The Black Arts Movement Exhibit at The Getty Center Museum

[00:00:00]Happy Thursday morning. It's June 11th.

[00:00:02]It's about 8:30 a.m. West Coast time. Uh so yesterday morning um in the wake of the conviction in the trial in Texas uh of the black teenager who stabbed another white teenager in self-defense. I did several videos yesterday morning talking about race and those were a little nerve-wracking to do. Uh in in a couple of those videos I explained why.

[00:00:36]Um but I I just think that everything everything that's going on in this country right now uh can be traced back to just blatant racism against black people against black Americans.

[00:00:53]And so I made those videos and I've gotten a lot of really positive comments from people, including a lot of positive comments from black creators on this app. Uh, for which I'm grateful. Um, but you know, I still have a hell of a lot to learn about race in the United States and antilackness specifically, uh, and racism.

[00:01:15]And so yesterday, and my brother and I planned this like two weeks ago, um for Wednesday the 10th, we wanted to go see the Getty Museum, Ge Ty, in uh Los Angeles, right off the 405.

[00:01:31]It's up on a hilltop.

[00:01:34]Absolutely stunning facility.

[00:01:37]Apparently, our timing was pretty good.

[00:01:39]uh they're getting ready to shut the whole thing down for a year in order to get ready for the summer Olympics in Los Angeles uh next in two years from now.

[00:01:51]And they have five galleries there, five different buildings that are galleries and a research center.

[00:02:00]Uh four of those five gallery buildings were closed. There was one gallery building that was open and it had three levels. Top level was paintings and then sculptures and we went through all the sculptures and it was just it was incredible. And on the bottom level was photography.

[00:02:21]And the entire floor uh was dedicated to uh the the exhibit was called Photography and the Black Arts Movement is black Americans, black American photographers, primarily black American subjects.

[00:02:44]And the photos ranged from 1955 to 1985 and primarily photosuh that were taken in the south and in New York City in the 60s and things like that.

[00:02:58]And several of the photos you can see them on Getty's website uh gty.edu uh and just scroll down and you'll find it. It's under exhibitions and it's really like one of only three exhibitions that they have going on right now because so many of those buildings are closed.

[00:03:21]But it's like just thinking about the things that I've been thinking about this week with race and and these these trial verdicts that that we've seen in the last couple of weeks and after seeing, you know, the the US Supreme Court overturn the Voting Rights Act and disenfranchising 26 million black Americans in the South from being represented in the House of Representatives.

[00:03:48]Race is everywhere and everything today, I think. And I think more specifically, antilackness uh is everywhere and everything today.

[00:03:59]and we walked in and saw this exhibit.

[00:04:04]And we spent like we spent a we spent a couple hours with this exhibit just going photo by photo by photo.

[00:04:12]And it was really amazing and impactful and seeing some of the images and seeing some of the people in the images and and and reading on the wall some of the stories of the photographers.

[00:04:27]uh in their subjects. It was it was just extremely impactful and and it was and it just kind of worked out that way. You know, we didn't know that exhibit was going to be there when we planned this trip two weeks ago. Uh we certainly didn't know it was going to be there after I recorded all of those videos yesterday morning. Um but from their website, the description of the exhibit is as follows. Uh amid the turbulent dec decades of the mid 20th century, African-American and Afroatlantic diaspora artists, there are some photos from Africa as well, uh sought to celebrate black culture and advance the struggle for civil rights. Photographic images contributed in myriad ways to the lively exchange of pan-African ideas that propelled the black arts movement.

[00:05:22]See how an incredible range of artists and activists from studio to street photographers to graphic designers and community organizers used photography as a tool for social change. Uh the exhibition includes a broad spectrum of imagery. Uh while a great number of pictures are joyous, the installation also includes representations of violence, many of which were circulated in their time to bring attention to racism and its effects and antilackness in the United States during that period of time.

[00:05:58]It's a phenomenal exhibit. It was just absolutely phenomenal.

[00:06:02]Um [clears throat] I mean I wish I could I wish I could go back and see it again a second time. Um, but you know, a dozen or so of the photos that are in the exhibit are included on Getty's website at getty.edu slexhibitions backblacky artshy movement. And I can't recommend it enough, man.

[00:06:30]Especially these days. Especially these days. It's just remarkable, remarkable work and remarkable history. It's very impactful.