'Black Is Nothing But Resilient.' The 83rd (of Sermon 3) on Direct Action and Cultural Resistance

The 83rd, whose name is reclaimed from a Bushwick police precinct, is a record producer who runs a record label and media company called Sermon 3. "My biggest driving factor is pushing boundaries in art, music and possibilities; and also giving priority to people who deserve it, who a lot of times are the foundations of art, music, culture, that don't get the proper privy. When I look at my family, the Black community and all the things that we've done and all the things that go unwritten and uncovered, with Sermon 3 I wanted to cover deep roots in Mississippi and ghetto house and things that were happening in hoods and rural areas that impacted the rest of the world, but they never got an interview." I met The 83rd at Occupy City Hall in New York City in June 2020. The 83rd was projecting a message on a building across the street from the protest, which was a 5-point plan he’d developed about how to address police violence: end qualified immunity, pass a Civilian Defense Act, divest the police, invest in black communities, and end petty-crime arrests. The 83rd amplifies these and other messages through Sermon 3, a platform for art, music, culture, protest and news. He’s connecting people to organize and participate in direct action, and to treat cultural expression as a shared language of resistance. If you're only going to listen to one thing from The 83rd, skip this interview, and check out his incredible Solitary Souls project, an archival EP exploring the history of slavery in Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. This episode was edited by Jason Halal. Music is by Jesse Crawford and The 83rd.