Do you watch The Ultimate Fighter? I am a big fan of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), including it’s largest promotion, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC); but I had never seen the UFC’s reality show, from which many of its finest athletes were selected, until earlier this summer. Not surprisingly, when I watched the first episode of the current (recently completed) season, I was hooked. I watched the entire season, and I enjoyed every minute. Fortunately, I still had 14 seasons worth of back episodes to watch. The second season I watched was season eight, on which a young contestant named Junie Browning quickly became one of the most notorious contestants in the history of the program. His hair-trigger temper and moody personality became his trademarks, and he was nearly kicked off the show several times. He was what my mother would call “a holy terror.”

Junie Browning is a young white man from a Southern family, and so when I saw a young Black man who looked a lot like him walking around in downtown Oakland, I was more than intrigued. For this drawing, I have dressed the Junie-Browning-looking Black kid in UFC shorts and the same kind of backwards cap that Browning wore on The Ultimate Fighter season 8. If you get a chance to watch even a single episode from that season, you will see how much the young man in this drawing resembles that very memorable MMA fighter.

Ajuan Mance

Just a quick drawing of a man I saw outside of the Laurel Bookstore on MacArthur Blvd. Be cause was a tall, thick guy, he was hard not to notice. But it was the seriousness of his gaze that kept him on my mind the next time I sat down with my sketchbook.

Ajuan Mance

This is a drawing of a one of the attendees at the C-19 conference back in the spring. It was held at UC Berkeley and it drew 19th century American literature specialists from all over the country. In the panel on the future of 19th-Century African American literature studies, this scholar asked a great question. Oddly, although I can remember that I really enjoyed his question, I cannot remember anything about what he asked. I can remember that he identified himself as a graduate student, but that’s about it. I guess his question was so amazing that my mind to was not able to store it without exploding from its brilliance.

In the background of this drawing are W.E.B. DuBois and other African American scholar-activists from the Niagara Movement, a civil rights organization founded in 1905. I have incorporated this image into the background as an acknowledgement of the debt that all scholars of African descent, around the nation and the world, owe to DuBois and his compatriots. We truly stand on the shoulders of these men and women (none of whom a picture here, incidentally) who fought so many battles to create a space for the Black intellectual.

Ajuan Mance

Here’s another drawing inspired by a guy I spotted while dining out with my mother. This man was part of a lively group having lunch a couple tables away from us at Pican. By the way, if you haven’t been to Pican (on Broadway, at the edge of downtown Oakland), my recommendation is that you make sure you have a little extra time. The service is very friendly, but I can’t really say that it’s fast. The food, however, is worth the wait. Be sure to try the pulled pork. Ditch the Texas toast, unless you really like bread. Also, check out the collard greens with brisket. It’s the food of the gods, I assure you. Can’t speak to the cocktails, because I tend not to indulge over lunch; but if the food’s any indication, then the cocktails are probably delicious.

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My mom recently returned to Nashville after a week-long visit. She is always lots of fun, and I enjoy the opportunity to show her some of my favorite Bay Area haunts. This trip we had the opportunity to take her to Pican, to Kincaid’s, to Khana Peena, and to the Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko (where we saw a great Oleta Adams show ). Always on the lookout for people to feature on my blog, I spotted this man at the Khana Peena lunch buffet. I was quite entertained at what by the contradiction between his trendy style (geeky chic glasses,  cool facial hair and a shaved head) and his schoolkid attire. While his look from the neck up recalled be-bop jazz artists like Dizzy Gillespie, his shirt looked a lot like one that my brother used to wear in grammar school. The unexpected tension between those looks really made me smile, and I couldn’t stop sneaking peeks at this guy while we waited for our bill.

Ajuan Mance

My last post was about the student-athlete I saw on the football field at Fremont High. This post is about that brotha you see from time to time who seems to be just chillin’, but whose muscle definition suggests that he either is or has hired a personal trainer. You know who I mean. He’s that brotha on the street, sometimes near the corner “grocery” store and sometimes near the bus stop (but so not waiting for the bus). He’s standing with his friends who appear to be average in size and fitness–a little thin or a little portly and fully clothed in oversized jeans and t-shirts. This brother, however, is shirtless  and impressively well-defined. Whether he is just making great use of his home fitness equipment, has just been released from prison where he worked out religiously, or is a dedicated member of one of the many local gyms, I have to give him his propers. As the rapper Nelly once said, “a great body is a gift you give yourself.” Kudos to that brotha (you know who I mean) for taking his self-love to a fitness sort of level.

Ajuan Mance

As I was driving past Fremont High School, I saw this kid standing all by himself on the school’s football field. He was dressed out in a football jersey and shoulder pads, but with athletic shorts on the bottom. As far as I know, school ended some time in June, and so I was more than a little curious about why he was there. I know there is summer school, but is football one of the classes? Perhaps a self-guided independent study?

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Back in Oakland, I immediately noticed an increase in brothers wearing long, oversized white t-shirts, at least along that stretch of High Street that I have to pass through to get onto I-580. That is why this guy got my attention. His t-shirt was not only not oversized; his head was shaved and he was very muscular. Even today, in 2012, long t-shirts are often accompanied by long-ish dread locks. But this brother, with his (relatively) tight t-shirt and buffed-out arms also sported a clean head. I was not the only one who noticed him, either. There were two sisters crossing to go from Walgreens to the strip mall across the street who almost got hit by a car they were looking at him so hard.

Ajuan Mance

In my last drawing, I told you that I had completed a lot of drawings. Apparently, I completed so many that I forgot how many I had done during my trip to the East Coast. Here’s the last one that was inspired by my time out there. This drawing depicts a man I saw at the Anchor Bar in New Haven. I think he attracted my attention because he had two features that I really enjoy drawing, a gap between his two front teeth, and a rather bushy beard. Bushy beards are pretty rare, but they are definitely my favorite ones to draw.

Ajuan Mance

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