The Sacred Collaboration: Paintings by Sophia Dawson

May 2, 2016 by Mariamma Kambon

“I gesso the material black, whether its canvas or wood, I gesso it all black to prepare the surface. It’s a conscious political act for me to work on a black surface … All black. All black everything.” Part I “My greatest inspiration is without a doubt the Almighty God. He is the one who gifted me my talent and I consider myself a co-creator with Him. All the ideas I have are the ones that come from Him. All […]

Categories: Exhibition, Personalities, Uncategorized • Tags: all black everything, black gesso, Black Panther Party, Black Power, Civil rights, Dequi Sadiki, Emory Douglas, Erykah Badu, faith, fine art, freedom, freedom fighter, human rights, I Am Free, Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, Leon Bridges, luz de tu sonrisa, luzdetusonrisa, Mariamma Kambon, mass incarceration, Mondo We Langa, motherhood, New York, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, painter, PEMDAS, Pharaoh, photography, political prisoners, portraits, Portraiture, prison abolition, resistance, Sam Cooke, Snug Harbor, Sophia Dawson, Staten Island, vision, visual artist, visual arts

The Son of the Prophet Journeys to the Land of the Believers

April 22, 2016 by Mariamma Kambon

The earliest image of my family was captured with Marcus Garvey’s portrait occupying the position typically reserved for White Jesus in the West Indian home.   “Children, children! Children, children! Humble yourself and be calm, one day somehow You’ll remember him, you will No one remember old Marcus Garvey No one remember old Marcus Garvey Garvey’s old, yet young Garvey’s old, yet young” – Old Marcus Garvey, Burning Spear   “My trod was in the livity and order. I honored […]

Categories: Personalities, Uncategorized • Tags: African Diaspora, African Liberation, black god, Black Power, Bob Marley, breadfruit trees, Burning Spear, caribbean, Clyde Noel, colonialism, dreadlocks, Ethiopia, family, family portrait, flags, food independence, Haile Selassie, Harris Promenade, In the Lion's Den, Jamaica, Julius Garvey, Junior Bisnath, luz de tu sonrisa, luzdetusonrisa, Marcus Garvey, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Mariamma Kambon, New York, photography, postcolonial, prophet, Ras Daniel, rasta, Rastafari, Rastafarian, red black and green, resistance, San Fernando, Steel Pulse, Trini Levi, Trinidad and Tobago, twelve tribes, Twelve Tribes of Israel, white jesus, Worth his weight in gold

Ashes and Embers, a film by Haile Gerima

March 11, 2016 by Mariamma Kambon

For my uncle who was sent to Vietnam a whole man but returned to his family incomplete  “It is for life. PTSD is for life,” she told me. “That person will never, ever get better.” The faces around the dimly lit table grew serious momentarily as this reality sank in. It was only a warning about a date with a man from the navy who might have been to a recent war. The pause was fleeting before the faces all […]

Categories: Film, Uncategorized • Tags: African American, African Diaspora, American Fruit African Roots, Angela Davis, Ashes and Embers, Black Power, David Rudder, Elizabeth Catlett, Film, Films at the Schomburg, Haile Gerima, Harlem, lynching, Madman's Rant, Malcolm X, Mariamma Kambon, movie, New York, Patrice Lumumba, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, soldier, The Schomburg Center, The Sharecropper, Veteran, Vietnam, Vietnam vet, war

Altars of Poverty

June 14, 2015 by Mariamma Kambon

Altars of Poverty, my thesis show, grew out of my interest in a particular detail that I uncovered while researching the Black Power Revolution in Trinidad and Tobago. The movement seemed to have been transformed in scale and importance at the specific moment when the then small group of protesters – consisting mainly of university students and public transportation workers – entered a Roman Catholic cathedral in the heart of the nation’s capital. This famous cathedral was devoted to the […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: 1970, altars of poverty, Black Power, capitalism, catholic, church, colonialism, cornell university, death penalty, death row, Ithaca, Mariamma Kambon, martin carter, mass incarceration, MFA Thesis, New York, postcolonial, salt, sugar, Thesis, Tjaden Gallery, Trinidad and Tobago, white divinity

Recent Projects featured in International Exhibition

June 1, 2012 by Mariamma Kambon

As part of the Cultural Olympiad, Urbanflo Creative Consultancy hosted an international photography exhibition, Roots & Wings. Images from the projects “Black Power’s Inheritance” and “Asha Means Life” were included in this group show which travelled from the UK to Barbados. 

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Asha Means Life, Barbados, Black Power, Black Power's Inheritance, Crawley, Exhibition, Mariamma Kambon, photography, Roots & Wings

The Spirit of Dedan Kimathi

November 7, 2011 by Mariamma Kambon

His anecdotes were rich and amusing. He shared his mementos with me – old prison stationary; collections of newspapers from 1970 and beyond; the primary school reader he kept from his boyhood days, from before Trinidad and Tobago had become an independent nation…

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Black Power, Black Power's Inheritance, Dedan Kimathi, photography, Portraiture, Trinidad and Tobago

Black Power’s Inheritance Featured in London Show

September 10, 2011 by Mariamma Kambon

My current project, Black Power’s Inheritance, fits into the framework of the on-going struggle for self-definition – a grappling with ‘Caribbean Identity’. It is a project about the question of continuity, posed to my peers. What happened after the Uprising of 1970, a pivotal moment in the contemporary history of my nation and region? It has become even more pertinent in light of the 2011 State of Emergency declared by the government of Trinidad and Tobago. It is a matter […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: AACDD, ARC, Black Power, photography, Portraiture, State of Emergency, Trinidad and Tobago