There have been many engaging features highlighting visual artists: Tish Murtha. Perhaps the film medium particularly shines when displaying remarkably striking photographs. Today comes a new exceptional case, by filmmaker Yemi Bamiro, documenting the remarkable career of Kwame Brathwaite—a creative force, performer and social justice champion who embodied a unique cultural-activist approach.
Together with his family member Elombe, he pioneered the phrase “Black Is Beautiful” throughout the sixties by documenting the Harlem models in the cultural epicenter: young women of color who became the sensational template for beauty, rejecting conventional cosmetic products and the usual white ideal of femininity.
The Influence of Three Words
The iconic phrase transformed into a powerful unifying message, an brilliant concise prose poem for transformation. Merely declaring that African Americans were beautiful proved to be a liberating influence in art, politics and the arts. The photographer emerged as integral to the Black power African diaspora cause by documenting the sports icon before his legendary championship fight in 1974.
He served as the official image creator for the band's continental journey, and eventually was named the resident artist for the historic cultural institution, creating an extraordinary collection of black musicians. Together with his brother, he was the key organizer behind securing the anti-apartheid icon to appear in the community.
Personal Journey
Brathwaite's son the younger Brathwaite recounts the their campaign to ensure proper recognition for his family heritage after he was hurtfully excluded in Washington DC's cultural museum, inaugurated by Barack Obama in this century.
The feature also recounts the inexpressibly painful genesis of the artist's interest in photography: the disturbing images of the lynching martyr, the young civil rights lynching victim whose bereaved parent courageously demanded an open coffin so the brutal truth of racist violence would not be hidden.
Through Darkness to Hope
Through this image of horror, the artist found a form of anti-epiphany that led him toward photographs of beauty. His photographs powerfully conveyed community pride and often subtle in messaging: he curated a new visual language of pride through which activist groups could mobilize.
The documentary stands as an inspiring chronicle of artistic vision that continues to empower through the years.
