The Danielle Ashley Group is saddened to announce the passing of its team member and friend, Royal Allen, director of business development. Allen played a major role in the growth of the company’s First Ladies Health Initiative, which has helped provide tens of thousands of free health screenings across the country.
Allen, 52, passed away of congestive heart failure New Year’s Day.
Allen, who was an entrepreneurialsenior marketing executive and project developer and manager, began working at Danielle Ashley Group six years ago on the Chicago-based First Ladies Health Initiative, which the company founded. With his assistance, the initiative, comprised of 155 pastors’ wives, has expanded to five urban markets hosting annual Walgreens-sponsored First Ladies Health Days that have enabled more than 200,000 individuals in African-American and Hispanic communities to get free health screenings.
Through Allen’s efforts, the multi-denominational initiative has garnered support from more than 2,200 clinical volunteers and nearly 200 health care providers.
“Royal was a treasured colleague and friend who played an indispensable role with the First Ladies Health Initiative,” said Tracey Alston, founder of Danielle Ashley Group and executive director of the First Ladies Health Initiative. “His work made a difference in helping save lives in African-American and Latino communities. Our First Ladies Health Initiative family deeply mourns his loss. His family is in our prayers.”
“I am thankful for the contributionsRoyal made to the First Ladies Health Initiative,” said John Gremer, Walgreens director of Community Affairs. “His presence and contributions will be truly missed.”
Allen’s previous employersincluded Burrell Communications, Stedman Graham & Associates, The Leo Burnett Company and Kemper Lesnik Communications.
In addition he was a professional concert pianist and vocalist.
He received his MBA froaxm Harvard Graduate School of Business Management and earned dual B.A. degrees in economics and music from Amherst College.
He previously served as chair of the Auxiliary Board of the Chicago Academy of Sciences Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and marketing chair for the Harvard Business School African American Alumni Association.
A memorial service willbe announced by Danielle Ashley Group and posted at www.danielleashley.com and www.FirstLadiesHealth.com.
Royal Lester Allen III passed away on Jan. 1. Royal is survived by Jeff Fortier, his husband of one year and loving and dedicated partner of 26 years. He is also survived by his cousin Bill Davis ’63. Royal was predeceased by his parents, Royal and Doris, and by his sister Gail.
Royal was a man of many passions and talents who greeted you with an infectious smile and regaled you with stories. With Royal, you were having fun, whether it was completing an economics problem set, watching TV in the Moore “pit” or seeing him perform in Buckley. From Chi Psi to the Glee Club, Royal lived life to its fullest.
After graduating from Amherst with a double major in economics and music, Royal joined First Boston Corp. in NYC. Subsequently he attended Harvard Business School where he obtained his M.B.A. in 1990 and met his life partner, Jeff.
Royal relocated to Chicago and began a successful career as an advertising executive, including stints at Leo Burnett, Equinox Advertising and Burrell Communications. In 1998, Royal founded Royal Allen Marketing Partners/RAM Events where he co-produced the 2004 Black Creativity Gala. Royal was also proud of his work managing the successful growth of the First Ladies Health Initiative, which provided free health screenings to more than 35,000 people. Royal was honored with the 2014 Public Relations Society of America Silver Anvil Award of Excellence, which recognizes the best public relations programs of the year and the highest standards of performance.
Royal was a gifted concert pianist and vocalist, known for his gracious manners, generosity of spirit and kindness to all. He was a bright, gentle and loving soul. He added light and laughter to all the rooms he entered, and heaven will surely crackle with his humor now that he’s there.
Margaret Rose Vendryes (March 16, 1955 – March 29, 2022) was a visual artist, curator, and art historian based in New York.[1][2][3][4]
Early life and education
Vendryes was born on March 16, 1955, in Kingston, Jamaica.[5] She began her studies in costume design before moving to fine art and earning a Bachelor's degree at Amherst College, graduating in 1984.[6] She went on to earn her MA in Art History in 1992 from Tulane University and her PhD from Princeton University in 1997 where she focused on African American art history and was the first Black woman to earn a PhD in art history from Princeton.[5][7][8][9]
From 2000 to 2001 she worked as visiting lecturer for Art & Archaeology and African American Studies at Princeton University. She also worked as associate professor for Modern American and Contemporary Art at City University of New York from 2002 till 2007.[12]
She warned against what she calls "the race-centered approach" to interpreting artwork, the practice of reading the influence of an artist's race into their artwork, as she believed it could limit the interpretation and context of the work and minimize the assessment of their impact on the larger art movements.[13]
In 2009 Vendryes worked as lecturer for African Art at Boston University in Massachusetts.[12]
In 2005 Vendryes began a series of multi-media works within her The African Diva Project, with oil and cold wax on canvas, and more recently, embedded African masks. The series began with a portrait of Donna Summer inspired by her Four Seasons of Love album cover. The imagery juxtaposes and combines portraits of Western pop culture icons with traditional African masks. Because these masks are traditionally worn only by men, she has noted her exploration of power, race, gender and beauty through these works.[9] The project has included many Black American women icons including Aretha Franklin, Grace Jones, and Whitney Houston.[4]
Vendryes was a longtime board member of the Leslie Lohman Museum.[24] Vendryes' death, on March 29, 2022, due to respiratory failure, was announced by the Southeast Queens Artists' Alliance.[25][5]
Childs Gallery in Boston, with whom she had a long history, hosted a memorial exhibit in Vendryes' honor from November 2022-January 2023.[26]
Bibliography
Vendryes, Margaret Rose; Barnett, Lauren; Lawson, R. A.; Lowe, John (2014). The Visual Blues. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: LSU Museum of Art. ISBN9780615878300.
Vendryes, Margaret Rose; Paschall, W. Douglass; Moore, Lewis Tanner; Holton, Curlee Raven (2008). In Search of Missing Masters: The Lewis Tanner Moore Collection of African American Art. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Woodmere Art Museum. ISBN978-1888008227.
Vendryes, Margaret Rose; Rosenblum, Robert; Hill Stoner, Joyce (2006). Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat. Rockland, ME: Farnsworth. ISBN0918749212.
Sperath, Albert F.; Vendryes, Margaret R.; Jones, Steven H.; King, Eva F. (2000). The Art of Ellis Wilson. Lexington, KE: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN9780813160474.
Willis, Deborah; Vendryes, Margaret Rose (2001). The Artist Portrait Series: Images of Contemporary African American Artist. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN0809323796.
Fossett, Judith Jackson (1997). Race Consciousness: Reinterpretations for the New Century. New York City: NYU Press. pp. Chapter 9. ASINB00EIFPFE4.
Margaret Rose Vendryes at the inaugural group exhibition at Warburton Galerie, Yonkers, NY, November 10, 2018 (courtesy Jacqueline Herranz Brooks)
On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, Margaret Rose Vendryes, a revered Black queer artist, scholar, educator, and curator, died from acute respiratory failure. She was 67. I first became aware of Margaret when I included her work in my article, “40 amazing black artists to watch in 2014.” When I came across Margaret’s website I was drawn to her works in The African Diva Project. The mixed-media series reimagines images of Black celebrities by adding classical African masks. The ceremonial masks are traditionally worn by men, but Margaret placed them mainly on Black women icons (e.g., Donna Summer and Janet Jackson) along with gender-nonconforming celebrities such as RuPaul and Billy Porter. The series challenges notions of gender, race, sexuality, and power while celebrating the ancestral legacy of these figures.
Soon thereafter, I included Margaret’s work in my touring exhibition, i found god in myself: The 40th Anniversary of Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls, and more recently in the 2021 exhibition Styling: Black Expression, Rebellion, and Joy Through Fashion. Over the years I learned more about Margaret. She was born on March 16, 1955, in Kingston, Jamaica; her family later settled in Queens, New York. In 1997 she became the first Black woman to earn a PhD in Art History from Princeton University. John Wilmerding, her dissertation advisor, recalls her being, “... one of the most multi-talented and successful students to go through Princeton’s graduate program.” He continued via email, “She made a significant mark as an artist. Her ebullient personality and raucous sense of humor were expressed in her colorful and exuberant figurative collages. She was a persuasive and energetic lecturer and teacher and an indelible colleague, who will be missed in many quarters.”
Margaret Rose Vendryes, Igbo Billy” (2020), from TheAfrican Diva Project (courtesy the Estate of Margaret Rose Vendryes)
In every role she held Margaret advocated for marginalized people and celebrated the cultural contributions of the Black and queer communities, pushing for more inclusivity and equity in art institutions and for more diverse permanent collections. Despite her outstanding accomplishments and prominent academic and institutional positions her passing has been largely, and unaccountably, overlooked by numerous art publications. Yet, as the testimonies below confirm, she is immortalized in the hearts and minds of those she impacted within the art world.
The following statements have been edited for length and clarity. All are via email correspondences with the author, unless otherwise noted. A studio visit with Margaret can be watched here.
Margaret Rose Vendryes at her studio painting (photo courtesy Jacqueline Herranz Brooks)
Margaret sat on the [Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art’s] Board Search Committee that hired me. We naturally fell into a rhythm where I had Margaret on speed dial consulting her on my greatest challenges and celebrating even the most mundane of triumphs. Margaret was unflappable, possessing an almost sage-like clarity and a razor-sharp sense of humor. Along with her wife, Jacqueline [Herranz Brooks], Margaret regularly came out for all Leslie-Lohman gatherings; together they were impeccably chic and filled with joie de vivre.
As a trustee and queer artist and educator, Margaret embodied the trajectory and growth of Leslie-Lohman. Her passion for the arts, expertise, and love of our community were critical in shaping Leslie-Lohman into the queer, diverse, responsive, engaged institution that it is today. From our artist fellowship program to the artists we collect and exhibit, Margaret’s vision created a more diverse and rigorous contemporary art museum devoted to today’s LGBTQIA+ artists. Margaret’s legacy will live on abundantly in the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art’s continued growth and expansive vision.
We continued our professional relationship even as she became a professor …. Her students loved and respected Margaret because she knew what she was talking about as she generously shared her knowledge.
When I went to graduate school, I called upon Margaret to write a letter of recommendation and she did so with pride and enthusiasm. Margaret was as beautiful in spirit as she was in looks, and had a great smile to go along with a hearty laugh. She just had a can-do attitude and she wanted the best for everyone. She signed off on her emails to me: “All Good Things, M.”
Margaret Rose Vendryes and Jacqueline Herranz Brooks at Dead Horse Bay, 2015 (photo courtesy Jacqueline Herranz Brooks)
I met Margaret in 2003 when I was about to graduate with my BA at CUNY and took her writing-intensive class on contemporary American art. That year, I had the opportunity to enjoy her not only as an electrifying critical lecturer and helpful editor, but also as a curator of the exhibition Women on Top: Breaking Barriers, Resisting Limits! In 2004, we coincided on the Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS) conference where I understood Margaret’s take on difficult topics concerning race theory, queer aesthetics, and the limits of authenticity. Our first collaboration was 10 years later, in 2014. Margaret curated my show at the Fine Arts Gallery at York College, titled Maldita Pared: FotografÃa y texto de Cuba, and we did an interview for the International Review of African American Art (IRAAA) …. Margaret was generous with her time, space, knowledge, and resources. I read bell hooks’s work from Margaret’s library, and thanks to our conversations and gallery visits I learned about Black women artists working in abstraction and artists of color making conceptual art.
Margaret was game. In 2014, “Punu Janelle,” her then recently finished painting of Janelle Monae from her series The African Diva Project was included in the exhibition Bridging Boundaries: Redefining Diaspora. Margaret was concerned about the shipping costs, and I suggested we use the subway to transport her painting from Queens to the Postcrypt Art Gallery at Columbia University. The next day, Margaret was dressed in black, wearing a pair of hand-painted spectator shoes and fuchsia gloves, ready to take the adventure into the critical performance realm.
It was deliciously comforting living with Margaret. She knew all the songs and dances to them well. We shared spiritual practices and argued about ideological beliefs. She was clever, passionate, and laborious. After we began our romantic relationship in 2010, we were still in love, and got married on July 31, 2020, in the courtyard of the same building I now live in. I miss Margaret in her sexy physical form. Margaret was a great lover.
She was also a hybrid experimenter who created a category for herself as an artist-historian. Last year she created a new body of work using her photography and her stream-of-consciousness reflections on what it means to transform a personal, intimate archive into something public containing new language. It is difficult to frame her legacy. But it is stimulating to think about the scope of her work that will continue to astound. Margaret was honest, coherent, and committed to advocate for change.
Margaret Rose Vendryes, “Igbo Grace” (2010), from TheAfrican Diva Project, oil and cold wax on canvas, 48 x 48 inches, Phillip Hales collection (courtesy the Estate of Margaret Rose Vendryes)
Margaret came into my life through my oldest daughter, Ara, during her student days at Princeton. She shared that her professor showed one of my photographs in class. Margaret was the professor. Fast forward to 2011: Ara informed me that Margaret wanted to formally launch her fine art career and suggested that we get together. My art advisory firm, Tucker Contemporary Art, represented her and mounted her first New York City exhibition, 33 ⅓:Pushing the Needle, featuring her iconic The African Diva Project paintings. This began a partnership that lasted a decade as we mounted additional exhibitions across the country, published two catalogues, filmed video interviews, and presented live art talks.
Margaret and I became close friends. I could text her at 6:00 am about a movie I’d just seen and she’d usually text back in five minutes with her take on that movie or recommend I check out something equally as interesting. We bonded over art, books, music, movies, architecture, and interior design. The breadth and depth of her interests, passions, and skills inspired all of us to learn and do more.
The composition and mixed media of her paintings referenced techniques across the entire millennia of art history. Margaret’s remarkable impact in academia and art can be enjoyed through her paintings, is documented in her writing, and is witnessed in the students and artists she taught and mentored over decades.
Margaret was brilliant, fearless, funny, and indefatigable. Her gifts of time, treasure, and talent to students, artists, academicians, and art institutions will be sorely missed. Above all, her AfricanDiva paintings remain the living legacy that I will remember fondly when I think about my good friend, Margaret Rose Vendryes.
Margaret Rose Vendryes, “Sowei RuPaul” (2012), from TheAfrican Diva Project, oil and cold wax on canvas, 48 x 48 inches, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art Collection (courtesy the Estate of Margaret Rose Vendryes)
I met Margaret in 2014 at an event I produced. I was at a crossroads in my professional life. I had put a soft pause on my artistic life to focus on nonprofit fundraising and development spaces. At that event I discussed my experience as a gender-nonconforming immigrant from Jamaica and, her being Jamaican-born, she identified with me as a queer Black woman and artist. Soon thereafter she became my mentor. She challenged me to become more rigorous in my practice and to delve deeper into the underpinnings of my artwork.
Eventually she became my first art patron when she bought the piece “Empire” (co-created with Tavet Gillson). Margaret then donated the artwork to the permanent collection at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art and secured me a spot on the Museum’s board.
While I was on the board with Margaret, I witnessed as she pressed what it means to be inclusive in a space that was historically dominated by White males. She advocated for ways to invite people of disadvantaged backgrounds onto a board and to contribute in ways beyond the financial, since she understood that was not feasible for some people. She pushed for people to understand that you can’t just invite Black trans people on a board without understanding the systemic issues that community grapples with and how they would fit in on a board. Building community in the arts as a Black queer person is not easy. But she had a way of making community and a space for others. Before diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives were a trend she was already doing this work.
I am fortunate to have known Margaret. Now, when I look at her work in my home, I feel her presence continuing to mentor me, and for that I am eternally grateful.
Margaret Rose Vendryes working on “Punu Supremes” at Hampton Court, 2022 (photo courtesy Jacqueline Herranz Brooks)
Margaret Rose (Cohen) Vendryes joined the class of 1984 as a burgeoning art historian and mother of two. Just seven years older than many classmates, she was fully formed through an intense humanism that cohered her acute eye, life experience, personal bearing and kindness. We were drawn to Margaret for her profound wisdom and friendship. She credited her academic work at Amherst with propelling her professionally. Margaret was a prescient scholar, even as an undergraduate. Her senior thesis was on 20th-century African American painter Archibald John Motley Jr., whose work first entered the Museum of Modern Art collection in 2021. In 1997, Margaret became the first Black Ph.D. in Princeton’s 115-year-old Department of Art and Archaeology.
Margaret lectured and taught at Amherst, Boston University, Princeton and Wellesley. She chaired the Department of Performing and Fine Arts at CUNY’s York College and was, at her death, poised to become dean of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts. As an artist, Margaret began a multimedia and multiyear project, the African Diva Series, in 2005.
Since spring 2020, 12 women from our class have gathered regularly on Zoom. It began as a check-in during the pandemic’s worst days and evolved into a joyful gathering of friends. We forged a renewed sisterhood, reflected on our hopeful and perilous world, and shared memories of Amherst. Margaret was a beautiful member of this group. Some of us got to know her during this time, while the authors below knew her well since college.
Though shocked and heartbroken to learn of her death on March 29, 2022, we are deeply grateful to have had the privilege to reconnect with Margaret over these last two years. We express our deepest sympathies to her sons, Damian and Erick Cohen, and her wife, Jacqueline Herranz Brooks.
Brooke Kamin Rapaport ’84 and the Rev. Marie Tatro ’84
You can remove a girl from the island, but the island remains within. I was born in Kingston, Jamaica to ambitious parents for whom life in the United States of America was worth everything. My mother was fast on a manual typewriter; my father fell into the lower ranks of food manufacturing. They bought a house, and made a home, in Queens, NYC. Shortly before grade school, I entered the U.S.A. with a green card that was my lifeline to Jamaica until they took the green card away when I became an American citizen. By 1965, our family had grown to nine members. I am the third child of seven, one of six daughters; the product of a Roman Catholic education peppered with short episodes of NYC public school when tuition couldn�t be made. All of my siblings are awesomely talented. While attending Amherst College, I completed a few studio courses where I began working with color, which I continue to find so seductive and pregnant with artifice. I had a family by then and turned to art history to remain connected to art makers while making a living. Artists don�t often make a decent living making art at least not the brown-skinned female kind. Details of my professional persona are recorded here on my CV. I hold a doctorate in art history and have taught facets of it for over a decade. I know that my relationship with making �art� appears to fall quite neatly into those written about since at least Vasari. I began drawing as a child copying mostly figures and faces from magazines. My sisters can attest to how fabulous my homemade paper dolls were. I was neither encouraged nor discouraged to take my art seriously. At the beginning of my college career, I was a theater major� costume design. That learning period, although short-lived, resonates in my current work. Over the years, I never stopped painting and accumulating �stuff� to use in statements about the human condition from where I stand. Popular culture and private memories combine, at times unconsciously, to inform my work. The growth of my ongoing practice was literally weighed with every location change I have made in my adult life� twenty-five of them to date. It may sound wrong, but I am not a nomad. In 2007, I began to make use of not only the stuff, but also the energy that drove me to acquire and keep it.
Margaret has a show coming up at Calabar Gallery in Harlem that opens on May 29th, 2021 The show will be on view there for one month. Her painting "Guro Ntozake" has been traveling with the exhibition "i found god in myself", a 40th-anniversary celebration of Ntozake Shange's for colored girls., and can be viewed at the City Without Walls Gallery in Newark, N.J., Oct. 12 through Nov. 12. 11/3/2017
"33 1/3 Pushing the Needle: Selections from the African Diva Project"
Featured in an article in Artwork Archive
Author - 'The Art of Ellis Wilson' 2008 Co-Author - 'Barthe: A Life in Sculpture'
