NUBIAN KNIGHTS NETWORK: Sunday, June 3, 2012

QUOTATIONS OF "BLACK"

"Whenever I use BLACK it relates to some history of Africans in that particular place. It’s the idea of the color BLACK as a metaphor, or as a representation of African-Americans. It’s the notion of BLACK- BLACKNESS - and all its other meanings in relation to the history of race..."

- Fred Wilson

"Most of my fortitude to continue doing the work comes from the moral outrage I feel about the injustices that Black people endure disproportionately daily."

- N. Abdul-Wakil

"In the end, what matters is not skin shade but pan-African consciousness. Loving your complexion, your nose, lips, hair length and texture, no matter what the politics or trends decide, and simply be. That's the problem with us (African folks). We're still learning how to love ourselves. So used to glorifying others and putting others first..."

- Dredlocks Tree

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Question Bridge: Black Males
Visual Exhibit

Official Website: QuestionBridge.com

WOW!!!! I had the great privilege to see the Question Bridge: Black Males exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum (here in New York City) yesterday (Saturday, June 2nd, 2012), one day before it's closing... (Oooooh! News Flash! I just checked the Brooklyn Museum's website - it's been updated and the exhibit has been EXTENDED to July 15th, 2012!!!!!)

I had a few bruthaz mention it to me that I should urgently see it, yet it wasn't until my partner/boyfriend mentioned it as an interest (especially given his job field) in seeing it that I finally went to go see it.

All I can say it is extremely monumental and POWERFUL and one of the best exhibits I've ever seen in my life - especially since the subject matter is around and about me - a Black male in America. As someone who is Black, male, and same gender loving (and of course there's many more parts to my sum) which is considered by some to be three strikes right there, and yet all that and more is covered in this visual installation discussion; from the "N" word to our fears to what it is to be Black -- the whole gamut is covered, and quite brilliantly I must say. The multi-monitor installation set-up with unprompted questions from diverse bruthaz from all around the country is something for US as African folks to think/process, discuss and hopefully have a transformative conversation and mindset around.

I got to see about 30 to 45 minutes of the visual installation; a photographer friend of mine that I bumped into said it was about an hour and 10 minutes before it repeated again. Yet what I did see (I'm always in an observing mode most times) always had a constant crowd of people looking on, listening, shaking their heads or laughing - mostly people of African descent with a few peppered white folks in there. It felt like family coming together to view a discussion around us and the complexity of topics.

If you don't live near or New York City, I'd stick close to their Question Bridge: Black Males official website to see where the installation exhibit will turn up next. It's an important contribution to our culture we all need to be in discussion about.

- ROD

About Question Bridge: Black Males...

Question Bridge: Black Males is an innovative video installation created by artists Hank Willis Thomas and Chris Johnson in collaboration with Bayeté Ross Smith and Kamal Sinclair. The four collaborators spent several years traveling throughout the United States, speaking with 150 Black men living in 12 American cities and towns, including New York, Chicago, Oakland, Birmingham, and New Orleans. From these interviews they created 1,500 video exchanges in which the subjects, representing a range of geographic, generational, economic, and educational strata, serve as both interviewers and interviewees. Their words were woven together to simulate a stream-of-consciousness dialogue, through which important themes and issues emerge, including family, love, interracial relationships, community, education, violence, and the past, present, and future of Black men in American society.

The exhibition includes multiple screens playing videos of the interviews, edited so that it appears as if the men are having a conversation. The artists hope that the Question Bridge project will be a catalyst for constructive dialogue that will help deconstruct stereotypes about Black male identity in our collective consciousness. Museum visitors are also invited to visit the user-generated Question Bridge website, accessible on iPads throughout the gallery, which offers a platform to represent and redefine Black male identity in America.

The Question Bridge executive producers are Delroy Lindo, Deborah Willis, and Jesse Williams. Will Sylvester is the Post-Production Producer, and Rosa White is the Supervising Story Producer. The Transmedia Producers are Antonio Kaplan and Elise Baugh of Innovent.

Question Bridge: Black Males is a fiscally sponsored project of the Bay Area Video Coalition, supported in part by a grant from the Open Society Foundations Campaign for Black Male Achievement, the Tribeca Film Institute, Sundance Film Institute’s New Frontier Story Lab, the LEF Foundation, the Center for Cultural Innovation, and the California College of the Arts. Additional support was provided by the Jack Shainman Gallery.