VibRaNtake presents a multimedia experience combining music, fashion, art, short film and performance pieces all while putting literature at the forefront of cool in the minds of those who subscribe to Hip-Hop culture. The aim is to present the Black experience, in all its variants, in a regal light. It will be a mix of hip-hop inspired music, spoken word, dance and short film. With the completion of every volume, there will be a showing consisting of: the original artwork featured in the magazine, performances of the songs, poems, and dances featured in the links, as well as a screening of the short film that is shot. The hope is to provide a “living literary” experience for all those involved.

By publicly bringing attention to “outside” art and creative endeavors, this project by artist Brian Tan hopes to create a space for cultivating productive conversations and give opportunities for the local population of Fairhope, AL, and surrounding areas to enlighten and expand their preconceived notions of art. The project will aim to represent and engage communities of local and rural BIPOC, LGBTQ+, women, and people with disabilities. The project should be accessible to all regardless of barriers and invite all members to share in its planning and outcomes.

This project is a weekend-long multidisciplinary event honoring the work of Sun Ra, the influential American artist, musician, and defining figure in the genre of Afrofuturism, and his connection to Huntsville, AL. Artists John Jahni Moore and Willoughby Lucas Hastings will organize a cross-disciplinary event, coinciding with Sun Ra’s birthday, that echoes his aesthetic and ideology while encouraging creativity and daydreaming about what we can make of the future.

The Searcy Hospital Project seeks to examine the modern-day effects of historical racial injustice within the Alabama mental healthcare system. Using a combination of archive materials, eye-witness interviews, and modern photographs, Charity Rachelle explores the hospital’s secretive past, highlighting the erasure of the asylum patients, many of whom are buried behind the hospital in a massive graveyard marked only with their (recently removed) patient numbers.

This photography project by Orran Scruggs will feature people who have interesting stories and have great impact on their community, the “Baptist Bottom” in Dothan, Alabama. Orran Scruggs is a visual artist who has practiced various mediums of art for over 30 years. His work consists of paintings (oil, acrylic, and watercolor), ceramics, photography, film making, jewelry making, screen printing and wood working. He is also a Master Gardener and Community Activist.

“Montgomery Drag” is a short documentary media project by John Haley exploring the transformation of space through the eyes of Victoria Jewelle, a Black drag queen in Montgomery, Alabama. This visual project will meld documentary film with drag performance art while utilizing intentional public exhibitions. Guided by a minimalist approach to filmmaking, John Haley aims to emphasize the reality of his characters’ experiences through handheld cinematography, carefully structured landscapes, and vivid, layered soundscapes.

“Revolution with Sycamore” is a video-dance-essay made through a collaboration between dance/video artist Rhea Speights (lead artist) and dance artist Sycamore Sylvia Toffel. The project incorporates dance film aesthetics into essay film structures and focuses on the research question, “What do we lose when our most experienced dance artists are discarded because of ageism?” In the tradition of the essay film form, explorations will meander through related topics of intergenerational collaboration, being lesbian and queer in the South, and the knowledge that accumulates in the body over time.

Finches is a multimedia community project exploring the tension created when we are conflicted about something we love, whether that is a family member, a leader, or a place. “How do I love a thing I know is flawed?” A team of four artists, Melissa Yes, Tyler Jones, Fen Kennedy, and Todd Slaughter invite artists, neighbors, and citizens to navigate this question together. This project takes its name from Atticus Finch, a character in Harper Lee’s novels, To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman, and is inspired by the seemingly irreconcilable differences between the two versions of Finch portrayed in these stories.

With a background in music, dance, visual arts, and poetry, performance artist Ottie James embarked on a mission in 2014 to unveil the stories of hidden creative giants within Alabama. In “Red Sanctuary”, James highlights historical events and organizations that have impacted life in Mobile County and the surrounding Gulf Coast. Through each stroke and note, James paints stories that inspire creativity and connection.

From an early age artist Kyle Miller was predisposed to over analyzation. Growing up, he recognized his ethnic ambiguity and non-traditional family unit prevented him full acceptance into any particular social group; exclusions which were further exacerbated by a lengthy coming to terms with his atypical queer identity. In “Empathy Without Bias,” Kyle creates a series of immersive ceramic installations that allow people to empathize with each other without the biases that come with external appearances or first meet judgements.