WHCY PR MAG talks to Province about his bookshop United Minds, Black Literature, his book Mas Caras Africanas and the cultural landscape in Spain.
Youth subcultures, rebellious thinking and community-led movements are the force behind any country’s thriving creative scene. WHCY PR MAG shines light on emerging and blue-chip artists across the world, pushing boundaries and shaping culture with their art.
WHCY PR MAG sits down with multidisciplinary artist and culture dealer Ken Province, from Valencia, Spain, to chat about his work and his vision.
Image courtesy of the artist
Born to a Spanish mother and Haitian father in Valencia, Spain, in 1984, Ken Province is the Founder and Director of United Minds – the first specialised bookshop dedicated to African literature and thought in Spain, launched in 2014 -. With roots tracing back to Haiti and Equatorial Guinea, the bookshop shares black cultural history and heritage through a catalogue of narratives from African authors and the African Diaspora. United Minds offered a physical safe-space for anyone interested about culture; a collaborative Afro-centred community devoted to producing and promoting culture. With the help of its members, writers and collaborators, United Minds has been filling the gap that exists when talking about universal literature and history in Spain by highlighting the voices of the forgotten – Black and Afro-descendant authors.
Today, United Minds has evolved into a digital bookshop, with a catalogue of over 1400 publications. The online platform also has a dedicated section for art, and offers an interdisciplinary cultural experience to visitors.
Besides running United Minds, Ken Province is a music producer, MC and illustrator. In 2020 Ken released a photobook under the pseudonym Doctor Mackandal – Mas Caras Africanas. Made up of 365 of his single-line drawings, the book represents the African community through Ken’s lenses.
When and Where were you born?
I was born in Valencia, in 1984.
Where are your parents from?
My father is from Gonaives, Haiti. My mother was born in Valencia, but my maternal family is from Castilla la Mancha.
Do you remember growing up? When did you start exploring your creative side?
I remember my childhood; in fact, it is that memory that keeps my creativity alive. Drawing is one of the first creative memories I have. Music, producing music and writing lyrics came later, in my adolescence.
What type of “art” do you make?
Drawing, design, music, experimenting with both, experimenting with new technologies…anything that I can use as a medium of communication and expression.
When did you start making music?
When I was 15 I wrote my first rap song, after attending a local hip hop concert.
When did you start drawing?
Since I can remember, I love comics. In school I was always the one who used to be distracted, and would fill my textbooks with drawings.
When did you start reading? And Black Literature?
After my teenage years I never really liked books, I had a passion for the written word, oratory, poetry and puns. I began to read seriously when I started finding stories that represented me – that was maybe after I turned 20. By that time, books by Frederick Douglass and The Fight of the Power by Chuck D had fallen into my hands. When I began to gather this type of literature, I never stopped until I built United Minds.
How did United Minds come to life? What’s the purpose?
United Minds was born when I started to apply everything I knew to everything I do. Hip-Hop set up the foundations to treat books in the same way I treated records. I dug, I collected and I shared. The goal is to put this bibliography on the table and to let magic happen. That’s what books did for me, they made me create United Minds.
Image courtesy of the artist
How do your music – illustration – books come together?
The three connect through the mantra already mentioned above “apply everything you know to everything you do” – the more I self-reflected, the more options and paths I was able to see. The music that I listen to talks about the same topics that I read in many of these books; the songs mention these authors, and these authors tell stories that speak about powerful characters, many of which didn’t have names or surnames. So I decided to draw them: my illustrations are very “hip hop”, they are made up of strokes that vibrate like graffiti tags, like the sound waves displayed in digital audio production software. These three facets of my work feed off each other, in an infinite loop.
Image courtesy of the artist.
What’s your mission statement?
I want people around me to be as powerful and as potent as they can be; only that way I can become a better human. Or I just want to be able to reach out to those people who have been affected by Culture and History in the same way I have. Maybe it’s about putting into practice a lot of that Ancestral Wisdom, such as Ubuntu (that translates as “I am because we are”); or like that Jamaican saying “Iron sharpens Iron”. I firmly believe that in Africa, there are many solutions to the problems of humanity, at a cosmogonic level.
Doctor Mackandal, when did you start using the name? What does it mean?
I personally mix everything and then I find out its meaning. In this case, the “Doctorate” I obtained from “Life”. In this occasion, the extensive bibliographic work that I have done in the last 10 years shows me that I have learnt everything I know outside academia, in fact, what I have learnt cannot be found in university syllabi; I think that not following the norm is one of my favourite things in life. At an artistic leve it’s the same, my strokes are “crooked”, but I bring beauty out of them. Thus, I combined this “Doctorate” with one of the most prominent actors of the Haitian Revolution – François Mackandal -, someone who had a mythological, fantastic aura. That’s how Doctor Mackandal was born, after “Kenny”‘s death (like in Southpark) or “Kennyken”, my previous alter ego. It was the transition to my “second youth”: my 30s. I think that evoking Doctor Mackandal gives me room to explore, it gives me many superpowers. I think this character is a nutty professor that experiments with life, creating inventions and worlds.
You released a book in 2020 – Mas Caras Africanas – what is it about?
It is a photobook. I took the idea from Ruben H Bermudez and his book “Y tú, ¿por qué eres negro?”. I used the idea and the same format, and created my own world: there are 365 faces in the pages of this work. It barely has any text. But the faces are suggestive. And well, the pun in the title also adds spice.
Image courtesy of the artist
As an art creator and curator, what are the main challenges you face? Is Spain tough?
I would not say that I have tried doing “anything” yet, I think I just create and create non-stop and I have a lot of material. I have been invited to some events and I have been asked to create bespoke work, but I still can’t talk about those challenges. We’ll see how tough Spain is now that I intend to network and get into many “circles” that need a bit of “colour”.
How important is “Economic Capital” to promote culture?
I believe Culture has value; and there are many things that are not valued, or that they try to pay with “visibility”. In my case, I like to think that my art is macerating for when the right time comes.
Image courtesy of the artist
Would you be able to recommend 5 titles/authors that impacted you in 2022-2023?
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney
Mississippi to Madrid: Memoir of a Black American in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade by James Yates
Nations nègres et culture by Cheikh Anta diop
Black Marxism – Cedric J Robinson
The Parable of the Sower – Octavia Butler
After the BLM protests in 2020, the world has seen a mobilization of Black and PoC activists, especially in Europe. How do you think it impacted the Afrodescendants and Black Diaspora in Spain?
In my opinion, there’s more visibility, but the thought and the narrative have not matured yet; they have not been shared from generation to generation, that’s why it may seem a media campaign, more than a real movement. Regardless, it has had an impact, and that’s an incentive to keep pushing things to the next level. In Europe it’s the cards we’ve been dealt with, but there’s a lot to say (on the topic) from here too.
What’s next for KEN?
I’d say more freedom and dedication to create artwork and content. So far, working in the store and managing the bookshop has taken a lot of my time, but they have also nourished me, allowing me to create all these works. I can’t say what will be next for sure yet, but it seems like I have the ingredients already. Now it’s time to prepare the menu.