The Truth In This Art: Stories That Matter
The Truth In This Art with Rob Lee is an arts and culture interview podcast connecting arts, culture, and community. Sharing stories that matter through in-depth conversations with artists and creatives — photographers, filmmakers, designers, musicians, chefs, writers, and more. Guests share studio routines, community roots, career insights, and the ideas and choices that shape their projects. New episodes, show notes, and transcripts available here.
Episodes
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Jacob Ming-Trent!
About Jacob Ming-Trent: Acclaimed performer, playwright, and one of American Theater's people to watch. A celebrated artist bringing his solo play, How Shakespeare Saved My Life, to Washington, DC's Folger Theater, and later to The Public Theater in New York with Red Bull producing.
In our conversation, Ming-Trent walks through his journey from a rough c...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Solana Rostick!
About Solana Rostick: Registrar and Collections Manager at Clark Atlanta University Art Museum. An emerging museum professional dedicated to ensuring underrepresented groups are reflected within institutional collection holdings. Born in Atlanta, raised in Tampa, Florida, and recently completed her Master's in Museum Studies from the University of Florida.
In our ...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, I sit down with Tyreek Morrison!
About Tyreek Morrison: Tyreek Morrison is an Atlanta-based collage artist who describes himself as "dad first, collage artist second." Born in New Jersey and raised in Atlanta, Morrison uses collage, found materials, paper, paint, and drawing to explore Black American life through memory, identity, and everyday experiences. His daughter just turned one, a...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, I sit down with Maurice Scarlett III!
About Maurice Scarlett III: Maurice Scarlett III is a Baltimore-based visual artist and multi-disciplinary creative named after his father from West Baltimore. He is of Jamaican heritage and specializes in figurative art characterized by darker, alluring tones that capture the essence of Black figures. His journey began in 2010 with photography—doc...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, returning guest Kris Fulton is back!
About Kris Fulton: Kris Fulton is a self-described coffee nerd, Baltimore-based coffee roaster, and co-owner of Sophomore Coffee, a neighborhood coffee shop in Charles Village. He opened Sophomore Coffee in April 2019, just months before the pandemic, and has spent seven years building it into a trusted community fixture. His journey in coffee began at a ...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, returning guest Megan Elcrat is back!
About Megan Elcrat: Megan Elcrat is the founding principal of Present Company, a Baltimore-based architecture and design firm where she specializes in urban revitalization, adaptive reuse, and creative workspace design. She co-founded the innovative Co-Lab Baltimore co-working space in Old Goucher, which houses both an architecture firm and a design-focu...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Dr. David O. Fakunle II!
About Dr. David O. Fakunle II: Dr. David Fakunle II is a Baltimore native, academic, and self-described mercenary for change and celestial body for change who has spent 25 years using art and storytelling for liberation. He is an assistant professor at Morgan State University in the School of Community Health and Policy and associate faculty at Johns Hop...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Shaun Stewart!
About the guest: Shaun Stewart is the HBIC (Head Bartender In Charge) of Patterson Pins in Baltimore's Upper Fells Point. Known for "killing the business, one cocktail at a time," Stewart brings years of bartending experience—including consulting for Hemingway's, features in Esquire, and competition wins—to his role at one of the oldest duckpin bowling...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Amir Browder and Maxwell Young!
About the guests: Amir Browder is the curator, creative director, and founder of Homme Gallery in DC. Maxwell Young is the founder of the Art Shopping Network, a writer, and works on projects that socialize art buying and support living artists, nonprofit institutions, and galleries.
We talk about Acquired Taste and what it does: a catalog and ...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Sarah B. McCann!
About Sarah B. McCann: Sarah is an artist, curator, and founder of SBM Gallery in Baltimore's Highlandtown Arts District. Her text-based mosaics, prints, and multimedia work has been shown nationally. She spent 15 years curating exhibitions nomadically before opening her own space this year.
We talk about launching SBM Gallery and what it means to her to support ...
In this episode of The Truth In The Art, I sit down with Sam Furnish—founder of Bemo's Clothing and the guy behind Baltimore's "born in Baltimore" premium civvies movement.
About Sam Furnish: Sam launched Bemo's Clothing in 2025 after years in the outdoor industry learning product development and manufacturing. The brand name comes from his father's childhood nickname—"Bemo"—given by Sam's grandpa in 1950s Midwest ...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, Rachel Mijares-Fick returns to the program.
About Rachel Mijares-Fick: Rachel co-founded Future Fair back in 2020 during the pandemic with Rebeca Laliberte. Future Fair is an art fair in New York where galleries, artist collectives, and independent curators from around the world come to set up exhibitions. The fair spotlights emerging and under-recognized voices in the art world. Over si...
In this episode of The Truth In The Art, the guest is Omri D. Cohen!
Who is Omri D. Cohen: Author of Questions to Humanity — a collection born from five months backpacking South America — Omri has spent six years asking one question to 700 people across 50+ nationalities, documenting stories and street/landscape photography that reached millions.
Omri D. Cohen talks about his journey leaving home to backpack South Ame...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Douriean Fletcher!
About Douriean Fletcher: An acclaimed jewelry designer and artisan whose work bridges adornment and storytelling. She was the specialty jeweler for Marvel's Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and became the first jewelry artist to be part of an Academy Award–winning costume design team—an honor she achieved twice. Douriean has expand...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Alex Jennings!
Who is Alex Jennings: Author, poet, and former standup comedian who lived in New Orleans for nearly 20 years—now working on his second novel from Chicago. You might remember Alex from my New Orleans series where we discussed his book, The Ballad of Perilous Graves, here.
In our conversation, Jennings talks through his new book Dead End Boys—set in...
In this episode of The Truth In The Art, the guest is Barry Wright III!
Who is Barry Wright III: Baltimore-based improviser, teacher, technology professional, and co-founder (and current board president) of Highwire Improv, launched in 2020. You might remember Barry from his first appearance on The Truth In The Art here.
In our conversation, Wright talks about Highwire's origin during the 2020 lockdown, building an improv communi...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Cecilia M. McCormick!
About Cecilia M. McCormick: President of MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) with 33 years in higher education, an art collector who raised three sons now working in the creative field.
In our conversation, McCormick talks through MICA's bicentennial year and the vision she's building as the school hits 200. She connects the programming to three themes&...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Jess Owens-Young!
Who is Jess Owens-Young: Maryland-based collage and mixed media artist and professor who creates work informed by her experiences as a Black woman, mother, and former athlete, using vintage magazines (Ebony, Jet, Essence) to explore the joy and melancholy of Black life in the United States.
In our conversation, Owens-Young talks about her transition from semi-pr...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Chandler Chavez.
Who is Chandler Chavez: A Los Angeles–based filmmaker, editor, story analyst, and writer originally from Arizona, drawn to complicated characters and stories that test our empathy—especially when they’re filtered through the strange mechanics of online attention.
In our conversation, Chandler unpacks his feature debut: a dark-comedy “s...
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Kenny Riches!
Who is Kenny Riches: A Miami and Salt Lake City-based filmmaker born in Toyota City, Japan, whose award-winning features explore loneliness, identity, and human connection through intimate, character-driven narratives. With a BFA in Painting and Drawing and a filmography that includes The Strongest Man (Sundance premiere, 2015) and A Name Without A Place (2019), Ke...
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