Liberation is Lit Podcast

Art as a Vehicle (with SaBrina Jeffcoat)

• Tayler Simon • Episode 20

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In this episode, we have an insightful discussion with Dr. SaBrina Jeffcoat, founder of Royal African Company and a professor of social media technology at UAlbany. Dr. SaBrina shares her journey through the arts community, the motivation behind her fabric and jewelry company, and reflections on her academic pursuits in studio art and digital storytelling. She provides perspectives on balancing art, academia, and parenthood. The conversation explores the power of art in social change, practical advice for artists to enhance sustainability, and details on upcoming engagements and community involvement.


00:00 Introduction to Liberation is Lit Podcast

00:38 Meet Dr. SaBrina Jeffcoat

01:18 The Origin of Royal African Company

02:33 Incorporating Storytelling in Art

05:28 Supporting the Arts Community

06:32 Intersection of Art and Scholarship

09:46 Finding Passion and Staying Grounded

10:33 Balancing Parenthood and Art

11:14 The Power of Unfinished Work

11:51 Creating Art in Difficult Times

12:31 Impactful Reads and Academic Interests

16:45 Advice for Making a Positive Community Impact

18:47 Where to Find More from Royal African Co.

19:46 Closing Remarks and Contact Information



Books Mentioned in This Episode

A Pictorial History of African Americans by Langston Hughes


Where to Find Jeffcoat

royalafricanco.com

@royalafricanco on Instagram and Facebook

*Correction* Come visit her at the Good for the Sole Market in early November and the Artista Vista Market!



Thank you for being part of the Liberation is Lit podcast! If you have stories to share, want to suggest topics, or just want to connect, find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @liberationislit or visit our website at liberationislit.com. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review! Remember, your voice matters, and together, through the lens of stories, we're making a difference in the world.

Tayler Simon:

Welcome to the Liberation is Lit podcast where the power of storytelling meets the force of social change. I'm your host Tayler Simon. And in this podcast, we believe in the profound impact of stories. And I am so excited to have a conversation today with SaBrina Jeffcoat, who does a lot of cool things in the arts community here in Columbia. But. A lot of cool things too with her company, Royal African Company. So hi, SaBrina, how are you today?

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

Well, how are you?

Tayler Simon:

Good. So to kick us off, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your work with the arts community, but also with Royal African Company?

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

Yeah. So my name is SaBrina. I guess I should say Dr. SaBrina, Jeffcoat Sotayo. I started at Royal African Girl in 2016, actually, after I'd been working at, Savannah College of Art and Design for a couple years, and I came back to Columbia. I was having, you know, some trouble finding work and things like that, as I'm sure most of us are familiar with. And so I actually had read this article about a woman who owned a, A, like a fabric company and it was like in Maine or something. It was very obscure and I was like, that sounds cool. So I decided I wanted to open a, a, a fabric, company or whatnot. So anyhow, it started with fabric and like repurposing fabric and things like that, moving on to jewelry, from like sort of home goods mostly. And, yeah, it's kept, it has kept. Evolving and so here we are. So mostly now, I made jewelry from textiles and leather and like different beads and things like that. So, I can get more into that, but that's mostly the origin story of Royal African Co and where we are now. And my history in the arts. I have an undergraduate degree in studio art from the College of Charleston, PhD in information science from the University at Albany, which focuses on nonprofit organization, primarily museums. But also, you know, libraries and other organizations like that and how they can use, digital means, social media, things like that to engage people, audiences online.

Tayler Simon:

And I feel like this always happens in the podcast, but I didn't know you went to college at Charleston. I also went to college at Charleston.

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

Oh, really? I didn't know that. Yeah, awesome. Well, cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tayler Simon:

Do you incorporate storytelling in any of your work that you do?

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

Yeah, I say definitely even from the beginning. So the Royal African Company was originally a British mercantile company. I read about it in a book called The Pictorial History of African Americans. It is, as the title suggests, it's a book of pictures about the history of African Americans. And, I came across this company, the Royal African Company. It's actually a mercantile company that sold, shipped, all kinds of things. you know, that dealt with the 1600s and 1800s and all of those sort of things. And so I was aware of the history, the story of this organization as, A participant in the slave trade, but also, a sort of vehicle for story, you know, I thought that it was interesting that the, the name of the organization, the name of the company, the mercantile company gave, in my opinion, power to, you know, African people of the African diaspora. And I thought that it was interesting. I don't know. It was intriguing. It was engaging for me. So I decided that if I ever had a business, that's what I would call it. And then when I went to, form the LLC, I was actually surprised that it was available that I could actually do it. And so, and so, yeah, that's how it started. So I think the, the, the sort of origination of the name of the company is definitely rooted. History and stories, and then the materials that I use also are generally upcycled, meaning they've had a story before, so upcycled, like coats and, purses or pants and things like that for my leather materials, and stones that I've collected from all kinds of places, beads from, I've gotten beads that are used in traditional, Native American garbs all kinds of places. I've traveled and just collected things that I use in the jewelry that I have and so, a big component of the jewelry is actually hand carved Kenyan soapstone, which sort of originated from a serendipitous meaning of a woman that I met in Tennessee. Her husband was Kenyan and she carved the film by hand and as she was retiring he decided that she would sell me those pieces. And so I think every aspect of the materials that we use right now, have ever used are rooted in storytelling.

Tayler Simon:

I love how you kind of reframed the like secondhand. Had a story before. I love that because I've been thinking about that lately about just stories of the things that once belong to other people and what it meant to them and what the new stories could be, especially since I sell used books with Liberation is Lit. And a lot of them have, notes in the margin and highlighting. And it's like, what did this book mean to somebody else? And what is that story that. the notes and the things in this book, what is it going to be to this next person's story? So I love that. And I know you do a lot of work in the community around supporting artists. Why do you believe in supporting artists?

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

Yeah, I don't know that there's another choice, honestly. I think as an artist and generally an advocate for truth, I, I think I have to support the artist. It was never a question. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know if I had a choice. I don't know if that's the way to say it, but I've always sort of just been drawn to working in the arts to the arts, and I've never not worked in the arts and or supported artistic endeavors. So I guess that kind of started, Quite young. I was, you know, practicing, you know, art and things like that. And then I started serving on boards in my early 20s, and I think that really solidified my commitment to working and supporting the artists and artists. So, I'm really interested in art as a vehicle for information and the dissemination of information. And I think that bringing that information or that knowledge to the art community can be very beneficial for artists.

Tayler Simon:

And I am so sorry if we're not introducing you as a doctor earlier and congratulations on recently receiving your Ph. D. for you personally. What is that overlap between organizing or direct action and scholarship?

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

Yeah, I think, that's a great question. Actually, I was. Sort of ask that question more recently on the spotlight and had to get the elevator pitch. Right? So I think I've had a lot of times a lot of time to bring those 2 things together because the program that I completed is actually rooted in Homeland Security, cybersecurity and hazard mitigation. And so I actually have a lot of knowledge about. Terrorism, scammers, you know, briefings, things like that. And, a lot of my, my fellow, academics were not really interested in the art space. So, helping to, like, bring this whole story together has been pretty amazing. Yes, has been a major component of, work. and so I think the best place to start is probably at the beginning. So I pursued a PhD in informatics information, is what the degree will say, to better understand why art. Is so transformative for people and how I can access the vehicle for sharing information. And so I originally started, pursuing. The degree thinking I wanted to talk about political, political, ads and like, sort of the signs that people put up when they're running for office to better understand, like, what makes a sign a political, you know, ad or political, like, yard sign, intriguing what makes people vote for people, you know, based on the images that they associate with their campaigns. And that work wasn't really being done. But also there was no one who understood how to like sort of approach it. And so that's the Basically how I got into the social media digital engagement space was that that fit into the sort of cyber security information organization. We're going to organization information of organization sector of my program. And so those two things intersected just sort of strategically out of wanting to actually be able to finish the degree, as well as. Wanting to understand how, still how images affected people, and so from going, you know, from people seeing a sign on the road to going, to Twitter basically and saying like, how do certain tweets with images or lack of images influence people to like or comment or reply was how I introspected those two things. And so I did look at museums. And the things that they were posting, the frequencies with which, which, which they were posting, the times that they were posting, all of those sorts of things. And that was the information that I analyzed to better understand how people can be engaged through images online.

Tayler Simon:

Yeah, because I know that was a huge thing in the most recent elections and definitely in this upcoming election. A lot of yeah, images and messaging and there's a lot of conflicting messages and. And I know that could be a lot and also just I feel like every time I talk to you or find somebody who knows you, I learned something new that you're doing. So I feel like you do everything.

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

That's

Tayler Simon:

What keeps you grounded in your work?

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

I think I just have like an extreme love for it. Honestly, before I had family and all that stuff, I just, that's what I did. You know, like I was always. I guess that's it to be a doctor. I was a biology major for 3 years in college and then I switched to art my 4th year in college. So, and I was, going to school to be a maxillofacial surgeon. So I was always like, going to be in school. I think. And I think just sort of transitioning my. focus to art, where I was really ultimately, passionate anyway, you know, was really helpful for me to stay grounded in my work over the years. I think being a parent has really helped a lot. I think being a parent while in school, while Trying to still stay on track and finish everything has been really helpful in staying grounded and more so being able to prioritize my time, prioritize the tasks I need to do, and do things as efficiently as possible has helped. Because if I can get things done efficiently, then I have more time to do the things that I, you know, am passionate about. You know, kids are a job. I think definitely my family, definitely keeping my paintings, prioritizing a personal art practice has been important. And then, one thing that I often come back to is something that I heard in a lecture by, Dr. Leo Twiggs, a few years back. A while ago, and he was just saying that you should keep some unfinished work like in your peripheral right so you can stay motivated in your artwork and stuff. I try to follow that within reason of having a, you know, hoarder's rat nest of artistic stuff all over our house, but I try to, you know, at least keep something like that in the work. I'm in my line of sight around so I don't get too consumed by other parts of life.

Tayler Simon:

Yeah, I made a post on threads, because it was really heavy recently around the. Execution, I guess, not sugarcoated of Marcellus Williams, and I was like, I'm just going to create some terrible art because, I just need to create something in this time of feeling like black bodies are always constantly being destroyed. So, even if it's some bad collaging, it's, it's, it feels good to create something. So having those art projects and. Definitely can help keep you grounded and some of that unfinished work. Have you been reading anything lately? That's made an impact on you.

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

I, yeah, I think. I mean, I've been reading for, like, the last five years, so I have become a better reader, for sure, and, have also, I think, simultaneously sort of shunned excessive reading for the time being, you know, rebound was, you know, I was on one spectrum of the reading. Scale and now I need to get back to like a normal healthy level of reading. So, a couple things that I have been reading, keeping have kept reading, are the 10 Buddhist precepts. Something that I started probably actually I started. My interest in Buddhism started in my 20, I think I was 27. and so it's been a bit of a, a journey, but I've definitely found a lot of help in, you know, the ideas of compassion and temperance, which is more of a, a thing I've learned, honestly, through my sorority. And. So just reading like doctor that I've already been introduced to what kind of never really absorbed has been really helpful. We got lots of kid books around here, so, you know, we're reading coding books and books about weather books about mermaids and all that stuff. The baby, and then just, like, reading research papers, which honestly, I find a lot of joy and. I get a lot of, reward from reading academic, articles, research and stuff. Anyway, I just like to. So, I'm a professor of social media technology at UAlbany right now, so I've been reading a lot of stuff that I've saved in my web libraries to share with students as I, build out that class as well.

Tayler Simon:

You're a special kind of person who loves to read academic research papers. I, I. I need a story. I love the qualitative ones that do interviews and things like that, but the data driven ones, those are harder for me to get through.

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

for sure. No, it's definitely a labor of love. I think there's a lot of wealth in the information there. It's just hard to get through the academic sort of like, how do I say it? The vernacular. So, You have to learn like what's not actually relevant. And just because you're an academic doesn't mean you're like a great writer. So some people just aren't really good, even though they have, you know, the credentials. So I think it's, you have to learn how to read them and learn what you're looking for. And then it's more beneficial when it comes to non quality. Yes, qualitative studies are great. Like, you just, it's all the teeth. And yes, it's all the stories from all kinds of people. And I really, yeah, those are great too.

Tayler Simon:

Do you have a current, a researcher or author that if you met in person, you would fangirl or like, you just really, you really enjoy their work.

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

I mean, honestly, even in my field, a lot of the research, there are like a small group of people who I guess specifically are like sort of more researching the stuff I'm interested in. But there's like a duo called Lovejoy and Saxon that's really like created some provocative research around, around this stuff. So there's a guy called Jonah Berger, he's kind of like older. An older phenomenon that like, talks about like, contagion, why things are contagious. It's, there's like, YouTube videos, so you don't have to read the papers. And like, his stuff's cool. There's, yeah, I don't know, there's like, a lot of, honestly, I got a lot of cool stuff in dissertations, but you can't really like, add it as like, peer review per se, because apparently, you know, That's not, that is not your most, established piece of work, even though it is one like that, it's taking you probably the longest and you put your, you know, the most, like, heart into, but, there's a lot of good dissertations out there, too, that I found to be really helpful, so.

Tayler Simon:

I love that. I used to read, but now since I'm all about books, I haven't read research.

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

Right. Yeah, it's

Tayler Simon:

my last question for you is what advice would you offer listeners who want to make a positive impact in their community?

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

I think. It really depends on you as a person, and,, it depends on, how you envision your work. I think it depends on the community and the needs of the community, but there's such a wide range of things that a community will need, and there's only so much that one person can do. So, I think I don't try to do all the things or be involved in all the things, but really understand, like, what I can do and what I would be able to do the best. And so, I think. For me, that has been understanding how money works. In communities, how to redistribute funds, as part of the sort of like second iteration of Royal African Co. I started an artist, micro grant fund. And so I'm really working hard to not only spread the word about that fund, which can be accessed at royalafricanco. com slash give, but also just help people to understand how they can use things that are existing. Tools as well as their own knowledge or just the community of knowledge around them to be able to be better artists, be able to be sustainable in their artistic practices, and to make a positive impact in whatever way that makes sense for them. So, I guess that's a tough question, because I don't think there's like a formula, but I think, like, you know, I have, my own art practice and stuff like that, but I really say that my artistic medium is art. Organizing is art administration is helping people to be, you know, better artists because, I think that's what I'm best at. You know what I'm saying? So, I think people just sort of maybe sometimes they get so caught up in all the things that they can't really focus on the things that we can, you know, really excel at. So that would be my advice. Just do what you're good at within your art and then, like, grow that as much as you can.

Tayler Simon:

I love that. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Where can people find you and your work?

SaBrina Jeffcoat:

So you can definitely go to royalafricanco. com, we have Instagram and Facebook, and, I'm going to be marketing, doing a market at the Good for the, Good for the Soul Shoes, which is on Saluda Avenue, I believe, on October 6th, and then I'm also going to be at the Artista Vista Market. This fall coming up. So those are the two on the top of my mind. I do things here and there. I sell online part, you know, primarily. And I'm planning to expand that as well. So hopefully I'll be more visible everywhere you go in the near future.

Tayler Simon:

Yes, and I can't wait to see more because if you don't follow Royal African Co. on Instagram, the content, like, social media expert here. So, yes, not me, SaBrina, not, I'm not the expert. So thank you again. For being on the podcast, I will link all the places you can find Royal African Co. Online. And if you listeners have any stories you want to share or want to suggest topics or just want to connect with us, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Tik TOK. Tick tock Liberation is Lit or visit our website at Liberation is Lit. com. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review and remember your voice matters and together through the lens of stories, we're going to make a difference in the world until next time.