Emory Douglas at Babylon Falling

A jam-packed audience experienced history being made at Tendernob’s revolutionary minded bookstore / art gallery, Babylon Falling, where the Freedom Archives and It’s About Time hosted a talk by Emory Douglas. On the warm San Francisco night of Friday, February 8 I snuck myself up to the front of an eclectic crowd, ranging from camera crazed fecal face heads to anarchist militants, in order to bear witness to Douglas discuss his role as an artist for the Black Panther Party (BPP).

Emory Douglas moved to San Francisco’s Fillmore district as a boy and was trained with technical skills for commercial art at City College. Officially entitled the Minister of Culture by the BPP, and self-proclaimed as a revolutionary driven artist, Douglas developed his iconic visual talents for Bobby Seale’s emerging Black Panther Newspaper from the second published issue in 1967 to the final print in the early 80’s.

Douglas organized the layout of the paper and cultivated a unique approach to imagery that tied together the basic tenets of the Party. At the zenith of the newspaper’s circulation, 400,000 papers were distributed throughout the Bay Area and many more could be found wheat pasted in the communities that the Panthers sought to empower. Douglas’ powerful style of thickly emphasized outlines, foreshortened newspaper collages, and sun ray backgrounds continues to influence print artists to this day.


Many of Douglas' prodigious prints adorned the walls over bookshelves showcasing the likes of Michel Foucault and Eldridge Cleaver while a projector took everyone on a trip down memory lane to Oakland’s and San Francisco’s black neighborhoods in the 60’s. An all time favorite photo was the scene of a toddler Panther’s birthday party with all the kids bashing away at a very special piñata; profession – police officer, species – pig. In fact, Douglas originated the now infamous, iconoclastic image of the bipedal pig as the principle symbol of institutionalized oppression.

After an impassioned introductory statement that situated the diverse prints of pigs, free Huey Newton posters, and empowered Afrocentric mothers holding both baby and gun, in the heated political climate of the 60’s, Douglas opened the floor up to Q & A. The following discussion mirrored the interests of a fervent audience groping for stories from the past. Douglas ran the gamut of the CIA’s participation in the crack epidemic, the Party’s creation of food and education services for the economically depressed black neighborhoods, the current failures of graffiti culture, and even the idea that the American government will colonize space and establish a new slave labor force in the spirit of Manifest Destiny. Seriously, you need to check out his eerie print of a chain line on Mars ruled by supersized, pig beast overseers. Perhaps the notion of such conspiracies is warranted by members of an organization who were terrorized and even brutally murdered by the FBI.

Even though Douglas enjoyed entertaining some audience inspired tangents, he again and again pressed that the responsibility of an artist, or more fundamentally, any person whatsoever, is to raise consciousness and serve the people. In order to achieve this objective, one might channel an old Panther tenet; “Speak to the people so even a child could understand you.” On this line of thought, Douglas highlighted the important ability of allegoric imagery to directly communicate political issues to the illiterate or lazy.

When asked what he is currently working on by the predominately youth audience, Emory suggested that only the brashness of the young can seriously achieve the necessary social change that is generally deemed impossible. Despite this sentiment, Emory presented some current works that portray the FBI tortures of the SF8.

Some members of the SF8 are still locked up on inadmissible confessions due to these tortures, while others are continually being pushed back into the labyrinth workings of the court system despite the case being thrown out three times. Richard Brown, a member of the SF8 sidelining the reception, then led the discussion by calling for the people’s support with the current trials; Free the SF8. Power to the people!

A large collection of Emory’s works are currently being exhibited by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, but at least San Francisco gets a chance to see some original newspaper prints and the first glance at new works - and grab signed copies of Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory. The exhibition continues until the end of Black History Month, February. Babylon Falling is located on 1017 Bush St. San Francisco, CA 94109; phone (415) 345-1017.