Art

Mighty Mighty Art Installation is Centerpiece of Barbershop Project at THEARC

THE AFRO — The barbershop has long been a safe space for certain parts of the Black community – particularly Black men. Artist Devan Shimoyama wanted to take an in-depth look at that relationship in his art installation “Mighty Mighty,” which is the centerpiece of “The Barbershop Project,” a decked out fantastical barber shop offering free haircuts to the community.

Published

6 years ago

May 23, 2019

Oakland Post

By George Kevin Jordan

The barbershop has long been a safe space for certain parts of the Black community – particularly Black men. Artist Devan Shimoyama wanted to take an in-depth look at that relationship in his art installation “Mighty Mighty,” which is the centerpiece of “The Barbershop Project,” a decked out fantastical barber shop offering free haircuts to the community.

The installation a collaborative effort by Shimoyama, barber Kelly Gorsuch and furniture maker Caleb Woodard, and will run until August 24 at the ARC, 1901 Mississippi Avenue SE.

“Mighty Mighty,” was spun off of a previous body of work, Shimoyama had done in 2017.

“There were all these portraits from young boys to adult men receiving haircuts in a highly aestheticized barbershop with various materials like glitter, rhinestone,” Shimoyama said. “All of that was me, kind of in response to this conversation around toxic masculinity in certain spaces, and thinking of the barbershop where that is certainly present.”

Shimoyama said he had a conversation with friends who expressed frustration with having to “closet” themselves when going into some barbershop.

His work was an attempt to make barbershops “accessible to all of us,” he said.

This time around Shimoyama said the installation is using the same, “material, but creating an immersive experience as if you walked into one of those paintings. So there’s a lot of silk flowers holographic vinyl, rhinestone, glitter.”

“What’s nice about this is it’s also like a social practice or contextual practice version of my paintings,” Shimoyama said. ”They are more accessible to people who may not feel comfortable going to white box gallery spaces and this is planted right in neighborhood right by a community that has this other type of draw for them, and to be able to think of art in a less conventional maybe less elitist way. You can engage it.”

“So that’s really exciting for me.”

Shimoyama said the work’s intent and it’s audience has grown over time.

“So when i made the first iteration I had hoped to spark a dialogue on these issues on all sides of this issues,” Shimoyama said. “Not just queer people, but people who run or work at these spaces who are maybe straight Black men and see this work, and maybe rethink some of their actions in those spaces and help to make a comfortable or safe space for all to enter to.”

“S it ended up as a call to people who identified similarity to me with me. But it didn’t directly interact with people outside of that community which I was hoping to reach out to. So this iteration of that protect already seems more successful at that.”

In addition to “Mighty Mighty” and “The Barbershop Project,” CulturalDC will also offer a slate of summer programming at THEARC all centered on the cultural significance of the barbershop.

“CulturalDC has been looking forward to bringing the Mobile Art Gallery to THEARC for a long time,” said Kristi Maiselman, executive director of CulturalDC in a press release. “The Barbershop Project provides an opportunity to engage with both the wide-ranging resident organizations based at THEARC, and future-minded East of the Anacostia River communities that are informed by D.C.’s rich artistic history. Devan’s work offers a great platform for relevant conversations and engagement around barbershop culture.”

For moe information on the art installation and barbershop hours please go to www.culturaldc.org.

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

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Activism

Griot Theater Company Presents August Wilson’s Work at Annual Oratorical Featuring Black Authors

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Published

3 months ago

February 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Late playwright August Wilson. Wikipedia photo.

By Godfrey Lee

Griot Theater Company will present their Fifth Annual Oratorical with August Wilson’s “Half a Century,” at the Belrose on 1415 Fifth Ave., in San Rafael near the San Rafael Public Library.

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20^th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Previous performance highlighting essential Black American authors included Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry with Langston Hughes.

The play will be performed at 3:00. p.m. on Feb. 20, 21, 22, 27, and 28 at 7:00 p.m., and on Feb. 23 at 3:00 p.m.

For more information, go to griottheatercompany.squarespace.com/productions-v2

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Activism

MLK Day of Service Volunteers Make Blankets and Art for Locals in Need

“Everyone has an opportunity to participate,” said Glenda Roberts, kinship support care program manager at CCYSB. “Our nonprofit organization and participants recognize how important it is to give back to the community and this is serving. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, ‘Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.’”

Published

4 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Photo courtesy of the nonprofit.

By Kathy Chouteau
The Richmond Standard

The Contra Costa Youth Service Bureau (CCYSB) and Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church (BMBC) are collaborating with a team of volunteers for a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, Monday, Jan. 20 that will wrap the community’s most vulnerable people in warm blankets and provide them with an uplifting gift of art.

Volunteers will kick off their activities at BMBC at 11 a.m., making blankets for the unhoused people served by the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP) and art for those in convalescence in Richmond.

Others will get to work preparing a lunch of chili, salad, a veggie tray, and water for participants, offered courtesy of CCYSB, while supplies last.

“People of all ages are welcome to participate in the MLK Day of Service,” said Roberts. Volunteers can RSVP via phone to Glenda Roberts at 510-215-4670, ext. 125.

CCYSB Boardmember Jackie Marston and her friends donated the materials and supplies to make the blankets and art projects. The nonprofit is also providing the day’s complimentary lunch, as well as employees to volunteer, under the direction of CCYSB Executive Director Marena Brown.

BMBC, led by Rev. Dr. Carole McKindley-Alvarez, is providing the facility for the event and volunteers from the church, which is located at 684 Juliga Woods St. in Richmond.

Located in Richmond, CCYSB is a nonprofit youth advocacy organization that serves eligible children, youth, and low-income families with a variety of wraparound services so they can thrive. Programs include academic achievement, youth mentorship, truancy prevention and direct response.

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Art

Vandalism at Richmond Ferry Terminal Saddens Residents

Residents have been lamenting the destruction online. Ellen Seskin posted photos of the vandalism to the Facebook group, Everybody’s Richmond, on Jan. 12, saying she encountered it while out on a walk. “It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

Published

4 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Graffiti mars the walkway at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Photo by Kathy Chouteau, The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

“This is why we can’t have nice things,” stated the post on NextDoor.

The post referenced images of graffiti at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Not just on the terminal, but also on public artwork, on trail signs, on public benches and the boardwalk.

On Wednesday, the Standard stopped by to see it for ourselves. The good news was that it appears the graffiti on the terminal and on the artwork, called Changing Tide, have been cleaned for the most part. But graffiti remained abundant in the area around the relatively new ferry terminal, which opened to the public just six years ago.

Graffiti artists tagged benches and the boardwalk. Cars that had done doughnuts in the street marked the cul-de-sac just outside the historic Craneway Pavilion.

A ferry worker told us the graffiti had been there since before he started working for the ferry service about a week ago.

A member of the Army Corps of Engineers who did not want to be named in this report called the scene “sad,” as “they’d done such a nice job fixing it up.”

“It’s sad that all this money has been spent and hoodlums just don’t care and are destroying stuff,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how soon the graffiti would be removed. The Standard reported the graffiti to the city’s graffiti abatement hotline. We were prompted to leave a message reporting the address and location of the graffiti.

“It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

In the comment section responding to Seskin’s post, local attorney Daniel Butt questioned why there aren’t cameras in the area.

On Nextdoor, one resident suggested searching to see if the tags match any accounts on Instagram, hoping to identify the perpetrator.

On its website, the City of Richmond says residents should graffiti immediately call Public Works graffiti removal and/or Code Enforcement at 510-965-4905.

Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report.