Ride the Wave
Yesterday, we mentioned how many of the historical records of World War II stop short of mentioning the involvement of African soldiers. Phillip Harvey, the founder and editor of nat creole. magazine, hopes to forestall a similar problem when it comes to documenting immigration and migration into Brooklyn, New York. The histories of the first two great waves of European immigration to the borough (well, three if include that first wave in the 17th century) have been well documented, but the story of the third wave--with large numbers from the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere--has yet to be written.
Phillip's current project is intended to be a step toward starting that conversation. The group show Third Wave: The Planet of Brooklyn Transitions at the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC) Gallery documents what immigration looks like right now through photography and painting. Among other highlights, he sites our homegirl Nsenga Knight and the photography of Delphine Fawundu-Buford for its "nuanced" take on Brooklyn that is full of "intricacy."
Phillip is no stranger to movement: After graduating from Morehouse College, he spent three years in Japan (uh, without learning Japanese first), then returned to get an Arts Administration degree from Teacher's College, Columbia University. We think that qualifies him. Phillip has been running nat creole., which we think of as kind of a digital cousin of ours, since June 2005. Third Wave is curated entirely from among the 1200 artists in the BAC registry.
10 October 2006