Posts from the “The Undefeated” Category

Cheriss May: The Folkus Profile

Posted on November 15, 2021

*Cheriss May. Howard University hosted its 93rd annual homecoming game against North Carolina A&T at Greene Stadium in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 2016.*

January 6, 2021, started out like any other day for Washington D.C.-based photographer and Howard University adjunct professor Cheriss May. On assignment for Getty to cover the ceremonial Electoral College vote count inside the U.S. Capitol, May remembers the morning began quietly and security was high.

“I thought that the Capitol was the safest place in this country, and [Jan. 6] turned all of that upside down for me,” says May, who had also been at the Capitol during the height of the George Floyd protests, when building security was at its peak. The double standard for policing quickly revealed itself.

Barricaded for hours inside Congressman Jim Clyburn’s office, insurrectionists ran amok. May tried to get word out to her loved ones but she couldn’t get a signal. “I felt like my life was in danger. I felt trapped,” she says. May remembers kneeling on the floor with her camera poised to shoot as unidentified people demanded they open the door. This happened three times. The final time, the doors were breached by FBI and Capitol police with guns drawn.

“My life flashed before my eyes three times that day,” May says. “I didn’t know if I was going to make it out of there. What has helped me is the work. It helps me to live through it and to move forward. This is my passion and my purpose. To have that gives me strength.”

Read the Full Story at The Undefeated

*Cheriss May. Chadwick Boseman following the screening of Marshall at the 108th NAACP Convention in Baltimore, July 25, 2017.*

Categories: Art, Photography, The Undefeated

Russell Frederick: Brooklyn’s Native Son

Posted on October 13, 2021

*Russell Frederick. Harlem, NY 2018 – Money, Power, & Respect! Three ‘Queens’ pose for a photo on 125 Street.*

Over the past two decades, self-taught photographer Russell Frederick has established himself on his own terms, refusing to compromise his integrity for fortune or fame. “I wanted something more than money — I wanted purpose, happiness, and legacy. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others,” says Brooklyn’s native son.

Coming of age in the 1990s, Frederick worked in healthcare as the crack and AIDS epidemics destroyed countless lives, and the draconian Rockefeller drug laws disappeared a generation of Black men. “I’ve been arrested, stopped and frisked 15, 20 times when I’ve committed no crimes,” Frederick says. “Being targeted by the police impacts our families, our ability to get an education, and our self-esteem.”

Like legendary photographer and film director Gordon Parks, Frederick’s choice of weapons is the camera. After realizing he didn’t want to spend his life working in a job he didn’t love, Frederick gave up a secure career to pursue his love of photography at a time when few Black photographers could make a living in the field. Since 1997, he has devoted himself to crafting stories of Black life that uplift, inspire, and unite. Whether photographing luminaries including President Barack Obama, Mayor David Dinkins, Regina King, Barry Jenkins or the people of his Bed-Stuy community, Frederick is on a mission to create repository of soul, one frame at a time.

As a member of Kamoinge, the world’s longest running non-profit photography collective, Frederick understands the importance of telling Black stories from the perspective of someone inside the community and create counter narratives to mainstream media. “The camera is a powerful tool and I saw why it was weaponized against us,” he says. “I look at my role as a photographer as an educator and visual activist to realize and redefine the way the world sees us because our greatness has been suppressed. When I leave this earth, these images I’ve made will live on and be strong.”

Read the Full Story at The Undefeated

Russell Frederick. New York, NY 1999 – Actors and activists Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis and Reverend Al Sharpton prepare to be arrested in protest to the murder of unarmed Amadou Diallo who was killed by the police when they fired 41 rounds of ammunition.

Categories: Art, Brooklyn, Photography, The Undefeated

Kortnee Solomon Competes at the First Televised Black Rodeo on Juneteenth

Posted on June 21, 2021

*Ivan McClellan. Kortnee Solomon and Kanesha Jackson at home on the ranch in Hempstead, Texas, June 2021.*

At age 11, Kortnee Solomon is already a pro on the rodeo trail, having won numerous championships in recent years. As a fourth-generation Texas cowgirl, riding and roping is in Kortnee’s blood – she officially debuted at just 5 years old at the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, the oldest Black-owned rodeo circuit in the United States. The daughter of 11-time invitational champion Kanesha Jackson and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association tie-down roper Cory Solomon, Kortnee loves to compete, never backing down from the opportunity to test her mettle against women twice her age and male athletes.

With coronavirus pandemic restrictions lifting, the invitational is back in full swing, kicking off the season with a historic event in celebration of Juneteenth. The Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo Showdown in Vegas aired on CBS, becoming the first Black rodeo to air on national broadcast television. Produced in partnership with the Professional Bull Riders, the rodeo featured seven events, including bareback, bulldogging and calf roping. Kortnee competes in the ladies barrel and junior breakaway events.

For Kortnee, the road to Las Vegas required a combination of dedication, perseverance and good times, for Black rodeo is about more than just the mastery of sport, it is an ongoing celebration of community, culture and heritage. One of Kortnee’s most cherished memories from the Vegas trip was seeing her friends for the first time since January 2020, the last time the invitational convened. “I got and gave lots of hugs,” she said happily.

Photographer Ivan McClellan, who has been documenting Black cowboys and cowgirls since 2015, gives us a look at Kortnee’s extraordinary life made possible by love and support, alongside a group of athletes who cannot and will not be denied.

Read the Full Story at The Undefeated

Categories: Photography, The Undefeated

“The Rumble in the Jungle” – and the Poster That Sold It

Posted on November 30, 2017

Artwork: Norman Mailer: The Fight, with photographs by Neil Leifer and Howard Bingham (Taschen).

In the darkest part of the morning, they came 60,000 strong — to watch undefeated world heavyweight champion George Foreman take on challenger Muhammad Ali. It was another time. The 20th of May Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire, is now the Stade Tata Raphaël in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and The Rumble in the Jungle, as it was known, was scheduled to begin at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1974. This was so the match originally titled From Slave Ship to Championship would air live on closed-circuit television in U.S. theaters at 10 p.m. EST.

From backstage, journalist Norman Mailer described the scene. Although his entourage was somber, Ali appeared relaxed as he addressed himself in a mellifluous tone: “I been up and I been down. You know, I been around. It must be dark when you get knocked out. Why, I’ve never been knocked out. I’ve been knocked down, but never out.”

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Categories: 1970s, Africa, Art, Books, Photography, The Undefeated

Michael Lavine: The Notorious B.I.G. – Life After Death

Posted on May 20, 2017

Photo: Michael Lavine. The Notorious B.I.G., Life After Death.

Twenty years have passed, but the shock is still fresh — and still incomprehensible. On March 9, 1997, Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., was gunned down in a drive-by shooting. It remains unsolved.

At 12:30 a.m., Wallace left a Vibe magazine Soul Train Music Awards after-party at Los Angeles’ Petersen Automotive Museum. The SUV in which he was traveling stopped at a red light just 50 yards from the venue. A dark Chevrolet Impala SS pulled up along the passenger side. The driver rolled down his window, drew his weapon and fired. Four bullets struck Wallace. He was rushed to nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m.

Not long afterward, The Notorious B.I.G. rose again: The double album Life After Death was released March 25. It sold 700,000 hard copies almost immediately, jumping from No. 176 to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in the space of a week. The album’s cover art featured the man formerly known as Biggie Smalls in a long black coat and black bowler. He stared us in the face while leaning against a hearse that bore the license plate “B.I.G.” There were no sunglasses to hide his lazy eye. He wore it full and proud, looking over his shoulder as if he already knew. He wasn’t smiling. But he wasn’t mad. He was just stating the facts from the other side of the grave.

It seemed like a prophecy.

Read the Full Story at The Undefeated

Categories: 1990s, Art, Brooklyn, Music, Photography, The Undefeated

Jeffrey Henson Scales: House

Posted on March 1, 2017

Photo: House’s Barber Shop series, 1987-1992, by Jeffrey Henson Scales.

Located just half a block from the legendary home of bebop, Minton’s Playhouse, House’s Barber Shop did business inside a plate-glass storefront in Harlem, New York, for nearly 70 years. Luminaries such as Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Lee Morgan and Max Roach would come to House’s for a fresh cut before a show. Word had it that Malcolm X, whose mosque was on Lenox Avenue and West 116th Street, would frequent the spot. House’s served everyone from musicians, artists and scientists, to bus drivers, postal workers and scoundrels for the better part of the 20th century.

Founder Jesse House set up shop on Seventh Avenue and West 118th Street when he returned to the neighborhood after serving as a GI during World War II. When he retired, his son, David, kept the shop going until David’s own retirement in 2004. David died a year ago, but before he died, he learned that House’s Barber Shop would be preserved for future generations in a book of photographs.

The book, simply titled House (SPQR Editions), presents the work of Jeffrey Henson Scales, currently the photography editor of The New York Times Sunday Review. His pictures, shot between 1986 and 1992, provide a front-row view of life inside the barbershop. With jazz music wafting through the room, we enter a world where men of all ages share their lives while getting a shape-up, a fade, or even a conk.

Read the Full Story at The Undefeated

Photo: House’s Barber Shop series, 1987-1992, by Jeffrey Henson Scales.

Categories: 1980s, 1990s, Art, Manhattan, Photography, The Undefeated