Photographer Ts work depictsmore than just provocativepictures. Greg McNeal seeksfo provide positive imagesand breakdown stereotypesof the Black male.by Tim ButlerTri-State Defender Entertainmenr EditorGreg MCNpal, an African-American photographer living inLos Angéfes, will make two appearances in Memphis this week-end. First up is a poster-signing at Club Allusions on Fridaynight at 7 p.m., followed by a series of workshops from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. on Saturday. (For more information, contact AnthonyHardaway at 274-0163.)McNeal is a Black, gay male, self-taught master of the lens.Although some of his images drip with sensuality and eroticism,there is much more to McNeal than simply the remarkable abil-ity to capture the Black male figure in evocative poses.McNeal is an ardent believer in the power of photography - artin fact - that can promote a more positive image of the Black maleto an audience that can use this medium as a way to uplift the race.Reached by telephone at his home in Los Angeles on Sunday,Sept. 7, McNeal explained how he was troubled with the imageshe found which depicted the Black male. This was when he firstmoved to Los Angeles about twelve years ago. oI was checkingout Black images of us one day, ? he said as he remembersthumbing through magazines and watching television. oTherewere no positive images of us ?This was during a time period when crack cocaine and gangswere prevalent in the City of Angeles and were among the mainthings which helped shape the media Ts image of Black men.Everywhere you turned there were Black men in gangs or vic-tims of gangs and Black men whose lives were ruined by drugs.Over on the fashion front, things were not much different - therewere virtually no positive images of Black men. For McNeal,this was unacceptable. ,Lucky to catch up with the photographer before he was off tocelebrate his 38th birthday on Sunday, McNeal told me he wassubsequently inspired to do something about offering a moreuplifting image of the Black male.how to shoot pictures and went about his way doing what hecould to change the way the world saw the Black man.Around 1994, he told me nobody wanted to photograph theBlack man. And when he talked to professionals about the situ-ation, they told him that nobody was interested in the Blackmale. The Black male was not worth it. How could this be?As a native of South Fulton, Tenn. McNeal said he wasshocked by some of the things he saw when he first moved toLos Angeles. And he had a perfect vantage point, as he did anassortment of odd jobs to pay the rent at first. In South Centralhe explained it was sad to see how we as Black men saw our-selves. The lure of getting nioney at the expense of all else wasone of the things that troubled him. Where would this leave thefuture of the Black man? oIt was kind of hard getting throughsome days seeing the kinds of things I saw. ?One of the problems was the attitude of some Black men on-ly caring about what they could achieve financially with littleregard for the rest of the race. oGod blessed some people so thatthey could give back, ? McNeal believes; but this was not hap-pening. The underlying problem as he saw it was that Blackmen didn Tt value their own lives - consequently they couldn Ttcare about anyone else Ts. We must change the way the world -and particularly our own people - see the Black male.Disturbed by what he saw as stereotypical images of theBlack male in the media, McNeal chose the Black man as hissubject matter. A lot of times, according to this photographer,when a White man turns his camera lens on a Black man the re-sulting photograph features poses that are somewhat feminineand too flamboyant. oI often wondered why we can Tt see astrong Black man from a Black perspective. ?As a result, he set about teaching himself how to take pic-tures. He chose photography as his medium because photogra-phy depicts real life and is of the moment - unlike sculpture or" characters. ? McNealHe PrecefAKs, taught himself,poe aayou. Photography has a timeless qualitypainting or what havethat he likes. oWe have to start to see the real of who we are - not cartoonpoints out. He taught himself the profes-sion of: photography because, othere was something I wantedmy pictures to say and nobody could teach me that. ? McNealwanted to display such qualities as unity, strength and pride withhis work. And he Ts still learning. oEveryday I learn somethingnew, ? he says.In the late 90s, McNeal Ts reputation grew due to a series ofpublic service campaigns for Los Angeles- and San Francisco-based AIDS organizations. In July 2000, he was chosen as thephotojournalist to cover the XXIII International Conference onHIV and AIDS in Durban, South Africa. In addition, he shot asepies Of projects for The African-American AIDS Policy andTraining Institute and other organizations, including STOPAIDS, Minority AIDS Project, Spectrum & Charles Drew Uni-versity of Medicine and Science. oWe have to start to see a work ofMcNeal says of what he does. oBy doing so, it Ts hard to put abullet in the back of someone Ts head ? - as you would then val-ue that person Ts life. And this is what he tries to convey - thebeauty of everyday, common Black men.McNeal says most of his subjects are not gay but straight men,married with wives and children. But they all are everyday, ordi-nary men that work in the grocery store...deliver packages...de-liver pizza - whatever. oI wanted to make that person a work ofart. ? They are not professional models. But yet these men deliv-er star status when McNeal Ts lens captures them on film.McNeal wants his photos to overcome stereotypes and breakdown taboos. oBlack men fear being homo-sexual in art and weshouldn Tt fear that, ? he says. Additionally, there is a fear of be-ing too strong...too sexy when it comes to Black men. And weneed to overcome that, too. More than anything, he says, oweheed to change the way we see each other. We have to give val-ue back toeachothe ?His photos help to deliver this message. McNeal admits hewants his work to be timeless. oWe have to put images our therethat kids can look at 100 years from now and say, Now, that Tswhat unity...strength...pride looks like T. ? As he explains it, oMywork is a blue print. There will be others to follow that will dogreater things ? based on his work. And that Ts the whole purpose.In fact, oeverybody should be finding their own way of help-ing these kids, ? he admonishes. But we are afraid that they willbe better than we are. Which is tragic. On the other hand, oWhitepeople always inspire their own future. ? But sadly we don Tt.What is it like being a Black gay man today? By and large, hesays, Black gay men are facing the same stereotypes as before.In fact, some men have gone further into the closet, he believes.Bisexuality has become vogue because it is often easier for aBlack gay man to declare himself as bisexual rather than gay. oIt Ts more acceptable being bisexual...it Ts cooler. It Ts better thanbeing completely gay, ? he says some men believe. And thisshottidn Tt be the case.For some reason, McNeal believes, owe have been trained tobe afraid of that which looks most like us. ? Sadly, the churchplays a big part in perpetuating this image. oMost of us go hereto hide, ? the photographer notes. oBut we need to quit hidingbehind the church because God isn Tt going to allow us to do itanymore. People can only hide for so long. ?It Ts time Black gay men stood up for what and who they are. oThe battle you don Tt fight today your children will fight to-morrow. oFreedom can Tt come unless you start to trust each other, ? hebelieves. And that Ts what we must learn to do - trust each otherto be who and what we are.art in everyday people, ?. The man behind the man -photographer Greg MeNealRANDOM NOTESby Tim ButlerEntertainment EditorFootball kicks .off with concertf ~ "siIt Ts that time again -i football Ts back! Andthe first game of thenew season made a big.Splash, introduced. witha pre-Zame music festbroadcast last Thursdayoriginating from theNational Mall in Wash-ington, D.C. But for allm?"? of the hype - and therei was plenty - NFL Kick-off Live failed to deliv- |er. ,Looking nowhere near as garish as we Treaccustomed to seeing, Mary J. Blige provid-ed a true highlight. Has she lost weight? Shelooked much thinner than on previous occa-sions - and she was better made-up. She prac-tically sparkled!Anyway, wearing a pair of killer blackstiletto boots and blue jeans, Blige stirred itup for the crowd in fine fashion, provingagain there Ts plenty of talent underneath thatrough exterior - which is beginning to showsigns of softening.Could those itty-bitty micro-shorts BritneySpears wore underneath her longer pantshave been any shorter? (Answer: No...and no Thave the show still be a family program!)Attired better than we Tve seen her look in along, long time (read MORE COVEREDUP) the always excellent sounding Aretha -Franklin delivered the goods and.then some.Sadly, she only sang one song, while all ofthe other artists on the program sang morethan one. And Ms. Franklin came on last!Show organizers are probably to blame. Noone of Franklin Ts stature in the businessshould be relegated to only one song andhave it seemingly eclipsed at the tail-end ofany show!! Perhaps, true Aretha fans will getsome satisfaction when.the Queen of Soul Ts.new album drops soon.Suit settled overAaliyah Ts death?Though it won t'6fing Aaliyah back, re-portedly her parents, Michaél and DianeHaughton, have reached a settlement inwrongful death suits against her label, VirginRecords, as well as several video productioncompanies and the owner/operator of thetwin-engine Cessna plane that crashed withAaliyah on board in August 2001.Word is the suits were tentatively settledearlier this summer. A family spokespersonsays he expects everything to be finalizedsoon and (naturally) filed under terms not tobe made public.It Ts not much consolation, but it must bedifficult drawing a line that determines a hu-man being Ts worth when they die premature-ly. And it Ts got to be more difficult when itappears the deceased is as popular in death asshe was when she was living...and was mak-ing movies and records and such!(The world is such a funny place and whenyou throw the legal system into the equation, |life becomes even more strange!)Here comes the judge;there goes the cameras |The judge says cam-eras will NOT be al-lowed in the courtroomduring Kobe Bryant TsOct. 9 preliminaryhearing.At that time, prose-cutors will outline theircase against the L.A. -Lakers star accused ofsexual assault. It willalso be determined at.that time whether ornot there Ts enough evi-dence to take the case to trial.You can be sure of one thing, though, ifit does go to trial the question of allowingcameras into the courtroom will most as-suredly come up again. (What Ts truly inter-esting is the fact that if this was simply oJoe Blow Ordinary Citizen ? being accusedof sexual assault instead of an internation-ally known NBA basketball player withstar charisma and a net worth in the mil-Bryantlions of dollars - would anybody care aboutthe outcome let alone-whether or not cam-eras should be allowed in the courtroom tocover the action? The answer: NO. Willcelebrity worship ever end in a worldwhere so much money can be made puttingpeople up on pedestals and then knockingthem off? The answer: NO)SEPT.19 2003 pg7MUSIC WORLDby Tim ButlerEntertainment EditorCome taste theirIce Cream flavorsOnce thebackgroundsingers for theIsley Brothers, onew R&B duoJS has a debuty album, /ce-Cream, and a4 concert tour totheir credit. Thesisters, Kandyand Kim John-son, are openingfor the R. Kellyconcert tour, which visits Memphis Friday atthe Mid-South Coliseum,Ice Cream, the first radio track off the CD,was produced, written and arranged by R.Kelly - as were the second radio song, LoveAngel, Bye-Bye, Slow Grind, Half, Stay RightHere, Sister, and Ice Cream (Remix).While still in elementary school, the twoLos Angeles natives began performing togeth-er as The Johnson Sisters. Their musical train-ing stretches back to the church choirs they Tvegraced since they first learned to sing.__ It was the Isleys T musical director that hadheard about JS through persistent word ofmouth. oThe Isley Brothers needed back-ground singers for a tour, and we were askedto audition, ? Kandy recalls. oDuring the audi-tion, Ronald Isley came into the room. He lis-tened to us sing for a while, and then he hiredus on the spot. We were so excited! ?: The Johnsonsa , But having grown a reputation singing Zospel, the switch to R&B was a bit off-putting for the girls and their parents. Theygot used to the notion and subsequently§ launched their own careers as a solo act, apartfor background group.For their inspiration, JS says they looked totheir longtime. idols in the music business:Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and Stevie- Wonder.Music that Ts reallyout of this world!5. Humatiity Ts@ interest in space|. 7 has been ongo-ed ing since thea beginning of1. time. The"y dream of ex-1 ploring space4. was shared by oua generationslong before that first memorable flight:Greek myths like that Amaia andIcaruseflyin g-teo-elose to-the.sun, on wings made ofMe , the adventures of Jules Verneand the imagination of HiG. Wells havehelped inspire us along the way.Likewise, the questions regarding life onother planets, Unidentified Flying Objects(UFOs) and extraterrestrials have been mysti-fying us for eons. Stories of the oFoo-fight-ers ? in the early 1940s to the later files of theU.S. Government Ts oProject Blue Book ? have kept our interests piqued. .Music for Little People is leaving the histo-ry up to the experts...and is taking the morehumorous approach to the space issue, by re-leasing the light-hearted Hey, Mr. Spaceman.Many of these silly favorites are culledfrom history itself, including We're GoingUFO-ing (Jimmy Durante), Mr. Spaceman(The Byrds), Humans From Earth (T-BoneBurnett), Flying Saucer Attack (The Rezil-los), Two Little Men in a Flying Saucer (EllaFitzgerald), and Planet Claire (B-52s).Blending jazzwith hip-hopNominated fora Grammy,trumpeter/com-poser RussellGunn is backwith anotherdose of Ethno-musicology -this time it Tsé Volume 3. "_ Gunn wasborn in Chicago on Oct. 20, 1971. In 1980,the Gunn family relocated to East St. Louis!Ill. Russell began to play the trumpet in thefourth grade. His cousin Anthony Wigginswas the lead trumpeter in the school band,and he encouraged Russell to join up.Although he soon developed a yen for theband Ts jazz repertoire, Russell Ts true passionwas hip-hop, the music of his generation. ForALVISORY,Need a college savings plan for your grandchild?North Carolinas 529 plan. Tax-Free. Flexible. Affordable.800-600-3453 www.CFNC org/Savings\North Carolina'sNational College 7Savings ProgramCollege Foundation of North CarolinaHelping You Plan, Apply, and TPay for College