Hello, I’m Rogan and welcome. It’s March, but that doesn’t mean we’re done with supporting and uplifting Black people. That’s something that should happen year-round. Today, I’m going to do a video fully dedicated to Black creators I currently follow and enjoy – hearing, disabled, queer, straight, all of them. I already mentioned a bunch of TikTokers and Instagrammers in a previous video, so I’ll link here. I’m going to cover YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, in that order. Also, the order in which I name people will be alphabetical, for simplicity’s sake. Of couuuuurse everyone will be linked!
We’ll start with YouTube. I’m going to preface this with saying that all of the people I mention today from YouTube caption their videos. I do follow a few more that don’t caption, but I won’t be mentioning them today.
Ahsante the Artist, she talks about art, the creative process, and she has some amazing artistic videos. She’s big on organization and planning, and her videos are always so well thought out. She has also made some videos on queerness, privilege, identity, and she’s asexual. Jesse from Bowties & Books. As is obvious from the name, they talk about books! They read across pretty much every genre, and they’re always so thoughtful with their reviews. Jesse often has “unpopular” opinions about hyped books, and I love getting a completely different perspective on books that a large majority of people are just absolutely in love with. I will admit, their videos can get really long, but I love them. Jesse also runs the Enby Book Club on Instagram, if you’re interested in that! Evelyn From the Internets is absolutely hilarious! She does a lot of comedy, along with some cooking/food videos, scripted content. She is actually on a temporary hiatus right now, because she wants to shift to doing more scripted and planned sketches and things like that. The ones that she’s done in the past are great, and I can’t wait to see more from Evelyn! Next is Hallease, who often works with Evelyn, and is currently working on a project with her. Hallease is a filmmaker, and makes a lot of content related to that, being a YouTuber, some tutorials, creating videos and scripts, documentaries, and so on. I’ve learned some tips from her that I’ve applied to my own process, but also I just enjoy watching her teaching things. I’m really looking forward to her current project, Hardly Working. I’m actually a Patron of hers, so I’ve been getting some fun looks at behind the scenes stuff!
iLivieSimone, or Olivia, is a BookTuber. She talks about books of course, but also posts videos where she defaces various copies of her books. Her art is just gorgeous! Livie was the one who inspired me to deface my copy of The Prince and the Dressmaker. ItsRadishTime, also known as Taylor, and she’s a storyteller. I really enjoy her way of telling stories, and they’re about all kinds of things. Democracy, creative things, stories about life, among other things. She’s also bisexual and occasionally makes videos about that. Minnie Small is an UK based artist and the majority of her videos are about the art itself, showing the process of it, sometimes she’ll talk about things while working on the art. It’s very slow-paced and calming, you feel like you can really just sit there and relax while watching/listening or even do art with her. Olivia’s Catastrophe is another BookTuber who is fairly new to me, I only recently started watching. All of the videos are captioned though, so there’s plenty to watch! What I have seen so far, I’ve enjoyed, so I’m going ahead and adding her here.
Let’s move onto Instagram! I’m going to try and describe their profile in one sentence or two, so we can get through them.
Akilah’s PhD Journey is a new account, and it’s what the name says! Blair Imani is a Black bisexual Muslim, and has a great series called Smarter in Seconds. (Checking her profile just now, apparently she’s changed this to a series on YouTube, Get Smarter with Blair Imani!) Claudia L. Gordon is a Deaf public speaker working for inclusion and equity. Imani Barbarin is a disabled advocate who often talks about the intersection of disability and blackness. (Also posts often on TikTok if you prefer that.)
Devin Norko is a queer hard of hearing autistic person who is an activist and advocate. Franchesca Ramsey is a hilarious comedian and had a great series on MTV called Decoded. Thaddeus, or hippypotter, is an illustrator and model. Justin Perez is an incredible Deaf performer who specializes in VV, visual vernacular.
Kuresse Bolds is a queer illustrator and designer. Let’s Sign About is an account similar to So You Want To Talk About… but with a focus on Black Deaf people. Mervin Primeaux-OBryant is a Deaf nonbinary actor and artist, among many other things. Vashti Harrison is a bestselling author and illustrator, best known for her children’s books.
Then to close out this video, we have a few more TikTokers.
Artie Mack, who I first found on YouTube, but their TikTok is a lot more active right now. Artie does a lot of education regarding disability, deafness, and the intersection of that with blackness. Amelia Som does mainly Dungeons and Dragons content, and I just love them. Jazmyn W is just extremely entertaining and has a fantastic series where she pretends to be White House HR checking out the previous administration. If nothing else, you have to check that series out!
The Woodmother is autistic and has ADHD, they’re writing a story set in Atlanta during the Jazz Age, which sounds absolutely fascinating! Zay, autieoddity, is another autistic person, and most of her content is educational and very informative, but it’s very much about her specific experiences and not in general.
That is what I have for today! I definitely did NOT list everyone, there are sooooo many great Black creators out there on various platforms. I also specifically didn’t include authors and Bookstagrammers in this video, because I’ll be putting them into my February book wrap up video. That should be up very soon, and I’ll link it when it is. The only thing I’m going to ask you to do today is leave ONE Black creator you follow in the comments (feel free to add more of course!). I’d love to find more fantastic people to follow!
Instead of asking you for financial support, I want you to go follow some of the people I mentioned today. That’s all. Go do it!