The African American Art & Culture Complex
In July 1989, Supervisor Willie B. Kennedy forwarded a resolution to the Board of Supervisors that urged the Mayor of the city and county of San Francisco, California to consider the sale or long-term lease of the Western Addition Cultural Center to better reflect the yearnings of the community in terms of programming, management and operations. The resolution was passed unanimously.
As a result of the vision of Supervisor Kennedy and the African American community in wanting a true African American Cultural Center, not only for today, but for generations to come; and the many individuals and organizations across the city who believed the Western Addition Cultural Center should become an African American Cultural Center, the work began. Ms. Geraldine Johnson helped shape the preliminary draft legislation and community involvement began in earnest to forge a new entity. The community decided to look for leadership from the Wajumbe Cultural Institution, Inc. and the San Francisco African American Historical Society - two of the oldest African American Cultural organizations in San Francisco with a combined history of over 59 years of consistent and quality programming to the community. A new non-profit corporation was formed in 1989 - the Center for African and African American Art and Culture. Over the years the name of the center has changed but it's mission and values remain the same - to provide an atmosphere for cross-cultural relationship based on African and African American experience and history. Today the African American Art and Culture Complex benefits not only the African American community of San Francisco but the entire San Francisco Bay Area and its many visitors with exhibitions, plays, classes, lectures, and activities. We depend on your support and participation to make it possible to provide a forum and context for Black family life and culture.
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The Mural
The art work featured on the web site is part of the mural on the east wall of the African American Art and Culture Complex. The mural, entitled "A Celebration of African and African American Artists" was created by artist Dewey Crumpler in 1993 sponsored by the Mayor's Office of Community Development. This politec acrylic on concrete measures 45 feet tall and by 131 feet wide was created with the assistance of Kermit Amenophis, Bonnie Long, and Sandra Roberts.
The mural is published in "Walls of Heritage, Walls of Pride: African American Murals" by James Prigoff, Robin J. Dunitz. In the book Dewey Crumpler states...
"This mural is a celebration of African American culture. The arts are what make my blood circulate. I could take the images that are central to the highest achievement in cultural formation, like the Ife head - the Ife queen mother. That for me was clear. Then to go to music and take Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday - two polarities that deal with the highest level of African American expression. And then to juxtapose Charlie Parker and Mahalia Jackson. And then to continue to do this up around this structure in a way that made these figures move through space and time. And then to place hard structural buildings next to an ancient African mud brick terracotta mosque. This polarity between the old and the new, between various aspects of these cultural offerings that this place (the cultural center) represented was at the heart of it. And to have Duke Ellington orchestrating the whole process is equivalent to Beethoven putting together the whole European high cultural thing. That was it."
Source: Walls of Heritage, Walls of Pride: African American Murals by James Prigoff, Robin J. Dunitz
For more info visit www.aaacc.org
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