My next exhibition - Kindred Cool opening August 3

Save the date!

Kindred Cool
Portraits inspired by the jazz friendship of Ralph Ellison, Albert Murray and Romare Bearden

Photography by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn

Opening Reception: August 3, 2008
Exhibition Dates: August 3 - September 14, 2008

The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts
Foyer Gallery
80 Hanson Place
(at South Portland Avenue, around the corner from Brooklyn Academy of Music)
Brooklyn, New York 11217

2, 3, 4, B, Q, D, N, R, M trains to Atlantic Avenue
C train to Lafayette Avenue
G train to Fulton Street
Buses B25, B26, B52, B38

www.MoCADA.org

The Kindred Cool exhibition seeks to pays homage to the jazz friendship of Romare Bearden, Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray. Each photograph is composed of three individuals, trios, who are bonded by jazz.

The subjects of Kindred Cool are a motley crew of jazz educators, vocal and instrumental musicians, visual artists, journalists, publicists, band leaders and institution heads. Some participants to be photographed for the Kindred Cool exhibition are drummer, Jason Marsalis; MC and producer, Ladybug Mecca; trombonist, Dick Griffin; professor and historian, Robin Kelley; producer and musician, DJ Spooky; pianist, Vijay Iyer; vocalist and actress, Rhonda Ross; writer and musician, Greg Tate; musician, Brian Jackson; professor Farah Jasmine Griffin; photographer Gerald Cyrus; percussionist, Will Calhoun; pianist, Geri Allen, among many constituents of the 'jazz society.'

The Kindred Cool exhibition is inspired by the friendship of three of America's most prolific culture shapers: Ralph Ellison, Albert Murray and painter Romare Bearden. Individually, these three intellectuals have influenced the zeitgeist of their respected disciplines - visual art, literary fiction and the art of the essay. Their major bond was American classical music: jazz. Bearden, Ellison and Murray were certified jazzmen, riffing off one another's ideas of Americaness, Blackness and what constitutes quality writing. The values associated with jazz were manifested in their art, philosophy and modus operandi. Bearden's affinity for the music was internalized and manifested through masterfully crafted paintings and collages. The cadence of Ellison's and Murray's sentences loudly echoes the sensibilities of thoughtfully arranged chords. Bearden, Ellison and Murray possessed an important friendship that was well documented in scholarly writings, essay collections and witnessed throughout fine art circles.