At times he speaks through the cajón, a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru that is also played with the hands. His drums of choice are the djembe, a rope-tuned and skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands. As a daily ritual, Stokes “talks” through his drums as a form of meditation as if connecting with the ancestors. “Then that became trumpet, and…when I went to high school my band director had me switch to baritone.” Along the way, Stokes learned to play the tuba, piano, and French horn.Īnd let’s not forget the drums. “In grammar school, my first instrument was clarinet,” Stokes recounted. Aside from photography, Stokes is also musically inclined and somehow finds the time for this additional talent which he developed early on in his youth. Sign up to get the Weekly Digest delivered to your inboxĪlthough he’s only been doing photography for four years, Stokes has already accomplished quite a bit. ![]() “I don’t really do that kinda thing…Because I really want to document a person as they are in that moment.” “I don’t really set up shots,” Stokes said. Stokes captures the essence of his subjects through the use of soul-stirring and expressive images. Or the expressive image of young people learning to make banjos during a summer workshop in Lincoln Park sponsored by Music Moves Chicago. Take, for instance, his rich and lively image of the stilt walkers dressed in African garb while strolling effortlessly through the crowd in Hamilton Park in Englewood during an outdoor event. Through them, he captures the ways in which Black people express their diverse talents and rich culture in everyday life. “I wasn’t serious about photography or anything like that, you know, I just happened to buy a camera, being around college campus…But 2018 is when I became serious about photography being a medium…I made the transition to this as a part of my artistry.” “I think I had a Canon Rebel or some random camera that was like a hundred bucks or something,” Stokes said. ![]() It wasn’t until he was twenty years old that he picked up his first camera. And he’s telling Black folks’ stories along the way, through photography and music.īy his own account, Stokes’s photographic journey began quite unexpectedly. ![]() As an emerging interdisciplinary artist, Sulyiman Stokes, whose name was explained to him by his father as “one who brings light from within others out,” is quickly gaining recognition in the South Side and across the city.
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