Comments on: TV Land Celebrates Black History Month with A Salute to AfriCOBRA http://www.hollywoodyesterday.com/tv-land-celebrates-black-history-month-with-a-salute-to-africobra/ James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Lucy, Rita... Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:29:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Michael Brinson http://www.hollywoodyesterday.com/tv-land-celebrates-black-history-month-with-a-salute-to-africobra/comment-page-1/#comment-102068 Michael Brinson Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:17:07 +0000 http://www.hollywoodyesterday.com/?p=834#comment-102068 I think that it is wonderful that TV Land will celebrate Black History Month with a salute to the visual arts group, AfriCOBRA. The recognition of their contribution to the African American community and American art is long overdue. However, I am disappointed that only some of the AfriCOBRA artists were mentioned in the promo article. Hopefully, they all will be mentioned in one of the TV spots that will air during February. AfriCOBRA (or COBRA at that time) had 5 founding members. The seventh member to join was an artist named Nelson Stevens who is still an active member of AfriCOBRA to this day. According to Robert L Douglas (author of Wadsworth Jarrell, The Artist as Revolutionary), Nelson was responsible for the concept of “Shine” mentioned in one of the promo articles. This concept later became the AfriCOBRA aesthetic principle of “Luminosity.” Many would consider Nelson’s omission from any AfriCOBRA salute to be odd, at best. I mentioned this to illustrate how all AfriCOBRA members, past and present, contributed in some way to the legacy of the group. And, there are other examples of this that could be cited. The AfriCOBRA artists omitted from the promo article include Nelson Stevens (joined in 1968), Omar Lama (joined in 1969), Sherman Beck (joined in 1969), Frank Smith (joined in 1972), James Phillips (joined in 1973), Adger Cowans (joined in 1978), Akili Ron Anderson, (joined in 1979), Kevin Cole (joined in 2006) and the late Dr. Murray Depillars (joined in 1980). I can understand if TV Land does not have the time or resources to highlight the contributions of all the past and present AfriCOBRA members. But unless these notable artists have declined to be included in the TV Land salute, they deserve at the very least to be mentioned. I think that it is wonderful that TV Land will celebrate Black History Month with a salute to the visual arts group, AfriCOBRA. The recognition of their contribution to the African American community and American art is long overdue. However, I am disappointed that only some of the AfriCOBRA artists were mentioned in the promo article. Hopefully, they all will be mentioned in one of the TV spots that will air during February.

AfriCOBRA (or COBRA at that time) had 5 founding members. The seventh member to join was an artist named Nelson Stevens who is still an active member of AfriCOBRA to this day. According to Robert L Douglas (author of Wadsworth Jarrell, The Artist as Revolutionary), Nelson was responsible for the concept of “Shine” mentioned in one of the promo articles. This concept later became the AfriCOBRA aesthetic principle of “Luminosity.” Many would consider Nelson’s omission from any AfriCOBRA salute to be odd, at best. I mentioned this to illustrate how all AfriCOBRA members, past and present, contributed in some way to the legacy of the group. And, there are other examples of this that could be cited.

The AfriCOBRA artists omitted from the promo article include Nelson Stevens (joined in 1968), Omar Lama (joined in 1969), Sherman Beck (joined in 1969), Frank Smith (joined in 1972), James Phillips (joined in 1973), Adger Cowans (joined in 1978), Akili Ron Anderson, (joined in 1979), Kevin Cole (joined in 2006) and the late Dr. Murray Depillars (joined in 1980). I can understand if TV Land does not have the time or resources to highlight the contributions of all the past and present AfriCOBRA members. But unless these notable artists have declined to be included in the TV Land salute, they deserve at the very least to be mentioned.

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