Art is Us.
words by Bennie Herron
My mother always said you meet people for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. We come across folks that will impact us directly or indirectly. When I met Reg E. Gaines I was impacted for a lifetime. He may not know this, but he is a mentor to me from a distance. His work embodies the black experience in reality-based truth that challenges those that interface with it. A class could and should be stood up by this brother’s work. He is my mentor without him even knowing it fuels me with inspiration to be fearless, truthful, and true to my own voice as a writer. His cross-genre approach to the arts is regarded and recognized globally. That is why I took some time to make sure to give him, “his flowers while he can smell um and his trees while he can inhale um.” (YEAH, I SAID IT!) Check out a few questions I asked Brother Reg below. Get you some. Almighty!
When and how did you get into the art? I say the arts because you bridge the gap between so many art forms such as poetry, theater, and hip hop.
Reg E. Gaines-
My mother, Beverly, attended Juilliard for voice & piano, my father was a jazz aficionado and my grandmother, on my mother’s side, was obsessed with Broadway musicals. She made it a point to take myself and my nine brothers and sisters to as many shows as possible. She had some strange notion that it would help show us “we belonged.” Music was the catalyst for my interest in everything artistic. I began scribbling poetic notations when I was in 2nd grade.
What are some of your influences? I hear/sense Jazz and of course hip hop but what gives you the funk face when you hear it or read it?
Reg E. Gaines-
Coltrane, Malcolm X, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Sly, and the Family Stone, War and on and on to the break a dawn. The Hip-Hop I gravitate towards is based on samples from that early 1970’s period of Funk Soul.
What projects are you currently working on?
Reg E. Gaines-
The world premiere of my new play, TIERS, is June 19 as part of the NYC Downtown Urban Arts Festival, of which I have been artistic director for fifteen years. My Brother. Calvin Gaines and I are creating a musical, The 88. It speaks to Marcella’s obsession with Broadway and how she used trips to NYC to show her ten grandchildren that they belong in a society that wants us to pay to breathe their air. I’m currently performing, Shots, via Zoom, which is a series of poems/ monologues addressing the murder of Blacks by police. It includes Annie Rae Dixon, Trayvon Martin, and Henry Dumas. I’ve recently finished the 1st draft of Circle of Fifths, my fifth volume of poetry.
What is some advice that you would give some artist on the come up?
Reg E. Gaines-
Be certain you have exhausted every possibility during the creative process. Fine-tune your creation, be your harshest critic. As far as writers, hear your words spoken by someone who has a great voice and an astute understanding of subtle nuances in how words are placed against each other. When you hear the words, you’ve written you immediately know if they work.
I know you are a jazz head. What is the connection to your work and jazz?
Reg E. Gaines-
Having heard non-lyrical music during my “wonder years” I got a visceral understanding of music’s ability to convey complicated emotions. Understanding writing is an intellectual exercise. I love James Baldwin’s writing, but Baldwin never wrote a single paragraph, let’s say, about racism that John Coltrane could not describe more efficiently, rhythmically, soulfully, using melody. You can write all day long about, discrimination, bigotry, lynchings, slavery, racism but play Coltrane’s, Alabama, and no matter your educational background or ability to understand the complexity of the written narrative, you will feel what these horrendous acts represent.