Chester Higgins Jr. and Our Sacred Moments (Part II) — Episode 7

What makes a moment sacred? How do memory, ancestry, and spirit converge in a single image?

In Part II of our extraordinary conversation with acclaimed photographer and visual historian Chester Higgins Jr., we journey deeper into the spiritual and emotional dimensions of photography and human experience. A longtime photographer for The New York Times and one of the most important chroniclers of the African diaspora, Higgins has spent more than five decades documenting the beauty, dignity, and sacredness of Black life around the world.

Joined by host Patrick A. Howell, Higgins reflects on the moments that transcend journalism and become acts of witness—capturing not simply what people looked like, but who they were, what they believed, and the unseen forces that connected them to their ancestors and to one another.

Together, they explore the meaning of sacred memory, the responsibility of artists as cultural stewards, the enduring influence of Gordon Parks, and the profound idea that every human being carries within them a divine story waiting to be seen.

This is not merely a conversation about photography. It is a meditation on spirit, purpose, remembrance, and the timeless power of seeing ourselves—and each other—with grace.

Global I Am. Wisdom & Grace.

The Culture. Our Capital.

Global I AM Conversations is an ongoing and archived podcasts of the world's builders, artists, entrepreneurs, thinkers, innovators, public servants, and cultural architects whose lives remind us that people—not capital—remain our greatest investment.   

Hosted by Patrick A. Howell, Founder & CEO of Global Market Intelligence & Media (GMIQ).  Co-hosts include Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair, Bill Huston of Crowd Max and Tara Frater, a wealth advisor and attorney in Barbados. 

Discover more conversations, articles, podcasts and global stories at GMIQ.

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The Culture. Our Capital.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

So I think the most important books actually would be Black Woman, Drums of Life, Fill in the Spirit, and Elder Grace, Echo of the Spirit, and Sacred Nile. And if you if you want to get into real deep research into Egyptology, then I say the book is ancient Nubia.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Hi, I'm Bill Houston, co-host of Global I Am and founder of Crowdmax, a national leader in finance and crowdfunding. I've worked across the global diaspora to bring community dollars into every interaction, every dollar, and every level of consciousness. Since the bipartisan 2012 Jobs Act expanded access to investment, our focus has been turning participation into ownership. Global IM curates this vision for a better humanity. We invite your questions, your ideas, and most importantly, your deal flow as together we make the world better one deal at a time.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Some places are built on land, others are shaped by over 650 acres of it. Designed in harmony, Forest Hill. Choose tomorrow today.

SPEAKER_04 2:07

Max, thank you for the easy questions.

Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair 2:11

Yes, of course. It's only only because I love you, Chester, and I know your work.

unknown 2:21

Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 2:23

Well, okay, well, I will try to do the impossible.

Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair 2:29

Okay, yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_04 2:32

Would you like for that to be a picture in the in the States or in the on the African continent or Europe or the picture whose story moves you to speak? Well, you know, last night I had an opening at uh my gallery in Soho, and in that exhibition, uh there are two images that are sort of like mirrors each other. And one of them is on the cover of the Have you seen the book I did Comes a Life on Black Men? It was a picture of a man, a silhouette of a of a father swinging his son in the sun, sunset. And then at this exhibition, there was another picture of a father swinging his son from a from Brooklyn from the from a park near me where you had the Walt Tracer in the background. In my book on black men, I use another picture to show a father in the woods carrying his son on his shoulder. And the reason those pictures are so uh there is because they represent a rite of passage, I think, for fathers. Any father. Because the fathers tend to have this tip have this tendency to do three dangerous things with their children. You ride them on the top of their shoulder, God forbid the kid falls. You swing the kid around, God forbid the kid falls, and then they will throw them up in the air. God forbid the kids fall. That's right.

Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair 4:13

That's what we do. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 4:15

But you cannot stop a father. You can, these are three things that's written in the father's DNA. You can't seem to stop it. They automatically come at some point, when they're young, they will have to do these three things to their children. So, to me, this speaks, this is a bombing situation. Because it to the child, it reinforces to the child that you're safe with me. Something dangerous could happen that can go out of control, but I'm here. I'm the I'm I'm the I'm the I'm the one you can depend upon. This is something that's innate in our DNA that does this. Now, and as we go through, as they get older, that same formula will take place in different situations. You know, where you're giving advice, or I remember when I had to learn how to walk over a log, over a creek, and not worry about falling in it, and had to listen to my great uncle in front of me tell me how to do it without looking at my feet. These are there all throughout life, where people who we love will come to these situations where we have these bondings. So that to me was a great bonding, but then I didn't have to pivot to a picture I made in Ghana. That's in the book on Fuel and the Spirit. And it's a morning landscape at the ocean. The ocean is on the right side of the picture, and on the and the sun is rising, and you have these two figures. And at first, it's like one figure standing over another. You don't know if that figure who's standing is standing over a statue or what. But it's a father standing over his son. And I'm just going along the beach because I love shooting from sunrise, what I call 30% light, sunrise to maybe eight, and then sunset, uh, 4:30 to maybe six or seven. So I'm moving along the beach with a long lens, and I see that the son had been standing while the father took his finger and and and demarcated a square of space on the sand. Sanctify the space. Then he had his son step into the space and had the son kneel down in front of him. And then he stood in front of the sun, put a Bible to the son's forehead, and began to pray. Inside the sacred space with him. That to me was another moment of bonding. So I'm always looking for these bonding moments. I do it with women, I do it with men, I do it with children, because the bonding is the adhesive that we need to keep developing to tie us together. For moments of dependence. Because when we learn new stuff, you know, if you want a friend and you're learning new stuff about something, about yourself especially, and if your friend says, Yeah, man, forget that, that's crazy. That has an effect on you, as opposed to a friend saying, Oh, really? What does that say? Well, you what what are you learning? That has an effect on you. So that um and I think all of my work, uh whatever picture that you're looking at, is to suck you in to the moment. Because I used the I use I use behavior as a bridge to suck you in to the to appreciate what you're looking at, to suck you into the meaning of it, so that it becomes, hopefully that meaning becomes explosive in your own head. I don't know if I succeed, but this is what I try to do.

Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair 8:10

You do. You might you might have succeeded, Chester. You might have succeeded. So if if for our listeners, um, for our listeners who may not know your work, uh, may not know your work yet, where what book would you ask them to begin with?

SPEAKER_04 8:33

Well, first of all, I'll say go to the website. I mean, go to go on Google, just Google me, and you'll come up and go in images, and you're gonna see a lot of my stuff. Uh, but then go to my website, chesterhiggins.com. I have two websites, chesterhiggins.com and sacredniel.com. Now, in books, I published seven books. The first three books was C Black Woman, that was published just when I get out of college in 1970. And then two years later, drums a life on black men. And then I did a history book, but uh that was a total research book, it's not my pictures. Uh and then uh the next book I think, well, I think this would be after that there was I went through divorce, I had a long you know, period, then I did Feeling the Spirit, and I kept working on Feeling the Spirit. So I think the most important books actually would be uh You know Black Woman, Drums of Life, Feeling the Spirit, um, and uh Elder Grace, um, Echo of the Spirit, and uh Sacred Nile. And if you if you want to get into uh real deep research into Egyptology, then I say the book is uh is uh ancient uh Nubia. But um all of these books will hopefully will uh deepen your appreciation of yourself and our people and where we've come. And this is a long distance race. This is a this is not a short race, but um it's important that, and I think all those people, you know, there are better, first I'll say there are better photographers, black photographers in the world that exist than me. Uh the difference is be is is the chance of opportunities. Uh, and and that's it. And all of us photographers, uh well, if you notice, one thing I don't do, I don't do confrontational pictures. I'm not a civil rights photographer, but instead I'm looking at what is precious in the lives of those people that forces them to go out and be on picket lines. And what's precious in their lives is their children, are their are their relatives, uh, their uh community members. That's what forces us to go out. Say, dear, what we come from, who we are surrounded with, means something to us. And they may not mean anything to you, but because they mean something to us, we the young lions, the young bloods, are here to remind you that they must be respected and that they must be honored and they must be protected. Uh, and that's fundamental, what we're all are doing. Uh, and I appreciate whoever is doing that. I love it because this is not uh, this, this, this war, this struggle cannot be won by any one person. We need the front line with thousands of eyes. Thousands of eyes that overwhelm the enemy, that wherever they look, they have they're forced to see things that they cannot, that's not on their radar that they can't see. And so Chester Higgins is not the answer, Gordon Parks is not the answer. Hundreds and thousands of us in our own communities are the answers. And if Chester Higgins and Gordon Parks and Roddy Pilava and other people give help give all these other um eyes the ground upon which to stand and the lighthouse on which to focus, then that's our role uh to push, push the front line forward. Uh because our people deserve it. We deserve it, and we come from great people. And our people have made it possible for, you know, the only reason you know that uh today is Friday and that next Friday will happen again on this same point is because of the calendar. Black people invented the calendar. The Egyptians invented the calendar. The Egyptians invented time, the Egyptians knew the world was rounded. When they talk about the dark ages, that what that means is the stupid times. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair 12:59

Are you are you telling me that the Egyptians are responsible for Monday? I've been looking for that guy. I've been looking for that guy. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:09

The only reason you know that Monday is gonna exist, and Monday's because of the calendar. The only reason you know that next month is gonna exist or new existing. I'm gonna find that guy, and when I do gesture, I'm gonna give it to him. Oh, he did a good thing for us. Because that shows the science of knowing that the Egyptians thinking about where we were. Not just on the planet. They figured out where we were in the cosmos. And it not only that, but they figured out who was the creator of the cosmos. And in their mind, the creator was the black woman. Because for them, the creator is this woman called New Eat, who is the black of the night sky. And Nu Eat is the one that recharges the sun. When it goes down at sunset, they have this figure left behind. So this is not something, and this is not something that you would get out of Egyptology for two reasons. One, it's because it shows the high praise for not a white person but a black person. Number two, Egyptology, which was is a science that was meant to divide the memory of Africa from African people, is authored mostly by white men, with their own egos, so therefore they cannot be centered in this story if it's a black woman. So you don't get this. But then thankfully, the Egyptians, our ancestors knew that one day we would forget. That's why they etched our story and their story in every medium possible. Whether that's painting, stone, uh, of coins, uh, underneath items, it's there all over. So no matter how much has been destroyed, it's still there. And what if you go to Egypt, you're in awe of what you see. But you know, when you start studying it, you realize that what you see is like the skeleton of a caucus. And that caucus is still full of so much information. So you have this painting that the Egyptians left behind in tombs. And the painting is of a black woman arching over the planet in the downward dog yoga position. Her arms are extended and her legs are extended over something that I never realized in life before until I saw this and studied it in the solar poles. Not the magnetic poles of north-south, but the solar poles of the direction of the sun from the east to the west. So her arms are extended to the western horizon, her feet are on the east. Why? Because when the tired sun goes down under the western horizon, her arms become a runway that the sun climbs up her arms into her face and she swallows it. There is recharge for the next 12 hours in her body, in the blackness of space. And because her dress has been made with zigzag holes in it, we see through the star light as it goes through her body. And then in the morning, her foot is on the eastern horizon where the sun rises, and she gives birth to it. But she gives birth to it, it becomes the solar, the sun, that we call Ra. But she gives birth to it, she needs her midwife to help her. And that's where the God of the Egyptians, the only one God, the Egyptians, come into play. And that god that helps her give birth has a name. And that name has four letters. And you may have heard this before: A, M, E, N. That's the name of the African God. Amen. So when the white people, the Greeks, tried to create a political document, now they call the Bible, they did not have a sacred heritage. There's nowhere in European life, history, where there's a sacred heritage. They have Stonehenge, but they don't know what it's about because there's no writings left behind. The Egyptians had a whole country of temples and writings. So we know what it's about. Out of that sacred heritage, they then plagiarized. And then they did something very political. They demonized the very people they plagiarize. But Amen, they couldn't get rid of Amen, they couldn't get rid of Sunday. Sunday, you worship Rama. That Amen had brought forward. And then in their philosophy, they don't worship people. They worship nature. Nature is the is the is the uh expression of our men. You have the witnesses to that expression. In our sky, we have two windows. One is the sun, one is the moon. Those are witnesses to the expression of our men. All of the, there's no theological concept that you can even say that does not, that's not on the engraved in stone walls from ancient Egypt. Ascension to heaven, soul, spirit, all of those things, they're there. I seen them, I photographed them. I know where they're, I know I know where they're found, and that's what Sacred Now is the beginning of, a story that I have yet to do on just Egypt. But it's and then the other story on Egypt that we have been touched upon is Exodus. Exodus was a great story, isn't it? Exodus happened to us before it happened, before it got copied to them. Exodus is when the invading nations come into Egypt through the 200-mile land bridge that Moses didn't know was there, invading and sending the people into disruption and having to escape through the south, through the Nile, going north-south, till you get to a point that the rivers, major rivers go east-west, the rivers with the major highways. All of this stuff. We don't, we have no particular thing because we've been overwhelmed by this stuff. I won't say what I want to say, we've been overwhelmed by this other story. It's a nice story, but it didn't exist. And I say to people, oh, you know, you're going to say it didn't exist. Look, the Bible was forced up to people by the slave master.

Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair 19:48

I'm sorry, Tessa. I know that we're winding down a little bit, and I I know that you have a a gallery opening uh uh soon. Can uh when is that gallery opening? And and just tell us what we can expect to find there. What will you be showing?

SPEAKER_04 20:06

Oh, please come. It's a survey show, actually, from my earlier time in Mapin County to uh my picture last year in Rwanda. Uh it's uh it's called Shared Memories. Memories that we share, whether we know it or not. And it's at the gallery uh called Bruce Silverstein. Uh and it's uh at it's in Soho at 529 West 20th Street. It opened last night and it'd be there for six weeks. So please 53 images uh ranged in size from uh 4x5 to uh 40 uh 40 by 6 feet. Uh it's an incredible show. Uh anyone who wants to get a sense of what I do over time uh and will love it. You see a through line, you make a lot of discoveries of new stuff that you haven't seen, some things you have seen. Uh it's it's a delight. It's it's uh uh it's a feast for the eyes and for the heart. Shared memories. Yep. Shared Memories, Bruce Silvestine Gallery, 529 West 20th Street. And um treat is it's a treat. You uh because you're you are uh you deserve a treat. Just like Patrick when he first saw the book, he said, Oh, I'm gonna steal this. This is mine. Come in, come in and enjoy yourself. Walk around.

Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair 21:38

I I I remind I remind Patrick that that is not our language. I love it, man. We do not take okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Well the the context the context was this is 1990s, I'm a cowberg that was. Into the Barnes and Nobles on Telegraph Avenue, I see feeling the spirit searching the world for the people of Africa. I'm like, oh whatever. I open it up, and there was just something inside of me on 50 different levels that was like, this is mine, and it belongs to me. And a lot of it has to do with the propaganda that we received for decades. And when you see with clarity what we are, you're like, where is this? And why? And it's masterful what they've done. So, joke taken, but also I felt like it was like that scene in the Black Panther where they have Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger, and he's like, Don't worry about it, I'm gonna take this artifact off your hands. That's how you got it from us. It was that. But yeah. That's good.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

That's good. And I hope when they make a new Black Panther, they get rid of the White Savior. But when you said that, I thought about Abby Hoffman's book. Yeah, you know, Abby Hoffman from uh feel this book. But one thing I want to say about the uh this book, Feel my Spirit, the publisher really gave me a lot of support. They published 52,000 copies of that book. Because they were convinced that black people were gonna respond the way that Patrick responded. But they didn't. And it had a lot to do with the price. It was a quality book. You don't get that kind of reproduction, and I mean it's cheaper to print a book to just type. It's very expensive to print a book, just pictures. But as you can imagine or may not imagine, most of the people who bought that book were not black. But I'm glad. Uh and I'm glad of whatever black people did find that book and bought that book, that they were able to uh uh find solace and companionship with it.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

I'm proud of the book. I it's the classic. Yes, it is, and I'm and I'm proud to be on with Max Rodriguez, who had enough sense in the 90s to know to promote it. Um that that goes back to Mo Bed O'Blue's. Yes, yes, to have the sense of it. This is this is sacred. And and what I love is as we close out, I love how the through line, one of the through lines of everything that you do is the spirit. Um, and that's something that's also captured me in my life, and that's a through line of my relationship with Max and the work that we do and the global I am, or global independent African arts movement, which is also uh play on words for the I am that I am, but I am a man from the 60s, from the 70s. Um, and it's the next iterance of Max always says the Harlem Renaissance never ended. So he's he doesn't want to hear anything about the new Harlem Renaissance or any of that stuff. Um, but but we can sit there and put a word on it and say it's the global I am right now. It's like, where does the culture go after hip-hop? Uh, we have the gangster president in office. Um, you know, well done to uh Calvin Brodus, to Andre Young, uh to Oshay Jackson and Gangster Rap, um, and and creating an entire industry where you curse the system from the bottom of your soul and making billions out of it. Well done. That's that's what we do. Um, but where does the culture go at this time and moment in history? Myself and Max and a number of folks that we're working with feel that it is the global I am.

Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair 25:30

And that and yeah, and that idea of global I am, I have to say, Chester, you embody, you personify, because at the root of everything that you do, at least for me, are our key anchors as a people. That is wisdom and grace. Wisdom and grace. Wisdom and grace. This is who we are, this is how we are, and this is how we move through things that that seem impossible to move through. So, so I just want to acknowledge you. Uh, and and again, when I when I see your face, uh Chester, I see beauty, wisdom, and grace. So I I want to thank you for all the work that you do, for the reminder that you that you will allow us uh and easy access to who we are in spite of all that is projected towards us. So thank you. Thank you for all you do, thank you for how you see and and and what you've given us to remember with.

unknown 26:43

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Thank you, thank you for loving us, and thank you for being our family. That that sense of family that you took into your first photographs never left a string of your work, and it's there impeccably. And I love it.

SPEAKER_04 26:57

Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Yeah, thank you, sir. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 27:00

And it only exists because our people carry that wisdom and that love.

Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair 27:05

And and and struggles and drops. I'm sorry, I have to end with one question. I I apologize, Patrick. But at what point, given all that you've done, all that you see, all that you've experienced, the many people that you've spoken to, your understanding of grace and power, at what point do you say to everybody else, what are you waiting for? Every time I put a picture out, every time I put a book out. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 27:35

Come on, come with me. Come on, let's go.

Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair 27:38

That's right. That's right. Okay. Thank you, Chester. Chester, thank you. We need to talk about the Harlem Book fair, my brother. We need to talk about the Harlem Book fair.

SPEAKER_04 27:47

Okay, okay, cool.

Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair 27:48

Okay, so I'll find my way to you and you let me know what's possible. Blessings, Chester. Hi, I'm Max Rodriguez, one of the co hosts of our Global I Am podcast, as well as founder of the Harlem Book Fair and publisher of QBR, the Black Book Review. Remember, wealth is not only a ledger line in your bank account, it is a state of being. Welcome to Global I Am.