Blance

a cultural ecosystem designed for communal liberation | #blance by @dvonsmallwood. | @maisonblance on instagram and threads

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Due to this app’s (seemingly impending) demise, slide — IG: https://t.co/UTN2BxFMX3. We buildin’ ova there.

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Kwame Brathwaite, "Untitled (Sikolo with Carolee Prince Designs)," 1968.

Celebrating Kwame Brathwaite. A thread.🧵

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When asked to summarize his life's work at one of his last public events, Brathwaite poignantly stated, "I love Black people."

[Blance @blanceglobal]

Due to this app’s (seemingly impending) demise, slide — IG: https://t.co/UTN2BxFf7v. We buildin’ ova there.

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Today, "African American Flag" and Hammons' 2017 adaptation, "Oh Say Can You See" (2017) remain seminal pieces of political art and social commentary.

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The works' legacy powerfully lives on as it continues to resonate with audiences and spur dialogue around Black pride and nationhood.

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In doing so, "African American Flag" takes a commonplace item imbued with cultural meanings and reconstitutes it to reconsider notions of identity and belonging.

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“Outrageously magical things happen when you mess around with a symbol.”

The making of David Hammons' "African-American Flag" (1990). A Thread.🧵

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A Dadaist, Hammons' gesture of altering the national emblem of America allowed him to utilize and manipulate a readymade object to disrupt its original ingrained assumptions.

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By Pan-Africanizing the American flag, Hammons aimed to challenge notions of nationalism and expose the hypocrisy of America’s professed ideals of freedom and equality.

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He replaces the flag’s traditional red, white and blue with the Pan-African colors of red, black and green — symbolically representing the blood shed during slavery, the skin and pride of African Americans, and the wealth and prosperity stolen from their ancestors, respectively.

[Blance @blanceglobal]

In "African American Flag," Hammons takes the quintessential symbol of America — the Stars and Stripes — and transforms it into a statement on Black pride and solidarity.