Screengrab courtesy of Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
BAC is back in session and on October 17th we went to see the Emory Douglas show at the New Museum. Emory Douglas was a member of the Black Panther Party and he was known as "the "revolutionary artist of the movement."
His artwork was first published in the Black Panther newspaper, which advocated programs they initiated, while discussing politics and police brutality. Douglas uses a combination of printmaking, collage and drawing techniques to create simple yet powerful statements about the events of the times. The Black Panther Party started in the 1960's during the Civil Rights Movement in response to discrimination against African Americans, Hispanics, Immigrants and Gays and Lesbians.
Some things we noticed and learned from the exhibition are:
"What caught my attention was how many Black Panther's are still incarcerated to this day, for being activists and speaking there minds. Also Douglas' images are just, BAM! There's no censorship, they're very direct." - Edwin
"It was a big surprise to learn about all the public initiatives and services the Black Panthers provided for the community. They had free transportation for the elderly and a free breakfast program for kids." - Naralyn
"A map detailing the number of Black Panther Community Centers in the United States showed the divisions within our country. The south had fewer community centers, while the west and east coasts had many." - Carlos
"The Black Panthers rallied to free B.P. prisoners and provided lawyers, who fought to make them innocent and absolve them of crimes charged against them." - Karina
"I always thought the Black Panthers were violent. I never knew they had lawyers in their group, and that they knew it was legal to carry unloaded guns to protect themselves from police brutality." - Kevin
To learn more about Emory Douglas and the Black Panthers click here: http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/415
Screengrab courtesy of Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Screenshots courtesy of Gage/Clemenceau
Two BAC participants, Eddie Paulino and Edwin Velasquez, have a great interest in pursuing a career in architecture. We are both students at In-Tech Academy 368 and are taking part in the Dreamyard BAC program. For one of our trips, our instructor decided to take us on a visit to Robert A.M Stern Architects, LLP. There we met Peter Morris Dixon, the Director of External Communications, or basically, the head of the marketing department. Dixon guided us around the firm where we saw architects working on current models. The architectural models impressed us tremendously, because of all the art and patience involved in the process. We were also able to talk with some of the architects, and they explained to us how they loved their jobs and that they had planned to work in an architecture firm since their childhood. This trip changed the way I thought about architects and architecture. Everyone always told me that architecture was all math, and thanks to technology and programming, it's still math. However, architecture isn't just math, so they were proven wrong. At Robert AM Sterns, I was able to experience that architecture is about the art of building structures, creating realities, and making an idea come to life.
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