Vic Mensa, born and raised on the South Facet of Chicago, has lengthy balanced vulnerability and a deep private dedication to his group. In a current dialog, the artist and activist spoke with a quiet depth and easy cool as he offered EBONY with perception into his well being journey and evolving relationship with social media.
Mensa, as soon as hesitant to interact on-line, approaches the digital area now with considerate intention—utilizing it not simply as a platform for self-promotion however as a software to construct belief and connection together with his viewers. “I feel that’s the steadiness on the sting of the knife,” he mentioned in a second of reflection; “find out how to use this as a software and never let it use me or abuse me.”
Mensa spoke passionately about Chicago as a spot rooted in immense artistic affect and but deep financial disparity, a distinction that fuels his perception in grassroots change. For Mensa, true transformation doesn’t depend on institutional energy however on atypical folks exhibiting up.
“I feel that folks’s actions are fueled by on a regular basis individuals who don’t have large assets. The entire leaders in our historical past have been that, you already know what I imply? That’s the idea of group constructing—it’s being in and of the group,” he mentioned.
A big a part of our dialog centered on Black males and their function in shaping more healthy relationships with Black ladies, psychological well being, masculinity and accountability.
“I feel that Black males, we gotta get in dialog with one another. How can we current ourselves with our brothers in our actual life? Like, can we search to carry one another and ourselves accountable? None of us are excellent, and we’ve been raised in very imperfect methods, to say the least. And none of that adjustments; nonetheless, it’s our accountability that we have now to develop.”
Mensa then chuckled as he remembered certainly one of these moments together with his buddies.
“Actually, I ought to write a comedy episode about it,” he laughed. It’s simply humorous as a result of a number of my homies, that’s not who they’re, you already know what I imply? Like, they don’t learn the bell hooks books, and it was fairly comical. However I did suppose that the intention of it was one thing that we all know to be true.”
Requested if he have been to jot down his personal “Gentleman’s Playbook, ” and what recommendation he would provide to Black males navigating at the moment’s world, Mensa distilled his ideas into three core rules: self-discovery, vulnerability and self-mastery. He sees these practices as the muse for not solely private growth but in addition broader collective therapeutic.
By means of his openness, Mensa continues to mannequin what it means to steer authentically and construct bridges between private progress and cultural accountability.
