A Cultural Archive. A Catalyst. A Moment.
The Chicago Creator Class is a curated collective by Narratent Studios. The class represents the city’s most compelling voices, builders, innovators, and vision-shapers redefining what it means to create from Chicago. Each member represents a different corner of culture, from visual arts and fashion to music, media, beauty, and experience design.
This inaugural volume honors the individuals who push the city forward through originality, discipline, and a mindset rooted in possibility.
The Creator Class isn’t just a list; it’s a lens into Chicago’s creative engine. A celebration of the stories, the skill, and the soul of the people who make the city move.
Together, they form a panoramic view of Chicago creativity today: bold, magnetic, and unmistakably authentic.
Welcome to the first volume.
MEET THE INAUGURAL CLASS
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Creativity without borders. This class moves through influence, identity, and global perspective with ease, blending worlds, shifting narratives, and reminding us that culture is always in motion.
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Mike Abrantie
FILMMAKER, CULTURAL PRODUCER, CREATIVE STRATEGIST
Mike Abrantie’s creative world operates in layers of rhythm and narrative. Film, music, photography, and cultural production intersect fluidly in his practice. Raised on Chicago’s South Side with Ghanaian heritage grounding his perspective, he learned early that storytelling carries responsibility.
As co-founder of Out The Box Creative Group, he has shaped award-winning projects that reflect cultural nuance and emotional depth. His visuals carry movement; his sound carries intention. There is a cohesion to his multidisciplinary work, a sense that each medium speaks to the other.
Within the Creator Class, Mike represents range and perspective. He brings global influence rooted in local truth, expanding what Chicago storytelling can look and feel like.
Abena Boamah-Acheampong
SKINCARE INNOVATOR
Abena Boamah-Acheampong builds with layered purpose. As founder of Hanahana Beauty, she has cultivated a consciously clean skincare brand rooted in ethical sourcing and community impact. Shea butter sourced directly from women-led cooperatives in Ghana grounds her work in responsibility as much as formulation.
Her expansion into national retailers reflects scalability, yet care remains central to her process. Every step feels considered — from ingredient to distribution.
Her presence in this collection speaks to leadership shaped by empathy. Impact, in her world, extends beyond product and into community.
Dometi Pongo
TELEVISION PERSONALITY, PRODUCER, HOST
Dometi Pongo has built a career anchored in truth-telling and cultural clarity. A journalist, producer, and host best known for MTV’s True Life Crime, he approaches media as a platform for amplification rather than spectacle.
His work spans red carpets, global stages, and poignant community reporting, always rooted in a commitment to representation. Whether covering breaking stories or guiding complex conversations, Dometi brings rigor, empathy, and context to every narrative. He views storytelling as a responsibility—one that has the power to shift perspectives and open doors. His voice is not just recognizable; it’s trusted.
Uduimoh Umolu
TASTEMAKER, BRAND ARCHITECT
Uduimoh Umolu builds with long-term vision. As founder of Jon BasÃl Tequila, he has cultivated a premium spirits brand that blends heritage, strategy, and community awareness. Since its launch in 2018, the brand’s growth has earned national recognition, including Forbes 30 Under 30 distinction, yet his focus remains grounded in intention.
His approach to entrepreneurship reflects a deep understanding of culture as both inspiration and responsibility. Every activation, every partnership, every detail reflects thoughtful construction. Celebration, in his world, carries meaning.
Uduimoh’s contribution to the Creator Class reflects legacy-building. He represents the intersection of creativity and commerce, showing how cultural integrity can guide scalable vision.
Imani Kutti
FASHION DESIGNER
Imani Kutti designs with lineage close at hand. Through Ivory Kutts, she merges Ivorian and Nigerian heritage with contemporary tailoring, allowing history and modernity to coexist seamlessly.
Her garments carry intention in silhouette and detail. Texture tells story; structure holds memory. Each piece feels personal without losing universality.
Imani contributes to this body of work through cultural preservation in motion. Her designs remind us that fashion can hold ancestry while moving forward.
EXPERIENTIAL ARTS
Designers of feeling. Curators of atmosphere. This cohort builds moments you don’t just attend, you step inside. What they create lingers long after the lights dim.
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Tyler Clark
Tyler Clark’s artistry feels intentional in every detail. Fabric rests beside thread; strands of synthetic hair wait to be layered into portraiture. Her work unfolds patiently, guided by both engineering precision and emotional intuition.
Through Inspire By Tyler, she constructs mixed-media portraits that center Black womanhood with depth and dignity. Her pieces, which have appeared in cultural touchstones such as Black-ish and The Chi, hold texture not only in material but in meaning. They are tactile affirmations — visual statements that invite viewers to see themselves more fully.
Tyler approaches art as construction and care combined. Within this collective, she represents devotion to craft — proof that identity, when handled with intention, becomes something tangible and enduring.
3D ARTIST
Kevin White
Kevin White studies rooms carefully. Atmosphere, music selection, lighting — each detail shapes how people interact. Through The Red Room R&B Party, he has cultivated one of the city’s most intimate social environments, where connection unfolds naturally.
His transition from IT professional to curator reflects intuition about gathering. The rooms he builds feel deliberate, warm, and unforced. Conversation lingers. Music carries memory.
Kevin’s presence in this collective underscores the architecture of experience. Creativity, in his case, manifests as environment — the shaping of space where culture can breathe.
CULTURAL CONNECTOR, CONTENT CREATOR
Chanelle Tru
Chanelle Tru’s artistry unfolds through movement and voice. As a singer, rapper, dancer, and actress, she commands attention with an energy that feels lived-in rather than manufactured. Her performances — including appearances at Lollapalooza and alongside nationally recognized artists — reveal an artist committed to growth and authenticity.
There is emotional clarity in her work. Each stage becomes an extension of her internal process, translating experience into sound and motion. She treats performance as connection, allowing audiences to witness her evolution in real time.
Within the Creator Class, Chanelle represents momentum. She carries the city’s creative pulse forward through expression that is fearless, disciplined, and deeply felt.
RECORDING ARTIST
George Stanton
MAGICIAN, CONTENT CREATOR
George Stanton approaches magic as experience design. His performances — blending close-up illusion and mentalism — invite audiences into suspended disbelief.
Work with brands such as Amazon and Red Bull highlights technical mastery, but what lingers is connection. He crafts moments that slow time briefly, encouraging curiosity.
Within this collective, he represents wonder. Creativity that invites people to look again.
VISUAL STORYTELLING
Creators who translate life into imagery. Through film, photography, and design, this cohort shapes culture one frame at a time, proving that what we see ultimately defines what we remember.
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Sharaun B.
MODEL, ACTRESS
There is a steadiness about Sharaun B that feels cultivated. The kind of presence that fills a room without asking permission. Long before the global runways and her appearance on the Grammy stage, she was studying something more foundational: discipline of self. Raised in Chicago, she learned that confidence is rarely accidental — it is practiced, protected, and refined.
Her career as an international model and appearance on America’s Next Top Model offered visibility at scale, but visibility alone has never defined her. Through The Model Tribe, she built a mentorship platform centered on inner work — a space where confidence is treated as craft rather than performance. Wellness, beauty, and leadership converge naturally in her orbit.
Sharaun carries herself with alignment. Her contribution to this collective reflects self-mastery — the quiet authority that comes from knowing who you are before the world tries to tell you.
Dennis Larance
VISUAL ARTIST
Dennis Larance constructs visual worlds with cinematic depth. Drawing inspiration from science fiction, anime, and editorial precision, his imagery feels immersive and atmospheric.
Collaborations with brands such as Nike, Adobe, and Xbox underscore his technical control. Yet what defines his work is imagination — a willingness to bend light and genre toward something expansive.
His contribution reflects vision at scale. Creativity that invites viewers to step beyond the surface.
D’Nia Defrance
MODEL, ARTIST
D’Nia Defrance’s creative evolution has unfolded with quiet clarity. Modeling introduced her to image; visual art deepened her relationship with it. She moves fluidly between disciplines, allowing each medium to inform the other.
Her mixed-media explorations carry softness and complexity simultaneously. Beauty, in her world, expands rather than narrows. Growth appears as a through-line in her work — an acceptance that becoming is ongoing.
There is restraint in how she presents herself creatively, a refusal to oversimplify. Her presence within this body of work speaks to evolution — to the idea that creativity strengthens when self-awareness leads the way.
Davo Alexander
WARDROBE STYLIST, CONTENT CREATOR
Davo Alexander reshapes garments the way sculptors reshape clay—intuitively, boldly, and with an eye for reinvention. As a stylist and visual artist, he transforms vintage denim, archival pieces, and unexpected materials into looks that merge editorial creativity with streetwise authenticity.
His growing digital presence showcases a body of work that elevates self-expression as its own art form. Through his collective, Davo collaborates with models, musicians, and emerging tastemakers, using style as a medium to tell their stories. He believes fashion is a reclamation tool, allowing people to step into the strongest version of themselves through what they choose to wear.
Narratent Studios
Narratent Studios served as the creative backbone of The Chicago Creator Class, providing the space, vision, and production excellence needed to bring this campaign to life. More than a studio, Narratent operates as a creative ecosystem, a place built for storytellers, artists, and innovators to produce meaningful work at the highest level.
Every portrait, interview, and piece of content from this campaign was shaped inside this space: conceived, crafted, and refined by a team committed to honoring Chicago’s creative talent with intention and precision.
Narratent Studios’ involvement represents more than production support; it symbolizes a cultural investment. By creating a home where ideas become visuals and creatives feel seen, the studio reinforces its mission of elevating Chicago’s narrative.
Creator Class Contributors
Dahyembi Joi Neal
Photographer
Allen C. Shelton
Creative Director
Karae Carthans
Digital Coordinator
Khia Ancalade
Illustrator