Want a ride on a magical carpet ride?
RELIK: A-Z: Open Your Mind: The Essentials is an encyclopedia app to help strengthen knowledge, empathy and creativity.
Why is this different from just Googling information online?
RELIK A-Z: Open Your Mind: The Essentials focuses on specific themes like climate change, science, mythology, technology, social justice, and female empowerment, just to name a few.
By using Wikipedia-like facts, videos and music, a podcast called The Essentials, products and a community forum called Haven, we give you the power to engage all of your senses: watch the video, read the text, listen to the podcast, shop the products and “break bread” with your community.
Our goal is to fight racism, hatred, disinformation, boredom and apathy. Difficult? Yes. Necessary? You bet.
RELIK A-Z challenges you to agree on the essential things that make us the same…
“Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.”
- Charles Darwin
… and learn to appreciate what makes us different.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
- Alice Walker
Alice Walker
To think about how we navigate the world during times of crises…
“We have been abusing our planet as if we have a spare one.”
- António Guterres, UN Secretary General
…and to take action and do something about it.
“We must rise together against hate.”
- President Joe Biden
We have our own index.
A.P.H.C.O. ( ANIMAL / PLANT / HUMAN / CREATURE / OTHERWORLDLY ) is a way of categorizing just about anything you can think of. From A to Z.
A cool avatar.
You get your very own robot avatar.
Videos and music.
Entertainment helps you remember what you just read. Stay tuned for collaborations with celebrities, musicians, artists, scientists, performers: just about anybody that moves! From A to Z.
Our own podcast called “The Essentials”.
An interview podcast called The Essentials with subject matter experts and people with real-world experience strikes the right balance of regular folk and those with verifiable evidence. From A to Z.
Did you know that…
The Great Dictator with Charlie Chaplin is about tolerance and justice for all?
Or that Black scientists are underrepresented on every level?
Or that Oreology is the study of fluids using Oreo Cookies?
Or that the painting “An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump” by Joseph Wright of Derby shows the necessity of air for all living creatures to survive?
Did you know that this is a unicorn?
A mythical one-horned equine of lore around the 1200s.
This is a unicorn.
A billion-dollar startup.
And this is a unicorn.
A desirable sexual partner.
Go deep.
We need animals, plants and our vast imaginations to feed our bodies, our souls and our humanity.
Then go even deeper.
Sometimes we need other people to help us see things that might not otherwise be transparent. Join Haven, our community forum: a place of refuge. If you are from a marginalized community, in danger or need information that isn’t readily available, this is your place.
Become a Relikian.
Apply to become a Relikian and contribute music, text, art and videos. You can also help others by sharing information and events. Content creators from all walks of life are welcome!
Let’s party like it’s 2099.
RELIK A-Z: Open Your Mind: The Essentials will transform with you. Into the future and beyond.
Regina Byrd Smith
Founder
I am a Black woman raised by hippie parents and I loved encyclopedias as a child ( we had the Encyclopedia Britannica and an encyclopedia of sex called The Sex Book: A Modern Pictorial Encyclopedia, both of which I looked at, dog-eared and spilled Kool-Aid on).
As a digital artist with a performance background ( MFA, UCSD ) I believe in the power of entertainment to deliver a message. I am scared for the human race and want to do what I can to help stem the tide.
Sign up for the waitlist
The first edition of the app will be a test run of the letters A-E with a tentative release date of 12/01/2024. Please sign up for the waitlist so that we can keep you posted on our progress.
“Tolerance is a muscle that can be strengthened.
Knowledge is a tool that can change the world.
Imagination is only limited by you.”
- Regina Byrd Smith
