George Bayard’s Enduring Art

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by: J. Bennett Rylah

George Bayard came up in a recent discussion surrounding the Christmas vandalism of various Uptown businesses. Curious as to why Bayard no longer called Uptown his entrepreneurial home, I found articles indicating he had relocated his business, Bayard Gallery of Fine African American Art and Books, from the 1100 block of Wealthy St. SE to a new space on Kalamazoo Ave. in Boston Square. So, I decided to ask him. I found a fascinating individual, with a passion for art and education — a passion that has endured for two decades, made a home in multiple neighborhoods and isn’t ready to stop growing.

Bayard, who holds a degree in art education, is a Delaware native who moved to Michigan in 1988. He says his story as the owner of a gallery focusing on art by artists of color begins in 1989, when he and his wife, Deborah, opened a small gallery on Michigan St. at Union NE.

“From the very beginning, the focus was on art of color, primarily African American artists,” he says.

Aunt Daisy’s Front Porch, a shop selling African American books and gifts, moved in next door. Bayard remained on Michigan for about a decade before the building was sold.

“At that same time, development of the Wealthy Theatre District was going on and we had made an offer (on that location),” Bayard says. “The history there was that particular building was a longtime eyesore and trouble to the police for the gang and drug activity on that corner. When Peter Wege bought the building, he committed to the community that he wanted to have something that was culturally viable, something that was educational.”

Bayard’s gallery was the first business to move in, followed by Huntington Bank and the Grand Rapids Community College’s Learning Corner. With more space, the gallery added ‘and Books’ to its name as Front Porch closed down and Bayard was able to absorb much of their product. The result was certainly a cultural and educational hub.

“We expanded to have an emphasis on African American authors, particularly local authors,” he says. “At the same time, we were doing all types of other things — framing, art appraisal, estate sales. We did art education and lectures.”

Information on Bayard’s educational lectures — on topics ranging from African American art and art collecting, Kwanzaa, African artifacts, and the Underground Railroad show where African American art, records and memorabilia can be appraised — can be found online.

Another eight years or so passed and the economy hit a low point. “The finances just weren’t there,” Bayard says. As the recession continued, Bayard made the decision to shut his doors.

“When we moved from Wealthy Street, it wasn’t really the increase in rent that forced us out,” Bayard clarifies. “We moved in under the Renaissance Zone Act, so we pretty much had free or reduced taxes for the eight years we were there. Our lease was very low and reasonable for those years — even when it was increased, it wasn’t increased substantially. It was the fact that the economy had turned. While I think art is essential, a lot of people just didn’t see art as essential. In those days when gas was five dollars a gallon and people were losing their homes, buying art was not a prudent thing for people to do.”

It was after the decision to close was announced that “people came out of the woodwork” with ideas for alternative options. Four months after he closed, he reopened in the Boston Square neighborhood. Bayard negotiated a mutual solution with GRCC, where the Learning Corner expanded into Bayard’s old space and took over their rent.

Bayard changed names once more. Bayard Art, Consulting and Frame Shop is located at 1213 Kalamazoo Ave. SE in a smaller space with less overheard. Still focused on lectures and many of their service-orientated operations, Internet sales have become more prevalent, using Bayard’s website,http://www.rareblackart.com/. While Bayard says Internet merchandising has its learning curve, they’ve sold a considerable amount. This, combined with lower costs of operation has resulted in a more profitable operation all around.

Of the thousands of pieces Bayard has handled, his cites one of his favorite pieces as an Inuit sculpture.

“Most Inuit pieces are small animals, but these were two wrestlers,” he says. “They were huge pieces — 15 inches tall, 20 inches wide — and just so detailed.”

In the gallery, its high price prevented sale, but once Bayard listed it for sale online, it sold rapidly to a man located in the Arctic Circle who had a museum located there.

Bayard, who is also a member of the Michigan Council for Art and Cultural Affairs, isn’t finished moving quite just yet. He hopes to relocate once more, into a larger location, and has had some meetings discussing investment and grants.

This time, “we’re looking at even a bigger impact into the community,” Bayard says. “More of a community center where we not only have art, but performance — maybe a stage and a movie theatre. Something that would help transcend from the art to performance art.”

Bayard Art, Consulting and Frame Shop is open from 12-5 p.m., Mon-Sat. More information is located here.

Artist of Negro League Baseball exhibit speaks at Muskegon MLK Unity breakfast

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By Dave Alexander

MUSKEGON — As an artist, Kadir Nelson said he looks for beauty in negative situations.

Such a philosophy created a Negro League Baseball book that is the subject of a new exhibit at theMuskegon Museum of Art. It also describes Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights workers, the soft-spoken artist said Friday.

“Dr. King and the civil rights workers transformed something that was negative into something that was beautiful,” Nelson told The Chronicle after speaking to the Urban League of Greater Muskegon’s MLK Unity Breakfast at Muskegon Community College.

“That is the same mantra I have taken in regards to my work,” said the author of “We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.” “I take negative situations and turn them into something beautiful.”

The beauty of Nelson’s 41 paintings depicting the history of Negro league baseball were unveiled Thursday evening at the exhibit opening at the museum.

He told the more than 300 gathered of how the paintings were created from 2000 to 2007. The book and art exhibit depict a time when African American baseball players could not play for major league teams because of the historic Jim Crow laws of forced segregation.

Nelson is an accomplished artist and illustrator who has worked on children’s books along with books by Debbie Allen and Spike Lee.

His most recent work is on two book projects, one on boxer Joe Lewis and the other on African American history. Nelson has an “album cover” illustration of the late pop icon Michael Jackson on the singer’s latest release.

1-KADIRNELSON MUG2.jpgKadir Nelson

Nelson described the research and detail that goes into each one of his paintings. There is no detail left unattended, indicating how a serious baseball fan can find “issues” in his work.

Nelson said that after his original Negro league baseball illustrations were published in Sports Illustrated, comedian/actor Billy Crystal contacted him to commission illustrations of his beloved New York Yankees and hall-of-famer Mickey Mantle.

When the artist showed Crystal some initial sketches, the project ground to a halt. Nelson said he had the home team in the wrong dugout in Yankee Stadium.

“You’d of thought that I had slapped his mother,” Nelson said of losing the job.

The art does not copy known photographs but is his own original recreation of the league’s history, Nelson said. They are images of people showing “the human spirit,” he said of his artwork.

“We Are the Ship” is told in nine “innings” or chapters in which Nelson’s illustrations are accompanied by his own “creative essays,” providing readers a first-person story of the leagues.

The book reviews the history of the Negro leagues from the 1920 founding by team owner Rube Foster to the breaking of Major League Baseball’s racial barrier by Jackie Robinson in 1947.

The “We Are the Ship” exhibit is at the Muskegon Museum of Art through March 13. It is the only Michigan showing of Nelson’s Negro league.

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New Orleans African American Museum to undergo renovations

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By Bruce Eggler

The city will dedicate $3 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money to the museum, founded in the late 1990s.

Landrieu is expected to say that the city is counting on the expanded museum to contribute to the revitalization of Treme by spurring nearby business development, creating jobs and developing a cultural center of importance to the entire city and beyond.

The museum is based in the Treme Villa, an 1828 mansion at 1418 Gov. Nicholls St. that’s also known as the Villa Meilleur or the Meilleur-Goldthwaite House.

The $6 million project will include acquiring the house across the street at 1417-19 Gov. Nicholls and renovating some of the seven buildings in the current museum complex that stretches for a full block along North Villere Street, from Gov. Nicholls to Ursulines Street.

The key projects will be restoring the blighted Passebon Cottage at 1431-33 Ursulines and reconstructing the cottage’s rear slave quarters building.

The entire capital campaign, said Jonn Hankins, the museum’s executive director, “will restore the buildings and grounds of the NOAAM campus to reflect their glory days of the 1840s, when Treme was the most sophisticated African American neighborhood in America.”

The end result, he said, will be “a restored Creole community circa 1845 here in Treme.”

A city spokeswoman said the $6 million campaign also will “serve to support collaboration between area universities and the museum in fields of creative arts, museum studies, art, history, archiving and educational programming.”

Passabon-cottage.jpgThe Passebon Cottage, built in 1843 by a well-known builder and ‘free man of color,’ is being restored as part of the museum. It will house a permanent exhibit on the history of Treme.

The Passebon Cottage, a two-story double Creole cottage, was built in 1843 by Pierre Passebon, a well-known New Orleans builder and a “free man of color.” Treme is considered to have been the largest and most important community of free people of color, or non-enslaved African-Americans, in the country before the Civil War.

Hankins said the cottage “is in a condition of stabilized blight. The roof is partially imploded, and the interior wood framing is in danger of collapse due to years of water and weather damage coming through the partially exposed roof. The second floor is being held up by temporary jacks. The rear wall is in imminent danger of collapse.” The right side and front brick walls were stabilized after Hurricane Katrina.

Once restored, Hankins said, the Passebon Cottage will house a permanent exhibit on the history of Treme, “providing an experiential architectural context from which to interpret, for future generations, the legacies of the people who pioneered jazz music, Creole cuisine, New Orleans voodoo, second-line funeral processions, the publication of the first newspaper and first anthology of poetry by African-Americans, as well as the pivotal civil rights legacies of Homer Plessey, Alexander P. Tureaud and others.”

The cottage’s slave quarters collapsed on Christmas Eve in 2009 and will be rebuilt.

The building at 1417-19 Gov. Nicholls St. will be acquired to house museum offices and host community events and conferences. It also will be used for storage and perhaps some exhibits.

Before the founding of the museum, all of its historic buildings had fallen into serious disrepair and blight. Beginning in 1996, with the guidance and support of Mayor Marc Morial’s administration, the buildings were renovated and organized into the New Orleans African American Museum of Art, History and Culture.

The museum was formally incorporated in 2000. Since then, it claims to have been a catalyst for both public and private efforts in historic preservation and community development that have helped to revive Treme.

The road has not been smooth, however. In 2003, the museum had to close after Morial’s successor, Ray Nagin, cut off much of its financing, which came almost entirely from the Community Development Block Grant money the city got from the federal government.

At the time, federal officials were investigating how millions of federal dollars had been used to support the museum. In 2005, an audit concluded that much of the money had been spent on museum operations that were not eligible for block grant money, and the city should repay more than $1 million.

The audit did not question the money spent to rehabilitate the old buildings, however, and the city is turning to the same source for the $3 million Landrieu will commit to the museum today.

Without city sponsorship or a staff, the museum remained in limbo when Katrina hit the city in 2005. Floodwaters did not reach the raised villa or its outlying buildings, but wind ripped slates from roofs, uprooted trees, felled a brick fence and otherwise damaged the museum and grounds to the tune of $1 million.

Since 2007 the museum has slowly worked its way back to regular operations, hosting special events and gradually presenting more frequent exhibits, especially since Hankins became the director a little over a year ago. It is currently open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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African American History Uncapped by UNCAP

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By: Jacqueline Goldsby

Jacqueline Goldsby, an associate professor in the English Department at New York University, has long been known for her quest to fill in the gaps of African American history through her thorough and avid research of topics ranging from the Harlem Renaissance to Chicago’s black literary scene. Recently her research endeavors have proven to be more Indiana Jones than Dewey Decimal System with some major excavation of historical artifacts ranging from original political cartoons from Pulitzer Prize Chicago Defender cartoonist Chester Commodore to a percussion cymbal of the Alton Abraham Collectionfrom famous jazz musician Sun Ra.

It all began when Goldsby started researching a new book on the black literary scene in Chicago. She began discovering collections sitting in institutional storage rooms, still unpacked, and others gathering dust in family basements and attics. Knowing that a great deal of this history was sitting unsuspected and or undiscovered, Goldsby started a grass roots effort to uncover these precious artifacts, knocking on doors and calling institutions around the city inquiring if they needed help with their archival efforts. The Chicago Defender tipped her off to a vacant warehouse on Odgen Avenue. “I’m getting goose bumps all over again when I think about it,” said Goldsby to the Tribune. Delving into stacks upon stacks of papers in the dimly lit, dank, non-air-conditioned space she discovered correspondence between Defender editor John Sengstacke and PresidentHarry S. Truman about desegregating the Army; photographs of Booker T. Washington with his family; about 100 home movies of the Sengstackes that depicted an elite black family during the 1940s.

Goldsby’s discovery led to the creation of Uncovering New Chicago Archives Project, or UNCAP, which became a broader effort by the University of Chicago, the Chicago Public Library, Chicago Defender, the DuSable Museum of African American History and the South Side Community Art Center to find and organize African-American historical collections. With the help of graduate students in relevant fields, the project has successfully unearthed and archived a great deal of Chicago’s unknown documents on Black History, archives of jazz musicians and the early history of the movement, and Chicago’s rich and under-appreciated black modern poetry scene. “The material is there; it’s a matter of getting it,” said oral historian and author Timuel D. Black Jr . to the Tribune. Black is the acclaimed author of “Bridges of Memory,” the two-volume oral history documenting the impact of the Great Migration on Chicago history. “Black Chicago is one of the most important places not just in African-American history but American history. The president of the United States came from Chicago.”

As the project has grown and expanded throughout the years, they out-grew their funding. Luckily the University of Chicago Department of Special Collections won a three-year, $617,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to help create a new approach to processing the collections. Although the funding was a great help to the organization, keeping the artifacts available to the public became a great concern whenSotheby’s announced that it would auction the private papers of Martin Luther King Jr. Goldsby convinced Robert Sengstacke, John Sengstacke‘s son, to donate the papers to UNCAP. Goldsby told Sengstake “‘Don’t send them to D.C. Don’t send them to New York. Keep them in the place where the paper did its work, where schoolchildren and journalists and the black community can access them.”

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Museum celebrates Black History Month

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by: Greater lafayette

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) – With Black History Month just around the corner, two organizations are coming together to help the community celebrate.

The Art Museum of Great Lafayette and Purdue University’s Black Cultural Center are collaborating to showcase African American artists.

Two of the featured artists are Preston Jackson and Joyce Owners, who are both from Chicago.

“Some incredible artists who work in a variety of medium. You see paintings and sculptures. The narrative of the African American experience is represented here,” said Purdue University Black Cultural Center Director Renee Thomas.

“When you come into this exhibition, no matter what color your skin is or what your background is, you’re going to get a feel for a culture that you probably wouldn’t find anywhere here because the way these artists interpret,” said Art Museum of Greater Lafayette Executive Director Kendall Smith.

The Art Museum will host an opening reception Friday, January 21st from six to eight pm. The Museum is located at 101 South 9th Street in Lafayette.



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African-American art collection on display at Geneva

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By: Scott Tady


BEAVER FALLS — Vivian Hewitt was a librarian, and her husband, John, a freelance writer; not necessarily jobs one would associate with the pricey world of art collection.

Yet through the decades, the Hewitts steadily amassed an assortment of art that caught their fancy, and one day would be deemed one of the finest collections of African-American art in the world.

The works that Vivian, a New Castle native, and John, a New Yorker, had bought to celebrate their milestones and to support the emerging artists they befriended eventually would tour the nation while becoming the cornerstone for the new $18.5 million Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture in Charlotte, N.C.

The Hewitts set aside 40 pieces for donation to Geneva College, from where Vivian graduated in 1943. Those pieces have been spread among classrooms, faculty offices and McCartney Library on the college’s campus.

This week, for the first time, those paintings and sculptures will be exhibited under one roof for a public show, “The Vivian Davidson Hewitt Collection: A Multicultural Legacy.”

The three-day exhibit starts Wednesday in the upper level of the Student Center in Skye Lounge. Hewitt, who turns 90 next month, will fly in from New York to lecture Thursday on the artworks that she and her late husband loved so dearly, and were eager to share with the public.

“I’ve always thought art enhances life,” Hewitt said. “It enriches life. It expands life.

“To see the works of such talented people is an experience,” she said. “It’s joyful.”

Chatting by phone from her Upper West Side apartment in a neighborhood nicknamed “Park Avenue West” — it wasn’t so swanky when she and John moved there in 1964 — Hewitt said she hasn’t visited Geneva in nearly 10 years, since her son, a retired doctor, belatedly was presented a degree he had bypassed after leaving Geneva after his junior year.

“I’m so excited to return,” said Hewitt, who majored in French and psychology at Geneva, continuing her education at the then-Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, where she earned a master’s degree in library science.

In 1944, the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh hired her as a senior assistant librarian. Five years later, she took a similar job at Atlanta University and met her future husband.

Hewitt’s lecture Thursday will focus on the art of collection, flavored with stories about her and John’s exhibited works, “how we got them, and why they appealed to us,” she said.

The paintings include Montas Antoine’s “Church Scene,” known for its colorful street and rural scenes in contrast to our normal view of a poverty-stricken Haiti. The collection also includes American paintings such as Don Davey’s “China Town” and “San Francisco Bay Bridge,” and English paintings such as William Palmer Robin’s “Acquisition” and “Butchery Lane.”

As newlyweds in 1949, the Hewitts bought their first piece of art, a reproduction of a painting by the then-active Pablo Picasso.

The Hewitts bought their first original painting in 1960 while on a two-week vacation in Haiti. Touring the Caribbean nation’s countryside, they became earnest admirers of the Haitian art scene, acquiring many more works there on periodic visits through 1985.

As lovers of travel, the Hewitts bought art wherever they roamed. Back home in New York, where Vivian Hewitt had gone from being a researcher for a publishing firm to the chief librarian for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Hewitts became friends with many of the talented African-American artists in their neighborhood.

“By the 1970s, they were opening their home to showcase the work of Hale Woodruff, Ernest Crichlow, Alvin Hollingsworth and J. Eugene Grigsby,” says the Gantt Center website. “Grigsby, a cousin of Mrs. Hewitt’s, is an artist and internationally acclaimed art educator who also introduced the couple to numerous artists, many of whom wrote personal inscriptions or notes on the pieces the couple purchased, increasing their value both monetarily and sentimentally.”

Rochester Township artist Elizabeth Douglas, a professor emeritus at Geneva who was mentored by Hewitt, visited the couple’s New York home when their art collection was still intact.

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Harlem-fine-arts-show-returns-for-second-year

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By Jon Schuppe




MANHATTAN — A national showcase of African-American artists is returning to Harlem in February, a weeklong affair that will coincide with Black History Month.

The second annual Harlem Fine Arts Show will be held at Riverside Church from Feb. 25 to 27 with a mission to develop “the long-neglected area of African-American culture, history and economic development,” organizers say. This year’s show will emphasize both known and emerging artists from around the country.

Curator Andrew Nichols said he wants the Harlem Fine Arts Show to fill the void left by other former New York shows that once focused on black artists, namely the National Black Fine Arts Show. He said he expects the new show to become the genre’s premier event.

The Harlem Fine Arts Show kicked off for the first time last year at the 369th Armory on Fifth Avenue. Organizers wanted to make it an annual event, but couldn’t reach a deal with that venue. So they turned to Riverside Church, which agreed to host the show for five years, Nichols said.

The goal is to allow artists to sell their work and reach a wider audience, and give buyers a chance to meet artists in person, Nichols said.

He hopes the event will help inject some life into a local arts community damaged by the recession.

“We want to bring it back,” he said.

There will be several promotional events leading up to the 2011 show, including a reception by the Black and Latino State Legislative Caucus in Albany, and a preview hosted by The New York Times.

A portion of the show’s proceeds will be donated to the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention on Madison Avenue and 124th Street. Proceeds from the arts show’s $70-a-head opening night preview will benefit Jazzmobile, a Harlem center dedicated to preserving and performing jazz.


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Explore African-American music and culture at the Danforth

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The Danforth Museum of Art will present a free “Educator’s Evening” with Emmett G. Price III, Ph.D., one of the nation’s leading experts on African-American music and culture, on Thursday, Feb. 3 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Price is an associate professor of music and African American studies at Northeastern University where he also serves as chairman of the Department of African American Studies. He is also the executive editor of the Encyclopedia of African American Music, author of HIP HOP Culture, and editor of The Black Church, Hip Hop Culture and the Dilemma of the Generational.
The evening will concentrate on how to stimulate student learning through captivating teaching. Dr. Price will offer many practical tips in how to use Black Creative Expression as a catalyst for connecting with students and inspiring more focused learning. Through his interactive presentation, audience members will be inspired to learn more about the Power of Black Creative Expression and how its power can be used to transform the lives of young people of all races, ethnicities, and cultures.
Special attention will be paid to the work of longtime Framingham resident Meta Warrick Fuller, a visionary leader among the giants of the art world and generally considered one of the first African-American female sculptors of importance. She studied under a number of different sculptors, including a one-on-one critique with Auguste Rodin. She is often described as an influential precursor to the Harlem Renaissance who is best-known for her groundbreaking depictions of the African and African-American experience.
This free event open begins with a meet and greet at 4 p.m. and Dr. Price’s talk at 4:30 pm. Following the talk, there will be an opportunity for a question-and-answer session and tours of the Meta Warrick Fuller sculpture collection. This may also be the last chance to see the current Danforth Museum exhibitions of Rhoda Rosenberg, Brice Marden, Sachiko Akiyama,and Carol Keller, which will be closing on Feb. 6.

African-American art collector Vivian Hewitt recalls how works were found

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by: Virginia Linn, Pittsburgh post-gazette


Vivian Hewitt turns 91 on Feb. 17, but she seemed unfazed last week about leaving her Upper West Side apartment in snow-buried New York City to travel here this week to talk about her lifelong passion.

Mrs. Hewitt, a New Castle native who was the first black librarian in Pittsburgh, went on to make a mark in the world of African-American art with her late husband, John.

Vivian Hewitt’s lecture

Where: Geneva College, 3200 College Ave., Beaver Falls, 15010.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Admission: Free, but tickets are required and can be reserved by calling 724-847-5559 or e-mailing cynlcook@geneva.edu.

Art on display: 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, 8 a.m. to noon Friday in Skye Lounge.

Through their travels, family connections and friends in New York, they amassed one of the most renowned collections of African-American art, which today serves as the cornerstone of the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts+Culture in Charlotte, N.C.

But she’s coming here to talk about the 40 pieces of original Haitian and other African-American art they donated over the years to Geneva College, her alma mater.

Formerly scattered across the Beaver Falls campus in McCartney Library, Alexander Hall, and various faculty and staff offices, the pieces will be on display together in the upper level of the Student Center in Skye Lounge. The exhibit will be free and open to the public 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, and 8 a.m. to noon Friday.

Mrs. Hewitt is scheduled to speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Skye Lounge.

The art collection happened by chance, she said last week. She met her husband when she was a librarian and instructor at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University), and he was an English teacher at nearby Morehouse College. They married in 1949, and looking for ways to decorate their faculty suite, they picked up a print at a New York City museum during their honeymoon there.

They soon started purchasing original Haitian art, traveling to the Caribbean country from 1960 to 1965, as well as works by black and folk artists in Mexico and other places. Although both drew modest salaries, they made a point in giving each other original art on every gift-giving occasion.

When they moved to New York City in 1952, they visited galleries and shows and were introduced in the waning days of the Harlem renaissance to the Market Place Gallery, which was operated by Mr. Hewitt’s sister, Adele Glasgow. There they became friends with black artists and began collecting work that hadn’t yet hit the mainstream.

“We started investing in our own heritage and culture,” said Mrs. Hewitt. “Their work was affordable then,” she said of the black artists.

Among the pieces in their collection at the North Carolina center are works by Romare Bearden, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Elizabeth Catlett, Jonathan Green, Jacob Lawrence, Ann Tanksley, Hale Woodruff and Margaret Burroughs.

Mrs. Hewitt says an article in The New York Times in the early 1970s put a spotlight on the emerging prominence of African-American art, which was beginning to be purchased by white collectors.

“In essence it said that African-American art was here to stay, and [collectors] better get on the bandwagon,” she said last week. “It was a turning point for people recognizing the importance of African-American artists. Because of racism and the tenor of the times, this is what happened to exist.”

In 1998, Bank of America acquired the John and Vivian Hewitt Collection of African-American Art. The exhibit toured the United States for 10 years during construction of the $18 million Gantt center in North Carolina that became its permanent home in 2009. Mrs. Hewitt, in her late 70s and 80s by this time, visited the 25 to 30 cities on the tour. Her husband died in 2000.

Earlier in her life, of course, Mrs. Hewitt was a pioneer in Pittsburgh. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Geneva in 1943 and a master’s in library science from the Carnegie Tech Library School (later folded into the University of Pittsburgh). She was the first black librarian hired by Carnegie Library and worked at the Hill District and Homewood branches before moving to Atlanta.

She’s particularly proud of the couple’s contributions in bringing awareness to black artists.

Today, she said “there are fine African-American artists in every region of the United States.”

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Antebellum and Civil War eras

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by: Harriet Powers


From its early origins in slave communities, through the end of the 20th century, African-American art has made a vital contribution to the art of the United States.[1] During the period between the 17th century and the early 19th century art took the form of small drums, quilts, wrought-iron figures and ceramic vessels in the southern United States; these artifacts have similarities with comparable crafts in West and Central Africa. In contrast, black artisans like the New England–based engraver Scipio Moorhead and the Baltimore portrait painter Joshua Johnson created art that was conceived in a western European fashion for their local markets.[2]

Many slaves arrived from Africa as skilled artisans, having worked in these or similar media in Africa. Others learned their trades or crafts as apprentices to African or white skilled workers. It was often the practice for slave owners to hire out skilled artisans. With the consent of their masters, some slave artisans also were able to keep wages earned in their free time and thereby save enough money to purchase their, and their families’, freedom.[3]

G.W. Hobbs, William Simpson, Robert M. Douglas Jr., Patrick H. Reason, Joshua Johnson, and Scipio Moorhead were among the earliest known portrait artists, from the period of 1773–1887. While there were no schools during this period in the United States where an African-American artist could learn to paint, patronage by some white families allowed for private tutorship in special cases. Many of these sponsoring whites were abolitionists. The artists received more encouragement and were better able to support themselves in cities, of which there were more in the North and border states.

Harriet Powers 1837–1910 was an African American folk artist and quilt maker from rural Georgia, United States born into slavery. Now nationally recognized for her quilts, she used traditional appliqué techniques to record local legends, Bible stories, and astronomical events on her quilts. Only two of her late quilts have survived: Bible Quilt 1886 and Bible Quilt 1898. Her quilts are considered among the finest examples of 19th-century Southern quilting [4], [5]. Like Powers, the women of Gee’s Bend developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional American (and African American) quilts, but with a geometric simplicity. Although widely separated by geography, they have qualities reminiscent of Amish quilts and modern art. The women of Gee’s Bend passed their skills and aesthetic down through at least six generations to the present.[6] At one time scholars believed slaves sometimes utilized quilt blocks to alert other slaves about escape plans during the time of the Underground Railroad,[7]Quilting remains alive as form of artistic expression in the African-American community. but most historians do not agree.

Connecting People with Art – October Gallery Art Book -BlackStream Renaissance.

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BlackStream Renaissance

Here is an excerpt from the October Gallery Art book “Connecting People with Art”
See if you agree or disagree with this:

Our national and international patrons and artists have witnessed firsthand the creation and development of the African-American art industry, which prior to the 1970s was almost nonexistent. This group of patrons and artists are part of what we call the BlackStream Renaissance.

The term “blackstream” was used by Black artists in the 1900s who were denied admission to the art mainstream. More recently, fine art appraiser Edward S. Spriggs of Atlanta, Georgia brought the term “blackstream” to our attention. Feeling there was a need to identify this important time of formative awareness of, belief in and commitment to African-American art, we coined the phrase BlackStream Renaissance.

We further define this growth period as being marked by a collective community conscientiousness that recognizes the creative, cultural and financial viability of African-American visual expression.

The interplay between artists, community members and available resources has created a fabric-like cohesion characterized by:
 • Artists willing to create
 • A community that can inspire its artists
 • A community that accepts its own cultural
 creations as having value
 • Sufficient community resources to sustain the
 exchange of value

The patrons and artists of the BlackStream Renaissance purchased and sold art, displayed it at home and at work and shared it with friends, family, co-workers and the general public. In short, they have made African-American art an indispensable part of their everyday lives. The African-American community is effectively supporting and building an art industry, perpetuated primarily by its own members.

Artists, galleries, museums and others in the art business realize that because of proper education, focused marketing and love of culture, African-Americans have shifted their habits and allocated to the visual arts a portion of the more than 750 billion dollars they spend each year. This group has invested precious time and valuable resources in African-American art and has thereby continued to give it value.

To be clear, the BlackStream Renaissance welcomes the mainstream but does not have to rely on it for content, aesthetic validation or financial continuance.

Educator and curator David C. Driskell said, “The boom in Black art has come about not in the market of galleries of the auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, but from ordinary Black people.”

Most African-American artists market and exhibit in the African-American community. Successful Black art festivals and expos, where artists sell and exhibit, recognize the importance of marketing to this special community. It is in this community where the strength and the value of African-American art begins. It is this community that has provided the foundation for the Blackstream Renaissance.

Vegan Mainstream provides marketing solutions to vegan and vegetarian businesses

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Vegan Mainstream provides marketing solutions to vegan and vegetarian businesses. It is a strategic planning and marketing company ready to exceed your marketing ambitions for your business.

Vegan Mainstream was founded by Stephanie Redcross, a dedicated vegan with over 11 years’ marketing experience with small businesses and Fortune 500 companies. Stephanie heads up a team of people who are extraordinarily talented in strategic planning, market intelligence, social media, design, search engine optimization and public relations. As a result Vegan Mainstream excels in its ability to combine expertise and provide a custom marketing solutions service.

The word ‘vegan’ was invented over 65 years ago and while veganism was once considered extreme, going vegan or vegetarian is now becoming a greatly admired and popular life choice. There’s no doubt that ‘less-meat-a-tarian’ consumers are increasing – but whether vegan, vegetarian or non-vegan, more people than ever insist on buying animal cruelty-free products. Vegan Mainstream uses innovative marketing tools to spread awareness of your animal friendly business to both vegan and non-vegan consumers.

Vegan Mainstream can help you if you want to increase customer volume; improve your web traffic; manage a Twitter campaign; identify new customers; or if you need creative product promotions; detailed market intelligence; campaign management; and PR mastery. Vegan Mainstream is here to make your vegan or vegetarian businesses succeed, so it can propel your business into the mainstream — request a proposal.

Email: marketing@veganmainstream.com

Phone: (858) 523-8345

Address: P.O. Box 12076, La Jolla, CA 92039

The Mountain of Miracles by Cleous Young

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Young David and his grandfather, on their daily trek to find medicine to treat his grandfather’s worsening illness, suddenly stumble upon a thriving, prosperous village one day. Filled with warm, personable individuals, the village is rife with the spirit of community and shared responsibility, and the two of them are instantly welcomed. Fitting right in, over the next few years the village ultimately becomes their new home, and all of them – David, his grandfather, and the villagers alike – couldn’t be happier.

read more>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Pimps in the Pulpit – the Stage Play – Shannon Bellamy

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Take a look at the video, tells us what you think of this new stage play.

PHILADELPHIA, PA–(Marketwire – September 30, 2009) – Based on a true story, Shannon Bellamy writes about her experience with a church scandal and exposes the church whose choir won the 2009 Steve Harvey Hoodie Awards for best Choir, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In her book “Pimps in the Pulpit” she talks about her nearly three-year love affair with her Philadelphia Pastor and former Bermuda Radio Personality.

The subtitle of Shannon’s book, “He was my… Counselor, Friend, Confidant and Lover, ‘Her’ Husband, ‘Their’ Father and ‘Our Pastor'” is a strong message about the secret lives a lot of Pastors lead in today’s churches. A series of trials and tribulations has uniquely prepared Shannon Bellamy to tackle and subsequently overcome some of life’s most insurmountable odds. Her story tells what happened to cause this strong woman to be broken and blindly trusting; become weak, vulnerable and get manipulated into an intimate relationship with her Counselor/Pastor who is also married. She exposes the secret life of her Pastor and the five other Pastors in their “Boys Club” in the church. Her story is not about tearing down the church but rather to expose inappropriate relationships between Pastors and Parishioners and how it can affect these wounded victims’ lives, self esteem, spirituality and soul.

In her tell all book she gives a tantalizing play-by-play analysis of the endless late night rendezvous, orchestrated lies and deception. Shannon also discloses the details of her near death experience as a result of undergoing extensive cosmetic surgery that he coerced her to endure for his own personal enjoyment.

Ms. Bellamy hopes her story will bring same sex counseling as a mandate in the church to protect both the Pastors and parishioners from “human nature” and allow the church to get back to the business of saving the lost, sick and broken without the distraction of the “flesh” and decrease inappropriate church relationships within the church! A real page turner of what really goes on behind the pulpit when church is not in session. Don’t be a victim of the “Pimps in the Pulpit” who prey on vulnerable women, single or married!

Share in her struggles and Triumphs as she finds herself and breaks away, from who she believed was the love of her life, in order to save her life. Feel the gravity of her pain; agonize with her through her moments of self doubt; experience her slow journey to personal redemption and unfolding triumph.

“Pimps in the Pulpit” can be ordered online at www.shannonbellamy.com or bookstores nationwide.

Shannon Bellamy has appeared on the national syndicated Michael Baisden Show and a host of other radio programs and speaking engagements go to her website for a list.

Shannon Bellamy
Tel. 201-759-8561
Email Contact
www.shannonbellamy.com

Top 10 home decor trends for 2011

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(ARA) – Something old, something new. Something borrowed, something blue. While typically the refrain for most brides, this adage holds equally true for the top home decorating trends for the coming year.

What’s old is new again
Whether they’re genuine period pieces being repurposed or home furnishings reproduced from popular items from the ’50s, ’60s or ’70s, vintage will be hot next year, according to Kenneth Ludwig of Kenneth Ludwig Home Furnishings, Ltd. Examples include chair frames redone in new upholstery, traditional lighting fixtures in newer brass or pewter finishes, or products imported from Russia, Poland and the Czech Republic such as chairs done in old grain sacks, or old carts from factories used for end tables or coffee tables.

A spectrum of colors
Color trends will carry over from 2010 to 2011 with the soothing aqua and green hues that draw their inspiration from the verdigris deposits found on weathered copper statues, predicts design expert, TV host/spokesperson and best-selling author Kathy Peterson. For outdoor furniture and accessories, she sees sassy colors like lime green, bold orange and Caribbean blue, along with more subdued hues such as sage green, barn red and mocha brown.

The mad, mad world of furniture
Taking a nod from the award-winning AMC series “Mad Men,” Linda Fougerousse of Interior Transformation, Inc. also sees furniture styles returning to the ’50s and ’60s with round tapered legs on angles, geometric accents and seating with curved backs. Jase Frederick of Jase Frederick Sustainable Interiors adds that classic wood pieces made from sentimental stock like fallen trees or scrap wood from ancestral or historic structures will become heirlooms to pass from one generation to the next.

A trend that will stick around
A small change in a room can make a huge difference – and wall coverings make a dramatic, yet cost-effective statement. With their innovative new SmartStick repositionable wall murals, Murals Your Way has made it easy for homeowners, renters and even college students to add a fresh new look to indoor and outdoor walls, floors, doors and windows. “Easily replied and removed, SmartStick murals boast a high quality, lightly textured finish and can be reused and reinstalled hundreds of times,” says Todd Imholte, president of Murals Your Way. “It’s a perfect temporary – or long-term – decorating solution for consumers.”

Illuminating insights
As living green becomes more ingrained in our lives, LED lighting will continue to light the way, according to Jeff Dross, senior product manager of Kichler Lighting, who will introduce several new under-cabinet systems and landscape products with an ultra-efficient technology next year. For a casual, contemporary twist, Dross also suggests hanging chandeliers in new areas such as bathrooms, bedrooms and closets, and embracing today’s art glass applications, which are much more chic and casual than the Tiffany lamps of the past.

There’s nothing bland about neutrals
In a recent video posted on her website, Michelle Lamb – co-founder and chairman of Minneapolis-based Marketing Directions, Inc. and editorial director of The Trend Curve – spoke about a resurgence in neutrals in 2011. These more complex “chameleon” neutrals will have more color, and will shift and change based on the light and whatever’s around them. Lamb claims that these neutrals will be “the likes of which we haven’t seen in 20 years or more.”

You’ve gotta have heart
The kitchen remains the “heart of the home,” according to Andrea Vollf of Andrea Vollf Interiors. Consumers interested in remodeling their kitchens should consider a well-designed, open, airy layout that integrates the kitchen into the rest of their homes. Dross also suggests new countertop materials in lieu of granite, such as quartz stone or binding crushed recyclable glass underneath a solid, smooth surface for those seeking green alternatives.

Underfoot … but not underrated
M. Grace Sielaff of M. Grace Designs, Inc. envisions rich-looking herringbone-patterned hardwood floors in an ebony oak finish – paying attention to board thickness and giving special consideration to products that meet industry LEED requirements. For a green touch, Frederick suggests hardwood flooring from reclaimed wood or sustainably grown and harvested sources. To add warmth, Marta Cullen of Dream Interiors suggests round rugs – the bigger, the better.

Things are definitely looking up
According to Janet Davidsen of Details in Design, Inc., homeowners are casting their eyes upward. The ceiling will be embellished and noticed more as the “fifth wall,” and may be painted or architecturally enhanced to play more of a focal point in a space. Sielaff also suggests homeowners consider a painted metallic ceiling with a large, eye-catching chandelier.

Green continues to be keen
According to Kathy Hoffman of Susan Fredman Design Group, products and materials such as bronze, copper, clay, cotton, linen and hemp – which are environmentally friendly, contribute to healthy indoor air quality, and can be repurposed or recycled at the end of their lifespan – will be in high demand. Vollf adds that using such natural textures as hemp, jute, organic cotton, recycled polyester, bamboo fiber, organic wool and linen, and soy silk will help keep it simple but still green.

For more information on top trends, go to www.muralsyourway.com.