KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell

Ben Caldwell was part of the L.A. Rebellion — the movement of young Black filmmakers in 1970s Los Angeles that included Charles Burnett and Julie Dash — and when that movement dispersed, he stayed in Leimert Park and opened KAOS Network to everyone: rappers who became Project Blowed, videographers, Afrofuturist thinkers, drag-ball performers, Yoruba congregations, theatre companies, dancers, and children who had nowhere else to go to become themselves. In 1996 police stormed the KAOS complex during a late-night session, assaulted and arrested attendees including Caldwell, and he responded by using his daughter's footage as a counternarrative, turning the attack into a media literacy lesson in real time. That is the Department of Childish Revolution (DoCR) philosophy in action. Frazier, a USC professor, met with Caldwell every Tuesday and Thursday for five months to build this book. It's part rigorous monograph, part art object, full of archival images, photographs, flyers, and documents. The New Yorker called it one of the most beautiful objects they held all year. It is also the most important book on the P&P shelf for understanding what DoCR is trying to build:not a program but an ark, a vessel that protects against extinction, where children can go to be themselves and become themselves. The question Caldwell asked in 1996 is the question P&P is still asking: where can our children go to be themselves, to become themselves, if not here?