CBS News Marks Flag Day with Report on Black National Anthem, Coverage Follows Earlier Features on Black Art and Artists
CBS Sunday Morning reports on “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” TODAY IS FLAG DAY. CBS News marked the occasion with a report about “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.” The James Weldon Johnson poem was set to music in 1899 by Johnson’s younger brother, the composer John Rosamond Johnson. Known as the Black National Anthem,...
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch: ‘Protest is the Highest Form of Patriotism, You Are Trying to Make a Country Better’
THIS IS NOT NEW, unfortunately. America has been killing black people in one form or another since the nation’s founding. From lynching to murder by police, the history is well-documented and contextualized in the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), most poignantly with the display of Emmett Till’s casket. Till was...
Lonnie G. Bunch III Officially Installed as 14th Secretary of Smithsonian Institution
IT’S OFFICIAL. Lonnie G. Bunch III was installed as the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution on Nov. 1. The ceremony was presided over by John G. Roberts Jr., chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, who serves as chancellor of the Smithsonian. Roberts presented Bunch with a ceremonial brass key, a symbolic...
Latest News in African American Art: Duro Olowu x Estée Lauder, Smithsonian Keeping Sackler Name, Maya Angelou Murals, Where Are the Critics of Color? & More
The following review presents a snapshot of the recent news in African American art and related black culture: Duro Olowu is Collaborating with Estée Lauder on a New Makeup Collection Known for his kaleidoscopic prints, British fashion designer Duro Olowu worked with Estée Lauder on a new makeup collection. “I love mixing unusual...
Lonnie Bunch is Taking Over the Smithsonian Institution. Named Secretary, He Will Lead 19 Museums and National Zoo
Smithsonian Secretary-elect Lonnie G. Bunch III THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION’S Board of Regents launched a search for a new leader in December and found the ideal candidate was already in its midst. This morning, the Smithsonian announced the election of Lonnie G. Bunch III, who will serve as the 14th Secretary. Bunch is the founding...
Commencement 2018: Glenn Ligon, Dawoud Bey, Carrie Mae Weems, and Joyce J. Scott Are Among the Artists Imparting Wisdom and Expectations on New Graduates
Glenn Ligon spoke at The New School’s 2018 commencement on May 18. A NUMBER OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS were declared doctors over the past month. Invited to participate in commencement ceremonies for undergraduate and MFA students at institutions around the country, prominent artists, critics, and curators were bestowed honorary doctorate degrees. Addressing 2018 graduates,...
Artful Wisdom: Kerry James Marshall, Claudia Rankine, Leslie King-Hammond Among Speakers at 2017 Commencements
Artist Kerry James Marshall delivers remarks at Columbia College Chicago commencement on May 14. | Video by Columbia College Chicago MORE THAN 30 YEARS AGO, when Kerry James Marshall left Los Angeles to move to New York, his friend and fellow artist Carrie Mae Weems called Dawoud Bey, who was living in the city....
President Obama Dedicates New Smithsonian African American Museum, Quotes Langston Hughes Declaring ‘I, Too, Am America’
Embed from Getty Images For while the tale of how we suffer and how we are delighted and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard – President Obama, quoting James Baldwin RINGING A HISTORIC CHURCH BELL, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama officially marked the opening...
61 Photos of Sea Island Slave Descendants Donated to Smithsonian
BANK OF AMERICA dontated 61 photos of a small community of slave descendants living on a South Carolina sea island to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) this week. According to an AP report published in the Washington Post, the photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe were taken between 1977 and...
