From GED to PhD with Austin Dean Ashford, Part 1

Texas Tech University doctoral student in interdisciplinary arts, Austin Dean Ashford, joins host Hayden Browning to discuss life, arts and what it takes to keep climbing mountains. 

From getting his GED to now finishing his PhD, Austin has had a lifetime full of experiences from singing to his grandmother to making Denzel Washington cry. You'll want to follow this man's talent from humble beginnings, to Broadway, to the international stage and beyond. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

There you go. Ford scored and seven poets ago. I'm here with Austin Ashford. He is a 21 National Date titleist, as well as poet, songwriter, and so much more. It's a pleasure to be here with you today.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hey, you're just awesome. You guys, I'm so happy to be here. What is up? And I'm with a young gentleman who's really good at his research, so get ready. We're about to dive on in. What are we gonna talk about today? So much. We got so much.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

I would love to start off by repeating the story about your grandmother and uh sleeping angel.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Oh, sleep angel. Oh, didn't bring the ook tags out of class. Um, so I have this song called Sleep Angel. And when I was going to Wiley College for undergrad, um, I was from California, but she lived in San Antonio, Texas. So I'd always fly from the Bay Area to San Antonio. I would always hang out with her for a week. Then I'd take the train from San Antonio to Marshall, Texas. Whenever the school semester was over, I'd take the train from Marshall, Texas to San Antonio. I'd hang out with her for a week, and then I'll go back to California. Whenever I did, I'd have the ukulele. And my grandmother was older, so she was sick, and she loved the San Antonio Spurs. So we'd watch a Spurs game and I played the Ukulele. And there's this song I have called Sleep Angel, and I would just play it to my grandmother. She would go to sleep. It was her favorite song. And uh, as she passed, I was like, man, am I gonna put the song on the project? And I was like, Yeah, because it's like it allows me to have a piece of my grandmother on my musical projects, and whenever I play it live, I just kinda always kinda still feel her there. It just reminds me that um I'm always being watched, I'm always being protected, and just reminds me how good God is. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

I that that speaking of God, I mean you tend to mention God quite a bit. I do and I really want to go into that because not a lot of people are willing to go into that with you, but a real not necessarily you know Christianity, but a religion in general benefits people because it allows them to have that walking on blind faith aspect, which is great. Absolutely. Um so I'd like to go into yours. Into mine, into mine. Uh what do you want to know? Just like how uh were you were you born up into it?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

I mean, yes, both of my parents are believers. We were raised in a church, had to go to Sunday school, Bible study, revival, choir, usher practice, um, all of the things, but I learned at a young age to have a relationship with God and also what the word meant as far as it being powerful. I also want to say because I mean I've definitely like lost my way and done all types of like, what are you doing? But it allows me to have a core value beliefs on how I should treat myself and how I should aspire to treat other people. And it gives me a lot of room to like grow every day. Let's me, it also gives me so much encouragement and confidence. I know people talk about like the condemning part or the messing up and then going to hell. For me, my relationship with God and even like reading the word as much as possible is it gives me a lot of confidence and faith and relaxation, knowing that I don't have to do it all or snot on my hands, but I have a lot of help.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Wow, that's so powerful. From Wiley College to even off Broadway, you have had so much amazing success. You worked very hard for success. What is your favorite milestone feat that you've accomplished?

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Favorite one? It's happening right now. The PhD is gonna be top. The PhD is gonna be top. And the reason I say that is because off-Broadway was was awesome. Um 21 National Championships, awesome. US NBC also is awesome, but I feel like when I look at the education thing, it's something for my family lineage. There's nobody who has my bloodline in their veins who's achieved that level of education. So I think of what does that do for everybody, my bloodline after me, and that to not be a uh untangible thing. Um, I'm really excited what that does for like the legacy of my family name for people who are coming after me. It doesn't have to be that exact same thing, but just of that caliber and that no longer being a thing that we haven't accomplished anymore. Um yeah, that's the most thing that I'm locked in now. Because even now, you know it sucks now. A lot of people get confused and I tell them, hey, I'm about to be done with my coursework. They're like, oh, so you're about to graduate and walk. I'm like, oh yeah, you don't know how this PhD thing works. Uh coursework just means that I don't have to sit in the classroom. I still have to do my core exams, which is my exams from all the different disciplines. So I have to take an exam, a verbal exam, and a presentation with an art professor, a music professor, a theater professor, and a philosophy fester. Wow. They ask me three major questions, and I have to give a 45-minute presentation with a 30-minute cross-examination. That's one test that's I have to do. Wow. Then I still have to do my qualls, and that's your written where I have to read 10,000 pages of literature that's approved by members of my committee, and I have to give 4,000 to 5,000 word responses to each one of the three questions. That's the second part of the exams. I still have to turn in my dissertation proposal and defend my dissertation. So then you get to become the doctor. So I feel bound. People are like, oh, Austin, you're finally done, let's go finish your coursework. I was like, You have no idea. You have no idea. But I think a lot of the heavy lifting is the coursework. So, like, even doing like the writing for the quads or the writing for the dissertation, defending, I did all, I'm able to do that now because I did all the previous work. So I thought that feels so much lifting. So much more. And I also feel like I'm just still honest. So people are like, oh, what's the most challenging thing? It's like, no, this stuff is challenging, but this is like the most like challenging thing up to date. I feel like after this, a wise man once told me, you know, you put um 30 to learn and then you get 30 to earn. So I'm thinking I'm kind of wrapping up on my 30 to learn so I can start getting to my 30 to earn, you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Uh, you are so humble. I can compare you to the same great lyricist with uh with ways of character and cadence like Cole and Duckworth. What are some what are some of the ways you never let attention change you?

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Everything's an opinion. Whether it's an accolade or a critique. Whether somebody says you're absolutely horrible, that's just their opinion. But also if somebody says you're absolutely phenomenal, that's just their opinion. Um and those things come and go, you gotta take them all with a grain of salt. I think another thing that keeps me so humble is knowing that there's elevation of levels and going to different like valleys of mountains. I think the one thing that sucks so bad is everybody, like even when you name people who like are the number one. Oh, I'm the I'm the number one rapper, I'm the number one singer, I'm the number one actor. They get to the top of that mountain and they sit there. I think what's important in process and learning is you go through that valley to get to that mountaintop and you see that beautiful view. You don't just stand on top of that mountain and be like, oh, I'm on top of this mountain, I run it. It's a oh, I'm aware I can make it to this mountaintop. I am now excited and prepared to go into another valley to maybe go to another higher mountain because I know my capability is different. So I think what keeps me humble is knowing that there is a world full of mountains that I have yet to be able to climb. And just because I climbed one, uh, that just means I should look at it as like, oh, that's a beautiful thing that I have the experience and the know-how to know that I can climb a mountain, but never say get too comfortable with climbing that one. Because once you get to the top of a mountain, you're like, dang, there's other higher ones in like other distance and horizons, and you kind of cheat yourself by just staying on top of the mountain that you work for that one season, life is in seasons. So if you keep talking about the great things that you did a while ago, you're still living there. That's supposed to just be proof that you can do more. I try to remind myself that alkalades or results are only checkpoints, not like final destinations. Wow. That was great.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Uh off of that, this weekend I spent time being embarrassingly bad at guitar. What's something you currently are bad at but want to get great at?

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Um, I'm on I want to say um independent artist uh administration. And that's another thing that I'm glad I'm learning from this program is I'm able to go do many, so many classes with arts administration. I'm preparing right now, I'm about to drop an album, a physical book, a digital book, an audio book, a cartoon, and I'm going on tour all in the span of like the next three months. That's crazy. And ending it with a residency with the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC for my new stuff. You're working so hard. Sometimes not enough. Um, but I think being able to do all the things I learned with arts administration is who are your collaborators in what city and what are you doing? Who is part of the design team, who's part of the creative team, what type of budgeting are you actually doing? So how do I do all this stuff? But it's like, no, you gotta pull out numbers, you have to pull out the Excel sheet, you have to literally do every single line item, and what does that uh mean? It makes you value a lot of people who are in administration. Well, you don't have a label or you don't have like a manager or agent, you have to do all of those things independently. So I think some people look at me and they're like, oh man, it's like a great performer. How's he doing all this touring? It's like I literally have to get on the call, I have to call the venue in New York, I have to call the venue in Boston, I have to call the venue in Atlanta, I have to call the venue in Oakland, I have to call the venue in LA, I have to call the venue in Tulsa, call the venue in Leopick, call the venue in Dallas, call them, call the collaborator, who's the DJ, who's the opener, what's the theme, what's the venue, what's the flyer, how much does it cost? What's the lighting? Who's doing video? Who's doing pictures? Okay, for that city, then that city, then that city, or we're doing an album, who's doing the drums for this song, who's doing the guitar for this song, who's doing background vocals for this song, who's mixing, who's mastering, who's doing the flyer, what date does that come out? Which press kit does that come out? Oh, we're doing a book, okay. Um, what are the chapters? Um, what are the designs for the book? Are there pictures in the book? Is it playwriting? Is it screenwriting? Uh we're doing an audiobook. How are we gonna record the audiobook? What date is the audio book? We're doing a cartoon, what are the visuals for the cartoon? How are we getting to move? How are we doing the animation? Um, but having all of these things in place of what is the date? What is the calendar? Do you have a perk chart? What's your swap? Strengths, weaknesses, obstacles, threats. Do you all of these things I'm learning from administration allow me to look like a smooth oil machine because I'm learning about how important administration is as artists? You're also looking at risk management, you know. Risk management. Absolutely, absolutely. Um, but I I I think with that being the challenge right now, it's also letting me know I'm excited to learn that now because if I'm learning this now independently, I'll be able to be in a comfortable place where, like, oh, my art actually pays my bills the same way someone who is a plumber or an electrician and they run that company business, the paperwork together, the same way that they look at that, I try to humbly look at myself as people who are private contractors or private vendors and have their own company, but their books are good. You know, like if you have a plumbing company, your books are good, a roofing company, your books are good. If I want to be an artist, I have to make sure my books are good. So it's a challenge, but I'm excited to be like, okay, now I'm able to learn about like tax write-off, business credit. Do I have the EIN? Do I have the LLC? What am I writing off? What am I not writing off? Where's the income? Am I doing the QuickBooks? Am I doing taxes? The B9. And people don't want to hear this when you're doing an artist and you're doing all of that. You're like, oh, I can feasibly, feasibly get this. I can look at royalties, I can look at performance rights, I can look at ticket sales, I can look at merchandise. So it was challenging in the beginning, but now that I'm where I'm at, I'm like, oh, I don't have to be signed or part of another entity for me to do this if I actually do the work. It's difficult in the beginning, but after a while, I'm like, oh, I have this Excel sheet. Now it's a template. I just gotta update it with the new stuff. I have a press kit, I just have to update it now. I have this relationship, we just have to follow up now. Um, so it was challenging in the beginning, but now that I've seen it, I'm like, oh, I could see the possibility of me scaling so much more. Because I can't really see myself scaling when I don't know all that stuff. But now that I know so much about the arts of and also the administration part makes collaboration so easy. So as much as like, oh, it's difficult when you don't know all of that simple. When you start to learn how administrators um work, collaboration code is easy because you know what they need and how to help them in order for them to help you. Gotcha. That's actually really incredible.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

I've never thought about that back part of being an artist. Oh, yeah. That's so important. The team. Um, so I want to go ahead and ask you this question. Um, I did a little bit of research to get here. Um so uh how has Moby Dick had influence on?

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Oh, he did go in there! You guys, we gotta give extra credit. That was good. That was good. He dig deep in there. Okay. I want to give a big shout out to Moby Dick and Herman Helville. Uh shout out to Dr. Hamilton when I was an undergrad in English at Wiley College. I had a doctor, I've been having doctoral professors since my undergraduate degree, so it's so funny that I'm here. The reason why Moby Dick was so awesome, because it was like, he was having us read like Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and I'm like, okay, man. And then he was like, well, there's like this genreless book. I said, genreless? Talk to me. What do you mean, genreless? Less of genre, something we can't we can't put our hands on the form. I like this idea. What is this? And the reason why Moby Dick is so good is because it's prose, it's fiction, it's poetry, it's narrative, it has playwriting in it. There's so many different forms of literature that that one piece has, but it still tells one singular story. And I was like, oh, also when I was doing speech and debate, there was an event called POI, Program Oral Interpretation. So there's events like prose or poetry where you really focus on prose or poetry, but program and program oral interpretation was so good because it introduced me into interdisciplinary fine arts, because it was the one event where you would take multiple forms of literature to make a singular argument, kind of like Moby Dick. So, how can you grab from this poem, this song, this news article, this journal um entry, this academic essay, this movie, this film, and put all this stuff together to make one argument. So I was learning how to do that in speech and debate, but I never had a piece of literature that was doing that that I liked. So then Moby Dick came around, I was like, oh snap. I like how people are because you know, I don't want to say like my attention is short, but I'm more interested when things are blended. So after that thing with like Moby Dick, everything else in like undergraduate English, it was vaguely like, I'm like, whatever, I'm just locking in on this because this is awesome. From then I got into theater and I was like, okay, I'm starting to understand. The book kind of helped me understand theater interdisciplinary because I was like, all right, we're watching theater, music theater, but there's music in here, there's poetry in here, there's dance in here, there's prose parts, and there's dialogue. This is kind of like, oh, okay. So now I'm in the PhD program, like, oh, this is interdisciplinary fine arts. I'm like, what makes it so interdisciplinary? Like, you can use literature, theater, oh, so you can use all these forms and mediums and disciplines, integrate them together to make one solidified argument. I'm like, dang, we are back to Moby Dick again, which is awesome because the first book that I'm finishing that comes out on July 22nd, plug, um, is called Sophista Ratchet, but it's my book where I actually blend stage writing, screen writing, I do physical art drawings that are also within there. There's original music and all fits around one narrative story. And Moby Dick really kind of for me made that interesting. So I'm like, man, I like art that makes me say, Oh, I could just take the poem in this and just this is a good poem, or just take the song and this is good. But if I put it together, it all leans up to this really cool like narrative story universe. So I think I liked about Moby Dick is it allowed it to be like multi-mixed media interdisciplinary, but it built a universe where all these different pieces fit in one story. Man, you did really good fine. I I love that book. That's like that helps me like I hope to create something that challenges that piece at one time.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

I I think you you already are. Um Thanks. The work for all proofs to shine through your demeanor, but more specifically, you intend to help benefit uh young black men in the education system. Would you say you want to help better the environment of the school for them as well, as the world can be a terrifying place?

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Yeah, I think this is what makes me sad. I think school is one of the greatest ideas ever. I think we've lost faith in school. And I don't think we're I'm standardized testing has made us so competitive that there's other things that human beings need to learn and grasp and have a time to grasp and be able to explore. I just don't I think it's funny, as much as we're a capitalistic society, we don't capitalize on how education can benefit us. Um because when you get older, you don't have a designated time where somebody's saying, We're gonna focus on your growth and development on this topic. And even now when we do that, people don't get that untampered, like actual time to lock in. Because school is one of the best ways somebody can start knocking out a lot of their time or their 10,000 hours. Shout out to Outliers and Malcolm Gladwell. You gotta put in your 10,000 hours. But I also feel like school just needs support because society is so much more advanced with the technology we have, the programs we have. Like, if we're able to make athletes like LeBron James be able to be in the game that much longer through technology and payment, how much more effective can we be for like schools and students? Like kids should really be coming out smarter and more encouraged than each generation, and right now we're not doing that. So I think a lot of that has to do with it's gonna sound so bad, but we just have to reshift the way this sounds bad. It's top down. So we have to rechange the way that faculty and administration of the teachers feel about their jobs, so then when they start to go into the classroom and work with students, that'll affect how students are starting to feel about the work. But it's that weird middle space where they're not really being taken care of, so that messes up resources, that messes up lesson plans, that messes up activities, that messes up excitement. So then, like the students are there, and then everybody in the faculty administration teaching portion is like kind of off. So everybody's in a survival mode. I think when we can get education out of survival mode and more into thriving mode, we will definitely have a better world. Um, and I like to be a part of that. But I mean we have to be willing to like take some risk. I think, you know, I'm very heavy on how are we gonna put the arts and STEAM in the STEM. I think we have better scientists when scientists are artists. We have better technicians and mathematicians and engineers when they're better artists because artists have to find a way to come up with creative solutions with specific boundaries and teamwork. But right now we're not even we're not even like cultivating that. But I also think education doesn't always have to be like career and trade. Um like, man, we gotta teach people how to like finance. Simple finance stuff. People really don't know simple stuff like how to budget, how to do tax, why not to mess up on your credit score? Like those simple things. Some people really just don't know how to cook, how to do the yard, like simple stuff that they might not get at the house that education can offer that could be fun that you could like. I think everybody's always focused on this is the one career things like no. Use education to help you navigate happiness through life. Not just saying I'm using education to get this one job. Because you get that job, you still didn't find out how to become a happy person. So when people like, oh, you should only focus on this one major, like, no, no, no. You could you should one have like these three or four ideas that you would like to generate money off of for sure. But their education should also help you like, oh, these ideas help me deal with some of my attachment issues. These type of ideas will help me, like, how do I become an independent person on now? I know how to pay my bills, I know how to clean my house, I know a couple of traits, I know how to work with people. I think those things matter too, but everything's all shifty. And I'd like to help. I think the cool things too is as much as I'm okay, I'm excited with helping the developmental kids who failed because I was one of them. I think a lot of the honors and AP students get a lot of credit, but I I would love to help the people who are about to give up and show them like you really just need one thing to bring you in every day. Just one thing that keeps you consistent. It could be anything to keep you consistent. It might be that the teacher or counselor just smiles or says something affirming to you. At least you're coming in every day. I mean, anybody does. If you're doing like a gym or you're working out, you might not be the best at working out, but if you can be consistent, go into the gym. For some people, it's a cute girl there. For some people, it's a specific machine that they like there. For some people, it's the smoothie shop right next to the gym. So they go to the gym just to go, but you need a thing that'll help you be consistent, and we can't find that right now.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

So that's what I'm worried about. Well, I will say that you are an advocate, most definitely, and I think you strive to be one, but you are because um I found myself recently thinking of you whenever I'm doing something that might be hard for me to do, but I know I have to do it, and that enables me to love the process of the action, more or less, uh, enjoy the outcome of it as well.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

I definitely say, you know what's funny after time, there's nothing wrong with having goals. I love goals, and I think goals are better than dreams because um goals are just dreams with the date on it. But at the end of you know when you get like really successful and you have a lot of success and you get that oh, you are the best in the country, you are the best in the world, that plastic. Metal thing, it's just a memory. You really remember, like, oh, I was working with this coach every single day. I was working with this director every single day. I was eating a certain way. My mind was a certain way. I was developing this certain way. All of that part, that process is the beautiful part that to me, when I come to an end of something, I'm more so like, ah, I miss that process in that routine, maybe more so than the championship or certificate at the end. You're just like, I worked hard. And it's beautiful to have something that you work hard that you're proud of. Oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

A hundred percent. I caught myself thinking about that the other day.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Like you and this guitar, man, you like what this would be time watch. You're gonna be playing the car and you're gonna be really, really good. You're like, dang, this isn't even as fun as when I was learning to get good. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

I'll sit there for an hour and I'll I'll struggle and I'll be like, I actually learned that.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Yes! But when you play with ease, you're just kind of like it's too easy. Yeah, yeah, we're like, they actually loved struggling over it a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's where it comes into play. You playing it versus making it. Yeah. Two completely different things. But why don't we touch into your your time in Fayetteville, Arkansas? Razorbacks. I'd love to get into that, most definitely.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Razorbacks. Fayetteville, Arkansas was a shocker coming from Marshall, Texas. So I was in a small town, it was a small HBCU, and then I went to a school that was larger, and I was I had like I don't have any like black teachers or classmates or anything. So I was like, oh man, but I'm also like an SEC school. So I'm like, oh man, we're playing like Alabama and Georgia every week, and people are coming from all over the town to like this. I'm like, oh, I am at finally like a big football SEC school. Um, but it was also difficult because um Denzo Washington just crowned me this new person, and I'd never did theater before. But I'm having a degree in a full-rise scholarship to go do theater. So I'm like, oh man, this is gonna be tough. But I actually really loved the process because since I wasn't having to be on the debate team anymore, I was already playing music. I was like, okay, me doing theater kind of allows me to slide into music more with it feeling a little bit more cohesive and aligned, and it allowed me to do a lot more writing with it feeling cohesive and aligned. The writing professor saw me, he was like, Hey, do you want to pursue the writing degree at the same time? So I because I had gotten the into the program to be an actor, and they saw some of my writing and they knew I went to some awards, like, do you want to be in the playwriting program too? I was like, so I could go for two masters at the same time. They're like, Yeah, if you can handle the work. I was like, Yeah, I can handle the work. So I'm in the class with all the playwriting students, and I'm like, I'm writing like crazy and doing so playwriting full-time, then I'm doing acting full time with all of the actors, and then I'm also working um at the local death row penitentiary in Arkansas with some guys who are on death row. They were writing poems that we then turned into plays, and then we were trying to do the plays outside the prison while I'm doing music. Um second semester comes around, I mean they're like, Oh, they're not really producing numbers like this. We don't know, you know, how I'm gonna stay there. Then I finally made Island Trap. That saved me. Uh there was a director in the program who saw it as working, he was like, I want to make your program like my directing thesis. I was like, really? Like, yeah. At the end of the first semester, we did the play, and then the whole program was there and they're watching, they're like, Oh, this kid is good. He just made a he just made a one-person show, turning it into 13 characters, beatboxing, rapping, playing the ukulele and adapted to classical literature, and he hasn't even been here 365 days.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

And it all flows.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

And it flowed. And then they're like, let's see what he got, let's put him in some competitions. So I'm sitting there like, there's acting competitions, like I had the speech of debate competitions, there's the poetry competitions, there's acting competitions. And they're like, Yeah. Um, you're gonna be going against like Yale, Juilliard, and NY. Y'all was like, oh, the same schools I didn't get into, huh? This is interesting. Okay. Um But first I had to get out of the this region six, so I had to compete against Big Texas Tech Wreckham. Y'all are tough too. Um had to go against Oklahoma, they were tough too. And they're doing full production. So I'm going against musicals of people doing like full-fledged, like 3040 cast, dancing lights, um crew, and then it's like, all right, Austin, it's your turn, do your play. And you just see like me on stage. And then the lighting goes. With a little luggage got follow me, I got my ukulele, and I'm getting like these standing ovations, and I'm winning all of these awards. Like, alright, let's take it to the next round. So I finally get to go to nationals. I'm going against like the Yale Jewelry, and I'm looking these people in the eyes. I'm like, ah, so you guys are in the programs I couldn't get into. Okay. If you work really hard, no matter where you are, you'll be able to compete with anybody in the world. Because it's not really about where you're trained, it's what did you do with your time and the space. So at first I was like, man, I'm really intimidating seeing these people. Then I'm looking at their plays and stuff, and I was like, Oh, you guys didn't work. You guys didn't practice, practice, practice. You guys kind of lead on the fact of you're in the big city, you see big stuff. You probably talk about the work, but you don't do like the work. So I was like so excited when I went up there because I'm like, no, every day I practice nonstop while people are doing like their full plays and they're working on the same like no. I literally walk around being multiple characters all day, transition, shifting. I'm walking around playing the music. I'm changing lines, I'm changing literally all day non-stop. And I was like, oh, what it taught me was, and after we went to that festival and we won and we bought them and got all these awards, I was like, oh, it doesn't matter if I go to a big brand name school. It doesn't matter if I have a big agent or a big opportunity. Wherever I'm at, as long as I walk in on the work, I was like, oh, then that's true because Marshall, Texas, Wiley College wasn't big, and we beat a lot of people, but we just focused really hard in Marshall, Texas. And that one won Best One Mat Show off Broadway that same year. He was like, all right, let's put you against the big dolls outside of school. How can you do outside of school? So I'm nervous. It's like everybody did in New York? I was like, no, but you know, that's like the Mecca theater. So I'm like, all right, the big people. And they're like, you know, you gotta sell your own tickets. So it's not like I'm doing a show in New York, and people's gonna come. No, you gotta call everybody and see if people can come and beg people to come. And professors are calling their friends, and school people calling their friends. So we sold out the show. The people who run the whole festival came. We won the best one-man show against 400 shows. And I was like, dang, this first play has won so much, but I'm now I'm only in my second year. So I was like, Damn, I gotta make another play. What are we gonna do? I was like, oh, talk about speech and debate, black book. You met Denzel Washington, bro. Let's do it. So we made another one about Denzel Washington. This time I worked with the director, uh Dexter Singleton. Phenomenal. First time I had like a black director help me. Um he's in Connecticut, and now he works at Theater Squared. Then that play, we came down here, had to go against Texas Tech again. No offense, Love Wreckham, had to put a hurting on y'all. Uh then we went to Nationals, got to put a hurting on Yale, Juilliard, and NYU again. Then now the Kennedy Center is looking at me like a personal relationship. Like, do you want to debut your plays here? I'm like, yeah. Um, I started working on my new play, Pinocchio Andre, with them. Got to go to Edinburgh French Festival, won a bunch of awards, San Diego won a bunch of awards, and then right when I'm getting ready to graduate, I finished like my first studio song, G E D to MFA. It's going really good. I'm about to graduate from the school. That's when the U.S. Embassy called me and they were like, uh, we want you to be a cultural ambassador, uh, a hip hop diplomat for the U.S. Embassy. Sent me to Columbia. We started getting Latin Grammy nominated, and then that fall we slid right into tech, straight out of graduation. We did like international. I think I literally was late the first week of school at tech because I was in a festival in the UK called Edinburgh, which is the world's largest arts festival in the school. I was like, is that okay, tech? They're like, yes, that's fine. That's fine. You can definitely go to the festival and come in. And then now I'm here. I think what a big thing that I learned from from Arkansas and Faithville, and I still have close ties with them, I'm doing so many stops on the tour in Arkansas, is man, I just love these country towns that get forgotten. These small country towns, because I get to meet genuine people. Might sound corny, I get to meet, you know, people who people who just kind of love God and strive for life and love art. I I'm not always the best with like the big city slickers. I'm usually really cool with the person who like they just love what they're doing. They might like have a family or something, because that's usually who I get to resonate with. But what I think I learned from Arkansas as well as Marshall and Event Tech, Lubick's bigger than all those places, but comparative to like a Houston or something, I learned that you don't have to be the big brand place or dude. It's really mentally, how focused are you locked in? Emotionally, how locked in are you, spiritually, how locked in are you, and what are you doing with your time and your day, and do you believe that it's worth it? So I think I'm even really excited now because even, and there's no offense, I love tech, but I feel like I didn't go to the biggest brand of PhD or harbor or anything like that, and that kind of gives me like a little chip or edge on my shoulder to make sure that I'm matriculating the way I get out. You know, I still like, I mean, I'm such a competitor. I love competing, I love trying to beat those people and letting them know, like, you know, you can be out there in like Lubbock, West Texas, where you ain't thinking about, and you go and run up against us and get hurt. Bad. I feel good wearing this shirt right now, you know. I'm like, I hate how we feel like we come second to UT, but I'm looking at it and I'm like, there's and this is not to be super bragged, I'm just literally looking at numbers. There's there's not a a UT artist creative in their doctoral student who's touching with what me or several of my classmates are doing like here. That's just like in this state. So I'm like, oh, you know, and Texas is competitive, that's why I bring this up because you know how big they're saying, oh, we got that. I'm like, yeah, but you know, y'all haven't come around here to go against everybody. You guys kind of sounds bad. They kind of run a little bit. I love that learning in that competitive edge because it sounds bad. In the real world, you have to compete. So I'm glad that I get to practice kind of competing here. So when it happens, I don't get in the shock of, oh, I'm scared I don't want to do it anymore. The competition is too much. I'm like, oh no. That was kind of like the current. And can competition can be friendly. I still can learn from people from UT. I can still can learn from people from Harvard, I can still collaborate with those people. But I want to be able to be at like the top of my field. I know it's talking like a lot, but when it's all said and done, I hope to be extremely impactful on the world and be able to dominate my fields.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Well, you you talked about um in Fayetteville working with your first black director, and uh this is a you know, some people might call this a touchy question, but I figured this was such a great um section of your uh thesis. Yeah. Um and I like to ask you, uh, what do you think the word Blackter means today?

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Yo, he's doing his research. Let me tell you how he's doing his research, and you don't even know. My MFA thesis was a dual MFA thesis for playwriting and acting, and it was called Blacking, the inseparable acting of black and acting for the magical negro. And within that thesis, I talk about the difficulty of the Blackter. This is the layers of where he's at right now. Um, so I the reason why I talk about the uh Black Dr. I'm so glad you said this, because I'm just now putting together, I was like, I want to find a way to do things with like corporations and festivals and conferences where I can speak and keynote and it'd be authentically me. But what do I have to offer people? Like truthfully. Someone's like, oh, I'm not an artist like you, Austin, so how can you motivate? How can you encourage me? And I think the thing I was like, dang, I just learned so much from acting. For me, first on this first step, when you're there's rules as an actor, right? Um, when you want to do good acting, you have to know what is your previous circumstance. What's that? Well, what is the circumstance before this character in this scene? How did they get here? So, what's the backstory? You want to know the backstory. Okay, what is the environment? What is what is the setting? Where are you at? What's in your way? Um, there's always obstacles in the way of a character. Just like in real life, there's obstacles. How are you gonna overcome them? But you have to know what is your want? What is their motivation? How are you gonna overcome that? Oh my gosh, in real life, you have to have wants, you have to have motivations, there's gonna be obstacles. Um, and how are you gonna overcome? There's also partners or scene partners. So, how do you get what you need from somebody by using motives without being the nipple of being genuine? Be like, oh, acting's fake. No, it's living truthfully under imaginary circumstances. So I think of the black there, because I was learning all these things about the actor, and I was like, dang, but when you're black, there's a little bit of different rules of how your character has to operate because of how your character is perceived in the environment. You might have different obstacles, you might have different motives, um, you might have different scene partners, and your character might be viewed differently. So I just wanted to articulate for somebody who may be black and is looking at, oh, this is like regular acting technique in a program. I just wanted to give them the heed that the way that you're perceived in your environment, you may want to know that you may have you still have obstacles, there's still a character, still a story, but you may have slightly different obstacles. You may have a different motivation, a different one, different scene partners, and a different sequence of how your life is gonna go about. So I just wanted to articulate that because and I loved how Arkansas allowed me to because I was like, man, I don't think you guys have really had like a black actor or creator like me in your program before, but I do know it's a program they don't want to be all white, they want to have other people in there, so they want to know how to do better. So I was like, all right, this is the best way for me to explain to somebody. Um, because sometimes when professors they'd be like, also I understand you're saying all this stuff about being black, but can you can you put that away and can you just do the acting?

SPEAKER_01 35:41

That's part of it.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

And I'll say, yo, there's an inseparable act of me being black and doing this acting technique. I I essentially have to put them together and put my knowledge of what is it to be black in the acting technique to help me maneuver to have a successful story for my black character. Um now that's just specifically for me. The reason why I'm excited to start doing like keynote speaking and sharing with the arts is I feel like whatever your your role is in life, you want to play the role, your position the best way that you can. So let's say you're a new entry level at Universal Studios. So I don't think, all right, think of it. What is your previous previous circumstance of your role here? What do you know about this role before you came in here? Who are your possible collaborators and allies? What is an obstacle in your way in the beginning as you're doing this role? How do you big thing is character? How do you want your character to be perceived? What does your character want? How do people perceive your character when they're on screen, off-screen, on the page, off the page? What are the different relationships with the characters? So I was like, oh, I could really use the idea of what I know so much about acting technique and offer that to other people to help them have better leadership skills, better business development, better young professional development, um, better artist development. Because I was like, oh dang, I know the rhetoric of roles and characters, and we are all playing a role at a job or in life, and we all want to be a character of value who's motivated. Um, so that's what I'm excited right now about being able to do because I was like, oh, I can't really find a thing of little sprite or cookie or Coca-Cola or Pepsi or even Tech was like, Ross, and can you come here and like do a speech and like do some breakouts and workshops? I was like, oh, what I talk about. That'd be valuable for somebody to say, I don't do exactly what he does, but how can I win from this? I'm like, oh, I think I could definitely offer people how you can use acting skills and behavior skills from acting for you to be successful in whatever role you have in life, to make you have a better character, to make you have a better story, for you to be more motivated, more focused on your needs, how to overcome obstacles, and how to have like a really successful ending in your life.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

The reason I wanted to highlight that is because I I found that it even benefited me in the thesis statement out of that that uh paragraph that you wrote. And I I really enjoyed it because I learned quite a bit uh about you know how everyone struggles with something, you know. Uh not necessarily it doesn't have to mean where you're from, your culture. It can just be who you are and and where you're located.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Yeah. As soon as you can find out, like, and I also feel like struggles relative to the person. I saw someone asking me, like, Austin, what about trauma? I was like, you can't say what's traumatic to somebody else, the same way you can't say what's difficult for somebody else. But I hope that they can still acknowledge like this is the environment that the character that I'm playing and my role and my objective is, and this is what's an obstacle for me. But there is a way for me to overcome my obstacle, even though my obstacle may not be the same as your obstacle.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

That's why I find uh Black Book so intriguing, is because um it really goes into detail about um the school system and and the young African-American male. Um but it also leads into the school system and just everyone being a you know, in the teacher's eyes, kids. And so uh if you ever hear like a teacher say, That's a stupid question, or anything like that, those those comments really bring down students in a in a school system that are just trying to figure out what's right versus what's wrong for them and their their path, you know. Um so I thought that was really intuitive on that aspect. All right. I'm glad that you're here to lessen the distance between Texas Tech students and yourself here today. Woo! I think it's I think it's amazing. He did another good job right there. I really just you know, I've been doing my research on you, and though I do have 11 pages here, I think none of them can can touch on how crazy uh crazy hardworking you are and and um the aspirations that you have set for yourself currently in the future. And I know there's only to be more effects to come.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Thanks. I appreciate that. Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to lessen the distance between students, administration, faculty, staff, and the regular world. Of course. I'm so honored to be able to be here, and I hope that the next time you guys come across either of our names, you see some really big stuff happening. You will. This man right here.

SPEAKER_01 40:14

Awesome D Hash. Thank you guys. Take care, y'all. Thanks, bro.