A special thing happened after Monday’s Office Hours. Julia Mallory, brilliant artist, mermaid, poet, and scholar who I’ve had the pleasure of being in proximity to the last few years, shared a gorgeous animation she created.
Press for Freedom: A Collage History of Data Portrait No. 60 brings the history of the Black Press, the design and aesthetic strategy of early Black journalists and activists, and the data portraiture of the nineteenth century into relation together.
I love this animation so much! I am deeply obsessed with the data portraits era, shout out to Britt Rusert and Whitney Battle-Baptiste who published a new edited compilation of W. E. B. DuBois’s data portraits a few years ago and Brittney Cooper who is thinking through data and making over in her Rage Lab at Rutgers University.
And in this moment, when journalists are under pressure and attack, the evolution of on the Black Press in a moment of arson, lynchings, and physical assault unto and including death deserves special attention. Thank you to my colleague Kim Gallon, founder and director of the Black Press Research Collective for all of her work, and the work of others, bringing this history to life!
Thank you Julia for hanging out with me at the kitchen table!!!! I appreciate you so much!
Enjoy the animation and follow Julia Mallory on IG.
