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
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!
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: 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
Price: $595 NOW $495 The Advocate by Ernie Barnes Limited Edition Giclee Estate Stamped / Edition 100 Authenticated by the Ernie Barnes Family Trust Size 23″ x 33″ Approx Ernest “Ernie” Eugene Barnes, Jr. (July 15, 1938 – April 27, 2009) was an African-American painter, well known for his unique style of elongation and movement. He was also a professional football player, actor and author. Ernie Barnes’ involvement with art began at an early age, like most gifted adult artists. However, when he reached high school his creative endeavors were temporarily detoured in his determination to become a successful athlete. In part this was a response to the demands of peer pressure which can be so strong at that age. He graduated from his high school a hero and star football player, and with 26 full athletic scholarships to choose from. He chose North Carolina Central University and a major in art. After college he continued in an illustrious professional athletic career, but never let his love for football overshadow his love for art. Football gave him an enormous satisfaction of achievement, of being able to do something extremely difficult, and do it well. Art, however, allowed him the privilege to interpret for the public his concepts of the relationship between art and life. In 1966 Ernie Barnes retired from football to commit himself to his art. His athletic career made a special contribution to his sensibility and his art, and he often weds physical with artistic expression. Many of his subjects are satirical and he uses exaggeration, and even caricature, to enhance their mood, humor and physical vitality. Seen through Barnes’ dramatic-comic vision, human figures play out their roles in a contemporary scenario in a manner that is both entertaining and finely executed. It can easily be said that Barnes has more than established himself as one among America’s leading contemporary painters. Barnes credits his college art instructor Ed Wilson for laying the foundation for his development as an artist. Wilson was a sculptor who instructed Barnes to paint from his own life experiences. “He made me conscious of the fact that the artist who is useful to America is one who studies his own life and records it through the medium of art, manners and customs of his own experiences.” All his life, Barnes was ambivalent about his football experience. In interviews and in personal appearances, Barnes said he hated the violence and the physical torment of the sport. However, his years as an athlete gave him unique, in-depth observations. “(Wilson) told me to pay attention to what my body felt like in movement. Within that elongation, there’s a feeling. And attitude and expression. I hate to think had I not played sports what my work would look like.” Barnes’ first painting sale was in 1959 for $90 to Boston Celtic Sam Jones for a painting called Slow Dance. It was subsequently lost in a fire at Jones’ home. Critics have defined Barnes’ work as neo-mannerist. Based on his signature use of serpentine lines, elongation of the human figure, clarity of line, unusual spatial relationships, painted frames, and distinctive color palettes, art critic Frank Getlein credited Barnes as the founder of the neo-Mannerism movement – because of the similarity of technique and composition prevalent during the 16th century, as practiced by such masters as Michelangelo and Raphael. Numerous artists have been influenced by Barnes’ art and unique style. Accordingly, several copyright infringement lawsuits have been settled and are currently pending. Barnes created the painting Sugar Shack in the early 1970s. It gained international exposure when it was used on the Good Times television series and on a 1976 Marvin Gaye album. Sports Art In 1984 Barnes was appointed the Official Sports Artist for the Games of the XXIII Olympiad. Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee President Peter V. Ueberroth said Barnes “captured the essence of the Olympics” and “portray the city’s ethnic diversity, the power and emotion of sports competition, the singleness of purpose and hopes that go into the making of athletes the world over.” Barnes was commissioned to create five Olympic-themed paintings and serve as an official Olympic spokesman to encourage inner city youth. In 1985 Barnes was named the first Sports Artist of the Year by the United States Sports Academy. In 1987 Barnes created Fastbreak, a commissioned painting of the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers basketball team that included Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Kurt Rambis and Michael Cooper. In 1996 Carolina Panthers football team owners Rosalind and Jerry Richardson (Barnes’ former Colts teammate) commissioned Barnes to create the large painting Victory in Overtime (approximately 7 ft. x 14 ft.). It was unveiled before the team’s inaugural season and hangs permanently in the stadium owner’s suite. To commemorate their 50th anniversary in 1996, the National Basketball Association commissioned Barnes to create a painting with the theme, “Where we were, where we are, and where we are going.” The painting, The Dream Unfolds hangs in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. A limited edition of lithographs were made, with the first 50 prints going to each of the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team. In 2004 Barnes was named America’s Best Painter of Sports by the American Sport Art Museum & Archives. Other notable sports commissions include paintings for the New Orleans Saints, Oakland Raiders and Boston Patriots football team owners. Sugar Shack According to Barnes, he created the original version of Sugar Shack after reflecting upon his childhood, during which he was not “able to go to a dance.” In a 2008 interview, Barnes said, “Sugar Shack is a recall of a childhood experience. It was the first time my innocence met with the sins of dance. The painting transmits rhythm so the experience is re-created in the person viewing it. To show that African-Americans utilize rhythm as a way of resolving physical tension.”[27] The Sugar Shack has been known to art critics for embodying the style of art composition known as “Black Romantic,” which, according to Natalie Hopkinson of The Washington Post, is the “visual-art equivalent of the Chitlin’ circuit.” On the original Sugar Shack, Barnes included his hometown Durham, North Carolina radio station WSRC on a banner. He incorrectly listed the frequency at 620. It was actually 1410. Barnes confused what he used to hear WSRC’s on-air personality Norfley Whitted saying “620 on your dial” when Whitted was at his former station WDNC in the early 1950s. After Marvin Gaye asked him for permission to use the painting as an album cover, Barnes then augmented the painting by adding references that allude to Gaye’s album, including banners hanging from the ceiling to promote the album’s singles. During the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever anniversary television special on March 25, 1983, tribute was paid to Sugar Shack with a dance interpretation of the painting. Offered at $595 NOW $495
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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!
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
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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
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Price: $200 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”.
Offered at $200
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‘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
February 16, 2021 Lela Jenkins, MuSe Intern, Digital Department
This February, we’re celebrating Black History Month at The Met. But for African Americans such as myself, every month is Black History Month. So we’re taking this opportunity to celebrate the Black art and identities that have been crucial in shaping art history for years—and will continue to shape it for many more to come. Here are just five of the many stories of Black art, culture, and history interwoven throughout The Met collection.
“How do you paint your own slave?” Painter Julie Mehretu analyzes Velázquez
“Looking at his expression I’m moved, almost to tears. That’s not often that a painting can do that.”
People of color are under-represented and under-recognized throughout Western art history, both as subjects and as artists. Rarer even is their appearance in dignified portraiture like that of Diego Velázquez, a seventeenth-century painter known for his depictions of Spanish royalty. Juan de Pareja was Velázquez’s enslaved assistant, and was later liberated to become a great painter in his own right. So—“How do you paint your own slave?” asks contemporary artist Julie Mehretu, and why? In this episode of The Artist Project, Mehretu, whose work challenges sociopolitical constructs of the past and present, helps unpack this painting’s emotional story.
Dancer Omari Mizrahi on Mark Bradford’s painting Duck Walk
Dancer Omari Mizrahi (Ousmane Wiles) received the status of Legend in the House of Mizrahi after ten years competing in the Vogue Ballroom scene in New York City. When asked to respond to Mark Bradford’s 2016 painting Duck Walk, Omari connects the evolution of voguing to the colorful movement in Bradford’s painting: “Voguing is evolving and the ballroom scene is evolving, but we’re trying to keep the history and the traditions alive as much as much as possible, and I think he’s doing that with abstraction.” As Omari spends more time with the work (and dances with it), we see the power in Bradford’s Abstract Expressionism and its connection to motion, performativity, and everyday life.
A poet’s response to Jean-Baptise Carpeaux’s Why Born Enslaved!
“My name, for now, is my body
Soft in flesh but louder in stone.”
In this video, Wendy S. Walters recites the poem she wrote in response to Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s 1873 sculpture Why Born Enslaved! The sculpture is one that is undeniably beautiful, and yet deals with the most painful moment in our history. It asks us to condemn the horror that is slavery, and yet this woman’s identity is still anonymous, her body still an object for our consumption. Walters’s poetic words confront this conflict in Why Born Enslaved! and help us imagine how this anonymous woman might have thought and felt.
Scholar David Driskell on Aaron Douglas’s painting Let My People Go
“Can a work of art reclaim history?”
David C. Driskell was a leading scholar of African American art and an artist whose work played a pivotal role in gaining mainstream recognition for the Black art community. His 1976 landmark exhibition, Two Centuries of Black American Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, was the first of its kind and paved the way for scholarship on African American art, history, and culture.
In this video, Driskell uplifts the work of Aaron Douglas, a prominent visual artist of the Harlem Renaissance. Douglas’s painting Let My People Go (ca. 1935–39) evokes God’s command to Moses to lead the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt and into freedom, and relates this biblical story to the modern oppression of African Americans. Through Douglas’s painting, Driskell sheds light upon themes of liberation, enlightenment, and empowerment that resonate with the African American experience today.
Dariel Vasquez in “Belonging,” episode 11 of Met Stories
Visiting an institution like The Met—facing its massive staircase and a collection that spans millennia—it’s easy to feel like you don’t belong. Its art tells vast stories of countless cultures, and yet so often fails to tell the stories of people who look like us. This is how Dariel Vasquez, cofounder and executive director of Brothers@, felt even growing up in nearby Harlem. In this episode of Met Stories, Dariel talks about how he was able not only to overcome that feeling, but to fall in love with the art and make the space his own.
There is so much more content to check out and for all ages to enjoy. Head to our YouTube channel and Perspectives for more video and editorial pieces celebrating Black art and identities in conversation with The Met collection.
Editors’ Note: An earlier version of this article misstated that people of color are under-represented throughout art history. The article was corrected on March 5, 2021, to clarify the intended reference to Western art history specifically. The editors regret this error.
OUT STOCK
Pride and Joy
by Albert Fennell Lithograph/ Signed
Open Edition Size 22″ x 30″ Approx
Albert Fennell art work can be can be summed up in one word: Diversity. Albert is as proficient in oil as he is in pastel or ink. Fennell uses his unique ability to create depth, dimension and illusions of exemplary quality. Albert Fennell was born in San Diego, California, and his talent was evident at the early age of five when he started drawing in-depth pictures of cartoon characters. As a young man in the 6th grade at Ocean View Elementary School, Albert’s landscape done in tempera paint was selected in a district-wide competition and was exhibited in the San Diego Museum of Art. Fennell studied fine arts at San Diego Mesa College, commercial drawing at San Diego City College, and refined his skills at Alexander’s School of Drawing, Printing, and Design.
OUT STOCK Bal Negre
by Paul Colin Serigraph
Size: 43 3/4″ x 33″ Approx
Paul Colin (27 June 1892 in Nancy, France – 18 June 1985 in Nogent-sur-Marne) was one of France’s greatest poster artists.
Made famous in 1925 by his poster for the Revue Nègre, which helped to launch the career of Josephine Baker (who became his mistress), he worked for over forty years in the theatre, creating not only posters but also numerous sets and costumes.
Very Art déco at the outset, (his Le Tumulte noir is a masterpiece of the genre), his style quickly became highly personal and impossible to categorize: the synthetic accuracy of his portraits, the evocative force of his posters for grand causes so marked him as a master of visual communication that his work today remains relevant and fresh. A student of Eugène Vallin and of Victor Prouvé, he is considered a master of the modern school of poster art. He is the author of more thab 1,400 posters and many theatrical set and costume designs. His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics.[
He was the master of painter Philippe Derome and poster artists duo Lefor-Openo
An original vintage poster of singer and Broadway star Adelaide Hall by Paul Colin advertising Blackbirds at the Moulin Rouge in 1929, sold on 2 October 2003 at Swann Auction Galleries in New York for $167,500. The sale signalled a record high for an original Paul Colin poster.
Price: $195
