Black Is Beautiful: A Revealing Tale of Trailblazing Visionary Kwame Brathwaite

History has seen many engaging films highlighting photographers: Martin Parr. Maybe the film medium naturally comes alive when displaying exceptionally powerful photographs. Today comes a new exceptional instance, from writer-director Yemi Bamiro, exploring the impressive life's work of Kwame Brathwaite—an artist, musician and social justice champion who exemplified a distinct cultural-activist vision.

Alongside his brother Elombe, he effectively created the expression “Black Is Beautiful” throughout the 1960s by capturing the African American women in New York: young African American women who emerged as the sensational archetype for beauty, abandoning typical beauty standards and the predominant white ideal of female beauty.

The Impact of a Simple Phrase

The iconic phrase became a powerful unifying message, an brilliant memorable declaration for change. Simply stating that black people were beautiful proved to be a liberating power in society, social movements and creative expression. Brathwaite became integral to the social justice pan-Africanist movement by photographing the legendary boxer prior to his legendary championship fight in the seventies.

He served as the primary visual documentarian for the musical group's African tour, and later became the resident artist for the iconic Apollo theatre, assembling an extraordinary collection of musical pioneers. Together with Elombe, he was the key organizer behind arranging for the anti-apartheid icon to address the public in New York.

Family Legacy

His son the younger Brathwaite recounts the their campaign to ensure appropriate credit for his father's legacy after he was hurtfully overlooked in the nation's capital's National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened by Barack Obama in 2016.

The feature also recounts the inexpressibly painful inspiration of the photographer's interest in visual storytelling: the horrendous photographs of the lynching martyr, the teenage Black lynching victim whose bereaved parent defiantly demanded an uncovered casket so the horrific reality of racist violence might not be concealed.

Through Darkness to Empowerment

From this representation of violence, the artist discovered a kind of profound understanding that led him toward photographs of community. His work powerfully conveyed community pride and frequently nuanced in approach: he established a new iconography of empowerment around which activist groups could unite.

This represents an inspiring testament of cultural impact that continues to resonate through the years.