Art

Spoken word artists, other talent featured in South L.A.

WAVE NEWSPAPERS — The stage at the Proud Bird restaurant sparkled with talent March 16 when the National Association for Equal Justice in America (NAEJA) held its first talent show that showcased young spoken word artists, comedians and singers.

Published

6 years ago

March 31, 2019

Shirley Hawkins Contributing Writer

By Shirley Hawkins

LOS ANGELES — The stage at the Proud Bird restaurant sparkled with talent March 16 when the National Association for Equal Justice in America (NAEJA) held its first talent show that showcased young spoken word artists, comedians and singers.

“We wanted to attract more youth between the ages of 18 to 29 to join the organization,” said NAEJA President Royce Esters, who had been thinking about staging the talent show for two years.

Esters said that he wanted to showcase the creativity of young people and to present them with more opportunities. “If the youth are not going to school or enlisting to go into the service or working, they will spend their idol time selling dope, joining a gang or robbing,” Esters said.

Soof the Radio Kid kicked off the show by strumming his guitar and delivering an impassioned version of Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven” to the delight of the crowd.

He was followed by a dreadlocked Kyle Smith who had traveled from New Orleans to Los Angeles to break into the comedy field. Smith kept the crowd chuckling with a funny monologue titled “Eyebrows” about a girl’s whimsical eyebrows.

Smith was followed by Watts native Maceo Bradley, who was dressed in a gold bow tie and suspenders and recited a sobering poem titled “Drowning” about his former rap crew. He said that all three of his friends had met untimely deaths.

“I wrote this song yesterday,” said Bradley, who doubled as the evening’s master of ceremonies. “One of my rap friends drowned and the other two got shot,” he said.

He recited the lyrics.

“I been drinking water like I breathe it, I’ve been seeking peace because I need it, gunshots up the block, another body dropped, I’m surprised that I don’t have my wings yet.”

During a pause in the show, Soof the Radio Kid showed off his impressive dance moves by demonstrating how to do the Floss, a popular dance. Several audience members joined him on the dance floor as lively music filled the air.

Poet/rapper Taylor Made recited a poem called ‘King,’ about a young man trying to shrug off the turmoil of life so that he can thrive.

“It’s about the plight of the black male in American society and some of the issues that we go through as black males,” he said.

Anisa, a spoken word artist and fashion stylist who sported a bright yellow T-shirt, read a poem praising black women, followed by spoken word artist LaVeda, who read a poem about being in love with her friend’s boyfriend.

The Real Little Malcolm recited a poem about growing up in Compton and hearing the constant sound of gunshots.

Ketayama Stewart, a former school counselor and Brooklyn transplant, recited a poem titled “Ebony” about a young dark hued woman who struggled to accept her beauty.

“I wrote this song in 10 minutes about a former student,” Stewart said. “She was beautiful, but she was insecure. She wanted to straighten her hair and to lose weight. But the beauty she sas seeking was already inside her.”

Khzzari had the crowd groovin’ with a jazzy song called “Operation Smooth” about the beauty of love that was accompanied over a funky soundtrack.

Jessie Andrews, also known by his rap name Jay Plus, recited a poem called “The Black State of Mind.”

He said that he had driven to Los Angeles from Albany, New York to break into the music business and become a rapper.

“I’m living in my car right now,” said Andrews, who is hoping to break into the rap business soon.

Feragi, who wore waist long braids and a bright green dress, recited a touching poem about black womens’ beauty.

Nia Ling, a high school senior and artist who had traveled from Riverside, unveiled her painting titled “The Planet of Love” which she donated to the top winner.

Taking the stage next was Shani, who recited a poem about Kalief Browder, a young man from the Bronx who was incarcerated on Riker’s Island for allegedly stealing a backpack.

“He was facing 15 years, but he was sentenced to three years in prison,” Shani said, adding that Browder was innocent of the charges. “He spent two of those years in solitary confinement,” said Shani, who added that Browder eventually committed suicide.

“I wanted to touch the sky, but instead I’m touching walls. Kids waiting on college letters, but I’m waiting on trial. You have me educating myself on how to be successful suicidal,” she recited.

Browder hung himself on June 6, 2015.

“I wrote the poem because I believe that the criminal justice system needs a lot of change,” said Shani. “Every day we’re seeing black and brown individuals being incarcerated for crimes they didn’t commit and they are not seeing trial.”

The audience was entranced by the surprise addition of singer Maricio Donaldson, a Compton native and finalist on “American Idol” who sang a riveting rendition of “A Change is Gonna Come.”

After much deliberation, judges awarded the third place prize of $100 to Feragi, the $200 dollar prize to LaVeda, and the first place prize of $500 to Shani.

Pamela Richardson, chairperson of Labor and Industry for NAEJA, donated $500 to the first place winner. NAEJA supplied the rest of the prize money.

“I was very pleased with the talent show,” said Esters, who said he is already looking forward to the second annual event next year. “People from Rialto, San Bernardino and Riverside came. Everybody seemed to enjoy it.”

Royce Esters founded NAEJA in 1997, which is a nonprofit organization that works to eliminate discrimination, reform the justice and prison systems and award educational scholarships.

This article originally appeared in the Wave Newspapers.

Shirley Hawkins Contributing Writer

Posts by Shirley Hawkins Contributing Writer

Up Next

City closes South L.A. oil drilling site

Don't Miss

Rooted in 38126: ESports and video gaming breaks ground in ‘Soulsville’

Shirley Hawkins Contributing Writer

Click to comment

Art

Brown University Professor and Media Artist Tony Cokes Among MacArthur Awardees

When grants were announced earlier this month, it was noted that seven of the 22 fellows were African American. Among them are scholars, visual and media artists a poet/writer, historian, and dancer/choreographer who each receive $800,000 over a five-year period to spend as they see fit. Their names are Ruha Benjamin, Jericho Brown, Tony Cokes, Jennifer L. Morgan, Ebony G. Patterson, Shamel Pitts, Jason Reynolds, and Dorothy Roberts. This is the third in the series highlighting the Black awardees.

Published

3 weeks ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Tony Cokes. Photo courtesy of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Special to The Post

Tony Cokes

Tony Cokes, 68, is a media artist creating video works that recontextualize historical and cultural moments. Cokes’s signature style is deceptively simple: changing frames of text against backgrounds of solid bright colors or images, accompanied by musical soundtracks.

Cokes was born in Richmond, Va., and received a BA in creative writing and photography from Goddard College in 1979 and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1985. He joined the faculty of Brown University in 1993 and is currently a professor in the Department of Modern Culture and Media.

According to Wikipedia, Cokes and Renee Cox, and Fo Wilson, created the Negro Art Collective (NAC) in 1995 to fight cultural misrepresentations about Black Americans.^[^5]

His work has been exhibited at national and international venues, including Haus Der Kunst and Kunstverein (Munich); Dia Bridgehampton (New York); Memorial Art Gallery University of Rochester; MACRO Contemporary Art Museum (Rome); and the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts (Harvard University), among others.

Like a DJ, he samples and recombines textual, musical, and visual fragments. His source materials include found film footage, pop music, journalism, philosophy texts, and social media. The unexpected juxtapositions in his works highlight the ways in which dominant narratives emerging from our oversaturated media environments reinforce existing power structures.

In his early video piece Black Celebration (A Rebellion Against the Commodity) (1988), Cokes reconsiders the uprisings that took place in Black neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Detroit, Newark, and Boston in the 1960s.

He combines documentary footage of the upheavals with samples of texts by the cultural theorist Guy Debord, the artist Barbara Kruger, and the musicians Morrisey and Martin Gore (of Depeche Mode).

Music from industrial rock band Skinny Puppy accompanies the imagery. In this new context, the scenes of unrest take on new possibilities of meaning: the so-called race riots are recast as the frustrated responses of communities that endure poverty perpetuated by structural racism. In his later and ongoing “Evil” series, Cokes responds to the rhetoric of the Bush administration’s “War on Terror.”

Evil.16 (Torture.Musik) (2009–11) features snippets of text from a 2005 article on advanced torture techniques. The text flashes on screens to the rhythm of songs that were used by U.S. troops as a form of torture.

The soundtrack includes Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Britney Spears’s “… Baby One More Time,” songs known to have been played to detainees at deafening decibel levels and on repeated loops. The dissonance between the instantly recognizable, frivolous music and horrifying accounts of torture underscores the ideological tensions within contemporary pop culture.

More recently, in a 2020 work entitled HS LST WRDS, Cokes uses his pared-down aesthetic to examine the current discourse on police violence against Black and Brown individuals. The piece is constructed around the final words of Elijah McClain, who was killed in the custody of Colorado police. Cokes transcribes McClain’s last utterances without vowels and sets them against a monochromatic ground. As in many of Cokes’s works, the text is more than language conveying information and becomes a visualization of terrifying breathlessness. Through his unique melding of artistic practice and media analysis, Cokes shows the discordant ways media color our understanding and demonstrates the artist’s power to bring clarity and nuance to how we see events, people, and histories.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Art

A Prolific Painter: Artist and Advocate Lois Mailou Jones

Lois Mailou Jones was a prominent African American artist whose career spanned more than seven decades, from the Harlem Renaissance to the modern art movement. She was not only a prolific painter but also an influential educator, bridging cultural gaps and challenging stereotypes through her vibrant and diverse works.

Published

4 weeks ago

October 29, 2024

Oakland Post

Courtesy of National Archives, Washington, D.C.

By Tamara Shiloh

Her unique journey of self-expression, dedication to art, and advocacy for African American and African themes made her a crucial figure in the evolution of American art.

Jones was born on Nov. 3, 1905, in Boston. Raised in an intellectual and supportive family, she demonstrated an early interest in art, encouraged by her mother, who believed in the importance of creativity. Lois studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she faced racial challenges but persisted in pursuing her passion.

Her pursuit of higher education led her to the prestigious Design Art School, where she perfected her skills in textile design. Later, Jones attended Harvard University and received further training at the Académie Julian in Paris. This European experience greatly influenced her style and broadened her perspective on art.

Jones’s career began in textile design, creating works that were used by leading textile companies. However, her true passion was painting. During the Harlem Renaissance, she moved away from textile design to focus on fine art, exploring themes that reflected her heritage and the African diaspora.

Her early works were influenced by European Post-Impressionism, featuring landscapes and still life, but Jones’s style evolved over time. After spending time in Haiti, she was deeply inspired by Caribbean culture, and her palette became more vivid, her subject matter more symbolic. The influence of African and Caribbean culture is evident in her later works, where she used bright colors and geometric patterns to convey the spirit and stories of the people she encountered.

Her contributions to African American art were significant during a time when Black artists struggled for recognition. She often focused on themes of African heritage, pride, and unity, blending African illustrations and portraits with Western artistic techniques to create a unique visual language that celebrated Black culture.

She was also a dedicated educator. She began her teaching career at Palmer Memorial Institute in North Carolina and later became a professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she taught for almost 50 years. Through her teaching, she influenced generations of young Black artists, encouraging them to explore and express their cultural heritage through art.

In the 1930s and 1940s, she worked to exhibit her work alongside other Black artists, helping to create a platform for voices that had long been excluded from mainstream galleries.

Recognition and Legacy

Jones achieved significant recognition throughout her lifetime, both in the United States and internationally. She exhibited her work across the globe, including in Paris, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Jones continued painting until her death in 1998, leaving behind a rich legacy of artistic achievements and contributions to art education. She broke boundaries by celebrating Black identity and heritage at a time when these themes were often marginalized.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Art

At Oakland Symphony’s 2024-25 Season Opening, Music Director Kedrick Armstrong Will Make History

Music Director Kedrick Armstrong will make history with his debut performance at the Oakland Symphony’s 2024-25 Season Opening Concert on Oct. 18, at 8 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland. Armstrong, who is from Georgetown, South Carolina, is the ninth music director in the organization’s almost 100-year-history. His appointment follows in the footsteps of the late Oakland Symphony Music Director and Conductor Michael Morgan.

Published

1 month ago

October 22, 2024

Oakland Post

Music Director Kedrick Armstrong. Photo by Scott Chernis.

By Oakland Post Staff

Music Director Kedrick Armstrong will make history with his debut performance at the Oakland Symphony’s 2024-25 Season Opening Concert on Oct. 18, at 8 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland.

Armstrong, who is from Georgetown, South Carolina, is the ninth music director in the organization’s almost 100-year-history. His appointment follows in the footsteps of the late Oakland Symphony Music Director and Conductor Michael Morgan.

Armstrong, 30, is not a new face to Oakland as he has been an active partner with the Oakland Symphony over the last few years both on and off-the-stage.

From 2022-24, Armstrong led three Oakland Symphony programs and guest-conducted the orchestra, showcasing his broad knowledge of the classical repertoire and enthusiasm for spotlighting diverse voices.

On his Oakland Symphony subscription debut on Feb. 16, Kedrick led the World Premiere of “Here I Stand: Paul Robeson,” an oratorio by Carlos Simon on a libretto by Dan Harder, commissioned by the Oakland Symphony.

On April 16, 2023, Armstrong conducted the Oakland Symphony’s Family Hype concert, presented in partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Bay Area. Armstrong first led the orchestra for a free “Summerstage at City Hall” concert at Oakland City Hall on Aug. 4, 2022.

The music program “Kedrick Armstrong Inaugural Inextinguishable Oakland!” will include commissioned works from master drummer Allison Miller and Bay Area artists – Ethiopian artist Meklit and Latin percussionist John Santos – in celebration of Living Jazz’s 40th anniversary.

Oct. 18 musical program:

Julia Perry: A Short Piece for Orchestra

Celebrate the 40-Year Anniversary of Living Jazz with three jazz-rooted compositions.

“Valley of the Giants” (for Eddie Marshall); Allison Miller, composer; arranged and orchestrated by Todd Sickafoose. Featured artist: Allison Miller, Drum Set; guest artist: Dayna Stephens, Saxophone.

Medley: “Ethio Blue, My Gold, Stars in a Wide Field”

Songs and Lyrics by Meklit; arrangement and orchestration by Sam Bevan. Featured artist: Meklit, Vocals; guest artists: Sam Bevan, Bass, Colin Douglas, Drumkit, Marco Peris Coppola, Tupan/Percussion.

“Un Levantamiento (An Uprising)”

Composer, percussion: John Santos; arrangers: Saul Sierra and John Santos. Featured artist: John Santos, güícharo, bongo; guest artists: Pedro Pastrana, Puerto Rican cuatro; Maria Cora, spoken word.

Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 4, “The Inextinguishable”

Pre-concert talk by John Kendall Bailey begins at 7:05pm.

For tickets, go to: https://oaklandsymphony.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/events/a0SUu0000001rYXMAY