Dana C. Chandler, Jr. (b. 1941), a.k.a., Akin Duro
“I’m trying to get across to the black community that art can say something, dammit, and to them. I want my art to be for them and for the few whites, artists maybe, who can understand it and love it.”
Chandler is best known for his Black Power art and activism. He grew up in the Roxbury
Neighborhood of Boston, as did Allan R. Crite. In 1967, he attended the Massachusetts College of Art. Similarly to the graphic art of Emory Davis or the Africobra artists, Chandler’s work was a synthesis of fine art and propaganda . His most well-known work is “Fred Hampton’s Door (2)”, which was featured in Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. Edmund Barry Gaither, long-time director of the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury, said this about Chandler’s work: “Dana comes into his own in a moment when artists are being called upon, if you’r plugged into the vibe, to take a role in the social struggle…Dana participates in this new and stronger direction in which visual artists are being called to engage in art that is involved in Black revolutionary change.”
Chandler, along with Gary Rickson and Sharon Dunn, painted Black Power murals in Boston inner-city , and thought of the entire city as a museum. “Black art is not a decoration. It’s a revolutionary force.”
