In preparation for the launch of the Crossroads Cohort, the Africana Studies Program and the Newcomb Art Department were excited to partner with The Black School (TBS), a Black-Centered experimental art school based in New Orleans, to create a compelling visual identity for the initiative. The Black School teaches BIPoC and ally students to become agents of change in their communities through art & design education and programming that is based in radical African diasporic histories and that prioritizes local community needs. Through their Design Apprenticeship, the TBS Design Studio connects established graphic designers with local young creatives , for a six-month paid training program that engages apprentices in all aspects of a real-world professional commission process.

As part of the collaborative process, Joseph Cuillier, Co-Director and Creative Director for The Black School, and Norman Bercey, TBS Junior Designer, visited Tulane to work with members of the Crossroads Cohort Team and conduct research that would be the foundation of developing the visual identity for the program. With Crossroads Cohort faculty member Dr. Mia L. Bagneris, the designers explored the Amistad Research Center’s collection of African American art, studying works by artists like Elizabeth Catlett, Romare Bearden, and John T. Scott to source points of visual and conceptual inspiration. They also toured Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation (Aug. 17 to Dec. 9, 2023), an exhibition at the Newcomb Art Museum whose curatorial vision aligned with many of the ideas behind Crossroads.

In naming their innovative, interdisciplinary joint graduate program, the Africana Studies Program and Newcomb Art Department wanted something that underscored the potent intellectual intersection of the two disciplines and landed on “Crossroads Cohort”, taking inspiration from the enduring influence of the Kongo cosmogram. Rooted in Yoruba cosmology, this symbol represents the power of the meeting of or space between worlds and persisted through the Middle Passage to find expression in various forms of visual culture across the Diaspora.

The TBS team embraced this concept in their design for the program’s visual identity and merged it with influences from their research visit to Tulane and other sources from African American visual culture that showcased the idea of crossing and intersection, as well as adjacent ones of collaboration, coming together, and community. The distinctive geometry of Black women’s quilts, including a specific example by Gee’s Bend quilter Martha Jane Pettway, and the graphic and politically informed works of the 1970s by artists like Faith Ringgold and Africobra member Barbara Jones-Hogu lent inspiration from African diasporic art history to the finished design.

The vibrant red, green, and black grid designed by TBS brings these influences into the iconic color palette of the Pan-African flag. The bright green central interlocking Cs of the final design highlight the initiative’s home at Tulane while also continuing the “crossings” theme and visually alluding to broken chains. Juxtaposed with all the references to historical sources, the design’s gestures toward contemporary popular visual culture in the video game-like pixelation and nod to the sartorial expressiveness of streetwear bring together past and present.

The final design represents the many facets of the Crossroads Cohort’s interdisciplinary mode of study, looking to the histories of African and African diasporic visual and material culture, the power of community in the present, and the possibilities of the Afro-Future.

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