As African Art Thrives, Museums Grapple With Legacy of Colonialism

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TOP: GUS CASELY-HAYFORD. COURTESY OF THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON.. BOTTOM: THE BENIN ROYAL MUSEUM WILL HOUSE MANY OF THE BRONZES LOOTED BY THE BRITISH AND SPREAD ACROSS MULTIPLE MUSEUMS AND INDIVIDUAL COLLECTIONS.

As African Art Thrives, Museums Grapple With Legacy of Colonialism

In 1897, 1,200 British troops captured and burned Benin City. It marked the end of independence for the Kingdom of Benin, which was in the modern-day Edo state in southern Nigeria. In addition to razing the city, British troops looted thousands of pieces of priceless and culturally significant art, known as the Benin bronzes.

More than a century later, the museums that house these pieces are grappling with the legacy of colonialism. Leaders in Africa have continued their call to get the Benin bronzes and other works of art taken by colonists back, at the same time as new museums open up across Africa. (In 2017, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art organized its first traveling exhibition in Africa showcasing the work of the Nigerian photographer Chief S. O. Alonge. The show, catalogue and educational program were organized and produced in partnership with Nigeria's national museum in Benin City. Alonge was the official photographer to the Royal Court of Benin.)

The British Museum, which has the largest collection of Benin bronzes, is in communication with Nigeria about returning the bronzes. They’re waiting for the completion of the Benin Royal Museum, a project planned for Benin City. Edo state officials recently tapped architect David Adjaye, who designed the National Museum of African American History and Culture, to do a feasibility study on the site.

Emmett Till Memorial to Be Replaced With Bulletproof Sign Due to Repeated Vandalism

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Emmett Till Memorial to Be Replaced With Bulletproof Sign Due to Repeated Vandalism

In 2007, a sign was erected along the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi, marking the spot where the body of Emmett Till was pulled from the water in 1955. The murder of Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy who was brutally killed by two white men, became a galvanizing incident of the Civil Rights Movement. But over the years, the memorial commemorating his death has been repeatedly vandalized—first stolen, then shot at, then shot at again, according to Nicole Chavez, Martin Savidge and Devon M. Sayers of CNN. Now, the Emmett Till Memorial Commission is planning to replace the damaged memorial with a bulletproof sign.

This will be the fourth sign that the commission has placed at the site. The first was swiped in 2008, and no arrests were ever made in connection with the incident. The replacement marker was vandalized with bullets, more than 100 rounds over the course of several years. Just 35 days after it was erected in 2018, the third sign was shot at as well.

The third memorial made headlines recently when Jerry Mitchell of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, in conjunction with ProPublica, revealed that three University of Mississippi students had been suspended from their fraternity house after posing in front of the sign with guns, in a photo that was posted to the private Instagram account of one of the students. The Justice Department is reportedly investigating the incident.

The sign has now been taken down, and a new one is “on its way,” Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, said last week, according to CBS News. Chavez, Savidge and Sayers of CNN report that the replacement memorial will weigh 600 pounds and be made of reinforced steel. It is expected to go up by the Tallahatchie River in October.

“Unlike the first three signs, this sign calls attention to the vandalism itself,” the commission noted. “We believe it is important to keep a sign at this historic site, but we don’t want to hide the legacy of racism by constantly replacing broken signs. The commission hopes this sign will endure, and that it will continue to spark conversations about Till, history, and racial justice.”

The Forgotten History of Segregated Swimming Pools and Amusement Parks

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The Forgotten History of Segregated Swimming Pools and Amusement Parks

By Victoria W. Wolcott

Summers often bring a wave of childhood memories: lounging poolside, trips to the local amusement park, languid, steamy days at the beach.

These nostalgic recollections, however, aren’t held by all Americans.

Municipal swimming pools and urban amusement parks flourished in the 20th century. But too often, their success was based on the exclusion of African Americans.

As a social historian who has written a book on segregated recreation, I have found that the history of recreational segregation is a largely forgotten one. But it has had a lasting significance on modern race relations.

Swimming pools and beaches were among the most segregated and fought over public spaces in the North and the South.

The Resilience of Barbados Counters Trump’s ‘Sh-thole’ Remarks

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The Resilience of Barbados Counters Trump’s ‘Sh-thole’ Remarks

By J.M. Opal, Associate Professor of History and Chair, History and Classical Studies, McGill University. First published on The Conversation.

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, former attorney and future inmate Michael Cohen revealed some of the uglier things Donald Trump said to him during their many years together.

Among the alleged quotes: “Name one country run by a Black person that’s not a sh—hole.” (One wonders how Trump characterized the United States when Barack Obama was President.)

Rarely stated so bluntly, this racist trope is widespread. As always, Trump gives vulgar expression to quiet prejudice, making him sound “honest” to about 40 per cent of Americans no matter how many lies he tells. As Sarah Huckabee Sanders noted after a similar revelation last year, Trump’s straight-shooting bigotry is one thing his fans love about him.

Those who don’t love him need to fight back with specific examples from the real world. Time and again, we need to highlight the big, complex reality that Trump and many of his supporters call “fake news.” Otherwise, his twisted version of the truth will continue to displace objective reality.

MacKenzie Bezos Joins Gates & Buffett 'The Giving Pledge', Sharing Half of Her New Fortune

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MacKenzie Bezos Joins Gates & Buffett 'The Giving Pledge', Sharing Half of Her New Fortune

There aren’t many solo images of MacKenzie Bezos out there. Even though the mom of four is a successful writers and played her own roll in the formation of Amazon, almost all images of MacKenzie include her husband Jeff Bezos.

Vogue US interviewed one of the world’s richest women in 2013 in advance of her “gripping new novel Traps”. The interview by Rebecca Johnson describes MacKenzie as a “bookish and she” girl who spent hours in her bedroom writing elaborate stories. She attended first Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a very deliberate choice that gave her access to writer Toni Morrison. One of America’s most important voices became Bezos’ mentor and called her in 2013 “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.”

Duke Ellington’s Melodies Carried His Message of Social Justice

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DUKE ELLINGTON MURAL ON U STREET NW IN WASHINGTON DC.

Duke Ellington’s Melodies Carried His Message of Social Justice

At a moment when there is a longstanding heated debate over how artists and pop culture figures should engage in social activism, the life and career of musical legend Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington offers a model of how to do it right.

Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 in Washington, D.C. His tight-knit black middle-class family nurtured his racial pride and shielded him from many of the difficulties of segregation in the nation’s capital. Washington was home to a sizable black middle class, despite prevalent racism. That included the racial riots of 1919’s Red Summer, three months of bloody violence directed at black communities in cities from San Francisco to Chicago and Washington D.C.

Ellington’s development from a D.C. piano prodigy to the world’s elegant and sophisticated “Duke” is well documented. Yet a fusion of art and social activism also marked his more than 56-year career.

Ellington’s battle for social justice was personal. Films like the award-winning “Green Book” only hint at the costs of segregation for black performing artists during the 1950s and 60s.

Duke’s experiences reveal the reality.

Women Activists Form SuperMajority.com, Led By Cecile Richards, Alicia Garza + Al-jen Poo

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Women Activists Form SuperMajority.com, Led By Cecile Richards, Alicia Garza + Al-jen Poo

Three very prominent women activists: Cecile Richards, the former head of Planned Parenthood; Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter; and Ai-jen Poo, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance have formed Super Majority. The group, which describes itself as multiracial and intergenerational, has a goal of training and mobilizing 2 million women over the next year to become organizers and political leaders in their communities, reports TIME.

A community for women who want to use our power to transform this country-for good. http://bit.ly/2Was7P3


Katherine Lo's Eaton Workshop Hotel DC Workshop Hosts May 19 Black Moms' Toxic Birth Event

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Katherine Lo's Eaton Workshop Hotel DC Workshop Hosts May 19 Black Moms' Toxic Birth Event

Katherine Lo, the daughter of Langham hotel founder Lo Kah-shui, has opened her Washington DC Hotel Eaton Workshop. AOC profiled Lo in July 2018, sharing both her philosophy and plans for three more Eaton Hotels in Hong Kong, San Francisco and Seattle.

Today’s entrepreneurs often throw around words like purpose and human values, but Katherine Lo is raising the bar. For example, on May 19, 2019 from 2-4pm, the Eaton Workshop DC is hosting ‘Avoiding Toxic Birth: Rethinking How Black Moms Give Birth’.

The statistics are staggering--Black women are three to four times more likely to die from childbirth than non-Hispanic white women, and socioeconomic status, education, and other factors do not protect against this disparity.  Tickets are $50.

Thando Hopa Covers Vogue Portugal April Issue 'Africa Motherland' Dedicated To Humanity's Home

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Thanda Hopa Covers Vogue Portugal April Issue 'Africa Motherland' Dedicated To Humanity's Home

South African model Thando Hopa covers Vogue Portugal’s April issue with the awesome title ‘Africa Motherland’. The issue is "dedicated to origins and Africa, as the cradle of humanity".

This reality of human existence is the very ‘blood and guts’ of Anne of Carversville and our GlamTribal Jewelry collection.

No — it’s not a case of cultural appropriation that fashion is claiming Africa as the homeland of humanity. It’s a much-needed recognition of a scientific reality and one that is controversial.

A 29-year-old international model, lawyer and activist, Thando Hopa also makes history as the first woman with albinism to grace the cover of Vogue.

What Catholic Church Records Tell Us About America’s Earliest Black History

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What Catholic Church Records Tell Us About America’s Earliest Black History

What Catholic Church Records Tell Us About America’s Earliest Black History

For most Americans, black history begins in 1619, when a Dutch ship brought some “20 and odd Negroes” as slaves to the English colony of Jamestown, in Virginia.

Many are not aware that black history in the United States goes back at least a century before this date.

In 1513, a free and literate African named Juan Garrido explored Florida with a Spanish conquistador, Juan Ponce de León. In the following decades, Africans, free and enslaved, were part of all the Spanish expeditions exploring the southern region of the United States. In 1565, Africans helped establish the first permanent European settlement in what is St. Augustine, Florida today.

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Ciara + Russell Wilson Celebrate New Creative Artists Agency Reps As Twitter Counts Black Faces At CAA Global

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Ciara + Russell Wilson Celebrate New Creative Artists Agency Reps As Twitter Counts Black Faces At CAA Global

Fans poured a questioning critique on the celebratory news that Ciara and husband Russell Wilson have signed with the Creative Artists Agency, citing the low number of people of color not only on their direct management team, but on CAA’s roster worldwide.

According to the website Diverse Representation, among CAA’s offices around the world, only 17 of their hundreds of agents are black.

After posting a video clip with Ciara and Wilson waving and cheering in front of CSA agents, fans weighed in on the dearth of colored faces. The Atlanta Black Star shares the Twitter commentary:

“Only two black on y’all team…Wow.”

“And of course everyone is white back there… we need more black presence.”

Rising Star Tyler Mitchell Eyes Sabah Koj, Thais Borges + Ugbad Abdi In 'A Courtly Dance in 'Triple Metre' For AnOther Magazine

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Rising Star Tyler Mitchell Eyes Sabah Koj, Thais Borges + Ugbad Abdi In 'A Courtly Dance in 'Triple Metre' For AnOther Magazine

Rising photographer Tyler Mitchell captures models Sabah Koj, Thais Borges, and Ugbad Abdi in ‘A Courtly Dance in Triple Metre, styled by Robbie Spencer for AnOther Magazine’s Spring/Summer 2019 issue.

The marvelously creative editorial — LOVE the veiled shot of Sabah and Ugbad! — brings to mind the art of Nigerian-born, Alabama-raised Toyin Ojih Odutola, who mounted a solo show 'To Wander Determined' at the Whitney Museum in New York in October 2017.

I was very involved as the ‘Yankee’ working to elect Doug Jones as Democratic Senator from Alabama in November 2017. Most Americans don’t know that Jones — who is white and stands for re-election in 2020 — won justice for four young girls who died in the famous Birmingham church bombing during America’s civil rights movements.

Having shared much enthusiasm around the epic proliferation of models of color in our industry, especially from (South) Sudan, where I have deep activist roots, AOC hasn’t done enough recently to highlight the enormous cultural forces at play in America.

Artists are in the vangaard of articulating this new vision for America — one under assault this very moment, with Trump grabbing authoritarian powers to build his wall in Mexico, citing an alleged national emergency, when there is NO national emergency!

The emergency order is headed immediately to the US court system, where it will most likely be overturned. After months of tears around Trump, I’ve actually reached a positive place of defiance against the raging culture war operating out in the open now in my country.

The highly imperfect, yet noble American experiment is at a true crossroads under Trump. The battle is fierce and bloody, but there is a potential for a huge new vision of the ultimate social experiment if we are smart and dedicated. I tire of America callings itself the greatest country on earth, when every great civilization or nation is always eclipsed by another.

Still, America has a chance to prove itself in an incredible new way as a vibrant, non-white majority country led by a rainbow coalition of politicos and citizens truly committed to proving that such an important coalition of citizens can live, breathe and succeed together. ~ Anne

New Study Confirms Communities of Color Are Hardest Hit By Growing Wealth Inequality

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WYNWOOD, MIAMI. PHOTO BY MERIÇ DAĞLI ON UNSPLASH

New Study Confirms Communities of Color Are Hardest Hit By Growing Wealth Inequality

By Chuck Collins, a director of the Program on Inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies. Originally published on Yes! Magazine.

The story of the growing inequality in the United States has many dimensions.

There is the overarching story of the last four decades of polarizing income, wealth, and opportunity. But the many ways these inequalities manifest depend on people’s gender, race, age, immigration status, and other experience.

One piece of the story is to understand how 40 years of public policies have worsened the racial wealth divide and enriched the top 1 percent.

Wealth is where the past shows up in the present, both in terms of historical advantages and barriers. Measures of wealth—what you own minus what you owe—reflect the multigenerational story of White supremacy in asset-building.

For example, the median White family now has 41 times more wealth than the median Black family and 22 times more wealth than the median Latino family. These are among our findings in “Dreams Deferred,” a new study on the racial wealth divide that I co-authored for the Institute for Policy Studies.

Overall, inequality has grown as wages for almost half of all U.S. workers have been flatlined since the late 1970s. Meanwhile, expenses for housing, health care, and other basic needs have risen. This has touched people of all races, fueling some of the discontent of both regressive and progressive populism.

'Seven Seconds' Actor Clare-Hope Ashitey Is Lensed By Paul Morel For The Last Magazine April 2018

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British actor Clare-Hope Ashitey is styled by Adele Cany in images by Paul Morel for The Last Magazine April 2018./ Hair by Brady Lea

In a movie industry where female actors often lack 'deep' roles, Ashitey has them fall into her lap. Last-Magazine's Gautam Balasundar writes: "Growing up, Ashitey was academically inclined and never really entertained the idea of acting as a career option. At eighteen, that changed when she landed a starring role in Alfonso Cuarón’s powerful dystopian film 'Children of Men', about a polluted world in which women are no longer able to have children.

The unusually-articulate Ashitey was interviewed by Rolling Stone in February 2018. Reflecting back on 2016, she describes her state of being:

"By the end of 2016, I felt outnumbered by shitheads. . . . Between Trump’s election and Brexit, there were all sorts of opinions coming out of the woodwork that I thought had died out a long time ago," she says. "I was like, what's the point? All we do is bad things. The history of humanity is the history of people exploiting each other."

Coincidentally -- or perhaps through an intervention by the goddesses -- Clare-Hope Ashitey brought her frustrated fatalism to the act of finding her 'Seven Seconds' character, assistant prosecutor KJ Harper.

Influenced by the epidemic of police brutality that led to the deaths of black teenagers like Tamir Rice and Michael Brown (among too many others), the Jersey City-set 'Seven Seconds' explores a crime in Harper's own city -- the often-called sixth borough of New York City. In a story told against the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, her back "tellingly" turned towards them, Rolling Stone writes: "The cast is formidable, particularly Regina King as the victim’s bereft mother and Looking's Raul Castillo as one of the compromised narcotics officers. "A white cop and a black kid? Don’t you watch the news? There are no fucking accidents anymore," Castillo's character shouts at the rookie cop (Beau Knapp) who mowed the boy down – a justification so oft-repeated that it practically becomes a mantra."

Eye: South African Artist Tony Gum's 'Ode to She' Wins 2017 Miami Beach Pulse Prize

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South African Artist Tony Gum's 'Ode to She' Wins 2017 Miami Beach Pulse Prize

South African artist Tony Gum is the recipient of the 2017 Miami Beach Pulse Prize. Gum's gallery Christopher Moller Gallery mounted a solo show for Gum, who is barely 22 years old. 

Gum's presentation 'Ode to She' is inspired by her own experiences and reflections as a Xhosa woman. Her work is rooted in the tradition of 'intonjane', an Xhosa rite of passage into womanhood practiced in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The ritual in which a girl is secluded at her homestead after her first period, is symbolic of her sexual maturity and ability to bear children.

AOC has previously written about the talented Tony Gum. See end of article.