An essential component of (de)cypher is the cyphers we conduct with black artists, broadly construed, whose creative and political vision aligns with ours. They each follow an experimental format bridging conversation, criticism, and are always a ki. Think: “esoteric 106&Park.” During our cyphers, we are interested in gaining important context for why artists made particular aesthetic decisions, free-playing with interpretation through real-time decipherment, and even challenging artists to think more deeply about their stance on particular topics. In the end, our goal is to care-fully pose questions that precipitate darker lines of thinking the artist has previously never explored in the company of others.