Along with artists that have created national reputations, there are several other Milwaukee based artists and many Abea members included in an exhibition at Peltz Gallery “Artists of Color” Paintings, Prints, Collage, Sculpture & Quilts by African American Artists.

ABEA members with a diverse aesthetic approaches in this exhibition are Chrystal Denise Gillon, Sonji Hunt, Mutoope J. Johnson, George Ray McCormick, Ras Ammar Nsoroma, Evelyn Patricia Terry and Della Wells.

Calvin Greer
Calvin has a spectacular art gallery on the third floor of his Brewer’s Hill jewel of a home that features excellent art for holiday gifts.

A Most Powerful Political Form of Art
Project Row House

Caroline Goyette’s June 2006 Shepherd Cover Story: “AfricanAmerican Artists on the Rise”

Caroline Goyette’s Shepherd Cover Story: “African\\ American Artists on the Rise”

‘’‘Caroline Goyette’s Shepherd Cover Story: “African American Artists on the Rise”

Della Wells’ exhibition, “Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Fly,” opened at the Charles Allis Art Museum on Wednesday, May 10, 2006.

Reviewed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Admission for Adults who are not members is $5. The museum, located at 1801 North Prospect (Royall and Prospect), focuses on Wisconsin Artists.

This is her first solo exhibition at a museum - a major step. The Hurn Contemporary Folk Art Museum in Savannah, Georgia last month declared Wells one of the leading African American Folk Artists in the country after purchasing her work for their permanent collection.

Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Fly: Folktales by Della Wells

Pictures from Opening Night at

Della Wells

Reviewed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

(:table:)
(:cell width=45%:)

ABEA Founder Della Wells at Charles Allis Art Museum From Now to July 9th

(:cell width=10%:)
(:cell width=45%:)

(:tableend:)

This is her first solo exhibition at a museum - a major step. The Hurn Contemporary Folk Art Museum in Savannah, Georgia last month declared Wells one of the leading African American Folk Artists in the country after purchasing her work for their permanent collection.

Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Fly: Folktales by Della Wells

Pictures from Opening Night at

Della Wells

Reviewed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Della Wells at Charles Allis Art Museum From Now to July 9th

Della Wells’ exhibition, “Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Fly,” is opening at the Charles Allis Art Museum this Wednesday, May 10, 2006, from 5:30 - 8:30.

 This is her first solo exhibition at a museum - a major step.  The Hurn Contemporary Folk Art Museum in Savannah, Georgia last month declared Wells one of the leading African American Folk Artists in the country after purchasing her work for their permanent collection.

Pictures from Opening Night at

Della Wells

Della Wells

Pictures from Opening Night?

Della Wells’ exhibition, “Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Fly,” is opening at the Charles Allis Art Museum this Wednesday, May 10, 2006, from 5:30 - 8:30. This is her first solo exhibition at a museum - a major step. The Hurn Contemporary Folk Art Museum in Savannah, Georgia last month declared Wells one of the leading African American Folk Artists in the country after purchasing her work for their permanent collection.

Reviewed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A self-taught artist, Della Wells lets her background in sociology, African-American studies and Women’s studies influence and inspire her artwork. Her use of bright colors in an oil pastel medium is vibrant and eye catching. Known throughout the nation, especially in the south, Wells as influenced many with her images of home and family, inspired from “personal folklore.”

FREE with General Admission to the Museum: $5 Adults/$3 Seniors, Military and Students/FREE Members. Information: 414–278–8295.

Admission for Adults who are not members is $5. The museum is located at 1801 North Prospect (Royall and Prospect). This museum focuses on Wisconsin Artists.

Admission for Adults who are not members is $5. The museum is located at 1801 North Prospect (Royall and Prospect). This museum focuses on Wisconsin Artists.

Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Fly: Folktales by Della Wells

An exhibition on view through July 9 at the Charles Allis Art Museum
Opening Reception: Wednesday, May 10 5:30–8:30 p.m.
A self-taught artist, Della Wells lets her background in sociology,
African-American studies and Women’s studies influence and inspire her
artwork. Her use of bright colors in an oil pastel medium is vibrant and
eye catching. Known throughout the nation, especially in the south, Wells
as influenced many with her images of home and family, inspired from
“personal folklore.” FREE with General Admission to the Museum: $5 Adults/$3
Seniors, Military and Students/FREE Members. Information: 414–278–8295.

Della Wells’ exhibition, “Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Fly,” is opening at the Charles Allis Art Museum this Wednesday, May 10, 2006, from 5:30 - 8:30. This is her first solo exhibition at a museum - a major step. The Hurn Contemporary Folk Art Museum in Savannah, Georgia last month declared Wells one of the leading African American Folk Artists in the country after purchasing her work for their permanent collection. Her Charles Allis exhibition is reviewed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel here.

Della Wells is having her opening at the Charles Allis Art Museum this Wednesday, May 10, 2006, from 5:30 - 8:30. This is her first solo exhibition at a museum - a major step. The Hurn Contemporary Folk Art Museum in Savannah, Georgia last month declared Wells one of the leading African American Folk Artists in the country after purchasing her work for their permanent collection. Her Charles Allis exhibition is reviewed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel here.

Della Wells is having her opening at the Charles Allis Art Museum this Wednesday, May 10, 2006, from 5 - 8. This is her first solo exhibition at a museum - a major step. The Hurn Contemporary Folk Art Museum in Savannah, Georgia last month declared Wells one of the leading African American Folk Artists in the country after purchasing her work for their permanent collection. Her Charles Allis exhibition is reviewed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel here.

Admission for Adults who are not members is $5. The museum is located at 1801 North Prospect (Royall and Prospect). This museum focuses on Wisconsin Artists. It would be great if Wisconsin artists consider supporting it through attendance and memberships.

Della Wells Opening at Charles Allis Art Museum

Just as importantly, remember that Della Wells is having her opening at the Charles Allis Art Museum this Wednesday, May 10, 2006, from 5 - 8. This is her first solo exhibition at a museum - a major step. The Hurn Contemporary Folk Art Museum in Savannah, Georgia last month declared Wells one of the leading African American Folk Artist in the country after purchasing her work for their permanent collection. Admission for Adults who are not members is $5. The museum is located at 1801 North Prospect (Royall and Prospect). This museum focuses on Wisconsin Artists, it would be great if Wisconsin artists consider supporting it through attendance and memberships.

Announcement

The primary mission of African-American Artists Beginning to Educate Americans About African-American Art is to function as both an advocacy and educational group.

ABEA is comprised of artists and art supporters dedicated to contributing to cultural enrichment by educating communities about African-American art and artists, promoting African-American art, and additionally providing opportunities for all artists to work together for prosperity and growth.

ABEA artists are available for hire for art workshops, art forums, art lectures, and commissions.

Press Release “From Uncle Tom to Peeping Tom

Links to ABEA Members Own Web Sites

ABEA’s next meeting is Sunday, April 2, at 2524 North 18th Street, my
upstairs flat/studio.

You are all invited to the closing reception of Uncle Tom to Peeping Tom:
Race and Gender Matters. There are four poets invited to share and there is
an open mic for all others who want to participate. Any of you want to
participate in the open mic? The four featured poets are Tiffany Miller,
Darlin Nikki AKA Cover Girl, Carmen A. Murguia and Charlesta Thompson. The
event is Friday, March 31, 2005 from 7 - 11, at the Wisconsin Women’s
Center, 3020 West Vliet Street. It is free and open to the public. Call
Linda Cooper or Josephine Hill for more information at 414.933.1652.

Also Godsil (Olde) has started a website on which ABEA can be listed. I
directed him to Della Wells as to how to proceed with acquiring the
information for this website listing.

Evelyn
414.264.6766

Mission Statement and Logo

(:table:)
(:cell width=45%:)

ABEA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Doudou N’Diaye Rose (b. Dakar, Senegal, 1928) is the most famous Senegalese drummer, and one of the most renowned African musicians of the 20th century. He specializes in the traditional drum called sabar, although he also plays many other types of drum such as saourouba, assicot, bougarabou, meung meung, lamb, n’der, gorom babass, and khine.

He is the founder and chief drum major of the Drummers of West Africa (all members of his family), with which he also performs. He also leads an all-female drum group called Les Rosettes, composed entirely of his own daughters and granddaughters.

N’Diaye Rose is purported to have developed 500 new rhythms, and, indeed, his music is quite complex, featuring ever-changing rhythmic structures which he conducts with his trademark vigorous style.[1] He has also invented new types of drum.

He has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Rolling Stones, and Peter Gabriel.

Baaba Maal
Photo from Official Web Site http://www.baabamaal.tv/
Attach:BaabaMaal.jpg Δ

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Baaba Maal is a Senegalese singer and guitarist born in Podor, on the Senegal River. His father was a fieldhand and, as such, Baaba Maal was expected to become a fieldhand as well. However, Baaba Maal devoted himself to learning music from his mother and from his school’s headmaster. He went on to study music at the university in Dakar before leaving for postgraduate studies on a scholarship at Beaux-Arts in Paris. He has become quite famous in Africa. He is the most internationally famous musician from Senegal, except perhaps Yossou N’Dour. Baaba is also the foremost promoter of the traditions of the Pulaar speaking peoples who live on either side of the Senegal River in the ancient Senegalese kingdom of Futa Tooro

Papa Wemba
Photo and Prose from African Musical Encylopedia
Attach:Wemba.jpg Δ

Papa Wemba, often called the King of Rhumba Rock, was born in Kasai, Zaire. Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba first made his mark in 1970 in Kinshasa, where he was a singer, composer, and co-founder of the great youth group Zaiko Langa Langa. In 1974 he left to form his own band, Isife Lokole, and then in ‘76 began Viva La Musica.
Hoping to reach a wider audience he ended up in Paris in the early ‘80s, bringing with him the entire line-up of Viva La Musica. Wemba’s musical vision went beyond the capabilities of his seasoned Zairen rhumba rockers as he began to experiment with a wide range of eclectic sounds.

Wemba’s quite a stylish fellow, a sapeur, an aficionado of fashionable, well-designed clothing. His trendy suits with big jacket, and baggy, though tailored pants, are a strange mix of Africa, Paris, and the American zoot suit. A Soukous show is always a fashion event, and Wemba is a man of great style and taste.

(:cell width=10%:)
(:cell width=45%:)

Youssou N’Dour
Photo from Official Web Site http://www.youssou.com/
Attach:Youssou.jpg Δ

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Background

Beginning in the mid-1970s the resulting mix was modernized with a gloss of more complex indigenous Senegalese dance rhythms, roomy and melodic guitar and saxophone solos, chattering talking-drum soliloquies and, on occasion, Sufi-inspired Muslim religious chant. This created a new music which was at turns nostalgic, restrained and stately, or celebratory, explosively syncopated and indescribably funky. Younger Senegalese musicians steeped in Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, James Brown, and the whole range of American jazz, soul, and rock music, which Senegal’s cosmopolitan capital, Dakar, had enthusiastically absorbed, were rediscovering their heritage and seeking out traditional performers, particularly singers and talking drummers, to join their bands. (The griots—musicians, praise-singers and storyteller-historians—comprise a distinct hereditary caste in Wolof society and throughout West Africa.) As it emerged from this period of fruitful musical turbulence, mbalax would eventually find in Youssou N’Dour the performer who has arguably had more to do with its shaping than any other individual.

Life
He began performing at the age of 12. Within a couple of years he was performing regularly with the Star Band, Dakar’s most popular group in the early 1970s. Several members of the Star Band joined Orchestre Baobab about that time.

In 1979, he formed his own ensemble, the Etoile de Dakar. His early work with Etoile de Dakar was in the typical Latin style popular all over Africa during that time, but in the 1980s he developed a unique sound when he started his current group, Super Etoile de Dakar featuring Jimi Mbaye on guitar, bassist Habib Faye, and tama (talking drum) player Assane Thiam.

Youssou N’Dour is one of the most celebrated African musicians in history. A renowned singer, songwriter, and composer, Youssou’s mix of traditional Senegalese mbalax with eclectic influences ranging from Cuban samba to hip hop, jazz, and soul has won him an international fan base of millions. In the West, Youssou has collaborated with musicians Peter Gabriel, Sting, Neneh Cherry, Wyclef Jean, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Branford Marsalis, and others. In Senegal, Youssou is a powerful cultural icon actively involved in social issues.

He is endowed with remarkable range and poise, a composer, bandleader, and producer with a prodigious musical intelligence. The New York Times most recently described his voice as an “arresting tenor, a supple weapon deployed with prophetic authority”. N’Dour absorbs the entire Senegalese musical spectrum in his work, often filtering this through the lens of genre-defying rock or pop music from outside Senegalese culture.

In July 1993, an African opera composed by N’Dour premiered at the Paris Opera. He wrote and performed the official anthem of the 1998 FIFA World Cup with Axelle Red “Le Couer des Grands”.

N’Dour’s major asset is that is strongly grounded in his culture. Even if he chooses to explore elsewhere, his roots are well established. Some have gone so far as describing him as the African Artist of the Century (Folk Roots magazine). He has toured internationally for almost 30 years. He won his first American Grammy Award (best contemporary world music album) for his CD Egypt in 2005.

His success lies in his constant work, and the honesty and respect he brings to his work, his people and his family. However, his personal life is kept private. Youssou works constantly, perfecting his art and opening it up to other cultures. In recent years, he has opened his own recording studio, Xippi, as well as his own record label, Jololi.

N’Dour has associated himself with several social and political issues. In 1985, he organized a concert for the release of Nelson Mandela. He was a featured performer in the 1988 worldwide Amnesty International Human Rights Now! Tour and worked with the United Nations and UNICEF. He also started Project Joko to open internet cafés in Africa and to connect Senegalese communities around the world. He performed at three of the Live 8 concerts (in Live 8 concert, London, Live 8 concert, Paris and at the Live 8 concert, Eden Project in Cornwall) on 2 July, 2005, with Dido.

Planning and Actions to Take

Members?

broadcast file

who we are?

what we do?

Members?

broadcast file