Akilah Townsend is a photographer and art director who was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Townsend seeks inspiration from cinema for her imagery, and is currently working on a project about her ancestors. Townsend has photographed for numerous editorial and commercial clients including the Atlantic, the New York Times, and Nike.
The Atlantic’s Inheritance is an ongoing reporting project that endeavors to fill the blank pages of Black history: to piece together, through reporting and data, the crucial events and conversations that have been intentionally left out of America’s story.
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