Mood Board Inspiration: June + July 2020

If I’m being honest, these past two months I have not felt creatively inspired… not like I usually am. While I have had big ideas, like the Share the Mic Now Home Edition, I haven’t felt really compelled to create, ya know. So, admittedly, I struggled with mood board inspiration for the month of June and continue to struggle now that we’re in July.

The only thing that has inspired me recently is Black people.

Black culture.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that is likely a direct result of everything that is going on. But not because I am feeling any more “Black” than I was in the months prior. As the entire world has woken up to many of the racial inequalities that plague American culture, I have also been exposed to some amazing Black talent that I didn’t know existed, from other interior designers to makers and creators of all kinds — authors, jewelry makers, artists, fashion designers, speakers, chefs, and so many more!

The “great white awakening” was also my awakening, in a way. I was inspired, more than usual, by my own melanin. And when I finally sat down at my desk to create my June mood board inspiration, I immediately thought of this photo I took Spring 2019 at High Point Market. It was one of the very few Afrocentric moments at market and, for me, encapsulated the very unique inspiration I was feeling — pride in my Blackness.

What is black culture?

I wish I had some cut and dry answer but our culture isn’t cut and dry. It isn’t any one color palette or a particular aesthetic.

It’s a feeling… a lifestyle… a vibe.

That vibe is what I wanted to attempt to capture in my June mood board inspiration, but it’s what I am still feeling in July. So when I sat down again to create to my July mood board, faced with the same inspiration — because the state of the things also has not changed — I decided not to fight it.

With every passing day, I find myself more and more exposed to the beauty that is Black culture and began becoming specifically enamored with the amazing ways we show up in the world — artwork, music, speech, fashion, etc. — leaving our mark on every thing we touch, while also maintaining our individual uniqueness in the literal way that we show up in the world, illustrating that our skin isn’t something to hate…it’s something to love!