The word is courageous. It means not deterred by danger or pain, brave
Sometimes we have to look pass the hard things and walk towards it.
Affirmation
Blog
Monthly ReWind
February was a busy month!
I did three Road Scholar presentations this month. Elmhurst Publoc Library. Galesburg Public Library. Rock Springs Nature Center.
I attended the Humanties Breakfast where I met National Endowment for the Humanties Chair Shelly Lowe.
I attended the Bill Johnson Black Film Festival with cast and crew of the short film, The Invitation.
I am tired now.
It was a good Black History Month.
Art of the Month
Phillis Wheatley Peters was born in 1753 in Senegal/Gambia of West Africa where she was taken from as a child to live a life of slavery. She was captured at the age of seven years old. She was purchased by a wealthy Boston family.
She was known as one of the first African Americans to have a book of poetry published. She was named Phillis by her owner because she was brought to America aboard a ship named Phillis.
Her slave owners taught her to read and write as a child. She wrote her first poem at the age of 13. It was published in Boston, Newport and Rhode Island. At age 18, she had an entire collection of poems her slave owners attempted to have published. They had no luck in the colonies, so they went to Europe.
Yet at the publication of her book, her work was called into question because they did not believe that a person of African descent could be smart enough to write so well. Wheatly found herself before several of the most powerful men in the country being questioned about her writing. These men included Massachusetts Govenor Thomas Hutchinson, John Hancock who would become a significant part of the American Revolution, Samuel Adams and more. The common thought was that Africans were not intelligent enough to do such work.
Phillis would write about important moments in American History like the Boston Massacre. She would correspond with significant figures in history, including George Washington and John Newton.
After the publication of her book, Wheatly was freed from slavery. She would have to find a way to take care of herself because her book was not doing well in the colonies. She would meet a free man of African descent, who was a grocer. She married John Peters. They struggled to take care of themselves, as free former slaves had a difficult time finding work. Peters eventually went to jail for debt. Phillis would die in poverty, but still trying to publish her work. She died in 1784 at the age of 31.
Affirmation
You find out what you love when you are put to the test. If you love it, it stays. If you don’t love it, you allow it to go.
Phyllis Wheatley Peters wrote from the intersection of childhood, womanhood, slave, former slave, married woman, Christian and human being.
Phyllis loved writing. She wrote her entire life. But as a young girl she found herself in the room with some of the most powerful men in the country who thought she was incapable of writing so well.
She showed them who she was and that she was very capable.
Art of the Month
Phillis Wheatley Peters was born in 1753 in Senegal/Gambia of West Africa where she was taken from as a child to live a life of slavery. She was captured at the age of seven years old. She was purchased by a wealthy Boston family.
She was known as one of the first African Americans to have a book of poetry published. She was named Phillis by her owner because she was brought to America aboard a ship named Phillis.
Her slave owners taught her to read and write as a child. She wrote her first poem at the age of 13. It was published in Boston, Newport and Rhode Island. At age 18, she had an entire collection of poems her slave owners attempted to have published. They had no luck in the colonies, so they went to Europe.
Affirmation
I have a passion for telling the stories of African Americans.
We have lived lives that need to be recited and passed on to encourage those coming along. Some of the stories I love because my people overcame evil, while others I do not because they did not.
As the passion grows for the storytelling, the love will grow for the stories.
We will all love African American history.
Art of the Month
Phillis Wheatley Peters
Phillis Wheatley Peters was born in 1753 in Senegal/Gambia of West Africa where she was taken from as a child to live a life of slavery. She was captured at the age of seven years old. She was purchased by a wealthy Boston family.
She was known as one of the first African Americans to have a book of poetry published. She was named Phillis by her owner because she was brought to America aboard a ship named Phillis.
Affirmation
Phillis Wheatley showed a passion for words and learning as a young girl. Despite the trauma taking place in her world, she showed a love for the written words of her captors.
Love had a dark side as she probably missed all of her family.
But it had a light side, teaching her to love communicating through words.
Affirmation
At the center of their work, this action verb is very prominent. All of these women had a love that drove their work. You can see it at the center of my best work.
The word is love. It means a deep affection for or something that is liked or enjoyed very much.
It is where it sometimes begins.
Art of the Month
So I am very behind, as I post on the last day of January. I am trying some new things with my art, so as i explore more about image and storytelling, watch me work. The theme for 2024 is Intersectionality as we explore what it is like being African American and Female. Meeting at the intersection of Race and Gender.
For January we look at the life of Anna Julia Cooper. She lived within the lines of her society, but still had the desire to expand them.
She was born in 1858, into slavery in Raliegh North Carolina. She started life working as a domestic servant, but soon gained a world class eduation. She attended St Augustine’s School in Raliegh, where she would meet her husband, George A. C. Cooper. He would die within two years. As unfortunate as it was, his death allowed her to continue to teach.
TEACH
She attended Oberlin College with classmate Mary Church Terrell. In 1924, she was one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. When she could not find a university in the United sTates that would allow her this type of eduication, she attended Sorbonne, University of Paris. She spent many years of her life teaching.
WRITE
She also wrote her first book, A Voice from the South, which gave a realistis educated view of what life was like for African Americans during her lifetime.
SPEAK
In 1900 Cooper participated in the First Pan African Conference in London.
FORM
With Helen Appo Cook, Ida B Wells, Charlotte Forten Grimke, Mary Jane Peterson, Mary Church Terrell and Evelyn Shaw formed the Colored Women’s League in Washington, DC.
Anna Julia Cooper was a woman who didn’t not let life roll on by. She participated in things most women like her did not have access to. She helped change the way people though about situations. She leaves us all better for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_J._Cooper
UPP Creative Media 