Edited by Azizi Powell
The Grandassa models were a group of African American female models whose afro-centric fashion shows were the first to promote the slogan "Black is Beautiful". Based in New York City, the Grandassa models' fashion shows were held in various cities in the United States from 1962 to 1979.
This is Part 3 of a 3 part series on the Grandassa models. This series is largely composed of excerpts from online articles. I have compiled these excerpts in this post as a means of increasing access to the historical, sociological, and educational information provided in those articles. I have credited all the authors or publications of these hyperlinked excerpts and thank those authors/publications for providing such information about the Grandassa models.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/grandassa-models-birth-of-black-is.html for Part 1 of this series.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/abbey-lincoln-jazz-grandassa-models.html for Part 2 of this series.
This post focuses on descriptions of the Grandassa models and the fashions they wore.
DESCRIPTIONS OF GRANDASSA MODELS - Skin Color & Natural Hair (Afros)
The most commonly found descriptor of Grandassa models is that they were dark complexioned African American females. African American reporter Earl Caldwell wrote
"They were very dark complected. To see the Grandassa models for the first time was stunning... They were so dark their faces had a bluish shimmer. "Blue black," people said. You saw them and your mouth just fell open."
**
From http://mije.org/historyproject/caldwell_journals/chapter16 Chapter 16: The Grandassa Models
[Hereafter given in this post as "Caldwell: Grandasa Models"]
-snip-
Here are links to two photographs of the Grandassa models:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SmaiTawi/message/21000 [This is a colorised version of the photograph found elsewhere online]
and
http://books.google.com/books?id=QrBv5xmgHfMC&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=grandassa+models&source=bl&ots=IBUimunIq1&sig=880wepk701m_wOuY7q3wIZXdIMk&hl=en&ei=_CDeTqnGLej40gH5rYGIBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=grandassa%20models&f=false The Grandassa models: Ebony Aug 1970
Also, here's a link to a gallery of relatively contemporary photographs of former Grandassa models:
http://adjmanteb.zenfolio.com/p803331005 Gallery Talk: The Grandassa
-snip-
These photographs show that, contrary to the opinion of Earl Caldwell (that are quoted above), the Grandassa models were only dark skinned in comparison to the prevailing norm then (and to a great extent still now) for White female runway models. Back then, and to a somewhat lesser extent now, if African American females were used as runway models, those models' complexion was light brown skin, and their hair was chemically straightened or they wore straight hair wigs.
Which brings up the second most commonly described characteristic of Grandassa models- their afro hair. In his chapter about the Grandassa models, Earl Caldwell wrote "And, in place of the popular processed hairdo involving hot combs, which literally burned hair straight, they wore "naturals," later called Afros, which meant hair groomed and worn naturally." Source: "Caldwell: Grandasa Models"
Every Grandassa models consistently wore their hair naturally (without chemical process or hot comb treatment). The afros that the Grandassa models wore were bush shaped-like the afro that Black activist's Angela Davis had. However, the models' afros were less wide that that of Angela Davis.
Afros were new to African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s. To wear your hair in such a style was daring and liable to provocate teasing, taunting and accusations of militacy from African Americans as well as from White people. Furthermore, in those days afros weren't styled or "texturized". It should also be emphasized that no Grandassa model wore her hair in the natural style known as "dreadlocks". My recollection is that dreadlocks were seldom worn by afrocentric African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s. Also, during their fashion shows, the Grandassa models didn't wear their hair in any other temporary natural styles such as braids or cornrolls. In those days, cornrolls were considered a fashion for young girls. And while women with afros usually braided their hair at night, it was almost unthinkable that we would venture outdoors with our hair in those braids.*
*Somewhat of an aside, I've consistently worn my hair in an afro since 1967, although the length of my afro has become considerable shorter in the passing decades.
In the summer of 1967, I participated in a Grandassa model fashion show during a street fair in New York City, along with a few other members of The Committee For Unified Newark (CFUN). My recollection is that this was an impromptu invitation because some of the models weren't available for that event. I wish I had thought to take photographs of that event, but even if I had, I probably would have lost them given how long ago that was.
Click https://yeyeolade.wordpress.com/2006/12/15/black-is-beautiful-2/
for a historical view of community opinions regarding the Grandassa models' afro hairstyles.
****
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE GRANDASSA MODELS' FASHIONS
In the 1960s and 1970s, most African Americans had very little knowledge about or access to traditional African clothing. By "African clothing", I'm referring to and "West African" clothing, in particular clothing from Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and Mali and I think that's what most African Americans in those decades meant when we referred to "African clothing".
Thanks to the internet, and in particular thanks to YouTube, it's very easy now for African Americans to view examples of traditional and contemporary African clothing. However, back then, afro-centric women kind of made it up as we went, and considered our clothing to be "African inspired" or "African styled" and not necessarily how Africans in Africa dressed. "African inspired" or "African styled are how the fashions worn by the Grandassa models are usually described.
I wrote "we" in the above statements because from 1969-1969 I was a member of The Committee For Unified Newark (CFUN), the Newark, New Jersey based afro-centric organization which was eventually led by poet, playwright, and activist, Amiri Baraka. Female members of CFUN always wore what we considered to be "African styled". For everyday clothing in warmer weather, women members of that organization wore a t-shirt, or sweatshirt and a wrap around skirt made from a piece of material (not necessarily African fabric. That material was tied with the two ends and never pinned. Alternatively, we would wrap the material around our body and tie it in the back of our neck as a dress. In colder weather, women would wear a long sleeve sweater or turtleneck sweater under the wrap around dress, or as the top of our wrap around skirt. Incidently, we called the tops "bubas" and the skirts "lapas", and thought that these were African terms for those garments. But I've no idea if those are "real" African words, and if so which language they are from.
For dressier occassions, the women in that afro-centric organization usually wore two piece skirt and tops that were ankle length & made from real or "fake" African material, or ankle length dresses that were made from the same types of material. On dressier occasions we also wore head wraps (geles) which might be tied West African fashion, with one or more end pieces hanging out. If we were fortunate, we had one or two real outfits from Africa, usually purchased from New York City, or Washington, D.C. But almost always we made our own African style clothing or had it made by an African American seamstress. Often the fabric that was used for those "African style" garments were "African print", that is fabric with a certain kinds of geometric designs. The photographs which are linked above show this fabric and the female clothing styles that I described with the significant difference that the dresses or skirts weren't ankle length but were all slightly above the knees. This was the most common dress & skirt length in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
****
HEADWRAPS (GELES) [Revised on 1/24/2015]
A significant difference between Grandassa models and women who were members of CFUN is that, unlike CFUN women, Grandassa models don't appear to wear any headwraps. I don't recall those models wearing headwraps and they aren't wearing any headwraps (or anything else to cover up their afros) in photographs of those models that I've found.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/01/african-american-wearing-head-scarves.html for a pancocojams post that provides some historical information of African Americans wearing head scarves and showcases some how-to videos about tying head wraps.
I was fortunate to have many of my African outfits designed and sewn by Bisi Ogunleye, a Yoruba woman who was in the United States with her husband who was a student at the University of Pittsburgh. The fabrics that Bisi used for my winter "buba" (top) and "lapa" (skirt, in this case sewn with a drawstring instead of wrap around) were heavier than the fabric used for warmer weather garments.
****
VIDEOS
I regret that I've not been able to find a video of the Grandassa models or any other afro-centric model group in the late 1960s or 1970s. However, here are two videos of an African fashion shows in the United States:
FashionAFRICANA at Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Uploaded by UtopiaFA on Jul 12, 2011
In 2004, FashionAFRICANA - a global celebration of design, dance and music - paid tribute to the Lost Boys of Sudan at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
**
MISS AFRICA USA FASHION PARADE
Uploaded by Missafricausa on Jan 28, 2010
Miss Africa USA Fashion Parade featuring designs by Estella Couture.
Artist: Dr. Victor & The Rasta Rebels - "Tsoang Tsoang Tsoang"
-snip-
In my opinion, Africa USA pageant which began in Georgia in 2005 may be the most well known inheritor of the legacy of the Grandassa models. It's therefore somewhat ironic that African Americans are ineligible to enter that pageant. As per the About Us page on Africa USA's website: "The pageant is open to delegates from all 53 countries that make up the continent of Africa, the motherland...Pageant delegates are simply ordinary women of African descent, who face the challenges of growing up in two different cultures, the American and the African".
For more information on Africa USA, click http://www.missafricaunitedstates.com/
ADDENDUM
In my opinion, a post about African American fashion shows in the 1960s and 1970s wouldn't be complete without mention of the Ebony Fashion Fair. Those touring Black fashion shows were sponsored from 1958-2010 by Johnson Publications, home of the long running Black oriented magazines Ebony and Jet. Unfortunately, budgetary concerns were the primary reason for the demise of the Ebony Fashion Fair.
Unlike the Grandassa fashion shows, Ebony Fashion Fair was known for its extravagent, glamorous, daring women's fashions, mostly from famous European designers. Whereas initially most of the Ebony Fashion Fair models were light brown skinned, in later years, its models were varying complexions. Yet, it's interesting that according to an article in Ebony magazine, one of the most popular Ebony Fashion Fair model was considered to be "dark skinned" (of course, given my previous comments, it's uncertain what that particular descriptor really means).
From http://www.ebonyfashionfair.com/assembled/history.html
"Terri Springer was the undisputed "star" of Ebony Fashion Fair from 1959-1964. Today many people still recall the grace and beauty of the regal, mocha-colored model. The daring and beautiful Springer hit the runway like she owned it with explosive drama and elegance. And during a day and age when women with dark skin weren't eager to wear bright colors, Springer wore bright colors as if they were made exclusively for her."
-snip-
Here's another comment about Terri Springer that I happened upon (Coincidentally, the writer is from a city that is very near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where I live).
From http://books.google.com/books?id=Ot4DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=terri+springer+model&source=bl&ots=6jwEdnuwJ5&sig=lNRtTHGEWf8ggXPzcZkGYVFcipo&hl=en&ei=-13fTprZPMTr0gHii6zCBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=terri%20springer%20model&f=false
"Ebony - Dec 1964
Letter to editor: ...Why not articles on your Negro models? Terri Springer is a favorite of mine because she is a dark girl who has made it in a field formerly reserved only for whites. She is an inspiration to our dark girls who have been made to feel that their color is a disadvantage. (There are still some color conscious Negroes around even though sometimes they are reluctant to admit it. In addition to her, there are other models that your readers don’t even know exist because they are now modeling for top fashion houses etc. How about it?"
-Sally Carter, New Kensington, Pa"
****
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Visitor comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label Grandassa models. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grandassa models. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Grandassa Models & The Birth Of The Black Is Beautiful Movement
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part 1 of a 3 part pancocojams series about the Grandassa models. This series is largely composed of excerpts from online articles. I have compiled these excerpts in this post as a means of increasing access to the historical, sociological, and educational information provided in those articles. I have credited all the authors or publications of these hyperlinked excerpts and thank those authors/publications for providing such information about the Grandassa models.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/abbey-lincoln-jazz-grandassa-models.html for Part 2 of this series.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/descriptions-of-grandassa-models-their.html for Part 3 of this series.
OVERVIEW OF THE GRANDASSA MODELS
The Grandassa models were a group of African American female models whose afro-centric fashion shows were the first to promote the slogan "Black is Beautiful". Based in New York City, the Grandassa models' fashion shows were held in various cities in the United States from 1962 to 1979.
The original eight Grandassa models were: Clara Lewis, Black Rose (Rose Nelmes), Priscilla Bardonille, Wanda Sims, Mari Toussaint, Esther Davenport, Beatrice Cramston, and Namsa Brath. (various sources).
Here's a link to a large colorised photograph of the Grandassa models and some men who were members of their sponsor cultural organization, the African Jazz-Arts Society & Studios, (AJASS)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SmaiTawi/message/21000
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
From http://blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/6116/2009-11-16.html
"Tribute To A Legend: Elombe Brath
By Kwame Brathwaite, 11-16-09
"Elombe was one of the founders, and the lifetime president of the African Jazz-Arts Society & Studios, (AJASS) a cultural group which had been founded during the summer of 1956 in the South Bronx but moved to Harlem in 1961. The group was a collective of Black artists, photographers, performers, and students (including Kwame Brathwaite, Robert Gumbs, Chris Acemendeces Hall, Frank Adu, Jimmy Abu and others) who gathered to promote Black Arts and Culture. This was the beginning of what became “The Black Arts Movement” which many believe started in 1965, nine years later.
Influenced by the ANPMs Garvey Day celebration and their “Miss Natural Standard of Beauty” contests formed to install pride and confidence in Black women, who at the time were looked upon as less than beautiful by the mass media, the fashion world and by Black people themselves. After the 1961 contest, AJASS formed the nucleus of a group of models to explicitly promote the African standard of beauty, The Grandassa Models under the direction of Elombe. The image of darker women had been long overlooked by such magazines as Ebony, Jet, Tan, contradicting their very names.
Thus the “Naturally” series of “cultural extravaganzas designed to restore our racial pride and standards” was born, beginning with the production of “Naturally ‘62” on January, of that year."
-snip-
*ANPM =African Nationalist Pioneer Movement
Editor's note: Elombe Brath and Kwame Brathwaite are brother (siblings).
**
From http://mije.org/historyproject/caldwell_journals/chapter16 Chapter 16: The Grandassa Models
"The Braths [Elombe and Kwame Brath] had been putting on the "Naturally" shows for years -- focusing on hair and dress fashions -- without many people noticing. Still they kept going. But this was 1966 and the times were changing. "Naturally 1966" caused a sensation. The shows featured women who were called the Grandassa models (after Grandassaland, the name that African nationalist leader Carlos Cooks applied to Africa)."
**
From https://yeyeolade.wordpress.com/2006/12/15/black-is-beautiful-2/
BLACK BEAUTY
by Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade
"AJASS not only changed the model of club shows, but the graphic design of the advertising posters that announced the events. Prior to their artistic posters, events usually utilized block type, linotyped letterpress posters that left a lot to be desired. Designers, Elombe, Gumbs and then Milton Tuitt began to do layouts and designs for offset printing of the flyers and posters. They began politicizing the jazz artists, who were, although the great jazz stars of the day, were being underpaid and further disrespected in their accommodations and dressing room facilities, compared to the less capable and lesser known white musicians. AJAS used that formula until on August 17, 1961, at the Marcus Garvey Birthday Celebration, when during one of the featured events, “The Miss Natural Standard of Beauty Contest”, (a contest that was held every Garvey Day since 1942, one year after the founding of the ANPM, and two years after Garvey’s death), a young lady, named Clara Lewis – extremely Black and beautiful, won the title. The contest, in which the girls competed without make up and were required to washout any chemicals so that there hair was in its natural state, also asked the contestants questions on racial history, racial pride and tested how they thought about their people.
The AJAS members had observed this contest year after year, and saw that by the time that the winner came to receive her $100 prize at the next Sunday night meeting, their hair was straightened again, since they didn’t feel that they could go to school or work without straightening it. Elombe decided that we would put together a fashion show that would promote the natural beauty of our women. AJAS approached fellow promoter, Jimmy Abu, who was a male model, drummer and top-notch trainer of models, and AJAS began to recruit young ladies to train as for the group. AJAS moved its meetings from the Brathwaite basement in the Bronx, to a space they rented next to the Apollo Theatre, on October 1, 1961, and amended their name to the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios, adding art production, photo studio and rehearsal space and became AJASS. They devised a show which they called “Naturally ’62: The Original African Coiffure and Fashion Extravaganza Designed to Restore Our Racial Pride and Standards ”, with the first show held at Harlem’s Purple Manor on January 28, 1962. The goal of the show was to prove to the world that “Black Is Beautiful.”
The first show starred Abbey Lincoln as guest singer and commentator for the show, and famed jazz drummer, Max Roach as Abbey’s accompanist on piano, Oluoju and Her Souls of the Earth African Dancers and Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers band (who was the house band that offered us the space) and Jomo Logan providing some additional commentary on the African fashions.
While promoting the show, the comments were mixed...
The day of the show, the house was packed and people that couldn’t get in lingered outside. The show featured Clara Lewis, Black Rose, Nomsa White (now Brath), Priscilla Bardonille, Wanda Sims, Marie Toussaint, Esther Davenport and Beatrice Cranston, and male models Jimmy Abu, and Frank Adu, and actor Gus Williams opening the show with the models as he recited Marcus Garvey’s poem “Black Woman”. The show drew a standing applause and when the show was over and we looked outside, the crowd that couldn’t get in, was still there. We cleaned up the space and gave a second show that same day. The show was such a success, it inspired all of us and we planned for a follow-up show at a larger venue.
By now the word had gotten out, and people in the community were taking sides, pro and con. Some of the Harlem beauticians were up in arms, saying that the trend, if allowed to take hold, would take away a lot of their business."
-snip-
This complete article is historically significant and also makes interesting reading.
**
From http://happilynaturalday.com/consciousness/ajass-and-the-grandassa-models-origins-of-the-black-is-beautiful-movement/
"AJASS [African Jazz-Arts Society & Studios], with the aid of Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, began producing a series of “Naturally” shows, beginning with “Naturally ’62″ that projected racial pride, African culture, poetry and art. The show, subtitled “the original African coiffure and fashion extravaganza designed to restore or racial pride and standards” traveled to colleges and universities in the US and self-produced many shows in Black communities for more than thirty years. The AJASS productions, starting in Harlem, was the beginning of what is known as “The Black Arts Movement” that later saw Leroi Jones, Larry Neal, Ed Bullins and others create some powerful theatre in Harlem. They found a Black arts movement in Harlem that had started nine years before they arrived."
**
From http://ncanewyork.com/ncany_2000-2010/vol2no1/vol2_no2_page_2.htm
"BLACK IS STILL BEAUTIFUL
Two of the oldest Black arts organizations came together to present, Naturally 2002, the show that taught Black women and the world that “Black is Beautiful”forty years ago. Billed as “The Original African Coiffure and Fashion Extravaganza Designed to Restore Our Racial Pride and Standards”, it inspired what became known as the “Black Consciousness Movement.” The show, which ran regularly from January 1962 until 1979, is the production of the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios, (AJASS), formed in 1956 in New York. This 40th anniversary show was co-presented by the National Conference of Artists (NCA), formed in 1959 by many of the nation’s leading visual artists and art educators at Atlanta University, including Margaret Burroughs, James D. Parks, Eugenia V. Dunn, Jewel W. Simon, Allan G. Junier, Virginia Kiah, Jack Jordan, and Bernard Goss.
Naturally 2002 was held at The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard @ 135th street. This special production featured this year’s version of the Grandassa Models, the symbol of black pride. AJASS and The Grandassas took on a world that didn’t even, for the most part, mention “Black” and “Beautiful” in the same sentence. A leading “Black” magazine which did a cover story on singer Joyce Bryant, one of the most beautiful of her day, referred to her as “a handsome colored woman”. The “Naturally” show, as it was called, performed mostly in New York, but toured Detroit, Chicago, Lincoln University, Cornell University and Babylon, Long Island, among others places. Their aggressive press material was printed worldwide, including in Africa. In Salisbury, the capital of then Southern Rhodesia, under colonialism, (today, Harare, Zimbabwe), young African progressives copied the show. According to African Parade Magazine of June 1963, “in Zimbabwe a club is organizing a show on June 2 on traditional way of dress and is putting on a display of African art and culture as it was in days gone by.” Featured on the cover was Grandassa Model Helene White a/k/a Nomsa Brath followed by two successive issues one with an inside cover on Abbey Lincoln and a cover with Black Rose featured.
The show caused such a sensation that young militant Zimbabweans waged a campaign against the encroaching blonde wigs and hot pants that the saw in some of the Black magazines from the states. Some went so far as to snatch wigs off of the heads of African women walking the city streets and rubbing the thick lipstick off of their lips with sandpaper."
****
Kuame Brathwait 08 19 10 Original air date
Uploaded by haroldchanner on Aug 12, 2010
Kwame Brathwaite, photographer
Kwamebrathwaite@aol.com
Kwame has been considered the ever-present "photo-documentarian" of the Black Cultural movement, the "keeper of the images." While earning a living as a fashion and entertainment photographer, his primary interest has been the recording of the history of the African Cultural Revolution and the African liberation struggle. Co-founded the African Jazz-Art Society, 1956); The Grandassa Models (Black is Beautiful) 1961 and wearable art shows, AFRIMODA, FashionArt and FashioNations (1986).
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome!
This is Part 1 of a 3 part pancocojams series about the Grandassa models. This series is largely composed of excerpts from online articles. I have compiled these excerpts in this post as a means of increasing access to the historical, sociological, and educational information provided in those articles. I have credited all the authors or publications of these hyperlinked excerpts and thank those authors/publications for providing such information about the Grandassa models.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/abbey-lincoln-jazz-grandassa-models.html for Part 2 of this series.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/descriptions-of-grandassa-models-their.html for Part 3 of this series.
OVERVIEW OF THE GRANDASSA MODELS
The Grandassa models were a group of African American female models whose afro-centric fashion shows were the first to promote the slogan "Black is Beautiful". Based in New York City, the Grandassa models' fashion shows were held in various cities in the United States from 1962 to 1979.
The original eight Grandassa models were: Clara Lewis, Black Rose (Rose Nelmes), Priscilla Bardonille, Wanda Sims, Mari Toussaint, Esther Davenport, Beatrice Cramston, and Namsa Brath. (various sources).
Here's a link to a large colorised photograph of the Grandassa models and some men who were members of their sponsor cultural organization, the African Jazz-Arts Society & Studios, (AJASS)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SmaiTawi/message/21000
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
From http://blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/6116/2009-11-16.html
"Tribute To A Legend: Elombe Brath
By Kwame Brathwaite, 11-16-09
"Elombe was one of the founders, and the lifetime president of the African Jazz-Arts Society & Studios, (AJASS) a cultural group which had been founded during the summer of 1956 in the South Bronx but moved to Harlem in 1961. The group was a collective of Black artists, photographers, performers, and students (including Kwame Brathwaite, Robert Gumbs, Chris Acemendeces Hall, Frank Adu, Jimmy Abu and others) who gathered to promote Black Arts and Culture. This was the beginning of what became “The Black Arts Movement” which many believe started in 1965, nine years later.
Influenced by the ANPMs Garvey Day celebration and their “Miss Natural Standard of Beauty” contests formed to install pride and confidence in Black women, who at the time were looked upon as less than beautiful by the mass media, the fashion world and by Black people themselves. After the 1961 contest, AJASS formed the nucleus of a group of models to explicitly promote the African standard of beauty, The Grandassa Models under the direction of Elombe. The image of darker women had been long overlooked by such magazines as Ebony, Jet, Tan, contradicting their very names.
Thus the “Naturally” series of “cultural extravaganzas designed to restore our racial pride and standards” was born, beginning with the production of “Naturally ‘62” on January, of that year."
-snip-
*ANPM =African Nationalist Pioneer Movement
Editor's note: Elombe Brath and Kwame Brathwaite are brother (siblings).
**
From http://mije.org/historyproject/caldwell_journals/chapter16 Chapter 16: The Grandassa Models
"The Braths [Elombe and Kwame Brath] had been putting on the "Naturally" shows for years -- focusing on hair and dress fashions -- without many people noticing. Still they kept going. But this was 1966 and the times were changing. "Naturally 1966" caused a sensation. The shows featured women who were called the Grandassa models (after Grandassaland, the name that African nationalist leader Carlos Cooks applied to Africa)."
**
From https://yeyeolade.wordpress.com/2006/12/15/black-is-beautiful-2/
BLACK BEAUTY
by Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade
"AJASS not only changed the model of club shows, but the graphic design of the advertising posters that announced the events. Prior to their artistic posters, events usually utilized block type, linotyped letterpress posters that left a lot to be desired. Designers, Elombe, Gumbs and then Milton Tuitt began to do layouts and designs for offset printing of the flyers and posters. They began politicizing the jazz artists, who were, although the great jazz stars of the day, were being underpaid and further disrespected in their accommodations and dressing room facilities, compared to the less capable and lesser known white musicians. AJAS used that formula until on August 17, 1961, at the Marcus Garvey Birthday Celebration, when during one of the featured events, “The Miss Natural Standard of Beauty Contest”, (a contest that was held every Garvey Day since 1942, one year after the founding of the ANPM, and two years after Garvey’s death), a young lady, named Clara Lewis – extremely Black and beautiful, won the title. The contest, in which the girls competed without make up and were required to washout any chemicals so that there hair was in its natural state, also asked the contestants questions on racial history, racial pride and tested how they thought about their people.
The AJAS members had observed this contest year after year, and saw that by the time that the winner came to receive her $100 prize at the next Sunday night meeting, their hair was straightened again, since they didn’t feel that they could go to school or work without straightening it. Elombe decided that we would put together a fashion show that would promote the natural beauty of our women. AJAS approached fellow promoter, Jimmy Abu, who was a male model, drummer and top-notch trainer of models, and AJAS began to recruit young ladies to train as for the group. AJAS moved its meetings from the Brathwaite basement in the Bronx, to a space they rented next to the Apollo Theatre, on October 1, 1961, and amended their name to the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios, adding art production, photo studio and rehearsal space and became AJASS. They devised a show which they called “Naturally ’62: The Original African Coiffure and Fashion Extravaganza Designed to Restore Our Racial Pride and Standards ”, with the first show held at Harlem’s Purple Manor on January 28, 1962. The goal of the show was to prove to the world that “Black Is Beautiful.”
The first show starred Abbey Lincoln as guest singer and commentator for the show, and famed jazz drummer, Max Roach as Abbey’s accompanist on piano, Oluoju and Her Souls of the Earth African Dancers and Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers band (who was the house band that offered us the space) and Jomo Logan providing some additional commentary on the African fashions.
While promoting the show, the comments were mixed...
The day of the show, the house was packed and people that couldn’t get in lingered outside. The show featured Clara Lewis, Black Rose, Nomsa White (now Brath), Priscilla Bardonille, Wanda Sims, Marie Toussaint, Esther Davenport and Beatrice Cranston, and male models Jimmy Abu, and Frank Adu, and actor Gus Williams opening the show with the models as he recited Marcus Garvey’s poem “Black Woman”. The show drew a standing applause and when the show was over and we looked outside, the crowd that couldn’t get in, was still there. We cleaned up the space and gave a second show that same day. The show was such a success, it inspired all of us and we planned for a follow-up show at a larger venue.
By now the word had gotten out, and people in the community were taking sides, pro and con. Some of the Harlem beauticians were up in arms, saying that the trend, if allowed to take hold, would take away a lot of their business."
-snip-
This complete article is historically significant and also makes interesting reading.
**
From http://happilynaturalday.com/consciousness/ajass-and-the-grandassa-models-origins-of-the-black-is-beautiful-movement/
"AJASS [African Jazz-Arts Society & Studios], with the aid of Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, began producing a series of “Naturally” shows, beginning with “Naturally ’62″ that projected racial pride, African culture, poetry and art. The show, subtitled “the original African coiffure and fashion extravaganza designed to restore or racial pride and standards” traveled to colleges and universities in the US and self-produced many shows in Black communities for more than thirty years. The AJASS productions, starting in Harlem, was the beginning of what is known as “The Black Arts Movement” that later saw Leroi Jones, Larry Neal, Ed Bullins and others create some powerful theatre in Harlem. They found a Black arts movement in Harlem that had started nine years before they arrived."
**
From http://ncanewyork.com/ncany_2000-2010/vol2no1/vol2_no2_page_2.htm
"BLACK IS STILL BEAUTIFUL
Two of the oldest Black arts organizations came together to present, Naturally 2002, the show that taught Black women and the world that “Black is Beautiful”forty years ago. Billed as “The Original African Coiffure and Fashion Extravaganza Designed to Restore Our Racial Pride and Standards”, it inspired what became known as the “Black Consciousness Movement.” The show, which ran regularly from January 1962 until 1979, is the production of the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios, (AJASS), formed in 1956 in New York. This 40th anniversary show was co-presented by the National Conference of Artists (NCA), formed in 1959 by many of the nation’s leading visual artists and art educators at Atlanta University, including Margaret Burroughs, James D. Parks, Eugenia V. Dunn, Jewel W. Simon, Allan G. Junier, Virginia Kiah, Jack Jordan, and Bernard Goss.
Naturally 2002 was held at The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard @ 135th street. This special production featured this year’s version of the Grandassa Models, the symbol of black pride. AJASS and The Grandassas took on a world that didn’t even, for the most part, mention “Black” and “Beautiful” in the same sentence. A leading “Black” magazine which did a cover story on singer Joyce Bryant, one of the most beautiful of her day, referred to her as “a handsome colored woman”. The “Naturally” show, as it was called, performed mostly in New York, but toured Detroit, Chicago, Lincoln University, Cornell University and Babylon, Long Island, among others places. Their aggressive press material was printed worldwide, including in Africa. In Salisbury, the capital of then Southern Rhodesia, under colonialism, (today, Harare, Zimbabwe), young African progressives copied the show. According to African Parade Magazine of June 1963, “in Zimbabwe a club is organizing a show on June 2 on traditional way of dress and is putting on a display of African art and culture as it was in days gone by.” Featured on the cover was Grandassa Model Helene White a/k/a Nomsa Brath followed by two successive issues one with an inside cover on Abbey Lincoln and a cover with Black Rose featured.
The show caused such a sensation that young militant Zimbabweans waged a campaign against the encroaching blonde wigs and hot pants that the saw in some of the Black magazines from the states. Some went so far as to snatch wigs off of the heads of African women walking the city streets and rubbing the thick lipstick off of their lips with sandpaper."
****
Kuame Brathwait 08 19 10 Original air date
Uploaded by haroldchanner on Aug 12, 2010
Kwame Brathwaite, photographer
Kwamebrathwaite@aol.com
Kwame has been considered the ever-present "photo-documentarian" of the Black Cultural movement, the "keeper of the images." While earning a living as a fashion and entertainment photographer, his primary interest has been the recording of the history of the African Cultural Revolution and the African liberation struggle. Co-founded the African Jazz-Art Society, 1956); The Grandassa Models (Black is Beautiful) 1961 and wearable art shows, AFRIMODA, FashionArt and FashioNations (1986).
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Why I Started Wearing African Dresses
Written by Azizi Powell
This is an essay I wrote in January 2006 (with minor revisions).
I've a confession to make. The real reason why I started wearing African dresses was to impress a certain man. Yeah I know-wrong reason. But my excuse was that I was only 20 years old.
I had just started going out with an African American man who had given himself the Arabic name of "Zayd". A little later in our relationship, Zayd would give me the Swahili name "Azizi", and that's the name most people know me by.
Zayd owned & operated an African book, jewelry, and clothing shop in northern New Jersey not too far from the college that I attended. He impressed me as a handsome, intelligent, somewhat older man who had traveled to Africa a couple of times. Perhaps because of that travel, Zayd knew an African man who was affiliated with the United Nations. As a result of this contact, Zayd received an invitation to a United Nations reception for some African dignitary, and he invited me to attend this reception with him.
Well, I didn't have the faintest idea what to wear to a United Nations reception, and being a poor college student, I had no money to go out and buy a dress.
I shared my dilemma with a college classmate who I had recently met. That Black girl lived with a White family as a foster child or in some such arrangement. When she heard about my dilemma, she convinced me that my best bet was to buy a sewing machine pattern and make my own dress. So we went out and bought a pattern, and then we took the pattern back home to her house, and enlisted the help of her White foster sister. That girl was around our same age, and had the sewing machine skills that we lacked. With their considerable help, I ended up with a long, light green "African dress" that looked quite good on me -if I do say so myself. So my aura was shining brightly at that reception.
I don't remember what the other women wore that evening, but I do remember pretending not to notice the looks of admiration that I received from the men. Yeah, I had it goin on that night. After that success, I bought a couple of long dresses from Zayd's store (or did he give them to me? Probably both). And that's how I started to wear African long dresses in my daily life.
A year or so after I started wearing African clothing, I joined a cultural nationalist organization that was based in Newark, New Jersey. Zayd was one of the leaders of that organization. Poet, playwright, activist Amiri Baraka (formerly kn own as LeRoi Jones) was another one of that group's leaders. Through that organization I met several women who were members of New York's Grandassa models*, and I even modeled with them one time. These women and a few other African American women who were members of that Newark organization taught me how to wrap fabric on my head. I would sometimes wrap those geles in the shape of a rounded crown. But I preferred wrapping them the Nigeria way with pieces of fabric sticking out. During this time and for a long while afterwards, my entire outdoor wardrobe consisted of long "African" dresses or tops & long wraparound or sewed skirts.
A few years after I moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania I met a Yoruba woman named Olabisi (Bisi) Ogunleye. Bisi's husband was attending the University of Pittsburgh. She was a wonderful seamstress & she made some African dresses for me from authentic Nigerian material. Bisi also shared some Yoruba stories and songs with me that I adapted for my school & community presentations as an "African storyteller". And one Thanksgiving Bisi invited me and my then husband over for dinner. That was our first time eating fu fu. And even though Bisi said that she hadn't made that traditional Nigerian dish with a lot of hot spices because she knew most African American weren't used eating food that was too hot, I quickly reached for a glass of water because that food was burning my mouth.
Bisi joined me in some of the community cultural presentations that I did. And when I stopped working at Carnegie Library as an African storyteller, she was hired to fill this position. About a year later, Bisi and her husband and children returned to Nigeria and we lost touch with each other. Blessings on you, Bisi, wherever you are. Thanks for helping your African American sister.
Time passed. Time passed. Time passed and around about 1987 I stopped wearing African clothing all the time. But I still wear authentic African wraparound skirts and matching tops, or 'real' African dresses, and I still wear African geles for cultural presentations or just because I want to. And if somebody asks me why I started to wear African clothing, I say it's to celebrate my African culture. But I know the real reason I started wearing those clothes. And now so do you. :o)
*The Grandassa models were a Harlem (New York City) based group of afro-centric Black female models.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/descriptions-of-grandassa-models-their.html for more information about that group of models.
****
Here are two videos that demonstrate how to wrap Nigerian headwraps (geles) and Nigerian wrap around skirts (lapas)
How to tie Gele, Aso Oke, Head wrap, Head tie, Scarf, Damask, Single
Uploaded by DupsiesAfricanAttire on Jan 19, 2010
How to tie Gele (Paper-like material used in West Africa and other parts of Africa as a head wrap, Headtie or stole/shawl)
**
How to Tie a Wrapper, Lapa, Iro, Wrap Skirt
Uploaded by DupsiesAfricanAttire on Jan 19, 2010
How to tie a wrapper, Lapa, Iro (Worn in Africa. Usually worn with a matching top. Can also be worn with other tops). Can also be worn around the neck...
**
Here is a video of a traditional Yoruba (Nigerian) wedding that showcases traditional Nigerian female & male fashions:
[This video was added on October 8, 2016 to replace the former video which is no longer available.
Folayemi and Olusanmi -- A Traditional Union
KauriFilms's channel, Uploaded on Sep 10, 2011
Music:
"I Love U" by P-Square
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This is an essay I wrote in January 2006 (with minor revisions).
I've a confession to make. The real reason why I started wearing African dresses was to impress a certain man. Yeah I know-wrong reason. But my excuse was that I was only 20 years old.
I had just started going out with an African American man who had given himself the Arabic name of "Zayd". A little later in our relationship, Zayd would give me the Swahili name "Azizi", and that's the name most people know me by.
Zayd owned & operated an African book, jewelry, and clothing shop in northern New Jersey not too far from the college that I attended. He impressed me as a handsome, intelligent, somewhat older man who had traveled to Africa a couple of times. Perhaps because of that travel, Zayd knew an African man who was affiliated with the United Nations. As a result of this contact, Zayd received an invitation to a United Nations reception for some African dignitary, and he invited me to attend this reception with him.
Well, I didn't have the faintest idea what to wear to a United Nations reception, and being a poor college student, I had no money to go out and buy a dress.
I shared my dilemma with a college classmate who I had recently met. That Black girl lived with a White family as a foster child or in some such arrangement. When she heard about my dilemma, she convinced me that my best bet was to buy a sewing machine pattern and make my own dress. So we went out and bought a pattern, and then we took the pattern back home to her house, and enlisted the help of her White foster sister. That girl was around our same age, and had the sewing machine skills that we lacked. With their considerable help, I ended up with a long, light green "African dress" that looked quite good on me -if I do say so myself. So my aura was shining brightly at that reception.
I don't remember what the other women wore that evening, but I do remember pretending not to notice the looks of admiration that I received from the men. Yeah, I had it goin on that night. After that success, I bought a couple of long dresses from Zayd's store (or did he give them to me? Probably both). And that's how I started to wear African long dresses in my daily life.
A year or so after I started wearing African clothing, I joined a cultural nationalist organization that was based in Newark, New Jersey. Zayd was one of the leaders of that organization. Poet, playwright, activist Amiri Baraka (formerly kn own as LeRoi Jones) was another one of that group's leaders. Through that organization I met several women who were members of New York's Grandassa models*, and I even modeled with them one time. These women and a few other African American women who were members of that Newark organization taught me how to wrap fabric on my head. I would sometimes wrap those geles in the shape of a rounded crown. But I preferred wrapping them the Nigeria way with pieces of fabric sticking out. During this time and for a long while afterwards, my entire outdoor wardrobe consisted of long "African" dresses or tops & long wraparound or sewed skirts.
A few years after I moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania I met a Yoruba woman named Olabisi (Bisi) Ogunleye. Bisi's husband was attending the University of Pittsburgh. She was a wonderful seamstress & she made some African dresses for me from authentic Nigerian material. Bisi also shared some Yoruba stories and songs with me that I adapted for my school & community presentations as an "African storyteller". And one Thanksgiving Bisi invited me and my then husband over for dinner. That was our first time eating fu fu. And even though Bisi said that she hadn't made that traditional Nigerian dish with a lot of hot spices because she knew most African American weren't used eating food that was too hot, I quickly reached for a glass of water because that food was burning my mouth.
Bisi joined me in some of the community cultural presentations that I did. And when I stopped working at Carnegie Library as an African storyteller, she was hired to fill this position. About a year later, Bisi and her husband and children returned to Nigeria and we lost touch with each other. Blessings on you, Bisi, wherever you are. Thanks for helping your African American sister.
Time passed. Time passed. Time passed and around about 1987 I stopped wearing African clothing all the time. But I still wear authentic African wraparound skirts and matching tops, or 'real' African dresses, and I still wear African geles for cultural presentations or just because I want to. And if somebody asks me why I started to wear African clothing, I say it's to celebrate my African culture. But I know the real reason I started wearing those clothes. And now so do you. :o)
*The Grandassa models were a Harlem (New York City) based group of afro-centric Black female models.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/descriptions-of-grandassa-models-their.html for more information about that group of models.
****
Here are two videos that demonstrate how to wrap Nigerian headwraps (geles) and Nigerian wrap around skirts (lapas)
How to tie Gele, Aso Oke, Head wrap, Head tie, Scarf, Damask, Single
Uploaded by DupsiesAfricanAttire on Jan 19, 2010
How to tie Gele (Paper-like material used in West Africa and other parts of Africa as a head wrap, Headtie or stole/shawl)
**
How to Tie a Wrapper, Lapa, Iro, Wrap Skirt
Uploaded by DupsiesAfricanAttire on Jan 19, 2010
How to tie a wrapper, Lapa, Iro (Worn in Africa. Usually worn with a matching top. Can also be worn with other tops). Can also be worn around the neck...
**
Here is a video of a traditional Yoruba (Nigerian) wedding that showcases traditional Nigerian female & male fashions:
[This video was added on October 8, 2016 to replace the former video which is no longer available.
Folayemi and Olusanmi -- A Traditional Union
KauriFilms's channel, Uploaded on Sep 10, 2011
Music:
"I Love U" by P-Square
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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