• #Thmei | Online there are no borders - you don't need a passport! That's the powerful thing about being a young person in the world now; the only person that can limit you is yourself. —musician, performer, designer and Soweto native Manthe Ribane. Early on she learned Pantsula, a dance that originated in the surrounding townships as a response to the apartheid government, which led her to perform for Nelson Mandela as a child. + Featured: @Manthe.Ribane by @ChrisSaundersPhoto NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism.
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    #Thmei | Online there are no borders - you don't need a passport! That's the powerful thing about being a young person in the world now; the only person that can limit you is yourself. —musician, performer, designer and Soweto native Manthe Ribane. Early on she learned Pantsula, a dance that originated in the surrounding townships as a response to the apartheid government, which led her to perform for Nelson Mandela as a child. + Featured: @Manthe.Ribane by @ChrisSaundersPhoto NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism.
  • #Thmei | @blackquantumfuturism is a multidisciplinary collaboration between Camae Ayewa (@moormother) and Rasheedah Phillips (@afrofuturistaffair), working at the intersection of futurism, media, and activism through community-based events, music, writing, performances, and exhibitions. Their focus is to preserve, collect, and recover communal histories, memories, and stories to transform “negative cycles into positive ones.” They believe in manipulating “space-time in order to see into possible futures, and/or collapse space-time into a desired future in order to bring about that future’s reality. This vision and practice derives its facets, tenets, and qualities from quantum physics and Black/African cultural traditions of consciousness, time, and space. + Featured: Black Womanist Temporalities /// Time Travel Experiment #2 (Experimental Time Order) by @blackquantumfuturism ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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    #Thmei | @blackquantumfuturism is a multidisciplinary collaboration between Camae Ayewa (@moormother) and Rasheedah Phillips (@afrofuturistaffair), working at the intersection of futurism, media, and activism through community-based events, music, writing, performances, and exhibitions. Their focus is to preserve, collect, and recover communal histories, memories, and stories to transform “negative cycles into positive ones.” They believe in manipulating “space-time in order to see into possible futures, and/or collapse space-time into a desired future in order to bring about that future’s reality. This vision and practice derives its facets, tenets, and qualities from quantum physics and Black/African cultural traditions of consciousness, time, and space. + Featured: Black Womanist Temporalities /// Time Travel Experiment #2 (Experimental Time Order) by @blackquantumfuturism ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
  • #Thmei | “Then another tomorrow • They never told me of • Came with the abruptness of a fiery dawn • And spoke of Cosmic Equations: • The equations of sight-similarity • The equations of sound-similarity • Subtle Living Equations • Clear only to those • Who wish to be attuned • To the vibrations of the Outer Cosmic Worlds. • Subtle living equations • of the outer-realms • Dear only to those • Who fervently wish the greater life.” — Cosmic Equation, poem by Sun Ra + Featured: Designs and style by @michelletsm_, worn by @stylistiking and photographed by @gudinlaurent ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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    #Thmei | “Then another tomorrow • They never told me of • Came with the abruptness of a fiery dawn • And spoke of Cosmic Equations: • The equations of sight-similarity • The equations of sound-similarity • Subtle Living Equations • Clear only to those • Who wish to be attuned • To the vibrations of the Outer Cosmic Worlds. • Subtle living equations • of the outer-realms • Dear only to those • Who fervently wish the greater life.” — Cosmic Equation, poem by Sun Ra + Featured: Designs and style by @michelletsm_, worn by @stylistiking and photographed by @gudinlaurent ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
  • #Thmei | “Gold is made from the death of a star, like all metals or elements, but it’s one of the last things to be created in that process—a grand finale, of sorts. For gold to get to earth, astrophysicists believe it travels on meteors, and from there people mine the earth—literally sift through dirt—to acquire it for their own purposes. I find this process astounding; I think in my work that’s what I’m trying to grasp—taking all these grandiose ideas and bringing it back down to earth. Exposing the oneness of it all.” --British-Liberian artist @LinaIrisViktor on the ancient practice of gilding with 24-karat gold to create her self-portraits merging photography, performance, abstract painting. Featured: Lina Iris Viktor , 'Eleventh' (2018) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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    #Thmei | “Gold is made from the death of a star, like all metals or elements, but it’s one of the last things to be created in that process—a grand finale, of sorts. For gold to get to earth, astrophysicists believe it travels on meteors, and from there people mine the earth—literally sift through dirt—to acquire it for their own purposes. I find this process astounding; I think in my work that’s what I’m trying to grasp—taking all these grandiose ideas and bringing it back down to earth. Exposing the oneness of it all.” --British-Liberian artist @LinaIrisViktor on the ancient practice of gilding with 24-karat gold to create her self-portraits merging photography, performance, abstract painting. Featured: Lina Iris Viktor , 'Eleventh' (2018) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
  • #Thmei | I refuse to be put down, squashed, or made invisible. I’m here, seven feet tall, larger than life. The thing that I use is the gaze. Ninety percent of the time, I’m looking back at the viewer looking at me. It’s about creating freedom. I’m not one of these black artists who’s trying to run away from blackness. There is no postblack. There’s no post; it’s only the present. – Renée Cox for Aperture Issue 225 “On Feminism + Featured image: Renée Cox, “The Self Similarity of the Selfie,” (2016) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism.
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    #Thmei | I refuse to be put down, squashed, or made invisible. I’m here, seven feet tall, larger than life. The thing that I use is the gaze. Ninety percent of the time, I’m looking back at the viewer looking at me. It’s about creating freedom. I’m not one of these black artists who’s trying to run away from blackness. There is no postblack. There’s no post; it’s only the present. – Renée Cox for Aperture Issue 225 “On Feminism + Featured image: Renée Cox, “The Self Similarity of the Selfie,” (2016) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism.
  • #Thmei | “Black people have been scientists for a long time. Music is our way of traveling through the limitations of physical space. It’s a time machine, a teleport,” explains Los Angeles-born vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Georgia Anne Muldrow, “We [as black artists] have to stand up for people, creating new aesthetics that have nothing to do with the European aesthetic, and step outside of the colonial mind-frame. It takes so much courage because that other way is so prevalent. The simple fact that we’re still here and we can be a link to the original world means that there’s still hope and a reason to keep pushing on. + Featured: Album artwork by @Edreys and @TokioAoyama for @Georgia.Muldrow & @Declaime's 'Someothaship' ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism.
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    #Thmei | “Black people have been scientists for a long time. Music is our way of traveling through the limitations of physical space. It’s a time machine, a teleport,” explains Los Angeles-born vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Georgia Anne Muldrow, “We [as black artists] have to stand up for people, creating new aesthetics that have nothing to do with the European aesthetic, and step outside of the colonial mind-frame. It takes so much courage because that other way is so prevalent. The simple fact that we’re still here and we can be a link to the original world means that there’s still hope and a reason to keep pushing on. + Featured: Album artwork by @Edreys and @TokioAoyama for @Georgia.Muldrow & @Declaime's 'Someothaship' ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism.
  • #Thmei | “I’m a black woman and that’s what I know best. I choose to focus primarily on us because in 2019 we are still undervalued and misrepresented. I want my work to be part of the catalyst in changing that.” — from our recent #NARAtive interview with @erinleannworks (Erin Mitchell) - Link in Bio for the full conversation. NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism.
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    #Thmei | “I’m a black woman and that’s what I know best. I choose to focus primarily on us because in 2019 we are still undervalued and misrepresented. I want my work to be part of the catalyst in changing that.” — from our recent #NARAtive interview with @erinleannworks (Erin Mitchell) - Link in Bio for the full conversation. NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism.
  • #Thmei | “Paradise is one's own place, • One's own people, • One's own world, • Knowing and known, • Perhaps even • Loving and loved.” — excerpt from Parable of The Sorrow (EarthSeed #1) by Octavia E. Butler + Featured: Spear by @pamelaphatsimo ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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    #Thmei | “Paradise is one's own place, • One's own people, • One's own world, • Knowing and known, • Perhaps even • Loving and loved.” — excerpt from Parable of The Sorrow (EarthSeed #1) by Octavia E. Butler + Featured: Spear by @pamelaphatsimo ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
  • #Thmei | “Living in our society can be tough and most of the time we have to make the best of it. A wild imagination can take you so far, but at the end of the day we need to realize and observe the world around us. —Chicago-based artist and illustrator Kayla Mahaffey. Featured: 'Technical Difficulties' by @Kaylamay_art ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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    #Thmei | “Living in our society can be tough and most of the time we have to make the best of it. A wild imagination can take you so far, but at the end of the day we need to realize and observe the world around us. —Chicago-based artist and illustrator Kayla Mahaffey. Featured: 'Technical Difficulties' by @Kaylamay_art ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
  • #Thmei | Yoruba goddess Oshun represents “femininity and water and healing and fertility, and as young women in this transition period from little girls to women, that's Oshun all over it,” Thandi of @OSHUN on the inspiration of their name. “We call her name everyday that we live because we named ourselves OSHUN. And when people see us, they see that spirit, so we've done active spiritual work on a personal level to properly represent Oshun. And in us naming ourselves OSHUN, we kind of signed a lifelong commitment to representing love and fertility. It was a spirit-driven thing. We knew what we were doing, but now three years looking back, I don't think we expected how deeply we've gone, how far we've gone to continue to properly represent that spirit and be a reflection of love and beauty.” From interview by Sola Akinlana for @fader. + Featured: @Oshun by @f2f_studios. Swipe to view photo by Edwin Salazar / @mindofedwin. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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    #Thmei | Yoruba goddess Oshun represents “femininity and water and healing and fertility, and as young women in this transition period from little girls to women, that's Oshun all over it,” Thandi of @OSHUN on the inspiration of their name. “We call her name everyday that we live because we named ourselves OSHUN. And when people see us, they see that spirit, so we've done active spiritual work on a personal level to properly represent Oshun. And in us naming ourselves OSHUN, we kind of signed a lifelong commitment to representing love and fertility. It was a spirit-driven thing. We knew what we were doing, but now three years looking back, I don't think we expected how deeply we've gone, how far we've gone to continue to properly represent that spirit and be a reflection of love and beauty.” From interview by Sola Akinlana for @fader. + Featured: @Oshun by @f2f_studios. Swipe to view photo by Edwin Salazar / @mindofedwin. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
  • #Thmei |The sci-fi film platform @watchdust has created a 5 part original animated series on Afrofuturism. Narrated by the British rapper @littlesimz, each episode highlights a black talent that has created space for themselves above and beyond the Earth’s atmosphere – including Sun Ra, George Clinton, Jimi Hendrix, Missy Elliott and featured here: Star Trek's Uhura. Watch the full episodes: https://watchdust.com/2017/05/dust-presents-afrofuturism/ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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    #Thmei |The sci-fi film platform @watchdust has created a 5 part original animated series on Afrofuturism. Narrated by the British rapper @littlesimz, each episode highlights a black talent that has created space for themselves above and beyond the Earth’s atmosphere – including Sun Ra, George Clinton, Jimi Hendrix, Missy Elliott and featured here: Star Trek's Uhura. Watch the full episodes: https://watchdust.com/2017/05/dust-presents-afrofuturism/ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
  • #Thmei | “Truth is either black or white…Black and white is the foundation. Color is tricky.” – photographer @AidaMuluneh, who started her career in black and white film photography has been exploring primary colors in recent years as a way to “add strength to the messages I convey in each piece. Also, looking at references within my own culture—through artifacts, clothing and also the wall paintings in Ethiopian Orthodox churches—these are the same colors that are the foundation of my roots.” The Ethiopian-born artist has lived in Yemen, England, Cyprus and Washington D.C., where she worked as a photojournalist for The Washington Post. After many years abroad, she returned to her home country of Ethiopia in 2007, where she’s been living and creating since. In an effort to bring forth more diversity and representation in the photography world, she founded the first international photography festival in East Africa, Addis Foto Fest. NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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    #Thmei | “Truth is either black or white…Black and white is the foundation. Color is tricky.” – photographer @AidaMuluneh, who started her career in black and white film photography has been exploring primary colors in recent years as a way to “add strength to the messages I convey in each piece. Also, looking at references within my own culture—through artifacts, clothing and also the wall paintings in Ethiopian Orthodox churches—these are the same colors that are the foundation of my roots.” The Ethiopian-born artist has lived in Yemen, England, Cyprus and Washington D.C., where she worked as a photojournalist for The Washington Post. After many years abroad, she returned to her home country of Ethiopia in 2007, where she’s been living and creating since. In an effort to bring forth more diversity and representation in the photography world, she founded the first international photography festival in East Africa, Addis Foto Fest. NARA collective is a creative studio for conscious artists and brands with a bimonthly instagram magazine. Follow @NARAcollective for our Feb/Mar issue #Thmei celebrating the women of Afrofuturism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀