I still don’t feel free in this world so I just wanted to express that. I am a struggling artist for all intents and purposes, and my struggle is always going to be tied to my cultural identity as a black person in America. So if you relate to that struggle and the spirit of Juneteenth which is about the historically heinous act of slave owners not informing free blacks of their corrected status in this country, maybe this shirt is for you. If you are observing this holiday without having received proper reparations for your family’s pain and anguish (I.e. everyone who is ADOS) then maybe this shirt is for you. If you relate to oppressed peoples in every continent and country in conflict, maybe this shirt is for you. Oppressors will never give back the power they have taken away from you, you have to seize it for yourself. My art practice has always been about resisting institutions who seek to categorize, minimize, and otherwise suppress my expression, and the messaging I choose to employ is included in that resistance. So when I say I still don’t feel free, it’s mainly a reminder that brown people here and abroad are going through the same thing. I dream of a new day when my world is full of ease, my every desire fulfilled, and all my people liberated from occupation, brutality, hate and genocide. We are more similar than we are different and for that reason it’s difficult for me to understand why anyone’s mission would be to suppress another’s humanity… but here we are. Isn’t this supposed to be the future? Today I don’t really feel like I’m completely in my joy, but I still celebrate survival and persistence in the face of great opposition and I personally have overcame great adversity to be here so buy my t shirt, because more money actually does help me to feel a little more free, even though I know it’s just fiat I know y’all rely on it so we are still using it to get by. Shout out all my folks that is still striving for their place in the sun out here, and prayers to honor all our fallen soldiers who gave their lives and livelihood to make a better life for future generations. When they don’t want us to we still rise, so just because I don’t feel free today doesn’t mean I won’t eventually be, we keep on working and believing in a better day.