In the green countryside, a gray fence separates two girls, one black and the other white. The black kid reached out his hand as the white girl, standing on the railing, reached down. Although they barely grasp each other’s fingers, viewers can sense their curiosity, expectation, desire to overcome this barrier.
Scene, a watercolor of EB Lewisis one of the first works that visitors encounter in “Dream image: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Children’s Books, View through July 24 at the New-York Historical Society. Created for Jacqueline Woodson’s book”On the other hand, ” Since 2001, painting reflects the two main themes of this exhibition: progress derived from daily, individual action as well as from collective effort; and children, not just witnesses to the civil rights movement, played a central role in it.
Andrea Davis Pinkney, curator of the exhibition, said in an interview at the museum: “It is the children who are on the sidewalks and streets, going to jail, being bitten by dogs, being attacked by billy clubs. “And that is happening right now. Right this minute. ”
The show, which traces the civil rights movement from the decentralized class to the present, captures those horrific moments, along with the mixed joys. Hosted by Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., and High-class art museum In Atlanta, “Dream Painting” is the first exhibit to document this history through children’s literature, says Pinkney. When the show debuted at the Senior Museum in August 2020, she added, some visitors thought the killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed inspired it. But while the “Dream Image” was planned much earlier, further events, including Racist Massacre in Buffalo last month, has only made its relevance more clear.
“A picture book can never heal a tragedy,” Pinkney said, but “it can help us,” she adds. Books allow families to “come together – an adult and a child – and say, “Let’s talk about this”.
The ability to spark such conversations is key to the exhibition’s artistic selection, which comes from 60 books, non-fiction and fiction. Pinkney, an editor at Scholastic and an award-winning writer – she often collaborates with her husband, the illustrator Brian Pinkney – knew the show would celebrate important events, including the Montgomery, Ala., Bus boycott in 1955 and 1956, and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in 1965. But beyond honoring events, she wants to showcase a wide range of mediums and artists, including young illustrators like Vashti Harrisonas well as celebrities like Faith Ringgold and Jerry Pinkney (her father-in-law).
The artwork, combined with explanatory text, forms a kind of picture book. Pinkney wrote the words as if she were crafting a story, encouraging young people who come to the museum to get ready to walk: “Look down at your shoes. Are they sturdy? ”
Pinkney and her collaborators also divided the show into chapters: “A Road Backwards” exploring the Jim Crow era; “The Rocks Are the Road” focuses on movement itself; and “Journey Today, Promise Tomorrow” celebrates its rewards, while emphasizing that much remains to be done. Along with famous faces like Rosa Parks and Pastor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., each segment has surprises, not least of all seeing the illustrations at full scale.
“Original artwork speaks to a distinct resonance,” illustrator Bryan Collier, who has four works on the show, said in a phone interview. Because it tells you a little more, he adds, it expands the idea of what a picture book is. ”
The collage and watercolor illustration that Collier created for a picture book poem by Langston Hughes”Also” What visitors do know is that African-American railroad porters spread the news to black communities around the country.
“When you say, ‘Pullman Porter,’ you are talking about a community organizer and a leader,” says Collier. Such a number, he added, is “the impetus to speak for that poem.”
Collier’s illustrated jigsaw exhibit with a 1959 copy of “Green Book for Black Traveler” – a guide to safe places for Black motorists – as well as a digital version that visitors can read. The historical society has supplemented the program with these and other objects, including segregation-era “White” and “Color” signs and a photo by Stephen Somerstein of children during the week. Selma-to-Montgomery practice. Additional images PJ LoughranIllustration of a marching crowd for Lynda Blackmon Lowery’s vivid memoir, “Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the Selma Voting Rights 1965. ”
“I think kids and adults sometimes go to museums, and they see illustrations or pictures of things, and they think, ‘Wow, is this real? Did this really happen? ‘”Alice Stevenson, vice president and director of historic society DiMenna . Children’s History Museum, said in a phone interview. “And we wanted to be able to bring out some of the highlights throughout the exhibition so that people really get a sense of the reality of what these illustrations are representing.” (Visitors can also view historical footage in a short film, “Visualize the Dream,” on Bloomberg Connecting App.)
The added objects increase the impact of the portrayal portraits such as Eric VelasquezCharcoal drawing of white adults and black girls marching, from Angela Johnson’s book “A sweet rose scent. ”
Velasquez said in a phone conversation: “History itself doesn’t sit well with the sugar coating itself for me. As a Black man, he added, “I describe it the way I remember it.”
The exhibit was less than happy to admit that not all Black children survived the struggle. Image by Philippe Lardy for Marilyn Nelson’s poetry collection”A wreath for Emmett Till“There is the face of Till, a 14-year-old kid murdered by white racists in 1955, surrounded by spikes and chains. Tim LadwigIllustration from Carole Boston Weatherford’s book “Beatitudes: From Slavery to Civil Rights“Is less stylized. It shows a portrait of Till and his coffin, but uses a raised lid – the boy’s mother insists on public viewing – to conceal the brutalized body.
In choosing such images, “we are going to get straight to the truth,” said Pinkney, who added that the educational institution Embrace Race assessed the accuracy and tone of the exhibit’s content.
The show’s finale marks a more upbeat note, with illustrations like Velasquez’s portrait of Barack Obama at a jubilant campaign rally, from “by Michelle Cook”Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and Change Pioneers. However, the historical society also interspersed three pieces of work that children create in 2020 – not for picture books but about Black Lives Matter protests.
“We want kids to be able to respond to the past in their lives,” says Stevenson.
Perhaps the best calls to action are the books themselves, all of which are stowed away in a reading corner in the show’s epilogue. Here, an outstretched hand also appears, part of a playful illustration Collier drew for Useni Eugene Perkins’ book “Hey black kid. ”
“That’s always been the goal — read the books, embrace them, love them,” says Pinkney. “And to know that a picture book could be your North Star.”
