Hello friends. I am happy (and exhausted) to bring you the first issue of Code Z: Black Visual Culture Now.
As I have been spearheading this effort over the past several months, letting others in on the plans and visions, I've been hearing the same comments again and again: "It's about time," "We've been waiting for this for so long," "This type of thing is way overdue."
It's true. Young, critically-engaged black artists have been conversing among ourselves in a whole new way for the last 10 to 15 years, and yet no forum has emerged to encapsulate that in a broad-based way. No forum seems to address that generation of visual creators, and to do so in an accessible, smart, dynamic way. These became my goals in building Code Z.
That's exhilarating, but it makes me nervous, too. I want it to work. I want it to be received well and to further the conversation about black art globally. Those are big goals, but ones that I think are reachable.
I can't do it alone, however. So I turn to you to help reach those goals. Read, participate, and tell others about it. We're all in this together.
I want to thank many people, without whose support this bird could not have gotten off the ground: my family, my business partner Alex Burger, Beatrice L. Thomas, Arturo Palacios, Valerie Cassel-Oliver, Carl Tyson, Mark Schnug, Rainey Knudson, Jacqueline Rush-Rivera, Bob Lum, Brian Yanish, and probably a ton of other folks I'm forgetting at this late hour of the night. Each of them has given me specific support and feedback during crucial points in the development of this project.
The other editor-members of Code Z have been outstanding in their engagement with the project. I'd like to single out Carla Williams, Laylah Amatullah-Barrayn, and Ayize Jama-Everett. Look for lots of writing from them in the coming months.
A special thanks goes to Roderick Southall and Obsidian Arts. Roderick was first in line to see the importance of such a project and to insist on its being undertaken.
Finally, thank you to the wide community of artists that has seen the need for Code Z and who have expressed your excitement and enthusiasm for the project. I hope that together we have many years of exploring new territory and mining new ideas about art. Oh and having a blast in the process.
7 August 2006