Black Mundane
In 1968, a commission chaired by Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner was formed after what was called “the long, hot summer of 1967”. The Kerner Commission released its report, which included a chapter focused on how white news outlets contributed to the country’s racial division and unrest. It noted that “far too often, the press acts and talks about Negroes as if Negroes don't read the newspapers or watch television, give birth, marry, die, and go to PTA meetings.”
This conversation has been coming up a lot for me. Around the persistence of this media narrative - a narrative that we only exist in either the magnificent or in death / crime.
One way for us to counter this narrative is by talking about the mundane, the mendacity. If we don't document the mundane, we allow future generations to inherit an absence of documentation in the same way that we've inherited an absence of documentation of the mundane from the 1900s, 1820s, et cetera. Imagine the joy you feel when you see some of our cultural heroes like Maya Angelou, June Jordan, Martin Luther King Jr living life: biking, playing pool, dancing? What if those images of us existed now, into the future?
To that end, I created this evolving collection of art celebrating the Black Mundane depicting Black people living, laughing, and loving.
shindig
game night
discovery
snug
gift, in reciprocity
what if we had Black luxury on Black beaches?
stepping into tomorrow
first saturdays
hanabi
low country
