I WILL ALWAYS CREATE INTERVIEW BY ROSE BOUTHILLIER

Jae Jarrell was born in in addition of a colorful bandolier. Jae 1935. She grew up in the historic Glen- also made three new pieces for the ex- ville neighborhood, the same area of hibition, revisiting designs and ideas the city that she returned to in 2009 that still inspire her. Maasai Collar with her husband Wadsworth, after having Vest (2015) recalls the ornate cloth- lived in , Washington D.C., and ing and jewelry of the Maasai people, New York. They settled into two sprawl- who live in parts of Kenya and northern ing apartments facing Rockefeller Park: Tanzania. Shields and Candelabra Vest studio spaces above and residence below. (2015) uses the organic form of cac- Every wall and surface bursts with art, tus plants, flipped on their sides, as life, family, and soul. frames for colorful African shields. Scramble Jacket (2015) brings to- Jae has always been a maker and an en- gether two of Jae’s loves: jazz and trepreneur. Her passion has carried music (a constant backdrop at home through many pursuits, from art to fash- and studio) and the crossword board game ion design, vintage dealing, and furni- Scrabble. The intersecting names of ture restoration. In 1968, she was one influential musicians speak to the im- of the founding members of AFRICOBRA portance of community in developing a (African Commune of Bad Relevant Art- scene, style, and history. ists), along with Wadsworth, Jeff Don- aldson, Barbara Jones-Hogu, and Gerald I sat down with Jae in May 2015 to talk Williams. The collective formed in re- about her extraordinary life and cre- sponse to a lack of positive representa- ative vision. tion of African American people in me- dia and the arts, and their goal was to //////////////////////////////////// develop a uniquely Black aesthetic that conveyed the pride and power of their communities. RB How to Remain Human features three of Were there any influential figures for Jae’s garments from the early days of you growing up in Cleveland that set you AFRICOBRA: Urban Wall Suit (1969) drew on your path as an artist? inspiration from the graffiti and con- cert posters that filled the streets of Chicago, where brick walls became mes- JJ sage boards for the community; Ebony I am the granddaughter of a tailor, and Family (1968) embodies Jae’s deeply held though I never met him——he had passed by belief that strong Black families are a the time I was born——my mother always source of power; and Revolutionary Suit shared with me the wonderful workman- (1968) takes the shape of a Jae’s sig- ship that he taught all of his children. nature late 60’s 2-piece suit: collar- So I’ve always been mindful of fabrics, less jacket, three-quarter length bell recognizing different fibers, weaves, sleeves, and an A-framed skirt——with the classic dress. Mother would take me to

63 vintage shops, and when Mother wanted shop with one display window right at your attention, she whispered. She would the corner of a very lovely building at bring a collar of a garment forward and 52nd and Blackstone. And I named it “Jae say, “Just, look at that! Just, look at of Hyde Park.” that workmanship! When you see these saddle stitches, you know that that is a special tactic, so watch for these RB things!” And so I always thought of mak- You’ve always done things in your own ing clothes in order to have something way, on your own terms. As a Black fash- unique, and later I learned to sew very ion designer, did you feel that you had well and made it my business to always to forge your own path because it would make my garments. And I also have a love be more difficult to get your clothing for vintage, knowing that it has secrets into other people’s stores? of the past that I can unfold. JJ RB I was always full of dreams. In my up- When and how did “Jae” become the name bringing, it was always “yes you can!” you go by? The sky is the limit. I remember be- ing very taken with my family’s busi- ness. My Uncle Jimmy was a haberdasher JJ and had this wonderful men’s shop that When I left the Art Institute of Chi- I worked in. I often thought, “I’d like cago, I started a business in my apart- to have my own business.” That was a ment, designing for a number of mod- mission that I thought I could pursue. els that worked for shows and needed to High school was wonderful, it was inter- provide their own garments. So I built racial, about 30% Black students. And the idea that I wanted to have a shop. we just did everything together; we had At one point I got a job at Motorola—— parties and there were interracial rela- I was hired to help integrate the com- tionships. So I didn’t see any reason to pany. They wanted me to be the face of have pause. Motorola. I was hired as a reception- ist, and I bounced between three recep- Then, somehow or another, you would hear tion rooms in three buildings on the trends in the news that might give you same property in Chicago. There was one an indication that things could be oth- woman whose place I took when she went er than wonderful. I just thought, you to lunch and on breaks. She was an older know, treat this with caution...but I woman and was a bit concerned about los- didn’t think it would affect me because ing her job. I wanted to befriend her there was so much “plus” in my life. I and so I started chatting with her about left Cleveland to go to college at Bowl- clothes. I liked the way she dressed ing Green State University, where they and she liked the way I did, and there were forming a Black student union. And was something about our spirits that I thought, “Well, that’s nice.” There was good. And she was somebody that I were only a handful of Blacks, maybe imparted my secret to, that I really ten or fourteen on campus. At the same wasn’t going to be at Motorola for long. time my sister was dating a young at- I wanted to be a designer and I wanted torney from Albany, who was go- my own place. We decided to try to name ing to school at Case Western Reserve this place. She loved having my secret University. He was completing his law so we played around each time I came and degree and intended to go back to help she toyed with it. I wasn’t going to be his people. And I thought: “help them Elaine, my first name, and I wasn’t go- to what?” But at that time, a very ac- ing to be Annette, my middle name, and tive kind of revolutionary movement was I certainly wasn’t going to be Johnson, forming in Albany to free their people, my maiden name. At one point she came give them guidance, give them opportuni- up with throwing the initials backwards, ties. By the same token, I was struck by J-A-E, and that’s when I chose “Jae.” I the fact that colonized African nations always loved Hyde Park, and I envisioned were beginning to be decolonized. And of having a store there. I found a one-room course, fashion sort of takes a note of

64 activities occurring in the news, things ing. I included figures, because AFRI- that would affect expression. So these COBRA was interested in speaking to the concerns that I didn’t have before were people, and you feel you’re spoken to entering my life. if you see your image. But I’m diverse in how I work, sometimes I design right One of the things that struck me was how on the tabletop as I’m working, and this successful Uncle Jimmy was in his hab- gives me a degree of variety. erdashery. Turns out Uncle Jimmy looks like a white man. For all practical pur- poses, as far as his clients knew, he RB was a white man. So I’m seeing that my Can you tell me the story of Urban Wall dear Uncle Jimmy, who had such a knack Suit? What was the inspiration? in business, also had certain opportuni- ties based on an assumption that he was white. Later he formed a business rela- JJ I made Urban Wall Suit in 1969. One of tionship with several other merchants, the tenets of AFRICOBRA was to reinvent realtors, a whole spectrum of Black yourself, reinvent how you were, rein- business owners in the Cleveland com- vent your whole manner so that you had munity. They started a Negro Business a fresh voice. I was inventing my fab- League. And I thought, “Really?” Then it ric. I had made a line of silk shirts at occurred to me that these were precau- my Jae of Hyde Park shop, so I decided tions, to protect and support one an- to use the scraps. I put them together other. It was only then that I thought, in large and small patches of rectan- “How do you protect yourself?” Because gular shapes and squares. I started to I’m always going to be going off to the pay attention to the walls in our Chi- big lights somewhere. I realized that cago area, all of the markings on them. you’d better have your head on straight, AFRICOBRA had made us missionaries to because you may need to cut your own the community; we were doing art for the way. And one way that I thought was very community. And I saw the walls as com- manageable was to have a business. You munity message boards. I was struck by call your shots in business. You set the folks who tagged questions or propo- tone. And I’ll tell you, frankly, I’ve sitions on the wall that someone else done a number of businesses, and for the might answer. I thought, “Wow, this is most part, I’ve had particularly white hip.” As I was putting together this clientele. It was just interesting, fabric I thought, “Let me see if I can those who were drawn to what I offered. make bricks in it.” I used velvet ribbon I never really thought of activism until for my mortar, and began to paint and I was in AFRICOBRA. write graffiti as well as incorporating the posters with announcements that you RB would find. That’s how I got to Urban Can you talk about the process of mak- Wall Suit. It was a voice of the commu- ing a garment? How does it start——as an nity and a voice to the community. idea, a mood? Is it inspired by a tex- ture or color? RB Can you tell me a little bit about the JJ life of that piece? Did you often wear We were taught to design with an inspi- it, or was it made primarily for display ration from the fabric, but I tend to or exhibitions? think of the end product before I really address the fabric. If you want individ- uality, you have to use your own voice JJ Originally it was for exhibition, but from beginning to end. So, I birth fab- on occasions of import, I wore it. I do ric sometimes. Fresh avenues of making remember once wearing it in D.C., coming garments that might not have been used back from a grocery store with one of my before. In AFRICOBRA I chose to use felt children in a sling and one in a stroll- and leather pelts. I ended up painting er and one walking, helping to push the on leathers to express what I was do- stroller. But D.C. was like that to us.

65 It was our people, and everything was on cause I like eye contact and handshakes time. And so, it wouldn’t be unusual to and shared stories. I always think of have popped it on. functional things, but add pizzazz to them. That’s where art comes in. But I am forever driven to make something that RB others might enjoy and that they might What are some of your thoughts on the know me better by. I then grow from the renewed interest in AFRICOBRA? How do joy they have. you envision its enduring legacy and relevance to the contemporary moment? RB How do you want people to feel when JJ they’re wearing one of your garments? My mother was always telling me that I was “bred.” If you brought somebody home, she would ask, “Who are their JJ people?” And she would remind me that I think there’s a term that I use when the training that we received was with I’m interacting with clients. And it’s real intent, and was something to serve an advice thing, but I always used the you always. When I was totally on my own word “attitude.” Clothes allow you to living in New York City, I pulled out have attitude. You can really define every guidance measure that she taught your place in a crowd with the proper to manage myself as a young adult, so- sense of self and projecting your per- cializing, experimenting, and whatever sonality. You’re seen across the room. else. I kept these rules in mind, and It’s a feel-good kind of tactic. That’s it’s a reference that we used to carve what I think I enjoy most about dress- out AFRICOBRA. It was done in a very ing people——I’ve seen glow as a result family-like way. The love we had for one of knowing you have the right colors on, another, the respect we built for one something that complements your phy- another, the trust we had. When would sique. Something you like, and that you you put together as many as ten artists can see in other people’s eyes that they that bring their art partially done and like it too. ask each other for input? Outside of a classroom, you don’t expect that to hap- pen. This was true trust and true in- RB terest and love of developing a voice, What are you excited about now in your signature voices. You know them when you practice? What’s next, what’s your vi- see them. There’s a value in that you sion pointing to? never divorce family, and it’s always a part of you if you really buy into it. So it’s very comfortable to exercise JJ I will always create; it’s how I go some of those principles in anything you about things. It’s part of my tool do, in living as well as creating. kit. And I say “tool kit” without jok- ing, ‘cause I might bring a saw out in RB a minute! I love creating things. Pre- Your pursuits have most often related sentation means a lot to me. I’m hop- to functional things, beautiful answers ing to expand my interests in wood mak- to what people need or how they want ing. Some of my art is more structural. to present themselves or imagine their What’s in the works is structure that I place in the world. Could you talk a build alongside symbols that I borrow. little bit about humanness and how it’s I’m making some panels, now, that will guided your practice? express my interest in sculpture as well as painting, using the leather again, still interrelating materials. I think JJ the sky is the limit on what I want to I just love being around people. And do or can do. It will always be a part it’s probably why I chose to be a mer- of me and you will always know that it’s chant , because it’s hands-on. I don’t my voice, but it’s just moved in another know what I’ll do with the internet, be- place.

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1. Jae Jarrell Going to NYC, 1994 Mixed media on canvas 53 x 74 inches Courtesy of the artist

2. Jae Jarrell Jazz Scramble Jacket, 2015 Silkscreened cowhide splits 25 x 21 1/2 inches Courtesy of the artist

67 Jae Jarrell Maasai Collar Vest, 2015 Leather and suede with cowhide splits 19 x 22 inches Courtesy of the artist

68 JAE JARRELL AND THE FASHIONING OF BLACK CULTURE BY DAVID LUSENHOP

Artist and fashion designer Jae Jarrell clothing as symbolic, public gesture. made headlines in January 1971 when her “Adorn to reflect” became Jae’s mantra Revolutionary Suit (1968), a salt-n-pepper from this period forward. Today, a renewed tweed jacket and skirt ensemble with in- interest in the political and performative corporated faux bandolier, inspired Jet nature of art, and in the culturally meta- magazine editors to run a cover article morphic period of the 1960s and 70s, has entitled “Black Revolt Sparks White Fash- brought new attention to Jae’s pioneering ion Craze.”1 The influential journal cas- contributions. “[S]he anticipated the con- tigated the mainstream fashion world for fluence of fashion and fine art this is so “borrowing” the bandolier from the Black prevalent today,” writes Kellie Jones.4 revolution, and for turning a symbol of righteous political resistance into a neu- At the SAIC, Jae was one of few African- tralized fashion accessory.2 As evidence of American students. She recognized that her this blatant cultural appropriation, the potential could be hindered by the main- magazine juxtaposed Jae’s Revolutionary stream fashion industry’s racist and ex- Suit with an illustration of New York so- clusionary practices of the time. As she cialite and art collector Ethel Scull, who recalls: “one of the reasons I went into posed in front of a Jasper Johns “flag” business with my own shop was because I painting wearing a black turtleneck, lace- was going to circumvent getting turned up boots, and a bullet-belt slung around down by some design house.”5 Jae left the her hips. Jae went on record in the ar- SAIC and honed her skills independently, ticle decrying this white consumerism. Her though she later completed a BFA at Howard fashions had intensely political ends: “We University, took graduate courses in tex- were saying something when we used the tile design there, along with an advanced, belts. We’re involved in a real revolu- professional course at Parsons School of tion.”3 Design in New York. She settled in the Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side As exemplified by this garment, Jae con- of Chicago, an area she says “had an ele- sistently seeks to merge the principles of ment of art and class and tolerance.”6 She fashion design with the liberatory poli- opened a boutique called Jae of Hyde Park tics and culturally-specific expressions in 1964, where she offered one-of-a-kind of the 1960s and 70s , coats and suits, and custom tailoring. generally considered an extension of the movement. In 1965, several tragic events had a pro- found impact on the art and activism of In 1958, ten years before Jae’s ground- Jae and her circle in Chicago. breaking work began appearing in art jour- was murdered, Dr. Martin Luther King and nals and museum exhibitions, she trans- peaceful protestors were met with violence ferred from Bowling Green State University in Alabama, and the Watts Rebellion erupt- in Ohio to the School of the Art Institute ed near downtown Los Angeles. Spurred by of Chicago (SAIC) where she enrolled in these troubling events, and others before the fashion design program. The SAIC was them, African-American activists founded not her first exposure to clothing design; various social and political “Movements” her grandfather was a tailor and her fam- in the months and years that followed. For ily in Cleveland all sewed. It was dur- many, the slow pace of social and politi- ing her formative years in Chicago, how- cal change during the preceding ten years ever, that she began to understand fashion of the Civil Rights movement signaled a design as a potent cultural force, and need for more aggressive measures to ad-

69 dress racism, economic inequality, and seminal designs by Jae featured in the New white cultural hegemony. York exhibition. In the guise of apparel, these artworks invite a subjective reading In response to this political and so- of the forms, colors, and lines as part of cial turmoil, in 1968 Jae co-founded the the overall aesthetic experience, yet they now renowned visual arts group AFRICOBRA, are forcefully political and demonstra- along with her husband Wadsworth Jar- tive. As Jones-Hogu reflects, “it was not rell, Jeff Donaldson, Barbara Jones-Hogu, fantasy or art for art’s sake, it was spe- and Gerald Williams.7 An acronym for Afri- cific and functional.”10 can Commune of Bad Relevant Artists, the group’s name boldly proclaims their inten- What could be more “specific and func- tion to pivot away from critiques of white tional” than garments designed specifi- oppression, and instead use their work to cally for a revolution? As Jae recently address the Black community head-on. Bar- explained, “The rectangular format of my bara Jones-Hogu explained: “[O]ur visual Ebony Family dress is a dashiki imitating statements were to be Black, positive, and a poster.”11 By taking the form of a tra- direct.”8 AFRICOBRA also rejected the idea ditional West African men’s garment that of using mainstream art modes of the day became de rigueur in African-American com- like Minimalism and conceptual art, and munities during the 1960s and 1970s, Jae disavowed much of the modern Western art connects her design practice to African, history they had learned in art school. rather than European, fashion traditions. Instead, they began conceptualizing what Employing lettering (in the form of scat- a “Black aesthetic” might look and feel tered Es and Fs) subscribes to AFRICOBRA’s like. practice of reinforcing images through language, but referencing in an oblique During formal AFRICOBRA meetings, of- way that is comprehensible without be- ten held at the Jarrell’s home and studio ing literal like many of the political and on East 61st Street in Chicago, the mem- protest posters of the period. bers began exploring ways to concretize a “Black aesthetic,” a self-defined set of The reductive nature of Jae’s figural de- image making practices and philosophical sign in Ebony Family underscores AFRICO- protocols that drew from lived experienc- BRA’s interest in forging links between es, African prototypes, and African-Amer- African prototypes and African-American ican vernacular culture, especially the art traditions. This is especially re- sights and sounds of their own South Side flected in the faces of her rendered Black community. The principles of AFRICOBRA’s family. Their forms recall the stylized “Black aesthetic” were outlined by Jeff geometry of Lwalwa and Dan masks made Donaldson, as spokesman for the group, in by artists in regions of Angola and Con- a lengthy, manifesto-like essay entitled go in West Africa. The geometric velve- “10 in Search of a Nation,” first pub- teen shapes and thick, rectangular lines lished in Black World magazine in October of complimentary colors imbue this work 1970. Each AFRICOBRA artist was intended with a rhythmic visual buoyancy. These to incorporate the concept of “Expressive are AFRICOBRA’s famous “Cool-ade” colors: Awesomeness,” to include “Free Symmetry,” “bright, vivid, singing cool-ade col- to make “organic” art, to convey “Shine,” ors of orange, strawberry, cherry, lemon, to include lettering, and to adopt a pal- lime and grape. Pure vivid colors of the ette of “Cool-ade” colors, among other sun and nature. Colors that shine on Black prescribed image-making modes the group people, colors which stand out against the defined in detail.9 By adhering to this greenery of rural areas.”12 set of aesthetic principles, each mem- ber’s artwork was conceived of as part of While Ebony Family is infused with an in- a larger collaborative project. herited spirit of Africa, the work also speaks directly to that cultural moment in Guided by the tenets of AFRICOBRA, Jae America when Jae and others in the Black produced several fashion garments in the Arts Movement celebrated the unique ar- period leading up to the group’s national tistic contributions of the African-Amer- debut at the Studio Museum in Harlem in ican artistic avant-garde. By embodying the summer of 1970. Ebony Family (1968) the AFRICOBRA principle of Free Symmetry, and Urban Wall Suit (1969) were among the defined as “the use of syncopated rhyth-

70 mic repetition which constantly changes //////////////////////////////////// in color, texture, shapes, form, pattern, 1. “Jae” is the name under which Jarrell has movement, feature, etc.,” Ebony Family produced art since the early 1960s. It is an conjures the dazzling 1960s paper collag- acronym for Johnson Annette Elaine, the reverse es of Romare Bearden, himself an artist- order of her birth name. turned-activist in the Civil Rights era.13 2. I have capitalized the B in Black out of Jae’s colorful, staccato composition also respect for the long tradition of doing so when echoes the free-form, improvisational mu- referring to people of the African Diaspora. This sic of African-American Jazz masters like form of the word was commonly used by African- Eric Dolphy, Roscoe Mitchell, and John American media outlets, beginning in the 1960s. Coltrane, whose music filled the studios 3. Jae Jarrell quoted in “Black Revolt Sparks of the AFRICOBRA artists. White Fashion Craze,” Jet, vol. 39, no. 18, January 28, 1971: 42-45. Few artworks of the 1960s and 70s joy- fully “represent” as well as Urban Wall 4. Kellie Jones, “Civil/Rights/Act,” Witness: Suit (1969), a natty two-piece woman’s Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties, Teresa A. Carbone and Kellie Jones, eds. (New York: suit. The garment declares its origins Brooklyn Museum and Monacelli Press, 2014), 46. loudly and proudly. Constructed of printed and dyed silk with applied velvet lines 5. Unpublished TV Land/Hudson Street suggesting a brick wall, and covered in Productions interview transcript, 2010, painted graffiti and imitations of tat- Additional recorded and transcribed materials are held as “Interviews with AfriCOBRA Founders” tered broadsides, Urban Wall Suit crystal- by the . For more izes the vibrant culture of the South Side information see www.aaa.si.edu/collections/ Chicago community that Jae lived in and interviews--founders-15925 loved. The faux tattered posters, rendered in acrylic paint, reference contemporary 6. Ibid. politics (Vote Democrat), and advertise 7. The group was originally named COBRA, an local gigs by Blues and Jazz greats (Muddy acronym for Coalition of Black Revolutionary Waters, Duke Ellington). Graffiti on the Artists, but changed to AFRICOBRA in late 1969. bodice honors Chicago colloquialisms of Jae and prefer that the name of the day like “E Thang,” “Miss Attitude,” the group be spelled with all capital letters, as it was on the poster produced for the first and “Black Prince.” Jae reflected on Urban AFRICOBRA exhibition at the Studio Museum in Wall Suit recently: “It was important, be- Harlem in 1970. Other group members and scholars cause the language was who I was speaking have used AfriCOBRA, AFRI-COBRA, and Afri-COBRA to, and I was saying, I understand your in printed material that references the group. newsletter on the wall. And I join you. 8. Barbara Jones-Hogu, “The History, Philosophy Why not [graffiti] on a perfectly good and Aesthetics of AfriCOBRA,” AfriCOBRA III silk suit made to look like a wall.”14 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1973), unpaginated. By creating her art in the form of a wear- able garment, Jae extended the work out- 9. Jeff Donaldson, “10 in Search of a Nation,” Black World, vol. 19, no. 12, October 1970: 80- side of the museum environment, where it 89. is perceived as a precious art object. Curator Kellie Jones explains: “The tra- 10. Jones-Hogu, unpaginated. ditional canvas is understood here through its constituent parts, pigment and cloth, 11. Jae Jarrell, artist’s page, Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties, 117. and its confluence with other uses, as quilt, as clothing.”15 No mere aesthetic 12. Jones-Hogu, unpaginated. object, Urban Wall Suit asserts its spe- cific function through visual references 13. Ibid. to the street. This wearable urban bill- 14. TV Land/Hudson Street Productions interview board becomes at once personal shelter, transcript, 9. public political act, and cultural ob- servance. Jae recalled wearing the Urban 15. Jones, 46. Wall Suit during a visit with friends in : “When our visit was over, I could 16. Jarrell, 117. hear in their voices, and see in their eyes, respect——Real respect...and pride.”16

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1. Jae and Wadsworth Jarrell, out- side of Jae Jarrell Vintage Menswear & Collectibles, 466 Greenwich St., New York City, 2005

2. Jae Jarell in Urban Wall Suit, posed with Wadsworth Jr.(3 yrs), and Jennifer (3 mos) Revere Beach, Massachusetts, 1971

72 Jae Jarrell Ebony Family, c. 1968 Velvet dress with velvet collage 38 1/2 x 38 x 10 inches Collection of the Brooklyn Museum Gift of R.M. Atwater, Anna Wolfrom Dove, Alice Fiebiger, Joseph Fiebiger, Belle Campbell Harriss, and Emma L. Hyde, by exchange. Designated Purchase Fund, Mary Smith Dorward Fund, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, and Carll H. de Silver Fund, 2012.80.16

73 Jae Jarrell Urban Wall Suit, c. 1969 Sewn and painted cotton and silk, two-piece suit 37 1/2 x 27 1/2 x 10 inches Collection of the Brooklyn Museum, Gift of R.M. Atwater, Anna Wolfrom Dove, Alice Fiebiger, Joseph Fiebiger, Belle Campbell Harriss, and Emma L. Hyde, by exchange. Designated Purchase Fund, Mary Smith Dorward Fund, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, and Carll H. de Silver Fund, 2012.80.16.

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