Waiting in the ticket line at the Brooklyn Museum, April 2015.
Ajuan Mance
All posts by 8-Rock
1001 Black Men #911
At the end of last April, I saw the Kehinde Wiley exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. Wiley is best known for his portraits of everyday Black men in heroic poses that are often based on old master paintings.
The exhibit was breathtaking, and the experience of walking into the first gallery of the show is something I will never forget. Mad props to the Brooklyn Museum for creating the most moving and dramatic entrance into a show that I have ever encountered. A lot of the paintings in this show were huge–up to 96″ x 72″ and even larger; and they were beautiful, every single one.
As much as I loved the paintings, I loved seeing the Black men at the show even more. Their expressions ranged from amused to rapt to proud, and I wondered what it must have felt like to walk through an entire exhibition of works celebrating their beauty and power.
Several of the drawings in this part of the 1001 Black Men series are the result of me looking at real-life Black men looking at Wiley’s paintings of Black men. The background of each of these drawings evokes the richly patterned backgrounds for which the artist is known.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men #910
I was recently in Austin, Texas for an academic conference. While there, I ate buffalo wings at four sports-themed restaurants. At Champions, a sports bar-restaurant located in one of the downtown hotels, I was seated at the bar, and this elderly sports fan was seated across from me. The look on his face that you see in this drawing was the same look he had on his face during the entire time I was at the restaurant. At first, I thought he was frowning at me, and then I thought he was frowning at his food. Then I thought he was frowning at me again. The only time his faced seemed to crack even the slightest smile was when his food arrived. He probably would have smiled more if he’d ordered chicken wings. They were really pretty good.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men #909
I always notice a gentleman in a scarf. The man in this drawing was waiting in line at my favorite coffee shop. The haughty expression on this man’s face appeared to reflect his judgement of the people around him, the arrangement of the space, or both. Chances are, though, that he was simply lost in his own thoughts, with little attention to the rest of us or to the setting’s decor.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men #908
Solespace, Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA.
***
I ran into Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler at the June 2015 opening of my 1001 Black Men art exhibit. Kortney was kind enough to allow me to photograph him for later inclusion in this series.
He is a Black scholar, technophile, and activist. Kortney was the first person to earn a Ph.D. in African American Studies at Northwestern University. He is also the award-winning director of Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen and the founder of Trans*H4CK, a tech-based organization that supports the development of open source applications for trans and gender non conforming communities. In 2013, he was named #29 in TheRoot.com’s list of the 100 most influential African Americans of the year.
Look for Kortney to continue to shape, influence, and expand our experience and understanding of race, gender, and social justice, for many years to come.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men #907
Brooklyn, NY, November 2015.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men #906
There’s only one place where you’re almost guaranteed to see at least on Black person dressed as one of the Mario Brothers, and I probably don’t even need to tell you what that is. (It rhymes with atomic prawn.)
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men #905
My love of barbecued ribs is second only to my love of buffalo wings, and I crossed paths with this brotha during a recent trip to Smokey J’s Q House, on Shattuck Avenue, in Berkeley, California. The background in this drawing is based on one of those old-fashioned picnic tablecloths. Smokey J’s uses no such decor, but their food makes you feel like you’re eating at a classic old-time barbecue hut. I recommend the ribs and the chili. My main criticism of the place is that they have no iced tea.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men #904
I don’t know how I missed posting this drawing from Comic Con 2015. I was only there for a day, but I had my sketchbook at the ready to make drawings of the brothas I encountered in the convention center. One thing I love about Comic Con is that there are so many Black people in attendance that it would be impossible for me to capture even one tenth of the number of Black folks who are there. I’ve definitely been to my share of conferences at which you could fit all the Black people in a walk-in closet, so I don’t take this opportunity to commune with sci-fi and comics fans of African descent. It is an absolute joy to be surrounded by so many unabashedly nerdy Black folks; and each of my trips to Comic Con is so very special to me because, however long or short my time there, for a few hours or a few days, I am truly among my people.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men #903
I spotted this brother wearing a kufi during my last trip to New York. He was on the subway, and in real life, he was actually wearing a coat (it was kind of chilly, but not fully cold). I noticed him because he was reading a newspaper on the train, a common sight during childhood trips on the Long Island Rail Road, but a rare occurrence in the current era of smartphones and tablets.
Ajuan Mance