Lester Lashley
Lester Helmar Lashley, a self-described Urban Bush Artist and visionary in both visual art and music, passed away on April 13,2025, in Madison, Wisconsin. Born in Chicago on August 23,1935, to Helen Henderson and Junior Lester Lashley, Lester was a pioneering creative force since the 1960s. A founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and an early participant in the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA), he helped shape the cultural vanguard of his time. A gifted painter, sculptor, and printmaker, Lester designed and hand-screened the AACM logo, concert banners, album covers, and posters—many of which are now preserved in private collections. Throughout his life, he sought to honor and illuminate the complexity and beauty of Blackness in America. Whether creating visual art or playing the trombone, double bass, banjo, harmonica, or instruments of his own invention, Lester's work always traced its roots to the rhythms, spirits, and soul of the African Diaspora—powerfully essential points of connection for him as an African American artist and a Black man in America. Lester's passion for the arts began at age eight, when he taught himself to draw and developed his talents in both visual art and music throughout his school years. At Dunbar Vocational High School, he refined his skills, playing trombone and contrabass, and earned a prestigious Gold Key Award from the National Scholastic Art Association. He studied commercial art at the American Academy of Art (1956-1962 while working as a draftsman at Western Electric and serving in the U.S. Army (1958-1960) as a trombonist with the 2nd Army Headquarters Band at Ft. Meade in Maryland. Lester later earned both BFA and MFA degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1966-1973), where he reintroduced hard-edged painting and was named a Traveling Fellowship finalist in 1970. A founding member of Ankh Studios and Gallery (1970-1974), Lester also taught at SAIC and the Southside Community Art Center. Internationally, he worked as a printmaking and leatherworking specialist with the UN Development Project in Bonaire and Saba (1975-1977) and served in the Peace Corps (1976-1980) teaching sculpture and woodworking at the Booker Washington Institute.in Liberia. As a Detroit-based artist, Lester founded the Urban Bush Artists Coalition, bringing together local creatives under a shared vision. Fellow artist Saffell Gardner recalled, "Lester called all of us creatives in Detroit, 'Urban Bush People.' He fostered spiritual unity among us," particularly through his role as a founding member of Ogun, a dynamic collective of visual artists, dancers, poets, and musicians active from the late 1990s through 2012. With collaborators like Aaron Ibn Pori Pitts and Howard Mallory, Lester helped realize Pitts' Urban Monumentz—Afro-futurist shrine installations—featured in Vision in a Cornfield at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) in 2012. Lester's work was also exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Museum of Modern Art, Southside Community Art Center, Hyde Park Art Center, AfAm Gallery, Osun Gallery, and the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia. As an accomplished musician Lester played trombone, contrabass and banjo and was a freelance musical copyist. He was a member of Chicago Musicians local 10208 and recorded with the AACM's Experimental Band, Muhal Richard Abrams Big Band, Alvin Fielder Sextet, Fred Anderson Quintet, Morris Ellis, Roscoe Mitchell Sextet, Amina Claudine Myers and many more jazz luminaries. A recipient of Downbeat -Magazine's Jazz Critics Award for trombone (1968, 1971, 1974), Lester left an impact on the jazz community and is referenced in two books on Jazz; Trombone: A History of the Jazz Trombone via Recorded Solos by Dave Baker (1973) and Black Giants: Jazz and Pop by Rivelli and Levin (1970). Lester's legacy will be cherished by a devoted circle of family and friends. He is lovingly remembered by his sister Janese Thomas; children Dr. Yorel Lashley and Lebasi Lashley, from his union with Dr. Marilyn Lashley; and Nefertari KB Pross and Roemel Kirkman-Bey, from his union with Dr. Naomi Kirkman-Bey. He also leaves behind son-in-law Terry Pross, daughters-in-law LaTonya Kirkman-Bey, Erica Nelson, and Susan Day; seven cherished grandchildren, many cousins, a niece, a nephew, and numerous grand- and great-nieces and nephews. He believed in the power of connection and chose to build lasting bonds with the many people whose lives he touched throughout his journey.
