News, announcements, and information about the arts of the African Diaspora
Friday, March 31, 2006
Stephen DeWindt's grandfather featured in Oakland exhibition
Check out the article online at http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/14221070.htm
Stephen lent family photographs of his grandfather Henry Johnson for the exhibition Aftershock!—Voices from the 1906 Earthquake and Fire at the Oakland Museum and was interviewed for the article.
Friday, August 26, 2005
THIRD ANNUAL SAMELLA AWARD
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CAAD, Inc.
Presents
Third Annual Achievement in the Visual Arts Award
presented to
VARNETTE P. HONEYWOOD
Date: Saturday, November 5, 2005
Luncheon* Exhibition*Silent Auction
Ticket Deadline: Saturday, October 23, 2005
Advanced Purchase Only No Tickets sold at the Door
Contact: Stephen De Windt, Public Relations Director
(626) 296-9228, CAADPR@AOL.COM
The Center for the Arts of the African Diaspora, Inc. (CAAD, Inc.) will present the Third Annual 'Samella' Award to Ms. Varnette P. Honeywood.Varnette Honeywood has been painting and drawing all her life. Varnette is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta. An impressive genre painter, she approaches her subjects with empathy. She is also a graduate of the University of Southern California with a Masters Degree in Education. Varnette uses her art to record endangered scenes of Black life, the triumphs and struggles, and the rituals and traditions.
Her work is included in many institutional and private collections including Golden State Mutual Insurance Company, Bell South, and North Carolina A&T State University. Collectors include Clarence and Jackie Avant, Bill and Camille Cosby, James and Karyn Hobbs, and Eileen and Peter Norton. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States. Her art has been included in exhibitions in Japan, and Africa and has been published in Harper's Magazine, Essence Magazine, and The L.A. Times. Varnette's work is on the cover of several novels, children's books and music tapes including Let's Get the Rhythm of the Band by Cheryl Mattox and You Know Better by Spelman College graduate Tina McElroy Ansa. In addition, her work was part of the set of the Cosby Show and Kids Say the Darndest Things. Her visual statements of Black lifestyles have been the subject of an award winning film, Varnette's World, produced by filmmaker Carroll Parrott Blue.
Varnette has provided art for a poster for The Children's Defense Fund's public awareness campaign to prevent teen pregnancy. Her art has appeared on a national Sickle Cell Month Poster, Spelman College's annual report, Essence Magazine's 15th anniversary poster, Girls Incorporated's 50th anniversary poster and was included in the United States Labor Department's Women's Bureau 75th anniversary poster series commemorating women in the workplace.
Varnette's work was included in Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists, a traveling exhibition organized by the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. Her work was also included in Masterpieces of African American Art: An African American Perspective at M. Hanks Gallery in Santa Monica, California, Varnette’s work was recently included in Successions: Prints by African American Artists from the Jean and Robert Steele Collection, and African American Artists in Los Angeles, A Survey Exhibition: Pathways.
Varnette illustrated the Little Bill Books for Beginning Readers written by Bill Cosby and published by Scholastic. She was Creative Consultant for, Little Bill, the animated television show that is based upon her illustrations. The show is aired on Nickelodeon and CBS.
Varnette is a member of the Children's Defense Fund's Black Community Crusade for Children Advisory Board, The National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, and the National Conference of Artists. She is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
Varnette received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia on April 11, 2005.
The 'Samella' was created to honor Dr. Samella Lewis's legacy in the field of African American art, and the art of the Diaspora. Its purpose is to give recognition to those visual artists who have exhibited an exemplary effort to promote the awareness of the African and African-American artistic heritage. CAAD, Inc. applauds Dr. Lewis for her outstanding achievement and the monumental gift of her legacy to the field of African-American art and art of the African Diaspora; and to Honeywood’s tireless devotion as a artist and which have preserved, documented and celebrated the achievements of African Americans. Her efforts have truly elevated her to the status of African American icon. Her immortality is assured. And what is immortality other than reminiscences, which refuse to disappear, like the sense of her vision and creativity, which continue to haunt her memories and ours.For ticket information, please contact Stephen De Windt at (626) 296-9228, or CAADPR@AOL.COM
Her work is included in many institutional and private collections including Golden State Mutual Insurance Company, Bell South, and North Carolina A&T State University. Collectors include Clarence and Jackie Avant, Bill and Camille Cosby, James and Karyn Hobbs, and Eileen and Peter Norton. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States. Her art has been included in exhibitions in Japan, and Africa and has been published in Harper's Magazine, Essence Magazine, and The L.A. Times. Varnette's work is on the cover of several novels, children's books and music tapes including Let's Get the Rhythm of the Band by Cheryl Mattox and You Know Better by Spelman College graduate Tina McElroy Ansa. In addition, her work was part of the set of the Cosby Show and Kids Say the Darndest Things. Her visual statements of Black lifestyles have been the subject of an award winning film, Varnette's World, produced by filmmaker Carroll Parrott Blue.
Varnette has provided art for a poster for The Children's Defense Fund's public awareness campaign to prevent teen pregnancy. Her art has appeared on a national Sickle Cell Month Poster, Spelman College's annual report, Essence Magazine's 15th anniversary poster, Girls Incorporated's 50th anniversary poster and was included in the United States Labor Department's Women's Bureau 75th anniversary poster series commemorating women in the workplace.
Varnette's work was included in Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists, a traveling exhibition organized by the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. Her work was also included in Masterpieces of African American Art: An African American Perspective at M. Hanks Gallery in Santa Monica, California, Varnette’s work was recently included in Successions: Prints by African American Artists from the Jean and Robert Steele Collection, and African American Artists in Los Angeles, A Survey Exhibition: Pathways.
Varnette illustrated the Little Bill Books for Beginning Readers written by Bill Cosby and published by Scholastic. She was Creative Consultant for, Little Bill, the animated television show that is based upon her illustrations. The show is aired on Nickelodeon and CBS.
Varnette is a member of the Children's Defense Fund's Black Community Crusade for Children Advisory Board, The National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, and the National Conference of Artists. She is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
Varnette received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia on April 11, 2005.
The 'Samella' was created to honor Dr. Samella Lewis's legacy in the field of African American art, and the art of the Diaspora. Its purpose is to give recognition to those visual artists who have exhibited an exemplary effort to promote the awareness of the African and African-American artistic heritage. CAAD, Inc. applauds Dr. Lewis for her outstanding achievement and the monumental gift of her legacy to the field of African-American art and art of the African Diaspora; and to Honeywood’s tireless devotion as a artist and which have preserved, documented and celebrated the achievements of African Americans. Her efforts have truly elevated her to the status of African American icon. Her immortality is assured. And what is immortality other than reminiscences, which refuse to disappear, like the sense of her vision and creativity, which continue to haunt her memories and ours.For ticket information, please contact Stephen De Windt at (626) 296-9228, or CAADPR@AOL.COM
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Deborah Willis@ 2005 Essence Book Emporium July 2 & 3, New Orleans
This year is the 11th Anniversary of the Essence Music Festival (http://www.essence.com/essence/emf/) and Marketplace in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Deb Willis' appearance time(s): Saturday,July 2nd and Sunday, July 3rd, 1PM - 3PM
All book related activities will take place at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center- 900 Convention Center Boulevard, Hall B. All events at the Convention Center are FREE and open to the public.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
2004 Samella Award
The Center for the Arts of the African Diaspora, Inc. presented the Second Annual 2005 ‘Samella’ to William Pajaud on Saturday, November 6, 2004, at The Radisson Hotel, Culver City, California.
More photographs from the event coming soon. For more information about the award and about William Pajaud go to http://www.caadweb.org/samella_award/pajaud.html
Protest the display of Africans in German zoo
(Please take the time to e-mail the Zoo director below and forward this to as many people as possible.)
I am a German scholar of African American History and member of H-Net Afro-Am. Today I would like to direct your attention to something that is going on in Germany which, in my opinion, requires the consideration of the international scholarly community. It is with utmost indignation that the African German community has taken notice of the plans to open an "African Village" within the zoo of Augsburg, Germany. The opening of this exhibit is scheduled for July 9 - July 12. 2005. "Artisans, silversmiths, basket makers and traditional hairdressers are situated in an unique African steppe landscape" according to the leaflets handed out by the organizers of the show. The conveners obviously are oblivious of the fact that exhibits like the one planned in Augsburg are organized within the German tradition of racist "ethnographic shows" (Völkerschauen). A letter of reply by Ms. Barbara Jantschke, PhD, from the Augsburg Zoo, directed to an African Swiss citizen underlines the intention, to put Africans on display in the zoo within "an atmosphere of exoticism".
It is obvious that the conveners do not understand the historical implications of their project. Even in Germany the impact of colonialism and racism on African societies are nowadays debated in public. The way Africans and African Americans in Germany are perceived and discussed, the way they are present on billboards and in TV ads prove that the colonialist and racist gaze is still very much alive in Germany. This is the direct result of forty years of German colonialism and twelve years of National Socialism. People of color are still seen as exotic objects (of desire), as basically dehumanized entities within the realm of animals. This also explains why a zoo has been selected as site for the exhibit. It is necessary to remind the organizers that in the history of "ethnographic shows" African and German African individuals were used as object for anthropometric tests and ethnological investigations of highlyquestionable scientific benefit. Many of the artists who performed in these shows in the 1920s and 1930s died from malnutrition and as a consequence of bad living conditions. The Nazis employed a policy of eugenic control, resulting in forced operations to limit the biological reproduction of African Germans or in downright incarceration in concentration camps. Survivors of this policy had to gain a living as performers in exotic shows. The Augsburg exhibit thus fails to acknowledge the political and social history of persecution in Nazi Germany.
The African German community and concerned individuals like myself call to your attention the need to protest against the opening of the exhibit in the Augsburg Zoo. Please direct your personalized letters of protest to Frau Dr. Barbara Jantschke (Director Zoo Augsburg) at barbara.jantschke@zoo-augsburg.de.
Thank you
Norbert Finzsch
Professor of History and Provost of the University of Cologne
http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/histsem/anglo/
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Looking for info on Beulah Woodard
I am working on a project on two artists' models, Maudelle Bass and Florence Allen, and am focusing my research on California, where they both lived and worked (Maudelle in Los Angeles the 30s and 40s; Flo all her life in the Bay Area). The Los Angeles-based African American sculptor Beulah Woodard sculpted Maudelle and I've been trying to track down any information about their connection and the whereabouts of the sculptures of her.
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