CONTRIBUTORS

Kobe Wagstaff’s work is rooted in fluidity. The artist is dedicated to photographing the things they want to learn more about—most recently, the societal construction of gender. Their work, defined by its sense of simplicity and harmonious blend of color and composition, has captured subjects for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Elder Statesman, and this magazine. Wagstaff shot two editorials in this issue, a portfolio of eight Hollywood talents “at the beginning of their legacy, coming into the fold of their artistry,” and wunderkind Marsai Martin.

Cat Dawson is an academic, critic, entrepreneur, and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow who writes about the intersection of culture, technology, and aesthetics. They regularly publish scholarship and criticism and have lectured at leading institutions including Smith College, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University. Dawson’s first book, Monumental: Race, Representation, Redress, will be published by MIT in 2024. For this issue, they surveyed the contemporary film festival landscape. “When Netflix started, the DVDs came in envelopes, signaling a shift,” they say. “But the envelopes were just the first step of a massive change in how we consume content.”

RACHEL CARGLE Writer

Rachel Cargle is an Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based writer and entrepreneur. She is the founder of multiple organizations, including The Loveland Group, a constellation of social enterprises dedicated to Black and QTBIPOC culture; The Loveland Foundation, which offers free therapy to Black women and gender nonconforming individuals; and Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre, a space that amplifies the work of writers who are often excluded from traditional canons. Cargle’s writing has appeared in Atmos Magazine and The Cut, and she is a contributing columnist at CULTURED. Her debut book, A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir & Manifesto on Reimagining, will be released this May with Ballantine. “I’m thrilled to be in thought and conversation with such dynamic artists,” she says of the young actor and activist Marsai Martin, whom she profiled in this issue. “The chance to witness humanity through art is a deep honor.”

Kimberly Drew is a curator (independently and at Pace Gallery), cultural critic, and author with over a decade of experience in the art world. For this issue, she spoke with Calida Rawles about “her ongoing commitment to complicating narratives about Black life through her paintings.”