Sankofa StoryWorks LLC · Washington State
We are a literary company, IP holding entity, and cultural storytelling platform built on a single premise: the systems that shaped Black life were never metaphors. They were architecture. And architecture can be studied, named, and rebuilt.
Sankofa StoryWorks LLC
Washington State LLC
Founded by Nolan Claude
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13 Original Properties
Under One Roof
The Founding Purpose
Sankofa StoryWorks LLC was founded on the conviction that Black storytelling is not a niche — it is a necessity. Not a market segment, but a form of structural repair. The stories we tell about who we are, where we came from, and what it cost to arrive here are not ornamental. They are load-bearing.
We were built to own, protect, develop, and amplify original IP rooted in African and African-American narrative traditions. That means books. Films. Franchises. Series bibles. Characters with histories that matter. Worlds built on systems with real physics — borrowed from the cosmologies our ancestors built before anyone thought to steal them.
We are not here to ask for a seat at someone else's table. We are building the table — and naming it.
Our Mission
We preserve what was forgotten. We amplify what was silenced. We protect what was built. We move forward without leaving the root behind.
01
Preserve
We root every story in the living archive of African and African-American history, cosmology, and resistance. The Sankofa philosophy demands that we do not move forward by erasing what came before — we move forward by carrying it. Our stories treat history not as backdrop but as physics: the invisible force that determines what is possible inside any system.
02
Amplify
We exist to give original Black voices — in fiction, film, and across media — the platform, the protection, and the production architecture they deserve. That means publishing, developing, and producing work built to last. Not trend. Not season. Not algorithm. Work built to outlast the system that tried to erase the stories it tells.
03
Protect
Every original property under the Sankofa StoryWorks banner is formally owned, legally protected, and built to remain in our hands. We do not create for others to profit from. The LLC structure, the IP assignments, the copyright registrations — these are not bureaucratic formality. They are the legal architecture of cultural sovereignty. What we build, we keep.
04
Move Forward
Sankofa means going back for what was forgotten so you can carry it into the future. We are not a nostalgia operation. We are a forward-moving company that happens to understand that the past is not behind us — it is the foundation we are standing on. Every book we publish, every film we develop, every property we protect is a step forward taken with both eyes open.
The systems constraining Black life were never metaphors. They were architecture. And what has been architected can be studied, named — and rebuilt.
— Sankofa StoryWorks LLC, Founding Statement
Original novels, series, and literary IP developed under the Sankofa StoryWorks banner. We publish work built to last — not for a season, but for the archive. Our flagship is the 10-book Sankofa Series by Nolan Claude, a speculative fiction franchise rooted in African cosmology, Black history, and a rigorous speculative physics.
Original film concepts, treatments, and cinematic properties developed in-house and protected under LLC ownership. Our current slate includes three original film concepts across genre — romantic sports drama, hood heist comedy, and action thriller — each with full treatments, beat sheets, and copyright registrations.
The Sankofa StoryWorks model is built for franchise longevity. Every property is developed with sequel rights, adaptation rights, and derivative rights formally assigned to the LLC. The Sankofa Series Bible — covering 10 books, 6 nodes, full world-building, and character architecture — is a single protected collective work designed for multi-decade exploitation across every medium.
Our Portfolio
Every property under the Sankofa StoryWorks banner is formally owned by the LLC, legally protected through copyright registration, and built to remain in our hands across every medium, territory, and platform — now and in perpetuity.
Click each category to explore the full portfolio.
WHAT WE BUILD,
WE KEEP.
Cultural sovereignty is not a metaphor. It is a legal structure.
Authorship Is Sacred
Every story we carry is attributed, protected, and credited to its creator. Authorship is not a courtesy here — it is the legal and moral foundation of everything we do. We do not publish what we do not own. We do not own what was not freely assigned. The credit follows the creation.
Roots Before Revenue
We will never publish a story that dishonors the traditions it draws from. Cultural authenticity is not a production note — it is the mandate. Historical figures earn their place at the structural level or they don't appear. We build slowly and correctly, not quickly and hollow.
Community Is Not Marketing
We are accountable to the communities whose histories we carry. Workshops, literacy programs, author development, and public engagement are not content strategies — they are obligations. You cannot tell stories about a people and remain separate from them.
Hold the Seam
The seam — in the Sankofa cosmology — is the navigable threshold between what was and what is still running. In business terms: we hold the line between integrity and compromise, between fast and lasting, between the story the market wants and the story that is true. We hold it as long as it takes.
The Story Keeps It
What is written is witnessed. What is witnessed is kept. The story is the archive, and the archive is the argument against erasure. We operate as if what we build will outlast us — because it will. We build accordingly.
Join the Story
Whether you're a reader, an author, an industry partner, or someone who has been waiting for this story — there's a place for you here. The door is open. The story is running. Step through.