What does it mean to imagine the future through the eyes of those who were never meant to survive?

Lalovavi (meaning “love” in the Tut language of enslaved Black Americans) is a groundbreaking three-act Afrofuturist opera set 400 years into the future, commissioned by Cincinnati Opera as part of its Mellon-funded Black Opera Project. The story follows Persephone, a teenage princess in a dystopian society called Atlas, who discovers within herself a rare “Syndicus” gene granting longevity but must flee when her own family betrays her. Created by composer Kevin Day and librettist Tifara Brown, the opera weaves in poetry and song in both English and Tut, exploring themes of ecological memory, Black liberation, and intergenerational hope.

In early 2025, I received an unexpected message through my Instagram account @DigitalWildArt. The Cincinnati Opera House was seeking a visually arresting artwork to support their fundraising efforts for Lalovavi, the world’s first Afrofuturist opera, premiering as part of their 2026 season. Initially, I was invited to license an existing piece or adapt a past work to fit a tight turnaround and limited budget. But as our conversations evolved, I was offered the chance to design the official promotional image for the opera’s debut.

In April 2025, I started work to create the official visual artwork for Lalovavi, a new Afrofuturist opera premiering in their 2026 summer season. The production explores themes of intergenerational memory, ecological grief, and Black speculative mythology — with a storyline rooted in the American South, yet reaching toward a broader planetary consciousness.

Working closely with the opera’s creative team, I translated the libretto, musical score, and conceptual brief into a single, striking image that could hold multiple timelines, geographies, and emotional registers. I developed Persephone: Performer Echo — a character-led, symbol-rich visual that evokes a regal, time-travelling figure, adorned with cultural technologies and organic motifs, copper artefacts, memory-encoded metals, and bio-synthetic textures - echoing both Earth and otherworldly lineages. Her braided hair carries circuits of belonging; her armour, the scars of past harms and future resistance. Every colour and accessory was chosen to channel Lalovavi’s sonic world and its speculative lineage of care. In doing so, the image bridges ecological and health imaginaries — exploring how the health of communities, memories, and ecosystems intertwine across speculative time.

The artwork was generated through iterative digital sketching and AI-assisted composition, combining handcrafted motifs with prompt-based image synthesis. The process allowed me to hold multiple strands of meaning simultaneously — weaving together sound, story, and ancestral symbolism in visual form.

Lalovavi brings together speculative health futures and cultural storytelling, embodying themes of “healthy life” and “sustainable future”. The artwork honours ancestral health wisdom, genetic memory, and Black ecological futurism — inviting audiences to visualise new futures for wellbeing, kinship, and planetary care. The commission also demonstrates the role of artist-led visual R&D in shaping public-facing narratives through opera, AI, and cultural institutions.

This methodology also aligns with my broader creative practice: using hybrid tools to surface hidden data, emotion, and memory. The final image now serves as the official promotional artwork for the 2026 Summer Festival, featured featured on billboards, print materials, and digital signage across Cincinnati, forming the visual spine of the Opera’s 2026 Summer Festival campaign.

This commission marked a turning point: a deep conversation with futurity, with the unseen, and with the cultural intelligence embedded in diasporic aesthetics. This commission emerged from the liminal space between Instagram visibility, narrative intuition, and an evolving creative trust between artist and institution. For me, it was a defining moment in how AI-assisted visual storytelling can surface not only aesthetics, but ancestral memory and speculative kinship.

Collaborative Impact & Knowledge Exchange

Following the commission of Lalovavi, I was invited by the Cincinnati Opera to return in 2026 for a one-week Afrofutures in Bloom residency. As part of this artist-led engagement, I will facilitate a series of participatory workshops for cross-generational community groups—including young people, elders, and local creatives. These sessions will expand the themes of Lalovavi into a shared space of visual exploration, using generative AI to imagine intergenerational memory, ecological justice, and Black speculative kinship.

Rooted in the methodology of “Seeing Through the Machine,” these workshops will blend visual literacy, storytelling, and digital experimentation. Participants will co-create artwork that reflects their lived realities and cultural imagination, contributing to a growing archive of Afro-speculative futures. This programme exemplifies how artist-led practice can create ongoing knowledge exchange beyond the commission—supporting Nesta’s interest in public impact, cultural participation, and interdisciplinary learning.

Design Process

Tools Used:

• MidJourney (v6 and Omni Ref), Leonardo.ai, and GPT‑Image‑1 for iterative visual exploration

• Adobe Photoshop and Procreate for compositing, refinement, and symbolic detailing

• Miro and Milanote boards for visual research, creative briefing, and motif tracking

Process Summary:

• Collaborated with the Opera’s composer and librettist to extract key symbolic and emotional themes

• Conducted visual research across Black speculative art, bio-artefacts, Southern eco-mythology, and material memory

• Developed visual sketches and AI prompts, integrating natural textures, sci-fi motifs, and ancestral symbology

• Refined central character (Persephone: Performer Echo) over multiple iterations, layering visual storytelling with thematic resonance

• Final output delivered in ultra-high resolution for print, signage, and digital applications across the Opera’s 2026 season