Behind the Scenes
Co-creator, Producer, Writer, Adetola Abdulkadir
Co-creator, Producer, Writer, Safiyah Cheatam
Our team is formed by the creative science duo Adetola Abdulkadir, a writer and Genomic Analyst at Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx), and Safiyah Cheatam, an interdisciplinary artist and MFA candidate at UMBC.
Inspired by Spider the Artist by Nnedi Okorafor, Adetola was compelled to embark on his own narrative journey. As an analyst at PGDx, Adetola engages with the building blocks of humanity (DNA) daily, allowing him a unique perspective on how communities engage with tech and vice versa. While Adetola chose to partner with Safiyah because of her experience in storytelling, her work uses conceptual installations and visual metaphors to navigate spiritual, religious and sociological collective experiences. She is inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois' data visualizations and afrofuturist short story The Princess Steel (1908-1910).
We are recipients of the August 2020 Red Bull Arts Baltimore Microgrant and 2019 Rubys Artist Grant awarded by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.
You can find us individually @undercverbrother (Ade on Instagram) and @saphicles (Safiyah on Instagram/Twitter).
Image by Ademola Abdulkadir
Social Media Intern, Camara Aaron
Camara Aaron is a senior at Yale University, pursing a BA in the film and media studies with a concentration. On campus, she produces stage shows and writes and directs short films. Her work reflects her curiosity about how Black women fit into Hollywood genres. She is excited to work under Safiyah and Ade and support the magnificence that is OBSIDIAN. Camara's greatest loves are Mad Max: Fury Road, Burna Boy & romance novels. You can find her at @ariesapologist on Twitter.
Pictured: Adetola Abdulkadir (left) and Safiyah Cheatam (right)
Pictured: Camara Aaron