Imani Ellis= Founder + Creative + Publicist
(based on an interview on Side Hustle Pro)
Imani’s background is just as diverse as all hybrids are…As a girl she did ballet for 14 years and was the first black dancer to star as Clara in the Atlanta Ballet’s Nutcracker. This part of her life taught her the self-discipline she relies on today.
Imani says she was a side hustler by mistake. She wanted to stop the idea that you “had to compartmentalize who you are.” Her goal was to combat the idea that you could either do this or do that. In her words, she liked the idea that you could “be a banker by day and an artist by night and change your mind about what track you’re on.”
That’s why she decided to build a community. Now, it’s called The Creative Collective NYC, and it’s its own business and a major success, drawing huge crowds and big names (like John Legend) for their headline event CultureCon.
All this started, of course, while Imani held a full-time job at NBC Universal as a publicist and communications director. The first meetups were in her tiny apartment with about 40 people who were friends of friends. This was the first step of Imani creating an intersection between her day job and her evening passion, two of her core professional identities. By hosting these events, she started fusing her multiple identities together into something else.
CultureCon was the first big gathering and every sponsor was an in-kind donation. No one had heard of a “CultureCon” before, and that’s because it’s a made up, hybrid term! Imani says, “We just wanted to create something no one had ever seen before.” This meant programs and conversations that they weren’t seeing or hearing. Imani was at the forefront of driving culture through her creative and innovative concept. This enterprise is truly a testament to her being in her intersections, and she’s not slowing down. Imani now has a team, and they’re dreaming big.
Imani Ellis: Founder of Culturecon & The Creative Collective, publicist NBC, Curator of Brave Spaces
@imaniimani