November 5, 2024
Nzinga Knight and Fior Mendez at New York Fashion Week. (Photos: Getty Images)
Black American Muslim designer Nzinga Knight uses her designs to deliver a statement in fashion that few make: that a woman can dress modestly and still give full glamour. “My aesthetic was something really missing in the market,” she told the AFP news service.
The native New Yorker of Trinidadian and Guyanese decent started her clothing line in 2008 to bend the boundaries of feminine clothing. Mixing high style with the doctrines of her Muslim faith, “The look of my work is sensual, mysterious, innovative,” she stressed — without being overly revealing.
“It’s very distinct and can give me an edge,” Knight said of her fashion proposition.
Using the strength of her platform, Knight made another compelling — if unwitting — move: Launching a Dominican orphan’s modeling career. By casting Fior Mendez, 22, to walk in her New York Fashion Week show last Friday at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Knight helped to make a big dream come true.
ITHACA, N.Y. — Hip hop pioneer DJ Afrika Bambaataa (pictured) (bam-BAH’-tah) has been appointed to a three-year term as a visiting scholar at Cornell University.
In 1964, John Coltrane moved from Queens, N.Y., to a brick ranch house on a 31/2 acre wooded lot in the quiet suburb of Dix Hills. This bucolic setting — 40 miles east of the city — is perhaps the last place you’d expect to find a musician creating the virtuosic jazz that Coltrane is famous for. “I believe the solitude and the beauty of Long Island gave him something he had not had or experienced before,” he says. “Clearly it affected the way he conceived.”
But Ravi Coltrane, the son of John and Alice Coltrane, who was herself a noted jazz pianist and harpist, says the woods were part of his father’s creative process.
Ravi Coltrane was born in 1965 and lived in the Dix Hills house until he was six.
“This is my sister’s room over here. Michelle — this is her bedroom,” he says. “This was the boys’ room back here; this is the room I shared with my two brothers, John Jr. and Oran.”‘
But, Ravi Coltrane says, not all is as it was: The Coltrane Home in Dix Hills has fallen into disrepair in the 45 years after his father’s death.
Preserving The Property
Many, including Ravi Coltrane, are trying to preserve the historic property. The driving force behind the effort is Steve Fulgoni, a music store owner, amateur saxophonist and a huge Coltrane fan. He first visited the house in 2004.
“I was looking around, and I looked in the corner, which I think was in this room, and all there was was one newspaper,” Fulgoni says. “I picked up the newspaper, and I looked at the date, and the date of the newspaper was July 17, which was the anniversary of his death. And I said to myself, ‘I need to do something.'”
That same year, he founded The Friends of the Coltrane Home. Fulgoni petitioned the town of Huntington, N.Y., to declare the site a historic landmark, and two years later, to purchase the property and designate it a public park.
To read the rest of this article or listen to the story, click here: Making A Home For John Coltrane’s Legacy : NPR.
In 1964, John Coltrane moved from Queens, N.Y., to a brick ranch house on a 31/2 acre wooded lot in the quiet suburb of Dix Hills. This bucolic setting — 40 miles east of the city — is perhaps the last place you’d expect to find a musician creating the virtuosic jazz that Coltrane is famous for. “I believe the solitude and the beauty of Long Island gave him something he had not had or experienced before,” he says. “Clearly it affected the way he conceived.”
But Ravi Coltrane, the son of John and Alice Coltrane, who was herself a noted jazz pianist and harpist, says the woods were part of his father’s creative process.
Ravi Coltrane was born in 1965 and lived in the Dix Hills house until he was six.
“This is my sister’s room over here. Michelle — this is her bedroom,” he says. “This was the boys’ room back here; this is the room I shared with my two brothers, John Jr. and Oran.”‘
But, Ravi Coltrane says, not all is as it was: The Coltrane Home in Dix Hills has fallen into disrepair in the 45 years after his father’s death.
Preserving The Property
Many, including Ravi Coltrane, are trying to preserve the historic property. The driving force behind the effort is Steve Fulgoni, a music store owner, amateur saxophonist and a huge Coltrane fan. He first visited the house in 2004.
“I was looking around, and I looked in the corner, which I think was in this room, and all there was was one newspaper,” Fulgoni says. “I picked up the newspaper, and I looked at the date, and the date of the newspaper was July 17, which was the anniversary of his death. And I said to myself, ‘I need to do something.'”
That same year, he founded The Friends of the Coltrane Home. Fulgoni petitioned the town of Huntington, N.Y., to declare the site a historic landmark, and two years later, to purchase the property and designate it a public park.
To read the rest of this article or listen to the story, click here: Making A Home For John Coltrane’s Legacy : NPR.
You can call Awol Erizku’s art history-inflected photographs whatever you want — just don’t call them “urban.” “I hate when people label my work urban,” he says. “Just because it’s African American subjects or people of color it’s not urban.” His recent Renaissance-inspired portraits at Hasted Kraeutlerreplace the stiff aristocrats of centuries past with young New Yorkers wearing Louis Vuitton, Versace, and sometimes nothing at all. The pieces are poised and precisely lit while the subjects stand alone against a black background, boldly staring directly into the camera. Works like “Girl with a Bamboo Earring,” “Boy Holding Grapes,” and “Lady with a Pitbull” take direct inspiration from Vermeer, Caravaggio, and Da Vinci.
In the past two years, the 24-year-old photographer has graduated from Cooper Union, been accepted to Yale’s MFA program, and been picked up by a Chelsea gallery. His portraits of New York’s young black creative elite have made an impression on big players in the industry (Glenn Fuhrman of the FLAG Art Foundation was an early champion of his work), and this month he has two solo shows in New York — one at Hasted Kraeutler closing July 20 and the other at Rivington Design House Gallery opening July 19.
Erizku was born in Ethiopia, but grew up in the Bronx. He started taking photographs seriously in college after an internship with David LaChappelle. In both his gallery work and on his very active Tumblr, Erikzu is working to insert a young black voice onto the white walls of the art world. “There are not that many colored people in the galleries that I went to or the museums that I went to,” he said. “I was just like, ‘when I become an artist I have to put my two cents in this world.’”
Erizku updates his Tumblr, called “Thank You! Come Again,” nearly every day. The Tumblr photos are more relaxed than his gallery work, foregoing perfect lighting and precise posture for silly, playful poses against a plain white wall. Everyone who visits his studio is photographed (including this reporter). The Tumblr photographs document Erizku’s extensive network of fashionable friends, people he calls “movers and shakers in the city.” Street Etiquette style bloggers Joshua Kissi and Travis Gumbs, members of hip hop collective A$AP Mob, A$AP Rocky and A$AP Bari, and recently Mos Def have all made appearances.
While Erizku primarily photographs people of color, he expressed frustration with the way his work is sometimes described by critics, and is irked by frequent comparisons to painter Kehinde Wiley. While he respects Wiley’s work, he feels that they have little in common besides African American subjects. “Whenever I make something I want it to be compared to Andy [Warhol] or to Richard Avedon,” he said. While Kehinde Wiley also portrays young black men in classicizing portraits, the aesthetic fundamentals of their practices are drastically different. Erizku’s work feels more honest, more genuine. He mostly takes photographs of friends and his erudite yet easy-going look onto a specific scene of downtown creatives is what makes the work original. Where Kehinde’s paintings have taken on a manufactured character, Erizku’s photographs feel warmly personal.
His big ambitions, however, will be temporarily put on hold when he heads to Yale this fall. “Making this move is a bit drastic because this will be the first time I’m leaving the city to settle somewhere else,” he said. At Yale he wants to develop his sculpture; he says he’s interested in working with readymades. It will be interesting to see how someone so embroiled in the New York scene will fair in the much quieter New Haven. Erizku, however, is excited for the time away and says he is “up for the challenge.” We think so too.
“Awol Erizku” is on view at Hasted Kraeutler, 527 West 24th Street, New York, June 14-July 22, 2012; “Thank You Come Again!” is on view at Rivington Design House, 129 Rivington Street, New York, July 19-Sept. 6, 2012. To see Awol Erizku’s photos, click on the slide show.
article by Ashton Cooper via artinfo.com
You can call Awol Erizku’s art history-inflected photographs whatever you want — just don’t call them “urban.” “I hate when people label my work urban,” he says. “Just because it’s African American subjects or people of color it’s not urban.” His recent Renaissance-inspired portraits at Hasted Kraeutlerreplace the stiff aristocrats of centuries past with young New Yorkers wearing Louis Vuitton, Versace, and sometimes nothing at all. The pieces are poised and precisely lit while the subjects stand alone against a black background, boldly staring directly into the camera. Works like “Girl with a Bamboo Earring,” “Boy Holding Grapes,” and “Lady with a Pitbull” take direct inspiration from Vermeer, Caravaggio, and Da Vinci.
In the past two years, the 24-year-old photographer has graduated from Cooper Union, been accepted to Yale’s MFA program, and been picked up by a Chelsea gallery. His portraits of New York’s young black creative elite have made an impression on big players in the industry (Glenn Fuhrman of the FLAG Art Foundation was an early champion of his work), and this month he has two solo shows in New York — one at Hasted Kraeutler closing July 20 and the other at Rivington Design House Gallery opening July 19.
Erizku was born in Ethiopia, but grew up in the Bronx. He started taking photographs seriously in college after an internship with David LaChappelle. In both his gallery work and on his very active Tumblr, Erikzu is working to insert a young black voice onto the white walls of the art world. “There are not that many colored people in the galleries that I went to or the museums that I went to,” he said. “I was just like, ‘when I become an artist I have to put my two cents in this world.’”
Erizku updates his Tumblr, called “Thank You! Come Again,” nearly every day. The Tumblr photos are more relaxed than his gallery work, foregoing perfect lighting and precise posture for silly, playful poses against a plain white wall. Everyone who visits his studio is photographed (including this reporter). The Tumblr photographs document Erizku’s extensive network of fashionable friends, people he calls “movers and shakers in the city.” Street Etiquette style bloggers Joshua Kissi and Travis Gumbs, members of hip hop collective A$AP Mob, A$AP Rocky and A$AP Bari, and recently Mos Def have all made appearances.
While Erizku primarily photographs people of color, he expressed frustration with the way his work is sometimes described by critics, and is irked by frequent comparisons to painter Kehinde Wiley. While he respects Wiley’s work, he feels that they have little in common besides African American subjects. “Whenever I make something I want it to be compared to Andy [Warhol] or to Richard Avedon,” he said. While Kehinde Wiley also portrays young black men in classicizing portraits, the aesthetic fundamentals of their practices are drastically different. Erizku’s work feels more honest, more genuine. He mostly takes photographs of friends and his erudite yet easy-going look onto a specific scene of downtown creatives is what makes the work original. Where Kehinde’s paintings have taken on a manufactured character, Erizku’s photographs feel warmly personal.
His big ambitions, however, will be temporarily put on hold when he heads to Yale this fall. “Making this move is a bit drastic because this will be the first time I’m leaving the city to settle somewhere else,” he said. At Yale he wants to develop his sculpture; he says he’s interested in working with readymades. It will be interesting to see how someone so embroiled in the New York scene will fair in the much quieter New Haven. Erizku, however, is excited for the time away and says he is “up for the challenge.” We think so too.
“Awol Erizku” is on view at Hasted Kraeutler, 527 West 24th Street, New York, June 14-July 22, 2012; “Thank You Come Again!” is on view at Rivington Design House, 129 Rivington Street, New York, July 19-Sept. 6, 2012. To see Awol Erizku’s photos, click on the slide show.
article by Ashton Cooper via artinfo.com
Age: 88
Place of Residence: Harlem, N.Y.
Why she is a local hero: Lucille Singleton inspires people to be healthy with her marathon running.
Singleton runs everywhere she goes. It doesn’t seem like a big deal until you realize she’s almost 90. Singleton has run three New York City Marathons and finished in the top 10 for her age group all three times.
“I just love running. It makes me feel so good,” said Singleton.
Around her Harlem neighborhood, everyone recognizes her as he senior citizen who runs. The door attendant at her senior building asks how her running is going. And when she shows up at her gym at the New York Sports Club, she can barely make it to the weights because everyone wants to hug her.
Singleton gets up at 4 a.m. to run three miles and still hits the gym three or four times per week. She’s recently had some age-related kidney problems and now needs regular dialysis. Even that hasn’t stopped her running.
“When I finish dialysis, I like to run home,” said Singleton.
Her efforts are simply inspiring, says neighbor and friend Sylvia White.
“She runs four days a week, goes to aerobics twice a week. When you see this woman you … do a double take because she looks half her age. She defies the common expectations for seniors,” said White.
Singleton is proof that it’s never too late to accomplish your goals in life. At 71, after a career as a home health aide, she became a construction worker. The manager gave her the job of a flag person but Singleton wanted more. She wanted to lift and carry things. And that’s just what she did, helping to build 19 Rite Aid stores.
Singleton also didn’t run her first marathon until she was 75 years old. A friend’s daughter was running, and Singleton, remembering her high school running days, decided to give it a try. She finished fifth in her age group.
Now, Singleton feels her running is an inspiration to others. That’s why she has no plans to stop.
“When I get out and run in the morning, the cars blow their horns and the people wave,” said Singleton. “I have fans out there so I can’t stop.”
NEW YORK — He couldn’t go to medical school in New York, so James McCune Smith went to Scotland for his degree and returned home to treat the city’s poor. The degree he earned in 1837 made him the nation’s first professionally trained African-American doctor. He set up a medical practice in lower Manhattan and became the resident physician at an orphanage. Celebrated during his lifetime as a teacher, writer and anti-slavery leader, Smith fell into obscurity after his death in 1865 and was buried in an unmarked grave.
On Sunday, descendants who only recently learned they had a black ancestor, will honor Smith at his Brooklyn grave. It will be marked with a new tombstone. “He was one of the leaders within the movement to abolish slavery, and he was one of the most original and innovative writers of his time,” said John Stauffer, a professor of African-American studies at Harvard University who has written about Smith and edited a collection of his works. The story of why Smith was nearly overlooked by history and buried in an unmarked grave is in part due to the centuries-old practice of light-skinned blacks “passing” as white to escape racial prejudice.
Smith’s mother had been a slave; his father was white. Three of his children lived to adulthood, and they all apparently passed as white, scholars say. Smith’s great-great-great-granddaughter, Greta Blau of New Haven, Conn., said that none of his descendants was told that they had a black ancestor, let alone such an accomplished one. Blau came across her family connection while taking a course in the history of blacks in New York City. It was there that she came across the name James McCune Smith, which rang a bell. The name was inscribed in a family Bible belonging to her grandmother, Antoinette Martignoni.
Blau consulted with Stauffer, and they did some research and determined that the James McCune Smith who was known as America’s first black doctor was indeed her forebear. “I never, ever would have thought that I had a black ancestor,” Blau said. She added, “We’re all really happy. … He was a really amazing person in so many ways.” Smith lived and died during a time in America when little attention was given to the achievements of black people. Smith’s children refused to promote their father’s legacy and even shunned their African-American heritage. While hardly a household name, Smith was well known enough that a public school in Harlem was named after him. Danny Glover portrayed him in a video produced by the New York Historical Society.
Smith also was the first African-American to publish scholarly studies in peer-reviewed medical journals, Stauffer said. He also wrote essays countering theories of black racial inferiority that had currency then. He was a friend and associate of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and he wrote the introduction to Douglass’ “My Bondage and My Freedom.” Smith set up a medical practice and a pharmacy in what is now Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood. He also was the resident physician at the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. The orphanage burned to the ground in 1863 amid riots by white working-class immigrants over the Civil War draft. Smith and other prominent African-Americans fled to Brooklyn, then a separate city.
The asylum was re-established at a new location and survives today; it’s called Harlem Dowling. Smith championed educational opportunities as a founding member of the New York Society for Promotion of Education of Colored Children. He also helped organize New York’s resistance to the Fugitive Slave act of 1850, which decreed that slaves who escaped to the North be returned to their owners. Stauffer said Smith’s reputation suffers in comparison to Douglass’ because he was not a fiery speaker like Douglass. “He didn’t have the public persona,” Stauffer said. “He preferred writing.”
Carla Peterson, a professor of English at the University of Maryland who has written about Smith in a forthcoming book, “Black Gotham: An African American Family History,” said Smith did not share Douglass’ dramatic history of escape from slavery. “He did not live the life of a slave,” Peterson said. “He could not write a slave narrative.” But she said Smith was “incredibly significant.” “He’s remarkable for what he could do for his community,” she said.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
