Staying true to his roots
AFRICAN ORIGIN: ‘I FEEL CONNECTED TO A CULTURE THAT I KNOW VERY LITTLE ABOUT’
It was two weeks before the inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris following a tumultuous election year that saw Americans caught between fighting a pandemic and fighting a racist police system.
From his New York apartment, Tyree Rainey Outre, a professional muse, model and performance artist, was taking it all in and reflecting on his triumphs and low points over the past year.
Connecting with the outside world via Instagram allowed him the space to give more of a voice to his thoughts than he normally would before the pandemic locked entire populations behind closed doors.
So, we slid into his DM’s via Instagram to talk culture, aesthetics and a little politics.
Though the US supposedly allowed black people their freedom and equalty of civil rights several decades ago, Outre sees much that still needs to be changed.
His biological family’s roots are a scattered network passing through Africa – evident in his jet-black skin – South America – where he believes he also inherited some of his stand-out features and curiosity for the world –and his birthplace North America.
While New York is a melting pot of cultural diversity, people like Outre don’t always feel a sense of cultural belonging.
The Black Lives Matter movement may have united people along the basis that being black should not be a death sentence, but identity goes far deeper than just colour of skin and texture of hair.
As a muse and a model, Outre is sought after because of his distinctly African features draped in flawless dark skin, which he carries with a delicate masculinity that makes him appear as gentle as he does, almost menacing and exotic.
He pouts and glares at the lens like he knows what the photographer is thinking.
As masculine as he is, given how uniform and predictable the fetishisation of African males in contemporary photography has always been until recently, he chooses to show his gentle side as well.
“People in my circle would sometimes say to me, ‘Tyree, you act as though you’re not from America’. I am American. I just feel that being born in America doesn’t give African
Americans or Afro-Latinos an always authentic taste of our native cultures.
“These are things I don’t express aloud, but I’m sure many of us think about. A lot of us are curious about the world. I feel connected to a culture that I know very little about. I think this shows in my art, in my modelling, in my photography and in my writing.”
Being a muse for most clients is incredibly fun, he quips. It takes a lot of hard work off camera to come across as a good and fluent muse on camera.
“Practice makes permanent. I have this zone that I experience when posing. I think it’s honest passion,” he explains.
Despite working for a beauty brand and wearing makeup in a world that still pressures straight men to declare that they are straight, Outre enjoys the art of makeup.
“The modeling industry is dominantly a ladies’ industry so, when it comes to makeup, as men we understand that it will be applied for professional purposes.
“I also respect the art that makeup brings to the table. Some days, male models do not get makeup applied. More than anything, I would say that the model makes the makeup, not the makeup makes the model. Good skin care is prioritised over makeup use.”
People who only know him via social media or through his published work assume that he wasn’t born in the US.
It isn’t as common as one would imagine, given the size of the black population in the country, to embrace African and Afro-Latina culture and aesthetics quite so wholeheartedly.
“I tend to look like my culture. That’s pretty normal to me. I believe that if you look at someone hard enough, you can find the culture inside them.”
On his father’s side, his family is ethnically and culturally Latina, which he spells Latinx, a neologism which was developed by young Americans to support nonbinary people of Latin-American descent.
“The relationship between African-Americans and the Latino community is a bit confusing in America, especially if you look like a dark brown African like myself. However, I feel there is a lot of confusion. After all, race is simply a mechanism of social division,” he says.
Further complicating the journey of self-discovery was the effects of 400 years of erasure of African heritage in America, which has left many unable to truly identify as African because
Race is simply a mechanism of social division
they can only vaguely refer to the continent and not the birthplace of their ancestors.
“When you ask an African-American where their families are from, they can only narrow it down to a continent.
“However, if you ask a Kenyan-American where they are from, more often than not you are going to hear more detail than ‘somewhere in Africa’.
“A lot of us don’t know. I tell you that I was born in New Jersey, but I cannot tell you where my family originates from. There are missing pieces.”
His favourite book is Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
“The closest person that makes an excellent example of character is my father. He makes a great role model to many. Not a perfect one, but a great one.
“Mentors and role models exist to help stretch and grow your life. If you don’t have anyone showing you how to grow, it’s very unlikely that you will be the person you’d like to be. How can you get somewhere if you have nothing to navigate you?”
Outre’s reaction after Biden and Harris were finally inaugurated is a realistic one that is neither excited nor pessimistic. It is cautious and hopeful.
“I hope we can make strides to deconstruct mass incarceration and provide fairness to our communities,” he says.
The Covid-19 pandemic has left real and still open wounds in his heart.
“We lost a few family members and that took an emotional toll. I have never lost anyone close to me, but Covid-19 opened my eyes. Nearly everyone close to me lost their jobs.”
Despite the sweeping losses left behind by the pandemic, the entertainment industry appears to have figured out how to work through it.
“I’m simply excited to be part of an industry full of diversity, which makes the industry just as beautiful as the art itself.”
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