Images by Kamahl Grant

Written By: Evan Spann, Features Writer

Kamahl Grant, a senior mathematics major and economics minor from Gwinnett County, Georgia, is the first-place winner of the 2023 Target HBCU Design Challenge for his artwork, “Twin.” Officially released in Target stores on January 21, 2024, the “Twin” design is imprinted on sweaters and selling out in stores across the United States. 

 

“Twin” references Grant’s twin brother, Jamal, a student at Georgia Tech, depicting one-half of each of their faces, forming one portrait.  They are identical, yet their expressions differ, referencing the examples of the double consciousness, the “twoness” of the African American experience. 

 

In an Instagram post announcing his achievement, Grant explained his idea,

 

“Many times, black people have had to assimilate to a culture that is not their own in order to thrive [or at the very bare minimum] survive in employment, especially in the business and STEM world. Yet their personalities and determination persist. The African American community has pushed against these mini-injustices and microaggressions to achieve equality in the expression, style, and health of their hair. However, to this day black people still require an alter ego to some degree, a “twin”, for which my piece was named.”

 

Shortly after Grant read about the opportunity through a school email, Dr. Michael Turner forwarded it to Grant, piquing his interest.

 

“He told me he thought of me when he saw the Design Challenge email. Dr. Turner is one of the sweetest people on campus, truly a genuine soul.  If there were angels on campus in disguise, I would investigate Dr. Michael Turner, he’s a great man,” Grant said.

 

In September 2022, Grant entered his work into the Target HBCU Design Challenge, and by March 2023, he was congratulated as the first-place winner.

 

He received the prize money in July and completed “The HBCU Design Apprenticeship,” a 6-week internship for the 2023 fall semester learning about Target’s design process, trend research, analytics, and graphic design. 

 

Grant also learned that his design was immediately slated to be displayed for Target’s 2024 Black History Month campaign. He received a sample of his sweater over Thanksgiving break in 2023 and waited until its release in late January 2024 to announce the news.

 

“It’s been amazing because my family has been reaching out to me; family members are buying it, Morehouse alumni are buying it out. It dropped January 21st, and my friends are telling me that stores in Pennsylvania, New York, and California are already sold out of the sweater, and I’m like, it dropped yesterday,” Grant said.

 

Although Grant is a Georgia native, he did not learn about Morehouse until his senior year of high school. He started a club for young black men called The Gentlemen’s Society, and the club’s advisers organized a Morehouse College visit in October of 2019, making it the first time Grant had visited the Atlanta University Center. 

 

Morehouse captivated Grant.

 

“I had never visited Brown Street before, but it felt like I had walked Brown Street. I felt like I had walked by Kilgore before; it felt like I had seen the buildings – like I had walked through the campus before,” Grant said. “It almost felt eerie. It felt like deja vu. Besides my own house, I never felt more at home.”

 

Since his freshman year, Grant has been involved in the Student Government Association, the Morehouse Business Association with a focus on the consulting sector, and Collegiate 100. 

 

Previously, much of Grant’s time was spent doing schoolwork, fulfilling leadership duties, and community service, but he took a different approach to his senior year. Creating art, reactivating his LLC ArtbyKamahl, building a website, and uploading social media content are some of his priorities now.

 

“I finally have the time and bandwidth to put the same effort that I did into student leadership and my career into this, and I’m seeing the fruits of that labor. I can only thank God for that,” Grant said. 

 

Inspired by Kehinde Wiley, Grant is committed to illustrating the essence of black cultural aesthetics in portraiture. 

 

“My love for Black people comes from home. My parents have an irreplaceable library of children’s books by Black authors on Black topics. I always saw myself in music, in literature, in art and my parents, especially my mom, is very much a connoisseur,” Grant said.  “My whole house is filled with art, so I always grew up seeing art by Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringold, and more. As soon as my parents found out that I had a gift for art, they realized they needed to nurture it.”

 

Two portraits of his parents that he painted in high school rest in the dining room of his childhood home.  

 

“I am becoming more confident to share my artwork, I am being more confident to tell people what I do, I am being more confident to put a price on this artwork and let people know what it is worth, and I am not going to budge on the price,” Grant said. “I’m being more confident to submit that application to that art festival or art show and be like, ‘Yo, my stuff is good enough to stand with anybody’s art piece.’”

 

Grant wants to create more art grounded in his faith. 

 

“In reality, I’m only this talented, and only this blessed because of the gifts [God] gave me. I want to make sure my art doesn’t just point back to me; I want to make sure my art points back to God as well as how I talk about things like the Black community or even things like biblical stories and things of that nature.”

 

Although Grant is fascinated with the unpredictability of consulting work, art is his peace. 

 

“Ever since I realized I had a knack for it in high school, it’s always kind of been what I wanted to do. I always tell people if someone were to pay me two hundred thousand dollars a year, I would paint pictures all day. It’s what I love to do – I disappear. In the same way that when you read a good book, your brain travels somewhere else, my brain goes somewhere else when I’m painting. I’m far away,” Grant said.

 

While proud of his accomplishment and thankful for the support, Grant wants to keep this momentum rolling.

 

“I just want to make sure that I’m taking advantage of this time, this moment that God has blessed me with.  One of my favorite recent interviews was a Taylor Rooks interview with Deion Sanders when he said, ‘When a person keeps having moments, they become a monument.’ For me, I want to make sure this isn’t a moment – I want to make sure this is one of the moments.”

 

Copy Edited By: Elijah Megginson, Features Editor