Recently, the ArtCenter College of Design presented the “Kwame Brathwaite: Things Well Worth Waiting For” exhibition. The event celebrated the prolific photography of Kwame Brathwaite.
He was an artist whose astounding legacy began during the Civil Rights, Black Arts, and Black Power Movements. In fact, Brathwaite is responsible for devising the inspiring expression “Black is Beautiful!”
Kwame Brathwaite Jr., son of the elder Brathwaite, hosted the ArtCenter College event. He became involved in the art world to help his father organize and manage his archive. Brathwaite Jr. said it is an effort that has taken ten years to date.
Related Stories:
“What it’s turned into is essentially us working with the archive, showing the work, letting people experience it and really learn about him as a photographer, photojournalist, as a thinker, as a media theorist,” said Brathwaite Jr. “So, it’s really been amazing to get a chance to do that.”
Brathwaite Jr. stated his father was artistically driven by themes of equity, justice, and liberation.
He said because his father was of Bajan descent, born and raised in Brooklyn, before moving to the Bronx – the elder Brathwaite knew the world operated on a class system.
“For him experiencing segregation and things like that, he was like, ‘That’s not right. People are people, and people should be able to enjoy and be able to live the lives they want to live,”’ remembered Brathwaite Jr.
Brathwaite Jr. said this introduced his father to the idea of Pan Africanism, which fueled much of his father’s work.
Brathwaite Jr. credits his father as the photographer who captured the visual aspect of the “Black is Beautiful” movement, and it is through his father’s collective that Black folks can understand the crusade.
“For him, and one of the things we touch upon in the show is how music is a through-line to his work. It’s kind of the heart of it,” said Brathwaite.
He harkened back to the Civil Rights Movement and the musicians of the time, such as Marvin Gaye, who like his father were using their art as a form of activism.
“When you think about the music, especially at the time when he was coming up from 1966 to 2018, those musicians carried messages of equity, they carried the messages of equality – speaking out for justice,” said Brathwaite Jr
The idea of music-meets-art manifested at the exhibition with a special performance by jazz trumpeter, vocalist, songwriter, and producer Keyon Harrold.
Sadly, Kwame Brathwaite, Sr. transitioned last year in Manhattan at the age of 85.
“For me I never had to question whether or not black is beautiful, or whether people should be treated equally no matter who they are or what they bring,” said Braithwaite Jr.
He concluded, “So, for me it was a beautiful thing to watch him [Brathwaite Sr.] be passionate about his art… and uplifting people.
