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INSIDE MOREHOUSE, OCTOBER 2008
King Chapel's Art Brings Visual Focus to History
By ADD SEYMOUR JR.
A ssistant art professor Charles
Nelson stood inside the Mar
tin Luther King Jr. Interna
tional Chapel’s lobby and looked
around him.
On three sides of him, etched in
the marble walls, were quotes from
some of King’s historic speeches. In
front of Nelson was a marble piece
of abstract art titled “Spiritual Lead
ers” by Nicholas Mukomberanwa.
And just down the hallway towered
an oil painting of Mohandas “Ma
hatma” Gandhi.
“The history of Morehouse is so
rich and all of the things in the
Chapel point to that history,” he said.
“It’s quite a collection.”
The College’s recent acquisition of
the Purvis Young art collection has
shined a spotlight on the additional
significance of the King Chapel: not
only as a revered religious and cere
monial edifice to peace, human and
civil rights, and with social justice,
but also as a new repository for art,
photography and history. Nelson,
himself an acclaimed visual artist,
gave Inside Morehouse a tour and his
artistic thoughts on the Chapel’s
three acclaimed collections.
The Martin Luther King Jr.
International Chapel Library
“Even though it’s in what we in
the art world call ‘salon style,’ it has
more of a home feeling to it. It feels
more like a personal collection. I
think this presentation is a little
more intimate in some ways. And it
definitely tells the story of the
civil rights movement through
photography.”
Did you know? Chapel Dean
Lawrence E. Carter Sr. said he
started the Library’s collection after
noticing something one day decades
ago: “There was nothing on the
walls, so I just started putting pic
tures up and suddenly it has be
come this,” he said.
The International Hall of Fame
“The paintings are excellent por
traits. They are also very traditional.
These are the epitome of traditional
oil paintings, definitely what you
would see on a college campus. Ob
viously, these are important people
- like Henry Lyman Morehouse
(the College’s namesake). It makes
you want to learn who they are,
what their stories are and what their
relationship to Morehouse is.”
Did you know? There are 111 oil
paintings in the chapel, including
one of a former NFL player (Mel
Blount), Booker T. Washington and
two current Morehouse employees
- Carter and legendary track coach
Willie Hill.
—
The Purvis Young Collection
“The thing we’re trying to do is
frame this work as Purvis Young’s de
piction of the struggles of African
Americans, so a lot of the pieces that
you see are his personal insights on
those struggles.
Did you know? The 109-piece
collection valued at $1 million and
donated to the College by the Rubell
Family Collection is the world’s
largest collection of Young’s work
outside his native South Florida.
“The bottom line is the More
house community should feel from
the collection King Chapel that they
have access to art and that art is a
part of who they are and can help us
understand the world we live in,”
Nelson said. ■
VffiML-r L Dwx
Baad Bitches & Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films
By Stephane Dunn, University of Illinois Press, 2008
Stephane Dunn remembers
being a child during the colorful
decade of the 1970s when blax-
ploitation films with stars such as
Richard Rountree and Pam Grier
appearing in films like “Shaft” and
“Foxy Brown” were all the rage.
“These were always the people in
the cultural sphere of things,” said
Dunn, a visiting professor in the
English department specializing in
African American cultural studies,
film, and literature. “But prior to
the last four or five years, there has
been a lack of intensive dialogue that
highlighted the gender dynamics and
also highlighted the females in these
films.”
Dunn hopes to spur quite a bit of
discussion with her first book, Baad
Bitches and Sassy Supermamas: Black
Power Action Films, published by Uni
versity of Illinois Press (2008).
In chapters such as “Race, Gen
der and Sexual Power in Cleopatra
Jones” and “Black Power and the
New Baad Cinema,” Dunn explores
the evolution of the role of black fe
males in blaxploitation films. In her
straight, in-your-face style, Dunn
talks about how black women were
initially portrayed as hyper-sexual,
yet docile, obedient and submissive
as in “Shaft” and “Superfly”, but
evolving into lead characters who
were strong, tough and empowered
women in films like “Foxy Brown,”
“Coffy” and “Cleopatra Jones.” She
also tackles the hip-hop commu
nity’s embrace, to some degree, of
the icons of that era.
“I thought there was a lot more
to say and talk about, what it is re
ally the role of women and what are
problems with the gender dynamics
of film,” Dunn said. “It was my own
great, big critical shout-out to films
that still had that nostalgic history.”
Dunn is an Elkert, Indiana native
and graduate of the University of
Evansville and Notre Dame where
she earned two master’s degrees and
her doctorate. She is an avid writer
who is also a playwright. Dunn
plans two more books in the near
future, including one on former
baseball player Curt Flood, and then
will focus on plays she has been
working on.
“I’m already off to the next proj
ect,” Dunn said. “I’m always writ
ing in my head.” ■