- [Announcer] An exhibit celebrating the life and legacy of acclaimed author and civil rights activist, James Baldwin, is at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History through the end of February.

It's called "Frontline Prophet: James Baldwin."

Last summer, "American Black Journal" host, Stephen Henderson, spoke with Sabrina Nelson, the Detroit artist whose works are featured in the exhibit.

- Thank you.

(bright music) - Tell me about "Frontline Prophet: James Baldwin," this exhibit at the Wright.

- Well, I can tell you the beginnings of it and how it started.

A lot of people will always ask, "How did you get so obsessed with James Baldwin," and I have to respond that I wasn't obsessed with James Baldwin, but I was invited by our Detroit Poet Laureate, Jessica Care Moore, to travel with her in 2016 to the James Baldwin Conference at American University of Paris.

I was on the plane with her, Melba Boyd, and Magdalena from U of M, and I just wanted to do as much reading as I could on James Baldwin before I got there, because I knew more about Beauford Delaney, who was his mentor, who's an artist, more so than I knew about James Baldwin.

And so, I was invited by Jessica to paint live during her plenary session.

So I'd never drawn Baldwin before, and I had done as much reading, and when I got there, and I started drawing his image, I felt something.

Now, I don't know how many people feel things spiritually, but I felt something, and my hairs raised on my arms that I had never drawn him before.

But I felt like he touched me.

He came to me and then I asked, after I experienced my Poltergeist moment, (laughs) I asked, I said, "If you're here, "I need you to teach me how to know you."

And sometimes I feel like the spirit has jokes, because it went deep and heavy, and I learned so many things about James Arthur Baldwin and his life and his activism and his artivism as well.

This is how it started, so it started off with small sketchbooks and drawing him during what we normally call Ectober.

I didn't like the word (indistinct), so I changed it to Black-tober, and I said, "Who can I draw?"

This is, of course, after I came back from Paris, can I draw every day for 31 days, which ended up into 91 days, 'cause I didn't stop.

- Wow, wow.

- So that's the beginning of this "Frontline Prophet."

And then with Ashara and Omo Misha, who are my co-curators, they came to my studio and said, "Hey, what are you doing "with these little sketchbooks, what are they?"

And I said, "Well, I did a study of James Baldwin," and she was like, "What are you doing with them?"

And I said, "Well, they're in my studio."

And she says, "We should do a show."

And I'd already talked to a friend of mine, named Mikael Rashid about it, but I wasn't really sure how I was gonna do it.

And with Ashara suggesting that she'll travel, we've traveled now to six cities, and now, after being home, we will go to Paris to make it a full circle.

And so, it's been a really amazing journey.

It's been a great journey with Ashara Ekundayo and also, Omo Misha McGlown from Irwin House Gallery for those listening in Detroit.

Both of these women, all of us are born in Detroit, raised here and live between Oakland, California and Detroit, or Harlem, New York and Detroit.

- And Detroit.

- Yeah.

So we are all here and this is how it started, and this is how it sort of spread into the... Ashara named the show, by the way, "Frontline Prophet: James Baldwin" that you can see now at the Charles H. Wright Museum up until February 28th.