Shout out to Bill Martin at @thevalentinerva for 25 years of being the museum director! @distantdee & I were lucky enough to get a personal tour led by him after my set on Music In The Garden, where I was the first #HipHop artist to ever perform on that series. His love for the stories told by the exhibits & endearing way of sharing them made us see that we too are part of history, here & now, in more ways than just that bill. Seeing those images, hearing the audio, and looking at the photos and artifacts really hit hard. We are making history everyday while living in an era like none other. The world isn’t perfect but we are making progress by having the chance to ask the questions that people in eras not so long ago could not. Ironically, finding the answers to those questions often requires that we not only preserve the past, but that we study and learn from it. That rather than bury it and hide from it, we build with it. History has a way of transforming what was once normal, into the extraordinary. The exhibits Bill showed us were proof of the progress we’ve made as people and the costs associated with that progress. For me, his tour was a reminder that in order for us to keep moving forward we must be ready to pay the cost associated with doing the right thing. That we must share our story as it is. That we must tell our truth, even if it means admitting that at times despite our best efforts in some areas, we may have still failed or could have done better. This is our turn and we cannot let it go to waste. Thank you Bill, and congratulations!! You are a part of #history through every life you touch, in every story that you’ve told! #BillMartin #TheValentineRVA #WOFTD (at The Valentine) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1NJojjjfU2/?igshid=2u65aloj17pn
