Blog Archive

8.07.2010

i need to buy yarn/get ready for a rant...

I was fortunate to find out about these two books in the past days, and let me tell you...i'm so inspired.

I went to the library today to borrow the "fly tops & funky flavas" and i'm working on a top for myself right now...
and I put the "hip hats & cool caps" on request today, so hopefully, in the next few days i'll be a crocheting (grand-)mama.


Afya Ibomu is totally my new go-to-inspiration gal, because...
she just proves that
1) crocheting can be very cool, and
2) white people are kinda lame/ black people can be artists-crafters.

I already kinda knew point 1 for some time, so let's center our focus on point 2...

first of all, crocheting and knitting seems to be a pre-dominantly "white" thing to do.
hi, D.I.Y channel, do you even hire black people?

And allllll of the crochet/knitting books "stitch and bitch" and "funky knit designs..." are usually from white writers. And ya, even though the models can be of color, the overall fashion is generally "white" fashion. ("make a shawl for your evening/dinner party!")  (tea-party cozies!)

...has anyone ever looked through a vogue knitting magazine/lion yarn pattern book? hi old-white-lady-fashion.

But, in Afya's book, you have actually street fashion for
(wait for it...wait for it...)...oh my god...young people,  and not your typical yuppie "UC Berkeley: I-wear-organic-beanies-and-knit-mohair-argyle-patterned-knee-high-socks..."

but, actual people of color/black people.
there are patterns for dashiki's
and tops which are inspired by Jamaican fashions.
the color scheme is bold and the fashion models are crazy cool (hi erykah badu, you know i love you...)

this makes me unbelievably happy.
because, this summer it kinda dawned on me that, for the most part, african americans/ black people/whatever you want to call it...
are rarely ever seen as "artists"

ya, you can go on about Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence...and (oh god, for you "contemporary" whores) Basquiat...

But who else is there? Scan your brain, not google...

coming up with a blank?
now list all of the white artist you know.
ummhmm...I bet (if you took a littttttle bit of art history)  you can even place those artist in to mini time frames.
monet=impressionism
van gogh= expressionism
warhol=pop art

Even in the music world...
Many consider Thom Yorke and Bjork musicans, but more so, musical artists because they render what is normal with their own form of artistry. (the list goes on, bob dylan...pink floyd... john lennon...)

But what about Black musicians?
Ya, miles davis/coltrane/and all the other token jazz musicans that people like to tote off
Ya, (depending on if you're a hater or not) michael jackson
Ya, jimi hendrix
who else?

what about mos def? what about erykah badu?
jill scott?
jay z?
missy elliot?
ludacris?
p.funkadelics?
the roots?
james brown?

When it comes to rap/funk music, all of a sudden, using the term "artist" becomes taboo, or something you have to agree with, after a second (or third) thought....
 But, why?
isn't poetry one of the most beautiful forms of written art?
what is rap, if not simply: poetry to a beat?

If you listen closely to what the musican/rapper says, or even better yet, the arrangement of the music and how many beats and sounds are heard in a simple 30 second soundbite of any of those that are listed, you'd be surprised at how much artistry is actually put into black/african american music.

Even in terms of music history, if you were to compare a piece of chamber music from europe to music from kenya...
the sophistication and literal genius in the layering of beats and sounds from the Kenyan music (as well as the tools/musical instruments used to create those sounds) would blow your mind.

but, some how or another...that's just seen as "tribal music"
and not art. Statues found in africa are (still to this day) labeled as "artifacts" and not "art"

I hope, some way or another, I can devote my life's work (from this point on) in helping to change the color in the face of the art world.    add color to the face of the art world. (better stated)

....lol...can you believe this whole racial-rant is centered around finding a crochet book at the library?

anyway, I'll post pictures of my outfit when it's done. :)
**Winnie

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