Many men wait months to see a doctor about fatigue, low drive, weight gain, or poor sleep. These symptoms can have more than one cause. Low testosterone is one possibility. Thyroid, blood sugar, stress hormones, sleep, and medications can play a part, too.
“Many men come in after being told to sleep more and stress less,” said Dr. Kasey Nichols, NMD, co-founder of Onyx Integrative Medicine & Aesthetics. “Testosterone is part of the picture, but it is rarely the whole picture. We look at how hormones, digestion, sleep, and stress connect. Then we build a plan the patient understands.”
What the Program Includes
New patients start with a 75-minute first visit. Dr. Kasey reviews symptoms, health history, medications, and goals. Testing can look at testosterone alongside thyroid, blood sugar, and other markers. Results inform the plan, and the doctor decides on treatment with the patient.
A plan may include testosterone replacement therapy, non-hormone testosterone support, nutrition, herbal medicine, or acupuncture. TRT is not right for every man. It needs follow-up visits and ongoing monitoring.
About Dr. Kasey Nichols, NMD
Dr. Kasey earned his doctorate at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. He has advanced training in testosterone replacement and bioidentical hormones. He is licensed in Arizona and Kansas. His writing has appeared in Healthline, Reader’s Digest, and The Vitamin Shoppe. He also serves as treasurer of the Arizona Naturopathic Medical Association.
Men can book a first visit with Dr. Kasey at onyx.janeapp.com. The practice holds a 5.0-star Google rating from more than 200 reviews.
About Onyx Integrative Medicine & Aesthetics
Onyx Integrative Medicine & Aesthetics is a naturopathic and functional medicine clinic in Gilbert, Arizona, with a medical aesthetics practice. Founded by Dr. Stephanie Nichols, NMD, and Dr. George “Kasey” Nichols, NMD, the clinic serves patients throughout the greater East Valley and Phoenix metro area with a patient-specific approach to care.
The Shopify backup app offers automated and manual backups, metafield preservation, original-resolution product images, and guided restoration, with plans starting at $8.99 per month.
San Jose, CA, United States, 23rd Oct 2026 – Shopify merchants invest significant time building and maintaining their product catalogs, from product descriptions and variants to inventory quantities, collections, metafields, and product photography. Unexpected data changes, incorrect bulk imports, or accidental edits can disrupt store operations and leave merchants facing time-consuming catalog recovery work.
Octopus Bridge today announced Octopus Harbour, a Shopify backup app designed to help merchants maintain copies of important product catalog data and simplify recovery when changes need to be reversed.
Automated Backups and Catalog Protection
Octopus Harbour supports nightly automated backups and on-demand backups that merchants can run before making significant catalog changes. Its backup coverage includes products, variants, inventory quantities, collections, metafields, and product images at their original resolution.
Each backup is packaged into a ZIP archive containing structured catalog data and associated images. Merchants can retain these archives as separate copies of their catalog information for reference, catalog reviews, and recovery planning.
The app also offers backup restoration support through a guided CSV workflow. Merchants can select a previous snapshot and prepare catalog data for re-import into Shopify. Its image restoration workflow is designed to help address missing product images by referencing copies stored in Harbour’s backup system.
Flexible Plans for Growing Stores
Octopus Harbour is available through the Shopify App Store with a 14-day free trial. Subscription plans start at $8.99 per month, with higher-tier options offering increased catalog limits and longer backup retention periods.
The app focuses on product catalog protection rather than claiming to back up every component of a Shopify store.
Octopus Bridge develops technology solutions for retailers and eCommerce businesses, including tools that connect supported point-of-sale systems with eCommerce platforms and marketplaces. Octopus Harbour extends its product offering with a dedicated Shopify catalog backup and restoration solution.
London, United Kindom, October 23rd, 2026, FinanceWire
The strategy brings a refined identity to international trading, with an emphasis on technology, clear communication and the needs of discerning market participants.
UPrime Capital is announcing a brand strategy centred on a personalised trading experience, financial technology and international markets. The direction establishes a consistent approach to the company’s identity and communications, combining a premium visual presentation with a focus on explaining the tools, terminology and considerations behind online trading.
The strategy places professionalism and clarity at the centre of the UPrime Capital brand. Its intended audience includes experienced market participants and individuals researching trading technology who want substantive information alongside a considered digital experience.
Rather than defining sophistication through appearance alone, the positioning connects it with the quality of information presented: how trading tools are described, how market developments are explained and how clearly prospective clients can understand the nature of a service.
Technology With A Clear Purpose
AI trading and automated investing are central themes within the company’s proposed communications direction. UPrime Capital’s strategy calls for these subjects to be addressed through practical explanations of their functions, applications and limitations.
The distinction matters. Automation can follow predefined instructions, while AI-based systems may use models trained on data to generate outputs or inform a process. Neither term, by itself, establishes the quality of a system or its suitability for an individual.
UPrime Capital’s positioning emphasises a more informed conversation about financial technology, including the importance of evaluating functionality, oversight and the conditions under which a tool operates.
A Timely Perspective On International Trading
The announcement comes as UK market participants continue to assess inflation, monetary policy and their implications for sterling and global financial markets.
As checked on 19 October 2026, the Bank of England lists Bank Rate at 3.75%, its current inflation measure at 3.1% and its next interest-rate announcement for 5 November. These reference points provide a timely backdrop for discussions about forex market analysis and changing expectations.
For currency pair trading, the significance of an economic release depends partly on how it compares with expectations and on developments affecting both currencies. Similarly, understanding gold, equity indices or commodities requires attention to the instrument being considered as well as the broader economic environment.
UPrime Capital’s brand direction places this relationship between information and understanding at the centre of its communications.
A Consistent Identity Across Digital Channels
The strategy also sets a creative direction for the brand’s digital presence. Clean layouts, restrained design and precise language are intended to establish a recognisable identity across company materials.
Personalisation is a guiding principle within that direction, reflecting the different levels of experience, interests and research needs that individuals bring to financial markets. Any specific service or functionality will need to be described through its actual scope and applicable terms.
Through this positioning, UPrime Capital is setting out its ambition to build recognition through a consistent combination of professional presentation, useful information and a considered approach to trading technology.
UPrime Capital is developing a brand identity focused on international trading, financial technology and a personalised trading experience. Its stated positioning emphasises professionalism, innovation and clear communication for individuals researching global financial markets.
London, United Kindom, October 23rd, 2026, FinanceWire
The strategy brings a refined identity to international trading, with an emphasis on technology, clear communication and the needs of discerning market participants.
UPrime Capital is announcing a brand strategy centred on a personalised trading experience, financial technology and international markets. The direction establishes a consistent approach to the company’s identity and communications, combining a premium visual presentation with a focus on explaining the tools, terminology and considerations behind online trading.
The strategy places professionalism and clarity at the centre of the UPrime Capital brand. Its intended audience includes experienced market participants and individuals researching trading technology who want substantive information alongside a considered digital experience.
Rather than defining sophistication through appearance alone, the positioning connects it with the quality of information presented: how trading tools are described, how market developments are explained and how clearly prospective clients can understand the nature of a service.
Technology With A Clear Purpose
AI trading and automated investing are central themes within the company’s proposed communications direction. UPrime Capital’s strategy calls for these subjects to be addressed through practical explanations of their functions, applications and limitations.
The distinction matters. Automation can follow predefined instructions, while AI-based systems may use models trained on data to generate outputs or inform a process. Neither term, by itself, establishes the quality of a system or its suitability for an individual.
UPrime Capital’s positioning emphasises a more informed conversation about financial technology, including the importance of evaluating functionality, oversight and the conditions under which a tool operates.
A Timely Perspective On International Trading
The announcement comes as UK market participants continue to assess inflation, monetary policy and their implications for sterling and global financial markets.
As checked on 19 October 2026, the Bank of England lists Bank Rate at 3.75%, its current inflation measure at 3.1% and its next interest-rate announcement for 5 November. These reference points provide a timely backdrop for discussions about forex market analysis and changing expectations.
For currency pair trading, the significance of an economic release depends partly on how it compares with expectations and on developments affecting both currencies. Similarly, understanding gold, equity indices or commodities requires attention to the instrument being considered as well as the broader economic environment.
UPrime Capital’s brand direction places this relationship between information and understanding at the centre of its communications.
A Consistent Identity Across Digital Channels
The strategy also sets a creative direction for the brand’s digital presence. Clean layouts, restrained design and precise language are intended to establish a recognisable identity across company materials.
Personalisation is a guiding principle within that direction, reflecting the different levels of experience, interests and research needs that individuals bring to financial markets. Any specific service or functionality will need to be described through its actual scope and applicable terms.
Through this positioning, UPrime Capital is setting out its ambition to build recognition through a consistent combination of professional presentation, useful information and a considered approach to trading technology.
UPrime Capital is developing a brand identity focused on international trading, financial technology and a personalised trading experience. Its stated positioning emphasises professionalism, innovation and clear communication for individuals researching global financial markets.
AVIP Announces Binance Listing, Exploring Synergies Between Computing Infrastructure and Large-Model Applications Through AI Agent Value Assessment and Incentive Pricing
United States, 23rd Oct 2026 – AVIP recently announced its official listing on Binance, marking a milestone in its global market expansion. Building on this development, AVIP will continue to expand its international trading channels, with listings on additional major global digital asset trading platforms among its next-stage objectives, gradually broadening the project’s international reach.
The listing provides more users with a new channel to learn about and participate in AVIP, while creating opportunities for the project to connect with communities interested in artificial intelligence, AI agent collaboration, and digital assets. As its market reach expands, AVIP will further improve its community engagement and developer participation mechanisms, promoting technical exchange, application exploration, and ecosystem collaboration.
Alongside the expansion of its trading channels, AVIP will continue to explore AI agent value assessment and incentive pricing, focusing on synergies among computing infrastructure, large-model applications, and contribution allocation mechanisms. The project aims to gradually move its peer-to-peer intelligence marketplace from mechanism research toward validation in practical use cases.
AVIP Explores a Development Path for an AI Agent Value Marketplace, Focusing on Synergies Between Computing Infrastructure and Large-Model Applications
As artificial intelligence applications evolve from services provided by individual models toward collaboration among multiple agents, identifying the actual contributions of different agents and establishing incentive mechanisms aligned with service quality are becoming important areas of exploration. AVIP (Allocate Value, Incentivize Pricing) addresses this challenge by proposing an internet-based, peer-to-peer intelligence marketplace. Through participant evaluations, digital-ledger records, and economic incentives, the project seeks to explore ways to identify value and allocate contributions among intelligent systems.
At the hardware level, potential collaboration between AVIP and leading chip technology companies could focus on GPU computing resources, node deployment, and cluster operating efficiency. An AI agent marketplace needs to continuously process task requests, generate model outputs, and evaluate the performance of different participants. As the number of participating nodes and the scale of tasks increase, computing throughput, response speed, video memory capacity, and communication efficiency between nodes will all affect the network’s service capabilities.
The technical strengths of leading chip companies lie in GPU-accelerated computing and the supporting hardware and software ecosystem. Their GPUs, interconnect technologies, and related software can support large-model training and inference, providing infrastructure options for high-concurrency computing tasks. AVIP’s proposed value-assessment and incentive mechanisms could give these computing resources concrete application scenarios: nodes would provide services for real tasks, while the project explores how rewards could be allocated according to service performance.
If the parties confirm a collaboration in the future, initial work could begin with node hardware compatibility, benchmarking, and small-scale pilots. These efforts would assess task-processing capacity, response latency, and cost per task under different configurations before any decision to expand deployment. For AVIP, this could strengthen the network’s capacity; for the technology ecosystem associated with leading chip companies, it could create a new use case for AI agent collaboration and distributed evaluation. At the large-model level, AVIP could explore collaboration with leading AI companies in model-service integration, task understanding, tool calling, and evaluation assistance. Function-calling mechanisms enable AI models to connect with external tools and data through applications, providing a technical pathway for building agents capable of carrying out specific tasks.
Building on these capabilities, AVIP could explore converting user requirements into clearly structured tasks for different agents to process. For example, in information organization, content generation, or business workflow assistance, large models can help interpret task requirements, call external tools, and return results in specified formats. AVIP would focus on researching ways to record contributions and allocate incentives based on output quality, completion efficiency, and task suitability.
The potential complementary value of such collaboration lies in connecting large-model capabilities with measurable task contributions. Model services from leading AI companies could support task understanding and execution, while AVIP’s proposed mechanisms would focus on answering two questions: which results are more valuable, and which participants should be rewarded.
In designing the evaluation process, large models could serve as auxiliary tools, but reward allocation would still need to incorporate verifiable results, independent testing, and human spot checks to reduce the effects of model bias, collusive scoring, or deliberate score manipulation.
Access to trading markets also affects participation channels within the AVIP ecosystem. More broadly, computing infrastructure, large-model services, and value-assessment mechanisms each address different needs: hardware supports task execution, large models support task understanding and execution, and AVIP explores how contributions can be recorded, compared, and allocated. If these three components work effectively together in pilot programs, they could help move the AI agent marketplace from conceptual validation toward practical application.
A practical next step would be to test tasks with clearly defined scopes and verifiable outcomes, gradually evaluating node operating costs, model service quality, and reward rules before expanding developer participation and application coverage. For AVIP, establishing an intelligence marketplace that can operate continuously, deliver credible evaluations, and maintain traceable contribution records will be a key part of its development path.
About AVIP
AVIP (Allocate Value, Incentivize Pricing) is a project exploring mechanisms for AI agent value assessment and incentive pricing. It proposes an internet-based, peer-to-peer intelligence marketplace in which participants evaluate one another through neural networks, record scores on a digital ledger, and provide economic rewards to higher-ranked participants according to applicable rules. The project aims to explore ways to identify value and allocate contributions among intelligent systems.
The PEA highlights that Oceanic will not require a railroad to get its iron ore to market, significantly reducing capital expenses and operating costs.
Canada, 23rd Oct 2026 – Global Stocks News – Sponsored content disseminated on behalf of Oceanic Iron Ore. On October 22, 2026, Oceanic Iron Ore (TSXV: FEO) issued a shareholder message titled “No Railway Needed: Our Operational Advantage”.
Oceanic is focused on the development of its 100% owned Hopes Advance, Morgan Lake and Roberts Lake iron ore projects located on the coast, in the Labrador Trough in Québec, Canada.
The flagship Hopes Advance Project has a NI 43-101 Measured & Indicated resource of about 1.36 billion tonnes at a head grade of 32.1% Fe. The project is located at tidewater. The PEA highlights that Oceanic will not require a railroad to get its iron ore to market, significantly reducing capital expenses and operating costs.
No Railway Needed: Our Operational Advantage
Chris Batalha CEO of Oceanic Iron Ore
The world’s biggest iron ore mines and mining complexes are situated in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, northern Brazil’s Amazon basin, Guinea’s Simandou mountain range, Canada’s Labrador Trough, South Africa’s Northern Cape, and Sweden’s Arctic north. Located far from industrial steel plants, these massive deposits require dedicated heavy-haul rail corridors stretching anywhere from 170 to 900 kilometres to reach specialized deep-sea ports for international markets.
Oceanic’s iron ore assets are located in Northern Québec, close to tidewater. We anticipate that our iron ore concentrate will be transported from the mine to the port via truck along a 26 km access road. This gives us a significant cost, operational and logistical advantage.
Railroad construction costs per kilometre of track vary based on location, the cost of labour, materials and topography. Freight trains can handle a maximum slope of 1.5%. Anything more than that, they lose traction or stall. That’s not a problem if you are building a trans-Saskatchewan rail line. Hills, valleys, mountains and rivers create expensive engineering and construction challenges.
Case in point: The new Simandou iron ore project in Guinea requires a 552-kilometre railway to move its iron ore from a mine site in the mountains 1,200 metres above sea level to the Atlantic coast.An11-kilometre tunnel was needed to bypass a steep vertical drop. More than 20 bridges were built.
Railroads pose bigger engineering challenges than highways. A single loaded railcar weighs about130 metric tonnes. To make the tracks stable, construction crews in Guinea had to reinforce the track subgrade across multiple soil profiles. The railway terminates on the Atlantic coast in shallow water. To accommodate Panamax-sized shipping berths, Simandou must build a 20-kilometre-long pier into deeper water.
The cost of building the Simandou iron ore railway and port infrastructure was shared by a consortium of multinational miners, Chinese state-owned steel giants, and the Guinean government. The total bill was approximately US$15 billion. That’s about 10 X our entire projected capex. With no requirement to build a railroad, Oceanic Iron Ore can achieve an attractive payback period with a smaller production profile.
We are based in the Labrador Trough in Quebec, where other iron ore producers require hundreds of kilometres of shared railway. This infrastructure bottleneck leaves operations dependent on third-party scheduling. In addition to upfront capital expenditures for rail development, project economics are heavily influenced by the ongoing operational expenses and fixed tariffs imposed per tonne of ore transported.
A 2019 Technical Report on the Hopes Advance property projected construction costs, mine pre-stripping costs, pre-operational capitalized costs, indirect costs, closure and contingency costs at $1.193 billion.
Major line items in the capex include construction of the mineral processing area ($206.9 million), port ($181.8 million), mine infrastructure ($159.2 million), electric power ($47.6 million) and a mining fleet ($30.3 million). Starting in year five, the total expansion capital cost is estimated at $690 million.
With rising costs of engineering, labour and machinery, our capex today would be higher than the costs cited in the 2019 Tech Report. But with no railroad requirement, we are in a strong position to build a profitable mine delivering high-grade, low-impurity iron ore to the green steel market.
In the next message, I will introduce you to our leadership team.
Disclaimer: Oceanic Iron Ore paid Global Stocks News (GSN) $1,200 for the dissemination of this content.
Full Disclaimer: GSN researches and fact-checks diligently, but we cannot ensure our publications are free from error. Investing in publicly traded stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. GSN publications may contain forward-looking statements such as “project,” “anticipate,” “expect,” which are based on reasonable expectations, but these statements are imperfect predictors of future events. When compensation has been paid to GSN, the amount and nature of the compensation will be disclosed clearly.
Gangnam clinic advances customized male restorative procedures with dual-layer allograft matrices and specialized powder techniques to optimize dermal thickness and natural contouring.
Seoul, South Korea, 23rd Oct 2026 – As medical tourism and patient demand for specialized male healthcare continue to evolve, South Korea’s aesthetic urology sector is increasingly shifting toward advanced, bio-compatible solutions tailored to individual patient anatomy. Highst Urology Clinic, located in Gangnam, Seoul, is at the forefront of this transition, refining surgical protocols through multi-dimensional application techniques.
Rather than relying on standardized, single-material procedures, Highst Urology Clinic has developed its 3rd-Generation “Highst 2X Combination Surgery.” This technique integrates a dual-layer human allograft matrix with specialized allograft powder. Patient requirements for male restorative care vary significantly based on natural tissue elasticity, baseline anatomical contours, and specific aesthetic goals. To address these variations, the clinic offers customized surgical plans designed to achieve structural permanence alongside natural texture.
While conventional dermal grafts typically offer a dermal thickness of 3–5 mm, the clinic’s dual-layer approach achieves an expanded dermal thickness of 6–10 mm. By layering two sheets of specially engineered premium allograft material and applying biological powder to minimize step-off effects at the edges, the surgical team delivers an expected post-operative circumference increase of 4–4.5 cm while preserving natural-looking contours and texture.
“Modern male intimate health procedures require a sophisticated understanding of tissue integration and patient-specific anatomical balance,” stated Dr. Jinmo Koo, Chief Director of Highst Urology Clinic. “By developing 3rd-generation protocols that combine dual human allografts with specialized powder techniques, we can offer safer, highly individualized surgical options that meet elevated patient expectations.”
Highst Urology Clinic continues to refine its clinical techniques and patient-centered strategies, contributing to the growth of specialized male aesthetic care and medical tourism in Gangnam, Seoul.
About Highst Urology Clinic: Highst Urology Clinic is a Seoul-based medical institution specializing in advanced male aesthetic procedures, reconstructive urology, and personalized patient care.
Hong Kong-based trading technology provider opens a weekly competitive tournament for global retail traders using TradeLocker infrastructure.
Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R., 23rd Oct 2026 – GOKEN Trader, a Hong Kong-based proprietary trading technology provider operated by Coken Limited, today announced the global expansion of its trading evaluation infrastructure with the launch of the GOKEN Weekly Championship, a recurring trading tournament that awards funded evaluation accounts to top-performing traders every week.
Unlike traditional prop firm evaluations that traders purchase individually, the GOKEN Weekly Championship lets participants enter a global competition for a $15 entry fee. Each entry operates on a continuous 24-hour rolling evaluation cycle within a 7-day competition window with a 3-day minimum trading requirement, and in every round the top 10 finishers receive funded challenge accounts ranging from $5,000 to $200,000 depending on their return performance. All participants also receive a 30% discount coupon toward any evaluation program.
“Most trader funding is built around gatekeeping — expensive evaluations with complicated rules,” said Johnny Pak, founder of GOKEN Trader. “We designed the Championship as a league: a low entry fee, transparent rules published on one page, and a new round every week. If you can trade, you should be able to prove it for the price of a meal, not a month’s rent.”
The platform is built on TradeLocker’s institutional-grade trading infrastructure, used by brokers and proprietary trading firms worldwide. Alongside the tournament, GOKEN Trader offers a full evaluation lineup: a Fast 1-Step $5K evaluation, standard 1-Step and 2-Step evaluations, and an Instant Funding program for experienced traders seeking an immediate funded account. All programs feature clearly published rules — daily loss limits, drawdown terms, minimum trading days, and payout schedules — with no maximum time limits on completing evaluations.
Payout requests are reviewed within 24–48 hours. Funded traders keep 80% of profits, rising to 90% after three consecutive successful payouts. The platform supports forex, indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies, with new account credentials issued automatically upon passing each evaluation phase.
Registration is open at www.gokentrader.com, with payment accepted in USDT (TRC-20). Local payment methods across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa are rolling out.
About GOKEN Trader: GOKEN Trader, operated by Coken Limited, is a proprietary trading technology provider headquartered in Hong Kong, offering simulated evaluation programs and funded trading accounts to retail traders worldwide. Its flagship product, the GOKEN Weekly Championship, runs weekly competitive rounds awarding funded accounts to the top 10 traders in each round.
Indonesia, 23rd Oct 2026 – Noteworthy educator and passionate humanitarian volunteer Linda Robb Hahn Santoso has released her memoir, My Heart Didn’t Mean It: A Story of Love and Adventure. The memoir is an inspiring, deeply personal account spanning decades of the author’s exciting life journey. It documents her travels from rural Nebraska to remote Indonesia and is more than a travel journal; it shows how one can find true happiness in the farthest places.
My Heart Didn’t Mean It is a gripping memoir that goes beyond a mere personal narrative, taking readers on a vibrant journey at the intersection of self-transformation and cultural immersion. It offers a glimpse into a life devoted to education, curiosity, and adventure. The author recounts a decades-long journey of stepping out of her comfort zone to explore the planet’s most remote regions, far from the rural Nebraska farm where she was raised. Her international love story is a central theme of the memoir, documenting the unexpected chain of events that transformed an American educator into the wife of an Indonesian explorer and ultimately led her to build a life thousands of miles from the U.S. Drawing on more than 50 years of international adventures, the memoir offers an intimate account of how pursuing unfamiliar places reshapes one’s future.
Linda Robb Hahn Santoso, MA, EdD, is a dedicated educator and traveler who has spent her life teaching young students across the United States and around the world. With a master’s in literature and a PhD in education, she has taught in Nebraska, Kansas, and Indonesia, where she now lives permanently. Beyond the classroom, Linda has traveled to more than 115 countries, both solo and with her husband. Her commitment to cultural preservation has led her to some of the world’s most remote regions.
In addition to her teaching career, Linda has spent many years as a humanitarian volunteer in various parts of Africa, including Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, and Uganda. As a first-time author, she is sharing her unique experiences with the world, showing how traveling to remote places reshaped her life for the better.
Linda Robb Hahn Santoso, MA, EdD, is available for interviews.
Title: My Heart Didn’t Mean It: A Story of Love and Adventure
12th Edition of Art Fair to Feature Opening of GRIOT: Urgent Storytelling for Our Times Exhibit
Austria, 23rd Oct 2026 – AfriKin Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art institution based in Miami, will open the 12th edition of AfriKin Art Fair on November 29, 2026, with GRIOT: Urgent Storytelling for Our Times, an exhibition of an estimated 70 artists of African heritage from more than 35 countries and territories across Africa and the diaspora. Curated by Joseph L. Underwood, Ph.D., of Kent State University, the fair runs through December 6 at Maison AfriKin, 1600 NE 126th Street in Downtown North Miami, during Miami Art Week and alongside Art Basel Miami Beach.
Award-winning actress and art collector CCH Pounder, whose collection includes more than 500 works by Caribbean, African and diaspora artists, will receive the 2026 AfriKin Award of Excellence at the opening Vernissage on November 29.
Now in its twelfth consecutive year, AfriKin Art Fair has become one of the most sought-after destinations during Miami Art Week for collectors acquiring work by emerging and established artists of African heritage. The fair is built on AfriKin’s founding principle that culture creates commerce, commerce strengthens community, and community safeguards culture. In 2025, the fair welcomed 8,955 visitors, generated $188,000 in combined marketplace sales and paid $97,800 directly to participating artists.
“The griot kept the record of the community,” said Alfonso D. Brooks, Founder and Chairman of AfriKin Foundation. “For twelve years, AfriKin has given artists of African heritage a place inside Miami Art Week to keep the record of our time, put it in front of the world’s collectors, and be paid for it. CCH Pounder has spent decades carrying these artists into museums from Philadelphia to London, and we are proud to honor her as GRIOT opens.”
The Exhibition
GRIOT casts contemporary artists as vital members of their communities. The griots of West Africa have historically been responsible for carrying the stories of their communities, asking “Where have we been? What have we accomplished?” They could also carry a word of warning, often using their position of privilege to advocate for the community during the reign of difficult rulers, asking “What are we becoming? Haven’t we learned this lesson yet?”
Working in painting, sculpture, photography, textile and other media, the artists of GRIOT are storytellers who are each remembering, reflecting, critiquing, praising, celebrating, dreaming and encouraging.
The exhibition is divided into smaller sections, or dialogues, where the artworks pose similar questions. Visitors will have a chance to respond on site, engaging in a conversation with the display and re-enacting the call and response of a griot and their audience, like a minister with their congregation.
“Across the dialogues, visitors will encounter the art as a living force for dialogue, not a passive decoration on a wall, but a contemporary griot whose call demands our attention and our response,” said curator Joseph L. Underwood, Ph.D.
2026 Honoree: CCH Pounder, Griot of the Collection
AfriKin Foundation will present the 2026 AfriKin Award of Excellence to CCH Pounder in recognition of a lifetime spent collecting, preserving and presenting the work of Caribbean, African and diaspora artists. In the tradition of the griot, Pounder has built a collection that keeps the record: a living archive of more than 500 works that she has carried into museums across the United States, Europe and Africa.
The CCH Pounder-Koné Collection is concentrated in contemporary art and includes traditional African sculpture. Exhibitions drawn from it include Shared Vision at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Diaspora Stories at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center in Chicago, Queen at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, and, most recently, Brother, Brother at the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta. Works from the collection have also been loaned to the National Portrait Gallery and Somerset House in London, the Art Institute of Chicago, Xavier University of Louisiana, Spelman College Museum of Art, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and the Kent State University Museum.
In 1992, Pounder and her late husband, Boubacar Koné, founded the Musée Boribana in Dakar, the first privately owned contemporary art museum in Senegal, and gifted it to the nation in 2014. In 2022 she was named a Commander of the National Order of the Lion, Senegal’s highest honor. GRIOT curator Dr. Joseph L. Underwood has himself contributed to exhibition projects at the Musée Boribana, a connection that links this year’s honoree and this year’s exhibition through the same institution.
“Artists are the griots of our time. They hold what we cannot afford to forget,” said CCH Pounder. “Every work I have collected carries someone’s story, and a collector’s responsibility is to keep that story moving into museums, into classrooms and into the hands of the next generation. AfriKin has built that kind of home in Miami, and I am honored to stand with these artists during Art Week.”
Originally from Georgetown, Guyana, Pounder is a four-time Emmy® nominee known for her roles as Claudette Wyms on FX’s The Shield and Dr. Loretta Wade on CBS’s NCIS: New Orleans, and for James Cameron’s Avatar films, including Avatar: Fire and Ash. She can currently be seen in The Terror: Devil in Silver on AMC+ and Cape Fear on Apple TV+. She serves on the board of the African Millennium Foundation, was a founding member of Artists for a New South Africa, and holds the Cacique’s Crown of Honour from Guyana and honorary doctorates from the University of Guyana and Ithaca College.
Collectors, patrons and supporters are invited to join the celebration at the Vernissage on November 29, where Pounder will be honored alongside the artists of GRIOT. VIP Preview tickets
Programming
Following the Vernissage, the GRIOT exhibition is open to the public daily from 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM, November 30 to December 6, closing at 6:00 PM on Sunday, December 6, with performances, collector preview access, and artist-led workshops open to collectors, students and the public. This year’s AfriKin Talks program is CHANGÁ: Griot Moves on December 3. Signature programs, in date order:
Sunday, November 29 | The Vernissage: An All-White Affair | 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
An evening showcase of multidisciplinary art and an All-White red-carpet gala, the Vernissage opens the 12th edition with a collectors’ preview, first access to the GRIOT exhibition, live performances, immersive installations and the presentation of the 2026 AfriKin Award of Excellence to CCH Pounder. Doors open at 5:30 PM. Dress code: All White with a Splash of AfriKin Chic. VIP Preview and VVIP tickets
Tuesday, December 1 | Rhythm and Soul: Mosaic Workshop | 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
A beginner-friendly mosaic workshop led by Orlando-based glass and metal artist JoKeeta of Stained Glass by JoKeeta. Using pre-cut tiles and provided materials, six to twelve participants each complete a finished piece to take home. RSVP
Thursday, December 3 | CHANGÁ: Griot Moves | 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
A breakfast, screening and conversation built around Changá, a 55-minute documentary that uses the Caribbean game of dominoes to examine how Dutch Caribbean communities create and thrive in the Netherlands. The screening is followed by a conversation between co-director Prof. Dr. Francio Guadeloupe, Endowed Chair in Public Anthropology of Kingdom Relations at the University of Amsterdam and former President of the University of St. Martin, and Prof. Patricia J. Saunders, Professor of English and Hemispheric Caribbean Studies at the University of Miami, President of the Caribbean Studies Association and author of the Bocas Prize-shortlisted Buyers Beware: Epistemologies of Consumption in Caribbean Popular Culture (Rutgers University Press, 2022). The morning closes with a live domino art activation. Register
Saturday, December 5 | African Fashion Week Miami Pop-Up | 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM
A designer pop-up previewing the collections of REGENESIS: The African Winter.
Sunday, December 6 | African Fashion Week Miami: REGENESIS: The African Winter | 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
The closing runway presents designers from continental Africa and its diaspora. Following 2025’s Resistance on the Runway, REGENESIS stages a winter collection runway in tropical Miami, presenting sculptural coats, futuristic knits and couture tailoring that position African design as a source of global luxury. Tickets
All programs take place at Maison AfriKin, Scott Galvin Community Center, 1600 NE 126th Street, North Miami, FL 33181. Ticket prices increase November 1. Full details at afrikin.org.
AfriKin Art Fair 2026 is presented with Miami Art Week partners the City of North Miami, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau and Art of Black Miami, Dutch Culture USA, Tito’s Handmade Vodka and CNW Network, with additional support from North Miami Parks.
Sponsorship Opportunities
AfriKin is inviting corporate, brand and institutional partners to join its 2026-27 cultural season, which opens with the Art Fair and continues with Black History Month programming in February 2027 and Art, Jazz & Champagne, AfriKin’s Women’s History Month centerpiece, on March 14, 2027.
Sponsors align with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art institution that has paid artists directly, drawn international collectors, diplomats and cultural leaders to North Miami, and earned coverage from major media outlets. Partnership includes brand visibility across the season, press reach, and direct access to collectors and artists during Miami Art Week.
Presenting and Premier are single-partner anchor tiers. Diamond through Community tiers are open to multiple partners at each level. Contributions may be tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Sponsorship inquiries: Alfonso D. Brooks, Founder and Chairman, +1 (646) 296-3613, brooks@afrikin.org, afrikin.org/sponsor
About the Curator
Joseph L. Underwood, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Art History at Kent State University and returns as curator of AfriKin Art Fair after leading the 2025 edition. A historian of modern and contemporary art, he focuses on the postwar era, including post-colonialism, (trans)nationalism, globalization and biennialism. His research centers on how artists in Francophone West and North Africa have built transnational networks of influence since the mid-20th century. He has contributed to exhibition projects at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the Dakar Biennale for Contemporary African Art and the Musée Boribana in Dakar. Curator profile
About AfriKin Foundation
AfriKin Foundation, Inc. (EIN 85-2592611) is a Miami-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit art institution dedicated to contemporary African and diaspora art and culture. Founded in 2015 by Alfonso D. Brooks, AfriKin has operated Maison AfriKin at the Scott Galvin Community Center in Downtown North Miami since 2022, guided by the principle that culture creates commerce, commerce strengthens community, and community safeguards culture. AfriKin’s work has been recognized by proclamations from the City of Miami, the City of Miami Beach, the City of North Miami and Miami-Dade County, as well as the 2025 Arts and Social Impact Award from the Arts and Business Council of Miami. The 2026-27 season continues with Black History Month programming in February 2027 and Art, Jazz & Champagne on March 14, 2027. In 2025, AfriKin Art Fair paid $97,800 directly to artists and welcomed 8,955 visitors. Learn more at afrikin.org and @afrikinnation.
