Otis Smith

Artworks

 

Disabled Black Panthers in The Bay, 2021. Digital print original (concept by Leroy F Moore Jr). Courtesy of Leroy Moore.

Audio description 

This new artwork is from a concept by Leroy F Moore Jr and commemorates three disabled Black Panthers who have been prominent in the Bay Area. It depicts, clockwise from front left, Bradley Lomax, Kiilu Nayasha, Malcolm Samuels, and Glenn Lomax posing outside the Black Panther Party office in Oakland. 

Lomax was part of the Section 504 protest in 1977 when about a hundred people with disabilities took over the San Francisco federal building for 26 days to establish the first civil rights legislation for people with disabilities. Without the support of the Black Panther Party, who provided hot food for the protesters every day, the sit-in may have failed, and Lomax was instrumental in bringing in their support. To his right is his brother Glenn, who was also a Black Panther. Nayasha was a local journalist, TV and radio host, and lifelong activist. Samuels, another lifelong activist for social justice, lived in Berkeley.

About the Artist

Otis Smith has been a long-time creative partner with KripHop Nation, an international association of Black artists with disabilities.

Otis Smith is an African American spoken word and visual artist with a rare disability known as femoral hypoplasia syndrome. He was born with short limbs and uses a wheelchair. He is based in Southern California and was educated at Long Beach City College, where he wrote and illustrated four comic books.