Adding patois and Haiti to this constellation of words shifts the linguistic lens toward the colonial world and the complex, often violent, processes by which languages are born, suppressed, and transformed. Patois is a word that carries its own prejudice embedded within it: derived from Old French, it originally suggested rough, clumsy speech — the…
Category: 109
Drachm, Phlegm, and Thumb
These three words share a fascinating silent consonant — the silent “b” in thumb, the silent “g” in phlegm, and the silent “ch” in drachm — and each of those silent letters is a kind of fossil, a remnant of an older pronunciation that speech gradually smoothed away while spelling stubbornly preserved it. This phenomenon,…
All Colored Cast (Part III): A Descriptive Essay
Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat’s All Colored Cast (Part III), created in 1982, is a large-scale work executed in acrylic and crayon on a square canvas measuring 152.5 by 152.5 centimeters. Currently held in a private collection, the painting immediately commands attention through its vivid yellow background, which serves as a luminous field upon which…
Black Jezus — Tupac Shakur
Black Jesus Was Tupac Shakur: An Exploratory Essay Afeni Shakur, born Alice Faye Williams in 1947 in Lumberton, North Carolina, is the Black Madonna of this story. Like the Virgin Mary, she was a woman of low social station who found herself pregnant under extraordinary and threatening circumstances. At the time of Tupac’s conception, Afeni…
The Black Madonna and Black Baby Jesus
Ermias Joseph Asghedom: The Black Baby Jesus and the Black Madonna The Jesus archetype is among the most enduring mythological and spiritual frameworks in human civilization. It traces the arc of a sacred figure born into conditions of marginalization and danger, raised by a mother of extraordinary strength and spiritual weight, who grows to become…
The Same Image: Basquiat’s Premonition and the Life of Ermias Asghedom
A Comparative Essay There are moments in art history when an image refuses to stay in its own time. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s All Colored Cast (Part III), painted in 1982 in a studio apartment on Market Street in Venice, California, is one of those images. Rendered in acrylic and crayon on a luminous yellow canvas, the…
What Happened in Nizwa, Oman? (Part Two)
March began as a joyous month with Ethiopians celebrating the 123rd anniversary of the Battle of Adwa. Yet the month of March 2019 turned solemn when many people lost their lives on Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, and Eritrean-American rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed. These isolated events might have all just been coincidences. But for me…
Carl Von Ossietzky
Ossietzky’s Nobel Peace Prize nomination telegram was numbered 109. That part! Do you see 109 within the painting? It’s not hidden. It’s right there. I found it when I visited the Nobel Peace Museum in Sweden. This was another encounter with 109. Please support 109. Buy 109 and/or artwork inspired by 109 at http://www.isee109.store
Black Jesus
ROMANS 10:9 is a reference to one’s belief in Jesus that leads to salvation. Jean Michel Basquiat once painted 109 on a painting. He even painted a male figure in the same picture that I would argue is Nipsey Hussle. Nipsey was not alive when the painting was created, but Nipsey took a photo that…
Original Artwork
In 2021, I took the picture that is displayed within this work of art. I stood near the intersection of Crenshaw Blvd and Slauson Ave. In my hands, I held a copy of my book entitled 109 — the Nipsey Blue version. I made a color print of the original picture which I adhered to…
What’s Larry Been Up To? Part 2
Visit my Shopify page to purchase a digital ebook entitled What’s Larry Been Up To? The original version of this book was created in 2017, but it has been updated. Check it out now! Click here. Also, watch this video to see what Larry’s been up to! The video is below, too!
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