Alexander Wright: NYC-Based Artist

0:00I'm Keana and I leveled up my business with Shopify. Once I figured out that Shopify was a theme, I never turned back. I can create a site with my eyes closed. Shopify thinks ahead of us, you know, and it thinks about the customer more than anything. Every day I'm thinking about some other new business. But Shopify is doing it to me because it's so easy to use. It's like I can't stop on my dick, dude. Start your free trial at Shopify.com. This is Play, Kane Extended, an extended version of my radio show on Series XM Urban View, Channel 1226, which airs Monday through Friday from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Alexander, tell me about the communication with Mum Donnie's team and just what's going on. Well, actually yesterday morning, I just got up and I added a comment to the post, which was going somewhat viral, just, you know, encouraging artists to reach out to me, be a DM so I can get their baseline information

1:03so that I can do a grassroots effort and create a list of working artists that I have encountered across all of my orbits, all of my professional spaces, all of my interpersonal relationships over the years that could benefit from having this information directly as well. Because it's not just enough for me to have this information and for me to benefit from it. I've always been, I grew up in a family full of singers. I've a lifelong mic passer and it's all about getting every voice heard, not just getting one voice heard and singing and harmony. And so I would have just been remiss if I had just gotten that information from myself and did not go back and see the garden that grows and, you know, really, really put this information back into the communities that have uplifted me and allowed me to become to the professional high. So I'm currently at. So I, you know, as I've been thinking about it since the town hall, I was just like, there's just no way that I could just not do that work and make sure that those ripples, ripple across the arts here in city.

2:07And I don't think that we often. So what's been your communication like with the mayor's team? So yesterday after I made that comment, the mayor's team, I reached out to them directly as well. And so they respect to me. I let them know I'll be coming on the show today. And so they want to be in contact within the week because I was telling them that, you know, I'm doing this list making it. There's only over 200 names on the list already as of yesterday. And they really want you try to facilitate that direct contact not only between the Department of Cultural Affairs, but to curate some type of information sessions, some type of processing for artists so that we may figure out how to get this documentation in order and how to be able to engage with housing connect because we're one of the largest populations that normally is not even eligible for the process due to how our income is tracked and or not tracked due to freelance work. And I'll do it. And after today, I'm going to have to follow up with them again

3:08because they asked me if I will follow up with them after I spoke with you today. So. And I'll go ahead. Go ahead. And how exactly how that's going to look, I'm not sure. But I just felt such a passion to generate this list and you know, with it already having 200 names and less than 24 hours, I'm sure it's going to grow immensely because I'm going to again post today on Instagram reaching out to artists again to just please flood my DMs with this information for that. They can access it as well. And this is artists across all. But the whole thing is after after the town hall, I emailed DMs you two days later and you said you were, so you've been in the communication didn't just start this week. So you've been in communication with them the day after the town hall, correct? Right. Right. And since as well. Yeah. So that's amazing. Were you surprised that they either?

4:11I wasn't very surprised because he, I said, and his team has been very actively engaged since the town hall. And I wasn't very surprised because one of the things that I love about Mayor Ramdani is that whether it is a five-year-old on the street, whether it is a president, whether it is the oldest senior citizen in New York, any single New Yorker that comes up to him and engages him and asks him for something or asks for his help or asks for his eyes on something. He takes the time with each and every person that he has come across. And after the town hall, I realized that that is genuine me and truly who he is. And that is a lie there is such a succinct change I've been hearing in New York today. When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want, like all the way. Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha-chings from every channel, right in one spot, and turn real-time reporting into big-time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level.

5:12Switch to Shopify. Start your free trial today. You know, politicians say that. They say, hey, you know, I'm going to, you know, we're going to follow up with you. So I thought it was pretty cool that his team did and just goes to show you. That's just really, really important. And I love that you've been communicating with them for nearly a month now. That's how you build community. That's how you build connections. And that's how you build, especially an artist space. So Alexander, overall, what would you like to see? It's not going to happen immediately, obviously, but for artists. So if folks can reach out to you. I would love for Housing Connect to do some orientation spaces, events that are specifically for artists so that we can learn to begin, how we can engage with that process. What exactly that would look like? What exactly would be required if there could be an artist, artist specific contingent of Housing Connect

6:14so that we may connect artists, bass population in the city to this excellent resource. And I would love for the Department of Cultural Affairs to do some introductory events, to do some open house events, to do some things where artists can directly come in contact with the new team there and really kind of get some direct engagement to some of the incredible funding and funding opportunities that happened through that office all the time. But it is like trying to climb a brick wall with no equipment, just trying to get into a general engagement with the office. And traditionally, it always has been for at least the last five years or more. I love that. I love that. That would really be magnanimous across the arts. Sure. And tell me about your boss, Darnell. Darnell was shot at out in that clip. Who was there with you at the event and the kind of work that he does? Darnell is a story, a destroyed Broadway music director,

7:19vocal music director. He is the director here at Community Church. He is my adopted house mother and one of my favorite choral mentors, an incredible singer and incredible pianist and incredible songwriter. He has worked with some of Broadway's best and he is a born and raised New Yorker. Black man, LGBTQIA plus, and he has been doing this work for over 30 years here in New York City. And he not only is stellar at the work that he does and connects with some of the highest level performers, not only in the country, but in the world consistently. But he also hires mentors and empowers. Boku, Boku, Boku, Boku, Boku, Packs of Young artists. Just here at the Community Church, where we all work alone, there's at least 20 of us under 30, under 40, that he has hired and powered, uses as soloist, uses as choral directors, mentors, takes us out, gives us opportunities. Darnell is the house mother of house mother, says they say.

8:23And has been an incredible mentor at French. Yeah, absolutely. As well as our host director here at Community Church, Matt Pot, they both have been working for Cross-Browing for years and years now. And Alexander, tell folks a bit about how you even gotten to the arts, what made you fall in love with the arts and the work that you do today? Well, I grew up, again, in the family, those singers. My family, the right family singers, has been singing for four generations now of professional singers. And when people ask you, they're like, oh, how did you grow up? I'm like, I grew up in a house to a bond trap level of singers. Everyone sings. The grandma sings, the dog sings, the baby sings, everyone in the house sings. And so my entire life, I was just surrounded by concerts, recordings, performances, solo performances, engaging with so many other musicians and singers. And I just grew up in a house full of music. And that led to me starting my classical training

9:24when I was very young. And that has carried me through the last 20 years as a singer, as an actor, as a performer. I've been an actor since childhood. I was an actor before I was even a singer. I think my first play, my first acting role, was about five years old. And I have just been actively doing it ever since, across genre, across country, across nation, across city. I've lived in New York, I've lived in LA, I've lived in DC. I've lived in all these different places and done all this different type of work. And I lived my life by the motto that genre is a construct. And that music is the message. genre creates so many boundaries and creates so many racial and economic boundaries and boxes around music and music is something, an art is something that people should be able to access freely regardless of those things. So I haven't really tried to do the work to break those boxes. Thank you for listening to Clay Kane Extended. If you want to hear more, tune into my show on Series XM Urban View, channel 1226 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

10:26You know the deal, y'all. I never really gone.