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Over the course of his long, multi-hyphenate career, Common has taken up charitable efforts as wide-ranging as his talents;raising awareness on issues like animal rights, HIV/AIDS, under privileged children and gun control.

Now, the rapper-actor-author is turning his sights towards blindness, and teaming up with See America, Allergans initiative to fight against preventable blindness in the United States. Together, Common and Allergan produced a new PSA that aims to spread awareness about the61 million Americans currently at-risk of severe vision loss.

I was inspired to get involved because its about raising awareness, and blindness is an issue that Americans are dealing with that we dont really think about, Common tells PEOPLE.

Its one of those things that until its happening to you, you dont think about it, he adds. But learning how toprevent these things by being aware and taking care of ourselves iswhat inspired me to get involved.

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As for what drew him to the project, Common explains, I look for things to do in life whereI can help people, and looking at See America, the awareness that theyre bringing to the American people when it comes to blindness, I knew it was something I wanted to be involved with.

He also has a personal connection to the project. As a kid, I had issues with sight, and one of the scariest things I can thinkabout is going blind, he says. When my vision started to fade, it made me want to figure out what I could do to make suremy sight was at the level it should be.

While his childhood vision loss plateaued as he got older, Common says the experience left a mark on him. You really begin to appreciate your sight when you start having issues yourself, he explains.

The video, titled Stand in the Way of Darkness, utilizes Commons poetic prowess and story telling to highlight the issues important to See Americas mission. As long as we do it in a creative and cool way, then Im all for it, he says of making the video. And thats what we did, we made a beautiful piece that Im very happy about.

Read more:
Common Shines a Light on Blindness in PSA for See America: 'We Made a Beautiful Piece' - PEOPLE.com

This entry was posted on April 21, 2017 at 10:42 pm and is filed under Blindness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |