Franklynn Peterson
The Spring 2011 issue of the
Wisconsin Academy publication, Wisconsin People & Ideas, put Franklynn on the
cover and used a portion of the memoir he is near finishing to accompany an
essay built on his early photos done with the civil rights movement.
Click here to be taken to the Academy to order your own copy of the issue.
A reprint of it will not appear here until the Academy issue is out of print.
Fabu:
Black History Month offers amazing
glimpses
This February has been a month of snapshots, amazing glimpses of inspiring people and events.
February is a favorite month because of Carter G. Woodson, considered the father of black history. In 1926, he realized that America needed true pictures of the accomplishments of African-Americans, not false prejudices. He designed a week of activities that were snapshots of our contributions. That week grew into a month and now we have Black History Month or African-American History Month. I use the terms interchangeably because Black History Month includes folks from Africa and the diaspora, yet African-American History Month is the correct terminology.
What I love most is that these are 30 days where amazing glimpses of inspiring black people, culture, inventions and events are readily available through a variety of mediums. I always learn something new about myself and about African-American people and our place in this world.
February 2009 is particularly poignant because of the historic election of President Barack Obama. I was with hundreds of others at Monona Terrace watching his inauguration on the big screen and crying. I cried tears of joy. What made me happier still was that my friend Eugenia Brown and her son Nathaniel were in the crowd in Washington, D.C., and she had a photograph of me with them.
My January column focused on my North Carolina friend. I asked her if she would carry my photograph to the inauguration to enable me to be there with her in spirit since not in flesh. She sent me daily Internet photos as she traveled from place to place in Washington, D.C. I felt happy to have a friend who didn't just carry me in her pocket, but who held me up for all to see and then sent me the evidence via e-mail. These photos were a testimony to the love that we have for each other, and also that in this new millennium, friendships between races are not only possible but thriving.
Also in February I had the pleasure of meeting Franklynn Peterson, an author, journalist and photographer who worked on the Madison Obama campaign. We met to share our love and respect for one of the greatest heroines in the civil rights movement, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer. Mrs. Hamer's work within the Mississippi delegation and the Democratic Party led directly to federal protection for black voters living in the South. Her work along with that of other civil rights activists laid the early foundation for Obama's election. Peterson, a white from Wisconsin, bravely reported and documented the movement and knew Mrs. Hamer. I refer to her as Mrs. Hamer because in her lifetime, it was the norm that no African-American adult was given any title of respect. They were called by first names no matter their age or accomplishments.
Peterson placed in my hands intimate and engaging photographs of Mrs. Hamer and I felt the tears welling up. Since the first time I met Mrs. Hamer in print and photographs when I was a university student, I have loved her. It might sound odd to love someone because of their personal sacrifices and enduring determination to vote and have equal rights in America. I loved Mrs. Hamer, and seeing photographs of her in her kitchen, resting in her bed, holding a newborn baby and others made me feel blessed beyond measure. Peterson and I talked about her strength, her humor, her love of singing and I saw African-American history come alive in these gorgeous snap shots and in our conversation.
It is my dream to write a collection of poetry about Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer and her tremendous accomplishments in Ruleville, Miss. It is also my dream to attend the second inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2012, where I will take my own snapshots.
Fabu is a writer and educator and
Madison's poet laureate. She writes
a monthly column for The Capital
Times
Copyright 2009 Fabu. Fabu
photo by Jon Gramling.
Catalog entry and press release by ATHICA about Franklynn Peterson's prints in their exhibition:
CONSUMER CULTURE & ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS 9/13/08
Madison, WI photographer, author and journalist Franklynn Peterson also makes visible our daily encounter with a flood of consumer choices. At 70 years, and after a lifetime of political activism, his work is leavened by a healthy sense of humor. His lush, color-rich images of store displays and street sellers across the globe tickle us, even as they raise our consciousness. For instance in Cooking Rice Rice Rice (2005), no fewer than 16 electric rice cookers in a large Tokyo department store vie for shopper dollars. Peterson's close cropping implies an even larger selection continuing beyond the edges of the image. In the artist's commentary on this image, he notes that he "overheard some would be customers complaining that the features they really needed were no where to be found! Go figure."
Aflush with Choices (2005), utilizing similar cropping, deals quite literally with how we dispose of our crap, and the decadent ends to which some go to secure their physical comfort. In this "display of electronic add-on toilet seats in large Tokyo department store…the more deluxe models (upwards of $500 US) double as super-bidets able to direct temperature-controlled and pressure-controlled water toward the front or rear of the "seat," and then temperature controlled warm air toward the same locations. They also have remotes." These works beg us to consider how it is that we can create a marketplace that can support the development and manufacture of so much variety, and yet we have not been able to create a society that can take care of the basic needs of its populace.
Buy My Fresh Ikons (2007) exposes religion as equally as susceptible to capitalism's tilt toward overload. Peterson notes that this "Bulgarian peddler of ikons outside one of that country's largest Orthodox churches will assure you that each and every one of these is not only unique but authentic and iconic." Peterson's artist's statement warrants reprinting at length:
I fear that when the meek shall inherit the earth, it will be only because the earth, finally, is worthless. Maybe only then will we all be equally meek.
Until then—or even hopefully to prevent “then” from damaging the physical, social and spiritual life as once nourished us all—those of us who were singled out to act wisely must act wisely and creatively, eagerly and confidently. A dismal reality is that, now, creative writers along with creative artists and photographers have been left lonely to shoulder this onerous burden to show life as it is, truly, and as it could be, should be.
I submit my work as a humble offering toward fixing what needs fixing on this Earth and among the only people who will ever inhabit that Earth. It is the only earth we have been given to care for.
Lastly, Cuban Hotel Computer (2005), with its tellingly human details, such as the scrap tucked under a mouse, and the crude wooden block supporting the printer paper tray, speaks to our shared humanity, as we can all relate to the klugy real-world solutions that help us limp along, whether we reside in Camaguey or Athens.