Lauri Lyons

Creative Media

VICTORY IS OURS! The impossible is always possible. On November 10, 2022, the Savannah City Council in Georgia unanimously voted to remove John C. Calhoun’s name from one of the City’s historic squares. The vote represents a triumphant victory for the enslaved and free Black people buried beneath the square, their descendants living throughout the African Diaspora, and...

Dear Friends, Celebrate Black History Month by spreading the good news about a new film project that I am honored to be featured in. The Sound She Saw is a documentary film about Black women photographers. The cast of photographers includes Lauri Lyons, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Adrienne Waheed, Dana Scruggs, Fabiola Jean-Louis, Renee Cox, and Marielle Bobo. Watch the film trailer. The Emmy...

The Los Angeles Center of Photography presents 'Social Justice x The Media' .  Six ZOOM classes October 8th - November 12th. Lauri Lyons' class examines how media arts has been used to portray and influence contemporary American social justice movements. Topics will include media from the Southern desegregation movement, civil rights marches, Black power movement,...

Dear Friends, I hope all is good with you. I am happy to share some good news with you. The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund has announced that I have been named a finalist for the 25th annual Howard Chapnick Grant. For more info visit: https://www.smithfund.org/news The grant is presented to an individual or organization to strengthen leadership in any field ancillary to photojournalism,...

   Dear Community, Happy Juneteenth! I hope all is good with you. This year I will be celebrating the Juneteenth holiday in Savannah, Georgia. If you plan on being in the area, I cordially invite you to stop by two fantastic events taking place on Saturday, June 19th. The Savannah African Art Museum will be presenting their Juneteenth celebration from Noon to 4 pm. The...

Dear Friends,  I hope this email finds you well. An exhibition of my Flag series is on display at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design March 26 - May 9, 2021.   The exhibition consists of portraits of people posing with the American flag and their handwritten comments about how they view America. The series was produced in nine countries and the exhibition includes...

Dear Community,  Lauri Lyons and Patt Gunn of the Center for Jubilee, Healing and Reconciliation are honored to spread the word about the Rest with Honor Savannah Initiative to remove the Confederate names from an African burial ground in Savannah, Georgia. Please listen to our new interview with Reverend Robert Lee IV for his podcast Beloved Journal . Listen:...

   Instructor : Lauri Lyons   Register: $246.00   Date Start: Tuesday, November 10, 2020   Date End: Tuesday, December 8, 2020   Time: 7:30-10:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) In this course students will examine how media arts has been used to portray and influence American social justice movements, issues around cultural diversity, and economics of the...

Iconic photographer Slim Aarons was famous for documenting the good life. Now his daughter and former photo assistant, Mary Aarons, is revealing her father’s techniques for creating the perfect shot. Lauri Lyons: Where was your father, Slim Aarons, originally from? Mary Aarons: He was born in New York City. Lyons: Did he serve in the military before becoming a professional...

TV journalist Soledad O’Brien has tirelessly crisscrossed the globe to report breaking news and produce social documentaries for CNN, Al Jazeera, and HBO. We were lucky enough to catch up with Soledad en route to the airport for her annual Starfish Foundation Gala, through which she works to assist young women scholars get to and through college. Here is the veteran reporter’s take...

For most people the idea of Black History month is relegated to the African-American experience in the United States. While Africa and America are often recognized as the book ends of the African Diaspora, there is an additional link in the Middle Passage that is less publicized, but no less important. The central link in the Middle Passage is Brazil. Today Brazil has the largest population of...

If you haven’t noticed, there is a cultural shift taking place in America, and across the globe. The shift is loud, colorful, disruptive, and at times entertaining. Afropunk, the international music festival and community, is part of the alternative cultural shift taking over New York, Paris, and Atlanta. Afropunk’s Jocelyn Cooper takes a moment to share its master plan. Lauri...

Julian Lennon is charting new artistic territories with his photography exhibition Horizons. Most noted as a musician and the first son of Beatles member John Lennon, Julian has found his true voice as a photographer and philanthropist, while exploring the world and his life’s purpose. I recently sat down with Julian to talk about his first visit to Africa, which is the subject of the...

As a person born after the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, I was not a witness to the loud calls for justice that took place in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. Like many generations that followed, my knowledge of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. primarily came from what I was taught in school and from archival film clips of the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and the 1963 March on...

Since the success of the 2010 World Cup, tourism to South Africa has dramatically increased and for the first time, Americans are leading the pack with reservations for South African adventure packages. If you feel that you are past the stage of backpacking and youth hostels, South Africa offers a multitude of luxury adventure activities that allow you to experience Africa without roughing...

For many years I have been hearing that Costa Rica is a great place to go on vacation. I also heard that the country was the leader in ecotourism. All of that sounded great, but I have to admit that in my urban mind, I expected Costa Rica to be a typical tropical destination. I decided to sign up for an eco-vacation to discover what sustainable tourism is all about. Upon arriving in the...

If your idea of Canada is dominated by maple syrup, hockey, flannel shirts or the G-20 Summit, it's time to discover Toronto as the new capital of Cool. Toronto boasts a population of five million people, 200 ethnic groups and 130 languages. Each year the city absorbs approximately 50,000 immigrants, making it Canada's largest city and surprisingly one of the most culturally diverse...

Since 1913, The Armory Show Art Fair has been the preeminent international exhibition of modern art in the United States. Every March, galleries, private dealers, and artists descend upon New York to review, sell and purchase the latest work by contemporary artist working in all visual disciplines. Quite simply, The Armory Show is a must see for any art enthusiast. This year the show expanded...

The 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama was not only a bold step forward for the United States, but also served as a point of reflection on the events that paved a long road to equality. The early 1960’s began a period of turbulent struggle for justice and equality for America’s citizens. The Civil Rights Movement demanded that the promise made by our country’s...

In the context of popular culture the history of Hip-Hop has been recited and mythologized many times over. Born in the 1970’s South Bronx, from a foundation of Jamaican DJ techniques and verbal delivery, African-American soul music, Brazilian capoeira inspired breakdance moves, and technicolor aerosol paint, grew the international phenomena known as Hip-Hop. The one element of Hip-Hop...

What is America? It is a challenge to singularly define America because the country reinvents itself on a daily basis. Growing up I have been able to view America from several perspectives: Black, female, first-generation American, and a former military child. Always being on the move has made me curious about how people come to formulate opinions about themselves and others. As a college...