Howard Common is the limited-edition print publication by Grace Wales Bonner in honor of the legacy of Howard College, a highly-renowned HBCU (Traditionally Black School & College) in Washington DC. With archival imagery, alumni reflections, and pupil submissions, Wales Bonner’s analysis venture weaves a portrait that bridges the current and previous of the historic establishment.
Sharing extra in an announcement, Wales Bonner stated “At Howard College I felt the presence of a powerful mental lineage, one I had lengthy been drawn to from afar. Writers, artists, poets, collectively on the hilltop. The campus as haven, as a shining reflection of black gentle. This tribute to the lineage reveals the phenomenon of on a regular basis expression. The gesture of the coed with eyes on the horizon, the gown of the instructor returning to information, the traces of fashion as my approach right into a particular historical past.”
Pictures from the college’s yearbook archive courting from 1947 to 2011 are offered alongside current photos documented on campus by D’Andre Williams. The roster of collaborators and particular options is in depth with an affidavit from musical artist Laraaji, works submitted by cinematographer Bradford Younger and stylist Marcus Paul, and reprints from late writer Toni Morrison. The whole lot of the venture’s contents had been designed into the e book by the founding father of Crimson Lebanese Publishing Home Pablo Jomaron.
The publication’s archival sensibilities recall Wales Bonner’s latest FW25 assortment which featured pictures from The Black Picture Company by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates. With a choice of photos from the Johnson Publishing Firm, the gathering honors Black ladies’s contributions to world tradition with particular half-tone graphics. Earlier in 2024, the designer additionally paid homage to the house of hip-hop together with her adidas Originals FW24 assortment, which was shot in Harlem, New York Metropolis.
Howard Common is being distributed free of charge on the Howard College Campus in Washington D.C., the Schomburg Middle for Analysis in Black Tradition in New York, For Retains Books in Atlanta, Reference Level Library in London, and the Stuart Corridor Library in London.
