Black August Art Exhibit

Black August Art Exhibit

The Black August Hip Hop Project is a benefit concert that originated as a way to honor freedom fighters. Each year, its goal is to create awareness about the history and struggle of African Americans.

The term Black August began in a California concentration camp, when Jonathan Jackson was killed in the process of trying to free three Black Liberation Fighters at the Marin County California courthouse on August 7, 1970. The following August, George Jackson, another Freedom Fighter, was killed in a San Quentin prison Black rebellion by prison guards. Three of the prison guards involved in Jackson's death were killed by six Black and Latino prisoners who became known as the San Quentin Six.

The San Quentin Six joined together to study revolutionary work and collectively started Black August in honor of the fallen Freedom Fighters. During the month of August, they refrained from television, the radio, eating between the hours of sunrise and sunset and any activity that distracted them from focusing on unity. They used this time to practice self discipline and contemplate on the sacrifices African Americans had to endure throughout history. This practice spread outside of California through revolutionary movements and in the late 1990's, the Hip Hop community lent their themselves to the cause by starting the Black August Hip Hop Project.

This year, the Black August Hip Hop Project added the Black August Art Exhibit and the Black August Independet Film Festival to their event as a way to showcase visual contributions to the cause. The themes of this year's exhibit are struggle, resistance, Haiti or the events of the Black August Hip Hop Project in the past. I will be participating in the art exhibit and contributing  the 2 pieces shown below.

The exhibit will take place August 20-22, 2011 at the Brecht Forum. If you would like to learn more about the concert, please visit their website at http://mxgm.org/blackaugust/

For more information on the art exhibit please visit http://brechtforum.org/