Released during Black History Month, Mildred Howard’s first NFT collection lifts the voices of the youth of Black America.
Howard is an internationally acclaimed mixed media artist, sculptor and designer. But the art world is shifting and digital art, more specifically, NFTs, has been front and center of the industry over the past year.
Howard, the daughter of prominent civil rights activists, grew up in Berkeley, California. Activism has always been a major part of her upbringing. She has long championed social justice, both through her art and in her personal life.
Her first NFT Collection is titled “Millennials & XYZ” and will be available via the peer-to-peer marketplace OpenSea from Feb. 28 to March 7.
Howard first started working on the new collection five after the tragic, high-profile killings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. She then made it her mission to find out how young Black men and women in her community had been affected by the deaths.
On Feb. 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon went on a convenience store run to buy some candy and something to drink. He was fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. Trayvon was unarmed. Zimmerman argued the killing was in self-defense and was acquitted.
Two years later, on August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager from Ferguson, Missouri, was shot six times by police officer Darren Wilson. He was 18. Wilson was not charged, neither was he indicted by a grand jury.
The killings sparked riots. They also instilled heightened fears in much of the Black community’s youth.
“I wanted to talk with these young people about their lives, to capture them in the way they look and dress, to hear their opinion about what life was like for them,” Howard said in a statement. “Most of the young people I spoke with were brilliant human beings trying to navigate their way through this maze and society that we live in today. They happened to be people of color; but there is only one race—the human race.”
Howard hopes to inspire the next generation of artists.
“As an artist, you’re continuously trying to learn and improve what you do. Exploring new avenues helps in my growth as an artist; it’s an ongoing exploration of ideas and creative ways of thinking, making, and doing. I’m interested in pushing the boundaries.”
