which is necessary for the engine to move. Right. But there was no value in taking time to, like, stop and think about how you can make something great because you were always on a move and there was always an issue with resources.

00;22;22;20 - 00;22;52;19
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So you were constantly, you know, having to innovate, turn something into nothing, you know, on a regular basis. And I did not want to have a business that ran on that, you know, And that doesn't mean that it's been easy for me to do this. But, you know, at least I know that even if it takes, you know, no matter how long it takes you got to check on me, you know, that I'm making sure that you see some fruits from your labor because, you know, intellectual pursuits, you know, require funding as well.

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Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So that was always my focus. And because I couldn't figure out how to do that, because I couldn't figure out how to make money and I was trying to sell ads and it was really hard. I kind of set this down for a second. I took a few years to figure this out, and then I got lucky and I, you know, came into a few dollars and I sat down and said, All right.

00;23;14;11 - 00;23;38;24
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And so all this goes into this project. And that's what I did. And I went from kind of fledgling to like picking up steam and moving very, very quickly. And we just got lucky. And I ran into some snakes along the way, you know, No doubt, you know, especially when when you're creating a lane for yourself and you do well, everybody wants to get in that lane with you.

00;23;39;03 - 00;24;04;11
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And I always tell people and I know some people say, you know, it's unrealistic and it may be I say you don't have to copy what other people do because you don't know what they had to do to get to that point. But it's okay to look at someone and say, I like what you're doing and then figure out your own magic instead instead of, you know, kind of carbon copying what other people do.

00;24;04;26 - 00;24;26;19
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So I've had to deal with that. But my focus has been on doing really good work. And Angela Carroll, who is also based out of Baltimore, she has always been my rock about that. You know, she was like, you know, don't worry about anybody else. She was like, look at what you do. And she was absolutely right. One day I was like, Doug, you know what, Angela, you do, right?

00;24;26;25 - 00;24;50;05
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You know, I've focused on the work and I think that's what's made us successful, you know, is making sure that we have good work out there. And that's what I want to be known for. And I got it in my way. I never talks about having like a million clicks a day or, you know, 20 billion visits in a month, you know, and maybe I should have.

00;24;50;10 - 00;25;12;25
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
But if I did not focus on content, then I would not have been known for good work. I would have been like, there's some websites that I've heard of that, you know, they have great traffic, but I hear even PR folks say we never pitch them because they're working so crappy, you know, so the goal was to to put out good work about black art and culture.

00;25;12;25 - 00;25;19;27
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And that's what we did and that's what we've done. And it's worked out. And I've been able to grow because of that. That's I'm very proud.

00;25;20;10 - 00;25;47;03
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
That's that's great to hear of. And again, you know, it's just something relatable. And I've interviewed Angela, so shout out to Angela and yeah, I think, you know, one I'll say in doing these interviews I'm a gentleman. These anything that you're saying here, I'm using it to make myself seem more interesting. And I'm like, yes, as Melissa today said, and this thing, I'll do that and I'll just wax philosophical about musings of my own interviews.

00;25;47;03 - 00;26;08;04
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
So that's just what I do. But I think there's something really important that she said There is like, you know, knowing really from what I'm what I'm taking from it, knowing what that purpose is, you know, the purpose is making sort of that good content, staying in, playing as you're determining versus, you know, some of these things that other people will try to decide, Oh, yeah, you need to have this many clicks.

00;26;08;24 - 00;26;29;18
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
And I used to be because I'm a data analyst by day, so I can speak the analytics conversation when people ask me. So tell me about your downloads. And they don't want the extra context, they just want to hear the numbers. And like it's the Wild West out there, you know, I'll tell people and I'll say, let's when we talk about impact, it's like, look at these reviews, look at what people are saying.

00;26;29;18 - 00;26;37;16
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
That is sort of the storytelling component. Now we need raw numbers. You bringing in 10,000 a month and not too many people are.

00;26;37;26 - 00;26;59;17
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
It's just let me let me tell you about about those numbers situation. Well, don't go back to 2014. It was a year my mother died and I was afraid that the work wasn't impactful. I would have like these crazy conversations with people, especially in particular locally here, support it. And I was like, you know what? Maybe I need to give this up.

00;26;59;17 - 00;27;22;08
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Maybe this isn't for me. And I went into Art Basel season thinking this will probably be my last year and I won't be doing this anymore. That year I did The Guide to Black Finding Black Art during Art Basel, Miami Beach. I didn't get an email. I didn't get a phone call. No one said, Hey, great job. We love the guy.

00;27;22;19 - 00;27;39;28
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
I never heard from anyone. I went about the week and I went to an art talk. I was supposed to go see someone and instead I said, You know what? I want to be sure that I support someone, so I'm going to go to his art talk. So I just kind of walk in and I'm like in my head and I'm thinking about things and I just sit down.

00;27;40;07 - 00;27;57;01
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
I don't speak to anybody because like, there's a whole conversation going on in my head and this guy was like, high and asked, Top of me though, how are you doing? And he starts asking me questions like, Oh, so what do you do? And so I told him, I'm a publisher. And he says, What do you publish? So I told him about Sugar Cane, and he was like, What?

00;27;57;12 - 00;28;16;26
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And he calls in this bag and he grabs all these pieces of paper and he printed out the dad. Now, at that time, I don't even think that I had a printing option. So you printed out the whole page was like 14 pages? Yeah. And he printed each and every one of them out and he said, This is how I'm getting around Basel this year.

00;28;17;06 - 00;28;44;14
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And he was a collector. Wow. A major collector who had pieces in museums at that moment that museums have borrowed for exhibitions. Now you don't know the value of Cole is listening. It doesn't matter if it's ten people who care. Let's imagine you had 10,000 clicks and they don't share, they don't buy anything, they don't respond. It's just 10,000.

00;28;44;14 - 00;28;59;13
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Who cares? But when you have a community, even a community of ten that are active, that are buying, that are getting membership, a museum membership is like, what, 150 to 50 at least, But like bottom basement price, Right. That's a lot.

00;28;59;24 - 00;29;16;22
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
That's it's true. And I think like, you know, it reminds me like and as I go around and I'm in I'm in Baltimore and I know more and more people know me, which is really interesting. It's like, Yo, Rob, I'm like a gay man. Great interview. It's like it's like they feel like they know me from the podcast.

00;29;16;24 - 00;29;36;22
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
It's like there's an engagement there. And then on the other side of it in and I love that because it scares me as well, because, you know, it's hard. But, but also it is this thing where, you know, folks from Lake Large publications are like, Oh no, I'm aware of your work. I was like, Oh, yes. Like when I interviewed was from Hyperallergic.

00;29;36;22 - 00;29;39;26
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
I was like, How do you know about my work? So I was shaking.

00;29;39;26 - 00;29;43;14
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
My head Hyperallergic money, baby.

00;29;44;01 - 00;30;13;10
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
So it's a it feels it feels really good to, you know, be someone who I, I was a failed art kid. I was like, I want to be an illustrator. And it didn't really work out. And now kind of approaching creativity and kind of trying to help document and preserve and facilitate storytelling and do something that is close to me and like helping using the thing that I'm good at and doing podcasting and try to help with what we're doing stories is like, Oh, I found it, but in a different way.

00;30;13;18 - 00;30;16;04
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Again, going to that road that is ever winding.

00;30;16;19 - 00;30;43;23
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You know, it's, it's, it's, there's all these opportunities are there it's a matter for us to what matters is that we find that audience and talk to them as much as possible and give them to talk back to you. That's why I really love social media, because when I got that up, that's how I found my audience. I didn't know they existed until social and people started reaching out to me like on, you know, these virtual art talks.

00;30;44;14 - 00;30;58;24
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You know, people that I didn't even know would would know me. Like when you find, like you mentioned, like somebody from Hyperallergic or the the editor of of Artnet was following me on my personal page and I was like, wait, what?

00;30;59;15 - 00;31;01;26
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Like, hey, what's this?

00;31;01;26 - 00;31;28;24
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Are you a bot? And I'm like, Oh, that's really your philosophy. Okay, So you know, yeah, you know, those are the people and, and those people matter because the people who are asking you about clicks, those people that they put all of that, that value on, those are the people following us. And I always remind people of that is that whenever they they say, oh we don't want to talk to this small publication or that small publication.

00;31;29;07 - 00;31;48;10
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
I was like, first of all, the large publications know who you are because they read these small outlets and sometimes they just know that, Oh, I didn't get enough shares. So they feel like, Oh, we can kind of swoop in and kind of add on to it. But that's where this all starts at. That's what they pay attention to you from.

00;31;48;27 - 00;32;07;14
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You know, like think about all those music blogs that people really like that you don't hear about because that's what you hear like all this up and coming talent that's doing, you know, innovative work and that's who, you know, all these other artists, you know, secretly going to either just snatch up their producers or snatch them up to do their projects.

00;32;07;14 - 00;32;15;07
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So never be afraid of what they say your numbers are. It's the value and the quality. That's what matters.

00;32;15;17 - 00;32;33;22
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Yeah. Thank you. And I agree. Like, you know, I'm a volume guy and I try to make sure that in that volume and in the volume is more of I love doing it. So I just kind of have that space is like, all right. And not going to couple interviews today and even I was in New Orleans, I'm supposed to be down there for my birthday trip and I'm down.

00;32;33;22 - 00;33;00;17
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
I booked like five interviews in like three days. And and they were really like, you know, got some cred from like some folks. They say, oh, you talk to real people, you need a tourists. That's like, Man, I've been out here like four times. Play it, you know, see what it is. And and I think to kind of like put a pin on that is the in having the conversation because like I'm a radio nerd and I've done a little stuff on radio, I'll have a conversation with someone in the radio industry and tell them my numbers.

00;33;00;17 - 00;33;16;05
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
I'm like, Wow, you're doing is independent. They're blown away. But in talking to someone who's a funder, potentially, Oh yeah, I don't really know those numbers and nothing. So I'm like the person in the industry that would know. They're like, Wow. And you're like, We're not going to fund it.

00;33;17;00 - 00;33;42;09
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So to the funders who are listening, I know that that's what and that's because what they need, because either that's people tell them if those numbers matter. But I can tell you that if you follow people who are in the industry, who are looking at social media now, even big companies that are hiring creators to do advertising, they don't care about the numbers anymore.

00;33;42;09 - 00;34;05;19
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
They care about engagement and they care about quality because they can always flip that content and put it in front of a large audience. They don't necessarily need you to do it. So there needs to be a conversation where we stop looking at hard numbers and start looking at communities, the communities around these people who who are coming to you for funding.

00;34;05;19 - 00;34;30;07
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
It makes more sense because that's what keeps will keep your name in their mouths. So when they know that sponsor by Mellon Foundation, you know this matters to that audience and that's the audience that will very likely be able to donate or be able to support other projects of melanin and be able to talk about melanin and say that, oh, they support the black community and keep that conversation going.

00;34;31;01 - 00;34;46;02
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Hard numbers and large numbers aren't always necessary. And sometimes in the arts we get we don't get this information until it's too late and then people have moved on. You know, we can we tend to be behind a lot of things. So this is your little tip funding world.

00;34;46;06 - 00;34;47;20
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
To drop in?

00;34;47;20 - 00;34;58;04
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Yeah. To to go ahead and start switching that up. Yeah. Plenty of time that switch up that, that language on your forms. Yeah. Go. Let's go do that right now. Do it by February 1st. Gotcha.

00;34;59;22 - 00;35;22;16
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
I like having my name and folks myself. I feel like my name tastes like beef jerky, so that's great. That's really stupid. So if you think about maybe in, let's say, the last few years, because I think, you know, with the pandemic and, with the way things have shifted and how we go about things like, for instance, the museum industry has changed, I think a lot.

00;35;23;03 - 00;35;23;12
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Yes.

00;35;23;26 - 00;35;42;10
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
What could you share Some of the, you know, projects or some of the artists that you've you've featured on Sugar and Sugar Cane Magazine that have really stood out to you like projects or artists that really stood out to you over the last few years, especially kind of combating the pandemic and just people looking at things slightly different.

00;35;43;29 - 00;36;08;04
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You know, versus young man and he moves around all the time. So the last time I spoke to him, he was in Switzerland, but I think he's a Netherlands and the Netherlands now because he sent me some artwork and that's where it came from. So he's constantly bouncing around Europe. Idris Habib has been an artist that I've followed on Instagram for what I say years.

00;36;08;04 - 00;36;09;23
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
I think like 2014, 2015.

00;36;12;06 - 00;36;30;11
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
He was always tagging me, like he constantly was tagging me, sending me DMS of his work, and I was like, Oh, he is great. I love it. Great. Okay, congratulations. And you know, I was watching him. And then one day he switched his style up and I was like, Way holds up and it was so nice watching him grow.

00;36;30;23 - 00;36;51;02
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So maybe I think it was in 2020 there was this, right? I can't sell too much of this because it dismisses down the street. So there's a guy too bad because might have the issue We're going to skip all that back story ends up with sugar cane. We're going to leave it like that because then people will be mad.

00;36;51;20 - 00;37;17;23
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
He ends up in sugar cane and I put the issue on our Facebook and the next morning I think I did like on a Wednesday, on a Saturday morning, I get all of these tags like on Facebook and on Instagram from some guy that I don't know from the DMV, don't know him. And he was like, Oh my God, I love this artist.

00;37;18;02 - 00;37;43;29
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And I went and I bought his work and I mean, $3,000 within minutes. So I was like, Wait, who is this? Because the what he was supposed to do the call to action was third subscribed to Sugar game one about his boy's art, but he skipped it when it found him and bought his artwork. So I sent him a dab and I said, Did this me really buy work from you?

00;37;43;29 - 00;37;51;17
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
He said, Since you put that up, he said, My DMS have been blown up. He said, I have sold so much work over this weekend.

00;37;52;10 - 00;37;52;24
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
It's great.

00;37;53;18 - 00;38;30;24
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
As I watched so to thank me, he sent me a piece Oh, to say thank you, but so watching him grow has been great. Bisa Butler, who was almost like a given. I've been watching her for years. She was with a gallery out of San Francisco, like maybe 2017, 2018. So to see her, like just explode, it has been so gratifying and she is such a sweet, down to earth person, you know?

00;38;30;24 - 00;38;49;29
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And this is somebody who was friends with everybody that you want to be friends with who was known, everybody who was in everyone's collection. She's never said that she knows Beyoncé, but I'm pretty sure she does like she knows her mama, so she probably know Beyonce too. And she is still humble and she is still kind. And I.

00;38;49;29 - 00;39;18;28
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
I adore her. So it has been wonderful watching her grow and watching, you know, all the work that she's done. I've worked with Michelle Solomon over at PRISM Art Fair for quite a few years, and there are so many artists admirable as Gordon, who has been in the trenches for a minute, and I feel like in 2022 she like kicked a door down and said, God darn it, you want to like let me in and I'm not playing with you.

00;39;18;28 - 00;39;34;08
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And she knocked it down and she went in there. She went playing with him. And so seeing her grow has been phenomenal as well. So there's lots of lots of great people that I've seen and I'm proud of so many people. But those are the ones who kind of stick out of my head right now.

00;39;34;20 - 00;39;52;06
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Definitely interviewed Amber. And it was a it was a fun interview. I was like, Oh, this is what we're talking about. And I remember I was in I think I was in Nashville and I was just walking by because now because I'm doing these conversations, my my eye is now affixed to, Oh, that seems interesting. Oh, there's some art right there.

00;39;52;16 - 00;40;05;29
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
And I'm going to, like, get pretentious coffee because that's what I do is get pretentious coffee. And I'm like a place that had it wasn't it didn't seem like it was a gallery or what have you, but it had art in there. And so maybe they were setting up for a show or something. But I see one of her pieces.

00;40;05;29 - 00;40;28;05
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
I was like, Oh, hey, you know who take a picture? And it goes, I see your stuff. Or I remember doing an interview with my car and that, that collective. And I well, it was the first time I wanted to Philadelphia for this series as ongoing. I've been tapping into the Philly arts and culture scene, and when I get off the train, you know, of course I'm lost because I don't live there and I'm like, How am I going?

00;40;28;05 - 00;40;49;22
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
And I see because of loss, I see, I think, a mural of theirs and like go to send it over. And it's just like, it's great to see people that I've I've talked to, people that I've read and people I follow. Like just kind of getting out there in a bigger, better way. And I can say, Hey, I know them or Hey, I talked to them.

00;40;49;22 - 00;41;14;04
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
You know, they really like the movie Aliens, you know, is it's something like that. So I have I have one last real question before we get to the rapid fire questions or the best questions that some people have, call them. So as we close out, I would like to ask, in your opinion, what do you believe to be the most critical characteristic quality or even quirk to be successful in the creative industry?

00;41;14;25 - 00;41;17;21
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
And that's McCurley Speak in creative industry.

00;41;17;21 - 00;41;22;25
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
That's a hard question, which is so weird. You know, I can say for me.

00;41;23;09 - 00;41;23;18
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Sure.

00;41;24;04 - 00;42;01;01
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
I don't give up. I continue to to push forward to get my point across. I've seen I've seen so many, especially visual artists, they have a whole philosophy on life and their work constantly reinforces that philosophy. And I think that that's really important is to not be afraid to say something over and over again so people get it and to be able to move through the muck to get to the promised land.

00;42;02;02 - 00;42;26;21
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So I find that even, you know, some of my colleagues or even young people I know, you know, they will maybe do a project or two and they will abandon it and move on and not really continue on with the legacy of creating more and more, you know, content or doing more and more work so that, you know, there are many generations that can kind of join this.

00;42;27;01 - 00;42;38;10
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And I think that's a mistake. So I would say that making sure that you don't give up and you can really stick with stick with the work is what's important.

00;42;39;12 - 00;42;59;16
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
I agree with that. I agree with you so much there. Just, you know, the I guess the youngsters, they say having a dog in you, being being dogged and just going after going after the thing, you know, and there's this whole process of, you know, sometimes people are unkind. Sometimes you don't get a message back. And, you know, I run into it.

00;42;59;16 - 00;43;21;03
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
It's like I can't be daunted by it. It's like, what am I driving that? And also being very and I'm in a part of it and I've mentioned it before. I think part of my process and kind of coming up with questions and trying to just be in that headspace is really diving into books and learning from other people who are who are discussing creativity.

00;43;21;10 - 00;43;42;17
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
You know, like I'm like right now I'm in that Rick Rubin book and really going by this this interview he had and, you know, he was asked, I think it was like Anderson Cooper. He said, Do you play any instruments? He's like, No. He's like, do you have any musical background? He's like, No. He's like, But what I can do is articulate my, you know, my tastes in a way that and I was like, that's what I'm doing.

00;43;42;27 - 00;44;06;18
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
And and I and I've talked to like, you know, people who are curators or what have you, because you have people who will tell you like, you're not a journalist, you're not anthropologists, you're podcaster, and we don't know if that's really anything. And I keep just doing it. I keep doing the thing that I'm doing. And I just had this sort of belief in it that there's something I'm getting out of it, but also because I steal from you guys.

00;44;06;25 - 00;44;30;14
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
But there's there's something that people find value in and being able to tap into the sort of like thought process and the thinking that goes into folks work. So. Right. Yeah, that's, that's what I'm really kind of taking out of it. So so thank you for, for sharing that and thank you for indulging the real questions before all of that goodwill that was there goes out of the window with these rapid fire questions.

00;44;30;15 - 00;44;52;19
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
But before we get to those rapid, I want to tell you what really helped me, because I still have moments where I'm like, maybe I need to get a job. There was some rapper like it was a rapper who had finally blown up and he was on his story about how he tried to get into New York radio and he would go to all the deejays and they would like he would go to the radio stations, do everything, and they would never play his stuff.

00;44;53;02 - 00;45;12;17
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And so eventually, like, he makes it. And now he was like, Now those people who will play my stuff now, they're like forced to play it all the time. And someone asked like, you know, do you deal with these people who used to turn you down all the time? And he was like, What a game? And I just felt like it meant so much to me.

00;45;12;17 - 00;45;36;02
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So now those no's I don't take I don't take notes as knows I take them as a not right now. Yeah, it's just a not right now. So like, we've gotten, you know, advertising for people who would like wouldn't even respond to me and then all of a sudden came back, Oh, we like to sponsor this. You know, So just because you get a no doesn't mean it's a no.

00;45;36;02 - 00;45;37;09
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
It's just a not right now.

00;45;37;24 - 00;45;38;07
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
That's true.

00;45;38;15 - 00;45;42;12
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You'll get a chance, come back soon and they'll do more than what you asked for initially.

00;45;43;03 - 00;46;04;04
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
That's that's true. And you're absolutely right. I had that at the end of last year and it's like, yeah, we don't fund this sort of project. And then they came back. So we like what you do. And I was like, Bro, I love it. I love it. So no, that that's, that's really great actually. Yeah. And yeah, just kind of taking those things into account that yeah, it's a not right now.

00;46;04;04 - 00;46;19;28
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Sometimes it's a timing thing and sometimes it's just I don't really see it now and you're so far ahead and that's, that's the thing that I've heard some folks that we're not quite there yet and once people that there's like, yo, we need you, can you, can you please come through? So yeah, I definitely get it.

00;46;19;28 - 00;46;20;09
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Yes.

00;46;20;28 - 00;46;23;05
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
So now, no, it is that time for the rapid Fire questions.

00;46;23;05 - 00;46;24;16
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So watch out.

00;46;24;29 - 00;46;39;23
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
They're ridiculous questions. They were they were. So, you know, brevity is key. Don't overthink it. And the first one the first one is it's a really goofy question because, you know, I think magazine I think writing. So I got to ask, what is your favorite font?

00;46;39;23 - 00;46;40;12
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You know.

00;46;40;13 - 00;46;41;23
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
A very troubling question. I know.

00;46;41;24 - 00;47;06;01
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
I don't you know, don't tell you. And I just had this conversation with my daughter. If any of you have work for me, please don't come for me. Don't get mad. Don't like don't take my phone calls When I ask you to design something, I never get the points that I want. I always want those cool fonts that like they like them guys in Germany make them like, I don't even know they called like it's a brand new they just came out with yesterday.

00;47;06;04 - 00;47;19;14
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Alice are six like Germany Belgium somewhere and all they do is like make for I like those fonts. What do they call it? I don't know. Go look up funny fonts and all of those, those are the ones I like. That's really what happens.

00;47;19;24 - 00;47;27;15
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
I think I'm going to start writing this. This is going to sound ridiculous. I think I'm gonna write my artist statement and wing dings that font just to.

00;47;27;15 - 00;47;43;08
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
See it's just me. I don't like when being now that's the control. Those like, really like, you know, minimalist. You know, I was around when the wall was up in Berlin type feel.

00;47;43;16 - 00;47;44;19
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
When they used these.

00;47;45;16 - 00;47;52;11
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
You know like those are the things that I adore. And people never give whenever they give me stuff. I'm like, What? Okay.

00;47;54;12 - 00;47;58;14
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
What is the best piece of advice you've received?

00;47;59;05 - 00;48;24;26
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Tell it honestly. That's terrible, isn't it? I can't think of any really great advice. I can tell you what I've had to tell myself after getting crappy advice is typically do the opposite of whatever it is that I've been told to do. So there was someone who thought, Oh, if you'll ever hear this, there was somebody who wanted who thought this sugarcane should always be local to South Florida.

00;48;25;07 - 00;48;41;18
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And they said, if I did that, that I would make a lot of money. And she did not get that. I was like, this was never the point. This is always focus on international arts and culture, you know? And if I had not have done that, I would never have been able to tell these interesting stories with a lot of the artists that I've had.

00;48;41;27 - 00;48;44;02
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So I didn't take that advice.

00;48;44;14 - 00;48;50;12
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
I think that's the best piece of advice, and I've encountered that as well. Hey man, just kind of focus in this area. And I was like.

00;48;50;12 - 00;48;51;05
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Yeah, I'll.

00;48;51;26 - 00;49;14;03
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Interview folks in Brazil and in Berlin and in Britain, and then, you know, I'm able to reach out and they're like, Yeah, sure, we're doing it. So yeah, why would I stop it? You know, like to, you know, even when it comes to the conversation that we want you to do this many, it's like, cool. I still don't have the bandwidth to do the ones that I want to do outside of the ones that obligated contractually to do, if you will, use, you know, in those sort of instances.

00;49;14;28 - 00;49;35;29
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
So yeah, definitely. It's like, no, you do the opposite. So this is the last one I got for you. Okay, we like visuals, we like color a joke on occasion with my partner about I'm just going to become an art guy wearing tiny glasses, big scarf, all black. And she's like, I'm looking forward to it. She's like, Come on, we can't wait.

00;49;35;29 - 00;49;47;05
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
So what is your favorite color combination? And using that as sort of like the backdrop of my basil and wearing this, what is your favorite color combination to wear.

00;49;48;14 - 00;50;14;14
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Pink and red? Pink is my favorite color. I love red. I like color. It was something that I went to a friend of mine's good friend's house and she they have a name. I don't know what they're called, but she was essentially a female bubble owl. And we just we didn't go over there for anything. We just went there just to visit her.

00;50;14;23 - 00;50;33;25
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
But I didn't know that's what she was. And I guess a spirit was moved to talk to me through her. And one of the when I went there, I was wearing like black pants, black shirt, black shoes. And she said, you know, the spirit said that you need to stop wearing all black because they need to see you.

00;50;34;28 - 00;50;52;20
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
And I never forgot it. And black is very easy for me to fall into because it's a safe color. And especially like if I'm feeling down at the press store, like I don't like the way my body looks, I'm going to probably wear all black. But I always remember what she told me, that the spirit needs you in color because they need to see you.

00;50;53;09 - 00;50;56;20
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
So I like wearing color again.

00;50;56;23 - 00;51;14;06
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Like I said, gentleman thief. I'm still in that because I am always I'm trying to hide. Right. Like I'm six for eight and it's like six for like £3. It's like you can't hide. You just look like a tall, like stagehand. So, you know, But I wear like, like a big dukie. Weather. Like the gold is like, it's just ridiculous.

00;51;14;06 - 00;51;34;09
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
There's a whole vibe. And but I like wearing burgundy, so I think I'm going to start, like, still staying with, you know, kind of these muted colors, but, you know, bringing color in there. So, you know, the spirits can see me. Yeah. So, so one thank you. This is this has been a treat you just so great to chat with and I really appreciate the time.

00;51;34;09 - 00;51;44;16
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
And with that, I want to invite and encourage you to tell the fine folks to listeners where they can check you out and all things Sugar Cane magazine. The floor is yours.

00;51;44;27 - 00;52;15;15
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Oh, thank you. So you can find us at Sugar Cane Megacon. You can find us on all socials as Sugar Cane magazine and I talk about my podcast place. So we do have a podcast called This Week in Caribbean Art and Culture. So we're making sure that we try to expand that conversation about the diaspora. So yeah, you can find a set this weekend, this week of Caribbean art and culture on Spotify II and on Apple Podcasts, and that's where you can find us.

00;52;15;15 - 00;52;25;12
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
We have and I wish I could tell you the good news that we have coming out, but I'll tell I'll send you an email and then you can send it out with this. Oh, you might be able to tell them then.

00;52;25;26 - 00;52;26;20
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
Yeah, I could tell them that.

00;52;26;22 - 00;52;29;27
Melissa Hunter Davis - The Truth In This Art
Send out the email by that time. So yeah, that's where you can find us.

00;52;30;10 - 00;52;49;00
Rob Lee - The Truth In This Art
And there you have it, folks. I want to again thank Melissa Hunter Davis for coming on to the podcast from Sugar Cane Magazine. And I am Rob Lee saying that there's art culture in and around your neighborhood. You just got to look forward.