Black Girls Code

For the end of February and the last week of Black history month Selkie is donating 10% of all proceeds to nonprofit orgnaization, Black Girls Code  https://www.blackgirlscode.com

"Our Vision: To increase the number of women of color in the digital space by empowering girls of color ages 7 to 17 to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities, and builders of their own futures through exposure to computer science and technology. To provide African-American youth with the skills to occupy some of the 1.4 million computing job openings expected to be available in the U.S. by 2020, and to train 1 million girls by 2040."

https://www.blackgirlscode.com/donations.html

Here are some interesting and unique Black historical figures, artists and performers to inspire you this week!

Selika Lazevski was a black horsewoman in Belle Époque Paris. In 1891, she was the subject of a series of six photographic portraits taken at the studio of Paul Nadar in Paris.

In 1891, Lazevski was the subject of a series of six photographic portraits taken at the studio of Paul Nadar (son of the better known Félix Nadar) in Paris.

"The film, The Adventures of Selika, tells the story of the woman in the picture, Selika Lazevski, described by Shadow and Act as a “19th century high society equestrian.” Little is known about Lazevksi, but The Adventures of Selika posits that Lazevksi was a “young African princess displaced by war, who was brought up by a noble family in France during the Second Empire (1861-63). Now a young woman, following an unfortunate inciden, Selika is forced from the security and comfort of the life she has known. She sets off for Paris, and determines to forge her own curious and independent path in the world.” French actress and César Award nominated Karidja Touré, best known for her role in the film Girlhood, will play Lazevksi. Luke Elliot and Jennifer Daley also star in the film, adding to the portrayal of a world in which people of color are also a vibrant part of European high society."

https://colorwebmag.com/2017/03/30/you-know-that-picture-of-the-19th-century-black-equestrian-shes-getting-a-movie/

"Books that make me cringe are usually bad. You know, books where suspension of disbelief refuses to stay even if you hold it at gunpoint, stories of whitewashed cities where everyone is beautiful, stories with dialogue so eloquent it sounds like Martin Luther King, Jr. debating Pericles. Luckily, sometimes a book comes along that makes me cringe for all the right reasons. Raven Leilani's Luster belongs to this select group.

Edie is in her 20s, working an admin job in a publishing company, and sharing a roach infested apartment in Bushwick. She's also making bad choices, watching porn at work, and sleeping with a few coworkers. Then she meets Eric, an older married man in an open relationship who works as a digital archivist. They start dating, but things get complicated. For starters, Eric is white and Edie is Black. Also, Eric's wife, Rebecca, has a set of strict rules for them; Edie breaks one when she sneaks into Eric's house, and she gets caught. When her behavior at work catches up to her and she loses her job, Edie ends up in Eric's home again – only this time, Rebecca has invited her in. While trying to find a new place and a new job, Edie develops a friendly relationship with her lover's spouse and with their adopted daughter, a young Black woman named Akila."

-GABINO IGLESIAS

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/23/904901813/luster-shines-with-sharp-wit-and-dark-humor

"Much is already known about the life of Queen Victoria, England's second-longest-reigning monarch (Queen Elizabeth II beat her record five years ago), who ruled over the British Empire from 1837 to 1901, ushering in a period of technological innovation, imperial expansion, and a flourishing of arts and culture. With her husband Prince Albert, she had nine children, all of whom married into royal families all around Europe, earning her the nickname, "the grandmother of Europe."

Two years later, Captain Frederick E. Forbes of the British Royal Navy arrived at the Dahomeyan royal court to negotiate the end of the Atlantic slave trade. The king refused to do so but instead offered up seven-year-old Omoba as a "gift." Fearing for her safety if left in the royal court, Forbes brought her back to England and renamed her Sara Forbes Bonetta. When the young girl met the queen, the monarch was so impressed by her intelligence that she adopted her as a goddaughter. The two enjoyed a close relationship until Bonetta's death, at age 37, from tuberculosis.

What isn't as widely known, however, is that Queen Victoria also had a goddaughter, a princess named Sara Forbes Bonetta. Bonetta, born Omoba Aina, was an Egbado princess from West Africa who was orphaned at the age of five during a war with the Kingdom of Dahomey, then captured and enslaved by its king.

Now, Bonetta's remarkable story will get the Hollywood treatment thanks to Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo, who will star in and produce the BBC film (Benedict Cumberbatch has also signed on as executive producer). According to Deadline, the biopic will portray Bonetta "as a strategic, determined heroine who found a way to embrace her Black-ness, her African-ness and to ultimately find love."-

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a34861326/cynthia-erivo-sara-forbes-bonnetta-queen-victoria-film/

Wangechi Mutu (born 1972) is a Kenyan-American visual artist known primarily for her painting, sculpture, film, and performance work. Born in Kenya, she has lived and established her career in New York for more than twenty years.  Mutu's work has directed the female body as subject through collage painting, immersive installation, and live and video performance all the while exploring questions of self-image, gender constructs, cultural trauma, and environmental destruction.

Wangechi Mutu observes: “Females carry the marks, language and nuances of their culture more than the male. Anything that is desired or despised is always placed on the female body.” Piecing together magazine imagery with painted surfaces and found materials, Mutu’s collages explore the split nature of cultural identity, referencing colonial history, fashion and contemporary African politics. In Adult Female Sexual Organs, Mutu uses a Victorian medical diagram as a base: an archetype of biased anthropology and sexual repression. The head is a caricatured mask – made of packing tape, its material makes reference to bandages, migration, and cheap ‘quick-fix’ solutions. Mutu portrays the inner and outer ideals of self with physical attributes clipped from lifestyle magazines: the woman’s face being a racial distortion, her mind occupied by a prototypical white model. Drawing from the aesthetics of traditional African crafts, Mutu engages in her own form of story telling; her works document the contemporary myth-making of endangered cultural heritage.

Quote from: Merrily Kerr, Wangechi Mutu's Extreme Makeovers, Art On Paper, Vol.8, No. 6, July/August 2004.