OUT STOCK Stained
by WAK – Kevin A. Williams Signed and Numbered Offset Lithograph Edition 850 Size: 28″ x 27″ Approx
Kevin A. Williams’ art is widely circulated fine art. Diverse in its themes, the art is painted by Williams in mixed mediums, and then produced in limited edition quantities. Williams also creates a number of commissioned works annually.
As the best-selling artist in the African-American print market, Williams is a popular personality at national art shows, conferences of African-American groups and major international events, including the Essence Music Festival. His art has been featured on television’s Law & Order (NBC) and Soul Food (Showtime).
Kevin A. Williams recent years have included commissioned work for celebrities, such as televisions host and movie producer Oprah Winfrey and comedian Bernie Mac, as well as corporate clients. He formed SoulVisions in May 2003.
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY! Please check your email for confirmation from us. The crime thriller, set in Nigeria, will premiere worldwide on VOD and DVD on April 18. Freestyle Digital Media has acquired the rights to the crime thriller movie “Ran Mi Lowo (Help Me).” The film will be available next month via DVD and video on demand (VOD) next month. Freestyle Digital Media is the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, the parent company of theGrio. With AMG’s acquisition of “Ran Mi Lowo (Help Me),” viewers will get to rent or own the film on DVD or watch it on cable, satellite platforms, and digital HD internet starting April 18. “Ran Mi Lowo (Help Me)” follows Yemisi, a female student and aspiring investigative reporter. She decides to look into why girls at her prominent high school are dropping out for no apparent reason. While rumors spread that the girls are being drugged and raped, the school does nothing to follow up. Yemisi begins her investigative mission after her best friend, Adeola, becomes a victim. To try to uncover the truth, she attempts to lure out the perpetrator by making herself bait. The perpetrator cannot resist going after new “prey,” and Yemisi puts her life on the line to solve the mystery and get justice by any means necessary. Akorede Alli is the mastermind behind “Ran Mi Lowo (Help Me),” which was filmed in Lagos, Nigeria, and is in English and Yoruba. He directed and produced the film, co-wrote the screenplay with Ottah Osondo, and appears in the film in the role of Tunde. “All children are blessings to a household and the world,” said Alli in a statement. “Parents should be vigilant and equally protect their sons and daughters. No child should be neglected because their lives and futures depend on it.” In addition to Alli, the cast includes Omowunmi Dada (Yemisi), Samuel A. Perry (Bode), Debo Adebayo (Sulaiman), Tina Mba (Mrs. Adeniji), Biola Adebayo (Adunni), Ameena Ali (Gbemisola), Toyin Alausa (Gbemisola’s Mother), Jide Awobona (Dayo), Ayobami Ojo (Kemi), and Stella Ekwueme (Bola). TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!
Source: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / Getty Gabrielle Union and her fabulous daughter Kaavia took turns speaking life into themselves in an Instagram reel, and we need tissue! If your heart is in need of a pick-me-up, look no further than Gabrielle Union’s latest Instagram reel. The actress and mother shared a charming video of her and her daughter Kaavia indulging in some serious self-love. In casual clothing and no makeup, Union opened the video with asking her cute daughter what she loved about her hair. Her daughter, perched comfortably on a counter while looking in a mirror and stroking her mane, answered her mother with, “Okay. I love my beautiful hair.”
Jonathan Majors Video Evidence, ‘Woman Recanting’ Assault Claim Will Clear Actor Of Charges, Lawyer Says Stephen A. Smith Explains Why He Kicked Max Kellerman Off ESPN’s ‘First Take,’ Twitter Reacts Larsa Pippen Says She and Ex-Scottie Had Sex ‘4 Times a Night for 23 Years’ REPORT: Sean Lampkin, Best Known as Nipsey on “Martin,” Dies at 54 ‘Creed III’ Actor Jonathan Majors Arrested On Assault Charges Gisele Bundchen Allegedly Dating Tom Brady’s Neighbor, Jeffrey Soffer Eva Marcille Files For Divorce From Husband Michael Sterling After 4 Years of Marriage Beyoncé And Adidas To End Ties On IVY PARK In Amicable Split
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY! Please check your email for confirmation from us. While the number of women coaching women’s sports has increased in the past decade, Black women continue to lag behind most other groups. South Carolina senior guard Brea Beal knew she could trust Dawn Staley before she even suited up for the Gamecocks. It wasn’t just Staley’s coaching accolades, which include fueling South Carolina’s meteoric rise in women’s basketball, that sold Beal. Beal knew that Staley — a Black woman like her — would best understand how to guide her as she navigated both life and playing basketball on a big stage. “People that were telling me what this community was about, I know it’s somewhere I wanted to be,” Beal said. “As soon as I got here, she definitely led me down a journey so I could find out who I am.” Black female representation in the coaching and sports administrative ranks has existed on a minute scale — even in a sport like basketball, which along with track and field has the highest concentration of Black female college athletes. Black female players who have been coached by a Black woman told The Associated Press that it was crucial to their development. “There are some coaches who will just have all guys with no understanding that there are sometimes things that a young woman may need to talk to another woman about,” said Kiki Barnes, a former basketball player and jumper at New Orleans and current Gulf Coast Athletic Conference commissioner. While the number of women coaching women’s sports has increased in the past decade, Black women continue to lag behind most other groups. During the 2021-22 school year, 399 Black women coached women’s NCAA sports teams in Divisions I, II and III, compared with 3,760 white women and 5,236 white men. In women’s NCAA basketball, a sport made up of 30% Black athletes, Black women made up 12% of head coaches across all divisions during the 2021-22 season, according to the NCAA’s demographics database. Fourteen Black women led women’s basketball teams across 65 Power Five programs this past season — up one from 2021. That’s less than 22% of the total in a sport that was played by more Black athletes (40.7%) than any other race in Division I, according to a report with data from the 2020-21 season. For the first time in a decade, four Black coaches advanced to the Sweet 16 of the women’s basketball tournament, including Staley, who said she believes it’s more popular to hire a woman at “this stage of the game.” “And it’s not to say that I’m going to sit here and male bash, because we have a lot of male coaches who have been in our game for decades upon decades,” said Staley, who will lead her team into the Final Four this weekend. “But I will say that giving women an opportunity to coach women and helping women navigate through life like they have navigated through life will allow your student-athletes a different experience than having a male coach.” For years Staley has been an advocate for hiring more female coaches — especially minorities — in college basketball, but WNBA player Angel McCoughtry said Black female coaches as successful as Staley are still too few and far between in the sport. “When I was getting recruited in high school, I don’t remember having a Dawn Staley to look up to,” said McCoughtry, who played at Louisville from 2005-09. McCoughtry also named Carolyn Peck, the first African American woman to coach her team to an NCAA women’s basketball title in 1999 with Purdue, as another example of representation in the sport. “So there’s one or two every decade,” McCoughtry said. “Why can’t we have 10? There’s 10 Caucasian coaches every decade.” McCoughtry, a former No. 1 overall pick by the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, got used to being around people who didn’t look like or understand her. She is Black. Her AAU and high school coaches were Black men. Her college coaches were white men. Marynell Meadors, a white woman, was her first coach in Atlanta. She has fielded frustrating questions from white peers, coaches and owners — like how often she washes her hair, or whether her passionate play was because she was from Baltimore. “There’s just a disconnect in understanding things,” the 36-year-old said, adding: “We need more coaches to protect us.” McCoughtry has never had a Black female head coach but did have the impactful guidance of Michelle Clark-Heard, a Black woman whom Jeff Walz brought on as an assistant when he took over at Louisville in 2008. She also leaned on Tim Eaton, a Black assistant coach who she said advocated for her in her freshman year, when then-coach Tom Collen wanted to send her back to Baltimore because she was late to one of her first practices. Similarly, McCoughtry said, she felt she had less room to make mistakes than white teammates. When she questioned a coach, she was labeled a troublemaker; when she got fired up about a play, she was told she had a bad attitude. “We just never had any inch to be human, like our Caucasian counterparts,” she said, adding: “But who understands that? Our Black coaches. Because they went through everything we went through. They have a story, too.” Part of the reason for the lack of Black female coaches is because of who ultimately holds the power to hire, Barnes said. That’s often athletic directors, a level where there is an even greater lack of diversity — 224 of 350 in Division I are white men. Plus, she added, there are changing requirements for what it takes to get leadership opportunities. “And now the system has changed to where now you’ve got to know search firms because now search firms are the ones that are managing and determining who gets these opportunities,” she said. “Every time we understand how to get in the room and what it takes to be prepared, it’s like the rules change.” Barnes played high school basketball in her hometown of Minden, Louisiana, where she had an assistant coach who was a Black woman; Barnes still refers to her as “Coach Smith.” “For her, it wasn’t just about basketball. It was about who I was as a young lady,” Barnes recalled, adding, “I would say it’s similar with a young woman wanting to talk to a mom about womanly things. It’s not that a man couldn’t do it, but I wouldn’t feel as comfortable talking to either my dad or any other man about woman things.” Priscilla Loomis, a 2016 Olympic high jumper who is Black, said she became a coach to provide kids that look like her the representation the sport has lacked. NCAA track and field numbers mirrored women’s basketball numbers in 2021-22: 5% of head coaches were Black women, while 19% of women’s NCAA track and field athletes are Black. “They want so badly to feel seen and to feel loved and to be given guidance,” Loomis said. “And so that’s why I always say it’s important to get women of color, men of color to the starting line, because a lot of times we’re so many steps behind.” TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today!
Source: Leon Bennett / Getty Sometimes in life, God gives us our best and worst moments all at once, and this is precisely what Gene Moore discusses with Darlene on The Nightly Spirit!
Jonathan Majors Video Evidence, ‘Woman Recanting’ Assault Claim Will Clear Actor Of Charges, Lawyer Says Stephen A. Smith Explains Why He Kicked Max Kellerman Off ESPN’s ‘First Take,’ Twitter Reacts Larsa Pippen Says She and Ex-Scottie Had Sex ‘4 Times a Night for 23 Years’ REPORT: Sean Lampkin, Best Known as Nipsey on “Martin,” Dies at 54 ‘Creed III’ Actor Jonathan Majors Arrested On Assault Charges Gisele Bundchen Allegedly Dating Tom Brady’s Neighbor, Jeffrey Soffer Beyoncé And Adidas To End Ties On IVY PARK In Amicable Split Eva Marcille Files For Divorce From Husband Michael Sterling After 4 Years of Marriage
A sign on of the Oglala Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation commemorating the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 Photo by Adam Singer, via Flickr Last November the Founders Museum, a small institution housed in a library in Barre, Massachusetts, repatriated 150 ill-gotten artefacts to the Laktoa and Sioux nations of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, the site of one of the deadliest massacres initiated by the US military against the Indigenous Americans. Many of the items in question—ranging from ritual clothing to moccasins—were believed to have been plucked from the battlefield in the wake of the carnage in 1890. Their return marked an important coda to a century-long struggle for members of the nations affected by that massacre, in which around 300 Lakota are believed to have been killed. But it also raised complicated questions about the next step in the recovery process, foremost among them: what happens after the artefacts go home? There isn’t yet consensus regarding the ultimate fate of the objects returned by the Founders Museum, according to a recent report by The New York Times. Some tribe members want to bury or burn the funerary items in accordance with religious practices, while others would like to see them displayed in museums run by tribal councils. Still others believe that the objects should be returned to the descendants of those who originally owned them. “It’s the tribe’s prerogative however they wish to utilise or reinvigorate the item,” Shannon O’Loughlin, the chief executive for the Association on American Indian Afairs and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, told the Times. Last year it was reveal that less than half of the institutions subject to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA)—which requires government-funded institutions to acknowledge their ownership of Native human remains and sacred objects—had returned those items to the groups to which they belong. In October 2022, the Department of the Interior proposed to overhaul regulations to speed up implementation of the act and repatriation of sacred cultural and burial objects, as well as human remains. The Founders Museum did not repatriate objects in its collection for decades, claiming it was not covered by NAGPRA because it didn’t receive federal funding. Last November’s repatriation occurred more 130 years after the Wounded Knee Massacre and a decade after an agreement was reached between the tribes and institution. Marlis Afraid of Hawk, whose grandfather survived the massacre, told the Times she supported burning the artefacts. “When your relative died, you burn their belongings”, she said. Ivan Looking Horse, whose ancestors were killed at Wounded Knee, advocated for a more varied approach. “Some things are for burning, some are for burying and some things are for educating,” he told the Times. “Others can be used for praying with generations to come”. For now, the objects are being housed at Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, South Dakota, where a caretaker will continue to pray over them daily.
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY! Please check your email for confirmation from us. The blankets were made as gifts for refugees to welcome them to the community as part of the national Welcome Blanket project. BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — “Welcome to the USA,” says a note attached to a hand-crocheted blanket of purple, white and gray stripes. Hollie Shaner-McRae, of Burlington, who made the blanket as a gift for a refugee, wrote of her great-grandparents coming to the United States from Ukraine, Russia and Poland. One great-grandfather was a tailor and the other was a barrel maker, she wrote. “Both were so brave and came to America as teenagers,” she wrote in the note. “I hope you make friends and feel safe here,” Shaner-McRae wrote to whomever would receive the blanket. “Vermont is blessed to have new families arrive and enrich our world.” The quilt was one of at least 86 artistic blankets that crafters sewed, crocheted and knitted as gifts for refugees and immigrants to make them feel welcomed in their new community in Vermont. The handmade creations were on display at the Heritage Mill Museum in Winooski, Vermont, before they were given away to refugees last week. The effort is part of the national Welcome Blanket project, which describes itself as a crowd-sourced artistic action supporting refugees settling in the U.S. Los Angeles activist Jayna Zweiman started Welcome Blanket in 2017 in opposition to Donald Trump’s candidacy speeches about building a wall between the United State and Mexico. As a grandchild of refugees, she grew up with family stories of her grandfather seeing the Statue of Liberty. That monument decades later still made him feel welcomed, she said. Just as the Statue of Liberty was seen as an inviting symbol for immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Zweiman thought at the time: “What can we do in the 21st century as people are coming through these different ports to welcome them?” To date, thousands of blankets and notes have been created around the country for exhibits including in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and Winooski, Vermont. The blankets, accompanied with the personal notes from their creators, were then gifted to refugees at events, in welcome boxes, at their new housing or through charity groups. The project is geared toward refugees — people forced to leave their home or country to escape war, persecution or natural disaster — including Ukrainians who escaped the Russian invasion of their home country. But the blankets have also gone to immigrants. In Vermont, Aisha Bitini, who is originally from Congo, said that she loves the blanket she chose — a soft, crocheted piece made up of large squares of gold, maroon, off-white and gray. “I’m so blessed to have one of them,” she said, draping it over her shoulder. She picked it out at the blanket giveaway held last week at the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, or AALV. The note that came with the blanket “feels so special,” Bitini said, adding that she thanks the person who made “this beautiful blanket” and that she will “cherish it forever.” Kalyan Adhikari, who’s originally from Nepal, said the Vermont project was “such a kind and warm initiative.” He said it makes refugees feel welcome and little bit more like they’re home. “This makes my heart warm. I can’t thank them enough,” he said of the blanket-makers. The immigrant-refugee story resonated with Sonia Savoulian, of Los Angeles, when in 2017 then-President Donald Trump imposed a ban on travelers from certain majority-Muslim countries. Her ancestry is Armenian, and her family includes refugees and immigrants. She herself is an immigrant — and she also happens to make things with yarn. The Welcome Blanket project combines a creative outlet with a product that would help newcomers to the U.S. “feel an embrace, a welcome and an aspiration,” she said. Since making her first Welcome Blankets for an exhibit in Atlanta in 2018, she has made a total of about 50 such blankets. Zweiman said she hopes the blanket-making for refugees will become an American tradition. “I want this happening 50 years from now,” she said. “And I want a kid who took part in this, … when the next wave of xenophobia comes, to remember that he had actually physically made something for someone who was coming.” TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today!
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY! Please check your email for confirmation from us. The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has spearheaded several battles against the left and “cultural Marxism.” Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, once led a conservative group that received just under $600,000 from a list of unnamed donors. In a practice that is completely legal, the funds were funneled through a conservative think tank, Capital Research Center (CRC), which counts among its trustees Edwin Meese III, a former attorney general under President Ronald Reagan. Scott Walker, a former aide to President George W. Bush, is its president. The clandestine nature of the donations, however, shed new light on the culture war against the left that Thomas has waged on behalf of other conservatives, a revelation that many observers viewed as troublesome given her proximity to the highest court in the land by way of her husband. According to The Washington Post, the tax records of CRC show that as its fiscal sponsor the think tank collected $596,000 in donations in 2019 on behalf of the Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty.A significant portion of the donations, $400,000, was then sent through another nonprofit, Donors Trust. It is not clear why this was done. It is also not known whether Thomas personally received any of these funds. Fiscal sponsorship “offers a way for a cause to attract donors even when it is not yet recognized as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3),” according to the Council of Nonprofits. In simple terms, these arrangements help fledgling nonprofits — particularly under-resourced start-ups — with financial management, fiduciary oversight and other administrative tasks that help them to grow. While fiscal sponsorships are largely enacted in good faith, these arrangements can also provide cover for those with impure motives — for instance, to anonymously donate to causes that are aligned with individuals who have influence with people in high places. They can also hide the source of funds earmarked for unlawful activities. The Post reported that Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty was established to uphold longstanding conservative values and to galvanize others in the space in order to push back against liberal politicians and liberal ideology as a whole. Beyond that, little else is known about it. Thomas’ lawyer Mark Paoletta issued a statement to The Post that read in part that Thomas is “proud of the work she did with Crowdsourcers, which brought together conservative leaders to discuss amplifying conservative values with respect to the battle over culture.” As The Post reported, there could exist deeper implications for Thomas, considering the identity of her husband. Her link to Crowdsourcers is far from the first time her associations have come under scrutiny, though. Dating to the appointment of her husband to the Supreme Court in 1991, Thomas has been questioned about issues around propriety. During Justice Thomas’ confirmation hearings, Democratic senators grilled Ginni Thomas about her employment with the Labor Department and whether it presented a conflict of interest. At the time, she argued against equal-pay legislation, which stoked fears about the issue coming before the Court. Thomas established the nonprofit Liberty Central in 2009, which also had anonymous donors. With the rise of the Tea Party movement during a contentious period during the presidency of Barack Obama, Liberty Central aimed its efforts at striking down policies from Democrats and the left. In 2010, she was questioned about her involvement in Liberty Central, prompting her to step away from the nonprofit that year and began the for-profit firm Liberty Consulting, which has fewer reporting requirements. Well into the presidency of Donald Trump, Thomas became a member of the conservative Groundswell group, which she helped establish with the assistance of former Trump adviser, Steven Bannon. As The New York Times noted, Thomas had Trump’s trust to the point that she advised him on individuals he should eliminate from his inner circle. In 2020, The Post uncovered details about Thomas privately asking former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to examine pathways to overturn the presidential election. Further, Thomas sent emails to swing-state lawmakers to sway the election results in favor of Donald Trump by urging them to award the defeated presidential candidate electoral votes over President-elect Joe Biden. Thomas’ glaring actions caused some to question whether Justice Thomas should recuse himself from any Court cases involving the election. Paoletta said of his client, “she believes Crowdsourcers identified the left’s dominance in most cultural lanes, while conservatives were mostly funding political organizations. In her work, she has complied with all reporting and disclosure requirements.” In conclusion, Paoletta stated that there is no existing conflict of interest as it relates to Justice Thomas. TheGrio freelance reporter D.L. Chandler contributed to this article. TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today!
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY! Please check your email for confirmation from us. Now in its third season, the league was created by the NBA in partnership with FIBA to help grow the sport in Africa. They’re refining skills of young prospects at the NBA Academy in Africa. The vocabulary, too. “There is a word that really we don’t like, which is ‘raw,’” said Franck Traore, head of basketball operations for NBA Africa. “When you have an African player going to the U.S., they say ‘raw.’” Several academy prospects are playing in the new season of the Basketball Africa League, hoping to gain valuable experience in a professional setting and show that their game is more polished than many think. Now in its third season, the league was created by the NBA in partnership with FIBA to help grow the sport in Africa. It’s a three-month, Champions League-style competition for African club teams. They added a twist last season with each of the 12 teams being assigned an academy prospect — called the “BAL Elevate” program that’s in place this campaign, too. The young players have to earn minutes on rosters full of veterans. It’s another opportunity — along with various tournaments that the NBA Academy shuttles the kids to around the world — for the prospects prove themselves. Academy alum Babacar Sane played in the BAL and other events last year and jumped to the G League Ignite, where the 6-foot-6 Senegalese player is in the first season of a two-year contract. Thierry Darlan, a 6-foot-7 point guard from the Central African Republic, is expected to do the same. Sane and Darlan — both considered future NBA draft picks — are helping change the profile of African recruits. “It’s not a hurtful word or anything,” Traore said of the “raw” tag. “But we’re trying to develop programs so when an African player developed here on the continent gets to the U.S. or anywhere else in the world they have the skillset — the same or even better than what we have in the U.S. We’re getting to that point at this moment.” At 6-foot-3, Joy Ighovodja isn’t the typical recruit out of Africa. The 18-year-old Nigerian will be playing next season at Oral Roberts, which lost to Duke in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. “I’ve not really seen point guards coming out of Nigeria,” said Ighovodja, whose 6-foot-10 wingspan intrigued scouts last summer at the NBA Academy Games in Atlanta. “The normal thing people think is Nigeria, Africa as a whole, we’re good on defense, run the floor,” he said. “The mentality is they have these big strong guys that get rebounds and play in the paint — not point guards.” Ighovodja, who is playing with the Abidjan team for the BAL season, is a lefty who started playing basketball four years ago, initially as a shooting guard. Coaches like him as a point guard, he said, “to create opportunities for myself and my teammates” with his speed, athleticism and ball-handling. His team, the ABC Fighters, has advanced to the playoffs in May but the teenager has played in only one game so far under coach Liz Mills. “I just have to gain the coach’s trust. I’m getting there,” Ighovodja said recently. Other academy guards include Modou Thiam, who averaged 7.8 points per game for Nigerian team Kwara, and Aginaldo Neto. Although Neto is not playing in BAL, the Angolan is “one of the best upcoming point guards that we have,” Traore said. “We’re just looking at everybody — it’s not even size or position,” he added. “Right now, the game is going position-less. Here, we identify by potential.” The academy has bigs in the BAL, too. Rueben Chinyelu (6-foot-10) is making significant contributions with Stade Malien before the 19-year-old Nigerian heads to Washington State. He is averaging 5.4 points and a team-high 8.8 rebounds per game. More than half of his rebounds have been on the offensive end. Ulrich Chomche (6-foot-11) is averaging 1.6 blocks and 20.5 minutes per game for Rwandan team REG, along with five points and seven rebounds per game. The 17-year-old Cameroonian also played in BAL last year and does not lack confidence. Khaman Maluach (7-foot-1) of South Sudan is only 16 and helped Senegalese team A.S. Douanes advance to the playoffs. Maluach is a strong finisher, a rim protector and has flashed 3-point range. TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today!
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY! Please check your email for confirmation from us. Earlier this month, Sporting News named Rodney Terry Men’s College Basketball National Coach of the Year. The University of Texas announced Monday that interim men’s basketball coach Rodney Terry is the new full-time head coach, Yahoo reports. The promotion comes after Terry, 55, took over the head coach position last December from Chris Beard who was suspended and ultimately fired following a domestic violence arrest. The charge was later dropped, according to multiple reports. Terry is now the men’s basketball program’s second Black head coach in its history. The first was Shaka Smart, who coached from 2015-2021, according to Big 12 Sports. Earlier this month, Sporting News named Terry Men’s College Basketball National Coach of the Year after he led the Longhorns to notable success this season, The Houston Chronicle reports. The Longhorns went 22-8 with Terry as head coach, according to Yahoo. The award is the first bestowed upon a UT coach since the honor was established in 1963-64. Terry previously served as head coach at the University of Texas at El Paso and spent seven seasons as head coach at Fresno State. According to Yahoo, he worked as an assistant at Texas under Rick Barnes from 2002-2011. He also had assistant stints at Baylor and UNC Wilmington. As a Division I head coach, Terry has a record of 185-164. “I’ve got a really good staff that has a lot of experience; two guys that have been head coaches — they really helped in that transition as well,” Terry said about becoming UT’s interim coach, according to Sporting News. After the Longhorns’ recent loss to Miami in the Elite Eight, Terry described how much the team means to him during an emotional conversation with reporters. “It was all about this team, man, and I enjoyed every single day of this journey with this group,” a tearful Terry said, according to a March 26 Yahoo report. “It was never about me. It was always about these guys. I love these guys.” After UT confirmed Terry’s promotion this week, the Austin American-Statesman reported he will earn a little more than $3 million a season on a $15.3 million contract over five years. Chris Ogden, a UT assistant coach who now works for Terry, told the American-Statesman that Terry “is one of the best human beings in the basketball world.” TheGrio is now on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!
Price: $195 The Builders by Jacob Lawrence
National Urban League 75th Anniversary, 1985 Open Edition Print Size 35 3/4″ x 23″ Approx
Jacob Lawrence (September 7, 1917 – June 9, 2000) was an African-American painter known for his portrayal of African-American life. Lawrence referred to his style as “dynamic cubism,” though by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem.[1]
Lawrence is among the best-known 20th-century African-American painters. He was 23 years old when he gained national recognition with his 60-panel Migration Series,[2] painted on cardboard. The series depicted the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. A part of this series was featured in a 1941 issue of Fortune Magazine. The collection is now held by two museums. Lawrence’s works are in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Phillips Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and Reynolda House Museum of American Art.
Offered at $195
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Price: $195
Abstract Orange with Queen & Princess by Sanaa Open Edition Canvas Print
Gallery Wrap – Ready to hang – No framing needed Size 20″ x 27″ Approx
Gallery Wrap Examples
A canvas print is the result of an image printed onto canvas which is often stretched, or gallery-wrapped, onto a frame and displayed. Canvas prints are used as the final output in an art piece, or as a way to reproduce other forms of art.
Abstract art is not necessarily an accurate representation of some visual reality. In these paintings the artists are using shapes, colors and forms to suggest their reality.
The art is signed Sanaa which means “Artwork” in Swahili. This signature is the umbrella identification used by a group of artists.
Enjoy!
Offered at $195
Make Offer – Ask Question Extremely low offers will not be considered. Please do not make offers if you are not serious about buying this item. An October Gallery ArtPro will respond to you as soon as possible.
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Price: $195 Blooming Love Two
by Laurie Cooper Open Edition Canvas Print Size 27″ x 20″ Approx
Laurie Cooper is artist born and based in Philadelphia, PA. She received Bachelor’s degree from the University of Arts and received her Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. Laurie Cooper strives to highlight the inner and outer beauty of everything that she paints. She works diligently to showcase the special qualities of the black race. Her paintings are known for their inherent strength of character, strong unique facial features and richness of skin color. Collectors of her work include Dr. Samuel F. Quartey, Dr. Carey Tucker and Dr. Pete Smith.
Print on Canvas
Our high-quality printing process gives this print/poster its eloquent and striking appearance. Printed on Canvas this art reproduction has been printed using fine inks for lasting beauty. This is an affordable canvas print, enjoy!
Gallery Wrap Examples
A canvas print is the result of an image printed onto canvas which is often stretched, or gallery-wrapped, onto a frame and displayed. Canvas prints are used as the final output in an art piece, or as a way to reproduce other forms of art.
Gallery Wrap No framing needed – just hang and enjoy!
Offered at $195
Make Offer – Ask Question Extremely low offers will not be considered. Please do not make offers if you are not serious about buying this item. An October Gallery ArtPro will respond to you as soon as possible.
If you prefer a telephone follow up, please leave your phone number.
OUT STOCK Pearls of Wisdom (AKA) by Larry Poncho Brown Limited Edition / Signed and Numbered
Edition 850 Size 21″ x 32″ Approx
Larry “Poncho” Brown, is a native of Baltimore, MD. He started his first business at the age of 17 as a sign writer and he has been a full time artist ever since. Poncho received his Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD. His art, both fine and commercial, has been published nationally in Upscale, Ebony, Ebony Man, Essence, and Jet magazines. In February ’99 his art was featured in the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History Textile Series No. 2 book entitled “Wrapped In Pride”. His popular works have been prominently featured on several TV shows and movies including “Soulfood”, “The Wire”, “A Different World”, “In The House” and “Avalon”. His work adorns the walls of the likes of Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, Anita Baker, Susan Taylor, Ed Gordon and Bernard Bronner just to name a few.
In pursuing his philanthropic goals, he founded Raising The Arts which has created over 55 images to assist non-profit organizations and African American Organizations with fundraising for the past two decades. He also co-founded the Creative Quarantine which is a collaboration with other professional artists that dedicate the entire month of January to creating new experimental works.
Admirers often site rhythm, movement, and unity, as favorite elements in his work. He primarily works in acrylic, although he uses a variety of mediums and styles to express his interests in Afrocentric themes, Ancient Egyptology and dance. Poncho’s unique style combines past and present art stylizations to create a sense of realism, mysticism, and beauty, which gives his art universal appeal. “My creations are a reflection of my personal values and pay homage to ongoing themes of unity, family, and spirituality”.
‘I’m excited to know that what I’ve made has physically never been made before’: Jennifer Packer’s extrasensory paintings come to London
Ahead of shows at the Serpentine Galleries in London and, next year, at MoCA in Los Angeles, the US painter reflects on the power—and constraints—of her medium
Jennifer Packer, who says a painting is “like a quotation out of context”Jerriod Avant
Awash in jewel-like hues and splashes of light, Jennifer Packer’s portraits of Black subjects have an auric quality. Like those photographs people have taken of themselves where the camera captures hazes of colours, supposedly energetic balances unseen by the naked eye, her paintings grasp at something just beyond the limits of accepted perception. Opening at London’s Serpentine Galleries this month, The eye is not satisfied with seeing is the Bronx-based artist’s first institutional solo show in Europe, featuring 35 works, from those made soon after she graduated in 2012 to canvases finished just a few weeks ago. It comes at a time when the world has been forced to bear witness to state violence, systemic racism and the weight of Black death in the US. But do the eyes really see? It is a question Packer comes back to again and again in her practice as she meditates on the power of grief and beauty and grapples with the limitations of paint.
The Art Newspaper: Your portraits, as much as they are of people you know—friends, family—are also abstractions. Similarly, as Christina Sharpe writes in her essay for your show at the Serpentine, you use “colour and light [to] transport us to a place beyond ordinary seeing”. This closely relates to the title of the show. Can you tell us what this phrase means to you and how it relates to your role as a painter of people?
Jennifer Packer: I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of belief and how it impacts the ways that artists and artisans make objects, like the sort of thoroughness and fixation of devotion to the process and the practice. “The eyes are not satisfied with seeing” comes from a Biblical scripture. The whole quote is: “All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” For me, the takeaway from that is that our senses are limited—there is always something beyond what we perceive and therefore you’re never really able to represent it fully. This relates to painting for me because when you’re painting someone, the subject gets wrapped up by the medium and its history but they also, of course, exist outside of that. So [painting] leaves space for… I want to say faith, but without it sounding too hokey. But what I mean by that is that there is an understanding that there are things that we don’t have access to, that exist around the things we make and things we do.
So you’re never really telling—and the viewer is never getting—the full story?
Yeah, a painting is like a quotation out of context. And it’s very clear sometimes when you go to a museum how poorly some things are quoted. I am inspired by the works of Michelangelo, El Greco or even painters like Philip Guston, Beauford Delaney, Palmer Hayden, Kerry James Marshall—I mean, God bless Kerry James Marshall, truly—but I think people are attaching too much importance to this idea of “rewriting the canon” [of Western art history]. It sounds good, but it’s still reactionary. I don’t fixate on that so much. I’m excited to know that what I’ve made has physically never been made before. That’s enough for me.
Packer’s Eric (2012-13), the subject sitting “in a room of things almost like satellites, floating around him”Photo: Jason Wyche; courtesy of the artist, Corvi-Mora, London and Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York
There’s a work in this show, The Body Has Memory (2018) that depicts a man in a hooded sweatshirt, and the sweatshirt itself becomes almost the dominant figure in the composition. Rizvana Bradley writes in her catalogue essay, the sweatshirt is a kind of metaphor that “can be regarded as a sartorial signifier of Blackness, in and as a singular vulnerability to racial violence, it also fashions a provisional shelter from a world that would otherwise consume and expel Black life at every turn”. In several paintings, clothing—I’m thinking of the excellent floral socks in Tia (2017)—or other items of note in the sitter’s periphery, really come to the fore. What about clothes or other external trappings becomes relevant for you as you paint these people?
I’m interested in signifiers and how they function historically, and the ways in which every little detail in a Renaissance painting had a place and had a meaning. Some signs contradict each other; they don’t always add up to a perfectly cohesive narrative. The trappings, as you called them, are not just beautiful decoration or distractions; I wanted them to have an equal presence, a power. That’s something I was thinking through in a lot of my earlier works and that I’m returning to now. There’s the painting Eric, from 2012-13, and he is sitting foregrounded in this room of things that are almost like satellites, floating around him. I thought about that work in making a lot of my new ones. There’s really no one way to read these items, though—I’m still figuring them out myself.
There is a lot of flora in your portraits, but you also paint bouquets on their own too, which become elegiac portraits in and of themselves. One of these is Say Her Name (2017), which is a reference to Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old Black woman who was found hanged in her jail cell after being assaulted and arrested by police. I remember speaking with you about it during a studio visit in 2017, and you noted how it is difficult to express grief over the loss of someone you didn’t know personally but with whom you still feel an intimacy. To what extent can grief, pain and suffering can be represented?
Sandra Bland’s death enrages me to this day. It’s easy to feel burdened by this desire for people to override the language of the painting or the subjectivity of the painter for something that ties it into culture and politics quickly, especially when it pertains to Black life. Look at how quickly museums like the Whitney [Museum of American Art in New York]have tried to collect protest art—so quick to historicise something, to put it in the past. That stops real change from happening in the now.
Now, three years later, the phrase “say her name” has a whole other meaning to it. Not a new meaning, as the issue remains the same—Black death at the hands of the state continues at an alarming rate and goes unchecked by the US’s current legislative powers—but awareness of the issue has reached a critical mass, as protests continue in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police and the suspension of justice in the police shooting of Breonna Taylor. How has your relationship to these paintings or to your practice changed, if at all, as more people open their eyes to the systemic racial issues in the US and the list of names to say grows ever longer?
I feel really, really cynical about others opening their eyes. It’s like walking down the same street and seeing all the differently coloured doors but if someone asked you to name the colours you wouldn’t be able to even if you’ve seen them 1,000 times. Because you sort of refuse to know it or it’s not central to your everyday experience.
To oversimplify your metaphor, do you mean that white people are talking a lot about the need to preserve those doors but can’t recall the colours? I guess that goes back to this idea behind the show that the eye is not satisfied with seeing.
And back to the limitations of painting, too. I’ve been thinking about making a painting for Tamir Rice [the 12-year-old Black boy shot by police in Ohio when carrying a toy gun] for a long time, but the complexities of grief are too great. The flower paintings… they just feel too fraught after a while, I’ve had to stop making them. I don’t pretend that my paintings are doing some work in the world that isn’t already being done—and being done more effectively by other means.
Say Her Name (2017) references Sandra Bland, the Black woman who was found hanged in jail after being assaulted and arrested by policePhoto: Matt Grubb ; courtesy of The Artist, Corvi-Mora, London and Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York
Biography
Born: 1984, Philadelphia
Lives: New York
Education: 2007, Tyler University School of Art at Temple University, Philadelphia; 2012, Yale University
Key shows:2019 Whitney Biennial, New York; 2017 The Renaissance Society, Chicago. 2012 The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Represented by: Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York; Corvi-Mora, London
Price: $195
