John Lee Gaston White Named Poet Laureate of Long Gallery Harlem

November 6, 2025

John Lee Gaston White is an artist, poet, fashion designer, entrepreneur, and advisor whose work lives at the intersection of emotional expression, personal transformation, social healing, and creative freedom. Named Poet Laureate of the Long Gallery Harlem, John embodies the modern renaissance spirit of Harlem—where art, intellect, and activism converge in pursuit of truth, beauty, and liberation.

Through his writing, design, and public work, John champions emotional sovereignty—the right to feel, express, and heal without the constraints of outdated norms or societal expectations. He believes that freedom begins within, and that the revolution America most needs is an inner one: a reimagining of the self that leads to the reimagining of the nation.

Drawing inspiration from visionaries such as Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and James Baldwin, John coined the term Emotional Sovereignty as a framework for understanding the healing potential of the heart and mind. His philosophy centers on the idea that social and political systems cannot be truly just until they reflect the emotional liberation of the individual. Amid global disconnection and polarization, John calls for a radical reinvention of both inner and outer worlds—rooted in love, compassion, and responsibility to one another.

As an artist and writer, John bridges emotional liberation and social justice through works that explore identity, belonging, feeling, and collective healing. His forthcoming memoir, Hold Me: I Am the Nation, blends poetry and personal narrative to explore his journey as a Black American man confronting generational trauma, systemic oppression, and the quest for wholeness. His forthcoming poetry collection continues this exploration, reflecting on how inherited wounds shape identity and the power of creative expression to heal them.

John’s creative work has been featured in Vogue Poland, Glamour Poland, LA Weekly, and the Houston Chronicle. His poem “George Floyd: The Father of the Reimagined America” was adapted into a poetic short for Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, and his manifesto for women’s equality debuted at the 79 Art Space exhibition in Krakow, Poland. Glamour Poland named him among “artists at the service of equality, diversity, and freedom.” In 2024, his poem Josephine—commissioned to honor Josephine Baker—was recited at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Paris and published by the U.S. Embassy of France in partnership with the Long Gallery Harlem.

In fashion, John serves as the Creative Director and Designer of Gaston & Claudine, a luxury fashion platform that fuses legacy, poetry, and sustainability into heirloom-inspired collections. His designs, like his writing, explore the relationship between identity, emotion, and elegance—transforming the act of dressing into an extension of artistic and emotional expression.

Beyond the arts, John is an accomplished entrepreneur and technology executive. He is the co-founder and managing partner of Global Leader Innovation (GLI), a firm focused on renewable energy, artificial intelligence, financial services, and critical infrastructure technologies. As Managing Member of RaumCo, an advisory firm, John has sourced and scaled more than $3.5 billion in opportunities while pioneering a tech-hybrid investment philosophy rooted in “machines, data, technology, and systems.” His leadership has extended across private equity, venture capital, and global strategy, helping grow family offices and firms to multi-billion-dollar portfolios.

A Kauffman Fellow (Class 25) and graduate of Morehouse College, John also holds an AA from the New Mexico Military Institute and has studied at the University of Barcelona.

Through every facet of his work—art, poetry, fashion, and business—John Lee Gaston White is reimagining what it means to live freely, love deeply, and lead authentically. He envisions an America, and a world, worthy of our children: a place where emotional freedom stands beside political liberty, and where healing itself becomes an act of art.

Joh Lee Gaston White

John Lee Gaston White is an artist, poet, fashion designer, entrepreneur, and advisor whose work bridges emotional expression, social healing, and creative freedom. Named Poet Laureate of the Long Gallery Harlem, John embodies Harlem’s renaissance spirit—merging art, intellect, and activism to imagine a freer world.

He coined the term Emotional Sovereignty to describe the right to feel, express, and heal without societal constraint—a philosophy that underpins his poetry, fashion, and leadership. His forthcoming memoir, Hold Me: I Am the Nation, and forthcoming poetry collection explore personal and collective transformation through the lens of identity, belonging, and healing.

As Creative Director of Gaston & Claudine, a luxury fashion platform, John infuses design with legacy, poetry, and sustainability. Beyond the arts, he is the co-founder and managing partner of Global Leader Innovation, and managing member of RaumCo, where he advances innovation across technology, energy, and infrastructure.

John envisions an America—and a world—where emotional freedom stands beside political liberty, and where healing itself becomes an art form.

https://johngaston.com/

Peer to peer —
he was always a pier above me.
You could tell by the way the sun hit his face —
gold against brown,
light finding a place to rest.
He prayed for fall —
for rain to fall —
so heaven might bless the earth,
the streets whistle the chords of memory.

If you hear it,
And then I hear it.
We — we have it now.

If you see it,
and then I see it,
like clouds — all things distant —
we see them too.
But it’s when I say it —
when we are thinking the same thing
and don’t know it until we say it —

“That cloud is a heart,
that cloud is my mother’s face,
that cloud is a rose,
and that one — pointing far away, pinky fingers folding — that cloud —
is a piece of myself
I have named Harlem.”

— An excerpt of Breathe a Little Color, one of two original poems by John Lee Gaston White commissioned for the exhibition, Barry Charles Johnson: The Audacity of Abstraction.