Group Interview with Africobra Founders
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A Finding Aid to the Jeff Donaldson Papers, 1918-2005, Bulk 1960S-2005, in the Archives of American Art
A Finding Aid to the Jeff Donaldson Papers, 1918-2005, bulk 1960s-2005, in the Archives of American Art Erin Kinhart and Stephanie Ashley Funding for the digitization of the Jeff Donaldson papers was provided by the Walton Family Foundation. 2018 November 1 Archives of American Art 750 9th Street, NW Victor Building, Suite 2200 Washington, D.C. 20001 https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions https://www.aaa.si.edu/ Table of Contents Collection Overview ........................................................................................................ 1 Administrative Information .............................................................................................. 1 Arrangement..................................................................................................................... 4 Biographical / Historical.................................................................................................... 2 Scope and Contents........................................................................................................ 2 Names and Subjects ...................................................................................................... 4 Container Listing ............................................................................................................. 5 Series 1: Biographical Material, 1954-2004............................................................. 5 Series 2: Correspondence, 1957-2004.................................................................... 6 Series 3: Interviews, -
Discovering the Contemporary
of formalist distance upon which modernists had relied for understanding the world. Critics increasingly pointed to a correspondence between the formal properties of 1960s art and the nature of the radically changing world that sur- rounded them. In fact formalism, the commitment to prior- itizing formal qualities of a work of art over its content, was being transformed in these years into a means of discovering content. Leo Steinberg described Rauschenberg’s work as “flat- bed painting,” one of the lasting critical metaphors invented 1 in response to the art of the immediate post-World War II Discovering the Contemporary period.5 The collisions across the surface of Rosenquist’s painting and the collection of materials on Rauschenberg’s surfaces were being viewed as models for a new form of realism, one that captured the relationships between people and things in the world outside the studio. The lesson that formal analysis could lead back into, rather than away from, content, often with very specific social significance, would be central to the creation and reception of late-twentieth- century art. 1.2 Roy Lichtenstein, Golf Ball, 1962. Oil on canvas, 32 32" (81.3 1.1 James Rosenquist, F-111, 1964–65. Oil on canvas with aluminum, 10 86' (3.04 26.21 m). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 81.3 cm). Courtesy The Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. New Movements and New Metaphors Purchase Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alex L. Hillman and Lillie P. Bliss Bequest (both by exchange). Acc. n.: 473.1996.a-w. Artists all over the world shared U.S. -
The Artistic Evolution of the Wall of Respect in His 1967 Poem, The
The Artistic Evolution of the Wall of Respect In his 1967 poem, The Wall, Don Lee/Haki Madhubuti described the Wall of Respect as “…a black creation / black art, of the people, / for the people, / art for people’s sake / black people / the mighty black wall ….” This essay describes how the Wall of Respect evolved to meet different definitions of “art for people’s sake” from 1967- 1971. The Origin of an Idea, Spring and Summer 1967 The Wall of Respect was the result of both collective action and individual inspiration. In the spring of 1967 a group of artists formed the multi-disciplinary Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC). Many of OBAC’s members were college graduates or art students who wanted to involve their art in the collective political struggles of the era. They established a visual arts workshop headed by artist Jeff Donaldson with the goal of producing a significant collective artwork. But it was the slightly older mural painter Bill Walker who introduced the idea of painting a public work of art on the corner of 43rd Street and Langley Avenue. Walker had been planning on painting a mural by himself that would address the neighborhood’s impoverished condition and upon joining OBAC he presented the idea to the group. The other artists responded with enthusiasm to the general idea; however, they cooperatively decided that the project should involve everyone in the Visual Arts Workshop and focus on the more optimistic theme of “Black Heroes.” As Donaldson pointed out, the very act of making public portraits of black heroes was a radical undertaking during an era when advertisements and school textbooks rarely featured African Americans and the mainstream media rarely reported positive stories about the black community. -
Art for People's Sake: Artists and Community in Black Chicago, 1965
Art/African American studies Art for People’s Sake for People’s Art REBECCA ZORACH In the 1960s and early 1970s, Chicago witnessed a remarkable flourishing Art for of visual arts associated with the Black Arts Movement. From the painting of murals as a way to reclaim public space and the establishment of inde- pendent community art centers to the work of the AFRICOBRA collective People’s Sake: and Black filmmakers, artists on Chicago’s South and West Sides built a vision of art as service to the people. In Art for People’s Sake Rebecca Zor- ach traces the little-told story of the visual arts of the Black Arts Movement Artists and in Chicago, showing how artistic innovations responded to decades of rac- ist urban planning that left Black neighborhoods sites of economic depres- sion, infrastructural decay, and violence. Working with community leaders, Community in children, activists, gang members, and everyday people, artists developed a way of using art to help empower and represent themselves. Showcas- REBECCA ZORACH Black Chicago, ing the depth and sophistication of the visual arts in Chicago at this time, Zorach demonstrates the crucial role of aesthetics and artistic practice in the mobilization of Black radical politics during the Black Power era. 1965–1975 “ Rebecca Zorach has written a breathtaking book. The confluence of the cultural and political production generated through the Black Arts Move- ment in Chicago is often overshadowed by the artistic largesse of the Amer- ican coasts. No longer. Zorach brings to life the gorgeous dialectic of the street and the artist forged in the crucible of Black Chicago. -
The Temple Murals: the Life of Malcolm X by Florian Jenkins
THE TEMPLE MURALS: THE LIFE OF MALCOLM X BY FLORIAN JENKINS HOOD MUSEUM OF ART | CUTTER-SHABAZZ ACADEMIC AFFINITY HOUSE | DARTMOUTH COLLEGE PREFACE The Temple Murals: The Life of Malcolm X by Florian Arts at Dartmouth on January 25, 1965, just one month a bed of grass, his head lifted in contemplation; across Jenkins has been a Dartmouth College treasure for before his tragic assassination. Seven years later, the room, above the fireplace, his face appears in many forty years, and we are excited to reintroduce it with the students in the College’s Afro-American Society invited angles and perspectives, with colors that are not absolute publication of this brochure, the research that went into Jenkins to create a mural in their affinity house, which but nuanced, suggesting the subject’s inner mysteries its contents, and the new photographs of the murals that they had just rededicated as the El Hajj Malik El Shabazz and anxieties, reflecting our own. illustrate it. Painted during a five-month period in 1972 Temple, after the name and title that Malcolm X had The murals also point out how starkly we differ from in the Cutter-Shabazz affinity house at Dartmouth, the adopted in 1964 after returning from his pilgrimage in Malcolm, who is rendered in contrasts in color, especially mural speaks to a potent moment in American history, Mecca. Now under the care of the Hood Museum of Art, above the door threshold. A white-masked specter one connected to events both in the life of civil rights The Temple Murals are powerful works that remind us of stands behind a black gunman, holding the gun toward leader Malcolm X and the moment of Dartmouth history the strength of individual activist voices, which Jenkins Malcolm as a horrified, blurred-face bystander watches in which the mural was created. -
The Black Power Movement
A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of BLACK STUDIES RESEARCH SOURCES Microfilms from Major Archival and Manuscript Collections General Editors: John H. Bracey, Jr. and Sharon Harley The Black Power Movement Part 1: Amiri Baraka from Black Arts to Black Radicalism Editorial Adviser Komozi Woodard Project Coordinator Randolph H. Boehm Guide compiled by Daniel Lewis A microfilm project of UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA An Imprint of CIS 4520 East-West Highway • Bethesda, MD 20814-3389 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Black power movement. Part 1, Amiri Baraka from Black arts to Black radicalism [microform] / editorial adviser, Komozi Woodard; project coordinator, Randolph H. Boehm. p. cm.—(Black studies research sources) Accompanied by a printed guide, compiled by Daniel Lewis, entitled: A guide to the microfilm edition of the Black power movement. ISBN 1-55655-834-1 1. Afro-Americans—Civil rights—History—20th century—Sources. 2. Black power—United States—History—Sources. 3. Black nationalism—United States— History—20th century—Sources. 4. Baraka, Imamu Amiri, 1934– —Archives. I. Woodard, Komozi. II. Boehm, Randolph. III. Lewis, Daniel, 1972– . Guide to the microfilm edition of the Black power movement. IV. Title: Amiri Baraka from black arts to Black radicalism. V. Series. E185.615 323.1'196073'09045—dc21 00-068556 CIP Copyright © 2001 by University Publications of America. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-55655-834-1. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................................ -
Here May Is Not Rap Be Music D in Almost Every Major Language,Excerpted Including Pages Mandarin
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT ed or printed. Edited by istribut Verner D. Mitchell Cynthia Davis an uncorrected page proof and may not be d Excerpted pages for advance review purposes only. All rights reserved. This is ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD Lanham • Boulder • New York • London 18_985_Mitchell.indb 3 2/25/19 2:34 PM ed or printed. Published by Rowman & Littlefield An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 istribut www.rowman.com 6 Tinworth Street, London, SE11 5AL, United Kingdom Copyright © 2019 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Mitchell, Verner D., 1957– author. | Davis, Cynthia, 1946– author. Title: Encyclopedia of the Black Arts Movement / Verner D. Mitchell, Cynthia Davis. Description: Lanhaman : uncorrectedRowman & Littlefield, page proof [2019] and | Includes may not bibliographical be d references and index. Identifiers:Excerpted LCCN 2018053986pages for advance(print) | LCCN review 2018058007 purposes (ebook) only. | AllISBN rights reserved. 9781538101469This is (electronic) | ISBN 9781538101452 | ISBN 9781538101452 (cloth : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Black Arts movement—Encyclopedias. Classification: LCC NX512.3.A35 (ebook) | LCC NX512.3.A35 M58 2019 (print) | DDC 700.89/96073—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018053986 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. -
Africobra and the Negotiation of Visual Afrocentrisms Pratiques Artistiques
Pratiques artistiques et esthétiques afrocentristes Africobra and the Negotiation of Visual Afrocentrisms Kirstin L. ELLSWORTH Résumé : A la fin des années 1960, Africobra, un groupe d’artistes africains-américains basé à Chicago, développa un art expérimental qui mêlait des formes africaines et africaines-américaines avec des représentations d’une diaspora africaine. Africobra mit en place un programme artistique dans le cadre duquel l’art devait faire voir la beauté d’une culture noire universelle. Leur langage visuel devance la publication de l’ouvrage « Afrocentricity » de Molefi Asante, mais évoque pourtant déjà des tendances afrocentristes présentes tout au long de l’histoire culturelle africaine- américaine. Travaillant toujours aujourd’hui, Africobra souligne la valeur morale du processus de création pour l’artiste africain-américain travaillant dans un paradigme afrocentriste. Ce faisant, Africobra cherche à se réapproprier le pouvoir de définir ce que sont l’art et l’identité, ce qui avait été pendant des siècles aux Etats-Unis le privilège de la culture dominante. Mots-clés : Africobra, Afrocentrisme, Etats-Unis, art africain-américain. Abstract: In the 1960s, Africobra, a group of African-American artists in Chicago, experimented with art that synthesized African and African-American forms with interpretative visions of an African Diaspora. Africobra mandated a functional program for art-making in which art was to instruct in the beauty of a universal Black culture. Their imagery predates publication of Molefi Asante’s “Afrocentricity” yet negotiates in visual terms Afrocentric tendencies present throughout African American cultural historiography. Still working in the present day, Africobra emphasizes the moral value of the creative process for the individual African American artist within an Afrocentric paradigm. -
The Relationship of Black Power and Black Arts/Consciusness Movements to the Black Studies Movement
THE RELATIONSHIP OF BLACK POWER AND BLACK ARTS/CONSCIUSNESS MOVEMENTS TO THE BLACK STUDIES MOVEMENT A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Professional Studies by Benjamin Jermaine Woods January 2009 © 2009 Benjamin Jermaine Woods ABSTRACT This thesis is an examination of three social movements that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s: the Black Power Movement, Black Arts/Consciousness Movement, and Black Studies Movement. This study acknowledges that each movement had its own distinct character and ideas, but had overlapping actors, ideas, and objectives. The thesis argues that the political nationalism of the Black Power Movement, and the cultural nationalism of the Black Arts/Consciousness Movement influenced African students in the Black Studies Movement. Therefore, the study centers on the Black Studies Movement. Each Movement was a response to the cultural hegemony of the dominant Euro-American society. The study traces the development of each social movement including influences originating from previous eras. The Black Power Movement helped students to understand the political purpose of education in the United States and that it must help to liberate African people from white oppression. The Black Arts/Consciousness Movement contributed to the student’s recognition of the importance of identity, history, and culture. The thesis demonstrates the dialectical and reciprocal nature of all three movements in the 1960s and 1970s. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Benjamin Woods was born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His lineage extends to the All-Black Town Movement in Oklahoma. His Father was a student activist in the Civil Rights Movement. -
N'vest-Ing in the People: the Art of Jae Jarrell
Jae Jarrell N’Vest-ing in the People: The Art of Jae Jarrell by D. Denenge Duyst-Akpem 1977 dawned on a Nigeria brimming with AFRICOBRA (African Commune of promise, full with the spoils of Niger Bad Relevant Artists)—the Delta oil and national pride 17 years legendary collective established in post-independence. It was a time of 1968 on Chicago’s south side with afrobeat musical innovation, of the goal to uplift and celebrate cross-continental exchange, of Black community, culture, and vibrancy and possibility. A contin- self-determination.1 Jae describes gent of 250 artists and cultural the journey as a “traveling party,” a producers selected by artist Jeff veritable who’s who of famous Donaldson and the U.S. organizing Black artists, and recalls thinking, committee, traveled from New York “If the afterlife is like this, then to Lagos, Nigeria, on two planes that’ll be alright!” 2 chartered by the U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs, to participate in Imagine the moment. The outline of FESTAC ’77, the Second World West Africa appears on the distant Black and African Festival of Arts horizon. Excitement mounts as the and Culture. Among them were Jae densely inhabited shorelines and and Wadsworth Jarrell, two of sprawling metropolis of Lagos Donaldson’s fellow co-founders of (pronounced “ley” “goss”) come into view, and even in the air condi- co-founder and curator Gerald Arts6 held in Dakar, Senegal in singer and civil rights activist tioned plane, you can feel the trop- Williams reflected on the cultural 1966 hosted by visionary President Miriam Makeba lovingly known as ical rays as the plane inches closer and creative impact of partici- Léopold Sédar Senghor, FESTAC “Mama Africa,” the awe-inspiring to landing. -
Finding Aid to the Historymakers ® Video Oral History with Jeff Donaldson
Finding Aid to The HistoryMakers ® Video Oral History with Jeff Donaldson Overview of the Collection Repository: The HistoryMakers®1900 S. Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60616 [email protected] www.thehistorymakers.com Creator: Donaldson, Jeff, 1932-2004 Title: The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Jeff Donaldson, Dates: April 23, 2001 Bulk Dates: 2001 Physical 8 Betacame SP videocasettes (3:29:38). Description: Abstract: Painter Jeff Donaldson (1932 - 2004 ) was one of the founders of the artists' group AFRI-COBRA. Donaldson helped articulate the Black Arts Movement in the United States. His influential work as a muralist began with Wall of Respect, a 1967 project in Chicago. Donaldson was interviewed by The HistoryMakers® on April 23, 2001, in Washington, District of Columbia. This collection is comprised of the original video footage of the interview. Identification: A2001_023 Language: The interview and records are in English. Biographical Note by The HistoryMakers® Jeff Donaldson is an African American artist, art historian, and critic who has helped to articulate the philosophy and aesthetics of the Black Arts Movement in the United States. Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a black college town, in 1937, Donaldson was three when his older brother started drawing. This encouraged him to start drawing cartoons and comic books as well. Donaldson's love of the arts continued, and upon enrolling in the University of Donaldson's love of the arts continued, and upon enrolling in the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, he established the school's first arts major. Here, his lifelong interest in Afrocentric art was nurtured under the tutelage of John Howard, who mentored under the great Harlem Renaissance artist Hale Woodruff. -
Interview with Robert Sengstacke
Interview with Robert Sengstacke Contact Information Reference Department Archives of American Art Smithsonian Institution Washington. D.C. 20560 www.aaa.si.edu/askus Transcript Preface The original format for this document is Microsoft Word 11.5.3. Some formatting has been lost in web presentation. Speakers are indicated by their initials. Interview Robert Sengstacke Interview AFRICOBRA Interviews Tape RS TV LAND (Background Conversation) Q: So, you can just talk to us a little bit about what the Wall of Respect was, and what were you doing there, and a little bit of your experience and what you saw that year? RS: Yeah. The original Wall of Respect was developed and financed by the Visual Arts Workshop of the Organization of Black American Culture, pronounced Oh-ba-see, in Chicago, at 43rd and Langley, in the summer of 1967. The artists simply wanted to make a positive statement in the community, but wound up inspiring a public art movement which, in a few short years, spread across the world. This is two photos of the wall. This is one in its development. The scaffolding is over here, with Jeff Donaldson working on the jazz section. And then, this is the finished wall. We had a graphic designer, Sylvia Abernathy, laid the sections out, for each group of artists. And what's interesting is that, and visual artists, photographers, were also recognized and chosen for participants. This section here is a religious section I did with Bill Walker. Those are my photos. These are writers. That's a photo by Darrell Cowherd of Amiri Baraka.