Roxbury-based artist awarded fellowship for archival project
Roxbury-based artist Napoleon Jones-Henderson, one of the last active members of the Chicago-based artist collective, AfriCOBRA, has been awarded the Center for Art, Research, and Alliances Fellowship, a $75,000 grant designed to support the legacies of mid-career artists.
He plans to curate an archival collection of the AfriCOBRA collective — a group created in response to the civil rights and Black Power movements — which he cofounded in 1969.
The project will encompass all of Jones-Henderson’s work and the work of his fellow cofounders, a “grand undertaking that covers the entirety of our practice,” he told the Globe in a recent interview, including the group’s writings, travels, and ephemera.
“I’m just very, very pleased and honored,” Jones-Henderson said, noting the fellowship will allow him “to go very deeply into putting our archive together in such a way that it will add to the American canon of art history, art perspective, and cultural endeavors.”
The AfriCOBRA collective was created in 1968 under the name COBRA (Coalition of Black Revolutionary Artists) by Jeff Donaldson, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Wadsworth Jarrell, and Gerald Williams. JonesHenderson, Nelson Stevens, Sherman Beck, and Carolyn Lawrence joined in 1969 and the collective renamed itself AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), to further explore the lived experiences and cultures of the people of the African diaspora.
Jones-Henderson is considered one of the group’s longest active members and is the sole living founding member, he said. When the project is complete, it will be housed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s W.E.B. Du Bois Afro-American Studies Department archives.
Originally from Chicago, JonesHenderson grew up in Illinois during the Chicago Black Renaissance and was influenced by figures including Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorraine Hansberry, and Charles W. White. He received his education from the Art Institute of Chicago and credits his art teacher at
George Washington Carver High School for introducing him to weaving, an art style that would later become integral to his practice — like his 2022 work, “I Am As I Am — A Man,” a woven installation exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art.
Today, Jones-Henderson has immersed himself in the Roxbury and Greater Boston community as an influential community member, educator, and mentor. He has worked in various academic positions across the nation, including at Malcolm X College in Illinois, Massachusetts College of Art, Emerson College, Roxbury Community College, and Vermont College of Norwich University in Montpelier.
One of his recent works, “Vibratory Spirits and HooDoo Rhythms | The Seer,” which he collaborated on with Boston-based artist Stephen Hamilton, was commissioned by Roxbury Community College for its 50th anniversary in February, and celebrates the institution’s “angular spiritual and academic energy,” Jones-Henderson told the Globe ahead of the unveiling.
He is currently the executive director of the Research Institute of African and African Diaspora Arts, Inc. and Bennu Arts in Roxbury.
He hopes the archive will be used by all as a learning tool to see where the AfriCOBRA collective started and how far it has come. He likens the collection to an “improvisational jazz composition” — “each of the musicians are playing their particular rendering that becomes a piece enjoyed by the audience, general public, or individuals who will be able to access this archive once we have it in order,” he said.
“The archive will serve as an example of what artistic, creative commitment is all about,” he said.