In the 1930’s and well into the 1940’s, African-Americans who had begun to expand their intellect at Historically Black Colleges beginning after the Civil War and into the early 1900’s recognized the power in organizing collective thought and action. The 1930’s and 40’s saw the establishment of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids led by A. Phillip Randolph, Mary McLeod Bethune organized the National Council of Negro Women, and Katherine Dunham formed the Negro Dance Group. This was the same period of the arrest of the Scottsboro Boys in Alamaba, the Great Depression and the birth of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment by the U.S. Public Health Service. Joyful triumphs also existed. Jessie Owens won 4 Olympic gold medals, Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American woman to win a supporting actress Oscar for Gone with the Wind and Nat King Cole became the first African-American to have a radio variety show, just to name a few. Faith’s first two models were born during the 1930’s and 1940’s at the height of the southern Jim Crow system. These women witnessed firsts for the African-American race and were themselves local firsts. They withstood overt racism to establish the path for future generations to follow. Elmer Lucille Allen is the first African-American professional hired by the Brown-Forman Company. She retired from the company after decades of working there as a chemist. Ms. Elmer Lucille did all of this while caring for her family and supporting the community. She wanted her boys to be able to play baseball in their Chickasaw neighborhood but there was not a formal, organized little league in her area. She worked with her husband to establish and manage the first youth baseball league in Louisville’s West End at Chickasaw Park, the blacks only park. Well beyond the age of 50 she became a ceramic artist. She originally began working with clay as a treatment for arthritis in her fingers. After retiring from Brown-Forman, she enrolled at the University of Louisville and earned an MA in Fine Art with a focus on ceramics and textiles. Ms. Elmer Lucille has supported generations of artists representing various ethnicities, backgrounds and races. She has collected a number of accolades over her lifetime. At the age of 84 and as a two-time cancer survivor, she continues to spend every day of her life interacting with people to improve her community. She once told me her secret to life, “Never stop moving and doing. When you stop, you die.” Faith overheard this secret and often reminds me that activity is what will keep me alive. Harriet Miller Dallum is Faith’s grandmother and my mother. Ironically, Ms. Elmer Lucille helped to induct my mother into the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. on Unversity of Louisville’s campus. I learned the importance of commitment and dedication from my mother. She was married to my father for over 40 years in which they encountered numerous joys and challenges. My mother was among the first African-American students to attend Louisville’s Presentation Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school. She and my father sacrificed to purchase their first home in Louisville’s Hallmark neighborhood, one of the first neighborhoods outside of Louisville’s historically black neighborhoods where blacks were allowed to build in the 1960’s. Their house was the first on the block. Circumstances prevented my mother from graduating from the University of Louisville, but at the urging of my father, she went back to college to graduate with an education degree from Spalding College in the 1970s . She taught at West End Catholic Elementary School in Louisville’s historically black Park DuValle neighborhood. Her school provided an outstanding education for young people living in the subsidized housing developments surrounding the school. She also served as the last principal of West End Catholic. Harriet always encouraged me to seek out opportunities, try new things, and follow my dreams. As a child, my mother shared how her parents wouldn’t allow her to march in the 1960’s Civil Rights protests. It wasn’t until she was helping to knit “Pussy Hats” for the 2017 Women’s March on Washington that she revealed that she defied her parents and participated in a Civil Rights March. Her participation was discovered when her father recognized her coat in a photo published the following day in Louisville’s Courier-Journal newspaper. I believe my intention to speak truth to power in my own way must come from my mother. She is my best friend and role model. I believe my relationship with Faith is a reflection of the relationship Faith witnesses between her grandmother and me. Both of these women are examples of the many living African-American women warriors who were closest to the overt oppression of Jim Crow. They demonstrated how to move through America with tenacity, courage, and confidence. Their perseverance was inspired by earlier generations who clawed their way to obtain knowledge and they instilled that desire in their children. Their experience taught them to be simultaneously aware, hopeful and skeptical.
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The Harlem Renaissance ignited an explosion of African-American creativity in the art world. This period from the 1910's until the mid-1930’s was the first time that the descendants of formerly enslaved persons were able to freely express their ideas, thoughts, and emotions. They did this through literature, music, dance, and visual art. Just remember that it has only been about 100 years since African-Americans have been featured as more than field hands and servants in American visual art. One of the first mainstream visual representations of black culture in America were through photography found in Ebony and Jet magazines, first published in 1945 and 1951 respectively. Romare Bearden, an artist who emerged during the Harlem Renaissance and who created art until his death in 1988, was inspired by the photography of Ebony and Jet. He created beautiful collages incorporating photos cut-out of these magazines to reinterpret his view of black culture. Today, we have artists like Ebony G. Patterson and Kehinde Wiley, contemporary artists, who put persons with cocoa skin at the center of their work. They are showcasing today’s youth in artworks reminiscent of the great masters like John Singer Sargent. My teenage daughter, Faith Lindsey, is an aspiring photojournalist. I began to wonder how does my daughter see the African-American women who are cultivating and nurturing her? How would her lens capture the spirit of women she selected? Could I reinterpret her photos to give them a new meaning, similar to Bearden’s collages? Could others find strength and purpose in our visual store? This became the inspiration for Crowns: Royalty and Resilience, my focus for The Art of Goodwill - Artist Residency Program. Faith selected 8 females representing four generations. The ladies ranged in age from 15 - 84 years. She invited them to be models for her first ever photo shoot. As far as I know, the ladies were only told to wear a white top and do whatever they wanted with the rest of their look. The ladies arrived at Goodwill’s Regional Operating Facility where a room was transformed into a temporary photography studio. Faith gave a handwritten note to each woman explaining her reason for inviting her to the photo shoot. She never shared her notes with me. Over the next several days, I will share what I believe to be true about each of these women because I consider all of them to be warrior queens holding the line of defense around my daughter. My final posts related to my journey as an Art of Goodwill artists will reveal the two works created for The Art of Goodwill. A few mornings ago, my 16-year-old daughter said, “Mama, everything I love is under attack.” “What do you mean?” I asked. Her response, “They’re killing journalists and black people?” She is an aspiring journalist blessed with cocoa brown skin and naturally wonderful, curly kinks. Weeks before her pronouncement, Saudi Arabia was accused of covering up the murder of a journalist, President Trump praised a person for attacking a reporter, and a hate-filled man mailed pipe bombs to a national news outlet. Days before, an innocent African-American man and woman were gunned down in cold blood by a white man while shopping at Kroger in Louisville, KY, our hometown. She is correct. Her greatest loves - her people and the truth - are under attack. How does a mother pour into her child the strength to resist and rise when something is coming at her daily to destroy her? A mother rooted in the wisdom of the ancients knows she can’t do it alone. She must surround her baby with an army of protectors. For my daughter, that line of defense is held by a multitude of warrior women. These are the same sisters who hold me up when I am weak. They encourage me to fight when I’m at the verge of limping away in defeat. They will me to stand and drag myself through the struggle. When my strength is not enough, they grab me and pull me through. I have sisters of all shades, races, ages, and beliefs. Each of them has a significant role in maintaining the battle, but I relate best to my African-American warrior queens. Ms. Mae Annette Turner, Director of Multicultural Ministry for the Archdiocese of Louisville, was one of my mentors in high school. She taught me the importance of surrounding myself with strong, dignified images of members of the African diaspora. Ms. Turner introduced me to art representing people who looked like me. She encouraged me for the rest of my life to surround myself and future children with art that reflected our unique experience. My personal artwork is rooted in her lesson. How does this help my daughter who knows the things she loves are under attack? My art is an outspoken banner proclaiming victory over generations of evil that have failed to destroy mahogany bodies and ebony spirits. The Art of Goodwill Artist in Residence is allowing me to create a new series, Crowns: Royalty and Resilience, as a tribute to the generations of African-American women who have confronted multiple forms of oppression. My daughter and I are working together to proclaim the truth of our inherent royalty and resilience with the power of our creativity. Pearlie Taylor doesn’t know it, but she bestowed on me some Big Mama wisdom. Ms. Pearlie is one of many artists I met while living in Chicago, IL. She is a self-taught abstract painter who began her career as a professional artist well after the age of 50 and becoming a widow. Ms. Pearlie was widowed after 22 years of marriage. While married, she and her husband ran a thriving business. After his death, she decided to transform her life on her terms as an artist. Many people believe that at a certain point in your life, it is too late to explore new options or change directions. Ms. Pearlie proved to me that your life doesn’t need to stop because of unexpected losses, challenges, or difficulties. Instead of obstacles, these things can serve as redirection. I watched Ms. Pearlie take the sell of her paintings into her own hands by turning her apartment into a temporary gallery space. She invited people into her home to view her latest works, explore her small studio, and share refreshments. She didn’t wait for gallery approval but provided an opportunity for her supporters to build a personal relationship with her art practice. Earlier this year, I decided it was time for a redirection in my life and I needed to return to art making. One of my goals was to follow Ms. Pearlie’s example and have a private showing of new works in my home. But I faced an obstacle, I needed financial assistance to provide for art materials. The Art of Goodwill Artist Residence became my answer. Goodwill Industries of Kentucky put out a call for artists interested in making new works of art using materials sourced from Goodwill retail stores. Goodwill would cover the cost of supply purchases and the artist would receive a stipend. I was chosen as one of the Artists of Goodwill. Thanks to Ms. Pearlie’s example and Goodwill’s call, on October 28, 2018, I hosted a private showing of my first new works in about 6 years. Over the next week, I will share more about my personal transformation which is taking place partly due to my art and The Art of Goodwill. Wisdom is earned through trials, tribulations, and reflections. Wisdom is not something you receive from a book, instead, it is experienced. Knowledge becomes wisdom when it adapts to meet new, unfamiliar situations. Since my twenties, I’ve prayed for wisdom and discernment. As a result, I’ve encountered numerous life challenges. Lessons learned from each experience helped me to face the next challenge with a little more confidence and determination. I used to ask, “Why me?” Now I say, “Why not me?”
Experience is like the dreaded classroom teacher who always pushes you beyond your limit, but she is not my only teacher. Wisdom has also come to me more subtly through my wide-eyed observations of strong women. Their actions and words colored my responses to trails and tribulations. Reflecting on their lives helped me to better direct my own life. I consider every one of these women by Big Mama. With some of them, I share their DNA, but most simply crossed my path for a season. This blog will recount numerous lessons I’ve learned from countless Big Mamas - old, young, black, white and everything in between. They allow me to say, “If Big Mama can, I can too!” |
AuthorRamona Dallum Lindsey is an artist, speaker and curious citizen who finds strength in the wisdom of her elders. Archives
February 2019
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