Oakland Museum Presents “African Presence in Mexico”

The Oakland Museum of California’s new exhibition, “The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to the Present,” will examine Africa’s overlooked historical contributions to Mexican culture.
In 1609 Yanga, an African leader, founded the first free African township in the Americas, almost a century after Africans first arrived in Mexico (in 1519).
Africans have continued to contribute their artistic, culinary, musical, and cultural traditions to Mexican culture. The exhibition features paintings, prints, movie posters, photographs, sculpture, costumes, masks, musical instruments, and other examples of art and popular culture.
The exhibition was curated by Sagrario Cruz-Carretero of the University of Veracruz and Cesáreo Moreno, visual arts director at the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago.
The bilingual exhibition features paintings, prints, movie posters, photographs, sculpture, costumes, masks, and musical instruments. “It’s a fascinating hybrid—a visual arts exhibition based on a cultural history,” says co-curator Evelyn Orantes.
The exhibition will be on view May 9 through Sunday, August 23. For information, go to http://www.museumca.org/exhibit/exhi_apim.html

Muralist Gains National Reputation

Chadwick Eaglin is a local muralist whose work is displayed in galleries throughout the nation, including a piece composed of gemstones on display at the Tupac Museum in Atlanta.

Born in Houston, Texas in 1980,  Eaglin by the age of 6 was entering art pieces into local contest and was able to win recognition for his work.  As a very studious youngster and lover of art, he knew he had to pursue his desire to become a true artist, focusing on crafting his skills. He entered a piece entitled “My Neighborhood” in the Children’s Art Museum of Houston, Texas. 

In 1999, Eaglin moved to San Francisco to attend the Academy of Art College. His first year in school exposed him to the artistic culture of the West Coast. He soon was introduced to the Magic Fashion and Apparel Show in Las Vegas. [Read more]

Art exhibition showcases Ben Hazard’s acrylic sculptures

Artist Ben Hazard with his charcoal portrait of Warren Wilson. Photo by Adam Turner

By Donald Greene
Alameda County Arts Commissioner

Sweet Dreams, an exhibition of acrylic sculpture by Oakland artist Ben Hazard, will be shown at the Craft and Culture Arts Gallery in the Elihu M. Harris California State Office Building in Oakland, from January 9, 2009 to February 27, 2009 with a companion exhibition of powerful charcoal drawings at the Joyce Gordon Gallery in downtown Oakland.

These two separate exhibits herald Hazard’s return to full-time work as a producing artist inspired by his unique “candy-like” acrylic sculpture pioneered in the 1970’s and more recently his powerful charcoal drawings. [Read more]

The Black West: Buffalo Soldiers, Black Cowboys

The largest exhibition of Western art by Black artists ever assembled opens December 20 at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia.

“The Black West: Buffalo Soldiers, Black Cowboys and Untold Stories” features 65 works of art by 16 contemporary African American artists. Visitors to the museum can view the exhibition through March 22, 2009.

“The Black West” is an important and groundbreaking exhibition because it tells the often overlooked story of Blacks in the West through the art of contemporary African American artists. In addition to the stories of Black cowboys and buffalo soldiers, the art chosen for the exhibition focuses on the complete African American experience in the West, encompassing Black explorers, lawmen, rodeo stars, outlaws, and women. [Read more]

Barbara Lee “Renegade” Career, In Her Own Words

By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Courtesy of the Post Newspaper Group

“Renegade for Peace & Justice” by Congresswoman Barbara Lee
c.2008, Rowman & Littlefield $24.95, 223 pages, includes index

No doubt, you were glued to the news for much of the fall.

Even if you never once paid attention to politics, this year’s election and all that went with it had you near-hypnotized. Though you don’t exactly have a warm feeling for politics-as-usual, you couldn’t get enough this year. Come March, though, you’ll probably slide back into that old familiar level of political indifference, just because you don’t feel like paying heed anymore.

Would it make any difference if you knew somebody in Washington had your back? Read the new book “Renegade for Peace & Justice” by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and you might breathe a puff of relief. [Read more]

Art for the Holidays

By Donald O. Greene
Alameda County Arts Commissioner

The Joyce Gordon Gallery celebrates the completion of its fifth year and the beginning of its sixth year with a special holiday bazaar featuring more than 17 artists, including painters, photographers, and sculptors.

The salon style exhibit will focus on affordable art for the holidays, a benefit silent auction. and a community gathering on New Year’s Eve. Bids for the silent auction will start at the opening night Dec. 7.

A percentage of the auction sales will benefit the 8th-grade class of Northern Light School in Oakland.

The Joyce Gordon Gallery,  at 406 14th St.,  reflects the social and cultural diversity of Bay Area and international artists. The aim of the gallery is to respect the creative pursuits of the individual and seeks to make such work accessible to a broad audience. The gallery is open to the public Wednesday through Friday, 12 p.m.. - 7 p.m;  Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

The gallery is also available by appointment for private events and showings.  Purchasing original art would make a perfect holiday gift for someone you care about.

Happy holidays art collectors and lovers.

Rafiq Bilal, 66

Rafiq Bilal, a pillar of the Bay Area community, died on Wednesday, Nov. 30 after one month in the Intensive Care Unit at a local hospital.

Born in 1942, Rafiq’s full name was Rafiq Abdul-Malik El-Bilal.

With the Nu Upper Room, located near the Fruitvale BART station, he provided a space for young people to gather and explore arts, activism, and social justice.

Many of the greatest local artists got their start or were shaped at the Nu Upper Room – Goapele, Martin Luther, Saul Williams, Mohammed Bilal, Kimiko Joy, Will Power, Midnight Voices, Michael Franti, Ledisi, Hieroglyphics, Robert Henry Johnson, Housing Authority.  DJ Mind Motion was spinning at the Upper Room years before being on KMEL.

In a few months, his friends and family will be hosting a celebration in memory of Rafiq. It was one of his last wishes, according to family members. [Read more]

Zora Neale Hurston’s Choreography Rediscovered

Choreographing the Folk: The Dance Stagings of Zora Neale Hurston
by Anthea Kraut
University of Minnesota Press
Paperback, $25.
320 pages, illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-8166-4712-5

Book Review by Kam Williams

“Although I studied ballet and modern from an early age, jazz dance was my greatest love… In these predominantly white spaces, no mention was made of the African-American origins of the idiom… It was not until my junior year at Carleton College… that I confronted the racial dynamics that went unspoken in those suburban jazz dance classes… It became clear just how much jazz dance, that quintessentially American form, owed to African-derived traditions… Why had it been so easy to participate in and become passionate about a dance form without learning its history?

As I continued my study of American dance history in graduate school at Northwestern, my interest in ‘invisibilized’ histories only deepened. I learned that Zora Neale Hurston had staged a concert with a spectacular Bahamian dance finale about which little was known. What began as a quest for information about Hurston’s theatrical revues gradually expanded as I uncovered connections between Hurston and a number of leading dance figures.

To a great extent, the recovery project also became a case study of invisibilization - an attempt to understand the conditions that enable certain subjects and performances to be forgotten - as well as an inquiry into the implications of restoring those subjects and performances to the historical record… For Hurston’s stage work… did play a role in the composition of American dance as we know it today.”

Excerpted from the Preface (pages ix-x)

[Read more]

Oaklandish Offers $5,000 Innovator Grants

Oaklandish has created the Oakland Innovators Award, a fund that offers annual grants to organizations and individuals who are doing pioneering work in the community. The award is meant to offer recognition and financial support to local programs that exemplify the values of innovation and progress in all areas of civic life, including arts, education, technology and business.

Oaklandish began as a covert public art campaign designed to bring a sense of history and culture to the underutilized public spaces of this city. Eight years later, it continues that legacy by encouraging local artists to create their own Oakland-centric works in the public realm.

Local innovators are invited to apply for a grant of up to $5,000. Total grant fund is currently $25,000. The application due date has been extended to Dec. 8. Download the application and guidelines at: http://www.oaklandish.com/COMMUNITY/community.html

Jack London’s Poetry at Alameda Main Library

The public is invited to attend a rare and wonderful opportunity to hear the only authority on Jack London’s Poetry, Dan Wichlan, at the Alameda Main Library, Oak at Lincoln, Wednesday, Nov.  5,  6-8 PM. The event is free.
Dan Wichlan, author of “The Complete Poetry of Jack London”,  spent 20  years researching all  known depositories and databases of Jack London material. He will speak on his seminal book of exploration and discovery into the literary genesis of Jack London .  He will also present information on the connection between Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson.
This event is a must  for teachers, students, historians, literati and the general public and is sponsored by Alameda Island Poets Chapter of the statewide California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc.
The host is  Mary Rudge, Poet Laureate of Alameda. Time permitting, an Open poetry reading will follow.

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