Rising Stars: Meet Tyrone Shivers of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyrone Shivers.

Hi Tyrone, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
OK, well the whole thing about my story is I’m not even really sure what’s a accurate starting point because if I wanted to, I could say this thing goes all the way back to like elementary school when I went on a field trip to Washington DC and took a camera for the first time it was a disposable but it was enough to satisfy that part of my brain at that age, but I could also say it started, maybe somewhere in like high school when I did yearbook because that was my introduction to just walking up to people and asking them questions or to be a part of whatever hair brain crazy scheme that I had and that’s kind of where I got the bug but then you know I had to go on a adventure or journey of different ideas and in career choices that I thought would work for me. I originally went to school for public relations and then after doing some like on campus internships, I realized oh I actually don’t wanna do this so fast forward to the end of that school year really and I was like well I went to school with a bunch of people who do music or some sort of creative feel thing and I knew I wanted to be a part of that and I didn’t necessarily see myself being any sort of musician or anything like that so I just thought about where do I fit in and documenting through interviews and photography and other long form pieces was my entryway into that so that’s kind of how it all got started. I don’t know somewhere in between all of this is my sob story or you know the trials and tribulations for when they decide to turn my life into a movie which will probably be happening at some point in time I’m banking on it but all those details. I’ll save for when we decide to do that when we’re in the scripting room, but until then this is the unofficial Canon of me and how I got to this part or place in my life oh yeah, and I’m also skipping my time at the ReachTv because I think that was a very impactful moment in my media journey because it gave me the confidence to be like oh wow there’s actually a bunch of people not only who like our making this type of content but people who actually care so yeah no I can’t forget about ReachTv. That’s a very important part of this, but yeah, like I said I did Podcasts since before podcasting was annoying and so that’s the spark notes.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
actually, yes, it’s actually been very easy barely an inconvenience. well, I guess if you count the years of unpaid work, the stressors of wondering where your next paycheck is going to come from the constant comparing to your peers through their social media highlights the awkwardness of coming to family get together in them asking what is it you do again or maybe if you think about the constantly changing media landscape that forces artist in creative to incrementally change little pieces of who they are and what they do to fit this algorithmic world we live in so much so that on the other end of it, you question if you are even doing the thing, you originally set out to do or maybe you could say some of the nights of doubt and dread when you start to question, if you even made the right choice to pursue this thing, that was just a hobby, you did for fun but now you feel as if your whole life depends on it success then I guess maybe you could also just look at the socioeconomic and global conditions of the world right now when that’s a whole Nother can of worms that you have to process along with whatever road blocks. So I guess if you count those then it hasn’t been that smooth, but I don’t count those.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
that’s kind of weird I figured since you guys reached out to me I figured you already knew what I did but whatever I’m one to oblige. It’s actually interesting that you asked me what it is that I do because you’ve caught me at somewhat of a transitional phase in my life if you had asked me maybe two months ago, I’d tell you that I’m a journalist and maybe if you’d ask me maybe a year ago before that I would’ve said creative director but today I think I would say I am a documentarian and I would say all the things that encompasses that is interviewing podcasting mini documentary, and I would even go so far as to throw music videos in there because I think music videos work is sort of a relic of a time. What would that be in an artist life or just of culture In general. When it comes to what I like to document, it is mostly centered around the arts and culture of Atlanta for right now and at some point, hopefully the entire country and maybe the world at some point I would say that’s what people most likely know me for is my documentation of the Atlanta nightlife underground music creative scene. I’ve been coming outside with my camera since 2017 and ever since then it has been an interesting experience to say the least some of my favorite parts of this whole experience has been meeting artists at the very beginning of their careers and watching them blossom into the artist that they are today so I would say something that I’m most proud of is just being a part of so many of these different artists journey whether that be artists like Kenny Mason or Anicia it’s just really cool to watch people that you can see. Have that hit factor and watching them like find out within themselves and I think that connection to the thing that I’m covering is what separates me apart from other people who do this thing called journalism, I actually am very passionate and interested in this thing and I see a lot of people who do things similar to me not to say that they don’t have the same level of interest or passion in it but I think because of where I went to school where I’ve lived what I did while I was in school I think my perspective on this whole thing is very different than what everyone else’s is if there’s not anything you’re going to get from any of my coverage or documentation of anything how authentically I am about how I talk about these things I don’t just see them as subjects to be prodded and to be exploited and pushed out for likes and chairs and all these different analytics even though that’s nice, don’t give me wrong. I do it because I genuinely like to see cool stories come together and be made right in front of my face and so that is what I tried to push out through what it is that I do.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
so I’m gonna be a little selfish here. This is my interview so I’m not gonna spend too much of my time here talking about other people, but I do feel like there are some key figures in organizations that I should at least throw a bone I guess as I mentioned earlier my time with the ReachTv was a very significant time in my media journey, so I’m very thankful to everyone who was a part of that and helped out in that mainly the owner of the organization Chidiebere Udogwu ©. he was one of the first people to kind of put the battery in my back that I could do this thing. Secondly, I’d probably like to sing Taylor Tousana. She was the creator of a women’s intersectional brand known as pussy power and that was my very first introduction into the artistic creative space from that lens working with Taylor also gave me that perspective of working with women in the creative underground world and so I’m very much thankful that I got to get that understanding of how that world operates from their eyes and lastly, I would like to highlight my good friend Jelani Imani because through my collaborations with him I was able to get a level of access to that world and also experience in a stress-free environment to execute a lot of my creative ideas so these three people I would say right now are the main ones who can take up a little bit of my shine but anyone else you gotta wait for the biopic

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/eastnotweast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eastnotweast?igsh=MWlxa2FwZmJkMTgwaQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@kfedsucks1?si=s69S6O_UPua0jOMk