ODDA Magazine’s 18th issue explores the process one embarks on in goal-fulfillment and in arriving within a common, heterogeneous and cross-generational space––where belief, ideas and one’s dreaming facilities engage with the inspiration and innovation behind thoughtful change in the world. 

For Spring/Summer 2020, we share 7 covers including 8 cover subjects. From that of Eva Herzigova, Snoop Dogg and Cordell Broadus, Eliot Sumner, Adesuwa Aighewi, Wellington Grant, Akon Changkou, and Roan B Stone, a dynamic variety of perspectives are conveyed, suggestive of our present state and in understanding how to conjointly move forward by way of the united effort––we are perhaps of differing backgrounds, yet with common purpose, and most essentially in addressing the concerns we share today and their real-world solutions. In these subjects we also find an inclination of charitable endeavors in the name of genuine and lasting progress, a passion for the poetic, contribution to cultural landscapes that shape us in a number of ways, and the ability to participate in irrefutable strides forward.

In this message and moreover joined by those such as Anna Dello Russo, Christian Lacroix, Kerby Jean-Raymond, Nicolas Party, Richard Quinn, Tyler Udall, Tinashe and more––we realize that we consistently receive back what we put out. Our actions and responses lined up become that of our personal fates and in the collective one we share. In presenting honest emotions and in the spirit of courage and optimism, we focus on the power in building trust and the necessity in being a part of the conversation in order to push it forward. However dormant, forming or otherwise ready and energized, the raw creative material of expressiveness rebuilds the world in one’s vision of new ways of living together. We speak on these sentiments with ODDA 18’s array of subjects, with the desire to sharpen our understanding on how we’ve arrived, to learn something new altogether, and to share information so that we actively participate in creating our future.

This issue examines and inquires of the questions we’ve come to realize are of great significance to us en masse today. In discussing a series of the wide-ranging, from real items of action and accountability––with the immediacy of environmental stability and preservation––to the necessity in speaking to one’s audience or consumer while truly representing and engaging with them in a sincere and meaningful way; to the 360-degree shift and transformation across industries within the last decade, steadily liaising with technological advancement, as well as where we are projected headed based on contemporary values, demands, and evolved expectations and prerequisites; on what it actually takes to create vested interest and an even deeper longevity in creating heading a brand, venture or project; to teamwork above all else and the characteristic of tenacity one can only wish to be perpetually guided by in seeking progress––that which is honed over a period of time while we willingly bid adieu to that which no longer works for both a harmonious future and effective present, to not fail by the same mistakes; and to create lanes for ourselves and others that will inevitably come after––“What Goes Around, Comes Around” develops a common place for what we feel the current imperative discourse among voices that have proven fearless in their willingness to leap ahead, next to and in conjunction with that of those that have shaped our past and continue to do so. 

Where these meet in shaping our future, the uniqueness in what one brings to the table based on particular experience, and with constant regard to intention, we are able to find both transformation and preservation coexisting. The unequivocal assertion of unity at its strongest.

Leaping ready-bodied, informed and with a clear head, creating space, fulfilling the circle, reaping the rewards, and sharing them, and leaving the door open behind you, our issue 18 sits with a message of karma and the acknowledgement of the choices and responses we face. These are yours and create your world, as well as the reality that unmistakably surrounds, nourishes and interacts with each of us. To listen, learn and proceed––with integrity, courage and perseverance, and respect to that which came before––we meet the past and move on to what comes next.