Habila Sani Mazawaje
Photographer
Abuja | Nigeria
I am a photographer who main focuses on showing the beauty I'm surrounded by and telling stories. I have always enjoyed creating. This is partly what inspired me to photography. The other reason was seeing my uncle do it while growing up and also getting a camera from my dad. Photography gives me the most freedom to express myself and show the world the way I see it. A lot of my experiences and influences have shaped my creative side over the years, part of which is being born and raised in the most populous black nation in the world; Nigeria and being involved in advocacy while growing up.
nwaobiala
Multi-Disciplinary Artist
Prince George's County | Nigeria/USA
nwaobiala is a Black Nigerian American trans nonbinary creative from Anambra State, Nigeria and Prince George's County, Maryland. As a multi-disciplinary experimental artist, they exist within blurred medium lines, intersecting at photography, digital design, film, painting, poetry, and writing. Wielding art as a catalyst, nwaobiala drives global, Diasporic conversations about African Diasporic queerness, gender identity, fashion and self-expression; Black mental and public health, intergenerational trauma, male preference, history and culture, and everything in between.
Sephora Woldu
Filmmaker
San Francisco | Eritrea/USA
Sephora Woldu is an Eritrean American filmmaker.. Named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine, her work has gained audiences from the American Film Institute to Eritrean community centers in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Toronto, London, and New York. She is the owner of Abyssurdian Productions, a creative studio based in the Tenderloin of San Francisco, CA.
Sephora received the Emerging Filmmaker Award (Indie Memphis) and the Jury Prize for Bold Innovation (RiverRun International Film Festival) for her debut feature length narrative film, Life is Fare. She is currently developing its prequel, Aliens in Eritrea, with support from FilmHouse (SFFILM) and IFP Week. Her hobbies include dangling out of open windows, extreme journalling, and dreaming about the history/ scheming about the future of Eritrea. She lives in San Francisco with her bright red Castelfidardo accordion (Mushu) because among other things, she is full of surprises
Dom Jones feat. Eric Fells
Musician
Oakland | USA
Dom Jones, from Oakland, CA, is an artist and creative entrepreneur. The Founder and Principal Artist at Dom Empire, she weaves her passion for music, media, and social justice through various projects. An International Songwriting Competition Winner in 2014, Dom released her first album, Wingspan, that same year. She graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2019 as a dual major in Songwriting and Music Business. Her music has been lauded as a beacon for social change through recognition from Berklee’s Songs for Social Change, BAMS Fest, and she is a 2019 Composer for the Hear Her Song project. Dom’s recent single, “Crazytown,” was featured in the 2020 Grammy U Conference by the Recording Academy. More about her work in music, media, and entrepreneurship can be on her website.
Magati Maosa
Visual Artist
Nairobi | Kenya
Magati Maosa (b. 1995, Nairobi) is a Multidisciplinary Artist. His medium; Still, Animation & Gif Art, Painting and Film. Obtaining a Higher National Diploma In Art Graphic Design, Magati has been equipped with skills and practices in digital media that reflect on his style, Surrealism. He explores topics on time, location and his influences are from the cosmopolitan city of Nairobi, Kenya. Magati is currently based and working in Nairobi, Kenya.
Working as a freelance Visual Artist, Magati aims to show relevance to his work with the inclusion of non-binary characters and story telling through the use of exubirant character trates from compositions and ideas.
Following his lead and interest in visual arts, Magati is currently merging photography with motion graphics to help with the interpretation of artworks as a different form of output for my work. As an upcoming visual artist, Magati has been able to collaborate on creative projects as an assistant set designer, Photographer, and Videographer.
Okhiogbe Omonblanks Omonhinmin
Interdisciplinary Artist
Accra | Nigeria
Okhiogbe Omonblanks Omonhinmin is from Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. Omonblanks is a creative director, independent cultural producer, creative director. He has 15 years of experience in organizing, producing, and curating cultural projects which includes working with musicians, music production, films, tours, record producers, indie labels, and festivals across various capacities.
Judith Dyeme Daduut
Sculptor/ Installation Artist
Jos, Plateau State| Nigeria
Judith Dyeme Daduut is a young, rising contemporary artist who specializes in sculpture. A Fine Arts graduate from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and a Master’s degree in Art and Design from Birmingham City University, UK, she has received recognition for her work in by the following body
▪ Winner, Most outstanding lady (category) at the Life in My City Arts Festival (LIMCAF) Enugu State (2018).
▪ Winner Best Sculpture/Ceramics /Installation Category at the Life in My City Arts Festival (LIMCAF) Enugu State (2017).
▪ She was one of the 25 finalists at the Life in My City Arts Festival (LIMCAF) Enugu State (2016).
▪ She won the Ikon Gallery Art Prize for Master’s Degree 2014. Birmingham, UK.
She was one of the 6 artists featured in the Rele Arts Foundation, Young Contemporaries exhibition held at the Rele Arts Gallery in Lagos, Nigeria. She expresses her ideas in various media including but not limited to clay, metal, wood, body filler and fiberglass. With her special interest in mental health, her artwork observes behavioral patterns and creates their symbolic movement. Currently, she teaches Sculpture at the Fine and Applied Arts Department, University of Jos. Plateau State.
Nzinga Bandida
Visual Artist/Filmmaker
Paris | Ivory Coast
Maureen Douabou is an Ivorian-French multidisciplinary artist born in Abidjan and currently based in Paris. She describes herself as a black woman with opinions and feelings and her works aim at exploring black womanhood(s) through the use of different formats and platforms. Her background in translation and interpretation allows her to communicate different object and concepts to diverse audiences and her work with fabrics, textiles and headwraps translates black women experiences in other art forms. She uses the form and function of headwraps and fabrics as well as installations, videos and short movies to explore, communicate and denounce issues that arise.
KimikoVersatile
Dancer/Choreographer
St. Ann | Jamaica
Kimiko Miller, also known as KimikoVersatile, is originally from St. Ann, Jamaica. She began dancing professionally in 1998 at Naggo Head Primary School. By the time she got to high school, she was being trained in modern contemporary, Jazz, Folk, Hip Hop, and Folk. While doing this, she had the privilege of attending the Ashe Performing Arts Company where she was being trained by some of the greatest choreographers in Jamaica and also participated in dance, drama, music, and edutainment.
She further went on to study dance at the Edna Manley of the Visual and Performing Arts in 2005 where she received her diploma in Dance theatre and production and in 2011, she earned her Bachelor Of Fine Arts in Choreography and Performance.
Adetona Omokanye
Photographer
Lagos | Nigeria
Adetona Omokanye is a graduate of University of Lagos with Masters degree in Marine Pollution and Management. He’s a documentary photographer based in Lagos, Nigeria.
His work navigates and positions at the fore-intertwined relationship between beauty, self-acceptance, politics and environmental pollution.
He attended Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (Vll Academy) In Kigali, Rwanda (2019).
He also attended the Native Creative Lab (2018). Adetona is a member of African Photojournalism Database (APJD), a joint project by the World Press Photo Foundation and Everyday Africa. His works have been published in, magazines and websites such as Getty images, Der Spiegel, Business day, Frankfurter Rundschau, Eater and Weser kurier. Recently , one of his Personal projects-Beyond 4ft 10Inch, won a Getty Images award (2019).
In the pursuit of his career as a story teller , he strongly believes that photography can light up darkness and expose ignorance if a project were properly documented.
Mal The Oddity
Musician, Video Artist
Brooklyn, New York| USA
Mal the Oddity is a songwriter, producer, and video artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Drawing inspiration from hip hop, bedroom pop, and neo-noir films, Mal's work explores love, places, and self-reflection through stories drawn from his lived experience. His songs are the soundtrack to the futuristic cityscape developing around him in NYC, and to the sometimes dystopian digital existence we feel ourselves trapped in, where music helps us to feel real again.
Piwai
Singer/SongWriter/ Mbira Player & Percussionist
Richmond CA | Zimbabwe
Piwai’s chilling vocals and hypnotic sound have been described as spiritual nirvana. A captivating performer, she bends genres to seamlessly ow from jazz, reggae or folk to pure African rhythms, moving listeners to physically feel her music, creating a trance-like rhythm that balances consciousness.Piwai wows audiences across the globe with her soulful voice and genre-fusing melodies. Fondly known as the girl with the African thumb piano, the mbira, Piwai was born and raised in Zimbabwe. Her love of music is influenced by her multicultural Southern Africa and gospel exposure in early childhood. During and after college years in the US, Piwai trained as a jazz vocalist at the Jazz School of Berkeley. She’s studied with world-renowned vocalists such as Vernon Bush, Raz Kennedy, Maye Cavallaro, and Frankye Kelly. Piwai has since been under the tutelage of maestros and the incomparable percussionist, Yagbe Onilu, and conguero, Butch Haynes. Piwai collaborates regularly with Fantastic Negrito, playing percussion on his 2017 Grammy Award winning album “Last Days of Oakland"
NADÉEYA GK
Dancer/Choreographer
Paris | Cameroon
NADÉEYA GK is a Cameroonian dancer, Italian by adoption based in France. She presents an atypical artistic journey: Her first steps are from traditional Cameroonian dances and gets close to Hip Hop culture on her arrival in Europe (Italy and France). She falls in love with House dance and decides to devote herself to it. She took open dance classes in various dance studios in France and travelled as well to gain more knowledge. Today, she presents a House Dance with an "African accent" as she likes to say.
In her quest for movement, Nadeeya opens up to the richness of African gestures and approaches Krump dance. Her movements are therefore charged with energy at the crossroads of African culture and the western urban movement.
Yung Phil & The Turffeinz
Dancer
Oakland, CA
The hard hitting spitting image of the Bay Area...We are the turffeinz the most known dance group out of Oakland, california. You’ve might’ve seen us on many commercials, videos, and appearances. We have such a deep love for Oakland and the culture so we show it through our dance, The ups and downs the good the bad and everything in between. We showcase emotions through our dance everytime we touch the floor. If you have heard about us then you have heard about dancing in the rain Rip rich D it has over 8 million views and it impacted the dance culture in Oakland. We create new dance moves such as the Smeeze, mobby, etc. this is the 1-3 generations of the Turffeinz and the Turffeinz name won’t be leaving soon.
Mestre Mario Pam e Tambores do Mundo
Percussionist, Composer, Music Teacher, Coordinator of Tambores do Mundo, Musical Director Bloco Ilê Aiyê, Collaborator of NGO CCOR, Militant and Researcher of Afro Brazilian Music. With Ilê Aiyê recorded 3 discs and a DVD, participated in phonographic recordings with the artists: Arto Lindsay (EUA / BR), Daniela Mercury (BR), Yerba Buena (EUA), Creole (BR), Maira Freitas (BR), Lucia de Carvalho (ANGOLA / FR), Bjork (ICELAND) and Tambores do Mundo.
em portugues:
Percussionista, Compositor, Professor de Música, Coordenador do Tambores do Mundo, Diretor Musical Bloco Ilê Aiyê, Colaborador da Ong CCOR, Militante e Pesquisador da Música Afro Brasileira. Com o Ilê Aiyê gravou 3 discos e um DVD, participou de registro fonográficos com os artistas: Arto Lindsay (EUA/BR), Daniela Mercury (BR), Yerba Buena (EUA), Crioulo (BR), Maira Freitas (BR), Lucia de Carvalho (ANGOLA/FR), Bjork (ISL NDIA) e Tambores do Mundo.
Ntomb'Yelanga the Zulubudha
My name is Thobekile Mbanda known as a Ntomb'Yelanga The ZuluBudha a musician, storyteller, performer, guitarist poet and instrumentalist (make and play) and her work centre's around community development through preservation, development and promotion of Indigenous
Instruments/knowledge systems.I am a jack of all trades regarding music and creativity. Heritage is not something you put on and take of it's the embodiment of who you are an
extension of your ancestors, we are bestowed with gifts to make the world a better place. Some of these gifts are not as obvious as we would like them to be but through the guidance of isintu we find them, we remember them, we embrace them and share them with others.
Our heritage is food, language, clothing etc the whole package of your being.
King Drewwskyy
Social Media Associate
King Drew also known as King Drewwskyy is a Comedian, Actor, Director, Videographer and overall Creative. He is co-CEO of the entertainment company called Wowo Boyz founded in 2013.
King Drew is one of the pioneers of African comedy across the diaspora and has over 1000 comedy skits online. He has had the opportunity to open for Basketmouth, Davido, WizKid and others. King Drew continues to travel the world displaying his God-given talent performing at Colleges, Comedy Shows, Weddings, Concerts and other events.
Born and raised in Nigeria, King Drew moved to the USA in 2008 to further his education completing his Bachelor's in Environmental Health. King Drew aspiration is to become a super model as he believes he can make it big in the fashion industry with his popular slogan "I can make anything look good".
King Drew continues to prove his versatility as an Entertainer and is ready to take over the world...
But first, Welcome to His World.
Bruna BSA
Graphic Design
Born and raised in the South of Brazil, Bruna is a multidisciplinary visual artist, currently focused and exploring graphic design and illustration fields.
She studied Graphic Design in Brazil and then moved to Italy to do a Master in Gender Studies and Politics, since then she tries to merge her work with socio-political fights, and to use her art as a way to reconquer the public space, bringing some discussions and information to the public in forms of poster and zines.
Having worked with names such as Glamour Brazil, Havaianas, Lunario Della Dea, Dandalo. Been featured on Design Ativista, Women Of Illustration and I am Girl Disco.