Sugarcane Magazine Issue 1 Volume 1

B l a c k | C U L T U R E | re i m a g i n e d

VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 1 | $10

Inaugural Issue:

Celebrating Black Women in the Arts

EBONY PATTERSON Take a journey into Patterson’s prolific garden of floral patterns, glitter, and embellishments

MIKHAILE SOLOMON SIENNA SHIELDS An exclusive look into the Top Picks for Black art during Art Basel 2018 Photograph | Zanele Muholi | Bester VII, Newington Green, London | 2017

Zanele MUHOLI

Exhibiting at “Remember to React” NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale

OCTOBER 9– DECEMBER 9

E DU C ATIO N AS T H E PR AC TIC E O F F R E E DO M Alumni exhibition curated by Jasmine Wahi DECEMBER 6 –9

YO U N GA RT S AT PU L S E CO N T E M PO R A RY ART FAI R YO U N GARTS .O RG

2018-19 Season THE MUSICAL EVENT OF THE SEASON!

Porgy

and

Bess

FEATURE STORY

EBONY PATTERSON

By George and Ira Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward

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58

BLACK AND BASEL

30

JANUARY

Mikhaile SOLOMON

NOVEMBER

FEBRUARY

BARBER

M ONCAYO

MARCH RAVEL

Essay No. 1, Opus 12

Huapango

Alborada del Gracioso

BEETHOVEN

RACHM A NI NOV

TCHAIKOVSKY

Concerto for Violin and

Rhapsody on a

Piano Concerto No. 1

Orchestra

Theme of Paganini

in B flat Minor

Angelo Xiang Yu, violin

Natasha Paremski, piano

Svetlana Smolina

DVOŘÁK

NI E LSE N

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV

Symphony No. 9

Symphony No. 4

From the New World

The Inextinguishable

Capriccio Espagnol

APRIL HOLST Th e Perfect Fool: Ballet Music LIEBERMANN Concerto for Cello and Orchestra Julian Schwarz, cello

DEBUSSY

SHOSTAKOVICH

La Mer

Symphony No. 5

Contents Publisher + Executive Editor Melissa Hunter Designer + Assistant Editor Ed King Website Dudley Alexis Copy Editors Angela Carroll Martina Dodd Writers Jason Jeffers, Angela Carroll, Daniel Dunson, Tiffany Ward, Ayodeji Rotwina Photographer Rod Deal

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F O R T I CKE T S A N D V E N U E I N F O R M AT I O N S OU T HFL OR I DAS Y MP H O N Y. O RG | 9 5 4- 5 2 2 - 8 445

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

Advertising sales@sugarcanemag.com Sponsorships engage@sugarcanemag.com Submission + Guidelines submission@sugarcanemag.com sugarcanemag.com/submissions (646) 770-3409 8325 NE 2nd Ave Miami, FL 33138 editor@sugarcanemedia.net http://sugarcanemag.com Special Thanks Dudley Alexis, Dr. Michael Butler, Franklin Sirmans, Rosie Gordon Wallace, Marshall Davis, Babacar M’Bow, Taj Hunter Waite, Radical Partners, Robbie Bell, Tomeka Napper

07. editor’s note 08. Diaspora notes 37. sienna shields 44. Naiomy Guerrero 50. visions of eatonville 52. the power of three BLACK AND BASEL 2018

This guide gives you everything you need to find artists of African descent. You will be able to explore Miami neighborhoods that have an exciting history and support the local Black Miami art scene, and larger fairs in commercial districts.

©2018 Sugarcane Magazine is a quarterly magazine which focuses on art and intellectualism from Africa and the African Diaspora. All contents are protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced without written consent from the publisher. The advertiser is solely responsible for ad content and holds the publisher harmless from any errors and/or any trademark or copyright infringement.

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

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editor’s letter | INSIGHTS + BEGINNINGS

Insights from our Writers

here we go

Tiffany Autriana Ward Bronx based artist Shellyne Rodriguez one of my favorite woman artists of the moment. She’s an Afro-Puerto Rican multi-disciplinary artist who represents the black and brown cultural experience of New York.

From Shellyne: “My work is a broke Baroque. A broken Baroque. Or just Quebrao which is “broken” in “broken Spanish” and an anagram for Baroque so it does the job of being both things in one word. This Quebrao as an iteration of decolonization, or guerilla warfare extends into the traditions of Hip Hop culture, born of the poor Black & Puerto Rican kids of the South Bronx.”

Welcome to the first printed issue of Sugarcane Magazine! I am so ex-

cited to have you as the newest member of our family. In 2005 I had the

idea to start a magazine celebrating Black art and culture while honor-

ing the richness, diversity and talent of Africa and her diaspora. After

many years as a digital space, we are finally adding a quarterly print edi-

tion document the meaningful and creative work of people of color.

We’ve always wanted to be a print publication and we promise to use this

I also deeply admire her activist and community organizing work. She really questions the role of artists in gentrification, and calls us to task - holding us accountable in the spaces we occupy. She’s part of Take Back the Bronx movement as well as various movements that look to decolonize art spaces, especially in New York City.

platform to inspire and educate.

This issue is also important because it recognizes and applauds the power of the Black woman in the arts. We’ve seen and heard the discouraging statistics about Black artists, administrators and Black women in the arts field. Despite those numbers, we still create, and make space for others to create and work successfully in a challenging field.

Melissa Hunter Davis, Founder and Publisher of Sucarcane Magazine

This quarter’s printed issue looks at artist Ebony G. Patterson and her

survey at the Perez Art Museum Miami. Ebony uses the theme of church

hymns to explore the Black body. We talk to Sienna Shields about her

work, and how she actively helps artists around her soar. Mikhaile Solo-

mon took an idea and created a successful art fair that gives artists of

color a viable and fresh place to sell their work during Art Week Miami.

Plus, the Musee du Civilizations Noir opens in December 2018 and Black

women are the force behind the scenes assuring there is a place for Black

global culture to be honored at the table. We close this issue with pho-

tography about rural Florida by Johanne Rahaman, and our guide to Art

Week Miami.

We hope you enjoy and share this first printed issue with your colleagues;

and more importantly, support the Black women featured in our pages.

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

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a r o p s a i D s e Not

B. FAULKNER BY: Angela N. Carroll

Windows, Doorways, Birds & Butterflies: The Exultant Collages of B. Faulkner

I visited the studio of interdisciplinary artist B. Faulkner to view her latest collection and get some insights about her process and creative influences.

Faulkner has an education in photojournalism and a keen appreciation for imaginative literary works.

Her style is undeniably informed by legendary artists Romare Bearden, Gordon Parks, Roy DeCarava and James Van Der Zee, but her approach is also exquisitely unique.

Interdisciplinary artist B.Faulkner engages collage

with a surgical precision that transforms the mundane

occurrences of Black womanhood into awe inspiring and otherworldly revelations.

Faulkner has an education in photojournalism and a keen appreciation for imaginative literary works. Her style is

another shows a girl sprint-flying like a bird down

about collage is the search. I like to search for the

Gordon Parks, Roy DeCarava and James Van Der Zee, but

covenant of sisters armed with rifles, candles and

having an idea or having a picture in your brain

undeniably informed by legendary artists Romare Bearden, her approach is exquisitely unique. I visited her studio to

view her latest collection and gain some insights about her creative process.

Art supplies, dozens of magazines and innumerable clip-

pings lay scattered across the floor of her studio. A large unfinished crimson collage sits propped on an easel that

stands at the center of the chaos. Faulkner’s process requires

wine in the throes of sacred ceremony. Yet another depicts a woman with the body of an ibis sitting on the edge of a bathtub under the shadow of

her expansive black wings. I stood staring at the

ibis-woman for longer than I can recall. It is easy to get lost in the surreal and subtly familiar narratives Faulkner constructs.

Angela N Carroll (AC): You’ve experimented with

clutter in search of the perfect fragment. Every figure, piece

painting with oil and acrylic, illustration, sculpture

of furniture, architectural molding, or tapestry featured in

her collages are sculpted from tiny pieces of larger images

that have been torn, cut, or ripped from the pages of myriad print publications. The resultant creations present intimate

a wide range of mediums from photography to

me that does not believe that I will find all of my

pieces, but I always do. There’s a drama about it. It doesn’t show up exactly the way it shows up in my

mind, but it’s like faith. There is something calming about putting pieces together. It’s meditative. Almost mindless. Looking at pictures. Cutting them out. The sounds of it. I didn’t get that sensation mixing paint.

a lip, but you construct whole environments. Talk

use all of the elements that I learned as a photog-

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

there. Every time I start a collage there is a part of

on collage?

scenes Black women are depicted as omnipresent masked

fat babies or dexterously braid a young girls thick hair. While

and not knowing if the images to create it are out

AC: Your collages are incredibly intricate. Some

concentration in collage. What drew you to focus

B. Faulkner (BF): Collage for me was a way to

goddesses. In others, as mothers with huge hands that hold

images. [There is] something very alluring about

and for the last few years you have had a deeper

interiors with stunning naturalistic detail and Black women

as mystical vanguards over the spaces they inhabit. In some

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a block in Baltimore City. One more reveals a

a meticulous attention to detail, an almost photographic

memory and the persistent patience to cull through piles of

B. Faulkner | “Keepers of the Monarch” (2018) 36x40” | Mixed media collage

B. Faulkner | “Seance” (2017) | 24x36” | Mixed media collage

artists will add slight variations, change an eye or about your process.

incorporate all of those different mediums. I could

BF: The way I select my images, sometimes it

rapher [and] drawing. It’s a place where all those

out and it will suggest its own kind of image in my

things can be in play. I think what I love the most

comes from something I have read, a line will stick mind. I see photographs immediately. I think

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

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capture in that moment. I am

the outside world. I am always

birds inside these spaces. We

whatever reason, I pick up a

ways. They all tell a story. There

and contained. That tension is

not one of those people. For

It ’’s Interesting

camera and I alter moods.

to me how radical it is to be a

AC: Baltimore City and urban

Black woman documenting

landscapes are another feature

where we are now. I think it

in your work, especially iconic traits like the bright red brick

speaks to how invisible our

or marble stairs of row homes.

narratives really are. I am from

Those inclusions help to

Baltimore, I can’t separate my

scenes in reality.

ground otherwise supernatural

work from that. I am showing

BF: It’s interesting to me

who I am and where I’ve been.

how radical it is to be a Black

showing windows and door-

is a narrative in each window.

All the mystical magical things

that happen, happened behind

closed doors. While I was pregnant I listened to a lecture by

the Honorable Louis Farrakhan.

He was discussing relationships between Black men and Black women. He said anyone who can denature you, devalues you. That resonated. That’s

why you will see butterflies and

don’t belong inside. I felt giant always present in the work. It’s

important that you are looking at these women through door-

ways and windows. I am giving you access to these narratives.

The figures are oblivious to the voyeurism. I’m showing their

safe spaces. Those stories are

not respected enough outside of those safe spaces. These women exist.

woman documenting where

– B. FAULKNER

we are now. I think it speaks

to how invisible our narratives B. Faulkner | “Canary Girl” (2013) | 24 x 36” | Mixed media collage

in terms of images. Or some-

to look at the room in conjunc-

lot. I realized that the people

piece of something while flip-

that’s how you feel and see

of saved my life in those mo-

times, I will see a piece of a

ping through a magazine, and that little hand or gesture will

inspire a collage. Now I sketch

the thing that I initially thought.

the whole picture. That is how

you will understand who these women are.

But when I first started making

AC: Black woman and girls are

imaginary, it was all in my head.

who are presented in incredibly

collages, my only sketch was I didn’t even really see what

I was seeing, I just imagined

prominent figures in your work spirited ways.

that the hand said something

BF: I never aim to make the

thought. Its wild to me how

literally fragments, pieces of

and attempted to finish the

when I see something or start a

piece I don’t see the figure in it, I always see the room first. My

work is so much about environment, space, and it’s almost as characteristic as the figures in it. The space is so important.

That’s why my spaces have so many details in them, it’s not

just a room. You should be able

10

tion with the figures in it and

figures be like me. They are

other larger images. Symboli-

cally I have been taking pieces of all of these narratives I have had and I am putting them

into the construction of these

women. When I started making my work, and thinking in terms of collage and assemblage, it was during a time when I was

pregnant and going through a

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

who came to my aid and kind ments were always women. I

made a vow to myself that no

matter what I did it would serve women. I feel like I’m supposed to be telling our stories. My

grandmother is West Indian.

We have family from the Carolinas. Family in Baltimore City.

My life has been a collage. I try to pay homage to all of that.

These are the stories that come out and I’m glad that I made it,

really are. I am from Baltimore, I can’t separate my work from that. I am showing who I am

and where I’ve been. The thing I find beautiful about that is

that where I grew up looks like

D.C., looks like Philly. Baltimore is its own entity, with its own characteristics, but it’s also

universal. Girls that look like me and come from where I come

from or have parents that come from where they come from probably grew up in similar

spaces. I’m documenting those stories for my child unapologetically.

because I’ve never seen work

AC: Doorways and windows

look like snapshots is because

Viewers literally peer into an

like it before. The reason they of my history in photography.

I think about Roy DeCarava,

Gordon Parks or James Van Der

also recur in your work. .

intimate interior to observe a scene.

Zee, I really fell in love with just

BF: There is a lot about myself

Some can pick up a camera

that has felt contained, or like

taking a picture in the moment. and capture what they need to

emotionally and spiritually

I could not 100% be myself in

B. Faulkner | “The Basketmakers” (2013) 24x30” | Mixed media collage

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

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.org

REMEMBER TO REACT

This Month at The Ali

60 YEARS OF COLLECTING This self-portrait by South African artist Zanele Muholi along with works by 90 other artists on view through June 19.

SOULFUL SUNDAYS November 11 | 6 - 9pm | $5 admission Soulful Sundays features South Florida’s top performers and bands in various genres ranging from Soul, R&B, Neo Soul and Blues to Jazz and Funk. End your weekend in a relaxed atmosphere on our outdoor courtyard. Food and beverage for purchase.

SWINGING FRIDAYS - JAZZ ON THE BOULEVARD November 30 | 7 – 10 pm Jazz Concert Ashanti Cultural Arts hosts this monthly interactive event where you can learn the art of swing dance from professional dancer and performer Mr. Bradley Rogers. The lesson is followed by a jazz concert where you can practice your newly learned skills.

This month we feature jazz musician Jesse Jones, Jr. 6 – 7 pm Swing Dance Class | $7 admission for Jazz Concert. $5 for Dance Class l $10 for Dance Class and Jazz Concert.

ESTHER ROLLE EXHIBITION November 1 - 30 Rock Road Restoration Historical Group presents an extraordinary exhibit about actress Esther Rolle. Come celebrate the life and legacy of this award-winning Pompano Beach resident, and learn about her impact on the world as an African American woman in the entertainment industry in the 1960s.

MUSIC IS YOUR ALI Thanks to a grant from the Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation, the Ali Cultural Arts offers free music lessons in piano, guitar and drums each Saturday. Call 954-545-7800 for the schedule.

For more information PompanoBeachArts.org Click on Ali, BaCA or Events Follow us @PompanoBeachCRA

This exhibition is supported by Dr. David and Linda Frankel, David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation, Wells Fargo and Funding Arts Broward, Inc.

@nsuartmuseum nsuartmuseum.org | 954-525-5500 One East Las Olas Blvd. Fort Lauderdale 33301 Exhibitions and programs at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale are made possible in part by a challenge grant from the David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation. Funding is also provided by Nova Southeastern University, Hudson Family Foundation, Conni Gordon, Wege Foundation, Community Foundation of Broward, Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council and Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

NSU Art Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

Take Zanele Muholi, Bester VII, Newington Green, London, 2017 Gelatin silver print 80 x 56.5cm NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale; purchased with funds provided by Michael and Diane Bienes by exchange © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town/ Johannesburg and Yancey Richardson, New York

halfpage_RemembertoReact_04.indd 1

Reaction Time

Remember to React: 60 Years of Collecting is the first comprehensive installation of NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale’s collection. Presented on the occasion of the institution’s 60th anniversary, this exhibition will occupy the Museum’s more than 28,000 squarefeet of galleries and will open to the public through June 30, 2019.

Representing various periods

contemporary life and call for

of art, Remember to React also

word “react” to prompt viewers

and developments in the history traces the collection’s growth from its origins to today.

The exhibition takes its title

from a recent acquisition to the collection of conceptual artist

Jenny Holzer‘s 1984 Survival Series, a simple plaque embossed with the text “Remember to

React.” Both a commentary on

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SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 |

Historic Ali Cultural Arts 353 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard INAUGURAL Issue Pompano Beach, FL 33060 | www.aliarts.org

10/10/18 9:53 AM

60th Anniversary presented by

participation, Holzer uses the into action.

The Museum’s collection will be installed as an interlocking narrative. It will include an exten-

sive installation of the Museum’s

Photograph by Zanele Muholi from the Somnyama Ngonyama series

Kahlo, Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera.

traditional African art, and will

NSU Art Museum is located at

the works by artists of the Mexi-

Fort Lauderdale. For additional

begin with a gallery devoted to

can Revolution – including Frida

One East Las Olas Boulevard in information, call 954-525-5500.

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

13

a r o p s a i D s e Not

NYORH AGWE BY: Angela N. Carroll

Compelling Introduction required in this spot to contextualize the story.

Black women’s aesthetics transcend accepted beauty standards. We slay despite histories of omission and egregious misrepresentation. Black humanity exists as a continuum of creative genius. The way we wear our hair, the size of our accessories, the vibrant patina of our clothing are all stark statements, confident punctuations that elicit a confidence and defiant persistence to push forward in the face of vehement oppressions.

Nyorh Agwe, Cameroonian-American founder of the luxury lifestyle brand named “Nyorh Agwe,” ap-

proaches fashion with a strategic tenaciousness and

effervescent excitement that is impossible to ignore. Agwe strives to make its wearers feel beautiful, comfortable, and above all else, ecstatically adorned. Her latest collection, CHWAY, roughly translated as “to show” or “to teach”,

blends sculptural, asymmetrical draping and thick knitted textiles with lush embellishments to create flowy, hyper-

feminine garments that will elevate any woman’s wardrobe.

Agwe and I spoke briefly over the phone about all things

fashion, experiences that have had a lasting impression on her aesthetic, and her hopes for the sustainability of traditional Cameroonian artistry.

Chway Collection 2017 | Photographer Nyorh Agwe | Model Aly Ndiaye | Stylist Jennifer Nnamani

some reason gave me that kind

I got into Parsons, the school

[laughs] There’s a lot said in

could not.

shot, [and] ended up in New

raised there, and don’t really

of communication that words

I saw Project Runway, the first

or second season it aired, and

I didn’t realize that fashion was a career choice. I was yearning

to show people myself without having to use too many words, and fashion allowed me to

do that. So when I saw it as a

career path I was very excited.

who I was through what I wore.

That idea of wearing what you feel inside, that’s what I love

about fashion. That’s why I got into it.

AC: How has your Cameroo-

but grew up in Italy. When I

speaking, class and traditional class [art] is something you

was 4 [I] came back to Cam-

would do in your pastime. So I would crochet something

eroon for a while but was in

or my mom made jewelry. I didn’t even think about it until I

private school, so there was

was older and started to get into arts in high school and a

already a disconnect between

lot of it was sort of more so because my family and I moved

myself and other Cameroo-

around a lot. Coming to America at six and moving from

nians. When I came to America

place to place, and wanting to fit in, I would morph into other

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

ing, I was able to communicate

NA: I was born in Cameroon

Ever since I was young I had an arts background. Culturally

14

of [myself]. Instead of just cloth-

brand?

Nyorh Agwe (NA): Thank you. Fashion merged in later on.

identify how I was feeling or who I was, but art, for

dig into fashion as an extension

a creative and the Nyorh Agwe

inspired you to pursue fashion?

people’s ideas about what was acceptable. It was difficult to

York. Parsons allowed me to

nian heritage influenced you as

Angela Carroll (AC): Nyorh Agwe is a beautiful brand. What

Chway Collection 2017 | Photographer Nyorh Agwe Model Aly Ndiaye | Stylist Jennifer Nnamani

where Project Runway was

that was a consistent question.

Chway Collection 2017 | Model Fei Mancho Hair and Makeup: Enih Agwe

Aunts and Uncles would ask

me, “Do you even eat fufu?”

that question, because I wasn’t eat fufu, and other people were trying to tell you that though

you are Cameroonian, you are not really Cameroonian. The

first time we went back to Cameroon after being in American I was 13, and it was the same

thing, people always trying to

question my Cameroonianess, You know? Because we lived in America. No doubt, I was

definitely raised in America and

have been influenced by American culture, and you could go

so far as to say I am American, but I am also Cameroonian.

That backstory has always been what has pushed me creatively.

Exploring the Cameroonian

side that I don’t know, it helps

me to know more about myself.

It connects me to what I know as home. That story is very

interesting and it connects with a lot of people who also share that story of being a global

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

15

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We are all connected

to one another. In our culture, as Africans, and I would say for my culture as a Cameroonian, hospitality is luxury.

– NYORH AFWE

there. These are beautiful tech-

that the artists I have worked

[laughs] You are supposed to

There is a lot of experimenta-

no one has been hurt, but no

it in all the time, and talk this

niques, but they are super old. tion that is needed for us to

make that goal of creating that

bridge, because we can’t allow

these cultural arts and crafts to die. How can we develop them

citizen, or a first generation

anew so that they stand today?

immigrant.

AC: Talk about some of the sus-

AC: Any plans to continue your

is exploring.

Journal, which features footage

Youtube series, The Process

tainable practices Nyorh Agwe

nian techniques, I fall more in

love with the traditional ones.

one can leave their homes. You cannot ship things there. The government turns on and off

phone lines as they please. The internet whenever they please.

It has become very difficult, I

do not know when we will be able to visit our families back home.

from your travels through Cam-

AC: What do you want people

artisans?

to experience?

eroon meeting with traditional

NA: As I’m exploring Cameroo-

with in past collections are fine,

wearing the Nyorh Agwe brand

I’m in love with this idea of

NA: What’s going on right now

NA: I want them to experience,

if we weren’t so obsessed with

the brink of war. It has been es-

because a lot of the guests

unfortunately [Cameroon] is on

what would Cameroon be like

calating for about three years.

the West, if this or that did not

Otherwise by now you would

happen, what would Cameroon

have seen more videos but

be like? Not to make a fantasy

there is war in both regions,

world, because I believe that

literal fighting. I am grateful

Cameroon is an amazing coun-

try that has so much raw talent,

a space of love. I am grateful

look cute and hold it in, suck

way. I want people to come and realize that this is how fellow-

ship is supposed to be. We are all connected to one another.

In our culture, as Africans, and I would say for my culture as

a Cameroonian, hospitality is

luxury. Taking those attributes from my culture and putting it

into the atmosphere, and how the wearer feels. Past clients

have told me they feel beautiful, right, bold. All those feelings connect, and come back

to how you interact with other people.

at the pop up shop, everyone is laughing, dancing, having

conversation, trying on clothes.

When you go to other luxury

fashion events it is not like that.

but we just need to get it

together. As an example, there used to be lots of natural dye-

ing techniques that were swept away, almost extinct because of artificial dyes that came

from the West. A traditional dyer was a profession. That

was there actual job that was

passed down from generation to generation. So when [syn-

thetic dyes] come in, and be-

cause [traditional dyeing] was

passed on from generation to

generation, now anyone can do

the generation before because

Those processes just say so

pes that maybe your grandfa-

ing to [artificial dyes] because

people. My goal is to transition,

it. The dyeing, those are reci-

ther died with. But an artificial dye, anyone can mix-up and

anyone can have the business.

Now its super competitive and traditional dyeing techniques are dying out, or dying with

16

Chway Collection 2017 | Photographer Nyorh Agwe | Model AV Wayans | Stylist Nyorh Agwe

younger generations are mov-

they are faster, brighter colors, more attractive, more acces-

sible. Moving out of the village and into cities, and away from

traditional jobs all contributes.

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

Chway Collection 2017 | Photographer Nyorh Agwe Models Aly Ndiaye & AV Wayans | Stylist Jennifer Nnamani

much about who we are as

because one dies because the other comes and replaces it,

instead of modifying the old ways and making it in a way

that can compete with artifi-

cial dyes. That transition is not

Chway Collection 2017 | Photographer: Myesha Garner | Model: Angelique Lauren | Stylist: Londyn Douglas | Hair & Makeup: Elyssa Marie

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

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17

a r o p s a i D s e t o N

WALLER GALLERY

In 2017, curator Joy Davis opened Waller Gallery, a commercial art space developed to support POC artists in Baltimore City. Artists of color have historically been omitted from or underrepresented by local and global art canons. Those disparities are mirrored in the hiring practices of arts institutions that opt not to fill arts administrator positions with highly skilled professionals of color.

BY: Angela N. Carroll

Joy Davis and interviewee on Unravel Fashion Podcast

Though Baltimore City maintains a nearly 63% Black

population, Waller is one of three Black owned and operated commercial art galleries in the region. This stark

reality reifies the urgency and importance of supporting the creation and sustainability of more POC owned art centers.

The multidisciplinary space has already exhibited a robust

collection of radical POC creatives, photographers, visual and performance artists. Many of the artists are young, emerging talents with limited exhibition histories. Waller’s latest show,

We Are Not Voiceless, a solo exhibition by Chilean-American artist, Joaquin Esteban Jutt, queries the viability of art as a platform for Black and LatinX political advocacy. Artworks

include stylized portraits of activists and citizens in the throes of civil disobedience. Earlier exhibitions displayed short films and photographs from interdisciplinary artist Nia Hampton

that highlighted some of the African cultural traditions that persist across Latin America. Joy and I discussed her plans

for the gallery, inspirational collaborations, and her hopes for fostering more sustainable art spaces in Baltimore.

Angela N. Carroll (AC): Waller Gallery is one of the few

Black owned galleries in Baltimore. Why was it important for you to launch Waller Gallery in Baltimore?

Joy Davis (JD): This is where I feel at home and where I

know there is copious amount of Black talent and the gallery is a platform and outlet for that talent. It is also important to play a supportive role in other organizations that have

18

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

continually done work in the city for years.

AC: Museums and galleries

rarely have conversations with

everyone involved but I think it

and my mind about how the

handlers, and people. It was a

could blend together.

made us stronger curators, art big undertaking.

contemporary and historical

I joined the Unravel Podcast

each other about sustainabil-

During Strength In Practice we

team as a co-host while in New

or the artists they feature.

artist talk entitled “Art Prac-

around untold fashion/history

ity, community programming, You have made an effort to

work with a wide range of arts

organizations to create dynamic programming and exhibitions.

Discuss some of the projects/ exhibitions you developed in collaboration with local arts institutions/collectives.

JD: Our first show with Nia

had the pleasure of holding an tice as Art Therapy” featuring

artists Qieer Wang and Amelia

Eldridge as well as Art Therapist Kathy Goucher. Our third show

was the second time we worked

with FORCE on a listening circle.

It was the first time we gave the space to an organization, which was a big step for us.

Hampton saw the artist, at the

AC: You are from Maryland but

scholars and artists of color for

ferent mediums and curatorial

gallery’ request, pull together an amazing panel about the African Diaspora.

Strength In Practice in and of

itself was a huge collaboration

between Waller Gallery, Gallery CA, and The Gallery Network

(BOPA). It stretched the limits of

York. We continue to do work

narratives. The fans of our show, who we call fashion nerds, and my co-hosts, Jasmine Helm

Chavez and Dana Goodin, really empower me to use the knowledge I have. Jasmine, Dana,

and I are so supportive of each

other. That is a rewarding experience and helped to inform the mission of the gallery.

spent a few years exploring dif-

Working with Devin N. Morris

projects in NY. Share some of

was pivotal because I could use

the inspiring collaborations or projects you worked on.

JD: I worked on a Yinka

on the Brown Paper Zine Fair my skills and grow my confidence in programming.

Shonibare show at the historic

AC: Can you share more about

Manhattan. It changed my life

how your interest in fashion

house Morris Jumel Mansion in

the Unravel podcast, and

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

19

19

Fashion is a conundrum.

It is always in the past and, if done well, in the future. In that way fashion and traditional art are not different from each other.

2018-2019 Jazz Concert Series

– JOY DAVIS

is reflected in your work with contemporary artists?

January 9, 2019 Paquito D’Rivera & The Shelly Berg Trio

JD: Unravel Podcast and my

friends I share a microphone

with have helped me grow as a scholar and patron of the arts.

The project started when both

of them came to me separately

Nov. 14, 2018 South Florida Jazz Orchestra with Antonio Adolfo

wanting to start a fashion his-

tory podcast. At the time, I was burnt out from grad school so

I told them to join forces. They followed through and cre-

ated the foundation for what

“The band swings with pulsating energy” Edward Blanco, All About Jazz/ WDNA FM

the podcast is today. I joined

about eight months later. We all wanted to use our fashion

February 13, 2019 Svetlana & The Delancey Five with Special Guest Wycliffe Gordon Wonderful World of Ella and Louis

March 13, 2019 Five Play

history and museum studies

degrees beyond a symposium or rare lecture. And we have

Swinging into Spring

met that goal.

My interest in fashion is not so much informed by the artists I

April 10, 2019 Carol Welsman Trio

work with but rather this: fash-

ion is art. And somehow that is still a controversial statement.

Fashion is a conundrum. It is

always in the past and, if done well, in the future. In that way

fashion and traditional art are

not different from each other.

and freed enslaved people. The

wallergallery@gmail.com to be

which there are new and old

and art are endless.

for our monthly newsletter that

I see a Pyer Moss collection in ideas merging on the body and

connections between fashion

the backdrop is of Weeksville

AC: How can artists and collec-

light up. Weeksville is a histori-

exhibitions at Waller Gallery?

Heritage Center and my eyes cally African American- small

community created by freeman

20 20

Waller Gallery Director Joy Davis

tors learn more about future

JD: Please contact us at

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

sent a price list and to sign up discusses all of our program-

ming and artwork for sale. While we focus on programming that is a way to engage and have

more people in the space that wouldn’t otherwise engage.

Dec. 5, 2018 Jason Marsalis and The 21st Century Trad Band

An NEA Jazz Master, Marsalis “stands as a first-rate musician-bandleader in his own right.” Howard Reich Chicago Tribute

An Evening of Jazz Vocals and Piano

May 3, 2019 Tamir Hendelman Trio

Playgrounds and Destinations

All concerts begin at 7:45pm and occur at the Amaturo Theater/Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

www.browardcenter.org | www.goldcoastjazz.org | 954-462-0222 #weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

21

advertorial | Museum of Black Civilizations of Dakar

African civilizations have had and

World is an epiphenomenon.

history within the Euro-American

With the breathlessness of a

canonically illiterate discourses

rehashes old gestures without re-

still have a long and checkered

discourses; from David Hume’s

Some curatorial articulations

on Africa, to Kant’s claim in“ the Feeling of the beautiful;” the

“anxiety” of Sigmund Freud’s

by: Babacar M’Bow

feeling of “dread and horror,”

to Donald Trump’s “shitholes”

and the bankruptcy of European of connection that can make a

unity of two different elements, under certain conditions.i Hall’s point is that articulation is a

linkage which is not necessarily, determined, absolute and es-

sential for all time and that the

unity which matters is a linkage

between articulated discourses

Views of the Museum of African Civilization of Dakar, Senegal

and the social forces with which

This exciting exhibition, African Civilizations: Continuous Creation of Humanity, organized for the inauguration of the Museum of Black Civilizations of Dakar, is a conjuncture with its own historical specificity. It occurs at the sort of moment in which Senegal opens a Museum dedicated to Black Civilizations. It asks how

African Civilizations: Continu-

1966 Black World Festival of

inaugural exhibition is then a

congresses of Black writers

and artists of Paris, 1956 and

Rome, 1959; the wave of African independences in the 1960 and

later wars of liberation up to the

1990s. All these also echoed the Pan-African conferences of London 1900, the congresses of Paris,1919, Dar es Sa-

laam,1974, Kampala, 1994 and Accra, 2014.

22

Seen in this perspective, African Civilizations: Continuous

a practice to an effect, African

The Museum of Black Civiliza-

Dakar, itself preceded by the

be connected.

Creation of Humanity is linking

different or similar this is from other moments.

tions (MCN) was born from the

it can, under certain conditions

ous Creation of Humanity, the combination of similarities and differences sketching a frame-

work within which to grasp the

articulations at work in the long journey of Africa’s creation of humanity from the Australo-

pithecus to the Homo sapiens

sapiens. In her essay ‘The theo-

ry and method of articulation in cultural studies’, Jennifer Daryl

Slack quoted Stuart Hall’s defi-

nition of articulation as the form

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

productions to meanings; these meanings to a reality and to a politics which emerges from

that experience. It is about a production of an expression which rises on top of differ-

ences articulating Africa – the

cradle of humanity as not only a place of birth and departure for humanity but also a theoretical

conjuncture that moves beyond flattened unicentric historical

meanings to offer new analyses in which anticipated outcomes give way to new information.

contemporary discourses and practices on Africa.

African Civilizations: Continuous Creation of Humanity is then a

mechanism; connecting dissimilar features into an articulated com-

“contemporary” which only

alizing that they have lost all their subversive charge, “Now Africa” provides a way for demonstrating constructions of memory,

conceptually based upon contin-

gency, and bricolage engendered visually in the present through a politics of re-presentation and re-imagination. Nkiru Nzegwu

suggests that experiences make up history and history is constituted by memories.

bination of a unity of discourse.

By these means, “Now Africa”

the continent’s shores, allowing

ty in contemporary art and invites

These features extend beyond

re-articulating in different ways,

still centering Africa – the” unity” as linkage between the articulated discourse and the social

forces with which it enters in both the historical and contemporary conditions.

The Mahafa (enslavement of Africans) via the Sahara, the Atlantic and Indian oceans gave rise to

African Diaspora civilizations. Tidiane NDiaye speaks of thirteenth centuries without interruption of Arabs raids on the continent, ar-

guing that the Arab and oriental

slave trades were more devastating for African peoples than the

transatlantic slave trade because

of the systematic castration of Africans the Arabs instituted which

breaks the shackles of unicentricito a departure from ontology to

practices beyond the legitimizing academic structures; challenging their limits once again. Here, it is about a conceptual scheme Syl-

vester Ogbechie defines as Ikwa Nka, a process of embodiment in which the creative persona

operates as a conduit channeling

unpredictable amounts of energy from the realm of the supernatural into the realm of the living.

“Now Africa” takes the pulse

of the continent in this cycle of

of Humanity” poses finds echo in the denunciation of the falsity of an intellectual hegemony which sees itself as the ideal of the

twenty-first century. This inaugural exhibition re-centers formal

elements ---- sources of influence, innovation and formulations to

make them distinct traits that lo-

cate the discourse at the cultural,

artistic, social and aesthetic levels in a network of significations that

allow us to re/present African civilizations beyond the slogans “afro pessimism” “afro-optimism” as

they transcend common aesthetic limitations inherent in these.

change accounting for the forces at play, creating and envisioning

new realities and re/placing visual expression to its rightful place as a medium of social and personal transformation.

annihilated any possibility for

The challenge to the limit of

the African presence in the Arab

Civilizations: Continuous Creation

reproduction. This explains that

Views of the Museum of African Civilization of Dakar, Senegal

Learn more about the Museum of African Civilization of Dakar: Email: mcn@mcn.sn Website: www.mcn.sn Telephone: +221 33 959 19 21

unicentric discourses “African

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

23

FEATURE | ebony g. patterson

There is a melody that hovers over the universe at

activist, Mahalia Jackson. It is a hymn of prayer and

and bids farewell to the previous night. Dawn is a

dawn and highlights the ephemeral nature of dew.

dawn. It is a soft whisper that ushers in the new day

fleeting moment, a temporal atmospheric shift, an in between space that is neither night or day, light or dark.

“…. while the dew is still on the roses...” the

latest exhibition from contemporary artist Ebony G. Patterson, ponders the mystery of twilight, within a

site specific installation for the Perez Art Museum Mi-

ami (PAMM). “…. while the dew is still on the roses...”

devotion that references the beauty of a garden at

memory that straddle lines between nostalgia and surreal dreams.

For Patterson, the dew evokes twilight and, more

Patterson’s prolific image making is created from

temporary vanitas lamentation. “What I like about the

tural, collage like forms. Patterson’s practice is also

metaphorically, the idea of fleeting youth as a con-

title ‘…while the dew is still on the roses…” is that it suggests that there is still a chance, there is a possibility for something more, a chance for change. It’s

fleeting, but in many ways, it feels like a window of

various mediums that are often executed in sculpin dialogue with the work of Kehinde Wiley and Kerry James Marshall, painters that situate the black figure in flora filled spaces while aggrandizing scenes in the

large scale of canonical history paintings. Within Pat-

tion. Ostrander further explains, “In many ways her

work is celebrating the beauty of young lives that are

being lost–celebrating, but also very much giving dignity, visibility, and honor through her use of layering

floral patterns, glitter, and embellishments.” Through her use of ornamentation, and monumental scale, Pat-

terson attempts to elevate Black figures by shrouding

them in regality, and deifying the dead as saints and martyrs to counter the violence of invisibility.

In the Garden Alone with Ebony G. Patterson BY: Daniel Dunson

Ebony G. Patterson | Detail

is a thematic survey spanning ten years that combines

hope– a window of hope through something that is

garden created by the artist.

to also ask itself about where it sits regarding these

past and recent works from Patterson, manifest in a

The title of the exhibition is a line extracted from the hymn, I Come to the Garden Alone, a gospel song

written by American songwriter C. Austin Miles in 1920. The song became popularized within the Black church throughout the 20th century, and it was recorded by legendary gospel singer and civil rights

24

also tragic. Something that I am asking the audience

“. . . . a wailing black horse . . . for those who bear/bare witness | 2018

terson’s practice, one work leads to another in a very deep formal aesthetic analysis that is also conceptual.

tragedies, these experiences,” Patterson explains. In

All of Ebony’s work has been connected to questions

of memory within itself. It is often sung during vari-

global context. “Her works are both expressions of

the Garden, as the hymn is also called, is a container

ous Protestant church services including funerals, and

triggers nostalgia for many people of the African Diaspora who were brought up in the church. We can

view all of Patterson’s compositions as containers of

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

of violence against the Black and Brown body in a outrage and lament,” explains Tobias Ostrander, chief

curator of PAMM. “…. while the dew is still on the ros-

es...” interrogates the tension between outrage and lament in order to trouble methods of memorializa-

Ebony G. Patterson | Detail

After the death of her father in 2010, Patterson start-

ed dealing with concepts of erasure in her work. In her mixed media tapestries, decadent clothing appears absent from the body, playing with Patterson’s interest of how the work’s audience might make assumptions and projections of the bodies that would actually wear the garments. The artist is also interested in

other ways that she could continue to push the bodies further into the landscape. While figures are in the landscape, they are also a part of the landscape and #weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

25

FEATURE | ebony g. patterson

consumed by the landscape. The layers of embroidery,

purple/indigo colored background with a repeated

photographs of people who were murdered or killed

visiting the grave of a loved one.

ures represented causing them to recede deeper into

minding us of life’s beauty and death’s inevitability.

solo exhibition for the Museum of Arts and Design,

In the installation Stars, (2018), hundreds of women’s

gating the culture of social media and how images

ceiling by shoelaces in a cloud-like form. The hanging

glass, glitter, silk, and found objects takeover the figthe composition. There are times when the seemingly

random fragments are brought to the fore– an arm, a hand, shoe, a glove often come to the surface, as well

as other life forms such birds and insects. All these at-

tributes imbue Patterson’s work with a haunting aura, an energy that causes the distance between the work and the viewer to shorten and eventually collapse. I

photographic wilted floral motif simultaneously re-

Silk florals and foliage are installed on the walls and around the work promoting both a sense of seduc-

tion and danger. Within the garden there are grave plots, videos, music, and decadent faux flowers, causing viewers to slow down their movement throughout the installation and reflect on the intricate details.

Patterson’s work is not meant to be viewed quickly.

New York, New York. Lately, she has been interro-

of people of color are deployed within the media at large. “It is a violent act to photograph the person

whose body has been desecrated, then share that im-

age (via social media) and comment on it,” explains Patterson. “We become culpable participators in an

act that re-violates the body. So then, what does it

In …bearing witness…, (2017) Patterson evaluates

of young lives that are

acting violence upon people who are in the middle of

these tragedies is also important to the artist as she has observed racist and classist stereotypes promoted

in the fore, while unifying examples of humanity, in its most relatables forms, recede the background. Patterson intervenes with the media’s traditional tropes

of moving and still images that focus on the aesthetic

qualities, rather than the human condition by creating

her use of layering

inescapable large scale pictorial environments.

floral patterns, glitter,

“With these more recent works the scales are even

and embellishments.”

cally plant the viewer inside the picture, in order to

larger. It was very important that I find a way to physiEbony G. Patterson | Detail

have stared long enough at Patterson’s work that not

It is impossible to rapidly scan her vast compositions

by the concepts that found it.

down the navigation of viewing, Patterson facilitates

twilight. Patterson designed a fabric wallpaper that

covers the walls of the entire exhibition. It has a deep

shoes become a stand in for Black bodies that have

The question of who is allowed to bear witness to

and honor through

the dramatic mystery of a lush overgrown garden at

morials for recently slain youth. The sparkling black

while having no control in how they are presented.

giving dignity, visibility,

The exhibition space is dimly lit and situates us within

territories. This icon is also employed to create me-

grappling with personal tragedy within public spaces,

but also very much

ies to embody the surreal nature of Patterson’s work.

throwing shoes over power lines to demarcate gang

how the functions of social media participates in reen-

being lost–celebrating,

Perez Museum of Art Miami transformed its galler-

shoes evoke a familiar feature in urban communities of

vulnerable state?”

is celebrating the beauty

only am I consumed by the imagery, I am consumed

shoes, covered in black glitter are suspended from the

mean to photograph mourners who are in their most

“In many ways her work

26

violently when she was creating Dead Treez (2015), a

without missing the import of the work. By slowing

a deeper conversation that transcends the beauty of her images.

Many of the recent images Patterson creates are

based on photographs of mourning loved ones and community members at sites of violent crimes. Pat-

terson began looking at these images in relation to

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

create a greater a sense of empathy,” says Patterson.

Floating earth mounds have been created for the piece, Moments We Cannot Bury (2018).

These

mounds are covered with silk flowers that are embedded with objects the artist made of glass: hands, feet,

shoes, hats. The objects are ghostly forms entwined in beds of silk flowers that are graves that take on island forms that viewers engage by walking around them.

Patterson’s work explodes conventional ideas of still

life, sculpture and performance by allowing viewers to

perform within the work, as if they were ritualistically

“. . . . found among the reeds-Dead Treez . . .” | 2015

transformed into black stars in a heavenly realm.

The works exhibited at PAMM highlight Patterson’s

emblematic style of sumptuously placed ornamentation that realizes tactile tropes with an opulent grandeur that hovers the line between confrontation and

mourning. This gesture extends conversations concerning the visibility of marginalized people to include what Patterson calls the performativity of access.

“There’s always a critique about the way poor people #weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

27

spend money,” Patterson explains. “But we exist in a

Patterson’s image making is an invitation to explore

so then having material value becomes about having

ten too difficult to put into words. The song, In the

society that places so much weight on material value, access.

There is a kind of performativity around having access. What I have is a knock off, and what you have

is the real thing. But who cares? I still have access!

That’s all I need! Just a moment to assert the idea that

her innermost thoughts about subjects that are ofGarden, is essentially about intimate communication.

Patterson invites us to communicate with her in the lush realms of her mind; a garden full of life, death, mourning, memory and the glittering chance of hope

and healing that is just as fleeting as the dew at dawn.

“. . . . they stood in a time of unknowing . . . for those who bear/bare witness” | 2018

I too have value, I too am important.”

*Ebony G. Patterson . . . while the dew is still on the

It is very clear to me that Ebony G. Patterson’s critical

Ostrander. This exhibition is presented by Christian

thinking is as dense and alluring as the garden she has created for this exhibition. Though the work calls

up thoughts of death, fleeting moments of youth, vio-

Louboutin with support from the International Women’s Forum.

lence, and the performativity of access, this exhibi-

Lead individual support received from Nedra and

The objects and fragments that Patterson uses are

Paresky, are gratefully acknowledged.

tion causes an awakening of Black cultural memory.

charged with meanings that come from a global-Black experience, that in a sense, unifies people who are often divided.

28

roses . . . is organized by PAMM Chief Curator Tobias

Mark Oren, and Linda Paresky in honor of Mark

Ebony G. Patterson’s work, “. . . while the dew is still on the roses . . .” is on view through May 5, 2019.

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

29

FEATURE | MIKHAILE SOLOMON

before she gets into her car,

and ask what’s up, knowing the answer before she explains.

“I really can’t stay; I have so

much to do,” she says, laughing before she rattles off a laundry

exploring

prizm

the world through a

list of tasks and to dos, chief

among them finding a space to

stage this year’s fair. I almost go cross-eyed trying to wrap my head around it all. She sighs,

then laughs again. “There’s just so much left to be done.”

The preoccupied mind, early

exits and endless errands are familiar to me. I founded an

Mikhaile Solomon

by Jason Fitzroy Jeffers

annual event myself — in my

case, a Caribbean film festival

— and know the struggles and near-impossible demands of

Black entrepreneurship in South Florida. In fact, on more than

one occasion, when dealing with a difficult venue, an overdue

payment, or some other bullshit

Mikhaile Solomon at the Wynwood Walls, Miami.

I just don’t have time for, I often think of Mikhaile. The question:

It’s Monday evening

in the middle of a balmy Miami August

It’s not that she’s not having a good time

couple of us have gathered at the sur-

ately singing along with the other gals to

and Mikhaile Solomon is dancing. A

prise birthday party of a mutual friend in the Miami arts community, leading to an evening of ice cream cake, giggly group hugs, and dozens of sparklers held high

in the middle of the street. The vibes are high and right.

It’s not that deep into the evening, however, when I notice her looking off into the distance. She’s still dancing, mind

you, but her mind is dancing elsewhere.

30

“I wonder how she gets through it all?”

— mere minutes before, she was passion-

“Just the fact that I’m even able

Mary J’s “I’m Going Down” — but she’s

Solomon. “I didn’t think we’d be

cleary computing something underneath that crown-like afro of hers. Before long, she reaches for her bag, says her loving goodbyes, and heads for the door.

I’ve seen her make this kind of early exit before. As the founder of Prizm, the

annual Miami-based Afro-diasporic art

fair, she’s a busy woman who never has

an empty plate. I catch her outside, just

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

to do this is a blessing,” says

able to do it this long, but here

we are, and we’re going to keep on going.”

When Prizm popped up during the week of Art Basel Miami

Beach in 2012, it was a most wel-

come affair. Sure, there was work

by Black artists at the big fairs

such as Scope, Pulse and Basel

Nyugen Smith, performance, Lest We Forget, Prizm Art Fair 2017

itself, but it felt like there was

little in the way of strong, Black curatorial. What’s more, the

afrofuturist bent made it stand

out. Here was something fresh.

The idea for the fair came about on a whim really. A former

theater studies student pursuing

“I didn’t think we’d be able to do it this long, but here we are, and we’re going to keep on going.”

– Mikhaile Solomon, PRIZM Art Fair

a career in architecture, Solo-

Afrofuturism, about what black

buying a piece of afrofuturist

future without it being defined

mon was far more interested in art than she was in staging a fair selling them. Her hunt for her

first purchase sparked the idea, and lead to a broader, more

personal view of Afrofuturism

that would become a guide for all that followed.

“I created our branding and

our identity around the idea of

identity can mean for us in the

by the social construct that we currently live in,” she says one night at dinner over a plate of octopus and roast potatoes.

She’s a strict pescatarian, a

personal evolution that arose in an effort to streamline her life since Prizm took off.

“In my mind, it’s not necessarily

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

31

FEATURE | MIKHAILE SOLOMON

Andre Leon Gray | “Somebody said you are from nowhere. Is that true?” | 80 x 90 x 17” | Mixed Media

just combining African ethnic-

adaptability and resilience of

ties in the minds of the viewer.

compared to the time that goes

everything… every last thing. I

people don’t expect me to be

see it; but for me, our bare

What remains consistent is a

Like the turmoil expressed and

however, that has provided its

accountant, so I had to teach

into a situation and have to put

cutting-edge visual artists from

the work, staging the fair every

ity with sci fi, as most people

minimum freedom in it’s pur-

est form is Afrofuturism to me

because historically we haven’t had the kind of carte blanche to do whatever the fuck we

want to do without having to

worry about societal pressures

telling us to do A, B, or C,” says Solomon, apologizing for her sailor’s mouth. She says it’s a

Black folk in the New World.

tremendous amount of work by

all around the African diaspora.

From the reimagined historical portraiture of Jamaican artist

Renee Cox to the mind-warp-

ing collage and painting work

of Amber Robles-Gordon, the

festival presents Afro-Diasporic visions that contort our col-

habit.

lective agonies and joys into

Every year, the fair moves

past oppression. The sheer

to a different venue, almost reflective of the constant

32

Mikhaile Solomon at the Wynwood Walls, Miami.

visions beyond our current and mass of Black expression itself inspires, and unlocks possibili-

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

soldiered through in much of

year is quite a challenge. From

into it. To hear Mikhaile tell it,

share of blessings, despite the

neverending challenge of it all.

its inception until fairly recently,

“People who have money don’t

show behind the scenes, with

ary because they can just pay

Prizm has been a one-woman

Solomon handling everything

herself: graphic design, copywriting, webbuilding, travel,

shipping arrangements, pro-

gramming and of course, sales.

On top of all that, there has

also been the task of fundrais-

ing, a year-round effort that often yields little reward, at least

really do anything revolutionfor everything,” she points

out. “When you are forced to

realized that I couldn’t pay an

myself financial management. I

had to teach myself how to get sponsors. I had no clue how to actually maneuver that space.

When you have a passion project you figure out how to do things.”

think about your bottom line

With that hustle came evolu-

what unlocks a certain kind

that wasn’t a part of her life

all the time, the limitations is

of creativity. A lack of money is what made me have to do everything by myself. So I

had to learn my way through

tion, a toughness of character pre-Prizm.

“I’m a ball buster. Not in a bad way. I’m quietly strong and

as assertive as I am until I get

my foot down. Before I started working on Prizm I was like a

little butterfly, a Tinkerbell. But working on this has made me

so laser focused about things

in ways that I never was,” says Solomon. “There were times

where I’ve had to defend what

I want against things and external factors that were becoming

a hindrance and I’ve never seen that side of me before. I was like “whoa, whoa!” It’s good and it’s bad because I’m not

used to being that way, it’s not

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

33

FEATURE | MIKHAILE SOLOMON

my default, but I realized that

a phyrric victory. By the time

As she looks towards the future

if you’re not really writing, then

ed out there, but because so

speak several languages. I think

be afraid to use as well if it’s

defeated by it all. The remedy?

exhibits, Mikhaile is drawing

same kind of credibility I think

been built for this.

can only speak English. I think

it’s a quality that I have to not going to help me grow as a

professional and fuel the longterm vision for the art.”

it was all over she felt almost

A winter trip to South Africa and a renewed focus on self care.

“Last year I realized I was break-

Of course, this evolved, more

ing down. I was just tired, and

Mikhaile so to speak — has

in my life,” says Mikhaile. “I had

effective stance — the new

brought on its own issues. As a Black woman curator, her defiance against unaccept-

able processes and prejudices, there’s a level of bullshit that

she has to deal with that no-one

informed by the work she

up plans for Prizm’s place in

it. With that comes a new skill she wants to try her hand at: writing.

I’d never been that kind of tired

“I really want to start writing

to recognize that all I truly have

you want to change perspec-

control over is my body and my spirit. I had to come to terms

with that and I try to take very good care of myself now.”

you don’t necessarily have the you should have. What we’re

who can keep up,” she says

Those worldly visions extend to

trouble with that, you know? I

happy home and carving out

start flexing a lot more.”

as she is, it’s been difficult to

of things: for someone as busy find someone to share the journey with, not because there’s

no-one interesting or interest-

because I haven’t met anybody laughing, wistfully. “I’ve had

mean, it’s even difficult with a partner who’s just as aggres-

sive and ambitious as you are,

because sometimes it’s difficult for your schedules to sync.

I do realize I might need to be

a bit flexible, compromise a bit,

else would be asked to. For her,

but even when I meet the right

it comes with the territory, and

person I imagine they’re going

she’s up to the challenge.

to have to drag me kicking and

As Prizm closes in on its sixth

screaming into it. I do want to

edition this winter, she’s taking a slightly different approach

almost be the fair that did her

can make its presence felt in

the cities and countries of the African diaspora from which

it showcases work. Prizm has brought Afrofuturist visions

from the world over to Miami;

now Solomon says, it’s time to bring the fair and the vision to where the work originates.

“I want Miami to be the home,

If I have children, this little

sucker is going to know what

it’s like to grow up in Bulgaria.

I want my children to be very

worldly. I want my children to

cities globally,” says Mikhaile.

where we’re physically based, but I would love for Prizm to

be in different cities. That’s the

longterm vision. There’s a lot to be done to get there, but that’s the longterm vision I’m working towards.”

PRIZM is a multidisciplinary cutting-edge cultural platform exhibiting international artists from the African Diaspora and emerging markets.

Prizm Art Fair 2018 December 3rd - December 9th Open Daily: 10am - 6pm info@prizmartfair.com

– Mikhaile Solomon, PRIZM Art Fair

Artwork from Prizm Art Fair, 2017 SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

also has the hope that Prizm

a place financially where I can

ing here. We’re all going there.’

“People who have money don’t really do anything revolutionary because they can just pay for everything... when you are forced to think about your bottom line all the time, the limitations is what unlocks a certain kind of creativity.

a space for writing, Solomon

“I want Prizm to be in several

just be like, ‘Okay, we’re all go-

in. It was successful, but it was

her first child too. Beyond the

have a family though, and part of that is being able to be in

however. Last year proved to

34

completely elitist.”

that’s a muscle that I have to

tives in the culture space, you

have to add to the dialogue. So

it’s completely classist and

“Dating has been tricky for me

something important. So I think

There’s also the personal side

musings and thoughts are. You

it’s shit that most Americans

trying to establish with Prizm is

more,” says Mikhaile. “I think if

have to write whatever your

far, her potential suitors haven’t

Andre Leon Gray | “Great Expectations (get free)” | 46 x 56 x 7” | Mixed Media

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

35

FEATURE | sienna shields

Over the years, members of the African Dias-

The primary element that she uses to commu-

original homeland, identity, and the larger flow

course of her artistic career, beads have existed

pora have lost mementos that anchor us to our

of time. Much of our culture has been driven by that loss, and replacing it is largely the pur-

pose as well as the source of our continued life force. Sienna Shields, director of the 2014 film

“AncestraL entanglements and connection”

nicate her larger message is the bead. Over the in tandem with other mediums to explore the meaning of land and possession. Their sig-

nificance to her practice lies in their original

purpose of currency and heirlooms in Africa vs. their perceived value today. When asked what beads could be worth, she states: “Yes, that’s

a question that gets asked over and over again really. [Our beads] are the same thing they’ve always been—money over human happiness

and welfare. Arbitrary values placed on labor

and land and humans that are disadvantaged,

more often than not. Prayers of remembrance and prayers of meditation. Strands of mol-

ecules and DNA that aren’t being affected by

radiation, pollution, GMOs. Ancestral entanglements and connection. John Carlos [activist

and athlete from 1968 Olympics] says [in his autobiography The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment that Changed the World], ‘I fingered my beads and thought about the pictures of the ‘strange fruit’ swinging from the poplar

trees of the South.” Beads as memory markers and protection. Beads as prophecy.”

For the native cultures of the Americas and West Africa, beads symbolized a depth of

memory and value that Western culture has

frequently scoffed at. Shields, in this case, uses her beads as prophecy and as warning: what

Sienna Shields BY: Lyric Prince

passes as beads to America right now-- money, possessions, white supremacy-- may not have

the same depth of meaning or durability of the ancestral ties treasured in West African or Native cultures.

Sienna Shields, filmmaker and visual artist, doesn’t show up in many of Google’s search results, having lived most of her life pre-digital and underground. There are web pages related to her 34-part film-poem, GoodStock on the Dimension Floor: An Opera (2014), a few references to her involvement with the YAMS Collective along with their withdrawal from the 2014 Whitney

Artwork by Sienna Shields

36

Biennial, and tabloidesque mentions of her personal life.

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

Artwork by Sienna Shields

GoodStock On The Dimension Floor: an Opera, has used her historical research in Black liberation movements and innate understanding of

aesthetics to recall lost stories, using elements designated for remembrance.

For the past several years, Shields has worked

on a way of healing some of these broken links to the past. She weaves her iconic beaded

sculptures in and around a place, creating a

bundle of energy and pathways to an emerg-

ing, metaphorical landmass. Shields turns

GoodStock’s non-linear narrative on its head #weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

37

through the swirling lines of beads she loops through

environment. Such an effect is neatly complemented

branches from a nucleus to create a super-sized cell.

within different color groups, only millimeters wide.

These masses visually translate emotions and wavelengths of light. The subtle gradations of color and

texture lead the eye and mind into a new discovery takes the dimensions of time, space and movement to fully appreciate.

The beads work themselves through GoodStock’s

melanated bodies and barren landscapes, stretching out ancestral ties through a large-scale tangled rep-

resentation of DNA, of links yet unbroken. Together, they support the main character and its incarnations

iv

l e

and transition through incremental handwork that

by the micro level interactions of each individual bead

D

the center of gravity, expanding and creating new

ife te l e m n i p

of Nave, Land and Perpetuus. Shields as director and Dawn Lundy Martin as writer have both made pains

Shields documents the finished

and unfinished pieces a through photography and films such as

GoodStock, where she reintroduces

her characteristic interplay between finite time and place, the rhythmic progression of bead and space.

The overall effect is like a synthesis between land and flights of fancy,

deliberate bead placement terraforming various environments through art.

Shields took pains to describe the different forms of beads and their placement within the film: “[T]he

sculptures which are used for sets and mask/costumes—some are

[made with] small seed beads [and] some are q-tips with the ends cut off (who has an ear, let him hear).

But they are all mainly hair beads— knockers, pony beads and curlers.

Artwork by Sienna Shields

FunnyHouse had a focus on hair. I use hair beads

to stress that, while the pronoun for the three incarna-

violence, colonialism, slavery, DNA and time.”

a plurality of identities, ages, and appearances. In a

which contain multiple meanings—reflection prayer

For viewers, the continuity of bead, texture and linear progression can soothe and inspire inner contemplation—seemingly endless fields of color within the

sculptures take over the eye and twists its surroundings, delicately binding color and space into a new kind of whole. There is transformation on a macro

level, one where the sculptures’ corporeality interacts

and disrupts viewers’ expectations of the surrounding

38

tions is ‘she,’ the character is genderless and occupies

way, the character, with her three parts of Nave, Land, and Perpetuus, resembles the cliched concept of the

stages of grief-- where it guarantees elevation of spirit and awareness (Perpetuus) through the suffering of

Land, and the anger of Nave. Each deals with the pain of Black trauma in their own way-- through mourning,

or outwardly attacking different elements within each scene, stand-ins to the agents of their oppression. In

one scene, Shields talks about how she harnesses the

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

discover yo u r g reatn ess

Empowering individuals to create a better life, attain success and unfold with principles and practices of truth.

Join us sunday mornings: 11:30am 1351 Peri street, oPaLocka | divineLifetemPLe.org #weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

39

FEATURE | sienna shields

I’ve been thinking about quantum time.

Spooky action. Chronon... anyway, I feel like because our ancestors are not venerated, are unknown and/or our gods are demonized spooky action is putting [white people] at an advantage.

– Sienna Shields, Photographer

tanglement], [because] I feel like living organisms have inherent tech, that civilization dulls and strips away.“

And does that mean we can travel and inhabit far-off

places with our minds as well as our bodies, irrespec-

tive of chronological progression? It appears so, and I

benevolent power of the mind. For Shields, retraining and regaining that ability to let our minds and spirits

fly is key to eventual mental and social liberation from oppressive political systems and socio-economic restrictions on the Black body.

can now see the connection to the “spooky,” quantum

The GoodStock actors sought to unify themselves

we use in everyday reality can affect how we perceive

character, going through the pain of alienation, death,

time and entanglement—control of the things that

ourselves, our histories, and our environments. Cur-

rently, that is under ‘yt’ control through economic and

social supremacy, but regaining our innate connection

under a single collective consciousness of the main

and disconnection. The final form, that hints to what passes for salvation in the film, is that of the demon-

ized body of Black woman- this is in marked contrast

“Cornsyrup” by Sienna Shields

emotional power of beads to make her be one with

choosing her own means of that happening. With t

der a mass of beads moving in the Perpetuus candle

of resurrection, where a new spring could occur.

the environment around her: “I secretly am a body unscene. But I was like an extra for myself, because I shot it alone. But I’m not visible, it’s just moving Beads. I’m

The phrase “spooky action” repeatedly came up in

they call to us/ From cataclysmic flash/And they WILL/

qualities, or an incorporeal spirit moving through the

only visibly Nave and Land... [From the libretto] When We will Say how beautiful/ Our emergence in Flame! /There the sea went/ There the edifice of offenses/

our discussions. At first, I thought it was about ghostly scenes, but Shields had a more nuanced interpretation:

Of lions, of defunct catacombs... I took the footage I

“I’ve been thinking about quantum time. Spooky

at the Academy of Rome, where the candles were

ancestors are not venerated, are unknown and/or our

had done of the candles [from a memorial of Galileo arranged as constellations] and then [I] hid myself in

bead sculptures and moved through the projection of

them. It’s my version of the invisible woman, [and] also spooky action at a distance. (Part 13, GoodStock on the Dimension Floor).”

Shields, in hiding her Black female body, is following

the exact prescription of the libretto; its opening text commands Perpetuus to be “untethered from the

action. Chronon...—anyway, I feel like because our

gods are demonized—spooky action is putting [white people] at an advantage. And thinking about this and

ways out of it is putting a smile on my face. If yts maintain a connection to their entangled ‘spooky’ parts it can give an advantage…while we have been cut off

from our ‘spooky’ parts…so the more we remember and do for ourselves without the yt liberal mediator, the better.”

history of the body on earth... [to] sing through di-

At this point, I put aside the allusion to quantum time

“QUEEN” by Sienna Shields

to any sense of linear time.” The candles, standing

said, technology. I know that many computerized

to the land, allowing the “spooky” ghosts within each

to FunnyHouse, where the Black female protagonist

so I conclude that maybe it’s possible that reclaiming

self-determination. At first, I likened it to disassocia-

Shields elaborates:

mensions, through universes, and [be] unconnected in for the immortality of the stars themselves, mirror the beads as a guide for lost spirits coming home, a light shining amid the endless night of outer space.

Her act of hiding her physical form is aligned with the reality of Black women being willfully submerged by outside forces, but with the added dimension of her

40

hat ability to appear at will comes an additional means

and focus on the more tangible parts of what she

objects are made from raw materials in African soil,

land in Africa could help us regain a connection to the spirit and energy that they contain. However, Shields dismisses this, saying: “I don’t think it’s necessary to have [technology] to delve into [spooky action/en-

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

one of us to fly free, is a crucial step in reclaiming our tion and displacement, two terms in psychology that

goes mad due to her lack of status in white society.

discuss how the mind and body can disconnect as a

“I don’t know [Adrienne Kennedy’s] work and her in-

came to understand that Shields describes it as a

what was totally in Dawn’s mind about all the

maladaptive coping strategy to external stress. I later

tentions to the level I would like to... I also don’t know

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

41

FEATURE | sienna shields

characters, either. But I have

Whether that path leads directly

territory of Alaska. His objec-

Capitol guard patrol,] but got

nated individuals in our collective

mostly be embodied by melanin-

that decision is up to the indi-

state and escape the influence of

speech about racism and what

expression on film and anywhere

[decided] to have Perpetuus

rich individuals, and at the end

melanin-rich femmes. I feel the

only way a hyper ancestral rebirth can happen is when everyone

gets out of the way of melanin-

rich women, or femmes to think

about the feminine across gender constructs. The lyrics at the end speak of devastation but also

reemergence. What’s out there

to salvation, equality, or rebirth, vidual who sees or is affected

by the film. I don’t think that it

is the intention of Shields to say that one way is best; instead, I

gathered from our conversations that the result should invariably be to find a path to a better,

more equitable world, where

Black women could be judged on

tive was to establish a free Black Jim Crow, but the U.S. Government eventually denied him his right to do so. Dr. Thomas was

a man of his time who believed in a patriarchal ideal for this

new society, where Christianity and related mores would serve

to uplift the race from its “infe-

rior” origins. Shields revisits this

lucky. I made an impassioned

the scene was about to me and they let me go...That scene was

Ultimately, there is a great phrase

in DC, and some yt boy scouts

beginning of our conversations:

America. It was boy scout week were bullying a Black boy scout and I … told the guards that

they should be arresting the new Hitler youth, not me.”

I think James Baldwin

Anti-Black femme and colorism

was mostly talking

by the wayside.

of being and not

...I think James Baldwin was most-

subscribing to [sexual]

ly talking of being and not sub-

labels when he said,

scribing to [sexual] labels when

‘go the way your

he said, ‘go the way your blood

beats/flows,’ but anyway that line

blood beats/flows,’

tion where I feel the … inner flow.

has always been kind

but anyway that line

has always been kind of a medita[T]hat was what I was thinking

of a meditation where

in the last scene with Beatrice

I feel the… inner flow.

Anderson and Ashley Brocking-

– Sienna Shields, Photographer

ton [two more YAMS that acted

sate and let them lead. In these

fiery devastating roads of being, they need to go the way their

their individual merits to lead and positively influence others.

Shields and I talked a bit about

In other words, I feel that, be-

movements and the limitations

femme creators and those who support them, GoodStock is a

call to action, to help others find a way to fully embrace the pain of the past and move forward.

42

Artwork by Sienna Shields

blood beats.”

sides being a love letter to Black

“[songwriter] Saul Williams

said, ‘People! Let Pharaoh go!

‘...’Cause that’s really it. Pharaoh didn’t let the people go. The

people let go of pharaoh.” This anything, but rather embodies an

work for us when we leave that

their way, respect and compen-

that Sienna Shields said in the

doesn’t present a solution to

of spooky distance can only truly

everyone just needs to get out of

else.

about the fuckery of believing in

and in here along those fire roads

in Part 14 of the opera.] I feel like

redemption, seeking freedom of

her research in Black liberation

that they faced. She took special care to study the life of Dr. Joe Thomas, a Black doctor active

during the 1930s and 40s, and who attempted to establish a

homestead in the newly colonized

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

ideal frame of mind that leads to self-liberation.

The flow of life and time means that peace, as well as war, is a constant since they both are

by-products of change. Shields,

with her film, is careful to uplift all incarnations of her main char-

acter, to focus on their joys and sorrows, as opposed to indi-

rectly glorifying white supremacy

through bemoaning its existence.

GoodStock, ultimately, squarely faces the beauty and terror of

the Black experience, the innate

transformative power of the Black conflict indirectly through several

body, and our ancestral ability to

scenes in the movie, particu-

This confrontation ran counter

partially filmed at Matanuska

neat ending, where eventually

larly during scene 10, which was Glacier in Alaska— the site where Dr. Thomas wished to settle his

colony— and during her scene at the Monument in DC, where she had to defend her right to film and to be present:

“I almost got arrested [by the

to my expectation of a happy,

everyone learns their proper lesson on how to be better people.

However, the beads, that signify remembrance and currency de-

based, indicate that such a hope is futile; also, the story of Good-

Stock emboldens me to contemplate the roles of other mela-

make our way back home through the act of creating a new one.

We can retrace our paths forward through the beads of our ancestors and within our own DNA, leading ourselves to a higher

consciousness and state of grace.

And to be present, to be truly

free, we must realize that we are able to make these choices and

move body and soul to our own

Artwork by Sienna Shields

beat and blood.

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

43

Meeting Naiomy Guerrero BY: Tiffany Autriana Ward

“ Identifying as Latinx

can place an artist into its historical context of identity

CELEBRATING

politics and socially engaged art, yet not all U.S.

Photo by: Saddi Khali

decolonization, race, class, and the status of perpetual exile,” wrote Naiomy Guerrero last year in her

breakthrough article, America’s Most Expensive Artist Is Latinx—but No One Knows It.

Guerrero, 27, began her exploration into the U.S. Latinx art market after realizing

Photo by: Saddi Khali

Latinx artists make work that speaks to struggles of

WOMEN IN ARTS CULTURE

that despite having worked in the con-

temporary art world and studying contemporary art history, she was unable to name any living contemporary art-

DIVERSIT Y

ists of Latinx descent. Soon after, she

launched her bi-lingual contemporary art blog GalleryGirl.nyc connecting

readers to her exploration of the New York City art world. Guerrero has now

established herself as a writer, curator,

and editor with a breadth of knowledge

of contemporary U.S. Latinx art. In spring

of 2018, she was announced as Perez Art Mu-

seum Miami’s inaugural curatorial fellow of their Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative.

Born in Manhattan, and raised primarily in the Morris Heights neighborhood of the Bronx, Guerrero spent

much of her childhood traveling between Washington

that way and how did they learn.” And yet despite her

Guerrero, the daughter of Dominican immigrants, her

or museum until after her freshman year at DePauw

Heights, the Bronx, and the Dominican Republic. For

love of art began at home in the Bronx. In a profile for PAMM, she spoke of how the graffiti she saw growing up in her building hallways, street blocks and the sub-

way mesmerized her and inspired her initial interrogation of visual art. “I thought about the kids who threw those tags up and wanted to speak to them.

I wanted a dialogue. Why did they bubble their letters

44

Art of Black Miami is a marketing platform and destination driver organized by the

early interest in art, Guerrero didn’t step into a gallery University in Greencastle, Indiana. The white cube

gallery spaces and the historic museums of New York were an entirely different and inaccessible world for

Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau that showcases the diversity of the visual arts locally, nationally and internationally, celebrating the black diaspora. This initiative highlights the artistic cultural landscape found in Miami’s heritage neighborhoods and communities year-round throughout Greater Miami and the Beaches. For up-to-date events, promotion and more information visit ArtofBlackMiami.com

the Bronx native. She didn’t learn of New York’s place as an art world capital until she left for the Midwest.

“I didn’t grow up going to museums or galleries, or as part of the cultural fabric within the art historical

contributions my city is known for. I grew up poor in

ArtofBlackMiami.com • #ArtofBlackMiami SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

© Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau — The Official Destination Sales & Marketing Organization for Greater Miami and the Beaches. CS-02830

45

FEATURE | Naiomy Guerrero

the outer part of a borough that

Artsy, and Teen Vogue.

resources,” said Guerrero.

from working in a gallery,

was divested of much of the city’s

Much of her hometown pride is owed to being a Bronx native.

from. It was tough sometimes,

Family Foundation and the

Bronx and that its where I’m

but it wasn’t all bad like the way

it’s often portrayed in the media.

My world was very small, sometimes chaotic/unstable, [but]

beautiful.”Combining her passion

for art history and a deep love for her heritage, Guerrero set out to become a Bronx Art Historian.

Once returning to New York

after college, she spent the next few years working in large arts

nonprofits, galleries, and artist studios. . While working in the

galleries, Guerrero found herself caught in the reality of financial

instability like so many other art workers in New York. Shortly

after, she left her art job. She continued her research inde-

pendently, supporting herself

through her job as a financial aid adviser at New York University.

Driven by the dearth of marginalized artists at the numerous

shows and events she attended

during this period, she crafted an English and Spanish online space,

work being shared in NPR Latino,

46

Harrington Jr. a presently African-

Moosa Project represents Brian

American incarcerated artist who

work on at least two major cu-

was sentenced to 25 years in

ratorial projects, publish writing for the education and curatorial

departments, and create at least two new community partner-

state-

initiative that began in Novem-

in February,

ships. The fellowship is part of an ber 2017 to diversify curatorial

leadership at museums. Both of the foundations committed 6

million dollars over three years to fund 20 different curatorial

fellowship programs, including PAMM’s initiative. In August of

2018, after a series of high profile

hires of curators of color throughout the U.S., The New York Times published With New Urgency,

Museums Cultivate Curators of

Color. In the article, thirteen mu-

seums self-reported the percentage of full-time curators of color, PAMM led the diversity report with 50% of their curatorial

staff self-reporting as people of

color - including curatorial fellow Naiomy Guerrero.

of Art, Franklin Sirmans has led

independent research, with her

in St. Louis as well as work from

Ford Foundation, Naiomy will

of artists who were

a following through her blog and

Davis, a multimedia artist based

the King Moosa Project. The King

Since 2015, former Chief curator

like her. She gained

he occupied the same space as

ship funded by the Walton

gallerygirl.nyc, to

highlight the work

she chose emerging artist

painter from Overtown, Damon

lowship at PAMM.

During the two-year fellow-

artist as well. Born to a Haitian

Morel Doucet, a Haitian-born

she was offered the fel-

“I’m so happy I grew up in the

to me.” said Guerrero. When curating the festival’s exhibit

Four years after resigning

at Los Angeles County Museum

PAMM as Museum Director, one

ment

Sirmans spoke highly

tions. In June she

which Black diasporic identities

curated “The People’s

programming, exhibition installa-

The event was organized by Aja

tion, public speaking, and more will be valuable assets to this

institution and help us to achieve

our mission and vision to create a platform for diverse voices that is reflective of Miami’s multicultural community.” Still within her first year of her fellowship, Naiomy

has already worked on local community programming partner-

ships and the curation of PAMM’s exhibition “35th Anniversary: The Gift of Art.” The show opened in October and included the input of six of the museum’s curators.

A collective vision; the exhibition tells the story of the institution

through gifts made to the perma-

nent collection since its early days as Miami Art Museum.

Outside of working in the muse-

metropolitan area in the U.S.. In a

several partnerships with Miami-

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

Throughout Naiomy’s work she

Gallery,” at the Maroon Poetry

ground and experience in public

um, Naiomy has already created

prison at the age of 14.

commu-

nity organiza-

of Guerrero, stating “her back-

of the few African-Americans to lead a major museum in a

based

Festival in Liberty City, Miami.

Monet, a poet who leads Poetry for the People, a weekly gathering of Miami based poets and creatives, with support from

Community Justice Project. Fea-

tured events included poet Sonia Sanchez, artist Emory Douglas,

writer Ntozake Shange, hip-hop group The Last Poets as well as Vic Mensa and Jamila Woods.

Naiomy’s introduction to the

project came through her friend Monet, who also co-founded

Smoke Signals Studio in Little

Haiti. “When I accepted this fel-

lowship I really committed myself to being a bridge and getting

to know Miami as much as one

person could. Helping bring this festival to Liberty City, a historic predominantly Black American neighborhood that doesn’t

operate within the institutional

art world context was important

frequently addresses the space in

father and a Puerto Rican mother, Naiomy and numerous other Afro-Latinx people in the U.S. The

diversity of the Latinx experience is often overlooked in conversa-

tions on race in the U.S. “Latinx,” the gender-neutral term used as an alternative to Latino, Latina, and Latin@ refers to people of

Latin American and Caribbean descent born or long living in

the U.S. And while the term is gender-

intersect. Growing up in New York as an Afro-Dominican woman Naiomy was well

aware of that space at an early age. She was also

aware of the erasure of blackness within her

own community. Race and self-identification can be regionally

specific, Naiomy notes.

And Miami, a city filled

with lighter skinned Latinx

people is one region where

one can see the conflation of

race and nationality, as power

structures within the city benefit white and white-passing Latinx people of varying nationalities.

neutral,

sity grows, Guerrero hopes that

geneous. “You can be a white,

And as the conversation of diverit will become more nuanced. In

America’s Most Expensive Artist Is Latinx—but No One Knows It, she addressed this. Jean-Michel Basquiat, whom she wrote of,

was not just an African-American artist, but he was an Afro-Latinx

the category itself is still heteroBlack and/or Indigenous Latinx person. So you can be a Latinx

person and benefit from white/ white-passing privilege and/or colorism because Latinx is an

ethnic identifier, not a racial one,” Naiomy acknowledged.

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

47

FEATURE | Naiomy Guerrero

ences in economic

And while Naiomy fights for Latinx representation

Making space for appreciating blackness doesn’t

access to resources

that pervades many Latinx communities. When

can and Latin American media as a whole needs a

acknowledge differ-

definitions of white-

class, and systemic

ness has been ever evolving. Bending

between black/in-

outward to incor-

digenous Latinx and

porate non Anglo-

white Latinx folks. I

Saxon immigrants into

think that conversation

the category of white-

would give us a more ac-

ness occurred with both

curate read of the makeup

Italian and Irish populations

of a particular group or space

during the 1900s. Prior to their

or institution,” Naiomy said.

inclusion, whiteness had been

“It is not unusual to walk into a venue in

primarily reserved for British colonialists

Miami and most people there are white Latinx. And

Pew Research Center found that 1.2 million Americans

yet that establishment believes itself to be diverse …

tino or Spanish origin” to “white” between the 2000

to change to address the power structures that are at

changed their racial identification from “Hispanic, Laand 2010 census. The data suggests that the process of adopting American whiteness has already begun

for many of Latinx origins. Many Latinx people in the U.S. have just as much European heritage as people

but if everyone looks the same, then something needs work.” As museums and organizations fight to make

space for the marginalized it is important to make sure they are actually in the room Naiomy notes.

who already identify as white American. Latin America

Another distinction Naiomy makes in her work is the

of Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese de-

ence from the Latin American one. Seeing Latinx art

and the Caribbean still maintain a sizeable population scendants. At the same time as Italian and Irish were

importance of separating the U.S. Latinx Artist experiand artists as a separate canon is essential in acknowl-

becoming white in the U.S., many Latin American

edging the experience and contributions of U.S.

people to whiten their populations post-Slavery.

ing to their lived experience in the U.S. according to

countries were inviting Europeans and Middle Eastern White Dominicans, for example represented 16 per-

cent of the Dominican population in the 1960 census, the last Dominican census to record race. Fear-based projections of America becoming a primarily “Hispanic” country are based on the assumption that

Latinx people will continue to identify in the same

way. But if, as Nate Cohn wrote in the New York Times article Pulse Of The People: More Hispanics Declaring Themselves White, “Hispanics ultimately identify as

white Americans, then whites will remain the majority for the foreseeable future.”

And as long as Americans continue to blur the lines

between racial and national origin for Latinx people, ideas of diversity will remain skewed. “A more pro-

48

and their area of specialty - even if it means hiring

is one where we

tory the concept and

and their “pure-white” descendants. In 2014, the

lacking in the U.S. is the first of many steps to building

ductive conversation

Within American his-

Latinx people. Artists of Latinx descent are respondGuerrero. While there may be similarities between

the work of Latin American and U.S. Latinx artists, the realities of a Latinx artists relationship to the U.S. can be varied as well as their connection to Latin American identity and culture. Latinx artists are American artists deserving of their own space. “We cannot

afford to shy away from the complexity that is shared culture, and must do our part to ensure Latinx artists

are conceptualized as both powerful protagonists and

producers of U.S. culture,” wrote Guerrero in her 2017 Artsy article. Celebrating this distinction also offers

space for collectors and curators to build and support the Latinx art market. Naiomy believes that recog-

nizing that the institutional support that many Latin

American artists received in their home countries is

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

a robust Latinx art market.

she is also not afraid to confront the anti-blackness people refer to themselves as “not Black” she often has them dig deeper, are they saying they don’t

have any African ancestry? Or are they saying they’re not African American? And if so why do they vehemently want to separate themselves from African

Americans? “There’s also this idea that aligning with your whiteness will get you closer to progress and

success, and that’s a result of how we’ve been brainwashed.” Its African Americans who have been the

ones to open doors for many Latinx people Naiomy believes. With gratitude she praised the Harlem

on My Mind protests, where several Black artists

banded together to protest the 1969 exhibit at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibit, curated by Allon Schoener, ignited controversy for the decision to just feature photographs of Harlem instead of

paintings or sculptures by Black artists. Despite African-American art and cultural professionals advising the museum to include works of African American

additional help.

begin and end in the art world for Naiomy. Amerirevamping. What happens in popular culture informs the art world says Naiomy, “it’s a conversation, it’s a dance. It’s a bachata, a salsa between both of them.

And part of the problem is the media consistently

making space for whiteness.” To see blackness and difference celebrated in museums it needs to be

celebrated and uplifted outside of them as well. One of her hopes is that this present moment can extend into unifying Black people throughout the dias-

pora. Studying history and seeing the connections between past movements and the current one will

amend some of the current divisions. “Any divisions that exist, exist because this is intentional. We see

each other as different, but how powerful would it

be if we actually focused on how similar we [as Black people] are and what we share,” Naiomy added.

And perhaps this moment of diversity will have a

strong impact on the inner workings of modern museums. In

artists in the show, The Met chose to ignore them.

the NY Times article, “With

After the show opened African American painter

New Urgency, Museums

Benny Andrews led the formation of the Black Emer-

Cultivate Curators of Color”

gency Cultural Coalition with artists Romare Bearden

Robin Pogrebin wrote “the

and Norman Lewis to picket the museum. They suc-

goal isn’t simply to hire

cessfully called out the Whitney and the Museum of

more curators of color or to

Modern Art for also excluding Black Artists in their

do more shows featuring diverse

museums. These protests were a pivotal moment in Contemporary American Art History, because they

artists, experts say, but for museums

brought to attention the importance of making struc-

to fundamentally alter the artwork they acquire and

curators of color. “To me, [this] Latinx conversation

Naiomy, new stories will certainly be told.

tural changes within these museums, such as hiring

wouldn’t exist if Black American folks hadn’t pushed

their approach to exhibitions.” With curators like

the envelope on inclusion and equity in the art

Up next Naiomy has continued planning program-

ships, all these opportunities are happening because

tor at PAMM, Maria Elena Ortiz and Natalia Zuluaga,

rero doesn’t believe that curators need to belong to

is planning a 2-day program Latinx Sessions, explor-

world.,” said Naiomy, “my fellowship, all these fellowof the fight of Black artists.” And although Guer-

the culture of the art they curate, they do need to

acknowledge their difference between themselves

ming for the city of Miami. Alongside associate cura-

artistic director of ArtCenter/South Florida, Naiomy ing Latinx identity in contemporary art. It is set for January 24-25.

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

49

photo essay | Visions of eatonville

VISIONS of eatonville

Eatonville 2016 | I spotted this fiery afro just above the hedges of the home of Sara Mary-Lue Waldo and Mattie Ruth Waldo’s on Eaton Street. This group of friends and siblings were heading in the direction of the park on a Saturday morning.

Photography by Johanne Rahman

Johanne Rahaman is a Trinidadian-born, Miami-based documentary photographer, working in both film and digital formats since 2002, and the founder of the long-haul ongoing photographic archive, BlackFlorida. Her work examines shifting urban and rural spaces occupied by the Black communities throughout the State, underscoring the urgency and importance of recording these neighbourhoods that are in a constant state of flux.

Rahaman’s work has appeared in Vogue Magazine, National Geographic, Huffington Post, Quartz Africa, Fusion Network, BBC, Slate France, and she has been featured in New Yorker Magazine, Jezebel, Miami NewTimes, Orlando Weekly, and on CBS4, NBC6, WPTV3, and NPR’s affiliate stations; WLRN Miami and WMFE Orlando. Rahaman has been published in Oxford American Magazine, and the photojournal, Mfon: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora.

Compelled by a lack of nuance or positive representation of Black communities in media, Rahaman started documenting these communities in Florida that mirror her hometown- the stigmatized Laventille Hills of Trinidad, offering a snapshot of everyday moments that highlight entrepreneurship, beauty, sensuality, aging, mortality, youth, and resilience.

Rahaman is the recipient of the Art Center/South Florida Ellie’s Award 2018, and grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Alternate ROOTS, and Economic Hardship Reporting Project (EHRP). Awards she’s been nominated for include the British Journal of Photography’s Ones To Watch, and World Press Photo’s 6x6 Global Talent Program.

Emma Pinkard, 2016 | Emma Pinkard at her first home in Eatonville, early on a Saturday morning. She was enjoying a cup of coffee, and discussing Good Friday Mass from the night before. Her grandson Cameron looks on and listens intently.

Josephine Burns, 2016 | Josephine Burns, was on her way to visit her son on a Saturday afternoon. She lives in Maitland, and her son lives a few houses away in Eatonville. She was born in Oviedo, but grew up in Eatonville, where she graduated Hungerford High, and is an official “Quilter of Eatonville”. She suffered a stroke awhile back, which has affected her speech and mobility, but does not stop her.

50

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

Open Door Missionary Baptist Church, 2016 | Old-Fashion Dress-Up Day service at the Open Door Missionary Baptist Church, a small church, about 800 square feet, which was packed with all generations of congregants.

Revival Church, 2018 | Saturday evening in Eatonville, outside the Revival Church on Eaton Street.

Uncle Booster, 2018 | Uncle Booster counsels the teenagers of the family on his front porch on a Saturday morning

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

51

FEATURE | the power of three

The Power of Three

nouncement was made again in 2016 with no results.

The museum is an ambitious project that aims to

answer why. The museum is now slated to open on

tions from the African Diaspora since time immemo-

None of the scholars associated with the museum can December 6th 2018.

The MBC is part of a “Seven Wonders of Dakar”

project which also includes a new National Theater,

National Library, the School of Fine Arts, the School of

Architecture, a Music Palace and a 49-meter tall statue entitled the African Renaissance Monument.

In Dakar, the unprecedented Museum of Black Civilization Must Open. Three Women are Making Sure of It.

Erin Pettigrew, an Assistant Professor of History and

By AYODEJI ROTINWA

somehow scraped together enough money to build

Arab Crossroads Studies, New York University Abu

of the soon-to-open Museum of Black Civilization (MBC), Dakar, whether it was usual in Senegal that the curatorial team of such an institution, the first of its kind, was predominantly led by women, her response was brusque.

had two women Prime Ministers.”

throughout the ages.” The MBC also hopes to foster

the preservation of history for those living on the con-

tinent and others who have ventured further abroad.

Countless African Diasporic histories have been lost

over the years due to the lack of an institution on the continent equipped to archive those histories.

Bintou Rassoul, shared. “There is an absence of pride

The MBC

them to be proud of it,” Curatorial Assistant, Fatima amongst Africans, more increasingly within younger

populations, about said history and culture, because people don’t know how rich those narratives are.”

is part of a “Seven Wonders of Dakar” project which also includes a new National Theater, National Library, the School of Fine Arts, the School of Architecture, a Music Palace and a 49-meter tall statue entitled the African Renaissance Monument.

She is of course, correct. There is nothing strange about

women leading such a museum, especially in Dakar. Senegal had a female Prime Minister in 2001, Mame Madior

Boye, long before gender equality and feminism became global trending topics. The country’s Parliament passed

a gender parity law in 2010 obliging all political parties to put forward an equal representation of men and women

for public office. In 2012, after national elections, 42.7% of representatives in the National Assembly were women.

According to El Hadj Malick Ndiaye, an Art Historian at

the Cheikh Anta Diop University, the MBC was originally

proposed in 1962 by Lamine Senghor, a Black activist intellectual. Four Presidents have come and gone since then, resulting in several false starts for the museum. In 2011,

a cornerstone was laid for the museum by then President

Abdoulaye Wade with an announcement that it would be complete in 28 months. It was never completed. An an-

52

diversity of (Black) civilizations, cultures and arts

daily power outages and terrible traffic due to poorly

bronze statues and a second national theater.”

“We do not ask this question here anymore. We already

feature “broad spectrum exhibitions representing the

“We are giving people back their history and we want

maintained and inadequate roads. However, Wade has

When I asked Awa Ndiaye Samb, curator

rial. A museum statement noted that the entity will

Dhabi, noted about Senegal in an opinion piece in

2011 that, “Most of Dakar’s neighborhoods experience

Ms. Mame Maguatte S. Thiaw | Mrs Awa NDIAYE Samb | Ms. Fatima Bintou Rassoul SY

trace, document and display history and contribu-

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

The MBC is largely funded by China, Senegal’s second

Contemporary ‘history’ would have us believe Africans

the case that one of the most important cultural en-

ern colonizers and missionaries. Any thorough inves-

largest trading partner. I asked everyone why it was

deavors on the continent was being built by a foreign power? Ndiaye said this is an “effective collaboration

with Senegalese architects. This can be the result of a successful cooperation.

But the Chinese also make it possible to diversify part-

ners and experiment with new types of collaboration. I don’t think they have an impact on scientific content.”

were barbarians who learned everything from West-

tigation of history will reveal that as early as the 14th

Century, the Benin Kingdom, a prosperous nation now absorbed into modern day Nigeria, had been trading

with the rest of the world, engaging in diplomatic relations, and sending emissaries to Portugal with bronzes long before colonization. Many of those precious artifacts were eventually looted by the British.

Ndiaye continued, “I think Africa is old enough to de-

To further complicate matters of historical art archival,

develop our continent, it would be foolish to lock our-

English, French, and Portuguese speaking African

fine its relations with other nations. As we continue to

selves into an unprofitable partnership just because of the bonds of the past.”

there are cultural, economic, social divides between

countries. Many regions have a close geographically proximity, but do not share much more across bor-

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

53

FEATURE | the power of three

ders. Much of this is the result of

fact collections from Cuba, Brazil,

tells me that for the last 12 years,

Congo, Lusaka, Zambia, Dar Es

Heritage, with Professor Bocoum.

stay on old structures built before

zation that created differences

Egypt, South Sudan, Chad, South

Guide in museums and galleries

dent artistic initiatives are also

exhibitions will connect histo-

we should have other priorities.

divisive seeds sowed by coloniand erased similarities among

varied ethnic groups. Language has been used to further divide

these groups. Today, Ambazonia, the English speaking region of

Cameroon, formerly colonized by

Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, U.S.A,

Africa, and Zimbabwe, and other African countries. Magette Sene

Thiaw, the museum’s researcher-

historian shared that the MBC will include collections from as early as the 16th Century.

The MBC will illuminate cross

cultural exchanges among global Black populations throughout

history to bridge the presumed

gaps between them, and foster

a unity that today is fraught. The museum stated that it wants to create “a renewed vision of

historical cultural continuities

which have proven to be powerful erasers of political borders inherited from colonization.” “[The MBC] must be seen as Great Britain is in a lopsided war with the better armed Frenchspeaking Cameroon, who still

shares close ties with its former colonial master, France.

There is also a divide between North Africa and the rest of

“sub-Saharan Africa,” as well

as Africans living on the conti-

nent and Africans in the greater

diaspora, whose ancestors were transported across the Atlantic through the Transatlantic slave

trade. Those divides result from an erasure of history.

The MBC aims to craft a cohesive

and complete narrative about the history of the African diaspora by

working with institutions and arti-

54

a place for dialogue between cultures, and an agreement

between different peoples, as

well as a space for the promotion of cultural diversity,” noted Art

Historian, Malick Ndiaye. “It is a

platform for exchanges between

cultures from all over the world,”

Ndiaye continued, “with the focus on the historical and contempo-

rary experience and conditions of Blacks around the world.”

If the museum’s curatorial team, headed by Director and Professor Hamady Bocoum, are at all

daunted by the sheer ambition of the work they have been tasked with, they do not let on.

Rassoul, the Curatorial Assistant,

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

she has worked as a Curatorial

in Paris including the Fondation

Louis Vuitton, as well as art fairs

Salaam, and Tanzania, indepenmushrooming, against all odds.

and community engagements in

“There is a time for coming back

recently premiered an exhibition

recently moved back to Dakar,

Europe. Fondation Louis Vuitton that focused on art exclusively

from the African continent, but

home”, Rassoul noted,.” She

hopeful of participating in the

One of the museum’s proposed ries of slavery and colonization that reveal that not all of those

who were not traded as slaves,

were the “executioners of those who left.” The exhibition also

highlights those who fought for

independence. Others [believe] But Senegal has always been

the cultural leader of Africa. The Museum is just another testi-

mony to our vision of the role of

culture in the development of our continent.”

previously focused on European artists. Rassoul also visited the

Dakar Biennale, the biggest and most critically acclaimed exhibition of contemporary African

art. It is her charge to keep track of the continent’s fledgling art industry and private initiatives

that promote, celebrate and build structures for contemporary African artists and their artworks.

The trend of documenting Afri-

Senegal

has always been the cultural leader of Africa. The Museum is just another testimony to our vision of the role of culture in the development of our continent.”

can artists is evolving. In 2013,

1-54, an art fair showing and creating an international market for

art from across the African continent, opened in London. In 2017,

it added an African destination to its roster in Marrakech, Morocco.

In 2017, the Museum of Con-

temporary Art Al Maaden also

launched in Marrakech. In 2016,

Art X Lagos launched in Nigeria, which is now a prominent fair in

West Africa. In the same year, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary

Art also opened its doors in Cape Town, South Africa.

Mali and Ethiopia host Bamako

Encounters and the Addis Photo Fair to promote contemporary photography and video from

across Africa. In Lubumbashi,

burgeoning artistic renaissance.

the freedom and independence

The museum plans to open

seum more accessible to the pub-

rently studying for a PhD on the

inaugural exhibitions planned for

“(My job) is to help make the mulic. It is important to engage with the public. If you want people to

understand how the world works, they have to learn their own history,” she said.

Thiaw, a historian for the mu-

seum, is a member of a network of fifty researchers that include

of their colonies. Thiaw is cur-

history of the illegal slave trade in Senegambia and its damage

on modern African societies. She noted that her job is to “create and organize intellectual and

ideological frameworks where

this knowledge can be produced and exchanged.”

without further delay. With four

its launch, the MBC has decided that it will rebel against confor-

mity. Representatives from the

MBC noted that their collections will not be categorized ethnographically because “ethno-

graphic museums are avatars to colonial exhibitions where our

ancestors were presented as a sub-humanity.”

Europeans and Africans from the

Ndiaye who has worked in the

investigate the social impacts

2006 and preparing for her role

The works will not be anthropo-

years acknowledges that found-

has, for a long time, helped to

global North and South, who

that persist today centuries after the abolition of slavery. For two years, she worked as a project

manager at Senegal’s Ministry

of Culture and Communication,

under its Department of National

Senegalese art industry since

at the Museum for the past two ing the museum has not been

without challenges. She did not mince words when she shared

that, “Some would prefer us to

logical “because anthropology divide humanity into races and

define “subhumanity,” therefore legitimizing the crimes against humanity and presenting the

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

55

Slave Trade and Colonization

as civilizing missions. We must

invent a museology inspired by our values and traditions.�

The MBC strives to present a different model that will not mimic

colonial trends. Rather, the MBC is committed to creating a new

kind of archive that elevates the

accomplishments and histories of the African Diaspora.

December 6 - 9 artafricamiamifair.com 56

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

#weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

57

black and basel | guide to the arts

When Art Basel arrived in Miami Beach in 2001, collectors, the jet set and those in the visual arts field attended

the definitive Bl ack Art Fair Guide

Art Basel and the few satellite events that coincided with the fair. Now, every gallery, artist, and non-profit wants a part of the weekend, and that is a positive thing.

Art Basel Miami Beach/Miami Art Week brings no less than $13 million to the economy of Miami Dade County and provides a platform for over 4,000 artists to exhibit and perform. The palpable energy of the highly anticipated arts week encourages people to enjoy

Our favorite part of Art Basel Miami Beach/Art Miami Week is the representation of black artists from the African diaspora; artists from Haiti, The United States, Ghana, Nigeria, France, Brazil, Jamaica, and Cuba. You will find these artists in Miami Beach and the surrounding cities exhibiting their work and performing. This year, you can party with Virgil Abloh and view the work of Afro-Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea. The amount of artwork by late-career and early career artists is vast and requires some research and planning if you

want to experience everything the diaspora has to offer.

“The Awakening” | Tawny Chatmon Galerie Myrtis

the art in traditional and non-tradition-

With a field that is filled with small and significant exhibits, this guide gives you everything you need to find artists of African descent.

You will be able to explore Miami neighborhoods that have an exciting history and support the local Black Miami art scene, and larger fairs in commercial districts. This year, we’ve added a map to make navigating Miami more manageable, and to help you plan your Art Basel/Miami Art Week travel.

al ways.

Art Africa Miami

Aqua Art Miami December 6-10

December 4-8

920 NW 2nd Ave

48 NW 29th Street Miami, FL 33127

Art Basel Miami Beach

Art Miami/Context December 4-9 One Herald Plaza (NE 14th Street & Biscayne Bay) Miami, FL 33132

Miami, FL 33136

“New Beginnings “ | Delita Martin Galerie Myrtis Fine Art Advisory

December 6-9

1901 Convention Center Dr. Miami Beach, FL 33139 The African Heritage

Cultural Art Center (AHCAC)

Art Warz December 1

6161 NW 22nd Avenue Miami, FL 33142

2900 Taylor Street Hollywood, FL 33020

December 1 “Life as Shorty Shouldn’t be so Ruff” Max Sansing | Line Dot

58

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

Broward Shrine Club

“Table Manners” | Zina Saro-Wiwa Tiwani Contemporary, London #weareblackculture | SUGARCANEMAG.com

59

Photograph taken at The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, FIU, Miami

Participating Galleries Tschabalala Self | “Ice Cream” | 96 x 84”

Portait of Tschbalala | Credit Cyle Suesz

Dawn L. Stringer | “While You Were Sleeping” Galleries

Edge Zones Art December 8-22

3317 NW 7th Ave Circle, Miami, FL 33127 Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (MOCA) 770 NE 125th Street

North Miami, FL 33161 New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA)

December 7-10

Alfred I. DuPont Building, 169 East Flagler Street Miami, FL 33131 Pulse Art Fair December 7-10

4601 Collins Avenue Miami Beach, FL 33140 Scope Art Fair Miami Beach December 4-9

59 NW 14th Street Miami, FL 33136

801 Ocean Drive

NSU Art Museum

Spectrum Art/Red Dot Fair December 6-10

One East Las Olas Blvd.

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 Perez Art Museum (PAMM) 1103 Biscayne Boulevard Miami, FL 33132

Pigment Int’l. (Miami Reveal) December 4-6 The Penthouse at Riverside Wharf 125 SW North River Drive Miami, FL 33130

60

Prizm Art Fair December 5-17

SUGARCANE MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2018 | INAUGURAL Issue

Miami Beach, FL 33139

Mana Wynwood

2217 NW 5th Avenue (NW 22nd Street) Miami, FL 33127

Visit the online edition of the Black and Basel guide by scanning this QR code.

# 303 Gallery 47 Canal A A Gentil Carioca Miguel Abreu Acquavella Altman Siegel Applicat-Prazan Alfonso Artiaco B Guido W. Baudach elba benítez Ruth Benzacar Bergamin & Gomide Berggruen Fondation Beyeler Blum & Poe Boers-Li Marianne Boesky Tanya Bonakdar Bortolami Gavin Brown Buchholz Bureau C Campoli Presti Canada Cardi Casa Triângulo David Castillo Cheim & Read James Cohan Sadie Coles HQ Continua Paula Cooper Corbett vs. Dempsey Pilar Corrias Chantal Crousel D DAN DC Moore Massimo De Carlo Di Donna E Andrew Edlin frank elbaz Essex Street

F Konrad Fischer Foksal Fortes D‘Aloia & Gabriel Peter Freeman Stephen Friedman G Gagosian Galerie 1900-2000 Gladstone Gmurzynska Elvira González Goodman Gallery Marian Goodman Bärbel Grässlin Richard Gray Garth Greenan Howard Greenberg Greene Naftali Karsten Greve Cristina Guerra Kavi Gupta H Hammer Hauser & Wirth Herald St Max Hetzler Hirschl & Adler Rhona Hoffman Edwynn Houk Xavier Hufkens I Ingleby J Alison Jacques rodolphe janssen Annely Juda K Kalfayan Casey Kaplan Kasmin kaufmann repetto Kayne Griffin Corcoran Sean Kelly Kerlin Anton Kern Kewenig Peter Kilchmann Kohn König Galerie

David Kordansky Andrew Kreps Krinzinger Kukje / Tina Kim kurimanzutto L Labor Landau Simon Lee Lehmann Maupin Tanya Leighton Lelong Lévy Gorvy Lisson Luhring Augustine M Magazzino Mai 36 Jorge Mara - La Ruche Matthew Marks Marlborough Mary-Anne Martin Philip Martin Barbara Mathes Mazzoleni Fergus McCaffrey Miles McEnery Greta Meert Anthony Meier Urs Meile Menconi + Schoelkopf Mendes Wood DM kamel mennour Metro Pictures Meyer Riegger Victoria Miro Mitchell-Innes & Nash Mnuchin Stuart Shave/Modern Art The Modern Institute mor charpentier N nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder Nagel Draxler Edward Tyler Nahem Helly Nahmad Francis M. Naumann Leandro Navarro neugerriemschneider Franco Noero David Nolan Nordenhake

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V Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois Van de Weghe Van Doren Waxter Vedovi Vermelho Susanne Vielmetter W Waddington Custot Nicolai Wallner Washburn Wentrup Michael Werner White Cube Jocelyn Wolff Z Zeno X David Zwirner Nova Arredondo \ Arozarena blank projects Carlos/Ishikawa Silvia Cintra + Box 4 Clearing dépendance Selma Feriani Gaga Christophe Gaillard Grimm Hanart TZ Instituto de visión JTT Levy Delval David Lewis Josh Lilley Linn Lühn Maisterravalbuena Morán Morán Nanzuka Lorcan O‘Neill Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani Revolver Roberts Projects Tyler Rollins Anita Schwartz Société Take Ninagawa Tiwani

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A DUDLEY ALEXIS FILM

Discover how a soup survives the Haitian Revolution to become a symbol of freedom.

FEATURING

EDWIDGE DANTICAT - BAYYAINAH E. BELLO

AVAILABLE ON vimeo.com/ondemand/libertyinasoup

Every New Year, and in celebration of their Independence, Haitian families gather together to feast in honor of a line of ancestors that fought for their freedom. The centerpiece of the festivity is the Soup Joumou —a traditional soup dating back to the Haitian Revolution. "Liberty in a Soup" reveals the origin of the Soup Joumou and its connection with the Haitian Revolution and Haiti's Independence Day. Savoring this dish is a moment of great conviviality among Haitians and it marks the emergence of a new society that recognizes the freedom and equality of all individuals.

@libertyinasoup

www.libertyinasoup.com

ART CULTURE FASHIOn Sugarcane Magazine is a publication focused on the world of art, culture, and design from Africa and the African Diaspora.

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The magazine provides an engaging platform for Black creative voices. Sugarcane is a space to rediscover how the world has been shaped and impacted by visionaries, artists, and great leaders of color.

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