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1 Black Documents: Mosaic Literary Conference explores Black Documents historical and contemporary presentations of black Mosaic Literary Conference identity in literature and photography; and how self- Saturday, November 25, 2017, 11-6pm affirming imagery and text can counter negative Bronx Museum of the Arts stereotypes. The conference consists of workshops, 1040 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NYC panels, talks, and screenings. www.BlackDocuments.com To this end, the conference will also present photography exhibits Jamel Shabazz: Black Documents ALL EVENTS ARE FREE. and Black Documents: Freedom. This event is made possible with donations and public funds from Humanities New York, Citizens Committee for New York City. In-kind support is provided by The Bronx Museum of the Arts and The Andrew Freedman Home. Additional support has been provided by community partners AALBC.com, BxArts Factory, Bronx Cultural Collective, The Center for Black Literature, En Foco, The Laundromat Project, The Roew, WideVision Photography, and Word Up Bookstore. The Literary Freedom Project is a member of the Urban Arts Cooperative -supporting artists in underserved communities. 2 Jamel Shabazz: Black Documents Black Documents Opening Reception Photography exhibition November 25, 6-9pm November 25 to December 15, 2017 Andrew Freedman Home Andrew Freedman Home 1125 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NYC Black Documents: Freedom Artist Talks Photography exhibition Andrew Freedman Home November 25 to December 15, 2017 1125 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NYC Photographers: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Lola Flash, Danny Ramon Peralta, Thursday, November 30, 6-8pm Edwin Torres, and Michael Young Photographers from Black Documents: Andrew Freedman Home Freedom. Coreen Simpson, facilitator Thursday, December 7, 6-8pm Jamel Shabazz and Laura James, curator 3 Jamel Shabazz: Black Documents: Freedom This publication accompanies the exhibitions Jamel Shabazz: Black Documents and Black Documents: Freedom, organized by Laura James and Ron Kavanaugh. On view November 25 through December 15, 2017 at the Andrew Freedman Home, 1125 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY. Curator: Laura James These exhibitions complement Black Documents: Mosaic Literary Conference, held on November 25, 2017 at the Bronx Museum of the Arts and presented by the Literary Freedom Project. The Mosaic Literary Conference and exhibitions are made possible in part by donations, Humanities New York, and Citizens Committee For New York City. Copyright © 2017 Literary Freedom Project, Inc. Literary Freedom Project is a Bronx-based 501c3 tax-exempt nonprofit arts organization that seeks to restore the importance of social and cultural identity through reading. Towards this goal, LFP publishes Mosaic; develops literature-based lesson plans; presents One Book One Bronx and Mosaic Literary Conference; and co-hosts the Bronx Book Fair. All rights reserved no part of this publication may be reproduced without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission. Cover photo: Jamel Shabazz, The Gathering, Back photo: 4 Contents Essays Laura James / 6 Adama Delphine Fawundu / 9 Ron Kavanaugh / 44 Photographers Laylah Amatullah Barrayn / 12 Lola Flash / 18 Danny Ramon Peralta / 24 Edwin Torres / 30 Michael Young / 36 Jamel Shabazz / 46 Poems Cheryl Boyce Taylor / 20 Nicole Sealey / 26 Alan King / 32 Clint Smith / 60 Interview Seeing Eye to Eye: Jamel Shabazz by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn / 62 Bios & Acknowledgments / 68 5 What’s So Special about Jamel Shabazz? Arts Facility, The Crown Heights Youth Collective, and the Crown Heights conflict. We went to the It’s hard to write about Jamel Shabazz without Sunday drumming circle in Prospect Park, Grand getting personal. Jamel has photographed my Army Plaza Library on Eastern Parkway, the Park neighborhood, my friends, and my family. Jamel Slope Food Coop. We shopped on Fulton St. has photographed the memory of my youth. at Tony’s Country Life, the Botanica, and green grocers with everything from dasheen to fresh I grew up in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn in the 80s sorrel leaves. and 90s, a block away from the excitement of Nostrand Ave. and Fulton St., back when it was a Pride, creativity, activism, black power, Rasta black neighborhood of predominately Caribbean culture, Five Percenters, the Nation of Islam and people. My first artistic love was photography. At Louis Farrakhan. Respect. We watched Spike that time, my sister Sonia was attending Hunter Lee movies and In Living Color, we listened to College, and was a student and mentee of Roy the Fugees, Wu Tang, and WBAI. We read Dr. de Carava, photography legend and fellow Bed- John Henrik Clarke – “The first light of human Stuy resident. Sonia set up a consciousness and the world’s first darkroom in our basement, where civilizations were in Africa,”– and went my cousin Walter taught me the to Pan-African meetings at Friendship basics. It never occurred to me Baptist Church. We wore head wraps to photograph my neighborhood, and marched against apartheid. Were opting instead to shoot scenes you there? If you were there you know of Manhattan, and my friends at what I mean. If you weren’t there, you LaGuardia High School, a never can have a look at Jamel Shabazz’s ending source of material for photos; Jamel was there. We didn’t my camera. Later on after high know it was Jamel, he was the brother school, I moved on to painting. with the camera, directing his subjects: sisters, a group of young people rocking Brooklyn was the place to be! the latest gear, a couple in love, the There was The Slave Theatre, dread, the guy with the boombox. Dorsey’s and The Skylight Gallery, Seen at street festivals and community and The African Street Festival. events, and just walking through the Iro’s Original Vegetarian and ‘hood of Flatbush, Bed-Stuy, Harlem, Ethiopian Taste, Ifetayo Cultural interested in capturing us: black officers Sybil James c. 1983. Photo by Walter Hunte 6 and military men, freemasons, comrades, bredren. captured by Jamel Shabazz. There have been many familiar scenes, friends and acquaintances I lived in Bed-Stuy and Prospect Heights until I recognize; Collette and Dibi, Joe Bell Bey, 2003, never dreaming that I would ever leave Otto and Mac. Jamel is almost certain he has a Brooklyn, and the friends and community I had photograph of me, and at a recent studio visit made there. I found two photos that were directly linked to me – the first with a man posing in front of one of Ten years later, sitting in my studio in the the angels I painted around the time of the Crown Bronx, I get an email from the Bronx Museum Heights riots, ‘Laura James’ signature and all; the announcing the screening of a documentary about other a tender photo of my children with their a photographer I’d never heard of, Jamel Shabazz. father outside Boys and Girls High School. A quick Google search and I was 14 again, back in Brooklyn. I thought of my beautiful sister Sybil, I have always been proud to say I was born and always put together in the latest fashion with her bred in Brooklyn, but seeing more of Jamel’s hair set just so. She was murdered in 1991 at the photographs in books, on exhibit, on the internet, tender age of 24. Sybil would have been an ideal all over the place really, makes me proud and subject for Jamel Shabazz; happy to have been a part obsessed with her hair and of that singular time, when clothing, in high school she I was embracing black would coordinate outfits culture with both hands. with her homegirls. Pink What’s so special about bomber jacket with a big ‘S’ Jamel Shabazz? Jamel is patch, wide-rimmed glasses, one of the rare souls who name belts and Adidas, pursue their artistic passion frilly shirts and shearling simply because they coats, finger waves and pink have to. Self-taught and lotion. I watched the film unpretentious, a career half listening, mostly looking based on his honest desire to see a photo of Sybil. to connect with humanity; to capture that thing he Now in 2017, I have had sees in you, and then to the pleasure of looking show you. The love works through hundreds of images both ways, and Zarinah Chris, Neville and Zuri c. 1999. Photo by Jamel Shabazz 7 Shabazz confides, “I always told him that I thought God was guiding him and I think people may not realize it but besides his images, his righteousness and sincerity are what they are drawn to.” In an interview with Elyse Weingarten for The Rumpus, Jamel explained the typical prelude to a shot: “Often that person will ask, ‘What do you want my picture for?’ So I already know that that question is going to come, and I say, ‘I sincerely see greatness in you. I see something special about you.’ I may not always say ‘greatness.’ I might just say, ‘I see something special about you. I don’t quite know what it is, but there is something special about you, and I want to capture it.’” Thank you Jamel for seeing something valuable in our black and brown communities, something worth preserving. I will leave it to the scholars to figure out where Jamel Shabazz fits in art history. As far as I’m concerned, his work is important because it deftly documents the pride and beauty of ordinary people, black and brown people, my people. Laura James, curator and visual artist October 2017 8 In the Spirit of Blackness alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.” – James Baldwin.