1001 Black Men #715

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When I first moved to Oakland, I would see groups of Black folks hanging out in front of the California Hotel. The California Hotel is a beautifully-designed historic hotel located on San Pablo Ave. Since the late 1980s, it has served as low-income housing for a largely Black clientele. The sidewalk in front of the California Hotel was a popular gathering place for residents and their friends and just about anyone else who wanted to get into some kind of impromptu conversation or transaction.

In the last few years, though, the sidewalk in front of the California Hotel has become a lot quieter. A lot of the street action that used to happen there has moved down to St. Andrews Park on the corner of San Pablo and 32nd. This is one of the smallest parks in the city of Oakland, but it’s also one of the busiest. It’s one of the most concentrated gatherings of homeless and economically marginalized Black folks in the city. Throughout the day, there is a steady stream of people from the park to the nearby convenient store and back to the park. There are also regular patrols of the area by the Oakland police.

This drawing kind of sums up the mood of a lot of people in the park. For many, hanging out there is better than being alone, but it’s difficult company in an even more difficult life. I am reminded of the the title of a 1978 short story by Lynn Schwartz. In 1985, the story would go on to become a novel of the same name. Either way though, her title, “Rough Strife,” seems to capture a lot of what I see when I drive past the park at San Pablo and 32nd.

Ajuan Mance

 

1001 Black Men #714

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Outside Black and White Liquors, near the Oakland-Emeryville border.

***

At the beginning of the first chapter of The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois observes that many of the white people he encounters long to ask him and other Black people one question: “How does it feel to be a problem?”

All over Oakland, I have encountered Black men who live a significant part of their lives on the street. Some are homeless, but a lot of these brothers hang out on the street because they have nowhere else to go during the day. For some, their living situation is awkward, uncomfortable, or unwelcoming; and for many, especially the previously incarcerated, it is nearly impossible to find work.

As I’ve moved through this series of drawings, I’ve begun to pay more attention to these brothers, and to really see them when I encounter them. More importantly, I watch how people watch them. I see most people looking through them or around them, though some react to them with fear and discomfort (if the passers by are not Black) or with simple disappointment (if they are Black).

My encounters with the brothers on the streets have had an interesting impact. 100 years after Du Bois first spoke about the curious circumstance of being perceived as a “problem,” I am not only reminded that his famous question still applies, but I am brought face-to-face with the uncomfortable truth that sometimes I, a Black person myself, am the one who is asking.

Ajuan Mance

1001 Black Men #712

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I saw this guy and his family at the Monterey Aquarium. The trip there was wonderful. I was hanging out with my best friend from college, and we had the good fortune to arrive in time to see both of the feedings in the major tank exhibits.

If you haven’t been to the Monterey Aquarium, I strongly recommend that you make a visit. It’s a wonderful facility, and the tanks provide a moving and provocative window into another world. I hope to visit more often, but I was surprised there weren’t more people of African descent there. There were a few Black visitors here and there, but most–like this man and his family–were groups of African immigrants and their children (as opposed to the descendants of U.S. slaves). Indeed, most of the people of color present were family groups made up of immigrants and the children of immigrants. In and of itself, this is pretty cool. Given the demographics of California, I would have been concerned if the only guests of color in attendance were all born in this country. I do, however, hope that more Black descents of U.S. slaves will eventually find their way to this world-class attraction.

Childhood trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art helped me to fall in love with drawing and painting, and somewhere, some little Black kid is just waiting to fall in love with marine biology. All she needs is her very first visit to Monterey.

Come one, come all!

Ajuan Mance

1001 Black Men #711

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This is one of two kids I encountered during my last trip to the barber. I went to Butta Qutz on MacArthur instead of my usual Graham and Company. Both businesses have skilled barbers, but on the particular day I went to Butta Qutz, I had a spur-of-the-moment need for a cut, and I didn’t want to wait for an appointment.

This young man was sitting inside the barber shop, waiting for his friend. I have, however, chosen to depict him sitting out on the curb, since I couldn’t quite remember the layout of the inside of the shop (and I haven’t had time to go back in and look).

Ajuan Mance

1001 Black Men #708

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A couple of weeks ago, I was at Jim’s diner with my mom and my dad and my niece. At lot was happening at our table.

My niece was playing with my glasses, first taking them off me and trying them on and then putting them back on me and then giving them to my mother who put my glasses on over her own; and then she and my niece took turns wearing both pairs of glasses and modeling them for me and my dad; and then my niece spilled some of her milk and then the waitress brought three of our meals but only bacon for my niece because she forgot to bring the chocolate chip pancakes, and then my dad reprimanded her for neglecting to bring food for the youngest member of our party.

Despite all the activity at our table, the man in this drawing was somehow managing to enjoy a very peaceful meal just a couple booths over. He seemed to have a truly mindfulness-based approach to his sausage and eggs, and he was absolutely unfazed by all the action just two tables away.

Ajuan Mance

An Online Sketchbook @8-Rock.com