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Above the Clouds

ART/CULTURE BLOG 

Museums, Art Shows, Culture Events, and More ... 

Perri + Ren: Full Circle 

July 26th,2024

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          Full Circle was an exhibit curated by Perri + Ren art gallery that displayed stunning photography from Betty Asmerom and Mary Yemane. These talented Eritrean photographers captured the most alluring photos of Eritrea, South Central LA, ATL, Europe, and more. The way they captured people, colors, fashion, as well as scenery, is remarkable—these women’s photography will be in my home one day.

          Some of my favorite pictures by Mary was the portrait of a beautiful dark-skinned woman that she shot against a red background with vibrant blue hair. Another favorite was the portrait of Chika, which made her look so beautiful, elegant, and truly captured her essence as an artist.

Betty’s work was equally captivating. The portrait of a woman with beautiful red curls and flowers on her face was stunning. The photo of Mary that Betty displayed exuded confidence and assuredness, reflecting Mary’s true essence. The captivating image of the mother-daughter duo, who were not only matching but also evoked a deep excitement in me to one day become a girl mom, was particularly memorable.

          Both visual artists did an amazing job of capturing not just others but also creating stories through the images they captured from their homeland of Eritrea. Attending their exhibit felt like they brought their homes to us and allowed us inside. As always, Perri + Ren puts together remarkable galleries, and as an art lover and future collector, I am continually introduced to so many talented people and beautiful art to acquire.

Perri + Ren: Faces Artist Talk  

June. 31st, 2024

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          Perri + Ren is an art gallery that features different exhibitions every month. I had the pleasure of attending my first gallery event with them in June. One of my best friends, Onyx, was showcasing their amazing pieces, so I knew I had to be in attendance.

          When I arrived, the art lover in me was ecstatic. The pieces that not only my best friend created but also the other artists displayed were stunning. Each artist had their interpretation of the theme, which was Faces and it was beautiful and amazing to see. I truly enjoyed their versions of what Faces represented to them.

          The other artists who were part of the exhibit included Agechi Ugwuh, Natou Fall, Jazmine Quintero, Brianna Simone, Asari Aibangee, and Dijah Williams. Besides my best friend’s amazing tufted pieces, my two other favorites were Natou’s piece, and Jazmine’s "Ego/Greed" self-portrait. Those two pieces spoke to me in almost emotional ways.

          For example, with Natou’s piece, she is a very beautiful dark-skinned woman, and seeing her make an imprint of her face with leather and the other purple pieces that were side profiles of her face. It was a reminder that we are so beautiful and it is unbeatable.

          Jazmine’s piece spoke to me in a way that reminded us all that we are the ones who ultimately feed ourselves the false narratives. Yes, people outside can be horrible, but why must we digest it and be horrible to ourselves?

          Onyx’s pieces—where do I begin? Their pieces are tufted paintings that offer a colorful, trippy way of showcasing self-portraits and are inspired by their loved ones and people with dope faces (like Slick Woods). To be honest, you had to be there to see just how amazing their pieces were. One of the pieces is the icon for this blog. Also, I have been blessed to receive a piece inspired by my face with their choice of colors and animation.

          The gallery was one for the books, and I can't wait to visit again.

          In addition to just viewing the gallery itself, I was able to attend the artist talks as well. Listening to each artist discuss their journey, what got them to where they are, how they find inspiration, and how they create even when life throws them curveballs was amazing to me.

Leimert Park Presents: Juneteenth 2023 

June. 19th 2023

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          On June 19th, 2023, a few creatives from the Leimert Park/Crenshaw District area hosted their 5th annual Juneteenth festival. It is a homage to the Sunday flea market that used to be held weekly around 10 to 15 years ago. Leimert Park has always been the epicenter of Black pride, Black business, and Black community building within Los Angles for as long as I could remember. So, the event was created to honor that while also honoring and celebrating the freedom that Black people fought for and received from emancipation.   

 

          This year the festival was the biggest that I had ever seen! It took over the streets from Stocker to Vernon; from Crenshaw to Leimert. There was so much art and so many different artistry and commemoration exhibits for the 50th year anniversary of Hip-Hop. It was honestly a beautiful site to see; from the outfits to everyone dancing, embracing, and loving on each other. The children were outside having fun, dancing, and getting to see the beauty of the community they are from. I loved the energy and the way the community was able to come together, enjoy and celebrate. We had performances from artists like Too Short, Wale, Kalan Frfr, and more. We had local talent performing on various stages as well. Jasmine Sullivan was going to be the closing performance it felt amazing to see just how well and big the festival had got.

 

          However, there were three stampedes caused by false alarms and the community’s, “If one runs, we all run” mentality. At this moment, there was a realization of how dangerous a situation like this could be (crowded and limited space). There were people with their children on their hips, shoulders, and in strollers; so, with three different stampedes, the amount of fear, franticness, and worry I saw fill the atmosphere turned great vibes to complete panic. Along with that, there was a realization that the fights and disturbances (between teens) that broke out accompanied by theft at the local McDonald’s may have caused the commotion.

 

          I guess I have reached the age where I see that a few people can attempt to ruin such a dope, historical, and monumental festival that truly has gotten better every year. It was also made apparent that the safety of the people needs to be the number one priority for events like this. Attendees should feel safe and comfortable to come out into the community and celebrate our legacies and history. They should not be seeing fights in one corner or having to panic due to false alarms of danger. I will also state that there was no service at the park as well. Which when all the stampedes were going on allowed me to see the recklessness in that. Nobody was reported hurt, or hospitalized which is amazing. The community needs to be more responsible and diligent when running in fear in a crowded place. There can’t be running and franticness just for the people to find out later a dog was on the loose, or a tent fell, and that was the cause for commotion. 

 

          Leimert Park will always have a piece of my heart and I want to see the Juneteenth festival continue, progress, and be free for the community. The goal is to be able to bring our kids’ kids, kids to come celebrate. To keep traditions alive that surpass our times and generations. We have such a beautiful foundation and start with what the organizers of the festival have done. So as a community let us do our part to make sure that it is safe and fun for everyone in attendance, everyone performing, and people who are selling their products.

 

          Aside from very few attendees acting up, the Leimert Park Juneteenth festival was beautiful and showed just how much culture, rawness, edge, economy, and talent we have in our own backyards. People showed up and spent Black dollars with Black people, danced, laughed, skated, painted, and showed why our community is so beautiful, diverse, amazing, and sacred.

 

Looking forward to the next celebration, and Happy Juneteenth!

Wake Me Up When I'm Free: Tupac Shukar

August. 8th, 2022

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          On August 8th, 2022 I visited the Wake Me Up When I’m Free exhibit. It was an experience that included sound, his handwritten works throughout his life, the plans he had for a cafe, studio, merch, logos and so much more. It literally took you through the mental development of who Tupac was as an artist but most importantly what kind of man he was as well. 

 

          The exhibit begins with a white room that has Makeveli on the wall, a rose, a bullet, and an Untitled Poem by Tupac that starts “Please Wake Me Up When I’m Free” and a couple of logos that he had created and branded. Once you walk into the intro room, you are given a headset where you get to listen to the intro sounds of the video. It is Tupac talking about his music and the reason he did everything that he did. Explaining the root of his pain and passion for his people. The bloodline he comes from and the reason he fights and puts his soul and pain into the words he writes and speaks. He talks about how the “ghetto” has been a muse for arts, theatre, music, movies, and entertainment for those who have never lived or experienced life. It was his reasoning and his why. We then walk into a room that shows Afeni Shukar’s notebooks that she wrote in while in jail. Where her mind was and how she always had the liberation of her people on her mind even while facing NYPD trying to take her and the black panther party down. She was also pregnant with Tupac at this time, it gave us insight into what her emotional state was like while pregnant with him. 

You get to see how much of his childhood, the writer his mother was, and the material he read and studied as a child impacted the activist, rapper, and writer he was until his death. He learned how to get rid of fingerprints with peanut butter whenever the Black Panther Party had a meeting at his home. We got to see the drawings, and pictures he drew as a kid to show you just how intelligent he was. The television and music videos shaped his life. You see all the poems that he wrote as a child. It was amazing to see the developing mind and just how progressive he truly was. 

 

          I think my favorite part was seeing the notes his mother would leave him to get him to clean his room. She talked about the importance of having a clean space for himself and not for her. In the next room, we were able to see all the plans and ideas Tupac wrote down for everything from his albums, all the way to restaurants and movie ideas that he had. He wrote down the concept of all the albums that he released. He was defiantly an analog man. Cause he wrote it all down and would keep rewriting ideas until they were perfected. Just notebooks and pages full of ideas, poems, lyrics, album concepts, and more. He had so many ideas and wrote them down, filling up so many pages, for a writer like me that gave me so much motivation. 

 

          After that room that’s when we get to see the formation of Tupac’s career. His famous outfits. When was the chairman of The New African Panther Party. In 1989 he stated in an interview that “the goal of the party was to educate black youth between the ages of 13-25 on their history as a means of defense against the oppressor”. His movie career. They documented his time and fashion while with Digital Underground. You can just feel the revolutionary. 

 

          You can start to feel the shift in energy, as well as see the shift in Tupac’s life when he went to jail. On one end you see that jail changed him, but you can see him still writing, creating, and trying to keep a routine to keep his mind together while in jail. The case is famous for the speech he gave to the judge, stating “That he knew the judge couldn’t wait to lock him up and that it didn’t matter if he was guilty or not the judge was going to lock him up anyway”. 

 

            Then we see how we get Death-row Tupac. The lyrics were iconic but angry and in a different direction than when Tupac started in the game. You can tell survival, making money, and being the worst became the number one topics in his most popular songs. I also got to see his huge blowup and short-lived success. In his short 25 years of living Tupac produced so much music while alive that he was able to have 4 studio albums, 9 compilation albums, 590 music videos, 44 singles, 1 soundtrack album, 7 posthumous albums, 2 remix albums as well as verses that his estate allows certain artist have. After going through the studio, seeing some of the last memorable outfits that he wore in videos and award shows. The exhibit ends with rose petals seeming to fall from the sky and the last picture Tupac ever took. 

 

           To me, that was the most somber part of the whole exhibit someone with so much to give, gets around the wrong people/ energy and just like a rose that grew from a concert the wrong person will pull it out of the ground just to watch it die. If you missed out on this beautiful experience I really feel sad for you. I feel all musicians, all artists, all creatives should visit the exhibit so that you never forget your why. “Live for something or die for anything”. 

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