The Bridge Gallery at the Harley-Davidson Museum is casting a wide, inclusive net these days.
The space was recently home to the museum’s first-ever bilingual exhibit, “My Papi Has a Motorcycle” / “Mi Papi Tiene una Moto,” which closed earlier this month to make room for the newly opened “Ezy Ryders: History & Tradition, Heart & Soul,” a photography show that explores the world of Black motorcyclists in New York City.
The photographs are by documentarian Cate Dingley, author of the book “Ezy Ryders.”
“I’ve always been drawn to people who live their lives apart; those who lead a passionate, unusual or transgressive existence on the edge of visible society,” the Santa Fe-based Dingley says in her artist statement. "Their defiant independence – whether it’s innate, cultivated or forced upon them – is why I make photographs.
“I’m particularly attracted to subcultures that are hidden in plain sight, traces of history thought long gone, and groups that live by a code of tradition and ritual. Through a respectful approach to the people I photograph – usually with the intimate and collaborative spirit of portraiture – I strive to collect moments of surprise, oddity and honesty.”
To create her book – and this show – Dingley spent five years with Black riders in the Big Apple, meeting people, hearing their stories, documenting their rides and their gatherings, and what she found surprised her and will surprise you.
Among the riders are firefighters, police officers, preachers, veterans and others – most with nicknames like King Midas, Shifty, Church Lady and Brown Sugar – who ride for a wide variety of reasons.
The main photo on this story, for example, shows riders taking part in a diaper run.
“The book features 10 riders and it features her photographs and their words,” says curator Ann Sinfield. “It's kind of the collaboration between this wider community of Black motorcyclists and this white photographer.
“I really wanted to focus on stories about community and connection. The riders that she featured really talked about the connections that they made and the community they found within motorcycling.”
All 10 riders featured in the book are included in the show.
The name of the show comes from the Jimi Hendrix tune of the same name, Sinfield points out, explaining the significance.
“The song was released right after he died (in 1970),” she notes. “It came out around the time of the ‘Easy Rider’ movie. The bikes in the movie were actually built by Black builders in L.A. and that story got kind of erased in the movie, but Cate wanted to use this title to kind of bring that back to the Black experience of motorcycling.”
Sinfield says that she’s working to plan an event with the photographer and some of the riders at the museum.
“She will probably come in the summer and some of the riders will come, too,” Sinfield notes. “We don't know exactly if when that's going to happen, but the show will be for three years, so there's time.”
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
