I recently had the honor and pleasure of visiting the James E. Lewis Museum of Art in Baltimore, MD. The museum is located on Morgan State University’s campus. I actually went down to share some knowledge via a poetic performance with an organization called My Brother, My Sister, and was offered a tour of the campus. It is absolutely amazing what Morgan is developing into, and I enjoyed being in the atmosphere of aspiring scholars. It had been a while since I last stepped foot on a HBCU campus. Talk about exciting! I myself, studied at Fisk University and the art museum there had been going through some hard times due to a very expensive collection of wonderful art that has been there for years. The school was facing financial difficulty and wanted to use the art to sort of “save” the campus. Having been a connoisseur of the fine collection after writing a paper or two about it, I personally did not want to see the collection go. Seeing Morgan’s museum gave me hope!

James E. Lewis

It is everything an art museum on a HBCU campus should be! It had a warm energy that penetrated my soul. There was color everywhere! Not the pastels of a normal art museums, but the deep earthy tones of Afrikan, Asian, & Latin American cultures. My radar immediately zoomed in on the ceremonial masks, the fertility statues, the mud cloths, the cubism paintings reminiscent of Jacob Lawrence who was inspired by the Harlem Renaissance- it was all so breath-taking. I enjoyed the recognition of Afrikan cultures the most as it spoke more to who and what I am. Where I live, there is no African American Museum of Art so when I am in a city that has one, I go for it!

I enjoy that a lot of African American artists are still painting from within. In a world where mixed-medium art is the trend, I find it quite refreshing to see painting and the mixing of colors and stroking of brushes. Art is in layers, just like the heart. Paint from the heart and not for money. 

The museum features both established and emerging artists so that says something for itself! You don’t have to die to get your art in a museum. I enjoyed that it was multicultural and found it important to include art from around the world because students should have a taste of many cultures. This can create a more well-rounded person with a more stable identity, something that African American students are in great need [of].

Speaking of identity.

As this pertains to your African Essence, it’s all about choosing your identity. Identity comes from within. Seeing this art exhibit spoke to something inside of me. The colors reminded me of something I had seen in a past life. I seek culture. I cannot live without knowing Afrika. I know that I descend from this continent and honestly it hurts sometimes to know you are from a place where you don’t even have real access to. Forever stolen, I try to cope. Without knowledge and acknowledgement of where you are from, your spirit will be constantly torn and confused and you will constantly self-hate. I heard an African American say the other day “I can’t stand Black people.” Sadly this is not the first time I heard this. Every time I hear it, I am in awe. I ask, how can you make a blanket comment like that and claim to love yourself? I know there are a lot of mistakes being made by the African American community, with the whole buying into the media and ignoring our own identities, selling material and verbal bulls*#@ to our youth, etc., but this is not reason to hate. Especially going around saying this in front of whomever! That’s nonsense.

Let’s live with the mindset, “if you are not part of the solution, than you are part of the problem.” People who hate like this are obviously part of the problem. It’s like those African and African American people who aren’t attracted to their own race, who actually say this out loud. No one says that you cannot cross cultures when dating but to say that you aren’t attracted to someone who looks like you is worthy of much shame. When one makes uncalculated comments like this, there is reason to believe that that person is having an identity crisis. Self-hate is so prevalent in our culture.

The museum on Morgan States campus is definitely something to visit. In addition to having a great art museum, they also have a great new library. It is what we call “state of the art.” It is still in its new phases, still in the process of acquiring a real collection, but I am sure it will get there. After seeing all this, getting a $30 ticket for parking on the street in front of the campus didn’t feel so bad!

Peace & Love,

Queen Duafe for African Essence

Recently I read the book Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa by Hans Silvester.

Actually, there wasn’t much to read, it was more a visual exploration of the Surma and Mursi tribes of East Africa. I am not sure how to feel about the book. As much as I would like to say that it was a great book, I think it is just an exploitation of culture. I recognize that this culture is special and unknown to many Americans, but what makes it so artistic and fashionable? It is the everyday lifestyles and traditions of people in the Omo valley. The author says that Kenya and Sudan are two of the “wildest” places in in Africa. Really? Wild? So, because they have been able to hold on to their original traditions and heritage, they are wild? Because they think of the body as a temple and adorn it as such, rather than glorifying it as a sex symbol, they are wild? One thing he was right about is that their way of living is threatened by conflict and tourism. They know that their era and days of independence is coming to an end. I believe that Eurocentricity will find its way to their lands if it hasn’t already.

Moreover, Hans, deficient of a definition of what he means by wild, I have to assume that he was referring to the manners and actions that he photographed the people. There are pictures of them in the nude, bodies draped in leaves, painted with the excretions of plants and berries, and mud. They live from the land, taking advantage of the elements that surround them. Is this what you mean by wild?

Playing devil’s advocate and I do mean devil’s advocate, I can appreciate that he visually recorded a culture that may be lost. Without record, the civilization will be lost forever. However, I’m sure it doesn’t have to be lost if it weren’t for people exploiting it, and trying to steal the resources of the land. So overall I repeat, it doesn’t have to be lost, but I am sure covetous explorers will attempt to steal it. What Hans does is tell a pictorial story of a tribe whose culture is about to be raped. The idea of “African art” fascinates me because it’s only categorized this way because it has become something “special” in the West because they have stolen the idea of it. It is just people’s everyday traditions!

As a female who sports ethnic attire, I am too, categorized as Afrocentric, having the inclination to wear things that speak more to my roots. This is who I am, nothing special! It’s what I feel in my spirit. I don’t do it for fashion purposes or to be recognized. I wake up feeling like a part of me has been lost, stolen, and naturally my spirit try’s to find what vanished from my heritage generations ago. So when I wear mud or kenti cloth, paint my face with black and white dots just to have dinner, it’s just me being what I was meant to be. No, I do not want to be a model for it. One thing, I want children to know that there was a culture before this Eurocentric culture that we live every day. At the rate of the decline of the American education system, we cannot rely on it to teach our children who they are and where they come from. That’s my goal. I just couldn’t enjoy this book because I’ve already seen these pictures in my dreams. Please understand that this is only truth. I travel to many different countries in my dreams. Ethiopia, Sudan, & Kenya were among them.

Peace & Love,