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Adraint Bereal
File:Adraint dazed solo.jpg Adraint Bereal
Born	April 27th, 1998 (age 23) Waco, Texas
Education	The University of Texas at Austin
Occupation(s)	Creative, Director, Photographer, Author
Notable work	The Black Yearbook

Adraint Khadafi Bereal (born April 27th, 1998) is a creative who primarily focuses on photography, bookmaking, and graphic design¹. He is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design¹. Adraint is most well known for The Black Yearbook, a fine art piece in which he attempts to shed light on the experiences of African American students at his alma mater, The University of Texas, which is a predominantly white institution².

Education

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Adraint is a first-generation college graduate who began his undergraduate career majoring in government, but after discovering his passion for and talents in photography, he changed his major to a BFA in Design in the College of Fine Arts ¹⁸ . At the University of Texas, Adraint was an active member of the university community. He was a member of the Tejas Club, active in student government, and was the co-founder of the first African-American honor society on campus, the Onyx Honor Society ³. In his junior year, he began documenting the lives of his African American peers. This project became the Black Yearbook².

Career

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Publications

The Black Yearbook -

The Cover of The Black Yearbook

The Black Yearbook is a 360-page large-format book consisting of images and text organized by Adraint that highlights the narratives of black students at the University of Texas². The artistic work is the culmination of 2 years of work with interviews conducted and portraits taken of over 100 black students². In it, Adraint showcases the stories and experiences of his African American peers traversing through college life at an institution that is predominantly white⁴. Less than 5 percent of the total student population at The University of Texas is black, while African Americans in the state of Texas comprise nearly 13 percent of the state's total population ⁵. The Black Yearbook was featured in publications across the country, including The New York Times².

Inside The Black Yearbook

The release of the book, in late Summer 2020, coincided with a racial reckoning in the United States where police brutality, systemic racism, and racial bias were top of mind for many Americans with Black Lives Matter protests taking place worldwide after the murder of George Floyd ⁶. The book was welcomed with warm reception by students and readers alike at a time when the black experience was already in the spotlight ⁷. In its 360 pages, "The Black Yearbook shows the highs and lows of Black life at a predominantly white college, both the beauty of the campus experience and the stress of having such scant representation" ⁷.

1.7 -

His 2018 exhibit entitled "1.7" included expressive images taken by Adraint and interviews he conducted with 25 black men¹. The project was named "1.7" in reference to the percentage of black males at the University of Texas, which at the time of publication was 1.7 percent of the roughly 52,000 enrolled students. The exhibit was held at the George Washington Carver Museum in Austin, Texas¹.

Work

As a Director, Adraint has managed the production of several short films. Below is a list of his productions.

Title	Company	Year
"The Black Yearbook" (Teaser)	(Independent)	2020
"The Black Yearbook"	(Independent)	2020
"Vote Anthem"	Calvin Klein	2020
"La Haine"	(Independent)	2020
"From My View, She Moved"	(Independent)	2020
"Forever Young"	Airbnb	2020
"Away in Belize"	Away	2021

• Adraint has worked alongside a number of companies and organizations, including Airbnb, Calvin Klein, AT&T, AWAY, Outdoor Voices, and The New York Times¹.

• In the Spring of 2021, Adraint signed as a Director with Epoch Films⁸.

• In 2021, Adraint made several public statements announcing his partnership with Penguin Random House Publishing to author a book. Neither the title of the novel nor any indication of its contents has been shared thus far⁹.

Features

Adraint has been featured in The New York Times ^2101112, The Atlantic ¹³, Vice¹⁴, Austin American-Statesman¹⁵, Texas Monthly¹⁶, and The Daily Texan¹⁷, among other news publications.

References

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1. https://adraint.com/Home

2.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/08/style/black-yearbook-university-texas-austin.html

3.https://onyxhonorsociety.wixsite.com/website

4.https://www.theblackyearbook.com/

5.https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/TX

6.https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd-protests-timeline.html

7.https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/adraint-khadafhi-bereal-black-yearbook/614188/

8.https://www.shootonline.com/news/epoch-films-signs-director-adraint-bereal-his-first-spot-representation

9.https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adraint-bereal-71428778_if-you-wouldve-told-me-id-be-authoring-activity-6851201298835005440-KNxv

10.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/26/style/2020-photos-style.html

11.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/28/style/spike-lee-children-satchel-jackson-golden-globe-ambassadors.html

12.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/style/Jackson-Wiederhoeft-wants-to-bring-back-the-joy-of-playing-dress-up.html

13.https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/adraint-khadafhi-bereal-black-yearbook/614188/

14.https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/93y9d3/adraint-bereal-reflects-on-creativity-under-capitalism

15.https://www.statesman.com/story/news/education/2020/06/08/after-death-of-george-floyd-black-ut-students-look-to-their-university-for-support/113757210/

16.https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/black-yearbook-ut-am-texas-universities/

17.https://thedailytexan.com/2019/08/29/students-share-underrepresented-uncensored-narratives-and-perspectives-in-black-yearbook/

18. https://designcreativetech.utexas.edu/video/adraint-bereal

External Links

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Adraint Bereal's Website

The New York Times "Black at U.T. and Beyond"