Flier for “Black History Month Annual Cultural Freebee Jam” by Kool Lance: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A flier for the “Black History Month Annual Cultural Freebee Jam” designed by Kool Lance. The flier is in portrait orientation and printed on off-white paper and has black and white text in varying fonts and sizes and black graphics with a black border. The flier is dominated by an elongated, black, hexagonal graphic with two stepped black bands below. The graphic is overlayed with white text and a small, white, rectangular banner near the top, highlighting the act Soul Power 82 in black text and emphasized with arrow graphics. The centered black text at the top of the flier reads [nUBian PrODUCTiOns & / AFRIKA[small text inserted above] BamBaaTaa PresenTs / BLack HisTory monTH / annual cuLTuraL FreeBee jam / Guarantee[sic] to perform].

Below is the hexagonal graphic with centered white text that reads [coLD Crush Brothers charLie chase / Tony Tone coLd crush 4 kool Herc / jazzy jay / soul power[right oriented arrow] 82 [left oriented arrow] red alert / afrika Bambaataa / soul sonic & cosmic Force jazzy 5 / Grand master[sic] Flash Furious Lovers / Kool dj aj & Busy Bee starski / Grand wizard Theodor[sic] Fantastic 5 / Breakout & Funky 4 Trecherous[sic] 3 / Double Trouble solo sounds whiz kid / afrika islam Billy Boy & Mark V / The just 4 & DST & infinity 4]. Below the rectangular graphic is centered black text that reads [you may never see another line up / like this again, not for free anyway! / Thurs. Feb 25, 1982 / 5 UNTIL 12 / Donation free (just come in peace) / (respect your black selves) / Bronx river center 1619 e 174 st. / remember your Black History Giants / Elijah Muhammad / martin L. king, malcolm x, / clarence 13x / Black Panthers, Stokley[sic] carmichael / Fredrick[sic] Douglas[sic] / marcus Garvey, naacp, / and the great black history of africa / and the world].

Narrow triangular graphics extend from the top of the large rectangular graphic with the words [FUNK] printed in small text above the left triangle and the word [BLUES] printed above the right triangle. Two set of perpendicularly crossed arrows extend from the center left and right edges of the frame. The word [SOUL] is printed above the horizontally oriented arrow on the left, and the word [DISCO] is printed above the horizontally oriented arrow on the right. Mirror images of freeform geometric shapes below the crossed arrow sets also have small text printed around their edges: [ROCK] on the left, and [CALYPSO] and [JAZZ] on the right. Just below the large rectangular graphic is more small text that reads [LATIN]. Two elongated arrows in horizontal orientations extend from the freeform geometric shapes, just below the venue address, and point to small text at the center that reads [(BRONX RIVER HOUSES)]. Printed above the ends of the arrows is small text that reads [HIP HOP] on the far left and [REGGAY[sic]] on the far right. The flier designer’s name is printed in small black text in the right corner of the frame, [KOOL LANCE]. The back of the flier has no text or inscriptions.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: February 25, 1982
• Designed by: Kool Lance, American
• Distributed by: Nubian Productions, American
• Subject of: Afrika Bambaataa, American, born 1957
• Subject of: The Cold Crush Brothers, American, founded 1978
• Subject of: DJ Charlie Chase, American, born 1959
• Subject of: Angelo T. King, American, born 1959
• Subject of: DJ Kool Herc, Jamaican American, born 1955
• Subject of: DJ Jazzy Jay, American, born 1961
• Type: fliers (printed matter)
• Medium: ink on paper (fiber product)
• Dimensions: H x W: 8 3/8 × 6 3/8 in. (21.3 × 16.2 cm)
• Place used: Bronx, New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Civil Rights
• Topic: Design
• Topic: DJs (Musicians)
• Topic: Graphic design
• Topic: Hip-hop (Music)
• Topic: Nightlife
• Topic: Rappers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2020.38.1.7
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.