Daughters of D.I.G.—Developing Intelligent Girls—is an Oakland-based QTPOC tribe, dedicated to passing on the art of digging for knowledge of self through a transformative creative and collective process.
Currently curated by creative Lexx Valdez (lexxdigs.com) and artist/healer Erricka Lewis (thisblackdaffodil.tumblr.com).
Contributing curators:
Devoya Mayo (devoya.tumblr.com) + Valerie Scott (chiefofaffections.tumblr.com)
Founded by Lexx Valdez and Devoya Mayo of thehappyblackgirl.com in 2008 as Daughters of Dilla.
Our message is inspired by the beat of J.Dilla:
"Don't Sell Yourself to Fall in Love"
“Today’s revolutionaries need to reimagine what revolution means • The best way to make a change on institutional issues in our modern world is to reimagine ourselves • We need to see young people as the solution and not part of the problems • reimagining education means relating to our children in a more human way • the arts and artists play a crucial role in transforming their communities and their world • cultural change precedes political change” #GraceLeeBoggs gems // #reimagineeducation #digitalcollage #revolution #evolution (at Leimert Park, Los Angeles)
“Only grown-ups think that the things children say come out of nowhere. We know they come from the deepest parts of ourselves.” #bellhooks / #analogcollage
Check out this great article by Derreck Johnson aka @deephunk for @slate and get hype for the release of #BlackPanther: “When We Were Kings and Queens - From Haile Selassie to Wakanda to Zamunda, seeing ourselves as leaders and royalty is pure escapism and cathartic.” Happy to contribute art for this piece. Thanks again, D! (Link in bio) • photo 1 of 2.
Check out this great article by Derreck Johnson aka @deephunk for @slate and get hype for the release of #BlackPanther: “When We Were Kings and Queens - From Haile Selassie to Wakanda to Zamunda, seeing ourselves as leaders and royalty is pure escapism and cathartic.” Happy to contribute art for this piece. Thanks again, D! (Link in bio) • photo 2 of 2.
This illustration is one of my favourites from the collection and is based on my bookworm of a little sister who constantly inspires me with her knowledge and kindness. This is a tribute to women who read, women who add to our knowledge, women who teach us to be better. 💕🌈👓
Save The Date: Feb 10th • @galeriadelaraza presents the opening of #UndocuJoy: Unfathomable Strength curated by @yosirey artist-in-residence at @defineamerican. An exhibit celebrating the spirit, passion and resilience of undocumented communities. Featuring works by @nicopilsenite @juliosalgado83 @leocarmona (thank you for letting me use this photo of you abuelos for the design 💓) and more! If your in #SanFrancisco between Feb 10th-May 12th, please check it out. ✨ (at Galeria de la Raza)
“Today’s revolutionaries need to reimagine what revolution means • The best way to make a change on institutional issues in our modern world is to reimagine ourselves • We need to see young people as the solution and not part of the problems • reimagining education means relating to our children in a more human way • the arts and artists play a crucial role in transforming their communities and their world • cultural change precedes political change” #GraceLeeBoggs gems // #reimagineeducation #digitalcollage #revolution #evolution (at Leimert Park, Los Angeles)
A non-profit delivery service founded by Oakland resident Andrea Unsworth. In an interview with Dope Magazine, she passionately advocated for the moral necessity of expanding the workforce with those who know pot best: former inmates. “I want people who are felons working for me,” she said. “Funds specifically need to be appropriated to helping folks who have been convicted, not just for reparations, but to help them write a business plan.”
This Oakland dispensary’s success is thanks in part to Chief Operating Officer Amber Senter, founder of Leisure Life edibles. Senter was introduced to marijuana’s medicinal effects at 18 (she would be diagnosed with lupus at 33) and began teaching herself how to grow in 2007.
In May 2016, Sue Taylor was unanimously selected by Berkley city council to recieve a permit to open a dispensary, making the former Catholic school principal and grandmother the first black dispensary owner in the Bay Area city. Once a pot skeptic, she hopes to bring pot’s healing properties to other seniors, pot’s fastest growing demographic. “I want to bring awareness that there are alternatives to pharmaceutical drugs, and to empower people, whatever their age, so they can experience a meaningful, high quality of life,” Taylor told Jezebel.
StashTwist’s Andrea Unsworth and Amber Senter of Magnolia Wellness are also cofounders of the collective Supernova Women, alongside attorney Tsion “Sunshine” Lencho, and Nina Parks of Mirage Medicinal cooperative and delivery. The seminars and safe space offered by Supernova are fertile ground to help diversify California’s weed boom, and shed light on obstacles marginalized entrepreneurs can face. These issues can range from the unremarkable — white people who don’t want to talk about privilege — to ones specific to the weed industry. “This whole thing of starting on a level playing field is ridiculous,” Unsworth told NPR. “[Nearly] 80 percent of the lock-ups are people of color. You’re locking up all of these people who are trying to be entrepreneurs, but now that it’s legal, you’re allowed to say, Oh, you can come into our industry, but you can’t have a criminal record. You can have a million dollars, but it can’t be from cannabis, it has to be from your 401(k), or investments, or from your daddy. I mean, who are these people? These are not people of color.”
Lanese Martin, Biseat Horning and Ebele Ifedigbo (a Yale MBA) started The Hood Incubator in 2017 with the goal of bringing black people in Oakland and across the country into the marijuana industry. To this end, the group delivers “community organizing, policy advocacy, and economic development” to help underserved communities profit from legal weed. It’s not just black-owned storefronts they’re after, but black leaders at the highest levels. “We envision a model where a pool of minorities can fund growers; manufacturers—whether it’s tinctures, oils or edibles; suppliers; and dispensaries,” Juell Stewart, the Incubator’s director of communications, told The Root. “We want to see a day when we have a group of people who invest in the entire cannabis industry.”
If I could tell girls something it would be - don’t be afraid to take up more space. Expand. Breathe.
Too often I have to check myself out of old patterns I recognise as an inheritance of fear - the idea that to be expansive, to be ambitious- is to be unattractive, scary, unapproachable, “too much”.
Too often I have to silence the voices that tell me to fold in on myself.
.
.
I’m a couple inches shy of 6ft tall…I’ve never really been someone who didn’t take up space.
.
.
I’m still learning to not fold in on myself. To not worry about headroom or leg room - but to make spaces accomodate me. .
.
.
Postcard girls. Work from 2009.
Vagabroad×macabrii work from 2015.
Daughters of D.I.G.—Developing Intelligent Girls—is an Oakland-based QTPOC tribe, dedicated to passing on the art of digging for knowledge of self through a transformative creative and collective process. 
Notes