Black NFTs Creators Making Strides

Many mainstream industries have strategically prevented Black Americans and other minority groups from entering. However, cryptocurrency ownership among African Americans is at 23 percent compared to 11 percent of pale Americans, and 17 percent of Hispanics, as documented in two surveys by Harris Poll. Below is a list of Black Americans making strides in NFTs.

1. Nyla Hayes

Teen Nyla Hayes has racked up $3.4 million in digital currency by selling NFTs of her Long Neckie Collection. She started drawing at age 4 and by age 9 her parents bought her smartphone to compose her illustrations into digital art, she said to TIME for Kids.

Time Pieces announced that Hayes would be their first artist in residence. Hayes drew inspiration from her favorite dinosaur the Brontosaurus when she sketches her depiction of people. Her uncle told her mother about NFTs, and together they consumed YouTube to learn how to create and sell them. The young artist has made more than 960 ETH, reports POCIT.

2. Kwasi Ohene-Adu

Kwasi Ohene-Adu, founder of the Groovetime app that uses AI technology to teach dance to newbies, is considered a Black-owned competitor to TikTok. When dancers sign up on the platform to teach new dance sequences they are compensated for their ingenuity.

Now Groovetime wants to take the ability for dancers to increase the capitalization of their creativity by entering the NFT space. The startup tech company will allow dancers to create, own, and trade their dance moves through the NFT market. Dance creators will receive credit for their original choreography on the blockchain, earn a lion’s share of the profits from the sales of their NFTs, and receive royalties from any resales.

3. Vakseen

Visual artist, crypto artist, gallery owner, music executive, producer, and songwriter Vakseen, a 41-year-old digital artist who resides in California, earned 8 ETH bid (around $16,800) for the first of six editions of his digital portrait of basketball player icon Michael Jordan. The success of his sale resulted in Vakseen being commissioned to create another digital art design.

4. Lana Denima

Lana Denina,  who is based in Montreal, Canada, pocketed over $300,000 in 2021 by selling her artwork as NFTs. Denina views traditional galleries as archaic and gravitated towards blockchain because she was impressed how technology can revolutionize art.  NFT and Web3 allow artists to create their galleries, set the price of their work, and earn royalties, of which Denina earns 10%.

5. Brandon Buchanan

Brandon Buchanan is the founder and managing partner of Meta4 Capital, an investment management firm that focuses on cryptocurrency and invests in NFTs.

The firm launched a fund, Meta4 NFT Fund, to primarily invest in rare NFTs with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Crypto Truth reports. The Meta4 NFT Fund is setting a goal to raise $100 million and Buchanan sees Web3 and NFTs as the next wave of the future.

6. Iris Nevins

Art collector Iris Nevins is CEO and co-founder of Umba Daima, a marketplace for artists to sell their work as NFTs on Web3. Umba Daima consults with artists, gets a share of their sales, and helps to establish communities for shopping forums. In 2021, Umba Daima made $140,000 in revenue. Nevins’ studio opened Black NFT Art to facilitate the promotion of Black artists.

7. Kevin and Thierry Mofo

Canadian brothers Kevin and Thierry Mofo launched their first NFT sneaker through their company Soles For Justice minted on the Ethereum blockchain.

The owner of the NFT sneaker can retrieve the original pair of Nike Air Foamposite One Galaxy in size 10, which the brothers purchased in 2012 with the initial box. Nike released the rare sneakers, a galaxy print in partnership with NASA, and only 1200 were made, according to the description on OpenSea.

8. Abieyuwa Eigbobo

Abieyuwa Eigbobo, a Nigerian-American, is a multidisciplinary artist and photographer from Texas. Abieyuwa experiments with technology to explore being a Black Woman in contemporary society, while showcasing her Esan & Igbo heritage. Abieyuwa works with a variety of tools and media including photography, digital and analog video, 3D modeling, and acrylic paint. She also serves as an admin/moderator for Twitter’s female-led NFT Community. She shares tips and tricks on how she utilizes Twitter and other tools to network within the NFT space, sell her artwork, and make money.

9. Enrico Moses

Visual artist Enrico Moses sought to conserve pivotal moments in Hip-Hop history and created an NFT platform called Flash Mints that houses collections from street photographers who captured icons like Grandmaster Flash, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, Snoop Dogg, Lil Kim, The Fugees, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard to name a few.

Flash Mints permits photographers to generate revenue for their work, as well as, authenticate their creative work through blockchain. In addition, collectors have the chance to accumulate parts of the genres celebrated past.

10. Mya Parker

Mya Parker, a Zachary High freshman, turned her passion for art into NFTs and earned over $10,000 in profits. The teen is selling her artwork as NFTs for as high as $140,000 on the marketplace OpenSea. “My art comes from two ways. Sometimes I have an experience and I create something from that experience, ” said Parker. “And sometimes, I doodle when I’m bored.”

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