FOREWORD | DR. LESLIE KING HAMMOND
Larry Poncho Brown in Conversation with Dr. Leslie King Hammond
“It’s important…to use art in a manner that incites people to look and then carry something home even if it’s subliminal - that might make a change in them.”
LKH: What was it like to grow up in Baltimore? Where did you go to school? What were the occupations and education of your parents?
“But we must tell our stories, and not be ensnared by them.”
LPB: Life in Baltimore always felt like one big non-stop family reunion. It was still a community of extended family, all working under the paradigm of it takes a village. I went to school at Eutaw Elementary, Mount Royal Elementary and Liberty Elementary, just to show you how many times my family moved during that period of time. I also attended Garrison Junior High School under the tutelage of David Humphreys. Later to attend Carver Vocational-Technical High School, where I blossomed as an artist under the guidance of Mr. Chenal Alford.
Joyce J. Scott, Mobilia Gallery
Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Water Dancer
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rtists, as creative makers in today’s world, find themselves with complex, nuanced challenges to construct and design images of critical relevancy to African American, Black, Diasporic and BIPOC communities, however they define themselves. Whether visual, written or spoken word, dance, performance or music, the artistic intent is weighted with an urgency to be a catalyst for social change, explore narratives that are truth telling, revealing, affirming, and positive, poignant portrayals of Black life in America. This publication is an insightful focus on Larry Poncho Brown as an artist and designer through a conversation, his own evolutionary story and decades of an expansive range of imagery he has created. This has been a project, years in the making, that is a testament to his artistry and commitment to the communities he holds in high regard. It is also a pivotal historical contribution that begins to address the critical void in the recognition of creative makers in the ‘Up South’ Middle American region of Baltimore City. Caught between the rural agricultural South and the industrialized urban North, Baltimore
as a crucial contributor to the legacy of an American cultural heritage, has been under represented in the annals of historical documentation. Poncho is Baltimore born and educated as are MacArthur Fellows, mixed media glass sculptor Joyce J. Scott and renown author Ta-Nehisi Coates. They each share different provocative views of Baltimore, and as such represent an intellectually rich - yet, geographically under recognized potency of this locale. This publication is one of many forthcoming initiatives to redress, reveal and elevate the legacy of Baltimore City, its creative artistic makers, designers, artisans, tinkerers, doodlers who believe that the arts are fundamental to the quality of all lives. Larry Poncho Brown has thoughts, a story to tell and a robust proliferation of empowering, positive, beautiful representations of Blackness, that need to be studied for the clarity and agency he instills in his subjects, in this community that is his home. Leslie King Hammond, PhD
Photo by Kirth Bobb
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My father, Larry O. Brown, Sr. was a linotype operator, turned printer, turned vocational education instructor in the area of printing. My mother, Diretha Victoria Hall was a stay at home mother, that mostly worked domestic jobs, cleaning houses, even as a parking lot attendant. Both of them were parents at a young age, and my mother really didn’t have many skills. She later worked in food service, as a dietary aid at St. Agnes Hospital where she ultimately was close to retirement before she passed. LKH: When did you know that you had artistic potential to become an artist and designer? Who or what were the particular influences and supports in your path to become a professional creative maker? LPB: First through my father who was a self-taught artist. I was born into an environment of creativity. I can say that under the tutelage of Chenal Alford, the commercial art instructor at Carver Vocational High School, single-handedly was the person responsible for guiding me down the path of becoming an artist. His lessons, his approach to surviving as a creative were heavily imprinted on me at that period of time. He also instilled the importance of mentorship and how each one of us was responsible for teaching each and every person in our community. One of the things Chenal Alford expected of me from the time I graduated high school to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), was to pay it forward by giving workshops and lectures to his students every year at Carver Vocational-Technical High School until he retired as a teacher. He also transferred that responsibility of help-
Photo by Kirth Bobb
ing other artists, where I think was where I formed my artist advocacy foundation. Influences came directly from entrepreneurship. Most of the people who attended vocational education during that period of time in Baltimore city only had high school educations and were able to start businesses immediately after high school, even if they had no desire to attend college. I was trained and apprenticed with several people who were in that position. I adapted and adopted the way they dealt with their own businesses while formulating my own early on. LKH: How did you begin to develop your thematic focus on Black imagery and why was it important to your aesthetics and ethics? What are the catalyst or muses for your creativity? LPB: I began to develop my focus on black imagery in high school. I always drew from comic books, but I began to switch from what I had been seeing to utilizing people of color, specifically African American people, in heroic positions. From that I eventually continued to find ways to incorporate people of color in the majority of my works. I wanted our people to see themselves represented. When I first started in the art business, there wasn’t a lot of representation of people of color. And so while it is on trend now, back then we were all longing to see positive representations of ourselves. Some of the catalysts or muses for my creativity was of the woman. I’ve always seen great power in the women around me in the communities I grew up in. No matter how men and women were viewed and their roles were defined, black women always rose to sheroes in our community. And I had hoped that the same energy would be seen in my work. But I also saw the black man being marginalized in our history and in the media. I
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