My Process Writing

Looong story...but it's a good one :)

I came across the Black Arts Cultural Center when I went to the Art Hop of May. I went on a class trip with my Interrogating Contemporary Art course with Jessica Santone. We had to pick out an art work and write a review about it for our class website. One of the exhibits was the BACC gallery. I never knew that there was a BACC. I looked and enjoyed all the art, but I couldn’t focus and pick out details from them because our class had to keep moving and go to the next gallery. I didn’t like the fact that my whole trip to the Art Hop was very rushed because there was so much to see. So I decided to go back downtown on my own time, specifically to the BACC because it is not often that I hear of an African American organization in Kalamazoo other than the Black Student Organization in Kalamazoo College.

            That day I went back, Mrs. Jones came out of the back office and she welcomed me, asked me who was I and what interest I had in the center. I told her I was a student at K and I wanted to write an art review on one of the paintings. Right at that moment, a man walked into the BACC who Mrs. Jones introduced me to as Mr. James C. Palmore. She said he made the painting that was hanging out in the hallway in front of the BACC. I told him how I really enjoyed that painting during my first visit. It looked very realistic, it stood alone on a red-ish wall as a background. The background within the painting was black so it made the figures specifically pop out in their elegant white gowns, elaborate hairstyles and diamond, dangling earrings. Mr. Palmore explained the four women were a singing group called The Velevelettes. Their record label was Motown during the 1960s. Two of them still lived in Kalamazoo and did performances. Then, standing up for a good thirty to forty minutes he started telling me the whole history about the Velvelettes, Motown, how he came to do the portrait. All of it sounded so good! I got really excited and thought it would be a great idea to write an art review of the painting for my art class and write a profile on Mr. Palmore for my Narrative Journalism class. The assignment was not even introduced yet by then, but I didn’t want to let the opportunity slip away.

            We exchanged contact information and set up an appointment to meet and talk more about the painting. When we met the following week, Thursday, May 17^th at noon, we took a couple of chairs and sat in front of the painting in the hallway. He continued to talk about African American history, his career as an artist, and his artistic techniques. We met once again, this time it was an interview for the profile I wanted to write. During our interview he seemed to talk about the BACC history more than himself so I started getting more interested in the center itself.

            Right when I was having this thought as Mr. Palmore continued to talk, a tall, dark and very professionally dressed man walked through the doors and he introduced himself to me as Sidney Ellis. Mr. Palmore told me he was the executive director of the BACC and that I should talk to him. After the interview, Mr. Ellis had stepped out so Mrs. Jones gave me the number of the center to set up an appointment with Mr. Ellis.

            In our first interview, Mr. Ellis said a lot of great stuff, all within thirty minutes. His thoughts were gathered very well; it was naturally easy for him to talk about the center, and I really enjoyed that. I really got the sense of what the BACC is, its involvement within the community, and all the great work they do. But it kept bugging me that people didn’t seem to know that the BACC even existed, like me. So I wanted to know more why that is. And we couldn’t come up with an answer.

            When it came to writing the profile on the BACC, I realized all I had was a whole bunch of information. I couldn’t figure out how to write a narrative. I became really frustrated because the more I tried, the more it was just all very informational and objective. So I waited until our workshop to see what others thought should be the story. During the workshop, I was still really frustrated that I couldn’t figure it out, so I went into a mini rant about the BACC and what I thought that stood out to me the most. Right when I finished, my workshop group said, “Wow, that should be your story.” But I had no idea what I said. I had them repeat to me what I had said in order to re-collect my thoughts and take notes.

            When I went back to writing mode, I still couldn’t figure out a good narrative. And the thing that kept bugging was why is it that people don’t know about the BACC?! They do so much within the community, they put up annual events, they have different forms of media as advertisement, and they collaborate with so many other organizations that people are familiar with.

            But anyways, I didn’t actually believe that they were involved with the community until I actually saw it in front of my face; it was like a slap on the face. I bumped into Mr. Ellis on the Thursday morning, the day right before the Art Hop of June. I walked into the library to run and get a tape recorder because I was actually on my way to the BACC. I had sent an email to Mr. Ellis the night before to ask if we can meet again for follow up questions. I thought the center was going to be busy all day preparing for the Art Hop.

            But here I was, in our campus library, and Mr. Ellis was getting a lid for his Biggby’s coffee. I did a double-take head movement when I saw a tall, dark, very professionally dressed man wave hello to me. I was really surprised. I stopped to greet him and told him I was actually on my way to the BACC. He told me he came for a presentation an economics marketing class was going to have. I guessed it was a ten o’ clock class because it was 9:30 a.m.

            I accepted that we wouldn’t meet that day, but I went downtown to take the pictures for my audio slideshow.

            At first, I went through a lot of problems with creating this slideshow; my audio recordings were saved under windows format and Garageband on imac was not accepting it. So I decided to use Windows Movie Maker, which I thought was going to be a bad idea. But once I started playing with the program, I patiently figured everything out. I saw what the “divide” button did, so once I got the hang of that, I began to edit the recordings by cutting out parts I didn’t want. I had to listen to everything over and over again, and I experienced how time consuming this part of the project was going to be. So I was happy that I started at least a week before it was due and had went through all the problems I could possibly have in getting started.

            The audio slideshow was pretty fun to do. I saw the project as a game; I had to hit the divide button at the exact right moment to separate the fragment of recording and use the part that I wanted and delete what “ums” and pauses in between sentences. And this was specifically hard because I ended up using what I recorded the first time I interviewed Mr. Ellis for that half hour. He spit out a lot of great stuff so fast, it was really a game to divide the fragments because he hardly had any “ums” and pauses.

            While I was putting the audio slideshow together and listened to the audio over and over, I tried to figure out what my story should be. I had an idea of what should be included after workshop, but I still didn’t have a cohesive narrative.

            But then the thought came to me that it would be really cool for my final assignment to be about my experience of finding out who are the BACC, what do they do, where they are, who are involved, and so on. It kept frustrating me that they do so much, but for some reason, people didn’t seem to be paying attention to the actual center itself and the people who run it.

            Then finally I had a narrative. I mentioned when I first came across the center, what I was doing there, what interest I had in coming back. And then everything just unraveled from there. I thought that my encounter with Mr. Ellis at K was significant.

            I also actually bumped into one of Mr. Palmore’s paintings in the office of Student Accounts. My encounter with the painting was such a coincidence. I took a picture of it with Mr. Palmore’s signature for the audio slideshow.

            Going to the Art Hop on Friday, the day right after I bumped into Mr. Ellis was a good experience. I took the opportunity to ask people randomly if they had been into the BACC and see their show. One Caucasian woman said yes and she loved it. Three college students never heard of the BACC and they went to the second floor but didn’t think there was anything past the first exhibit on the hallway, which was completely ridiculous. I built up a lot of frustration because of that.

            Mr. Palmore was having a show of his own across the street from the Epic Center in the Midtown Gallery, and that was fun. I saw Mr. Palmore and he looked really happy with the audience; I took pictures of that too. And I asked an African American and another Caucasian about what they thought of the exhibit and if they went over to the BACC. Both said they truly enjoyed it so that was good.

            Then Mrs. Jones came into the gallery and she was very happy to see me. She said, “I usually don’t come out to the Art Hop. But I’m so glad I did! It’s amazing how creative one can be!” She was completely enjoying herself. I wanted to include what she said within the writing assignment, but I couldn’t go over the word count.

            There was a lot of stuff I wanted to add to the writing assignment. It would’ve been cool to have at least 1700 or 2000 words. But I’m content with what I have.

I’m happy I decided to include myself within the piece to walk my reader through my experience of learning about the BACC. And in doing that the reader would also ask themselves why they don’t know about the BACC if they do so much and advertise themselves in so many ways. Why is it that the BACC is not being recognized? The question still bugs me but I hope my readers get what was my intention in this project.

I want to thank the BACC for allowing me to have insight in what they are all about. It was a great experience, and I wish them the best. J

And, of course, I want to thank my professor, academic advisor, SIP advisor, and dear friend, Marin Heinritz for all of her support!

The Black Arts Cultural Center: A Building Community

Intended publication: The Index

Walking into the Black Arts Cultural Center in downtown Kalamazoo, I entered its gallery space for the first time, where African American artists displayed their artwork. It was the first Friday of May and the city’s monthly event, the Art Hop, brought in many visitors to the center.

I cruised around the gallery with my classmates of our Interrogating Contemporary Art course. Our professor had us attend the event and select an artwork to write an art review to publish on our class website. With over twenty people in the small gallery and bodies moving at a fast pace, I couldn’t observe the art for more than twenty seconds. Overwhelmed, I walked out with a promise to return another time. The Art Hop poster on the center’s glass window read “Open Hours, Weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.”

On my second visit to the BACC on the second floor of the Epic Center the following Tuesday, the center was completely empty. I noticed an office at the back I failed to see the first time.

The office has been occupied by the BACC’s executive director, Mr. Sidney Ellis, and the center’s receptionist, Mrs. Joan Jones for the past five years.

Mr. Ellis has been a volunteer of the BACC for twenty years before becoming the executive director.

“Because we are a part of the monthly Art Hop, there are a lot of people who know us for that. You have a group of people who are a little diverse who frequent the Art Hop,” Mr. Ellis said.

Since the center’s very first event in 1985, known as the Black Arts Festival, part of the goal of the BACC was to bring diversity within the Kalamazoo community through art.

The organization has worked to promote art by black artists and created and established a space for the African American community to interact and connect with other cultural communities within Kalamazoo.

“Art is essential to every culture. Art connects us in a variety of different ways yet essentially it shows us that universally we are all the same, we hate, we cry, we laugh and we love,” said Mr. Ellis.

I began to develop an interest on the BACC so I visited their website, www.blackartskalamazoo.org.

Under “What We Do” it read Art Exhibitions, Black Writers, Theatre, Community Linkage, and Yearly Special Events, including the Black Arts Festival. Their descriptions promoted education, art appreciation, community interactions, and opportunities for networking, career development, and success of African American artists of all ages.

“We are hoping to build bridges culturally within the community to create conversation and create an understanding. When you experience art from a different cultural perspective you can get an understanding of what that culture is,” said Mr. Ellis.

The BACC has provided art mentoring programs in elementary and high schools to encourage exhibitions within their facilities. The center also has collaborated with Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College.

I became more aware of the BACC’s collaboration with our college community as well. I saw Mr. Ellis one morning as I walked into the library. From Biggby’s, he greeted me with a smile and wave, professionally dressed in a full charcoal suit and soft pink dress-shirt.

Completely surprised with the encounter, I stopped to greet back and ask about his visit to our campus.

“I’m here for a presentation from the marketing class,” he said. During our next encounter at the BACC the following day, Mr. Ellis said the class presented how they would market the Black Arts Festival. They talked about how to utilize social media to advertise the event.

The BACC’s first Black Arts Festival (1985) was co-sponsored by the City of Kalamazoo Parks and Recreation Department who helped advertise the annual event.

The center also has been well advertised through different types of media: online website, flyers of on-going and up-coming programs and events, and posters. The Kalamazoo Gazette has contributed articles to the BACC, mostly promoting the Black Arts Festival since 1985.

“Although our name is out there and we’re doing things people don’t necessarily connect those things together always. They may see us out doing a program with some students at New Genesis or at the Douglas Community Association, and for some odd reason they don’t connect that with the BACC who they know run the Black Arts Festival,” Mr. Ellis said.

Executive director of Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, D. Neil Bremer, commented on the BACC.

“I think BACC is a critical organization that needs to find the way that it can thrive. It’s a small organization and Sid is an almost one man organization. It’s a struggle for the competing sense of priorities his group can have. It’s a struggle for them to reach their own African American audience in this town,” Mr. Bremer said.

On Friday, June 1^st, the Art Hop once again took place in the downtown area of Kalamazoo. I was excited to hear what visitors and members of the art community thought about the Black Arts Cultural Center.

Near the entrance of the Epic center on the strip of Kalamazoo Mall, I saw a woman in her forties with long blonde hair walking out with her two little daughters. When I stopped her to ask if she had entered the BACC during her evening out at the Art Hop, the woman gladly stated positive feedback of the center’s native feature of African American art.

A group of three college students went to the second floor of the Epic Center but didn’t think there was anything at the back end of the hallway.

Walking into the BACC, the gallery was occupied with handcrafted pieces on pedestals in the center of the room. Vibrant colored, gold paintings and wood-carved pieces hung on the walls.

“We have a good range of Art Hop people who consistently come. It’s going great. People are very much enjoying the art. Several people went out and brought people back with them,” Mr. Ellis said. 

My Audio Slideshow