Ajuan Mance

Last updated
Ajuan Mance
Born
South Carolina, United States
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Brown University, University of Michigan
Known for1001 Black Men
Website ajuanmance.com

Ajuan Maria Mance is an American visual artist, author, editor, and a professor of Ethnic Studies and English at Mills College in Oakland, California. [1] She created the portrait series 1001 Black Men.

Contents

Early life and education

Mance was born in Daytona Beach, Florida. Her family moved north to Long Island, New York where she spent most of her formative years. Her parents were both educators. [2] [3] She holds a B.A. from Brown University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. [1]

Academic career

Ajuan Mance was an assistant professor of English at the University of Oregon from 1995 to 1999. She then joined Mills College faculty in 1999 as an assistant professor of English and in 2005 became an associate professor of English and the Wert Chair in American Literature. In 2008, she was appointed the Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Chair in American Literature. [4]

Through her teaching and scholarship, Mance focuses on history and Black literature in the United States. [4] Her scholarly publications include three books: Inventing Black Women: African American Women Poets and Self-Representation, 1877-2000, [5] Proud legacy: The "colored" schools of Malvern, Arkansas and the community that made them, [6] and Before Harlem: An anthology of African-American literature from the long nineteenth century. [7]

Artistic career

Mance's art complements her scholarship in exploring similar themes of race, gender, identity, and history. She may be best known as the creator of the portrait series 1001 Black Men. [8] [9] [10] She is the creator of a number of zines [11] including Gender Studies, The Little Book of Big, Black Bears, and A Blues for Black Santa. [12] "The Ancestors' Jubilee" series was exhibited at The Black Women is God 2017 exhibition, which celebrated and highlighted "the contributions of Black women as artists, healers and social change-makers throughout history." [13]

Mance says her comics-inspired style is intended to make her "art as accessible as possible" [14] and is based on stained glass: "When I first started drawing I thought, I’m gonna do this like stained glass. I’m going to have a heavy black line, very few planes, with a very limited color palette and different shades of the same color, but still evocative. So people say, 'Oh, this is like Picasso, or an African mask…' and all of that is true, but what I was really thinking about? I was thinking a lot about stained glass." [9]

Mance was a judge for Prism Comics and Queer Comics Expo's Inaugural Prism Awards for representations of LGBTQAI+ characters in comics. [15]

In 2024, Mance published a graphic memoir, Gender Studies: True Confessions of an Accidental Outlaw. [16]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Ajuan Mance | Mills College". www.mills.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  2. ↑ Mance, Ajuan (2017-01-06). "1001 BLACK MEN". 8-rock.com. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  3. ↑ "An Oakland artist drew 1,001 portraits of black men". SFGate. Retrieved 2018-03-09.
  4. 1 2 "Ajuan M Mance Curriculum Vitae | Mills College". www.mills.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  5. ↑ Mance, Ajuan Maria (2007). Inventing black women : African American women poets and self-representation, 1877-2000 (1st ed.). Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN   978-1-57233-492-2. OCLC   74492099.
  6. ↑ Mance, Ajuan Maria (2013). Proud legacy : the "colored" schools of Malvern, Arkansas and the community that made them (2nd ed.). Malvern, Arkansas: Henson Benson Foundation. ISBN   978-0-9858106-1-0. OCLC   1002849618.
  7. ↑ Mance, Ajuan Maria (2016). Before Harlem : an anthology of African American literature from the long nineteenth century (1st ed.). Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN   978-1-62190-203-4. OCLC   1102638910.
  8. ↑ "Spotlight on Ajuan Mance | Prism Comics". www.prismcomics.org. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  9. 1 2 Visser, Deirdre. "Interview with Ajuan Mance: 1001 Black Men". California Institute of Integral Studies. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  10. ↑ Sarah, Lakshmi (20 July 2017). "How Drawing 1001 Black Men Helped an Artist to See".
  11. ↑ "Traveling Cartoonist-In-Residence Ajuan Mance". Fort Mason Arts Center for Arts & Culture.
  12. ↑ "Ajuan Mance Artist's Talk @Central CMR". Berkeley Public Library. June 17, 2017. Archived from the original on August 15, 2017.
  13. ↑ The Black Women is God: Divine Revolution (Artist Information Packet) (PDF). SomaArts. 2017. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-15. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
  14. ↑ Sloan, Louise (February 2017). "1001 Black Men". Brown Alumni Magazine.
  15. ↑ "First Annual Prism Awards Judges and Finalists Announced | Prism Comics". www.prismcomics.org. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
  16. ↑ Moreno, Laura (January 11, 2025). "Ajuan Mance's 'Gender Studies: True Confessions of an Accidental Outlaw'". Bay Area Reporter . Retrieved January 13, 2025.
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