DATE: Tues., May 14, 2019, 6:30 pm-8:30 pm Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture 515 Malcolm X Blvd. (corner Lenox & 135 Street), Harlem, NYC
BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL – Join the Schomburg Center for the New York City book launch of Kwame Brathwaite: Black Is Beautiful (Aperture), featuring the photography that helped popularized the slogan “Black Is Beautiful.”
Brathwaite and his older brother, Elombe Brath, in the late 50’s and early 60’s, did their part to spread this idea through Brathwaite’s writings and photographs, as well as the activities of the two organizations they helped co-found: AJASS (1956) and the Grandassa Models (1962). Grandassa Models was founded to challenge white beauty standards.
This monograph—the first ever dedicated to Brathwaite’s remarkable career—tells the story of a key, but under-recognized, figure of the second Harlem Renaissance. The launch event will feature a conversation with Kwame S. Brathwaite, Archive Director; Tanisha C. Ford, author and historian; former Grandassa Model Eunice Townsend; moderated by Kimberly R. Drew, art curator, writer and social activist. Books will be available in the Schomburg shop and a book signing will follow the program.
