Stuffism

I Am Not Your Negro is a lesson in duality in both form and function. The film is equal parts a maelstrom of black rage and a sleek, surgical assessment of the American Dream as it pertains to race. James Baldwin was out there in the world letting heads know it wasn’t RuPaul’s best friend race from jump street.

There is a somber brilliance that permeates the experience; brilliance in Baldwin’s competence as a social doctor, diagnosing the illness of the times, somber in that at the film’s end, you relate totally to his vision of the United States of the 1960s – in 2017. Brilliance, in relaying the queerness of Baldwin’s intense and sharp affect; serving face and side-eye alongside inflammatory social critique. Somber, knowing that part of his identity was never openly celebrated.

Samuel L. Jackson’s narration gives the viewer pause, as one hears how his voice lends Baldwin’s words weight. Our familiarity with Jackson is obscured by the subject matter of Baldwin’s unfinished book, Remember This House. Jackson doesn’t speak from the “I” at all, he simply reads what Baldwin wrote. He doesn’t even read it ‘muthafuckily’, he just reads what Baldwin wrote.

Red on here:

DOCUMENTARY: “Fantastic Man” - A Film About William Onyeabor.

From Lagos to London, New York to Enugu, music connoisseurs, industry insiders and intrigued individuals try to unravel the mystery of just who Nigerian pioneering musician William Onyeabor is. 

A fantastic documentary, about a “fantastic man”.

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By Joseph Parker

African Presence in Medieval and Renaissance Europe….

The Black King in the Art of the European Renaissance…. One of the most fascinating aspects of the African presence in Europe is the wide collection of images of the Black Magus/King in European art. Although sometimes identified as a Moor, he is not a Muslim. Such paintings adorn the galleries and museums throughout Europe and the United States. These are wonderful images of the wise and distinguished African king who followed a star and came to pay homage and provide rich treasures to the Christ child in the time of Herod in the manger in Bethlehem as described in the Gospel of Matthew.

The appearance of the Black king in European art appears at least by the 14th century and probably earlier. The Moors were a fixture in Europe at this time. By the 15th and 16th centuries, thousands of paintings depicting the Adoration of the Black Magus or King had been made.

The Black magus is the youngest of the three kings and traditionally he is said to come from Ethiopia. He is sometimes called a Moor and he is, interestingly enough, the king who stands farthest away from the Christ child. His name is Balthazar and his present to the Christ child is the gift of myrrh. Sometimes, particularly in the Dutch world, another of the kings is identified as Black. This is Gaspar, identified as a king from Asia and he is also credited sometimes as bringing myrrh, and sometimes frankincense.

Sculptor Christopher David White creates impressive ceramic sculptures, which resemble the characteristic of wood through a trompe l’oeil style. Keep reading.

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