Divest
Àrokò Monthly Roundtable #02
In 2026, we're watching the breaking point accelerate, a cultural rupture where authenticity confronts algorithmic perfection, and designers must decide whether to decorate capital or design for human care.
Aishatu Ado
Aishatu is an award-winning writer and peace technologist named among "TOP 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics," exploring liberation through literary art, design, and divestment from oppressive systems.
Àrokò Monthly
Comrades, dear friends, co-conspirators, As 2025 draws to a close, we find ourselves in that familiar in-between space, the festive glow of gatherings alongside the weight of everything this year has revealed. At Àrokò, we end the year energized by the prospect of continuing our work. We are
Community
Àrokò Monthly Roundtable #01
This roundtable discussion names a growing unease with societies that reward visibility over substance.
Darfur: A Wound Still Open
04 VERSES IN THE WAKE Darfur opens— a wound the sun keeps trying to close. A girl stands in the heat, holding her silence like a bird too frightened to lift its wings. The air breaks against the girl’s face. Someone’s scream from the night before still clings
Dignify through Design
Ninja Turtle Dreams
Mama zipped me in a Ninja Turtle shell—Michelangelo, the laughing one, 'cause I giggled through gunfire and dreamed in technicolor even when sirens split the night like wishbones. Sweat glued the mask to my face, plastic breath, cinnamon gum, and that hum of danger, a tuning fork struck
Dignify through Design
Messy by Design: How Eve’s Bayou Made Chaos an Art Form
Someone will ask you one day if you've seen Eve's Bayou. You need to be able to say yes.
Play Is Medicine: Designing Care Through Super Mario 64
Forget brain-training apps. In the ‘90s we already had one: Super Mario 64. Turns out Peach’s castle was a cognitive gym all along.
Àrokò Anthology: Call for submissions
ÀROKÒ ANTHOLOGY NO.1: FOLKLORE FROM AFRICA & THE DIASPORA Curated and edited by Aishatu Ado DEADLINE 12.31.25 // Submit to: contact@aroko.coop THEME We invite fiction and poetry that breathes new life into folklore from Africa and the African Diaspora. Send us stories that draw from folktales,
Discord Decides: How Nepal's Youth Turned Gaming Infrastructure into Architecture For Liberation
145,000 young Nepalis turned Discord into a digital parliament and elected their country's first woman interim prime minister. Design reflects the values of those who wield it, not those who built it.
Matricide
On July 4th 2025, America murdered its safety net: Medicaid gutted, food stamps slashed, Arctic drilled—all for billionaire tax cuts. "The cupboards testify: nothing grows in hunger's house.”
Dignify through Design
Juneteenth 2025: The Fire This Time
You want to know what Juneteenth means in 2025? It means we're still breathing despite every plan to make us die. Every law designed to break us, every vote they tried to steal. Every knee pressed to our necks, every wound they wouldn't heal.
Design is Circular
Movie Theaters as Modern Underground Railroads: How 'Sinners' Created Freedom Spaces in Plain Sight
For 137 minutes, "Sinners" transforms theaters into Underground Railroad stations—where Black truth flows freely. Darkened spaces become corridors of breath. Tears fall uncensored. And for a moment, liberation exists in plain sight.