Paul Taswell

We're not thinking about it quite as much.

We might say, well, you know, I like this.

I don't like that.

This is my style.

This isn't my style.

But you're also making choices about how you or what that is, is making choices about how you want to show up for a specific moment.

Early, early on.

Maybe junior high.

You know, I wasn't aware of, you know, growing up in Akron.

And, you know, Akron, it has its racist moments, areas, you know, just how that dynamic there, especially when I was coming up.

I mean, there are certain areas that you didn't go into there.

And it was also the time that, you know, the original Roots, the novel was created and then, you know, the television series happened.

So that was in our home.

Oh, for the Roots.

Yeah, for Roots.

And, you know, all this is folding in and I'm trying to figure out who am I and how can I...

be true to myself, and embrace all that I am drawn to.

Because I was operating with two different things.

One, that it tended to be more feminine than masculine.

It tended, you know, because I was drawing and painting and making puppets and creating clothing.