Dear Cultured Kinfolk Fam: We are Relaunching & Recommitting

Dear Cultured Kinfolk Fam,

Cultured Kinfolk is my love letter to the African Diaspora—but it is also an act of sovereignty.

To build and sustain an online store that tells our stories on our own terms is not neutral. For African diasporic people, it has always been political. In a moment where our histories are being erased, revised, and stripped from public record in real time, creating and maintaining our own digital spaces is a form of resistance, preservation, and freedom.

When I founded Cultured Kinfolk in 2020, there were very few spaces online curating African diasporic culture from a diasporic and Global South perspective—outside of nonprofits, universities, or museums. I wanted to build something different: a space where history could live in everyday life, where culture was not locked behind institutions, and where access was not conditional.

The idea for Cultured Kinfolk came to me while working as a Digital Marketing Manager at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, where I witnessed the power of culture when it is held with care and shared in community. That experience clarified something for me: history should not only be studied—it should be lived, worn, practiced, and remembered.

Cultured Kinfolk began as an experiment in making history tangible—immortalizing cultural memory the way band tees do, embedding story into fashion, objects, and digital space. Between Etsy and Shopify, Cultured Kinfolk reached over 3,500 customers worldwide, people drawn to our band tees, apparel, decor, and e-books. That response affirmed what I already knew: culture does not need permission to circulate—it needs intention and protection.

From the beginning, Cultured Kinfolk was imagined as a museum or cultural center shop outside of an institution. Not a nonprofit. Not a traditional archive. But a living space where culture could exist freely, honestly, and without being edited for comfort.

For those new here, my name is Janet Luz Sackey. I’m from New York City—Harlem and Washington Heights, and I am a proud daughter of immigrants from Ghana and the Dominican Republic. I hold a BA in African Diaspora History and Web Technology, and I work as a public historian. My African diasporic upbringing—moving between cultures, languages, spiritual traditions, and survival strategies—deeply informs how I see the world and how I move through it.

This relaunch marks a shift toward greater clarity and responsibility.

What Cultured Kinfolk Is Becoming

Cultured Kinfolk is evolving into a living digital archive of yesterday and today. This will be a place where I publish essays on key historical moments, conduct interviews, review culture, and document contemporary African diasporic life—safeguarding memory outside institutions that have historically excluded us.

This will also be a space where we speak unapologetically about spirituality, wellness, motherhood, parenting, and decolonized living. These are not side conversations—they are central to how our communities have survived and healed. Here, ancestral knowledge, ritual, and spiritual technology are not hidden or softened for legitimacy.

Our work moving forward sits at the intersection of:

• History + Product Design — making history wearable and usable

• History + Technology — using digital tools to protect our archives and stories

• History + Everyday Life — bringing history to the people through pop-ups, exhibitions, and community spaces outside institutions

Alongside this, Cultured Kinfolk is growing into an Afro-Holistic wellness space, including an apothecary rooted in Global South traditional medicine and ancestral healing practices. Healing has always been part of historical survival. This work asks how ancient knowledge can be integrated into modern life to care for our communities—mind, body, and spirit.

Cultured Kinfolk exists because history is being erased in real time. Because sovereignty now includes digital space. And because telling our own stories—without distortion—is communal survival. 

This is not just a store. It is an archive, a practice, and a commitment.

Con Carino,
Janet | Founder, Cultured Kinfolk