Born in the Kòró era.
Born in the Kòró era,
my granddaughter knows only two faces:
her mother and her father.
These kids born in the United States
to parents who are isolating
only know two faces.
I am a grandpa now.
I am a grandpa now
and I feel good about it.
Happy Father’s Day
to all the fathers—may you become grandpas.
And to those of us grandpas
Could Black life matter?
Could Black life matter,
without Black thoughts
and values mattering?
The indigenous African traditions
cannot breathe:
invasive viral forces
have placed their morbid knees
on the throats of indigenous African philosophy,
science, pedagogy, technology,
Two New African Proverbs
Two New African Proverbs:
1. The same people who place their knee on your neck will also be the first to ask “Why can’t you breathe?”
2. The same people who are causing your sadness will also be the first to ask “Why can’t you laugh?”
(Adapted from the Yoruba proverb, “Ẹ́ni tí ó bá sọ ni di olóríburúkú ni ó kọ́kọ́ má a ń fi bú ni:
Three weeks of painting.
Three weeks of painting. It started as a butterfly.
Day and night
Day and night, for three weeks.
And finally, it is done.
Ajé
I just completed this painting
as a tribute to
The Birth of a Beautiful Divinity, Ajé
Ajé (The Divinity of Profit, Prosperity and Wealth)
Acrylic on canvas
And it still remains legible.
I turn the same painting upside down, as Iya Afilaka instructed me. And it still remains legible.
Why?
Because we have paid Iba (homage)
to the vagina that is turned
upside down, yet
does not drip
I studied with the Ìyàmi.
I studied with the Ìyàmi,
the Power Mothers who
suspend the global ball
on a single frail string,
yet it cannot snap.
After they gave me the name Ọ̀rìságbèmí Arígbábuwó, I transcend the boundaries of gender, race, time, and geography.
Here is the story of that transcendental embodiment, in its most concise form.
Lyrics of Joy
Title: Lyrics of Joy
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Date: 2018
Where art you joy
that we all seek you
and find you not?
Joy is in eating less,
and eating carefully, simply.
Joy lives in giving more,
and consuming little.
Lyrics of Joy.
Title: Lyrics of JoyMedium: acrylic on canvasDate: 2018Where art you joythat we all seek youand find you not?Joy is in eating less,and eating carefully, simply.Joy lives in giving more,Title: Lyrics of JoyMedium: acrylic on canvasDate: 2018Where art you joythat we all seek youand find you not?Joy is in eating less,and eating carefully, simply.Joy lives in giving more,
Mungo Park Discovering River Niger
As the Chinese launches successfully the second wave of the colonization of Africa, after learning from the techniques of divide and conquer that Europe used for the first wave of conquering the continent, it became necessary for me to do this painting.
I also want to refer to the poem I wrote a couple of months ago, titled, “My Teacher Taught Me Nonsense.”