What Art Makes Possible: A Conversation with Brandon Dean Johnson - Create Now inc

Transcript auto-generated from the episode audio; formatting has been cleaned up, but wording is verbatim.

I'm Cynthia Maks, and I head up the Holistic Psychoanalysis Foundation, established by my late husband, Doctor Bernard Bail. Welcome to. And now love. At Create Now, art is considered a universal language that transcends barriers and has the power to transform lives. I am so excited to be talking about just this with Brandon, the proud CEO of Create Now! He volunteered with Create Now for six years before becoming CEO in 2021. Prior to this, he studied graphic design and fine arts at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina. After school, Brandon lived in Europe, where he taught visual arts programs to kids.

His journey to his current position as CEO has been filled with challenges, excitement, and success. Brandon also believes that his work is far from over as he plans to expand his efforts. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. You're doing so much stuff in this world of art and helping kids understand the value of art in their lives, and the well, and the value of art basically for humanity. I'm totally on board with anything has to do with art. So thank you so much. The work has to be done and I'm glad to be in this position. So tell us a little bit about you.

How did you get here from our discussions, you you had a very interesting beginning to your life. You're still very young, man. Oh thank you. And but a lot has happened through the course of the years. Yeah. What led you to this? Or how did you know art was your endeavor? Yeah. You know, growing up, there was always something in me that told me, hey, this is something that you like. I would draw at church. When my grandma would take me out. I would sit and watch cartoons for hours just trying to figure out how these things were moving and talking.

And at an early age, I remember at eight years old, like really saying, hey, this is this has to be my future. There has to be something here for me. And I just, you know, when on this route. And it wasn't, wasn't easy whatsoever. A lot of people telling me, hey, go, go a different route, right? You know, I don't I don't see that happening for you. Well, and art is, as we talked earlier, is a, an endeavor that's not always looked upon favorably by our parents or, or those that are trying to lead us down what they think is a proper path in terms of being able to support ourselves.

And at eight years old, I mean, you don't even begin to consider those things. Yeah, but why don't we, you know, why don't we start instilling this into kids when they're younger, allowing them to understand that they can pursue something that they dream about? Because growing up, for me, my dreams were definitely crushed. And I wouldn't have gotten here if I didn't have my own own self-will to get here. When you say your dreams were crushed. Was it just that in that art was not going to be a viable path for you? According to your family? I mean, just hearing all the negative things about art, you're not going to make money.

You know, there's there's no one doing it that look like that looks like you or, you know, that's out there in LA. It's not here where we are. It's just all those things. It just it kind of it weighed, weighed on me. And even as I got older and was still doing art I still didn't I still didn't believe in myself. But there was something else in me that was like, keep going, keep going. It didn't help it in a way. Yeah. So your particular discipline, what you liked about art was in the film business. What was it about Los Angeles that. Yeah. Animation.

Animation was definitely my calling. You know, but for art, I love anything. Creativity, any and everything it can be. From music to writing. Filming. But animation. I admired Marvel, DC comics, all these cartoons growing up. And I said, hey, that's what I want to do when I get older. And I came to a spot where I was applying for Disney and all of these folks, and I just kept getting a rejection. So I was like, how about just go out there and just show face and ended up getting on track with everyone out here? Amazing. And so, are you still doing some of that work?

Yeah. So it's funny. Now I've created my own IP, so I have my own properties that I started from beginning and it's going crazy right now is all over the place. I have other people that aspire to be artists to working on it, so it's just not me getting my work out there. It's also building a workforce behind it as well to giving other opportunities. So I do that. But most importantly, I'm giving back to the community through create now and showing people how art can change lives, not just being an artist, but how art in the community can do more than what people might think it So since art has always been in you, beyond wanting a career in art in some form, what did art mean to you?

Or what did it show you about yourself or about your community? Art. Art for me was very therapeutic growing up, and for me, it showed me how you can tap into your own universe, your own thoughts, your own creation, and kind of get away from anything that's bogging you down. And even with all the negative things that are happening in my life, I could tune it out by just sitting down and drawing for hours and then getting out of that session and saying, oh, well, okay, things aren't as serious as what I was thinking. It was an hour ago before I started doing what I was doing.

So there was some amount of self-soothing or calming or introspection that could then help you calm your outside world. Exactly. And did you feel like there was an opportunity for other kids or other youngsters in your community to have good experiences with art? Yeah. You kind of alien in that world? No. You know, it's funny because my peers growing up, they always knew I was a good artist and they always wanted to come in when I was doing my work. So my best friend. His name was Doug Young. Me and him, we would just bounce ideas off of each other.

So I would draw it and he would write it. And I still have our little comic book back home of our work in it. So, yeah, another story is that I had a kid in high school. Actually, he he stole my my art book from me. Oh my God. It was it was a completed comic book in it, and I wish I still had it, but I, you know, as I got older, it showed me, like, how, you know, something that you did as viable to somebody else for them to want to take it and be inspired by it. So, that book was once blank, and once I filled it up, somebody took it. So it's almost like taking a little bit of your soul, but, you know, I'm okay with it now, you know, that's what that's what I see.

My art is, is that people really attract are attracted to it. Yeah. So go at it. This is a part of me that I'm giving to you. So, so then your business now you're, you're bringing in people, giving them an opportunity to express themselves artistically. And they're actually doing the job and getting paid for it. Yeah. So you know first off just showing them how many different jobs there are out there within the art world. You know, we look at movies and TV shows and we look at the actors, people that are on screen, but we don't really think about the people that are behind the screen.

And I tell somebody the other day like, hey, look at the credits after your show. You see how long it goes on and on for. Guess what? Those are all jobs. Those are all opportunities. And you, you will see scriptwriter, you'll see director, you'll see gaffer. All these different things that people just don't know are supporting actors. Yeah. Like you can't complete that picture without all of those people on board. Yeah. So in the cool thing now is that yes, we are able to get interns and students to come in to, you know, see what we have going on, and they get inspired and we do stipend and we do pay out at times. in your journey, and you don't have to share this if you don't want to, but you you mentioned that when you first came to Los Angeles, it was it was hard to well, you weren't earning a living because you weren't getting any jobs yet.

And that for a period of time you were without a home. And I think you were without a home with a friend. You were both. Yeah. So it was my cousin and my best friend. We both we all moved out here from North Carolina. We drove across the country, and before we did that, I mean, we were probably I think we were 24 at the time. We had everything planned out. So we had never been out here before, but we had the apartment lined up. We had job interviews, lined up, everything we thought was perfect. But when we came, when we finally got here, we realized that the the apartment that we had signed up for there were basically scam scamming us.

So we already put the deposit. Yeah, already put the deposit money down. Another thing, they advertise it as being in LA, but it was in Santa Clarita. So, people don't realize how big LA is. We definitely didn't. And we were like, oh, Santa Clarita, that's perfect. Near LA. But and you look at it on a map, it seems right there. Yeah, it's perfect, but no, it was just part of the journey. So I like sharing that story because you can have everything planned out perfectly and still things fall apart. Yes. And people don't realize how quickly your life can just change.

And I think we're too comfortable at times. I think so too. But it really, it grew us. It grew me for sure. And I wouldn't be where I am today without having that experience. And I definitely wouldn't be doing what I do in the community now without that as well too. I would think it would make you sort of more cognizant basically every day of what you have, what is important to hold on to, what you can give away, where you need to give back. I mean, I think all of those things and sort of get magnified. Yeah, yeah, it definitely did. And it still does.

So, yeah, I, I, I love I hated it at the time, but I love now that that's part of my story. We've spoken with a few different wonderful individuals who are doing their very best to help people in homeless situations. And, and we've talked many times about individuals who, you know, everything's just fine. And three things happen. And they can't pay their mortgage, their car breaks down, they can't go to work. You know, a member of the family needs health care. That or there's an emergency health situation and all of a sudden there's nothing left.

And there are so many people that are just on on that edge. And it's important, I think, for all of us to to really be cognizant of the position that so many of us are in this tough. It's tough, especially now more than ever. I'm seeing a lot of people just suffering, even like health, you know, health, people's health are declining and they're not able to do the things that they used to do. So yeah, we definitely have to keep our eyes open and just understand, like the more that it's so easy to help somebody out and we don't realize like how deep that can go for someone.

But a lot of us just want to be to ourselves. Just open up a little bit and you'll realize, like, oh, I can actually help change a community. Yes. If I just give some time and some effort. Yeah. Thank you for saying that. We're we're all about that. So I mean, that's one of the reasons that we love having you here is because you're such a good example of that. Our thought is that we do need to get out of ourselves. And one of the best way to do that is take a chance and offer somebody else some help. And not only will that person gain from your help, they'll also, you know, sort of gain some perspective on what it means to receive help.

And the person helping will feel so good about having helped. Yeah. And then I think it just elevates from there. It's a whole circle, you know. But we have to start somewhere. Yes. So was it that experience largely of being homeless for a while that led you to want to volunteer first for this organization, or was it your passion for art? I had to give credit to my family back home for just putting that into me, of giving back at an early age. I will always volunteer with my dad and my grandparents. My grandfather, my grandmother was a social worker and then my my other grandmother, she was a caregiver.

So, you know, it's all around you, all around in definitely. You know, when I went through that experience, it heightened it. But the seed was planted early in my life of giving back. So you sort of came from this wonderful upbringing where that was just naturally a part of what you would do as an adult. Yeah. And I didn't really realize it until, you know, like now, like, oh, I was around that growing up. And I guess I'm it's just a part of me. Yeah, but the spirits that I experienced out here had me hyper focus in a certain area. So within the arts, within youth.

Because when I was, when I was in house, there were definitely youth on the streets that, you know, their kids. Why are they going through this experience? Tragedy. Yeah. So that was my calling for sure. So when you started to volunteer with this group, you were thinking, yeah, this is right on. This is where I need to be. So the funny story actually applied for about five other organizations to volunteer at. It was sort of email, cold calls, and all of them turned me down. And, you know, I was confused. I was like, I'm just I'm trying to give you guys free service.

Like, I'm just here. But do you know why they would turn you down? You know what? Now that I'm in this position, I kind of see they might not have the capacity. They might not have a coordinator. They truly might not have had their stuff together. Right. So and then a lot of times you don't really trust people. You know, sometimes you're like, I know we're organization, but we just I don't know if this email is a spam or what. So sometimes people just don't get back to them folks. But create now get in contact with me like like that. So it was Jill.

Jill girl, the founder. She met me was like, yeah, come by the office, let's sit down. Let's talk. And I didn't have a car, so I was living in Van Nuys. I took a train our and a half down to downtown. My gosh. Yeah. And I set with her about for about two hours, and we just we talked. We talked. And she was like, okay, you really want to do this? I was like, yes, ma'am. And she was like, okay, cool. How about you go in the back closet where all the art supplies are and organize it? So that was my first my first angle create now was just organizing the back closet and then from there to elevate it from, from that teaching artist and so on. tell us about this organization. why did it begin.

What was the founders intention or mission and and how do you serve the community that you serve? Yeah. So Jill, she was a she was a script script supervisor within Hollywood. And, you know, writing was her her main thing. So she was on a project, I think it was don't be a menace to society. And I think she was out in South Central late at night doing the project filming. And it was it had been like past like 12:00 or something. And she told me that there were some kids out there just running around their set, and she was looking around for their parents, and she couldn't find anybody.

So she went up to the kids and she she asked, like, what are you doing out here? And the kids, you know, they told her, like, hey, we don't have a home. You know, our parents don't care about us. Like, like, what is it? You know? And they didn't say it the way I said it, it was a little bit more. More tame. But why wouldn't we be out? Nobody's telling us not to. Exactly. So I think that was her trigger of, oh, like, this is a serious problem. So I think she's coming. Yeah. So she did a lot of deep diving, and from there she started doing writing support with then juvenile centers where she would go in and teach kids how to write.

And then from there she started the organization as right now. So right now, in good name, it was a good name, and I think it was so good that she evolved it over time and to create now, because it kind of opened the floodgates of, okay, writing is a thing, but what about the people that are artists? What about the people that are dancers, singers? And later on it became create now. So, yeah, founded in 1996. And what we do is provide free art programing for underserved youth all throughout L.A. County. Kids under the age of 24 that might be going through situations such as being unhoused, you know, they could be below the poverty line, all these different things that kids might be going through.

We come into their situations and support them through the arts. And how do you find them or how do they find you? Yeah. So we have over 150 different schools and agencies that we partner up with. So, you know, through Lazard or Title one schools or unhoused shelters that are within our network, they they already have identified these youth that need service. And we come in to be that support to provide the programing. And then sometimes people just hear about us through our events. So from there we're able just to build that relationship with them.

So if you are, say, going out to an elementary school in LA County and you're offering some sort of art education program, is it to all students or is it to a select group who seem to really be struggling with some issues? Yeah. So all of our programs are tailored to meet whatever the school the teachers are looking for. So before we even do that, we just we sit down and we say, what are you guys looking for? You know, how many students have you identified? Is it for all the students? What days? What discipline is it? Is it art? Is it, is it music?

What are we looking for? And we get all of those details together before we even go to these locations. And then from there, it can be a one off program. It can be a three week, three month, a year long. And it really depends on what we have going on there. So you could send out any number of people depending on the program needs. Yeah. And how do you find these people to take on these tasks? Yeah. So I mean, the cool thing about being in LA is that we're in the creative city of the world, so we don't have a shortage of artists and creative folks.

What we do have a shortage of is knowledge of people knowing that they can go out and and do this. So when we do identify teaching artists a volunteer, first of all, we ask them, you know, what are you looking for? What's your discipline? What location? Do you live in? What's the demographic of students that you're looking to serve? And we get all that together, and we kind of. We kind of match make. We match them with locations. So, we wouldn't take somebody that's living in the valley and tell them, hey, go to Pasadena to do this program. We'll find something a little bit more local for them.

Now that you know the city, know that the city. So is there some funding available to you from the county or the city when you are going into a school with an arts program? Yeah. So, you know, we are part we are a part of the bench. So there's funding there. But I mean, just as we all know, art is not taken seriously at times. And we're a part of that, that blow. So a lot of the budget cuts art is usually the first thing to go. Yeah. So we're always scrambling to get funds to come in. But people don't realize, of course we need funds for programs, but we need funds for staffing before we do anything else.

Because if our staff isn't able to fulfill what needs to be done, it doesn't mean anything. So we're always looking for unrestricted funding that we can say, hey, I need to hire this person or this person, because now it's all on me and my two other team members, and we've identified the problem and now we need more support. But we do get support from the city. But we need more. Well, even just taking the time to get yourself set up to figure out how to get funded is a giant task. I mean, I don't know how you would fit that into your day. We do fit it in the day.

But, you know, it's I hate to say it, but it's competition for these grants, you know, and more. So. Yes. Yeah. We're all going after the same small pot of money, and people don't realize that's time to apply for that grant. So, you know, for for 100 grants that we apply for, we might get one. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And and another thing too is last year was very tough for us because we all know that everything that happened in the world. But definitely here in LA, we were going into January with these major plans to to grow. And then the fires happen.

Yeah. You know, shifted a lot. And then we're like, okay, cool. Let's just keep let's just keep going. And next thing we know, summer time comes around. We have all these camps set up, the Ice raids happen and it's like, that's our that's our community there that's going through this now. Yeah. You know, and I would imagine then were people not showing up for your programs because of the fear, just going out the front door? Yeah. I mean, we had one program, I believe, over, over near Cypress Park or somewhere, and there was activity of, you know, I just running around so it it hurt because a program that usually has 20 something students in it only have a couple handful and.

Heartbreaking. Yeah. And people don't realize like it's not the kids that are afraid. It's not the kids that that these people are going after. It's their family members. And a lot of times the families like, hey, we're not going anywhere for the safety of everyone here, right? So, yeah, I, I hate that that we're going through all this. Yeah, that's devastating on all levels. What's happened to that? Now, if you are offering a, well, maybe a spring camp, I'm not sure. Are you are people starting to come back a little bit? People are starting to come back.

But you know, we keep that in the back of our, our, our minds now of we know that things are at a level high. So just be prepared for anything. We don't know. But, you know, we're just moving a little, a little differently now. Yeah. Look at how it all trickles into every aspect of our lives. Outside of the schools that. I'm in. A backtrack in the school situation, how do you see your work being helpful to the people you're serving? Yeah. Oh, man, I can talk about that for hours. You know, I went to a middle school yesterday that we we've done programing in for the past three years now and just going on campus and just hearing the kids light up to see me, you know.

Oh, hey. Hey, mister. Mister. Brandon. Hey, hey. And them knowing that I'm an artist, you know, being a role model for them. That's pretty inspiring for me. Just to know that we that visually, they can see a person and go, oh, we know what he does. He's so cool. We want to do that in the future, giving them hope, because a lot of kids just don't have somebody to look up to within the school system like that, right? In the world of art. Yeah, in the world of art or even outside of the school system, like just in in life. Yeah. So that's one thing.

I mean, we've had we have had a student go to college because of us. And I ran into her recently. She ended up going to Pratt Institute to, to learn how to become an animator. And that was all based off of the first program that I did as CEO of the organization. That right there makes it all worthwhile. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, and even we don't understand how far that spreads out, too, because her story can inspire her family or peers around her. So. And isn't that just the good idea that you help one person and there's a ripple effect, you know, her peers or people in her world can see that.

And and, you know, she'll give them a little bit more confidence to head out on their path, even whatever it is, landscaping or being an engineer or whatever it might be. Yeah. That's fantastic. Yeah. And you bring up a good point is, of course, we do art programing, but we just want to show these kids that they're capable of doing whatever they put their lines to. So even if they don't want to become an artist in the future, we just want to be there to say, hey, whatever you want to do in the future, go for it. Yeah, because a lot of them, they they are shy or they feel like they're not able to voice their own opinions at times or what they truly want to do.

But there are programs. We really instill that empowerment to go out there and be themselves. Do you feel like a lot of what holds kids back from pursuing their dream, particularly art? Because like I said before, that's not a favorite on a parent's list comes from influence from their family or their peers, or that it's not something that's allowed to be present anymore because we have no funding for it. It's all of those. I think the bigger thing is imagine this year in your in third grade, you're drawing a picture and somebody comes up and goes, oh, that's trash.

You know, that's one opinion from one of your peers that could that could tear somebody up inside. Yeah. You know, so they're like, oh, you know what? I'm not an artist. And that's why I think a lot of people say I can't do art because they were rejected one time, and that still sticks with them. But art is no different than going to the gym. You know, you go to the gym every day, you're going to you're going to lose weight. You're going to get buff and fit the same thing with with art. You do it every day, or you do it at your own pace and you'll you'll become better and just not fine arts, but anything that you put your mind to.

So yeah, that's something that that we definitely try to keep going out there and let people know, like, hey, just keep at it and imagine that when you or your representatives are in a space where kids are contending with art, whatever it means to them, and they've been rejected somehow, or someone told them they were silly for pursuing it, you give them a little boost. I mean, here, like you said, you're a grown up representative of someone following that passion. Yeah. So outside of the school situation, then what other services are you offering?

I think you have summer camps, and we do everything. Everything we have, we have events. So we do holiday events around Christmas time. Halloween. Where did those take place? So they used to take place at our office. So for Halloween, we would turn our whole office space into a haunted house. So kids are still afraid to come up there sometimes, which is hilarious. And then we had our power of the Arts festival that would happen across the street at our park downtown. And then we had our Christmas event that happens at the office. But three years ago, we made a partnership with Discovery Cube LA, where Discovery Cube was like, hey, we will house you guys at our location for your power of the Arts festival.

And what is Discovery Key? Discovery cube is a big science center for kids to go in and just do interactive things within the science world. So there are director reached out to me and was like, hey, we want to make it steam and not stem. We want to add that a and we see you guys doing good stuff in the community. How about we partner up and you guys come in and do stuff with us. So we've been doing our part of the arts festival with them. And it's been amazing because what used to be something that we would serve 100 kids at, now we're serving about 500 kids.

Oh my God. Yeah. And it used to be a one day event. Now it's turned into a two day event. And is that annual? So we do it usually around summer in now the Christmassy times. So two times a year and we bring out some really cool people. So one of my I'm glad to be able to call him a friend now DJ Lance Rock from the TV show yoga. I was a little bit too old to watch him growing up, but I did watch him when I was in my 20s and he definitely inspired me. He's somebody that we bring out to, you know, interact with the kids. And now we have Tom Kenny, the voice actor, SpongeBob SquarePants, that will come out and interact into music stuff with the kids.

So yeah, being able to have a vision and get it out there and have support, through this event is pretty cool. So that's why I love the Discovery Cube connection. But even outside of our events, we also have something called cultural journeys, which are basically field trips. So we will secure tickets to venues like Disney Concert Hall, Hollywood Bowl. Last year we secured tickets for Beyonce. So one of our partners gave us a handful of tickets that we could bring our students out there to one of the biggest concerts of the year. So imagine a kid that is, you know, in a community that isn't able to see LA more than what their backyard is to go out to this big concert.

It's life changing. Must be indescribable for them. Yeah. So giving giving students just that outing, we have a partnership. We just became partners with the Clippers. So the NBA so getting tickets to go out to the games let's see what else. So even getting outside of the art world, just getting out there into the world is something that we're able to, to allow. So something like a partnership with the Clippers, what does that mean for your organization and how does it change the way you're able to help the people that you want to help? You know, having these big names be a part of us, it helps for our credibility.

So people are like, you know, they take a little bit more serious, like, oh, whoa, what are they doing? Helping them. Right. Oh how how how do we get on that level? So that's why we're always looking for more support. Because again, if we come together, we can definitely fix the issue. So it does help, you know, this is a new partnership for us. So we're still seeing how things are moving, but it's just one more name that we get to add to our list of supporters, which is very, very typically you're serving a community that's underprivileged. And those then are kids coming from all different situations.

Some of them live at home with families or some of them also in foster care. And is there a program that's set up specifically for foster care kids? So if they're in a location to where they're in, like an health shelter, then we will tailor it to be in that shelter. So I wouldn't, I would we don't identify the kids. It's more of we identify the location and then we bring the programing to where where they are, I see, and basically when you're organizing something as sort of like a class or some sort of program, you're going out to wherever those kids are.

Yeah, we're going out, you know, mainly because a lot of kids don't have transportation. Yeah. And it's really hard for them to get around. But one thing, if we had the funding, we would have more programing having at our location, but we're trying to get to that level of being able to open up our doors. But we need the funding to be able to come in to support In addition to helping youth see that if they're passionate about art, they can actually pursue that and think about themselves as an adult artist. What are the other benefits that you see for these kids when they are expressing themselves?

Yeah, I mean, just with my journey, the therapeutic aspect of art. So allowing them to understand, like, hey, you can tap into this as an outlet for you to get your get your minds out, you know, out of the gutter or whatever. And then the educational aspect of it to, you know, how much critical thinking are they doing grew through the arts. That's something that they can adapt and use in different areas. How can you fuze the arts with science or with math to help you in your journey of education? So these are all elements that we see happening outside of just the creativity of it, but the other things that can branch out for it.

Yes. Well, similar to you, when I was growing up, art was passion. I could not get away from it. I just wanted to draw and paint and whatever it was, it was, you know, in front of me. And for me, it was a place of real comfort, sort of a soothing thing that I could do for myself. And in a world that I lived in that was kind of chaotic, and it was my own private little arena. And I continued on with that for the rest of my life. And even as an adult, I chose a career in the arts, and I couldn't be happier about that. But growing up, I never expected that I'd really be able to do that.

Yeah, and I was the same way. And it's funny you call that thing an arena because what I, what I build now branches out into other people's minds, you know? So something that I used to do for myself for fun. People are not doing that for fun. Other and which is it's amazing. And we can all do that. We can all share our thoughts. And you don't know if your thoughts can help somebody else out to your creativity. So I mean, you know, I look at Disney, you know, Mickey Mouse, all these Marvel movies, Star Wars movies that was in somebody, you know, mind.

Yeah. That now is something that people hold near and dear to them. And that's my journey now is getting what I have out there for people to really gravitate to. Well, I don't know how you have enough time in the day to do all that you're doing. You know, it's all I've built this amazing ecosystem to where it makes sense. So I'm not branching out into something else that's going to be off brand for me. And you make time for what's important. Yes. So at the top of the list, of course, the family, you know, the misses the kid at home. And then from there, trickling down to the arts, the community and everything else that I do.

Yeah, I make I make time for what's important to me. These community events that you have around town, what happens there? Is that a way to show kids in the neighborhood what can happen with art, and also a way to potentially get some funding? Yeah. So first off, letting folks know who we are for them, if they do have any questions or anything they might need within the art world, knowing that that we're here. Because the one thing that I hate is people saying, we've never heard about you. We didn't know that you were around. If they knew about us, then, you know, then they could have another resource.

So that's one reason that we do our events, is just to make sure that people understand that we're out there. And then the next part is, of course, the educational part. Like, hey, we're here to let you know that you have a connection to NBC or to Telemundo or whoever's coming out to our events to, you know, so I'm speaking of like, our career fair, I see. Yeah. So bringing bringing in these people that that are, you know, experts in their careers to try to get out to the community. So we're we're kind of like playing the middleman, people wanting to get be a part of the community, in the community, trying to find something and allowing people to network and, and branch out from there.

So do you get pretty good turnout for these career fairs? So some I mean, the first one that we did it again, the first one was back in 2022, put so much time and effort into it. And I believe only like 20 people showed up, 20 people. But we had about 30 tables out there. Oh my God. So you can just imagine how how hurtful that was. But you know, I've done events all of my adult life. I realized, oh, you know, your first event, it's not going to be as big as what you're hoping. You have to go through the ringer a little bit to get there. So now, you know, we're serving a lot more people at our career fairs.

So you probably have more tables set up more. And, you know, we have a partnership with Cal State LA. So allowing them to post it within their network to say, hey, create now is down the street doing a career fair. Any students within the art department, you need to go down there to see who you can connect with. So getting our name out there so people know and when our events happen, we can have the floodgates open for people to come out and everything's free. It's free knowledge, free connections. People need to take advantage of it. Yeah, definitely.

That seems like a huge gift to the community. And who's coming. What is the age range? So for for the career fair, we have it hosted elsewhere in a middle school. So of course the middle schoolers there are come out. Where is that in our city? El Serino is like a block over from Alhambra. Going outwards to where? Pasadena. So going towards East LA. You find a little pocket called El Serena, and I encourage a lot of people to go out there just to, to see what it's all about, because I love it. I live out there too. So, but yeah, I would say students really 13 all the way up to 24, but we open it up to anybody.

Because again, at eight years old, I would have enjoyed going out to be around other artists and for hopefully 1 or 3 artists to let me know, like, oh, your work is good. Or, you know, I see, I hear you hear something else, I can, I can give you to elevate your your spirits. Yeah. Or look, I'm a grown up and I'm still doing this and I'm passionate about it. And I want you to be able to do this too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is so awesome to have that kind of positive input from the community. You know what? I think I become numb to it now, but I think ten if, if I were to go back ten years ago and I was at Brandon, like, guess what I'm doing now, I would have gone like, Brandon, whoa, you're older.

Me you're a celebrity. Like you're cool. And you know, little, little me would have been like, yeah, this is the guy. But now I'm just so used to being around in these rooms and I'm like, it's nothing, right? So I take it. I take it for granted at times or, you know, just so numb to it. But sometimes I just don't realize, like, how impactful it is for a kid to hear the stories that we have my story to see what we have going on and how that can definitely change their lives. That's an interesting thing to think about, because I think we all get really comfortable with the walk we walk.

We know it so well. It almost it doesn't seem special. It's just, you know, sort of what you do. It's a routine. You may be passionate about it, but it's what you know. And and here you are to these other people who are just starting out on their path, looking at you as, you know, sort of a bit of a star. And it's because you're showing them by your actions that what you're sharing with them can actually come to fruition. Yeah, yeah. And and I remember that feeling when I was younger, like going up to a person that I admired and being shaky and like, my voice is squeaky that that happens to me now to where kids are coming up to me or young adults and they're like, oh, so sometimes I just had to dial it back a little bit and remember that that's still a thing too for folks.

So but no, we we we definitely just we want to be out there as much as possible for people to know that we're real people. We're here. You can be here, too, if you want to. We had a discussion with the CEO from Safe Place for youth, which is in Venice, and under their umbrella is an art program, and they're dealing with kids who are. Many of them are unhoused and, you know, their kids and they're on the street kids 15, 13, 18 and they have discovered that the art program is a really good way for them to be able to begin to express, outside of themselves, what's going on inside of themselves as a as a mode of therapy, in a way, for as beginning of therapy, let's say once they find the courage to look at what they've created, whether it's dance or a pencil drawing on a piece of paper or a song, and start to think about why they created what they created.

Why was my dance like this? Or why did I draw that thing? What am I expressing? What am I sharing that I'm not able to say with my words? I mean, to be able to have that experience, to find a way in to a group of people who are so rightfully so, clammed up, so fearful of sharing who they are because they've been shut down completely shut down is, I think, such a gift. And that is something that I think art can do that a lot of other things can't do. Do you see that experience 100% all the time? We've we've had students, that, you know, they're they're aging out of the system.

So 18 and up, we call it their name is Taegu. So we went to a shelter at one time and we had professional fashion designers come in, and they were teaching the students how to become fashion designers, how they can take, you know, garments and turn it into something, something real. And a lot of the students, they just didn't believe in themselves. And there was one student, she she was went in there kicking and screaming. You know, I can't do it. I'm not saying I'm not heard, but over the 12 weeks that we were there, she ended up making her own outfit.

And we told the students, like, hey, what we're going to do. We're going to hire professional models for for you guys so you can model them in your work. Wow. And she said, no, no, that's not going to happen. I want to wear my own stuff, you know? So imagine going from I can't do it to Stretton, the walkway with professional models in your own garment that you wore. In even through fashion, you're able to tell your story. Yes. You know, so she had like a whole setup, you know, she had a book that was attached to her outfit that she was like, this is my story right here.

So it's, again, a lot of people, we don't think how art can connect a lot of things. And we just love getting it out there for kids to go, hey, I can run with this. Let me go. Well, I mean, if you even just think about the history of the world and how art continues to survive, it evolves and it changes. But it's always been with us. It's so important to me. It's so important to me. Yeah. So what do you see moving forward? Expansion. Expansion. How do we get what we have here to be across the country or cross the world? Because of course, you know, LA, we have our own problems.

But there are so many different problems across the country. Yeah. And how can that bridge the gaps between certain locations? How can we start the dialog with folks? Because, you know, getting getting a la based nonprofit, you know, back home in my hometown, people would lose it, you know. Oh, this guy, he's from here and he's bringing an organization here that's done all this. That's amazing. And how inspiring it can be for folks. So being able to be able to change the story, being able to change my story to where when I grew up in my hometown.

This wasn't possible to now be able to go back and tell people this is possible. This I did it, and this how the next generation can do it. That's what I'm aiming to do. So is your is that your first step is to take something back to North Carolina trying to try to. So we'll see either North Carolina or somewhere on the East Coast. You know if Fayetteville doesn't want it, then we can take it anywhere. But I would love for it to happen in my hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina. That would be pretty sweet. So you mentioned that what the challenges might be or the needs might be here in Los Angeles would be different than someplace else in the country.

That makes sense. So what would you see, for example, in your hometown? What would what would be the difference in the community you'd serve or the needs of that community? You know, out here, organizations, nonprofits are just so oversaturated. Yes. You know, there and we're all doing a good work. Absolutely. All doing a good work. But exactly. So there's so much out here, but you take it to a location that has nothing and allow them to grow off of that and see how and see how that can change them. That's what we're looking to do. So back home and we have a handful of organizations, but we don't have organizations that have the connections or have the history that we have.

So being able to bring that back. So just at large, it's a smaller community than Los Angeles, but there's still an underprivileged group of people, kids growing up, and they have fewer resources. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, no different than what's out here. Just smaller, smaller. And it's so it's so funny because, you know, back home you just hear people talk negatively about the city. Oh there's nothing here to do. It's trash. Like don't ever move here. And once I moved out here, people that are local to LA hearing the exact same thing. So our stories are all the same.

You know, I took I took my family and my friends back to North Carolina, and a lot of them have never been to Fayetteville. And they were like, this is amazing. This is a jungle. Like, it's affordable. Like, I wouldn't mind living out here. So even for me, hearing that from what I used to hear, it just goes to show like, hey, we're we should just do it, you know, just go out there and do what you want to do. And don't let where you live hold you back. There's always going to be negative comments. Just go. Go at it. The grass is always greener, right?

Right. So. So if you had to talk about the word love and create now, what about create now is love what I mean, the fact that we are serving upwards to to 3000 to 5000 youth yearly, allowing them to see themselves from ages, you know, truthfully, we don't turn kids away. We've had two year olds like, run around our programs all the way up to 24, being able to see their eyes light up, you know, being able to to know their names, to be able to interact with them. I think that's the love that that we have going going on. To where a lot of kids will come in shy but leave out energized and empowered.

And that's, that's love that transcends, transcends, just that one interaction that goes on for the rest of their lives. We never realize how much of an impact one encounter can do for someone, and we want to be that positive impact to show that people like, hey, you're cared for, your love for create now is here, and take it from there. It's as if you've given them an opportunity to look at who they really are, rather than who the world suggests they ought to be. And yes, and it's funny, you know, when we were downstairs earlier, you were like, oh, I didn't realize that you were so tall, because in our in our zoom meetings, I'm sitting down.

You can't really tell you I'm six eight. So it's just that for me, growing up, people saw me as my height. You know, you're black, tall kid. Oh, sports is definitely going to be in your future. And being able to cut that stigma out within people that we come in contact with and say, hey, I could have gone into, I could have gone on if I truly wanted to. But you were playing in college. I played football in college for my expected to go professional. I mean, we had recruits come in from the NFL. And, you know, in the back of my mind, I'm like, I need money.

And people are like, you should probably look into it, take it seriously. But art is what I took seriously. And I can you can see it now. Like how far I've made it in the arts. That was my passion. That was my love. I could have done the same for football, but I didn't want it. So being able to tell that story in front of kids that are looked at in a certain perspective of, oh, adult is telling you to go that way. Yeah, take it upon yourself. You know, I know, I know, a scary it's very daunting right now. But you are you're the master of your own destiny.

And I think there's I think it's hard for us, but I think that we have moments in our lives when we're trying to make these decisions like you had. I can take this football route that would give me. I could put a lot of money in my pocket, and who knows what I could do after that. And then there's this passion that I feel about art. I think so many of us have at least a glimpse of what maybe we're passionate about in us somewhere, and we dismiss it for that other thing. And I think a big takeaway from your organization is that don't dismiss that little light that shines in you that that calling that you have.

And as you said, it may not even be art. You are promoting the fact that it's okay to be an artist. It's fabulous. Express yourself. But in maybe like I said earlier, maybe you're going to be an engineer and no one thought you should be. Could be and you can be. And I think that's another issue we have. A lot of us don't feel empowered enough or good enough about ourselves to really think we deserve what it is we are curious about. Yeah, yeah. And again, I think it might be trauma from from something happening. Yes. And how do we get out of that.

So it can it can be from you know I'm a parent now so I get it like I want the best for my child. But sometimes parents are just too hard because they're afraid for their kids. So, their needs, there needs to be some type of encouragement there to, not to to drive people to do, to be miserable in their lives. Yeah. That's a tough cause. Parents. Parenting is a difficult job. You know, right now I'm just I'm trying to get this kid from one place to another. But he crawls and picks up everything he puts in his mouth. So I'm in I'm in that phase right now.

But I, I'm pretty sure when I get to that older phase, I'll have a little bit more clarity of how to navigate him in his future. Oh you will. And I think if something comes from this interview, people can understand that from you. That if you're if you're sort of well directed on your own, you can't help but give your children a similar direction or a sense of direction. Yeah, yeah. So if somebody wants to visit you, your website, find out where your events are, help with funding. How do we go about that? Yeah. So we're on all social media platforms Instagram, YouTube, Facebook.

People can follow us on there for updates. We have a newsletter on our website, so if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, we have our newsletter there. We have blogs and it's doing all of that. We have a magic, magical team. Yes you do. I think there's just a lot of magic behind a lot of magic. But even with that magic, we still need some funding. So if people want to donate, we do have a donation. What a clickable thing on the top of our page. Super easy. And if people want to learn more, they can always email info info at create or they can reach out to me Brandon at great as well.

Great. Well thank you. Thank you for doing what you do. It's ever so impressive and it's of great benefit to all the people that you're serving. And thank you for having me here. It's always an honor to be able to go out there and tell our story. So we're so happy to share what you're doing. We want we want more people to know about you, and we want more people to do what you're doing. Perfect. Well, we're here, and thank you. Thank you. Please follow, rate and share our podcast and pass this episode along to someone who might need it. This is.

And now, love. Listen to your dreams. By the way, a lot of art comes from dreams and live from your heart.