Oriki for Robert Farris Thompson
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Oriki for Robert Farris Thompson Henry John Drewal and C. Daniel Dawson hen Drewal was invited to write To My Favorite Mambo-Freak a praise piece for Robert Farris Henry John Drewal ompson for this issue celebrating the ieth anniversary of African “Flash” and “Spirit” come to my body-mind when I think Arts, he soon realized it was beyond about Robert Farris ompson, aectionately known as “Bob” or his body-mind-heart, because Bob “Master T.” His is a spirit that ashes with brilliance, depth, and himself is larger than life, a person who has touched and inspired richness. at extraordinary spirit inspired his Yoruba friends to soW many folks in so many walks of life and thought. So Drewal give him a “pet name” that playfully ried on his, calling him contacted his dear friend and colleague C. Daniel Dawson, who “Robert Fáàrí tó ńsùn!”—“Robert, the one who plays and enjoys may know Bob better than anyone, as well as Bob’s immense life, even when sleeping!” He is an elder whose presence among circle of admirers. Drewal proposed that they solicit a variety us continues to inspire and encourage us to be bold in our feel- of perspectives from the worldwide Master T “posse” and create ing, thinking, and doing. I have admired him ever since our rst a “posse praise poem” in his honor. We had only a short time encounters back in the s, aer my return from two years of to pull this together so we both reached out to friends far and teaching, learning, and a sculpting apprenticeship among Yoruba wide, gave them four weeks to compose and send their thoughts people in Nigeria. In the midst of graduate work at Columbia and feelings in any way they chose. Some have written odes, University writing my dissertation on Gelede masquerades, I others have sent poems. One sent a painting. Another sent a cita- heard he had just come out with Black Gods and Kings: Yoruba tion. Others have contributed photos of Bob past and present. Art at UCLA (). I panicked, thinking he had just written Another sent a song that will be played (http://international.ucla. everything I intended to write in my dissertation! Fortunately for edu//media/podcasts/PROFE_T-ol-guw.mp), and a dance that me, his Gelede chapter was a short, pithy, and insightful one, so will be stepped (http://international.ucla.edu/media/mp/drew- there was still room for me to say something original. Whew! al-dance-j-kb.mp) … All of these acts are acts of love meant I pressed on and wrote to him to ask if he would be an outside for a person who inspires love and more. Where would we be in reader for me as I developed the work. Even though we had not our understanding and appreciation for the arts of Africa and its met in person, he wrote back in his distinctive hand, saying he many diasporas if the gods had not given us Bob? We think, not would be pleased and honored to do so. I was embraced by his very far. He continues to show us the way to be and to think as he unfailing, boundless generosity of spirit, his willingness to share works on his latest opus on mambo. We hear his voice, we see his and mentor, encourage and guide. He is aectionately known smile, we sense the move in his groove, and we learn once more as “Master T”—and for me, not because he was the Master of to share the passion he possesses. Enjoy these words, images, and Timothy Dwight College at Yale, but “Master Teacher” as well. sounds of praise— this multi-oriki is for you! His classes at Yale are legendary. He inspired not only students of Africa and African Diaspora worlds, artists and art historians, H J D is the Evjue-Bascom and Hilldale Professor, De- anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, historians, sociologists, partments of Art History and Afro-American Studies at the University writers, poets, dancers, and musicians—he inspired a generation of Wisconsin-Madison. [email protected] of thinkers and makers and doers in the arts in all forms. I got C. D D teaches about the African Diaspora in the Institute to attend only one of those classes. Students were expected to for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University. cd- embody the lessons he taught—with drumming, dancing, chant- [email protected] ing, singing. And as I think about my own apprenticeships with african arts AUTUMN 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 3 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00358 by guest on 23 September 2021 Dancer and dance historian Jacqui Malone, gray shirt, blue jeans, teaching the “Suzy-Q” dance to Master T’s seminar students. Yale University. March 1, 2012. Photo: C. Daniel Dawson Yoruba artists, in and again in , and what I learned about myself and the embodied knowledge and wisdom of artists, the muscle memories and sensitivities that made them virtuosic cre- ators, I think about Bob drumming on a lectern, or telling a joke in a distinctive accent, or getting down in his dance stance and mesmerizing his audiences with his joy and focus. When African Art in Motion came out (), it opened up a whole vista of sen- sory experience to be theorized and explored. So I continue to work on this (and its working on me!) with an approach I term sensiotics, because of his boldness in exploring the things that I also know his early and sustained work in the many diaspo- animate him sensorially—music, dance, and art. If Bob is, as he ras of African artists—especially those in the Americas and the calls himself, a “mambo-freak,” then he has inspired me to be a Caribbean—was the foundation for a perspective that has come sensiotic “salsa-freak.” to be known as the Black Atlantic World. Before any others, he bridged the intellectual gap that oen divides Africanists from Americanists, pushing them to recognize the deep and complex cultural beliefs and practices on both sides of this Black Atlantic World that time and space have shaped, and continue to shape. Witness his masterful and corrective account of the history of tango—that art history of love ()! For those who make those smooth and seductive moves, ignorant of tango’s African and Black Atlantic origins, Master T has given them knowledge and understanding. He will do the same with mambo—giving credit where credit is due. His commitment to the truth, his passion for justice, and his intellectual honesty and humility make him an elder to honor and emulate. I feel blessed to have him as a mentor and friend. Continue to teach and preach Master T!—Ase! Ire O! See Henry Drewal’s samba in honor of RFT at http://international.ucla.edu/ media/mp4/drewal-dance-4j-k1b.mp4 VOL. 50, NO. 3 AUTUMN 2017 african arts Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00358 by guest on 23 September 2021 | Robert Farris Thompson: Some Pictures and Some History Susan Mullin Vogel is contact sheet is a ashback to pioneer days: RFT’s rst lucky enough to midwife his denitive exhibition and catalogue big exhibition of his life long project, the “African and Afro- on the same subject, the monumental and unforgettable “Face of American Art: the Transatlantic Tradition,” objects exhibited the Gods.” Bob was always trying to do y things in the time a by the Museum of Primitive Art. With an undertone of incredu- normal person needed for one, and this was a big, hugely ambi- lity, New York Magazine explained, “e show is designed to oer tious show requiring many feats none of us had accomplished proof-positive that the Negro has a vast and telling art historical before. As deadlines approached Bob would strap his computer tradition. ere are immense ties between the visual arts of West into the front seat and drive to New York so the Museum sta Africa with the arts of the blacks in North America, the Caribbean, could pry his text “out of the machine.” He would sit across and South America …” e catalogue text was too late to print, but from me discussing installation challenges with a never-men- sixteen years later, it formed the core of Flash of the Spirit. Peter tioned wad of herbal material plastered onto the top of his head. Moore, a prominent photographer of the downtown art world, Everybody understood that wad and the genius beneath it was photographed the exhibition objects and gave me this contact giving us much more than another exhibition. In the course of sheet of us installing. You see RFT presiding over objects waiting the show, visitors le oerings of hundreds of dollars in change to be mounted, Frances Fleming hanging an Ibibio mask, and me and small bills on the altars in the galleries. I later learned the examining a headdress (loan from the Nigerian Museum?). Also sta, wearing gloves, periodically cleared it away and donated it on that sheet—shots from a lo showing of a Nam June Paik exhi- to an AIDS charity. bition. Bob was always avant garde. I took courses from RFT at Yale while studying for my PhD at S M V’ work was recognized by an ACASA Leader- e Institute of Fine Arts, NYU. During those years I was also ship Award; her Baule: African Art Western Eyes received the Hersko- full time Assistant Registrar at the Museum of Primitive Art and vitz Award.