Welcome May
history
Affirmation
Jones spent her life learning and teaching. I have found that my natural curiosity keeps me fresh and motivated.
Art of the Month
Lois Mailou Jones (1905–1998) was an artist and educator. Her work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Muscarelle Museum of Art, and The Phillips Collection.
She is often associated with the Harlem Renaissance.
Jones was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Thomas Vreeland Jones and Carolyn Adams. Her father was a building superintendent who later became a lawyer after becoming the first African-American to earn a law degree from Suffolk Law School. Her mother worked as a cosmetologist.
Jones’s parents encouraged her to draw and paint using watercolors during her childhood. Her parents bought a house on Martha’s Vineyard, where Jones met those who influenced her life and art, such as sculptor Meta Warrick Fuller, composer Harry T. Burleigh, and novelist Dorothy West.
From 1919 to 1923, Jones attended the High School of Practical Arts in Boston. She took night classes from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts through an annual scholarship. Additionally, she apprenticed in costume design with Grace Ripley. She held her first solo exhibition at the age of seventeen in Martha’s Vineyard. Jones began experimenting with African mask influences during her time at the Ripley Studio. From her research of African masks, Jones created costume designs for Denishawn.
From 1923 to 1927, Jones attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to study design, where she won the Susan Minot Lane Scholarship in Design yearly. She took night courses at the Boston Normal Art School while working towards her degree. After graduating from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, she received her graduate degree in design from the Design Art School of Boston in 1928. Afterwards, she began working at the F. A. Foster Company in Boston and the Schumacher Company in New York City. During the summer of 1928, she attended Howard University, where she decided to focus on painting instead of design.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Mailou_Jones
Coming In April
We will participate in the Spectacular Black Girl Art Show in April in Chicago. Stay tuned for more information on how you can support us.
Art the Month
Lois Mailou Jones meets us at the interesection of gender, race and profession.
Lois Mailou Jones (1905–1998) was an artist and educator. Her work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Muscarelle Museum of Art, and The Phillips Collection.
She is often associated with the Harlem Renaissance.
Jones was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Thomas Vreeland Jones and Carolyn Adams. Her father was a building superintendent who later became a lawyer after becoming the first African-American to earn a law degree from Suffolk Law School. Her mother worked as a cosmetologist.
Jones’s parents encouraged her to draw and paint using watercolors during her childhood. Her parents bought a house on Martha’s Vineyard, where Jones met those who influenced her life and art, such as sculptor Meta Warrick Fuller, composer Harry T. Burleigh, and novelist Dorothy West.
From 1919 to 1923, Jones attended the High School of Practical Arts in Boston. She took night classes from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts through an annual scholarship. Additionally, she apprenticed in costume design with Grace Ripley. She held her first solo exhibition at the age of seventeen in Martha’s Vineyard. Jones began experimenting with African mask influences during her time at the Ripley Studio. From her research of African masks, Jones created costume designs for Denishawn.
From 1923 to 1927, Jones attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to study design, where she won the Susan Minot Lane Scholarship in Design yearly. She took night courses at the Boston Normal Art School while working towards her degree. After graduating from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, she received her graduate degree in design from the Design Art School of Boston in 1928. Afterwards, she began working at the F. A. Foster Company in Boston and the Schumacher Company in New York City. During the summer of 1928, she attended Howard University, where she decided to focus on painting instead of design.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Mailou_Jones
Coming in April
Art of the Month
Sojourner Truth
She was born between 1797 and 1883 and given the name Isabella in a Dutch speaking county in New York.
She meets us at the intersection of former slave, abolitionist, women’s rights activists, mother, daughter, wife.
Isabella Baumfree spent the first nine years of her life close to her family. Her father, James Baumfree was captured from Ghana. Her mother Elizabeth was captured from Guinea. She was sold for the first time at the age of nine. She spent the next decade of her life being sold to not very nice people.
She had a husband and five children. Her last master was supposed to free her, but reneged. In late 1826, she escaped with her daughter Sophia.
I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right.”
She walked to freedom.
This happened because in 1799, the State of New York created laws to abolition slavery which was complete in 1827. Baumfree’s slaver owner refused to let her go, so she left with her youngest child. According to the law the other children would be free when they were in their twenties.
Her former slave owner sold her young son, who was 5 years old, to a slave owner in Alabama. With the help of some others, Baumfree fought for her son in court. She was the first African American to sue her slave owner in court and win.
On June 1, 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth because she felt the Lord calling her to preach the truth. In 1944, Truth joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry through which she met Frederick Douglass and others who encouraged her to speak publicly.
In 1850 she dictated her memoir, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, A Northern Slave. In 1951, while on a speaking tour, she delivered her famous speech Aint I A Woman which demanded equal rights for women.
She spoke at several meetings before the war. Afterwards she became a proponent of women’s rights. As she aged, she was cared for by her two daughters. She died at her home in Battle Creek Michigan in November of 1883.
She meets us at the intersection of human being, African American, woman, Activist, Christ follower and family member.
Road Scholar Presentation
In March I will be presenting at the Glenwood-Lynwood Public Library in Lynwood, Il on March 26 at 6pm.
Art of the Month
She was born between 1797 and 1883 and given the name Isabella in a Dutch speaking county in New York.
She meets us at the intersection of former slave, abolitionist, women’s rights activists, mother, daughter, wife.
Isabella Baumfree spent the first nine years of her life close to her family. Her father, James Baumfree was captured from Ghana. Her mother Elizabeth was captured from Guinea. She was sold for the first time at the age of nine. She spent the next decade of her life being sold to not very nice people.
She had a husband and five children. Her last master was supposed to free her, but reneged. In late 1826, she escaped with her daughter Sophia.
I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right.”
She walked to freedom.
This happened because in 1799, the State of New York created laws to abolition slavery which was complete in 1827. Baumfree’s slaver owner refused to let her go, so she left with her youngest child. According to the law the other children would be free when they were in their twenties.
Her former slave owner sold her young son, who was 5 years old, to a slave owner in Alabama. With the help of some others, Baumfree fought for her son in court. She was the first African American to sue her slave owner in court and win.
On June 1, 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth because she felt the Lord calling her to preach the truth. In 1944, Truth joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry through which she met Frederick Douglass and others who encouraged her to speak publicly.
In 1850 she dictated her memoir, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, A Northern Slave. In 1951, while on a speaking tour, she delivered her famous speech Aint I A Woman which demanded equal rights for women.
Art of the Month
She was born between 1797 and 1883 and given the name Isabella in a Dutch speaking county in New York.
She meets us at the intersection of former slave, abolitionist, women’s rights activists, mother, daughter, wife.
Isabella Baumfree spent the first nine years of her life close to her family. Her father, James Baumfree was captured from Ghana. Her mother Elizabeth was captured from Guinea. She was sold for the first time at the age of nine. She spent the next decade of her life being sold to not very nice people.
She had a husband and five children. Her last master was supposed to free her, but reneged. In late 1826, she escaped with her daughter Sophia.
I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right.”
She walked to freedom.
This happened because in 1799, the State of New York created laws to abolition slavery which was complete in 1827. Baumfree’s slaver owner refused to let her go, so she left with her youngest child. According to the law the other children would be free when they were in their twenties.
Her former slave owner sold her young son, who was 5 years old, to a slave owner in Alabama. With the help of some others, Baumfree fought for her son in court. She was the first African American to sue her slave owner in court and win.
On June 1, 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth because she felt the Lord calling her to preach the truth.
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