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Cover: Naxx Bitota
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EBONY ISSUE | BLACK SUCCESS
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h g u o h Even tory has the st been never and Black tidy, have had folks arch and to m for every fight f our inch oom, our freed is story heless nonet f one o ess. progr - Michelle Obama
m o r f d r o A w publisher the EBONY ISSUE | 2022
Angélique Marguerite Berthe DIÈNE We come from different cultures, different countries, but we all have in common that same look at the atrocities that our ancestors experienced because of their skin color, and the injustices that our sisters and brothers of today experience. Therefore, we owe it to ourselves to write our beautiful story of resilience - in our own words - that has allowed and continues to allow our community to produce brilliant minds and to contribute socially and humanely.
Angélique Marguerite Berthe DIÈNE General Manager of R Magazine
s t n e t n Co
05 A word from the publisher 09 Music, a means of expression Naxx Bitota
The fight of a committed singer
Hlengiwe Lushaba A multi-talented artist
Adama The gem of soul music Ngima Sarr The contemporary poetess Seydina Ndiaye The talibé with the golden voice Singa The originator of Énéïde
35
Painting... much more than holding a brush. Betty Ntoni The African portrait artist David Hammons The radical genius Salomon Moneyang The painter with lively and colorful aspirations Ghislaine Sabiti The Crown of Glory
52 When history meets gastronomy Rise Koffee and Kulture A coffee with Cortney Alleyne Mory Sacko From Top Chef to Michelin Star
64 Reading is quite an art Discover history through books bell hooks The rebirth of feminism The Art of Resistance
76 Fashion and beauty, worlds of creativity Kara Antoine A bright ray of sunshine Paulina Manuel Nzinga Founder of Maissaizoubeauty54 Damien Ajavon Ingenuity personified
94 At the heart of the cinematographic world Néhémie Lemal The French photographer and filmmaker Pam Grier The undisputed queen of blaxploitation Ousmane Ba alias Bathie Massamba The Baye Fall charmer of Senegalese cinema
107 A leadership that pushes to see further Marian Croak The inspirational inventor Angélique Marguerite Berthe Diène The mastermind of R Magazine
116 Other ways to express ourself through art Paris unveils Solitude An emblematic figure of the fight against slavery by Didier Audrat Karine Richard Charting the course to success Isadora Ayesha Lima Illustrations to honor black personalities Les poupées K For the awakening to diversity Ashley Simo A succession assured Irrevocably kinky Nappy-headed for good!
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o t s k n a h t y n a M partners our
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f o s n a e m a , c i s u M expression
The fight of a committed singer
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THE PASSIONATE WOMAN By Angelique Marguerite Berthe Diene
Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Naxx is a singer who was brought up with the voice of her mother, who gave her her first singing lessons at an early age. At the age of nine, she could already claim to be a singer! She then went on to sing in many different styles in choirs.
Montreal was lucky enough to welcome her later on and it is in this city of art, culture and circuses, that she launched her musical career. Her stylistic repertoire is varied. Eclectic, she combines gospel, traditional, classical, folkloric with a strong concentration of mutuashi-rumbasebene. All of this is offered to our ears in Lingala, Swahili, Tshiluba, and Kikongo, which are, incidentally, the four official languages of her home country. She also has some compositions in French and English.
A few years later, she set her suitcases down in Belgium, but soon found her way back to the choir, this time focusing more on the classical style.
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NAXX, THE PANAFRICANIST So many years away from the mother continent, yet the Naxx’ essence remains unchanged. Even though she has been away from her beloved land for a very long time and "contributes to Western society again and again," she makes it her duty to never forget that she is an African by birth, a storyteller of her origin and a very proud double ambassador of her DRC and her Quebec/Canada for which she seeks excellence to represent them well. This is why she never thought of using a Westernized first or last name: "Wearing my real name is a great source of pride for me, and at the same time, a tribute to my roots." Naxx is, in our eyes, a real embodiment of the convergence of pan-African struggles. “To this day the African people are still very oppressed in many ways, and I feel that they are not often spoken about or even talked about enough; hence the fact that I am singing about it.”
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Naxx has been influenced by such great people as Miriam Makeba, Papa Wemba, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Salif Keita, Youssou N'Dour and many others. These references - for many other artists as well - have encouraged her to persevere in various ways, and today we have the pleasure of discovering an artist who is proud of herself and loves to share; a singer happy to deliver messages and lyrics, among other things, thanks to what makes her alive. Watch her clips and tell us if you don't see yourself a fulfilled woman! Speaking of women, Naxx is often compared to Tshala Muana. “It doesn't surprise me because we come from the same village and I also do the same style of music that she did before, and let's not forget that she was one of the great divas of African music. Yes, I see myself in her and I am quite flattered when people compare me to her. But there are also other great names like Abeti Masikini or Mbilia Bel... and, again, I am very flattered to be compared to these great ladies.”
NAXX, THE VERY FESTIVE SINGER, SONGWRITER & PERFORMER When asked how she manages this approach in a field that is not the easiest, she answers: "I take it one day at a time, I am a very spiritual person and that helps me a lot, but above all, I am lucky to be very well surrounded, not only by my family and friends, but also by music doyens."
Needless to say, with this pandemic still dragging its feet to get out of our lives, the current situation, as with many artists, has its impact on Naxx's upcoming tracks and in a broader sense, her career. "With this crisis in the world, I have learned a lot about putting things into perspective when a difficulty comes up in my life. In fact, my song “Nimekua” is about the maturity I have gained during these hard times. It has been available since May 12th, 2022, on various platforms. On another level, I also had to work on my social relationships. Indeed, after a long observation during this pandemic, I understood that it is by being UNITED that we will get through this.
The artist is always busy! A month before “Nimekua,” she published “Poso Oyo” and one sentence caught our attention: "Deep ignorance sometimes gives birth to racism." We asked her to tell us more about this song, which mixes Lingala and Tshiluba, the village language, and at the very end switches from Reggae to Mutuashi. "I wanted to urge a radical change, because if the world is what it is today, in my opinion, it is because of ignorance which leads either to non-acceptance or to the withdrawal of the ignorant side, which, in consequence, excludes the ignored side.” She adds that we need to learn to reach out to others, to know them, to accept them as they are, and just LIVE TOGETHER. “Patrice Lumumba, Nelson Mandela, Thomas Sankara, Kimpa Vita whom I name in this song are references for me when we talk about achievement. And I could go on because there are many of them. These women and men fought for freedom and brought hope to the oppressed in their nations.” Doesn't having such a role create a certain burden that is hard to bear? "I want to be part of their legacy, so no, I'm not afraid to carry this role. Besides, I'm lucky enough to be well surrounded, so it's even less of a burden to carry!"
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For Naxx, music, or art on a larger scale, is definitely a factor in the evolution of society towards a more just, equal, and rights-respecting world for women. “Art, in general, has always brought people together, so it is a good way to convey and instill values in a nation. I absolutely believe that artistic practices such as music will change the world, if we use them well.”
NAXX, THE FEMINIST “I consider myself a bit of a feminist. I say a bit because I think that, at times, some feminists become a bit extreme in certain ideas, and I am against anything extreme. Women have abilities that men don't have and vice versa. So, once again, we must learn to put things into perspective, accept our limits and live together.” With regard to the place of women in the arts sector, as in many others, the singer notes a more marked feminine appearance in music, especially with this new generation:
“More and more women are saying no when it doesn't suit them, and I'm one of them.” She strongly believes that this previously unimportant position is on the way to gaining a world-class rank, but too slowly, in her opinion. And the same is true for Black women. "Change is happening, but at a turtle’s pace." Her last word is for her fans and for those of you, dear readers, who are discovering her through this article: "Thank you for reading it. Thank you for following me and sharing my music on the various platforms available. But above all, thank you for MAKING GESTURES OF LOVE THAT WILL LEAD THIS WORLD TOWARDS A BETTER FUTURE."
Naxx doesn’t like to be idle - to be fair, we have two years of pandemic to catch up on because she is already planning a marvelous release for June 30th: her very first album. So, don't hesitate to follow her on her social pages to get a preview and to have a front row seat. And we wish her to be the "future Congolese and female Youssou N'dour with at least seven trophies."
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Hlengiwe Lushaba A multi-talented artist
She is one of South Africa's most talented artists. She transmits the African identity through theater and music, among others.
by Amel Madjoudj et Anaïs Monino photo: Osm Talent EBONY ISSUE | 16
Who is Hlengiwe Lushaba?
African identity is at the heart of her work, and she believes that art can change our societies, hence her desire to deconstruct stereotypes through her work. Her various projects and creations have led her to perform in Africa, Europe, and other parts of the world. Among her most famous pieces are: It's Not Over Until the Fat Phat Lady Sings; Is This Africa? Put A Cross On The Appropriate Woman; Lest We Forget and Ziyakhipha... come dance with us.
She received the 2006 Standard Bank Young Artist Award and the MEC Choreographic Award for Oustanding Original Work for Ziyakhipha... come dance with us.
photo: Themba Madonsela
photos: Gregor Brandli
Hlengiwe Lushaba is a multi-talented artist. Indeed, she is an actress, singer, dancer, and choreographer. She was born on April 3, 1982, in Durban, South Africa, into a large family whose members work in the medical, artistic, educational, religious, and entrepreneurial fields. She was therefore raised in a religious environment and was very involved in church life from childhood. In terms of her education, she studied drama at Tecknikon Natal, now known as Durban University of Technology. Today, Hlengiwe Lushaba lives and works in Johannesburg.
Her work
Hlengiwe Lushaba has also collaborated with many artists such as, in 2012, with her compatriot Princess Zinzi Mhlongo who wrote and directed Trapped, a piece that questions freedom in the most universal sense of the word, or more recently with the Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula with whom she created, in 2018, Not Another Diva, a mix between music, dance and song where multiple musicians are invited.
No longer on the stage but in front of the camera, Hlengiwe Lushaba appeared in the film District 9 in 2009 and in the series Gaz'lam (2005) and Tjovitjo (2017), South African productions.
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Other projects Hlengiwe Lushaba is also a co-founder of an alternative performance and art experimentation space called The Plat4orm, where experimentation and creativity are the watchwords. In the early 2010s, she also started the "Giving Back and Giving Thanks" program to raise funds for NGOs through charity concerts.
photo: Gregor Brändli
photo: Osm Talent
In conclusion, Hlengiwe Lushaba is a multifaceted artist who has been spreading African and South African culture around the world with her talent for years.
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A MEETING WITH
Adama THE GEM OF SOUL MUSIC BY OUMAR LAM
Photo: Glenn Davidson EBONY ISSUE | 19
Adama is a singer/songwriter & producer from an Italian - Senegalese parentage, whose love of music, drove him to develop his own unique blend of harmony and rhythm. Adama spent his formative years between Dakar, London, Los Angeles ,Paris and Milan . His musical concept is incapsulated with his perception of love, philosophy, family , society and his own experiences, dreams and journeys. His music is sultry soulful Alternative pop , with hints of electronic lounge beats.
Photo: Glenn Davidson
How did you get involved with Music?
I grew up in a house filled with music. I can’t remember a day without it. Both my parents are big music lovers. My dad was a deejay in Italy back in the 70s. He also managed jazz clubs. My uncle was a talented jazz musician who worked with a lot of international artists. He recorded my first demo.
What inspires your work?
My work is inspired by experiences: Love, philosophy, family, dreams and journeys and what’s happening in society. I want to connect, elevate people’s spirits and get them in touch with their feelings and emotions. People seem afraid to feel nowadays.
Photo: Lambolens
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What has your journey as an artist been like and how did you develop your persona and stage name?
I’ve been making music for more than 20 years now and it’s been a journey. I’ve learned a lot about myself and about the business side of the industry. I’ve met and worked with some great people, and that’s allowed me to evolve personally and artistically.
My stage name, Adama, is my real middle name. In Senegal, we give this name to twins, but I don’t have a twin. It also means ‘’Earth” in Hebrew, which resonates with my belief in staying grounded and connected to Mother Earth. The type of music I make also helps me do that.
photo: Lambolens
I’ve never tried to create a stage persona or style : what you see is what I am. But I started modeling at 17, and maybe that helped me find my own style pretty early. Both of my parents have got a strong sense of fashion and style. That could have been a factor, too.
"I think my music is distinctive because of the honesty in my lyrics, the sultry and soulful abstract sound blended with lounge electronic vibes and smooth vocals."
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photo: Lambolens
What is your creative process like?
What is your last release?
My creative process changes every time I make music. I could start by writing a poem or humming melodies. Or I could just create a beat or produce an instrumental and jam with it.
My last release is a 10 track Album called Liberation. The lead single, Liberation, was written in London during the 2 years Lockdown we had. Actually, the entire album was written during that time. It’s been released on the 9th of April 2022.
Which artists excite you?
What makes your music distinctive?
There are two artists who excite me more than anyone else : Sade, for her elegance, presence, sense of fashion and groovy, sultry soulful sound and lyrics. And the synergy between the members of her band. Prince, for his production, songwriting skills, the moves, the style, the funk and the sexiness. Both have definitely influenced my music.
I think my music is distinctive because of the honesty in my lyrics, the sultry and soulful abstract sound blended with lounge electronic vibes and smooth vocals. It’s an intimate and nostalgic feeling. There are lots of people out there who love slow, groovy jams...
5 words to describe your Music?
Soulful. Emotional. Warm. Groovy. Sultry
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photo: Lambolens
What do you foresee for your music 2022?
"I grew up in a house filled with music. I can’t remember a day without it."
This is going to be a big year. I’m releasing a whole lot of new music I’ve been working on for a while now. I want to put out new singles regularly and showcase them live. So I’m really looking forward to reaching more listeners. I’d also like to do more collaborations.
How can people connect? Who does your sound cater to? You can connect with me on Facebook and Instagram. Look for AdamaBoudoir. Something that’s left me surprised but very pleased is that my music seems to appeal to all types of people around the world, from young to old. You can be really into a specific genre like rap or rock, but still enjoy music that is way more lounge.
Links to follow Adama: Spotify Instagram Facebook YouTube
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Ngima Sarr aka Tie
THE CONTEMPORARY POETESS by Selma Namata
photo: Damien Paillard A contemporary poetess with a quirky attitude and sharp phrasing, Tie expresses herself in her texts in Wolof, Serer, French, and English. She invites us to “broaden our horizons, to hear the prayer of hearts that call for all forms of revolution.” You can find this cultural diversity in her music: compositions mixing Afro roots, rock riffs, jazz phrasing, and a hip hop flow that is as much “Tassû” (a form of oratory jousting from Senegal) as spoken word.
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The imprint of family origins
Born in the 1980s in Senegal, she comes from a family of eight children, the eldest of whom is none other than Felwine Sarr (46), the thinker behind the essay Afrotopia, initiator of Ateliers de la pensée in Dakar and co-author of a highly acclaimed report on the restitution of African works to the continent, which was submitted to the French head of state and published at the end of 2018... In his youth, Felwine was an author, composer and vocal leader, a guitarist and percussionist, and composed and wrote for Dolé (“strength” in Wolof), the African reggae group he founded in 1993 while studying in France. With Dolé, he gave more than five hundred concerts and produced two albums, Civilisation ou barbarie (2000) and Les Mots du récit (2005), before recording a more intimate solo opus, Bassaï, in 2007.
"In my family of artists, I'm not the first to sing, to be an artist. There has always been writing in my family" (Interview with Cris et Poésie / Spoken Word magazine, November 2013).
This is Nginma's multicultural background, but it is also a multireligious one, as she attended a school run by nuns while learning the suras of the Koran at home in the afternoon. This diversity that she encountered (later also in her studies in Dakar, then from the 2000s onwards in France, in Paris among other places, where she completed her master’s degree in Sociology Applied to Culture in 2007) is an imprint that will clearly mark her creation.
photo: Felwine Sarr in Dakar, December 19, 2019 - Maxppp
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An artistic journey that starts early and grows quickly
A first project with her siblings with Heart Attack, a dance group that seeks “to give meaning” to stylistic research in the form of cuts, fabrics, etc. However, despite this first family experience, it is important to avoid “any fantasies about artists' families in the manner of the Jackson Five,” says Youssoupha Sarr. Music is above all a personal journey. Even if it was Felwine who, by sending a guitar to his siblings in the 90s, contributed to the development of each of them thereafter. Tie, on the other hand, was awakened to different art forms. She discovered hip-hop at the University of Dakar at the age of 19. On this occasion, she was told: “you speak fast, you could rock in rap” - and this was to be her first musical experience (Bataillon Blindé collective), where she was introduced to writing in Wolof, the Senegambian language spoken in Senegal and Mauritania. Then she discovered painting when she arrived in France. She likes “what happens when you paint, the fact of not being there.” But painting is also solitude: “I needed more interaction.” She then took up again (almost 10 years after the Dakar experience) this path that would become hers through music and writing, with the sole leitmotiv of “art as a voice for awakening and social transformation.”
A contemporary poetess with a quirky attitude and sharp phrasing, Tie expresses herself in her texts in Wolof, Serer, French, and English. She invites us to “broaden our horizons, to hear the prayer of hearts that call for all forms of revolution.” This is the original cultural diversity... In 2007, she met producer David Videau on the Nantes scene and developed her first band Black Octopus with 11 members. But artistic blockages lead to the end of the project. “It wasn't enough for me; I wanted a more specific sound (...) I need a creative space to serve an emotion.” This is how her universe of Afro-Space Poetry was born. Surrounded by her four musicians (Thomas Hugenel on bass, Martin Wangermée on drums, Stéphane Berti on guitar, Cédric Ricard on baritone saxophone and flute), she is carefully shaping her universe and creating this new sound and visual space, “Afro-Space Poetry,” thanks to this new project Tie and The Love Process. The group offers an innovative and decompartmentalized fusion in the current music landscape: compositions mixing Afro roots, rock riffs, jazz phrasing, and a hip hop flow that is as much “Tassû” (this form of oratory jousting from Senegal) as spoken word.
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photo: Aurore Vinot
Tie's universe also unfolds in images through the live video projection of polymorphous, psychedelic images, both strange and cosmic. These images are custom-made by the youngest member of the group, the versatile young artist photographer Allison Simonot, who also produces all the visuals, posters and covers for the project. Three years after the release of their EP Life is not a waiting game in 2013, the band released their debut album Pangool in the fall of 2016. Tie's charismatic energy has earned her collaborations with artists such as Doctor L in the studio and on stage with the Black Cowboys or with Californian rapper Raashan Ahmad on his latest album. She is also featured on the Women Groove Project album with Hervé Samb as musical director. It is a combination of afro-beat, electro, soul, mandingo music and mbalax. This initiative by musician Ousmane Faye, founder of the Banlieue Rythme Festival in Dakar, brings together guitarist and singer Hervé Samb, musical director of the project, and female singers, notably Mamy Kanouté and Ngnima Sar. On other tracks, she also brings together the Malian singer Mamani Keïta and the Ghanaian rapper Blitz the Ambassador.
photo: Damien Paillard
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Afro-Space Poetry: a singular and kaleidoscopic musical universe
Tie describes her world as "an encounter between herself, her musicians and poetry" - in which she emphasizes "an approach that is more existential than aesthetic." She also insists on the particular sound that comes from Wolof: “it's not just a language, it's a rhythm above all.” Wolof is in fact a so-called non-tonal language (unlike many languages on the African continent). It is accentual (word and sentence accents), which gives it the rhythmic side that Tie talks about - which, mixed with Tassû and spoken word, is immediately perceptible when you listen to her tracks. And it is perhaps here that one can best perceive how her “art [is] like a voice of awakening and social transformation.” In the track Lâcher l'homme - a “sound and visual immersive creation” - one feels “the prayer of hearts that call for all forms of revolution.”
photo: Aurore Vinot
In addition to this rhythm, which also reflects multi-culturalism in a mature aesthetic that breaks free from gender barriers to offer a musical fresco around the themes of animism and the sacred in contemporary Afro music, she expresses herself through this "love process" which is a creative process. It is “a way of saying that on this planet, we have two ways of existing with each other. We exist either through fear or through love [...] and the emotion of love is more creative than the emotion of fear,” explains Tie in an interview with Cries and Poetry magazine. Tie goes on to explain his vision of the “Tie and the Love Process” project: “It's a process that involves us as artists and involves the audience. I don't want a band with the singer in front - like, you're being cute. I do the work with my own character, with my own faults and qualities.” Tie is therefore a whole but humble character: “I don't think I write anything extraordinary or out of the ordinary.” But her lyrics are full of spirituality - which is immediately apparent from the name of the project, “Tie and The Love Process,” because it is a long process that takes place over time. “Spirituality is central, I have developed my own rules between Sufism and animism,” she confided to the webzine United Fashion for Peace. The process of creation through love is finally for Tie a continuous, uninterrupted process... which she shows through her commitment, her perseverance, and her humility.
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a n i d y e S e y a Ndi The talibé with the golden voice
by Anais Monino
Born on January 1, 1974 in the town of Thiaroye, Senegal, Seydina Ndiaye is a singer-songwriter living in Canada since 2014. Initially a mason, he realized his dream of a career in music and became a singer for our greatest pleasure.
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Born on January 1, 1974, in the town of Thiaroye, Senegal, Seydina Ndiaye is a singer-songwriter living in Canada since 2014. As a child, he received a religious education at the Koranic school and then, was confronted with the opposition of his parents who did not want him to make music, he then became a mason. But it is in music that he shines and that resides his talent, he knew what he wanted to do, and it is singing. So, he embarked on this musical career of which he had long dreamed and released his first opus "Bay Sa War" in 2010. In 2014, he released the singles "Alal" and "Thiow li" with Jololi, the label of Youssou Ndour known today as Prince Arts. That same year, he flew to Canada to give free rein to his creativity and talent and to detach himself from family pressure.
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His captivating golden voice blends perfectly with many different genres; earning him collaborations with multiple artists such as Emrical in 2016 (Ifree ka) and AfrotroniX in 2017 and 2018 (Zaala, Oyo). He also performs in major events in Canada such as the Montreal International Jazz Festival or the Festival International Nuits d’Afrique and performs in concert on different stages such as at the Espace Mushagalusa in Montreal, a performance hall, cultural center, and African art gallery, in 2019. Eager to raise awareness and educate people, he addresses in his songs that he perfects with his friend guitarist Assane Seck, topics that affect him such as family, love, peace and sharing. In this dynamic, he released, in 2019 and 2020, three other singles entitled "Yaw dong", "Suuf" and "Dama la koy dei". In 2022, he performs "Diamond", soundtrack of the series "Emprises" of Marodi.TV composed by Jeuuss Beatz and Assane Seck. His song made the buzz in Senegal and on TikTok and will soon have its own music video. That same year, he opened for Youssou Ndour at the Grand Bal in Montreal, to celebrate the 9th edition of the "Mois du Sénégal au Canada".
Photos: Peter Graham
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Singa 24 years old, is a FrancoCongolese artist who comes from Lille. With a jazz pianist as a father and rumba-lover as a mother, his ear is educated to Afro-American sounds of the 60‘s: Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk…but also to the works of world music artists: Youssou Ndour and Salif Keita, among others, during a long part of his childhood.
After a first project titled Penrose, released in 2019 and mixing catchy choruses and Ego Trip sections, Singa comes back today with Enéïde. Historically, the Aeneid imagined by the poet Virgil displays the epic tale of the hero Aeneas, in which the latter reminisces about numerous events of his life. The main thread therefore lies on Singa’s will to become the hero of his own life. Much like a tale, disruptive elements, decisive encounters, and deep apprehensions are at the heart of the lyrics. Between disillusions of youth and sacrifices, which road must Singa travel to reach his goals? It’s this questioning of the desire to succeed that fuels this project.
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Énéide represents a singular stage in Singa’s artistic journey, fully and independently producing alongside his Interlude Maison Musicale (Musical House Interlude) labelmates, the artist unveils with introspection his personality’s dualities: decaying loves, depression or even hope are recurring themes in the tracks’ construction. For his project’s release, Singa has decided to put into images the title Aphrodite, goddess of love, presented here by the artist as a quest towards freedom, the search for inner peace. The symbols heavily exhibited through the clip’s footage are proof: a never-ending road, a tomb or even a firearm. The track is divided in two major parts: the before and the after-drop. Before, Singa questions himself. Facing his neurosis’, he desires to answer his questions…which will certainly never have an answer. After, Singa exults. He says that he’s ready to pursue the quest which he has started, despite his demons and everything they trigger in him. A duality that is found again in titles such as Donne-Moi (Give Me) or Harley Quinn. Several important themes are addressed all throughout the track. The theme of love’s wound, of searching for identity, of suicide and, more largely, of destiny.
Photos: Maxime Telesinski
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n a h t e r o m h c u . m h s . . . u g r n b i t a n i g a P holdin
BETTY NTONI painter and stylist
or the African portrait artist
VISUAL ARTS
INTERVIEW
HER BEING
HER WORKS HER ART HER STATUS
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WHO IS THIS ABOUT? by Jeanne Gignoux
Young Franco-Congolese painter Betty Ntoni has just held her first exhibition in a small Parisian gallery. In it, the simple and natural scenography reinforces the elegance of the faces, sometimes colored, sometimes black and white, that the artist invites us to contemplate. She agreed to confide in us about her practice, her inspirations, her works…
Betty Ntoni is a young painter and stylist located in Ile de France. Her creations can stem from drawing, painting, and design. After a year in applied arts at the Paris 8 University, she chose to specialize in Fashion Design and Pattern Making for two years to develop her creative spirit in various ways. She is currently following an Artistic Direction course.
I love to convey influences that have shaped me, with inspirations of yesterday and the modernity of today, by sometimes tackling ancestral and historical themes.
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REGARDING HER WORK
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Betty Ntoni started painting in high school through joining an artistic association, a commitment that will reveal itself to be a rich learning experience. Indeed, painting was not a direct first choice: she essentially learned the technique for oil painting but still stays mainly focused on pencil drawing. It was only a year ago that she decided to reconnect with painting. To her, this medium is an extraordinary way to express her perspective on things to whoever is willing to see it, analyze it, interpret it, critique it. Painting allows her to export and share a part of herself.
By taking a quick glance at Betty Ntoni’s work, it is quickly obvious that one format predominates: the portrait. Indeed, this artist started to draw portraits autodidactically, and she found the diversity of the faces surrounding her interesting, as well as their uniqueness and their subjectivity. “In the realisation of my paintings, this notion of portrait, of creating characters with or without reference, brings me to work on my composition more and offer to the spectators the possibility to not simply stop at aestheticism, but to be able to escape and to question themselves through their own imaginary,” she says. Playing with black and white, which contrasts with brighter colours, is also this artist’s particularity. Indeed, in her first collection, the faces painted in black have an important role, but the colourful background has an even bigger one, since it gives the painting tone and energy. Betty says she often uses darker colours to put emphasis on the light and the lighter colours to accentuate the contrasts. These contrasts bring a lot more life into the painting. Betty Ntoni is an artist that can be qualified as an “activist”, and it is captured in the signification of her artworks. Through her paintings, she indeed seeks to express her opinion, defend causes, whether it is in an explicit or implicit manner, with the objective of making spectators think. The eponymous character of her work: the black woman. The artist represents the black woman under all her traits, without anticipated standards. She looks to question the views of black beauty: painting the nude faces of women, without artifice, turned towards the future, on which modesty and dignity mix. “I love to convey influences that have shaped me, with inspirations of yesterday and the modernity of today, by sometimes tackling ancestral and historical themes,” she confesses. Speaking of influences, her inspirations at the moment are Harmonia Rosales as well as Kevin A. Williams (aka “artbywak”), American painters who honour the African diaspora by representing through their works various historical and/or ancestral events.
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Let’s now talk about the artist’s creative process. Betty Ntoni’s studio is a small, well-ventilated, and luminous space, a “happy organized mess,” as she likes to call it. The artist likes to take a lot of space, to sprawl across the studio when she starts a canvas, to have the materials within reach a little bit everywhere around her. Once well installed and paintbrush in hand, the artist discloses her use of acrylic paint because it’s a docile paint that allows her to express human emotions through her portraits. This technique also allows her to emphasise the multitude of shades that can be found on a face: “It gives a unique rendition to each of my paintings.” Nonetheless, Betty Ntoni doesn’t classify herself in any particular style, according to her. Her practice has therefore progressively evolved: she has always drawn autodidactically. It was a very powerful means of expression for her, a moment of intimacy where she faced herself. However, as time went by, she wanted to go further than simple sketching, by trying different fine art techniques such as charcoal, watercolour, etc. “I have chosen to evolve with paint for now, but I don’t reject new techniques that I keep exploring continuously,” says the artist.
AND AFTER? AROUND THE TOPIC OF ART Among her favourite artworks are “Still We Rise” by Harmonia Rosales, which has made a big impact on her, combining Afro-Descendance with the Renaissance. Among her own work, it is her portrait “Songo”, found in the Uige collection, that the artist holds particularly close to her heart: “I love it greatly because the face is filled with hope and benevolence, I very much see myself in her.”
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Betty Ntoni already possesses a painter status and therefore has the objective, in the future, to fully live off her art. In her spare time, she reads, goes to the movies, sees exhibitions of every kind. In short, she loves discovering other artists’ work because it stimulates her own creativity. Moreover, she can soon be found on the 17th of April 2022 at the “Congo Na Paris” event at the Espace Charenton.
Many thanks to her for granting us this enriching interview full of sincerity. You are invited to peruse her work on her website : bettyntoni.com
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David Hammons the radical genius
David Hammons is one of American society’s most known artists. He is today renowned as a photographer, sculptor, performer, and American installer.
photo: Bruce Talamon
by Amel Madjoudj
He was born on the 24th of July 1943 in Springfield, Illinois. In 1962, he leaves his native town to enroll in studies in Los Angeles, at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), between 1966 and 1968. He then entered the Otis Art Institute from 1968 to 1972. In 1974, David Hammons moves to New York, where he has made himself known in the 1970’s and 1980’s for his work. EBONY ISSUE | 41
Through his installation works, his sculptures made from found objects, his body prints, and his performances, he unveils his support of the Civil Rights Movement and of Black Power. David Hammons, holder of the MacArthur Genius Grant in 1991, was described by the New York Times as a star “known for this formal and conceptual brilliance and unpredictable ways” as well as his capacity to redefine ideas about the signification of art, and notably, of “black art”. David Hammons brings a certain sensitivity on racial issues and stereotypes in the USA, in a way only some of his predecessors and successors have been able to.
This artist is known for his use of a technique called “body print” which consists, firstly, of applying grease on his body and clothes, to then press up against a board, and finally set the image by sprinkling powdered paint that sticks to the grease. In 2006, around thirty of his body prints have been collected and exhibited at the Jack Tilton Gallery in New York. Through all his creations, David Hammons has explored various racial and cultural stereotypes. Moreover, he recycles gleaned objects by transforming them into drawings representing everyday life, like a sculpture of a metal hoop, a basketball hoop, known under the name “Untitled 1989”, as well as a broken bicycle later made into a coat rack (West Central Park, 1990).
At the age of 78, thirty of his artworks have been presented at the French Stock Exchange, and half has never been shown in previous exhibitions of the collection. In conclusion, David Hammons distinguishes himself from other African American painters, because he doesn’t produce simple illustrations, but interrogates contemporary black culture and the consequences of slavery on the collective memory of African Americans. His work is not only inscribed in occidental art, but also in the historical continuity of his own culture.
photo: Bruce Talamon
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MEETING WITH SALOMON MONEYANG, A PAINTER WITH LIVELY AND COLOURFUL ASPIRATIONS
SALOMON MONEYANG Salam Africa EBONY ISSUE | 43
Immortalize
ACRYLIC
WATERCOLOR
M O M E N T S
Salam Africa, real name Salomon Moneyang, is a Cameroonian painter and draughtsman living in Yaoundé. After studying in Beaux Arts, he has been working as an independent artist for two years now. His paintings transmit a touching and authentic emotion.
by Janaina De Oliveira
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We came across Salomon's Instagram page and instantly liked what we saw! His paintings are authentic, real, colourful and invite us to travel. Salomon, whose artist name is none other than Salam Africa, is a young Cameroonian artist who lives in Yaoundé. We contacted him and he offered us some of his time to share his personal and professional experience.
S
alomon starts by introducing himself: he has been a plastic artist for two years, officially. After studying geography at university, he turned to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Cameroon, which, indeed, matched what he really liked from a very young age. He trained there for four years, not completing the entire course, which in fact lasted five years. During these academic years, he had the opportunity to do several expositions in different places in Yaoundé. Later, he will exhibit in Switzerland, in Geneva. He explains that he has his own studio where he lets his art express itself; his paintings are then sold to private customers.
When the question "When did your interest in painting (drawing) start?" is asked, Solomon answers that he has been drawing since he was five or six years old. He already drew a lot in kindergarten: "In the third year of kindergarten, I was the one who made the school banners." The entrance to the Beaux Arts marked the beginning of his art in painting, which is the drawing technique he uses the most today. Indeed, before that, he drew mainly with chalk and pastels. He also does some sculpting, but rarely: "that's because of the scarce sculpting material. It's really not easy to find this type of material here [in Cameroon]. For painting it's much easier, because you can compose it or even buy it easily.” Salomon knows how to create his own paint, but he more often buys it. Indeed, the requirements of some galleries are difficult to meet when the material is homemade, as it does not always follow the protocols. It is therefore safer, when one wants to exhibit in a gallery, to buy one's paint.
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Salomon then talks about the evolution of his art and the way he works. Just after his training, he was creating a lot more abstract pieces, like the one he did for his degree, which dealt with the correlation between music and food. Today, on the other hand, his paintings are more illustrative and deal with social issues and scenes of life. His technique has evolved to highlight certain neglected characteristics of the black community, such as frizzy hair and black skin. He shares with us that during his life, certain events have particularly marked him, which has guided his art. First of all, he observed a certain uniformity, especially among women, in the way
they present themselves and show themselves. Furthermore, he remembers, both at a very young age and when he first went to art school, that he was forced to cut his frizzy hair, which was considered dirty. He mentions these standards and moments he lived through as reductive and discriminating episodes, which is why he wishes to break them and counter them thanks to his art. There is no team around Salomon yet, but he is interested in the idea of having someone to help him manage social networks and take charge of exhibitions in virtual galleries. He also says that he is not
mayet totally satisfied with where he is professionally at the moment, although he is not complaining. He is aware that he still has room for improvement and of course dreams of being able to exhibit in some of the larger venues in New York or Paris. However, he is not impatient and does not want to rush through the steps. He knows that it will happen naturally.
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We then moved on to the more sensitive topic of racism by asking him about possible professional barriers he might have experienced as a person from the Black community. "Honestly, I haven't felt that yet [a barrier related to racism], but maybe it's because I haven't exported yet. There are testimonies of people who have experienced it, but personally, no. So much the better!” On a more macro level, he finds that there is still work to be done on the representation of Black people in the art world, even if he acknowledges that an evolution can be observed. "African art is timeless, it has been around for a long time. African art transcends the barriers of time. Nowadays, we focus our attention on incredible African artists who are doing great things.” He cites Jean-Michel Basquiat, the American painter of the 1970s, avant-garde and pioneer of the underground movement, as one of his important artistic inspirations. Salomon ended his speech by encouraging young people who would like to enter this field not only to keep at it and not give up, but also not to chase after ephemeral glories. We sincerely thank Salomon for his time, his nice words and his lively painting. We were charmed by his accessibility and his interest in others. If you would like to know more about this artist and his work, you can find him on his Instagram page, salam_africa, where he shares some of his productions.
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Ghislaine Sabiti by Camille Basso
This summer, multidisciplinary artist Ghislaine Sabiti presents a brand-new exhibition in Brooklyn which pays tribute to the history of Black people in the United States, as well as their fight to preserve their identity, all while shining a light on diversity and all its beauty.
The Crown of Glory Photos: Dini Dixon
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Multidisciplinary and involved in social matters, Ghislaine Sabiti handles painting and sculpture with remarkable creativity. After studying in Paris, she has been fraying her own path in New York for a few years, marking each of her works with a subject that is dear to her. Even if she also works with glass, she knows how to distinguish herself just as well with pearls and sewing, since she was admitted with honors at the Atelier Chardon Savard, one of the most renowned fashion institutions in the French capital. Through her works, you find yourself recognizing a clever mix of African and European art, like an echo to her roots, since she has Congolese and French origins.
These last few years, she has shared her art in many exhibitions and salons that allowed her to transfer all the force of her engagement to the spectators. She can, for example, be found at the Atelier Rosal, the Westfield Stade University Arno Maris Gallery, the Rio Gallery, the Harlem School of the Arts, the Brooklyn Film and Art Festival and Small Space Fest, as well as the Poe Park Visitor Center.
Photos: Ghislaine Sabiti EBONY ISSUE | 49
This summer, she illuminates the Brooklyn Art Shack with a new exhibition, The Crown of Glory. This work brings to light the history of kinky hair, but also Beauty in its most simple apparels. Ghislaine first presents a series of ceramic sculptures with their heads all wrapped, as well as busts of women to show youth and motherhood through the history of the Tignon law, which forced Black women to hide their hair in public spaces in eighteenth-century Louisiana.
To circumvent this measure which annihilated a physical marker of their identity and history, women of African descent chose to wear scarves on their head to represent their direct heritage. In Africa, these crowns of fabric are worn for special occasions as well as in daily life. Throughout her work, Ghislaine Sabiti shares this act of resistance from women of African descent who lived in Louisiana at the time of the Tignon law, and their desire to pay tribute to their roots, even in an environment that oppressed them and tried to erase their identity.
Photos: Artshack Brooklyn Annex
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Photos: Artshack Brooklyn Annex
The Crown of Glory underlines Ghislaine Sabiti’s first venture into clay work, but is also composed of a variety of materials which form works as coloured as they are unique. From fabric-adorned ceramics, oil painting, embroidery, and glass, the artist combines several techniques and components which simultaneously pay tribute to her Congolese origins, to a French heritage and to Western cultural history. These fascinating creations retrace the beauty of the body, of femininity, and of the human being in its entirety, while being the witness of a history punctuated by oppression, discrimination and racism.
In fact, the exhibition is accompanied by three of Sabiti’s most recent paintings, which trace the constant transformation of bodies in our current societies. In addition to creating indisputable ties between communities, her work also invites us to engage with important social movements, while constantly celebrating the beauty of diversity and seeking it wherever we go. Indeed, diversity carries a unity and power within itself which we could not reach without turning towards each other.
The Crown of Glory exhibition is exposed in the Brooklyn Art Shack until July 28th.
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s t e e m y r o t s i h y n e m h W gastrono
Rise Koffee and Kulture What is the story behind Rise? by Adrienne Sauriol Starting a business is always quite a challenge for minorities in the United States, but Cortney Alleyne had a dream that is slowly becoming a reality. With a lot of hard work, a lot of thinking and help from a business coach from her community, she will open a mobile coffee shop with the hope that at one point it will have a permanent location. We interviewed her in the midst of the opening preparations.
My story starts two years ago when I left the city I had known and lived in since birth to head to Chicago, Illinois for graduate school. Please keep in mind that I am from the sunny, southern, hot and humid Tampa, Florida. So this was a major change for me. I left with one suitcase and a whole lot of dreams. Little did I know, instead of chasing my dreams right away I found myself questioning my purpose in life. I was lost, completely. I knew I wanted to help people, my community, and do something I enjoyed. I wanted to wake up every day and do something I truly loved, not just endure it for a paycheck. While in the windy city, I found myself visiting coffee shops every chance I got, especially on my study days, Saturdays. EBONY ISSUE | 53
I realized I got so much done when I was in a shop, vibing, with my headphones on with a tasty latte right next to me. However, I always felt something was missing. When I finally moved to Bronzeville on the Southside of Chicago, I started visiting this local Blackowned shop less than two minutes away from my apartment (shout out to Sip and Savor). I would walk there every chance I got. This experience changed my life forever. I remember the day vividly; I walked in and was immediately surrounded by what felt like warmth. A third home. There were mainly people that looked like me. I had never seen a coffee shop like this in my life. So I ordered my strawberry hibiscus tea, sat down, and took out my textbook to start studying. Next thing I know, Double Up by Nipsey Hussle starts to play in the background. After sitting for a few minutes, God told me to take out my notepad and write. I didn’t understand at first, but I did it anyway, and the ideas started flowing. I finally figured out what I was supposed to do in life, at least for this period of my life. Start a coffee shop in Tampa, a café like no other in my city. A shop that embodied Black culture, community and coffee. So Rise Koffee + Kulture came to life, with the mission “to connect the Tampa community by brewing Koffee with Kulture.”
How would you describe your project? Rise Koffee + Kulture is a community-focused coffee brand. I started this project in 2019 and it is still a work in progress. In the beginning, the goal was to open a brick-and-mortar coffee shop. However, I soon was met with many obstacles along the way. In the fall of 2021, I decided to pivot and turn Rise into a mobile coffee bar. However, much more than a mobile coffee bar, Rise is a black-owned innovative and creative hub where coffee, culture, and community connect. Rise will be a space for people of all backgrounds to come together, to socialize, to work and to bring cultural diversity to Florida’s coffee scene. Created with a desire to bring about sustainable change, Rise Koffee + Kulture also has a social impact by contributing to initiatives that help further elevate the Black community. We turn a daily ritual of a cup of coffee into an enriching cultural experience that contributes to community growth and development.
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How do you see your near future? We are not open yet, but we will be in Tampa for the most part. We will have a new schedule every week, and be at different locations. My intention is for Rise to continue to grow and be a staple coffee bar in Tampa. My hope is for Rise to be present at most community events, markets, and festivals. I also see Rise offering catering services for weddings and events alike. My hope is that in two years we will have the experience and revenue to expand into a brick-and-mortar coffee shop in Tampa, Florida.
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Who is involved in this project? Just me! Along with the many family members, friends, and community who have shown up and given me love and support during this journey.
Culture is a word that describes quite a variety of topics and people. So what is your definition of Kulture? For me, culture is the thread of what makes us all unique. Culture in reference to Rise Koffee + Kulture exemplifies Black American culture. Think hip-hop, community, dance, intellect, art, and language.
Meanwhile, she is getting ready for the opening. No date set yet, but you can have a peek at her website: www.risekoffeekulture.com !
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Brew coffee and culture
TOGETHER, WE RISE!
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Mory Sacko
photo: Chris Saunders
From Top Chef to Michelin Star
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MARRIAGE OF TASTES
To make a name for themselves in an industry where Blacks are still underrepresented. The richness of Senegalese culture, the prestige of French gastronomy and Japanese inspiration, mix it all together, add a very talented chef and you get the world of Mory Sacko. This is the story of one of the French gastronomic figures of the years to come. by Leo Bourget Chicken "culoiselle" Yassa style, rice cream, caramelized onions and "sudachi"
photo: Quentin Tourbez
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photo: L’Alsace /Darek SZUSTER
Mory Sacko was born on 24 September 1992 in the suburbs of Paris, to a Senegalese-Malian mother and a Malian father. He grew up in a family of nine children and developed a passion for cooking while watching documentaries on palaces on family television. This is how Mory Sacko followed and obtained a vocational diploma (BEP) and then a professional baccalaureate in cooking and culinary arts in 2011. He then worked as a cook in various luxury hotels, first in Paris with luminaries of the kitchen such as Nobu Matsuhisa. It is partly thanks to this great Japanese chef that Mory Sacko developed an interest in and mastery of Japanese cuisine, as he has always been fascinated by the culture of the land of the rising sun. He then moved to London, to the Mandarin Oriental, where he worked alongside Thierry Marx. He climbed the ladder until he ended up as second-in-command in this palace.
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TOP CHEF In 2019, everything accelerates for Mory Sacko. He is selected to participate in the famous French cooking show Top Chef, broadcast on M6. During his adventure, he impresses the jurors with his creativity, his audacity and his versatility. Even though he did not win the season, he remains one of the most memorable candidates, his sympathy having won over the viewers.
Paying tribute to my parents and to Mali through cooking
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A plural, delicate, creative cuisine, at the crossroads of influences and territories that are his. Japanese rice, avocado, okra, avocado oil and caviar.
photo: Quentin Tourbez
MOSUKE
MORY SACKO X LOUIS VUITTON
In the autumn of 2020, Mory Sacko fulfils one of his dreams and opens his first restaurant in Paris, "MoSuke". The name is a contraction of the first name "Mory" and "Yasuke", referring to a former African slave who became the first foreign samurai. The menu offers gastronomic cuisine, without being overpriced, and dishes inspired by the three cultures that Mory Sacko knows best: African, French and Japanese. The restaurant was so successful from the start that in January 2021 it was awarded a Michelin star, while at the same time Sacko was awarded the Young Chef Award, highlighting his excellent work. At the end of February 2021, Mory Sacko will launch a weekly programme on France 3, "Cuisine ouverte: un chef sur la route" (Open kitchen: a chef on the road), in the guise of an experienced chef. In this 30-minute programme, Mory Sacko, accompanied by a guest, will honour the heritage and diversity of French cuisine, between a "terroir" cuisine and a cuisine open to world influences.
As if Mory Sacko's rising fame was not enough, the French chef even had the privilege of being chosen by the American magazine "Time" for an article in the "Next Generation Leader" section. On June 7th, Mory Sacko announced on social media the launch of a collaboration with Louis Vuitton, the famous luxury brand. A restaurant named "Mory Sacko at Louis Vuitton" opened its doors on June 17th in Saint-Tropez. This is the brand's first try at the practice in France, and to trust Mory Sacko constitutes a strong message for the young chef. The latter informed that Japanese gastronomy will be the centerpiece of this new establishment. Mory Sacko's emergence in the French gastronomic landscape has been very rapid and is certainly not going to stop any time soon. At only 29 years old, the native of Champigny-sur-Marne has already fulfilled the wish of many chefs by winning a Michelin star for his new restaurant, proof of his crazy precocity. And this is only the beginning!
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Sole in its banana leaf, Attiéké, "togarashi shichimi" and lovage
PHOTO: QUENTIN TOURBEZ
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t r a n a e t i u q s i g n i d Rea
Discover history through books by Adrienne Sauriol
Some novels are a means of educating people, as truth is always good to read about.
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The African-American journey is often unveiled through autobiographical books, novels or essays. Through them, we can learn more about their hardships and hopes. There are many authors we could have chosen to present to you, but here are those who particularly enlightened us regarding what Black people lived through, and still do, in Uncle Sam’s country.
Up from Slavery de Booker T. Washington, 1901
This autobiographical book signed Booker T. Washington counts among the most famous biographies written by an African-American. The author saw the end of slavery and the American civil war. The work recounts the story of a person who worked tirelessly to promote a positive vision of the Black man who wishes to learn and elevate himself socially – first by educating himself, then others who, like him, aspired towards a better world. He founded Tuskegee University, which still exists today. This book was first published as a series. Because of this, the audience could comment on the texts, which were then rephrased in order to touch a larger public. We asked ourselves why Booker T. Washington so seldom talked about the question of racism in his work, although he lived through one of the periods in U.S history which was most affected by racial issues. Where do these omissions come from? One hypothesis is that they stem from a desire to make the image of the Black man as positive as possible, thus neglecting the difficulties he was facing. To not complain was a strategy with the goal to prove that the Black man was worthy of this newly-given trust and freedom.
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Going to Meet the Man de James Baldwin, 1965
The Underground Railroad de Colson Whitehead, 2016
James Baldwin was possibly one of the most well-known writers of AfricanAmerican literature. This book compiles eight short stories written between 1948 and 1965, each one more moving and troubling than the other. It tackles subjects that are still relevant today: racism, the justice system, family relationships, creativity, and social integration. What makes these stories so relevant is precisely the fact that their themes are still very much grounded in the reality of AfricanAmerican people.
This novel is a fiction depicting a reality. There was indeed a circuit system that allowed Black people to leave the southern states to reach the northern ones, as well as Canada. This system was composed of people who hid Black slaves wishing to reach freedom from the authorities. The book’s atmosphere transports you into a suffocating world. Imagine having to hide and live with the terror of being found out, and possibly lynched for having tried to improve your future.
Each story immediately transports you into a universe where the Black man finds himself trapped at an impasse. They were written at a time when anger rumbled increasingly, and when civil rights movements were organized in the United States.
This novel was transposed to the small screen through a mini-series.
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We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy de Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2017
This book is a series of essays written and published between 2008 and 2016 by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It tackles, among other things, Barack Obama’s presidency and several missed appointments. It explains why these eight years have fatally led to Donald Trump’s election. He comes back on several occasions to the philosophy held by some successful Black people: “be better than the others, and you will succeed.” Coates just does not believe it. He considers that, even if African-Americans tried to be better than the others to be accepted, it would not be enough to deconstruct a system plagued by racism. From this position, he explains how these inequalities persist, and the importance of reparation for AfricanAmericans.
Becoming de Michelle Obama, 2018
This book is none other than American First Lady Michelle Obama’s autobiography. We are here in another genre completely. Michelle Obama retraces the journey of a young Black woman who grew up in Chicago, and who married the one who would become the U.S.’s first Black president. She lived in the White House for eight years, during which she tried, through her energy and her convictions, to change the image of Black Americans and of her role by getting involved in causes which mattered to her. Her life journey is atypical, to say the least, and above all particularly remarkable.
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The Vanishing Half de Brit Bennett, 2020
Picture yourself for a moment someone who decides to live a life of lies, which would allow them to enjoy advantages that they would never have obtained otherwise. Advantages or privileges that some of us would rather deny or ignore, but which well and truly exist. This book can take a turn that offends the reader, and it is much better this way.
Black Like Me de John Howard Griffin, 1961
This is an autobiographical book narrating the experience of a white man who temporarily changed his skin’s pigmentation to integrate the Black communities of the southern United States and to better understand what they were going through. This book is simultaneously disturbing and fascinating. The “N word” rules in the kingdom of racism. It is omnipresent in the whole book. This is the account of six weeks spent in a context where segregation was part of the daily lives of millions of Black people.
Of course, there are many other titles that deserve to be cited here. However, we thought it helpful to present books that contrasted with each other, like Up from Slavery with The Underground Railroad, Black Like Me with Vanishing Half, and We Were Eight Years in Power with Becoming. These books all tell an important part of Black history, while complementing each other. Happy reading!
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BELL HOOKS THE REBIRTH OF FEMINISM by Adrienne Sauriol
photo: The Bell Hooks Institute
As a major figure of afrofeminism, bell hooks is particularly interested in existing relations between race, social class, and gender, and in the production and the perpetuation of systems of oppression and domination based on those criteria. Throughout more than 30 books, her forward-thinking has, through her reflexions, opened new perspectives in feminist debates.
The prolific writer bell hooks died last 15th December at the age of 69 in her home in Kentucky, USA.
Gloria Jean Watkins, most known under her pen name “bell hooks”, is an intellectual, academic feminist, and Afro-American activist. She was born in 1952 in a working-class family of 6 children. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom, and her father was a housekeeper and janitor. She goes through segregated school, then climbs up the social ladder by undergoing a doctorate at the University of California, to then become a worldrenowned Afro-American academic feminist. She has combined her mother’s and grandmother’s names as a pseudonym, in all-lowercase letters, to put emphasis on “the substance of books, and not who I am”, she explained. Hooks begins to write when mutations in the feminist movement appear, thus marking the end of the 2nd wave and the beginning of the 3rd.
FIGURES OF BLACK FEMINISM Bell hooks theorises the “black feminist” movement, born in the USA during the fight for civil rights, which associates criticisms of sexism, racism, capitalism, because factors of gender, race and social class work together in everyday oppression. Hooks is in that respect the origin of the idea of intersectionalism, a new concept at the time (and very poorly received). She invests herself in the feminist movement, where she includes antiracist issues.
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AIN’T I A WOMAN? BLACK WOMEN AND FEMINISM She published her last book, Ain’t I A Woman? Black Women and Feminism, in 1981, tackeling issues of race, class and gender at the very heart of the feminist movement: she tells the history of sexism and racism to show that, through capitalist and patriarchal institutions, they lead to devalue black femininity (by degrading and marginalising it)
FROM MARGIN TO CENTER: ANTICAPITALIST, INTERSECTIONAL, AND PLURALISTIC FEMINISM In her second essay (1984), bell hooks criticises universal feminism, null and void, since it was blind when it came to differences and relations of class and racial domination. Considered as one of her foundational writings, bell hook’s inputs are many and absolutely innovative: creating a new (feminist) method, and a feminism that henceforth intends to be inclusive and anticapitalistic.
The methodological input : beside bell hooks’ militant character, her philosophy is also founded on an epistemological criticism of universalism, by using testimonies of lived experiences and putting value back into personal experience against purely statistical and quantitative analysis’. She therefore founds her intersectional feminism on criticism of this white universal feminism of the 60’s and 70’s, that deals with a generic, abstract woman. By deconstructing the falsely homogeneous category of “woman” and showing the plurality of experiences and of feminist struggles, bell hooks has revolutionised the feminist activism and academic field, which were until then mostly white and privileged. The inclusive input : Hooks looks to build a political solidarity through a true “sorority”. In order to do that, she empathizes the importance of taking women of colour’s positions into account, but to also include those of men, position that is not always unanimous in the feminist movement. According to her, men have been educated to accept sexist ideology, so they now have the responsibility to eliminate it. Getting rid of masculine violence is done through criticising the sexist notion of “masculinity” that carries out the belief that being a real man is having power over others. Therefore, men are necessary allies of the revolutionary feminist movement which is inherently anticapitalist. The anticapitalist input : bell hook’s anticapitalism is founded on the coordination of the patriarchy and racism with capitalism as a whole. She criticises the idealisation of paid work in bourgeois feminism, which demanded access to employment to gain economic independence from the husband. For hooks, this idealistic vision of work has been repelling poor women from the feminist cause because for them, employment is exploitative and dehumanising, and it’s rather family and motherhood that are valued.
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photo: Karjean Levine / Getty
It can therefore be said that bell hooks’ feminism is indeed revolutionary: it’s about thinking and fighting for a radically different society, free of capitalist, imperialist, and sexist power dynamics, where families, the professional world, the political organisation, would be radically changed. However, take notice that feminism, according to hooks, is not taking the place of the dominating white men, but starting over from scratch, changing the value system that is (in its current state) a system of domination. How can women fight with their power? Maybe by refuting what already exists, notably through counterculture, through reappropriation. Women must learn to be active in their own representations of themselves.
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THE ART OF RESISTANCE by Chiara Jacazzi
Black American history has been marked by centuries of domination, violence, and injustice. However, as Pap Ndiaye points out in his latest book Black Americans, it would be a mistake to ignore other aspects of African American history, namely, the resistance and resilience that these people have always shown through their agency, that is, their ability to act in any circumstance to reaffirm their right to life.
Les Noirs Américains (Black Americans) by Pap Ndiaye In his latest book Les Noirs Américains (“Black Americans”) published in October 2021, Pap Ndiaye gives himself the task of retracing the most significant moments in the history of African Americans. The work covers a period which, as the author himself indicates under the main title of his work, extends from "slavery to Black Lives Matter". However, the history described by Pap Ndiaye is not a simple chronological account aimed at highlighting a past of domination, violence, and racial discrimination; beyond the suffering and injustices endured for centuries by the African American population, what emerges is the capacity of this people to resist and demonstrate courage, resilience and, above all, "agency". Indeed, the author promotes the way in which Black Americans have been the proud protagonists of their own history by showing themselves capable, time and time again, of combining the hope of reclaiming their "right to life" to the implementation of all available means of action to realise their dream of emancipation and social, political, and cultural recognition.
Slavery, segregation, civil and institutional violence From the 17th century onwards, slavery became a major institution in the New World from a political, economic, and social point of view. First, it was through the transatlantic slave trade that black Africans were brought to the American colonies as a subservient labour force. Despite its prohibition in 1808, the slave trade continued internally and inter-regionally: slaves were separated from their families and relatives and forced to make the long journey on foot or by boat to the trading towns near the large plantations in the South. There, they are exposed to the eyes of possible buyers and sold as a simple commodity. For the Southern landowners, the possession of many slaves reflected their social position and contributed to establishing their dignity as free white men and their superiority over Black people, whom they considered incapable of living in any other state than servitude. For this reason, any act of rebellion on the part of a slave was considered a form of "psychiatric deviance" in relation to the very nature of the black race, which was supposed to be docile, respectful, and obedient to the white masters. EBONY ISSUE | 73
Gradually, the northern states became industrialised and no longer needed slave labour to support themselves. In the southern United States, on the other hand, slavery continued to be the main labour system. Therefore, when the abolitionist movement took shape in the North, certain political figures, including Lincoln himself, wanted to gradually reduce the weight of slavery in the economy of the southern states (the gradualist position) rather than suddenly banning it by provoking a crisis that would cut the country in two. However, following the election of President Lincoln, the Southern states declared their immediate separation from the Union and, inevitably, the Civil War broke out (1861-1865). In 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and in 1865 the North emerged victorious from the conflict, marking its victory with the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which banned slavery throughout the country. In 1866, the 14th Amendment guaranteed citizenship to former slaves and ensured the right to vote for all men over the age of 21, followed in 1869 by the 15th Amendment, which aimed to prevent any challenge to the voting rights of new citizens. Although at the end of the war the situation of Black Americans seemed destined to improve, the historical events that followed demonstrated the opposite: the emergence of segregation laws aimed at physically, socially, and culturally separating Blacks from Whites, persecutions, lynching carried out by the Ku Klux Klan, and police violence would exclude the Black population from all the "privileges" reserved for White people. In the name of this political marginalisation, attempts were made to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote. It is in this context of violence, discrimination, and white supremacist domination of the African American population that the "art of resistance" of Black America takes on its fullest form, blending with the wave of the civil rights movement, then with the more violent and politicised Black Power movement and, more recently, animating the voice of the Black Lives Matter movement.
When religion meets politics: Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Religion played a very important role in the struggle for emancipation of the African American population. During the centuries of slavery, the Black Church was already present and comforted its community in a hidden way, holding meetings and prayers at night, far from the eyes of the slave masters. Therefore it was also called the "invisible church". Furthermore, acts of rebellion within the slave communities were often organised or supported by the priests, who after the Civil War became the spiritual and political guides for the African American communities. Indeed, it was the duty of the leaders of black religious communities to represent believers as a whole to the authorities, and it was always up to them to educate the faithful and to deliver messages of hope and promise. This very personal relationship with God (which black preachers promoted) was also reflected in their powerful sermons, which were enriched with images and metaphors drawn from biblical stories and accompanied by music, song, and dance. It is not surprising that many of the politicians who contributed to the emancipation of African Americans were originally preachers or prominent figures in the black church. This is the case, for example, for Martin Luther King, who was able to raise awareness around the world about the struggle for civil rights for Black Americans by advocating non-violence and civil resistance (demonstrations, marches, sit-ins, boycotts, freedom rides, etc.) to make his voice heard and to achieve legislative, legal-political, and social results. Thanks to the rhetorical power and lyricism of his speeches, the most famous of which is certainly I Have a Dream, Martin Luther King was able to give new visibility to the demands of African Americans and, in particular, to those of black slaves in the southern United States, also thanks to the attention he was able to give to media coverage. During his long struggle, King was imprisoned several times, and when he was assassinated in 1968, he remained convinced that American democracy would eventually recognise equal rights, including those of African Americans, in the name of its declared universalism. EBONY ISSUE | 74
photo: Victor Boynton
More radical in comparison to King, but also very important in the struggle for black civil rights, Malcolm X is a rather controversial figure, whose personal history made him closer to young AfroAmericans from the ghettos of the big cities of the North. After spending ten years in prison for robbery and joining a black nationalist Islamic religious cult, he eventually became involved with the Black Panther Party and the Black Power movement. Feeling like a citizen of the world himself, he affirmed the need for all black people to unite, to recognise their cultural, historical and social value and to fight against the domination of white supremacists using all available means, including violence and weapons, if necessary, but also through, for example, a more strategic use of the electoral vote.
The role of art, music and culture Despite their unfortunate situation, the African-American slaves of the South never renounced their ideals and fought, in their own way and within the limits imposed by their condition, against the slave system. It is in this perspective, as a sublimated mode of expression of resistance and resilience, that we must consider the birth of new musical forms such as jazz, blues, soul, gospel or spirituals. In particular, many songs and music denounced the condition of slaves in America: from Mahalia Jackson's gospel song We Shall Overcome to James Brown's Say it Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud or Beyoncé's Black Parade. The importance of a new awareness among the African American population of their history, culture and traditions was affirmed by Marcus Garvey's founding of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1917, which supported a certain Pan-Africanism and made 'blackness' a matter of pride for African Americans. Despite the decline of the organisation, its ex-members continued to spread activist and intellectual knowledge from generation to generation. Then, in the 1960s, a series of riots broke out simultaneously in a hundred American cities, taking part in the Black Power movement and paving the way for the founding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966. The latter promoted the need to form armed gangs to guarantee the protection of black people in the ghettos against police violence. In particular, the Black Power movement had a great cultural impact thanks to the revaluation of concepts such as "blackness" and "black is beautiful", which gave rise to the birth of a new black aesthetic, accompanied by a real multicultural transformation within American society. Recently, the sudden emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013 showed that the struggle for civil rights is not yet over. Nevertheless, this universal demonstration of solidarity, bringing together all those who fight individually and collectively for the affirmation of universal and civil human rights, has once again highlighted the need to fight to ensure that the right to life is never again considered a privilege from which some are excluded. There will always be people ready to discriminate and deny the rights of a certain minority or group under the pretext of defending their own social, political, economic, or cultural status, but as long as there are men and women ready to fight and make their voices heard in the name of the ideals of equality and freedom, there will be a way of resisting and acting in defense of the inalienable rights of man. This is the message that is delivered to us, beyond the violence and suffering, by the history of Black America. Another quintessential symbol of this "art of resistance" is the gloved fist that the two African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised to the sky before the eyes of the whole world as a sign of non-violent protest against the condition of Black Americans on the 200-metre podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games.
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, y t u a e b d n y a t i v i n t o i a h e s r a c F rlds of wo
NTOINE
photo: Kiros Images
ARA
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A bright ray of sunshine by Angelique Marguerite Berthe Diene
Who are you? Tell us everything... Karine to her friends, Kara in front of the camera... A young lady who has developed an interest in the arts since she was very young. The name Kara refers to the word "carat", the gold value given to a piece of jewelry. It is an idea found during a candid discussion with a friend on a bus. Thank you Manuel (smile) I was born in Quebec, and I am of Haitian origin. I am a model, actress and event host. A bit about my own history... With my family, we moved back and forth between Haiti and Canada, and I received my education in both countries. It was after my first year of high school that my parents decided that we would stay in Canada for good. I really liked this country, which was our destination for summer holidays, but my school adaptation was very difficult. My grades were dropping, I had difficulty making friends and I felt very different from my classmates. I expressed myself and acted differently and as a result I was often left out. Whereas in Haiti, I was a good student, the president of several committees, the reference in dance and a person surrounded by wonderful friends. The first years were very emotional.
How did you become a model/photo model? Tell us about your first experience in this business ! I participated in my first fashion show in 2012 at the Bain Mathieu. Since then, I've never stopped. I have walked for many wonderful designers from here and abroad for events like Défilons Vert, Carribean Fashion Week, Rip The Runway, La Semaine de Mode de Montréal, etc. One of my mentor and friend Dawn Ross is one of the people who has encouraged and supported me the most in this direction. Thanks to her, there wasn't a show in the Caribbean community that I didn't participate in. I was also lucky to meet and be coached for a few weeks by one of Trinidad and Tobago's most popular art directors and Caribbean Next Top Model judge, Richard Young. With my experience and this huge visibility, I have been able to make myself known to many photographers and entrepreneurs and build relationships with them over the years. I love getting pictures of myself taken, and I can already hear some people saying that it's vanity! I see it as a beautiful form of artistic expression with the eyes that say it all, the smile that lights up, the members that are positioned in the right places, all in an enchanting setting... I could do this all day long! You can express a lot of things through a photograph.
Getting out of my cocoon and controlling my shyness was possible thanks to the performing arts! I have always enjoyed dancing, singing, posing, diving into my favourite books and films and imagining myself in the characters' places.
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What has changed in your personal life since you started working in this profession? The self-confidence you gain from doing this job is undeniable. Things were not always easy at home. I had developed a fear of expressing myself and of accepting myself as I am. Today, I no longer feel this fear. I am taking my place, I am passionate, and I feel good in my shoes. Some people go exercise to let off steam, but for me, performing for a theatre piece, creating a skit, or thinking of myself as Tyra Banks is my adrenaline, my sport! Art has been a source of comfort for me, a safe space. And it still is.
You are also an actress. How did you come to be an actress? Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to be an actress/comedian. I'm a real film lover; I love analyzing film scenes and the characters’ acting. When I was younger, I used to imagine myself in the roles of those characters I saw on TV and I would have fun photo: Kiros imitating them. The field I saw myself in was not welcomed by my parents, so I forced myself to go to school, tried new classes but never really knew where I was going and what else I wanted to do in my life. This is not to say that I didn't have other interests or that I was bad at school (except for maths! (Laughs), but just that I didn't feel stimulated enough! I'm a dynamic and outgoing outdoorsy girl. Things must happen live!
Images
In Cegep, I took the Drama option whenever I had the opportunity and participated in all my school’s productions. I was always hooked on acting throughout my school years. It wasn’t until 2020 that I really started to take acting as a profession seriously. I found an agent, I took training courses and participated in internships and, to tell the truth, it is not that easy to get into the business.
Photos: Kara Antoine
Today, I still face many barriers and yes, sometimes I get discouraged and want to give up. But, as my little brother, who I love so much, often says to me, or as my late friend and big fan Don Karnage used to say: "Kara, you can't give up now... Don't give up! People often surrender right when they’re close to the goal.” Despite these obstacles, I can say that I am very proud of myself and what I have achieved so far.
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Can you tell us about the latest projects you have been working on? When it comes to TV and film, you won't see me on your screen now, but I have faith in my lucky star. It's only a matter of time. During my career, I had the good fortune and honor of working with American director Lee Daniels on the set of the film Billie Holliday, out in February 2021. Although the scene I was performing an action in was not added to the shot, I will treasure the memory of being directed by Lee Daniels! I have several short web films to my credit, including a recently released project directed by Elena Stoodley. It's a comedy magazine called CHÉKÉ 2021, which has been available on YouTube since February 2022, and which reminds us of the famous annual Quebec show Le Bye Bye. In CHÉKÉ 2021, the sketches are performed by mostly black actors and personalities and touch on various stereotypes we may relate to. This year, I got a long-term contract with AlloProf to narrate educational workshops in English for students who need a helping hand. This is a project that makes me very proud, as it allows me to help others in some way using my dynamic personality. My biggest voiceover contract was with a client on Indeed, one of the most used job search sites in the world. Right now, I'm in high demand for photo campaigns and commercials, from small businesses like the As God Made Me hair salon in Montreal to large organizations like Desjardins.
photo: Kara Antoine
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If you were told that you were a black actress in the history of Quebec cinema. What would you say? How do you deal with the stress and pressure, but also the aspect of being a black woman in certain circles, notably artistic, which are not easy? What is your vision of these circles? I think there is an opening today that there was maybe less of before. However, I have the impression that when there is a role to be given to a black actor, it is always the same people who are called, it is always the same faces that we see. This gives the impression that there are no other actors who can do the job, even though there are several of us who audition and want to work. I know several of them. As for the possibility of seeing a black actress or a mostly black cast at the top of the bill in a Quebec production, I think that day is still far off. It may have already happened, and I just haven't seen any media coverage of it. And if it has, then that's great! I don't claim to know everything or to have the solution to everything. However, if we want to be on the map for more than just a moment and be able to tell our stories in our own way, I think we need to do our own projects, take training or coaching sessions, and encourage hidden talents to come out. One challenge I faced in my early days was that I never knew if I should speak with my normal accent or change it. It was by taking inspiration from my TV peers that I knew a bit about how I should play my characters. Just enough cheeky French, without an accent, and you're ready to fit the mould! If I ask a casting director, he or she will say: "You can do it in normal French!" But we know what that means... Usually, if they want an accent, they will say so in their publications. As I mentioned above, it's not easy to get into the business in the first place, and that goes for any comedian. It's even less easy for someone like me, a black actress, who started at the bottom of the ladder without a bachelor’s degree in theatre, without being known to people in the industry, without being a member of the Artists' Union and let me tell you, talent is not nearly enough to break into the system. Many of my mentors and coaches who have decades of experience in the business have told me that talent alone is not enough to succeed on TV.
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So, beyond talent, what does it take to work in this sector? You have to be ready to break down doors, have the right attitude, constantly work on your acting and above all do not wait for opportunities. You must create them yourself. Oh and MANIFEST. I'm a big believer of that. You must have an iron shell and know how to handle rejection with grace. Using a coach can only be beneficial! I also think you must open your horizons and get out of the country. It is not only in Quebec that it is possible to make films. The challenge is that to have access to speaking roles in a commercial or a film or even to dub, membership in the Union des Artistes is required. And to do this, you need to have completed your bachelor’s degree in Theatre or have accumulated credits by being an extra or playing in commercials or putting together a show from beginning to end or even getting a speaking role for several days on a production. And even after successfully becoming a member, there is no guarantee of finding work. However, being chosen for an Artists' Union project is well worth it! For me, when I am chosen, I am happy because it brings me closer to my goal and it is often for a company or on a major production. In any case, I feel privileged to be able to work in the domain I love, even if it's on "non-union" projects. One thing I can't ignore is the moral support of the people around me. Having people who believe in you and support you in everything you do is a great factor for success in this business. I am grateful for the precious friends and family members who support me 100%.
As for the possibility of seeing a black actress or a mostly black cast at the top of the bill in a Quebec production, I think that day is still far off.
You're busy. You were talking about AlloProf earlier and we enjoyed listening to you on its social pages. How did you become a specialist in narration/voiceover? Indeed! 2022 is really my year!
photo: Kara Antoine
I saw a post on Facebook looking for actors who could read, for video clips, educational texts to English-speaking students on a teleprompter. I auditioned and was accepted! That's also what acting is all about. It's a whole universe that gives access to a variety of possibilities. Apart from interpreting a character in a series, I can do voice work or advertising, create content for a brand, star in a music video, etc.
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photo: KIROS Images How do you develop a voice for a character or a project? Many people think that being an actor is easy. You say your two lines and that's it! Nah, it's more than that. In the case of voice-over, for example, I have to make sure my voice is in shape. Let's say I won't go and sing karaoke or shout at a concert just before an audition or a contract. If I do that I'm screwed! (Laughs) I read and reread the instructions that are given to me. I practice several times in the required pitch and then I go to the studio to record myself. In the studio I always have a bottle of water with me. This is one of the tips my trainer gave me because as I go along, my mouth starts to get mushy. Another thing that helps me is to perform barefoot. It calms me down and I feel less rigid. I am very demanding of myself. I don't send out a final product if I'm not completely satisfied. Sometimes I do a lot of rehearsals before I get the right take. Another thing about me is that I'm not afraid to repeat as many times as it takes. I love my work!
What do you promote through your artistic and other activities? Are you defending battles, are you expressing demands through your choice of roles? I wouldn't say that I express demands through my choice of roles, but I am and will remain a fervent admirer of black women, of their beauty, their strengths, their intelligence. Because we are literally capable of achieving anything. I try to promote self-confidence and self-worth around me through positivity and good humor.
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Do you have a muse or icon that you take inspiration from? I have plenty! To name a few, I would mention actresses like Viola Davis, Lupita N'Yongo, Angela Bassett, Issa Rae, Zoe Saldana, Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Obama... "Fanm ki pa manje anyen ki frèt!" ("Women who don't let themselves be bossed around" in Creole) whether on screen or in real life... I also admire people who live for themselves and not for others and who take a big bite out of life. That inspires me!
What is your life like off camera? I'm still a lively woman who goes out with friends, spends time with family, sits down to a good Netflix series, does some reading, makes her to-do list, puts on some music, dances, and sings at the top of her voice.
Do you have any plans or wishes for the near future? No big plans. However, I'm still working hard, that's for sure!
Photos: Karin Benedict
I would like to see my siblings continue to shine in the field and I wish myself to get my first role this year!
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Paulina Manuel Nzinga Founder of Massaizoubeauty54 by Andrea Mafuta
Paulina Manuel NZINGA is 34 years old, she founded the shop massaizoubeauty54.com after having worked for several companies as an industrial designer in electricity, she has decided to leave her profession in order to focus on entrepreneurship.
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Who is behind Massaizoubeauty54? 34-year-old Paulina Manuel NZINGA founded the shop Massaizoubeauty54 after having worked for several companies like Veolia, SPIE, Vince, Rte, Derichebourg, and others, as an industrial designer in electricity. She has therefore decided to leave her profession in order to focus on entrepreneurship.
A rather atypical history With a rather atypical history, Paulina Manuel NZINGA made her first steps in the professional world as a cleaning lady, maid, and waitress before resuming the higher education she had suspended for three years. She followed a work-linked two-year technical degree, but she had previously graduated from a Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) National Diploma in electronics. After her two-year technical degree, she continued her studies in order to obtain a worklinked bachelor’s degree in electronics at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM). All these steps have been made with the goal to be able to work as an industrial designer in electronics in the different companies mentioned above.
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A passion turned into a profession Considering we are in this physical world to experience life, Paulina says "I don’t have any passion in the literal sense and the given definition." But according to her own thoughts, her passion consists in making African nations understand that it is time to go back to our roots. It is only then that African nations will be able to find their dignity, a dignity that has been scorned for centuries in the name of ideologies belonging to other nations. Paulina hopes to be able to fulfill this passion before her next reincarnation in another body.
A company with handmade products Massaizoubeauty is an online shop where you can find African ethnic jewels, but more largely, 100% handmade African products. Massaizoubeauty aims to promote African craftspeople internationally, whatever their craft and type of creation are. But the main goal of the shop is to make populations understand that crafts are not limited to wax or fabrics. Paulina Manuel NZINGA’s ancestors were already making it, what they called European clothes, while they themselves did not possess cotton, or gold, or diamonds, or even copper on their lands."All in all: let’s learn about who we are and who we were before in order to avoid this kind of trap," says Paulina.
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The story behind this company
The story of Massaizoubeauty54 is a love story… and, at the same time, a story of encounters. The shop is a vital need to not only be, but also do, to get involved and not to lose sight of other realities in front of one’s occidental past. This past involves objects, crafts, cultures, art, everyday lives of men and women, etc. No matter what, being passionate about travel, especially in Africa, and unexpected encounters full of cultural and human discoveries, Paulina has the unconscious luck of generating an immediate empathy: "I am determined and curious." She has the fever of those who are moved by the passion of the line, the sketch, the raw fabric and has the attention of those who know the daily reality of craftspeople, especially African craftspeople. Those who measure the complexity and the heaviness of their work, and who recognize the true talent of others. "I am not in the nostalgia of the past, but in a fervent defense of what was and what remains of it," she says. At first, she only wanted to discover the true African culture, until she bought a pair of Maasai sandals made with pearls in 2017.
After her purchase, things got clearer; she would not be an industrial designer in electricity anymore, but she would be in love with African objects and arts and crafts. Measuring their obvious and possible disappearance, she starts her journey in creation through massaizoubeauty54©. She registered her trademark on 8 October 2018. Massaizoubeauty54 was born thanks to the love she has for her people and her beautiful African continent. Child of this beautiful Africa, formerly called Kama, she feels she has a duty to bring to light what it has to offer.
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The message she wants to convey
Photos: Massaizoubeauty54
Knowing her mission on this physical world, she wants to spread her own message on her comprehension of the world and of the matrix we live in. As mothers and fathers of humanity, it is everyone’s duty to respect one’s environment, because we risk to further destroy the only element that allows us to live in this physical world: nature. Of course, to do so, it is important for African people to be able to come back to their roots, by reclaiming their historical and cultural heritage. Indeed, a people without history is like a tree without roots, it has no chance to grow.
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DAMIEN AJAVON, INGENUITY PERSONIFIED Damien Ajavon has dedicated all his artistic talent to the textile industry. He is born in France and originates from Senegal and Togo. His work aims to explore the different ways of manipulating textile fibres. They can be handled in various ways, such as knotted, braided, tangled and woven. He highlights all his cultural heritage. by Malik Chalabi
photo: Mike Dhondt
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Damien Ajavon is a French textile artist with Senegalese and Togolese origins. His work explores the different methods by which textile fibres can be manipulated by hand, whether knotted, braided, tangled or woven. All his inspirations and new creations can be found on these networks, including her Instagram account : @damien.a.a and on his website. In his everyday life, Damien Ajavon does not consider himself a fullfledged artist, for the sole reason that he did not have a talent for drawing. After many attempts in the art world, he knows his strengths and weaknesses. As for his strengths, the most important is the creativity he shows in all his projects. Known for his original works, he is also an inspirational figure for the queer community. A community to which he has never hidden his membership
Photos: Aokpalad
photo: Damien Ajavon
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His works are unique and unique to the artist himself, especially in the way the elements are shaped and arranged. His ultimate goal would be to know and explore all the possibilities of modification and transformation to which fabric can be submited.
photo: Mallory Lowe Mpoka
In a podcast held and transcribed, he explains in detail his way of working, his inspirations and the impact of the materials used in his creations.
Weaving and knitting are Damien's favorite disciplines. Both disciplines were common crafts for thousands of years in many cultures around the world. His work blends the past and the present and is thus somewhere between modern and classical. Add to this his genius and you have unique works. Damien Ajavon's creativity is very much inspired by his heritage. In doing so, he highlights his mother's teachings on African cultures and creates artworks that honor intergenerational learning and connection.
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Damien gives his techniques a contemporary character, creating not only textile art, but also his own yarn for several pieces. This means that he does not only create the object, but also the material. Damien thus combines historical and playful manipulation techniques with contemporary materials that are not usually used for weaving. For example, he uses various types of rope that are usually prepared for Canadian homes. Currently, Damien Ajavon is working on several projects, most notably on obtaining his master’s degree in Arts and Crafts, which he is doing in Oslo. Despite his young age, his ambitions are clear, and he knows where he is going. His life experiences and his decision to live his life as he wants are reflected in his creations.
Photos: Damien Ajavon
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e h t f o t r d a l e r h o e w h t c i h t A atograp m e cin
Meeting with
NÉHÉMIE LEMAL
THE FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHER AND FILMMAKER BY JANAINA DE OLIVEIRA
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After a few emails with Néhémie, we manage to find a time slot that suits us both, despite the different time zones. I quickly understand that Néhémie lives at 200km/h! This enthusiasm and fervour, which I had sensed through our electronic exchanges, became a reality within the first few seconds of our meeting.
Could you introduce yourself, personally and professionally? "My name is Néhémie Lemal, I am twenty-four years old. I come from the south of France, near Marseille: Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, I grew up there. I am Haitian, I was adopted. I went to film school, got a literary baccalaureate, studied Communication in university. I am really from the South, I identify myself as such. I then went to CinéFabrique in Lyon, which is a free and rather selective public film school. I enrolled in the image section. Initially, I was a Chief Operator, which is what I still am today, it's what allows me to live. So I did three years at CinéFabrique, I did a lot of filming, which allowed me to improve my photography, because, yes, I had been doing photography since I was fourteen. I did a series of photos last year called "La jeunesse lyonnaise" (Lyon’s Youth) which was very successful. After that, I had the opportunity to have several different jobs, for example for Afrodyssée, which is a Swiss magazine. I also became known thanks to my short film "On ne peut plus rien dire" (nothing can be said anymore), which has been shown internationally and is even studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, where I am sometimes asked to be present for debates."
Néhémie is therefore as well known for her high-quality snapshots that accurately convey the emotion experienced by the people photographed, than for her committed film productions. Indeed, "On ne peut plus rien dire" was created following racist episodes that the artist experienced in France, particularly in the street, linked to her afro haircut: "My hair was pulled, I was stopped by the police. It was everywhere, everywhere in France. People like to say that racism doesn't exist in Paris. But, three years ago still, I was photographed, people were shocked. People say that Paris is the capital of fashion, but it is the capital of white fashion." She highlights the large number of directors who do not know how to film black skin and who do not know how to showcase it. She shares several situations of directors who have refused to bring black women to light in their productions. Néhémie adds that despite a certain evolution on the French cinematographic level in relation to the image of black women, the latter are only partially represented. Indeed, it is rare to see a black woman with features specify to the black community in a French production. Néhémie specifies that the prohibiting factor is often the nose, still considered as too wide.
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In your opinion, what place do black women have in the artistic world today?
"Because we're freelancing a lot, we get a price. The whole view of black people, of slavery, resurfaces, you feel worthless. I'm opposed to it, I say no, and so they say I'm mean. But I deserve my money, I deserve my pay. In this business, when people hate me, they really put me down and say horrible things to me. On the other hand, when people like me, they say I'm extraordinary. There is no in-between". She shares her outrage at the lack of recognition of black women's work in the film industry. She also addresses the issue of gender, which highlights the somewhat more simplified acceptance of black men due to their reputation as masculine individuals and their symbolism of exoticism, unlike black women and black men who do not fit that box.
that an artist needs. She also mentions Black Love Feed, an Instagram page that has supported her a lot and that has helped “La jeunesse Lyonnaise” ("Lyon's youth") to take off. And to finish, she highlights the importance of not letting yourself be defeated by the money industry and that you have to find your way of making films and remain faithful to it. It is an uncertain environment in which you are never really completely settled, you have to go to the essential, find your way and your style.
She adds that the gentrification of the film industry is a real problem. Indeed, some productions boycott or do not give attention to artists who do not have a budget. Also, her strong attachment to the South of France is linked to the discrimination she has experienced. Being from the countryside, Néhémie has had to fight to justify her skills and to make the stories she had to tell through her art heard. She is still shocked by the cultural appropriation of some production companies who refuse to collaborate with black artists, but who draw on, and even steal, the creativity of underground black cinema, which has very little funding.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into photography or video? "You should never stop and never give up, despite boycotts and scorn. You must not give up, and your own or other people's experiences are worth using: all stories are worthwhile! Working relentlessly is the key, producing with any material is important." She also mentions the essential aspect of keeping true friends close to you. Those who are there from the start and who know how to support us in difficult moments. Those who know how to give us good feedback on our work to help us progress. They are the real wealth and authenticity EBONY ISSUE | 97
Néhémie Lemal is a passionate and committed artist, her art is necessary. She recently finished shooting a feature-length documentary for which she filmed childhood friends over a period of three years, in their daily lives. She was the Chief Operator, self-produced and raised the funds. This new work on grief and family promises to be just like its creator: authentic and captivating.
Photos: Nehemie Lemal EBONY ISSUE | 98
PAM GRIER THE UNDISPUTED QUEEN OF BLAXPLOITATION
Pam Suzette Grier est une actrice américaine née d'un père afro-américain et d'une mère cheyenne. Durant presque 50 ans de carrière, elle a contribué à changer la place des femmes et des noirs au cinéma. by Amel Madjoudj et Leo Bourget EBONY ISSUE | 100
Pamela Suzette Grier, mostly known as Pam Grier, is an Afro-American artist born on the 26th of May 1949 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her father’s parents both are AfroAmericans, and her mother has Cheyenne origins. When digging into her genealogical tree can we learn that she had Latino-American, Chinese and Filipino ancestors. Pam Grier lived her childhood in Europe, up until she was fourteen. Destined to pursue medicine studies, Pam Grier studies at Metropolitan State College. She is then spotted during a contest meant to pay for her studies by Hollywoodian agent Dave Baumgartner, who will encourage her to follow her career path as an actress. She therefore starts her career at the beginning of the 70’s, in the fist Afro-American movies. This new movie genre appears with Blaxploitation, which points out Black people’s exploitation. Pam Grier could count on American director Roger Corman to help her take the first step on this path by casting her for two of movies about women’s lives in prison, The Big Doll House in 1971 and The Big Bird Cage in 1972. The actress became a star of the genre, with Coffy in 1973 and Foxy Brown in 1974. Among the most known movies and shows she took part in, we can for instance cite: Jackie Brown, directed in 1997; This is Us in 2018; Larry Crowne (a romance comedy) in 2011. She was awarded with the Golden Globe Award of the best actress for her part in Jackie Brown in 1997.
The big doll house
The big bird Cage
Coffy
Jackie Brown Foxy Brown
Larry Crowne
This Is Us
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photo: ABC /Chris Pizzello photo: ABC / John Fleenor photo: ABC / John Fleenor
In addition to her numerous movie parts, Pam Grier gave her voice along her career to lots of characters, such as Linc’s in American TV show Pinky and the Brain between 1998 and 2000. In 2002, she gave her voice to the animated show Justice League. All in all, this proves how polyvalent and unafraid the American actress was during her whole career to go for discovering various domains. Her last apparitions on the big screen go back to the end of the 2010’s, with especially the part of Coralee in Bad Grandmas and the one of Lily in Being Rose in 2017, or even her apparition in 2019 in Zara Hayes’ movie Pom-Pom Ladies as Olive. She also won NAACP’s (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Image award. In only a few years, Pam Grier managed to set on the screen an image of women as independent, smart, assured, strong and brave. Even if her career as an actress is now over, she stays active in the cinema industry. Thanks to her polyvalent roles in several movies and on TV, Pam Grier is today considered as an icon who contributed to changing women’s part in the seventh art. The successful actress accumulated a personal fortune which net value is estimated to 10 million dollars.
All in all, Pam Grier is considered as the actress engaged in black woman’s emancipation; she is one of the nonneglectable representors of Afro-American identity and diversity in the cinema and theatre fields.
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THE 7TH ARTIST
Ousmane Ba
aka Bathie Massamba
The Baye Fall charmer of Senegalese cinema EBONY ISSUE | 103
by Angelique Marguerite Berthe Diene
A HAZARDOUS CAREER Becoming an actor had never been his plan. As a lighting technician, he was drawn to the other side of the camera after so much time spent on set. Indeed, during a filming session with Marodi.TV – the Senegalese company that produced successful audio-visual content such as Maitresse d’un Homme Marié (“A Married Man’s Mistress”), a series extremely popular in Frenchspeaking Africa that echoes within the diaspora communities – the loose cannon turned naturally towards acting, without any knowledge or education in the field.
BAYE FALL IN REAL LIFE He is part of the cast of shows such as L’Or de Ninki Nanka (“Ninki Naka’s Gold,” in the role of an Interpol agent), Impact (as a ballistic agent), or Karma, which will hopefully be available for viewing on Netflix. To have played these characters in these series has shaped his desire to become not only an actor, but a professional. This is Bathie Massamb. For the aficionados of Africanflavoured telenovelas with actors who dare to break through the screen to promote their country’s culture, like Senegal, and to advocate for subjects still considered taboo in society, Bathie is the zen and virtuous Baye Fall – who, let’s admit it, is heartthrob. In Karma, we see him as this fortunate disciple who combats violence dealt on women, but also injustices, and who “can solve complex situations without getting tired.” However, Bathie is also this same Baye Fall who will use force to knock people back into their place; people like Abou Kébé, this violent, jealous and possessive criminal who did not hesitate to kill his wife (in the show!). On screen, it’s obvious he likes to portray complex characters, but always on the side of good, justice and the weak. In brief, a hero.
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BUT WHO IS BATHIE IN REAL LIFE, THE ONE OUTSIDE THE CAMERAS?
His real name is Ousmane Ba, which is close to his stage name Bathie. Ousmane is also a bit of a Baye Fall. He is a mouride, he explains, and will remain so all his life. It’s probably why many fans and even some big names of cinema think that he perfectly pictures characters with spiritual and religious personalities, as he is originally “that way.” It is in his blood and he does it very naturally.
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Ousmane is very grateful for all the opportunities that life offers him. He puts respect in the center of every action but would also like more external recognition for all workers in the cinematic industry. “We should send more encouragement to actors, but also to all the people who work in the shadows, backstage, because they work hard to give visual pleasure to the audience. To shoot a 32-episode series in a few months, by spending hours in the streets, is not an easy task! To add to this, there are also all the risks taken for some of the scenes. One day, to film a scene in the Karma series, I had to burn bank notes in order to show Abou that money could not solve everything. You saw a moral lesson there, but picture that just before that, we were this close to die in a fire. We were with the tech crew and other actors, of course, in a rather narrow space. And after I had poured oil on the bank notes, the fire had taken a bit too well for our taste. Even the director ElKhadji’s shoes didn’t come out of it unscathed that shows the seriousness of the situation then!”
FAME!
“It’s certain that Karma generates many messages, on social media for example, even as the last actor to have joined the show.” However, Ousmane feels guilty that he cannot answer all his fans. Indeed, managing an acting career with months of filming that often come one after the other and finishing at random hours, and working a technician job along with it, do not allow for many moments of rest.
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p i h r s r e e h t d r a u e l A s to see f e h s u p t a h t
The inspirational inventor
Par Laura Bonnieu After having occupied the position of Vice-President of Engineering at AT&T and having worked on the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Doctor Marian Croak has become Head of Engineering at Google. In addition to an impressive career and being crowned with over 200 patents, she is also a great woman.
photo: Google
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You might not know Marian Croak by name. Nonetheless, she was a pioneer in technologies that we use to communicate every day, especially the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). It refers to the capacity of communicating with one another via sound waves. This prolific engineer has over 200 patents in her name, mostly tackling voice and service quality on the Internet. She worked for the transition from wired telephone to Internet protocol. Thanks to her, distant communication has taken a huge step forward: she has invented systems that we always use and that allow calling via the Internet rather than a traditional wired phone.
During an interview she gave to USPTO director Andrei Iancu on the 21st of October 2020, Dr. Croak explained that she was fascinated by professions dealing with repairing things since her early childhood, be it plumber or electrician. She nurtured this wish to improve objects or services by enrolling in sciences and mathematical studies.
VoIP Half her patents tackle Voice over Protocol (VoIP) technologies. Forward-thinking and persuaded of the potential in numerical telecommunication services, this alumna from Princeton and the University of Southern California started her career at AT&T. For over thirty years, her research oriented itself towards the premises of what we today know as VoIP. When AT&T decided to merge the IP and vocal networks engineering teams, Marian Croak became the leader of this group of 2,000 engineers and computer scientists. She added features to audio conferences and videoconferences, and strengthened this communication device’s reliability. For this patent, Doctor Marian Croak was inducted at the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2022. Today, and since 2014, Marian Croak has occupied the position of Google Engineering’s vice-president. She works on the expansion of internet accessibility, mostly in developing countries. She was head of the team working on project Loon, established since 2010, which aimed to use helium-inflated balloons to deploy internet coverage in underserved or isolated places. Despite technological exploits, the project ended in 2021 because of the lack of commercial viability.
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Vote on the phone The 2000s were the beginning of text messaging and reality shows. Within the scope of the on-phone voting system, AT&T cooperated with American Idol, the famous television singing contest. At the end of a season, telephonic lines would often be overwhelmed and out of order. While Dr. Croak was responsible for the reliability of the operations of the vocal network on which the public voted, she thought of redirecting the traffic. A voting system based upon text was born and calling lines were relieved.
This idea came to her mind after Hurricane Katrina’s passage in New Orleans in 2005. She looked for a way to help the population as quickly as possible, since telephone lines had been cut off. Marian Croak and her team set up a platform allowing money donations via SMS to charity organizations by increasing the donor’s phone bills for the next month, thus raising $130,000. More popular and efficient five years later, this system allowed 43 million dollars in donations to be raised during Haiti’s earthquake in 2010.
Giving money by messaging
Widely inspired by the previously mentioned patent, the doctor also received one for a technology allowing cell phone users to give money to organizations through text messages. This was settled in collaboration with inventor Hossein Eslambochi.
photo: Wiki Commons
photo: Wireless Broadband Alliance EBONY ISSUE | 110
An inspiring woman Besides being a woman with an incredible career, she is inspiring. Marian Croak encourages women to choose a scientific or engineering career. To do so, she wrote, among others, a letter for the HuffPost, addressed to young women operating in the field of technology. She explains in this letter how she was often considered a woman in a “man's world.” She says she didn’t feel it that way, that she didn’t feel like a stranger or a misplaced woman. Statistics have shown that women still represent a huge minority in the technological industry. “The idea of women facing a difficult battle” persists, despite the fact that companies always look for younger working women, ready to change the world. To her, ethnicity or cultural origin, physical traits or gender have no relevance. What is important is to see what is in common. Whoever you are, the important thing is to serve communal issues and to improve lives. In this letter, she enlightens her encouragement by saying: “People will accept you and people will want your contribution because you are unique and, therefore, your thoughts are too. Our society desperately needs your mind and your energy.”
Dr. Marian Croak made the world a better place thanks to her inventions and her kind soul. Zoom, Skype, Teams, Messenger and a lot of other distant communication apps wouldn’t exist without the VoIP technology she developed. Today, more than ever, her project is generalized to a point that it has become essential in professional as well as personal matters. She managed to reach out to people thanks to her genius. In addition to her 200 patents, around a hundred more are currently waiting for approval. The world can’t wait to know about her new ideas!
photo: Google
photo: Wireless Broadband Alliance EBONY ISSUE | 111
P O R TR A IT
Angélique Marguerite Berthe Diène The mastermind of R Magazine by Adrienne Sauriol
photo: Erika Bourget
It’s 7AM on a Tuesday in Montreal and 1PM in Paris. It’s time for the R Magazine intern online meeting. Every week, there are new faces and more familiar ones. Among these, there’s Angélique Marguerite Berthe Diène, founder of R Magazine.
If you type her name on the Internet, you will discover a lot of surprises. We can learn, among everything, that she is the cofounder of Cheliel, an online concept store unifying ethics and solidarity. Clothes are made from recycled materials and African fabrics. There are also thematic gift boxes for ecologists and an art magazine. Part of the benefits is given to organizations dealing with children from the streets.
photo: Kurious Photography
Her story starts in Dakar, 36 years ago, with only a stop in Paris to complete her finance and management studies, and ends in Montreal, where she landed in 2013. There are so many ramifications to Angélique’s social implication that it takes time to untie all the strings and understand its impact.
"To combine ethics and solidarity is to give oneself the power to act for a "perfect" world in an era of disrespect for man and planet. Cheliel is a drop of water in this optimistic momentum."
Angélique Marguerite Berthe Diène
T-shirts from the "La Nwarette" collection by Cheliel EBONY ISSUE | 113
All that earned her, among other things:
She was a member of the executive board and responsible for socio-cultural issues at the executive bureau of Regroupement géneral des Sénégalais du Canada, the Canadian Senegal Month’s organization committee – 2022 edition, and Montréal Great Bal with Youssou N’dour. She collaborates or has collaborated as a blogger on several local publications and even international ones – and you are only on the first page.
to be nominated amongst the 100 entrepreneur women who change the world thanks to Envol’s (previously Femmessor) "La force de l’impact” campaign, presented by the Royal Bank of Canada and in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, the Canadian government, TVA Publications, Coup de Pouce, Janie Duquette and Lazuli Marketing. to be a finalist at the Grands Prix de la Relève d'Affaires of the Regroupement des jeunes chambres de commerce du Québec, in the category: Leadership au féminin to receive the Africa 35-35 Award (previously Francophone Youth Price 35.35) – Category: Blog and innovation media for R Magazine with Stefdekarda
photo: Claude Frenette
photo: Africa Mondo
to be nominated as double receptor for Africa Mondo’s 2019 “Black inspiring women” Award in the “Personality” and “Initiative” categories for R Magazine with Stefdekarda.
During an interview at the award ceremony, she talks about the significance she sees in promoting natural aspects of African women and being proud of one’s skin or hair color. She encourages women to highlight themselves, to see their commitment to what they do as something important.
photo: Kurious Photography
Let’s come back to R Magazine, which will blow its ten candles next year, and which was born from a need to recognize and share one’s talent in order to open a path towards the whole world. Concerning her implication, Angélique directs emails, messages, and conversations from diverse magazine collaborators. She integrates the tens of interns who join R Magazine, supports them. She generates ideas, but also knows how to delegate. She is the true leader of the group; she encourages people to put their projects forward, to fulfill them and to respect timetables. She directs, revises, formats and is part of the executive board. The magazine’s success relies on her vision of integrity, inclusion and equality. All that while smiling. All in all, she never stops. It is hard to imagine her days only have twenty-four hours. Thank you Angélique and here’s to a successful continuation!
photo: Isabelle Hamel Blouin
photo: Cheliel
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s s e r p x e o t s t y r a a w h g r e u Oth rself thro ou
Paris unveils Solitude photo: Mairie de Paris
An emblematic figure of the fight against slavery by Didier Audrat Par Laura Bonnieu
Solitude, the work of artist Didier Audrat, feminine emblem of the fight against slavery, finds its representation since May 10th, 2022, in a Parisian public garden of the 17th arrondissement. This is the first sculpture of a Black woman in the French capital.
Since May 10th, 2022, national day for the remembrance of slavery and its abolition, a heroin took her place in the heart of the 17th arrondissement in Paris, France. Solitude, as she is named, was fashioned in bronze and is the work of artist Didier Audrat. Today, it decorates the park, its namesake since 2020. It is also the first statue of the city that depicts a Black woman.
You can see the young woman’s silhouette, wind in her hair, a hand on her round, pregnant belly, and holding with the other the proclamation “Le dernier cri de l’innocence et du désespoir” (“The Last Cry of Innocence and Despair”) by Louis Delgrès, a man she fought alongside with. This text calls to fight against the reestablishment of slavery in Guadalupe. Through this exposition, the capital wishes to pay a public tribute to Solitude, symbol of the defense of the values upheld by France: liberty, equality, and fraternity.
photo: Langladure
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Solitude’s story is one of broken destiny. She is the daughter of an African slave, raped by a sailor onboard a ship that was transporting her to the Antilles. At her birth in 1780, she was separated from her mother to become a slave, and was then called a mulâtresse, a pejorative term for mixed-race people.
On the first abolition of slavery in 1794, Solitude joins a group of slaves and finds a community there, a family where she feels well and free. In 1802, Napoléon Bonaparte’s French troops arrive on the shores of Guadalupe to reestablish slavery. Some officers call for resistance. Pregnant since several months, Solitude takes up arms and fights body and soul against this law.
“The actions that we make must make sense in relation to those that we want to honor, but also to the future.” Anne Hidalgo
photo: Mairie de Paris EBONY ISSUE | 119
photo: Mairie de Paris
After their defeat, she was a prisoner of the Napoleonic troops for acts of treason. Because of her pregnancy, she escaped the death sentence. In the end, the young woman was hanged on November 29th, 1802, the day after she gave birth. The abolition of slavery was only decreed in 1848 in France, and the story of Solitude and of her comrades was told and written by André Schwarz-Bart in 1972 based on historic elements. As for Didier Audrat, he wished to illustrate her story and make her portrait through this public sculpture.
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, declared during its inauguration: “The actions that we make must make sense in relation to those that we want to honor, but also to the future.” For her, this statue in the Parisian city is “an act of reparation towards the descendants of slavery.” Jean-Marc Ayrault, ex-Prime Minister and president of the Foundation for the Remembrance of Slavery, has stated himself that “today, it is not the abstract idea that is depicted; it is a woman whose name and destiny we know; a woman and a mother, a Guadalupian and a French woman; a rebel and a citizen, at a time when power had stopped believing in freedom.”
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KARINE RICARD
photo: Wesley French
CHARTING THE COURSE TO SUCCESS by Adrienne Sauriol Karine Ricard is what you might call a pioneer. In order to make a living from her work, she had to move abroad, but she never regretted it.
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Running a francophone theatre in Toronto is a challenge in itself. How to describe what a woman coming from a minority, who runs Toronto’s francophone theatre during a pandemic, has done? A prowess. It is exactly what Karine Ricard did when she became the first Black woman to run a francophone theatre outside of Québec: the Théâtre Français de Toronto (TFT). She kindly gave us an interview. What you should know is that the Théâtre Français de Toronto, which was created over 50 years ago, has no fixed address. For over twenty years now, the direction has been looking for a permanent place to stay. When they decide to stage a show, they rent a room in one of the city’s other theatres. The TFT came together with two other troupes, the Obsidian Theatre Company and the Theatre Gargantua, in order to try and find a buildable site. Toronto being a city where land is quite expensive and where overbidding reigns, they associate themselves with a property developer who must file a motion and hope to be selected by the city. Each time they endure a refusal, everything must be done again from scratch, with another developer or the same one. Recognizing the relevance of culture as a touristic development tool doesn’t seem to be totally taken into consideration by the queen city’s administrators who run the files.
Let’s come back to Karine Ricard and her journey. Coming from Montreal, Karine Ricard has known ever since she was a child that she wanted to become a comedian. Trained by Cegep de SainteHyacinthe’s theater school, she herself says that “it’s not because I saw lots of Black people on Quebec TV or in theater. Back in the time, there was only Normand Brathwaite in Peau de Banane and Doualé in Passe-Partout. I also watched TV in English and there was The Cosby Show and Sesame Street. I thought that I would have to work in both languages.” As she graduates, she notices that Quebec theatre is not yet open enough to diversity. If someone was looking for a Black comedian, it would often be associated to other criteria that she did not fit into. Nonetheless, she finds it interesting to have been able to play with the Ondinnok troupe, an indigenous troupe open to diversity. Since you are your own best advocate, she starts self-managed theatre. She works with new theatrical companies and young comedians. She therefore presents a cabaret called “Les Effeuilleuses” at the Lion d’Or and in the Casino de Montréal. She produces, among others, “Adieu Beauté,” written by François Archambault and joins the “Alliance théâtrale haïtienne de Montréal,” where she will write and stage many shows. She confides that “it was essential to make any sort of projects back in that time in order to get credits from the UDA (Union des Artistes). It was important to write, to make a bit of everything, that way I could make theatre.”
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photo: Chippewa Legend
"WE NEED TO ENCOURAGE YOUNG AUTHORS TO BE ABLE TO KEEP THEM HERE"
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Right when making a living out of her own art in Montréal is seeming really difficult to her, a Vietnamese friend, who also happens to be a comedian, tells her about Toronto and convinces her to go there and take her chance. That is how she moves there in 2004 and uncovers new opportunities: was it postsynchronization, off-camera voices, advert shootings in both languages, French Ontarian TV (TFO) and of course anglophone theatres in Toronto.
photo: Joseph R Adam
She played, among others, in TFT, as well as in youth series Moitié moitié, by TFO. She nevertheless did not stop there, as she was watched over the small screen in anglophone and francophone shows. She tells us that she “got there, it was a good moment in my life and career. The future of the Théâtre Français de Toronto allowed me to have an artistic vision, to be stage director and to be part of the project.” She dreams of having a place to promote the francophone succession and to join young franco-Ontarians. “Every youngster who goes to a francophone school in Toronto should know there is French theatre, that it is possible,” she says. “There is space in classic and contemporary theatre as well as in creation. We must encourage young authors to keep them here,” she adds.
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Every director from every theatre could surely talk about headaches they had during these two years of pandemic, during which the public was not present. Nonetheless, if you look at TFT’s website, you will note that part of the activities run with webdiffusions. There are capsules and theatre classes for children and teenagers that appear with productions. “We cannot ignore the presence of technology in youngsters’ lives. To keep the younger public during the pandemic, the two comedians who ran the course produced video capsules,” she tells us. In-person workshops are however back in TFT’s studios, and that is for everyone to enjoy. Adults are not left aside thanks to the diffusion of the project “Les liaisons dangereuses” with new staging, written by Sebastien Bertrand and directed by Karine Ricard, which will be available on their website in June.
She keeps widening her network, which will eventually allow TFT to associate itself with other theatres in various projects. I asked her what her path would be if she was twenty today. To this she answered: “There is improvement in Quebec, we see a bit more diversity. I would write more, because there is space for these stories seen from the outside.” According to her, we must not only hire actors or comedians coming from minorities, but also tell their stories. She gives Kim’s Convenience for an example that tells the challenges and successes of a Korean family living in Toronto. Let’s say she has a lot of work to do, and that the francophone community in Toronto can rejoice of having such an ambassador as Karine Ricard to take good care of its culture and its future. Thank you, Karine Ricard, for this interview punctuated with spontaneous laughter stamped with generosity. Looking forward to coming to one of TFT’s productions.
"EVERY YOUNG PERSON WHO GOES TO A FRENCH SCHOOL IN TORONTO MUST KNOW THAT THERE IS THEATER IN FRENCH, THAT IT IS POSSIBLE.
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Isadora Ayesha Illustrations to honor black personalities
She is a young Canadian artist who uses her illustrations to pay tribute to Black personalities. Through her art, she expresses her emotions; through her colors, she shows her environment.
photo: Isadora Ayesha EBONY ISSUE | 126
Born in Montreal to BrazilianQuebecois parents, Isadora is an artist who dabbles in many mediums in order to share her art as much as possible. Her inspiration remains mainly pictorial art, as we can see on her Instagram account: @isadorayesha. With a colorful Andy Warhol style, Isadora criticizes the status quo and social problems. To allow a successful criticism, she must associate her themes with her art and that's how she approaches religion, esotericism, sexuality, partying... In short, important topics.
The young artist supports several projects and causes, so she can make diverse art that reaches a wider audience. Among these projects, there is the one of GRISQuébec in association with the "Loud and Proud QC" initiative on Black History Month. It highlights the experiences of people of African descent (see GRIS-Québec) and honors the existence of eight Black women from the LGBTQIA2+ community. For this project, Isadora Ayesha offers for sale the portraits she has created of these eight women. Among them, Alice Nkom, Angela Davis, Josephine Baker; and the particularity of these portraits is mainly their resemblance to religious icons, perhaps to sacralise them and give these women a superhuman side.
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Art is the meaning of her life. A School of Design graduate, the illustrator created an artwork and a produce bag in the context of the lockdown in England after Bombay Sapphire (a British Gin brand) partnered with the Design Museum Isadora is also featured in works such as the mural done in collaboration with LNDMRK, visible on the fifth floor of Place Montreal Trust, in support of Pride Month. Ivanhoe Cambridge asked the young artist to create this mural to represent love, inclusion, and positivity. On this mural, Isadora refers to the utopia of video games thanks to the chosen colors, shapes, and characters. There are details such as the caterpillar that will become a butterfly on the left side of the mural, symbol of the coming-out: becoming oneself.
photo: design.uqam.ca
photo: GRIS-Quebec
Her Instagram, which is very representative of her, is also fun to look at, as everything fits together. The colors diverge, the arts change. Isadora plays with photography, mythology, and positive affirmations with the goal of creating a space of trust in which each visitor will feel comfortable and be themselves.
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Les poupées
K
A company aiming for diversity awareness by Elisa Colin
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Les poupées K (K-Dolls) is a Francebased company that uses biological materials, which is the dream of all young and older people. The main values that describe the activity of this company are generosity, exchange, and diversity. This idea came from the two sisters Naomi and Vanessa, who had both gifted to a young girl a black rag doll. As they had not found any dolls that matched their desires, they decided to bring them to the market themselves.
The idea behind these creations is to raise awareness on diversity to create the adults of the future, by developing curiosity, a better understanding of differences, and thus to promote diversity. To start with, the creators had decided to call for donations on a financing platform called Kiss Kiss Bank Bank, that allows young entrepreneurs to collect the money needed to launch their activity. They succeeded to start their project with 158 contributions and collected around 8600 euros, supported by Les Petites Frenchies, which promoted their trendy idea. To advocate for the acceptance of all, as well as a real "made in France," these fabric dolls are hand-embroidered, which gives them all their uniqueness. Thanks to hypoallergenic organic cotton, they respect the environment, especially that of children. However, the company does not stop only at the manufacturing of rag dolls. On their shop, you can find outfits for toys as well as t-shirts or tote bags bearing the image of the brand.
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With such a diverse choice of dolls and other related products, this brand has everything needed to be part of the new trends and part of your children’s room. While Naomi takes care of making the K dolls, Vanessa is responsible for the communication and the visual universe. But very often, they share the tasks and do certain details together such as styling and outfits… There are many good points to this adventure – between representation and diversity, we also find male babies! Dolls with dark, mixed, and light skin are available in both genders to represent even more people!
What do customers think about all of this? Wouldn't that convince you? Indeed, customer feedback is important, and here it is 100% positive. It's a perfect performance for the two fusional sisters. The parents explain that their children can identify with the dolls and encourage a real diversity. The mission is therefore successful: self-confidence is boosted for little girls or boys who do not feel represented enough, and parents are amazed to see the power that a simple doll has. A varied choice of skin color, organic materials, and handmade embroidery; what are you waiting for to buy one of these dolls for your children?
Photos: Les poupEes K
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ASHLEY SIMO
Ashley Simo is a 16-year-old girl who has always had a passion for art, especially drawing. However, she started painting when she was nine years old. It was around the age of 13-14 that she decided to sell her paintings. At first, she started by reproducing works or photos taken on canvas and she now tries to create and experiment more in order to find her own artistic style.
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Work inspired by the work of artist and graphic designer Nikki Farquharson
by Angelique Marguerite Berthe Diene
Why art? What attracts you to it? How did you start painting? Just because it's part of me, I think. It's not something I decided to do one day; I've been doing it since I was a little girl. I couldn't say where it came from, it just is. What attracts me most to art is the emotions you feel when you look closely at a piece of work, and I think, deep down, I aspire to make people feel those emotions through my projects. I have also always been attracted to what’s "beautiful", be it music, dance, nature, etc. Art offers me the opportunity to experience the "beautiful" in a new way. Art offers me the possibility to create something beautiful and, again, to convey emotions. I have been painting since I was 9 years old, but I was already drawing for much longer. Then one day, driven by an impulse that was still unknown to me, I succeeded in convincing my parents to enroll me in acrylic classes at first and finishing off with oil. And since then, I have not stopped painting.
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What feelings, emotions, messages are you trying to convey through your paintings?
Do you have a meaning or a predominance of colours?
I mainly try to convey my emotions and feelings towards the model I want to paint and at the end of my work because said emotions and feelings can change. For example, if the model inspires me strength or self-confidence, I try to transcribe this through the final creation and mainly in my works because this is what I would like to personally feel in everyday life, like many people. Even though I paint a little for others, I do it more for myself, and looking at my paintings gives me a lot of confidence. When I look at them, I often imagine myself presenting myself to the world as one of these painted characters, a genuine and confident person and I hope that people feel the same way when they look at them or, at least, that they feel something.
For the moment, no! Considering that I am at the beginning of my journey as an artist, I am going at my own pace without rushing and I am not yet at the stage where I am comfortable with the idea of making my own colour combinations. I try to keep a harmonization in their use, especially as I use a multitude of colours. For the time being, I stick to the pigment combinations used in other artworks while hoping to incorporate the symbolism of the colours in my work. This would bring more depth to the meaning.
What themes do you explore? I mainly explore the themes of self-confidence, authenticity, strength, etc., but I would also like to move towards joy, hope or melancholy, for example.
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What are your influences, your inspirations?
How do you feel about being an artist at such a young age?
My main influence is the French artist Françoise Nielly. She is probably the only artist who introduced me to the style I want to move into. As soon as I started painting, I was captivated by her extremely colourful style and her atypical use of the spatula/knife instead of the brush. Later, it was really the concept of the black woman that inspired me. Now, I draw my inspiration from a combination of both: the colourful style of Françoise Nielly and the black woman.
I must admit that it is sometimes difficult to juggle my art and school because, despite my love for painting, school is still a priority for me. In the beginning, painting was a bit of a chore; I didn't want to "waste" my time instead of studying. Nowadays, combining everything has become much easier. However, art is still my passion and I love doing it, it makes me feel good. And there is also the fact that I can earn money at my young age by doing what I love to do. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and feel very lucky. Being an artist has also helped me to develop confidence in myself. It is very rewarding to see what I can do and to share it with young people my age and others around me. Apart from that, nothing is different in my life. I just do what I like in my spare time!
What is your favorite work of art and why?
My latest work always becomes my favorite! It allows me to see my improvements and gives me a sense of pride. So, at the time of this interview, my favorite is “Fearless”. I really feel the bravery and authenticity without worrying about the outside opinion. Every time I see it, I'm glad I was able to convey those emotions. I also like the personal touches I added, such as areas painted in gold which, to me, represent her true self that she is no longer afraid to show as well as the blue halo in which I added glitter glue which, again, was meant to highlight the fact that she is no longer afraid to shine. I think this last piece really speaks to me.
That is not in my plans! I want to continue to paint and experience the opportunities that come with it but making art my profession has never been on my mind. Besides, I have other interests that could become a profession. But it is certain that if I happen to be recognized for my art, I will be deeply happy and grateful.
Do you want to do this for a living?
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« J'AIMERAIS EXPOSER ET VENDRE DANS UN CONTEXTE PROFESSIONNEL. »
IN SEARCH OF ...
What does your workplace - your workshop - look like? I paint in our basement (renovated, of course), right next to my room. The space isn't huge, but it's more than enough for me. A small window gives me light right at the back of the chair, and I add my LED lamp for a semblance of natural light.
How has your practice evolved over time? I started by reproducing works that I found interesting on the internet. I worked mainly with a brush and then, over the years, I moved to the spatula, which became my main tool. I did this during my painting classes. It was afterwards that I moved towards producing more original work based on photographs and other works that inspire me. I have not yet developed my own artistic style. Nevertheless, I consider myself to be at the beginning of my journey despite my progress to date.
What would be the most memorable / encouraging response to your work? It's hard to choose just one as I'm already receiving feedback on my work, all of which is very encouraging. Just the chance to be contacted by R Magazine is exceptional for me and I am sincerely grateful. However, if there is one feedback that would be unforgettable for me, it would be an offer to exhibit one or several of my works. To exhibit and sell my paintings in a professional context would be an incredible opportunity for me. However, I would first have to orient myself towards a style of my own. And that remains my priority now.
"I WOULD FIRST HAVE TO ORIENT MYSELF TOWARDS A STYLE OF MY OWN. AND THAT REMAINS MY CURRENT PRIORITY."
Have you ever tried your hand at graffiti? If you were to be one, what street name would you have and how would you go about getting seen? No! I don't know much about graffiti. I didn't even know what a street name was, so I wouldn't know how to do it at all. I used to like to draw letters in graffiti style. Apart from that, I don't think I'll go into it even though I think it's a beautiful art.
What do you do in your free time? Nothing special! I read, draw, paint. I also like to listen to music and watch series or films.
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I WOULD LIKE TO CREATE MY OWN COLLECTION AND TO OFFER ONLINE PAINTING AND DRAWING WORKSHOPS TO CHILDREN DURING SCHOOL BREAKS AND SUMMER HOLIDAYS. I DID THIS ACTIVITY LAST SUMMER AND LIKE ME, THE CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS REALLY ENJOYED IT, AND SO I DEFINITELY PLAN TO DO IT AGAIN.
How do you see the future?
Any last words?
I have set myself the goal of staying more consistent and dedicated to my work this year. In terms of the long term, I would like to build something concrete that will make me proud. I really want to be able to take the opportunities that come my way so that I can grow in my art and share it with others. To be honest, I don't have a specific goal for the future. Rather, I am looking to live things out as they come while doing my best, remaining disciplined and dedicated to my art. I know that the future holds great things for me, and I just look forward to experiencing them. For now, I'm proud of everything I've accomplished and all the doors that have opened since I started.
I would like to thank all the people who have supported me in one way or another and encouraged me during my early days. Seeing how impressed they can be with my work and how they push me to excel is a motivating factor, especially as I started with little confidence in my abilities. It's strange, but I think I was afraid of the success I was starting to have even though I sincerely wanted to experience it. Nevertheless, it makes me happy to see all these great things happening and to read and hear so many encouraging comments.
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NAPPY-HEADED FOR GOOD!
IRREVOCABLY
KINKY!
by Maagnyeta Kodjo
Hair is with the skin a physical marker, visually apparent, allowing the appreciation of the genetic diversity of humanity. In this series of three articles, we will focus on the most unique of all: kinky hair, which, contrary to other types of hair, defies gravity and looks towards the stars like the foliage of a tree. This series called “Kinky Hair For Good” will make you travel the tumultuous history of this type of hair. It will focus on the important place it occupies in the path towards self-acceptance and the return to one’s roots, two “heavy” civilizational tendencies which spans the Black, African and Afro-descending community. EBONY ISSUE | 139
AFRICAN AND AFRO-DESCENDING PEOPLE’S HAIR
What kinky hair means to African and Afro-descending people and its difficult recent history Melanodermic hair, also called kinky hair, has been despised, misunderstood, mocked, hidden, altered and even fought against throughout recent modern history. It has even been associated to something diabolical, because certain people saw in it a resemblance with pubic hair, considered impure by puritan Protestants. An important social indicator in African societies according to the way it was styled, worn and looked after, kinky hair was the first thing removed from enslaved Africans upon their arrival in the Americas. Systematic hair shaving was the first traumatic experience of a series of cruel and degrading treatments aiming to take away from these captured and enslaved Africans their personality, their identity and their former life. And thus cut every single link with what they once had been, to prepare them for what they were now.
After the emancipation of enslaved people, men and women – women, mostly – started reclaiming this capillary heritage that had been taken away from them in the plantations. The extraordinary hairstyles they created attracted too much attention, in such a way that laws, like the Tignon law of 1785, were implemented in the South of the United States to force Black women to cover their hair and thus deny, once again, their identity and their heritage. In the West Indies, sumptuary laws prevented non-white women to wear a hat. It pushed them to make madras hairdresses of various shapes that carried messages[i]. This was imposed on many African countries during colonization, which resulted in the creation and the wearing of magnificent and very elaborate headscarves. This law gave room to capillary racism towards kinky and frizzy hair, to discrimination towards people wearing this type of hair and to the labeling of kinky and frizzy hair as being dirty, for savages, poor people. It had to be straightened (through a heating comb or a straightener) for Black people who wanted to be considered as “civilized” or to climb the social ladder.
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THE RETURN TO GRACE OF KINKY HAIR AND THE CROWN ACT
Even if this capillary discrimination against Black people is more and more denounced, it still forces some of them to use dangerous products, carcinogenic ones or products containing endocrine disruptors to straighten their hair. They can make painful damage as well as cause chronic health problems, linked directly or not to hair care routine, among Black people: whether it be hair loss, repeated scalp burns or an increase in the predisposition to diabetes, fibromyalgia, cystitis, and heart malformations in embryos and newborns.
Other than the health dangers caused by these capillary habits, society is more and more aware about the capillary discrimination that prevents many Black people from accessing employment.
Despite the fact that American regulations as far as African hairstyles are concerned are incomplete –as four years ago, a federal court had judged it legal for employers to dismiss employees or to refuse candidates simply because they were using African and African-American techniques to style their hair[i] – mentalities and laws are changing little by little. Maybe too slowly, but still changing.
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PRIDE The CROWN Act, or Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act, was born as a bill following incidents in which, for example, children were facing disciplinary measures in schools or employees were dismissed because they were wearing Afro hairdos, dreadlocks or braids. This bill was initiated by Californian Senator Holly Mitchell and became law in 2019[i]. This law is today implemented in more than a third of American federal states. In Europe, even if there never was any legal trace of capillary discrimination of kinky and frizzy hair, this phenomenon is in fact present in society, and the efforts made to end this discrimination, although more subtle and more diffuse, start to bear fruit, especially among young generations. In Africa, where some African hairstyles, like dreadlocks, are frowned upon in the public space of many countries, mentalities are changing as well.
[1] Le cheveu crépu au fil du temps : sublimation, rejet et réhabilitation, Chef d’œuvre CAP coiffure 2019/2021, Lycée professionnel Raymond Néris, Le Marin, Martinique, p.9 https://site.ac-martinique.fr/lyc-raymondneris/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2021/06/le-projet-en-image.pdf [1] Céline Peschard, Pour lutter contre la discrimination envers les cheveux afro, des États américains s’engagent, Au Féminin, 02/07/2020 https://www.aufeminin.com/news-societe/the-crown-act-vers-la-fin-du-racisme-capillaires4014184.html [1] Ibid EBONY ISSUE | 142
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