Genius statement.
“We are not only innovators and transformers.
We are the FOUNDATION.”
We have birthed…
the Blues…
Jazz…
R&B…
Rock and Roll…
Hip Hop…
and so much more.
We have transformed…
Literature…
Theater…
Dance…
Film and television…
Performance…
Visual arts…
….and culture itself.
We are not only innovators and transformers.
We are the FOUNDATION.
This work honors that.
The Black Genius Foundation is dedicated to excellence, achievement, creativity and innovation. It is about honoring and working within a tradition and traditions. It is both a love letter to our people and an act of gratitude. It honors the capacity of our genius to name the unspeakable, incite the imagination, move the crowd and stir the soul.
This is an act of giving flowers to our genius(es) and an opportunity to, in the words of June Jordan and Houston A. Baker, Jr. in their New York Times treatise “Black Writers in Praise of Toni Morrison,” “record our pride, our respect and our appreciation” for our own. This is an opportunity for us to reclaim our genius, assert our birthright and fashion it in our own spectacular image.
The Black Genius Foundation is committed to giving our community and our genius the space to exist in a way that is healthy, whole, nuanced, complex, multifaceted and diverse. We recognize the duality that genius is both of the moment and the result of years of hard work and dedication. It exists in both the world of the performing arts and that of entertainment. It is inspired, intentional and ever-evolving. It lives in our artists, curators, scholars, journalists and institutions. The Black Genius Foundation is for those that create, those that interpret and those that hold space for the continued ascension of our people through their work.
As we celebrate and invest in our own, The Black Genius Foundation aims to serve as a catalyst for equity, self-determination and the creation of a vibrant, imaginative and expansive future for African Diasporic communities.
For the ancestors and elders who boldly displayed their genius against all odds and paved the way…
For our contemporaries who continue to carry us forward…
For the generations to come…
WE THANK YOU.
Yours in Genius,
The Black Genius Foundation