Art Dad, Art Son

Visual artist RASHID JOHNSON has spent a lifetime examining touchstones of the black experience through painting, photography, sculpture, and film. Now, in his directorial debut, he reworks Richard Wright’s novel Native Son, with ASHTON SANDERS in the lead as Bigger Thomas.

- Mari Uyehara

"ALL THOSE CHEMICALS?!” actor Ashton Sanders asks, leaning over the picnic A table where he’s seated with Rashid Johnson, the acclaimed multi-media artist. “Hell no. We need that natural shea.”

It’s a Sunday in Brooklyn, and the two are practically yelling about fancy face creams—specifically their distaste for certain artificial ones. I had asked about moisturizing and about whether they’ve traded in their shea butter for something a bit pricier now that they’re both, if not meteorically rich and famous, at least tastefully, artistically comfortable. That got them going.

“Still using shea butter,” says Johnson, laughing a warm rumbling bass line. “It’s also an African product. You know, those Negroes figured out way early—”

“It’s a spiritual thing,” says Sanders, cutting in, which he rarely does when Johnson is speaking. But this is a pressing subject.

“It is—it’s a very spiritual thing,” agrees Johnson. “It’s taking care. Growing up, as a Negro child, they put so much, like, coconut oil and shea butter on you. You just get so accustomed to being drenched in this stuff.”