Twice in the last 6 months, London based photographer, Jennie Baptiste has touched down in the land of the Maroons (Accompong Town), on the island of Jamaica, in an effort to share the vibes of one of the Caribbean’s most recognized groups of self-liberated peoples. On her first trip, six young adults traveled and photographed with her (see Cultureserve Issue #4). Her second trip, sans youth, coincided with Jamaica’s annual Maroon Day (Jan 6). People from the countryside, around the globe, both young and old, as well as dancehall queens dressed to the nines, shared in the reverie and celebration of over 250+ years of Black independence at the biggest celebration of the holiday, the Accompong Maroon Festival. Jennie B.’s work coincides with the celebration in England and the English speaking Caribbean of the 200th anniversary of the end of the British trans-atlantic slave trade. In contrast, the US has yet to acknowledge the 200th anniversary of Jan. 1, 1808, the day the importation of slaves into the United States was prohibited.

Jennie B.’s work has appeared in museums and galleries across Europe including the traveling shows, Black British Style (2006) and Hip Hop Immortals (2004).  After a local show in Fort Greene, Brooklyn (2007), she was invited to donate work to Russell Simmons’ Rush Philanthropic Foundation - Art for Life Benefit (2007) and continues to make moves stateside with a show on tap for 2008 in New York City. Her images of the Maroons will be exhibited alongside her youth photo brigade’s work in 2008 at The Museum in Docklands (London) and The Institute of Jamaica (Jamaica).

(Images: Dancehall Queens, Accompong Maroon Festival, Jamaica 2008 (top and bottom right), Jennie Baptiste (bottom left))

MASIZAKHE: Building Each Other, a feature length documentary, explores the role that a new generation of activists are playing in shaping the future of South African society.  Filmed in South Africa’s Port Elizabeth area and surrounding townships, the film weaves the stories of emerging young activists with freedom fighters of the previous generation whose work led to the end of apartheid.  In an interesting evolution, the newer 21st century freedom fighters are increasingly using popular culture as their tool of choice in South Africa’s push for true democracy.  As a result, art, music, hip-hop and spoken word are at the forefront of yet another, global movement for change. 

The film was screened at New York University on 1/28/08 as the kick off to a US tour that stops in LA County and ends in the Bay Area on 2/9/08 at the Museum of the African Diaspora  ……..Watch the trailer! 

To bring this documentary to you click here.

The TOURISM (Terrorism Affects Tourism) line of jewels is available at www.superfertile.com.  Read below in the Art + Culture Diaries section for more on Kali Arulpragasam’s mission…

It should be clear by now that this issue of Cultureserve is about self-representation. A combination of generation x, y and z seem to be calling out in a unified voice: it’s time to reprezent! Take over the media and the market and put out our own images of self.  A chorus of echoes around the globe is saying we’re not just poor, diseased and struggling, we’re living life! 

This month’s FLAVA feature, London based Kali Arulpragasam (sister to M.I.A.), told Cultureserve part of her motivation for her TOURISM (Terrorism Affects Tourism) collection of breast-plate necklaces and earrings (a homage to hip-hop’s dookie gold era) came from the media’s focus on negative representations of countries from the global south (a.k.a. the third world), “…when you google Iraq, for example, you get images of American soldiers with guns in rubble.  This is not Iraq! Iraq has culture, music, fashion, children playing, sports champions, great architecture, etc.  I wanted to create a positive tourism poster for the most dangerous countries that we are told we cannot visit…a tourist poster portraying a proud identity.”  In regard to her home country Sri Lanka, Kali wanted to reverse the media’s visual trend - promotion of men and guns as a metaphor for heroism, “I wanted to speak for the majority, for the women and children, for the beautiful landscapes, the amazing wildlife that are now largely forgotten or undiscovered.”    PS – You don’t want to miss a peak at the TOURISM look book/photographic masterpiece covering multiple countries from Colombia to Sudan, with around the way girls from each country representin’ in their national costume…it’s off the chain!

(Above: Sri Lanka and Afghanistan breast-plate necklaces in silver & gold. Each piece is light weight, hand cut, plated and linked to form a painting – available at www.superfertile.com)

In like fashion, NY/Johannesberg based photographer Ayana V. Jackson, has sought to “increase the visibility of African descendant communities worldwide,” through a holistic visual representation of a peoples’ living history. In her latest work, she questions the gaze of mainstream media in relation to people of the African diaspora through her own images of youth culture and contemporary lifestyle in post ’94 South Africa.  Her work conveys a sense of honor, respect and mystical sensuality that renders a sense of peace in the viewer and inevitably diminishes the power of sensationalized mainstream media imagery.

In Ayana’s artist statement on the work, she comments, “…international television and print media have done an impressive job of continuously reminding us of the country’s poverty and HIV/AIDS crisis.  Emaciated bodies in clinics, pot bellied children in rural villages…these images are fixed in our mind…Aside from photography and footage from Mandela’s release and subsequent election, the images found in the international public’s memory of South Africa are, in my opinion, disproportionately loaded with conflict and misery.”

(Images: Shosholoza I, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2007 (left) and Shosholoza II, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2007 (right))

Ayana’s previous project, El Negro Mas Chulo: African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth, explores the present-day culture of African-Mexicans in Mexico in collaboration with fellow artist Marco Villalobos through image, text and film. This particular living history has yet to make its debut on the global media stage and is just beginning to carve out a place in the collective memory of Mexicans, Chicanos and the African diaspora.  It remains to be seen how this will play out in the 21st century, but Jackson and Villalobos have certainly contributed a voice of quality into the media mix.  The project has traveled to New York, San Antonio, San Francisco and Los Angeles so far.

(Images: Con Tanta Luz en la Voz/With So Much Light in the Voice, Tlacotalpan, Veracruz, Mex, 2005 (top left), Entre Colores y Dias/Between Days and Colors, Chacahua, Oaxaca, Mex, 2003 (right) and  La Puerta de Dona Bertina/Mrs. Bertina’s Door, Santo Domingo, Oaxaca, Mex, 2003 (bottome left))

Read more about self-liberated African and Indigenous maroon societies of Mexico on the Mas Chulo website. 

“The existence of Afro-Mexicans was officially affirmed in the 1990s when the Mexican government acknowledged Africa as Mexico’s “Third Root.” For nearly 500 years, the existence and contributions of African descendants in Mexico have been overlooked, although they have continued to contribute their cultural, musical, and culinary traditions to Mexican society through the present day. This groundbreaking exhibition provides an important opportunity to revisit and embrace the African legacy in Mexico and the Americas while creating significant occasions for cross-cultural dialogue, exchange and presentations for all age ranges and backgrounds. No exhibition has showcased the history, artistic expressions, and practices of Afro-Mexicans in such a broad scope as this one, which includes a comprehensive historical range of artwork including contemporary artistic expressions. The exhibition is organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago.” The African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present is on view at the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles from January 31st – June 1, 2008.

(Image: Maximino Javier (b. 1950), Indecisive Chacmool / Chacmool Indeciso, 2002 oil on canvas / oleo sobre tela, Collection of Galeria Quetzalli)