Will the real Carl Lewis please slow down?
Currently a Vocalist and Aural Colourist in Marcia Miget's mee-j Carl's life has been one of endless opportunities. His roots as an artist began as a member of the prestigious Cathedral of St. John the Divine Boys' Choir's (NY), last boarding class. Upon graduation he was chosen for inclusion in the Little Church around the Corner's (the Actors' Church) choir performing Broadway show tunes as well as secular music. He's sung in venues such as Philharmonic Hall, Canegie Hall and Rockefller Center. While attending DeWitt Clinton HS he was a member of the varsity chorus and a member of Pen and Scroll Drum and Bugle Corps. The US Air Force altered the direction of this Merit Scholar by providing a background in anatomy, physiology and biochemistry via Histopathology rather than computers. Carl was to become one of the youngest supervisors of a pathology laboratory during his enlistment and the only minority. Discharged in 1977 college opened the doorway to art and design.
In 1997 he co-founded CROFA and was involved in every aspect of designing and implementing innovative and creative cultural, educational and recreational programs for youth and their families. As President of the Crown Family Unity Programs, he felt that diversity, social evolution, critical thinking development, educational modalites and cultural integrity are significant and integral to the programs. This facet of his artistic career began as Director of the program now called Skate Away From ViolencE (SAFVE). This program takes contemporary pastimes such as inline skating and uses an educational, Humanities-based approach to presenting them as 'edu-fun' as after- or in-school programming in urban neighborhoods.
A visual 'arkhetek' his thirty career as an artist has encompassed designing objects from jewelry to fashion to furniture. His photographic imagery is represented in the collections of such institutions as the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Southern Methodist University, Texas Instruments, the Brooklyn Museum, the Schomburg Collection for Research into Black Culture of the New York City Public Library, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and the Amon Carter Museum. In 1993 he was selected to be one of ten artists included in a Curriculum Guide for the Smithsonian Institution's African American Museum Project. A Fellow of the International Biographical Center (Cambridge) he's referenced in a number of publications, e.g., most recently African American Lives by Henry Louis Gates and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Who's Who in the South and Southwest (24th through Millennium Editions), Black Photographers 1940-1988; a Bio-Bibliography, An Illustrated Survey of Contemporaries, and Deborah Wills' Reflections in Black; Black Photographers 1940 to the Present and the 58th Edition of Who’s Who in America. He is also on the Board of Advisors for the American Biographical Center and the Research Board of Advisors for the American Biographical Institute. A current member of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' Art and Film Task Force he is also a Board Member of the Bay Area Blues Society.
A graduate of Dov SS Siemens' Hollywood Film Institute and past member of the Royal Photographic Society, he is an 8-year veteran of the Texas Commission on the Arts Artist-in-Education Program. For 5 years he served on the Public Art Committee for the City of Dallas (1991-1994, 1996-1998) and the City of Plano (1995). He has sat on numerous local and national art panels, taught workshops and classes on photography and design, as well as lectured on issues relating to education, art and the role of the artist in contemporary society, the history meanings of indigenous textiles and organized speaking events for artists such as Gordon Parks, In 2003 he was the Featured Visual Artist at the University of California Santa Cruz's Global African Music and Arts Festival/Symposium designing the visual effects and lighting design for the featured performance.
His interest in cultural heritage expanded through his participation in 1998 in the Micro-Economic Development portion of Sustainable Community Development projects in Africa and Jamaica. In 1999 he became one of the creative principles in an independent film production and effects company, akh*SYS Image Group. Most recently his energies are involved in imajinnWEST, the design source for projects and products evolving from Lumiere Captureé (Captured Light), co-authored with Dr. Donna Finch Adams and scheduled to be released in 2004. This treatise is an overview of the history of laser-imagery-as-art. Latest in his box of tools are the twin websites, imajinnation.com and imajinnation.net. The .com provides a home for imajinnWEST, the limited editon textile designs and wearablart and imajpool. While the .net will be focused on Spirit, Mind and Body, JazGriot the Lifetales of Elder musicians, distributing edu-fun products and programs evolved from the Crown Family Unity Programs for youth and their families in conjunction with Miraflores Music Academie. As co-producer of the Passing the Baton Project the Redd-Miget Session you're invited to www.mee-j.com to listen with your heart to the music.