AMBOKELE’S IN YOUR FACE

ABOUT TWO years ago, I was in a bank in Port Antonio, Portland, when my eyes caught the sight of a tall, dreadlocked man in Africanlooking clothes.

He wore earrings and was barefooted. I saw regal, I saw art, I saw Africa, I saw wisdom. And the inquisitive storyteller that I am saw stories in his face. I got a strong feeling to go and speak with him, but my turn at the teller came, and when I was finished he was gone, with the stories that I felt he carries. Or, so I thought.

About a year after his ‘disappearance’, I went, upon the invitation of a friend, to an art show in New Kingston. He said a friend of his and others were putting on a week-long exhibition and sale. I love art, so I made the event a ‘must-go’.

At the venue, when my friend brought me to introduce me to his friend who was putting on the show, I could not believe who appeared. It was the ‘interesting person’ whom I had seen in the bank. And everything I thought about him was spot on.

He is Phillip ‘Ambokele’ Henry, a versatile artist married to an artist, Marcia. Their variety of artwork was all over the space. Ambokele, his preferred name, and I struck up a conversation, but with stories as long and powerful as his, we didn’t have time at that moment to tell and listen, so I promised to visit him at his home/gallery/studio in Portland.

Recently, while I was in the parish to attend a Marcus Garvey event, I called up Ambokele. I found his place, and again, it was what I envisioned it would be –

These musicians have lost themselves in their art. Look at their faces.

Three women done in clay are telling different stories with their faces.

The happy faces of Ambokele’s daughters.

Artist Ambokele of Red Hazel district in Portland said he uses art to celebrate his blackness and tell the story of black people.