Hafiz Akinlusi, also known as ANYHOW (he/him), is a cultural producer raised in Lagos, Nigeria whose interest spans visual art, sound, music, film, and system architecture. Grounded in an exploration of Africanness within the diaspora, Hafiz’s practice is driven by an interest in the spaces where ideas, and people converge. His work probes this point of convergence, producing new and counter ways of being as we navigate coexistence in spaces often oppositional to Black life.
Play is crucial to his work—a force that activates both deep collaboration and marginalization. It operates as a site of transformation, inviting flexibility and relationality and pushing us to dismantle norms of what is allowed in favor of what is possible. In doing so, play becomes a tool for stretching meaning, creating space for more accessible, open worlds of contact.
Hafiz Akinlusi is a co-founder of the Black Arts Centre, an artist-run space dedicated to cultivating Black artistic output through multiple mediums. He is also a co-founder of Madebywe, a collaborative space where he and his friends come together to explore identity and existence through creative practice rooted in community, and playful experimentation.