A Glimpse Of My Art (The L.O.T.E Tree)

Been a long time since I've posted here. As Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) said on his "Black On Both Sides" debut album, a lot of things have changed, a lot of things have not. Also been a long time since I've touched a brush, marker, or anything art-related. Lonnie Ali, the widow of the late Muhammad Ali (RA) said Parkinson's Disease robs you of your confidence. I can attest to that. Developing arthritis in my left hand only adds more sugar to the Kool-Aid. Typing has become a trial of epic proportions. I think I can do about 15-20 words a minute now. LOL. But it's all life right? And this life is a test. I'm thankful for the opportunity to be tested. This is a piece I've been woking on, and finally decided on a name. Introducing The L.O.T.E Tree. The Lesser Of Two Evils. Maybe someday, God Willing, I'll do into depth about it. Stay Tuned and take care.

Where Have I Been?

Where have I been? Good question, probably deerves a good answer, but I don't think you have the time right now. God willing, I will be posting more frequuently, and in the meantime, check out one of my projects I am working on. Peace.

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Working on my Love and War series. #art #artist #picoftheday #love #heart #me #painting #paint #green

A post shared by Quwwa_Artworks (@quwwa_artworks) on Aug 11, 2020 at 6:47pm PDT

Bamboozled: Spike Lee and the Case of Bad Timing... Part One

Yep...Spike, you've done it again.


You've continually managed to somehow stir up some type of controversy surrounding your releasing of new movies. This time it's packaged in the satirical movie entitled Chiraq. Drama and hype never ceases to be too far behind when your movies hit theaters, not the type of drama that would have some afraid to go see the movie out of fear that violence would erupt, such as some had suspected when the movie Do The Right Thing premiered. I saw the special edition DVD, which contained interviews at the Cannes Film Festival. I saw the "concern" of some Whites, especially the White woman who asked why did you show Malcolm X's statements about using violence to defend oneself when attacked first, as opposed to Dr. King's call for nonviolence. I think you handled that question in excellent fashion.

But in this movie Chiraq, I am forced to voice my concern and confusion over the approach of this film. This film is supposed to be a "satire", which the average homie or street dude on the corner may not fully understand what's going on. But I understand fully.

See, I am a Muslim, and I'm ever-watchful of the backlash against Muslims due to propaganda, especially the "events" that took place in France over the Charlie Hebdo issue, as well as the shootings in Garland, Texas, which supposedly took place over a Prophet Muhammad cartoon drawing contest, which was mysteriously devised by Pam Gellar and Geert Wilders, two non-Muslims who are notorious for stirring up anti-Muslim sentiments, and hiding them under pseudonyms of "free-speech" or in the case of Charlie Hebdo "satire". I am fully aware that satire is used to ridicule a particular individual, group, institution, or belief, using slick humor. I'm also aware that it is used as a form of subversion in an attempt to bring down such entities and ideologies.

Which is why I'm very confused as to why would you take this approach in addressing the violence in Chicago, especially in lieu of the proliferation of the Black feminist movement, and their "gynocentric" view of the world, which renders man, especially Black men in this case, as inept, belligerent, incompetent beings who only understands violence, sex, and money, having very little or no intellect at all, and proving incapable of having any positive impact in society, whether from a societal, or familial point of view.

The idea of using an old Greek comedy of women banning the coochie in order to increase the peace among warring factions is befuddling to say the least.  In this case of Chiraq, you are using women, whom for some strange reason are "empowered" to withhold sex from their combative significants as some sort of protest without asking the question why would such "intelligent" soul sistas would even skooch the coochie to such men who harbor self-destructive behavior in the first place is perplexing! Talk about paradoxical!

TO BE CONTINUED....

My Baloney Has A First Name...It's O-S-C-A-R!

Why Halle have to let a white man pop her to get a Oscar? Why Denzel have to be crooked before he took it?

 


These are the words from a popular rap song entitled "Why?" performed by Jadakiss, asking the question why do Blacks have to play the most demeaning roles in order to be recognized by the Academy Awards. The song raised important questions that still resonate among some Blacks in regards to the stereotypical nature of Hollywood, yet in today's so-called Colorblind Society, this is propagated as "haterism" or "jealous", which people throw aside quickly, seeing that Blacks seem to have made progress in America.

Now the latest PBG(Pretty Black Girl) Lupita Nyong'o is all the rave among Hollywood and social media, and with the "achievement" of her Academy Award for her role as a slave and constant rape victim named Patsey in the Academy Award winning film "12 Years A Slave", her brand is now brighter than ever before. I can't seem to go a day or even an hour without checking my FB page and seeing all of the posts and images of how beautiful she is, look at her, you go girl comments from Black women, pictures of her walking alongside White actors and actresses up and down Hollywood, which gives Black women the feeling of accomplishments, progress and intergration, and the idea of not having to deny your Blackness in order to accomplish goals in America.

But is that what we're really seeing here, especially when we take a look at the latest winners and nominees in the last few years, or are we seeing a disturbing pattern that very few are willing to recognize?

This gentlemen here seems to think otherwise. I captured this tweet from one of my FB friends, which started a brief discussion( at least on her post), but others commented on a another post with the usual claims of "steady bitchin" and probably threw in some hater quotes in there too. But let's take a close look at what this gentleman is alleging and let's see if there is some merit to his post.

Let's start with Hattie McDaniel's role in the 1939 movie Gone With The Wind,  a docile maid who although she scolded some of the characters, did not countermand or go against the mistress, Scarlett O' Hara. The movie doesn't show anything about Tara's life outside of being a plantation maid. The movie also casts Butterfly McQueen as a maid, a role which she herself says she didn't like because it was demeaning, especially with the stereotypical catchphrase "I don't know nothin' bout birthin babies." Hattie tried to take the mammy schtick out on the road after the GWTW success, but Blacks weren't having it. On this discussion on FB, one African American woman replied that she would rather win an award as a maid than to play a Black whore around a bunch of Black men. I quickly replied to her that in essence there is no difference between the two, seeing that the slavemaster would sleep with his maids if he wished, and gave her the example of the double-standard of Josephine Baker, and recollected all of the accolades she was given for the strip tease dances she would perform onstage while White men in safari suits stood back and let her do her thing, yet hip hop video queens are chided and ridiculed for doing the same thing around Black men. I still ask what is the difference? I surely don't see any. The illusion of inclusion truly clouds many minds.

We all know Halle Berry's win for her role in the 2001 movie Monster's Ball, where she plays a woman who sleeps with one of her husband's executioners, played by Billy Bob Thornton. We've all seen in some fashion the teary-eyed, overly emotional acceptance speech she gave at the Academy Awards. One has to ask oneself, what did she do that was so deserving of a Best Actress Award in a movie about a Black woman sleeping with a Southern hick officer who help executes her Black husband? I mean really? Halle, who has also received criticism from the Black community for "abandoning Black men" after she claimed in an Ebony article that she would never again marry, only to be found engaged to two different Europeans, is quite a study in exploitation and stereotypes of the Black woman. All one has to do is factor in this movie, as well the movie Swordfish, which has her stripping down to her undies in front of two White men, which she claims in an interview that she felt that her participation in that movie took Black women's sexuality to a direction where it had never been before...Are you freakin' kidding me? Read the interview right here. http://cinema.com/articles/471/swordfish-interview-with-halle-berry.phtml

Halle also gets the dubious distinction, in my opinion, of portraying the skankiest Catwoman character ever... I'm sorry, but I didn't see Anne Hathaway play Catwoman that way, and her outfit definitely was not as trashy either...call me a hater if you wish.

Let's move on to Mo'Nique and her Academy Award winning role as an abusive ghetto mother in the movie Precious, which was also nominated for Best Picture in 2010 as well. Again I ask, what is so significant and complex about playing an abusive, single Black ghetto drama queen that Mo'Nique is given an award? Isn't this the same woman who a few years earlier played a stereotypical, man-chasing, self-absorbed ignorant mother on the series The Parkers? In 2009 it was alleged that she owned the rights to Hattie McDaniels' story. Somehow she too thinks that portraying slaves and demeaning roles and winning an award for it is an accomplishment...Go figure. The illusion of inclusion truly runs deep.

Then there's Denzel Washington, Mr. Classy himself, who was nominated in his stellar role in Malcolm X(1992), a movie produced by Spike Lee,  but missed out somehow to Al Pacino. Now back in the day I would've blown a gasket for that film not receiving an award, but then again, I didn't know back then what I know now, especially after Denzel wins an award for portraying a demented, crooked cop on the take in the movie Training Day(2001). If you're not seeing a pattern here, something's wrong with you.

But let's go further...

Remember that movie Hustle and Flow, a 2005 movie starring Terrence Howard? He received a nomination for playing a pimp/hustler turned rapper named DJay. Now I want to say something before I go further here. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and did not mind the songs in the film, created by a rap group Three 6 Mafia, because I understood the subject matter and the songs Whoop That Trick and It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp, which the latter won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. In the context of the movie, I have no problem. But taken away from the movie, it could come across as something different, so my question is why is that song nominated and chosen as Best Original Song? Given the hypermasculine roles given to Black men in films and music, and also seeing movies like Coonskin and Fritz The Cat and the HBO series The Wire which were passed off as social commentary depicting Blacks in some of the most demeaning fashions,  one cannot help but sense something fishy here. I mean if a Black organization were to give it accolades because it depicted a real life story of marginalized Black people, cool....But this song is selected by people who probably never ventured into inner cities unless they've experienced trying to pick up prostitutes and drugs in these areas. Especially if the allegations are true, that anywhere between 60-75% of rap audiences are White Males, especially between the ages of 18-34. It should make you think something fishy is going on here.

Then there's Ray(2004), where actor Jamie Foxx won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the late musician Ray Charles. While Ray was commended for overcoming his drug problems, his life was certainly not the one you would want to show as a stand up human being, especially with his extramarital affairs. And what is one of the main complaints that has been typecasted of Black men? The inability to commit, irresponsibility, being disrespectful of women, cheating on their wives. One would ask the question if the person was a rapper, would he garner the same respect?  Some people were even under the impression that all of the accolades were heaped upon him due to his illness, including the Grammy award given for his last album before his death.

BUT WAIT...We have The Last King of Scotland (2006), a British film based on a fictional novel, starring Forest Whitaker, who won the Oscar for playing Idi Amin, a Ugandan dictator. This film, like 12 Years A Slave, was produced by Fox Searchlight, which castes a dubious distinction here as well. So now we have Africans portraying roles of African American slaves and wenches, and African Americans portraying crazed African dictators...All from the same production company, and winning Academy Awards for their roles, and still nobody sees anything wrong with this. Truly the illusion of inclusion runs deep.

What makes LKOS so bad is that it's mixed with fiction and actual events, but in an image based society, nobody reads or reads with comprehension. They watch movies and what does this movie show? White guy goes to Africa, gets laid by the native women, in typical African women fashion, 'cause you know they're nymphos, right? Gets next to crazed dictator, finds out he's not all he's cracked up to be, sleeps with dictator's wife, 'cause you know African women are nymphos, right? Finds out dictator slices up wife, dude gets tortured by dictator, manages to escape with his life,  the end. And you wonder why I'm not eager to even watch 12 Years A Slave. So now people can get away with mixing true events and fiction, and it makes a splash at the movies, and African American actors don't see anything wrong with this.

Then there's Will Smith in The Pursuit Of Happyness....I don't even want to go there with that one, because the title of the film tells you what's missing here. What happened to the right to live, which also means the right to have access to a decent quality of life, which is not what this country lives up to? This "personal achievement" actually came at the cost of his wife, who left him after not being able to live in squalor, which didn't make her come out of this movie on a good note either.

So when we get to this years' winners 12 Years A Slave and Lupita Nyong'o, one should not be amazed at the growing amount of discontent among some Blacks who have seen enough slave movies and movies that put Blacks in a marginalized position as incompetent, criminal, and inferior...It also castes a bad reflection of living in an image based society, where as Dr. Gail Dines puts it,  most people are image illiterate, and do not understand the subliminal messages laid out by Hollywood and corporations. I mean instead of ooooing and aaahing over Lupita, why isn't anyone really looking at the theme behind the movie, which basically means no matter how you may claim yourself as free, a Black person is not truly free in this country? And why could they not make a movie about the Dred Scott case? Is it because they can't concentrate on Black women getting raped in a film like that? Now do a movie about Dred Scott, and I might see it, unless Fox Searchlight produces it....and by the way let's not forget the other nominee Burkhad Abdi, the Somali actor who was nominated for his role as a PIRATE in Captain Phillips. Just looks like Black people really are inferior from Hollywoods' standpoint.

All in all, these awards don't mean anything to me anymore.They're just props and PR gadgets if you ask me.

Oscar really has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A.  www.qartworks.com

X'd Out Again? My opinions on the recent Malcolm X controversies.

Peace all, Let's skip the chit chat and let's get down to business, OK? First my apologies for what may seem to many to be a late blog, seeing that we are now living in the age where "news" is trendy, and people are now given the impression that things work in a vacuum, or at least are considered "isolated". I assure you although this bit of "news" is about a few weeks old, it all ties into a much bigger picture. And allthough I thought of speaking frankly about Nicki Minaj's song Lookin' Ass Nigga, I hesitated much, one because of my procrastination, but also because I witness more "knee jerk" reactions when news hits the air nowadays. We tend to take the little information we feel we know, and then comment right away based on what we have at that moment. I for one think this is planned by the main press. However, if there is anything that 9/11 has taught us, especially for those who do not believe the official story, is to research, research, research before coming to conclusions that affect the masses of people.

The controversy surrounding Nicki Minaj's song with the Malcolm X picture is one of many attempts to distort the name and the legacy of the late Al-Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz, better know as Malcolm X. Although she supposedly apologized and removed the image, stating that this was a conversation piece and was not the official first song off the album, it still poses as a marketing tactic that Michael Lindstrom, author of Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use To Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us To Buy, says that Calvin Klein used in 1995 when it pulled its controversial ad after an uproar from the public, and even the federal government.  In his opinion it really didn't matter that CK apologized and pulled the ad , because the controversy surrounding it and the attention it garnered was the main focus. It didn't adversely affect CK's bottom line in the end, and I don't think this incident will affect Nicki's bottom line either, seeing that many who were disgusted with the song and image most likely don't buy her work to begin with, and not to mention it won't affect the sponsorship she gets from "old money." Her target audience probably doesn't know a thing about Malcolm and what he stood for, nor the background behind the image. But I'll discuss that issue later.

 How many of us remember what happened around the same time of this controversy? You know In Queens, NY? The issue involving the teacher who barred her students from writing any reports about Malcolm because she thought that he was a bad man? How many of us who may have heard or read the article noticed that the elementary teacher who made the remarks was nowhere to be mentioned by name in ANY ARTICLE? Nor was the teacher even interviewed by any media who covered the story? Doesn't that sound strange to you, that the accused is not mentioned nor interviewed as to why they would make such remarks?

Many people have forgotten so quickly about the book Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, a book written by Manning Marable, a book that caused so much controversy because of its claims that Malcolm had a homosexual encounter in his hustler day, as well as allegations of having a tumultous marriage life with Betty Shabazz, especially with his busy schedule, among other claims. I didn't read the book at all after hearing what some of the book entails, simply because I didn't believe that I wanted to read a so called definitive book entitled A Life of Reinvention about a man who died in 1965, only to have supposed stark revelations 45-46 years AFTER his death? I don't think it would've taken the American press THAT LONG to dig up dirt on such an important figure.

And to think this book won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012, despite the criticism received from his children and close associates? So who's really behind this?

Well deeper research brings up a figure by the name of Wendy Wolf, a self proclaimed progressive who is the editor and publisher of Viking Books, who went on a tour touting this book and the supposed craftsmanship of a writer such as Manning Marable. However after listening to her make statements about Malcolm's "native" intelligence, and her own admission that she did not read the book in its' entirety due to the fact that it "scared" her, one must ask oneself would a person publish a book which castes a good light on a man that they practically can't stand?

 By now if you're still reading this, you're probably thinking "ok, another person claiming conspiracy" and to each it's own. I just think something smells fishy when one recollects the recent events and put them together. Why is this man hated so? Why is there an attempt to either distort the name and what he stood for, or at least neutralize his influence, which one can bear witness when one looks at the number people he influenced from the former members of the Nation of Islam to the international love he gets from within and outside the Muslim World, the white Muslims who point to his autobiography as a major influence in their becoming Muslim, to the ever growing love and support from the Hip Hop Community?

But I have an even more pressing question. In light of the events that's going on in America, with gentrification all over the place, the growing discontent for America's first Black President, the killing, miseducation, disenfranchisement and incarceration of Black people, especially Black Men beyond the likes of Trayvon, Oscar and Jordan, with the drone strikes and security breaches and invasion of privacy going on in a global fashion, why do we see these sporadic attacks on a man who's been dead for 49 years? Why would an unnamed teacher seek to dissaude their students from writing about such a figure if old people are supposed to be "irrelevant"? Or are they really sporadic? Are they controlled in the press as to what, when and how we receive such information?

 Is it because he represents a  dramatic transformation from hustler to a well respected world figure for human rights and self sufficiency, instead of a figurehead that's controlled by old money and corporations, who seeks to intergrate with a society who feels and teaches the inherent inferiority of Blacks? Is it because he saw the false empathy from White Liberals, and made many statements against the likes of them, for example in an open roundtable he made this statement in 1961:

  Most of your white liberals who profess to love Negroes and who profess to be pushing for this integration thing, they themselves live as a rule in lily-white neighborhoods and sometimes they’re the first ones to put the FOR SALE sign on their door when a Negro who has fallen for this integration thing moves into their neighborhood. I think that it’s very hypocritical today for me as a black man and the white man to sit down with each other and pro fess that there is a great deal of love between us. 

  Or another statement: ...no the Jews are the ones who usually represent themselves as white liberals. More so probably than any other segment of this society. Now if the Jews are genuinely liberal and they want to help the Negro, then they should show the Negro how to use the same kind of strategy and tactics to solve his problem that they used to solve their problems. And you’ll find that all over this country, wherever the Jews have been segregated and Jim Crowed, they haven’t sat in, they haven’t been sittin’ or Freedom Riders, they usually go and use the economic weapon. They bought Atlantic City, and now they can go there. They bought Miami Beach and now they can go there.

  Or another statement: We see masses of Black people who are thoroughly fed up with the deceit of the so-called white liberals, or the white so-called liberals. White liberals who have posed as our friends, white liberals who have been eager to point out what the white man in the South is doing to our people there, while they themselves are doing the same thing to us here in the North.

Why isn't he projected as an example for all of the young Black hustlers as a vehicle for transformation and reformation? Why do we have to keep hearing Dr. King's speeches about I have a dream, which was about intergration, and not about Black people's quest for justice, human rights and independence? Is intergration going to make these young men pull up their pants, start respecting their elders and become more responsible, and not lead lives that will either have them in prison or dead? I think not.

Or, do we really want to see transformation or reformation among young Black men or in the Black community? That's my real question.... www.qartworks.com

Davey D's Interview with the Late Gary Webb on CIA, Contras and Crack

Peace all ... under the weather, but still at work...check out this blog by Davey D...Hope to be back SOON!

http://hiphopandpolitics.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/the-cia-contras-and-crack-the-first-radio-intv-w-the-late-garry-webb/

Painting(Tribute to Sgt. Hogues and the Tuskegee Airmen)

Salaam and Good Evening all...Working on other projects, will fill ya in soon. Right now check out my tribute painting to the Tuskegee Airmen...Take care!

Like...WHOA...AGAIN!!! (CWATIC 2)

Peace all,

I thought I'd come back with the quickness, seeing that I did not fully explain why my latest proposed exhibit Grey Matters is being pushed back, but really the news is great, and it could really lead to something else, God Willing.

I wanted to push the project back due to an event coming March 17th that I feel very honored and priveleged to partake in. On March 17th, Staff Sgt. Homer Hogues, one of the original Tuskegee Red Tails will be speaking for about an hour at the Highland Hills Library. One of the librarians, Ms. Almetta Russell, had been pushing very hard for this to happen, along with being an avid supporter and lover of my work. She finally got the go ahead to produce this event, and in the process she has commissioned me to present a piece in his honor. I felt this was a great opportunity to build bridges, educate and pay respects to someone who contributed a great service.

Then last week while at home recovering from some sort of sinus attack, I received an email from her, requesting that I exhibit my work in addition to presenting a piece to Staff Sgt. Homer Hogues...

WOW!!!! Here was an opportunity to remix the See What I See(CWATIC) exhibit to another audience. So I'm back at the lab again, concocting some pieces that I feel best represents the community, and expanding my scope as well. I'm looking at this as a bridge or a prelude to the Grey Matters which I hope will bring a lot of different perspectives to the project. Plus I have other projects coming up, hoping to raise some funds in order to publicize Grey Matters much more intensely...

Things have been picking up since last October when I started this exhibit thingy, and I have some very special people to thank...You know who you are...But I also want to thank those who continue to take time to read about my little world...Thank you so much...I pray there's more in store....Peace.


CWATIC @ WWW.QARTWORKS.COM.... Click HERE to enter...