6 Artists Who Are Changing the Way We Look At Humanity

These artists — all TED2016 Fellows — are exploring complex issues from race in America to Afghan Millennial culture to translating indigenous ideologies in traditional theater. Get to know them below.

Nicole Amarteifio, TV director/producer — Ghana/US

Nicole Amarteifio has decided it’s high time to change the single story of Africa— a relentless narrative of war, poverty and famine. So she created An African City, a hit web series inspired by Sex and the City that follows the lives of Nana Yaa, Sade, Ngozi, Makena and Zainab — five successful women from Ghana and Nigeria who were raised in the West and have migrated to Ghana. Set in Accra and bedecked with the latest in African music, fashion and design, the show portrays 21st-century, globally aware women navigating friendship, careers and love. Her hope: that this shift in African storytelling will create a movement inspiring others to share their own unique stories, generating a multiplicity of narratives to what it means to be African.

Sanford Biggers, interdisciplinary artist — US

The work of conceptual artist Sanford Biggers sparks difficult but necessary conversations through paintings, sculptures, videos and performances. In particular, he examines the historical narrative around race and slavery in the US. For example, for his sculpture Lotus, Sanford created a 7½-foot-diameter glass lotus blossom in which every petal is engraved with the diagram of a cross section of a slave ship. What appears to be a Buddhist symbol of transcendence and purity becomes, on closer inspection, not only a reminder of the atrocity of slavery, but also an attempt to transcend the trauma of Black America. In his sculpture and video piece BAM, he covered wooden African figures with thick brown wax to erase their features, “sculpted” them with bullets fired at a shooting range, and finally cast bronze sculptures from the remaining fragments. The result: a layered commentary of the murders of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and countless other unarmed black citizens at the hands of police — and 500 years of violence against Black American people.

Blitz the Ambassador, musician — Ghana/US

Blitz the Ambassador is not afraid to be wrong. In fact, for the last decade, it’s been the basis for his creative process: he purposefully arranges music in a topsy-turvy way — writing meticulous bass lines and giving them to the drummer, or drum lines for the trumpet. The result: a vibrant sonic mashup, dissolving into a funky, groovy cacophony. His sound also reflects a childhood in Accra, Ghana, where music was in the details of daily life — fishermen dragging nets, hawkers shouting, carpenters banging. He made instruments from found materials: trumpets from PVC pipes, drum kits from empty buckets. With no formal musical training, Blitz insists it’s not necessary: music should be free, innovative and open to interpretation. His advice for making art: approach what you love with unique vision, with whatever resources are at hand. And, of course, don’t be afraid to be wrong. Chances are, he says, you may stumble on your own magic.

Mitchell Jackson, writer/filmmaker — US

Mitchell Jackson’s autobiographical novel The Residue Years recounts growing up poor and black in Portland Oregon — then considered the whitest city in America. But what constitutes whiteness and blackness? And how does the very idea of race — and the narrative of what is expected from racial groups — reinforce social injustice? Jackson argues that “blackness” and “whiteness” is an imposed construction, a tool of coercion and exploitation. Bringing this idea home, he asks, “If you could abolish white power, privilege, and supremacy, would you do it?” And what would America look like if we all refused to recognize blackness as a racial category? It’s such a revolutionary idea, the outcome is difficult to picture. Perhaps the only way to address the crux of America’s race problem is to refuse to accept racial categories, forcing ourselves to regard each other simply as human beings.

Kiana Hayeri, photographer — Iran/Canada

After spending two years photographing youth in her native Iran, Kiana Hayeri moved to Kabul to investigate another generation of youth who has known only conflict — a group she calls Afghan Millennials, born between 1980, the first year of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and 2001, which marked the beginning of the US-led military intervention. Her photographs describe a little-known, dynamic secular culture — breakdancing, boxing, live music, photography and fashion — but lived in underground, shadowy, in-between spaces to avoid censure in an environment where Islamic values still prevail. Despite the violence that continues to mark the daily lives of these young people — and even as hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens flee the chaos — they remain resilient, patriotic and hopeful for the future of their country.

Madeline Sayet, theater director/playwright — US

Madeline Sayet believes that what we call things matters. Hailing from the Mohegan tribe of the Connecticut woodlands, she was taught an indigenous worldview that values putting others before self, and in which art, politics, education, community and individual form a whole, rather than existing as separate ideas. As a director who’s weaving indigenous perspectives into traditional theatre settings, she investigates the Mohegan language itself — an elusive task, given that it has been pushed to extinction by colonialism. She’s even sought a more accurate term for her own role — ” director.” Consulting a tribal elder for a more comfortable term, Sayet received the phrase “Kutáhun Uyasunáqák” — translated into English as “Our Heart, She Leads Us There” — and in this found her calling: a leadership style that inspires and connects.

The TED Fellows program hand-picks young innovators from around the world to raise international awareness of their work and maximize their impact.