Meet Creators Of The Future Makers Series
Instagram partnered with Gen-Z creators for the Future Makers series to highlight artists, activists and changemakers amplifying their stories on the platform. “You become a future maker when your passion isn’t to aspire but inspire,” Keion Hopper told GU. “Those around you see a beacon of light when times are darkened beyond their horizon of thought.”
“As a composer, I strive to push the boundaries of modern music while honoring my ancestors,” Brandon Woody said. “My music is a representation of the Black experience in Baltimore and its unique relationship to the rest of the world.”
Curated by Winter BreeAnne and Livia Rose Johnson, the duo had an idea to continue the work of their ancestors through intergenerational conversations via social media.
“Growing up in California, within a four generational Black household, I was encouraged to speak up [and] speak my mind,” BreeAnne told GU. “That was something that was afforded to me, the ability to speak my mind, so that’s where my voice grew.”
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Through this project, Black creatives receive recognition for the impact made through the conversations initiated online. The creators include Winter BreeAnne, Livia Rose Johnson, Kayla Austin, Treasure Faith Brooks, Brandon Woody and Keion Kopper.
“We’re both people who view visibility as a big method of activism, in the sense of where when you see it you can of start believing it,” Johnson told GU.
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This initiative is here to provide young Black creators access to a larger audience to share their passions and use their voices to create an impact on a wider scale.
“To build the future is to honor the roots of the past while unapologetically creating a path of progress. To be a future maker is to pave a way for yourself and more importantly, those around you,” said participant Kayla Austin.
As the founders prioritize visibility and liberation, they also concentrate on the importance of wellness for activists. “I allow myself to disappear and start over. If life has shown me anything, it’s that restoration and elevation always call for deep privacy,” Treasure Faith Brooks told GU.
“You have to be an example of what it looks like to live a liberated life,” BreeAnne said. “Part of that is trying to figure out how in today’s age to balance it all, your mental health [and] self-care outside of commercialized self-care.”
The segments include personal stories from each of the creators sharing who they are and how they describe their legacy as Gen-Z activists. You can find them on the Instagram account where each person will have their own component each month.
“Black people have always been future makers because we’ve had to rely so much on our radical imagination and think outside of the box,” BreAnne says. “Being a future maker means you are actively shaping the world around you, and creating the future you want to see, whether that be for yourself or for your community.”