The Institute of Black Imagination.

Today’s episode is with Kerby Jean-Raymond, founder of the fashion brand, Pyer Moss. Hailing from East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Kerby has taken the hutzpah of self-resilience and toughness and has woven it into the fabric of what is now one of the hottest fashion brands.

Founded in 2013, Pyer Moss fashion shows have been revered as theatrical and emotionally moving and the must-see show of New York Fashion Week. He personally describes the brand as an “art project” or “a timely social experiment” which explores the depths of the cultural
origins of blackness.

In this conversation we discuss how his work in the fashion industry cost him his sanity (7:20), how Kerby leverages his fame for the freedom of Black peoples around the world, doing everything with the intent of centering black people (6:32), his tools for success and finally arriving at a place of self-love and acceptance (27:43). “I started to discern the difference between the person I was and the person I was pretending to be.” (10:37) The internal growth which lead him to figuring out what was right for him. “What was instinctively right for me was always talking about race, talking about politics, talking about things I actually cared about.” (11:34) We even discuss our own falling out a few years back. “I was constantly in contention with you, with everyone that was trying to force me to follow my instincts. You had it right the first time! You said that to me once.“ (13:14) —a topic even we hadn’t discussed until this interview. Recording during lockdown, this is Kerby at his rawest and most vulnerable.

Links we mention in the episode:

Pyer Moss: www.pyermoss.com
Kerby's Instagram: @kerbito
Momentum Education: www.momentumeducation.com

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Today’s episode is board-certified Dermatologist, and skincare expert to the stars, Dr. Rose Marie Ingleton. Long before caring for the faces of well-known beauties like Iman, Chrissy Teigen and Adriana Lima, Dr. Ingleton stomped the urban streets of the irie metropolis, Kingston, Jamaica. Growing up in the city, her family realized she had a little something different: the brains to transcend her lower middle-class upbringing to become something special... the first doctor in her family. Combining a heavy dose of the performing arts coupled with a voracious appetite for knowledge, young RoseMarie Ingleton excelled at her studies, immigrating to the United States and matriculating into college at the age of 16.

Dr. Ingleton took a circuitous route to becoming a dermatologist, and marvels at just how much her undergraduate degree in psychobiology plays a part in her practice, using what she calls “talk-esthesia” to not only put patients at ease, but discover underlying mental conditions like anxiety or stress that often manifest themselves on the skin of her clientele. It’s this holistic and profound vision that is the foundation of her 20-year practice, and has made Dr. Ingleton the go-to voice on all things skin. Essence. Vogue. Glamour. Dr. Oz. Good Morning America... you get the picture.

2019 saw the launch of her own namesake line, Rose Ingleton MD Skincare. Simply comprised of 5 booster serums along with her signature, luxurious moisturizer, the secret sauce is Dr. Ingleton’s own origins... the island of Jamaica. Powered by her signature jamaican superfruit blend, Dr. Ingleton’s line targets the main issues she’s encountered in her 20-plus years in the industry like skin discoloration, hyperpigmentation, and fine lines.

How does she do it all? Well, this is exactly what we discuss today. We also discuss her culture shock upon arriving in the United States as a teenager, the power of intention and goal-setting, the dangers of skin bleaching, and why it’s important to pay attention to your body, even when you think you have it all. Recorded remotely, this in-depth and at ,times emotional interview will inspire you to never give up on your dreams and never give up on yourself. It is an absolute honor to introduce Dr. RoseMarie Ingleton to the IBI podcast.

Here are some highlights:

On skin bleaching: “It goes so far back to none love of self; too wanting to be something that is more assimilating with the majority culture.” [42:40]

On natural hair care: “I find that many of the oils that are being used are comedogenic, meaning pore-clogging. These oils on your hair over the day, where do they end up?” [53:23]

On starting your own business: “I invested $300,000 which I had saved up - I had to hire a bunch of consultants that’s where the money went.” [59:53]

On health: “In 2018, I found out I was having a brain aneurysm so I go from a woman who has never had anything wrong with her, to having these symptoms.” [75:30]

Follow Dr. Ingleton on Instagram here, and check out her skincare line here.

Thank you for tuning in! Please don't forget to rate, comment, subscribe and SHARE with a friend (@blackimaginationpodcast). Support this podcast: anchor.fm/blackimagination/support

Editorial content provided by Kalimah Small.

Diedrick Brackens on his first encounter with creativity: “Moving my hands in the pursuit of language feels important and to me, it’s so relative to the way that I build narratives with textiles. (10:33)

What is a Fiber artist? Currently represented by the galleries Various Small Fires in LA, and Jack Shainman in New York, Diedrick is, and I quote” best known for his woven tapestries that explore allegory and narrative through the artist’s autobiography, broader themes of African American and queer identity, as well as American history. Brackens employs techniques from West African weaving, quilting from the American South and European tapestry-making to create both abstract and figurative works.”

In 2018 Diedrick was awarded the prestigious Studio Museum Wein Prize, and made his New York Institutional debut in 2019 at the New Museum with his Exhibition, “darling Divined.” His current body of work, “Blessed are the MOsquitos” explores the impact of HIV/AIDS on the black queer community.

Here are some highlights...

On his origin story: “My parents were just like- packrat, that’s how they saw it. But I was like, no I’m like making things, building stuff, I’m kind of creating this little universe - I always was just like fascinated by my own thoughts and ideas about how the world worked or what kind of fantasy I could construct out of this junk” (5:49)

On his first encounter with creativity: “I think I knew that I was going to write very early, and I wanted to write creatively. And I think somehow as I went along, I just was in these spaces where I don’t think you’re encouraged to write as a child, you have to know how to write, you have to write this essay like you’re writing for a particular type of information, you’re not writing as a tool of self-expression. So I think there was no avenue as a small child that cultivated that thing so I moved into art” (9:11)

On how he approaches a new piece: “For me, it comes out of thinking about my experiences of the world and what I have lacked or been rewarded with. How to make an image out of that” (24:34)

On the advantages and disadvantages of growing up without mentors: “Mentors and I also wanna say like fathership; mentors who serve a specific role around like what is it going to look like in 30 years, or what should I be doing right now, or how do I navigate the world that I live in right now” (26:02)

On his relationship with his father: “I think of that both in the role of a biological father but like this person who has actually lived it. And I remember my dad would always saying, ‘There’s nothing new under the sun, I mean now I’m like maybe

Links we mention in the episode:

Diedrick's Instagram: @deedsweaves
Link to Diedrick's work: https://jackshainman.com/artists/diedrick_brackens

Thank you for tuning in! Please don't forget to rate, comment, subscribe and SHARE with a friend (@blackimaginationpodcast). Support this podcast: anchor.fm/blackimagination/support

Editorial content provided by Kalimah Small.

Today’s episode is with the provocative artist and photographer, Renee Cox. Born in Colgate, Jamaica, into a West Indian heritage that instills unwavering confidence into their youth, Renee and her family eventually settled in Scarsdale, New York while in her teens. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies from Syracuse University, Renee began a groundbreaking career in commercial photography, first cutting her creative teeth in Paris, with visionary fashion designers like Issey Miyake and Claude Montana before returning to the states to shoot for publications like Seventeen, Mademoiselle, Essence, and Cosmopolitan. “In the ’80s me being a fashion photographer that was something that I wanted to do from the time I was in high school, so one could say that was a manifestation.” (31:39)

However, the birth of her first son, along with an encounter with fine art photographer Lyle Ashton Harris, caused Renee to question her legacy and the impact of the images she was creating. “I think that all change has to come from within and in this life situation that we’re in, it's about trying to get to a higher level of consciousness (13:59). She enrolled into the Masters of Fine Arts program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and later was selected for the Whitney Independent Studies Program, the first artist to do so while pregnant. Using her own body as a template “I’m not gonna be their Hottentot Venus. I’m not going to be made a spectacle of without implicating them (39:31) . Renee’s art is dedicated to the deconstruction of stereotypes and reconstitutes the identity and dignity stripped from black bodies during the Trans-Atlanic slave trade. “It’s time for black folks to take back and to eradicate the views that have been implanted into their heads. I think we’re taught to underestimate from day 1 and that needs to change (57:55).

Her piece "It Shall Be Named", which depicts the chilling allusion of a lynched man, castrated from his manhood, debuted in the groundbreaking show, Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art at the Whitney Museum of Art, curated by Thelma Golden, now Director and chief curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem. “I always chose to deal with topics that some people might find a little difficult” (45:58). Often controversial, her work, “Yo Mama’s Last Supper,” which was shown at the Brooklyn Museum in 2001, reimagines Leonardo de Vinci’s masterpiece the Last Supper with Renee as a nude Jesus, surrounded by the 12 apostles, all Black, except for Judas, who was white. “If you got yo mama’s last supper let’s say you had it in your home in your dining room, where Russell Simons does have it. People are going to ask you about it so you have to explain my story behind it or you can bring your own story into it. It will insight some sort of reaction and conversation from your guest and I think some people just don’t wanna be bothered with that kind of thing either (45:30). Then New York City Mayor denounced the work as Anti-Catholic, and formed a panel to create decency standards for all art shown at publicly funded museums in the city.

Links we mention in the episode:

Renee's Website: www.reneecox.org
Renee's Instagram: @reneecoxstudio
Edward Bernays: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays

Thank you for tuning in! Please don't forget to rate, comment, subscribe and SHARE with a friend (@blackimaginationpodcast). Support this podcast: anchor.fm/blackimagination/support

Today’s episode is with writer Casey Gerald. Born in Oak Cliff Texas, Casey’s life reads like a textbook definition of The American Dream. Oh you know, Small town boy from troubled home makes good and lands in the Ivy Leagues—Yale to be exact. Casey later goes off to Harvard Business school and co-founds the nonprofit MBAs Across America, for which he is listed as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People. All of this and more can be found in his memoir, There Will be No Miracles Here, which was listed by both NPR and The New York Times as one of the best books of 2018. His Ted Talk, “The Gospel of Doubt” has over 2.1 million views. Did I mention he was also a Rhodes Semifinalist?

Recorded via Zoom while under lockdown, we speak about when Casey realized the "American Dream" was a scam (16:35), how he rediscovered his inner child (19:30), the malleability of time (26:10), the first boy he ever loved (40:15), the gift of being gay (47:25), what prisons and the coronavirus have in common (50:30), the joy of blackness (56:07), why it's always a good idea to leave New York City (59:30), and the path to finding internal joy (1:02:43) We cover so many amazing topics, and Casey shows us a side of himself he rarely ever does. This episode takes on a more conversational tone, and a few F-bombs are dropped, be warned, lol.

Links we mention in the episode:

Casey's Instagram and Twitter: @caseygerald
His book: There Will Be No Miracles HereAbraham Hicks: https://www.abraham-hicks.comMarianne Williamson's A Return to Lovebell hook's All About Love: New Visions

Thank you for tuning in! Please don't forget to rate, comment, subscribe and SHARE with a friend (@blackimaginationpodcast). Support this podcast: anchor.fm/blackimagination/support