E x p l o r i n g t h e A r t s From the Dust Bowl to Harlem The Arts in Depression-Era America by Dean Schneider hen I think of the Great Depression, the dust bowl first comes to mind; Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Dorothea Lange’s W“Migrant Mother,” Woody Guthrie wandering the country, guitar slung on his back; an image of grayness, heaviness, and hardscrabble existence. But the 1930s and 1940s were also Harlem, the Cotton Club, the Savoy Ballroom, and the swing era. It was Grant Wood’s American Gothic and his odes to lush land and vibrant Iowa farm life. In short, times were hard, but times were what they always are––full of life, determination, and the impulse to make art, music, and literature. Bonnie Christensen offers an image of folksinger and songwriter Woody Guthrie “strolling / In wheat fields waving” in her book Woody Guthrie. B o o k L i n k s J u n e / J u l y 2 0 0 3 43 What a rich education awaits leap from his pages. Robert Andrew there even was a cultural life in such children who are exposed to the Parker’s Jackson Pollock is captured a difficult time. But just as the New literature, art, and music of that mid-sling. Bill Robinson tap dances Deal government provided jobs and time, including the big band music across the cover of Leo and Diane food and initiatives that changed of Duke Ellington and Benny Dillons’ Rap a Tap Tap. The Dillons the American landscape in many Goodman, and the beginnings of and Pinkney both acknowledge ways, it also supported the arts bebop with Dizzy Gillespie and Aaron Douglas, so teachers might through the Works Progress Admin- Charlie Parker. Students could organize a mini-unit: look at the art istration (WPA). Artists were paid to explore the folk songs and protests of of Aaron Douglas and see what do their art and, in many places, to Woody Guthrie, as well as learning influences appear in the illustrations teach children. Ashley Bryan, in all of the verses of “This Land Is of Pinkney and the Dillons. The Leonard Marcus’ Ways of Telling Your Land.” The Great Depression same could go for two new books (Dutton, 2002), says, “Thanks to included the Harlem art the WPA, there were scene of Romare Bearden, free art and music Jacob Lawrence, and William H. Johnson, and the fascinating mix of influences on their art: Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, African art, jazz, and Harlem community life. As much as cubism was an influence on the art of this era, it was the experiments of artists such as Jackson Pollock, dubbed Jack the Dripper, The famous poet of the that led to a new way of Harlem Renaissance art in the postwar looks up from his work, generation, when, in Tony Medina’s Love according to art critic to Langston, illustrated John Russell, there was, by R. Gregory Christie. for the first time, “an independent, self- generating and specifi- cally American art.” It’s the modern dance of Martha Graham, the range of great photogra- phers, from Dorothea Lange to Margaret Bourke-White and Ansel Adams. It’s Charles Ives at the end of his career, classes in the com- and Ella Fitzgerald at the munity where we beginning of hers. It’s the lived and throughout poetry of Langston the country. The Hughes and the novels of John about Langston Hughes: contrast WPA teachers were very exciting for Steinbeck. R. Gregory Christie’s acrylic illustra- me as a nine-, ten-, and eleven-year- Students can study the art of the tions in Tony Medina’s Love to old. I might paint an apple red or Depression era and literature about Langston with Bryan Collier’s green, for instance, and then the the era. Brian Pinkney’s hand-tinted watercolor and collage art in Willie instructor would show us works of scratchboard illustrations of Ella Perdomo’s Visiting Langston. the Impressionists and explain how Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington fairly It’s interesting to wonder how a fruit could be explored in many 44 B o o k L i n k s J u n e / J u l y 2 0 0 3 different colors, while still giving the Guthrie, Woody. This Land Is Your short biography, and an afterword impression of its color. I was fasci- Land. Illus. by Kathy Jakobsen. by Pete Seeger. nated and would play around with 1998; reissued 2002. Little, Brown, these ideas.” $19.95 (0-316-06564-1). Includes Hartfield, Claire. Me and Uncle For many teachers, it may not be CD. Romie. Illus. by Jerome Lagarrigue. realistic to do an entire study on the Gr. 3–6. This well-researched, 2002. 32p. Dial, $16.99 (0-8037- cultural life of the Depression era. nicely illustrated edition of the 2520-5). What teachers might do with this classic song includes a CD of some K–Gr. 3. This fine picture book bibliography is to create small units. of Guthrie’s best-known songs, a features illustrations by the Coretta If reading aloud Duke Ellington, play some of his music, and then com- pare and contrast Charlie Parker’s bebop, the next generation of jazz. If reading aloud Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan’s Action Jackson, show examples of Pollock’s work, perhaps tracing the development of his art from the 1930s into the 1950s. You might watch one of the four Shirley Temple movies with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson after reading Rap a Tap Tap. A whole Woody Guthrie or Random dust bowl unit could be created with the many new Guthrie biogra- 1/2island ad phies, perhaps pulling in Dorothea Lange’s photographs. A reading of 4COLOR Christopher Paul Curtis’ Bud, Not Buddy might include listening to music of the time and sharing the Margaret Bourke-White photograph of the billboard mentioned in the book. A reading of Gail Carson Levine’s Dave at Night ought to include tracking down some of the literary and artistic references to the Harlem Renaissance, such as Langston Hughes and Aaron Dou- glas. A great adventure in literature, art, music, and history awaits those who explore the following resources! Picture Books Carter, Don. Heaven’s All-Star Jazz Band. 2002. 40p. Knopf, $15.95 (0-375-81571-6). Gr. 1–3. Jazz fan Grandpa Jack arrives in heaven, and heaven it is: Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, and others perform on cloud stages. This is an excellent introduction to jazz for young readers. B o o k L i n k s J u n e / J u l y 2 0 0 3 45 Scott King Award–winning artist. Raschka, Chris. Mysterious Levine, Gail Carson. Dave at Night. Included are a brief biography of Thelonious. 1997. 32p. Orchard. 1999. 288p. HarperCollins, $15.95 Romare Bearden and a how-to $14.99 (0-531-30057-9). (0-06-028153-7); HarperTrophy, section on creating storytelling Gr. 1–up. Jazz fans of all ages will paper, $5.99 (0-06-440747-0). collages in the style of Bearden. enjoy this homage to pianist Gr. 4–7. Though the time is Thelonious Monk, which attempts 1926 in this novel about an orphan Miller, William. Rent Party Jazz. to make the text and colors of the in Harlem, the figures of the Illus. by Charlotte Riley-Webb. page represent the sounds of jazz. Harlem Renaissance mentioned 2001. 32p. Lee & Low, $16.95 here––including Aaron Douglas, (1-58430-025-6). Novels Countee Cullen, and Langston Gr. 1–4. Set in New Orleans in Hughes––all exerted an influence in the 1930s, this family story features Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not later decades as well. A good match colorful illustrations that fit the Buddy. 1999. 256p. Delacorte, with Curtis’ Bud, Not Buddy (see upbeat theme of rent parties and $16.95 (0-385-32306-9); Yearling, above). jazz. Pair this picture book with paper, $5.99 (0-440-41328-1). Levine’s Dave at Night (see below). Gr. 4–8. This Depression-era Nonfiction novel follows a boy in search of his Raschka, Chris. Charlie Parker father on back roads and through Aronson, Marc. Art Attack: A Short Played Be Bop. 1992. 32p. Orchard, Hoovervilles to Grand Rapids, Cultural History of the Avant-Garde. $15.95 (0-531-05999-5); paper, where he finds a jazz musician and 1998. 192p. Clarion, $22 (0-395- $5.95 (0-531-07095-6). club owner who just might be his 79729-2). Preschool–Gr. 2. Rich illustra- father. A great novel to teach or read Gr. 11–up. This excellent art tions and lively, onomatopoeic text aloud, linking some of the other history for older readers includes a make this an effective tribute to the resources here. section on the art world in the alto saxophonist. 1930s and 1940s, focusing on Piet Mondrian and Jackson Pollock. Mondrian was a “bridge between the European and American avant-garde,” and Pollock was very American. The De- pression era was a time Besides his daughter Edith, no one liked the new kind of music that Charles Ives was creating. From Mordicai Gerstein’s What Charlie Heard. 46 B o o k L i n k s J u n e / J u l y 2 0 0 3 when Pollock learned all he could about him. It might be fun to watch Richard J. Powell’s Homecoming: The from artists such as Thomas Hart one of the four Shirley Temple Art and Life of William H.