Yakaberry SCHOOL AGE - Jazzy Art - Free Story Hour Lesson Plans -

1. The Big Read: The goal is to get the community together to read the same book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston.

2. Zora Neal Hurston, well-known author and poet. The Big Read is centered on her work.

b. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of outstanding creative activity of African American art, literature, music, and culture in the US. It was led primarily by the AA community based in Harlem, New York City after World War I. It was a time when AA felt free to express their heritage and stand up for what they believed in. Prior to this AA had been trying to prove that they were not inferior to the white race they were trying to portray life in such a way that whites could see that they were equal. The Harlem Renaissance artists really wanted to show the true AA experience both good and bad.

3. This is Their Eyes Were Watching God, the original cover. This is the reprinted version which you may have seen on the shelves in the library.

4. This is a picture of Aaron Douglas and Langston Hughes, two AA greatly involved with the Harlem Renaissance. The poem at the bottom was written by Hughes with illustrations by Aaron Douglas.

5. Here is Aaron Douglas.

6. James Weldon Johnson: Great author and poet. Very active in the fight for civil rights.

7. Fire was created for young black artists in 1926 to help showcase the great works of many AA of the time. Only one issue was ever published, there is some argument as to why this was but it was not the last magazine of the time, others soon followed in a similar style.

8. Wallace Thurman, his book The Blacker the Berry talked about discrimination based on skin color.

9. Artists

10. Allan Rohan Crite: Best known for his series of neighborhood paintings showing AA life in Boston in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

11. Aaron Douglas

12. Aaron Douglas

13. Palmer Hayden: he was originally born as Peyton Hedgemann but an officer in World War I mispronounced his name and he became Palmer Hayden. The name just stuck. He was one of the first artists to use African subjects and designs in his paintings. He liked to show a wide range of AA experience from country gatherings in the south to city life of NYC.

14. Malvin Gray Johnson was the youngest artists of the HR. He was born in Greensboro, NC.

15. William H. Johnson was born in Florence, SC and his interest in art began by him copying comic book art.

16. Johnson again

17. Lois Mailou Jones: Very well traveled, went to many places and painted lots of different things. She like Palmer Hayden was the first woman to use African images in her paintings.

18.Jacob Lawrence: one of the most well known of the period by age 23 he had completed a 60 piece collection. Most of his paintings showed important events in AA history.

19. Archibald Motley: Born in New Orleans, LO he worked part-time on the railroad with his father and he spent the rest of his time sketching and painting. His work has always been divided between portraits and paintings of the streets, cafe life and the jungle

20. Horace Pippin: He worked as a porter, peddler, and warehouseman and never studied art. He was severely wounded in World War I. Completed less than 150 works but he is still very well known.

21. James Porter: Father of African-American art history. He was the author of Modern Negro Art, the first comprehensive history of African-American art. In addition, he was an influential teacher at Howard University for over forty years and an acclaimed artist.

22. Laura Wheeler Waring: Best known for her portraits of popular AA figures of her time.

Mrs. Derry: was a member of a wealthy black family in Philadelphia.

Alma Thomas: was a very prominent abstract painter of the 1960s and 1970s. She was the first African American woman to have a solo art exhibition

at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, in 1971.

23. Hale Woodruff: He was Art Director at Atlanta University from 1931 to 1946 and founded the Annual Atlanta University Art Exhibits, historically one of the most important contributions to the development of African American art in this country.