As Part of Heather Sparks’ BIG RETURN Kendall Karam contributed:
The pictures I have submitted for Heather Sparks’ Big Return are centered in Baltimore, Maryland’s African & African American Community. Baltimore is roughly 60% Black.
The 1st pictures are from Go Logo, a store on Greenmount Ave, but instead of buying an returning something, I bought a fake Gucci cap for $20 and tagged it up, as I like to do to anything that has materialistic intrinsic value…
The owners are from Africa, but I must return to ask again from where in Africa, I asked, but have forgotten. The next set of pictures are from my Nigerian mechanic’s shop near Greenmont Avenue, his friend Lola was there with her baby Tobe. I loved their clothing, they & Lola’s dress are also from Nigeria. Lola is doing her master’s degree in social work at Morgan State University (MSU). The gray dress is my design based on Kuba clothe from the Congo, I designed it for a class, Traditional Arts of Africa, at MSU. All African Art is Art for Life Sake, not Art for Art Sake, like Western Art. The pictures of the two men with their baby girls distinctly resolves a change that is happening; young black fathers enjoying their children stereotyping away from the same demographic of young black men in jail.
I attend an HBCU, (Historically Black College & University) working on my doctorate in Urban Educational Leadership. I intend to change policy, and work towards fully integrated arts education both theory and practice. My studies are based in a mix methods Theoretical Framework of Critical Pedagogy, Critical Race Theory, and an Afrocentic base. I have been teaching children in the Baltimore City Public school system techniques in Curved Space Geometry of Painting for the past year, utilizing images and the history of World Art, African & African American Art. I have been painting my whole life and find contemporary African American children to have the gift of art intrinsic in them. My art can be seen at www.CurvedSpaceGeometry.com, and I showcase other Baltimore artists at www.KolorUrban.com.
