Announcing: Creative Director Residency with Stop LAPD Spying Coalition

The Short: This is how I will do my part. This Summer I will serve as Creative Director in Residence for the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition. Stop LAPD Spying has been on the front lines pushing back against racist and illegal law enforcement programs for years. They press lawsuits, tactical demonstrations and published reports that back their action with data. I’ll use my creativity and platforms to help elevate Stop LAPD Spying’s message. We will tell the story of how policing, brutalizing and slaying black and brown bodies is bigger than just the police. To support them, I’ll help manage volunteer creatives across a number of disciplines. I will put out a formal call for volunteers soon, but if you’re a creative who is curios hit me up NOW. This will move fast.

For those who would like to support this activism residency, you can become a Patron at my Patreon, or 

Venmo: @sum-killa

Cashapp: $umkilla

The Long: Weeds need to be pulled up from the roots. Police reform looks good on paper, but research shows it doesn’t work. Defunding and abolishing the police is good too. But removing the police will leave other bad agencies and surveillance tech behind to fill that void. The police are part of a gang of agencies that use information to “keep us in our place”. To put it in context of current events, predictive policing is about to get crazy because of COVID contact tracing. Why? Because there is a surveillance pipeline directly from

healthcare to law enforcement. Making the police go away would peel away a scab that reveals a nastier infection. My efforts will help paint the picture. 

I have known Stop LAPD Spying for a few years, via Digital Action Committee. They taught me a lot about surveillance, tracking, predictive policing and how all those roads lead back to white supremacy. They also showed me back then why reform doesn’t work. I didn’t understand then, but I do now. My mission will be to take you through a similar journey.

New Landspeedr and Digital Action Committee messages heading out soon. 

****For those curious about the status of the Virginia Tech residency I announced a few months ago, we just learned a few weeks ago that they have postponed it until Summer 2021, due to Covid. I’ll keep you posted, thank you to those that contributed.****

Roshmond Patten
Coronavirus 2020: Compiling a Working Creatives Durability Kit

Many of us have to go out and “kill what we eat” so to speak. With the advent of coronavirus threatening to make things difficult for freelancers, consultants, contractors and other denizens of what’s now being called the “gig economy”, I am thinking alot about those of us who make a living as self-employed creatives -

writers

artists

speakers

designers

musicians

and more who make a living in the arts.

As a Digital Action Committee project, I would love to compile practical strategies, not-generic meditations and ideas on what some of you are going to do for what appears to be some rocky roads ahead for the next few months. Whether it’s how you will adjust your marketing and lead generation, your rates, streamline your creative process or how you might reprioritize. I’d like to compile and start sharing this stuff in the next few days. If you include your identity or social handle, I will make sure you get credit for what you share. If you would prefer to stay anonymous, please let me know.

I’ll email out and share through my socials asap and we can take it from there. See the form below.

ICAT i4 Residency: Seeking Patrons of the Arts

For quick reference:

Here’s a Gofundme - https://www.gofundme.com/f/virginia-tech-i4-residency-expenses?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1

Venmo @sum-killa
Cashapp $umkilla

Here’s the spiel:

I've been accepted into the Inaugural Virginia Tech Residency for Improvisation, Inspiration, Incubation, and Immersion. The residency is being organized by their Institute for Innovation, Creativity and Technology.

You can find out more by clicking here: https://icat.vt.edu/events/2020/07/inaugural-virginia-tech-residency-for-improvisation--inspiration.html

It takes place later this Summer. I would be at an intersection of arts, creativity and technology that also celebrates diversity. This inaugural class I'm part of has a pool of creative talent that are all accomplished, and leaders in their lanes. As of writing this, I don’t have much more information about what I will do there, because they are still rolling information out to us and we haven’t gotten to that part yet. I DO know that there will be ample time to experiment and be creative.

In the application process, the organizers were upfront about having limited money available for residents... lodging and some meals are provided for.

I gave it a shot, cut through the competition and got in. But currently my resources are all spoken for, and it's only March but I have tapped my core support base as much as I am comfortable with for my creative projects. I'm showing no signs of slowing that up any time this year.

But I need to find a solid patron of the arts, whether an individual, individuals or organization who has ready funding for philanthropy. Once I find them, I need them to put down. If you're out there, now's a great time to make it known.

Leads are appreciated. While I appreciate leads to grants, I really don't have time to fill out more apps. I’m not eligible for most emergency grants that I’m aware of. I'm also at a phase of my career where I need a couple powerful allies to build a long-term relationship with for these types of conquests. That's what I'm looking for. I'm up for putting together a legit proposal for any parties interested in sizable contributions.

If you're inspired to support on impulse, I appreciate all love.

Venmo @sum-killa
Cashapp $umkilla

I will be more than happy to share any details you might want. You can email me at sum - at - preciousmetalscreative - dotcom

Age of the Avatar vs Age of The natural Builder

avatar - noun

  1. Hindu Mythology.the descent of a deity to the earth in an incarnate form or some manifest shape; the incarnation of a god.

  2. an embodiment or personification, as of a principle, attitude, or view of life.

The machine has been built so that our very expression now turn the gears of commerce. Like, our actual facial expressions can be posted now, co-opted by a piece of tech and then used to sell glow-in-the-dark tennis rackets. This has been normalized, and we don’t think twice. Now we are all selling things, whether intentionally or not.

For ourselves maybe we are selling our values. It has been made easy enough for anyone to beautifully package, present and push anything. Our images. Philosophies, ideas and ventures. Our travels. We are selling wellness and activism. We are selling nostalgia and art. We are selling our different levels of awareness, political stances, spiritual takes and enlightenment. We create the avatars that represent our best ideas or versions, we post and we hope. That our tribe, the universe, a client or a loved one will respond…or recognize…or stream it. At the very least, there will be a shrine to each of our ideas left behind sending signals into The Great X that we were here. Even if you don’t engage, there is likely a footprint that represents what you believe in, and it has helped turn the gears of commerce on your search for wholeness.

The machine has sold us connectivity and “culture”. The agents of the machine beautify and glorify these concepts, to make money. It’s simple to do, easy to commodify and everyone can relate to some aspect of “culture”. It’s attractive. We buy into it, break off the piece we feel represents us and add it to our avatar. Then we sell.

This is something I’ve observed ever since I got pulled into the netherworld of market research In the early 2000s and saw how the Wizard made Oz pop behind the curtain. But I begrudgingly took part in because survival. My epiphanies have come out in different ways in the past decade. What I tried to do was dedicate my creativity to spiritual warfare as a counter. My music has reflected that. My effort to build the Digital Action Committee was a direct response to the commodification and pop-culturizing of Black pain. The Milky Way was built to energize higher spiritual ideals in an electrifying (and milky) way.

But there was always an internal resistance…there has been a turmoil in me. I’m not built to sell. For us artists, the prevailing wisdom the last decade has been that if you are a creative of any sort, you have to build an avatar that sells you...or sells for you. That avatar could be your social media presence. It could be the mythological and ever-elusive “team”. You know, the TEAM... that circle of people around you who are of singular mind and ready to pull a tooth out a live lion’s gums for you (the visionary) and the DREAM. The dream is usually to ....sell. Something. Successfully. The idea has become that you have to get past your inability or fear or anxiety around selling… become a salesperson and....”make shit happen” so that you (or your avatar) can “prosper”.

So we comply. It’s so engrained in me, I’ve been selling my shit throughout this post, and I will push some more before it’s over.

This has been the gospel in what I will call the Age of the Avatar (2000-2019)... and I get it now. Fully. It was useful for the time, and I believe it was fertile ground to learn a lot. But we can now move past that with our new understanding. We all know what’s going on here.

I’m not sure how to exactly do this, but I have some ideas. As usual, I will make myself a living human experiment, test things out and report my findings through my creativity. If you want to understand my findings from the last two decades, there’s a few worlds of music and other projects back that way that will let you into my head (see, I’m selling).

I imagine that what you will see from me in the next decade is less selling through an avatar, and more building and constructing things that promote life..things that don’t need me after I’m done building them, because they will be living.

For me this means entering the Age of the Builder.

It’s possible that soon we will see a surge in artificial intelligence(s). The usefulness could be profound. I’m not fearful, or suspicious. This artificial intelligence could and should be balanced by natural wisdom and understanding. It stands to reason that the proper thing to balance artificial intelligence is natural creativity. Building things that can take root, where goodness and love can grow - and there is no space for anything unnecessary. Now we will have an opportunity to work in harmony with nature and build alongside it. With no fear of time passing, or death approaching. Brick by brick.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. We’ll see you in 2020. And here’s part of where I’m going next.

Roshmond Patten Comments
2020 Foresight + 18 Gems From 2018

“....lately i been prayin for mentors

To guide me thru the shark infested waters and shit storms

... soon as i got what i thought that i sent for

They shrug sayin they aint never gone where i been before

I'm in for it...

so i follow the dog star...and whistle hard past the graveyard till my lips sore

I hear warriors still drum like calypso and scream along voice half horse like a centaur i been gone...

whole life on the outskirts

Tryna get inside but forgot what i come ‘fo

Cant relate to nerds, rap dudes, or dumbfolk

never been a cool kid but i been gunsmoke dont come close..”

Sum - The Great X




I don’t post or email much these days. Those of you who’ve been with me a while can remember when I’d go hard on emails, blogs and social posts. Not extra, but just enough to check in. Let you know where my heart was ...and where my mind might be going. Open it up to hear updates from you. For those just getting to know me in recent years, this is somewhat of a return to form for me. It’s the most natural for me. I do miss it...



I’ve ramped this down considerably the last couple years. I don’t like contributing to noise pollution. Everyone has a platform now, and all voices are pumping at the same volume. Even the uninitiated voices. Plus I feel I shouldn’t bother you until I have something substantial to say, or a new work to present. I’ve wanted to focus on the work(s) and let the projects talk for me. But how can the works speak if they don’t get your attention? How do I get your attention if I don’t hit you up? How can I hit you up without contributing to noise pollution? How are the platforms we use being used against us? What really happened to Mr Eko?



Since 2016 I worked towards building Digital Action Network, putting together the Shiva The Destroyer experience and embarking on a new marketplace concept called The Obsidian. My professional life took fantastic turns I never would have expected. Virginia Tech Libraries took me in as their first artist and entrepreneur in residence. The Milky Way took to LinkedIn billboards across the country and got support from the Pledgemusic band incubator. Oh, and other cool billboard opportunities. Most importantly, I became a father.

My dream is to create a new model of creativity that other artists in the future can look at as a possible blueprint, or learn from. It may or may not work. But the mission is to live up to the example my mentors and heroes set before me, so I have to try. The going is often isolated, and you are misunderstood or miscategorized even by those close to you. What makes it all worth it is the love that never leaves. And that’s those of you who have read along this far. Those that contributed to the Digital Action Network fundraiser, support my Patreon every month, got behind the Shiva The Destroyer campaign or took the 34 minutes to check out “Whatever Doesn’t Kill Me Better Keep Running”.


WDKMBKR POSTER.png

I am writing because to turn the next corner and level up, I might have to go a little further underground for a quick second. Maybe less emails and posts in 2019. I’m giving myself room to backslide on that, only if I figure out a truly productive way to engage on socials; that could happen at any time. For now, I’d like to think I will keep it minimal until I have a new beast for you, and all of my current projects are fully baked. I am predicting a year.

So until the year 2020 (or next week, who knows), here are 18 gems from 2018:

  1. Try answering any flavor of “what do you want?” with the word “freedom”. Even at the street meat spot.

  2. Moving around freely with your head up your own ass is not freedom, but if you happy I won’t judge.

  3. Knowing the difference between a comrade, an ally and an advocate is critical. Definitions may vary based on your personal universe.

  4. If Youth is wasted on the Young, Wisdom might be wasted on the Washed.

  5. If they don’t respond to your follow-ups, keep hitting them until they pony up and act like adults. Don’t let people play games with your confidence because they forgot how to treat people they can’t see. Also, pony up and respond to people following up with you.

  6. Learn social cues so you can learn when to ignore them.

  7. Keep those close who encourage you to be your best self more often than they discourage you from being offensive. Both take the same effort.

  8. If you need support and you are worried about people not checking on you, get out of your feelings and speak up for yourself. It’s on you.

  9. Just about anything can be medicine if you wire yourself to accept things that way.

  10. Heart is accepting your role in what’s wrong with the world and working to fix it.

  11. Clothes are to pajamas what freelancers are to consultants.

  12. Behind being a father to my daughter and a husband to my wife, the greatest honor I received this year was to be a mentor (or asked to be one). I hope all of you can experience this honor at some point in your lives if you haven’t already.

  13. Never be discouraged from releasing your works. You are helping to balance and raise the vibrations on the planet, and all life is depending on this balance. Even if you feel it’s going into the void. Update, there is no void, just an ever growing and evolving ecosystem that will ultimately benefit from diversity.

  14. We have come too far to keep putting grapes in curry chicken salads, cut that shit out.

  15. We are heading into dangerous territory with intolerance of opposing viewpoints, even if they are “toxic”. Utopia in a bubble will run out of air.

  16. New hip-hop and hip-hop adjacent music is amazing. In some ways, now more than ever. I’d consider this a new golden era. Gen Z and Alpha Gen are gonna kill it, keep an eye on them.

  17. Now’s not a good time to be a hero. It’s a good time to be a hero-maker though.

  18. Continue observation of nature to find peace and solutions.

Peace, love and thanks from Sumworld. You’ll hear from me when I have something to report. Until then take care of yourselves and each other.

The Milky Way on Instagram

The Obsidian on Instagram

Digital Action Committee on Instagram

Roshmond Patten