Black Box

blackbox

Uncovering Our

Rightful Soul

Why

The world wants soul. We are soul. We have what the world wants. The price of admission into dominant culture has been to cover the soul. We want to shift this. We want to reveal the power of the naked black soul. We want to shift and define the dominant culture through the revealing and expression of our souls.

The Crew

We are BlackBox — Named for the black box in an airplane that contains the secret information after a crash. BlackBox is a cultural creative collective dedicated to bringing vision to all the things we don’t talk about in this culture and talking about them. We facilitate conversations and experiences to engage with these things through the FREESOUL platforms — the taboos of race, spirituality and religion, of sex, of beauty, of power, of the dark parts of being human, being black and living in and shaping the American culture. With play, with humor, with gravity, with having the ability to remain in connection with anyone, not just black folk, to have room to say what we want to, what we need to, what we have been holding back for fear of retribution or being an outcast. We include everyone. All subjects are up for discussion.

Initiatives

Black people hold a valuable pole in American culture but we don’t know it, or often celebrate it. The goal is to recognize this so we are strong enough to bring our pole and recognize the innate gifts we have within our culture. The BlackBox approach is to facilitate conversations, the difficult or unspoken things that are happening all the time in our daily interactions, and in the culture at large. The underlying goal of these conversations is to heal the separation that we as a country and a culture have found ourselves in and create a new foundation built on our gifts of flow, connection, understanding and unity.

BLACKBOX Online Content Channels

We produce short and long-form storytelling and narrative video. The goal of our content is to facilitate discussion and intimate conversations about the black experience. Here’s a representation of the experience and variety we look to cultivate. Curated by BlackBox: 

Kindred Souls

Black Soulmaker Book

This book sets out a vision and a framework for a new black consciousness, built on the unique attributes of black culture, which are exactly what the world needs today. The African American historical experience, essentially a history of the trauma of unexpressed power, has resulted in deep problems that affect nutrition, finance, technology, community and education, but also point the way to the future: a future of dignity and power. Drawing on examples of black leaders who exemplify the new black power in an evolving world, the Black Book paints a vision of self-definition, excellence and resilience to uncover the Soul. 

Community Leadership Programs

These development programs will be inside of prisons across the US. They offer prison residents the opportunity to participate, at a greater depth, in programs that promote the discovery of themselves and who they are and provide guidance. The ultimate aim of this program is to encourage participants to become leaders in their communities, simply by being exactly who they are. To set the example for others to do the same within the prison environs and outside to families and friends.

Stay in Touch

Email us so we can send updates of what we are doing.

From the Blog

September 6, 2023
The crew discusses oppression and the various manifestations of it and our responses to it.
December 7, 2022
You understand that obligation doesn’t actually exist. It’s not real. It’s merely a place where you won’t take responsibility for what you want.
November 3, 2022
As much as we complained about the gentrification, I had to admit where I was a gentrifier myself. And that with it came some healthy food options and access for those who could afford it. And something to move towards for those who couldn’t.
October 5, 2022
[T]he complexity of who we are actually includes multichromatic lineages: both dominant and marginalized cultures from all over the world, as well as ancestors who have probably been both oppressor and the oppressed.
July 5, 2022
In my mind I had quickly slipped into the “Because I’m black trance.” We thanked her and carried on to find food elsewhere. This was a test of my practice, of not assuming I’m being oppressed. Not assuming I’m being discriminated against because I’m black.
July 5, 2022
I sat on the couch of our 17th floor apartment, staring out the floor to ceiling windows and seeing a sea of fireworks that stretched across the city of Chicago....