Human Literacy: Haiku Middle Passage Commemorative Exhibit (HMP)

2011-12-17T13:58:00.002-05:00

Greetings:

A new year brings a new exhibit opportunity for the Haiku Middle Passage Exhibit. Stay turned for more details on the January 2012 exhibit in Holland, Michigan @ the Center for African-American Art and History.

2011-09-20T23:01:00.000-04:00

Yeah! We open as part of ArtPrize on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011.

2011-03-19T23:33:00.002-04:00

It is estimated that this year, 2011, the world's population will be at 7 billion. We should be extremely concerned about this number because of our propensity towards uncivil behaviors that allow us to look past issues like human trafficking. Does 7 billion mean we have so many people that some of them are now disposalable?

2010-08-01T21:16:00.003-04:00

What would you do if, today, right now, at the very moment you read this post or some other life event made you decide to face the reality that over 200,000 people (men, women & children) are trafficked into bondage to serve as modern day slaves in your America every year?

What would you do?

How long will you do whatever it is you decide to do?

2010-07-30T21:51:00.001-04:00

HMP's inaugural exhibit VIDEO: Click Here

2010-07-30T21:44:00.002-04:00

The opening reception @ Wayne COunty COmmunity College went well. I had the opportunity to meet people from the Art Institute of Michigan, Wayne State University, the UNESCO as well as many college administrators. Saffell, one of the contributing artists was there too.

My Big sister, Waduda, my niece, Malika, brother-in-law Musa, and family friend, Nathaniel also made it!

A very great treat was seeing my colleague Mariyam.

I'm very blessed to have so many people supporting this exhibit - like my driving buddy - Alicia. SHe helped me make the drive from rand Rapids to Detroit. We to the opportunity to dine at They Say for the first time. Our dinner was very good.

2010-07-27T22:07:00.001-04:00

Wayne County Community College District
Brown and Juanita C. Ford Gallery

The pleasure of your presence
is requested at a reception for

“HAIKU MIDDLE PASSAGE”
A Visual Arts and Multi-Media
Exhibition Commemorating
the Abolition of the
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Downtown Campus
1001 West Fort Street Detroit, MI 48226

Opening Reception
5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Thursday, July 29, 2010

R.S.V.P.: 313.496.2570

EXHIBITION
July 29 through September 18, 2010
Tuesday – Friday 12:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Complimentary Parking is Available
in the rear of the Downtown Campus

www.wcccd.edu

2010-07-01T16:32:00.004-04:00

YES!!!!!!!

HMP has a new exhibit site in my home town -- look for it at the Brown and Juanita C. Ford Gallery

Tentative opening is July 22, 2010!
Khalid Haywood is the gallery curator.

2010-03-24T12:24:00.002-04:00

Really, really, really - HOPE you got yo see the exhibit while it was at Marygrove... No Worries, I am working on another Metro-Detroit exhibit possibility...

2010-01-23T23:29:00.003-05:00

Haiku Middle Passage opens February 21, 2010 in Detroit, Michigan at Marygrove college...

The art was delivered to today!!!!!

2009-10-03T23:21:00.005-04:00

Alright, Haiku Middle Passage has a gig!
The exhibit is headed for Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan. Stay turned for details...

2008-07-15T22:44:00.001-04:00

Haiku poet to share interpretation of slave ship passage
Posted by Clayton Hardiman | The Muskegon Chronicle June 22, 2008 00:22AM
Categories: Breaking News

Mursalata Muhammad
Poets have striven to tell the story of the Middle Passage before.

And why not? The Middle Passage -- the forced transport across the Atlantic of kidnapped African men, women and children, packed like sardines in the holds of slave ships -- is a tale of such heartbreak, suffering and drama that it practically screams for artistic interpretation.

But, Mursalata Muhammad may be the first to recall the experience in just this way.

For one thing, she chose to write her verse in haiku, the spare, disciplined Japanese form of poetry that packs a world of meaning into every word and syllable. Muhammad also invited visual artists and musicians to create their own interpretations to accompany her work.

Artists from around the country responded to the invitation.
The poetry and accompanying art are part of a traveling exhibit called "Haiku Middle Passage." On display at the Muskegon County Museum of African American History through the end of August, the exhibit commemorates two centuries since the end of legalized transatlantic slave trading.

Muhammad, who is an associate professor of English at Grand Rapids Community College, will give a presentation during a reception at the African American history museum June 29. The reception is free of charge and open to the public.

In a telephone interview, Muhammad described her vision of the Middle Passage. In many ways, it is distinct, perhaps even unique.

For one thing, she said, other poets who have tackled the historical subject tended to expand their stories to include "what happened before and after," including the Africans' capture and their lives in New World captivity.

Muhammad's intent, on the other hand "was to reproduce the experience on water," she said.

Muhammad said she did not cling to the traditional five-seven-five syllabic arrangement of traditional haiku. Most of the 17 haiku are written in a seven-five-five form. Others were altered to represent other people's perspectives, such as those of European crew members aboard the slave ships.

The bulk of the haiku were written 10 to 12 years ago, Muhammad said, when she was a graduate student at Penn State University.

Writing the haiku was "a very cathartic experience," Muhammad said. "I tend to research a lot," she said. "I won't say it was fun, but it was engaging."

But perhaps the most revealing experience was seeing the work visual artists produced in response to her poetry, Muhammad said. "I thought it was just amazing," she said.

The Muskegon area is the third display for the traveling exhibit. It opened at Grand Rapids Community College in October and then had a stop at Holy Family University in Philadelphia. Eventually Muhammad would like to achieve 200 showings, after which the contents would be auctioned with proceeds donated to charity.

Viewers are encouraged to visit a Web blog on the exhibit located online at haikumiddlepassageexhibit.blogspot.com.

The Muskegon County Museum of African American History is located at 7 E. Center. Hours of operation are 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturdays.

2008-02-28T01:29:00.002-05:00

Dear Professor Muhammad:

I am writing to make you aware of the media interest the "Haiku Middle Passage" exhibit has attracted at Holy Family University.

Currently, information on the exhibit appears in a listing in the Northeast Times, a local weekly newspaper that has a circulation of roughly 112,000. In addition, a 45-second news report regarding the Haiku Middle Passage exhibit is scheduled to air Wednesday (Feb.6) throughout the day on KYW Newsradio 1060 AM (www.kyw1060.com). KYW Newsradio 1060 is the premier news radio station for the Philadelphia area with well over 2 million listeners. Community Affairs Reporter Karin Phillips visited the Holy Family art gallery today (Feb. 4) to view the exhibit and get information for the news report. She was also given information about the Haiku Middle Passage blog Web site and was invited to contact you.

...Thank you for involving Holy Family University in this endeavor and congratulations on the success of the traveling exhibit.

2008-02-28T01:24:00.001-05:00

Highlighting slave
trade horrors

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

About 100 people packed into a narrow hallway at Holy Family University last week to see a national traveling art exhibit — Haiku Middle Passage.
The close quarters only magnified the power of the art — by 17 contributing artists — and the words — haiku poetry by professor Mursalata Muhammad, of Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan, along with two recorded compositions that played over and over like a solemn ode, commemorating 200 years since Great Britain abolished the transatlantic slave trade.

The trade route began in European ports, stopped in Africa to pick up slaves and sailed to the Americas to unload the human cargo, at which time the vessels sailed back to where the journey started.

The Middle Passage refers to the leg of the journey where, for 400 years, tens of millions of African-American men, women and children were packed like sardines aboard cargo ships in Africa for the trip to the Americas.
Holy Family associate professor Pamela Flynn, one of the 17 artists featured in the exhibit, calls her work Passage of Sorts.

“It was a passage of sorts — death is a passage of sorts,” she said.
Flynn used mixed media, such as photography, colored pencils and tissue sails, and stitched figures on her canvas to convey the horror of the slaves’ very lives being altered beyond their control.

they push them off one by one
only mourning the
profit margin loss

“It was an interesting process. Professor Mursalata Muhammad put out a call to artists and her e-mail was forwarded to me and I sent her images,” Flynn said.
While the artist/professor’s work usually has some social context, it took her quite a while to decide which way to go with the project.

“It had to sink in. I was thinking about it for quite a while,” Flynn said.
Muhammad was thinking about it for quite a while as well.
Although she missed her flight and was unable to attend last week’s reception, she did speak with the attendees via an Internet hookup.

She wrote the poems about 10 years ago as a grad student at Penn State — taking two years to write 13 haikus. Her form is a little different, however.
Traditionally, the Japanese poem or verse form consists of 17 syllables divided among three lines of five, seven and five syllables.

Muhammad modified the form of her haikus for Middle Passage. Other than the first haiku, when she wrote from the perspective of a slave, she used a seven-five-seven sequence of syllables. When writing from the perspective of someone else aboard the ship, she relied on the five-seven-five sequence — the ordered haiku verse.
She wanted to create the feel of what it was like being on the water:

I don’t get seasick but waves
jumble my mind thought
I speak foreign tongues
Free waters cannot give up
free people calmly
without making waves

It is illustrated by a painted slave ship tossed in rough water, the phrase “We shall overcome” written on the sea, while brown hands reach from the sky over a border resembling a colorful African kente cloth. The scene is intended to portray the helplessness — but also the dignity — of those held captive along the Middle Passage.

“The story is not complete until we get the other perspective. It becomes part of the collective story. Each holds something unique,” Muhammad said.
Professor Mary Caroll Johansen, who teaches history at Holy Family University, gave participants at the opening reception a sense of just how horrible the Middle Passage was for the millions of slaves.

She recounted the experience of a 6-1/2-year-old boy, Broteer, who in 1736 was put on a ship with about 260 others for the voyage from Africa to the enslavement of the Americas.

According to Johansen, the ships were packed tight like bookshelves. The slaves could not even sit up, let alone stand, and had to lie on their sides. Men were allotted a space about 6 feet by 16 inches wide, with smaller spaces for women and children.

Diseases spread quickly, with dysentery and smallpox the most deadly.
One ship’s captain was afraid he’d run out of drinking water, so he selected 133 slaves and ordered them thrown overboard in groups, Johansen said. The captain called them “parcels.” Before the last parcel was tossed, rain came and replenished the water supply. The captain still threw the last group overboard and subsequently asked insurers to pay for his loss of “cargo.” The request was refused.
The artistic exhibit moved Margaret S. Kelly, vice president of institutional advancement at Holy Family.

“I knew about it but I didn’t realize how bad it was,” she told Muhammad. “You are an anointed person to do this — the music, the visuals, your guided haiku. God wants this to be shared.”

Holy Family is the second stop for the exhibit. Muhammad’s dream is to have 200 exhibits of the Middle Passage, ending with an auction of the works so that they’ll be scattered as the slaves were so many years ago.

“We’re going to use the oral tradition and tell everybody to come out,” Muhammad said. ••

The Holy Family University art gallery is on the lower level of the John Perzel Education Technology Center, 9801 Frankford Ave. The exhibit continues through Feb. 27. To arrange group visits, call Pamela Flynn at 267-341-3418.
To learn more about the life of Broteer/Venture Smith, visit www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h5.html

Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com

2008-02-10T18:14:00.000-05:00

HMP show at Holy Family University until Feb. 27. Muskegon Michigan is HMP's next stop and perhaps New York next. We'll see. How about near you next? Leave a comment for a possible exhibit site because this is a collaborative event.

2008-02-05T23:42:00.001-05:00

Beautiful...

Okay so I've had a few bumps this week which prevented me from making it to HMP's opening reception at Holy Family University. There I sat, on my sofa exhausted and a bit bummed out -- then it hit me I wanted to be in Philly at the reception! So we went TECH!

Thanks to Mr. Kwant (GRCC's Media Technology Guru and keeper of after hours). He helped me reach all you in attendance at the reception via some sort of live video feed (sorry I didn't always look into the camera, I'm new at this). Thanks to Pamela Flynn at Holy Family for sticking with this project with all it's twists and turns.

Thanks to everyone for listening to me (10 second delay and all) and asking some great questions. Special thanks to the lovely lady with so many words of encouragement for the continuation of this project (I really needed them this week).

Please visit the Blog, leave a comment, send others to it too! As I said via video link - if the Internet is our new oral tradition then please help us spread the word about HMP.

2007-11-20T10:33:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

We're off to Philadelphia! Look for HMP's 2nd showning at Holy Family University. Wow, only 198 to go!

2007-11-09T13:00:00.000-05:00

The videos and articles are great! Thank you all so much for everything. I feel very proud to be a part of this project, and I can't wait to come to one of the shows!

2007-10-30T16:10:00.000-04:00

We're moving along, slowly but still moving! Please take a moment and view the video "Haiku News WXMI".

2007-09-21T17:31:00.000-04:00

Wow! Our events for the Reception Day went wonderfully... our special guest Dr. Osagie, held up very well as she spoke to students, faculty and the public at separate events during the day.

Please check out the video clips in the “Links” list of Dr. Osagie's "Student Conversations" and "Evening Reception"

2007-09-09T23:38:00.000-04:00

"There's always something left to do" -- these are the words I speak to myself 10 hours & 22 minutes before HMP opens. Perhaps, I'm suffering, simply, from "Much Ado About Nothing," yeh?

2007-09-03T12:19:00.001-04:00

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”

--Albert Einstein

2007-09-03T10:53:00.000-04:00

Michael said...

I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the HMP project.

For years, I created many conceptual images in the service of the advertising business, and that had its benefits, but I never made an image that moved me as much as my Crossings contribution for Haiku #10. That image, I feel, is the most important image I have made to this date.

I thank you for the vision, initiative, and talent you have invested in this project. I am blessed to meet you and privileged to be a part of this very significant collaborative effort.

Since I enjoy the rare position of having seen all the visual art and read the haiku, I heartily commend the exhibition for all to view. It will be a moving experience.

10:05 AM
8/31/07

2007-08-31T03:59:00.001-04:00

Greetings:

There is little over a week left before Haiku’s Middle Passage opens. I cannot sleep because I’m concerned about the exhibit. I’ve tried everything to make sure people know that remembering the 200 years since the abolition of the TransAtlantic slave Trade is not about any one group of people. Our history of human injustices is a mirror image of our current day issues about human injustices, particularly around force human labor.

For me, the historical nature of the Haiku included in this exhibit is based on multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-ethnic interactions of human being. Anytime we engage with another person from an us/them perspective (race/culture/ethnic, class, or gender) – we set the stage for confrontation and exploitation.

We need to begin accepting our past and present for the shared and integrated experience it is. HMP is about such an approach to the people we have always been.

I know I can't really get everyone to understand this idea because such an understanding is not a one-person task. So thank you in advance for helping each other see each other dressed in our complete humanity.

(Really, now I'm going to go to sleep...)

2007-08-31T03:58:00.001-04:00

All the things I’ve forgotten:

As the exhibit draws nearer, all I seem to realize are the many things I’ve forgotten to do. Fore example, I should’ve stressed the HMP is only part of other commemorative events happening in West Michigan!

I haven’t given proper credit the other individuals who served for more than a year on the West Michigan Committee to commemorate this historical event so here is that history:

“As part of this global observance, members of the local academic and cultural communities have formed a committee to plan and implement a program of activities throughout the year of 2007 that is consistent with the importance of this anniversary. The program's goal for 2007 is to enlighten, inform and educate students and the West Michigan community about the horrors of the slave trade, its impact, and its residual effects on the lives of Africans and their descendants throughout the Diaspora. Program activities will address a wide range of issues such as the history and impact of the slave trade, slavery, racism, and modern human trafficking. The committee consists of faculty and students from Calvin College, Davenport University, Ferris State University, Grand Valley State University, the Grand Rapids Community College, the Grand Rapids Public Schools, and Hope College as well as staff from the Gerald R. Ford Museum, the Grand Rapids Public Libraries, and the Grand Rapids Community Media Center.”
---From the committee webpage www.gvsu.edu/abolition

I need should’ve stressed the support from several GRCC departments in making this event come together.

Thanks so much it’s darn near un-express-able to
WAYNE NEWTON the former art gallery coordinator for listening and being excited with me when we were finally able to meet and discuss this project

RON STEIN the current art gallery coordinator, he connected me to fabulous Michael Forrest (photographer extraordinaire). Ron meet with me in the summer to work on details of this project and work with Michael to design our invitations and take photos of all the visual art pieces. He gave me pointers on things that I can’t remember right now.

MICHAEL FORREST listened to me when I explained I had no money to pay for photos of the pieces, but thankfully he listened to the scope of the project more. He decided to join and create a piece for a Haiku. He continued to give his talent and time to this project and I’m tearing up as I type at his generosity.

JENNIFER SMITH from our Diversity Center is helping HMP’s details for the reception. Without her patience, knowledge, and willing to take a zillion e-mails from me the planned reception would be quite ugly.

Well, that’s all for now, since it’s still the wee hours the morning, I’m going to try and get s bit more sleep.

Thanks.

2007-08-31T03:25:00.000-04:00

Why I can’t sleep:

Recently, a few people have asked me why, where, how, or what made me think of such a huge project as HMP. This night, those few inquisitive questions have stolen my sleep.

All I can say at this hour of the morning is – if you come across someone flying, figuratively or literally, don’t ask them how – join them in flight.

2007-07-31T14:58:00.000-04:00

Part of HMP's commemoration is acknowledging where we are now...

"Mauritania has officially abolished slavery three times -- once under French colonial rule, in 1905; at independence, in 1960; and again in 1980. Despite those edicts, slavery persists. No reliable statistics are available on the number of slaves, but estimates from human-rights groups range from the low thousands to more than 100,000. The U.S. State Department set the figure at 90,000 in 1994, its most recent estimate."

excerpted from, A Sociology Professor in Mauritania Fights Its Slave SystemBy DANIEL DEL CASTILLO

For the rest of this article see:

href="http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i38/38a03901.htm">

2007-07-31T13:50:00.001-04:00

Lynn Estomin's Artistic Statement:

When I read Haiku #13, the words “hope lives in their DNA” kept looping in my head. The words wouldn’t go away so I knew I had to choose #13.

13
vomiting out life they are
cargo whose hope lives
in their DNA

Initially I played around with sketches of ship cargo holds lined with bodies layered with current photographs of descendants of slaves, but I wasn’t satisfied. What really interested me about this haiku was the idea of hope and resilience. As a mother, I was taken with the idea that what we begin, what we believe in, what we fight for, is carried on by out children and their children. So in the end I threw out the sketches and started adding DNA symbols as background, hair ornaments and toys to a collage of photographs of my daughter’s Washington, DC public school students.

2007-07-31T13:49:00.001-04:00

Bio: Lynn Estomin

Lynn Estomin is a videographer, photographer and computer artist who has been producing art that speaks to social issues for over twenty years. Her award-winning video documentaries have been exhibited at film festivals internationally and broadcast nationally on PBS. Her still photography and digital images have been exhibited nationally in a dozen solo exhibitions and over 50 group exhibitions. Her work is part of numerous public and private collections. Estomin has received grants and fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Art Matters Inc., Cincinnati Commission on the Arts, Kodak Corporation, Ilford Corporation, Sony Corporation, SIGGRAPH, the Luce Foundation and Women's Film Project. Lynn Estomin is an Associate Professor and chair of the Art Department at Lycoming College in PA, where she teaches photography, and digital art.

2007-07-31T13:43:00.000-04:00

Arron Ibn Pori Pitts' Artisic Statement:

my work comez from a luta continuua . . . the struggle continuez / in termz of being grounded in the experience of the afrikan diaspora / it’z an evolution and flowz az an improvisational polyrhythmic revolutionary black experience – a perspective that pealz away the racism / it haz become a procezz or mental memory song using the artz az a spirit that weavez and inter/intra – weavez
imagez and symbolz that can point to r improvised commuality of sharing and dialogue w/eachother / reaching out in celebration of the self and manifestation or remembrance of the creative corridor to the huewhamanistic harmony of being a member of the communal primal dance . . . it iz in essence a converging of the sacred and secular / r ability to open the door to the otherside – gain overstandin’and give back to the universe that which it haz given uz . . . being sanctified signaturez of incantationz beingz who bring forth a better life & society of beingz //ashe / asanta sana

raz baaba elder aaron ibn pori pitts
winter – 2007 / detroit, michigan

2007-07-29T08:26:00.000-04:00

HMP's Planned speaker for exhibit's Reception at Grand Rapids Community College, Wednesday, September 19, 2007:

Iyunolu Osagie

Osagie is Associate Professor of English at the Pennsylvania State University , where she teaches composition, African and African American literary theories, and Third World women's literatures. Her research focuses on Black diasporic/transnational studies, especially African and African American cultural memories, Third world women's intellectual response to Western feminisms, democracy in South Africa and Nigeria , and the revitalization of the Amistad revolt. Her book, The Amistad Revolt: Memory, Slavery, and the Politics of Identity in the United States and Sierra Leone ( Athens : University of Georgia Press , 2000), highlights the historical Amistad as contemporary cultural memory. She is a member of the University senate and is active in both departmental and college committees. She is also a member of the Executive Board of the Penn State American Women Writers Workshop. She holds a B. A. and M.A. from the University of Ife, Nigeria, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University.

2007-07-20T01:01:00.000-04:00

Less than 2 mos. until Haiku Middle Passage opens!
See it
Invite it
Experience it
Remembering the Crossings - Haiku Middle Passage a Commemorative Exhibit

Exhibits
September 10 - October 5, 2007 Grand Rapids Community College, Michigan
February, 2007 Holy Family University, Pennsylvania
Where should it go next?

2007-07-20T00:38:00.000-04:00

If you asked, "Why should we remember the slave trade 200 years after its abolishment?"

About 27 million people and current slaves could give you at least one reason why it should be remembered and efforts to eradicate slavery should continue.

Don't believe this hype? Do an internet search using the keyword "modern day slavery" and in .12 seconds you'll receive over 1.9 million hits.

2007-07-19T14:54:00.002-04:00

Melissa Selmon's Artistic Statement:

I have a great appreciation for poetry….so I didn’t think twice when I was presented the opportunity to be involved in this Haiku collaboration. After reading Haiku # 9 I’m very inspired to produce a piece that represents the pain and desire for freedom through the human form.

2007-07-19T14:54:00.001-04:00

Bio: Melissa Selmon

I am 25 years old and born and raised in Grand Rapids, MI. Graduated in 2004 with a B.A. Degree in Art and Design at Grand Valley State University (Allendale, MI). I work with mostly charcoal and mixed media, particularly black and white. My major interest in my work deals with the relationship between emotions and children’s facial expressions. I feel that black and white media deepens the meanings in my work. There is something about the purity of children’s faces that intrigues me. I have been involved in numerous exhibits around the Grand Rapids area. My art work is on display at the Bayard Art Gallery of African American Art and The Peppermoon Art Gallery in Grand Rapids, MI. I’m the in the process of opening my own art gallery in the near future.

2007-07-19T14:42:00.001-04:00

Michael Forrest’s Artistic Statement:

Upon reading Haiku #10, I was struck immediately and viscerally by the power-fully brutal imagery. Mothers killing their newborns is so antithetical to maternal instinct that I could not escape visions of the horrendous realities of confinement aboard slave ships like Angel. My contribution is an attempt to reify thoughts of those horrors, and the task requires visual imagery that conveys faithfully the force of the poetic imagery.

Creating this piece was traumatic for me, and I feared that my personal vision might result in a creation that seemed excessively or gratuitously lurid. It is my sincere hope that this piece synergizes with the powerful poetic imagery, and with the work of other collaborators, to serve as a solemn memorial to the madres and their niños — and all the other victims of vessels like Angel.

I hope also that my contribution imprints an indelible cautionary mark that will remind viewers that societal institutions dehumanize persons as they marginal-ize, neglect, and abuse people groups by regarding them as commodities or even by reducing them into memberships of discrete constituent “populations” in the service of political expediency. Institutions have no soul, no conscience, and cannot accept blame or responsibility. All individuals, however, are responsible to respect and promote the humanity of all other humans. I submit my work, there-fore, as a memorial and a challenge for each person to heed the ancient, wise admonition to “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.”

My work is photographic. I implement digital capture, processing, and printing technologies to construct digital mixed media creations on fine art papers. The visual imagery in my creation is not intended to be particularly cryptic or ambigu-ous; the angelic icon has a dual role, representing good and evil forces. The chain represents bondage — bonds of maternal love and the condition of human bondage. To liberate their infants, mothers like “Eve” delivered them from the Angel… to the angels.

2007-07-19T14:39:00.001-04:00

Bio: Michael Forrest, Ph.D.

As photographer, educator, and mental health professional, Michael Forrest inte-grates various domains of interest and expertise to promote holistic, humanistic, and harmonious intra-personal and inter-personal functioning.

With a B.S. in Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology, Dr. Forrest has been an award-winning illustrative photographer, creating images for na-tional and international advertising and editorial clients. His current fine art work is sold in commercial galleries, is exhibited in juried events, and his documentary work is found in the Library of Congress. He has extensive experience teaching undergraduate and graduate photography students.

Since earning an M.A. in Counseling (Cornerstone University) and a Ph.D. (Trin-ity Theological Seminary), Michael practices counseling and psychotherapy, fa-cilitating people’s effective, authentic, and enthusiastic interaction with others and the world they share. Additionally, he teaches behavioral science courses to un-dergraduate and graduate students. His research interests include counseling philosophy, human creativity, and art therapy.

2007-07-11T21:13:00.000-04:00

61 days and counting until the Haiku Middle Passage exhibit opens!

2007-06-30T01:29:00.000-04:00

The traveling has started! HMP will be seen in at Holy Family University. Date pending but venue set!!!

Want to see HMP? Do you have a suggestion for an exhibit space near you? Well let me know since we only need 198 more places before the pieces are available for the charity Auction.

2007-06-29T08:13:00.000-04:00

Faces of the HMP...

More faces to come... for now check out the posts and give us some comments!

2007-06-29T08:12:00.000-04:00

1
europe yanked one thigh
africa held the other
red es el agua

Visual Artist: Mollye Michelle Chudacoff
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T08:11:00.000-04:00

2
whipped, my flesh felt as if it
tasted a kiss from
el sol’s white-hot lips

Visual Artist: Daniel Miller
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T08:10:00.000-04:00

3
in shackled dark you hear sound
understand sad pain
but not his BANTU

Visual Artist: Christopher Garcia
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T08:08:00.002-04:00

4
they push them off one by one
only mourning the
profit margin loss

Visual Artist: Pamela Flynn
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T08:08:00.001-04:00

5
free waters cannot give up
free people, calmly,
without making waves

Visual Artist: Stephen Marc
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T08:07:00.001-04:00

6
hold babies so tight squeeze life
from them in midair
splash…moms breathe water

Visual Artist: Howard Tran
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T08:06:00.000-04:00

7
spinning around & around
your own stench makes a
new home for you now

Visual Artist: Jill Eggers
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T08:03:00.002-04:00

8
everything hangs out of her
little black body
torn by big white men

Visual Artist: Chen Wang
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T08:03:00.001-04:00

9
he hears her body breaking
realizes they
do more than eat flesh

Visual Artist: Melissa Selmon
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T08:02:00.000-04:00

10
renamed “eve” but nunca a
madre, snaps los necks
de Angel’s* ninos

Visual Artist: Michael Forrest
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T08:01:00.001-04:00

11
a celebrated jailbreak
from the whale’s insides
Cinques come pouring

Visual Artists: M. Saffell Gardner & Ibn
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

12
Jesus* took my hand, cuffed it
in his belly I
know God is no man
*name of slave ship

Visual Artist: Carol Johnson
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T07:59:00.000-04:00

13
vomiting out life they are
cargo whose hope lives
in their DNA

Visual Artist: Lynn Estomin
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T07:57:00.000-04:00

14
Captives’ closeness swells
You reflex-pray God sees: you
know not what you do

Visual Artist: George Bayard
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T07:56:00.000-04:00

15
Crewman’s work becomes
acknowledgment-- raw stank stomps
life; humanity

Visual Artist: Derek (Vito) Hollowell
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T07:55:00.000-04:00

16
Screams-waves-ship-natives: ONE, my
Ship’s work silently
Chokes all I once knew

Visual Artist: Lester White
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad mmuhamma@grcc.edu
Composer: TBA

2007-06-29T07:53:00.000-04:00

Haiku’s landing

the sun smiles on me
no less here, in this man’s land
than it did in mine

Visual Artist: Georgia Taylor
Poet: Mursalata Muhammad
Composer: TBA

2007-06-11T22:56:00.000-04:00

Greetings:

It has been awhile since I've updated you on the progress of the Exhibit. Well all artwork is in and we're anxiously awaiting opening day. I hope to get all the arttists' bios and statements posted before the month zooms by. Wish I could show ya a piece but we've got to save that treat for the patrons who come out in Sept/Oct. to see them in person.

2007-03-02T11:05:00.000-05:00

Stephen Marc's Artistic Statement:

I selected Haiku #5, because I was immediately drawn to the relationship of water and people, in regards to freedom. The Atlantic was the body that connected the Old and New Worlds, and the spirit that witnessed the transportation of the enslaved to an unimaginable place and destiny. The words of the spiritual, "God's gonna trouble the water", was evoked in Haiku #5, playing on the emotional / physical response of the water as the reflection of the ethical and political battle that surrounded the 1807 treaty.

The montage that I created was a response to this reading, but it also shows that the kidnapping didn't cease. The 1807 law that went into effect in 1808, in both England and the United States, still had to be aggressively defended and upheld 50 years later: suggesting that in addition to legal measures and military force, the moral value of human life must be understood and respected. But, even today, we continue to make waves.

2007-02-15T16:16:00.000-05:00

Bio: Stephen Marc
Marc is a Professor of Art in the Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University, and is an Olympus Visionary. Before arriving at ASU, he taught at Columbia College Chicago for twenty years. Since 2000, he has documented over 80 Underground Railroad (UGRR) sites in 24 states and Canada, where several photographs are combined to describe individual UGRR sites inside and out.

He also creates montages that weave together: plantation quarters and crops, letters, legal documents, period news text and illustrations, etc. as a way to provide additional background information about the larger scope of the institution of slavery. His book titled “Passage on the Underground Railroad" will be published by University Press of Mississippi, scheduled for release in 2008, with a companion traveling exhibition being planned. Marc has published two books of his photography: “Urban Notions" (1983) and "The Black Trans-Atlantic Experience: Street Life and Culture in Ghana, Jamaica, England, and the United States" (1992). Recently he has created digital montages for several community specific residencies and public art projects.

2007-01-25T13:43:00.000-05:00

M. Saffell & Ibn (Collaborative Partners)

M. Saffell’s Artist Statement:

My departure from representational painting toward abstract works began with my creations of icons loaded with history - from pharaohs to ancient rulers to vessels of enslavement. I have submerged myself in the primal. My work often transports me to my spiritual homeland, the African continent, the cradle of man.

Painting makes me part of the free world in a primal manner. I work from small to large scale, modify my focus, and constantly investigate my surroundings. My smaller pieces become relics that inform my larger works. My larger pieces offer more of a challenge – their ancestral aspects speak to my soul.

I create my works by painting, printmaking, drawing, digital, carving and sculpting. Having worked as a cartographer, my vision is that normal forms are artistic shapes. I use any and everything; from smashed cans to found grids and architectural objects.

The focus of my work is to push the envelope of my subconscious. My current visual vocabulary merges cartography and drafting and is paired with both brilliant and muted hues mixed from dry pigment and balanced with soft and hard edge imagery.

2007-01-25T13:34:00.000-05:00

Bio: M. Saffell

M. Saffell Gardner holds BFA and MFA degrees in painting from Wayne State University & currently teaches Black Art history & Computer Graphics at Marygrove College. A master painter and mixed media artist, Mr. Gardner is the recipient of a Regional Artists Project Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and has participated in arts mentoring programs in local public schools. In 2000, Mr. Gardner was selected as the Chivas Regal Artist in Residence at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, during which time he developed a solo art exhibit entitled “Recent Memory”. A commissioned painting “Door of No Return” is in the museum’s permanent collection. Recent commissions include the painting of a trash receptacle for Detroit’s “Pretty City” project as well as major commissions for the City of Detroit and the Detroit Public Schools.

Mr. Gardner’s work is in the permanent collection of Cobo Center in Detroit; Cass, Renaissance and Southeastern High Schools as well as the School for Fine and Performing Arts of Detroit, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Detroit Medical Center. He has exhibited throughout Mid-West, New York, Jamaica, Brazil and parts of Africa.

2007-01-16T14:25:00.000-05:00

Chen Wang's Statement of participation:

One of my research aspect is culture and social related design. I often use poster as the outcome form for my visual idea. After reviewing all the topic related documents provided by Mursalata Muhammad, I wrote down few keywords that I wanted to interpret my idea: Historical, memorial, horrible, inhumane…that basically determined the tone and color for the poster and gave me an idea what kind of font to chose. The visual idea for this poster is based on Haiku #8:

everything hangs out of her
little black body
torn by big white men

What inspired me first was the internal tension and high contrast of this poem. Words like Little–big, black–white inspired me to use a transition between figure and background. I used two color silkscreen to print it out on a brown paper.

2007-01-16T14:21:00.000-05:00

Bio: Chen Wang

Chen Wang obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of Iowa in 2003. He has taught at Texas Tech University as an Assistant Professor in the Graphic Design Area. Currently he is an Assistant Professor at California State University, Fullerton.

Since coming to the United States, Chen has been included in numerous national and international contests and exhibitions. In 2006, his work has been selected into The ninth International Biennial of the Poster in Mexico (Mexico) and 4 Block: VI International Triennial of Eco Poster (Ukraine). In 2004, his work was selected into 19th New American Talent Competition (TX, USA). In 2003 his work was part of The 46th Annual International Award Exhibition (San Diego, USA). In 2002, he was included in The 2nd International Chinese Graphic Design Competition (China) and Click- Midwest Print Invitation: Digital Focus (WI, USA). He also received a cougar student design award (USA) and a Honorable Mention from Twenty-seventh Annual Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition (IL, USA).

2007-01-14T15:53:00.000-05:00

From: Mursalata Muhammad
To: HaikuArtist
Date: 1/3/2007 10:26:46 PM
Subject: Artwork Deadline

Greetings and Good New Year!

Just a reminder that the original deadline for getting your pieces to Grand Rapids is January 19, 2007! ...

FYI:
I've been asked a few (un)interesting questions about our little group. Usually the question comes out something like "After looking at the artists involved in the project, I don't see a connection between their work and the subject of your theme. Is there supposed to be a connection, will there be a connection, and how will a connection be accomplished?"

Here is my response to questions like this (yeah, it's a little long sorry):

Your question of connection is one I’ve gotten before and I’m always surprised when it’s asked. Many of the artists who showed an interest in this project expressed that, though the collaboration was intriguing, they didn’t see how their work connected to interpreting a set of Haiku about the TransAtlantic Slave Trade. My surprise by that sort of response is because I’ve always thought of artist as people whose life work was about connection, experience, empathy and stretching beyond narrow interpretations of individual and collective human experience.

This collaboration doesn’t ask artists to connect their work to the Haiku it asks them to interpret the Haiku. The unrestricted demand of interpretation makes up the core of what an artist is, in my humble opinion anyway. Our fearlessness to reach for interpretation and not rely on what we’ve already done makes the work of an artist a vocation that transcends a resume, curriculum vita, set of images on a website, in a magazine, or hanging in a gallery.

Each artist participating in this project is not expected to dust off a piece of previous work. Each artist has read and been moved by one of the 15 Haiku. Each artist is using their selected poem as a prompt to move toward an interpretation they have not considered before reading the Haiku. Each artist will create a work of art exclusively for what they’ve understood from their chosen Haiku. In creating their artwork each artist’s goal is moving beyond merely making a connection to the human experience embedded in the TransAtlantic Slave trade (and the theme of the 15 Haiku).

When this collaboration is done the various artistic genres that make the exhibit will look much like the present day fruits of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade a sight to behold in wonder with no clear way of distinguishing its once individual parts. So yes, there is supposed to be a connection once artists are moved by one of the Haiku, there will be a connection as each artist interprets the haiku in his/her work, and that connection will be accomplished through each artists’ personal vision of their vocation as artists. So keep this in mind all I say, I say for me and the artists working on this project have some strong feeling(s) calling them to participate. I think it will all be all right.

"summum bonum"

2007-01-12T18:58:00.000-05:00

Hello,

I wanted to make an additinal comment on the Haiku project.
My first thoughts on Haiku#11 is that in a way it relates to my spiritual visual vocabulary as a visionary artist. I have collaborated with Ibn Pori Pitt for many years in printmaking, murals and installations.

Haiku #11
a celebrated
jailbreak from the whale's insides
Cinques come pouring

Historically I've studied artist such as Hale Woodruff and Romare Bearden who have used Cinque as an icon for their murals and prints. Over the years i have created middle passage iconography for my work. I have also visited Goree Island and made my connection with the middle passage.
The piece Ibn and I are working on will speak to that wondering spirit of Cinque and the middle passage.

Saffell peace

2007-01-09T22:54:00.002-05:00

Lynn's Statement of participation:

When I read Haiku #13, the words “hope lives in their DNA” kept looping in my head. The words wouldn’t go away so I knew I had to choose #13.

Haiku 13
vomiting out life they are
cargo whose hope lives
in their DNA

Initially I played around with sketches of ship cargo holds lined with bodies layered with current photographs of descendants of slaves, but I wasn’t satisfied. What really interested me about this haiku was the idea of hope and resilience. As a mother, I was taken with the idea that what we begin, what we believe in, what we fight for, is carried on by our children and their children. So in the end I threw out the sketches and started adding DNA symbols as background, hair ornaments and toys to a collage of photographs of my daughter’s Washington, DC public school students.

2007-01-09T22:54:00.001-05:00

Bio: Mollye Chudacoff

Mollye is an Art major at the University of California Santa Cruz. Her medium of artistic expression is photography, particularly black and white. Mollye’s major interest in photography is working with issues that deal with social change/documentation. Traveling plays a vital role in her recent work. Studying one semester in Ghana, West Africa this year has been the inspiration for her Haiku piece as well other projects that deal with globalization and neocolonialism.

2007-01-09T22:45:00.000-05:00

Bio: Lynn Estomin

Lynn Estomin A videographer, photographer and computer artist who has been producing art that speaks to social issues for over twenty years. Her award-winning video documentaries have been exhibited at film festivals internationally and broadcast nationally on PBS. Her still photography and digital images have been exhibited nationally in a dozen solo exhibitions and over 50 group exhibitions. Her work is part of numerous public and private collections. Estomin has received grants and fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Art Matters Inc., Cincinnati Commission on the Arts, Kodak Corporation, Ilford Corporation, Sony Corporation, SIGGRAPH, the Luce Foundation and Women's Film Project. Lynn Estomin is an Associate Professor and chair of the Art Department at Lycoming College in PA, where she teaches photography, and digital art.

2007-01-09T10:26:00.000-05:00

Chris Garcia's Statement of Participation:

In 2005, I began a series of sculptures, collages, and pottery based on the written works of other people. The ongoing project has led to pieces based on such diverse texts as The Kalevala, The Book of Mormon, R. Brautigan’s In Watermelon Sugar, and James Branch Cabell’s Jurgen. All of these pieces took on a playful, strange and whimsical character and were a lot of fun to create.

When I was approached for this project, I thought it was “right up my alley”. After all, I had spent the last two years working as a 3-D illustrator to other people’s text. What I had not counted on, however, was the difficulty I would have matching my style and ideas to Mursalata Muhammad’s Haiku poetry. My “whimsical” approach obviously would not fly, so I could get rid of that, but how about my artistic style? I tend to render figures that are primitive and grotesque. Could this work do visual justice to such a deadly serious and sad subject?

After several failed attempts, I came up with the conclusion that honesty, in art as in life, is always the best policy. From there, I re-read the Haikus and picked out the one that grabbed me personally, not visually. From there, I thought through my choice and decided that my reaction was not only led by my anger at injustice and cruelty, but also my own fears and phobias. What was it like to lie cramped in the dark, sailing to an unknown and dreaded end, shoulder to shoulder with the sick, dying and frightened? You could call out for solace, but you don’t speak the language of your fellow captives. The experience was, and is, the thing of nightmares and something I personally could never have endured. With this in mind, I molded a sculpture in reaction to Muhammad’s Haiku.

2007-01-09T10:13:00.000-05:00

I am a mixed media artist. My studio and residence are in New Jersey.
I received my MFA from New Jersey City University. My work revolves around social issues. I am a pacifist. I believe in world harmony. I believe in justice.
This project is important, the stain on our nation’s history needs to be seen, acknowledged, and wept over.
Wrong was wrong, wrong is wrong. Enslaving another human being was wrong. Enslaving another human being is wrong. It is wrong today and it was wrong yesterday. The notion of relativism as an excuse for our forefathers and foremothers is not appropriate.
This is a moment for reflection.
My work for this project asks one to consider the pain, to consider the loss.
Pamela Flynn

2006-11-17T08:39:00.000-05:00

Bio: Howard Tran

Howard Tran's artwork ranges from figurative sculpture to abstract, two-dimensional pieces. Utilizing traditional and non-traditional materials, he creates pieces that emphasize texture and symbols and reflect his Vietnamese/Chinese background.

Howard Tran received his BFA in sculpture from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 1998. He received his MFA in sculpture from Boston University in 2000. His work has been exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions. Howard Tran is an Assistant Professor of Art at Lycoming College.

2006-11-08T22:54:00.000-05:00

Click to See: Chris At Work

Bio: Christopher Garcia

Christopher (Chris) Arthur Garcia (b. 1968). American ceramist making expressive figurative sculpture. After spending his childhood in Puerto Rico, G. studied Writing and Art at Bennington College, Vermont, graduating with a BFA in 1990. He also studied at the University of Arizona earning an MFA in 1992.

He taught at the Enabled Arts Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at Mississippi Valley State University, a historically African American college in Itta Bena, MS from 1995-96, at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Washington from 1996-98 and at Antioch College, Ohio since 1999. His artist-in-residencies include Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic, The Art Farm in Nebraska In 1999 and 2003, Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland in 2002 and Pro Artibus in EkenŠs, Finland in 2005.

2006-11-07T11:23:00.000-05:00

Haiku Middle Passage Commemorative Exhibit

Hello everyone,
I am collaborating on haiku #11 with Ibn Pori Pitts. We hope to make it an interactive piece of work.Ibn and I have been collaborating on projects for years(priintmaking , installationz muralz. This one in particular is exponentially fascinating.

blessings
Saffell

2006-10-31T00:12:00.000-05:00

Creating Haiku #2
This particular piece (El Sol) was done with firm
pastel sticks on colored paper. To give it a rugged
feel, he rotated from right to left hand.

2006-10-30T23:04:00.000-05:00

Upon artwork completion, I asked Daniel Miller
So you liked this project eh?!

His e-mail response:
From: daniel miller
To: Mursalata Muhammad
Date: 10/21/2006 3:40:38 AM
Subject: Bio, pics, process

Yes, this was actually a nice departure from the norm for me. Let me know if you have any more shows in mind, too. Wherever people enjoy art, I'd like to be seen.

2006-10-30T23:00:00.000-05:00

Bio: Daniel Miller

Daniel Miller is a Character Animation graduate of
California Institute of the Arts. He came into the
school with the help of the Community Arts Partnership
(CAP) program and Watts Towers Art Center.

During his residence at California Institute of the
Arts, he produced, animated and did voice over for
over 7 animated films, one a computer generated piece.

His professional credits include Assistant Animator
and Tweener for the Adult Swim series, MINORITEAM, and
Art Director for California Institute of the Arts'
2006 Producer's Show. He also interned for Dreamworks
SKG in the Summer of 2001 under Frank Gladstone.

Currently, he is doing freelance art as well as
greeting card design for Paraiso Publishers in Vernon,
California.

2006-10-21T01:18:00.000-04:00

Bit of Haiku Writing History:

The Haiku Middle Passage collection of poems came from a self-challenge. The 15 Haiku in the collection took over two years to complete. I did lots of research and was extremely exhausted by the time the first 13 were completed. The idea to try and create haiku around the Middle Passage experience came when I was a teaching assistant at Pennsylvania State University. I had the opportunity (not the experience or patience) to teach a creative writing course. My students belly-ached so much over how easy writing Haiku’s were that I lost all sense at being able to communicate to them the essence of this form. I now know that was because of my lack of personal experience with the form itself.

So I challenged myself to try and embody the elements of nature the form establishes – that’s why all the Haiku have settings on ships making their way through water (except number #1). Originally, I planned on writing 13 Haiku, one for each of my siblings including myself. Haiku’s 14 and 15 were added this year (2006) as an attempt to get crew member perspectives.

I made an important and conscious form change from the traditional syllable per line order of 5, 7, 5. With the exception of the first Haiku, all the others are 7, 5, 5. My decision to begin all subsequent Haiku with the middle represents the disruption caused by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the world. In short, the Haiku form can not mesh with the experience of the Middle Passage (like the people involved) without being some how changed.

The number associated with each poem only represents the sequence in which they were written. The poems are not meant to be listed in numerical order. I hope that seeing the numbers out of order helps to see the disruption of the experience.

These Haiku were an obsessive passion for me and when I was done part of me asked “Ok now what?” This collaborative project put a big dent in answering the “now what” question.

Well that’s the poet’s spill on this collection! They are my children and I’ve love them dearly, but I look forward to them leaving home.

My overall spill on poetry: Poems are visual art with the power to be exhibited like other forms of visual art.

2006-10-20T23:43:00.000-04:00

Greetings:

Our collaborative project is off to an exciting beginning. Several artists have selected their Haiku for interpretation. One has already completed his Water Color interpretation of Haiku poem #2! I'm looking way past forward to see it.

I remember how long I labored over creating the 15 Haiku (about 2 years) and I'm glad I'm done! It was a challenging event; however, now it's beautiful to see the next phase of this collection. Hopefully, you'll soon see postings from the other artists involved detailing their experiences working on this collaborative project.

Better yet... maybe there will be a showing near you!