Mar 21, 2024 - Sale 2663

Sale 2663 - Lot 34

Price Realized: $ 531
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(ART.) Resolution of the Black Arts Kultural Alliance. Photocopied flier, 11 x 8½ inches; light toning. [Detroit, MI], circa April 1969
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This statement was read on behalf of a group of Black artists in Detroit, protesting an event which was staged without Black participation: "This is not our arts festival. This is not our cultural center. . . . We, the undersigned, flatly refuse to be pawns--political or otherwise--now or ever. . . . We are concerned with the liberation of our people throughout the world. We are not concerned with the cute games of liberal politics played at our peoples' expense."

The resolution also makes reference to the important Wall of Pride designed by muralist Bill Walker and mounted on Detroit's Grace Episcopal Church in November 1968: "Six months ago, the artists of the Black community sought funds for their own festival at which Black painters and photographers erected a 'Wall of Pride,' dedicated to the Black community in homage to Black heroes. Those funds were denied. Now the same board which denied those funds dangles the old token dollars before Black artists to have them rush to serve its festival in its cultural center." See the Detroit Free Press, 4 November 1968; and Detroit Metro Times, 26 February 2020.

The resolution is undated, and the offending festival is not named, but may refer to the Black History Arts Festival held on the Wayne State University campus in April 1969.