14 projects join the first class
The first class of MansA Lab, MansA's cultural incubator dedicated to African worlds, has just been revealed. From over 116 applications received, and after a tough selection process, 14 projects have been chosen for their innovation, commitment and contribution to the emergence of new African narratives and worlds.
Applications were evaluated against the criteria set out in the call for projects, before being selected by a jury of industry professionals and MansA staff chaired by Elisabeth Gomis, MansA Managing Director, accompanied by Fleurance Layme, MansA Cultural Entrepreneurship Project Manager, and Edouard Meier, Director of pali pali, and including Sandra Kassab, Director of AFD's Africa Department, Narjes BAHHAR, Editorial Director, DEEZER France, Ann-Mareme ATAYI, Senior International Institutions Manager, BPIfrance/Euroquity, Pierre TRIOLLIER, Project Director, Pôle PIXEL, Éline GOURGUES, Co-Director, Station Culturelle, Imane LEHERISSIER, Program Manager, MansA, Sandrine CHAUVIN, International Editorial Director, Linkedin France, and Fif TOBOSSI, sponsor of the class and co-founder of Booska-P.
This first cohort brings together 9 female entrepreneurs and 5 male entrepreneurs from Île-de-France, Normandy, New Aquitaine, Reunion Island, Guadeloupe and Martinique, in the following sectors:
- - Audiovisual (5)
- - fashion (2)
- - media (4)
- - publishing (2)
- - as well as a third-location project
They all share a common desire: to contribute to the emergence of new African narratives and worlds.
For 8 months, MansA Lab will offer customized strategic support, access to workspaces and sector-specific expertise, as well as contacts with institutional and financial partners.
The incubator aims to inspire a whole generation of cultural entrepreneurs and encourage the emergence of similar initiatives across the African continent and within its diaspora.
Congratulations and welcome to MansA Lab's first class!
A la mode de chez nous
is a laboratory of creative expression that explores fashion as memory, language and community. It is a space for collective reflection and curatorial production that interrogates fashion through the prism of memory and experimentation. It's a living ecosystem where intimate narratives, sartorial gestures and diasporic legacies become forms of art, knowledge and resistance, and where archives, voices, gestures and creations intersect to weave links between bodies, cultures and generations.
To find out more
Bazaart
is a transnational artistic hub that creates cultural bridges between territories and imagines spaces for creation, reflection and artistic dissemination. We bring together artists and audiences through formats that combine research, transmission and contemporary creation, by inscribing our actions in a dynamic of exchange and circulation between the Caribbean, the African continent, Europe and the wider diasporas.
To find out more
Goumies Creative
embodies a new generation of creative and technological platform, designed to reveal and connect Congolese and African talent. Through digital innovation, human accompaniment and the transmission of know-how. Goumies Creative builds living bridges between diasporas, local creators and new global opportunities. Its ambition: to celebrate the cultural richness of Afrodescendants, while paving the way for free, sustainable and inspiring creative careers.
To find out more
Hypemada
is an association and media outlet dedicated to Malagasy culture. More than just a community, we work together for Malagasy communities and by Malagasy communities.
To find out more
Overbooked
is a feminist and anti-racist literary platform founded by Déli. Whether through its eponymous Instagram account, book club, podcast, writing residency or Read & Shine festival, Overbookées highlights the invisibilized narratives of African worlds and connects racialized authors, particularly Afro-diasporic ones, with their readership.
Find out more about Overbookées
TAMA
is a pan-African initiative dedicated to the preservation, promotion and transmission of African musical heritage. The project aims to help artists of today and yesteryear to enhance the value of their work through a more contemporary strategy.
To find out more
THE GRIOTS
is a creative structure dedicated to Afro-diasporic cultural engineering, articulating artistic production, professional transmission and valorization of narratives.
To find out more
Loxymore
is an independent cultural media founded in 2015 in Guadeloupe that documents and promotes Creole-speaking urban cultures. Through its video formats (interviews, live performances, documentaries), events (Loxymore On Stage, listening parties, exhibitions) and artistic collaborations, Loxymore creates narratives around music, fashion, graffiti and cultural expressions from the Creole and African worlds.
More about Loxymore
Kuri Studio
is a creative studio specializing in webtoon production, which is developing a tailor-made service specifically for African animation studios wishing to test their intellectual properties before committing to a full animated production.
To find out more
SHOOWA
is an independent audiovisual production company. It was born of a clear need: to create a production space where diasporic, Afrodescendant and cultural narratives are neither filtered, nor watered down, nor peripheral - but central, assumed, exploratory.
To find out more
KELERN
develops stories that question the world, challenge consciousness and connect cultures. The production company develops ambitious audiovisual projects that bring Africa, its diaspora and the rest of the world into dialogue, combining dramatic intensity, artistic rigor and universal appeal.
To find out more
PLATFORM
is a multi-dimensional space created by Koura-Rosy Kane, bringing together a creative lab and a magazine dedicated to emerging and alternative fashions. Through PLATFORM, she builds bridges between creative strategy, foresight, research, forecasting and visual storytelling, in order to rethink narratives and representations within the fashion industry.
More about PLATFORM
Okinka
is a medium dedicated to African and Afro-descendant music. Its aim is to disseminate, promote and analyze the issues and contexts surrounding this music. It is also an interactive platform, offering the various Afro-descendant communities established in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region the opportunity to come together and share their cultural heritage through music.
To find out more
HIDA MEDIA
is an independent cultural medium dedicated to promoting Afro-diasporic cultures, memories and expressions. Its mission is to tell, transmit and celebrate the stories and creations of the African and Afro-descendant worlds. Through our video formats, publications and events, HIDA builds bridges between generations, disciplines and territories, offering a sensitive and demanding look at stories, identities and cultural heritages.
More about HIDA
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