Nikkolas Smith is a widely celebrated artivist (artist and activist). Whether it’s a portrait of George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer in 2020, or a mural of the late Chadwick Boseman, who passed away in 2020 from colon cancer, Smith’s art has followed the lead of Nina Simone in reflecting the times of Black lives.
Most recently, the Los-Angeles based artivist was commissioned by the American Red Cross to bring awareness to sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder that predominantly affects those in the Black community.
The result is a thoughtful piece titled “Transfusion”, which was inspired by the four sickle cell warriors he spoke to in order to get a better understanding of what sickle cell patients go through on a daily basis.
According to the American Red Cross, “an estimated 100,000 people across the U.S. — the majority of whom are of African descent — have sickle cell disease and may require regular blood transfusions to help manage their disease.”
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Smith, a blood donor himself, hopes his work with American Red Cross will help shed light on what he calls an invisible disease and encourage more Blacks to donate blood.
BlackDoctor.org sat down with Smith to discuss his work with the American Red Cross, what inspired ‘Transfusion’, what he learned about sickle cell warriors, and what’s next for the artivist.
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Can you walk me through your work with the American Red Cross and your art piece ‘Transfusion’? What inspired the piece?
I guess if I could back up a little – I think my whole life I’ve always heard about sickle cell disease and how it is so prevalent in the Black community. And all through my life hearing stories about people that we know– a friend of a friend or a friend of the family– who lives with the disease, I didn’t know a lot about how bad it was or how difficult it is to live through this. When the Red Cross came to me, it was great that I was able to connect with a group of folks who live with sickle cell every day and they gave me a much better understanding of what exactly the disease is, how they cope with it, how they make it through so it was a really big eye opener for me to have a better understanding of exactly what the disease is and how I could help try to get people inspired to make a difference in the lives of these warriors through my artwork.
You mentioned the four warriors that you spoke to in creating this piece. What did you take away from these four sickle cell patients and how did it inspire the piece that you put together?
We had a really great talk with these warriors young and old who have been living with this their entire life. There are a few things that my eyes were opened to about their struggles and their disease:
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- How excruciatingly painful it is
- The very intense day after [a] day [of] pain that that they have to deal with
- It’s really a silent illness in the sense that from the outside, you might not notice that somebody has sickle cell. You might not realize how much pain they’re going through.
So they told me so many stories of how difficult that is and also the fact that they need transfusions. It’s not that they just live with this illness and don’t do anything, they actively – monthly sometimes – need to get blood transfusions so that they can alleviate the
