45 min listen
Video artist Arthur Jafa on actualizing Black potential, part 1
FromHelga
ratings:
Length:
47 minutes
Released:
Jan 31, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
I don't want to be the prisoner in a box, even if it's a box I made.
For over 30 years, American visual artist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa has captured the histories and experiences of Black Americans with projects that exemplify both the universal and particular facets of Black life.
In this masterclass in Black thought — the first episode in a two-part series — Jafa shares a free-from improvisation through his breadth of knowledge and understanding of visual culture — embedded with all the references, rhetorics, and personal reflections of someone who has spent a lifetime dedicated to centralizing the varied experiences of Black Being.
Charlie Parker
John Coltrane
Ornette Coleman
Culture Strike
Laura Raicovich
Christina Sharpe
Hortense Spillers
Ultralight Beam - Kanye West
Love is the Message, The Message is Death - Arthur Jafa
John Henrik Clark
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jimi Hendrix
Cecil Taylor
AGHDRA
Women in Love
Burnt Sugar
Butch Morris
Muddy Waters
Carl Hancock Rux
Virgil Abloh
LMVH
Off-White
Released:
Jan 31, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (56)
Henry Threadgill: Henry Threadgill wants to know how to build the house. Whether it's Moby Dick or jazz composition, the 72-year-old jazz composer and multi-instrumentalist has spent his life figuring out what goes into building the greatest works of arts. At three years of age, he started teaching himself to play piano by mimicking the boogie-woogie on the radio. From there, he set to figuring out how to compose his own music. Recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Threadgill talks with Helga about giving license to your imagination in order to create, the life energy that connects a performer to his creations, and pushing yourself to go beyond excellence to greatness. “People have different names for the life force in them. But it’s energy. The only thing that science seems to be able to tell us about energy is you can’t destroy it. You can change it but you cannot destroy it. So wherever you house it, it’s only being housed until it has to change.” –Henry Threadgill This conversation by Helga