Kwame Brathwaite

Kwame Brathwaite (January 1, 1938 – April 1, 2023) was an American photojournalist and activist known for popularizing the phrase "Black is Beautiful" and documenting life and culture in Harlem and Africa.

Life and work Born Gilbert Ronald Brathwaite in Brooklyn on January 1, 1938 and brought up in the South Bronx, to immigrant parents from Barbados, who chronicled the cultural, political, and social developments of Harlem, Africa, and the African diaspora. His parents were Cecil and Margaret (Maloney) Brathwaite. As a boy in the early 1950s, he was enrolled at the School of Industrial Art (now the High School of Art and Design). He adopted the name Kwame in the early 1960s, a tribute to Kwame Nkrumah, the first leader of post-colonial Ghana.

With his older brother Elombe Brath, Brathwaite founded the African Jazz Art Society and Studios in 1956 and Grandassa Models in 1962.

In 2021, the Pérez Art Museum Miami acquired "Untitled (AJASS Model on Black Background)" (1970s/2019)," portraying a female model figure dressed in patterns resembling quilts created in African-American communities, such as those made at Gee's Bend, in Alabama. The artist is a major figure in the Black is Beautiful movement.

Brathwaite died in Manhattan on April 1, 2023, at the age of 85. He was survived by his wife Sikolo (whom he married c. 1966), his son Kwame Samori Brathwaite (known as Kwame Jr., born c. 1974), and his daughter Ndola Carlest.

Naturally pageants On January 28, 1962, with his brother Elombe Brath, Brathwaite staged the Naturally '62 pageant, the first of a series of pageants to feature only black models. Held at the Harlem Purple Manor, a nightclub on East 125th Street, it helped to popularize the phrase "Black Is Beautiful" that was printed on the pageant's poster. The Naturally pageants ran for five years, with the last one held in 1966. and Muhammad Ali.

In 2017, Brathwaite was honored at the 75th Aperture Gala.

Yemi Bamiro's documentary Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story on Brathwaite's life and work was shown as part of the Official Competition of the BFI London Film Festival in 2025.

Brathwaite's work was included in the 2025 exhibition Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985 at the National Gallery of Art.

Exhibitions Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite, organized by Aperture Foundation (2019) Icons of Style: A Century of Fashion Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2019) Tools of Revolution: Fashion Photography and Activism, Houston Center for Photography (2020) The Struggle Continues, Victory is Certain, Philip Martin Gallery (2020) Facing Forward: Photographic Portraits from the Collection, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (2021) Changing Times, Philip Martin Gallery (2021) My Village/New York, Philip Martin Gallery (2022) Things Well Worth Waiting For, Art Institute of Chicago (2023) Kwame Brathwaite: The 1970s, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (2025) Black is Beautiful, Mougins Center of Photography, France (2025) Black is Beautiful, Centre d'Art Gwinzegal , France (2026)