We’re open today from 11 AM - 7 PM
Join us offsite at MOPA @ SDMA to view the film Black is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story.
Directed by Yemi Bamiro | USA | Documentary | 98 min
Everyone knows the phrase “Black is Beautiful,” but few know of the man who helped popularize it. Little known Harlem based photographer - freedom fighter and activist - Kwame Brathwaite took 500,000 photos across his 60-year career, always devoted to celebrating the joy and beauty of African American life. This feature documentary tells the story of Kwame and the “Black is Beautiful” movement.
7PM: Film screening of Black is Beautiful (99 min)
8:40PM: Conversation (20 min) with Kwame Brathwaite Jr., moderated by Amy Crum, Associate Curator of MCASD
Kwame Brathwaite
Born in 1930s New York to Barbadian immigrants, Kwame grew up in a politically engaged family. It was the image of Emmet Till’s bloated figure in Jet Magazine, shared amongst his friends in the school cafeteria that set him on the path of photography, opening his eyes to the violence of the South and the power of photography to educate.
He formed a collective with his friends, likeminded young Black artists who were into the progressive music of the day – jazz. Together, they called themselves AJASS – the African Jazz and Art Society and Studios. They were contemporary cool kids fresh out of high school, brought together by their love of music but their relationship endured because of their shared goal of creating art for and by Black people.
The jazz nights they held in their beloved Harlem eventually attracted greats like Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Miles Davis.
Not content with conquering the New York jazz scene and reclaiming jazz for Black communities uptown, he turned his sights to Black beauty.
Kwame’s creation of the Grandassa models in 1962 - a group of young Black men and women, and their bi-annual Naturally shows in Harlem is a key beat in the film. We have access to the surviving Grandassa models who tell their story. Blackness at the time was demonized, anti-Blackness within the community was rife, and being scouted by Kwame and AJASS was an affirming and foundational moment in their lives, saving them from a life of self-hatred enforced by societal views on Blackness.
He passed away on 1st April 2023.
Kwame S. Brathwaite Jr.
Kwame S. Brathwaite, son of photographer Kwame Brathwaite, is the Director of the Kwame Brathwaite Archive, through which he manages his father’s photographic archive and collaborative projects that are concordant with the themes in his father’s work, namely activism, politics, fashion and music. Kwame Samori authored a chapter entitled
Fashion and Consciousness in the book Mod New York: Fashion takes a Trip and has lectured at numerous institutions including the Museum of the City of New York, Cal State Fullerton and Harvard Art Museum. He co-curated Celebrity and the Everyday at Philip Martin Gallery along with Jesse Williams and curated Black is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite, a touring exhibition in partnership with Aperture Foundation. The exhibit is currently on view at The Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco and will travel to the Columbia Museum of Art and the New York Historical Society this year. Kwame Samori, also a real estate professional, graduated from Amherst College in 1996 with a B.A. in Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought and an MBA from USC’s Marshall School of Business in 2018. He resides in Pasadena, CA with his wife and three children.