Baltimore native Akio Evans tells stories through fashion, canvas and film, while also teaching and working as a mentor in his native city, Baltimore, and beyond.
His work has been seen worldwide, including his documentary film, Grace After Midnight Pain, the story of the life and times of The Wire actress Felicia ‘Snoop’ Pearson, which he directed and produced alongside Felicia Snoop Pearson and the late Michael K. Williams. His commissioned sneaker art has been collected by the likes of Donnell Rawlings, Dave Chappelle, Dr. Dre, Nick Cannon, Kevin Hart, Havoc of Mobb Deep, Tyronn Lue, Allen Iverson and Lena Waithe.
A recipient of notable honors and awards, including the Joe Mann’s Black Wall Street Award for his contribution to Baltimore’s inner city and personal entrepreneurial achievements and a city citation from former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for his filmmaking contribution to Baltimore Public Schools.
During CIAA weekend this year in Baltimore, Blavity spoke with Evans about one of his latest pieces, the 100 years of Black History tote bag, which was a special activation at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. We spoke with Evans about his journey as an artist, career highlights and what’s next, and he makes it known that the messaging will always be key.
Take me through your journey as an artist and as a creator. I read that you started in fashion by learning how to put your art onto clothing. Why was that your initial medium, and how would you say that it has expanded since?
I think that in the beginning, it was my initial medium because I typically wanted to figure out how to eventually not look like anybody else. In the early 2000s, when it was hardly but a thing. I think that over time, it just created the sense of an escape. In high school, the cafeteria was like your fashion show. You would step in and people would observe what you had on. And then it went from me wanting to have it as a side hustle. From that point on, I started to develop a keen eye for things that were new and innovative. So, with those things, I think that that kind of created this space for me to be able to fully express myself. And then years later, finding out that that expression is just not necessarily your custom t-shirts, but it also carries weight into the fine art spaces thanks to Virgil Blow and all these other individuals who paved the way in the fashion industry.
You took a break from fashion. Though you’ve resurfaced, you share your art and storytelling through so many mediums. You are also a documentary filmmaker and you do a lot of stuff in video production. Talk to us a little bit about your journey from fashion and art to a different version of storytelling behind the lens.
Behind the lens for me, it was more so me being a documentarian at first, picking up the camera and being able to document my peers that surround me, as well as the city. And when I was able to travel abroad, I was able to capture moments that are now archival footage of DMX, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Twista and Tech N9ne. And over time, I started wanting to learn how to edit. It just really created another outlet for me to be able to do storytelling.
Working with actresses like Felicia Pearson from The Wire, who hired me to capture her in the essence of her documentary, her memoir, Grace at the Midnight, I turned that into a film. We had two private screenings, one in Harlem and one in Manhattan. But the experience for me has stretched me to be able to know how to execute and be able to have a visual language when it comes to capturing the essence of the individual and telling a story. With storytelling, whether it be clothing or whether it be another medium as far as picking up a camera and being able to document and interview individuals, it’s just another way for me to share a story.
I was able to work behind the scenes with GQ in 2018 for Lin-Manuel with Hamilton. The powers that be from Hamilton had contacted me. The director contacted me to utilize the footage that I filmed here in Baltimore, where it was the last footage that was captured of Prodigy of Mobb Deep having a live performance. And it was funny because I wasn’t supposed to bring that camera into the Baltimore Soundstage, and my friend had encouraged me to bring the camera and they allowed it in. I would have never thought that that footage was the last footage of Prodigy, and it’s been used for various purposes now.
Bongo the Cannon, I was able to meet him and also gift him with the Timberland Merrill art that Atlantic Records had commissioned me to be able to give to him, and also the director of that music video. So, it’s full-circle moments when we’re creating these pieces and it shows that filmmaking and fashion can be merged into one.
Is there a medium that you enjoy more than the other?
I think for me, I’ve been able to just always stick to what the story is and share artifacts. So, when I’m giving my art to people, it’s like an artifact. I’m gifting people with my art, and I’m giving them facts. So it’s I who is in between the art and the facts. And only I can be the one to be the vessel to be able to demonstrate that.
Lately, it’s not only just been filmmaking, but it’s also been canvas work. I started canvas work in 2024, and since then, I’ve been able to sell art pieces that I would have never thought that I would have been able to. And I have been able to have my art exhibited. Unlike before, I was only doing shoes as a small medium. My friends have been telling me for years to try canvases and to explore that world. So with that, I’ve been able to expand my imagination onto a different universe, which the canvas allows me to.
I’ve always been putting Harriet Tubman on hats of her hunting camo, and people still didn’t get why I was doing that. But through doing that on larger canvases, people have started to finally get why I was doing it. When I was able to do my very first canvas, one of the first canvases I did, I merged Harriet Tubman, where she’s escaping the painting, and she’s going into the middle of a portal. And in modern day time, she will be wearing hunting camo because when she was in the woods, she was being hunted. Most people now hunt for sport, but she had to do those things to survive. And for me, when I was on a run in my early days as a teenager, these are the same stories that I’m able to educate to the incarcerated youth of how I’ve been able to use and put her onto clothing. I think that more so now, whether it be filming, whether it be wearable art, whether it be shoe mural art or canvas work, I just love telling the story.
I love being able to have an immersive experience, whether it’s doing a verbal art workshop of sharing the art, and, of course, actually sharing the facts and the stories, because your story and your signature is the most powerful name that you have. And it’s pretty much what we have to leave behind – the story and the signature is how we leave our mark and make an impact.
Now you’ve had some major influencers and public figures wear your art. Has there been anyone who has been anyone who has been the most memorable or the most impactful?
Yes, I would say on my birthday, I was doing a commission piece for the Visionary Art Museum, and they had commissioned me to make a replica jacket of John Carlos, the jacket that he wore when he took the stance in the 1968 Olympics, giving that to him on my birthday. And that was funny because when I presented that jacket, the next day, I was scheduled to do a World Art workshop in Atlanta. So when John Carlos had told me, ‘Hey, whenever you come to Atlanta, I wanna take you to my spot to show you some of the memorabilia.’ And I told him I was leaving for Atlanta the next day.
A lot of the pieces that are created, unbeknownst to me at the time, are a lot of full-circle moments, and most recently, even with Lena Waithe, with putting the hang tag of my mother in the sneakers I curated for her. My mother, she transitioned from a heart attack, and utilizing that into the hang tag, so it’s a deeper meaning just being transactional. It’s really being able to pull in the heartstrings of the collector, so that way they are able to attach themselves to an inanimate object, which normally has no emotion, and we’re putting emotion to an inanimate object.
You have the 100 years of Black History tote bag, which you gifted some of the journalists, during CIAA weekend. Talk to us a little bit about your inspiration for the bag and how that whole thing came to be.
The bag that was gifted with the vision of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. It was something that I’ve always been doing with putting Black leaders onto the $100 bill note. It just so happened that it coincides with this year being the 100th year we celebrate Black History Month. It started as a week first by Carter G. Woodson. So, I wanted to really just highlight him and others who made a big impact for the Civil Rights Movement. I feel that it coincides with just the work of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. I even use Reginald F. Lewis, put him onto the note as well, because he was a prominent figure as the first Black man to secure billion-dollar deals, and he’s from East Baltimore, where I’m from. Not too many people know that. I didn’t know that until recently. So I felt like utilizing that and putting those figures onto those notes – it builds some type of social currency, so that way we’re able to talk about those who are mostly forgotten.
Something that always fascinates me is when I meet people local to their town. You’re Baltimore born and bred, and you have done a lot, but you remain loyal to Baltimore. And a lot of people leave their respective cities that they’re from, specifically artists, for what they may consider to be more mainstream or larger markets. What has kept you local?
I think that what kept me local is the heartbeat here. It is a lot louder, and even when I’m traveling to different cities, it’s a lot louder, whether you’re here or you’re anywhere else. The heartbeat can be your accent that is recognizable. The heartbeat can be the impact that people have seen on television shows, and then when you’re actually going to different other places, when you identify yourself, and you’re actually sharing, I feel like it’s a way where we’re able to really shake things up.
This city, I just love the history. The history is rich, the food, the culture, and it’s a lot more than what people can then recognize from afar. I always share with people, I use the analogy of bees pollinating the hive. They are the teachers, they are the creators, they are the makers, they’re the ones that are beautifying the city, just like how bees do when they go back to a hive. The honey is sweet. Yes, you have your killer bees and the things that can actually harm you, but when you get closer and closer to the hive, it kind of puts it in a different perspective, and if you would have stayed away, you would have never known how great it was.
I feel like the city has so much more to offer. I’m glad to be the vessel to be able to share the complete opposite of what most people worship, or they praise like The Wire or The Corner, and all the negative things that the media has seen. But I love to actually share with people that we’re much more than that. Even if I am just a small seed, I can still inspire.
I spoke with Michael E. Haskins Jr. another local artist from Baltimore, and he spoke about Baltimore in comparison to other cities and how its growing at a rapid pace. How would you say Baltimore is doing in comparison to the larger cities?
Being able to travel to places like LA and Cleveland and all these other places that I’ve been to recently, they always tell me, even people who have been to Baltimore, they say Baltimore is the most raw. We haven’t lost the very essence of what some cities have lost because of gentrification or things change, and things shift. There’s definitely a renaissance happening here, but it’s still the essence of Baltimore, and the community remains involved as it grows.
What special projects are you working on currently?
Currently, I’m prepping for the exhibition that I have with my twin sister at the Quid Nunc Art Gallery. It’s in the Mount Vernon section of Baltimore in the Arts District. I also have a few things in the works that I am unable to speak about right now in collaboration with two different arenas, the Chesapeake Arena and CFG Arena. And I continue to gift things to people.
The post A Tote Bag That Carries 100 Years Of Black History: Akio Evans Merges Art With Consciousness appeared first on Blavity.
