As part of the museum’s longstanding commitment to and collaboration with institutions of higher learning on the continent, more than 100 copies of the Heroes catalog will be donated to universities and art institutions across Africa.
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WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art will release the catalog to its landmark, award-winning, multi-platform project “Heroes: Principles of African Greatness” Sept. 3. Initiated and led by curator Kevin D. Dumouchelle, the “Heroes” project has grown from an in-person exhibition built of more than 50 art works from the museum’s collection, which ran from 2019 to 2022, to an ongoing multimedia digital experience featuring videos, an interactive tour, a curated playlist and finally, a book published by Hirmer Publishers and jointly distributed by the University of Chicago Press.
The book, authored by Dumouchelle, will be available in bookstores worldwide and is currently available to pre-order.
“Heroes gives readers an opportunity to imagine a new future inspired by the visions and lives, the triumphs and the tragedies, of Africa’s arts and history,” Dumouchelle said.
“Building from the creative genius of the African artists featured in the project, Heroes encourages all who engage with it to explore how its art works narrate stories connected to African history while also inspiring connections to their own lives and experiences.”
CHICAGO- "Color Me Bronzeville" from ONLI STUDIOS LLC is an activity book/coloring book that takes its smart users on a fun-fact and hip-tips filled journey into the iconic historical Bronzeville District of Chicago.. From being a positive destination for thousands of Black Southern Migrants during the Great Migration of the early 20th Century to now being revitalized in a dynamic nexus of creativity, culture & commerce.
30 years ago in 1993 Prof. Onli launched the growing Black Age of Comics movement/genre in the National Treasure, South Side Community Art Center in this historic district.
"Color Me Bronzeville" is now on sell via the ONLI STUDIOS website, ( www.onlistudios.com ), and the Trading Post Gift Shop of the DuSable Museum of Black History & Educational Center. The DuSable Museum was founded in the early 1960s in Bronzeville by the late Margret & Charles Burroughs along with their intelligentsia circle. Onli closely mentored under them in the Summers of 1970 & '71 in the beginning of his long Rhythmistic career.
Featuring the great Eric Battle: Please tune in for the premiere of The Infinite Art Hunt episode, entitled "Comic Books & Sonic Sable," which will air for the first time on Thursday, July 13. It will appear both on WHYY's TV-12 broadcast channel at 11:30 am as well as on the WHYY YouTube page where you'll be able to access and link to it any time.
Part of the episode was filmed last year at Amalgam Comic Books & Coffeehouse with owner Ariell Johnson in Philadelphia.
I hope you're able to tune in and enjoy! Please forgive my constant look of "stage fright" while watching.
Have a great day, stay safe, inspired & keep creating!
Best always,
Eric
The link above is to Prof. Onli on Punx of Rage Friday 24th 2023.
Below is a link covering deep insights related in bring the full funk and fire of the Black Age to the world of comics:
Above is the link to the Punx of Rage interview with the Onyx-Con event producer Joseph Wheeler III.
Below is the link to the Punx of Rage interview with the Motor City Black Age of Comics / Manga event, Andre Batts!
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QR to where a picture is still worth a thousand words! Look for our Graphic Novels Tab!
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"What& In Your Collection?"
Below is the link to the Punx of Rage interview with ECBACC Event Producer Yumy Odom!
NOTE: February 2023 features our third annual virtual, bold,self-guided, free-range, dynamic, educational, inter-global convention. Thanks to the likes of you, a lot has happened since our bold launch in February of 1993!
LINK: To Afrofuture Podcast: Carnegie Hall.
We will organically upload resources each week during this month.
Our ever-cool and totally hip partner in Sankofa this year, Punx of Rage, will be doing vivid interviews with selected intelligent Black Age Greats! Blog Talk Radio. com / Punx of Rage.
Feel free to visit them to learn from their trove of past unique cataloged interviews.
And yes....you do not have to be Black to participate. However, it helps to be cool, awesome, intelligent or positive.
BTW! Keep buying & sharing the fantastic indie Black Age of Comics books and other powerful products as these dedicated publishers cannot do this amazing work without your real-world participation! Store Link
We overwhelmed this industry back in 1992 when Prof. Onli brilliantly wrote the fruitful article for "The Comics Buyers Guide" entitled "The Black Age of Comics", that laid out, in manifesto style, the scope and potential of the Black Age of Comics as a genre & powerful movement.
With support from Milestone Media it was proudly punctuated in 1993 when ONLI STUDIOS brazenly produced the first, open to all, fully functioning, Black Age Convention in Chicago's historic South Side Community Art Center to forever expand this nexus of creativity, culture & commerce forever. This was also the same month as the official launch of the almighty Milestone Media line of potent multicultural characters and products.
Three decades of offering the best of the Black Age of Comics!
"How much Diversity, Color, or Alternative were in this industry before we launched our Bold Black Age Bomb in 1993?"
That mission has transformed this industry forever!
Thanks Y'all!
Our Graphitti Logo Tab was created by the talented team of Jennifer Witt and Alanni.
This was the very first event of its kind on planet Earth! But not the last.
Bold enuff to call itself BLACK!
Yet open enuff to reach out to all positive folks, be they Fluid, Blue, Red, Straight, Disabled, POC, Hippies, Normal, Black, FLKs, White, Asian, LatinX, Green, Yellow, Bronze, Odd, Gifted, or Martian.Fertile enuff to be welcome imitation but Rhythmistic enuff to never be duplicated!
Killa support was given to us at that time by the ever-awesome Milestone Media, and Herbert Nipson, The Executive Editor of The Johnson Publishing Company. Produced by ONLI STUDIOS LLC. Hosted in the Bronzeville District of Chicago at the historic National Treasure certified South Side Community Art Center.
Truth be Told!
Focusing on practical reflection, education, exposure, enrichment and creative production.
Still universally open as only Black can be. Open to all positive folks from Mars, back yonder, both sides of the tracks, down under, around the way and out back! Moving forward in our virtual platform & program during the month of February each year!
Still pushing the glory and story of all things indie in this hybrid nexus of narrative art, literature, creativity, culture, & commerce!
We appreciate all of the generous donations & purchases from those of you who generously give to our killa mission of positive Creativity, Culture, & Commerce!
We could not do it without your luv!
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2021 featured the original, 1981 "NOG: The Protector of the Pyramides", 1981 and the 1982 'zine, "Future-Funk". Both published by ONLI STUDIOS, opening the door to the Black Age of Comics genre & movement.
In 1992 Onli, with a article published by the Comics Buyers Guide, coined the term, "The Black Age of Comics" to launch an open genre that celebrates concepts, content, characters and creators derived from the Black, Urban, African, Alternative or Indie experience.
That article was actually published in Feb. 1993, the same month of the Milestone Media launch and in sync with the first Black Age of Comics Convention in Chicago.
Check out this dynamic Summer 2021 group exhibition called "Chicago Comics: 1960 until Now!"Curated by Dan Nadel
Be safe & be smart!
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Buy, Collect & Gift Indie Art
Books & Products!
CHICAGO COMICS 1960 Until now!
Launched way back in the 20th Century at the SSCAC in the historic Bronzeville district of Chicago! Now impacting the entire industry derived from comic books or graphic novels.
The Black Age of Comics is a growing open innovative genre that celebrates creators, concepts, styles, treatments and products in this amazing industry that are derived from the Black, Urban, African, Alternative or Indie experience.
It was launched in 1993 by ONLI STUDIOS in Chicago with the help of a lot of creative folks and resources.
Prof. Onli often asks the simple question: "How diverse were the Graphics Novels & Animation industries before 1993 when we exploded with the indie Black Age Bomb? How much "Color" was in these industries?"
"How open was this game back then?"
The answers are proof that the indie Black Age is winning. Is kickin', its raw....and is all about you! The most independent force in comix ever!
This is a competition for minds and markets. Its the Mainstream: Old huge and orthodox. Versus Our Dream: Small, funky, new, agile, innovative and open!!!
One does not have to be Black to participate.....just like you do not have to be Chinese or Mexican to explore their cuisine. We welcome you and yours to sample and share our unique flavors!
More, More…MORE!!!
Breaking in Chicago, New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Detroit, The Caribbean, and more…
For mobile downloads and more please visit our Store, Gallery and Hype & Reviews pages before you leave.
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"Living' In Da Black Age"
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"Future Funk was first published in 1982. Pre-Afrofuturism. It was an innovative 'zine to promote and present the Arts, innovative illustrations, articles and cartoons, along with a path to the future for all that is visual Funk. It was inspired by my time in Paris working as an illustrator. I was working for MODE Avant Garde and the Paris Metro there in the late '70s and really putting my best hustle on gigging with Metal Hurlant. Moebius was the head at Metal Hurlant, which we knew in the USA as Heavy Metal. He hit me up with a few questions to which the answer was if I wanted it to happen, I would have to publish it!
Future Funk was rebooted in 2009..... thanks to serious design work from my fave "Bad-Ash".....Ashley A. Woods. Now it is reconstructed in focused format with a bomb cover treatment by Eric Battle. In 2021 Future Funk was included in a major group exhibition, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago called "Chicago Comics: 1960 until Now' Curated by Dan Nadel. What a way to re-open some museum moments in our post Covid re-emergence."
The BLACK AGE of COMICS is the expansive future of this industry. Why be loyal to characters created in the 1940s and 1960s? Your music and food choices are not that lame. Often limited to characters that your grandparents grew up on? Rebooted? Remixed? Alternative-Casting? Really?
"Why is your music collection Blacker than your Graphic Novels or Comix collection?". This was a question Onli posed in an interview with GQ Magazine a while back. The writer had no answer.
Indie publishers like ONLI STUDIOS , Punx Of Rage, Kiss Me Comix, BIG CITY, Rosarium, Kamite Comics, Black Sands & Urban Style........ with kindred support and advanced production values from the likes of Milestone Media have forged a complex path to expansion, excellence, enlightenment, education and entertainment with concepts, styles and characters that go where the mainstream does not!
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