Why I Protest: Glen Infante Makes Art With A Voice

Editor's Note: During weeks of protests following the police killings of Desmond Franklin, George Floyd and others, Clevelanders shared stories of activism with us. Click here to read more from our "Why I Protest" series.

When Glen Infante heard Random Act of Kindness Everywhere founder Ricky Smith was organizing a Black Lives Matter mural on East 93rd Street in Cleveland, he immediately reached out on Twitter wanting to help. Infante, a Cleveland-born artist who started the influential streetwear company Ilthy in 2009, felt a sense of responsibility, due in part to his reach on Instagram, where he has more than 17,000 followers. Smith accepted Infante’s offer and assigned him the K in “Black Lives Matter,” as different artists from around Cleveland were each given a letter to demonstrate what Black Lives Matter means to them. Infante, who is Asian American, came up with the idea of a tiger, symbolizing Asian culture, walking alongside a black panther, which symbolized Black culture.

Infante has also taken to his Instagram to promote several works of more protest art, from a painting of a Thomas Jefferson statue with a “Black Lives Matter” sign on his lap, to a painting of a Black police officer yelling and pointing at a white police officer (based on a clip that went viral on social media in June). The paintings are available for sale with proceeds going to Black Lives Matter and the NAACP. Infante says it’s important for him to use his art as a platform for the ongoing racial problems in America.    

[Ricky] pretty much said, “Hey, do whatever you think Black Lives Matters means to you personally.” For me personally, I just wanted to represent my heritage, and to let them know that we're standing beside them in this fight for equality. We know how it feels to feel different or to not feel welcome. So I wanted to kind of bring that issue of, Hey, we resonate with how you feel, and we stand with you. And we're fighting with you to make sure that we're with Black Lives Matter. We want to represent with you guys.

I feel like art lasts forever. I think it lasts longer than photographs. And I've just wanted to capture these moments just to let people know that these events happen. These are key moments in our lives, whether it makes you feel uneasy or you feel inspired by it. I didn’t have a direction of how I wanted people to feel about it. I just wanted people to know that these things happened. So I feel it was my duty to kind of do that. People look at me to create art for every occasion or every event, and I just wanted people to know, this is what I see.

To know that I do have that reach. I feel like a lot of responsibilities in it, too. I feel like people are following me for a reason, people are following me for a blueprint on how they would want to express themselves artistically. So with my platform, I feel like I have a lot of responsibility to these people.

I just feel like since I have people following me, I need to make sure that whatever I say, or whatever I post should have meaning. My page is meant to inspire. And I feel like people look to me for inspiration. I need to do my best to inspire people to make them believe that they can do anything they want, if it's art, or if it's anything else. I want to be that example of a person that shows people that Hey, like you can express yourself freely and not be afraid to do it.