Where Are The Black Designers Team Detail the Purpose of Their New Exhibit
Interview by Trey Alston / Working Not Working Member
Black art is an important part of modern culture — one that has been historically undervalued while the styles and mannerisms of Black people are hijacked and popularized by other races. Dedicated to ensuring that Black art gets the spotlight that it deserves is Where Are The Black Designers, an organization founded last year that focuses on amplifying Black artists through conferences, exhibitions, and partnerships. Its latest partnership with Working Not Working offers an exciting one-of-a-kind virtual exhibition with more than 250 pieces of art from Black artists, painting a vivid picture with a multitude of fresh realities.
Speaking with Working Not Working are founder Mitzi Okou and artist Roshannah Bagley — two instrumental figures who work on the day-to-day planning of Where Are The Black Designers, landing partnerships and collaborations, and making sure that the platform is the best that it can be as it continues to grow into an international presence of over 7,000 members strong. What started as a one-day event has turned into a massive community that Working Not Working is excited to showcase.
Here’s how this exhibit came about, the history of Where Are The Black Designers, and the future of the organization below.
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
How did Where Are The Black Designers as a platform get established?
Mitzi: It started off as a conference to bring awareness of the obstacles that a Black person has to go through to even be considered a professional designer. Then, it became a conference to spotlight amazing Black creatives as well as discuss topics like allyship. Because we used Slack as a way for people to chat and react together throughout the conference, everyone just stayed in the channel afterward and then start doing their own thing. I was like, I'm going to roll with this.
I started seeing a few people take initiative and organize the platform in Slack. Then I reached out to those people and was like, “Hey, do you want to volunteer to help run this thing?” Roshannah was one of those people and that's how that came to be, so now we just do a lot of things in terms of empowering Black designers through educational, mental, and physical wellness resources. We also amplify them through different collaborations with different companies.
Roshannah: She explained it, in a nutshell, perfectly. It grew very quickly, didn’t it?
Mitzi: So, so fast.
Roshannah: We originally planned for it to be a one-day event, and now here we are. It's been so awesome and organic. We have 7,000 people on Slack and we're doing regular events and partnerships.
The exhibit stretches over 250 individual pieces of art. What was your reaction to seeing the sheer scope of the work submitted?
Mitzi: I thought it was insane. I was really excited because I didn't think we would get that many. Going through some of the pieces and looking deeper felt like seeing their essays about what being Black means to them. It was just so beautiful, heartwarming, and emotional. I literally just wanted to scream because it was just so good and I'm just so glad that we get to share the work and that people trust us to amplify it.
Roshannah: I feel like it's really nice because the narrative allows you to really understand the aesthetics of these people.. The caliber and variation of the work is extremely impressive. There are not only designers, but artists, photographers, and more. I think it’s great for our community and it’s incredible to be able to support future Black designers, some of which aren’t yet in the industry.
“Going through some of the pieces and looking deeper felt like seeing their essays about what being Black means to them. It was just so beautiful, heartwarming, and emotional.”
What do you think that the art within the exhibition is going to tell the world about the Black experience?
Mitzi: I think it's going to tell different things from a personal standpoint. I can't even say what it's going to tell, because I feel that I would be doing it an injustice of generalizing a lot of people's stories and experiences that they want to tell. Some stories could be just struggles, some might tell stories of self-love. I think, overall, one thing that it shows is people being so courageous to be vulnerable in their work and putting it out in the public for people to digest. Then, also letting people get to know them.
Roshannah: I think the power of the platform, the fact that it's going to be so international, is really critical. Other than just the age, but the demographic of where a design is based. We have someone speaking in the panel from Australia, we have a lot of designers in Nigeria and other parts of the world. I think that's really powerful for me to see everybody come together, with the same mission and similar journeys. It's much bigger than America or Britain even — it's a global thing.
What’s next for Where Are The Black Designers and how do you plan on continuing to elevate the platform?
Mitzi: Every time I get asked that question, I'm like, “I don't even know what I want to eat for dinner.”
Roshannah: But you didn't plan any of this.
Mitzi: I usually say what I want it to be, but then I just envision more. It can honestly just go anywhere, to be honest. Because I think that we're very lucky in the sense that we're collaborating with people that let us imagine the future with Black people at the focal point. I just hope it grows into a more structured, safer, and more sacred space for Black designers to come to, that we can probably even expand beyond Slack and be your own space for people to go to without anyone having to uphold us. That's what I'm working towards, is for us to be as independent as possible and financially sound. To be able to provide really free resources and for it to be a beautiful space that Black designers can come to and be their authentic selves.
Roshannah: It’ll be a year that we’ve been here, soon enough. We're planning our annual conference, which will hopefully be in June, and that's really exciting to come full circle and to do that. But also for me, I think the platform is like changing the narrative. Isn't it? It's knocking down some of these doors and making sure that the conversation's continuous and honest and there's longevity here. I think that's really exciting to see it develop and expand over the coming years.
Mitzi: Essentially world domination is what we're trying to work toward?
Roshannah: We thought that we would be around for a day and here we are.
Credits
Visuals by WNW Member Laetitia Auguste
Web Design and Development by Okay Jak Studio