Angel Dozier, 42

Creative strategist and concept artist at Be Connected Durham

Why did you choose to live in Durham?

I have been in Durham since 1999. I really wanted to move to New York City, and I had a six-year-old. I was not willing to risk putting him in an unstable environment. I decided, OK, this is kind of how I can have both worlds. To me, Durham is a little rugged and rough. I’m attracted to that because it gives me that New York feel. So I was like, I’m going to create New York in my own environment. I got a job at Duke as a researcher, and I just built that life for myself. Durham is kind of rough, but it’s beautiful. I’m attracted to the urban energy. 

What do you have in the works for 2020?

I am working on emerging as an artist myself doing photo journals—writing and using photographs to tell stories. I am looking to exhibit later this year. I write all the time. I am a journalist, or a diarist—I write in my journal a lot. So I’m planning on putting the writing out there as visual art. And also in a meditation app—look at me, being a ’70s kid—using the things I have written, to record them for meditation.

What does a healthy arts community look like?

It looks like everybody really pooling their talent together as a collective and rising above all of our issues in a way that none of us has ever seen before. Because we haven’t been united before. But if I’m able to put my whatever it is—my energy, my curatorial talents—for the sake of the community and then, you know, the people next door to me are able to cook a dope meal or something, and the person on the other side of the hall is a great advocate for seniors, if we just take everything that we have, right where we are, we can create something that’s bigger than ourselves, just like that. 

Contact staff writer Thomasi McDonald at [email protected]. 

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