Emory Douglas explains at a presentation at the Dunedin
Public Art Gallery on Saturday the thinking behind one of
the images he prepared for the Black Panther Party. Photo
by Craig Baxter.
The revolutionary spirit of Black Panther artist Emory
Douglas was on show in his art work and his arguments at the
Dunedin Public Art Gallery on Saturday.
Mr Douglas - the first and only Minister of Culture for the
Black Panther movement - is the Elam International Artist in
Residence at the University of Auckland.
He was in Dunedin for a presentation of his work spanning the
turbulent period of United States history in the 1960s and
1970s.
Mr Douglas explained the thinking behind his images, many of
which adorned The Black Panther newspaper during the civil
rights movement and took aim at police, politicians and
poverty in the United States, as well as conflicts from
Vietnam to the Middle East.
Some of Mr Douglas' works used humour to underscore messages
of solidarity and justice, while others were brutal in their
directness.
Former US president Richard Nixon was shown in one image with
a swastika on his forehead, standing in front of Nazi leader
Adolf Hitler and under the title "class brothers".
Mr Douglas detailed the violence and fear of the period, but
also the success of some of the Black Panther social
programmes, including early-morning breakfasts cooked by
party members for impoverished children to eat before school.
"We said children need to go to school not on an empty
stomach. We were feeding hungry children all over the
country. We were feeding more hungry children than the US
Government," he said.
It appeared Mr Douglas had lost little of his revolutionary
passion as he explained the thinking behind an image
attacking private-sector involvement in the US penal system.
In the US, the system created an incentive for private
companies to keep prisoners lining up to be locked up, in
turn creating a profit motive for innocent people to be
framed, he argued.
"It's about profit," he said, prompting a cry of "right on"
from the audience.
Told by a member of the audience New Zealand's Government
favoured some private-sector involvement in prisons, Mr
Douglas was quick in his response.
"Well, you have got to do something about it," he said.
chris.morris@odt.co.nz
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