Kameelah Rasheed: Artist Blog

Almost an Update

2012-01-25T21:02:00.000-05:00

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.

Moving Stories: A Juried Exhibition of Brooklyn Artists

2012-01-25T20:29:00.001-05:00

I am in a show.

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

St. Joseph's College

245 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn, NYbetween Dekalb and Willoughby Aves

G train to Clinton/Washington Ave

Stills // "BEND"

2012-01-24T20:32:00.000-05:00

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

Footnote

2011-12-07T20:34:00.000-05:00

Footnote, 2011
© Kameelah Janan Rasheed

2011-12-06T20:41:00.000-05:00

Page D6, 2011
© Kameelah Janan Rasheed

Brain

2011-12-06T20:39:00.004-05:00

Brain, 2011
© Kameelah Janan Rasheed

Surplus

2011-12-06T20:39:00.001-05:00

Surplus, 2011
© Kameelah Janan Rasheed

More Portals

2011-11-27T00:52:00.000-05:00

"I Believe in Jim Jones"

2011-11-27T00:37:00.003-05:00

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.

CATALOG: Jesus, Found in Brooklyn (Raw Materials)

2011-11-26T23:05:00.000-05:00

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.

MAGIC & TRICKS: Found in Johannesburg, South Africa

2011-11-26T22:53:00.001-05:00

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.

Back in California

2011-10-23T11:20:00.000-04:00

Mugshots

2011-10-23T11:05:00.001-04:00

Updates!

2011-09-10T23:08:00.000-04:00

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.

SELF-PORTRAITS: Disappearing Acts

2011-09-10T21:29:00.000-04:00

SELF-PORTRAITS: A Daughter's Ghost

2011-09-10T21:26:00.000-04:00

Extra Casting Photos

2011-08-08T23:34:00.001-04:00

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

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

See more on flickr
See more on website

Collective (R)evolution Photos/D.C.

2011-08-08T23:25:00.000-04:00

Photos from the Collective (R)evolution show at the Fridge in SE Washington, D.C.

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

See more on flickr
See more on website

"People ask me why I focus on this and not the pretty stuff ... Til my people not dying anymore, my heart is with them" / An interview with Akintola Hanif

2011-08-08T23:24:00.000-04:00

by Kameelah J. Rasheed
Originally published in Liberator Magazine

{images via Akintola Hanif}

We first talked with Akintola "Hyze" Hanif in 2006 (Liberatormag 5.2). We recently caught up with him again and he's still handling business.

"I am always chasing that divine and insightful image" says Hanif, the brainchild behind Hycide magazine. Admirers of Hanif know that his images carry a divine energy. The subjects of his photographs, society's outcasts -- gang bangers, young lesbians, former crack addicts, shed the traditional layers of depravity and assume an almost regal presence in his photographs. A visual blessing of sorts, his photographs dance between a celebration of oft-ignored greatness and a litany for understanding. "Understanding is necessary for progression" he says. "I just wanted to do my part to share the hearts and intentions of the dispossessed, marginalized, the have-nots who I just see as beautiful at their core" Hanif humbly comments.

As such, it is of no surprise that this past June, Hanif and his team launched Hycide magazine. Hycide, derived from the Hebrew "Hyram" meaning "noble" or "exalted and -cide from the Latin "cida", for killing, Hycide is founded on the practice of "killing or negating elitist ideals to create empathy and understanding for the disenfranchised or dispossessed." Conceptually born in 2005 and physically manifested in 2011, Hycide magazine is blossoming and planting seeds for international collaboration.

Before Hycide magazine took form, Hanif was airbrushing and painting murals on the walls and storefronts in New York City. Born to an herbalist and "renaissance man" in Brooklyn Heights, Hanif was introduced to the world of graffiti at age 9 in 1981. Within a few short years, Hanif went on to have one of his murals is featured in Henry Chalfant’s 1985 book "Spraycan Art" garnering him the position as a young and talented artist. "I ran into a graffiti writing dude who happened to be a criminal but turned out to be my best friend named Wolf. He gave me the name Hyze, H-Y-Z-E which later turned into Hycide" he reminisces. As the interview continues, Hanif sketches a few graffiti tags on his yellow legal pad. "When I was 28, I went back and got my degree in Visual Communication. I took a photography class and rediscovered my passion for photography" he remembers. Even though he had stacks of photo albums in his home and always carried a camera around, he never imagined photography as an actual career. That all changed, "when I started playing with depth of field and aperture and how to freeze action, I was just in love." This love was translated into the inaugural edition of Hycide.

The 52-page perfect bound magazine features several stories including Black Hiroshima, a commentary on lingering effects of the 1980s crack epidemic; That Wave, a single portrait of mysterious Ghost aka G-Man who asserts, "I'm Muslim but I'm also a gangbanger"; Lou Grab, a memorial for Hanif's friend Luis Rivera Jr; and Steel & Velvet, iconic photographs from Jamel Shabazz. One story in particular grabbed my attention. Hycide's first issue features a photo essay on urban lesbians who call themselves Aggressives, an emerging subculture of mainly lesbians of color who may otherwise be considered "studs" or "butch". Hanif's closely cropped portraits delicately illustrate both strength and vulnerability all while disrupting the parameters of normative gender. These images not only tell us about the young women -- Kirah, Mikyah, and Chink Hef; they also tell us about ourselves. "We usually see each other through the flaws in our own egos and insecurities, rather than for what's in our hearts and intention," Hanif asserts. As such, Hycide's mission goes beyond a platform for the "neglected and misunderstood"; Hycide magazine is also a mirror. A mid-section shot displaying sagged jeans, tattooed arms, a studded belt, and a small jewel encrusted necklace that reads "Brick Squad", forces the viewer to confront that which they see versus that which they expect to see.

Intrigued by his conversations and Dee Ree's film Pariah, he excitedly shares that "this is turning into a whole book and film project" documenting the entire spectrum of urban lesbian identities. Given Hanif's desire to build Hycide as an international publication, a collaboration with photographer Zanele Muholi of South Africa seems apropos. Describing her work as "mapping and archiving a visual history of Black lesbians in post-Apartheid South Africa", Muholi's shots are intimate and private portraits of Black lesbians in love. Hanif's images, while intimate in a more public way still illustrate his ability to quickly build relationships with the people he photographs.

Maybe there is something in his demeanor and physical presence that naturally calms those around him. When he speaks, he is gentle, but deliberate. Standing at over six feet tall, his presence is not overbearing but protective. He makes an effort to maintain steady eye contact and nothing is entangled in subtext as he speaks. These elements are all essential. However, Hanif's ability to effortlessly travel through different communities, communities that have legitimate reason to distrust the media is rooted in one core principle: no judgment.

"I want to tell the stories in objective way because most people are overly judgmental due to lack of understanding" Hanif says. I push him a bit on this. "How is it possible not to be judgmental?" "Is objectivity elusive and illusory?" I wonder. "Honestly," he responds, "I may be guilty of that at times but when I am really thinking clearly and not reactionary, I don't do that because I know I am not that much different." "I am only a check away from being in the same situation" he continues. He finds that people hasten to judgment because they imagine infinite degrees of separation between them self and the person they are interacting with. Let Hanif tell it, "those degrees of separation are basically non-existent". Hycide's mission is to help people see those "common denominators" and "common threads". One common thread is the pursuit of freedom.

In a 2005 mixed-media piece "Freedom of Everybody Dies", Hanif blended 500 still photographs and 3 minutes of video footage of the now defunct Arcadian Gardens or "The Bity", a housing project in East Orange, New Jersey. The title left nothing to the imagination. Very bluntly, Hanif warns, "if we don't do something to help everybody have the same level of freedom, it's going to come back to kill us or our children". He leans in a bit and with a delicate but urgent tone says, "if we are not given the equal opportunity to do something different and ride the same wave that the more fortunate are allowed to ride then the less fortunate will kill themselves, literally or figuratively and in turn kill those closest to them, literally or figuratively". We stand at a crossroads.

Back in my Bay Area hometown of East Palo Alto, a town of 30,000 people, young men are being gunned down everyday. My cousin was shot and killed in Los Angeles a year ago. My old students lost a family member almost every month. Hycide is a magazine, but it has the power to be more than just a magazine. In the same way that Jamel Shabazz's photographs are a "visual medicine", Hycide has the potential to give voice to not only the suffering that goes unnoticed, but potential solutions. Right now, Hycide is solely a magazine however, in ten years, Hanif imagines, "Hycide everything -- Hycide books, Hycide films. The empire will be complete."

Before leaving his Newark studio, Hanif leaves me with a final thought. "I think I've said this before, but I am really passionate about this", he reminds me. He continues "You know, people ask me why I focus on this and not the pretty stuff." Hanif's cadence intensifies. "I always say because our children and my people are dying. While we're running around being fancy, you know, and fly, and trying to be all sophisticated and cute, my people are dying. That's what I am seeing around me." He slows his cadence, ending with the commitment, "so until I don't see that anymore, my focus is right here. Til my people not dying anymore, my heart is with them."

New Website!

2011-07-27T22:39:00.000-04:00

I finally have a new website. I am still working out a few things, but overall I am enjoying the new look.

Mambu Badu!

2011-07-27T22:29:00.001-04:00

Mambu Badu is in the midst of some major changes. New things will be coming your way very soon.

Follow us on Twitter (@mambubadu), ‘like’ us on Facebook, and email us (themambubadu [at] gmail [dot] com) to stay up-to-date on the latest news from Mambu Badu.

Collective (R)evolution

2011-07-27T22:20:00.000-04:00

Along with all the founding ladies of Mambu Badu, I'll be showing a four prints from my time in Meadowlands, Soweto at the Collective (R)evolution show at The Fridge on Friday, July 29. Please come by and support this fundraiser for the DC Youth Slam Team!

Jamel Shabazz / Traveling back in time so that we can move forward » The Liberator Magazine | Blog

2011-07-27T22:03:00.001-04:00

{image via Jamel Shabazz}

by Kameelah J. Rasheed

Originally published in Liberator Magazine

This is just a teaser! The full version of the Jamel Shabazz story, including more on his upbringing, his past work, and new projects, is scheduled for our 2011 Winter issue. To receive that when it’s released, be sure to become a member.

Armed with a Canon AE-1, an enduring spirit, and a clear vision, Jamel Shabazz captured iconic scenes of New York City life in the 1980s earning international praise.

Shabazz’s photographs of young Black men donning shell-toe Adidas and cazal glasses pigeon-holed him as a “hip hop photographer”. However, Shabazz is more than that. He is a historian. He is a mentor. He is an educator, captivating audiences in university halls and street corners alike. He is a lover, unabashedly approaching his subjects with “I see greatness with you” and ending with, “I both love you and recognize your power”.

Standing 6-foot-3 tall, Shabazz wore a cognac colored leather jacket, square-framed gold glasses, and a low cut caesar with a left part. As he addressed the audience at the April NYU Symposium on Black Portraiture, he spoke with the excitement of the 15-year old kid who first picked up his mother’s Kodak Instamatic camera.

His eyes were alert. He moved in closer to the audience as if he were about to tell us a story or maybe a secret.

Proudly standing next to a projection of his images in Vanderbilt Hall, Lonnie Liston Smith’s ethereal “Astral Traveling” (1973) lulled the audience. Shabazz narrated with restraint. Each photograph settled gracefully into a saxophone note that led us on a journey through the 1980s: Puerto Rican lovers in matching outfits sharing an embrace on the train; young black men posing in tailor made leather jackets kangol caps and cazal glasses; sisters and brothers from the Fruit of Islam in a dignified pose; gingerly dressed women sporting Shearling Sheepskin coats during the New York winter; boys playing in the summer heat, clothing sodden, whilst drinking from an opened fire hydrant—a row of generously windowed brownstones resting in the background. He chronicled an entire generation.

With Sun Ra’s 1978 “That’s How I Feel” as a close second, Shabazz could not have chosen a more apropos set of chords than “Astral Traveling”. The spacey and spiritual beat conjured up an oddly textured nostalgia. It was odd for us 20-somethings in audience, who had at most five good years in the 80s and relied on lurid film remakes and abandoned photo albums to scaffold our memories of that decade. It was textured for the others who saw themselves, their family, and their neighbors floating across the screen. As the echoes of the electronic keyboard receded, and the show transitioned into its final white slide, we begrudgingly traveled back to the present.

In a time when the Black community’s sense of hope is blunted by a ceaseless economic depression, a mounting AIDS epidemic, massive unemployment, and escalating incarceration, the present feels bleak. Like Sun Ra’s music lets us imagine a glorious future, and Gil Scott-Heron doled out a rhythmic indictment of the present laced with a story of survival, Shabazz’s images offered possibility. And maybe, escape.

“Visual Medicine” is what he calls his work, particularly A Time Before Crack. “It was then that I realized that the images I made had a certain psychological impact on the viewer” Shabazz recalls. With the “countless stories of grown men emotionally breaking down in bookstores across the city while looking at that book” he came to see how his photographs “reminded them of a better time when African Americans in this country were making strides and we had a spirit of love and unity in our communities.” On an almost somber note, he concluded, “for some they find both an avenue of escape and healing in looking at my images. Just like an old love song can conjure up certain feelings and emotions that will temporarily ease pain.” Shabazz’s photographs go beyond escapist politics. Not only do his photographs illustrate what we were; they also show us what we still have the potential to be.

Upcoming Projects from Jamel Shabazz

Exhibits

Back in the Days: REMIX Solo Photo Exhibit at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) on display throughout the summer
Crown Heights Gold: Examining Race Relations and Healing in Crown Heights, Brooklyn During the 20 Years Since the 1991 Riot Group Exhibit at Skylight Gallery (Opening Thursday, July 28)

Publications

Self-publishing a book entitled Represent, Volume 1. Represent features recent work from 2005-2011 with photographs taken in France, Italy, Korea, Morocco, Ethiopia, Brazil and countless other places. (Available in early August through Blurb)
Serving as the Creative Consultant for Hycide Magazine

Community Work

Invited to work as a teaching artist at the International Center of Photography and the Friends of the Island Academy (an organization working with youth returning from Rikers Island)

Series in Progress: Family Histories

2011-07-22T20:06:00.000-04:00

Faces of Crown Heights Brooklyn » The Liberator Magazine | Blog

2011-07-21T20:12:00.080-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}
Faces of Crown Heights, Brooklyn
by Kameelah Rasheed
Originally published in Liberator Magazine

On July 4, 2010, I moved from the small town of East Palo Alto (Bay Area, California) to Brooklyn, New York. After a four-day apartment hunt in the July heat, I found a well-priced apartment near the 3/4 line, a few quaint kosher bakeries, far too many bodegas, and a cute fruit market. I settled in Crown Heights. Within my first few days here, I walked around everywhere with my camera. I remember someone yelling at me from across the street: "Hey, girl, girl with the camera. Take my picture!" In a nearly unconscious manner, I began to document my neighborhood.

Two weeks ago, I met two Haitian men. One told me, "I've seen you walking around here with your camera for a year, but I thought you were a 15-year-old girl so I did not bother you." He continued, "I really wanted a photo from you and they say if you want something then you should ask. So I am asking.” I am humbled that he waited an entire year to be photographed.

My photographs have been scattered all over my computer for over a year now and I am finally organizing them into a series. I am looking forward to continuing this series. You can view more of my work here.

Crown Heights x Posing

2011-07-12T15:16:00.001-04:00

Untitled: Bed

2011-07-12T15:13:00.000-04:00

Outtake: Durban, South Africa

2011-07-12T15:11:00.000-04:00

Crown Heights X Haiti

2011-07-12T15:10:00.000-04:00

Dread Scott / "Make revolutionary art to propel history forward ... confront the world as it is and radically dream about how it could be different."

2011-07-03T18:49:00.002-04:00

by Kameelah Janan Rasheed

Originally published at Liberator Magazine

Dread Scott, the Brooklyn-based and Chicago-bred multidisciplinary artist is best known for his 1989 installation piece, What is the Proper Way to Display the American Flag?

As July 4th quickly approaches, patriotic accessories will make their one-day debut and Chinese-made American flags will be gingerly hung in window sills. Cars will be loaded with Independence Day sale goodies -- scented lotions and iPods, bar-b-qued meats will adorn soggy Dixie paper plates, and illegal backyard firework shows will likely result in a few charred finger tips.

All the while, artist Dread Scott will probably be finding new ways to as he says, "make revolutionary art to propel history forward." A clear head nod to Mao's 1942 Talks at the Yenan Forum, Scott's politics are intimately reflected in his art -- art designed to serve the masses and move us into a new era free of exploitation. Art more concerned with an inevitable revolution of sorts than praise from the art market and its ever fickle tastes.

Known as Scott Tyler and a student at the Chicago Institute of Art, the 24-year-old mounted his installation, an excerpt from a larger body of work entitled American Newspeek ... Please Feel Free? as part of a minority student exhibition. The installation includes a photo montage of South Korean students burning U.S. flags holding signs saying ‘Yankee go home son of bitch' and flag-draped coffins. The audience was invited to write responses to the question “What is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?” and as they did so, they stood on a 3" x 5" American flag.

February 1989 proved to be a month that catapulted Scott into the national limelight.

Death threats. Bomb scares. Vietnam veterans protest. Effigies stomped upon. Pictures targeted on dart boards.

George H.W. Bush, the soon to be Commander and Chief of the Gulf War told a Chicago Tribune reporter that the installation was "disgraceful." "If George Bush feels threatened by me, good" retorted Scott in a June 1989 SPIN interview.

Protesters eventually provoked the Chicago's City Council to pass a local ordinance banning flag desecration. Not surprisingly, the ACLU got involved citing violation of first amendment rights. In protest of "compulsory patriotism," on October 30th, Scott and three others burned flags on the steps of Capital Hill. Now officially a revolutionary artist, he was arrested. The resulting United States v. Eichman Supreme Court case favored the protection of “flag desecration” as freedom of expression.

Artist Faith Ringgold in a 2006 interview with F Newsmagazine asserted, "It would be impossible for me to picture the American flag just as a flag, as if that is the whole story. I need to communicate my relationship with this flag based on my experience as a black woman in America.” Likewise, Scott was unable to present the American flag as a symbol sans historical baggage. He felt an obligation to make a statement. And so he did.

By the age of 24, Scott garnered the attention of the U.S. President, had Senator Dole in a frenzy and provoked a Supreme Court case.

But he did not stop there. Fast-forward. Scott, now 46 and a father, continues to make charged work. His source material? Growing religious fundamentalism, a burgeoning prison population, cops killing unarmed men of color, never ending wars, and, of course, capitalism itself.

After six years of curious following from afar, I finally contacted Scott. Weeks later, I sat down with him at the Fort Greene Connecticut Muffin. Sporting a dread locked mohawk, bespectacled and in a blue argyle sweater, he sat across from me smiling. On the floor, he placed his blue reusable grocery sack which I'd later discover carried copies of the Communist Party paper. He spoke with a delicate intensity. Rihanna played in the background.

Scott was born to a middle class family in Chicago, a time as he notes where "being a middle class black kid was rare but not unusual." As a black, middle class kid attending an elite private school, he was supposed to become a doctor or lawyer, or something. An alternative route was clearly taken. Jokingly, he says, "I thought I was going to be a scientist and end up screwing up in high school ... ended up failing a class or two and couldn't get into elite schools, and so my parents said what do you want to do and I said, 'be a photographer.'" And so began his journey.

"Most artists need galleries and agents; you need lawyers," he said a friend once told him. The author of controversial works that mince no words in calling cops "killers" and performance art on the busy intersections of Wall Street, Scott has been subjected to death threats, arrests and countless court dates. But, the artist doesn't intend on slowing his pace or censoring his message. With a chuckle, he says, "I love a good fight," dubbing himself "one of the few artist in an America that has an ongoing relationship with the police."

His desire to engage with the politics through his art was borne from growing up in Ronald Reagan's America. "There was this lunatic in the White House threatening to destroy the world so that he can expand his empire ... if you can think about it, it was just insane."

However, it was not just Reagonomics -- unemployment, the purging of people from the rolls of entitlement programs and food stamps, or the escalation of the Cold War, or even the invasions of Grenada that angered him; rather, it was what he astutely observed as "people living in this mass delusion." From that point, he sought to create work that disrupted this mass delusion, work that as he hopefully asserts "confront[s] the world as it is and radically dream about how it could be different."

And he is trying to do just that. Things have changed since the 1980s. Just as spandex, flashes of neon, and over-sized sweaters are making an unpleasant return, so are some of the hallmarks of that decade. The United States is now engaged in three simultaneous wars, unemployment is at an all time high, there are over 2 million incarcerated Americans and homelessnesss is increasing. Scott has a wealth of tragedy to work with.

He has a penchant for re-purposing items.

His most recent work is Burning of the U.S. Constitution. A suite of three prints, it is a documentation of his burning of the U.S. constitution. Performed in February 2011, it was inspired by the recently released, but previously disappeared Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Ai Weiwei's 2010 performance piece Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn as Scott described, addressed, the "fetishization of the ancient things" and the way we make sense of sacred objects in the contemporary context. Likewise, in Burning of the U.S. Constitution, Scott, in a similar manner as What is the Proper Way to Display the American Flag? sought to call into question sacred national symbols of freedom.

Dressed in all black and standing against a brick wall, the three 26 x 20 inch C-Print photographs document three steps. Step 1, holding the constitution. Step 2, the constitution set aflame. Step 3, Scott standing upright, hands at his side, and stoic as the charred remnants of the constitution lie on the cement.

As he sees it, the constitution is an "exploiters view of freedom" but he acknowledges that "there are a lot of people who view it is the quintessence, the pinnacle of freedom." He challenges those who view it in the latter stating that "even while many things that would be called for by reading portions of the constitution -- the question of dissent and the right to dissent and the things that people claim that they like, people aren't doing nearly enough."

One might say that Scott is carrying the load for everyone else.

In 1994, Scott worked with graffiti artist Joe Wippler on a collaborative piece installed inside the memorial Arch in Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn as part of a group exhibition called Trophies from the Civil War.

The piece was heavily critiqued by mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the NY Post, the NYC police chief and a host of others. The controversy resulted in the NY State Council of the Arts withdrawing their funding for artist honoraria. Curtis Silwa, both radio personality and founder of the Guardian Angels (G.A.) who in 1992 was found to have fabricated the exploits of the G.A. in order to gain support, attempted to vandalize the piece on several occasions.

What sparked such a controversy?

The installation included a mural featuring 9-foot-tall armed men in women. Written in the flames of their gun was “It took a civil war for black people to be changed from chattel slaves to wage slaves ... We must fight another civil war to end this system which enslaves the planet.” This was strike one.

On both sides of these gun flames were lit–Real Molotov cocktails made from 40 ounce Old English 800 beer bottles. This was strike two.

Finally, across the stairwell were life-size cop and National Guard uniforms that were stretched on headless mannequins, bleeding and dying. This was strike three.

As if they hadn't earned enough strikes, the visual elements were complemented by an audio element. A bullhorn affixed to the wall has a woman's voice announcing:

Sisters and brothers, we aren’t alone. Yesterday, comrades in Los Angeles, Chicago and DC launched an insurrection. Today, we control several other projects, ghettos, and neighborhoods in this city and the party has led armed uprisings in cities across the country. This is different from the riots and rebellions of the past year. This is a nationwide insurrection and for the first time in the history of this country, we have a real chance to go for power, to defeat their armed forces, to overthrow their government, and put the oppressed in power ... We are fighting for a world where no handful of ‘haves’ sits on top of us have-nots. No more whites oppressing other nationalities. No more men oppressing women ...

Scott said many mistakenly took this piece as his support for civil war despite his assertion that it was "explicitly not about that." "It was posing a question like any great art about the world is and what it could be," he continues.

Scott slows his speech. Then stops. He begins to speak again, "Revolution is not something that is played about lightly." "It is not something that a few isolated people go off and go. Being isolated from millions of people is actually doing great harm." More than anything he reminded us that "this artwork was posing the questions for people to think about. What revolutionaries in a country like this need to do, now, is raise people's political consciousness. Do work to help bring about a situation where people are more willing to fight for a radically different situation."

As the controversy from this 1994 piece died, Scott sparked another round of controversy in 2008. Unveiled three days into the Sean Bell trial, the MoCADA (the Museum of Contemporary African Disporan Art) featured a 1999 piece called The Blue Wall of Violence. In it, Scott addressed police brutality through an installation piece focusing on objects police claimed were dangerous weapons when they shot an unarmed person.

Affixed to the wall are six FBI target sheets used for target practice with a protruding cast of an arm molded from his own arm. In each hand is an object claimed to be a dangerous weapons -- a wallet, house keys, 3 Musketeers bar, etc.

Hovering over each of the target sheets is are black signs with white print signaling the dates of these murders. The installation references several shootings such as the 1997 shooting of Andre Burgess, a 17-year-old, a college-bound senior and soccer captain who held a Musketeers candy bar when he was shot; the infamous 1999 case of Amadou Diallo who was holding a wallet when he was murdered; and the 1998 shooting of Antoinne Reid who was holding a squeegee when shot. The installation delivers a final combative note: a coffin laid in front of the target sheets. Three police batons powered by small motors strike the modest wooden coffin every 10 seconds.

Yet again, droves of detractors made their disapproval known. As the Village Voice reported back in 2008, a binder of commentary printed from media and police websites sat next to the installation. Some of my personal favorites:

"The Brooklyn 'Museum' should be blown off the face of the earth. It's the most liberal, anti-American, racist spot in the entire city."-- a user named NYPDLieutenant, who claims to be a retired police sergeant from Brooklyn.

"Hope he gets shot by a low life black asshole, call the police, and have them do a half-ass job, better yet maybe he would die." -- a retired California deputy sheriff.

"I've always hated fucking Brooklyn! That museum would have been burnt down to the ground in Howard Beach, Queens and then afterwards everybody would have met up at the local Trattoria for Capicolla and Canolis!" -- tony6d2, who describes himself as a police officer in Florida.

The president of the NYC Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, Patrick Lynch went on record to say that "Taxpayer dollars certainly should not fund any art that promotes hate, and that's certainly what [Dread Scott's, Blue Wall of Violence] does."

Not surprisingly, serious art critique was limited.

Having refused to fall into step with the imperatives of the art market, Scott's legacy is murky. He is talking about revolution -- and viscerally so, while others are doing more safe and palatable work. Art critics may want to be moved, but not moved into an intangible place of discomfort. He entered the art world as a renegade of sorts -- wearing a Kaffiyah and beret, burning the American flag on the steps of Capital Hill. Unbowed, he contended that "a significant amount of art that is written about and coveted is not about much of anything ... much of anything lofty." Other artists are "constrained by work which just doesn't speak to the significant questions that are confronting the world now" he continues. He refuses to be constrained.

Political art is often branded as didactic and prescriptive. The occasional black sheep of the aging art world, critics have often dismissed political art for what is described as sacrificing basic aesthetics in the pursuit of the message itself. Artists walk a fine line between the overtly moralizing and dexterously subversive.

For Scott, newspapers, TV, and radio have sought out his work more often than art critics. In far too any cases, ad hominem has supplanted any serious art critique of Scott's work. Some writers have focused more on his membership in the Revolutionary Communist Party than the materiality of his work.

Don't feel sorry for Scott; he is not without support. "There are some people who see work made about, say, the American flag or U.S. patriotism, or about police brutality are going to say, 'nah, you shouldn't critique America or call out cops for killing people,' but there are millions and millions of people that thank you for saying that, for saying our side of the story, but not even our side of the story -- but reality," announces Scott. Outside of Texas barrios and talk radio stations, Scott has a wide audience.

"I show everywhere from prestigious museums to street corners, with or without permission," he says jokingly. Most of Scott's work is exhibited and museums and he likes it this way. He wants the relatively progressive circles that attend exhibits to be thinking about this work. And just as much as he wants his art to be considered in these artistic communities, he also wants people who may not or cannot go to an exhibit to see his work. The world is is audience -- "In somewhat of a tautological way, I want to reach the audience for my work," Scott says with weighty conviction. He wants everyone seriously considering the ideas of revolution.

"I think there is a real capacity for revolutionary ideas to produce and inspire great art. I try to do that," he says, but he's not without moments of doubt. "Sometimes I succeed. Some of my great art is pretty good and poses questions for people then I've made work that doesn't succeed. There is a lot of unevenness," he admits.

Despite the ugliness he finds in the world or even the unevenness of his work to address certain issues, he speaks hopefully. "I just find the world the way it is intolerable ... it doesn't have to be this way..." he said, "and I want to do everything I can in my art [and] in my life to help humanity get to a different era."

Hopefully we can get to a new era -- an era free of oppression and exploitation.

The intensity of his cadence heightened when I asked about the responsibility of artists. Speaking firmly and hurriedly, he said, "artists have a responsibility to engage." Anyone who knows Scott knows his position on American politics, but he admits, in America, "it is relatively speaking freedom to dissent," laced with the challenge that "more people should take this opportunity." Without the air of pretension commonly seen with the clan of 'self-importants' in the art world, he finishes, "Given how morally bankrupt and unjust and exploitative this society is, there should be more rebels and outlaws. And I am proud to be one."

Before leaving to frame Hank Willis Thomas' work for the BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World, he asked, "Do you believe in revolution?" I stuttered a bit, rambling about the logistics, timing and statistical success of past revolutions. He smiled and handed me a Communist Party newspaper, disappearing into the shallow streets of Fort Greene.

With a Communist Party newspaper in one hand and my recorder in the other, I was left with more questions than when the interview began.

Deceased artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres once said "the most successful of all political moves are ones that don't appear to be 'political,'" begging the question of whether an artistic legacy is built on loud gestures or quiet maneuvers.

Wettler x Brooklyn

2011-06-22T19:49:00.001-04:00

More Charles x Brooklyn

2011-06-22T19:46:00.000-04:00

He Sang Madonna Songs to Folks Walking By

2011-06-22T19:17:00.000-04:00

Furniture x Brooklyn

2011-06-22T18:55:00.001-04:00

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T13:38:00.000-04:00

Charles x Crown Heights

2011-06-15T20:15:00.001-04:00

Contact is Crucial // Collage

2011-06-15T20:08:00.001-04:00

New York in May

2011-06-15T20:00:00.000-04:00

Untitled Collage

2011-05-29T18:16:00.000-04:00

Untitled.

Kameelah Rasheed

Portfolio Updated

2011-05-22T15:32:00.000-04:00

NYC on May 21st

2011-05-22T12:32:00.000-04:00

Lulu-- Westden x Johannesburg

2011-05-22T11:22:00.000-04:00

More Photo Editing

2011-05-22T11:18:00.000-04:00

Figures & Fictions / "A self-conscious engagement with South Africa's political and photographic past" » The Liberator Magazine | Blog

2011-05-22T11:04:00.002-04:00

Figures & Fictions/ "A self-conscious engagement with South Africa's political and photographic past"

by Kameelah Rasheed (Intern, The Liberator Magazine)

I love South Africa and photography. As such, I am very excited about the new Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography show opening in the UK at the Victoria and Albert Museum (Apr 12 - Jul 17) featuring the work of 17 South African photographers. I've shared some of my favorites below. read more.
Creative statement: Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography highlights the work of 17 South African photographers, all of whom live and work in the country and whose images were made between 2000 and 2010. Each photographer is represented by one or more projects that are linked by the depiction of people and a self-conscious engagement with South Africa's political and photographic past.

[...] The excitement and urgency surrounding photography in South Africa today is partly explained by its local context: embedded in colonial history, ethnography, anthropology, journalism and political activism, the best photography emerging from the country has absorbed and grapples with its weighty history, questioning, manipulating and revivifying its visual codes and blending them with contemporary concerns. Post-Apartheid, complex and fundamental issues - race, society, gender, identity - remain very much on the surface. This is reflected by image makers who harness the resulting scenes as a form of creative tension within their personal vision. Here, distinctive photographic voices have emerged: local in character and subject matter, but of wider international interest because of their combined intensity.” (source)

{'Untitled I', Kudzanai Chiurai, 2009. Courtesy of the artist and Goodman Gallery}

Kudzanai Chiurai, born 1981
“Chiurai was born in Zimbabwe and his early work focussed on the political, economic and social situation of his homeland. Now living in Johannesburg, he is an activist and artist (painter, designer, editor and photographer) who addresses issues such as xenophobia, displacement, consumerism and black empowerment in his work.

His satirical series The Parliament depicts the fictitious characters of an imaginary government cabinet in a parody of media representations of masculinity and political power.” (source)

{'Pieter and Maryna Vermeulen with Timana Phosiwa', Pieter Hugo. © Pieter Hugo. Courtesy of Michael Stevenson, Cape Town}

Pieter Hugo, born 1976
“Hugo, based in Cape Town, began his career as a photojournalist. For him documentary photography is: 'a type of ecstatic experience where one looks at the pictures and one experiences truth, even if it's not the truth of an accountant'.

The selection here includes a group portrait from the series Messina/Musina that raises questions about race and the nature of the family. Another work shows young Xhosa men in tweeds, the customary dress for initiates, after circumcision.” (source)

{'Madlisa' (Country Girls Series), Sabelo Mlangeni, 2009. © Sabelo Mlangeni. Courtesy of Michael Stevenson, Cape Town}

Sabelo Mlangeni, born 1980
“Mlangeni lives and works in Johannesburg. Describing himself as a 'camera man', he is engaged with the documentary tradition and produces visual essays, gaining access over long periods to overlooked subcultures and communities.

...Mlangeni uses soft focus shots and close-ups to move beyond this stereotypical image of it as a violent and unlawful place and to convey glimpses of male intimacy and daily life.The Country Girls series was taken over a period of six years. It is a personalized portrait of gay life in rural areas. The 'girls' are cross-dressing men whom Mlangeni photographs clothed as he finds them, and who perform self-consciously for the camera.” (source)

{'Gail' (from the series Real Beauty), Jodi Bieber, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Goodman Gallery}

Jodi Bieber, born 1967
“Bieber, a Johannesburg-based photographer, began her career as a photojournalist and remains engaged with the documentary tradition. Real Beauty relates to the culture of advertising and Western ideals of female body shape, increasingly influential in South Africa.” (source)

{'Untitled' (from The Brave Ones series), Zwelethu Mthethwa, 2010. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York}

Zwelethu Mthethwa, born 1960
“Mthethwa, a painter and photographer, is based in Cape Town. His series The Brave Ones shows ceremonially dressed Zulu boys and men from the Shembe religious community. The costume they wear is usually reserved for ritual dancing and worship at annual festivals. Here, however, Mthethwa isolates his subjects from the context of the festival and poses them against the Arcadian landscape of Kwa Zulu Natal.

The mixed visual code of Shembe ceremonial dress (shirts and ties, football socks, and skirts worn as kilts) combines references to Scottish Highlanders, once stationed in the region, with traditional African costume, while blurring the boundaries between masculine and feminine fashion.” (source)

{'Lesego, Miriam Makeba Street, Newtown, Johannesburg', Nonsikelelo Veleko, 2007. Courtesy of the artist and Goodman Gallery}

Nonsikelelo Veleko, born 1977
“Veleko is a Johannesburg-based photographer who explores the inventive dress, style and confidence of South Africa's 'born free' generation that has grown up after the end of Apartheid. Playing with the language of fashion photography and media representations of street culture, Veleko's images question how personal style and individuality are perceived and assumed in a post-modern African city.” (source)

How Africans Want to Be Seen / "Re-imagining the traditional ways Africa is represented through photography" » The Liberator Magazine | Blog

2011-05-22T11:00:00.001-04:00

{by Andrew Dosunmu (Nigeria), "Studio Portraits" series}

How Africans Want to Be Seen / "Re-imagining the traditional ways Africa is represented through photography"

by Kameelah Rasheed (Intern, The Liberator Magazine)

As someone who has lived in South Africa and just returned from a recent visit, I am constantly concerned with how I represent Africans in my photography. As such, I was excited to see CarlaGirl Photography's snippet about an exhibit at the Li-Space in Beijing’s Caochangdi district aiming to reimagine the traditional ways Africa is represented through photography.

Our South African folks over at Chimurenga, have also developed a list of resources about the China-Africa relationship in preparation for their next publishing project, The Chimurenga Chronicle -- a once-off, one-day-only edition of a speculative, future-forward newspaper that travels back in time to May 18-24, 2008 to re-imagine the present. read more.

How Africans Want to Be Seen

(SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal)

A new exhibit at Li-Space in Beijing’s Caochangdi district aims to refashion the traditional visual impression of Africa – that of famine, war and poverty – through images that show a continent of culture, hope, imagination and dreams.

“Africa: See You, See Me!” features the work of 36 African and non-African photographers, including Angele Etoundi Essamba from Cameroon, Moroccan Majida Khattari and Italian Marco Ambrosi.

China, which has a growing business presence in Africa, seemed an important place to display the photographs, said Awam Amkpa, the exhibition’s curator, who described the images in the show as an illustration of “how Africans want to be seen rather than how they are forced to be seen.”

The Chinese “don’t know the diversity, the robustness of African culture,” Mr. Amkpa, a Nigerian, said. “I think it is an opportunity for us to show this Africa that is a very modern and diverse continent…. We are not always at war. We are not always starving.”

[...]

The Chinese “are going to be the new colonialists. After the Europeans, they are going to be the next. It is happening,” said the Cameroon photographer Ms. Essamba, referring to what she says is the “staggering” number of Chinese moving to Africa. “Africa is like the new Eldorado for them. I am happy that they come and that they plan to build things, but it would be great if they could involve our own people. This is the idea, actually.” (source)

{by Delphine Diallo (Senegal) 2010, "Back to Africa" series}

{by P. Maimouna Guerressi (Senegal) 2008, "The Giants, a.p." series}

{by Hassan Hajjaj (Morocco) 2000, "L.V. Posse" series}

Editing Photos

2011-05-18T01:22:00.002-04:00

Lost & Found: Photos from Meadowlands, Soweto

2011-05-04T21:41:00.001-04:00

Arriving in/Leaving South Africa--Lagos Transit

2011-05-04T21:08:00.001-04:00

The Ladies of Meadowlands, Soweto

2011-05-04T21:02:00.000-04:00

MAMBU BADU: THE INAUGURAL EDITION IS HERE

2011-05-01T17:24:00.000-04:00

(Click photo to launch magazine.)

Due to some technical difficulties, we’re a day late but the inaugural edition of the Mambu Badu PDF magazine is now live! Thank you to everyone who submitted work, to the photographers who appear in these pages, to people who retweeted us, liked us on Facebook and sent us words of encouragement through letters. It’s much appreciated and we’re grateful for the support.

We love feedback so if you have any comments, questions, or concerns, don’t hesitate to let us know: themambubadu [at] gmail [dot] com.

Happy May Day!

We are definitely planning future calls for entry so be sure to subscribe to our posts, follow us on Twitter (@mambubadu), ‘like’ us on Facebook, and email us (themambubadu [at] gmail [dot] com) to stay up-to-date on the latest news from Mambu Badu.

Johannesburg, South Africa//Meadowlands--Soweto 1852

2011-05-01T16:52:00.000-04:00

Johannesburg, South Africa//Parktown

2011-05-01T16:35:00.000-04:00

Durban, South Africa //

2011-05-01T16:33:00.000-04:00

Johannesburg, South Africa//Signage

2011-05-01T16:25:00.000-04:00

Johannesburg, South Africa//Near WITS University x Vuyo

2011-05-01T16:23:00.000-04:00

Johannesburg, South Africa//Strijdom Park

2011-05-01T16:19:00.000-04:00

Johannesburg, South Africa//Westden

2011-05-01T16:14:00.000-04:00

Johannesburg, South Africa//Yeoville

2011-05-01T16:12:00.001-04:00

Johannesburg, South Africa//Greenside

2011-05-01T16:04:00.000-04:00

Anti-War Rally x Union Square

2011-04-09T21:22:00.001-04:00

April 30th, 2011//Inaugural Edition of Mambu Badu Magazine

2011-04-07T19:10:00.000-04:00

Mark your calendars! The inaugural edition of Mambu Badu’s web-magazine launches on April 30, 2011!

We are definitely planning future calls for entry so be sure to subscribe to our posts, follow us on Twitter (@mambubadu), ‘like’ us on Facebook, and email us (themambubadu@gmail.com) to stay up-to-date on the latest news from Mambu Badu.

NYU Black Portrait Symposium: Boxing Kitty

2011-04-03T01:10:00.000-04:00

NYU Black Portrait Symposium: Michaela Angela Davis

2011-04-03T01:09:00.000-04:00

NYU Black Portrait Symposium: Hands

2011-04-03T01:08:00.000-04:00

NYU Black Portrait Symposium: Dreads

2011-04-03T01:07:00.000-04:00

Afri-Love: INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST, PHOTOGRAPHER & WRITER, KAMEELAH RASHEED

2011-04-01T22:00:00.000-04:00

Read Afri-Love interview here.

Today I'm really happy to bring you this interview with artist, documentary photographer, writer and youth educator, Kameelah Rasheed. Along with participating in several groups exhibitions across the US and having her photography and writing featured in a number of print and online publications, Kameelah is also the co-founder of Mambu Badu, a photography collective for emerging female photographers of African descent.

Here, Kameelah discusses her ambitions, the challenge of perfectionism and the power of storytelling. I am super inspired by this driven woman!

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What's your passion?

Telling stories through photographs … and helping others find an opportunity to tell their stories. I am a curious lady. I am passionate about uncovering the intricacies of my life and the life of others.

Also, I love reading, digging through archives, finding obscure stories, and nature walks.

What inspires you to do the work you do?

When I was younger, I was a nerd. Actually, I still am. But when I was younger, I was an unconfident nerd and would get lost in my own stories that I'd never share. For me storytelling – democratic, open, love-inspired storytelling – is about providing a space for so-called "outcasts" to share. And beyond "providing" a space, nurturing an environment where all stories are considered valuable. I am in the community of storytelling because everyone has a story, but unfortunately not everyone has a chance to tell their story. I like photographs because they tell a story, but also leave a space for the audience to have a dialogue – to recreate an entirely new narrative based on the trajectory of their own experiences.

What has been your greatest obstacle/challenge?

Perfectionism. I hold myself to unusually high standards which means sometimes it's hard for me to get work done or I am constantly wondering why I am not "better." I am a trained historian and high school teacher with a public policy background who writes and photographs. I don't have formal training in the arts or writing and as such sometimes I see gaps in my work – technical (how do I get the perfect lighting?) and professional (how do I write an artist statement?!) – that overwhelm me at times.

How have you dealt with/overcome it?

Prayer, sabr (patience), and confidence. I am starting to believe that I am good at what I do. Confidence is magical and restorative. When I started believing that I was good at my craft, even with incomprehensible space to grow, I began to take more risks to push my work, to be critiqued, and to just be out there.

A special friend also sent me this video – Ira Glass on Storytelling:

"And the thing I would just like say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn't as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short, you know, and some of us can admit that to ourselves and some of us are a little less able to admit that to ourselves … Everybody goes through that. And for you to go through it, if you're going through it right now, if you're just getting out of that phase or if you're just starting off and you're entering into that phase, you've got to know it's totally normal and the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work."

What has your greatest achievement been?

I am not sure if I've had it yet, but if I had to pick, I'd say having my photographs and writing published as well as exhibited while balancing an 80-hour-a-week job as a high school teacher in Brooklyn. Somehow I am finding time to work on my craft and I thank God that I've had the opportunity to find a balance between my passions of teaching and storytelling.

Where will you be in 10 years?

InshaAllah, alive. To be honest, I am not sure where I will be. I just know that somehow it will include photography, mobile teaching, libraries and journalism. As I dream, it would look something like documenting syncretic spiritual communities throughout the diaspora, hosting 4 week long mobile arts programs for youth, and building small local libraries.

How does Africa inspire you?

The first time I went to Africa was also the first time I left the state of California. I lived in Cape Town, South Africa as an exchange student then Johannesburg, South Africa as an Amy Biehl Fulbright Scholar.

The one thing (among many) that fascinated me about South Africa was the geography – literally the space and the ways that once-private space is made public, the way that once-non-Black space is reappropriated, and the intricate patterns people form on the streets while queueing for taxis or selling fruits. Some people say it is chaotic but there is something beautiful about it. A lot of folks talk about the overt beauty of Africa – the faces, the animals, the colors; however, I am more inspired and intrigued by finding the beauty in the seemingly chaotic and banal. I continue to look for that which goes unnoticed and disregarded.

Anything else you'd like to share?

I am really grateful for life.

And...I am looking to collaborate across borders (imagined or otherwise) and genres.

Anything we should look out for in the coming weeks/months/year?

My essay, "Lines of Bad Grammar" is published in the book I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim, which will be released on May 2nd.
I am heading to Johannesburg and Durban in late April to work on a photography project around spatial politics and youth.
Wrapping up a text-based project around the commodification of virginity.
I am a co-founder of Mambu Badu, a photography collective that seeks to find, expose, and nurture emerging female photographers of African descent. Our PDF magazine will be launched in April and our physical exhibit will open in the Washington, D.C. in late summer.
Interning for Liberator Magazine and I am organizing interviews with amazing artists based in NY.

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All images copyright and courtesy of Kameelah Rasheed. Except for bottom on-set photo from the film, Black Swan Theory, all photographs taken in Johannesburg

Like a Virgin Published in South African Magazine, "ITCH"

2011-04-01T21:50:00.001-04:00

My series “Counterfeit: Like a Virgin” was published in Itch magazine. A little bit about Itch.

Itch is a South African born, internationally relevant online/offline periodical featuring established and up and coming literary talent, as well as a variety of visual and multimedia work.

Submissions are loosely categorised as MetaText (non-fiction, essays, polemic, book reviews and more), SubText (narrative, short stories, plays and more), PreText (poetry, experimental writing, sound art and more) and NonText (graphics, drawings, photography, film, animation and more).

My work was featured in “preTEXT” (poetry) which makes a lot of sense. Please take a moment to check my work out as well as the work of the other contributors.

“Like a Virgin” (Work in Progress) is a series of text that addresses the varied technologies women and men have concocted to counterfeit virginity.

These technologies are inextricably tied to religious and cultural paradigms that (ir)rationally assign a women’s worth according to her virginity. Also, these technologies are without a doubt also tied to a capitalist structure in which these religious and cultural paradigm having at once already exploited women, are then themselves exploited in the pursuit of financial gain. From those in the medical field to those in the sex toy industry, everyone has captured the opportunity to commodify virginity—to literally put a price on this amorphous notion of purity. This amorphous notion of purity has been translated into a tangible item that can be bought, sold, and bartered.

Inspired by Harryette Mullen’s “Recyclopedia,” in the pieces, original text from advertisements and letters is transmuted and (re)organized to create new meaning—meaning that is sometimes highly referential and difficult to decode but nonetheless explore the uncanny valuation of virginity.

Everything Updated--Enjoy!

2011-03-20T11:45:00.002-04:00

Union Square, March 2011

2011-03-19T17:41:00.000-04:00

Charles

2011-03-17T13:57:00.002-04:00

Series: Presence

2011-03-17T13:56:00.001-04:00

Hand

2011-03-17T13:54:00.000-04:00

Atlantic Avenue x Sunday

2011-03-17T13:48:00.000-04:00

Tikkun Daily: I Speak For Myself – American Women on Being Muslim

2011-03-14T14:29:00.000-04:00

Tikkun Daily: I Speak For Myself – American Women on Being Muslim

Conceived and edited by Maria Ebrahimji, an executive producer at CNN and Zahra Suratwala, the founder of a writing firm called Zahra Ink, I Speak for Myself attempts to let Muslim American women define themselves on their own terms.

Each essay gives a snapshot into the contributors’ lives, offering a simple but meaningful look into what its like to be a Muslim woman in America without trying to speak for all Muslim American women. It seemed to me as I read the book that the editors kept their submission requirements very minimal, allowing for some lovely individualized story-telling. I was inspired to read the story of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s 2008 Campaign; touched by Fatemeh Fakhraie’s beautiful angst over her relationship with her Iranian-immigrant parents; and humbled by Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s ability to address racism within the Muslim community without being bitter or victimized.

Taryn Simon / "The Innocents": On the Criminal Justice System, Photography and Wrongful Conviction » The Liberator Magazine | Blog

2011-03-13T15:57:00.001-04:00

Taryn Simon / "The Innocents": The Criminal Justice System, Photography, and Wrongful Conviction
by Kameelah Rasheed (Intern, The Liberator Magazine)

"Photography’s ability to blur truth and fiction is one of its most compelling qualities. But when misused as part of a prosecutor’s arsenal, this ambiguity can have severe, even lethal consequences. Photographs in the criminal justice system, and elsewhere, can turn fiction into fact. As I got to know the men and women that I photographed, I saw that photography’s ambiguity, beautiful in one context, can be devastating in another."
-Taryn Simon (2005, Museum of Contemporary Photography)

Taryn Simon, born in 1975 in New York, is an American fine arts photographer whose work is simply brilliant. Somewhat of an archivist of the hidden and an investigative journalist, her work is a reflection of an intense research process. The conceptual nature of her work is seductive--hidden and unfamiliar American sites, airport contraband, the wrongly convicted, conflict regions, etc.; however, that is not the only reason why I am drawn to her work. The intensity of her research process is a reminder that to be a photographer is to also be a patient and persistent researcher armed with a periscope as well as the ability to accept disappointment. One such disappointment came from Disney. In an interview with Interview Magazine, Simon explains how she was denied access to Disney's underground facilities through a fax,

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Especially during these violent times, I personally believe that the magical spell cast on guests who visit our theme parks is particularly important to protect, and helps to provide them with an important fantasy they can escape to.
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As Simon comments, while the rejection stalled the photographic portion of her project,"this strange poem and its individual voice escaping a notoriously protective corporate empire perfectly defines the complexities that sustain facades" and turned out to be "better than any photograph I could have ever produced." Despite disappointment and lack of access, Simon has gained access to a community of oft-forgotten members of society: the wrongly convicted.

During the summer of 2000, Simon worked for the New York Times Magazine photographing individuals who were wrongly convicted, imprisoned, then thankfully, freed from death row. Following the assignment, she applied for a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Photography to travel across the United States to photograph and interview people who were wrongly convicted--in most cases--due to mistaken identity. After being awarded, she traveled the United States and began to investigate the intersections between photography, the criminal justice system, the fabrication of truth. While Simon is a photographer, her work also exposes the dangers of the medium. "The Innocents" (2002) explores the "lethal" nature of photography in the criminal justice system, asking the question, Are photographs a fair arbiter of innocence? From the project statement:

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"The Innocents" documents the stories of individuals who served time in prison for violent crimes they did not commit. At issue is the question of photography's function as a credible eyewitness and arbiter of justice.

The primary cause of wrongful conviction is mistaken identification. A victim or eyewitness identifies a suspected perpetrator through law enforcement's use of photographs and lineups. This procedure relies on the assumption of precise visual memory. But, through exposure to composite sketches, mugshots, Polaroids, and lineups, eyewitness memory can change. In the history of these cases, photography offered the criminal justice system a tool that transformed innocent citizens into criminals. Photographs assisted officers in obtaining eyewitness identifications and aided prosecutors in securing convictions.

Simon photographed these men at sites that had particular significance to their illegitimate conviction: the scene of misidentification, the scene of arrest, the scene of the crime or the scene of the alibi. All of these locations hold contradictory meanings for the subjects. The scene of arrest marks the starting point of a reality based in fiction. The scene of the crime is at once arbitrary and crucial: this place, to which they have never been, changed their lives forever. In these photographs Simon confronts photography's ability to blur truth and fiction-an ambiguity that can have severe, even lethal consequences.
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Larry Mayes | Served 18^1/2 years of an 80-year sentence for rape, robbery and ''unlawful deviate conduct.'' (Photographed at the Royal Inn, Gary, Ind., where he was arrested while trying to hide beneath a mattress.)

Calvin Washington | Wrongfully accused- Served 13 years of a life sentence for murder (C&E Motel, Room No. 24, Waco, Texas where an informant claimed to have heard Washington confess.)

Tim Durham | Served 3^1/2 years of a 3,220 year sentence for rape and robbery. Eleven alibi witnesses placed Durham at a skeet-shooting competition at the time of the crime.

Ronald Jones | Served 8 years of a death sentence (Scene of arrest, South Side, Chicago, Illinois.)

Larry Youngblood | Served 8 years of a 10^1/2-year sentence for sexual assault, kidnapping and child molestation. (Photographed in Tucson with Alice Laitner at her apartment building, the scene of his alibi.)

Just how grave of an issue is wrongful conviction? According to the Innocence Project's report, "250 Exonerated: Too Many Wrongfully Convicted," released on February 4, 2010:

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• There have been DNA exonerations in 33 states and the District of Columbia.
• The top three states for DNA exonerations are New York (with 25), Texas (with 40) and Illinois (with 29).
• 76% of the wrongful convictions involved eyewitness misidentification.
• 50% involved unvalidated or improper forensic science.
• 27% relied on a false confession, admission or guilty plea.
• 70% of the 250 people exonerated are people of color (60% are black; nearly 9% are Latino; 29% are white).
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CONCEPTS//Virgin

2011-02-27T13:00:00.002-05:00

Recently, my work has moved into the more conceptual realm. I like this direction even whilst being committed to documentary work. Below are pieces from an ongoing series about virginity--it's historical construction, its (de)valuation, its contemporary deployment in religious discourse, etc. I complete/destroy/complete/publicly display a piece of month on this series and inshaAllah, I will done by April. In March, the pieces will be collage-based and in April the pieces will be audio-based.

Taking a page from one of my newest photographer discovery, Taryn Simon, I am committed to making photography, and all art that I do, just as much about the research process as about the final product. I want the labor of my research to be visible not out of vanity, but out of a desire to make as much as my thinking visible to the viewer.

As a working teacher who builds curriculum, instructs youth, and assesses learning, I am beginning to think of my art as I would a history lesson plan--give students a taste by posing a question, then send them to do independent research using primary documents, etc. There are those frustrating moments of confusion, but they have to fight through it. As an artist, I'd hope that the viewer decide to "fight through" any obscurity in my work. I'd love for my work to be accessible enough to be understood at least marginally, but also contain references that are obscure enough to encourage independent research. There is something exhilarating about not knowing, then researching, then knowing something. Reading Harryette Mullen's work always put me in that disorienting space of confusion of highly referential and abstruse texts. I like that space because it pushed me to do research; I like the challenge, the sense of frustration. I'd read her work, create my own footnotes, and be lead somewhere unexpected. Sometimes when I look at art, my work included, I feel like the artist has given "too much" to the viewer--the viewer does no "labor" to understand the piece...and if too much intellectual heavy lifting is required, the piece is dismissed as unnecessarily dense. I will return to these ideas later.

Click the images below to see the current pieces with their descriptions. The newest piece--"Untitled Virgin Blood" is a series of expired B&W 35mm film shots--read the descriptions for more details. And as always, all my work can be found here.

Untitled

2011-02-26T18:28:00.000-05:00

"Truth Translated into Images" / Photographer Laylah Amatullah Barrayn on Struggle, Self-Acceptance, Becoming Whole, and Truth » The Liberator Magazine | Blog

2011-02-23T00:11:00.000-05:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

“Truth Translated into Images”/ Laylah Amatullah Barrayn

by Kameelah Rasheed (Intern, The Liberator Magazine)

“One of those books would be asha bandele's The Prisoner's Wife. I think my life changed when I read that book, I've never experienced that degree of honesty. It mirrored my struggle with self-acceptance, becoming whole and acclimated with the truth. It is a beautiful, liberating story. I'd love to have those elements of truth translated in my images. I've been focusing on portraits over the past couple of years. I've been enjoying the process of composing with my subject, helping them tell their story through a photograph simultaneously while allowing me to expand my philosophy and practice of composing. Portraits really uncover so much for a photographer.”

—Laylah Amatullah Barrayn

I came to know of Laylah back in 2007. I was an aspiring photographer in California and had flown out to Brooklyn to the opening of a group show I was in at the Brooklyn Artist Gym. Somehow, I stumbled onto her work online and excitedly emailed her samples of my work and asked for some guidance. I was nothing more than an enthusiastic stranger on the other side of country—on the other side of an virtual wall, but she did not hesitate to have a phone conversation with me about my work. I finally made the move to New York City in 2010 and Laylah has been a critical force in encouraging me to take more risks as a photographer.

Laylah is a self-taught photographer, essayist, educator, cyclist, former dance, and food enthusiast.

In her giving nature, she was eager to discuss her photography, upcoming projects, inspirations, and words of wisdom through an email interview with us:

Liberator Magazine: Who is Laylah Amatullah Barrayn? Where did you grow up? What are your folks like? Where did you go to school?

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn: The more I venture into adulthood; the more I'm paying attention and learning who I am. The things I am discovering are fascinating. I love the freedom that I realize is my birthright, I don't think many people are aware of their freedom. We subscribe to what is popular as opposed to our natural inclinations at the expense of our authentic and happiness. The process of growing is hard, at times, but it is a beautiful struggle, as they say.

I grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, a small neighborhood, known for its notorious hardness and crime. So, some of the first lessons on negotiation and communication unfortunately involved violence as a means. But living with that helps you to understand that there are other options and those other options you come to appreciate in earnest. I went to NYC public schools all my life. I graduated from Martin Luther King, Jr. High school near Lincoln Center, the "famed" LaGuardia High School, the Alvin Ailey dance studios, there in high school is where I experienced so much of the performing arts, but not photography.

Both my mother and father were quiet and temperamental people. They were minimalists and took pleasure in "the simpler things of life," such as family, music, art and food. My mother used to like to bake when I was a child. As you move outward, my surrounding family is where you get more texture and animation in the personalities.

LM: From your biography, you discussed how you received your first official assignment in 1997 to shoot the Million Woman March at the age of 17. Can you talk more about that experience? Who gave you the assignment? Were you apprehensive? What did you attempt to capture? What did you learn about yourself as a photographer? What about this experience made you want to continue photography?

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn: My mother used her camera a lot. For some reason, she felt it was very important to document the family as they visited us. If it wasn't for her pictures, we wouldn't have many memories of our family where quite a few unfortunately passed away within close intervals of each other. I suppose, as any child would do, I took this important documentary for granted. I didn't realize the enormity of documenting one's family, especially as African Americans, until later.

I received my first assignment from a small publication [in] upstate New York to document the Million Woman March in Philadelphia. It was one of the first times where I felt powerful and that I was able to have some type of effect in that I could share this moment. I wanted to get myself and other people thinking, to offer some exposure. I didn't even realize how tremendous the march would be until I got there and felt that energy and love; it was amazing!

I had a point-and-shoot camera, film, and was so careful as to what I composed. It was a very different experience because you had a limited amount of opportunities to capture these moments. Back then I was a very fastidious but spontaneous photographer. The positive reaction I received when I shared my pictures made me want to share even more. I felt as if I made a real offering.

LM: Many people know you as a photographer; however you began as a dancer, are an accomplished writer, and now also an elementary teacher. How do these other elements of your being influence your photographic work?

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn: I think being in these different spaces spark my creativity. They provide ideas of what to explore and document. Connecting with people in different circumstances gives me different ideas on how to compose: some situations are fast; some are fragile. I've been able to really understand that because an element is at the forefront of a situation that doesn't mean that it is the most important element to consider. I've learned to investigate and understand.

LM: How does your spirituality influence your work, if at all?

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn: I think spirituality affects my photography in that I am always aware to do right by the people I photograph, to respect and honor them. There has been a controversy with Islam and photography. Some Muslims feel it is prohibited to draw, take pictures or carve statues. It comes from when people would carve statues and worship the statues. It is not my intention to have my photography represent anything divine, so I don't subscribe to this prohibition.

LM: You are a self-taught photographer. What are some the advantages of this? Have you experienced any drawbacks? Do you have formal training in any other visual arts fields?

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn: My first SLR camera was such an enigma; I broke it and had to get another one! I think as long as you are learning and diligent in learning all the facets of your craft, whether you are in school or shadowing a more accomplished photographer, as long as you have that drive and curiosity, you should come along fine. When I was learning I was always out and about, meeting people, going to openings, talking to the workers in the different labs, I was just out there and eventually I became recognized as part of a photography community in NYC. I really loved my path as a self-taught photographer, the mistakes I've made were so very fortifying as well as the connections. I would think one of the drawbacks would be that you don’t have as much free access to post-production equipment as a student might have.

LM: Many of the people who have known you for quite some time or been in your presence for a few moments know that you are quite humble and have a large heart. You have accomplished a great deal at a young age. How have you remained grounded and humbled? What are you looking forward to doing next?

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn: I don't know how to answer that question. I guess since everything I do is just a part of my regular, everyday life, I don't take them as accomplishments. I love to give because so much was given to me. It is such an awesome feeling to give someone something. I don't think we pay attention to the bliss we, ourselves, feel when we are the givers; it's luscious. I want more so that I can give more. That is what I am looking forward to next, as well as curating more shows!

LM: In your career as a photographer and writer, of what are you most proud?

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn: I'm just so grateful that I've been able to travel around the world and bring those experiences back. I feel like I've inspired my own imagination as well at that of many of my family and friends. I've had interesting moments like having lunch with Miriam Makeba in Morocco and writing about my favorite jazz musician, Roy Hargrove, for Vibe magazine. I loved that my photography have been exhibited nationally and published in books. I think I'm most proud of the fact that I'm still on this wonderful journey; I'm still here!

LM: Often times, photographers are asked about what photographers have influenced them; however, I am interested in what writers and music have influenced your photography. Are there any albums or books that speak to the core of what you do as a photographer?

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn: One of those books would be asha bandele's The Prisoner's Wife. I think my life changed when I read that book; I've never experienced that degree of honesty. It mirrored my struggle with self-acceptance, becoming whole and acclimated with the truth. It is a beautiful, liberating story. I'd love to have those elements of truth translated in my images. I've been focusing on portraits over the past couple of years. I've been enjoying the process of composing with my subject, helping them tell their story through a photograph simultaneously while allowing me to expand my philosophy and practice of composing. Portraits really uncover so much for a photographer.

LM: Finally, what advice would you give to emerging photographers, particularly women of color?

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn: I think it is very important to be in tune with yourself, so much so that you hear your intuition clearly. This will help you as you navigate. You'll come across many people, some who are sincere and others who do not have your best interest at heart. You'll need to recognize these people. You will need to trust and work with other photographers, curators, publishers, etc., but it is important to know yourself in order to have the maximum benefits.

There is something Audre Lorde said that is 10,000% true. She said: "If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive." Allowing others to validate you can be so dangerous. I can't stress it enough. People make all types of assumptions, unfortunately, [and] if they're assuming that you are not able, beautiful, worthy, educated enough, whatever AND they have the ability to make decisions based on their assumptions, it places people who are actually worthy at a disadvantage. I say all that to say: at all times believe in yourself and most importantly, define yourself.

LM: Anything else you'd like to share?

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn: I'm crazily excited about my next solo show opening in September 2011 at Skylight Gallery, I'd love everyone to check it out! I can't wait. And, thank you for this interview! Peace.

See more of her work at thinklove.carbonmade.com. Read her food blogthedistinguishedbelly.blogspot.com.

Brothers

2011-02-22T11:52:00.002-05:00

"I Speak for Myself"--40 Essays by Muslim Women (including me!)

2011-02-16T16:40:00.000-05:00

About two years ago, a woman who worked for CNN as a journalist and Executive Editorial Producer for approached me and asked me to write an essay about being a Muslim woman in America. Several iterations later, a final draft was submitted and the book was submitted to publishers. A few months ago, all 40 essayists were notified that we had a publisher and the book, "I Speak for Myself" will be released on May 2, 2011. In the interim, you can browse our site here. We have received some positive buzz so far from Deepak Chopra, Soledad O'Brien, Eboo Patel, Muhammad Yunus, Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, etc. Our main upcoming event is on March 3rd at the State Department where we will be having a Wisdom Session with Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities.

You can pre-order now from White Cloud Press to receive an incredible 40% OFF the list price.

I am really excited to be part of this collective of women!