How did you get into collecting art?
My taste has definitely expanded since I started collecting when I was young. The first major piece that made me feel like, “Wow, I’m really doing this,” was by Sam Gilliam. That was the first time I dealt with a gallery and learned the storytelling behind the work. That was me doing my due diligence and thinking about the message of the art.

What draws you into a piece of artwork?
Obviously, just looking at it, it has to grab my eye. The storytelling, the artist—that’s what draws us in, whether it’s television, film, sculpture, or any art form. For me, the connection has to be there. There has to be a sense of home. I have to be thinking what it’s trying to say if I want it to feel like it could be a piece of me.

Who are some of your favorites?
I’ll go through my collection—Amoako Boafo, Emmanuel Taku, Cornelius Annor, Jammie Holmes, and Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe. Joel Mesler created a piece for me, which was one of my first commissioned pieces. It has the words “This Breath.” I smoke weed, but it’s about living in the moment, living for this breath, a reminder to slow down. Sam Gilliam, who I mentioned, I collect him as I’m drawn to his colors. He was one of the only Black artists out of all his peers in Washington Color School in the 1950s. He was overlooked and didn’t get the same recognition as his white peers. Then there’s Hank Willis Thomas, who talks about racial and gender inequalities and how we’re…