Ramekon O'Arwisters

"Everyone is afraid to taste the flavor of my existence." -Ramekon O'Arwisters


A new artist (to me, and, seriously, one of the best names ever [formerly Tim Taylor]). Check out his Flickr photostream (from where this image comes) at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ramekon

and some bio info and a brief statement at ArtSlant.

"Transformations: Black Power Salute in Confederate Drag"

Ramekon O'Arwisters "SuperART Hero" clad in shaman's ceremonial tunic is photographed in different locations in San Francisco giving the black power salute to statues, buildings, and the ocean. "Transformations" is inspired by Anselm Kiefer's 1969 photography series "Occupations."

Photographer: Michael Ross

check out Professor's Kim's latest on BlogHer

(Kim had recently contact me regarding her discussion of an image of Michelle Obama, but she was also preparing this article on murdered South African athlete and lesbian Eudy Simelane, who I'd also heard about from Zanele Muholi.)

Up until the end of April this year, if you had run into former South African footballer Eudy Simelane, chances are that you would have met a happy woman. At 31, Simelane was still involved with the sport she loved as a coach and referee. She was a lesbian in a country in which homosexuality was not only legal, it is enshrined in the Constitution. Not only that, her close-knit family accepted her sexuality, as well as her partner of two years, Sibongile Pearl Vilakazi. On top of all of that good fortune, she was about to start a promising new job with a pharmaceutical company.

Then, on April 28, she was beaten, repeatedly stabbed and reportedly gang-raped and left to die in a shallow river near her home in the Tornado section of KwaThema township. According to news reports, five young men between the ages of 18 and 24 are in custody; reportedly one was a neighbor who knew Simelane. As of May 27, the case has been put off until June 3 while legal representation is being arranged for the defendants. This issue has already delayed the case before.

read more...

run, don't walk

I can't believe I'm missing this (I had a conflict)! As the kids say, I stan for Zanele, but also look at the rest of this lineup. The symposium is this weekend at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, in conjunction with the exhibition which recently opened (there's a catalog, too).

Zanele Muholi, Miss D'vine

http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/frenchstudies/events/index.asp?id=9407

Diasporic Bodies and Visual Culture: Contemporary African and African Diaspora Art Perspectives
A Department of History of Art and Visual Studies Annual Graduate Symposium Program Friday, April 11 2:00 p.m. Amanda Gilvin Welcome Symposium Co-organizer 2:05 p.m. Professor Shirley Samuels Opening Remarks Chair of the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies Guest Speaker 2:15 p.m. Dr. Anthony Downey Beyond Identity Politics: Excessive Identities in the Work of Yinka Shonibare, Aimé Ntakiyika, and Samuel Fosso Program Director of the M.A. in Contemporary Art at Sotheby's Institute of Art, London 3:15 p.m. Break Session One Moderator: Professor Diane Butler Visiting Assistant Professor, Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University 3:30 p.m. Dwan McClendon Wangechi Mutu: Female Figures and the Discourse of Destruction Kent State University, Ohio 4:00 p.m. Rose Oluronke Ojo Disrobing the Hero in Renee Cox's "Raje" and Yinka Shonibare's "Diary of A Victorian Dandy" Series School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London 4:30 p.m. Break Keynote Address 5:00 p.m. Professor Salah Hassan Keynote Introduction Lalla Assia Essaydi Continuity and Change: Veiled Realities Artist 6:30 p.m. Reception Saturday, April 12 10:00am Coffee and Tea Session Two Moderator: Professor Iftikhar Dadi Assistant Professor, Department of History of Art and Visual Studies, Cornell University 10:30 a.m. Zakiyyah Jackson The Perversity of Power and Violence in Kara Walker's 'Battle of Atlanta: Being a Narrative of a Negress in the Flames of Desire' University of California, Berkeley 11:00 a.m. Jon Senchyne Face, Race, Revolution: Facial Representation in Alain Locke's The New Negro and Richard Wright's Native Son Cornell University 11:30 a.m. Gabriel Peoples "Slavery Cannot Be Destroyed, But Only Change Form": Implications for the Status of Black Men in the Public Media in Hank Willis Thomas's B®anded and Unbranded Exhibitions Cornell University 12:00 p.m. Lunch Break Session Three Moderator: Professor Dagmawi Woubshet Assistant Professor, Department of English, Cornell University 1:00 p.m. Zanele Muholi Gay(zing) Body, Image, Beauty, and Landscape Ryerson University 1:30 p.m. Danielle M. Snoddy "I Am an Activist First—Then an Artist": The Photographic Work of Zanele Muholi University of Iowa 2:00 p.m. Kevin Dumouchelle Beyond the Body Boundary: Queer{y}ing the Photographs of Rotimi Fani-Kayode and Samuel Fosso Columbia University 2:30 p.m. Break Session Four Moderator: Professor Maria Fernandez Assistant Professor, Department of History of Art and Visual Studies, Cornell University 2:45 p.m. Jessica Hurd Breathing Body, Winding Snake: A Reevaluation of Body Symbolism in Dogon Art, Performance, and Village Design Indiana University 3:15 p.m. Laila Shereen Sakr On Performing Arab New Media University of California, Santa Cruz 3:45 p.m. Dan Jakubowski Julie Mehretu and the Global Community Graduate School of the History of Art and Design at the Pratt Institute 4:15 p.m. Closing Remarks
	Africana Studies and Research Center, the GPSAFC, Department of Anthropology, Department of Art, Institute of European Studies, Institute for German Culture Studies, Department of Theatre, Film, and Dance, Department of German Studies, Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Society for the Humanities, Rose Goldsen Lecture Series, and the College of Art, Architecture, and Planning
	April 11, 2008 - through - April 12, 2008

Black Womanhood: Icons, Images, and Ideologies of the African Body

http://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/exhibitions/blackwomanhood/bwpressrelease.html

from Afterellen.com (thanks, Deb):

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY, DON'T IT?
Noted photographer Charzette Torrence's exhibit Just as We Are, a collection of 36 black-and-white portraits of LGBT Americans of all walks of life that toured the country in 2006, is set to open again in Ferndale, Mich., on April 4, 2008.

Charzette "Charlie T" Torrence

The tour includes portraits of people such as poet Staceyann Chin, NBA star John Amaechi and HIV activist June Washington. Check the news section on JustAsWeAreTour.org to keep an eye on when it might be coming to a city near you.

Ijaba Films Presents...

Shades of Love: Black Homosexuality

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Shades of Love: Black Homosexuality is a trilogy of documentaries that express the experiences and problems of black homosexuals. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Volume One Volume one dispels the myth about the origin of homosexuality among those of African descent. It exposes the many misconceptions that there was no homosexuality in pre-colonial Africa and that homosexuality was introduced to Africans by Europeans. This volume also brings into the open the rampant racism within the LGBT communities. It exposes the hypocrisy among those invoking the spirit of the civil rights movement in an effort to obtain gay rights, who, while doing so, are ferociously practicing the same racism that sparked the civil rights movement of days past. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Volume Two This is Volume 2 of the three volume documentary, "Shades Of love: Black Homosexuality". This volume covers HIV in the black community and each participant discusses what it's like to be black and gay. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Volume Three This is the final volume of the trilogy of documentaries "Shades Of Love: Black Homosexuality". This volume features the life stories of a wonderful group of proud, black, gay and lesbian sistahs and brothas and one heterosexual sistah who speaks about what life was like being raised by a lesbian mother.