Before
the Title
Your reflection becomes art.
Your voice becomes story.
An ongoing participatory art project about who we are beyond our titles. Step away from the labels you carry, like your job, your role, and your resume, and answer one honest question. In a few quiet moments, your words become personal artwork that joins a living archive of the people who came before you.
Project origins
Begun in Newark, built to keep moving
Before the Title was first presented through a Newark activation with North to Shore Festival and Newark Arts. That first chapter opened the archive in person; the project now continues online and through future gatherings.
Available for future activations, workshops, exhibitions, and community chapters.
First presentation
Newark, with North to Shore Festival and Newark Arts
Current form
An ongoing online archive with future in-person chapters
Curatorial role
Featured selections, project chapters, film, and community activations
How it works
Reflect
Answer one quiet question: who were you before the title? A word, a memory, a feeling. There are no wrong answers.
Become art
Your reflection becomes a one-of-a-kind visual artwork, shaped in the moment from your words.
Join the archive
With permission, safe submissions enter a living archive of strangers, memory, and who we are beneath our titles.
Project rhythm
Built to keep unfolding
Current prompt
Who were you before the title?
Participation
Open online, with in-person chapters
Archive
Safety-reviewed public gallery
Cadence
New prompts and featured selections over time
Akin, before the title.
Created by
Akin Opaleye
Project and Experience Creator
Before the Title was created and curated as an invitation to remember the person beneath the role. Its first public chapter began in Newark; its next chapters continue wherever people are willing to answer honestly.
@akin.bullionFirst presented with
Built by the team at
Community and platform support
First presented in Newark with North to Shore Festival and Newark Arts. Continuing as an ongoing art project about identity, memory, and the selves we set aside.