Artist-Surfer Simon Benjamin Explores How Black People Relate to the Sea

Of all the songs that played during my hours-long visit to Simon Benjamin’s Brooklyn studio, “The West” by Althea and Donna echoed in my head the most—partly because it’s catchy, and partly because its refrain (“the West is gonna perish”) complements Benjamin’s current question: “how productive is nationalism right now?”Benjamin is a multidisciplinary artist driven by curiosity. Previously an avid surfer, he’d travel to coastal re