When you have a grand artistic vision, it helps if you can surround yourself with the right people: a talented photographer, diverse and radiant models deserving of knighthood, skilled costume and set designers, and—why not?—a sword-collector.
The vision they brought to life was that of LSA undergraduate student Daniel Williams, the creative director of “Black Knight.” It stemmed from a particularly inspired seminar paper, and comprises a highly curated fashion photography project, a written series of personal profiles and interviews, and an art book.
Williams had been dreaming about a collaboration like this for years, but the “Black Knight” project finally took shape during a conversation in Professor Scott Ellsworth’s Zora Neale Hurston seminar in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, about the term “paladin.” Williams was moved by the cultural idea of the paladin as a legendary knight, a character who is chivalrous, noble, and also ordinary.
He realized that he knew a lot of paladins in the Black community of Metro Detroit, where he grew up. They were mothers, artists, students who made others feel safe and included and who lived on their own terms. He thought of a DJ continuing the history of Detroit techno music and of the creators of a local Dolls Night who brought queer and trans people together to dance in a welcoming space. A photographer friend, Anthony Kabiity, suggested a ballerina who describes performance as “a quest.” Williams thought of the courage of friends who live authentically despite homophobia, anti-Blackness, and transphobia.
And he wanted to knight these folks, to celebrate their stories, simply for the brave beauty of their existence.
Williams and Kabiity brought together 12 Black models and community members—12 for the number of knights who comprise a king’s court. Many are of queer, femme, and trans identities, and they include DJs, fashion influencers, visual artists, mothers, and local activists, as well as four U-M students.
Williams interviewed each of the 12 and wrote moving profiles of each. Williams—a five-time Vogue model himself—also worked with Kabiity and students from Detroit’s College for Creative Studies (CCS) to design sets and costumes, and photograph each subject in striking, saturated color.
Dressed in black, white, and metallic costumes, some of them holding swords, the 12 knights appear historical but also wildly futuristic. Paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) provided references for some of the actions, stances, and poses that Williams created for the models, and for the elaborate costumes.
He was helped by two CCS design students who crafted replicas of costumes found in historical art and reimagined by Williams, made to fit the models. A friend of Kabiity provided the swords for the project from their personal collection.
Williams wasn’t thinking entirely about the past. He describes himself as a science fiction nerd, as inspired by the historical art of medieval knights in chainmail as by the black vinyl outfits one of the models wears to DJ sets. He was thinking about our present moment, and honoring the aesthetics of science fiction and Detroit’s deep roots in Afrofuturism. In the community portrait of “Black Knight,” he says, “I was looking to the past but imagining a new future.
“One of the ways to imagine Afrofuturism is in the tangible goals, hobbies, gender expressions, parenting, and artistic creations of Black people.”
As a working Black model, Williams had insight into some of the persistent issues faced by Black models in the fashion industry. “Taking pictures of Black people well is a challenging thing for the fashion industry to get right,” he says. Many photographers fail to capture the beauty of different Black skin tones, but Williams trusted Kabiity with the technical skills and vision required of the role.
Williams was committed to honoring the ingenuity and creativity of Black style, which he says is often misrepresented or appropriated by the fashion industry. “Black people lead fashion,” he says, “but it takes listening and asking. So often as a model I felt like just another body.”
Williams aimed to create a supportive, humanizing space that “allows us to exist without fear. We are so often commodified or demonized for expressing our true selves.”
One of the Black Knights is Demi Baston, a fashion model and a junior in LSA who is studying communications and working at the Opportunity Hub. Her experience with Williams and Kabiity was unlike many of her other modeling experiences.
“I was honored to be a part of a project that tells Black stories,” she says, noting how powerful she felt reframing old notions of nobility with Black people. “I love telling stories about the Black experience and community that break stereotypes and offer fresh perspectives.”
As a creative director, Williams says, “I wanted to do things differently than the way they are usually done. I wanted the models to feel confident, inspired, and loved. I wanted to infuse this process with love.”
The “Black Knight” project is dedicated to Williams’s grandmother, Viola Culberson, who passed away last year. Williams says that the project exists because Culberson did. Born into sharecropping, Culberson worked tirelessly for most of her life to ensure her survival and the survival of her family.
“During so much of her life she had no choice, and then when her kids were old enough, she went to school at 40 and got her degree. Her life made her hard in some ways,” he says. While his grandmother was alive, she was known for this hardness, and for her sacrifices for others.
Williams mentions a rarely glimpsed softer side to his grandmother, and how he wishes he could have celebrated her in the way he celebrates the femmes of “Black Knight.”
“She would have loved to be celebrated in this way, celebrated outside of the work that she did. I really wanted her to exist outside of plight—and to be celebrated simply for her beauty, simply for her being.”
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| Release Date: | 11/12/2024 |
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| Category: | Students |
| Tags: | LSA; Afroamerican and African Studies; LSA Magazine; Humanities; Gina Balibrera |
