While Shakoor’s main gig is leading the Black Creatives Collective (BCC) as president, he’s also been the Creative and Art Director for Gravity Magazine and an editor and co-producer for UMTV. Add his status as a Hammond scholar, a semester abroad in Brazil and internships with NBCUniversal, NASDAQ and Paramount Pictures. It must be difficult fitting these experiences on a one-page resume.
The first publication of its kind, Gravity Magazine celebrates Black creativity at UM
Between the racial justice reckoning of last summer and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests, news outlets and social media platforms alike were flooded with what seemed like endless graphic videos and images of Black trauma.
Julian Crosby, a sophomore motion pictures major from Jacksonville, FL, saw this and recaptured it as an opportunity to provide Black students an outlet.
“I wanted to create a space for Black students to express themselves amidst a very chaotic time in our mental and physical well-being,” said Crosby.
Crosby’s idea eventually led to the inception of “Gravity Magazine,” the first student publication dedicated to uplifting Black voices at UM.