Pride is over; and for most that means their yearly quota of rainbows, sparkles, drag queens and club kids has officially been fulfilled. However, what always gets lost in pride season, particularly in recent years, is that pride, the event, started as a riot.
A group like CUTWITH, on paper, shouldn’t work. The members, Sean, Shem, and Betty Adewole, who met through nights out and mutual friends, began freestyling together and knew instantly there was a music chemistry they wanted to tap into.
Within the past two years, Cupcakke has released five bodies of work; two mixtapes – both of which were featured in Rolling Stone’s Best Rap Album of 2016 - and three studio albums. To release music so frequently and have it acclaimed is no easy feat.
Planet Ninalem, a futuristic world where there are no conventions or responsibilities; a place where the only gender and currency permitted is artistic liberation.
South Korean based illustrator Yu Dori has made her name creating sensual, exotic and erotic art.
Luis Alberto Rodriguez, New York born and raised creative, has managed to depict this link between dancing and photography using the human body as his key tool.
Students at the University of Manchester have become the subject of controversy after defacing a mural of Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’, painted on the wall of a newly renovated student union, and replacing it with Maya Angelou’s ‘Still I Rise’.
There’s a certain whimsicality to Masego that is present in everything the hip-hop and jazz multi-instrumentalist does.
Pride is over; and for most that means their yearly quota of rainbows, sparkles, drag queens and club kids has officially been fulfilled. However, what always gets lost in pride season, particularly in recent years, is that pride, the event, started as a riot.
A group like CUTWITH, on paper, shouldn’t work. The members, Sean, Shem, and Betty Adewole, who met through nights out and mutual friends, began freestyling together and knew instantly there was a music chemistry they wanted to tap into.
South Korean based illustrator and animator Inji Seo’s creates characters who are bold, curvy and beautiful.
‘Reaching Europe’ is a photographic series by Danish documentary photographer Sofie Amalie Klougart. The series documents the conditions of African migrants after arriving on the Italian coast of Sicily.
We caught up with model, personality and winner of Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model 13 to discuss diversity, ageism and being a model of colour in the fashion industry.
Within the past two years, Cupcakke has released five bodies of work; two mixtapes – both of which were featured in Rolling Stone’s Best Rap Album of 2016 - and three studio albums. To release music so frequently and have it acclaimed is no easy feat.
Planet Ninalem, a futuristic world where there are no conventions or responsibilities; a place where the only gender and currency permitted is artistic liberation.
Jessica Gao is an American screenwriter of Chinese descent who first chiselled her way into the industry when she won Nickelodeon’s screenwriting fellowship.
Jonny Negron is a Puerto Rican born artist whose illustrations are an intriguing and fresh stylized take on sexuality, featuring nude curvy women.
Saba’s newest album, CARE FOR ME, just might be the breakthrough of dreams. Deeply confessional poetry over caramel brown neo-Soul piano vibes makes the rapper’s fifth release to date a record you’ll marvel over, even if it besets you with a vague, nagging melancholy.
It was a primary school story writing competition that sparked Theresa Lola’s love of writing. The British based Nigerian poet is now, amongst numerous other titles, the current champion of the Hammer and Tongue National Slam.
South Korean based illustrator Yu Dori has made her name creating sensual, exotic and erotic art.
Bisi Alimi probably carries more courage in his pinkie fingernail than most of us do in our entire bodies. In 2004, Alimi made headlines both locally and abroad when he became the first Nigerian to openly come out on national television.
Born and raised in Brazil, Ingrid Silva began dancing at Dançando Para Não Dançar, a favela based programme that offered training to children who could not afford dance classes. Ingrid was 8 years old when she began training in ballet and although she had always dreamed of becoming a doctor, by age 13 she had decided to dedicate herself to dance.
Even in 2018 we’re desperate to put people into boxes. You’re either this or that, known by your career goals or sexual orientation. However at the forefront new wave of London Club Kids is Prince JayJay, who simply defies any box you’d like to try and fit him in.
Nigerian music artist Runtown seemed to swan out of nowhere, creating unimaginably influential waves on the Afrobeat genre with relaxed, summer-smooth rhythms and his native patois.
In their just released album, ‘The Kids Are Alright’, Chloe and Halle create an airy, wide open space with plenty of distant, dreamy synth and rich, lilting vocals where the sisters illustrate the full range of their vocal capacity.
Meera Sethi is a Toronto based visual artist. Sethi’s artwork explores relationships between, migration, diaspora, fashion and identity.
Photographer Kim Lang caught up with some new faces that are currently breaking into the modelling industry.
Gods Taking Selfies is a personal tumblr project started by Indian visual artist Adrita Das. Adrita reimagines where South East Asian Gods and Goddesses to make them appear as though taking selfies.
Despite being a musician since before she can remember, Deva (pronounced Diva) Mahal is surprisingly humble. The soul singer has been surrounded by music her whole life, so it only seemed natural for this to be the path she followed.
With razor sharp features, chiselled jaw, dark piercing eyes set upon a heavy browed, freckled face, the Persian’s beauty holds a spiritual affectation that encapsulates both the softness and strength of her femininity, oozing through her multi-disciplinary art forms.
Laura Callaghan is an Irish illustrator whose work focuses on female sexuality, fashion and feminism. Her work is bold, beautiful and aims to fight against the male gaze and slut shaming.
Reform the Funk spoke to Curator Nicole Crenstil about international women’s day, her work and being a woman in today’s society.
Jasmin Sehra is a British-Asian artist who is using art to explore her culture and dual nationality. Her latest collection, BollyHood, is a mash up of Hip Hop and Bollywood, with cultural icons being immortalized as Bollywood movie posters.
For the first time in history, the official portrait of America’s first lady has been created by an African-American artist - Amy Sherald.
The official Presidential portrait has, for the first time in history, been painted by an African American; Kehinde Wiley.
In October, Reform The Funk held it’s very first exhibition, Space, a celebration and showcase of Black Art.
Nnedi is a first generation Nigerian-American and rightfully uses her roots to influence her work. Being a University Professor, a PHD holder and having various novels/comics under her belt, it is great to see African imagery within a very white dominated genre.
Cartèlea and Honour are black girls who rock. Based in London and working as a model and artist, respectively, they speak to Reform The Funk about their style, dreams and walking in faith.
Attending a top class art college or university is the holy grail for many aspiring artists but Stephanie Kane decided to go her own way and manifest opportunities within her industry for herself.
Born in Long Beach California in 1972, Ava is the director behind, Selma, the 13th Documentary and TV series Queen Sugar; amongst many others. The UCLA graduate made her directional debut with the highly acclaimed hip hop documentary ‘This Is The Life’, Ava DuVernay knew she “just wanted to make films”.
Photographer Derrick Kakembo and Director Jasper Cable-Alexander present new editorial and experimental fashion film 'Mopesola' for Reform The Funk.
Kei Maye's work is modern and has a focus on real life situations with a light humour– especially with the harsh realities of millennial life.
Since 2013, Tedx has partnered up with UCL (University College London), to host TedxUCLWomen. This is a movement celebrating the women of UCL and the wider community while looking at the barriers preventing women and girls worldwide from achieving their full potential.
For rising star Joe Fox his chosen method is to seek solace in the big city.
Samuel Ross has created a signature for himself through his urban luxury clothing brand, A-COLD WALL*.
Julia Gunther’s photographic documentary series Rainbow Girls takes us to South Africa, where she explores the oppression experienced by lesbian women in the townships of Gugulethu and Khayelitsha.
We caught up with African ballet dancer Mthuthuzeli November. Ballet is changing and Mthuthuzelie is excited at changes within the art form.
Yumna Al-Arashi is a female photographer resculpting the parameters of understanding that surround modern Muslim women with her latest project entitled “Shedding Skin”.
We’re all artists at heart and at one time or another it’s likely we’ve used either writing, music, art or dance as a form of self-expression. One rising artist taking her writing to the next level is poet Sophia Thakur.
Over the last ten years, K-pop has distinguished itself by appropriating enticing elements of rap, Hip-hop, jazz, and rock; all genres which emerged and was created by black musicians.
Festival hair. According to Google images, the trendiest hairstyles for festival flair include glitter partings, space buns and a boho braid or two. However, if you attend Afropunk you will find that the trendiest hairstyles are not those typically found in a festival lookbook.
Afropunk. The one and only annual arts festival that embraces and celebrates black culture and is undoubtedly made for us, by us (FUBU baby). By it’s own definition, it represents spirit and heritage, blackness and rebellion. This is felt not only by the art that is provided, but also by the people who attend.
Rémi Laudat, stepping outside the traditional framework
As Afropunk 2017 fast approaches, we look back on last year’s celebrations of fashion, culture, style and the people who make the festival iconic.
It’s this love of literature that led Caleb to being named the Young People’s Laureate in 2016.
Trying to leave your own stamp in the creative industry is a difficult feat for any budding artist, something New Orleans based photographer, Akasha Rabut is very open about.
The animator and illustrator’s latest animation “Black Barbie” is a story about her own experience with skin bleaching.
Although Will Prince does not wish to be known as an artist who solely draws rappers, hip hop is where his art lives.
It’s been 10 years since Afrikan Boy, the self-proclaimed afro-grime rapper, stepped on the scene
Illustrator and digital artist, Nomes Dee is the latest name to have on your radar. Her work is a bold and beautiful showcase of women of color, as well as figures of popular culture, but it's her futuristic style that separates her work from others
Sony World Photography Award nominated Sebastian Barros presents Boys in the Clouds, an intimate portrait of the men left behind in one of the fastest growing cities in the world.
Skepta has only broken through on a mainstream platform where the culture has become watered down and lost to those who grew with the UK Rap scene.
