Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason of AphroChic revisit their summer 2020 conversation with one of New York’s most prominent chefs — JJ Johnson. Held on Instagram Live, they discuss the James Beard Award winning chef’s heroic work feeding those in need during lockdown and his focus on developing a creative ecosystem that supports Black farmers, restaurants and consumers. 

Dyana Williams is a Philly music legend. Actually, she’s a music legend everywhere, but if you’re from Philly (and we are), you not only know the name, you know the vibes. Arriving in Philadelphia after deejaying in her native New York and Washington D.C., where she was known for a time as “Ebony Moonbeams,” Williams established the popular radio show “Love on the Menu” for radio station WDAS and later Soulful Sundays for Classix 107.9. The latter show lasting for 12 years before signing off for the last time in 2020. 

Thavius Beck’s story started in Minneapolis and led him to California, into the Golden age of Los Angeles’ underground Hip-Hop culture through legendary venues like The Good Life, Project Blowed and Low End Theory. Emerging as a respected producer, emcee and electronic music performer, Thavius continued to walk the road laid out for him by his creativity, following it to Brooklyn and a new role as a teacher, now professor at the prestigious Berklee NYC campus. In honor of the release of his latest album, Untitled: Volume 1, we spoke with Thavius about his journey through music, the similarities between electronic composition and time travel, and the beauties of creating when there’s nothing left to prove.

Candice Luter is an Iowa-based furniture designer and artist, creating furnishings and accessories for the home that are a perfect balance of beauty and functionality. Candice is using design as something transformative for herself, while also creating a safe space for women in the furniture design world to work together, build together, and create new lives together. For Domestic Violence Awareness Month we are proud to bring you a conversation that is authentic, real and open about surviving an abusive relationship and discovering one's voice through art and design.

Christa Barfield is the founder of FarmerJawn. The agricultural center in the Philadelphia region is focused on regenerative farming practices and reclaiming the legacy of Black farming. Christa shares her incredible story with us - leaving her job in health care administration and embracing a new perspective that quickly connected her to the social issues that surround Black and Brown communities around the perceptions, prices, and quality of the food available to us. With the mission of creating, educating and feeding the community through farming, FarmerJawn continues to grow, overseeing 600 acres of land in a Philadelphia suburb, and developing corner stores in the city that will offer healthy, organic foods.

Once upon a time, Hip-Hop was a many layered thing. It had its gangstas and its Ruff Ryders, conscious Afrikans and poets, choppers and crooners, its Bad Boys and its empowered women. From sampled R&B beats to jazz quartets, the wide world and deep history of Black music could be heard behind nearly every verse. There seemed to be room for every style and every story, and love stories were no exception. But eras pass, and for a time it seemed like R&B powered reflections on the soft sides and hard truths of relationships were part of the genre’s past. Then came Ace Clark.

Haitian-born, New York sculptor Jessica Jean-Baptiste, sits down with us to discuss her practice, her evolution as an artist and her exclusive collection for AphroChic. In the tradition of artists such as Edmonia Lewis, Elizabeth Catlett and Augusta Savage, Baptiste's latest works, the Keisha and Jamal busts are a celebration of the beauty of Black life and Black bodies. These new works present a Black man without conflict, and a Black woman at peace. Simple images, yet revolutionary pieces by Baptiste, in their rejection of the story of Black America that is commonly told.

Lara Downes, whose star currently shines in the world of classical music as one of its most innovative figures and most energetic activists, discusses the inspiration behind her latest work, Reflections: Scott Joplin Reconsidered. A modern reflection on Joplin’s musical legacy, we discuss the importance of cultural memory and how the music of Scott Joplin continues to speak to us all more than a century later.

Fast food is usually the last place anyone would look for a history lesson, a social conscience or a message of change. And maybe that’s the problem. In a world where fast food is often the only food available in our communities, is there any reason why it shouldn’t be a force for good, serving healthy food while encouraging community togetherness and mutual respect? Chef Rock Harper says no, and he’s proving his point with Queen Mother’s, his new Arlington, Virginia-based restaurant that’s aiming to change the way we see fried chicken, and a few other things as well.

In the summer of 2020, AphroChic spoke with Janelle Jones on Instagram Live about Black Women's Equal Pay Day, economics, and racial inequality. Janelle is the first African American woman to serve as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and is currently the chief economist for Service Employees International Union. Here we present the edited conversation from two years ago in honor of Black Women's Equal Pay Day 2022, which takes place this year on September 21st. Black women are paid 58 cents for every dollar paid to white men and this day symbolically denotes how far into the year Black women must work to be paid what men were paid the previous year. 

Have you ever had one of those days? A terrible day, right in the middle of everything being bad, when you can’t remember how good it used to be and can’t imagine it ever being that good again? And then something happens, someone happens, they do or say something that cuts through all the bad, and they didn’t even know what they’d done? With music and song, Greg Banks has been that person to break through on more than one occasion. We know, because he did it for us.

Food does so much more than just nourish our bodies. It brings is together. Not just as families, but as people. We all need it, so we all have it. And because we’re all different, there are countless ways to prepare it, serve it and take it in. Each one is attached to a culture - to a particular way of being human. Like cultures, food overlaps, weaving a fantastic tapestry of influences that shows where we are, where we’ve come from and who we’ve met along the way. If you listen, food will tell you a story. Few people know that as well as Chef Alexander Smalls.

There’s nothing more mysterious than a dream - and nothing more meaningful. An entire world made up of only one mind, a place where anything can happen and all that does is a reflection of that mind alone. In dreams the emotions are laid bare, though they come wearing guises picked from all the corners of our minds. Like the emotions, dreams can be bewildering, frightening, and most of all, instructive, though the lessons may be hard to grasp. To help us better navigate our own inner worlds, fine art photographer Fares Micune graciously offers us a tour of her own.

Growing up in North Carolina, Ron Frazier has always been familiar with the outdoors. “My family and friends played outdoors all the time. We grew up on a lake and my dad was an avid fisherman and boater.” Going out in the water and playing in the nearby woods was just part of growing up for Frazier, so much so, that as an adult, his outdoor adventures turned from daylong swims to two-week excursions into some of the most remote parts of the country. From visiting the deepest parts of The Grand Canyon to the outdoor Shangri-La of Moab in Utah, the great outdoors calls to Frazier. In answering it, the childhood pastime turned part-time hobby has now developed into a brand - A Tribe Called Camp (ATCC).

A rustle of fabric, a pop of color and the unflinching gaze of dark eyes. With these, fine art photographer Fabiola Jean-Louis weaves a narrative that blends past and future, fact and fantasy, afro-futurism and Black girl magic. In the process, blending photography and sculpture, she warps time and space, giving us a glimpse of what might have been while casting light on a history that many have forgotten or ignored.

Nikia Phoenix loves the skin she’s in, and she wants you to love yours just as much. Once the awkward girl with freckles, the model now known for her gorgeous skin knows that the road to feeling at home with yourself is neither short nor straight. Yet she’d be the first to suggest that it’s the one best travelled, and that the best thing about traveling it is that there’s no need to do it alone. That was the driving sentiment behind Black Girl Beautiful, the 23andMe star’s self-and-communal love brand aimed at Black women everywhere and of all ages.

Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason of AphroChic sit down with Jerome LaMaar, fashion designer, trend forecaster and futurist, to discuss fashion and futurism. It's a discussion that leads us from his start as a 15-year-old designer for Baby Phat and into Afro-futurism and his groundbreaking showcase, Afri-Collision.  

Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason sit down with friend, and filmmaker, Adepero Oduye to discuss radical creativity and her groundbreaking film, To Be Free, where Oduye transforms into the legendary Nina Simone. 

The smell of eucalyptus, roast chicken and citrus creates a fragrant mix in the kitchen as Chef Rashad Frazier puts together the perfect holiday meal. As the setting for this feast, the chef’s table is set with a mix of golden flatware, painted goblets and taper candles.  For some, creating a magical holiday meal starts days or even weeks in advance, but Chef Frazier has the process down to a science. As he describes it, “a dazzling roast, spectacular sides and amazing cocktails,” are all anyone needs to make a big impact during the holidays. It’s a simple menu, focused on classic dishes with a few moments of culinary style added in for good measure. But as the room fills with the scent of roast chicken and its supporting cast of side dishes, it’s getting hard to argue with the virtues of the chef’s minimalist approach.