How Should We Honor the Legacy of Black Artists and Preserve Black Culture?

The best way to honor any artist's legacy isn't to put them on a pedestal and then forget what they actually stood for. It's to do the work they were doing—to continue it, to advance it, to make it live in your own time.

When I was writing, I wasn't trying to preserve culture in amber. I was trying to make Black culture alive and real and present. I drew from the blues, from spirituals, from jazz, from the everyday speech of common people because I believed—and I still believe—that this culture is living, breathing, constantly evolving. It's not a museum piece. It's life itself.

So to honor Black artistic legacy, you must create. You must make your own art, your own music, your own stories. You must take what came before and transform it for your time. That's how culture survives and thrives. A young musician who takes the tradition of jazz and creates something new—that's honoring the legacy more truly than someone who merely performs old songs exactly as they were recorded.

You must also demand that Black artists be paid fairly for their work. Demand that their work be taught in schools. Demand that they have platforms and resources. I spent too much of my life struggling financially while my work was taken, reprinted without proper credit or payment, exploited. That shouldn't happen to artists coming after me.

But beyond that, preserve Black culture by living it. By telling your family stories. By celebrating our holidays and traditions. By speaking in the authentic language of your community, not adopting white speech patterns as the measure of respectability. By knowing your history—really knowing it, in all its complexity. By supporting Black-owned businesses. By showing up for each other.

And teach the young people. Make sure they know where they came from. Make sure they understand that their culture isn't something to be ashamed of but something precious and powerful. That's how legacy becomes real—not in books, but in living hearts and hands.