CultureCon Founder Imani Ellis Talks The Convention's Expansion & Importance of Community
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IMANI ELLIS PHOTO MY MARK CLENNON
Imani Ellis is the CEO and founder of The Creative Collective NYC (a global community for Black and Brown creators) and CultureCon (an annual, multi-city convention focused on providing its attendees with networking events and resources to Black and Brown professionals). CultureCon returns this weekend (Oct. 5-6) in Brooklyn. Here, she shares how she balances rest with her increasingly growing community multiverse.
I would love to get a breakdown of how the company is expanding. Let’s start with the CultureCon studios.
I’m so excited about CultureCon Studios. I think there’s a huge opportunity when you think about storytelling and the gaps that we’re seeing on the big screen. Over 150,000 creatives are tapped into our community. Culture Con Studios is really going to be a platform, an incubator program and an amplifier of all of the talent that we’re seeing all around us. So we’re going to be rolling out different initiatives starting this summer that ladder up to our commitment to supporting Black and Brown creatives.
Another tier is the Culture Con on Campus program for HBCU students. This is the most exciting part for me. I didn't go to an HBCU, but I remember being a college student where it was hard to find opportunities for people who looked like me.
I completely agree with you. I didn't go to an HBCU, but I do know how important it is to see what's possible. As we think about supporting Black and Brown creators on their entrepreneurial journey and creative journey, that doesn't start your mid-20s. We want to reach creatives as soon as we can. So that starts with thinking about what career you want to go into, and also giving them reference points that the decision that you make is big, but it's not final. We're ever-evolving.
So right now, college students get to come to Culture Con proper, completely free. But how can we support them throughout the year? We're going to do our first one in April. We'll be down at Clark Atlanta. So the AUC is going to be where we do the first-ever Culture Con on Campus. Workshops, breakout groups, resume reviews, job fairs, all the Culture Con energy. I think there's going to be something so special about really connecting with these college students and building the bridge backward. Really making sure that as we are growing as creatives we're leaving that door open so that the next generation has a playbook. Not that they have to follow it directly, but they can see that there are so many possibilities.
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The Creative Class Awards also happened in February.
We highlighted 55 Black change makers and culture shifters at an event in New York City. This has been a Black History campaign that has meant so much to us. Just because you’re not being acknowledged does not mean the work is not getting done. And so we want to give flowers to people while they can smell them, not once it’s too late. I think this year’s class is just extraordinary. We’ve got everyone from Coco Jones, who was coming off of the nominal year, to the ‘corporate baddie’ DeAndre Brown. We’ve got scientists and teachers and vegan nutritionists. Just a diverse group of people who are building communities and inspiring us to be limitless.
My friends and I were speaking on the words that we’re using to define our year. My two words are joy and clarity. Do you have any affirmations that you want to carry through for this year?
My two words have been priorities and stillness. I think in the past, I've thought of still as very passive. Nothing's happening. But what I'm realizing is I need moments of boredom and stillness in nature, to actually come back to my most creative self. So I think that goes hand in hand with priorities. I'm someone who loves to have a booked calendar, I love to be busy. But I’ve realized I gotta leave some time for refilling my cup. So I’m looking to prioritize so that I can bring my best self wherever I go.
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I'm glad that you mentioned that because I did want to discuss your creative residency in France last year, which I must say was very inspiring for me as I want to do the same in 2025. What did that experience unlock inside of you?
Oh, my gosh, it was life-changing. It was so different for me and that's why I had to do it. I really am someone who, before my creative residency, very much thought that you work, and then you earn your rest after it. As a fundamental part of the way I stood up into the world, the creative residency really threw it on its head. Sometimes there are vacations where the point is to rest. But my point was to actually come back to my most creative and abundant self.
What it did was help me return to my inner child. And that is where my most creative and spontaneity comes from. That's where a lot of the ideas from The Creative Collective and Culture Con came from, this inner child who loves to play, is very curious and isn't very shy. But if you aren't feeding that part of yourself and just working, working, working, it can be hard to find her. I had gotten very clogged up. So I've been able to take myself a little less seriously. Find the joy in my work again. Sometimes if it's so much work, you kind of forget: “Wait a minute, where's the passion and the excitement from when I started?” Now I feel so excited about what's to come because I think I unclogged myself with that residency.
That's great. And it goes back to the word “limitless”. As Black women, we work ourselves to the ground. So for you to take a step back and realize that you deserve that rest is such a big deal. Like I said, your experience was inspiring for me. So I'm hoping that other Black women can really soak in the idea of rest and stillness for this year because we deserve it.
Yes, absolutely. And really believing it, right? What can happen is we see these mantras, and they're cute on mugs. But if you don't believe that you deserve it, it is different. I think if you had asked me, “Imani, do you deserve rest?” I probably would have said yes. But my life did not embody that. I completely agree. As Black women, we are going to rest when the work is done. But I do want us to just handle ourselves with care. Because we're fragile, not fragile like a flower, but fragile like a bomb. We are so powerful. But we are not immortal. We need to fill our cups so that we can actually show up as our best selves for everyone else in our lives.
IMANI ELLIS AND ACTOR JAY ELLIS AT CULTURECON ATLANTA IN SEPTEMBER 2022. PHOTO COURTESY OF CULTURECON
So you went to Paris and the South of France. Can you name one or two highlights of the trip? Maybe it was a certain cafe or a museum or just even walking around a neighborhood?
Oh, my gosh, it's such a good question. I did a James Baldwin tour and went to France following his footsteps. One of the places that I really loved was Brasserie Lipp. It is traditional French. It's been there since the ‘40s, I believe. James Baldwin used to frequent there. They speak, of course, French. I really had to stretch myself to order and embody it. But it was so fun. I ended up spending three hours there. My sister came to visit me, so that was incredible. I would say the other place I really loved was the Shakespeare & Co. bookstore.
Oh, yes. It’s by the Notre Dame.
Yes, exactly. It was amazing. You waited in a very short line and they have every book you could imagine. When you go to the second floor, there's all of these notes that people from around the world have left you and you can leave your notes to those who are coming after you. Everything from “call your mom” to “you are loved” to “stay here a while, don't rush out of the bookstore.” It's so beautiful to see this collective community and I really loved it. So I stayed there. They have pictures of people who used to frequent there. Of course, James Baldwin was one of those individuals. Seeing his picture on the wall and knowing that he had been there some 40 years, 50 years before, that was also just a really special moment.
That's so beautiful. So now that you're back into the swing of the Creative Collective, what are you using from the experience to take into your daily life?
I'm actually carving out time for things that I used to say, “I’ll get to it later.” So I actually have creative playtime. So on Mondays and Fridays in the morning from around 7 am to 9:30 am, all I'm doing is on Tumblr, listening to articles, listening to podcasts and coloring. I just don't work during those times. It's dedicated time to just let my mind wander and scratch the creative itch in my brain. I'll spend a lot of time exploring different mediums. I'll also go on little mini-field trips. So my favorite museum to get inspired is the MoMA. I can spend a countless amount of time there.
What I’ll usually do is once a month, I'll pick a different museum to explore. December was the MoMA. In January, I went to the Guggenheim. Because I think sometimes you just have to immerse yourself into different mediums and different places to make sure that you aren't just feeding yourself the same three Instagram profiles, the same three shows, the same two books. You want to stay curious like your inner child would want you to do. And I think that's kind of what's been leading me — my inner child. I went to Paris to find her. But I brought her back with me, and so we're having a really fun time. It's been great.
Is there anything new that you've learned about the entrepreneurial business from last year that you could give as advice or tips for aspiring creators?
I really learned that I have to let go of the guilt and the shame surrounding asking for help. It can feel cringe or transactional to admit and ask for help. But what I'm finding is not only are there people excited to help you, there are people who are right in front of you. In order to truly learn to ask for help, you've got to spend time with yourself to understand what the ask is.
Sometimes I could find myself so overwhelmed. But in order to truly make it worthwhile, you've got to sit down and say, “Okay, these are the things that I own. I don't need help here. But these three things, I'm drowning here, I've got to get help.” So for creators and entrepreneurs, it is very important in the beginning to have your vision and have an idea of what you want to put into the world. But I think you also have to do an audit of where your expertise kind of falls short. How can you get someone's advice or feedback versus trying to spiral and do it on your own?
What were you most proud of from last year’s CultureCon experience?
I had this moment with Issa Rae backstage where she said, “Wow, it's gotten so big.” I looked over to my team, and it was kind of an out-of-body experience. I think what I'm the proudest of is just seeing how community has fueled this conference. When you walk around the campus and just see people being so warm and open and excited to be there, there's just no feeling like that.