Wholesale Muddy Waters

"Thief at the Crossroads" is a set of 20 portraits of legendary blues musicians by John Jennings. The set of digital mixed media images is inspired by artist John Akomfrah's 1996 film "The Last Angel of History" which deals with the culture of Afrofuturism and how it relates to techno music inspired by the black experience in urban spaces. These images seek to reinvigorate the genius of the Blues and give praise to the pioneering Prometheus-like "thieves' who stole this energetic and powerful expression at the crossroads. Jennings is an illustrator, designer, curator, and scholar who researches identity in popular culture through the comics medium. His works include "Out of Sequence: Underrepresented Voices in American Comics", "The Hole: Consumer Culture", and "Black Comix: African American Independent Comics Art + Culture" (all co-authored with collaborator Damian Duffy). Jennings teaches in the Department of Visual Studies at the University of Buffalo.