Kwame Brathwaite
“To ‘Think Black’ meant not only being politically conscious and concerned with issues facing the black community, but also reflecting that awareness of self through dress and self-presentation. … [They] were the woke set of their generation.” — Tanisha C. Ford
With essays by Tanisha C. Ford and Deb Willis, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging, Black Is Beautiful is the first-ever monograph dedicated to Kwame Brathwaite’s remarkable career, telling the story of a key, but until now under-recognized, figure of the second-wave Harlem Renaissance. In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, Brathwaite used his photography to popularize the political slogan “Black Is Beautiful” and to challenge mainstream beauty standards that excluded women of color.
Black Is Beautiful is to be published in conjunction with the first-ever major exhibition of Brathwaite’s work at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, on view from April 11–September 1, 2019.