HCRU recently got the privilege of speaking with Josue Casanova, an eclectic law student at Regent University. Josue is passionate about both art and law, so we interviewed him to pick his brain about how those things go together.
Her Campus (HC): You’re in Regent Law school now, but where did you get your bachelor’s degree?
Josue Casanova (JC): I got my bachelor’s at Regent as well. I did Cinema-Television.
HC: Some people argue that being an artist and being a lawyer take two completely different mindsets. What would be your response to them?
JC: One, even if that is true ( if art and law take two different minds) some people are born with both minds. Secondly, I would say that’s not even true. Art and law, or to branch it out even wider, art and logic, don’t necessarily take two kinds of people. There actually a lot more alike than people think.
Just to give examples of both, I know lawyers that are artists. One of my classmates was in a band and he put out a couple CD’s before he came to law school. Jay Sekulow, who is the head counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice—ACLJ for short—is part of a band. He plays the drums.
I think of one girl who did theatre during her undergrad, and another who was a professional model. She was actually one of the models on The Price is Right! So those things are not mutually exclusive.
Now for examples on the other side (not people who are lawyers, but are logical and who are also artists): two of my music instructors were engineers! The first one is Gary Edge, he taught me when I use to go Covenant Church in Carrollton, Texas. He wasn’t the first person to teach me guitar; I started when I was 12 (and then I stopped because my fingers hurt), but I picked it up later around 14. He started a life group where he taught us younger guys how to play guitar. And he’s an engineer! So he did things with math all the time. That was literally his job.
The other man, same church, his name’s Senyo Kumassah from Ghana, Africa. He was one of the prime, if not the prime, music director for the main church. The man’s a genius on keys (that was his main thing: playing the keyboard) but he was a genius musically in general, and again, he was an engineer.
So these are people that, if they told you their day job, you would say, “Oh, this person is completely left-brained. He’s not an artsy kinda person”. And then they sit down and play keys. Or the guitar for you. And you’re blown out of the water. So I think we have this misconceived notion that if you are one thing, you cannot be something else, because those are supposed to be opposite.
I remember reading in a book once that we’ve taken this concept of left-brained and right-brained and taken it to an extreme. And I agree. It’s kind of like saying, because you’re right-handed you can’t do stuff with your left. That’s not true. When I play guitar, I pick with my right and the complex stuff, like moving my fingers and playing pressure in the right places in the right way, is with my left hand. My non-dominate hand. So, it sounds good on paper, but when you look at the real world and how people operate, it doesn’t work.
That was a little more about logic, but [law and art] come together in a lot of ways. In undergrad, when I was finishing my degree in Cinema-Television, people told me when they found out I was going into law school, “How could you be a lawyer? When did you switch? You’re a filmmaker, you’re an actor. How is that going to work? Why would you switch?” And part of it was because it was in me: it’s part of who I am. But I got to law school, and I realized that every good lawyer is a good storyteller.
HC: You’re a very artistic person, but what are the primary art forms that you do? If you had to choose a favorite, which would it be?
JC: It would probably be music, acting and writing…also, writing and directing. I think I’d choose music [as my favorite] because it comes so naturally to me. It just comes out. I just think of things while I’m going throughout my day. Different melodies come, or I hear a song and I think of something else that would go with that song, or I listen to a song and I’ll think, “This goes with this other song!” and I mesh how they go together or how they would go together.
HC: What’s your inspiration for your art?
JC: I know I can get inspired by watching other art sometimes. But I know musically, one of the things that inspires me is something that hits you. and I feel that’s why a lot of the music that I really liked and that I started to create, has a more dark, emotional feel; because to me that’s the kinda stuff that hits me. It hits you in the gut. It just flows and it takes you somewhere. So to answer more of your question: injustices inspire me because they make me angry.
One of the times when I remember feeling that pain, or feeling hit by something, or crying about something, or angry about something; or all that at the same time, is when I saw an injustice. When I saw kids being abused. When I heard of people being trafficked and sold into slavery. Like, “You can’t do this to people! This is wrong!”
It’s that one, 3-word exclamation in your soul. That solid, “This is wrong.” Musically, it’s when I hear something, and I go with it because it takes me somewhere. When I hear a piece of music. It’s good, it stirs and it moves me.
I don’t think you go some place literally, in the sense that a story can take you somewhere. It seems that there is more of a solid defined place in a story. Whereas in music, it’s more like an emotional place. It’s more of an abstract, atmospheric place.
So because of that, those are the songs that inspire me and something rises up in me. There’s a certain aspect of myself that comes out in my music. A very tribal, warrior, fight aggression, angry, ferocious, happy kind of feel comes out. Or more of a deep, dark, longing.
And it’s this pouring out. This, grab-you-in-your-gut-and-let’s-go kind of feel. When you hear my music, I want that to take you somewhere. To hit you in the gut like it hit me in the gut when I first heard it.
HC: You’re also part of the Moot Court Board. What’s that like?
JC: Moot Court is essentially training you to argue in appellate courts. When people see a court on TV, when there’s a judge and a jury and people say “Objection!” That’s what’s called a trial court. There’s three levels of courts: The lowest, the middle and the highest. The lowest is trial court. But if someone loses the trial court, they can “Appeal” which is the going to the middle court and say “Hey! We think that the trial court did it wrong, here’s why, and we want you to hear our case.”
The middle court can take your case or say no. Also, if they do take the case, you can do the same for the highest level, the supreme court of your state, and do the same thing all over again. So Moot Court trains you how to talk to those two types of courts, both in writing and in oral arenas.
I am specifically talented in oral skills, so my job is I go up and talk to the judges and use that storytelling thing I was talking about earlier. It’s cool because it’s arguing and fight for your cause while at the same time advising the judges in their decision and one of the coolest things about it is that it trains you to talk to a judge. You’ll be talking to juries too, but a lot of what you’ll be doing is talking to a judge.
So you have to know how to talk to them and know how to not be afraid when someone snaps at you with a question. Because you understand it’s not personal: sometimes it is personal, but you’re not supposed to take it personally. You don’t cower because someone asked you a hard question, or they did it with a snarky tone. You just answer the freaking question. And you better have a freaking good answer because you’re the lawyer.
It’s fun in that sense but what I like specifically about our moot court board is the people. These are some of the coolest people that I’ve ever met on Regent Campus. Not all of them are super, amazing, fantastic people, but a most of them are. They’re these special kind of people that I enjoy being around. I think that was one of the reasons I chose Moot Court Board. At the end of the 1L (first year in law school) year, there’s this mandatory competition for one of your classes. The further you go in the competition, the more extra credit you get. So that’s the incentive for doing it instead of blowing it off and studying for finals. This is something to take seriously.
So I made it to the top eight, which means out of my 75-80 classmates, I became of the eight remaining. Afterwards, the Moot Court Board at the time, took everyone in the top eight out to dinner to congratulate us for getting that far. What made me interested in joining the Moot Court Board is that because when I got to go to dinner with them, I got to see the people that they were. Beforehand, they were just people in law school who were a year or two ahead of me.
But because I got to go to dinner with them like I would with friends, I got to see who these people are. I got to see that they were godly and passionate about what they do. They’re really great at what they do, and they’re just fun people to be around. What really draws me to the group of people is the sense of comradery. When I walk into the Moot Court Board, I don’t feel I’m a part of this thing that I joined because I liked what they do. I feel like I’m walking into a group of friends.
HC: Are you putting out music in the future?
JC: Yes! I have recorded my first single. It’s called “Half of the Moon”. I wrote it back when I was doing my senior year of CTV. I actually got to record it with my friend from undergrad; his name is James Harrington.
We were both in the CTV program but his specialty was audio. He’s also a musician, and he’s also a rapper. I got to work with Yanni Allen (some people at Regent know him, but he goes to Liberty). He’s an incredible drummer..like, this guy melts your face without even thinking twice. It’s ridiculous. He’s awesome, and he’s a great guy.
So he did the drums, I did everything else. We finished recording a weeks ago, and now we’re in the mixing and mastering phase. We’ll be done in the next week or two, but the song won’t come out for another couple months because of some legal stuff I have to take care of. I just have to file some paperwork for the song. So I guess at this rate, the song will be out by the middle of summer or something like that.
HC: Can you give us a question for the readers?
JC: What are you doing with your life, and why is it important? Because we all have a purpose, and we all have a reason why we’re here. We’re not just made to walk around and occupy space and breathe air. We’re not just here to sit in church and sing a couple songs, then go home like nothing else happened.
We’re not here to watch things go wrong in our world and say, “oh my god, that’s horrible.” We’re made to do something about it. I think the reason why stories inspire us is because that’s who we are and that’s who we’re meant to be. The reason we love heroes is because superheroes or world war veterans or doctors or inventors or all these different things, is because that’s us. And it’s our choice to become the hero. So be the hero.
Image Credit: cover, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.