17 minute read
Nylut directory
Finding your local BIPOC and 2SLGBTQ+ friendly businesses has never been easier
hammad ali staff writer
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Personal services, ranging from haircuts and skincare to having one’s photograph taken, can sometimes be more of an undertaking if you are a person of colour. Few of us realize, unless we have been in that position ourselves, how much of the existing infrastructures around us are often geared towards skin tones, body types, and hairstyles that the society around us has long considered to be “the usual.” In addition, there often exists a whole different set of challenges for people in the 2SLGBTQ+ community to find businesses that meet their needs and welcome them.
In an effort to address some of these problems, a new directory service called Nylut was recently launched by a couple of friends based in Toronto and Regina. Nylut aims to provide better information on a selection of services for the BIPOC people of Toronto and Regina, with plans to extend that coverage to all of Canada and the USA. Nylut Directory Services provides listings on skin and hair care services that cater to members of the BIPOC and 2SLGBTQ+ communities. It features tattoo artists, makeup artists, and photography and videography solutions. The directory also includes a Positive Place Rating system for the 2SLGBTQ+ community to find and review businesses based on how welcoming and knowledgeable they are about the needs of individuals from these communities.
Nylut was born when co-founder Faith Olanipekun felt the struggle of finding an appropriate service for her own skincare needs towards the end of fall in 2020. While looking for laser treatment services for herself, Faith finally found someone she felt would be a good fit, only to be told that they were unable to work on darker skin tones. This was, of course, a frustrating experience. Shortly after, during a conversation with her friend kēr about the difficulty of finding hair services, the two friends decided that the time for a specialized business directory had arrived.
As the founders mention on their website, they both feel like they have been shaped by their backgrounds as women of colour in the prairies. The duo had many conversations about their experiences that made them feel excluded, often joking that one day they would offer some solution to these issues. Both founders are excited to now be working on exactly that: adding value to BIPOC and 2SLGBTQ+ lives by connecting them to appropriate services.
Faith and kēr opted to begin with services in their respective cities of residence in Toronto and Regina, aiming to first meet the needs of their own communities. So far, uptake has been phenomenal. Faith and kēr mentioned it has been humbling, and they are very pleased with the current content and directory entries. Even though the project is at an early stage, both founders mentioned they are grateful for the opportunity to be able to start something like this.
When asked about the story behind the name Nylut, kēr mentioned that the name is a stylization of the word Nilote, which comes from the river Nile. This name was chosen by the two founders as their way of paying homage to the river Nile, and the people of that geographic area to whom the river represented fertility, life, and its many blessings.
When asked about the short- and long-term goals they have for their venture, kēr mentioned that in the short-term they hope to be able to expand Nylut listings all over Canada, and then to the USA. In addition to their website, Nylut can be found on Twitter with the handle @NylutCo.
Nylut Directory Team The Venn diagram for looking as good as the person in this photo and supporting BIPOC and queer friendly businesses is a circle.
Mackenzie’s unknown 13th Floor
Digital gallery features multiple exhibits of art made in Minecraft
jorah bright arts writer
As COVID has affected our daily lives, it has also obviously affected the way we view art. Going to art galleries is much more difficult and, consequently, art galleries have been forced to adjust. Online events and exhibits have allowed people to view art from home safely.
Regina’s own Mackenzie Art Gallery has an online exhibit called the 13th Floor, which is “located somewhere in between physical and virtual presence” according to the gallery’s website. It is full of possibilities, combining the experience of being at a gallery with the potential of online creation. The 13th Floor has eight exhibits currently available to view on their website. Some are simply images curated uniquely with the online space, while others are reflections or extensions of pieces at the Mackenzie Art Gallery – what fascinated me the most was the Ender Gallery.
The Ender Gallery exists within the game of Minecraft, a game that was released in 2011 and has been steadily growing in popularity since. It’s become the best-selling video game of all time.
The Mackenzie Art Gallery allowed anyone from the public to apply for an artist residency within the Ender Gallery, and if accepted, an artist would have their Minecraft project featured for two months. The Mackenzie was specifically looking for exhibits to explore “Indigenous sovereignty, storytelling, simulation, colonialism, alternative economies, materiality, fandom, and digital ontologies.”
The Ender Gallery has included the exhibit How to be an artist in Minecraft by Huidi Xiang, documenting the process of creating in real life through Minecraft. It was used to show the labour that goes into being an artist through the medium of Minecraft. It has included “Odanak – At the Village” by Simon M. Benedict. Benedict’s work in the gallery was about how non-Indigenous depicted Indigenous people in media.
The Ender Gallery also includes a project by Cat Haines entitled (g)Ender Gallery, which uses a combination of different mediums to explore gender. All of this was done solely in Minecraft. The latest exhibit of the Ender Gallery, A Minecraft Ride Towards World Border by Travess Smalley, will be closing on January 15. Smalley’s work took the textures pre-existing within Minecraft and replaced them with text. This replacement allows the land of Minecraft to become poetry. The closing event of A Minecraft Ride Towards World Border will be live streamed, so you don’t need to own a copy of Minecraft to enjoy it. Each exhibit has had its own opening event, except How to be an artist in Minecraft, and they are all available on the Ender Gallery website.
While the Ender Gallery is an overall unique experience and it allows artists to explore new mediums and ideas through Minecraft, I found a few issues with it, starting with the Mackenzie Art Gallery’s website. You’re unable to rightclick to open the link in a new tab. I found this incredibly frustrating while I was trying to navigate the 13th Floor. Instead of opening up the exhibit in a new tab so I could easily access another exhibit afterwards, I remained on the same tab. While it will show at the top of the site the path you took to reach the page you are on, those buttons are unclickable. It tricked me several times. I thought I could click the button to go back. I couldn’t.
Only some of the 13th Floor exhibits have easy ways to back out. The Multiple Lives of Drawings has a small M with a back arrow in the top left signifying that’s how to move back, but even then, it didn’t work all the time. The Ender Gallery pages had no such button. The Ender Gallery website itself that the Mackenzie Art Gallery links to is difficult to read. All the text is the same font as Minecraft, which is thematic, but the blocky text is close together and I struggled to read it. Moreover, it’s not on a solid background, it’s on a low opacity black backing with clouds behind that, poking through the backing. The white clouds with the white close-together text made reading the information about the exhibits difficult.
Overall, the Ender Gallery is a really interesting idea, and using Minecraft, a very popular game especially during COVID, brings a new medium that’s quite appealing to a younger audience. I recommend the 13th Floor, found at mackenzie.art/experience/13th-floor, as a good way to experience quality art with artist insights while staying safe at home.
Minecraft via Flickr A Flickr screencap of a Minecraft set up that is not nearly as cool and artful as the ones you’ll see in the Ender Gallery.
Artist spotlight: Hailiiz Illustrations
The life of a Winnipeg-based Dungeons and Dragons character illustrator
jorah bright arts writer
In the last several years, digital art has been on the rise. The format has many perks, including allowing for easier posting on social media by simply taking the art file and uploading it straight from the device used to create the piece. Selling and creating prints has never been easier, and there’s the glory of the undo button that you just can’t quite replicate with an eraser.
Being a full-time artist and creator is a dream for many artists, and for some those dreams come true. This week I spoke with hailiiz, or Ricky, a professional artist based in Winnipeg about her art process, social media, and art as a career. Ricky grew up loving art but didn’t consider herself to be an artist until 2017. She started drawing then “after working in an office setting and realizing this was not the place for [her].”
“I don’t believe in the way companies often treat their employees and how normalized gaslighting, gossiping and harassing is within the workplace,” Ricky says. “This is not something I say lightly. I worked in offices from 2014 till just last year and my experiences put me in a very dark and dangerous place. Art and having a supportive group of people including my partner, my family, and my amazing friends and supporters are the only things that kept me going.”
Once Ricky started taking art seriously, she had hopes that she would be able to turn it into a career – but that doesn’t mean the path was easy. She stated “looking back at my old art, I am very glad that I had the motivation to keep going.” What changed everything was the game Dungeons and Dragons (often abbreviated to D&D). D&D has had a major resurgence in the past several years, and it allowed Ricky to realize her “place in the art world and the joy bringing [her] clients’ characters to life brought [her]. This changed everything.”
On September 15, 2021, Ricky was able to quit her office job and focus on art full-time, due in part to Patreon, a membership platform that allows ‘patrons’ to pay creators. Ricky says that “[w] ithout a platform such as Patreon and the amazing humans that subscribe, I would not have been able to quit my job and leave my toxic daily life. I am so incredibly thankful that each month I get to put out things that I can be proud of, things that might be a little goofy and more personal, and just random posts that someone wants to see. It’s crazy.”
Not everything is always smooth sailing when creating art. Like most things in life, there are obstacles. When asked about obstacles she faces in her creative process, Ricky says “[n]o matter what you do in life, there’s going to be obstacles. Sounds basic but it’s fact! In art, there are tons! One of the biggest ones I currently have is stepping out of my beautiful little comfort zone. For this, I practice and study! No matter what obstacles come up, take a deep breath and tell yourself, ‘One step at a time.’”
The first thing Ricky does when starting a new piece is look at “references, always!” For her references, she “purchased a ton of stock from lovely reference photo companies such as Grafit and The Pose Archives,” alongside using Pinterest and the work of other artists for inspiration. She says that “watching my friends and the artists I admire reach their goals is mesmerizing and pushes me to reach mine. Artists that I have watched for so long such as Cyarin and Loish inspire me to keep going. The cool thing about being an artist? You can only get better.”
As a full-time artist, Ricky uses social media to post her art, which can be tricky with those ever-changing trends and algorithms. On this subject, Ricky says that “while I am a firm believer in drawing what you love, sticking to trends is very important and helpful! To compromise, I like to actually take part in the trend. I prefer to watch a popular show before making fan art on it.” But what makes the pressures of social media worth it for Ricky is “the support and motivation I get from heartfelt comments, DM’s and support from other creators or followers on each platform.”
Ricky knows that posting on social media can be difficult, but recognizes the importance of it. “Social media will always be an important part of my daily life,” she says, “and I try to remember that bad will always come with the good. Put up walls against the high possibility of trolls and remember that is part of the job!”
When asked about the struggles of working full time as an artist, Ricky admits that “[s]o far, the most difficult part would definitely be keeping a schedule, especially working completely from home. Even when I have a schedule, it can be hard not to be down on yourself if the hours are obscure. As long as you’re working, right?” She also faces confusion from other people when she explains what she does for work. “Telling ‘adultier-adults’ that I draw peoples’ Dungeon’s and Dragons characters for a living always confuses them,” she says.
Art has changed Ricky’s life for the better. It has influenced the friends she makes and the people she gets to talk to sometimes (“that old me would faint over,” she adds). She finds joy in “the fact that [she] get[s] to wake up each day and do what [she] loves, even when [she] hate[s] it.” For Ricky, the best part of being a full-time artist is “[b]eing able to do what [she] love[s], each and every day, with the support of [her] loved ones and lovely human beings online.”
Ricky/hailiiz can be found on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, TikTok, and Youtube @hailiiz, on Facebook at Hailiiz Illustrations, on Etsy at etsy.com/ca/ shop/hailiizco, and on Patreon at patreon.com/hailiiz.
Hailiiz Illustrations What you mean when you tell your stylist “I just want more volume!”
– Ricky (@hailiiz)
Horns make the perfect accessory for anyone’s outfit.
Why HBO’s Insecure is important
Sex and the City for the younger generation hits what the classic show missed
amina salah staff writer
Warning: contains spoilers!
Insecure, a television series that streams on HBO, details the lives of Black women in contemporary society. The show is named Insecure to encompass the struggles of its two most prominent characters, Issa and Molly. Issa is awkward and insecure, whereas Molly, on the other hand, is head strong, anxious, and impulsive. The show was created by Issa Rae, who also stars in it. What makes HBO’s Insecure authentic and unique is the fact that it focuses on the mundanity of life. For once, as a Black girl, I can watch a show that is just about life and living it without the inclusion of trauma porn.
To have a fantastic show, you must have a killer costume designer. The characters of the show are seen wearing Gucci and Fendi among others. Insecure also celebrates Black designers, Black beauty, Black art and culture. The show features fashion from couture fashion houses such as Pyer Moss and Telfar.
Over the last two decades, HBO was known for its iconic show Sex and the City. Today, Insecure is carrying that torch by exploring similar themes, but bringing the representation Sex and the City never had.
In season one, Issa is dating Lawrence, her long-term boyfriend. She is the breadwinner. Lawrence has been looking for a job for quite some time but hasn’t had any luck unfortunately. This was a burden that was too difficult for Issa to bare and as a result, she seeks out company from someone else who she feels can give her what Lawrence can’t. Issa ends up cheating on Lawrence and when she confesses this to him, they break up as a result. Issa relies on her friends Molly, Kelli, and Tiffany to help her get through it. By the second season, Issa is stuck at her dead-end job. She feels like she wants to quit, but is unsure what path she wants to be on. Molly, on the other hand, has been going on dates but is unlucky in love. All she wants is a partner for life, but her dates have ranged from narcissistic to commitment phobic. Towards the third season, Issa quits her job at a non-profit called We Got Y’all. She starts managing apartments on the side while she is figuring out what she wants to do next. Her friendship with Molly starts going downhill.
When Molly starts dating an Asian man, the show takes a moment to detail the reality of interracial relationships. Molly becomes serious with her boyfriend Andrew in season 4. Her life is going well until Issa decides that she wants to throw block parties and events in South LA. She aims to have Black caterers at her events and promote local talent. Issa needs a famous musician at her first event, so she asks Molly if she could speak to her boyfriend about asking the musician to perform since Molly’s boyfriend works at a record label. Molly says no. Somehow, Issa’s new friend Nathan pulls some strings and talks to Andrew about asking the musician to perform. After a long season of making sure everything comes together, Issa’s first event is
a success.
By the fourth season, Issa and Molly’s friendship has gone sour and they aren’t speaking to each other. Then, Molly and Andrew break up; Issa gets back together with Lawrence, but they break up again after she finds out that he has a baby on the way with his last girlfriend.
One of the aspects that makes Insecure fantastic is that it explores the concept of right person, wrong time. Issa and Lawrence are in this exact predicament. Since the start of the show, Issa and Lawrence have been trying to make it work. The reality is that sometimes you just have to step away from the person
and the situation before you can find your way back to each other. What and who is meant for you will never miss you. If it’s right, people always find their way back to each other, the same way Issa and Lawrence did. This time they are both more mature, communicate their needs, and are resilient and strong. Most importantly, they are vocal about what is important for a successful, honest relationship.
Insecure also highlights the importance of having genuine friends who are there for you. It’s hard being a woman, and it’s even harder being a Black woman. Therefore, it’s important to have your people – those who
have your back no matter what. Throughout the ups and downs of life, Issa and Molly have always been there for each other. They are consistent in the roles they play in each other’s life. Issa and Molly are the pinnacle of friendship. When Molly is going through her mother’s stroke and family issues, Issa is there for her. When Issa is unsure about her feelings for Lawrence, Molly is there to offer some wisdom.
Insecure is an amazing show that deserves all the hype it is getting. Though many have criticized the costume choices of the show because Issa is wearing couture while going through financial difficulties, the reality is that when Carrie Bradshaw was wearing Vivienne Westwood and Manolo Blahnik shoes, nobody said anything because the show focused a lot on fashion. It’s important to have a show that features Black characters wearing designer pieces because it is about the representation. Insecure isn’t just about friendship – it’s also about fashion.
Issa and Molly started the first season as two insecure women just trying to do their best given their circumstances. As they grow and mature, they become secure. They become secure in what they want for their lives. They become secure in their self-esteem and worth. They become the women of their dreams. They become who they were always meant to be. Insecure is an amazing show because it celebrates growth, self-esteem, and security.
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