Hebru Brantley's Flyboy Mural in Pittsburgh

Hebru Brantley painting his Flyboy mural - photograph by Alex Young

"World class" art displays minutes outside of Pittsburgh at the corner of Wallace Avenue and Pitt Street in Wilkinsburg, Pa.

Renowned visual artist Hebru Brantley of Chicago initially came to Pittsburgh for his "I Wish I Knew (How It Felt To Be Free)" exhibit last May. Inside the city's August Wilson Center for African American Culture, he exhibited his Flyboy sculptures and paintings, which reflect the disenfranchised youth's adventure and imagination. According to Marqui Lyons, the program manager at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust who brought Brantley to the city, "I Wish I Knew (How It Felt To Be Free)" attracted 10,000 people to the exhibit from May to July.

Now, people can travel to Wilkinsburg to see Brantley's new Flyboy mural that serves as a mark of talent and community enrichment.

The effort of the Cultural Trust and the Wilkinsburg Arts Commission to bring a permanent Brantley piece to the city "celebrates work by African Americans and improves the neighborhood," developer Michael Polite said during the mural's unveiling on Friday morning.

Add Brantley's new mural in Pittsburgh to his list of public and private works that he's been recognized for, like another mural in Detroit, an ad for Cadillac, or his exhibit in Switzerland.

At the unveiling ceremony, Brantley spoke from his cherry picker crane while putting the finishing touches on his art. He told a story about how the day before a young black boy walked down Wallace Ave., and slowed to stare at the painting of a black boy flying through the air like a superhero. Brantley saw the boy "connect" with Flyboy, a symbol of encouragement. "The mural in Wilkinsburg depicts a black kid traveling safely through the city," he said.

Brantley's work promotes inspiration because Flyboy supports young kids' identity and "what it means to fly in your imagination." Overall, Brantley said he is blessed to shift the narrative in Pittsburgh and "uplift people."

Duces Pittsburgh. It's been real.

A post shared by Hebru Brantley (@hebrubrantley) on Apr 28, 2017 at 10:04am PDT

Hebru Brantley's Flyboy

501 Wallace Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15221

DeRay Mckesson: Organizing at Scale

Photograph by Michael Ferrier

The social media generation is barely thirteen years old, and it has already revolutionized the way people share information.  In 2004, Facebook catalyzed what we know now as a social network.  Our interests, thoughts, and memories were encapsulated in an online community where people from around the world could interact with one another through group pages, status updates and photo archives that have come to represent a digital identity of our lives. The first YouTube video recorded in 2005—“Me at the zoo”—has engendered millions of visual journalists telling stories on the platform through a unique lens.  And in 140 characters or less, we can inform the whole world that Beyoncé is expecting twins with one tweet.

For a long time though, information was asymmetrical.  Information was controlled and disseminated by institutions like media syndicates and the federal government, manipulating the way it was perceived.  Malcolm X was conveyed through nightly news channels as a militant Muslim, while mass incarceration, which pervaded through the 1980s, was disguised as the “War on drugs” and justified by the support of our youth with “Just Say No” campaigns.  It wasn’t the idea of abstaining from recreational drug use that was the problem.  The problem, which unfortunately is embedded within the prejudice of the criminal justice system, arose when peoples of color were voiceless—plugged into newsreels that projected fear into the American conscious, widening the margin of white supremacy.

In 2017, video footage of New York police officers strangling and suffocating Eric Garner, a black male, who desperately cries out, “I can’t breathe,” is a viral reminder of police brutality thanks to YouTube and Twitter sharing.  In 2017, students from across the country can stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement by posting statuses on Facebook.  In 2017, the violent persecution of black people and other historically oppressed peoples can no longer be misconstrued to fit some xenophobic agenda.  The media is everyone and information is everywhere.

Mckesson and a student take a selfie. Photograph by Michael Ferrier

DeRay Mckesson has become the figurehead of activism in the digital age.  The blue Patagonia vest he wears every day has quickly become his identifier, like the late Steve Jobs’ black turtleneck, dad jeans, and New Balance sneakers ensemble he wore during Apple product launches.

“I have the single biggest platform of [activist] individuals.  I had about 800,000 followers on Twitter when I started in the protests…and I became known as the guy in the blue vest to people.  It’s a safety blanket,” he says of the jacket.  “I’ve never not had it overnight.”

“I think about social media activism as our way to push back. As people of color, we’ve always faced this issue of an erasure.  An erasure manifests in one of two ways: one, is that the story is never told and two, that the story is told by everyone but us.  In this moment, we became the un-erased.  We became our own storytellers, and we were able to push our own ideas.”

Mckesson is leading a new wave of activism in the United States.  From protests in Ferguson, Mo. and Baltimore, Md. following the deaths of Mike Brown and Freddie Gray to fiery debates with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, the Baltimore native has been a fixture in the conversations of police brutality and Black Lives Matter.  These conversations are more about how to enact change as opposed to deriding societal institutions and issues.

He says, “When I hear people talk about the work of dismantling oppressive systems, I feel like people get the ‘dismantle’ part really well.  But the build part is two pronged: one, we have to think about what these institutions would look like and two, we have to have a set of people ready to lead them.  It’s not enough to have people ready to tear them down…How do we create the next set of people who can build?  That has to be a part of the work.”

Mckesson has been tinkering, on a national scale, with the way in which these new ideas and institutions can be organized.  In 2015, the 31-year old launched “Mapping Police Violence,” which is a website that collects data on people killed by police.  Moreover, to enforce the messages of the Black Lives Matter movement, Mckesson and his team created Campaign Zero—a ten-point policy plan for police reform.  Campaign Zero has already aided in the implementation of reform, as the police chief of Orlando, Fla. changed the police department’s policy on use of force following a meeting with the organization.

Mckesson was the keynote speaker for George Washington University's 2017 Black Heritage Celebration. Photograph by Michael Ferrier

Ideas of systematic reparation do not instantly convert the American conscious.  They will take time to be tolerated because they must erode the decades of societal conditioning that portrays the inferiority and dangerousness of peoples of color.  The ideas of control and ‘making America great again’ war against ideas of equality and civil rights.  The battleground is all around us—framed by our television sets and news feeds, but ideas are indoctrinated into American society because of our neighbors, friends and family.

Mckesson, who openly identifies as homosexual, related this notion to the fight for victory in same-sex marriage law.  “The gay marriage fight finally won because regular people went around to their peers and were like, ‘You know gay people.  Your cousin’s gay, your sister’s gay…Don’t you think they should be able to marry?’  That nuts and bolts organizing is how we were able to change hearts and minds.”

“We believe that the best idea wins. That the right idea will somehow magically be the idea that wins.  And history tells us that’s not true.  The idea we fight for the most is the idea that wins.  The idea that we beat into people’s head over and over again is the idea that wins.”

The organization of these notions of equality and racial justice into tangible solutions is what Mckesson aims to accomplish next.

“The works of our celebrities and the people who make the culture have to be a real part of how we organize…their platforms are so big that every time they offer ideas, they offer more people to participate in the conversation.  What would it look like to have canvases in every neighborhood in America ready to change hearts and minds, ready to push people and ideas? What would it look like to have nationwide telephone banks, so that people can mobilize at the drop of a hat?  What would it look like to give every single black and brown kid in poverty a library?  A set of books from birth to college; that to me is what real organizing would look like in this moment.”

RIP Mr. Rooney 1932-2017

Last Thursday, Pittsburgh lost a native son.  Dan Rooney, former chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers and United States Ambassador to Ireland, passed away at the age of 84.

Mr. Rooney was born in 1932, one year before his father, Art "The Chief" Rooney founded the Pittsburgh Pirates Football Club--or the first iteration of the Steelers.  At five years old, he was already involved with the franchise working as a water boy, and he later met his wife, Patricia, in the office of the Steelers where she was working.

Much of the successes of the Steelers and that of the National Football League are due to Mr. Rooney's contributions.  It was Mr. Rooney, the general manager, who selected Chuck Noll to lead the team from mediocrity in 1969 to a record four Super Bowl victories during the Steel Curtain Dynasty.  It was Mr. Rooney, the former accounting major from Duquesne University, who crafted the modern unrestricted free agent system in 1992 that resulted in higher player salaries.  And it was Mr. Rooney, the owner, who urged the NFL to create more opportunities for minorities to earn high-level coaching and administrative positions in what ultimately became known as the 'Rooney Rule'.

Mr. Rooney had a lifelong commitment to advancing the relationship between the American and Irish people.  In 1976, he and former CEO of the H.J. Heinz Corporation, Anthony O'Reilly, founded the Ireland Fund, which promotes peace, culture, and charity.  The nongovernmental organization has increased its world exposure, sprouting chapters in 12 other countries and has raised over $550 million since its inception.  Mr. Rooney's nationalist relations with Ireland also made him an apt choice to serve as the US Ambassador to the country under President Barack Obama. From July 1st, 2009 to December 14th, 2012, Ambassador Rooney served his appointment, and to date, he is the only ambassador to have visited all 32 counties in Ireland. 

Despite his world adventures and despite the level of prominence he elevated the Steelers franchise, Mr. Rooney always considered the North Side of Pittsburgh to be his home.  He was an accessible man, walking to Pirates games and frequenting local spots in the neighborhood, like Gus & Yia Yia's storied icy ball stand or Legends, an Italian-style eatery next to Allegheny General Hospital.  Tailgaters could mingle with the owner on game days as he traveled the five minutes down North Shore Drive from his house to Heinz Field in a black golf cart.

Dan Rooney is survived by his wife, Patricia, and their seven children.  The eldest of them is Art Rooney II, the current owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  His memory lives on in the hearts and minds of Steelers past and present as well as inside the people of Pittsburgh.  Following his death, Obama recounted his friendship with Mr. Rooney saying, "he was a model citizen and someone who represented the United States with dignity and grace on the world stage...a championship-caliber good man."

A public viewing is being held for Dan Rooney later this afternoon at Heinz Field from 2pm to 7pm at the PNC Champions Club inside the stadium.  On Tuesday, a funeral mass is scheduled to take place at Saint Paul Cathedral in Oakland. 

"Her Power"

Tori Meglio next to Baron Batch grenade in Big Dog Coffee - photograph by Alex Young

Tori Meglio, a 22-year-old from Pittsburgh, is the brand manager for artist Baron Batch and creative collective Studio A.M. She introduces local communities to Batch's artwork and the encouraging atmospheres that Studio A.M. provides, like Sunday brunch. Meglio is mindful of her interactions with amazing women and men throughout the city. Though her work is cool, it's also professional. Curating display spaces for Batch's artwork in the Heinz History Center or collaborating with local businesses like Threads On Carson to celebrate "Her Power," Meglio is prideful of her presence in the city. Her confident personality allows her to navigate business waters that men think they own. In a brief interview below, learn how Meglio impacts equality, puts men in check and still enjoys the workplace because she could meet Mr. Right on the job.

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Meglio: First, let me explain where I've been with politics in the past nine months. I have successfully never watched a video of Donald Trump. None of my social media feeds have that. I plug my ears. That's not my battle to fight. So, I have come to this realization that it's the one-on-one interactions you have with people every day that will change the perception of what women are. By me holding myself as the kind of woman that I am and how I interact with men will change the perception of all men in the future. The way that I interact with women will change that perception. Be kind, and that's how I am going to make change. Every day, every woman I talk to I'm engaged. 'What project are you working on? How are you doing? What are you into?' It's about going deeper, making people think about themselves and respect themselves because they are accomplished in some sort of way and are proud of what they're doing. There's an impact I can make by doing that. 

ITR: Why is it difficult for women and men to collaborate with mutual respect and an appropriate professional relationship?

Meglio: I think there's two scenarios, there's the mature man and there's the immature man. The mature man probably approached me to do business with him, or the way we have come to collaborate we have mutual respect for each other. So he is respectful because he understands what's going on. Also, I'm never afraid to say what the boundaries are. Some people never say that out loud and if you don't say it out loud before it's a problem the immature man could flip it on you, 'wow, why would you ever say that?!' Like, yo, it's just for the record. This is more about me than him.

I've also found that, I'm 22-years-old right, it's time to date people, work is a great place to find a special person. Think about all of our parents who met at work or these people you find out they met at work. That's totally cool. That means you have the same interests. I hope it just didn't affect your work, or if you met them at work you then had other jobs. I would hate for you to have to put your feelings with your significant other into your work unless you really wanted to.

ITR: How does Baron Batch represent women fairly?

He's doing a wonderful job because for Baron it's not about saying 'make a woman your business and project manager.' He's like, 'My business is thriving and I have a woman doing it and she is doing a bomb-ass job.' It's much more about leading by example than verbalizing. I think he would just hire the best person of any race or any orientation for the job with the right timing. Beyond Baron, people who can work with all types of people have welcoming work environments.

Discover more about Tori and her involvement with Baron Batch and Studio A.M. here. May we absorb their legendary movements as a creative collective more thoroughly soon.

CMPVTR CLVB presents: CTRL Space CMD

Image produced by CMPVTR CLVB and St.Clair Castro

Last Thursday, CMPVTR CLVB--a collective of musicians, visual artists, and futurists--hosted the first night of their four part event titled CTRL Space CMD at Logan Fringe Arts Space in Northeast DC.  The exhibition, which will be running every Thursday during the month of April, is a "series of conceptual performance pieces dissecting mankind's intrinsic connection to space, time, and The Creator."  Night 1, or "Ritual," focused on contemporary and ancient ideas of idolatry, religion, cults and more.

The event space is part of Capital Fringe's arts bar.  It's reminiscent of Wynwood Walls in the art district of Wynwood, Miami due to its open-air entrance and colorful murals that highlight the side walls.  A few cafe tables and chairs fill out the space, doubling the exterior as a performance space when the weather permits.  As I walked inside the venue, I wasn't sure that I was in the correct location.  It was quiet in the sense that I heard no music and there were only two or three people in the room--a woman tending to the bar and another making fresh popcorn for $1.  The venue is actually separated into a bar/reception area and a theater space by a large wooden door. 

Mr. Daywalker photographed by Lanie Edwards

I opened the door to a black box-style theater where people sat in a sensual immersion.  Mr. Daywalker, a percussionist, and vocalist from Northern Virginia, was tracing a metal bowl with a wooden stick.  As it emitted a melodic ringing noise, video modulation and projection mapping of psychedelic patterns and images of ritual (e.g., African tribes and obelisks) were simultaneously projected onto video screens by Quannum Throw, Anti-Hero and St.Clair Castro.

CTRL Space CMD operates like a festival style format, so each week will feature a number of artists making progressive music that emotes.  After Mr. Daywalker's set, St.Clair Castro, who is one of the two curators of the month-long exhibition, set the ambiance for the remainder of the evening with a DJ mix.  At a particular moment, Castro's explorative sounds had the audience nodding their heads along to instrumentals that sounded like a derivative of Migos' "T-Shirt".

A theme that is central to mankind's connection to space and time is race.  Though it is an unfortunate truth, race is a part of man's historical context, and especially within the context of the District of Columbia.

"Gentrification.  Boy I'm about my isms," rapped Nate G x Afro Velvet, a duo of visual artists who synthesized their interests of design and fashion into a musical performance of Afro Futurism.  They will return to the CTRL Space CMD exhibition on April 27th for Night 4: Meta- The Evolution of Blackness.

Sir E.U and RobSmokesBands' collaborative performance created a juxtaposition of those who were content to sit and watch the musical performances in the audience versus those who felt the vibe change to a more participative, turn-up environment.  On songs like "Walk to Japan" where Sir E.U strutted around the stage with two microphones, the audience was encouraged to dance and jump around much like at any hip hop show.

RobSmokesBands closed out the show in another collaborative effort as jazz/blues fusion band Funk Disaster paired with the Pittsburgh drummer.  Singing similarly to Bob Dylan's nasally, high-pitched riffs, RobSmokesBands Funk Disaster played covers of Hall & Oates' 1981 single "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" and Bobby Caldwell's rendition of "What You Won't Do For Love."  Multiple people in the audience began to cheer as vintage highlight reels of the 1970s Steel Curtain dynasty played along with the sounds.  The band also brought out lineformation MILF's very own, Tedy Brewski for a surprise performance. 

Tedy Brewski and RobSmokesBands Funk Disaster (left to right: Joe Wilson, Sam Catherman, Rob Stokes and Jack Delamater) photographed by Maxwell Young

In an interview with DC Music Download, St.Clair Castro and Jamal Gray talked about how CTRL Space CMD is the culmination of three years of research and education.  Through performances at other creative venues, like Velvet Lounge, Black Cat--where Glow End Theory is held--as well as smaller gatherings at the homes of artists, such as Rob Stokes' 'HOUSEWARMING' series, CMPVTR CLVB has tinkered with how to present an amalgamtion of production and beat making with live instrumentation, dance, installation art, and video mapping.  What's more though, is that their experimentation has also cultivated a network of creative artists in the District of Columbia who are striving to define what the cultural community is going to look like in the nation's capital in the near future.

Gray says of the event, "CTRL Space CMD is just preparing everybody for what's to come from Nag Champa, St.Clair Castro, CMPVTR CLVB, and the extended family...it's a launch pad."

CTRL Space CMD will be an exhibition for the remainder of April, every Thursday, at Capital Fringe's Logan Fringe Arts Space.  RSVP here.

4/13/17- Night 2: Alter- Interstellar Escape Plan

4/20/17- Night 3: Sauvage- The Untamed Planet

4/27/17- Night 4: Meta- The Evolution of Blackness

Capital Fringe

1358 Florida Avenue Northeast

Washington, DC 20002