Otabenga Jones & Associates in collaboration with Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium

 

OJBK FM Radio

Houston-based artist collective Otabenga Jones & Associates (OJA) preserve and promote the core principles of the Black radical tradition, and—in the words of the late O’Shea Jackson— work to “OPEN THE EYES OF EACH!!!” The collective collaborated with the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium to produce a temporary outdoor radio station, broadcast live from the back of a pink 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Programming paid tribute to former Bed-Stuy cultural center “the East,” founded in 1969 as a hub for creating cultural awareness around the Black Nationalism and pan-Africanist movements.

Intersection of Fulton Street and Malcolm X Boulevard

near A/C Utica Avenue Subway main entrance

Otabenga Jones & Associates is a Houston-based artist collective, founded in 2002 by artist and educator Otabenga Jones in collaboration with members Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Jamal Cyrus, Kenya Evans, and Robert A. Pruitt. The group’s pedagogical mission takes a myriad of forms, including actions, writings, DJ sets, and installations. In scope, the organization’s mission is three-fold: to underscore the complications of black representation, to maintain and promote the core principles of the Black radical tradition, and (in the words of the late Russell Tyrone Jones) “teach the truth to the young black youth.”

Work by Otabenga Jones & Associates has appeared in exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem and Whitney Museum of American Art (Whitney Biennial), in New York City; the High Museum, Atlanta; and The Menil Collection, Houston, and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, among others.

Founded in 1999, Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium (CBJC) is an amalgam of patrons, entertainment venues, faith based institutions, community organizations and musicians committed to the development of audiences and the nurturing of institutions and individuals throughout Brooklyn that specifically deal with Jazz as well as other African American cultural expressions. Over the past fifteen years CBJC has presented an annual spring festival, established a Brooklyn Jazz Hall of Fame & Museum ™ and produced yearly programs that feature local jazz talent. CBJC is a nonprofit corporation committed to preserving, promoting and supporting live music within the underserved communities of Brooklyn.

To accompany their artworks for Funk, God, Jazz & Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn, we asked all four participating artists to contribute playlists of music that inspired or evokes their commissions. Encompassing everything from the prolific brilliance of jazz performer Sun Ra to the witty hip-hop of Outkast, these soundtracks express both the common themes of the exhibition and the vibrant individuality of our featured artists.