Seven years ago John Moody of Fox News (of course it was them) passionately wrote an op-ed decrying the increasing diversity of Olympic Games athletes - claiming that the Olympic motto was no longer "Faster, Higher, Stronger" but instead "Darker, Gayer, Different" Hearing what to me, and to many around me, sounded like a positive change put in a very negative light struck a chord in me and I knew I had to do something positive with the name he created out of hatred.
From then on, the idea kicked around in my brain in various forms - I even tried using it for different things only for myself, but nothing really stuck or really felt right. Even after throwing a successful open mic event in my apartment in Brooklyn I just couldn't figure out what DGD (Darker. Gayer. Different) was meant to be and why anyone should care. I even almost completely abandoned the concept multiple times, with my own artistry in tow, after countless disappointments and failures in development right before and during the pandemic.
It was as if my dreaming too small for something that's much larger than just me was causing everything to go wrong. When I looked back upon the world post-pandemic after an absence of creative energy and saw how many others, like me, were expressing the same frustrations regardless of location or age, and desperately searching for an outlet to just be themselves - a chord struck in me yet again.
I then re-realized the issue: I was creating in isolation when the creativity and change I, and others, want requires a positive community of like minded individuals with a willingness to share resources, support, and experiences.
I aspire to continue bringing all of us together in collective creativity to create work together within and without isolation. To curate actions and events that are so loud that the voices of those who want positive uplifting community support and change can finally be louder than those of ignorance and hatred.
