1001 Black Men

8rock.com

“I started the 1001 Black Men online sketchbook project in the summer of 2010. Over the next six and a half years, I created and posted portraits of 1001 of the Black men I encountered in my travels, in my local community, and in my daily life. 

Now, 1001 Black Men is a book. Published by Stacked Deck Press, 1001 Black Men: Portraits of Masculinity at the Intersections combines portraits from the series with writings by and interviews with some of the most interesting Black male poets, authors, and activists of our time. The result is a snapshot of the African American community as understood through a diverse array of images and voices of Black men.”

This large-format hardcover book is available for $47.95, from  Stacked Deck Press

Get yours today!

Ajuan Mance

I’ve been following her since the first time I saw her Black men, her portraits of who we be. I love her work. It captures who we are, and what we look like. Her 1001 Black Men may be the best art book I’ve ever bought. Buy the book.

Black Men Rise Revisited

Like the sun and the tide
Black Men Rise

Like the thing in you throat
the thoughts in your head
Black Men Rise

Though lies get us
lynched and castrated
denigrated and incarcerated
Black Men Rise

Though we take a knee
we do not bow
but raise Olympian fists
Black Men Rise

Though daily
taken off the count
through loss of liberty
and life
though we bleed
and die
as often as others
so we can all be free
we wait for a plate
and a seat
while others now get to sit
and eat

pressure on the wound
is no more than a finger in the leak
The damn will break
the land will flood
crops will be lost
and cows will drown

not still
but still
water runs deep

Black Men Rise

Dear Humanity; Black Men Rise

#BlackMenRise

Handstands & Other Feats by C. Z. Vasser

Current Obsessions

Never that
to be obsessed
to love more than bearable
to live on the air inside a bubble
no never that

Speedballs
beyond skin pops
a warm groin sensation
spreads to your fingertips
never a monkey boy

Junk
in a nightstand
a one night stand
stand on one leg
to perform handstands

Current obsessions tend toward
shimmery purple dusk
when creatures come
in their palms coins
offered as sacrifice

Sometimes there is
a sad man
waiting for a trollop
to be a lollipop
with a big pink bubble of gum