Hi Folks! I’ve been plugging away at the daily drawings, sometimes completing two or three drawings in a day; but I’ve been so busy with work that I haven’t had a moment to sit down and post. I also have a couple of cool new projects in the works that you might be interested in, but I’ll write about those in an upcoming entry.

In mid June, I traveled across the country to Yale University where I was one of 27 faculty members brought together for a three-day seminar on the slave narrative. This is a drawing of my suite mate. He is a philosophy professor and a really sharp guy with a creative mind.

In the background, you will notice a stained glass window depicting enslaved Black women holding large baskets of cotton on their heads. You might ask, “Why is this the background for your drawing?” This was one of several stained glass images depicting scenes from U.S. slavery that adorned the windows of the Calhoun dining hall, where our group had its meals. The irony that a group of scholars who were gathered to discuss slave narratives was taking its meals in a historic building whose windows depicted scenes from slavery was not lost on any of us.

When these windows were created, the administrators of the University probably had little idea that the descendants of U.S. Black slaves would one day sit here alongside the descendants of slaveowners, all in pursuit of the same education, the same opportunities, and the same seat at the (dining) table. I hope that somewhere the ghosts of Calhoun and the person or people who created these stained glass windows are looking down on the Yale of today and gritting their ghostly teeth with rage, indignation, and shame.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

One of the highlights of my trip to Yale was the time I spent during research at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to actually handle the pamphlet in which Victoria Earle Matthews’s “The Value of Race Literature” was originally published. I passed the man in this drawing on my way back out of the library. He was standing at the information desk with a patron registration for in his hands. I wonder what he was researching. There’s something about a rare books library that makes me want to learn more about everyone’s research, not only my own. I can’t wait to make my next trip out to New York. I’ll definitely be boarding the Metro North train to New Haven and the Beinecke.

Ajuan Mance

Hi all! I’ve missed sharing art with you these last couple weeks.

Today’s drawing was inspired by my recent trip to Yale University, where I had the opportunity to spend three days discussing the slave narrative with 27 other scholars. This drawing depicts the relationship of Yale University Black student athletes of today to the struggles, protests, and sacrifices of their predecessors. Students of African descent at Yale and at other majority white institutions owe a true debt of gratitude to the Black students of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. Their protests and organizing laid the foundation for the fuller acceptance and representation that Black students experience on today’s campuses.

Ajuan Mance

I was in Starbucks yesterday, revising a book proposal. Sundays at the MacArthur Blvd. Starbucks in San Leandro bring a range of coffee drinkers and blended beverage seekers, from students doing some kind of homework to friends meeting up for a chat to Black folks stopping in after church for a Frappucino with the kids and grandkids. This dapper gentleman came in with his adult daughter and her two children. This drawing depicts the expression on his face as he watched his companions enjoying their drinks. He also had a beverage, but he seemed to be enjoying the time with his family far too much to be interesting in more than an occasional sip.

Ajuan Mance

Two friends standing in front of the Oakland Grill, 3rd St., Jack London area…

Ajuan Mance

Yesterday, I saw this very cute, chubby kid in the suits and separates section of the SF men’s Macy’s. He was shopping for an outfit with his mother and grandparents. They were looking at black suits and it made me wonder if he was shopping for an end-of-year dance of some sort. He looked a little overwhelmed, but his mother and grandparents were shopping with hawk-like focus.

Ajuan Mance

Saw this guy with awesome sideburns on the escalator at the men’s Macy’s yesterday morning.

Ajuan Mance

This drawing was inspired by a worker I saw taking break in the of the San Pablo Avenue Good Will store. I was making a donation drop before heading on to the Emeryville Office Depot. When I pulled up on the side of the building he walked over and asked if I needed his help to unload. I  smiled and waved him away and he smiled and returned to his break.

Ajuan Mance

Here’s a drawing of the brother I saw standing around in the produce section at Farmer Joe’s. His wife was beside him, looking at the organic apples and speaking enthusiastically about the wide selection. He seemed distracted by his own thoughts. Perhaps he was considering the ramifications of the failure of contemporary physicists to confirm the existence of the Higgs Boson particle. Or, alternatively, he might have been walking through the possibilities for Europe’s economic future, given the recent election results in Greece and France. Whatever he was thinking about, I am pretty sure it wasn’t apples; and I could practically see each word his wife was saying as it floated into one of his ears and right out the other.

Ajuan Mance

When I saw this guy in the crowd at the AIDS Ride fundraiser last night, I had to look at him three or four times before I could be sure he wasn’t my brother’s friend Mike.

Mike, if you’re reading this, you should know that you have a doppelganger out there. He really looks quite similar to you, minus the fact that he probably doesn’t work out much (sorry fundraiser dude, but it’s true). The main difference between the two of you, though, is that he has a gap and you don’t.

RE: The fundraiser

It seemed like a large crowd, and so I wouldn’t at all be surprised if the team raised a lot of money for the ride, which is terrific. Having entered middle age, I can say that I don’t have that Sunday-night=dance-party-with-a-live-band energy that I did–say–twenty-five years ago. Still, the organizers knew their audience well, and they put together a lineup of acts that had the crowd swaying and singing all evening long.

Shout out to Brock Cocker, Kentucky Fried Woman, and Drew Montana for a great performance of Rhianna’s “Only Girl in the World.”

Ajuan Mance