10 Black voices ushering in the New Black Renaissance

Issa Rae is the one, not the two. A joke that hit Twitter recently was that, unlike the average person, she has 39 hours in a day. It seems that everyday there's a new announcement in Hollywood and Rae's name is attached to it. Despite her hit series, Insecure coming to an end, she still has a full slate lined up and we. are. READY.

Producer-filmmaker, Amorphous has been grinding for years, but many would've thought he was simply an overnight success when his mashup of Rihanna's "Kiss It Better" with Luther Vandross' "Never Too Much" went viral on Thanksgiving 2020. His hard work is truly paying off. The samples were cleared and thus, his mashup was used for Fat Joe's single, "Sunshine." During the same time, Kehlani hit Amorphous to do an original song, "Back Together" and he's currently gearing up for the release of his EP this summer.

The Creative Collective, known simply as The CCNYC, is a "community and creative agency dedicated to curating Brave Spaces for creatives of color." Ellis founded the company and what is now one of the largest celebration for creatives of color, by creatives of color— CultureCon. Her creating a "brave space" was also very intentional. She told Refinery29's Unbothered that "...we didn’t need a safe space; we had been playing it safe for far too long. We needed a brave space. Safe implies that you’re hiding and making yourself smaller to avoid harm, but when you’re brave, you give yourself permission to be your full and authentic self. CultureCon asks you to show up as yourself, and there’s something so radical about that."

Canals is the co-creator of the hit FX series, Pose. Set in New York in the late 80s and early 90s, Pose followed members of the LGBTQ+ community, finding family within ballroom culture, and dealing with the AIDS epidemic. The groundbreaking drama was representation at its finest for many queer and trans people. With his overall deal at 20th Century Fox, we look forward to more stories about marginalized communities being told the right way.

Scottie Beam is a media personality who advocates for Black women fearlessly and unapologetically. Whether she's getting vulnerable on Black Girl Podcast or interviewing a celebrity and discussing pop culture on Okay Now Listen, she isn't afraid to tell it like it is. She also reminds us that we all have a choice to not remain stagnant in anything. In an interview with Nylon, she stated, "I want Black girls and Black women to know that there is no limit to the things that you can do." Writer Sesali Bowen summed her up perfectly: "Scottie is a poster child for the feeling of Hot Girl Summers, the joy of a perfect hair day, good vibes, getting a raise, and all of the little things that millennial Black women have come to cherish."

Nadirah Simmons founded the indie publication, The Gumbo— "a club and platform for and by Black women who love Hip Hop." With series like Sample Sundays, The Rewind, & Text Check, and a merch collection dedicated to female Hip Hop pioneers, along with the greatest movie of all time, Brown Sugar, the women behind The Gumbo are documenting the waymakers in the world's biggest genre in a way that appeals to every Hip Hop fan.

After paving a way for Black culture in tech at Giphy, Lawson made her way over to Netflix. She was on the launch team for Strong Black Lead where she gave flowers to our legends on Strong Black Legends, launched the empowering "Hey Queen" series and provided a home for some of classic Black sitcoms like Moesha, Girlfriends and Sister, Sister. She is now a TV executive at the company, but her place in Black history especially within the streaming world is set in stone.

Kehlani can easily be considered the voice of the people. She wears her heart on her sleeve, connects with fans through her art and is a queer icon. Though she's had her share of strife in the industry, she bounced back every time. Aside from being a loving mom and fluid songbird, her company, Honey Shot Productions provides a place for rising queer artists to thrive like Ambré and Destin Conrad.

Nakia Stephens is an award-winning screenwriter and independent filmmaker with a goal of putting the spotlight on screenwriters since without their words, productions would cease to exist. Thus, she launched Damn Write Originals— the first ever independent screenwriting label. Think music label, but for writers. Damn Write has inked partnerships with BETHer and AspireTV. Each writer provides fresh perspective, and the concept of providing screenwriters a space to be nurtured and get their skills developed is genius. Stephens is doing the damn thing!

Harvin runs a dynamic newsletter, that reports on "beauty at the intersection of politics and pop culture." She openly discusses discourse brewing on the timeline and has this ability to get Hollywood's biggest names (Chloe x Halle, Natasha Rothwell, Tracee Ellis Ross, Lauren London— to name a few) to open up in conversations with her. Everything Harvin's pen touches is gold, so it's no surprise this journalist has one of the best voices in this generation.