BY SERENA EDWARDS
Creatives from all around the nation entered Brooklyn Navy Yard on Oct. 3 to hear from New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
CultureCon is a two-day convention curated towards Black creatives within media and technology that is held every year in early October.
Every year, the convention is themed, this year’s being, “Museum of Us” which highlights the impact that Black creatives have had within the media and tech industry.
“The most important work of art is the people in the room. The art is you. It’s Us,” as stated on the Culture Con page.
For the 10:30am panel, Mayor Mamdani joined Chief Executive Officer and Founder of the convention, Imani Ellis. Ellis asked questions catered to creatives in New York emphasizing the impact of creatives that live in the same city that the convention is held in.
“This week we announced, for the first time in close to 20 years, we’re doubling the size of the artist’s grant to up to $10,000 in New York City. And this is a grant that any New Yorker can apply for so long as they’re an artist,” said Mamdani.
After hearing about this panel, many New York attendees felt a sense of hope, including Bronx native Unique Tomlinson.
“It took a lot for me to even get to this convention alone, so I feel like Mamdani has been a breath of fresh air when it comes to being able to commit to my craft,” stated Tomlinson.
Due to inflation artists, which make up more than 233,500 of the NYC population, have had to choose between their craft and bills.
“To me, that’s also what it means, because if we just rest on our laurels as being a city where great art was once made, we will forget the fact that we’re becoming a museum where artists today can only afford to come once a month as opposed to live here,” stated Mamdani.
“I feel burnt out because I am stuck between doing a job to basically live or being able to fully pursue my passion which literally, sucks you know,” expressed Tomlinson.
This convention was piloted in a Harlem apartment by Ellis who previously worked in crisis management for Bravo, as well as VP for NBC.
She started this in her living room in Harlem designing this convention around bridging the gap between creativity and action; it expanded to the Brooklyn Navy Yard with a total of 12,000 attendees this year. Mamdani used this as a sentiment when speaking on the panel.
Ellis asked about the current climate and many artists not being able to fully commit to their path because they fear failure but also face the reality of what failure means.
“ […] if you never fail, you will never learn. And so many of the greatest artists that we all admire are artists who had to deal with those kinds of failures. stated Mamdani. “And I would say that what we want is in this city that you feel like you can take a swing at something.”