Race is Still the Issue

In 1994, the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City opened a customarily controversial exhibition titled “The Black Male,” which analyzed visual representation of black men at a time when color was on everybody’s mind. Trials and scandals involving O.J. Simpson, Rodney King, and Clarence Thomas were stoking racial...

By John Thomason

December 12, 2013

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In 1994, the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City opened a customarily controversial exhibition titled “The Black Male,” which analyzed visual representation of black men at a time when color was on everybody’s mind. Trials and scandals involving O.J. Simpson, Rodney King, and Clarence Thomas were stoking racial fires. Nearly 20 years later, in post-Obama, post-Trayvon, not-so-post-racial America, Nigerian-American performance artist Jaamil Olawale Kosoko is unveiling his response/update to the Whitney’s exhibition, as a theater piece titled Black Male Revisited. Funded by a $100,000 Knight Arts Challenge grant, the live performance/visual installation will reconsider the black male body for the 21st Century through the use of original poetry, live music, onstage antics, and live sculpture. It will run for two weekends only at the 50-seat black-box studio at Miami Theater Center (9806 NE Second Ave., Miami Shores), adjacent to its MainStage, which is quickly becoming an indispensable playground for cutting-edge artists debuting provocative new work.
Dec. 13-22, 2013

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