BOSCO, Atlanta-based R&B musician and visual artist, redefines the term “agency” when it comes to her company, SLUG Global. The business was developed in 2016 to elevate Black and brown voices in the art world. The team itself is composed of artists of color, who lend their perspectives in helping to market the important stories that set their participating artists apart. BOSCO joined “City Lights” producer Summer Evans along with co-founder Chibu Okere and content manager Kylah Benes-Trapp to talk about their agency and why it was created.
“SLUG Global was inspired by the need of community, and to feel seen in spaces that were not necessarily representing the type of work, the type of voice, and the people that I was connected to,” said BOSCO. “This was during a time where exclusivity wasn’t a trending topic or wasn’t a catchphrase. I was in Atlanta during the time, and I just kind of put out a ‘bat signal.’ I was like, I know it’s other, quirky, weird, left-of-center Black artists, of multiple and various mediums… I just wanted to be around that energy, because I wasn’t celebrated in certain spaces.”
After leaving art school and struggling to find design jobs, BOSCO met her eventual future co-founding partner Okere, who shared her vision of seeing art spaces open up to more people who looked like them. “To be honest, when I met BOSCO, I was like, ‘I just want an art job,’” said Okere. “I want to just draw for a living… Nobody was looking for me. I got nothing. And so I wanted to just create my own job.”
“I feel like Black and brown artists are poached for their ideas, but not given the opportunity to elevate, or scale financially,” said BOSCO.
Okere spoke to the origin of the name they chose for their collaboration. “‘Slug’ is grimy,” said Okere. “In essence… it automatically hit home, on the kind of retro, the vintage tip of, ‘slug’ just being something gross, but low-key kind of cute.” He added, “You lift up a rock and you see a slug, you know? That’s like an underground scene.”
