Sunday, August 16, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
And now a word from our sponsor . . . get real.
I usually try to keep things light over here on BlackVisualArtist, but I have to take a short commercial break today.
Have people lost their minds? I have never seen anything like the foolishness that's going on at these Town hall Meetings. Why are these fools fighting AGAINST healthcare reform? Why are the fools fighting against healthcare reform all on national healthcare, medicare, medicaid, VA benefits themselves. This is an outrage. Let's be real -- this is not about healthcare, because any moron can tell you that we need a system that works for everyone. This is about America having a Black president. This is about America coming into the 21st Century. This is about a bunch of fools who want to take us back to plantations, hoop skirts, and mint juleps for master on the veranda.
I work at a local social service organization and one of our projects helps people find low cost or free healthcare. This project has opened my eyes to the suffering that goes on when people have no healthcare and few options. And, these are not lazy people, they just cannot find a job or have a job with negligible "benefits."
I have seen:
Diabetics without any insulin.
Hypertensives with no medication, blood pressure out of control.
Tons of people who have no clue about their HIV status.
People who can barely see.
People who've done thier own stitches.
And, a young man who had "set" his own broken arm because he could not return to the emergency room and incur any more bills (this one took the cake).
Get real, these fools protesting are not fighting against healthcare. They will not bear the brunt of the costs. They will benefit from any improvements made to the system. They need to be honest and claim their racism. Stop hiding behind signs of socialism, stop screaming about taxes and how their kids will have to pay in the future, stop crying for politicians to be lynched. Join the Klan and let the rest of us move forward with getting the healthcare that our country and its citizens so need.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
5 Black Homo-Hop Artists You Need to Know About
Last OffenceOrigins: 2005 - Los Angeles, California
Albums: 2
Stand-Out Album: Not For Non-Profit: The Mixtape (2009)
Hear This Now: “So Magical”
Though Last Offence has got the aggressive manner and hard beats you’ve come to expect from a hip-hopper like Jay-Z, he’s a million times hotter and gayer than Jigga. Alongside his blunt wise-cracks about pounding guys and making asses bleed, he also raps about the so-called Christians that killed men like Harvey Milk and Matthew Shepard. His albums are perfect for working out some good old-fashioned sexual aggression and even better, he’s giving them all away for free on his MySpace blog. They feature the talents Bry’Nt and Nano Reyes and other homohop artists that didn’t make our list.
Meshell Ndegeocello
Origins: 1993 - Washington, DC
Albums: 8
Stand-Out Album: The Anthropological Mixtape (2002)
Hear This Now: “Leviticus:Faggot”
The first female artist signed to Madonna’s Maverick record label, German-born bisexual Meshell Ndegeocello (pronounced Mee-shell N-deh-gay-o-chel-o) predates Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill by half a decade and has put out more than both women combined. Ndegeocello doesn’t call herself a hip-hop artist; to her, hip-hop’s a watered-down mainstream derivative that’s hardly countercultural anymore. So instead, she works a postmodern mix of jazz, funk, and rock that’s more Marvin Gaye than Missy Elliot; but don’t let that fool you. She’ll sing about fucking your boyfriend with all the swagger of a pimp then turn around and ponder the dual nature of desire in a gentle upper register.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
What Can we Learn from the Met about Audience Development?
The Multicultural Audience Development Initiative was founded in 1998 with a meeting of top-level Museum staff and leaders from eight prominent African American civic organizations: 100 Black Men, Inc., Jack and Jill of America, Inc., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., The Greater New York Chapter of the Links, Inc., Boys Harbor, Inc., The National Black MBA Association, The National Medical Association, and the New York Coalition of 100 Black Women. The purpose of this gathering was to articulate a strategy for establishing a mutually beneficial alliance with these organizations that would foster interest in the Metropolitan Museum among African Americans. At the same time, the Museum staff and trustees would develop an understanding of the concerns and needs of these organizations. The Museum then established the Multicultural Advisory Committee, which is composed of New York's African American, Asian American, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian cultural leaders and organizations.
Who does the Met's coalition exclude?
The Hansberry Project
Yearning for more consistent and in-depth multi-cultural works in the Seattle theater scene, Kurt Beattie, the artistic director of ACT Theater, found himself one day in 2004 mulling over an unusual proposal with Valerie Curtis-Newton, then a professor in the directing program at the University of Washington.
The idea was simple – to establish a unique theater within a theater that was dedicated to telling stories that represent African-American experiences. However, the logistics would be complex. The most important issue to address was the level of involvement and influence Curtis-Newton would have in making decisions on such critical items as screenplay, cast and set design.
“I spent a lot of time thinking about how something might work because I really wanted to honor our community. And, I didn’t want to just be a hired hand. I wanted to have a stake in the decision making,” says Curtis-Newton, who has served as the past artistic director for Seattle’s Ethnic Cultural Theater and Hartford, Connecticut’s Performing Ensemble. Earning an MFA from the UW, she has performed with numerous local companies, including the Seattle Repertory Theater, the Seattle Children’s Theater and the Northwest Asian American Theater.
Eventually instated as the artistic director, Curtis-Newton, who also currently chairs the UW directing program, decided to honor the rich legacy of black theater by titling the program The Hansberry Project, named after activist-playwright Lorraine Hansberry who was the first African-American woman to see her play “A Raisin in the Sun” performed on Broadway in 1959.
Another major hurdle was that while black theater has held a successful presence in Seattle, it has not been consistent. The Seattle Negro Federal Theater, a short-lived, federally funded company, was established at the University of Washington in 1936 to feature innovative plays that focused on the African-American experience .
The idea was simple – to establish a unique theater within a theater that was dedicated to telling stories that represent African-American experiences. However, the logistics would be complex. The most important issue to address was the level of involvement and influence Curtis-Newton would have in making decisions on such critical items as screenplay, cast and set design.
“I spent a lot of time thinking about how something might work because I really wanted to honor our community. And, I didn’t want to just be a hired hand. I wanted to have a stake in the decision making,” says Curtis-Newton, who has served as the past artistic director for Seattle’s Ethnic Cultural Theater and Hartford, Connecticut’s Performing Ensemble. Earning an MFA from the UW, she has performed with numerous local companies, including the Seattle Repertory Theater, the Seattle Children’s Theater and the Northwest Asian American Theater.
Eventually instated as the artistic director, Curtis-Newton, who also currently chairs the UW directing program, decided to honor the rich legacy of black theater by titling the program The Hansberry Project, named after activist-playwright Lorraine Hansberry who was the first African-American woman to see her play “A Raisin in the Sun” performed on Broadway in 1959.
Another major hurdle was that while black theater has held a successful presence in Seattle, it has not been consistent. The Seattle Negro Federal Theater, a short-lived, federally funded company, was established at the University of Washington in 1936 to feature innovative plays that focused on the African-American experience .
Monday, August 3, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Fire Destroys Collection in DC
It took Peggy Cooper Cafritz more than four decades to amass a collection of work by black artists so impressive it attracted the attention of major dealers and even O Magazine, which featured her home in its current issue.
It took only a few hours Wednesday night and Thursday morning for all that to be destroyed, when a fire swept through the house on Chain Bridge Road, the damage exacerbated when the 150 firefighters who responded struggled with low water pressure.
The house was unoccupied at the time and neighbors were able to move pets to safety. The two-alarm blaze was finally extinguished by noon Thursday.
But the significance of the loss of Mrs. Cafritz's collection is "tremendous," said Georgetown art dealer Norman Parish, who runs a gallery specializing in African art. "You can't replace what took her years to collect."
See a Tour of Mrs. Cafritz's home and collection here.
Read the Rest of the Story Here.Collecting African American Art
If you are obsessed about African American art, then you probably have a collection of your own. I am far from rich, but when I get a chance, I purchase the pieces I want. This is one of the best articles on the web about collecting African American art at any pricepoint. I have illustrated the article with two pieces from my own collection, Faces by A. B. Jackson and Ghana, by Chester Higgins, Jr.
Thinking about art collecting should be like fact-finding between courtship and engagement. If the ensuing marriage is going to work, then you have to know what you're getting into long beforehand.
That is why experienced collectors, curators, gallery owners and art dealers--no matter their length of years in the business or the range of their artistic interest--concur on this one basic tenet of collecting art: Keep your wallet closed until you've opened a book, then another and then another. In addition, throw in some art magazines and gallery catalogs. Attend exhibits and cultivate learning relationships with contemporary artists, curators and collectors. Plan a vacation around an exhibit in another city. Whose work speaks to you? Whose leaves you cold?
That is why experienced collectors, curators, gallery owners and art dealers--no matter their length of years in the business or the range of their artistic interest--concur on this one basic tenet of collecting art: Keep your wallet closed until you've opened a book, then another and then another. In addition, throw in some art magazines and gallery catalogs. Attend exhibits and cultivate learning relationships with contemporary artists, curators and collectors. Plan a vacation around an exhibit in another city. Whose work speaks to you? Whose leaves you cold?
Then, and only then, should you take the plunge. Like any lasting marriage, the effort put in before making a commitment will lead to a satisfying, enduring union--with artists whose work touches your heart.
Aspiring collectors looking to plow into the rich and fertile fields of work by African-American artists may have to search a little more diligently for the history books and the exhibits that will give them the information they need to make a start, especially if they do not live in a major urban center. But the historical texts do exist, and aspiring collectors will find the history of black artists in this country alternately maddening and inspiring.
A growing, committed and amiable network of collectors and reputable art dealers stands ready and eager to cultivate new peers and clients, and its members are as close as the telephone. Among them are the following people who, through their expertise and experience, have much to share.
Thurlow Tibbs is a dealer in and a historian of African-American art. "Dealer" becomes a rather skimpy description when Tibbs' other talents come into play. In addition to guiding private collectors as they assemble a body of work, he helps museums fill the gaps in their collections with African-American art, researches out-of-print publications for libraries, and conducts art appraisals. His gallery in Washington, D.C., houses a 19,000-item library that is open for academic research.
Aspiring collectors looking to plow into the rich and fertile fields of work by African-American artists may have to search a little more diligently for the history books and the exhibits that will give them the information they need to make a start, especially if they do not live in a major urban center. But the historical texts do exist, and aspiring collectors will find the history of black artists in this country alternately maddening and inspiring.
A growing, committed and amiable network of collectors and reputable art dealers stands ready and eager to cultivate new peers and clients, and its members are as close as the telephone. Among them are the following people who, through their expertise and experience, have much to share.
Thurlow Tibbs is a dealer in and a historian of African-American art. "Dealer" becomes a rather skimpy description when Tibbs' other talents come into play. In addition to guiding private collectors as they assemble a body of work, he helps museums fill the gaps in their collections with African-American art, researches out-of-print publications for libraries, and conducts art appraisals. His gallery in Washington, D.C., houses a 19,000-item library that is open for academic research.
"With a new client, I will suggest a series of books," Tibbs says. Among the most comprehensive are American Negro Art, by Cedric Dover; Two Centuries of Black American Art, a catalog, by David C. Driskell, of a 1976 exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Modern Negro Art, by James Porter.
Like many other experienced dealers, Tibbs sees art collecting as not solely the domain of the affluent, but rather as a worthwhile pursuit for anyone who recognizes the inherent value of having art enhance his or her life. His counsel? "Decide on an annual budget. If you want to spend $5,000, it would be stupid for me to show you something for $40,000. If you are open to contemporary art, you can do things for $500."
Contemporary art readily opens the field of African-American art to a wider range of enthusiasts. Works by the respected masters--the vibrant collages of Romare Bearden or lush landscapes of 19th-century painter Edward Bannister, for example--likely exceed by tens of thousands of dollars the average collector's ability to buy.
However, how about an Elizabeth Catlett lithograph or a limited-edition Jacob Lawrence print? Tibbs likes to recommend the lithographs of Grafton Tyler Brown, a 19th-century landscape artist who lived in California for most of his life.
Like many other experienced dealers, Tibbs sees art collecting as not solely the domain of the affluent, but rather as a worthwhile pursuit for anyone who recognizes the inherent value of having art enhance his or her life. His counsel? "Decide on an annual budget. If you want to spend $5,000, it would be stupid for me to show you something for $40,000. If you are open to contemporary art, you can do things for $500."
Contemporary art readily opens the field of African-American art to a wider range of enthusiasts. Works by the respected masters--the vibrant collages of Romare Bearden or lush landscapes of 19th-century painter Edward Bannister, for example--likely exceed by tens of thousands of dollars the average collector's ability to buy.
However, how about an Elizabeth Catlett lithograph or a limited-edition Jacob Lawrence print? Tibbs likes to recommend the lithographs of Grafton Tyler Brown, a 19th-century landscape artist who lived in California for most of his life.
Travelling
I have been travelling a lot lately, hence the few posts to the blog. Last week I was in Philadelphia at an education workshop and this week I've been in Chicago at the National Urban League Conference.
My Uncle Robert M. passed away last night, and when I got the news I was completely saddened by it. Every person has people in their families who accept you unconditionally and love you just the way you are -- no matter what. My Uncle was one of those people for me. Over the last few years, I've lost so many of my cheerleaders, the friends and family who tell you how proud they are of you and who remind you that your ancestors would be so proud of your accomplishments and the way that you lead your life. These people bring clarity to what family really is all about and shine a spotlight on the petty, materialistic, self centered members of your family. Just by being themselves. I will miss my Uncle.
My Uncle Robert M. passed away last night, and when I got the news I was completely saddened by it. Every person has people in their families who accept you unconditionally and love you just the way you are -- no matter what. My Uncle was one of those people for me. Over the last few years, I've lost so many of my cheerleaders, the friends and family who tell you how proud they are of you and who remind you that your ancestors would be so proud of your accomplishments and the way that you lead your life. These people bring clarity to what family really is all about and shine a spotlight on the petty, materialistic, self centered members of your family. Just by being themselves. I will miss my Uncle.
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