Today’s episode is a special one.  This time, it's me in the hot seat, in an extremely candid conversation with our inaugural IBI Fellow, Adam Saleh, an anti-disciplinary designer and current senior at UC Berkeley studying computer science and linguistics. 
The Institute of Black Imagination began as a library, when I acquired roughly 2000 books from the personal archive of the late great multi-hyphenate artist, Geoffrey Holder in 2018, roughly 4 years after his passing.  What I encountered in Geoffrey was a mentor, and what I encountered in his archive was a roadmap, a blueprint to creativity. I quickly understood how much input it took to create an output like that, and sought to find funding to create a physical space to house the collection and give access to other black and brown creatives to explore, be inspired, and ignite their own imaginations.
What we mention 
Speak https://www.duolingo.com/ (French) to Dario, s’il vous plaît  
https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/black-in-design-2021-black-matter/ (Black in Design at Harvard)
https://www.space.com/17661-theory-general-relativity.html (Theory of General Relativity )
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1362704X.2020.1802861 (Decolonizing the Gaze: An interview with Dario Calmese  )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance (Cognitive Dissonance )
https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=miscellany19661109-01.2.9&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------- (Spotlight Consciousness)
https://www.dukeupress.edu/dub (Dub: Finding Ceremony by Alexis Pauline Gumbs )


Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNNaQlgCSss (I learned to respect the power of love performed by Stephanie Mills )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvKmBgxC_s4 (Je te veux Performed by Jessye Norman)




This conversation was recorded in October 2021 
Host https://www.instagram.com/dario.studio/ (Dario Calmese) 
Producer https://www.instagram.com/carmendharris/ (Carmen D. Harris)  
Visual Art Direction and Designs: 
http://riverwildmen.com/ (River Wildmen), https://www.instagram.com/afrovisualism/ (AfroVisualism), https://www.instagram.com/stlab/?hl=en (Stephane Lab)
Original Music composed by http://www.dariocalmese.com/ (Dario Calmese) 
Visit us at https://www.blackimagination.com/oral-history (blackimagination.com )