Bud Biliken Parade… Through a Different Lens

Going to The Bud Biliken Parade in Bronzeville!

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BBP Check

I put up my sign for No Parking.√

I see the helicopter!

I have my sunglasses and a fun hat. √

I have just enough for a Sno-ball. √

Uh OH!…...

I hear the drums! 

I hear the drums!

I hear the drums!

I hear the drums!

I hear the Wobble music on a float! 

I hear helicopters!

I'm OUT! 

'Cause I'm going to the Bud Biliken Parade!

All photos by Aki Antonia c2016

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Before the Bud Biliken Parade …..in Bronzeville

It's early in the morning… and I'm catching the flow and the rhythm of folks coming to the Parade.  They're bringing their smiles and their HapPY to the one of the largest Parades in the country, in a celebration for Back to School, The Chicago Daily  Defender Newspaper holds an annual Bud Biliken Parade on Martin Luther King Drive in Bronzeville, Chicago. 

Bud Biliken 2014- BAB  Bronzeville Arts Blog

People come back home to Bronzeville from all over the city to catch one of the largest Parades in the nation.

There's an energy... a flow..  a smell … and a rhythm to Bud Biliken… 

I can hear the people walking and talking as they go to the parade…

Excited… anticipating finding that spot…and the smiles on the faces of kids… Priceless!

The smell of Bar-B-Q and hot links is wafting from the Chuck Wagon and other food grills. The Balloons are being blown up and the snowball stands are in place…. Next when I hear the drums I've  got to go!  See you at Bud Biliken…Bronzeville.

The Neighborhood guys….setting up shop at the site of the original Checkerboard Blues Club!

 Martin Luther King Drive awaits the drums of the Marching Bands, Floats and more! 

 The Forum stands in the light on Muddy Waters Drive!

Let's get it going. We're ready!!

 The new Mural Of Nat King Cole on 43rd and King Drive!
(Muddy Waters Drive and King Drive)

 Seats are now  available at Johnson College Prep!

 Getting ready for Bud Biliken on Muddy Waters Drive!

The Chuck Wagon is Back!

Jazz in Nu Bronzeville... at Norman's Bistro

Jazz in Nu Bronzeville...

I'm sipping on a cherry coke and listening as the lights and shadows play their own night music against the African Masks and raw brick backdrop at Norman's Bistro.

Ernest Khabeer Dawkins and the young musicians are swinging some straight ahead intense jazz. ..

Duke Ellington's Caravan and I Didn't Know What Time It Was ....segues into Footprints....with a bit of Chicago styled atonal bebop layers...

It's a super potent mix of retro-nuevo Jazz in Nu Bronzeville.

Ernest Kahbeer Dawkins's Jam Session on Sunday nights at Norman's Bistro in the bar is a cool musical flight... into some straight ahead intimate Jazz...with Nu Bronzevillian nuances!

Jazz in Nu Bronzeville...

Sketching on a groove...at the Sunday night the Open Jam Session with Ernest Khabeer Dawkins.

They were flowing through Footprints...Mr P.C.. A minor Blues and a ballad or 2...

So relaxed, musical and audience friendly...

Tonight's set included on piano: Niles Tate, bass: Mike Lough, drums: Isaiah Spencer, and on trumpet: Ben There was also a vibraphone player who sat in earlier.

Ernest Khabeer Dawkins...caught in the light and shadows as he heads up the open Jam session at Norman's Bistro on Sunday Nights.

All photos and Sketch art by

©

Aki Antonia

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The Blues! From Bronzeville........... to the White House:The People's House

The Checkerboard Lounge

"Home of The Blues"

423 East 43rd St - Chicago - Bronzeville

Black Age XII -The Black Age of Comics Convention! Oct 9-11

The Black Age

is the Indie-Alternative!

One of Bronzeville's most futuristic visionary artists...

Rhythmistic artist and creator of the The Black Age of Comics, Turtel Onli and Onli Studios will host the 12th Black Age of Comics Convention at during Chicago's Artist month on Oct 9-11th, 2009 in Chicago.

Onli coined the term, "The Black Age of Comics" to identify it as a genre of creative works that are derived from the Black or African experience in an indie-alternative manner.

BLACK AGE XII will take place in the Hyde Park area of Chicago which is the home of President Obama, along with being the birthplace of the Black Age movement.

The world's first Black Age of Comics Convention was given at the historic Southside Community Art Center in the the Bronzeville area of Chicago in 1993.

It featured illustrators-artists, Craig Rex Perry, Tim Jackson, Turtel Onli, & writer, Cassandra Washington. There are are now four conventions nationwide.

The other three conventions include ECBACC (East Coast Black Age of Comics Con, the Detroit Black Age of Comics Con and the most recent, Onxycon held in Atlanta in the summer of 2009.)

The Black Age is the Indie-Alternative!

Kenwood Academy HS

5015 S. Blackstone Ave

Hyde Park, Chicago,
Admission:

$5.00 Adults $2.00 Kids
Program:

Oct. 9th,2009

Eric Battle, that Black Age great and illustrator for DC Comic's Spectre and Batman along with other amazing projects will be signing his books and kickin' it with fans, collectors, students, and everybody else at the Graham Crackers Mega Comic Book Store at 77 East Madison Ave in downtown Chicago.

Later that day, Eric will be at the First Aid Comic Book Store in Hyde Park.

The next day, he will be featured in workshops at the Black Age Convention site at the Kenwood location from 9:30am to 4:30pm.

Oct. 10th, 2009

BLACK AGE XII will be at the Kenwood location as listed above.

It will feature Doc & the INTER-FAN crew doing a presentation on the late legendary Black Age Underground Comix master creator and innovator,

Grass Green.

They will also be holding it down for the radical indie-alternative comic book crowd.

There will be an indie video competition and a viewing of the first ONYX CON DVD from Atlanta and the Chicago Comic Con this past summer. www.inter-fan.org

Onli will present a "State of the Black Age" lecture followed with a Q&A session. www.onlistudios.com

Fans and collectors will be able to buy directly from the indie publishers and artists on hand. Students, educators, and emerging professionals will find this group of creative folks very inspiring.

Oct. 11th, 2009

Signings will be scheduled at Afri-ware and the Azizi book stores. TBA

At the Black Age Xll, expect to meet vendors, indie-publishers, artists, & writers including Ashley A. Woods, Barbara Jenkins, LaMorris Richmond, Tim Jackson, Eric Battle, N. Steven Harris, Juan Arevalo, Raymond Leonard, Moe, Nino Meserina, Joe Currie, Spicey, Terry Huddleston, Yaound' Olu, Mike Smith, Punkin, Ernest Posey, Rod Jenkins. Robert Boyd, Kim Moseberry, Onli.......and many more!

The University of Chicago's radio station WHPK will be on site to interview fans, vendors, artists, and writers to get their spin on the Black Age movement.

Vendor Info : Contact ONLI STUDIOS at onli@sbcglobal.net while they last!!!!

Lodging nearby: Ramada Lakeshore 773-288-5800
International House of Chicago ( U of C campus ) 773-753-2270

Pearl Fest in Bronzeville

Dianne Reeves, Lala Hathaway & Nona Hendryx!

rocked out the Little Black Pearl Fest Sunday, Aug 23, 2009.

the truth will set u free!...

Nona Hendryx ripping through her set.

The festival was held at Mandrake Park on 39th and Ellis in Bronzeville.

The festival was amazing and inspiring and the audience enjoyed the concert being right home in the neighborhood. Little Black Pearl is an arts education organization located in the Kenwood-Oakland neighborhood in Chicago.

All photos and video slide show by Aki Antonia c2009.

All rights reserved. Pop the trunk! (Click to enlarge)

Bud Biliken '09!

All photos by Aki Antonia c 2009

Bud Biliken '09 was all in the mix

with Chicago House music thumping!

Drill teams pumping!

Double-dutch jumping!

Dance Crews bumping!

To enlarge pop the trunk! (Click)

Speaking 'bout the Blues..Lefty Dizz took me 2 School

Blues In the Night - The Lefty Dizz Interview - by Aki Antonia
Jam Sessions Magazine

Never used 2 really like the Blues. Thought they were 2 depressing.

All the songs sounded the same and it seemed like they were

all played in one key.

But what did I know? 

I had never really listened 2 my own Blues inside.

Had tuned them out...

Had never really played the blues...

Had never really paid no dues...

Never really used to understand the Blues until I had the opportunity 2 interview Bluesman, Lefty Dizz for an article on the Blues in Jam Sessions Magazine.

He told me... one day the Blues was gonna sneak up on me and seep into my soul. Then I would really know how to play the Blues...

Then I would know how 2 play a solo that ment something. 

Not just a bunch a notes played up against the right chords...

but a feeling.

He said the Blues is a feeling...

by Aki Antonia

(click to enlarge photo)

He talked about how he had sat with a young left handed guitarist named Jimi Hendrix and taught him a few things on the guitar..... Told me about how he would reverse his thinking 2 get low down and dirty on the left hand....

I got a chance to play with Dizz on a gig or two. Got the opportunity 2 jam with him and a guitarist friend, Dale Williams right there at the Checkerboard. What a joy! We were playin' the blues that night! He taught me 2 feel my way through. "Have a conversation with your melody. Make yo melody talk! He played me some examples all left handed and crazy.....

I swear the lines sounded just like English!

I learned 2 play my own blues.. to tell my own stories and 2 bend the notes in between...Bamp! bampr! Bamp! Bamp!

Why u come home so late baby?

U might as well stay out all night long!

Why--aiiiii U stay out so late baby?!

U might as well stay out all night long.

Next time the sun catch u crying.

U gon' find out that I am gone."

AA lyrics c 2008

LC and Buddy Guy speak about the Checkerboard Lounge

Baby I'm Going Down to the Checkerboard! 

Jam Sessions Interview

by Aki Antonia

I used to go in the Checkerboard on 43rd St. when Lefty Dizz was playing.

Yes, I remember Jr. Wells and Johnny Dollar would be hanging out and..........

Buddy Guy was always around lighting up the room with his big smile and his big sound.

One night in 1981.... the Rolling Stones... Lefty Dizz and Muddy Waters rolled into the Checkerboard and this is a little something from that night....

I was there! And they played the blues that night!

With Muddy in the House, class was over!

Yes, yes, yes!

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