Phonics Into the Future

Painter | Spoken Word Performer | Arts Educator | 💯Natural Black Woman

[rsbexpressions]

Black Super Hero’s

 AWSUM ISLOVE / SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2017

As you rave over Luke Cage, and soon Marvels’ Black Panther, Black SuperHeros have had a presence and history that out dates these two series. While this may the first time Black Superhero’s have been prominent on white owned media platforms, independent Black owned media platforms have been doing this for decades.

There are #AfrikanSuperHero movies, t.v series, & comics written, produced, directed & illustrated by actual Afrikans & the Afrikan Diaspora.

 Black Comic book conventions such as E.B.A.C.C (www.ecbacc.com/wordpress4) (Yumy Odom, Founder and President)  of the largest Black Comic book convention on the East Coast was created in May 2002 in Philadelphia.  The Schomburg will be doing its 7th Annual Black Comic Book Festival in January 2018, co-produced by John Jennings. The producers of the festival are replicating it in California. In the Midwest for have MECCAcon ( https://meccacon.wordpress.com/) (founder, organizer, CEO, Maia Crown Williams)

OYA: RISE OF THE ORISHAS  is a short film originally released in July 31, 2016. Created by Nigerian-UK filmmaker, Nosa Igbinedion, it was nominated for the Efere Ozako Award for Best Short film. You can currently watch the new installment, YEMOJA:Rise of the Orishas, on demand via the website.

(www.riseoftheorisha.com/)  

This generation of Black-African Super Hero creators has done what #SidneyPoitier #HarryBelafonte, #RubyDee, #OssieDavis, The Black Arts Movement, & many more have done before them. Most millennials, born between 1980-1999, only know Ruby & Ossie as the old couple from Spike Lee’s, “Do the Right Thing” film. What you probably don’t know is that they owned/operated a production co. for audio recorded cassettes of music and ent. Emmalyn II Productions Co., Inc. and a business consulting service Dee-Davis Enterprises in 2010. Ossie was a film, television and Broadway actor, director, poet, playwright, author, and civil rights activist. Ruby was an actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and civil rights activist. 

Ivan Dixon, director of “The Spook Who Sat by the Door” in 1970, was an actor, director & producer from 1957 to 1991 . Brock Peters, producer of 1970 film “Five on the Black Hand Side” made his film debut in Carmen Jones in 1954, and sang background vocals on the 1956 hit "Day-O" by Harry Belafonte. He did voice overs in Batman: the animated series, and Darth Vador for the radio adaptation of the original Star Wars trilogy for National Public Radio (1981-1986).

White owned media saw the mass amounts of money that was being made by independent Black owned business & entrepreneurs that contribute to African diaspora characters. Not only was it making money, but it was taking money from their pockets as #BlackConsumers went to their own for empowering images of themselves. Prior to this, they cared nothing of us (and still don’t) only our money.

A living, elevated example of that transition, is Pamela Thomas. Culminating her collection as an adult, she looks back at her childhood. Disappointed with the  lack of empowering Black representation, if any,  in main stream comics, she looked elsewhere...and found it!  The Museum of Uncut Funk, (http://museumofuncutfunk.com/) is an online digital museum of BlackSuper Heros, She-rah’s, & paraphernalia that, “ celebrate[s] our contribution to history year round!” Everything from Fat Albert, The Jackson 5 cartoon, Mr. T comics, The Harlem Glob Trotters cartoon, and stuff I never knew existed. Her traveling exhibit, “ Funk Turns 40: Black Character Revolution” debuted at The Schomburg in 2014. That exhibition also eye-marked a new curation style for the Schomburg center; the walls were painted in bright solid colors dipping the viewer inside the luscious array of diversity and beauty, that is Black culture. It was this authors official introduction to Black Characters & the History of Black Characters. Since then, everything in regards to Black characters on t.v. and advertisements, failed in comparison. We have set a very high bar. That bar, is the norm for the independent Black image creators. Since then, everything in regards to Black characters on t.v. and advertisements, failed in comparison. We have set a very high bar. That bar is the norm for the independent Black image creators mentioned in this article.

“ Since then, everything in regards to Black characters... failed in comparison. We have set a very high bar. That bar, is the norm for the independent Black image creators...”

And again, my people have drunk the Koolaid of a white owned representation of something Black, thinking it will be "sweeter" & “cooler” than what we create for ourselves. This is a falsehood, (& an act of cultural treason) that must stop. Wanting Black content is not enough. We have to want ourselves.

* Pay Attn  to the Dates.* Your vision got drowned out by the white accredited version of a Black Superhero. (HHHmmmm) Their approval is not necessary for us to be fabulous, amazing, talented, disciplined, successful, & valued.

 The best pple to represent our stories is US! And it is EXCELLENT!

In Order of Mention:

The Schomburg Center: Black Comic Book Festival ( https://www.nypl.org/locations/scho...)

Cosplay at the 5th annual Black Comic Book Festival

John Jennings  (http://jijennin70.tumblr.com/)

EBACC

Yumy Odum: Founder/ Ceo Of EBACC (East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention, Inc)

MECCAcon

Maiya Crown Williams; CEO, Founder, Organizer of MECCAcon: (photo from www.sugarcayne.com)

Nosa Igbinedion ( https://www.nosa-filmmaker.com)

Sidney Poitier /  Bahamian Actor, film director, author and diplomat.

Harry Belafonte

Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis (Power Couple) 

Ivan Dixon

Brock Peters

The Museum of Uncut Funk / Pamela Thomas

HCIC Pam Thomas, with actress of Blaxploitation films, Pam Grier.

For a full article review with pics on the Funky Turns 40 exhibit http://www.a-r-t.com/funky/

Premier of FunkyTurns 40 at the schomburg; 2014

*****************************

Other Independent African Diaspora Creators Links:

*****************************

Banned Cartoons: What images of the African Diaspora ( & references to our culture) used to look like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNr...

OYA: Rise of the Orishas (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMb...)

The Rise of Sango and tthe Lagos Comic Con https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duV...

Michael Rima (Visual Effects artist):

Sango trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLa... / https://vimeo.com/user37190487

[rsbexpressions]

ABOUT BURNOUT;

“BurnOut isn’t a one time event that happens and its done. It is a state of being that one enters.”

~ Lady Be

What I’ve learned about Burn Out as a Black Woman is that this state of being is a process that repeats itself while your in it. There can be parts that arent as dramatic in appearance but the person is still in burnout. She’s regained a smidgen of self to survive through a short moment thus ‘appearing’ normal.

That smidgen is usually worn out quickly vs compiling for a real restoration. Its taken by people and tasks. The burn out continues. Often it takes years of actively repairing ones self to fully leave that state of being.

Awareness

Unravel

Restoration.

First you have to see the knot. Be aware of its existence. Start comprehending what it is, what its affects, and how it got there.

Then you have unravel the knot. It’s usually very tight. Youre ok if you need to take breaks in the process. REFLECTION is a big step in this stage. Take your time. Reveal. Reflect. Rest. before start again.

Restoration. Like a rubber band thats been bound up for a while or a tshirt pulled into a tie, after its released its still in a similar bend to the knot it was in. With time and a run through the washing machine, the shirt will regain its original shape. The rubber band will retract back to a smaller size. With training and healing, a muscle can regain its elasticity. This is the work of restoration.

[rsbexpressions]

DAYUM YOU FORESHORTENING!

Drawing.

Dont skip steps.

Ai is not your friend. Sentences and paragraphs put together with the incorrect phrasing /information - meaning is regional and localized.

In art, perspective painting will never work. Theres too much spatial information that only the human eye can choose based on desired option to input into any data base. Cameras dont do it. Photographer’s have to manually adjust a photo to imitate the realistic space and distance even with the best cameras. Half of the info is intangible so words never really describe it to comprehension without you having had the in person experience with it.

When you actually draw what you see you learn how much information is actually available. An artist is discerning which pieces of information to keep.

The options are infinite.

Decision making is a skill.

Im keeping mine. Expanding it. The process is arduous. The adjacent variables shift in real time; Their nuances suggestive testing ones ability to stay centered & unwavering predominance.

[rsbexpressions]

A new beginning.

At 36 my eye has changed. Artist do that. I see divinity in everyday items that communicate very little activity. The draw is its relationship to the physical space. I take up space. I have space. I claim my space. How it sits “big” in a wide opening ; it has a presence. All that you see has a presence in harmony with every aspect of a things next to it. Fungshei. Nothing is an empty position. Like the french horn holds the room of sound in a song.

[rsbexpressions]

What is this new thing they tryna push about #Reading not being natural or a bad way to learn

#2026Propaganda #BBCnews #AudioBookCommericals in the states.

Am I the only one who noticed???

You see how they started the gradual grooming for Farenheight 451 (… who else saw the 2018 film version with Michael B Jordan? … dropped 1 month after Black Panther 🧐

[rsbexpressions]

I love the elegance of (Blk) men; the gentle lean to the side that only happens when the spine is tall and the head is on right.

[rsbexpressions]

Hi Blerdy’s,… I know I haven’t posted In a while. Theres is plenty art + writer sauce simmering, but I had to pause to handle adult things till an artist in residency accepts me for the year (+) time to solely create on their dime 🪙.

1. Updated My Resume. Im Amazing… which makes it hard to truncate.

2. Organizing creative files.

Which is also, editing the file for ☑️ resolution, File Name, Respectful display + the printer vs promo one.

3. Eating on a regular schedule.

Same time. Same food order. Hydration. Body regulation. You jerk like a crackhead when you dont (in case nobody told you.)

Here’s a #ClassicRSBart in the meantime. Lmk if you want a custom set. 😘

[rsbexpressions]

I love to show the stages. There’s organic information added to a piece dinner my hand that digital loses entirely. Only another artist can look and know which lines were created due to the joy of erasing.

Art education worksheets shall be born from this process.

Stay Tuned.

[rsbexpressions]

Im in flow. Writing and drawing, when the visuals come.

[digitalmiilk]

Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note by Amiri Baraka

[rsbexpressions]

I think this was the best way to write this poem. I now have a a new way to write.

[rsbexpressions]

Im still pushing. How ‘bout you?

#Friday

PS. Real paper hit better.

#LadyBe #RSBexpressions

#illustration #CharacterDesign #LeanBack #OfficeChair #BlackArtist #CreativeProfessional

[rsbexpressions]

When Frustration turns into Genius!

… Name what you did or created in the comments.

[kemetic-dreams]

[rsbexpressions]

Ooohh 😯. Remind me to go find that quote in the book. 📕

[political-us]

[rsbexpressions]

I miss neosoul music that sounded like the color brown. 🤎

[rsbexpressions]

If revisionist history wasnt ok when time works tried to “appropriate” HipHop from African Americans, dont be an ethnographer to African cultures on what we experience in the West.

As an African Am. who directly listens to (& experiences) Africans cultural context, half the things the African. part of me goes through in Am. wouldn’t be an issue ,…. In the continent. We are more alike than we are different.

Simultaneously, the part of me that has developed in Am. out of necessity, while valid, does not 100% have a correlating experience or social ID in Africa…. And its ok!

[rsbexpressions]

Considered the most handsome men in the world! They paint theres faces and present themselves to attract a Blk woman! … and marry her … monogamously. Fancy that.

The rules hit different over there…. I think I need to visit 🫠🫣🫡