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Tuesday Open Thread: African-American Archaeologists

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Good Morning Obots! Today’s featured archaeologist:

Dr. Willie E. Dye
A native of Terrell, Texas, Willie E. Dye, Ph.D. has always had a curiosity and fascination with people and the world around him, showing a great interest in History and Geography since early childhood. That, combined with a love for God and humanity, as well as a burning quest for true knowledge, it is no surprise then that he is now in the field of Biblical Archaeology. He travels the world marveling at its wonders, studying and digging up evidence — from Greece to Mexico and points in between — which confirms the belief that a perfect design, indeed, requires a perfect Designer.
 
As a Biblical Archaeologist, he is among a select group of professionals worldwide. And as one of the few Black Biblical Archaeologists in the country, Dr. Dye is a popular lecturer, sharing not only with the Body of Christ, but with others, the awesomeness of God’s creations. 

 
He has taught archaeology for 30 years and has traveled to more than 43 countries around the world doing field work. Dr. Dye does travel study tours and he also works in the prisons, juvenile camps, private and public educational institutions, churches, clubs and various organizations, delving into the origins of life issues and records the fossils. He currently has archaeological projects in Israel, Mexico, South Africa, as well as working on vertebrae paleontology and ichnology in Glenrose, Texas at the Paluxy River Bed.
 
Dr. Dye is also a lecturing archaeologist for the Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, Texas and an area supervisor of the museum’s many archaeological digs. The museum itself holds vast evidence of a worldwide catastrophic event that destroyed humans and dinosaurs alike during the same time period.
 
He credits Dr. Richard Fales (renowned Biblical Archaeologist from Northridge, CA) with changing the course of his life by encouraging him to study archaeology, because there was such a need for it to be taught in churches, plus he had never met a Black archaeologist.
 
Dr. Dye continuously studys Biblical Archaeology at the University of Judaism. In addition, he has studied archaeology at UCLA, concentrating on Mayan Text, Mayan Sacred Text, the World of Rock Art, and Egypt After the Pyramids.

Tuesday Open Thread: African-American Shoe Designers

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Good Morning Obots!
*secret handshake*

Today’s featured designer: Natischa Harvey of Fever Shoes

At age 19, when most people are fresh out of high school and just beginning to enjoy their “adult” freedoms, Natischa Harvey was already making significant strides on a well-constructed path that was sure to lead to her dream life.  She was married to her high school sweetheart, who happened to be a professional athlete, and she was studying to become an attorney at Clark Atlanta University.  Needless to say, people close to her were completely shocked when she decided to take a job at Bakers during her sophomore year.
They questioned her sanity while she juggled her $6/hour evening shifts at the retail shoe store with her demanding political science classes during the day.  But Natischa had a plan.  There was a definite method behind the perceived madness, and the end result was Fever Shoes – a $1.5 million-and-growing brand that has firmly established Mrs. Harvey as a true contender in the highly competitive designer shoe industry.

Absolutely nothing came easy; she recalls feeling guilty for depleting her family’s savings to invest in her company and many nights working late and sleeping in her store – away from her husband and three children.  She even took a two-week trip to China alone to find a manufacturer for her shoes when none of her industry contacts provided the leads she had hoped for.

The sacrifices were monumental, but she says, without hesitation, that it was completely worth it. “I have worked my butt off for my company, and even when I felt like quitting I just kept going because I didn’t have another option” Natischa said.  “It was hard before I really started making money, when I was just breaking even, because my family was depending on me. I depleted our savings account, and I felt horrible.  But that only made me work 10 times harder, and today, every drop of blood, every drop of sweat and every tear was well worth it.”

In addition to providing uniquely chic designs to suit the myriad tastes and budgets of the everyday woman (current styles range from a sparkly wedged heel at $59.99 to funky, double-platformed stilettos priced at $250.00), Natischa has also seen her shoes grace the feet of some major celebrities, including Vivica A. Fox, Raven Symone and Christina Aguilera.  She actually credits her celeb clientele for giving her company its first real push into the mainstream.

Tuesday Open Thread: African-American Photographers

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Good Morning! We continue to take a look at renowned African-American Photographers.

GORDON PARKS

Gordon Parks was one of the seminal figures of twentieth century photography. A humanitarian with deep commitment to social justice, he left behind a body of work that documents many of the most important aspects of American culture from the early 1940s up until his death in 2006, with a focus on race relations, poverty, Civil Rights, and urban life. In addition, Parks was also a celebrated composer, author, and filmmaker who interacted with many of the most prominent people of his era—from politicians and artists to celebrities and athletes.

“It is an honor to preserve the work and legacy of Gordon Parks who was not only an American treasure but a friend,” said Peter Kunhardt, President of The Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation. “I am pleased that my father’s vast 19th collection and his best friend’s work will be preserved together.”
This is exactly what Gordon hoped for,” said Gene Young, his former wife and executor of his estate. “His work will be in good hands and we are all going to work hard to make it available for future generations.”

 

Born into poverty and segregation in Kansas in 1912, Parks was drawn to photography as a young man when he saw images of migrant workers published in a magazine. After buying a camera at a pawnshop, he taught himself how to use it and despite his lack of professional training, he found employment with the Farm Security Administration (F.S.A.), which was then chronicling the nation’s social conditions. Parks quickly developed a style that would make him one of the most celebrated photographers of his age, allowing him to break the color line in professional photography while creating remarkably expressive images that consistently explored the social and economic impact of racism.
When the F.S.A. closed in 1943, Parks became a freelance photographer, balancing work for fashion magazines with his passion for documenting humanitarian issues. His 1948 photo essay on the life of a Harlem gang leader won him widespread acclaim and a position as the first African American staff photographer and writer for Life Magazine, then by far the most prominent photojournalist publication in the world. Parks would remain at Life Magazine for two decades, chronicling subjects related to racism and poverty, as well as taking memorable pictures of celebrities and politicians (including Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and Stokely Carmichael). His most famous images, such as Emerging Man, 1952, and American Gothic, 1942, capture the essence of activism and humanitarianism in mid-twentieth century America and have become iconic images, defining their era for later generations. They also rallied support for the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, for which Parks himself was a tireless advocate as well as a documentarian.
Parks spent much of the last three decades of his life expanding his style, conducting experiments with color photography. He continued working up until his death in 2006, winning numerous awards, including the National Medal of Arts in 1988, and over fifty honorary doctorates. He was also a noted composer and author, and in 1969, became the first African American to write and direct a Hollywood feature film based on his bestselling novel The Learning Tree. This was followed in 1971 by the hugely successful motion picture Shaft. The core of his accomplishment, however, remains his photography the scope, quality, and enduring national significance of which is reflected throughout the Collection. According to Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Center at Harvard University, “Gordon Parks is the most important black photographer in the history of photojournalism. Long after the events that he photographed have been forgotten, his images will remain with us, testaments to the genius of his art, transcending time, place and subject matter.”
About “American Gothic” (above):
Parks moved from job to job, developing a freelance portrait and fashion photographer sideline. He began to chronicle the city’s South Side black ghetto and in 1941 an exhibition of those photographs won Parks a photography fellowship with the Farm Security Administration. Working as a trainee under Roy Stryker, Parks created one of his best known photographs, American Gothic, Washington, D.C. (named after the Grant Wood painting American Gothic). The photo shows a black woman, Ella Watson, who worked on the cleaning crew for the FSA building, standing stiffly in front of an American flag, a broom in one hand and a mop in the background. Parks had been inspired to create the picture after encountering repeated racism in restaurants and shops, following his arrival in Washington, D.C.. Upon viewing it, Stryker said that it was an indictment of America, and could get all of his photographers fired;he urged Parks to keep working with Watson, however, leading to a series of photos of her daily life. Parks, himself, said later that the first image was unsubtle and overdone; nonetheless, other commentators have argued that it drew strength from its polemical nature and its duality of victim and survivor, and so has affected far more people than his subsequent pictures of Watson.