Alanna Airitam
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alannaairitam.bsky.social
Alanna Airitam
@alannaairitam.bsky.social
480 followers 310 following 180 posts
Fine Art Photographer taking up space on Tohono O'odham land. Exploring liberation thru Black feminist narratives, identity, memory & evocative imagery. #stopfascism #endcolonization
www.alannaairitam.com
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alannaairitam.bsky.social
Bernie & AOC right now in Tucson. There’s around 20,000 people here and they’re pumped up.
March 22, 2025 at 8:06 PM
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Feels good to get back in the studio today.
March 9, 2025 at 2:34 AM
alannaairitam.bsky.social
Feb 28 – Torkwase Dyson (b. 1973)
Creates radical Black geographies through abstract art—redefining what space, freedom, and movement mean for Black people. #BlackArtMatters
Working in painting, drawing, and sculpture, Torkwase Dyson (b. 1973 Chicago, IL; lives and works in Beacon, NY) combines expressive mark-making and geometric abstraction to explore the continuity between ecology, infrastructure, and architecture. Dyson deconstructs, distills, and interrogates the built environment, exploring how individuals, particularly black and brown people, negotiate, negate, and transform systems and spatial order. Throughout her work and research, Dyson confronts issues of environmental liberation and envisions a path toward a more equitable future. https://www.richardgraygallery.com/artists/torkwase-dyson Torkwase Dyson (b. 1973) Errantry, 2024 Steel and timber 172 × 340 × 120 inches (436.9 × 863.6 × 304.8 cm) https://www.richardgraygallery.com/artists/torkwase-dyson Torkwase Dyson (b. 1973) The Clearing 2, 2024 Acrylic, graphite and ink on four canvases Approximate overall install: 60 × 242 ¾ inches (152.4 × 616.6 cm) https://www.richardgraygallery.com/artists/torkwase-dyson
February 28, 2025 at 9:17 PM
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Can’t afford anything anyway. Don’t give them any of your money. They’re already thriving too much as it is. #economicboycott #resist
February 27, 2025 at 6:33 PM
alannaairitam.bsky.social
Feb 27 – Ja’Tovia Gary (b. 1984)
A filmmaker blending archival footage and experimental film to explore Black womanhood, rage, and survival. #BlackFilmHistory
Ja’Tovia Gary Ja’Tovia Gary’s I KNOW IT WAS THE BLOOD Ja’Tovia Gary uses documentary film and experimental video art to address representation, race, gender, sexuality, and violence.
February 27, 2025 at 6:28 PM
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I’m going to close out the month future forward as we continue to make history. ❤️
Feb 26 – LaToya Ruby Frazier (b. 1982)
Photographs Black working-class life with the raw honesty museums don’t always want to see. #BlackPhotography
Latoya Ruby Frazier https://latoyarubyfrazier.com/about/ LaToya Ruby Frazier Huxtables, Mom and Me, 2008
February 27, 2025 at 2:42 AM
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Hanging at The Projects_ and The Space_ from noon -4pm today and through Friday. Stop by and say hi!
February 26, 2025 at 7:55 PM
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Feb 25 – Ann Petry (1908–1997)
The first Black woman to sell over a million copies of a novel (The Street, 1946), Ann Petry’s work tackled racism, poverty, and gender oppression in a way still radical today. #BlackLiterature
Ann Petry Oct 12, 1908 – Apr 28, 1997 Ann Petry The Street was one of the first to address the experiences of black women in terms of race, class and gender. Published in 1946, was also the first book by an African-American woman to sell over 1 million copies.
February 25, 2025 at 7:31 PM
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Feb 24 – Hazel Scott (1920–1981)
A Black woman took on Hollywood and won. Pianist Hazel Scott refused to play for segregated audiences and was blacklisted for standing up to McCarthyism. #BlackHistoryMonth
Hazel Dorothy Scott June 11, 1920 – October 2, 1981 Jazz legend. Pianist. Performer. Activist. Trailblazer At the age of eight, Hazel was a child prodigy who auditioned for the world-renowned Juilliard School of Music. Although the standard student had to be at least 16 years old, her performance of Rachmaninoff’s "Prelude in C-Sharp Minor" was enough for Professor Oscar Wagner to accept her into the school and take her under his tutelage. Scott was such an established force to be reckoned with by the time she starred in Hollywood movies that she was successfully able to challenge the studios' treatment of Black actors, demanding the same pay as her white colleagues and refusing to play subservient roles, which Black actors were constantly cast in. https://www.hazelscott.com/about
February 24, 2025 at 3:24 PM
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Thank you, Tucson Museum of Art, for adding this work to your collection and featuring it on the giant poster outside! Grateful to be part of a reimagined, inclusive vision of the American West. #TucsonMuseumofArt #AmericanWest #ArtInclusion #ContemporaryArt
February 24, 2025 at 3:02 PM
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Feb 9 – Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890–1960)
A sculptor who lived in poverty in Paris to perfect her craft. Her carved wooden busts of Black subjects were raw, emotional, and groundbreaking. #BlackSculpture
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet American artist born March 19, 1890 – Dec 13, 1960. Prophet faced a lot of challenges throughout her life, especially when it came to funding her work. She applied for grants and support from various foundations, but more often than not, she was turned down. Getting her work exhibited wasn’t any easier—so much so that she sometimes used the name Eli Prophet just to get her pieces into shows. Nancy Prophet, Negro Head, before 1927. RISD Museum, in copyright, noncommercial use permitted. Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: I Will Not Bend An Inch. RISD Museum.
February 23, 2025 at 3:12 PM
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Feb 23 – Elaine Brown (b. 1943)
Only woman to lead the Black Panther Party. Elaine Brown redefined revolutionary leadership and fought for Black feminist power. #BHM
From her About page because she’s amazing. Elaine Brown is a former leader of the Black Panther Party, as Minister of Information then Chairman. She is the author of A Taste of Power and The Condemnation of Little B. A Taste of Power, her autobiography, is scheduled for film production with Alicia Keys slated to play Elaine, and, was recently published as an audiobook by Audible, and published in the UK by Penguin/Random House and in France by Éditions Syllepse (Paris). As Executive Director of the Michael Lewis Legal Defense Committee, supporting the legal appeal of Lewis (“Little B”), who, arrested in 1997 in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 13 for a murder he did not commit, was convicted and sentenced as an adult to life in prison, Elaine sustained a campaign for his freedom for over 27 years. On September 27, 2023, Michael, at 40 years old, was released on parole to live in California. · Elaine is CEO of the non-profit organization Oakland & the World Enterprises, Inc. (OAW), dedicated to launching and sustaining for-profit businesses for cooperative ownership by formerly incarcerated and other people facing extreme barriers to economic survival. OAW is now building 79, 100% affordable housing units in West Oakland, for projected occupancy in June 2024, the ground floor housing OAW-supported businesses, including a neighborhood market, restaurant, fitness center, urban farm and tech center Elaine studied classical piano for many years, including at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, and has recorded two albums of original songs, one for Motown records—which recently re-issued a vinyl of her album, Until We’re Free. Elaine’s papers are archived at Emory University. Elaine is the mother of one daughter, Ericka, and resides in Oakland, California https://elainebrown.org/ We were the women in the Black Panther Party, and we were sisters and we were strapped and we fought back just like any man… I’d say we were more progressive than [other Black organizations]. Elaine Brown, Huffington Post
February 22, 2025 at 8:20 PM
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Feb 21 – Lorraine O’Grady (b. 1934 – 2024)
Photographer, conceptual artist, critic. O’Grady stormed an all-white art gala in a dress covered in words like Jezebel and Mammy—a Black feminist mic drop. ❤️#ArtAsActivism
Lorraine O’Grady (Sept 21, 1934 – Dec 13, 2024) RIP to this courageous, talented, rebellious spirit. We were blessed to have your voice and wake us up to own our dreams and create space to make them our realities. Rocking a dress made from 180 white gloves found in Manhattan thrift stores and carrying a white cat-o’-nine-tails made of sail rope and decorated with white chrysanthemums, Mlle Bourgeoise Noire (Miss Black Middle-Class) 1955 showed up ready to make a statement. She didn’t hold back, calling out both cautious Black artists and white institutions that refused to do better. Her first unannounced appearance? Just Above Midtown, the hub for Black avant-garde art. The next? The freshly opened New Museum of Contemporary Art.
February 21, 2025 at 2:59 PM
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Feb 20 – Alexis Pauline Gumbs (b. 1982)
Futurist, poet, radical thinker, and one of my true inspirations. Alexis Gumbs teaches us to dream new worlds with Black feminist love. Read any essay or book of hers to be moved to build a better world. #BlackFeminism
Alexis Pauline Gumbs. https://www.alexispauline.com Book: Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
February 20, 2025 at 4:18 PM
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I’m not sure if I should feel proud of my consistency or feel embarrassed that my fashion sense has not changed since I was 9.
February 19, 2025 at 6:17 PM
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So many photos to go through!
February 19, 2025 at 6:08 PM
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Just received stacks and stacks of family photos. Looks like I’m the family archivist now! I’ll be going through these, scanning, and cataloging everything with names and dates. So excited to discover all the treasures. I love these old photos and thread to my ancestors.
My mom as a kid in Brooklyn in I’m guessing late 40’s - early 50’s. Alanna Airitam My grandmother, aunt, and mom in Brooklyn. They all ended up with Alzheimer’s/ dementia. Alanna Airitam Even though no one ever talked about it, I believe my grandfather had a pretty incredible eye for photography. There are so many amazing photos of his time in the Army. The back of this photo says “Soldier at leisure and fatigue sharp”. Alanna Airitam No text on this one and I can’t identify the girls in this photo yet. But I love the smile of the girl on the left and the way the girl on the right has the clothesline between her teeth. A moment of play for these girls. I wonder what play was like for young Black girls back then. Alanna Airitam
February 19, 2025 at 6:07 PM
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Because I’m in a mood. Here is How to Make a Country (2019).
How to Make a Country (2019) © Alanna Airitam How to Make a Country (2019) © Alanna Airitam
February 19, 2025 at 3:47 PM
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A great few days visiting with Hank Willis Thomas and Rujeko Hockley while they were in town for the LOVEROVERULES show at University of Arizona Museum of Art. ❤️
Hank Willis Thomas talking to audience in front of An All Colored Cast (2019) Me checking out Hank Willis Thomas’ Farewell Uncle Tom 1971/2007. 15,580 (2018) Afro-American Express, Discover, and Mastercard (2004)
February 19, 2025 at 3:34 PM
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Feb 19 – Pauli Murray (1910–1985)
Nonbinary Black feminist, lawyer, and poet. Pauli Murray’s legal work inspired both Thurgood Marshall & RBG in fighting race and gender discrimination. #BlackFeminism
Pauli Murray was an American civil rights activist, advocate, legal scholar and theorist, author and – later in life – an Episcopal priest. As a lawyer, Murray argued for civil rights and women's rights. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall called Murray's 1950 book States' Laws on Race and Color, the "bible" of the civil rights movement.
February 19, 2025 at 2:57 PM
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Feb 18 – Beverly Buchanan (1940–2015)
Her sculptures of Southern shacks challenged racist, sexist art spaces. Buchanan used Black women’s folk art to resist. #BlackArtMatters
Beverly Buchanan Be very Buchanan, Tom’s House (1995)
February 19, 2025 at 5:29 AM
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Feb 17 – Faith Ringgold (b. 1930)
When museums wouldn’t show her work, Faith Ringgold turned quilts into storytelling protests. Her Tar Beach series let Black girls dream of flying over the city—free. Rest in peace. ❤️ #BlackArtHistory
Faith Ringgold Faith Ringgold, Women on a Bridge,Tar Beach (1988)
February 18, 2025 at 4:11 AM
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Feb 17 – Bettye Saar (b. 1926)
Turned a racist Aunt Jemima figurine into a weapon of resistance. Her 1972 piece The Liberation of Aunt Jemima redefined Black feminist art. ❤️ #BlackFeministArt
Betye Saar Betye Saar, Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972, assemblage
February 17, 2025 at 2:57 AM
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Feb 15 – Florynce “Flo” Kennedy (1916–2000)
Cowboy hat. No-nonsense attitude. One of the boldest Black feminists in history, Flo Kennedy sued Harvard Law to get in, co-founded NOW, and mentored radical feminists of the 1970s. She’s EVERYTHING! #BHM #IntersectionalFeminism
Florynce Kennedy in signature cowboy hat, smiling with excitement at camera. She’s wearing a dark sleeveless top, hands on hips on top of light colored lace up pants. She’s wearing a necklace of the female symbol around her neck. Florynce Kennedy in cowboy hat speaking into microphone. Right hand raised with pen between fingers.
February 15, 2025 at 4:24 PM
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Feb 14 – Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012)
A sculptor and printmaker who used her art to fight for Black and Mexican liberation. Her radical woodcuts and sculptures celebrated Black womanhood in ways museums tried to ignore. #ArtAsResistance
Elizabeth Catlett in the studio sculpting a bust of a woman. Sharecropper (1952) linoleum cut of a woman in a wide brimmed hat looks off to the right. Her face is tired and aged with lines and deep wrinkles with eyes dunked behind her furrowed brow. We can also sense she is older due to the white tightly curled hair peeking out under her woven hat. The brown skin of her neck emerging from a white shirt tucked beneath a dark jacket being held closed with a safety pin.
February 14, 2025 at 4:49 PM