Celebrating the ARTIST Shantell Martin at Nevahblackdown for Women’s Month and beyond!
Below the surface of Shantell Martin’s signature black and white drawings is an artists’ inquiry into the role of artist and viewer, where a work of art is more than an object of admiration disconnected from its inception. With a meditative process defined by an uninhibited flow, her compositions embody her internal state and the […]
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Celebrating The Artist Carrie Mae Weems for Women’s Month at Nevahblackdown
Considered one of the most influential contemporary American artists, Carrie Mae Weems has investigated family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems, and the consequences of power. Determined as ever to enter the picture—both literally and metaphorically—Weems has sustained an on-going dialogue within contemporary discourse for over thirty years. During this time, Carrie Mae Weems […]
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Charles White: A Retrospective — Through June 9th @ Resnick Pavilion Los Angeles LACMA
The first major 21st-century museum retrospective on this famed mid-century artist, Charles White: A Retrospective traces White’s career and impact in the cities he called home: Chicago, his birthplace; New York, where he joined social causes and gained acclaim; and Los Angeles, where he developed his mature art and became a civil rights activist. The exhibition includes […]
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Positivity and Art combined: The work of Chuck Styles
In a small suburb outside of West Philadelphia, a young artist at the age of 6 would find comfort in art while surviving the dynamics of a complex blended family, 5 compelling siblings, and eroding house conditions. Styles was no stranger to poverty and struggle growing up. His family although low on funds were full of […]
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NevahBlackDown collaborates with THE OMEGA BLACK COLLEGE TOUR
Nevah Black Down designed the T-shirts for the 2019 Omega Back College Tour. T-shirts are available: HBCU/NEVAHBLACKDOWN MERCHANDISE . For every T-shirt purchased, a portion of the purchase price is channeled back into the the program! We are honored to be a part of something as important as this endeavor! Omega BCT has become one […]
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Featured Event: Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983 SPECIAL EXHIBITION AT THE BROAD Los Angeles Mar 23, 2019 to Sep 1, 2019
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power shines a bright light on the vital contribution of Black artists made over two decades, beginning in 1963 at the height of the civil rights movement. The exhibition examines the influences, from the civil rights and Black Power movements to Minimalism and developments in abstraction, […]
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Belinda Becker: DJ, Dancer, Mom, Writer, Activist and World Changer!
When you think about world changers you might think about someone that is a house hold name. Contrary to this idea there are a plethora of World Changers doing what they love, where they are and making impact in ways that subtly move mountains within the heart! Belinda Becker is one of those people. Music […]
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Simone Leigh is Powerful Art Personified
Simone Leigh makes mixed media-sculptures and installations, as well as videos, through which she foregrounds the beauty and complexity of blackness. Claiming to “continue to revel” in her own identity as an African-American woman, she unflinchingly explores how black bodies have been discussed and displayed throughout history. Clay, in the form of terra cotta and […]
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Photographer Bruce Talamon and his book “Soul. R&B. Funk. Photographs 1972–1982” show us black love and music!
Get down with such legends as Marvin Gaye, Earth, Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, Donna Summer, the Jackson Five, Diana Ross, James Brown, and Chaka Khan in this collection of largely unseen images from the golden age of soul, R&B, and funk. This XL volume gathers all of the glamour and groove captured by photographer Bruce W. Talamon. Bruce W. Talamon saw it all during the golden age of […]
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Black Joy and Resistance – Book of Images by Adreinne Waheed
This gorgeous book of images reveals an intimate glimpse of Black Joy and how we resist. Through Waheed’s unique lens the viewer experiences Black Joy and Resistance during Dance Africa at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnival in Salvador Bahia, Afro Punk in Brooklyn, in South Africa – The Fees Must Fall Student Protest in Johannesburg, […]
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Lorraine Hansberry: Playwright, Activist, Important Civil Rights Figure
Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first drama by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. Widely acclaimed, it helped pave the way for other black playwrights. She completed only two plays in her short life but left unfinished […]
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Zanele Muholi: ‘Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness’ – Visual Activism Undaunted
Zanele Muholi was born in Durban, in 1972, and lives in Johannesburg. She co-founded the Forum for Empowerment of Women in 2002, and in 2009 founded Inkanyiso, a forum for queer and visual (activist) media. Muholi’s self-proclaimed mission is ‘to re-write a black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to […]
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Learn More about Adeyemi Michael (British-Nigerian filmmaker) & his outstanding short film aptly named “ENTITLED”
Adeyemi Michael is a Grierson and Al Jezeera New Horizon award-winning filmmaker/artist. An MA Directing graduate from the NFTS; made a Broadcast Hotshot in 2014, his breakout film Sodiq gained several accolades including premiering at Sheffield Doc Fest along with nominations from the IDA (US) to RTS (UK) awards (read more) Adeyemi Michael’s film “ENTITLED” […]
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Kimberly M Becoat has carved out an important road in the shifting landscape of Art
Kimberly M. Becoat is a contemporary mixed media artist whose work is a stylistic abstraction with a conceptual investigation of new materials and visual experiences with social commentary. She uses a variety of art materials including acrylic paint, Sumi ink, and watercolor as well as less conventional items like sand, tar paper, foil, candy wrappers, and […]
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“Becoming” by Michelle Obama –The Book and Tour Info
Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same read more Who isn’t looking forward to this event? Get more information re: presale of the book and the tour @ BECOMING MICHELLE OBAMA We […]
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Featured Book: Whitewalling: Art, Race & Protest in 3 Acts by Aruna D’Souza
In 2017, the Whitney Biennial included a painting by a white artist, Dana Schutz, of the lynched body of a young black child, Emmett Till. In 1979, anger brewed over a show at New York’s Artists Space entitled The Nigger Drawings. In 1969, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition Harlem on My Mind did not […]
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Featured Event: Barron Claiborne “ILLUMINADOS” The Luminous Black Saints — Photo Exhibition August 24th – September 9th, 2018 in New York City
The images in this exhibition comprise 33 photographs shot by Barron Claiborne in 8 x 10 Polaroid format, starting in 2001. The series includes Saints (Muurmaidens and Orisha’s) Venus Aurea (The Female Form), the Twins (Double Duplication), and Cara Negra (Black Face). This collaboration with +81 Gallery will offer Limited Edition products featuring Barron Claiborne’s […]
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Mustafa Shakir is excellent as Luke Cage’s Bushmaster and so much more!
Ok, so I am immensely inspired to write a little bit about Mustafa Shakir. He has been on my radar to share his light with you, the readers of Nevah Black Down for some time. I’ve personally known him because of the whole spoken word scene in NYC over the years. I’ve always thought he […]
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Speaking to America! Music, Image, Voice and Words
We have seen, heard and felt what has been happening in America for some time now. People are talking, crying and imagining something different. We here love when artists put themselves out there for the cause. Joey Bada$$ and Childish Gambino , like them or not, boldly reach within and take a chance on speaking their […]
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Proud To Be Black, Spoken Word by Karen Gibson Roc
I wrote this piece some years ago when I was trying to navigate the terrain of a new environment. Moving from Toronto to NYC gave me a window into things and ideas I had never been privy to. Just a border kept me disconnected with a part of myself that longed to experience both the […]
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