Dr. Yaba Blay Is Turning Bamboo Earrings Into LEGO Art
Dr. Yaba Blay Is Turning Bamboo Earrings Into LEGO Art As The Incredible Studio’s First ‘Professional Black Girl-in-Residence’
Most Incredible Studio (MIS), the creative studio that transforms memory into tangible, cultural collectibles using LEGO bricks, has proudly announced Dr. Yaba Blay as its inaugural Professional Black Girl-in-Residence. Dr. Blay, a scholar and the mastermind behind Professional Black Girl, a multimedia platform dedicated to celebrating the everyday genius and lived experiences of Black women and girls, will collaborate with MIS founder Syreeta Gates to fuse art, culture, and nostalgia in honor of Black womanhood.
Their partnership is already off to an exciting start.
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Dr. Yaba Blay and Syreeta Gates debut the Bamboo Earrings piece.
On Nov. 11, the duo unveiled their first limited-edition collectible for the MIS residency: the Bamboo Earrings. Crafted from LEGO bricks, the piece pays homage to the Black women far and wide “who made the Bamboo Earrings iconic,” as shared on the MIS Instagram page.
Dr. Blay took to Instagram on Tuesday to thank fans for their support after the debut of the Bamboo Earrings.
“From the minute I sent my newsletter out at 8 am to this very moment that I’m writing, I have been wrapped in LOVE,” she wrote in part. “@syreetagates and I have been giddy with excitement, waiting for this day to come. And we knew the people would love it, but I don’t think we knew what this would FEEL like. THIS feels good! Thank you!”
Detailing her thought process behind the piece, she added, “When we started to conceptualize how we wanted to tell the story—the Black girl’s story of THE BAMBOO, we knew we wanted to shoot it in a jewelry store. And of course, Syreeta had a homegirl in Chicago who owns a jewelry store. THANK YOU @vivianalanghoff! @adornmentandtheory was the PERFECT location, and you and your team were the perfect hosts. And @thesirtaylor— these images are MAGICAL! Thank you!”
The residency launches a new MIS initiative designed to collaborate with cultural leaders who bring stories, traditions, and communities to life through MIS artifacts. More limited-edition cultural pieces in collaboration with Dr. Blay are planned, and the residency will include surprises for fans, including MIS’s signature premium packaging, a custom booklet, and special keepsake elements. Additionally, the program will feature community conversations, digital activations, and behind-the-scenes content showcasing the creative process between Blay and Gates.
This has been a long time coming for the visionary artist. Dr. Blay’s work has been featured in The New York Times, ESSENCE, and O Magazine. She is the author of the groundbreaking One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race, with her highly anticipated second book, To Become Beautiful, forthcoming. In a press release, Gates expressed her excitement about Dr. Blay’s role in the MIS residency.
“Yaba’s brilliance is unmatched — she has spent her life committed to centering and celebrating Black women in all of our power, joy, and everyday genius,” she gushed. “She’s also a very dear friend, which makes this moment even more special. At Most Incredible Studio, our mission is to make memory tangible, and I’m elated that together we get to bring elements from our culture into form in a way that people can play with, build, and remember.”
Congrats to Dr. Yaba Blay!
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