In a Green Shade, by Romare Bearden 1984. Collage and watercolor on board, 30 x 22 in.

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Romare Bearden’s life was full of movement. Born in 1912 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden’s family moved shortly thereafter to Harlem where their apartment was a popular meeting place for intellectuals and artists such as W.E.B. DuBois, Aaron Douglas, and Charles Alston during the Renaissance. In 1925, Bearden moved to Pittsburgh where he eventually graduated from high school, and later came back to New York, obtaining his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from New York University. The painter eventually joined the “306” group and continued his study of European painting which was later to exert a heavy influence on his work. After serving in the army for three years, Bearden studied philosophy in Paris at the Sorbonne, returning to New York afterward to paint.

Romare Bearden’s life was full of movement. Born in 1912 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden’s family moved shortly thereafter to Harlem where their apartment was a popular meeting place for intellectuals and artists such as W.E.B. DuBois, Aaron Douglas, and Charles Alston during the Renaissance. In 1925, Bearden moved to Pittsburgh where he eventually graduated from high school, and later came back to New York, obtaining his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from New York University. The painter eventually joined the “306” group and continued his study of European painting which was later to exert a heavy influence on his work. After serving in the army for three years, Bearden studied philosophy in Paris at the Sorbonne, returning to New York afterward to paint.

Tupac Hologram Live At Coachella (Full Performance)

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The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is one of Cali’s premier music events. Every year, Coachella finds a way to impress fans and  this year the show stopper was a LIVE Tupac performance.

A hologram of Tupac Shakur, assembled from archival footage, took the stage with Snoop to perform 2 Of Americaz Most Wanted followed by Hail Mary.

“We worked with Dr. Dre on this and it was Dre’s vision to bring this back to life, It was his idea from the very beginning and we worked with him and his camp to utilize the technology to make it come to life.”  – Nick Smith, President AV Concepts.

The South: Not all Bubbas and banjos

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It’s been 40 years since “Deliverance” gave us lasting images of a backwards South, but the stereotypes didn’t start or end there. They predate the American Revolution and reared up this month when a man named Bubba won the Masters. Why do they persist?

Cory Booker Saves Neighbor From Burning House

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NEWARK, N.J. — The mayor of New Jersey’s largest city says he’s a neighbor, not a superhero, a day after rescuing a woman from a burning house.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker says he didn’t feel brave, but did feel terrified as he dashed through flames with the woman over his shoulder.

Booker returned home Thursday night to find his neighbor’s home on fire. He was aided in the rescue by his security detail.

Booker described the rescue as a “come to Jesus moment.”

Booker was treated and released from a hospital after suffering from smoke inhalation and second-degree burns on his right hand.

The woman is in stable condition with second-degree burns.

Booker’s security detail helped three others escape.

A fire official says the cause of the fire may be cooking-related.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

The mayor of New Jersey’s largest city said Friday he feared for his life as he helped rescue a neighbor from a fire before firefighters had arrived.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, speaking on “CBS This Morning,” described how he returned home Thursday night and saw his neighbor’s home engulfed in flames. A woman was screaming that her daughter was still inside.

The mayor’s security detail tried to drag him away, but Booker told them that the woman was going to die, Detective Alex Rodriguez told CBS. “Without thinking twice, he ran into the flames and rescued this young lady,” Rodriguez said.

Booker, 42, an up-and-coming Democratic politician who has been mentioned as a possible future candidate for governor, said he feared for his life as the kitchen erupted in the flames and he couldn’t find the woman. The woman called out, he said, and Booker grabbed her from a bed and threw her over his shoulder.

“I punched through the kitchen and the flames and that’s when I saw Detective Rodriguez. He grabbed her as well and we got her down the stairs and we both just collapsed outside,” Booker said.

The mayor described it as a “come to Jesus moment.”

Booker said he couldn’t breathe after he got outside. He was treated and released from a hospital after suffering from smoke inhalation and second-degree burns.

Booker’s thumb and first finger of his right hand were bandaged.

Booker, who is 6-foot-3, was a tight end for the varsity football team at Stanford University, where he got his undergraduate and master’s degrees. He got a law degree from Yale University and as a Rhodes scholar also got a degree from Oxford.

The woman Booker helped save is in stable condition with second-degree burns to her back and neck.

“Honestly it was terrifying and to look back and see nothing but flames and to look in front of you and see nothing but blackness,” Booker said. The mayor said he now has an even more profound respect for firefighters.

Booker is known for helping constituents, even shoveling snow during a blizzard that snarled his city and the Northeast in 2010.

A prolific social media user, he tweeted late Thursday that he was fine and thanked his followers for their well-wishes.

“Thanks 2 all who are concerned. Just suffering smoke inhalation,” Booker tweeted. “We got the woman out of the house. We are both off to hospital. I will b ok.”

He then posted a tweet early Friday morning that read: “Thanks everyone, my injuries were relatively minor. Thanks to Det. Alex Rodriguez who helped get all of the people out of the house.”

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Booker has scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference at his home.

African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond

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1st floor West, American Art Museum
April 27, 2012 – September 3, 2012
at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Jacob Lawrence, Bar and Grill, 1941, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design

African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond presents a selection of paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs by forty-three black artists who explored the African American experience from the Harlem Renaissance through the Civil Rights era and the decades beyond, which saw tremendous social and political changes. In response, these artists created an image of America that recognizes individuals and community and acknowledges the role of art in celebrating the multivalent nature of American society.

The artworks in the exhibition lay out a vision of America from an African American viewpoint. These artists embrace many universal themes and also evoke specific aspects of the African American experience—the African Diaspora, jazz, and the persistent power of religion.

The artists work in styles as varied as documentary realism, abstraction, and postmodern assemblage of found objects to address a diverse array of subjects. Robert McNeill, Richmond Barthé, and Benny Andrews speak to the dignity and resilience of people who work the land. Jacob Lawrence, Roy DeCarava, and Thornton Dial, Sr. acknowledge the struggle for economic and civil rights. Sargent Johnson, Loïs Mailou Jones, and Melvin Edwards address the heritage of Africa, and images by Romare Bearden recast Christian themes in terms of black experience. James Porter and Alma Thomas explore beauty in the natural world.

All 100 artworks in the exhibition are drawn entirely from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s rich collection of African American art. More than half of the featured works, including paintings by Benny Andrews, Jacob Lawrence, and Loïs Mailou Jones, and photographs by Roy DeCarava, Gordon Parks, Roland Freeman, and Marilyn Nance, are being exhibited and circulated by the museum for the first time, and ten works are recent acquisitions. The exhibition includes fifty-four photographs, which will be integrated into the display while also organizing the exhibition thematically. Individual object labels will connect the artists and their works with the artistic, social, and contextual factors that shaped their creation. The exhibition is organized by Virginia Mecklenburg, senior curator.

 

Public Programs
April 27, 2012, Renée Ater, Insight and Inspiration for 20th Century African American Art

 

Publication
The exhibition is accompanied by a beautifully illustrated catalogue, written by distinguished scholar Richard J. Powell, the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University. The book also includes entries about each artist by Virginia Mecklenburg; Theresa Slowik, the museum’s chief of publications; and Maricia Battle, curator in the prints and drawings division at the Library of Congress. The catalogue, co-published by the museum with Skira Rizzoli in New York, will be available for purchase ($60 hardcover, $40 softcover) in the museum store and at bookstores nationwide.

 

National Tour
African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond is available for tour after closing at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. If you are interested in hosting the exhibition at your museum, please visit our traveling exhibitions page for contact information.

Confirmed venues include:

Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia (September 28, 2012–January 6, 2013)
Mennello Museum of American Art in Orlando, Florida (February 1, 2013–April 28, 2013)
Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts (June 1, 2013–September 2, 2013)
Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee (February 14, 2014–May 25, 2014)
Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California (June 28, 2014–September 21, 2014)

 

Credit
African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum with generous support from Alston & Bird; Amherst Holdings, LLC; Diane and Norman Bernstein Foundation; Larry Irving and Leslie Wiley; the William R. Kenan, Jr. Endowment Fund; Clarence Otis and Jacqui Bradley; and PEPCO. The C.F. Foundation in Atlanta supports the museum’s traveling exhibition program, Treasures to Go.

Langston Hughes African American Film Festival returns home

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A preview of the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, which returns to the newly remodeled Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center after two years of wandering. Highlights of 2012 include “The Last Fall,” “Restless City” and “Dimanche a Brazzaville.”

By Moira Macdonald

Seattle Times movie critic

After two years of wandering, the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival is finally coming home. Though the newly remodeled Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center isn’t yet officially open, audiences of the ninth annual festival will be the first to use the building.
"Dimanche a Brazzaville" is set in the Republic of Congo.

“It will be open for the festival, and then return to its normal use as a performing-arts space and community center,” said festival curator Zola Mumford, noting that the building will have its official grand reopening in June.

She described the historic building’s renovation (primarily for seismic and electrical renovations, as well as architectural improvements) as “wonderful — I think people who remember it from previous appearances will appreciate it even more.”

The festival kicks off on Saturday with a gala opening-night screening of “The Last Fall,” the directing debut of former NFL player Matthew Cherry. The film, which screened at SXSW earlier this year, is a drama about a young football player facing the end of his professional career.

“It’s a sports film that’s about more than sports,” said Mumford. Cherry will attend the screening and lead a Q&A, and several UW Huskies and pro-football players are invited to join the conversation. A reception will follow, which Mumford said will be “a great chance to see some of the more dazzling renovated areas of the building.”

Continuing through April 22, the festival includes more than 40 feature-length and short films from around the world — including an unusual number of documentaries this year. Among Mumford’s favorites: S. Epatha Merkerson and Rockell Metcalf’s “The Contradictions of Fair Hope” (screening at 7 p.m. April 15 and 9 p.m. April 17), about the “benevolent societies” formed by newly freed slaves in the 1860s South; and Enric Bach and Adrià Monés’ “Dimanche a Brazzaville” (7 p.m. April 16), which takes a look at a magic-wielding wrestler, an elegant radio DJ and a political hip-hop artist, all living in the Republic of Congo capital Brazzaville.

Special events include a filmmaker-panel discussion titled “Lyrical Storytelling … Word, Sound and Power: Film, Music and the Future” (at the nearby Northwest African American Museum, 11 a.m. April 21); a two-part “Ladies Night,” featuring several short documentaries and the romantic comedy “My Last Day Without You” (7 and 9 p.m. April 18); a lighthearted “The Audience Talks Back” evening (9 p.m. April 21); many guest appearances; and a special closing-night screening of Andrew Dosunmu’s New York-set drama “Restless City,” with guest Tony Okungbowa. (Okungbowa acts in the film and is its executive producer — but is best known for his regular gig as the DJ on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”)

Mumford notes that the return to the Langston Hughes Center means more seats and more opportunities for repeat screenings — a number of events last year, held in a smaller venue, sold out.

“We were out of our building for two years and our numbers went up!” she said of the overall attendance of this ever-growing festival. “It just let us know that somehow, the word was getting out.”

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com

Ubuntu

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Jeffery Haymes – From Haymes Facebook Page
An anthropologist proposed a game to African tribe kids. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told them that whoever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: UBUNTU, how …can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?

UBUNTU in the Xhosa culture means: “I am because we are”.

Beverly Johnson Launches Beauty Line for Women of Color

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A Letter From Beverly…

Welcome to my maiden voyage into cyberspace, and launching pad for The Beverly Johnson Lifestyle Brand. “ALL THINGS BEVERLY” and “ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL” will be shared with you on this website.

My vision, ever since my historic Vogue magazine cover, has been based on a few simple premises: Elegance, Beauty, Sophistication, and Love. Being the first African-American woman on the cover of Vogue Magazine allowed me the opportunity to represent people of color in a different light and allowed me the great opportunity to fully embrace all the beauty of the multicultural woman.

As a result of my many years in the high fashion and beauty industries, I have become the multicultural expert and leader for products that cut across race and nationalities. I have a wealth of experience and gravitas in the hair, beauty, cosmetics and fashion industries and I have come to be known as a global expert. My products are world class, designed for and applicable to all women of color.

I had the opportunity for the last 14 years of being the face and name of Amekor Industries, one of the leading wig and hair extension companies in the United States. I decided it was time for me to create by own destiny and not extend my contract with Amekor Industries. So, I made the ultimate leap of faith and decided to create, manufacture, and distribute my own line of products instead of endorsing someone else’s. I am realizing my dream of being a true “Modelpreneur,” a supermodel and an entrepreneur by owning and manufacturing the products I love under my new company, BJE LLC.

Therefore, I am proud to follow in the tradition of Madame C.J. Walker, one of the first African-American pioneers who, with “two dollars and a dream,” built a multi-million dollar beauty empire in 1917 by formulating her own hair care products. I am invoking that same pioneering spirit with The Beverly Johnson Lifestyle Brand, which will include hair care, skin care, bath & body, color, and more in the spring of 2012.

Starting with the premise that a woman’s glory is her hair, I would like to introduce you to my new luxurious hair care line with Supermodel Formulas: A hair care line with Model Logic. The products in the Model Logic line are based on formulas I have used for years. And now with the help of my professional team, I am able to offer luxurious, salon quality products for you to use at home.

My bath and body products, “Beautiful Body by Beverly”, are great as well. I suggest starting with my Superb Body Wash and Luscious Body Cream. They are to die for!

And “Flawless Skin”, my line of skincare products, are my personal secret to beautiful skin and are designed to help make you look, feel, and be your best. I can’t wait to share them with you!

Think Beauty.

I want to thank you for all your loyalty and support over the years and I look forward to your continued support going forward.

And I say to you, realize your dreams, ‘cause girl if I can do it, you can do it too!’

For the Very Best in Life!

Love,

Beverly

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CLAYTON SINGLETON FINE ART

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Artist Statement

My artwork reflects the inherent strength within us.
I believe we are in continual transition whether physically, spiritually, mentally or emotionally. We have physical vehicles housing and moving us such as buildings, cars, planes, and our own bodies…but faith, empowerment, events or circumstances seem to shift our lives in more subtle, sublime and urgent forms.My artwork reveals these forms and inspires viewers to develop self-abilities while conceding to our incontestable connection with one another. Rearranged visual syntax, drawn words, symbols, and mixed media are inspirations I allow to deliberately bridge the gap between verbal and visual language. Such demeanor allows visual language the same reward as verbal language: an interaction of tangible and abstract experiences all the while expanding its tenure beyond cultural restriction and translation.
I believe we are a reflection and a result of each other regardless of our differences. Our arts should explore, experience, then express life from our own viewpoints; creating until our experience has become our expression.

“You sense what people call passion” when you are around Clayton Singleton. This Virginia resident’s blend of verbal and visual art inspires, motivates and educates.  He received his B.A. in Art from Virginia Wesleyan College then later graduated from Regent University with his Masters of Arts in Education. He is currently working for Norfolk Public Schools where he has taught K-12 visual art and won teacher of the year at the elementary, middle and high school levels as well assisted in rewriting the visual arts curriculum for Norfolk Public Schools. In addition to being a member of the Hampton Roads National Poetry Slam Team, he has painted public murals, produced several solo shows including his latest gallery show at The Selden Gallery, Walking On Paper. The Virginia Opera commissioned Clayton to design sets for Porgy and Bess and Freedom’s Journey. Clayton is also a member of The d’ART Center Board of Directors and Norfolk Arts Commission. He currently teaches visual art and serves as a teacher mentor and department chairperson at Lake Taylor High School in Norfolk. Currently, he uses his children’s book Dream An Awesome Dream and his book of poetic lecture Escape from Freedom during his interactive presentations when he speaks at educational symposiums. Clayton has served as keynote speaker for new teacher orientations and has presented at national conferences including Improving America’s Schools and The Panasonic Foundation’s Leadership Associates Programs. Clayton recently gave a presentation in Portland, Oregon on Powerful Literacy.

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