The AphroChic Podcast

Greg Banks has been bringing music straight to the people through his Concert on the Block series. The series began two years ago, at the start of the pandemic, as Banks’ way of fighting against the darkness and fear we all felt in 2020. Since then, it’s grown beyond his block, taking him around the globe as he uplifts a populous weary of disease and war with music that stirs the soul. We had the opportunity to sit down with Banks to discuss his life, career, concert series, and his upcoming album.

Greg is the cover star for issue no. 9 of AphroChic Magazine, and is featured in the story, Soul Man: New Orleans-born artist, Greg Banks, Is the Saint of Soul. 

In the summer of 2020, AphroChic spoke with Janelle Jones on Instagram Live about Black Women's Equal Pay Day, economics, and racial inequality. Janelle is the first African American woman to serve as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and is currently the chief economist for Service Employees International Union. Here we present the edited conversation from two years ago in honor of Black Women's Equal Pay Day 2022, which takes place this year on September 21st. Black women are paid 58 cents for every dollar paid to white men and this day symbolically denotes how far into the year Black women must work to be paid what men were paid the previous year. 

Janelle's article, "We Are The Economy: Building from the Ashes of COVID-19" is featured in Issue No. 4 of AphroChic Magazine. 

In the summer of 2020 AphroChic chatted on Instagram Live with Chef Alexander Smalls about his latest book, Meals, Music & Muses and his diverse journey through the worlds of music, food and business. Here we present the edited conversation, where we talked about his journey, which started in rural South Carolina and took him around the world as a celebrated opera singer before bringing him to  New York as an equally renowned restaurateur. We talk with Alexander about his youth, his career on the stage and in the kitchen and the beautiful window that African American food traditions provide on our history, our culture and our diaspora. 

Pre-order AphroChic: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family Home to explore more of Chef Alexander Smalls’ story and his Harlem home.

We're sitting down with Ron Frazier, the founder of A Tribe Called Camp, discussing his outdoor lifestyle concept - a movement that encourages Black people to get outside, travel and camp. 

Interdisciplinary artist Fabiola Jean-Louis weaves a narrative that blends past and future, fact and fantasy, afro-futurism and Black girl magic in her photographs and paper sculptures. We sit down with Fabiola to discuss her Re-Writing History series.

AphroChic presents One Story Up, a celebration of the culture of the African Diaspora and the stories that create it. This month we sit down with Nikia Phoenix to discuss modeling, activism, and the journey to self-love. 

Live from Dumbo House in Brooklyn, NY, we celebrate the launch of AphroChic Magazine by sitting down with stylists James Bianca, Donnell Baldwin, Courtney Arrington-Baldwin, and fashion designer Nana Yaa Asare-Boadu, to discuss the culture of the African Diaspora as a major influence on the world of fashion, issues with diversity in the industry and ways to create a more equitable fashion industry. 

We sit down with Jerome LaMaar, fashion designer, trend forecaster and futurist, to discuss fashion and futurism. It's a discussion that leads us from his start as a 15-year-old designer for Baby Phat and into Afro-futurism and his groundbreaking showcase, Afri-Collision.  

A talk with filmmaker Adepero Oduye on radical creativity and her groundbreaking film, To Be Free, where Oduye transforms into the legendary Nina Simone. 

Chef Rashad Frazier Highlights a Little Known History Between Black and Japanese Americans Through His Food Concept, Yoshi Jenkins, a Fusion of History, Cultures, and Delicious Bites.