Marquise Johnson-Bey - Moorish Musings through Abstract Visionz
/This episode of Black Beat features local artist, entrepreneur and Deputy Sheik of the Moorish Science Temple, Marquise Johnson-Bey. Born and raised in Portland, he got his start capturing basketball games with legendary Harlem Globetrotters, Les “Pee Wee” Harrison and Meadow “Meadowlark” Lemon. After years building a reputation as an unforgettable artist, photographer, videographer, textile designer and all around creative, Johnson-Bey started an online website platform for artists under his company’s name, Abstract Visionz. As a deeply spiritual devotee of the Moorish Science path, Marquise serves in a position of leadership at the Moorish Science Temple.
What Black Beat Host, John Washington and Marquise Johnson-Bey talk about:
Johnson’s background and inspiration for Abstract Visionz
Background and history of the Moorish Science Temple and his position as a Deputy Sheikh
Successes and challenges navigating his chosen career
His thoughts and perspectives on race relations and realities in America pre and post pandemic
How the pandemic has affected him and his business
How he mitigated the financial blow of COVID -19
His advice for aspiring artists and photographers seeking a career
How our listeners can reach out and contact him
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Even in a community as diverse and multi-faceted as the Soul District in Portland, Oregon, local artist, entrepreneur and Deputy Sheik of the Moorish Science Temple, Marquis Johnson-Bey, stands out on the landscape. “I’m an artist who likes to stay creative and help his people out any way I can,” he shared. “How I have been doing that lately is through my art and helping push the nationality narrative forward. I like to use my art to do that.”
His local roots and passion for art spans more than 25 years. “I was born in Portland and was in the U.S. Navy for about 4 years between ‘97-’01,” remembers Johnson-Bey. “After that the creative bug kicked in and I started a publishing company with a Friend/Brother of mine, Samuel Irving. We started Abstract Visionz in 2001 and used to publish poetry chat books and used to do art poetry shows and things of that nature. He passed away in ‘05 and I took a hiatus because it messed me up a bit. Around 2010, I got into photography and started hanging around with these two guys, Jim Kemper and Michael Washington, from Bongo Media. Through them, I met Les and the Globetrotters. It’s been a nice journey.”
His journey led him to pursue an education in art and photography. “I was taking some photo classes at the San Francisco Art Institute,” he reminisced. “When I got there I started shooting these images called ‘Nubian Guards’. I would recreate images of these Nubian Guards in ancient times. I took these images to my Professor at the time. He looked at my images and my inspiration for the images, a painter named Ludwig Deutsch, who was an Austrian painter who went around the world painting Moors of old times. He painted them in their own environments, whether it was Austria, Hungary, the Americas or Africa. The ones that I came across were here in America. Since the Moors were also painted along with Jewish communities, that led me to think, ‘Where were the Moorish communities?’
His research led him to expand and deepen his quest and he began travelling around the country. “After doing all this research, I went to Oakland, Baltimore, D.C., Seattle and a couple more spots back East. It was when I went to Baltimore that it all really hit when I found the Moorish Science Temple of America: The Divine and National Movement. I was given all this information that started to snowball and I found the Moorish School of Law and History which has been in operation since the late 60’s, early 70’s. This school was actually set up to replace the Freedmen's Bureau which functioned to educate ex-slaves. I went back to Baltimore, talked to the Grand Sheikh and other members, did more research and that took me back to Portland, because I found some Moors here too.”
Johnson-Bey’s art education deepened with his research and he found himself delving deeper into Moorish history and religion. “Before I left San Francisco I was given a 400 page book called, “Exhuming a Nation”. As I’m in school, I’m spending more time reading this book than my actual classes,” he said with a laugh. “There were days I went to school but didn’t go to class. A different fire got set inside of me for this photography project. I actually became what I was searching for, because that is who I was. When you run into Moorish science, you run into other metaphysical science. There is a saying that whatever is part of your evolution also has to be a part of your involution. The fact that negro/black was part of my evolution, I discovered Moorish science in my involution.”
Finding Moorish Science was a life and perspective altering experience that gave him insight into the nature of language and tradition and their impact on culture. “I am aware that when we deal with names and titles, it defines your nature. If a person decides to call themselves a Doctor, they will manifest things that help them become a Doctor. They will manifest the knowledge, the conversation, the tools and so forth and will progress to become a Doctor because the nature of that name will manifest. Same goes if someone wants to be a basketball player or anything else,” he shared. Now when we use the titles Negro, colored, Black, African American, I know those are slave titles given to us by our ex slave masters. The natures of those titles have to manifest in this society because words have power and they manifest. So when those slave titles are used, slave issues and occurrences are going to manifest. Undeniably. Now when we use a free national name or nationality that is tied to law, people and land, then those things will manifest for that individual. So we use a national name that has credence with liberty, has credence with law, credence with justice, and having social freedoms. Those names will empower those individuals in society.”
Empowerment and helping his people to understand their roots and its effect on their present day reality is his driving purpose. “When it comes to our people and how they are being subjected and oppressed on the street, we have to time out, pause and figure out what’s wrong. One, we are using the wrong names and titles that are allowing these things to manifest. Two, we are out of tune with the law. A lot of our people grew up in the civil rights era, Jim Crow and we never put two and two together, by questioning why this is happening to our people and why it is that we are out of tune with the law. We are out of tune with the law because we are not using the right ancestral names because the terms negro black and colored have nothing to do with anything constitutional in this country. When you have a free national name like Moorish-American, or Japanese-American, or Hindustani-American, those names are tied to a constitutional body in law,” he explained. “They come together in law and do lawful things. Our people don’t deal with lawful things as a nation. Our people have to be less subordinate in this situation. A lot of the woes our people are facing come from laws, from what they can or can’t do under the negro/black title.
Johnson-Bey’s research led him to discover a book called “The Legal Status of the Negro”. “This book revealed that a lot of States based the status of the Negro on not being a naturalized citizen under the Hebrew code, two, on education, so a lot of the Negro status laws are based on Negro education, which sadly, is mainly public education which means not being educated by your ancestors or your cultural peers. When you go to the School of Moorish Law and History, you are given a book called, “The Negro Beast”. Come to find out, that book was passed around, not amongst our people, but other people, claiming the status of the Beast because they never took care of their national business to become naturalized citizens of the government they helped build.”
Johnson-Bey is currently using his art education to continue to spread awareness of the beauty of Moorish history and culture. “In San Francisco, I turned that so-called Nubian project into a Moorish photo series project. What I’ve been doing since 2014 is I’ve been going around photographing Moors around the country. Whether I am local or in Detroit, Baltimore or California, what I am doing is creating a Moorish coffee table book, which is almost finished. “In the book, we talk about playing concepts, talk about playing war, talk about playing litigation and we talk about playing poetry. When a person is playing, it’s not just having fun, there is always more at play. Whether it’s the known or unknown, seen or unseen, the heard or the unheard, It might have to do with your destiny, it might have to do with your fate, it might have to do with something legal. When we deal with play, it’s a cultural thing. It’s a character builder, it’s an interlude to let you recharge. I want the younger kids to know that even though they are having fun, there are reasons why and you can add this, or think about this when you are playing or learning to play. It also helps people learn things, learn new dynamics when they play as well.”
The pandemic turned out to be full of opportunities for him to get his book completed and into the hands of the public. “When the pandemic hit, even though there were intimidating factors, it was kind of like I could get projects done and breathe. I received help from the Oregon Cares Act which helped me publish my book. This was help I really needed and I’m so grateful that it came into my life and I met the right people to make that happen because publishing a coffee table book is very expensive.”
In addition to the coffee table book, Johnson-Bey is utilizing an online platform to further connect people to Moorish traditions and culture. “What I started during the pandemic was to start my own platform called abstractvisions.live. This is a platform where you can upload video, livestream and broadcast, and we also have zoom connected to the site as well. While it’s like you-tube, we get to curate the platform so there isn’t so much garbage and visual and musical poison. It’s positive uploads, it’s family friendly, and although it's open to all nations, it is aimed at our people as a place where we can dialogue and tutor ourselves without outside interruptions. I like to think of it as an online healing zone for us and one day I hope to manifest it into a brick and mortar establishment. Right now we are encouraging people to help us build it up with videos, tutorials, educational programs, podcasts, films and we are even hosting spanish classes. We are also getting ready to plug a store into the site as well. “
His motivation for pursuing a life path is based in healing and is what drives him forward in his mission to share the medicine of knowledge presented through art. “What I am doing is like an optical medicine,” he concluded with a smile. “It’s a need to see ourselves in a beautiful, national sense. It helps trigger that genealogical memory, that DNA memory. I need this and anyone else out there like me will need this as well. It’s something good to leave behind.”
Connect and Follow Marquis Johnson- Bey
https://www.abstractvisionz.live/
