THE PANBLACK TONE
BY KILALI NGOBA
``Though the exhaustion is still so deeply rooted, I wanted to pivot that feeling into something positive, to share the abundance of wealth, beauty, power, and strength that is at the very core of black culture.`` -Kilali Ngoba
Hmm where to begin… it’s definitely interesting writing an article about a part of yourself that’s usually only shared with a few close people, but here it goes, the introduction and beginnings of THE PANBLACK TONE!
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My name is Kilali, and I am the curator and founder of THE PANBLACK TONE (TPT). I’ve come to realise as I look over the past 30 something years of my life, that I’ve been consistently on the TPT journey and hopefully will continue along its path. The actual birth of THE PANBLACK TONE came into fruition by way of emotional exhaustion (it’s honestly the only way I can describe it), I became mentally exhausted by allnforms of media and even conversation with friends surrounding the BLM protests that swept the world this summer, became frustrating to me. Truthfully, I also contributed to my own exhaustion, I often found myself caught up in social media (I was legit addicted!), it was an OUTLET that allowed me to OUTBURST! However, not only the time I was spending on social media was simply unhealthy, but I started to notice the content I was sharing wasn’t necessarily a reflection of what I wanted to convey.
Though the exhaustion is still so deeply rooted, I wanted to pivot that feeling into something positive, to share the abundance of wealth, beauty, power, and strength that is at the very core of black culture. I, myself come from an incredible background being of Nigerian and Guyanese origin, the richness of these cultures is what drives THE PANBLACK TONE.
The conceptual direction of TPT (@the_panblack_tone) is simply the curation of archiving accolades across the African diaspora through colour, it is essentially a fluid presentation of black hues against a colour and theme that are called Episodes. The first Episode was black & white and themed on Beginnings, this Episode included initial moments of intensity as well as references to energy you may exude when you embark on new beginnings. As you lean into each clip (pic) of an Episode its purpose is to draw you into the theme, to find its positivity, it allows you the viewer to narrate the theme to how you receive it. Telling stories, translating art are passions of mine, in a previous life I was a fashion merchandiser and had the opportunity to work alongside some amazing creative individuals, TPT reflects those experiences, and deliberately curates each Episode to include artists across the diaspora.
