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 The rapper also has written
songs that reflect why he protests, compositions
calling for change and telling his story as an
African American and as the U.S.-born son of
immigrants from Congo. A film starring Nzanga
and featuring his music that was released online
in January adds his artistic perspective to the
social justice movement.
"I feel like God gave me the gift of being able
to tell stories," Nzanga told Reuters, speaking
via Zoom from his bedroom in Seattle decorated
with posters of such figures as Martin Luther
King Jr., Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela. "I'm
trying to find ways to make sure we see the
human in one another."
The 13-minute film Nzanga made with director
Caleb Slain, titled "enough," opens with the
song "Truce." Nzanga, now 22, wrote it when he
was a teenager at summer camp in 2016.
Nzanga followed the news between camp activities
and learned of the death on July 5, 2016 of
Alton Sterling after he was shot in a
convenience store by police in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. On July 6, a police shooting during a
traffic stop in Minnesota killed Philando
Castile. On July 7, a gunman killed five law
enforcement officers during a demonstration
against police brutality in Dallas before being
shot and killed after a standoff with police.
"It seems like every day we add a few more names
to the list," Nzanga wrote in "Truce," adding,
"I'm scared that I'm the next one that they'll
hit."
Vanderbilt professor Michael Eric Dyson, whose
book "Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White
America" was also inspired by those July events,
told Reuters that Nzanga's art "forces us to
think and reflect in a serious way."
The film is named for and includes another of
Nzanga's songs, one he wrote following the May
25, 2020 death in Minneapolis of George Floyd,
who died after he was pinned to the ground by a
white police officer, pleading for air until he
became unresponsive.
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 "Every time something like this
happens, we see ourselves in the person that the
police decided not to treat like a human,"
Nzanga said. After Steven
Cleveland, a professor of ethnic studies and
history at California State University East Bay,
saw Nzanga's film, he set out to use "enough" to
start conversations about race, violence and
policing in classrooms at his university and
others across the country.
"The vision for this is to go into spaces and be
able to bring both sides of the story so we can
begin to have dialogue and build us up and move
us to places where we can get sustainable,
transformative change that we need," Cleveland
said.
In "enough," a Black American is seen not in his
dying moments, but fully. Nzanga was interviewed
once a year as he progressed through school, as
part of what started as a documentary project in
2001.
As a round-faced boy, Nzanga describes bickering
with his little brother and relates the time he
and his family had to open their bags for
searches as they left a shop, while white
customers did not. The boy grows into a young
man who empathizes with the fear police officers
express, but argues that the racism Black people
endure is the heart of the matter.
 Nzanga is in full voice in the film, not gasping
for air. As he raps in "enough": "Can't love me
if you don't know me. Can't know me if you can't
hear me."
(Reporting by Donna Bryson, Editing by Rosalba
O'Brien)
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