Kehinde Wiley's Equestrian Portrait of King Phillip II

In the Equestrian Portrait of King Phillip II made by Kehinde Wiley, the painting presents the well renowned Michael Jackson as a royal king. He is pictured riding a white horse in King Phillip’s attire, with two angels placing a reef over his head. What I found interesting about the painting was the horse’s color and the two angels, with the horse having white skin with black hooves, and one angel being white and other black. I concluded that the picture was representing his status as a huge celebrity while dealing with his skin condition. Yet, what stands out to me about this painting is how Michael Jackson went through his battles dealing with his skin condition, while still able to be recognized as a King of many, through his power of music. –Tyrone Jones

Related: 

• AALCI 2022

Kehinde Wiley's Portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew

Mr. Wiley portrays this black, bald, blonde-haired woman standing with sass as a colorful depiction of flowers and greenery surrounds and encompasses her. Something particularly notable for me about the painting, besides the fact that she is bald, is her facial piercings. She has one in her nose, as well as one below her lip. After closely examining the portrait, I noticed that in addition to the blonde baldness, and facial piercings, the woman was not what would be typically described as skinny. Instead, she is full figured, painted in nothing more than a sheer bodysuit, fishnets, and jewelry. The painting stood out to me compared to some of Wiley’s other work because of this very reason. This portrait shows a black woman in minimum clothing compared to his other portraits of black women in long dresses. In this painting, I believe Wiley is challenging our view on what we consider to be feminine about black women. –Yaqkeha Witherspoon

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• AALCI 2022

Kehinde Wiley's Judith and Holofernes

Judith and Holofernes is an oil painting by Kehinde Wiley that I have nicknamed the “Beheading of Becky.” The painting displays a black woman holding the head of a white woman surrounded by a dark but floral background. When gazing at this painting I instantly feel a range of emotions. The first is humor but right after is awe. I am in awe of how Wiley captured the gracefulness and femininity of this black woman through her stance and adornments while in the same breath highlighting her strength. When studying the picture closely I noticed how the position of her feet falls directly on flowers further emphasizing her delicacy. This picture stood out the most to me because black women often do not get the luxury of being viewed as both strong & feminine, yet Wiley presents just how possible it is.  --Nicole Dixon

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• AALCI 2022

Kehinde Wiley's Juliette Récamier

This is the painting Juliette Récamier by Kehinde Wiley. It is of a woman sitting in a formal dress on a couch surrounded by flowers and leaves. Notably about the painting though the woman is on a couch, she does not seem to be resting because she is sitting in a formal dress and her posture is very stiff. Something that I noticed after studying the painting for a while was that the woman’s eye makeup seems to resemble that of an Egyptian queen’s, giving an aura of power. I noticed that the painting stood out to me compared to the other works because it resembled a Manet painting it was based on that had a white figure but also had a black figure originally in a subservient position in the painting as well. -Elizabeth Gowans

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• AALCI 2022

Kehinde Wiley’s Conspicuous Fraud Series #1 (Eminence)

Kehinde Wiley’s Conspicuous Fraud Series #1 (Eminence) depicts a middle aged African American male contrasted by a somewhat muggy teal background. The man is dressed in a full suit and his hair is long; sprouting from his head as if he were a tree and his curls were its offspring. When studying the painting it is hard to tell if his long locks are meant to be a sign of pride or shame for the man. On one hand they look like clouds which could symbolize his feelings of freedom and peace; while another viewpoint might characterize the hair’s movement as something reminiscent of smoke or shadows which might allude to a more negative association. Regardless, this piece stands out for Wiley’s willingness to use something as simplistic as hair to challenge the audience’s personal bias and initial reactions to the content. – Terrie Briggs 

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• AALCI 2022

Kehinde Wiley's Support the Rural Population and Serve 500 Million Peasants

Support the Rural Population and Serve 500 Million Peasants by Kehinde Wiley. The painting features a young African American male holding an old medical bag on the background of Chinese Lotus floral pattern. Something notable about the painting is the medical bag, in combination with the wearing of the durag. After studying the painting for a while, I noticed that he seems stopped in mid stride as if what looks ahead has gathered his attention. This painting stands out to me compared to Wiley’s other works because it welcomes this Black man into a culture, and a professional space, that typically would not make room for him. With the young man’s facial expression, he is able to demand his space there and make it known that no one is above the help that he can provide. -- Chaunece  Reed 

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• AALCI 2022

More photos from our time with D. A. Y. Tyme

 A more photos from the time D. A. Y. Tyme met with AALCI. 

D.A.Y. Tyme at AALCI

Beyond the presentation on poetry, the fellows were treated to a mini-concert by San Antonio group D.A.Y.Tyme. The group consists of San Antonio Poet Laureate Andrea "Vocab" Sanderson, David Jacobe, and Yvette Hardin. That is, David Andrea Yvette. 

So it's D. A. Y. Tyme. It's they time.

They sang a few different wonderful songs. Took as to church, as the folks say. 

The fellows really enjoyed the experience. 

"Today's performance was great," said Yaqkeha Witherspoon. "And it just expanded my view on the many ways there are to cultivate beauty."

And Terrie Briggs offered more: 

“Being able to witness D.A.Y. Tyme’s performance was truly inspirational and informative. It was beneficial to me as a fellow writer to listen to the members discuss their writing process and overall journey towards their current point in their individual and collective careers. It was helpful to hear the ways our processes of creation were similar as well as different because they both provided me with a sense of how I might want to adapt my process in the future.”

D. A. Y. Tyme sang an original song by Jacobe entitled "The Recovery Room." Hey, it's really powerful. One of my first orders of business after the show was signing on to Tidal to listen to the song again. (It's available on Spotify, Apple Music, etc).

"Today's performance resonated with me in telling myself to be encouraged and get through recovery," said Elizabeth Gowans. "I often find myself overwhelmed and in a depressed state. It takes quite a lot to be in recovery and I felt it was a right on-time word brought specifically for me."

Chaunece Reed noted that the group was "very welcoming, calming, and inspiring in ways they do not know." She said that she "had never experienced spoken word in collaboration with lyrical music before, and I thought that combination was fascinating and moving." 

D. A. Y. Tyme's "voices were beautiful," said Nicole Dixon, "but even more beautiful was being able to witness their passionate and strong connection with one another."

D. A. Y. Tyme with AALCI (source: Vocab's Instagram page)

[More photos from our time with D. A. Y. Tyme]

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• AALCI 2022

Vocab at AALCI

Andrea Vocab Sanderson

The Fellows had a great time today as AALCI founder Joycelyn Moody sponsored a presentation by San Antonio Poet Laureate Andrea "Vocab" Sanderson.

Vocab talked poetry, curating events, singing, collaborating with various folks, organizing social media and activism campaigns, and more.

"Meeting San Antonio Poet Laureate Andrea 'Vocab' Sanderson in such an intimate setting felt like such a privilege," said Nicole Dixon. "Being able to ask questions about becoming a poet laureate, her poetry, and her work balance was beyond helpful. Hearing and seeing her story allowed me to envision myself pursuing my dreams in a more clear way now."

Yaqkeha Witherspoon said that the "experience to be very informative, inspiring, and moving."

"One thing I particularly enjoyed," said Chaunece Reed, "was the comfortability that the speaker" had with the group. 

Related: 

• AALCI 2022

The AALCI Crew hard at work

Here's a look at our 2022 AALCI crew hard at work, taking a look at our summer reading materials. 

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• AALCI 2022

Reading materials for AALCI 2022

Here's a look at our reading materials for the summer. The books: 

• Recitatif  by Toni Morrison 

• Read Until You by Farah Jasmine Griffin

• Flyboy 2 by Greg Tate 

• Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires 

• Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic  

We also have a course packet of various readings I pulled together. 

Related: 

• AALCI 2022

Daily, enriching conversations

This year,  we nearly all of our sessions in the library. We met in a large room, but only used one table. 

We had many, extended enriching conversations. And those discussions were just the tip of the iceberg. 

I could see all the highlighted, markups that the students had on their books and in the course packet. It was clear that we could've kept going and going. 

Related: 

• AALCI 2022

Tara Schmidt's working with the fellows

I took a few snaps of Tara Schmidt working with the fellows on the puzzle activity. They were really involved -- looking at the materials and posing questions. 

Working with the different fragments gave the feel that we were literally putting the pieces together. It was an educational and enjoyable process. 

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• AALCI 2022

Tara Schmidt's puzzle activity

Tara Schmidt, Coordinator of Information Literacy & Assessment at the UTSA libraries, coordinated a really fascinating activity for our Fellows on June 9. 

She distributed handouts from a single resource on a single figure. The handouts were from an NAACP collection and focused on Claude McKay. Schmidt gave one handout to each student. One document included poems, one included an FBI file on McKay, one included two book reviews, one included correspondence, and another included additional information on McKay. 

[Related: Tara Schmidt's working with the fellows]

Each of the documents had a date on them,

The students had to converse with each other to determine the order, and once they did they discussed out loud what they had. The result was that they pieced together aspects of McKay's life and experienced based on these disparate fragments. 

The activity resembled the practice of a researcher finding various pieces or fragments on a subject and then tying them together to form a narrative.  

Beyond that exercise, Schmidt talked to the group about approaches to doing searches online. Her excitement about her field was infectious and had the Fellows and me interrupting to ask questions about how one becomes a librarian.  

Related:

• AALCI 2022

AALCI 2022

Our activities for the 12th cohort of the African American Literatures and Cultures Institute began on Sunday, June 5, with an opening dinner. The following entries chart our progress, activities, and thinking.

• Kehinde Wiley’s Conspicuous Fraud Series #1 (Eminence) -- Terrie Briggs

• Kehinde Wiley's Support the Rural Population and Serve 500 Million Peasants -- Chaunece Reed

• Kehinde Wiley's Juliette Récamier -- Elizabeth Gowans 

• Kehinde Wiley's Judith and Holofernes - Nicole Dixon 

• Kehinde Wiley's Portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew - Yaqkeha Witherspoon

• Kehinde Wiley's Equestrian Portrait of King Phillip II - Tyrone Jones

• D.A.Y. Tyme at AALCI

• More photos from our time with D. A. Y. Tyme

• Vocab at AALCI

• The AALCI Crew hard at work 

• Reading materials for AALCI 2022

• Daily, enriching conversations

• Tara Schmidt's working with the fellows

• Tara Schmidt's puzzle activity 

Related: 

• A Notebook on AALCI, 2010-2021

AALCI at a Glance

Since June 2010, we've coordinated the African American Literatures and Cultures Institute (AALCI) at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The program was created by Joycelyn Moody. I cover the curriculum and teaching. 

During the summer, we discuss a variety of Black studies readings, academic writing, African American visual art, and challenges and opportunities associated with scholarly research. 

The participating summer fellows receive: 

• abundant intellectual nourishment

• extensive feedback on writing 

• a selection of free books 

• guidance on creation or development of research projects 

• assistance on graduate application materials.

• a small stipend ($2,000.00)

• loding at UTSA during the program 

Here's a glance at the fellows, 2016 - 2018:

poster session 2016

Poster session 2017