CULTURED MAG: The CULT 100

Publishing is full of rankings, from power lists to best-dressed lists to under-40 lists. The CULT100 is different. There is just one criterion for inclusion—but it’s a high bar.

To qualify, a candidate must be actively shaping and changing our culture in real time. The people on this list represent five generations and hail from the worlds of food, publishing, art, fashion, activism, and entertainment. To put this group together, CULTURED‘s editors leveraged the full strength of our network, tapping artists, writers, and cultural leaders to tell us who they look to when they want to feel challenged, hopeful, and inspired.

Some members of the CULT100 are household names; others have been working behind the scenes to make possible the cultural encounters that stop us in our tracks. In a time of binary thinking, the creators featured in this year’s list are embracing contradiction, bouncing willfully between disciplines, and refusing to take no for an answer. They have guts, vision, and a potent cocktail of realism and optimism. None of them is shying away from the anxiety of our moment. Instead, they are thinking big, sharing generously, and embodying courage. The good news is, their work makes us all a little bit braver, too.

LONNIE HOLLEY

ARTIST

The artist and performer, once described as a “modern-day shaman,” transforms castoff materials into madcap assemblages. His wide-ranging practice is the subject of an eponymous monograph from Rizzoli and Blum Books, published last month.

WHAT IS YOUR TRADEMARK? For as long as I can remember, I’ve always said “thumbs up for Mother Universe” whenever I meet someone or at the end of a conversation. I talk a lot about the three mothers: the mother that gave birth to you, Mother Earth, and Mother Universe. I’ve always tried to care deeply for all three mothers and try to honor Mother Universe in everything I do.

WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT? Well, literally, making art. But also worrying about the world, the only one we’ve got. My upbringing was very difficult. A lot of that was detailed in the podcast "Unreformed: The Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children." When you’ve lived through slavery-like conditions as a child, the demons come to visit you when you sleep. That keeps me up more than I wish it did.

"There is a porter at the Atlanta airport who always recognizes me from reading about me in the paper. He always goes out of his way to say hello and check on me when I’m coming home from a trip."

WHAT’S SOMETHING PEOPLE GET WRONG ABOUT YOU? I’ve been called a lot of things: A visionary artist. Self-taught. An outsider. A naive artist. I’m just an artist, none of those other things. Those names cling to me like an ill-fitted suit. I’m just an artist trying to make America and the world a better and more understanding place. And I’ve learned so much from other people. Many artists go to school to learn to make art, and I’d have loved to have had that opportunity. But my grandpap taught me so much about materials and how to use them. My daddy’s mama, Momo, took me to the city landfill and taught me how to recycle and reuse things. Uncle Jesse taught me all about taking things apart. Daddy James, who married my mama, taught me how to become a brick mason and how to use concrete and mortar. Mr. and Mrs. Smith taught me to use judgment, not always a ruler—and to believe in myself. I had a different kind of school.

ARE PEOPLE EVER STARSTRUCK BY YOU? There is a porter at the Atlanta airport who always recognizes me from reading about me in the paper. He always goes out of his way to say hello and check on me when I’m coming home from a trip.