BAMBOOS

A Professional Black Girl × Most Incredible Studio Composition

The inaugural release from the Most Incredible Studio Artist-in-Residence program

IDENTITY

THE ORIGIN STORY

Bamboo earrings. At least two pair.

Before they were lyrics, they were emblems. Before they were fashion, they were a declaration. The bamboo earring has always been more than an accessory. It is memory and meaning, passed from one generation of girls to the next. Born in New York City, shaped by Asian design influence, and carried by women who made the everyday divine, bamboo and door knocker earrings emerged at the crossroads of Black and Brown girlhood as emblems of identity, beauty, and belonging. Hoop earrings have adorned women across Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America for centuries. From Nubian gold to Bronx sidewalks, engraved with names, dreams, declarations. Each pair tells a story of adornment as authorship, of how we make what we wear our own and how that tradition moves between us.

BAMBOO is the first release from the Most Incredible Studio Artist-in-Residence program, and it was created by Dr. Yaba Blay, the inaugural Professional Black Girl-in-Residence. Dr. Blay is a scholar, cultural worker, and the visionary behind Professional Black Girl, a multi-platform community founded in 2016 that celebrates the everyday, round-the-way culture of Black women and girls. Author of the groundbreaking One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race, Dr. Blay has spent years studying and celebrating the symbols that tell the story of who we are: our rituals, our adornments, our movements, our culture. She did not wait to be invited. When MIS founder Syreeta Gates mentioned wanting to infuse Black girl culture into the studio’s canon, Dr. Blay told her there was no way she would allow her to do that without her. She was serious.

What started as a conversation between art and culture became a shared practice of remembrance. Dr. Blay knew immediately they had to begin with the bamboo earring. For her generation, for Gen X, bamboo earrings were more than style. They were a statement, a way of seeing yourself reflected in the world even when the world tried not to see you. They told you that you belonged to a lineage, to a language only you could fully understand, to each other. They marked a moment. A movement. A style that belonged to us. The attitude of girls who knew exactly who they were. A small, shining way of saying you know you see me. A bigger way of saying I see me. I see us.

The composition transforms that symbol into a buildable monument: a pair of bamboo earrings rendered in LEGO bricks, designed to be assembled with your own hands and displayed as a cultural artifact. The instruction booklet, written by Dr. Blay, is not just an assembly guide. It is a cultural essay on adornment, inheritance, and Black girlhood. The photography for the campaign was shot by Jamel Shabazz, the legendary New York street photographer whose decades of work documenting Black and Brown life makes him one of the most important archival voices in the culture, and by Joshua Taylor. The collaboration includes a metal Professional Black Girl card designed by Rob “Thiiird” Owusu III, reinforcing that this is not a toy but a piece of history.

BAMBOO was released in two editions. The Original Edition, with 303 pieces, dropped on November 11, 2025, exclusively through mostincrediblestud.io. The Museum Edition, with 335 pieces and new packaging, was made available exclusively at the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle, extending MIS’s presence in museum retail following the Mini Jimi collaboration. Both editions sold out. The fact that a composition about Black girlhood, about a pair of earrings from the beauty supply store and the block, now sits in a museum gift shop alongside institutional collectibles is itself a statement about whose culture deserves institutional recognition.

As Dr. Blay writes: “Round the way style is sacred. And we deserve monuments, too.”

THE BUILD

Original Edition (303 pieces)

Museum Edition (335 pieces)

ABOUT THE ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM

BAMBOO marks the launch of the Most Incredible Studio Artist-in-Residence program. The residency centers visionaries as architects of memory. Through collaboration, storytelling, and LEGO-based design, residents build new monuments to the everyday, proving that play and preservation belong together. Dr. Yaba Blay is the inaugural resident, serving as the Professional Black Girl-in-Residence for a year-long fellowship in which she will infuse Black girl culture into the MIS canon.

The residency program will expand in the coming years, spotlighting creators from a variety of traditions. Each resident will collaborate with MIS to translate community, legacy, and storytelling into physical form through limited edition cultural compositions.

Learn more: mostincrediblestud.io/air-yabablay

CULTURAL CONTEXT

Professional Black Girl — A multi-platform community created in 2016 by Dr. Yaba Blay that celebrates the everyday, round-the-way culture of Black women and girls. Professional Black Girl is a celebration of us, by us, for us. Around here, Black Girl Magic unfolds in the way we love, the way we live, the way we keep showing up.

Dr. Yaba Blay — Scholar, cultural worker, and author of One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race. Featured in The New York Times, ESSENCE, and O Magazine. Her work centers on identity, representation, and the lived experiences of Black women and girls. She is the inaugural Professional Black Girl-in-Residence at Most Incredible Studio.

The Bamboo Earring in Culture — Emerged in New York City at the crossroads of Black and Brown girlhood, shaped by Asian design influence and carried by women who made the everyday divine. Hoop earrings have adorned women across Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America for centuries. The bamboo and door knocker earring became an emblem of hip hop style, identity, and self-definition, worn as both adornment and armor. Each pair is engraved with names, dreams, and declarations.

Jamel Shabazz — Legendary New York street photographer whose work documenting Black and Brown life since the early 1980s has made him one of the most important archival voices in the culture. His photography for the BAMBOO campaign connects the composition to the visual tradition of documenting everyday Black life with reverence and intention.

Press 

Dr. Yaba Blay and Most Incredible Studio Create ‘The BAMBOO,’ Elevating Icon to Cultural Artifact (Black Enterprise, November 2025)

Where Culture Meets LEGO: Most Incredible Studio Welcomes Dr. Yaba Blay as Professional Black Girl-in-Residence (MVEMNT, October 2025)

Dr. Yaba Blay Is Turning Bamboo Earrings Into LEGO Art (Madame Noire)

Michele Y. Smith (CEO, MoPOP) LinkedIn post on BAMBOO at MoPOP