Over the Liiine::: The Art and Liiife of Jacob Lawrence No ve mb e r 8 ,,, 200 1 - F eb r ua r y 3,,, 200 2

Pr e- an d P os t- V iiis iii t Mat er iii alll s Fo r Ju n iiio r H iiig h an d Hiii g h S ch oo lll St ud en t s

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Over the Liiine::: The Art and Liiife of Jacob Lawrence No ve mb e r 8, 200 1 - F eb r uar y 3, 200 2

These pre- and post-visit materials were prepared by the Education Department of the Whitney Museum of American Art in collaboration with Roy Reid, educator, art and technology, Urban Academy High School, Manhattan; Mildred Rodriguez, educator, PS 111/Adolph S. Ochs School, Manhattan; and Geo r ge n e Th o m p s o n-B ro wn, ed uc ato r, MS 246/W al t Whi t ma n M idd le Sc ho ol , Br o o k ly n; and Ellen Wong, educator, The Lab School, Manhattan.

Fo r fu r th e r iiin f or m at iiio n ,,, p llle ase co nt act th e Ed u cat iiio n D ep a rt men t:::

Wh iiit ne y Mu se um of Am er iii can A rt 94 5 Mad iiis o n Av e nu e Ne w Yor k,,, Ne w Yo rk 100 21 21 2/ 570 -77 10

We welllcome your feedback!!! Plllease lllet us know what you thiiink of these pre- and post-viiisiiit materiiiallls...

How diiid you use the materiiiallls? What worked or diiidn''t work?

E maiiilll us at [email protected]

Briiing exampllles of your students'' pre-viiisiiit work when you viiisiiit the Whiiitney!!!

This exhibition has been organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. The exhibition is accompanied by a republished version of the critical monograph, Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, from The Complete Jacob Lawrence. A curator's statement, letter from the director, lender's list, and an illustrated checklist are included with essays by eight leading scholars which explore the full range of Lawrence's development. Published by The Phillips Collection in association with the Jacob Lawrence Catalog Raisonné Project and the University of Washington Press, this full-color publication is available in the Whitney bookstore for $40.00.

The national tour of Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence was made possible by ExxonMobil. Additional support was provided by AT&T. This exhibition was also supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. The presentation of this exhibition at the Whitney is sponsored by HSBC Bank USA. Additional New York support is provided by AT&T and the Chairman’s Council of the Whitney Museum.

General support for the Whitney Museum’s Education Programs is provided by the Citigroup Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, JP Morgan Chase, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and by members of the Whitney’s Education Committee.

Co ve r:::

Self-Portrait, 1977 Gouache and tempera on paper 23 x 31 inches National Academy of Design, New York © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART De ar Ed uca to r,

We a re de l i g h t e d t ha t y ou ha ve sch ed ul e d a v is i t t o Ov er th e L in e : Th e A rt and L if e of J aco b La wr en c e . This groundbreaking exhibition brings together over two hundred works of art to present an unprecedented survey of Jacob Lawrence's long and complex career.

Wh e n yo u a nd yo u r st ud e n t s v is i t t he Wh i t n e y Mu se u m, yo u wi l l b e gi v en a to u r of th e ex hi b i t io n b y a mu se u m ed u ca to r . T he en cl o s e d i nf o rm ati o n co ns i s t s o f p re- vi s i t ma te ri a ls de s i g n e d s pe ci f ica ll y f or yo u t o u se wi t h yo u r st u d e n t s in t he cla ss ro om p ri or to yo u r mus e u m vi s i t . In ad di t io n , we hav e in c l u d ed po s t - vi s i t pr oj e ct s t o us e wi t h yo u r st ud e n t s a ft e r yo u ha ve se e n th e e xh i b i t i o n .

To m ake yo u r mu se u m ex p eri en ce en r ic h i n g a nd me ani n g f u l , w e st r on g l y en co ura ge yo u t o u se th i s pa cke t as a r es o u r ce an d t o w or k w it h y ou r st ud en t s i n th e clas sro om be f o r e y ou r mus e u m vi s i t . T he pr e-v is i t mat eri al s w il l s erv e a s th e st ar ti n g p oi n t fro m wh i ch yo u a nd yo u r st ud en t s w il l v ie w a nd di s cu ss th e e xh i b i t io n . Pl e as e a sk yo u r st u d e n t s to t hi n k a bo u t th e s e th e m e s in th e c las sr oo m :

1... Miii gr atiii on an d III mmiii gr atiii on

2... Students’’ perceptiiions of the Uniiited States today

Wh e n yo u v is i t th e e xh i b i t io n , yo u a nd yo u r st u d e n t s wi l l se e a se l e ct i o n of wo rk s b y J aco b La wr en c e t ha t c har t th e evolution of his style, technique, and methods, and his exploration of ideas and themes over time.

Th i s pa cke t con t ai ns a se l e c t i o n o f tw o pr e- vi s i t pr oj e ct s t o c ho o s e fr om in pr ep a ra ti o n f or se e i n g th e e xh i b i t io n , and t wo po s t - vi s i t pr oj e ct s . We hav e in c l u d ed to p i c s fo r di s c u s s i o n , art pr oj e ct s, an d w rit in g a cti v i t i e s t ha t i nt r od uce so me of th e ke y th e m e s and c on c e p t s of th e ex hi b i t io n .

Pl e a se fe e l fre e t o ada pt an d b ui l d on th e s e ma te r ia ls and t o u se th i s pac ke t i n a ny wa y t ha t yo u wi s h . We lo o k fo rw a rd to we l co min g yo u a nd yo u r st u d e n t s to Ov er th e L in e : Th e A rt and Li fe of Ja co b L awr en ce .

Si nc e re ly ,

Dina Helal Head of Curriculum and Online Learning

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Ja co b L awr en ce::: A n III ntr od uct iiio n 1

My belief is that it is most important for an artist to develop an approach and philosophy about life--if he has developed this philosophy he does not put paint on canvas, he puts himself on canvas. Jacob Lawrence1

Fo r mor e tha n si x t y - f i v e ye a rs , Ja co b L awr e n ce was an a stu te ob se r v e r and sto ry te l le r who fo cus ed on tel l ing the sto ry of the str ugg le of Af ri c an Am e ri ca ns fo r fre e do m and justi ce , fr o m the Ci v i l War pe ri od of the 186 0s thro u gh the ci v i l rig ht s mo v e me nt of th e 1960 s to the end of th e tw e n ti e th ce nt ury. Ba l a nci ng li ne, co lo r, fo r m, and g es tur e , La wre nce ’s draw i ng s and pai nt ing s por tra y div e rs e asp e ct s of Af ri can Am e r i ca n ex p e ri enc e and co mmuni cat e his ref l ect io n s on cul ture and race rel a ti o ns in the Uni t e d State s .

Earlll y C hiiilll dh oo d

Jacob Lawrence was born on September 7, 1917 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Originally from South Carolina and Virginia, the Lawrence family, like thousands of black migrants, hoped to find more promising economic opportunities in the North. By 1919 his family had moved to Easton, Pennsylvania. In 1924 after Lawrence’s parents separated, his mother moved the family to Philadelphia where she left the children in foster care while she worked in Harlem, New York. At the age of thirteen, Jacob Lawrence arrived in Harlem.

Since it was almost impossible for black Americans to attend the regular art academies, the art schools and workshops of Harlem provided crucial training for the majority of black artists in the United States. Lawrence was one of the first artists trained in and by the African American community in Harlem.

Lawrence received his earliest art instruction from Charles Alston at Utopia Children's House, a community daycare center which Lawrence attended after school. Using theories from Arthur Wesley Dow's textbook Composition, Alston taught nonrepresentational drawing and encouraged Lawrence to invent his own pictorial language based on personal decisions about composition and space.

Teen Years

While in high school, Lawrence attended art classes taught by Charles Alston at the Harlem Art Workshop in the New York Public Library's 135th Street branch. This library housed Arthur Schomburg's distinguished collection of literature and artifacts on African and African American culture. It also became a forum for exhibitions, social, cultural, and political events.

Despite financial hardship Lawrence's mother made great efforts to have a beautiful home. Lawrence's eye became attuned to visual relationships and he developed his predilection for certain shapes.

1 Ellen Harkins Wheat, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter (Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press in association with the Seattle Art Museum, 1986), p. 73.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Ja co b L awr en ce ::: An III ntr od u ct iiio n ((( co nt iii nu e d))) 2

Our homes were very decorative, full of pattern, like inexpensive throw rugs, all around the house. It must have had some influence, all this color and everything. Because we were so poor the people used this as a means of brightening their life. I used to do bright patterns after these throw rugs; I got ideas from them, the arabesques, the movement and so on. Jacob Lawrence2

As a teenager, Lawrence made frequent visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He developed an appreciation for the works of old masters such as Giotto, Breughel, and Goya, and modern masters such as van Gogh and Matisse. He became interested in African art and abstract art, and was aware of the narrative serial tradition in Egyptian and Medieval wall paintings, as well as the contemporary mural cycles of Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco.

Harlllem iiin the 1930s

Lawrence found inspiration in the Harlem community where he was raised. His early work depicts scenes of Harlem life--people, rooms, facades, sidewalks, streets, and storefronts--using bold colors and elemental shapes in commercial tempera [poster] paints on lightweight brown paper. Several early paintings portray his immediate environment, including his studio, home, and family.

For Lawrence the 1930s "was actually a wonderful period in Harlem although we didn't know this at the time. Of course it wasn't wonderful for our parents. For them, it was a struggle, but for the younger people coming along like myself, there was a real vitality in the community."3

In his early twenties, Lawrence began to develop a new brand of modernism, distilling subject matter based on his experience of Harlem and the lives and aspirations of African Americans. Some works reveal a satirical view of Harlem poverty, crime, racial tensions, and police brutality.

By 1936 Lawrence had established workspace at Charles Alston's "306" studio at 306 West 141st Street. During this time he met notable writers and activists such as Alain Locke, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Claude McKay, and artists Aaron Douglas, Romare Bearden, and Augusta Savage, all of whom emphasized cultural identity and black achievement.

2 Leslie King-Hammond, “Inside-Outside, Uptown-Downtown, Jacob Lawrence and the Aesthetic Ethos of the Harlem Working-class Community,” in Peter T. Nesbett, Michelle Dubois, Patricia Hills, eds., Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 2001), p. 73.

3 Leslie King-Hammond, “Inside-Outside, Uptown-Downtown, Jacob Lawrence and the Aesthetic Ethos of the Harlem Working-class Community,” in Peter T. Nesbett, Michelle Dubois, Patricia Hills, eds., Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 2001), p. 69.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Ja co b L awr en ce ::: An III ntr od u ct iiio n ((( co nt iii nu e d))) 3

Also in 1936, Lawrence took art classes with Augusta Savage who had renovated a garage that she called the Uptown Art Laboratory [known as the Harlem Community Art Center today]. From 1937- 39 Lawrence attended the American Artists School in New York on a scholarship, and in February 1938 he received recognition for his paintings of Harlem with a solo exhibition at the Harlem YMCA at 135th Street. From 1939 to 1940, Lawrence made paintings with the easel section of the WPA Federal Art Project.

Piiicturiiing Narratiiives

Lawrence painted not just what he saw, but also what he heard from Harlem’s oral historians. He became interested in African and African American history and culture and researched and chronicled the lives of Toussaint L'Ouverture, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and John Brown. His narratives were created on small, same-size panels with accompanying texts.

In 1940-41 Lawrence created a sixty-panel narrative, The Migration of the Negro, based on the experience of his family, the recollections of people in his community, and research that he undertook in the Schomburg Collection. This powerful portrayal of migration communicates the struggle, strength, and perseverance of African Americans who, between 1900 and the 1930s moved from the agricultural communities of the South to the industrial cities of the North and Midwest in search of a better life. Artist Gwendolyn Knight prepared the gesso panels and helped write the captions. Lawrence conveyed the message through the texts that accompanied each panel. Knight and Lawrence married in 1941.

Th e Mig rat i o n S eri es was ex hi b it e d at Edi th Ha l p e rt ' s Do wnt ow n Gal l ery and in 194 2 beg an a two -y ear na tio na l to u r. As th e fi rs t Afr i ca n Ame ric an to joi n Edi th Hal p e rt ' s Do wnt ow n G all er y , Law re nce fo un d hi mse l f li vi ng in tw o di f f e r e nt wo rl ds. Fo r the res t of his lif e he str ugg le d b etw e e n h is ex p e r i e n ce s as an Af ri can Ame r i ca n and his acc ep t an ce in th e whi t e art co mmuni ty.

The experience of creating historical works in a series format led Lawrence to make discrete images that functioned as thematic groupings. Between 1942 and 1943 he made a group of thirty paintings that again focused on life in Harlem. His themes included black working women, health concerns, leisure time, and the role of religion and spirituality in people's daily lives. In these works, Lawrence portrayed the community in bold colors, repeating patterns, and asymmetrical compositions. He also incorporated the rhythms, breaks, and changes of jazz music into his visual representations of the Harlem environment.

In 1942, Lawrence was drafted into the United States Coast Guard as a Stewards Mate, the only rank then available for black Americans. He was stationed in St. Augustine, Florida. Lawrence served one year in a segregated regiment. In 1944 he was reassigned first to a weather ship in Boston, then to a troopship, where he served as Coast Guard Artist, documenting the experience of war in Italy, England, Egypt, and India. While he was on the troopship, he produced about forty-eight paintings documenting the lives of men in World War II. These works are now lost. After his tour of duty in 1946, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship that enabled him to paint his War series.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Ja co b L awr en ce ::: An III ntr od u ct iiio n ((( co nt iii nu e d))) 4

New Artiiistiiic Diiirectiiions

In the summe r of 1946 Lawr e n ce was inv i ted by artis t and dir e ct or Jo se f Albe rs to teach at Bl ac k Mo un tai n Co l le g e in Nor th Ca ro l ina . Acco rd in g to Law ren ce , Al be rs wa s the fi rst pers o n “ou ts i de th e co mmuni ty” who had a si gnif i can t art is t i c in fl u e nc e on hi m. Thr oug h his ex p o sur e to Alb ers ’ wo r k , La wr e nc e beg an to un der s ta nd mo re an aly ti c al ly the dev i ces he alre ad y use d —m ak i ng a two - di mens i ona l pic ture pla ne app e a r thre e - di m e n s i o nal , how th e mea ni n g of col or ch ang es wi thin dif f e r e n t fo rm s, and jux t ap o si ng organ ic mov e m e nt wi th geo me tr i c sha pe s .

In 1949 Lawrence voluntarily sought help for depression at Hillside Hospital in Queens, New York. His hospital paintings during this time show a marked departure from his other works. The people in these paintings are resigned, their facial features agonized; the colors are mixed and subdued. His eleven-month stay at Hillside gave Lawrence a fresh perspective on Harlem and the subjects of his earlier works. He began visiting theatrical productions, and in 1951 made a new body of work based on his memories of performances at the Apollo Theater on 125th Street.

During the 1950s many elements contributed to Lawrence’s art developing greater psychological depth. This depth is expressed through greater layering of patterns and heightened use of shadow and light. With the publication of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man in 1952, many Americans were made aware of how intrinsic the notions of visibility and invisibility were for African Americans. At this time, Lawrence addressed issues of identity by using the mask as a metaphor.

Changiiing Perspectiiives

The theme of social protest was a consistent focus for Jacob Lawrence throughout his career. In the 1960s Lawrence was inspired by news reports and photographs, as well as images of segregated lunch counter sit-ins and stories of the Freedom Riders in the civil rights movement. From the 1970s onward, Lawrence's work focused less explicitly on contemporary social issues.

I li ke the sy mb o l i sm [o f the bui l d er ] … I thi n k of it as man ’s asp i r at io n , as a co ns tructi ve too l — man b uil di ng. Ja co b L awr e n ce 4

From 1946-98, Lawrence made paintings based on the theme of builders. These works show a limited palette of primary colors, black and white; and human activity is juxtaposed with architectural elements, building tools, and materials. They communicate Lawrence’s ideas about American worker culture, include female workers, and expand the idea of builder to the family. These works also symbolically reflect increased African American participation in the building trades during the 1940s and late 1960s.

4 Lowery Stokes Sims, “The Structure of Narrative, Form and Content in Jacob Lawrence’s Builders Paintings,” in Peter T. Nesbett, Michelle Dubois, Patricia Hills, eds., Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 2001), p. 209.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Ja co b L awr en ce ::: An III ntr od u ct iiio n ((( co nt iii nu e d))) 5

Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lawrence spent much of his time painting commissions. As he continued to experiment with composition and space, abstraction and representation, Lawrence bridged the gap between form and content to create a distinctly modern pictorial language.

Hiiis Liiife''s Work

Today Lawrence's work can be found in almost 200 museum collections. His numerous awards include the National Medal of Arts, the NAACP's prestigious Spingarn Medal, three Julius Rosenwald Fund Fellowships, and more than two dozen honorary degrees. In 1983 Jacob Lawrence was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the highest honor in the humanities in the United States. He was also a member of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters, and the National Academy of Design.

In 1977, Jacob Lawrence described his work as a continuation, and referred to his life’s work as constant growing and building. Like Harriet Tubman, whom he portrayed crossing the American Canadian border in his painting Over the Line, 1967, Lawrence was able to transcend racial barriers and find common ground among all Americans. Lawrence died on June 9, 2000 at the age of eighty- two.

To view a chronology of Jacob Lawrence's life and work, go to http://www.jacoblawrence.org/art02.html

We bs iiit e --E xp lllo r iiin g Stor iiie s ::: The Ar t of Ja c ob Lawr e nc e

For additional information, art projects, and writing activities, go to the Whitney’s website: http://www.whitney.org/jacoblawrence

This online space is designed to introduce visitors to the art and life of Jacob Lawrence. It is for families, teachers, students, and anyone else who is interested in exploring Jacob Lawrence’s work, his themes, and his approach to visual storytelling. Here you'll find some of Lawrence’s paintings, information, learning resources, and fun activities:

‰ Take a close look at twelve of Jacob Lawrence’s images. ‰ Discover inventive ways to make your own visual narratives. ‰ Find out how to make your own egg tempera paints and paintings. ‰ Explore more—try out a WebQuest!

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Pre -v iiis iii t P ro jjjec t 1 ::: Miiigratiiion and IIImmiiigratiiion 6

O bjjje ctiii ve ::: To ex p l ore mi gr ati on and/o r imm igr at io n .

I grew up the son of migrants….My mother and father were on their way North when I was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, so at the very beginning of my understanding of communication with words I was very much aware of this movement. Jacob Lawrence5

I don't think in terms of history about that series. I think in terms of contemporary life. It was such a part of me that I didn't think of something outside. It was like I was doing a portrait of something. If it was a portrait, it was a portrait of myself, a portrait of my family, a portrait of my peers. Jacob Lawrence6

In 1940 Jacob Lawrence received a $1,500 fellowship from the Rosenwald Foundation to complete a series of panels on the Great Migration. Lawrence conducted research at The Schomburg Collection in Harlem and completed the series in 1941. Although the series was originally meant to remain together as one work, the artist agreed to a joint purchase by the Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection in the winter of 1941-42.

Lawrence’s Migration series depicts the migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North during and after World War I. The Great Migration was the largest movement of black peoples since slavery removed Africans to the Americas. Lawrence’s sixty panels portray the story of people seeking a better life. The text captions for each image combine history, sociology, and poetry in a visual narrative.

The railroad is the link in the series of events that comprise Lawrence’s epic story. The narrative cycle begins and ends with images of a train station. In the first panel, African Americans embark on a journey from the South to the North, through time and geography, conflict and hope. Scenes of the train station are repeated throughout the series with the words “And the migrants kept coming.” In the first half of the series, the South is depicted as a bleak landscape where social inequities and injustice prevail--poverty, hunger, segregation, lynching, and discrimination. Some scenes are portrayed as if seen from a moving train; the North is shown only as names of train destinations. In contrast to the environment of the South, the second half of the narrative depicts the buildings, people, and industry of the urban North. The final section of The Migration Series focuses on the new African American communities of the North--the positive effects of improved social conditions as well as the conflicts of overcrowding and race riots.

To render social content more forcefully, Lawrence pared down his compositions, distorting and distilling shapes and using perspective and flatness at the same time to create powerful visual statements. Lawrence also heightened the gesture of central figures, and sometimes stretched the figure beyond the confines of the frame, expanding the viewer's scope.

5 Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series, The Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C., 1993-94) n.p.

6 Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series, The Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C., 1993-94) n.p.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Pre-viiisiiit Projjject 1::: Miiigratiiion and IIImmiiigratiiion (((contiiinued))) 7

Sugg es t ed Diii sc u ss iiio n Wiii th St ude nt s:::

1. During the World War there was a great migration North by Southern Negroes.

The Migration of the Negro, panel 1, 1940-41 Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm) The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation

‰ View and discuss this image with your students.

Jacob Lawrence painted sixty pictures about migration. Together, they told the story of the nearly one million African Americans who left harsh conditions in the southern United States, hoping for better opportunities in the North and Midwest. This painting is the first one that Jacob Lawrence made about migration. It shows a crowd of people going to the railway station to catch trains going to three big cities.

Where do you think these people are? Why do you think they are leaving? How do you think these people feel? When do you think this migration is taking place? Why do people migrate? What situations would make a family decide to migrate or immigrate? What do you suppose happens in the next picture? What might happen in the third picture?

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Pre-viiisiiit Projjject 1::: Miiigratiiion and IIImmiiigratiiion (((contiiinued))) 8

Sugg es t ed Diii sc u ss iiio n Wiii th St ude nt s ((( con tiii nue d))):::

Where were you born? Where did you grow up? Have you ever moved from one place to another? From where to where? One place? More than one place? Another country? A different state or city? A different part of the state or city?

Why did your family choose to move here? What were your family's concerns about migrating or immigrating? What were your concerns? What were your family's expectations about migrating or immigrating ? What were your expectations?

How long have you lived here? Where do you think of as home?

Do you have family or friends who live in other cities or other countries? Where do some of your relatives live?

‰ Fi nd or cr ea te thr ee ma ps : a ma p of the wo rl d, a map of the state, and a map of the city. Have students use yarn, string, or tape and map pins to locate the cou ntr i e s and place s whe re the y an d thei r fa mi l ie s hav e mo ve d fro m to the i r curre n t loc ati on .

Sugg es t ed Pr ojjj e ct s:::

(((IIIm)))miiigratiiion

Suppllliiies::: Notebook or journal, pencil or pen, paper, photographs and/or drawings.

Yo u are gett i ng read y to mi g rat e or imm igr at e. Wri te an acco unt of yo ur mo ve fr o m one pl ac e or co un try to ano the r . or

Interview an adult in your family or community who has immigrated to this country, or migrated from one place to another in the United States.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Pre-viiisiiit Projjject 1::: Miiigratiiion and IIImmiiigratiiion (((contiiinued))) 9

Sugg es t ed Pr ojjj e ct s ((( con tiii nue d))):::

Think about these questions for your own narrative, or use them for your interview. Invent your own questions too. Take notes.

Wh y did yo u lea v e th e pl ac e whe re yo u we re ? Wh at we re yo u thi n k i ng about as yo u we r e ge t ti n g re a dy to mo ve ? Ho w did yo u fe e l whe n yo u le ft? Wh o cam e wi t h yo u? Wh o did yo u lea v e be hin d? Wh at did yo u bri ng wi th yo u? Wh at did yo u le av e be hi nd?

Wh at do yo u rem e mb e r abo ut whe n yo u fi r s t came her e ? Wh at ch all en ge s did you fa ce ? Ho w did yo u ove rco me the s e chal le n ge s ? Wh at has cha nge d i n you r l if e si nc e you mo ve d h ere ? Ho w has it cha ng ed? In what wa y s hav e yo u c han ged si nc e you mo ve d h ere ?

If you can, find photographs of yourself or the person you interviewed, or make drawings to illustrate your story.

Read and discuss your migration or immigration narratives with the class.

Miiigratiiion Hiiistory

‰ Ask students to research the history of migration and/or immigration in their neighborhood, city, or community. Use your local library, websites, and the resources included in these materials. Invite a local historian to your class. Conduct interviews with people who have migrated or immigrated to the area. Document your findings by creating a book, video, or computer presentation.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Pre -v iiis iii t P ro jjjec t 2 ::: Poiiints of Viiiew 10

O bjjje ctiii ve ::: To examine Langston Hughes’ view of America in the 1940s. To explore students’ experience of the United States today.

My pictures express my life and experience. I paint the things I know about and the things I have experienced. The things I have experienced extend into my national, racial, and class group. So I paint the American scene. Jacob Lawrence 7

I would like to think that…my work would stimulate, be provocative and appreciated, not only for its content but for its form, not only for the form but for the content which, I hope, (would be) appreciated on various levels. Jacob Lawrence 8

Throughout his career, Jacob Lawrence emphasized the crucial role that the black community of Harlem played in his development as a young man and as an artist. Of special significance was his exposure to leading black intellectuals and artists of the post-Harlem Renaissance, such as Aaron Douglas, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, and Richard Wright, who each represented different, often opposing points of view about the position of blacks in American society and the responsibility of artists to address this topic in their work.

The degree of political content in Lawrence’s work and his attitude toward its presence in his art are open questions. One of the defining features of Lawrence’s body of work is the attention he pays to race in America and the interaction between blacks and whites, yet he has generally avoided overt statements. In discussing his series, Struggle…From the History of the American People, 1954-56, Lawrence explained: “Years ago, I was just interested in expressing the Negro in American life, but a larger concern, an expression of humanity and of America, developed.”9 Over the years, Lawrence’s point of view appears to vacillate between optimism and pessimism regarding race relations and the promise of integration. With an acute social conscience, his attitude is of a humanist’s insistence on the unity of humanity coupled with horror at mankind’s capacity to justify racism, hate, and prejudice. Lawrence depicts acts of racism but he also portrays alternative views that can be interpreted as an affirmation of the possibility of a new American society.

7 Ellen Harkins Wheat, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter (Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press in association with the Seattle Art Museum, 1986), P. 192.

8 Paul J. Karlstrom, Jacob Lawrence Modernism, Race, and Community,” in Peter T. Nesbett, Michelle Dubois, Patricia Hills, eds., Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 2001), p.240.

9 Paul J. Karlstrom, Jacob Lawrence Modernism, Race, and Community,” in Peter T. Nesbett, Michelle Dubois, Patricia Hills, eds., Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 2001), p.242.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Pre-viiisiiit Projjject 2::: Poiiints of Viiiew (((contiiinued))) 11

Sugg es t ed Diii sc u ss iiio n Wiii th St ude nt s:::

‰ Read and discuss Langston Hughes' My America (below) with your students. Use the questions below and vocabulary following the essay as a guide for discussion.

What is Langston Hughes' view of America? How does Langston Hughes define himself as an American? What were the contradictions of democracy in a segregated America? What limitations did segregation impose on African-Americans?

What transitions was the United States facing during the 1940s? How has the United States changed since Langston Hughes wrote My America in 1943? What hasn't changed? Why?

My Ameriiica

This is my land America. Naturally, I love it—it is home—and I am vitally concerned about its mores, its democracy, and its wellbeing. I try now to look at it with clear, unprejudiced eyes. My ancestry goes back at least four generations on American soil—and, through Indian blood, many centuries more. My background and training is purely American—the schools of Kansas, Ohio, and the East. I am old stock as opposed to recent immigrant blood.

Yet many Americans who cannot speak English—as recent is their arrival on our shores—may travel about the country at will securing food, hotel and rail accommodations wherever they wish to purchase them. I may not. These Americans, once naturalized, may vote in Mississippi or Texas, if they live there, I may not. They may work at whatever job their skills command. But I may not. They may purchase tickets for concerts, theaters, lectures wherever they are sold throughout the United States. I may not. These Americans, once naturalized, may vote in Mississippi or Texas, if they live there. I may not. They may work at whatever job their skills command. But I may not. They may purchase tickets for concerts, theaters, lectures wherever they are sold throughout the United States. I may not. They may repeat the Oath of Allllllegiiiance with its ringing phrase of "liberty and justice for all," with a deep faith in this truth--as compared to the limitations and oppressions they have experienced in the Old World. I repeat the oath too, but I know that the phrase about "liberty and justice" does not fully apply to me. I am an American--but I am a colored American.

I know that all these things I mention are not all true for all localities all over America. Jiiim Crowiii sm varies in degree from North to South, from the mixed schools and free franchise of Michigan to the tumbledown colored schools and open terror at the polls of Georgia and Mississippi. All over America, however, against the Negro there has been an economic color line of such severity that since the Civil War we have been kept most effectively, as a racial group, in the lowest economic brackets. Statistics are not needed to prove this. Simply look around you on Main Street of any American town or city. There are no colored clerks in any of the stores--although colored people spend their money there. There are practically never any colored street-car conductors or bus drivers--although these public carriers run over streets for which we pay taxes. There are no colored girls at the switchboards of the telephone company--

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Sugg es t ed Diii sc u ss iiio n Wiii th St ude nt s ((( con tiii nue d))):::

but millions of Negroes have phones and pay their bills. Even in Harlem, nine times out of ten, the man who comes to collect your rent is white. Not even that job is given a colored man by the great corporations owning New York real estate. From Boston to San Diego, the Negro suffers from job discrimination.

Yet America is a land where, in spite of its defects, I can write this article. Here the voice of democracy is still heard--RRoosevelllt, Wallllllace, Willke, Agar, Pearlll Buck, Paulll Robeson. America is a land where the poll tax still holds in the South but opposition to the poll tax grows daily. America is a land where lllynchers are not yet caught--but Bundiiists are put in jail, and majority opinion condemns the Klllan. America is a land where the best of all democracies has been achieved for some people--but in Georgia, Rollland Hayes, world-famous singer, is beaten for being colored and nobody is jailed--nor can Mr. Hayes vote in the State where he was born. Yet America is a country where Roland Hayes can come from a log cabin to wealth and fame--in spite of the segment that still wishes to maltreat him physically and spiritually, famous though he is.

This segment, however, is not all of America. If it were, millions of Negroes would have no heart for this war in which we are now engaged. If it were, we could see no difference between our ideals and Hitler's, in so far as our own dark lives are concerned. But we know, on the other hand, that America is a land in transition. And we know it is within our power to help in its further change toward a finer and better democracy than any citizens has known before. The American Negro believes in democracy. We want to make it real, complete, workable, not only for ourselves--the fifteen million dark ones--but for all Americans all over the land.10

L.H. February 1943.

10 Langston Hughes, “My America,” The Langston Hughes Reader (New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1958), pp. 500-501.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Pre-viiisiiit Projjject 2::: Poiiints of Viiiew (((contiiinued))) 13

Vocabulllary

Pearlll Buck Winner of the Nobel Prize in 1938. Buck was one of the first writers to try to explain the mystery of the Far East to Western readers.

Bundiiists Possible reference to members of the "Bund," the Yiddish abbreviation for General Jewish Workers' Union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia. Alternatively, this may be a reference to the German- American Bund, which was an organization established to promote Hitlerism in the United States.

Democracy This term comes from two Greek words: demos, meaning "the people," and kratos, meaning "rule." An ideal democracy would be a "government of the people, by the people, for the people," as Lincoln defined in his 1863 Gettysburg Address. A true democracy means a society in which all the people are citizens with the same rights to participation in its government.

Rollland A tenor, born in Georgia, noted for singing Negro spirituals. He sang with many leading orchestras, Hayes including New York and Boston.

Jiiim Crowiiism From the 1880s to the 1960s, a majority of American states enforced segregation through "Jim Crow" laws (so called after a black character in minstrel shows). The most common types of laws forbade intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to keep their black and white clientele separated.

Klllan The Ku Klux Klan is a secret terrorist organization that led underground resistance against the civil rights and political power of newly freed slaves during the Reconstruction period after the American Civil War. In the 1920s, the Klan's popularity peaked again. Today the Klan continues to advocate white supremacy.

Lynchers A mob action of putting a person to death (as by hanging) without legal sanction. Between 1900 and 1914, there were more than 1,000 known lynchings in the United States. Typically, white mobs would lynch a black victim.

Negro African Americans used to be identified as Negroes. Negro is an old fashioned term used to refer to people of African descent, living in the Americas and the Caribbean.

Oath of This refers to the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag. In pledging allegiance, one must Allllllegiiiance stand with his/her right hand over his/her heart or at attention and declare: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Paulll Internationally known U.S. actor, singer and social activist, Paul Robeson enjoyed success Robeson unparalleled among African Americans in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. He was an eloquent and controversial speaker against racial discrimination in the U.S., colonialism in Africa, and economic injustice throughout the world.

Roosevelllt Franklin Delano Roosevelt became President of the United States in 1933 during the Great Depression. Through his policies, he changed the role of government in national life. He used his power to create jobs and help those who needed it. He also served as Commander and Chief of the armed forces during World War II and was instrumental in setting up the United Nations.

Wallllllace Henry Agard Wallace was a U.S. public official, serving as Secretary of Agriculture, 1933-40, Chairman of the Board of Economic Welfare, 1941-43, Vice-President of the United States, 1941- 45, Secretary of Commerce, 1945-46, and Progressive party candidate for President in 1948.

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Sugg es t ed Diii sc u ss iiio n Wiii th St ude nt s ((( con tiii nue d))):::

‰ Ma ny co ntemp o ra ry mu si c ian s and so ng wri ter s mak e mus ic abo ut the i r co mm uni tie s and li v e s in the Uni ted Stat es . As k stu de nts to bri n g in musi c th at the y fi n d a nd li ste n to it in cl ass . Di s cus s the s e arti s t s ' vie w s of Am e r i ca . Ho w are the y si mi la r o r di f f e r e nt fro m La ng sto n H ug hes ' pe rc ep t i o n s ?

Sugg es t ed Pr ojjj e ct :::

Suppllliiies::: Journal or notebook, pencils, pens, computers, Internet access, Hyperstudio, PowerPoint or software that can combine image, text, video, and sound.

What are your views of America today?

Write a prose piece, poem, or lyrics about your America. Present and discuss your writing with the class.

What is your collective view of contemporary America? Compare your collective view with Langston Hughes' view. How are they similar? How are they different?

Make a collaborative book or computer presentation of your writings. Include photographs, drawings, and song lyrics that symbolize or express your views of America. If you are making a computer presentation, include sound and video. You could also expand your anthology by including prose, poetry, lyrics, and images by writers, musicians and artists.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Post-viiisiiit Projjject 1::: Neiiighborhood 15

O bjjje ctiii ve ::: To explore and represent students’ neighborhood(s).

Most of my work depicts events from the many Harlems which exist throughout the United States. This is my genre. My surroundings. The people I know…the happiness, tragedies, and the sorrows of mankind as realized in the teeming black ghetto. Jacob Lawrence11

Harlem is the queen of black belts, drawing Afroamericans together into a vast humming hive. They have swarmed from different states, from the islands of the Caribbean and from Africa. And they are still coming in spite of the grim misery that lurks behind the inviting facades. Over-crowded tenements, the harsh Northern climate and un-employment do not daunt them. Harlem remains the magnet. Claude McKay12

Throughout the Great Migration, one of the main destinations was Harlem, New York. Less than two square miles, this area was home for more than a quarter of a million African American migrants. Harlem abounded with African ancestral traditions, philosophies, culture, and religion, practiced and carried North by the new black migrants. At same time, Harlem was a new city caught in the flux of modernism, technology, and urbanity. Lawrence witnessed the innovative and improvised lifestyles created by the confluences of the Great Migration, the depression, the jazz age, and the emergence of new Negroes of the Harlem Renaissance.

Jacob Lawrence was inspired by the Harlem community's interest in the stories of its heritage. He became the storyteller or visual; griot of the neighborhood. His ability to tell the story of a community visually revealed Lawrence's capacity for observation and acute attention to detail. The flatness of forms allows the subject to move in a storyboard, cinematic style almost in anticipation of the next frame of action. In recalling the impact of the sights and sounds of Harlem when he first arrived there in 1930, Lawrence referred to the “endlessly fascinating patterns” of “cast-iron fire escapes and their shadows created across brick walls.” He remarked on the “variegated colors and shapes of pieces of laundry on lines stretched across the back yards…and the patterns of letters on the huge billboards and the electric signs.”13

In his images of Harlem, Lawrence painted his vision of poverty, crime, racial tensions, and police brutality based on his experience of urban life around him. He also portrayed a vibrant, thriving community and the aspirations of its people.

11 Leslie King-Hammond, “Inside-Outside, Uptown-Downtown, Jacob Lawrence and the Aesthetic Ethos of the Harlem Working-class Community,” in Peter T. Nesbett, Michelle Dubois, Patricia Hills, eds., Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 2001), p. 84.

12 Leslie King-Hammond, “Inside-Outside, Uptown-Downtown, Jacob Lawrence and the Aesthetic Ethos of the Harlem Working-class Community,” in Peter T. Nesbett, Michelle Dubois, Patricia Hills, eds., Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 2001), pp. 68-69.

13 Lowery Stokes Sims, “The Structure of Narrative, Form and Content in Jacob Lawrence’s Builders Paintings,” in Peter T. Nesbett, Michelle Dubois, Patricia Hills, eds., Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 2001), p. 202.  2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Post-viiisiiit Projjject 1::: Neiiighborhood (((contiiinued))) 16

Sugg es t ed Pr ojjj e ct s:::

‰ After you have visited the exhibition, lead a discussion with your students. Explore what it means to examine an artist's life and work. Review how you traced Jacob Lawrence's evolution. Discuss what inspired Lawrence to create his work.

Neiiighborhood Map

Suppllliiies::: Notebooks, journals, sheets of paper, pencils, pens, digital or film cameras, film, computers, scanner, Internet access, Hyperstudio, Powerpoint or software that can combine image, text, video, and sound, w ebp age so ft w ar e (N e ts c ape Co mp o s e r can be do w n l o a de d fo r fr e e ) , or software such as Frontpage, Dreamweaver, Photoshop Radius TV, and Media 100.

How do you define your neighborhood? Does it have boundaries? Where does it begin and end?

‰ Ask students to divide into small groups for this project. Have students define the neighborhood around their school and draw a street map with a key of symbols that represents important neighborhood sites on their map.

‰ Invite a local historian to your classroom or ask students to interview two people about the history of their neighborhood. Visit your local historical society or library. Have students research and find photographs of how the neighborhood looked 25-100 years ago.

‰ Ask students to research stories that have been told about the neighborhood and the people who live there. Use local newspapers, books, and or interview people. Ask each group to rewrite one or more stories in their own words.

‰ Have students design a tour of their neighborhood that includes:

The oldest building The newest building The most important building At least ten additional sites that are indicated on their map.

‰ Have students take their peers on a tour of their neighborhood.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Post-viiisiiit Projjject 1::: Neiiighborhood (((contiiinued))) 17

Sugg es t ed Pr ojjj e ct s ((( con tiii nue d))):::

Neiiighborhood Viiiews

‰ Have students make sketches and a painting of a special or favorite place in their neighborhood.

‰ Ask students to research the architecture in their neighborhood.

‰ Ask students to research and create a sample view of their neighborhood on paper, on the computer, or as a webpage, using images and text. If they use a computer, students could also include sound and video.

Wh at is sp e c ial or uni q ue ab out yo ur nei gh bo rho od? Wh at is yo ur mo st ordi n ary vi e w of yo ur nei g hbo rho od ? Wh at is yo ur mo st surp r i s i ng vi ew ? Wh at ev i de nc e of di f f e r e nt cul t ure s do you se e in yo ur nei ghbo rho o d? Wh at ki nds of wo rk do yo u se e pe o p l e doi ng in yo ur ne i g hbo rh oo d ?

What would you like people to know about your neighborhood? Wh at wo uld yo u be ab le to le arn as a vi si t o r or tour is t ? Wh i c h vi e w s wo u l d yo u se l e ct to cr ea te a sam pl i ng of yo ur nei gh bo rho od: Bu i l din gs ? Pe o p l e ? St ree ts ? Sto res ? Sty l e s ? Mus ic? Wh at el se wo uld be incl uded? Ho w do peo pl e us e th e ne i g hb orh oo d ’s sp ace s?

1. Ch o o se an are a of th e ne i g hb orh oo d ne ar yo ur sc ho o l. Fi nd a pla ce wh e re yo u can ob se rv e wh at ha pp e ns the r e .

2. Sp en d ti me tak i ng no tes , mak ing draw ing s, an d c omp i l ing data on wh at yo u se e . Tak e pho to gr ap hs or mak e a vide o if yo u have acc es s to the eq ui p me n t.

3. Wh e n yo u h av e gath er e d you r info rm at io n , di s cus s and su mma ri ze you r obse rv at io n s wi t h yo ur gro u p .

Wh at did yo u le arn abo ut ho w yo ur nei gh bo rho od is use d? Wh at doe s th e sp ac e you se l e cte d te l l yo u ab out the nei ghb or ho o d? Wa s the re an yth i ng yo u had n’ t no ti ce d b ef o re?

4. Use images--drawings, photos, video--and text, to make your own multi-media sampling of your neighborhood. Include images of yourselves in the environment.

5. Record the sounds of your neighborhood. For example, cars, horns, voices, sirens, car alarms, animals, footsteps. Incorporate the sounds in your multi-media presentation.

6. Present and discuss your neighborhood views with the class. Which views did you select? Why?

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Post-Viiisiiit Projjject 2::: What''s the Story? 18

O bjjje ctiii ve ::: To explore Jacob Lawrence’s approach to narrative series, and to create a visual narrative.

Throughout his career, and particularly during the late 1930s and early 1940s, Jacob Lawrence used a series format to convey narrative content. Lawrence’s fascination with movies during the Depression years inspired his approach to storytelling.

Lawrence created visual narratives that involved a process similar to the storyboards used to plan the sequence of a film. Lawrence told his story on hardboard panels, employing all their edges and angles to convey his story’s physical, social, historical, and economic significance. He devised a system to create each cycle. He designed vertical and horizontal sequences of hardboard panels, each the same size by laying them out on his studio floor. In this way, the thirty to sixty panels of a series could be seen together, and painted at the same time.

For his earlier narrative series, Lawrence first wrote the captions and then completed the sketches for each scene. Later he drew directly onto gessoed hardboard panels and then systematically applied one color to each panel, beginning with black and moving on to lighter colors.

Lawrence often used unmixed colors so that they would not vary from one panel to the next. He added white to obtain lighter shades of a color. His selection of colors--black and burnt umber to cadmium orange and yellow--created an overall unity and consistency.

Lawrence repeated motifs, shapes, and words throughout his narrative series. In the Migration Series, the repetition of an enlarged single spike or nail, chain links or lattice, hands, and the hammer act as refrains in the lives, experiences, and struggles of African Americans.

Sugg es t ed Pr ojjj e ct :::

Storyboardiiing

Suppllliiies::: Journals or notebooks, storyboard template on page 31, a large sheet of paper, blank index cards, or packets of Post-It notes, pens, pencils, erasers, markers or colored crayons.

‰ A story is an account, narrative, tale, or report of incidents or events. Stories make a point, but are not necessarily linear. They can be as short as a few sentences, or as long as an encyclopedia. An effective story combines timing, sequence, experience, memory, and imagination.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Post-viiisiiit Projjject 2::: What’’ s the Story? (((contiiinued))) 19

Sugg es t ed Pr ojjj e ct (((c on t iiin ued ))):::

‰ Ask students to plan their own narrative by creating a storyboard. Use the following suggested themes, or have each student think of an event in their life that had a significant impact on them. For example, their story could be about a place they visited, a person they met, overcoming a challenge, or achieving a personal goal.

Suggested themes:::

Migration or immigration Harlem Workers Street life, family, community, neighborhood Games or entertainment Health Education Injustice Discrimination

‰ When Jacob Lawrence made his series of paintings he developed a method of putting a certain color into all shapes of one kind, for example, making all triangles blue and all rectangles green. This method was later adapted into his narrative series paintings. For example, he would paint 30 panels with only the blue finished in each. Then he might paint all the reds, or greens, and so on with each panel. When he completed the last color, the whole series was finished. This highly individual way of working gave his color a consistency from panel to panel.

‰ Ask students to use the template on the next page, a cartoon or comic book format, blank index cards, or a sheet of paper and Post-Its to plan their own narratives. If you have access, have students create their storyboards on the computer. Use software such as PowerPoint or Hyperstudio, and a scanner. Students could use as many storyboards as they need to tell their story. Ask your students to repeat 2-3 different shapes in each drawing and color the shapes in each drawing using Jacob Lawrence's method described above.

As you plan your storyboard, think about the following questions:

What was the event? (Think about the place, time, incident or series of incidents that occurred). What was your relationship to the event? Did the event include other people? Who? Was there a defining moment during this event? What was it? How did you feel during this event? What did you learn from this event? Did the event change your life? How? How will you tell the story in words?

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Post-viiisiiit Projjject 2::: What’’ s the Story? (((contiiinued))) 20

Sugg es t ed Pr ojjj e ct (((c on t iiin ued ))):::

1. Use a notebook or journal to write your narrative. Leave spaces between sentences and number them in sequence. Edit your story in your notebook or journal. Assign no more than two sentences per image.

2. When your text is ready, use your storyboard or the computer to combine images, text, and sound.

What images will you use? What sound (music and/or voice) do you want to include? What special effects could you use to enhance your story? How will you make transitions from one part of the story to the next?

Narr atiii ve Se riiie s

‰ Ask your students to use their storyboards to design their own narrative series with images and text, on paper, on the computer, or as two or more paintings, using water-based paint or egg tempera on paper or panels. Encourage your students to use the themes that Jacob Lawrence focused on and his methods of composition. If students are creating their narratives on the computer, ask them to include sound, video, and/or animation.

On Paper

Suppllliiies::: A roll, long strips, or individual sheets of paper, pens, pencils, magazines, scissors, glue sticks, students' own drawings and/or photographs.

‰ Ask students to use long strips or sheets of paper to make a narrative that they can display in a continuous line on the walls of the classroom. Students could work individually or in small groups.

‰ Students could also use fabric paint to write and draw a non-linear narrative on an item of clothing.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Post-viiisiiit Projjject 2::: What’’ s the Story? (((contiiinued))) 21

Sugg es t ed Pr ojjj e ct s ((( con tiii nue d))):::

Diiigiiitalll Narratiiive

Suppllliiies::: Computer, Internet access, Hyperstudio, PowerPoint or software that can combine image, text, video, and sound, w ebp age so ft w ar e (N e ts c ape Co mp o s e r can be do w n l o a de d fo r fr e e ) , and software such as Frontpage, Dreamweaver, Photoshop Radius TV, and Media 100 to create a webpage.

‰ The non-linear nature of the Web offers unprecedented opportunities to use image, text, sound, music, and video to create new forms of expression and communication that includes narratives and virtual spaces without beginnings, middles, and ends. Divide students into small groups for this project. If your students have access to web software, ask them to make a web narrative. Ask students to use their paper narrative and Hypermedia or other software with hypertext multimedia capability to write a collaborative narrative using images, text, sound, and/or video. Each person in the group should write a paragraph of the narrative and create links between the paragraphs.

1. Use your storyboards as a starting point and a hypertext program to write a collaborative digital narrative.

2. When you have written your narrative, link the parts of your narrative and explore it. See how your audience will navigate your narrative.

3. Make revisions to the text to create connections and smooth transitions between parts of the story.

For tips and tools on creating digital narratives, look at these websites:

http://www.storycenter.org

http://www.digiclub.org

http://www.ctcnet.org

http://www.dstory.com

http://www.whitney.org/jacoblawrence/tellyourownstory

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Post-viiisiiit Projjject 2::: What’’ s the Story? (((contiiinued))) 22

Sugg es t ed Pr ojjj e ct s ((( con tiii nue d))):::

Paiiintiiing

Jacob Lawrence’s early training at the Utopia Children’s House, the Harlem Art Workshop, and the Works Progress administration introduced him to the materials that he would use throughout his career—opaque, water-based gouache and tempera paints, various types of paper, illustration board, and hardboard. He used a vibrant, colorful palette with browns and blacks to delineate outlines and shadows. In the 1940s Lawrence shifted from working in tempera to gouache. During this time, many of his works appear to contain both types of paint.

Gouache An opaque water-based paint, most commonly used for commercial illustration. These paints are made by adding chalk to the pigments to make them opaque. The use of gouache goes back to medieval manuscript illumination and was used in 16th - 18th century miniature painting. Many painters combine gouache, pastel watercolors, and India ink in the same painting.

Tempera A type of paint that consists of dry color or pigment, a glutinous substance, (such as egg yolk or gum), and water. Tempera was the most commonly used medium until the introduction of oil paint.

For additional definitions of art terms, go to:

http://www.artlex.com

http://www.aliceville.com/artdic_0.htm

http://www.rs.reading.sch.uk/Departments/Art/HTML/Dictionary/ArtTerms.htm

Suppllliiies for gouache or tempera paiiintiiing::: Paper, or panels made of wood, masonite, or composition board, gesso, paintbrushes, palettes, water-based tempera or gouache paint.

‰ If possible, have students make their own egg tempera paints.

Suppllliiies for egg tempera paiiintiiing::: Paper, pencils, erasers, eggs, a pin, distilled water, pigment (from an art supplier or art supply store), eye droppers, glass jars, small porcelain bowls or cups, spoons, paper towels, acrylic gesso, wood or masonite panels (do not use paper for egg tempera paintings), fine sandpaper, disposable palettes, a plastic palette knife, a selection of sable brushes, charcoal sticks, dust mask or respirator.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Post-viiisiiit Projjject 2::: What’’ s the Story? (((contiiinued))) 23

Sugg es t ed Pr ojjj e ct s ((( con tiii nue d))):::

Ho w to mak e eg g te mp er a pa iiin ts

1. Li ghtl y sa nd pap er th e surf ac e of yo u r wo o d or m aso ni te pan el .

2. Pr e p are wo od or ma so nit e pan el s wi th ges s o . Use a wi de brus h and a cr yl i c g es s o pai nt . Brus h ges s o on the pa ne l in o ne di rec tio n. Ap p l y 4 la y e r s of ges s o . Al l o w eac h lay er of ge ss o to dry co mpl e t e l y be f o re ap pl y i ng the nex t one. Le a v e to dr y fo r se ve r al da ys . Wh e n yo ur pa nel is dry , li ghtl y sa nd pap er th e ge s s o e d surf ac e.

3. Makiiing egg biiinder... Crack an egg with one hand and pour the yolk and egg white into the palm of your other hand. Try not to break the yolk!

4. Roll the egg yolk from hand to hand, and let the white drain into a cup or bowl. When the egg white has drained away, carefully hold the yolk over a jar, break the sac with a pin and let the liquid yolk drain into the jar.

5. Add small amounts of distilled water to the yolk and mix with a spoon. Put your egg binder aside to use when you begin painting.

6. Makiiing piiigment paste... Use a dust mask or respirator when handling dry pigments. Put dry powdered pigment in a separate glass jar. Fill over half the jar.

7. Add enough distilled water to the pigment to make a thick creamy paste. Mix with a plastic palette knife. Make as many colors as you need. To store, cover the surface of the paint mixture with a small amount of water and close the lid tightly.

IIInstructiiions for egg tempera paiiintiiing

1. Plan your picture first. Draw your image on the panel. Use charcoal or a thin brush and your tempera paint. Do not use a pencil unless you want your drawing to show through.

2. Work out the order in which you will mix and use your colors. Write it down on a piece of paper.

3. Place a small amount of each pigment paste in a row along the sides of your palette. Use an eye dropper to place some egg yolk binder on your palette near the row of pigments. Use the space in the center of your palette to mix a small amount of egg binder with the pigment colors. Always have a little more binder than pigment in the mixture.

4. Fill a jar with distilled water and keep it nearby in case you need to thin your mixed paints.

5. Apply your paint colors in thin layers. Thick layers will not stick to the panel! Brush the paint onto the panel in single strokes and in one direction.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Post-viiisiiit Projjject 2::: What’’ s the Story? (((contiiinued))) 24

Sugg es t ed Pr ojjj e ct s ((( con tiii nue d))):::

6. Egg tempera paint dries fast, but do not paint over the same area immediately. To avoid a clogged effect, work on another part of the panel first.

7. Use a variety of brushes and experiment with different paint strokes.

8. Present and discuss your painted or electronic narratives with the class.

9. Invite your peers to see your narratives in your classroom or on a computer.

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Storyboard templllate 25

 2001 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART 26

B iiib lll iiio g raph y

A selection of books, exhibition catalogues, and videos related to Jacob Lawrence’s work.

JACOB LAWRENCE

John Duggleby, Jacob Lawrence Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998

Nancy Shroyer Howard Jacob Lawrence: American Scenes, American Struggles (Closer Look Activity Book), Worcester, Massachusetts: Davis Publications, 1996

Peter T. Nesbett, Michelle DuBois Complete Jacob Lawrence, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000

Peter T. Nesbett (Editor), Michelle Dubois (Editor), Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, Patricia Hills (Editor) Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001

Peter T. Nesbett (Editor) and Michelle DuBois (Editor) Jacob Lawrence: Paintings, Drawings, and Murals (1935-1999), A Catalogue Raisonné, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001

Ellen Harkins Wheat Jacob Lawrence, American Painter, Seattle: University of Washington Press in association with the Seattle Art Museum, 1994

Ellen Harkins Wheat Jacob Lawrence: The Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman Series of 1938-40, Hampton, Virginia: Hampton University in association with University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1991

BOOKS IIILLUSTRATED WIIITH JACOB LAWRENCE''S WORK

Gwen Everett, Jacob Lawrence (Illustrator) John Brown: One Man Against Slavery, New York: Rizzoli, 1993

John Hersey, Jacob Lawrence (Illustrator) Hiroshima. New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1983

Langston Hughes, Jacob Lawrence (Illustrator) One-Way Ticket, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948

Jacob Lawrence The Great Migration: An American Story, New York: Harper Collins, 1993

Jacob Lawrence *Harriet and the Promised Land, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993

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Jacob Lawrence (Illustrator), Aesop Aesop's Fables, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997

Jacob Lawrence Genesis. [King James version of the book of Genesis, illustrated with eight screen prints by Jacob Lawrence.] New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1990

Walter Dean Myers, Jacob Lawrence (Illustrator) Toussaint L'Ouverture: The Fight for Haiti's Freedom, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996

HIIISTORY

Jervis Anderson This Was Harlem: A Cultural Portrait, 1900-1950, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1981

Kerry Candaele, Spencer Crew, Clayborne Carson Bound for Glory 1910-1930: From the Great (Editor), Darlene Clark Hine (Editor) Migration to the Harlem Renaissance (Milestones in Black American History), Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1996

James L. Collins John Brown and the Fight against Slavery, Brookfield, MA: Millbrook Press, 1992

Frederick Douglass, Michael McCurdy (Editor) Escape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994

Ha k i m, Jo y A Hi sto ry of Us , New Y ork : Oxf o rd U niv ers i t y P res s, 1994

Jim Haskins Get on Board: The Story of the Underground Railroad, New York: Scholastic Trade, 1997

Judy Barrett Litoff, Ed. Since You Went Away: World War II Letters from American Women on the Home Front, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994

We’re in This War Too: World War II Letters from American Women in Uniform, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994

Wahneema Lubiano, ed. The House That Race Built: Original Essays by Toni Morrison, Angela Y. Davis, Cornel West, and Others on Black Americans and Politics in America Today, New York: Vintage Press, 1998

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Douglas T. Miller, John A. Scott (Editor) Frederick Douglass and the Fight for Freedom, New York: Facts on File, Incorporated, 1993

John P. Parker, Stuart Seely Sprague (Editor) His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996

M. W. Taylor, Nathan Irvin Huggins (Editor), Coretta Harriet Tubman, New York: Chelsea House Scott King Publishers, 1991

Velma Maia Thomas Freedom's Children: The Passage from Emancipation to the Great Migration, New York: Crown Publication, 2000

Ho w a rd Zi n n A Peo p l e' s H is t ory of the Uni te d S ta tes , New Y ork : Ha rp e r Per e n ni a l , 1995

THE GREAT MIIIGRATIIION

Robert Coles The South Goes North (Children of Crisis, Vol 3), Boston: Little Brown & Company

George Groh The Black Migration: The Journey to Urban America, Waybright & Talley, 1972

Maurice Isserman Journey to Freedom: The African-American Great Migration (Library of African-American History Series), New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1996

Nicholas Lemann The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America, New York: Vintage Books, 1992

Pat McKissack, Patricia C. McKissack Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, the Great Migration North, Chicago, Illinios,1919 (Dear America), New York: Scholastic Trade, 2000

IIIMMIIIGRATIIION

Claude Brown Manchild in the Promised Land, New York: MacMillan, 1972

Roger Daniels Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life, New York: HarperCollins, 1990

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America Begins in New York: The Peopling of New York City, A Teacher's Resource Manual on Immigration, New York: New York Historical Society/New York City Board of Education, 2000

Alejandro Portes & Ruben G. Rumbaut Immigrant America: A Portrait, California: University of California Press, 1996

RACE

Ruby Bridges, Margo Lundell Through My Eyes, New York: Scholastic, Inc, 1999

Cameron McCarthy, Warren Crichlow Race, Identity and Representation in Education, New York: Routledge, 1993

Alain Leroy Locke, Jeffrey Stewart (Editor) Race Contacts and Interracial Relations: Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Race, Howard University Press, 1992

W.S. Penn As We Are Now: Mixblood Essays on Race & Identity, New York: McPherson, 1992

Andrea Davis Pinkney, Stephen Alcorn (illustrator) Let It Shine: The Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters, Harcourt, 2000

Faith Ringgold If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999

Felipe Smith American Body Politics: Race, Gender, and the Black Literary Renaissance, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1998

Mildred D. Taylor, Jerry Pinkney Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Penguin USA, 1991

LIIITERATURE

Maya Angelou I know why the caged bird sings, New York: Random House, © 1969

James Baldwin The Fire Next Time, New York: Dial Press, 1963

Notes of A Native Son, Boston: Beacon Press, 1955

Sandra Cisneros The House on Mango Street, Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1983

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Eldridge Cleaver Soul on Ice, New York: Dell, 1970

J. California Cooper The Matter is Life, New York: Anchor Books, 1994

W.E.B. DuBois The Souls of Black Folks, New York: Bantam Books, 1989

Ralph Ellison Invisible Man, New York: Random House, 1952

Henry Louis Gates & Nellie Y.McKay, The Norton Anthology of African American eds. Literature, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997

Alex Haley Roots, Boston: G.H. Hall, 1979

Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun, New York: New American Library, © 1966

Langston Hughes “My America,” The Langston Hughes Reader. New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1958

Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1990

James Weldon Johnson The Autobiography of an Ex Colored Man, New York: Dover Books, 1912, 1995

Martin Luther King Jr. Why We Can’t Wait, New York: Harper and Row, 1964

Maxine Hong Kingston The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts, New York: Knopf, distributed by Random House, 1976

Toni Morrison Jazz, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992

The Bluest Eye, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club, New York: Putnam, 1989

The Kitchen God’s Wife, New York: Putnam, 1991

Alice Walker The Color Purple, New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1982

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Richard Wright The Outsider, New York: HarperCollins, 1993

Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth, New York: Harper, © 1945, 1998

Native Son, New York: HarperCollins, © 1940, 1998

POETRY

Langston Hughes The Ways of White Folks (Vintage Classics), New York: Vintage Books, 1990

Emily Bernard, editor Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925-1964, New York: Knopf, 2001

Langston Hughes, Arnold Rampersad (Editor), David The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, New York: Roessel (Editor) Knopf, 1994

TEMPERA PAIIINTIIING

Paige Henson Painting with Tempera, The Rourke Book Company, 1999

Altoon Sultan The Luminous Brush: Painting with Egg Tempera, New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1999

VIIIDEOS

Public Media Home Vision Jacob Lawrence: An Intimate Portrait, 1993

Linda Freeman Jacob Lawrence: The Glory of Expression, 1992

Georgia Public Television Jacob Lawrence, American Artist, 1986.

Jean Walkinshaw The City is Ours, 1980

Anna Deavere Smith Fires in the Mirror, 1993

Twilight, Los Angeles, 1992, 2000

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W eb o graph y

A selection of websites related to Jacob Lawrence’s art and life.

JACOB LAWRENCE IIINFORMATIIION & IIIMAGES http://www.jacoblawrence.org Website with information about the traveling exhibition of Lawrence’s work and The Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project. http://www.jacoblawrence.org/newsite/index.html The Jacob Lawrence Virtual Archive and Education Center contains education resources, biographical information, over 900 archived images and related links. http://www.artchive.com/artchive/L/lawrence.html Short biography, links to other resources and images. http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa182.htm An exhibition of Lawrence’s work at the Wadsworth Atheneum. http://hudson.acad.umn.edu/Lawrence/WAMjacobtest The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum reviews selected .html Lawrence works from a recent exhibition. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/jan- PBS publishes an interview with Jacob Lawrence from june00/lawrence_6-13.html 1995. http://www.studiomuseuminharlem.org/ Website for the Studio Museum in Harlem. http://www.daily.umn.edu/ae/Print/ISSUE16/cover.ht John Pribek’s article on Jacob Lawrence at the Fredrick R. ml Weisman Arts Museum. http://www.arthistory.about.com/arts/arthistory/libra About.com provides a bio about Jacob Lawrence as well as ry/blartist_lawrence.htm?once=true& related links. http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/1998- Article by the NEH about the exhibition’s catalog. 11/lawrence.html http://www.octobergallery.com/law3.htm Bio of Jacob Lawrence with links to images. http://www.reynoldahouse.org/builders.htm The Reynolda House, Museum of American Art discusses Jacob Lawrence’s Builders #2 (1968), and provides links to other works in the series, as well as works in the Migration series. http://www.gifts.washington.edu/vistas/archives/200 Announcement of Jacob Lawrence’s death in June 2000. 0-fall/jacob.html http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/entertainmen In-depth review of Jacob Lawrence and his work in the t/html98/altjake_070298.html exhibition, ``Jacob Lawrence: Painting Life,'' at the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington.

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W eb o graph y ((( con tiii nue d))) http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/ General background information about Black Mountain black_mountain_college.html College in Asheville where Jacob Lawrence taught in the summer of 1946. http://www.artincontext.org/listings/pages/exhib/h/v Essay on Jacob Lawrence’s series The Builders. 2evu7wh/press.htm http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/2aa/2aa302.htm The Speed Art Museum provides information and links about Jacob Lawrence’s Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass series. http://www.rwor.org/a/v22/1060- The Essay “Jacob Lawrence: Telling the Black Story in 69/1061/lawren.htm Many Colors” includes quotes by and about Jacob Lawrence.

HIIISTORY http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/index.ht Escape along the Underground Railroad in this site ml designed by National Geographic. http://www.afroamhistory.about.com/homework/afro About.com lists many sites dealing with African American amhistory/cs/harlemrenaissance/ history by theme, from Slavery to Civil Rights. http://www.nyhistory.com/harriettubman/life.htm A biographical account of Harriet Tubman’s life and her role in the Underground Railroad. ht tp :/ / ww w .h is t or y ch ann el . co m/e xh i bi ts/ und er gro und r Information about the Underground Railroad and slavery in r/ in dex .h t ml America. Quotes by John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman. Study Guide. http://www.nps.gov/frdo/fdlife.htm A general biography of Frederick Douglass’ life. http://www.iupui.edu/~douglass/ The collection of the Frederick Douglass Papers at Indiana University. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/wpa/wpahome.ht A compilation of American Slave Narratives, compiled by ml the Works Progress Administration. http:// www.main.nc.us/bmc/ The Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center is a non profit organization devoted to the preservation of the legacy of the school. http:// www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/aavaahp.htm The history of African-American visual artists, mainly working in the first half of the twentieth century. http:// www.legacy-project.org The Legacy Project articulates a global exchange on the enduring consequences of the many historical tragedies of the 20th century.

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THE GREAT MIIIGRATIIION http://www.northbysouth.org/1998/ Addresses many aspects of the Great Migration, with links, articles, and images. http://www.historymatters.gmu.edu/text/541b- Seven letters of African Americans who strongly desired to letters.html migrate to the North.They are taken from the Northern newspaper, the Chicago Defender. http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/5881 The Great Migration. / http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/activity/port/h Discover immigrant life in America while playing the role of tml/disklp8.html an historian detective.

HARLEM http://www.etext.lib.virginia.edu/harlem/ The March 1925 edition of the monthly magazine, the Survey Graphic. This edition, designed by Alain Locke, is devoted to the Harlem Renaissance. http://www.africana.com/Articles/tt_387.htm A compilation of articles about the Harlem Renaissance and related subjects. http://www.nku.edu/~diesmanj/harlem.html An account about the different artistic aspects of the Harlem Renaissance.

RACE http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aapseg.html Several topics are covered such as "Segregation and Violence," "Solving the Race Problem." Some audio testimonies. http://www.rit.edu/~nrcgsh/bx.html The Black Experience in America, written by Norman Coombs. African origins to the civil rights movement. http://www.human-rights-issues.com/ A campus lecture focusing on racism and discrimination in America.

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LABOR http://www.afscme.org/about/aframlink.htm This web site is devoted to the history of African American labor. http://www.mtungsten.freeservers.com/ A historical account on African American life during the Great Depression. http://www.napfe.com/mg1000uc.htm This essay, written by Nehru Tennassee, deals with the issue of segregation that affected African Americans as workers.

EDUCATIIION http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/race_relations/jan- Charlayne Hunter-Gault interviews Ruby Bridges Hall, who june97/bridges_2-18.html in 1960, became the first African American to enter a white elementary school in New Orleans. http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/school- An account of school integration from 1955 to 1975. integration/index.html

STUDENT WORK http://www.donegal.k12.pa.us/dms/Kif/tabofcon.htm Donegal Middle School students created a page on African American contributors, including Jacob Lawrence, artists, musicians, etc. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0872844.html Compilation of African American history, with timelines, quizzes, and numerous links. Created by the Luis Muñoz Marin Middle School.

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