5 Things Friday
Stephen Tayo, Lagos, Nigeria, 2019. From The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion
Curated by Antwaun Sargent
Happy Friday. I am sitting here on set for a new film Rep Co is working on, in a studio emanating creativity and beauty, with a team of broad, brilliant and generous talents. Which is one reason today's 5 Things is art focused (with a little ACAB thrown in) — I've got beauty on the brain. It's also a reminder (especially as gift giving season approaches) that toppling white supremacy isn't all protest and pain — supporting Black artists, makers and entrepreneurs is another powerful way to shift the paradigm.
Here are your 5 Things.
BUY THIS. Brittsense is a documentarian originally from Deep East Oakland, who has traveled around the world to experience narratives within the melanated community and "document the beauty of melanated communities that mainstream media considers 'dangerous' & says only struggle exists." Her book The Power of Melanin is a stunning and moving collection of some of her images and words, and it's a book you want to own. There are a limited number of copies left, so get yours NOW.
GO TO THIS. Earlier this week, The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) opened the first and only West Coast exhibition of The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion. This exhibition highlights the work of 15 contemporary fashion photographers—from London to Lagos, New York to Johannesburg—whose images present radically new perspectives on the medium of photography and art, race and beauty, and gender and power and was curated by renowned New York critic and curator Antwaun Sargent. I was lucky enough to see this show over the summer when it was at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and it was absolutely incredible. GO!
AND THIS. Angela Davis is one of those figures who has become so well known...that many of us who know her name (and know we love her) hardly know her at all. I am embarrassed to say, that only recently, while watching the documentary The House on Coco Road (watch it!) did I learn the details of Angela Davis' early activism, arrest and incarceration. But a new show at the Oakland Museum of California can fix that. "Angela Davis — Seize the Time", examines the image, influence, and activism of the Oakland-based icon, focusing on her arrest, incarceration, trial, and the national and international campaigns to free her.
KNOW THIS. Because it's not all art shows and pretty stuff — the police are still an ISSUE. Earlier this week, the Alameda sheriff stripped 47 deputies of service weapons, admitting they failed psych exams and shouldn’t have been hired. The office conducted the internal audit after Deputy Devin Williams murdered a Dublin couple at their home in an “execution style” shooting earlier this month. But WAIT...12 of those 47 deputies have since been allowed to work after retaking the psychological exam that they had previously failed. But now the state has taken notice and will be reviewing psych exams of all police officers and sheriff’s deputies hired since 2016 in three Bay Area counties, including more than 500 SFPD officers. Keep watching this story.