Barkley L. Hendricks, Lawdy Mama, 1969

Lagos Photo Festival 5th Edition ‘Staging Reality, Documenting Fiction’ October 25 - November 26, 2014

http://www.lagosphotofestival.com

Vintage Album Artwork | Hailing from Benin, D’Almeida Blucky et Les Black Santiago.

Image courtesy of Radio Diffusion.

Africain #makers #DoITYourself #Woelab #Togo #Lome

Chester Himes 29 juillet 1909 - 12 novembre 1984

RUN MAN RUN

Mbari is a visual art form practiced by the Igbo people in southeast Nigeria consisting of a sacred house constructed as apropitiatory rite.  Mbari houses of the Owerri-Igbo, which are large opened-sided square planned shelters contain many life-sized, painted figures (sculpted in mud to appease the Alusi (deity) and Ala, the earth goddess, with other deities of thunder and water).Other sculptures are of officials, craftsmen, foreigners (mainly Europeans), animals, legendary creatures and ancestors. Mbari houses take years to build and building them is regarded as sacred. A ceremony is performed within the structure for a gathering of town leaders. After the ritual is complete, going in or even looking at the Mbari house is considered taboo. The building was not maintained and decayed in the elements.

Chinua Achebe, renowned Nigerian novelist and literary theorist said, in his essay on Mbari, “Mbari was a celebration through art of the world and of life lived in it. It was performed by the community on command by its presiding deity, usually the Earth goddess, Ala, who combined two formidable roles in the Igbo pantheon as fountain of creativity in the world and custodian of the moral order in human society.

Afrakans consist integration with the spirit of the land and heavens. Symbolism and Spirituality in all aspects of life.- Khepri Neteru

Frances Bodomo | Writer/Director

Frances Bodomo is a Ghanaian filmmaker who grew up in Ghana, Norway, California, and Hong Kong before moving to New York City to study film at Columbia University (BA) and the Tisch School of the Arts (MFA). Her goal is to make conceptually strong films that bring fresh African images to the international forefront. 

Her first short film, Boneshaker (starring Oscar-nominee Quvenzhané Wallis), premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and played at over 20 film festivals including Telluride, SXSW, LA Film Fest, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Her latest short film, Afronauts (recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Production Grant & Spike Lee Fellowship), will premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. She is developing the feature version of the film. 

She was most recently accepted into the 2014 Berlin Talents program. @tobogganeer

Kerry James Marshall, Black Artist (Studio View), 2002

P A R E N T S ’   T O U C H

Stills from: Boneshaker (2013), Afronauts (2014), Toughlove (unreleased) (all directed by Frances Bodomo & shot by Joshua James Richards)

The world had to be “disenchanted” in order to be dominated.

Silvia Federici, Caliban and the Witch (via goneril-and-regan)