Roy DeCarava, Photographer dies at 89 Depicted African American Life
Roy DeCarava, an art photographer whose pictures of everyday life in Harlem helped clarify the African American experience for a wider audience, has died. He was 89.He died Tuesday in New York City, his daughter Wendy DeCarava said. The cause was not given.
DeCarava (pronounced Dee-cuh-RAH-vah) photographed Harlem during the 1940s, '50s and '60s with an insider's view of the subway stations, restaurants, apartments and especially the people who lived in the predominantly African American neighborhood. He also was well known for his candid shots of jazz musicians -- many of them taken in smoky clubs using only available light. Shadow and darkness became hallmarks of DeCarava's style."Roy was one of the all-time great photographers," Arthur Ollman, founding director of the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, said in 2005. "
His photographs provided a vision of African American life that members of the white fine art photography establishment could not have accessed on their own."DeCarava's first major exhibit was at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego in 1986. Ten years later, he was the subject of a one-man exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City."What's extraordinary about the pictures is the way they capture his lyrical sense of life," Jonathan Galassi, a curator at the Museum of Modern Art, said in a 1996 interview with ABC. "You see pain, you see anger and you see an extraordinary quality of tenderness," Galassi said in a separate interview with CBS.
Using a small, 35-millimeter camera that allowed him freedom to roam, DeCarava captured spontaneous moments. He shot in black and white, creating highly impressionistic images, and printed in a style that produced velvety shades of gray and black.Some of his earliest photos show young couples dancing in their kitchen on a Saturday night, and a father and his children dressed in their Sunday best, watching the Harlem River go by. He photographed men talking together in a basement that doubled as their clubhouse. DeCarava told National Public Radio in a 1996 interview that when he started taking pictures "there were no black images of dignity, no images of beautiful black people. There was this big hole. I tried to fill it."
He did not ignore the problems of the black community, but usually addressed them in subtle ways. One of his best known photographs shows a young woman in a long white gown and a corsage who stands in rubble outside a tenement house. She is in sunlight, facing shadows. The image raises obvious questions about her future.
As a young photographer, DeCarava saw his share of overt racism, said Ollman, who interviewed him at length for the 1986 exhibit in San Diego. The social upheavals of the 1960s improved the situation."Photo editors came along who could relate to editorial dissidence," Ollman said. DeCarava's uncommon subject matter became more accepted, but he still experienced racism of a different sort. "Roy was sometimes referred to as a black photographer, a qualifier that can be a subtle attempt to marginalize someone," Ollman said. If there were few images of beautiful black people before DeCarava made them, there were also few black photographers who had achieved wide recognition.Gordon Parks, seven years older than DeCarava, broke the color line in photojournalism in the 1940s, shooting for Life, Look and other national magazines. James VanDerZee became known beyond the black community for his portraits of middle-class African Americans that offer glimpses into Harlem in the 1920s and '30s. But DeCarava's interest in photography as art led him in another direction.
Soon after DeCarava started taking photographs in the late 1940s, he found a powerful mentor in Edward Steichen, director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, who encouraged DeCarava to apply for a Guggenheim fellowship.DeCarava was the first black photographer to receive the grant, in 1952. He used the $3,200 to support himself during his first year of photographing in Harlem.The images he took that year became a book, "The Sweet Flypaper of Life" (1955), with text by Langston Hughes, the foremost black poet of his time.
Harlem's Social Diary 9.16.2009 Mary Schmidt Campbell Obama Announces Arts Nomimation
President Obama said, "My administration is committed to economic recovery, pushing the boundaries of science and space exploration and investing in the future of arts and the humanities, and these individuals will serve my team well as we work to accomplish these goals. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead."
Mary Schmidt Campbell, Vice Chairman, President's Committee on the Arts and HumanitiesMary Schmidt Campbell has been dean of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts since 1991. Dean Campbell began her career in New York as the executive director of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Under her leadership, the Studio Museum in Harlem emerged as a major national and international cultural institution and a lynchpin of the economic revival of Harlem. In 1987, Mayor Edward I. Koch invited Dr. Campbell to serve as Commissioner of Cultural Affairs of the City of New York. Dean Campbell holds a B.A. degree in English literature from Swarthmore College, an M.A. in art history from Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. in humanities, also from Syracuse.
She is co-author of Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987) and Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden, 1940-1987 (New York: Oxford University Press & The Studio Museum in Harlem, 1991). She is the co-editor of Artistic Citizenship: A Public Voice for the Arts (New York: Routledge, 2006.) She is currently working on a book on Romare Bearden for Oxford University Press, (2011 expected publication date). She sits on the board of The American Academy in Rome and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In the fall of 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She served in the voluntary position of Chair of the New York State Council on the Arts from 2007-2009. She also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Tisch Asia, the Tisch School of the Arts Singapore campus.
Harlem's Social Diary: Marie Knight Dies at 84, Gospel Vocalist Sang with Sister Rosetta Tharpe
By Dennis McLellan / Los Angeles Times- September 2, 2009
She made a late-in-life comeback as a solo artist. During her heyday in the 1940s, she toured with Tharpe and sang duets with her, the best known being 'Up Above My Head' and 'Didn't It Rain.' Marie Knight, a gospel singer who came to fame singing duets with gospel-music star Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the late 1940s and made a noteworthy late-in-life comeback as a solo artist, has died. She was 84. Knight died Sunday of complications from pneumonia at a nursing home in Harlem in New York City, said her manager, record producer Mark Carpentieri.
With a voice that one recent reviewer described as "a natural wonder, an unadorned, powerful instrument," Knight began her career touring the national gospel circuit with evangelist Frances Robinson as a young woman in the mid-1940s. The guitar-playing Tharpe, a major recording artist on the Decca Records label who brought gospel music to a broad audience, first heard Knight sing at a Mahalia Jackson concert in New York in 1946. Two weeks later, Tharpe showed up at Knight's house in Newark, N.J., to invite her to go on the road with her.
"She was a beautiful woman with a beautiful contralto voice, who had a spellbinding effect on audiences," said Gayle Wald, who interviewed Knight for her 2007 biography "Shout, Sister, Shout!: The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe." Tharpe and Knight toured through the late '40s, appearing in clubs, arenas, churches and auditoriums.
"Sometimes the one-nighters and the traveling was a little rough," Knight told the Times Union of Albany, N.Y., in 2005, "but on the stage was beautiful."
Tharpe and Knight were best known for their classic gospel duets "Up Above My Head" and "Didn't It Rain."
"They had a dynamic, exciting sound where they traded off vocal lines," Wald said. "That was a kind of hallmark with their duet singing, and it was so vocally agile that it approximated the sounds of jazz." After several years of recording together, Tharpe and Knight parted ways except for occasional on-stage reunions during the '50s, including performances at leading jazz clubs in New York City in 1955. In the '60s, Knight pursued a rhythm-and-blues career and toured with Brook Benton, the Drifters and Clyde McPhatter. After a hiatus, she returned to recording gospel music in the mid-'70s.
Born June 1, 1925, in Sanford, Fla., Knight grew up in Newark. At age 5, she impressed the congregation at her parents' church by singing the gospel song "Doing All the Good We Can," and she later became a soloist in her church's youth choir.
In late 2001, Carpentieri was producing a Tharpe tribute album for his M.C. Records label and Wald, who wrote the liner notes, asked if he was going to record a track with Knight. "I said, 'I thought she was dead a long time ago,'" Carpentieri recalled. "Gayle said, 'No, she's living in Harlem. You should call her.'"
Knight, a minister at her church, hadn't recorded in many years.
"She would occasionally go out and do a gig or two, but she wasn't really formally represented," Carpentieri said. "I called her up, and she sounded so vibrant. I just booked the studio time, and it certainly was one of the highlights of the recording." "Shout, Sister, Shout!: A Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe," which featured Knight singing "Didn't It Rain," came out in 2003. Knight then began touring with tribute concerts to Tharpe, including a tour of Hawaii. She also began getting her own performance dates, Carpentieri said.
In 2007, M.C. Records released Knight's first full-length recording in more than two decades, the critically acclaimed "Let Us Get Together," featuring the gospel songs of the Rev. Gary Davis, with Larry Campbell, a guitarist who has toured extensively with Bob Dylan, playing all of the stringed instruments. Reviewers praised her powerful and spirit-lifting vocals.
"Her delivery," a reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "is soulful enough to surely cause some nonbelievers to want to get right with God." Last January, a month before Knight developed pneumonia, she and Carpentieri were recording an interview for the BBC in New York City. Knight was as vibrant as ever, saying to Carpentieri, "Mark, when are you going to get me some work?" She is survived by her sister, Bernice Henry.
Harlem's Social Diary: Diana Ross Spotted Expecting First Grandchild
Rhonda (left) with Mom, Diana Ross and (right) with husband Rodney Kendrick
Motown legend Diana Ross, 64, is set to become a grandmother. The singer's eldest daughter and Harlem resident Rhonda is reportedly expecting any time now. Rumor has it that Miss Ross has been spotted going and coming from her daughter's Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd. (7th Ave) digs.
According to reports by Fox News, Rhonda Ross Kendrick, and her husband the jazz musician Rodney Kendrick, are expecting their first child some time this fall. Rhonda, 37, is the daughter of Ross and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy.
Rangel vs Wranglings Partisan Divide Paints Two Pictures
Though he's facing critics in Washington over financial improprieties, Rep. Charles Rangel got nothing but love at home Saturday.
"I'm here to show support for my brother," said former Mayor David Dinkins who was among 75 local politicians, church leaders and union members who rallied for Rangel in Harlem. "He's a very powerful member of Congress, and they would like to take him down. But that's not going to happen."
Rangel, who wasn't at the event, has not been charged with wrongdoing, but critics have called for him to resign as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
He's the focus of an ethics committee probe into a host of allegations, including failure to report income, improperly leasing rent-stablilized apartments and using his congressional letterhead for fund-raising purposes.
"I'm here not in an attempt to refute the allegations, some of which are probably baseless, but to show support for Charlie Rangel," Dinkins said. "I'm confident he will survive this and continue to support not only the 15th Congressional District but the rest of the country."
Many, including Dinkins and Assemblyman Keith Wright (D-Harlem), pointed out that Rangel himself called for the ethics committee investigation.
I happened to be in Philadelphia a couple weeks ago when I first got a glimpsed of the American Express promotion of Harlem's, Mojo Restaurant with the actress S Epatha Merkerson.
Since then Harlem One Stop has had numerous inquires and the hits on our site for the restaurant have skyrocketed. If you haven't seen the commercial, take a look, if you haven't been to Mojo's we suggest you check it out!
MOJO Restaurant 185 Saint Nicholas Avenue at 119th Street New York, NY 10026 Phone: (212) 280-1924
Barack Obama - August 4, 2009 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, "MR. PRESIDENT!"
It's Barack Obama's 48th Birthday, but rather than take a day off with the family, he has scheduled a working lunch with Senate Democrats at the White House. Among the topics they are likely to discuss are health care, the economy and energy legislation.
Mr. President, HARLEM sends a HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YA!
As a birthday note to the "Birther's" and their spirited debating over President Obama's birth certificate, well Harlem has folks who can remember when African Americans searching for their birth certificates couldn't get them in some states, even if you where a Senator's daughter or happened to be born at Monticello!
Harlem's Rev. Ike, Preached Riches Dies at 74 in Los Angeles
The Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, the flamboyant minister better known as the Reverend Ike, who preached the blessings of material prosperity to a large congregation in New York and to television and radio audiences nationwide, died Tuesday in Los Angeles, where he had lived since 2007. He was 74.
His death was confirmed Wednesday by E. Bernard Jordan, a family spokesman. Reverend Ike had suffered a stroke in 2007 and never fully recovered, Mr. Jordan said. “Close your eyes and see green,”
Reverend Ike would tell his 5,000 parishioners from a red-carpeted stage at the former Loew’s film palace on 175th Street in Washington Heights, the headquarters of his United Church Science of Living Institute.
“Money up to your armpits, a roomful of money and there you are, just tossing around in it like a swimming pool.”
Reverend Ike’s philosophy was variously called “Prosperity Now,”“positive self-image psychology” or just plain “Thinkonomics.”
The philosophy held that St. Paul was wrong; that the root of all evil is not the love of money, but rather the lack of it. It was a message that challenged traditional Christian messages about finding salvation through love and the intercession of the divine. The way to prosper and be well, Reverend Ike preached, was to forget about pie in the sky by and by and to look instead within oneself for divine power.
“This is the do-it-yourself church,” he proclaimed. “The only savior in this philosophy is God in you.”
One person who benefited from this philosophy of self-empowerment was Reverend Ike himself. Along with Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and Pat Robertson, he was one of the first evangelists to grasp the power of television. At the height of his success, in the 1970s, he reached an audience estimated at 2.5 million.
In return for spiritual inspiration, he requested cash donations from his parishioners, from his television and radio audiences, and from the recipients of his extensive mailings — preferably in paper currency, not coins. “Change makes your minister nervous in the service,” he would tell his congregation.
He would also, in return, mail his contributors a prayer cloth.
His critics saw the donations as the entire point of his ministry, calling him a con man misleading his flock. His defenders, while acknowledging his love of luxury, argued that his church had roots both in the traditions of African-American evangelism and in the philosophies of mind over matter.
Whether legitimately or not, the money flooded in, making him a multimillionaire and enabling him to flaunt the power of his creed with a show of sumptuous clothes, ostentatious jewelry, luxurious residences and exotic automobiles. “My garages runneth over,” he said. His calling came to him early, he said. “Even when I was a young child, the other kids came to me to solve their problems,” he told the writer Clayton Riley.
At 14 he became assistant pastor for his father’s congregation, the Bible Way Baptist Church in Ridgeland. After high school, he attended the American Bible College in Chicago, receiving a bachelor’s degree in theology in 1956. After two years in the Air Force as a chaplain, he returned to Ridgeland to found the United Church of Jesus Christ for All People.
Finding the traditional Christian message constricting, he moved to Boston in 1964 to found the Miracle Temple and to practice faith-healing, which “was the big thing at the time,” he told Mr. Riley, “and I was just about the best in Boston, snatching people out of wheelchairs and off their crutches, pouring some oil over them while I commanded them to walk or see or hear.”
Two years later, still dissatisfied, he moved to New York City, setting up shop in an old Harlem movie theater, the Sunset, on 125th Street, with a marquee so narrow that it forced him to shorten his name to “Rev. Ike.” There he tinkered with his act, polishing his patter, introducing radio broadcasts and taking his show on the road.
He began to refine his message to attract a more striving, stable, middle-class audience, people who wanted to hear that their hard work should be rewarded here and now.
In 1969, he paid more than half a million dollars for the old Loew’s 175th Street movie theater making it his headquarters, named the "Palace Cathedral."
In his book “On Broadway: A Journey Uptown Over Time,”
David W. Dunlap, a reporter for The New York Times, described the former theater as “Byzantine-Romanesque-Indo-Hindu-Sino-Moorish-Persian-Eclectic-Rococo-Deco style.”
With the move, the Reverend Ike stretched Christian tenets, founding the doctrine he named the Science of Living and thereby relocating the idea of God to the interior of the self, calling it “God in me,” with the power to bring the believer anything he or she desired in the way of health, wealth and peace of mind. He became, as he told Mr. Riley, “the first black man in America to preach positive self-image psychology to the black masses within a church setting.”
By the mid-1970s, Reverend Ike was touring the country and preaching over some 1,770 radio stations. Television stations in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other major markets were telecasting his videotaped sermons.
In 1962, he married Eula May Dent. They had a son, Xavier F. Eikerenkoetter, who also became an ordained minister at the United Church and took over the ministry when his father retired. They both survive him.
Because of his emphasis on material self-fulfillment, Reverend Ike alienated many traditional Christian ministers as well as leaders of the civil rights movement, who believed black churches should further social reform.
His huge income also provoked suspicion. Detractors accused him of preying on the poor, and the Internal Revenue Service and Postal Service investigated his businesses. Though its fortunes have waxed and waned in the last 20 years, the church continues to operate from the former Loew’s theater, which maintains tax-exempt status as a religious property and is occasionally rented to outside promoters to present concerts.
Reverend Ike could be an electric preacher, whether at the old theater or on the road appearing before standing-room-only audiences. And he could make his congregations laugh, drawing on the Bible to drive home his message about the virtues of material rewards. “If it’s that difficult for a rich man to get into heaven,”
he would often say, citing Matthew,
“think how terrible it must be for a poor man to get in.
He doesn’t even have a bribe for the gatekeeper.”
New York Times/Jennifer 8. Lee contributed reporting.
