Conversations of Black Futures
Each year for Black history month, we’re reminded of the activists that came before us. But here, our goal was to use Black history month to change things. In creating this story, we wanted to humanize the current and future experiences of Black people. We wanted to shift the conversation from Black History to Black Futures, acknowledging that Black people are regular people with diverse experiences, journeys, and ideas. Conversations of Black Futures is a story that illustrates the Black experience and its changing of form and appearance throughout time and across—and within—geographical boundaries. Being Black isn’t simply about trauma or suffering. Nor is it about a mandate to change the world. It’s dynamic. Through interviews we demonstrate that there’s space to pursue academics, sports, music, visual arts, and more. Acknowledging and learning Black history is important. But so is acknowledging the history we are, and will be, creating.
Our history is behind us, but now we look towards Black futures.
“Grade five was the first time I was introduced to artistry. And ever since that I’ve been beat boxing since I’ve been a kid, everywhere I go. I’ve been doing music. Playing like the drums. It kind of follows you everywhere you go, and for me to not pursue that in my life is a disservice to like, a younger me. I strongly believe in the fact that we all have a purpose, and I believe that’s my purpose. It just wakes me up in the morning every day. The doubts come and go, but I’ll never doubt this. Music is my thing. It is. I can’t see myself doing anything else.”
“When I first started painting, I remember going to the MoMA in like 2018. I don’t know if you know what the MoMA is, but it’s the Museum of Modern Art in New York. At the time I was painting because I had a lot of time off. I was working a part-time job and I painted on the side because I didn’t really have anything else to do. So I took a trip to New York and I went to the museum, and I think in that whole museum I saw one Kerry James Marshall piece of like, a Black person. And there was another artist named Faith Ringgold, who’s also an African American artist. But to me I just realized that out of the whole museum, and mind you, New York… New York is filled with a lot of African American people. But there were like, no pictures of Black people! There were a few Basquiat pieces. But there were no pictures of Black people and Black art. And that’s when I kind of was like, if I want to paint people, then obviously I’m going to paint people that look like me.”
“When I chose the route of film, there was nothing my parents could say. I was taken out of Kumon at 12, so math was difficult for me. There was no way I was going to go and be an engineer if I didn’t understand calculus. I could have gone into architecture, but I didn’t know that was a thing because I basically had to figure it out myself. There was no guidance. Not from my school. Nothing. And with that there’s this mentality that plagues communities of colour. We’re limited to specific degrees with no resources or actual help. It’s this mentality of like: ‘I did it, so you can do it.’ But it’s like, if you did it, why aren’t you helping me? Why is it every man for themselves?”