Read my new post on the Senegalese designer Selly Raby Kane, now available – in English and French! – on BlackstotheFuture at this link. Here is an excerpt. Kane’s tactile storytelling unveils an eclectic exploration of the hidden facets of normality, where the alien is found in the everyday. A prominent member of Les Petites Pierre, an art collective headquartered at Ouakam (Dakar), Kane …

I was saddened to hear of Papa Wemba’s death. An unexpected event that followed too soon that of another cultural icon and black dandy, Prince. Wemba collapsed on stage in Abidjan on Sunday 24 April , leaving a country – his native Democratic Republic of Congo – and a whole continent to mourn him. Papa Wemba was the world ambassador of Congolese rhumba, but he …

From the photographer’s bio: Kevin Mackintosh was born in Africa, but left 15 years ago for the United Kingdom, ( where he lives, dividing his time between New York , London and Paris). While his work expresses a personal ‘ universe’ that combines an interest in European cinema, theatre and art, there is something about the largesse of his native …

The swenkas are Zulu migrant laborers living in Johannesburg’s poor areas who have been turning heads with their elegant style and dance skills since the mid 1900s. In the apartheid decades, swenking preserved Zulu culture and pride. The swenkas favoured a formal dress code inspired by jazz-age refinement. Their tailored suits came with brimmed hats and leather shoes, as well as a variety of accessories, including eyewear, …

Today I am happy to announce I’m officially an editorial partner @ Blacks to the Future! This transmedia platform, headquartered in Paris, promotes a “forward-looking, sustainable and uninhibited relationship with africanness and its means of expression”, with the aim of overtaking  stereotyped views of Africa, providing a critical thought on blackness, and nourishing inspiration through an Afrofuturistic vision of the world. As a first contribution, the team led by art director …

Thirty-year old Evans Mireku Kissi, also known as Steloolive, is a DJ based in Accra with a social media following that counts as many fans of experimental house music as of blipster (black hipster) fashion. Steelo believes in individual emancipation and self-styling is his way to practice it. A look at his online presence is enough to understand why he …

South Africa is a hotbed of sartorial creativity and a fashion powerhouse. Like other emerging voices from the (former) margins of the global scene, its contributions self-consciously engage with accepted stereotypes and truisms of fashionability. Most South African designers engage with the industry’s bulimic need to absorb all difference while dictating what accepted “difference” should be by creating the sort of familiar exoticism that can be both a …

This week the artistic platform Design Indaba has held its Annual Festival and handed the stage to South Africa’s top creative minds. These include Zipho Gum, aka Tony Gum, a 20-year-old film student at the the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and a social media sensation. Gum caught the collective attention with her “Coca-Cola” series showcased at Johannesburg Art Fair 2015, quickly becoming one of the foremost …

The Schomburg Center released the full stream of the event “Visually Speaking: The Timeless Art of Kamoinge” about the historic Kamoinge Workshop. The workshop was founded in 1963 with the aim of counteracting stereotypical media images of black Americans and the bias of mainstream institutions toward photographers of colour. The original group included James Ray Francis, Louis Draper, Herman Howard, Earl James and Calvin Mercer …