Today, twin brothers Kristopher and Keagoe Stith are, respectively, a graphic designer based in Washington, DC, and a visual arts teacher in Brooklyn, New York. But in 2004, when Rhonda happened to be their summer camp director, they were your typical middle school boys growing up in the nation’s capital: curious, savvy, and obsessed with drawing. Our conversation picks up from there...
Show Notes:
Outtake of Kris & Keogoe's take on women getting dap. Yes or no?
https://soundcloud.com/user-882642710/outtake-season-2-episode-4-kris-and-keagoe-dap-with-women/s-d34QKGNC5DS
About Duke Ellington School of the Arts
https://www.ellingtonschool.org/
Diversity at Cooper Union
https://cooper.edu/about/initiatives/diversity-task-force
History and Evolution of Barry Farms
https://www.dcpolicycenter.org/publications/barry-farm-anacostia-history/
Dap and Gentrification:
To many Black men, dap means “I see you.” When DC was Chocolate City, that meant seeing mostly Black people in your daily life. In 1970, 70.1% of the population identified as black. Now, half a century and sustained urban redevelopment later, only 48% of the population identifies as black. In 2019, the National Community Reinvestment Study reported DC had the highest intensity of gentrification of any US city from the year 2000 to 2013, where 20,000 Black people were displaced from their neighborhoods mostly by affluent white people. (https://ncrc.org/gentrification/). So in an environment where you might feel increasingly invisible, do you put a little more into the dap when you’re finally seen? Or is it even that black and white?
