here & now California African American Museum Spring 2017
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welcome. The past several months have been a dynamic time here at the California African American Museum. As ever, our mission is to examine the art, history, and culture of African Americans, with an emphasis on California and the West. Yet we’ve been doing so in new and exciting ways, including complementing our history and permanent collection exhibitions with shows that highlight the practices of contemporary artists whose work delves into pertinent themes, including identity, race, gender, and history. Continuing in this vein, this spring we are presenting two solo exhibitions by emerging African American artists. Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, an artist based in California, creates delicate, beautiful drawings of women that belie a hard topic: missing black women in America and elsewhere. Meanwhile, Derrick Adams presents stylized collages, installations, and performances about television culture and how it portrays African Americans—works that are sure to resonate with audiences here in Los Angeles, home to Hollywood. Additionally, a new exhibition drawn from CAAM’s permanent collection will feature an interesting range of works on paper. This spring also marks the 25th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles Uprisings. To commemorate this painful episode and consider race relations both then and now, we are debuting a CAAM-produced history exhibition on the subject: No Justice, No Peace: LA 1992. Please read on for more information about all of the exhibitions and related programs coming to CAAM this spring, and mark your calendar to join us at our next “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” opening celebration on Wednesday, March 8 (see page 11 for details). We look forward to seeing you soon! 4 exhibitions | 11 public programs | 16 for families | 18 visit 2
Photo: Teira Church
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exhibitions No Justice, No Peace: LA 1992 March 8 – August 27, 2017 On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles Uprisings, CAAM presents No Justice, No Peace: LA 1992, an exhibition that examines one of the most notorious episodes of urban unrest in American history. On March 3, 1991, Rodney King led the California Highway Patrol on a high-speed chase that concluded with a struggle, during which some officers beat King with their batons. The brutality in the videotaped arrest sent shockwaves around the world and enraged many in the alreadyfrustrated African American community in LA. On April 29, 1992, when a predominantly white jury acquitted the four officers accused in King’s beating, rage turned to violence. With powerful photographs and videos, historic documents, posters, flyers, and other ephemera, No Justice, No Peace: LA 1992 considers decades of complex socio-political history that still contribute to underlying tensions among LA’s marginalized groups and communities, and it examines race relations, socioeconomics, and equality in America today. This exhibition is curated by Tyree Boyd-Pates, History Curator and Program Manager, CAAM.
in conjunction Trouble Every Day: LA 1965 /1992 March 8 – August 27, 2017 Music has always been an integral part of the African American experience. Documentaries on the Civil Rights Movement frequently highlight important albums and concerts, and for many people, listening to jazz, R&B, and hip-hop has animated learning about African American history. Amidst the fighting and frustration of the 1965 Watts Rebellion, the aggravation of the 1992 LA Uprisings, and all that ensued in the intervening years, the radio played on, broadcasting music by Horace Tapscott, Sam Cooke, Ice Cube, Elaine Brown, 2Pac, Watts Prophets, and Charles Wright, among many others. Trouble Every Day: LA 1965/1992—an immersive listening environment—is presented in conjunction with No Justice, No Peace: LA 1992 to highlight the music of civil rights struggles. Trouble Every Day: LA 1965/1992 is organized by Naima J. Keith, Deputy Director, Exhibitions and Programs, CAAM; Josh Kun, Professor of Communication, USC; and artist Genevieve Gaignard.
Ted Soqui, The riots of 1992 in Los Angeles. A large building housing a swap meet mall on fire at 7th Street and Union Ave in Pico/Union area of Los Angeles, May 1, 1992. © Ted Soqui, 1992
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exhibitions Derrick Adams: Network March 2 – June 11, 2017 CAAM presents the first major museum exhibition in Southern California of New York–based multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams, who works creatively across many mediums to examine how television and mass media shape contemporary culture. Network features large-scale, brightly colored mixed-media collages, video of a performance, and installations in which visitors can record themselves. Images abound of classic African American television shows such as Sanford and Son and luminaries including Oprah Winfrey, Diahann Carroll, and O.J. Simpson, along with representations of television monitors with SMPTE color bars. Adams riffs on late 20th-century African American television iconography while at the same time critiquing consumerism and capitalism, raising questions about race, class, and gender as expressed in popular culture at large, and television entertainment in particular. These ideas take on special significance in Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world. This exhibition is curated by Mar Hollingsworth, Visual Arts Curator and Program Manager, CAAM.
Derrick Adams in front of Fabrication Station #4, 2016; photo: Andy Romer
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exhibitions Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle: The Evanesced March 2 – June 25, 2017 In The Evanesced, drawings and a performance by California-based artist Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle bring attention to a painful subject: missing black women in America and the African diaspora, from history to the present day. Hinkle’s abstract “un-portraits” of elusive figures—drawn with handmade brushes as the artist improvises dances to blues, hip-hop, and Baltimore Club music—pivot between real and imagined narratives representing thousands of black women who have disappeared due to colonialism, human trafficking, homicides, and other forms of erasure. On April 27, 2017, Hinkle will perform The Evanesced: Embodied Disappearance in the gallery, in which she will evoke various types of women navigating historical and contemporary contexts. The piece includes a soundtrack of whispers, shuffles, and snippets of popular and underground music, and it adds another dimension to this emotional examination of a fraught part of the black female experience. The Evanesced is an expression of the #SayHerName movement of mourning, awareness, and healing. This exhibition is curated by Naima J. Keith, Deputy Director, Exhibitions and Programs, CAAM.
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Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, The Evanesced #94, 2016. India ink and watercolor on recycled, acid-free paper, 12 x 9 in. © Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, 2017, courtesy the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery
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exhibitions
can’t stop won’t stop!
Paperworks: Selections from the Permanent Collection March 2 – June 11, 2017 This exhibition focuses on works on paper produced from 1800 to 2000 and includes numerous pictorial strategies such as figuration, impressionism, and abstraction. The exhibition showcases the radically diverse range of works on paper created by African Americans and others over the last two centuries and includes drawings, prints, paintings, and collages by such artists as Edward Mitchell Bannister, Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Robert Colescott, Sam Francis, Marvin Harden, Eugene Hawkins, and Marion Sampler. The works on view include preparatory sketches that offer insight into the artistic process, as well as finished works that allude to the artists’ ongoing projects and aesthetic concerns.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Opening Celebration Come one, come all! DJ sets by Ms. Jck Dvy and DJ PFUNK Good art, people & food trucks FREE RSVP: rsvp@caamuseum.org If you attended or heard about the last celebration, you know you don’t want to miss this one! Celebrating the openings of: No Justice, No Peace: LA 1992 Trouble Every Day: LA 1965/1992 Derrick Adams: Network Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle: The Evanesced Paperworks: Selections from the Permanent Collection
This exhibition is curated by Vida L. Brown, Visual Arts Curator and Program Manager, CAAM. 10
Marion Sampler, CHAIR, 1966. Pen and ink on paper, 27 x 21.25 in. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Leon O. Banks
Photo: Ms. Jck Dvy
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public programs
Wednesday, March 8, 2017 | 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Performance: On In conjunction with his exhibition, Network, artist Derrick Adams will produce and perform a new iteration of On, a multimedia performance originally presented in 2016 at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn. For the presentation at CAAM, Adams has selected a group of performers who will reenact infomercials inside three of the Museum’s gallery spaces. The audio from each performer will feed into a mixing board, which Adams will use to blend and mix their voices, adjusting the sound live, while also interacting with the performers. Thursday, March 16, 2017 | 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. #BlackGirlsMatter In 1991, Latasha Harlins, a fifteen-year-old African American girl, was shot in the head by a Korean clerk at a convenience store—a death that occurred just thirteen days after the beating of Rodney King by the LAPD. More than twenty-five years later, the fate of black girls’ lives remains largely ignored. Join us for a roundtable discussion exploring the role and importance of girls such as Latasha in the black community and beyond, with Brenda Stevenson, professor of history, UCLA; Funmilola Fagbamila, professor, activist, and an original member of Black Lives Matter (BLM); Shamell Bell, UCLA doctoral candidate and an original member of BLM; Tia Oso, national organizer, Black Alliance for Just Immigration; Denise Harlins, Latasha’s aunt; and Britni Danielle, Ebony Magazine.
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Saturday, March 18, 2017 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Architectural Designs on Paper Hear architect Roland Wiley, AIA, partner of RAW International, recall his working relationship with the late artist and designer Marion Sampler, one of the artists featured in Paperworks: Selections from the Permanent Collection. Sampler was recommended by his employer, Victor Gruen Associates, and approved by philanthropist Henry Segerstrom to design the acclaimed stained-glass dome for the South Coast Plaza shopping center. This presentation will explore Sampler’s achievements in incorporating artistic designs into architectural projects. Wiley will also discuss his creative process and how, despite technological advances, his firm continues to develop their initial architectural designs on paper.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017 | 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Printmaking: Old and New World Techniques Join Los Angeles printmaker Daniel González as he explores the history of printmaking techniques used to create some of the pieces in Paperworks: Selections from the Permanent Collection. González will help you take a closer look at techniques developed in Europe, explain how they evolved in unforeseen ways when brought to the Americas, and illustrate how these methods continue to be used today, including at the forefront of activism. Wednesday, April 5, 2017 | 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. In Conversation: Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle and Naima J. Keith Join us for an in-gallery talk and conversation with current exhibiting artist Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle. The first solo museum presentation in Los Angeles for this LA- and Oakland-based artist, this exhibition brings attention to the missing black women in America and the African diaspora, from history to the present day. Hinkle and Keith will discuss the artist’s multifaceted practice as well the inspiration for this particular body of work. Thursday, April 13, 2017 | 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Terry McMillan Come for a talk and book signing with writer Terry McMillan, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Waiting To Exhale. McMillan will discuss her latest novel, I Almost Forgot About You, the inspiring story of a woman who shakes things up in her life to find greater meaning. This program is presented in conjunction with Eso Won Books, and hardcover and paperback editions will be available for purchase.
Tuesday, April 18, 2017 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Workshop: Meditation Guru In the spirit of Network Guru, a work by Derrick Adams that invites viewers to experience self-reflection and meditation, join instructor Kenetia Lee as she guides you through mindfulness meditation. Through exercises and stories, this workshop will help participants achieve inner peace, clear their thoughts, and feel more present. Mindfulness is particularly relevant to address anxiety provoked by mass media in the post-election era—a subject explored in Adams’s exhibition, Network, which focuses on media input and output.
Photo: William Stitt
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There is renewed urgency in today’s political climate to hear from multiple generations of activists working to make change. Activism Now is a series that invites speakers to discuss their work as well as the challenges, opportunities, and consequences of expanding the impact of social and political activism today.
public programs Saturday, April 22, 2017 | 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. Hack Party: The Art of Collage in the 21st Century In conjunction with Paperworks: Selections from the Permanent Collection, artist and educator Holly Tempo will lead a collage workshop. Tempo will introduce the history of collage and discuss how the art form has influenced art making over time and remains important to contemporary artists today. Using cardboard and other supplies, participants will learn how to transform everyday materials into meaningful works of art. Ages 16 and up, no experience necessary, maximum 20 participants. RSVP required.
Tuesday, May 23, 2017 | 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. In Conversation: Black Performance in Contemporary Art Inspired by Derrick Adams’s Network exhibition, dancer-choreographer Taisha Ciara Paggett will discuss the history of black performance traditions from the early 1960s to today. She will introduce audiences to three generations of artists, including Adams, David Hammons, Maren Hassinger, Senga Nengudi, and Theaster Gates, among others. Paggett, whose works and collaborations have been presented at venues worldwide, is the co-founder of the dance journal itch.
Thursday, April 27, 2017 | 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Performance: The Evanesced: Embodied Disappearance Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle will perform The Evanesced: Embodied Disappearance in the gallery, in which she will evoke various types of women navigating historical and contemporary contexts. The piece—which includes a soundtrack of whispers, shuffles, and snippets of popular and underground music—adds another dimension to this emotional examination of a fraught part of the black female experience.
Thursday, June 1, 2017 | 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Black Female Representations in Popular Media Caroline A. Streeter, Associate Professor of English and African American Studies at UCLA, will present a lecture that examines media representation of black female celebrities in the context of global performance and popular culture, including Oprah and Diahann Carroll, who appear in Derrick Adams’s Color Bar Constellation series.
Thursday, May 18, 2017 | 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Can We All Get Along? 25 Years Later In 1992, Rodney King made a national appeal in an attempt to quell Los Angeles’s violent response to the acquittal of the four officers who beat him. In a panel discussion, Tyree Boyd-Pates, curator of CAAM’s exhibition No Justice, No Peace: LA 1992, will engage Reverend Cecil Murray of First AME, Rodney King’s daughter, Lora King, and Mark D. Craig, author of Ain’t a Damn Thing Changed and an original Parker Center demonstrator, to examine the legacy of the uprisings and assess whether LA is faring any better in 2017 than it did in 1992. 14
Wednesday, June 7, 2017 | 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Frame by Frame: The Media’s Response to the LA Uprisings of 1992 Twenty-five years ago, the world witnessed the brutality and subsequent violence that resulted from the 1992 Los Angeles Uprisings. Join us at CAAM for a panel led by USC Professor of Communications, Josh Kun, with Kirk McCoy, LA Times photographer; Jim Newton, a professor and former LA Times reporter; and photographer Ted Soqui, who will discuss what it was like to cover the height of the uprisings in LA.
Thursday, March 23, 2017 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Ron Finley As a community activist and self-sustainability advocate—and widely known as the Gangsta Gardener—Ron Finley inadvertently started a horticultural revolution by transforming a barren parkway in front of his South LA home into an edible oasis. In 2013 Finley gave a memorable TED Talk that inspired many to follow in his steps as he continues to transmute food deserts into food forests. Join us for an enlightening talk about race, activism, and social change in this current political climate.
Kirk McCoy, A protester outside Parker Center in Los Angeles, 1992. Digital image from a photographic print. Courtesy the Los Angeles Times. Copyright © 1992. Los Angeles Times. Reprinted with Permission
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for families
Saturday, March 18, 2017 | 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Pen, Ink, and Pastel: Figure Drawing Workshop In Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle: The Evanesced we see how Hinkle renders different women with ink and watercolor on paper. They are sitting, standing, moving, and posing, and we can sense all of this by how the artist skillfully captured their postures. Join artist Gina Goico for a drawing workshop where participants will execute quick studies in pen and ink, accented with pastel. Middle school ages and up. RSVP required.
The California African American Museum welcomes children of all ages, and we present a wide range of interactive programs designed especially for families. From arts and crafts workshops to dance classes and storytelling, come explore art, culture, and history together at CAAM!
Saturday, April 1, 2017 | 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Collecting Art for Beginners Collector and gallery owner Eric Hanks discusses art collecting for beginners. Learn how some of the great African American collections began, and find out what you can do to start your own collection. Tuesdays | 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. March 14, March 28, April 11, April 25, May 9, May 23, June 6, and June 20, 2017 Stroller Tours Babies are welcome! In fact, you need a baby in tow if you want to join this group for casual and lively discussions in the galleries led by museum educators—just for parents-caregivers and their pre-toddler-age children (18 months and younger). Expect a special kind of outing that allows for adult conversation, but where no one minds if a baby lends his or her opinion with a coo or a cry! Tours are limited to ten adults with children and meet at the information desk. No RSVP needed.
Sunday, May 14, 2017 | 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Starring…You! What is your favorite TV program? Why? Imagine if you could be the main character! Using Derrick Adams: Network as inspiration, create a work of art using papers, fabric, and markers that features you on your favorite television show. Sunday, June 11, 2017 | 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Print Workshop Visit Paperworks: Selections from the Permanent Collection, and then learn about the history and art of the print and create your own work of art using the silkscreen process. Ages 6 and up.
Tuesdays | 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. March 14, March 28, April 11, April 25, May 9, May 23, June 6, and June 20, 2017 CAAM: After School At these free, drop-in after-school art workshops, children of all ages and their adult companions engage in creative projects to learn about the art and artifacts on display in our galleries. From building a 3D house sculpture to designing a flag, CAAM: After School gives young people the opportunity to experiment with new artistic techniques and explore CAAM’s exhibitions after the school day ends. No RSVP needed. 16
All events are free unless otherwise noted and are subject to change. Please visit caamuseum.org for the most up-to-date information on upcoming public programs.
Photo: Teira Church
RSVP to CAAM programs at 213.744.2024 or rsvp@caamuseum.org
Sunday, June 18, 2017 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. | Gizmo Lab This Father’s Day put your heads and hands together to make a fun toy out of stuff you usually throw away! We’ll provide most of the supplies, but if you have a small box, corks, bamboo skewers, or other fun materials, please bring them along. 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. | Let’s Fly a Kite! Learn how to assemble a basic kite and then make it your own with colorful decorations. Afterwards you can test it out in the park for a fun Father’s Day memory!
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visit Derrick Adams
Trouble Every Day Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle
Paperworks
Research Library
No Justice, No Peace: LA 1992
Map
Conference Room
Admission is FREE. Hours Galleries open Tuesdays–Saturdays 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. and Sundays 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Location CAAM is located in Exposition Park, which is home to a variety of museums and attractions. Parking is $12 (cash only) at 39th and Figueroa Streets. The Metro Expo line stop Expo Park/USC is a five-minute walk through the Rose Garden to the Museum. Stay in touch with CAAM Phone: 213.744.7432 Email: info@caamuseum.org Sign up for our monthly e-news for updates on our exhibitions and public programs: caamuseum.org Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: @CAAMinLA The California African American Museum is a state-supported agency and a Smithsonian Affiliate.
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Photo: Tyree Boyd-Pates
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California African American Museum 600 State Drive Exposition Park Los Angeles, CA 90037
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caam state board of directors todd hawkins, president zna portlock houston, vice president cornelious burke victor griego terri holoman rev. cecil l. murray bari a. williams
Cover: Ted Soqui. The riots of 1992 in Los Angeles. A group of children walk on a sidewalk on Adams Blvd. past several burned down businesses, May 2, 1992. Š Ted Soqui, 1992