when I was a young kid I was a happy kid
as you can see in this photo right here
I wasn’t I kind of kept to myself I was
an introvert and I had all these
creative ideas in my head but I didn’t
know how to do it I wasn’t confident I
wanted to express myself to the world I
come from a large to make a family with
13 uncles and aunts and one of my
uncle’s was the same age as me his name
was Danny and Danny’s the guy with the
striped shirt and I’m the guy with the
cowboy shirt on the Left Danny was the
office of me he had a chromatic
personality he was funny he was creative
and he was full of confidence and I
wanted that confidence and I didn’t have
it one day I was when I was 14 years old
I was visiting Danny and he was doing
that he was writing his name devs
everywhere devs devs devs and that’s not
his name devs devs and I said why are
you writing devs what does that mean he
said it’s graffiti and I’ve seen
graffiti on the streets but I didn’t
know what graffiti how it happened or
how it was done and I thought it was
interesting and he said to me if you
want to do it I can give you a name and
Danny said since you have this
personality kind of a perfectionist
right so maybe you should write finesse
right so I wrote finesse and just like
Danny riding it everywhere I wrote
finesse on my books on the car like
everywhere in my room everywhere was
finesse finesse finesse finesse finesse
and that’s that was what I became
finesse and it opened up this creative
world inside my mind it made me really
think creatively and that’s what
graffiti did for me it made me think
creatively so I learned from Danny but I
also learned from books and magazines
and one of the particular books that I
learned from was subway yard subway arts
the book that you’re looking at right
now and there’s a train below and it
said stop the bomb and I pause for a
second and I was like wait Danny told me
you have to write your name creatively
he didn’t tell me that graffiti can have
messages you can actually have a message
so the
was kind of stuck with me so all these
things that I’m learning from books and
from magazines I took that and I said
now it’s time for me to do my first
graffiti piece my first graffiti piece
somewhere in public space there was an
old forgotten basketball court down the
street from my house and I went to that
basketball court and I wrote finesse
right in the middle of the basketball
court I was happy I did my name finesse
I got arrested the Boston Globe used me
as an example to talk about how graffiti
was destroying neighborhoods I always
thought I was making this old run-down
basketball court better that’s what I
thought I was doing I was trying to
express myself and share this creativity
was since with inside of me but the
police didn’t see that my mother was
upset she was really mad my stepfather
was pissed we raised you to be this good
kid but why are you getting arrested
they didn’t understand and I didn’t
really understand what I was doing so I
had to change my name because I couldn’t
write finesse anymore so I changed it to
vice which stands for visually intercept
in society’s emotions one image at a
time that’s what Vice one stands for
that and that’s what I changed my name
to and I said how could I use this skill
and use it productively so a friend of
mine named George he was another
graffiti riot and he was going to
college for this thing called graphic
design and he was saying graphic design
is very related to graffiti because
you’re taking letter forms and you’re
trying to do it very creatively and I
said I understand that connection so I
went to mass colleges I got applied for
it and I got accepted and I was excited
I was like I’m finally going to college
for the first time and while I was at
college I met this professor his name
was Chaz Malan Davies and Chaz changed
my mind so Chaz was an international
poster designer from Zimbabwe and he
used his design as a weapon to make
change in the world and in his community
and Chaz taught us that design isn’t
just about
you know making a beautiful website or
making a beautiful magazine like subway
ought the magazine I love but design can
be out design can be about sharing a
message to the world and that was
similar to the Train that I saw and I’m
like wait this is not what I thought it
was maybe I can do that so this is the
first work of art that I did when I was
in college one of the in what these
posters series are is asking community
members to get the fight back for their
community asking people to fight back
for the community because criminals are
changing their names and changing these
communities into bad places and I
thought that I needed to make change and
get people to think about that so after
doing more research about the community
and things that I was upset about I saw
it I found this statistic through
reading and it said teenage homicides
have quadruple din the last ten years
and I was like teenagers this is where I
learned graffiti when I was a teenager
and I thought how my uncle inspired me
to be creative what if I can make these
teenagers think creatively and be around
creative mentors like my uncle was for
me so I got a small loan from Capital
One I pretty much maxed out my credit
card and I purchased 300 water guns on
these water guns had toe tags what you
would put on a dead body and it says
your name could be on this line and when
you flip the what it’s you flip the toe
tag over it says your name could be on
this rhyme zoomix a youth program for
you and what I wanted kids to realize
that by being going to the zoo makes
which is a nonprofit to help kids learn
about music and actually get paid for it
they could be around creative mentors
like I was and do something creative to
occupy the time instead of thinking
about guns in conflict with one another
so after doing all this work learning
about graffiti and doing this project
that was successful I was on a complete
hi I was like I’m using design not to
get arrested but to actually impact
people in my community and I
I couldn’t believe it I got a phone call
on October 2nd 2011 for my uncle Barry I
actually missed the phone call I heard a
voice message said I wanted to tell you
this in person
Danny passed away the person who
inspired me to do what I’m doing what my
life died I was devastated
I felt like everything just fell on the
ground my organs just fell out my body I
remember saying to myself Danny’s not
dead Danny’s not dead there’s no way and
I said I have to do something I have to
do some and it really changed my life
it made me goes I need to be doing this
work more I need to be able to use this
to change people’s life like Danny
changed mine and one of the things Danny
had in his room was the street sign if
you look in the back it’s circled it’s a
bus sign and that bus sign was a sign
that kind of connected me to Danny so I
said I need to do something that Kimura
Mart moralize his life so I created this
street sign that says dev zone which was
Danny’s graffiti name and me and Jason
of a neighborhood friend hung the sign
in front of the house where I learned
how to do graffiti which impacted my
life and where we lived in Boston this
is my way from moralizing Danny’s life
this sign is still there five years
later and people in the community look
at that as a sign to connect back to
Danny as I grew and thought about this
work and how can i impact and teach
people how to be creative like how I was
taught by Danny to be creative and
inspire my life I wanted to have people
be inspired to be creative because I
think creativity can lead to great
things so at the time people were saying
you should apply for this grant it was a
hundred thousand dollar grant to do some
type of community project to connect
with your community and at the time I
was really busy and I was like I can’t
apply for I’ve never flied for a hundred
thousand dollar grant Yeah right
$100,000 I don’t even know how to start
at the time I met my partner Julia auth
who had the same vision for me to use
art as a tool to connect with community
and Julia said why aren’t you applying
for this grant you’ve done so
much what you’ve done it and I said
maybe I am and she made me realize I
need to apply so within three days I put
all the paperwork figured out what I did
it didn’t know and applied for this
grant and I was a finalist and I won and
my vision was to have a if I could bring
this art with the water guns or with
some type of creative in all these
different places like an ice-cream truck
and give art to the community so I
created this thing called the up truck
me and Julia and it was a way to connect
with people inspire them to be creative
and twenty years later I was featured on
the front page of the Boston Globe the
same newspaper that said I was
destroying my community I was improving
my community and you know the tool I
used spray paint these tools I learned
through graffiti and this is what we do
in the middle of street and people are
complete strangers they always say I
can’t do that I’m not an artist and then
look what they create kids adults all
different ages they’re transformed in
this one second and then it’s there for
10 to 20 minutes and they come back and
they share stuff to me we drew this look
what I drew look at my kid drew and we
asked him what type of art do you want
in your community we play games with
them to have conversations and have them
express their selves and people tell me
stories about their lives that I would
not known and I realized the value in
these conversations I won dominoes
dominoes and we have fun right in the
middle of the street conversations
people coming together being creative
and we bring in kids together with the
police at a time where people think they
don’t feel safe around police so after
doing all this work and connecting
people I said what is my work what is
Cedric Douglas vice ones work and I love
doing murals I love doing those
basketball courts but I’ve learned a lot
of these different skills and I wanted
to transfer it to bigger spaces I want
it to be bigger than life
so I started so I got commissioned by
Northeastern University to this mural
and this mural is about taking me back
to that innocent child where I picked up
that can and entered
world of creativity when I wrote finesse
and that’s a piece at Northeastern this
piece is talking about so a lot of times
black women received as in a sexual
looked sexual or looked in a negative
light so this piece is kind of show a
black woman as madonna and looking in a
positive right in a futuristic way
that’s inland mass this is in virginia
norfolk virginia and it’s the same thing
about bringing races together and
this is a piece in peabody and it’s a
grandmother and a black child and it’s
about growth and bringing people
together between races I was in Miami
for an international art festival and
this artists from all over the world
doing street art doing these large-scale
murals and Julie and I were doing a
mural about maybe five blocks three
blocks from this particular part of
Winwood there was someone came up to and
said did you hear the kid died the kid
died we’re like what kid died what are
you talking about I think he’s dead he
got hit by a car the police ran him over
and we’re like what and I could picture
myself being that graffiti kid and what
if I died and I was what and what the
kids dead what happened was he doing it
and I’m just like and me and Julie were
talking about how during Art Basel
there’s all these pitiful murals but
there’s a lot of things going on in the
world that no one’s talking about and
we’re like why aren’t people talking
about that and then we hear this nose I
had to think about Danny and connect
that and I said I want to honor this
guy’s life demme’s dilbert rodriguez and
we hung the sign at the same site where
he died and it’s a memorial people don’t
go to graveyards but it’s in the
community in that spot to be remembered
a place for people to remember his life
so I did this one tip for Terrence
Coleman he was a young black man that
got killed had mental disability he
called his mother called and he got
killed during that phone call and I
created these tools of protests for
people to prou
Tess what’s going on in their
communities and then I got this
residency for Emerson and the residency
was how could you know you should do
whatever project you want and then I
wanted to talk about this in more in a
larger scale so I took 400 red roses and
it and then on the red rose it says in
the last ten five years a thousand black
men were killed in the middle of the
street and we passed them out to people
and it was touching people really felt
this and we had a procession in the band
and we went out that’s my story I have
seen firsthand the value of honoring
your creative abilities and what it can
do you have to listen to that voice no
matter what you’re doing if it’s saying
I want to play that musical instrument
but you never want to take it out the
closet and play you want to go fix that
classical car that’s sitting in the
driveway all do it whenever tie and no
do it now you want to go dance your food
because you’re the first person in the
dance for people to judge you don’t care
because they might take that chance
because it could lead you to unexpected
things it could lead you to happiness
honor your creative voice because your
creative voice matters thank you [Applause]
as you can see in this photo right here
I wasn’t I kind of kept to myself I was
an introvert and I had all these
creative ideas in my head but I didn’t
know how to do it I wasn’t confident I
wanted to express myself to the world I
come from a large to make a family with
13 uncles and aunts and one of my
uncle’s was the same age as me his name
was Danny and Danny’s the guy with the
striped shirt and I’m the guy with the
cowboy shirt on the Left Danny was the
office of me he had a chromatic
personality he was funny he was creative
and he was full of confidence and I
wanted that confidence and I didn’t have
it one day I was when I was 14 years old
I was visiting Danny and he was doing
that he was writing his name devs
everywhere devs devs devs and that’s not
his name devs devs and I said why are
you writing devs what does that mean he
said it’s graffiti and I’ve seen
graffiti on the streets but I didn’t
know what graffiti how it happened or
how it was done and I thought it was
interesting and he said to me if you
want to do it I can give you a name and
Danny said since you have this
personality kind of a perfectionist
right so maybe you should write finesse
right so I wrote finesse and just like
Danny riding it everywhere I wrote
finesse on my books on the car like
everywhere in my room everywhere was
finesse finesse finesse finesse finesse
and that’s that was what I became
finesse and it opened up this creative
world inside my mind it made me really
think creatively and that’s what
graffiti did for me it made me think
creatively so I learned from Danny but I
also learned from books and magazines
and one of the particular books that I
learned from was subway yard subway arts
the book that you’re looking at right
now and there’s a train below and it
said stop the bomb and I pause for a
second and I was like wait Danny told me
you have to write your name creatively
he didn’t tell me that graffiti can have
messages you can actually have a message
so the
was kind of stuck with me so all these
things that I’m learning from books and
from magazines I took that and I said
now it’s time for me to do my first
graffiti piece my first graffiti piece
somewhere in public space there was an
old forgotten basketball court down the
street from my house and I went to that
basketball court and I wrote finesse
right in the middle of the basketball
court I was happy I did my name finesse
I got arrested the Boston Globe used me
as an example to talk about how graffiti
was destroying neighborhoods I always
thought I was making this old run-down
basketball court better that’s what I
thought I was doing I was trying to
express myself and share this creativity
was since with inside of me but the
police didn’t see that my mother was
upset she was really mad my stepfather
was pissed we raised you to be this good
kid but why are you getting arrested
they didn’t understand and I didn’t
really understand what I was doing so I
had to change my name because I couldn’t
write finesse anymore so I changed it to
vice which stands for visually intercept
in society’s emotions one image at a
time that’s what Vice one stands for
that and that’s what I changed my name
to and I said how could I use this skill
and use it productively so a friend of
mine named George he was another
graffiti riot and he was going to
college for this thing called graphic
design and he was saying graphic design
is very related to graffiti because
you’re taking letter forms and you’re
trying to do it very creatively and I
said I understand that connection so I
went to mass colleges I got applied for
it and I got accepted and I was excited
I was like I’m finally going to college
for the first time and while I was at
college I met this professor his name
was Chaz Malan Davies and Chaz changed
my mind so Chaz was an international
poster designer from Zimbabwe and he
used his design as a weapon to make
change in the world and in his community
and Chaz taught us that design isn’t
just about
you know making a beautiful website or
making a beautiful magazine like subway
ought the magazine I love but design can
be out design can be about sharing a
message to the world and that was
similar to the Train that I saw and I’m
like wait this is not what I thought it
was maybe I can do that so this is the
first work of art that I did when I was
in college one of the in what these
posters series are is asking community
members to get the fight back for their
community asking people to fight back
for the community because criminals are
changing their names and changing these
communities into bad places and I
thought that I needed to make change and
get people to think about that so after
doing more research about the community
and things that I was upset about I saw
it I found this statistic through
reading and it said teenage homicides
have quadruple din the last ten years
and I was like teenagers this is where I
learned graffiti when I was a teenager
and I thought how my uncle inspired me
to be creative what if I can make these
teenagers think creatively and be around
creative mentors like my uncle was for
me so I got a small loan from Capital
One I pretty much maxed out my credit
card and I purchased 300 water guns on
these water guns had toe tags what you
would put on a dead body and it says
your name could be on this line and when
you flip the what it’s you flip the toe
tag over it says your name could be on
this rhyme zoomix a youth program for
you and what I wanted kids to realize
that by being going to the zoo makes
which is a nonprofit to help kids learn
about music and actually get paid for it
they could be around creative mentors
like I was and do something creative to
occupy the time instead of thinking
about guns in conflict with one another
so after doing all this work learning
about graffiti and doing this project
that was successful I was on a complete
hi I was like I’m using design not to
get arrested but to actually impact
people in my community and I
I couldn’t believe it I got a phone call
on October 2nd 2011 for my uncle Barry I
actually missed the phone call I heard a
voice message said I wanted to tell you
this in person
Danny passed away the person who
inspired me to do what I’m doing what my
life died I was devastated
I felt like everything just fell on the
ground my organs just fell out my body I
remember saying to myself Danny’s not
dead Danny’s not dead there’s no way and
I said I have to do something I have to
do some and it really changed my life
it made me goes I need to be doing this
work more I need to be able to use this
to change people’s life like Danny
changed mine and one of the things Danny
had in his room was the street sign if
you look in the back it’s circled it’s a
bus sign and that bus sign was a sign
that kind of connected me to Danny so I
said I need to do something that Kimura
Mart moralize his life so I created this
street sign that says dev zone which was
Danny’s graffiti name and me and Jason
of a neighborhood friend hung the sign
in front of the house where I learned
how to do graffiti which impacted my
life and where we lived in Boston this
is my way from moralizing Danny’s life
this sign is still there five years
later and people in the community look
at that as a sign to connect back to
Danny as I grew and thought about this
work and how can i impact and teach
people how to be creative like how I was
taught by Danny to be creative and
inspire my life I wanted to have people
be inspired to be creative because I
think creativity can lead to great
things so at the time people were saying
you should apply for this grant it was a
hundred thousand dollar grant to do some
type of community project to connect
with your community and at the time I
was really busy and I was like I can’t
apply for I’ve never flied for a hundred
thousand dollar grant Yeah right
$100,000 I don’t even know how to start
at the time I met my partner Julia auth
who had the same vision for me to use
art as a tool to connect with community
and Julia said why aren’t you applying
for this grant you’ve done so
much what you’ve done it and I said
maybe I am and she made me realize I
need to apply so within three days I put
all the paperwork figured out what I did
it didn’t know and applied for this
grant and I was a finalist and I won and
my vision was to have a if I could bring
this art with the water guns or with
some type of creative in all these
different places like an ice-cream truck
and give art to the community so I
created this thing called the up truck
me and Julia and it was a way to connect
with people inspire them to be creative
and twenty years later I was featured on
the front page of the Boston Globe the
same newspaper that said I was
destroying my community I was improving
my community and you know the tool I
used spray paint these tools I learned
through graffiti and this is what we do
in the middle of street and people are
complete strangers they always say I
can’t do that I’m not an artist and then
look what they create kids adults all
different ages they’re transformed in
this one second and then it’s there for
10 to 20 minutes and they come back and
they share stuff to me we drew this look
what I drew look at my kid drew and we
asked him what type of art do you want
in your community we play games with
them to have conversations and have them
express their selves and people tell me
stories about their lives that I would
not known and I realized the value in
these conversations I won dominoes
dominoes and we have fun right in the
middle of the street conversations
people coming together being creative
and we bring in kids together with the
police at a time where people think they
don’t feel safe around police so after
doing all this work and connecting
people I said what is my work what is
Cedric Douglas vice ones work and I love
doing murals I love doing those
basketball courts but I’ve learned a lot
of these different skills and I wanted
to transfer it to bigger spaces I want
it to be bigger than life
so I started so I got commissioned by
Northeastern University to this mural
and this mural is about taking me back
to that innocent child where I picked up
that can and entered
world of creativity when I wrote finesse
and that’s a piece at Northeastern this
piece is talking about so a lot of times
black women received as in a sexual
looked sexual or looked in a negative
light so this piece is kind of show a
black woman as madonna and looking in a
positive right in a futuristic way
that’s inland mass this is in virginia
norfolk virginia and it’s the same thing
about bringing races together and
this is a piece in peabody and it’s a
grandmother and a black child and it’s
about growth and bringing people
together between races I was in Miami
for an international art festival and
this artists from all over the world
doing street art doing these large-scale
murals and Julie and I were doing a
mural about maybe five blocks three
blocks from this particular part of
Winwood there was someone came up to and
said did you hear the kid died the kid
died we’re like what kid died what are
you talking about I think he’s dead he
got hit by a car the police ran him over
and we’re like what and I could picture
myself being that graffiti kid and what
if I died and I was what and what the
kids dead what happened was he doing it
and I’m just like and me and Julie were
talking about how during Art Basel
there’s all these pitiful murals but
there’s a lot of things going on in the
world that no one’s talking about and
we’re like why aren’t people talking
about that and then we hear this nose I
had to think about Danny and connect
that and I said I want to honor this
guy’s life demme’s dilbert rodriguez and
we hung the sign at the same site where
he died and it’s a memorial people don’t
go to graveyards but it’s in the
community in that spot to be remembered
a place for people to remember his life
so I did this one tip for Terrence
Coleman he was a young black man that
got killed had mental disability he
called his mother called and he got
killed during that phone call and I
created these tools of protests for
people to prou
Tess what’s going on in their
communities and then I got this
residency for Emerson and the residency
was how could you know you should do
whatever project you want and then I
wanted to talk about this in more in a
larger scale so I took 400 red roses and
it and then on the red rose it says in
the last ten five years a thousand black
men were killed in the middle of the
street and we passed them out to people
and it was touching people really felt
this and we had a procession in the band
and we went out that’s my story I have
seen firsthand the value of honoring
your creative abilities and what it can
do you have to listen to that voice no
matter what you’re doing if it’s saying
I want to play that musical instrument
but you never want to take it out the
closet and play you want to go fix that
classical car that’s sitting in the
driveway all do it whenever tie and no
do it now you want to go dance your food
because you’re the first person in the
dance for people to judge you don’t care
because they might take that chance
because it could lead you to unexpected
things it could lead you to happiness
honor your creative voice because your
creative voice matters thank you [Applause]
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