Dr. zuri arman (they/thim) is a Dark+Africana practitioner, and the co-founder, editor, and creative director of (de)cypher+dark notes on the culture. Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, they are currently based in New York City. They recently completed their doctorate in Africana Studies at Brown University where their dissertation was entitled “Towards Criteria of Dark Africana+.” This project lays the groundwork for Dark+Africana as a mytho-philosophical intervention seeking to rupture what they identify as an imperial pattern of thought endemic to western culture called “refortification.” zuri provocatively, rigorously, and creatively argues this enlightenment paradigm disciplines the inventive capacities of black artistic, intellectual, and political experimentalism. “Towards Criteria of Dark Africana+” contributes to an emerging intellectual constellation referred to as dark black study/ies that is composed of heretical junior scholars thinking with and through the negativity of black life. zuri’s other scholarly interests include black critical theory, cultural theory and criticism, critical gender and sexuality studies, intellectual history, black radical thought, Africana Philosophy, and Africana mysticisms. zuri’s prose is featured in Howlround, CLR James Journal, TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, a special issue of Interviewing the Caribbeaned. by Carole Boyce Davies, Surviving the Future: Abolitionist Queer Strategies (PM Press), Burnaway Magazine of Contemporary Art from the South, Collision Literary Magazine, and Rock the Bells. Pdfs of their scholarship can be found at the links above. As they are an independent scholar without institutional support, you can also monetarily their independent creative and intellectual practice here.