Kerry James Marshall - De Style, 1993

Kerry James Marshall Is Shifting the Color of Art History

For more than 40 years, the Chicago-based artist has made it his mission to paint black figures into the canon. 

(via @tmagazine)

“This Ain’t A Eulogy: A Ritual for Re-Membering” (2017) is a short film by Taja Lindley based on her solo healing performance ritual that debuted at La Mama’s SQUIRTS in 2015. Moved by the non-indictments of the police officers responsible for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, “This Ain’t A Eulogy” is drawing parallels between discarded materials and the violent treatment of Black people in the United States. People in the African Diaspora have a long history of repurposing, remixing, and transforming oppressive systems into valuable cultural practices. In this post-Ferguson moment, Lindley is calling on this legacy to re-imagine how we can recycle the energy of protest, rage, and grief into creating a world where, indeed, Black lives matter.

“This Ain’t A Eulogy” is Lindley’s origin story of The Bag Lady, and serves as a preamble to her one woman show “The Bag Lady Manifesta” which will debut at Dixon Place Fall 2017.

Created, Performed & Produced by Taja Lindley Directed by Taja Lindley & Ellen Maynard Cinematography by Ellen Maynard & Jim Tripp Creative Direction by Daví Lighting Design by Jim Tripp Editing by Ellen Maynard Musical Score by Loren Halman Costume & Set Design by Taja Lindley

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Taja Lindley is a writer and artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She is the founder and Managing Member of Colored Girls Hustle, and a member of Echoing Ida and Harriet’s Apothecary. Lindley considers herself a healer and an activist, creating socially engaged work that reflects and transforms audiences, shifts culture and moves people to action. She uses movement, text, installation, props, ritual, burlesque, and multi-media to create performances that are concerned with freedom, healing and pleasure. She is currently developing a body of work recycling and repurposing discarded materials. Her artwork has been featured at the Movement Research at Judson Church series, Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), the Gallatin Arts Festival at New York University, WOW Café Theater, La Mama Theater, in living rooms, classrooms, conferences and public spaces. In 2014 she was a Create Change Fellow with the Laundromat Project and a participant in EMERGENYC, an artist activist program of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University. In 2015 she was a Fall space grantee at BAX. This summer (May-August 2017) she is an Artist in Residence at Dixon Place. Her writing has appeared in Rewire, EBONY, Feministe, Yes! Magazine and Salon.

Carolyn Mims Lawrence Black Children Keep Your Spirits Free, 1972

on view in Soul of Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power at Tate

Black genius, so to speak, is intensified exponentially by the presence of other Black genius.

Arthur Jafa (source)

Black Painting, Kerry James Marshall, 2003. Oil on canvas.

A painting imagining the moment before Chicago police entered Black Panther leader Fred Hampton’s bedroom, killing him, his fiancé and Mark Clark in 1969.

Ribs, Ribs, 1982, Jean- Michel Basquiat

Size: 244x264 cm Medium: crayon, paper

Dance of Many Hands (2017) | Kudzanai-Violet Hwami on view at Tyburn Gallery

!!!! BIBLIOGRAPHY !!!!

Here’s a quick list of texts to get your up to speed on black excellence in art. 

Please share your picks if we’ve missed one of your favorite texts. There are many, many more. Duke Press, Yale University Press, and your local black-owned book store can all be fantastic resources. 

Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum by Bridget R. Cooks

African-American Art (Oxford History of Art) by Sharon Patton (More on Oxford Art: http://www.oxfordartonline.com/page/african-american-art)

We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85: A Sourcebook and We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85: New Perspectives edited by Rujeko Hockley and Catherine Morris

How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness by Darby English

Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy by Robert Farris Thompson 

Black Performance Theory edited by Thomas  F. DeFrantz and Anita Gonzalez

Blacktino Queer Performance edited by E.  Patrick Johnson and Ramón  H. Rivera-Servera

EyeMinded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art by Kellie Jones

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power edited by Mark Godfrey and Zoé Whitley

Vision & Justice edited by Sarah E. Lewis

Pictures and Progress: Early Photography and the Making of African American Identity edited by Maurice  O. Wallace and Shawn Michelle Smith

Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power by Susan Cahan

William H. Johnson, Going to Church, c. 1940–44 (Washington, DC, Smithsonian American Art Museum); photo credit: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY

What does Black History Month mean to you?

Below, we’ve compiled some incisive, contemporary takes on Black History Month.

Doreen St. Felix, The Farce, and the Grandeur, of Black History Month Under Trump, The New Yorker

Rembert Browne, Everyday Excellence with photographs by Andre Wagner

Jason Parham, What is the Purpose of Black History Month: A Roundtable, Gawker

Kadir Nelson, covers for The New Yorker Magazine, Black History Month covers for 2015 & 2016

 Le Rodeur: Exchange, 2016, by Lubaina Himid

Lorna Simpson (born 1960) is an African-American photographer and multimedia artist who made her name in the 1980s and 1990s with artworks such as Guarded Conditions and Square Deal. She is one of the leading artists of her generation (to much critical acclaim), and her works have been included in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally.

“I became a writer once I realised no one liked my stuff.” Watch Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey’s favourite author, Pulitzer Prize-winning Colson Whitehead, on how rejections of his first stab at a novel made him realize that he wanted to pursue writing. (via Louisiana Channel )

Adrienne Raquel

Adrienne Raquel is an NYC-based creative –– specializing in photography + art direction.  Inspired by femininity, Summer vibes, and tropical motifs –– Adrienne’s work is playful, vibrant, and nostalgic.  Her eye-catching imagery and distinct use of color + composition have led to many exciting brand collaborations.  Notable publications such as TIME, Refinery29, and Elle have esteemed Adrienne as an influencer + one of the top female creatives to follow.

Faith Ringgold, Woman Freedom Now, 1970