Related Events
Crosstown Arts presents Lawrence Matthews Live at The Green Room
The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Friday, October 25, 2024
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $10 in advance | $10 at the door
Born and raised in a suburb of Memphis; the story of Lawrence Matthews is the journey of an artist trying to move forward toward a healthy and free self, all while reckoning with the extreme environmental stimulus of southern poverty and violence. Though often imagined as opposing forces, the horror and beauty of the south often live in the same space. Matthews navigates this in-between space as an extension of the southern gothic voices with whom he is aligned. He emerges as somewhat of a Morrisonian beloved ghost, a child who needed more. Now, fully grown as a manifestation of love and bitterness intertwined.
With a BFA from The University of Memphis and a decade long career working with various arts nonprofits, his work in nearly every area of the arts is an amalgamation of his whole life. As a young artist he’d create with the rap, R&B and alternative rock references he’d come in contact with. Visually inspired by the regionalistic mythology of Paul Thomas Anderson and early Spike Lee; Matthews’ own visuals weave African spirituality with the Christian mythology that permeates the region, highlighting the deep relationship between the often maligned spiritual connections Black people have explored for generations. Introduced to new sounds by way of underground mixtapes and 2000s video countdowns, these sonics blended with the eccentricities of acts like Outkast and grittier more reality-driven music from the south creating a diverse palate that Matthews pulls from when crafting the imagery that populates his own art.
Shedding his previous Don Lifted alias, Matthews re-introduces himself as just that – himself. Matthews decided it was time to harness his truest form as a creative. Exploring those complex feelings of longing, grief, emptiness, and separation actually led Matthews to a deeper and more honest relationship with his community and himself. The unbelievable became inextricably linked to what is real. He ventured into the unexplored corners of himself, places and stories forgotten or suppressed behind traumatic environments and a survivalist mentality. Now a reborn artist, Matthews is intentional about aligning himself with others. That intention is a thread in his new musical journey, as he aligns his stories with the stories of those who came before him and walks alongside their traditions.
