AphroChic Magazine: Issue No. 4

APHROCHIC 

a curated lifestyle magazine 

ISSUE NO. 4 \ VOLUME 1 \ SUMMER 2020 

RENAISSANCE MAN \ FREEDOM SUMMER \ TOBAGO IN COLOR 

APHROCHIC.COM

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We took this photo back in February, during a trip to Wilmington, North Carolina. We didn’t 

know it would be our only trip to the beach this year. Back then we imagined that the year 

ahead would be full of adventure, travel, and new directions for the magazine. But suddenly 

the world changed and all of those things were gone. 

Our world is changing in profound ways. What seemed relevant even a few months ago, is almost hard to remember 

today. Every two weeks, or sometimes two days, it feels like we wake up in a new reality. News of the virus is replaced by news 

of how many Black people are being killed by the virus. That news is replaced by how many Black people are being killed by 

the police, the virus, and the rush to reopen. 

Somewhere in the middle of mourning all that we have lost this year — including a grandmother — our perspective 

changed. We began to see the opportunities in the crisis, the clear lens that this catastrophe has offered on a broken society. 

This clarity was demonstrated when people who’d never felt anguish over seeing a Black life extinguished on video before, 

joined the fight to ensure they’d never see it again. It extends to an economy designed for the richest alone and a government 

that would rather use taxpayer money to break protests than to provide safety and stability for taxpayers during a health 

emergency. And it reminds us, a people strengthened by a culture forged in hardships, saved by music and the DJs that play 

it, comforted by food traditions begun by people in bondage, inspired by elders, that these times have come and gone before 

— and we have remained. 

Our fourth issue is a celebration of the new world we are all entering. One that is intersectional, inclusive, just, and 

focused on a full acknowledgment of the undeniable valuable of Black life. In this issue, we sit down with artist Malik Roberts, 

who relates the experience of creating one of the few African American artworks to sit permanently in the Vatican collection. 

Fashion designer, Prajjé Oscar John-Baptiste introduces his latest collection — an ode to Haiti and its goddesses. We head to 

South Carolina to experience the Gullah-inspired music of Ranky Tanky. And in New York, we watch a new world being born 

with photographer and journalist Naeem Douglass, who takes us inside the city’s Black Lives Matter protests, and economist 

Janelle Jones, who reminds us in these times that we are the economy. 

We are thrilled to share our cover with chef and musician Lazarus Lynch. Inside, we talk with him about his cookbook, 

Son of a Southern Chef and his new album, I’m Gay. In a moment where the intersections matter more than ever, Lynch’s 

multi-hyphenate talents and spirit of Black Gay Pride are exactly what the world needs right now. 

From a house tour in Brooklyn to a travel piece in Tobago, this issue takes you all over the Diaspora. And we see how the 

concept of Diaspora was first introduced in a look back at how Pan-Africanism led the way to how we think of international 

Blackness today. It is a showcase of our culture, our creativity, our resilience, and our diversity, our demands for the present 

and our hopes for the future. Welcome to our summer issue. 

Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason 

Founders, AphroChic 

Instagram: @aphrochic 

editors’ letter 

With the amazing Danielle Brooks 

Photo: Chinasa Cooper

SUMMER 2020 

DEPARTMENTS 

Read This 10 

Visual Cues 14 

It’s a Family Affair 16 

Mood 24 

FEATURES 

Fashion // A Spirit of Duality 28 

Interior Design // Brooklyn Dreamscape 36 

Culture // Freedom Summer 60 

Food // Renaissance Man 78 

Travel // Tobago in Color 84 

Wellness // Plant Life 98 

Reference // The Emergence of Diaspora 102 

Sounds // Ranky Tanky 106 

PINPOINT 

Artists & Artisans 110 

The Remix 116 

Hot Topic 120 

Who Are You? 122

CONTRIBUTORS 

Cover photo: Lazarus Lynch by Anisha Sisodia 

Publishers/Editors: Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason 

Creative Director: Cheminne Taylor-Smith 

Contact: 

AphroChic 

Brooklyn, NY 

AphroChic.com 

info@aphrochic.com 

Contributors (left to right below): 

Patrick Cline 

Chinasa Cooper 

Janelle Jones 

David A. Land 

Tedecia Wint 

issue four 9

READ THIS 

Summer is so important to the book trade that summer reading lists always start appearing in early 

May, offering ideas for beach reads and lazy days. But this is a summer like no other. With a pandemic, 

economic instability, and worldwide protests for racial equality, light summer fiction seems to belong 

to another era. But with great change comes great opportunity; in revolution there is evolution. Our 

expanded reading list in this issue both celebrates Black culture and illuminates where we’ve been, and 

where we are headed. 

Misty Copeland 

By Gregg Delman 

Publisher: Rizzoli. $39.95 

My Brother Moochie 

By Issac J. Bailey 

Publisher: Other Press. $25.95 

City/Game: Basketball in New York 

Edited by William C. Rhoden 

Publisher: Rizzoli. $45 

10 aphrochic 

serenaandlily.com

READ THIS 

Meals, Music, and Muses 

By Alexander Smalls 

Publisher: Flatiron Books. $25 

The Third Reconstruction 

By The Reverend Dr. 

William J. Barber II 

Publisher: Beacon. $25 

River Hymns 

Poetry by Tyree Daye 

Publisher: Copper 

Canyon Press. $23 

Wild Interiors 

By Hilton Carter 

Publisher: Rizzoli. $24.95 

12 aphrochic

VISUAL CUES 

The U Street corridor in Northwest Washington, DC, could almost be a model for what happens to a 

neighborhood when gentrification moves in. Once known as Black Broadway, home to thriving Black-owned 

businesses in the early 20th century, U Street is now filled with the same chain stores and restaurants 

that you might find on any other nameless road in any other city. But an intrepid group of students has 

launched a project to showcase and celebrate U Street’s history and impact. Led by Georgetown University 

professor Ananya Chakravarti and students from both Georgetown and Howard University, the project is 

creating a digital bank of photos, archives, and oral histories about U Street’s past. “It’s a layered history,” 

says Chakravarti. “The community became really interested in the project, and are invested in it, which 

means so much.” The kickoff for the project, held in November 2019, featured events in 16 U Street venues 

over two days, including neighborhood trivia with Dr. Bernie Demczuk at Ben’s Chili Bowl, an iconic 

restaurant that has been a pillar on the street since 1958. The students have just finished an app – with 

work slowed by the pandemic and shutdown – that offers as a comprehensive digital library to celebrate 

not only U Street, but Black history in the nation’s capital. If you have photos or an oral history of U Street 

that you would like to share, contact Ananya Chakravarti at ac1646@georgetown.edu. To learn more, go 

to www.rememberingyoudc.org. 

14 aphrochic issue four 15

IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR 

A Refuge 

One of the more interesting functions that my family house has served over the years has been that of a 

refuge for members of my family as they made the transition from one stage of life to another. My Uncle 

Allen — my grandmother’s brother — lived there for several months after leaving the Air Force. My 

uncle Rodney did, too, having served in the Air Force as well. Other family members came and went for a 

multitude of reasons. More than once the change in circumstances came after a fire had claimed another 

home. For me, the house was my first home. I lived there for a year before my parents moved first into an 

apartment, then into the house that I grew up in. 

No matter where home was for me, 

“The House,” remained a constant, though 

it was much emptier by the time I arrived. 

In fact, for all of my life before 2005, the 

family home was just “Mom-Mom’s house,” 

to me. My grandmother lived in the home 

alone when I was a kid, and as the youngest 

grandchild I had no grasp of how long it 

had been in the family, how many of us had 

lived there, or what it had meant. 

It never occurred to me to wonder 

what it was like for her to live alone in a 

place that had once been full of so many 

people she loved. Whether it felt a little 

lonely or if she was grateful for the quiet 

wasn’t something she ever expressed to 

me. Had I thought to ask, I suspect her 

answer might’ve included a little of both. 

But whatever her answer might have been, 

it wasn’t a question I considered when my 

turn came to have the house (mostly) to 

myself. 

I moved into the house after college 

along with my brother Andre. By the time 

we took up residence, Mom-Mom, whose 

health was dwindling, had moved to live 

in my parent’s home. After years of dorm 

rooms and tiny apartments, it was good 

to have an entire house with what felt like 

massive spaces, more bedrooms than 

we needed, and one of the tiniest, most 

weirdly designed bathrooms either of us 

had ever seen. 

There’s a reason why real estate 

agents say that bathrooms and kitchens 

sell houses — it’s because in both cases, 

bad ones will seriously impact the experience 

of living there. This bathroom 

had survived the coming and going of 

many family members, but along the way 

it had developed both structural and 

aesthetic issues. The bathtub and shower 

were separate, the latter consisting of 

little more than a closet with an ill-fitting 

curtain that kept all of the light out 

but none of the water in. The sink was too 

small, and the toilet was crowded in by the 

massive radiator (painted an oppressive 

dark green) that actually dominated the 

space. 

On the aesthetic side, the bathroom 

had received a beautiful facelift about 

15 years before we moved in. Time had 

done its work on the very 1990s look, 

It‘s a Family Affair is an ongoing series 

focusing on the history of the Black family 

home, stories from the Harper family, 

and the renovations and restorations of a 

house that bonds this family. 

Photos by Chinasa Cooper 

and from Harper Family Archive 

Words by Bryan Mason 

Bryan Mason’s grandmother, “Mom-Mom,” Alice Harper 



Bryan Mason‘s Uncle Allen, left. 

Allen with Bryan‘s maternal grandfather 

Leroy, below. 

The family home‘s bathroom, before the AphroChic renovation. 



however, and by the time we were there the 

wallpaper was peeling, tiles were cracking, 

and pieces of the popcorn ceiling were frequently 

on the floor. 

It’s not that the bathroom made life 

there unbearable. I loved living with my 

brother, and 22-year-old men are rarely 

bothered by inconvenient bathroom architecture. 

But even then it was easy to see 

that there was room for improvement. So 

when the opportunity came, years later, 

to renovate certain parts of the home’s 

interior, there was one space that was definitely 

at the top of my mind. 

Smart renovation is about picking 

your battles, and even then there are some 

you win and some you lose. For us, that 

meant accepting that there was a lot about 

the bathroom’s structure that we couldn’t 

change. There wasn’t time or money, for 

example, to bring the bathtub and shower 

together. In fact, just changing the bathtub 

would prove a nearly impossible task. After 

starting the project we quickly learned 

that not only was the cast iron tub original 

to the house, but it had actually been built 

into the structure of the home in a way that 

made it impossible to remove in one piece. 

The solution was a sledge hammer and a lot 

of work for my brother-in-law Will. 

For this iteration of the bathroom, 

we wanted to create something with a 

more timeless feel. We simplified the 

color palette to a classic black and white, 

expressed together in the large, dazzling 

patterned tiles that replaced the earlier 

speckled pink versions. As the centerpiece 

of the room, we placed a larger vanity with 

a marble top and black base that worked 

with the lines of the new bathtub and toilet 

to give the room a more modern feel. 

Though Mom-Mom never got to see 

the bathroom’s redesign, we thought a 

lot about her when bringing it to life. The 

house was not just a refuge for those on 

their way to something new. Mom-Mom 

was young when the family first moved 

into the house. She raised her daughter 

and her grandchildren there. It was open 

to everyone who needed it and when the 

time came, she passed it on. It was her 

house. We wanted to honor that by creating 

a calm and relaxing space she would have 

enjoyed. Hopefully it will last for as many 

years, and offer as much comfort to the 

family members who are there now and 

those who will be there next. AC 



“Though 

Mom-Mom 

never got 

to see the 

bathroom’s 

redesign, we 

thought a lot 

about her 

when bringing 

it to life.” 


MOOD 

Caribbean Queen 

The Beanie Man and Bounty Killer Verzuz battle was 

Blas One Piece $300 

May Two Piece $230 

Hama Two Piece $275 

maygelcoronel.com 

legendary. Even among the explosion of live social media 

events in the last few months, this virtual concert stands 

out for its huge reception. It was a moment for fans of 

all kinds – DJs, dancehall queens, and hype men alike – 

to honor the Jamaican cultural phenomenon that has 

influenced music around the globe. You can bring a bit 

of that same energy into your space with a few fresh and 

Oroo Natural Tote $210 

aaksonline.com 

modern pieces that bring the queens of dancehall to your 

dining table, pre-Colombian weaves to your outdoor 

retreat, and woven pieces that reflect the colors of the 

amazing Caribbean sea. 

Lisa Braided Tassel 

Earrings $85 

lillianandjoan.com 

La Perla II Armless $299 

jaimeluisorganic.com 

Sisters Lumbar $159 

aphrochic.com 

Dancehall Queen Salt and Pepper 

Shakers by BAUGHaus Design Studio 

$55 per pair 

baughausdesign.com 

Woven Necklace Pendant Lighting 

in Cobalt $485 

54kibo.com 


FEATURES 

A Spirit of Duality | Brooklyn Dreamscape | Freedom Summer | 

Renaissance Man | Tobago in Color | Plant Life | The Emergence 

of Diaspora | Ranky Tanky

Fashion 

A Spirit 

of Duality 

It is a tale of two sisters. One, the Rada Loa, Erzulie 

Fréda Dahomey, is the goddess of love, beauty, 

jewelry, dancing, and flowers. The other is Erzulie 

Dantor, most senior of the Petro Loa and goddess of 

motherhood, credited as the spiritual inspiration to 

Haiti’s famed revolution. Opposites in nature and 

rivals for the love of Ogun, the two are traditionally 

depicted as enemies. But for his SS20 collection, 

Haitian-born designer Prajjé Oscar Jean-Baptiste, 

painted a different story. 

Photos courtesy of Prajjé Oscar Jean-Baptiste 

Words by Jeanine Hays 

28 aphrochic

Fashion 

In Jean-Baptiste’s new vision, the goddesses are reconciled, working together to bring 

their people to freedom. Though their personalities may contrast, they work synergistically 

towards a common goal. In Prajjé Oscar’s ÈZILI collection, the legacy of these 

goddesses is celebrated beautifully. The designer worked extensively in his native 

country to acquaint himself with local manufacturers and techniques, determined to 

create a collection that would benefit the nation by being manufactured locally. 

Featuring an eye-catching palette, the collection is modern yet traditional, presenting a 

mix of ready-to-wear pieces and stunning couture gowns. Bold hues evoke the natural 

splendor of Haiti through beading and embroidery handmade by Haitian artisans. The 

most special piece of all - a hand-painted jacket. A work of art, made for the people, 

inspired by the gods. AC 

32 aphrochic

Fashion

Interior Design 

Brooklyn Dreamscape


The Whimsical Home 

of Artist Paul Suepat 

The interior world of an artist is a dreamscape full of wonders — improbable tricks 

of physics that bend realities, alter perceptions, and open minds. To bring even a 

fraction of what he or she sees into reality, the artist labors for a lifetime. For it to 

ever be seen in full, the time, labor, and strain it would take to produce it would be 

nearly impossible to accommodate. Which is why, for the most part, it stays inside 

their heads — then there’s the house where Paul Suepat lives. 

Photos by Chinasa Cooper 


issue four 39


For 17 years, Paul Suepat has made his 

home in the historic Stuyvesant Heights area 

of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York. 

The Jamaican-born artist has spent much of 

that time in an effort to map the interior of his 

mind onto the interior of his home. As a result, 

his expansive and beautifully designed brownstone 

is as much an art gallery as a home, showcasing 

Paul’s surrealist aesthetic while demonstrating 

the clear overlap that he feels exists 

between art and design. 

“I don’t want to be bored,” he muses, 

looking effortlessly Brooklyn in an outfit that 

pairs a vest and button-down shirt with well 

worn jeans, a broken-in “Camp Vibes” ball cap 

and meticulously maintained white sneakers. 

As we move through the house, his train of 

thought doesn’t so much move from topic to 

topic as from sentence to sentence as he looks 

for the combination of words that will best 

convey the meaning he wants to offer. “I’m very 

obsessed with art and design,” he adds quickly. 

“Growing up as a child I was really obsessed 

with art and design, so I created this whole kind 

of gallery that you can live in.” Looking around 

the amazing interior with its colors, oddities, 

and what seems like a million tiny details, it’s 

hard to imagine where boredom could hide. 

As an artist, Paul Suepat is a man driven 

by contrasts. Focused constantly on the 

nebulous space between ambiguity and definition, 

his art moves between sculpture and 

painting, whimsical figures and strong abstract 

shapes, specific emotions and imaginative 

contexts. Or perhaps the point is not so much 

the contrasts themselves, but creating an 

instance of connection between them, bridging 

the gap so that for the moment in time that the 

piece represents, “this” and “that” become indistinguishable. 

It’s a drive that fuels his design 

aesthetic as well as his artistic approach. 

“My design style and my art style are totally 

connected,” he reflects. “It’s one of those things 

where you can’t stop and say, ‘I’m doing art,’ or 

‘I’m doing design.’ I just do.” 

If someone were inclined to create their 

own private wonderland, they could hardly 

do better for a canvas than a brownstone in 

Bed-Stuy. The two-story home has spacious 

rooms, impossibly high ceilings, and impeccable 

architectural details, including crown 

moldings on just about every wall and every 

ceiling. To step in through the front door is to 

be greeted by the home’s classic entryway, 

complete with luxuriously tiled floors. The 

effect is stunning, but the real attractions start 

in the living room, which is just to the left. 

There are two things a guest is likely to 

notice about Paul Suepat’s living room shortly 

after they enter. The second is that it, like many 

of the other rooms in the house, is decorated 

to take full advantage of the terrific amount of 

natural light that the home receives. The first is 

that they entered the room between two beautifully 

crafted pillars — painted a bright, electrifying 

shade of blue. 

“I didn’t want to take it too seriously,” 

Paul says about his playfully-colored throughway. 

“Sometimes columns are so pretentious. 

So I said let’s play with it and put it in 

blue and just have fun.” Past the pillars, the 

living room is the first space in the home to 

give a full taste of Paul’s theory of contrasts, 

pairing mid-century modern classics with 

a surfboard-shaped coffee table and a chair 

painted in a screen-printed, rainbow camouflage. 

Paul explains his combinations, saying, 

“I think design is just design. Whether it’s old, 

it’s mid-century, it’s art-nouveau, it’s art-deco, 

it’s Memphis, it’s whatever it is. It’s all one. 

It’s good design. It’s just how you put them 

together and make them work. I have too many 

layers sometimes, and it’s about how I put 

them together.” But what really helps it all hang 

together is the fact that, visually, the furniture 

is really just an accessory to the art. 

Paul’s art is very patient. It’s surreal in 

a way that seems to make sense the first few 

times you walk past it, as it waits for you to 

take a closer look. For example, one could walk 

past the coffee table half a dozen times before 

realizing that there’s a six-pack of armed men 

sitting on it in a convenient carrying case 

42 aphrochic


marked “no deposit, no return.” Or that the 

beautiful painting of yellow flowers hanging 

over the loveseat is actually three-dimensional 

and thickly ribboned with texture. Or that 

in place of wood, the fireplace has only a small 

electric light with a neon filament spelling out, 

“lamp.” There’s no end to the details, and no 

standard on how long it takes to notice them. 

But once noticed they become irresistible, 

enticing you to stare and daring you to look for 

more. 

Past the living room, the dining room is 

Paul’s image of a dinner under the sea. One of 

the first contrasts to be bridged here is the one 

between form and function, as the lighting 

over the dining table is a work of art in itself, 

and the centerpiece of the concept. “I always 

had this vision of people kind of living in art — 

that art is around you — and so I wanted to have 

this fantasy dinner where art is everywhere.” 

Beginning with the idea of eating underwater 

with jellyfish all around, the light, which was 

originally a single jellyfish, became several. 

The form and function motif continues around 

the table as, capped by mid-century bentwood 

chairs at the head and foot, the seating along 

the sides is equipped with back rollers to 

keep guests comfortable as they sit and chat. 

Because dinner beneath the sea is pointless 

without any interesting creatures in attendance, 

another of the artist’s unique creations 

stands sentinel at the far end of the room. With 

only one of its two legs attached to the pedestal, 

the piece was originally intended as a commentary 

on balance. But when inspiration hit to 

use rolled foam to add a larger head, something 

new was born. It was the kind of spur-of-themoment 

creativity that Paul relies on to keep 

things interesting. 

“You have to take risks to make art, 

because sometimes it’s the accident that makes 

it great,” he says. “The first thing is to be open 

as an artist, open your mind to everything and 

look at everything, and be curious. Examine everything 

and pay attention to everything.” It’s 

this openness that allows space for all of the 

contrasts Paul builds into the decor of each 

room on a small level, and between rooms and 

floors on a larger scale. “I have a certain feel on 

one floor and a different feel on another. Every 

room is special to me in different ways.” 

Upstairs the decor takes a step away from 

the sublime and into the realm of memory. 

The library, one of Paul’s favorite spaces in the 

entire home, speaks specifically to the memory 

of his godparents. “The library came from my 

godparents, who I lived with when I first came 

to New York,” he remembers. “They were very 

kind of radical, political, very Black Panther 

kind of people. So when they passed away a 

couple of years ago, I decided that I wanted 

to remember them very, very much. So we 

literally took the library out of their house, bitby-bit, 

and we gently brought it all here and 

put it all together and recreated that room and 

the memory of them. That was really very, very 

important to me.” 

Memory plays a role in the bedroom as 

well. Amid the tropical colors and modern 

lines that define one of the home’s most resolutely 

contemporary spaces, one playfully 

designed art piece disguises a dresser as a stack 

of “Pablo” (Paul’s nickname) brand bananas. 

The piece is a call-back to both the bodegas he 

frequented after late nights of bartending in 

his early days in New York and to his childhood 

home in Kingston, Jamaica. This blending of 

memories is another feature common to both 

his art and his design. 

“I question my existence a lot,” he begins. 

“And so, I look back at my past to get some of 

why I do this, why am I attracted to texture, 

why am I attracted to the earth. I grew up in this 

area of Jamaica that had a lot of mango trees and 

cherry trees and plum trees, and that’s one of 

the things I miss most about the Caribbean … 

it’s like you literally can wallow in the nature, 

like it’s all over you. That’s more my aesthetic. 

It’s a mix of the nature of the Caribbean and the 

man-made of New York. And I kind of mix that 

together in a way, like blend it in a blender and 

just kind of spit it out.” 

The outdoor spaces behind the house are 

as much a fantasy as the rooms within it. The 

first is an enclosed dining area that combines 

modern seating with a table lined with an assortment 

of Paul’s sculpted characters. The 

enclosure is perfect for those days when the 

44 aphrochic

“You have to take risks 

to make art, because 

sometimes it’s the accident 

that makes it great.” 

issue four 47

Interior Design

Interior Design


artist wants to enjoy the outdoors, but the 

weather is not cooperating. 

Stairs from the enclosed dining room lead 

down to the home’s final surprise: a sculpture 

garden. Perhaps the most fantastic part of this 

fantasyland, the garden features wide open 

spaces replete with sculpted tables, planters 

and even oversized flowers. 

A final figure stands on a raised platform 

as the center of attention, between two chairs. 

It’s an oasis built to transport visitors far away 

from the city to a place where Cheshire cats and 

Mad Hatters might not be an unexpected sight. 

It would be hard for someone walking by 

to guess at the wonders that sit waiting inside 

Paul Suepat’s house, and that’s probably by 

design. 

The home itself represents a meeting of 

contrasts, the mundane world outside of it, and 

the dream world inside. But as always, the point 

is likely not to note the difference, but to make 

a connection. Inside and outside, textured and 

smooth, normal and abnormal, art and design 

— Paul is open to everything and receives it all 

in the same way. “It’s all the same thing. It’s fun. 

I laugh, I smile every day I look at it. And that’s 

what I like about coming home.” 

Paul Suepat is the founder of 2AC Space 

(www.2acspace.com), a gallery located in 

Brooklyn, New York. AC 


Interior Design


Culture 

Freedom 

Summer 

An AphroChic interview 

with Naeem Douglas, the 

Brookladelphian 

Interview by Bryan Mason 

Photos by The Brookladelphian 


The summer of 2020 marks an incredible moment in history, seeing the birth of one of the 

largest civil rights movements the world has ever known. After years of what seemed like an 

endless cycle of Black death and white apathy, something new has happened. Cries of support 

for Black lives have begun to come from places that were once deathly silent as the terrifying 

immunity with which the police could kill Black people was proven over and over, one video at 

at time. The outrage of a community used to suffering alone has been felt by others and together 

they are beginning to stand up, not in one city or one nation, but all over the world. 

The spirit of protest that promises to define this summer is 

about more than any one person or one community, and certainly 

more than one “bad apple.” This is about every community that 

has seen too many lost coming together to declare an end to a centuries-old 

system that will terrorize, oppress, and kill to ensure 

supremacy. It’s a constitutional right being asserted by people 

pushed too far by racist subjugation, economic exploitation, and governmental 

apathy, and who will no longer be silent. 

No matter how many words we throw at this historic moment, 

they’ll all fail to capture it: the weary grief of people so tired of 

grieving that there’s nothing left to do but explode; the sudden 

awakening of those abruptly coming to realize that nothing costs 

more than privilege and struggling to figure out what to do about 

it; the optimism of seeing so many voices calling out together for 

change; and the fear and outrage of those who champion the status 

quo as they see it come crumbling down around them. When a 

thousand words won’t begin scratch the surface, there’s only one 

thing to do: take a picture. 

AphroChic: What inspired you to go out and capture what’s been 

happening around Black Lives Matter in New York? 

Naeem Douglas: The reaction to George Floyd’s death was 

unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It sounds absurd to say, but Black 

people dying at the hands of police is something this country has 

been okay with for a long time. This latest incident has seemed to 

wake up America. Black people aren’t the only ones upset. I wanted to 

document what was happening. 

AC: With a deadly pandemic going on, were you concerned 

about going out to march? 

ND: COVID-19 is definitely something I’m constantly thinking 

about. You probably can notice none of my photos are particularly 

close up. I try my best to stay out the fray but still take a photo. This 

is history in the streets and I felt compelled to document it. I COULD 

NOT STAY HOME. 

AC: What was the spirit of the people that you saw marching 

like? What was your own spirit like? 

ND: Good spirits, but you could also sense a bit of exhaustion 

from Black people. I think people really want police interactions with 

Black people to change. In the streets of New York City, there’s a lot of 

support for this movement. People honk their horns in support as the 

marches and protest move throughout New York City. 

AC: Was there anything in particular that surprised you about 

this moment? 

ND: I was certainly surprised by white people’s involvement. I 

covered many protests in the past going back to the Sean Bell protest. 

It’s mostly a Black affair. But I’ve seen so many white people involved 

in these recent protests. They’re not taking leadership roles but I’ve 

seen a few rallies that were 80% white. 

AC: There have been many reports of police violence against 

protestors here in the city. Did you witness any violence as you 

captured this movement? 

issue four 63

Entertaining

Culture 

ND: I did see some on the first day. The 

very first day of the protests I happened to 

be in [Manhattan] and was riding my bike by 

Foley Square and saw a rally. I always have a 

camera with me so I started to make some 

photos. Then the marchers started moving 

north and the police were not having it. 

They were really aggressive and definitely 

initiated contact. It escalated fairly quickly. 

It ended up being a little too much for 

me. So I broke off the march and tried to 

get myself situated. I was straddling my Citi 

Bike trying to put my phone away, load film 

in my camera and get a bearing on what was 

going on. I was about a block away from the 

protest. Suddenly I feel a tap on leg which 

turned into pounding. I looked up and saw 

a bicycle officer and he’s hitting my leg with 

his front wheel and yelling at me to move. It 

was so bizarre and unnerving. I was the only 

person on the street, between two parked 

cars and clearly just trying to put myself 

together. Before anything could really 

happen, his fellow officer pulled him away 

and he went back to the group. 

AC: What role can photography play in 

amplifying movements? 

ND: Photography is pivotal because 

one photograph can tell many stories. With 

video, you have a lot going on. However, 

a photograph is one moment in time. No 

sound, no music, and in my case no color 

(I mostly shoot black and white film). One 

moment and one subject can sum up years 

of frustration, ignorance, exhaustion, etc. 

The simplicity of it is powerful to me. I’m 

reminded of the photo from the late 1950s 

of a Black student walking to school in 

Arkansas and you see these white women 

and students behind her screaming insults 

at her. That one moment captured the vitriol 

of racism during that time and the struggle 

for us to be treated like humans. 

AC: Which photographers have inspired 

your work? 

ND: I have to start with the greats, 

Gordon Parks and Jamel Shabazz. I would 

be remiss if I didn’t mention Ernest Withers, 

but his life as a FBI informant during the 

civil rights movement leaves me conflicted. 

I’m also a big fan of Andre Wagner, a Brooklyn-based 

photographer who’s doing incredible 

work. 

AC: Is there one moment or image that 

stands out in your mind? 

ND: One is a man praying at The 

Barclays Center. He’s so peaceful in his 

prayer. It moved me in the moment and 

when I saw the photo later. The second 

photo is of a young Black woman leading a 

march through Brooklyn. It was inspiring 

to see her putting her voice to the rally, so 

it was particularly moving to see her and be 

able to document it. 

AC: What do you hope will come out 

of this moment? Could we see real police 

reform, or something even bigger? 

ND: I hope a real change comes from 

this. America has had a hard time facing 

its original sin (slavery) and the effects it 

continues to have. This country definitely 

needs to address it in a meaningful way. 

Naeem Douglas is the Brookladephian, a photographer 

and journalist based in Brooklyn, NY. 

(www.naeemdouglas.com) AC 


Culture

Culture

Culture

Culture 

“One moment and one subject 

can sum up years of frustration, 

ignorance, exhaustion. The 

simplicity of it is powerful to me.” 

74 aphrochic

Culture 

issue four 77

Food 

Renaissance 

Man 

Lazarus Lynch Is 

Freely Expressing 

Himself and We’re 

Here For It! 


Photos by Anisha Sisodia 

Styling by Keeon Mullins 

Assistant Styling by Windy Dias 

78 aphrochic

Food 

Lazarus Lynch is a rock star, a bona fide food star, an author and an all-around renaissance 

man. And this summer, the chef-singer-songwriter is on a roll. His bold and energetic 

cookbook, Son of a Southern Chef: Cook With Soul, continues to inspire those who are looking for 

new ways to bring soul food to life. And on Spotify his recent release, I’m Gay, is a self-professed 

Black Pride anthem, written and produced by Lynch himself. But before he was a multi-hyphenate 

artist with irons in just about every fire, Lazarus Lynch was a young boy from Jamaica, 

Queens, who grew up watching one of his favorite chefs make magic in the kitchen — his father, 

the renowned restaurateur Johnny Ray Lynch. 

To say that food was in Lazarus’s blood would be an understatement. 

His father was an inspiration to him from the start, but 

the family’s culinary roots ran even deeper. “[Dad] moved to New 

York when he was pretty young. All the recipes that he cooked for us 

growing up were inspirations from my grandmother Margaret Lynch,” 

he recalls. “He inherited that gene watching her as a kid and I started 

watching him. When my dad finally opened up Baby Sister’s Soul Food, 

I was like, ‘I really love this.’ I loved that my dad was cooking. I loved 

going to the restaurant and watching him, helping him.” 

The cooking lessons didn’t end when father and son left the 

restaurant. Food was part of the family dynamic, and played a role 

in just about everything they did. “Food was always central. It was a 

cultural thing. It was how we gathered. I grew up in the church. Every 

Sunday after service, there was dinner. Those dinners were shared 

and oftentimes we would make things and bring it to the church.” 

The next major turn in his food career came during high school, 

where Lazarus began to mix the art of cooking with the art of media. 

“I had four years in high school just really developing my skills as a 

chef,” he remembers. Lynch is a graduate of New York City’s Food 

and Finance High School, the city’s only culinary-focused public 

high school. The rich environment provided incredible opportunities 

to a young culinary mind, giving him access to coveted positions, 

including interning and working in the test kitchens of The Food 

Network, a brand he would later work for professionally. 

Lazarus’ own brand, Son of A Southern Chef, which he began 

in 2014, is an homage to his father, his way of continuing the legacy 

that his grandmother passed down. It’s also a culmination of all of the 

experiences that made food mean so much: the moments watching 

his father in the kitchen, Sunday dinners after church service, and 

gatherings with family were all translated into stunning dishes 

that mix beloved tradition with bold innovation. Dishes like his, 

Oh-My-Gah Green Beans with Crushed Peanuts, and Mother Soand-So’s 

Lemon Pound Cake are featured throughout his cookbook. 

A colorful, energetic tour of the chef’s philosophy of food and life, 

the book is a collection of dishes culled from family recipes, many 

which had only been passed down through stories or by watching and 

learning, as Lazarus often did. “In our community a lot of the things 

that are passed down are oratory, so nothing is documented. I started 

watching my dad cook and then I started taking notes. Literally 

notebooks of this is the potato salad, this is the macaroni and cheese.” 

Just a year after founding the brand, Lazarus’x father passed away 

from cancer. “I was able to sit down with my dad. He and I talked for 

several hours. I think he realized that I had a gift and that I was really 

passionate about food. He also saw that there were a lot of opportunities 

coming my way. It all was very exciting for him,” he reflects. “One 

of the things he said to me, which I’ll never forget, was I want [you] to 

take this to the next level. I’ve never forgotten it and it has been such 

a grounding place for me. Almost a mantra for me to continue doing 


Food 

this work because it’s more than just the food and 

the recipes. It’s really about inspiring another generation 

to own your story.” 

The young food star has certainly taken things 

to the next level. A two-time champion of the series 

Chopped, Lazarus is also host of the Food Network’s 

digital series Comfort Nation. With several shows 

under his arm, and now a successful cookbook, 

Lazarus is diving deeper into another love — music. 

After finishing up his cookbook, Lynch decided 

it was time to get back to other forms of creativity, 

and took some time off to refocus his energy. It 

was during that time that he began writing music. 

Dozens of songs poured out of him, and by the end 

of 2019, just months after his book had launched, he 

was working on his first album. “The themes [are] 

around identity, self-expression, spirituality and 

allowing your spirit and your body to be the home 

for you.” 

The centerpiece of his growing catalog is the 

exploration of gay, Black male identity, I’m Gay. 

Equal parts emotional ballad and defiant anthem, 

the song is a conversation between Lazarus and 

his younger self that ends in a joyous declaration 

of self-acceptance, set against the backdrop of a 

church organ. “I’m gay,” he says simply. “It is an 

anthem. It is jubilant. It is a freedom song.” 

While music might seem like an unexpected 

turn in a burgeoning culinary career, it’s not at 

all surprising. For Lazarus, it’s all about authentic 

self-expression and creating work that helps him 

speak his truth, whether in food, music or whatever 

creative pursuit fits the moment and the emotion. 

“I feel that ingredients are like clothes. It’s like you 

go into a store, into a closet and it’s really about expressing 

how you feel. It’s like notes in music. The 

arrangement of those notes. The arrangement of 

those flavors. That’s all a form of expression,” he 

reflects. “Cooking techniques are the accessories 

— the glasses, the frames, a round toe versus a 

pointed toe. That’s how I think about food. What do 

i feel like creating? What are the accessories? And 

then ultimately how will it make me feel?” AC 

I’ve Been Drinking Watermelon Cocktails 

(inspired by Queen Bey) 

Serves 2 

Prep Time 5 minutes 

Total Time 10 minutes 

INGREDIENTS: 

2 teaspoons kosher salt 

2 teaspoons sugar 

2 teaspoons chili powder 

Zest of 1 lime, plus lime wedges for serving 

2 cups fresh watermelon juice 

4 ounces of tequila 

2 ounces fresh citrus juice (any combination of orange, lemon, and lime) 

1/2 ounce agave nectar 

1 bunch fresh basil leaves, plus more for garnish 

1 bunch fresh mint leaves, plus more for garnish 

1 small jalapeño, sliced and seeded, plus more for garnish 

Ice 

INSTRUCTIONS: 

Mix together the salt, sugar, chili powder, and lime zest on a small, shallow 

plate. Use lime wedges to wet the rims of two glasses, then gently press the 

rims into the salt mixture to coat. 

Fill a cocktail shaker with watermelon juice, tequila, citrus juice, agave, 3 

leaves each of the basil and mint, and jalapeño. Add ice and shake well, until 

the outside of the shaker is cold, about 30 seconds. 

Strain cocktail through a strainer and fill the prepared glasses with the 

watermelon cocktail. Garnish each with basil, int and jalapeño. 

Recipe excerpt from Son of a Southern Chef: Cook With Soul published by 

Penguin Random House (https://bit.ly/37UASDD). Listen to I’m Gay on Spotify 

(spoti.fi/37Mhoke) 


Travel 

Tobago 

in Color 

The Island’s Real 

Treasures Are Its 

People and Culture 

Photos by David A. Land 


84 aphrochic

Travel

Travel 

Tobago is beautiful. With lush rainforests, towering mountains and 

endless beaches, it is beautiful in a way rivaled only by those few places 

equally fortunate to be located somewhere in the Caribbean Sea. It’s easy 

to believe that when Christopher Columbus first set foot on the island in the 

last years of the 15th century, that the beauty of the place was the first thing 

he noticed. Despite all the harm he caused, and all that transpired after as 

colonial powers struggled to control it, the island, which was conquered and 

reconquered more than thirty times, remains beautiful. Linked to Trinidad 

since the 1800s, the twin nations entered freedom together, liberated from 

British control in 1962, becoming a joint republic in 1976. 

At only 116 square miles, Tobago offers a startling variety of natural 

terrains. In addition to rainforests, mountains and beaches, the island is 

home to foothills, plains, mangrove swamps, waterfalls, and coral reefs. 

Its historical imprint is wide as well as it shares with Trinidad the pride of 

adding CLR James, Eric Williams, and Henry Sylvester Williams, among 

others to the international college of thinkers, activists and politicians who 

have shaped our collective notion of Blackness through their work. 

The island’s true treasures, however, are its people and culture. What 

Tobago calls its own are its traditional dances — the salaka, the reel, and the 

jig — and tambrin, the uniquely Tobagonian musical style that often accompanies 

them. Festivals and celebrations commemorate the history of the 

island and the culture of the people, highlighting what is uniquely their own 

while honoring the connection to Africa that unites us all. 

After centuries of colonization, the long fight for freedom and the work 

of creating a new culture, through it all the beauty of the Tobago, its people 

and heritage are plain to see. AC 


Travel

Travel 



issue four 97

Wellness 

Plant Life 

Evann E. Webb, Social 

Media Specialist for 

Bloomscape, Talks to Us 

About How Plants Can Aid 

in Your Wellness Routine 


Photos by Cyrus Tetteh

Wellness 

Whether you’re looking to be an expert home gardener growing your own salads and herbs, 

or just a capable plant parent able to keep things green for as long as possible, the world of 

plants has become one of the biggest home trends of 2020. Sustainable, affordable, and with 

big benefits for health and wellness, plant life is attracting a growing number of homeowners 

— especially millennials — who are looking to breathe new life into their spaces. And with so 

many of us only able to watch the seasons change through our windows, who wouldn’t love to 

bring a bit of the outdoors in? Growing along with the trend, a whole new crop of brands have 

sprung up, ready to help you not only find the perfect plants for your home, but care for them as 

well. We sat down with Evann E. Webb, the woman who runs social media for the Detroit-based 

brand Bloomscape to discuss all things plants and wellness. 

AphroChic: The houseplant industry is thriving right now, especially 

among millennials. Why do you think that is? 

Evann E. Webb: Millennials aren’t settling down or making super 

heavy commitments at the same ages our parents were. And it’s not 

because we don’t want to. It’s because a lot of us can’t right now. The 

economy isn’t set up in a way that makes starting a family or buying a 

forever home ideal for us at the moment. So many of us have hundreds 

of thousands of dollars in student loans, are still looking for jobs that 

pay us reasonable salaries, and to put it more plainly — trying to 

figure things out for ourselves. Buying plants still allows us to make 

rental spaces feel like home, and gives us the opportunity to care of 

something other than ourselves — without having to break the bank! 

AC: What plants do you have at home and what does your plant 

care routine look like? 

EW: Right now, I have a ZZ Plant, a Bird of Paradise, and two 

Philodendron Heartleafs. Since I’ve been working from home for 

the past few months, I’ve been making it a habit to mist my Bird of 

Paradise and Philodendron Heartleafs every day, and on the weekends 

I check the plants’ soil to see if they need to be watered. Being cooped 

up in the house has definitely made me reevaluate my space, and I’ll be 

ordering some more plants and plant stands soon! I need all the green 

I can get right now. 

AC: The last few months have definitely been challenging with 

an ongoing pandemic. As we physically distance and spend more time 

inside, how can caring for plants be part of our self-care routine? 

EW: Caring for plants is a meditative practice. It allows you to 

take a step away from the computer, phone and television and focus 

on the present. Turning on some relaxing music and taking an hour or 

two each week to water, trim, mist or re-pot really is soothing. 

AC: Part of the difficulty in caring for plants is the level of care 

that some plants require. How does Bloomscape help those who might 

be green thumb-challenged pick the right options for their lifestyle? 

EW: Some of the easiest plants to care for that we offer are 

the Bird of Paradise, our Tough Stuff Collection, the Monstera, the 

Silver Pothos and the Hedgehog Aloe. With each order, we give every 

customer detailed care instructions. Information can be found 

right on the care card, and we have a series of blog posts that feature 

different care tips and educational info from our resident Plant Mom 

that are always available to read. 

AC: Just as different plants require their own levels of care, they 

can have different roles in the home. What are the best plants that we 

can have at home with us right now that will help us have a cleaner, 

healthier environment? Are there some you like best for decorating? 

EW: I love how my four little plant babies have transformed my 

space. It’s so interesting how no matter what your style of decor is, 

there’s a plant that can help tie everything together. Some of the best 

plants to have at home are the Sansevieria (it helps to purify the air), 

the Money Tree, our Fur Friendly Collection (for all the pet parents out 

there), the Red Pear Plant, and the Bamboo Palm. 

AC: So many people we know (including us) who have tried 

keeping plants in their apartment have horror stories about how hard 

it is, and guilt over what happened to their little green friends. What 

are the steps to being good plant parents? 

EW: I’m still learning how to be a good plant parent myself. Lol! 

To me, the first step is practicing patience. Plants are living things, 

and some of them are quite sensitive. So understanding that, and 

realizing that you’re not going to see immediate growth overnight, is 

really important. Also, give yourself some grace. It’s a natural thing 

to feel sad when your plant journey isn’t going well (I have admittedly 

killed my fair share of plants), but I’m learning that a lot of this is trial 

and error. I know now that plants that require a ton of TLC aren’t my 

thing, so I try to stick to more low-maintenance ones. Learning what 

works best for you and your everyday schedule or routine will definitely 

be helpful in the long run. 

AC: One last question. With so many companies offering plants 

right now, what sets Bloomscape apart from other plant brands? 

EW: The company’s desire to see its customers succeed as plant 

parents. When you order a plant from Bloomscape, you get detailed 

instructions on how to care for it, from what kind of light it needs all 

the way down to humidity and how often you should fertilize it. Plus, 

we make it easy for customers to contact us if they need any extra help 

or advice. 


Reference 

The Emergence 

of Diaspora 

The world of Pan-Africanism in the 1960s was very different from the one into which 

the Trinidadian lawyer Henry Sylvester Williams first introduced the term in 1900. Not 

only had 60 years passed, but with them two World Wars that had depleted the empires 

of Europe, loosening the stranglehold they once held on much of the rest of the world. 

But the impact of time wasn’t felt by Europe alone. Pan-Africanism had made its share 

of strides in that time as well. 

From Pan-Africanism To Diaspora 

Five Pan-African Congresses had passed 

since Williams’ original conference, with 

more to come. The New Negro Movement, The 

Harlem Renaissance, and Negritude all came 

and went in their time along with countless 

other movements, organizations, journals and 

groups. In the wake of their relentless pursuit 

of liberation, cracks had begun to form in the 

facade of colonial power. 

Progress was also coming to internally 

colonized nations like the United States. The 

American Civil Rights Movement was reaching 

its peak in a decade that would see the passing 

of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights 

Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Yet 

in the victories of Pan-Africanism lay the seeds 

of its dissolution. Soon it too would fade away. 

With many of its goals achieved, but so much 

left to be done, the passing of Pan-Africanism 

would prove a necessary step, paving the way 

for something new — diaspora. 

As a concept, the African Diaspora was 

officially born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. in 

1965. Two papers presented at the First International 

Congress on African History - 

convened under Tanzania’s first president 

Julius Nyerere — introduced the term to the 

world. The first, The African Abroad or the 

African Diaspora, by British historian George 

Shepperson is often credited as the first use of 

the term “diaspora” with regard to the historical 

dispersal of Africans. Shepperson himself 

preferred to share the distinction of this 

milestone with the African American scholar 

and author Joseph Harris, whose address, 

Introduction to the African Diaspora, appeared 

at the same conference. Though not himself a 

member of the diaspora he helped to define, 

Shepperson was an assiduous researcher and 

theorist of Pan-Africanism and the African 

Diaspora and remained so until his passing 

early in 2020. 

In a later essay, Shepperson would trace 

the history of the diaspora concept to such 

figures as Edward Wilmot Blyden, W.E.B. 

Du Bois, and Lorenzo Dow Turner, marveling, 

as so many have since, that so much time 

should have passed before “diaspora” was 

added to the arsenal of terms with which 

people of African descent fought for their historical 

position. In particular, he singled out 

Blyden, whose work employed so many biblical 

references, and revolved around a concept so 

Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden. 

Sir Harry Johnston, 

Liberia, (London: Hutchinson 

& Co., 1906). General 

Research and Reference 

Division, Schomburg 

Center for Research in 

Black Culture, The New 

York Public Library. 

The Second Pan-African Congress. Special Collections & University Archives, 

W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 

W.E.B. Du Bois. 

Photographs and Prints 

Division, Schomburg Centers 

for Research in Black Culture, 

The New York Public Library. 



Reference 

near to diaspora, yet which never seemed to 

openly connect the phrase. 

The Politics of Pan-Africanism 

Despite the lengthy progress of forbears 

that Shepperson cited as constituting the long 

march to diaspora, the conceptual point of 

origin can be found earlier in his own work, 

specifically in his wrestling with the meaning 

and uses of the term, “Pan-Africanism.” 

In response to what he termed, “a most 

inadequate section on African Nationalism,” 

in the second book of the Tropical Africa series, 

by George H. T. Kimble, Shepperson wrote the 

concise but dense article, Pan-Africanism and 

“Pan-Africanism”: Some Historical Notes. In it, 

Shepperson made it clear that he took issue 

with Kimble’s simplistic description of Marcus 

Garvey’s political and economic philosophies 

as “the alloy of pan-Africanism … smelted into 

the ore of Ethiopianism.” In response, Shepperson 

clarified his position on the proper 

meaning and use of the term Pan-Africanism, 

dividing it into two separate terms, one with a 

capital “P,” and the other a lowercase “p”. 

The distinction between the two confines 

the overtly political “Pan-African” movement 

to the wide sphere of influence of W.E.B. 

Du Bois, whom he posits as the official center 

of the movement. Meanwhile, the lowercase 

“pan-Africanism,” consists of all of the more 

culturally-focused and less centralized 

movements that were also happening at the 

time — such as the Black Arts Movement — 

along with any political movements with no 

“organic relationship” to Du Bois’ Pan-Africanism. 

Shepperson placed Marcus Garvey, 

whose enmity with Du Bois was well established, 

somewhere between the two. 

While we are free to debate the efficiency 

of his approach to the problem (which also 

included the addition of a third term: “All-African”), 

Shepperson’s struggle to contain 

so many movements under a single term 

demonstrates the emerging limitations of the 

Pan-African concept. As Brent Hayes Edwards 

observed: 

On the one hand, Shepperson 

rereads the term precisely to make 

room for ideological difference and disjuncture 

in considering black cultural 

politics in an international sphere … 

In Shepperson’s view, it is crucial to be 

able to account for the transformative 

‘sea changes’ that Pan-African thought 

undergoes in a transnational circuit. 

Among the "sea changes" that Edwards 

mentions were the issues associated with 

communicating competing ideologies 

between languages. The many differences that 

separated the various forms of Pan-Africanism 

together with the scope of activity taking 

place on several continents, made the process 

of Internationalism (a term employed here to 

include both forms of Pan-Africanism) one of 

continual translation. This difficulty added to 

the already numerous gaps between groups — 

gaps that were widening in importance at the 

moment of Shepperson’s reconsideration of 

the term. His solution, Edwards reflects, was 

to work, “toward a revised or expanded notion 

of black international work that would be able 

to account for such unavoidable dynamics of 

difference, rather than either assuming a universally 

applicable definition of ‘Pan-African’ 

or presupposing an exceptionalist version of 

New World ‘Pan-African’ activity.” 

Reconciling the needs of the quickly 

changing landscape with any of the constructions 

of Pan-Africanism available at the time 

quickly proved to be more than the concept 

could bear. Something new was needed. The 

process of becoming a conceptual diaspora 

therefore was not a simple one of connecting 

the story of African dispersal to that of 

Jewish dispersal as told in the Bible and other 

histories. Instead, the African Diaspora 

concept emerged as the result of a process of 

outgrowing the unilateral vision of a single, 

mono-centric Pan-African movement. Yet, the 

transition away from Pan-Africanism didn’t 

come about because the strategies and efforts 

that comprised its movements hadn’t worked, 

but because they had. 

The Birth of Many Nations 

The catalyst which would begin to 

render obsolete what the celebrated anthropologist 

St. Clair Drake called “traditional 

Pan-Africanism”, was the accomplishment 

of the political liberation that the movement 

had labored for so long to realize. As Drake 

framed it, “[T]he period of uncomplicated, 

united struggle to secure independence from 

the white oppressor ended for each colony as it 

became a nation.” 

With the gradual absence of a ubiquitous 

force of oppression came the crumbling of 

the amalgamated front that had been erected 

to resist it. Africa was no longer the centerpiece 

of an internationally-aligned struggle 

for independence. Divergent national identities 

emerged as political priorities diversified. 

New African and Caribbean nations turned to 

questions of self-governance, while those on 

the American continent devoted themselves to 

the fight for civil rights and equality at home. 

Meanwhile, in Africa, a series of armed 

coups led to what Drake termed “a parade to 

the seats of power of military men who had no 

allegiance to the kind of sentimental Pan-Africanism 

[that their predecessors espoused], 

and who were without any previous experience 

in dealing with West Indians and Afro-Americans.” 

Yet despite this political parting of ways, 

the sense of connection culturally, historically, 

if not politically, remained and demanded new 

modes of articulation. 

New words, that would embrace the 

legacy of Internationalism, support cultural 

pan-Africanism, and yet loosen the bonds of 

a Pan-African ideology based on a common 

political destiny that stratified even as it was 

being achieved. Shepperson’s nomination of 

diaspora filled that gap. 

It’s questionable whether Henry 

Sylvester Williams envisioned Pan-Africanism 

as a singular movement, or if he imagined the 

number of activities, groups, and leaders that 

would eventually be gathered under the term 

— or all that they would accomplish. That it 

was ultimately unable to contain the multitude 

of ideas that grew under its umbrella was 

perhaps the greatest mark of Pan-Africanism’s 

success. 

The vision of what Black Liberation 

was, what it would mean and how it could be 

achieved was never truly singular, even within 

a single organization. But there was a certain 

unity of direction that became difficult to 

maintain as African colonies became African 

nations, and the restricted yet somewhat 

generalized national identity of the “African 

Abroad” became specifically “Trinidadian,” 

“Jamaican,” “African American” and so on. 

The solidification of national identities 

and the necessary separation of political goals 

that attended it created a level of self-interest 

that was antithetical to the “Pan” element of 

“Pan-Africanism.” 

Diaspora, therefore makes a timely 

entrance into a conversation that was just 

beginning to turn from the politics of unity to 

a deeper exploration of the meanings of difference 

in the global Black community. 

What remains of Pan-Africanism today 

is largely culturally focused. Though it would 

be inaccurate to ever categorize Black cultural 

activity as apolitical, to the extent that any 

unified Pan-African movement could be said 

to exist today, it lacks much of the ability to 

influence policy that Du Bois and other leaders 

had at the height of their activity. Harris and 

Shepperson introduced diaspora as, undoubtedly, 

the more accurate description of 

the amalgam of African and Africa-descended 

cultures that cross the world today. 

However, there is still much that the 

focus and intensity of Pan-Africanism could 

teach to its far less politically-inclined 

successor. 

And as the strength and support behind 

the Movement for Black Lives and other 

groups continues to grow, inspiring protests 

across the world in response to the continued 

murder of Black people by police in America, 

the examples of Pan-Africanism’s chief 

leaders, strategists, and theorists may be 

becoming more relevant by the day. AC 

Marcus Garvey in Regalia, 1924. James VanDerZee. Copyright Donna Mussenden 

VanDerZee. All rights reserved. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Centers for 

Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library. 

The Ethiopian World Federation. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Centers for 

Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library. 


Sounds 

Ranky Tanky 

The Award-Winning Quintet’s Latest Album Good Time Offers 

the World s Taste of the Gullah Music of the Carolina Coast 

There was a time when African 

American culture was thought to be devoid of 

“Africanisms,” those unique cultural components 

that are direct survivals of older, African 

practices. The idea was that the form of 

slavery practiced in the United States was so 

complete in its extermination of pre-existing 

culture among those it enslaved that no such 

links remained. It was never true, of course. 

Finding Africa in American culture is easy — 

just listen to the music. Better yet, listen to 

where it came from. 

When Quiana Parler’s voice comes in 

on “Stand By Me,” the first song off of Ranky 

Tanky’s Good Time album, you feel it. “Be my 

redeemer. You’ll be my healer. You’ll be my 

teacher. Oh Lord stand by me.” It feels old, 

even ancient. It doesn’t feel like her voice 

alone, but as if all of the ancestors are singing 

along with her. 

“Ranky Tanky loosely translated means 

‘work it get funky’ in the Gullah language,” 

says Parler. With each song you can hear the 

roots of Black music — and by extension all 

the music of America. Funk, jazz, country, 

R&B, Soul, and Hip-Hop — it’s all in there, 

waiting to be rediscovered. Even such wellknown 

folk songs as “Kum Bah Yah,” have 

Sea Island roots. “Gullah music is the root 

of all [American] music. That’s why we were 

so excited to be celebrated at The Grammys. 

It was the first time that Gullah music was 

finally acknowledged.” 

When you first hear the group, with their 

bluesy riffs and soulful harmonies, it’s easy to 

hear the history that they share. The quintet 

has a natural facility with each other — a 

language that they uniquely share that helps 

create a whole that is more than the sum of its 

parts. “The guys have been playing together 

for 20 years,” Parler remarks. “They went to 

college together and they formed Ranky Tanky 

before I came along. I’ve been friends with 

some of them since I was nine years old. So 

when they wanted to add a singer, here I was.” 

Parler’s vocals are backed by percussionist 

Quentin Baxter, bassist Kevin 

Hamilton, guitarist Clay Ross, and trumpet 

player Charlton Singleton. The five members 

of the band, and the music they create, are all 

connected through their Gullah roots. Each 

member is from a different part of the Sea 

Islands — an interconnected series of small 

islands where many clear Africanisms still 

survive today. “The Gullah language is deeply 

rooted in our DNA,” says Parler.” This is what 

we live every day. It’s what we’ve always lived 

and breathed. This is who we are.” 

The historical value of that DNA is on 

full display in Good Time. A litany of songs 

showcase new treatments of age-old traditions 

derived from spirituals, work songs and 

the Old Time Religion of the South Carolina 

Lowcountry. There are playful songs like 

“Green Sally,” as well as gospel revelries and 

original music like “Freedom” and “Stand By 

Me,” written by Parler herself. 

“There’s so many messages hidden in 

these songs,” the singer says, reflecting on the 

importance of the music then and what it can 

mean to us today. “They were written to help 

free the slaves or tell the slaves to get ready to 

escape. Some of the Gullah songs and spirituals 

we sing in church are encoded songs that 

had embedded messages in them. I’m still 

learning what some of these songs meant.” 

Ranky Tanky has spent years taking 

Gullah music beyond the Americas and 

around the globe. Their success has brought 

long overdue acknowledgment to the music 

and the culture that sustains it. “Clay was 

touring the world with his band Matuto, and 

was seeing every culture celebrated, except 

the Gullah culture and the Gullah community. 

With Ranky Tanky what we wanted to do was 

bring awareness to a beautiful culture that 

wasn’t known or being celebrated musically 

outside of our region.” 

Good Time is a stirring introduction to 

the roots of American music. The group not 

only sings worldwide, but has introduced educational 

workshops in various cities where 

they teach music and history to both children 

and adults. “People are hungry for history and 

knowledge. We’re the musical ambassadors of 

our history.” AC 


Photo by Peter Frank Edwards 


PINPOINT 

Artists & Artisans | The Remix | Hot Topic | Who Are You

ARTISTS & ARTISANS 

Malik Roberts 

On a nondescript stretch of Broadway in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, stands a print 

shop empty of customers or seemingly anything to sell. It is a miracle establishment, 

not unlike the neighborhood it sits in. You wonder how it has survived Amazon and 

gentrification, and you wonder for how much longer. 

It is a frigid day in mid-February, as, 

above the print shop, I arrive at a large 

warehouse full of artists’ studios. I walk into 

one and find myself surrounded by a majesty 

of blues and grays and flashes of gemstone 

colors. Bootsy Collins’ tonal gyrations sing 

out across the studio as I am greeted by 

a slippered Malik Roberts, paintbrush in 

hand, wearing his trademark hat and glasses 

and a smile so warm and genuine that, for a 

moment, I am genuinely taken aback. 

This authenticity, a willingness to be 

real, is most apparent in Roberts’ work. BLK 

& BLUE, his 2018 show at ABYX gallery, was 

inspired by Picasso’s Blue period. But more 

poignantly, it is a telling description of what 

it is to be Black in America — an exploration 

of the damage wrought from a dueling 

existence that demands our strength as 

much it denies our pain. Using a palette of 

blues and grays, Roberts pulls back the thin 

veil that covers mental illness in the Black 

community. Familiar scenes and tropes 

of Black existence are contextualized in 

classical forms and dismantled, bringing 

into sharp relief the truth that was there all 

along. 

Recently, I asked Malik about his 

current work as he sat in front of a piece 

in progress, adding delicate inflections of 

paint on a folded brown thigh. 

AphroChic: You met the Pope — how 

did you even get to the Vatican? 

Malik Roberts: My mentor Domingo 

(the artist Domingo Zapata), called me right 

after BLK & BLU. He called me randomly, 

“Papa I’m doing something with the Pope ... 

give me a painting, give me any painting!” I 

was like “ok”, so I just sent him a picture of 

a painting. Then he was like you’re going to 

have to pull up to the UN for a charity event. 

So I was like cool, I pull up to the UN, and 

that’s how I ended up giving my speech at 

the UN. [Then] after, he was like “Papa, if 

someone buys your painting (at the charity 

event) the Vatican will fly you and the person 

who buys the painting out there.” So time 

passes by then he calls me up, “Are you ready 

to go to the Vatican March 21?” That’s pretty 

much how it went down. 

AC: Do you think about where that 

painting is now? 

MR: They said they were going to put it 

into a little private thing called the archives. 

So, in a hundred years when they are going 

through the archives at The Vatican, they are 

going to see some painting of a Black man on 

the cross. They are gonna pull up a picture of 

the artist and see a nigga with grills ... It was 

a big moment. 

AC: Your parents are from Trinidad 

and Guyana, but you were raised in the US, 

Words by Tedecia Wint 

Photos by Sarah Tekele 

Styling by James LaMar 

110 aphrochic


ARTISTS & ARTISANS 

do you think that plays into how you view 

Blackness, especially with these different 

points of cultural reference? 

MR: I feel that a lot — even just growing 

up between New York and the South — 

gave me a whole different perspective on 

blackness. Because in the South, the racism 

is more outward and up here it’s a little 

more hidden. So even the whole thing about 

what it means to be Black in the South, is a 

whole different thing than what it means to 

be Black in the North. Which is funny to say, 

because it sounds like we are talking about 

some Civil War shit. But it’s that way. 

AC: You didn’t go through any formal 

training; you are essentially self-taught? 

MR: Yeah, other than my family who 

knows how to draw. I had an uncle who went 

to college for art. I stayed with him for a 

summer and he gave me a boot camp, if you 

will. In the basement he had a little studio 

setup. [In it] he had a stack of Playboys from 

1960 to now; and a bunch of Double XL; a 

bunch of Source Magazines and he would 

tell me to go through all that shit and by the 

time he [got] home to draw something from 

it. I would go through the images and would 

try to draw something. He would come 

home [and] look at it … look at the original 

picture and be like, “I don’t like that. Do it 

again.” I’d be like … Ok,” and then I would 

do it again. Then he would come home the 

next day — look at the picture — and be like, 

“I don’t know … Try it one more time.” Then 

the next day he would come home and he 

would look at all three images and he would 

[be] like, “Yeah, this is the one.” Then he 

would go across all three and [say] “Do you 

see the difference between [them]? The nose 

in this one was a little off; you fucked up the 

eye on this one”… He did this to me for weeks 

and weeks and weeks, and by the end I got 

pretty good at looking and drawing. But that 

was the only schooling I [had]. 

AC: Tell us about Glory. What inspired 

this new work? 

MR: Glory is like the new decade. We 

are on the other side, we are understanding 

ourselves more, we understand our 

issues and our flaws, [and] we are on the 

other side building to a more glorious presentation 

within ourselves. There’s more 

than just Oprah. There’s a lot of other people 

in these boardrooms, and a lot of people 

making decisions [who] are more relatable 

to us. Black women are the number one 

business owners. We are really taking a 

hold of our future, and now everything is 

televised, so you can’t really do us like you 

did [in] Black Wall St. So it’s more of a scary 

time for them because you can’t really just 

hush hush niggas like that. You can silence 

one or two and try and get away with it, but 

you can’t silence niggas like that. So I believe 

this decade is going to be the decade that 

we really strive, and really prosper in a real 

way. We are here and we have been here, but 

now it’s just on a grander scale. I just want 

to be the artist that represents us as we [get] 

to this grander scale, as we are making this 

transition. 

Black is beautiful, and can be seen in 

this light: We can highlight our features, 

we can highlight our hair, we can highlight 

our noses, we can highlight our big lips. We 

can show our style off. I feel like a lot of the 

things they try to put us down about are 

really just showing us our glory. 


THE REMIX 

Sustainability Matters 

A house is made up of many rooms. They all have their uses, and we love them all, 

but the ones that help us relax, that give us an escape from everything else in the 

world, do a little more to make us feel at home. For most of us, the bedroom is where 

every day begins and ends. We need it to start us off in the right frame of mind every 

morning. And when the day is done we return, looking for the peace of mind that will 

let us slip off into a restorative sleep. There’s nowhere else in the home where it’s more 

important to create a relaxing feel. So when it’s time for a decorative refresh, there’s 

no better place to start. 

For the second part of our home 

makeover, Bryan and I started looking for 

ways to update our bedroom sanctuary. I absolutely 

love our bedroom the way it is now. 

It’s dark, moody, and laid back. But the one 

place where it fails is the bed. It’s time for 

something more grown up and solid than the 

discount bed we found online when we first 

moved in. 

Interior design by AphroChic 

Photos by Patrick Cline 


It isn’t easy to update a room you already 

love. But there’s always room for improvement. 

With so much attention on wellness at 

home right now, it’s the perfect time to look 

for pieces that make the room healthier, in 

addition to looking good. So for this part 

of the project, we are focusing on finding 

pieces that not only meet our aesthetic needs, 

but are sustainable as well. “Sustainability 

is something that needs to be talked about 

more, especially in Black homes,” Bryan 

observed. “Many of the health issues that 

Africans Americans suffer disproportionately 

from — such as asthma — are linked to 

the quality of what we put into our homes. 

Things like paint, wallpaper, furniture and 

rugs all off-gas — putting chemicals into the 

air that we breathe in every day. Reducing 

that means looking for pieces made from real 

materials with low levels of VOCs. It can take a 

bit longer, but it’s worth it.” 

For the bedroom, we sat down with 

Bernhardt to look at pieces that fit our 

lifestyle. We also thought beyond the 

furniture, and met with Avocado Green 

Mattress, to discuss what we actually lay and 

sleep on every night. 

When designing a bedroom, people 

think about the beds and dressers, of course. 

But they forget things like the mattress. We 

want something made with organic materials 

that’s environmentally friendly. Not only will 

we be able to rest easy on a good mattress, 

but we’ll rest with peace of mind knowing it’s 

healthy for us. 

Our current bedroom. 

No matter which bedroom we choose (see the 

next page), it was extremely important for us to 

select the right mattress. On average, we spend 

a third of our life in bed. That’s hundreds of 

thousands of hours spent on a mattress. Many 

mattresses are made using harmful chemicals that 

off-gas nightly while we sleep, contributing to a 

multitude of health issues. We’re choosing to work 

with Avocado Green Mattress to sleep well on a 

product that’s green and sustainable. 

(avocadogreenmattress.com) 


THE REMIX 

Follow our journey as we makeover our Brooklyn 

interior. Thank you to Bernhardt and Avocado Green 

Mattress for partnering in this stage of The Remix. 

Amur Wall Sconce 

aphrochic.com 

Rayleigh Acrylic Canopy Bed, 

Bernhardt 

Miramont Dresser, 

Bernhardt 

Flourish Rug in Cream 

aphrochic.com 

Leavitt Bunching End Tables, 

Bernhardt 

This is the grown-up bedroom we have 

always dreamed of. We love mixing 

modern and traditional pieces in a 

space. This bedroom design offers the 

best of both worlds, with an acrylic 

canopy bed and a stunning, traditional 

dresser. 

This feels like the perfect New York loft 

bedroom. Lots of hard, geometric lines to 

keep things modern. And we can mix in 

some of our favorite AphroChic pieces, 

including our Batik pillows and Day Rug. 

Batik Yellow Pillow 

aphrochic.com 

Pemberly Upholstered Bed, 

Bernhardt 

Linea Dresser, 

Bernhardt 

Day Rug in Black 

aphrochic.com 

Benson Hexagon Chairside 

Table, Bernhardt 

Gold Juju Hat 

aphrochic.com 

Bayonne Upholstered Bed, 

Bernhardt 

Clarendon Dresser, 

Bernhardt 

Ndop Black and Yellow Pillow 

aphrochic.com 

Clarendon Nightstand, 

Bernhardt 

For something sweet and pretty, we 

looked at this fully upholstered bed. This 

design allows us to keep things sophisticated, 

but we couldn’t resist adding some 

bling. Mixing materials, like brass paneling 

on the nightstand with a gold juju hat, just 

feels fun! 

ALL FURNITURE 

DESIGNS BY BERNHARDT 

(BERNHARDT.COM) 


HOT TOPIC 

We Are The Economy: Building from the Ashes of COVID-19 

There is an old saying that goes: when white people get a cold, Black people get the flu. 

And unfortunately, the coronavirus outbreak has proved this to be true. More than 

100,000 Americans have lost their lives due to COVID-19. And 40 million workers have 

filed for unemployment benefits in the last 10 weeks as they continue to lose work hours 

or lose their jobs altogether, affecting their wages and access to health care. 

It’s no secret that Black people have 

without centering the needs of Black and 

when they are empowered, when workers are 

been disproportionately affected by this 

brown workers. Because we are the economy. 

supported, and when marginalized commu- 

pandemic. Historically, Black workers tend 

The virus shows no signs of stopping. 

nities are not excluded or exploited. 

to be the first laid off and the last re-hired 

The number of cases and deaths across the 

Our current economy is broken. Only 

following an economic recession. Early data 

nation continue to rise. Governors, legis- 

a handful of wealthy individuals reap the 

shows that once again Black workers have 

lators, and the president have touted the 

majority of benefits from work that everyone 

been disproportionately laid off. This is not 

narrative that we must reopen in order to 

else does. Inequality is a major cause, and 

surprising, given that our economy typically 

“save” the economy. That's in direct opposi- 

it has grown dramatically over the past 40 

resorts Black workers to hold low-wage jobs 

tion to public health officials and economists 

years, creating a precarious and fragile 

in industries heavily affected by stay-at- 

who widely agree that it is premature and 

economy prone to shocks and collapses. 

to secure the common economic good for the 

their benefit. 

ly for marginalized and under-resourced 

home orders. And we have already seen Black 

dangerous to reopen. 

What does a strong economy look like? 

majority of Americans. Workers are central. 

To counter the harmful narrative of 

communities, and businesses compete 

businesses disproportionately shut down 

Do we really have to choose between 

In a strong economy, everyone has security 

Investing in workers, providing protections 

trickle-down economics, we must instead 

healthily without the presence of large mo- 

as investors cut costs and investments into 

saving the economy and protecting people’s 

and peace of mind in knowing that their basic 

from exploitation and harm, preventing the 

center the needs of everyday people to 

nopolies. With all of these systems in place, 

Black-owned brands. 

health and lives? The short answer is no. 

needs are met. They are able to afford the 

exclusion of marginalized workers — elimi- 

ensure a stronger and more resilient 

living standards will rise and provide more 

Black workers also disproportionate- 

There is, in fact, no economy without workers, 

things they need, from groceries and medical 

nating margins altogether — and empower- 

economy that works for everyone. To 

economic security, dignity, and freedom 

ly comprise the ranks of frontline essential 

so from an economic as well as a moral per- 

expenses to housing, utility bills, and other 

ing workers to demand more rights through 

begin raising living standards and increas- 

for people to live happy, healthy, and secure 

workers, many of which are low wage, blue 

spective, our health and lives are paramount. 

expenses. This means living standards rise 

collective bargaining are some of the ways 

ing well-being for everyday people, we can 

lives. 

collar jobs with no option to work remotely. 

Here’s the longer answer: Contrary 

for everyone, especially those in the bottom 

we can advocate for workers and worker 

provide public investments in workers, 

So what does this worldview mean in 

As many of these workers are living paycheck 

to popular belief, the stock market and the 

and middle-income classes. It means racial 

productivity. When entire communities are 

families, and communities, such as public 

our current moment, especially for Black 

to paycheck, they face the difficult choice 

economy are not the same thing. If the stock 

and gender disparities decline in the short 

exploited, disempowered, and underval- 

schools, public health, and public housing. A 

folks? Well, we have to remember that the 

between going to work and risking exposure 

market is performing well, it does not mean 

run and are eliminated in the long run. 

ued, it creates a fragile economy composed of 

prosperous society invests in everyone, re- 

coronavirus outbreak was the straw that 

to COVID-19 or bringing home a paycheck. 

that the economy is strong. Same goes for the 

It means, above all, that the most mar- 

exhausted workers. 

gardless of race, gender, class, geography, or 

broke the camel’s back. Our economy was 

And in many cases, if a worker decides not 

number of wealthy individuals, the perfor- 

ginalized communities, Black people and 

Currently, our economy is producing 

any other identity. Broadly shared prosperity 

not prepared for an economic depression 

to go to work for fear of infection, they will 

mance of American corporations, the gross 

Black women in particular, have fair wages, 

more, but fewer people are benefiting. The 

creates widespread stability so that everyone 

and global pandemic. Our social safety net 

be deemed ineligible for unemployment 

domestic product (GDP), etc. None of these 

can choose employment that fits their goals 

key to ensuring economic benefits don’t all 

can actively participate in buying and selling 

has been decimated and public infrastruc- 

insurance benefits, since they technically have 

are the best indicators of how the economy 

and aspirations, can build wealth, and can 

trickle up to the top 1% is an equitable dis- 

goods, which will prompt the private sector 

ture remains underfunded. Black people 

the option to work. They may also get laid off 

is doing because they gloss over widening in- 

live longer and healthier lives. Because if 

tribution of power. When power becomes 

to invest in people and physical capital to 

were struggling before this crisis, but we 

as a result. This, in part, explains why and how 

equality in this country. 

Black women are living and thriving rather 

concentrated in the hands of the few, they 

meet the rising demand. 

don’t have to struggle in our recovery. We 

COVID-19 has had disproportionate effects 

The best economic indicator is us — your 

than merely surviving, then it increases the 

will use that power to hoard their economic 

If anti-racist, power re-distribut- 

must push for immediate relief now that 

on the personal economics of Black people. 

family, your neighbor, your colleague, you. We 

likelihood that all Americans are thriving. 

riches. This is exactly why “trickle down” 

ing structures are set in place, then we can 

also reorients our economic system to be 

But we cannot ignore the structural racial in- 

are the economy. The economy is composed of 

When we center the most marginalized, 

economics fail to deliver economic prosper- 

ensure the economic gains are broadly 

stronger and allows Black people to have the 

equalities that have set the stage for increased 

all the interactions and transactions between 

everyone else also reaps the benefits. 

ity: it ignores the role of power. And without 

and equitably shared. This means workers 

full, secure and prosperous economic lives 

economic and medical vulnerabilities among 

regular, everyday people. The economy can 

How can we ensure rising and broadly 

rules and regulations, the rich will shape 

are able to bargain collectively with their 

that we deserve. 

Black communities. It’s clear that we cannot 

only thrive if everyone is able to participate, 

shared living standards? Experience will tell 

markets, bend rules, and implement systems 

employers, public services and invest- 

Janelle Jones is the Managing Director for Policy and Research 

build a stronger and more resilient economy 

and people can only meaningfully participate 

us that we cannot count on the private sector 

of exploitation — like structural racism — to 

ments are widely available but especial- 

at Groundwork Collaborative (groundworkcollaborative.org). 

Words by Janelle Jones 

120 Photos by Nappy 

aphrochic issue four 121

WHO ARE YOU 

Name: 

Charles Harbison 

Based In: 

Los Angeles 

Occupation: 

Creative Director 

Currently: Working on 

new direction for his 

eponymous fashion 

brand, Harbison. 

Photo by Genevieve Garruppo 

“Black culture is tenacious!” 

122 aphrochic

AphroChic Magazine: Issue No. 4

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