What's Newark Got To Do With It?

Nell Painter Interview

Roger C. Tucker III/ Nell Painter

When I think of Nell’s visual and literary practices, a favorite quote of the iconic American author and social justice advocate, James Baldwin, comes to mind: “Artists are here to disturb the peace.” So, join me in a lively conversation with Nell Painter to discover how this brilliant Newark transplant uses her artistic talents to “disturb the peace”.

Nell Painter, the painter formerly known as the historian Nell Irvin Painter, is author of many books, including The History of White People, Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol, Creating Black Americans and Old In Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over.

She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at Harvard University,  a B.A. in anthropology from the University of California, an M.A. at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design .

Nell is the Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita at Princeton University and lives and works in Newark, New Jersey.

Nell’s recent artist books include From Slavery To Freedom,  was commissioned by Emma Wilcox for Aferro Gallery in Newark, 2020. This book, along with American Whiteness Since Trump, 2020 is part of her In the year of the Great Upheaval 2020 series.

“My work carries discursive as well as visual meaning, and I make it in my characteristic manual + digital process. Using found images and digital manipulation, I reconfigure the past and revision myself through self-portraits. After a life of historical truth and political engagement with American society, my artwork represents freedom. Including the freedom to be totally self-centered.” — Nell Painter

Learn and see more about Nell Painter and her artistic practice at her website: www.nellpainter.com

Check out the images in this episode on: What’s Newark To Do With It?

Nell Painter with her Odalisque Atlas – White History as Told Through Art: Solo show at Harvard University October-November 2019

Nell Painter, 3g. Motherwell in the Adirondacks 17, 2016, digital collage, 32" x 32"

Nell Painter, WEB/Booker T. Opera, City Scene, 2017, sketch for opera backdrop, digital paper collage, 6 ft. x 8 ft. Opera produced by Trilogy Opera Company in Newark, NJ, subject matter based on Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois.

Nell Painter, Photo Left: Installation view of three works by Nell Painter, published by the Brodsky Center, (from left): Wise Woman Inside, You Say This Can't Really Be America, and Wise Woman Disappears. Photo Right: You Say This Can't Really Be America, 2017, digital and silkscreen print on Sunset Cotton etching paper. One of Eight parts, 17" x 17" each.

Nell Painter, From Slavery to Freedom, 2020, Page 12. This is a series of 15 drawings, each 8.5" x 5.5", commissioned by Emma Wilcox for Aferro Gallery in Newark. 

Ernest Dickerson Interview

Roger C. Tucker III

It was a blast interviewing Ernest Dickerson, via Zoom, in Cape town, South Africa, where he is directing two episodes of Raised By Wolves for HBO Max. During our interview Ernest shared how growing up in Newark, NJ continues to inform his filmmaking career. He describes how Black Lives Matter has impacted the movie and television industry and he also shares a few details about his “Dream Project”. 

Ernest Dickerson is an American director, cinematographer, and screenwriter of film, television and music videos. Ernest was born in Newark NJ. He attended Howard University in Washington, DC. where he earned a degree in architecture. He also took a film class with Haile Gerima as he already was interested in movies. He later relocated to New York City to attend New York University's film program at the Tisch School of the Arts, where he met fellow student Spike Lee.

His first feature film as director of photography was also Lee's first film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983), filmed while both of them were still students. Ernest went on to work with Lee on other films that included School Daze, Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever and Malcolm X.

As a director, he is known for action and horror films such as Juice, Demon Knight, Bulletproof, Bones and Never Die Alone. He has also directed several episodes of acclaimed television series, including Once Upon a Time, The Wire, Dexter, The Walking Dead, Treme: New Orleans, The Deuce, Interrogation, Godfather of Harlem and Raised By Wolves.

Check out the complete Ernest Dickerson at IMBd

Check out the images in this episode on: What’s Newark To Do With It?

Captions for images shown below:

1. Ernest Dickerson and Tupac Shakur on the set of the movie Juice in 1991. This was the writing and directing debut of Dickerson and features Shakur in his acting debut. The film was shot in New York City, mainly in Harlem.

2. Shot by Ernest Dickerson in 1984 for director John Sayles, The Brother From Another Planet features Joe Morton as an alien and escaped slave on the run from his home planet.

3, Ernest Dickerson was the cinematographer for Spike Lee's 1992 Malcolm X, a biopic of the African-American activist, starring Denzel Washington.

4. A scene from season 3 from the award winning crime drama, The Wire, directed by Ernest Dickerson in 2004. Set in Baltimore, Maryland, that follows the thread of a single police investigation. (Left to right: Jim True-Frost, Lance Reddick, Clarke Peters (seated), Dominic West (standing), Deirdre Lovejoy and Sonja Sohn)

5. Poster promoting the 5th Season of the Walking Dead. Directed by Ernest Dickerson, the show’s propulsive, bloody action and compelling character moments continued to deliver top-notch entertainment.

6. Abubakar Salim, who plays robotic caretaker Father, in the Ernest Dickerson directed Raised by Wolves, posted a picture of himself on Twitter.

Willie Cole Interview

Roger C. Tucker / Willie Cole

I interviewed the internationally famous artist, Willie Cole, in his studio in the winter of 2021. 

Willie and I go back to the late 60’s when we attended Arts High School in Newark, NJ. Arts was the first visual and performing arts high school in the country. Jazz innovator, Wayne Shorter, great song stylist, Sarah Vaughan were just some of the famous graduates who proceeded us there. I was two grades ahead of Willie and our friendship actually started fairly early in our careers after college.

Willie Cole is a noted contemporary American sculptor, printer, conceptual and visual artist. Cole is best known for assembling and transforming ordinary domestic and used objects such as irons, ironing boards, high-heeled shoes, hair dryers, bicycle parts and other discarded appliances and hardware, into imaginative and powerful works of art. 

Mining his own African American heritage, Cole creates work that celebrates African Art and Culture. 

In November 2020 the globally famous fashion icon, Rei Kawakubo, always looking to the arts, called on Willie for a collaboration for the Fall Winter 2021 men's collection of Comme des Garçons Homme Plus.

Willie’s artwork is found in numerous private and public collections and museums around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Newark Museum of Art. 

Education: BFA, The School of Visual Arts, New York, The Art Students League, New York, Arts High School, Newark, NJ.

WillieCole.com

Check out the images in this episode on: What’s Newark To Do With It?

Above: Works by Willie Cole

1. Willie Cole, Street Dragon, 2018

2. Willie Cole, Between Body and Soul, 2018

3. Willie Cole, Woman in Heels, 2019

4. Willie Cole, Sunflower, 1994

5. Willie Cole, Wind Mask East, 1990

6. Willie Cole, Man Spirit Mask, 1999

7./8. Willie Cole/Rei Kawakubo, collaboration for the Fall Winter 2021 men's collection of Comme des Garçons Homme Plus.

9. Willie Cole, The Sole Sitter, 2013

Ara Tucker Interviews Roger C. Tucker III

Ara Tucker/Roger C. Tucker III

Ara Tucker, writer, observer and traveler, gifted me, Roger C. Tucker III, with taking on the hosting duties for this podcast by interviewing me. My oldest daughter, she’s accompanied me on many art museum and other culture adventures beginning at the age of four. She continues to hang out with me, and me with her, on art jaunts across this continent and across the pond in Italy, most memorably. Whether traveling to Martha’s Vineyard to mount a solo exhibition for one of Tucker Contemporary Art’s artist and Bishop, Donald Hilliard, also known as the “Preacher Who Paints”. Or launching the fine art practice of artist, author and scholar, Margaret Rose Vendryes, including writing and editing two of her catalogs. Collaborating with her wife, Hilary Harkness, on the infamous and critically heralded, Arabella Freeman painting series, which debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach, Ara made the time to have me share my art collecting journey and the life of art that informs it. I think you’ll find her questions intriguing in how they are able to wrest surprising answers from me.

I’m a proud native of Newark, NJ and founder of Tucker Contemporary Art. TCA works with collectors and institutions interested in acquiring, exhibiting and promoting the work of emerging contemporary artists. Leveraging extensive experience in fine art, marketing and education, TCA advances the careers of African American and other underrepresented artists – academically trained or outside the mainstream. Check out our art advisory website: Tucker Contemporary Art

Education: MS, Pratt Institute, New York • BFA, Cooper Union, New York • Arts High School, Newark, NJ

Co-Host, Ara Tucker: She writes about art, culture, and identity. Her latest novel, How to Raise an Art Star, is the first in a series about the Gregson Bennett Family. In addition to the spin-off animal characters featured in Tails from the Alley, she’s currently curating and contributing to I'm Here Too, a website dedicated to learning, sharing and inspiring others through our diverse life journeys.

An alumna of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Fiction, Poetry and Non-Fiction, Ara majored in Art History and Visual Arts at Princeton University and studied creative writing with Jeffrey Eugenides, Edmund White, and A.J. Verdelle.  https://aratucker.com

Check out the images in this episode on: What’s Newark To Do With It?

Above: Works from Roger’s art collection.

1. Chiffon Thomas, Untitled, 2019

2. Tschabalala Self, Aqua Babe, 2014

3. Nathaniel M. Quinn, The Comedian, 2017

4. William Villalongo, Bird Bath, 2004

5. Gerald Sheffield, Facing Abstraction, 2015

6. Willie Cole, The Ogun Sisters, 2012

7. Dominant Dansby, Cleft Dimension/Perspective, 2016

8. Margaret Rose Vendryes, Kifwebe Jody, 2011

7. Frank Stewart, "D’Esnambuc Ferry" from St. Barts to St. Martin Ferry, 1979