Today we’d like to introduce you to Ronald Herd II. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Ronald Cortez Herd II aka R2C2H2 Tha Artivist aka Bro. Ron is a Believer, ManifeSTAR & Visionary. He is the founder & ‘Chief Executive Artivist’ of The W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Group, Inc., a non-profit organization that creates annual events that highlight the greatness of Memphis’ cultural heritage from an African American perspective as well as promotes educational empowerment via Knowledge-of-Self-enrichment projects. The organization created and sponsors annual events such as ‘The National Fort Pillow Massacre Wreath Laying Ceremony’ as well as ‘The Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival’ & ‘The Jimmie Lunceford Legacy Awards.’
Bro. Ron is also a ‘nu media journalist’ who created a popular YouTube channel W.E. A.L.L. B.E. TV (http://www.youtube.com/weallbetv) where he has prolifically interviewed iconoclastic and colorful characters such as Baba Dick Gregory, Judge Joe Brown, and other notables. The platform is also used as a community advocacy platform to highlight stories and history that don’t always get the proper mainstream treatment. The channel has almost 90,000 subscribers and nearly 23 million views. He is also a successful visual artist who has been drawing since the age of 2 (40 years and counting) and whose works can be viewed at www.R2C2H2.com. BTW, he also plays trumpet and cornet occasionally. In 2005, Bro. Ron wrote, illustrated, and self-published a book entitled ‘James Reese Europe: Jazz Lieutenant,’ a book based on the real-life story of jazz innovator, music education pioneer, and World War One hero Lt. James Reese Europe. In the same year of publication, the book made The Smithsonian Institute’s Recommended Jazz Books for Kids & Young Adults list.
Bro. Ron’s parents, Ronald Herd Sr. & Dr. Callie Herd, met in college at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Although his dad is from Saginaw, MI, and his mom is from Memphis, TN, it was quickly discovered that his father’s 8th-grade math teacher is his mom’s aunt who was originally from Mississippi! Creativity most definitely runs in the blood and is embedded in the DNA because Bro. Ron’s ‘blood cousins’ include iconic and iconoclastic creatives and ‘artivists’ in their own right such as Julian Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Sister Rosetta Tharpe & Big Miller among other notables. Born in Knoxville, but raised in Memphis, Bro. Ron is a proud product of the Shelby County TN Schools and their Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) program (Overton High School, Class of ‘98). He is also a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) (B.F.A., 2002) as well as an alum of WUSTL’s John B. Ervin Scholars Program. Bro. Ron also holds an M.B.A. from Bethel University (2009).
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Far from it. Funding is always an issue when it comes to doing great works that are not necessarily about making a profit, but a difference. When we do get funding, it is often not enough and a lot of times it is often recouped (if at all) after the project is completed due to some grant orgs only paying you after a project is completed (sometimes we don’t always get money back even if we have receipts for certain items pertinent to the success of the said project). As they say biblically a prophet is always without honor at home. A lot of times although our efforts and projects are consistent and high quality, they have not always been greatly covered by the local media or appreciated by the hometown. However, that really encouraged me to become an archivist of my own accomplishments and the creator of my own narrative by starting my own media platform.
Also staying creative, productive, and committed to your artistic vision and integrity while trying to pay for rent, gas, car notes, eggs, bread, milk, insurance, etc., in these inflated times can also be a challenge.
Finding your audience and creating a following even in these social media-laden times can be a challenge for certain projects, especially if they are labeled controversial and taboo.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Nobody is doing what our organization is currently doing in the city of Memphis, TN, to quote one of The Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra’s theme songs, “Taint Whatcha Do, It’s The Way That You Do It!” We are documenting as well as making history simultaneously. We are countering both popular and traditional historical and cultural narratives by including a counter-narrative that is more inclusive in amplifying the accomplishments and achievements of often marginalized and hidden so-called people of color, Black people.
The purpose of The W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Group Inc. (WeAllBe) is to engage people in all walks of life in a constructive, creative, and productive dialogue on the issues of our day whether it is the arts, race, religion, class, sexuality, economics, education, entertainment, environment, etc. W.E. A.L.L. B.E. is an acronym for World Enriching Activating Liberating Love Beautification Experience. WeAllBe knows that the only way we are going to get to the point where we all can learn to embrace and love one another is that we all must first learn how to embrace and love ourselves (Knowledge of self). Ignorance isn’t bliss, it’s dangerous. The WeAllBe Group Inc. is a non-profit 501c3 umbrella organization that advocates responsible social entrepreneurism and activism via the arts, media, and education. We advocate by supplying resources, financial and otherwise, to achieve those aims. Most of our events and activities are free to the public.
In 2016, we, The W.E. AL.L. B.E. Group Inc., started the annual National Fort Pillow Massacre Wreath Laying Ceremony to honor the victims of the 1864 Fort Pillow Massacre. On April 12, 1864, at Fort Pillow in Henning, TN, in one of the most infamous incidents during the American Civil War, nearly 300 US Colored Troops, White Union Soldiers as well as Black children and Black women were massacred by the Confederate Army under the command of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, wealthy slave trader and owner, suspect war criminal and the 1st Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. ‘Remember Fort Pillow!’ became a battle cry for US Colored Troops heading into battle during the Civil War thereafter. His victims never had a proper funeral and their remains were moved to the Memphis National Cemetery in 1867. Working with the Memphis National Cemetery as well as with the Memphis Police Department, Shelby County Sheriff’s Dept, funeral homes, churches, the Memphis ASALH (Association for the Study of African American Life & History) chapter, grassroots activists, artists, and descendants of the Fort Pillow Massacre victims and survivors we created a ceremony to pay homage to them annually around the anniversary of that horrible event. These past few years due to COVID pandemic restrictions we have done the annual rites around Juneteenth weekend. In 2018, we raised $3,000 to place a historic marker at the front entrance of the Memphis National Cemetery to tell the stories of those who were sacrificed. We even dedicated the historic marker in a special ceremony on Juneteenth 2018. Every several years we also host an art show featuring some of the region’s best visual artists who are highly encouraged to interpret the story in their own creative way.
The Memphis Tri-State Defender recently did a great story on our efforts to commemorate the Fort Pillow Massacre fallen:
https://tri-statedefender.com/remembering-anew-the-lives-lost-at-fort-pillow/06/22/
The Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival was founded in 2007 by me, Bro. Ronald C. Herd II aka R2C2H2 Tha Artivist (Founder & ‘Chief Executive Artivist’ of The W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Group, Inc.), with the aim of not only increasing recognition of Lunceford’s contribution to jazz and music education, particularly in Memphis, Tennessee, but to also restore Jimmie Lunceford’s rightful place in the jazz pantheon and to ensure that his legacy of perseverance, creativity, education, and hope lives on in our youths and greater community for generations to come. We annually host a wreath laying ceremony on Lunceford’s birthday (June 6) rain, sweat or shine at his burial spot in historic Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. Since 2017, we have annually hosted The Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival Week (JLJFW) in October, normally the last full week. The JLJFW advocates music education and bridging the intergenerational gap of youths working with adults or elders. The JLJFW enlists the help and support of local educational institutions, music educators, musicians, families of the honorees, politicians, and other respective individuals and entities to make this project a communal and cultural success. We have annual events and programs which not only amplify the legacy of Jimmie Lunceford, but also those unsung Memphis musicians and educators who have contributed immensely to the so-called ‘Memphis Sound,’ but are not often highlighted in the annals of the official narrative. The Jimmie Lunceford Legacy Award was created to honor exceptional musicians with Memphis ties as well as those who have dedicated their careers to excellence in music and music education.
We also recognize contemporary living and posthumous honorees by giving them lifetime achievement awards at the annual Jimmie Lunceford Legacy Awards & Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival Homecoming Court ceremony. At this event, our living honorees are honored by their peers with performances dedicated to their accomplishments, and for our posthumous honorees from bygone eras, we select gifted artists who were influenced and inspired by their game-changing genius to honor them with their exceptional gifts respectfully. We also produce mini-documentaries (which are available on our YouTube page) to inform the general public more about the amazing people that we have honored over the years as well as to promote Jimmie Lunceford’s extraordinary legacy. We also hope that through our efforts that some of these unsung music geniuses will finally begin to be honored in traditional venues, institutions and outlets.
The JLJFW is a platform to help people understand the importance of music education and Black history. We want to engage the audience in a conversation about taking pride in their musical heritage and coming together to ensure that the youths have an opportunity to know how powerful and talented they are. We also want to cause an intergenerational revolution where the older adult musicians interact with the youths to teach them how to perfect their skill sets, become better musicians, and learn the importance of valuing music and their culture. Currently, our 7-day festival provides a family-friendly ‘edutaining’ free event on each day.
In 2017, The Memphis Commercial Appeal did a feature story on our efforts to honor Jimmie Lunceford’s legacy:
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2017/10/27/weathersbee-jimmie-lunceford-almost-lost-history-heres-how-one-man-resurrected-him/789574001/
‘R2C2H2 Tha Artivist’s art statement’ aka ‘In Bro. Ron’s Own Words’:
The Greatness Of A People Is Judged By The ‘Art-Is-Facts’ That Are Produced…Black Is The New Profound…I AM A Cultural Alchemist: Turning Tragedy Into Triumph & Victims Into Victors…There Is No Justice, It’s Just Us And So It Falls On US To Make This Life What It Needs To BE, In Order For Us To Truly BE FREE!!! Beyond Reasonable Doubt, Guilt & Tragedy!!! SEE HOW IT WORKS???
My job as an artivist (artist + activist) is to actively promote understanding, love, and appreciation for the creative arts as well as for creative people. I use my art, in particular, to break down all types of walls and barriers that people put up either to justify their hatred, prejudice, and indifference or because of their ignorance and naiveté towards certain issues and topics concerning people, history, and culture(s). One of my main objectives in my profession is to teach the world how to love, not just tolerate Black people and other Be-You-Too-Full Beings and things! If I reach just one hue-man being then my entire existence in all its meaning will be totally justified!
My art is created through the use and motivation of three of my main passions: visual art, music, and history, in particular African and African American History. I think four of my biggest influences, Jacob Lawrence, El Greco, William H. Johnson, and Paul Gaugin, have taught and convinced me that interesting stories can be told in a visually expressive and highly original individual style without the use of the written word. These visual artists are among the countless others that I admire like Picasso, Charles White, Van Gogh, Romare Bearden, Lois Jones, Archibald Motley, George Hunt, Jean Michel Basquiat in addition to musicians Sun Ra, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Run DMC, Louis Armstrong, Robert Johnson, Howling Wolf, Billie Holiday, Robert Johnson, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, and 2pac remind me through their prolific outputs that research is one of the most important ingredients in forming your own artistic voice. Before I create a series of related artworks I dive deeply into the subject(s) of my choice. I feel artists are like synthesizers, taking in all foreign information and materials, mixing it with the artist’s experiences and knowledge, and then compressing it into a product made in the artist’s likeness or image based on the artist’s own ideas and philosophies. All great art to me seems to be those works that have substance and tell unwritten as well as written stories that are to be retold and reinterpreted for years to come. Hopefully, my dedication to my art will continue to lead me in this direction.
Official Website:
www.R2C2H2.com
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
I don’t know about luck, but I do know about faith and hard work. Just believing in myself and committing myself to do the work, even when I wasn’t motivated to, has helped me to create opportunities that I have been lucky to benefit from. See how it works???
Contact Info:
- Website: http://r2c2h2.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/r2c2h2
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/r2c2h2
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/weallbe
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/weallbetv
- Other: https://r2c2h2s-place.creator-spring.com/
Image Credits
Bro. Ron C. Herd II
R2C2H2 Tha Artivist
Molisa ‘Cindy’ Thomas
Tra-Sun
