Welcome back to the Black History Month x Current Black Creatives segment where I highlight Black Creatives that are currently planting their flags on the creative map. While we will always remember and honor the previous brilliant Black creative minds from before, it is beneficial for everyone to be aware of the people that are currently making the moves to push us forward. Now that we are all caught up, I would like to introduce an extraordinary force to be reckoned with:

Tay Soley, a Midwest native, New York based Multidisciplinary Creative

Tay is currently the Creative Director for, 28 Shades of Black Magic. 28 Shades of Black Magic is an annual photo series that highlights Black artists, activists, and entrepreneurs for each day of Black History Month. Tay is committed to “creating art, experiences, and opportunities that highlight the undeniable grace, strength, and beauty engraved throughout her community.” W.E.B Dubois, Huey P. Newton, Harriet Tubman, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, and Kwasi Fordjour are just a few examples of whom Tay takes her inspiration from.

Tay is also a freelance model that has collaborated with many brands such as Vontelle Eyewear, Proper NYC, Voluptas Rose, and Your Luxe Closet. She also has been casted to model in music videos. While not being in front of the camera, Tay likes to flip the script and wears her creative director and set production hats behind the camera. Here, Tay helps bring amazing set designs to life that really set the tone for the projects that she’s been trusted to oversee. With all of her well rounded artistic knowledge, Tay is the perfect person to seek out when in need of an extremely creative moment. Just when you thought that I would be done listing things that Tay does, you then read that she also has an amazing musical gift that she uses as a singer/ songwriter. You can find many places to put Tay, but one place it will never be is a box. The versatility is absolutely inspirational.

Tay’s extensive resume also covers the fact that she is an educator. She pours her knowledge, love for art, and humanitarianism back into the youth. While building her legacy in this world, she still manages to dedicate her time to making sure that the future leaders of the world know that they can absolutely do the same too. It’s so important to have people that are live representations that limits don’t exist unless you say so. She is truly the gift that keeps on giving. Amazing people walk amongst us everyday that deserve to be recognized for all of the things that they do. Tay is a powerhouse of art, intelligence, and talent, and nothing short of that.

If you don’t mind me getting a little anecdotal, stay tuned for this next part where I describe the nothing short of divinely ordained way that I met Tay. The day was July 21, 2014, the place, Chicago,IL. I had just randomly heard that day that J. Cole would be in town for his Dollar And A Dream Tour. With this particular tour, the tickets were only $1 to see J. Cole perform live at The Concord Music Hall (located 2051 N Milwaukee Ave.) The catch, because for $1 there has to be a catch right? The catch was that we had to stand in line for hours and I do mean hours in order to get these tickets.

The weather was “summer time Chi’n” extremely hard this day and let’s just say that the sun was a little too eager and proud to be the sun. I convinced my mom to drop me off and as we pulled up, I realized that the line started blocks away from the venue. I immediately was like, no, absolutely not, but common sense kicked in quickly because, hello, this is an opportunity to see J. Cole for one dollar. After accepting that I was moving forward with this, I got out of the car and made my way into the line. I have no doubt that I was meant to get in line at the very moment that I did.

I ended up being in line next to Tay along with two of her other amazing friends. We immediately clicked. The jokes about how hot it was outside, how slow the line was moving, how if we caught anybody slipping we were cutting them in line, you name it, we joked about it. After about six to seven, maybe even eight hours, we finally made it to the front sidewalk of the venue. We had just made the cut because the show had sold out, but J. Cole being who he is, added on another one to allow more people to get the chance to see the show. We got our tickets and exchanged phone numbers and Instagram handles so that when we came back later, we could all find each other again and enjoy the show together. Fast forward to later, we did just that. We met up and pushed our way to the front of the crowd to enjoy a front row experience from J. Cole.

I said all of that to further my advocacy of not being afraid to do things alone. Yes, you should absolutely go to that concert by yourself because you never know what amazing people you’ll meet. People like Tay, who on that day, allowed her personality to shine bright. She was nice, funny, welcoming, and genuine. She talked a lot about her passions and the plans she had for herself. One thing for sure, she has always oozed creativity. She is undeniably art. I admired how vocal and confident she was in her abilities and her eagerness to share that with me, a complete stranger. I like to believe that there are no coincidences and things happen exactly how they were meant to.

Since then, I have been able to see Tay’s growth over the years and she has really found her lane, or should I say lanes. It is no surprise that she has been able to bloom into such the icon that she is. I look forward to seeing her plant her roots in every way that she dares to. The way that she pushes Black culture forward is everything that the forefathers and foremothers would have wanted. Please follow Tay Soley on Instagram (@TaySoley) to follow her journey and to support this Black Creative!

Happy Black History Month! Thank you for reading and please return to see the next highlighted Black creative for the month. Please comment any Black creatives that you think need to be highlighted in this segment!

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