Ismael David Mujahid \/ Contributed<\/a><\/p>\nThe event included live DJs. Performers there to delight visitors ranged from Detroit luminaries such as Max Watts, Sugar, and Salar Ansari; Jaqueline Farrara, Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival founder Rechulski, as well as local talents like OGC and Fatty Lumpkin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not in one lane. We don\u2019t have to be. Expression is not always about sales and optimization. Sometimes it\u2019s about just bringing your community together,\u201d Huggins said. \u201cI think that if you look at what our program is and how we incorporated the Dayton Dance Initiative, Live Painting every day, regional talents that are global superstars on the music side of things; that conglomeration is really the ethos of Future Is Now.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the event, 100 pieces of curated art from the Future Is Now X collection were displayed. They comprised work by 80 artists from New York as well as 20 artists from Dayton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to the panel discussion, art lovers were given a treat when famed New York muralist Cern teamed up with Diaz for a collaborative effort of their own. The mural titled ‘Misappropriation of Funds’ is full of the energy and colors the two artists are known for.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Knowing his friend Huggins was hosting the event, Cern told the Dayton Daily News that coming to the city was an easy to decision to make.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he (Huggins) has the vision, he believes in my work, where its going, and he\u2019s seen where its come from and stuff so I trust in that,\u201d Cern said. \u201cI trust that I\u2019d be meeting dope people without having to be like \u2018where am I going, where this going to be\u2019 you know? I just know it\u2019ll be beautiful and beneficial for myself and others.”<\/p>\n
Cern shared that he has fallen for Dayton and would love to return.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m learning a lot from you guys. The history here, the community here, the arts stuff. I\u2019m really just getting a crash course,\u201d Cern said. \u201cI hope through whatever we\u2019re doing here, the network I\u2019m making here and hopefully with the show of energy and vision that I will be welcomed. If not, I\u2019ll renegade and get back!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0Diaz also eagerly shared his love for the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the town. There are some signs of economic depression here like a lot of empty buildings and stuff like that but I guess that\u2019s an opportunity for young artists and people with ideas to do stuff,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cI think it\u2019s pretty vibrant. I think there are good artists, people doing some good work here. I didn\u2019t see any half-assed stuff. When they were working here, they were putting some good work together. It\u2019s cool that Kimyon and his associates were able to pull this together.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Huggins is proud to have brought the event to Dayton. He described it as his gift to the city and part of an ongoing effort to continue to grow Future Is Now X.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s very important to acknowledge that putting Dayton artists with Al Diaz, Cern, (Gabe) Specter, and some of these artists that we have just really brings them up to an entirely new level and that\u2019s the plan: to continue doing this and growing this platform and this system around the world. We\u2019ll be doing this in Detroit next,\u201d Huggins said.<\/p>\n
Future Is Now X is far from done in Dayton. Those who have missed out on its various activities will be happy to know that, according to Huggins, the initiative\u2019s monthly live streams in the city will continue.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cI would also like to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to continue growing this community and participate in the work that we do,\u201d Huggins said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rodney Veal with Mike Giant, Al Diaz, and Kimyon Huggins during a panel discussion at the Future Is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-844582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6a733d4aac82a.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6a733d4aceb35.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n