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Technorati Tags: black white dichotomy - Al Sharpton - Strom Thurmond - McCallum Tarry
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Technorati Tags: black white dichotomy - Al Sharpton - Strom Thurmond - McCallum Tarry
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Floodwall
Floodwall
350 Drawers, 225' Long
Moved and heartbroken by the profound loss inflicted by Katrina, New Orleans' artist Jana Napoli attempts to preserve a small part of what the levees could not. Constructed of more than 300 drawers salvaged from heaps of trash along the curbside of flooded neighborhoods, Floodwall speaks of what was lost to Katrina and what remains of New Orleans. It defies death and reasserts the spirit of the city — made up of the vibrant, diverse culture and history of New Orleans that is tied to neighborhoods, material culture, traditions, and most importantly people.
January 4 – February 9, 2007
7am-11pm daily
World Financial Center
Liberty Street Bridge
Enter at One World Financial Center, corner of Liberty Street and South End Avenue
New York, New York
New York Floodwall exhibition designed by Whirlwind Creative
Floodwall co-presented by arts > World Financial Center and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Technorati Tags: Floodwall - Lower Manhattan Cultural Council - Hurricane Katrina
Sunday, December 17, 2006
A Streetcar Named Desire
At the crack of dawn this Friday past, I headed down to New Orleans to Desire Street where my better half lives in a funky little neighborhood called the Bywater. Dr. Bob, Christopher Porché West and the Flavor League are some of the better known artists who, along with Second Line Clothing, have taken up residence in this old Creole neighborhood.
We've been painting the town in his decked out limo, which he has been adorning with Mardi Gras beads for something like six years now. The infamous Mardi Gras car is stopped regularly by onlookers who want photos, like Bass Goddess Greta from whose site I took this shot pictured above. Vblogger Miss B Havens also included a couple of good pics in her flickr Mardi Gras 2006 photoset.
One might think that riding around in a car like this would make the passenger a magnet for some unorthodox adventures, and they'd be right! Over the last three days I crashed a film crew Christmas party where I met a midget double for Brad Pitt, I was smoked out by a couple of community housing activists and tricked into eating alligator at a New Orleans staple, and I danced with a group of trannies in a second line down St. Claude Avenue. Only in New Orleans!
Technorati Tags: New Orleans - Bywater - Bywater Art Market - Jacqueimo's - second line parade - Creole
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Act One - Awakening
They say falling in love changes your life. However, I never expected it to change the world. A little over a year ago I met and fell madly in love with a New Orleans Creole. A near replica of my late mother in looks, he charmed me completely with his genteel manner, fun-loving spirit and dedication to Creole culture.
As he and his family began to accept me into the fold and share their traditions with me, I began to examine my own history – and lack thereof. What was so different about these people? Other French Creole friends of mine, New Orleanian and Haitian, also shared family bonds and traditions that were far more cohesive than my own. I suspected that it had something to do with the French connection and set out to find just what that thing was.
Frankly this connection didn’t surprise me so much, as France has enjoyed a kind of favored nation status within the African American arts community for its acceptance of our greatest artists when our own country did not. But the link between the French and Africans here in our own country I think is less well known.
One upside of Hurricane Katrina, if there could be one, was the reintroduction into the American mainstream of New Orleans’ unique centuries old tradition of race mixing. The inference of course is that plenty of miscegenation had been goin’ on, and not just of the white master raping the black slave variety that lurks unresolved in the imaginations of contemporary Americans, both black and white.
Creoles are a special bunch because they are heirs to an atypically enlightened view of interracial relationship that was squelched by the Louisiana Purchase and did not have a resurgence until after the Civil Rights Movement. If the French and the Africans could love each other under those circumstances, then maintaining familial unity over petty internecine rivalries must be a no brainer for their offspring.
I was about to leave it at that when I learned that the Spanish controlled Louisiana for a period of 40 years (1763 - 1803) before ceding it back to the French - who then sold it to the Brits (Americans) a year later in the Louisiana Purchase. Interestingly enough it was actually under Spanish rule that the gens de couleur libre grew from 3% to 20% of the total population of New Orleans. Turns out the French weren’t so damned special after all!
Why didn’t I remember any of this stuff from my US history classes? Intrigued, I decided that I would need to dig deeper. Maybe Virginia, where my family hails from, had more complex race relations during its pre Civil War period, too.
These series of posts are dedicated to the ‘finest woman in East Elmhurst’ of her day, my mother Kathlean Elizabeth Barnes. I am bold because she could not be.
Technorati Tags: New Orleans - Creoles - Hurricane Katrina - France - miscegenation - Haiti
Friday, June 23, 2006
Engulfed by Katrina: Photographs Before And After The Storm
Curated by Deborah Willis Ph.D. and Hank Willis Thomas
Artists: Marc Asnin * Harold Baquet * Nathan Bassuouni * Charlene Braud * Keith Calhoun * Gerald Cyrus D. Michael Cheers * Cheryl Finley * Vangy Franklin * Russell Frederick * Delphine Fawundu-Buford Lonnie Graham * Wyatt Gallery * William Greiner * Jessica Ingram * Chester Higgins Jr. * Eric Julien Melvina Lathan * Chandra McCormick * John Pinderhuges * Joe Rodriguez * Benjamin Orion Rush * Sophia Schechner * Will Steacey * Frank Stewart * Eric Waters * Lewis Watts * Carla Williams Clarence Williams * Nathaniel Ward
On View: June 15 – September 22, 2006
Opening Reception: June 29, 2006, 6-9pm
The Nathan Cummings Foundation
475 Tenth Avenue (14th Floor) Between 36th & 37th Streets
New York, NY 10018
RSVP – (646) 485-1284
For private viewing please contact Karen Garrett (212) 787-7300, ext.206.
This exhibition project examines and interprets the experience of Katrina on the Gulf Coast. Featuring more than 80 photographs, this thematic exhibition will explore the devastation of cities within the Gulf Coast, as well as life before and after the storm. The focus of the show is to fulfill the promise made by everyone almost immediately after the event which was to not let the impact of this horrific experience be forgotten. The exhibition will invite viewers to recall their own experiences of watching the events unfold on television, and attempt to counter the complacency that has already set in the aftermath of this on-going tragedy and to "re-member" images of the city.
Technorati Tags: Hurricane Katrina - photography
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
A Reflection on Our Reflections on Slavery
This evening I attended an opening reception for the NY Historical Society's exhibit Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery. Kara Walker, Willie Birch, Whitfield Lovell and Betye Saar were among the many talented artists whose work was presented. It was like most other art openings - a mix of the high class, the art set and a few politicians here and there. It was mostly pretentious in its make up, but some interesting and well-meanging folks were there nonetheless.
What was different, however, was the surreal mix of this business as usual behavior with the somber works on display. Lifeless silhouettes hung from branches against a plain white backdrop. Frederick Douglass' matter-of-fact description of how he came to name himself as a freed man sat ensconced in a glass case. The haunting cut-out image of a slavemaster's sexual taunting of a young slave girl laid bare all its ugliness. The whole thing was disturbing.
But what was most unsettling was my experience at the simulated slave ship with two well-to-do, older black women. The three of us waited patiently as an Hispanic gentleman entered the cylindrical wooden tomb. Of all the entrants we had watched up until this point, he had been the first to actually close the door behind himself. He spent what seemed like an eternity in there, when finally one of the two ladies knocked and opened the door. He came out obviously not ready to end his experience, but we entered anyway. The space was quite small, yet still large enough for the three of us to stand somewhat comfortably together. One more would have been just enough to make us feel like sardines in a can...or slaves on a ship. (But no one was really interested in that experience. We were the first to go in as a group, making it possible to replicate that kind of constriction. But still not enough to truly feel trapped.)
As our eyes adjusted to the light, we could see the the reflection of the objects hanging outside through the tiny hole at the center front of the cylinder. The women chattered on incessantly about the light, the space, etc. Then one commented to the other, "my goodness isn't this just fabulous?" Blithely affirming, the other responded, "why yes it's just like the bowels of a slave ship!" I began to feel dizzy. I told the two women that it was too much for me and immediately turned for the door. The near total lack of light was disorienting, especially after twisting so quickly. I couldn't find that handle fast enough to get outta there.
I looked around for my white co-worker who invited me to the opening, and found him edging toward the exit. He commented on how the whole thing was so unsettling. All the chatty interaction seemed incongruent with the gravity of the subject matter. He would need to come back for a more private viewing to fully appreciate and respect the work. I agreed, and then wondered how my two partners in the "bowels of the slave ship" didn't as well.
Technorati Tags: Frederick Douglass - Kara Walker - Slavery in New York - New York Historical Society
Monday, June 19, 2006
The African Game
When you see more and more folks rockin' those neon yellow Brazil t-shirts, you know that World Cup fever is in the air! I admit that like most Americans I was only nominally interested, until last week when Ghana put the smack down on Czech Republic. Did he really score that goal in just over a minute into the game? Damn!
Those with real love in their hearts do a far better job than me at sharing why football (ahem...soccer) is such a kick-ass sport - no pun intended. There is of course the classic autobiography Pele, My Life and the Beautiful Game by the Afro-Brazilian legend. But there are two more recent additions that look like a good read regardless of one's level of interest in the sport itself. Franklin Foer of New Republic fame penned How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, which blends his lifelong love for the sport with his career interest in international politics.
The second, The African Game, is a book of photography and essays that delves into contemporary life in the continent using football (ahem...soccer) as a medium. Nigerian-born filmmaker/photgrapher Andrew Dosunmu and Brooklyn-based writer Knox Robinson collaborate to bring much-needed, modern stories of African people to life. An exhibit of Dosunmu's work is coming up on June 22 at Brooklyn's Rotunda Gallery.
Technorati Tags: soccer - Andrew Dosunmu - Knox Robinson - The African Game - Brooklyn
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Life Drawing Classes: Sundays in Downtown Brooklyn
Brooklyn jewelry designer Masani Mulraine hosts life drawing art classes at her Fort Greene studio every Sunday from 1 - 3 p.m. Masani is a Pratt Institute graudate who has distributed her work to various retail stores and boutiques including Canal Jeans Co., Charivari, Knapps, Pieces and Redberri. Her jewelry is featured in the June 2006 edition of Essence Magazine.
Light refreshments served. Classes are $20, materials (drawing pad, paints, ink, etc) not included. Seating is limited to 10 people per class. For more information or to RSVP, please email masanidesigns@aol.com.
G train to Clinton-Washington or C train to Lafeyette Ave.
Essence June 2006, p. 151
necklace by
Masani Wearable Scupltures
Technorati Tags: Masani Wearable Sculptures - Brooklyn - Essence Magazine
Brooklyn Photo Exhibit: Images from PK NOLA
Harriet's Alter Ego is pleased to present…
Muddy Water Gumbo & High Tide Blues
Images from New Orleans, Post-Katrina
A Photography Exhibit by Award-Winning Photojournalist Delphine Fawundu-Buford
Opening Reception & Artist Talk
Sunday, June 4, 2006, 4-7pm
Exhibition Dates: June 4 - 30, 2006
Harriet's Alter Ego Boutique & Gallery
293 Flatbush Ave. bet. St. Marks & Prospect Place
Brooklyn, New York
2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B, N, R, D to Atlantic Avenue
For more info: 718-783-2074 or Harriet's Alter Ego
Photographer Delphine A. Fawundu-Buford latest series is a collection of riveting images of the Big Easy, post-Katrina. Muddy Water Gumbo & High Tide Blues is a photo-essay created during her 2006 trip to New Orleans as a NABJ Gulf Coast Fellow. A large part of her mission was to document the lives of the everyday people who were affected by Katrina. The images largely excerpt Crescent City and its inner communities that have been ravaged by Katrina with emphasis on the 9th Ward. Muddy Water Gumbo & High Tide Blues consists of five smaller series "The 9th Ward Remains," "Blues Soldiers" "2nd Line" "Infatuation with Mammy?" and "We Still Here."
"As I photographed these remains, it felt as if I were at an archaeological dig," Delphine explains of "The 9th Ward Remains" series, "getting a more personal perspective of everyday people who lived in the 9th Ward, some who listened to music, read books, wore under-wired bras, used silver metal forks, and earned degrees just like me."
Delphine has gained wide recognition from her image "Patiently Waiting," which graced the cover of the catalog for the memorable 'Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photographers' exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2000. Her career that spans over a decade includes publications such as Black: A Celebration of a Culture and Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers from 1840 - Present by Deborah Willis. Some of her editorial credits include RollingStone, Essence, Honey and Vibe. Delphine has exhibited locally and nationally and has participated in critically acclaimed exhibitions 'Only Skin Deep' at the International Center of Photography and 'Open: Artist Working in Brooklyn' at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Her works are in the private collections of Danny Simmons (NYC), The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the New York Coalition of Creative Art Therapies just to name a few.
Technorati Tags: Hurricane Katrina - Brooklyn - Delphine Fawunda-Buford
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