{"id":26842,"date":"2025-12-07T15:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T20:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=26842"},"modified":"2025-12-07T21:14:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T02:14:21","slug":"napoleon-jones-henderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2025\/12\/07\/napoleon-jones-henderson\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye To Revered Boston Artist Napoleon Jones-Henderson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Revered Roxbury artist Napoleon Jones-Henderson<\/a> died Saturday, Dec. 6, a City of Boston staffer tells me. He\u2019d long been ill with cancer. He was an eminence. He was so cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in Chicago in 1943, Napoleon came up as part of the revolutionary Chicago art collective African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCobra), founded in the late 1960s. It was one of the most influential art groups of the past century, producing art radiating psychedelic Black Power. Starting out, they priced their art to make it affordable to their community\u2014to spread the word as well as to bring Black beauty and pride into local homes. In their manifesto, they outlined their guiding principles: \u201cExpressive awesomeness,\u201d positive images of Black culture, African-inspired symmetry and rhythm, commitment to the struggles of African peoples, affordable art, \u201cshine\u201d (\u201cthe rich luster of a just-washed \u2018fro, or spit-shined shoes, of de-ashened elbows and knees and noses), and bold \u201ccool-ade colors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do not make \u2018art\u2019 rather I am participating in ritual, a ritual as important to the Afrikan man as it was to his CREATOR. The ritual of harmonious interlocking, creating a whole,\u201d Napoleon wrote in the catalog for the \u201cAfri-Cobra III\u201d exhibition at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Art Gallery in 1973. \u201c\u2026We must be about the business of expressing what is \u2018BEAUTIFUL\u2019 ourselves.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson textile.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While other members made paintings and prints, Napoleon created dazzling weavings. \u201cTo be free \u2026 We must protect our community. Come together to learn to defend us,\u201d Napoleon wove in the group\u2019s signature bright colors around a Black face in his 1970 tapestry \u201cTCB.\u201d \u201cStop genocide,\u201d he said in a 1975 tapestry. \u201cAll men are equal,\u201d he wrote across his 1976 screenprint \u201cA Few Words from the Prophet Stevie,\u201d \u201cIf you want to hear our view: you ain\u2019t done nothing!!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When AfriCobra members spread around the country as they took up teaching jobs, Napoleon landed in Boston in 1974 to teach textiles at Massachusetts College of Art. Over the years, Napoleon also expanded into public art\u2014like his \u201cRoxbury Rhapsody\u201d tile mural inside the Bruce Bolling Building in Boston\u2019s Nubian Square and his \u201cProcession of the Ancients\u201d in Providence\u2019s Conventional Center. Boston\u2019s Institute of Contemporary Art gave him a retrospective<\/a> during the Black Lives Matter days of 2022, which felt both wonderful and belated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson during Roxbury Open Studios, Oct. 7, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Napoleon and I were friendly. I grew up in Chicago too, so I felt kinship with the Chicago-to-Boston adventure. I last saw him in October during Roxbury Open Studios. His home on Morley Street was an astonishing neoclassical edifice with massive columns rising to the sky (long under renovation), and inside racks of jazz recordings, his loom, and art by so many friends and comrades\u2014AfriCobra, Boston\u2019s Paul Goodnight, <\/strong>legendary Chicago artist, community builder and museum founder Margaret Burroughs, etc. Inspirations all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I saw Napoleon in October, I offered to help him with the autobiography he was planning.  I followed up with an email, and some weeks later he asked for photos, but I\u2019ve been too sick with cancer myself to get back to him. Sigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Napoleon\u2019s death leaves me sad\u2014and angry. He was another dazzling local artist, too often overlooked and neglected due to the persistent racism and provincialism of the white-dominated fine art world. I\u2019m angry about him being gone\u2014and angry about missing out on what more amazingness he could have created in a more hospitable world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<I\u2019ll add info about memorial services as soon as I learn of them.><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Wadsworth Jarrell, AfriCOBRA And Creating \u2018Art That African People Can Relate To\u2019 <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Original Black Power Mural And A New History Of African American Art From Chicago<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Hairy Who: Chicago\u2019s Sordid, Goofball, Raucous, Grotesque \u201860s Pop Art<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 How Dana Chandler Brought Black Power To Boston Art, Murals And Museums<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Earth Expedition Of Sun Ra, Jazz Visionary And Afrofuturist Pioneer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9 Greg Cook 2025 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson’s “A Few Words from the Prophet Stevie,” 1976, screenprint.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson during Roxbury Open Studios, Oct. 7, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson’s Boston home, Oct. 4, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson at his Boston home during Roxbury Open Studios, Oct. 4, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson’s Boston home, Oct. 4, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson speaks about public art at the Boston Society for Architects Space, April 29, 2019. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson’s “Convergence ’96” (left) and another enamel on copper on wood artwork in his Boston home, Oct. 4, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson’s Boston home, Oct. 4, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson at his Boston home during Roxbury Open Studios, Oct. 4, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson’s home-studio during Roxbury Open Studios, Oct. 7, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson’s home-studio during Roxbury Open Studios, Oct. 7, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Napoleon
Napoleon Jones-Henderson during Roxbury Open Studios, Oct. 7, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revered Roxbury artist Napoleon Jones-Henderson died Saturday, Dec. 6, a City of Boston staffer tells me. He\u2019d long been ill with cancer. He was an eminence. He was so cool. Born in Chicago in 1943, Napoleon came up as part of the revolutionary Chicago art collective African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCobra), founded in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[495,496,1208],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26842"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26842"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26870,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26842\/revisions\/26870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}