Contributed on December 17, 2007
By: nwilkins
Threads: Home Page
2007, Indianapolis, IN, United States

http://emancipation2000.com Featuring the largest and most Unique collection of rare and hard to find black historical art prints. Overe 300 available sizes 11*17 and 24*36

Since the early 70’s Julian Madyun has devoted himself to educating people about the wonderful contributions of African-American people. Young and old alike, all over the country, they have benefited from the murals that Mr. Madyun has created. His art print called Emancipation can be found everywhere, from school districts spanning from Los Angeles, Waco Texas to New York, where it has become part of numerous television shows, including The Cosby Show, Tavis Smiley Show; colleges; art galleries; offices and most importantly in living rooms all over the country where it is sparking conversations about African-American history. So what led Mr. Madyun to not only recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of African-American pioneers but to also to want to spread the word and instill African Americans with a sense of pride and self-worth? To understand how he came to find this path one would have to know a little bit about his family. The youngest of eight, growing up in a progressive community in Minneapolis, Mr. Madyun was always taught from a young age to be his own man. His parents taught, he and his siblings, not to judge people by the color of their skin but instead by their accomplishments. Both of his parents always made sure that he knew his history. My Father would always Quote, Booker T. Washington

Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

To this day he credits those early history lessons with giving him self-confidence and making him proud to be an African-American. Later on he would add
Frederick Douglas, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin L. King and Muhammad Ali as his inspirations as well. The mural came about, as all great ideas do, by chance. During the 1971 Watts Arts Festival in Los Angeles Mr. Madyun was selling African-American encyclopedias, he built a display using the images from the book to set his booth apart from the other vendors. By the end of the day he had received more inquiries and compliments on the mural than on the encyclopedia! Even more surprising was the fact that most people had no idea who the figures were. They didnt even know they’re own history. So he decided to create something that was not only artistically appealing, but something that would be informative and serve as a conversation piece that would spark and even greater interest in black history. The art print and the companion book became such a success that he soon had a crew of 30 salesmen going around the country, door-to-door, selling his work from the projects of Oakland, California to the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, to Chicago New York, Washington D.C., and Dallas In the 70’s he sold over 50,000 copies of the print alone.

Julian Madyun has traveled the country many times over. In his travels he has gotten to know first hand the devastating affects of not knowing your history, and as a result he has redoubled his efforts to help instill the same self-worth and pride in being African-American that his parents gave to him. Over the years he has gone from 1 prints to 310. He has created a full-service web site, www.emancipation2000.com and still continues to travel extensively throughout the country appearing at arts shows and festivals. Julian Madyun truly is a multi-media wizard, able to transform his artistic creativity along with his encyclopedic knowledge of black history, high-tech know-how, and savvy selling skills to bring a much needed and high-quality product, to not only African-Americans, but to all. Mr. Madyun currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. He has three grown children