Black History Month: Black Poet Gwendolyn Brooks (1945)

The Preacher: Ruminates Behind the Sermon

Gwendolyn Brooks (1945)

NOEL

I think it must be lonely to be God.
Nobody loves a master. No. Despite
The bright hosannas, bright dear-Lords, and bright
Determined reverence of Sunday eyes.

Picture Jehovah striding through the hall
Of His importance, creatures running out
From servant-corners to acclaim, to shout
Appreciation of His merit.s glare.

But who walks with Him?..dares to take His arm,
To slap Him on the shoulder, tweak His ear,
Buy Him and Coca-Cola or a beer,
Pooh-pooh His politics, call Him a fool?

Perhaps..who knows?..He tires of looking down.
Those eyes are never lifted. Never straight.
Perhaps sometimes He tires of being great
In solitude. Without a hand to hold.

GenesisTramaine

Artist: genesis TRAMAINE

This past Thursday I was blindly invited to an art exhibit in Brooklyn and it went like this….

genesis TRAMAINE is an abstract artist, a member of Brooklyn Artistry & Company, who embraces blackness, misogyny, womanhood, and individuality.  Her paintings have properties such as black face and her own distinctive interpretation of the world around her. genesis is also a public school art teacher, educating primarily African American and Hispanic children.   In addition to a phenomenal collection of her own work, what I found extremely fascinating within the exhibit, included a wall dedicated to her students’ artwork.  It was a wall of self-portraits.  I found this wall to be so charismatic and was shocked at how truthful the students were in interpretation of themselves. Children can tell the truth better than any adult. My favorite piece at the exhibit is “Big Lip Tyrone” by genesis herself.  I love the exaggerated features and mustard-tone yellow is one of my favorite colors.  There was wine and the crowd contained insanely beautiful dapper women who were very pleasant.  A Thursday night spent absorbing art is a Thursday night well spent.

“I am totally excited about art.” – Genesis Tramaine

xoxo
-Rain

PressPausePlay Directed by David Dworsky, Victor Köhler.

The digital revolution of the last decade has unraveled an avenue overflowing with creativity and talent in an extraordinary way. But! The question is does making things like art, and music so easy to create depreciate the craft? Now that technology is at the tip of literally everyone’s fingertips does this mean the more the merrier or is technology drowning out the true talent? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary about the art of digital music.  PressPausePlay contains some of the most influential artists of this era. 

When I watched this documentary over the Thanksgiving weekend I was pretty much swept away.  I personally believe that there are pros and cons to this ever advancing technology effecting art.  One, I do believe that it is very important that these tools of creativity are so easily accessible to the masses.  It allows all of us to express and create art, to share with the world by the push of a button.  On the contrast it devalues the development of art, it just disrespects the true artists in a sense that anyone and everyone calls themselves artist.  Technology makes the pool deeper and easier to drown in.

I highly recommend this documentary!! Watch now on Nextflix.com

-Rain