Inside Our ‘Women To Know: Modern Mavericks’ Panel With LaToya Hobbs, Murjoni Merriweather, And Jewel Ham

HelloBeautiful x MadameNoire’s 2025 Women To Know event, held in New York City, brought together the Black women artists featured on this year’s list: LaToya Hobbs, Murjoni Merriweather, and Jewel Ham.

In a panel moderated by MadameNoire managing editor, Danica Daniel, the women spoke in-depth about their work as Black women artists, what inspires their art, what fuels their creativity, occupying space within the art world, and more.

The event was a moment to celebrate these talented Black women creating art on their own terms and using their work as a vehicle to highlight their respective communities who act as their muses, while also inspiring the next generation of fearless creatives. 

When asked by Daniel what fuels their creativity and how they define themselves as an artist, Merriweather and Hobbs responded with the common theme of community.

“The thing that fuels my creativity is my own self-love,” Merriweather began. “I feel like when I started I was making it for us, and then eventually I started wanting to make more work that represented my own healing journey. I learned a lot more about myself through creating new work. My community and the people I surround myself with [has also been fuel] it’s been like Red Bull to my heart.”

Hobbs added her own perspective, stating, “I’m inspired by my life in general. My own life experiences. I really try to channel and champion the stories of people in my community.”

“[I’m] very much inspired by what I like to call everyday heroes because they have extraordinary stories, extraordinary lives. I think there’s so much power in the everyday and so many people have phenomenal stories that maybe just don’t have like a million followers,” she said.

Fellow artist Ham also let attendees in on she chooses which stories to tell through her art.

“I always want to stick with the story that feels like home to me,” she said. “That feels like something that I’ve experienced or people in my community that are close to me, we’ve shared an experience.”

“A lot of my sketches and things, they start with a lot of writing, a lot of just what I want the viewer to experience when they’re looking at the works. It feels comfortable to me and that’s where I’m able to use my voice the most,” Ham added.

To close out the insightful event and conversation, the ladies were asked the advice they would give their younger selves.

”I would tell my younger self not to be concerned about what people think about you because that’s something that I used to do. I used to dim myself. Don’t try to dim your light to make other people feel comfortable,” Hobbs shared.

Merriweather added that she would tell her younger self to “make the work that I wanna make, do what I wanna do…find my tribe and people who love me for who I am.”

”Keep at it baby! If you don’t wanna go, you don’t gotta go,” Ham exclaimed. 

We thank these incredible women for sharing their art with us and can’t wait to see what they do next.

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