Barriers exist Food is a common language We all have to eat ©2020 Annette Rochelle Aben
“Darling, that dress has always looks better on the floor,” I know, I think. That’s why I wore the dress. But you already figured me out, there’s that knowing look in your eyes. Selfishly, I crave your attention. Dress my self up and put me on display for all to see. “Oh baby girl, look […]
• In the 1920s, Oliver W. Harrington and one other boy were the only black students in a South Bronx 6th-grade class. One day, their teacher, Miss McCoy, called them to the front of the classroom, pointed her finger at them, and told the white students, “Never, never forget that these two belong in that there trash basket.” Mr. Harrington says that the white students laughed in what “must have been their first trip on the racist drug.” After that experience, Mr. Harrington began to draw caricatures of Miss McCoy (showing such things as a train running over her), and he became a famous black cartoonist who has published several collections of his work.
• In 1951, Marty Links, cartoonist of Teena, was nominated to become the first woman member of the National Cartoonist Society. She was blackballed. Why? The reason given was that the men wanted to “talk dirty” and they couldn’t do that in the presence of a woman. Protests followed. Al Capp, cartoonist of Li’l Abner, walked out — six years later, following changes for the better in the NCS, he returned. Milton Caniff, cartoonist of Terry and the Pirates, made a speech supporting Ms. Links, and definitely not supporting the people who had blackballed her. Eventually, Ms. Links became a member in good standing, and she promptly nominated two other women cartoonists for membership in the NCS.
• Edward Mitchell Bannister was an important early African-American artist, and he faced prejudice. When he heard that his painting titled Under the Oaks had won a prize at the Centennial Exposition of 1876, he wanted to confirm this information, so he made his way through a crowd of people at the exhibition. While doing so, he heard someone say, “Why is this colored person here?” When he reached the inquiry desk, he was ignored, and when he finally was able to ask if Under the Oaks had won a prize, the man at the inquiry desk asked, “What’s that to you?” Mr. Bannister replied, “I painted that picture.” (His painting won the bronze medal.)
• Not all European countries are free of racism. When she was a college student, Maya Lin, whose ancestry is Chinese, traveled to Denmark. When she sat down on a bus, the people sitting near her got up, moved away from her, and sat down again. Later, Ms. Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
• American artist Romare Bearden once ran into a creative block and was unable to paint. One day, his housekeeper asked if the unpainted piece of brown paper that was lying on his easel was the same unpainted piece of brown paper that she had seen there the previous week. It was, and Mr. Bearden confessed that he was suffering from a creative block. Fortunately, the housekeeper, a plain woman whom one of Mr. Bearden’s friends had called so ugly that “she looked like a locomotive coming around a corner,” had the solution: “Why don’t you paint me? I know what I look like, but when you look and find what’s beautiful in me, then you’re going to be able to do something on that paper of yours.” The suggestion worked. Mr. Bearden painted her, then he continued to create many great works of art.
Copyright by Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
The Funniest People in Art — Buy:
BRUCE’S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: “Cool Generator” from the album TELL NO ONE
Artist: Bad Moves
Artist Location: Washington, D.C.
“TELL NO ONE is the debut full-length by Washington, D.C.’s Bad Moves. It’s a perfect power-pop album — alternately explosive and vulnerable, loud and tender. Recorded with Hop Along’s Joe Reinhart, it’s an album about secrecy — it’s anxiety and weight. The songs are meant to tell a story about how self-discovery works when you’re a kid and how those experiences, revelations, and regrets ripple into adult life.”
doug m., a fan, wrote, “I saw this band open for Martha and Jeff Rosenstock a few months back and less than two minutes into their set, the bill went from ‘Wow, two great bands on one bill!’ to ‘Holy shit, can you believe there’s three great bands on one bill?’ This album totally lives up to that moment. Favorite track: ‘Spirit FM.’”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $7 (USD) for 12-track album
Genre: Pop Punk. Power Pop.