Tag: Nueva Luz

The New “New Light”

What seems like 2 years ago now (though in reality was just over a year ago), En Foco Executive Director Miriam Romais asked me to guest curate an issue of their magazine, Nueva Luz (New Light). En Foco is a non-profit, New York based organization that is devoted to the promotion of cultural diversity, something that I too hold dear. I was honored and excited to be asked and to get to pull together a group of photographers in a single issue of the magazine.

The topic that I decided to directly address, after lengthy discussions with Miriam and editor Daniel Schmeichler, was that of race. Not only did it seem important, from the standpoint of the mission of the magazine, but it also seemed timely in relation to the national dialogue that has been unfolding during this Presidential election cycle. I can’t count the number of truly fascinating blog-posts, articles, essays, personal accounts and interviews I’ve now seen over the past few months, openly talking about racism in America. Not only is racism a historically challenging issue for America, but it is still clearly present, in varying shades, and even more importantly, people are willing to talk about it more than ever! (See this and this. And if you haven’t seen/read Senator Obama’s speech on race, I encourage you to, regardless of your political leanings. It is, in my opinion, a sincere and brilliant presentation of a multitude of issues that dance around this subject.)

The magazine features four photographers—Hank Willis Thomas (the cover artist), Nontsikelelo Veleko, Sanaz Mazinani and Ian Ramirez—as well as a lengthy essay by me entitled, “Here Am I.” Without trying to condense the essay for this blog-entry, I will say that the notion of the fundamental unity of the human race is relatively new on the global scale that we now see it enjoyed (as are concepts like the basic equality of men and women, the notion of the right to education for all people, and let us not forget that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is less than 75 years old). By saying that I mean to indicate that these views are in direct opposition to long-held, deeply-seated worldviews that are now arcane sounding to many of us, but which linger in the not-too-distant recesses of the minds of much of humanity.

Race, when taken up as a topic, whether in an essay or a discussion among friends, is fraught with pitfalls. I have tried to avoid those, as best as possible, while attempting to offer a fresh, upbeat approach. The En Foco website is going to launch a blog specifically to promote a discussion about this issue of the magazine and the subject of race in general. I will contribute to that blog with, at the very least, the first entry. I’m going to hold off on posting any excerpts of the essay here until the magazine has a chance to launch itself out there in the world. But I look forward to broadening the discussion, both here on this blog and at the En Foco website in the near future. The more people talk with each other, across the cultural divisions we see out there, the better, in my opinion. (One last thought: “A kindly tongue is the lodestone of the hearts of men”—in other words, have conversations, not arguments.)

So, with that said, I’m encouraging everyone to pick up a copy of the magazine, which is just now coming out, and then hit the website when it’s launched (which I’ll announce here). You can order directly from Nueva Luz, you can (and hopefully will) subscribe, or you can find it at places like ICP’s Midtown bookstore (or other fine locales).

(below) Photographs by Nontsikelelo Veleko:

by Sanaz Mazinani:

by Ian Ramirez:

Tags: Nueva Luz
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