Tales from The b.a.SKET: Black Art Sketches for the Contemporary Art Lover
By D. Amari Jackson
This week, we reach into the b.a.SKET and pull out a poetic tribute to our African-inspired practice of moving forward while looking back…
Chicago-based artist, Najjar Abdul-Musawwir, knows a thing or two about history. A longtime globetrotter who has travelled throughout the United States, Africa, Asia and Europe, Abdul-Musawwir is an Associate Professor of studio arts and art history in the School of Art and Design and Africana Studies at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
Given his wealth of experience in the areas of art, design, history, and the African Diaspora, the talented artist also knows a thing or two about African images and symbols, their meanings, and their important role in our culture, both historically and over time. With his linocut triptych, The Sound of Black History, Abdul-Musawwir effectively looks back to depict the rich sonics of our African past and remind us of who we are before moving us forward in cultural harmony.
—————
If you listen for the wind
whispering through the trees
on a crisp fall day
as reddish-brown leaves
on skyward stretched branches
dance about the breeze
rustling, speaking
you can almost hear them
the sounds of yesterday
familiar as the soothing voice
of an old friend
If you tilt your head skyward
and open your mind’s eye
to the still, starry black of night
that neither begins nor ends
you can almost see them
in youthful images
animated
breathing life
acting out amongst the stars
If you release from the present
and reach to the past
caressing your memory
touching your youth
you can almost feel them
their lively presence
their affectionate embrace
warming our journey
paving the way
If you speak their names
and travel full circle
ending at start
stopping at go
you can almost be them
Straddling the Sankofa
moving forward
yet looking back
while whispering clearly
through the wind.
—D. Amari Jackson,
Straddling the Sankofa
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Amari Jackson is a creator, author, TV/web/film producer, and award-winning journalist. He is author of the 2011 novel, The Savion Sequence; creator/writer/coproducer of the 2012-2014 web series The Book Look; writer/coproducer of the 2016 film Edge of the Pier; and current writer/coproducer of Listen Up! on HBCU GO/Roku TV. He is a former Chief of Staff for a NJ State Senator; a former VP of Communications & Development for the Jamestown Project at Harvard University; and a recipient of several writing fellowships including the George Washington Williams Fellowship from the Independent Press Association. An active ghost writer, song writer, martial artist, and journalist, his writings have appeared in a wide variety of national and regional publications.
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