Somewhere between dawn and coffee, the phone rang. James De La Vega was returning my call to schedule our interview, or so I thought... for him, ‘the moment is now’, and now was the time to talk to a man with a mission to change the world.

DLV: “The moment is powerful. The now doesn’t think about the future. It just shows up. Thinking about the future creates too much indirection. The moment should always be utilized to communicate effectively.”

JH: “Amen.” (pour, stir, sip...)

Thus began a conversation about philosophy, the state of mankind, and inspiring greatness in everyone.

De La Vega is a bit of a conundrum for those who like to put people into boxes. Called “a hybrid between a street kid and an Ivy League guerrilla performance artist” by the New York Times, he received his M.F.A at Cornell University before returning to the streets of his native Spanish Harlem to teach, train, and transform the community he grew up in.

Long known and respected in and beyond artistic circles as a muralist, painter, and entrepreneur, I first became aware of James De La Vega’s work at a construction site on 84th street. His signature "Become Your Dream" has been chalked onto sidewalks, penned on scaffolding, and spray painted on discarded furniture around Manhattan for over ten years, inspiring millions of New Yorkers- including myself- to get out of their heads and back into their hearts.

“Become Your Dream is a major column that runs through all of my work. Most people live very complacent lives. They go through it with a sense of powerlessness. But there’s a greater depth. Become Your Dream is powerful; it’s just three words that say: Look at yourself, and look at what you can possibly become. You can go out in the world and achieve all that you want to achieve.”

For De La Vega, this isn’t just some feel good anthem. It’s a call to action for a world of potential-filled people sleeping their way into oblivion through apathy and self-doubt.

“I’m from an economically depressed neighborhood, but the majority of the world is underprivileged. I’m surrounded by all types of people... poor, wealthy, lawyers, police, judges, teachers, political people... all types. One of the things I realize is that most people say they want to help the world, but they’re not necessarily always involved in the process of really empowering people or themselves. We need a new philosophy, a new way of revisiting relationships to power.”

This state, this lack of privilege is given by a system that, while not necessarily keeping all people down, certainly doesn’t inspire them to rise up.

“Something needs to be disassembled. Something needs to be seriously unhinged in the web of how this thing was created. That is what interests me. If you look at this machine that we operate under, it’s brilliantly designed. Even the words we choose, they’ve been given to us. Most people don’t have to fear that your contribution to the world will threaten the established order. You can say anything... you can sound anyway, and it’s still not perceived as a threat to the way things are. In order to rearrange things, where there is a little more fairness and opportunity, there needs to be a change. It always comes down to the point that people don’t believe in themselves. I see this as a form of warfare.”

It’s a beautiful warfare, one that runs much deeper than an artistic or marketing philosophy for De La Vega.

“This work is not promoting an artist. It’s a way of life in that I and some of those closest to me are committed to showing people ways of making them more powerful. To challenge them to look at things from a different perspective. Learn to read, learn to write or develop their writing, to develop relationships outside of what they’ve known, so that they can become whatever it is they want to become.”

De La Vega’s message continues to take hold far beyond the sidewalks of New York. Become Your Dream is a movement accomplishing the mission of its founder; a mission that he knows will continue to extend far beyond him. And not only is he OK with that, he’s committed to ensuring that is happens.

“Gifts need to be defended and protected. Sure, someone will make t-shirts and someone will put it on a billboard. But the economics don’t interest me. What I am is a defender of the message that it will carry. It’s too powerful to not be on everything. It is a life transforming, world altering philosophy. We no longer need to be servants to a machine and way of thinking that denies.”

Toward the end of our call, I asked De La Vega if there was anything else he wanted to share.

“The most important thing is to just show up. Do the best you can and the power of this mysterious universe will send you all the helpers you need. People need to trust that.”

“You know how you can do my work, and all work, the most justice? Tap into the most powerful use of emotion and language and artistry that you have within you, Jennifer. When you sit down and write, make sure that you are in the spirit of being the most powerful communicator that you can be.”

In short, De La Vega was telling me to Become My Dream.