Supper Club Fundraiser

Recess’s current Analog artist, Elia Alba, recently launched a fundraiser to help secure additional funds for a photo and book component of The Supper Club.  Learn more about Alba’s fundraiser here!

The book will ultimately contain 50 portraits of contemporary artists of color, which I will photograph. Each artist will have his or her own moniker as a way to define each figure within this community of exceptional creative voices. For example, LaToya Ruby Frazier is The Braddonian; Jacolby Satterwhite, The Body Electric; Brendan Fernandes, The Linguist; Rajkamal Kahlon, The Grotesque; Irvin Morazan is The Shaman; Angel Otero, The Romantic; Mickalene Thomas is The Female Gaze; Lorraine O’Grady is The Trailblazer.

More than just a book of beautiful images, The Supper Club is also about dialog and interactions amongst artists of color. Drawing inspiration from the supper clubs of the ’20s and ’30s that served as gathering places for artists, gangsters and the intellectual folk as well as the Algonquin Round Table, where the daily association amongst the writers led to exchange of ideas and opinions that enriched the world’s literary scene, Recess and Alba planned a series of private dinners, hosted by performance artist Wanda Ortiz, that the majority of the artists attended. These dinners brought together friends and colleagues in real conversations about art, life, race and politics. The dinners were held in late fall of 2012. The conversations were audio-taped and will be transcribed and published in the book. The dinners were a huge success! While they were private, one guest critic was invited to witness the exchange.