BlackStar is thrilled to announce that the ninth issue of Seen—the organization’s bi-annual journal of film and visual culture, dedicated to platforming nuanced and rigorous writing by and about Black, Brown and Indigenous communities globally—is now on sale. The issue is available for order here.
Seen 009’s cover features André Holland, in a photo taken by Martika Avalon for a feature story written by Murtada Elfadl, that finds the Love, Brooklyn star reflecting on why he’s seeking the role of student at this time in his life. Other highlights from the issue’s mix of conversations, profiles, interviews, essays and reviews include Portals and Expansions: Black Film Distribution, an essay by Black Film Archive founder Maya S. Cade; a studio visit with artist Sanford Biggers; Gaza, 5:45 a.m., a photo diary by Eman Mohammed; a letter to young cinematographers from Sinners’ Autumn Durald Arkapaw; a tribute to the trailblazing curator Koyo Kouoh, written by various artists; filmmaker Yance Ford in conversation with sound designer and Third World Newsreel executive director JT Takagi and Ryan Coogler’s Communions with the Dead, a profile of the director written by Kambole Campbell.
On October 29, 2025, in collaboration with the Open Society Foundations and Urban Outfitters, BlackStar will celebrate the release of Seen 009 with a launch event at Percy Restaurant & Bar in Philadelphia. The event will feature a conversation between contributors Nicole G. Young, Bedatri Datta Choudhury and Heidi Saman, editor-in-chief of Seen. The three will discuss Black speculative fiction and a Mumbai artists’ collective that’s reimagining the archive. RSVP here.
The journal is on sale at stockists around the world including Ulises and Omoi Life Goods in Philadelphia; Periodicals in Detroit; Reparations Club, Vidiots and Skylight Books in Los Angeles; Amant, McNally Jackson and Printed Matter in New York; Chess Club in Portland, magCulture in London and Issues in Toronto.
Seen is supported by Open Society Foundations and is printed in the United States by Sheridan.
BlackStar Projects and its year-round programming is generously supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, City of Philadelphia, Color Congress, Department of Community and Economic Development, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Independence Public Media Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, NEO Philanthropy, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Pop Culture Collaborative, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Surdna Foundation, Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, in addition to its board of directors, community partners and a host of generous individual donors and organizations.
About BlackStar Projects
BlackStar Projects, founded in 2012 by Maori Karmael Holmes as BlackStar Film Festival, creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside the confines of genre. Beyond the annual film festival the organization produces year-round programs, including film screenings, exhibitions, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab and a journal of film, art and visual culture.
These programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders and distributors. BlackStar is working towards a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences is irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture.