Visionary Vibes: A Blog by Aberjhani

Acknowledging Achievements and Fine-tuning Aspirations

8/1/2022

Pandemics, wars, racism, and climate change have ways of derailing some of our very best stated intentions. Start-ups fail to get started. Planned families get put on hold. Dream vacations remain dreams to be pursued another day.

While my Bright Skylark Literary Productions has taken more than a few unsettling hits of its own this year, I’m grateful for what has been achieved up to this point. Moreover, there’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to promising projects still in development.

A Couple of Highlights So Far

Participation in two major offline events played significant roles helping to reconnect with live audiences and patrons after the restrictive distances imposed by COVID-19 for the past two years. The first event was the Authors Day observance held March 27 in Lafayette Square in Savannah, Georgia (USA). The display table showcasing Bright Skylark products was more unique than most participants’ because it not only contained books, but first-print artwork and photography, greeting cards, and collectible giveaways. Copies of every available catalog title sold along with framed visual works. Overall, the day easily qualified as a win-win for all involved.

The second major offline event also took place in Savannah when I accepted an invitation to participate in a celebration of the 25th anniversary of The Moth storytelling organization. Founded by popular bestselling author George Dawes Green, the celebration coincided with the release of Green’s new novel: The Kingdoms of Savannah (presently an Amazon “Editor’s Pick” and sitting in the top 5 best sellers of 3 fiction categories).

A memorable Moth 25th anniversary storytelling night at the Gingerbread House in Savannah, Georgia (USA), July 18, 2022.

What made the occasion especially momentous for me was that it marked my first time, in roughly 14 years, stepping onto a stage as a “raconteur.” Moth storytelling events have become major, and even legendary, cultural happenings wherever they take place, so it was thrilling to share the stage with fellow storytellers: Edgar Oliver, Jon Goode, Opollo Johnson, and Green himself. Further rounding out the evening were several musical performances, including by: internationally renowned jazz vocalist Cynthia Utterbach, Velvet Caravan co-founder Ricardo Ochoa, and virtuoso guitarist Travis Pullman.

A Look at Things to Come

My forthcoming art book on the pandemic, which includes letters and poems from myself as well as authors around the world, was first announced more than a year ago. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis, with U.S. President Joe Biden becoming the latest high-profile case, continues to underscore the value of this undertaking. The selection of texts for the project was completed in early 2022, and 90-100 works of original art have been created to correspond with the texts. Among the contributors are: celebrated educator Dr. Patricia M. Stewart, legendary San Francisco poet and educator Duncan McNaughton, England’s multi-talented Sara L. Russell, and additional mindful creatives whose voices enrich the volume in unique and important ways.

Click here to view art from pandemic book project

At this point, Bright Skylark is working with a highly-regarded publisher to make the title available to readers, art lovers, and booksellers in the United States and around the world. More details along with excerpts and sample art will be shared in either a separate blog for the book, or on a full website devoted to it. Anyone wishing to donate to support the effort is invited to do so by clicking here.

It is not often that someone is featured in a major literary publication both as a visual artist and as a literary one. That is, however, the case with the 2022 Flannery O’Connor Review (Vol. 20, published by Georgia College) due out in August. The review has on its cover my Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle painting titled Sermon in the Valley of Broken Angels.

The watermark seen here on the cover of the 2022 edition of the FLANNERY O’CONNOR REVIEW does not appear on the actual journal. The Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle creation is by Aberjhani and titled: Sermon in the Valley of Broken Angels. As seen on the cover, this edition of the review, which is published by Georgia College in Milledgeville, GA, where Flannery O’Connor spent most of her adult life, is a commemoration of 20th and 50th anniversaries.

Additional original works are included inside the review along with a poem on Flannery O’Connor titled “History and Prophets’ Prerogatives.” The published artworks will remain available to view only within the pages of the journal until selected pieces are presented for sale as prints, or placed on exhibition.

The publication of my art and poetry in The Flannery O’Connor Review is particularly important because it helps further clarify my position on the overall complexity of O’Connor’s life and work. It also, I hope, helps demonstrate in general the vital role which creativity plays when it comes to defining and addressing the most pressing issues of our times.

Aberjhani
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

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History and Erasure: Chronicling Legacies of Black Artists in Savannah (Pt. 1 of 3)

5/4/2022

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"Luther and the Coming of Light" digital art by Aberjhani C2022)

Introduction

.he last thing I expected to find myself writing about as we moved deeper into the year 2022 was a 3-way war between Russia, Ukraine, and professed defenders of democracy around the world. But write about it I have on the LinkedIn website as well as here at Bright Skylark. Hopefully, the articles have made it clear one of my primary concerns regarding the war has been the brutal erasure of history and culture as well as that of human lives.

The Chronicling Legacies of Black Artists in Savannah series was first published in my AXS cultural arts column as an expression of that same concern. It is reposted at this time both to encourage unwavering support in their struggle for what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called “the right to live,” and, in observation of the 14th anniversary of the publication of ELEMENTAL, the Power of Illuminated Love:

Contributors to Unique Traditions

Upon his passing on April 6, 2016, Luther E. Vann joined an illustrious group of brilliant contemporary African-American creative artists who, prior to their transitions, produced numerous celebrated works which have added tremendously to Savannah’s (Georgia, USA) reputation and value as a favorite travel destination for lovers of the cultural arts.

Vann (b. 1937) and Allen Fireall (1954-2014) bestowed upon the city a legacy of fine visual art that documented daily life in different communities throughout the Low Country in Georgia and South Carolina. Like artist William M. Pleasant Jr. (1928-1997) before them, they also contributed greatly to the unique traditions of Gullah art.

(Digital portrait of late Savannah Gullah artist Allen Fireall by Aberjhani)

In many cases, particularly where Fireall is concerned, their painted canvases depict scenes representative of historic cultural activities rarely practiced as part of everyday living in contemporary times. Making nets and sewing quilts by hand, for example, are more likely to be done for creative enjoyment [or to be sold as cultural artefacts] rather than, as they once were, out of simple necessity.

Similarly, men and women carrying bushels of crabs atop their heads, or gathering in parks or alongside roads to wait for job assignments are seen even less rarely (if ever). Nor are you as likely while driving or walking down a lane in the American South to see women in adjoining back yards laughing and talking as they hang freshly-washed laundry out to dry.

Restoring Erased History

The late world-renowned Rev. Dr. Ja A. Jahannes (1942 -2015) was something of a polymath whose exceptional talents included writing plays, poems, novels, and children’s books–– as well as publishing anthologies, producing fine-art photography, composing music, teaching, and delivering inspired sermons. Through his multiple positions as an educator at the HBCU Savannah State University, a minister at Savannah’s now 105-year-old Abyssinia Baptist Church, and a public intellectual, Jahannes empowered many others to pick up where he would leave off.

The names presented here are not done so to invite nostalgic reveries, though studied reflections are certainly appropriate for people familiar with them. They are offered (and a number of others could easily be included) to help prevent their consignment to discarded files marked “erased history, or being deleted, via guerrilla decontextualization by omission, from the more “official” channels of documented acknowledgements.

Whether using the term “erasure of history” or “history of erasure” the final definition points to the same legacy-destroying result: the removal of consequential names and events from their authentic historic context and thus from public awareness. An erasure of history indicates the active or conscious deletion of a subject from various official records. Histories of erasure, as it were, possess the paradoxical distinction of referring to accumulated instances of eradication. The first describes the act of omitting relevant events or biographies. The second describes accounts of such actions.

The late painter William M. Pleasant Jr. surrounded by some of his celebrated works.

Guerrilla decontextualization by omission tends to occur frequently when it comes to African-American cultural arts workers who have not been embraced by certain institutions. Whatever prominence they command stems more from the direct support of, and engagement with, appreciative audiences than from disinterested commercial outlets. Some, such as William M. Pleasant Jr., had the good fortune to produce heirs, like Jalal Pleasant, who also became accomplished artists and have labored to ensure their parent’s work is properly noted.

The Example of Luther E. Vann

All of the people mentioned here have won some level of recognition in their own right. Vann earned his place beside the luminous talents he has joined through a lifetime of dedication to both the spirit and the forms of his craft. It was that dauntless commitment which prompted organizations like the Telfair Museum Friends of African-American Art to back the publication of the ekphratic book, Elemental the Power of Illuminated Love, in honor of his individual genius.

NEXT: Laureates and visionaries: Chronicling legacies of black artists in Savannah (part 2/3)

Aberjhani
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Creator of Authentic Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

More from Aberjhani on Cultural Preservation and Erasures of History

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Why Genocide in Ukraine Matters to A Black Poet in America (Pt. 2 of 2)

4/7/2022

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Once underway, Russia’s “special military operation” immediately brought to mind all the most inhumane atrocities human beings have committed against other human beings. Mainstream media groaned about how nothing like it had been seen on the European continent since World War II. For me, the specific tools and strategy involved to carry out the slaughter were less significant than the intent to commit it.

(If you missed part 1 of this essay and wish to read it please click here.)

In how many forms over how many centuries have we seen the same barbaric inclination manifest with heartbreaking blood-drenched results? Ukrainians in particular will recall: there was once a neighboring country near the Black Sea called Circassia, but it no longer exists because Russia did to it (1830s-1870s) exactly what Russia is attempting to do to Ukraine at this historic 2022 moment.

They will remember in particular the Ukraine famine of 1932-1933 which ended the lives of almost 4 million people. They cannot forget the take-over of Crimea in 2014. When considering these things, it becomes easier to understand why they have opted overwhelmingly to die in battle rather than exist in a repressive autocracy proclaiming itself a democracy.

Some Useful Lessons

For humanity as a whole, it remains difficult to understand why we insist on duplicating the ignorance of the past instead of building upon whatever wisdom might be gleaned from it. If the enslavement of Africans and the eventual rejection of their chains had not been enough, then some kind of useful lessons should have been learned from: the Holocaust (1941-1945, approx. 11 million killed, including Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Romas, Gays, and others); the Cambodian “Killing Fields” Genocide (17 April 1975- January 1979, nearly 2 million killed); and the Rwandan Genocide (7 April to 15 July 1994, approx. 800,000 killed).

From 2 to 6 million is a number often cited when calculating Black lives lost during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Nobel laureate Toni Morrison put the figure at 60 million. The number of Black lives lost during the process of capturing Africans combined with that of Blacks who died in slavery throughout the resulting diaspora may very well be incalculable. What is certain is the documented assumptions of members of one population deciding they possessed the right––some convinced themselves it was an obligation––to destroy the cultural integrity of another population.

‘A Large-scale and Treacherous War’

Whether Russia’s ceaseless bombing of Ukraine may be properly defined as genocide is something scholars and politicians might debate but which Ukrainians cannot. Virtually addressing Israeli lawmakers on March 20, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pointed out:

“This is a large-scale and treacherous war aimed at destroying our people. Destroying our children, our families. Our state. Our cities. Our communities. Our culture. And everything that makes Ukrainians Ukrainians. Everything that Russian troops are now destroying. Deliberately. In front of the whole world.”

For me, now a month and a half later, it has been too much like watching the proverbial oversized bully flanked by two Goliaths even larger than he taking turns punching a solitary 99-pound book-wormish classmate. Except the bully came armed with tanks, warplanes, and long-range missiles, and the bullies’ victim was not a solitary school boy.

The victim is a sovereign democratic nation which at the beginning of the war, on February 24, 2022, had a population estimated at 44.1 million. At this point, a quarter of Ukraine’s population has been displaced, including more than 4 million refugees fled to other countries. Videos of atrocities committed in Mariupol, Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpin, and elsewhere have left the international community stunned with disbelief.

Injustice Anywhere

At least three times each year--when honoring his birth, acknowledging the pain of his assassination, and commemorating the 1963 March on Washington, DC––people across the globe invoke the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on nonviolence and human rights. One of his most memorable pronouncements states: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Dr. King’s words clearly do not end with considerations of the social, political, or cultural battles undertaken by Black Americans and which have placed them among the foremost defenders of justice and democracy in the United States. The concept is easily applicable to the now famous blue and yellow shades of Ukraine’s enduring flag.

In his historic appeal to the U.S. Congress on March 16, 2022 , Ukraine President Zelenskyy cited King’s I Have a Dream speech and paraphrased his key refrain to emphasize:

“I can say, ‘I have a need: I need to protect our sky.’ I need your decision, your help, which means exactly the same, the same you feel when you hear the words ‘I have a dream.’”

Who, watching the reduction of Ukraine’s beautiful citizens and cities to piles of corpses and rubble, can doubt they are witnessing injustice in its most malevolent form? What could be more unjust than a sustained concentrated effort to erase an entire people’s culture, history, and presence from the earth? A day will come soon enough when onlookers denouncing the onslaught will have to decide whether efforts to help stem the rushing streams of blood have been meaningful in any significant life-saving way, or if they merely constituted an unintentional form of further enabling orchestrators of the butchery in Ukraine.

By Aberjhani
(© National Poetry Month 2022)
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
and Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind
Creator of Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

For more from Aberjhani on War in Ukraine 2022 please check out:
            Why Genocide in Ukraine Matters to a Black Poet in America Part 1
            Holiday Letter for a Poet Gone to War Poem with Video
           Volodymyr Zelensky and the Angel of Peace 2022
Ukraine, Russia, and the Art of Being Human
Angel of War and the Year 2022
Voices of Poets on War and Peace

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Love Letters to a World Weary of Chaos

12/10/2021

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(“Love Letters to a World Weary of Chaos” art composite by Aberjhani featuring “Swallow” silhouettes courtesy of Culture Declares Emergency)

It’s not necessarily the best way to be and can result in the loss of friendships and other human connections. But some creative artists are known for becoming so absorbed in the flow of creative productivity that they lose sight of everything else until the process slowly eases toward completion. They (we) can only hope that once all the lightning of unleashed imagination and nervous energy relaxes, they (we) will have something worthwhile to balance out the price paid.

This scenario has been fairly descriptive of my life for the past year or so while creating art and assembling texts for a book I had hoped to see published in November. A couple of COVID-19 variants named Delta and Omicron, along with the pandemic-induced supply chain crisis, decided that was not going to happen. So, instead of waiting until next spring, when hopefully it shall see the light of day, I’ve chosen to periodically share excerpts from the work in progress.

With the above in mind, my most recent art print posted for sale on Fine Art America is a very special one titled “Love Letter to the Earth and Life Itself Number 3.” In addition to being part of a triptych included in the book, this is also my way of pledging support for the Letters to the Earth project. Not to be confused with the classic American author Mark Twain’s Letters FROM the Earth, the Letters TO the Earth initiative got its start in Great Britain and has now spread around the world. Not surprisingly, given his call for existential creativity, author Ben Okri has also lent his voice in support of the initiative.

The following is taken from the artwork’s product page and provides context for the inspired intentions which led to its creation:

A Blossoming Earth

“Love Letter to the Earth and Life Itself Number 3” is one of the last images created specifically for inclusion in my current artbook project, a blend of visual fine art and literary texts. This artwork also happens to be my 200th post milestone on Fine Art America, which is a big deal to me because the creation of art (my own and that of others past and present who inspire me) has always been an important part of my survival strategy.

The title was inspired by the worldwide Letters to the Earth Project, which was established in 2019 to encourage support of policies and practices designed to reverse catastrophic climate change caused by humanity’s activities. At this point, we know the climate crisis is very real because things like giant melting glaciers and entire towns wiped out by raging fires that burn for months refuse to be ignored. But that doesn’t mean beauty no longer exists in our extraordinary world because it does.

Aberjhani
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

CATCH UP ON MORE CONVERSATIONS WITH THE WORLD

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Unexpected Encounters of the Angelic Kind

10/31/2021

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INTRO: Unexpected encounters with manifestations of the angelic kind tend to be recurring themes in some of my creative productions because of their repeated occurrences in my actual life. The following example is taken from the texts of two recent posts of artwork at Pixels.com and Fine Art America:

Portrait of the Artist at Work

An interesting funny thing happened after I delivered 3 pieces of artwork to the Savannah/Hilton Head Airport Art Gallery for an exhibition curated by the Savannah Art Association in early October (now on exhibit until January 7, 2022). I was crossing the busy terminal street where drivers dropped off and picked up travelers, then waiting for my own ride, when I noticed something for the first time.

Further ahead, some yards away from the taxi stand waiting area, was a giant round planter filled with colorful flowers and, at its center, a gushing fountain with an angel on top. Above its head, the angel held a globe with small airplanes circling it. I was approaching the fountain from the back so did not experience the full impact of its beauty until slowly circling around to its front.

(Detail from mixed media digital photograph and painting by Aberjhani titled "Angel with the Blue Wings." Click to purchase at Fine Art America or to check out other visual creations by the artist-author-poet-historian.)

That I had been unaware of this structure until that moment seemed impossible. But it was true, so I took as many photographs as I could before my transportation arrived.

As they do in cities like Rome, Paris, and Singapore, beautifully-designed fountains make up an important part of the appeal of Savannah (Georgia, USA). Different styles and sizes can be found in various squares and major public parks. The most famous is the Forsyth Park Fountain (images of which can be found in my FAA Savannah Collection). The angel on top of this one caught my attention in particular because angels inspired an entire book of my poetry (The River of Winged Dreams) and several pieces of my visual art as well.

Kudos for an Unknown Sculptor

Not knowing the official name of the fountain, I gave it several: Airport Angel, Angel of the Airport, Flight Fountain, and Angel with the Blue Wings. Its basic color was distorted by shadows because it was not yet noon.

I did not see a plaque describing the fountain, information about who created the angel, or when it was placed there. So far, none of the basic information regarding it has been made available to me, but I’m happy to commend the unknown sculptor for the flight angel fountain’s creation and the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport for installing it.

(To see this artwork in its entirety at the artist's website on Pixels.com please click the above image.)

What viewers see in my visual reimaginings of the structure is a mixed media rendering of the fountain using digital photography and digital painting. The goal was to combine a sense of classical style with modern aesthetics to evoke an atmosphere of inspired spiritual surrealism. In real physical life, the actual fountain is framed by the architecture of the airport itself, which stands as a modern classic creation in its own right. It may also be considered as symbolic of the airport’s growth and development over the past few decades, much like the city of Savannah’s.

For more on the art exhibit referenced in this blog please click here.

Aberjhani
Author of The River of Winged Dreams
and Greeting Flannery O'Connor at the Back Door of My Mind
Harlem Renaissance Centennial 2021©

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<<Previous

Acknowledging Achievements and Fine-tuning Aspirations

A Couple of Highlights So Far

A Look at Things to Come

Aberjhani
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

Contact Artist-Author Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

History and Erasure: Chronicling Legacies of Black Artists in Savannah (Pt. 1 of 3)

Introduction

Contributors to Unique Traditions

Restoring Erased History

The Example of Luther E. Vann

Aberjhani
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Creator of Authentic Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

Contact Author-Artist Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Why Genocide in Ukraine Matters to A Black Poet in America (Pt. 2 of 2)

Some Useful Lessons

‘A Large-scale and Treacherous War’

Injustice Anywhere

Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Love Letters to a World Weary of Chaos

A Blossoming Earth

Contact Author-Artist Aberjhani at
Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Unexpected Encounters of the Angelic Kind

Portrait of the Artist at Work

Kudos for an Unknown Sculptor

Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Aberjhani

Archives

Categories

Acknowledging Achievements and Fine-tuning Aspirations

A Couple of Highlights So Far

A Look at Things to Come

AberjhaniCo-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem RenaissanceAuthor of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

Contact Artist-Author Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

History and Erasure: Chronicling Legacies of Black Artists in Savannah (Pt. 1 of 3)

​Introduction

​Contributors to Unique Traditions

Restoring Erased History

The Example of Luther E. Vann

AberjhaniAuthor of Dreams of the Immortal City SavannahCo-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem RenaissanceCreator of Authentic Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

Contact Author-Artist Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Why Genocide in Ukraine Matters to A Black Poet in America (Pt. 2 of 2)

Some Useful Lessons

‘A Large-scale and Treacherous War’

Injustice Anywhere

Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Love Letters to a World Weary of Chaos

A Blossoming Earth

Contact Author-Artist Aberjhani atBright Skylark Literary Productions

Unexpected Encounters of the Angelic Kind

Portrait of the Artist at Work

​Kudos for an Unknown Sculptor

Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Aberjhani

Archives

Categories

Aberjhani
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

Introduction

Contributors to Unique Traditions

Aberjhani
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Creator of Authentic Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

Contact Author-Artist Aberjhani at
Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Kudos for an Unknown Sculptor