World Hope Forum East Africa
Culture as Joy, Power & Source
Curated by Lilly Bekele-Piper, WHF Ambassador for East Africa
Saturday, February 21st, 2026
17:00–20:00 Nairobi EAT
15:00–18:00 Paris CET
14:00–17:00 London GMT
9:00–12:00 New York EST
The East Africa edition of the World Hope Forum explores culture as a living force — one that carries memory, fuels progress, and makes hope possible. Amilcar Cabral once said "At whatever level one considers it, culture is an essential element of the historical process. It is culture that allows a people to survive, to resist, and to create.” Through creative and critical voices from East Africa and its diaspora, this Forum reflects on culture not as ornament, but as origin and practice, and ultimately the fuel of possibility.
Lilly Bekele-Piper
Lilly Bekele-Piper is a multidisciplinary creative, cultural curator and communications strategist working at the intersection of storytelling, justice and joy. Born in Ethiopia with a career spanning Africa and the global diaspora, her work celebrates the traditions and futures of East Africa through visual and digital storytelling, as well as textile and fashion design. As founder of Selam & Hello Media and the Pan-African textile brand Amina, Lilly creates platforms that honor the culture, power and joy of Africa and her diaspora.
Lidewij Edelkoort
Co-Founder World Hope Forum
Li Edelkoort is a trend forecaster, publisher, humanitarian, design educator and exhibition curator. From 2015-2020 she was the Dean of Hybrid Design Studies at Parsons in New York where she founded a Textile Masters and the New York Textile Month festival. Her thought-provoking writings and podcasts have become increasingly popular at a time when she is regarded as an activist and champion for change. In 2020, she co-founded the World Hope Forum with Philip Fimmano as a platform to inspire the creative community to rebuild a better society. Launched in 2020, PROUD SOUTH is a mesmerising visual book that celebrates the creative forces from the southern parts of the planet. Through the colourful and expressive lens of contemporary fashion, photography, styling and art, Edelkoort and Lili Tedde bring together emerging and established talents from wide and far, illustrating that the axis of global creativity has indeed dramatically shifted. In 2025, Edelkoort is launching a second edition of PROUD SOUTH focusing on craft and design. Of the movement, she says, “A southern generation of creatives is standing up, expressing local craft, embracing regional materials, recognising ancestral practices and cherishing indigenous values.”
@lidewijedelkoort
Philip Fimmano
Co-Founder World Hope Forum
Philip Fimmano is a trend analyst and consultant, contributing to Trend Union’s forecasting books, magazines and strategic studies for international companies in fashion, textiles, interiors and lifestyle. In 2011, Fimmano co-founded Talking Textiles with Li Edelkoort; an ongoing initiative to promote awareness and innovation in textiles through touring exhibitions, a trend publication, a design prize and free educational programmes – including New York Textile Month, a citywide festival celebrating textile creativity each September. He is the co-author of the design book A Labour of Love (Lecturis, 2020) and the co-founder of the World Hope Forum, a new platform for creative community building. Fimmano is the mentor of Polimoda's fashion forecasting masters and textile masters in Florence, and he is on the Board of Directors for the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe.