" Having agency is having the right and power to express one's truth and that truth be accepted as truth without the speaker or "truth teller" being in fear, punishment or censorship!"

 "Per all of the trending hype and fluff about 'racial reckoning".......  IE: Post Black, Black Girl Magic, and Black Lives Matters in the visual artworld, I say, "show me the money!"  

This blog post includes samples of the visual artwork I was doing in the 1970s........ in my 20s. I worked for  major clients like Playboy Magazine, MODE Avant Garde and The Katherine Dunham Dancers.  In an era when clients, art directors would routinely drop me as a freelance illustrator once they learned I was actually Black. BOOM! Over. Not because my published work wasn't awesome.  I was even getting fan mail.  But dropped none the less! No civil rights supports. No legal options. Dropped!.  Dumped even!

One Art Director for a Nwe York based publisher tearfully explained to me that he was told that he would loose his high-paying job if he ever brought my name up again.

This was in NY, Paris and Chicago.  A major gallery owner in Chicago, who was making serious bank with the Imagists welcomed my package of samples mailed to her from Paris, with positive enthusiasm.  But when I returned to Chicago to meet her, she screamed I was a fraud!  That no way could I.....a boot....meaning a Black heterosexual male, be the real artist to have done that amazing art work. Then she had her security folks to escort me out of her gallery. As if I wanted to stay?????

For instance this is a treatment I drew for Palyboy in 1974. This is why God created education, and such. Along with curators.....like Dan Nadel. I went on to be an art therapist and arts educator.  While finding ways to get my Rhythmistic concepts out into the world.

 Now at age 70........I am disappointed at the offerings of the too often lame, sterile, recycled, poorly thought-out protest-art and minor  efforts at being Black, that are now the flavor of the month in the art world.  This being the denial of what Blacks have been doing away from the framework of the mainstream's orthodoxy. 

The usual flow that celebrates suffering and oppression.  

Never the glory and real legacy of Artistic Genius!  Yes I did say Genius! 

 Just try to say that to them.  Hmmm!" Black Male Genius Artist in the house."

So now in my vintage stage to barriers are still there. I get some props that are highly appreciated....then the bigger powers that be......... lay back and decide. No!  Not his Black brilliant Rhythmistic self. 

NOTE: The current group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Curated by Dan Nadel is the real deal showcase that explodes that suppressive orthodoxy, practice and tradition! Exceptional, intelligent and awesome.

By the way, I am still looking for mainstream representation, a lawyer, and agent to assist in optioning my intellectual property based on  industry standards."