experimental blackness

afrofuturistaffair:

superdefstar:

Philly

Moor Mother Goddess Presents Mama’s Gun: A New Moon Sirius
and
The Official Afterparty for the Philly Premiere of AfroPunk’s “The Triptych” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on June 12, 2013
Supported by local, women-led Philadelphia businesses/organizations MYTHMEDIA:21 STUDIOS/ROCKER’S CLOSET/ PHILADELPHIA PRINTWORKS/RAW FRUIT LLC /AFROFUTURIST AFFAIR

soulbrotherv2:

Babylon Girls: Black Women Performers and the Shaping of the Modern
Babylon Girls is a groundbreaking cultural history of the African American women who performed in variety shows—chorus lines, burlesque revues, cabaret acts, and the like—between 1890 and 1945. Through a consideration of the gestures, costuming, vocal techniques, and stagecraft developed by African American singers and dancers, Jayna Brown explains how these women shaped the movement and style of an emerging urban popular culture. In an era of U.S. and British imperialism, these women challenged and played with constructions of race, gender, and the body as they moved across stages and geographic space. They pioneered dance movements including the cakewalk, the shimmy, and the Charleston—black dances by which the “New Woman” defined herself. These early-twentieth-century performers brought these dances with them as they toured across the United States and around the world, becoming cosmopolitan subjects more widely traveled than many of their audiences.
Investigating both well-known performers such as Ada Overton Walker and Josephine Baker and lesser-known artists such as Belle Davis and Valaida Snow, Brown weaves the histories of specific singers and dancers together with incisive theoretical insights. She describes the strange phenomenon of blackface performances by women, both black and white, and she considers how black expressive artists navigated racial segregation. Fronting the “picaninny choruses” of African American child performers who toured Britain and the Continent in the early 1900s, and singing and dancing in The Creole Show (1890), Darktown Follies (1913), and Shuffle Along (1921), black women variety-show performers of the early twentieth century paved the way for later generations of African American performers. Brown shows not only how these artists influenced transnational ideas of the modern woman but also how their artistry was an essential element in the development of jazz.

(Source: queenbowie, via emmetttrill)

1,780 notes / Reblog

studioafrica:

Benjamin Clementine gave a brilliant performance at the Studio Africa launch in Paris back in March. Here he is featured in Technikart Magazine

(Source: floatingcall, via ancestryinprogress)

155 notes / Reblog

readabookson:

https://anonfiles.com/file/30336e30d52b33895fb1573562d73e25

→Sun Ra and Ayé Aton’s Afrofuturistic Murals Unveiled In New Book | via The FADER

afrofuturistaffair:

Sun Ra was as much philosopher as he was experimental Free Jazz composer, and his principles about race, basically the precedent to Afrofuturism, inspired countless artists and musicians. A new book called Space, Interiors and Exteriors, 1972 traces Ra’s influence on painter Ayé Aton, who became famous on the South Side of Chicago for painting large and colorful murals in private home. Through a long series of phone calls, Sun Ra provided Aton with thematic guidance that pushed his imagery towards Egyptian and outer space motifs, occasionally making use of black light paint and installed black lights. Until now, these murals were only viewable to the people who were lucky enough to live in these photos, but the book has lovingly compiled photographs taken in the early ’70s. Grab a copy here for a deeper look into this cosmic collaboration.

Read more: http://www.thefader.com/2013/05/10/sun-ra-and-aye-atons-afrofuturistic-murals-unveiled-in-new-book/#ixzz2T19Q2us1

28 notes / Reblog

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photojojo:

Hailing from the Czech Republic, self-taught photographer Martin Stranka uses a bit of Photoshop magic to create totally surreal portraits. He also compiled his favorite shots into a limited edition book that is worth checking out.

Surreal Portraiture from Self-Taught Photographer

via We and the Color

859 notes / Reblog

"Sometimes, isolation – whether chosen or forced – can be the best thing that happens to people."

(via jepchumba)

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sincerelysarita:

Nineteen-year-old Tarikuwa Lemma is a survivor, of an international adoption scandal. When she was 13, she was effectively sold from her native Ethiopia to an American family. The corrupt “adoption agency” convinced her father, who was a widow, that Tarikuwa and her younger sisters were headed to the U.S. as part of an educational exchange program, and that they would return home every summer and on holiday breaks. Little did he know, his daughters had been placed with adoptive couples in the U.S., never to return. Tarikuwa’s name was changed against her will, and she was forbidden by her American “family” from speaking her native language. The issue of transnational adoption, its evangelical Christian component, and the exploitation of communities that sometimes results, is the subject of the book, The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption by Kathryn Joyce, who appeared, along with Tarikuwa, on last Sunday’s “Melissa Harris Perry” show on MSNBC. Below is Tarikuwa’s satirical look at the “rescue” of children from her home country, to “better lives” in America.
clutchmag:

Stop ‘Rescuing’ African Children Through Corrupt Adoptions

Tarikuwa Lemma appearing on Melissa Harris Perry Show April 28, 2013.
From The Grio — Nineteen-year…

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