Nick Cave: Using materials that range from twigs to crystals to rainbow-colored hair, the artist makes sculptures that, for all their beauty, are visceral and necessary critiques of racial injustice. | The New York Times

Megan O’Grady, The New York Times THE INAUGURATION OF Nick Cave’s Facility, a new multidisciplinary art space on Chicago’s Northwest Side, has the feeling of a family affair. In April, inside the yellow-brick industrial building, the classical vocalist Brenda Wimberly and the keyboardist Justin Dillard give a special performance for a group that includes local friends, curators and…

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Legacy Russell Appointed Associate Curator at Studio Museum of Harlem | The Network Journal

Aziz Gueye Adetimirin, The Network Journal Golden, chief curator at the Studio Museum of Harlem, today announced the appointment of Legacy Russell to serve as assistant curator of exhibitions at the Studio Museum. Her experience is in organizing exhibitions and events, writing for diverse audiences from popular to academic, and, most recently, serving as European…

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3 Films We’re Excited to See Developed From The Black List | Colorlines

Sameer Rao, Colorlines year, hundreds of Hollywood executives nominate their favorite unproduced movie screenplays to appear on The Black List. The 2018 list debuted yesterday (December 17) via a funny short, “The Last Days of TJ Scraggs”: The clip stars Paul Scheer (“The League”) as a brash entertainment agent who knocks himself unconscious in 1998…

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Tracing the Real Betty Boop back to a Notorious Bootlegger’s Club in 1920s Harlem | Messy Nessy Chic

Natalie McKane, Messy Nessy Chic 1920’s in Paris may have been roaring, but over in Harlem, they were stomping. New York’s playground was not short of an underground boozer, but there was one place in particular that dominated the scene; The Cotton Club. Patron Saint of jazz, notorious bootlegging and the home of the original…

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Dawoud Bey: 40 Years of Photos Affirming the ‘Lives of Ordinary Black People’ | The New York Times

Fayemi Shakur , The New York Times The Woman in the Light, Harlem, New York City, 1980. From the “Small Camera Work” series. Credit Dawoud Bey/University of Texas Press. Featured Image a socially conscious teenager, Dawoud Bey was intrigued by the controversy over the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 1969 exhibition, “Harlem on My Mind: Cultural…

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Kara Walker Invites You to a Public Hanging | Hyperallergic

Tom Micchelli , Hyperallergic Kara Walker, “African/American” (1998), linoleum cut on paper, 46.25 x 60.5 inches, lent by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of the Peter Norton Family Foundation. Featured Image , New Jersey — “Virginia’s Lynch Mob” (1998), the centerpiece of Kara Walker: Virginia’s Lynch Mob and Other Works, organized by guest curator…

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Inside Afrochella, Ghana’s Answer To Coachella | Travel Noire

Rachel George , Travel Noire A festivalgoer during the 2018 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Field on April 22, 2018 in Indio, California. Featured Image performers, food, and attractions, Afrochella is not so different from California’s annual Coachella Festival, except for one very important note: it’s created by black people…

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How Mexican and Chicanx Activism Flourished in 20th-Century Los Angeles | Hyperallergic

Abe Ahn , Hyperallergic Installation view, Regeneración journals (1970–1975). Featured Image ANGELES — “La constitución ha muerto” (The constitution is dead), declared a photograph published in a 1903 edition of the satirical Mexico City newspaper El Hijo del Ahuizote. In the image, funeral wreaths and Mexican flags hang from the periodical’s offices, while staff writers…

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Photographer Bruce Talamon captured black joy in the glory years of soul and funk. Now he’s getting his due | Los Angeles Times

MAKEDA EASTER , Los Angeles Times Motown company basketball game: Katherine, Janet, Michael and Randy Jackson with Billy Bray, Los Angeles 1974. Photo by Bruce W. Talamon. Featured Image , Wind & Fire founder Maurice White had one name in mind for his memoir photos: Bruce Talamon. The photographer, who has nearly 40 years experience…

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