The Resident Pen

My name is Dominique Symone, I’m a writer and artist from Texas.

My art interrogates communal, and broader societal, dynamics to encourage the hearers and seers of the work to identify what needs to be done towards change. Armed with a sharp pen and radical analysis, my music serves as my direct intervention on behalf of changing our collective conditions. I’m tackling everything from Black unity, to white supremacy, to capitalism, to lying ass niggas of every gender, to our parents and grandparents who were not parented well and did not yet know how to parent us. I am talking to Black folks. I am talking to myself, to my partner, to my friends, to people in the labor force, to those hustling out in the streets - and definitely to those in positions of power. None of our situations are off limits and all of these are worth talking about. This is my artistic commentary of society that doesn’t shy away from the fallacies of how I show up in it. 

I’m producing a visual mixtape experience that offers the power back to the people to decide if we want to do Somethin’ Different. I remix classic songs with a mixtape feel and music video approach to dig at societal dynamics like abusive relationships, how we over rely on the state for justice, our constant pursuit of money, and honestly how normalized Black oppression is. I want us to ask the questions - what does this country owe us and what do we owe ourselves? Some of these concepts are straightforward and some you have to sit with a bit. But all of these should feel familiar to Black folks.