Art

“Stay Fly” Comes to CulturalDC’s Mobile Art Gallery

THE AFRO — “Stay Fly” is a combination of large and small scale collages, and personal designer items.

Published

5 years ago

February 14, 2019

By George Kevin Jordan

Local Artist Jamea Richmond-Edwards will premiere her latest work this Friday at CityCenterDC, as part of CulturalDC’s 10^th installation in their Mobile Art Gallery space.

“Stay Fly” is a combination of large and small scale collages, and personal designer items, and does a deep dive into the relationship between Black people, luxury goods and fashion. For Edwards, the installation was a natural extension of her earlier work.

“It’s really a continuum of an exhibition that I had last year with my gallery in New York – ‘Fly Girl Fly,’” Richmond-Edwards said. “I’ve always dealt with the narrative that revolved around the subjects in my paintings, but I never addressed the obvious things in my work which was the fashion.”

A piece featured in “Stay Fly” from local artist Jamea Richmond-Edwards at CityCenterDC at CulturalDC’s Mobile Art Gallery as part of their 10th installation.

The Detroit born and raised artist recalled the influence of midwest fashion and how it impacted her sensibilities.

“We’re were really known for our flamboyant style,” Richmond-Edwards said.” So you will have custom red suits with the red gators to match the red Cadillac. Real flamboyant and gaudy. That’s how I was dressing in high school.

Another big influence was her sister’s subscription to Ebony magazine and the Ebony Fashion Fair section in the back of the book.

“It was my first introduction to couture fashion,” Richmond-Edwards said. “You had these beautiful models and these frilly over the top Couture gowns and that was very impressionable to me.”

Because she liked to draw, Richmond-Edwards was able to draw and design her own dress for prom. She designed dresses for few other girls as well. Those moments shaped her love for fashion, design and art.

She would later graduate with a Bachelor of Art degree from Jackson State University in 2004, where she studied painting and drawing, and earn an MFA from Howard University in 2012.

Richmond-Edwards’ current work pushes beyond the stereotypes of luxury and asks us to hold several different complicated ideas at once.

“What does luxury mean to us as people of color in our community,” she said. “On one hands it means purchasing a Gucci purse. but it can also mean purchasing a knock off because it’s the logo that symbolizes fashion.”

“Luxury is also like customization – getting your dress made or even. If you look in terms of how we broadcast or show we have this upward mobility, we may not be able to invest in education or a house, I’m speaking of people who aren’t necessarily middle class, but we can rock some new shoes and that was very important for us. I have access to that.”

CulturalDC is celebrating 20 years of “creating affordable, sustainable artist spaces in Washington D.C. Richmond-Edwards’ work is the latest in an ongoing mobile art gallery space.

“Jamea’s installation in particular highlights the potential of CulturalDC’s Mobile Art Gallery. We are providing a unique opportunity for an artist to display their work directly next to the subjects they are in conversation with. We’re also thinking critically about other artistic disciplines, like fashion and their representation in our curatorial repertoire,” says Kristi Maiselman, Executive Director of CulturalDC on the website.

For Richmond-Edwards, the installation offers an opportunity for audiences to look at our cultural contribution and legacy in a different way.

“This is all American history,” Richmond-Edwards said. “Why do we want to match our outfits to our gators, to our cars? We’re looking at history in a way that hasn’t been addressed. Let’s talk about the way we subvert the systems and how we uplift ourselves.”

“Stay Fly” will run through April 13. This event is free and open to the public. For more information about the show or CulturalDC please visit the website at www.culturaldc.org

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

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Art

Marin County: A Snapshot of California’s Black History Is on Display

The Marin County Office of Education, located at 1111 Las Gallinas Ave in San Rafael, will host the extraordinary exhibit, “The Legacy of Marin City: A California Black History Story (1942-1960),” from Feb. 1 to May 31, 2024. The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.

Published

2 weeks ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

Early photo of Marin City in the exhibit showing the first department store, barber shop, and liquor store. (Photo by Godfrey Lee)

By Post Staff

The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.

All will have the opportunity to visit and be guided by its curator Felecia Gaston.

The exhibit will include photographs, articles and artifacts about the Black experience in Marin City from 1942 to 1960 from the Felecia Gaston Collection, the Anne T. Kent California Room Collection, The Ruth Marion and Pirkle Jones Collection, The Bancroft Library, and the Daniel Ruark Collection.

It also features contemporary original artwork by Chuck D of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group Public Enemy, clay sculptures by San Francisco-based artist Kaytea Petro, and art pieces made by Marin City youth in collaboration with Lynn Sondag, Associate Professor of Art at Dominican University of California.

The exhibit explores how Marin City residents endured housing inequities over the years and captures the history of plans to remove Black residents from the area after World War II. Throughout, it embodies the spirit of survival and endurance that emboldened the people who made Marin City home.

Felecia Gaston is the author of the commemorative book, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home: The Story of World War II Marinship and the Legacy of Marin City.’ Thanks to the generous contribution of benefactors, a set of Felecia’s book will be placed in every public elementary, middle, and high school library in Marin.

In addition, educators and librarians at each school will have the opportunity to engage with Felecia in a review of best practices for utilizing the valuable primary sources within the book.

“Our goal is to provide students with the opportunity to learn from these significant and historical contributions to Marin County, California, and the United States,” said John Carroll, Marin County Superintendent of Schools.

“By engaging with Felecia’s book and then visiting the exhibit, students will be able to further connect their knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of this significant historical period,” Carroll continued.

Felecia Gaston adds, “The Marin County Office of Education’s decision to bring the Marin City Historical Traveling Exhibit and publication, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home’ to young students is intentional and plays a substantial role in the educational world. It is imperative that our community knows the contributions of Marin City Black residents to Marin County. Our youth are best placed to lead this transformation.”

The Marin County Office of Education will host an Open House Reception of the exhibit’s debut on Feb. 1 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.. All school staff, educators, librarians, and community members are encouraged to attend to preview the exhibit and connect with Felecia Gaston. To contact Gaston, email MarinCityLegacy@marinschools.org

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Activism

Alternative Outcome to Slayings by Police Explored in One-Man Play

BLACK MEN EVERYWHERE! is the explosive new one man play written, directed, and performed by Jinho “Piper” Ferreira. Set against the backdrop of a presidential election, the play explores how political and cultural leaders wield the myth of the dangerous Black man to manipulate the masses for personal gain. Piper penned the follow-up to his ground-breaking solo play, “Cops and Robbers,” after an impromptu cross-country Black history tour.

Published

2 months ago

February 16, 2024

Oakland Post

BLACK MEN EVERYWHERE! is the explosive new one man play written, directed, and performed by Jinho “Piper” Ferreira.

Special to The Post

What would happen if police officers who have gotten off for killing unarmed Black people started turning up dead?

Piper penned the follow-up to his ground-breaking solo play, “Cops and Robbers,” after an impromptu cross-country Black history tour.

“My wife and I had been talking about it for years,” Ferreira said. They had taken their three children to Brazil several times and West Africa but had yet to explore their history as Black people in this country. “It was Juneteenth last year and I realized we had a few weeks to make it happen, so we just jumped in the car and left” Piper said.

Three weeks later the family had seen everything from the African American Museum of History and Culture in Wash., D.C., to the phenomenally preserved Whitney Plantation in Louisiana. They’d stood outside of the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., and paid their respects at the Africa Town cemetery – where the passengers of the Clotilda (the last known U.S. slave ship to smuggle captured Africans into this country) were buried near Mobile, Ala.

“We had the kids keep a journal of the trip and my wife and I took notes, but once we got back home, I knew I had to make the pen move,” he said.

Ferreira plays 21 characters in the 60-minute emotional roller coaster ride; personalities we all know. While brilliantly weaving in themes of revolution, treachery, and revenge, “Black Men Everywhere!” is surprisingly — more than anything else — a love story.

“I wrote the play for Black men and everyone who loves us,” Ferreira said. “The play is narrated by a sistah and performed in front of the deeply spiritual artwork of Nedra T. Williams, an Oakland priestess of Olokun. It’s called ‘Black Men Everywhere!’ but we don’t exist without the Black woman.”

For tickets, please go to: http://tinyurl.com/5dm3mhra

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Art

City of Stockton Seeks Applications for Public Art Murals

The City of Stockton Arts Commission (SAC) has announced the opportunity for artist(s) and/or artist teams to apply to design and paint original artwork on City-owned property through a Public Art Mural Program. The deadline for applications is Friday, March 8, 2024, at 5 p.m. Applications and additional information are available online at www.stocktonca.gov/publicart.

Published

3 months ago

January 24, 2024

Oakland Post

The Public Art Mural Program incentivizes mural installations by providing city funding and the means of curating the City’s collection of murals.

City of Stockton

The deadline for applications is Friday, March 8, 2024, at 5 p.m. Applications and additional information are available online at www.stocktonca.gov/publicart.

The Public Art Mural Program incentivizes mural installations by providing city funding and the means of curating the City’s collection of murals.

This program has $50,000 in available funds for artist(s) and is also available for those who have already identified funds and would like to complete a mural project on city-owned property. Applications will be reviewed on a competitive basis and selected by the SAC.

To learn more about the Stockton Arts Commission (SAC) or qualifications and eligibility for Public Art Mural Program, please visit www.stocktonca.gov/publicart or call the Community Services Department at (209) 937-8206.