Olubenga Agboola was a nervous wreck as he left Uber headquarters in San Francisco back in 2016. He spent the next couple of sleepless nights on edge, pacing back and forth as he faced lingering doubts about whether his company Flutterwave would become the next payment processor for Uber in Africa. Not a soul in the room that he pitched this idea to had even heard of Flutterwave. Even though he was unsure if his company had the right capital and skillsets, it didn’t seem to matter. A few days later, Uber signed on and Agboola was left with a heavy sigh of relief. 

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Despite their obvious differences, Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” Maroon 5’s “Payphone,” Britney Spears’s “Circus,” and Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” all have one person in common: Benny Blanco. The Virginia native has created a name for himself within the music industry as a producer and writer. Blanco’s affinity for the music industry began early, with him loving music as a child and wanting to become a rapper. This dream shifted, as Blanco explains in an NPR interview. “I realized no one wanted to hear a chubby Jewish kid rap, so I was like, ‘Oh I guess I’ll make all my own music, and I’ll write songs for other people.” 

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Art is a valuable tool for self-expression, while also serving as a form of activism. When tragedy strikes, creatives seek an outlet to draw attention to inequalities. Jon Key, an artist known for his dedication to justice, used art to vocalize his thoughts and feelings after the 2016 Pulse Nightclub massacre. Following the tragedy, Key focused his attention on the safety of queer and trans people of color in public spaces. 

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In March of 2019, I was lucky enough to visit the country of Bulgaria. I had in my mind preconceived notions and stereotypes about the country, from every red-scare visual of Eastern Europe to picturing a country full of Viktor Krum's (the Bulgarian Quidditch player from the Harry Potter series). What I didn’t expect was a vibrant and colorful country that while flawed, is still so full of life and beauty throughout. The contradicting existence of modern-day Bulgaria, as a country still coming to terms with the end of state socialism and dealing with the impending globalization that comes from the English-speaking world, a country both urban and rural, a country that often seems like it’s stuck in the middle though. Within this contradictive existence lies a possibility that has just begun to be explored: fashion.

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Two very important questions for our followers this week are: Did you get a chance to see the Xaiali Magnetic interview about a week ago on our Instagram feed? And did you get a chance to check out his album yet? If the answer to either one of those questions is, “NO,” then we need you to get on board with the rest of us, and get familiar with the sounds of Xaiali Magnetic

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The year is 1913 and three suitors are competing for the hand of the local beauty. Mobile partygoers are dancing the famous “cakewalk” as legendary Entertainer Bert Williams and Actress Odessa Warren Grey are dressed up for a date at the park, which includes a ride on the merry-go-round. This positive depiction of life as a middle-class black person in the film "Lime Kiln Club Field Day" serves as one of the very few silent black and white films which featured an all-Black cast with story elements that challenged the negative, evil depictions of Blacks in a majority of white produced films of that time. Over 100 years later, filmmaker Garrett Bradley has chosen to incorporate footage from this unreleased film into her multichannel video installation titled “America.”

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