This image from What Do Brothas Do All Day includes lyrics from “Prayer,” on the album It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot, by the rapper DMX.
Ajuan Mance
All posts by 8-Rock
1001 Black Men–#627
Here’s another image from my What Do Brothas Do All Day ‘zine. The sun and the flower/star shapes in the background are versions of Ananse Ntontan, the spider’s web. This West African Adinkra symbolizes wisdom and the complicated nature of life.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#626
This is the first of a series of drawings I’ve put together in a ‘zine called What Do Brothas Do All Day. The title is a reference to a book by children’s author and illustrator Richard Scarry. His 1968 picture book, What Do People Do All Day, was an introduction to the grown-up world of work and chores and errands. The activities Scarry depicts in his book are really little more than the mundane stuff of everyday life; but to children, this view into the activities, occupations, and locations that shape the daily lives of adults is an absolute revelation! As a child, I was absolutely fascinated by Scarry’s vision of daily life. And just as Scarry’s book responds to the curiosity of children, my ‘zine responds to many grown-ups’ curiosity about the attitudes, activities, minds, and bodies of men of African descent. It’s a curiosity that sometimes looks more like obsession. The next several drawings are taken from the What Do Brothas Do All Day ‘zine. If you’d like a copy of the whole book, you can order one on Etsy or you can drop by my table at Art Murmur Oakland (12/6/2013 at Uptown Body and Fender) or the East Bay Alternative Book and Zinefest (12/7/2013).
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#625
Lakeshore Avenue, Oakland, California.
***
If you can’t afford a fancy paint job or racing tires and chrome rims, then you can rely on your body language to give the car a little extra style. The way you and your friends sit in the car, the way you position your seat, and the configuration of limbs you drape outside of your window can say almost as much as if you were driving around on a set of Yokohama tires. I haven’t even mentioned that large, loud speakers can elevate the coolness level of even the oldest, dirtiest, rustiest hooptie. You don’t need a new or customized vehicle if your car stereo has some seriously window-rattling bass.
And now, a poetic homage to the hooptie:
My hooptie rollin’, tailpipe draggin’
Heat don’t work an’ my girl keeps naggin’
Six-nine Buick, deuce keeps rollin’
One hubcap cause three got stolen
Bumper shook loose, chrome keeps scrapin’
Mis-matched tires, and my white walls flakin’
Hit mickey-d’s, Maharaji starts to bug
He ate a quarter-pounder, threw the pickles on my rug
Runnin’, movin’ tabs expired
Girlies tryin’ to dis ‘n say my car looks tired
Hit my brakes, out slid skittles
Tinted back window with a bubble in the middle
Who’s car is it? Posse won’t say
We all play it off when you look our way
Rollin’ four deep, tires smoke up the block
Gotta roll this bucket, cause my Benz is in the shop
–Sir Mix-A-Alot in “My Hooptie”
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#624
Snack Tables, Alternative Press Expo, October 12-13, San Francisco, California.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#623
A friend of my who is also an Oakland homeowner was kind enough to hold two sessions of CORE training. CORE stands for Communities of Oakland Respond to Emergencies, and it’s a free training program designed to prepare city residents to be effective emergency responders.
The man in this drawing was one of the other attendees at the session. I liked the way he sat quietly, taking it all in. His calm and calming presence was a welcome contrast to the very serious topics on the agenda.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#622
Starbucks, Webster Ave, Alameda, California.
***
“Humor is laughing at what you haven’t got when you ought to have it.”
–Langston Hughes, “A Note on Humor,” 1966
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#621
Fruitvale BART Station, Oakland, California.
The background image is a satellite photo of the Fruitvale BART area.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#620
Fruitvale BART Station, Oakland, California.
(The background for this drawing is a satellite image of the Fruitvale Station area in Oakland.)
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#619
Fruitvale BART Station, Oakland, California.
I don’t think anyone can overlook the irony that this and a few other recent drawings on this website depict Black men I recently encountered at Fruitvale Station. This, of course, is the very same location where, 4.5 years ago, Oscar Grant lost his life. At first, I thought I’d be troubled by this irony; but, in fact, the contrast between the living Black men I’ve portrayed in the same setting in which an unarmed Black man was shot by BART police gives me a peculiar kind of hope.
The tragic shooting of Oscar Grant on January 1, 2009 could have had a terrorizing effect on Bay Area Black men. It would have been completely understandable if, in the wake of this killing, Bay Area men of African descent had decided to avoid the BART system entirely; and yet they did not. Whether the assailant, Johannes Mehserle, intended to kill Grant or not, this and other so-called accidental shootings of Black men, when taken together, convey the troubling message that it is not the shooters, but Black men themselves who are mistaken — in believing that they have the right to equal protection under (and by) the law; in hoping that, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, they will be presumed innocent; and in behaving as though they have the right to freedom of movement (whether strolling through a gated community in Florida or riding on a Bay Area commuter train on New Year’s Day).
And yet, despite the dehumanizing messages conveyed through the actions and words of those who fear or distrust them, Black men persist in seeing the humanity in themselves and each other, they persist in living their lives as free and equal citizens, and they persist in traveling to the places they need to go, by bus, by ferry, even by train, and even through Fruitvale Station.
PS: The background image is the evening schedule of trains traveling to and from Fruitvale BART.
Ajuan Mance