There is that

great African proverb — that until the lions 

have their own historians, the history of the hunt

will always glorify the hunter.

Earrings by Tru FireElectric
Umoja Festival 2016

The Crucible's Hot Coutore 2017:
The Beautiful One's

Becca Henry Photography February 2017

Quote The Crucible:

Hailing from The Bay, Medium Reality has presented at almost every Hot Couture event. In 2016, they celebrated a decade of existence. With a label focused on recycled and reclaimed materials, Medium Realityprides itself in being “sustainable as hell.”

Hot Couture 2017 will feature a truly amazing lineup that includes Medium Reality with electroBaroque and The Oakland Mind. “As the original Bay Area culture is constantly changing under the tide of newcomers, it is more important than ever to examine what we lift up as beauty, and what creative works we deem worthy. We are the beautiful ones because truly, everyone is beautiful... And in our view, the deeper the roots, the sweeter the fruit.” — Rachel Lyra Hospodar, Founder of Medium Reality on the intersection of their runway presentation and "The Beautiful Ones."

Lending An Ear to the Trump Resistance

By Chloe Veltman, KQED FEBRUARY 18, 2017

ABOUT KQED ARTS

KQED Arts provides daily arts news, reviews and profiles for the

San Francisco Bay Area.

While many people around the country choose to protest the Trump administration’s policies by waving colorful banners, T.K. Butler is choosing to broadcast her feelings from her earlobes.

The Oakland-based jewelry designer and activist, who also goes by Tru FireElectric, has created a line of eye-catching earrings that effectively act as small-scale billboards.

Each one-of-a-kind pair makes a statement about three of the President’s key focus areas: immigration, community security and “America First.”

Searching for the Middle: The Disappearance of the Black Middle Class

Oakland North News By Nailah Morgan December 10, 2015 

Oakland North is a news project of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Oakland North, and our sister publication Richmond Confidential, are entirely staffed by graduate student reporters at the J-School.
 

Butler [Tru FireElectric] has never made the same earring twice. Made of cowrie shells, Pan-African colored beads and circular carved wood, each one represents an aspect of her experience as a displaced Oakland native, part of a growing African American outmigration.
 

On each earring, Butler [Tru FireElectric] paints a phrase she pulled from articles published in the East Bay Express: “It’s really daunting. Everyday I look at Craigslist, but there is nothing,” one reads. Another: “We’re just people falling through the cracks in the economy, and we have nowhere to go. ”

Butler [Tru FireElectric] describes her earrings as “a way to speak about issues that mattered to me.”

Read more here: 

https://oaklandnorth.net/2015/12/10/searching-for-the-middle-the-disappearance-of-the-black-middle-class/