Kwame Brathwaite

Inspired in part by the writings of Marcus Garvey and the teachings of Carlos Cooks, Kwame Brathwaite's (b. 1938, New York, NY) photography created the visual overture for the Black is Beautiful Movement in the late 1950's and early 1960’s. Brathwaite spread this idea through his writings and photographs, as well as the activities of the two organizations he helped co-found: AJASS (The African Jazz-Art Society and Studios) in 1956 and the Grandassa Models in 1962. A career spanning over six decades allowed him to document the intersection of music, fashion, activism and art globally throughout the diaspora.

In the late 1950’s Brathwaite and AJASS became active in the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement (ANPM) led by Carlos Cooks. They were also involved in the early struggle for liberation in Southern Africa. In 1961 they formed the Bronx-based South-West Africa Relief Committee to support Sam Nujoma’s South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO). Parallel to these political activities AJASS was regularly producing concerts at such venues as Club 845 in the Bronx and Small’s Paradise in Harlem. Brathwaite took on the role of photographing the concerts, promoting and organizing the cultural activities that would often be held in tandem with the concerts, such as art shows, poetry, theater and African dance performances.

Throughout the 1960s Kwame Brathwaite produced reporting and pictorials for leading black publications such as The Amsterdam News, City Sun and The Daily Challenge. By the 1970's, Brathwaite influence helped shape the image of public figures Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, James Brown and Muhammad Ali to name a few. Brathwaite wrote about and photographed landmark events The Motown Revue at the Apollo in 1963, WattStax ’72 in 1972, The Jackson 5’s first trip to Africa and the Festival in Zaire both in 1974.

Brathwaite’s most recent exhibition entitled Kwame Brathwaite: Black Is Beautiful premiered at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Later traveling to the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina, Blanton Museum of Art in Austin and the Detroit Institute of Arts. A monograph of the same title, produced by the Aperture Foundation, was released in May 2019 with essays by Deborah Willis, Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at Tisch School of the Arts of New York University and Tanisha C. Ford, Professor of History at The Graduate Center, CUNY. Brathwaite's work was also featured in the touring exhibition, Black American Portraits, which opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and traveled to Spelman College Museum of Art in Atlanta, and Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Brathwaite's work recently appeared in This Tender, Fragile Thing at Jack Shainman Gallery in Kinderhook, New York. His work belongs in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, in Houston, Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Pérez Art Museum in Miami, National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian, Museum of the City in New York, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, MIT List Visual Arts Center and Sharjah Art Museum in the United Arab Emirates. Brathwaite retired in 2018 and lives in New York, NY with his wife Sikolo Brathwaite.