Converse encourages creative youth with the project Create Now. Create Next.

The global project continues the legacy of Converse by acting as a platform to promote, support, and showcase the work of young artists from diverse countries, many of whom are from underrepresented groups. The goal is to help these groups occupy new spaces through two means: greater inclusion and more valued self-expression. 

The project titled Create Now. Create Next brought together 20 six-second videos created individually by the invited guests, where, in each piece, their artistic vision, passions, and personal stories are conveyed. These productions flow together to form a single clip. 

Following the proposal for artistic experimentation, Converse recruited rapper Tyler, the Creator, a long-time creative partner, to be the musical executive producer of the campaign. Tyler conceived an exclusive instrumental arrangement for the final video of the initiative, including snippets from his own archive.

The group of creators participating in Create Now. Create Next is distinguished by diversity and representation – comprising a breadth of cultures and customs, ranging from Johannesburg to Los Angeles. Some, like South African rapper and songwriter Nyota Parker, based in New York, Parisian artist Engy Saint-Ange, and actor, dancer, and choreographer Thabang Rhampisa from South Africa, are part of the All Star Community. 

Among the artists already known in their countries and now invited by the brand is Brazilian MC Tchelinho. Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, in the Vidigal community, he is a singer, songwriter, and MC of Heavy Baile, a carioca party and music production company that emerged from the funk scene, in the style that accompanies the Dança do Passinho, one of the many choreographies of the rhythm. 

Read below the interview with MC Tchelinho. 

What was your reaction when you received the invitation from the CONVERSE project and became the Brazilian representative of this elite team?

It was a reaction of extreme happiness and satisfaction to understand that our work is being seen and valued by the world. 

For generations and maintaining this legacy, CONVERSE, just like Chuck Taylor, is present on the feet of creatives around the world. For you, what does it mean to have the collaboration and encouragement of the brand for the creative development of emerging new artists across the globe?

For me, this investment, this perspective the brand has on culture, on art in various countries, is of utmost importance, and it is able to bring together and unite various cultures in some way. This is fundamental for exchange, for development, and for cultural evolution, the thoughts, human life itself. When the brand aligns itself with art, it enters various segments of the lives of many people.

In your view, what can we expect artistically and musically from this new campaign that blends artists and creatives from various genres?

It is exactly this place of exchange, of fusion that one art creates within another, this place of knowledge. When I share my art with other artists from different countries, they are having the opportunity to know me artistically, and I, when absorbing their art, am also having the opportunity to know them.

For you, what is the importance of Representation and Diversity for the new generations who increasingly wish to be active in the artistic scene? Any advice?

For me, it is a great gain; it is of great value to include diversity in this field of visibility, marketing, and branding, you know? We should have our own representing us and showing us that it is possible to reach and achieve places that we have not yet touched.