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Growth and Maturity in Textured
Images
Why Chesiel Matters
By Michael A. Gonzales
In October 2003,
during an arty tribute to pioneering hip-hop group Run-DMC
at the Eyejammie Gallery in Chelsea, Harlem-based artist
Chesiel John stole the spotlight with a mixed media
collage entitled "Only One." Though hardly the biggest
piece in the show, her work commanded attention with its
fiery vision and humor.
Months later, as I
walked through her cluttered studio in Long Island City,
I had the privilege of entering into an artistic
wonderland of her wild styled, poetic images. Scattered
throughout the room were bluesy portraits of Nina Simone
and Miles Davis, impressionistic images of ghettoized
boom boxes and streetlights, as well as countless
sketches and cutout source material that served as
inspiration for her work.
Coming from the
Caribbean island of Trinidad, 30-year-old John has been
interested in art since she was a child. "I always was
trying to make something out of nothing," she says.
Coming to New York City at the age of 14, John was shy
about sharing her work with others. Yet, after
classmates at Truman High School discovered her secret,
John set out to make a difference with her work.
"I did a mural for
the Stop the Violence program at school, and later won a
medal for best artist. It was then that I started taking
myself seriously," she says. The premature death of her
mother shortly after arriving in the States also
propelled her to move forward with her art.
After developing an
extensive portfolio, she was accepted into the
prestigious Parsons School of Design, which she
completed while holding down two jobs. "Going to art
school was weird and exciting, but I learned how to
challenge myself and to make every line mean something,"
she says. On the art circuit since 2000, John's works
are owned by Quincy Jones and Asked Bomani, wife of
actor Danny Glover.
Considering herself
“a disciple of Basquiat," the soft-spoken artist also
has a fondness for jazz, calypso, and hip hop. "When you
read interviews with Jean-Michel or
Romare Bearden, writers often talk about them
listening to jazz while painting," she recalls. "It is
the same for me. Music is very important when it comes
to my creations."
In 2004, after
going through another difficult time in her personal
life, John rented a studio in Long Island City and
turned to the roots riddims and wordplay wisdom of Bob
Marley as a soulful solace away from the burdens of her
own world. "In my mind, Marley told me things I had
never heard, showed me things I had never seen and took
me places I had never been," she contends.
As the music became
more dominant in her head, she says the spirit of Marley
haunted her dreams. "I was so overcome; I knew I had to
commit myself to expressing these visions before they
were lost forever." Beginning with the "Concrete Jungle"
painting, John created twenty small paintings like a
woman possessed.
Three years after
completing the Marley series, the young artist continues
to explore other artistic forms while still taking
gigantic risks. Without shame, Chesiel’s exquisite
creations embrace everything from the neo-primitivism of
Picasso to the gloomy portraits of Gordon Parks to the
scary poetics of Billie Holiday. "It might sound weird,
but I felt as though I was chosen to do those pieces,"
she says. Indeed. There is a growth and maturity in
these textured images that was only hinted at in John's
earlier work.
Indeed, her more
recent works which includes the cover to Bronx Biannual
2 (Akashic Books) and a children’s book about Harlem,
John's paintings have become even more startling in
terms of her vision. "I've started taking more advantage
of found items in my work. Merely walking through the
streets of Harlem, I've discovered so many objects to
incorporate in the collages."
With the soul of an
outsider and the vision of a true auteur, staring at
John's work is like walking through a vibrant dream
where various lines and patterns flow fluidly and no
concept is too wild.
Source:
Blackadelic Pop / Other relevant links:
Chesiel /
Bronx Biannual /
AkashicBooks /
Profile My Space
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michael a. gonzales—Harlem native—has written cover stories for
Essence, Giant, Latina, XXL and
Stop Smiling. A former writer-at-large for Vibe
magazine, Gonzales has also been a staff writer for
The Source, columnist for New York Press and
a frequent contributor to the New York Daily News,
the New York Post and NY Metro. He has
also contributed articles to Spin, the Village
Voice, Ego Trip, Trace and
Entertainment Weekly.
Gonzales co-wrote
the book
Bring the Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and
Hip-Hop Culture (Random House, 1991).
Praised by
writer/director Nelson George as “evidencing the mastery
of detail required of a subject that is all about
mastery of detail,” the book was a groundbreaking text
in hip-hop literature. |
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Currently Michael
A. Gonzales writes a regular music column called “On the
Corner” for
Popmatters.com and has written liner-notes for
reissue collections including The Hip-Hop Box Set,
the O’Jays, the Gap Band, the Crusaders and Al Green.
Having written for MTV and BET, he also served as a
consultant to the Experience Music Project’s (Seattle)
inaugural Hip-Hop/Rap exhibit. He also contributed the
essay “From Rockin’ the House to Planet Rock” to their
catalogue Crossroads (2000).
In addition,
Gonzales’ essays have appeared in
Best Sex Writing 2005 edited by Violet Blue (Cleis
Press),
Beats, Rhymes & Life edited by Kenji Jasper
(Harlem Moon, 2007) and
Best Sex Writing 2006 edited Felice Neaman and
Frederique Delacoste (Cleis Press). A 1999 Code magazine
feature on Prince was reprinted the following year in
the landmark music criticism collection
Rock and Roll is Here to Stay edited by William
McKeen (W.W. Norton & Company, 2000). “My Father Named
Me Prince” appeared alongside pop culture pieces by Tom
Wolfe, Joan Didion and Lester Bangs.
Gonzales has
published fiction in
Brown Sugar 2: A Collection of Erotic Black Fiction
edited by Carol Taylor (Simon & Shuster, 2001),
Bronx Biannual 2 edited by Miles Marshall
Lewis (Akashic Books, 2007), Uptown magazine,
Brown Sugar 3: When Opposites Attract edited by
Carol Taylor (Simon & Shuster, 2003) and the upcoming
superheroes collection Darker Mask edited by Gary
Phillips and Christopher Chambers (Tor, 2008).
Gonzales’ short
stories have also been published in France and England.
Like Gypsy Rose Lee, Norman Mailer and Spike Lee before
him, he lives in Brooklyn.
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Generation Soul: Can Dru Hill Revive The Vocal
Group?
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02_My_Story,_My_Song.mp3
(24503 KB)
(Kalamu reading "My Story, My Song"
Featuring blues guitarist Walter Wolfman Washington)
Audio:
My Story, My Song (Featuring blues guitarist Walter Wolfman Washington)
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Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered
the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It
By H. W. Brands
In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power—and the enormous risks—of the dollar's worldwide reign.—The Economy |
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Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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posted 27 April 2007
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