The following essay was commissioned by internationally acclaimed artist Fahamu Pecou as a companion piece to All Falls Down, his new suite of paintings running as an installation from February 10, 2010 to March 10, 2010 at Grambling State.

AINT NO FUTURE IN YOUR FRONTIN

By Edward M. Garnes, Jr

There’s another horizon out there, one more horizon that you have to make for yourself and let other people discover it, and someone else will take it further on.—Gordon Parks

There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a bigger price for living a lie.—Dr. Cornel West

DuBois called the racial dance of living in two worlds “double consciousness.” One world is preoccupied with the ominous white gaze. The other is consumed with Black folks attempting to reconcile the internal battle between our African and American selves. When you insist on promoting an image contrary to who you really are, hip-hop heads call it “frontin’.”  But, black folks have had to master the subtle art of code switching.  Whether tap dancing on southern plantations or conceding in corporate cubicles, we’ve learned to adapt. In many ways, our lives have depended on it.

So we wear the mask!

Be meek enough to be crowned an honorable Negro who knows his place.  Be militant enough to not be killed like Martin, Malcolm, or Medger. Be silent enough not to shake the tenets of white supremacy to their core. And be wooed into submission by the flattering benefit package of conformity.

Racial representation is always burdensome.  And no matter how hard one strives to be a human being with distinct talents and inclinations, race has a funny way of skewing not only interpretations of art, but also the artist himself. So the reception of Fahamu Pecou’s work is often predicated on the cultural lens and/or preconceived notions of the participant observer.  To the enlightened, Pecou is a brilliant cultural critic and art superman leaping over stereotypes in a single bound.   To his detractors, Pecou’s art is problematic because it requires prodigious study outside the perverted worldview of the wine & cheese constituency comprising the snobbish art world.  In reality, Pecou is simply an artist attempting to define himself in a world often forecasting his demise.

Fahamu Pecou’s “All Falls Down” is what happens when truth telling comes knocking at your front door.  Pecou’s work proclaims: “I see you (America).. and how you see me (the Black man).” Like all of his installations, style does not supplant substance. Pecou audaciously answers a very weighty question: “What happens when self-preservation becomes self-destruction?”

Bold in aim and uncomfortable in execution, “All Falls Down” confronts prevailing myths of black male identity perpetuated not only by the media, but also by black bodies, caught in a dangerous game of racial representation themselves.  Pecou explores the burden of black men and their blues, while at the same time challenging them to step into their own greatness.  Throughout history, doling out the truth comes with a high social tax.  And with “All Falls Down,” Pecou shows that he is willing to bear witness and pay his dues.

Ed Garnes is currently immortalized in Pecou’s painting Un-American Idol and his essay “Betcha You Can’t Do It Like Me: How Fahamu Pecou Got Us To Drink His Red Kool Aid” is featured in Pecou’s internationally acclaimed art catalogue FAHAMENON
(http://www.fahamupecouart.com/FAHAMENON).

For more information on Fahamu Pecou, visit  http://www.fahamupecouart.com

Award winning writer, educator, counselor, and activist Edward M. Garnes, Jr. is the founder of From Afros to Shelltoes Art, Action, and Conversation, a nationally acclaimed series of cultural productions confronting the social divide between elders and hip hop heads. The 2009 Atlanta Tribune Men Of Distinction holds a B.A. in English Writing from DePauw University and a M.A. in Counseling from Michigan State University . His seminal essay, ” Sweet Tea Ethics: Black Luv, Healthcare, and Cultural Mistrust,” currently appears in Not In My Family: AIDS in the African American Community, a 2007 NAACP Image Award nominated collection edited by Gil Robertson. (www.afrostoshelltoes.com).

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