Charles McGee is perhaps Detroit’s most
important and influential visual artists
at 91 years young he is still actively
creating he recently unveiled his most
ambitious project to date a 20 foot
outdoor sculpture at the Charles a
stripe Museum of african-american
history entitled united we stand now as
a black man born in 1915 he has endured
intense racism Wars recessions and
Detroit’s darkest days nevertheless he
still keeps a smile on his face
this poem is dedicated to his incredible
don’t don’t do the artist Dean Charles
Magee
Dean in his own words
dundun dundun the art is a series of
lines shapes colors values and textures
the way that these components are
individualized ultimately creates
content
dundun dundun the enormous Sahara Desert
scorching sands span the northern third
of the African continent gorgeous land
now extracted by storms these massive
dust plumes form and of the 182 million
tons thrust up into an atmospheric lon
27 million now that’s plenty enough to
fill a hundred thousand semi-trucks
tracts 1,600 miles over the Atlantic
oceans westward course then slowly
descends upon the Amazon rainforest this
phosphoric soil placed in the basin
feeds flora thusly creating the most
fascinating ecosystem environmental
scientists have ever seen the
astonishing key to this uniquely
flourishing network of ecological
diversity is 15% of the African
fragments
sandé that annually withstand this
natural magical Odyssey conversely
tragically ironically historians have
suggested an equal percentage of African
captives perished during the disastrous
man-made Middle Passage with his
torturous nautical voyages the Marfa the
suffering sought to destroy us as four
hundred years of our ancestor phosphorus
made America vastly prosperous and while
race is actually a conceptual fallacy
forwards into reality with the tools of
iniquity and is therefore lacking
structural integrity we have to
acknowledge this Africans have inhabited
all four corners of the planet and let
me be very candid wherever whenever we
landed we literally gave the world
civilizations while being taken for
granted now that said the Sahara South
America shared heritage bears the
narrative and perspective that all
living things are inherently connected
consistently enlisting this as a
lifelong message with commitment
kindness and culture masterfully
crafting timeless sculptures the modest
Charles McGill also models the
ingredients for living optimally a
childlike love for learning that never
rests proficiency that relentlessly
produces excellence and an aesthetic
benevolence that endeavors to mesh
disparate elements into cohesive
elegance nevertheless watching with
horror
the repeated state-sponsored carnage
launched upon us it would be awfully
hard to March armored with unity as my
mantra were it not for this brilliant
visionaries exemplary resilience even
when deemed a lowly Negro in the evil
throes of Jim Crow sharecropping even
when he could not vote as an enlisted
marine witnessing Nagasaki after the
atomic bombing as a factory working
father mentoring countless scholars
toward prominence in an ominous era
marred by murdered civil rights martyrs
protests rebellions and armed troops
hell-bent on repelling them and perhaps
most compelling then as a modern-day
artisan whose greatness remains
astounding at nine plus decades and
Counting his resounding body of work
boundlessly expanding landing like the
Saharan sands were punishing our waning
spirits lifting us gift
us with covenant painted lyrics
transposing rants from opposing social
camps into soulful jazz you see whereas
those juxtaposed in philosophical silos
summarily unload prolonged solos for an
exclusive few to hear Charles McGee’s
artistry converts complex cacophony z’
into harmonies more audibly discernible
to the common ear his distinct timbre is
always clear we are all merely a series
of lines shapes colors values textures
scattered across the land as
individualized strands but in the end
dundun dundun united we stand
has it’s been an incredible day this has
been an incredible bag but y’all been
sitting down all day it’s time to get up
on your feet it’s time to get up on your
feet
you know the game playing Rain Man let’s
take them back to the motherland y’all
ready to go back to the motherland this
is a pro flow let’s go
[Music]
better more fair get the money now let
me tell you about the bear ah stay true
to what we crew said Wayne Newton under
this we only knew this summer – I’m
moving to the crew so we cut up on this
afro float you better act like you know
now Chuck another question is because it
is G Amira tell them who we are I’m
watching the game never think of this
again so one must have played so I’ll
learn the car my cards watch nervous
catch Bo Tulane Texas Hold’em there
Chuck we keep a ace in the hole
independent artist Oh heart is what
makes them hope so we don’t find the
charts – Trent we only got em on the
now is it possible on the djembe to
build capital in hospitals like Dikembe
Mutombo so you’re confident but humble I
see men with no legs back pretender
stumble I walk it out a lot of cases
brothers up the talk about revolution or
no solution what they all about I
probably can’t boot up in the club
listening
let’s go everybody put your right hand
high in the sky like this one finger one
thumb in the spirit about money
everybody say wanna say wanna say wanna
somebody say Sharda that’s a trauma say
Shawn
one lie allow you to choice one love peace