Tag: bossip news for African Americans

“AIB is backing brave. Backing reckless didn’t quite work out for them” 

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Successful illustrator and long time friend of Charles Schulz was asked by Schulz to lend his name.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Singing their hit song “You Can Have Him Jolene,” Chapel Hart stole the show on a recent appearance on “America’s Got Talent.” Devynn Hart, Danica Hart and Trea Swindle (pronounced tree) recently spoke with CASSIUS about the iconic moment in the making and their journey into the world of Country music. Their appearance on “America’s Got Talent” made history.

Accounts of the moment indicate that the judges had already given out their individual golden buzzers. But the judges were blown away by Chapel Hart. They unanimously gave them a golden buzzer. Simon Cowell, known for his harshness, called the group’s performance “fantastic” and “brilliant.” He even signaled the group could be headed for a record deal.

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The good news kept flowing as the group also celebrated their album “The Girls Are Back in Town,” reaching number one on the iTunes Country charts. Named for their hometown, Hart’s Chapel, Mississippi, the trio spoke about wanting to be the representation they didn’t see growing up.

“We are here to bring people together with great music. It’s all about having a good time and good music,” Swindle told CASSIUS.

A part of CMT’s Next Women of Country class of 2021, the trio received praise from Country music greats Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton.

Parton was delighted to see the group’s take on her hit song “Jolene.”

Set in a small Mississippi town, the video for “You Can Have Him Jolene” shows Chapel Hart taking a defiant tone and casting a cheating lover aside. In some ways, the video has a similar energy to The Chicks’ (formerly known as the Dixie Chicks) “Goodbye Earl.”

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Parton has been a fan of Black artists remaking and remixing her songs, most notably Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” and Lil Nas X’s take on “Jolene.” She said she would love to see Beyonce cover “Jolene” as well. And contrary to popular belief, Black artists are simply stepping into their birthright in the Country music scene. Beginning with the banjo, an instrument with its roots in West Africa, the Black influence on the genre is undeniable.

“We want to prove to the state of Mississippi and everyone else that all things are possible. You got one life to live. Make sure when you look back, and you have no regrets,” Danica Hart told CASSIUS.

SEE ALSO:

Arena Di Verona Addresses’ Outright Racist’ Blackface Claim After Black Singer Quits Opera

‘Wouldn’t That Be Killer?’: Dolly Parton Wants Beyoncé To Cover Her 1974 Hit ‘Jolene’

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Lucas John Bellamy, whose father founded St. Paul’s Penumbra Theatre, died in Hennepin County Jail in Minneapolis last week.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office released a brief statement Sunday night, saying a 41-year-old “was found unresponsive in his cell” on Thursday afternoon. The Hennepin County Jail roster identifies him as Bellamy.

“Medical aid was rendered by staff and paramedics,” the statement said. “They continued emergency medical treatment until he was pronounced dead. The case is under investigation, therefore, no further information can be released at this time.”

His sister, Sarah Bellamy, who is now Penumbra’s president, said in a Facebook post that her brother was charming, courteous, insatiably curious, intelligent and magnetic, adding that he had been “heroic” in his efforts to overcome addiction over the past two decades.

Lucas Bellamy was arrested July 18 in Independence, Minn., on several bench warrants from other agencies and on suspicion of fleeing a police officer, fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle, receiving or concealing stolen property, and possession of a dangerous weapon (metal knuckles or a switchblade), according to Hennepin County Jail records.

He was booked and held on a number of previous charges including drug possession, driving under the influence and driving without a license.

His father, Lou Bellamy, a director, actor, producer and educator, founded Penumbra Theatre 46 years ago in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood. The theater is nationally recognized for its work with Black artists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson.

In August 2020, Penumbra Theatre announced that while it will still perform stage works it was evolving into the Penumbra Center for Racial Healing to expand its community and racial equity programs.

Efforts to reach the Bellamy family and Penumbra Theatre were unsuccessful Sunday.

According to his sister’s Facebook post, Lucas Bellamy had struggled with addiction for the past 20 years.

“And while his death at just 41 years old is tragic and far too soon, leaving us brokenhearted and bereft of his light, we also celebrate the strength he demonstrated over and over again as he tried to fight the powerful hold alcohol and then opioids had on him,” she wrote. “We bear witness to how heroically he fought those demons and even in our brokenness, we celebrate the courage and valor of a man who fought and rose so many times. We rose and fell along with him.”

She added her brother leaves behind a son, Greyson, for whom he “wanted so much to be a positive role model.”

Lucas Bellamy was an accomplished marksman who loved duck and pheasant hunting with his father and uncle, competed in downhill skiing in high school, was an avid golfer and loved cooking meals for loved ones, his sister wrote.

At the Penumbra Theatre, he performed in “Waiting in Vain,” “Sleep Deprivation Chamber,” and “Get Ready,” “where his role as a shy poindexter who turned into a suave, slick emcee won the hearts of audiences night after night.”

She said that some of her brother’s most meaningful work in his life had been to support children with special needs, “especially those whose disabilities isolated them socially.”

As a child, he had often been hospitalized because of asthma, she wrote, and the care from doctors and nurses had “instilled in him a deep commitment to charity for children’s hospitals.”

His sister wrote that a celebration of life will be held in the future and that in lieu of flowers, donations could be made in his name to Children’s Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are appreciated.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Image Courtesy Amalini De Sayrah

The political leadership of Sri Lanka has yet again demonstrated that even in the midst of the worst socio economic and political crisis the country has faced since independence, they do not wish to follow a path of  honesty and fairness to end the suffering of the people who put them in power. The leaders who were previously  acting like political foes have come together once more in solidarity to safeguard their interests and privileges, rather than working in unison in the interest of the nation. Otherwise, how could the election of a political  stooge like Ranil Wickremasinghe as President be explained? 

Just as worrying, the protestors have no unified leadership or a concrete set of demands. The groups and  individuals in such a decentralised and dispersed movement have competing interests. Historically it is hard to  find such a disunited movement achieving success in either winning their demands or being brought to power via elections. 

If we do not critically look at the issues that led Sri Lanka into this crisis situation, we cannot have any realistic  hope of coming up with credible and lasting solutions the country desperately need. We as a nation also need  to understand that the economic issues besetting us cannot be separated from the social and governance issues  that perpetuated the crisis in the first place. 

There will be no exit strategy unless we build a bridge to genuine reconciliation among the communities across  the ethnic, social and religious divide. Otherwise, we will only be moving from one crisis to another with the  country even more mired in debt. 

Hence, it is worthwhile to see how we as a country got into this mess. The 1983 pogrom was the culmination  of a series of violent riots against the Tamils. Two of the more notable ones were in 1958 and 1977 in which  hundreds of Tamils lost their lives and property. In each instance the perpetrators of the riots and their political  backers were granted impunity for their crimes by the increasingly authoritarian, corrupt and unaccountable  political elite who used the poor as scapegoats for their felonies. 

Prior to the July 83 riot was the brutal August 77 riot, just a month after the UNP regime was elected in a  ‘landslide’ victory with only 51 per cent of the vote. Many Tamils voted for the UNP, especially in the South.  Mr. A. Amirthalingam became the Leader of the Opposition as TULF won the second largest number of seats  in the parliament. Although the TULF had a solid mandate from the people of the north and east for the  formation of a separate state, Amirthalingam was prepared for a negotiated settlement with the government  for the Tamil people’s quest for self-determination. However, their optimism was rewarded with a riot, which also targeted the Malaiyaha Tamil workers. Over 300 hundred Tamils were killed and thousands were forced  to flee to the north and east. How did the guardians of the law act? They set up a Commission and then nullified  its findings by the Indemnity Act of 1982, which gave anybody from Ministers down to security personnel  immunity for their actions during the disturbances! Lack of transparency and impunity was the response while  the guilty parties got off scot-free, emboldening them, even more, when it came to the 1983 riots 6 years later. 

The lessons of 1983 is very clear: a corrupt, inequitable and underdeveloped economic structure of colonial  origin is at the heart of most of the crises that have beset the nation of Sri Lanka. Attention is diverted to  various ‘scapegoats’, the system’s fundamental flaws unacknowledged, and cultural, linguistic and religious  differences take centre stage. The ruling elite, in particular the Rajapaksa clan are experts in this black art of  deception. If serious long-lasting change is to occur, then the emphasis should be on the need for radical  institutional and economic change to resolve these pressing and festering issues. That is what the protest  movement from Galle Face Greens to many other rural protest centres is demanding today. 

It is in this light we need to examine what happened during the July 1983 riots. 

The July 83 pogrom was the culmination of a series of increasing violent riots against Tamils and it was not  simply an ethnic, linguistic or religious issue. These were issues that were created for sustaining the interests  and privileges of the ruling elite since 1948 to whose hands the British colonial governance system was handed  over. You may see the prevalent system of governance still comprises the socio-economic, political and  judiciary constructs and frameworks that the colonialists used.

One of the first acts of the post-independent regime was to disenfranchise almost one million Malaiyaha Tamils (estate workers), effectively making them stateless under The Ceylon Citizen Act of 1948. The Parliamentary  Elections Act of 1949 denied them citizenship and voting rights. For the first time a Sinhala majoritarian  government took the basic human rights of the Tamil workers away. This step had limitless political  ramifications among the non-Sinhala people, and strengthened the trend towards ethnic and racialist politics. 

The bourgeois leaders made use of it not only to challenge the growing working-class influence, but also to  divert their attention away from the growing socio-economic crisis. This gave an outward expression to the  class interests of the “national” bourgeoisie. Harmonised feelings of national awakening against colonial  subjugation started unfolding with streams of discordance emanating from diverse ethno-linguistic and  religious viewpoints. 

Nevertheless, my recollections about the riots targeting Tamils take me back to 1956. The first riots targeting  Tamils were reported in Gal Oya, a new settlement in the Eastern Province with 150 reported dead. Then came  the 1958 riots that led to an estimated 300 dead, mostly Tamils. With the riots against Tamils becoming more  repetitive, the ethnic relations became increasingly inflamed. In 1963, 1977, 1981 and1983, many hundreds of  Tamils tortured and killed, thousands of their properties looted and set on fire, and many Tamil women were  raped. In each instance, the perpetrators and their political backers were granted impunity for their crimes by  the increasingly authoritarian, corrupt and unaccountable political elite, who used the poor as scapegoats for  their felonies. 

At the time of the July 1983 pogrom, I was General Secretary of the JVP. I saw firsthand the violence and  terror that were being unleashed. I was helping out our publications at ‘Shakthi’ Press at Kohilawatta, when I  noticed the people on the road and in the vicinity running away saying Tigers have attacked Colombo. I did  not have a clue as to what was going on. From the press, I proceeded to the party head office and then home  in Kadawatha. On my way, I witnessed many properties that had been already set ablaze and several mobs were attempting to set many more buildings on fire. Some groups were assaulting and torturing individuals.  Security forces on the streets did not try to prevent the violence and arson attacks. Following the riots, with a  pre-planned script, the regime proscribed the JVP, the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) and the Nava  Sama Samaja Party (NSSP). 

The 1983 pogrom was a methodical attempt by a major section of the UNP and its supporters to destroy the  economic, cultural and physical presence of Tamils in the Sinhala majority areas. In every area the attack was  carried out with precision. The attackers had been supplied in advance with the details and addresses of the  Tamils. The mobs stole the possessions, money and jewellery and burnt the houses of any Tamil they knew  of, in many cases incinerating or beating to death the inhabitants of the household. How many died and how  many fled this holocaust, the real figures we do not know. Around 150,000 fled from the South to the North  and Tamil Nadu. 

While the riots were instigated, between 300 and 400 armed Sinhala prisoners massacred 35 Tamil political  prisoners who were being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in Welikada Prison, Colombo.  Two days later on 27 July, this horror was repeated, with another 18 Tamil prisoners being butchered. The  inability or unwillingness of President Jayewardene and the UNP to forge a workable settlement for the  National Question, mainly due to his eccentric views on the power balance during the peak of the cold war  between the West and the East, brought India to the centre of the crisis. 

On news media, several leaders of the JVP, including myself, were named as ‘wanted’ as the masterminds  behind the riots. In early August, I was detained under Emergency Regulations based on an order made by the  Colonel C A Dharmapala, the then Secretary to the Ministry of Defence. After thoroughly searching my house,  the security forces took into custody a copy of the Constitution of Sri Lanka, several magazines on foreign  trade and philosophy, and an audio cassette of Sangeetha Visharada Nanda Malini’s lullabies. I was held  incommunicado at the fourth floor of the CID in the New Secretariat Building in Colombo.

It is claimed that the catalyst of July 1983 pogrom was the ambush of a patrol of Sinhalese troops by the LTTE,  resulting in the death of 13 soldiers. The army retaliated by killing around sixty civilians of which nobody  talks about. It was never investigated. The dead bodies of the Sinhalese soldiers were publicly displayed in  Colombo that initiated rioting. The next day, the guardian angels of the law were strangely absent while armed  mobs, equipped with voting lists, were ferried frequently by government lorries. They went systematically to  the households and shops of Tamils in Colombo. 

I resigned in 1984 from the JVP due to the reversal of their policy on the National Question in July 1983. Until  then, the JVP opposed autocratic separation or centralisation as a solution to the national problem. Our solution  was based on establishing a constitutional, judicial and political framework that ensure equality, fairness,  justice and dignity of everyone resident in the country. As an individual I accept the right of Tamil people to  determine their own political destiny. However, this does not necessarily imply advocating for a separate state. 

Despite the problems I had with JVP policy and the leadership, I did not desert the party and become a turncoat.  It was my responsibility and duty to defend all that we stood for and the membership and followers. I insisted  that the CID should arrest the Ministers, Buddhist monks and others who according to the information I had,  was responsible and or led the riots. I was detained and kept incommunicado. 

Detained with me were many well-known comrades: Dr Nihal Abeysinghe, the current General Secretary of  the National People’s Power (NPP), comrade Vijitha Ranaweera, former JVP MP for Tangalle and Prof Athula  Sumathipala, whose political views I do not want to discuss here. The investigation of the CID concluded that  the JVP was not involved in the July 1983 riots. My wife, Chitra, filed an application for orders in the nature  of writs of certiorari quashing detention orders, and Habeas Corpus directing that I be produced before the  Court of Appeal. I express my gratitude to late Mr Nimal Senanayake, the then President of the Bar Association  and his team of lawyers who appeared for me pro bono. 

The unbelievably horrifying Sinhala fanaticism drew more and more Tamil youth to the LTTE. After the riots,  an amendment to the Constitution enacted in August 1983 outlawed the advocacy of separatism. As a result,  all TULF MPs were expelled from Parliament. This autocratic move of the Jayawardene regime not only  deprived Tamils of their democratic right to political representation but reinforced the views of the Tamil youth  that the only way forward was an all-out armed struggle for a separate state. 

The reaction of the government of the day was revealing. Before the pogrom, President Jayewardene, in an  interview with the Daily Telegraph, had this to say: 

“I have tried to be effective for some time but cannot. I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna  people now… Now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion.” 

At the end of the day, 2,000 to 3,000 Tamils were killed; nearly 200,000 were made refugees; and over 5,000  properties belonging to the Tamils were destroyed. 

While the memory of the riots was still raw, the government, through the Minister of State, stated that all  property affected by the pogrom would be vested in the state. In an explanatory speech, he made it known that  as the government had spent so much on reconstruction, it would be unjust to hand back the property to its  previous owners! 

Dr Rajan Hoole, in his meticulous account of who was behind the pogrom (The Arrogance of Power: Myths,  Decadence and Murder), singles out a number of UNP luminaries. Foremost amongst them was Cyril Mathew.  The trucks used to ferry the goons and the petrol used to ignite Tamil businesses came from the public  corporations under the jurisdiction of his Ministry. Others who either participated or turned a blind eye to the  use of government property and employees under their control included R. Premadasa, who was Prime Minister  at the time; he probably was not physically involved, but his power base was the lumpen elements in Pettah  and its environs. Siresena Cooray, Mayor of Colombo and a protégé of Premadasa who filled the Ceylon  Transport Board with his thugs; and while there is no direct evidence of involvement of Ranil Wickremasinghe,  then Minister of Education and Youth Affairs, his right-hand person Gonawela Sunil and members of his gang 

did participate in the riots. The result was a tragedy for the country. A bloody thirty-year civil war ensued in  which tens of thousands lost their lives.  

The lessons are stark and simple. The current crisis and the huge popular protests have made business as usual  untenable. The executive presidency that is currently reinforced with extra power needs to be abolished and  parliament needs to play the key role in safeguarding people’s sovereignty as their representative body. In  addition, all transactions of the political representatives and the bureaucracy at all levels of government need  to be made more transparent and accountable, ensure arm’s length operations, and be subject to the rule of law. 

Different wings of the government – the judiciary, executive and legislature – need to be separated, with clear  defining laws and regulations governing their behaviour. Such separation can be achieved only via adopting a  new constitution that is people-centred and would bury the unitarist state and the executive presidency with its  base – the 1978 constitution. These are the morals of Black July. Otherwise, they will yet again cover their  culpability and venality. 

The disparate protest organisations must unite, organise and civilly negotiate their demands for a better,  fairer and more inclusive and equitable Sri Lanka. It is time for us to start this monumental national  rebuilding political exercise. Otherwise, horrors of the past like the July 1983 pogrom will come back to  haunt us again. 

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

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RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

We searched the web to find some of Pittsburgh’s best job openings this week. If your company is hiring, send info including a job title, description, and salary range to jobs@pghcitypaper.com.

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Nonprofit

Development Associate. Community arts and tech space, Assemble, is seeking a full-time Development Associate. The position will be responsible for donor development, fundraising events, assisting the Marketing and Development Manager on projects, managing and recruiting development interns, and more. Salary is $34,000. Click here for more details Administrative Assistant. Nonprofit LIFE Pittsburgh, a community-based alternative to nursing home care and assisted living, is seeking a full-time Administrative Assistant. Responsibilities include coordinating and scheduling meetings, preparing correspondence and reports, general office management, and more. Click here for more details

Development Manager. Local nonprofit the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, “dedicated to promoting a deeper understanding of key contemporary international issues throughout Western Pennsylvania,” is hiring a full-time Development Manager. Responsibilities include development strategy, foundation relations and grant management, individual donor development, corporate partnerships, development operations and reporting, and more. Salary range is $45,000-50,000. Click here for more details

Grant Coordinator. Local nonprofit the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is seeking a full-time Grant Coordinator. The position will be responsible for writing grant applications and proposals, researching content for proposals, preparing reports, and more. Click here for more details

Arts + Entertainment

August Wilson Outreach and Engagement Curator. The Archives and Specials Collection at the University of Pittsburgh is hiring a full-time Outreach and Engagement Curator for the August Wilson Archive. The position will manage outreach activities, as well as the greater Pittsburgh community through programming, exhibitions, and social media initiatives that make use of the August Wilson Archive and other related African American Arts collections. Click here for more details

Teaching Artists

. East End nonprofit, the Union Project, with a mission to use the arts to bridge gaps between communities, is hiring part-time Teaching Artists for various custom ceramics group programming. The position will be responsible for teaching ceramic classes, workshops, and custom programs to students of all ages. Pays $20/hour. Click here for more details First Hand. The costume shop at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is hiring a full-time First Hand to work with the costume director and costume shop manager in carrying out the construction and upkeep of the company’s costumes. Responsibilities include ensuring costume pieces are produced to the highest level of quality, delegating tasks to part-time stitchers, assisting with the costume shop’s daily upkeep, and altering existing costumes. Salary is $36,000. Click here for more details

Program Presenter. North Side’s Carnegie Science Center is seeking Program Presenters to educate visitors on the museum’s Requin submarine, including its social and technological history. Weekday and weekend hours are required. Click here for more details

Food + Drink

Donut Fryer and Cookie Depositor. Family-owned and operated Bethel Bakery is seeking a full-time Donut Fryer and Cookie Depositor. Applicants should have a passion for baking exceptional products and basic math skills. Previous commercial baking or restaurant experience is helpful, but not required. Click here for more details Sous Chef. North Side’s Mike’s Beer Bar and the North Shore Tavern are seeking a Sous Chef for both locations near PNC Park. Responsibilities include overseeing training and hiring processes, working with the Kitchen Manager to create a weekly menu at Mike’s Beer Bar and the specials at North Shore Tavern, managing the opening and closing procedures, and more. Salary range is $43,000-51,000. Click here for more details

Server. Squirrel Hill’s Ramen Bar has an opening for a full-time or part-time Server. Responsibilities include taking and serving orders, answering questions and making recommendations, issuing bills and accepting payments, and more. Pays $15-25/hour. Click here for more details

Cook. South Side’s Ruggers Pub is seeking a part-time Cook. Responsibilities include preparing “consistent, flavorful food” in a busy pub kitchen, multi-tasking, maintaining a clean work environment, and more. Pays $15/hour, plus tips from food sales. Click here for more details

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Looking for a new job and didn’t find the perfect opening on this list? Check out last week’s job listings, with new career opportunities from CommonwealthPress, Focus on Renewal, Hidden Harbor, and more. RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Marching through downtown Boston, the hundred or so men wore the same style navy shirts, khaki pants, and baseball caps. White masks obscured their faces. But during their demonstration of intolerance on July 2, the group performed more than theatrics: Some members allegedly harmed a man named Charles Murrell, a Boston-area Black artist and activist during an alleged altercation. Murrell suffered injuries to his head and hand, but no arrests have been made yet in relation to the alleged altercation, according to multiple reports.

The march by the group Patriot Front shows even deep blue Massachusetts is not immune to such shows of hate, as incidents of hate crimes against minorities — including Asians — increase nationwide.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Massachusetts had the fourth highest rate of white supremacist propaganda dissemination nationwide in 2021, with 388 incidents of reported hate, extremism, antisemitism and terror activity. Patriot Front, posted the most amount of propaganda from 2019 to 2021. The organization was responsible for 82% of all white supremacist hate group activity nationwide last year, but has been more active in New England. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Patriot Front as an “image-obsessed organization” that focuses on theatrical rhetoric and activism” to spread their white-supremacist ideology.

Mayor Michelle Wu said that law enforcement “did not have intelligence ahead of time” to forecast this demonstration and that “investigations are still ongoing,” including looking into the identities of national Patriot Front leaders who were a part of this effort.

Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo has criticized law enforcement’s lack of prior knowledge in relation to this event, stating in an interview with WBUR that the Boston Police Department’s response to both the group’s march through Boston and the alleged assault of Murrell was “insufficient.”

Arroyo has also called for a public hearing questioning why the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, which was established in the wake of 9/11 in order to reduce crime and prevent acts of terrorism, in conjunction with the BPD has not taken a more proactive approach to stemming hate group activity.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Joseph Bonavolonta stated at a press conference held on July 5th that unless domestic hate groups explicitly indicate a plan to commit a federal crime or threaten the use of violence in further their social or political agenda, the FBI cannot legally track these organizations. Generic racist language, such as chanting at a political rally, is considered free speech and therefore protected by the Constitution.

White supremacist groups are believed to often use generic language in their communications in order to be palatable to a wider audience and recruit new members. In an article for WGBH, Boston College Professor of Philosophy and specialist on authoritarianism, Greg Fried, said that extremist groups often use mainstream language to draw in potential members. The group NSC-131, for example, distributed flyers that read “We stand for the security and prosperity of white New Englanders” at Boston’s recent St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 20, where they also held a banner that said, “Keep Boston Irish.”

The Anti-Defamation League has also recorded the Patriot Front group’s concerted efforts to avoid “using traditional or explicit white supremacist language and symbols in their propaganda,” noting that the group now opts for “more palatable red, white and blue aesthetics of ‘Patriot Nationalism’ to promote its white supremacist ideology.”

The growing presence of hate groups is not isolated to the New England area. The whole nation is seeing a rise in hate group activity in all regions and cities. The number of public propaganda displays has grown from 1,294 in 2018 to 5,680 displays in 2021. White supremacist groups used to operate on the fringes of society, but in recent years their extremist sentiments have overlapped with mainstream conservative talking points. Issues such as teaching critical race theory in schools, the increased acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community, and COVID-19 vaccines have created a space where white supremacist ideologies can exist and prosper in broad daylight.

There has been a marked increase in the presence of white supremacist groups since Donald Trump was elected into office, with the SPLC reporting that the number of white nationalist groups that exist in the country has grown 55% since 2017. The Capitol insurrection that occurred on Jan. 6 2021 has also caused an escalation of hate group activity, with 20% of the 800 people arrested in connection to the Capitol storming having been found to be affiliated with white supremacist groups.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies found that 90% of the attacks and plots that occurred in the United Stated between Jan. 1st and May 8 of 2020 were perpetuated by right-wing extremists. Violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander population has grown especially significantly in recent years due to the racist sentiments surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 1,773 hate crimes committed against Asians in 2020, a 145% increase from 2019. Anti-Semitic messaging increased by 27% nationally and anti-LGBTQ hate crimes have also been on the rise.

Mayor Wu has called on Boston to be prepared for future white supremacist demonstrations. “We will continue to work in partnership with community members as we strategize and plan and coordinate to respond to not one-off incidents, but this growing rise and trend in white supremacy and hate.”

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

We live in a world where we’re often discouraged from exploring all of our artistic sides, but those rigid confines don’t exist for visual artist and entrepreneur Tiffany LaTrice, who is the proud owner of Tila Studios, a visual arts incubator that uplifts, guides and empowers Black women in the art world.

Over the last six years, the busy activist and curator has been steadfast in her mission to remove challenging barriers that often hinder Black women from succeeding in the art space. With a focus on mentorship and equity, Tila Studios’s dynamic community-based initiatives have helped over 100 artists to showcase their work at notable institutions across the US.

In 2019, the organization launched its Garden Fellow Artist residency as a part of the Above Four Campaign, which awarded five Black female artists the opportunity to further their practice by showcasing their work at Miami’s world-renowned Art Basel. Since its inception, Tila Studios has generated over $100k in art sales for Black women in the industry.

Perhaps what’s so interesting about Tiffany’s God-given work is that she hustles around the clock to build an equitable seat at the table for Black female artists while she continues to find her very own voice as a painter, writer, and now, a soon-to-be memoirist. The Tennesee native muscled enough courage to start her own blog in September 2020 called The Yellow Book, a space where she divulges  her personal life experiences and some of the challenges she’s overcome.

MADAMENOIRE chatted with the radical art feminist about her mission to elevate the work and stories of Black women in the Fine Art industry, her rocky road to success and some of the challenges that Black women often face navigating the art world.

MN: Tila Studios has exhibited nearly 100 artists and welcomed more than 2,000 visitors to its gallery space, but your journey has been far from easy. What served as the turning point to launch Tila Studios?

When I was getting my master’s degree at Sarah Lawrence College, I was studying women’s history, and I’m a history nerd. What I wanted to find were Black women that were radical, pioneering, and artistic. I wanted to write their stories. I found this woman, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, who was born in the 1800s. She was just such a change agent committed to her art practice, and she just went against the odds. She traveled to Paris to study under the greats and had this incredible career. She did these large-scale sculptures that lived throughout the Northeast. Not much literature was written about her.

You know, people know sculptors such as Augustus Savage, but not a lot of people know about Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller… I was like, oh my god, I see myself in her. So I wrote her story. I wrote my thesis about female friendships and how they accelerate your personal creative career.  I think that was kind of like the beginning and the narrative that shaped the theory of Tila, right? Black women supporting Black women, and we’ve done it historically, too. It’s not a new concept, but it just makes it more, I guess, contemporary and accessible to the generation that we live in today. I think the second thing was that I was historically a people pleaser. I could have easily been a VP at NBC Universal, that was my track, but I said if I can make money for other people, what would it look like to make money for myself? That was a risk I was willing to take. 

MN:  So after NBC Universal, I read that you moved to a farm in Powder Springs, Georgia to become a full-time artist?

Yeah, girl. My mom was livid. One of my co-workers introduced me to her best friend, and she was having her wedding on this farm in Powder Springs and she said, ‘”If you ever need a place to retreat to create, you can use my house.’”

A year later, I just packed up a Uhaul and drove from New York to Atlanta. My test to myself was to see if I could be committed enough to my personal practice where I could see myself doing this full time. So, I took a year and a half off. No one knew I was in Atlanta. I had an upstairs studio, and I just painted. I made so much art, probably 30 or 40 pieces, and I felt so alive. I was only making like $200 a month selling prints, but I said to myself, this is awesome. This is definitely where I need to be and where I find my joy. I stayed on the farm between 2014 and 2016 and just painted for two years.

MN: When did you officially launch Tila Studios?

2016 was really when the idea started to percolate. I got a job and probably was only there for a couple of months. I was bored. Corporate life is really not for me. I need to make myself realize that sooner or later. I quit and went on a two-week sabbatical in Hawaii. When I came back, I finally sat down in  September, and I started writing my business plan. I came up with the idea of Tila. Tila was actually a derivative of my name, Tiffany LaTrice. I enrolled in a business class, this organization called C4 Atlanta. I ended up pitching my business at the end of the program. I won the pitch competition, too. I won $400. Not a lot of money, but that kind of gave me the ignition and the fire to move forward. Then, I pitched my business to the city of East Point and started doing the paperwork to actually get the business established. The mayor and the city loved my business idea so much that they said, why don’t you start looking at places to start Tila.

I searched for buildings for almost three weeks. I remember pulling up to this two-story brick house owned by a security company. This Black man who owned it said, “I’m already gonna rent it out to this video production company. They’re gonna pay me a lot of money.” I told him that’s cool, but “We should stay local. It should be black-owned. I know I have no money, but I know I can make this work.” He told me, “I like your grit and your gut. So come back and host an event here.”

I had two weeks to put on an event. I did everything myself. I didn’t even sleep. I made a Tila Instagram. I designed our logo in two seconds because I had to send it to the city of East Point to list. 

Finally, we have our open call. We have like 16 artists, and somehow we have a fucking show. I raised like $5,000 that night. I finally formed the business on January 4th, 2017, deposited that $5,000 and we were off to the races.

MN: Oh my goodness, that is incredible! It’s interesting to be having this conversation because the art world hasn’t been inclusive to women of color, or any marginalized group of color, for that matter. Black women have been innovators in the art space for centuries, but yet “only 4%” of art across museums and galleries are from Black women artists. The number is just really concerning. What are some of the biggest challenges you see Black women face in particular when they begin navigating the art world?

I think the biggest issue is that a lot of Black women artists, even me, we create from a place of resistance. Everyone is telling you not to do this, but you just have to create. A lot of your work is very personal. But the issue is that the business of art isn’t personal. A lot of times, artists make their first step into the art world very personal by sharing very structured personal narratives instead of looking at themselves within a contemporary context and alongside their peers. They struggle with finding the competence to understand that their voice matters within the history they emerge from, but also charting their own territory and standing in that truth, whether or not it’s popular at the moment. It will get the recognition that it deserves. I feel like art is emotional when you’re creating it. But when you’re about to present it, you have to take that emotion out. That’s the biggest challenge because even as I’m coaching artists, it becomes so personal, and you have to literally look at yourself as a business and your work is like a third party. It’s not a part of you anymore once you create it. You have to think of it like this. 

MN: I imagine that conversation gets even more complicated when you start helping artists negotiate pay, right?

Galleries take commission, but they’re doing so much of the upfront cost of marketing and installation. That is very cumbersome and labor-intensive. I think some people just ignore that. Sometimes you need that additional support to get you to the next level, to get you to the museum acquisitions, on the auction block or in Miami Art Basel. Sometimes you need to have that team of support to help you scale your work in that way. Sometimes you may have to take a price cut, but I always tell people that if you don’t want to incur those costs, just add an additional 30% tax on your original base fee. So, if your piece is worth $1250, add an additional 30% on that so you can keep your base and you don’t have to lose.

MN: How is Tila Studios helping Black women in the art world build equity and ownership? 

That’s a great question! We’ve always been in the legal realm. I’m not a legal expert, but we are aligned with Sammetria L. Goodson. She is a lawyer that represents artists, a lot of times pro bono. She runs Goodson Law Group. I typically have workshops with her, especially with our fellows who are interested in exploring different spaces. I always offer at least quarterly consulting with her to our community so they can ask her questions, and I’ll just pay her a flat fee. The artists don’t incur that cost. If they do sign an agreement with her, then that is their relationship. But Tila has representation on staff as well. I’m really big on that. Even when I issue an artist’s contract, I always tell them to get legal representation or have a lawyer read it. 

MN: One initiative that stuck out for me was the Above Four Campaign in 2020. Can you tell us more about the program and its significance? Are you still running the campaign currently?

COVID was a big slap in the face. We stopped it, and we pivoted to grow a different particle of our business, which is the agency program. It has been incredibly lucrative, too! We get to work with corporate clients and pipeline artists into creative paid gigs. Tila gets a 30% talent management cut for that. So, we’re sourcing the talent and sourcing artists for these large-scale installations or curatorial projects. We’ve been doing that for the past two years.

I do want to bring it back in 2023. The plan is to get the infrastructure to run the fellowship again. The Above Four campaign was raising awareness to 4% of art across museums and galleries are only for black women artists. We’re trying to say that we’re above four. There are so many of us out there doing work right now. It’s not just the greats that have passed or are deceased. There are living and working artists that are doing incredible work that haven’t gotten their shine, and our job is to elevate those stories. 

MN: I was taking a look at your Instagram and saw you raving about your time At Culture Con in Atlanta this year. 

Oh my god. It was so fun! I love connecting people with art. Imani Ellis, she’s the founder of Culture Con and the Creative Collective in NYC.

We go way back, and we both started at NBC Pages together.  We’ve always been aware of each other’s work but I always feel like collaboration happens at the right time.  Culture Con was coming to Atlanta. And we were at dinner, and she said, “Tiffany, you need to do a gallery at Culture Con.” When Imani tells you something, you just kind of got to do it. So, she introduced me to her team, we did a call for art, and we had Culture Con. It was challenging, but anything that’s challenging means it’s going to bear a lot of fruits. Our Installation turned out to be stellar! 

MN: I want to actually dive in a little bit into your artwork. I absolutely love your painting, “I fell open and released all that I carry.” It feels like an incredibly personal piece. Can you tell me about the story connected to this painting?

Yes! I’m getting back into my creative form. I think I was battling the idea of showing up as an arts administrator that I forgot my talents as well. I’m still on that journey, finding out how to best showcase my talents while still supporting artists. I will say I’m struggling with that because I feel like I’m young. I’m 33, and I’m the same age as a lot of the women that I support within my community. I really want to make sure that they feel that they’re supported and that I’m always keeping their needs in the forefront. I also feel like there’s a need for me to share my voice because I think God gave me a talent. In 2020, after raising venture capital and running our Above Four campaign, an organization reached out to me with an opportunity to do a week residency in Paris, Tennessee. I was gonna give it to my community but then, I asked if I could do it. Before you know it, I ordered canvases and paint supplies for the first time in five or six years. I drove to Paris, Tennessee. I was super tense when I got there. I put on this yellow bathing suit, and then I just got completely naked. I just photographed myself. I was like, I need to see me like I haven’t seen myself.

I don’t even know how my weight is feeling in my body. I’m heavier, but I feel beautiful. I feel free, but I don’t know where that’s coming from. I painted nine paintings in four days. I couldn’t even walk from the studio. I just labored and poured it all out, and I just wanted to see myself in the freest form. I wanted the paintings to feel raw with a lot of movement, a lot of brushstrokes. I don’t want my face to be perfect. I don’t want anything. I just wanted to capture what I felt right then. I just felt like I had released all the anxiety of me finally accepting me being an artist, me allowing myself to experience unconditional joy in the midst of chaos. I felt like that just kind of opened me up, and that opened up a portal for me to do more of the self-portrait work that I’ve completed over the last two years. I also wrote a memoir that no one knows about. But eventually, someone will.

Have you thought of a name for the memoir?

No, I haven’t, but the great thing is I’m going back to Paris. I requested another week. I’m bringing the full manuscripts, and I’m bringing the paintings I created there, and I’m just gonna sit with the work. I’m just gonna sit with it, and I’m gonna see what it tells me to do with it. A lot of people don’t know that I’m a writer. I’ve always been a writer. I started a blog last September, where I write these kind of poetic think pieces and essays about my observations of life. It’s called The Yellow Journal.

The last post you wrote about surrendering and allowing yourself to be vulnerable really hit home. It just feels like it’s so hard to do with all the chaos in the world, especially in this digital age. 

I totally live a very analogue life, and I just feel like whoever reads it, reads it. Like when I wrote that piece, I didn’t want to write it, but that’s how I knew I should write it. A lot of the times I write to allow myself to move on. I’m on that journey.

How is your role with NAAM going? 

Oh my god, it’s so much fun. I think my long-term goal is to influence art policy, like really shift policy and create more equity in how funds and philanthropy are invested into the Black art space. I see a lot of disparities with that. I think my museum work and being under the divisionary CEO, I’m working on a $160 million capital campaign with them. I’m connected to the Smithsonian Institution and the African American Association of Museums. I am getting to see what it means to build something beyond the grassroots level and on the institutional level. I get to see what it means to build a world-class institution. That is exciting because I think it also helps me dream bigger and get out of my way. It’s hard work. I probably don’t sleep, but I’m having a great time. 

I’m interested to know about the art collection world. Are you starting to see more women of color step into that role? Is it difficult for them to break into the art collection world on the buying end?

Great question! I think it’s more accessible now. Over the last three years, a lot of people have been collecting in the digital space. Now, you don’t have to travel or be invited to the private opening. Now, the whole exhibition is right at your fingertips. We had a whole Black movement in 2020, and that just was a catalyst even for Black women artists. I just love seeing Black women artists getting their shine and Black woman cultural workers getting their shine and resisting institutional spaces as well. They’re owning their power and creating their own space. I see Black women collectors coming in and supporting other Black women as well. So, I feel like we’re all tapping in on this Above Four movement subconsciously or consciously and elevating ourselves collectively. 

I’m a big collector as well! I have like a Tiffany Alfonseca piece that I’m super proud of. I’ve collected just about everyone from my community. I’m actually running out of wall space in my house. But I always educate and empower others to collect too. I honestly, it’s about taking a bet on someone you know, like how beautiful it is to take a bet on someone and buy a piece for $1250, and then that appraises for $5,000 or $10,000 later, you know? It’s such a great feeling. I just feel like it’s all about your relationships and how you show support. If you give it value, other people will give it value. So why not bet on someone that you believe in?

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