James Longs: A Vocalist For Inclusion

James Longs describes his day job as 

“I take people from where they are to where they need to be [...] The living and the dead.”

Though he meant it in the literal sense, while describing his role as a patient transporter, he delivers this heroism throughout his life. As a martial arts teacher, he provides an outlet to build discipline in his community. As a multi-talented artist he uses his talents to urge for more than inclusivity for the Black community. His journey began in Cleveland, Ohio. 

This is a city that is segregated. Particularly, Longs remembers the lack of inclusion being displayed by the division between the East Side and The West Side. Black folks never went to the West Side and they stayed far away from Little Italy. Longs went to Shaker Heights High School in a community designed to build inclusion. Black people would get tax benefits to move to areas in Shaker Heights that were more expensive. White families would get the opposite effect. This created the community full of inclusive social gatherings and relationships that James experienced throughout high school. 

Once he left Shaker Heights to study at Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) his perspective on his harmonious community changed. From the way the CIA’s staff treated his mom to the difference in his access to resources, it all began to add up. Longs explains that he didn’t understand what it meant to be Black until he was 18 years old. He used that experience to learn how to analyze racism from a new mindset: Even if the end result is racism, where do their actions stem from? James Longs said,

“You start to understand what dead weight means in an actual sense.”

while reflecting on his role as a patient transporter. While still at CIA, he learned to move dead weight in a not-so literal sense. Removing this weight of unknowing allowed Longs path to lead him to  Mourning [A] BlkStar. He wanted to communicate these feelings and emotions and found art to be the pathway.

Longs became connected to what would be known as Mourning [A] BlkStar through his girlfriend Amy. She is also RA's best friend. This allowed the 3 of them to run into each other on occasion. One day, RA mentioned a project he was working on and invited James to “come by.” A little while later, Longs was on a mic at a jam session recording songs that existed even before M[A]B. Longs describes their sound as organic honesty. He saw this through the gaze of the audience during the tour with USA Girls and he sees it every day through the eyes of the members of M[A]B the collective.