Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. , 2015. Print.

Within his book, Ta-Nehisi Coates covers a multitude of topics. He talks about being a father and the concerns it brings when living in America and also about much of the twisted and upsetting history within America. He focuses much of his writing on these topics in writing that can almost be read like poetry. His phrasing and metaphors allow for an understanding of complex topics in very simplistic terms. 

 

His deep dive into American history also covers things like Police brutality and the feeling of double consciousness as a Black man in America. This particular book was written in a letter format to his son. He writes of his experiences, answers, and questions that he has had over his life if only to help inform his son and teach him what he had to learn. Mentioned in the book flap some main questions that he poses throughout this book is “What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?”

 

This book will be one of the books that I will base my paintings off of. It encapsulates so much of what I wish to comment on while simultaneously suggesting and describing them in a visual manner that can help me bring to life this project. 

 

Hamad, Ruby. White Tears/Brown Scars. , 2019. Print.

Ruby Hamad as stated in her bio is a “ journalist, author, and academic.” Her book White Tears/Brown Scars articulates and discusses the pain that women of color experience often at the expense of white women and white tears in general. She had initially written an article under the title of “How White Women Use Strategic Tears to Silence Women of Colour” which has blown up worldwide causing a lot of debate on White womanhood and feminism. 

 

Within the first couple of chapters of her book, she articulates the oppressive stereotypes that are the main tactics of control around women of color. She discusses the china doll vs dragon lady and the angry black woman vs over sexualize black woman. It opens room to begin analyzing and understanding woc in a manner that is informed and levels baseline knowledge the reader has. 

 

This book ties into my reading perfectly as it plays in the WOC portion of my paintings. It provides powerful insight and context to the messaging I will be trying to convey and allows for my decisions to be well informed and past surface level. 

 

Foster, Hannah. The Black Arts Movement (1965-1975). , 2014. Print.

This article talks about the Black arts movement. It starts with “The Black Arts Movement was the name given to a group of politically motivated black poets, artists, dramatists, musicians, and writers who emerged in the wake of the Black Power Movement. The poet Imamu Amiri Baraka is widely considered to be the father of the Black Arts Movement, which began in 1965 and ended in 1975.”

The article provides crucial information and history about how the Black Arts movement began, starting with the assassination of Malcolm X and ending with the shift from Black nationalism to marxism. While it outlines the beautiful art it also talks about the perpetuation of, for example, hyper-masculinity because of the “ historical humiliation and degradation of African American men…”. This article provides a great timeline for understanding how movements shift and how the impact of important writers and artists, i.e Audre Lorde, Sonia Sanchez, and June Jordan, have created a ripple of the impact that we still feel and consider today. It will allow me to consider how my art can change, or shift to either encapsulate some of that history or comment on it. 

I would also possibly like to use the quotes and major names as a visual aspect of my piece. Incorporating writing into my art allows for a more interesting and complex piece that catches the eye and makes you think.

Soto, Christopher. Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color. , 2018. Print.

Christopher Soto is an LA-based Poet who “published Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color (Nightboat Books). This is the first major literary anthology for Queer Poets of Color in the United States. He had edited an online journal, of the same name, with Lambda Literary since 2014.” Their book compiled some of the most powerful poetry to create a space that not only uplifted queer poets of color but opened a space for just those voices. 

 

One of the reasons I chose this book was because of a powerful Audre Lorde poem that they included. The poem was called Power and detailed the unjust court systems and police brutality. Its imagery was extremely impactful. One line was “They convinced me” meaning they had dragged her 4’10” black Woman’s frame over the hot coals of four centuries of white male approval until she let go of the first real power she ever had and lined her own womb with cement to make a graveyard for our children.” 

This book connects to my project like the others but provides powerful imagery and commentary on current political events that could help inspire more ideas on what to paint. 

 

Cotter, Holland. ‘Black Art: In the Absence of Light’ Reveals a History of Neglect and Triumph. , 2021. Print.

This article details the HBO documentary Black Art: In the Absence of Light. Holland Cotter brings together a wonderful summary and commentary about the documentary. In his own words, he describes the documentary as an “(exploration of) two centuries of art by African-Americans, and the path they forged for contemporary Black artists.”

 

The HBO documentary is comprised of multiple interviews with curators, artists, and scholars. The concept for the documentary was based on a 1976 exhibit called “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” which included roughly, “200 works dating from the mid-18th to the mid-20th century, and advanced history that few Americans, including art professionals, even knew existed.” Cotter critiques in his article that the documentary struggles with covering certain issues but is still an effective and educational documentary to watch. “We’re talking about a dense, complex history. No one film can hope to get all of it, and this one leaves a lot out. (Mention of the Black Power movement is all but absent here.) Still, there’s a lot, encapsulated in short, deft commentary by scholars and curators.” 

 

This article and documentary can serve to, like the other pieces, help with widening my perspective on Black history and experience and black art. Looking into these artists brings, like my Black Arts article, a historical black perspective that I might otherwise not have to reference.