Guest Editor: Euzhan Palcy
After 10 issues and a global pandemic that altered the world, we’ve managed to launch a brand new issue – Expose. This latest edition of Ubikwist assembles a wide variety of activists, cultural luminaries, and artists from fashion, film, art and music, chronicling their respective journeys, heartfelt art forms, and 2020 in their own words. Amidst a health crisis, we adhered to mandatory safety precautions in conducting our interviews, capturing the beautiful images found in these pages. We had the pleasure to collaborate with the trailblazer, director, producer Euzhan Palcy as our first guest editor.
The first year of the decade exposed us to a wide variety of events: a country more deeply divided continuous merciless police killings of Black people, Black America’s rally cry for egalitarianism, a tumultuous political climate, and the implications of COVID-19. The conversation is shifting and we feel a sense of responsibility and obligation to not only contribute to the dialogue but initiate a deeper analysis of it. The fascinating paradox of art lies in its ability to alert our moral conscience while serving as a medium of escapism. Expose perfectly embodies that.
Professor Angela Davis and Kendrick Sampson lead the dialogue on civil disobedience, the new America, and what’s next. Talent giants Euzhan Palcy, Ruth Carter, Andrew Dosunmu open up about how they overcame obstacles along the way. Atlanta-based artist Codi Maddox is unfiltered in her disdain for gentrification and the systemic racism that is sweeping our big cities. Fashion’s newest it-girl Angeer Amol shares how TikTok landed her on the glossy pages of fashion. Other prominent features include Art Comes First, Assa Traoré, Baroness Valerie Amos, Gianni Lee, Mathieu Bitton, Mounia Orosemane, Danny Lyon, and Sean Waltrous. Rainbow Blonde Records, an independent label by artists, for artists is compelling in their unwavering belief in why art comes first. What makes this version of Ubikwist a particularly special one is how we’ve combined a broad range of ideas and works into a powerful message – that our experiences matter.
With every issue, we strive to capture the cultural climate of what’s relevant and necessary. Expose highlights 2020 in a unique way that intertwines dynamic art forms, triumphs, truth, and the profound personal stories of people. To produce this issue has been very challenging work, and we hope you are inspired by the diverse representations, collaborations, and activism as we look into the new year.