“As a two-time Southeastern Regional Slam Champion, and architect of Atlanta’s wildly popular SLAM CITY!, Ayodele, which in the Yoruba tongue means a joy arrives in the house, is blazing a poetic path across the South with performances that laugh, cry, dance and shout”
He’s been called “the Gordon Parks of Hip-Hop,” and has photographed Dead Prez, Goodie Mob, Jermaine Dupri, P. Diddy, Wu Tang Clan, Coretta Scott King, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, & Cicely Tyson… you get the point.
Thanks to the vision of new development such as Renaissance Walk and the artists of NEXT, Atlanta’s historic Sweet Auburn Avenue is experiencing a cultural re-birth. More info about Renaissance Walk is here. All about the artists’ consortium NEXT is here.
Originally uploaded by lownight66
Photo stream from Patti Smith’s 62nd birthday show at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom is here. Oh yeah.
Here’s a preview of the “Do Over” photo session. (See some post below.) It was taken with my really crappy 3 megapixel cam, so it’s not great. Merely a preview of the good stuff to come from some other person’s camera.
Over 30 years after this portrait was taken of my family/step-family in the 70′s (I forget which year. ’72 or ’73 likely), my family/step-family will be gathering for a portrait again. Same people, same place. Minus that wonder dog, Spud.
Spud belonged to the photographer, a family friend. She, of course, has long since gone to reap her most-just rewards in the Happy Hunting Ground. Spud remains possibly the best dog I ever knew. She healed broken hearts. She really did. But that’s a story for another time, and I diverge…
The photographer was/is South Carolina artist/teacher, Blake Praytor. If you have Flash, you can view a gallery of his work samples here. (You Who fans won’t want to miss the shot of Pete Townsend from the early 70′s “Jumpsuit Tour.”)
I thought of Twitter as chiefly a news dissemination and babble-lite tool. Until it introduced me to Israeli political pop artist Mike Darnell and his powerful work. Now if I could only understand Hebrew, I could even hear his words! But art offers its own language of course.
