Phenomenal Woman –
The Leslie King-Hammond Interview
by Raven Ekundayo
(editor@excapethematrix.com)
Photography by Marsalis Images
When
I thought of what stories I wanted to work on for our one year anniversary
issue, there’s one person who kept coming to mind, my aunt Dr. Leslie
King-Hammond . I’ve wanted to do a story on her since I first started this
magazine. I’m beyond inspired by her. Due to both of our schedules (definitely
hers lol) we were never able to make it happen, so I was very happy when we
finally set a date. I informed her that I would have Quill Wordsmith with me (ETM’s
Art Director and also our head photographer) and she said she’d have…”a Diplomat
from Zimbabwe”….What!? lol. Quill and I were both shook. We became nervous. What
was Aunt Leslie up to?
On a hot summer evening at the start of September, Quill and I met her at B’s Bistro, a posh little café located in the historic Bolton Hill neighborhood in Baltimore. We found out the diplomat was a beautiful young lady from Zimbabwe name Rutendo Mudzamiri, an aspiring film maker who has been traveling across America. We decided to make history with this interview. For the very first time we would go international. Rutendo would be returning to Africa two days after this interview so we decided that she and I would BOTH interview Aunt Leslie, opening up a chance for folks on two different continents to enjoy ETM.com….
Raven – Growing up in South Jamaica and Hollis Queens, New York (NY), how did art become a part of your life?
LKH – Art became a part of my life when I was around the 3rd grade. I won a poster contest in school. At that moment my mother realized that I hated playing the piano. I was forced to take piano lessons. My mother wanted me to be cultured. She wanted my brothers and sisters to all be cultured as well. My uncle was a concert pianist and he would come by the house to give us piano lessons, which I hated with a passion (we laugh). So after the contest they realized that I liked art more than I liked the piano. They signed me up for a course in art at the Brooklyn Museum art school.
In 1969 Dr. Hammond moved from NY to Baltimore to attend Johns Hopkins University.
She was given the opportunity to consider a number of schools. When she received the application and information about Johns Hopkins art history department, she found their approach interesting. Out of all the schools that she was interested in, it was Johns Hopkins that called her and asked her to fly down for the interview. She says that helped to make the difference in where she went to school. She came to Baltimore in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. She wanted to attend a college where she wouldn’t be held back to address her very strong points of views on politics and social issues.
Raven – What was it like being in Baltimore during the Civil Rights Movement?
LKH – I was in the 1st group to come to Hopkins in about 100 years.
Raven – Wow!
LKH – Hopkins went into a kind of culture shock as it were because we were the first wave of the affirmative action group. For the first time on Hopkins campus, there were anywhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 African American students, both graduate and undergraduate. They were the best and the brightest and the wildest in personality and intellect. Hopkins did not really have any experience in dealing with highly intelligent African Americans.
"Where the museum goes in the future is really dependent on the citizens of this state. Do they truly want to preserve their own history and their heritage?”
The waiter brings our food and we start to eat. We discuss
a number of issues, including some of the places Rutendo has visited
during her time here in America. We laugh far longer than we should while the
tape is still going. My aunt makes fun of me as she always has about my eating
habits. The great thing is that I find out Rutendo is just as picky as I am.
Thanks Rutendo. Lol. We finally decide to continue with the interview.
Raven - In 1973 you started teaching art history courses at MICA. What made you decide to stay in Maryland and not return home to NY?
LKH – When I left NY to come to grad school in Baltimore, I said that it would be very unlikely that I would return to New York. The lifestyle that I wanted to live I couldn’t afford in New York. So I decided that for wherever I decided to live the rest of my life, I needed to have access to NY as well as other cities all over the world.
Raven – What are some of the things that you love or loved about Baltimore?
LKH – Baltimore reminded me of a mini NY. It’s a series of little villages and towns. Each neighborhood has its own identity, its own ethnicity, its own political/social issues. People understand that and try to co-exist with that in a way that’s very similar to New York. Baltimore also has a long historical life like New York. It was an urban center that was comfortable for me because I was from an urban setting, but it also has a somewhat slower pace from New York that provided me with a lifestyle where I could raise a family. I could own a home. I could do things I couldn’t do in New York.
Raven – Okay. What inspires you?
LKH – My God…
(Quill and Rutendo both say “wow.”)
LKH – That’s a good question. There are a lot of things that inspire me. I like working with young people. I’m not crazy about working with my peers or older people. I think that sometimes you live a life and you become comfortable in that life and you forget while living that you’re still alive and you’re supposed to be evolving and doing things. I like young people because they still have an excitement for living, an arrogance for living. They take risks that older people won’t take anymore. They remind me of what the business and the meaning of life is all about, and that is that you’re never supposed to stop living and you’re never suppose to stop trying. I also like meeting new people, different people, any kind of people…The Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan…
(We all burst into laughter)
LKH – I’d like to sit down with him. You know? Ask him wass’up with those sheets…
Raven – (Still laughing) Right, right. I hear you. It’s funny that you would say that because when I was first explaining the concept of ETM to my staff, I explained that we wanted to have articles like that. Articles where we sit down and talk with people like The Grand Wizard, articles most mags would shy from because it’s all about opening eyes, learning about different types of people. It’s not promoting him, it’s honestly asking, “why do you hate?” We’re about being positive, why do you think what YOU’RE doing is positive?
LKH – Exactly. What gives you the right to feel that way? What gives you the right to make people feel bad about themselves? Have you looked in the mirror lately?
Raven – Right?! Okay, so what have your students taught you over the years at MICA?
LKH – The reason why I continue to teach is so that I can try to keep myself honest and stay aware of what the needs of education are for students. I feel as though as long as I’m in a classroom with students and as long as I can have a conversation with students, that’s what’s important to me.
Raven – In January 2007 you became the chairperson of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum here in Baltimore. What kind of impact do you think this museum, which takes you through the history of the African American experience here in Maryland through slave times until now, has on a local level as well as a national level?
I also like meeting different people….any kind of people…The Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan…I’d like to sit down with him. You know? Ask him wassup with those sheets…
LKH – Wow. The museum is a new phenomenon for this city. I believe the city is still in shock that we have a museum, a gorgeous museum that’s dedicated to the legacy of the African American experience, especially in the state of Maryland. So the impact is enormous. You have this new entity in this very old city with a very intense history surrounding its history with slavery. The impact is what kind of stories do we get to tell about that experience, and what other kind of stories do we get to tell above and beyond slavery, because it’s not JUST about slavery. What are the stories that we tell about our origins from Africa? What are the stories that we have to tell the other ethnic groups that we’ve come in contact with in Baltimore and abroad? It’s very exciting and challenging and complex...complex period. The museum is two years old and I often describe when folks ask me how the museum is doing, I tell them for any parent that knows the evolution of a 2 year old, imagine what it’s like for an institution in a city that’s never had anything like that to be responsible for. So it’s huge. It’s huge for me trying to be a board chair with my crazy personality. I’m usually on the other side directing people and telling them what to do. Now I’m at the top of the ladder. I’m to be the guide, the wise one, the mentor because I have the experience. It’s forcing me to grow up in ways that I didn’t think I would have to grow up so soon.
Raven – Where do you plan to take the museum in the future?
LKH – I don’t know. I I’m being honest with you, where the museum goes in the future is really dependent on the citizens of this state. Do they truly want to preserve their own history and their heritage? I’m not going to be the savior; I am not going to be the one to do all the work because if I do it all then it’s my work. I want this to be OUR work. This is an issue of, if I may use the phrase, “social responsibility.” We have to see this as something WE take pride in.
Raven - You’ve worn the hat of Dean, Director, President and Chairperson. What role stands out to you the most?
LKH – I’m not into titles. It’s all about work. The poet and writer Audre Lord said, “In the end did you do the work?” You can give great lip service to any and everything and yes, I’m not trying to dismiss those titles as markers of achievement or levels of personal advancement, but it wasn’t about me. I just so happened to be blessed with that energy and that vision that saw opportunity. The titles that matter to me the most are “mom” or “friend.” Those are the ones that mean something.
Raven – Amen. Okay, final question…what does eXcape the matriX mean to Dr. Hammond...Aunt Leslie. Lol.
LKH – This is an important opportunity to have my voice, my work and the kind of things that I do [heard] on a global level. This is my FIRST interview for a magazine that will be online. I’m excited. I’m excited that this opens up avenues of communication where people can contact me or I can contact them. It’s a way for people to have a means to see beyond the moment that they are living in and to define a different kind of future for themselves. It’s new and I love it because it’s new. I don’t know whose eyes this interview will touch, what computer in what little tiny corner of the world. I don’t know who will read it and possibly want to make contact or even ask a question or say “what if, how about?” That’s why I applaud any effort like this, especially when young people like you are doing it. I’m proud of you.
If you would like to contact Dr. Hammond: lkingha@mica.edu
If you’re in Baltimore and would like to visit the Reginald F. Lewis museum:
830 E. Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
Tel:443-263-1800