AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) is an African American artist collective that was founded in 1968, first under the name COBRA (Coalition of Black Revolutionary Artists), in Chicago, Illinois. The founding AfriCOBRA artists were associated with the Black Arts Movement, and the group grew out of discussions on how their art could express a Black aesthetic. The AfriCOBRA philosophy emphasized positive revolutionary ideas and community effort.
Jeff Donaldson was a co-founding life-long member, and kept extensive files on AfriCOBRA’s early years. Here we have minutes from the group's regular meetings in 1971, from his papers.
AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) is an African American artist collective that was founded in 1968, first under the name COBRA (Coalition of Black Revolutionary Artists), in Chicago, Illinois. The founding AfriCOBRA artists were associated with the Black Arts Movement, and the group grew out of discussions on how their art could express a Black aesthetic. The AfriCOBRA philosophy emphasized positive revolutionary ideas and community effort.
Jeff Donaldson was a co-founding life-long member, and kept extensive files on AfriCOBRA’s early years. Here we have minutes from the group's regular meetings in 1971, from his papers.
Explore the early years of AfriCOBRA by visiting Jeff Donaldson’s fully digitized papers on the Archives of American Art website! The Archives of American Art also holds a collection of interviews from 2010 with several of the founding members, and the transcripts are online! You can see them here.