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It’s After the End of the World: The Afrofuturist Dystopia of Gerald Jenkins
05.19.2020
07:52 pm
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Afrofuturism—the term was coined by Mark Dery in a 1993 essay titled “Black to the Future” where he mused about Black science-fiction and art—is a genre agnostic aesthetic philosophy at the intersection of the African diaspora, technology, sci-fi, fashion and what comes next. Whatever that will be. The great Sun Ra is the spiritual godfather of Afrofuturism, his infinite worldview as well as his intergalactic person are the very personification of what the word stakes out. George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic is very Afrofuturist. Rammellzee is very Afrofuturist. So are Wu Tang Clan, MF DOOM, Grace Jones, Janelle Monáe, Lee “Scratch” Perry, FKA twigs, Detroit techno music and Jimi Hendrix. Author Samuel R. Delany is certainly an Afrofuturist and so was Octavia Butler. The Black Panther movie was hella Afrofuturist. I think you must get the gist of it by now.

Visionary photographer Gerald Jenkins’ exquisite new coffee table book, It’s After the End of the World is a fantastic exploration of Afrofuturism, in image, and in text provided for Jenkins’ project by Darius James, Jake-ann Jones, Carl Martin, Little Annie, Michael Gonzales and Norman Douglas. It’s one of the most exciting and impressive things I’ve seen in ages, a truly unique, very personal and vibrant statement. Aside from the quality of the work, it’s an exquisite publication, befitting what is inside its covers, that will look fantastic sitting in your living room. The book is very much an objet d’art itself, 344 glossy pages bound in a sturdy green hardback cover with a black and gold book band. I could say more, but the images, and the artist, can speak for themselves.

Jenkins describes It’s After the End of the World as:

“... a picture novel study of the human spirit in the fantastic and magical and the human soul in the metaphorical and physical”

I asked Gerald Jenkins a few questions via email.

Dangerous Minds: What’s your background?

Gerald Jenkins: In 1985 I was a nightclub DJ and attending a film and TV course in Australia. The Residents toured their 13th Anniversary show and I took some pictures which made me change direction and pursue photography. From there I became a freelance photographic assistant and started my own practice in 1990, instigating two projects. One being musicians’ portraits backstage and the other on Australian indigenous cultures. The indigenous project was a harrowing experience which alienated me from many aspects of Australian society. I exiled to Madrid in Spain in 1999 but soon realized it could only be a temporary solution. In 2001 I moved to London and concentrated solely on my portraiture of musicians backstage.

What inspired It’s After the End of the World?

Gerald Jenkins: I first met the Sun Ra Arkestra in 2003 and began discussing theories on indigenous practice with several members. Theories of time and space which I decided to explore further. Researching Sun Ra and his philosophies was the catalyst and I have been working with the Arkestra themselves in parallel to this completed book since 2009.

Was the work in the book done specifically for this project?

Gerald Jenkins: Yes. I was working in isolation. Aside from about ten pictures in the book I conceived the images in solo.

How did you go about selecting the writers you collaborated with? They’re all such unique—and very specific—voices.

Gerald Jenkins: Initially I only had poems and quotes by Sun Ra, and I was in discussion with KainThePoet to include handwritten lyrics to his piece “Black Satin Amazon Fire Engine Cry Baby” from the album The Blue Guerrilla. My publisher Art Yard suggested I contact Darius James, which I duly did and from there Darius and I devised the structure to include commissioned prose for all the individual chapters. Darius was initially in direct contact with the various writers instructing them in the chosen themes, and I had created layouts of the individual chapters that the writers were given in order to respond to. The written texts are crucial to the work and have been immeasurable in terms of transforming the message. It was easily the greatest enjoyment, personally, to have these brilliant texts accompany my pictures and transform the perception of content.

It feels like the vision that you explore in the book was prescient. How does it feel looking out your window and suddenly it IS after the end of the world?

Gerald Jenkins: It’s a perplexing thought but I’m going to quote Sun Ra’s mentor Alton Abraham on this.

It is the world we currently live in that is a myth.

Alton states “We had studied the prophecy of the pyramids, the earth stopped back in the thirties, ‘round 1933 I think. After the year 2000: ‘It’s After the End of the World don’t you know that yet?’ This would explain why the spirit of the people is in disarray, because the leaders haven’t taught them properly. They’re teaching from tradition.”

You can order It’s After the End of the World directly from the artist here.



“Ancient Black”


“Don’t You Want to Know The Greater Mysteries of the Universe?”


“Jupiter Way, with Jodie Turner Smith”


“Misfortune’s Wealth”

More after the jump…

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Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.19.2020
07:52 pm
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Soul man Bilal takes it to the next “Levels” with a freaked-out Flying Lotus-directed video

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Innovative L.A.-based electronic music label Plug Research scored big-time when they signed Philly-raised soul singer Bilal Sayeed Oliver in the middle of 2009 to release his revelatory sophomore album Airtight’s Revenge. Bilal left his former label Interscope soon after they shelved his proposed second album, Love For Sale, based on their skepticism of its commercial potential and the fact that it was leaked before official release. Seems like an aphorism for the steady decline of the music industry to me.

Directed by stoned prodigal son Flying Lotus (damn, does that mean he did all that animation?), the recently released video for Bilal’s track “Levels” seems to evince how eagerly the singer has swallowed the red pill. This is some high high Afromythofuturistic material right here.
 

FULL SCREEN
The Sounds of VTech / Bilal Levels   

 
Get: Bilal - Airtight’s Revenge [CD]

 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
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01.25.2011
11:23 pm
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“There’s no story to hip-hop—just culture”: R.I.P. renaissance man Rammellzee

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Word from a Fab Five Freddy tweet and a post on his own MySpace blog is that New York hip-hop futurist Rammellzee has passed away at age 50 from as-yet-unrevealed causes. (@149st features a great, fact-filled interview with the man.) Emerging as a teen graffiti artist in the mid-‘70s, bombing the A-train from its last stop in his Far Rockaway, Queens hometown, Rammell ended up like many of his talented peers—a multidisciplinary creative icon submerged in the nascent metropolitan hip-hop scene.  He first surfaced as a persona to the world in amazing fashion, dressed in trenchcoat and wielding a sawed-off shotgun as he MC’ed for the Rock Steady Crew in the Amphitheatre scene of hip-hop’s famous first film, 1982’s Wild Style.
 

 

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Posted by Ron Nachmann
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06.30.2010
07:47 pm
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