A Gathering of the Tribes is proud to announce the upcoming publication of Tribes #16, The Black Lives Matter Issue, edited by Ishmael Reed and Danny Simmons.
Tribes #16: the Black Lives Matter Issue will be a full color, 8’x 10’ print journal, featuring visual art, poetry and prose, from emerging and established revolutionary artists of our time, celebrating the Black Lives Matter movement and speaking to the issues that propelled its formation and growth. Forthcoming in the spring of 2022.
Statement from Tribes #16 Editor, Ishmael Reed:
The death of Steve Cannon meant the end of an era of an art movement that began in the late 1950s and ended in 2019. This was a period of artistic flowering that began with painters, musicians, writers, poets who rose from obscurity to be included in the canon. If a series of revolutions have led to a more inclusive arts scene, Cannon was one of those who was in the midst of them. He earned the title of “Emperor of the Lower East Side,” as he mentored a generation of younger artists. It is a tribute to Steve’s legacy that the work that he left continues as a new generation led by Chavisa Woods and aided by the generosity of David Hammons, has stepped in to continue the Tribes culture. The formidable Quincy Troupe has come aboard as poetry editor. It is also a recognition of Cannon’s outstanding contribution to the arts that when I summoned writers to contribute to a special issue of Tribes, which would address the issue of Black Lives Matter. Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award and American Book Award winners and a former poet laureate answered the call. With Danny Simmons as a graphics editor, this special issue will demonstrate that Tribes lives!
Open Call for Visual Artists from Tribes #16 Art Editor, Danny Simmons:
For Tribes #16:The BLM Issue, Rush Arts will convene a panel of arts professionals to review and select a number of artistworks to be included. Works should be representative of the artists thoughts and creations about protest, liberation, freedom, solidarity, Black History, Black diaspora and unity. Works need not be figurative or literal to reflect the artists thoughts about these related topics. Abstraction and conceptual work is welcome. Each artist can submit up to three (3) images for consideration. We will provide a modest honorarium for selected works. Please submit to ddsimmonsjr@gmail.com in resolution of 300dpi or better.
Ishmael Reed is a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, songwriter, public media commentator, lecturer and publisher. Author of more than thirty books, Dalkey Archive Press published his eleventh novel, Conjugating Hindi, in 2018. In 2020, his latest non-fiction work, Malcolm and Me, was published by Audible, with Reed as narrator. Baraka Books of Montreal published his latest essay collection, Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico, in 2019. Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues, his most recent poetry collection, is forthcoming in 2020 by Dalkey Archive Press. Other recent books include his tenth novel, Juice! (2011); and The Complete Muhammad Ali (Baraka Books, 2015). New York’s Nuyorican Poets Café premiered his ninth and newest play, The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, May 23, 2019, which garnered three 2019 AUDELCO awards; the Nuyorican produced his eighth play, Life Among the Aryans in 2018. Reed is founder of the Before Columbus Foundation and PEN Oakland, non-profit organizations run by writers for writers. He is a MacArthur Fellow, and among his other honors are the University of Buffalo’s 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize nominations, and a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award. Awarded the 2008 Blues Songwriter of the Year from the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame, his collaborations with jazz musicians for the past forty years were also recognized by SFJazz Center with his appointment, from 2012-2016, as San Francisco’s first Jazz Poet Laureate and in Venice, Italy, where he became the first Alberto Dubito International awardee, honored as “a special artistic individual who has distinguished himself through the most innovative creativity in the musical and linguistic languages.” Reed is currently working on The Terrible Fours, the third novel in his “Terribles” trilogy. His online international literary magazine, Konch, can be found at www.ishmaelreedpub.com. His author website is located at www.ishmaelreedpub.org.
Daniel “Danny” Simmons, Jr. is an abstract-expressionist painter. Older brother of hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons and rapper Joseph Simmons (“Rev. Run” of Run DMC), he is the founder and Vice Chairman of the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation and Rush Arts Gallery. In addition, Simmons converted part of his loft in Brooklyn into the Corridor Gallery. Along with his brother Russell, Simmons established Def Poetry Jam, which has enjoyed long- running success on HBO. In 2004, Simmons published Three Days As The Crow Flies, a fictional account of the 1980’s New York art scene. He has also written a book of artwork and poetry called I Dreamed My People Were Calling But I Couldn’t Find My Way Home. Simmons is the son of Daniel Simmons, Sr., a truant officer and black history professor who also wrote poetry, and Evelyn Simmons, a teacher who painted as a hobby. He earned a degree in social work from New York University and a master’s in public finance from Long Island University. He began painting after he realized how much he hated his job with the Bureau of Child Support. Simmons has had his work shown nationally. Chase Manhattan Bank, the United Nations, and the Schomburg Center for Black Culture all show his work as part of their collections. He is also an avid collector of African art and comic books.
Tribes#16: The BLM Issue was made possible with the support of David Hammons, Andy Mims, and Bob Holman.
Our ongoing programs are supported by the Christopher and David Murray Fund of Stonewall Community Foundation, Poets and Writers, CLMP, and The Teiger Foundation
Tribes is dedicated to honoring the life and legacy of our beloved founder, Steve Cannon.
