Category Archives: 19th century

Edmonia Lewis on The View

Posted on February 14, 2020 | 2 comments

For Valentine’s Day, EL is part of the conversation on The View

Here’s her Cupid Caught In A Trap (1872-76)

SAAM-1984.156_1

SAAM

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Posted in 19th century, Black Artist, Edmonia Lewis, The View

Tagged African American, art, Italy

Charlotte Forten Park Dedicated

Posted on September 29, 2019 | 1 comment

Following on the dedication of the Sarah Parker Remond Park, the city of Salem, Massachusetts, now has another, named for her friend, the African American anti-slavery activist, poet, diarist and teacher, Charlotte Forten.

https://salem.wickedlocal.com/news/20190924/salem-dedicates-charlotte-forten-park?fbclid=IwAR1YsA6Srko46pSS2g_lu5kqMxn1KCHIBX0nMHW_vpMd9gzTbOxr8R-_McE

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Posted in 19th century, African American history, African American Salem, Charlotte Forten

Tagged Black Women, Charlotte Forten, Salem

September

Posted on September 17, 2019 | Leave a comment

To the Light of September
– W.S. Merwin

When you are already here
you appear to be only
a name that tells of you
whether you are present or not
and for now it seems as though
you are still summer
still the high familiar
endless summer
yet with a glint
of bronze in the chill mornings
and the late yellow petals
of the mullein fluttering
on the stalks that lean
over their broken
shadows across the cracked ground
but they all know
that you have come
the seed heads of the sage
the whispering birds
with nowhere to hide you
to keep you for later
you
who fly with them
you who are neither
before nor after
you who arrive
with blue plums
that have fallen through the night
perfect in the dew.

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Posted in 19th century

Tagged September

International Disgrace

Posted on January 6, 2019 | Leave a comment

The whole world is watching.

dwlesqwwwaax5xz.jpg-large

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Posted in 19th century

Edmonia Lives! New York Times Obit

Posted on July 26, 2018 | Leave a comment

Always nice to be quoted in the Times:

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Posted in 19th century, Edmonia Lewis

Tagged Edmonia Lewis

Edmonia Lewis Grave Marker

Posted on March 28, 2018 | 1 comment

A new article about Lewis, some of my research, and the grave marker installed by Bobbi Reno.

https://hyperallergic.com/434881/edmonia-lewis-grave/

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Posted in 19th century, Edmonia Lewis

Tagged Edmonia Lewis

Slavery’s Voice

Posted on September 20, 2017 | Leave a comment

borninslaveryarchive

My dear friend, teacher and scholar Roberta Logan, posted an excerpt from the testimony of a former slave gathered by the WPA. I remembered that my uncle Marty (Martin Daniel Richardson) had been a part of the group of writers and journalists who collected those stories in the 1930s — in Florida, in his case. I’ve read a few he gathered and some transcribed by others. Many voices, and nothing simple about the choices and decisions enslaved men and women made for themselves and their loved ones.

So, short version, it turns out many of the typescripts were digitized by the Library of Congress. Here’s one; some of you will recognize the location thanks to Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker.

copy Gragston