Time to chunk a deuce to 2011! There is much to make note of as I survey the last couple months of the year, they have been full of media and art in the most beautiful of ways…
To begin, I’ve been a guest commentator on The Spin, an all women’s panel on WBAI 99.5FM’s Wake Up Call. In my most recent appearance I was invited to participate in an hour long special covering everything from a recently released study about our current incarceration rates to language and power in the global Black community. It was my privilege to join Esther Armah (program host and playwright), Joan Morgan (author of When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost) and April Silver (media maven and PR guru who runs Akila Worksongs) in a really fascinating discussion.
In addition to the above topics, we also talked about our picks for news highlights from the year. As Esther generously tweeted: “What’s your story of 2011? On this am’s All Women Media Panel, the brilliant Shani Jamila picked Time magazine’s ‘Protester as Person of the Year’ article which celebrated the global social protest movements from Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Occupy Wall Street and the resurrection of people power with social media as a powerful tool to bring images & stories & to make citizen journalists into storytellers. What a year? Check out Shani’s choice on this am’s The Spin.”
If you have the chance to listen I think you’d enjoy. Here is the link (the panel begins after the headlines, approximately ten minutes in).
In other news, earlier this month I headed down to Miami to check out Art Basel– one of the most amazing gathering of art, artists, collectors and gallerists I have ever participated in. For several days large swaths of the city are inundated with visual and performative displays from some of the art world’s most talented. I’ve posted a few pics from our time down there below:
Miami Beach
Manolo Valdes
In front of Faith Ringgold's quilt
Kito Mbiango
Natalie Hopkinson, Adrian Loving, guest, Jamil Hamilton
Takashi Iwasaki
Max Weidemann
Jason Green, guest, Duhirwe Rushemeze, Brandon Coley Cox
Joyce J Scott
Renee Cox, Charlotte Mouquin + guests
Shani Jamila & Danny Simmons
For many years I danced and did performance art in Washington DC with a powerful group of sisters, in celebration of the lives and beauty of Fela Kuti’s wives… This was well before the Broadway play, which I loved. Artist Holly Bass and I revisited that aesthetic a bit during our time at Basel this year…
Shani Jamila + Holly Bass
Lastly, in November I was part of a group of quilters who displayed and discussed our work at the Dwyer Cultural Center in Harlem. We’d all had the good fortune to participate in a workshop series by master artist Dindga McCannon, a Harlem based fabric artist who is also an extremely generous and gifted teacher. A full house came out to view the work and listen to the stories that emerged from our time together. A picture of the group is below:
Display and Discussion at the Dwyer with Dindga
Alright lovelies, thank you for walking this road with me. I do wish you all the best for this upcoming year. Light!