Directors
Hafiz Akinlusi
Hafiz Akinlusi holds a degree in Economics from Simon Fraser University, and is focused on developing more sustainable, and equitable systems. He has worked in various roles spanning from tech to finance, and is now focused on the arts. He is specifically interested in ensuring more equitable distribution of resources to black, Indigenous and other BIPOC artists. He is also one of the founders of Madebywe; a collective that uses different mediums to explore ideas around identity and community. He is also currently learning to play the piano.
Cecily Nicolson
Cecily Nicholson is the author of four books and a past recipient of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. She was the Ellen and Warren Tallman Writer-in-Residence at Simon Fraser University and the Write- in-Residence at the University of Windsor. She teaches at Emily Carr University of Art + Design and collaborates with community impacted by carcerality and food insecurity.
Advisory Board
Adam Rudder
Denise Ryner
Jordan Strom
Minnijean Brown Trickey
Oluwasola Olowo-Ake
Vanessa Richards
Annie Canto
Edward Westerhuis
Khari Wendell McClelland
Missla Libsekal
Pablo de Ocampo
Olumoroti Soji-George
Vanessa Fajemisin (she/her) is a student, writer, producer, cultural curator and consultant based in Vancouver, BC working as a co-director at Solid State Community Industries, a co-op incubator in the heart of Surrey. Passionate about all things arts, culture and media, much of Vanessa’s writing and work focuses on the intersections of digital culture, art, Blackness, community, and sociological theories. She is also a senior writer at Tokyo-based magazine Sabukaru.online and a member of Black-owned and operated collaborative project and creative consultant agency Made by We. Vanessa is the recipient of the CANIE 2021 Black Entrepreneur Award and the Surrey Board of Trade’s ’25 under 25’ Award.
Board of Directors
Fegor Obuwoma
Ogheneofegor Obuwoma is a Nigerian filmmaker, writer, film theorist and storyteller. Ogheneofegor’s filmmaking practice revolves around the themes of exploring their embodiment in relation to the world, spirituality and spiritual entities, Nigerian mythology and the decolonization of one's mind and memories.
Olumoroti Soji-George (He/They) is a curator, film theorist, writer, and educator based in Vancouver, BC. They are currently an MA candidate at SFU's School for the contemporary arts, focusing on contemporary art studies. Olumoroti is the curator at the Black Arts Centre in Surrey, BC, and the artistic director of Gallery Gachet in downtown Vancouver. Their curatorial practice centers around exploring the diverse expressions of Blackness in art and the post-modern perspectives of Black contemporary artists. They also strive to create accessible and community-centered art spaces, challenging the Western status quo and amplifying marginalized voices. Olumoroti is interested in envisioning a police-free future and examining narratives surrounding the Black Male Body.
Vanessa Fajemisin
Anthonia Ogundele
Elizabeth Mcintosh
Lucie Chan
Phen Ray
Chantal Gibson
Jim Adams
Michelle Jacques
Nura Ali
Valérie d. Walker
Nya Lewis Williams
Nya Lewis is the Director/curator of Artspeak Gallery, and the Curator in Residence at the Vancouver Art Gallery. A queer first-generation Canadian scholar of Afro-Caribbean descent, her work broadly concerns the placemaking and iconographical practices of Afro-diasporic cultural practioners. Lewis's curatorial practice is a culmination of centuries of resistance, love, questions, actions, and study. She places herself within the long tradition of women makers that blaze(d) a trail concerning Black feminist and decolonial work, reflecting the diversity of intersectional, intergenerational, global indigenous, Queer critical discourse and its many forms of expression. Across the disciplines of art-making, programming, research, curating, and writing, Lewis’s work with institutions including the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Capture Photography Festival, Vancouver Public Library, Green College, Libby Leshgold Gallery, Canadian Art, C Mag, Centre for the Study of Black Canadian Diaspora, UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver Art Gallery, grunt gallery, Polygon Gallery, Simon Fraser University, Emily Carr University, and University of British Columbia Green College—is driven by the possibilities of historical recovery.