Babatunde Olatunji master drummer, teacher, humanitarian and former board member of the National Conference of Artists.  The Board of Directors and the National Executive Board of NCA mourn the passing of our beloved brother, colleague and friend, Michael Babatunde Olatunji. We can safely say without fear of successful contradiction, that Baba was the best known, longest performing and most popular African born musical star in the world. Baba not only represented his native Nigeria, but all of Africa promoting the varied cultures that represent the continent. A memorial service was held in New York at The Riverside Church on April 28th and friends and admirers came from around the country to attend. The previous day, there was a funeral march through the streets of Harlem accompanying the hearse carrying Baba to the Unity Funeral Home. Yoruba’s from around the country came to lead the march and pay tribute to the man that at a chance meeting with Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, upon discussing the lack of knowledge about African culture in the U.S, (1950’s), and the need for someone to spread the culture was told by Nkrumah, “you are the man to do it.”	Babatunde Olatunji Members of the Yoruba community in the U.S. lead march in Harlem to honor Babatunde Olatunji.
That he did, for more than forty years, recording and performing all around the U.S. and the world, spreading African culture everywhere and knocking down the walls of ignorance of those whose only thoughts of Africa were negative and backward, dating back to the “Tarzanization” of our image. Baba’s music has inspired several generations of Black people in the U.S., the Caribbean and in African itself. May his great spirit live on in our hearts.
Bob Blackburn Artist, Teacher, Master Print Maker Passes at 80         Kwame Brathwaite, National Conference of Artists   Robert Blackburn was one of the most important and influential figures in the world of art. A master artist in his own right, he is best known for his teaching of the art of printmaking, a technique of printing and reproducing original and limited edition works of art. Bob was always ready to share his vast knowledge to master artists and high school and college students as well, giving them history of art and artists as well as technique. A case in point was his major input in the National Conference of Artists New York Chapter’s “Gathering of Creative Forces” at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture” where he and fellow artists, Lorenzo Pace, Ed Clarke and Herb Gentry spoke to a group of students who came up from North Carolina Central University in April 2000. NCAnewyork did a follow-up at a pre-conference “Gathering” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Bob, and fellow artists Ann Tanksley, Emmett Wigglesworth and Ademola Olugebefola.	Master printmaker, artist Bob Blackburn at an “NCA Gathering of Creative Forces” at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, speaking to college students as Lorenzo Pace listens.

Bob quickly became a legend in his own time. Right after he graduated from high school in 1940, Blackburn attended New York’s Art Students League on 57th Street on scholarship until 1943. At the ASL, he developed a friendship and working relationship with painter and printmaker Will Barnet. They became life-long friends. Bob freelanced as a graphic artist for about four years, for major institutions including the philanthropic Harmon Foundation, the China Institute of America, and Associated American Artists. He later got his own lithographic press and opened his own studio in New York’s Chelsea, in 1948, where he printed for other artists and encouraging his friends to experiment in lithography. A year later Blaburn was designated a Master Printer by the National Academy of Design and he has since received many national awards. Blackburn’s funeral was held at the ELIM Church located at 20 Madison Street in Brooklyn, the church of Bob's sister Gertrude. As expected, there was a full house in attendance.  A memorial service is planned for mid September to honor this great man of the visual arts. For information on the planning of this tribute, contact Jane Stephenson, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, contact her at 212.563-5855 or e-mail efa@efa1.org. (that’s a numeral one). In 1950, when the innovative Parisian printmaking studio, Atelier 17 left the US and went back to Europe after a war-time spell in New York, Blackburn acquired an intaglio press at his nearby shop. He and Barnet worked on a groundbreaking group of color lithographs that were featured in the contemporary art journal ARTnews. He was also the first master printer at Universal Limited Art Editions in New York, responsible for some of the very first editions by 20th century masters like Jasper Johns, Larry Rivers, Robert Raushenberg and others. In late 1999, the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Georgia, presented an exhibition, (organized and circulated by the Cochran Collection of LaGrange, Georgia) "Will Barnet and Bob Blackburn: An Artistic Friendship in Relief." Bob Blackburn became a legend in 20th century printmaking. He established what has come to be known as The Bob Blackburn Printmakers  Workshop which operated until recently as a significant contribution to the advancement of fine art printmaking..

Skunder Boghossian from allAfrica.com Ethiopian artist and pioneer of modern African art Alexander Skunder Boghossian was found prone and unmoving in his Washington, DC apartment by friends who visited to congratulate him after viewing his paintings at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art. Boghossian was pronounced dead at Howard University Hospital. The cause of death is still unknown but the 66-year-old artist had been suffering from several ailments that had resulted in regular hospitalization in recent years. In 1965, Boghossian was the first contemporary African artist to have work purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He was also a great teacher both at Howard University and in Ethiopia. He inspired the careers of both Africans and non-Africans. In many ways, Boghossian's work was bound up with African-American life and culture. As a teenager an African American neighbor not only gave him his first feedback on his drawings, but introduced him to jazz. And throughout his life, jazz was often the backdrop of sound as he worked on paintings. "Jazz is," he told a friend, Tom Porter, "a very heavy movement of the twentieth century. It is not one person; it is not one thought, it is a combination of geniuses... the constant modulation of concepts... It is the one thing we have, black folks, as artists..." Born in Addis Ababa in 1937, Boghossian was awarded an "imperial scholarship" when he was 17 to study at London's St. Martin's School of Art. He extended his stay another nine years during which he moved to Paris, becoming a student and teacher at that city's Académie de la Grande Chaumière and at the Ecole Superieure des Beaux Arts. In 1963 he was the first Ethiopian painter whose work was purchased by the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris. Boghossian talked often of political and cultural influences in Paris during those years, citing Frantz Fanon, Aime Cesaire, Cheikh Anta Diop as well as creative forces in modern art like Paul Klee. Excerpted from allAfrica.com website. For more info and the complete article, visit www.allAfrica.com. Check them out on a regular basis. KB

Steve Martin NCA MemberPasses. Steve James Martin was born in New York City on December 10, 1945 and grew up in Harlem and the Upper-West side of Manhattan. His serious involvement in photography started at the age of twenty-six after a move to Austin, Texas. He studied photography at Austin Community College. Steve exhibited in many NCA exhibitions and was an active member of the New York Chapter. We will surely miss him. His work covered a broad range of styles including abstract, documentary, photojournalism, portraits and self-portraits. Steve has been a devoted member of the New York chapter and a member and officer of the Kimoinge Photographers.	Steve Martin in one of his usual relaxed moods even in the face of adversity.
Richard Bartee: More Hugging, Less Mugging Rich Bartee at the Million Man March holding his famous, “More Hugging, Less Mugging - Black Is Beautiful, Black Is Dutiful” sign. Richard Bartee, “The D Train Poet” and NCA supporter and the MC for our December 22nd NCA Awards also passed. We are loosing many great people. His “More Hugging, Less Mugging” campaign is legend in New York.