Capstone Projects · 2025 / 2026
The Magic &
Melanin Residency
What five members of the diaspora brought back from the Motherland.
The Residency
The Magic & Melanin Residency is a 14-week homegoing experience taking place in West Africa — Togo, Benin and Ghana — to help five members of the diaspora experience what it’s like living in the Motherland.
Fourteen weeks
One continuous stretch of living there, not visiting.
Three countries
Togo, Benin and Ghana, each with its own pull.
Five residents
Five people arriving as a diaspora and leaving as themselves.
A Residency Film
Sabina Dorvile
Living with Ease
A short documentary on ease as resistance. Sabina follows the spaces she built for herself across Togo, Ghana and Benin — the intentional rooms, the softness, the sense of being held in the diaspora — and asks what freedom feels like when you stop having to earn it.
A Residency Film
Athena Panton
100 Days in West Africa
Three months, three countries, seven amazing people. Athena's film counts the days that shifted what she believed was possible, and the conversations that made the shift undeniable. A residency told as a countdown to a different self.
A Wearable Art Collection
Janelle Naomi Rouse
Aether Real Designs
Aether Real Designs is wearable art inspired by a life force — a philosophy of timeless style worked through organic cotton from Benin, batik, African masks, and the natural world. The deck below is the collection as Janelle presented it: philosophy, inspiration, materials, craftsmanship and styling.
A Residency Collage Diary
Kenyatta Malloy
Being My Own Niche
A diary of a residency that refused to sit in one category: the Wall of Heritage in Cotonou, an afternoon on the design floor with the Saheel Atelier team, original lyrics and artistry, and a warrior becoming. Kenyatta's capstone is the practice of belonging to yourself first.
“It's strange feeling both out of place and perfectly held. Like the land is teaching me how to belong to myself before I belong anywhere else.”
Closing the Residency
Magic & Melanin
The Founder's Capstone
The founder's own capstone — the closing word on the 2025 / 2026 residency, and the first look at what Magic & Melanin is building toward next.