Photo Credit: Courtland Mylez
Written by: Oliver Heffron
Zahir is a creative force to be reckoned with. The newly minted 20-year-old has been stacking up creative pursuits–from music to modeling; fashion design to international chess competition; creative directing and styling to directing films. His inspiration combines the creative directorial talents of Tyler, The Creator, the alt-rap stylings of Saba, and the fashion and multifacetedness of the late Virgil Abloh.
Bridging a creative gap between his hometown of DC and his college town of Baton Rouge, Zahir founded Project Innovate Studios to pool together local Louisiana creatives to collaborate on ideas and events – all while working towards his architectural engineering degree. In March 2022, they hosted the very first Baton Rouge Fashion Week, attracting global creatives to explore the local artistic community.
Despite being appreciative of his newfound surroundings, Zahir is loyal to his hometown and lifelong friends, recently dropping the From a Potter's Hands collaboration album featuring longtime friends and fellow DC natives like Nelovesbias and Ezy.
The DC renaissance man whose been lighting up the creative communities of Baton Rouge and DC recently sat down with Nuance to talk about the inspiration and vision behind this impressive array of creative pursuits:
"Innovation is what I'm about; taking these currently unknown elements, whether that be through underground music, fashion, or art, and just combining them to create new forms of expression. The fashion experience was an example of combining fashion and film and art, music, and all of these different elements together for an experience. Same with the compilation album, which is combining these unknown elements turning them into something greater together for the world to recognize. So I would say that's sort of what I do. I put that under the title of "Creative Directing," but it happens to have influence in music, fashion, film, graphic design, and really just all of those working together."
Nelovesbias, Zahir, & Ezy | Photo Courtesy of Zahir
PIS (Project Innovate Studios) serves as a creative family and idea incubator for creatives to express themselves and share not only the artistic vibrancy of Baton Rouge but of their hometowns as well. While Zahir sees Louisiana as his "creative home," he's loyal to his hometown and is inspired by putting his city on: "I'm making a concerted effort to put DC on the map…just like all of the other DC artists I've grown up with, they're in a collective together (ANLOH), we're all making an effort to like put DC on the map, and it's showing."
Being active in the artistic communities of both DC and Baton Rouge, Zahir sees his centralization of familial trust as what sets his creative pursuits apart. The compilation album, From a Potter's Head, exemplifies this vision, showcasing the talents of artists like Ezy and Nelovesbias on tracks that exude the effortless joy of longtime friends hopping in the booth. Zahir explains that this type of camaraderie and connection is what sets his projects apart; looking back on the recent Fashion Show:
"A lot of people ask me, what's the difference between like these communities that you are a part of and like, other burgeoning artistic communities? And I think it's like, there's such a big difference when you've grown up together with people. You know, like, for the fashion experience that we had, my friends who were a part of the show came to Baton Rouge and stayed in my apartment. And it's like one of them was sleeping in the chair, and one of them was sleeping on a couch. That comfortability just showcases our familial camaraderie in both DC and Louisiana. I mean, we grew up together and found ourselves together, so it is a family that just adds that power to the elevation and the ascension."
The 20-year-old DC native orchestrates creativity across mediums and geographic boundaries, exemplifying the contemporary renaissance man with a hand in half a dozen creative baskets simultaneously while working towards an architectural engineering degree. I mean, seriously?