First of all: Happy Black History Month from all of us at Focused Space!

We're a team of nerds, so before writing this post, we asked ourselves… what's the history of Black History Month?

Black History Month has its origins way back in 1915, from the efforts of historian and author Dr. Carter G. Woodson to collect, organize, and promote the stories and contributions of Black Americans and the African diaspora community.

From his time as a working historian, Woodson knew that the role of his own people in American history was being ignored or misrepresented among scholars. Woodson is also the only person whose parents were enslaved in the United States to obtain a PhD in history.

The first official celebration of Black History Month was organized by students and educators at Kent State University in 1970, and has been annually observed ever since.

At Focused Space, our community is full of artists, designers, creatives, writers, and entrepreneurs who imagine and build different and better worlds every day.

As we all work towards creating a future that we actually want to live in, we're celebrating this month by sharing a few Black creatives and entrepreneurs from past to present who inspire us.

Tressie McMillan Cottom

Writer & Professor

If you aren't familiar with the work of Professor Tressie McMillan Cottom, get ready to go down the rabbit hole.

Academic research has a reputation for being a little bit… dry.

And abstract.

And removed from people's everyday lives. (Author's note from Alexis: I did a PhD so I'm giving this shade to myself, too 😜)

Tressie's work is something quite different. Whether she's talking about the rise of "AI Slop", what beauty standards have to do with economics, fitness training for the older crowd, the history of for-profit colleges, or what we can learn from reality tv… you're suddenly going to see the world around you in a brand new way.

She probably has one of the busiest brains of anyone who makes a living as a writer and thinker these days.

You're just as likely to see her on The Daily Show as in a sociology journal. A rare crossover episode for an academic!

Do yourself a favor and follow her on Instagram or type her name into your platform of choice. As with any great writer, the best words to describe Tressie's ideas are her own.

Nadia Odunayo

Founder, CEO, & Software Engineer

Our team at Focused Space loves to read. When we're not doom-scrolling (hey, we're only human), we're reading.

Our Customer Success Manager, in fact, dutifully attends a book club in Baltimore. And has been trying to win a reading challenge for a certain beloved app for quite some time now… (We're rooting for you, Tamara!)

All of this brings us to our next highlight: Nadia Odunayo, Founder + CEO of The StoryGraph.

If you haven't heard of The StoryGraph, it is described by our session host Farah as the "much cooler and less clunky book recc/reading tracker platform that's an alternative to Amazon-owned Goodreads."

Nadia started The StoryGraph as a small side project, taught herself how to code, and built The StoryGraph from the ground up, all by herself.

Now it's grown into something that people love using.

Like, 5 million people! All without raising a dime of external investment.

As Nadia puts it, her "delusional optimism", passion for learning, and willingness to ask for help from her friends is what helped her take her vision from 0 → 1.

Nadia is one of the most inspiring entrepreneurs we're following right now. Her approach to building The Storygraph is grounded in what her community actually wants, which is shockingly hard to find in tech products these days 🥴

Not only has she built a profitable company, but Nadia also somehow carves out time to excel in dance. A true lifelong learner and creative!

As a small team ourselves, we are blown away by the platform, how fun it is to browse, and how much the StoryGraph team cares about the people that use it.

Curtis Talwst Santiago

Artist & Musician

Seeing Curtis' collection of sculptures, the Infinity Series, for the first time is like discovering a million secret worlds.

Curtis began this project in 2008, by transforming old jewelry boxes into scenes from his imagination and his memory.

Some dioramas depict his own personal experiences (like a replica of his parent's basement from childhood), some reference little-known histories of migration and colonialism, while others pull you into tiny fantasy worlds.

Soca in the Suburbs Grande Fete II (2022)

Curtis was born in Alberta, Canada, where his parents emigrated from Trinidad in the late 1960s.

In an interview with CBC, Curtis describes how supportive his parents' were of his creativity: "My room was my creative hub that I could do anything in. There was never any, 'No, don't do that, stop singing so loud, you can't be an artist' — anything like that."

“The Apprentice, the fish, the cat, the crow, and the oranges” (2018)

Aside from the dioramas (editor's note: I would put a thousand more photos of them in here if I could), Curtis paints, draws, teaches, makes large-scale sculptures — and before focusing his practice on visual arts, was also a musician.

Curtis' exploration of different themes, ideas, materials, stories, and scales is endlessly fascinating and inspiring. Check out his website for more photos of his work, and this great interview about how he thinks about making art.

“Party Can’t Done” (2020) — depiction of his parents' basement

Stanley Andrisse

Researcher & Author

Yes, we're going to count a scientist as a "creative" 🤓

It's only fair: Science is about pushing forward new ideas, making unusual connections, and trying new things to see what happens (with safety protocols, of course!)

Dr. Stanley Andrisse is a practicing endocrinologist and biomedical scientist who focuses on insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. What makes his scientific work especially creative is that he goes beyond the typical narrative of how diabetes occurs.

Most often, people highlight lifestyle factors that contribute to diabetes (like inactivity and excess calories), but Dr. Andrisse's work tells a more complex story, and one that will ultimately lead to better treatments and outcomes for people.

Dr. Andrisse focuses on hormones, tissues, and hidden biological pathways that impact insulin resistance, but rarely get studied. His research helps explain why some people develop diabetes even without traditional risk factors.

On top of all of his scientific work, Dr. Andrisse's personal story is remarkable and inspiring. In his early 20s, he was sentenced to ten years in prison on drug trafficking charges.

While incarcerated, he discovered an interest in science and diabetes — a disease that had affected his father — and started reading the scientific literature about it. After his release, and after many rejections, he ultimately pursued his PhD and went on to start a research lab at Howard University.

His memoir, From Prison Cells to PhD: It Is Never Too Late to Do Good, describes the connection between our prison and public education systems — and it is also a personal story of resilience, reminding us that all people are capable of growth and positive contribution even after mistakes and setbacks.

Sylvia Harris

Graphic Designer & “Citizen Designer”

(1953-2011)

The best designers can make even the most complex systems easier and more pleasant to use.

Sylvia was a pioneer in what is now called “public information design” — using design to improve communication, accessibility, and service delivery for broad audiences.

Harris coined the term “Citizen Design” — the idea that design should serve real people’s needs and experiences. She believed that designers should work collaboratively with communities to make systems easier to understand and interact with.

Throughout her career, Sylvia was involved in numerous projects using design to make complex things easier to use, like:

• Redesigning hospital signage to improve how patients find their way and access information in large medical complexes

• Designing the interface for Citibank's first ATMs in New York City

• Creating informational displays for animal exhibits and making educational content easier to read at the Central Park Zoo

One of her best known projects was serving as the Creative Director for the 2000 U.S. Census.

When she joined, response rates for the Census had been declining for 30 years — a critical problem because the Census determines political representation and billions in funding allocations.

Her design work helped make the Census form more inviting, intuitive, and easy to fill out. She balanced that with making materials feel more recognizable and “official,” so people wouldn't dismiss them as junk mail.

And it worked! The 2000 census had higher response rates than the previous 1990 census — reversing a downward trend that was 30 years in the making.

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We hope you learned something new from these biographies of a few Black Creatives & Entrepreneurs who inspire us.

P.S. At Focused Space, our community is full of artists, designers, creatives, writers, and entrepreneurs who imagine and build different and better worlds every day.

If you aren't a member of Focused Space, but could use help accomplishing your goals, busting through procrastination, or getting motivated… you are welcome to join us at one of our live guided work sessions, or morning planning sessions!

Take care,

— Alexis and the focused space team