African American Museum in Philadelphia
















by: aampmuseums


Founded in 1976 in celebration of the nation's Bicentennial, the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) is the first institution funded and built by a major municipality to preserve, interpret and exhibit the heritage of African Americans. Throughout its evolution, the museum has objectively interpreted and presented the achievements and aspirations of African Americans from pre-colonial times to the current day.

The museum is committed to telling the story of African Americans in all its permutations: family life, the Civil Rights movement, arts and entertainment, sports, medicine, architecture, politics, religion, law and technology. The AAMP currently houses four galleries and an auditorium, each of which offer exhibitions anchored by one of our three dominant themes: the African Diaspora, the Philadelphia Story, and the Contemporary Narrative.

African American Museum is located at:
701 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106


Earthquake hits Haiti
























by: Carolyn Cole


One year after the 12 January earthquake struck Haiti, PAHO/WHO continues to support the response through initiatives aimed at rebuilding a devastated health system and improving the health of the Haitian population.

The human impact of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake had an unimaginable impact in a country marked by a high incidence of poverty. Prior to the earthquake, around 67% of the population was living on less than US$ 2 a day. An estimated 220,000 people lost their lives and over 300,000 were injured. Roughly 2.8 million people were affected and nearly 1.5 million found themselves without a home. A year later, one million people remain in temporary settlement sites throughout Port-au-Prince and other affected areas.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, a complex humanitarian response was launched to save lives and assist the affected population. Four days after the disaster, PAHO/WHO began holding daily coordinating meetings as Health Cluster lead. Hundreds of NGOs and bi-lateral agencies offered support to the Government of Haiti – pouring human and material resources into the country. Ensuring the intentions of partners were appropriately aligned with the priorities of Haiti's Ministry of Health and Population (MSPP) was a key function of the Health Cluster in the initial weeks following the earthquake. The Cluster was the sole mechanism by which priorities could be outlined with MSPP and synchronized among implementing partners.

In the months that followed the earthquake, far reaching interventions saved lives and reduced the health consequences of the disaster. Key accomplishments include:

• Rapid establishment of 17 field hospitals in the most devastated areas which provided emergency medical care to thousands of patients

• Uninterrupted management of the cold chain • Distribution of 345,000 boxes of emergency medical supplies between January and March through PROMESS, the medical warehouse managed by PAHO/WHO

• Coordination by the PAHO/WHO Health Cluster of over 400 health partners in the four months following the earthquake

• Implementation of the first phase of the PAHO/ WHO, UNICEF and MSPP's post-disaster vaccination program, resulting in the delivery of over 900,000 vaccine doses to the most vulnerable children and adults

• Establishment of three distinct disease surveillance systems to track illness, share information, and alert personnel to emergency situations

• Comprehensive mapping of all health facilities in Haiti, providing the foundation for a referral system

• Coordination of the response to the cholera outbreak, and support to CTCs (Cholera Treatment Centers) and CTUs (Cholera Treatment Units)

• Provision of essential medicines and medical equipment for the treatment of cholera patients

• Organization and management of teams to investigate and control cholera outbreaks in all 10 Departments

Relief and early recovery actions have been complicated by severe weather, a cholera epidemic, and civil unrest. As efforts continue in 2011, PAHO/WHO remains committed to ensuring greater access to health care for the Haitian population and building a decentralized system for health service delivery.


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The History of African-American Art, A Look Back in Black





















by: Celin Childs


There was a point in history when the African artisans were enlightening the world. They were teaching the Greeks and Romans and building an art history to pass on to the generations to come. However, these great builders, sculptors, and creators were taken from their homeland and forced to be slaves in America. Their wonderful artifacts and works were stolen, destroyed, or lost upon their journey, leaving an open space in African history. Africa had been losing its cultural heritage to looters and dealers. As a result, African traditional and sacred objects have vanished completely from the continent, ending up in museums, universities, or private collections outside the continent. (National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com)

Generations to come had no recollection of their lost past only giving them the strength to build a new history. African-Americans have been struggling for over 100 years to rebuild and prove their artistic abilities that were lost during slavery. They are continuously fighting back to build a new future, one with history, culture, and power for their new world.

Lost but not hopeless, African-Americans have been able to prove their artistic ability after the end of slavery. This was a time when the world seemed to be moving forward and opening doors for the great African-American artists that we know of today. The hardship and pain many slaves had to endure influenced much of the early work of African-American artists.

“What does the Negro want? His answer is very simple. He wants only what all other Americans want. He wants opportunity to make real what the Declaration of Independence and Constitution and the Bill of Rights say, what the Four Freedoms establish. While he knows these ideals are open to no man completely, he wants only his equal change to obtain them.” Mary McLeod Bethune (Madyun, P.p.29).
















Noted Collector of African American Art to Present Show













By Melissa Allen



Patric McCoy will exhibit the work of many artists for ‘A Diaspora Rhythm’

As a vital piece of its annual Celebration of Black History, Elmhurst College will present an exhibition of work from the personal art collection of Patric McCoy.

McCoy’s vast collection features hundreds of works of art by contemporary African American artists. He will exhibit nearly 50 pieces in many media beginning this month–the first time any portion of his collection has been displayed for the general public.

The show, titled “A Diaspora Rhythm,” will run from January 23 – February 18 in the Founders Lounge of the College’s Frick Center, located at 190 Prospect Ave., Elmhurst (www.elmhurst.edu/campusmap). A reception will be held on Tuesday, February 1, from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. including a gallery talk given by Patric McCoy at 5:00 p.m. Both the exhibit and the reception are free and open to the public.

McCoy is a founding member and president of Diasporal Rhythms, a Chicago-based organization of collectors of contemporary works by artists of the “African Diaspora.”

“This exhibition looks at the role of the collector and the importance of his/her capacity to encourage and support the development of artists,” said Suellen Rocca, curator and director of art exhibits at Elmhurst College. “Patric McCoy and the other members of Diasporal Rhythms are truly passionate in their goal of sustaining and validating contemporary artists of African descent.”

This exhibit is one of a dozen shows that Elmhurst College will present this academic year, in three different on-campus venues. Elmhurst College takes pride in its exhibits, as well as its unparalleled collection of Chicago Imagist art on display in the A.C. Buehler Library.


For more information, visit Elmhurst.edu or call (630) 617-3390.

Elmhurst College is a leading liberal arts college located eight miles west of Chicago. The College’s mission is to prepare its students for meaningful and ethical work in a multicultural, global society. Elmhurst College fosters learning and enriches culture through innovation, scholarship and creative expression. Approximately 3,400 full- and part-time students are enrolled in its 22 undergraduate academic departments and nine graduate degree programs.


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Brooklyn Historical Society Focuses on Fort Greene, Clinton Hill












By ROCHANA RAPKINS


Walt Whitman, Spike Lee, Marianne Moore, Richard Wright and The Notorious B.I.G. may not have much in common other than the ability to capture human experience through words and images but they all spent formative years in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. “Leaves of Grass” was written at 99 Ryerson Street; “Native Son” was penned on a bench in Fort Green Park, and many scenes from “She’s Gotta Have It” were filmed in the neighborhood.

Historian Francis Morrone explores these cultural juxtapositions in the newly released “Fort Greene, Clinton Hill Neighborhood & Architectural History Guide.” Today, theBrooklyn Historical Society launches anaudio walking tour designed to be a companion to the book.

“Maybe more so than any other part of New York of that size, the neighborhood is a microcosm,” Mr. Marrone, told The Local over a cup of tea at a café in Park Slope, where he lives. “It has everything. It has rich and poor, black and white going back to the neighborhood’s very beginning –- which is highly unusual for a northern American city.”

Whether he is tracing the rise of Greek and Gothic revival villas in the early 1900s from archival materials, or exploring the many African-American artists, musicians and writers who have called the neighborhood home, Mr. Morrone is nothing if not fastidious.

“I love nailing dates and also addresses,” he said. “I love the whole process of finding where everyone lives. Sometimes I spend days just tracking down an address, and sometimes if it can’t be tracked down, I become almost suicidal.”

The densely-packed guide is not especially easy to navigate, and Mr. Morrone’s phrasing is sometimes quaint. Mansions are “splendiferous” and the seating at outdoor cafes “enhances the charm of the street.” But his latest project is also chock-full of original research and historical nuggets that paint a vivid picture of Brooklyn’s diversity and explosive growth.

He also invokes first-hand sources, including newspaper articles by Walt Whitman, who moved to a small wooden house in a working-class section of Fort Greene in 1855. In the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Whitman compared a bustling Myrtle Avenue to Manhattan’s Bowery Street and noted the “good natured brightness” of the Irishmen living in nearby shanties. “From Raymond to Fulton Street, all is the clattering din of traffic, turmoil, passage and business,” the poet wrote.

The new volume traces not just the history of the neighborhood, but also the history of the borough. City records show that in 1800, a mere 5,740 people lived in King’s county –- a quarter of them slaves. Fifty years later that number had mushroomed to 138,882. By the Civil War era, the City of Brooklyn -– now a mecca of the textile, book printing, shipping, oil refinery, and metal works industries -– was the third largest city in the United States.

“As a historian, I am fascinated by transitions,” Mr. Morrone said. “I was interested in Fort Greene particularly in the mid-sixties, when there was a lot of crime and poverty.”

A 1966 New York Times article described a frightened Marianne Moore fleeing the neighborhood that had been her home for 37 years as her building became increasingly unsafe. Yet this was hardly the first time the area had experienced a decline. In the 1930s, rows of brownstones were converted to rooming houses. A decade later, Gilded Age mansions were torn down to create housing projects that soon fell into disrepair.

“What fascinates me is all the stuff The New York Times didn’t mention,” Mr. Morrone said. “In this case, it was that at the very moment when Marianne Moore moved out Herbert Scott Harrison Gibson bought a house with his wife and began researching the history of the houses in Fort Greene. This didn’t sound like ‘Twilight of a Neighborhood.’ It sounded like people engaging the neighborhood in a new and unexpected way.”

Just two years after the article ran, New York Times dance critic Clive Barnes declared BAM “the dance center of the entire world.” Fort Greene was designated a historic district in 1978, followed by Clinton Hill in 1981.

“There is the whole story of decline and revival,” said Mr. Morrone. “Just about everything that happened to American cities in the last 200 years has happened in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. It really is the story of the American history, and not just the story of these neighborhoods.”

Morrone enjoys digging up little-known facts from what he terms “the periphery of history,” and has invoked new technologies to do so. The guide also features an audio walking tour that is scheduled to be available as a free podcast on iTunes, and on the Brooklyn Historical Society’s Web site for the Thursday launch.

He also believes that online databases have transformed the way historians conduct research of archival materials such as newspapers.

“Back in the day, you could only find a fraction of what you were looking for,” Mr. Morrone said. “You had to be dependent on what were deemed ‘key words.’ Now you can create your own key words via engines such as ProQuest. It’s revolutionary.”

“You can actually find things that before you could never find,” he said. “This is going to cause histories to be rewritten. I am absolutely besotted with newspapers.”


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A history of African-American artists
















by: Romane Bearden, Harry Brinton Henderson




A landmark work of art history: lavishly illustrated and extraordinary for its thoroughness, A History of African-American Artists -- conceived, researched, and written by the great American artist Romare Bearden with journalist Harry Henderson, who completed the work after Bearden's death in 1988 -- gives a conspectus of African-American art from the late eighteenth century to the present. It examines the lives and careers of more than fifty signal African-American artists, and the relation of their work to prevailing artistic, social, and political trends both in America and throughout the world. Beginning with a radical reevaluation of the enigma of Joshua Johnston, a late eighteenth-century portrait painter widely assumed by historians to be one of the earliest known African-American artists, Bearden and Henderson go on to examine the careers of Robert S. Duncanson, Edward M. Bannister, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Aaron Douglas, Edmonia Lewis, Jacob Lawrence, Hale A. Woodruff, Augusta Savage, Charles H. Alston, Ellis Wilson, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Horace Pippin, Alma W. Thomas, and many others. Illustrated with more than 420 black-and-white illustrations and 61 color reproductions -- including rediscovered classics, works no longer extant, and art never before seen in this country -- A History of African-American Artists is a stunning achievement.


Artist's African-American experience exhibit comes to Macon County History Museum











By KENNETH LOWE


DECATUR - Vern Taylor has lived in many American cities in his lifetime, from his birth in Virginia to his young life in Washington, D.C., his high school years in Paducah, Ky., and ultimately his career as an architectural engineer and subsequent retirement in Springfield.

In one way, that life has brought his work to Decatur, as the Macon County History Museum prepares an exhibit featuring not his architecture, but his first love: Painting.

"I tried to pick things out that would be pleasing and captivating to the eye and the mind," Taylor said of the pieces he chose for the exhibit, which opens Saturday. "I like to paint for the purpose of doing things that I think are uniquely beautiful or have inspired me, or motivated me in some particular way."

Taylor's exhibit, titled "A Lyrical Fantasy of My Personal Africa: the Serengeti; Along the Underground Railroad," features paintings and verse Taylor has been creating for years. A theme running through many of the pieces, Taylor said, is the echoing effect slavery continues to have on the African-American experience. In many ways, he said, black Americans are still climbing a mountain.

"The black story is something that we don't really discuss until it gets to be more of a problem," he said. "For many years, the problem was the fact that we were in slavery, and when the Emancipation Proclamation came, there was still slavery in freedom, because there just wasn't acceptance of blacks being equal."

Taylor described himself as somebody who has always sought some creative outlet. When not painting, he sang in his high school choir and made a career out of architecture, eventually landing with the Illinois Department of Transportation, where he designed bridges and culverts.

Growing up in a household in a neighborhood of prominent black citizens in Washington and with a father who did administrative work at a university, Taylor said he didn't really feel the effects of racial discrimination during the civil rights movement. All the same, moving to Kentucky brought with it a change in culture, he said.

"We were always aware of the differences in the treatment that went on," he said. "It was a different kind of culture. We didn't discuss a lot about racial differences, but we were always aware of the fact that we were black and there was always that divide."

Taylor's work has been displayed in other exhibits over the years, and he sells greeting cards featuring his original artwork.

Pat McDaniel, executive director at the museum, said Taylor came over to the museum the previous summer on the recommendation of a friend on the museum board, and McDaniel suggested hosting an exhibit.

"(Taylor) is a very talented individual and a brilliant artist. I think we're lucky to be able to showcase his work," he said.

McDaniel said Taylor's work represents an artist's journey from African roots to modern-day American society.

"It's an artistic journey from his vision of Africa and his forebears that came over from Africa and how they got into American society. That's what he's been trying to do: Figuring out where he fits," he said.

McDaniel said he's designed the exhibit to reflect some of Taylor's personal observations and inspirations, including quotes from Taylor alongside the pieces.

"I think artwork tells its own story, but what I try to do in my exhibits, especially when I use artists or photography, is incorporate quotes by the artist within the exhibit," McDaniel said.

klowe@herald-review.com|421-7985

IF YOU GO

WHAT: "A Lyrical Fantasy of My Personal Africa: the Serengeti; Along the Underground Railroad," an exhibit by Vern Taylor

WHERE: Macon County History Museum, 5580 North Fork Road, Decatur

WHEN: The exhibit's opening is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, followed by a 2 p.m. presentation

COST: Admission is $2.

DETAILS: Call 422-4919



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