Here’s something of interest to folks in Baltimore: the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History & Culture (they should look into lengthening that name) has a pair of exhibits on the black dandy. Dandy Lion: Articulating a Re(de)fined Black Masculine Identity looks at African-American dandies both contemporary and historical through photography. Global Dandy: Selected Photographs From the Global Africa Project looks at dandies throughout the African diaspora.
In both cases, the goal is an interesting and admirable one: to challenge the notion that black male culture (and particularly aesthetic culture) is monolithic, and to present the ways that it has represented a reinterpreted the dandy tradition.
(Photo, from the exhibition, by Hanif Abdur-Rahim)
thanks, Lindsey!
