Kara Walker (born November 26, 1969, Stockton, California, U.S.) is an American installation artist who uses intricate cut-paper silhouettes, together with collage, drawing, painting, performance, film, video, shadow puppetry, light projection, and animation, to comment on gender relations, power, race, and black history. At the Rhode Island School of Design, Kara Walker began working in the silhouette form. In 1994, her work appeared in a new-talent show at the Drawing Center in New York and she became an instant hit. In 1997, she received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "genius grant." In 1997, Walker received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship “genius grant.” That same year, her work became the subject of debate when African American artist Betye Saar argued that Walker’s work was “revolting and negative” and made “for the amusement and the investment of the white art establishment.” Since then, Walker's work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide. The same year that she graduated from RISD, Walker debuted a mural at the Drawing Center in New York City, entitled "Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart." It wasn't just the theme of the piece that caught the attention of critics, but its form: black-paper silhouette figures against a white wall. The mural launched Walker's career, also making her one of the leading artistic voices on the subject of race and racism. So, in addition to being well-received Kara Walker has also received backlash as well. Her response to this is, “I have always responded,” Walker said, “to art which jarred the senses and made one aware physically and emotionally of the shifting terrain on which we rest our beliefs.” PEACE to Kara Walker, Stockton stand up!
Black History 365 | # 219 Victor Murphy
This is Victor Murphy, he is the earliest documented person to have a lowrider with hydraulics in the city of Compton California and the earliest documented Black Lowrider with Hydraulics in the world as well. In the early 1960’s Victor had his Corvair Monza cut for hydraulics by Bill Hines of Lynwood California. Shoutout to @46to64 for bringing this story to light. PEACE TO VICTOR MURPHY & Bill Hines for his car customization.
Black History 365 | # 218 How Blade Saved Marvel
Before Blade the superhero movie genre was not respected in the mainstream. Blade doesn’t get the credit for its contributions to saving Marvel. Aside from establishing the tone, style, and methodology that most big budget studios based on comic books work from — it paved the way for the wave of comic book movies in recent decades and also rescued Marvel Comics from one of the most tumultuous times in its history. Marvel was experiencing significant financial troubles. The entire comic book industry was struggling in the 1990s, but Marvel was hit particularly hard, as seen by the company’s filing for bankruptcy in 1996. In an attempt to desperately raise money, Marvel resorted to selling off many of the film rights for their characters at the bottom dollar, which led to the fractured set-up we saw in the early 2000s, where different studios owned different characters. This interpretation of Blade paid off. The film made $70 million at the U.S. box office and a further $60 million internationally, recouping its $45 million budget. The success of Blade was also rumored to have played a pivotal role in Fox’s decision to purchase the adaptation rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four and for Sony to acquire the adaptation rights for Spider-Man. So know’dat Blade is the most influential Marvel film of all time. Shoutout to Wesley Snipes.
Black History 365 | 217 Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka, formally known as Everett LeRoi Jones is best known as a literary genius whose works challenged the status quo, European beauty standards, the insidiousness of the US government, and not only that. Baraka was a leading force in the arts movement of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1963 he published Blues People: Negro Music in White America, Ryan Cooler references this book as one he studied for his recent film Sinners, you’ll find it published under Leroi Jones. Nikki Giovanni speaks about him candidly for they are peers. That book was known as the first major history of black music to be written by an African American. A year later he published a collection of poetry titled The Dead Lecturer and won an Obie Award for his play, Dutchman. After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965 he moved to Harlem and founded the Black Arts Repertory Theater. In the late 1960s, Baraka moved back to his hometown of Newark and began focusing more on political organizing, prompting the FBI to identify him as "the person who will probably emerge as the leader of the pan-African movement in the United States." Baraka continued writing and performing poetry up until his hospitalization, leaving behind a body of work that greatly influenced a younger generation of hip-hop artists and slam poets.
Black History 365 | # 216 Cathay Williams
If you don’t know Cathay Williams, that’s probably by design. She is a true bad*ss. One of over 400 hundred women to serve in the Civil War posing as male soldiers. Williams was the first African American woman to enlist and the only documented woman to serve in the United States Army, while disguised as a man, during the Indian Wars. Despite the prohibition against women serving in the military, Williams enlisted in the U.S. Regular Army under the false name of "William Cathay" on November 15, 1866. She enlisted for a three-year engagement, passing herself off as a man. Williams was assigned to the 38th U.S. Infantry Regiment after she passed the cursory medical examination. Though this exam should have outed her as a woman, the Army did not require full medical exams at this time. Due to contracting smallpox she was frequently hospitalized, the post surgeon discovered she was a woman and informed the post commander. She was honorably discharged by her commanding officer, Captain Charles E. Clarke on October 14, 1868. Though her disability discharge meant the end of her tenure with the Army. She signed up with an emerging all-black regiment that would eventually become part of the legendary Buffalo Soldiers. Her life and military service narrative was published in the St. Louis Daily Times on January 2, 1876. Around 1889 or 1890, Williams entered a local hospital and applied for a disability pension based on her military service. Though there was a precedent for granting pension to female soldiers, (Deborah Sampson, Anna Maria Lane and Molly Williams disguised themselves as men in the Revolutionary War), Williams request was denied. In September 1893, a doctor examined Williams. She suffered from neuralgia and diabetes, and had all her toes amputated and walked with a crutch. The doctor decided that she did not qualify for disability payments.The exact date of her death is unknown, but it is believed she died shortly after she was denied. Woy.