THE AMERICAN BLACKSTORY 2017

DAY 2 — Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley - Artist, painter, scupltor
Kehinde’s stained glass rendering of “Mary, Comforter of the Afflicted I” (2016).

Kehinde Wiley creates vibrant images of black & brown bodies in classical & religious scenes reminiscent of historical masterpieces. His work has been featured in exhibitions domestically and abroad, including his most recent at the Paris Museum of Fine Arts.

And in Lucious’ office in Fox’s Empire. 😂

“Bound” – 6 ft. bronze sculpture (2014)

He writes, “I loved when I walked into Los Angeles County Museum of Art as a kid and seeing Kerry James Marshall’s grand barbershop painting. But it was thrown into very sharp relief when thinking about the absence of other black images in that museum. There was something absolutely heroic and fascinating about being able to feel a certain relationship to the institution and the fact that these people happen to look like me on some level.”

He continues, “At its best, what art does is, it points to WHO we as human beings and WHAT we as human beings value. And if Black Lives Matter, they deserve to be in paintings.”

Kehinde’s “Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha” (2012) vs. the painting of the same name by Edwin Landseer (1839)

KEEP GOING BLACK IN HISTORY:

Follow along with what’s keeping Kehinde busy these days on his Instagram.

THE AMERICAN BLACKSTORY 2017

DAY 1 — Diane Nash

Diane Nash.jpg

Diane Nash was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and leader of the original “Rock Hill Nine” – nine students arrested for staging a sit-in at a lunch counter that refused service to black people. (She also led their continued civil disobedience in refusing to pay any fine or bail to an oppressive system.)

She said that she never saw Dr. King as her leader, but her equal, and was such a driving force in the Alabama Freedom Marches & Rides that when Assistant to the Attorney General John Seigenthaler called her personally to dissuade their participation, he described the conversation as such:

“I’m saying, ‘You’re going to get somebody killed.’ She said, ‘You don’t understand’ — and she’s right, I didn’t understand — ‘You don’t understand, we signed our wills last night.’ ”

KEEP GOING BLACK IN HISTORY:

Enjoy a brief Diane Nash bio, narrated by the illustrious Angela Bassett.