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His Father's Son by Kheven LaGrone

Featured Artist and Creator of BABA: "Black Artists' Expressions of Father^TM", Kheven LaGrone

How did you come up with the original idea for the BABA show?
BABA started when I was asked to coordinate some artists for a benefit for the people who survived Hurricane Katrina. As we were setting up, I saw one of the male artists taking time out to help his daughter with her homework. It was only an instant. At the time I didn't think anything about it. A few of the artists at the benefit told me they liked how I organized the show and asked me if I did any more shows to please include them. I laughed and told them I wasn't doing any more shows. In all honesty, I hadn't really thought about doing any more shows. However, later, I thought about the moment when I saw the father helping his daughter with her homework. At that point I decided I would do a father show. The point of the show is to recapture that moment.

This is the third annual BABA show. It started in San Francisco, then to Morehouse in Atlanta and now we're privileged to have it here in New York. How has the show changed as it as traveled to different cities and venues?
Because people respond to different pieces in different ways. That is why I must have a show with different styles and media. At my show in Atlanta, a man looked at a photograph and yelled out. I thought he was offended by the photograph (it was a controversial piece I'll discuss later). Then he turned around teary-eyed saying over and over how moving and beautiful the piece was.

Untitled, Photograph by Kheven LaGrone

Untitled, Photograph by Kheven LaGrone

In my San Francisco show, I noticed the sub-themes. The daddy girls were the strongest. I like to joke that they almost stole my show. Another sub-theme was gay men loving their fathers. This was poignant to me because for many fathers, having a gay son is the worst thing in the world. A couple of months before I had done my San Francisco show, a man in Florida had killed his three year old son because he thought his son had gay tendencies. I couldn't imagine a three year old thinking about sex so I assumed it reflected more on the father. Therefore, I also emphasized the gay sub-theme at the San Francisco show. What could make a man kill his own son?

In my first show, I had my nephew do some graphics for me. One of the images was a grandfather, his son and a baby. The Richmond, CA venue would not let me use it because they said it promoted homosexuality and gay marriage. Another photograph was a shirtless man and his shirtless son. They were both smiling. Richmond wouldn't let me use that image either because they said it promoted pedophilia. I thought that said a lot about Black men being allowed to express love with their kids. I've always seen pictures of nude women holding their babies and that's just considered "loving." Images of a man doing the same are vilified.

Tell us a bit about your art? Who have been some of your artistic influences and why? Send images of art.
A few years ago, I did a video titled "The Magic of the Ship." It was about a warship that Slobodan dan Paich and his foundation decades later converted to The Artship. My video was about how a ship that had been used to take away lives was now used to create art. It was my metaphor for art and life. The video was very amateurish, but it was shown in Berlin, Istanbul and a few other places. Slobodan was in it. When he was in Prague last year, someone recognized him from the video. I guess the video has a life of its own. The Artship isn't around anymore. I even had some artwork on it that was lost when the ship was demolished.

Untitled, Photograph by Kheven LaGrone

Untitled, Photograph by Kheven LaGrone

I'm always fascinated by why an artist chooses to use a medium for years. For example, at a workshop, I asked Nena St. Louis (one of the artists in the show), a wood sculptor why she choose wood. It's interesting that one media speaks to them. As an artist, I cannot stick with just one medium. I've done installation art, I've done photography, etc. I've published poems, academic essays, short stories and opinion pieces. The art show is another medium for me.

My personal creative influences/mentors are Slobodan dan Paich and Thomas Simpson. I appreciate their creative versatility and their mastery of the different media to create.

I really like Andy Warhol and Lois Mai'Lou Jones. I like their creativity with different styles and media.

I know that you are a writer. Do you have a novel in the works that we can look forward to?
I'm currently working on a novel. I'm revising it again and again. My cousin read it and liked it so much that he took ownership of the main character. One time when I bad-mouthed the main character, my cousin and I got into an argument. He defended the main character as if I had bad-mouthed his best friend. Then I had to remind him that it was just fiction. Then he realized that he felt like the main character was real to him. I could only do that with a novel. Hopefully, I'll finish it within a few months and will find a literary agent. I also have the seed of another novel. I want to finish my other one before I start the next. I really get into my characters' lives. I don't think I could write more than one novel at a time, because I become them.

Me and Dad, Work by Aleathia Brown Art from the BABA show, Curated by Kheven LaGrone

Who are some of your favorite writers and why? What kind of things do you write about?
It is hard to say who my favorite writers are. I read everything and anything. I've read almost all of Thomas Sowell and Edward Said. I was starting to get into Octavia Butler before she died. I read biographies. Some friends of mine recently turned me on to Harry Potter. I love them. In my gym, I bring books and newspapers. I've had a couple of African Americans comment on it. They really like to see me with my books.

What other projects do you have in the works?
I am currently editing a collection of scholarly essays on Alice Walker's "The Color Purple." It will be published by Rodopi Press and should come out next year. I'm in the proofreading stage right now.

What gadget could you not live without?
My laptop.

My Father and Son, Work by Perez Asante Art from the BABA show, Curated by Kheven LaGrone

How do you think your location as a San Francisco based artist played into your ideas and concepts as compared to artists in So. CA or West Coast artists?
How does being in San Francisco/Oakland inform my art? I'm from here, so I can only talk about my early life experiences with Chinatown, Japantown and the Latino neighborhoods. My mother's best friend was Swiss and so I was exposed to languages and culture all my life. When I was in Berlin, I felt my "San Francisco-ness" coming out.

Kheven LaGrone can be contacted at kheven at aol.com.

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