Icons and Ancestors: Black Men in the Arts
from the Lens of
Susan J. Ross
from the Lens of
Susan J. Ross
Sidney Poitier (February 20, 1927 - January 6, 2022) was a Bahamian actor, director, and producer who broke the color barrier in the U.S. motion picture industry by becoming the first African American to win an Academy Award for best actor for Lilies of the Field, 1963.
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is a film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. Lee has won numerous accolades for his work. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (January 5, 1938- May 28, 2025) was a celebrated Kenyan novelist, playwright, essayist, and academic. Known for groundbreaking works like Weep Not, Child, The River Between, and Decolonising the Mind, Ngũgĩ used literature as a tool of liberation.
August Wilson (April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an acclaimed playwright. Wilson's works, including "Fences" and "The Piano Lesson," have received numerous awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama.
Dwight Douglas Andrews is a musical theorist, composer and minister. As the Yale Repertory’s resident music director, Andrews composed the original musical scores for most of the August Wilson Broadway productions.
Wole Soyinka, born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, is a renowned playwright, poet, and political activist, and the first African laureate to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. He is widely regarded as one of Africa's greatest writers and one of the world's most important dramatists.
Hugh Ramapolo Masekela
(April 4, 1939 – January 23, 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for writing well-known anti-apartheid songs.
(April 4, 1939 – January 23, 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for writing well-known anti-apartheid songs.
Pharoah S. Sanders (1940-1994) Pharoah is a well-known jazz saxophonist and pioneer of “free jazz”. His most notable work is his collaborations with Sun Ra and John Coltrane, but his solo works span over five decades.
Joseph (Joe) Jennings jazz saxophonist, educator, and band leader, was born in Natchez, Mississippi. He has been listed as a notable jazz musician, educator by Marquis Who's Who. His awards include the International Association of Jazz Educators Outstanding Service Award 1987.
James Baldwin (August 2, 1924 - December 1, 1987) was an essayist, novelist, and playwright whose eloquence and passion on the subject of race in America made him one of the most important voices of the 20th century.
Amiri Baraka born Everett Leroy Jones; (October 7, 1934–January 9, 2014) was an award-winning playwright, poet, critic, educator, and activist. Among his many accomplishments, he was an architect of the Black Arts Movement.
Haki Madhubuti is an author, publisher, and teacher who is best known for his poetry. In 1967 Lee founded, with Carolyn M. Rodgers and Jewel C. Latimore (later known as Johari Amini), Third World Press.
Jim Alexander is a documentary photographer, photojournalist, activist, and teacher who is best known for being a "Participant Observer" and his photographs of human rights and black culture. In 1995, he was the first artist selected in the annual "Master Artist" program conducted by the City of Atlanta Department of Cultural Affairs. He would later be inducted into The HistoryMakers in 2006.
Radcliffe Bailey (November 25, 1968 – November 14, 2023) was a contemporary visual artist noted for mixed-media, paint, and sculpture works that explore African American history. His large-scale installation Windward Coast (2009–2011) was presented as part of the First International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Cartagena de Indias in Colombia.
Radcliffe Bailey (November 25, 1968 – November 14, 2023) was a contemporary visual artist noted for mixed-media, paint, and sculpture works that explore African American history. His large-scale installation Windward Coast (2009–2011) was presented as part of the First International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Cartagena de Indias in Colombia.
Michael Simanga is an activist cultural worker, artist and scholar in African American art and culture. He has written, edited and published fiction, poetry, drama, essays and memoirs about the African American experience.
Kenny Leon is a director and actor. He is notable for his extensive work on Broadway and television as well as in regional theater. He has received a Tony Award and a Drama League Award as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Drama Desk Award.
Kenny Leon is a director and actor. He is notable for his extensive work on Broadway and television as well as in regional theater. He has received a Tony Award and a Drama League Award as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Drama Desk Award.
After retiring from the City of Atlanta after 36 years, Susan J. “Sue” Ross now pursues her passion for documentary and fine art photography full-time as the PhotoGriot, Atlanta’s photo- cultural historian. Sue managed the City’s Small Business Development Program, while serving as the unofficial city photographer over the administrations of the first six African-American Mayors. She is a founding member of Sistagraphy: the collective of African-American Women Photographers. Sue has exhibited her photography widely since 1985 with Zone III, Sistagraphy, African-Americans for the Arts (A-AFTA) and many others.
She has received numerous accolades, honors and awards for her work, too extensive to list here. We pick up the list in 2023.
She has received numerous accolades, honors and awards for her work, too extensive to list here. We pick up the list in 2023.
- The National Black Arts Festival honored Sue Ross, Camille Love & Alice Lovelace as “Champion for the Arts” In 2023.
- The Atlanta Journal Constitution honored Sue with a feature article and video during Black History Month 2024.
- Congresswoman Nikema Williams presented a Congressional Proclamation to Sue.
- She was inducted into the 2024 Class of The Historymakers.
- In November, Sue was an honoree at the 2024 Presidential Lifetime Achievement Awards for her artistic excellence and community service.
- In late 2023, Sue and Jim Alexander had a retrospective exhibit. PARALLEL PERSPECTIVES at the Path Museum in Buckhead.
- In 2024, Sue and Jim Alexander’s exhibit A PHOENIX REBORN was in the Mayor’s Gallery at Atlanta City Hall celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the election and legacy of Atlanta’s first Black Mayor Maynard Jackson.
- Their Jackson legacy photos were also featured at the Alliance Theatre production of Pearl Cleage’s latest play “Something Moving: A Meditation on Maynard.”
- Recently Sue’s work was featured in the Darnell Aviation Museum exhibits Empower HER and the 10th Anniversary exhibit A Decade of Creativity at the Emma Darnell Aviation Museum and Conference Center
- The exhibits are currently in the AAFTA exhibit at Callanwolde.
- Sue’s permanent exhibit on civil rights leaders - Stayed On Freedom can be seen at the Georgia Stand-Up Movement Center.
- She has been honored as one of 6 Atlanta Icons in MARRYAM MOMA’s public art installation ICONoclasts on Auburn Avenue.