Happy Black History Month! I am shifting the Skool platform to a Black affinity space. This means that while anyone is welcome to support and learn, non-Black members will have limited access unless they are invested participants through paid membership. This is not about exclusion—it’s about protecting, cultivating, and sustaining spaces that pour back into our community rather than extract from it. If you are here, (as a non-Black member) we want you to be here with intention, standing in solidarity and offering a small form of reparative investment - $10/mo. Given our political climate, and for too long, Black creative spaces have been mined for inspiration, ideas, labor, and cultural currency without compensation or credit. From the exploitation of Black musicians, artists, and thinkers throughout history to the dilution of our movements through performative allyship, extraction has been a constant reality. In today’s political climate, where DEI initiatives are being dismantled and Black artistic contributions continue to be undervalued, it is more critical than ever to be intentional about who has access to our work. This is a shift away from passive consumption toward true investment in the creative, intellectual, and cultural spaces we build. THANK YOU to the non-Black members who have already paid! If you are of a non-Black member and want to move to a paid $10/mo membership (we are happy to have you,) please send me a DM in my chatbox directly and I'll update your subscription. Otherwise please feel free to remove yourself from the course, and/or I'll remove you. All Black members, across the diaspora, will remain on a free subscription 😎 (unless you already paid willingly.) Thank you everyone, see you Tuesday for another great discussion!

Hello everyone, My name is Ashlee and I am a portrait artist from south central Los Angeles. Loyola Marymount graduate of the arts and former collegiate athlete. I cannot begin to express the excitement I have for this course and Hillmantok University. The way we came together in yet another challenging time, shows the resilience we continue to cultivate amongst ourselves. What a time!