Labor Day, Stoneridge Mall, Pleasanton, CA.
I loved this gentleman’s summery outfit. It pushed all of my happy fashion buttons, from the khakis to the cotton camp shirt to the snappy pork pie hat. It came as no surprise to me that he was browsing in the Tommy Bahama/Ralph Lauren/Tommy Hilfiger section of the Macy’s men’s store.
Ajuan Mance
Today marks the 600th entry in my series of 1001 drawings of Black Men. Of course, the images in this series depict many more than 600 Black men, and some of my drawings include two, three or even as many as 30 different figures. Some of my subjects are drawn from life, some from memory, and less than a handful from photographs that I took on my phone.
Last Saturday night I found myself at the New Parish in downtown Oakland. The event was the WERQ! Vogue Ball. After the excitement of spending the day at the San Francisco Zine Fest, I was a bit too tired to enjoy such a high energy atmosphere, and I found a quiet corner in which to sit and do some people watching. This brother reminded me a little of a young George Clinton, if George Clinton had worn dreadlocks back in the day. That and the fact that he was wearing sunglasses indoors and at night made a deep enough impression on me that I immediately brought him to mind when I sat down to my sketchbook the next morning.
Ajuan Mance
Hi Everyone!
I hope you’ll be able to join me for this exciting panel discussion:
Webster near 17th, Oakland, CA.
Ajuan Mance
Summer attire near Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA.
Ajuan Mance
School is back in session, and all over the East Bay there are kids with backpacks and lunchboxes on sidewalks and in school yards. You can see them in their bright new back-to-school outfits, walking, running, and laughing together, making their way to and from the local elementaries. The boy in this drawing might be a student at a parochial school, but I like to think that he’s one of those kids whose parents made him dress up for the first day.
The picture in his thought bubble depicts Pam, Penny, Mike, and their father. They were part of the first Black family to be featured in the classic Dick and Jane series of early reading text books. They were introduced in select editions between 1962 and 1965. I thought it was the perfect image for the beginning of a new school year.
Office Depot, Emeryville, CA.
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My cause first, midst, last, and always, whether in office or out of office, was and is that of the black man; not because he is black, but because he is a man, and a man subjected in this country to peculiar wrongs and hardships.
–Frederick Douglass, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
Ajuan Mance
It’s that time of year again! SF Zine Fest takes place this weekend at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park.
The address is 1199 9th Ave at Lincoln Way, and the admission is free.
This year the event features over 140 writers, artists, and zine creators from around the Bay Area. You can find me listed under 8-Rock Press.
For more information, check out the SF Zine Fest website.
Hope to see you there!
Ajuan Mance
Lunch with my parents at Max’s Opera House Cafe was a lively affair. We were seated in the front section, close enough to see everyone who entered, but far enough away from the door to avoid getting a blast of chilly air with each new patron. We briefly made a game out of looking at the outfits of the entering customers and trying to figure out whether they were from the East Coast or California. My opinion of the man in this drawing? East Coast all the way. With his single-breasted khaki suit and olive green tie, he was dressed perfectly for summer in one of the original 13 colonies.
Ajuan Mance
AC Transit bus stop, corner of MacArthur and 35th, Oakland, California.
Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.
–W.E.B. Du Bois, in “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” The Souls of Black Folk
Ajuan Mance