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Creative Control Fest

@creativecontrolfest

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#FortheCulture since 2012! The Midwest Conference that centers #BlackCreatives. Speakers, Panels, Workshops, Connection and more.

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Join us for first 2026 Columbus Black Artists forum. Professor, artist, and former ACE Gallery member, Larry Winston-Collins is bringing us some history of ACE Gallery (Art for Community Expression) the Black-owned gallery and creative home founded by photographer Kojo Kamau in 1979. When most galleries and museums in Columbus weren’t showing Black art, ACE became the space where legends like Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, Elijah Pierce, Smoky Brown, and Queen Brooks could create, exhibit, and build together. For over 20 years, instead of waiting for validation, they created it for ourselves. ACE sent artists to Africa, deepened practices, and built the kind of creative family that reshaped Columbus’ arts landscape. We live in and through this legacy. This conversation kicks off our campaign to get a historic marker for ACE and its members, because this lineage of collective power deserves to be marked, remembered, and built upon.

COLUMBUS BLACK ARTISTS FORUM Saturday, April 25, 2026 | 5:00 - 7:00 PM The Maroon Culture Lab 867 Mt. Vernon Ave, Columbus 43203

RSVP: columbusblackartsforum.com

#ACEGALLERY #kojokamau #bronzevilleartsdistrict #blackartists

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Chap. 25 | STOP LYIN’ 🖤 IFYKYK

We tell ourselves all kinds of stories about why we can’t create, why we’re not ready, why now isn’t the right time. This one’s for every Black creative who’s been lyin’ to themselves — including me.

“If we collaborate with the powerful then our language will lose its currency as a means to tell the truth in order to change the truth.” — June Jordan

Stop lyin’. Start creating.

P.S. — The shirt is real. Drop a 🖤 if you want first access.

————- 🎧: @ceeztheworld_

#blackandcreativeAF #howtobeblackandcreativeAF #JuneJordan #BlackCreatives #BlackinDesign

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Anything not designed by god or nature is designed by people, so we have an obligation to design more equitable spaces, objects, things. ✊🏿

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Fam! We have the honor of hosting organizer, designer, professor, and author Omari Souza to Columbus to discuss his new book “Design Against Racism: Creating Work That Transforms Communities.” In conversation with Marshall Shorts.

This is about the choices we make every day as designers, the systems we either reinforce or repair, and the futures we refuse to imagine or dare to build.
Souza writes: “To design for liberation, we must first unlearn compliance.” That’s the work. And we’re building the space to do it together.

📍 The Maroon Culture Lab

📅 Thursday, December 11 at 6:30 PM

🎤 Presentation, Q&A with Marshall Shorts, audience discussion, book signing

This conversation centers design practitioners and welcomes all co-conspirators committed to equity-centered practice. Books available for purchase.

FREE RSVP: ARTFLUENTIAL.COM/LABS
FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A COPY OF THE BOOK!!! 📕

#ARTFLTalks #DesignJustice #CreativeControlFest #ColumbusDesign #BlackDesigners #DesignAgainstRacism #DesignJustice

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Black & white, simple & plain.
#LetYourFlagFly

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To @uppercup with love. 🤞🏿🫶🏿

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Illuminate the stories of the people in the street. Some have happy endings. Some are bittersweet, but I know them all and that’s makes my life complete—I’m home.

Completely and thoroughly Columbus. Little breadcrumbs everywhere I turn. Everywhere I go. Every moment and every hour, singing along to something homegrown.

#ETCbyEhKees #TheVisionOfEhKees #ETCbyUS

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#NOvember 🧵

Y’all NO what time it is.
Say No to Say Yes.
Yes To Me.
Allow it.
I started it so imma finish it.
Rich.
#FREEthemHIPSbigfella
Here. Yes.
#CreativesRestHarder
#BlackRest

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Celebrating Creativity with @cfave1 and @mrshortscreates!

Meet the visionaries revolutionizing Columbus’ creative culture through their groundbreaking event, Creative Control Fest. 🎨✨

Corey and Marshall have built a grassroots con/fest that unites people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, making a lasting impact on our community.

For them, CBUS Soul means Community, History, and Opportunity. 💛🌍

Join us in celebrating these trailblazers and the vibrant creative scene in Columbus!

#CBUSSoul #CreativeControlFest #ColumbusCreatives #CommunityHistoryOpportunity #CelebrateCreativity #SupportLocal #ColumbusEvents

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We’re excited to announce a unique opportunity!! Join Artfluential for an a special meet and greet evening as we welcome some of the authors and contributor of ‘An Anthology of Blackness: The State of Black Design’ to #Columbus. Tomorrow April 11, 2024 5:30p - 7:30p

Curated and Edited by Omari Souza ( @omari.souza ) and Teressa Moses ( @projectnaptural ) An Anthology of Blackness examines the intersection of Black identity and practice, probing why the design field has failed to attract Black professionals, how Eurocentric hegemony impacts Black professionals, and how Black designers can create an anti-racist design industry. Contributing authors and creators demonstrate how to develop a pro-Black design practice of inclusivity, including Black representation in designed media, anti-racist pedagogy, and radical self-care. Through autoethnography, lived experience, scholarship, and applied research, these contributors share proven methods for creating an anti-racist and inclusive design practice.

The contributions in An Anthology of Blackness include essays, opinion pieces, case studies, and visual narratives. Many contributors write from an intersectional perspective on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and ability.

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The only one to be independent, but still #Major. Long Live the Legend @youngdolph

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I feel the love in my tribe tho. For the colture, forreal though.

But any time anyone outside of us, call my name, this is how my speech go: “I deserve this shit.” #HamilKees

#actuallyautistic #TheInt3nt1onOfEhKees #ETCbyEhKees #ETCbyUS #DiscoverCommunityNavigateLocalCulture #CreativesHustleHarder #BlackAutistics

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Columbus, Ohio-based artist, creative director, and designer Marshall Shorts’ work is continually inspired by Black history, culture, and community. @mrshortscreates uses a variety of mediums to bring visibility to Black stories. Shorts is the founder of culturally-informed design consultancy @artfluential_, as well as a co-founder of @creativecontrolfest, a Midwest conference centering on creatives of color.

Shorts’ work is currently on view on our digital signage in @downtownatlanta. #OBMarts

📍 Peachtree St. NE // ATL-DG-511/512

#blackhistorymonth #publicart #publicarts #OOH #oohmedia #outofhomemedia #digitalsignage #supportblackart #supportblackartists

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