A Guide to African-American Culture

September 23-29, 1991 (212) 627-5241 Vol. I No.18 $1.00

LISTINGS INSIDE: ART • CABARETS • CONCERTS • DANCE RESTAURANTS • FREE-FOR-ALL • THEATER

EDMONIA LEWIS Sculptor 1845-1890

lack Africans who emigrated to these shores Bbefore, on and after the landing of the Mayflower were designated Free Men. During the early Nineteenth century, the vast majority of these Free Men were settled in the more liberal northern colonies where they lived close to and in harmony with indigenous Americans. Edmonia Lewis was born in 1845, in Albany, New York, the child of a free African man and a Edmonia Lewis Chippewa Indian woman. After the death of her parents, Edmonia was reared for a while by her mother's tribe then later placed in an orphanage. She was subsequently adopted by an abolitionist family. In 1859, Edmonia entered where she became involved in the abolitionist movement, which brought her to the attention of , a dominant figure in the movement and publisher of the abolitionist newspaper. The liberator Garrison, who knew of Edmonia's ambition to study art and her talent at modeling, arranged her introduction to Edmund Brackett, the prominent sculptor. Under Brackett's careful tutelage, Edmonia launched a career that earned her the dual distinction of being the first African-American woman artist and the first of her race and sex to be recognized as a sculptor. The first exhibition of her work was held in Boston in 1864. Her bust of , the martyred leader of an all-black Civil War regiment, evoked the kind of response in the art community that resulted in the wide sale of her work; the proceeds from which were used to finance her trip to in 1865. In Rome, Edmonia mastered the exacting techniques of ; moving directly from the image she held in mind to the difficult medium of marble. Her creative gifts quickly brought her to prominence. Edmonia spent most of her adult career in riding the crest of the neoclassical revival of the late 1870s. She captivated Rome and attracted worldwide notice in artistic circles with her exotic look, mannish garb, intense personality and forthright manner; characteristic of the later Josephine Baker. As her fame grew, Edmonia was invited to America to exhibit her work in in 1870, and again in 1876 at the Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia. Her best works, portrait busts done in the classical style of the Edmonia Lewis photograph on carte de Romans, include those of Abraham Lincoln, visite. Collection: Wendell Phillips, Charles Summer, John Brown Walters Museum of Art and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Among her better known completed figures and groups are: , depicting a biblical theme; Hiawatha, The Marriage of Hiawatha, and The Departure of Hiawatha. Her figure group, Forever Free, aroused the greatest general interest. It portrays a black couple, just out of slavery, becoming aware of the fact that they are no longer in bondage. The man has his left arm raised and his fist clenched in a symbol of black power and freedom that would appear to be timeless and universal among Africans throughout the diaspora. Other of Edmonia's noted works are the Death of , The Madonna with The Infant and An Old Indian Arrow Maker and His Daughter, perhaps reminiscent of her early life among her mother's people. During her later years, Edmonia returned to the . However, the vogue of was becoming less fashionable and Edmonia Lewis gradually passed from public notice into obscurity. Historians are at variance as to the place and year of her death. It is believed that she eventually returned to Rome, the home of her heart, where she died around 1890*. Several of Edmonia Lewis' works are on exhibit at the Oberlin College Archives, part of the permanent collections of the Gallery and at the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian. –Toni Roberts

*Since the publication of this article, recent documents indicate that Edmonia died in 1907 in , England.

Volume 1. Number 18. Published by OCR for Publishers, Inc. 521 W. 23rd St. New York, NY 10011. Subscription Rate US$36. Send subscriptions to ROUTES, A Guide to African American Culture, P.O. Box 20103, Old Chelsea Station, New York, NY 10011. ROUTES is published 48 times per year. For advertising rates call 212 527 5241. Publisher/Editor in Chief, Ronald Bunn, Associate Editors Estelle Whiting, Toni Roberts. Editorial Staff: Perri

!2—ROUTES, A Guide to African-American Culture, September 23-29, 1991 CLUBS & Al Gray Tal Farlow

ABARETS Marty Napoléon Gary Mazzaroppi C Big Nick Nicholas September 23-28 • Mike Freeman & Benny Powell Zinno 126 W. 13th St. Spellbound Bucky Pizzarelli 924-5182 September 23 Darryl Sherman Lou Soloff •New Jersey • Mike Clark Trio Harvey Swartz Kenny Barron Billy Taylor • Billy Childs Harvey Schwartz September 27&28 September 25 & 26 St. Peters Church, Living Room Lexington Avenue/ • Bob Bianco Trio • Mark Murphy 54th St. 688-6022 September 29 September 27 & 28 • Average White Band Trumpets 6 Depot Square Sets 9pm, 10:30pm at September 25 Montclair 201 746-6100 midnight • Pato Banton & the Reggae Birdland 2745 Broadway/ Revolution CONCERTS 105th St. 749-2228 September 26 Stephen Scott Amateur Night • S.O.B's 204 Varick St/W. Every Wed. 7:30pm September 23 Houston St. 243-4940 with Ralph • Don Grolnick Quintet Apollo Theatre 253 W. 125th Sharon Trio • St. 864-0372 September 24-29 Blue Note 131 W. 3rd St. Randy Brecker RESTAURANTS 475-8592 Abyssinia Bill Stewart Ethiopian cooking, very • Kirk Lightsey, piano September 24-28 Kevin Eubanks, guitar informal Rufus Reid, bass • Eddie Chamblee Quartet Saturdays, 2-6pm 35 Grand St./Thompson St. September 23-28 226-5959B. Smith's • Craig Handy, Sax • Doc Cheatham Southern & American cuisine Kenny Barron, piano Sundays, 3-7pm Trendy David Williams, bass Sweet Basil 8 Seventh Ave/ September 29 Bleecker 242-1785 771 Eighth Ave. 247-2222 Music after 10pm Mingus Big Band B. Smith’s Bradley's 70 University September 19 & 26 Southern & American cuisines Place/11th St. 228-6440 Time Café 380 Lafayette/ Trendy • Charlie McPherson Great Jones Street 533-7000 Kenny Kirkland Quintet September 22-29 Chuck Brown with the P September 27 & 28 Funk Horns • Clifford Jordan Big Band 771 Eighth Ave. 247-2222 Mondays September 27 & 28 Condon’s 117 E. 15th St. Tramps 45 W. 21st St. Caribe 254-0960 (between 5th and 6th Jamaican cuisine Avenues) 727-7788 Cassandra Wilson with Rod Pleasant and informal, cash Williams Tania Maria Septet only. Kevin Bruche Harris September 24-29 117 Perry St./Greenwich St. Tani Tabal Village Gate Bleecker/ 255-9191 September 24-29 Thompson Sts 475-5120 Copeland’s Fat Tuesday's 190 3rd Ave. Johnny Griffin Quartet Southern cuisine 17th St. 533-7902 Michael Weiss A Harlem Institution. 547 W. Jeff Keezer, piano Dennis Irwin 145th St. 234-2457 Dwayne Burndt, bass Kenny Washington September 25-28 September 24-29 Honeysuckle Southern cuisine Knickerbocker Bar & Grill 33 Sets at: 9:30pm, 11:30pm & University Place 228-8490 1am Trendy A Tribute to Jack Village Vanguard 178 7th 507 Columbus Ave. Kleinsinger Ave. So. 255-4037 Columbus Avenue 496-8095 September 23, 7-10pm • Eddie Henderson Quartet Jamaican “Hot Pot” Jimmy Heath September 23 Restaurant of 7-8 tables Milk Hampton • Herb Robertson Quartet Oliver Jackson September 24 inside and 3 outside—has a Sheila Jordan large reputation for good Jay Leon Hart • Fred Hersch Quintet food at bargain prices. Ray Barreto September 25-27 2060 Adam Clayton Powell,

Joey Cavaseno Visiones 125 MacDougal St. Jr. Boulevard/133rd St. Jon Faddis 673-5576 491-5270 Panama Francis

!3—ROUTES, A Guide to African-American Culture, September 23-29, 1991 Vernon’s Jerk Paradise McDonald's Dining Room A Comedy by Hazel Smith. Jamaican cuisine, Jerk Country home cooking - Tues.- Featuring, Jimmy Hayeson, preparation of meats. Sun. Louise Mike, Jerry Love, Lee 252 W. 29th St. 268-7020 327 Stuyvesant Ave.(718) Kirk, Kim Yancey, Boysie White & James Smith. Jezebel 574-3728 Southern/American cuisine Green Avenue Grill Bury the Dead Grilled American & southern September 19, 20, 26, 27, Scarfs, swings & cuisines October 3& 4, 8pm; September sophistication. 21, 28 & October 5, 3pm 630 9th Ave./45th St. 13 Green Ave./Fulton Street (718) 797-2099 A one act play looks at the 582-1045 beneficiaries of war. La Famille Restaurant •Queens• Written by Erwin Shaw & Southern cuisine directed by Ken Lowsletter La Detente Roomy & informal Continental & Caribbean Harlem School of The Arts 2017 5th Ave./125th St. cuisines 645 St. Nicholas Ave. 534-9909 362-3681 23-04 94th St. E. Elmhurst Livi's Restaurant (718) 458-2172 Nobody Loves A Black Caribbean & Southern cuisine Little Girl When She Manhattan Proper Cafe Becomes A Woman Informal Southern cuisine September 27 & 28. 7:45pm 29 E. 126th St./Madison & 217-01 Linden Blvd/ An examination of how the Fifth Avenues 831-4931 Springfield Blvd (718) 341- harshness of life has Pan Pan 5th Avenue CAFE transformed the innocent Southern cuisine and beautiful little girl into a THEATER hardened woman, and what Informal needs to be done to reverse 1325 5th Ave./between 110 & Language of the Soul that course. Written by Ina 111th Streets 996-1212 By Cheryl Alexander Norris Perk’s Fine Cuisine Theater Arielle 432 West Henry Street Settlement Southern cuisine 42nd St. 967-7079 Louis Abrons Arts Center 466 Elegant-Trendy Harlem Six Degrees of Separation Grand St 598-0400 Nightspot; Dancing Courtney B. Vance Face to Face Thursday-Saturday after Set in Manhattan, about a September 26-29, Oct 3, 4, 6, 11pm mugger who seeks refuge at 10, 11-13 553 Manhattan Avenue/ an elegant dinner party. A drama about the impact of 123rd St. 666-8500 Vivian Beaumont Theater/ skin color within a family Lincoln Center Broad/65th setting. Starring Jeff A. Sylvia's St. 239-6200 Haskins, Raan Lewis, Tia Southern cuisine Once on This Island Sinclair & Bryan Webster Relaxed and informal A musical set in the The National Black Theater 328 Lenox Ave. Caribbean, about a poor 2033 Fifth Ave 427-5615 (126 & 127th Sts) 966-0660 girl’s passion for the son of a Who Collects The Pain The Blue Nile wealthy landowner. September 19 through October 5 Traditional Ethiopian cooking Booth Theatre W. 45th St./ 1983, a white Columbia 103 W. 77th St./ Columbus Broadway 239-6200 University student meets an Ave. 580-3232 Ms. Hazel’s House of African-American girl and • they fall deeply in love. The Third World Café Heavenly Rest Sundays, 3pm fuse of racial tension Third world cuisine explodes creating a fallout of Spices are from west Africa. A very special little café 700 W. 125th St./Westside Highway 749-8199 Wilson's Restaurant & Bakery Southern cuisine A Harlem institution 1980 Amsterdam Ave. /145th St. 923-9821 •Brooklyn• Keur n’ Deye Senegalese Traditional cooking 737 Fulton Street (S. Elliott St. & S. Portland Ave. (718) 875-4937

!4—ROUTES, A Guide to African-American Culture, September 23-29, 1991 tragic proportions. Directed today with a modern art that All That Rises Must by William Electric Black is uniquely African. Converge, painting Shapiro Theater at Columbia The Center for African Art 54 E. 68th (Between Madison & • Horace Pippen University 605 W. 115th St. Victorian Parlor I, painting 996-7287 Lexington Avenues) 861-1200 Martin Puryear Six Degrees of Separation Harlem Textile Works: • Tango, sculpture Courtney B. Vance Prints & Fabric Designs Set in Manhattan, about a A Retrospective Exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art mugger who seeks refuge at 1986-1991 Fifth Ave. & 82nd St. an elegant dinner party. Through October 29 535-7710 Vivian Beaumont Theater/ Monday through Friday, Lincoln Center Broad/65th 9am to 5pm • Multicultural Marketplace St. 239-6200 Faculty Dining Room, September 29, 1pm Second Floor Wall Gallery Archeologist Sherrill The Good Times Are Killing John Jay College of Criminal Wilson loads families on an Me Justice 445 W. 59th St. exciting exploration of the A play with music - follows 237-8698 culturally diverse lower the comic coming of age of East Side. Harlem Fashion Museum two girls, one white and one Big Apple Short black, as they explore the Daily 12:30-8pm, By • mysteries of adolescence, appointment There is a fine 23 minutes music, divided families and Authentic slave dresses; a multi-media show about racism. copy of the inaugural gown The Big Apple. Minetta Lane Theatre 425 of Mary Todd Lincoln made The Museum of the City of Lafayette St. 307-4100 by former slave Elizabeth New York Fifth Ave k 103rd Keckley; five gowns St 534-1672 Reading designed by the late Ann Homemade Love Lowe, designer of the • Pleasures and Terrors of September 27-29, 8pm wedding gown worn by Domestic Comfort Vinie Burrows Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis September 26-December 31 when she married John F. The current state of the Tales and people from next Kennedy; a dress made by American Dream of door and down home. Rosa Parks; costumes from domestic happiness is Written by J. Broadway plays The Wiz, examined in this Copper Eubie, Grind, & Bubbling photography exhibition. Theatre for the New City 198 Brown Sugar. Costumes from Contributing First Ave/l0th St 677-4667 or the wardrobes of Diahann photographers: Albert 690-1882 Carroll, Ruby Dee, Lionel Chong, Marilyn Nance, Hampton, Jackée and the John Pinderhughes, Carrie ART GALLERIES Supremes. Mae Weems $1.50, Adults; $.50, Children African Images, Part 1 • Robert Colescott October 8-20, daily 11am-5pm 155 W. 126th St. (Between Emergency Room (1990) Lenox & Adam Clayton presently on display. Robertson's African Arts 36 Powell, Jr. Blvd) 666-1320 West 22nd Street, 4th Fl. Museum of Modern Art 11 675-4045 • Picturing Africa: W. 53rd St. 708-9400 Photographs of the Zulu. Interrupted Life •Brooklyn• 1870-1900 • Through Jan 31 Through December 29 Mezzanine, Michael C. A multi-disciplinary • To Tell You the Truth, exhibition examining the paintings by Pat Bradley Rockefeller Wing 19th century albumen prints by theme of death in the • Three Visions: The Sacred, European colonial western world The Sublime, The Seminal photographers of the Zulu • Love is Colder Than Death Ché Baraka, Robergeau peoples, in what is now the September 24, 7 pm Duverger & Kelvin Fraser Republic of South Africa. An evening of readings Through September 30 These images, though often Mon.-Sat., noon-6pm from Three Books of Negroes staged, provide rare detail organized by artist Hilton Bedford Stuyvesant Center about traditional Zulu art Als, featuring writer Lisa for Art & Culture 1368 Fulton and culture. Only careful Kennedy, playwright St. 3rd FI (718) 636-6948 study distinguishes fact Suzan-Lori Parks, artist from fiction, appearance Darryl Tamer. MUSEUMS & from reality. • Real Life and Death CULTURAL CENTERS • New Guinea Bone September 28, November 23 Carvings & December 21, noon-6 pm, Africa Explores: 20th Century by appointment African Art Through December 1 Through December About 100 examples of Interviews with interested visitors will be conducted Exhibit explores the ornaments, tools, weapons and other small objects. about the place art holds in continuing vitality of the face of “real life" traditional art which coexists • Barbara Chase-Riboud experiences with death and

!5—ROUTES, A Guide to African-American Culture, September 23-29, 1991 The Schomburg Center for A celebration of African and Research in Black Culture Caribbean storytelling 515 Lenox Ave./135th St. through stories, songs, Music 491-2000 and dancing along with folktales, traditional • Jacob Lawrence: The Frederick Douglass & narratives handed down Harriet Tubman Series of from generation to Narrative Paintings generation, original stories Through Nov 10 and adaptations of familiar contemporary literature. An exhibition of 63 paintings created between 1038-40. Jamaica Arts Center 161-04 Jamaica Ave (718)658-7400 • Africa and the Diaspora: Selections from the Robert Craddock Permanent Collection Through October 5 Through Jun 7 Voyage of Discovery: Journeys Includes 95 paintings. through the New World Exhibition examines the Langston Hughes influence of African art and Community Library & culture on the art. artists, and Cultural Center 102–09 culture of the Americas and Northern Blvd. East the Caribbean. Elmhurst (718) 651-1100 • Film Candida Alvarez Frederick Douglass Through October 13 September 28, 2pm Paintings: works on paper Studio Museum of Harlem Reception: October 1, 6:30pm to 144 W. 125th St. 864-4500 8:30pm American Life in American Queens Museum of Art NYC Art: Selections from the Building Flushing Meadows Permanent Collection Corona Park (718) 592-5555 Through November 10 PANEL DISCUSSION Jacob Lawrence The War Series, 1946- 1947 The Role of the Church in the Whitney Museum of Development of Harlem as American Art 945 Madison an African-American Ave./75th St. 570-3600 Community September 24, 7-9 pm Painted Forms: Recent Metal Representatives from some of whether art can ever be as Sculpture Harlem's oldest African- powerful as the media's Through December American churches will sensational portrayal of discuss the histories of their death. Melvin Edwards Asafokra (1990) 96x168x120 churches in Harlem, and the Free with admission Whitney Museum at Phillip role of the church in Harlem today. Tickets $2 • James Van Der Zee photos Morris The Sculpture Court are a part of the exhibition. 120 Park Ave. South 878-2550 Abyssinian Baptist Church 132 W. 138th St 281-5938 • A Fantasy Encounter with Dying •Bronx• FREE FOR ALL October 26, December 7, 2pm To prove the personal James Buxton, Painted Wood Great Pianos meetings of mortality, & Sculpture • Hank Jones Chaplin Myron Ebersole Through October 31 September 26, 7:30 pm of Milton S. Hershey Medical Buxton's work involves such • Tommy Flanagan Center in Pennsylvania, personally significant issues September 28, 7:30 pm who works with terminally as religion and motherhood. people, will guide visitors The World Financial Center in a meditative fantasy. The Bronx Museum of Art The Winter Garden Battery Park 945-0505 The New Museum of Satellite Gallery at Hebrew Contemporary Art 583 Hospital for Chronic Sick 801 Broadway/Houston Street Co-Op City Boulevard 219-1222 379-5020 • The African Presence in the •Queens• Americas Through December Folktales, Festivals & • African-Americans In Philosophies Space Science Tamarind Tree Tales by Through December Malika Lee Whitney Guided Tours by appointment September 28, noon & 1:30 pm only.

!6—ROUTES, A Guide to African-American Culture, September 23-29, 1991