Today, I visited the California African-American Museum (CAAM) with one of my friends to participate in the walkthrough of a current exhibit, Cross Colours: Black Fashion in the 20th Century. We were given permission by one of the curators to take photographs. I would highly recommend attending. It focuses on Black fashion in the 1990s and how it simultaneously functioned as a form of expression and resistance from attacks on Black life (emanating from mass incarceration, Nixon and Reagan's "War on Drugs," etc.). It provides a context on how Black movements (the Black Power Movement, Black Nationalism, Garvey's UNIA, the Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, the NOI, etc.) shaped Black fashion in 1990s Black popular culture, as seen in its key colors from Garvey's Pan-African flag (red, blue, green). This influence was seen in works such as the television series The Fresh Prince of Belair (1990-1996), Public Enemy's music video Fight the Power (1989), Spike Lee's film Do the Right Thing (1989), among many other artifacts. It also explored how Black folks across the diaspora shaped this style, encompassing influences across the Americas, the Caribbean, all the way to West Africa.
It's interesting because my Instagram story (a few weeks ago) was comparing the attire of the character Sharif (who was in the new NOI) from Albert and Allen's Hughes's Menace II Society (1993) to the teen rap group KMD (specifically their music videos Peachfuzz and Who Me?) who were members of a relatively different Muslim group (Ansarullah Community) based in Bushwick. Interestingly, Sharif's clothing differed much from some of the NOI-influenced clothing in Public Enemy's Fight the Power and Chuck D and Prince Akeem's Time to Come Correct and seemed to be more reflective of KMD's style that was shaped by the AAC. Attending the exhibit definitely helped provide more context to my analysis that was only confined to my Instagram story (which I could post in the comments).
Below are some photographs from the exhibit. It was interesting to see all of the hyperlinks in the form of monitors containing films, music videos, television series, speeches, and historical footage alongside the tangible clothing, artwork, and descriptions.
A few weeks ago, after my friend and I participated in a 1990s dance class at the CAAM, we gained our first glimpse of the visit. When we visited today, we participated in a walkthrough by one of the exhibit's amazing curators, Tyree Boyd-Pates.
Here is a link to the exhibit on the CAAM website if anyone's interested in attending: https://caamuseum.org/exhibitions/2019/cross-colours-black-fashion-in-the-20th-century. I will most definitely going to return several times.
All of the photos were taken by Assatu Wisseh:
--Kam
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