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Inaugural Black Fine Art Month continues with Salon Talk- Oct. 10

Talk begins at 6 p.m. this Thursday at DuSable Museum of
African American History

Pigment International, the Black Art Collective continues its celebration  of Black Fine Art Month with a Salon Talk entitled Chicago Black Art Movements at the DuSable Museum of African American History, a Smithsonian affiliate, this Thursday, October 10.   The Salon Talk will be held in the Ames Auditorium from  6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m..  Panelists for the Salon Talk are Abdul Alkalimat (Gerald McWorter), OBAC Movement Founder; Arlene Crawford – AfriCOBRA curator at the DuSable Museum; and Juarez Hawkins – BSAM, YCS Teaching Artist, member Sapphire and Crystals.  The Panel will be moderated by Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti, founder and publisher Emeritus, Third World Press/Third World Press FoundationThe panel was assembled to discuss the Art Movements that originated in Chicago, and grew to receive global recognition.

Organization for Black American Culture, OBAC—pronounced obasi, is the Yoruba word for “chieftain”—and was founded in  1967 by then University of Chicago sociologist Gerald McWorter (Alkalimat), Jeff Donaldson, a teacher at Northeastern Illinois University and a PhD candidate at Northwestern, and Negro Digest editor Hoyt Fuller. The collective was built around individual workshops dedicated to visual art, music, writing, dance, and theater.

Crawford began her art career as a model in the art department at Northern Illinois University and posed for famed AfriCOBRA artist Nelson Stevens.  The Chicago-based artist is committed to community and activism. She works in a range of media including painting, assemblage and collage, drawing, graphic design, and illustration. Her work is informed by the works of AfriCOBRA artists and black classical music (jazz), as well as her own family, research, and meditation. Crawford earned her BS in education from Northern Illinois University and was the first African American to earn a MS in art education from Indiana University’s Herron School of Art.

Hawkins is an artist, Northwestern alumna and Chicago State University lecturer, and expert on the muralist movement that gained fame in the city after artist Bill Walker assembled a group of artists to create the now iconic “Wall of Respect.”

The Salon Talks are part of the continuing celebration of Black Fine Art Month. Held each October, Black Fine Art Month is a global celebration of the Black Fine Art aesthetic, an annual recognition of artists, innovators, collectors, curators and those vested in the Black Art tradition, and an opportunity to commemorate and elevate these contributions through art programming.  Black Fine Art Month is an initiative of Pigment International™.

The Black fine Art Month celebration opened with a Salon Talk in honor of the 1619 Commemoration of the arrival of the first African’s to the then British colonies in the U.S.  Participating panelist were Daniel Duster, great-grandson of journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, Christopher Reed, Professor Emeritus of History, Roosevelt UniversityClinee Hedspeth, Hedspeth Art Consulting, Artist Dao Laoye, and Ted Williams, creator of 1619:  The Journey of a People, a musical at Kennedy King College.

Each week during October,  Pigment International™ in partnership with the DuSable Museum will host a Salon Talk exploring Chicago’s unique contribution to the on-going historical narrative documented through art created by African American artists.  The Salons will be streamed live via YouTube and on social media. The celebration will be documented in Pigment Magazine, an Ozzie Award Finalist for “Best Design for New Magazine.” The next Talk will be held on Saturday, October 19 from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. on Black Art in Public Spaces.

An exhibition of the work of the Pigment Artist Collective and guest artists is on display in the Sky Light Gallery in the Harold Washington Wing of the Museum until the end of October.  Exhibition Artists:  Paul Branton, Tyler Clark, Ted Ellis, Lesley Etherly, Gerald Griffin,  Michael Gunn, Jason E. Jones, Barrett Keithley, Blake Lenoir, Angelica London, James Nelson, Raymond Thomas, Dana Todd Pope, Martha Wade, Eddie Santana White, and Dwight White, Kevin Williams.

Partners for this event include the Chicago Reader, Black Art in America, Hummingbird Press, and the Business Leadership Council.  More than 50 supporters across the country have also joined in the inaugural celebration.  For more information on Black Fine Art Month please visitwww.blackfineartmonth.com or call 773-547-0777.

About The DuSable Museum of African American History – A Smithsonian Affiliate

As the oldest independent African American History museum in the United States, the DuSable Museum is important not only to Chicago, but the nation. Our mission is to educate all people on the achievements and contributions of African Americans through our art, history and culture. Awarded Smithsonian Institution Affiliate status in 2016, the DuSable has proven not only to be inextricably woven into the cultural fabric of our great city, but also continues to stand as a global destination for tourists, educators, artists, historians and people of all cultures.

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