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 ==