news from kintespace.com ::: Tuesday, March 20 2007

There are times when I am convinced that Robin Strayhorn is living with her kiln 24 hours a day. When you look at the wide layers and narrow threads of color in many of her monotypes and paintings, you can see daily hours of meditation. These personal, intimate moments of creativity may sound like that of a recluse until you discover Ms. Strayhorn’s extensive record of public/civic works including her 2002 public commission for the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Rosa Parks Blue Line Station in Los Angeles. In collaboration with renowned artist Michael Massenburg, she designed and fabricated five concrete/ceramic tile benches which pay tribute to Rosa Parks. In the summer of 2007, we look forward to the unveiling of her exterior tile wall at the entry to the Ted Watkins pool house for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation and Frank Webb Architects.

Hollywood also came looking for Robin Strayhorn as well. Many of her works enjoyed “product placement” and cameos in shows like Sister, Sister, Moesha, The Cosby Show and The Parkers. I can only look forward to Robin Strayhorn’s time management advice—maybe she can write a book or make a video series! Even here on the Internet her presence is established by several organizations, including The Tilford Art Group, The Los Angeles Collective—and, now, finally here in the kinté space!

Our gallery show video covers a February 2, 2002 Robin Strayhorn appearance at a Jefferson Park Studio event called “Kinds of Blue: an Evening of Art, Jazz and Spoken Word.” Jefferson Park Studio was then located at 4835 W. Jefferson Blvd in the 90016—its current location is unknown. Nevertheless, our Strayhorn coverage of this event captures the hard work and talent that comes with Ms. Strayhorn, her work. And, oh yes, this video features a charming oil painting of the famous jazz composer, Billy Strayhorn, Robin’s uncle represented with loving care!

::: Freeman Manifestation: Ramona Africa: 1992 (YouTube.com)

::: ::: http://kintespace.com/p_ramona_africa.html

We are very pleased to re-release Ramona Africa: 1992 for YouTube.com. Originally released in April 2001 in QuickTime format, this piece is one of the earliest African-related and African-produced multimedia presentations to appear on the Internet.

We were well aware of the historical nature of this technical achievement and the work was meant to be clarion call to the masses to use present “multimedia” content on the Internet using the Internet itself. This was a far cry from the style of traditional media who, until the acquisition of YouTube.com by Google, publishes over the Internet instead of publishing with the Internet.

The production budget for Ramona Africa: 1992 was deliberately microscopic to ‘prove’ that the only barriers to publishing on the Internet were cultural and based on ignorance. The explosive growth of YouTube.com is the ultimate proof of our assertion. The heart and soul of this work is based on an old-school, magnetic cassette tape that was digitized and mixed with images from the Web and the original photography of Darryl Allan Smith and Jacob Holdt. See the “Credits” track for more details.

::: Desirée A. Barnwell: Will the Real Black People Please Stand

::: ::: http://kintespace.com/p_abarnwell0.html

The awesome technological power of the Internet search engine has once again shown that Desirée A. Barnwell and her poem “Will the Real Black People Please Stand” is, as of this writing, nowhere to be found online. And, of course, this poem appears here in the kinté space not to correct an “innocent oversight” but to respect what is disrespected on a daily basis under this New World Imperial order.

Again, this is our fifth selection from Orde Coombs, his book, We Speak as Liberators: Young Black Poets—An Anthology, after “Herschell Johnson: We Are Not Mantan.” Ms. Barnwell’s poem from 1970 is recorded here to prevent another, young, self-described “Black” poet in 2007 from writing a similar thing in ignorance of what came before him. Although the pop cultural influences of these times—backed by billions of U.S. dollars, ruled by small cartel of corporations and countless minions—may strongly suggest that there will be no more young, self-described “Black” poets to educate in this manner, we persist here in the kinté space. To use the words of Ms. Barnwell, we are “undaunted by the white man’s statistics” and we are “attentive to meaningful expression.”

In 1970, Desirée A. Barnwell was one Mrs. Lawrence S. Cumberbatch. Born in Guyana, South America she lived in worked in the metropolitan New York area. She took a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Queens College. You are warned new Black poets: “Will the Real Black People Please Stand” was her first published work.

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