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Racial identity has recently resurfaced in discussion, literature, and film. Two popular works explore the concept of “passing;” one in a contemporary setting, and one that first emerged in the 1920s. New York Times bestselling author Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half was selected as the 2021 Seattle Reads choice. This citywide book group, offered by the Seattle Public Library Foundation, is an opportunity for people to read and discuss the same book. Bennett’s novel is centered on the Vignes twin sisters whose lives, while identical growing up in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, become quite different as adults. Things change: their families, their communities, and their racial identities. Seattle Reads hosted a series of events and activities in conjunction with the book, including a conversation with Britt Bennett and Seattle arts programmer Jazmyn Scott, which is available to view online only until October 29. On November 9, artist Lisa Myers Bulmash will be featured in a virtual event discussing her process and creation of an artwork informed by The Vanishing Half. To learn more, access reading resources, or register for the November 9th event, click here. Although wildly underappreciated, Harlem Renaissance-era writer Nella Larson rocked the literary world in 1928 when her book Quicksand was published. It included a story called Passing, which in 1929 was published singularly. The concept of racial passing is at the core of her story, which in many ways was inspired by the 1925 Rhinelander case, where Leonard Rhinelander a wealthy white man, sued his wife, Alice Beatrice Jones, for annulment and fraud, alleging that she had failed to inform him of her "colored" blood. Passing centers on two Black women who are living in New York in the late 1920s and are both able to “pass” as white but choose to live on opposing sides of the color line. One fateful summer, the childhood friends are reunited, changing the course of their lives forever. The cinematic adaptation premiere’s on Netflix on November 10th. Here’s a peek at the recently released trailer for Passing.

We learn early in life that water is the ultimate sustainer. It is what keeps our environment healthy, hydrates our internal systems, and cleanses our exterior bodies. Fela Kuti says it best, "water you no get enemy." Like water, creativity, you no get enemy. To me, creativity is the ultimate sustainer and motivator. Without it, we are destined to bland, tasteless existences. Just as we learn the importance of water early in life, we also learn the joys of experiencing the sweetness of other tastes. Creativity is that sweetness that lifts us from bland to bright. Creative genius is served up by the three contemporary women artists featured this month. These artists challenge us to look deep inside hollow gourds and use our imaginations to crack open thirsty spaces and drink from their offerings: Lisa Myers Bulmash, Barbara Earl Thomas, and Karon Davis. As Lisa Myers Bulmash represents our community in the upcoming docuseries "The Story of Art in America," the thirst for representation is quenched, at least for the time being. Barbara Earl Thomas brings us intricacy and metaphor to whet our imaginations for re-envisioning the ways in which our cultural histories shape our present understanding of how we 'package' and present ourselves to the world. And Karon Davis is an example of how one can begin to see herself outside of an assigned association to another, to become a whole, independent container for creative expression. As a creative motivator and supporter of the Arté Noir vision, Juan Alonso-Rodríguez gifts us with his work and his boundless kindness to help us achieve a future we envision. Each month we find new ways to have our creative appetite sated, and each month, we are pleasantly filled with invitations from all of the artists and creators featured on these pages. The offerings are always plentiful and it is our honor to extend a monthly invitation for you to drink from the deep gourds of creativity present in Black art and culture. Our invitation to you is extended to share ideas about something or someone you would like to see highlighted here. We'd love to hear from you so drop us a line at info@artenoir.org, and give us a shout-out by sharing Arté Noir with others. We love you for reading! Postscript: Just as we are completing this issue, we learned the sad news that one of Black culture's most innovative beings has now become an ancestor. Having had the great honor to once meet and interview Mr. Melvin Van Peebles, I remain filled by what he poured into his community, and into the world. The stories he told, the way he approached subject matter, the indelible mark he made on the film industry as a whole, and on Black filmmakers in particular, and the way he answered questions leaving space for air and contemplation, will continue to be a prominent part of my own life story. I can smell the aroma of his cigar and hear his completely unassuming yet firm voice. May the ancestors welcome you, Mr. Van Peebles, carrying beautiful gourds adorned with melodic cowries to signal your blessed arrival to sit among them. Ashé. - Vivian Phillips - Founder // Editor-in-Chief

The award-winning, egalitarian architect, known for his community-driven projects and visionary sensibilities, including The National Museum of African American History and Culture, recently signed on to build 101 hospitals in Ghana and broke ground on the project this August. The District Hospitals are part of a nationwide healthcare infrastructure initiative, first announced in April 2020. The initiative involves the construction of 111 new healthcare facilities including 101 district hospitals, a pair of psychiatric hospitals, seven regional hospitals, and the redevelopment of an existing psychiatric hospital in the capital city of Accra. Born in Tanzania, David Adjaye’s father was a diplomat and their family lived and traveled across Africa and the Middle East throughout his childhood. David was influenced by the architecture he saw growing up, as well as experiencing the needs of his brother, who was partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound and faced various inequities at his specialized school. “Unlike people who may have had an education or a stable upbringing in one or two places, I was forced from a very early age to negotiate a wide variety of ethnicities, religions, and cultural constructions. By the time I was 13, I thought that was normal, and that was how the world was. It gave me a kind of edge in an international global world, which we find increasingly in the 21st century,” Adjaye was quoted by Smithsonian Magazine. David’s travels inspired one of his first prolific projects, Adjaye Africa Architecture: A Photographic Survey of Metropolitan Architecture, a book that took him across fifty-four major African cities and over ten years to create. Amongst his many architectural accomplishments, Adjaye has also designed textiles, recorded music and as alluded in his title, “Sir,” was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017. The hospitals are inspired by an Adinkra symbol of the Denkyem (an African Dwarf crocodile) which represents cleverness and the ability to thrive in varied and sometimes challenging conditions. Materials including interlocking earth bricks made from locally sourced mud that are nontoxic, sound resistant, insect resistant, and fire resistant, will be used to build the structures. “By approaching the hospital as more than just a place for the provision of medical services,” Adjaye explains, “the design scheme aims to unlock the potential of this ambitious initiative by repositioning the hospital as a piece of community infrastructure that embodies sustainability, efficiency, and provides green spaces to facilitate healing.” Learn more about the 101 hospitals project via The Architect's Newspaper here + via Adjaye Associates here.

Noah Davis has been a well-known name in art circles around the world. What is lesser known is that Davis was from Seattle, Washington. In 2016, the Frye Art Museum presented the first large-scale museum show that explored Davis’ work, alongside the work of his brother and fellow artist Khalil Joseph. The Frye exhibit was held just one year after Davis’ untimely passing from cancer at the age of thirty-two (b.1983- d.2015). Noah's wife, Karon Davis, the daughter of the performer Ben Vereen, has in many ways, been lurking in the shadows of her much-recognized husband and father. But that was before. Her first solo exhibition last spring marked a major shift for the artist who has said that her husband Noah is the one who saw the artist in her that she could not see. The subject of her exhibit titled, "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished," was a reflection of the confluence between the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the Black Panther Movement. Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale was the central character in this exhibit; from the sculpture of a bound and gagged Seale at his Chicago trial, to the sculpted grocery bags of food illustrating the Panther free food program. Karon and Noah founded the Underground Museum, an arts and culture center operating out of four converted storefronts in the Arlington Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, in 2012. The museum’s mission is, “To ensure that no one has to travel outside the neighborhood to see world-class art, or learn from leading thinkers, educators, chefs, and artists.” As Karon continues to lead the museum and manage her husband’s estate, she is leading her own way into her independence as an artist and arts leader. View the work of Karon Davis and her solo exhibit here!

We celebrate art in community and we’re taking this celebration to the next level! Arté Noir is now a non-profit arts and culture organization (!), and in a few short months, we will be expanding our footprint and taking up physical residence at Midtown Square! Located at 23rd & Union in the heart of the historic Central District, we are creating a permanent retail location to showcase Black art and culture with the online publication becoming a portal to the brick-and-mortar space. Arté Noir board member and artist Juan Alonso-Rodríguez is contributing his art in support of our fundraising efforts. As one of the nine artists featured throughout the Midtown Square complex, Juan is offering limited edition prints of his Hollyhocks sculpture, soon to be installed on the 24th Avenue side of the building. Juan’s Hollyhocks are an homage to resilience and to artist James Washington, Jr., whose Fountain of Triumph has been refurbished and will be returned to the Midtown location, in addition to a bronze sculpture of Washington, designed by artist Barry Johnson. Hollyhocks, which thrive in the Seattle area, are also abundant in the garden at Dr. James and Janie Washington Cultural Center, the former home of the Washington family. Juan is offering two different 60” x 36” reproductions of the original paintings created for the sculpture fabrication. These will be available for $1100 each, or a set of two for $2000. Only 10 copies of each design are being made available, beautifully printed on Entrada Rag paper, signed and numbered by the artist. Twenty percent (20%) of each sale is being contributed to support Arté Noir. Collectors will have a unique opportunity to secure a piece of work by Juan Alonso-Rodríguez while showing their support of the establishment of a permanent home to showcase and sell the work of Black artists in the heart of the historic Black community. More details are to come on the new Arté Noir Midtown location, but this opportunity won’t last! Act now to secure your limited edition Juan Alonso-Rodríguez Hollyhock print, by ordering today. To purchase, visit: https://www.juanalonsostudio.com/shop Or to view in person, contact Juan via email: juan@juanalonsostudio.com We thank you in advance for your support!

An impassioned tide of crimson-lacquered waves sweeps across Lisa Myers Bulmash’s trio of works, “The Manticore and the Mermaid,” connecting the collages she created to honor Ona Judge. A former slave of President George Washington, Ona Judge “absconded” from his estate in 1796 and successfully remained free, despite Washington’s many attempts to recapture her. An important foundation of Lisa’s art is to center the African American and female experiences, and these striking pieces made for Ona recently served as the backdrop for an exciting upcoming docuseries, “The Story of Art in America.” Season 1 will feature ten 22-minute episodes, each focused on art in a particular city or county in the United States, with Lisa representing Seattle. The camera crew for Legit Productions, the company making the docuseries, loaded into the Northwest African American Museum in Seattle last May to film her interview. As lighting techs prepared the space, Lisa laughed recalling how much make-up she was wearing and how she had to explain to the cameraman that she talks expressively with her hands, creating the need to set up the cameras in a particular way to compensate. With post-production still in the works, the docuseries is currently set to air in early 2022 on video-on-demand and streaming services, yet to be announced. We will be sure to keep Arté Noir readers posted about the release! Myers Bulmash initially started her career making handmade cards but when her father died in 2006, she “felt compelled to take more personal risks in her work.” When Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice were killed a few years later, she channeled her pain into taking her art to an even higher level. She signed up for a few mixed media art classes and was surprised to find how natural assemblage and dimensional collages felt to her. As her practice grew and the ideas flowed, she realized she wanted to work in 2D and 3D and began collecting different materials, which you can experience in her art now. Lisa’s work is complex and filled with emotion, layering mysticism, symbolism, history, and the present day, to tell the story of the Black experience. Using found objects such as vintage books and photos, old washboards, and figurines, some of her pieces are inspired by what she finds, and others germinate from a vision in her head, and she seeks out elements to bring that idea to life. Lisa enjoys receiving messages from her social media followers, many of whom feel compelled to reach out when they find a unique object they think she might like to incorporate into her art. Lisa’s symbolic language creates much-needed magic for the viewer, and that magic is evident in the growing enthusiasm for her pieces and the discourse surrounding them. Today, she continues her work as a collage, assemblage sculpture, and altered books artist, with pieces currently featured in The Liberty Bank Building located in the Central District of Seattle and at Washington State University’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. A recipient of the Black Lives Matter Artist Grant from the Schnitzer Museum, a live-streamed discussion featuring artists in the exhibit, including Lisa, will be available for viewing via the museum's YouTube channel on September 29th from 3:30 – 4:30 pm PST. We want to send out a warm hug of CONGRATULATIONS to Lisa Myers Bulmash for her latest accolades! We are so excited to watch her episode in "The Story of Art in America," and for everything she has yet to offer us through her art. Be sure to visit Lisa's website to learn more about her and her art: http://www.lisamb.com.

On November 30th, Josephine Baker, the former actress, dancer, singer, and passionate member of the civil rights movement, will become the first Black woman to be interred at the Panthéon in Paris, France. Born in 1906 in Missouri, Baker moved to France in the mid-1920s after experiencing traumatic racial events in her childhood and personal discrimination at the start of her career. “I just couldn’t stand America, and I was one of the first colored Americans to move to Paris,” she once told The Guardian. In Paris, she first danced at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in La Revue Nègre, eventually going on to become one of the most popular music-hall entertainers in France and achieving star billing at the infamous Folies-Bergère. Receiving over 1,000 marriage proposals throughout her early career days, Baker married a Frenchman named Jean Lion in 1937, allowing her to become a French citizen. Josephine Baker died in 1975, after suffering a stroke just four days after opening a new revue celebrating her fifty years as an entertainer. More than twenty thousand people gathered at her memorial in Monaco. She became the first American woman in history to be buried in France with military honors, including a 21-gun salute for her role as a member of the French resistance during WWII. Her body will remain in Monaco, but she will be given a memorial in the Panthéon’s mausoleum. Of the eighty luminaries in the Panthéon, only five are women, Baker will be the sixth. Read more about her upcoming interment in The New York Times.

Barbara Earl Thomas has been a leader in the arts community for a very long time. In addition to being a lauded award-winning artist, she is an accomplished writer, lecturer, arts administrator, public artist, and her work is among the celebrated collections found at Microsoft, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, 21 Century Museum Hotels, Western Washington State University, and Evergreen State College, to name just a few. Soon, her work will reside in the former Grace Hopper Hall at Yale University where she was commissioned to reimagine and redesign the stained glass windows of that renamed hall. Her contributions to the arts and cultural fabric of multiple communities are deserving of countless bouquets, and in her home city of Seattle, she’s given us more gifts than we deserve. Her recent Seattle Art Museum exhibit The Geography of Innocence can still be experienced through January 2022. The book that accompanies this exhibit co-authored by Thomas, Catharina Manchanda, and Halima Taha, notes, “At the heart lies a story of life and death, hope and resilience – a child’s survival.” Barbara continues her inquiry into hope and resilience with her upcoming exhibit Packaged Black, October 2, 2021 – May 1, 2022, at The Henry Museum, as she joins artist Derek Adams to continue their shared dialogue about representation, Black identity, and practices of cultural resistance. The exhibition is described as, “a synthesis of a multi-year, intergenerational, and cross-country exchange between New York-based Adams and Seattle-based Thomas that began after the two artists exhibited work alongside each other in a group show at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2017.” As we anticipate a return to in-person arts gatherings, this exhibit is among the hot tickets being clamored after. Because we cannot do reasonable justice to the life and work of Barbara Earl Thomas in these few paragraphs, we invite you to check out her work and bio at barbaraearlthomas.com or take a listen to her talk about her career in her own words in this episode of the doubleXposure podcast recorded from her studio. Barbara Earl Thomas, from the corners of museum exhibit halls to the halls of Ivy League universities, and from right here in your ‘hood, we SHOUT our enduring appreciation for the art you give!

I don’t remember walking from the subway. The heat kept following me like a heartless pickpocket who wanted to get right up on me without me detecting its fast white-hot hands. No, I don’t remember the corner turned or street crossed in Harlem, but I remember soon rising up. Like Miles Davis’ Seven Steps to Heaven, played in good tone. My body a finger pressed on a tray of bread pudding testing the texture of its rising. I was just pulled out of a hot oven Harlem. Ascending in a film noir narrow gated elevator to the 7th floor, I arrived at a door opened upon the home of two human lights. Quincy Troupe and Margaret Porter Troupe. Theirs is close to gleam between red and black in mahogany. A glow they hold, balance, and adlib from as a sensitive, detailed artist’s brush does with light to make color. The light being anything but primary (predictable or tame) drifting way before and beyond Harlem. I was lucky to have more than a moment up close in Quincy and Margaret’s illumination. I don’t remember sitting, for you don’t sit on a beam. The beam surrounds you as you slowly sink in, about it. Oh, get comfortable easily but anything but relaxed because a soul snatching work (among others) by an Ethiopian artist named Alexander Skunder Boghossian keeps you attuned to spirit in art. Hospitality in spirit of their art. And the painting below his - the Haitian painter, Edouard Duval Carrié said there is nothing ordinary about their home, its juju light. Nothing surreal as for the sake of out-to-lunch yet another painting by the hand of Jac Gabriel of Haiti said otherwise. Something new yet wise like the demeanor of Margaret and Quincy. The moving work of Al Loving hanging over the stereo, and the green and silver painting hanging to the left next to it by Peter Bradley a few feet held me as the good soil did the healthy plant beside me. So, from the master poet of the Troupe light, I am introduced to his father - a baseball catcher in Cuba who the Cleveland Indians wished to sign up. The passing through Miles Davis and Chuck Berry in St. Louis and the dangers of thugs and the core of The Blues came to/from that infamous river town. “Twenty years too soon for the always all-white Major League Baseball” despite another 20 years later the call of a matchless poet came out of the son, the basketball player. The son who was already in love with books. A reader from the jump! Meanwhile, a young African American sister, minding her own Mississippi business attended Alcorn State University. Like two stars in different time zones yet the same (Monk’s “Round Midnight”) outer space neither soul had any idea that the other existed. No clue that somewhere between the Porter’s building a church and a school on a nearly 300-acre farm in the middle of Jim Crow damnation, and a kill or be killed bard escaping St Louis for Grambling University in Louisiana, would hook each other’s starlight. Before one of these two lights blinked, in an unmeasurable way, a good 1500 miles away the bard would be in the mix of the musings of the Watts Writers Workshop, and almost three decades at the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center while Margaret would be destined to NYC via Iona College and The New York Times advertising department. An activist heavily involved in the Class Action suit for equal pay at The New York Times, 1973, about the time the humanities, art, and music were removed as required classes in public school curriculum. Soon, somewhere between College of Staten Island and Iona these two special lights would meet at a poetry reading event. Margaret made me forget the thick humidity outside their art tailored residence, introducing me to the legacy of a Mississippi Civil War hero, Captain named Captain Arthur Willis Gloster, whose mind would have been blown away like tall cotton, had he seen the birth of an annual Arts Project in the Mississippi town of his namesake come to being almost a decade ago. Margaret is the Executive Director of The Gloster Arts Project. Thinking on what we owe our youth and how what they serve our youth makes me think/recall what Quincy made me reflect on: the heat of Power to the People era. His forthcoming book of poetry (his 12th), entitled Duende Poems: 1966–Now; its dedication and the impact of Pablo Neruda, Cesar Vallejo, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Sterling Brown, and the Madagascan poet, Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, on his creative trek. Closer and closer, St Louis and Gloster come together. Quincy shares an episode of teaching children in Gloster, Mississippi, how to write a Haiku. Margaret speaks on our rich Black history and how “we are not going anywhere!” No, the truth in living, breathing Black beings ain’t going nowhere. Ultimately, whether a chorus line is a pole dancing team or whether the oppressors are ever going to grow up and cop to the fact that Blackness is the best thing that ever happened to them, still Murdock, Fox, and all the mass media profiteers “will have to be held accountable” Yes, closer, and closer, Quincy broke down how he had to summon all his inner strength to not become violent in more than one situation between these different regions of racism and cultural injustice. Where this master poet roots sprout from there is no time for softness. No confusion between indecision and the reality of an environment reminding us of who we are every day. To that oppressor, other than labor and entertainment, prison, rape, war, we are a hated yet deeply envied people Almost a decade now, every summer they are one source of each other’s lights for about 40 young kids, grades 1-12. To quote Quincy: “flesh fusion of all centuries” because this husband and wife do what the giant angel couples like Trane and Alice, Max and Abbey, and Ossie and Ruby, did: make a major part of their lives together about teaching culture and inspiring the beauty in our youth. The Gloster Arts Project is about sucking the poison out of self-hatred. About the Africa in the stock of a daughter named Margaret out of 15 siblings who grew up on a near 300-acre farm where they grew everything, they and their community consumed! Where the Porter parents built a church and a school on their land. I wondered with delight where did this sister get the faith and/or imagination to think, see, dream beyond that farm? Where/how did this brother find in his love for reading since childhood the Duke Ellington type harmonics of voice on paper he would make as a poet? Through the antebellum heat of Jim Crow and the Blues of The Music, they both understood that our children/youth are woefully under-exposed while having the most potent intellectual capacity… or we’d have no Paul Laurence Dunbar. No Zora Neale Hurston. No Gwen Brooks. No Charles Burnett. For it takes the executive direction of a sister from Mississippi and the masterful poetry of a brother from a Mississippi river town to make a ping pong out of the moon, saxophone miracles fly across, “…spoiled but frightening - too many weapons - desensitized enough to use- terrifyingly violent - what will the people in power do?” Margaret asked the ancestors between the painting frames. Whatever, wherever, however, the answer(s) bestow us… for we are fighting the same battles no matter the place - the same war. Commerce versus art. Injustice versus compassion. We are most likely to find out (inside) what it is in the air in these times, in these deeds and un-deeds, of hostility in endless war and extortion, what it means - but have no word for yet. I have only endless hope in showing our youth truth of their timeless beauty through critical thinking, reading, and writing. Three chosen poems Quincy was kind enough to read as I did my 1st person “blindfold test,” asking him to speak to the “seed” and/or origin of a few poems. The brilliant “Flight” and “For Malcolm, Who Walks In the Eyes of Our Children” from his classic collection Avalanche and “High Noon Shadow” from the sleek (like Miles Davis’ ESP) collection called Seduction, the poem “High Noon Shadow” from his juju keen observations from a Harlem street “winds of our words/beauty you stand for.” He explained one poem was conceived as an observer (like a gifted painter) and the poem for Malcolm dedicated to his children. Those children, their lights, shared in family photos, showed the quality of stock they preserve in faraway places and inside the soul at the same time - regions where spirits of renaissance brothers and sisters dwell. The likes of Ida B. Wells and Paul Robeson loan their light to the souls of Margaret and Quincy interest -free forever. I don’t remember much but what was/is centered in their special, good tone. An exclusive mahogany rhythm in subdued light where the African sculpture guarded the table where we broke bread in brunch, in the spirit of the “good born and fostered,” the heavenly simple but anything but infantile light that “fights the good fight” is all the proof of God I need - when such light, in such love, comes in the form of leadership of two lights in one. Margaret Porter Troupe and Quincy Troupe. About Paul r Harding Published works: Hot Mustard & Lay Me Down (En Theos Press, 2003); Excerpts of Lamentation & Evidence of Starlite (Aurius Unlimited, 1993); a short story in Black Renaissance Noire; excerpt of a completed novel manuscript in Black Renaissance Noire; selected verse in Black Renaissance Noire, Transition 112, Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, Konch, Coon Bidness, Berkeley Poetry Review, Earshot Jazz, Raven Chronicles, and various anthologies. Unpublished manuscripts in both the Gwendolyn Brooks Papers at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, and the Derek Walcott Collection at the Alma Jordan Library, University of West Indies. Awarded Philip Whalen Memorial Grant for poetry and Edith K. Draham Scholarship for fiction. ‘Spoken Music’ performed with legendary Charles Gayle, Ravi Coltrane, Joe Ford, Michael Bisio, and other renowned musicians. Former Earshot Jazz Board of Directors President, former Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle Education Director, and founder of ULMS Children’s University. Currently teaches critical thinking, reading, and writing in the Bronx. Presently completing a manuscript of short poems and researching first non-fiction project: Race and Heroism in Hollywood: Die Like a Man. MARGARET PORTER TROUPE BIO Margaret Porter Troupe has achieved distinction as an arts organizer, producer of cultural events, and community activist in a career that spans more than 30 years in New York City and in San Diego, California. She was a founding member of New Bones, a coalition of women poets who produced literary events in New York City, the owner of Porter Troupe Gallery in San Diego, which was called “one of the best galleries” in California because of its outstanding roster of contemporary artists and as a forum for poets, writers, and musicians to read and perform. She founded and was director of VeVe: Visual Environments for Visual Education an after-school program that promoted Cultural Agility among youth, and upon her return to New York City, she was the executive director of Harlem Textile Works, a community-based nonprofit arts education program and social enterprise that trained youth in silkscreen printing and graphic design. At the same time Troupe opened the Harlem Arts Salon, a place for prominent writers (Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ishmael Reed, John Edgar Wideman), musicians including Ron Carter and Hugh Masekela, and visual artists to meet and engage their audiences in a setting that recalls the historic salons of the Harlem Renaissance. For the past eight years, she has brought arts education and enrichment to youth in rural Gloster, Mississippi, at The Gloster Arts Project. with a free arts camp where kids ages 6 -18 years old (grades 1-12) are introduced to their own creativity through intensive workshops in poetry, music, dance, theater, and visual arts taught by distinguished professional artists and mentors like Will Calhoun, Danny Glover, Delroy Lindo, Terry McMillan, and Cassandra Wilson. As a writer, Ms. Troupe has published articles on the arts in magazines and journals including The Green Magazine, Code, Black Renaissance Noire, and ezines Konch, Tribes, among others. She was the arts and copy editor for NYU’s Black Renaissance Noire, edited by her husband, Quincy Troupe. Born and raised in Gloster, Mississippi, Margaret Porter Troupe graduated from Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. QUINCY TROUPE BIO Quincy Troupe is the author of 20 books, including 10 volumes of poetry and three children’s books. His writings have been translated into over 30 languages. He is co-author with Miles Davis of Miles: the Autobiography; Earl the Pearl with Earl Monroe, and the author of Miles and Me: A Memoir of Miles Davis (2000), a chronicle of his friendship with Miles Davis, re-published by Seven Stories Press, September 2018. In addition, a major motion picture based on Miles and Me, for which Mr. Troupe wrote the screenplay, is currently scheduled to go into production mid -2021. His other notable works include The Pursuit of Happyness with Chris Gardner, editor of James Baldwin: The Legacy, and co-editor (with Rainer Schulte) of Giant Talk: An Anthology of Third World Literature. Troupe’s latest books of poems are Seduction and a book-length poem, Ghost Voices, both from TriQuartley Northwestern University Press 2018. He is also writing a novel, The Legacy of Charlie Footman; a memoir, The Accordion Years; and an untitled book of non-fiction prose. Among his many distinguished achievements are: the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement, the Milt Kessler Poetry Award, three American Book Awards, the 2014 Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, a 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from Furious Flower, and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History Award, January 25, 2018, in Detroit Michigan. Quincy Troupe is Professor Emeritus from the University of California, San Diego. He edits Black Renaissance Noire, a literary and culture journal published by the Institute of African American Affairs at New York University. He lives in Harlem (New York) with his wife, Margaret Porter Troupe.

What do silent film and pizza have in common? Pipe organ accompaniment! Silent film dates to the 1800s, with the first “talkie” coming to the screen in 1927. Not every silent film was accompanied by organ music, yet the presence of those mighty pipe organs alongside silent films has helped to revive the silent film genre in modern times. As far as pizza goes, entrepreneur Bill Breuer was one of the first to combine the harmonious tunes of the organ with your piping hot pizza. He opened his first restaurant, Pizza and Pipes in Santa Clara, California in 1962, and brought the concept to Seattle's Greenwood neighborhood in 1973, eventually opening additional restaurants in Tacoma and Bellevue. Interestingly, in the 1970s and ’80s, live pipe organ music could be heard in more than 100 pizzerias across the country! Tacoma native Tedde Gibson has made his mark in the world of pipe organ mastery and years ago was a mainstay at the Tacoma location of Pizza and Pipes! He is now a regular at The Paramount Theatre’s Silent Movie Monday series, having notably accompanied silent films there by Black filmmakers like Bert Williams’ Lime Kiln Field Day. Tedde can be found touring around the country, bringing emotion and punctuation to silent film screenings with his skilled organ playing. On Sunday, August 29th, you have another opportunity to witness Tedde’s mastery as he accompanies Mario Cantone in the PBS broadcast of Wicked in Concert. Plus, he will be back at The Paramount Theatre on December 6th to accompany the silent film Aelita: Queen of Mars. In the meantime, Tedde took the time to answer a few questions and share some of his musical history with Arté Noir. As a bonus, he gave us a quick explanation of how a critical piece of organ functions to create its voluminous sounds. You began playing the organ at age four! Wasn’t that a monstrous instrument for a four-year-old and how did you even approach it, physically? I started playing the piano at age four and began playing the pipe organ at age sixteen. I grew up in a church where the pipe organ was a major part of worship, and we also had a restaurant in my hometown of Tacoma, Washington that had a theatre pipe organ as part of the entertainment, so I had both religious and secular exposure to the pipe organ. You’ve done extensive piano and organ study. What drew you to expand into mastery of the pipe organ? Its complexity and how one must use their whole body to make the instrument work. Hands, feet, core muscles, ears, eyes, and brain must all work as a cohesive unit to master the instrument. How long did it take you to learn to play it? I am a life-long learner and I am still learning to play it. How did you enter the world of theatre organists and are you an anomaly as a Black person in that field? I entered the theatre organ world through an organist at the Tacoma Pizza and Pipes and her husband, the late Jane McKee Johnson and Homer Johnson. Homer was the local pipe organ repairperson for many of the Tacoma churches and his wife Jane originally played the organ for local radio. They mentored me and took me under their wings and were a major impetus for my theatre organ exposure. I became active in the American Theatre Organ Society after a concert performed at a local residence (see picture below), which houses the largest theatre organ in Washington State. I began to study theatre organ with the artist, Jonas Nordwall of Portland, OR; who would make monthly trips to teach students. I performed for the Puget Sound Theatre Society, a chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society (ATOS). Upon moving to the East Coast in late 2003, I began performing annually at another residence housing a theatre organ, which created additional concert opportunities. Through Vicky Lee, retired education liaison with the Seattle Theatre Group, I began accompanying silent films in 2015. I joined the board of directors of ATOS in 2017, was elected vice-chairman 3 consecutive times, and I am now the chairman of this organization, the first African American to hold this title in its 66-year history. Check out NBC News' piece about Tedde and The Paramount here You not only play music for silent films, but you also compose. How do you approach composition for a silent film? In a silent film, the music has several roles. It must lay the groundwork for cohesively blending subject matter, dialogue, and emotion. It must give the characters the ability to communicate conversation, inner emotion, conflict, love, hate, and any other situation. It must undergird tension, tell the story, and engage the audience. It must seamlessly merge with the film to the degree that one forgets there is a musician during the entire film to create all the moods needed to enrapture the audience into the story. My approach gives reverence to the story, but cannot dominate the story. Are your compositions different if you are scoring a Black silent film? And if so, how? Scoring any silent film must take into account the storyline. Having scored films dealing with women’s issues, Indigenous people, European ethnic issues, horror, and of course comedy, scoring any Black silent film is no different, except I know the audience and include thematic material that they can identify. One must be careful not to include music of a stereotypical nature, but understand the stereotypes in Black film and use thematic material that identifies the stereotype. How many scores have you composed? I have probably have created over 60 different scores for silent films of varying genres. What’s coming up that most excites you? I am excited to be playing the Mighty Wurlitzer accompanying Sex in the City alum Mario Cantone in the PBS production of Wicked- In Concert. It will be broadcast on PBS Sunday, August 29, 2021@ 9:00 PM. I am looking forward to visiting the Seattle Paramount Theatre on Monday, Dec. 6 @7:00 PM to accompany the silent film Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924). What is a Pneumatic? A Pneumatic is an air motor made of leather and wood used inside the pipe organ mechanism (wind chest, where the pipes sit) that allows the pipe to play in a pipe organ. For each pipe, there is a minimum of two. So think of The Paramount Theatre’s Wurlitzer Organ which has 20 sets (ranks) of pipes ranging from 61 notes to 97 notes that have thousands of these devices to make the instrument play, and they must be lightning fast in order to respond to the organist. Learn more about Tedde here

As a young person, Val Thomas-Matson loved Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. She recalls a particular episode in which Fred Rogers shared a message to his viewers that "we were all special [and that] we were all really unique" left her weeping as she felt that unconditional love seeping through her television. Beloved children's shows that made her feel seen, like Mr. Rogers and Shari Lewis’ Lamb Chop's Play-Along, stuck with Val as she began her career in broadcast communications, dreaming of starting a similar show of her own one day. It would take nearly 30 years, but Val eventually received a Best Starts for Kids grant that allowed her to bring her vision to life, the award-winning local children's television program rooted in research, racial equity, and radical joy, Look, Listen and Learn (LL+L). LL+L is the region's first and only children’s educational television show intentionally created by a Black producer for BIPOC children and their families! Something wonderful about Look, Listen and Learn is that Val and her team truly recognize the power the arts have to heal and connect communities, and that art is developmentally important for children. Research and data prove time and again that art provides a foundation for early learning and instills key skills such as: ● fine motor skills (holding a crayon, pencil, buttoning), ● cognitive development skills (critical thinking, cause, and effect), ● math skill (counting and spatial reasoning) ● language skills ● pleasure and unspeakable joy Additionally, LL+L understands that arts and media are powerful tools for liberation. WE AGREE! It's absolutely beautiful how intentional Val is when choosing locations for art segments, selecting community museums and art galleries, such as the Wing Luke Museum, Northwest African American Museum, and Nepañtla Gallery. Community artists film the art segments as they introduce and remind viewers that these are places where they, too, can gather, visit and explore the world of art, imagination, and build their own artistic journeys. Her goal is always to exist at the intersection of arts, media, education, and racial justice by providing culturally relevant storytelling, fundamental social-emotional skills, and critical messages of love and hope. Val wants her young viewers and families to feel held and seen the way she was so many years ago watching Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Recently, the WNBA's Seattle Storm awarded Val The Ginger Ackerley Community Service Award, which is given to an individual who has made an impact on improving the quality of life in the Puget Sound, and for which Val will accept at the Believe in Women Night on August 29th at the Storm versus Chicago Sky game. This is just the program's latest accolade, coming on the heels of winning three Tellys for the show's first season earlier this year. In case you didn't know, the Telly Awards honor excellence in video and television across all screens from among 12,000 entries from all 50 states and five continents! Val Thomas-Matson, we SHOUT-OUT from the rooftops our excitement and admiration for the work you are doing in our community. You and LL+L deserve every award and more for the special vision you share with all of us. We can't wait to watch what happens next! CONGRATULATIONS! *LL+L is committed to expanding experiences beyond the show. All of the activities featured in the episodes are available on LL+L’s Resources website - including art projects - so that families can replicate them at home. Enjoy their 30-second promo (below) and check them out on YouTube!

How many of you have had the opportunity to visit the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture? I see your hands waving in pride. I’ll bet you’ve got the t-shirt, the mug, and the magnet. And why not?! The museum is a treasure to behold and the pride that comes with walking the halls of this monument to OUR history and culture makes one’s chest burst with pride. As travel remains complicated, the museum continues to engage with us and offer virtual exhibits. The NMAAHC Chez Baldwin virtual exhibit is timely in these travel and issue-weary days! As a reality design show junkie, it delights me to see two Black women take home big wins and to be reminded that Black women blazed reality design trails before there was such a thing. In this issue, we salute Black history makers like Carmeon Hamilton and Andrea Pitter. And we shine a spotlight on Tedde Gibson who brings silent film to life through his pipe organ mastery. This issue also reminds me of my gratitude for relationships. My friend, poet, and writer, Paul Harding, once taught young people in Seattle at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center. Paul Harding is a force! And when I came across an article noting that Miles Davis biographer Quincy Troupe had written the screenplay for an upcoming doc on the musician, I reached out to Paul, knowing of his friendship with the Troupes, to propose the possibility of a profile. What I got was an enthusiastic "YES," from both Paul and the Troupes. Having once visited their home myself to attend a Harlem Arts Salon event, I will always treasure the ability to have experienced their light! Thanks to these relationships, we have the high honor of an exclusive profile penned by Paul, highlighting the work Margaret Porter Troupe and Quincy Troupe are doing to build strong Black young minds through The Gloster Arts Project. Thank you Paul for lending your time and talent to Arté Noir. For many years, Val Thomas-Matson has kept me abreast of her work in television production. I knew her parents before meeting Val while she was still in college. Once we became friends, Val's magnetic and passionate personality has continued to lift my spirits. Seeing her realize her dream to build Look, Listen, & Learn - an early learning educational program that helps to bridge the achievement gap - also lifts my spirit. Watching her career in television production evolve to this place where she is now being honored and recognized for her labor of love is an inspiration! She is the Arté Noir super-subscriber, my personal spirit lifter, and de-facto PR person for this publication - Dorothy Mann excitedly shares articles and news with me that she knows will be of interest. Thank you, Dorothy, for turning us on to Ismail Einashe’s BBC published article on Nairobi’s thriving arts community, and thank you for being such a wonderful and engaged Arté Noir advocate. If it were not for my longtime friendship with filmmaker Barbara Allen, I may not have recognized that what HGTV does today on budgets that reach into the millions for design shows, she did with much less, making something out of very little. Proof that the saying “there is nothing new under the sun” is very true. BA, as she is affectionately known, continues to be an award-winning filmmaker and producer and more of her trailblazing will certainly be spotlighted here in the future. We hope that on these pages you will find information that may be the foundation for a new relationship, enhance an existing one, or jog your memory about something old made new. It is our joy to research, receive and share information that shines a bright light on Black art, Black artists, and Black culture. If you have an idea about something or someone you would like to see highlighted on these pages, drop us a line at info@artenoir.org, and give us a shout-out by sharing Arté Noir with others. We love you for reading! - Vivian Phillips - Founder // Editor-in-Chief