I had the pleasure of interviewing brother paw, photographer and author of ‘lemonade.’ Please take note that I use pronouns he/him/they/them to refer to the artist in this piece and when citing or making mention of the artist, please adhere with said pronouns. I met brother paw only a couple of months after I saw their Haute couture-like photos on social media. Their online presence effused high arts and fashion bravura with virtual profiles that exuded worldly travel. During their second-year university experience, they travelled to countries in Europe such as Italy, Spain and Turkey where their creative expression luxuriated. They’ve also been highly influenced by the creative works of Maya Angelou whom they discovered as a child while watching the Tyler Perry film ‘Madea’s Family Reunion’ where Maya Angelou herself guest starred and quoted her poetry. Prefacing our friendship, I discovered that their artistic itinerary included the book ‘lemonade.’, photography and blogging. To say the least, his effervescent social media presence reflected his creative competency. They were an artist. An artist whose work convokes the black experience with art while also delving into Liberating theology. An artist whose work reflects issues of relationships, love, race, culture, gender, religion and sex, all taken from the perspective of a Jamaican poet and activist. brother paw often states that the lack of representation that he absorbed growing up inspired him to produce his work. Before brother paw, he was only Malique Dawkins. A boy who grew up in the terrains of Stony Hills in a family of three. ‘We grew up in a small little apartment in Stony Hills, but it was amazing. It was really cool… It was nice.’ They lived there until the age of 12 when their family moved closer into the city. ‘I didn’t have to wake up as early,’ he chuckles about his new home. ‘But I did miss Stony Hill. It was my home; it was where I grew up.’ His mother, recently divorced, possibly shared similar sentiments. Maybe stronger ones. This recent locomotion served as her official notice as the matriarch of the household. She was suddenly stricken with the responsibility of fostering a household, a familiar bid that women in our society are often challenged with. Most of us can attest to watching our mothers and grandmothers’ tapping into generational lore to raise nations. ‘As hard as it was, my little sister and I never went to bed hungry and my mother made sure of that,’ Malique posits. ‘Uhh…’ he pauses reflectively. ‘It was really hard, you know? But we were fed every day. Our basic needs were always met. And I found that I needed to step up to help my mom. She needed help and as the older sibling, I needed to be there for her.’ Consequently, Malique’s role in the family now embodied that of a protector. He took on the plight of taking care of his little sister, albeit only a year younger, and his mother. He avoided asking for anything outside the family’s desideratum because he couldn’t intrude on their needs, he wouldn’t. Life was different. Life was harder. Life was scary. And, as many of us usually have a singular, defining moment that makes or breaks our character, Malique was prematurely faced with his. His mother conceivably recognised this. Whether consciously or not, she decided that her son would not be broken by the consequences of a choice he had no hand in. Her direct resolution came to light when she began coercing her son to read. Now, this may not seem like a solution to many. How would this fix anything? But if you peek at the average reading levels of little black boys in our society today, and where they inevitably end up, you can agree that it was a tenable gift to her son. ‘I started reading way more! I developed this incredible love and appreciation for novels and poetry, just books overall…To the point where my mom had to yell at me to stop reading so I could study,’ he chuckled as he recalls his ab initio reading experiences. His submersion into the world of reading eventually led him into becoming who we all know today as brother paw. ‘brother paw is always written in common letters,’ he corrects me after I had just made the error. ‘Why?’ I ask. ‘Because I never believe that I’m above someone else. We’re all just on one level’ he explains. I became intrigued. I searched for his book, ‘lemonade.’ and sure enough on the cover, lies the distinction. This is brother paw’s first book published in 2018. ‘lemonade.’ is an autobiographical anthology of poems structured as prose poetry and free verses. ‘My poems basically write themselves,’ they explain.  Much like the prolific writers Stephanie Meyers author of ‘Twilight’, Mary Shelley author of ‘Frankenstein’ and E.B. White author of ‘Stuart Little’, brother paw’s words often come to them in dreams. They might also jump out at them in arbitrary, everyday situations. Mystically, most of his poems are premonitory. paw will often envision himself performing his poems before they’re written and after they’ve been transcribed, the dreams come true. His premonitions often sketch themselves into poems and sign themselves to a close with an ending title. Hence, his poetry guides him rather than the other way around ‘My writing process is very spiritual,’ paw states. ‘My process helps with my understanding of God. It helps with my understanding of self.’ The first poem of ‘lemonade.’ is decorated with lines of finding and discovering oneself.

this is a story
of a boy who
lost everything and everyone
but found himself

While he inherited his artistic abilities from his father who was a stage actor and grandfather who was a reggae artist, his very spiritual side comes from his mother. As a liberating theologian who often blogs about his religious and spiritual beliefs, he holds strong opinions about religion, some of which have caused disparities with religious adherents. As a liberating theologian, he uses biblical principles and the work of other liberating theologians to invoke advocacy. It is more humanistic and doesn’t see God’s love as restrictive or lawful but liberating. His views about gender identity and queerness also encompass a weight of his religious dogmas that doesn’t line up with traditional Christian views. ‘I’ve had garbage thrown at me for poetry I’ve written. They don’t like what I’m saying, or they don’t understand it. They interpret my words in such a way that leads them to carry out hateful deeds.’ Despite being met with strong contempt from people within the religious community, paw still strongly adheres to the belief that God is love. He believes that God is a part of all things, even love between identical genders. He categorizes himself as a Christian but one that highlights love amid everything. He often points out that the two most important rules within his religion are to love God and love your neighbour which intrinsically leads you into loving yourself. ‘You can show people who God is through them. Every action that I take must be rooted in love, everything I say and do should depict love, which always leads me back to God.

“do you believe in god?” 
i believe in us 
“what’s your sexual preference” 
the soul 
"what are your pronouns?” 
love, joy, peace 
“who do you love?” 
everyone, and everything 
because everything is love 
 - love is the answer 

He believes that morality and goodness are not based on a lot of the church’s ideologies such as sex, gender and dietary restrictions. These things he believes were legislated by man and not God. According to paw, the root of Christianity lies in caring, being compassionate and being empathetic. He also regularly practises fasting, praying, meditation and the burning of incense and sage.

the floor is the
 most humbling place there, 
on my knees 
do i perform my best work
 and service 
  - prayer

paw also spoke of receiving pushback in another place where he hardly expected it. Italy. Sure, we all hear the racist and xenophobic stories of the black experience in European countries before we get there. We try to prepare ourselves for possible slander, possible offhanded comments, the possible slur. But it is a completely different and overwhelming experience when you’re faced with it. During his second year, brother paw participated in a university exchange program where he moved to Italy for a semester. Here he discovered his love for teaching as he taught the English language to local students while studying English Literature and Theology. ‘Being in Italy was amazing. But what shocked me was the overwhelming racism. My own students called me a monkey. It was a big eye-opener. People can try to be so good to others and for others. But all this good might not change anything.’ In his piece ‘rotten to the core’ his lines display this frustration:

the world would be so much sweeter
if everyone weren’t so salty

He realized that within the European countries that he travelled to; the black body was not properly represented. While the white body is encompassed as art, worshipped for its ethereal beauty through paintings, photographs and sculptures, the black body was either absent or subjugated to merely an object. There has been a worldwide struggle to incorporate black art that isn’t shadowed by slavery or struggle into notable museums. At first, there was a struggle to get black art recognized in the art community. However, a movement brewing in the 1960s would soon change all this. It started with the Black Arts Movement that surged in the United States during the 60s. It co-occurred along the Black Power Movement, a political and social crusade for racial pride, self-sufficiency, and equality for all people of the black race. This movement was so powerful that it permanently jarred the cultural landscape of the western world. It revolutionized black art and literature, eventually birthing contemporary artists like Basquiat who changed the game for contemporary black art. However, paw has expressed contempt about not seeing enough representation of black bodies as art. He wants to help fill this gap within the art community by shooting photos that represent the black body as art which has influenced all his photoshoots thus far. He has decided to channel the racism and pushback that he experienced within Europe into his art. It’s like the saying goes when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. ‘My grandma made lemonade. by mixing water, sugar, lemon and, her special ingredient, love. Her lemonade. came out beautifully every time. I decided that this was how I wanted to live my life and create my art.’ Each ingredient represents a different chapter of the book, ‘lemonade.’. The sugar represents all the sweet things in life. The water represents the tears and the healing. The lemon represents all the sour turmoil but necessary things in life. Finally, the love represents all the…well, love. It ends with love because love brings all things together. There’s always plenty of sourness to write about, to think about, to dwell on. But there’s always the option of lemonade. and who wouldn’t want that?

coated in sugar
doused in water
bathed in lemon
perfumed with love
this is a story
about a soul who
found a boy
and the two became one
flower.
 - lemonade.

‘What do you want people to take away from all your work?’ I ask in finality. He paused and thought for a second. ‘That above all, love is the cure. That there are so many perspectives to life and people who are being hurt by our actions. This isn’t right, and we must do all we can to help those who may be less privileged than us, despite their background of race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.’ You can find paw’s book, ‘lemonade.’ on Amazon and his photography on Instagram @paawtography