Detroit artist Sabrina Nelson says that during a trip to Paris in 2016, she met the spirit of James Baldwin.
Since then, she has become deeply acquainted with the iconic writer and activist, and has drawn him over 100 times. She often does it from memory, and at this point, she says she could easily do it with her eyes closed.
Currently, dozens of unique pieces — sketchbook drawings, detailed works on canvas, projected videos, collaborations with poets, and augmented reality experiences — are on display at Detroit’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
The show, titled Frontline Prophet: James Baldwin, is curated by long-time creative collaborators of Nelson, Ashara Ekundayo, and Omo Misha.
Since debuting in Baldwin’s birthplace of Harlem, New York in August 2023, the collection has traveled to New Orleans, Oakland, and Chicago before arriving in Nelson’s hometown of Detroit on Baldwin’s 100th birthday — August 2, 2024.
The journey to get here, however, has been a long one.
Around eight years ago, Nelson was invited by Detroit’s poet laureate jessica Care moore to create drawings of Baldwin at the International James Baldwin Conference in Paris.
She had no idea how big of an impact the trip would have.
“I learned so much, and spiritually, I feel like [Baldwin] tapped me on the shoulder,” Nelson says. “When I started drawing his image, I felt something physically and spiritually that I had never felt before, and I just kind of left it there in Paris.”
Back in Detroit, when #Inktober came around in October — challenging artists to draw the same subject for 31 days — Nelson decided to join in on the fun with her students. She chose Baldwin as her muse, and instead of drawing him for just a month, she went on for 91 days.
“I could draw from reference in the beginning, but now if I sit down and just do a quick gesture of Baldwin, I know the essence of his eyes, his mouth, the gap in his tooth, the hair, the coiliness of the kinky hair, and I think about his brilliance and how to draw that,” Nelson says. “I know a lot of people can draw his likeness in the reality of realism, but to be able to have the essence of him in all of his colors and all of his layers, I think I got that.”
The artist describes Baldwin’s “essence” as layered, intellectual, sharp, loving, family-oriented, and overall “super fly.” She also calls the writer, in an effort to describe him to young people, “the Kendrick Lamar of his time.”
“He’s not limited to one dimension,” Nelson says. “He was a man who grappled with his identity, who grappled with what it is to be an American, who grappled with what it is to be a Black American in this country, what it is to be a gay Black man, what it is to be a writer, a son of this country who didn’t treat him well. I just think many of us are like that, and we can identify with what he went through.”
She adds, “This work is really talking about remixing him, if you will, bringing him back. I am just doing the work as the messenger.”
At the local exhibit, viewers are able to bring Baldwin to life through the Black Terminus AR app. Holding a phone camera over art pieces on the wall prompts Baldwin’s voice and moving pictures for a modern multi-sensory experience.
The title of the show, Frontline Prophet, was thought up by Ekundayo, a Detroit- and Oakland-based curator who founded the international platform Artist as First Responder.
To Nelson, the name is fitting.
“Thinking about the Civil Rights Movement where you had to use your platform for people to pay attention to things that were happening, James Baldwin was a first responder, and he was an active, active activist,” Nelson says. “He wasn’t writing behind the scenes. He was there. He did his own research. He asked, went on the streets, and asked people what was happening and what could we do about it, so it wasn’t just somebody who saw what was happening, but someone who came up with a plan to address it. He was a doer. He was definitely a maverick and definitely a prophet.”
Describing herself and the show’s curators as “Detroit daughters,” Nelson is very proud, emotional, and ecstatic that the collection of work is finally being displayed in her hometown.
“It was worth the journey of the five cities before I got here,” Nelson says. “It’s just been a long journey coming, but to celebrate his 100th birthday is such a beautiful thing here in Detroit. He came here. He had a lover here. He had a place that he called his home here, and so we have a small piece of Baldwin in our community, and it’s nice to just bring that small piece back home.”
Over the coming months, events surrounding the exhibit will happen at The Wright and other spaces throughout the city. In conjunction with the show, Nelson plans to place tiny libraries in multiple Detroit neighborhoods, host events at local coffee shops and high schools, and hold a reading at Liquor Basket Gratiot — the art gallery inside a liquor store on the city’s east side.
The artist wants her work to be accessible to everyone. “Planting seeds” in those that come after her, through teaching and inspiring, is as important to Nelson as displaying her work.
“In my practice of art, I’m not just thinking about the physical pieces, the journey that I am on, I am taking folks with me. I am lifting folks up,” Nelson says. “I am celebrating those who are around me and who also influence and teach me. I think I’m very layered, very much like James Baldwin.”
For more information on Nelson and the exhibit, plus updates about events surrounding the show, visit thewright.org.
Location Details
