SHOWstudio Take The Black Futures Pledge With 'The Slow Grind'

With June 2020 seeing the manifestation of worldwide #BlackLivesMatter protests and an ensuing wave of social media support, The Laundry arts creative platform have called for brands, cultural organisations and institutions to follow up with action, by pledging to buy copies of the independently published creative anthology The Slow Grind, from editor and multidisciplinary artist Georgina Johnson. These books will then be donated to 2020 graduates and students that are Black or POC. SHOWstudio have committed to buying ten copies for donation (and one for the SHOWstudio office) in keeping with this pledge, along with other organisations that have taken the pledge: 1Granary, Protein and 50m.

The Slow Grind is an exploration of the need for a way of working and creating that centres care and mental health instead of profit. In a SHOWstudio interview, Johnson explains that the attitudes towards speed, production and success in the fashion industry are harmful and exclusionary, particularly for black women like her, noting that there is a widespread need to adopt a more caring and intersectional creative practice for the future of workers and for creativity itself. Alongside Johnson's own contribution, the anthology brings together essays, interviews and conversations from a variety of creative professionals, including: Campbell Addy, Orsola de Castro, Bethany Williams and Ib Kamara.

To order your copy, head to theslowgrind.bigcartel.com/