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What Now? With Trevor NoahMeet Derek Fordjour – One of My Favorite People | What Now? with Trevor Noah Podcast
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WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Trevor Noah and Derek Fordjour on Art, Value, Identity, and Storytelling
- Derek Fordjour describes growing up in Memphis as the son of Ghanaian immigrants, including the cultural gap between African immigrants and Black Americans and the splintering of collective identity.
- The two discuss how the art world has gatekept Black artists, with Fordjour crediting predecessors like David Hammons and Norman Lewis and describing stereotype threat and the coded use of suits in his paintings.
- Noah argues that all work is a scam because value is assigned arbitrarily, and Fordjour agrees that the art market is a shared fiction distinct from the art itself, which he says must stay behind a firewall in the artist's mind.
- Noah calls art a 'passive buff' to society, while Fordjour distinguishes art, which creates questions, from advertising and design, which answer them, and both link art to comedy as universal, human forms of expression.
- They close by debating the CIA-created-art-market conspiracy theory, which Fordjour dismisses, and he shares where to see his work, including a subway station and an upcoming Los Angeles show.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasBlackness is often flattened, which splinters collective action
Fordjour says treating Black as one category ignores wide diversity, and splitting into separate groups is comfortable for culture but can undermine collective advocacy against shared oppression.
Anticipating racism carries its own burden
Fordjour cites stereotype threat, the anxiety of expecting racism, and says much of his work is about the strategy and gamesmanship needed to move through troubled spaces like the art world.
Value is a shared fiction
Noah says work's value is assigned by those with resources, and Fordjour agrees that the art market runs on an agreed fiction, noting a work can go from $3 to $3 million without changing.
Success depends partly on whether society's train stops
Noah says creators either chase society's moving train or wait for it to stop, and he distrusts successful people's advice that leaves out luck; Fordjour says overlooked Black artists were not worse, the train just did not stop for them.
Art's impact is passive and universal
Noah says a place without art, like Ukraine, feels devoid of something, while Fordjour says humans are coded to create and respond to art regardless of knowledge.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesI don't think we speak enough about how cruel it was to not just steal a people from their place, but steal a place from their people.
— Trevor Noah
Art is like a passive buff to society.
— Trevor Noah
I have a million relationships of one. You have one relationship of a million.
— Trevor Noah
Art is interested in the question.
— Derek Fordjour
Beauty is to me more expansive than pretty.
— Derek Fordjour
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SPEAKERS
Trevor Noah
hostComedian and TV host, best known as the former host of The Daily Show and host of the What Now? podcast.
Derek Fordjour
guestContemporary artist known for painting and mixed-media work, discussing his practice and exhibitions.
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
