[1][3][6] He and artists Ademola Olugebefola and Abdullah Aziz formed Arts Seven while living at the Amsterdam Houses near the Lincoln Center.
[7] They later moved to Harlem where they joined the Twentieth Century Creators, a group formed in 1964 by artists from New York and surrounding areas.
The Weusi artists primarily produced black and white prints that could be readily distributed and sold.
[16][17] In 1967, Howell founded Pamoja Studio Gallery with Bob Davis and Ollie Johnson.
[18] The gallery was located in Greenwich Village in New York, eliciting a mention in Jet magazine that described them as “soul” owners.
[16] Howell designed the poster for Pamoja, the face of a Black woman in a large afro.
… Bill designed (the New Lafayette) posters To Raise the Dead and to Foretell the Future, Goin’ a Buffalo, The Devil Catchers, A Ritual to Bind Together and Strengthen Black People so that They Can Survive the Long Struggle that Is to Come – and others, all wonderful designs.”In the 1960s, Howell was one of a handful of black graphic designers in the country.
It was an apprentice job that allowed him to learn about advertising design and gain exposure to the industry.
The article noted that Howell and other Black designers had begun to focus on their ethnic heritage in their works.
[29] Howell was among the artists featured in an exhibit of graphics and films by Black men and women in New York at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1970.
In 1971 he was among 60 artists from across the country in an exhibit of paintings, drawings, sculptures and graphics sponsored by Illinois Bell in Chicago.
Yet anguish, compassion and a pride in being black mitigates the fury.” The reviewer noted that the average age of the artists was 30 and the works exemplified social protest.
[40] Befitting the aim of Weusi to bring art into the community, Howell participated in showings and sales at private homes, including a garden party by the Links social club in 1975[41] and another in a private home in Brooklyn's Bedford Stuyvesant in 1972.
[43] Howell designed the program for a Weusi exhibit at the Opportunities Industrialization Center offices in New York in 1971.
[44] Some of Howell’s personal papers, catalogs, photographs, documents and other materials are in the collection of Emory University’s Stuart A.