How the “Urgent Message” Found Its Voice

A reflection from Dominique Macklin, founder of Artfull Empire Designs

I want to tell you about a piece of art that refused to stay still.

It started, like most of my work does, as a mixed-media piece—layers of texture, paint, and meaning built up the way memory itself is built, one stratum at a time. I wasn’t setting out to design a t-shirt or launch a collection. I was trying to answer a question that had been sitting on my chest for a long time: how do we hold our history and our humanity in the same hand?

That question led me to two words I have carried with me for years—Sankofa and Ubuntu.

The Bird Facing Backward, Walking Forward

Sankofa comes from the Akan people of Ghana. It’s often pictured as a bird with its feet planted forward and its head turned back toward its tail, reaching for an egg, or as a stylized heart. The literal translation is “go back and fetch it.” I have always loved that image because it isn’t about being stuck in the past. It’s about retrieval. It’s about understanding that you cannot build a resilient future on a foundation you never examined.

When I sat down to create the artwork that would become Urgent Message, I kept coming back to that bird. I thought about my own Wolof heritage, about the ancestors whose names I may never know but whose survival made my existence possible. Sankofa permitted me to look backward without shame and without getting lost there — to retrieve wisdom, not just grief. To ground myself in identity so I could move forward with something sturdier than trends or trauma.

The Pulse Underneath It All

But Sankofa alone felt incomplete. A map tells you where you’ve been, but it doesn’t tell you how to walk together. That’s where Ubuntu entered the picture—a Nguni Bantu philosophy that translates roughly to “I am because we are.”

Ubuntu rejected everything I’d been taught about the isolated, self-made individual. It insisted, instead, that my humanity is bound up in yours. That to lift someone else is to lift myself. That we are not separate threads floating in space but fibers woven into one tapestry—and what happens to one of us ripples through all of us.

So the artwork became a conversation between these two philosophies: Sankofa, the wisdom of looking back, and Ubuntu, the heartbeat that keeps us moving forward together. One gave me roots. The other gave me rhythm.

Where the Raised Fist Comes In

The piece needed one more element to bridge reflection and action—because remembering our history means nothing if it stays silent. That’s when the raised fist holding a microphone entered the composition. It became the visual hinge of the whole piece: Sankofa is the quiet, essential work of looking inward; the fist and mic are the moment that wisdom becomes voice.

I wasn’t just making something to look at. I was making something that said, “We are called not merely to remember the past, but to amplify it. The layered textures in the piece—paint over paint, material over material—became a metaphor for exactly that: laying the lessons of our ancestors onto the urgent issues of today so that history stops being a silent record and becomes a living tool for change.

That’s why I named it Urgent Message. Because it was never meant to just hang on a wall; it was meant to speak.

And Then Someone Asked for a Shirt

Here’s the part of the story I love telling most.

I never planned for Urgent Message to become a fashion line. It was a physical mixed-media art piece—something meant to be witnessed, sat with, maybe hung in a home or a gallery. But a customer saw it and asked me a question I wasn’t expecting: “Can I wear this?”

She wanted the piece on a t-shirt. Not a print of it, not a reference to it — she wanted to carry it. She wanted Sankofa’s bird and Ubuntu’s pulse, and that raised fist close to her own body, moving through the world with her.

That request cracked something open for me. I realized the message wasn’t meant to stay still in a frame. If Ubuntu teaches us that we are interconnected, then the art itself needs to move through the community the way people do—on backs, on chests, into rooms I would never personally enter. A t-shirt could carry the message further than a canvas ever could.

So I took the piece through a technical transformation—from physical, textured mixed media into a precise digital format—without losing the soul of it. The tactile, layered look you see in the final designs is intentional. I wanted you to still feel the brushstrokes, the built-up materials, even in fabric. That fusion of ancestral heritage and modern technical execution is exactly what Artfull Empire Designs stands for: bridging the old and the new so that neither one gets lost.

That one customer request became the seed for what is now the full Urgent Message Design Collection—a Sovereign Apparel line where every piece asks you to remember, to connect, and to speak.

More Than Fabric

I think of Urgent Message as artfull—nourishment for the senses and the soul, not just something to look good in. When you wear it, you’re wearing a philosophy: that your history matters, that your voice matters, and that neither of those things exist in isolation from the people around you.

We are all threads in one tapestry. We are all part of one family, collectively responsible for one another and for this earth. Sankofa asks us to go back and fetch our history. Ubuntu reminds us we are because we are together. And the raised fist reminds us that once we know that truth, staying silent is no longer an option.

That’s the urgent message. I’m honored it found a body to live on, and I’m even more honored that it started with someone simply asking to carry it with them.

Shop the Urgent Message collection and explore more of the story at Artfull Empire Designs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does “Sankofa” mean, and why is it central to the Urgent Message artwork?

Sankofa is a concept from the Akan people of Ghana, often pictured as a bird with its feet facing forward and its head turned back toward its tail. It literally translates to “go back and fetch it.” In the Urgent Message artwork, Sankofa represents the practice of looking back at our history and ancestry to retrieve wisdom, not to stay stuck in the past, but to build a stronger, more informed future.

What does “Ubuntu” mean in the context of this collection?

Ubuntu is a Nguni Bantu term meaning “humanity,” often translated as “I am because we are.” It speaks to our interconnectedness — the idea that our individual well-being is tied to the well-being of the whole community. In the artwork, Ubuntu is the heartbeat that moves us forward together after Sankofa has shown us where we’ve been.

What do the raised fist and microphone symbolize?

The raised fist holding a microphone is the visual bridge between reflection and action in the piece. It represents the moment ancestral wisdom (Sankofa) and shared humanity (Ubuntu) become a collective voice—a call to speak out, to amplify history, and to turn remembrance into action for social change.

How did “Urgent Message” go from a wall piece to a t-shirt?

“Urgent Message” started as a physical mixed-media art piece. It was never designed with apparel in mind. A customer who connected deeply with the piece asked if she could wear it—she wanted to carry the artwork’s message with her rather than just view it on a wall. That single request sparked the idea to translate the piece into a wearable format, which grew into the full Urgent Message Design Collection.

Why did you choose to turn the artwork into apparel instead of just prints?

Because Ubuntu teaches that we are interconnected—meant to move through community, not stay isolated. A t-shirt lets the message travel with a person into rooms, conversations, and communities the original canvas never could. Apparel became a way to let the art live in motion.

Did the digital version change the meaning of the original artwork?

No — the meaning stayed the same, but the format shifted. I worked to preserve the tactile, layered texture of the original mixed-media piece even in its digital, printable form, so the fabric still carries the same visual depth and symbolism as the original canvas.

Is the Urgent Message Design Collection connected to my Wolof heritage?

Yes. My exploration of Sankofa and Ubuntu is deeply tied to my own journey of reconnecting with my Wolof heritage and ancestral roots. The collection is as much a personal act of remembrance as it is a public call to collective action.

Where can I shop the Urgent Message collection?

The collection is available through Artfull Empire Designs’ apparel shop, where each piece—from the original mixed-media-inspired designs to everyday wearables—carries the story of Sankofa, Ubuntu, and the raised fist forward.