密歇根新闻广播 2016克雷斯吉杰出艺术家被提名者

Leni Sinclair's camera captured the music scene of Detroit in the '60s and '70s even as she played a seminal¹ role in the growing countercultural movement in Southeast Michigan.

Sinclair was born in Konigsberg, East Germany, and escaped to West Germany three years before the Berlin Wall was erected². She was 18 when she emigrated to America in 1959, settling with relatives in Detroit.

Sinclair photographed musicians from John Coltrane and the MC5 to Iggy Pop, Janis Joplin, Bob Marley and many, many more.

She and her then-husband, John Sinclair, helped to found the White Panther Party, later the Rainbow People's Party. They fought against the Vietnam War and racism³, and worked to legalize marijuana and reform the prison system.

Now Sinclair has been named the 2016 Kresge Eminent⁴ Artist. She becomes the eighth artist to receive the $50,000 award in recognition of her contributions to the art, culture, and people of Detroit.

Sinclair tells us she was overwhelmed when the Kresge Foundation designated her the 2016 Eminent Artist.

"In my mind I'm still the little girl running around barefoot on the farm, and here I'm getting an award as one of the eminent artists of Detroit," she says. "It's very flattering and I just feel totally honored and humbled⁵ by this."

Kresge Foundation President and CEO Rip Rapson said of her, "Leni Sinclair both contributed to the social changes of the 1960s and '70s and documented the movement's fleeting⁶ moments for posterity⁷." Sinclair tells us documenting and preserving history was basically her intention from the very beginning.

"I came to this country from another place, so I'm really not a native. So I looked at what was going on around me with a little bit foreign eyes, and what I saw happening in front of me was just all so important to me, I just, you know, I was lucky I had a camera so I could take some pictures," she says.

She tells us she wanted to document her life in America to share with her family back home in Germany.

"I wanted to share my life, and this award from the Kresge Foundation is just the topping of it all. Now I can show off I made something of myself in America," Sinclair says with a laugh.

Sinclair tells us that becoming a photographer was never the plan. She says she only ended up buying a camera because "there was really nothing else that was of any value to buy in East Germany." Her only desire at the time was to simply document her life, but the hobby evolved into something more.

The Kresge Foundation notes that Sinclair "captured a pivotal era in American history when art and politics intertwined." But Sinclair tells us that even after all this time, art and politics are as tightly wound as ever.

"I think artists always are political. I think most artists become artists because they have something to say," she tells us. "I was involved in organizing things and I always documented what I helped organize, and I always had one foot inside and one foot outside. I sometimes refer to myself as the participant observer. I observed the scene, but I also was part of it."

Sinclair became involved in Southeast Michigan's growing countercultural movement in the early '60s, when she joined the Students for a Democratic Society as a student at Wayne State University. She tells us she admired people like Tom Hayden and others involved in the civil rights movement.

"So I was radical⁸," she says. "That's what they called us, we were radical."

When she met John Sinclair, she says radicalism⁹ took on a new tone.

"It did not involve going to meetings and demonstrating with placards and stuff, it involved working and creating a whole new society that we could feel comfortable in. And of course that included being against wars and against racism and against poverty."

Sinclair's collection has been said to now include some 100,000 photos, but she tells us that number is a little deceiving.

"For instance, I have a proof sheet, a contact sheet, of my pictures of Jimi Hendrix, and really only one came out real nice," she says. "I have 100,000 negatives and slides probably, but God only knows how many of those are good and usable and good enough to save."

Sinclair is confident that the $50,000 award from the Kresge Foundation will go a long way to making as many of her photos publicly available as possible, and she's thankful the award came when it did.

"This award … it's like a light at the end of the tunnel. I can see where maybe I will get done at least most of the stuff that needs to be done and that only I can do before I pass or before my memory fades," she says. "It couldn't come a minute too soon … because every year I might forget a few more of the names or people I used to know, so it's just perfect. It's just, for me, it's just like a divine interference that it's happening to me at this point in my life, you know?"

Leni Sinclair is the 2016 Kresge Eminent Artist. Along with the $50,000 award, the honor includes an artist monograph¹⁰ that will chronicle her life and portfolio¹¹. It will be released later this year.

1 seminal   

adj.影响深远的；种子的

参考例句：

• The reforms have been a seminal event in the history of the NHS.这些改革已成为英国国民保健制度史上影响深远的一件大事。
• The emperor's importance as a seminal figure of history won't be diminished.做为一个开创性历史人物的重要性是不会减弱的。

2 ERECTED   

adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立

参考例句：

• A monument to him was erected in St Paul's Cathedral. 在圣保罗大教堂为他修了一座纪念碑。
• A monument was erected to the memory of that great scientist. 树立了一块纪念碑纪念那位伟大的科学家。

3 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

4 eminent   

adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的

参考例句：

• We are expecting the arrival of an eminent scientist.我们正期待一位著名科学家的来访。
• He is an eminent citizen of China.他是一个杰出的中国公民。

5 humbled   

adj. 卑下的，谦逊的，粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下，贬低

参考例句：

• The examination results humbled him. 考试成绩挫了他的傲气。
• I am sure millions of viewers were humbled by this story. 我相信数百万观众看了这个故事后都会感到自己的渺小。

6 fleeting   

adj.短暂的，飞逝的

参考例句：

• The girls caught only a fleeting glimpse of the driver.女孩们只匆匆瞥了一眼司机。
• Knowing the life fleeting,she set herself to enjoy if as best as she could.她知道这种日子转瞬即逝，于是让自已尽情地享受。

7 posterity   

n.后裔，子孙，后代

参考例句：

• Few of his works will go down to posterity.他的作品没有几件会流传到后世。
• The names of those who died are recorded for posterity on a tablet at the back of the church.死者姓名都刻在教堂后面的一块石匾上以便后人铭记。

8 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

9 radicalism   

n. 急进主义, 根本的改革主义

参考例句：

• His radicalism and refusal to compromise isolated him. 他的激进主义与拒绝妥协使他受到孤立。
• Education produced intellectual ferment and the temptations of radicalism. 教育带来知识界的骚动，促使激进主义具有了吸引力。

10 monograph   

n.专题文章，专题著作

参考例句：

• This monograph belongs to the category of serious popular books.这本专著是一本较高深的普及读物。
• It's a monograph you wrote six years ago.这是你六年前写的的专论。

11 portfolio   

n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位

参考例句：

• He remembered her because she was carrying a large portfolio.他因为她带着一个大公文包而记住了她。
• He resigned his portfolio.他辞去了大臣职务。