Substantiation of the Spiritual: The Found Objects of Grace Williams

January 31, 2022 by Mariamma Kambon

Hers is an art practice built out of memory embedded deep within her. She transforms Harlem’s residuum – everything from discarded toys and furniture to the guts of renovated buildings – into stirring, tactile chronicles of the events and personalities that have marked her life.

Categories: Personalities, Uncategorized • Tags: African Diaspora, altars, artifacts, artist, Barack Obama, Betty Shabazz, Bob Macbeth, Caribbean Diaspora, Ed Bullins, flags, found objects, Grace Williams, Harlem, immigrant, Jamaica, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Mariamma Kambon, mosaics, New York, Ntozake Shange, photography, recycling, Sculpture, Trinidad and Tobago, vessels

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

May 27, 2021 by Mariamma Kambon

Discussion Points for Bookclubs and Study Groups: At over 500 pages, this latest addition to the assortment of Malcolm X biographies offers the reader an opportunity to review the life of an American icon – the Black shining prince of the Civil Rights Movement – in richly detailed context. 

Categories: Activism, Books • Tags: African American, African Diaspora, black shining prince, Bookclub, caribbean, christianity, Civil rights, cult, Discussion Points, Earl Little, el hajj malik el shabazz, history, human rights, icon, islam, Les Payne, Louise Little, luzdetusonrisa, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Mariamma Kambon, martyr, Nation of Islam, racism, religion, shirley dubois, Study Group, Tamara Payne, the ballot or the bullet, The Dead Are Arising, the life of Malcom X, UNIA, united states

Journey of a Soul: The Life and Work of Betty Blayton Taylor

February 6, 2017 by Mariamma Kambon

“I think that every child should have an opportunity to explore the arts, just like they have an opportunity to learn how to write and to count. A youngster who has had exposure to the arts is a youngster who is going to be more creative, more capable of learning; will have more enthusiasm for learning and particularly, will be in a position to explore potential, as opposed to the rote learning that goes into A-B-C. If you allow a […]

Categories: Personalities, Uncategorized • Tags: all is one, Alleyne Houser Blayton, Arnold Prince, art, artist, artist-in-residence, Barbara Blayton Richardson, Betty Blayton, Betty Blayton Taylor, Bruton Heights, Buddhism, Charlotte Amalie, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Children's Art Carnival, creative, culture, Dr. James Blayton, family, Film, Harlem, Harlem Textile Works, Jean-Michel Basquiat, LeRoy Clarke, Mariamma Kambon, meditation, Michael Kelly Williams, New York City, North Carolina, Omar Blayton, painter, painting, Palmer Memorial Institute, photography, play, portraits, sculptor, Sedalia, self-reflective, St. Thomas, studio museum of harlem, The Bronx, Trinidad and Tobago, Virginia, Williamsburg, Zevilla Preston Jackson

Notes for Alton Sterling

July 11, 2016 by Mariamma Kambon

Intro A video of the cold, violent execution of a prone Black man by white police officers opened my very first day in Louisiana. In transit I may have imagined the famed streets of New Orleans – the fertile land that has nourished Jazz and Rhythm-and-Blues; superb cuisine that just might be reminiscent of my own well-seasoned Caribbean fare; and a renowned debauchery that marks the place as vibrant and outrageous. Alton Sterling’s murder at the hands of NOPD served […]

Categories: Activism, Uncategorized • Tags: African American, African Diaspora, Alton Sterling, Baton Rouge, community, execution, family, freedom, grief, Jo Hines, John C. Mutter, justice, Louisiana, Mariamma Kambon, Michael Eric Dyson, mural, murder, photography, Police brutality, protest, race-based oppression, racism, resistance, Trinidad and Tobago, Triple S Convenience Store

Black and Pretty: Honoring Muhammad Ali

June 29, 2016 by Mariamma Kambon

“He is the property of all people but while he is the property of all people, let us never forget that he is the product of Black people in their struggle to be free.” – Dr. Kevin Cosby, 2016   “Clay is the finest Negro athlete I have ever known, the man who will mean more to his people than any other athlete before him.” – Malcolm X, 1964   It has been stated time and time again that Muhammad […]

Categories: Personalities, Uncategorized • Tags: African American, African Diaspora, Ali Bomaye, Blackness, boxing, Carol St. John, Champion, Civil rights, freedom, Gerald Early, hero, James E. Lewis Jr., Kentucky, legend, Lenox Lewis, Louisville, Malcolm X, Mariamma Kambon, Muhammad Ali, NUCUP, photography, Reverend Kevin Cosby, The Champ, The Greatest, The Greatest of All Time, Toni Morrison, Trinidad and Tobago, Will Smith

Blood at the Root: Activism in Art

May 30, 2016 by Mariamma Kambon

Nooses were hanging like vines. Roots penetrated deeply into blood soaked soil. And then there was a fight.   Blood at the Root is a small-scale production. The cast numbers six. It was performed at the National Black Theatre, which has a seating capacity of less than two hundred. The set is comprised of a flat backdrop and six chairs in constant rotation. But there is nothing small-scale about the impact of this play. Blood at the Root forces the […]

Categories: Performance, Uncategorized • Tags: Allison Jaye, awareness, Black Lives Matter, Blood at the Root, Brandon Carter, change, Christian Thompson, Civil rights, division, Dominique Morisseau, empathy, Eric Garner, Hi-Arts, hip hop dance, installation, Jena 6, Kenzie Ross, labels, Louisiana, lynching, Mariamma Kambon, mass incarceration, National Black Theatre, New York, Nooses, Penn State Centre Stage, photography, play, prejudice, production, protest, racism, resistance, rules, Sade Lythcott, stage set, Steven Broadnax, Stori Ayers, strange fruit, tolerance, Trayvon Martin, Tyler Reilly

THERE (Yankee) – A curatorial project

May 24, 2016 by Mariamma Kambon

To stand in front of one of the photographs made by emerging photographer, Sasha Phyars-Burgess, is to stand at the point where documentary and art collide. In line with the wave of photographers creating imagery from positions of marginality, Phyars-Burgess has made use of the technology of photography as a tool for self-reflexivity and self-redefinition. She has examined aspects of contemporary Trinidadian life from the vantage point of a first-generation American grounded in the culture of this distant, yet familiar […]

Categories: Exhibition, Personalities, Uncategorized • Tags: African American, African Diaspora, back and white, Bard College, brooklyn, caribbean, Caribbean Diaspora, Cornell MFA, cornell university, documentary, En Foco, Exhibition, family, fine art, Harlem, ICP, identity, immigrant, International Center of Photography, Mariamma Kambon, migration, Mink Building, New York, Pennsylvania, photographer, photography, photojournalism, Sasha Phyars-Burgess, SoHarlem, transnational West Indian family, Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidadian, west indian, yankee

Our Music Continues: Michael Kelly Williams

May 10, 2016 by Mariamma Kambon

  Liturgy for Lenox Lounge Gentrification is a sticky subject for many African-Americans. I once heard it summed up as such: “White people? You don’t come to join us. You come to displace us.” African-Americans became a part of the originally Dutch neighborhood of Harlem in 1905. A murder within a house on West 133rd Street turned it into a challenging property to rent. The solution decided upon by the owner was to turn to a Black realtor, who rented […]

Categories: Personalities, Sculpture, Uncategorized • Tags: art, brooklyn, Daughters of the Dust, Detroit, gentrification, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, iconic, jazz, Lenox Lounge, Liturgy for Lenox Lounge, malcolm x blvd, Mariamma Kambon, Michael Kelly Williams, music, New York, nkisi, photography, resistance, sculptor, Sculpture, Serett Metal Works, surrealism, visual arts

“Everyone Breaks”: Tanda Francis

May 5, 2016 by Mariamma Kambon

In this life, everyone breaks. As individuals, we are shattered by disappointments. We are knocked to our knees by the share force of life – that balance of negative and positive that ensures that one day, each of us will face the unthinkable. As a people, we have been scattered. A rich and eclectic Diaspora has been born of our perpetual, migratory state. Much of the journey has been marked by pain and loss. Yet, as individuals, we persevere. As […]

Categories: Personalities, Sculpture, Uncategorized • Tags: African Diaspora, art, artist, beauty, Benin, Benin Bronze, Benin head, brooklyn, concrete, Everyone Breaks, fabrication, gold, healing, Ife, Ife sculptures, Jamaica, kintsugi, kintsukoroi, luz de tu sonrisa, luzdetusonrisa, Mariamma Kambon, mending, New York, photography, public art, resiliance, Riverside Park, sculptor, Sculpture, steel, Tanda Francis, visual artist, visual arts