Audrey Lang uses this time of stillness to share how she embarked on her creative journey and how writing serves as liberation despite this time of uncertainty.
Four years ago, I embarked on a creative journey I didn’t know I needed.
I had spent seven months in a site merchandising role, where I enjoyed a mix of art and science or creativity and data analysis, despite not feeling connected with my peers. I’ll never forget the feeling of uncertainty I was overcome with when I was handed a termination letter. What would be my next steps? What would become of the career I was only at the beginning of? Would it be easy to rebuild or would I struggle looking for something else?
Several women in my tribe encouraged me to actively pursue writing. I started a now-defunct blog titled audreymejou around the same time I wrote my first article for a platform covering African culture. Prior to this, I had written essays that helped me ace my classes in subjects including literature, art history, philosophy, and Africana studies. I had even helped some friends and friends of friends ace theirs.
Becoming a writer seemed fated. I could put pen to paper and explore whatever came to mind; I was most enamored with art, music, fashion, culture, and travel. With every new subject I chose or was commissioned to cover came the discovery of a world unknown. I explored Senegal’s Île de Gorée, Nigeria’s 500-year-old aso oke process, South Africa’s city of Durban, encampments in Niger’s Agadez, and more.
I can’t quite pinpoint my favorite story, thus far, but I am moved by a few, in particular. Mostly, how these puzzle pieces all came together. In May of 2018, I went to Dakar to experience and cover DAKART or The Dakar Biennale, a large-scale contemporary art exhibition that occurs every two years in Senegal’s capital. While there, I met a deejay named Lio, an artist named Papi, and a rapper named Nix. My fondness of and appreciation for the work of these three men would lead to what’s next. A little shy of a year later, in April of 2019, I would visit Lio in Abidjan and cover said trip in a travel diary. As fate would have it, Papi would be in Abidjan, at the same time, working on some art for L’epic Hotel. In our rendezvous, he would pitch the idea of me covering his upcoming capsule collection with Nix and I would oblige. In the summer, I would learn that a photo I submitted from my travel diary would be selected for the back cover of October’s Travel & Leisure magazine. By early fall, I would move to Abidjan.
My most recent role landed me in Ivory Coast working for a platform that supported over 6,000 vendors to sell African-inspired goods worldwide. During my interview process, the platform’s founders excitedly mentioned having read some of my work. It felt satisfying to know they’d been exposed to this part of me.
Today, I am unemployed, yet again, courtesy of an economic crisis, relying on freelance writing to carry me through these uncertain times. It’s therapeutic, in a sense. With no promise of another day or even another role in the near future, my solace comes in my ability to continue to tell stories and paint pictures. The aforementioned isn’t without challenges. Where a number of media platforms have frozen their budgets and aren’t hiring, several of them are only interested in stories centered around COVID. Furthermore, my isolation has led to a mind that wanders more often than usual. It is extremely difficult to be present when there is a large-scale crisis threatening everything you knew to be ‘normal.’ I’m hungrier for writing opportunities but when they are presented to me, I find it difficult to concentrate on the subject at hand. I’m not particularly interested in contributing to COVID narratives therefore am steering clear of them. I sustain my practice by reading copious amounts of articles and journaling.
More often than not, I find myself reflecting on how I ended up here and everything I’ve experienced thus far. I stopped blogging—the landscape seemed overly saturated and I wanted to go in another direction with my work. Instead, I set out to write for as many notable platforms as possible in an effort to gain exposure and become a thought leader in all things African arts and cultures. I’ve had the privilege of getting to know so many African creatives and would like to think I have subsequently contributed to changing the ever-present media narrative that the continent is full of poverty and void of the awe-inspiring artistic endeavors seen in the Western world. The stories I’ve told have helped me, a first-generation Cameroonian immigrant, learn about a multitude of countries that were unfamiliar to me.
When this period of isolation and quarantine ends and life as we knew it hopefully resumes, I will continue to be liberated by my writing.
*
Audrey Lang is an e-commerce merchandiser and buyer. She can be found on Instagram and Twitter.
