Columnist and creative consultant Charlene Prempeh is on a mission to amplify Black stories in fashion and advocate for more BIPOC representation in the tech industry.
In A Place of Our Own, A Vibe Called Tech’s film and photo series in collaboration with fashion brand Gucci, filmmaker Samona Olanipekun captures a stunning Black couple basking in a countryside estate—enjoying quiet, intimate moments together, free from the stressors and anxieties of daily life. The poetic words of Pavan Bivigou, voiced by musician Keith Charles and actress Yazzmin Newell, in conjunction with the arresting visuals, sound like a mantra: “We don’t go to utopia. Going is a conspiracy. It comes to us.” Utopia: a lofty concept and a state that Charlene Prempeh, founder of the creative agency A Vibe Called Tech, dreams of for the Black community—or at least something close to it.
For Black people, the opportunity to have an ordinary existence seems to be prohibited. To be Black, in the U.K. and abroad, is to be constantly reminded of how seemingly unordinary one is. It’s constantly fighting for representation and inclusion in all industries, from fashion to tech.
Exasperated by the shortage of Black representation in media and tech, Prempeh and creative director Lewis Gilbert are on a mission to challenge the current narratives around what it means to occupy a Black body through storytelling and advocacy. As a creative agency, A Vibe Called Tech has collaborated with brands such as Gucci, Frieze, Adidas, Tate, and Stine Goya—to name a few—to help them tell more stories about the Black community. As advocates for more diversity in tech, they have researched the ways technology has underserved the community and they’ve encouraged the public to challenge tech companies—from social media giants to artificial intelligence—that fail to prioritize the needs of BIPOC when developing new products.
A Vibe Called Tech has an established partnership with a major fashion brand and extensive funding for their research, but this is only the beginning. In her conversation with Mission, Prempeh discusses working with Gucci, showcasing the universality of the Black experience through creative storytelling, the pros and cons of technology as it relates to the Black community, the importance of representation in tech, and what’s next for her agency.
Naydeline Mejia: A Vibe Called Tech has collaborated with various fashion brands to help them tell more Black stories, and one continued partnership you have is with Gucci. Can you tell me more about your collaboration with the Italian fashion house and what about your working relationship encourages you to keep collaborating with them?
Charlene Prempeh: Lewis Gilbert, our creative director, and I both worked with Gucci when we were working at Frieze together, so we had experience working with them before. The reason we really wanted to work with Gucci on A Vibe Called Tech is because they have always been very open with allowing us to tell the stories we wanted to tell. It felt less about how to help Gucci tell stories about blackness, and more about what stories does the [Black] community want to tell and what stories are universally engaging. Gucci just provided the platform for these stories to be told, and that’s why we have always ended up working with them. We bring them an idea of a story we want to amplify, and they help us do it. It’s very much a process of searching for what stories need to be told, and Gucci helping to support the fixation of that. It’s brilliant because it gives us so much creative freedom. And with Gucci Changemakers and Gucci Equilibrium, their mission is to tell more diverse and inclusive stories, so our partnership works out really well.
NM: Speaking of stories, can you talk more about the importance of Black storytelling, especially in an industry like fashion, which, like many industries, has historically excluded Black voices and identities?
CP: I think the thing about Black stories is that for a long time there’s been a dearth of curiosity about what goes on in Black culture. I’d say there’s been quite a superficial exploration of the stories, history, and relationship dynamics [of Black people]. And there’s a huge opportunity now to take these stories about the Black community and demonstrate how they’re universal. So, for example, when we did We Are All They [a photo and video series in collaboration with Gucci and Manju Journal], which explores the fact that there are no “he” or “she” pronouns in most dialects in Ghana, we were touching on gender neutrality—a topic that most of the world seems to be preoccupied with and people want to explore further. We kind of took this story from this one culture as a way of shining a light on a larger societal issue and global conversation. And so there are stories we tell that we hope are universal to everyone.
With To Me, You Are Beloved [a photo and essay series in collaboration with Gucci and Roundtable Journal], we aimed to highlight the ideas and influences from our families that get passed down to us. Although we looked specifically at Black people and culture in the U.K., the points that the talent were making—about their moms, their parents, and what they’ve taught them—are things that everyone can connect with. So, for us, our work is all about how we can show the universality of Black stories and how it relates to the human experience.
NM: You actually reminded me of a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, “The Anniad,” which tells the story of an ordinary Black girl in search of happiness and self-consciousness. The poem kind of asserts the humanity of Black people in America by highlighting such an ordinary existence. I bring this up because I think when the media portrays the Black experience, it tends to focus on the painful parts of it, so I love that A Vibe Called Tech is choosing to amplify only the positives of the Black experience, telling a different side of that particular narrative. You’re showing that, as humans, we’re all interconnected and we’re all not that different from each other.
CP: And that’s not to say that specific Black communities or cultures are one-dimensional, but there’s a [shared] Black experience that I think a lot of us can speak to and relate to. And I think a part of our creative process is understanding what parts of ourselves are universal.
NM: Technology, and social media specifically, has played such a vital role in amplifying the work and voices of Black creatives, but of course there’s always room for improvement. Can you speak more on how technology can be used to shine a spotlight on Black creators, both online and in the workplace?
CP: I think there’s obviously a democratization when it comes to technology, and what we’ve seen with the types of technologies that most people have access to, such as social media, is that anyone can be a creator. You can now shoot a film using only your mobile device. You can become a photographer and enter that job sector through a fairly low initial price point, which is not something you could do before. The entry cost to be a creative has been reduced tremendously. So, technology, in that sense, has been super positive. But when you think about future technologies—whether we’re talking about virtual reality, artificial intelligence, cars, space, or even current facial recognition technology—then we’re back to the same problem where we have gatekeepers who are deciding who does and does not get to participate in this world.
I think a lot of the issues with technology are arising because there’s not enough representation internally at these companies. A really obvious case is that of facial recognition technology, where the root issue has been that these devices aren’t able to properly recognize Black faces. Many of these issues are a result of no one being in the room to point out that there was a problem with the technology before the product went out to the public. And cases like this keep happening again and again. So when we’re thinking about how to make these spaces more inclusive, I think a good starting point is making sure your company or brand has the right voices in the room, offering feedback on the product you’re trying to create and later market.
NM: What is A Vibe Called Tech doing to increase Black representation in the tech industry?
CP: Right now, we’re working on a project called A Vibe Called Tech Vibe Check [in collaboration with Antiracist by.design and the Akin], which is being funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. It’s effectively a research study in which we’re trying to understand how technology underserves Black people in the U.K. as well as learn about Black people’s lived experiences with different types of technologies. We want to take our learnings and use them to empower Black technology users in the U.K. to challenge the platforms that are creating experiences and products that may not be ideal for them. We want to start a dialogue with the tech industry about how they can do better, and develop technologies that have Black physical, fiscal, community, and mental health in mind.
NM: What’s next for A Vibe Called Tech?
CP: The research project is on the tech side of the work we do here at A Vibe Called Tech, and I think a lot of our future projects will focus on insights and products to galvanize the Black community and bring the community together around the issues in the industry. As for creative content, we want to continue to tell more diverse stories. We work a lot internationally, and we definitely want to do more of that—complete more projects in Africa and Europe; South America is also a market we’re interested in participating in. But I suppose we just want to continue to tell the stories we’re telling. We want to teach people how to build platforms for Black creatives and Black media who are telling their own stories and want more of a voice. We’re also doing more events now that we’re actually allowed out. It’s quite exciting! I think we want to do more or less the same work we’ve been doing but at a much bigger scale.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Image by Harry Carr
