I am very tired. I have been having a lot of meetings with other artists. It's great to plan with beautiful spirits. It's indescribable. The month of January has been my most productive month as an artist. I can only pray that the rest of 2012 is as fruitful as January.

As soon as I have confirmation on everything, I will be sharing more. One thing that I am excited about is curating an exhibit for teen photographers. I just got the space and now the heavy lifting begins. I don't remember the last time I have felt this excited. Things are finally falling into place.

I am in a show. 

OPENING RECEPTION: THIS MON, JAN 30, 5:30 - 8 PM 

St. Joseph's College

245 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn, NY between Dekalb and Willoughby Aves

G train to Clinton/Washington Ave

Select stills from the film "BEND" // © Kameelah Janan Rasheed

Footnote, 2011
© Kameelah Janan Rasheed

Page D6, 2011
© Kameelah Janan Rasheed

Brain, 2011
© Kameelah Janan Rasheed

Surplus, 2011
© Kameelah Janan Rasheed

I have been doing some scattered research on Jim Jones and the People's Temple over the past two months. At times, I wish I'd formally studied theology and anthropology because now I am creating a self-designed study plan and wondering where to start. I learned about the People's Temple when I was a teenager. My mom told me a story of her friend's mother who followed the Temple down to Guyana. Two months aga, I began reading Jim Jones' biography. Two weeks ago, I listened to Jim Jones' last recored speech on November 18, 1978, the day of the mass murder. Like the recording, the photograph below is a bit haunting.

Below is the raw material for a project I am working on. It is tentatively entitled "CATALOG: Jesus, Found in Brooklyn". This is a small selection of proselytizing materials I have found, been given, or collected while in Brooklyn since 2010. I am waiting for my typewriter so that I can finish the entire project, but I wanted to share what I am working on. For the next couple of months, I will be using this blog to detail my art process--research, notes, things collected, ideas abandoned, etc. 

Below are some adverts I collected while in Johannesburg, South Africa this past April. These adverts for traditional healers that can provide quick fixes for lost lovers, erectile dysfunction, and diseases are usually passed out on street corners or at traffic lights.  

Not sure if anyone cares, but I think I need to do a few updates since I haven't done so for nearly 3 months. Life has been busy, so here's as much as I can remember...in abbreviated list form:

• I am working on two long-term projects I cannot say much about now. Maybe I am superstitious, but I will speak on them once everything is aligned. I will say that finally I will be photographer-historian&archivist-writer all rolled into one.

• Bronx Museum and U.S. State Department smART Power Grant. I did not win, but was a semi-finalist. Out of about 1000 applicants, I was in the top 3% selected to represent the U.S. as a professional artist leading an arts initiative in another country. I am very grateful for this honor alone. 

• I was invited to an Eid celebration at the U.S. State Department with SOS Hillary Clinton and Special Representative to Muslim communities, Farah Pandith who I met at a Wisdom session a few months prior. The event was wonderful. Great people, great food. I learned a lot about myself--mostly that networking is not my strong suit and that I am drawn to calm spirited people. I also learned that I need to be better about talking about myself. If I don't sell myself, who will?

• I abhor self portraits, but worked on two series recently. The first, "A Daughter's Ghost" is almost frightening and I think reflects both my fear of representing myself and my assertion that self-narrative is inextricably linked to mythology and ghost stories. The second, "Disappearing Acts" focuses more on erasure within certain identity. Both series make specific use of light and repetition.  

• Mambu Badu was featured in Dodge & Burn.  We talked about our upcoming initiatives and our general love of lens-based artists. We are up to some great things in this Fall/Winter season. Look out for the second call for work in 2 weeks. 

• Back in April, my essay "Lines of Bad Grammar" was published in a book entitled I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim. The book has received a lot of great press. Honestly, I was hesitant about my essay which closes the book. However, the editors are great and I have bee received some great emails from readers. 

• I was interviewed in Persephone Magazine. I shared some photographs as well as a short piece on how I came to photography.

Around the age of 10 years old, my family saw a family standing in a field of wilted dandelions and weeds in front of Sears. They had mustard yellow suitcases and a few boxes. We went home but I did not forget that family. I sat on my green carpet, pulled at the lint balls, saddened. Little did I know, that family standing in the field of dandelions would be my family years later.  At the age of 12, my family became homeless. In the process of moving around, many of our family photographs were lost and destroyed. While a few were salvaged, there are gaping holes in our family history; something was gone. From a young age, I grew fascinated with notions of memory and histories. Time travel emerged as a secret interest. I spent hours at garage sales and estate sales searching for pictures of black families. I evolved from a collector of orphaned photographs to a photographer.Everything I do now is about building an archive—a memory base. Without memories we disappear. In many ways, my art practice is born from a fear of forgetting. I constantly photograph and collect audio because I don’t know my family’s history. It’s gone. Maybe I can never find it, but I can help others build and preserve their history. Less concerned with grand narratives, my photography focuses on intimate micro-narratives—families, small towns, and subcultures. A historian at my core, I am never without my Nikon cameras, a few rolls of film, an audio recorder, and a notepad. Memory, and temporality are central to my work. To this end, while portraiture is my main medium, I utilize and often merge various photographic approaches including documentary, found photography, re-photography, and collage to articulate my vision.

• About 20 of my portraits were featured in Urban Cusp Magazine.

• A few new interviews: "TT Jax: The Trans Martha Stewart" and "Mensah DeMary/"Baldwin is an archetype for Specter magazine: minority, queer, hyper-intelligent, seemingly unafraid in his work"

• Finished an interview with Sedrick Miles and will be up by the end of the week.

• Upcoming interviews with two award winning Brooklyn-based Filmmakers. 

• Recently, I became the Assistant Editor (Interviews) for Specter Magazine.

• I have 90 new 9th graders this year. Already exhausted but thoroughly enjoying working with young Black men this year.

• I am the Assistant basketball coach. This is going to be fun. I am excited about my coach jersey.

© Kameelah Janan Rasheed, 2011.
// WWW.KAMEELAHR.COM
Flickr set here.

© Kameelah Janan Rasheed, 2011.
// WWW.KAMEELAHR.COM
Flickr set here.

More details to come.  Extra casting photos from an upcoming film.


All photos © Kameelah Janan Rasheed, 2011 // WWW.KAMEELAHR.COM

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