Brooklyn Museum: In Conversation

Last Thursday evening I attended an event at the Brooklyn Museum, In Conversation: Sanford Biggers with Marcus Samuelsson and Mos Def. Mos Def was my initial draw to the event. Not only is he a talented hip hop artist from Brooklyn, but he happens to be in one of my favorite movies (you know, the kind of favorite movie you can watch over and over and it brings comfort rather than annoyance), Brown Sugar, which is just one notch on his acting belt. To be honest, I didn't know much about the other two men beforehand, but was interested in the theme of the discussion, which was how culture and society has shaped their work.

Sanford Biggers is an artist who happens to currently have an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, Sweet Funk. Marcus Samuelsson is an award winning chef who most recently opened the restaurant Red Rooster in Harlem. The three men are well known in their fields for not only their talent, but for being a part of their communities on different levels.

Although Sanford was meant to facilitate the discussion, the conversation gradually fell into a relaxed one among friends, as the three men already know each other well. Each very different in their art form and personality, I found all to be inspiring, not without a sense of humor, and grounded. Discussion topics flowed from how their work is impacted by their roots and childhood as well as issues in society, challenges they face, particulary as black men, the message they hope to send through their work, lessons learned, and future goals. The audience was responsive and passionate. There was a high level of comfort between everyone in the room.

Cookies and peanuts were passed around throughout the evening and not until the end of the discussion did we find out that Marcus had made these specifically for this event. The peanuts, which were spiced with wasabi, were a nod to Sanford's work, where Japanese influences can often be found. The cookies were a mix of vanilla and chocolate, made to reflect how one of their goals as artists is to reach all types of people and, hopefully, bring them together over their music, art, and food.

the mexican suitcase

Currently, the International Center of Photography, in New York, is displaying The Mexican Suitcase exhibit. The exhibit contains photographs, with negatives included, of the Spanish Civil War, taken by three young photographers - Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and Chim. After the war ended in 1939, the negatives had been passed on from person to person in order to keep them protected, but then went missing for almost 70 years before turning up in Mexico in 2007.
 


According to the exhibit, these three photographers "laid the foundation for modern war photography." The photographs include shots from the battle field, images of soldiers, citizens, and political figures, and insight into how the war affected various parts of the country. The images are really fantastic; you almost feel like you were there, especially since almost all of them are candid and many capture what was going on behind the scenes. Many of these photographs had been published in national and international magazines during the war, sometimes with credit given, but many times lacking a photographer's name. Now that these negatives have been discovered, photos are matched up and credit can now be given to one of these three photographers.

One of the things I found most intriguing were the boxes of negatives themselves. Like a box of chocolates, the rolls of negatives are separated, each in their own little square, inside the box. On the inside of the lid, the photographers drew their own squares to match those holding the negatives, and hand wrote what each roll was of. The detail and time that goes into a project like that, compared to the way we quickly categorize our photographs today, is amazing. Not to mention the weight of lugging all those rolls around, rather than dumping them on your computer.

cuba

For all us Americans who have been wanting to go to Cuba and haven't found the loophole yet, although some of you have, Cuba is coming to us this Spring. A taste of this Caribbean island will visit New York through a Cuban Arts Festival called ¡Si Cuba! Dancing, music, paintings, photography, film, and more, will give New Yorkers a taste of the lively culture of Cuba, while taking a step in the right direction of forming a positive relationship between the states and the island.