Telling unique Black stories has always been a North Star for multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams. For decades, Adams has been lighting up the art scene by capturing contemporary Black life and culture through paintings, performances, sculptures, videos, performance, and murals. Over the last 12 months, he’s designed an album cover, had works featured in Louis Vuitton’s “Pop Forever, Tom Wesselmann & …” exhibit, the Parrish Art Museum in New York, a debut exhibition of “The Strip” in Korea as well as artistic partnerships with Google, People for the American Way, and the jeweler Gautum and Saunders. As a tenured professor at the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts at CUNY Brooklyn College, Adams uplifts the next generation of artists. When he’s not teaching, the Baltimore, Maryland native’s nonprofit Charm City Cultural Cultivation supports the community through archiving stories, creating writer’s workshops, and establishing a residency program for Black creatives. Adams' life and work are the epitome of "For The Culture." — J.S.M.